It's Complicated

by TheSillyAnon

Rating: mature
Tags: Main 6, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Princess Cadance, Dark, Comedy, Romance, Shining Armor, Sex, Profanity, Non-consensual, Violence, Princess Celestia, Death, Human
Length: 2168917

Nondis is a man who managed to find himself Equestria. While Twilight and the other princesses try to find him a way home, he realizes that finding a way back is only a minor problem in comparison to his growing attachments to some of the Mane Six.

Nondis is a young man who managed to find himself in the world of Equestria. While Twilight and the other princesses try to find him a way home, he realizes that finding a way back is only a minor problem in comparison to the world he finds himself within, added to his growing attachments and his blooming friendships with some of the Mane Six.

Rated M for mature themes which will occur later, First Person POV, HiE.

Published 2014-06-06 17:10:04 UTC
Last updated 2022-04-08 17:00:03 UTC

Chapter II

Warning: This chapter will include content of disgusting nature. Read it anyway.

Have you ever been in a situation that you just wish that you could forget about? Now add that to the fact that the situation keeps replaying in your mind over and over and over again. A situation so embarrassing that you reflexively clench your fists or toes as you thought more on it?

Just me?

Well, after a month of being in this magical land of talking, prismatic equines, aptly called Equestria, I've ran into some of those moments. Where do I even start? Here's one, the first time I actually managed to take a tour of the town.

My first week of being in this strange land, I decided that it would be best for me to lock myself in the room I found myself in when I first met everyone, or everypony as they would prefer. I was so enraptured by the fact that I was the furthest thing from home that I had forgotten the basic things needed for survival, with the exception of sleep and using the bathroom. As for the bathroom, I will say it later.

So a week after my barricading the doors shut and keeping the windows barred, a pink earth pony (yeah, I was informed of the different types by then) decided that my social life was in need of a turn up. And of course, I instantly shot that down. The next day, she came with two of her friends, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash to help get me out of the room. Much to their dismay, I was insistent to keep myself to myself. And finally, the day after that, Princess Twilight knocked on my door.

I let her come in and we decided to exchange some personal stories about ourselves. It turns out back then that she wasn't really the social acolyte she is now. She was awkward and often locked up inside of her room, reading all kinds of books to herself. I could sympathize with her on wanting to withdraw from the societal norms and the desire to be of the 'in-crowd'.

Though the only difference was that I had an internet connection that furthered my distraction. I remember a certain video where there were two guys saying what they were going to do. One guy stated that he was going to do an 'internet', which was followed by a flash of rainbow light and 8-bit music. The other guy stated that he was going to do a book, which did absolutely nothing. Same case here.

With a book, you can read all the pages and be done with it by the end of the day. With a computer, you'd find yourself on so many sites where one page leads to another, to another, to another, to another. It was an endless cycle, at least until the power went out or the internet connection went bad. Either way, I was religiously browsing on it for whatever, be it comedy, abridged series of my favorite shows, memes, YouTube comments or porn. So... much... porn. I mean, you can read porn, but who wants to do that when you can just watch it?

And just like I'd have to delete my browser history and defragment my hard drive, I needed to get back on focus.

That story short, she had ultimately informed me that she would be taking me out on a day to tour the town. And despite my outward cries of objection, she dragged me with her magic out of the bed and into the streets. Of course, she also managed to introduce me to a few ponies she knew or would associate with from time to time. Then she took me to Rarity's to have some more clothes made for me.

Yeah, the first time isn't nowhere near a charm, even for a trend-setting fashionista. The first 'shirt' was still made for a pony with a few mis-cuts here and there. My first pair of pants were unable to hold under pressure, so as I walked down the streets with the princess, I was already being mocked for my appearance. It didn't help me any when the sound similar to velcro ripping apart screeched in my ears as the pants fell hopelessly to the ground.

I have never felt so exposed in my entire life.

The rest of the day, I had to walk around the town like a hairless ape because my pants were ripped and my shirt couldn't hold itself together. I know that Twilight felt genuinely sorry for me, but I just wanted to leave this world and go home. I couldn't stand being in a place where I couldn't even have some dignity while walking down the street. Yes, the ponies here are walking around naked, but they're used to seeing each other like this.

Humanity is a totally different ball game.

By the time I managed to get back into my room, I had actually slammed the door in the princess' face. I couldn't bear to look at her as my cheeks changed to a deep crimson. After I managed to escape my unfortunate hell, I continued to lock myself in the room and keep myself there until further notice. And every so often, the princess would talk to me through the door.

A few days after that, I walked out of my room to take a shower. And as soon as I step out from cleansing myself, I find a pink pony bouncing up and down as she happily threw streamers and confetti everywhere. I knew that she was often referred to as the premier party planner of Ponyville (hooray for alliteration), but I didn't expect for the party to show up outside of my bathroom. Seriously, I clenched the towel around myself in earnest desire to keep my boys hidden from view.

But that didn't seem to distract from the fact that she giggled over how freely they swayed as I tried to turn away from her. She even had the guts to call them cute.

So after that embarrassing event, she invited me to a party, held in my honor. I was flattered, but more intrigued on why she would waste such valuable resources on throwing a full-on party bash for me when she didn't even know me. It would be held a month or two down the line, thanks to my expertise in the art of negotiation.

I'm lying. That party was going to be held sometime that afternoon. The argument I tried to place out wasn't getting through to her. And our conversation was more of a battle of attrition on my part.

"Pinkie Pie-"

"Just call me Pinkie, silly filly!"

"Okay. Pinkie, I really appreciate that you are throwing me this party. Really, I do. But can we do it sometime within two months of me being here? I really feel as if I should get used to the town and the peo... *ahem* ...ponies around it."

"Oh Non-non," She already gave me a nickname. "This party will be the quickest way you can get to know everypony. Everypony loves to party with Pinkie Pie!"

I can tell. Free food, free drinks, free music, free fun. It's like a smorgasbord for moochers. I'd know because I was the prime example of such. "You think so?" I asked.

"I know so!" She cheered. "In fact, why not get to know everypony and the entire town today!?"

I felt myself wanting to be a turtle at this point. At least I could hide inside of a shell when I didn't want to be disturbed. To hell with that. "T-t-today?"

I could see the concern growing on Pinkie's face as soon as I stuttered the word. Her smile faded to a small frown. "What's wrong, Nonny? I thought you'd like to get to know everypony."

"I do." I didn't. "It's just that I really wanted to do it at my own pace." I lied. Realistically, I held off on getting to know anyone because I was still waiting for the other three princesses to inform me when I could go back home. At least there, I was familiar with everything and the systems of society. At least I could change out of the same pair of jeans and t-shirt that I've been stuck with for the past week and some change.

"But everypony really wants to get to know you too." So let me guess, you were selling tickets of admission? "I told everypony about you! And they were really looking forward to meeting you!"

"What did you tell them?" I questioned her. I was expecting some sort of carnival pitch at this point. Would it be wrong that I could already hear the the circus organ playing in the distance as the little children ran up to me, poking me with their hooves.

"I told them that you were a really warmhearted guy! Like reeeeeally huggy and that you were really nice and kind, though you were a bit shy." That couldn't be it. That couldn't be the big sell. "And that you also give some of the best belly-rubs in all of Equestria!"

I only rubbed her belly once. She kept begging me to do it for three hours straight and I finally caved. Apparently before that, Twilight informed Pinkie of the intricate nuances of having fingers and their effects on the natural distribution of belly rubs. And being that everyone in town liked Spike for being a pretty decent back scratcher, I guess everyone has a thing for the digits. The fingers I mean. But I rubbed her belly for about thirty seconds and she was kicking her leg like a dog when you hit that certain spot that they like.

If there was anything to get me out of this, it would be me trying to get this party set up for a later date. At least the crowd would forget about my abilities with my fingers. I also hoped that some mares wouldn't take anything out of context.

"Okay, we can have the party, but it can't be no earlier than-"

"This afternoon?" She finished before I could get my demands out in the air.

"No. I meant two months down the line."

"Two o'clock this afternoon? That's a bit last minute, don't you think?"

YOU'RE ONE TO TALK! "No I mean't two-"

"Hours from now?"

Okay, this is getting ridiculous. "Four weeks."

"Today at four?"

"Three weeks."

"A three minute party... I don't know if I'm ready for that just yet."

What are you implying? Nevermind, I don't wanna know. "Two weeks."

"Aww, but I have to babysit the twins in two weeks."

I cannot take this girl seriously. "Next week."

"I'm throwing a party for my sister Maud next week. I can't do that one."

Oh for the love of- "Five days."

"Shopping for party supplies."

"Four days."

"I have to work."

Where the hell do you work? A power plant or a sugar factory? Don't tell me, you do both. "Three days."

"I have to take care of the twins that day."

At least she's organized enough to plan ahead. I will give her that. "Two days."

"Friendship meeting and work."

The fuck's a friendship meeting? Is it like alcoholics anonymous, but for sugar intake? "Tomorrow."

"I can't. I promised Applejack that I'd help her on the farm."

Damn this girl for keeping herself busy. I give up. "Tonight?"

"Sure! I can set you up for seven tonight! See you there!"

I coughed as I reached for her, but she just kept bouncing off like an overloaded pogo stick. She giggled and snorted as she gleefully galloped down the hall, leaving a mortified human to wonder what he should do next now that he'd be the center of attention for the first time of his life. I'm popular just for showing up and now I didn't know how to take it.

Then again, I wasn't really the one for attention.

Later that night, I was pretty much the elephant in the room. Not even the zebra on the other side of the room or the eldritch abomination that had the body parts of several animals could point at themselves because of me. I was more than nervous, I was nauseous.

Mulit-colored faces stared at me with large eyes struck in awe as Pinkie Pie introduced me to the entire town. The mayor even welcomed me with a ceremonial sash, that fitted me rather well actually. Soon after, I was reintroduced to Rarity, who looked like she had been through hell to get here. But her reason for looking so outlandish was because she stayed up all night to make sure that the anatomical features of her newest outfits for me were in accordance to Twilight's notes.

At least I wasn't confined to the same shirt and pants anymore.

"Darling, I couldn't just let you roam around in those clothes anymore. And I didn't want that dreaded wardrobe malfunction you suffered the first time you had an outing to happen again. So this time, I made you a little something special." She said as she pulled out a black box with her emblem, or as they say cutie mark, on it: three blue diamonds clustered together.

I opened the box to see a white button-down shirt with long sleaves, complete with a set of decorative cuffs. Also inside of the box as a pair of black slacks. Though they were a little loose, the shirt and pants were really a nice fit. It was a relief to wear something outside of my burnt orange t-shirt with the Longhorns emblem on it and my old, worn-out jeans. I swore I spent the next five minutes thanking her for what she did. And shortly after I changed into my new clothes, they asked me to do a speech.

My speech consisted of one word, one buckling motion and one pile of vomit on the floor.

Shortly after that, I had to take off my new outfit so that Rarity could wash them up. So I changed back into my old clothes and spent the next five minutes apologizing to Rarity about the mess I made in my new clothes.

I swear, Spike really let me have it as I was apologizing.

Three more weeks after the party, I was notified by the four princesses that their attempt to alter the mirror had been unsuccessful. If it had taken a full month to get a formula wrong, then that meant that I would be here for at least another month or so for them to get it right. So imagine my surprise when they told me that they had to construct a brand new mirror so that they could send me home. They informed me that the average building time for one mirror was practically seven or more months due to mathematical reasons.

I already hated being trapped here, why am I spending another seven months here? Not my place to complain, but I am in a bit of a rush...

Why am I in such a rush anyways? I can't seem to remember.

Anyways, a new month had arrived on schedule. And as the time marched on, I was constantly reminded of what made me so different from everyone else here. This wasn't my place to be. I didn't belong here. I know I sound like I'm complaining a lot but I haven't eaten any meat since I first arrived here. I was tired of living off of straw and hay like I was some sort of animal. I ate nothing but horse-imitations of food.

Hayburgers, hay fries, hay bacon strips, all that other stuff. After a while, I just informed Princess Twilight that if I was going out, then a salad would be all I order. Either that or a large pizza with no oats or hay on my side.

Yeah, so me and Twilight decided that our outings would be a little more frequent. Being that I had more clothes in my closet, thanks to Rarity, I figured the best thing I could do is oblige the princess in her daily visits to random venues across the town. One such place was the Hayburger Inn just across town. Luckily, she could fly there while I had to walk. But she decided that she would walk with me, saying that it would be unfair that she'd leave a friend behind.

No complaints there.

Another thing I managed to discover about the young princess. She had one hell of an appetite. I couldn't even focus on the salad on the table because I was so mesmerized by the purple winged-unicorn scarfing down five burgers, three sides of fries and guzzling down a large soda. I asked her why she didn't opt for a diet drink. Her response was rather lengthy and exhausting, filled with a bunch of science stuff that I had no interest in. In a nutshell, diet soda was worse than the real stuff.

I just stared at the mare across from me as she greedily scarfed down numerous bites of her meal. If this was the real world, I'd feel entirely sorry for the cow that died to feed her. I'd also envy the rancher, knowing that his produce is being devoured at such a blinding speed. He'd be rich by now. In speaking of burgers.

"Oh yeah... Now I remember. You humans are actually omnivores."

I raised my head in curiosity over her extensive knowledge of the human diet. I quickly motioned my hand to her to keep it down, so that the other ponies around wouldn't know what the other half of my diet really was. I didn't need to cause a panic.

"You know, if you really want something like that, you could just ask me." Twilight quietly noted before levitating, that's what they call it, a set of fries to her mouth.

I was floored. To know that this princess was more than willing to negotiate with me to get a steak or two. I know that I shouldn't eat meat around equines, but who the hell cares? I wanted some meat inside of me and I didn't care how I was going to get it. "Really?"

"Well..." she briefly paused, thinking before continuing on. "Yeah. The other princesses have been made aware of your dietary needs, just so that they can accommodate you on your next visit." Great so now the high rulers of the land know I eat meat. That won't pan over so well come the next meeting. "However, there are strict limitations on what you can and cannot eat."

I sighed heavily, realizing that beef may be off the menu. "Okay, go for it."

"I'm afraid that you are unable to eat any sort of pork, beef, lamb, buffalo, ostrich or rabbit." Yup, my choices are narrow as hell. "But your diet can consist of any sort of poultry or fish."

I guess chicken is up for grabs then. "Great, so can I get actual french fries?"

She hummed as she held a hoof to her chin. "Um... depending on what those would be made of."

"Potatoes." I deadpanned.

"Then yes, those should be fine. I'll have that as a special order when you come by here."

Score one for me. "Great, then can I get those to go? I would really like a taste of home before we head back."

Twilight dropped her head. "Sorry. We can't get any of those today. I'd have to request that some potatoes would be brought in."

I shrugged my shoulders in defeat. "So I guess I'm stuck on salad until further notice?"

"Just for a little while. But in the meantime, We can head out to Sugarcube Corner for some petifores."

"Those sound nice right about now." I answered happily. But my happiness soon turned to concern as my bowels started to notify me that it was time to rid myself of some bodily waste. "But not right now..." I laughed nervously. "I need to take care of some business."

"What kind of business?" I can't believe she just asked me that so openly.

"Um... I need to go to the little boys room."

"Oh..." A long silence followed her confirmation as I looked away from her in embarrassment. As she sat at the table, I was too busy trying to search for the bathroom. As I shifted my eyes back and forth, Twilight cleared her throat to get my attention.

"Um... it's over there." She quietly pointed out directly behind me.

I nodded as I made a hurried walk for the hallway. When I entered, I found myself at the center of two doors. Of course, I would normally go to the one that said 'men'. But in this case, there was no sign. There wasn't even the little emblem that had the guy standing normally or the girl with the skirt. There was just two doors, one with a pegasus on one side and another with a unicorn. If I was to guess, I would say that the one with the unicorn was for girls and the one with the pegasus was for guys. Only one problem with that theory: horns and wings were genderblind.

I looked back and forth to the two doors, dancing in place as I felt myself getting close to launch. But as of now, I didn't know where exactly my rocket could take off. I squealed like a pig as I continued to hobble from leg to leg, trying my best to hold it all in. In reality, I was hoping that there was someone in one of these bathrooms already, that they could make their way out so I could tell which was the right bathroom. And to my added misfortune, no one was in either bathroom.

While I continued to curse my luck, I heard a set of hooves come from behind me. I had no time to focus on who was approaching. I needed to make a decision, and I needed to make it now. Looking over to the door with the pegasus emblem, I took a deep breath and slowly walked over. I clenched my eyes shut as I slowly reached out for the handle, only to find something tugging at my shirt.

"Um..." I turned around to see what was tugging at me. To my surprise, it was none other than Twilight. "I think you may want to go to the one over there." She pointed to the door facing the opposite way of where I was headed. "This is the filly's room."

"What?" I tilted my head with bewilderment as she rolled her eyes and pointed out a few features that I should look out for.

"Look at the muzzle, if you see that it's rounded off, then it would be for a mare and if it's blocky, then it would belong to a stallion."

Somehow, I thought she would tell me this prior to my coming here. But I was NOT going to argue with her. I needed to drop this load, and I needed to do it now. Making a mad dash for the opposite side of the hall, I disappeared into the men's bathroom.

I immediately took to the largest stall, sat on the toilet and handled my business. As I finished delivering the package, I looked over to see that there was no sign of toilet paper.

Dammit.

But luckily, another stallion came into the restroom. As I sat at the toilet, thanking fate for it's fortune, I heard the stallion walk up to my stall. He pulled on the door, realizing that it was locked. "Taken." I sounded out.

"Arrgh! For the love of all things, I cannot stand being in these small stalls." The stallion sounded out. From what I heard, he sounded like he was some sort of announcer for the circus. And judging from the hooves in front of my door, I'd say that he was a heavy-set fellow. No wonder why he wanted this stall in particular.

As he nearly broke down the door to the stall next to mine, I cringed as I hoped that he'd be taking care of business, in a liquid form. In a fraction of a second, I heard him lift the lid on the toilet, sit himself down and sigh.

"Maybe he sits and pees." I noted to myself, trying to be optimistic.

What I heard was a completely different affair.

A series of grunts as well as other sounds that I shudder at the though of remembering trumpeted throughout the bathroom as the guy next to me struggled to contain his cries of relief.

"Oooohboy! Have ya tried any of the new chili cheese hayburgers with the extra jalapeños? Things are to die for."

"I know one thing that's already dead: the thing you just ate." I mumbled as I tried my best to hold my breath. If there was a reason why the 'gas-chamber' method of execution was discontinued back in The States, this guy's picture would be sitting right next to Adolf Hitler. While he continued to grunt and I continue to hear the ploshing of toilet water, I tried to speak into my shirt so that I didn't taste what this dude was unleashing. "Excuse me, sir?" Oh God, I could taste it even in my shirt. "Do you happen to have some toilet paper in there?"

I heard some movement, though I felt myself sink further into despair as I heard him groan. "Sorry laddie, I have no paper to give ya."

God, if you exist, if this is the exact retribution you had for me since I denounced my beliefs in a higher power, if this is the punishment for the blasphemous sin of my unbelief in you, then I have a few questions to ask. Does this please you? Does this hell I suffer give you a laugh? Are you content with the pain that I now endure? Are you not entertained by my suffering? Or is this just the beginning? I can only assume you're just laughing it up right about now.

Oh God, why? I can taste the smell.

While I find myself on the verge of vomiting, I hear yet another stallion walk into the restroom. As he entered, I heard him speak. "Yesh! What died in here!?"

I'm close to it, if that counts.

As his hooves clop to the nearest available stall, I can still hear the lava spewing out like a running faucet next door. Meanwhile, the fat guy is sitting here, making fun of him. "Hey boy, this is how a real stallion smells like!"

"I didn't think I'd need to wear my armor for this." He mumbled out. I suppressed a chuckle out of fear of me tasting and smelling the putrid air of this guy's exorcism. At this rate, we'd need a priest to cast out whatever demons this guy had because it smelled like the devil's unwashed testicles. I could only assume that our recently acquired party member was only going number one.

"Hey you!" I shouted out of a last resort, hoping that I could get some toilet paper before I'd sit here and started crusting. "Do you have any toilet paper?"

As soon as I heard the toilet flush on the far end, I knew that hope would come. "Nope, none in this one." And you've dashed them quite effortlessly, sir. Well done.

I heard him approach the sink to wash himself, pull out a few paper towels to dry and see the white hooves with blue, unshorn fetlocks stand before my door. Immediately, I saw it like an angel descending from heaven. A magenta aura surrounded the stack of paper towels that fell upon my lap like a divine gift from God.

"I'd figure you needed these."

I called out to thank him, bout found that he had already left. With eager ambition, I wiped myself clean of my sin and flushed my transgressions against humanity down the porcelain drain. Making a dash for the sink, I knew that my cries for freedom were answered. Finally wiping my hands, I walked over to the middle stall with a pinched nose, handing a large stack of paper towels to the one who was still wallowing in his cesspool of sewage.

"Here you go." I said as I quickly dropped the small care package and ran for the door.

At last I was finally in the free air. I took deep breaths, taking in the freshness of the restaurant. And I had that mysterious guard to thank, my knight in shining armor.

"Twily!" Someone yelled out unexpectedly.

"Shining Armor! BBBFF! How's it going?"

I instantly turned around to see Twilight standing next to the guard with the white coat and the blue unshorn fetlocks. I instantly ran over to bow before him with tears in my eyes. "MY UNDYING SAVIOR!"

As I bowed before him, Twilight giggled as the stallion looked at me with confusion. "Uh, Twily, who and what is this?"

Twilight levitated me off the ground as she introduced the two of us. "Oh, Shining Armor, this is Nondis. He's the human that Cadance and I've been telling you about."

Shining looked at me, seeming rather unimpressed. "Huh, that so?"

"Nondis, this is my older brother, Shining Armor. He's Captain of the Royal Guard and prince of the Crystal Empire."

I gawked at Twilight's introduction. Not at the Crystal Empire or the Captain of the Royal Guard part, but at the fact that this girl had a brother. Either way, I was going to be metaphorically kissing his ass for a while. "Thank you. Oh thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou!"

Twilight blinked and tilted her head with unsureness, looking to her older brother. "Care to explain?"

"There was a stallion in there unleashing hell and he was caught in the crossfire. No toilet paper."

I heard the princess snort as she tried her damnest to hold back her laughter. And almost instantly, I felt myself shrink an entire three feet as she broke out laughing on the floor.

After that little run in, Shining Armor, Twilight and I spent the rest of the day walking around the town. Of course, we vowed to never, under any circumstances, to talk about what happened in the restroom again.

NEVER... AGAIN...

Have you ever been in a situation that you just wish that you could forget about? Now add that to the fact that the situation keeps replaying in your mind over and over and over again. A situation so embarrassing that you reflexively clench your fists or toes as you thought more on it? Well, after a month of being in this magical land of talking, prismatic equines, aptly called Equestria, I've ran into some of those moments. And judging from the reaction on your faces, I can say that sharing this was really all the more awkward. But sometimes, it's better to get it out in the open. Sometimes, your story can be a bit of an ice-breaker. Sometimes, you need to look back and laugh at some of those moments.

Like that one time Twilight got drunk at a party.

Chapter III

How many parties can a Pinkie Pie plan if a Pinkie Pie could plan a party? The answer to that is ALL OF THEM. I know that for the first three months of my being here, I couldn't managed to fathom how this mare could juggle all of these parties with work, babysitting, helping her friends out with various errands, visiting family, making her rounds through the town and taking care of business at the castle. When she said that it was because she wanted to do her best to make the world smile, I just simply laughed.

Most of the time, she'd have me walk around with her. Her reason for doing it: so that I could understand what it really meant to spread the joy of laughter and making others smile. She even went further to explain why it was much better than hiding in my room for hours at a time. My response was that I didn't like walking around the entire town all day. It's like going across campus without a bike or a car. Plus it's literally nine miles that I walk whenever I make these long excursions. At least I'm losing weight.

How she has the energy to make these walks and be supermare still eludes me.

Pinkie Pie, or Pinkamena Diane Pie as her full name, was nothing like any other person or pony I've met. She never stops smiling. She always seems to put everyone else's happiness before hers, and in turn it makes her happy. I don't understand how sweating up a storm from these long walks would be so much of a flea in comparison to everything else.

But then I remembered that equines happen to live on their legs. It doesn't matter how long they walk, they're born and conditioned for this kind of stuff.

Three months have came and went. I've practically known the mares around me for a while, been able to learn their particular rules as a society and how they deal with many of their problems. It's amazing actually. These ponies consider themselves as an egalitarian society, despite having an established monarchy. Everyone here pulls their own weight, yet they all lean against each other. No one pony is more entitled than the other. I guess that's why Twilight doesn't have much weight when it comes to changing policies based on her title alone. If she wanted the approval necessary to change something, she'd have to prove just how trustworthy she was. And judging from how quickly I could managed to eat some rotisserie chicken in the privacy of my own bedroom, I'd say that she's managed to prove herself on more than one occasion prior to my arrival.

Another thing I've manage to pick up about Twilight. She has a long-standing crush with one of the guards stationed at the castle. His name is Flash Sentry. As far as I could tell, they pretty much talk whenever the opportunity presents itself. But when it comes to the public eye, they keep their relationship strictly professional.

Huh, I wonder what they're doing right now.

Why did I just ask myself that? Meh, whatever. I just know that Twilight is happy. In speaking of crushes...

"Hey, Pinkie?"

Pinkie Pie, who was busy humming as she pranced around like a foal who just received her weekly dose of candy, stopped in mid-air and turned her attention to me. "Yes, Non-Non?"

Despite her calling me that being cute, she creeps me out whenever she defies the laws of physics. Anywho... "Do you have a crush?"

She blinked and turned away quickly as she immediately pulled a Fluttershy on me. I knew that it was normal that Fluttershy would hide under a bush or behind a tree when someone asked her a rather invasive question. But to see Pinkie in the same manner, I didn't think that she'd be so shy about it. If anything, I'd expect her to be a little more open to it.

As she fell from the air, she almost curled herself into her tail, hiding behind a thick, pink bush of hair. Her voice grew a little quiet. "Nondis, you shouldn't ask ponies personal questions like that."

Did she just correct me on being personal? This is all coming from the mare who compared my balls to a swing-set. I guess that some boundaries are okay to cross as long as their mine. So much for that egalitarian concept.

"Oh..." I hummed as we stood still for a while. She looked away and I pretty much just rubbed the back of my head. I didn't know how to diffuse a situation like this. I guess my best bet is to diffuse the previous question and change the subject. Always worked when I was at home, why not here? "Nevermind then. So what are we-"

"Do you wanna know?" She asked quietly, still poking her sapphire eyes out from the jumbled pink mess of her tail.

"Well-"

Pinkie jumped out of her tail and met me nose to muzzle, her eyes glaring into mine. Personal space was never really a thing around her. Eventually, I grew to get used to it. "Do you reeeeeeally, REEEEEEAAAALLY wanna know?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Sure. Knock it out of the park."

Pinkie immediately retracted herself from my face and started up with her usual prancing in a circle as she told her story. "Actually, I did have a crush! I had a few of them! The first one was my dad."

Say what now?

"Because when I was a little filly, I always loved my dad and I always said that he would be the first guy that I'd marry!"

Oh... typical kids stuff. She was completely innocent at the time and probably didn't understand what she was saying then.

"Of course, my dad told me that it wouldn't be right for us to get married. So then I got into a crush with this one guy named Pokey Pierce. We went out for a date but things didn't really work out between us. He'd wanted to..." At this point, Pinkie's smile weakened. "...go a little further than what I wanted for a first date."

Oh... damn, what a dick.

"So then, I actually tried to date a colt by the name of Caramel. We went on for about four months. After the first time we shared each other, I... never heard from him again." Her smile had completely disappeared into a very faint frown.

You know, I'm beginning to understand why she's so insistent in making others smile.

"So after that, it was Big Macintosh." Applejack's older brother. "But then I found out that I may be related to him."

Close call.

"And finally, my most recent one was Cheese Sandwich." Try not to laugh at the name, try not to laugh at the name. "We met one time and had a goof-off over who would plan Rainbow Dash's Birth-iversary, meaning that it was a full year since she moved to Ponyville and her birthday."

A two-for-one deal. Nice.

"So we planned the party together, and he gave me a gift." Her smile returned, now she was practically glowing as she talked about this guy. "We used to write each other every single day! We'd share some ideas on what we could add to a party, what kind of food we could serve up, what kind of games we could play! I knew in my heart that he'd be the one that I could grow to love."

So this guy is the bees to her knees.... Okay that was bad and I should feel bad. I am so sorry.

"But..." Her smile faded completely. I even saw her mane deflate just a little. I had to catch my jaw before it hit the dirt. This was a completely new side of her that I haven't seen. "When I asked him if he was interest in something more than a partnership, he said yes."

Then what's the problem?

"We continued to exchange letters, though the intervals... grew. From days to a week, from a week to many weeks, even from weeks to months. He decided that our relationship couldn't really take root as long as he was traveling. I asked him if he was willing to take root here in Ponyville, but he couldn't."

Pinkie, the happiest mare I knew, the girl that never stopped smiling, was crying. I didn't know what to do or say. I could only watch as the streaks of tears flowed down her face as she looked at me, still telling her story.

"So he broke it off, saying that he couldn't be in such pain. He didn't want to be so sad to the point where he couldn't spread happiness anymore. Even I knew that it was affecting me too, because I started throwing more and more parties. Then I finally realized, the main reason why I planned so many parties, five in one day, was because I was trying to make up for one party guest that couldn't show up."

I get it now. Partying was her drug. She'd get the high of seeing others smile and she'd experience the same happiness because of it. If she doesn't party, then she doesn't make others smile. And if she doesn't make others smile, then she'd stop smiling. I guess there's a lot more depth to this mare than I had originally thought.

"So we made a promise. We'd stop writing to each other for a full six months. If he still felt the same way, then he'd write me and tell me that he would come to Ponyville. If not, then he'd write me a letter, telling me how everything's been for the past six months."

Oh... I guess that's why it's been so hard for her to answer my question. "So... How long has it been since you've last gotten word from him."

She looked away from me, stirring her hoof in the dirt as she gave me her answer. "Less than two months."

So it's really an open wound for her. "Ok. So, I guess we can talk about something else."

"What's wrong?" She asked me, close to a whisper as her tears stopped flowing.

"Because I don't wanna talk about this anymore."

"What about you? Have you had a crush?"

Plenty. And they all ended in the friendzone, a lovely little place where aspirations of getting laid are all but realized. Also known as relationship hell. So where do I start?

"Well, there was this one time in high school..." I can't believe I'm telling one of these damn stories. "I liked this girl called Melanie." Because fuck confidentiality. If Pinkie can name hers one by one, then I can reveal the name of one of my worst 'zonings'. "We talked for a few weeks, grew close but ended up being no more than friends. I eventually told her that I had feelings for her, but she said that she didn't feel the same way. So as time went on, I watched as she went from one guy to the next. And after everytime she broke up with one of them, she'd call me up to talk to me. Though I wasn't one for many words, I did my best."

"What happened between you and her?" She inquired.

"I guess, I was tired of being the emotional rebound. I had feelings and I had desires, but she wasn't going to look my way. I wanted to show how much I liked her, but she wasn't going to let me. So why trap myself in such a one-sided relationship?"

"Maybe she's scared to lose you."

I turned my head to the direction where the pink pony sat, caught off my guard by the words she had just uttered to me.

"Maybe she's just waiting for the right moment, for you to grow up some, for you to mature. She sees a lot in you and maybe she's testing you to see how far you are willing to go with her. Sometimes, being a friend is more important than being a lover, because being a lover would require you to trust each other. And that trust has to start from somewhere."

Who the hell is this and what did she do with Pinkie Pie? Pinkie is never this profound. Goofy, silly, batshit crazy? Yes! But this... this was something different than what I had come to know in the three months I've spent here. This was definitely a horse of a different color. No pun intended.

"But now that you've broken that off, she'll never know the answer. Because you were too selfish to see what she was trying to do. Nice guys, who are genuine about one's feelings, finish last. But really they finish first."

Sometimes, I really hate hindsight. Because it tends to sit in your face and tells you I-told-you-so. If anything, it annoyed me how it brought up the past and what I could've done to make things better. Instead, I chose to let my high school libido drive me to think that the best thing to go for was sex. She knew what she wanted, and I was probably a work in progress that fell apart in the last moment.

It's times like this where my mind would normally play out the scenario in a much more positive light, or play myself being the hero on a white stallion who came back to make himself her white knight so that she could be the best of everything. That was my so-called relationship, the one I claimed that was real, the one that I repeatedly lied to myself and others about.

I'm so stupid. Why did I even bring this up?

"But..."

My ears had guided me back to the pink mare, who was amazingly smiling all over again. Her mane resumed it's usual poofiness and her voice became as high-pitched and squeaky as ever. And those tears that once glided down her cheeks had dried up.

"I know that everything will be fine. If he doesn't want to go on with me, then I can continue to live on. There are others I could look to. Others who could make even me smile."

I instinctively reached out and grasped the pink equine, taking her in for a powerful hug. I squeezed her as she returned the gesture. I didn't want her to feel as if she was going to be alone. I wanted her to know that everything was going to be alright.

But really, I wanted that hug for myself, because I was the one who needed it.

"Non-Non, you give the best belly rubs and huggles, you know that?"

Aaaand she's back. Good to know.

"So where are we going today?" I asked her, finally able to break ourselves out of the previous conversation. I really didn't need to see her like that again.

"We're going to the market. I need to buy some more supplies. Some confetti, streamers, party balloons, noise makers, tablecloths, cups, a punch bowl, some punch, some paper plates..."

Same old Pinkie. I think I like her more already. I at least have a level of respect for her. She's really a decent mare. Better not get too attached or else I might be trying to bring her with me. While she continued to name off the items on her list, I walked beside her, watching the happy mare bounce up and down with an enormous smile stretched across her face.

I couldn't wait to see how happy she was going to be when we had the party at the castle tonight.

Later at the castle, I sat against the wall as I watched the other ponies around me dance and partake in the random festivities all over the grand entrance room. Practically over half the town was in attendance as they celebrated the castle's annual date of establishment, a full year since it's completion.

I was actually expecting this to be somewhat of a semi-formal affair, considering the royals who were in attendance. Princess Celestia was busy conversing with some of the town's business owners. Princess Luna was actually having a ball on the dance floor. Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor were sharing a few jokes with some of the locals about life in the Crystal Empire and Twilight was busy flirting with her romantic interest. Meanwhile I'm just sitting here against the wall, dressed in a tuxedo, while everyone else were letting loose.

I never danced at parties. I was, what my parents would call some people back in their youth, a wall-flower. It means that I take my pleasure in watching everyone else dance while I sat quietly to myself. Every now and then, I'd usually see a cute girl pass by me and I'd catch a glance of what they had in the back or a peek of what they rocked in the front. But being in a land of ponies robbed me of that experience. Ponies didn't wear clothes, so there wasn't much to the imagination. Plus they were a different species, I wasn't even going to go there.

As the DJ turned up the volume on the speakers and the others danced on the dance floor, I remained propped up against a wall on the far end of the room. It all seemed so different, yet so familiar. I remember when I was in high school, when I first met my crush Melanie. It was at a party and she was pinned against the wall just like I was. The only difference between her and me was that she had gotten out of a pretty bad bought with her ex-boyfriend a few days earlier. I was there because I knew that I couldn't dance.

She saw me standing to myself as I drank a cup of some of the punch they had spiked. As I was about to guzzle the whole thing down without a care, she told me that I should lay off the drinks.

* * * * * * *

"You shouldn't drink so many of those!"

Melanie was a pretty decent looking girl. She was about three inches shorter than me, medium-longish, brown hair with bangs, dark-brown eyes, a cute little smile and little double-chin that she often became self-conscious over. She wasn't exactly skinny, but she wasn't big either. She was about average in proportion. She didn't have a huge ass or anything like that, but it was pleasant to look at. Her chest was pretty sizeable; a c-cup. She wore a pink spaghetti strand top with jean shorts at a pretty modest length, complete with green-and-white striped knee-high socks and white Sketchers.

"You do know that they boozed the drinks, right!? The last thing you wanna do is either get your ass kicked or get dieseled!"

Personally, that was a 50-50 chance of a happy ending on my end. At least I could go around and say that I got laid. With probably the school whale, but laid nonetheless. But knowing me, I'd probably end up talking with some chick that was already taken and have my ass thoroughly gifted to me in wrapping paper by her angry/jealous boyfriend/pick-up. So I drank in moderation.

"...Thanks." I mumbled to her, barely making a sound in contrast to the blaring music over the entertainment system.

"You said what!?" She screamed back, not able to hear me.

"I said thanks!"

For a moment I just sat against the wall, not even looking at her because I was contemplating over what I should say next. Nothing came to mind, so I just went for something simple.

"So, what made you come here!?" Such a stupid question on my part.

"I just thought I needed to get away! A party is a good way of wasting time, you know!"

"Away from what!?"

Rolled her eyes as she flicked her hand, shooing away at the air as if there was a fly bothering her. "Fuck, life!"

I guess that's a good reason. But that's where I couldn't carry on anything else. A long pause grew between us as the music continued to throb in the speakers. I cleared my throat as I adjusted myself against the wall, shifting my supporting foot so that it wouldn't fall asleep on me.

"So what's got you sittin' here!? Shouldn't you be out there dancing!?" She shouted over the music.

"I just don't do dancing! I'm having fun just standing here!"

"You sure!? That makes you look like a bit of a creeper!"

She always had a sense of humor. "Nah, I'm fine!"

"So you don't wanna dance!?" She said, finally turning to me.

"Nah, I'm cool!"

She walked over to me, smiling as if the world couldn't hold two candles to how happy she was. "You sure!?"

"Yeah!" I answered.

At this point, she drug her fingers against my arm as she pulled off her best imitation of a puppy. "Even if it's with me!?"

I hesitated as I gave her my answer...

* * * * * * *

"WHACHA DOIN!?!"

"SHIT!" I yelped as a familiar face appeared before me. As I grasped at my chest, making sure that my heart hadn't jumped out of my throat and onto the floor somewhere, I noticed two large orbs of sapphire staring me in the face, surrounded by a mess of pink curls.

"What's wrong?" Pinkie asked me as I tried to catch my breath.

"You scared the living shit outta me! That's what's wrong!" If I hadn't been to the bathroom just before I came here, I'd be crowning at the very least.

"No... Why aren't you dancing!?" She asked me.

"I just don't like dancing." I plainly answered. It doesn't matter what world of dimension I was in, I was not going to embarrass myself on the dance floor. At least, not this time.

"But everypony loves to dance! Because dancing makes you happy. It makes you feel free!"

Then if it makes me so free, then why does if feel like I'm some sort of indentured servant dancing for money while the others stare and point at me while I do it? "I just don't, okay?" I answered dismissively, trying to give her the hint that I didn't want to dance.

"Come on, Non-Non! Let's have some fun!" The pink menace before shouted as she started to dance.

To my horror, she had started to lunge for me in an attempt to pull me off of the wall. I slid from where I stood and made a smooth transition to my left. I guess Beyoncé was on to something when she wrote that song. But now was the time where I had to go on ahead and change my direction now that Pinkie was zoned in to my new location. I slid to my right as she ponced where I once stood. As I slid to safety, she slid face-first into a wall.

I cringed as I almost felt the impact that her face made with the crystaline wall of the room. Yeah, that's definitely gonna leave a mark. But to my surprise, she rose off of the ground, only rubbing her muzzle as she looked at me. I was more amazed over how unphased she was from the blow. She just stared as she spoke.

"Oh... Now I get it."

Finally, she understands that I don't want to dance.

"You don't wanna dance on the floor..."

Yup, because I don't want to dance on the floor.

"...Because you..."

That's right, you're getting there.

"...wanna dance on the wall."

Finally, she ge-wait what?

"I didn't know that you were into that kind of dancing, Nonnie."

I instantly felt myself shudder at the implications of the word 'that' and how she stressed it. Before I could even fire up some sort of neurotic response, her pink tail whipped around my waist and she sprung over to me, slamming her hooves against the wall on either side of my chest. I raised my arms so that those sledgehammers wouldn't find themselves turning the bones in my arms to a very fine powder. As she stared back at me, she giggled while she looked into my eyes seductively. Playfully, but seductively.

"But for you, I guess I could get used to it."

She started to rock her body against mine, sparing not even an inch of space between us. She playfully chortled as she dipped on me, twisting herself around while her tail continued to pull against my waist. As she turned around, she pulled my hips against her, landing me directly against the dock of her tail. As I made impact, I could see the ripples of pink briefly glide across her flank. I looked down in shock over what this mare was doing to me. While I was too busy gawking at her, she rolled her hips in a circular motion, grinding against me as she stood on her hind legs. One of her forelegs reached out to cradle my neck, bringing my head close to hers as she giggled.

"You're fun to dance with, Non-non! Not many stallions could last this long!"

I've grown accustomed to the ebonic phrase of 'back-dat-ass-up', but this was a league I was completely unfamiliar with. She dropped it low, brought it back, wound it like a top and dumped it on me. I need to get away from this girl... chick... pony... DAMMIT!

She was so, I know it's wrong of me to say human, but I couldn't find anything else to compare it to. Her motions, her fluid-like transitions, the way she turned and the way she moved. I had actually forgotten that she was a different species from me. If this was a girl from my world, I'd be just as flustered, only with a raging boner.

Oh wait... FUCK!

"Pinkie," I whispered in her ear, which in hindsight was probably a bad idea as I felt her sink even deeper against me, driving that pink pair of cheeks against my pelvis. "Don't you think we should stop this? We are with some rather important company."

She laughed as she pointed towards the other side of the room. "Hehehe... I don't think Princess Cadance minds too much."

As I looked over to where the pink princess stood, she was busy showing some of the spa ponies how to perform a massage, with her ass, on her husband's lap. Shining was too invested in the view as he fanned himself while biting his lower lip.

"They're married." I argued to Pinkie, hoping that my point was still with some sort of merit. Though to be honest, I'd expected Cadance to hold herself with higher standards than giving her husband a lap dance in public. Then again, princess of love.

"Then tell that to Princess Luna." Pinkie rebutted, pointing to the lunar princess to our far right.

My jaw fell to the floor as I watched the princess dancing with a local as she screamed out the words 'blame my sister' with drink in her magical tow. Celestia looked on with a hoof to her face in embarrassment as she shook her head.

Wow. I guess Pinkie won that round. But I wasn't going let myself succumb to my body's involuntary reactions to an external stimulant such as this pink pony dancing dangerously close to me. I needed to get her off so I can keep my sanity. And as my eyes became locked to the center of the room, I formulated a plan.

"Hey, Pinkie, let's take this to the floor."

"Sure thing!" She cheered as she pulled me with her tail, dragging me to the dance floor. As she bowled into a crowd of ponies, I felt her grip slipping on me as the others bumped against both me and her. As I carefully walked one way, I managed to find that her grip had completely eluded me. Now free from the pink, fluffy tentacle, I carefully navigated myself away from the center of the pack and onto the floor's outer edge. Finally in a clearing, I sighed with relief as I quietly celebrated my escape.

But as I commended myself on a job well-done, I couldn't help but to notice that Twilight and her guard was walking off into a darkened hallway. Instantly, I felt a little nosy over what she and her guard would be doing that required them to wander off like they did.

Why was I following this mare around like this? I have no idea. But I needed to find out what those two were up to. The curiosity inside of me was dying to know. Looking both directions, I tip-toed after them into the dark hall.

Whatever they were going to do, I was going to find out.

As I quietly followed the two down the hall, I managed to stop my journey just a turn away from a elegantly decorated hall. Apparently, the two large doors at the end of turn lead into Twilight's personal chambers.

If they were going to do what I think they were going to do, then I really didn't need to be here. But I found my curiosity overriding my sense of decency. I didn't know why, I was just compelled to watch. While I continued to debate in my mind on whether this was a good idea or not, voices rang in my ear. I turned my head and hid myself behind a pillar as I watched the two talk amongst each other.

"And that's why I'd never underestimate the Pinkie sense." Twilight finished, causing the guard to laugh.

"Wow... I'd never think that she was so clairvoyant." The guard responded. "So... I guess that you're retiring for the night? I think it's a little early, don't you think."

I shifted myself quietly to get a better look. As my eyes dawned past the crystal pillar, I saw that Twilight started to play with her hooves.

"Flash... We need to talk."

"Sure. What's wrong?"

"Nothing... I just..." Twilight looked to her door nervously, opening it slowly as she backed out of the way. "Would you like a drink? I have plenty of refreshments inside. Maybe you and I could talk over a good book or something."

Even I knew what that was an invitation to do. But Flash, oddly, wasn't biting.

"Princess-"

"You don't have to call me that. Just... call me Twilight."

"Well... Twilight... Look... I'm flattered. But..."

I could see from a mile away that Twilight was more than afraid of what he had to say next. Me being in that situation, I would be too. "But?"

"I like you. You're a cute mare, you have a wonderful personality and you're so willing to open up to me. I like that about you. I would be more than willing to get into something like that with you..." And here comes the pain. "But... I just don't see us... like that."

Twilight's ears flopped back as her head dipped a bit. "Oh... I see..."

"It's not really you. It's more of me. I like your kind attitude and how you're so willing to go outside of your comfort zone. But there are reasons why I can't do this."

"If it's because of you being a guard-"

"No... That's not it. It's more of... I... Well no offense, but I was hoping for somepony with a little more... spunk."

For a moment, I swore I could hear the sound of paper ripping in two. But I knew just exactly what it was. "So the quiet-librarian type isn't your cup of tea?"

"You are beautiful, princess."

"Flash, just stop."

"Twilight-"

"No... I'm tired of hearing compliments from a stallion that I let so close to me, only for him not want anything from me. I wanted something."

"I'm afraid that I can't give you what you're looking for, princess."

"No... you were what I was looking for." Twilight walked into her bedroom as she tried her best to avoid looking at him. As he reached out to her, she levitated his hoof away from her door nonchalantly.

"Twilight... please don't-"

"I was just too stupid to see that you didn't feel the same way."

Flash stared at the crack in the door as Twilight disappeared into the darkness of her bedroom. Her horn was the only source of light as she stared to the floor.

"P-princess-"

"Goodnight, Flash. Forget that we ever had this conversation."

The door clicked as it finally came to a close. Flash knocked on the door one last time before he made his leave.

"But we're still friends, right?"

I watched as the door cracked open, this time with an absence of magic. Twilight responded quietly. "Yeah... But I don't know how close I want you to be to me right now."

The door shut once more, leaving a remorseful Flash Sentry standing before it. Without any further comment, he left the princess to her quarters. I hid myself from view as he walked by me, wearing a gloomy frown upon his face. I knew that he had regretted telling her no, but at least he didn't tell her yes and lead her on.

I know Twilight would've loved for that to happen.

After about two minutes, I slowly crept to the door, knocking and praying that she was okay. The first knock had no answer, so I knocked a second time. This time, I was met with a response.

"What do you want?"

I knew that I was really playing a risk here, but I didn't want her to be depressed like this. It's hard dealing with rejection, especially when you thought something was more than certain. With a heavy breath, I spoke my name.

"It's Nondis. You wanna talk?"

I knew that talking wasn't one of my strongest suits, but she needed someone to vent to. Otherwise it could lead to some very unhealthy thoughts and choices. None of the other girls were around, so at least I needed to fill that role. Or fail trying.

"Do you need anything?" Even in sadness, she was still concerned for my well being. I hated it. I hated that, seeing it for the second time in a single day. First it was Pinkie, and now it was her. I told myself that I really didn't want to see these happy little... these girls to feel so burdened. I wanted to make a change for once, at least I knew how I could relate with her in this case.

"I need to talk to you. I want to talk to you." Why was I so invested in seeing Twilight feel better?

The door cracked open and in it's darkness stood a lavender mare with tears running down her face, her eyes reddened from crying so hard and her cheeks flushed red.

"Can we talk?"

And her breath ripe with alcohol. She'll be feeling that very soon.

A half hour has passed since my early leave from the celebration. Twilight has been sitting in my lap, which was now covered with an assortment of fluids, most namely that of saliva, tears, snot and sadness. Also a drop of shame from Pinkie's earlier performance. As Twilight bantered on about all the times she spent with Flash, I had came to the conclusion that this guy was really confused over what he passed up on.

"You go... *sniff* to an alternate universe and... *sniff* meet a cute guy... who just so happens to break up... *sniff* with a total power-hungry whorse *hic* and finds you cute. So I thought... being that I was going to be a good friend... *sniff* was going to show him that... what he really wanted... *sniff* ...was right under his muzzle!"

Yeah, the alcohol was really kicking in. Her hysterics practically matched her to Rarity at this point, and that mare is a complete ham when sober.

"So what do I do?" She looked to me as if I was going to answer that for her. I knew that it was a rhetorical question, but she took a rather lengthly pause that left it wide open.

"You... try to win him over?" I guessed.

"I tried to win him over! And what does he do? He turns around and throw me into the dumpster."

I'd never thought that she'd be the type to be so emotional over a boy... erm... colt. But then again, the freshly open wound of rejection, plus two bottles of Applejack Daniels, will do that to you. Being honest, I was more than happy to see that she hadn't hit rock-bottom from all the alcohol she just downed. Otherwise, her prayers would have to go the god upon the porcelain alter.

It's just too bad she didn't even bat an eye at the bottle of Moscato d'Asti on her nightstand beside a book labled Soulful Serenades by Quill 'n Ink.

So while she continued to cry in my lap, I petted her slowly on the top of her mane, making sure that she was comfortable. At the very least, she was much better than what she was when I first came in. I didn't think tackle-hugs would be a thing with equines. So having a full-size equine that stood up to your upper abdomen with a pointy-ass horn charging at you can make you do a 180 and bolt. At the very least, the pain of me being steamrolled to the ground was a lot less intense than I had anticipated.

There were times in her banter where she would pause, and at those moments, I knew that it was time to bail. In a situation like that, it would mean that the chunks were on standby for flight. And I really didn't want to mess up this outfit more than I had already done. But luckily, all she did was hurk and burp before continuing on with her rant.

"Nondis... *hic* ...am I pretty?"

Oooooh boy. Here we go.

"Am I... a pretty mare?"

I know how to answer that, it's just that right now, I'm kinda left questioning my sexuality since Pinkie plastered me on the wall. I got a boner from a talking horse. If that isn't the textbook definition of classy, then I'm pretty sure that awkward is looking to add to it's long list of offenses.

Twilight grabbed me, barely able to concentrate on her magic long enough to turn my head to her.

"Am I pretty!?" She shouted in my face, still reeking of booze and sadness.

"Yes!" Despite the disheveled mane and the obnoxious smell of alcohol permeating my nostrils, she was really pretty. At least by equine standards. Okay... I'm lying to myself, she was pretty. Just... not at this particular moment.

"TELL ME I'M *hic* PRETTY!"

Her demand came out forced and slurred as she struggled to keep her head in one position. Either way, she was a princess, and there was no way I was willing to find out what the Equestrian prison system was like. If it's anything like the one at home, then I was definitely unprepared to take on any stallions.

"Yes... you're... very beautiful."

"DON'T CALL ME BEAUTIFUL!!!" She screamed, damn-near blowing my ears off. "That's what he called me..." She trailed off before breaking into another sob fit.

"Look Twilight," I really didn't know what I was going to say to her. She's inebriated and will probably forget everything I said to her by the time she wakes up in the morning. Afternoon. That hangover is going to require some SERIOUS hair-of-the-dog treatment. "I know that he's turned you down. But what I do know is that there is plenty more guys... stallions..." Force of habit. "...who will be willing to see that you are worth something."

Twilight raised her head, looking at me as she wobbled. "Non, I don't feel so great."

Welp, it's time to take this therapy session to the bathroom. I tried to lift myself up, seeing if I could at least pick her up and carry her there, but she magically tugged me back down by the seat of my slacks, clasping her hooves around me as she anchored me in place.

"Please don't leave me alone! I don't want to be alone!" That's the alcohol talking through Twilight.

For a moment, I offered to say something. "Twi-"

"Shhh." But she shushed me with a hoof to the lips. I've gotten used to those by now.

I wanted to say something else. "Can we-"

"SHHHHHHHHHHHHHT!" But she replied with a long shush as she pressed into my lips even further.

I kept quiet from then on. I was hoping that the effects of the alcohol would wear down soon. Dealing with the princess while she was like this was really uncomfortable. Her hoof dragged off of my lips and flopped onto my chest. Her head did the same as she started to play with my hands.

"You know... humans have such unique features." Her speech was still slurred, but at the very least she started to show some signs of her usual self. I remained quiet as she continued to speak. "Hands can do everything that hooves can't. You can grab things and have a really good grip on them. With hooves, sometimes what we try to grab can slip."

I laughed a little at the thought. "Do you prefer to have hands then?" I asked, wondering what her response would be.

"No thanks! I've had them before, and I didn't like them. I'll keep my hooves, thank you very much."

I felt a desire to scratch my head at her statement. Perhaps the booze was still polluting her thought process after all. "You... had hands?"

Twilight batted a hoof at me, laughing all the while. "Yeah. I didn't tell you? I was a human for five whole days!"

Okay, that's really something that explains why she knew so much of the human anatomy. She actually walked a day in our shoes. That was something to really think about.

"So do you want hooves?"

"NO! No. No-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no. I love my hands. I wanna keep them." There wasn't nearly enough no's to describe how much I wanted to stay a human. I couldn't imagine myself walking on fours. Or worse, living life without hands.

"It'll only be for three days! I swear I can change you back!" Her horn started to glow. I wasn't going to let her start casting spells on me while still drunk. That was a big no-no. For all I know, she could turn me into some sort of satyr or some ass-backwards centaur. I was not willing to live with the repercussions of an inebriated mare's spells gone haywire.

"NO!" I exclaimed, grasping at her horn with my right hand, holding her horn and cancelling whatever magic she was conjuring up.

And her reaction was one that I didn't expect.

"Ooh... Nondis..."

Okay... What... did I just do? Twilight wrapped her hooves around my arm as I let go of her horn. As I pulled away, she used all of her physical strength to pull me back. I wasn't sure of what I did, but I'm sure that she had liked it.

"Am I... special?"

Those words pulled something from inside of me. And I knew just what it was. Those were the words that I often heard from one of Melanie's breakups. Usually she'd cry and sob and we'd both stay up on a Saturday night, eating pizza and a bunch of other fattening foods while we watched comedy specials on TV. At least those times really helped her get past Guy-X and move on to Guy-A.

So I knew what to say then. "Twilight," At least I didn't screw up the name. "You, and only you, can define yourself as special. If you want to be seen as that, then you have to look at yourself and assure that you are special before I can give you that answer. Of course I'm going to say yes, but what does it mean if you can't find that out for yourself? If you don't think that you're special, then you're always going to find guys who will see you as the opposite."

Dr. Phil, eat your heart out.

"So... I'm special... to you?" She asked me, looking at me with blood-shot, watery eyes.

"Yes. You are very special to me." No lies there. Twilight was unlike any other person I've met. Sure, she bore similarities, but she was in a league of her own. I really did enjoy my time with her.

So where was she going with this?

"Prove to me that I'm special."

What did she mean by that?

She pulled my arm out of the way and craned herself up to face me face to face. Not long after staring me down, she leaned her head against my chest. My heart was going a million miles an hour and right now, it was running on a nuclear reactor. I was scared of what she was getting at. She only confirmed my fears as she reached out and anchored her hooves onto my shoulders. She slid her head up to mine, her eyes closed part-ways as she glared at me, whispering to me.

"How special am I to you?"

I chuckled nervously, trying to keep a cool head as I came up with random answer. "You're a princess."

She shook her head. "No... I don't mean that. I mean... who I am. To you."

Let me count the ways... A lot. But where she was going with this was completely out of my zone of comfort. "Too many to count?"

One of her hooves managed to find it's way from my shoulder to the back of my head. She inched closer to me. I could feel the fermented breath steaming on my skin. "I can count without saying anything."

I was more than horrified, I was confused. I felt myself wanting to kiss her, but I knew that my moral upbringing managed to override my desire to do so. But as her lips grew close to mine, I knew that a decision was going to be made, whether I was prepared for it or not.

"One..." Her purple eyes glazed over as she wrapped my head with both of her hooves.

"Two..." Her wings had started to unfurl as she adjusted herself to where she could take me head on.

"Three..." The skin of her lips lightly grazed mine, initiating the brief contact before she pressed against me in full.

*knock knock knock*

"Twily? You in there, kiddo?"

And almost instantly, I felt myself become scared of what her brother would do to me if he saw me like this. I tried to pull away from Twilight, but she held me in place. As the knocking continued on, I felt that everything had started to move faster than what I could react to. Even as Shining walked into the room, I could only see a cold, hellish anger deeply plunging into mine.

"I'm so sorry." Twilight whispered to me.

I turned my attention back to the purple mare as she separated herself from me, looking down.

"Say what?"

"HURK!"

Oh... Fuck me to the wall...

About five minutes later, Shining Armor and I walked out of the room where Twilight rested. As he closed the door behind him, he looked to me with a stern expression on his face. I'd knew what was coming. As he wound up a hoof, I could only wait for the incoming blow I was going to get. I could only hope that it didn't kill me.

"Thanks a mil." Shining said as he gave me a inspirational, and very painful, pat on the back. I hissed and grunted as the blow took it's sweet time to register in my mind. "I really owe you one for this."

"Nnngh... No problem." I stressed as the pain in my back started to fade.

"I knew something was wrong when Flash came back alone." Cadance stated as she walked over to my side. "I really wanted those two to really hit it off. Twilight really liked him and I wanted to see her happy. But I guess our little plan didn't work out after all."

"Nope. So you know what that means Cadie." Shining said with a smug expression on his face.

"Aww... But Shiny, I don't like anal." Cadance moaned out painfully, completely ignorant to who was around.

Wow, these two are very open about their marriage. And in speaking of open...

"Hey, Shining Armor. Have you happened to find a bottle of Moscato d'Asti while you were in there?" I really wanted that bottle of wine.

"Oh, I almost forgot." He chimed as he quietly opened the door and snuck in to grab the bottle of wine and left the room. "I suppose me and Cadie will be sharing this tonight."

Dammit.

"Oh no you aren't. I'm getting this bottle." Cadance argued as she levitated the bottle from his magic.

"What's wrong with sharing? I'm down with fifty-fifty." The prince suggested.

"If we're doing anal, then I'm doing this bottle. Ninety-ten."

"Sixty-forty."

"Eighty-twenty."

"Seventy-thirty?"

"Seventy-five; twenty-five."

Shining lost that argument. Even the shit-eating grin he wore had disappeared as he cringed in defeat. "Alright! You win."

"Noblesse oblige, sweetums."

As the two walked down the hall to do what they wanted to do, I was left alone in the hall, reeking of booze, vomit and shame. While I started to make my way to my room, I could only imagine the hell I was going to go through when Rarity found out about this mess on my clothes.

She's going to kill me.

How many parties can a Pinkie Pie plan if a Pinkie Pie could plan a party? ALL OF THEM. How many does it take to completely screw up the rest of your life? One. How many does it take to completely wash off all the alcohol, throw-up, tears, drool and sadness off of your expensive shirt? Well, there isn't an answer for that one. But how many more of those parties I would go to, just to do it all over again? See the answer to question one. The math is pretty simple, even if there is one of those parties where everything turned out bad, there are several others you can have that makes that one, single night seem so insignificant to the others.

I guess what I've learned in the three months here, especially the past night... YOU DON'T EVER FUCK UP RARITY'S CLOTHES!

NOT... EVER!

Author's Note

Going with my usual formula here. It will come back eventually, but I know that I like what I did with the first two chapters. So be prepared. I feel sorry for Nondis, Rarity can be really aggressive when it comes to dirtying her clothes. Who knows what she may have in store for the poor guy.

Chapter IV

They say that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. They say that women put the devil himself under their feet so that they can stand eye to eye with a man before she tears him down. They say that the world will tilt on it's ass if all the women of the world decided to wage a war on men.

I have one thing to say: I wish I had a bunker.

Not because of the women raging for war, not because she's standing taller than I am, not because of a woman... No...

Who'd knew that a pony... less than half your size... could make you seem like you were nothing more than a flea... on the pimple of a roach's ass cheek?

It was a sunny and peaceful day in the small, humble town of Ponyville. The citizens carried on their day as the foals ran up the streets. The birds sang as they nested with their young, the butterflies gently floated through the air as they collected the sweet nectar from the colorful flowers that lined up all across the streets. Ponies everywhere celebrated the cloudless morning by walking around the town, visiting friends and often talking as they watched the foals play. Everything was serene...

And then there's the Carousel Boutique.

"YOU...
DID...
WHAAAAAT!?!"

Whose windows busted wide open from the booming of the mare's voice.

I've pretty much curled myself into a ball as Rarity stared me down, levitating the ruined tuxedo I wore just the previous night. If anything, I knew that my skin would be the hottest item on the runway come next fall's fashion line. There was no denying it. Rarity was angry, and she was very much on the verge of exploding. But I can understand her reason for doing so.

That tuxedo was hand... hoof made. It took her a full week to get everything where she wanted it. Even with my body type being a bit of an obstacle, adding more time to what's already considered to be strenuous work, A tuxedo made to fit me took twice as long as it would for a pony, considering that they don't need the excessive amount of fabric to hide themselves from the elements.

So not only is it time, but it's also resources wasted. Yeah, Rarity was going to run my ass through... and her little lizard too.

"Rarity, I'm so, so, so sorry. I was only trying to-"

The fashionista zipped from across the room of her boutique, backing me into a corner as she slowly walked towards me. "Your blatant, disrespect for the art of fashion has caused me enough grief as it is. BUT THIS, THIS HAS GONE COMPLETELY TOO FAR!"

"I didn't mean to. Honestly-"

As my back hit the wall, she continued to walk towards me, even restricting all means of my retreat by anchoring her hooves into the wall. "I cannot even begin to explain to you how angry I am with you!"

"I'm sorry. Really." I could only barter for mercy while she seemed to be on the verge of seeing if my skin would make a nice pair of socks.

"Just what were you doing to create this... catastrophe!?" She stressed, throwing the shirt with the brown barf badge in my face. I was more relieved that it was already dry than disgusted that it was still resting on my face.

"Twilight got sick." I muffled from behind the shirt.

"What?" Hard to tell the facial expressions of others when you have a dried-up prayer to the porcelain god staring you in the face.

Removing the shirt, cringing all the while, I answered her. "Twilight had gotten really sick and took to her bedroom. So when I checked in on her, she told me to stay with her for a bit. After a while, she couldn't hold her feelings inside and decided to let me know everything that was going on."

"Oh. Well that's very nice of you. But that doesn't tell me-"

"Including the carrot and oat stew she managed to have for lunch. That conversation she had while her brother managed to enter the room."

A look of disgust became written over Rarity's face. "...Ew."

"Which leads me back to here." I would prefer that she didn't know the real reason why Twilight had resigned from the party so soon. Flash was already getting his ass reamed by Shining Armor, so I might as well save him the pain of dealing with her would-be-equally-pissed-off friends.

Then again, seeing that would be rather amusing.

"So... the reason why this tux looks like this is because-"

"Twilight was a little under the weather." I finished, still remembering how she gave me a subtle apology before spewing to me the many nutritious dietary choices of an equine's daily intake. I will never look at carrots the same way.

Rarity backed away, mainly because of the mildly offensive smell that the shirt gave off. "So, Flash didn't take her up on her invitation, I presume."

That's a pretty accurate guess. How the hell did she find that out? "What makes you say that?"

Rarity held a hoof to her nose as she trotted of to retrieve something from a closed drawer. "Oh darling, I could see all the signs from last night. Firstly, there was the long conversations that those two held apart from everypony else. Secondly, Twilight has always had a crush on Flash. Thirdly, the two disappeared after a while. And fourthly, Cadance and I came up with a few measures to ensure that they were to be left undisturbed as they talked, much to Shining Armor's objections."

You know, that would explain the public lap dance she gave to her husband. It takes the attention off of those two while they made their escape. But that still doesn't explain why the Princess of the Night was literally mooning the ponies in attendance. Either way, in their case, it's a score plus one.

"Yeah... It turns out that Flash indicated that she wasn't his type."

"WHAT!" Rarity shouted, looking at me with surprise. "How did you get that information?"

I eavesdropped. "I've... gotten some... credible resources?" And I'm an idiot. Any blind person could see that I was obviously lying.

"Oooh! Details darling. I want to hear all of them."

Nope. Don't mind me princess, I'm just disclosing one of your most embarrassing moments to that of one of your closest friends, who seems to be highly invested in gossip. Nothing of wrong can possibly come out of this. I can only think of the pain that will befall me if the tabloids hear of this, assuming with their social infrastructure having some likeness to that of the human world, that a tabloid exists.

"Well-"

And just as I was about to start, a small baby dragon, by the adorable pet name of Spike, entered into the room with a wooden bucket full of hot water, complete with a washboard. "Hey Rarity, you got the fabric softener ready?"

"I most certainly do." The white unicorn sang-sung, holding up a small blue phial filled with the aforementioned liquid. She turned back to me, waving at me to continue my story. "Oh, don't get distracted. Carry on."

Spike cut a disapproving glance my way. "Is this the story of how he messed up the tuxedo that you worked so hard to make?"

Can't tell if he's trying to guilt-trip me, or brown-nosing for Rarity. Either way, she did give him an answer. "Actually Spike, he had a legitimate reason for why this happened."

You know, the fear that I once felt when I initially showed up to the boutique this morning had all but remained.

"Even though my tedious, hard work has been shunned a countless number of times by his perpetual habit of staining my precious outfits with musk, sweat, and dirt. Even with the first outfit I made him that ended up in shreds, the material was left out in the middle of the street to pasture and be trampled upon. I could've recycled that material rather than let myself waste such fine resources."

On second thought, that fear is very much alive.

"Yeah, I don't understand why you work so hard for this guy." Spike mumbled.

Really, jackass? I am just about three seconds from slapping gemstone from the gaps in between your teeth. "Sorry."

While Spike and I continue to have a full-on knife fight with just our eyes staring each other into a crater, Rarity levitated the shirt into the water. "Spike, what have I told you about playing nice with others?"

The miniature dragon rolled his eyes and sighed deeply. "Sorry. I promise that I will never, ever question why you need clothes again."

Spike was very big on sarcasm. I can see why he's pretty much the whipping boy of the cosmic forces. But then again, I do impede on his time with Rarity. Each night, she works hard to come up with some clothes for me, and that's on top of her usual commissions. He just wants some time with her. If he feels like I'm trying to make an advance on her, then he'd be happy to know that I'd have no interest in her. Then again, he'd accuse me of having poor taste and chide me for rejecting her. Because that's what all white-knights do for their princess. That's a battle I would lose, no matter the choice.

"Spike, did you also manage to bring back those jewels from the Diamond Dogs so that I could work of my newest line for tonight?" Rarity asked as she did her best to remove the stain from the shirt, also levitating the pair of pants, vest and overcoat to her side.

"I don't know what you said to them that makes them so scared of you, but there's one thing for certain, they really do like giving you jewels."

Is it because she can be scary when angry? I may just find that out today.

"Oh. Nondis dearie, it will be a while before I can give this back to you. I will have it ready by tomorrow so you should be able to come have it in your possession by then."

Really? Nothing from this? No punishment, no lightning bolts, no torture chamber with a bed of nails and a swinging pendulum of death? Well color me impressed.

"Though, I will be requiring your assistance come tomorrow. Spike will be busy with Twilight, so I'm afraid that I will need an assistant for tomorrow's errands. Consider it as a means of atonement for defiling my clothes for the umpteenth time."

I get to be an errand boy for a pony less than half my size? Oh well golly-gee-whillikers, I can't wait Batman! No literally, I haven't had any real bonding time to get to know Rarity. I guess that will change tomorrow. At least I didn't have to meet with a terrible fate in order to do so.

"So, what time tomorrow?" I asked.

"Oh, I'll come and get you when I need you."

"Great. See you then." I said, while making my way to the exit.

As I stepped out into the hall, walking downstairs and stopping shy of the front door, Spike had caught me just before I could leave.

"Can I help you?"

Spike gave me a stern expression as he just merely stared. "You better watch your back."

It amazes me how something so cute and small thought he could be something so life-threatening. "Ooooo.... kay?"

"Rarity is not going to be some sort of mare you can just be around and not have any consideration on what and how she feels. You should treat her with more respect than you do as of now. Or else..."

Spike walked over to a broken aluminum stand, used to hold mannequins in place, and placed a pony-shaped doll on top. After he held the two broken pieces in place, he took a shallow breath and blew on the area where the pole broke. As he slowly hissed out some air, he welded the two pieces together, fixing the display case. Shortly after, he scraped one of his claws against the reddened ring of the partially melted aluminum, scraping off the excess bulk so that the pole stood straight. The entire display looked good as new. All from just a breath of air. No flames, no smoke.

And then I remembered that the cute little lizard was a dragon.

"...I'll weld your lips to your toes."

That was... surprisingly convincing. I think I will take heed to that warning. Finally feeling my legs under me, I walked out the front door slowly, still remembering Spike's threat as I quietly closed the door behind me.

And I also remembered that a bush would be a very good place to release the urine that has yet to drizzle down my legs.

Later that afternoon, I arrived back at the castle, more than tired from the multiple errands I've ran with some of the locals. As I walked down the crystalline halls of Ponyville Castle, I couldn't help but to see a familiar face in the guard. I watched as Flash walked down the hall, seemingly with a thousand-yard stare as he casually made his way to the exit. After he passed by, I could only imagine the hell he might've went through with Shining Armor. With a simple shrug of my shoulders, I carried on.

As I turned left at the end of the hall, I managed to come into contact with a cream-colored, unicorn pony holding a clipboard in her magic. Next to her was a more-than-disgruntled Princess Twilight. Aside from the bag of ice she held on her head and the dark circles in her eyes, she looked to be in working order.

"Hey, princess!" I playfully called out.

"Nondis... hey..." She staggered out. Apparently, she seems to have just recently awaken from her slumber. "Inkwell, you're dismissed."

As I continued to approach her from down the hall, the unicorn trotted by me as she left me and the princess alone. As I got closer, it dawned on me just how bad Twilight's disposition was.

"Uuugh.... I'm never drinking again..."

I giggled a little, earning a deathly frown. "So, how's the hangover?"

"Horrible. I just can't wait till it blows over." She droned as she removed the bag of ice from her head and threw it to me. "Hold this for me."

"Huh, I would've expected you to go with the Hair-of-the-Dog treatment already."

"Bad idea." Twilight stated, telekinetically pulling my arm to her. Apparently, she wanted me to hold the ice pack against her head now.

"How come?" A Bloody Mary always seem to work for me. But then again, I have ways of making sure that my hangovers aren't as bad.

"Because you're only prolonging your problem. It's a great fix for temporary issues, but in turn it makes things a lot worse."

Something I didn't really know too much about because my hangovers aren't that bad. And for good reason. "Well what did you eat beforehand?"

"Um... Just a carrot stew and a nice fruit salad. Me and Flash decided to go out to eat before we showed up for the party."

That explains a lot. "You do realize that before you go on a drinking binge, you're supposed to eat heavy, right?"

"Really?" She moaned, feeling the relief of not having to mentally concentrate on anything except for her recovery as the bag of ice rested on her forehead.

"Yeah. Eat a lot, something that fills you up. Stuff like baked potatoes, garlic bread, cheesy broccoli, some steeeeee..." I had to catch myself before I had finished that last word. Twilight was already uncomfortable when it came to me eating meat, so the last thing I needed to say was that I ate steak before drinking heavy. "...eeeamed veggies?"

Nice recovery, dumbass.

"Oh. Well I'll keep that in mind for the next time."

"Really?" I asked, surprised that she would actually consider drinking again.

"No. Because this won't be happening again."

And there goes the possibility of yet another great story to tell. "Booo!"

"No. I'm serious! If there is anything I need, it's not another one of these headaches."

Personally, I'm glad she got the nausea out of her system. Rarity's taking care of the remnants of that situation. In speaking of which... "Have you eaten anything?"

"I've had a dandelion and honey sandwich. It did take off some of the edge."

Atta girl. "Drink any fluids?"

"Water."

Okay. That's two thing out of the way. "So, what are you doing out of your bed?"

"I have to make sure that everything in the town is ran properly. I have a meeting with the mayor later this evening and I-"

"Reschedule for tomorrow." I interrupted.

"What!?"

"You need a day of rest. You need to trot those purple little hooves on back to your bedroom."

"Geez, if I wouldn't know it, you seem as if you were my mother."

"Well mother knows best." Did I just say that? "So let's go. Hop to it! One-two, one two!"

As I chanted to her like a bass drum repeatedly banging in her eardrums, she finally gave in. "Okay! I'm going."

"Great. I'll inform the others that you are in no condition to perform any other duties for the rest of the day. Your health is priority over a few meet-n-greets."

As we started to make our way to her room, she walked close to me, making me feel a little flustered as I remember her drunken advances on me from the night before. It was something that I'm sure she didn't remember, but it still made things awkward for the both of us.

Me especially.

We finally reached the doors that lead to her bedroom. I opened the large door for her as she walked inside. While she found herself in the comfort of her private quarters, she paused and looked at me. "Can... you come in for a bit?"

Not wanting to leave a friend in need, I decided to oblige her in her request. I entered into the room and closed the door behind me. "Is there something wrong?"

"..." She shied away from me, looking anywhere except for the spot I stood in. "I..." She finally gained the courage to look me in the eyes. "Do you... remember anything I... may have said to you last night?"

A lot of things, but let's start off with the first one. "You told me to tell you that you were pretty."

Twilight blushed at the thought. "Oh... Well... I..."

If Fluttershy were giving out lessons on how to emulate her shyness in various situations, she was very much producing acceptable results. "Yeah, it was pretty bad."

"Oh... Well... am I?"

Honestly, I did not expect this to be a reoccurring thing. I would've expected this to be a drunken-girl thing and for it to be forgotten by the next day. "Well... of course."

"You mean it?"

"Yeah."

"Really mean it?"

"Yes."

"Like, you're actually telling me the honest truth-"

"YES! You're pretty."

Twilight looked away from me, toying with her hooves as she looked elsewhere. "...Thanks."

"Sure."

Twilight walked over to me, wrapping me in her hooves, giving me a light hug. "I know that some of the things I've said last night may have been out of character."

"I get it. Forget everything." I answered for her.

"...And I'm sorry that I tried to kiss you."

YOU REMEMBER THAT!? "Well... um... you see..."

"And for... well... sharing my lunch with you."

"We'll never speak of that again." I mentioned quietly.

"Noted."

As the awkward exchange carried on for much longer than either of the two of us were comfortable with, she pulled herself off of me and stood before me. "Well... I guess you can go. I'm gonna rest for a bit."

"Okay then. See you tomorrow, princess."

"Oh and one more thing..." She called out just as I was going to make my way to the door. "...Thank you so much, for being a great friend. I may call on you if I'm having any trouble resting."

"Sure thing."

As I made my way out the door, I walked down the hall to see a familiar unicorn holding a clipboard in her possession as she made her way to Twilight's room. I just kept walking as she passed by me. As she passed my me, I kindly pointed her to the opposite direction.

"Princess Twilight is under the weather. She asks that you reschedule everything planned for today for tomorrow."

"Sir, if that didn't come from the mouth of the princess herself, then I am not obligated to follow through on your ill-advised notion."

My response was a simple action sequence. I picked her up, faced her to the opposite direction she was heading, turned her head forward and gave her a slap on the ass, causing her to gallop down the hall and away from Twilight's room.

"Oh! And for any further questions, please consult her secretary!"

*knock knock knock*

I stirred from my sleep as I looked to the sky outside of my window. The sky just turned from black to a dark blue. Dreading the fact that someone was knocking at my door this early in the morning, I turned over and threw the covers over my head, carrying on with my regularly scheduled sleep.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

And then there's this fucking furry assdick who hasn't the slightest idea of common courtesy. Maybe if I ignore it as if it isn't there, they'll go away.

*BANG*

And down goes the door.

"♪Wake uuuuuup!♫"

I swear if this is one of those cheerful, Mary Poppins, Singing Chim-Chim-Cher-ee in the fucking morning wake-up calls, I'm going to make use of the lamp next to my bed. As I hear the clopping of hooves come close to me, I continue to feign my sleep.

"It's time to wake up, dear!"

I am not moving from this fucking bed. You will have to make me move.

"We have a busy day ahead of us, so let's get to it!"

Insert generic 'mommy-I-don't-wanna-x-today' line here.

"♫Nondiiiiiis!♪"

♫Shut uuuuuuup.♪

"Non... Non..." As she say's my name in the most annoying manner, she prods a hoof into my back. Damn girl is persistent. Now I gotta play dead.

If only that worked.

"Non, non, non, non, non, non, non, non, non, non, non, non, non, non, non, non, non, non, non, non..."

*poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke poke pokepoke poke poke POKE POKE POKE P̰͔̽͗̆ͩ͞O̶̼̪̻͈̎͋͆ͫͧ̊Ķ̳̜͍͉͓̺̦̅͊ͯ͗Ë͍̦̺͑̌̓ͭͥ̕*

Urge to kill: rising.

"Non?"

"FUCK DO YOU WANT!?" I screamed to the top of my lungs, shouting at the white unicorn mare standing at my bedside.

"Good morning! And how are you feeling on this absolutely glorious day?"

Like I just got through sandpapering a gorilla's ass. "Fine..."

"That's wonderful! Now come along! We have much to do! I have many an errand to run today, so we will have to start early."

Rubbing off the crust that landmined my eyes shut, I wearily looked to Rarity with a forlorn exhaustion. "Does it have to be at fucking five in the morning?"

"Well if you want to avoid the breakfast rush, then I'd advise you to rise to see the day." This time, she added insult to injury by lighting her horn directly in my face, producing a white light that dared to put the sun itself out of it's job.

"ARGH! I GET IT!"

"Okay, so we will need to head out early if we are to make any sort of headway. Now come along darling, we need to get you ready."

"Okay." I agreed. "Just let me get ready and I will be on my way out there."

"Very well then."

As she stood there, I grabbed the covers, placed them over my body, rested my head on the pillow and continued from where I last left off.

"What are you doing?" Rarity asked me in a angered tone.

"Getting ready."

"Not in the bed."

"It's magic. Now go away."

Rarity sighed deeply as she lit her horn. "I see that there's no getting through to you. Well, I've tried my best to be nice..."

The next thing I felt was a small dose of ice-cold water douse my neck, causing me to jump back up violently. "WHAT THE FUCK!?"

"You can't get ready in bed. Besides, if you stay any longer in that bed, you'll catch a cold."

Only because you decided to bring half the artic with you in a glass. "Okay, I'm up."

"No you're not. You need to jump right in that shower and get to showering!"

Instantly, I felt my entire body fail to register any gravitational pull. As I look down, I can plainly see that my legs and my arms were very much in the air with the rest of my body. I looked to Rarity, who was carrying me into the bathroom. As we entered, she let me stand on my own as I stared back at her.

"Well..." She said, rushing me to move along.

"Well what?"

"Get to it! Scrub yourself clean so that you will be able to attack the day."

Me... strip... butt-ass naked... in front of a girl... If this wasn't sex then I'm not doing it... Wait a minute. "I can't do that if you're here in the bathroom with me."

"I'm here to make sure that you don't fall asleep in the tub."

Fuck. That's one of my oldest tricks in the book. She got me. "I can manage without the supervision."

"I can't even trust you to get out of your bed with my being in the room."

She has a valid point there. "Please, just let me shower in peace."

"I know you measurements already, so there's nothing for you to hide." She said as I continued to stare right back at her. The white unicorn scoffed as she turned around. "I won't look. Now hurry along."

It was obvious that I wasn't going to escape this one. At the very least, she was willing to give me some of my privacy. But there's no guarantee that I may just not fall asleep standing up.

Welp, here goes nothing.

So I take my shower, get dressed, walk out the castle and the sun is still hiding beyond the horizon. Usually I'd find myself in the midst of my warm, comfortable bed while my mind conjures up past visions and dreams of a world that I'm no longer in. Plus it seems like I'm walking with Little Miss Can-You-Feel-The-Sunshine.

I've always hated morning people. It's like my misery is what fuels their smiles.

Meanwhile, we start making our way down the street. Not a single venue on any street has been opened. No windows opened to receive the fresh morning air, no ponies walking down the street, no foals scrambling to get where they needed to go, barely a bird's chirping and not even a single cricket is awake from their nocturnal activity. It's, for the most part, me and Rarity headed down the street for breakfast.

"Come along, dearie. There is much of the day to seize!"

While Rarity seems to run off solar power, my power grid hasn't kicked the on-switch yet. I am more than willing to sell myself to whoever's willing to lend me a bed. From now on, I will appreciate the little extra five minutes that I get whenever I press snooze on my alarm clock.

The fashionista happily trotted down the streets and here I was slugging along like there were ball-chain weights on my ankles. I started to fall behind. "Hey... can you slow down?"

"Sorry, Nondis dear. We're almost there."

How many times have I heard that line before. 'Almost there' to them means 'one more mile' to me. That's something I couldn't deal with this early in the morning. Why couldn't we have to run errands in the afternoon?

Yes, I am complaining. I have every right to.

As we finally came up to our first destination, I found myself cheering for the fact that our first venue was actually open. Rarity and I stepped inside of Sugarcube Corner, seeing the pink party pony standing behind the counter. Even she seemed a bit tame in comparison to Rarity's sunshine-powered ass.

"Morning, Pinkie!" Rarity chimed to her friend while I slugged along.

"♫Good morniiiiing!♫" Great. They're both morning ponies. "Hey Nonnie! How ya doin'?"

"Coffee..." I wearily suggested.

"Coffee?" Rarity seemed offended that I asked for the drink. "Oh heavens no. You will not be drinking any of that."

"And why not?" I asked.

"Because coffee is a horrible way to wake up in the morning. Why, you would go prancing around with stained teeth, offensive breath and a false store of energy."

"Works fine for me."

"No. I believe that it is time to try something different." Like a espresso? "We're going to share our morning conversations over a cup of tea."

What? "Why tea?"

"Because not only is it a natural way of rejuvenating the body, it also does the vocal chords some good in case you wake up with a bit of a frog. You're not relying of the addition of caffeine to wake you up. And plus it's a natural way of starting your day. If we're going to start a day such as this, then we're going to start on a high note."

My notes are somewhere close to the Earth's core. I need my fix.

"Aww, cheer up Non-non." I really didn't like hearing the word Non, not after how Rarity woke me up. "I'll be sure to bake you something special so you can... um..." Pinkie turns to Rarity. "What is he doing here so early?"

"He and I will be running some errands. Going to a few stores and picking up some supplies."

"Oh, trying to beat the pre-noon rush so you can get the early bird sales. What happened to Spike."

Good question.

"Spike is with Twilight. It seems that she's fallen behind on some stuff yesterday because of her illness. So he will be taking care of some things on her behalf."

Pinkie walked from behind the counter, with a small tray of glasses and miniature saucers. "Oh. Well I'm happy you managed to get some help."

Rarity nudged me playfully. "And some good help he'll be!"

I didn't know what she was going on about but I was ready to eat. Sleep was now a distant memory at this point.

"So what can I get you two this morning?" Pinkie pulled out a pencil and a notepad out of her mane. Can you say 'hammerspace'? Good.

"I would like a tea, make that two teas, with milk and sugar."

As Pinkie scribbles down the order with her mouth, she turns back to me. "Okay. And what would you like, Nons?"

"I would like a... um... err..." I have an inability to order on spot. "Can..."

"Would a cheese danish be okay?" Pinkie filled in for me.

"Yes. I'll take three." Because I'm gonna need them.

Pinkie just about wraps up the order as she scribbles off the last bit of the order with a pink tendril of her mane. The things this mare can do. "Coming right up!"

As I finally take a much-awaited seat, Pinkie managed to fix the tea, fetch me some freshly-made danishes and had everything on the serving tray next to the table. I can see how she manages to pay for all those party supplies. She's fast, efficient and accurate. She's willing to talk with the customer and care for them. I guess high gratuity is a common occurrence for her.

"Here you go, guys." She walked off and stopped shy of another table, grabbing a chair and taking a seat at our table. "So, what happened two nights ago?"

I looked at Pinkie, completely unaware to whom she was addressing. "Me or Rarity."

"You, silly! I get one dance in and you disappear into thin air! What's up with that?"

Rarity intervened on my behalf. "He noticed that Twilight was feeling a little sick. Unfortunately, she was unable to do anything yesterday because of it."

"Oh. So that's why we didn't hear much of her when she left."

"Yes. Also, can you believe that Flash Sentry rejected her?"

"Are you kidding me?" Pinkie sounded appalled. "Twilight is one of the bestestest of mares around all of Equestria! She's not only a princess but she's been taught by Princess Celestia, sister in law to Princess Cadance, her brother is Captain of the Guard, and she's really down to earth. She's smart, she's adorkable, she's really sweet."

Those thoughts have been on my mind since her drunken stupor. I felt myself becoming angrier the longer I thought about how hard she took his rejection. But I remembered that it was his personal preference that led him to that conclusion. So I can't do anything but be angry for Twilight.

"It is unfortunate. Though I can't imagine how she managed to become so physically ill because of it."

As Rarity talked, I felt a tap on my left shoulder, I looked to my right to catch Pinkie Pie. Amazingly, she wasn't there. So I looked back down to see that one of my danishes were missing. Looking over to my left, I see the guilty, pink culprit feasting on my danish. As she stopped chewing, she laughed nervously and offered me the half that wasn't eaten yet.

"Want some?"

I shook my head, causing her to continue assaulting the pastry. I wasn't going to tell them that their friend had drank herself off the deep end. I was at least going to keep that a secret. Though there was one thing that bothered me. If she could remember the fact that she tried to kiss me, then could she remember everything else that happened that night?

Finally finishing her tea and letting me finish my food, Rarity and I pushed our chairs in and started to make our way towards the exit. Pinkie said her goodbyes as she started to set the chairs from on top of the tables. As we walked out, I had noticed something completely odd. As I watched the door close, I had seen that the sign on the door was set to 'closed'. I opened my mouth to say something, only for Pinkie to zip over and turn the sign to open.

Wow. That mare can do just about anything when it came to her job.

"Hurry along, dearest! We're almost at the boutique."

While Rarity managed to run alongside her younger sister, Sweetie Belle, I was trailing the two of them, carrying pretty much Mount Olympus. Bags upon bags upon bags of heavy materials weighed me down. If there was going to be anymore shopping, I was going to see my feet developing roots.

"Rarity, do you think he'll ever find his cutie mark?" The younger filly asked. She was supposed to be apart of some group called the Cutie Mark Crusaders, where they try out many activities in hopes of earning their cutie marks. Apparently, they wanted me to be a new member.

"Sweetie Belle, we've already discussed that he doesn't have a special talent." Wow, just put my confidence in Auschwitz. It's not like that it was anything important to me. Rarity soon reworded her statement out of fear that she might've said something to offend me. Too late now. "Um... What I was mean to say is that humans have special talents as well. But he hasn't discovered what his is quite yet." Thanks for the daily reminder.

"Oh. Well can we help him find his special talent?"

"I'm sorry. Not today. He's helping me with something this evening. Hopefully he won't mind if I can borrow him for just a few more hours."

I couldn't see her face behind this mountain of shit I was carrying, but I knew that she was looking at me to give her an answer. And as much as I really wanted to say no... "Sure. I'm up for whatever." ...It's like it's difficult to say no to this mare. I can completely understand where Spike is coming from.

"Okay." I heard Sweetie say with sadness in her voice.

"Cheer up." I added, hoping to make her feel a little better. "If I'm free one of these days, then of course I can go crusading with you and your friends."

I knew that there was a smile somewhere behind this wall of fashion materials. And I managed to find out just how appreciative she was of my answer. As I walked, she fell behind to meet me behind the tower of cloths, thimbles, sequins and feathers and levitated some of my bags out of the way so I could see where I was going.

This kid. ALL OF MY LOVE!

Of course that love didn't last very long as I ended up smashing my face into a wooden pole of a vendor's display venue, causing me to drop everything I was carrying. I don't know how Spike managed to do things like this. Guy's got some major peripheral skills.

As I finished picking up all the dropped items, Rarity finally stopped to check back on me. Luckily, Sweetie and I managed to pick up all of the items from the ground before she could see. The older unicorn smiled as she motioned to me and her younger sister to move along. She and I sighed collectively in relief.

"That was a close one." I mumbled as I started walking again.

"Yeah. Rarity would've killed you if you had gotten a single thing dirty."

Don't remind me. "You don't say?"

We finally managed to reach our destination. As Rarity opened the doors to the boutique, she looked at me and Sweetie Belle and pointed next to the door. "Just leave everything in that corner over there. I'll get to it when I get back. Sweetie Belle, I want you to head out to Sweet Apple Acres and meet up with Applebloom.

I almost dropped the bags I was carrying as I heard her instructions to her little sister. "Uhhh, don't you think she needs some-"

"Supervision? Unlike you, I can actually trust my little sister to take care of herself. She has proven it time and time again that I am not needed to watch over her. She's very capable of going across town and even on the train on her own."

A society where it's so safe that even foals can waltz around the place without too much adult supervision? Yep, I'm officially ashamed to call myself a human. What the hell, humanity? Step your shit up.

"What about you?" Sweetie Belle asked as she opened the door to make her way out.

"Nondis and I have but one more place to go. Now run along."

Sweetie Belle nodded to her older sister and looked to me. "I guess I'll see if you're available sometime later. You're gonna love being a Cutie Mark Crusader, even if it is for a day."

"Sure thing." I answered as she wrapped her tiny little hooves around my legs, giving me her best hug.

While she galloped off, Rarity walked beside me. "You know, you're really good with kids."

That's because children are more pure in mind than our adult counterparts. Even when I was in the human world, I was known to have a thing for kids... NOT THAT KIND OF THING! But I worked well with kids easier than I could with people my own age. I guess the paradigms of wanting to be the 'in-crowd' have yet to develop and they're more focused on being friends more than anything. Of course there are the few bad-asses that get in trouble, but I am comfortable when it comes to dealing with those half my own age.

In truth, I guess you could say that I was still holding on to my inner child.

"Alright." Rarity stepped forward, making her way down the street once more. "We have one final stop to go to. If you want to come with me, then I would greatly appreciate it."

I was more than prepared to take on anymore of her baggage that she wasn't willing to carry on her own. But there was one thing I was completely unprepared for. The one thing that I knew in my heart that I was never going to do nor attempt to do. But yet, I am here right now and completely baffled by the reason of my being here.

That's right. I'm here at the motherfucking spa.

"Two for the deluxe package, please."

There were two spa ponies that stared at me with childhood curiosity glamouring in their eyes. A third was behind the counter, still speaking with Rarity. "Okay. I would assume that it would be for you and your... companion?"

What was she implying?

"Yes! He's managed to pull off a few errands for me, so I'm rewarding him for his troubles."

"Well then. You already know where to go, ma'am."

The other two ponies who were the exact opposite color schemes of each other still prodded and poked me with their hooves. Rarity cleared her throat, grabbing their attention. "You two can poke and prod him as much as you like when we get into the massage parlor."

The two ponies squeed with bright smiles as they dragged me from both sides into the hallway. One pony pulled my hand from in front while the other pushed me from behind.

These two were a little too eager to get their hooves on me.

An hour and a half had passed since our admittance into the spa and only minutes have passed as we sit in a therapeutic mud bath. It seemed that Rarity requested that we'd share a mud bath together for the sake of getting to know a little more about me. Though why she chose the mud bath, I will never know.

"Doesn't this feel absolutely divine?"

Hell, I wasn't complaining. Far from it. "It does. It's a rather nice change of pace from the hustle and bustle of our earlier pursuits."

Rarity continued to rest on her side of the bath while I still felt a bit uncomfortable due to the fact that I could feel so much mud in places where the sun didn't have a chance to shine on.

"You know... I actually told a little fib on my part."

I looked back to Rarity, who was still looking to the ceiling. "What fib?"

"About Spike being required to help Twilight."

"Actually, I can kinda see her needing the little guy's help." I noted as I thought more on what all Twilight may have had to do that piled over from yesterday.

"Nondis, dear, I think you fail to realize who you're talking about. This is Twilight Sparkle, former student to Princess Celestia. She lives her life by the schedule. If there's anything she would need Spike for, it's to probably hold a checklist."

Well then. I guess that means that Princess Twilight is very capable without Spike. But that still leaves the question. "So why didn't you invite Spike along with me?"

She sighed as she turned to me. "Have you gotten to know Spike?"

I knew that he had some sort of admiration towards her. "He likes you, doesn't he?"

"Yes, but I fear that he does too much."

This was a subject that intrigued me. "Go on."

"Spike is sweet. He's one of the best assistants a pony could ask for. It's just that since Twilight's been living in the castle, he's been using the other assistants to take his place."

"So he could spend some time with you."

"Precisely. I know that I've had crushes on other colts and stallions and often times, he's been there. He understands that he and I are friends and will be nothing more than that... but..."

She removed the cucumbers from over her eyes and looked back to me. I just looked at her. "But?"

"But lately, he's been a bit possessive over me. I mean I really do appreciate it, but it's gotten to the point where I can't even find a date."

So that explains his aggression towards me. I was taking time away from him and he didn't like it because he felt that the time she spent making clothes for me could've been free time for the two of them.

"Have you tried talking to him about it?"

"I... I just don't want to hurt him. He's still a child after all."

I guess it's time for me to pull out the podium and start preaching again. "I think you should talk to him about it. I know that it will hurt him if you do, but think of how much more damage would be caused if you don't confront him sooner than later."

"I really do appreciate what he does for me."

"Do you like him?"

"Well... no and yes."

And I'm lost here. "Care to explain?"

"I mean... If Spike was a bit older, then I would be genuinely interested in him. He'd be a great show of interest. But considering that he wouldn't even be able to... satisfy me in his current state and wouldn't be able to until I was an old mare, then I know where my feelings for him end. Friendship is the only way I can consider myself close to him, because I don't want him to fall in love with somepony that he could no longer have when he became of age."

"At what rate do dragons age?"

"To put it in context, he's been like that since Twilight hatched him almost ten years ago. And he wouldn't reach maturity until somewhere around fifty years from now."

A love realized but unable to bloom because of the sands of time prevents them from doing so. Ouch. "So Spike is-"

"Still a child and will be until I have grown old and my bones are naught but dust in a frail shell."

That was a painful truth. But it was one that still needed to be out in the open before it was too late. "So... you still won't tell him?"

Rarity looked back to the pool of mud below. "I'm not sure. I just want to be strong enough to tell him."

"Why do you want to be strong enough to tell him?"

"Because I might just cry before I could finish. I can't fall in love with him, no matter how much I do love him. I just want to be strong enough to say to him that we can never be and tell him why. I know he will experience a deep pain that cuts beyond anything he's ever experienced. Even though dragons have thick scales, I have come to realize that the scales over their heart are really the strongest, yet the most brittle."

Things between Spike and Rarity were already complex as it was outside of context. Now I had realized just how hard it was. She needed someone to love in place of what she couldn't show her affection for. Spike would age past a thousand years, Rarity is questionable to make it past eighty.

I really didn't wanna stay on this subject for long. This was really killing the vibes. "So, what are you doing tomorrow?"

"I'm going to be sewing up some of those supplies tomorrow for an important client in Canterlot. I'm afraid that my schedule is locked up tomorrow."

"Oh... Well, let me know when you need some help."

Rarity faintly smiled at me before replacing the cucumbers over her eyes. "I guess I might summon you for your measurements."

"Again?"

"I do need to see if your measurements have changed. Each time you show up, I find myself tweaking something here and there."

I couldn't help but to smile at her. To know that she cared for me was something that I deeply appreciated. "Rarity... can you take off those things for a sec?"

She rose back out of the mud, looking to me as she telekinetically moved the cucumbers out of the way. "Yes."

"I really wanna say... thank you. Thank you so much for everything that you do. You don't have to do it, but you do it anyways."

I think I might have switched the faucet on because tears had started to form in Rarity's eyes. She jumped out of the pool of mud, came over to me and clenched me tightly as she whispered in my ear. "Your gratitude is more than enough for payment."

Is it bad that I find myself wanting to stay here, just because of the friendships I've made thus far?

They say that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. They say that women put the devil himself under their feet so that they can stand eye to eye with a man before she tears him down. They say that the world will tilt on it's ass if all the women of the world decided to wage a war on men.

I have one thing to say: That's not entirely true. Some women are earnest in their dealings, they can be patient and willing to cooperate with you just as long as you are willing to cooperate with them. True, there are those who can become so wrathful that they could tear down the world around them and those who's logic can make as much sense as the sky being green and the grass being blue. But as long as there are others who are willing to negotiate, then this absurd theory can remain what it is: a theory.

I like it here. I really do. I almost feel as if I can actually belong here. But I know that I have a family waiting for me back at home. I have a friend that I really need to apologize to. I have a world of difference to make when I get back.

But that doesn't mean that I wanna leave now. I may just want to stay here a little longer.

Chapter V

There are times where I look at my current circumstances and ask myself: Am I willing to leave here? Am I really going to leave this perfect little utopia for the place that shuns my very existence? What can I say to convince myself that I'll be making a mistake if I go back? What's to prevent me from staying?

If I may confide in fate, I hope that I may be able to stay here. But realistically, I need to go back.

I didn't belong here.

A month later, I find that my errand time was consumed by a grand total of nine mares. I have a group of magical, talking equines who consider me as a friend and a set of three of their younger siblings, of whom I've grown fond of seeing from time to time.

...IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!

I've grown close to some of them, even as far as sharing some very personal feelings with them. I know that it's been four months since my arrival and I've managed to get some rather close time with three of them, of which I can connect to on a more personal level. Rarity and I spent some time together at the spa and discussed some of her issues with her seeking of romance. Pinkie Pie drags me along whenever she has a party or whenever she wants to do something fun. And Twilight, who pretty much provides me with a roof over my head, food to fill me up and an ear to listen to me complain about how I missed my wifi and daily browsing of youtube for abridged series'.

Yet in my time here, I've never really gotten a chance to interact with Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Applejack on a more personal level. My reason for not being around Fluttershy is because of Discord being an annoying fuck who didn't mind rearranging my body parts like a child with a Mr. Potatohead toy. Rainbow Dash is too fast for me to keep up with and she's always in the air, so I couldn't stay around with her long enough to have a conversation. And as far as I know about Applejack, she likes apples... That's it.

Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo are entirely too young for me to even get into that kind of deep emotional bonding with. And with four more months to go before I would make my leave, I don't think I would even find the time to get to know more about them...

Well... that is until today.

A rapid knocking sound on my door disturbs me from my usual sleep-in time. The recently installed grandfather clock on the other side of the room ticked as the time read 9:23 in the morning. As I walked up to the door and turned the handle, a powerful force shoved the door directly into my face, causing me to fall on the seat of my boxers.

"Nondis! Hey we really need you to-" And in an instant, Rainbow Dash saw that I was busy rubbing my nose, where the door just so happened to greet me with a good-morning kiss. "Heh heh... Sorry."

Massaging the afflicted area, I waived her off. "I'm fine. Go on ahead."

Rainbow Dash, still suspended in the air as she usually does, rushed over to get me off of the ground. "Okay, like I was saying, me and Applejack really need your help with something."

Right about now, I'm puzzled at the mere thought of Applejack and Rainbow Dash, the two most athletic ponies I know, asking my scrawny ass for some help with anything at all. Well, don't judge a book... "Okay. And what would that something be?"

Instantly I can feel Rainbow Dash tugging at my arm, trying to get me out of the room. "Me and Applejack need a judge to keep score of a little competition we're doing today. We're trying to decide on which one of us is the better athlete. Applejack recommended Big MacIntosh, but I knew that he would be so biased to her. So I voted for Scootaloo."

Really, a kid who admires everything about you and what you do to judge a competition held between you and someone else and you're complaining about the judging being fair? Kettle, meet Pot. Both of you are black and have a nice coat of teflon to prevent anything from sticking, such as ass-kissing judges. "Really, you chose her?"

"Well don't blame me, she wanted to rig the competition in her favor! So I'd thought that I'd fight fire with fire."

To kill a fire, you could just start an even larger fire next to it. Creates more smoke, cuts the oxygen and snuffs the flames right on out. But hey, there is always that risk that the two flames could just conjoin and create an even larger blaze. Nope, nothing wrong with that idea. "Uhhh..."

"So, with that being said, we decided on Twilight, but figured that she was busy with princess stuff. Then there was Spike, but he was too busy helping out Rarity with some shopping today. So that lead us to the next pony in line."

She said pony, so that immediately disqualifies me. Going back to bed now.

"So will you do it?"

I rolled my eyes. "I thought you said 'the next pony', not the next person."

"Whatever. You helping us or not?"

Well, to be perfectly honest, I was actually free today. And with Twilight being busy with some important paperwork, Fluttershy tending to her pets and Rarity out shopping for materials, I guess I can commit myself to a little entertainment. Besides, there's nothing to do here except eat, sleep and cut a nasty fart, only to blame it on a nearby guard. So with that being the case... "Sure. I guess-"

"GREAT! Now hurry up!"

Instantly, Rainbow just leapt behind me and started to push me like I was a dolly down the hall, ignoring any protests I may have had at the moment. "But Rainbow-"

"No time! We gotta go, now!"

As the cyan pegasus carted me onward, I started to receive some odd looks from some of the guards and servants in the castle. I am well-aware of why. "Rainbow Dash-"

"We don't have all day! We really need to get to Sweet Apple Acres right now!"

As I continued to fight against her, making things a little more difficult, Rainbow and I managed to catch the nearest royal patrol, complete with princess in tow.

"Will you listen to me?" I groaned while I did my best to get her attention.

"Only when we get to Sweet Apple Acres! But right now, I need you to-"

"RAINBOW DASH!" Twilight shouted as she noticed what was going on, catching the hard-headed mare off-guard.

Shaken up a bit, Rainbow turned her attention to Twilight. "Hey Twilight, I hope you don't mind me taking him someplace."

I could clearly see the princess turning a bright shade of red as she looked away from me. "WELL CAN YOU AT LEAST WAIT UNTIL HE PUTS ON SOME CLOTHES!?"

"We don't wear clothes!" Rainbow Dash argued, hoping that it would get me out the door sooner. "He wouldn't need them anyways."

Twilight had started to explode back at her. "Well maybe he would like to wear something decent rather than what he has on now."

II PAUSE

Oh... one thing about Equestrian society before I continue on. Clothing in Equestria is seen as either very classy or very promiscuous. If a mare was to wear a dress, then she could either be perceived as a member of a sophisticated circle or one who is looking for a mate. The thing about this society is since the population, in general, is often in the nude, no one would bat an eye at you. There's practically nothing that a colt hasn't seen from any other mare while walking down the street, but add a pair of socks or a skirt and the imagination of those little guys really starts going.

Now let's say that you were a mare.

If you put on something as simple as socks, it's considered as suggestive wear. It hides the hooves and it does add to the visual appeal, if wearing the correct colors. If a mare was to wear sweats, it tended to place an emphasis on the shapely curves of their flanks, often giving the perception that they were sporting more junk than their trunk could store. Now if you were to wear just underwear... well, you were pretty much asking for it. If you wore a ribbon at the base of your tail... baby lock the doors and turn the lights down low.

Now... Enter me, a male human in Equestrian society, wearing nothing but a white undershirt and snug (yet very comfortable) boxer-briefs...

Yeah, just gonna let that sink in for a bit...

...You done? Great.

So the thing is that all of these ponies are seeing me wear something, in their culture, that would be considered as intimate apparel. To them, this was a page out of Victoria's Secret. Add a ribbon to my inner thigh and I'm practically saying 'sex me right now'.

Well kids, I hope you learned something new. So now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

► PLAY

Back into the present, Rainbow Dash looked back to me and realized that I was very much underclothed. And while other mares in the hall smirked and giggled at my rather questionable appearance, The cyan pegasus jumped off of me without a moment's notice and snickered as she turned away from me. "Sorry, Twilight. I guess I was in a bit of a rush."

"You think!?" The purple princess shouted as she clenched her eyes shut, turned to me and teleported the both of us back into my room.

For the most part, I am still uncomfortable finding myself removed from one place to another via magical transportation. And the initial flashes were a bit warmer than what I was used to.

When we managed to get back into the room, Twilight levitated the a set of clothes from within my dresser drawers and threw them at my face, urging me to hurry up and get changed. Thought it was rather obvious that her curiosity was very much overwhelming her sense of modesty as she took quick glances at me before turning away in a rosy blush.

"Hey Twilight." I called out to her.

"There's no need to say anything. Just hurry up."

I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly as I started to take off the old shirt and make my way to the shower. After about fifteen minutes, I walked out the bathroom to see Twilight petrified in place. Still looking away from the direction I stood in. As I started to grab some underwear from my night drawer, I caught a quick glimpse of her wings unfurling on their own as well as curious eyes resisting the temptation to glance my way.

Much to my relief due to the fact that I was very much nude.

As I slipped my fresh pair of boxer-briefs on, I could easily tell that something was causing Twilight some level of discomfort. I suppose she was just as nervous as I was when I had to walk around the town naked due to a wardrobe malfunction.

"Hey... Twi. Are you okay?"

"Are you finished!?" She asked me anxiously.

"No, not yet."

"THEN HURRY IT UP!" She shouted as she stomped her hoof to the ground.

As I reached over to the bed to grab some of my clothes, I could see something else that caught my eye. Something that seemed to glimmer a faint light. I looked to where Twilight stood and saw that it wasn't just her wings that started to raise out of their own accord, but her tail had started to lift as well.

Normally, as a human, I would find the thought of me staring at such an area around her tail to be repulsive and immoral. But in my case, I practically grew immune to any odd fetish since my introduction to the internet. So to see something like this, especially after so long of a porn drought, I could safely conclude that this was a bit of an owed treat.

Though I do question my existence now that I am practically waiting for her to lift her tail all the way.

Any glimpse will do.

No... I can't be thinking about these things! Twilight is my friend and I don't see her that way. Plus it's a violation of her privacy. I couldn't hope to live with myself if I looked.

But I didn't want to pass up on an opportunity like this. I mean-

"Uuuugh!" Twilight groaned restlessly, shuddering as she did.

And at the same time, her tail flicked to the side.

In the mere fraction of a second, I managed to see something that I wasn't supposed to see. My glimpse had now evolved into a full-on stare. As her tail bounced into the air, I was granted a full view of Twilight... her very essence. The very gift she saved for the one she would give herself to. As her tail fell back down and swished back to the other side, I managed to get a partial glimpse of her this time. Only it hid enough to tease me, yet revealed enough to satisfy me for a short while. But that wasn't the thing that made me fall into such a stare. I... was in shock.

"How close are you to being done?" Twilight asked me, snapping me out of my trance.

"I... Um... well... You see..." I bumbled and fumbled my words, failing to align them into a coherent thought. As I struggled to find anything to say, I heard a quick gasp, the clopping of hooves as she turned towards me. Her eyes widened exponentially as she backed away, cheeks burning red with embarrassment.

I was caught.

"What did you see!?" Twilight asked, jumping back as she magically grasped her tail and pulled it in between her legs. Worry was written across her face as she galloped towards me.

"I... I didn't-"

"What... did you see?" She asked me again, this time making sure that I was well within whispering distance.

"I didn't see anything!?" I lied. More like I saw the very gates that sealed a sinful pleasure between them. Two lavender doors that offered a small impression of pink. And then some.

"You're lying! What did you see?"

I felt myself being backed into a corner as she called out my obvious lie. Sweat started to pour from my forehead as she grew ever closer to me. But in miraculous timing, a knock sounded at the door. Obviously, it was a very disgruntled Rainbow Dash.

"ARE YOU DONE IN THERE!?"

I didn't care if I was underdressed a second time going out, I was going to leave this room, do what I had to do and forget everything that I just saw. That way when I get back, I should be somewhat safe. "COMING!"

As I hobbled into each leg of my jeans, I hopped over to the door. Finally getting everything situated, I slipped on my tennis shoes, bypassing the time it would take me to put on some socks. The sooner I left the room, the better.

I nearly broke the door wide open as I broke into a run for the front entrance of the castle. I didn't even care to look behind me... or rather I didn't want to.

I violated Twilight's privacy and was subjugate to whatever punishment she had planned for me when I got back. But for now, I needed to at least enjoy my freedom before I get sent off to the dungeon.

By the time I managed to make it to Sweet Apple Acres, I was completely winded from my run. Normally I would walk from one place to another, but today was an exception. I was not only trying to run away from Twilight, but Rainbow Dash instantly turned my escape attempt into a race.

A race that I lost in grand fashion.

About three minutes after Rainbow took to the sky, leaving me in the dust, I met up with her at the front gates of Sweet Apple Acres. While I stumbled to the nearest post, trying to catch my breath, I heard the raspy laugh of the cyan-blueish pegasus.

"Took you long enough, slowpoke!" She taunted as she flew from a cloud above me. Meanwhile I was too invested by the slight sting of sweat getting in my eyes. If I had known that I was going to get a workout today, I would've worn something a little less heavy.

"In... *huff* ...my defense... I can't... *wheeze* run as fast as equines... *gasp* nor can I fucking fly!" Valid points, no less.

"Um, sugarcube..." I heard a voice call out to me with a Tennessee-Southern drawl. "Ah don't mean ta be picky, but could y'all reword that?"

"What?" I didn't understand what she was going on about. I was using a decent sentence structure. It wasn't like I was talking in hip-hop lingo or lawyer jargon.

"Ah think ya meant ta say that sentence... minus a word."

Oh, for the love of... "Fuck?"

Applejack cringed at my use of the word. Apparently she had a thing against profanity. Didn't know that. "Yesh, that reeked somethin' fierce. Ah'll have ya know that this here is a family-friendly establishment n' that those kinds of words don't fit here."

"So I can't curse." As long as she says that I can't do it here. I can only try.

"Well, that n' not usin' that kind of language around me. It just ain't healthy for basic conversation."

Yes mommy. I won't say the bad words again. I swear. I wanna be a gwood wittle bwoy! "Okay... I can try."

"Well, that's a start. Now come on this way."

In all honesty, I was very much surprised over what Applejack just did. She was the least one I would've expected to censor dialog, considering how conservative she is. I guess she's more of a Straight-laced Sally than a Potty-mouth Peggy. Go figure. If anything, I was expecting her to be the one to curse up a storm, considering that she does a lot of manual labor and what-not. But I was more surprised from this unexpected result.

As we walked past the southern fields, I saw Big Mac, Applejack's older brother and Applebloom, her younger sister, laughing as they knocked the apples from the trees around them. They called it 'applebucking', I called it 'Sir Issac Newton's Interactive Discovery of the concept of Gravity'. Eureka.

As we moseyed along, Applejack waived to an elderly green pony who sat in a rocking chair, knitting some sort of bonnet. The elder pony, Applejack's grandmother by the name of Granny Smith, waived back to us as we made our way to the swimming hole out back.

When I first got here, I assumed that Applejack was the poorest of the six mares. As time grew on, I had realized that her homely appearance was more deceiving than anything. Everything she did was rich in character and wealthy in morals. But there was also the fact that she and her family owned everything west and north of the town, with the exception of the mountains. From the gate to the barn, it's about a one-minute walk. From the barn to the house, it's another one-minute walk. From the house to the back swimming hole is about an eight-minute walk. And every minute we spent walking from that gate, we stood yet another minute on Apple-family grounds. Even the swimming hole was registered as their property.

Well then again, this was the very establishment that founded Ponyville as a whole. Truth is, Ponyville is the expansion of Sweet Apple Acres.

So yeah, Applejack's family may not look it, but they are filthy... stinking... rich.

"Here we are." Applejack sounded off as we finally managed to settle down.

As I finally staggered over the final hill, I was granted with a view of a beautiful river with waterfalls cascading down the mountainside. The vast area was covered in a myriad of colorful wildflowers. Nothing but open plains. The air smelled so crisp and clean, free from the slightest touch of industrialization. And to the far distance, I could see another city hiding on the very mountainside. I couldn't believe that this was what they owned.

Man, the US Government would have a field day from trying to drill oil from this bitch. And the Wildlife Conservation Society would be on a ball to defend this place. This piece of land is a political battlefield.

As I looked below, I could see an assortment of games set up for what the two had planned for each other. Obviously, swimming was going to be a thing, there was also a volleyball match, an obstacle course, a game of horseshoes, tug of war, potato-sack racing, and a set of rope...

I have the distinct feeling that I'm not going to like what they're going to use that rope for. "Hey, Appplejack, what's with the rope?"

"That's for the three legged race. We gotta run from there to the top of this hill with our hind legs tied together." Rainbow answered.

"I also noticed that there was an extra set of rope."

"That there rope, is fer Rainbow Dash. To make sure that she doesn't use her wings." Applejack finished as she pointed to the rainbow-maned pegasus.

"I could beat you without my wings anyways! It's not like I need to use them to show that I'm obviously better than you."

And just like that, the competition begins.

About three hours later, the score remained even after all of the events that were planned out. As of now, they were on the last event of the competition. They were going to go on an all-out mini-triathlon. From the start of the race, they had to hop in sacks all the way from the top of the hill to the river, swim across to the other side and back and run back up the hill on hoof.

I think I might have to concede that one if I had to run it.

"Winner of this one will be called the 'Most Athletic Pony in all of Ponyville'." Rainbow Dash stated as she performed some stretches to get herself ready for the long trek ahead.

"So what would happen to the loser?" I asked. I was genuinely interested in the wager that they had going on. I honestly knew that there was much more than just a title with the win. There had to be some sort of consequence if one of them decided to lose.

"The loser has to wear a pretty, lacy gown with lots of fancy ribbons in their hair. An they'll wear it for the rest of the day. No exceptions."

Okay... It has come to my attention that these two are very much in dislike of anything frilly. Might as well have a ball with it.

"Right. We're ready now, so go on ahead and get this thing rolling." Rainbow said as she jumped into her brown sack while Applejack was still getting into hers.

"No. We need to wait on Applejack. It wouldn't be fair if you had gotten a head start." I said, pointing over to Applejack, was just now getting settled.

"Nah, I'm okay now. Thanks fer waitin'. But y'all can call this one out."

While Applejack managed to give me a simple smile, Rainbow Dash decided to give me a deadly glare for calling things fair. It was obvious that she really wanted to win this and was willing to get down and dirty to do it. But I wasn't going to allow that. So I needed to lay down some ground rules.

"Okay you two. I want a good, clean race. No bumping, no charging, no 'look-over-there', no tackles, no distractions and no cheating. If you want to win, you will win it fair and square. Got it?"

"I like the way that sounds." Applejack said as she readied herself to jump at the gun.

"Whatever, let's just get started already." Rainbow answered as she followed Applejack's example. The two stood side by side, with all hooves behind my right foot, an impromptu starting-line.

"Racers, on your mark!"

Applejack sank her posture even lower, looking as if she as was about to explode into the air.

"Get set!"

Rainbow Dash licked her lips as she eyed the river below. If anything, this was definitely going to be a close competition, considering that they've been tied up to this point. The wind brushed past the trees behind us, causing a few leaves to fall to the ground below. A long silence ensued as the breeze carried on. Finally, everything was at peace in comparison to the chaos of the past three hours.

And then, the wind stopped.

"GO!"

The two hopped and wobbled as they tried their best to move in the brown sacks down the hill. At first it seemed like Applejack had a decent lead, but suddenly Rainbow came lunging in from behind. And just when they started to get to the steeper portions of the hill, they found themselves stumbling and rolling rather than hopping.

I will admit that this first leg is funny as shit though.

"Yoohooo!"

I took my eyes off the race for a quick second to see who it was that called out to us. As I looked behind me, I could see Rarity walking up to me while Spike was trailing behind her with a large suitcase of materials. Apparently, she must be here for the dress.

"Hey Rarity." I called out to her, taking my attention back to the race, trying to make sure that there was no sign of foul-play.

"So what did we miss?" She casually asked walking beside me to observe.

"A lot, actually. These two have been going at it for three hours."

"Sounds about right." Spike muttered as he placed the heavy suitcase on the ground to sit on.

While the three of us watched the two finally come to a rolling halt at the edge of the river, I couldn't help but to suppress a laugh as we watched the two dizzily maneuver themselves to the water. Thankfully, neither one of them were disoriented to the point where they could no longer continue. Rainbow Dash was the first to hit the water however. If there is one thing I will credit her with is that she was very resilient. Perhaps she had an advantage with her being in the air so often.

But that didn't discourage Applejack in the slightest. Instead, it seemed to have strengthened her resolve. As soon as she hit the water, Applejack sliced through the water, catching up with Rainbow Dash, who was already making her way back. I suppose I gave too much credit to Rainbow Dash. Despite her early recovery and ability to hit the water first, it seemed that Applejack was the better swimmer. By the time Rainbow got to about half-way, Applejack had reached the other side and was already an eighth on the way back.

"Wow. These two are amazing." I stated as the two closed in to our side of the river.

"Those two have always been in a bit of a rivalry." Rarity stated. "If either of them becomes less than their stellar selves, then they wouldn't even considering a challenge that day."

"Not to mention that neither one of them likes to lose." Spike added as he kept a close eye on the two athletes.

In speaking of losing. "Say, on the off chance, that neither of them could win this event. What would happen then?"

Rarity giggled a bit as she held a hoof to her mouth. "Well, you'll have to see for yourself."

By that, I can safely assume that the both of them will be wearing dresses throughout the remainder of the day. And seeing their reactions when they have to do so will be a treat.

Oh I can't wait till the end of this race.

Luckily, I didn't have to wait for very long. As the two finally became neck and neck with one another, they jumped out of the river and started making their way back up the hill. I looked over to find a stick or something so that I could create some sort of finish line. But before I could do that, I managed to see two sticks on either side of me and Rarity placing a ribbon on the finish line.

No complaints there. As the two tried their best to resist the steepening grade of the hill, they trekked onward, striving to be the winner of this three hour competition. Spike stood on the side of the one pole while I stood on the other. Rarity stood far in front of the line, to avoid being tagged by any incoming competitors.

By now, both Applejack and Rainbow Dash were completely out of breath. Now that the two were close to finishing the race, it seemed that they gave everything they had to get here. Huffing and puffing, they strove to break the ribbon at the finish line. It seemed for a second that Applejack would take it by a nose, but then Rainbow propelled herself forward, notching past the burnt-orange mare. This carried on until both of them finally managed to break the ribbon together.

The result, in my opinion, was a tie. Which meant that both of them would have to wear dresses.

Rarity clopped her hooves to applaud the two athletes for a job well-done. As the two fell into a panting mess, Rainbow Dash was the first to speak.

"Ha! *gasp* I... win!"

"Maybe... you're still... a bit dizzy! *huff* I... won the race!"

"Actually, from my end," I interrupted. "It seemed that the two of you are actually tied."

"Tied?" The both of them questioned breathlessly.

Spike confirmed my sentiments. "Yeah! You two were awesome. But it is unfortunate that this race was the tie breaker. So nopony wins."

"Hey, Rarity, do you have enough material to do two dresses?" I asked smugly, hoping to see these two in frilly, lacy outfits. Unfortunately, my question was met with a response of laughter. Rarity chortled as she tried her best to hold her composure. "What? Is something wrong?"

"Nondis... dear..." She could barely hold herself together as she finally broke out in laughter. Spike soon followed suit as the Rainbow Dash and Applejack soon joined in.

Somehow I really didn't like where this was going.

"Hey, Nondis..." Spike said as he snickered. "So what color should we make your accents?"

AW HELL NO! "Wait... are you saying that-"

"In the event of a tie..." Rarity started as she pointed to Spike, who finished up as she went back into her laughing fit.

"The judge will be held to carry out with the losing consequence, no matter the request."

So in all reality, these two set me up. They had this long race and gave each other some matches so that they could coordinate a tie so that I would be the one who ended up with the losing bet. "RAINBOW DASH! APPLEJACK!"

Applejack recovered from her loss of breath incurred by her laughter and the race. "Hoooo boy, Ah love it when a plan comes together!"

Rainbow Dash was still busy laughing. "I love winning at life!"

Rarity gave me a sympathetic pat on the back "I'll love making a dress for you, Nondis dear! You're going to look absolutely fabulous."

Spike could hardly contain his excitement. "I'm gonna love to see how Nondis will look in his new dress."

Fury grows within me as I found myself the victim of an intricate, well-planned, well-executed prank. "I hate all of you."

Frustrated, I stand stark naked in the barn behind a changing curtain, unfortunately awaiting my new outfit. I was nowhere close to being excited for what I had to wear next. For all I care, those rules could've just been made up on the spot just to that I was the one who had to wear a dress. This is just downright unfair.

"It will only be a few, Nondis darling. Just keep your chin up." Rarity said as the whirring of a sewing machine hummed throughout the barn.

Why, Rarity? Why do this? Why would you betray me after all I did for you?

As I looked down to my lap, saying hello to my little partner-in-crime, I took a deep breath and called out to the mare across the screen. "Hey... I can understand the fact that I was going to be wearing a dress... but why did I have to take my underwear off?"

"Because I've made you a cute little dress to wear. And if you were going to be wearing this dress, then you might as well have the undergarments to match. I absolutely refuse to have you mismatch this outfit."

Yay, so I'm going full-trap today. Things can't get any worse. If I'm going to do this kind of thing, then at least let me shave my legs first. I don't want any leg hair to ruin this damn outfit, plus it'll be super-awkward.

What? This isn't the first time I had to wear a dress. And before you ask, it was for a fraternity. That story will come later.

"Et voilà! Your gown is ready."

"Hey, do you mind if I hold off on that for about fifteen minutes? I wanna make sure that I look somewhat presentable to wear this damn thing."

"If you're thinking about running away, then I can only tell you that it won't end well."

Well, there goes Plan B. "Actually..." Am I really going to do this? "I need some wax and a few strips of whatever you've got left." I'm really doing this. Why am I doing this? What is life?

In an instant, I catch a small jar of yellow wax and shortly after, a small basket of cloths remaining from her dress making. I gulped as I thought about how painful this was going to be.

"Take your time." Rarity muttered from behind the curtain.

I was going to need most of that time to mentally prepare myself to do this. After the first five minutes, I was finally able to open the jar of honey wax and spread it across a long strip of cloth that was as long as my entire foreleg, I laid it down on my leg and smoothed out the strip in hopes reaching every acre of hair on my leg.

Sweet manhood, I barely knew ye.

After a few seconds, I took a deep breath and pulled at the unwaxed end of the strip. If I believed in a higher power, I would be praying right about now. After a while of procrastination, I finally decided to cheer myself onward.

You can pull! You feel great! You! Can! Do! This!

Okay. I just needed to calm down... and strip this son of a bitch off of my leg. No pressure. Sure, it will hurt like a thousand fire ants ripping the skin off of my leg, followed by an intense burn that would resemble hot kitchen grease, but no pressure at all. I just needed to pull on three.

One...

Two...

*STRRRIIIIIK*

"FUCK!"

"Excuse me!? Did Ah just hear some unfriendly words in there!?" While my right leg felt like a bad case of sunburn, I could feel Applejack's scorn as well. "Meaning that yer the loser in this bet doesn't mean that y'all have to be such a poor sport about it."

"Sorry!" I whined as I loathed the next few strips that I needed to pull.

If that felt like hell on my foreleg, I can only assume that these inner-thigh hairs are gonna be a bitch to pull. Might as well get it all over with. The sooner, the better.

After about fifteen minutes of crying and waxing, the waxing taking about as much as two minutes all together, I finally threw on my penalty dress and the panties that went along with it.

At least the panties were better than the g-string that my fraternity had me wear during hell-week.

Finally stepping out from behind the curtain, I walked out on still-burning legs and stood before Rarity. As she gasped at my appearance, I nervously stood in place. "How... do I look?"

"Darling... I... You..." She seemed to be at a loss of words for the time being, only summoning up a body mirror and placing it directly in front of me.

I looked at myself and wondered why I looked like this. I couldn't explain it. I looked... I looked... just... so...

Faaabuloooouuus

No, but in all honesty, I look like a very convincing trap from the neck down. All I needed to do was fix my hair, throw a bow on it and hold a piece of toast with my lips and start saying the words 'onee-chan'. So in other words, I look kawaii as all fuck.

"Darling, you look absolutely criminal in that outfit."

Suddenly I felt a bit insecure as she said the word criminal. "So, I don't look okay at all?" I asked in a low tone, starting to feel a bit stupid.

Rarity shook her head and gave me a hug. "No, that's not what I'm saying! I'm just saying that if you were to to be held on trial for wearing something that wasn't designated to your gender... and for you to pull it off so well, then you'd be guilty as charged."

"So I look okay?" I asked, not really sure why I was genuinely worried about my appearance.

"In short, I've lost my confidence, as a mare, standing next to you."

I will say, Rarity sure knows how to sell a dress, even if it's on a guy. I can see why her business does so well.

"Thanks."

"No... thank you for being such a wonderful client."

I found myself laughing lightly at her response, my reason being is that she doesn't get paid anything to make clothes for me. At least, not that I'm aware of. But my laughter is cut short as she closes in on me.

"I mean it."

I look to her, seeing that she veers off to the side as she wraps her hooves around my neck, bringing me in for a long, tight hug. Initially caught off guard, I wrapped my arms around her to return the sentiment. She loosens up a bit, whispering in my ear.

"You're all that this fashionista could ask for in a client."

My eyes open wide as I feel the sensation of two moistened lips kissing me on my cheekbone, her touch, soft and tender as she pulled away slowly. Her lips seemed to have melted into my skin as she pulls away. They seemed to latch onto me as much as the strips I used just recently, only her sting was a pleasant one. A tingling sensation surged from my cheek on down my spine.

Even the panties I wore started to become even more uncomfortable than they already were as I felt myself becoming slightly aroused by the gentle touch of the seamstress.

As she released her hug, she slid off of me like water off of oil. Her hooves finally met with the ground, yet I could see that she was very much shaken from the action she took towards me. A light shade of pink graced her cheeks as she looked away from me bashfully. As she turned around, I found myself watching her movement as she left. She didn't walk with her usual prim and proper trot-step, but rather a subtle sway. I could tell she wanted to jump up and down, but we both knew that she wouldn't dare do it in front of me. As the distance between us grew, she started to speed up, almost galloping out of the barn, giggling all the while.

But as she made her way to the exit, I could see a smaller shadow standing by the door, watching her as she left. I knew that it was Spike, but I honestly didn't know how he had felt about what she did. I was too mesmerized by the swaying of her hips to even give it a thought.

At last, she and the young dragon had taken their leave. Now all there was that waited for me was two snickering mares that stood outside. I sighed as I readied myself to face the two partners in crime. Straightening out my dress, I decided that if I was going to walk out there, then I was going to wreck it like I was on the runway. Once again saying, if I was gonna be wearing this dress, then I might as well work it.

I finally stepped outside, gaining two boisterous laughs as Rainbow Dash and Applejack rolled around on the ground, barely holding back tears of pain. They looked at me and tried to pause long enough to say something, but failed miserably as they continued to laugh. It took them a full thirty seconds to finally get a word in.

"S-so..." Rainbow Dash began, out of breath. "H-how do you feel?"

"Y-ya feel p-p-pretty?" Applejack stuttered before going back into her laugh.

I responded with hand on my hip, a tilted head and a flicked wrist. "Don't be jealous because I look good. If you tried to wear this dress, the two of you would look like hot, flaming trash."

Instantly, the two mares stopped laughing and stared at me slack-jawed.

Whipping my arm in a Z formation, I launched my right hand to the air and snapped at them as I started to walk off. "Slay!"

Putting one foot in front of the other, I made sure to exaggerate my hips swaying as I worked the shit out of this dress. I strutted my way towards the castle in the setting sun. Bitches can hate, but they gotta look to hate though.

Step, 2, 3, 4. Work! Turn to the left. Work! Now turn to the right. Work, sashay, shante.

Finally making it back to the palace, I continued to strut my stuff until I reached the doors that lead to my room. Finally feeling the burn from my workout walk, I giggled at the fact that I had, for the first time, a clever comeback to an insult and said it without as much as a stutter. Despite my humiliation, I've managed to turn it into a win. At least my legs are silky smooth and I look, as Rarity would call it, criminal.

But there was one thing that definitely was in the back of my mind as I walked from one side of town to another with a big smile on my face. Is it possible that Rarity actually had a thing for me? I mean, did she? I understood that it was just a kiss on the cheek and that could mean anything at this point. But what she said to me about being her client, something about being all that she could ever ask for in one. I was completely lost.

Yeah, I was supposed to spend some quality time with Applejack and Rainbow Dash today, but I think I would have to catch them on a later date. For now, lets get myself out of these panties. My two-by-meat technology isn't going to function properly without the appropriate clearance. Looking either way, I opened my door and slid into my bedroom with as little sound as possible.

"Hello, Nondis."

My heart beats at a million miles a second. Clutching my chest, I stared back at the purple alicorn sitting on my bed, staring back at me with a stern expression.

At that moment I remembered what all had happened in here this morning. And that confidence from just recently had now subsided into fear. Twilight rose from her bed and walked to me.

"Hey, Twilight." I spoke nervously. "Sorry about that. I think I might've walked into the wrong room." That's bullshit because only I have the key to this room... except the landlord of castle, who is also the owner of said room. Dammit.

"That's a nice dress you're wearing. Who made it?" She asked, seemingly angry with the fact that I had started to fiddle with the door, hoping I could ease my way back out.

"Well... you know... I've gotten into a really embarrassing wager with Applejack and Rainbow-" The tumblers of the door clicked, finally letting me make my escape. But before I could even get a foot into the hall, I found myself transported to my bed on the other side of the room. I looked up to see the door closed once more and Twilight standing directly in front of me.

"You saw something this morning. I know you did."

I could understand her anger with me. I managed to catch a glimpse of something I shouldn't have. It was an invasion of her privacy and I am more than remorseful of it. "I didn't mean to! I swear!"

"What did you see!?"

There was no backing out of it now. She had me cornered. If I was to go into hiding, she'd know where I could and couldn't go. She knows this town like I know the back of my hand. And plus she could teleport to any place she so chooses at will. I might as well admit to her what I saw.

"What did you see?" She asked calmly, using her teleportation to stand directly over me, pinning me to my bed.

With a gulp, I finally confess.

"R... R-rings."

Twilight looked away from me with discomfort. I knew that she was angry at me now.

"Oh... You... weren't suppose to see those."

To my surprise, she sounded more sheepish than livid. I actually expected her to blast me with her magic or turn me into some sort of newt. But instead, she just climbed off of me and walked away.

"Twilight, look. I am so-OOOLY FUCK!"

As she stood in place, she pulled back her tail and showed me what I had gotten a glimpse of just earlier this morning. A lightly glazed set of purple lips, sealed off by a pair of silver rings. Twilight face ran red as she presented herself before me. "I guess you're probably wondering why those are there."

That and why you're so openly showing this to me. "Uh... yeah."

Flipping her tail down, she turns back to face me, trying her best to look at me as she explained herself. "The truth of the matter is... I'm abstinent. I've been this way since I was a foal. In fact, my rings were placed on me by my mom as soon as I was inducted into Princess Celestia's tutelage. The reason being is because I couldn't afford myself to bed stallions as long as I was the student to the princess."

I just nodded my head in agreement as she continued.

"See, the thing about these rings is that since I was also made princess, those rings were replaced by these rings instead. They're enchanted to soothe me whenever the estrus season starts. They also negate any surges of lust that are induced by the season. So... as you can guess, I've never been with a stallion... I mean, I've been with plenty of stallions as friends, and... one that... I had an interest in... but as far as going any further than a kiss... no."

Well, that's a lot of personal info. But that does bring up the question. "Can you remove them?"

"I mean, yeah! I can on my own. Whenever I want to or need to, whether it's for hygienic purposes or... for my special somepony. But mainly for the first reason."

"Then how about the second?"

Twilight looked away from me completely. "I've never had one. And I don't think I will."

"Twilight... I'm so-"

"But... It make me feel somewhat relieved that someone actually wanted to take a peek."

I'm so lost. "What?"

"Well, with my being a princess, stallions are scared to even approach me just for a casual conversation. There's no way that anypony would even look my way for something like that. "

"But what I did was an accident." I added.

"I know. But... just for a second... just tell me, am I... you know... attractive?"

The implications of that question left me scratching my head. "Define attracti-"

"Do I look appealing to the eye? Like if I was just without a title, I'm not a student of the princess, just plain me. If you were a stallion and you saw what you just did, would you... like what you saw?"

I have a boner and I don't even know why. "Well... yeah! I mean, hell yeah! You're sexy as-" Cutting myself off, I finally realized that that last part may have been a bit much. "I mean... Yes. You are very... attractive."

Twilight finally looked at me with a relieved smile. "Thanks. I asked because this was the first time a stallion has ever thought of me that way, or from what I was aware of. Though I'm pretty sure that my big brother may have a different view on the matter considering that he's Captain of the Guard."

"Yeah... But... can I change clothes now?"

Twilight blinked and instantly performed a one-eighty, making sure that I was out of her view. "Oh, sure. Go on ahead."

Okay. Now I know this is deliberate. Twilight showing me what she did just now, telling me why, staying in my room while I change clothes. "Um... Twilight-"

"Yes?"

And I've been meaning to know the answer to this question since this morning. "Why did you stay in my room while I was taking a shower?"

Twilight jumped at the moment my question left my lips. In mere seconds, she was transformed from a strong headed princess to a clumsy teenage girl. "Well, you... um... I... we..."

She couldn't even come up with a logical excuse. If she wanted to see anything, all she had to do was ask...

Wait a damn minute, different species asswipe! What the fuck are you even saying? All she had to do was ask.

Twilight suddenly showed a look of disapproval as she stared to something directly behind me. "Discord, I know you're there. Stop hiding in the window."

I turned around to see if the Draconequus was sitting in the window. All I could see was the vines from the castle and the late-evening sky. I turned back around to speak, but found myself alone in my room.

You know, that's the second time I've fell for something today that seemed convincing, at worst. While calling attention to the window, she waited until I looked away from her before teleporting to somewhere other than here. By the time I would've turned around, she'd be well out of the room before explaining to me why she was in here this morning. Especially if I had to take a shower and change clothes.

Clever girl.

Throughout my time here in Equestria, I've gotten to know many others and have befriended most of them. I found myself starting to fit into a society not of my own. Peaceful, light-hearted, caring. True, I haven't left Ponyville to find out about anything dark, sinister or dangerous, but I do know that the society here is an improvement over the one that I have come to know. Besides, where else can I go waltzing around town with a dress and no one even defame me for it? I can't even find myself being angry with those circumstances because I'm too busy enjoying myself.

But that doesn't mean that I enjoy wearing dresses. Let's not get that confused.

So yeah, there are times where I look at my current circumstances and ask myself: Am I willing to leave here? Am I really going to leave this perfect little utopia for the place that shuns my very existence?

I think I should reword that question... This place is far from perfect. It's not exactly a utopia either. In truth, even the finest of stones are not without cracks.

It seems that with recent developments, I find myself asking more questions than I'm finding the answers to. I mean, the mares I've gotten to know aren't the problem. They're awesome. But as far as Pinkie's concerned...

...I'm not so sure that this world is perfect anymore.

Author's Note

Okay. Now that I've managed to get to this point, I've finally seen for myself the drastic improvements I have made when it came to my writing. Originally, this was the plotline of an earlier fanfic by the name of Friendship Is Eternal (Torment). However I changed up the execution and the style. The comedy remained the same (for the most part).

I wrote this story as a means to take note of my first story, it's initial failure, what I did wrong and what I needed to improve upon. So when I said I was trying something different, I was meaning that I wanted to compare myself to myself when I first started. That sounds like an ego-trip, but I'm doing it for myself so that I can see where I've done well, what I still need to work on, etc.

This isn't the halfway point yet, but I feel as if I should thank everyone who fav'd and liked the story. As of now, this story has +350 favs and I will do my damnest to make sure that my writing improves.

So thanks for the 350 plus some odd faves. This made my weekend. :rainbowkiss:

Chapter VI

Pinkamena Diane Pie, or Pinkie Pie for short, is an earth-pony mare with a pink coat and hot-pink mane and tail. She sported curly hair and large sapphire eyes, a small but cute little muzzle and a cutie mark of three balloons, indicating that her special talent was partying. But the main thing that defined her character was her smile.

That thing could damn near put the sun out of business thanks to how often she does it. For that smile to go away is something that's rather concerning. I couldn't find myself being in a room without her showing those pearly whites. Which led me to question, why did she smile so much?

How could she smile so brightly all the time? It's almost annoying.

"Non-non! Are you up!?"

I turn over in my bed as I looked to the clock across the room. It was still early in the morning, reading a time of 8:24. While I would normally complain about how early this was, I find myself not saying anything at all. Not after the sleep I just got. From yesterday's running around and strutting across the town, I ended up going to bed exhausted and slept like a rock.

So this morning, I felt fully energized. I really felt great this time around. No grogginess, no signs of feeling cranky, no desires of shoving my fist into someone's mouth. Though the morning tents have started to become much more frequent. And boxer briefs aren't very good at hiding hard-ons, especially with how they could snuggle against your crotch.

But I guess that's the price of comfort.

"Non-non?"

Yawning and stretching, I called back to the pink mare. "Yeah, I'm awake."

"Then open the door, silly! I can't talk to you like this."

That's right. When she wants to talk to you, she wants to be in your face about it. But I was more reluctant due to the fact that my dick was still at half-mast. I needed to put something on before I answered the door. So I threw on the nearest pair of jeans I could find as quickly as I could so that I could hide my daily morning salute from view. Pulling up a pair of black jeans with studded back pockets, I quickly buttoned them and ran towards the door and allowed Pinkie to see me.

"Took you long enough, Nonny!"

Oh, you have no idea of what I have to go through on a daily basis. I doubt you even have a clue. "Well, I do have to put on a pair of pants to avoid any unwanted attention."

"Oh! And in speaking of attention..." Her eyes beam-lined from my face to my crotch. "Morning, little Nonny!"

DAMN IT PINKIE! "Eyes up here."

The pink mare giggled and snorted as she looked back up to me. "Poor little guy, can't even say hello."

Really, this was getting annoying. "Pinkie!"

"What? Even he has to come out of his shell sometime."

"That's not the point. That's never been the point. The point is-"

Pinkie giggled as she gave me a playful nudge. "You know, you should really think about another color. Maybe pink?"

I am NOT wearing anything pink. "What are you talking about? What brought this up?"

"Well, I'm just saying. Besides, gray seems to be a really boring and dull color. No wonder why little Non-Non looks so depressed all the time."

Did she just call my dick depressed? Wait, that's not the question that I should be asking. It should be more on the boundaries of 'how did you know that my underwear is gray?' They could be blue and you couldn't even know.

Pinkie blew some air at the crotch of my trousers and much to my surprise, I caught a breeze. I looked down to see what was going on and much to my surprise.

Thar she blows. Sails ahoy and lowered by starboard bow. Catching a mighty good breeze, captain.

"PINKIE! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT MY FLY WAS DOWN?" I asked red-faced while I covered my shame and zipped up my pants.

"What? Don't you think the little guy needs a bit of fresh air?"

I swear if this mare was teasing me to just fuck her into the ground in my sexually-deprived state, I might consider accommodating her. Different species or not.

"Pinkie, why do you torture me?"

"I don't mean to. I just like to have a little fun with you from time to time."

What kind of fun, if I may ask? "Um... Clarify?"

"Not that kind of fun, Nonzie." She answered with deadpan. "You're cute, but I really don't see myself that close to you... Not yet, anyways."

What the shit? She is such a tease! "Okay. So what are we doing today?"

Pinkie bounced into my room and pranced around as she started to talk. "Well, my sisters Inkie, Blinkie and Maud decided to pay me a visit tomorrow afternoon. So I needed to go to the town and get a few supplies for a party I'm planning to welcome the three into town."

And there's our bit of exposition for today. "So what kind of party did you want to plan? I know that you wanna do a welcome party, but what's gonna be the theme?"

"Well, I was thinking of something more rock related since my sisters came from the rock farm in Macintosh Hills. So I was thinking something more on the line of... I got it! The title of the party will be called: Fifty Shades of Gray!"

FUCK NO! "Um..." I swear to the God that I don't believe in, if I find so much as one vampire or one werewolf at this party, so help me... "Do you have a better name for this party?"

"Well, I was thinking about calling it Rocking Out in Ponyville, but-"

"Let's go with that!" Because I refuse to go to a party under the title of a fanfiction of an overrated piece of literature that managed to shell out even worse movies. That is not going to happen.

"Well... Okay! Whatever you say, Nons!" Pinkie found an interest in jumping in my bed as I started to grab some of my clothes and head for the shower. "I'll be right here waiting for you."

Do equines have any regard to the concept of privacy? I think they should if they can have separate bathrooms in a restaurant. "Pinkie... Get out."

"Aww..." She droned. "But I just wanted to see-"

"O! U! T! OUT!" I screamed, stomping my foot against the ground and pointing towards the door.

Pinkie giggled as she bolted out of the room, closing the door behind her. Meanwhile, I was left shaking my head as I thought about how dense she could be at times. But then again, her annoying the shit out of me was practically a way of life that I've gotten used to.

Pinkie was annoying, but she still wasn't as bad as Spongebob.

Oh God. I really hope he's not in this universe.

Later that morning, we spent quite some time at Sugarcube Corner to help Mr. and Mrs. Cake out with some orders. It seemed that they managed to draw in a huge early-morning crowd that day with the introduction of their newest treat: the lemon-meringue cupcake, deduced from their formula of the Marzipan-Mascarpone-Meringue-Madness, or MMMM for short, and shrinking it down to a third of the ingredients as well as a fraction of the size. It went without saying that the supply was far too little in relationship with the demand. We couldn't even get breakfast out of the way because we were so busy serving up food.

"Nonny, we need three more orders for lemon-meringue!"

"Got it!"

While Pinkie was busy jotting down orders, Mr. Cake and I was busy doing what we could to get the orders filled out. While I was skilled somewhat in the art of cooking, I was still somewhat inept in the art of baking sweets. Luckily, most of that process went to him instead. My job was more focused on what I could do on the decoration end.

That's where I had him beat. Where he could only decorate one cupcake at a time with his mouth or with both his hooves, I had the advantage of two hands, both capable of decorating the sweets at double the speed and almost three times the accuracy of what he could normally do. I guess hands have their major upsides when it came to stuff like this.

As soon as I finished with one tray of cupcakes, I placed them on the counter, ringing a bell and shouting out to the two mares outside. "One dozen, baked and dressed!"

As I'd made my way back to the dressing station, Mrs. Cake, or Cup for short, ran to the counter and grabbed the steaming goods. And in about fourty-five seconds, I managed to get yet another dozen cupcakes dressed and ready for takeout. Landing the next batch out on the counter, I ran into Pinkie as she held another ticket. This time, she smiled widely at me as she laid the ticket on the counter.

"Just a few more, Nonzie! I need about five dozen more so we can finish up!" She said as she trotted back to the front counter.

"You got it!"

While I started to make my way back to the dressing station, Mr. Cake, or Carrot for short, nodded his head and smiled as I started on the freshest batch of cupcakes he made.

"Gee, mister. You sure do work fast."

The small amount of praise boosts my spirits to a high after not being able to eat breakfast that morning. I nodded as I continued to dress the sweets with the meringue frosting. "Thanks. I try to make sure that I'm keeping up with you guys."

Carrot laughed a bit before turning back to the oven. "Actually, I'd like you to slow it down a bit. Any faster than this, you'd have to start dressing cupcake batter."

"Well we'll just have to keep things moving." I noted as I started to make my way to the counter with the newly dressed cupcakes.

Just as I laid the new batch down, Pinkie trotted into the kitchen. "Hey, Mr. Cake, you mind if I work in here for a bit?"

"Sure, Pinkie! I'll take over where you left off."

Carrot hurried from the stove and made his way to the outside of the kitchen, picking up the notepad that Pinkie held just previously. Meanwhile, Pinkie started filling up the pans full of cupcake batter. She seemed to be a lot faster than he was, being that he poured his in at a slower and more reluctant pace. Instead, she lined up all the empty pans and filled them with the paper cups before filling them up with batter as if it was in an assembly line.

Had it been her back here instead, I was going to look and feel like hell when we finished.

"How you doing over there?"

I stood on the side of the counter, legs crossed as I leaned over and shrugged. "Waiting on you."

She blinked with surprise. "You've finished all five of the orders?"

I shook my head. "No. I meant that I'm still needing to finish up four, but they haven't gotten out of the oven yet."

"Oh. Well keep up the good work!" She praised me with a smile.

As the minutes ticked by, Pinkie pulled out two more batches of cupcakes and in a minute and thirty seconds, I managed to dress both sets and have them out on the counter. I walked up to the counter and met up with Cup.

"Oh dear, you and Pinkie really make a good team back there!"

Feeling a little cocky, I touted my nose in the air a bit. "Yeah, we're okay, I guess."

"Do you know if Pinkie's busy? A young colt has been wanting to see her."

"Well-" My answer became interrupted with a pink hoof to the lips.

"Tell him that I'm gonna be really busy back here."

"Well, if you say so." Cup said as she walked back out to the front counter.

Pinkie removed her hoof from my mouth and sighed. "I guess we might not have time for breakfast after all."

I looked at the clock on the wall, reading that there wasn't much time left before the elevensies crowd. It seemed that the breakfast shift was definitely done for the day. "Yeah. Looks like it's all over for that."

"Sorry, Non-Non." She muttered gloomily.

"It's all good."

Pinkie started to look towards the back door and smirked as she looked back to me. "Hey, as soon as we finish, why don't we go on ahead and start our day together?"

"Playing hookie?" I asked, dumbfounded that she was willing to skip a day of work.

"Of course not, silly! Besides, I'm not even on the clock today. I just come here and help when I have free time."

Dedicated to her job because it helps makes others happy. That's what I'm assuming is gonna be her reason. "Howcome? You have the day off."

"I live here. This is my home. Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Cake owns the property, but I do have the entire place for rent. Whatever revenue I make on my daily shift, it goes back towards them. And if my tips are good, which they usually are, then I can plan parties. I also do catering and party-planning as well, so I do have a few bits coming in with each party I throw."

Doing something you love and getting paid for it. That's what I call a win at life. "Sounds pretty cool!"

The oven timer finally rang and Pinkie bolted over to remove the last two dozen cupcakes out from the sweltering heat of the oven. As she placed both in the dressing area, I readied myself to apply the frosting to the sweets. But she halted me and grabbed a bag of frosting so she could help me out.

"First to finish decides where we go out to lunch!"

Sounds good to me. "You're on!"

I pulled my bag up and started to push against the back end, priming a bit of frosting out of the tip. She looked at me and looked back to the bag she held before counting down.

"One-two-three-go!" She rushed out as she started to dress a cupcake. Despite her attempt to catch me off guard, I managed to clear out one row. I paid no attention to her as I tried my best to finish all of them as quickly as I could, but also making sure that they were somewhat presentable.

"DONE!" I shouted as I triumphantly slammed the bag on the counter.

I became satisfied of my work and, even more so, my speed. But as I saw one full tray of decorated cupcakes, I looked over to see just a single one dressed of twelve. But before I could even ask, she started to draw something on the side of my face with her bag.

"Hey, cut that out!"

"Aww! I wanted to draw a smiley face and now you ruined it!"

I wiped the frosting off the side of my face. "I thought we were racing."

"I know. But then I started to wonder how you'd look with frosting on your face!"

Typical Pinkie. "We still have to decorate those other ones." I noted as I licked the frosting off of my fingers.

"Ooh! I wanna taste!" She shouted as her tongue lapped at the frosting still smudged on my cheek.

"Eww... Slobber." I moaned as I tried to push her off, to which she retorted with a giggle.

"You know, you won the race. So that means you decide where we get to go to lunch!"

She must've gave me the race on purpose so she'd make up the fact that we missed breakfast. That's what I'm going with. "Okay. But I still don't know the town quite like you do. So I'll let you choose."

"Okie-dokie lokie!"

As she started to make her way to the back door, I tugged at her tail, trying to point her back to the pan of unfinished cupcakes. "Buuuut, not before you finish your cupcakes first."

"Sure thing." In almost an instant, she had the unfinished tray and the dressed cupcakes at the takeout counter, fully prepped and ready to go. All of which was done in what I perceived was a pink blur. She didn't even give my jaw a chance to drop as she pulled me along the way, out the back door and into the streets of Ponyville, where we would spend the rest of our day.

After a decent lunch and a quick break, Pinkie dragged me to the open market on the southern end of town. She seemed so cheerful as she sprang towards the first vendor to buy the confetti. While she gleefully hummed, I watched from behind as she approached the kiosk.

"I'd like the super-spectacular-surprise-size please."

The mare behind the desk pulled out a large bag of confetti, just about the size of Pinkie Pie's body and laid it out on top of the counter. "Big party coming up?" She asked casually.

"You know it!" Pinkie cheesed brightly as she motioned me to come over and help.

"So what's the big occasion?" The vendor asked as she exchanged the goods for bits.

"Actually, my sisters are coming to town! AHH!" She cheered as she became just as giddy as usual, if not more. "I can't wait until they actually get to meet my friends for the first time. And they'll get to meet Inkie and Blinkie for the first time. And Maud already knows them. So now I know that my big sisters will meet up with my best friends, and they'll both end up becoming friends like they are with Maud!"

I can see why she was so excited now. Her focus was trying to get her sisters and her friends to come into one gathering. She wanted the two parties to get to know each other. And certainly with the fact that Maud and the others were already friends, I guess it does make sense how the other two siblings could also become 'in like' of the other girls.

And then parties happened.

"So, have you heard the rumors?" The vendor asked Pinkie.

"What rumors?"

"Well, from what I heard, you have an admirer."

Pinkie blew air from her lips at the thought of her 'admirer'. "Well, as long as he's willing to treat me right, then we'll be okay."

Where did that come from? 'Treat me right?' That sounded almost... nah. She's probably referencing that one guy who slept with her and never called back. Fucking bastard.

"Well, I hope that you have a good day, Pinkie!"

"Thanks a bunch! Be back if I need anything else!"

While the vendor waived back at me and Pinkie, I started to carry the large bag of confetti back to Sugarcube corner as she continued her shopping.

"Nonny, where are you going!" She asked me, stopping me in my tracks.

"I can't carry too much with this in the way, I have to bring it back to Sugarcube Corner so I can help you shop some more."

"You'll be fine. Besides, I won't have you carrying too much."

Something tells me that I'm going to regret if I have to stop somewhere. Cause if we stop, I'm putting this bag down. "Are you sure?"

"I'm positive!" She nodded as she pulled on my arm, directing me towards another kiosk. The next vendor was for balloons and streamers.

Despite my time here and my adaptation to the daily commute of the market, I felt that this amount of venue-hopping was absurd. I know that there's a separate vendor for each because each pony specialized in creating the goods that they sold, but at least they could pool their resources into a superstore where we could just grab what we needed in one go. But then again, that's just the corporate outlook on things rather than the social outlook. At least here, we could see exactly who it is that makes our goods rather than confront a store and make a complaint if things don't function properly. Then there's the process of recall, shipping, all that other bullshit that I don't feel like explaining.

I already have to carry a big bag of shit. I am not going to exhaust myself further by going into details.

"Hey there, Pinkie! Got another party today?" The stallion behind the desk asked.

"No. It's for tomorrow!" Pinkie corrected. "Can I get the super-mega-amazingly-awesome-deluxe package?"

That's a mouth full. Do they really carry those sizes?

"Sure thing, ma'am!"

Pinkie looked back to me with a large smile, her teeth as bright as ever. I smiled back, despite my struggle to keep this bag from falling out of my grip. But suddenly, her attention seemed to look past me...

That's where her smile faltered for the first time today.

Despite her positive self, she managed to find something that didn't seem to click well with her. I turned around to see what it was, but all I could see was ponies walking across the street, carrying on their daily commute. Suddenly, Pinkie's voice caught my attention.

"Hey, do you think... you could just speed it up a teensy-bit? I really gotta get this stuff and go."

"Sure. But what's the rush? Party's tomorrow."

"Yeah, but you never know when you need to throw a party a day in advance." Pinkie said as she pulled out a sack of bits and counted out the amount to cover the price of the goods.

As the vendor finished gathering everything, she tossed the smaller bags of balloons and streamers to me as she dropped the bits at the counter. The pony behind the counter waived goodbye, but Pinkie was more focused on dragging me towards the next venue.

She still smiled at me, but this time I saw something that wasn't exactly her. I saw anxiety, fear even. She was scared of something and I didn't even know what it was. Her eyes even showed hints of it, though they were subtle. As she pulled me, I had noticed that her grip had gotten a little tighter. Even the speed at which we walked was a bit faster. Pinkie was either hiding something that she didn't want me to know about or she was trying to avoid something. Either way, this concerned me.

We had reached the third vendor for today. It seemed that this one was for the noisemakers. Among the kiosk, I saw an assortment of poppers, bells, whistles and shakers among other things. As she approached the counter, her greeting seemed shortened.

"Hey there. You mind if I get the largest pack of party favors you've got?"

The colt behind the counter smiled as he pulled out a rather large box of goods. "Sure thing, Ms. Pie! Will that be all for you?"

Pinkie giggled, but not nearly as much as she would on a regular basis. "Please, just call me Pinkie."

"Sure thing."

As she pulled out the sack of bits she turned around to me, wearing a smile. There was no fooling me this time. And even as she looked to the busy street behind me, her smile soon became replaced with shock. Not even counting the bits, she threw the sack on the counter and pulled the box onto her back and started to pull me into the opposite direction of where we were originally headed. Meanwhile, the colt at the kiosk was calling back for Pinkie.

"Ma'am, you overpaid!"

Pinkie didn't bother to look back as she screamed to him. "Keep the change!"

Something was completely off now. There's no way she would be this reckless with the funding of a party. We still had to go to the places that sold cups and drinks, the place that sold the cool, little party games and even somewhere else where we had to buy the banner, plus the paint. We were missing a lot of things and she wasn't stopping to correct that either.

"Pinkie, what's going on?"

She didn't answer me as we finally slowed down in another part of the market, far from where we needed to go to get our supplies.

"Pinkie?"

A long silence drew between us as she looked back to me with a weakened smile. "It'll be alright. We did manage to get some things for the party. And plus the party is tomorrow. I can always finish my shopping then."

This was far from Pinkie's normal demeanor. I know I'm stating the obvious but if you could see the worry that filled her eyes, then you'd be as shocked as I am now. As we started to make our way back to Sugarcube Corner, we were stopped by a voice calling out to Pinkie Pie.

"Pinkie! Hey!"

We looked over to see who it was. Much to our relief, it was one of the flower vendors. Pinkie walked up to her as she put on her best fear-hiding smile, which was strangely convincing. "Hey Rose, what's going on?"

"Pinkie! I've been wonderful! How's everything at the bakery going?"

Small talk is pretty much where this conversation was headed as I struggled to keep my balance with all of the stuff I was carrying. The large bag of confetti had started to slip from my sweaty grip and my hands weren't going to dry against the plastic either. As I continued to make sure I didn't drop anything, I listened in on their conversation.

"...But aside from that, Mr. and Mrs. Cake are doing just fine." Pinkie finished.

"Well that's good to hear. But I do have some news for you!"

Pinkie seemed to have cheered up a bit. "Really, what news?"

"Well, I met a colt just earlier this morning. Not only was he sweet and generous, but he was also quite mannerly."

"Really? That's great news."

"Yeah, for you."

Pinkie tilted her head with curiosity. "What do you mean?"

"Well, he purchased a bouquet of flowers for you earlier this morning and told me to hold on to them until I ran into you."

I wasn't sure of the facial expression Pinkie had as she stood motionless at the front of the kiosk, but I know that it wasn't good. Followed her long state of silence, Pinkie nearly yanked my arm clean off as she pulled me towards the nearest alley. I found myself barely able to hold on to anything while I tried to keep up with her. As we turned a corner, the sun disappeared from view. Running into a dead end, I saw that there was only one way out: the way we came. I looked over to Pinkie, who's mane had somewhat deflated.

Not a good sign.

"Pinkie, you alright?"

She looked back up to me with one of the weakest smiles she could ever produce as her eyes ran cold with fear. "I'm fine."

"That's a lie." I chided her, gently placing all of the stuff I carried down on the ground. "You don't act like this on any other given day."

"Look, we really need to get this stuff back to Sugarcube Corner, okay?" She definitely sounded as if she was trying to avoid something. Though I couldn't figure out just what it was.

"Pinkie, look. We can get this stuff over there in a bit. But I'm not moving another inch until you tell me what's going o-"

"Pinkie?" I heard from behind me. "Pinkie Pie, is that you?"

Correction: she definitely was trying to avoid someone.

I turned around to see a brown stallion with blue eyes, slowly walking up to us. And with the way Pinkie was acting, I have a funny feeling that I shouldn't like the fact that he's here.

"Oh... Hello, Caramel." Pinkie whimpered.

Yup, the ex that slept with her and never called after. Dicks like these are always a reminder of why I should never be too happy with just sex alone. The emotional baggage this mare carried because of him was more than enough to produce it's own gravitational pull. And right now, my fist was more than attracted to the possibility of meeting his face.

"Pinkie, I've been trying to talk to you all day! How's it been?" He asked, trying to sound as if he was being genuine.

Pinkie backed away into a wall as she looked to him with a scared expression, seeming as if she was familiar to this situation before. "I-I-I'm fine."

He walked up even closer to her, causing me to instinctively stand between the two of them. But just as I started to do so, Pinkie called out to me. "It's okay, Nondis. I can handle this."

The stallion named Caramel soon became face to face with her, raising a hoof to her chin. "I haven't seen you in over a year since our little breakup. What happened?"

You stopped talking to her after you had sex with her, that's what happened. Jackass.

Pinkie turned her head away from him, escaping the support of the stallion's hoof. "I... I just wasn't ready to see you again."

The stallion then politely guided her head back to himself. "Pinkie, you look absolutely stunning."

"Please don't." I heard her voice breaking as she avoided looking at him.

And just like that, Casanova decided to lift her chin up to his face, growing even closer to her. "Look, I'm sorry about what happened back then. I swear that it will never happen again. I promise to pay more attention to you. Come on. I know you've been lonely."

"I'm fine." She replied very weakly.

"No you're not. I've heard about your recent party binge. You know, the slew of parties that you threw without even sending me as much as an invite. I missed you, Pinkie."

"Stop... please."

"And I wanna show you just how much I've missed you."

Alright, that's fucking it! I can't take this bastard, fuck-dicklet anymore. Interrupting, I called out to the cornered mare. "Pinkie, who's this?"

The stallion reluctantly turned around and gave me a nod as he introduced himself. "I am Caramal, Pinkie's coltfriend."

"Ex-coltfriend." I corrected.

"Ex-coltfriend." He reworded. "But I am here to make amends to our past relationship and start back anew. If it's okay with you, we would be leaving now."

"Well, jackass, I don't see that happening."

"Good sir, my name is Caramel."

"Right! Jackass! J-A-C-K-A-S-S. That's how you spell your name, right?"

The stallion gave off a snort as he started to take his attention off of Pinkie and walk towards me instead. "Sir, I will have you know that what we do is none of your business. So if you don't mind leaving, that would be your best option because what she and I do, our relationship, it doesn't concern you."

"Pinkie's my friend. Nuff said."

"Non-Non, please..." I heard Pinkie whisper out to me.

"Look sir, I'm asking you nicely. Now sod off."

"Do you have any medical issues in regards to your loins?" I asked.

"Why is my stallionhood any of your concern?"

"Well, it seems that you have a bit of a performance issue."

The stallion snorted. "I believe that my performance is more than adequate. If you wish to know any details, then feel free to ask that mare in the corner." He stated, pointing to Pinkie Pie. I really wanna pummel the shit out of this guy.

"Well, here's a little hint you can use to increase your shitty-ass performance. What you do, limp-dick, is go to the nearest drugstore, ask for something called viagra and it will help you GO FUCK YOURSELF."

"Nondis..." Pinkie called out once more.

"I have had it up to my muzzle with you sir. If you do not back down, then I will be forced to take action."

I took two steps towards him, grabbed my balls and thrusted towards him. "Uh-huh. Your mom got some of this action, and my dick is still on her mind more than her dick-headed son."

"You little..." He seemed ready to cock his hoof back for a punch. Meanwhile, I was so infuriated over how he practically called out Pinkie in the most obscene manner, I was far from making this a fair fight. If I was going to fight him, I was going to make sure I had something blunt to hit him with. And in the corner of my eye, I could see an old piece of wood

"Hey batter-batter! Start swingi-"

All in a blur, I could see the distance increasing between the two of us. I could only feel my arm nearly being yanked out of it's socket as Pinkie tugged me along to the street. As soon as we reached the open air, she broke way for Sugarcube Corner, all while dragging me with her. And as we moved along, I could still see the stallion looking back at us, angry that his chance at Pinkie had been foiled by me.

But as the distance grew far between me and the stallion, I couldn't help but to feel a wave of relief wash over me. I can sure talk big, but even then, fighting an equine was something I didn't know how to do, let alone an earth pony breed.

Somehow, I feel as if had gotten myself into a pretty big mess.

Throughout the day until late in the evening, we fixed up much of the bakery on our own in hopes of minimizing the amount of money Pinkie had to spend tomorrow in order to purchase the other things we didn't buy for today. As we did, Pinkie seemed less than her stellar self. I couldn't even see Pinkie as the pony standing before me now.

Her mane had partially deflated and had remained that way since we met up with her ex. Even my attempts to get her to smile resulted in nothing more than failure. She continued to wear that frown all while we planned this party.

I tried to ask her what the history was between them, but she ignored me each time I brought it up. Each time I tried to get her to speak, she'd move to a different part of the room, trying to set up a party. Instead of her opening up like she normally does, she shuts me out. It scared me.

"Pinkie... I need some help with this table." I said, causing her to walk over and quickly maneuver the table to the far end of the room, leaving the center of the bakery as an open floor.

When we finished moving the table, she found herself working someplace away from me. And each time I walked towards her, she shied away from me.

I know this: whatever that guy did to her, she's still feeling it whenever she sees him. Pinkie was traumatized beyond my comprehension. And there was nothing I could do or say as long as Pinkie remained quiet. I wanted to help her, but I can't force her to do something she doesn't want to do.

I hated it. I hated him. I don't even know what he did to her, but I know I'll hate it when I find out.

Pinkie found me mumbling about him as my mind became enamored with the thought of him. As I worked, when I thought of him, I started to slam things. When the ghostly image of him staring down Pinkie Pie replayed in my head, I tightened my grip, even when I wasn't holding on to anything. My nails dug into the skin of my hands as my body shook with contempt of him.

"You shouldn't let your mind wander." She whispered to me softly. "Especially with him."

Those were the first words she spoke to me since we had gotten back. "Who is he?"

She shook her head, walking towards the opposite side of the room. "Somepony I love. Somepony I hate. Somepony who caused me pleasure and pain. A bad relationship."

I scoffed at how cryptic she became and rushed over to her. "You call him being manipulative 'love'?"

She stopped working all together as she sat on the floor, clenching her eyes shut so that she didn't have to look at me. "I used to." She whined weakly.

I offered to give her a hug, but found myself pushed away. "Pinkie, let me help you."

"No thanks. I'm fine."

Now my anger had started to direct it's attention towards her. "No. That's a fucking lie. You don't just run around town trying to avoid someone if they aren't an issue. Now what did he do to you?"

"HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU NOT TO ASK PERSONAL QUESTIONS LIKE THAT!?"

I flinched at her harsh words. It was true that she did warn me about not asking her anything personal, but this was something I had managed to get myself into out of my desire to see her happy. And the one time her smile falters is because of the mentioning of Him.

I refuse to identify that guy by a name. To do so would leave a bad taste in my mouth.

"Pinkie, I just wanted to help you-"

"You can help me plan this party. Nothing else."

A prolonged period of silence grew between us as we stood motionless. I didn't want to delve deeper if she didn't want me to, but I wanted to. I wanted to get to the root of everything that made her like this. I can't stand it anymore.

Without a single word, I resumed back to my duties. Pinkie just stood where she did, looking at me as I swept the floor. Finally getting busy, she walked into the back of the room and opened up the box she carried in when we arrived back shortly. As she started to pull out some of the party favors and sort them out, she called out to me.

"Do you still have those streamers?"

"Yeah. I pretty sure I..." Dropped it all back when we were back at the alley before ol' dude decided to pay Pinkie an unwanted visit. And along with the streamers were the balloons and the confetti. "Fuck!"

"What?" She asks, turning to me.

"Pinkie, I'll be back in a sec." I said as I made my way outside.

"Where are you going?" She asked, seeming distressed.

"Out."

The sun had long since disappeared beyond the horizon. The sky was now a mix of orange, purple and black as I frantically searched the streets for the one alley we stopped by. Fortunately, it wasn't too far of a walk from the bakery. But still, night never really was an open invitation to walk on my own.

Thankfully, it didn't take me too long to find a large bag of confetti sitting at the side of the road. I kicked myself into high gear and ran towards the alleyway. Taking inventory, I noticed that all the balloons and streamers were at the very back of the dead end, a place I didn't recall placing them at.

This was a trap, and I fell right into it.

I turned around quickly to see if there was anyone standing behind me. And much to my suspicions, there He stood. I didn't have time to play games, and there was no way I was going to let him get the better of me. I know I suck at fighting, but at least I will go down swinging.

I took a step to my left, he took a step to his right to cut me off. I took a step to my right, he took a wider step to his left. I tried to fake my way to the left again, he didn't fall for it. I made another step to the left, he didn't have to move much. I waited for about a few seconds to see if I could get an opening, but he moved first. Caught off-guard, I took a step back, he took two steps forward. I started to slowly feel against the wall to my right.

"Looking for this?" He inquired, knocking a long piece of wood off of the side of the wall where he stood.

As the wooden object hit the ground, I could literally hear my mind cry out to me in a grand chorus. "Oh shit."

In less than a second, my legs shifted to my right, but not before his hoof came in contact with my right cheek, barely grazing it. All of this happened before I could get a hold of my footing. I fell backwards, my head coming in contact with the cobblestone road below. I felt my entire body jolt with electricity as the world went black for the fraction of a second. The world around me seemed to sparkle as I was laid out on the ground. I didn't feel any pain. I couldn't feel anything at all.

But without my knowledge, my body acted on it's own. Adrenaline pumped through my veins and propelled me of the ground. I didn't feel myself get up, I just did. I had no control over what was going on with my body as my head turned to my left to see if my hands were still operational. The fingers of my hands stretched far outwards and flexed, almost machine-like, as they notified my brain that my left hand still had functionality. My head turned to my right, seeing the same thing as my body started to yield control back to me. My right hand did the same as my left. Finally registering that my hands were still functioning properly, I slowly stood back up.

"You... you weren't supposed to be here. You're not the one I wanted to come here."

While I still tried to mentally recover from that little scare, I staggered back to a more solid stance to take him on with. A slight headache threw me off, as I slowly made my way to the back.

"I wanted Pinkie, not you."

Finally recovered from the unfamiliar experience, I spoke to him. "Pinkie doesn't want you. Leave her alone."

"No. You should've left things as they were."

As he walked closer to me, I still questioned him. "Why? Why her? What did she ever do to you? What did she do to deserve what you did to her?"

He stared at me with a blank expression. "That's none of your business."

I felt my headache become even worse as my body filled with rage. I charged at him, winding back a strong right hook. He countered with a sweeping back leg, knocking me back into the ground. Walking over towards me, he bucked me in my side as I was down. An immense amount of pain filled my body as my arms were nowhere near shielding me from any blows. He promptly followed his attack with a few strikes to the side of my head, causing me to become disoriented. I tried to swing at him, but my equilibrium was so out-of-whack that I ended up hitting a wall instead.

He laughed as he stood over me, mocking me. "You see now? It's absurd that you would come and challenge me like this, especially when you yourself can't even hope to defend yourself. What makes you think that you can defend somepony else?"

"I... don't have to win... to stand up for someone." I slowly dragged out. "I just have to stand back up."

"You're just as stupid as that dumb, pink whorse."

"Fuck... you..." I barely spoke out to him.

"Excuse me?"

I took back to my two feet, but couldn't stand on my own strength. I used the wall to prop me up as I set my sights back on the asshole in front of me. "Fuck you.... Pinkie is... beautiful, incredible... cute... awesome, kind, smart... funny... she's real. And you're just some asshat who happens to have mommy issues. You smile and you snicker, but you tear down others for your own amusement."

The stallion, a blur in my eyes, laughed a bit as he stood before me, making his way towards me. "I think I might have hit you a little too hard. You're delusional."

Like a drunken alcoholic tossed out of a bar, I ran towards him screaming my lungs out. "WHO GIVES FIVE FUCKS FOR WHAT YOU THINK!?"

As I felt my fist becoming intimate with his face, I felt a hoof dig deep into my stomach. Completely out of air, I collapsed and fell over. Despite the fact that I lost this fight, I could proudly say that I managed to get a lick in. At least it wasn't a total curb stomp.

As I lied defeated on the ground, the stallion rubbed his jaw as he looked upon me with dejection as cold as the blue in his eyes. "That hurt actually."

Sending a hoof to the side of my head, the last things I heard was the sound of impact, a low docking sound followed by a high-pitched ringing and the muffled sound of him yelling at me. I couldn't make out the words, but I know that he was belittling me.

And as my vision faded in an out of view. I could see him standing over me. One flash later, I saw the shadow of another pony attacking him. One final glimpse of the world later, I saw three of them attacking him...

I couldn't tell what was going on anymore as I faded from consciousness altogether.

I had awoken in a rather comfortable bed. Unfortunately, that was the only comfort I was feeling. Everything else about me was just sore. Even as I opened my eyes, the light seemed to make my headache worse than before. Squinting became my only source of salvation from the sharp contrast of light. I had looked around me to see where I was but the only thing I could see was pink. Pink dressers, pink closets, pink bed posts, pink sheets. Everything just looked like if Pinkie Pie had a can of paint and just went to town.

But I noticed that there was a significant set of standouts in this room aside from myself. Surrounding me were three gray mares, all three a different shade of gray. More notably, one with a straight, lavender mane and a dark grey dress stood directly over me with an unchanging expression, startling me.

"He's awake." She said in a monotone moan.

"AH!" I shouted, unfamiliar with the mare who stood over me so closely. "Who are you?"

"...Sorry about that." The mare hummed. "As far as where you are, you're in Pinkie's room."

Okay... not the question I asked, but progress is progress. "Okay... who are you?"

One of the other mares walked up to me, she seemed a bit more lively than the first. "Sorry we haven't introduced ourselves. The mare you spoke to first was my younger sister, Maud."

"Hello." She droned out as she lifelessly shifted her head. I think it was a nod.

"The other one over there is Blinkie." She said as she pointed to the bluish-gray mare with silver hair on the other side of the room.

"Nice to meet you." She said with a smile. It seemed that she was a normal one. Far more energetic than the others.

"And I'm Inkie." The all gray mare said as she pointed to herself. "I'm sure that you've met our baby sister, otherwise you wouldn't be here."

"Baby sister?"

The mare named Maud stepped towards me. "Pinkie. You know, pink coat, pink mane, eyes like mine."

No way in frozen hell these three are sisters to Pinkie Pie. These three mares are blood to the pony who seems to run on fucking dark matter. Well, color me surprised. "So... you three?"

"Yeah! And Pinkie's been speaking very highly of you since we brought you in." Blinkie cheered, walking towards me.

"To hear that you managed to defend her against her ex-boyfriend... to protect our little sister. It means a lot." Inkie added as she started to walk towards the door that led to the outside hall.

Unexpectedly, I feel a set of hooves firmly grasp my still sore body tightly. Maud spoke in her usual monotone voice, but taking on a slightly higher pitch. "You mean the world to our little sister. And you've done us a tremendous favor. It's not everyday where a colt will stand up for our baby sister."

The door broke wide open, revealing a familiar face. Only this time, her entire face was covered in hair. Extremely straight hair. Pink mane, pink coat, and three balloons on her flank, yet this was a totally different Pinkie that I was seeing. One who's face was covered in tears. Her eyes showed the restlessness she held as looked at me. A scream erupted as she bolted towards me at breakneck speed.

While I still suffered from the pain of my wounds, it seemed that hers had managed to reopen. Clutching onto my bloodied shirt, she held onto me, not wanting to let me go for even a second. Her muffled sobs vibrated against my chest as she constantly apologized to me. I tried to calm her down, but she was more happy that I was okay.

"Pinkie was scared to death when we came and got you." Inkie said as she finally closed the door.

"You were unconscious when we saved you." Blinkie added.

At this point, I was morbidly curious. If they managed to save me from one of Pinkie's exes, then what happened to him since he was a repeat offender? "So... what happened to ol' dude?"

Maud, in an unexpected turn of events, clenched her teeth as she spoke more about him. "He hurt Pinkie, a lot and often. He even violated her a number of times. And since we last met, we decided that we would spare him if he had left our sister alone... But he..." Maud's tone didn't change at all but from the way her teeth clinched against her words, I could tell that she was very upset. "He tries this again. So this time, we sent him packing."

"To where?"

Blinkie smiled happily as she cheerfully admitted his whereabouts. "Ponyville General Hospital. He's on life-support even as we speak." She answered innocently.

You know, I'm finding out that Pinkie's sisters, just like her, are all their own genre of crazy.

"Ouch. So I'm guessing you've three met him before?" I asked as Pinkie shifted on top of me, burying her muzzle into my shirt.

Inkie spoke up first. "Yes. Under similar circumstances. Only last time it was directed towards our baby sister."

I didn't think that I could press the mute button on the entire world fast enough to gather my thoughts on what she just said to me. Did I just hear that Pinkie Pie, the happiest mare I know, the one who never stops smiling, was actually abused? "...Pause."

Blinkie sighed heavily. "Pinkie never told you, did she?"

I shook my head, unsure on what I could say in response. I could only verify what Pinkie had said to me rather than what I was now figuring out. "Pinkie told me that he just... got intimate and never talked to her again, pretty much abandoned."

Maud quickly stepped in. "By 'get intimate', you mean forced intercourse. And by 'abandoned', you mean forced apart. Pinkie was willing to stay with him if it meant to make him happy, but we had to explain to her that obtaining his happiness with the exchange of her physical health was non-negotiable."

I felt my entire being sink further into the ground as the news came blitzing into my ears. It was a cruel reality that I didn't know could transcend dimensions: the abusive relationship.

Pinkie tightened her grasp at my shirt, still sobbing softly as she rested on top of me.

"Nondis!?"

Familiar voices called out to me from the bottom of the stairs, seeming to gain volume as the sounds of hooves running across the floor. In seconds, the door swung wide open to reveal another five visitors. Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Twilight all breathed collective sighs of relief as they found me responsive and functional. And of the five, four of them rushed to my bedside to wish me well.

"I can't believe you did something like this!" Fluttershy said in shock.

"You're an absolute mess! At the very least you're alright." Rarity said as she offered to tend to my bruised face.

"What in alfalfa were y'all thinkin' bout pullin' a stunt like that!? Ya had us worried sick!" Applejack scolded.

"Us?" Rainbow Dash said, trying to downplay the fact that she was still worried about the state I was in. "I knew from the start that he would be fine!"

Rarity stared at the cyan pegasus with bemusement. "That coming from the mare that started stating the worst-case scenarios, making Pinkie Pie even more terrified?"

"Well... I still wasn't as bad as Twilight. She was having an episode when she realized that Nondis didn't report in." Rainbow rebutted.

As the four others bickered amongst each other, I saw Twilight still standing in the doorway. She didn't even look at me. I wanted to say something to her, but she turned around and walked down the hall.

I knew that this was going to be a long walk home.

Later that very early morning, Twilight and I walked towards the castle, not exchanging a single word. As we walked into the dimly-lit halls of the palace, she stayed in front of me, never taking a glance back at me. She acknowledged that I was there, but she refused to respond or speak. The only thing that I heard during the trek to my room was the sounds of her hooves constantly clopping.

By the time I had managed to get to the door to my room. She started to walk down another direction. I quietly nodded to her, telling her goodnight while reaching out for the doorknob. But my reach was disrupted by a magenta glow surrounding my hand.

The glow didn't just hold me, it encircled my fingers with a gentle warmth. The palms of my hand tickled as the colorful flame cradled every inch of my skin, cherishing the very flesh that still hung to my body. I looked back to Twilight, seeing her horn glowing amidst the darkness of the halls. An ethereal hum sounded as she hid her eyes away from mine.

I knew that I have put her through a lot with this. It's been a full six hours from my meeting with Caramel and it's been only an hour since I've woken up. And throughout that time, she was constantly on alert. Rest was never an option when it came to the health of the human she had taken into the comfort of her own home.

With a humbled spirit, I whispered to her. "What I did was stupid and irresponsible."

She still said nothing as she held on to me.

"I'm sorry."

"...Don't you ever..." She started weakly. "...do something so stupid again. Don't you ever go out at night on your own. Don't you dare try and fight other's battles, knowing that your life will be at risk. Think, what will I do when you end up like this again, when I'm the one who has to look over you!?"

I felt ashamed. "Sorry, princess."

"You have got to be more careful. What you did for Pinkie was beyond praise and admiration, but what would've happened if you didn't wake up..." She trailed off, taking a moment to think about if things were much worse. Her composure broke slightly as she sniffled and tried her best to keep her voice unbroken. "What would I do then?"

"I'll be more careful."

Twilight released my hand and walked over to the door, opening it for me. "You better be." She said as she waited for me to walk inside.

As I stepped inside, I felt myself being lifted to the bed. The covers retracted and allowed me in between the sheets as the purple princess gently laid me down to rest for the night.

"No busy stuff tomorrow. You stay here, and don't you move."

Chuckling a bit, I answered her. "Oui, mon capitaine."

Quietly gliding over, she gave me a quick peck on the forehead before setting out. And as the doors closed, only the darkness remained. The only thing that seemed to have kept me awake were the thoughts that circled within my head.

Pinkamena Diane Pie, or Pinkie Pie for short, is an earth-pony mare with a pink coat and hot-pink mane and tail. She sported curly hair and large sapphire eyes, a small but cute little muzzle and a cutie mark of three balloons, indicating that her special talent was partying. But the main thing that defined her character was her smile.

Despite all the times she's been discouraged, beaten, abused, tortured, violated, despite all the deep emotional scars she bears on the inside, how in the hell can she still remain so positive? How could she smile so brightly all the time? It fucking hurts me to see how she could be so happy when shit hits the fan. Why does she have an affinity to smile despite all of the hardships she's gone through?

I asked her that before I left. Her answer:

I won't let my past become my present. I won't let the sad times become a standing obstacle for me. Instead, I will accept that it happened. I will acknowledge that it wasn't my fault. And I will encourage others that what happens to them isn't their fault either. I know that what I do will bring smiles to others, especially those who have went through the same things I've went through. And no matter the pain, there will always be a silver lining.

Yes, I like to smile, but it's not to hide the pain. I like to smile because I know that I've conquered it and that I helped others conquer it too.

I cried myself to sleep that night. Not because of what happened to me, but what she went through and how she handled it in comparison to the pity parties I used to throw myself when I was back in high school. Out of all of the lessons that I've learned during my time here, I think that this was the one that really showed me that there were others that were far worse than I believed myself to be. Not only that, but that they knew how to come out of their trials and tribulations, fighting with a big smile plastered on their faces. True, not everyone was like that, but those kinds of people are strong.

That night was something I needed to evaluate. But I'm just glad that everything that I went through is already over.

Of course, my nose still bleeds from time to time.

And it's not from the beating...

Author's Note

Can't I just write one short chapter? I swear I keep going overboard with these. Sorry about the delay ~~and the downer chapter~~. Hope you enjoy the read.

Chapter VII

It's been a month since the day I've managed to get into my first fight in Equestria. It's been a while since I had gotten into one of those, but I managed to find my world turned upside down with all the allegations made against me in court.

Yeah, that happened.

I was taken to court by the bastard who handed my ass on a silver platter. All on the account that I had, quote-unquote, sent out others to beat him down. So not only was I charged, but so was Maud, Blinkie and Inkie. And that's when the shit really hit the fan. When he mentioned those three, their father had gotten involved, showing the judge some pictures of what had happened to his youngest daughter by the plaintiff.

When I had saw the pictures in court, I was more than willing to be charged with an additional 'aggravated assault'. And when they had placed my pictures into the mix, the judge waived off the charges, stating that Inkie, Blinkie and Maud were all 'coming to the defense of a protected species'.

So after our charges were waived, they then charged Caramel with abuse, obstruction of justice (being that Pinkie was an Element Bearer at the time), threatening the life of a protected species, sexual assault, two counts of aggravated assault, bringing false charges into court, stalking and jaytrotting. By the end of this circus, I was battered down physically and mentally, I suffered from daily headaches and nosebleeds that came out of nowhere, Twilight sought after my medical needs on the daily and Caramel was sentenced to a composite forty-five years without parole.

To say in short, this past month had really been a downer on me. I've been caught up to my neck in press and interviews, had it up to my head with doctor's appointments and never had a moment's peace.

And to top it all off, I haven't had a good fap in ages.

I had awoken early in the morning, staring at my ceiling as I contemplated the various evens that had transpired in my five months of being in Equestria. From day one I had become a hermit, staying in my room because of my desire to stay disassociated with society. One week later, I had to walk around the town naked due to a wardrobe malfunction.

I knew that the ponies were completely used to being in the nude but what made it a culture shock for me was that I was not used to being apart of nudist society. That said, I was covering up every step of the way. And the moment that the ponies started seeing me in clothes, they felt uncomfortable because of the implications that clothing had provided... To their society, that is. My society sexualized clothes, but only when it was at bare minimum and revealing as much skin as possible. But start walking around the city of Austin naked, see if you don't get any odd or lustful looks before you get taken to jail.

But I come here and boom, nudity everywhere. There's literally armies of dicks and pussies marching up and down the street with only a subtle sway of their tail to hide it all. This society was so desensitized to the aspect of being nude that wearing clothing became a fetish. The more you wore outside, the more they questioned what you were hiding. Then when you started to strip down to your undies, then they'd become massive horndogs. Strip any further and you'd be having sex right there. I guess that's the thing about being here, everyone at first saw me as a complete tease. But since then, when I've shown myself to wear clothes on the regular, the amount of odd looks I received had started to dwindle.

And with the massive media circus that happened this past month, I ended up becoming a sort of model for Rarity clothes. Tabloids ran rampant with articles of what I was wearing, or questioned how I could wear such suggestive clothing. I wore a pair of shorts with a t-shirt and the whole nation was clamoring for more. I had started to get some rather confusing fan-mail about how kinky it was that another species was wearing such immoral attire in public.

But to be fair, only Ponyville was widely aware of my existence and had gotten used to it.

After but a few days, I had started to get some rather disturbing mail from various mares and stallions, saying what they wanted me to wear next, what they wanted to do to me if they had paid me a visit, how bad they wanted to see me naked. It was flattering... but unnerving. Since then, Twilight had made a royal decree that all mail of the aforementioned nature were to cease and that all current letters in the pile would be burned.

Which led me to yet another one of my more, for lack of a better word, outstanding issues.

There was no porn, there was no internet, there is a town full of sentient equines who exhibited as wide of an array of emotions as humans and could express their consent to engage in more explicit acts, they walked around naked all day and there was a mare-to-stallion ratio of about four-to-one.

It's been five months since I've even gotten off. And my time was dedicated to six mares of the opposite sex. Hell, just last month I managed to find myself trying to take a peek of what hid behind Twilight's tail and I'm still getting nosebleeds from the thought.

I know she's a different species... but desperation can make a man do some shit.

For the past five months, I woke up with raging semis and have yet to find any time to combat the issue. In the mornings, I'm running off to run some errands with the girls. Now add the sexual tension I get from being associated with that of the opposite sex and multiply that by six. And by the end of the day, after I get home, I only have enough energy to make it back into the bed. After I hit the bed, that's it. I'm too tired to even focus on jerking that I'd sometimes nod off and wake up about fifteen minutes later, holding my flaccid dick. So after all of that, I finally surrender and go to sleep. And then the cycle repeats itself.

They say that insanity is defined as doing something perpetually and hoping to yield a different result from the previous failures. Well, I can gladly assume that I will get this right one day and that I will, for the first time in 5 months, bust a nut. Starting now.

So here I lay, my dick standing proud and tall like a mighty obelisk erected in defiance of the land around it. My hand slowly inching towards my lower abdomen. Teasing myself, I lightly tickled the ridges of my abdominals. Witnessing my body's response, I see that my erection twitched a bit, swaying for a brief second before becoming dormant once again.

If I'm going to do this, then I'm at least going to make this jerk the best damn jerk I've ever had.

Quietly moaning, my hand inched closer towards the ridge of skin that sank into my pelvis. I started to imagine-

*Knock Knock Knock*

Myself killing whoever was at this damn door.

Deciding to ignore the person at the door, I decided to concentrate on the matter at hand. My body tingled with anticipation as my hand slowly-

*Knock Knock Knock*

Closed itself into a fist and quickly slammed into the mattress I laid on top of.

Deciding to wait a bit to see if there was going to be another knock, I had started to find myself growing out of my mood. After about a few seconds, I had came to the conclusion that whoever was at the door had left. Continuing on, I rested myself once more and began where I had left off. Closing my eyes, I could see-

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

Myself writhing in agony as I threw a pillow over my head in frustration. "THE FUCK!?! Who is it!?" I screamed, muffled underneath the pillow.

"Now Ah don' told y'all about that swearin' nonsense, didn't Ah?" Applejack chided from behind the door.

I just... I just wanted to fucking beat my meat in the morning. Is that too much to ask for? "Arrrgh... sorry." I groaned out angrily.

"Look, we just wanted to invite you out! If you had plans-" Rainbow Dash sounded off before I had cut her short.

"If you two are going to do some sort of competition, I am not judging jack sh-" I didn't wanna hear Applejack's mouth. I was in no mood for it. "...ship."

"Actually," I heard a light, whispery voice that resembled Fluttershy call out to me. "We were going to go out for a picnic. And there's no need to feel left out. You won't be the only guy there."

Following her was a snobbish, crackly voice that definitely belonged to Discord. "Fluttershy dear, I really don't think it's anywhere near necessary to speak about him being with other guys."

"Well, I for one can simply say that it would benefit him greatly if he was to have an accompanied male presence for once, considering that he's been so raveled up with the six of us mares." Rarity added.

"Well yes, I can completely understand your outlook on the situation, Rarity. But what I can't seem to understand is the fact that this door is still closed. Perhaps I should alleviate that situation for us."

My eyes opened wide as I pulled my head from underneath the pillow and covering myself with the sheets. "Don't you dare break down that door!"

"Break it down? Ha! I was merely suggesting that the wooden fellow would so kindly remove itself from it's hinges and walk off."

Knowing this guy, that was a definite possibility. "No, not that either!"

"I'm going to do it!"

"NO!"

"Discord!" Fluttershy exclaimed sternly.

"Oh poo. I won't do it then."

I finally felt myself become relieved at a possible disaster being averted. If he had done what he wanted, then that door would've been halfway across town by now. But what had happened next was just as bad.

"Whee!"

Suddenly out of nowhere, my door broke wide open, letting in a blink blur that stopped at a dime on top of me while I was still in bed. Pinkie Pie had entered the room like a high speed battering ram. "Morning, Nondie! How ya feeling this morning? Are you excited for what we've got planned? Are you? Are you? Because I know that I'm excited and I definitely wanna spend some time with my favorite human!"

"I'm the only one you know." I deadpanned as I hid myself underneath the covers.

Giggling and snorting, she gave me a long, gripping hug. "I know. But I just can't thank you enough for what you've done for me just recently. I could remember it like it was sometime last month-"

"Pinkie, can you please-" No... You stay down. No boner. Not now. Not... DAMMIT!

"Ooh! And little Non-non wants to say hello to Pinkie too!"

The shit I put up with. "Pinkie, I need some time to get dressed."

The pink pony that stood over me turned red as she thought about me dressing into some clothes. Instantly, she backed away from me, leaping off the bed and letting me finally regain some of the air she managed to squeeze out of me. "Sorry! So sorry!"

"Pinkie Pie..." I heard Twilight call out from the hallway with a correctional tone. "What have I told you about barging into someone's room?"

"But Twilight, Discord had already knocked."

"Out. Now." Twilight ordered as she levitated the pink mare out of the room and ushering the others further down the hall. After doing so, she came back to close the door...

Only she didn't exit the room.

"Um... Twi."

Blushing, Twilight turned away from me so that she didn't get a glimpse of what I was hiding. "Look, I'm not gonna be in here for long. I'm here to apologize about the mess from this past month."

"You're fine."

"No. I'm not. This was completely embarrassing. I even had to clear up the mess that the tabloids made about me having you as some sort of stock-colt."

I quirked an eyebrow, unsure of what she was talking about.

"Stock-colt. You know, a colt or stallion used for relieving purposes; a consort."

"Oh!" Well that's a bit awkward. "Oh... oh, well... um... okay."

"I just want you to know that you aren't some sort of animal, nor are you a servant of any kind. You're my friend... and I want to keep it that way."

"Oh. Okay." I answered plainly.

"What's wrong?" She asked me, starting to give all of her attention to me.

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong." I clarified.

"You sure?"

"Yeah! I'd be more than happy to be your friend. I just thought we were like that from the start."

Twilight started to prod at the ground below her. "Well... I kinda wanted to know something... Are you happy?"

I scoffed at her question, thinking that it was rather silly of her to question my state of happiness right now. "Yes. Why you wanna know?"

"...It's nothing." She said after a moment's hesitation.

"No, speak up."

"It's fi-"

"Speak." I insisted, hoping that she'd tell me what was on her mind.

"...So as you know, it will be another three months before the portal to your world opens up. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have taken over the project entirely since Cadance is busy handling the political affairs of Equestria. And I'm busy with my own overseeing of the internal matters of the state as well as looking after you. This past month may have placed me back a few weeks, but I'm still able to handle everything. As far as you... I've started thinking..."

She left me hanging for a second. I had to nudge at her to get her to continue. "About?"

"...Oh, sorry. Zoned out there. But I was thinking... maybe..."

I offered to speak, but instead she summoned up a scroll with the royal seal emblazoned upon it. I took the parchment and read what it consisted of. To my complete shock, I had come up to a part that should've caught my attention as soon as I had unfurled the scroll.

We hereby acknowledge Nondis P. Haines as a legally declared citizen of Equestria under the process of naturalization.

Stunned, I looked back over to Twilight.

"You weren't supposed to know about this, but I've already gotten the signatures of Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadance and my own. All you need to do is sign where it says your name at the bottom, and you're an official member of Equestrian society. You'll be one of us."

"Twilight, where did this-"

"I've started on it since the second month you've been here. After that night I had gotten really... inebriated."

The night my shirt was filled with chunks of her dinner. She's been planning this since then? "Wow. So... you're... inviting me-"

"To stay." Twilight finished as she played with her hooves, looking at me nervously.

"...I... I can only say that I've really appreciated my stay here. But..."

Twilight head dropped slightly, though her ears had shown her sadness more than anything else. "I understand."

Wanting to clarify my reasons, I carried onward. "It's not you guys. I love it here. Really, I do. There's nothing more that I would like to do than to stick around a little more. But I do have a family... Not one of my own, but a mother and father, an older brother who's getting married pretty soon, a younger brother who's going to his junior prom this year... a friend I really need to apologize to."

"I get it." She said as she levitated the scroll away from me, poofing it out of existence. "But the option is still available if you ever happen to change your mind."

I got out of the bed and walked up to Twilight, giving her a tender hug. "Twilight, you're fine. And I appreciate what you've done for me up till now."

"Nondis..."

"I really mean that."

"No, Nondis. What are you wearing?" She asked me sheepishly.

Looking back to myself, I saw that I was still wearing nothing but boxer briefs on. I was just lucky to hide myself while Twilight had shifted the others out into the hallway. But it was still embarrassing for her to hug me while I was so underdressed.

"Whoops! Sorry." I said as I jumped off of her. Looking to cover up, I ran back towards the bed and grabbed the sheets and conceal myself.

Twilight was just stuck in place as her entire body seemed to have changed into a lighter shade of purple. Her wings stood out as she fidgeted and twitched, stuck in zone.

"Twilight?" I called out to her, finally snapping her out of her daze.

"...I'm gonna go now."

"I'm gonna get dressed now."

Twilight bolted out of the room, slamming the doors behind her. "Be ready in two minutes."

Shortly after the morning's usual embarrassment, the girls, Discord, Spike and I made our way down the road and to Ponyville Central Park. And after our arrival, we had set up our spot and sat on a large blanket that Rarity had made in her spare time. Applejack had brought some rather delicious apple-based goods to the picnic. Pinkie had brought a few games for us to play among a basket of balloons, that only floated away as soon as she sat it on the ground. Rainbow Dash drug a cloud from above and used it as a makeshift couch, Fluttershy had brought her hellspawn... I mean pet, Angel Bunny, whom I appropriately call Lucifer. Twilight carried something that resembled a diary with her while Spike brought over some chocolate chip cookies he made.

And then Discord gave one life as I chomped into it, causing it to scream in utter agony.

After we had decimated the food and finished goofing around for hours at a time, the nine of us relaxed and looked to Twilight, who opened the large journal.

"Okay girls, you know what time it is."

Feeling like the odd-one out, I felt that it was necessary to know what exactly she was talking about. "Time for what?"

"Well, doi!" Pinkie mocked. "This is the time where we read each other's personal thoughts on our time together. Nothing about friendship lessons, nothing about saving the world..."

Rarity continued from where Pinkie left off. "This is all about bonding with one another on a more personal level."

"What it also helps us do is to be aware of one another's personal thoughts, good or bad." Fluttershy added.

"Nothin's left'n the dark." Applejack stated.

"No secrets kept from each other." Rainbow Dash said as she rose off of her cloud couch.

"And if there was something wrong, we'd start to talk about how we could resolve the issue. And we'd support each other each step of the way." Twilight finished.

Honestly appalled at the possibility of going through each other's personal lives, I felt myself instinctively cringe at the possibilities of what could be disclosed. "Wait a second! We don't need to hear about everyone's more... intimate problems."

The others just looked amongst each other before bursting into a laugh, leaving me perplexed.

"No, that's not the case at all." Discord corrected as he poofed in behind me, flicking my ear down. The next thing I heard was something that sounded similar to a toilet flush in my head. "I think you need to get your mind out of the gutter."

While I waived him away from me, Twilight clarified what was really the deal with that book she held. "No. It's more of anything we want to share with each other. Funny stories, serious moments, stuff that's safe to read around foals. Anything really sensitive doesn't get recorded in this."

"So you're still going through each other, but at the same time, the more personal thoughts are kept secret."

Pinkie giggled. "Yeah, but that's where the real fun starts."

And now they have my attention. "...I'm interested."

"It's a sort of game, if you will. Though our thoughts have to be free of illicit content, we still leave up to question of some of the juicy details of the journal." Rarity happily squeed.

"And the writer is kept anonymous, not even writing the names of those involved or the signature of the author of the entry." Fluttershy added in a low voice.

"An' the entire group has only one guess to get it right, or else it's saved up till next month." Applejack added to further my knowledge of the rules.

A fun little game of secrets and we all have only one try to figure it all out. "Oh. I see now. You vote as a group on who it was who wrote the entry."

"Precisely!" Spike happily confirmed as he opened the journal to a random entry. "And as usual, I will be reading entries as a means of fair play."

"Don't you write any entries, Spike?" I inquired.

"No, but I am there when they are written. Only to make sure that they don't go back and try to edit or read the passages. So with that being said, let's get started."

"Wait, so you know who wrote what, right?"

Spike rolled his eyes at my question. "I don't look when they write the passages. Yes I do know that each one of them comes by to write one, but I don't know what they write, being that I don't stand over their shoulders when they do. So it's left up to interpretation.

"And as an added bonus, you can throw off the entire group if you know it was you who wrote it. If you can successfully persuade the group from knowing it was you, then you're spared until the next time." Rainbow Dash explained further.

This game just got a little difficult.

"But before we start, we must adhere to the tradition of the game. Whoever's entry is correctly guessed, must truthfully and honestly come before everypony, saying the word 'shamed'. That pony must then explain their story. All under the oath of the sacred Pinkie Promise."

In unison, the entire group of girls followed a series of motions as they chanted their mantra.

"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

An interesting little twist to what I've come to know as 'Cross my heart, hope to die'. But then again, their's does sound a little more friendly to the ear. I guess I could settle with that.

After an hour, the girls and Spike have trudged through about nine entries, two of them being the anonymous. The first anonymous entry was stating their contempt for someone in the market that embarrassed them so openly. Shamed out, Fluttershy explained about a particular incident where she found herself so humiliated by a pony who charged her twenty bits for a cherry. Since then, her kindness had been very extensive to others, but becoming limited to that one guy. Pinkie and Rarity fully understood what was going on, as they were there to witness it. Eventually, she finally realized that holding on to a grudge like that, especially to someone so pitiful as him, was not going to change anything, if not make things worse. Finally putting the incident in the past, Fluttershy hugged the others. Meanwhile, Discord seemed to have wandered off somewhere. Probably in search of the guy in the entry.

I sure hope he takes his sweet-ass time.

The second entry was something that involved a date. She found the stallion as a pretty good friend and amazing companion. But her interests weren't in stallions at all. Shamed out, Rainbow Dash stood out and explained that she had went on a date with a guy named Thunderlane. Her only issue is that she didn't have a romantic interest in the guy. As she went further to discuss what had happened, she openly admitted that she just didn't find ponies attractive.

Quite an odd quality to have. I wonder what she does have an interest in.

As for now, the day had started to show signs of surrender to that of the night. The sun started to set into the sky and the clouds turned from white to shades of red, pink, orange and yellow. The six ponies were starting to feel themselves become a little more exhausted.

"Hoo-wee! Ah've had my share of fun!" Applejack said as she packed her belongings.

"Leaving already?" Fluttershy asked. "We still have one more entry to read."

"Yeah! I wanna know what's next!" Rainbow Dash said as she casually hovered in the air.

"Go on, Spike. Read the next entry. We'll call it quits after that." Twilight advised as she summoned up yet another journal. Instead, this one had all of the cutie marks of the girls arranged around hers and a golden horseshoe. I know that I see her with it every now and then, plus I see it lying around the palace sometimes. Usually, I'd just take it to her and tell her not to be so clumsy with it.

"Hey Twi." I called out. "What's with that book? Is it another journal for the game?"

The purple princess shook her head. "Actually no. This is our Friendship Journal, where we record some of our most valuable life lessons inside of it. And as for the bookmarks, they notate key areas where each of us have learned a valuable, life-changing lesson that we've managed to pass on to others."

I shrugged my shoulders. "Oh. I guess that's cool."

"You know, I'm surprised." Twilight said.

"Why?"

"The six of us have made our own entries, Spike has managed to make a few, Discord and the Cutie Mark Crusaders have even jotted down maybe one or two. But I can't seem to find any entries from one pony in particular... or should I say one person."

Blinking with bewilderment, I tilted my head and pointed to myself. "Me? Write an entry?"

"You didn't think I had left this lying around for you to see it just because I forgot about it. I was hoping that one of the times you've returned it to me, you'd actually write something."

"But... I..."

"Haven't you learned anything while you were here in Equestria? It's been five months."

"N-No." I stuttered. "I-I learned a lot. A hell of a lot, pardon the language. It... It's just that I didn't know that I was supposed to be writing in it."

Twilight sighed haplessly. "Well when you get back to the castle, I'll sit you down and have you write out an entry. Deal?"

"Sure, I guess so."

Spike cleared his throat, making sure that he had all of our undivided attention. As soon as we all looked to him silently, he started to read the final entry.

"Anonymous entry. I've started to become more interested in him as the days went by. The way he speaks to others as if he didn't have a care in the world, his sense of humor, his laugh, his smile, his touch. Our every union seems to grow us even closer. I know that he sees me as something different from what I am, but we both know that our hearts, different in their designs, is that we want to explore what it means to break the barriers of being of a different species. I know what I feel. And I pray to Celestia that he feels the same way."

My jaw dropped at the confession made to me. I felt my chest pound at the speed of sound, nearly rocketing into my throat as I choked on my response. My words became a noose tied around my neck, suffocating me as I tried to find the right words to cut me loose from this silence.

The six mares blushed loudly as they all looked to me, then to each other. After a moment of silence, they had started to deliberate on who said what. Spike seemed to have grown a bit quiet as well from reading that passage. I was still petrified. As the conversation started to grow louder, I felt my chest burning, unsure on who could say a thing. I mean, I knew that a primary candidate for that would have to be Pinkie Pie, considering what had happened a month ago.

But that's just the problem. That entry could've been written from over a month ago. And if that was anything to go by, then it would definitely be Twilight.

Did she just start this game to confess her love for me?

"Time's up!" Spike shouted, startling me out of my line of thought. "It's time to vote. Who do you think was the author of that passage."

The worst thing about it was that they had only one chance to get it right. And even then, the person could throw everyone else off-track. That said, they could easily shift the blame to someone else.

But then I had realized, Fluttershy and Discord were different. Considering that he was made of many animals, Discord also became a suspect of being the subject to romance. And then there's Spike, who's a dragon and could be seen as adorable, in a creepy, I-need-an-adult kind of way. All three of us weren't exactly ponies. Plus there was the revelation from earlier that Rainbow Dash didn't have an interest in the equine species. The possibilities are endless.

Though it is safe to rule Spike out on this one.

The six mares grew silent and stood expressionless. "We have come to a decision." Fluttershy whispered.

And here's the part where they could throw someone under the bus.

"...Twilight Sparkle." The five other mares rang in unison.

I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT WAS HER THE ENTIRE TIME!

Twilight looked at the ground, not even daring to look in front of her, where I stood. "...I didn't write that. My shame has yet to be revealed."

Suddenly, all the elation I felt had tail-spun into a corkscrew and crashed head-first into the ground, erupting into a ball of flames. I didn't know why I had felt crushed, I just did.

"Non-Non, are you okay?" Pinkie asked me, walking up to me.

"Yeah. I'm fine. That was all just a tad-bit suspenseful. I was hoping that we could see who it was that liked who."

Fluttershy flew over and gave me a brief hug. "It'll be alright. To be honest, we never gotten two right in one go like today. If anything, we should be proud."

"Plus, we've got until next month to find out. You could always find out who it was in between readings." Rainbow stated as she started to fly towards her end of town.

"It is getting rather late. I suppose that will be all for today." Twilight said as she finally looked away from the ground.

I just quietly said my own goodbyes before starting my way home. As I proceeded to walk away, the other grabbed my attention.

"Nondis, could you be a gentlecolt and help me fold my blanket?" Rarity asked as she grabbed one end of the red and white checkered sheet.

Quietly, I complied with her request. Shortly after, I started to follow after Twilight. While she said her goodbyes, I had noticed that Discord had recently shown back up, earning a discerning look from Fluttershy. He threw his arms in the air and shrugged before they too started to make the long journey home. Spike had volunteered to escort Rarity to her place, leaving me with Twilight alone.

We never talked on our walk home.

After a bit, I've finally found myself laying in my bed, quietly thinking about what had happened in the park. Why was I so excited to think that Twilight had actually liked me? I mean, I sorta like her, but not enough to be with her, I think. Or maybe I was wrong. Maybe I do like her. Is it because of the fact that she had resembled Melanie so much? Her intellect, her cunning, her snark, her optimism, the way she worries about the little things. But she wasn't nearly as funny as she was. Maybe I was starting to see her in Twilight and have started to grow to her as a response. If that's the case, then I can't go any further than friendship with her. At that point, I'd be seeing Melanie rather than Twilight.

Why did our relationship go so wrong?

Right, I had aspirations to join some fraternity, wore a dress and a g-string all during Hell Week, I was made to kiss her feet in front of my frat brothers and she had a fit over what I was doing. Words were exchanged and I had said something I didn't mean to say. Since then, I haven't seen or heard from her.

I forsook a friendship that could've turned into something better with time, all for wanting to be popular for the first time in my life. I took the blue pill and wanted to live an awesome college fantasy instead of facing the reality of what I was and who I was.

Yeah, I made a huge mistake.

*Knock Knock Knock*

A soft knock sounded at my door as I stared to my ceiling. "Who is it?"

"It's Twilight."

Feeling a bit lazy, as well as insecure, I stayed in my bed, calling back out to her. "What's up?"

I heard a frustrated scoff at the door. "Look, can you just come here?"

Taking a deep breath, I decided that it was time for me to face her again. Walking to the door and opening it just a crack, I peeked outside and saw the lavender alicorn standing before me.

"What's going on?"

"I should be asking you that. Sneaking around doors and whatnot..." She paused to see that my body was well hidden behind the wooden door. "Are you... naked?"

I opened the door wide to reveal that I was still in the same clothes I wore since the picnic. "Does this answer your question?"

Twilight sighed in relief as I stepped into the hall. "I was about to say. Well, follow me."

She started making her way down the hall, leaving me to wonder where she was going. "Um..."

"You, mister, have an entry to write in my Friendship Journal." She said as she telekinetically pressed me forward.

After only a minute or two of walking, we had stopped in front of her doors. In my case. It was the first time I had come here since the time Twilight took a bottle of liquor to the head and gotten herself shit-faced.

It would've been funny if it wasn't for the fact that she was very depressed about Flash rejecting her.

Opening the door, she waited for me to enter. "Journal's on my writing desk. You can feel free to write anything you want."

I walked in and looked over to the other side of the room, where a small desk with a quill and a tiny cup of ink awaited. The book laid open on an empty page.

"Hey just one question before I begin."

"Yes." She said as she closed the door behind her.

"Why are we doing this in your room, where we could've easily done this in mine?"

"Because every time I'm in your room, something awkward happens. Plus I needed to talk to you about something."

I sat myself at the desk, starting to twiddle with the quill. "Is it about the thing from this morning?"

"No. It's not. You've clearly expressed your desire to return, so I will not stand in your way."

"Then what is it about?"

Twilight gave me a playful smirk before levitating the cup of ink below the quill I toyed with. "How about I tell you after you finish writing your lesson."

With a childish groan, I felt myself revert back to the days where I was in grade school doing homework. "Yes, mom."

While she chuckled and stood over my shoulder, she watched my hand as it traced out each letter. The intricate, yet subtle strokes of my hand seemed to piqued her interest.

"I just don't understand how you write with those. Hands are so floppy and flimsy."

"I don't see how you can write with your mouth. You'd get drool and shit all over the paper." I shot back as I continued to write about one of my times here in Equestria, more namely, my first party.

"One, I am not a foal in training. We know how to write without drooling on the paper. It's something we've learn to do with time and training. Two, I'm a unicorn by birth, which means that my penmanship is very neat and legible because of my magic."

"So? You still drooled on the desk when you have to write with your mouth. The worst you can do with hands is scribble."

"Shut up and keep writing!" Twilight said, sounding defeated and annoyed.

So I guess that point goes to me.

As I finished with my passage, I signed my name while Twilight gave me a cheer. Rolling my eyes, I looked back to her. "There, miss teacher. I finished my homework."

A small giggle escaped her lips as she picked up the book and started reading. "I can't wait to read what you've put down."

What I actually wrote: In my time here in Equestria, I've learned that when others do you a major favor, your best option is to humbly accept what they did and to give appreciation. I remember where- Blah blah blah.

What I wanted to write: What I've learned in band camp is...

While she seemed invested into what I jotted down on paper, I was still interested in what she had wanted to talk to me about. "So..."

"So what?"

"You were talking about something that you wanted to say to me when I've finished."

Watching the purple mare jump in surprise, she reorganized her thoughts. "Oh right. Well, I was wondering about your headaches. Did you have any more of them today."

To be honest, I had a few and they weren't that bad. At least not as bad as the first few days where I couldn't even look at white paper. Which added to my misfortune when I had found out about my getting sued. "No. Not anything substantially bad."

"And your nosebleeds? I know you had one at the picnic when we had started to play some of Pinkie's games."

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure? I mean, I could-"

"Twilight." I walked over to her, hoping to stop her from being neurotic about my health. "I am no worse than I was when I first got here."

"Yeah, you say that. But I just want to make sure."

Joking around, I poked her in her side. "Really? So how would you feel if I was going to start poking around your personal business?"

She giggled as she politely pushed me off. "I'd be fine with it. Just as long as it doesn't get too personal."

"Yeah, but how about if I did it everyday?" I asked, repeatedly poking her everywhere my hands could get to.

As she started to back away, she started to laugh a little louder. "Nondis, okay! Stop, I'm ti..."

At that moment, I knew what she was going to say. She knew what she was going to say and stopped before it had fully gotten out. But it was too late now to avoid it. I was going to take advantage of every sensitive spot she had.

Leaping over to her, I lightly brushed my fingers against her hooves and at the base of her wings, tickling her as she wiggled and pleaded me to stop. "You gonna stop worrying about my headaches?"

The purple pony princess giggled as she tried to worm herself out of my reach. "Cut it o-ahah-out! Hahahaha! I can't bre-hehehe-athe!"

"No mercy for the nosy princess!" I shouted back as she continued to struggle against me. Twilight was on the verge of tears, a few of them starting to unknowingly streak off of her face. Her hooves playfully kicked and flopped as I continued to punish her.

"Hahaha! I command you-hahahaha-to get off of me-hehehe!"

"Make me!" I shot back, still taking advantage of the space under her wings.

Twilight then stopped laughing and levitated me off of her and raised me up. As I was about to get back up, she tackled me and laid me back down. She stood breathlessly over me, eyeing me with a vengeful glare. I attempted to move myself, but found that my arms and legs were bound by her magic. At this point, I knew I had fucked up.

"I'm gonna make your regret that!"

Since then she started to poke me in my nose with her hoof. "Boopies!"

Dammit, Twilight. Quit being cute. "Ah! Stop!"

"No mercy for the invasive human!" She stated, happily pressing my nose like a button. "Boopie. Boopie. Boopie."

Shifting my entire body weight, I found myself able to press against her, booping her back with my nose to her muzzle. Instantly, I felt the bonds on my arms and legs become loosened and I took the liberty of holding her still.

"Ha! I got you now!"

She didn't say anything. She didn't respond. She just stared back at me with a rather empty look. Her face seemed to have turned pinker as she looked down and away from my eyes. I had figured that something was wrong.

"Twilight, you okay?"

She answered me quietly. "I... I..." Finally getting her thoughts together, she spoke. "I didn't write that last journal entry."

Confused, I wanted to ask what she was going on about. "Twilight, what are you even-"

"But I really wanted to."

Caught completely off my guard, I felt myself pressed towards the floor as a pair of purple lips unexpectedly sank into mine. Her soft lips nearly crushed mine as she sought my response. The sweet scent of lavender filled my nostrils as she inched me back down to the floor. With every inch I fell, her push became desperate. And when my back became laid to the floor, I gasped quietly, unwittingly opening my mouth.

Our lips separated long enough for her to catch a quick breath before assaulting me yet again. This time, her lips pried mine open, allowing her tongue to seek mine out. A simple touch of our tongues and it seemed to have brought her back into the reality of what was done. Leaping off of me, she trotted off to the other side of the room.

"Oh my goodness. I-I didn't. I... It was a mistake. I shouldn't have. We... You... Me!"

I didn't care for what she had to say. I walked over to her, greedily cupping her jaw as I lunged back at her. Baited breaths grew between us as the heat of the room started to make us sweat. The excitement of kissing who we wanted, the release of the tension that nearly sucked the air out of us, knowing that we were different species and how wrong it was, we just wanted to see.

A juvenile curiosity with a much more adult desire.

Our kiss broke, leaving a panting Twilight and a lust-driven me to stand in the middle of the room. She shuddered and trembled as I held her close in my grasp. "We... We kissed." She said, stating the obvious.

"I know."

"We weren't supposed to." She sounded completely mortified, as if she had committed a heinous crime.

Deep down, I knew that I was just as scared as she was. I told her the one thing that kept me from running. "We aren't supposed to do a lot of things. Does that mean we shouldn't?"

"Yeah. R-research. H-human a... anatomy. Ph-phys...physiology." She tried to come up with whatever answer she needed to feel more comfortable. "Kissing releases chemicals in the brain that releases endorphins, which in turn will stimulate the-"

"Do you want to kiss me again?" I asked plainly.

"Yes." She answered without hesitation, even as she drove her lips into mine. But only for a quick second because of her fear trying to rationalize with pleasure. Releasing the prolonged peck, she gazed at my lips with a lost expression. "Slightly smaller than mine. Tongue is definitely the same length, but a lot narrower."

"Do you want another kiss?" I asked as I slowly slid my hand from the center of her back to the side of her cutie mark, just barely touching her.

"Yes. I do. For science?"

I silenced her words with a tongue shoved into her mouth. She deepened our kiss even further by separating the two of us and tugging on my lip with her teeth. As I drove to pull away from the slight pain, she pulled me back in, causing me to meet back with her. A soft moan leaves the princess' lips. "Bed."

"What?" I questioned, unsure on what she had said.

"Bed!" She shouted, magically tossing me onto her sheets.

The scene that played out was quite familiar to the time she questioned me last month about what I had managed to catch a glimpse of. This time, she seemed to have deviated away from nervousness and more into ambition. As I landed, she teleported on top of me, smiling at me. Her eyes glanced lower, barely brushing a hoof against the tightness inside of my pants.

I never felt so aroused.

My hand slid from her waist to the firm, toned cheeks of her flanks. A long gasp was drawn from her as my fingers dared to slide underneath the base of her tail. Continuing to tease her, I traced the ridges around her moistened nethers, making her squeak.

"Nondis, no!" She quietly cried out.

Unaware of what she had said, I had brought my fingers inward. My digits had started to wipe the moisture of her arousal off of her chastity rings that sealed her off. Being careful, I slid a finger inside. Twilight arched her back, losing all of her breath as pleasure shot throughout her body. Shuddering, she sank even lower against me.

"Nondis... no... please." She trembled between gasps of air.

Slipping my fingers from inside of her, her face filled with shock. "You want me to stop?"

She didn't say anything as her horn lit up, grasping around my wrist to prevent me from leaving her.

"You wanna keep going?" I asked her.

She gave no answer as her body started to rock against my hand, coating it in her juices as she stared back at me. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she greedily took my finger for a ride. Her body started to rise slowly and fall. I tried my best to be careful with her chastity rings. She whimpered as a starved dog to a butcher, her desire for more became her incentive to keep coming back. A finger was all it took to send shivers down her spine.

Meanwhile, I felt myself becoming uncomfortable as my pants suppressed any further growth. In seeing this, Twilight, unzipped my pants and quickly pulled my throbbing erection through, giving it the freedom I so long desired. My body shook as her magic encircled my hardened length, slowly gliding up and down. The warm ring of energy did a lot more than what my hand could do as she nuzzled the entire length.

"Don't you dare stop." I whispered, praising her for her abilities. My body felt as if it was ready to explode as soon as she adjusted herself on top of me. Whining, she dared to remove her chastity rings and throw them on the night stand. Finally, she sat on top of my twitching form, slowly rubbing every bit of me against her swollen slit. Her ministrations became an agonizing torture as we both felt ourselves wanting to take the next step.

My erection became smothered in her essence as I started to ooze out a thin coating of precum. Her grinding became more persistent and I had started to thrust into her as she slid back and forth. I wanted to be inside of her so much, and from her painful cries, I could tell she was more than willing to part ways with the one thing her rings had kept locked away.

"Fill me."

I opened my eyes to see that Twilight had stopped moving altogether. Despite her weight still providing a pleasurable experience, I desired more from her. But I knew that my desire would have to come after hers.

"Fill me. Right now. This instant." She commanded.

Twilight raised her hips, starting to align herself with me. I chanted in my head a slew of profane words I wanted to say to her as she rubbed her soaked lips against me. I couldn't take much of it anymore.

"Are you sure?" I questioned as I started to slowly thrust upwards.

I felt my entire body tightened as she jolted upwards in response to my thrust. After that, I saw her lock her eyes to mine, her mane sweep my vision and her tongue nearly steal mine from my own mouth. Our separation left a thin bridge of saliva to connect our lips. Happily corresponding with her wishes, I lined myself to enter inside of her, my misses becoming somewhat of a tease to the both of us. Finally hitting target, I started to prepare myself for the ride I was going to endure. At long last, Twilight sank her body against mine, just barely inching in the tip.

*BOOM*

Both me and Twilight jumped up at a moment's notice as we stared at the wide-open door. My chest sank as soon as I saw who it was that stood in the doorway.

"Twily, I heard crying! Are you..."

Silence ensued as Shining Armor stared at the two of us. Twilight leapt off of me and walked over to her brother, hoping to calm him down.

"Shining, it's not what you think."

Meanwhile, he stared swords into my body and the bed I laid on. I covered myself the best I could, only for him to rip the sheets off of me to see what exactly I was hiding from him. He looked to his younger sister, who shied away from him in disgrace. He then turned his attention to the slight glimmer of the chastity rings on the nightstand by the bed.

Angrily, he turned his head to the window and back to me. Kissing his teeth, he clopped his hoof against his leg, trying to sound as calm as possible.

"Yeah... We're gonna do this."

"Do what?" I asked stupidly.

A roll of his neck and a sickening cracking sound was the only answer I got.

I'm fucked.

Author's Note

~To be continued...

Chapter VIII

I'm fucked. I'm so fucked. And I don't mean that in a 'me getting laid' sense... Well, that was definitely gonna be a thing had it not been for Johnny swinging an ax at my bathroom door. Just to recap what had happened and what's going on now, Shining Armor, Twilight's older brother, had just caught me and Twilight in the act of taking it to home plate. The only thing that managed to stop me taking Twilight's virginity was that she leapt off of me while I was about to bury myself inside of her.

And right about now, the only burying that was going to go on was me going about six feet under. Or how ever many feet they used for equine standards.

"Shining, look. I can explain." Twilight said to her infuriated brother as he walked towards me.

I jumped out the bed walking to my left as I tried my best to put my dick back inside of my pants. "Hey, no need to-"

"I just caught you trying to deflower my sister. And last I checked, she was supposed to keep herself chaste." Shining stated as he still quickly walked over to me.

Trying to circle back to where I could back out of the door, I did my best to keep him distracted. "I'm sorry. Look, I know that this is bad, but I can assure you that-"

Shining saw through my plan and shut the door behind me, causing me to back into it. In a panic, I struggled to get it open while I could already feel his breath searing against my neck. "I don't need to be assured of anything. This is the second time I've caught you like this. The first time was when Twilight was about to kiss you, and now this."

"Twilight was drunk!" I defended. "And plus I didn't have an interest in her then."

"You... didn't?" Twilight whimpered quietly.

Me and my big, dumb mouth. Now I know I've said something that I'm gonna regret. "Look, Twilight. What I meant was-"

"Is that you didn't like me from the start? Is that what you're saying?" She said, starting to become somewhat aggressive towards me.

"NO! I like you. A LOT! You just don't know how close you've grown on me! I really, REALLY do like you now!"

"Oh, because my sister was about to give herself to you is when you say you like her? You're no different from the boys in the barracks. All for getting a mare so you could chase after tail." Shining intervened, standing in front of his younger sister.

"No! You're just assuming-"

"I'm assuming? No, I already know. I know what you wanna do. You wanna start with my little sister, thinking that you could just go start a harem of some sort."

"No that is not the point! She's much more than that?"

"Then who's to say that you haven't made yourself available to somepony else, just in case your efforts with my Twily were to fail?"

"It's not like that! I swear to you!"

"Prove it." Twilight mumbled, causing me and Shining Armor to look in her direction. "Prove to me that I am special to you."

My jaw clenched as I tried my best to come up with a quick answer aside from her being a princess. And the last thing I wanted to say was that she sort of remind me of my one true friend in the human world. To do that would be counterproductive towards my point. That was the last thing I needed to say.

"Twilight-"

"You said that there were far too many ways to count on how special I was to you. Now is your chance to prove it."

I cringed as the details of that one fateful evening came rushing back up, just like her previous meal came rushing back up to my shirt. Some of the things I had said because I was nervous of being around her based on the sole fact that she was drunk. Had I known that she'd grill me for what I said that night, I would've just left it at a simple yes. But now, my white lies had followed me back to here, and I didn't even remember half of what I had said. The first thing that came to mind was the first answer I gave.

"You... I have grown to admire you because of your... your..." Damn, dude! Don't fuck up now! "Uh... well..." I could feel my sweat pouring off of my forehead like water from a faucet. My throat grew dry. I had started to cough for no reason. My breathing grew staggered. I couldn't form a single, cognitive thought because my mind was so focused on an upset Twilight Sparkle, who seemed as if I had led her on. I felt fear because I knew from the moment her tears started to fall, would also be the moment that he started to pound me into a red mush.

"So I'm nothing, then?" Twilight finished while I still struggled to say something.

I really didn't want her to start crying. "Twilight... I can't put into words what I feel, okay. The thoughts I have and the words I speak are on levels so distant that they couldn't come to terms on what to execute. I... just couldn't tell you because... the words I use to describe you eludes me."

Shining's horn flared up as he took a step in between me and his sister. "Then how about I come up with a few words to say to you."

As his magic flashed before my eyes, I had found that my surroundings had changed entirely. Looking around me, I saw that I was back in my bedroom. And standing before me was none other than Shining Armor himself. Using his magic, he turned my head towards my bed.

"Do you see this bed?"

"Yes." I squeaked, fearing that he'd break my neck if I had said something out of place.

"That is your bed." He stressed angrily. "Which means that you are to stay in your bed. Not share one with my sister, not sleep in one with my sister, not have sex with her in ANY bed in general."

"I'm sorry." I weakly apologized as I started to feel his magic gradually squeezing my neck.

"Furthermore, she is a princess. So her chastity is not without reason. Princess Celestia has insisted that she'd stay pure until she meets with a stallion to marry. My mother also insisted on this concept since her foalhood so that she could focus more on her studies and not on colts. And you doing this had put one of her most sacred vows at risk."

"I'm... sor...ry..." His grasp on my neck began to cut off all of my air.

Walking up to me, he made sure that I could feel the breath fresh from his mouth as he whispered in my face. "So... that said, you stay the fuck away from my sister, or I will have you speared. Do I make myself crystal clear?"

"Eee... uuhh....urk!" My best attempt of speech was harshly snuffed out by a ring of magical energy. I wormed myself as I tried to find some means of obtaining air. Sadly, his arcane grip was far too strong for me. In seconds, I could see my world starting to fade into black. But not before Twilight had teleported into the room herself.

"Shining, what are you doing!?" She shouted to him, trying to pull his foreleg from under him. "Stop this!"

In the small tunnel of light I still had, I could see the cold menacing glare of the Captain of the Guard, carving it's way into my very being. He clinched his teeth and growled as he continued to tighten his grip on me.

"SHINING, STOP! YOU'LL KILL HIM!!!" I heard Twilight shout at the top of her lungs as my body started to go limp. My eyes rolled as I started to resign myself to unconsciousness. The princess still screamed at her brother, almost crying even. "SHINING, DON'T DO THIS!!! PLEASE!!!"

Finally breaking eye contact, he released the grappling ring around my neck, granting me with the gift of the air. I drew in a long, guttural breath, collapsing to the ground below. Coughing and gagging, I welcomed the oxygen back into my lungs. My vision had started to return to me as I took more breaths.

"Twilight, I don't want you being so close to him. He's not even our species." He stated to his younger sister, looking at me with condemnation.

The princess gasped, appalled at the words her brother spoke. "What? Are you even listening to yourself!?"

"I understand that you want to be his friend. But he's not staying here and he's not gonna spend anymore time than he has to!"

"That's not true."

"So he's staying now?"

"I... no... he-"

"Then restrict your time with him."

"Shining-"

"Your duty to him is solely to be his caretaker, not his lover. And I will be damned to see that my sister breaks her chastity vows with something that isn't even equine."

"Wh-what does it matter to you!? It's my vow to break. And plus you may be Captain of the Guard, Prince of the Crystal Empire, but this is my jurisdiction! Ponyville and it's citizens are under my care!"

"He's not even a citizen! And furthermore, you're my little sister. That said, you are my jurisdiction!"

Twilight almost sounded beaten as she started to back off of the argument. "I'm... not-"

Shining walked over to Twilight, lowering his voice to a calm, warm whisper. "You're my baby sister, the only one I have. I won't let you make this mistake. And I am a member of the guard just so that I could protect you. You remember what we promised to each other?"

Twilight looked over to me for a quick second before looking back to him. Her face filled with sadness. "That we'll protect each other, from dangers seen and unseen. But I can handle this."

His voice started to become stern again. "Twily-"

"I'll find a way to make things work. I'll find a way to make it where nopony gets hurt. I swear."

Still grasping at my throat, I stood up off of the floor. I made sure that I was slow so that I didn't alarm anyone. Still feeling a little raspy from the earlier attack, I spoke to Shining. "Look, I'm sorry. Things just got out of hand. What had happened back there, I'll take full responsibility for it."

"We'll take full responsibility for it." Twilight corrected as she stood in front of me.

Shining, still unconvinced at me, looked towards his younger sibling instead. "Twi, you know that you'll be punished for that."

Lowering her head, she confirmed her brother's words. "I understand. And it was my fault that I didn't say anything about my vows. I only explained to him that I was chaste for the purpose of my studies. Not only that, but I was the one to remove my rings. I actually came on to him... He didn't do anything."

Knowing that what she said was a lie, I offered to correct her. But I was silenced by a magical zipper sealing my mouth shut. Twilight gave me a quick scolding look before turning back to her brother, who still looked at me with disapproval.

"...This will never happen again." He said in a low voice. "Twily, let's go."

The sounds of hooves clopping against my floor is all I heard as I watched the bulky unicorn stallion walk out of the room. Twilight soon followed after, but not before stopping at my doorway to speak to me.

"Why don't you go explore the town? I'll need to take care of things here. And your being around will only provoke my older brother."

I sagely nodded in agreement, hoping that everything would work out between the two of them. "You're gonna be okay?"

"I'm fine. You?"

Clearing my throat, I was more than happy to still experience the air flowing in and out of my body. "I've had worse."

"I'm so sorry about Shining. It's just that-"

"TWILY!!!" We heard him shout from down the hall. Instantly, Twilight jumped at the sound of her brothers voice booming at her.

"Maybe later." She whispers before galloping down the hall, leaving me to my room.

I think I was going to take her up on her advice on leaving the palace. It definitely seemed like the best and safest option. To be hanging around a volatile Shining Armor, that was the last thing I wanted to do.

Taking my walk into the town, I had noticed that I still had a small amount of daylight left over. The sun was close to meeting with the horizon and I was as far away as possible from the castle. Looking around, I could see the various ponies making their ways off to their homes. Various vendors in the market have already started to pack up and leave. And I'm here trying to avoid going home for whatever reason. I needed something to distract myself while I waited for a decent hour to return back to the castle.

"Fuuuuuuuck... I'm bored." I droned out loud. At the very least I was bored and safe rather than entertained via an ass whopping from the princess' older brother. "There isn't much to do at this time of the day."

"I couldn't help but to overhear that you were in need of some light entertainment."

Oh hell, it's Discord. Well, at least this couldn't get any worse.

"So where are you hiding now?" I asked loudly, looking all around me.

"Look below." He answered, causing me to look at the ground. All I could see was a bird. But knowing Discord...

"Cut the bullshit. Why are you here?"

Discord, in the shape of a small bird, flew up to me and started to hover in place as he talked. "Well, I couldn't help but to overhear of your recent run-in with the Captain of the Guard."

Not surprisingly, he knew of my reason for leaving the castle. "Okay, little birdie. What else did you hear?"

"Oh, that's about it. I managed to listen in on when that brute, Shining Armor, was giving you a demonstration on the magical properties of unicorn gripping spells. And now you're wandering the streets in search of something to do with your new-found spare time."

He's not that far off though. "Okay. But that still doesn't explain why you were listening in on someone else's business."

Discord took a quick intake of air before he spoke. "Well, similar to you, I was left to wander the town. It seems that Fluttershy is very upset with me."

Cocking an eyebrow, I found myself trying to process Fluttershy being angry with Discord. If anything, she would normally give him a quick scolding rather than be angry at him. A very confusing revelation, indeed. "Upset? What did you do this time?"

"This time?" He asked, seeming offended as he transformed back into his original state.

"This time." I restated. "To be honest, you're always doing some shit. And I just so happen to be a new target for you to fuck with."

"Now now," He said as he patted me on the head. "You know what dear, old Applejack said about using such language."

"Question one: Is she here? No. Question two: Do I give a fuck? See answer to question one."

"Eh, I suppose I'll waste some of your time."

"Well get to it."

"It all started on a Saturday, at nine in the afternoon, when I drew my first breath in this world. From that very moment, I knew that my destiny was to-"

Facepalming myself, I interrupted his autobiography. "I said explain what had happened between you and Fluttershy, not give me your life story. If this damn story needed anymore character development, then I'm pretty sure that would occur in a later chapter."

"Yesh! No need for spoilers, Mr. Spoilsport."

So long fourth wall, hello dislikes and complaints in the comments.

Groaning loudly from Discord's annoying antics, I crouched down to bear with an uncomfortable headache. "Just tell me what's wrong." I said as I massaged my temples.

"Well... You remember that story about Fluttershy and that one vendor who embarrassed her in public and called her a doormat, correct?"

"Yeah. What about him?"

"I decided to pay him a visit."

Halting my massage, I turned my full attention to the draconequus. "...Carry on." I was genuinely interested in what he did to this guy. I wanted to know.

"I offered him a cherry. He immediately rejected me, calling me all sorts of names. I swear, you turn the streets into soap, make it rain chocolate milk from cotton candy clouds, flood a farm and try to take over all of Equestria with a power-hungry centaur and suddenly everypony starts chasing after you with pitchforks and torches."

"Just get to the fucking point, already."

Discord rolled his eyes as he waived me off. "Well, I know that Fluttershy would appreciate the intricate details of proper storytelling, but since you say so."

"Okay. Now back on track."

"So after his little rant, I decided to fill his entire plumbing system with cherries."

"Ingoing or outgoing?" I inquired.

"Both."

Sometimes, I was at war with myself over whether I should hate this guy or like him. But I gotta say, filling his plumbing full of cherries sounds like a pretty splendid idea. At least he can say that his shit does smell like... Oh fuck, that's funny. While I tried my best to remain stoic in the midst of suppressed volcanic laughter, Discord carried on with his story.

"So his pipes burst and now his entire home is left a mess. I told him that he shouldn't be such a doormat over the situation and he tried to punch me in the face. Me! I mean, who would want to punch this lovely grin?" He asked, smiling at me.

Being totally honest, I'd rate his face a good ten-of-ten. Would lovingly maul the shit out of it with a power sander and a chainsaw for good measure. "Weeelllll... Continue with the story."

"So when Fluttershy had gotten word of it on our way back to the cottage, thanks to him screaming at me from across the street, I managed to get a good talking to. And soon after, she had left me to find comfort elsewhere."

"Ouch." I had mumbled quietly, sympathizing with his current predicament.

"Yes. So my reason for lurking about is of the eviction variety. At least, in your case, it's more of a cool-down."

Yeah. Life can be a bitch, no matter how well she's dressed. "Wow. So what do you plan on doing now?"

"Well, I was actually on my way to the castle to speak with Twilight so that she could see about me spending the night. That's when I managed to overhear about your little situation."

I'm impressed. He actually had a legitimate reason for his trespassing. Under normal circumstances, I would expect him just to do it so he could have some useless gossip. But now, I could see that he was. in a literal manner as one Discord stood next to the other who was sitting down and blowing some tissues, quite beside himself.

"Do you have anymore tissue?" He asked.

Checking my pockets, I had found a small set that I would use in case of nosebleeds. "Here you go."

"Thank you so kindly, Nondis. I don't know what I would do without you."

Well, you could just go talk to Fluttershy... but that won't end well for either of them if he does that now. I had to think of a plan for Discord...

Oh God. I'm helping Discord. What in fresh prince of blue hell is this?

"So... what are you planning to do?" He asked me as I tapped a finger to my chin.

Shrugging my shoulders, I thought about heading over to Rarity's place. "How about the Carousel Boutique?"

The eldritch-like drake shook his head. "I'm afraid Rarity doesn't like me too much. She also caught wind of my antics and have placed me on a temporary ban from her shop. Why not the farm?"

And censor myself for the sake of someone else's hugbox-of-a-home? ¡No me gusta nada! "No thanks. I like my freedom of speech intact. And I can't fly, so Rainbow Dash is a no-go."

"So I guess..." That would leave Pinkie Pie. "...oh no."

"No is right."

"No."

"No no."

"No way in hell."

"Not tonight."

Chuckling a bit, I was amazed that we had managed to see eye to eye. "I like Pinkie and all, but she has a mouth that runs-"

"A million miles to every ounce of air."

"Yeah, that." And neither I nor he wanted to be talked to death by her. If anything, she was going to have us party all night... "That's it!"

"What am I missing?" Discord quietly asked me, seeming baffled at my sudden outburst.

"Discord... I know we may not always see eye to eye, but I know that Fluttershy is not one who can stay angry at you for very long. Meaning that she can hold a grudge doesn't mean that she can stay angry over what you did, especially if it was to that one guy." Because she's honestly giggling at the joke in between the lines. "So if you were to not go back, or go visit her..."

"She would miss me."

I know this is taking advantage of her personal fault of being kind, but if I was going to get Discord back into that cottage, I was the one who needed to play the shady guy in the dark alley. And if Twilight is neurotic towards me since she looks after me, then Fluttershy would be the same towards him.

That and we'd both be kept entertained for the remainder of the night.

"Yes, but what would we do all night? There isn't a single decent place open at this time of the evening."

Still thinking about how he managed to get himself into this situation, I decided that I should embrace my inner-deviant. There were plenty of ponies who would go out to restaurants for dating reasons. Tonight was no exception. There were three locations, two of us and all the time left in the world.

"Hey, let's go on a little... punking spree."

Three hours have passed since the start of our punking spree. In all the time it took us to move from the movie theater and change out the scary movies with boring nature specials that only an animal lover would appreciate, swapping out the menus of the diners with other restaurants in the area, informing the chefs that they had a night off and hiring the cooks from the fast food joints, yelling at ponies in the bushes and turning wedding proposals into nightmares of wedding ring boxes trying to eat the soon-to-be grooms, we have come to realize that our night was a resounding success.

And a fun one, to boot.

As we triumphantly marched down the street with a walking tub of ice cream as our drum major, we had found ourselves at the outskirts of town, close to the Everfree forest. While Discord veered over to a distinctive tree over a hill, I chomped down on a scoopful of ice cream.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I had asked the silent draconequus. .

"Nothing. It's just that I'm wondering how dear old Fluttershy is doing right now."

"I'm sure that she's fine. If she really wants you to come back, she'll come looking for you."

"I know... It's just that I don't like to keep her waiting."

For a while, there has been one question that lingered in my mind as I saw those two for the first time. I had noticed while everyone else had treated Discord as if he was a nuisance, she was eagerly flying in the air as he came to visit. Her smiles became a little more open. He'd practically turn himself down several notches while she was there. Not only that, but she had invited him into the comfort of her own home. I knew that it was rude of me to ask if they were seeing each other, but it was a question that burned in my mind since my arrival here.

"Hey."

"Yes." He solemnly answered.

"Do you like her?"

Appearing surprised, he tried to laugh it off. "Me? Like her? How could that be anything?"

"You seem to like her."

Suddenly, the draconian creature started to fumble with his speech. "Why... I-I-I never saw her as more than friends!"

Really? That is one big ass elephant in a small ass room. "So you don't like her?"

"No. What made you ask that?"

"Well, I only asked because she gave so much to you. Hell, even when the others had counted you out, she still stayed in your corner. Even when it got bad, she stuck it out for you."

"Nope. I would never think of Fluttershy that way." I don't see how he's denying this so much. "And besides, do you honestly think that I should invest my emotions into something that wouldn't be willing to invest in the same thing?"

Oh... He doesn't think she's interested. So as a means to harden himself, he's denying it altogether. Not a good way to go about it. "What do you mean?"

"Fluttershy sees me as a friend. I mean, we have our moments where we don't exactly get along but at the end of the day..." He starts to trail off, looking to the cottage at the top of the hill. "I don't see why we're even having this conversation."

"I think it's something to talk about." I stated, chomping down on the last of the ice cream.

"It's not really anything worth speaking on."

Silence grew between us as I swallowed the last wad of butter pecan. After a few seconds, I finally spoke up. "I think you should speak to her."

"Now?"

"Whenever you're ready. Tell her how you feel."

Scoffing at my offer, Discord summoned up an odd looking tree to sit on. "And what would that do? I'm nothing special to her." Sadness soon filled his voice. "She doesn't even see me as anything more."

"Have you asked her?"

"...Why do I need to?"

"You're scared to ask."

"I am not!"

"Then ask her one day. You'd be better off knowing how she feels than voluntarily being in the dark the entire time."

Discord adjusted himself on the top of his 'Thinking Tree', dangling his head down to the ground as he hung upside down. "Perhaps, I just don't want to know."

"Why is that?"

"Because..." An exasperated sigh left his body as he sagged. "I'm afraid that she'll reject me."

"That's it?"

"You make it seem as if it's easy. I don't like being rejected. It only infuriates me."

Shaking my head, I leaned against the tree he laid on. "How much does it infuriates you?"

"...Can we talk about something else?"

"Can you stop running from your heart? I don't think that's a possibility being that it's in your body."

"Then you don't know me. I'm the Master of Chaos."

Laughing a little bit, I mocked his claim. "Then you'll love being in love. That shit makes not a lick of sense."

"...I already am."

Stopping to turn back to the sulking creature, he summoned a picture of him and Fluttershy smiling at each other. "...But you just said that you didn't like her."

"I don't. I love her. There's a difference."

Taking a seat on the ground below, I kept my ears open for what he had to say. "Okay. So... what do you feel when you're around her?"

"Pain, pleasure, sickness, wholesomeness, joy, sorrow, elation, depression. I feel many things as I am composed of many things, but at the very least my body is able to come together. This... love. I cannot understand it. It confuses me, which I should like because it doesn't make sense. I mean, love itself is a chaos of it's own accord. And yet, I hate being so into it. It's a chaos that I cannot control."

"Yeah. Shit hurts a lot. I know."

"Do you?"

Melanie. Nuff said. "...It's a long story."

"We have the night. I'm sure that it's not too terribly late."

I knew that this was going to be a lot to tell, so I prepared myself to finally disclose, in detail, my friendship that turned sour. "...Well-"

"Discord?"

Interrupted, both he and I turned to the source of the voice. Our voices sounded out in unison as we saw a curtain of pink hair covering the face of a yellow pegasus. "Fluttershy?"

She kept her head low as she turned around, facing her cottage. "Discord, let's go home."

Discord jumped off the tree and walked over to her. "Fluttershy, I'm sorry."

"I know." She simply answered. "Now come home."

As the two started to walk down the road towards the cottage, I followed behind them, still making sure that everything would be okay between the two of them.

When we had finally climbed the hill, Fluttershy opened the door and showed Discord inside. I stayed by the doorway, uncertain if I should be following past this point. Starting to walk away, I heard Fluttershy quietly mew out to the draconequus.

"I love you too."

I almost broke my neck as I looked back to Fluttershy, who had tackled Discord to the floor and started to kiss him. It was apparent that my presence was far from needed. It was already getting late. Maybe I should be heading back home myself. Glimpsing back, I saw more than enough than what I had needed to. Discord was laid out on the ground as Fluttershy eagerly dropped her body on top of his. She gasped as she hurriedly slammed herself into Discord, who was lost in ecstasy.

Yup, a mare and her mate having at it on the very boarder of her doorway. Quiet gasps of air had turned into lustful moans and urgent grunts. It was almost like one of those nature flicks that we managed to swap out with the slasher flicks.

"Harder, Discord!"

Yup... Just as nature intended.

"Oh Fluttershy! I'm so sorry!"

"I know you are! NOW RUT ME HARDER!!"

So much fucking nature. So educational. Such graceful sounds.

"YES! FILL ME WITH YOUR BABIES! I WANNA HAVE YOUR FOALS!"

"Fluttershy, I'm coming. Quick, grab my balls!"

...And that over there is a tree. I'm gonna go get a better view of that hot maple action going on over there. Away from the cottage. Far away from the cottage.

From one tree to the next, I kept convincing myself to follow the trees on back to town. Wow. Those two were repressed as all hell. Since my departure, I could still hear the two howling into the night as I made my way back to the castle. And after a bit of a walk, I had landed myself into the front lobby. It wouldn't even take me a full minute to find my room.

Finally in the sweet, comforting embrace of my bed, I knew that I was home. Rest would soon greet me as I landed myself into my bed. The long, eventful day had led me from a park, to Twilight's bedroom, to my bedroom getting choked by her older brother, me taking Discord on a prankster's night out, my navigating to the castle as I heard two feral creatures mating in the distance and finally to my bed.

I'm so tired that I might just take my shower in the morning.

*knock knock knock*

Something seemed off about the sound of the knocking at my door. It was slow, but it was more heavy-hoofed. Assuming it was Shining Armor, I feigned my sleep.

*knock knock knock*

The knock, still timid in it's timing, persisted as time went by. After a little bit, I finally caved and rose to open the door. As I answered the door, I had to rub my eyes and check if I was seeing things correctly or if my vision was blurred from exhaustion.

"Princess... Cadance?"

She quietly whispered to me as she looked both ways. "I need to speak with you."

Feeling a little groggy, I decided to delay our conversation to a time more suitable for me to deal with. "Sorry, princess. I've had a long day. Can we talk in the morning?"

"It's very urgent and I am coming in." She said, sounding distressed.

Opting to challenge her, I stood in her way, but was quickly dispatched as she magically shoved me to the side. Closing the door behind her, she stood before me.

"I need to talk to you about what had happened earlier. I feel like I should explain a few things."

Assuming that she was talking about Shining, I decided to dismiss the conversation as quickly as possible so that I could get to sleep quicker. "If it's about your husband, then all is forgiven. I understand that I was in the wrong and-"

"Yeah, I know that." She hurried stated. "But I feel as if you don't have a clue as to what's going on."

Yawning, I tried my best push my words through. "That's a distinct possibility."

"So Twilight has never talked to you about her chastity vows?"

Immediately, my mind reeled back to the moment Shining had started to choke the air out of me. "No. But I heard a bit from Shining as he was about to put me to sleep."

"Nondis, Twilight is in deep trouble over what has happened between you two. And being that she hadn't explain her vows to you just made things worse for her."

Scratching my head, I asked the pink princess. "Worse as in how much?"

"Twilight is no longer caring for you."

I felt my heart drop as soon as the news hit me. My chest produced an empty, sinking feeling that came crashing in with guilt. "This is all my fault."

"From what she has informed me, your relationship with her was recent, like today-recent. So we can understand your not knowing of the royal chastity vows."

Waiving my hands, I pressed the princess for answers. "Wait a minute. What are these vows and what happens if one of them is broken?"

Cadance took a deep breath before settling down a bit. "The vows are simple. A princess must keep her body pure and chaste until the day of her mate's approval. Approval is made when there is another princess and at least twenty witnesses present. In the case of Shining and myself, our approval was a wedding."

"Okay." I answered. "So how long is the approval process?"

"Eighteen months, enough for the two to get to know each other."

So it's a year and a half. Sounds about right. "That makes sense. So what would happen if the vow is broken?"

"In Twilight's case, it's a minimum sentence. Separation from the royal and the unapproved."

"Okay. So what's the worst?" I asked.

"If a princess is deemed to be impure, then she is stripped of her title."

"And for the guy involved?"

"If minimal, then it's just separation. If maximum, then there are three courses of action. The first is that you are to be forcefully wed, as you are taking the responsibility of the broken vow. That is called a mended vow, meaning that it has been made right by the parties involved."

Apparently there was a lot more to those chastity rings Twilight wore aside from exhibition. "The second?"

"If the stallion refuses, then they were to be gelded." Oh, that didn't sound too bad. "Meaning that the testicles were surgically removed to prevent further mating."

HOLY FUCK, I WANT MY BALLS! I need those. I want my boys to stay firmly tucked right in my sack, still attached to my body. There was no way I was going to go through castration. A vasectomy is already hard on the thought, but this was far beyond that.

"...Third?"

Cadance took a pause. "This one is more of an archaic law, meaning that it's really old. And to my knowledge, it hasn't taken place as of yet. But from what I can remember, if a stallion was to force himself upon a princess, then he receives the maximum punishment. And that meant that he would be sent to the Badlands to live amongst the dragons. If he was to ever return, then he would be executed."

Suddenly, I'm feeling relieved that Twilight's punishment is at the very bottom of the ladder. At least her punishment was to be separated from me for a while. "So, I could've lost my junk."

"With you being a protected species, that would be a no. Which leads me to Shining."

"Let me guess, overprotective big brother?"

Cadance cringed as she tried to find a better way to explain herself. "No. More like super obsessive. Shining is a traditionalist, which means that he likes things as, and I quote, what they should be."

So is he right-wing nutjob bad, Tea Party bad, or just GOP conservative bad? "Is that a bad thing?"

"For you, yes. He is very strict when it comes to whoever's dating Twilight."

"How long has he been like this?"

The pink princess "Well, he's been like this throughout all of his life. It wasn't until days before we had gotten married where he became completely obsessive and skeptical towards another species being with a pony. But don't let his suspicions get to you. He'll still respect you."

"As long as I'm not dating his sister." Wow, that's like a farmer walking up to a man of a different color and shaking his hand, all while pointing a gun at him warning him not to get with his daughter. This place has a lot more parallels with my home than I had originally thought.

"Precisely. And as for Twilight, she will not be seeing you for a while. I mean, she will get to doing it again eventually, but not now. You're just going to have to lay low until this all has a chance to blow over. Give it about two to three months."

I'd be leaving around that time. So they want her to stay away from me until I'm given the green light to go back home. That really sucks.

"Okay. Well I now understand what's going on. Thanks for clearing that up." I said, walking towards my bed.

"Wait." She said, causing me to stop in place. Turning back to her, I saw that she seemed unhappy with the next bit of news.

"Okay. What's wrong?"

For the final time of the night, I made my way across town, walking side by side with Princess Cadance and one of her personal guards, Flash Sentry. Throughout my walk towards the next destination, Flash had talked to me about how bad he got it from Shining Armor the day after he rejected her. Throughout the morning shift, he was worked into the ground doing all sorts of physical exercises and simulations. Even going as far as performing suicides from here to Canterlot and back. And with it being an order from his superior, there was no way to reject it.

As for the reason why I am to Sugarcube Corner this late at night, there is a sound explanation. Being that Twilight was no longer taking care of me, that meant that all of her provisions towards me would have to come to a grinding halt. And with that bit of news meant that I was confined to a vegetarian diet once again.

It also meant that I didn't have a home to stay in.

I was even informed that in truth, Twilight had gotten off with a stern warning, thanks to the favoritism of Princess Celestia. But Twilight being her usual self, she still choose to follow through with the punishment. So she punished herself by giving herself that sentence.

In short, Twilight broke off her seeing me for the sake of making things right with her vows and her brother.

Finally arriving at our location, Pinkie opened the door with a very light smile on her face. After a few exchanged words and the movement of luggage, I was settled in. And as Cadance left, Pinkie closed the door behind them. I sat at a table on the other side of the bakery.

"Wow, Nonzie. You really did it this time." She said in a sympathetic tone.

Refusing to speak out of shame, I held my tongue. The only thing I wanted to do was to twiddle my thumbs until all of this blew over. Hell, I was hoping that this would be a done deal as soon as I had came back home. But instead, I'm sitting here in Sugarcube Corner, my new place of residence.

I snapped out of my daze as soon as I heard the rumbling of one of my bags. Turning around, I saw Pinkie trying to tote the cumbersome luggage on her back. I ran over to help her, but I found myself being rejected.

"No no! You're fine."

Finally opening my mouth for the first time since I arrived, I argued with her. "Let me help. It's my stuff."

"And it's my home. That means I'm accountable for you now."

Ignoring her, I grabbed the bag from her and started making my way upstairs. As I came to the top, I questioned myself on what I should do next. Pinkie walked behind me with a smaller bag and nudged me further down the hall. By the end of our journey, we had stopped in front of her bedroom. As soon as she opened the door, I was greeted with a mess of balloons and confetti. I even saw her pet alligator, Gummy, gnawing at an inflated balloon on her bedpost.

"Twilight had told me everything from earlier. She even told me what foods you like, what you'd like to read, the things that annoyed you at night and bunch of other crazy things."

Looking at the single bed at the end of the room, I knew that I was too big to lay on top of it normally. "So I'll be taking the floor."

Shocked that I would say such a thing, Pinkie dropped the bag she carried and bolted out in front of me. "No no no no no! Never! Not you! You'll take the bed."

"What about you?"

"I can take the room down the hall. I usually use it to keep the twins occupied. I don't mind sleeping there. It's okay. Go on ahead."

"Does it have a bed?"

"I'll manage."

Before I could say something against her, she walked out the room, taking her pet with her. "Bu-"

"Mr. and Mrs. Cake will talk with you in the morning. Just get some rest, we got a really early day tomorrow."

With a squeak and a click, the door closed, leaving me in a mess of balloons, confetti and my luggage. I supposed that she wanted to make me feel at home, but I just didn't. Comfort wasn't an issue, but rather my adapting to a new environment. I couldn't bring myself to take away someone else's bed, let alone Pinkie Pie's bed. Everything from the day had left a bitter taste in my mouth. Everything happened entirely too fast and I was completely unprepared. I wasn't even ready to hear the soft sobs coming from down the hall.

Pinkie was crying again.

I walked out of the room and followed the sound of her sobs to the room down the hall. As I turned the corner, I could see Pinkie laying next to a crib, wiping her tears away as she tried her best to suppress herself. Gummy held on to her mane, trying his best to comfort his caretaker. Pinkie knows that he's doing his best, but her tears still continued to roll. And it's all because of me.

I don't think I will be sleeping much tonight.

Author's Note

What will he do now that he's living with Pinkie Pie? Will he ever find a way to talk to Twilight again? Was it Pinkie who authored the mysterious entry? Stay tuned to find out.

I know that this started out a bit heavy, but I tried my best to even things out a bit. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.

Chapter IX

I awoke to what had felt like a pony pushing against me. I turned over in exhaustion, hoping to carry on with my rest. But to my dismay, the shoving continued. There was no possible way that it was morning already. Opening my eyes, I saw that there was a face in the darkness.

"Non-non, time to get up. C'mon."

Struggling to focus on who it was, my eyes closed under the weight of my eyelids. I was just too tired. But Pinkie persisted, shaking me a little harder than before.

"Nonzie, c'mon. You got to get up."

Sniffing and wiping the drool off the side of my face, I groggily looked to the pink mare standing beside me. "Nnnnnngh... What time is it?" I woozily asked.

"I know it's early, but Mr. and Mrs. Cake are downstairs. They're both waiting to speak to you."

I looked at the window, seeing that there was not even a remote sign of the sun rising into the sky. No birds chirping, no changing colors of the sky, pitch black still swallowing the room. Just how early did I wake up.

"What are we doing up so early?" I questioned, yawning as I stretched.

"We're getting ready for the early-bird specials this morning. That and we need to get started on our usual morning inventory."

One by the other, my legs staggered out of the bed, carrying me with them. Stretching again, my joints popped and cracked as I let out a long, strained groan. After I finished, I was still as tired as I was when I had woke up. "Where are they again?"

"Downstairs. But be really quiet when you get in the hallway. The twins are asleep."

Slowly yet surely, my body inched out of the door and down the stairs to meet with two familiar faces. Carrot was busy removing the chairs from the top of the table while Cup started to clean off the counters. As soon as I crept down the stairs, their attention soon shifted to me. Taking a seat in a nearby chair, I started to nod off. Luckily, Pinkie handed me a steaming cup of coffee that already screamed 'wake the fuck up'.

"Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Cake." I sounded out tiredly.

Cup walked over to where I had sat. Her husband followed suit. "Hello Nondis. How are you feeling today?"

Really, it's like four and some change in the morning. What else is there to feel? "Tired."

Carrot nodded in response to my broken-toned answer. "I can understand why. You're not used to waking up this early in the morning."

"But we do suggest that you start to, being that you'll be living here." Cup added.

"So let me guess, if I live here for free, I have to work here, right?"

Cup Cake shook her head. "Hardly. In fact, we'd be willing to pay you for your work."

"I'm sure that Pinkie has already given you the rundown of how her wages are paid, right?" Carrot asked me.

"You'd subtract her living expenses out of her check so that you'd be paid anyways. And then by the time that's paid off, then she can receive the rest of her check."

"Yes. But we're willing to pay you for any additional time that you would want to put in." Cupcake stated as her husband gave me a lively smile.

"I told my wife about the time when you worked in the kitchen with me. I can honestly say that you'll be a welcome addition to the Sugarcube Corner family."

The only thing that seemed to be questionable in this deal was how much they would cut out of my check in order to pay off the living expenses. And even then, I'd still collect a paycheck. This was my only option. "Well... I guess I could give it a shot, being that I live here now."

Cup clopped her hooves together with glee, feeling more than excited for my agreement to the terms. "You won't regret it."

At the same time, I felt a pair of hooves wrap around my neck, hugging me. "Ooooh! Non-non, you're gonna love being here! You'll get to meet up with plenty of other ponies here in the town. You'll get to spend some time with Pound and Pumpkin. You'll even get to help me plan more parties. I can't wait till you get settled in!"

"Now a few ground rules." Carrot added. "The first rule is respect. Respect the customers, respect the belongings, respect the rules of our little home."

Cup pointed to the pink mare behind me. "Though we moved out a while back, we still call this home. Ultimately, the home aspect is really more onto Pinkie Pie."

"Also, the second rule. Please feel free to be comfortable, but also remain courteous to others who share the same space."

"If there is something that you need to borrow, please ask us first. We don't mind if you borrow, but we would like it if nothing was to be broken."

"And a third rule. I know that both you and Pinkie are young, so I can only ask that if you two were going to do something, just remember to clean up after yourselves."

What did they mean by that? I know we might throw a few parties, but were they really implying that we'd... have sex on the counter or something? I don't think that will happen but okay. "I guess those shouldn't be too hard to follow."

"Great! That's good to hear." Carrot cheered.

"Glad to have you in the family." Cup said in a sang-sung voice.

"You'll love being here, Nonz!" Pinkie assured me as she clenched onto me even more.

Looking at the three ponies before me, they all shared smiles that seemed to brighten up the room. I guess the sun didn't really need to come up because they all seemed so bright. They were willing to take me in and more than willing to give me a job. Pinkie was more than willing to give up her bed for me. These three were making sacrifices long before I had even walked through the door. They welcomed me in their home with open hooves, despite my being different.

I'd write this in Twilight's friendship journal, if only she'd let me come near her.

Later that day, I had found out that my shifts wouldn't start until sometime tomorrow. At the very least, they wanted to give me a day to get settled in. But in reality, I had other plans. To this moment as the morning shines brightly in the streets of Ponyville, my bags have gone unpacked. If I had unpacked, then I would be giving up on making things work with Twilight.

I just hope I don't see Shining Armor again.

While my day went on, I had started to resent him for what he did. With each passing moment, I was reminded of the choke-hold he placed on me. I mean, yeah I was scared. But deep down, I was more angry than that. I was already assaulted by Caramel and to have Shining nearly snuff me out like that, I just don't see myself forgiving him anytime soon.

Yeah, it's true that I nearly did the nasty with his younger sister, who he considers precious and dear. She could've lost more than her virginity messing around with me, her title would've been stripped from right under her. I can understand his anger, but still I tried to apologize more than I was trying to play it off. I was admitting to my error and he was a squeeze away from dusting me.

It was almost embarrassing to beg for forgiveness and have someone else beg for my life. At least against Caramel, I had the dignity of going down with a fight. With him, there was just a sudden feeling of a magical ring around my neck.

Yeah, my mind was more on those two than anything. So imagine the folly that swam through my brain when I blindly decided to take a walk to the castle again. As soon as I had hit the front door, that's when my mind clicked back to what was said and done as a result of our lustful urges. I guess my walking here was really a developed habit. I couldn't believe that I was sitting here accepting that I wouldn't be seeing Twilight anytime soon...

No the fuck I'm not.

I decided against knocking. Opening the door, I waltzed right on in and started my march down the hall. And just as I turned a corner, I bumped into a familiar face. The purple princess rubbed her forehead as she took notice of me. I guess my luck wasn't all that bad.

"Sorry, sir. I didn't mean to..." As soon as she saw my face, I could see a bit of color fade from her cheeks. "No..."

I needed answers and I wasn't going to go anywhere without them. "Twilight, we need to talk."

Looking both ways to make sure that we weren't being watched, she pulled me behind a pillar and whispered to me. "You're not supposed to be here."

"I know that. I just came her to talk to you." I whispered back. "I had to hear something from you directly."

"Why are you even here?" She asked through clenched teeth.

"Because I want answers. You know that you're free to see me as much as you'd like."

"No I'm not. I have been ordered not to see you."

"That wasn't even the issued punishment. What you're doing is self-imposed."

"What I am doing," She stressed. "Is protecting you from Shining Armor. He's already pissed since he had to patrol the Equestrian border in the southern badlands. My brother has spies, and they are very loyal to him."

"Can't you keep them on the hush?" I asked as her eyes grew wide and her ears twitched. Apparently she heard something that alarmed her.

"SHH!" She covered my mouth with a hoof and pulled me closer to the wall. I didn't know what she was doing at first, but when I had heard the approaching hoofsteps accompanied by two stallions conversing amongst each other, I knew that she had just saved me yet another time. She kept her hoof over my lips, causing me to smell nothing but the sweet scented lavender she wore. I held onto her hoof, taking in as much as the intoxicating scent as I could while remaining quiet.

As a patrol of two guards walked past the hall we hid ourselves in, Twilight's breaths started to get a little heavier, gaining volume as she watched me worship the scent that emanated from her body. Realizing that she had become too loud, she found her silence locked into my lips. I drove my tongue into her as madly as I could while she pressed me further into the wall. As the guards passed completely, our clandestine kiss had erupted into a volatile exchange of tongue and flesh. Even our breaths became unified as we started to become entranced in lust. A quiet whimper snuck out from her throat as we separated.

Yet her desire drove me and her close yet again. She licked my cheek, quickly before greedily seeking my tongue to dance with hers. Our reunion was dangerously forbidden... yet it was eagerly welcomed. Like a untamed beast, she dared to corner me behind the pillar that hid our forms. Her wings started to unfold on their own and her tail had started to raise. It was at those signs when she backed off of me completely. Even I was left compressed, longing to be captive yet again by the moistened flesh of her nethers.

"That was close." I whispered, holding myself as I started to experience pain.

"You need to leave." She whimpered, trembling from what could've been the escalation of our passion.

"Why did you kiss me?"

"Are you really asking me th-"

"Why did you kiss me? It's a simple question that requires a simple answer. Why did you kiss me?"

"Because I know I can trust you."

"What if I said that I trusted you as well?"

"Then I'd have to ask you to leave, like I am now."

"Twilight-"

For the final time, she pressed her lips against mine. Our exchange was a brief and sloppy one, our lips smacking as we parted and our fluids uniting in a thin bridge. "Ugh! I can't stand being like this." She complained, shifting her hind legs. Looking both ways, she summoned up a letter with an unidentifiable seal set upon it. "This letter is your explanation. Now go. Stay safe. I'll see you in a month or so."

As her horn began to glow, I offered her one last question. "Wait, what do you mean by a month?"

I never got my answer. Before I could even finish my question, I was suddenly in a room full of pink decorations, rainbow streamers and numerous balloons. Despite my being in Pinkie's room, my lips were still moist from the sinful exchange that Twilight and I both shared. The lavender scent, as well as a light musk, still lingered in my nostrils. The tightness in my pants still remained as I held the sealed letter in my hands.

The answers to all of my questions were now within my grasp. Literally. I could only hope that this letter doesn't provide me with more questions than answers.

After reading the letter, I was given more questions to ask. But thankfully, my answers far outweighed the questions. It seems that the vows were made as an anti-scandal device of some sort. It would appear that there have been rulers in previous times where they'd have at it with some of the guards or one of the commoners. When the news had gotten out, Celestia had no other choice but to act accordingly.

Many were stripped of their power but given the right to marry. Some stallions, in refusing to marry, were gelded as a result. And being that there was never a rape case brought up with a princess' name on file, there was never a need to execute anyone.

Cadance was close to breaking her royal vows with Shining Armor. But it seemed that her wait was so prolonged, she sought to get approval. And given their infatuation with each other, they decided to go all-out by getting married.

Which lead up to the situation with Shining Armor. It seems that he openly admitted to his wrongdoing of assaulting me before the council. That being the case, Princess Celestia, also feeling a little biased with Twilight, decided to let her off with a warning and him with a temporary exile. But knowing that Shining Armor would still be angry with me for being with his sister, with the addition of being sentenced to patrol dragon country, aka the Southern Badlands, he'd be coming at me with a sharpened tool. As far as how long he'll be gone, no one knows. So to prevent any further conflict, Twilight decided to give herself the minimal sentence as a means to buy me and Shining Armor some time to cool off.

At the end of the letter, she went on to explain that her feelings couldn't go any further with me than what's already been shown for the past five months. She admits to liking me, questioning whether she'd see me as more than a friend. She kisses me full on the lips and doesn't know if she wants to take it further or not. If that's friendship, then I'm excited to see what she means by next level.

But she goes further to explain that she will not be seeing me for a full month, maybe even more. She will try her best to avoid me and advised me that I'd start looking for, and I quote, other options.

That's where the questions started to snowball from. Was she really asking me to see other mares? Perhaps she wanted me to search for something if things didn't work out between us. But my only question was who would be a fit for that? I've known her for five months and lived with her in that time span. No other mare here in town has been that close to me. I can give a list of close seconds but not anything near the depth of what she's done for me. I know that I do like her now. The hard part is knowing that I wont be able to see her for a month or longer.

I might not even get to see her until it was time for me to leave.

With my clothes unpacked, I had finally let myself sink into a trough. I took a seat outside of the place I now had to call home. I never weighted the option of being in a relationship during my time here. I just wanted to wait out my stay and leave on the first train smoking. But now, I've grown confused. As a human, I have grown attracted to equines. In that attraction, I've developed sexually and have grown even more frustrated as the time went by. And no signs of wet dreams for miles. Hell, I just suffered one of the worst cases of blue balls known to man. So for the moment, I decided to go for a walk, trying to distract myself from the real world.

I really hate being an adult at times.

When I was a kid, I was more carefree than anything. I didn't have to worry about tuition, the cost of books, room and board, gas money, saving up for an upgrade to my computer's RAM, Steam sales, social awareness, having sex to be popular, internet forums, cell phone bills and groceries. Hell, I didn't think that I'd have to worry about traveling to a new world and trying to start my life all over again, get my ass beat, get into a forbidden relationship with royalty and nearly get choked out by the princess' older brother.

Yeah, times were much simpler. All you had to do was make sure that your parents had bought you a playstation and you were ahead of the curve. Everything was already done for you. If you had to eat, your parents paid for it. If you needed school supplies, your parents got them for you. If you wanted to go to another class, you'd just walk down the hall. If you wanted someplace to sleep, then you'd go to your room, free of charge.

Life was easy then. But now as an adult, the world was your battlefield and everything was your enemy. Emotions matured and became complex to deal with as a result. People who were your friend way back when were now your enemy. They either envied you or they hated you. At least then, you were blissfully ignorant to those harsh realities. Things were a little more black and white then but now you couldn't be too sure. The world and it's people were all different shades of gray. You knew that there was a reason behind everything. And that's what makes things so difficult to tell which ones were genuinely troubled from those who were criminally insane.

When I was a kid, I didn't have to worry about any of that.

"Heads up!"

Looking up ahead, I could see a soccer ball barreling towards my head. Reflexively throwing my arms into the air, I defended myself from the ball's blow. Unsure on where it came from, I tried to identify it's source. As I looked around, I could clearly see that I was no longer in the streets of Ponyville, but in it's town park. More specifically, a soccer field.

Yeah, I know that the world has decided to call it football. But given that it is a stupid decision and with me being an American, I have elected to ignore it.

"Scootaloo, Ah thought we told y'all ta be careful!" I heard a young filly call out from my far left.

"Hey! I didn't know that he was going to be walking right into our goal post!" The young pegasi shouted back.

"Girls, I think we should be apologizing rather than arguing." Sweetie Belle said, trying to break up the two other fillies.

The three fillies faced me with folded ears and shame veiled over their faces. "We're sorry." The choraled in unison.

They really didn't have to. I wasn't paying any attention to where I was walking. My mind was more concerned with the long nostalgia trip I took rather than making sure that I didn't walk into a creek somewhere. "You three are okay. I should be apologizing."

"That aside, how are you doing today, Nondis?" Sweetie asked.

My day was already long enough without an explanation. I didn't need to bog myself down explaining everything that happened. "I'm okay."

Finally raising their heads, they continued the game I accidentally walk in on. Apple Bloom reset her position back onto the grassy field, or pitch as they would call it. "So, what brought ya over here?"

"You came to watch us play?" Scootaloo asked as she grabbed the ball from me.

"Actually, I just walked over here. So what's going on?"

"Scootaloo an' Ah are tryin' ta see who's the best at soccer. We're hopin' that the winner gets their cutie mark." Apple Bloom explained.

"And that cutie mark belongs to me." Scootaloo argued.

"It does not!"

"Does so!"

The competition between these two had a familiar edge to it. Apple Bloom and her older sibling, as well as Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash being of no relation but similar ideals, often butted heads over who was better at what. I'm just hoping that I don't have to wear a dress this time.

"Okay. So what are you doing Sweetie Belle?" I asked, turning to the white unicorn filly.

She smiled luminously as she levitated a clipboard, holding a scoring chart with a slew of chicken scratch all over it. "I'm keeping score!"

I chuckled and rolled my eyes at the mess on the score chart. I saw a few tally marks, a few flowers, some hearts, arrows, the quadratic formula, a haiku and a picture of a chicken with Scootaloo's head on it. "That's... quite a score." I tried my best not to burst out in laughter.

"Really? Maybe I could get a cutie mark for being a good scorekeeper!" She said enthusiastically. Though it wouldn't be likely for her talent to be one.

"That's great! Keep it up!" I encouraged, not wanting to break her spirits.

"Enough chit-chat, ref!" Apple Bloom shouted to Sweetie Belle. "It's time to get this game going."

As I watched the three fillies run back onto the pitch, I felt myself becoming distracted from the nonsense that plagued my mind. Instead, I enjoyed myself watching Apple Bloom and Scootaloo trying to score against one another. I didn't have an interest in the sport, nor could I help Sweetie Belle keep score as she continued to carelessly scribble on the score sheet. I just had fun watching the two jump at each other, tripping each other and fussing that they didn't get a foul call. Sweetie Belle was too busy humming and drawing while the other two went at each other's throats. It was quite a hilarious sight.

That's when it had hit me. I needed a day to embrace my inner-child. One could argue that the pranking antics of last night could be me doing just that, but Discord and I were doing it to ponies who were on a date. Even then, he was having his own issues while I needed to escape from the castle.

Today would be a day where I could finally cast my cares to the wind as if I was back in elementary school.

As time passed, the two combatants finally wore themselves breathless, frustrated that neither of them could hit the back of the net. Sweetie Belle as more frustrated that she had ran out of paper to doodle on. My mind continued to flash back to the times I used to do this in my own world. Kids would run around and play various games on the playground. It was a much better comparison to the preteens who only sat on the ground, playing Flappy Bird on their ipods and smart phones.

Though the reactions they produced when they failed were something to laugh at too.

"I... give up..." Scootaloo panted as she laid on her stomach.

Apple Bloom was in no better condition. "Ah... can't take... anymore of this."

"Well at least the two of you are doing fine. I ran out of paper!" Sweetie added.

"Neither of us scored." Scootaloo staggered as she tried to regain her breath.

"Yeah. But now I don't have anything to draw on." Sweetie clarified, drawing moans from the both of them.

"...Seriously?" Apple Bloom deadpanned. "Ya only had to keep score. An ya waste all of the paper drawing instead!? Ya had one thing ta do!"

"Sorry. I guess I was a little bored while you two were kicking the ball senselessly at each other."

I guess that's something Sweetie and I both have in common. Soccer was never a vested interest of mine. Sports in general were okay but my interests were of the Japanese-animated variety.

"Now neither of us aren't gonna get our cutie marks." Scootaloo droned gloomily, causing the two other fillies to sink their heads in response.

"Aw! Don't feel too bad, girls. I don't have a cutie mark and you don't see me complaining." I stated. My only response were blank looks from the three fillies who thought I was dumb for making the comment. At the very least, I tried to make them feel better. But it seems that Sweetie Belle was the first to have a light bulb pop on above her head.

"I GOT IT! Nondis, remember how you said that you would one day go crusading with us?"

To be honest, I didn't even remember saying anything like that. Did I make a promise to go crusading with Sweetie Belle and the others? I don't recall. "Well... I... don't think I do."

"That's a lie and you know it!"

Wow, I give Sweetie credit. She will call you out for something that you may or may not have said. At the very least I wasn't being crucified for it. "What lie!?"

Sweetie cleared her throat and walked up to me. "I remember you distinctively stating that you would go crusading with us. It was two months ago and we were walking down the street to help Rarity carry some of her bags from her shopping trip." Okay, that I remember. "We also had a conversation about you not having a cutie mark, just like this one now." I remember that too. "So I asked you if you could come crusading with me and Rarity said not that day. So I got a little upset and you said that you would. You said, and I quote, 'Cheer up. If I'm free one of these days, then of course I can go crusading with you and your friends.' That's what you said."

In my time here, I have learned to appreciate and curse a unicorn's memory retention. Twilight has shown her ability to maintain her memories when completely plastered and even months down the line. That meant that Sweetie Belle memories would be in picture perfect HD being that she wasn't under any sort of influence. Scary, huh?

"Oh... Did I say that?"

"You know you did. Now today's the day where you make good on your promise."

"I didn't even promise it!" At least I don't remember that I did. Maybe she could recall something else that I might've said to imply that I had promised that. But either way, I was definitely in need of an escape. So I guess I could go on ahead and play crusader for just today.

"So... you don't want to go crusading with us?" Sweetie questioned with a growing frown.

"Not in the slightest." Her head sank low as I denied her question. "Bah! I'm just pulling your leg, of course I'll crusade with you today."

Sweetie and the others smiled from ear to ear as they all tacked me collectively, enough to push me to the ground as they all gave me a hug. Cheerful banter was all I could make out as the three continued to show appreciation.

"Okay! One at a time!" I pleaded, hoping to settle them down. "I can't make out what any of you are saying."

In unison, they all shouted the wax out of my ears. "Cutie Mark Crusaders! YAY!"

While I still felt a slight ring in my ear, I smiled back at the three fillies who held me against the ground. "Great. So what are we doing today, Cutie Mark Crusaders?"

Throughout our day, the girls and I have done a variety of things around the town. We started off our journey with sailing, but found ourselves being unable to how to navigate a boat. So after being stuck at the docks for over an hour. we tried hiking. By the time we came down, the girls were still upset that they didn't get their cutie marks in that either. Shortly after, we volunteered our time to help some of the floral ponies plant flowers in their gardens. After the girls clumsiness with potted plants, we were shown away. But in time, their destructive ideas have even inspired them to make a disaster movie. After many hours of trying to come up with a script, nothing came to mind. So that idea was immediately abandoned.

Despite our reoccurring failures, we all found enjoyment in the time we spent with one another. By the time that the sun had started to burn out, we sat in the empty auditorium of the local schoolhouse. Sweetie wanted to try her hoof at play writing again. She said it was something that she did once before, but was greatly outshone by her sister's costumes. She knew that Rarity had did the costumes specifically for her, but she was still a bit bummed out that everyone else was more interested in what they were wearing rather than what they were seeing, the lines that were spoken.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were too busy laughing at some old, broken props that they said they had used once before. Scootaloo especially was laughing at the thought of her singing on stage again. Apple Bloom was mocking herself for her interpretive dance routine she did at the show. I grew envious that I wasn't here to see it. But I guess that couldn't be helped. I'm just an outsider looking in.

Looking over to the end of the stage, I saw an old-looking piano. Walking over to it, I rubbed my fingers against the off-white keys. It felt a little gritty and worn, but when I pressed a note, I found that it was one of the best sounds I've ever heard an instrument produce. No tacky wavelengths, no dual-tones, no clashing noise, just pure sound.

"Do you play piano?" Scootaloo asked as she crept up on me, startling me a bit.

"Whoa! Didn't see you there."

"Don't tell me that I scared you." She mocked.

"No. Just caught off guard." I rebutted, returning my attention to the instrument.

"Well, do ya?" Applebloom asked as she banged a few notes on the lower register.

"I don't play it. I guess you can say that I dabble a bit. The reason I started to pluck at it is because of a few anime and videogames that I liked."

The three fillies became lost at my answer. Scootaloo was the first to ask. "What's anime?"

I guess my otherworldly reason seems to be hit-and-miss. They don't know what anime is, nor would they ever know because it doesn't exist here. "It's a type of entertainment medium. It's sort of like stuff you watch on TV."

My explanation seemed to only deepen their curiosity. "What's a TV?" Sweetie asked.

"A TV is like a radio. Only instead of just sound, it's like a moving picture screen in your living room, or your bedroom."

"So, it's like a movie theater in your own house?" Scootaloo inquired.

"That's so amazing!" Apple Bloom complimented.

"Wait, did you say your living room... AND your bedroom?" Sweetie asked.

"Yeah." I can't believe I haven't told anyone this before. I would've expected Twilight to explain a bit of my world to them, but it seems that she hasn't gotten a chance to. "In fact, you can have one in your car, you can have one on a plane, you can even have one in your hand."

Smartphones being the prime example of this.

"WOW!" The three fillies seemed interested in the technological advancements of my world. Then again, the telephone isn't exactly a known medium of communication. But at least telegraphs are still in use. So it's safe to assume that phones wouldn't be too far off.

"Tell us more!" Apple Bloom demanded.

"Don't worry. We swear not to tell anypony!" Scootaloo reassured as Sweetie Belle stepped between them.

"Your secrets are safe with us. Crusader's honor."

A slight smile grew on my face as I found myself as the center of the fillies' attention. I know with my being different would always be the subject of interest for most of the ponies in this world, but I still think that it's a bit humbling that there are others who have a genuine interest in me. Even for a moment, I knew what a celebrity felt like.

But I still wouldn't tell them everything about the human world. I gotta leave something to talk about the next time. "Eh... Later."

"What!? Why!?" The three asked me in shock.

"Because I can't tell you everything in one go. Besides, you three have been looking around the old props and haven't told me a thing as to why they make you laugh."

"Huh?" The three quirked their eyebrows and tilted their heads.

"What makes these props so special?" I asked them, hoping to gain some context on the matter.

"Well, it's an embarrassing story." Apple Bloom mumbled as she played with her hoof. "But do ya remember when we told ya about the performance we did a long time ago? These were the props that Sweetie Belle made."

Sweetie gasped, seeming somewhat offended that the two had spent time laughing at her old work. "HEY! Those were my first props! I came a long way since then!"

"Yeah, but since when was the sun brown?" Scootaloo pointed out to a sharp, pointy circular piece of unpainted wood, giggling as she pulled out the hazardous prop.

"I ran out of paint! I didn't have any yellow after I colored in the house. What about that time when Apple Bloom kicked the tree prop and got her leg stuck in the hole?"

Apple Bloom laughed at the horrendous affair that continued to ring loudly in their memories. "Yeah, I'll admit that I should've let Scootaloo do the dancing. Her singing was absolutely horrible."

At this point, I was too busy laughing at the three as they bickered amongst each other. Everything from my chest down to my waist was aching from my perpetual chortle.

"Shut up! I had a sore throat! You know I sing better than that."

"Can you?" Sweetie asked with a smirk.

"Maybe it should've been you who should've sang in the show since your props sucked. You should've left the wood work to Apple Bloom."

"NO WAY! I can't sing in front of everypony! I'd sound horrible. If my voice sounded horrible then I'd die of embarrassment."

"Uh... Sweetie Belle," Apple Bloom interjected. "Ya are the best singer of the group."

"Oh no no no! All that Apple family talent? Applejack can play an instrument and sing at the same time. Pinkie Pie can sing and play multiple instruments. Big Mac is apart of the Ponytones-"

"Rarity is apart of the Ponytones, and she's yer older sister!"

"But I can't really sing sing. Just... croon."

"How do you know that for sure?" I finally asked her, recovering from my fit of laughter.

Sweetie Belle opened her mouth, but words failed to exit. As she took a moment to think, a startling reality had hit her. "I don't. Look, I'm just scared."

There was only one way to know for sure. "Sweetie, can you sing me a song?"

"S... s-s-s-sing? FOR YOU!?" She stammered as her face started to turn beet red. Looking away nervously, she tried to go down a list of excuses of why she thought it would be a bad idea. "I think I'm a little sick. I got a frog in my throat. I haven't warmed up. I haven't had any warm tea. I-"

"Please?" I simply requested in a low, fatherly voice.

As Scootaloo and Apple Bloom cheered her on, Sweetie Belle finally broke down, giving in to my request. "...Fine."

I walked up to her and placed an empty microphone stand in front of her. As I started to walk away, I had noticed that she had started to shake. "Sweetie, just pretend no one's here." I advised.

Starting to rub her throat and backing away nervously, she staggered in her speech. "I... eeee... aaah... I can't."

I tapped my foot, wondering what would be a better way to get her to sing. I found myself staring at an empty sound booth on the far end of the auditorium. As my line of vision panned across the room, I saw nothing but a bunch of empty seats.

And that was my answer.

"Sweetie, do you see those seats?"

"Y-y-y-you want me to imagine-"

I held up my hand to cut her off. "Not in the slightest. What you see is an empty room. No one is here to judge you or call you harsh names. Your audience for today is the dust in the air."

"So no one is here?" She started to warm back up.

"I'm not even here. Just have confidence in you and you alone. Look to those empty seats and find that there's not a single pony there. It's all you."

Sweetie drew a few deep breaths as she closed her eyes. As she took a moment to gather herself, I walked away as quietly as I could. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom remained quiet as they waited for the first note to fall from Sweetie's mouth. A final draw of breath, a quick intake.

And she started to sing.

Short steps, deep breath
Everything is alright
Chin up, I can't
Step into the spotlight
She said, "I'm sad,"
Somehow without any words
I just stood there
Searching for an answer

I sat at the piano quietly listening to her. As I heard the fluctuations of her tone, I had gained an idea of where she was going to go with her song. As soon as the final words of her first verse had ended, I had figured out her key. Raising my hands to meet with the white keys, my mind focused on the F-major arpeggiation I would play behind her. Her chorus came in, and I played behind her.

When this world is no more
The moon is all we'll see
I'll ask you to fly away with me
Until the stars all fall down
They empty from the sky
But I don't mind
If you're with me, then everything's alright

As I continued to play, Sweetie looked back to me and gleamed brightly as I accompanied her. She grasped for the breath that left her as soon as I came in. I nodded my head at her, trying to remain focused on the notes I played. The other two rooted us on as I awaited Sweetie Belle's next verse.

Why do my words
Always lose their meaning?
What I feel, what I say
There's such a rift between them
He said, "I can't
Really seem to read you."
I just stood there
Never know what I should do

When this world is no more
The moon is all we'll see
I'll ask you to fly away with me
Until the stars all fall down
They empty from the sky
But I don't mind
If you're with me, then everything's alright.

I continued to play, slowing down as we came to the end of her song. When I had looked back over to her, I could see that her eyes were slightly reddened from the tears that trailed down her face. She looked directly at me, breaking her voice for a single second before she finally finished.

If you're with me, then everything's alright.

As she held her final note, I felt the emotions that spilled down her cheeks. Her very soul lied bare for the three of us to see. My playing finally ceased as I let a C ring low and long. When my foot finally left the sustain pedal, I watched Sweetie Belle run to me. She clenched me tightly, sniffling as she thanked me for playing behind her. Really, I needed to hear something like that. It brightened up my day on so many levels.

Everything was perfect.

"BOO!"

And then that tender moment had all came crashing down as I looked up to the very back of the room to see two other foals of equal age, laughing at Sweetie Belle's song.

"What the fuck's your problem!?" I had shouted back as they walked up to the stage.

"The problem is that Sweetie Belle actually thought that she could sing. Does she even know how to hold a note?" The light purple filly asked.

"All that sounded like was a dying bear. No wonder she'll never get her cutie mark!" The gray filly jeered as she and her friend pointed at the three crusaders.

"Blank flank, blank flank, blank flank!"

Bullies... That one aspect of childhood that was an introduction to the harsh world of growing up. If I could recall, those two were the two girls who always made fun of Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle for being late bloomers in finding their special talents. A reoccurring hobby that they often shared.

I've been meaning to have a few words with them.

"So what are your special talents?" I bluntly asked them, seeing if they would give me an honest answer.

"What does our talents matter to you?" The gray one, named Silver Spoon, questioned me.

"It's not like you have a talent of your own. You can't get cutie marks anyways, blank flank ape creature."

...I'm sorry, did she just...? Yes she did. She went there. She really went there. Why did she go there? "Excuse me?" I wanted to make sure that I heard that correctly.

"Hairless... abomination... CAN. YOU. UNDER. STAND. ME?" The purple filly by the name of Diamond Tiara mocked me as her friend laughed at my expense. Yeah, it's exactly what I thought.

I guess it's about that time to cash in that reality check.

"So... Your cutie mark is a tiara." I said as I pointed to the purple filly. "And your's is a ruby-encrusted spoon of silver?" I turned my finger to the other filly who had finished laughing at me. Pointing back to the purple filly, I only uttered one word. "Rich..." My finger then pointed to the other filly. "Spoiled...."

The two didn't seem to have a problem when I had called them out on it. But I was going to much deeper than that. If these two were going to play bully, then I'd think that it's time that they had a bit of that formula dished back at them. Circling my fingers at the both of them, I finally spoke the final two words of my summary. "Brats."

They stopped smiling as soon as the insult had left my mouth.

"So tell me why do you make fun of these two for not having something that indicates their individual talents? Why them and no one else?"

Diamond stood up to me and tried her best to defend their reason for bullying the three fillies that stood behind me. "It's because they're way too old to not have their cutie marks. We were like the first ones to get ours in our class."

"Really? So you two were in so much of a rush to define yourselves that you didn't care to what you wanted to be seen as in the long-run?"

"What does it matter? We have our cutie marks and they don't." Silver answered.

Neanderthal bully logic. "Why? That can only mean that their destinies are much larger than what you two could possibly comprehend."

"Boring! Those three blank flanks over there had already said that to us! Spare us the lecture." Diamond sassed as she turned around to leave. Silver followed suit.

"I think that you two are scared of them."

The two bullies took a single step forward before stopping in their tracks. Their faces were well out of my sight, but I knew that they were surprised to hear me say that. Diamond was the first to turn back around. "T-that doesn't make any sense. Us? Scared of them?"

"Yeah." I nodded my head as I continued my rant. "You're terrified of what they could be. You see, your cutie marks just so happen to be a reflection of what kind of person you can be, not just your special talents. So with yours being what they are, it means that everyone will only see you two as stuck-up, insecure, unfulfilled, self-entitled, arrogant, close-minded, uninteresting pair of ponies who can't seem to understand the basic guidelines of social acceptance. So instead of starting from the ground up, you decide to build your reputation on the backs of others. You make fun of what they are, fearing what they could be and how powerful they will be in the future. You tone them down so you can feel better about yourself."

"What?" Silver asked, backing away from me almost terrified that I was willing to dig deep into their psyche.

Diamond had already started to march off. "Let's go, Spoony. He doesn't know what he's talking about."

"There you go, running away. You can't even perform the basic principles of standing up to your problems, so you cause others problems in hopes that what you put out is enough to throw everyone else off of you. But in the end, when the ones you've oppressed stand tall and proud of their accomplishments, you'll be the ones left questioning what you did with your lives."

Frustrated that I was still chewing them out, Diamond turned back to me screaming. "I don't need to hear this! My daddy will-"

"Do what? Solve your problems for you!? In case you haven't noticed, daddy won't be around all the time. Mommy won't be around all the time. No one will be left to be your little hugbox for when things don't go your way."

"SHUT UP!" Silver Spoon shouted as she stood in front of her shocked friend.

"Sweetie Belle is a wonderful pony, a beautiful little filly with so much more promised to her and an amazing singer. Something. That. You. Aren't... And judging from the cutie mark on your flank, something that you'll never be."

"Y-y-you... BIG MEANIE PANTS!" Silver shouted as both she and Diamond took to the exit. As I was left to cool down, I had felt my heart racing at a million miles per hour. I couldn't believe that I had actually said all of that.

I guess I was a little too real?

Apple Bloom stared at me slack-jawed, unsure on what had taken place. "Nondis... that was..."

"Totally awesome! I can't believe you just told them off like that!" Scootaloo enthusiastically hovered in the air for a short while before landing back on the ground. "That was totally epic!"

Sweetie Belle, still recovering from the verbal lashing I gave to the two bullies, gave me another hug, followed by a quick peck on the cheek. "Thanks for standing up for me."

I patted the young unicorn filly on the head as I playfully winked back at her. "Whatever, munchkin."

I guess I could understand why these three stay together as often as they do. With their current search for their talents, it almost feels like they're going against the world.

They are going up against the world. In society they're often seen as misfits because they developed a little late. But all they are are just late-bloomers. There's no need to ostracize them because they can't help what they are. If there's anything to scrutinize, it would be the ones who takes advantage of other's generosity, their meekness, their smiles, their honesty, their fealty. If anyone or anypony has to take advantage of one's good nature for the sake of self-gain, then truly they are empty in their lives. They don't accept that they are empty and elect to bury others under the foundation of their false livelihoods.

Those are the real misfits.

After a long escort of the three crusaders to their respective homes, I found myself dog tired. My legs were a little sore, my arms felt a bit heavy, but my heart was as light as a feather. I had entered the room that I would sleep in for the next month or so, finally letting my body hit the comfortable mattress. A long breath exited from my lungs, thinking about the day I've had. The only thing that I didn't look forward to was waking up at four in the morning. But even then, this day made me happy in spite of my circumstances.

*knock knock knock*

"Come in." I called out.

The door swung open, revealing Pinkie after a hard day's work. She was covered in flour and frosting, her hooves were matted with cupcake batter and her mane was an unorganized mess. And not in the usual way.

"Damn, Pinkie. You look like hell."

The pink pastry chef just chortled back at me. "Look who's talking."

"So... whatcha doin' here?" I asked, still looking up to the ceiling.

"This is my room, silly. I'm not allowed in my own room?"

"I didn't say that nor have I implied it."

Pinkie slowly sat on the side of the bed as I laid there. What once filled my vision with cream white was now nothing more than pink, fuzzy curls and vanilla-flavored frosting. Pinkie nudged my arm, causing me to cringe slightly. "I've heard about your little adventure with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Those three have a real deep respect for you."

"I've noticed." I said, sounding a bit strained.

Her face begins to show a little worry. "You okay?"

"I'm fine."

Pinkie and I stayed silent for a long while. She started to lean against me a little, sighing as she felt the air fill and leave my chest. "So, you're good with foals, huh?"

"What, you need me to help you with the twins tomorrow?"

Pinkie booped me in the nose, finally letting her entire body lean against me. "No. I was just wondering."

"Hey I gotta ask you something."

The round, sapphire orbs locked onto my eyes, filled with their usual glow of optimism. "Ask away."

"Why were you crying last night?"

She blew a curl of her mane out of her face as she looked towards the hall. Just outside of the room was a row of portraits, and the one that stood just outside of her door was one of her, forelegs anchored around a tan-colored earth pony with green eyes and a curly mane similar to hers. "I started thinking about him again."

Cheese Sandwich, her most recent relationship. Thanks to the long distance that separates them, Pinkie had found herself becoming saddened over his inability to be around. "What about him?"

"How he feels about me. How I feel about him. What's gonna happen to the two of us."

I started to scratch her behind the ears and rub her belly, hoping that I'd cheer her up a bit. "I'm sure that it'll work out."

"...I'm not so sure it will."

That was something I didn't expect her to say. Usually she would be optimistic about something, but it had seemed that she had become more skeptical. This wasn't like her at all. "Pinkie?"

She drew in a deep breath, taking her eyes off of the portrait in the hall and to the hand that rubbed her belly. "To be honest... I don't know what I feel anymore."

I stopped rubbing for a moment. "Why not?"

The pink mare sat up from on top of me. Turning her head to face me directly, she spoke in a silent voice.

"Because of you."

Author's Note

Is this a confession? Stay tuned for the next chapter to find out.

Also the song that Sweetie Belle sang.

Chapter X

"Because of you."

My hand froze in place and twitched as I was left to wonder what the hell was going on. I knew that Pinkie had some interest in me, but not nearly enough to just fall in love with me. I don't know what the hell I want to do myself, but this was a new level of mind-fuck that I was far from ready to experience.

"Because of me, what?"

Pinkie stared at me for a brief second before she started to look back down the the hardwood floor, playing with her hooves. "Because... I... The things you say, the things you do. You give me a lot of comfort. I feel I want you around. You're like one of my closest friends. Perhaps even closer than anything."

I didn't exactly know how to react. If there is one thing that I know about this pink party mare, it's that she has a bad habit of throwing others off. Her ideas could be left field when you're expecting the ball to land somewhere in center. Even when you think you see it coming, it's not there. She had a gift of eluding me, and this situation was no different. "Pinkie... do you like me?"

She jumped back, starting to sweat nervously. "Like? I've always liked you Non-Non. I just... "

"See us as more than friends?"

"NO! No! Nonononono! I-I-I couldn't! You, no! I like you. I like, really like you, but I can't imagine myself being more than friends with you."

And she also had a bad habit of lying about her personal feelings. "Then why not?"

"No offense, I'm just not ready to be in a relationship with you. I mean, it's not like I really want you to..."

Careful, Pinkie. Your tsundere is showing. Either way, she wasn't being completely honest with me. "How do I know that you're not trying to confess-"

"BECAUSE I'M NOT!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, triggering me to become upset with her in response. I stood up from the bed to challenge her.

"Alright! You don't have to be so pissy about it!"

After our brief exchange of words, the both of us had realized that we had lashed out at each other, something that friends shouldn't do to one another. I felt guilt swell within my chest, causing me to regret what I had said and the manner to which I have said it. An awkward silence fell between us, lasting for several seconds before one of us finally had the courage to speak.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for yelling at you." Pinkie whispered. Her eyes locked onto my feet, crestfallen.

I walked over to her, trying my best to get her to look at me. "Pinkie, I get it. It's not gonna happen, nor will it ever be a thing."

The moment my hand came in contact with her chin, she gently brushed me off and turned her back to me. "Sorry. I don't want to be anything more than friends with you. You... I just want you to be close to me. I can have you close by and not be in that kind of relationship with you."

Haven't I been in this situation before? Yeah, with Melanie to be more specific. The only difference was that I didn't have the sexual drive to Pinkie that I did to Melanie when I had first met her. At the very least, I was okay with Pinkie's decision to stay the way we are. "So we'll be friends. I have no problem with that."

"I..." Pinkie sighed and turned herself back to me. She gave me a gentle smile before opening her hooves in request of a hug. "Yeah. We'll be friends."

"Great." I answered back, accepting her offer.

She and I hugged each other for an extended amount of time. Our embrace became full and heartwarming. I could still smell the vanilla frosting that littered her body. Her hooves slowly ran up and down the length of my back as she held on to me. "Yup. The best of friends."

I broke away from her, noticing that her words had sounded rather melancholy. I looked at her, seeing that she was wearing her usual masking smile. "You sure you're okay?"

She poked me in the nose, smiling all the while. "I'm fine, silly. I just need to clean up."

The pink mare turned away, finally walking out of the room. I could see that the thin smile she wore had finally dissolved into a frown. Hoping to see her smile, I cracked a joke at her. "Don't run all the hot water out."

She cracked the door as she left, but stood motionless outside of the room. She popped her head back in and I saw the same look she wore when she found out that Caramel was looking for her. Her mane had somewhat deflated, her eyes had went from a warm gleam to a icy, hopeless glow. The circles formed under her eyes as she avoided the sight of me. Her voice became weak and quiet. "You know, you can be a bit dense."

She finally closed the door on me, leaving me perplexed at her statement. I really didn't know how to respond to that. It was unpredictable. I didn't even think something like that would even leave her mouth, let alone the very idea of her calling me dense. The only thing I could do was scratch my head.

"Where did that come from?"

It's been a month since my moving into the bakery. Since then, I had found the life of a baker to be taxing. The days were sometimes long and grueling while others were more laid back and relaxed. Some of the customers were very selective, to put it nicely, when it came to me filling out their orders. I guess with me being the new face in the business, I could understand why. It wasn't me being a human, as they'd interact with me like they would any other pony, as much as it was that I was still fresh on the staff.

Sugarcube Corner was often a bustling business in the middle of the day. By five in the morning, I'd wake up, shower, do inventory, rinse off all of the tools for the baking, grease the pans, help feed the twins, clean off the tables and start making the dough for the first orders of the day. After that, we'd open the bakery by six, receiving the first handful of customers. Usually, they'd ask for frappuccinos and bagels. After that crowd, then the more serious orders start to come out. We'd have businesses sending over errand-colts to fetch in large orders of pastries, danishes, doughnuts, croissants, bagels and cinnamon buns.

By late morning, the eleven o'clock hour to be more precise, orders for birthdays had rolled in and we were busy rolling out cakes. Not only did we have those orders to fill but also the lunch orders started to roll in. Once again, errand-colts ran across the way to get orders for the co-workers. Large sums of pastries and cupcakes ran through the bakery as quickly as possible. This time, we'd even have clients from schools who'd purchase in-mass to feed their classes. That's where Pinkie's catering skills come in handy. The only downside is that it left only one of us to tend to the register.

The late afternoon was similar to a fire sale. The Cakes were already clocking out and didn't want a bunch of goods to carry over from day to day. So the 'everything must go' sales pitch applied here. By now, you had a rush of customers catching some absurd deals on goods that lasted the entire day. A dozen cupcakes, which would normally cost around seven bits, ran for two. Pastries sold like hotcakes and by the end of the business day, the display case was almost barren. Whatever was left over, Pinkie would have it given to less privileged families at no cost.

At first, I thought my concern would be that if they had given away so much, they'd lose out on profits. But thanks largely in part of the business that we'd get outside of Ponyville, we'd still keep the bakery above the water level. If there was any moment that we knew that there was to be a royal shipment to Canterlot, we'd know that there would be a large, and I mean LARGE, profit from the transactions.

In short, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were avid cake lovers.

By the end of the bi-weekly period, the checks finally get cut. While my check didn't originally didn't seem like a whole lot, I did keep in mind that my living expenses, consisting of utilities, groceries and small insurance fee, I had still come out with a decent profit. I wasn't one to complain about how the transactions were made, mainly because they were honest ponies. If this had been someone else, then I would've questioned their intentions. But so far, I have yet to come out of this situation unhappy. I was getting paid respectfully and I was very content with that.

In speaking of unhappy, I still haven't seen Twilight since our brief encounter in the castle. It seems that things have not simmered down as of yet, but the girls are nice enough to keep me updated. I still run errands from time to time, but it just so happens that Pinkie is there for over ninety percent of the time. Aside from that, I go out and help the others as long as Twilight isn't there with me.

Her request, not mine.

But I have managed to fit myself into a groove with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, even becoming an honorary member. On the days I spent my time with them, we'd do various activities that left us striving to breathe or frustrated. But either way, we still had tons of fun. Spike and I are still on neutral terms when it came to our interaction with one another. He was still suspicious of me since I had moved out of the castle. He knew what had went on between me and Twilight, and now he was trying to make sure that I wasn't trying to put the moves on Rarity instead.

I gotta hand it to that little guy, his dedication to protect her feelings was top-notch.

As far as the portal back to my world, the status is unknown. I guess since my departure from the castle, I had found myself in lack of that bit of information. As usual, my sexual deprivation continued to get worse, thanks to how busy I've become since last month. I'd start masturbating, but my body would soon enter shutdown mode before my imagination had started to get me going. Add all of that to the constant sexual tension growing between me and Pinkie Pie. She was a tease beyond words, yet her verbal disinterest, as well as my growing pain to see Twilight again, had pushed me back from even trying to get anything started. She still gives out hints that she does like me, but she still won't admit to them. She's still attached to that one guy named Cheese Sandwich.

I just hope that this trip to Badland Flats would take her mind off of things.

"Non-non, come downstairs!"

While I held onto the suitcase for dear life, I stumbled down the stairs, concerned that Pinkie might've been in trouble. As soon as I hit ground level, I set my bags down and ran up to her. "What's wrong?"

"Doi, we're gonna be late for the train!"

Rolling my eyes and giving myself a face-full of palm, I shook my head in disappointment. "The way you were screaming at me was almost like you were in some sort of trouble."

Pinkie ran to me, her muzzle pressing against my nose. "We're gonna be in bit trouble if we're late to the train station."

"Pinkie, the train we ride on doesn't even come into town till the next hour." I advised, looking at the clock on the wall that read 9:32 in the morning.

"I know that! But we still have to say goodbye to everypony!"

I took a deep breath, cringing at the thought of her going around the town to bid ponies farewell. "Just how much of everypony do you intend to say goodbye to?"

"Everypony in town! So I'd have to-"

There was no way I was going to let her run around town and say goodbye to every single pony. That would really make us late more than anything. Interrupting her explanation, I offered a better idea. "Pinkie, wouldn't the girls be enough? I'm sure that everypony doesn't need to know where we're going."

"But what if something was to happen to the trai-"

"Pinkie, the train is the safest method of travel right now." I could even argue that for my world with all the drama going on right now.

"I know, but-"

"We're just going to see your family on the rock farm. Is it all that bad?"

Pinkie paused for a quick second before she spoke. "Well... To be honest, Momma Pie's been wanting to meet you since that big case against you broke out. Dad's also been wanting to have a long talk with you. He said he didn't get a proper introduction to you because of the big case."

So I'm meeting her ma and pa. If their dull outwardly appearance is anything to go by, then I'd say I was going to have one of the most uninteresting times of my life. Well Sally-Sandpaper! I can't wait until the paint dries! "Okay. Did they say what we were going to talk about, anything specifically?"

She gave me a playful nudge, all while taking my bag to the door. "They just want to get to know you, Nonzie. It's not that much to ask."

"Pinkie, I'm just saying that I don't know if your parents would even like me." I admitted.

She cocked an eyebrow as she tilted her head to the side. "Why not?"

I looked at myself, raising my arms and twiddling my fingers in front of her to emphasize my point. "Because I'm not a pony."

If Shining Armor was anything to go by, then I'm pretty sure that they would be more purist than he was, is and ever will be. I can only assume that they'd crucify me or run me out of town trying. I just hope that the circus from two month prior had put a damper on that to where it's not so extreme.

"My parents aren't as conservative as you'd think. And plus you managed to score some serious brownie points for... well... that incident with Caramel."

Oh yeah, that epic ass-beating. Wow, I still can't believe I managed to come out of that alive. At the very least my headaches have gotten less painful and my nosebleeds non-existent. I guess I can thank Pinkie's sisters when we get off the train. "Right. That. So shouldn't we be going?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

She jumped up and looked at the clock. The time had shown that a full twenty minutes of bickering had left us with less time. "Oh, pickles! We really gotta leave! NOW!"

As she tossed the bags outside, she ran back to push me out the door. Trying to slam the breaks on her program, I tried to reason with her once more. "Pinkie, calm down."

"No way! I'm not calming down until we hit the train station! But before that, we have to say goodbye to everypony."

"What if I told you that they all were at the train station to wish us a safe trip? You know, something I had arranged for us to do so that this wouldn't take so long." I responded in deadpan.

Immediately, she stopped pushing me. "Oh. I guess that's a little easier to manage." She said, smiling and squeeing like a toy duck.

You think?

The train ride to the station in Badland Flats was a lengthly one. For a majority of the trip, she laid herself in my lap. As I watched over her, my mind had wandered back to the train station in Ponyville. Everyone was there to send us off, but there was one pony there who chose not to speak so much.

You guessed it. Twilight.

* * * * *

She would speak to Pinkie and acknowledged her whenever she had said something to her. But when I went to speak, I was consistently ignored. I could understand her desire to keep herself distant for my safety, but at this rate she seemed as if she was trying to keep herself under quarantine. I'd say hello, her attention would go to the others. It had gotten to the point where I eventually gotten frustrated and ignored her altogether.

Walking away from the platform, I went inside of the station to get myself something to drink. As I did, I saw Twilight following me inside. Continuing to ignore her, I had my drink as she only watched me. After several more minutes of it, I finally spoke to her.

"So, you wanna go on ahead and tell me why you're just stalking me?"

"..." She turned away, looking somewhere else as I walked right in front of her.

"So you're gonna try to ignore me while I'm in your face now?"

"..." Her eyes, not once did they even look my way. They acknowledged my presence and yet they still looked elsewhere.

I was more than fed up with it. "God dammit, Twi! Speak. To. Me!" I commanded through clenched teeth, almost wanting to place my hand on her jaw and force her to look at me in frustration.

Tears started to brim in her eyes as her lips finally parted. But instead of words, only faint gasps and sniffles had left her. I welled up in disgust over her response, or lack thereof. Finally realizing that I was a bit forceful, I decided to calm myself and lower my tone. As she looked at me, I took a knee, meeting with her just above her eye level.

"Twi, speak to me. Please. I haven't heard from you in so long. Just say something. 'Hello. Leave me alone. Fuck you. Go away.' Something, anything, please."

Her tears finally fell from her face as she quietly looked away from me. I tried to move to her direction, but she turned away. As I tried to reach out to her, she teleported to the other side of the room.

I felt myself ready to burst with anger. Shaking my head silently, I stormed off to the bathroom. Slamming the door behind me, I walked to the counter and ran some water at the highest level possible. After I did one sink, I move to the next, repeating my actions until every single sink was running full of water. Slamming my fists into the counter, I finally let out my bottled rage.

"FUCK!"

As I stared at myself in the reflection, I could see that, for the first time in a long time, my nosebleed came back up. My head was pulsing along with my increased heart rate. The unbearable pain of my headache sent me to the floor. I cursed myself for becoming this angry. My teeth gritted as I sat through the grating pain. The engraved image of her reactions seemed to have fueled my pain even more. I pounded my fists against the floor I sat on, hoping to let my hands take the beating rather than my brain. But as I did, a new sound came from the outside of the door.

As I looked over, I could see a letter being slipped under the door by use of magic. I knew it was Twilight who tried to ship the letter because of the magenta glow. It was unmatched by any other with the exemption of her brother. I reached out for it, taking it from the magical grasp. Instantly, the aura broke and I heard the familiar sound of hooves galloping off to the distance. I opened the letter quickly, hoping to get something from her. Answers, follow-ups, anything that could be useful. But instead, I had only gotten a paper full of empty space and a signature of two words.

I'm sorry.

I stood to my feet, opening the door, hoping to see her still. When I saw that she was out of sight, I called her name.

"Non-Non?"

* * * * *

"Huh?" I responded, snapping back to the present. I looked back down to see Pinkie hugging me tightly.

"Nondis, I know you're frustrated. But please, just forget about it. Okay?"

I looked over to my left, watching my fist as it unraveled itself. The very thought of what had happened at the train station was still troubling me. And all Pinkie wanted me to do was to cast it to the side.

In a way, she had a point.

This was supposed to be a time away from work, away from the stress of daily life, away from having to wonder what's all going on. I shouldn't have to focus myself on anything that would cause me any sort of pain. I needed to put all of this aside and just have fun. Or at least try to.

The train whistle sounded as we started to gradually slow down. I looked outside to see a rather depressing scenery. All I could see for miles on end were rocks. I could see a train station set upon a craggy steppe, mountains and buttes in the far distance. A few boulders were set at the end of the line. I had assumed that a landslide had taken place. I suppose that could be a problem for us, being that our destination was a little further south.

"We're here." Pinkie said softly as she rose off of me.

I blinked twice and looked back out to the station and to Pinkie. "We're where?" I asked.

"This is Badland Flats, my home."

I know it's rude to knock one's hometown, but seriously... What fucking planet am I even on? What happened to us being in Equestria? The rich shades of green, the crystal transparency of the waters, the trees waiving in the wind, the ponies traveling up and down the street, there wasn't anything like that here. It almost seemed as if we had traveled back into a primordial age, or more towards a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

And don't even get me started on how such a lively pony such as Pinkie Pie was even conceived and raised in such a desolate location. She seemed so... out of place.

I grabbed my bag and took to the train's exit. As I looked back over to the large boulders blocking the rails, I turned my attention back to Pinkie. "Hey, you think the train would be delayed a little longer, thanks to that rockslide?"

"Actually, this is the end of the line. Anything further south of here is dragon country." She answered as she dragged her bag along. As she was dragging it, I had taken notice of the colorful streamers and confetti that trailed behind it.

A stark contrast of color in comparison to the gray and lifeless world I was introduced to.

"Hey, don't you think with our-"

"The farm is about three miles out. We can hoof it from here." She said enthusiastically.

Somehow, I had a feeling that I wasn't going to enjoy the scenic route all that much.

About three miles and forty minutes of walking later, my arms had started to feel like freshly-cooked spaghetti. I had to carry my bags for a majority of the way due to the inconsistency of the ground. If I had to roll this thing anymore than what I did, then the wheels would've broken off, something that I wouldn't look forward to when I had gotten back to Ponyville. Pinkie continued her upbeat pace until we had reached the outside gates of an old farm. I had started to walk right past it if it wasn't for Pinkie grabbing my attention.

"Non-nums, you're gonna miss our turn."

I stopped to look back to her, seeing that I had left her behind. As I walked back to her, I could see her opening the lock on the gate. "So this is our stopping point for the day?"

"Actually, we're here. This is the rock farm my family has owned for generations now."

I looked at the craggy, gray, lifeless scene and all I could see was a rusty silo, a barn, a house and a busted windmill with a blade or three missing.

As we walked onto the farm, it took us a little bit more walking to get to the house. My mood was already sour from the events in Ponyville, this place just seemed to depress me even more. I know I sound like I'm complaining, but even with my grandparents running a farm in the country, we still had some greenery to ease our boredom. This was as dull as a sack of rocks.

No pun intended.

"♫We're heeere!♪" She sang loudly, hoping to get the attention of whoever was here.

As we approached the house, the front door opened and revealed a mature brown colt with gray hair and yellow eyes. Following him was a light gray mature mare with grayish-green mane wrapped in a bun. As they both came out, two other mares dashed out to greet us. It was then where I had met the familiar faces of Blinkie and Inkie. The quickly embraced Pinkie with open hooves, welcoming me as well.

"Huh, that strange." I mumbled out loud. "Shouldn't there be more of you guys. Where's Maud?"

"I'm right here." She sounded as she came out from behind me, causing me to jump.

"Ah! Where did you come from?"

Maud walked up to her sister, giving her a quick nuzzle. "I was taking Boulder out for his afternoon walk. He likes the fresh air."

Honestly, there was nothing fresh here. The only thing I can smell was the dust in the air. "Well... who doesn't?" I asked nervously.

There was little exchange between me an anyone else as I uneasily looked to the family of six ponies in front of me. The stallion walked up to me, tilting his body to get a better view of me. "So, you're that one guy that stood up for Pinkie." He said with a similar southern drawl like mine.

"Mr. Igneous, right? I can honestly say that it's an honor to meet you for a second time." I said, quietly bringing my hand out to shake his. Er... hoof. I'm still not exactly used to formal greetings with ponies.

Looking at my hand with obvious disgust, he rejected my formality out of concern for my appearance. "Quite. Where ya from, boy?"

"Texas."

He looked at me with an expression that could be read in only one way: this boy is stupid beyond words. "Son, that a size. Not a place of residence."

"Well, in my world where I'm from, it's a state." I added, hoping to clarify the subject.

"Does it have a city?"

Counting out the cities on my hand, I named the ones that came off the top of my head. "Lots. Dallas, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Waco, Arlington, Austin's where I was born and raised, the list goes on. It's a pretty big state."

"So I take it that everything's bigger there too?" He asked sarcastically, still not believing me.

Surprisingly, yes. "You could say that. They always say in my country that everything's bigger in Texas."

"Hmm... I suppose you don't know what kind of minerals are there, do you?"

Figures, rocks is all he knew what to talk about. Texas geography, don't fail me now. "Um... granite and cinnabar? I think you can find some nice Llanite if you look hard enough."

His mocking expressions had completely melted off of his face. It seemed that my talk of minerals had managed to somehow convince his one-track mind that the land of Texas had actually existed. Even his wife started to share his disbelief. Maud seemed to show an interest, or not. Inkie and Blinkie had definitely shown interest.

"How about Amethyst?" Inkie asked curiously.

"The most common kinds are purple."

The family started to mumble amongst themselves. Pinkie pranced up and down as she saw that they were warming up a bit. "I told you guys that you would like him!"

"Pinkie, why don't you get your stuff settled in your room." The elder mare instructed to her daughter.

"Will do, ma." The pink party mare sounded off as she grabbed my bags, as well as hers, and left to the inside of the house. Inkie, Blinkie and Maud all followed after her.

Igneous turned around to follow his daughters inside "Why don't ya come on in? Got some refreshments inside."

His wife quickly trotted behind me to push me in after him. "And I can make you a mean batch of rock quarry tea."

So being that this is a family that specializes in rocks of all sorts, is it possible that they could actually make tea from a rock? I heard from Pinkie that they could make rock candy from actual rocks. But to actually brew it into a batch of tea, I think I'm a little more than confused. Next, they'll be telling me that you could actually get blood from a stone.

"Heh heh... I can't wait."

Squeak. Creak. Squeak. Creak. Squeak. Creak.

That is the sound that I've been hearing since the four sisters retired to the upstairs rooms, all while I sat in the den of the Pie Family home. Igneous continued to rock back and forth silently, reading his newspaper as his wife, Quartz, hummed in the confines of the kitchen. For ten minutes, I was treated to nothing but the grating sound of the wooden rocking chair swinging back and forth.

Squeak. Creak. Squeak. Creak. Squeak. Creak.

The ticking of the clock became a metronome of sorts. I had actually started to catch a pattern of the squeaks in correlation to the sixty seconds that ticked off of the grandfather clock on the other side of the room. I silently listened in for the seconds that burned off the clock, represented by T, as well as the timing between squeak, represented by S, and creak, represented by C.

You know you've lost your mind id you're calculating the sounds of a rocking chair to that of a clock as if it was a math equation. But when you're bored, you gotta do whatever it takes to keep yourself from going completely ape shit.

Squeak. Creak. Squeak. Creak. Squeak. Creak.

So as the seconds went by, my mind started to calculate the equation as a wave line. S being the peak and C being the trough. Every three seconds, the wavelength would match up with that of the clock. And within those three seconds I had calculated two S's and two C's. 2S+2C=3T. Sixty divided by three equals twenty. Twenty multiplied by two equals forty. In the end, every minute, I had heard that fucking chair go 'squeak and creek' a total of forty times. Now lets multiply that by ten.

I CAN'T FUCKING TAKE THIS SHIT ANYMORE!

No seriously, I could pull the skin off of my skull and dig into my brains with a wooden spoon. That's how fucking annoyed I am right now. There's jack shit for me to do here. I've started to know what fucking notes the damn squeaks and creaks sounded like. I'm about to lose my fucking mind.

"You hear that sound, boy?" Igneous muttered from behind the page of the newspaper, aptly named the Equestrian Informer. "That is the sound of the Pie Family pride. Generations of rock farmers sat here in this very spot, doing what we do now. Reading our newspapers for weather changes, our wives making us batches of tea and our foals upstairs, studying to carry on with our family tradition."

Really, I couldn't hear that much past the sound of a handsaw cleaving through my skull. At this point, I'd be lucky to hear myself think.

"Years ago, I sat where you once did. My father-in-law sat here in this old chair, rocking in it as I do now. I couldn't stand how he used to be silent for minutes at a time. Every now and then, he'd find something interesting in the newspaper, causing him to stop rocking. But after a second or two, he'd carry on back to rocking."

This has got to be one of the most troll-like traditions in all of creation. I couldn't believe that he kept his mouth shut, just to annoy the living shit out of me. If he was trying to do this to ward off any potential tail-chasers, then he pretty much won Father of the Year.

"Don't misunderstand, we have a lot to talk about. But just be warned, you won't be the only fella that gets this kind of treatment. I expect to do this with all of my daughters' bring-in's. You just so happen to be the first in a while."

Scratching my head, I thought about who could've been the first to endure this torment. "Who was the first?"

"A city boy. From Manehattan. Don't recall his name, but he never came back after I had put him to work. He had an interest in my eldest daughter, Inkie."

"So, did you have any visitors from then on?"

"Well, Blinkie had brought in a unicorn gal who was lookin' for a place to stay."

"A friend of hers?"

"I'll let Blinkie tell you about that one. She was... an odd character to be honest. Not quite right to me."

Wait, did he just imply that Blinkie was... Nah. "So, any others?"

"You're the third. So no. Pinkie's had her share of colts, but never found pride in them to bring 'em here. Inkie only had that one colt she brought over, so far she hasn't brought him over since. Blinkie just brought that one gal. And Maud doesn't have an interest in relationships, which concerns me."

"I see..." In my opinion, I never took Maud to be one to attract colts. She always seemed so disinterested in anything to even care about being in a full-fledged relationship that could turn into something serious. As a father of four daughters, I could see his concern. The Pie line carries on through the will of those four mares, and neither one has shown to have a promising addition to the family.

Quarts came walking in, holding a tray of cups and a kettle in her mouth. As she sat the items on the table before me, she poured me a steaming cup of tea. "It's not the best in taste, I'll tell you what, but it does causes your nerves to jump. You'll be more cocked than a rooster at dawn."

As I stared at the brown, murky tea before me, I saw Quartz pouring her husband a cup of the steaming beverage. I picked up the cup and the saucer it sat on. Blowing into the cup, I made sure that my first sip wasn't going to disintegrate my tongue upon impact. Finally feeling brave enough, I took my first sip of the tea.

Oh God, what in the actual fuck is this shit!?

I know it's rude to spit out a host's drink so carelessly in front of them, but my body was doing everything it could to make sure that I wasn't going to swallow it. When she had said that it wasn't big in taste, she was clearly understating what the issue really was. Nerves jumping? Yeah, out of a ten-story building with no parachute or bungee wires. Cocked? Like a twelve-gauge, ready to blast chunks. This tea tasted like brine water that's been sitting in a well for over a decade, with sugar and honey to ease the taste.

"How ya feeling, sweetie?" Quartz asked me, smiling.

Swallowing the contents of the cup as quickly as possible, I tried my best to smile. "Not bad, not bad at all."

Igneous rose from his seat, walking towards the stairwell. "Inkie, Blinkie, Maud, come on downstairs. Pinkie, you can stay up there for a minute."

While I tried my best to stomach the bitter-tasting brew, the three summoned mares appeared from the top of the stairs. "Yes?"

"Our guest here seems a bit bored. I want you all to show this young fella here to the southern fields. Break him in with something simple and work him on up. Get him involved and make sure that he stays busy. Ya hear?"

"Yes, sir." The three mares sounded before pulling me out the front door quicker than I could voice my objections. As we made our way out, he called back upstairs.

"Pinkie, you come help your ma cook."

Several hours later, the time had started to grow late. As I came in my work in the fields, I felt my entire body throbbing from the work in the field. If this was something that Applejack had to deal with on a daily basis, then I could see why the Apple Family scarcely has any help with their usual harvest.

Throughout my time here on the farm, I had crushed boulders, hammered rocks, mined for minerals, shifted rocks to certain areas for the sake of erosion due to winds, stacked rocks, broke older stacks down to scatter them across the windy fields, help push a boulder across the field and chiseled some stone out of the quarry. After all of this, then it was time for dinner. Pinkie called the four of us inside. As we all entered, Igneous stood by the door, saying that he wanted to make sure that I had fulfilled my quota.

I don't even work here and I have a quota to fill in order to eat? That's some old bullshit there.

After the girls explained my assignments, he escorted me through the fields. As we toured the areas I worked on, I could feel my heart beating inside of my legs. With each area we toured, he told me what exactly I had did wrong, what I could do to improve and complimented me on what I had did right.

Of course, his version of a compliment was a simple nod before moving on to the next item on the list.

After an evaluation of my efforts on the southern fields, he had come to his conclusion.

"You need to break a few more rocks. You've done a lot in comparison to the last colt Inkie had brought over, but I want you to meet your quota before you come inside and eat."

Fuck! I was out here for six hours. And after all of that hard work, I still need to do more? This is completely bullshit.

He shifted over three rocks, all of them big enough to match the size of my head. Thankfully, I still had strength enough to drive a hammer into all of them. I cracked open the first, revealing some rather impressive jewels. He hummed and nodded his head as he pointed to the next one. I split open the second, seeing that there was very little inside. He only nodded to that as he pointed to the final one. I smashed the third, venting my frustrations as it was a challenge to crack open. He shook his head and pointed back to the splintery remnants of the rock.

"I had you try to break this one so that you could see that not all minerals are to be broken upon excavation. That was the remnants of a mineral called hematite, commonly known as iron ore."

I groaned in defeat as I let my arms rest against the small hammer I held. "So... what do you do with this? Smelt it into iron?"

"That's not our job. We export what ores we can find and they are turned into metals. By then, we are given a percentage of the profits. It sounds like it would make more sense to do this ourselves, but we don't specialize in that kind of work. These ores would be sent to those who could smelt the minerals properly and efficiently."

I get it. They could train themselves to learn how to smelt the minerals, but to do so without the necessary supplies and equipment would prove to be wasteful. All it would do is diminish the quality of the metal. I guess that's why they have specific divisions whenever it came to mining coal, oil and other things back at home.

"But you've done more than enough here. Why don't you head inside? Dinner should be just now getting off the stove."

As I sluggishly walked back to the house, I had noticed that he had started to open up to me about the family profession. He had told me a few details about what else they did here, why they did them, what they also needed to do and how they were preparing to do it.

When we had hit the table, I was more than preparing myself for the meal that I was going to partake in. For the first time in years, I was literally saying grace. Why would I do such a thing? Because after the rock-based tea I had drank earlier, I was just seconds short of blasting my breakfast all over the fields. I didn't even believe in God, yet I was praying in multiple languages as if I was a bible-thumping fanatic.

A good way of seeing if this almighty being existed is to pray that the food was pleasing to the tongue and non-lethal. If he didn't, then I would die. If he did, I'd finish eating my dinner. Of course, I would still question his existence after the very delicious dinner I had managed to receive. After about two to three rounds, I had taken my shower and readied myself for bed. But unfortunately, I was delayed by two things.

The first thing was that they didn't have a bed set up for me. The second thing was that Maud, Inkie and Blinkie were keeping me awake by probing me with questions. Many of which had pertained to the world I had came from. As time progressed, I had told them about our society, what we saw as fun, what our mediums of entertainment were, the parallels of some of the cities here in Equestria.

They literally dropped their jaws through the floor as soon as I had told them that Manehattan had sounded like a pun on the borough of Manhattan. They grew even more shocked when I had said that the population was well over 1.5 million. Then they explained to me that the city of Manehattan, Equestria's largest city, had well over eight-hundred thousand ponies in residence there. So imagine the shit they flipped when I had told them that the city of New York, including Manhattan, was actually eight-million plus. It seemed that the populations varied differently between our dimensions. Their largest city along with their metro was about the size of my hometown, city-wise. Including the metropolitan area of Austin, it's a lot bigger.

It's a small world after all.

After our conversations about my world and it's parallels with this one, the girls and I have decided to change the subject to one that I wasn't too fond of for the moment. Maud, Inkie and Blinkie had started to ask me about my relationships in my world. When I had told them about my not having one that extended past the boundaries of friendship, they stared at me slack-jawed. With everything I did for their baby sister, they were baffled by my inability to attract a mate. I soon clarified that I wasn't exactly the most attractive of my species. In fact, I was consider as one of the more unattractive ones.

At this point, they all had started their own little tirade of why my society, or at least the girls of it, should find an interest in me. But when I had explained to them about my previous life habits and how much Equestria had changed me, they seemed to argue their opinions even more.

"I just don't get it!" Inkie exclaimed as she paced back and forth across the room.

"Inkie, I was a shut-in who didn't care about anyone else. I wasn't going to get any attention even if I wanted it."

Blinkie softly patted me on the back. "I understand that, but still, you've changed for the better. All of Ponyville seemed to be on your side when they had heard what had happened to you. A lot of ponies do care about you, so I just don't see why humans could be any different."

"That's because our views and morals are so skewed. We praise those who'd dance on the stage, shaking their asses, singing songs about money, parties, sex and their emotional breakups, but we wouldn't give five minutes for the ones who sacrificed life and limb for our countries. Sometimes, they're even seen as murderers. Granted, some of those individuals are screwed up, but a majority are still good people."

Maud tilted her head down, still keeping her stoic expression. "Wow, the human world sounds a lot worse than what it is here in Equestria."

"We have our light moments, yeah. But it's just the time we're in. The world is caught in conflict, planes are falling from the sky and running into buildings, the rich is stealing from the poor, political corruption, broken homes, people who judge others for what they do and how they live, people killing each other-"

Blinkie jumped from behind to in front of me, interrupting me. "Can you name one good thing about your world?"

"Huh?"

"Let's say that I was willing to pay your world a visit. What would be your pitch to get me to go there?"

It took me a while to come up with some legitimate reasons to get her to come to my world, despite her inability to do so as well as her disinterest. "Well... Our technology has greatly advanced past what you have in Equestria. Everyone is social in our own way, even me, a shut in, was able to play games online with hundreds of thousands of people around the globe. My country specifically, you didn't have to worry too much about not having a place to stay. We have homeless shelters. Some of us care for our environment. We all care for each other if we become close enough."

Inkie grew a devious smirk as she opted to change the subject. "In speaking of close enough, what do you think about our sister?"

Maud hummed in agreement. "Yeah. I don't know if you've noticed, but she seems to really have a thing for you."

What do I tell them? What do I say? I know that this isn't Pinkie who's asking me these kind of questions, but I'm still nervous about answering them. But I know that I shouldn't take too long to answer. "Well... I... Like her. But as a friend. She said that she wanted us to be friends."

The three mares stared at me in silence, questioning my response. Maud was the first to break the looming silence. "That's it?"

"Well-"

Blinkie, completely dumbfounded at my short response, was the first to object to my response. "No way that's what you think of our baby sister. To take a beating like you did and just say something so casual."

"Really. I'm serious."

"When you got into that fight that evening, we heard you yelling at Caramel from way down the street." Inkie recalled as she went on to speak. "You were screaming at him about how you thought Pinkie was special, beautiful, wonderful."

"You even said that she was awesome and funny." Blinkie cheerfully added.

Dropping my head in defeat, I confirmed their statements. "She is. She's all of those things. No one should have to validate her on that."

"So is she special to you?" Maud asked outwardly.

"Yes! For fucks sake, she's my friend."

Blinkie jumped back into the conversation as she walked over to her bed. "Didn't you say that she said, and I quote, being friends is all she ever wanted you two to be?"

"Well, yeah-"

All three of the sisters moaned in disgust. "And you believed that!? For how long?" Inkie asked.

"Well, she told me that a month ago."

"Don't you live with her?" Maud inquired.

"I do, for now."

The questions came flying at me like bullets in a war zone. My only way to counter their offensive was to answer them as quickly as I could. Inkie was the next one to fire her weapon. "Has she ever spent some alone time with you? Not like that, but just in general?"

"Of course."

Blinkie fired next. "How often is it?"

"Like every night."

Maud took her shot at me next. "Are you really that dumb?"

"Trust me, I asked her about it just last month. All she did was yell at me."

The three ponies sighed, finally giving me some time to recover from the onslaught of questions. Inkie laughed to herself. "That's typical Pinkamena for you."

I crooked my head to the side, still questioning what Inkie had meant by her statement. "Why do you say that?"

Maud placed her hooves on my hands. As I looked at her, I could no longer see the stoic expression that she was so fond of wearing. Instead, I had saw genuine worry. Even the tone of her voice had lightened. "Because, Pinkie has a habit of keeping secrets. She makes promises to others and would even go to extremes to keep those secrets from getting out. She does the same thing to herself at times. What she says to you may be, and I repeat, may be an invitation to go even further with her."

I think I'm starting to get it. Now I can see how she could be so resilient on why she wanted to keep me at a distance. It all makes sense now. "So, you're saying that Pinkie actually-"

"WHATCHA DOIN!?"

"SHIT!" I screamed, looking back to the pink pony who snuck up behind me. Clasping my chest and collecting my breath, I stared at the pink mare with relief. "Pinkie, don't scare me like that."

Pinkie, who was fresh out of the shower, had decided to bring me a set of sheets as well as a pillow. "Sorry Non-Non. But I came here to tell you that your bed is ready."

Feeling excited, started to happily march out of the room. "Great! Well I guess that's my cue, ladies. I'm gonna hit the hay. Pinkie and I have a train to catch early in the morning."

Pinkie called back to me, causing me to pause in place. "Actually, Nonz... The train is delayed until sometime tomorrow afternoon. We wouldn't get back to Ponyville until sometime in the evening. So you can relax and sleep in come tomorrow morning, but I'd still prefer that we'd get some sleep now."

"So we can stay up?" I jokingly asked.

"No! You are tired and your energy is drained from all that hard work in the field. You need to rest." She chided, pushing me out of their bedroom and into the guest room next door.

"Okay."

Pinkie walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. "Goodnight, Nonzie."

"Night, Pinkie." I called back out to her.

Remaining quiet, I crept up to the door and opened it just a crack. As I opened my ears to hear what was going on down the hall, I had heard Pinkie's hoofsteps walking down the hall and into the other room. "What's been going on, ladies?"

"Pinkie, we were just talking about how he was living with you and the relationship you two have." Blinkie's voice sounded out from further down the hall.

"We don't have a relationship." Pinkie answered, sounding depressed.

"Pinkie, we all know what you want. Even he knows it. Just tell him already." Inkie advised.

"...I will on my own time."

"Pinkie, you don't have time. What if he leaves to his world tomorrow?" Blinkie voiced, sharing her disdain for her younger sister's inability to tell me the truth.

"He isn't! I just need some time to get everything sorted out."

Maud took an even darker approach. "You know, you could never get a chance to say it to him. Who's to say that he doesn't wake up in the morning?"

"Don't speak like that. DON'T EVER SAY THAT AGAIN!" Pinkie shouted to the top of her lungs. If I was surprised by her sudden outburst, then I'm pretty sure that the others were as well.

"Pinkie-"

"I know what I feel! And..." I heard the sound of a body flopping into a mattress. Suddenly, Pinkie's voice became muffled. "I'm just so confused."

"Over what?" Inkie questioned her baby sister.

"...The day before we came here... I had gotten my letter from Cheese Sandwich."

My eyes had shot open. I remembered that she had a thing for him, but I had almost forgotten that he would be sending her a letter to tell her whether he'd still go after her or if he had decided to move on. I couldn't believe that she had gotten the letter and didn't even bother to tell me.

Or then again, she was good at hiding secrets. That was always her major flaw.

"Oh. So what did he say?" Blinkie asked while I leaned my ear even further into the hallway.

"...Goodnight girls."

To my disappointment, she had completely dismissed the question and started to go to her bed. I removed myself from the doorway. Closing the door, I could still hear Maud talking to her younger sister. "Pinkie, you can't run away from this."

"I know. I just need some time to work it all out is all."

"You talk to him tomorrow or we will." Inkie sternly warned her younger sister.

"Goodnight girls." Pinkie answered dismissively. I could still hear the creaking of a mattress next door. I assumed that it was her finally turning herself in for the night.

"Goodnight, ya big mule." Blinkie joked as the other girls followed the example of their youngest sibling.

I stayed awake a little longer than what I would've liked. My mind was filled with questions, all of which concerned my opinion towards Pinkie. At the very least, she validated my suspicions from last month. But there was still the matter of the letter. What did Cheese say? Why didn't she answer them? Why is she avoiding the subject so much? I guess I'll have to find out tomorrow.

Morning came and gone. As I allowed myself to rest, I prepared myself to take my baggage in my arms again. But luckily, the afternoon came and we were both escorted to the train station. Maud carried my bag for me out of a request from Pinkie. And judging from the girls decision not to pull me to the side, I was going to get the truth from Pinkie today. At least I knew what was coming.

I knew what she had felt for me, but she didn't know what I had felt towards her.

The rocks that stood in front of the tracks had been cleared, allowing the train to make a round about and come back to the station. As we loaded up our belongings, Pinkie avoided any conversation with me. But despite her lack of words, her actions were very apparent. While she didn't say anything, she stayed extremely close to me. Almost every second, I could feel her pink coat brushing up against my skin. Everywhere I walked, she followed. Every time I spoke to another pony, she showed some concern and jealousy. And when we had gotten on the train, the first place she sat was on my lap.

I don't know what those girls may have said this morning, but it sure did wake her up a bit.

Hours later. I found myself nodding off to sleep from the long train ride. The occasional bumps on the rail did keep me awake, but Pinkie stayed awake the entire time. The only thing she did was stare at the passing scenery. Eventually, she took her eyes away from the window to look back up to me.

"Non-Non." She finally spoke to me for the first time today. "Do you like staying with me?"

Yawning from boredom, I paid her no mind as I answered her. "Of course I do."

She returned her sights to the window, watching the Everfree Forest pass by. "That's good."

Stretching and cracking my neck, I woke myself up, knowing that Ponyville wasn't even ten minutes from here. "Why did you ask me that?"

"I just wanted to know." She answered as she leaned back into her own seat.

As Ponyville came into view, I could see the bright crystal tree that stood at the heart of the town. Aside from being the tallest building in Ponyville, it stood out from the town. The sunset-lit buildings of Ponyville were more earth-toned and modest in comparison to the gleaming crystal tree that loomed over the town. I caught myself looking at Ponyville, realizing that I had never gotten a chance to leave this place. It also made me realize just how large the town was from a distance. The town was small in population, but large in area. I guess that's because there's a booming agriculture industry here. But there was one thing that became more of a distraction to me.

"Non-nums."

"Yes?" I said as my mind wandered to the large castle in the center of town.

"Do you miss being with Twilight?"

Being honest, I do. Way more than what I'd ever thought possible. "Well, I'm not gonna lie. It's taken some getting used to."

"So if you stayed with me from the start, then would you and I be as close as you and Twilight were?"

That was something to think about. I do remember her being the very first thing I saw when I had first arrived here. Even as we talked about where I could stay, her place was a candidate as the castle and Fluttershy's cottage was. But it was because of Twilight's unusual knowledge of humans behavior and dietary needs that I was left in her care.

Now that I'm thinking about it, why would she ask me something like that? I know that Pinkie can be a bit random when it came to questions, but that question was just weird, even for her. "Where are you getting at?"

"I was just curious."

I chuckled to myself. "Curiosity killed the cat."

"But the satisfaction had brought it back." Pinkie rebutted.

After that, we didn't speak very much. We just watched as the train ran into the town. Passing over the Ponyville Creek, I looked at the pink party pony sitting next to me. Her mane had partially deflated again. Something was on her mind, and I could tell that it wasn't good.

"So... How are things?" I playfully asked, earning a giggle.

"Things are great."

"Well that's nice." I said as I poked her on the muzzle, causing her to laugh some more.

"You're silly." She said as she nudged me a little bit.

"...Why do you like me?"

She stopped laughing and smiled as she looked to the window again, seeing that we were a short ways away from the train station. "I'll tell you when we get home. How does that sound?"

"Well, I would prefer that you told me now."

"Well, I don't wanna say it until we get home."

Groaning in frustration, I threw my arms into the air. "Why not?"

"Because what I want to say to you should stay behind closed doors. Doors that nopony else would have the keys to."

The train station had came into our windows just as we started to stall. Soon, the train came to a screeching halt. Pinkie had grabbed both of our bags and started to run towards the nearest door. Meanwhile, I was still stretching from the long journey. "So you do like me?"

The train whistle sounded, letting us know that it was safe to leave. "This is our stop. Grab your bags."

I had grabbed the handle of my bag, rolling it along as I walked out to the platform. "Pinkie- Ow!"

Before I could finish my sentence, she bit down on my hand, dragging me towards Sugarcube Corner. "We're here. Come on, slowpoke!"

"Pinkie, you're pulling a little too hard." I complained, noting that my arms were still a little sore from yesterday's activities on the rock farm. There wasn't anything too painful about her bite, however.

Running down the streets of Ponyville, I dragged my bag along as Pinkie dragged me towards the bakery. I had only seen her run like this once, and that was when we were being followed. But there was no one following us this time. The only thing that awaited for us at the bakery was privacy. Before long, we had ran through most of Ponyville and stopped at the doorstep of Sugarcube Corner. Flicking her mane, Pinkie tossed a set of keys out and held it in the pink tendril of her front curl.

"We're home." She said, finally letting go of me.

Leaning down to catch my breath, I looked up to the mare that dragged me across town. Literally. "Pinkie, slow down for just one-"

"Do you want to know how I feel about you?" She interrupted, transferring the keys to her hoof.

"Let me guess, you really like me." I answered sarcastically.

Yet despite my mocking tone, the next thing I felt was her lips pressing into mine. My eyes locked onto her with surprise as she pressed herself against me even further. Though the exchange was brief, it was memorable. The taste of cotton candy still lingered on my lips. Two sapphire spheres stared back at me with longing.

"Nondis, I'm gonna warn you. When this door opens, we're going to walk inside. And wherever we stop, whether it's on my bed, the stairs or on top of one of these tables, I'm gonna show you how I felt about you since you saved me from Caramel."

"Pinkie-"

Giving me another peck on the lips, she shushed me with her free foreleg. "No more words, not until we get inside."

"Don't you think we're rushing-"

My words failed to reach her as she started to fumble the keys against the lock. "Come on, you stupid key! Turn left and... GOT IT!"

The door swung wide open as Pinkie dragged me inside. As soon as we walked into the bakery, we were met with a familiar face. Both she and I froze as we saw Cup Cake cleaning off the tables.

"Oh... Hello Mrs. Cake." Pinkie sounded almost shocked that she was even here. I looked to the clock on the wall as it read 6:18 in the evening.

"Pinkie. Thank goodness you've made it home safely." Cup said as she gave her favorite employee a hug. "How was the trip?"

"It was fine. So are you closing up shop this evening?"

Cup sounded nervous as she looked towards the kitchen. "Actually, I'm here because of... well..."

"Pinkie? Pinkie Pie?"

Both Pinkie and I had been caught off-guard by the voice that sounded from the kitchen. As the doors swung wide open, a brown earth-pony stallion with curly hair and green eyes held a box of cupcakes. I looked to Pinkie to ask if she had known him, but her shocked expression showed me that she did. In fact, she knew him all too well.

"Cheese... You're here." She whimpered.

Author's Note

Long chapter. I told myself that I didn't need to update this anymore times this month. I tried to convince myself that I had surpassed the monthly quota of 4 updates.
I don't need to, I don't need to, I don't need to. I don't, but I want to. But here I am with update #6. This time, I'm more than certain that no more updates would come up until next month. I'm trying to shoot for the 4th. I hope that the chapter was somewhat enjoyable.

Chapter XI

"Cheese... You're here."

My eyes darted from Pinkie to the colt in the kitchen doorway and back to her again. It was obvious that this guy was the pony in the photo in the hallway outside of her room. This was Cheese Sandwich, the pony she had strong feelings for prior to my meddling. But why was he here?

"Mr. Sandwich had came by to pay you a visit just earlier this morning. I told him that you were out of town and that you could be coming back home by no later than the final afternoon rush. Of course, I was mistaken. But as he showed his desire to speak with you, I allowed him to stick around." Cupcake informed Pinkie. "Oh, what it is to be young and in love."

"In love?" Pinkie and I asked. I cocked an eyebrow while she covered her mouth and gasped. I saw that words wanted to escape from her lips, but she was reluctant to let herself speak so freely.

"Why yes!" Cup confirmed. "He's been here all day, ranting on about how much he missed you and how bad he's been wanting to come back to Ponyville just to see you, Pinkie."

At least I know what that letter was. He was confirming his feelings for her. I remembered what she had told me during my second month here. He said that he would send her a letter saying whether he was to come by and stay or talk about how everything's been since he's decided to move on.

"But... what are you doing here, Cheese?"

"I sent my letter over a week ago. But you didn't send anything back. To be honest, I had gotten really worried."

A WEEK!? So she was lying about when she had received it? "Wait, if you got it just yesterday, then how did-"

"I guess I should clear the air about the letter situation. There was a mix up with the local mailmare and several other letters. We had even gotten one addressed to Filthy Rich. So after everything had gotten straightened out, that's when we started to get our mail again."

Wow, I've heard about the local mailmare being a bit clumsy, but I've always dismissed those rumors. I guess they were true after all. But then again, everyone makes mistakes.

"I didn't get a chance to write you. I'm sorry." Pinkie said as she started to backpedal to the door.

Cheese Sandwich ran after her, giving her a heartfelt hug. "Pinkie, it's okay. I'm here. I just wanted to see you, especially after being away from you for so long."

"Cheese-"

He broke off his hug and smiled enthusiastically as he held on to her. "I really do want to be with you. That's why I've decided to make Ponyville my newest base of operations!"

"You WHAT!?" Pinkie shouted in a high pitch, completely blown away from the news.

"Yeah, I know! Quite a whammy, huh?"

Pinkie almost smiled as she looked at the stallion, but became even more depressed as she saw me standing far behind him alongside Cup Cake. "Cheese, you can't do that."

"I chose to because I wanted to. And besides, where else could be better when I have one of Equestria's best here in town?"

"You don't have to do that. I never asked for that." She argued.

"You asked me if I was interested in taking root here in town. I said at first that it wasn't likely due to my travels. But now, I know where I can come back to. After long days of planning and partying, I could come back home to celebrate the one thing I-"

Suddenly, she gently pushed the brown stallion off of her, frowning as she looked to him. "Just stop, please."

Taken aback, Cheese backed away from her in confusion. "Huh? What did I say?"

"You don't mean anything. You're just here to-"

He stood before her yet again, this time holding her foreleg in his. He clasped the pink hoof with both of his own. "Pinkie Pie, I am... I really do like you. I-I want to be here for you. I want to help you make others smile and I want to make you smile."

She turned away from him, pulling her hoof out of his. "You can't be here for me. You shouldn't be here."

He walked around her, trying to look her in the eye. "And I am. My heart never really left Ponyville. And even it did, it would find you wherever you left to."

"No!" She exclaimed, stomping her hoof into the ground.

Taking a deep breath, Cheese wrapped his hoof around her as she stared out the window. I could see in the reflection that she was already producing tears. "Pinkie... I think... I AM in love with you. And every waking second that I've spent away from you have been slow and painful. I can't bear with the weight of not being around you. It kills me."

For a silent moment, he quietly stroke her mane and back as she started to sniffle. A small but frail smile showed on her lips, but soon collapsed as she looked back to the figure in the window's reflection; she saw me. "I... I can't."

The stallion halted his motions and backed away in disbelief. "...Why not?"

"I don't know." She sounded out as her voice broke.

Cup walked up to her and offered to comfort her. "Pinkie, what are you saying? Cheese came all this way to-"

"I DON'T KNOW!" The pink mare shouted loudly. She walked over to the brown stallion and nuzzled him gently. "I just wanna make everypony happy! But I can't. I like Cheese because he can make me smile. He never stopped being wonderful to me. I never felt so happy as when I'm close to him. He brings me joy and he's willing to go distances for me. He actually loves me and I love him. But..."

"But?" Cup inquired.

She then left the company of Cheese and ran towards me, deeply nuzzling against me. "But Nondis makes me feel secure. He protects me like no other. He's willing to sacrifice himself for me and I can't thank him enough. He's willing to talk to me about some of my most painful secrets and he never tells a soul. He's a true friend and I can't bear to hurt him like this. Or you."

Finally seeing an opportunity to speak, I opened my mouth to voice my opinion. "Pinkie, it's okay if you-"

"NO IT'S NOT! I can't choose between two stallions who can show me as much compassion as the both of you. I won't." She whimpered as she backed away from me and backtracked to the stairs.

Cheese called out to her. "Pinkie-"

"I'm so sorry, both of you!" She finally erupted in a fit of tears, running up the stairs to take comfort in her room. Cheese reached out for her, but his body failed to respond. I stood in a guilty silence as his ears folded and the brightness in his eyes soon waxed cold.

"So, Pinkie loves you?" He whispered to me in a gloomy tone.

"Well, yeah. But I-"

"So she's decided to move on then?" He asked, sounding heartbroken.

"No! That's the problem. She's stuck on you and she's interested in me. I don't want her to-"

Slamming both of his forelegs into the ground, he turned to face me head-on. "I won't accept this. I can't let Pinkie be down because of you!"

Feeling confronted, I stepped forward in response. "Me!? How about you!? You've been roaming the countryside and she's been running into her ex boyfriend-"

"Caramel..." He mumbled.

I wanted to carry out my rant, but was silenced by his apparent knowledge of the infamous ex. "Oh. You've met that bastard too?"

He nodded his head in agreement. "I've been notified by Pinkie that he had hooked up with her in the past. And after their first time sharing a bed, he left her alone." I started to see him grow even more tense at the mention of her story. It was obvious that he was already angry with him as it is.

Imagine his reaction if he knew the truth that was going to come out of my mouth in the next sentence.

"Oh, so you didn't know that she was being beaten and raped?"

For a split second, I could see all of the muscles in his entire body go limp at the sudden revelation. "She was what!?" He quietly questioned me.

"Yeah, that happened." I held an inward smile and kissed my teeth as I thought about the pictures of the aftermath, about how she was so shaken up that she didn't want to tell anyone about it. Not even some of her closest friends knew about it until the trial a while back. As a consequence, I ended up reminding Cup what all her favorite employee and foalsitter had to endure.

"Oh... heavens." Instantly, she bolted up the stairs and galloped down the hall. "Pinkie, dear! I'm coming up!"

Still trying to process the thought of Pinkie being in such an abusive situation, Cheese's tone grew dark. "She was..."

"Yeah. And Caramel is the one responsible."

"Where is he?" He asked through gritted teeth.

"Prison. And that asshole won't be out till forty-plus years from now."

Kicking the ground in frustration, Cheese snorted and hissed at the mere name of the stallion. "This is horrible. I can't believe that she was hiding something like this from me."

"You and me both. It took her sisters to tell me everything."

Finally taking a deep breath to calm himself down, he grabbed a chair from an adjacent table and sat in front of me. I followed suit as he started to talk. "I understand. But how was he reported if she didn't want to press charges?"

I chuckled a bit as I started to explain everything in a short amount of time. "Actually, he tried to press charges against me for hiring a gang of mares to assault him. And those mares were her sisters. So after some time, our defense attorney had come in with some aftermath shots of when he mugged me before he got his from Maud and the others. Then when the father came in as a surprise witness for the defense, he exposed the history of violence that Caramel inflicted on Pinkie."

Cheese hummed in frustration.

"I'll never get the sight of her with bruises out of my eyes." I mumbled to myself as I rubbed my head from the headache that whole circus had caused.

"So, that's why she wanted me to stay in town. To protect her." He concluded.

"I wouldn't say that. She just wanted you to be around. She loves you, deeply."

"But now she loves you."

"Only because I protected her from harm. Nothing else."

We sat in silence for a long while as we heard the two mares upstairs conversing amongst each other. "So how do you feel about her?" He finally asked, breaking the long, awkward silence.

"You know, you're not the only pony that asked me that. Her sisters asked me the same question just yesterday. And I told them the truth."

"What did you say?"

Scratching my eyebrow to relieve myself of an annoying itch, I quoted my answer. "I told them that she was an amazing friend. I liked her just for who she was and that she didn't need to validate her worth to anyone. Plain and simple."

"So... you don't love her?"

Throwing my arms in the air in complete exasperation, I tried to explain myself. "That's just it. I do, but not in the way she wants me to love her. I can't return her feelings like that. I mean, I do love her but I'm not in love with her. I've tried to tell her that, but she was so insistent on telling me her feelings first. I don't mean to lead her on. Even just last month, she confirmed to me that she wanted us to be, quote-unquote, just friends."

"I see."

Stretching in my seat, I gave out a big, exhausted yawn. "So yeah. Big misunderstanding. I'd like to be friends with her, and I'd like to try and help you get her back."

The brown stallion gave me a small chortle. "How do I know that you're being serious?" He said, questioning me with sarcasm.

"You'll just have to take my word for it."

"Why is it that you don't want to be with her?" The stallion inquired, still confused on why I was rejecting her.

"Because I have someone else that I'm interested in. She knows it, and yet tries her hardest to win me over."

"So what are you going to do?"

I rose from my seat, walking over to the stairwell. "I'm gonna go upstairs and tell her the truth. I don't like her like that, she has you to lean on, you two mend the relationship that I inadvertently walked in on and the both of you start planning for your future together." I simply outlined.

"You know, that sounds a lot easier in theory."

I shrugged my shoulders, noting his statement. "Oh I know it's difficult. I've been on the receiving end of rejection countless times. I know what she's going to feel. I will coach her through that bit and eventually get her back on track to you. Sounds good?"

"You know, I don't think you know what you're passing up on."

I rolled my eyes in response to him. "Aren't you the one who's in love with her?"

"Well-"

"Then just say yes so we can get you and her back together."

"I'm just saying. Pinkie Pie is-"

"I know. I've lived with her for a month. Now come on, let's go get your marefriend."

Reluctantly, Cheese rose from his seat and joined me at the foot of the stairs. "Okay."

As we walked up the stairs, I decided to fill him in on the details of my stay. "Now just to clarify on the month I've lived here. We didn't do anything outside of hugs."

"Did she kiss you?" He asked as we reached the top of the stairs.

Letting my mind wander back to what had happened just before Pinkie and I came inside, I had realized that I had actually forgot to take into account that she and I did kiss. But it was very briefly and practically one-sided. Still, truth was truth. "Okay. Maybe twice, but that was only when we were coming in just earlier. And even then I was trying to convince her that I wasn't interested."

We stopped just outside of her door as he asked me yet another question. "Was she willing to... you know?"

Cringing in realization, I did acknowledge that she was willing to show me how much she cared for me... on top one of the dining tables. "Again, misunderstanding. But I know that she will when she sees that you're willing to spend the rest of your life with her."

"Hey."

"Yeah?"

Lowering his voice so that only the two of us could hear, he questioned me yet again. "Why are you doing all of this? You could have Pinkie for yourself and yet you choose to give her to me."

Facepalming in defeat, I groaned loudly. "I thought we went through this already."

As I opened the door to Pinkie's room, Cheese gave me a sagely nod. "Thank you."

"Get your ass in the room, sandwich boy."

Shortly after our meeting. Pinkie was left alone with Cheese Sandwich while Cup and I talked downstairs. As we conversed, I had brought up the possibility of giving back Pinkie's room since Cheese was going to be in town. Eventually, we had started to veer on the subject of me moving out to stay elsewhere. Cup objected the idea, saying that I was being too rash. But I had further explained to her that living here with both Pinkie and Cheese would be awkward due to Pinkie's lingering emotions towards me.

And being that I wanted to bring Cheese and Pinkie together, I needed to step outside of the picture.

As soon as the suggestion was brought up to her, Pinkie instantly protested to the idea of me living elsewhere. And of course, she had gotten Carrot involved in her protests. But when I had broke down the living expenses of three tenants and the current room available to accommodate all of us, they started to realize that I had a solid argument. I did offer to stick around as a temporary hire, so the business end still ended rather well. So much to Pinkie's objections, I had packed all of my belongings and sought company with another close friend that I could room with.

Unfortunately, I couldn't go back to the castle. The reason this time was because I was disallowed access to the grounds by none other than Princess Twilight Sparkle. Why she feels the need to distance herself from me, I'll never know as long as she keeps me in the dark. I asked the guards outside of the main entrance why I couldn't see her, their response was a quiet, long stare. I wasn't going to get any sort of response from these guys, so why even try? I think I've had it up to the hairs on my head with Twilight's bullshit. I think it's best for me to move on.

And yet, she stays stuck in my mind. It's like I'm a cigarette junkie who's gone cold-turkey. And every waking moment I don't have my fix is another day where I get even closer to choking the nearest person or pony I see. I wanna say that I should move on, but I can't help but to remain fixated on her. She was the first thing I knew when I had gotten here and now that comfort was gone. Even when I was living with Pinkie, I held out hope.

By now, that hope is hanging on a fishing wire and I'm steady taking the bait.

For a short while, and by a short while I mean two hours, I was completely homeless. I couldn't stay with Fluttershy because she was already housed with her animal friends and Discord. Not to mention that it would be uncomfortable to live there and woken up by the sounds of those two going to town with each other every other night. Applejack was a no-go based off of my inability to stave off of swearing. I'd be getting an ear-full every time I'd stub my toe. And Rainbow Dash... well let's just say I'm not exactly air-worthy.

So that left me with one possible suitor.

"What the hell is that smell!?"

I got out of my bed and ran down the hall as I smelled the unpleasant odor of smoke filling the air. As I passed by Rarity's room, she ran out in her night robe, screaming all the while.

"SWEETIE BELLE, WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT COOKING WITHOUT MY SUPERVISION!?"

"I'm thirteen! I can cook fine on my own!" Sweetie called back from downstairs.

She's thirteen and already burning the house down. One day, that little mare is going to make some stallion very proud, followed by very angry and very stressed that the rates of his homeowner insurance premiums have skyrocketed. Either that or she's going to jail for arson.

It was obvious that cooking was far from her special talent.

"D'ooooh, Sweetie Belle! When I get down there, we are going to have a serious talk about your insistence to destroy my boutique!" Rarity shouted as both she and I ran towards the kitchen downstairs. As we had entered the hallway where the kitchen was, I was already feeling my lungs filling with smoke.

"Well it's not my fault that omelettes are so darn hard to make!" Sweetie called back.

"And your language is absolutely atrocious, young lady!"

"I guess I'm to blame for that?" I joked as I stuffed my nose inside of my shirt to avoid taking in any more of the smoke. Sadly, it was to no avail as the thick grey miasma seeped it's way through my sleeves and into my nostrils.

As we broke into the kitchen, Rarity filled a bucket full of water and doused the flames out over the stove. "You think!?!"

"Shit!" I shouted out as a plume of gray smoke barreled from the extinguished stove. Coughing and gagging, I waived the offensive air away from me. "I can't breathe like this."

After saving both my life and that of her younger sister's, Rarity scolded the young filly. "Sweetie Belle, what in the wide wide world of Equestria are you doing?"

"I was trying to make breakfast before you two had headed out to Canterlot this morning."

"That is still no excuse to burn the house down!"

"It's not my fault that this stuff is so hard to make!"

This has been going on for the entire two weeks that I've moved in here. And I can honestly say that this was the third time this month that she almost burned down the entire boutique. This go around, she was pretty damn close.

"Look ladies, can we just agree to go out to eat this morning? I'd prefer to be out of the gas chamber today." I recommended, hoping to get the two to stop arguing with each other.

"Well we wouldn't have to if our stove wasn't a charred mess." Rarity pointed out to the black and crispy cookware. "It makes me wonder sometimes-"

"I just want to be able to do something without having to rely on you as much!" Sweetie interrupted, screaming back at her sister.

Seeing that arguing with her younger sister wasn't going to get either of us anywhere, Rarity took a deep breath and lowered her tone as she gently placed a hoof on Sweetie's shoulder. "Sweetie Belle, precious, I can understand your desire to come out as your own mare, but could you at least be a little more cautious? You won't make marehood if you're constantly throwing your own life into peril." She looked back over to me, seeing that I was still trying to recover from the massive amount of smoke I inhaled. "As well as the lives of others."

Feeling remorseful, the young filly turned to me and bowed her head. "I'm sorry." She then turned back to her older sister. "Both of you."

"Ohhh!" In the blink of an eye, Sweetie Belle was magically scooped up by her older sibling and cuddled like an infant. "You're fine. I'm just glad that you're unhurt."

"I get it." Sweetie responded in deadpan as she was still being cradled.

"You silly filly, I'll make sure that you'll get the best-"

"Rarity!" She shouted, getting her older sister to place her back on the ground.

The fashionista blushed and laughed nervously. "Oh. Sorry."

After passing her sister a serious look, Sweetie looked to me again. "Sorry about that, Nondis. I really wanted you to taste the food this time."

"Oh no, you're fine. I'll be okay." I was spared of a fate most unfortunate today. Not only I wasn't burned alive, but I didn't have to be Sweetie Belle's taste tester. Well I'll be damned. There is a god.

"Maybe next time." Rarity addressed to her little sister, much to my horror. "But for now, we should be getting ready to head out."

As Rarity ran to go get her bags from up the stairs, I was left questioning our departure time. "I thought the train didn't head out till about eleven."

"Ten, darling! And can you guess what time it is now?"

I looked over to the clock across the room. "About eight thirty."

"Precisely. We would need to be at the station within the hour, should we expect to be ready for when the train comes into town. After all, the train leaves the station at ten, not after." Rarity called from the top of the stairs she would walk down. Instead of holding just one bag, she moved several. About five bags worth of fabric, a case for her mobile sewing machine, a bag the clothes she'd be wearing out and my own travel bag.

"So we'd be loading the train at about-"

Before I could finish my statement, I found my own luggage being shoved into my chest. Meanwhile, Rarity levitated hers towards the front door. "Nine thirty to say the least."

"Oh shi-" There are foals present, dumbass. "-ippie." Okay, not as clever, but I guess it'll do.

"Oh 'shippie' is right." I can't believe she just said that. "We need to get Sweetie Belle to another-" Then the door bell ran as she spoke. Quite some fortunate timing here. "Oh! He's here."

The three of us quickly walked towards the door. As soon as Rarity opened the door, Sweetie Belle ran towards the guest standing in the doorway.

"Daddy!" Sweetie hollered loudly, hugging the stallion.

"Heya there, munchkin! How ya feeling today!?" The stocky stallion asked his younger daughter.

"I'm doing great! This morning I was-"

"Hurry up Nondis! We've got to get to that train station. We should be meeting up with Spike within the next half-hour."

As Rarity happily trotted out of the boutique free-hoofed, I was busting my spine carrying all of her bags for her, not including my own. "Just... where... nngh... are we... meeting up... dammit... with Spike?" I struggled to speak from behind the mountain of luggage. Meanwhile, her father shook his head and trailed behind me with my bag.

You know, I understand that Rarity has a lot to carry, but how is it that her younger sister and her father was able to help me while she runs off somewhere else, unburdened on top of it all?

"Spike will be meeting with us at the train station. He will accompany us to Canterlot."

I nearly dropped everything in my hands as I took a wobbly step forward. "He is?" I asked nervously.

"Whatever is the matter? I thought you would appreciate the assistance."

"Well, when it comes to him, he doesn't like to share his personal belongings. And by 'personal belongings', I mean you."

And it's true. Spike never did like me spending time with Rarity because he thought that I would steal her away. It didn't help my argument any since he actually caught me receiving a kiss on the cheek from her a two months ago. He was extremely territorial when it came to Rarity, with any male in general. And what makes it all scary is that he'll act so calm and civil when she or the other girls are around to see him.

That dragon was a two-faced fucker who wouldn't mind cracking a innocent smile, all while watching the skin boil off of your bones.

The freelance fashionista chortled at my testament. "Oh, nonsense! You'll be fine. I'll be sure to keep an eye on Spike. If he should ever act unfair towards you, then you are at liberty to notify me at once."

"What will you do to him if he does?"

"Simple. I'll give him a stern talking-to."

I can see that he'd be angry about having to get a lecture on how he should behave around others, especially when it came to me. So it brought in the question that stayed on my mind for quite some time. "What if he ignores you?"

"He won't. Now come, Canterlot awaits!"

While Rarity veered off, I was still struggling to carry all of her bags. Her father did managed to lighten my load a bit while Sweetie Belle rode on top of his back. He had some pretty formidable strength to be able to multitask like he did. But I did want to ask him how his daughter became so... well... misplaced. Because he, nor does his wife or Sweetie talks in a Mid-Atlantic accent like she does.

I don't even know if there's even an Atlantic here in Equestria.

"Thanks a bunch." I muttered back to the burly stallion walking beside me.

"Sure thing mister." The stallion answered as Sweetie Belle did her part to carry a bag or two.

"Where does she get this desire to leave her bags with everyone else?" I voiced out with concern, seeing that everyone in our party was literally walking with Rarity's bags while she was nowhere to be seen.

"Beats me. I'm her father and I couldn't tell you."

"That's just how she is. If there's a male around, she would prefer them to be the gentlecolt and carry her belongings for her. She's a proud chivalry-enthusiast. You'll get used to it." Sweetie added.

I've been getting used to it for the past two weeks.

As I rode on the train, I stared at Spike and Rarity, who sat across from me. They continued to talk amongst each other as Rarity outlined her plans for the evening. It seemed that she had a pretty packed schedule tomorrow morning. At first, she would meet up with a fellow associate and have a long conversation about some of their clients. Then their conversation would finally get into some of the jobs they had for her. Soon after, she would hit up all of the local retailers of fabrics and other fashion goods to replenish her supplies. By the end of that, we'd head out to dinner with another client and talk about some of the ideas she has for her new line, what's in season, what's out, what accents would work, what she could get away with, et cetera.

While her schedule seemed like a lot on her plate, my mind was already at a clutter from my recent run in at the train station.

* * * * *

As we met up with Spike, I had seen that the others had showed up to bid us a safe travel. Even Cheese Sandwich was present, but it seemed like there was one who really wish she wasn't there.

Yeah, you all know where this story is headed.

As I walked into the station to relieve myself, Pinkie found an opportunity to sneak into the bathroom as I sat in one of the stalls. As soon as she walked in, I could see the pink coated hooves slowly walking towards my stall. But instead, she turned to the stall next to mine and locked herself inside.

"Pinkie, what are you doing here?" I asked as I flushed the toilet.

After waiting for the water to stop rushing down the bowl, Pinkie Pie responded. "I just needed to talk to you."

"Is it about Twilight?"

"She's really trying her hardest to act like you aren't here."

I shook my head, confirming my earlier suspicions. "I've noticed."

"Each time you say hello to the group, she looks away and finds something to distract herself. This time, she was reading one of her books."

"So I'm assuming that the book she was reading had something to do with driving a guy insane." I asked sarcastically.

"No. Just a typical romance novel. But that's not what I'm here to talk to you about."

Evidently, it had to be important for her to come into the colts restroom. "What is it?"

"Her brother just came back from his tour of the badlands sometime three weeks ago. He's posted in the castle as well. And apparently, he's the reason why she hasn't been speaking to you in the public eye. Much less two weeks ago when we were here."

Yup, that's pretty damn important. "So she wouldn't tell me this and why?"

"Because... I don't know. I wish I could tell you something, but I don't wanna lie to you."

Don't wanna lie to me? Pinkie, you've been lying to me since I stepped foot on Equestrian soil. "You didn't seem to have a problem with that when it came to telling me your feelings."

"I didn't want you to get too close. But in doing so, you only gotten closer to me anyways." She rebutted.

I hummed dejectedly, thinking about another instance she had lied to me. "Then how about you not telling me about the letter you had gotten from Cheese the day before we left to the rock farm?"

"That wasn't a lie. I can't lie if I don't tell you about it, silly." She responded.

"Okay then, how about the situation between you and Caramel?"

She grew quiet at the mere mention of the stallions name. "...I may have rehearsed that story to myself a bit. Eventually, I had convinced myself that what had happened between me and him wasn't as severe. But deep down, I knew the truth."

"So you admit to lying to me?"

"Yeah, but I didn't know if I could trust you."

"Then why did you lie to the others?" I inquired. By logical reasoning, she should've at least informed them of the problem she had if they were her closest friends.

"I didn't want them getting involved."

I rolled my eyes at her answer. "They're your friends. They should be getting involved whenever it comes down to shit like that."

"You don't know them like that." She murmured.

"How so?"

"Applejack hasn't been too fond of Caramel for a while, not even Big Mac liked it when he came around asking for her."

My ears perked at the new bit of background presented to me. I had already knew that he was in a relationship with Pinkie, but now he tried to get with her best friend? Wow, that's a bit low. "He tried to get with Applejack?"

"Yeah, but her cousin Braeburn had already warned her about him in a letter. That aside, if AJ would've found out... I don't think I would want to see her become a criminal for my sake."

I laughed at the mental image of him running for the hills as Applejack tried to hogtie him and beat him senseless. "Yeah, I know. She would've kicked his ass six ways to next month"

"Rarity doesn't really show it, but she is a fighter. And a skilled one to go along with it. She'd destroy him on the spot."

A prim and proper seamstress going Bruce Lee on a cowardly stallion. "That I'd love to see."

"No you wouldn't. Even Rainbow Dash would've unleashed everything she had at him. And when she's mad, she doesn't hold back."

And seeing her perform a corkscrew dive from high in the air to deliver a hind leg to his jaw would've been exhilarating. "I can see that happening."

"Fluttershy doesn't like fighting, but when it comes to defending her friends, she'd do anything to break him."

Okay, this is where I fail to follow up with an image in my head. "That sounds very unlikely."

"Discord used to be our enemy. She single-hoofedly tamed him to be harmless to us. And if he could defeat both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna without the Elements of Harmony, then he'd tear us, and all of Equestria, to shreds. She did it alone, using just her words alone. Think about that."

And even now, Discord is her proverbial bitch. That in itself is an image that shows in my mind. "Okay, I could see that happening now that you mention it."

"Twilight... I don't even want to think about the levels of violence she would've stooped down to."

Her violence towards me was more emotional than physical. If that's what she meant, then I guess he would have a hard time dealing with her. But still... "How bad could that be?"

Pinkie paused for a moment. "...She fought a centaur over fifty times her size in Rambling Rock Ridge. She destroyed a mountain, was knocked against another, knocked through that mountain and thrown towards another. After all of that, she came out of it all without so much of a scratch."

I scoffed at the absurdity of that story. I didn't believe that she'd be able to fight off a titanic mythological creature and walk away from it unscathed. "I call bullshit on that one."

"Well let me put it to you this way, it was because of that fight that the castle stands in the center of Ponyville today."

Okay. But I'll still call bullshit on that one. That just sounds downright fictional. "Sure, and it was born from a magical box that flew high into the air on a rail of rainbows, into the ground, which then grew the magical castle in one gigantic piece. And then Twilight slayed the Jabberwocky and went on to save Narnia. And then we all lived happily ever after."

"You're not that far off, actually. The only part that didn't make sense was the Jabberwocky-"

"Of course it doesn't make sense! That's why I said it."

"But really, that's what actually happened. We even went to-"

I didn't need to hear anymore weird stories on how ponykind was made, I had a train to catch. "That aside, I'm going to take your word for it." I interrupted as I rose from my stall, pulled up my pants and walked out.

"Hey, Nonnie. You know, if you want to, there's some extra room in this stall. Maybe you can hide in here with me." Pinkie called out to me in a flirtatious manner.

Washing my hands, I answered back to the pink mare in the stall. "If you're suggesting that we'd do nasty things in there, then I'm afraid that I'm gonna have to say no to that."

"Well, that wasn't on my mind... But okay! Just be gentle when you pull my tail. I really, REALLY like that kind of-"

Before she could go into any boner-inducing details, I tried to haul ass out of the bathroom as quickly as I could. "Ahhhhhhhhhi ain't got time for this shit!" I sounded out as I opened the door.

"But Non-non, you-"

As I opened the door, I was suddenly greeted with a familiar face. A face full of righteous fury, indigo bangs with pink highlights, large purple eyes and a sharp, pointy horn that lit with a magenta flame.

"Twilight. Hi." I whimpered anxiously as she raised a hoof towards me with a low growl.

"I was going to tell you that you're in the little filly's room." Pinkie called out from the stall. No wonder why the place smelled of potpourri.

As I nervously laughed, the next thing I felt was the impact of a purple hoof on my shoulder. As she gave me a comforting smile, I uneasily smiled back, trying to back away. And much to my fears, her hoof held me in place as her smile very quickly disappeared.

Yeah, that wasn't gonna end well.

* * * * *

Even as I sit aboard this train, I could still feel the out-print of a horseshoe against my cheek. At the very least, she could've cursed me out or something. But instead, all she did was slap me and teleport me into the train.

Some hello.

"Nondis, are you even paying attention?" Rarity asked me from nowhere.

"Huh? I-what?"

"Darling, we're going to be delayed for a while. It seems that a cave-in of one of the tunnels leading to Canterlot had placed us under a significant waiting period. We're stranded until they can clear the tunnel and inspect for anymore possible ruptures."

So that meant while I was in la-la land, the train had come to a stop and a tunnel had caved-in right in front of us. I really need to get my mind off of Twilight sometimes. "Damn, that sucks. What's the time of delay? Does anyone know?"

"Well, from what they're saying, we might not get to Canterlot until nightfall."

"How far are we from Canterlot now?" I asked, looking at the motionless scenery of the mountainside outside of the window.

"We're a lot closer to Canterlot than we are to Ponyville. All we have to do is scale up the mountain and we're there. To get to Ponyville, we'd have to travel all the way back." Rarity said as Spike handed her a newspaper to read for the time being.

"That means we're stuck here for a while." The young drake stated as he laid himself on the seat to go to sleep.

Well that's lovely. If I were some of the passengers on the train, I'd be asking for some sort of compensation. But before I could voice my disgust, the speakers squeaked loudly as an announcer spoke on the system.

"Attention all travelers, attention all travelers. We are still currently waiting for the tunnel to clear out. Since a team has already been assigned to clear the blockage, we will be expected to arrive at our destination by around 9:54 p.m. To help accommodate you during this wait, we are issuing first-class dinners to all passengers free of charge. Thank you kindly for riding and dining with us. We hope that this event does not dissuade you from joining with us in the future. Once again, we thank you for your patience."

Wow, I actually summoned that one up, didn't I?

After our long wait, we had finally arrived at our primary destination. Canterlot; the crown jewel of all of Equestria. Not only was this the nation's capital, but it was also home to some of the country's most prestigious members of society, including that of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Both Twilight Sparkle and her older brother were born in this very city. And now, I was standing in the middle of it.

Unfortunately, we didn't have the time for tours. So rather than gawking at the city lights, Spike and I were pressed to carry Rarity's bags as we followed her to our hotel. As we passed by some of the more elite locations, I had noticed that there was an increase of guards in the area. I guess it was for security purposes, but in actuality this was the home of two royals, the two most powerful and most important no less.

In contrast to the more dormant night-life that Ponyville has, Canterlot was bustling with life as ponies walked the busy streets. In comparison to the last town outside of Ponyville I paid a visit to, this had a much more energetic feel. There still weren't any foals running up and down the street. Teenage colts and fillies were abundant as the moved in drones from place to place. Some of the more mature ponies have taken themselves to sit alongside the lily-pond bridge and watch the lights brighten up the city.

Canterlot was beautiful.

When we had entered into our hotel, Rarity had purchased two rooms for us to stay in. I asked her why she didn't want to save some money and go for just one, her response was that it would be far too crowded for us and that she preferred a more privatized arrangement. When I had asked her about renting out a third room, she said that the cost was far too much for the budget she had planned.

By now, we had to set out our living arrangements. I recommended a room to myself, stating that I could easily place the beds in one single unit. But not only did Rarity voice her complaint that Spike had a habit of snoring loudly, the hotel had rules against that kind of thing, so that idea went out the window. I proposed that Spike and I share a room. But Rarity argued me down, saying that Spike wouldn't be fair to me if I was in a room alone and unsupervised with him.

I couldn't believe that Rarity was actually making me do this.

By the time Spike and I carried the bags upstairs, Rarity had unlocked one of the rooms. As soon as we placed the bags down to wait, the young dragon fell asleep on some of the luggage we carried. I giggled at the sight of him falling to pieces just before he had a chance to walk into the room. It was one of those moments where I wish I had my cell phone on me to take pictures. As Rarity opened the door, she levitated the tired form of the baby dragon onto a nearby bed. Unfortunately, that left me to move all the bags into the bedroom she and I was going to sleep in.

After lugging in all of the bags, I flopped myself onto the nearest bed. Despite the small size, it was still pretty comfortable. But I suppose that it would be in comparison to the seats on the train. Rarity was the first to use the shower as my first instinct was to find the television remote. I started to open the dresser and that's when I had finally realize that there was no television. Instead, the drawer were filled with books, and what stood on the opposite side of the wall was a radio.

I guess my mind hadn't completely slip out of the human world just yet.

Rarity walked out of the shower wrapped up in her rose-colored night robe. Her mane was done in a series of curlers and she held a pair of small blinding straps in her magical grasp. I knew that she needed one to focus on her sleep but I didn't think she'd carry an extra. Just before putting hers on, she threw one over to me.

"If the night lights get on your nerves like they do to me, then you can wear this."

I inspected the mask, looking at it as if it was some foreign device. Unfortunately, I didn't see myself having much of a use for it. My bed wasn't beside the window for one and for two, the shades blocked out any light that wasn't already within the room. Not only that, but light never really did have that much effect on me. I gave it back to her.

"No thanks. I'm fine without."

"Your loss." She said as she turned herself in for the night.

I suppose that it was time for me to do the same. It was getting late anyways. The small alarm clock on the nightstand read eight minutes before midnight. We did get in later than what we already had planned and even later than that of our delayed arrival time. The travel was stressful and, in my case, without nourishment. I don't eat flower or hay-anything so my menu was dwindled down to a glass of water and a small salad. If anything, I needed to save my energy for the morning.

But at the very least, I should take a bath first.

I still can't sleep.

It's been two hours and my mind has been wandering around this whole entire mess of Twilight and her brother. Not only that contributed to my lack of rest, but also the small bed size. So after senselessly tossing and turning for about thirty minutes, I gave up and moved the blankets and pillows from the bed to the floor. After making a make-shift futon, I laid myself on the ground, hoping that I'd get some sort of comfort from it all.

Instead, all I had gotten was a massive ache in my side and a more annoying headache.

How did I even get into all of this mess? I understand that I was in the midst of performing illicit acts on a royal, but did it all have to go to hell afterwards? She didn't even lose her virginity and yet she punished herself. Then her brother has it out for me, damn near killing me. I move in with Pinkie for a short while. Then her boyfriend comes to town and she's torn emotionally between me and him. So I move out to move back in with Twilight, but her brother still has it out for me. So she bans me from the castle grounds and I'm forced to live with Rarity. I get that, but why in the hell am I being punished so damn harshly?

As I stare at the clock across the darkened room, I knock myself on the head as I realize that the lights are out. Laying by head back down to the pillows, I try to close my eyes in hopes of gaining some rest. But as usual, my mind brings me to the world of now. I'm still awake and thinking of Twilight.

About how close we were to each other.

I could still see the after-image of the purple mare greedily pressing herself against me. I could still feel the warmth of her walls clenching around my fingers as I inserted them inside of her moistened lips. I could still imagine her going even further than we did before her brother had walked in on us.

I found my hand clenching down on my erection as I thought more about what was within my grasp. The pain of my boxers constricting me had become more than a distraction. By now, it only added to the growing list of problems I had with my sleep. I looked over to see if Rarity was still sound asleep. Needless to say that she was at this time of the morning. Hell, I was the only one awake at the moment.

That meant that I finally had the opportunity to do what I haven't done since my arrival in this world.

Freeing myself from containment, I allowed my hand to work up and down the shaft of my erection. Closing my eyes, I started to use my imagination. I visualized that very day where Twilight pushed me to her bed. My legs started to stretch out as I tried to massage the suppressed tension out of my body. I didn't want to wait entirely too long to approach my orgasm, as I still had an early morning to wake up for.

Mourning the session that could've been between me and Twilight, I sped up my pace and tensed my body to force myself to reach my climax. Eyes still closed, I visualized a number of scenarios where Twilight and I could go even further.

Despite the guards walking down the hall, she whispered to me how she hated being so aroused. As her hind legs shifted, I reached my hand back behind her, firmly clasping my fingers around the purple cheeks of her plump, princess posterior. My mind became awash with lustful intentions as my other hand met with the second, untouched cheek. As her kiss deepened against me, I allowed my hands to venture further down the base of her tail. Her body sweltered in this area, the air thick and humid as she cooed quietly into my mouth.

Gliding a finger around her swollen lips, I calculate my method of entry. I could easily just turn her around and have my way with her, but that would be too quick for either one of us. Even she should have to know the pain of being built up for so long. My body instinctively thrust against her wandering hoof. She trails her hoof up and down my hardened shaft, causing me to shudder at the mere thought of feeling her heavenly passage blessing me with a shower of her juices as I struck inside her.

A frustrated sigh through clenched teeth leaves me as she uses her magic to slowly unzip me. Her body rocks against my hand as I press myself towards her hoof. Twitching in excitement, my staff nods to her every touch, her every motion. Pleasure rattles my senses as I decide that the touching has been far too much. Twilight could still see that I was very much needing what she had wanted. We both desired the raw, undignified embrace of our lustful exchanges. I needed to feel her. She wanted me to plunge into her. And I was more than willing to accommodate.

I could already see her moistened slit, glistening with arousal.

Despite my vivid imagination, it paled in comparison to the sensation of flesh mashing against flesh. I couldn't stand the insanity any longer. For the first time in my life, I had dared to do the one thing that I didn't think I could ever do.

I rose from the floor, walked over to the occupied bed, where a white unicorn mare slept peacefully. I instructed myself that I wouldn't dare go any further than a peek. As my hand moved up and down my shaft, I could see her tail veiling much of what I had wanted to see. I snuck my free hand to her, trying to be as careful as I could not to wake her. Her body lied motionless, upward facing, and unsuspecting of what I would do.

My heartbeat increased at an exponential rate. I could feel it beating in the palm of my hand. I was so nervous, scared, and yet excited. I knew that the consequences would be severe if I had gotten caught, but that just added to the thrill. I knew that this was beyond wrong and yet, I wanted to do it. After a minute of cheering myself onward, I had finally placed a finger at the base of her tail.

I started to speed up as I felt the familiar warmth of her nethers radiating onto my finger. I couldn't hold off for much longer, but I still desired something substantial to tribute to. I gently hooked my other fingers around the base of her tail to move the hairy curtain out of the way.

Slowly now.

Carefully.

Quietly.

Almost there.

She shifted!

I pulled myself back, my fingers removed themselves as the mare adjusted herself. I retained my breathing to a minimum as I kept my mouth covered. As my free hand cupped my mouth shut, I could smell the light musk around my fingers. The grasp around my shaft tightened even more as I basked in the smell. Yet I didn't move. I couldn't risk it.

After a minute or so of being stationary, teasing myself as I waited, I proceeded to work my hand against my stiffened erection. As I looked down, I had noticed a miraculous change of fortune. Her tail had completely unveiled the very area I sought to provide tribute to. My aching form quivered as I lowered myself to get a better look. In the shadow of darkness, I couldn't see much, but I know that what was in front of me was the very thing that every stallion desired. Even the light odor she gave off was too much for me to handle.

I wanted to taste her so much. Greed had overtaken me at this point. My climax neared as I placed a hand on the well-toned curve of her plot. Instinct had screamed at me to insert myself, but I staved off that desire. I just wanted to feel her. Just a touch. My body started to rock back and forth as I started to feel myself approach the point of no return. I slowly guided myself towards her, tracing the outside curves of her flank and finally landing in the crevice above her haunches. I slowly thrusted myself against her.

The first thrust seemed unreal. The flesh and the warmth that graced me was absolutely beyond definition. I grew anxious and ambitious, thrusting myself against the darkened valley a second time. My eyes failed to focus, rolling to the back of my head in ecstasy. A quiet moan escaped my lips as I prepared for my almost inevitable release.

"What do you think you are doing?"

I looked down to see an angry mare, still in her resting position, yet she stared at me with open eyes. I knew that she did, her blindfold had concealed that, but I knew. As I tried to back away, I felt a force resisting against me. When I had looked behind me, I could see the light blue flames holding my body in place. And as I turned around, I had received an eye-full of light, initially blinding me. But as soon as I recovered, I had saw that she did not wear the blindfold. Instead, her eyes were glaring coldly into mine.

I could easily see the sense of betrayal that swam in her mind.

"How could you?" She asked in a whispery tone.

"Rarity, I'm sorry! I-I-"

I didn't get to finish as she magically pushed me off of her and back onto the floor. She took a deep breath and screamed to the top of her lungs.

"SECURITY!"

Author's Note

So what will happen to Nondis next? See what unfolds in the next chapter. Also, the last segment is part of a dream. Feel free to read the next chapter to see how it concludes.

Chapter XII

"SECURITY!"

As Rarity screamed at the top of her lungs, I could feel my heart pounding in my throat. My arms shook with fear as I had come to the realization of what I had done. No... I was well aware of what I was doing. I was scared because I was caught doing something I had no business doing.

"Rarity, please-"

Giving me a swift kick to the groin, she screamed at me. "I don't want to hear another word from you!"

I held myself as I screamed out in pain. My voice sounded throughout the halls of the hotel. As I tried to relieve the pain, I felt more than the impact of her hoof against my manhood, but also the crushing weight of guilt. "Please just listen to me."

"I don't care for what you say, you... you... VILE PIG!" She hollered back at me, crying and throwing some of the pillows at me in disgust.

I wanted to feel sorry for her, but it was all my fault. I couldn't believe that I had actually thought to go so far as to find some sort of relief from my sexual deprivation. She didn't deserve what I had did to her. "I'm sorry!"

"I don't accept half-hearted apologies, especially from rapist ruffians!"

"Listen, I wasn't myse-"

Next, she threw the lamp that stood on top of the night stand. As the room gotten dark, I had felt something significantly painful strike my chest. As the lamp hit the ground, Rarity cut on the light switch on the other side of the room. As soon as the lights came back on, I had saw the streaks of tears pouring down from her face. "Do you think words can just simply undo what you've already done?"

"I WASN'T MYSELF!!!"

"WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH YOUR ABILITY TO RESPECT ME AS I AM!?! I AM NOT SOME TOY FOR YOU TO PLAY WITH! I AM A LADY AND A MARE! YOU DON'T DO THAT TO ANOTHER PONY!"

I dropped to my knees, trying my best to plead to her. She needed to understand that what had happened was something that wouldn't normally happen under any other circumstances. "Look... Can we calm down and talk about this?"

"Or maybe it's because you're not a pony is why you would seek to take advantage of a defenseless-

Before she could finish, there was a knock sounding at the door. In seconds, I felt my entire body temperature drop as Spike called for her through the door. "Rarity, what's going on!?"

I tried to get up and answer the door, but I found myself being yanked back. Rarity stood over me, defiant and angry. "Spike, gather your things! We are leaving this place immediately!"

I reached out to grab her hoof. "Please just hear me-"

To which she cruelly swatted away. "Don't you dare touch me." She hissed, scorning me for attempting to even come into contact with her.

"Rarity... I-"

She backed away from me, wearing a distraught smile. The tears still poured from her eyes. "I let you into my home, I feed you, I clothe you, give you all that you could desire from a friend... and you take advantage of me?"

I rapidly shook my head to deny her. I understood that what I did was beyond wrong, it was illegal and disrespectful. "Please... I didn't mean to-"

"Get caught? Oh I'm sure that you didn't!"

I wasn't thinking right. I wasn't being who I was. Why am I coming up with this long list of excuses? I know I'm guilty... but I can't stop lying. I just don't want to lose my friends. I don't want to lose everything that I've built up, the relationships, the accomplishments I've done. My entire life here has been a complete overhaul of what everything had occurred on Earth. I've done too much to let it all go up in flames. I needed to convince her that I wasn't myself.

"Look, I was thinking about something else entirely!"

"JUST SHUT UP!"

I fell on my face, trying to hide the shame that I bore on my face. "Rarity. I'm... so... sorry."

"Lies, that's all I see coming from you!"

I honestly didn't know if I could plant my face any deeper into the carpet. But I had hoped that if I did, then it would make up for the mistakes I've made. But sadly, that wasn't how reality worked.

"Rarity! Are you okay?" Spike called out from behind the door.

As soon as I leapt at the door, Rarity shoved me back down while making a break for the door. As soon as the door opened, she tossed out all of the bags one by one. "Spike lets go. Grab the bags and let's get moving."

"What happened?" He asked with concern. But as soon as he saw me, he started to get suspicious. "What did he do to you?

"Spike, please. You gotta hear me out." I begged, but not before Rarity tugged him along with the other bags she carried.

"Let's go!"

"Right behind you." He said, running right behind her.

I finally got off of the ground, running after her. Before I could blink, I found myself in the hotel lobby, surrounded by guards. She stopped just in front of an officer clad in armor. "Rarity, wait up! Please, I have to speak with you!"

"Stop that fiend. He tried to violate me as I slept!" She yelled at one of the guards, pointing at me as I ran towards her. "I woke up to you sexually assaulting me! You even tried to move my tail for easy access!"

As soon as her testimony left her lips, I felt a strong set of hooves press me from behind and drive my shoulder into the ground. I fell, helplessly staring at the mare I betrayed as Spike offered to comfort her. "He did what!?!" The dragon questioned.

Instantly, I started hearing the responses of many other ponies in the area. I struggled to get off the ground, still feeling one of the guards pressing my shoulder into the floor.

"I thought you were better than this."

I turned my head to the direction where the first voice came from, and my expression went from showing the strain of attempting to escape my captor to one of abject horror. Twilight stood there, not even wanting to look at me. I tried to reach out for her, but another guard pulled my arm down.

"Land sakes! Ah can't believe ya! Rotten varmint!"

I soon felt a rotten fruit strike me directly on my left cheekbone. I looked out of the corner of my eye to see Applejack throwing more of the rotten fruit at me. And standing beside her were the others as they joined her.

"Somepony's gonna be in a world of hurt!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she took up a rock rather than a rotten piece of fruit. As the other ponies appeared around me, I could see Rarity crying against a straight-maned Pinkie Pie for comfort.

"Pinkie, please-"

She turned to me, wearing a disgusted scowl. Cheese held on to her with caution as he glared back to me. Pinkie angrily shouted at me. "You're no better than he was! Why did I even trust you?"

"No you gotta believe me!"

I could hear the angered voices transform into shouts of approval. I turned my head and saw Discord selling bushels of rotten fruit as he laughed maniacally. Meanwhile, Fluttershy turned away from me, sadness apparent in her eyes. "You should be ashamed of yourself!"

The ever-growing cries and jeers sounded in favor of my punishment. Each pony that bore witness had screamed for justice while my voice grew even more quiet. My body contorted as I tried to raise myself off of the ground. But despite my best efforts, I could still feel the weight of two stallions resting on top of me. I finally decided to scream to the top of my lungs, hoping that my words weren't lost in this sea of angry insults.

"FINE, I ADMIT IT! I MADE A MISTAKE! WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT ME TO SAY!? I'M SORRY, REALLY!"

Beside me, I could see Shining Armor looking down upon me. He had a stoic expression, similar to the one he had when he had caught me with Twilight. "Oh you're in for it!" He muttered before walking off, dismissing me to be arrested.

This can't be happening.

"Get up!" One of the guards shouted from in front of me.

This really can't be happening. I don't do this. This isn't me. I don't just go around fucking ponies in their sleep. I'm not like this at all. I'm innocent.

"GET UP FROM THE GROUND!"

This can't be real. I'm not like this.

"GET UP, NOW!"

No. Please, I made a mistake! I know what I did was wrong. Please someone, anyone. Please...

"I will speak with you later." Shining said back to me, before disappearing behind the crowd of ponies.

Stop it.

"GET OFF OF THE FLOOR, NOW!"

Please let it all end.

"GET UP!"

"GAH!" I screamed loudly, breaking out of my hellish nightmare.

"Celestia bless! Don't scare me like that!" Rarity shouted as she took her hoof off of my shoulder.

I woke up in the hotel room, still resting on the small bed. "Where am I?"

"Why what's wrong with you, darling? You're in a sweat." Rarity asked with concern.

My eyes darted across the room. I saw the light in the windows, indicating that it was early in the morning. My heartbeat started to slow down a bit as I saw her standing over me. "Quick, what did I do last night?"

"Calm down. I think you were just merely a victim of a bad dream."

"And I thought I was a heavy sleeper." Joked Spike as he jumped off of my back.

Well that explains the weight I felt in my sleep. But still, I thought that I had set a palette on the floor. Everything I did and said outside of the unspeakable crime I performed, was just as real as anything. I had watched myself become the very bane of existence. "That shit was just a little too real for me. How do I know that this isn't a dream?" I asked, still feeling the imaginary restraints on my wrists.

Spike chuckled as he opened the drawer and pulled out a book. "One way to find out-"

"SPIKE!"

As soon as I was done looking at my wrists, I had noticed that the book he pulled out was well within his claws, hovering over my head. "Okay. I won't hit him."

Rarity smiled at me. "Dearest, you're fine."

That was all it took for me to break down. She still smiled at me. Instinctively, I wrapped my arms around her, mumbling to her as I held her close. "I'm so sorry. I'm so... sorry."

Taking the book from Spike's possession, she gave me a quick bonk on the head. "Nondis, snap out of it."

"What time is it?" I had asked, letting her go.

"It's a quarter after seven. You've gotten a full fifteen minutes of extra sleep. I tried to shake you awake, but you just kept sputtering nonsense in your sleep."

Spike scratched his head in confusion. "Yeah. What did you dream about that had you out so cold?"

Something that I really didn't want to think about. "...I think I just need some time to cool down. I've been really stressed out lately."

The young dragon gave me a comforting pat on the back. "Oh just stick it out! You only have up to a month left anyways."

"Spike! That was uncalled for!" Scolded the fashionista.

"What? He's leaving back to his world next month. With everything going on, I wouldn't want to stay around either. Besides, he's probably homesick."

He actually had a legitimate argument. I wasn't going to be here for very long. It's been close to seven months and the month after is the scheduled deadline for completion. That was the reality that I had long forgotten. I had grown so irritated of the current circumstances that I blinded myself of that.

So I've got a month left in this world.

"Spike, go check at the front desk to see if there's a breakfast buffet." Rarity requested, pointing towards the door.

"You got it!" The young drake cheered as he skipped across the room and out the door. Rarity sat next to me, shaking her head.

"I swear, he's been acting out a little too much lately. Now back to you, what did you dream about?"

I held on to my hands, playing with my fingers as I thought about the lustful dream that ended up going entirely too far. I could still feel the binds on my wrists. "I don't wanna talk about it."

"Nondis, you can trust me. Now tell me what's wrong." She asked again, this time leaning against me.

I paused for a moment to think about how I could word my question without seeming like a total creep. The last thing I need to do was say 'hey, I had a dream that I molested you in your sleep, you caught me in the act and I was arrested for it'. Then it would really be a major issue. Closing my eyes, I pieced together a response. "Hypothetically speaking, what would you do if you found out that you did something completely abhorrent and distasteful?"

"Like what?" She questioned as she rose off of me, already putting me at unease.

"Say you..." I couldn't even put it nicely. There was no other way to say it. "Nevermind. It was just a bad dream."

The fashionista grabbed my hand and took it in her hoof. "I think you need a nit of food in you. The stress of your situation with Twilight, Pinkie Pie and the long travel might've gotten to you. You're completely worked up. That's not healthy at all, in fact I recommend you to take the day off from assisting me with anything I may need to carry."

"Nah, I can do it." I said as I rose from my bed.

"No, I won't let you." She insisted, tugging me down with her magic.

"I'm fine." I reiterated, attempting to escape her telekinetic pull, but failing to do so.

"No you're not! Just look at those circles under your eyes!"

I quirked an eyebrow and placed a hand on my face. "I have circles?"

"You obviously haven't taken a good look at yourself in the mirror, have you?"

I looked at the bathroom across the room. Just through a narrow crack, I could see the hint of darkness around the lower areas of my eyes. I looked like I had been through some tough times. But then again, I did have a bad case of bed hair to sell the look. "...Maybe not."

She sighed as she tried to sit on the opposite side of me. I turned away, not wanting her to see me like this anymore. "Darling, look at me."

"Okay." I said dismissively, looking towards the desk.

"Look at me." She demanded, placing her hoof on my cheek to guide me.

"Okay. I'm looking." I argued childishly.

"I care for you. And I know that our time is growing short, but that doesn't give me an excuse to not care about you. I want to send you off on a high note, not when your health has taken a downturn. Help me help you so that both of us can enjoy the time we have left together."

I understood her desire to let me do as I please, but there was still the guilt of letting the little guy take all of the burdens of the trip. "But I don't think it would be fair if-"

"Spike can handle it. You just take the day off and keep up with me." She said, following up her statement with a quick peck on the cheek. "Capiche?"

I think for the first time in recent days, I felt at ease. "Okay. You win."

"AHEM!"

Our moment together was suddenly interrupted by a familiar dragon standing at the front door. I smiled nervously as he tapped his fingers on the door frame. "Oh, Spike... hiya."

"The breakfast is downstairs." He notified to the both of us happily.

"Ooh! Well that's good news. I suppose we can refresh ourselves before taking the day head on." She declared as she rose from the bed and trotted out the room.

"Yeah! Twilight always said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day." Spike added.

"Well let's get marching!" Rarity sang-sung while merrily making her way towards the dining area.

"Right behind you." Spike said as I was about to exit the room. "Hold on a sec."

He held an arm across the doorway, preventing me from leaving the room. "Yeah?"

"I don't like how close you and Rarity are getting. I know that she likes you, and that you like Twilight. And I can understand all of that. But I already warned you about leading Rarity on. You keep stringing her along like this, you're gonna get what's coming to you."

It's the same warning that he gave me before. Only this time, he didn't weld any mannequins together. "I read you loud and clear, dragon boy."

"You're forgetting that this dragon can also melt metal." He reminded me.

"I haven't forgotten."

As I started to make my way down the hall, he walked beside me to speak. "You know, you act so calm and collected when you're faced with danger, but I just can't happen to think about how you've manage to become a danger to yourself. You should really let off the stress of being here and just take it back home when the portal's done."

While he kept walking as if he had said virtually nothing, my feet became glued to the carpet. "What?"

With a smirk, he shrugged his shoulders and counted off his fingers. "Look, your life has been in peril like, what, twice now? You're stressing out over a relationship that shouldn't even exist and you're stressing Rarity out by being here. Pinkie's love life was perfectly fine before you had gotten here. Granted you did some good by standing up for her but you still put yourself in a great risk. You can't defend yourself, you don't know how to function in this world, and you're being a burden on everypony else here."

Honestly, I felt very offended that he would say something like that. "That's kind of rude for you to say, don't you think?" I asked, trying my best not to explode in anger.

"I'm just speaking truth. I may fantasize over Rarity all day, but that doesn't mean that I don't see the reality of every situation I come across. And the truth of it all is that you don't belong here."

I bit my tongue, abstaining myself from cursing the little bastard out. My blood seemed to boil over but I had to keep in mind that this was probably him trying to convince me to take my leave. But really, he had no room to speak on how I didn't fit in. So I decided to bring that back to him. "Okay. But let me ask you a question. Since we're on the subject of living life amongst a species not our own, how do you go about living with a pony, being that you're a dragon?"

"I was hatched by Twilight, not birthed. But even as a hatchling, I still understand that I want to protect Twilight, being that she is my surrogate mother, as much as I do Rarity. And the truth of it all is that she's in just as much pain as you are."

I didn't know what to say. I wanted to call him a liar, but I know that there is more than one side to the situation between me and Twilight. If anything, there were facets of perspectives, each one different from the rest. Yet they all were of the same jewel. I couldn't dismiss that.

"Nondis, Spike, are you two coming?"

As Rarity interrupted my thoughts, I quickly walked down the hall, past Spike and towards the elevator.

"We're on our way."

After breakfast, the three of us headed out to carry out the laundry list of tasks we had to complete. Spike seemed very much in his element as he held a checklist and a backpack full of boxes and bags. Though his stare showed a great disdain for what I was doing, which was nothing but keep the conversation rolling.

But as our conversation carried on, I couldn't help but to let my mind wander back to last night, early this morning. I couldn't fathom why I had such a dream. Was it because of my lustful urges or the frustrations getting me to take it out on the nearest pony or was it that I had a breakdown in restraint? Granted, I was a bit of a porn junkie in the human world, but did common decency really become so back-burner that I had actually started to think these things? Was I actually becoming another Caramel?

Fuck no! I would never be what he was. I don't have the willpower to actually go forward with striking a mare. Nor do I have the mentality to force a mare or woman into any situation that goes against consent. I hated what he was and I swore to myself that he would be the example of what I would not become.

So why did I feel like scum?

"Rarity, ol gal, is that you!?"

I broke out of my thoughts, looking up to see a unicorn stallion with blue hair and a white coat. Instinctively, I backed away, thinking it was Shining Armor. But then I remembered that his mane was dual-toned and this character was the exact opposite. In fact, I don't remember him wearing an monocle or growing a mustache. Not only that but Shining wears armor most of the time, not a black tux with a purple bowtie.

"Fancy Pants! Fleur! Why it's been so long!"

Spike seemed to get a little more disgruntled, though his face showed the exact opposite reaction. As Rarity ran over to him, giving him kisses on either cheek and performing the same gesture with another mare beside him, I could see Spike cooling his jets. Obviously, he was already with mate.

"I cannot even recall the last time we met? How have you been?" The tall, albino unicorn with pale-pink hair returned a hug to Rarity.

"I've been magnificent! Fleur, how has the modeling business been for you? I want to hear nothing but good news!"

"Well, I had actually gotten an engagement with Photo Finish, but unfortunately, all she ever talks about is how she had one model who was even more graceful than I was."

"Oh balderdash! You're performing just splendidly, dear." By process of elimination, I could simply assume that this fellow's name is Fancy Pants.

"Between you and me, I think she might have the mare-hots for that filly." Fleur snickered as she nudged Rarity.

Giving the taller mare a playful hit, Rarity giggled to herself. "Oh don't be silly, Fleur. You know that gossip stays at the cafe."

Suddenly, Fleur grew shifty and quiet, cupping her hoof beside her mouth. "In speaking of gossip, it seems that your latest line is a big hit since your break with Sapphire Shores."

Rarity scoffed nonchalantly. "It is but a trivial thing. Those kinds of things are to happen when you have a celebrity showing off your stuff."

"You don't seem too excited to hear the news." Fancy Pants noted.

"No... Maybe... YESSSS! Oh I'm so excited! This is simply exhilarating! I can't believe that my business has been blowing up so much! I am completely humbled by this experience!"

I don't think I've ever seen Rarity so damn excited. She seems to really like where her business has gone. And I can understand why. I could only imagine how a small-time boutique would sponsor someone of the likes of either Lady Gaga or Janet Jackson. If I had worked with them, I'd be jumping like a schoolchild high on sugar, just like Rarity was doing just now.

"That, and your breakout tour with the Ponytones have been nothing but hits. I can't believe that you've had a talent for singing as well." Fancy added.

And then she's breaking out with her own singing group to top it all off. Add the benefit of having one of her clients being a celebrity and that group's hooves are in the door.

"Get an agent darling, because your schedule is going to get a lot more busy." Fleur recommended.

"I believe that she's already started, just look at those two." Fancy pointed towards me and Spike, who was just watching the conversation unfold. Before I could even introduce myself, Fleur darted up to me and wore what could've been her largest smile.

"Hey Fleur, how's it been?" Spike said as Fleur just simply ignored him and made her way to me.

"Oh my word, you're that human from Ponyville! I can't believe that you're actually here!" She said, extending a hoof for me to shake.

"I can't believe that I'm actually here." I joked, returning the greeting.

"Tell me, did you happen to get any of my younger sister's letters?"

Oh boy. Now that I think about it, I did get a lot of letters. But most of those were from overly-obsessive, sex-crazed, fetish-fueled, creepy ponies who were looking to kidnap me, tie me up in a chair with a bag over my head and place nipple-claps on me as they poured hot candle wax on my balls, which was literally what one of those ravenous fans wrote out. But I don't think it could be that bad. "I... think I did?"

"Oh, she's one of your biggest fans! She never stopped talking about that one photo of you wearing a pair of shorts that revealed your long legs and that t-shirt that clutched against your torso, and let me tell you, she has that picture blown up and plastered to the wall, honey!"

Excuse me while I scream for a second in three... two... one... "I'm... flattered."

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!

Appreciating the clothes I was wearing, Fleur walked circles around me, inspecting every detail of my appearance. "Even the things you're wearing now is quite stylish. It's hip, it's trendy, it'll go well with the younger generation. Who's your designer? To think that somepony could alter their designs to fit to anatomical proportions."

"That mare there." I pointed directly to Rarity, causing her to blush. Fleur took a double take between me and Rarity, finally looking at me slack-jawed.

"Shut up!"

"No really, look." I tuned around to pull out the tag from the collar of my shirt. After recognizing the signature and the emblem, Fleur turned back to the seamstress responsible for my outfit.

"Rarity, oh we have got to talk lingerie."

I nearly felt my legs give out from under me as soon as I thought about Rarity making intimate apparel. It goes without saying that she was just as red in the face as I was. "Oh heavens, I never really thought about doing anything in the 'risque' department."

Fleur walked over to her, placing a foreleg around her. "Honey, you'll sell. Your designs are to die for. Now let's head to the cafe. I have some pretty interesting rumors about Hoity Toity and his newest pillow stallion."

Instantly Rarity grew giddy once more, squeeing with delight. But her squees subsided as she looked back over to where me and Spike stood. "Oh. Well, I would love to babble on about those kinds of subjects... But you see..." She nodded her head towards the both of us, more towards Spike. "Those kinds of things aren't meant for young ears."

Fleur levitated the list Rarity carried and unraveled the parchment. "Just watch me work, sweetie." She whispered as she walked towards Spike, circling a few things out on the list.

"Hey, Needles?"

"Spike." He corrected in deadpan.

"Pike, right. Do you mind carrying out some of these orders for Rarity today? If you manage to finish this list in the hour, she'll give you a big surprise!"

Thought Spike seemed unconvinced by her original pitch, Fleur took it a step further and whispered in his ear. After a few words, he snatched the list and bolted down the street with nothing but parchment and dust following him. "Be back in a bit!"

While the dragon disappeared into the distance, Fleur gave off a devious smirk. Meanwhile, Rarity was busy tapping her chin, pondering on about what his reward would be. "Oh dear, I have no idea on what to give him."

"Hey, we'll worry about that bridge when we get to it. Now, who's up for some tea?" Fleur asked, pointing to a location just down the street from where we stood.

"I could go for some with a bit of milk." Rarity cheered.

"I can do for a lovely mint flavor." Fancy cosigned.

"Uhh... I'll see what they have first." I stated, still preferring coffee.

As we started to make our way towards the area, I had taken notice of two stallions walking out, followed by a party of five mares. Fleur still walked towards the establishment, ignoring the situation unfolding before us.

"Splendid! Then off we g-"

"Uh oh." Rarity muttered, tapping Fleur to get her attention.

"What?"

"Ooh! Looks like Blue's mad today." Fancy pointed out as the two stallions argued before us.

"What's going on?" I asked, whispering low so that I could still hear what was being said.

"See for yourself." Rarity whispered back as we watched the conflict unravel.

A chef walked stood in front of a white unicorn with a blond mane and blue eyes, stomping his hoof repeatedly. "I'm sorry sir, but I cannot serve those two together. To do so would compromise the integrity of the individual dishes."

"I don't care! I want what I demand and I demand service without question! If you are incapable of doing just that, then I shall take my business elsewhere!" The snobbish stallion replied.

"Fine! Then don't come back to my establishment until you can learn to appreciate each meal on their own!"

"Hmph! Come along ladies, we shall make our way to a more... respectful eatery."

And just as quickly as the situation grew, it diffused with the chef angrily marching inside and the stallion and his group of mares walking the opposite way.

"Who's the prick?" I asked.

Rarity seemed to shudder with disgust. "Prince Blueblood."

"So are all princes in this world assholes?" I shamelessly asked, much to Fleur's shock.

"Well I'd say that Sir Shining Armor has proven himself to be a fine royal, especially coming from a military background." Fancy tried to reassure me.

I begged to differ. "So what's with the entourage?"

Rarity seemed to be really upset about my question. It appeared that she had already known the answer. But I knew that it went way deeper than that. Fancy answered my question. "That is what many would call a herd, or a harem if you will."

"So this guy has more than one girlfriend?" I inquired, seeing that he walked with a crowd of groupies.

"No dear, those are his wives." Rarity spat venomously.

"Wives!?"

"Yes. He's known for seeking young, attractive mares to join the ranks." Fleur added to Rarity's statement.

"Isn't bigamy illegal?" I asked scratching my head.

"Why of course not!" Fancy answered with a hearty laugh. "bigamy, illegal."

"Oh, nopony has ever told you about the marriage laws of the land?" Fleur asked me, seeming concerned for my ignorance on the matter.

"Well, I never had a reason or a desire to know. Guess I do now."

Fancy cleared his throat as he started to explain. "You see in larger cities such as this one, stallions and mares are often at a much better ratio because of the numerous youngsters seeking to live out their college days or their youth in the fantasy of being swooned by multiple mares at a time. Even some from lesser-known towns find themselves trying to live the dream."

"Chasing after false promises. It's disgusting, really." Rarity spat out, causing me to realize that my initial suspicions were correct.

"Disgusting as in how?" I questioned.

Fancy intervened. "Well, that's just it. It's a matter of opinion. Mares from the city don't mind being shared that often because they know that the population of mares far outnumber that of stallions. And the stallions being aware of that, tend to take advantage of young, naive mares, or the greedy ones, who are placed in a perpetual competition for one stallion's heart."

"Not realizing that there are risks to this dangerous little game. It's really a traders market out here. If she sees a more successful colt with a bigger bank roll, she's going to chase after him and leave the one she started off with behind." Fleur contributed to the explanation.

"So the only ones to take multiple wives are-"

"Politicians, royals, CEO's, new money, those of inherited fortune, and high-ranking military officials. I actually started off that way, but gradually grew out of it. Even as of now, I have only one wife, the one that stayed with me through thick and thin." Fancy said as he gave Fleur a light nuzzle.

"What about the ones that try and fail?"

"That's just it. If you try to play this game, then you're betting everything you've got. So if you lose..." Fancy allowed me to come up with my own aftermath.

"You go home broke."

"That's the least of your worries. Which is why mares from smaller towns, such as Ponyville, tend to look down upon the idea of being apart of a harem. It's a matter of self-worth and self-respect." Fleur stated.

"So has there ever been a small-town girl who was asked to be-"

"Ask the mare beside you." Fancy said as he looked towards Rarity.

"Rarity, you mean that you were asked to be in a harem?"

She nodded silently. "Blueblood asked me years ago. It was the night of the Grand Galloping Gala. I thought he would treat me better, but instead, he wanted me to cater to him, as if I was begging for his attention. I am not that desperate, nor will I ever be. I swear that I would never lose myself in a desire to chase after rich and plentiful suitors. Instead, I seek to create my own success and seek out one that my heart would grow to love."

I know in my world, there used to be these reality shows of who was considered the most elegant bachelor. Afterwards, there was this big competition of how a group of twenty women would all throw themselves at this guy in hopes of self-gain. As usual, they weeded out most of them, but kept the worst ones for dramatic purposes. After about a few episodes, it finally gets down to two girls, the woman that loved him and the woman that sold her story of emotions to him, but instead she loved his money. After cutting one of the women off, he'd propose to one remaining.

Granted, there was no competition, or a big corporate payoff to the girl that was sent home on the last day. Instead, they just simply clawed at each other's throats for the attention. And if the guy could afford it, then he'd have as many as he'd like. But still, I always knew that there was a trade-off to those kinds of competitions. And both Fancy and Fleur were a testament to that life.

I hate how I could stay here longer and see just how dark this world could get.

"So, the lesson for today is that harems are a no-go."

Fancy nodded in approval. "If you ask me, it's just too much commotion to try and keep more than one mare to yourself."

"Coming from a mare of experience, it's something that's never easy. You'd have to really sell away your dignity in order to make it to the more successful figures in society. And I've seen a lot of mares lose what made them special looking for just that." Fleur seemed to have grown silent after her testimony.

"That sounds... pretty depressing."

Rarity spoke up, finding her voice once more. "It is. Which is why-"

"Nondis P. Haines?"

The four of us turned around to see two guards standing at attention while a third walked up to me. Immediately, I felt my mind wander back to that realistic nightmare I had. I could still feel the guard pressing me against the ground as they tried to restrain me.

"Y-y-yes?" I stuttered nervously.

"Your presence has been requested at the royal palace."

"M-m-me? What did I do?" Still feeling a bit uneasy, I let my muscles tense up all over my body.

"You've done nothing wrong. The princess requests an audience with you."

I drew a sigh of relief, finally able to calm after being approached by the royal guard. Though I still held my suspicions being that I still heard that Shining was back in town. Was it a meeting on behalf of Twilight? Was it on behalf of Shining Armor? Is there a delay on the portal or something? There were various things they could summon me for. And honestly, I was starting to get comfortable with the others. "Do I have to?"

"Sir, I don't believe it's a matter of if but a matter of when." The guard answered sternly. It looks like I wasn't going to get out of it either. If anything, that 'when' was only applied to the minutes it took for me to get there. And I really doubt that I'm being arrested at this point. Besides, I could get some more info about Twilight. That always seems to be a bonus.

"Lead the way."

As I walked through the halls of the castle, I couldn't help but to gawk in awe over how much larger this one was in comparison to the one in Ponyville. It seems that everything, from the halls to the windows, were twice as large as anything I've seen in Twilight's place. There were even five times as many guards here too. It's like I'd see one every ten steps forward, backwards, sideways, longways, shortways, in-ways, out-ways, everywhere.

I understand there's a need for security, but this is just ridiculous.

By the time our walk had come to an end, I stood outside of a room with a moon crest set on the door. The guard was about to knock, but stopped shy as we both heard a familiar voice. A voice that I did not like.

"What do you mean 'there's no threat?' I saw them mobilizing in the badlands, and they seemed to be preparing for a small offensive."

"Indeed. Which is why it is best to assume that they are conducting drills."

"Are you saying that we should let them do as they please?"

"I am saying that we should wait to see what their next move is, captain. My sister and I will not risk a conflict if there isn't a need for one. Our numbers are suitable, but that is no excuse to send them marching off into danger, especially against a demoralized foe."

"Demoralized? Then what do you call that large invasion of Canterlot almost two years back?"

"Their numbers have dwindled since then."

"They could be hiding in droves. They're still out there, waiting and watching our every move-"

"Just as we will do the same. Now please dismiss these foolish claims of invasion and leave that spectacle in the past."

"...Yes, your highness."

"You are dismissed."

As soon as I heard those words, I hid behind one of the large pillars beside the door. The guard that accompanied me looked at me oddly as the door opened, revealing a disgruntled Shining Armor.

"Dismiss these foolish claims of an invasion and leave that spectacle in the past. How are we to leave in the past something that still threatens us?"

Another guard who stood by the door, walked beside him. "Well, she does have a point. It's been two years."

"Yeah, a full two years to divide their forces and make it seem as if they've disappeared. I know what's going on."

"With all due respect, don't you think that you're being a bit personal with the situation?"

"It's a rightful grudge! Not only is it a threat to me personally, but one to all of Equestria. Let them kidnap one of our citizens, just one, and you will see that I will not rest until they surrender."

"I still think you're going a bit overboard with this."

As the two stallions disappeared into the hall, I felt a wave of relief wash over my body. At least I knew that I was safe... for now.

"Next!" The voice shouted out from the office, causing me to jump.

"Sir, the princess will see you now."

Finally calming down a bit, I came out of hiding and walked into the office. As I entered, I saw Princess Luna sitting at her desk, signing a series of papers. When she finished her next signature, she looked up to see me standing in front of her.

"Nondis, you're here."

"Good day, princess." I said, bowing before her as a sign of respect.

"Do not bow to me. This meeting is merely an informal one. Feel free to comfort yourself." She said, walking from behind her desk and towards the door. I looked back to see that she had whispered something. Just as she finished, the guards that stood by the door, as well as several others around the area, left me and her alone. Closing the door behind her, she walked back to her desk and dismissed the stacks of papers all over her desk into some unknown dimension.

"Might I ask, why have you summoned me, princess?"

"Luna. Let's begin with that." She said, as she stressed her earlier point.

Still feeling a little uncomfortable, I remained standing. "Luna, why did you call me here?"

She chuckled as she sat back down, folding her hooves. "I thought that I told you that we would be speaking later."

"What? Since when?"

"Since early this morning."

"We never met this morning." I can clearly say that I was nowhere near her or this castle earlier this morning. So how did she managed to notify me of a future meeting if we never spoke. Hell, the last time we saw each other was the castle anniversary in Ponyville four months back.

Her smirk disappeared and in it's place grew a stern frown. "You had a terrible nightmare about your personal desires growing out of hoof. At that point, you sought to take advantage of an innocent mare, who caught you in the midst of violating her. Shortly after, you were apprehended for your crime."

My heart started to race at speeds I didn't even know existed. My arms trembled and shook as she recalled my dream without as much as a word being spoken to her about it. A chill ran down my spine as I started to back away in fear. "How... did... the fuck?"

"I watched. And in that dream I spoke to you. I said to you that I would speak with you later."

I had to calm myself in order to think. Though I much rather not remind myself of what I dreamt of, my mind tried to recall any significant details about my dream. Where was I where she could've said that she wanted to speak with me later. I just remembered... that and the arrest soon after. I can remember the others berating me and throwing things at me. I could remember the guards pinning me to the ground, but that was a combination of Spike and Rarity trying to wake me up. I remembered how Shining Armor just instructed the guards to take me away and he mumbled that he would see me later...

No way... she was... "Shining Armor? You were-"

"Yes, I was him."

Speechless, I fumbled in my movements, waiving my arms and looking all over the room, hoping for an answer to fall from the sky. "But... how-"

"I am the Princess of the Night, thus it is my duty to come into your dreams." She stated as she unfolded her forelegs and walked away from her desk, circling around me.

Despite her answer, there was still the question that burned in my mind. "Then why? Why did I get that dream!?"

She stopped walking around me, stopping directly beside me as she eased into my ear. "Tell me, have you heard of the many theories that are involved with the dreamscape?"

I've heard a few things, but nothing outside of when dreams occur. "Not really. I just know that dreams are peculiar in nature and that they're formed in our brains when we sleep."

"It goes much deeper than that. Though I cannot get into specifics, I will introduce to you a possibility. Have you ever thought about what you would be like if you were the exact opposite of yourself?"

I remember watching a movie about how one guy looked at himself in the mirror and he saw his reflection at one point, but as soon as he turned away, the reflection turned back to him with a demonic grin. I suppose that my situation could be similar to that. "You mean one of those kooky mirror gags where you see a bizarre version of yourself?"

"Similar yes, but have you ever seen that side morph into your physical being, presiding over situations that are otherwise unfamiliar to you?"

The Exorcist, that movie is the vanquisher of sleep. "Like some sort of demon possessing your body."

"Precisely. We all have the darkness within us that we do not wish to see. You have seen just that."

So what she's implying is that I may actually have a demonic side that's capable of doing those cruel things to others. That doesn't make me feel the slightest bit of comfortable knowing that I was a monster inside. "Does that mean that I will become like that?"

"No. Not all all. It is a warning, however." Luna corrected.

"A warning to what?"

She walked away from me, making her way towards the desk once more. "You will end up in a situation where you will not know how to respond. Your desires will be a deciding factor."

But even then, would that mean that it would happen in the course of the next month, or would it happen much later from now? But by then, I would be long gone from Equestria. "That's when I leave to my world, right?"

"It will happen to you regardless of what you decide."

"So... I'm gonna be some sort of-?"

"No!" Luna reiterated, shouting at me before I could even finish my question. "Far from it. What I am saying is that you will make a decision that would cause not only you pain, but others that are involved."

Despite her constant reassurance of my not being a rapist, I was still feeling a bit insecure of myself. "And there's no way around this?" I asked, hoping that there would be one.

Luna shot down my answer. "It is an inevitable fact of life. Though the severity will not be as what was depicted in your dream."

I guess she's saying that I couldn't even avoid it. But even if I did make the mistake, what would I do to rectify that? How would I go about making things better? There were a lot of questions that surrounded the issue. And sadly I was fresh out of answers. "And what am I to learn from this?"

"That is up to you. I cannot give you any further information. The lesson is what you will make of it, just as you have been doing for the near-seven months you were here."

Although this meeting had left me with a few more questions than what I had coming in, I could take comfort in knowing that the largest concern I had was no longer something that troubled me. I felt safe and sound for the time being, but I knew that there was still more trials to come. At least I didn't have to worry about it for the time being. "Well, I feel a little better now. Thanks for clearing that up."

Luna smiled as she stood behind her desk. "Anytime, though our visit is not over yet. There is still one other matter that we would have to take care of."

"And that is-OUCH!"

I felt a painful jolt of electricity spark against the back of my neck. My entire body felt numb as I looked back to see what it was that sent the shock to me. Much to my surprise, it seemed that the one who sedated me was none other than the high ruler of the land. "Princess Celestia?"

"Excellent work, dear sister." The larger princess said to her younger sibling. Luna merely returned a head nod as my focus started to twist and contort. My equilibrium was thrown off while I stumbled forward and fell to the ground below. Princess Celestia eased my impact as she caught me with her magic.

"Nondis, when you wake up you will not be here in Canterlot, but rather in Ponyville." Luna said as she became a large blue blur in my vision. The world seemed to swirl into an invisible drain as I wobbled and wiggled, trying to escape from Princess Celestia.

"Why are you doing this?" I droned as the spell cast against me started to take it's toll on my consciousness.

"Because Twilight has failed to tell you." I think it was Celestia that spoke this time. I'm not too sure.

"What... are... you... sa...ying?" My eyes started to become heavier and heavier with each time I blinked. My lips almost felt like they weighed a ton when I spoke. As the seconds ticked away, the voices became hard to distinguish a difference between. Darkness was to take me very soon.

"Nondis, the reason why we have summoned you here is because we wish to inform you..."

"What?" I whispered weakly as the world started to fade from view. But there was one string of words that I had recognized before letting sleep take me.

"...the portal is ready..."

Author's Note

Due to recent controversy, I decided to release this chapter a day early. Next chapter will be due within a four day window as usual.

Well that was a bit of controversy. I guess it would've been right to finish that first scene in the previous chapter before causing all of this commotion. ~~Wrong place for a cliffhanger~~ And for that, I do apologize. I should've clarified that it was a dream to begin with so that I didn't offend some of the readers. I guess the next time I'll think about going dark, I'll send out a reader's warning so that some of the more sensitive readers would take into consideration that there would be parts that they would feel uncomfortable reading.

Now about the character. First off, no I never planned for the guy to become a criminal. He's still the same, as you can see. So whenever you see him act out of character, don't assume the worst because I never had that in mind. Thank you for your patience.

Chapter XIII

I could remember the last time I was home. The last thing I was doing was hanging out with my fraternity brothers. I had finally crossed the burning sands of my induction and became a true member of Delta Phi. Fast-forward six weeks and I was sitting in the fraternity house with my new 'family'. While I was still the quiet one, the others seemed to flourish in whatever subject they talked on. Whether it was girls, porn stars, the teachers we had for certain classes, the most recent episode of Game of Thrones, who would beat who in a game of 2K, sports, or parties our fraternity could plan, they seemed to go on for ages.

But whenever I had attempted to start up a conversation about something of my personal interest, they seemed to look at me oddly. Even my fellow crabs, or crossing mates if you will, shook their head and moved the conversation from awkward silence to jubilant laughter. And to think that I had sacrificed the one friend that I had in order to get here. If I could, I would take it all back and give my time to the one person that I knew would talk with me, regardless of the subject.

If I could go back in time and tell Melanie how sorry I was, if I didn't let the guys convince me that she was hanging around me to be nice, I'd still have a friend to talk to. But instead, I had shoved her away, thinking that she was just around me to express her sympathy for my not having friends.

I was a complete idiot. I was a total dumbass and more than a full-blown jerk. She needed me as much as I needed her, and our friendship was enough to carry us through whatever. And now, I don't have any of that.

But that doesn't mean that I couldn't go back a changed man. I could easily run back and make amends. It's what I want to do, what I know I can do.

My eyes opened up to see a bright, blurry light blinding me. Instinctively, I raised my hand to cover the light source in front of my face. But as I placed my hand in front of my face, I could see a tube running down the length of my arm. I had questioned what had happened to land me in a hospital, but I then remembered that Princess Celestia sent me to slumberville. Placing my hand down, I could see a familiar face standing in front of me.

"Applejack?"

She seemed to have been a little worried, seeing that she didn't wear the hat she would normally wear on a daily basis. But that's just it. Why was she here in Canterlot?

"He's awake, y'all." The farm pony sounded as she turned back to a group of more familiar faces.

"Geez, you really need to learn how to chill, dude." Rainbow Dash said as she flew over to my side.

"Any more visits to the hospital and you'd have a pretty big bill to pay." Fluttershy stated as she looked at the heart-rate monitor.

"Thank goodness." Rarity said as she stood to my left beside Fluttershy. "I had to cut the trip short to make sure that you were okay. What have I been telling you about stressing yourself out?"

It all started to fall together as I saw more and more of the girls. I had mentally wandered back to my dream prior to my waking up. I remembered that in the dream, Luna had spoke briefly about my having something called a false aneurysm. Though that wasn't what actually happened, the spell that was cast against me was made to simulate the fact. I had also questioned her about why it had to be that way, but before I had gotten an answer, I had woken up in this hospital. And if I'm correct, aneurysms are caused by a number of issues, primarily stress.

I guess they wanted to give a legitimate excuse to send me back to Ponyville on such short notice.

"Sorry girls, I let myself get a little out of hand." I stated, yawning and stretching.

"You should be a lot more careful. We can't send you home if you're..." Pinkie trailed off as she started to hold her emotions at bay. When I had looked to the others, I had noticed the similar expressions of sadness that Pinkie wore.

"Heh, so you all know about it?"

"Yeah, now we do. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had informed us of what had happened and that, well..." Rainbow Dash grew silent as the mere thought of the portal's completion had brought sadness to her. But despite her evident melancholy, she tried to play it off. "So what can we do to make your day awesome?"

"I'll be fine girls."

"Are you sure?" Fluttershy asked, placing a hoof on my arm.

"Really. I am. Now let's go get the nurse so I can get out of this bed."

The girls looked amongst each other as they remained silent.

"What's wrong?" I started to see that they were reluctant in grabbing a nurse so that I could check out.

"We'll be sure to help you pack up all of your belongings. Sweetie Belle will be more than willing to assist you, as am I." Rarity said with a forlorn smile.

I saw that all of the mares present had shown their concern for not wanting me to leave so soon. I understood what they were going through. The portal wasn't scheduled to be ready until six weeks from now. Instead, it's already done a month ahead of schedule. I suppose it is a painful experience to say goodbye to someone so soon.

Especially knowing that you may never get a chance to see them again.

After a quick evaluation, it was noted that the condition I was registered under turned out to be nothing more than a false alarm. Even the medics shared the same sigh of relief as the girls. Though I already knew that I was not suffering from an aneurysm, everyone else did not. So when the news came that I was perfectly healthy with the occasional rise in blood pressure, those who were assigned to me were relieved.

I know that it sounds as if they shouldn't be too concerned over my health, but considering my species and how little knowledge that this medical center had on me, I was a major concern. Even with Twilight's insight, there would be little they could do if I was to become seriously injured.

But hey, what does that matter? It's not like Twilight was even here to begin with. She never even bothered to show up as soon as I was reported in. But I don't think it matters anymore since I'm going to be back in my world by sunset. I just wish that she had actually cared enough to come.

However, if she doesn't want to see me and write me out of her life, then I could understand her reason for doing so. I'm a temporary thing. She has that right and I've accepted that she's trying to move on.

After my release, I had spent most of my day wandering around parts of Ponyville. With each memorable spot I passed, I could see the ghostly image of the event that occurred.

The first place was the town park. As I passed by the fountain, I had saw the image of me trying my hardest to cover myself up as my clothes fell apart on me. Twilight, who was busy blushing, was trying her best to assure me that it was all going to be okay. And despite her efforts to comfort me, I was still trying to hide behind random trees and bushes.

The second place I passed by was the bench where Discord and I finished out long string of pranks. I had felt myself become nostalgic for the times we spent together. It was just after we both had gotten in trouble with our respective interests. It was also the first time that Discord and I saw eye-to-eye.

The third place I visited was the Hayburger. I was more relaxed to see that some of the chefs had not forgotten about my special orders. So as I ate a plateful of french fries, my eyes had wandered back towards the bathrooms. Chuckling to myself, I noted that I would never subjugate myself to such a humiliating experience... EVER AGAIN.

The fourth place I stopped by was the alleyway where I had gotten beat up. Thought it wasn't exactly a pleasant memory, I still saw myself standing up for what was right, despite my stupidity for not trying to run. I knew that I was a horrible fighter, yet I still recalled the one punch to the face I gave him. It was an epic ass-beating, but it was still a fight that I had won in the long-run.

Of course, the fifth location wasn't so kind to let me leave so soon after my arrival.

"Heya, Nondis! And how are you doing on this fine day?" Carrot asked as he came from the upstairs rooms, holding a few baby toys to take with him.

Walking into the room, I greeted him half-way with a hoof-fist bump. "I'm doing pretty well, thanks. And you?"

"Actually, I'm just here visiting. Pinkie's been taking care of the place for us today."

"I heard that you guys were closed today." I said as I pointed to the sign at the door.

"Yes, actually. We kinda had plans for later this evening. We've got a royal engagement."

And it just so happened that I'm leaving this afternoon. The princesses will be in attendance to wish me well as I set off. Coincidence, I don't think so. "Oh. Well I wish you the best."

"Non-non!" I heard a scream coming from the direction of the kitchen. Turning around, I could see Pinkie Pie covered in multiple colors of frosting. She smiled just as brightly as ever.

"Sup Pinks?"

After giggling and snorting, she tilted her head and cocked an eyebrow. "Wow! I never heard you call me that."

"You don't like it or something?"

"I didn't say that. But I do need a hand in the kitchen."

Well at least she didn't say hoof. "For?"

Shaking herself off like a dog, she splattered the frosting all over the room, causing me to duck for cover and Carrot Cake to sigh in sympathy of the now-dirty room. Silver lining, she wasn't covered in frosting anymore. "I'm cleaning up a large mess we made in preparation for the big engagement this afternoon. And as you can tell, I'm a complete mess myself." As I pointed to the walls around the room, she chuckled nervously. "Or should I say that I'm in a complete mess."

"You need some help?" I asked with a deadpan expression.

"Well, I was gonna ask Mr. Cake to do it, and Cheese is already at the place helping Mrs. Cake set up." The pink pony said as she timidly clopped her hooves together.

"And I was on my way there after I had gotten these toys to the twins and Princess Cadance. If you could help Pinkie, then I would greatly appreciate it."

Carrot seemed a bit bummed out that he had to ask me to do some work around the bakery on my last day. But in actuality, I didn't really care. The majority of my bags are still packed from my moving in with Rarity. As to why, well I wanted to make sure that I was well-prepared for if Sweetie Belle was to burn more than just the breakfast and the stove in the morning. That and the recent trip to Canterlot.

"Sure, no problem." I answered, going for the supply closet.

Carrot picked up the toys and made his way towards the front door. "Alrighty then! Pinkie, I'll see you later on."

"Okay!" Pinkie hollered out as Carrot closed the door behind him, leaving me and Pinkie to clean up.

"So what do I need to do?" I asked.

Pinkie took away the mop I grabbed out of the closet and started working on the mess she made. "Just clean off the counters and do the dishes. I'll take care of the stocking and the mopping."

I laughed at the idea of me having all of the easy work. Walking into the kitchen, I had soon found my laughter crammed back down in my throat as I saw a mess of pots and pans stacking up all over the kitchen. The counters were a mess of sugary frosting and batter and the cooking ware was riddled with flour, egg, milk and batter. I knew that this wasn't going to take me a short while.

After about twenty minutes of pot scrubbing, pan wiping, sink cleaning and counter-top sanitizing, Pinkie had entered into the kitchen to finish off the floor. Shortly after, we stood next to each other, slightly winded from the chores we completed. We took pride in our work and it's sparkling results.

"It feels like it's been ages since I've had to clean back here." I said while I leaned against the counter. "And if this is bad, then I can assume that the larger parties that you cater to are a lot worse."

Pinkie giggled as she nudged me a bit. "I know! Cheese has been a real help with all of the orders. And with his added business, we stay busy with parties."

"I could only imagine."

While I stood quietly, I took in the sight of the kitchen I once worked in. Pinkie's mind seemed to have gone wandering as well. It seems that both of our thoughts wandered on the changes to come. I wasn't gonna be around to help as often as she'd like, and she wasn't to happy about it. For a majority of the time, she stared at me as I looked elsewhere. Finally, she broke the long silence. "So... what are you going to do now that your time here is over?"

"Don't know. I've been through a lot of life-changing experiences. Learn a lot, taught a lot, stuff like that. I guess I'm gonna go back to college, finish for my degree, work until my back's broken." I joked as I laughed out loud. But it seemed that Pinkie didn't share my sense of humor.

"That's wasn't very funny." She said in a very serious tone.

I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly, unaware of why the joke was in bad taste. "It's fine to me."

She jumped up on her hind legs, wrapping her hooves around me, hugging me tightly as she whispered in my ear. "You've been hurt a lot since you were here. Are you gonna be okay when you go back?"

"Well, yeah." I answered uneasily. "Of course I'm gonna be okay."

She still held me close to her as her eyes locked on to mine. I could see the seriousness on her face as easily as I could see how pink she was. "Don't you get hurt, under any circumstances. Do you understand me?"

"Pinkie." I droned, rolling my eyes.

"Promise me!" She shouted in my face, causing my ears to ring a bit.

"If I promise you, then will you calm down?" I shot back, still a little annoyed from her yelling at me.

"Well I'm waiting."

I couldn't believe she was going to make me do this. But she wasn't going to let me get walk out of here without promising her this one thing. I decided to go along with it so that I could carry on with my day. After all, I still had others to say goodbye to. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my-" Lips?

My pledge was silenced by a pair of lips, sealing shut my own. My eyes expanded as I watched Pinkie press herself into me with closed, watery eyes. Her peck lasted for a few seconds before she slowly drew away, leaving me petrified in place. After her kiss, she looked shyly towards another direction. By the time I had snapped myself out of my statuesque state, thirty seconds had already ticked away. In silence, I broke away from the pink mare and started to walk out of the kitchen. But before I could even breach the doorway, I felt a strong tug against my shirt.

"Please don't." Pinkie muttered sadly as her hoof clenched the fabric of my shirt.

Pulling her hoof off of me gently, I backed away. "I think I should go."

"Wait!" She shouted as I walked out of the kitchen and into the lobby.

I opened the door, just a crack. "I'll see you later Pinkie."

Instantly, she ran forward and slammed the door back shut. Standing in front of me was a mare who had a look of bitter desperation in her eyes. I knew she wanted me to stay, and now she was willing to do whatever to keep me from leaving this place. "Please don't leave! You'll be much happier here. Just think of all of the friends you've made, the ponies who want you here. Nopony wants you to go so there wouldn't be any point of you leaving. We could have all the parties you want."

"I have to go." I answered softly.

A distraught smile formed on her face as she clenched onto my shirt with both forelegs. "Why are you leaving!? Is it because you don't like it here? Is it because of what Caramel did to you? Is it because of Twilight? Look, you don't have to keep stressing yourself over her when you could have m-"

I've had enough of this. "I just want to go home!" I answered harshly, seeing that there was no other way to get her attention. Obviously, her smile had wilted away. Even her mane had deflated and grew completely straight as she loosened her grip on my shirt.

"Nonnie... I thought you said that this was your home."

As she started to let the tears run down her face, I placed a hand to her cheek, wiping one off with my thumb. "I'm sorry."

Suddenly, her sadness gave way to bitterness. She pushed my hand away from her, walking far away from me. She stood on the other side of the room, staring at the floor as she trembled. "Don't let the door hit you on the way out." She quietly spat at me.

"Goodbye, Pinkamena."

After walking out of the front door, I took about four steps forward before I could hear destructive noises coming from inside of the bakery. It was a bad idea to walk in on her as she was throwing chairs across the room. I shook my head as I heard the mare break down through the front door.

"FINE! LEAVE EQUESTRIA! LEAVE US HERE! GO TO YOUR HOME AND BE HAPPY! I CAN... have my...parties... without..."

In mere seconds, I could hear a body collapse to the floor. When I decided that it was safe enough, I peaked through the front window to see Pinkie on the floor, crying as she called me out, begging me to not leave. Sadly enough, the only thing I could do was ignore her.

"I'm so sorry, Pinkie."

After my brief run-in with the party mare, I had taken myself to Sweet Apple Acres upon request of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. By the time I had left, I was wearing one of the capes that had their special crest sewn onto it. But rather than it looking like it was a simple patch-job, this one clearly had Rarity's touch. After a brief farewell ceremony, the four of us shared a hug before Sweetie and I started to make our way back to the boutique. When we had arrived back, Rarity had already started to set my bags besides the door.

"Sweetie Belle, do you mind going back over to Sweet Apple Acres? I need you to go pick up something from Applejack."

"Sure thing." She said, galloping out the door and down the street without question.

"Nondis, dear, I am so honored that you have felt it necessary to come and spend the past two weeks with us. Now I know that our time together hasn't been all of the best, but I will say that it was much more than... okay."

"You sure you didn't need me to go with Sweetie Belle?" I asked, concerned that she might need some help.

"Oh, no. You're quite alright. Besides, what she's grabbing wouldn't be heavy at all." Rarity said as she brought down another suitcase full of clothes.

"Oh really?" I questioned, cocking an eyebrow. "So what is she grabbing?"

Rarity snickered in response. "I'm sorry, but if I had told you, then it would ruin the surprise."

Groaning, I waived her off. "Boo! You suck!"

"Well, leave it to one who doesn't show appreciation for the art of being surprised." She answered back, playfully poking me with a hoof.

I looked at the bags that was brought to the front door. "I don't remember having this many clothes."

"Well, I had planned to showcase some of my designs to some of the Canterlot Elite. And I did plan for a certain somepony to model them, but due to current circumstances, I had to cut that short."

I had an idea on why she had to leave early. Of course, it had something to do with me. "Sorry about that."

"I really wanted to show you, and my latest designs for you off to the world. But I suppose you'll be doing just that when you get to your own world." Rarity said sadly, letting her ears fold a bit.

"Cheer up. I'm more than certain that you'll find more models who will wear your designs."

"But I really did want you to wear them."

"Yeah, I know. Bummer." I sighed, walking up to one of the suitcases, trying to see what all she had for me to wear.

"If you had the option to stay, would you?" She asked, causing me to stop and think for a while. I didn't think on if it was an option for me to stay. I had assumed that Celestia and Luna were tolerant of my being here until the portal was ready. And they seemed to be rushing me to leave with that stunt they pulled in Canterlot. But I had already made up my mind before that.

"I don't know." I said, being honest with myself. I would like to, but I know that it would be far too much to do when one has to start all over. In the near-seven months I've been here, I've just started to get the hang of Equestrian society, and even then, I wasn't completely aware of how this world worked. At least, when I get home, I could start back where I had left off.

"Even if somepony said that they'd share their home with you."

"I've been a burden as it is. I don't think I would want to put anyone through this hectic chaos that I've been going through."

As I opened the suitcase, I could see the vast majority of the clothes packed were items that I had never seen before, much less worn. I had pulled them out one-by-one. As I awed at my newest additions to my wardrobe, I couldn't help but to smile.

"I've started to become more interested in him... as the days went by. The way he speaks to others as if he didn't have a care in the world, his sense of humor, his laugh, his smile, his touch... Our every union seems to grow us even closer. I know that he sees me as something different from what I am, but we both know that our hearts, though different in their designs, is that we want to explore what it means to break the barriers of being of a different species. I know what I feel. And I pray to Celestia that he feels the same way."

I stopped everything that I was doing, looking back to Rarity. She had a bittersweet smile on her face as she saw the enjoyment I had when I took out all of her clothes. I just stood there, mouth agape as Rarity's confession, the journal entry from months prior, spilled forth from her mouth.

"Though I know he doesn't..."

I walked over to her, dropping everything I held in exchange of holding her. Her hooves wrapped around my neck and shoulders as she quietly sobbed.

"Oh, why do I always get emotional when it comes to these things?" She said in a laugh, trying her best to hold back her sadness.

"So it was you, huh?" I asked, still hugging her.

"Everything I did for you, I did it out of the goodness and charity of my heart. But every time you wear or look at my clothes, you smile. You genuinely appreciate what I give to you and you try your best to repay me. But when I turn you down, you always seem to find some other way of making it up. Never have I ever shared such a generous spirit with one so humble."

We separated from each other. I seemed to become a little worked up over her words, trying to suppress the waters that threatened to rim my eyelids. Fuck, I really didn't want to cry, but she's making it really hard not to. What am I to do here?

The bell over the door rang, signaling that we had a visitor coming in. We turned around to see Sweetie Belle standing in the doorway, wearing a black stetson and holding what appeared to be two more articles of clothing. I had walked over to inspect what she had brought, and much to my surprise, I didn't believe what I was looking at.

"These are my old clothes, the ones I had when I came here."

Rarity smiled as she stood beside me. "I thought that they needed a bit of a little more flare. That orange was an unpleasant thing to see, so I redid the shirt in black and silver. A bit simplistic, but it shines through."

She even got the school mascot right, down to the very last stitch. I could feel the texture of the cotton. It felt crisp and fresh, despite the barnyard smell. But really, I didn't mind because it fitted with the theme. Next up was the old jeans I had. Though they should be a size larger than what I am now, I could still wear them with comfort. Even the back pockets had the same emblem done on it. The black jeans was now rich in color rather than faded to a dark gray. As I flipped the pants over, I could feel something drop on my head.

"Applejack said that you would've liked the small addition. So we worked together to make you a hat that would go along with your outfit."

When I had turned back around to find a mirror across the room, I could see the black stetson on my head. I gave my reflection a nod and a tilt of my new hat. "Hook-em."

"Sweetie Belle, is there anything you want to say before we let him finish packing?" Rarity asked to her little sister.

The young filly stepped in front of me and opened her forelegs, inviting me for a hug. The redness in her eyes was an obvious sign of her sadness. I fell on my knees, meeting her halfway as we sank into each other. Though she sniffled, she whispered in my ears.

Short steps, deep breath
Everything is alright
Chin up, I can't
Step into the spotlight
She said, "I'm sad,"
Somehow without any words
I just stood there
Searching for an answer...

By the time I had recognized what she was whispering, I knew that my own tears would surely start flowing. I could feel the ache in my chest as Sweetie Belle attempted to sing to me. Her voice cracked and broke as she stammered through the words, trying her best not to break as she sang.

When this world is no... more...
The moon is all we'll see...
I'll ask... you to fly away with me.
Until the stars all fall down
They empty from the sky, but I... don't mind...

At last, she broke down and clenched her hooves around me, wailing into my chest. I couldn't stand it anymore. In a sweeping motion, I had grabbed Rarity and held both her and Sweetie as I clenched as hard as I could, letting out all of myself as they continued to cry in my arms. I hiccuped and stammered quietly as the three of us shared this moment in silence. I gave both sisters a light kiss on the forehead as we continued our silent embrace.

I know that my time was near an end, but I really didn't want this moment to stop for anything.

After our thirty minutes, Rarity and Sweetie Belle left me alone to take care of unfinished business. Meanwhile, I had already taken inventory of what all I was taking with me. So far, I had three suitcases of clothes, one of which and half of another included clothes I had never worn. Nodding my head, I checked off all the items off of my mental check list.

"Okay. I think that's just about everything. Time to get ready to head... What the-"

I don't know how or when this happened, but as I was counting off the things in my head, I suddenly found myself in a familiar location. I was in my room. But I wasn't in the room I stayed in when I was with Pinkie. I wasn't even in the guest room in the Carousel Boutique.

I was in the bedroom I used to stay in when I first got here.

"You didn't."

I could feel myself jump out of my skin as soon as I heard a voice from behind speak to me. I turned around slowly to see who was addressing me. And as soon as I saw the pony standing before me, I had realized just how long I haven't heard that voice in so long.

"Please tell me you didn't."

"Oh, so now you wanna speak?" I barked at her.

"Nondis, I need you to answer me. Did you or did you not speak with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna?" Twilight asked as she seemed worried of my doing so.

"Well-"

"Now listen." She interrupted me before I could say anything else. "What I'm going to say will not make any sense to you, but I want you to bear with it. Tell me, did you speak to them? And please, don't tell me the truth."

"No." I answered quickly.

"You didn't then?" She asked, seeming relieved that I had lied to her upfront.

I rubbed my eyes as I felt a small headache coming along. "Why does it matter Twilight?"

"You just don't get it, do you!?" She yelled at me harshly.

"No, I get it. What I don't get is how you can just shun me for months. And when I try to speak to you, you go wandering off, avoiding me." I shot back, starting to become a bit angry.

"I don't mean to-"

"That's fucking bullshit and you know it!" I lashed out, letting my anger get the best of me.

"Nondis, please listen to what I have-"

"Oh fuck no. I've been wanting to say what was on my heart to you for two damn months and you just now wanna talk?"

"Just give me a second to explain-"

"How you didn't wanna be associated with me anymore? How you don't think I'm worth it? It's too late now. Portal's done and I'm shipping my ass out!"

"That portal was done three weeks ago!" Twilight finally shouted, causing me to back off of her.

After my angry rant and Twilight's revelation, I decided to slow things down a bit. "Wait wait wait wait wait, hang on a sec... Shit was done... three weeks ago?" I slowly asked, trying to piece it together in my head.

Twilight walked over to the bed and sat down. "And Princess Celestia had given me instruction to notify you."

"So you do realize that this was information that would've been useful about two weeks ago... when we ran into each other at the train station." I said, placing a hand on my forehead.

"I could't risk it." She quietly mumbled.

"Risk what?"

"Losing you." She answered, elevating her tone.

"I'm so out of fucks to what."

"Listen to me. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had given me strict instructions to notify you of the portal's completion the next time we met. But they weren't made aware that I had sent you elsewhere. So when they came around unannounced just four days ago, I finally had to tell them that you weren't living here at the palace anymore."

Well that explains the part Princess Celestia and Princess Luna was going on about when they had said that she failed to notify me of. "So you banned me from castle grounds to prevent me from knowing that the portal was done?"

"Yes."

"And you blatantly ignored me in hopes of me not finding out?"

"Yes."

"So Shining didn't have a hand in on this?" I curiously questioned.

"No. But he's still angry. Even now, he's a bit worked up from his most recent patrol."

I can attest to that, being that he stormed out of Luna's office just yesterday after speaking with her. "So I've heard."

Twilight rose from the bed, pacing back and forth. "I can't believe this. I can't believe they told you. You weren't supposed to know."

I looked up to the ceiling, hoping that some fragment of sense would fall on me from that statement. "I wasn't supposed to know that I could go back home? That doesn't sound right to me."

"I didn't want you to leave now. I wanted you to stay until the portal was done."

"Then why didn't you want to tell me this three weeks ago?"

"Because it was too soon. The portal wasn't supposed to be completed until late next month. Not two months in advance."

I started to scratch out an annoying itch on my scalp as I spoke. "And don't you think that-"

"That's it! I've thought of everything to keep you here! You didn't even sign the citizenship papers that I had arranged for you!"

I do remember those being a thing. Unfortunately, that was the same day where I was nearly choked out by her older brother. "Why would that even matter?"

Summoning the scroll. she unfurled the document and showed it to me once more. "You're a protected species for the sake of your return. If you were to become a citizen, you could lift that status and become one of us instead."

Okay, so I'd be trading my protection for the sake of being legally beaten to shit at a whim. But the upside is that I could stick around for the remainder of my days. But that wasn't the primary issue that plagued my mind. "Okay, this still makes no sense."

"What doesn't make sense?"

"You want me to stay, yet you can't even say hello."

"I already told you this, I couldn't speak to you."

"Then write me a damn letter."

"I-"

"And before you even try to justify that two-word-apology-on-a-piece-of-paper as an excuse, let me tell you how it could work: IT DOESN'T!"

Twilight stopped pacing to face me head on, snatching the certificate from me. "Then what would you do? What would you do if you were in my position? I'm a princess who was assigned to build a portal to let go of something that she eventually couldn't find herself living without. For the past month and a half, every moment I've spent building that thing has brought me closer to saying goodbye to you. Every moment I've thought about you leaving me was agony. I can't even count the times I fell to the ground just screaming for you to not leave. I can't function if you're not there to pick me up when I'm down... I realize that now"

Finally, it was my turn to sit on top of the bed. Walking over and plopping myself down, I rested my head in the palms of my hands. "Don't you think it's a bit late to tell me all of this?"

"Don't you think it's a bit too early to leave?" Twilight rebutted, sounding frustrated.

"Where are my bags?" I asked, wanting to be dismissed from this conversation.

"You can't leave!"

I shouted back, walking towards the door. "I can leave when I want to!"

"You could still-"

I promptly turned around and eyed the document in her magical possession. "Oh right, give me that certificate."

"For what?"

Walking towards her with an extended arm, she yanked it back. "I'm just gonna look at it."

"No."

"Why not?"

"You're going to destroy it, aren't you?" She questioned, shifting the scroll behind her.

"What? No. I just want to read it."

"I won't let you." She stated in defiance.

"Why not?"

"Because you won't sign it."

"Why should I sign something that I don't even know the terms that it pertains to?" I asked, walking towards her as she stammered to come up with another excuse to stop me.

"I... I... Please..."

I tapped her horn, cutting off the magical circulation that permitted her to levitate the scroll. As it hit the ground, she turned back around to grab it, but stopped shy as my hand found it first. "Just let me see the damn paper."

As I looked at the terms, I could see that they were rather similar to that of my world. As long as I was a citizen, I was permitted the right to a public vote. I could enlist in the military, despite my desire not to. I was allowed to purchase property and own my own business. I had the right to pursue my happiness as long as it didn't infringe upon the happiness of others. Despite these seemingly fair terms, I knew that there had to be some fine print that I wasn't aware of in such a brief viewing.

"There, you saw it. Now give it back." Twilight demanded, as I started to fold the document.

I walked towards the window, still folding the document into distinctive shapes before it's final form had finally surfaced. With a simple flick of my wrist, I flung the piece of paper out of the window and watch the wind take it wherever fate so desired. "And away we go."

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" She screamed at me.

"Paper airplane. What else does it look like?"

Twilight's jaw fell to the floor. "That was your only means to stay here."

"Yeah. I know." I said calmly, shrugging my shoulders and walking back to the bed to sit down.

"How could you be so flippant?"

I had noticed that she was very on edge because of my most recent stunt. She was beyond upset that I had tossed the only means of my stay to the winds of the world, letting fate do what it would to it. I guess she would be a little tense. "Twilight, if I was destined to stick around, then something would happen to me within the next few hours, either to prevent me from leaving or to convince me into staying. I think that you should just take it easy."

"Take it easy? I can't. I refuse! How can I take it easy when the someone I find myself loving won't..." Twilight stopped herself cold after she had realized what she had unwittingly said to me. She started to turn away from me in embarrassment before I had rose off of the bed and prevented her from doing so.

I had dropped to my knees, holding her in place as I wanted her to say those words again. "Come again?"

"Nevermind. I'll just-"

"No, you said something. Now what did you say?"

She blushed a light shade of pink as we were mere inches away from each other. Initially, she avoided looking at me. "...How could I take it easy when the someone I find myself loving w-"

I knew that my body was going way faster than what my mind could react to. It was like something took over. My entire being was more or less possessed by something powerful. It had to have been something else, my mind was too lost in observing what was going on. My lips parted hers, my tongue sinking into her mouth and brushing against hers. Her eyes remained open from shock, while mine shut to take her in. I stumbled forward, causing her to fall to her haunches. Soon after, her back met with the floor as I dove in after her.

Twilight whimpered lightly as she tried to back away, yet I didn't allow her. As I pulled away from her, I could feel her hoof wrapping my head, roughly frisking me as she pulled me back towards her. A sloppy pillar of saliva remained between us as it fell against her lips. Her eyes seemed to have a brilliant shine in them as she panted. I offered to speak, yet I was only silenced by her quiet moans. Her back arched as she pulled me against her.

Eventually, our excitement had started to get the better of the both of us. I attempted to pull myself up, only to be yanked back into her eager lips again. My more primal instincts took over as I started to adjust myself, holding her body against mine as I slowly worked my hips against hers. In mere seconds, I could feel not only the tightening of my pants grow unbearable, but the moistening of the pants I wore. Finally, we broke apart long enough to speak.

"You know, I've been really wanting to do that to you for a while."

Twilight grew anxious, looking away from me as she brought a hoof to her muzzle. "Please don't do that again." She whined quietly.

"Why not?"

"Because it's too painful."

With a devious smirk, I anchored myself against the ground, placing my hands on either side of her. "Oh, so does this hurt?"

I pushed into her, letting myself slowly press into her. The wet stain on the crotch of my pants only dampened as I took my time to let her suffer the agonizing pain of her arousal. One of her hooves reached out to push against me, holding me back as I pulled off quickly and started the process all over again. Even Twilight had grown confused with herself.

"Yes- I mean no! Oh sweet Celestia, don't let it stop. NO! Stop, get off! "

Acknowledging her request, I rose off of her. Despite her magic trying to usher me back to my previous ministrations, I rose off of my knees and stood on my feet eyeing the purple mare as she tried to cover the soaked entrance with her tail. I chuckled at her, despite the pain of my erection being confined in my pants. "I guess that's payback for what you did to me."

"I hate you." She playfully spat at me.

"I know."

"Get out of my palace." She pouted as she rose back to her hooves, trying her best to keep her tail down.

"I'll be back later anyways."

Twilight finally looked at me with a smile for the first time in months. I felt the familiar warmth from her that I was so used to receiving. "I guess I'll see you then?"

"Maybe, that is if you feel like showing up."

Her ears folded at my words, reminding her of why I was coming back in the first place. "Honestly, I don't." She said as her smile disappeared and grew into a sad frown.

"So, I guess I won't be seeing you."

"No, I said that I don't feel like showing up. But that doesn't mean that I won't see you later."

I scoffed as she corrected me. "You're so annoying at times." I muttered, shaking my head.

"I know." Twilight whispered.

By the time my eyes and closed and opened, I found myself standing in the guestroom of the Carousel Boutique once again. Looking around, I saw the bags of clothes that were packed lined up at the door.

"When did I get back here?" I blinked several more times to see if I was hallucinating, but the obvious stain on my pants as well as my softening erection was a clear indication that I was far from delusional. I took in the comfort that I wasn't going crazy.

"Nondis! Everypony is waiting for you at the castle. You don't want to be late." I heard Rarity call from downstairs.

Realizing that wearing these pants would be a bad idea, I decided to change quickly into something else. "Party doesn't start till I walk in. Give me a minute."

As I pulled one of the suitcases to the side, I opened it and pulled out another pair of jeans. I took off the soiled pair and folded it neatly to replace the pair I took out. As I did, something had caught my eye. I looked to something flickering in the window. As I started to investigate what it was, I had noticed that it was a paper swan sitting outside of my window, stuck to one of the tree limbs brushing against the glass.

Weird. How did that even get here?

After a few minutes of changing clothes and looking back over the events that occurred in my time being here, I marched downstairs, struggling with the bags I carried. Rarity, however, insisted that I didn't carry the bags. Instead, Spike was to bring my bags to the castle while Rarity and Sweetie Belle took me for a last-minute re-tour around the town. When I walked out into the streets, I could see a few ponies waiving back at me. It didn't take any time for Sweetie to start developing tears of sadness. Rarity, on the other hand, was very resilient, that is until we ended our tour in front of the castle.

When we walked inside, I was greeted by a banner unfurling from midair and a rain of confetti. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash held the banner as the others cheered upon my arrival. Rarity tearfully hugged me as Applejack trotted over and gave me a playful hit to the top of the head. Though she was a bit heavy-hoofed, she meant well. Pinkie Pie wore her usual party smile, singing and prancing around the room. But deep down, I saw how sad she really was. She put up an impressive front, but after her earlier performance, I wasn't sold on her feeling that way.

Across the room, I could see all four princess standing next to each other. And it was obvious that they were standing in front of a large, white tarp. When the four broke from center, Celestia and Luna both used their magic to unveil a tall, square-shaped, unimpressive blue mirror. I looked to Twilight, who was trying her best to smile. When I had walked over to speak with the princesses, she stood in front of the mirror as if I was going to walk into it. As I walked towards her, she broke her smile and ran at me. Before I could react, she had tackled me down to the ground and sobbed as she hugged me.

Have I ever mentioned that those tackle-hugs really don't feel too great upon impact, especially with unicorn horns?

Celestia, Luna and Cadance shared laughs amongst each other as Luna stood in front of the mirror.

"This is not what it may seem. True, it looks to be a mirror if you stand in front of it, but there is much more to it if you so happen to touch it."

Twilight got off of me and magically pulled me back to my feet, ushering me towards the mirror. "Go on. Touch it."

When I waived at it, I could see my reflection move in junction with my body. Of course, that was not the main thing I was asked to do. I could always make silly faces in front of any mirror. Being cautious, I slowly poked my finger at the surface. When the flesh of my finger came into contact with the looking glass, it melted around my finger, rippling and glowing as it started to suck me in. In reaction, I pulled my hand away, startled of what it really was.

"What is that thing?" I asked, still a little spooked from the unusual experience.

"That is your way home." Celestia answered. "This is the portal to your world. And it will remain active so long as you stay here."

I stared back at myself in the now-restored surface of the mirror. "So if I go through it, what happens then?"

"We would deactivate the portal from here, sealing you back into your own world." Cadance stated.

"So no summertime visits, huh?"

"It's not because of you." Luna added. "It is for the safety of not only your world, but ours as well."

I have to admit, I was a little bummed out from knowing that I couldn't see them from time to time. After all, this world had become similar to my escape. Twilight saw that I had started to become uncomfortable and she walked over to see me. "These kinds of portals are best kept open for a short amount of time. At most, they could stay open for a few days before we would start to see catastrophic reactions occurring between the two connected worlds."

"So, I can't come back."

She looked away from me and towards the portal. "Sadly, no."

So if I leave, then I could never come back. I always had a hunch that something like that was going to happen, but at least I was holding some sort of hope for if that wasn't the case. I would plan to come back whenever I had a holiday or something. Thanksgiving and Christmas would be spent with my family. Spring and summer breaks, I would come back here. But now, even that possibility was shot down.

Or maybe not, but very unlikely.

I walked back to grab my bags, getting ready to toss them through. Much to everyone's disbelief, I had rolled the bags up, one by one. I could already feel my heartbeat gradually increasing from the anxiety of what I was going to do. When I had finally rolled all of the bags up, I closed my eyes and let my mind wander back to the first time I came here.

From day one, I was assured a comfort that I was unfamiliar to outside of my family. From the time I ran into a tree, to even now, where I stood before the portal that guaranteed my safe return to Austin, I had taken into account of the world I was leaving. This is far from the world I've come to know and tolerate. I say tolerate instead of love because not much was really interesting in my life across the glass. But since my coming here, it's been anything but uninteresting. I've wandered into a world of magical talking equines who live and breathe just as I do, have emotions as I do, smile, laugh, talk, cry, pout, rage, become scared as I do. Granted, there are some things in this world that are running along some dark parallels of my own. But I guess not all places are perfect.

Back then however, my social life was rather lacking. In truth, I am socially awkward. VERY socially awkward Hell, I'm still awkward as fuck even now. I couldn't hold a conversation for more than five minutes, I was never good at picking up girls and I was far from the most popular guy in college. But instead, I've stepped out of my room, started to learn how to speak with others. Even though I do stumble on a few subjects, I can start a conversation, sustain it and end it as well.

My life was pretty boring at first. Now I've can clearly say, with caution, that these past experiences were a horse of a different color. Some pun intended. But now was the time for me to get out of my comfort zone and face the trials ahead. It was time to go home.

But not before I said a few words first.

"Hey Obama!" I shouted at the mirror, gaining a peculiar response from the others.

"I gotta question for you. Why is it that when I get out of college, I'm gonna be swamped to hell with student loan payments? And then can you explain to me why it would take me up till when I'm fifty to pay them all off? Oh, and lets add the fucking economy into this conversation while we're at it. Unemployment is going down, yet I won't be able to find a job out of college, much less work to pay off my debts. On to the next subject, Delta Phi, fuck you! You promised me a lifetime of brotherhood if I had joined your stupid organization. Why is it that I haven't even gotten sixty seconds of that so-called brotherly love? Humanity, why is it that you can't stop fucking killing each other? Why is it that kids walking down the streets have a better chance of catching a bullet to the skull over finding a dollar on the ground? I mean seriously, fuck you."

I heard Rainbow Dash whisper from behind me. "What's he talking about?"

"But why am I sitting here, screaming like a drunken redneck from backwood Alabama? Right... I'm going home. I'm going back to all of the crazy shit and pre-World-War-Three garbage because it's what I know and love. I love being able to sit on my ass and eat junk food like I'm finding the lost city of Atlantis in the bitch. I love being able to download porn and trojan viruses on my computer. Why, because I can feel free to enjoy a good fap every now and then. I love being able to sit in my room and ignore the world outside while I stay hooked on my Xbox, shooting at twelve-year-old's from dark corners. I love the ignorant lifestyle I know. I love going online and discussing the newest anime on multiple forums. I love being misunderstood. I love that I can sit in my room and no one would even give a flying fuck on what I'm doing in there. I love that life."

Fluttershy whispered back to Rainbow Dash. "I'm assuming it must have something to do with his home."

"And Melanie... I'm sorry. I love how you were my friend and the closest thing to my first major relationship. I love everything about you, your hair, your smile, the way you laugh, the way you nitpick on what I would wear whenever you wanted to hang out, the episodes where you had a bad break-up and I was there to comfort you. And despite my best efforts to turn you towards me, you still chose someone else, and I forgave you for it. I loved every single second that I spent with you."

Applejack whispered behind me. "Who the hay is Melanie?"

"Beats me, dear." Rarity responded. "But it sounded as if he had a strong attraction towards her."

"He did." Pinkie Pie added.

"I love Austin, Texas. I was born there. I fell on my ass there. I had my childhood there, my first crush, followed by my first heartbreak. I had my first bully, and many more after. I had my first friend there. I was raised there and went to my favorite college."

I walked over to Twilight, giving her a hug. As she clutched onto me, I invited the others to join me. All five of the other mares joined up with Twilight, wrapping their hooves around whatever part of me they could reach. I tried my best to hold all of them, but my arms were just too short to accommodate all six mares. Standing back up and removing myself from the bundle of hugs, I clenched my jaw and felt the courage that drove me forward this entire time. I stood before the mirror, just inches away from it.

"I said that I was going home and I stand by that. Austin, Texas was the place I lived in. But that's not what I call home."

Immediately, the entire room became resonant with the sounds of gasps and whispers. Twilight ran up to me, shocked of what I had said.

"Nondis... what are you-"

And before she could even finish, I had pulled out the paper swan that sat outside of my window. As I unfolded it, I could see the ponies faces transform into brilliant smiles. Finally ridding the paper of all of it's creases, I showed it to Princess Twilight.

"And from now on, I'm an Equestrian citizen and desire to be treated as such."

Celestia and Luna stood speechless as Cadance became their voice. "But I though that you-"

"In case you haven't heard me the first time, I guess I could start off from the part about my student loan payments-"

Twilight placed a hoof on my lips, silencing me. "That won't be necessary."

As she took her hoof off of my lips, I started to continue on. "Or maybe I could start from the part about me finding Atlantis in a bag of potato chips?"

"Shut it!" Twilight commanded while I continued to ignore her.

"Or maybe I could go back to the part about my friend Melanie-"

I was silenced once and for all as Twilight planted her lips against mine. My words climbed up my throat and stopped short of the lips she plugged with her own. Our brief exchange left me silent for a short while. Meanwhile, she pulled up the certificate with the signatures of all of the princess, plus the recent addition of my own signature.

"Can we talk about how you've gotten this back?"

As I went on to explain about the piece of paper set between the window pane and the tree branch, Rainbow Dash went on to clarify that she had planted it there to intentionally show me the paper, thinking that I hadn't seen it before. Turns out that she wanted me to stay as well, but mainly for the sole reason of seeing me wear a dress again. Twilight jumped and flied around the room as if she was a young filly, screaming and shouting as Celestia officially registered me as a citizen.

After her royal decree, I had asked her on the reason of why she had to put me to sleep as opposed to simply telling me that the portal was done. Her answer: it was much quicker to get me to Ponyville based on a medical emergency than it was to resign me from Rarity's fashion shows, sending me back on a train, which was still delayed due to inspection from the recent cave-in, and sending me to the palace, which I was previously banned from setting foot in. Not only that, but it was a way where everyone else had the chance to spend some time with me, rather than me showing up and just leaving.

Seems legit, almost as if she had planned it all to fall together so masterfully.

But there was still the question that lingered. Why did I choose to stay? Well, I thought it would be best to start all over. True, I had a life back in my world, a family who still loves me, a home to go to and a college life that was... well... secluded. I still had to apologize to Melanie, but with the portal's completion, I could do that at any time. If I go missing for a while, I'm sure the U.S. Government wouldn't mind it too much, especially one in a population of three-hundred-sixteen million.

And besides, I really didn't want to slave my life away to pay off Sallie Mae.

Here, I could start my entire social experience from square one. Instead of going back to the comfortable life of a social recluse, I decided to brave the outside world and speak outside of internet forums and online gaming. I wanted to live in a world that wasn't so inclined to collapse in on itself. I wanted to have a peaceful existence without hearing about x-terrorist group killing y-citizens, or this-country invades that-country. I was always going to hear about the politicians doing something corrupt, but still, there's the integrity of the media here. And the housing market doesn't seem too shabby.

The pursuit of happiness was a little more difficult being that I was still going to be seen as something completely different from societal norms, but at the very least, I had a head start on knowing how to deal with it. I know where I can find a job, I have friends to talk to and a mare who likes me for who I am.

I guess that it wasn't so complicated after all...

...But I'd be lying if I said that it didn't even get more complex than before.

Author's Note

~~YOU DIDN'T THINK THAT THE STORY WAS GOING TO END HERE, DID YOU? NOW YOU'LL BE TRAPPED ON THE RIDE, FOREVER! MWAHAHAHA!!!~~

Ahem... Thanks for reading followers, but your ending is in another chapter. Feel free to stick around if you want to know what the title of this story really pertains to.

Chapter XIV

It goes without saying that I've made a really significant decision with my life. I used to be locked away in my dorm, playing video games, watching anime, enjoying the occasional porn binge, arguing with people on the online forums and rejecting IRL social life activity. Six months later, I was in a whole new world full of talking multicolored equines. I converse with others daily, I meet up with friends (notice that there's an 's' at the end of the word 'friend'), I've started to fall for a cute mare who likes me back.

If you would've told me that I was going to be in a relationship with anyone beside Melanie, then I would've kindly told you to piss off and shoot yourself, or 'an hero' as I'd call it online.

But that's the thing. This whole entire thing was moving faster than what I was used to. I didn't know how to handle it initially, but after the first two months, I started to adapt. Princess Twilight was making it certain that my comfort was similar to that of when I was at home. And they opened up their hooves to me, welcoming me into their society. And then I got a little too comfortable and decided to stay around.

And in speaking of staying around, do you know how red a white unicorn can get when angry? I didn't think crimson would be the color of choice, but upon discovering that I was sticking around, Shining Armor managed to show me just how red he could get. I think even the roses got jealous. Thankfully, both Twilight and Cadance had put a leash on him so that I could carry on my new life sans the persecution of the furious prince.

And after three weeks, he has yet to be any less angry.

"Nondis, I'm not so sure I can do this."

"Twilight, just take it easy. It'll be a lot easier if you loosen up and not even think about it."

"How are you so sure?"

"Trust me."

"What if it hurts?"

"Trust me, it won't."

"But what if I start to feel funny?"

"Then just let your body run it's course."

Twilight laid face down in her sheets as I hovered above her. Placing my hands around her waist. She turned back to me with nervous eyes, unsure of what I would do next. "I've never did this before."

"I know, which is why I'm gonna be the one to break you in." I answered as I straddled above her.

Starting to feel a little uncomfortable, the purple mare started to squirm a little. "Break me in? I-I don't like the sound of that too much."

"Twilight, it'll be over soon. Now just lay down and relax. I got this." I stated as I lowered myself.

Turning back into the pillow, she sighed deeply and became tense at my touch. "You said that you'd break me in. I'm not sure on how I want to be broken into."

"Twi, just let it happen."

Finally lowering myself on top of her, my fingers slid deep into her hide as I started to slowly work into her. "Oh, that's deep." She moaned quietly into the pillow.

"You like that?"

"Mmmmyes. Deeper please." She pleaded, egging me to go even further in.

"Look at you. Taking it like a pro."

Raising her head, she turned back to me with a smile. "Only because my special somepony is doing it to me."

"You feel comfortable?" I asked as I pushed forward.

She gave off a light grunt and a slight intake of air as she jolted a bit. "I'd feel even more comfortable if you took those jeans off."

"How come?"

"Your zipper's poking into my flank." She complained with an attitude.

Honestly, if I'd take these jeans off, then there would be something else even larger poking into her. The only difference is that she would probably take it with stride, knowing how she can get at times. "Oh. Then how would you feel about this?"

I wrapped my hands around her waist and pulled her into me as I stealthily thrusted against the pair of purple cheeks. I chuckled after she let out a gasp and turned back to me with a more serious look.

"Get off!" She protested.

"I would like to, but you won't let me." I shot back.

"Mind out the gutter, Nondis."

"What? You walked in on me beating my meat just once and you decide to place me under restriction for it." That was more than two weeks ago. And to go into further detail, I had a free day to myself. If I wasn't gonna bust a nut that day (which I didn't), then I'd be a lucky bastard to get a second chance.

"It's only because I think it's a waste. Why go at it yourself when you can ask me to do it for you?"

I rolled my eyes at her question. "Well, it's because you never do it for me. Every time I ask if I could, you'd say no."

Pulling me towards her, Twilight used her magic to yank me forward, causing her muzzle to meet with my ear. "And I'm gonna keep saying no as long as you keep begging for it." She whispered with a juvenile cheer, smiling deviously all the while.

Twilight and I have been playing with each other like this since I made my decision to stay in Equestria. Of course, we never really become satisfied from the antics, just frustrated as all hell. Every so often, I'd tease her to the point where she had no other choice but to literally teleport away from me to prevent herself from reaching a climax. But at the same time, she toys with me, giving me a series of pleasures that the human mind could not even fathom. And once again, I don't get to finish, similar to how she doesn't let herself climax. It's really more of a battle of attrition, a competition where we try to see who is the first one to become a feral mess by the time of my approval process. And thus far, I am losing.

"Now that's just evil." I vocalized as I rose from on top of her and moved myself towards the other side of her.

"Hey, if I can go without hoofing myself for nine months, so can you." She shot back at me, trying to use her ability of self-restraint as an argument against me.

"Twilight, the human sex drive is much more active than that of a pony's." As I laid next to her, I raised my right hand, letting my fingers walk up the purple curvatures of her rear end, trailing past her cutie mark and towards the top of her tail.

"I don't think you've ever heard of this little thing called estrus." Twilight said as she relaxed herself, allowing me to do whatever I wanted to.

"I thought that your rings prevented that." I said, sliding my hand towards the warmth of her nether region. Unfortunately, my climb to my destination ended with a detour as her magic grabbed me and made me trace around the dock of her tail.

"No. I said that they tone down the symptoms. I never said that they'd rid me of estrus altogether."

I try to resist her pull, but her magic is far too powerful for me to overcome. Instead, I let her guide me to where she wants to be touched. She directs me from her tail to the outside ridge of her nether region, causing me to barely feel the moist air of her entrance. My fingers itched to sink inside of her. But Twilight knew better than to let me sink my fingers into her slick entrance. Though she did give me a few brushes against the skin of her exterior. I couldn't help but to bite my upper-lip as she let my fingers gloss against the silver rings that sealed her shut. With a playful chortle, she shoved my hand in between her haunches, letting me feel the trace amounts of her arousal as it slowly trickled down from her nethers. I wanted to use my other hand to sink my fingers deep into her eager passages, but I knew that she would rather me play fair.

"Now, this estrus thing. Isn't it when you're in heat or something?" I felt her hind legs close around my hand, locking me in place as she retracted her magic. She shifted her body, letting my hand brush against her as my hand started to stain with her essence.

"Yes and no. Actually, it's when-"

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

Aw, fuck...

"Twily, I'm both respecting your privacy by knocking but asserting my authority as your older brother by coming in anyway."

Aw, fuck squared.

"NO WAIT!" Twilight shouted as she instinctively locked her haunches around my wrist, inadvertently preventing my escape. I pulled myself free and sat on my soaked hand, all in just enough time as Shining Armor entered the room, giving me his usual mean-spirited glare.

"And what are you two doing?"

I laughed nervously as I secretly wiped my hands of the musky scent. "Okay. I can explain... This was all Twilight's idea."

"What!? You traitor!" She shouted as she gave me a shove.

I mimicked her voice the best that I could. "Preen me! Preen me! Massage my wing pits for me please. I've been itching down there for months and my magic hasn't been able to pinpoint the right angle to blah, blah, blah." Which in truth, this was how it all started. I was asked to preen her wings and massage her wing pits for the sake of just cause.

"Your fingers are the only thing that would work!" She stressed, trying to justify her reasons for having me to preen her feathers for her.

"Excuse me, but did I hear there was some wing-pit massaging going on?" I heard a second voice call out from the hallway. As the second pony came into view, Twilight jumped off of the bed and ran over to the other princess.

"Cadance. Explain to him about it!" Twilight demanded almost childishly.

The pink princess stifled a laugh as she walked up to me and placed a hoof on my shoulder. "Nondis, babe, I think I should explain to you about the more intricate duties of being a coltfriend to that of an alicorn princess. Also pegasi in general."

I let my eyes wander, only to come into contact with a very indignant Shining Armor. It seems that he didn't like the fact that his wife had so lovingly called me 'babe'. Taking my eyes off of him and locking back on to the princess, I tried to block out his rather ominous presence. "Okay. I'm listening."

"To endure the long, mournful cries of your marefriend as she constantly finds herself itching from the painful reminder of her feathers being knocked out of place, it's an agony of sorts. We can be really moody if our wings are not in the right order. So when we preen, we shuffle some of our feathers back into place, picking out some of our old ones so that new ones would grow in and prevent in-grown feathers, which is just downright uncomfortable."

"So if I may ask, what causes the feathers to shuffle out of place?" If a stare could produce heat, I'd feel Shining burning a large hole into my forehead. Somehow, I think that's what he was imagining.

"The accumulation of daily life. Galloping, flying, using our wings to perform prehensile tasks, which pales in comparison to the accuracy of your fingers might I add."

"Have you ever flown with clustered feathers?" Twilight interjected, flapping one of her wings.

Cadance scoffed at the question. "Twilight, I was a pegasus at birth. The drag it produces while you fly is murderous."

"I know, right?"

"Can we please move on to something else? I don't have all day." Shining interrupted, killing the bright mood as he turned around to face the open door. Meanwhile, Cadance seemed to give him a serious glare.

Rolling her eyes at her husband, Cadance tried to recreate the cheerful mood from just earlier. "Sorry, Twilight. Shiny's just fussy because I told him that I wasn't in the mood last night."

Twilight yelped at the thought of Cadance turning down sex, or just the aspect of her and her older brother going at it. She slammed her hooves against her ears, shaking her head as she tried to cleanse her mind of the sight of her older brother and her ex-foalsitter conducting maritals. "TOO MUCH INFO!"

The pink princess then reminded herself on who she was talking to."Oops, sorry."

"Cadance, I wouldn't mind hearing about the more intimate details of your sex life if it wasn't the fact that it was all with my older brother." As Twilight spoke, I was too busy having a laugh with myself. "Why are you laughing?"

"What can I say? Bro's got some skills."

Cadance seemed to blush at the joke and started to laugh as Twilight desperately tried to block me out the best she could. "I CAN'T HEAR YOU! LALALALALALA!"

"Can we be serious for a moment, please!?" Shining shouted, killing the playful mood once more.

Cadance performed a quick about-face and and scolded her husband. "Shining, don't be a stick in the mud. If you want, you can wait down the hall."

"Fine..." He hissed as he gave me one last ugly look before walking out of the room.

After his departure, the room become silent. The tension that rose between Shining and Cadance did more than enough to silence all of us for a significant amount of time. "Awkward... So princess, what's the deal?" I asked, trying to break the newly-formed ice.

"I swear he acts like a child sometimes." Cadance muttered.

"Princess?"

Cadance jumped up at my voice, snapping out of her foul disposition. "Sorry! Got a little distracted. But anyways, Princess Celestia has requested your presence."

"By your, you mean Twilight, Me, Myself or I?"

"All of the above."

"Great. So what do I need to do?"

Cadance smiled as she pointed towards Twilight. "Bring your marefriend and your legal documents in relation to your citizenship."

"So I'm being put in the database?" I asked.

"It's only for job opportunities." She answered as she started to walk out the door.

"Well I guess I don't mind that too much. Let's go!"

"Okay then."Cadance cheered as she left the room while Twilight and I followed her. We soon found ourselves in the hallway, trailing the pink alicorn as she walked up to her grumpy husband. "Shining, are you done acting like a spoiled child now?"

Shining looked at his wife with a frown and glanced back at me. His frown then grew into a bitter scowl. Grumbling and mumbling, the stallion turned around and started marching down the hall. "The sooner we get this done, the better." The prince said as he stormed down the hall, escorting us towards the other princesses.

Either he was well aware of me and Twilight's activities, or he was just being a dick for the sake of just cause. Either way, he wasn't too happy with my warming up to his baby sister.

Meanwhile, Twilight seemed a bit uneasy due to the unresolved situation between me and her older brother."Nondis, I'm so, so sorry for how-"

"You're good. Older brother stuff. I know." I finished for her.

"But even then, he-"

"Is your older brother. He's just really protective of you." I said, trying my best to comfort Twilight, as well as trying to dismiss the subject.

"...You think so?"

"In my world, older brothers would be threatening to kill their younger sister's dates."

Both Cadance and Twilight stopped walking to turn to me slack-jawed. "Seriously!?" They asked in unison.

"Ehhhhh... Not really. It was more of an implied statement rather than a verbal one."

"How is it implied?" Cadance questioned as I tried to think of a decent example. Luckily, I could come up with one off the top of my head.

"Have you ever been around a guy who chopped wood while talking about how a random individual got 'lost' in the forest?"

The pink princess gulped and held her neck with a hoof... "Yesh..."

"Yeah, this isn't that bad."

Cadance seemed to still have a desire to dwell on the subject. "But Shining... didn't he-"

"Great weather we're having, huh ladies?" I interrupted, trying to get us to move on to another topic of discussion. "I bet that Rainbow Dash and the weather team had cleared the clouds out pretty early."

Our walk towards the meeting room couldn't have ended any sooner. The levels of discomfort that I was in as Shining walked in front of me in silence was more than enough to put me on edge. Not only was he quiet whenever someone asked him a question, he'd then open doors with forceful aggression. If he had pulled the doors to the main hall any harder, then he would've pulled it straight off of the hinges. Luckily, when we walked in, both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were already seated, so he couldn't pull a fast one on me.

In minutes, I presented my paperwork, signed a document officially naming me as the first human to become an Equestrian citizen. Filed more paperwork for healthcare, life insurance, welfare for if I needed to apply, voting registration and a bunch of other things that I just don't have the time to name off. Finally finished with the basics, I asked for more information on the approval process.

"So... what's this 'approval' thing I have to complete in order for me and Twilight to officially become a thing?" I casually asked as I handed the last bit of documentation pertaining to my status.

"Actually," Cadance began. "It's really more of a vote. Of course, I'd have to put my personal feelings into consideration when I cast my vote because, well, she's my little sister... legally, of course. But I still have an emotional attachment to Twilight."

"So who else votes on the issue?" I inquired.

"To go even further," Celestia continued. "I'd also cast a vote due to my relationship as Twilight's former mentor and current friend. Not only have we shared moments with each other as pupil and instructor, but also that of a mother towards her child."

"I'd also have to cast a ballot due to my friendship with Twilight. Not only was she the one who freed me from my dark powers, but she also taught me how to socialize with other ponies of this time and age. I do owe it to her to cast my vote for her sake." Luna added.

"Personally, I don't think it would work." Shining muttered from the other side of the room.

"Um... is he like, casting a vote as well?" I nervously asked towards Cadance.

"He is Twilight's older brother and by biological means. So yes."

Well fuck. I got four royals casting their votes on me and one of them already wants to see me dead. Well, on the bright side, I'd have to have only a majority... Right??? "So who else would vote on the issue?"

"Well," Twilight started. "There would be Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Spike," Can this vote get any worse? No, majority rules, Nondis. "Both mom and dad, Discord, I suppose Big Mac and Granny Smith could throw in their vote, um..." Twilight paused for a moment, thinking about who to name off. "I can't think of anypony else."

Well that's fifteen, including Princess Cadance, Princess Luna, Princess Celestia and Shining Armor. But still, that leaves two nay-sayers and a bunch of neutral-party voters. I've never met Twilight's parents, I don't know what the other princesses think of me, Big Mac and Granny Smith is just as on-the-fence as the princesses and add Pinkie Pie with the possibility of vocalizing her disapproval. I wouldn't even have a solid majority, even if Rainbow, Rarity, Fluttershy, Discord and Applejack all said yes. In short, I need to win over some votes.

"Oohh... that's not good." Cadance mumbled out as she held a hoof to her mouth.

"What?" Twilight asked worriedly.

"You still need five more to carry out the vote."

"Mr. and Mrs. Cake!" I threw in. "They could easily give their vote."

"That's nice, but that leaves three more needed to fill the empty spots."

"Inkie, Blinkie and Maud!" I shouted off the top of my head, adding the three names to the list. But then my mind started to wander towards the possibility of if they didn't approve of me rejecting Pinkie for Twilight. That would not end well. "Well, on second-"

"That's a great idea!" Twilight cheered. "With that, the ballot is closed."

I still don't like my chances. "Okay, so we just need a majority vote, right?"

"Actually," Shining interjected once more. "The ballot comes down to a three-fourths vote, followed by a majority vote of all of the immediate family members."

Well that changes everything. "Cadance, is your husband just spouting off shit to scare me?"

"No... You really need that many votes to make it a solid approval. After all, this is royalty you're dealing with. If you want to make this happen, then you'd-"

"Have to kiss ass..." I finished with a defeated sigh.

"I wouldn't put it like that." Twilight said as she walked beside me, placing a hoof on my shoulder. "All you have to do is stick it out for the next few months and we can be official."

"Few months?" I quoted.

"In fairness to the family, it is required that the couple would at least wait for around six months to make a decision on whether the outcome of the relationship would be something that they'd approve of, thus why it's called the approval process." Celestia clarified.

Oh no... So that means that Shining Armor, being an immediate family member, has to convince his family that I'm no good, all while I'm trying to convince them that he's wrong. And if he's conservative on his views, then I can only imagine what his dad or his mom would be like. And to bring up two kids and have them both assume royalty?

It would be easier to argue with the grass and say it's purple.

"Fortunately for me, Cadance's only family member was one in the adoptive sense." Shining bragged, adding further discomfort.

"And she just so happens to be the one who can advocate for your divorce, sign your divorce papers, preside as the judge in the divorce court, strip you of your princely title and make the judgments on whether or not you can keep your job as Captain of the Royal Guard." Celestia added, causing Shining Armor to sit in silence. "But that didn't stop you from applying." She finished with a unsettling smile.

Wow... In all honesty, I didn't think that Celestia could even go there. And to add more to it, she's voting on my relationship as well. Remind me to not piss her off. "So... that gives me six months to convince the immediate family of how I can be a good suitor to Twilight, right?"

"Which is also to you benefit. It gives you the time to make your case and to prove any possible nay-sayers..." Celestia glanced back at a silent Shining Armor. "To be wrong."

"It's just a six month wait. You'll be too busy to even notice." Cadance added, trying to make me feel better about the situation.

"You mean with finding a job?"

Luna nodded in agreement. "Precisely. All you have to do is just be patient and wait until then."

I don't wanna wait that long for some action... But in order to make this relationship work as a whole, I have to. Besides, Twilight deserves it.

Cadance give me a playful nudge. "Now there is a bit of a saving-grace for you-"

"That won't be necessary, Cadance." Twilight interrupted before the pink princess could continue.

"But Twilight, I'd think he would at least-"

"He is not going to be bedding any other mares throughout the course of this relationship!"

Bedding other mares, like literally fucking them? Wait a fucking minute! That was my saving grace!? That's like giving a crackhead three billion dollars to use as he damn-well please. That's like getting a get-out-of-jail-free card and having it in lifetime supply. That's really generous for an approval process... Too generous.

"Twilight, it's only for recreational purposes, to give him a chance to sow his bachelor oats. Besides, I think that his desire for you is more than you know."

"Then he won't be with anypony else."

Or maybe, that's part of the test. Maybe it's some sort of set-up where the family would then see my iniquities and brand me as an unsuitable individual to enter into a long-term relationship with. It's a trap, and it is one I will not be not falling for. "That's fair, I guess."

"I think it's fair too. Twily's happiness has to be taken into account when it comes to this entire process. If she feels unhappy about the circumstances, then she'd ultimately would decide to call off the entire thing. If there's one thing I won't stand, it's to see my little sister heartbroken and unhappy." Shining spoke once more, breaking his silence. I guess that's something we have in common.

"Nondis, you will be true to this agreement, won't you?" Twilight asked, finally calming down.

"Of course." Why wouldn't I be? If I have feelings for her, then I should be able to stick it out for the six months. I just need to campaign myself to be a suitable fit for Twilight. No problems in that.

"Very well then." Celestia calls out. "It is decided that Twilight and Nondis will be in pending for the approval of their marriage."

Wait a sec... MARRIAGE!?

After a short explanation of the situation from Princess Celestia, the meeting was adjourned on the note that I would be betrothed to Princess Twilight Sparkle. Unfortunately, that was not what I had planned. I had thought that the approval process was more of a green light to take the relationship to new heights. But this was just way too much for me to think about. Silver lining, at least my mom won't have to complain about me not having a girlfriend in college.

But that thought didn't stop me from confronting Twilight in private about the whole situation. We took the conversation to my room, and Twilight was doing all that she could to keep me from having a mental breakdown.

"I'm sorry! I thought that Cadance explained it to you the night of the incident with you and my older brother. When Cadance and Shining Armor were approved, they were subsequently married to one another."

"No! She didn't tell me that! Why the hell... fuck didn't she tell me the whole entire thing!? Don't you think it's a bit too soon to go into marriage-mode?" At this point, I had started to take after Twilight's usual neurotic episodes. And in place, she was rather collected about the whole situation. I guess it's easy knowing what you're getting into before the situation occurs ahead of time.

"That's the only way that this relationship can go to the next level. Why do you think that princesses who were deflowered were given the chance to marry the colt involved shortly after their titles were stripped?"

"So if we have sex outside of marriage, we get married minus the perks of being royalty. If we have sex in marriage, then we would be married so it wouldn't matter then because hey, we're married. If I disagree to a marriage, then I get my balls cut off. What kind of law is that? This shit makes no sense!" Growing further into hysterics, I found myself laughing at the absurdity of the royal marriage law. I knew that it was ridiculous before, but now that I'm going to be married in six months, it really made me put it into perspective.

"I don't understand it either. But it is a law that we have to live by."

I don't recall me having to live under that law back in the States. But then again, I didn't have a girlfriend to kiss and snuggle while I was there. But still, this was going way too fast for me. If anything, we need to slow the hell down before we run into something that we shouldn't for the time being. I just got into a relationship, I'm not ready for marriage. "I think we need to call this off and think about it for a bit."

Twilight walked in front of me as I sat on the bed. "You think so?" She almost sounded sad as she stood before me, raising my chin with a hoof so that I could see her eye-to-eye.

"Well, why not? Don't you think that this is moving a little too quickly?"

A weakened smile grew on her face as she gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Well don't you think that our little lustful activities are a little too soon in placement inside of our relationship? I don't recall you having much of an argument when we tease each other."

"You don't complain about it either. In fact, you're way worse than I am!" I rebutted.

"I know, but I at least practice self-control." She argued.

Objection, I call bullshit. "Then what do you call the things we did in your room the moment before your brother caught us?"

Cringing at the argument I brought up, she admitted defeat. "A lack of self-control. It was a mistake, one that I shouldn't have let happen."

"Then why did you do it?" I asked, going even further.

With a shove of her hoof to the torso, she caused me to bounce on the bed. As she spoke, she slowly crawled on top of me, giggling like a young filly as she made her way upward. "Why else? You turn me on. My instincts drive me to mate with you, and you just happen to do the right things to me to make me wanna throw you on the bed and ride you like there wasn't a care in the world. I want to do naughty things to you..." Before I could so much as blink, she brought a hoof to slide against my crotch as she straddled her hips in place of where my growth had started to occur. With a devious chuckle, she ignited her horn, causing her magic to quickly unzip my pants. "Really naughty things. But I can't do that unless we get approved."

"You were going... to stick... my dick... inside of you!"

Slowly grinding against me, I started to loathe how she was able to turn any argument we had into some sort of foreplay session. Even the way she spoke in my ear had gotten me aroused. "Only just the tip."

"That's what they all say... In fact, that's what I'm supposed to say! But what happens when desire runs you up the damn wall?" Because you're damn-near making me wanna plow you into one.

Using her magic to massage the crotch of my boxers and holding my hands down against the bed, her lips stood mere inches away from my face. "Mistakes were made. And I admit to me being out of control. That's why I punished myself so harshly, it's another reason why I had to distance myself from you for so long."

"And all it's done was make you even more cock-hungry." I teased back.

"Seriously, you have no idea what it feels like to have a guy just walk up to you, turn you on in every way possible and say the right things to you, all while meaning those things. How long have you worn chastity rings on your marehood, be in heat for multiple years prior to their enchantment, can't find a stallion for all those years and then meet one that you thought was going to leave you in a few months time?"

Try going through all of that and being on the verge of being serviced by a hyperactive mare who's tail seem to have a mind of it's own. If anything, Pinkie was more than willing to share her feelings, all over Sugarcube Corner. "Are you really that horny?"

"I will wet myself to the point where I could fill a small tub."

I give her points for being more open with our activities. Though she wasn't exactly the one to play coy. If Twilight wanted something in general, she was going to get it. Her ambitious personality, combined with her knowledge and intellect gave her the title she now wears on her head. And she wasn't afraid of trying anything new. In fact, she encouraged the idea of doing something new, though she does it 'in the name of science'. She was just that committed to finding out ways to bypass our little roadblock that she'd even make the reward even more attractive.

"I think you're starting to wet the bed too." In all seriousness, if she stopped here and now, I'd go mad with withdrawal.

Shortly after my statement, she rose off of me and planted her hooves against my chest. Initially, I questioned what she was doing, though my answer came as her purple, pony posterior came plummeting on my pelvic region. Her aim was precise, landing a solid blow of her nethers against my constricted sex. I felt the warm fluids coating my crotch, causing me to throb in protest.

"Ssss-ooooh you bad!" I hissed as I tried to free myself from her. Her hooves, still anchored against my chest, prevented me from moving. "Let me up."

"Nope. What you need to do is wait out these next six months, get our relationship approved, so that I can throw you on top of my bed again and..." She still held me in place as she leaned over to whisper into my ear. I could feel the heat of her words burn my ears "Ahem... Rut. Your. Brains. Out."

"Teasing me like this, you might have to lose your title tonight." I mumbled as she lifted herself off of me. While I waited for her to remove herself, I could catch a small whiff of her feminine essence. A light, musky scent entered into my nostrils, making me want to turn the tables against her. However, we were pressed for time as she had something else to do within the next ten minutes. I would ask her to stay longer, but I've already taken up much of her time with this recent... discussion.

"Well, I'll have leave you to that thought." She said as she slid back off of me, giving me a light tap to the crotch.

"You are such a fucking tease!"

To prove my point further, she turned around and wiped the bottom of my nose with her tail, providing me with an even-thicker smell of her juices. "That just makes the reward all that much better."

As she casually trotted away from me, she walked towards the door. And I was left sitting on the bed with a uncomfortable chill on my sex. Deep down, I hated her for what she does to me but at the same time, I loved it. "One of these days, Twilight Sparkle."

"Well, just make sure that your enthusiasm doesn't show itself when we go out to eat with the girls this evening." She said as she opened the door, making her leave.

"I will make no such promises."

How could I? My mind is going to be swimming with thoughts of how she just slammed her hips into mine. The small stain on my pants from her antics and the light stain in my boxers from my anticipation was more than enough to keep me thinking about her. The way she brushed her tail against my nose, the way she gives me that devilish smirk, the list goes on about how she can literally turn me on without even touching me. It's almost problematic.

"Remember, we meet up at Hayseed Ranch at exactly seven. Wear something nice and casual, don't be late."

As soon as she closed the door behind her, I was left sitting on the bed with a large wet spot on my jeans. By the time I heard the door click closed, I had started to pull my pants off, freeing myself from the painful confines of the soiled pair of pants. My arousal was still ever present as my hand started to feel against the outline of my growing manhood. I touched it just slightly and in response, it twitched a number of times, making me moan in pleasure. I didn't want to be stuck inside of these boxers for very long. I decided that it was time for me to breathe. I pulled my boxers down, or rather attempted to before I found a magical ring locking the elastic waist band to my hips.

"What the-"

Trying desperately to relieve myself, I settled to let myself free via the hole in the front, but that too was sealed off by magic. Settling for a third option, I tried to shift my aching member out of one of the leg holes. But my efforts were in vain as those were sealed off as well.

"And don't even think of touching it." I heard from the other side of the door.

It finally dawned on me that Twilight had cast the spell when she was fondling me on the bed. While she teased me, she used her magic on my boxers, causing me to remain a prisoner to this small article of clothing. It was genius, a well-executed plan to make me writhe in sexual frustration.

So now I'm sitting with a pair of boxers that's magically glued to me and lightly soiled in precum. That's just unfair.

After our meet-up with the girls and Spike, we finally broke the news of our approval process. Most of them cheered and happily congratulated us on taking such a large step forward in our relationship. Of course, I voiced my concerns with the marriage part of the deal, but then I was reassured that it was a decent wait in their society. And being that the wait was so lengthy for the stallion, or human in my case, the 'saving grace' was really more of a chance to have the stallion mate with many other mares. When I had disclosed that I wasn't going to be indulging in that privilege, they seemed to show even more approval of our relationship.

However, it didn't come without a few questions on the side. Rarity just pulled me to the side, asking me if I was ready to go through with something so monumental. I answered that I wasn't exactly sure and that I was more than willing to show that I was going to make things work. Pinkie did the same thing, only she was a little more argumentative. When I had told her the same things I told Rarity, she started to harp on how I should be happy with the relationship or call off the approval. But when I told her that I was content with the circumstances, she took a deep breath and wore her usual smile before moving on to other subjects. I asked her about how she and Cheese were doing, she immediately changed that subject.

Surprisingly, Spike had way fewer objections to what I was doing. In fact, he encouraged the thought of me being with Twilight. I guess he's happy as long as I'm not involved with Rarity. Yet, despite his agreement with the relationship, he did vocalize some of his concerns. She was like an older sister to him, so he wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to slip up when the going got rough. He also warned me about some rather unusual habits that Twilight had been developing since he was around her. I assumed that it was her obsessive compulsive disorder, he told me that she would tell me when she was ready to do so.

By the end of the night, Twilight and I walked back to the castle together. And when we got back, she undid her spell, much to my relief. I was too busy needing to use the restroom to be aroused. After I had gotten out, I found her laying on top of my bed, reading another one of her books. I wanted to get revenge for the little spell she placed on me, so I thought about tickling her to death.

The only problem was that Shining Armor had knocked on the door.

"Twily, are you in there?"

I'll give credit to where it's due. He's definitely on his shit when it comes to disturbing me and Twilight.

"Yes?" She answered back through the door.

"Just a reminder that you're scheduled to assist Princess Luna with some of her dream watching tonight."

"Okay!"

"I'll see you in the morning, kiddo."

"Later."

After the brief interruption, I plopped myself in the bed next to her. "Dream watching?"

"Princess Luna is going on a trip to Zebrabwe. Apparently, there's a tribe there that's been having a night-terror issue."

"An entire tribe?" I quirked an eyebrow, thinking of how a group of ponies could have the same nightmare.

"A shaman from another town had placed a curse on them. Normally they'd ask for Zecora, but even her magic isn't strong enough to tackle so many victims all at once."

"So Princess Luna is going to be the mediator?"

"Yes. And she will be the one to help Zecora on her mission. Luna has the ability to unite the dreamscape while Zecora will be the one to break the curse."

I always thought that Equestrian magic was mysterious. But now, I had kinda grown envious of not having any. Even Applejack and Pinkie Pie had their respective magic, which was strength and tending to the lands. Pegasi had flight and the ability to manipulate the weather. Unicorns were gifted with a more tangible use of their magic such as levitation, illumination and summoning. All three of these races combined had the ability to terraform this world. But what did I have?

"You okay?"

"Huh?" I said, snapping myself out of my train of thought.

"When I looked over, I saw that you were in la-la land. You okay?"

"Yeah. I was just thinking."

"What's on your mind?"

"Are ponies the only creatures to have magical capabilities?"

"No. But we are the primary users. Immediately after us would be the Changelings, followed by the Zebras, then the Draconians, the Breezies, the Canines, all the way down to the Mules, which has very little magic."

"So, I'm bottom of the pecking order?"

Twilight perked up and looked back over to me with concern. "Why do you say that?"

"Um... I'm neither of those races you've listed."

"Oh. Well... I know that in the portal to the human world that I went to, I ended up bringing Equestrian magic along with me, that and another uncanny figure who was Celestia's student before me had stolen my element and transformed into some sort of demonic creature."

She has some of the strangest stories, and I've yet to hear about all of them. Personally, I'm still in disbelief over the story of her fighting a huge centaur and coming out of it without so much as a scratch. But I digress... "But did they have magic before you came over?"

"Well... no."

"So I'm bottom of the pecking order." I repeated in deadpan.

Twilight rolled over to look me in the eye. "Why the sudden interest in magic?"

I had a immense interest in magic. I always have. But something tells me if I say that to her, then I was going to be in for a long night of shit I didn't even understand. I already have enough problems with math as it is, I don't need to learn equations that breaks the laws of human-world physics. "Just a thought that I never got around to saying out loud."

"But you still show me things that I've never experienced."

I moved myself to the edge of the bed, sitting at the foot of the mattress. "Name one thing."

Twilight snuck up behind me, locking her hooves around me as she leaned against me. I could feel the warmth of her embrace as she snuggled against me. "My first kiss."

"Aside from that."

"Well, you're the first one I've ever liked like this."

"Remember, I wasn't the first one you had it out for."

Twilight giggled after a long pause of realization. At the very least, she should remember the night she decided to share her feelings with me, as well as her previous meal. "Point taken. But you are the first anything that makes me feel the way I do towards you."

"Aww... That had to be the corniest thing I've ever heard."

"Shut up." She gave me a shove forward as she leaned against me.

"Make me." I leaned backwards, causing her to become caught in between the mattress and my back.

"You're hopeless." She mumbled from underneath the sheets.

"Hey... question." I leaned forward, letting her free to breathe once more.

"Shoot." She said as she rose up with a wild case of bed hair.

"Why is it that Shining Armor doesn't really like me hanging around you?"

As she summoned a brush to straighten out her mane, she tried to give me her best answer. "I can't say for certain, but I think-"

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

"Twily, time to go, kiddo!"

I swear this guy had his ear plastered to the door. There's no way he could've timed that any better than that.

Finishing up her mane, Twilight dismissed the brush into thin air and quickly walked over to the door. "I guess I'll tell you later."

"Wait," I called out, causing the purple alicorn to look to me. "So does this mean that you'll be watching other ponies wet dreams?"

"Goodnight, Nondis." She said in an annoyed tone used to disguise her amusement. By the time she walked out, Shining had pointed her in the direction she was to go. As he did, he started to chuckle amongst himself.

"What's so funny?" I asked as he looked at me with a rather suspicious grin.

"Nothing." He simply stated as he started to walk away. Before I could follow him to ask any further questions, he telekinetically slammed the door shut.

What was he up to?

I laid in my bed, peacefully dreaming about how I could be the first human magic user. I saw myself doing all sorts of activities that no longer required the use of my hands. I also dreamt that I was back in my own world, levitating a myriad of objects. I could already see the large crowds gathering to see my magic act. Though to their unknowing, I would be using real magic rather than some cheap special effects. No illusions, no assistants, no chick walking around in a sexy bikini, just me and my magical hands.

Children would wonder in awe as I'd summon doves out of thin air. But not just doves, stuff like bikes and motorcycles just before their very eyes. And I would be able to do it anywhere, not even needing any assistance. I could be the next Houdini, or Chris Angel. I could be pretty freaking awesome.

"WAKE UP, MAGGOT!"

I jump out of my bed, stumbling over the sheets that wrapped around my arms and legs. As I tried to separate myself from the impromptu straight jacket, I felt myself lose track of the bedding, causing me to fall to the floor below. Despite the fact that I was in a small amount of pain, I was more annoyed by the loud trumpet blaring in the room.

"GET YOUR ASS UP! I WANNA SEE YOU UP AND ACTIVE!"

And I want you to choke on a dick. Waking me up like this. The sun probably didn't even come up. Straining with my sheets, I finally managed to get my arms and legs free. After my head left the covers, I was blinded by the light of two guards standing at the door. Groggily, I wobbled back onto my feet. I also saw the two stallions clad in armor, as well as a familiar face.

"DO YOU NEED YOUR MOMMY TO PICK YOU UP AND FEED YOU YOUR MILK!?"

"What the FUCK is going on here!?" I asked through clenched teeth. My mind was a mess from being woken up so unexpectedly. I was already having a good dream, and now all of that went to hell as soon as I see Shining Armor's face.

"It's morning! You need to get the fuck up!"

I looked to the clock on the other side of the room. As soon as my vision corrected itself and saw the placement of the hands, I started to become furious. "It's four thirty."

Shooting open the curtains, Shining stood at the window, looking to the darkness outside. "It looks absolutely amazing outside."

"The sun isn't even up." I said as I slowly trudged back to bed.

Before I could even plop back onto the mattress, I felt Shining's magic redirect me towards the door. While I tried to go back, he and the two other guards stood in my way. "Well, you might wanna get used to it, cadet. Cause you're going to be seeing this a little more often."

"Cadet?" I yawned out, stretching out my limbs.

"You honestly didn't think that you'd stick around here for six months, did you? It's time to get your ass in gear!" Shining shouted as he pushed me into the hallway.

"This isn't some sort of military prank, is it?"

Suddenly, a scroll appeared directly in front of me. As it unraveled, it showed a series of signatures and initials. I scratched my head as I started to read the scroll. More notably, it was the scroll from the approval process. Shining flipped a few pages and high-lighted one area of the contract. "Well, according to the documents that you've signed yesterday, I would say no."

As I read along the fine print that he generously highlighted. I shook my head in realization that one of the passages I was reading had the terms and conditions of completing the approval process.

Any stallion who should apply for approval to consummate with that of royal blood shall undergo a trial of strength, endurance and fortitude. All who apply shall immediately be registered as a member of the Equestrian Earth-pony, Unicorn and Pegasus guard for the sole purpose of protecting the royal they seek to engage in mating practice with. If the stallion is already an enlisted, the accolades of his career shall be accounted for in the final vote. Failure to comply will result in immediate termination of the approval process and the stallion shall be barred from reapplication, regardless of choice.

So... I'm in the military now. "The... fuck?"

"Welcome to the EUP, maggot"

Awww... shit.

Author's Note

Hiatus time is over, so here's a chapter to celebrate. I took some time off to tend to some of the things I had going on IRL. I got caught up a bit, sorry about that. I also had to refresh myself on writing, being that it's been a hot minute.

So, I guess you guys can see less of Nondis being a whipping post for the future. As far as what will come of him being in the military, well you'll just have to wait and see. As for why Twilight seems to be a little more... promiscuous, you will have to find out after he's done with basic training.

Chapter XVI

Author's Note

This chapter will be a little fast in pacing. As for why, well you'll have to read and find out. :rainbowwild:

Chapter XVI

Back when I was in high school, my parents would give me two choices to make. The first one was that I had to go to college and make good grades. And if my grades had started to drop, then I had to follow through with a second option they had on the table, military. I know that my grandfather was a vet and my father was pushing one of us to be the soldier in the family who'd have stories to tell. Unfortunately, my grandfather had served in Nam back in '73. He still has nightmares where he can hear the screams of his fellow infantrymen being mowed down by machine gun fire. So you can tell that I really didn't want to be signed up to fight for greedy politicians that send us out to 'die for our country and fight for the freedoms of our families and loved-ones back at home.'

Think about it, none of those greedy fuckers wouldn't dare send their kids to march in the mud alongside the lower-class citizens. But hey, I'm not in the military... Correction, I'm not in their military. I'm not going out to fight because of a congress that seeks to line their pockets with money and oil.

Instead, I'm signing up for two reasons. One, I was forced into it due to a hidden passage of my approval process, meaning that I was to be an enlisted prior to our marriage. Two... well the second motive was one that grew from a statement by Captain-slash-Prince Cockblock himself.

He said that he would make sure that I'd fail.

I've never wanted to be in the military. Personally, I was just fine living the care-free (as if) life of a civilian. But now, since his little musings have landed in my ear, I've felt a flame that burned deep throughout my body. I felt a scalding passion engulf my arms and legs as I thought more about how he wanted me to fail. And I thought about just how much I wanted to prove him wrong.

...Or maybe that's just the aches in my body from the ten-mile run I had just finished.

Week 1...

I hate my life. I just wanted to be in a relationship with Twilight, not be the punching bag of my instructor. And the worst part of it all is that he's Twi's older brother. And he's Captain of the Royal Guard... And he prince of the Crystal Empire. He's all of the above.

I thought that my instructor was supposed to be Rainbow Dash. I wanted to at least have that comfort going in. So being that I felt that something was amiss, I decided to take it up with the office of admissions. I wanted to see if my name was for Charlie company rather than Delta. After several minutes of looking through files, they confirmed that I was enrolled in Delta. So then I tried to verify that I had another instructor. Of course, they tell me that I'm not getting any special treatment. I tried to tell them that Princess Celestia requested that I'd be placed in Charlie company. The colt behind the desk just stared at me for a few seconds before laughing his lungs out. After several more minutes of waiting around for him to stop laughing, he looked through the files on record. There were no files of the sort.

It was eleven at night. I've been running around grabbing my shit for training for at least sixteen hours straight. At this point, I've grown tired as hell of this ring-around-the-bullshit theme going on and retired to my barracks for some much needed rest... As if I was going to have any.

At around four in the morning, they woke us up the loudest and worst way possible. I was treated to a cold bucket of water for an alarm. You can already guess who was the one to wake me up. After I got out of my bed, I had to make it according to their specific directions, which all of us were failed to be notified of prior to this situation.

So after a brief demonstration by one of the higher-up's, Shining then instructed all of the other instructors below him to tear apart all of the beds and have us remake them according to what was shown to us. This continued for about an hour, as many of us kept screwing up. When one bed is imperfect, then they'd tear apart the entire room and have us do it again.

I did not sign up for this shit. Where is breakfast?

When I said that I wanted breakfast, I did not intend for mud to be my first course. They ran us shitless, made us jump until we were ready to drop. And when we dropped, they made us do push-ups. And when we had to do push-up's, it was at their pace. I was at least hoping that they'd be too fast for me to keep up, but instead they made us wait for each command. By the time my company was already done with the first three, we were quietly begging the instructors to pick it up. Their response, drag things even slower.

I swear I've seen dead snails move faster than this.

When we had finally finished our first set, they made us jog in place. You'd think that it wouldn't be that bad, but we had to do a shuffle-step rather than simply jog. And it was for about sixty seconds straight. Then they let us rest for ten before giving us another sixty to run.

When we had finished, all of us were extremely famished. Thankfully, our instructors knew that we had to keep our energy up in order for them to keep beating us to the ground. So we lined up in formation and followed Shining Armor as he casually led us though ten acres of land to the mess hall.

And by 'casually led to', I mean ran around the entire ten acres twice before finally setting foot into the mess hall.

I didn't think that the military was so strict. I guess I've should've done a lot more research on what goes on here rather than focusing on just the formation of the EUP. My legs were sore as Cleveland fans when Lebron left for Miami. My entire body is throbbing and all I can think about is how to fucking stand in line the right way. There's no such thing as talking in line during the first week, or 'zero week' as they call it. If I had to stand in line for two minutes to wait for one of the instructors to notify me that I could move.

When I finally took a step forward into the dining area, I was greeted by a sergeant screaming in my face.

"WHY ARE YOU FUCKING SLOUCHING!? STAND UP STRAIGHT!"

I've learned that in this system, no derogatory word or statement is forbidden to an instructor. As a recruit, you can only pay attention to what's directly in front of you. If not, well...

"ARE YOU EYEBALLING ME!? ADJUST YOURSELF, YOU SON OF A BITCH... YOU'RE STILL LOOKING THIS WA- GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY MESS HALL! YOU WILL NOT BE EATING UNTIL YOU LEARN TO LISTEN TO MY DIRECTIONS! MOVE IT! SPEED IT UP!"

They were yelling at someone directly behind me.

"TRAYS UP, MOVE FASTER!"

Now they were addressing me. I picked up the tray full of greenery and made my way to the special dining area, designated to creatures such as griffons, who had a diet that consisted of both vegetable and meat dishes.

"YOU THERE!"

The female staffer behind the meat counter screamed at me.

"I DON'T RECALL YOU BEING A GRIFFON! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THIS AREA!? SPEAK!"

"I need protein-"

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU! ARE YOU SPEAKING TO ME OR ARE YOU SPEAKING TO THE DUST COMING OUT OF YOUR NOSE, PRIVATE!?"

"HUMAN'S CANNOT EXORCISE WITHOUT PROPER PROTEIN INTAKE, MA'AM!"

The mare from behind the counter instructed one of the other sergeants to inspect me. After they looked at me for a quick second, one of them instructed me to open my mouth. As I followed their instruction, they finally saw the four canine teeth that lined up on each side of my tongue. As one of the sergeants slammed my jaw back shut, I was guided forward.

"PICK UP A PLATE AND MOVE!"

I finally made it out of the line and walked towards the tables, where a familiar voice stopped me short of sitting down.

"PLACE YOUR BAGS UNDER THE CHAIR, HEELS TOGETHER AND EAT!"

I did as I was instructed. I felt myself clinch at the sound of a pony getting yelled at for not having their bags under their chair correctly. They were instructed to raise from their chair, put back on their bags and start all over.

"WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT PRIVATE, EAT YOUR FOOD OR GET OUT OF THE AREA!"

I wasn't going to waste any time. I already had less than ten minutes to eat, followed by another two minutes to clear my area and leave back to the waiting area. Quickly, I dug my fork into my meal and started chomping away at my first taste of pork in months. I'd like to say that I enjoyed the experience, but the circumstances disallowed me that privilege. Meanwhile the sergeant next to me leaned over and whispered in my ear.

"I was switched."

I stopped chewing whatever I was eating and tried my best to not look at the cyan pegasus standing next to me.

"DID I SAY STOP CHEWING!? YOU CHEW THAT FOOD RIGHT NOW! CHEW IT! AND DON'T YOU STOP UNTIL I SAY SO!"

I snapped back into shape and heeded her orders. While the others were still preoccupied with their own situation, Rainbow felt free to inform me of her sudden change of the roster.

"Originally, I was assigned to be the instructor for Delta company. But the day of my coming here, I was told that I was reassigned to Charlie Company. So you're in the right company, just not with the right instructor. Hang on a sec."

She removed herself from behind my ear to scream at another three recruit across the room.

"PICK! UP! YOUR! TRAYS! MOVE FASTER BEFORE I MAKE YOU RUN THIS ENTIRE BUILDING!"

Turning her attention back to me, she continued to whisper in my ear.

"I can say that the commander was more than willing to make his changes so that he could take care of you himself. Just try to hang in there. I can't really be nice to you. Protocols and what-not. Keep your head up no matter what."

I was contempt of the explanation, though thoroughly disturbed at the lengths that Shining went to make sure that my life was a living hell during my stay here. But that was the least of my worries right now. I started to feel my jaw ache from all of the excessive chewing for this one piece of sausage. At the moment, I felt the piece of meat become the consistency of baby food. I swallowed and reached in to continue my meal. Sergeant Rainbow Dash finally left my ear to yell at me some more.

"DO NOT RUSH CHEWING YOUR FOOD! DRINK YOUR WATER! WIPE YOUR MOUTH! I DID NOT COME HERE TO BABYSIT YOU! THAT IS YOUR MOTHER'S JOB!"

Once again, I think Rainbow is handling her new position quite well. I can only hope that I'd be able to hold out like she's doing now.

Week 3...

Okay, this was a hard ass three weeks. Not only was Shining Asshole being his usual self towards the others, he saw fit to give me some rather... special treatment. While I'm in ranks, standing at attention, he feels the need to pace back and forth in front of me. It even got so bad that he requests that I'd be placed in the very front of the platoon. His reason, I was a distraction to the other soldiers.

Bullshit aside, I've decided to take matters into my own hands. In my time off, I write letters to Twilight and Cadance telling them all about my current progress as well as how I'm treated. Cadance also informed me to keep her updated on how I was being treated. And being that I was being seen as some sort of villain. I know it doesn't make sense, but when you keep in consideration that Shining makes the entire company do push-ups for whenever I do something wrong, the others start to see you as a nuisance.

But to be fair, he did that with anyone. It just so happens that he singles me out the most.

What I would give to be in Charlie Company right now.

We came back from the late-evening drills to find that my bunk had been turned over. Not only was my mattress flipped but all of my clothes were strewn across the barracks. Even the contents of my bags were thrown across the room. I went to look for my bag, only to find it stuffed in the toilet. Thankfully, no one had used it prior or post by bag being stuffed inside. On the back of the bag, I had gotten a sticky note with only one word written on it.

Quit.

Something tells me that a certain someone really doesn't like me being here. Not that I already knew who it was.

"WHAT IN CELESTIA'S GOOD NAME IS THIS!?" I heard a voice erupt from the direction of the sleeping quarters.

I ran back out to see a disgruntled Shining Armor pacing back and forth as he looked at the mess all over the room. I already felt myself becoming angry as the seconds ticked away.

"WHO'S BUNK IS THIS!?" The entire company remained silent as he walked around the room. "TELL ME WHO'S BUNK THIS IS OR I SWEAR, I WILL MAKE THIS ENTIRE ROOM DROP FOR FIFTY!"

Fearing that my silence would punish the whole company, I spoke out. "Sir, it was mine."

Shining slowly turned towards me and marched in my direction. I could already see many of the other ponies in the room hold their hooves to their muzzles as a means of hiding their childish ooh's. As he stepped in front of me, he levitated some of the shirts, previously thrown about, into my face.

"SO I GIVE YOU A BED TO SLEEP IN AND CLOTHES TO WEAR, AND YOU REPAY ME BY DOING THIS!?"

Clenching my jaw, I tried my best not to look him in the eye, or giving my best left hook to his jaw. And given that I've been doing a lot of exercise for the past three weeks, I can knock a tooth or two loose. "No sir."

He picked up the clothes he threw at me and levitated them in front of my face. "Then what the fuck is this, private?" He asked with a scowl.

"Size three-x griffon training shirts, military standard issue, sir."

"So you don't appreciate what I give you, private?"

I didn't want to say no. The consequence of that choice would make things a lot harder for me. "...Yes sir."

"This is the way you show your appreciation, huh? Seems a little disrespectful to me." He said as he slammed the shirts back to the ground. "COMPANY, ATTENTION!"

Everyone in the barracks tensed up, jumping into positions as Shining paced back and forth in front of me. "IT SEEMS THAT PRIVATE NONDIS DOESN'T APPRECIATE WHAT I HAVE TO GIVE HIM! SO, HOW ABOUT WE ALL TAKE A QUICK WALK AROUND THE CAMPUS!?"

A series of tired groans and frustrated smacks sound throughout the room.

"NO!? NOPONY WANT'S TO GO FOR A WALK!? OKAY, WE'LL RUN DOUBLES IN THE MORNING! FALL OUT!"

I become a little relieved that he didn't take out his ambitions on the others tonight, especially after they've suffered because of me all day. I started to walk towards my bed when suddenly...

"PRIVATE NONDIS! YOU DON'T THINK THAT YOU'D BE GOING TO BED THIS EARLY, DID YOU!?"

I already didn't like the sound of that statement.

I hate him so much.

I never thought that my hate for one could be so strong that I start to have revenge fantasies that involve me killing him in the most brutal ways possible. Instead, here I was, struggling to keep my head above water... if only I wasn't being continuously showered with it. One of the late-night watchers, a pegasi, brought in a rain cloud and kicked it, sending torrents of water on top of my head. Meanwhile, Shining Armor had me running in place while he chanted.

"MOMMA, MOMMA, CAN'T YOU SEE!"

"Momma, momma, can't you see!" I chanted weakly in verbatim.

"WHAT THESE GUARDS HAD DONE TO ME!"

"What these guards had done to me!"

"TOOK AWAY MY FAVORITE THINGS!"

"Took away my favorite things!"

"NOW I'M WEARING GUARDIAN GREENS!"

"Now I'm wearing guardian greens!"

"TOOK AWAY MY FAVORITE SHOES!"

"Took away my favorite shoes!"

"NOW I'M WEARING GUARDIAN BOOTS!"

"Now I'm wearing guardian boots!"

"YOU HAD ENOUGH PRIVATE!?" Shining screamed in my ear.

The only response I could give him was my constant huffing and puffing, followed by the eventual coughing from me accidentally breathing in some water.

"You know..." He finally lowered his voice to non-deafening levels. "You don't really have to do all of this. All you gotta do is say that you give up and we can go back right now. In the morning, you can sign your resignation papers and we can be on our way. Go on ahead, I'll even let you sleep late, feed you breakfast, offer you a drink and within the hour, you'd be on the train to Ponyville. I mean, it sounds better than three weeks of this, right?"

As much as my body was more than willing to take up his offer, my mind and my heart refused to let me move from the patch of mud I was currently marching in.

"Oh, still haven't made up your mind, huh? Drop!"

I fell to push-up position. As I stood there, I felt his hoof push into my back, causing me to become ever closer to the ground. Eventually, he stopped, but not before my face was but mere inches from planting itself into the mud.

"You don't have to keep doing this, Nondis. Just call it quits. C'mon. You know you want to. It's the third week, shit's not gonna get any easier."

My arms felt like wet pasta, my legs had the consistency of rubber bands. My body ached from all the activities from earlier today. I couldn't go on like this. I didn't want to go on like this. I never felt so much pain at once. I was tired beyond belief and here I was, late at night, doing push-ups in the mud. My body was telling me that it was far too much for me to go through in one given setting.

Finally, my body broke down. My limbs buckled and I fell limp into the mud. I took quick, labored breaths as Shining Armor stood over me.

"So I take it that you finally give up. Smart choice."

I didn't know what to do. I wanted to just call it quits. I really did. I wanted to admit to him that I didn't want to go through this anymore. I mean why should I suffer like this? Because of some stupid law? I don't have to do this anymore. I could just go back to bed, wake up in the morning, eat my breakfast, pack my shit and leave. The only honor I'd leave with is the honor of being in pain. I'd go back to Ponyville, my friends welcoming me back with smiles. I'd tell them that I tried my best, they give me a sympathetic pat on the back and I'd live my life...

I'd live my life without Twilight.

Without Twilight.

Twilight would be sad.

She'd never forgive me.

She cheered me on.

If she was here, she'd cheer me on right now.

That's right. I'd be hearing her scream at me.

"Get up." She'd say. "Don't you quit on me. Don't you quit on us. You can do this. Keep fighting. You're almost there."

Fuck... I'm really pathetic.

I had actually started to tell myself that this asshole would win. If I quit, then Shining Armor wins. Oh hell no! He ain't winning shit! I've been through too much as it is for him to come out with the win. I've gone too far now. I'm already three weeks in. If I can handle three weeks of him, then I can handle another three. If I can do that, then I can pull out another six after. Before then, I'd be a graduate of this academy, with another two weeks to spare. I don't have to do this shit, but I'm going to. I don't need to keep fighting, but I am.

I didn't need to move my arms and press my palms into the thick muddy ground below me, but I anchored myself back into place.

I didn't need to move my legs and raise myself off of the ground, but I placed my body back into the air.

I didn't need to endure the pain, but I screamed as I felt my weakness being left in the earth below me.

"You don't have to get back up." He said.

"Twilight..." I muttered to myself, cheering myself onward. "...is counting... on me..."

"Let's go, Nondis. I don't need you to keep me up all night. I have a bed waiting on me."

Screaming as I finally locked my body back into the front-leaning rest position, I hollered back to the stallion.

"THANK YOU FOR CONDITIONING MY MIND AND STRENGTHENING MY BODY, SIR! PERMISSION TO CONTINUE!"

"Denied." He answered flatly.

"PERMISSION TO CONTINUE!"

I couldn't see him thanks to the mud in my eyes, but I already knew that he was starting to get pissed. "Get off of the ground, you're not-"

"PERMISSION! TO! CONTINUE! SIR!"

"GET OFF MY GROUND!"

"FUCK YOU! I WANNA CONTINUE!"

"GET OUT OF MY CAMP!"

"I WON'T!"

"GIVE UP!"

"I WILL NOT!"

"DELTA WILL RUN TRIPLE FOR YOUR SORRY ASS!"

"I AM AN E.U.P. GUARD CADET! I SWEAR TO UPHOLD THE LAWS OF THIS LAND, COUNTRY, AND CORPS OF CADETS! I AM LOYAL AND PATRIOTIC! I AM THE FUTURE OF REALM OF EQUESTRIA! I WILL WORK HARD TO IMPROVE MY MIND AND ENHANCE MY BODY! I WILL SEEK TO THE MANTLE OF LEADERSHIP AND UPHOLD THE EQUESTRIAN WAY OF LIFE! I SWEAR MY FEALTY TO CELESTIA AND WILL LAY MY LIFE UPON THE ROCKS WHERE SHE STANDS! MAY I BE GRANTED THE STRENGTH TO ALWAYS LIVE BY THIS CREED!"

I felt a powerful force drive into my side, shoving me over into the ground. The rain water battered against my face, clearing the mud from my eyes as I finally saw the dark cloud above my head. I also saw Shining walking over me, looking me dead in the eye as he started to quake with anger. I could tell that he wanted to pound me six feet under this patch of mud, but for some odd reason I felt... unafraid.

Instead, I glared back at him coldly. Anger that bottled up inside of me willed me to stand against him. I panted heavily as he took angered breaths, snorting at me as we started to exchange the same icy glare with one another. I felt the adrenaline rushing through my body, telling me that I was ready to fight. My human instinct to fight had awoken, only this time, I was ready to go for the kill.

Seconds passed as we stared back at each other. At that moment, I knew... I wanted to beat him. I would not lose. I would not give in to him. I would come out of this with the win. And in order to defeat him, I had to play his game and beat him at it. This was a challenge that any fool would take on any given day. But I'm not exactly known for making good decisions when I'm angry.

Challenge accepted.

Shining slowly crawled off of me, turning back to the cloud. A bolt of his magic dispersed the cloud and sent it packing to some unknown part of the world. As he walked away, I could see that he was soaked from head to tail from being where I was. Taking a moment to stop, he mumbled back to me.

"Report to your barracks."

Week 5...

It's been two weeks since the night Shining and I screamed at each other. Since then, he made sure to make my life a living hell. At least the hell back on earth had air conditioning, German potato salad, Bin Laden, Hitler, Napoleon, and Gene Simmons. This... this was as bad as the Twilight Saga staring Justin Beiber as Edward Cullen.

I shit you not.

Shining Armor decided to place me under a rigorous workout schedule. Though after the past five weeks, I started to do more working out than suffering. It was like he threw one thing at me and I started to shake it off. I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. At the very least, I no longer had to catch a breath every three push-ups. I was starting to really get into shape.

My arms started to get used to all of the push-ups he'd normally give me. So in place of those, he'd give me even more crazy exercises, many of them were made with the equine body in mind. In my combat training, he would send at least three other cadets to take me down simultaneously.

I've started to learn how to fight as well. I am now able to duck, bob and weave, even learning counters against weapon-wielding foes. If Shining had made any mistake thus far, it was teaching me how to fight multiple equines at once.

Not only did I feel myself become increasingly stronger, I felt even more confident. The times where I used to dread going into the weight room to build muscle, I started to enjoy it. And even in time, I threw in some football exercises to strengthen my core and lower body, not to mention increase my agility. On my weekends, I'd run around the track, just to get myself in condition for the final test in five weeks.

I was self-motivated to beat Shining at his game. And little did he know that I was doing all I could physically to surpass his expectations. I was going to win.

But this week, he decided to add one more trick in his book to the list.

Delta Company had grown significantly smaller since the first week of camp. Some of the recruits had to leave for personal reasons, others for trying to fake a disease. The rest, which was a resounding majority, left because of all of the rigorous workouts Shining put the company through because of me and a few others. We had some trouble makers in the group that often made us pay dearly for it. And then we had trouble magnets, which I was a prominent example of such. Anytime Shining was in a bad mood or he just wanted to chew me out, he'd cause the rest of us to fall to the ground and push until we reach the sky.

But today marked the halfway point of training. And unfortunately, our company commander was unsatisfied by the amount that still refused to quit. So he lined us up at the front of the barracks and made us run around the entire campus about three times, gave us two hundred push-ups total and held us in the up position as he walked through the ranks, whispering to some of the other recruits. As for the rest of us, he just simply yelled as he'd normally do.

"WELL WELL... IT'S BEEN FIVE WEEKS! AND SOME OF YOU FUCKERS ARE STILL ON MY DIRT!"

Once again, he walked over to me. I have to admit that this was starting to get a little tiresome at this point.

"SOME OF YOU SHOULD'VE BEEN LEFT A LONG TIME AGO, YET YOU ARE STILL HERE! SO TELL ME, WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE!? WHY DO YOU CONTINUE TO MAKE THE SAME MISTAKES AND NOT ADMIT TO YOURSELF OF YOUR BIGGEST ONE YET!?"

He walked away from me, calmly pacing back and forth across the front of the formation. Lowering his tone, he tried his best to sound somewhat sympathetic.

"I know how it feels to make a huge mistake. I do. And I know how to admit to that mistake. You see, it takes some real balls to admit that you're wrong. And here's why, it shows that you are honest with yourself, the others around you, the ones who are beneath you, and the ones who are over you. You don't have to keep lying to yourself."

Looking out the corner of my eye, I could see Shining walking towards another one of the recruits who struggled to hold himself up. The recruit was fresh out of high school. He stopped just inches away from him as he spoke.

"You don't have to do this if you don't feel comfortable. The door is always open for you to come back, but only when you've matured. This is something that you don't need to do as of this moment right now. You can get out, learn from the world, and then you can come back and tell me your stories when you're back on my dirt."

The recruit Shining stood over was probably no older than seventeen or eighteen. The recruit finally reset himself, dusted himself off and walked away. A light smile showed on the company commander's lips. Taking his time to walk towards another struggling cadet, he gave another speech.

"You see? He admitted that he wasn't strong. And by admitting your weakness, you can become stronger in life. How, by learning from it. Not everypony is strong physically. Not everyone can fortify themselves mentally for what is to come."

This colt that he stood over this time was about nineteen. From my time here, I've learned that he was a college drop-out. Unfortunately, his parents made him enlist. He honestly didn't want to be here, but he didn't want to disappoint his parents.

"Not everypony can look at the dead body below your blood-splattered hooves. Nor can they cope with the failures and what consequences they will yield."

Finally succumbing to the pressure, he whimpered to Shining. "I just wanna go home!"

Shining did wear a smile this time. Instead, he had a rather condescending look on his face. As the recruit struggled to stand on his hooves, he sniffled and tried his best not to produce tears. Shining walked beside him and spoke into his ear. "Go on. You made it this far. You're strong in my book."

That was an obvious lie made to have the recruit feel better about himself. But I already knew that he was more than willing to toss the college drop-out on his ass from that moment forth. As the colt walked on, Shining addressed the entire company.

"There's..." Before he could even finish, another seven colts, spattered across the formation, rose from their positions and walked off silently. Shining started to smile again. "Well there's nine of you who decided that this life wasn't really for them. It's understandable. If I had to go through five weeks of this shit and I never got to see a mare, then yeah I'd be a little irritable too. Hell, I'm cranky now just from thinking about the things I could be doing with my wife."

He turned to me, causing me to turn my head back to the ground. Obviously, what I did was out of ranks.

"But instead, I'm here with you."

He started to walk towards me, chuckling all the while.

"You know... we all aren't built the same. We all aren't made to stand up to this kind of pressure. And I will tell you why. You see, there is a process called natural selection. It is where a creature learns to adapt to the environment they are in. And when they learn to adapt to that environment successfully, then they can find the others of that species. Then they can mate, reproduce, and then the cycle repeats itself."

He stopped mere inches away from my head. I could see the dirt-stained hooves of Shining Armor directly in front of me.

"Some of you were not made with that in mind. Especially you, private."

And he couldn't be any more wrong.

"So... wanna make it an even ten?"

Despite my struggling to stay up, I refused to move. And after a few seconds of my refusal to say anything, he grew frustrated and walked away.

"This is only the halfway point. Any chance of you leaving without consequence would be now. If you so choose to stay, then I will not be so lenient as I was for the past five weeks. You have another five weeks ahead of you. And in those five weeks, I would demand nothing but the best of discipline... COMPANY, RECOVER!"

The remaining members of the company rose to their hooves and stood as we were, covered in dirt and dust. Anyone caught trying to brush off would cause the entire company to drop back to the ground again. And none of us wanted to be in that position for another thirty seconds.

"FOR THE NEXT FIVE WEEKS, YOU WILL MASTER DISCIPLINE! YOU WILL MASTER THE ABILITY TO FOLLOW ORDERS! YOU WILL OBEY COMMANDS! AND YOU WILL NOT QUESTION THEM!"

As I stood in attention, I could already feel Shining looking at me.

"PRIVATE NONDIS, WHY IS IT THAT YOU FEEL AS IF YOU HAVE THE NEED TO STAND OUT!? WE ARE AT THE POSITION OF ATTENTION! NOW GET THERE OR THIS WHOLE COMPANY WILL DROP!"

I didn't know what he was talking about. I know that my feet are at a perfect forty-five degree angle. My fists are lined up to the seem of my pants. My shoulders are square and my head is level. I stared directly into the void in front of me and nowhere else. While I was in thought, I failed to notice Shining Armor rapidly approaching me.

"DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT THE POSITION OF ATTENTION IS!?"

I was in the position... unless he means...

"PRIVATE, YOU ARE STILL STANDING OUT! GET ON YOUR KNEES!"

You... motherfucker!

"GET ON YOUR KNEES! NOW! THAT IS AN ORDER!"

I knew that in basic training, they'd do everything they could to break you out of your individuality, but this was just downright demeaning. Not wanting the platoon to suffer, I chose to follow his orders and fell on my knees. My fists trembled as I felt my fingernails digging deep into my palm.

"HANDS ON THE GROUND!

Reluctantly, I unwound my fists and planted my hands flat against the ground.

"GET YOUR HEAD UP! YOU ARE NOT LOOKING AT THE GROUND!"

So help me. I swallowed whatever dignity I had left and rose my head in an uncomfortable position. Instead of standing as I normally would, I was reduced to nothing more than a dog, crawling on all fours like a beast.

"THAT IS THE POSITION OF ATTENTION I WISH TO SEE YOU IN FOR THE REST OF THE DAY! COMPANY, FALL OUT!"

While everyone else carried on to do whatever they had to do, Shining stopped me from moving as he whispered quietly in my ear.

"Feel like quitting yet? I could do this all day."

I took a deep breath. Not just a deep breath, but I had to literally prevent a thermonuclear reactor in my brain from going into meltdown. I wanted to wring my hands around Shining's neck and crush his trachea. I wanted to see him squirm for air as I watched the life in his eyes fade. I wanted to watch his pupils expand as he stopped struggling. I longed for him to die. Similar revenge fantasies played out in my head as I held my peace.

"Well then. You can stay there until I order you otherwise. And don't even think about talking." He said, walking off shortly after.

At this point, I began to wonder if any of my letters were getting through to Cadance. Because now, I had a lengthy one I was going to write to her for this. She would hear about this little stunt he pulled and I would have the last laugh.

Week 7...

Throughout weeks five and six, Shining Armor was trying his damndest to get me to quit. So instead of going for physical torture, he instead went for the one thing I had left, my identity. Being that I stood upright, made me an instant stand-out from the others. But now, he was making me stand out even more with the things he's done. Sometimes, he made me march in that embarrassing position he made me stand in, others he'd have me drill like that. But since the end of the sixth week, he allowed me to stand on my own two feet again.

For some odd reason, it seems that Shining hasn't been so hard on me this week. Instead of constantly capitalizing on opportunities to call me out, he ended up bypassing me and going for anyone else. I guess my letters to Cadance made it through.

I guess it's a good reason why he called me to his office to speak with him privately.

*knock knock knock*

"Come in."

I opened the door to see Shining Armor filing some paperwork. I guess those papers were resignation forms. I knew that he was still wanting me to quit, but I didn't think he'd be so causal about it.

"Who's reporting?" He asked.

"Sir, Private Nondis of Delta Company, First Squadron reporting."

"Oh good. I've been meaning to speak with you for a while now."

Despite my being in attention, I couldn't help but to roll my eyes. "Forgive me sir, I was kept busy."

"Close that door behind you." He stated as he sat behind his desk.

"Sir?"

"That was an order."

Something inside of me warned me that he was going to try and do God-knows-what to me. But I thought of it as a two way street. If he'd strike first, then I could call it self-defense and strike back. No one would know what really happened but the two of us. Granted there was a risk, but I was more than willing to take it. "Yes sir."

After I closed the door, I walked back the front of his desk. He removed himself from his seat. "Parade rest."

I assumed the position, crossing my palms behind my back and locking my thumbs together. My legs spread out shoulder-width. And being that he called me to parade rest, he wanted this conversation to be off the record.

"You know... I just don't quite get you. You know I'm making life as hard as I possibly can for you right now. You know that I'm giving you hell. You know I'm making your entire platoon suffer because of you. Yet... you still..."

He veered off, walking towards a cabinet on the other side of the room. I heard a glass clanking and the pouring of a drink. I smelled the familiar fermented odor of alcohol breezing past my nose.

"You don't mind if I drink, do you?"

I paid him no attention. "No sir."

"Good."

After a few seconds of silence, I heard the glass hit the desk as he gave out a raspy sigh. "Burns all the way down. Love this stuff."

Again, I rolled my eyes at his antics.

"Now... with all of my previous attempts to make you quit, I've finally see that I'm probably going about it the wrong way. So I'm going to be civil in my approach. Let's be gentlecolts. And as such I have but one request: I... need you... to resign."

"Permission to speak, sir?"

"Denied." He instantly shot me down. "Now, here is my deal, my offer on the table. If you resign from this camp, I will not pursue you any further. We can even... become acquaintances. I don't mind taking the time to make up for my past mistakes. I just want you to leave this office and never set foot in this camp again."

I remained silent.

"Not convinced? Okay, I can see that. Tell you what, I'll allow you to gain special privileges, you know, purging any marks on your record, if you get into some trouble, I can get you off on a clean slate. You'll be scot-free. You can stay here in Equestria and be it's most care-free citizen."

"Sir, isn't that illegal?" I inquired.

"That's the thing. To sweeten up the deal, any crime you'd commit would be placed on my record. How's that sound?"

To place any wrongdoings of my and attach it to his name. It sounds extremely selfless but there was no way I was going to follow up on his offer. "Sir, that sounds like a pretty enticing deal-"

Before I could finish, he interrupted me. "Great, so let me get those papers for-"

"But I will have to decline." I finally finished through his statement.

A period of silence ensued, followed by a hearty chuckle. "Wow, cracking jokes right off the bat, huh?"

I neither joked or cracked a smile.

"I see. So you're not quitting?"

"No sir. I won't. I've come this far, I'm not gonna quit."

Shining squinted as he walked towards me, whispering in my ear. "So, if I should so happen to issue that command to you as an order, you'd have to follow it, right?"

"Sir, with all due respect, I have followed all of the orders you have given me. And even now, I follow them. However, that is the first order I will choose to disobey."

"And why is that? Why? Just... tell me why?"

"Because the princess has issued me an order to come back as a graduate of this academy, sir. And if there was anything I was told by you, it was to never disobey the orders of those of a higher authority."

Shining seemed to be confused by my statement. "Yet, you disobey me?"

"Because of an order that was issued to me prior of my coming here. Two princesses gave me orders. One instructed me to make graduation. The other instructed me to not quit, no matter what."

Shining leaned away from me, pursing his lips as he took a moment to think. "They don't have rank, kid."

"Then why do you follow their orders, sir?" I rebutted, making him a bit flustered at my response.

"Are you talking back to me?"

"No sir, I'm informing you of the orders that I was given prior to my arrival." I stated before moving myself to attention.

"Stay there." He commanded, holding out his hoof.

I returned back to parade rest, still waiting for this conversation to end.

"Perhaps I should explain myself... and what I can do."

Shining walked over to his desk, opened one of the drawers and pulled out a manilla envelope. Unwinding the string that sealed it closed, he then tilted the envelope upside down, spilling the contents onto the desk. A seed of horror began to manifest within my body as I recognized the contents of that envelope were nothing more than the letters I attempted to ship out to Cadance and Twilight. I felt my heart jump inside of my throat while my jaw instinctively dropped.

"You tried to ship these out to Cadance and my little sister."

I tried my best to remain calm. "I was asked to give them updates on my progress."

"That's not what I read. They're more like complaints. Complaints set against me."

I couldn't say anything. I was caught. Throwing the manilla envelope onto the table, he slowly wandered back to me.

"Perhaps I should explain to you why I don't like you being around my sister. And maybe I need to go into detail. So feel free to ask. Ask me 'Captain, why do you dislike me so?' I give you permission to speak."

Finally given a chance to get some answers, I took the opportunity for what it was. "Why do you want me dead, Captain?"

"See? I never said that. I said that I dislike you."

My mind wandered back to the day where he and I got into our first confrontation. It was shortly after he caught me and Twilight in the bed together. "But you choked me."

"Oh yeah, there was that. But I didn't kill you. Would you like to know why?"

I could recall the familiar sounds of Twilight screaming at him to stop as my world started to go dark. "Because Twilight requested it?"

"No. I wanted to intimidate you. And honestly, Twily has seen me do much worse than me doing that to you. But in reality, if I wanted to kill you, I would've done it in front of her. I'm a family stallion, but a soldier first when it comes to those who threaten the livelihood of those I love and cherish."

Where did that come from? "You lost me, sir."

"I have a story to tell you. It would help explain my discomfort of you being around my little sister."

He walked over to the window just behind his chair at the desk. Pulling down one of the blinds, he looked outside and watched as the other cadets ran by.

"Once upon a time, like two years ago, there was a guard and his princess. You can already guess who those two would be. Continuing, there was a wedding for the guard and the princess. But the princess was kidnapped and replaced by an impostor, one who had the ability to shape-shift into any being she desired. Not only did she have that ability, but she could feed on the love of others. And you know how love can tie into one's life-force. So this impostor had fooled the guard and the other princesses, ultimately turning even his beloved little sibling against him, or the other way around should I say. So with all of that going on, the impostor then sent the younger sibling to the caves to face off against the so-called evil princess."

He closed the blinds, pausing for a moment to reflect. "What happened next, sir?" I asked, curious as to how the story ended.

"A lot actually. The real princess confronted the impostor as she was about to marry the guard in her place. Said impostor revealed herself to be a queen of another race, who just so happened to threaten the entire city of Canterlot. Her minions soon invaded with her reveal and sacked the entire city in the matter of an hour, killing dozens of guards and even more civilians. It was known as the EUP's largest security failure to date. Why you ask, because even Celestia herself was defeated in battle. But that failure didn't last for long. The queen's arrogance caused her to fail at the very end, when she had everything in her grasp. To sum it up, Cadance and I have had to attend numerous funerals to apologize to the families that lost their loved ones, right after our wedding."

So he's a racist with a motive. Not surprising. "So you don't trust me because of what they did to you and Cadance?"

"I didn't say that. But it causes me to become uneasy when I have to see my little sister with something or someone that could take advantage of her and eventually become her undoing. Now this... this is where this whole conversation comes together."

He sat back down at his desk, tapping his hoof against the wood as he stared at me with the intensity of the sun in the sky.

"When you and Twily were in the room, doing what you were doing that other day, I could already see the long list of consequences that my little sister would've endured. For starters, she would've lost her crown, that's one. Two, she would also have to surrender her wings, which I can guarantee that the process wouldn't be painless. Three, and here's the big one. Four years, four, of my little sister going through hell and high water alongside her friends, saving Equestria countless times, her adventures, her accomplishments, the nine years she spent as Celestia's personal student, her studies... All of her prestige, wiped away. Just because she wanted to have her way with you."

Suddenly, his distaste for me had some sort of merit. Despite his antics being out of order, as they were done for the sole purpose of making me quit, he did it because I was a threat to his sister's livelihood. Everything she did up to this point would've been for nothing if I had just so much as give my waist a push upward that day. It was a little heavy to think about. "I didn't think of all of that."

"I know. But I did. Every single day, every time I see you, every time she's with you, every time she mentions you. Every time, I see my little sister enduring what could be her worst fear. I see you, then I'd see how she would try to wear this smile for you, when deep down inside, she knows that the life she had worked so hard to build... fall apart in front of her very eyes."

That would be a Twilight that would've resembled Pinkie Pie at that point. I don't think my heart would be able to take something like that.

"Now, say if something had happened to the two of you after that. You'd leave her. Then what does she have left? What's her future? Who will accept her, the princess that fell from grace because of scandal? That is why I was so passionate to break you two off, why I'm still trying to do that now. That is why I despise you."

I see why he was so adamant on making me quit. If I quit, then he wouldn't have to worry about me breaking Twilight's heart, or destroying everything she worked hard to accomplish. But despite all of that, she still risked it to have me. And I traded my mundane life away just to be with her. Both she and I have come too far to call it quits. The truth of the matter is that I really do adore her... Too much.

"What if I promise not to leave her?"

Shining became bewildered at my question, almost seeming offended that I would still pursue her. "Why would you stay with someone not of your own?"

Because I don't want anyone else. "Sir, are you fucking nuts?"

"Then what do you propose, private?"

"A gentleman's wager, or gentlecolt as you pony-folk would say."

"What's the wager?"

I am really doing this. "If I fail the final examination in three weeks, I will resign from the camp."

"I like the sound of that-"

"But, if I pass, you give me your vote of approval, regardless of your personal desire. That means if you don't like me and Twilight being together, then you can deal with it."

Shining grimaced at my bet, but being that it was one of such high stakes, he couldn't refuse if one of the outcomes would be in his favor. "You're on my dirt, you little fuck. You'll resign, either at the end of these next three weeks or within them."

Snapping myself back at attention to give him a farewell salute, I spoke in confidence. "Captain, I look forward to marrying your little sister."

"Get out of my office." He said angrily, magically opening the door so that I could take my leave.

I walked out of his door way and turned to leave, but stopped myself short of leaving his view. I tapped on the doorway twice as I pointed to him and winked. "Later bro."

As I walked away, I could hear the door slam behind me and Shining Armor scream loudly.

These next three weeks will be fun.

Week 10...

Ho-lee-fuck! I made it all the way through. If I could go back in time and tell myself that I'd make it through ten weeks of grueling punishment and physical labor to enlist in the service, I would've told me to kill myself for lying.

But alas, we come to the final stretch of the race. And this one was the one to make or break you. I was nervous, but excited at the same time. But it wasn't just me who was feeling the pressure. Many of my company members, hell the entire class that came from all over Equestria, were nervous about it. Even the stallion next to me questioned himself.

"You think I could make it?"

"Dude, you own this. Me on the other hand, I'm not so sure." I answered, trying to make him feel better.

"Sure your species can't run as fast as us, but you can sure outmaneuver us. You turn faster than us, you can use those hands of yours to counter a lot of blows quicker than hooves can."

But they still had another thing that I didn't, including earth ponies. "But what about magic?"

"Magic-smagic, your sword skills are more precise than most of us in this company. And judging from all of the push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, runs up hill-"

"We all did that shit! Nobody's different!"

"Um... Have you seen yourself since you came here? You've really stocked up!"

You know, throughout my time here, I never really gave myself the chance to look in the mirror and take in all of the changes my body had went through. "Really? I thought I was the main one that the platoon had to wait for whenever we ran around the campus."

"You don't run like us. You know, four hooves versus two... um... feet?" He asked, seeming a bit unsure as to what to call my lower extremities.

"Yeah, you got it there. But I'm just doing what I need to do to make it."

"You've trained yourself more than anypony else out here. I'd be surprised if you didn't pass."

"That's only because Captain Armor decides to pull me to the side and make me do all of this unnecessary shit."

The stallion chuckled, patting me on the back. "Well all of that 'unnecessary' exercise made you into a pretty scary beast. And you eat meat too! Remind me not to piss you off when you're hungry."

"I'm not gonna eat you, if that's what you're implyi-"

"COMPANY ATTENTION!"

The two of us stopped our idle chit-chat to pay attention to our company commander, who was donning his purple and gold armor.

"WHEN WE MARCH OUT TO THAT FIELD, YOU WILL GIVE ME YOUR BEST PERFORMANCE! I EXPECT NOTHING BUT SUCCESS FROM MANY OF YOU! WHEN WE LEAVE THAT FIELD, MOST OF YOU WILL BE SET TO STAND IN FRONT OF PRINCESS CELESTIA HERSELF AS SHE PROVIDES YOU WITH YOUR CERTIFICATE!"

He cut a glance back at me. "A SELECT FEW OF YOU WILL FAIL, AND THE MANY OF THAT LOT WILL FIND IT SUITABLE TO TAKE THEIR LEAVE! WHY DON'T YOU SPEAK FOR THAT GROUP, PRIVATE NONDIS!"

"SIR, I HAVE BUT ONE THING TO SAY TO YOU SIR!"

"AND WHAT'S THAT, PRIVATE!?"

In the words of our esteemed company commander. "NATURAL SELECTION, SIR! IT IS THE PROCESS WHERE ANY ORGANISM LEARN TO SUCCESSFULLY ADAPT TO THEIR ENVIRONMENT, SURVIVING WHATEVER IS THROWN AT THEM, FURTHERMORE GIVING THAT SPECIES THE ABILITY TO REPRODUCE AND POPULATE THE ECOSYSTEM!"

"THIS ISN'T A BIOLOGY CLASS, PRIVATE!"

Many of the others laughed at his response to my statement. "NO SIR, IT ISN'T! BUT WE HAVE ALL SURVIVED TO THIS POINT, WE ALL CHOSE TO ADAPT, AND WE ALL WILL SURVIVE THIS TEST, NO MATTER WHAT YOU MAY HAVE TO SAY! AND FURTHERMORE..." I licked my lips and sucked the air through my teeth. "Humans are top of the food chain, sir!"

A lot of the cadets oohed and giggled quietly as I called him out on his statement. Needless to say that Shining Armor was not too amused.

"THAT SOUNDS LIKE A CHALLENGE TO ME, PRIVATE! SINCE YOU SEEM SO CONFIDENT IN YOUR ABILITIES, WE SHALL SEE IF YOU CAN PUT YOUR BITS WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS!"

I'll put your sister where my mouth is.

"THAT'S ENOUGH CHIT-CHAT! COMPANY, MOVE OUT!"

After our short little tour to the field, I saw a group of other company commanders sitting in the bleachers alongside their sergeants. One of the sergeants I managed to recognize right off the bat. It was hard to not notice the six different colors in her mane as she and some of the others proceeded to place their bets on who would pass or fail. I wondered who she was betting on aside from me.

"Private Nondis, you're up."

Wow that was quick. Seeing that there were no others from my company to go before me, I had come to the conclusion that I was going first. I felt my heart pounding as I awaited my spotter, a recruit who was in their ninth week or so.

I felt as if I was some sort of character in one of those military movies who manages to pull out a win at the end of the story. They'd have the entire platoon crowding around them, celebrating their big victory. But then it had me thinking. Don't the main guy of the plot they usually bet against goes last?

"SIR, PRIVATE NONDIS REPORTING FOR INSTRUCTION, SIR!"

A loudspeaker rang from the observation deck. "Congratulations for making it this far cadet, report to the position of parade rest so that we may begin with your first set of instructions."

I assumed my position as my spotter stood in front of me, looking towards the observation deck for a signal of some sort. As soon as he turned to me, I knew what time it was.

"PRIVATE, ATTENTION!"

My heels clopped together as I snapped straight up.

"LEFT FACE!"

I turned myself, pivoting on my left foot as my right slid me into position. Afterwards, I brought my heels back together.

"RIGHT FACE!"

I pivoted on my right foot this time as my left slid me into position. Finishing the move, I was facing my spotter again.

"ABOUT FACE!"

My right foot kicked back becoming my pivot point, turning me right-way until I was facing the opposite direction. My feet were back in a forty-five degree angle.

"PARADE REST!"

I assumed the position, spreading my legs and placing my hands behind my back.

"PRESENT ARMS!"

I did not move. Moving from parade rest to salute your instructor was considered as an invalid move. So I waited until the command was reset.

"As you were! ATTENTION!"

I snapped back into place. Here comes the fun part.

"LEFT FACE, RIGHT FACE, LEFT FACE, LEFT FACE, ABOUT FACE, PRESENT ARMS, ORDER ARMS, ORDER ARMS, LEFT FACE!"

I turned to my left, then to my right, then to my left twice, turned around to face my spotter, salute him, retract the salute and halted all movement from that point on.

Fucker thought he could trip me up.

"As you were. RIGHT FACE!"

Turning to my right, looking at an obstacle course in the middle of the field, I awaited further instruction.

"FORWARD MARCH!"

As I marched forward, I called out my own cadence. "LEFT, LEFT, LEFT-RIGHT, RIGHT-LEFT!"

"MARK-TIME MARCH!"

I stood still marching in place as I continued to call out my cadence.

"PRIVATE, HALT!"

I stopped marching on my left as soon as he gave the order. In front of me was an obstacle course that awaited me. Though most of it was catered to the equine body, I still had the ability to conquer it. But that didn't stop me from sweating bullets as I waited for the command to be given to me.

"YOUR OBJECTIVE IS TO COMPLETE THE COURSE WITHIN THE ALLOTTED TIME! YOU HAVE A TIME OF EIGHT MINUTES AND THIRTY SECONDS TO COMPLETE THIS COURSE! DO NOT LEAVE THE STARTING AREA UNTIL GIVEN THE SIGNAL TO ADVANCE!"

All I could hear is the wind gently blowing by my ears. For the moment, I allowed myself to have peace. I thought about how far I had come since my coming to camp, even from the first day I set foot in Equestria somehow. I had went through so much since my time here. But I realized that even though life may find humor in knocking you down, you get back up and you keep fighting. Just like I had to fight even now.

"MOVE!"

My feet launched me into a sprint, running across the field and into the first set of obstacles. I had to carefully plant my feet into the barrel rings, similar to what football players would do to truck tires. Breaking through that obstacle, I had to climb a rope and reach the platform where the net above the mud pit lied. Crossing the way, I jumped to the other side and jumped off, tucking myself in as I landed. Running, I had to catch the rope and swing over a mud pit. Crossing that, I then ran for several more yards to run into a log climb. Hurriedly, I worked myself to the top of the awkward ladder and jumped over the top. Running for quite some time, I finally ran into the crawl pit, where I had to use my knees and elbows go trek through ten yards of mud under a net made of barbed wire. Breaking through, I ran for a few more yards.

I started to feel the fatigue from running the course take it's toll as I eyed my next objective.

My next obstacle was a large log I had to run up and down while trying to balance myself as I crossed. As soon as I took a step on the log, my foot slipped, causing me to stumble. I didn't have time to worry about it. I tried a second time and ran across it with little incident. Afterwards, I had to skip from one log to the other, which were spaced apart by a yard and a half each. After doing this several times, I had to run for the next part of the course. My final obstacle was running though a door and climbing over a wall. After passing through all of that, I had to sprint for the finish line.

My chest was on the verge of exploding from the relentless work I had to pull through. I kept cheering myself to finish strong. I couldn't give up now, not when I was so close to finishing. Seeing the finish line made me want to give it my best. Taking a solid breath, I strove forward, running and running until I had finally reached the finish line.

As soon as my body broke the plane, I felt myself crumble to the ground. I panted and breathed, clutching my chest as I awaited my time.

"PRIVATE NONDIS, THE TIME GIVEN WAS EIGHT MINUTES AND THIRTY SECONDS! YOUR TIME: EIGHT MINUTES, FORTY-TWO SECONDS!"

No... fucking... way... I failed?

Shining left from his seat to meet up with me. I didn't even want to see him at this moment. I could barely move from the weight of what all had transpired. I couldn't have failed. Not like this, not when I've worked so hard. Suddenly, something caught my spotter by surprise as he walked off to speak with another stallion who approached the timing table. While I was too busy letting defeat crush me, I could hear the voices of the others.

"Corporal?" My spotter asked.

"This just came in from the observation deck." The other stallion said. From the sound of it, it seemed like they pulled out a sheet of paper. After a bit of silence, I heard a quiet gasp.

"You mean the human had a time handicap, sir?" I heard the spotter whisper, causing me to raise my head up in surprise.

"From what I was told, it was because of his having two legs rather than four."

I saw Shining Armor turn his attention away from me and to the two other stallions. "What's going on?"

"Captain, this came in from OD." The spotter handed him the sheet of paper.

As Shining read on, he began to laugh lightly. Balling up the paper and throwing it at the ground, he screamed at the other two stallions. "ELEVEN MINUTES AND TEN SECONDS!? WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT!?"

I felt life in me again. I watched as Shining Armor threw a complete temper tantrum as the corporal continued to explain. "It came from the observation booth, sir. That means that this is from Celestia herself. We can't go over that!"

"My time is specifically eight-thirty. It stays that way unless Princess Celestia verbally says otherwise."

The corporal dismissed the spotter and asked him to wait for the next recruit. Meanwhile, he whispered to the disgruntled captain. "Then I suppose a private audience with her royal majesty would be a more suitable place of discussion, captain?"

Kicking the balled-up sheet of paper, he grumbled as he stormed off the field, swearing and curing out anyone who dared approached him. Finally he turned back to the corporal and spoke in a low tone. "Make it official."

I wanted to kick up so much dirt right now. I just wanna run up to him and scream a large 'fuck you' his face. I don't even care right now! I FUCK-ING WON!

The corporal made the announcement on the loudspeaker shortly after making his way up to the observation deck. "PRIVATE NONDIS, YOUR TIME WAS EIGHT MINUTES AND FORTY-TWO SECONDS! THE ALLOTTED TIME FOR ONE OF YOUR SPECIES HAS BEEN CALCULATED TO BE AT ELEVEN MINUTES AND TEN SECONDS! FINAL RESULT OF PHYSICAL EXAMINATION: PASS!"

Graduation Ceremony

It wasn't exactly a beautiful day, it was partially cloudy outside and the sun tended to show itself from time to time. But we didn't have to worry about the weather too much being that we were all inside of a large gymnasium. Many of the graduates still waited for their company to be called while mine lined up at the side of the stage. As I stood in line, I took the time to reflect on all of the things that I've done in my time of being here. At this very moment, I was a royal guard. It still feels a bit unusual to call myself that. I just can't believe that I'm actually a guard. It's just so surreal.

I could see nothing but the stage in front of me. Cadance was the one announcing the names while Celestia was the one to pass out certificates. Twilight stood next to her, eagerly jumping up and down as she waited for my name to be called. Luna, from what I heard, was still in Zebrabwe finishing up business. Shining Armor was nowhere to be found.

"Private First Class, Nondis P. Haines!"

As my name was called, I rose to the top of the stage, walking across as the first human to graduate into the Earth-pony, Unicorn, Pegasus, Guard of Equestria. Taking my certificate from Celestia, she whispered to me her congratulations. Fellow guardsponies stood up to applaud as I crossed the stage. Just when I was about to walk off, Twilight stopped me dead in my tracks, pushing me towards the podium. Cadance, giggled a bit at my flustered expression.

"As our first human to stand on this stage and provide your services towards the betterment of this country, please share with us your your insightful remarks."

"Yeah, we want a speech, rookie!" I heard Rainbow Dash scream from all the way across the gym.

Twilight gave me another push towards the microphone, while Cadance wore a gigantic smile. Somehow, was nervous, but then again I was standing in front of hundreds of graduates who offered to lay their life on the line as I have.

"Um... hi." I said nervously as the mics started to feedback, screeching and whistling as the pony in the sound booth tried to level me off. "Is this thing working?" I asked into the mic, gaining a few chuckles from the audience. At least I felt a little more comfortable now.

"Fillies and gentlecolts... I never though I would say that..." Once again, I got a few laughs, including a few chortles from the three princesses behind me. Twilight nodded her head as Cadance waved me onward. "I can truly say that this is an honor. It is an opportunity that I never thought I would be able to..." I struggled to find the words to accurately state what I was feeling. "I can't even put it in words. To be a citizen of Equestria. To physically be able to stand in this very spot and say that I am proud to be an Equestrian guard, is a humbling experience. Though I'd say that I am not the first to be different. I drink from a well that I did not even dig. Many other pioneers, who were the first to be what they were, came long before I did. And to consider myself as one of those pioneers, I can say that I am truly gifted."

I couldn't see the rainbow maned pegasus in the back, but I knew that she was there. I glanced back to Twilight, who was shedding a few tears. Cadance had started to shed some tears of her own. I turned back to the audience, knowing what the next part of my speech would be.

"To all of those who encouraged me, thank you for pushing me forward. To those who ridiculed me, thank you for criticism, as it has helped me come a long way. To those who sought my failure, thank you for motivating me to succeed. I couldn't have done this without you." I turned back around to Twilight. "And I mean that from the bottom of my heart."

Applause erupted throughout the gym as I started to walk away from the podium. But before I could, the purple princess tackle-hugged me before I could even respond. The only difference from before and now was that I didn't even budge when she ran into me. Instead I spun her around as she locked on to me, hugging me tightly. I knew that this small display was going to delay the program, so I offered to speak to her after... But she had other plans.

The crowd screamed and hollered as she flew up to me, clasping my head in place as she planted her lips against mine. Celestia blushed as she scrunched her muzzle in surprise. I didn't initially think of returning the kiss, as it caught me completely off my guard. But after a few seconds, I felt myself let go of the world and return unto her the gift she gave me at that moment. Breaking off our short engagement, we stared back at each other as she gently booped me in the nose. Cadance, with a devious expression, spoke into the mic.

"Fillies and gentlecolts, the soon-to-be married, Private First Class Nondis and Princess Twilight Sparkle."

Both she and I turned into ripened tomatoes at the sudden disclosure of our status while the crowd cheered us on.

After the ceremony, I was given my check. Not too long after that, I packed my belongings and exchanged a few words with the others. They all had a laugh when they found out the real reason why Shining Armor was being such a dick to me. As of now, there were only three of us left in the barracks.

"So... You're going to be with the captain's younger sister?" A stallion named Silver Dart asked.

I smiled as I nodded. "Well... yeah."

The other stallion, named Spade, bowed to me mockingly. "Sir, I congratulate you on your... spectacular catch. Most of the boys envy you now."

Cadance alongside Twilight walked into the room as we all exchanged a few laughs. Twilight ran up behind me and hugged me once more as Cadance levitated one of the bags from me. "Are you ready to go?" The pink princess asked.

"I've been ready to go as of ten weeks ago!" I answered back, earning a few sympathetic nods and groans, followed by a few more laughs.

"Hey... in speaking of which, where's the captain?" Silver Dart asked.

Cadance sighed heavily. "Princess Celestia had sentenced him to latrine duty."

"What!?" The three of us sounded out in unison.

"For a month." Twilight added.

"Ooh... that can't be good." Spade muttered.

"Yeah... and to top it all off, he's going to be stationed in Canterlot for the time being." Cadance finished.

Thinking about it, I didn't really see what could be so difficult about cleaning up the bathroom for a month. "That doesn't seem so bad."

"On paper, no. But Princess Celestia gave him a toothbrush and told him that it was his main tool used to clean all of the toilets in the castle. And she doesn't want a single speck of anything around, on, or in them." Twilight explained further.

"That still doesn't seem too bad."

Cadance shuddered as she spoke. "Shining's wearing a restrictive device on his horn, so he's cleaning them using his hooves... and... ugh..."

She let my imagination wander for a bit. Unfortunately, my imagination was a little too graphic. I saw Shining Armor brushing off a toilet using his teeth. I didn't even wanna think about what would happen then if he had to clean up somebody else's... Instinctively, I bit a finger while cringing. "Uuugh-"

Cadance nodded. "Eeeyeah! That."

Meanwhile in Canterlot...

Shining Armor sighed in relief as he stared proudly at his work. All of the toilets of the bathroom sparkled and glistened as if they were just bought from the store. Though he didn't like that he was still cleaning toilets, but he did enjoy the aftermath of seeing a clean space.

"S'cuse me sonny-boy! I can't let this one wait!"

A heavy-set, light-blue unicorn-stallion ran into one of the stalls as Shining looked on with horror of what was to come.

"NO! I JUST CLEANED THAT!"

Shining heard the slamming of the seat. Secretly, he wished that the stallion had some sort of condition where he had to urinate while sitting down. The first sound he heard was one of stream of liquid followed by another sound that was most... unflattering. A trombone producing pedal-tones sounded out as if it was being played in between two gigantic, wet slabs of meat. That was soon followed by the sounds of solid objects sploshing into the water.

Shining dreaded the mess the stallion was going to create. "Oh no."

"Oooohboy! Have ya tried any of those chili cheese hayfries with the extra jalapeños? Things are to die for."

Shining held his head in shame as he tried to ignore the brown onslaught going on in the stall he just cleaned. "Why me?"

"You'll be alright laddie! You know what I told the last guy? Here's what I said-" As the stallion attempted to flush the toilet, he found that the water started to backflow out of the bowl and onto the floor. "Um... Laddie, by any chance you might have a plunger?"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONDIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!"

Chapter XVII

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter XVIII

Six weeks ago...
Week 4 of E.U.P. Basic Training

My body was a sore mess. I guess I might've started to push myself a little too much. Not only that, but I seemed to have been receiving less and less sleep due to my constant late-night workouts. Today, I just felt like a rock that was dropped in water. I'm being dragged down to the bottom and I'm not even getting a chance to breathe. Despite my starting get used to working out, there was one thing I would never be able to get used to; I'd never get used to a lack of sleep. I just hope that I don't fall asleep in the middle of this class.

"When a magical creature proves to be too powerful to engage with on your on, what would be an ideal choice on how you would handle the matter?" The instructor at the front of the class asked, causing a select few trainees to raise their hooves. "Private Highwind."

The pegasus that sat two chairs to my left stood up and gave the answer. "Sir, await for reinforcements."

"That is correct." The instructor called out. "The main reason why you wait for reinforcements is so that you may be able to apprehend the creature quickly, discreetly, and without incident. Furthermore, it cuts down on any potential accidents that would be a danger to you or your fellow guard. Now tell me this. When you are confronted by an individual who is an adept magic user, you do what?" The hooves took to the air once more as the instructor pointed to another one of the trainees. "Private Bolt."

The unicorn that sat four chairs in front of me stood up. "Sir, you neutralize the magic by deactivating their horn."

"Very good."

I heard a quiet giggle from the other side of the room. I knew that it was no matter of mine. I just wanted to close my eyes and rest a little bit. Besides, the lesson was something that we were going over for the third time this week. I had already retained enough of the information to not really pay that much attention to it anyhow.

*SLAM*

My head rocketed back up from the desk as I instinctively spoke. "I'm awake." The room roared in giggles and snickers as the instructor at the front of the class eyed me almost into the desk again.

The instructor patiently tapped on his desk. "Okay, human. Since you're too busy sleeping in my class to think that these lessons are of little importance, tell me what the methods are to cancel out a unicorn's magic?"

Present Day...

"Celestia, I hereby request a no-holds-barred duel with Shining Armor."

The princess stared at me with complete shock written all over her face. For moments at a time, she attempted to find the words to say, but all that left her lips were weak squeaks and tiny puffs of air. Even her body struggled to convey her thoughts to me.

"Celly, what's wrong?"

Finally, she spoke for the first time in seconds. "Couldn't we propose something else? Something else that might satisfy you?"

"That is my only request. And it is the only one that I deem it to be satisfying enough for me." I answered.

Celestia rose out of her bed and walked towards me, eyeing me with concern. For a moment, she stood motionless, speechless as she looked at me. Eventually, she let words leave her lips. "I cannot allow it. Shining Armor is far too dangerous for you to challenge to a bout. Especially one such as, what you would consider it, a no-holds-barred contest."

"How so?" I asked.

"Shining is very powerful in his magic. Not only that, but he is very strong."

"Did he beat you in a hoof wrestling match?" I asked sarcastically.

"No, but-"

"Then he's not invincible. Therefore, I can still fight him."

Celestia took a deep breath as she placed a hoof on my shoulder. "Sweetie, honey, dearest... You're not going to win that contest unless you know how to fight against an adept magic user."

"Which I do-"

"Even then..." She interjected. "You would have to fight him in a contest of strength."

"I was trained to take on three guards at once. That was because Shining wanted me to feel as if I wouldn't be able to pass my training." I answered back.

"Nondis, you don't seem to understand. I've already dealt with him. He's being punished now and will be punished even further."

"And I'm saying that punishing him won't get it though his thick-ass skull that I'm a thing." I said, raising a fist and clenching it. "So even if I have to get my message to him that I'm going to be with Twilight via a fist to the face, then so be it. I refuse to have him wait around for the voting and let him disagree out of me just being an 'inferior species'."

"Nondis-"

"Celly, my species has killed more than the entire population of ponies that lives in Equestria to this day twelve times over. Your civil conflict ended with hoof-wrestling. My home country's civil conflict ended with casualties of over a million men. Six-hundred-thousand-plus men died on the front lines, four-hundred-seventy thousand returned to their homes broken, battered, disfigured, and dismembered. Four-hundred thousand were never found."

"Nondis!" Celestia shouted out, stopping my rant.

"Sorry... Got a little too graphic."

The large mare took a deep breath. "I know that our histories are different in comparison, but that doesn't mean that they haven't been free of bloodshed at any given point. I know too well of coping with those kinds of losses. We too have experienced our fair share of carnage."

"Then you would understand that negotiation is no longer a matter in the discussion between me and Shining."

Our quiet conversation had now become a full-fledged argument. Celestia no longer held back. "Then you would fight him, despite Twilight's innermost desire for you two to become friends?"

"There are things that just have to be done. I've been trying to avoid fighting him because of two reasons. The first was fear, I was scared to fight him because I didn't know how to fight at the time. The second was because Twilight would disapprove."

"Then why are you fighting him?" Celestia asked angrily.

"So that we can get our points across. At times, violence isn't the answer, but in this case it's the only alternative."

Celestia, in a fit of rage, stormed away from me and towards the window. "Why is it stallions have to be so confrontational?"

As she stood silently at the window, looking at the pair of birds sitting on the window seal, I slowly approached her and spoke with a lowered tone. "It's how we learn... I mean men... Look, males of any species are confrontational. It's what we're born to do. Instinct. We defend our families, ideologies, and religious beliefs. We fight each other for dominance, land, resources, and rights. We challenge one another for respect and sometimes for fun. It's how we learn."

The two birds flew off into the distance, zipping freely across the Canterlot skyline. Celestia watched in sadness as the two creatures took their departure. "It's also how the young are denied their future."

I think that she was looking at the birds a little too much. Either that or this conversation was going someplace that I was not intending for it to go. "Whoa, hold on there. We're not talking about a war. We're talking about a simple spar."

She turned to me with a worried look in her eyes. "A spar that could easily become just as violent."

"Anything I so desired. Those were the terms of your promise to me."

She sighed, regretting that she ever said those words. "I admit to saying those things, but-"

"Then please hear me out. I want to do this. I know that Twilight won't approve of it, but this is no longer about her. This is between me and Shining Armor."

She stopped for a moment to think. "Is there any way that I can convince you to possibly reconsider?"

It was now my turn to place my hand on her shoulder. After I extended myself to her, she looked to me as I spoke. "You'd probably see this as revenge for everything, from A to Z... It kinda is, but it isn't at the same time."

`Her ears folded, as did her resolve for a peaceful solution. Her head bowed as she finally gave in to my request. "At least you are honest. Very well then, I will give you what you desire, under one condition."

"And that is?"

"You're WHAT!?"

"Yeah. I'm doing it."

"Can I just reiterate? WHAT!?"

Rainbow Dash hovered in mid-air as she continued to express her disbelief of my statement. So I decided to re-announce my intentions. "I told you, I'm challenging Shining Armor to a duel tomorrow afternoon at three."

"Rookie... ugh..." The cyan pegasus slowly brought a hoof to her face as she took a long sigh. "You don't start a fire on the first day on the job."

"Look, It's for a good reason." I argued.

"You're really asking for it."

I threw my arms up in the air in a fit of frustration . "Why is it that no one's listening to me?"

"Uh, maybe because the dead don't talk."

"I'm not dead."

Rainbow rolled her eyes at me. "You're gonna be if you challenge Shining Armor."

"What's that I've been hearing about?" A third scratchy feminine voice called out from nowhere. We both turned around to see a yellow pegasus walking towards us. She sported a fiery orange and yellow mane and wore an aerial combat uniform with a pair of aviators hanging off of the front pocket. As she approached us, Rainbow Dash gave her a salute. Not wanting to be rude, I followed suit as the pegasus raised her greeting in return.

"Captain, how you've been?" Rainbow asked as she lowered her hoof.

"I've been in better spirits, but congratulations on your promotion, Rainbow Dash. Staff Sergeant seems like a good fit for you." The mare said with a smirk.

"Well, I was wanting to go a little higher than this." Rainbow retorted, seeming her usual cocky self.

"So what's this about a challenge to Shining Armor?"

Rainbow flew beside me and gave me a playful shove. "Rookie here, he doesn't know what he's talking about. He's different, you know-"

"Actually, I've been hearing that Shining is getting the day off tomorrow."

"WHAT!?" Rainbow shouted in disbelief. I guess my request was more than acknowledged. Wow, word sure does travel fast.

The yellow pegasus turned to me, extending a hoof to me. "So you're gonna be the guy to try and take Captain Armor down a few pegs? You've got some serious balls."

Returning the hoofshake, I accepted the compliment. "Uhh... thanks... Captain?" I trailed off into a question. Unfortunately, I was not given a name for her.

"Oh yeah, guess it's rude not to introduce myself. Name's Spitfire, Captain of the Aerial Defense Division and Captain of the elite flying squadron known as the Wonderbolts. Maybe you've heard a thing or two about it."

"I know that Roy G. Biv here has been wanting to get in for a while." Rainbow seemed annoyed at the nickname I gave her. Meanwhile Spitfire laughed a little at my comment.

"Hey Dash, I need you to give this report to Soarin. How quick do you think you can get it done?" The yellow pegasus named Spitfire questioned as she pulled out an envelope with a lightning bolt seal emblazoned upon it.

"Be back in a sec." She answered, not even sparing a second after her sentence to take to the sky in a flash of several colors. Spitfire then turned her attention back to me.

"You're really going through with challenging Shining, huh?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Just curious, you know."

"That's not the entire story, is it?"

Spitfire seemed to question my appearance as she took the time to look me up and down. "Well, there's been some paperwork signed and I just so happen to be the referee. Care to tell me how somepony like you could beat the Captain of the Royal Guard?"

"I can't say. I'm just gonna wing it... no offense."

The yellow pegasus shrugged. "None taken."

"So you're looking over the match?" I inquired.

"Just to make sure that you don't die or something."

I took a moment to chuckle at her response. "Well I won't be doing any of that."

"Hey, do your best. Knock it out of the park. If you last more than two minutes, I'll be impressed." Once more she extended her hoof to me.

"Thanks." And similar to last time, I returned the friendly gesture.

"And if you beat him, then I might just have to challenge you to a match." Suddenly, it seemed that she wasn't as willing to break off our little exchange. Instead, it seemed that she had started to force herself a little more onto me.

"Heh heh... What kind of match?" I asked nervously, still feeling my hand being pressed against.

"I don't know, something like who can last the longest. A contest of endurance."

"Oh... well-" She could mean anything by that. I mean hell, she could be talking about who could run laps around the city, right? I'm pretty sure that the statement was nothing of the sexual nature. Once again, I had to get my head from the gutter.

Spitfire closed in on me and flew mere inches away from my face as she whispered to me slowly and seductively, licking her lips as she spoke. "I not an easy mare. And I don't do speed runs. I like... strenuous activity, long shifts, and thick skin with a rigid personality."

OH BOY! "Weeeellll thennn...."

I felt a hoof brush against my chest as she drew her muzzle to my ear. "And I like my rewards to be plentiful.... and in copious amountssss."

Just like the extended time she took to carry out her 's', her words burned against my ear as she gave me a playful lick against my earlobe. STRANGER DANGER! "Gotta go!"

Without a second to reflect, I darted away from the promiscuous mare and ran for the halls. Granted, she was hot... too hot... I didn't want to accept her invitation, no matter how attractive it seemed like. As I ran down the hall, she called back out to me.

"Best of luck at the match tomorrow, rookie! You'll be needing it."

Throughout the rest of my day, I carried on with my duties, including a few more visits to the cold-stricken princess. I think that she's starting to recover from the illness already. Then again, alicorn magic is some of the most potent magic in existence, so I'd expect it to work miracles whenever it came to a health issue.

I ran into Spitfire once after our initial meeting. I had paid a visit to a local diner and finished my meal when she came flying down from above. Needless to say she was emphasizing her proposal from earlier. Had I known that she was so hell-bent on taking me into the bathroom and sharing her talents with me, I would've avoided the eatery altogether. But it couldn't be helped, I graciously declined her offer and took my leave.

On my way out, I felt something stuck in my teeth and journeyed to a nearby dental office. I walked in and requested a box of dental floss, preferably mint-flavored. Unfortunately, all they had was the wax kind. Just another thing to throw my day off. As soon as I walked out, I was digging around in my mouth to relieve myself of any food between my teeth. It's just too bad that I had to be tasting the bitter wax coating rather than coping with a more pleasant flavor... But then again, I have an idea on what I could do with this.

Shortly after my shift had ended, I was given the go-ahead to retire to my apartment. Thankfully, that promiscuous captain was nowhere to be seen. After a few more minutes of getting myself prepared and boiling the wax flavor off of my floss, I started to get myself ready for bed. I was more than making sure that my windows were locked. I didn't need any unexpected, fiery-maned rapists breaking into my room, fondling and watching me as I sleep.

After closing my eyes for a brief second, I awoke to the ringing of my alarm clock. I came out a little groggy, but extremely determined. It was like I had a drive to do just about anything. Of course I knew the main reason why I felt as if I could take on the whole world. So I got out of my bed, took my shower, dressed myself, grabbed the dental floss and made my way towards the lobby for breakfast.

Today, I was given the assignment to escort Princess Cadance and her party to the castle. Though I was more than curious as to why Shining couldn't escort his wife rather than me. I guess he was too busy punching sandbags with my face drawn on them to escort his beloved to the castle. I suppose on a day like today I would've done the same, considering how much we both wanna punch each other's lights out.

When I had arrived at the train station, I found that Cadance was waiting patiently on me. It goes without saying her party consisted of familiar faces. Twilight and Cadance talked amongst each other as Rainbow Dash hovered right beside them. Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack and Spike came along for the visit. What caught me off guard was the two additional visitors that stood beside their better halves. Discord stood beside Fluttershy while Cheese Sandwich worriedly stood beside a saddened Pinkie.

"Hey guys!" I spoke out. The group then turned to me, a wave of silence washing over them as I approached. "What's going on?"

Twilight teleported from where she stood to scream in my face, getting closer with each word. "You're... challenging... MY BROTHER!?" She questioned lividly. If it wasn't how she suddenly screamed in my face, I'd say that she was really pissed off at me.

"Well, I wouldn't call it a challenge... It carries the same properties as a challenge but it's not a challenge." I stated with sarcasm.

"What were you even thinking!? Shining Armor is going to be released from his punishment with even more ammo to throw at you!" Twilight warned.

Cadance walked beside the infuriated purple princess. "Nondis dear, do you not know what the repercussions of challenging my husband would bring you?"

"As a matter of fact, I do. Which is why I choose to do it." I admitted boldly.

"Call it off!" Twilight argued, jumping the gun on Cadance.

"I can't, it's already set."

Rarity came from behind the girls as she also tried to convince me to withdraw. "You can pull out now while you still have the chance. There's no need to get into any sort of unnecessary conflict."

Applejack followed suit. "Ya don't need to prove nothin' to nopony. Jus' make the smart choice an' walk away from it all."

"It would be a lot easier and a lot more peaceful." Fluttershy advised.

Cheese stood forward this time, meeting me face to face. "Yeah. Think about the conflict you and I had. Can't you two just talk it out?"

I gave myself some breathing room as I started to become the center of attention. "That's the problem. He's been doing most of the talking. His only terms is that he wants me to leave Twilight."

I felt a hoof touch my shoulder. Without turning around, I could hear the flapping of Twilight's wings. "I can accept that he's not willing to acknowledge us. I've decided to move past that. Now why is it that you can't do the same?"

"You know why, Twilight." I wanted to get past this rut. If Shining and I can't duke it out now, then the situation would only fester into something extremely unhealthy. Not just to our relationship, but to Twilight's health. The stress of pulling family members together is nothing to joke about. That shit could actually kill you in time.

"Please, just leave it behind us." She pleaded.

"And leave him and you apart?" Because that's what he would ultimately do. I don't want to be held responsible for the bonds between her and her older brother to suddenly diminish.

"...That's not the point."

"That's the only point. If we go through us being on even terms, I'd honestly think you'd grow to resent your older brother." And that would lead to some really unfortunate circumstances. Especially considering that they were both royalty, this had to be nipped in the bud.

"I'd much rather resent him for that than to resent him hurting you or you hurting him."

I'm not changing my stance on this. I don't even see why she's even trying at this point. "Twilight, this is just how it's gonna be."

"Rainbow darling, can't you talk some sense into him?" Rarity asked as she turned to the rainbow-maned pegasus.

"Tried already. It seems the only way it's gonna get through his thick skull is if Shining leaves his hoofprints inside of it."

I turned back to the duo that continued to talk about me. "I can handle this-"

"You're so dense." Those words, they not only sound familiar but they came from the same source. "You're really doing this all over again, fighting battles that you don't have to fight, getting scars and bruises that you don't need to get because of somepony else. You try to play 'hero' but you get hurt instead."

"But that was last time." And I couldn't even hold my fists up right. I was in a situation that I had little knowledge of and no training in how to deal with it.

Pinkie let her anger show. At least her mane was still poofy in comparison to the deflation it would normally have. "Last time, I held on to you when my sisters brought you into my room. Last time, I cried over every bruise on your body, regretting that I was the cause of your injuries. So what now, you're gonna put Twilight through that same stress?"

"Things are different."

"No they aren't!" The pink party pony argued.

"Yes they are!"

"Non-non... look at Twilight. Would you really put her through that pain again?"

I took a moment to look at the mare that held onto my shoulder, who's been holding on for this entire conversation. I could see the disappointment in her eyes as she stared back at me. But this was something that I already decided that would be for myself. If she wanted to fight about it, we'll have that discussion on a later date. I respected her, I adored her, I'd do anything to make her happy in the long-haul, even if it means to ignore her immediate gratification. With a deep breath and a determined mind, I gave my answer. "...Yes. Because my heart tells me to fight this battle."

"Don't fight for me. Please." Twilight begged.

"You just wait and see." As much as it hurts me to see her unhappy, I knew that this would work out for the future.

"You don't have to do this."

"I do. I want to do this and I have to." Because I'd much rather see you sad for a day than to let you live years on end with that very same sadness.

"What is it you're trying to prove?"

In my mind, I let myself relive the events of the day when she and I were about to share her bed, when her brother came in and shouted at me for what we were about to do. The words that left my lips and left a long-lasting impression on her brother's mind... A perspective I was more than willing to change, that I had to change.

There was only one thing that I wanted to prove. "That I'm good enough."

When we arrived at the palace, the group took their separate ways from me. The only thing that seemed to be on my mind at that point was the duel that would take place in about thirty minutes. Honestly, I was wanting to get it over with. I knew that I would be at a disadvantage so I had to make preparations for what was to come. Unfortunately due to time constraints, I would have to finish my preparations on the way there.

As I walked down the hall, I began to tape my hands for protection. I knew it was a hassle to pull off on my own, but considering that I was in a society that wasn't exactly accustomed to living with hands, I took the risk. After I finished tackling one hand I moved on to the other. Fifteen minutes later I was standing outside the door, finishing up my wrap. Drawing my sword, I started to check if I still had the functionality for gripping and swinging.

So far so good.

After a few more swings, I sheathed my weapon and started to prep myself for upcoming duel. Tip-toeing and bouncing, I simulated the circumstances of if I was to lose my weapon. As I threw a few punches, I could hear the sound of hooves clopping towards my direction. Looking out the corner of my eye, I could see who it was.

"Princess Cadance, I guess you're here to-"

The pink princess stopped my aerial jabs with her magic, holding me in place. "Look, I don't know when Shining's coming by here, but I am begging you. For your own safety, please call off this match."

Trying to free my hand from the blue, watery aura, I yanked and pulled my arm a bit. "I'll be fine. Really."

Cadance took the time to walk in front of me, still holding my hand in midair. "No, you'll be hurt. Really."

"I can handle a punch or two. No problem." Hell that's always been the case, both pre and post-training.

"No, that's not what I'm talking about. A no-holds barred means that nothing is restricted and the results could possibly become fatal. You could be seriously injured, your career as a guard could be very short-lived, and Twilight wouldn't want to see you like that."

Although I could see her reasons for concern, especially considering that she hasn't heard very much of what all had transpired in the course of my training, I chose to ignore her plea. "I'm not going to be like that so it doesn't matter. Not only that but Shining wouldn't want me dead anyways."

"You don't know that. That's why you have to call this thing off. It's too dangerous." She advised, finally letting go of my hand.

"Cadance, I'm perfectly-"

"You're in trouble now!" I heard another voice shout from down the hall. I turned to see that it was two other guards, followed by my opponent. "Talking with the Captain's wife behind his back? That's a big no-no."

Cadance, walked over to her husband, trying to get him to stop. "Cadie, what are you two talking about?"

"We were-" Before I could even finish, Cadance spoke for me.

"Talking about how he wanted to call off the challenge, how this was a huge misunderstanding."

The unicorn captain cut his eyes at me, giving me that all-too familiar cold glare. "Cadance, I don't think that a request made to Princess Celestia herself can be considered as a misunderstanding."

"It's a misunderstanding on his part." She argued.

By this point, I started to walk towards him. "I'm not misunderstanding shit."

Shining moved past his wife, walking towards me in response. "So, you really do have the guts to stand up to me?"

"Much like you don't have the sack to walk into that room and go against me." By the time I finished my sentence, we were standing a few feet away from each other.

"You know, I think that your training had made you a little cocky. Why don't I turn that down for you?" He said as he started to walk even closer, pointing his horn at me.

Taking a few more steps forward, I touched the tip of his horn and redirected it elsewhere. "How bout you point that thing somewhere else before it get's broke."

"You talk really big. I think you're scared of me."

"If I was scared of you, then I wouldn't be standing here. This isn't just about Twilight anymore. It's to the point where it's personal between us."

Less than a foot stood between us. I don't think I could express how much I wanted to pummel him into the ground. "I don't think you understand your place."

Then again... "I don't think you understand just how punchable your face is right now." That sounds just about right.

The captain inched closer, whispering to me. "Go on, touch it."

"Alright boys, you two can kiss each other in the grand hall." And then our stare down was then replaced by mental imagery of us two sharing... I don't even wanna imagine that. We both turned to our referee, giving her a disapproving glance.

"No thanks." I blurted out.

"I don't swing that way." Shining said. At least we were already starting to agree on something.

"Too bad, would've loved to see you two go at it." We both looked at each other and shuddered as we backed away. Spitfire chortled and continued speaking. "Well in that case, let's get moving since you two seem so impatient to go at each other's throats."

Spitfire opened the door and guided us inside. Shining and his wife entered before me. Aside from passing extremely nasty looks to the yellow pegasus, she turned back to me and whispered as she walked past. "I gave you a chance."

Following his wife, Shining whispered to me as well. "You should've took up Cadie's offer."

While I gave myself a suitable amount of spacing, I returned a statement to my opponent. "If training has ever taught me anything, it's that I don't take the easy-way out."

"That's fine and all, but now you're in stallion territory." He mumbled back to me.

"And I'm gonna teach you the ways of a man's world. We ride asses like you." I rebutted.

As soon as we entered into the room, We walked past a crowd of guards clad in armor as they all stood around an empty portion of the floor. The space designated was more than enough to give any stallion the room to launch attacks, take to the air and fire bolts of magic, which I had a feeling he was going to do at one given point. But as a saving grace, they did provide us with four pillars to take cover behind. It also seemed that the area had some sort of enchantment, given the strange runes encircling the area. I guess they want to make sure that nothing gets damaged. When we walked into the open area, we took separate sides of the circle. Meanwhile, Spitfire flew into the center of the ring and announced us to the crowd of ponies.

"Attention everypony, guards and patrons alike. We are here to bear witness to a match unlike any other in all of Equestria's founding. To one side, there is the Captain of the Royal Guard, Prince of the Crystal Empire, husband to Princess Cadance and brother to Princess Twilight Sparkle, Canterlot's very own: SHINING ARMOR!"

The crowd erupted into cheers and dog calls. Even some of the mares in attendance cheered so loud that Cadance, who was sitting on the elevated platform in the back where the thrones sat, clenched her jaw with envy. I guess she doesn't like her husband being called on by other mares. Who could blame her?

"And to this side, we have a unique challenger to the captain. Instead of hooves, he will fight with his own two hands and race on his own two feet. From a far away land in a world unknown to us, he joins our ranks to defend our country. Our newest addition to the E.U.P. Guard: NONDO!"

And she got my name wrong. "NON-DIS!" I corrected as loud as I could.

"Sorry, NONDIS!"

I didn't hear as much cheering as before. In fact, I heard maybe a pony or two clop their hooves and root me on while the room sat in silence. I guess I'm really the underdog here.

"Princess Celestia, do you have something to say before the match commences?" The referee called out as Celestia sat on the throne to my left. Both Shining and I turned to her as she unfurled her wings and spoke out to the crowd.

"The rules are as followed, when one can no longer stand of his own volition, the other is to cease all hostility. Any further assault will be dealt with in a swift manner. If one becomes wounded to the point where they can no longer fight, competition shall be decided in favor of the one who still stands. If there is any intent to fatally wound one another, the match will result in an automatic forfeit, declaring the lesser aggressor to be the victor..." I saw her take a glimpse at me followed by another at Shining Armor. It seems that his vision was locked on me the entire time. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and left her statements to that. "That is all I have to say."

I turned my attention back to my opponent. Suddenly Twilight interrupted the match. Stepping forward, she raised her voice at the two of us. "I don't want you to do this, either of you. I humbly ask that the two of you withdraw from this competition at once. Over time, I have seen the two of you fight and argue. I don't want this. I just... I just want you two to get along." I turned back to the purple princess who stood forward with ears folded down out of sadness. "Is that too much to ask?" She inquired in a quiet voice.

For a moment, the room seemed so quiet, you could hear a snail crawl past you. But that silence didn't last for long as Shining Armor immediately voiced his opinion. "As a challenge to my honor, I am unable to comply with that request."

My mind snapped back to what I had to do right now. In front of me stood a stallion who made his intentions clear. However, I felt something was... off. He gave me numerous reasons of why he disliked me being with Twilight, but I could tell that's not where his anger ends, or begin for that matter. Even before I was caught with Twilight, he and I were on good terms. Whenever he had the time, he would spend it with both me and Twilight without so much of a complaint. He would share jokes and both Twilight and I would laugh at them. He was even my escort to and from court back when I had that case against Caramel.

Now, he despises me. He wants me to look somewhere else. He can't stand spending time with me and Twilight simultaneously. There's no way he was telling me the whole truth. I've gotten his reasons for why he couldn't see us together, but what about the reasons why he didn't trust me? It bothered me since I made the decision to stay here.

This fight was my answer, and I was going to get it, even if I have to beat it out of him. "What he said."

Spitfire nodded in approval. "Okay, so it seems that our combatants are both willing to get this thing started. You both heard the rules, if one of you goes down, you give them the chance to stand back up. If one of you tries to kill the other, you will be disqualified. If one cannot carry on, then the battle goes to the last one left standing. Got it?"

Shining brushed a hoof against the ground, seeming as if he was ready to charge at me. "Copy that."

I held my fists into a defensive stance, squaring my shoulders and bracing my feet for whatever he may throw at me. Bouncing around, I felt the adrenaline rushing through my veins. "Loud and clear."

"Well then... COMBATANTS TO YOUR MARKS!"

While I shuffled my feet, I tried to drown out the cheers set against me. I knew that I wouldn't be expecting anyone to be rooting for me in this instance.

"Give him hell, captain!" One stallion yelled out.

"Show 'em who's boss." Another hollered to my opponent.

"Put him in his place!" Yet another guard shouted loudly.

I clenched my teeth and readied myself to go on the offensive. I had to strike first if I was going to stand a chance in this battle, let alone win. Suddenly, I became distracted by a few outspoken voices in the crowd.

"Nondis, you can do this!" I recognized that voice, it was Rarity's.

"Give em hell, rookie!' That was Rainbow Dash cheering me on.

"Put up a good fight, ya hear!?" Even Applejack threw her lot on me.

I felt more confident than before. To hear those few still rooting for me gave me the morale to stand up and fight. Then again, it was far too late to back down. I was past the point of stopping, and I was eager to keep going, just to see what I would run into. But I heard another set of voices discouraging me from this fight.

"Don't do this, Non-non!" Pinkie hollered.

"I can't watch!" Fluttershy whimpered.

"..." I can already assume that Twilight has already spoken her peace. She wasn't going to root for either side. Both sides of this fight were ones that she was either for or against. She stood in silence, her words snuffed out by her unwillingness to root on either party.

"Odds are placed at seven to one!" And of course Discord would be the main one to start a gamble on the fight.

"Come place your bets!" I'm not even surprised that Spike was helping out. He was just enjoying the view, though he did shy at a rather angry glance from Twilight.

"FIGHTERS, READY!"

My heart started to pound at an elevated pace. My breathing became clear and open. My body felt light as my fists started to take in the weight. My feet shuffled as I bounced back and forth. My fists clenched tightly as I drowned out every last bit of sound. My vision locked onto the magenta blur in front of me...

Magenta?

"...ACTION!"

By the time Spitfire took to the air, a bolt of magic barreled towards me, I jumped to my right, avoiding the blast and looking back to a grinning Shining Armor.

"Oh fuck you!" I screamed to him, angered that he would resort to magic beams as his first move.

"No holds barred, remember?" He quoted as he shot another beam of magic at me.

With every beam he shot, he drove me further away from him. Dipping and diving, I ducked and dodged the incoming bolts. He remained relentless in his attack as I was forced to be on the defensive. I couldn't lay a blow on him if I couldn't get within range. Hopping and hobbling, I found shelter behind a nearby pillar. Standing behind the marble column, I panted from the immense amount of dodging I had to do. I opted to peek out from the side, but another bolt stopped me from doing just that. When I thought about peeking out to my other side, Shining beat me to the punch, firing another blast past me. I was trapped for the time being.

"Quit hiding you coward!" One guard heckled at me.

"Get back out there and fight!" Another shouted to me.

"Not so cocky now, are ya?" A third shouted as I watched another series of bolts whiz past me.

There was no way I was going to come from behind this pillar until I had an opportunity to strike.

"Shining, that's enough!" Twilight screamed to her brother, who only ignored her.

Cadance looked at me with disappointment that I didn't back out of this sooner. Meanwhile, Twilight was tapping at her former instructor. "Celestia, make them stop!"

Celestia did nothing as she watched the match go down. "If this is the only way they can communicate with one another, then let them speak."

"This isn't communication, this is just wrong!"

Celestia watched as Shining Armor blasted the pillar repeatedly. "I think there's more to it than what you and I may see for ourselves."

"No there isn't!" Twilight argued, starting to become worried of how I was holding up.

Celestia started to share the same sympathy, looking to me with uncertainty. She hoped that I knew what I was doing. "There must be. Otherwise..."

The blasts stopped for a short period of time. I've been hiding behind this pillar for a significant period of the match. But now, I was going to have to do something to get myself out of this mess. I slowly crept my head around the pillar, only to meet with a flash of magenta. I immediately pulled my head back in and watched the bolt breeze by me. That was too close.

"See? Even my little sister thinks you're clearly outmatched. You're hiding behind a pillar while I'm shooting at you from way across the room. If that isn't cowardice, then it's surely convincing me that you're ill-prepared to protect anyone." In speaking of close, Shining's voice sounded a lot closer than I thought. Maybe he was just buying his time to finally land some physical blows. So he lured me here so that I couldn't get the chance to escape. Meanwhile, he would fire bolt after bolt of magic to keep me hidden behind this pillar as he got closer.

"Really? Cut that magic off and you'll see just how prepared I am to kick your ass." But being that he got closer, he had to take more time to aim for the sides. If he wasn't careful, then he would leave me with an opening to make a dash for another pillar, and then he'd have to start all over again. He was waiting for me to make my moves now. If I peeked out, he would fire away. If I'd poke a hand out, he'd take it out. I'm left with very little margin for error.

"You'll have to get close first." He taunted.

"Then quit projectile-spamming, you cheating fuck!" I shouted out of frustration.

"No holds barred!" He shouted back, firing two more bolts, to either side.

When he fired the two bolts, I had realized that he made a crucial mistake. To fire the two bolts, it would require a charge of one to carry out both attacks. If he saved some of his energy to blast me a second time, then that meant that he would have to charge again for two more. Not only that, but since he's dividing the magic, then the knock-back it would produce would be half of that of a normal blast, making it significantly weaker.

That's my opening.

After he fires the first shot, he immediately covers himself to the other side. By the time he releases that second bolt, I could run from the side where he launched the first shot and close the distance between us. That would cause him to panic and throw his aim. If he throws his aim, then he'd be wide open for an attack. This means only one thing: his strategy is ineffective at close-range.

It's my turn.

The first bolt blasted by me to my left. As soon as it passed, I dashed out to meet him head on. By the time he fired the second bolt of his magic, I was already closing in on him. As predicted, he panicked, throwing off his aim. He didn't have enough time to charge his magic and fired a weak bolt at my left leg.

"Gaaargh!" My entire leg went numb, causing me to fall from the unexpected feeling of my leg disappearing from underneath me. After tumbling forward, I was brought to a halt not even a foot away from Shining's hooves.

"So... you finally learned your place?" He asked as he looked down on me with disdain.

"Yeah... I've learned my place..." I whispered to him. Meaning that my leg was numb didn't mean that I couldn't move it. I had to convince myself that it was still there. Though it would affect me every time I'd run or jump, I could still fight. Leaping to my feet, I shot my hand at Shining and clenched onto his horn. I pulled at him using my right hand and removing something from my back pocket with my left. I circled his horn with the substance and leapt off of him, finally done with the first phase of my plan. "On top of your sister."

As soon as the insult left my mouth, he shoved me off of him. Angry, he stared at me with a hatred so deep that he could decimate me on the spot.

"You little son of a bitch!" He screamed as he lowered his horn and charged for another spell. But something was wrong. "My magic... what happened to my-" And just like a lighter without fluid, his horn flickered at the base and went out. "What did you do to me?"

I started to laugh as I held out a pack of dental floss in my left hand. "Two things." I said as I pointed at him. "First, I neutralized your magic by deactivating your horn. As long as my hand can come into contact with your horn, I can cut your spells short. And to add to that, I further deactivated your magic by giving your horn a sealing compound. Just last night, I spent some of my time boiling and soaking my dental floss in brine water."

A look of horror began to show on his face. "Brine water!? That means-"

"You guessed it. All sealing items used to cut off the magical capabilities of a unicorn are made with one chemical compound in general; they're made with sodium chloride, table salt."

"You-"

I held up a second finger. "Second, I chose dental floss because of it's small size in comparison to sealing rings, which can be forced off with enough willpower and a little elbow grease. Instead, you have hooves that are too big and clumsy to accurately pick off thin materials such as thread, spider webs, fishing wire, and dental floss, all of which requires your magic to remove. And do I need to go into detail about the little grooves in your horn?"

Shining clenched his teeth as he realized that his magical assault was no longer a viable option. He then drew his sword in his teeth. "Clever bastard."

Tossing aside the floss, I drew mine in return. Now we were on even footing. "Again, natural selection states that a species learns to adapt, overcome, mate, reproduce, and repeat. Humans have been getting this shit done for well over fifteen thousand years. We're seven billion strong! It's in our blood, fucker! Rules of nature!"

He and I charged at each other, swords drawn. When we drew close, our blades crossed for the first time in the match. He spoke as he held his blade to mine. "So you can think on your feet, big deal! That doesn't prove anything against the strength of a stallion!"

I scoffed at his prideful comment and parried his blade away from his body. I was left with an opening. Switching the sword to my left hand and cocking my arm back, I brought my right fist to his face. I landed a solid blow against his left cheekbone. Executing on the follow-through, he was pushed back, still clenching his sword. I smiled as I settled for second blood. "Told you your face was punchable!"

Shining looked at me, only this time he carried the intention to kill. Galloping at me, he raised his sword at me and stood on his hind legs to cut me down from above. I raised my weapon to shave his weapon off of me. As his came into contact with mine, I felt a strong impact reverberate through the weapon and into my arms. The shock was so great that it knocked my blade away. The sound it produced was similar to a hammer striking against an anvil. Reeling back, I clenched my hand as I waited for the pain to subside. He laughed back at me. "I told you that you can't match to a stallion's strength! Who do you think you are!?"

"You must be real insecure when it comes to your little sister! Just what are you scared of!?" I asked as I started to recover from his attack.

Shining ran at me again, sword brandished and seeking blood. "I told you, you need to back off! I can find her somepony much better than you!"

I switched my weapon to my right hand again. Our swords clattered and clanged as we both took blows at each other. "Yeah, I have my flaws. I'm different, but does that make me any worse than what other choice you may have?"

His blows started to become even more ferocious. "It's because you're different! I can't trust you to protect her!"

My strikes started to become even more aggressive and frequent. "Why is that!?"

"You say that your species is strong, yet I've only seen weakness from you! You can't even handle a simple thug!"

Backing off, I settled for defense, allowing myself to seek an opening. I parried a majority of his slashes and dodged all of his thrusts. Our blades locked for a while before he started to turn towards my lower half. I backed away and avoided a critical blow, but ended up getting sliced on my numb leg. Despite my not feeling the pain, I knew it would become a serious distraction if my leg started getting it's feeling back. After surveying the damage, I decided that the blood I would lose would not be a serious factor due to how shallow the wound was. I stood back up to my feet once more.

"I didn't know how to defend myself at the time. I didn't know how to fight, the only thing I knew how to do was stand up for something that was right."

"Then why are you still standing!?" He angrily charged at me.

"Because I'm standing for what I think is right!" My sword parried off a few more of his blows before we became locked with one another.

"You're no different from any tail-chaser running around town! You think that you can simply win me over just for appearing different and saying you are!? That's all the more reason I can't trust you!" He screamed as he lashed at me another time, leaving me with another opening. This time, I took to the offensive and drove him back. I pressed forward, causing him to go on the defensive. I made sure that my strikes were aimed for his legs. I needed to slow him down. But after yet another step forward, my fears came to fruition.

I backed off as I started to feel my left leg again, only this time I felt an intense pain shoot throughout my body. That annoying gash in my leg was causing me a great deal of pain as I started to hobble and limp. "I'm not those fuckers that sacked the city, so you can take your shitty view of me and chew on it!"

"I'm not going to watch as my little sister is sent off to someone who is weaker than her, who hasn't been through much of anything like she has!" He ran up to me at full-speed, sword in tow.

"Oh, so now it's about strength!?" I threw my guard back up to deflect his blow.

"IT'S ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT THAT!" He angrily struck at me as I guarded with my sword. This time, the shockwave that traveled through my arm was so great, I heard a grisly crack in my left arm. The pain caused me to become angry. The adrenaline in my system pushed me to fight within an inch of my life. Abandoning the sword, I gave the stallion my best shot at the center of his muzzle. He tried to ducked in an attempt to avoid it, but instead, left his forehead wide open to the hit. My fist became well-acquainted with the base of his horn, causing splinters of the bone to fly in several directions. Blood began to flow down Shining's face. With a painful roar, Shining jumped back and dropped his sword as he screamed in discomfort.

I limped towards him, cocking my right arm back. As soon as he was in range, I let loose blow after blow to his muzzle. My left arm and leg was starting to become too much of a distraction for me to ignore. I backed off and buckled over in pain. "I heard lots of bullshit being spewed from you lately! You seem to show that you can't stand me, you put me through the most hell, you call me out, you put me down, and you consider me as a lesser being than that of you! Why don't you tell me the real reason you don't want me around her!?"

Shining grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and proceeded to scream at me as the blood trickled into his right eye. "HOW CAN I TRUST YOU WITH HER!? SHE'S BEEN THROUGH TOO MUCH! SHE HAD TO BEAR THE WEIGHT OF THE WORLD ON HER BACK! SHE CARRIES THE VERY FATE OF EQUESTRIA IN HER HOOVES! SHE'S SEEN AS A HERO AND A SAVIOR! WHAT CAN YOU DO TO MATCH UP TO HER!? WHEN SHE'S TIRED AND WORN FROM HER BURDENS-"

"I WILL CARRY HER!" I screamed back, still feeling the immense amount of pain in my arm and leg.

Shining winced in pain and fell over. He tried his best to stay on his hooves, but evidently he was too disoriented to maintain his balance. He looked at me with anger, but then his expression shifted to one of an epiphany. "What did you say?"

I sat on the ground, letting myself rest as pain and fatigue started to really take a toll on me. "The moments she's down on her luck, where it seems that the world has turned against her, I'll be her support. I may not look strong in appearances, but if these past few months haven't been an indicator of what my heart is willing to endure, then you seriously need to get your eyes checked."

A powerful bolt of pain caused me to hiss and grimace in response. My leg was burning from the wound Shining inflicted on me. My arm remained in pain. It was safe to assume from the cracking sound it made earlier that it was broken. There was no way I could carry on like this. But I still found the strength to stand up on my own. My leg stung greatly but I could still limp around. As I stood up, I finally said what was on my mind for the past four months.

"I remember, the day we were caught, Twilight asked me to prove just how special she was to me. I remember saying this: 'The thoughts I have and the words I speak are on levels so distant that they couldn't come to terms on what to execute'. But now, not only can I say those words, but I have pushed myself through the thickest mud and endure the most humiliating moments of my life to stand in front of both of you once more and say these three words... I love her."

Shining looked at me with shock and amazement. He tried to come up with a response but failed to think of anything. Shining was more than willing to dismiss me, but my actions that led me up to this point started to make sense to him. Each time he asked me to quit and give up, I persisted, believing in the future that I envisioned with his little sister. Since my decision to stay here, I let my actions do the talking rather than let my words appear empty.

My actions were leagues louder than the words I spoke.

"...Why didn't you say that before?" His voice finally softened. I didn't know what to think of that but it was something that I wasn't expecting. I didn't hear a hint of animosity in his voice. Instead, it was unusually kind.

"At the time, I was too weak. I was scared of you and scared of seeing Twilight cry. I'm scared of only one of those things now, and it does not involve you." I answered sternly.

"Look over there for a moment." Shining pointed towards the thrones where Celestia, Cadance and Twilight sat. When I had saw what exactly he pointed to, it became clear of what his next statement would be. "Now... you know I'm really gonna have to kick your ass for that. Nobody, and I mean nobody, makes my little sister cry."

Twilight covered her muzzle hooves as she choked back her sobs. The room became silent save the sound of a princess crying. She finally broke as she looked at the condition I was in. Upon realizing just how far I went to be with her, she let loose first a weak scream followed by a few sobs. Shamed that she became a sobbing mess in front of the crowd of guards, she covered her face with her wings and proceeded to let her tears flow. Cadance looked to her husband and finally saw that he was angry because of my indecisiveness at the time...

A miscommunication that I had to clarify upon.

I smiled and limped over for my sword. "Well in that case, I guess I'll have to defend myself."

"Since you let your heart do all the talking..." He started, stopping me from grabbing the blade. I turned around to see that he stood proud and tall on his own four hooves. "I guess it would be fair that I'd let mine do the same. No weapons, no magic, no clever little tricks hid up your sleeve. You and I will be fighting for the love of that purple little filly over there." He said pointing to his younger sister, who had started to recover from her crying fit.

I turned to him completely, still limping in pain. "Is this what you were wanting me to do all this time?"

"Kid, I've lost some major sleep hoping that this day would come."

I took a deep breath and balled my fist. Trying my best to get into stance, I readied myself for my next assault. Though I was a far-cry from the springy, healthy version that walked into this room earlier, I was still capable of doing a decent amount of damage. "Okay... Last one standing wins..."

Panting and still wobbling a bit, a bloodied Shining Armor motioned his hoof as if he was going to charge at me. He lowered his head and brushed his hoof against the ground. Panting and suffering from fatigue, he spoke. "Yeah... Let do it."

We stared at each other for a good amount of time, waiting for something to give us a cue to charge at each other. The crowd stared at both of us as we remained motionless for a while. Finally, we lunged at each other. I fell after the first three steps thanks to the immense amount of pain surging throughout my leg. Shining took the same amount of steps forward and just fell over. We both hit the ground in a thump, causing the crowd around us to gasp in surprise.

"SHINING ARMOR!" Cadance screamed as she flew from the alter and landed beside her husband.

"NONDIS!" Twilight shouted as she teleported from the other side of the alter and appeared beside me. When they both reached us, they stared back at one another and realized that they both had went after the same thing.

"You beat me..." Shining muttered out weakly.

"What?" I asked, laboring in pain.

"I passed out from the stress of a cracked horn. You have an injured leg and a broken arm. If we were to fight like this, you'd easily take me out." He stated as he laid against the ground. Cadance did what she could to make sure he was comfortable.

"I can't fight like this. I have only a leg to stand on and an arm to defend myself. And if you threw another one of those haymaker strikes at me, I'd lose my other arm just from protecting myself." I stated, as Twilight started to survey the damage dealt.

The stallion chuckled weakly as he started to raise his head. "Difference between you and me is that I'd die if I carry on like this."

Though he wasn't really wanting to admit to his defeat, he had no other choice to concede due to a health issue. I wasn't really aware of the risks of striking one's horn. "That bad, huh?"

He didn't speak on it after that, instead he placed his concern towards me. "Can you stand?"

"I think I can." I answered, still grimacing from the pain in my injured leg.

"Just try."

Twilight looked at me with worry, to which I dismissed. As soon as I placed my right arm on the ground for balance, I pulled myself up off of the ground and limped back onto my own two feet. "Okay... now what?"

I suddenly felt something raise my right arm into the air. When I looked over to see what it was, I found the referee holding my arm in place. "THE MATCH HAS BEEN DECIDED, THE VICTOR OF THIS CONTEST, THE ROOKIE, ADONDIS!"

"Nondi- aw fuck it." I really didn't have the strength to argue right now. I just wanted to get some rest... Right after I overdose on morphine

The crowd cheered loudly, though I head some of the cheers die down a bit after the ones who placed bets realized that they lost. The others who were merely spectating were applauding the performance. Celestia took relief that I was the victor and that we had finally duked it out. Though I have the strangest impression that she was not wanting to let us have another go.

Shining raised himself back on his hooves with the assistance of his wife. Cadance smiled as she walked him out of the room and towards the medical staff outside. "Come on sweetie, you did great."

The others ran up and greeted me as Twilight gave me a congratulatory kiss on the cheek. Rarity looked at me with a blush and a smile as she screamed out her excitement. Cheese was the first after Twilight to congratulate me. "Nondis, you did it!"

"Not bad, rookie!" Rainbow exclaimed as she gave me a nudge to the arm. Unfortunately it was the wrong one.

"ARM!" I screamed out in pain.

The cyan pegasus jumped back and her ears flopped in remorse. "Heh-heh... sorry."

As the crowd celebrated the match that took place as well as the result, another stallion, Blueblood specifically, entered into the room, escorting Princess Luna into the room. As the crowd continued to cheer, Luna smiled. "I did not know that I was so well-received amongst the guards."

Blueblood turned to Celestia. "Well auntie, what did I miss while I was away?"

Something tells me that those two were not going to like what they missed out on.

As a boy, I've found out that many of the other boys in my class were cool with each other. And if they weren't, then they just got into fights with each other. But at the end of that fight, there was a sudden realization of who was stronger or who had more heart. Usually, the two would grow to become friends or fierce rivals, but the bonds between those two would grow to become almost unbreakable. Even the harshest rivalries carry the undertones of friendship.

Shining and I weren't friends after that, but rather rivals who carried a mutual respect for one another. I almost knocked his block off and he almost snuffed me out. In the end, we both ended up throwing each other towards the precipice of fate. And we both still shared our usual cuss-out sessions. Both Cadance and Twilight stare at us as if we're crazy, but we tend to ignore that kind of stuff.

Shining's horn would take a lot longer to heal than my arm, being that his horn was a magical device on it's own. Who'd knew that it would be so hard to cast a spell on another's horn. My arm, on the other hand, was looked at, bones realigned, they cast a spell or two, and now I'm cast-bound for three days at most.

Though, we still decided to call for a rematch, to which Celestia promptly denied. I guess we'll have to do something else to make up for that missed opportunity. Despite his pride taking a bit of a tumble, he was still seen with a high level of respect. The other guards joke at his expense, but it's military, they do this shit all the time.

Two days later, I walked down the halls and made my way towards the exit, finished with my first shift in Canterlot. I was being reassigned due to Shining's frequent visits to the palace. Celestia knew that we would probably set something up behind her back, so to eliminate that possibility, she reassigned me to Ponyville to guard the castle there. Twilight went on ahead to the station while I grabbed my equipment and set out. At least I was going to work at home.

"Hey, rookie." I heard a familiar scratchy voice call out to me from further down the hall.

I turned around to see the flaming mane of the yellow pegasus mare floating in front of me. "Where you going?" Spitfire questioned.

I shrugged my shoulders as I scratched my head. "I'm being reassigned to Ponyville. I guess I caused too much of a commotion."

The yellow pegasus chuckled. "Yeah, you were a bit of a distraction."

"You think so?"

She stopped laughing and started to fly towards me. "Way more than you needed to be. I said that I was gonna be your next match, and you're not leaving here until I get it."

I started to back away from her, already knowing what she was pertaining to. "Well, would you look at the time? I think I should be going right n-"

I suddenly find myself backed into a pillar. Her hoof plants itself next to my head. She gives me a devious smile as she starts to inch closer towards me. "Your train doesn't leave for another hour and a half. We can get a quick one out of the way." She whispered.

I ducked out of my corner and backed away from her. I started to ease away when suddenly a figure to my right caught my attention. Startled, I jumped back and reached for my sword, but was stopped short as a pair of lips locked mine shut. I clenched my eyes in fear of what would happen next, but instead, I felt a familiar grasp around my neck. The familiar scent of lavender whisked past my nose, causing me to open my eyes and see who my aggressor was. Fortunately, it was not Spitfire.

Our kiss broke off and Twilight licked my cheek. Her eyes locked on to me, angrily demanding me to kiss her back. I pulled closer to her, only for her to pull away. She still left enough distance for me to pursue her even further, She leaned her head against mine, bring her lips a mere inch away from mine. For each breath I took, she sucked it away, greedily taking my very essence as she teased me even further. I threatened to kiss her again, and she pulled away as if she was taunting me. I started to become frustrated and vocalized my complaints.

Only one problem, my voice carried no sound. I started to panic, but she placed her hooves on both sides of my face, making me look to her. She didn't say anything, only giving me a smile so sinister that she almost seemed villainous. I knew then that she had stolen my voice when she had kissed me, which was why she was taunting me. She wanted me to get it back, but she wouldn't dare make it easy for me. After a few moments of staring, she broke her attention back to the yellow pegasus behind her. She walked up to her, pointing back to me.

"He's mine." She whispered angrily. "That's mine. No touching."

Spitfire seemed shocked that Twilight had appeared out of nowhere. I was more shocked that she came back. I thought she had left the castle a long time ago. Instead, she was right here, taking my voice away with a pair of sweet, tender lips and hissing at another mare over what was hers.

The way Spitfire talked to me was more than attractive. Honestly, it was just downright sexy. The way she knew what she wanted and demanded that she'd get it. I saw some attraction in it, but not enough to lose control and allow myself to have my way with her.

But Twilight... It was because she knew that I couldn't have what she had was why she teased me. She'd show me what she has, she'd let me touch, let me smell, but never let me taste. To her, I was some sort of child, staring at the cookie jar on top of the fridge. I wanted what she hid in there, but she wouldn't let me get any, not yet. Similar to Spitfire, she knew what she wanted and demanded that she'd get it. But what made her so deadly is that she was willing to fight for it. Not only that, but she was just as eager as I was. Her smell, the way she'd cut her eyes at me, the simplest touch she gave me, the strong musk that develops at the base of her tail, in between her haunches...

The thought of her drove me mad. I couldn't take it anymore.

I grabbed Twilight and pulled her along, dragging her down the hall with me as I ran to the exit, in hopes of making the earliest train to Ponyville. She seemed surprised that I was taking the more aggressive role, but I wasn't going to let this wait. I was going to reward myself by whatever means necessary.

By fuck, I was going to get my voice back.

Author's Note

Man did I take a risk for a future development. I just hope it pays off. As I originally stated, I will be taking a break from this story to work on another for this month. If I really feel like updating this one or my thought process begs me to do it, then I will.

As for the next chapter, well let's just say this is where it starts to get a little... difficult.

Chapter XIX

The door to Twilight's room opened as she happily trotted inside, leading me onward as she jumped to her bed. I grinned as I closed the door behind me, keeping my eyes fixed on the prize. The purple princess giggled while I hurried myself to the bed.

"Ah-ah-ahhh... Not too fast." She warned me as I stood in the middle of the room. "Move slowly."

I allowed myself to decelerate from a run to a fast-paced walk, hoping that the decrease of speed was enough.

"Nope. A little slower." She said, getting off of the bed and making me chase after her some more.

I slowed myself even further, walking at a normal pace to where she stood. I was within grasp of her, but then she disappeared in a flash of light and appeared on the other side of the room.

"Slower... I'm not going anywhere."

That was a lie. Every time I gotten close to her, she'd either fly off or teleport to another part of the room. Finally I crept towards her, hungrily pacing my way towards her.

"That's right." She whispered as she glided back to her bed. "Take your time... Rushing things won't get us nowhere."

I bit my lip as soon as I was a few steps away from her bed. This time, she stayed put as I moved at a snail's speed. She started to pant and chew at her lower lip as she laid on her back, facing me as I squinted at her. She gave me a promiscuous smile as she rested against her pillows, her hoof began to wander towards her stomach.

I could tell what she really wanted to do with that hoof. She lowered it just enough to censor what my eyes would normally glance at from time to time. With her other foreleg, she motioned me to come closer. With each step I took, the hoof she used to cover herself would gradually work itself up and down. My footsteps became the measurement for the intervals of when she could move her hoof up and down.

The princess started to squirm a bit as she let loose a long, agonizing moan that started as a croak and lifted itself to a squeal. My mouth started to water at what I knew what going to be presented to me. Twilight removed her hoof to reveal the moistened, darker set of lips that were sealed off by the two silver rings. As her hoof broke contact, a thin strand of fluid briefly bridge the space between her hoof and the soaked region it once touched.

My jaw clenched tightly as the hoof she used crept it's way back up to her muzzle. The juice that stained her foreleg started to pool at the lowest point, aligning with gravity as she held the purple limb over her open maw. A small droplet landed just shy of her mouth and instead landed on her upper lip. Acknowledging her mistake, she whispered under her breath.

"Oops."

She corrected herself by licking the small droplet off of her lips and facing me. With that same hoof, she guided my jaw towards her chest and laid me to rest there. Afterwards, she dabbed a small portion of her essence just on the tip of my nose, where my tongue was unable to reach.

Sometimes, I really hated this mare.

I wanted to experience the taste of her, just once. I knew that I could not fully have her, but I still deserved to sample what I would indulge upon. Instead, she offered me small whiffs of her musk, a smell so potent that my crotch tightened at the slightest hint. Growing impatient, I sought her lips, to which she denied me passage by her magic.

"Not yet... I want to make a deal with you. If I let you taste me, then you'd have to let me hold on to your voice for a little longer."

I swear that this mare was the devil himself. It was a difficult choice to make because I had to think in terms of the consequences of not having my voice for a certain amount of time versus my gratification.

"If you choose me, then I'll let you have a little sample of what you'll be getting in two months, but then you would have to hold off on speaking until the next time I decide to play with you. And as an added bonus, I might think about letting you release this time."

That was a major risk with a substantial payoff.

"If you choose the voice, then you'll be able to speak again. However, this will be the only time from now to the deadline of our approval where you'll have an opportunity like this. That means you can't release, nor will you be able to have another offer like this."

Do I really have to choose between those two. I understand that one is not only instant gratification, but it could also lead to multiple sessions afterwards. The other is the regaining of one of my essential functions to communication. Um... I think I can get by on writing my messages.

Making my decision, I started to shower kisses against her chest and slowly worked my way down. Twilight cooed as her hooves started to guide my head even lower to where she wanted me the most.

*knock knock knock*

I turned my head towards the door in utter disbelief, scoffing while Twilight placed her hooves on my head and directed me back to the task at hand. "Ignore them, they'll leave eventually."

I liked that idea. Throwing all care to the wind, I proceeded to serve my princess.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

"Uuugh!" This time, Twilight expressed her frustration by slamming her hoof into the bed. I rose off of her and stormed to the door, swinging it wide open to stare down a yellowish-orange pegasus guard clad in golden armor.

"Um... excuse me, sir. I don't mean to interrupt you at such a bad time, but-"

I leaned against the doorway, folding my arms and angrily staring down the stallion as he stuttered his words. "I-I-I'm sorry... I d-didn't mean t-to... um..."

Twilight walked beside me with a disheveled mane and a sour disposition. "What is it, Flash?"

"Forgive me, princess. I needed to give this to you. It's a letter from Canterlot."

The guard handed her the letter, as she flipped it over and saw the lack of a seal, the purple mare started to vent her frustrations out on the guard. "You do realize... that this is not a priority?"

"Your highness, it's from your mother."

She didn't need to hear him say that again. Tearing apart the envelope, she quickly read through the words and gave out a long-winded exhale. Closing her eyes in disappointment, I already knew what was coming.

If only this wasn't a reoccurring issue...

"I'll be ready in a minute. When will the chariot be here?"

"It's already in waiting, your highness."

"Great. Tell the guard that I will be arriving shortly."

The guard gave the princess a bow and galloped down the hall as I started to bang my head against the doorway. Twilight stopped me short of causing myself brain-damage and held my head in her hooves. She planted a kiss on my cheek, apologizing to me. "Sorry, Nondis. But it looks like your voice will have to do for now."

"Oh no." I spoke for the first time since Canterlot. "You're not gonna leave me like this. Not when you've worked me up so much."

Twilight's ears flopped at my disappointment in her. "I. SWEAR. I will make this up to you. When I get back, I will give you the time you desperately deserve."

"How long will you be gone?" I asked as Twilight grabbed her journal and crown.

"Two days at least."

"Fuck." I threw my arms into the air, giving up on any hope I might've had in terms of getting some action. Shaking my head, I cursed the circumstances that drove me and Twilight apart for the umpteenth time.

"Sweetie, I'm sorry. I swear that I'll make it up to you. I'll clear my schedule and ask not to be disturbed for a day or two. Then you and I can do whatever. Just be patient with me and I'll reward you."

"Promise?" I asked as I walked out of the room, allowing Twilight to lock up behind her.

"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

"I'll hold you to it." I mumbled begrudgingly.

She gave me another kiss on the cheek. "See you later. Love you."

As Twilight ran down the hall to meet with her winged escort, I stood in the middle of an empty hallway, questioning how everything went wrong when it was going so right.

That train to Ponyville couldn't move fast enough. By the time we had gotten off of the train, Twilight had done all she could to avoid kissing me until we returned to the palace. We come here and tease the shit out of each other and then we get disturbed by fate's middle-finger. Now I was sitting in this hall with a boner that could rip a hole in my boxer, that is if it didn't already. I'm unfulfilled, horny as all fuck, bored out of my mind and I couldn't fap. Knowing Twilight, she placed a spell on me that wouldn't allow me to do it without getting a shock or something.

Sometimes, I just really hated our relationship.

Thirty minutes after Twilight left to Canterlot on some family business, I strolled around Ponyville in search of someone to spend my time with. I knew that I had five other mares to burn some time with, two of which I have yet to get really personal with. I guess it would make sense that I'd try them first.

The first stop I made was to Sweet Apple Acres, where Big Mac, Applebloom and Applejack were bucking apples out of trees. It was the time of year that they would harvest all of their apples and have a big sale at the town market. Maybe I could be of some help there.

"Sorry, Nondis. It's not that Ah don't want ya to stick around, but we're so busy 'round this time of year, we really can't afford to mess around."

"But I could help you guys out." I stated in hopes of offering my assistance.

"Ah really don't want ya to mess up that arm again. Ya just got it out of the cast yesterday."

"I can still help somehow."

"Sorry, Nondis. Maybe next time."

Well that didn't go as planned. I would've expected her to be a little more open to having some help around the farm. I guess my left arm, still in the process of recovering, doesn't really help my case that much. Oh well, I still have four more to go.

Walking down the street, I saw Rainbow Dash resting on a cloud above town square. I called her down and asked if she was busy today. Unfortunately, her nap was for a good reason.

"Sorry, rookie. I gotta do some major training for my Wonderbolts audition next week. But maybe we could hang out some other time."

That was one of her prime goals in life, and I was not going to be a hindrance to that. I nodded and walked off, making my way to the edge of town. At least Fluttershy would be able to help me kill some time. If not, then I'm down for painting the town with Discord, of course in his case, we'd be painting the town an assortment of colors.

"I'm so sorry, Nondis. But Discord and I have already set aside today for a bonding session."

Hey, I'm up for a little bonding... NOT THAT KIND. "Well, I don't-"

"Fluttershy dear, does this outfit make me look fat?" Discord asked as he walked in from the back of the house, wearing a skin-tight one-piece sukumizu while holding a ball gag in one hand and a power-drill in the other.

"Bonding... yeah... I'm gonna just..." I blinked and backed away quietly and slowly.

Commencing internal release mechanism in three... two... one...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Okay, that was way too much I needed to see. Though I did question the coincidence of Discord and Fluttershy expressing their kinkiest desires on the days where Twilight and I are constantly interrupted by one thing or another. But for right now, I needed to forget what I just saw.

Walking towards Sugarcube Corner, I was already thinking of the newest treats that Cheese Sandwich created just about three weeks ago. It was a chocolate pastry filled to the brim with fudge so thick that you could line bricks with it. He ironically called them forget-me-not's, for when a mare is having trouble smiling due to relationship issues or they're just depressed about something in general. Of course the chocolate nuclear warhead would cause you to momentarily forget your cares and focus on the enjoyment of the treat. I could really go for one of those, as well as some time with Pinkie.

"Sorry, Nonnie! We gotta prepare for a big party in Baltimare this week." The pink mare said before shouting back to Cheese. "I NEED THOSE PUMPKIN BITES IN THE OVEN, STAT!"

I shook my head, rejected for the fourth time. "So I guess you guys aren't making the forget-me-not's, are you?"

"Sorry. We're really busy filling out our orders. I'll see if we can give you a little something for your troubles." And in an instant, she ran from the other side of the counter and made her way towards the kitchen. "Cheese, where's my party cannon?"

"In the attic!"

I could tell that they were entirely too busy for me to hang around with. I took my leave and walked along the road towards the castle. Luckily, there was still one other person I could talk to. At least I knew for certain that Rarity didn't have to work today. Perhaps she would want to measure me for a brand new outfit.

"I'm sorry."

Those were the only words she said as soon as I asked. She quickly shut the door behind herself, causing me to knock at it again. "What do you mean 'you're sorry'?"

"I'm not taking any visitors right now. Please go away."

Rarity, denying me the time for a long conversation, not even shoving me through the door and dragging me towards her modeling podium. That was so many ways of wrong. "Rarity talk to me. What's going on?"

She cracked the door open and looked at me. I didn't really take a good look at her at first, but the circles under her eyes and the lack of makeup she wore was a definite sign that something had bothered her.

"Nondis..." She stayed silent for a while, gradually finding the words she wanted to say to me. "Do you find yourself mourning the loss of something you thought was special?"

Oh no... Did she lose someone? "What happened?"

"You, darling. I can't seem to get the fight you and Shining both had out of my mind. I cheered as loud as I could for you and hoped that you would come out of it victorious. But instead, I watched you..." She trailed off, trying to hold back her tears.

"Watched me what?" I asked.

She looked away from me, wiping her eyes of the tears that lined her cheeks. "You confess your love to another mare."

I initially wanted to ask what that had to do with her, but then I was reminded of what she said to me. She confessed her heart to me, moments before Twilight even. She acknowledged that I wanted to seek her out, but now...

That's right. I did confess my love to her. I fought her brother as part of that confession, to show her that I would do anything to keep her by my side, to show him that I would go though hell and high water just to be there for her. I fought for her, broke bones for her, bled and shed tears for her.

But Rarity was working for me since I had got here. She was making the very clothes I wore on my back, just to see me smile. She slaved away late nights and early mornings just to make sure I had a shirt to put on. And at times, it was Twilight who was ripping those same shirts off of me.

I thought the feelings Pinkie had for me ran deep, but Rarity was on another level. Both of them invited me into their homes, let me meet their families and shared very personal stories with me. I fought a bout for Twilight and a losing battle for Pinkie, but Rarity was fighting a losing battle for me. She wanted me to show that same passion for her, just as she threw these wonderful clothes on me with that same burning spirit. And in the end, I went to someone else, her best friend.

That's a mighty hard pill to swallow when you're talking to the person you like... a route I'm quite familiar in taking.

"Rarity... I'm..." How do I even apologize for that? "...I'll... "

She turned away from me, her eyes clenched shut to avoid seeing me. "As you know, I can't really deal with you right now."

And I understood that. She just needed some time to let it all out. I would help her, but being that I was the root of the problem, I wasn't going to be of any help at all.

"I'll let Sweetie Belle know that you came by. Thank you for sharing your time with us."

She started to close the door, but I threw my hand in just before it close completely. "I'll fight for you too. You're no different."

"But I'm just a mare to you now."

I felt a bit of frustration build inside of me as I pushed the door wide open. "Just a mare? Rarity, you're my friend. Not only that, but you're very special to me."

My words only seemed to cut into her even deeper. She turned around and started at me angrily. "Special? I give you my heart and soul, my latest hours and my finest clothes, and you go to somepony else?"

Again, her anger was justified. I could've made the decision to move on from Twilight being that our relationship was on some rather craggy rocks. Even now, our relationship is a bit strained due to these excessive guidelines. But I still didn't have any intention to stray away from that. "...Sometimes, I wish I could give it all back to you. Your love, your kindness, your generous spirit and the time you set aside for me. But I can't. I want to make it up to you, but I just don't know how."

Rarity pulled herself towards me, standing on her hind legs as she anchored herself onto my shoulders. She looked directly at me and held me as she spoke. "If you and Twilight never became intimate, if she would've never told you what she felt, if you never fought for Pinkie, if I never told you that it was my entry in that diary, if we had to start all over... would you give me the chance to have all of you?"

That was a question that I couldn't answer. I wanted to say something, but if I did, then that would show that I'd have some sort of regret for stepping into this relationship with Twilight, which I didn't. And as of now, I couldn't see me and Rarity together. Had it been much earlier, when I was wearing that damn dress... things would've been different. But who's to say that I would be faithful to her, considering that I had started to develop feelings for Twilight as well? Same goes for Pinkie, but she was already conflicted in her heart.

Twilight had won me over. Even if there was a slight chance, there was still only one other person who could really make me screw things up.

I grabbed her hooves, holding her up as I guided her back down. I knelt before her and caressed her face as I spoke. "You have me now, I just can't give you what you're looking for. I do love you and it is a tender love, but not one that's sickly."

Rarity nuzzled against my hand, holding onto it with both hooves. The softness of her coat rubbed against my palm as I felt slight trails of moisture on her cheeks. "I do love you, with all of me. And I will not take that back. Meaning that you won't be mine, doesn't mean that I could bring myself to stop."

I tried to pull my hand away, but she pulled me in even more. Hugging me as she stayed motionless, breathing erratically while she mumbled into my chest. "And since you won't give me all of you, then you'll just have to give me this moment." She spoke, trying to sound like her usual self despite the sound of her broken voice. "I'll... clean the shirt once I'm done."

For a while, we stood in the open doorway of her boutique as she leaned against me, quietly letting her heart and tears pour onto the shirt she strove to make. I held her back, giving her this one moment. I wasn't obligated to do it, but it was something that I would do. It was my responsibility as a friend to make sure she had a shoulder, or chest in this case, to cry on.

After my time with Rarity, I left her to the silence of her boutique. Meanwhile, I took the long route home, giving myself some time to think about what all had transpired since my coming here.

The first month, I was scared to speak to anyone that wasn't a human. But later, I started to warm up to my caretaker at least. The second month, I met Shining Armor. Since then, he, Twilight and I would go out on a few outings and share some time with each other as they both taught me the basics to living a life with technicolor equines. The third month was nothing more than me getting to know Pinkie, having to deal with Twilight and her flourishing crush, followed by it's inevitable crash-and-burn, her trip to rock-bottom and her lunch being spewed against my chest. Shortly after, Rarity and I started to share our time with each other.

By the fourth month, I had gotten to know the basics about all six of the mares who all sought to be my friend. I wore a dress for the second time in my life... don't ask about the first time. Then shortly after, I had gotten my ass beat and taken to court for said beating. I find out that Pinkie was abused real bad and they sentenced the one responsible to forty-something years with no parole. In the fifth month, I got intimate with Twilight, Shining got physical with me, I somehow got Fluttershy and Discord together, moved to Pinkie's place and revealed to the Cutie Mark Crusaders that I could play piano while Sweetie Belle showed off her singing voice.

Month six was a conundrum of shit. I met Pinkie's family, she confessed her feelings to me, Cheese came to town and then she became confused, I hooked her up with Cheese, I moved in with Rarity, met her parents, lived to see another day after Sweetie threatened to burn down the house, visit Canterlot for the first time, get knocked the fuck out, told that the portal was done, Twilight confessed her love to me, I decided to stay and continued to piss off Shining Armor for another three weeks.

Months seven and eight, I was sent to boot camp to train my ass off. I learned how to fight, I got in shape, I became the first human guard in E.U.P. history. In month nine, this month, I went to Canterlot on duty, took care of a sickened princess, challenged Shining Armor to a duel, confessed my love for Twilight and beat Shining's ass. Quite an eventful nine months...

Nine months... Wow.

The deadline for the portal's completion was set a month ago. I can't believe that they finished it as early as six-and-a-half months in. Though, the passing of the deadline date was something that lingered in my mind a bit. I still had the rest of today to do some things and even then, I had tomorrow to myself. Rainbow had training all this week. Fluttershy and Discord were going to need tomorrow morning, noon, and night to relax from today's activities. Twilight was visiting family in Canterlot. Pinkie and Cheese were shipping out towards Baltimare in the morning. Applejack had work to do on the farm. And Rarity... well it's best that I'd avoid her for now to avoid Spike. I wasn't really in the dealing mood right now.

After I went to my room, grabbed a few jewels and put on my Longhorns shirt, I cracked my neck, stuck my chest out, walked into the throne room and stared at the veiled device on the far end of the room. I revealed the large mirror that stood in the same place it once stood less than three months ago. I pulled the lever on the side and heard a low pitched hum as the mirror remained motionless.

For a while, I stared at the reflection of myself, knowing what it was time for me to do. I nervously pointed my hand inside. Similar to last time, my hand was engulfed in a metallic-looking goop that clung onto me until I at last separated from the mirror. At first, I was uncomfortable, but I realized that this wasn't going to get any easier if I stood around to bitch about it.

"Well... here we go."

With a deep breath, a strengthened resolve and a bagful of gems, I gave myself a running start and dashed right through the portal.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

When my hand had broke through the plain, I had expected myself to endure some sort of tunnel with flashing lights and weird alien music playing as I crossed from one world to the other. Instead, it was as if I just walked through a wall of water. It was creepy as all hell, but at least I knew that I had made it.

I checked my surroundings, seeing where I was dropped off at. Oddly enough, I stood in front of my large body mirror just inside of the bathroom of my off-campus apartment. Smelling the familiar fragrance of the pumpkin-pie-scented spray from the plug-in on the wall, I took a deep breath of the air and walked out of my bathroom to see my bed, still unmade with my dirty clothes tossed on the floor. I looked outside the window to see that it was going into night time.

I walked over to my computer, taking in the fact that I haven't seen one in well over nine months. Fuck, I missed my baby... and I probably might need to clear my browser history. As soon as I fidgeted the mouse, the login screen popped up. I typed in my password and my computer informed me that it had expired. I soon worked my way around it and unlocked my computer, checking for the time and date.

October 10th, 2014.

The last time I was here was sometime in January. At least I knew that time moved as much as it did in Equestria. But I had to get my mind out of fantasy-land now. I was back home in Austin, here at the good-old University of Texas.

My eyes turned to my Xbox 360. My mind instantly went into relief mode as I pulled out the remote and started moving the media bar towards the icon for one of the games I still had a preference to. I know that this game gets a lot of shit, but it's what I enjoy from time to time. The intro began to play, and I took the time to appreciate it out of my longing for it.

"All warfare is based on deception. For years the West's hypocrisy has made the world a battlefield. The corrupt talk, while our brothers and sons spill their own blood. But deceit cuts both ways. The bigger the lie, the more likely people will believe it. And when a nation cries for vengeance, the lie spreads like a wildfire. The fire builds, devouring everything in its path. Our enemies believe that they alone dictate the course of history... And all it takes is the will, of a single man."

I remember the first time I heard that. I was still getting my ass burned by campers and pro-gamers alike. Though many would ask why I haven't moved on, my answer was that the multiplayer on the other games, weren't as well received. Modern Warfare 2, you could barely find a lobby. Modern Warfare was taken over by hackers. At least this one had a hacker every ten lobbies. Plus I know how to back out when I see one (or when I don't see one in this case).

I started to move the joystick, but was greeted with a message saying that the battery needed to recharge. The sounds that my Xbox made was quite nostalgic. I know it sounds lame to revel over simple shit like this, but I wasn't going to take it for granted, considering that I haven't touched a game for nine months straight. But either way, I needed to hit up the drawer for some batteries for the remote. When I reached in, my hand froze. A thought had occurred.

It's been nine months. No one's been in here except for me. A semester and a half has passed and now I'm sitting in here as if the rent's been paid sometime last week. No one has even come here to check if I was dead or anything. None of it made any sense.

Did they think I was missing or something? Did anyone here even notice?

I suppose the world continued to spin and everyone here must've decided not to give a damn. I guess it really doesn't matter being that I was the social reject. And in this world, I still am. I knew that my parents paid the landlord my rent out of their bank account, but after nine months, I'd expect them to cut the funding and move on to funding something else. Though I can give them credit for doing this, as it has left my room virtually intact. Though that doesn't mean that my fridge isn't in need of a major overhaul.

In speaking of which, I wonder what's in there to eat.

I cleaned out the fridge, causing my apartment to smell like the anus of Satan. I had to open a few... scratch that, all of the windows in the apartment. I started to gather my clothes and sheets to sort out for washing. Thankfully, we had a laundromat downstairs so that I wouldn't get too many odd looks when they see that some of my clothes have mushrooms in them. Not really, but the smell seems to imply otherwise.

For a few hours, I gave my entire pad a military overhaul, throwing away all the things that no longer applied to me. And now, I was on my way to check on my GPA online.

Oh fuck, I skipped an entire semester of all my classes... Oh that's so gonna hurt my cum laude. My GPA went from a three-point-six to a two-point-nine. Well, I can kiss my special robes goodbye.

Looking to the clock on my wall, I could see that it was well-past time for me to do anything in general. The clock read eleven thirty-two. I guess I can find my wallet and see what money I have left and grab something off of the dollar menu at McDonalds.

Wow, it's been forever since I've had their fries.

Scouting through the room, I looked all over, just to find it staring me directly in the face. I picked up my wallet from my nightstand and pulled out about seventeen dollars. Shit, I guess I'm eating good tonight! I also grabbed my freshly-charged iphone four off the counter and ran for the door. But before I left, I had to find my keys.

I could not find those things even if I had prayed for them. I just, for the life of me, couldn't remember where I had placed those damn things. Though to be fair, I didn't really remember what I was even doing back in January in the first place. I guess that'll come back to me when I get downstairs. Either way, I walked outside and lifted my rug to grab my spare apartment key and ran over to the parking lot.

Oh... for the love of... please let this be a joke...

I had to walk back upstairs and into my room, walk back out and into the parking lot to become even more angry at what I saw, rather what I didn't see.

"WHERE THE FUCK'S MY CAR!?"

Those assholes... I know that they did it. I've been gone for nine months and only these fucks, aside from my parents. know that I have a car. If this was another one of their frat pranks, I was going to smash skull until I see the white meat. Sweating from the walk, I panted and puffed in anger as I approached an old-style house with greek letters set on the edge of the upstairs balcony. With boiling frustration, I hammered my fist against the door.

"Yo! Open up the goddamn door!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, not even caring about disrupting the neighbors. Hell, it's greek row, they'll be awake till around three.

My fists continued to batter against the door of the Delta Phi fraternity home until the door swung open. Somehow, my mind was conditioned to see a pony show up at the door so my head was tilted down to look at the pony who would answer. Instead, I was looking at the waist of a dark-skinned male with dreads holding a personalized Louisville Slugger with the fraternity letters grafted in.

"The fuck are you!?"

"Where the fuck's my car!?"

The dark-skinned man looked at me with eyes squinted and lowered his bat. He tilted his head as he tried to get a better look at me. "Hold up, bruh... You look familiar."

"Oh, you know, I've been running around campus, planting flowers, adopting puppies, shit like that-I'M IN YOUR FUCKING FRAT, DUMBASS! NOW WHERE IS MY FUCKING CAR!?" I started to vent my frustrations towards him.

"Hey, you wanna come at me a little better then? This bat ain't here for yo... oh shit!"

What was he surprised about? "What?"

The guy dropped the bat and started to back away slowly, staring at me in shock. He turned around and screamed to the upstairs rooms. "Hey! Hey Rickey, you ain't gon' believe who's here!"

I looked at him quizzically, unsure of who he was and how he knew me. "W-wait, what?"

I heard the almost-foreign sound of feet stumbling to walk towards the stairwell. By the time the guy got there, he stared at me slack-jawed. "No... fucking... way..." The guy with a light tan, short brown hair and blue eyes that looked at me was the very guy who got me into this fraternity. He ran down the stairs as quickly as he could and got a better look at me. "Nondis?"

"Ricky, where's my car?" I simply asked as he looked at me as if I was a zombie.

"Oh... shit. I can't believe you're here! Dude, I... we... fuck man! We thought you were dead!"

And I'm lost. "What?"

"You don't remember what happened?"

I looked at him dumbfoundedly. "What are you talking about?"

"Dude, it's been nine months!"

No shit, Sherlock. "Yeah... and? Where's my car?"

The two guys just stared at me, scratching their heads and trying to think of something. The dark-skinned man spoke. "Let's slow down for a sec. You mean to tell us that you don't remember... what you did in Galveston back in January?"

I remember us going somewhere now that he mentioned it. But I didn't remember where. The rest of it seemed like a complete blackout. Though after that, the first thing I remember was being scared by a pink pony who just wanted to say hello. "Not really."

They both took a deep breath and walked me into the house. Ricky pulled me into the den and sat me down on one of the couches. "Dude... Are you hungry?"

Famished. "Why?"

"We're gonna be here for a while."

Something tells me that this story might have to do with my car being missing.

Well... that was a lot.

After they managed give me some soda and the last of the leftover pizza from just earlier, they took the time to explain everything that happened in Galveston. And apparently, it was a lot of shit worth mentioning. I was told that our frat was going on a trip to the gulf to celebrate the new year. After riding there, we had a pretty wild party that pretty much lasted all the way until the fifth of that month. It didn't take me long to find out that no one was really paying attention to me because of how quiet I was. So I made a decision to try and fit in.

After a few shots and couple of joints, I started to unwind a bit. A bit too much actually. I was a very bad dancer and was driving all the girls away from me with pelvic thrusts so sporadic that it looked like I was have a mix of Tourettes and a seizure. Eventually, I got so drunk, I blacked out. The next day after I decided to try the process again, a stupid decision. So I upped the ante and got a hold of some shrooms. I started tripping balls and wandered outside to ride in my car. The next thing that they knew, my car had crashed into the gulf. I swam out, but I just kept swimming towards somewhere else. The next day, they couldn't find me, contact me or even catch wind of where I wandered off to.

So quite literally, I ended up tripping to Equestria. But how? I didn't lose all that weight and join the military for an imaginary cause. Hell, if my fights were anything, it was an indication that it was all real. I'd need to speak with Twilight as soon as I get back about this. This is strange.

After a little bit, I had finally let it all sink in and I was updated on what all had happened to me when I was gone. Apparently, they told my parents what all had happened, my parents had sent out a search party and informed the school that I had gone missing, and they continued to pay the rent of the apartment in hopes that I would one day return.

And I fucking loved them for it.

"So where you been, bruh?" Cliff, the man with the dreads, asked me as he threw me a bottle of water.

"Okay... I've been to a magical land of talking ponies and snarky dragons that all came in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes. I met their princess and their people wanted me to marry her." I joked.

The two stared at me for a second before bursting their guts all over the floor. They both slapped their knees and held themselves as they tried their best to stop laughing. Rickey shook his head. "That's had to be one hell of a trip you went on. But how the hell does that shit go on for nine months?"

Easy, it was all real. But I'm not telling you that. "Yeah... Shit was crazy."

"But you cool now?" Cliff asked as he got himself a snack out of the freezer. "You ain't went out and catch no crazy shit, did you?"

"Nah, I'm clean." The only thing I seemed to catch was a shitload of problems. But they all gradually resolved themselves.

"Dude," Rickey pulled out his cell phone and started to scroll down the list. "I gotta text my ex about this shit!"

"Woah, woah, woah... your ex? I don't think she'd even give a shit." I stated as I downed the water to wash my mouth of the loose food.

"Nah, man. Melanie has been trying to see-"

I think for the first time in my life, I pulled off a successful spit-take. The water sprayed from my mouth as I struggled to breathe for a brief second. "MELANIE!?"

"Yeah. She and I went out about six months ago and we broke it off two months after."

"She was on some tie-you-down type shit. It's college bruh, we ain't got time for dat. We tryin' to cut it in before we start lookin' for wifey." Cliff added as he dry-humped the air, pretending he was holding a girl in his hands.

I'll find the time to punch Rickey in the face for Melanie and Cliff in the throat for his comment later, but for now I needed to hear about what was going on with Melanie. "What's going on with her?"

Rickey cringed as he shrugged his shoulders. "She's been sick over you. Since you disappeared, she's been the main one who was trying to find out whatever happened to you."

I started to feel guilty over what I said to her before I joined the fraternity. I just couldn't stand to bear the fact that she was the flagship in the search for me. Maybe I made a mistake and misjudged the world for not caring about me. Then again, it could be the government wanting another person to live long enough to pay their taxes. But that's another bullshit theory my mind would throw together.

Yet that doesn't explain how these two, who didn't give two shits for what I did with myself, started to suddenly show some concern for what I was doing for the past nine months. But that doesn't matter. What I need now is information, and I can't get that if I decide to be nasty with everyone.

*Knock knock knock*

I wasn't exactly fond of knocking today. The last time I heard a knock, I was deprived of an opportunity of the sexual nature. Rickey got off of the sofa and walked towards the front door. "I'll get it."

I turned to Cliff, who I started to remember. The last time I saw him, he had some braids. Not only was he enrolled in one of my classes, but he crossed the burning sands a year before I did. He was a member of Delta Phi a year before I had even thought of joining.

"So..." I began. "What all happened when I was gone?"

"Let's see... um. Ya boy Robin Williams died."

Damn, that a shot to the heart. So much for my childhood. "That's tragic."

"There's this one organization called ISIS, ISIL, Icicles, some shit like that and they cuttin' heads off and shit."

Damn, I can see the world has moved right along without me. "Again with this?"

"Kim Jong Un went missing."

Okay, that's interesting. "Really?"

"A man in Dallas died from gettin' the Ebola virus."

Oh that's just next door. That's not even funny. "Are you serious?"

"Some shit goin' down on campus, they protestin' the shit that went down in Ferguson this past summer."

"Where's Ferguson?"

"South of St. Louis."

"What happened there?"

Cliff pulled out his phone and pulled up a web page of the images of what all had happened. "Bruh, what didn't pop off up there? You got the police in tanks and shit, boy up there got shot by a cop and died over some dumb shit, they protestin' and all, got them boys rioting-"

As I cycled through the pictures and a few videos, I shook my head in disbelief. "And this is all in our back yard too."

He took the phone from me and pulled up another page from the school's website. After he was done searching, he gave me the phone to look at a photo of myself with the caption of 'missing person'. "You hot news around here, bruh."

A video played, going further into the details of the story. As of now, every last bit of the trail they used to find me had gone cold. The cops are baffled, trying to find out any information about me. I saw my mother in an interview, she was crying that I hadn't come home in some time. And now, the cops had assumed that the worst had happened to me. Almost all attempts of rallying any more search parties had all but quelled. Only my family, a few detectives and a local student at the university was looking for me. I can't believe I caused such a ruckus.

"Here you go." I heard Rickey say as he walked into the room, followed by another set of feet.

When I had looked up, I questioned myself over who was the person standing across from me. It was a cute, fair-skinned girl with medium-longish, brown hair with bangs, dark-brown eyes and a small double-chin. She wasn't fat, but she wasn't skinny either. Instead, she was a well-proportioned individual. She had a decent-sized bust with a small rear-end. She wore a pink shirt, black leggings and a pair of white Sketchers. The girl stared at me with unfamiliarity.

Rickey walked over to me and asked me to stand up. After I rose from my seat, he placed an arm around my shoulder. "You remember Nondis?"

A look of revelation sat upon her as she looked at me, gasping and covering her mouth. She shook as she reached out for me, starting to cry over my appearance. When her hand reached out, it shook violently as she ran up to me. I stood motionless, not sure how to react to her. Finally, she reached me, grabbing onto my hands, feeling the skin of my palms, marveling at the slight touch of my fingers. She held my face to get a good look at me. After a moment, she let herself descend into maddened sobs. Her arms latched around my body as she hugged me rather tightly.

"Nondis, I think you owe Melanie an apology."

Author's Note

Me: Well, I should go on ahead and get started with this other story I was writing. It would be fair that I do just that.
Mind: NO BITCH, YOU'RE GONNA WRITE THIS!
Me: b-but... muh other stories-
Mind: FUCK THAT! NEW CHAPTER NAO!

That's all of what happened in a nutshell. So my brain pretty much bullied me into updating this. ~~I don't need to, I don't need to, I don't need to, I don't need to, but I want to.~~ So yeah, he's back in the human world and he'll be there for a brief second. Of course, being that he shares our universe, the things that happens here will happen on the human end of the spectrum until later.

Why later? Stick around to find out.

Also, if you guys were wondering what a sukumizu looked like...

Chapter XX

One Year Ago...

The party at the Delta Phi boardinghouse was more than just a party. It was the event of the semester, or at least that's what the guys tried to call it. Everywhere you looked, you could see the other students getting so bombed that they kissed the nearest person or item next to them. It was like a huge pansexual orgy, minus the sex... Well, the sex mostly took place upstairs in the guest rooms, bathrooms, and closets. If anyone had to take a piss, they had to go outside and do it in one of the bushes against the house next door. The backyard pool a breeding ground for flirtatious activity. All around the place, everyone was having a blast, dancing without a damn care in the world...

Everyone except for, you guessed it, the pledges.

If you were a pledge, it didn't matter what your classification was, what major you took, or how wealthy your family really is. If you decided to become a member of Delta Phi, or any frat for that matter, you were going to do something that would embarrass the shit out of you. If they had a charity, you were the ones that had to raise the money. If they wanted you to fuck with some girl scouts, which I would personally advise against doing, then you were going to do it, get your ass kicked, and possibly sued for harassment. If they had a party with a theme, then you had to be apart of the theme.

The party's theme was 'The Gentlemen's Ball'.

When I had first thought of the theme, I had assumed that I was going to serve as a butler or a servant, something within that area. Unfortunately, I couldn't have been more wrong. Instead, they made all of us wear French maid costumes, complete with the aprons and accessories. That's not even the bad part. The worst of it all was that we had to wear everything. EVERYTHING. That means we'd have to wear the fishnet stockings, the high heels, the lacy brassiere, the make-up, the hair-do's, the nails, the little hat, the waxed arms and legs, the costume, and the g-string to go underneath it all.

That was the first time I had to wear a dress. And being that I was a little on the chubby side, I was not pretty to look at.

So while we had a full-on tranny-fest, we had to act as the servants to all of the guests. That means if they asked you to do something stupid like dig up your nose and eat your boogers while counting to ten, then you'd best be doing it. Otherwise, you'd have to go to the 'Room of Purification', aka the room where they'd paddle your ass until you nearly shit yourself.

Hazing was a common practice.

While I walked around to serve anyone who wanted it, they'd give me a tip. And that tip would go to a 'charity' of the fraternity's choosing. In truth, it meant that they were saving up for more beer and other snacks. The bar needed to restock itself somehow.

During my time in what they would call the 'Scorching Sands' you were to go by a series of tests and trials. Some of them dangerous, some of them silly, some of them will get your ass kicked, some of them will get you suspended, others will have the school revoke your scholarship. Sounds bad, but that last one was for the ones that tried to disclose the hazings that goes on behind closed doors. Hell, as expensive as the tuition was to go here, you'd have to be a stripper or sell your organs on the black market to stay enrolled.

But I digress. Back to the party.

The party came off as a success. Everyone who was in attendance was pretty chill, except for the occasional drunk who'd start some shit. I had to help toss one of those very drunks outside. And after a good heave-ho, the party was good to go. But when I had started to make my way back inside, a familiar voice called out to me.

"Nondis?"

I froze up, completely embarrassed for myself as well as the girl who called my name. I was so ashamed, I tried to run back into the house and go back to the kitchen to help serve up some refreshments to the guests. Moments had passed by as I started to work my way around the house again. But then I was summoned by one of my big bros to help out with a guest.

If only I had ignored that order.

"Nondis, what in the hell are you wearing?" Melanie asked me as she looked at me with a disgusted look.

I laughed nervously as I tried to creep away. "Oh hey-"

I was then stopped by the 'big bro' that summoned me over. His name was Prett, pretentious fuck. "Hold on, faggot! You speak to your guest!" He said as he shoved me right back over to Melanie.

She gave him a disapproving scowl as she turned her attention back to me. "What are you doing?"

"Look, I'm just trying to do what I can to fit in. Can we not ask about... you know?"

"Well, as a woman I feel offended by what you're doing. Why are you even dressed like that?"

I sighed as I looked to the larger guy that stood next to her. He gave me a wicked smile as he made himself comfortable, eating the snacks off of the tray I once held. "Melanie, it's just temporary. I'm not gonna-"

"Maid," Prett commanded. "What do you wanna do to her?"

I really didn't want to say what he was going to make me say. But if I was going to get into this fraternity and become apart of something, I had to do it. "F-fu-"

"I can't seem to hear you! What do you wanna do to her?"

Melanie, I am so, so sorry. "FUCK HER RIGHT IN HER PUSSY!"

The crowd of people around me started to laugh and giggle as I said the infamous line of that one guy who ran up to a broadcaster's mic and screamed it on live television. Melanie, however, was far from amused. "Excuse me?" She questioned, seeming appalled at my vulgar confession. The worst part of it was that I wasn't allowed to apologize for it.

"Look, I'm just trying to do what I have to. Please just go along with-"

"No!" She interjected. "I won't go along with this bullshit and neither should you. Why is it that you feel that being here would make you any more of a sociable person?"

"I-"

Prett gave me yet another command. "Maid, show our guest a good time."

"What does he mean by that?" She asked angrily.

"Whatever the fuck I want it to mean." He stated openly. "If I say it, he follows. He wants to be one of us, I'd say we let him."

Melanie started to pull me out of the front room and find someplace where the two of us could talk. "Let's talk for a moment."

But then Prett gave me another order. "Our guest seems unsatisfied with our offers. Maid, please show her just how much you need her to stay. Kiss her feet."

I was a tad bit reluctant, but I obeyed his orders. The moment my knees hit the ground, I bowed over to kiss the well-cared feet of Melanie. I took a deep breath, swallowed my pride and went for it. But before my lips came in contact with her, she stormed off and broke for the front door. "Fuck this." She mumbled while she walked out of the party.

"Melanie!" I shouted, trying to get her to come back.

In seconds, we both found ourselves walking on the front lawn. She headed for her car as I constantly followed her. For moments at a time, she'd remain silent as I called out to her.

"Melanie! Melanie, look... I'm sorry-"

"Don't you see what's going on here?" She asked me, pointing to the house with her keys in hand. "You're being played for a sap!"

"Look, just give me time. I can be more than popular as soon-"

"As soon as what? You embarrass yourself in front of the whole campus!?"

I tried to calm her down. "Melanie, it's just a party. I'm having fun. Really." I lied.

"So you call degrading yourself fun? You call letting a bunch of bullies tell you what to do fun? Have you fucking lost it!?"

"No. I haven't. I just figured that I could finally make some more friends."

"Yeah, that's good and all, but this isn't how you do it!"

"Melanie, a fraternity is a gateway of making life-long connections. If anything, it could open up so many doors for me."

Melanie blew air at my statement, shaking her head. "You can't be this naive. Nondis, you can't possibly believe that an organization that does all of this to you now will become something that will get you more friends."

"How do you know that!?" I questioned, starting to become frustrated.

"Because it doesn't! You have to be sociable to begin with! You can't just slap on a few greek letters and call yourself sociable! You have to learn how to interact with other people! You have to develop personal relationships with them in order for it to work! And all that bullshit about life-long connections is just what it is, bullshit!"

"Well, maybe I just want to be popular for once in my life, you know like not being a social reject! Have you ever thought about that!?"

"Being popular and making friends are two different things! You'll see when shit starts to get rough, then who's there to help you out!? None of those 'friends' would even spit on the dirt you walk on!"

I walked around for a bit, starting to let the anger boil up inside of me. "Why is it you care so much what I do!?"

"BECAUSE I'M YOUR FUCKING FRIEND!"

"Really!? Last I checked, I gave you a lot of fucking advice that you chose to ignore! So why should I listen to you now!?"

"What advice did I ignore!?"

"GEE, I DON'T KNOW! HOW ABOUT EVERY FUCKING BOY YOU'VE EVER DATED! WHEN YOU COME BACK SAD AND SHIT, I'M THE ONE THAT TELLS YOU THAT IT'S GONNA BE OKAY! BUT AFTER THAT, YOU SAY THAT YOU'RE GONNA TRY TO MAKE THINGS WORK! AND THEY NEVER FUCKING DO!"

"SO, WHY DOES THAT MATTER!?"

"BECAUSE IT'S LIKE YOU CAN'T JUST GRAB A FUCKING HINT! I MEAN, HELLO! I LIKE YOU, BUT YOU LIKE THIS OTHER GUY INSTEAD! IT'S LIKE YOU KEEP SAYING TO ME 'HEY, I WANT YOU TO STICK AROUND BECAUSE YOU DO SO MUCH FOR ME, BUT I'M GONNA GO WITH EVERYONE ELSE IN THE GODDAMN STATE EXCEPT FOR THE ONE MOTHERFUCKER THAT ACTUALLY GIVES A FUCKING SHIT ABOUT ME'!!!"

"THAT'S WHY YOU'RE MY FRIEND! FRIENDS CARE FOR ONE ANOTHER!!!"

"THEN WHY AM I THE REBOUND GUY THAT YOU ALWAYS FUCKING TALK TO WHEN SHIT GOES WRONG!? WHY IS IT THAT YOU CAN NEVER GIVE ME A CHANCE!? YOU DATE ALL THESE ASSHOLES AND YOU CAN'T EVEN GIVE THE GUY WHO'S NEXT TO YOU A FUCKING TRY!"

"OH HERE WE GO WITH THE NICE-GUY ROUTINE! JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE NICE TO ME, DOESN'T MEAN THAT I'M OBLIGATED TO BE WITH YOU! I DO HAVE A CHOICE IN WHO I WANT TO BE WITH!"

"HOW CAN YOU KEEP ACTING LIKE A DUMB-ASS BITCH!?"

...Oh no. I-I didn't mean to say that. That was just some comment in the back of my mind. I didn't mean to actually say it out loud. No no no no...

Melanie stopped talking. Instead she looked at me heartbroken. Though she looked angry, I knew that she was disappointed in me. Not only did I insult her, but I had the nerve to call her out of her name, something that I swore that I would never do.

"Melanie-"

She threw her arms up. "No, you're right. I'm a dumb-ass bitch." She stated with a trembling voice. "I made mistakes."

"Melanie, look, I didn't mean that."

"Well if you didn't mean it, then you wouldn't have said it."

"I was just angry. Look-"

She took a deep breath, as the tears started to show on her face. "I'm a dumb-ass bitch. I am. I am one for the sole reason of getting to know you."

My heart sank like a weight in oil. My palms started to sweat and my hands started to tremble as I tried my best to apologize to her. "I'm so-"

"No." She walked off, making her way towards the driver seat of her car. I followed her, hoping to prove just how sorry I was. I didn't want our friendship to end like this.

"Melanie."

The engine turned over and the car started as she looked back at me through the lowered window. "Make all the 'friends' you want. I don't care anymore... I just don't. I'm done. I tried to help and be there for you... But I'm just a 'dumb-ass bitch' to you."

The windows started to roll up. I ran to the front of the car, hoping to stop her from driving forward. "Please, just listen to me-"

She lowered the window to the driver's seat side, allowing me to walk over and speak to her. But before I could even breathe, she spoke first. "Thank you for showing me what kind of a person you really are. Goodbye... asshole."

The tires screeched as she pulled off in reverse. I jumped back to avoid my feet from getting ran over as I watched her car furiously turn around and leave down the street. I couldn't help but to remain frozen in place, mortified of what all had just transpired. I couldn't believe that I had said something so horrible to her. I had literally became the very same guy who talked down to her, who'd call her names, who constantly devalued her.

I couldn't hate myself more than I did now.

"Holy fuck! That was some Young and the Restless shit!" I heard Prett holler from behind me. I turned around to see a crowd of people quietly staring at me as Prett walked over to me. "Hey. Don't even trip. You just got yourself out of the friendzone."

"I didn't me-"

"And you couldn't have made me any prouder." He added.

Though his praise didn't really add to the large hole in my heart that I was left with. He placed his arm around me and walked me back inside. I kept silent as the words kept replaying in my head, as if it was spinning on a record and the needle kept going back to that one part... the one part I didn't want to hear.

"Hey. Look here, you can get so many more bitches than her. And you can find some that are way better than her. Besides, you're too young to be held up like this, just to be called a friend. Hell, she wasn't even giving you any play!"

As he and I walked back into the party that night, he continued to fill my ears with immoral musings and objectionable statements. But no matter how much he tried to poison me, there was already one thing that had done me in.

I just killed my only friendship.

Present Day...

"Nondis, I think you owe Melanie an apology."

Did I ever. I couldn't believe it, I knew I had a long to-do list I wanted to cover since I left Equestria. And giving Melanie my apology for what I said was more than just an item on the list. It was the first thing that was written down.`And here it is, my opportunity to make it up to her. I tried to break myself off, but her grasp was too strong for me to break without using force. Instead of breaking apart the hug, I decided to give her my apology as is.

"Melaine... I'm s-"

She pounded against my chest, fussing at me all the while. "Don't you ever do something so stupid again! You could've been hurt, killed, kidnapped... How stupid can you get?"

"Melanie-"

Once again, I was interrupted. "Where the hell have you been for the past nine months!? You had me so worried!"

"Bro, since that fiasco in Galveston, we've been trying to find you." Rickey added as he looked at his phone and checked the time.

My attention turned to the guy who just finished speaking. "What? Why?"

Cliff scoffed at my question. "Are you even listen to yourself, bruh? Is that mushroom still in yo shit?"

"I mean, I wasn't even anybody worth saving to you-"

"Nondis, dude, think for one second." Rickey interjected. "If you disappeared, a full-fledged member of Delta Phi and a fellow human being, do you honestly think we're so careless to leave your ass swimming to the sharks?"

"Honestly, you guys didn't even pay any attention to me. Once we had the probate, it was like I was non-existent."

"Yeah, you were on some wierd-type shit. But for real, you still roll with us."

Melanie pulled herself away from me, disappointed in my responses. "Nondis, why do you feel as if the world doesn't care about you?"

That's the thing. It didn't. If I was to die here and now, the world would just keep spinning and running it's course. "I mean, scientifically speaking-"

"Are you really that dense?"

I can't help it. Try being bullied for so many years and ignored, being used as the butt-end of every joke since middle school and have that same stigma carry over to high school. Try constantly getting into situations where everyone starts to stare right back at you and think you're weird for just being yourself...

Deja vu...

It finally hit me. Those words that replayed over and over again in my head. The very question Melanie just asked me, they sounded just like a familiar phrase I heard from long ago. Haven't I heard that before? Yeah, with Pinkie.

* * * * * * * * * *

"Sorry. I don't want to be anything more than friends with you. You... I just want you to be close to me. I can have you close by and not be in that kind of relationship with you."

Haven't I been in this situation before? Yeah, with Melanie to be more specific. The only difference was that I didn't have the sexual drive to Pinkie that I did to Melanie when I had first met her. At the very least, I was okay with Pinkie's decision to stay the way we are. "So we'll be friends. I have no problem with that."

"I..." Pinkie sighed and turned herself back to me. She gave me a gentle smile before opening her hooves in request of a hug. "Yeah. We'll be friends."

"Great." I answered back, accepting her offer.

She and I hugged each other for an extended amount of time. Our embrace became full and heartwarming. I could still smell the vanilla frosting that littered her body. Her hooves slowly ran up and down the length of my back as she held on to me. "Yup. The best of friends."

I broke away from her, noticing that her words had sounded rather melancholy. I looked at her, seeing that she was wearing her usual masking smile. "You sure you're okay?"

She poked me in the nose, smiling all the while. "I'm fine, silly. I just need to clean up."

The pink mare turned away, finally walking out of the room. I could see that the thin smile she wore had finally dissolved into a frown. Hoping to see her smile, I cracked a joke at her. "Don't run all the hot water out."

She cracked the door as she left, but stood motionless outside of the room. She popped her head back in and I saw the same look she wore when she found out that Caramel was looking for her. Her mane had somewhat deflated, her eyes had went from a warm gleam to a icy, hopeless glow. The circles formed under her eyes as she avoided the sight of me. Her voice became weak and quiet. "You know, you can be a bit dense."

She finally closed the door on me, leaving me perplexed at her statement. I really didn't know how to respond to that. It was unpredictable. I didn't even think something like that would even leave her mouth, let alone the very idea of her calling me dense. The only thing I could do was scratch my head.

* * * * * * * * * *

That's just it. My view of humanity had become so skewed because I looked at all the negatives that I had gone through and applied those persons to the entirety of the human race. I've allowed myself to remain a victim of the past and I haven't let myself see that there are a lot more than just those jackasses in the world. I mean, humankind is going through some pretty dark times, but our humanity still exists when there's a call for action.

And this search for me, the way an entire college practically placed their concern over finding me... no an entire city of over eight-hundred thousand had placed their concerns over my well-being. It didn't have to involve them actively searching the streets for me, nor does it require them to make phone calls. All they had to do was offer their thoughts and well-wishes. Even the smallest things, the little things, mattered.

And that's what I've been ignoring when I lived here.

Back in Equestria, I lived in a world that provided me with a broader view of how kindness and concern for one's well-being could really make a difference. And this one little asset had fueled one's will to carry on, despite the trials and tests they had to face. Here, I was so busy being locked in my room and ignoring the world around me that I didn't give a damn over the littlest things. The small stuff that humanity had to offer was shielded off by my desire to play video games and watching anime, cartoons, TV and porn.

I blinded myself to the good things that went on around me. And now, nine months from my being missing in this world made me realize just how much I was valued. I may not be worth much, but to my family and friends. I was irreplaceable. Now let's include all of the friends I made in Equestria, plus a princess that I would soon be marrying. If I had went missing from there for over nine months...

I selfishly devalued my own existence. Wow... I am dense.

"..." I guess I didn't have much to say then.

"Nondis," Melanie held me and looked into my eyes as she made sure that every word had gotten to my ears. "We care about you. Your mom's been missing you. Hell, I've been beating my own ass for leaving you alone. And I wanna make sure that you see that we do care. If you wanna throw another one of your pity parties-"

I stopped her right then and there. "For what!? Why do I need to feel sorry for myself? Because I missed out on current events?"

She started to chuckle a bit as she released me. "So you don't feel-"

"Why?" I interrupted. "If I felt sorry for myself, then that means everything I did for the past nine months-" I had to stop myself there. I couldn't explain to her what all was going on with me. I just knew that it would be best for me to try and work things out without going into the details of what I went through for the past nine months. How would she even respond to hearing that I was a trained guard in a world of technicolor equines? "Let's just say that I wouldn't be here if I was still feeling sorry for myself."

The girl smiled warmly as she finally wiped the tears from her eyes. "So, where the hell were you for nine months?"

I spent about two hours trying to explain my whereabouts. I didn't want to tell them about Equestria, no matter how easily I could prove it all to be true. The last thing they needed to find out that I was some sort of freak who was getting more-than-friendly with a pony. I guess it would be easier to say that I had gotten washed up in the bayou somewhere in eastern Louisiana. At least then I could cover myself for the nine-month span of my being missing, especially since the search was mainly exclusive to the state of Texas.

After I wove together the details of my story, I checked my phone and saw that my service was long deactivated. Melanie handed me her phone and insisted that I'd call my mom and let her know that her baby was still in one piece.

And it went without saying that I had gotten an earful from dad over my using drugs.

After retelling my story, they decided to come by and pay me a visit in the morning. After I had hung up, Melanie gave me another hug before she finally set off to her new apartment, which I just found out was two buildings down from mine. I guess med students really need their time away from the rowdy uproar of the campus. Rickey stopped Melanie just before she pulled off and told her where I stayed.

She didn't even give it a second thought.

On the ride home, I had told her about my to-do list. I had asked her if she could check out a copy of Farenheit 451, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. I also asked her if I could borrow her set of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I had the boys to lend me their projector for 'Mondo-phi'ed Movie Monday', an event I made up on the spot which was in truth, me fulfilling my promise to Princess Celestia.

When we rode back up to the apartment complex, she showed me the building she stayed at and told me to come by and visit her when I was feeling lonely and in need of talking to someone. After that, I showed her to my building and got out of the car. When I tried to apologize, she told me that I was stupid for even trying. She knew that I felt remorseful for what I said. The only thing she did was hop out of her car, give me a long hug and telling me how she forgave me. She also warned me about playing too much video games.

While notifying me that she'd pick me up in the morning to take me to breakfast, she drove off and left me to return to my room. After cleaning up the rest of my apartment and finding the air a lot more clean, I ran downstairs to pick up my laundry to take back up to my room. By the time I was finished with everything, it was about two in the morning. I started to think about taking my brief exit back to Equestria...

...But my queen-size bed was calling my name!

For the first time in nine months, I didn't let myself become disturbed by a pony wanting to do something for the day. I could actually spread my arms and legs in whatever direction and rolling over without fear of falling off of the bed. I could drool into my pillow and not even feel embarrassed by the servants that came to change the sheets daily. I woke up to the familiar sounds of birds chirping outside my window.

When I opened my eyes, I was somehow expecting myself to look at a high ceiling with crystals hanging over my head. But instead, I just looked at the boring white popcorn ceiling. Instead of curtains lining the side of my bed, it was just open space. Instead of a golden clock with bells, I saw a digital alarm clock that read seven in the morning. I got out of my bed, expecting to look to the far end of my room towards a double door, instead I was looking at my closet and computer. Walking into my bathroom, I could see how different the counter height was in comparison to the one in Equestria.

Man, after nine months of getting used to one thing, it really starts to become awkward to go back.

After a long warm bath, I threw on some clothes and stared back at the bed, wondering if I could somehow fit my mattress into the portal. Like hell I wasn't going to try. For the next half-hour, I spent my time shoving my entire bed through the portal. And thankfully, I came out with success. When Melanie had arrived, I had threw my DVD player into my backpack and hopped into the car.

For breakfast, we went to a local IHOP. She decided to treat me to anything I wanted, but she also instructed me not to eat too heavy for the upcoming meetup at the frat house later on. Apparently, today was the day of the big Red River Rivalry, our annual rivalry match with the University of Oklahoma. Last year, we managed to knock those assholes around a bit, so here's to hoping that the result remains the same.

When we finished up our breakfast, we started to drive towards the frat house for the watch party. As we arrived, Cliff and Rickey pulled me out of the car, put a gorilla mask over my head and guided me towards the back of the house. After I had questioned them over what they were doing, they said that they wanted my appearance to be a surprise. I guess if I was to walk around unmasked, there was a chance that I would be discovered and the surprise would be ruined. At least their plan was well thought-out.

When we had entered into the kitchen, I was given the okay to remove the mask and wait for their instructions to enter. They went on ahead to address the crowd in the other room as I waited in the kitchen. While I waited, I could hear Rickey speak.

"Ladies and gentlemen, my bothers of Delta Phi would like to welcome you to our watch party. Yeah, we know you could drive all the way to Dallas and watch the game for yourself, but that would only mean you'd have to deal with the risk of getting a few tickets to get there. And I don't mean the ones in the stadium either. So if you drove your ass out there and we just so happen to lose, then you gotta deal with those pissed-off troopers on the way back."

I giggled a bit at that. Everyone else also laughed quite a bit.

"So, we're glad you decided to take a chance on us and let us take all your time and money from you. We swear that we won't tie you to your chairs and make you give us more unless we lose, cause then we'd have to pay off a gambling debt to our younger brother Texas A&M. But anyways, we hope that you guys will enjoy the food. Don't eat all the fucking cheese and leave us with the crackers. If you feel like you drank a bit too much, then we'd kindly encourage you to let loose at the Gamma Rho house next door. If you have a desire to break anything, we have Kit-Kat bars you may kindly partake in. If you want to punch someone in the face, please aim at yourself. Drink, love, enjoy yourself, piss-off Sooner fans, GO LONGHORNS!"

A lively crowd cheered in the other room.

"Now, before this game starts, I want to say something. As you all know, for the past nine months we've been looking for a fellow brother of ours. Since January, we haven't been able to get in touch with him. So we sent out a search party that our good friend Melanie was in charge of. Ma'am, sir, on the behalf of Delta Phi, we would like to apologize to you for the events that transpired last semester. We also take full responsibility for what had happened and we have thrown together a suitable amount of money to present this gift to you."

That was my cue. I walked out from the kitchen, down the hall and into the room where the crowd and my parents awaited me.

My mom was the first one to run up to me and grab me. My dad strong-armed me towards him as he got his hug in. Both of them held me, sobbing happily while I threw my arms around them. The crowd around us cheered as they all applauded my return. All the members of the fraternity then decided to throw themselves at us, dog-piling us with hugs and cheers. I didn't think any of us actually cared that the national anthem was playing on the TV. They only had one thing in mind, and that thing was me. They were all happy to have me back. Of course, a few more than others.

I don't think I've ever been moved to tears like this since Sweetie Belle last sang to me.

As the last play of the game played out, we all sat in disappointment over our loss to the Sooners. The final score was a close thirty-one to twenty-six. We were still trying to deal with how close of a game it was. For a moment we all thought that our team would come back and get it in. But sadly, the Sooners showed why they were the eleventh-ranked team in the nation.

The party goers all started to disperse and the fraternity finally showed us the present they were meaning to give to my parents. They had managed to replace the car I drove into the gulf. Of course, meaning that I was back from being missing for nine months didn't exempt me from my father's punishment. He decided to take the car from me and let me go on with walking for a little longer.

I agreed with his punishment. I didn't have a reason to own a car considering that I was now living in another world.

And that's what made this entire thing a little harder to deal with. I could easily keep in mind that I had to keep my upcoming marriage to Twilight a well-kept secret. To them, bestiality was considered a cardinal sin. But that's what I should expect from a pair of bible-toting parents who zealously believed that it would be best for me to go to a Christian College like TCU instead of here.

Hell, the only reason they agreed to it was because I was still within arms reach of them.

The day with my parents and Melanie dragged on. And later, we finally got around to finishing that list I had. By the time we completed everything we needed to do, it was time for dinner. My parents looked at me and Melanie, smiling as they decided to get their time in with me later. Though my dad made a joke about us going on a date, it seemed that I was the main one that flustered. Melanie just simply laughed. So to celebrate the occasion, she took me to a local steakhouse and asked me to order whatever I wanted.

I had concerns for how much she intended to spend on me, but she didn't seem to care. I guess I should take her up on that offer. A nice juicy steak sounded a shit-load better than hayfries right about now.

"So... how does it feel being back in civilization?" She asked as she looked at her menu.

Honestly, I never left. But according to my story, I had. So to keep up with the lie... "I missed eating real food, if that's what you wanna know." I had to apply some of my thoughts on Equestria towards here.

"Yeah, I mean how did you manage to wander from Louisiana, all the way to Texas on foot? Without passing out?"

"I thought I already told you." I answered, paying attention to the illustration of a succulent steak that lied on the menu.

"Yeah. So..." She trailed off, placing her menu down.

"Soooo?" I motioned to her to finish her statement.

"In the time you finished your pledge, I can assume that you must've met some pretty cute girls."

She wasn't lying there. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

One of the waiters approached us and happily took our orders down for us. "Hey guys, I hope that I didn't have you two wait too long. So have you decided on what you wanted?

Melanie closed her menu and handed it to the waiter. "I would like the chicken fajita platter."

"Okay. I'll get that for you. And what would you like to eat, sir?" He asked, turning his attention from her to me.

"I want... the Texas T-Bone please."

"And how would you like your steak?"

"Medium-well, please."

"Okay then. What would you like for your sides?"

"Mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables."

As he finished writing, I handed my menu over to him. "Alrighty then. I'll have these out for you two in a moment."

He walked off, letting the two of us carry on our conversation. Melanie started up first. "So why did you disappear on us like you did?"

"I just... I guess I was feeling like I needed to do something to fit into the whole frat-boy scene. I know, stupid huh?" It turned out to be my best decision yet. It was all thanks to chance that I could go to another world and start over with my life. Even getting a shot at happiness with a girl I'd never thought of meeting.

"Yeah, that's pretty stupid if you ask me."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence?" I said in deadpan.

Melanie pulled out her phone to check the time. Somehow, I had forgotten that I could do that now. Nine months make you forget some of the most routine things you used to do. "So, while you were walking, did you have any thought-provoking moments or life-changing stories you might wanna share?"

Plenty. But I couldn't share what they were exactly. I had to generalize. "Well, I did learn the value of the little things in life. General occurrences that ultimately made me look back at how I was seeing the world. At times, I was so selfish that I wanted everything to work out according to how I wanted it. But with all the strife, I ended up learning that I shouldn't be so hasty to toss things aside, especially when those things were really close to you and could help you out."

Melanie smiled as she looked towards one of the larger television screens on the other side of the restaurant. They were recapping the big game that we lost earlier. "I guess you did learn something."

"So what about you?" I asked. "What have you been up to for the past nine months? Aside from looking for me."

"I changed my major. I'm doing forensic science and criminal justice as a minor."

"Why did you change from medicine?" I asked, intrigued by her choice.

"Well, I had to find you. And not only that, but when you went missing, it put things in perspective. I know how it feels to lose someone close to me and the fear of not seeing them again. So I wanna do all I can to help others find who've they lost. I don't want anyone to experience the stress that I had to go through of losing my best friend."

I guess that's a pretty solid reason. "I'm sorry to put you through that."

"You're here. That's all that matters." She stated, returning her attention to me.

"So... meet any guys? I heard you and Rickey went out."

She scoffed at the mention of dating Rickey. "I was making a huge mistake. He's cool and all, but he's not boyfriend material. I didn't like it when he looked at other girls."

"Looked as in how?"

"You know, checking out their asses, ogling at their tits. Every time I'd call him out on it, he'd say that he was 'looking and not touching'. I already knew then that looking was going to mean that he was leaning towards touching."

"Well, how about now? You're seeing anyone?"

"You know me. I just... I'm not really feeling him as of late. He's not really taking care of me as he should. He's becoming a bit controlling, self-centered, looking at other girls, texting other girls."

I sighed at her confession. This wasn't the first time that this has happened. "Then why are you with him?"

"To be honest, I don't really know anymore. I wanna leave, but I just can't right now."

"And why not?" I asked.

"...I don't know. I guess you could say that I'm looking for the bigger fish to take me in."

And I thought my analogies were weird. "If it's that hard, then leave him now. Wait on the right one to find you rather than you go out to find him."

"How do I know when I found the right one?"

Coming from experience, I already knew. "You'll know in your heart. They'll make sacrifices for you and won't even care about getting anything in return."

She sighed and started playing with her fork. "You sound like Dr. Phil."

"That's just real life. Not something that a TV therapist can tell you. You learn from life and you apply those lessons to all of the future choices you'll make."

"...So how about you? Are you talking with anyone?"

I am. But I can't say who or what she is. She's a different species from me. I had to fight with her older brother just to prove that my love for her was genuine. I had to break the hearts of two other just to have hers. And in the end, we don't have that much time for each other because of my duties as a guard and hers as a princess. A mouthful to say the least, but all of it can be summed up in two words. "...It's complicated."

"So you are talking to someone. What's her major?"

Umm..." Princess of Friendship. How would that translate into the college world? ...Got it. "Social science."

"Does she go to school here?"

"No she goes toooo... UT Arlington." I was an expert at lies.

"Oh. So she's there for the education then. So how did you two meet and when?"

Think Nondis, think. "We met at a party sometime after the probate." Hopefully, that's a story that I don't have to re-verify on a later date.

"So... what's keeping you two apart?"

"...Family. She has an older brother who's not too fond of frat-boys." I guess I could visualize Shining Armor as that kind of guy.

"What's her name."

"Twilight-" FUCK! I wasn't supposed to say her name. "The book... It has her name as the main chick... Bella! Yeah, her name is Bella." That is a sin of sins. Twilight please forgive me.

"Are you lying to me?"

Does a cow says moo? "No. I'm telling you the truth."

She looked at me with a serious expression. "You're not just making this up?"

"No." I stated sternly. "Her brother tried to fight me and even broke my arm. See, I even have this scar where they did the surgery."

I pulled out my left arm and showed the mark of where they fixed the bone in my arm after my duel with Shining Armor. At the very least, I had the scars and marks to make my story seem legitimate. And the best part of it all was that the magic caused the healing process to shorten from a few weeks to a matter of days. She inspected my arm, seeing that the scar was very much there. "Wow. You weren't lying."

Cheesing to myself over the validity of my argument, I pulled back my arm as the waiter came with our food. "Yeah. I don't lie about this kind of stuff."

The steak I ordered was placed directly in front of me. I almost wanted to cry tears of joy over seeing such a large slab of meat sit on my plate in contrast to a gigantic salad. She had received her order as it sizzled in the hands of another waitress.

"Enjoy the meal, you two. I'll be back to check on you guys momentarily."

Oh I was going lick this plate clean.

We finished our meal and left the restaurant, making our way back home. As we rode around, I could see the sun setting in the distance. My mind wandered back to Equestria, seeing that Celestia was probably setting the sun there as well, with Luna raising the moon shortly after. The colors of the sky mixed and mashed into an assortment of pinks, purples and indigos. When she had dropped me off, I had informed her that I would be unavailable for visitation for a week, mainly to get myself used to what I missed out on. I also asked her to notify my parents of my desire to be left alone for the time being so that I could recuperate.

In reality, I was going back to my new home.

She gave me a lengthy hug and said that I shouldn't stay hooked into my games too often. I agreed and grabbed the backpack full of items on my list. When she drove off, I quickly walked up the stairs and grabbed my phone charger as well.

I wanted to at least show Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo what my cellphone looked like. I made that promise to them and I was going to keep it. I also got the books Celestia wanted to read, the projector I could hook my DVD player into, the Lord of the Rings trilogy (both book and movie-wise), a few other tools to put my bed back together and the set of clothes I wore when I came back here.

Thankfully, it didn't take as long to pep-talk myself into walking into the portal. With a heavy breath, I grabbed my things and transferred worlds.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

When I had gotten back, I could already see that my bed was missing. I guess it's safe to say that the servants and assistants must've moved it elsewhere. Toting my bag, I walked towards my room. As I walked out of the room and down the hall, I could see two guards standing around, talking to one another.

"Hey boys!" I called out.

"Sir Nondis! We have been looking everywhere for you!"

Somehow that didn't surprise me. "How come?"

"Well, Princess Twilight had requested your presence just this morning. Unfortunately, we couldn't seem to find you all day."

"Well, I'm here. Is there anything she wanted from me?" I asked.

"No. But if you wish to see her, she just went to her quarters. She was also carrying a rather enormous bed with her-"

"Bed... MY BED!?" I exclaimed.

After all the hard work of getting that huge-ass mattress across the portal, I was not going to lay in the same bed I slept in for the past nine months. I bolted down the hall, frantically searching for Twilight. Considering how large it was, it would be likely that she struggled with it. But then again, unicorn magic makes everything a lot easier. After I turned the corner and ran into the familiar bedroom, I could see Twilight starting to change out her mattress for mine. As soon as I busted the doors in and ran inside, she looked at me with shock.

"Nondis! What's up?"

I pointed to the mattress that she was about to place on her bed. "My bed, that's what."

She gave me a rather malicious smile as she walked towards me. "...So this is your bed?"

"Yes." I answered as I started to walk past her to grab it.

Magically halting me just two steps into her room, she giggled playfully as she shut the door behind her. "So this is your bed?"

"Yes. It's my bed."

She flew up to me, placing a hoof on my chest as she became mere inches away from my face. "I don't recall you needing something so big to sleep on. And from the looks of it, you could easily fit two on this."

"Come on, Twilight"

Her hoof started to wander a little lower. Her gaze became lustful as she licked her lips. "So this was the bed you slept on? The mattress you lied on when you let your primal instincts get the better of you? The very same mattress you'd visualize all of your most depraved sexual fantasies on?"

Focus, Nondis. Now was not the time to be getting teased. "Yes. My. Bed."

She stopped shy of my crotch and booped me in the nose three times. "No. It's. Not. This is our bed."

Oh for the love of... She's already taking over the mattress and we haven't even slept in it. "How are you staking a claim to it?"

"Because you're mine. And whatever is yours is mine also."

Now that's just mean. I refused to be bullied out of my bed. I worked too damn hard to get my bed across to this world, and I will be damned if I don't sleep on in for one Equestrian night. "But I wanna sleep on it!" I playfully whined as if I was a child.

"Nope. You'll get to lay on it when I get to do naughty things to you."

Fine, if that's how she wanted to play... "Okay then. You wanna do naughty things with me, then lets do it right now."

She released me from her magic, throwing me towards the mattress on the floor. As she stood over me, she leaned over and kissed my cheek. She nibbled at my ear a bit as she whispered to me. "Okay. I'll play with you... if you can tell me one thing."

Starting to feel a bit excited, I started to let my hands go exploring all over her body. "Okay. You want me to tell you the things you want me to do to you?"

Her magic froze my hands in place as she nibbled against my ear one last time, this time being a tad bit painful.

"No... I want you to tell me about the girl who hugged you in your world."

...Uh oh.

Author's Note

Well here it is, another chapter I was bullied into writing. So now it has come to this. How did Twilight find out about Melanie? How will the others react to this recent development? Will Nondis ever get any play? Stay tuned to find out.

Chapter XXI

My eyes slowly flutter open. The feeling of a goodnight's rest in one's own bed, it's almost an unfamiliar sensation. But at the same time, I guess you could say that it is indeed familiar. Finally, I'm sleeping in a bed that I don't have to worry about falling off the edge, here in the world of Equestria. My arms and legs shift, brushing against the purple pony that shared my bed.

Yeah, it seems that she decided to take over half of my bed, or rather driving me towards the edge of my side.

Though I could easily disclose my discomfort with having to stand my ground and keep whatever room is left on my side of the bed, I choose not to out of my desire to see her rest. Diplomacy and politics can be a bitch to deal with in the morning hours and she needed all the rest she could get.

I even offered to take myself away from her and drag myself towards the unclaimed edge of the bed. Sadly, she objected to the idea. As we laid in peace, my arms rested over her shoulders and met at her stomach. The soft hairs of her coat brushed against the crevices between my fingers. Her hooves locked me in place as she quietly snored. With each shifting motion made, she'd move herself back towards me. When I had gotten a little hot, I'd back away. When she eventually noticed that I was not as close as before, she'd shift again, driving herself towards me. The cycle repeated itself until we had come to this very moment.

Though I wouldn't complain all that much. I'm sharing a bed with a girl, let alone a princess.

And yet there are still the awkward moments of me getting the occasional boner, thanks to her unknowingly brushing her tail against the crotch of my boxers. And each time I felt a desire to go further, she'd quench that with a rather undignified snort. Every so often, I'd tried to escape my purple pony prison, but I'd find myself still chained to the immense boulder that continues to snore away as she lightly whimpers and jolts in her sleep.

I take a deep breath and let it go, as well as let go of any chance of me getting to the other side of the bed.

Past her disheveled mane and twitching ears, I could see my cell phone on top of the nightstand on the other side of the room. At times like this, I'd usually check the time and see if my mind had somehow shifted the hours forward, despite my lack of sleep. But even that luxury was taken away as she held me as far away as possible from that side of the bed.

We cuddled each other to sleep, but yet I can't seem to get the events from earlier out of my head. It seemed that she had started to become a little obsessive over her time with me... And rightfully so. Her duties as princess has increased with the past few months. Since my training began, she's been running around Canterlot in place of Princess Luna and sometimes Princess Celestia. Add in the time she tries to spend with her friends and her family, and suddenly everything is set off-balance.

She's running around doing all kinds of things, I guess she has to be concerned that my disappearance had caused her to become... suspicious. Not of me, but of other girls and mares. I'm a subject of interest since the news of both my induction into the E.U.P. and defeat of Shining Armor have hit headlines. Add in the fact that I was to be married to Princess Twilight Sparkle, and now I'm a thing on every mare's list.

It seems that many of the mares here were well-acquainted with the saving grace clause.

And that just made Twilight all the more uneasy. I just hope that the stress doesn't affect her health in any way. Just earlier, I had already saw exactly how... concerned she could be.

6 Hours Ago

"I want you to tell me about the girl who hugged you in your world."

I gawked in silence as Twilight stood over me. Rather than smiling like she was just a moment ago, she was almost ready to jump down my throat. Her expression seemed stern as her voice started to sound angry.

"Who was she? I don't know, you tell me." I joked.

Apparently her face wasn't showing any signs of humor. It's obvious that she wanted the truth.

"Okay. She's a friend of mine."

"How close are you two?" She asked me, still standing over me as if she was going to mow me into the ground.

"Twilight, we're just friends."

She squinted her eyes, almost cutting into me with just her looks alone. "There's more to this, isn't there? I want the truth."

Obviously, I wasn't going to make this any easier if I withheld any information. So I decided to come clean. "Well, if you must know, we've been talking to each other since sophomore year in high school. And ever since then, I... I had a bit of a crush on her. But she told me that being friends was all she wanted in this relationship. So I agreed, and we carried on until college."

"...And? What happened then?"

"She and I got into a bit of a spat. I, shamefully, called her out of her name out of frustration. And she left me alone since. She didn't wanna hear from me, that is until I had went missing."

"Missing?"

"Around that time period, I was tossed here somehow. And in the nine months I've been here, I've been considered as missing in that world for the same amount of time."

Twilight removed herself from me, tapping her hoof against her chin. "So their time stream matches up with ours. What's their date in comparison to ours?"

"Same, October 11th. How we count the years there is totally different from here."

"So, what all happened that made you... come here? Did you find that out?"

"The only thing I know was that I was pretty damn close to drowning. My car crashed into the gulf while I was on drugs."

"Drugs?" Twilight asked, seeming disgusted with the mere thought of me engaging in such activity.

"Depression makes the mind do terrible things."

Twilight started to grow concerned. "Why were you depressed?"

"The little spat I had with Melanie."

Twilight, in hearing my reason for going so low, dropped her head in sadness. "...So that's her name? I've heard it before."

"I've probably mentioned her when I made my decision to stay here."

"So why did you leave her?"

I rose from the ground and sat on the bed she still slept on. "She didn't want anything more than to be friends with me."

She took her seat next to me, looking at me. "Why didn't you tell me this story sooner?"

"Personally, I just never had a reason to tell you."

"So... you had a crush on her, she didn't like you back, you got angry and insulted her-"

"It's more than just that. The fight we got into was for another reason."

"So you wanna tell me more about this reason?"

I wanted to put it in a way where I could keep it short and sweet, despite there being nothing sweet about it. "She was angry that I was joining a fraternity."

"That doesn't sound too bad-"

"I was a pledge at the time. So I had to wear a French-maid outfit... with a g-string."

"Okay, that sounds a bit-" Before she could even finish, I pulled out my phone and pulled up a picture of the outfit they made us wear just moments before I put it on.

"Pretty, huh?"

Twilight tilted her head and quirked eyebrow. "You know... I would've like to see you dressed up in that."

SERIOUSLY!? "Wait, what?"

"I think it's pretty kinky. If she didn't enjoy the view, then I would've."

Well... that's different. Somehow I expected her to say that this was way worse than what she'd imagine. Instead, she's getting a rise out of it. "Well, you know. In our society, guys wearing stuff like this is considered as embarrassi-"

And with a light brush of her hoof against the screen, Twilight seemed to turn a different color completely. "WOAH!"

"What?" I questioned worriedly.

She blushed as she levitated the phone and showed me the screen. "Um... yeah, you look pretty alright."

Sitting on the screen was an exact image of me looking at the person behind the photo with a scowl on my face. And of course, I was dressed in full drag, from the makeup on my face to the pedicured toenails. I knew that I had several that I deleted, but I thought that I rid myself of all of the ones of me wearing the outfit. I guess I might've missed that one. I shrieked as I reached for the phone. "I need to delete that!"

"No way!" She argued as she levitated the phone towards her, hugging the photo of me dressed in drag.

"Twilight, please let me delete this."

"No."

I groaned at the thought of the picture still hidden somewhere in my phone. "That picture doesn't need to exist!"

"Too bad. It does and now I'm keeping it."

I tried to tickle her so she could release the incriminating evidence. "No. Give me that phone!"

Twilight teleported away from me and reappeared on the other side of the room. "I will be holding on to the phone for observational reasons. So now you can't delete the picture. HA!"

I ran towards her, trying to grab the phone once more. "Twilight, stop playing these damn games. And what would you even need that picture for?"

"Reasons, that's what."

"Twilight, give me the phone." I ordered, trying to grab my phone from her.

"No." She squeaked out playfully as she flew into the air, getting the phone and her body completely out of my reach.

"You can't have both my phone and my bed. You can only have one or the other."

"Why not both?" She suggested.

That's it. I refuse to play this game of keep-away. This was a game that she was well-equipped to win by default. Throwing my arms in the air and walking towards the door, I decided to abandon the games she kept playing out of built-up frustration. "I'm leaving."

"No!" She shouted as she flew in to pull my shirt.

Freeing myself from her, I walked out into the hallway. "Goodbye, Twilight."

As I started to make my way towards my room, Twilight galloped beside me. "Where are you going?"

"Why do you wanna know?"

She teleported in front of me, stopping me dead in my tracks. "Where are you going?"

Hold on a sec. Did she just... "Why is it so important? I'm just going to my room."

"Can't you just stay with me for a bit?"

"What do you mean? What is it you want?"

"Just stick around, please?"

I've never been so confused. At first she was hounding down my throat over my hugging Melanie, then she wants to keep my stuff, and now she doesn't want me to leave to my own room. Something fishy is going on and I don't like it. "Twilight, what's wrong with you?"

The purple princess walked up to me and nuzzled me passionately, adding further confusion on my part. "I just want you here."

"Why is it that you feel so threatened of me leaving you alone?"

"I... I just want you here with me-"

I backed away from her. "Bullshit. I want the truth."

"Can't you just stay with me for a little while?"

"No, because you're not telling me the real reason you're wanting me to stay." And if she didn't explain why she was so damn moody all of a sudden, I was going to take my leave to my room. I don't know what set me off, but it's like I got upset over something. Maybe it was because she somehow spied on me. Did she even trust me at this point?

"...I just don't want us to grow apart."

"I don't understand. What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that I can't just let you wander on your own. In case you haven't noticed, you've been getting a lot of attention since word of our engagement got out."

All because of you deciding to kiss me in front of a crowd of hundreds of boot camp graduates. But still, I have a feeling that her trust for me is at an all-time low. "I don't really see where you're coming from."

"Spitfire, remember her? She's well acquainted with the saving-grace rule, which means she'd be more than willing to help you relieve yourself. But that's not what I want. And now you're hugged up with some other girl that I don't know and... I just can't stand it!"

In speaking of being hugged up... "How did you even know about me and her?"

"You were missing from the palace! When I had sent out a search party for you, nothing turned up. So then I thought that you may have went to spend time with the girls. But when they told me that they haven't seen you since yesterday, I started getting worried. Finally, I came up with a logical explanation of where you might've been. So when I went to see if you had used the portal, that's when I noticed the bed in front of it. That's when I decided to pay you a surprise visit to your world. But when I looked out of the window, that's when I saw you getting out of the car with some girl. Then when you hugged her... I guess I got a little upset."

Well that explains how she managed to find out about Melanie. "So you decided to take my bed to lure me in here so we could have this discussion."

"It's not that I don't trust you, that's the furthest thing from the truth. I just don't trust her."

Somehow, I don't believe that. If she didn't trust any other girl being around me, then wouldn't that implicate that she'd have an issue of trust with me as well? "Why?"

"She's been missing you for nine months, correct?"

"Yeah." I answered, shrugging my shoulders.

"You both got into a big fuss over relationship issues, right?"

"No, we got into a big fuss over my joining a fraternity." I corrected her.

"But she... Nondis, I just can't trust her. The way she hugged you... it was too close."

"How would you even know that?"

"Princess of Friendship? That's in my title. I know when things are crossing the line between friends and lovers. It starts to become... confusing."

I guess that's a point to her argument. And being that she was in-law'd with Cadance, she'd also be able to distinguish relationships to a certain degree. But that still leaves one thing that disproves her theory. "She has a boyfriend. Why would she even be interested in me?"

"You've been absent from her life for over nine months. An absence does tend to make you think on your feelings for that person. What do you think I've been doing when you were away at training?"

Meeting with delegates, speaking with senators and politicians, conversing with lobbyists, doing paperwork, ordering others around, hanging out with the girls, and dream-wandering in Luna's place. "...Princess stuff?"

"That, and having my mind clouded over thoughts of you. We were friends once before, and then we decided to go past that point. All it takes is a single touch, a single moment of prolonged exposure to cause someone to do something that they might regret later. And if that isn't the case, then it usually leads to them finding out certain feelings for you."

Okay. So Twilight thinks Melanie may have developed some feelings for me in my absence. But somehow, I still don't see it. If Melanie really liked me, then she would've dated me a long time ago. But then again, I do have myself to blame, being that I was a bit selfish and naive whenever it came to being in a relationship. And in these past nine months, I have grown from being a social outcast to a person of interest. I managed to cultivate my body and rewire my mind. I'm a lot more confident than before and physically stronger as well.

She might have a point. "So you think Melanie has it out for me?"

"Nondis, 'think' is hardly the term to use right now. I know she does."

"How would you even know?"

"Her arm slid around you as she let go of you. The way she looked at you, seeming as if she was expecting you to do more. She's too clingy to proclaim herself to be 'just a friend'."

I didn't even think that she was so attentive to the hug. I didn't think of it more than just that, a hug. "Okay. Say that she does. But why would it concern you if you know that my heart belongs to you?"

"She used to be your crush, right?"

"Yeah." Back in high school, I was practically placing her on a pedestal atop of a golden alter. 'Crush' was an understatement at the time.

"Old feelings for your first don't tend to die off so easily... Unless they were of the Caramel variety."

She got me there. "Point taken. But I'm over her."

Twilight looked at me, pleading for me to tell her the truth. "Are you sure?"

"I pretty sure I am." I answered.

Though now that I'm on the subject, it makes me think back to the situation I had with Pinkie Pie. In her case, she had met a stallion who was the total package. The only downside was that he was often away due to travel. And then she met me. She started to develop feelings for me and one thing had led to another. Before we even knew it, we were living with one another and she was getting to spend a lot more time with me. And in that time, she fell for me even more. Then she decided to go all-in for me, that is until Cheese showed up. To this day, she has feelings for both me and him. I don't exactly know what all she feels for me now, but I guarantee that her heart still has a place set aside for me, despite the diminished feelings.

Would it be possible that I might still have a thing for Melanie somewhere? Maybe, but I doubt that it'll be a problem for me and Twilight.

"I'll take your word for it. Just make sure that she doesn't take up more time than I do."

I chuckled a bit at her statement. "Are you jealous?"

"Jealous, moi?" She asked as she played innocent.

"Yes." I deadpanned, seeing through her ruse.

"Okay. Maybe a little. But that's only because your friendship with her is deeper than what I'm comfortable with."

Hooray, my first jealous girlfriend moment. Maybe I should go and get the champagne. "Fine. I'll make sure that my time with Melanie won't rack up to the time I spend with you. Deal?"

"Deal. And no other mares."

And I'm convinced that she doesn't trust me. "I still don't see why you're so concerned w-"

"They're trying to find out what makes you so irresistible to me. And naturally, they'd be able to find out about the sexual aspect long before I do."

"Oh, that's true." Especially being that there are no laws in place to keep me from having my way with any other mare or girl I see. As far as they're concerned, I'm still a bachelor until the rings are on display.

"Okay. Now can we please go back to my room? I really would like to have my wings massaged." The purple princess requested as she unfurled her wings.

I shook my head. "So what, I'm your slave now?"

"...Maybe." She joked causing me to start walking towards the opposite direction. "No, I was just kidding! Come back!"

As she leapt onto my back, clenching me with her hooves, I stumbled a bit from the unexpected load being placed on me. I turned back to the playful princess as she gave me a kiss on the cheek. Suddenly, a thought popped up in my mind. "Didn't you say that you would do me a favor after you came back from Canterlot?"

She let loose a heavy sigh and gave me back my cellphone. "Tomorrow. I promise."

After I had gotten a vocal confirmation, I decided to piggy-back her to her room. Smiling and humming gleefully, Twilight rocked her head back and forth as if she was a filly anchored on the shoulders of a giant. As I opened the door, I still saw my mattress lying on the floor. "You know I'm gonna have to take this back to my room." I stated.

"Why?" She questioned as she climbed back down.

"Well, I didn't bring it here for me to not sleep on."

Throwing the sheets and pillows off of her bed, she turned back to levitate the large mattress off of the floor. "Well, then sleep with me."

Pony says what? "What now?"

Just as quickly she tore the bed apart, she threw the undersized sheets on the mattress and made a palette for the two of us. After fixing the pillows, she jumped back on top of the bed and patted an empty space next to her.

"Pretty please?"

The Next Morning...

The sun wasn't as bright as it would normally be. This morning, the sky seemed to be a little clouded. I guess there's supposed to be a storm scheduled for today, either that or maybe there's an overcast to kinda regulate the temperatures from getting too high. It is October after all.

"Aw geez." I mumbled to myself as I noticed that I was literally teetering off of the edge of the bed.

Twilight was pressed against me even closer than before. Her hooves had went from locking me in place to simply holding my arms close to her. She still stirred a little as I laid beside her. My eyes started to wander around the room. Her room was much bigger than mine. Her ceiling was higher than mine, her chandelier was larger,and her bathroom's enormous as hell. I have a window where she has a balcony. Even parts of her ceiling had skylight windows installed where mine was just solid crystal.

I've been in here before, but never really took in just how big it was in comparison.

Starting to feel my weight sink towards the edge, I decided that it was time for me to get up and moving. I pulled myself up from the warmth and comfort of the bed.

"Nnngh... please... don't."

My eyes widened a bit as her hooves went back to locking around my arms. But instead of just simply locking in place, they actually pulled me closer towards her. Attempting to pull myself out of her grasp, I started to contend for my freedom. But her whimpers pleaded me to do otherwise.

"You can't... Don't leave... You can't leave me..."

Was she having a nightmare? Her hooves now frantically clasped around my arms, pulling and tugging at me as if she was trying to get me to do something. The way she started to pull my arms, the pressure it produced in certain spots, it started to become physically painful. I opted to wake her from her dream.

"Twilight."

"No you can't-"

"Twilight!" I called out a second time, shaking her to wake her.

She stopped shifting and calmed down for a moment. Her grasp loosened and her hooves started to rub the length of my arms. She pressed herself against the two limbs that cradled her. Her cheek was obviously stained with tears. I didn't seem to understand what had happened to cause her to become like this. She pulled away and turned herself over to face me.

"Twilight, you okay?" I asked.

The only response I was given was a pair of hooves clasping my cheeks as she tenderly placed her lips upon mine. Her forehead rested against mine after the short exchange. Her eyes were slightly reddened from her crying. She sighed in relief as she held me. "I am. I just needed to wake up to you."

"Did you have a bad dream?" I inquired, hoping that she'd tell me what she was dreaming about.

She shook her head, smiling at me. "It's nothing."

"Sure seemed like something to me." I stated, still feeling the bit of soreness in my arms.

"It doesn't matter. I got what I wanted today."

"And that was?" I asked.

"I got to wake up to you." She whispered.

"Twilight, that was the cheesiest thing you've ever said to me."

"Shut it. Now kiss me, your princess demands it."

Rolling my eyes, I complied with her request. Our lips briefly touched as we heard a knock at the door. She lightly tapped me on the nose and rose out of the bed to answer the door. "Who is it?"

"Twilight, did any word of Nondis come up?" Rainbow asked through the door.

"I'm fine!" I hollered back out.

"Well open this door so Ah can knock the fine right out of you, mister! Y'all don't go round 'n gettin' us worried like that, ya hear!?" Applejack scolded through the door.

"We were really worried since you went missing! I even called a few of my animal friends to help find you!" Fluttershy stated.

"I'm good! I just went back to my place for a bit." I confessed as I got up and walked over to the nightstand to grab my phone.

"Your place?" Rarity questioned, sounding confused.

"You went back to your world?" Pinkie asked.

"I thought you went to Baltimore!" I called back out to Pinkie.

"Uh, doi! I stayed around to help look for you! And the place is called Baltimare!"

"Oh, right." Careful Nondis, your human world is showing. "Sorry."

Twilight opened the door to let all of the girls in. Even Cadance stood at the door.

"Cadance? What are you doing here?" I asked, bewildered to see her here in Ponyville.

"Well, Twilight wrote me and told me that you pretty much disappeared off the face of Equestria. I'm just glad you're safe. After all, I couldn't let Shining sit in the room and cry about you."

"Excuse me?" Shining asked as he stormed from the hallway and into the room. "Crying over who?"

"Now I can understand your wife being here, but why you?" I asked the stallion.

"Dipsh-" He glanced back at Applejack and grimaced a short while. I guess even he didn't want to get nagged on by her. "Dummy, you're a guard. Remember that?"

"Oh yeah." I guess that would be a concern if one of his guards had went missing. It could pose a serious security threat providing that certain conditions were met.

"Well at least I know you didn't turn traitor on us." He joked.

"No. I just went back to my world to grab a few things."

Pinkie jumped front and center. "Ooh! What kind of things!?"

I pulled out my cell phone and pointed at her. "Smile!" I said as I tapped on the screen.

She wore a huge, cheek-busting grin and showed the whites of her teeth my phone made a shudder noise. "Is that some sort of camera?"

Twilight walked beside me and looked at what I was really doing. "Quit recording video of Pinkie."

Somehow, I had forgotten that she had limited knowledge of human technology and how it worked. Pinkie then jumped in excitement and bounced beside me. "Video?"

"Yup. And it can take pictures too." I answered as I tapped the screen to stop the video from recording.

"Wowwie! What is that thing!?" She said as she watched me pull the video I just recorded back up.

"It's a cell phone." Twilight began to explain. "In the human world, they use it to communicate with one another. They can also use it to take pictures, videos, record audio, jot down ideas, read off recipes-"

"Upload pictures to Instagram, rant and complain on Twitter, fuss and bitch on Tumblr, play games, video ch-"

"Hold on a second!" Pinkie interrupted. "Did... you just say... 'play games'?"

I think I may have made a critical mistake here. That was a point that I clearly didn't need to introduce. But I guess some men want to watch the world burn. So let's see how far this goes. "Yeah. But..."

"But what?" The pink pony asked as she leaned in closer.

"But it was designed for humans. You know, fingers and all." I said as I tapped the screen to begin the playback.

"Aww. That's mean." Pinkie said in a mopey tone. But her sadness soon subsided as the video of her played back as it did just mere seconds ago. "But that's so awesome!"

"Let me see!" Rainbow Dash asked as she flew over to see the video.

"I hope you don't mind me watching." Fluttershy added.

"For such a small device to perform a task that's designated to much more expensive and bulkier equipment, this is a technological feat that I would say dwarf even our own advancements!" Rarity proclaimed.

"Does it tell you anything about produce and agriculture?" Applejack asked.

"On my world, where it has a signal, it can tell you the weather."

"Big deal! I could tell you the weather!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"Okay, take for instance the weather above Everfree Forest. How the clouds move on their own, how the temperatures regulate themselves. That's like that all over my world. No one regulates the weather. Nature does what it does all on it's own."

The other ponies just stared at me silly. Even Shining Armor was amazed. "How does that even work?" He asked.

"Well, as you can tell from me, we don't have magic. Instead, we have science and technology."

"On the human world," Twilight took over from there. "There isn't magic like ours. So they have machines made to predict the weather patterns so that they can properly plan for anything. Even tornado hotspots are predicted minutes before they even touch down. They may not be able to manipulate their weather, but they have made a living off of their chaotic world."

"I see..." Shining started to rub his chin at the thought of being able to live in a place where even the most devastating weather patterns can sneak up on you. "Sounds kinda dangerous."

"Meh, it's okay." I said, shrugging it off.

"So..." Cadance started wear a devious smile. "If that could take pictures, could it take pictures for... reasons?"

"As a matter of fact," Twilight began. "There's even this one picture of Nondis where he's wearing a-"

"TWILIGHT!" I screamed out, trying to silence her on the matter. Even my heart sank as I forgot to delete the picture yesterday, even after it was brought up. I guess I was distracted.

"What? I thought you looked cute in the French-maid outfit."

"SAY WHAT!?" Shining blurted out before he busted out laughing.

"Oh, Ah gotta see that!" Applejack said as she reached out for my phone.

A light blue flame encircled my phone as it floated over towards Rarity. "I'm sorry Applejack, but if he wishes to not disclose such intimate apparel, then it's his... oh my... Now that is quite dashing."

"GIVE ME THAT!" I said as I tried to grab the phone from Rarity, which then found itself being taken in by Cadance's magic.

"Oh, you look so cute in this. But I bet that my husband pulls it off so much better."

Shining blushed as his ears fell at the mention of the outfit. "Cadance, can we talk about that later?"

"What? I was just talking about the time during our honeymoon where you wore this tight little, see-through lingerie I got you."

"CADANCE!"

My phone soon found itself back into my possession, after Twilight politely closed the file. "Okay, let's not go into details of what my brother was wearing. I don't need the image of him wearing fishnet stockings and lipstick in my head. And for your information, Cadance, Nondis can, has, and will always wear it better than Shining."

"Is that so?" Cadance asked with a coy smile.

"Bet on it." Twilight said with a cocky grin.

This is getting ridiculous. I need a drink. "Shining, where's the nearest liquor cabinet?"

"Down the hall, make a left past the library, third door to the right, pull the golden lever shaped like Twilight beside the desk. If you want ice, then place a book on the coaster right beside the lever."

I performed an about-face and made my way towards the door. Shining didn't hesitate to follow after me. "Bitchin'. Let's go get that drink."

"Right behind you."

Both Shining and I took it upon ourselves to take to the hidden bar that was installed just a few months prior to my coming here. I asked him why he installed one, his response was so he could one day share a drink with his overly-stressed sister. It was a kind thought, but sadly it would never come to fruition. Especially being that Twilight swore off of drinking after her first hangover. So I guess this was the first time since it's installation that it's been used.

You know, I have no problems in being the recipient of that honor.

Shining pulled up a chair and swirled his glass of Applejack Daniels as he looks into the glass. I took a sip from mine, experimenting how the beverage would taste on ice. Amazingly, there was far less of a burn in my throat. Instead, I started to enjoy a smooth taste, the flavor being a lot more distinct in comparison to the flame-fest that Shining caught himself enjoying.

I never did like drinking barrel-proof liquor straight.

That disparity aside, he started to relax. I could already see the sense of relief washing over him. In truth, that same wave had hit me as soon as I walked in the room. No longer did I have to sit in a room with my fiancee as she discussed with my soon-to-be-sister-in-law how I could wear ladies brazier and undergarments better than her husband could. That was a debate that neither I nor Shining would be willing to partake in, especially in front of five other mares. At this point, I'm trying my best to block out the images of him dressed in see-through panties and lacy stockings. And even that thought brought up the unsightly mental image of Discord wearing a sukumizu holding a ball-gag and a power drill. It makes me wonder, was he the one wearing the ball-gag and the drill was actually-

Yup. I need to down this whole bottle.

"Hey, Shining?"

"Yeah." He answered casually.

"Got any more of these?"

He started to giggle a little at my question. "Don't you think it's a bit early to be getting your ass planted against the ceiling?"

"I have some disturbing thoughts in my head. And I want to make sure that my brain can't see nothing but pink shit marching across the room."

"Yeah, you'll have moments like that. But try to moderate. I still need you conscious."

"Shit. I didn't take you for a careful drinker."

He hummed as he took a sip from his glass. "I wasn't always one."

"Really?" I asked, suddenly intrigued by what he meant.

"They say that the booze helps the pain go away. You know, bad memories?"

Then again, I forgot that he's the Captain of the Guard. That means his position had to have come with some really dark corners, corners that he'd try his best to keep hidden. Military was never really as simple as serving one's country like they say it is. Sometimes, you have to take another's life. And when you take that life, you hear them screaming in pain as it takes place... That's a little darker than what I wanna think about. Changing the subject.

"I guess that makes sense. Back in my world, we'd use it for recreational fun."

Shining went back to swirling his glass. "Don't get me wrong. We can party our balls off too. It's just with all the responsibility of being Captain and Prince of the Crystal Empire, I had to learn how to slow down."

"Public opinion?" I inquired, tilting my glass at him.

"You could say that."

"Cadance on your case?"

"Are you kidding? Cadance takes bottles to the head without breathing."

I chuckled a little. "I guess she got that deep-throat game down packed."

Shining took a brief moment to gush. "Like you wouldn't believe. That mare is crazy."

"Really? But I thought that princesses were-"

"Cute and innocent? Prim and proper? Above living out their lives and fulfilling their most primordial desires? Please. I won't speak for Twily, she'll tell you herself. Celestia, she's enigmatic when it comes to the subject of sex. Princess Luna enjoys voyeur. Cadance is a party animal and a freak in the stack, she's that wild mare-next-door that has multiple facets."

"Or layers." I added.

"Yeah. It's like the deeper you go, the more you find out. Like for example, despite her outward appearance being cute and cuddly, did you know she was actually trained as a guard?"

My jaw nearly shattered from hitting the ground so hard. "Seriously!?"

"Yeah! It turns out that she's the adventurer-type. Not only that, but she's a bit of an adrenaline junkie."

"So I guess you two are alike." I stated, causing the stallion to shake his head.

"Not really. In fact, I'm usually the one that has to keep her out of trouble."

"So you're the leash that keeps her anchored in place? I kinda thought that it would be the other way around, being that you're a guard and all."

"Nah. I mean it's fun to go out venturing once and a while, but she wants to do shit that could possibly kill her."

"And you stuck your dick in crazy for what now?"

Shining threw back his glass and took in the remnants of the brown liquid. "Exactly that. She was so wild and carefree. I knew in my heart that I had to tame her. Though I've failed to do so, I still have pride in knowing that I did manage to cage her in. She had lived this double life for years and years on end. She went from foalsitting Twily to knocking off heads in the snow. She may look pretty and pink, but she doesn't play when it comes to a fight."

"So... Any foals?"

"Nah. Not right now. I'm too busy enjoying myself. At least give me another year or two of sabotaging her royal pinkness and then we can talk about foals."

I started to laugh. "Sabotage? Are you hitting it that hard?"

Shining groaned in playful agony. "Rather the other way around. She doesn't know what a quickie is. The only thing she knows is passionate love making and ravenous sex. Neither of those takes less than five minutes."

"Damn, she'd make a hell of a sorority girl." I mumbled as I took another sip, emptying my glass.

"That's the only thing she didn't do. College was too, quote-unquote, high risk for a princess to attend."

"High risk?" I asked.

"Too many stallions running on hormones, colts trying to build herds, all that other good stuff."

Now that he mentioned it... "They do have a point. Fraternities can be a breeding house if you get the girls interested enough."

"How would you know about the fraternities?"

"Well... I'm kinda in one."

Shining casually placed his glass on the counter and placed his full attention at me. "You? Fratboy? I didn't take you for one to be interested in that kind of stuff, let alone joining one."

"Well, I did it for a stupid reason. Can't say that I've fully regretted it yet, though." I admitted as I poured more whiskey for myself.

"Wow... Who'd thought you'd be sporting colors?"

"Colors?" I asked curiously.

"Each fraternity has it's own set of colors here. Don't they have colors where you're from?"

"Yeah, but we have Greek lettering for ours, so we'd call them Letters."

"Oh. That's different."

"Yeah. A little."

A short period of silence ensued. The only sounds that continued to resonate throughout the room was the sound of us sipping on our drinks, the clanking of our glasses, Shining's grunts when he downs a significant amount of liquor, and the occasional sigh.

"Hey." Shining was the first to break the silence. "Let's talk."

"About what?"

Shining took a brief pause. "...What happened a few months back."

I shook my head. "Don't even trip. You were running off of anger."

"Exactly. I was pissed and I strangled you. Not to mention all of the times I decided to make your life a living hell afterwards."

An apology. I'm actually quite shocked. "Well... I mean... We've gotten past this already, didn't we?"

"We'll set up a rematch for next week, but aside from that... I made some mistakes and abused my power for the sake of breaking you and my Twily apart. And sometimes I didn't even take into consideration about how she felt about all of this. I made her uncomfortable... and my wife extremely angry. All because I forced you to give me a half-assed answer."

"That part's on me."

"No, it's not. I screwed up and I let my own selfish insecurities, as well as my desire to be protective of my little sister, get in the way of your relationship with one another."

Honestly, I didn't think he'd actually try to apologize for the stunts he pulled. And if anything, the shit I went through because of him actually helped me become who I am as of this moment. I can fight, I can stand up for myself, I have proven to myself that I could overcome significant odds. It was because of him that I was able to call myself a guard. All I needed was that aggravating push in the right direction, and he gave me just that. He made me angry enough to want to change, to want to drive and succeed in what I do. That was just who he was. Granted he tried to kill me once, but that only made me stronger, smarter, and a lot more patient. In reality, I didn't want his apology.

"Just quit it."

Shining stared back at me, confused as I took another sip of my drink. "Huh?"

"You know what you did was wrong. And you know that Twilight didn't approve of what you did. Hell, I was inches away from death's door because of you."

"That's why I'm trying to apologize."

"Don't." I answered sternly.

"Why not?" He asked out of frustration.

"Because I've learned so much from you. Despite your desire to break me, you've only molded me into something that I didn't expect myself to become in all the years of my life. You've made me see that being passive-aggressive in certain situations would get me nowhere. You pissed me off enough to actually become more of a man. You made me become this mentally-sound character that could also boast some pretty decent physical strength. It's because of you that I'm a guard, soon to be wedded to your sister whom I love. So please don't take any of that back, not from me."

Shining stared back into his glass, almost as if he could see another world at the bottom. "I didn't think you would be so forgiving."

"Now I didn't say that I forgave you just yet. But eventually, I might."

The stallion scoffed a bit. "Just make sure you don't keel over before you do. Otherwise, I'd drag you back from hell and beat it out of you."

I giggled at his threat, knowing that he'd be the type to do just that. "I can actually see that happening."

"Good. Now, a toast."

Our glasses raised. His was enveloped in his magic while mine was firmly holstered in my hand. They clanked against one another as I cried out. "May I always kick your ass in every spar."

"You got that ass-backwards, dumb fuck."

We downed our drinks and shared a laugh with one another. At least I have a drinking partner alongside this rivalry. I'm perfectly fine with that.

"So... did Celestia take it easy on you since I left Canterlot?" I questioned.

"Nah." He answered, pouring himself another drink. "She's still making me do the bathrooms. I've got three more weeks left before I'm relieved."

"I guess you'll be happy then." I joked at his expense.

"Maybe. I'd actually be just a prince by then."

I refrained from taking another sip from my newly-poured glass of whiskey. Unable to contemplate the words he just said, I stared back at him. "What?"

"Yeah. Celestia's making me resign after my month's done."

She's WHAT!? "¿Por favor, perdoname?"

"Yeah. She's letting me go. She got really angry about the me holding letters thing, that and the transferring myself to supervise your company."

Damn. That hurts. I at least wanted to warrant myself a competitor of the Captain of the Guard. Now he wasn't even going to be that for very long. I ended this guy's career... More of him ending it because of what he did to me, but I was a catalyst nonetheless. "I'm... so terribly sorry."

"Shut it. That's what I was supposed to be saying." He snapped back at me.

"So what are you gonna do now?" I didn't see him doing much if he was going to be a prince. Blueblood's a prince and even I didn't hear about him until six months in. Would he too fade into some sort of obscurity?

"Well, I'm still married to Cadance. So I guess I'm gonna be looking over Crystal Empire affairs from here on. Hooray for listening to the bureaucrats and politicians all day."

Damn, that's a death penalty. I gotta at least let him keep his job. Besides, I've already beaten him in combat. How much more shame can a guy handle? "You think she's up for suggestions?"

"Are you saying that you'd defend me, in spite of all of the shit I put you though?"

"Are you saying that all of the shit I went through to become a better man was for nothing?" I asked right back.

"I'm not saying that, but-"

*BOOM*

Both Shining and I turned to the door. The two of us almost drew our weapons, and had it not been for the two guards entering, we would've brandished them in defense. Though our reason to unsheathe them would've been justified as one guard held the other up. The other guard spattered in blood staggered forward as he attempted to speak.

"Cap...tain..." He sputtered weakly as he coughed up a bit of blood. Immediately, Shining and I tended to his wounds. As I walked up to him, I could see very well that he was one of the same stallions I graduated with from basic training. He struggled to breathe as he writhed in discomfort.

"Easy, Spade." The other stallion whispered as he tried to calm the wounded guard.

"What the hell happened?" Shining commanded he and the other guard laid him against the ground.

"We were ambushed. Canterlot's under siege. He was wounded as he was trying to notify you. So I assisted him to get him here."

I took off my shirt and tore it into pieces as I attempted to suppress the bleeding. As I held against his side, my hands quickly became tainted with the murky red stains of the stallions life-force. I tried my best to apply pressure to the wound, but with the way he was shivering, I knew that he had lost too much blood already. It wouldn't be long.

"Brigadier... General... Nnngh-" He tried his best to speak through the pain. "Assassinated.... Killing... others of... high rank.... Active and retired... at risk...."

The stallions pupils started to dilate, meaning his vision had started to fade. "Stay with us, Spade!"

"Highs... did... I do good...?"

"You did fine. Just stay with us. Focus."

"Who did this?" Shining asked, gaining no response from the wounded guard. "Spade!"

It was too late... By the time Shining had asked his question, he had already drew his final breath and left this world. I was now holding onto the wounds of a dead stallion. My hands slowly pulled away from the nouveau dead guard. A distant, yet relaxed expression remained on his face as he stared into oblivion. And sadly, death doesn't come with dramatic music. My hands turned slowly to see the crimson coating still fresh on the surface. A gut-wrenching sickness started to manifest as my hands shook in fear.

I never knew that death would be so horrifying to see in person.

I blankly stared at the lifeless body before me, all while Shining shook me. "Nondis! Nondis, get up!"

With a blink, I was brought back to current time. I looked to Shining, who wore a demonic scowl on his face as he placed his hoof over the eyes of the stallion. As he pulled it back, Spade's eyes were firmly closed.

"Who did this?" I whispered quietly to myself.

"If you were paying attention, you'd know that the Changelings were attacking Canterlot. Now ready up, we're moving out!"

"What about Spade?" I asked distantly, still finding it difficult to process in my brain that he was dead.

"He's gone! Now let's go before we lose any more lives!"

He and I walked out of the room, marching down the hall at an expeditious pace. As we moved along, we saw the spatters of blood that trailed from where he walked. When we had turned down the hall, we could see Twilight and the others all looking around to see what was going on. The trail of blood ran through this hall as well.

"Cadie, I need you to take care of a guard in the room down the hall."

"What's his status?" The pink princess asked.

"K.I.A.."

Rainbow Dash closed her eyes in reverence to the news. "That's bad news."

"What's bad news?" Fluttershy asked timidly, already scared of seeing blood all over the floor.

Cadance started to walk towards the room we had just left. Meanwhile, she had started to issue out orders. "Twilight, I need you to go alongside your brother. Rainbow Dash, I need you to keep the girls in the room until I can get this mess cleaned up. Shining Armor-" She turned back to him. "Come back to me in one piece. I made a vow that I would love all of you, don't go losing bits and pieces."

"Got it."

"No orders for me?" I asked.

"Twilight's got that covered. I know you can handle it, little sis."

Twilight hardened herself almost as much as her brother did. I don't think I've ever seen her this... scary. Even her wings seemed to become pointier than usual. Her ears peeled back as she marched forward alongside her brother. "What's the status report?" She demanded.

"Changelings again. They're offing every high-ranked official, enlisted or retired."

Twilight started to gallop at full speed. "Then we need to hurry."

"You don't have to tell me twice." Shining went after her, leaving me to run behind the two.

Those two seemed really angry about this. I can understand that this was an attack on their country, but it appeared that it was more than the changelings attacking a city. From what I remember, Canterlot is their home city. So I could understand them becoming a bit angry over the subject.

That means that I should do everything in my power to help, no matter the costs.

"I need to go to my room and get something." I said as I remembered that I was without a shirt.

"Well hurry up!" Twilight ordered. "We're not gonna lose our dad for you to change clothes! We're going on ahead!"

"Dad?" I asked.

"Dad used to be Captain before Twily was born. He retired early to take care of the both of us." Shining explained further.

"And we won't lose him to them. So hurry up!"

So the Changelings have invaded Canterlot in an attempt to decapitate the ranks so that order falls apart. And now, innocent lives are at risk as well as those of the elderly and weakened. That means we'd need to quickly neutralize the threat by any means necessary. In that case...

Author's Note

I tried to end this one as ambiguously as possible to leave you guys to think about what would happen next. Once again, trying new things and seeing how they would work in the context of the story. If you want to find out what he's thinking, then stay tuned to the next chapter.

Chapter XXII

The train continued to chug along as Twilight looked outside of the window towards the besieged city. I couldn't see much of her face, but I knew that anger was the main expression she wore. Her ears folded back as her hoof tapped impatiently against the seat she sat on. She releases a frustrated sigh as she continues to keep her eyes locked onto the mountainside.

Shining, on the other hand, was busy sharpening his sword. With each few seconds, a metallic scraping sound could be heard as he brushed the blade against a smooth stone. With each flick, with each scrape, I could already see his growing desire to plunge the sharpened tool into one's side or throat. I don't think it was the fact that he was holding a weapon that intimidated me the most, but rather the calm, emotionless demeanor that sat upon his face. It was almost like he didn't care about taking a few lives. I get that he may have grown used to it, but it still creeps me out.

I'm sitting in the back of the train, looking at the two siblings as they both watched their home city being attacked from a distance. Two royals who despised the very race we were set to confront. Twilight didn't seem like she was too worried back at the palace as soon as she saw blood on the floor. Instead, it was almost like she had gotten used to it herself. Then again, if Cadance was trained to be proficient with a weapon, then it could also be the same with Twilight.

That thought just terrified me.

Twilight, the kind and gentle mare that would always do whatever she could to make me happy, to give me time when she had none for herself, my fiancee... To think of her simply carving her way through countless bodies to reach me. It would be terrifying to see her covered in blood as she walked towards me, hoping that I would kiss her shortly after. But then again, I'd have to keep in consideration that she'd only go so far if it was indeed necessary.

It's not a foreign thought to protect what you love. And in this case, it was no different. They had a father who was a retiree of a very prominent position. And if Spade─may he rest in peace─was right, then that means that he was just as wanted as the enlisted higher-ups were. And I'm pretty sure that the thought of losing their father was motivating them to cut and carve their way through the city to make sure he was safe.

Meanwhile, I'm just as out of place as a rainbow elephant in a room full of gray furniture. I couldn't really be of much help aside from batting down whoever I came across... That just made me think about something.

In order to make it out of this scuffle alive, I'd have to kill someone.

Yes I know that I'm not killing a human being, so my conscious should be eased, right? I'm a human, so what does a few kills of something that's not of my own species would equate to? Nothing, that's what. If I wanna run around and hack away at whatever runs at me, I should be able to do that with no problems whatsoever. As long as it isn't human, then I shouldn't harbor too much guilt, right?

If only it were that easy.

When Spade died, I was there to help usher him out. And in the end, he felt a desire to know if he had performed his duties to it's completion. He wanted closure so badly that he wouldn't have left this world peacefully without having it. Now imagine had he never completed his task, had he been left to die at the mercy of a species that sought to kill and destroy everything that he stood for. I could already see the twisted expressions on his face, the look of abject horror as he drew his final breaths, knowing that he'd die without being held, dying alone with no one to recognize him, to leave this world without any closure and with fear of that circumstance, that very same fear making you cry out as they did whatever they wanted to you.

Now I can truly understand my grandfathers strife with the past, how Shining feels when he wants to drink the pain away.

So I'm sitting in the back, watching the two ponies do what they were doing a few minutes ago, what they've been doing for the entire train ride. I looked back down to the sword sitting casually on my lap. I could easily trace out the intricate details of the scabbard that housed the blade, curling my fingers alongside each crevice and shape to help me pass the time. But before I could, the train screeched to a sudden halt. My head jolted up and my hand pulled the sword and scabbard away from my body as I prepared to draw.

Shining and Twilight looked to one another and nodded silently as they each took to a door on either side of the train. I quietly unsheathed my sword and waited patiently on their move. My eyes cut across the cart we stood in. To my left I could see off of the mountain we were placed upon. And just a couple of yards, I could see the edge of the cliff. To my right, I could see a shadow approaching the window. It moved rather quickly as it closed in on us.

"INCOMING! THREE O'CLOCK!"

Twilight and Shining looked back over to my position as I readied myself for what ever came at us. Twilight's eyes widened as she saw the dark blur making a beeline for me. "Nondis!"

The window broke, letting a smoke-gray creature in. As I ducked away from the shards of broken glass, I could see that the creature was some sort of equine. Yet at the same time, it had the same wings as a fly. Even it's coat looked hardened in comparison to the equines I've come across. It hissed loudly as it leaped towards me. I pulled myself up, picked up my sword and started to drive the creature back. As I did, more crashed into the train cart in an attempt to ambush Twilight and her older brother.

A bad decision on their part.

Twilight turned around and gave two a magical bolt of energy to the face as Shining punched another back out the window it came from. The one I fought continued to snap it's jaws at me while I slashed and thrusted my blade to keep it at bay. Shining magically pulled one of the creatures towards him as he held his sword out to welcome it's victim. Twilight drove a powerful hoof into the side of another, causing it to buckle down in pain. As it laid on the ground, she raised herself to her hind legs and let her body weight shift towards her forelegs as she aimed for the creature's head. The creature I still fought snapped and snarled as I waived my sword at it.

I wasn't intending to kill it, but it was making it really hard not to. When I swung my sword at it again, the insectoid equine pounced on top of me, bearing it's fangs at me. I raised my weapon to fend it off when it doubled back to bite at me. I raised my sword to hopefully deter it to pull back. Unfortunately, it was far too late for the creature to pull away. Unwittingly, I plunged the blade deep into it's chest. The creature stood over me, hissing and coughing as it continued to plunge itself deeper on my blade. When it's teeth was mere inches away from my face, I could already feel the warmth of it's blood trickling all over my hands and onto my chest through my shirt. The creature finally stopped breathing and became nothing more than a dead weight on my weapon. I kicked it off, shaking with horror as I entertained the thought of it trying to eat me.

"WHAT THE SHIT IS THAT FUCKING THING!?" I screamed as I trembled a bit from the unusual experience.

"A changeling." Shining Armor confirmed. "These are the things that are attacking all of Canterlot."

"IT TRIED TO EAT ME!"

"Well," Twilight began. "Now that you know what we're going against, I guess you won't be so reserved the next time."

I'm still shaking from staring at the open jaws of a creature that I didn't know about until moments earlier. "THAT MOTHERFUCKER TRIED TO EAT ME!"

"Nondis, calm down." Shining suggested as he started to survey if any of the creatures had survived.

"CALM DOWN!? THAT FUCKER TRIED TO HAVE ME AS A SNACK! I'M NOT GONNA GO OUT LIKE THAT!"

Twilight wiped her hooves clean by summoning a rag. Shortly afterwards, she walked over to me. Twilight held me towards her as she spoke. "Nondis, I need you to calm down. No, there's no way that I'm gonna let you get hurt."

"THEN EXPLAIN WHY IT TRIED TO EAT ME!"

Twilight sighed as she stared at the corpse of the changeling I slayed. "Changelings bite are venomous, and what it does is that it will try to paralyze the muscles of the body for a short period of time. If it paralyzes the head or the neck, then you would be in some serious trouble. But aside from that, Changelings do not eat meat... unless when extremely starved."

Like that makes me feel any better. "That's nice to know. But that still doesn't help me get over the fact that one tried to sink it's teeth into my skin... And for that matter, how do we know that they aren't extremely starved now?"

"Well either way, it's dead." Shining concluded as he walked towards the one I stabbed. "So it won't be biting you for a while."

"And again, I'm perfectly fine with that. But what about the others?"

Shining turned back to me. "Well in that case, you'll have to do the only thing that's available to you. You either kill them, or be killed by them. The choice is yours."

"Shining!" Twilight called out sternly, upset by the brashness of his statement.

"He's right." I admitted, finally accepting that I might have to take a life to spare my own in this situation. "I can't fuck around." Giving myself a few slaps to whip myself back into shape, I shook my head and got my mind back on track to the task at hand. "I gotta do this."

"Nondis, you don't have to go as far as we do. We've gotten used to it already." Twilight argued as I started to make my way towards the door leading outside.

That was a shot to my pride. "And let me sit around as my princess girlfriend knock heads with the Changelings? If I'm gonna get approved, then I need to step up to the plate."

"Nondis, there's nothing heroic about doing something that-"

"Are you two done?" Shining interrupted as he opened the door to step outside. "Because if you're not, then I'm just gonna go on ahead and meet up with you in the city."

Twilight stopped and stared at me as she took a moment to think. "Nondis, I need you to secure this train. If there are any passengers on board, you need to liberate them at all costs."

"But what about-"

"We'll go to Canterlot and help out there. It won't take us long. Between the two of us as well as Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, we'll be done in a short while."

"But Twilight-" I was silenced by a pair of lips clenching against mine. Twilight pulled off of me as quickly as she threw herself at me.

"I don't want you getting hurt. It's not that I don't trust your skills, you're a very talented fighter. But I can't risk losing you. You're the only human here in Equestria, so getting medical help specified for you will be far too difficult. Remember, you may be a guard but you're still a protected species. That hasn't changed since you've came here."

I kissed my teeth and took a deep breath, shaking my head as I spoke. "Then why am I here? I'm a guard for a reason, Twilight."

"Do you trust me?"

"Of course I do, but it seems like you don't trust me at all."

Seeming appalled at my statement, Twilight became defensive in her arguments. "I do trust you. Haven't I told you that already?"

Shining shrugged and started to walk off. "Okay, I can see that this is going nowhere. I'm moving out."

"Twilight, I came here to help you! Don't you see that!?"

"I do! I just can't afford to let you get hurt! You're too precious to me!"

"Twilight, I'm going to get hurt! That's in my job description!"

"And!? Following my orders is in your job description as well!"

"So you're ordering me to stay behind while you go out and fight on the front lines!?"

"I'M USED TO THAT!" She hollered to the top of her voice. "Before you came here, I was on the front line fighting villains that threatened to send the land into an eternal night, turn the world inside out, enslave the pony race, a five-hundred year heat wave, a dragon that threatened to send Ponyville into a one-hundred year period under smoke, a corrupted unicorn, went to another world and fought against another corrupted unicorn, came back to fight off a magical plant infestation, battle against a magic-stealing centaur that almost took over all of Equestria, and the very same individual responsible for this invasion. And if I let you go against any of that, then I would've failed as your protector!"

"Twilight, I don't-"

"Every time I sleep at night, I receive a vision of you with a hole in your chest! I see flowers lined up beside a wooden box! I see you with your eyes closed inside of that box while I'm wearing a black dress! 'WHAT PART OF 'I'M SCARED TO LOSE YOU' DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND!?" She screamed at me, finally breaking down into tears. "And my worst fear is that I won't be able to do anything to help."

"Twilight-"

"I'm not gonna risk losing you! Not now!" She nuzzled me harshly, passionately as her hooves clenched around my body. Her cheeks were stained with the same tears I saw just earlier this morning. I held back onto her. As my hands wrapped around her, she clenched me even harder. I knew that this wouldn't be short. And despite the current circumstances, which urges us to carry on to more precedent matters, this was a time where she was also on edge and in need of comfort. She's risking the loss of her father as well as showing concern that I'd be biting the dust.

A battle of two loves. She doesn't know which to choose so she's going for the safest option.

"Twilight. Go on ahead. I'll take care of things here." I whispered in her ear.

The purple mare, sank her lips into mine once more before galloping off. But she stopped herself before walking out of the door and turned back to me. "Thank you for understanding. When we get back, I swear to you that I-"

"Don't you have a dad to save?" I questioned cutting her short.

"...I'll let it be a surprise then." She said as she turned back around. The moment she leapt off of the train, a few more changelings swooped in and tried to subdue her. With relative ease, she dispatched all three that came in. Two of which she knocked unconscious, the last one she left to perish from it's wounds. And even from a distance, I could tell from the caved-in skull of the not-so-fortunate creature, that he was a goner.

She did all of this with her bare hooves... Note to self: remind me never to piss her off.

For the past hour and a half, I have been walking from cart to cart, trying to clear out whatever changelings I encountered. I guess it didn't help me much that they were running rampant throughout the mountainside. I think I killed a decent thirteen of them on my own as well as dispatching several others. But as the time progressed, I had started to realize that they concentrated themselves in whatever cart that was in front of me, as well as ambushing the one I was already in. At this point I couldn't distinguish them any differently from German cockroaches; they keep coming and it seems like they come back with greater numbers. The more I fight off, the more I encounter as I continue along the carts.

But this cart especially, they seemed to have fortified their positions a lot more. Not only did they come back in greater numbers, but their animosity seemed to increase. They became a lot more aggressive than what I had originally encountered. They were faster, stronger, smarter, and harder to take down. But after half an hour of trying to funnel them through a single doorway, I managed to maim twenty, kill seven more and send three more running for mom. I wasn't complaining, it means less of those motherfuckers for me to fight.

Clearing what could've been the most fortified cart, I huffed and puffed as I tried to catch my breath. Despite the fact that I had an objective to complete, I still needed to breathe for a bit. Besides, if I can't catch my breath after ninety minutes of strenuous and deadly physical activity, then there was no way that I would be able to continue this lone-wolf operation. So instead, I decided to take a lean against the door and hear what I would have to deal with next. Trying to be as quiet as I possibly could, I placed my ear against the door and tried to listen in on what was going on next door.

"How hard is it!? I told you ponies to keep your head low and keep quiet!"

--The next cart over--

"How hard is it!? I told you ponies to keep your head low and keep quiet!" A changeling officer, dressed in stolen E.U.P. armor, commanded as he and a few others marched back and forth with stolen weapons in tow.

The cart full of civilians all whimpered and whined as the other changelings continued to harass them to keep them submissive. Many of them were either families on vacation or business ponies en-route to their respective jobs. A few others were just tourists and journalists. The remaining few were staff of the train. Even then, there wasn't too many on board, just enough to fill a caboose a little over it's maximum capacity.

"If you work with us, we will refrain from taking any lives! Try to play 'hero' and you will be made an example of! If you want a prime example, then I'd suggest that you speak to the conductor that we just escorted out not too long ago."

Conductor? That means that they must have sent him to the front of the train. I didn't see anyone resembling that of a train operator on my way up here, so the front would be the better assumption. If I can get with him, then we can get this train moving again. We needed to leave this place, it's swarming with changelings.

The changeling officer paced back and forth as he continued to patrol the hostages. His ears flicked as soon as he heard a low grumble of some sort. He turned around and shot a menacing glare at the hostages towards the back of the cart.

"Who was that!?" The entire train whimpered in horror of his voice. The captain continued to walk from pony to pony, harassing them to identify the source of the disturbance. "I demand to know who that was!"

All of the ponies remained silent. The captain drew his blade and struck a handlebar nearby, causing a loud ringing sound and a few sparks to fly. The ponies on the train squealed in fear of their safety as the officer continued to feign his anger. "Who in the Queen's name was that!? I thought I told you all to remain silent."

He turned his attention towards a little pegasus colt that sat between his parents. As he approached, the earth pony mare leaned over her son to protect him as the pegasus stallion bravely stood in the way to defend them both. The officer stopped inches away from the stallion, waving his blade in the father's face. "Do I suspect a hero amongst us?"

"Please, sir. We did nothing to hurt you, now leave my son out of this." The stallion pleaded.

The changeling looked towards the colt in the seat and his mother, giving them both an evil grin. He whispered to himself. "All of that love. The compassion of a mother defending one's own offspring. That is a love that proves too powerful to ignore." He turned his attention to the stallion and also saw something that pleased him. "And even now, I could see the bravery in this colt. He too desires to protect what is dearest to him. A father, willing to sacrifice himself for the safety of his own family. That too, is a love of significant volume."

The stallion feared for his life, but not as much as he did for his family as the changeling officer held the blade to his throat. The insectoid creature hummed gleefully as he called out to his accomplices. "Hey boys, you feeling hungry today?"

"Am I ever!" One of them called back.

"I can't wait to get my hooves on some quality love!" The other cosigned.

"What are we eating?" Another asked.

The officer hissed as he pressed the blade further against the stallion's throat. "Our lunch for the afternoon consists of a rich helping of love, fresh from a cowering family. A son, young and innocent, devoid of all guilt of this world, forced to see what unfortunate circumstances would soon to befall upon his parents. A mother, who ascends upon the mantle of guardianship with the desire to protect her precious offspring from dangers seen and present. Last but not least, a father who would fight to the death, sacrificing life and limb to make sure that his family remains safe."

The other changelings started to drool as they eyed the cowering family. "You mean..." one of the changelings started.

"That's right, a three-piece meal. All for the taking."

"...Barbaric vultures..." A voice mumbled out from the center of the train.

The three changeling grunts hissed violently at the insult as the officer removed the sword from the stallion's throat, still leaving a shallow wound on his neck. He turned his attention to a gray mare who scolded her husband for his speaking out. "You were supposed to remain quiet. Just leave it alone." She whispered.

"No, I'm tired of this. I will not sit here and wait for them to feed on an innocent family!"

The changeling officer stood in front of a blue unicorn who stared right back at him. The creature looked at the unicorn with extreme disgust. "And who would you be?"

The stallion snarled back. "Why should I reveal my name to a gathering of bugs? They'll be trampled underhoof anyhow."

"Stop this!" The grey unicorn mare urged to her husband.

The officer gritted his teeth with indignation as he tried to pull the mare out of her seat. "Since you want to speak out of turn, then I'll let you watch as we punish her instead."

"Get your slimy nubs off my wife, you son of a whore!"

All the changelings in the cart hissed loudly as they turned their attention to the blue unicorn stallion. The officer threw the mare to the side and landed a powerful blow towards the stallion's abdomen, causing him to buckle down from the loss of air. He followed up his first strike by shoving the stallion's face into the ground below. As he held him under his hoof, he looked at the stallion with extreme disdain. The mare, who began to recover from her earlier launch across the walkway looked on with horror as two changelings held her husband up to face the changeling officer.

"Take him to the front. Let him talk his heroics up with the conductor."

Finally catching my breath, I readied myself to bust inside. But I knew if I had just walked inside and started swinging my sword, I'd have to put several civilian lives at risk. Not only that, but if I had to fight them, they'd be able to swarm at me from different directions. In other words, I couldn't just slice my way into this cart like I have for the past ninety-some-odd minutes. I needed to tactical.

I have to gather them in a single place and take them out as quickly as possible. If I round them up, then it will reduce the collateral damage. But the question is how was I going to do it...

I think I have an idea. It might be crazy and stupid, but I think it will work even better than just swinging my sword around like I was a Jedi. Here it goes...

*Knock knock knock*

"Who is it!?"

I held onto my trachea and pinched a little bit so that I could have my voice sound a bit raspier. I decided to speak in a nasally voice that imitated their own. "I'm just coming back from patrol. We got a situation going on in Canterlot! Permission to debrief, sir!"

The door began to open and I reached for my weapon. As the door open and the changeling crept around to greet me, he spoke briefly.

"What's the situ-"

*POW*

The entire cart became surprised by the sudden discharge. While the changeling that greeted me fell dead to the ground, I took aim for the other two on the side of the room.

*POW POW*

Screams of the patrons filled the cart as I ran forward, brandishing my sword in one hand as I held my black M9 in the other. The other two creatures looked on with shock as one started to back away. The officer, shaken up himself, decided to send his subordinate in after me rather than going at me on his own. "Don't just sit there! Get him!"

The changeling grunt screeched as he charged at me. His charge was cut short as he met with the end of my blade, all just as I pulled myself to the side to avoid him. While he fell to the ground, sputtering and squirming for a while, the officer started to back away, showing it's fangs in a display of feral bravery. He let loose a mighty loud hiss as his back arched and he readied himself to pounce.

*POW*

And in one report, the officer landed to his side, jaw still agape as he fell lifelessly to the ground. The train remained silent as they all stared at me, mortified of what I would do to them. I looked over to see a blue unicorn stallion looking at me with amazement. Meanwhile, a gray unicorn mare ran past me to tend to the recovering stallion.

"Crescent!" She shouted to him as he blinked and shook his head. She placed a hoof on his cheek, inspecting him for any injuries. As soon as she verified that he wasn't too banged up, she hugged the stallion. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." He quickly responded, looking at me. "I'm more worried about who's side he's on."

I extended my hand to greet his hoof as I introduced myself. "Nondis. Private First Class of the Equestrian E.U.P. Guard. I'm not one of them."

He continued to look at me questioningly, never taking a moment to except my greeting. "You're not one of us either. I still don't trust you. What company are you in?"

"Royal Guard Division, Three-hundred-and-first regiment, Delta Squadron. Stationed in Ponyville and commanded by none other than Captain Shining Armor."

The stallion looked at me muddled and with shock. "You're under my son?"

I'm pretty sure that I returned that same exact look. "You're Twilight and Shining's dad?"

The mare that stood beside him gave me the look. "You know Twilight?"

...Did I just finish both my mission as well as Twilight's? Either way... "Yes ma'am. I'm stationed in Ponyville as her personal guard." And I'm going to be your new son-in-law. Isn't this amazing/awkward?

"My goodness. If you're supposed to be guarding my daughter, then what in blazing saddles are you doing here?" The stallion named Crescent inquired with a scowl.

"My orders were to clear out the train and ensure the safety of the passengers, as well as employees." I answered.

"Yet you were positioned to a princess. Why have you abandoned her?" The mare asked with concern.

"Because she was too busy worrying about me to let me go with her and Shining-"

"That's no excuse! I demand a better explanation on why you've left my daughter to walk into danger!" The mare asked. Captain obvious is stating that this gray mare with purple highlights in her mane was Twilight's mother. Amazingly, she looks exactly like her, just with a longer mane done with bangs and a curl on one side, a different color scheme, different cutie mark, blue eyes, smaller in body, and minus the wings. "Hello! I'm waiting!"

Let me stop staring and answer her question before I start to get hounded on. "She gave me that order, ma'am."

"And don't you think there are times to disobey orders, good sir!?" She was not letting me get off easy.

"Ma'am, she forced me to stay here, despite my pleading with her to take me with her. She told me to stay on this train to help the passengers while she went off to Canterlot to look for the two of you. Shining went with her as well."

"Are you so incompetent that your superior is doing your job for you?"

She is tearing me a new one. And I'm usually a patient person, but GODDAMN WAS SHE WORKING MY NERVES! "Ma'am, with all due respect. I just saved your-"

"And you would choose to save me over protecting my daughter, who just so happens to be a protector of this realm!? What kind of guard are you to abandon your princess in pursuit of personal glory!?"

I see where Shining get's his animosity from. "Look, I was ordered to this train. I was ordered to clear this train. I was ordered to-"

"You were ordered to stand by my daughter, no matter the circumstances! Some husband you'll be!"

"Ma'am, if I could expla-" Hold on a sec... "H-h-husband?"

"Well you're the one called Nondis, correct? I do remember you introducing yourself as such."

So... she already knew from the moment I gave off my name. She's... what a fucking troll. "Yes. And you were just heckling me, weren't you?"

"Oh maliciously!" Crescent answered as he started to laugh at my misfortune. "I can't wait to tell little Twilight about this!"

"Little?" I asked, feeling somewhat confused.

"Now where are my manners? I never got around to introducing myself." She stated coyly. "My name is Twilight Velvet. I'm the original Twilight. The one you're currently pursuing is my carbon copy. Although the print didn't come out just right, I still love her nonetheless."

Something tells me that she's going to be taking shots at everyone and everything all day. "An honor to meet you, ma'am." I said as I extended my hand once more.

"If it's such an honor, then why didn't you get to meet the original Twilight Sparkle anytime sooner?" She quipped.

"Well, I was under the impression that I was going to leave." I answered truthfully.

"So if you were going to leave my daughter, despite her desire to have you, then what does that make you then?"

Now that's low. "But I-"

"Sonny," Crescent began. "If you're going to learn anything, you should learn to never take anything she says seriously. She wouldn't tell you your house was on fire until after the fact."

They're almost like an old married couple. Then again...

"Just like you said that you'll pull out before you released. And thus Twilight was conceived!"

Okay, we're getting a little personal here. Time to change the subject. "Well, I'm glad that-"

"Oh, and I suppose that Shining was my fault too? I suggested we'd wear a condom, you said it would feel better without it!"

Twilight Velvet laughed. "And here I thought you said to never take what I have to say seriously."

"At the time, I didn't know that!"

"And two foals later, you still won't cuddle with me after. I suppose I'll find me another pony to cuddle."

Wait a minute, we don't need to go that far! "Uh-"

"If that's the case, then why don't you cuddle with Nondis over there?" Crescent suggested as he pointed at me. Twilight Velvet began to smile as she zipped over towards me, grabbing my arm and tugging it towards her.

"You know... that's not a bad idea. I need to see if he's even equipped to satisfy a mare, let alone my daughter."

WHY ARE WE EVEN TALKING ABOUT THIS!? WHY IS THIS A THING!? "Ma'am, that won't be-"

She brushed a hoof against my lower abdomen, partially lifting my shirt. "So break it out, human. Let's see what all the hubbub's about. Obviously Twilight had gotten in trouble over you, so I might as well see if you were worth the commotion."

There are foals here. Have you no shame? "No thanks."

"Are you implying that your length, girth, and stamina is insufficient to properly please my daughter?"

Now she's calling me shrimp dick? HELL NO! "Well no, not re-"

Her hoof lightly tapped at the crotch of my pants. She grabbed me much like Twilight does when she's usually in the mood to tease me. And her name was Twilight too... FUCK! "Well in that case, let's see what you're hiding underneath all of these clothes."

I try to back away, bumping into the door that lead to the conductor cart. I looked towards Crescent and stared with amazement. "Sir, your wife is sexually harassing me. Why are you okay with this?"

The blue stallion merely shrugged his shoulders as he sat back and watched. "I dunno."

"So what are the human mating rituals? I find that my daughter would find immense pleasure in knowing the detailed specifics used to turn you on."

Between her gently petting my crotch and pulling my arm towards her, I'm caught between a rock and and a hard dick right now. "Ma'am. There are foals present." I whispered.

"Yes, but nothing is wrong with a little education. After all, this stuff comes naturally to us. They'll learn about it sooner or later."

She's playing with me, in a train full of ponies, with dead changelings lying on the floor. She can't be serious. "Um..."

Giving me a playful bop on the nose, she giggled and teased me for my being flustered. "You're such a stick! Loosen up!"

"Ma'am, there are dead changelings on the ground. All of which I've killed, and that's not including the ones I killed to get up here. I'm not going to be loose until I see-"

Suddenly, the train shook and jolted a bit, indicating that the engine had started to run. There was no whistle to indicate that we were moving, instead we were moving regardless. We started to proceed towards the city, moving slowly and rapidly increasing in speed. I at least didn't need to sit around and wait to find the conductor to get this train moving. We also saw quite a few of the changelings retreating from the city overhead.

Evidently, Twilight and Shining were winning.

--Meanwhile in Canterlot Castle--

"Once again, we thank you for your unflinching bravery, your undying loyalty, and your strength in this time of great peril. We can only offer our sincerest apologies for your inability to locate your father."

A council consisting of the remaining generals and officers bowed their heads in reverence to the prince and princess that stood before them. Shining remained silent as Twilight spoke in his place. "Thank you. Let us know if you should find out anything about him."

"Of course. This is the only way to properly thank you both for your assistance. If it wasn't for your intervention, we would've lost many more lives in this catastrophe."

The small remnant of the Equestrian Military council has lined themselves up in front of both Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle as they gave their salutes to the two royals. Shining Armor grimaced as he returned his as Twilight continued to show an optimistic front. Shortly after the newly-rescued members of the council took their leave, Shining finally stormed out of the room, having his younger sister following close behind.

"A breach in security, assassinations and executions of multiple officers, and now this. I can't believe we came all this way to find out that dad's M.I.A.. And we haven't even found a trace of mom either." The stallion voiced with unease.

"We'll find them. I know we will. We just have to remain positive." The purple princess stated as they both walked down the disorganized halls of the royal palace.

"I'm trying... But how are we going to find them in this mess? Canterlot is in shambles and we don't even know if they're under a damn building somewhe-"

Twilight stopped walking and teleported directly in front of her brother, causing him to back away a bit. "Don't you EVER insinuate that our parents are hurt or worse! They are perfectly fine and they won't need any medical help when we find them. Do I make myself clear?"

Shining shook his head with disapproval. "Twily-"

"We are both in positions of power. If we want to find them, we can and will."

"Okay then. Tell me where we would look at first. The place we stayed at when we were younger is in shambles, our mom is nowhere to be found, and our dad is a target. Try to find some optimism in that."

"They could be still alive. That's what's driving me now. That's what should be driving you."

Shining started to walk towards the window, looking out in the distance to see parts of the city in a smolder. He drew in a deep breath as he watched the medical teams perform their jobs in the streets below. "Twilight, we just saved a group of stallions and mares that ranked either the same or higher than I do. If he's not in that group, then where could he be?"

Twilight walked beside her older brother as she nuzzled him lightly. "He's safe. Let's start there."

"'Safe' isn't a place. Where do we really start?" The stallion asked his younger sister.

The younger mare placed a hoof on her older brother's shoulder. "Shining, we'll be okay. They'll be okay. I don't need the new Brigadier General to start going into a panic. I need you to remain calm, cool, and collected. That's the only way we'll get things done."

Shining scoffed at his new military title. "What difference does it make? If I can't protect two ponies from harm, then what good will a shiny, new button do for me?"

Twilight continued to peer off into the distance towards the mountainside entrance of the city. "I know that you've lost your confidence. You think you're the only one?"

Shining looked into the distance, only seeing the mountain and the lands beyond it. "So you're scared too?"

"I'm terrified. But that doesn't mean that I shouldn't keep a positive outlook on things."

Shining looked even further into the distance, something catching his eye. "Maybe we're thinking on opposite ends. I have another thought in my head as I'm saying these things aloud."

"And that is?"

"I'm optimistic, but I keep myself in the mindset of the worst-case scenario."

Twilight turned to her older brother. "Why?"

"Because I find that whatever I say ends up being the opposite. I jinx myself when I say everything will be just fine. So who's to say that the theory doesn't work both ways?"

Twilight rolled her eyes at her brother's logic. "If you keep going on about it, then you might just convince yourself that it would actually happen."

"Yeah, but it never failed me this far. Why go against something that I know works out for my good?"

"That's not exactly healthy."

Shining chuckled a bit as he continued to stare in the distance. "I know."

As the time continued to progress, Shining started to become concerned over what was going on in the distance. Twilight seemed too busy thinking about their parents to notice the moving pillar of smoke rapidly ascending the mountainside. "Twily, I gotta ask. Did you ever give Nondis any special instructions?"

Twilight glanced over at her brother. "No, I just told him to secure the train. Why?"

"Did you give him any orders to start the train?"

"Why do you ask that?" The purple mare questioned as Shining rose off of the window seal.

"Oh no. This is bad." He mumbled to himself as he started to gallop at full speed towards another opening to get a better view of the situation. "Twily, we gotta go, kiddo!"

Twilight took after her brother and saw the train approaching the city at a blistering speed. "That train is going way too fast. It'll derail on the smallest curb at this rate!"

"That's not the problem." Shining pointed out.

"Then what is?" The princess asked her older sibling.

Shining directed her head in the direction where he was looking. As soon as her eyes met up with where he was looking, she felt something within her body sink into her stomach. Her heart started to pound furiously as she began to panic.

"That's... a really big problem."

--Back on the train--

Crescent and I held down the wounded changeling that charged after me just earlier as we continued to interrogate the creature for information in regards to his orders. Twilight Velvet, Velvet for short, continued to look after the other passengers.

"Okay, we're going to go over this one last time. Who sent you?" Crescent asked sternly.

The changeling coughed as he spurred and snarled at us both. "We will never give up. For the future of our colony-"

Crescent gave him a well-placed stomp to his hind leg, still making sure that he didn't break anything as of yet. The changeling yelped as the blue unicorn snarled back at him. "Your future doesn't exist. I think it would be best to clarify your intentions. At least then you'll have a future."

"Dude, we're gonna be here all day dealing with you. Just tell us what your objective is so we can throw you out the window or something." I stated impatiently as I tried to keep calm.

"Um, boys." Velvet began. "I don't mean to get off track, but don't you think we should be stopping this train?"

We then turned to her. "Why stop now? We're almost at the city." I asked.

She grabbed and pulled me towards the window and pointed to the bridge that lead into the city. My eyes opened wide as I saw the damaged span, or rather the missing part of the bridge. There was a large gaping hole where the arch used to be and instead of leading towards the city, the tracks gave out and lead us towards the craggy, sharp rocks below.

"Oh... fffffuck..." I muttered to myself in horror.

The changeling started to laugh as he looked at my reaction to the bridge being out. The other ponies started to see what we were on edge about and began to panic. Crescent looked at me once and realized that there was something extremely wrong. Turning his attention back to the laughing changeling, he bashed his head against the flooring. "Shut up, you!"

"Well, at least my future isn't the only one that won't exist." He joked as Crescent growled at him.

"What did you do with the conductor?" I asked the changeling.

"Him? He's quite beside himself right now." The creature answered.

I immediately walked towards the conductor's cart and opened the door to see who was manning the controls. Instead, I was greeted by an immense heat as the engine started to overheat. I shielded my face as the searing temperatures threatened to cook my skin. I looked to the side of me and saw a brake lever that had the wires pulled out from below, the shaft covered in blood. I looked up and discovered a severed head sitting on top of it like a ghoulish decoration of some sort. The stallions eyes were well placed on his own body that rested mere inches away from him against the wall. A look of despair sat upon his face and remained there as all color faded from his expression.

Well, I guess this will be a thing I'll remember in therapy. Closing the door back and leaving the cart, I looked at Crescent and shook my head. "Conductor's out of commission."

"How out of it?" Velvet asked as she walked beside her husband.

I could only shake my head in response to her question. I tried to let words come out, but silence choked out my thoughts. I sighed deeply as I placed a hand on my forehead and thought about what to do next. My heart was beating faster than what this train was chugging out. My stomach was trying to climb out of my throat. My eyes expanded to twice their size as I continued to panic.

"You okay?" Crescent asked as he removed himself from the changeling's side.

I quickly denied his question with a rapid shake of my head. "...Naaaahhhhh..." I stated as I looked back to the closed door, thinking about what I had just seen. "I'm... I-I-I'm good, but he's not."

Crescent walked up to the door I stood in front of, kindly pushed me out of the way, opened the door, peeked inside, and immediately withdrew himself for a short while due to the heat. After placing up a magic shield around himself, he looked to the left and saw the remains of the conductor. After leaving the cart, slamming the door shut, he shook his head with shame. "Damn creatures, have they no sense of respect."

"What's his status?" Velvet asked.

"Dearly departed."

"Then who's controlling the train?" She asked worriedly.

"Nopony as of now."

Velvet threatened to enter into the cart. "Then shouldn't there be a lever of some sort that could stop this train?"

"Brakes are cut." I quietly recalled, thinking about the hellish imagery that refused to leave my head.

She stopped short of opening the door as her husband withheld her from going any further. "We have to stop this train somehow!"

"Velvet, do you know how to operate a train?" Crescent asked.

She brushed her husband off and started to advance. "How hard could it be?"

Suddenly, in an ironic twist of fate, we heard the sound of metal moaning and creaking. And shortly after, a small explosion took place in the cart ahead. The cart started to catch fire as well as billow out black smoke. Both Crescent and I turned to her in silence as she looked back at us with embarrassment.

"So... Plan B?"

My mind, still a jumbled mess, tried it's best to come up with an escape plan. I knew that I was in a rush to do something, but if I didn't think of something, we'd all be dead. My mind continued to go over the details of the situation, almost simulating the results of each one. I know that it's too difficult and dangerous to just leap out of the train at this speed. Especially considering that we were on the mountainside, jumping wouldn't be a smart option. I thought about disconnecting the cart, but then I had thought about the size of the mass in relation to the motion that we're traveling. That meant we needed to cut down on mass for it to work. Otherwise, we'd still be running over that bridge and into the rocks below. With each mental simulation that passed, we became ever closer to a painful, imminent doom. I began to size down the simulation and think of any alternatives... Think dammit, think!

Size it down... That's where it hit me.

I stood off of the ground and pointed to the other side of the cabin. "Everypony! Your attention please!" I called out. "I need you all to run to the back of the train. Move quickly to the final cart and do not, I repeat, DO NOT grab anything that can be replaced. That will only slow us down! Move in an orderly fashion, do not shove! Let's go people!"

"What are you planning?" Crescent asked.

"We're gonna detach the carts as we go along." I added as we walked towards the back.

Velvet walked up to us both and gave us her input. "That front lock is welded shut from those flames. We'd have to detach ourselves from this cart instead."

"Well, we're going to be in the back, so it doesn't matter."

"What about him?" Velvet asked, pointing to the wounded changeling.

It didn't take any time for me to think about what to do with him. He had information, so he needed to be kept alive. Simple as that. "Take him with us."

--Back in Canterlot--

Twilight and Shining ran as fast as they could to the chariot hanger. Guards greeted them with salutes and bows as they eagerly started to unfasten one the chariots. One of the guards spoke. "Could we help you with anything, your highness?"

Twilight angrily pulled at the strap, trying her best to undo the latch that held the vehicle to the ground. Finally seeing her efforts being in vain, she turned to the guard and pointed at the object of her frustration. "Undo these bonds! We need to catch a train!"

"But your highness, there shouldn't a train coming in since the travel advisory went out just an hour ago."

"There's one coming now!" Shining rebutted. "And if we don't stop it, then we might not ever get to see that train, or it's passengers, ever again. Now undo these locks!"

A more distinguished colt in armor walked up with a checklist. "Sir, I'm going to need you to-"

"FUCK PROTOCOL, THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!" Shining yelled out, getting the stallion's attention.

Twilight took the list and signed her name and listed the reason for take-out was for 'rescue operation'. After the colt received the list and read the excuse, he nodded in respect and backed away. As he did, he called for his best stallions to line up before him.

"Steeds! Attention!" The stallion with the checklist ordered. A long line of pegasi lined up in front of him, wings flared open as he marched back and forth between them. He turned back to Shining Armor, who was pulling apart the locks and straps along with another stallion who was familiar with the set-up. "Sir, our finest fliers are currently at your disposal. How many do you need?"

Twilight wasted no time as she simply blasted the last strap holding the chariot down. "All of them! I've got a plan!"

--Back on the train--

As we waited for the final group of passengers to leave the first cart, we started to place the plan into action. We all jumped aboard the second cart. As we finally evacuated the first cart, we turned our attention to the lock that held the compartments together. Crescent removed the bolt that locked us in, freeing us from the runaway caboose. We carried on our operation towards the very back of the train.

As we all continued to move from cart to cart, we continued to detach ourselves to minimize the mass. Also, we started to see a noticeable degree of separation from one cart to another. When we had finally reached the final compartment, ironically where my mission began, we detached the final lock and waited for the slow down. We kept moving, but at a significantly lower pace than that of the initial speed. Though we crept forward, we were no longer bound to the fiery engine that flew onto the bridge. Each cart, moved towards the bridge at their own pace.

Meanwhile, the final caboose, filled with all of the passengers of the train. Velvet continued to finish off where Crescent and I left off with the changeling. Meanwhile, those who weren't encouraging the torture of the unfortunate creature found themselves staring out the windows, clenching onto one another as they watched the carts move onto the bridge. Crescent looked to me as he clenched his jaw in anticipation. "Do you think this will work?"

I gulped as the thought of my failure started to play out in my head. "Well... if it doesn't, would you be satisfied with me saying that I tried?"

Crescent took a deep breath and closed his eyes. His limbs stiffened as he seemed ready to take on the worst. "Well, you gave it your best, considering how quickly we had to throw it all together."

I think I was on the verge of throwing up at this point. Scratch that, I was nauseous and on the verge of a heart attack. My life could end here and now in the grisliest fashion. I wasn't even five months into my approval process, I just met Twilight's parents, and I'm still a virgin. But on the bright side, I fought and killed numerous changelings that tried to eat me and temporarily saved the lives of dozens of civilians. I think I'll be able to take solace in that. "Well... If this doesn't work... I tried."

"And if we do die, just know that I won't resent you for it." Crescent stated somberly.

"Hell, I will." Velvet added. "I wanna see if my grandfoals will have wings or horns. Or maybe even both."

Yup, being herself to the very end... And I'm cool with that.

The infernal conductor's cart blazed and smoldered as it chugged right off the bridge and into the rocks below, exploding upon impact. The second cart, the passenger cart we were on from the beginning, went along with it. The third, the first one we detached, quickly moved off of the bridge and fell off. The fourth, moved at a slower pace, but still had enough momentum to push itself off of the bridge. The fifth cart moved with enough speed to make it's way across the bridge, but not far enough to fall into the hole. And finally, our cart bumped against the first cart, stopping us entirely. Instead, the cart that was before us, crept along and finally fell into the smoking ruin below. The cart we all remained on continued to creak for some time until we came to a complete stop, just a few yards away from the gaping hole in the span.

We stood inside of the cart, counting our lucky stars that we weren't in that cart. Sighs of relief and an eruption of applause sounded throughout the car as Crescent and I finally loosened up a bit. Albeit, we were stuck on the bridge, but we didn't have to worry about going over the edge. My heart, which pounded at several million miles an hour finally gave way and shut down for an instant. I collapsed onto the ground with relief, trembling as I nearly cried like a baby. "Fuck... we're alive."

So, let's sum up my experience for today... Me and Shining walked into a bar, shared a drink, watched a guy die, changed my shirt and grabbed a gun for emergency purposes, boarded a train, nearly got eaten, got into an argument with my girlfriend, resolved said argument, fought a shitload of bug horses, saved a dozen lives, met Twilight's parents, saw that the bridge ahead was destroyed, saw a decapitated body, shit myself, came up with a plan to once again save the group of civilians, and successfully pulled it off. All of this before three in the afternoon. If I ever had to write a book on my life and sum this up in one chapter, this would be entirely too damn much to shove in one chapter.

Hollywood should hire me for the shit I just went through.

"Hello!? Is anypony in there!?" A voice called out to us from outside.

I pulled myself off of the ground and walked over towards the back end of the caboose. When I had walked outside, I could see a sizeable pegasi squad flying overhead. Inside of the chariot rode a distraught Princess Twilight and a relieved Shining Armor. When the chariot landed on the ground, Twilight jumped off and ran towards me. Shining followed suit as the purple princess leaped for me, nearly pushing the cart forward.

"Oh shit!" I screamed as Twilight jumped back off of me. Instinctively, I tried to grab on to the cart to pull it towards the grounded tracks. "A little... help, please?" I asked as Shining Armor approached.

The white unicorn stallion ignited his magic and began to march forward. As he did, the convoy disassembled and a small swarm pegasi all lined up on either side of the train and pulled towards the cliff. Twilight hovered in the air as she used her magic to push from the front end. I myself pulled for a short while, but found myself nearly being dragged under. After assessing the risks of my getting ran over, I decided to trek back to the mountain and laid myself next to a rock. I watched as the two pulled what was left of the train onto solid ground. I laid on the ground, looking at the sky as I finally gave myself some well-deserved rest. As soon as the cart hit solid ground, the passengers started to file themselves in line to leave the caboose.

"Nondis!" Twilight called out as I laid on the ground. "What in Celestia's mane were you doing!? You could've gotten yourself killed!"

I looked at her with a dumbfounded expression on my face. "Really? You order me to secure a train full of changelings, liberate the passengers, and now you're telling me that I could've been killed? That's a little ass-backwards, ain't it?"

"I didn't tell you to start the train!" She argued, pointing to the single caboose.

I got off of the ground and dusted myself off. "I didn't start it, for one. Two, the conductor was already dead. Three, I don't know how to operate a train. And four, the brakes were cut."

Shining pulled his younger sister back as he began to think. "If you didn't start the train, and the driver was already dead, then who did?"

"I think our friend here want's to come clean, Nondis!" Crescent hollered from the back of the train.

Both Twilight and Shining looked back to see the blue unicorn stallion standing on the back-end of the train cart. They both looked at me and finally towards him again. "Dad?"

Crescent leaned back as he listened in for something else within the train. "Oh, and your mother wants to know what you two wanted to eat for dinner tonight."

Chapter XXIII

The darkness that once shaded my eyes started to fade into a fiery orange color. When I came to, I was in the midst of what appeared to be a burning train. My head ached tremendously, as did the rest of my body. My legs felt numb to a response as my brain sent out a signal to move them. My arms were a different story. Instead, they were moving when I commanded them to do so... or rather one of them. My other arm twitched a bit as I stared back at it. When I went to grab my arm, I soon made a horrific discovery.

It wasn't attached.

Panicked, I foolishly tried to pull my arm back into the socket from where it separated. In utter disbelief, I continued to send signals to my arm. Though it felt like the signals were getting through just fine, my severed arm was showing otherwise. Now I was horrified, staring back at the bloodied limb that once used to be my go-to guy for mostly anything. As I screamed in complete terror, I clenched onto the detached limb.

"Fuck... Fuck... FUCK! FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!"

I continued to swear loudly as I tried my damndest to replace the limb, falling even further into insanity as I began to mash the bloody nub into where my arm once connected. The only thing I started to feel was an immense amount of pain. Though, I was just finding out that my severed arm was just the beginning of my hellish experience.

A moaning sound rang in my ears as I halted my irrational attempts to reattach my arm. The weight on my legs lightened and soon disappeared altogether. A snapping sound rang into my eardrums, causing me to turn my head to see what it was. The only thing I could hear was a wire quickly unraveling. And soon I turned back around to see what was falling in front of me.

And instantly, I knew that I was wishing that I had forgotten what I saw that instant.

A young colt no older than probably eight dropped before me. His eyes remained open and glossed as he swung eerily from side to side. His neck was a twisted mess and his jaw slacked open. He wore a saddened expression, it seemed that he was unprepared for his end.

Immediately, my legs responded from the shock and I backed away, dropping my detached arm in doing so. As I continued to stare back in shock, I backed into a metal girder that was hotter than anything that I've ever came in contact with. My back sizzled for the fraction of a second, causing me to jump back forward to prevent myself from cooking against the metal. I tuned around to see what I had backed into. A large steel girder standing between me and the rest of the train cart I stood in.

But beyond that large metal obstruction, I saw something that chilled me to the bone. In each seat, I saw the corpses of all the ponies that rode on the train. Their heads were all turned towards me, almost looking at me with their scorched eyes. Their coats were no longer identifiable, but rather charred black from the flames that engulfed the entire train. But for some macabre reason, I could make out the shapes of each pony. Their manes and tails, despite being scorched, still carried some of their color. And directly in front of me sat Crescent and his wife Velvet. Crescent pointed at me with a scorched hoof while his wife looked as if she was trying to speak to me.

God knows what faces they were making at me, but their eyes... I saw the whites of them, their partially darkened pupils, their glossed irises, they stared right back at me. It was like they were all waiting for me to do something. But the horror of seeing them staring at me was enough to send me running past the hanging body of the foal and towards the other side of the burning cart. What made it worse was the sounds of voices quietly whispering directly into my ears as I looked back at them. All of them becoming nothing more than incoherent scratches and breaths. My body reacted on it's own by making me run away.

I turned back around, pushed aside the foal, and ran through the train. As I continued to run, I could see the door at the end of the train. It looked so far away from where I was. My eyes couldn't close as I ran. Instead, I was forced to see all of the flames that tunneled around the open walkway. My legs continued to propel me forward, driving me towards the door. But as I ran, the door seemed to have gotten smaller.

"Some husband you'll be..." One voice whispered into my ear.

I turned back around to see the burned corpse of Velvet standing directly behind me. A shiver ran down my spine, causing me to advert my eyes to the door further down. My legs moved me forward once more, pressing me towards the end of my journey. My heartbeat started to ring throughout the train while I ran. Suddenly, I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"You tried..." Whispered another voice.

I didn't want to look back, but my body was somehow forced to do so.

When my head finally turned to the side, I saw Crescent sitting happily next to me with a row of teeth forming a crispy smile. I turned back around to focus on the door. Instead, what I saw began to discourage me from taking another step forward. Instead of the just the door, I was seeing the bodies of all the passengers that rode on the train. They all sat in their seats, all looking and smiling at me. The worst part was that they weren't smiles of a demonic nature, but rather innocent faces devoid of all of their distinctive features and colors. The only thing that remained was their eyes, the whites of their teeth and charred flesh. Some of them sat in the very flames that threatened to cook them even more.

I made a mental decision to run to that door. I choose to do just that. My body no longer made any unnecessary stops for any others. Instead, I bolted down the hall, hearing the whispers of every pony I ran past. As I got closer to the door their whispers started to transition to screams, painful, bloodcurdling screams that rang in my ears as one united voice. I placed my hand on the handle to open the door, but was burned from the heat. I clinched my teeth and chose to endure the pain, pulling the handle down and prying open the door.

When I walked through, I had noticed that all of the screams have stopped. So did the flames that swallowed up the train. The door closed behind me as I walked into an empty conductor cart. Looking out towards the front of the train, I could see that we were safely stationed in Canterlot. But the streets were empty too. It almost seemed that the city was actually abandoned not even an hour ago. I turned to the door to my right, seeing that it led straight to the streets outside. Deciding that it was time for me to get off of this horrifying ride, I reached out to open the door.

The door jiggled, but would not budge. The door remained shut, almost as if I was locked in from the outside. I started to panic once more. Jiggling the handle, I tried numerous tricks to clear past the door. Instead, I only remained locked inside of this caboose. When I pulled the handle I saw the entire knob fall apart, leaving me to remained trapped in the cart.

"I'm scared..."

My heart began to throb in fright. My body chilled as I started to turn around. When I did, I was met with a rather ghoulish encounter. A stallion dressed in conductor's clothing stood in front of me. A majority of his body was hidden in shadow. But when he began to walk towards me, that's when the hell truly made itself obvious. He had no head and still identified where I stood. I looked past the headless corpse and saw his severed head on the brake lever. He stared directly at me with bloodied tears in his eyes. A look of total despair sat upon his face as he looked at me.

"I don't want to be alone..."

My eyes shot open to nothing but massive amounts of light flooding throughout my room. My body was covered in sweat as I breathed heavily from the unnatural experience. I pulled myself out of the bed, standing on my own two, undressed legs. Instinctively, I reached for my right arm. And thankfully it was still attached to my body. Feeling around my body, I could feel nothing but my own bare skin. My back was unmarred by the extreme heat, my hand was without burns, my legs were unharmed, my entire body was still in one piece. There was no signs of wounds aside from the few cuts and scrapes I had received from the attack earlier. I sighed in relief as I was reminded of the scenario that occurred in my nightmare.

I almost wanted to go back into the bed and cover myself in sheets, head included, out of my desire to avoid seeing the image of dead bodies in my head. It turns out that my consciousness was catching up to me. And now I was sitting here, nearly screaming my head off in horror.

I became a tortured soul today. I had seen what I shouldn't have and taken the lives of several other sentient beings. It didn't matter that it was for my survival. I was new to it all and my mind hadn't had a chance to adjust. Groggy and scared, I slowly crept back onto the bed. Silently, I condemned myself for my insatiable need to turn on every light in the room out of my desire to 'feel protected.'

Though it didn't help me at all when my mind had closed in on the sole fact that I was knocking on deaths door just earlier. And that's not even mentioning that he was open to having a conversation with me in the early afternoon, where the sun was high in the sky, in front of a bunch of other ponies.

I shook my head in disbelief of what all had happened earlier. If anything, I should be dead by now. If anything, my plan could've failed. By scientific accounts, the fact that we stopped was nothing more than an improbable miracle. Death had all of us in his hands and we all just so happened to crawl from in between his fingers. I'm not complaining, however.

I'm just... confused.

*Knock Knock Knock*

"Who is it?" I asked, seemingly paranoid.

The door remained silent. The only sound I began to hear was the sound of the hoof tapping against the door.

*Knock Knock Knock*

"God dammit, who is it!?" I asked, this time reaching for my sword on the night stand.

A voice whispered at the door. "Nondis, it's me."

"State your damn business before I stab you through this door." I demanded, drawing my weapon. "I have had no sleep, I am on edge right now, and I do not need for you to fucking play around with me!"

"Nondis, it's me. Princess Luna. Now open the door."

I could not believe my ears. I still held onto my weapon with a firm grip. "...Prove it."

"My sister beat you in a hoof-wrestling match the day before you went off to training."

Not very many ponies know about the match we had. If anyone else had knowledge of it, it would be Twilight. Apparently, Celestia must've disclosed our little spar with her. Sheathing my weapon, I walked towards the door and opened it up slowly. As I stared through the cracks, I saw the tall figure of the alicorn princess. She looked at me with pity in her eyes. "Are you okay?"

I shook my head, rubbing the fuzz out of my eyes. "Negative."

Luna turned her attention to the numerous lamps lit throughout the room. "A few of the other guards had suspected that you were still awake, considering all of the lighting emanating from your room. Are you getting any sleep?"

"Hardly." I strained as I yawned and stretched my arms.

"Well, is there any reason why you have so many lights on? I could safely assume that your night would be a bit more pleasant if there wasn't so much... interference."

I groaned in annoyance, obviously she didn't understand that this was actually having the exact opposite effect on me. "That couldn't be any more wrong."

Luna looked at me suspiciously. "You wouldn't happen to have a fear of the dark, would you?"

"Right now... I much rather keep myself in a well-lit space."

"Does the dark scare you?" She quietly inquired, trying to be cautious of anyone overhearing.

"No... But my recent nightmares, in tandem with my day, has been really fucking with my mind."

Luna walked over to my bed, using her magic to remake the bed and fluffing the pillows. "Intriguing. Perhaps you would wish to share your vision of fright with me."

"...I don't wanna talk about it."

"If you wish to get better, then I suggest that you come clean." She recommended strongly as her magic dissipated from the bed.

"I saw a pony die today... well, I saw two. The first one was a recruit I graduated from the academy with. The other, an innocent life. To me, it seems that Spades had it a lot easier than the second one."

"And what happened with the second one?" She asked.

"...He... he's... I really don't wanna talk about this-"

"Then the dreams will continue, as long as you continue to run from them."

"I'm not running."

Luna walked over to me and placed a hoof on my forehead. In mere seconds, she withdrew herself and examined her hoof. "It seems that you have been running from something. Your dreams are troubling you to such a degree. What happened?"

I looked to my right arm, lifting it up and taking joy that it was very much attached. "Well, for starters, I woke up with a missing arm."

"Continue." She advised as she walked back over towards the bed,

"And then, in the middle of a burning train caboose, I saw a foal drop from the ceiling. It seemed that he suffocated from a wire caught around his neck."

"That's somewhat troubling."

"Oh, and that's just the beginning." I added. "The rest of the dream, I was too busy running from dead, burned-up bodies of everypony I saved. I kept hearing their whispers and their cries. And in the end... well..."

"...Well?"

"You know that second guy that I saw die?"

"What about him?" She questioned me.

I took a deep breath, daring myself not to even close my eyes out of fear of visualizing the situation. "He was beheaded. Not only that, but his head was placed on the brake lever."

Luna closed her eyes and nodded sagely. "I understand. That event has haunted you a bit."

'A bit' is an understatement. "Yeah..."

The night princess walked over to me and ushered be back to the bed. "I believe that you're currently battling some rather disturbing images in your mind. Perhaps this is merely post-traumatic stress. Your earlier encounters did run you through numerous scenarios that could've killed you."

I've noticed. "But how do I deal with it?"

Luna smiled as she gently pressed me to sit on the bed. "Fortunately, your exposure was rather limited. Instead of you seeing much worse circumstances in reality, they seem to only appear in your dreams as a 'what-if' simulation. Thankfully, your grim run-in with the deceased soul on the train was the only thing that you had to endure. And by what your dream consisted of, your experience could've been a lot worse."

I looked down at my feet, unable to look at the princess in front of me. "I'm not very strong, am I?"

"Why whatever do you mean?" She asked, looking bewildered.

"I'm suffering from one measly run-in. And-"

"If you think that your encounter was insignificant, then you are sorely mistaken." Luna spoke harshly.

"But how? I ran into one body-"

"You've ran into several. Unless you've decided to discount the changelings that you've killed."

"But that was a survival choice!" I argued. "I had to if I was going to live. The first one I ran into tried to eat me. And the rest of them weren't nearly as welcoming as that guy was."

"Then you've written off their existences as nothing?"

"They're the ones who did this! They attacked the city, they killed your officers, they probably killed more civilians, they took a train hostage, and tried to run it into a ravine with me on it! I had to kill them, considering that they were a threat! I did my job... and failed at it."

Luna pulled my head up to face her. I could see a menacing scowl on her face as she spoke. "Failure would've resulted in your death. Failure would've resulted in many more deaths. Your actions have done nothing more than prevent the additional deaths of innocent lives. I don't believe 'failure' would be the best word for this outcome. You've lost the life of one stallion, who may have already died by the time you arrived. And if you think you've endured failure, then I would like for you to walk in my hoofprints for a while."

"Since when did you fail?"

"Since I dismissed Shining Armor's claims of changelings being in the southern Badlands a few months ago. It was because of my error in judgement that we lost so many. My error has caused many politicians to turn against my sister, despite her efforts to rebuild. They all cast her as some incompetent ruler, without even knowing the truth of the matter... And despite all of that, she still won't let me speak on it to anypony. The only thing she wants to do is protect me and her subjects."

So... That day I was informed that the mirror was completed, Shining walked into Luna's office and told her that the changelings were primed to attack at any given moment. I remember overhearing their talk with one another about it. I even heard the last little bit of the exchange between one of the other guards that accompanied him. And even he dismissed him for being spiteful for the attacks on his wedding day. In this case, Shining was actually the boy who cried wolf.

And this time, he got it right.

"I understand. Nobody was expecting them to attack, especially considering that they were defeated two years prior."

"Two years ago, they also attacked Ponyville without warning. They kidnapped three foals in the process, those three being the siblings of the element bearers."

You've got to be kidding me. Did she really mean that... "Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle were all kidnapped?"

"Yes. And I had to combat some rather disturbing dreams they had as well. And similar to what I did for them, I will do for you."

I felt myself magically being lifted up off of the bed. Luna began pulling the sheets from underneath me and covering me as she started to tuck me in as I was some sort of child. Not that I was complaining from the experience. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to enter into your dreams. I will alter the landscape so that your mind will be placed at ease rather than reliving the stressful re-simulation of your earlier exploits."

So in short, I was going to be babied from now until dawn. Again, not complaining. "How often do you do this?"

"Many times throughout the night. Many times throughout the week. However many times it takes to ensure that my subjects are well-rested and sound in mind."

I watched as Luna started to turn off some of the lights around the room. She gradually worked her way to the ones beside the bed before stopping with the lamp on the nightstand beside me. "How do I know that this might not get worse?"

"It won't." She stated sternly, completely assured that I was not going to have to wake up in a cold sweat anymore. "Now close your eyes, imagine a blank world where there is nothing but white, visualize yourself in the center of that world, and let sleep take you. I will handle the rest."

As she turned off the final light, I watched as she illuminated the room with just her horn. As her magic continued to light up the room, I began to feel my eyelids become heavy again. I started to take her advice, but when she opened the door, the light she gave off was suddenly extinguished. I knew that I was in a safe place, but for some odd reason, I felt myself finding more comfort under the sheets of my bed.

I closed my eyes shut, trying my hardest to envision a world of nothing but white. I continued to force myself asleep until my mind started to relax. Eventually my eyelids, once clenching shut, had loosened and my body finally succumbed to sleep.

I surrendered all to slumber. And in turn, I was at peace.

My eyes fluttered opened to an unexpected surprise. Somehow, I didn't even notice the purple alicorn getting into my bed and wrapping her hooves around me. She held me a lot closer than usual. Instead of nearly shoving me off the bed, we remained in the center. Both she and I were with significant room. I started to see that she was sound asleep. I looked around the room, taking notice that the sun had climbed high into the sky. This room was a lot different from the one we had in Ponyville. For starters, it was a LOT larger. The bed was still smaller than mine, but it was still amazingly capable of holding both me and Twilight. I guess that's why Canterlot Castle is considered as the loftiest location for dignitaries to lay their weary heads.

As I continued to lay in bed, my mind wandered back to yesterday. Of course it went back to that one event, but only so briefly. Where my mind transitioned to instead was the aftermath. After a long and eventful day, we all finally hauled to Canterlot. And by hauled, I mean flown in from the cliff just outside of the city to the front gates. By the time night had come, we were all accommodated to a few nights at the local inn. But thanks to Twilight pulling a few strings, both of her parents and I were given rooms at the castle. After the strenuous affair, my arms and legs were sore from the fighting while my mind was still running on full-alert. The adrenaline still lingered in my system as I made it into the castle. Celestia and the others greeted us with warm welcomes.

Meanwhile, Luna and Twilight were busy trying to direct the efforts of the clean-up. And by the time she finished her work, she was slowly trudging towards another one of the guest rooms. Her mane was a disheveled mess as she finally walked into the room, slamming the door after herself. It seemed that yesterday was a bit taxing on her as well. Understandably so considering that she couldn't find her parents for a good half of the day.

I looked at the complimentary alarm clock on the nightstand and saw that it was well past nine in the morning.

"Aw shit." I muttered to myself. Instantly, I had pulled myself out of the bed and began frantically getting myself prepared for today's shift. But when I began to enter into the bathroom, I felt something lift me up and levitate me back over to the bed.

"Mmmm..." She stirred. "Get back over here. You're not doing anything today."

I think with there being an attack on our capital, that would warrant me to suit up and get ready for anything else I might run into. Ignoring her suggestion, I walked back to the bathroom. Instead, I was teleported back onto the bed, where a certain purple princess greedily held me against her.

"Noooo. Stay." She wearily commanded.

"Twilight, it's after nine. I need to get moving."

"You follow my orders. And I order you to remain my hugging pillow for the morning."

"Orders denied." I said as I tried to wrestle out of her grip.

"No. You will obey them. I'm not giving you a choice in the matter." She stated as her hooves persisted to hold me against my will.

"With all due respect, princess-"

Finally, she decided to straddle herself over me, her rear end pinning my pelvic region to the bed as her hooves held my chest against the bed. "Now you really don't have a choice in the matter. I told you to stay, and you're going to do just that."

"What if I have a complaint?" I asked quietly, giving her a serious look.

She smiled innocently as she started to wind her hips, causing her soft, purple cheeks to press further into me. "Then I could convince you otherwise."

I started to feel myself becoming a little moistened as she continued rubbing her nethers against my early-morning salute. And if she was going to continue to take me into this direction, I guess I wouldn't mind sticking around.

I'm really starting to feel like a sucker for this whole tease routine.

"You know, you put me through a lot of grief when I saw that train moving." She whispered as she started to pull the covers out and wrap us both underneath.

"That wasn't my fault and you know it." I shot back, causing her to giggle at my being defensive.

"And? You were on the train. If things didn't work out like they did, then not only would I have lost you, but mom and dad as well."

Well, that much is true. Nobody wants to lose so much all at once. "But you didn't though."

"Yeah, I didn't. Which is another reason why I'm really wanting you to stay holed up in this room with me today." She said as she slowly lowered her muzzle towards me. "So now, I can do whatever I want with you today."

"Don't you have to work on clean-up?" I asked as she kissed me softly on my neck.

"That was yesterday. I got the day off for today. Celestia decided that Shining and I did so much yesterday..." She kissed the bare skin of my shoulders, slowly stamping me with moistened seals of her affection. "...and nearly lost so much..." She rose off of me for a brief second to shift herself downward. "...that she offered to give us a brief resting period."

My heart rate began to increase out of anticipation. Her hooves gently traced down my chest and stopped short of my navel. She looked back to me with a mischievous smirk while I began to feel myself becoming somewhat turned on. The purple princess giggled before changing her tactics a bit, slamming her muzzle into my abdomen and blowing against my skin. I shuddered a bit from the ticklish sensation and started to push her downwards to get her off of me. In turn, she used her magic to hold my hands away from her as she continued to blow raspberries into me. Shamefully, I began to laugh at her while she continued to treat me like I was some sort of baby.

Her raspberries, however, turned into kisses again. Only this time, her kisses became agonizingly slow. From time to time, she would nuzzle me as she did. "You know, you can be a bit childish."

"You know, you could be a bit of a tease." I shot back.

"Hmmm... I thought I was just having fun with you. You want me to stop?"

I shook my head in response to her suggestion. "No. By all means, keep doing you."

She took the time to let my hands go as she began to lightly circle her tongue around my navel, causing shivers to wander down my spine and throughout my body. In random intervals, she would take her tongue off of me and blow against the wet circles she created. Normally her breath would be quite warm, but the trails she left made it feel as cold as the north. She licked her lips and resumed her earlier ministrations. My hands started to find their way to her head. Pushing her down towards where I was really wanting her to go.

Yet again, I was withheld by her magic. Only this time, she wrapped them together and placed them against the backboard of the bed. She rose up to give me a stern look. "At my pace, mister. I wouldn't want you to rush."

My arms struggled to get free from her arcane bonds, but their efforts were in vain. "I don't think we have the time to slow-play."

"Well if we don't, then maybe I should stop here." She answered, starting to leave the bed.

"No no no! Take your time!" I was quick to stop her, but foolish to allow myself to fall into another one of her traps. She was going to milk every minute off of the clock just to get me stirred up. And just when I'm all excited, something happens to where she'll leave me with a bad case of blueballs.

It worked every single time. Not to mention that the timing of inconvenience was always too good. I swear it was like she was doing it on purpose when I know she isn't.

Her magic started to redirect itself towards a different location. Instead of holding my hands to the bedpost, she was quietly rubbing against my crotch. And thankfully, my lack of underwear was providing me with some much-appreciated freedom. Her shower of kisses soon descended from my abdomen on down to where they truly belong. She gave me a single peck against my stiffened erection. My body proceeded to shift a bit, becoming restless from the unfamiliar, yet pleasurable, sensation.

As she held me, her magic stimulated me in a way that my hand couldn't. A soft grunt left my lips as my eyes became fixated on the action underneath the sheets. Twilight's eyes looked back up to me, giving me a lustful stare. She hummed happily as she rose back up to greet the tip of my throbbing flesh. Her lips gently seared me while she showered the shaft with all of her adoration. When she reached the bottom, she started to suckle against the fleshy orbs of my manhood. A series of slurps and pops sounded while she continued to use her magic to massage my length.

I writhed in pleasure and closed my eyes as I was taken to another world, one of pleasure. My hands desperately sought her, offering a means of payment for her services. My hands inched along her body, seeking the place she hid from me on a daily basis. But as I went along, I found that in my current position, I was unable to reach any further than her cutie mark. I sat up to give myself some additional distance and allowed my hands to massage the plump purple cheeks she'd often tease me with. She let loose a soft moan against my sex, causing the vibrations of her voice and the heat of her breath set my kindled flame of desire into a raging inferno of obsession.

She rose up once more, this time breathing slowly as she hovered just inches above me. She rose far enough to let me protest her absence, but stopped enough to where she still could surprise me. And that she did with her next performance.

She puckered up, leaning just a few inches away from my quivering form. Her lips allowed a small bead of saliva to form. My eyes widened to what she was threatening to do. As soon as a suitable amount of her fluids pooled from her lips, the small wad started to stretch downwards. Gravity soon took over and pulled against the bead, ultimately severing it from her lips. Her aim was precise as her small little bead landed against the tip of my head, tearing down the side past the flare and slowly making it's way down the side. She looked at me with a menacing smile.

I couldn't resist. One of my hands left her backside, seeking her chin. When I had found what I was aiming for, I pulled her in, locking my lips against hers. She seemed taken by surprise by my sudden aggressive behavior while I ruthlessly pressed against her. My tongue pried her lips apart, seeking hers. When she tried to back away, my other hand held her in place. I parted for a quick breath, and ran back in with my mouth greedily hung open. I sounded out my desire to ravage her via primal grunts and hisses of air. My eyes didn't close out of my desire to see her. I became fixated on her, wanting to ruin her. She looked back at me as I pulled her head against mine.

When I broke away, she was left in a hypnotic daze. In the fraction of a second I started to pull away from her completely, she used her magic to yank me back in. Her tongue plunged into my mouth with severe aggression. Her lips tried to lock me in, but kept failing as I pushed back. She became agitated to the point where she broke off and decided to let her tongue do the work. Mine flickered against hers, fighting her as if we were at war with one another. Once more, our lips met. She started to realize that she was fighting a losing battle when one of my hands gave her pretty purple posterior a firm slap. My palm met with her hide, creating the sound akin to a whip cracking. The impact sent ripples through the purple cheeks. She squeaked through my mouth and broke off long enough to speak.

"I hate you. I hate you so much." She said with a bit off spittle still hanging off of her lip.

"You look absolutely terrible right now." I answered, taking notice of her disheveled mane.

She rolled her eyes and leaned in against me, giving me several smaller kisses. Each kiss she gave me smacked loudly with each separation. After a short while, she gave me one final kiss, her tongue quickly kissing mine. Her body started to shift while she held herself against me. Our lips separated quickly, a bridge of fluid appearing between us briefly before her abrupt separation broke it off. In a motion of wanton ruthlessness, she sank her lips around my sex.

Never have I imagined myself throwing my head back in response to anything sexual. Instead, I moaned loudly as I my hand caressed her neck. My other hand bushed her mane out of the way so that I could enjoy the sight. Her attention was primarily focused on what she was doing. Her head bobbed back and forth, her lips carefully massaging me. But what nearly set me off was the sensation of her broad tongue brushing against my length. Her eyes briefly looked back up to me to see my response. I looked at her, almost appearing in pain as she continued. She quickly pulled off of me to speak.

"You okay?"

"You're way too good at this." I praised while I leaned forward to give her a kiss.

She took my response in stride as she resumed her earlier ministrations. This time, her tongue flickered against the head of my manhood, tickling me all the while. Her magic masturbated me while her tongue continued to swirl around my sex. Her lips soon devoured me. I hissed from her intense methods. My body began to seize up in anticipation of my inevitable climax. Though I cursed myself for being unable to last a bit longer, she was trying her hardest to push me there as quickly as possible.

"Twilight, slow down a bit... ohhh yes."

She kept going at her usual pace. I tried to use my hands to get her attention, but it seemed that she had other plans. She lit her horn and telekinetically pulled my arm back to her plentiful flanks. I used my free hand to grasp at her horn to knock her magic out.

"Ahh!" She screamed out with a blush. She brought her full attention to my face, all with the intention to follow up with my reactions as she vehemently bobbed her head up and down. My hands began to tighten their grip to whatever I held onto. She cried out in pain as I did. When I had looked down, I had noticed that my hand was firmly grasping at her purple cheeks. I threatened to release, but somehow she powered her horn despite my hand being on it and forced me to grab on even harder.

My climax was steadily approaching. My entire body tensed in preparation. My heart started to throb in a rapid pace. My breathing increased as my eyes became fixated on her. And the look she gave me, the powerful stare she gave me that demanded me to let go. The pent-up pressure of me not being able to release for months and months at a time. She didn't even seem to care that I was about to let loose. Instead she kept going. She continued to milk me for every single seed. I trembled as I finally climbed past the point of no return.

"Twilight... Gah!"

*BOOM*

"Morning, you two!"

*Chomp*

"MOOORNING!!!" I screamed in pain as I looked at the mare underneath the sheets. I looked at her with a strained expression. She looked back at me with one of sheer horror and embarrassment. And rightfully so, considering that her mother had just walked in on us. Her eyes widened and watered at the sound of the mare's voice. Obviously, I can see where Shining got his 'disregard-of-privacy-by-plowing-through-your-door-without-even-knocking' from.

"You seem really tense, Nondis dear. You should learn how to loosen up a bit." Velvet stated as she eyed the indigo and purple tail hanging off of the bed. "Same goes for you!"

A light blue magic aura yanked at Twilight's tail, causing her to release the vice-grip hold she had on my manhood. "Hmmmph!" She hummed with surprise.

"You two don't have all day to be sleeping in here. Come on, let's get moving! Get up! It's getting near ten already!" She stated as she trotted to the other side of the bed to pull the covers off of me.

Almost instantly, I had grabbed a pillow to hide myself. Twilight had pulled off of me, trying to take with her any evidence of our early-morning activities. By the time Velvet had yanked off the sheets, the two of us were already covered. But we both also shared the shame and embarrassment of being unveiled at such an intimate moment. Twilight tried to keep from crying, while I was trying to keep this pillow firmly pressed against my crotch. Though it didn't help that I was busy letting loose into the pillow as well.

My first release since my coming into Equestria and I was cumming ropes into a pillow with my girlfriend and her mother watching. Sounds like another one of those 'American Pie' stories that I would not tell to my grandkids. And what had made it worse was that my jittery spasms weren't as subtle as I tried to make them out to be. And Velvet had taken notice of it.

"Wow. It seems like you're really pumping into that poor pillow without any sort of restraint. Was it that good?"

And this mare was going to be my mother-in-law... Currently processing that.

"Twilight." She called out to her daughter. "You seem a bit flushed. Are you okay?"

"Mmmhmm." She nodded to confirm.

"Well if you're okay, then count to twenty."

Damn, she's evil. I can't believe she was making her do this. Twilight shook her head in response. "Hmmhmmm!"

Velvet sat on the bed... in the same exact spot we were just in. The two of us just cringed with embarrassment as we both watched her sit. "Twilight Violet Sparkle, You know that I've raised you better than that."

Twilight dipped her head in shame. I felt so sorry for her.

"And you mister, you should be ashamed of yourself." She said, turning her attention to me. "Engaging in such illicit activity with a mare you haven't even married yet. The thought of it is just downright scandalous!"

"Sorry." I mumbled quietly as I finished off my ruined orgasm.

She returned her attention to the purple mare. "Now as for you, young lady, if you're going to try and perform a cleanup, then you should at least take responsibility for your actions."

Twilight nodded slowly, not even daring to look up to her mother.

"Now both of you face each other."

We both did as we were instructed. As we did, Twilight finally raised her head to me, trying to focus on just me alone.

"Nondis, apologize."

I grimaced as I tightened the pillow on my crotch. "...Sorry."

"Twilight, swallow."

SHE SAID WHAT!? Twilight's eyes grew large from the shock of her mother's command. The purple mare reluctantly looked at me, clenching her eyes closed and swallowed the first few streams of my seed. I could never feel the level of shame Twilight had to go though in that one brief moment. I looked back over to Velvet, who was smiling.

"There you go dear. That wasn't too hard, now was it?"

Twilight grabbed the nearest thing she could use to cover her face. Unfortunately for both me and her, it had to be the pillow I was holding to hide myself. She grabbed the pillow while I called out to her. "Twi- oh fuck..." I instantly facepalmed myself.

She didn't have to bury herself into the side I came on.

"Twilight, if there's one thing you should know in marriage, it is that swallowing your husband's seed is a perfectly normal experience. And in some other cases... I guess snowballing works too."

AND THIS MARE IS GOING TO BE MY MOTHER IN LAW... Attempting to process that.

I covered myself to the best of my abilities. I clasped my hands around my crotch to prevent any unwanted exposure. Especially considering that the door was actually open. I guess it would help us if we somehow changed the subject. "So... what are you doing here?"

"Well, I came her to wake you two up and invite you both to breakfast. I didn't expect my daughter to spoil her appetite, but foals, what can you do?"

I think she had started to bury herself into that pillow a lot more than what I was comfortable with. "Well, do you mind if I kind get dressed? Humans don't like to walk around without any clothes on."

She looked at me curiously. "Well why not? Ponies don't wear clothes to breakfast. And honestly, neither should you."

She really doesn't understand where I'm going with this. "Ma'am-"

"Oh for goodness sake, Velvet! Stop harassing those two!"

I'm really wishing that I had stayed asleep now. As soon as Crescent walked through the door, I could already imagine just how much Twilight wanted to teleport elsewhere. To be honest, I'm more surprised that she didn't do it already. I guess being caught by your parents while you were having sex does tend to have a strong effect on your decision-making. That especially being taken into account from the fact that I'm still sporting teeth marks on my junk. But now seemed like a good time to remind her of that ability.

"Twilight, just how far can you teleport?"

"Would 'half-a-world away' sound decent?" She muffled through the pillow.

"Mind taking me with you?" I suggested as I tried to keep my junk away from peering eyes. More so, from Twilight's all-too curious mother.

"Twilight, excuse your mother. Apparently, she's taken the liberty of busting in on you two despite my proposal to leave you both undisturbed. And a heartfelt apology to you too, sir Nondis. I'm more than certain that you're sharing the same level of embarrassment that my daughter is."

Amazingly, he's pretty cool with me engaging in anything sexual with his daughter. Hell, I'm butt-ass naked and currently trying to hide myself away from both him and his wife. How is he not busting a gasket over this? "I'm sorry for my putting all of us in this precarious situation."

"Don't apologize dear. I didn't mean to walk in just as you were reaching your big finish... I wanted to do so immediately after."

"Mom, dad, how long were you two just outside of our door?" Twilight asked, her voice muffled by the pillow.

"Not very long. We were just passing by when we heard noises." Crescent admitted. "Of course, I told Velvet to leave you two alone." He gave his wife a disappointed look.

"And miss out on the opportunity of learning the mating practices of another sentient species that comes from a different world? Why, the scientific findings would warrant award-winning literature!"

Twilight groaned through the pillow.

"Twilight, put the pillow down." Crescent asked.

She shook her head rapidly. "I'm not leaving from behind this pillow and you know it!"

And I knew exactly why. "Twilight... teleport to the bathroom." I muttered to her.

"Leaving now." She whimpered before she disappeared in a final flash of magenta and white.

As I crept over to the nightstand, I grabbed another pillow off of the bed and shielded myself from view. I pulled open the drawer and grabbed one of the complimentary towels they had in stock. Wrapping my waist and tucking the towel in, I made myself a modified kilt to shield myself from view. At least I was fine until the pony with my clothes came back from the cleaners. "So what's for breakfast?"

Crescent started to pull his wife along towards the door while he answered my question. "Actually, Princess Celestia made yours special. She provided some rather... controversial accommodations for you, being that your dietary supplements would consist of both vegetables and meats of a sorted variety. So your breakfast consists of eggs, pancakes, hashbrowns, and ham."

"That sounds awesome." I said, nearly drooling from the mouth.

"Do you really eat meat?" Velvet questioned me, trying to look even further into my mouth. "Doesn't look like you're equipped to do that."

I held my mouth open and pulled back my cheek to reveal a set of canine teeth. "I know, right? They aren't even that sharp."

Velvet became a little spooked at my reveal. Almost instantly, she backed away. "Okay, I get your point!"

Crescent looked at me for a while before bursting out with laughter. "I knew my daughter always laughed in the face of danger. Never thought she'd fall in love with it."

I felt taken aback by his statements. "I'm not dangerous..." Then again, I'm a well-trained guard capable of using close-quarter combat weapons, with a gun. I'm not exactly the safest thing here. "Well, I don't wanna be dangerous to her. I love her!"

"I know." He answered back. "That's why I'm more than certain that you'll be a good fit for my daughter. Not only can you play the role of a protective lover, but also a menacing guard. You'd be like one of the Lunar Guards, only that your teeth would actually have a preset function rather than being solely for show."

I started to walk towards the door, offering to close it when a maid came to the door with a folded shirt and pair of jeans on a silver platter. A pair of boxers sat on the side. I didn't expect them to come out of the cleaners so soon. But then again, considering that they had magic, I wouldn't be all that surprised if they used a spell or two to get the blood stains out. "Thanks."

The maid gave me a bow before setting out down the hall. Starting with my boxers, I placed my legs through the holes and pulled them underneath my 'kilt'. Following that were my pants. When I only had to button up my pants, I removed the towel and finished fastening my pants on. Lastly, I threw on my shirt and slipped on my shoes by the bed. Finally, I was dressed well enough to walk outside of my room.

"So are you ready to go?" Velvet asked.

"I guess." I answered as I finally made my way out into the hall. Velvet and Crescent followed close behind. But then I stopped myself for a moment to walk back into the room and call on Twilight. "Twi, you okay in there?"

"GO AWAY!" She cried.

Velvet and Crescent overheard the cry of their daughter and held still. I briefly stepped outside to speak with them. "I'll be down in a minute. You two go on ahead."

"Take your time." Crescent was the first to take his leave, but he also took it upon himself to drag his nosy wife with him.

Meanwhile, I closed the door and walked over to the bathroom. As soon as I knocked, Twilight screamed at me again. "I SAID GO AWAY!"

"Twilight, I'm coming in." I said, walking through the door.

When I had entered into the bathroom. I could see Twilight balled up in a corner, hiding her face from me. Obviously she was crying quite a bit. She tried to magically throw a bar of soap at me, but luckily her aim wasn't as great as it was yesterday. "What part of 'leave me alone' don't you understand."

"Well, 'leave' and 'alone' doesn't exactly sit well with me, considering that you're in the middle of that sentence... That and you're currently crying in the corner of a bathroom next to a cum-stained pillow."

"Just go away already!" She tried to throw the pillow she used to hide her face and missed her mark. I was more than relieved that it didn't hit me in the face instead.

I walked over to her and sat beside her. I took a deep breath and rubbed her back as I spoke. "I'm not gonna leave you in here. And I'm not gonna go to breakfast unless you're sitting right beside me. There's no way I'm gonna let you stand in this empty bathroom alone with you crying. You know this."

"I'm so embarrassed... My mom walked in on us... doing... I'll never live it down."

"Yes you will. Because there's much more to life than one awkward moment."

She turned herself to me screaming. "Look at me! You said it yourself, I look a mess!"

Obviously so. The tears and cum stains didn't make it any better. But while she looked at me, I saw much more than what she looked like as of now. I saw who she was as an individual. I didn't see her for the disheveled mane, I saw the down-to-earth girl I met when I had gotten here. I didn't let the mess on her face deter me. She was still beautiful regardless of what she may have looked like. I had gotten to know just how wonderful she was, and because of her, I was more than willing to prove just how much I wanted to be there for her.

True, there would be times where I would go through some rather painful trials, I'd be embarrassed at times, and there would be occasions where I just wanted to take those moments back and rewrite them all over again. But in spite of it all, I would never take back those moments. Some would question me why, but I'd say that if something was worth loving, you'd sooner die for it than die without. If I wanted to live here, in a word where I stood out, where nothing was made with me in mind, then my incentive would've been something long-lasting.

And that long-lasting incentive was spending the rest of my life with this wonderful girl that took me in, who showed me how to leave my former, isolated self behind in pursuit of opening my eyes to the world. This mare who changed my entire existence and what it stood for.

And I would be damned if I saw her cry.

I stood up from the floor and walked over to where the pillow was, picked it up and screamed as I plunged myself face-first into the stained side... The things I do for love.

"What are you doing?" I heard Twilight ask me through the pillow.

"You know... I kinda know why you kept your face in here for so long. You know that feeling when you do something so stupid and disgusting that you can't do nothing but stand frozen in place, shocked that you actually did it? Yeah... that."

Twilight started to giggle at me as I still held the pillow to my face. "You okay."

"I'm fine. Just... horrifically mortified."

She tried to pull the pillow from my face. I gladly resisted. "Come on, let me see."

"NO!" I shouted through the pillow.

Finally she teleported the pillow somewhere else, leaving me only with the open space between my hands and my face. As soon as she got a good look of my face, she snickered for a bit. It took her a minute to start going from snickering, to snorting, to giggling, and finally full-blown laughter.

"Yeah, laugh it up, dammit." I said as I looked away with a blush so red, Big Mac would turn green with envy.

Twilight pointed at me as she struggled to breathe. "You've... got a little... something... BWAHAHAHAHA! I-I... BAHAHAHAHA! CAN'T BREATHE! HAHAHAHAHA!!!"

I can see she's feeling quite better already. "...It's my cum, so it doesn't matter!" Somehow, that didn't make me feel any better about myself.

Her laughter only seemed to intensify. Of course, her laughter became contagious to me overtime. I started to share my laughter in turn. Especially considering the statement I made about it being my cum. Indirectly, I just came on my own face. It's supposed to be the exact opposite. And yet the irony of the situation only made it all the more hilarious.

My entire face turned red, not just from the shame of having my own cum on my face, but the absurdity of it all. It was disgusting and downright wrong. And Twilight was not going to let me live this down.

As soon as we started to wind down a bit. I walked over to the sink and started running some warm water onto a rag. I proceeded to look for that bar of soap she threw at me just moments earlier. "Twilight Sparkle, we will never speak of this again. Not ever."

She grabbed the rag from me. "Aww! Just let me have this moment, please?"

"No. This moment is to be forgotten."

"I'll love you forever!" She pleaded.

"Not even once." I stated sternly.

"Pwease!?" She asked me, giving me the puppy-dog eyes.

I tried to look away, but instead, she'd teleport herself to me, forcing me to look at her. And for every second she spent making that face at me, I felt my willpower crumble into literally nothing. I sighed heavily and mumbled in a low voice. "This will be between just the two of us. Deal?"

She giggled a bit as she handed me the wet rag. "Deal."

Before I could get started washing my face, she tilted my head to the side and gave me a long and passionate kiss on the lips. She smiled at me as she whispered to me. "You look absolutely terrible right now."

Author's Note

This chapter was written at a bit of a slower pace, so I apologize if it seemed like it dragged on for some. Stay tuned for the next chapter.

Also, Velvet is a bit of a bugaboo, isn't she?

Chapter XXIV

Twilight and I walked out of the bathroom with cleansed faces, as well as a brand new sense of adoration for one another. She loved me for my desire to stay by her side, no matter how sticky the situation. And I loved her for just who she was, the semi-social bookworm that kicks ass. Even despite the earlier situation, she found the strength to look me in the eye.

Not to mention that she was constantly apologizing for giving the little guy below the belt a good jawing.

I wasn't deterred, though it would take some time for me to warm up to the idea of her performing oral on me again. But I still loved her nonetheless. She could be horrible in bed, a terrible cook, or a pony who had a busy schedule, but none of that would still make me leave her. After all, I didn't come all this way for ulterior motives.

And let's be honest, if I was careless, selfish, and flippant, I would've left her in pursuit of one of her friends as a rebound. Hell even thinking about it makes me wanna punch myself in the face. The last thing I'd wanna be is Caramel 2.0.. The last thing I'd wanna do is run into another one of him, let alone becoming one myself.

After we had left the room. We walked further down the hall, made our way downstairs and entered into the hall just outside of the dining room. Twilight received a few bows from two of the guards that stood beside the door. But as I approached, the guards weren't so compassionate. I guess word of my eating meat isn't exactly the best news they heard for the week, considering the attacks from yesterday. Ignoring them, I made my way into the dining room.

In the words of a familiar, bald yellow man I used to watch in my childhood days: LOOK HOW LOUD I HAVE TO YELL!

This place was monumentally huge. I think the ceiling was a full three stories high. The room reached what could've been from one end of Applejack's barn to the other end, reaching just outside of the doorway. In the center was a large table filled with assorted meals. A majority of the food was something along the lines of being oat or hay based. Princess Celestia sat the end of the table, sipping on a warm cup of tea. Luna sat next to her, casually reading the newspaper for anymore news aside from the events that transpired yesterday.

And due to the fact that yesterday's news was today's international headlines, one could assume she was hiding herself in that newspaper for obvious reasons. Shining Armor and Cadance sat to the princesses' left. Velvet and Crescent were already seated to their right, waving both of us over. Both Twilight and I blushed at the two unicorns at the table. Our reasons for feeling somewhat bashful were rightfully justified. As soon as we made our way towards the nearest two open seats, a maid pulled our chairs out for us, waited for us to be seated and laid out our glasses, plates, and silverware. When I had sat down, the maid that served me seemed a bit timid to see me.

Then again, I was the only non-equine being in the room. I guess that's something to feel a bit uneasy at. I ultimately decided to pay it no mind as Twilight whispered out my name. I looked towards her as she sat directly across from me. She mouthed her words to me. "I love you."

I decided to mouth her back. "I love you more."

She became a little flustered at my response. She decided to up the ante. "I love you twice as much."

I accepted the challenge she offered to me. "I love you times infinity."

"Do you two need a room again?" Velvet asked, causing us both to become red-faced. We both looked to her, watching her drink her tea as if she hadn't said anything at all.

As we both calmed down for a bit, the doors to the dining room opened to reveal a white unicorn with a golden mane. I had grown to identify who he was by appearance. He was none other than Prince Blueblood. "Good morning to all." He casually spoke as he started to take his seat directly next to me. He turned his attention to Princess Celestia. "Auntie, would you mind if I dine with company this morning."

"Not at all." She answered softly.

Blueblood turned his head to the door and called out. "Wives, please sit yourselves."

Almost like an assembly line, the seven mares, each with outrageous manes and wigs took up a chair and sat themselves on either side of the table. A few of the mares started to fight over who would sit in front or beside him. Thankfully, Celestia's presence was more than a discouraging factor to keep their infighting at a minimum. Cadance and Shining Armor shook their heads at the absurd collection of mares the unicorn prince invited. It seems that they weren't having their shit either. And who could blame them?

"So, is the human eating with us this morning?" Blueblood asked, somewhat in a condescending tone.

"He will. And I expect him to do so without being scrutinized. So if you manage to see something that you don't agree with, feel free to talk with me after the meal." It seems that Celestia was fixated on trying to make me feel comfortable. I understand that my dietary options are controversial to many, but I don't think she'll have to worry too much about that.

"So, Sir Nondis, did you sleep well?" Luna asked as she lowered the newspaper to look at me. "Did your dreams trouble you any further from the time I left last night?"

Twilight's eyes snapped to Luna. It appears that she was dumbfounded that Luna visited me in the wee hours of the morning. Though this wasn't her being jealous... or at least that's what I'm thinking. I answered her question. "Yeah. I've slept pretty nicely. I didn't know you had the abilities to change dreams like that."

"Actually," Twilight began. "Princess Luna's abilities go beyond changing dreams. She can create brand new dreams. She can also dive into one's consciousness and speak with them there. She could even obtain some pretty useful information that way."

"Though that would be for special occasions." Luna added.

Though that did raise a few questions. "So stupid question. Can you speak with the dead?"

Blueblood scoffed at me, shaking his head. "Of course not! She's not a shaman of some sort. Not even Starswirl the Bearded could master such magic. To do so would be to delve into necromancy."

And given his response, I guess that must be a bad thing. "So... Speaking with the dead is a big no-no?"

"Indeed." Celestia concluded. "To do so would be to disrupt the natural order of life and death. The boundaries between the two realms are to never be crossed. Otherwise, dark, sinister magic could corrupt the normal magic of the living, changing them forever."

"So what do you call it?" I asked.

"Simply dark magic." Velvet contributed. "If one is a practitioner of that magic, their bodies could drastically change. Their wings could deteriorate and reform as something unsightly. Their horns could curve and become discolored. Their bodies can become quite frail. Not to mention they would need to feed on powerful magic in order to survive."

That seems a bit high-risk for learning how to delve into the void between the two planes of existence. But if one was to tread that line, then I suppose the risks would warrant the results. But why would one dare to go so far? "So, are there any others who's mastered this magic? Just to be curious."

"There were quite a few practitioners of that art." Cadance explained. "However, when many of them started to see the consequences of learning that magic, they turned away from it, forever marred by it. Even fewer became regular users, that is until their bodies decided to crumble away or deteriorate. And even up to this day, there are only two who could ever be considered as masters of the art."

"And those two are?" I inquired.

"One was a powerful unicorn of the north. He continued to practice his magic and find alternatives to bypassing the side-effects of the process. His body remained somewhat stable over time. And his magic was so powerful that he could enslave an entire race. As far as his real name, nopony knows what it is. But he proclaimed himself to be the king of the north. King Sombra of the Crystal Empire."

Twilight seemed to shudder a bit at his name. Wow, even she's a bit shaken up from it. I had to know more about this guy. "So what was his deal?"

"Everything." Shining added. "He enslaved the Crystal Empire, sent the ponies into slumber by the time Princess Celestia and Princess Luna arrived, holding their consciousness hostage. And not only did he hold the consciousness of the ponies who stayed there, he also held the city hostage as well. And even when he was defeated the first time, well over a thousand years ago, he was banished within the ice of the north, forever to be a shadow. However, he took the city and it's citizens with him, vanishing into thin air."

That means that he could've been a recurring problem. "I couldn't help but notice that you said 'the first time he was defeated'. But were there any others?"

"Only a second one." Twilight added. "When Spike and I found the Crystal Heart, an ancient artifact known to spread love and magic throughout all of Equestria, he threatened to enslave us as well. However, Spike managed to retrieve the artifact, and he delivered it to Princess Cadance. Once she placed the heart where it belonged, the city started to regain it's former glory, and Sombra was defeated a second time."

"So, did he ever come back?"

Cadance hummed as she looked towards the group of servants entering into the dining room with fresh food. "Remember when we were talking about how dark magic can ultimately destroy the body? Well despite taking shortcuts and alternate routes to receive his power, Sombra's body was still significantly weakened. So when the blast of magic surged forth from the Crystal Heart, his body could no longer stand against it. He shattered into many fragments, never to be seen again."

What a way to go. I see that he didn't manage to make it to his monologue about how he conquered everything that the good guys stood for. "That unfortunate for him. So there's one of these 'masters' left now?"

Shining Armor looked to his wife. She closed her eyes and drew a breath before she started.

"A long time ago, before I was a princess, I was taken in by a village of earth ponies. From what I was told, I was originally found in the woods."

"Did your parents ever come and get you?" I asked.

"No. I don't know who my parents are. But that's a story for another time."

I decided to remain silent as she carried on.

"So when I grew ten years later, I had encountered a pretty disturbing issue. The ponies that took me in began to fight with one another. And as time progressed, the whole village began to argue and fight. The small, peaceful town I grew to love and call home had suddenly turned dark. But that when I had noticed that there was an unusual pony, a unicorn to be exact, that would walk through the village with a shiny red amulet. As soon as she walked through, I saw an eerie mist slighter across the ground, all of it being absorbed into her. I ran as far away as I could, running faster and faster until I had run into a cave. But just when I though I was safe... I wasn't."

Cadance started to clench her eyes as she tried to prevent the tears from rolling down her face. Thankfully, her efforts were not in vain. I already knew that this was going to be painful for her to disclose. I was going to motion her to stop there, but she continued anyhow.

"When she finished trying to instill her hatred and jealousy into me, I still remained pure. So she decided to take things even further, to push me to hate her so that she could feed off of my love... In short, I had lost my innocence that day, in more ways than one. But I still stood up to her, showing her that I still had the love in my heart. When I had went back into the village, I ran back crying into my caretakers' hooves. I began to share the love I had for them with them. And soon they found the light of my love, burning through the darkness that clouded their way. I did this for every villager, and gave them all my love and appreciation."

"So what happened to the unicorn?"

"Prismia, the unicorn that tried to corrupt the village, started to walk through the town once more. But when she realized that her magic wasn't taking it's usual effect, she stood in the town square and shouted for the villagers to hate one another. And that's where I stood up to her. She screamed and shouted over how I should be in contempt over what she did to me, how I should blame the other villagers for not saving me when I needed them the most, but she was wrong. I had no reason to blame them for something that they didn't do. Instead, I showed them just how much they meant to me. And that love resonated throughout every pony in that village. She stood there, weakened from the lack of love she absorbed and converted into hatred. So she began to deteriorate before our very eyes. And when she was too weak to hold her amulet, she ran off."

"So it's safe to say that she died?" I asked, trying to piece it together.

"If only it was that easy. She continued to travel throughout the lands, stealing the love from every individual stallion she met. She would meet up with a lonely, heartbroken stallion, make his dreams come true, give him a foal and suck him dry. This entire process continued for well over a few decades. To this day, legend says that she rests in the Southern Badlands, raising all of the foals she had from every stallion. And when they grew old enough, she'd mate with them, producing offspring at an insurmountable rate. Never ceasing, never resting, she continued this until she built an army of deformed drones. All of whom could feed off of the love of other unsuspecting ponies."

Feeding off of the love of others. That made me think back to what I heard on the train. I overheard the changeling captain say something about feasting on the love of a family. It began to add up. "Feeding off of the love of others... The changelings?"

"Correct." Cadance confirmed as her plate was set before her.

"So if Prismia is the birth-mother of the hive, then is it possible that she could be running the whole entire operation?" I questioned, wanting more of an insight of the matter.

"Not possible." Celestia summarized. "Their leader attacked us directly two years ago. If anything, the notion of them having multiple leaders would be nothing short of irrational."

"And yet Equestria has four." I pointed out. "Hell, two if you wanna get into the absolute-power thing."

"But we all bear different titles." Twilight rebutted as she started to prepare herself for her meal. "Both Cadance and I are municipal leaders. Cadance has the Crystal Empire, and I have Ponyville. Celestia and Luna both bear the burden of changing the day itself."

"And furthermore, their leader was considered as a 'queen'. That would mean there's only one to hold that title." Crescent added. "You may have multiple princess carrying out multiple burdens, but never more than one queen."

"Ugh! That holey, buggy, ugly parasite-of-a-queen Chrysalis. To think that she had the gall to ruin my son's wedding." Velvet added, sounding unusually serious.

"She literally locked me in a crystal room and had me watch as she did all sorts of illicit things with my Shining Armor!" Cadance ranted.

"And she tried to pass the buck, making me seem like I was the evil one." Twilight hissed.

"Not to mention she inflicted harm unto my older sister." Luna also ranted.

"And though I'm not one for complaints but she also threatened my subjects, in front of me to start." Celestia stated as she received her food.

Something tells me that she wasn't exactly on the invite list for this morning's breakfast. "So... She's bad news?"

"Of course!" All five mares yelled out in unison.

Blueblood cleared his throat. "Well, to be fair, she did look rather attractive for one of her ilk."

Of course, he just had to be that guy.

Crescent simply facehoofed while I performed my own human variant. Practically every mare in attendance stared menacingly at the unicorn prince. Even his seven wives seemed ready to take up whatever silverware lied in front of them and shove it into various orifices of his body. Sure hope he's into sounding with forks and spoons.

The room stayed silent for a moment while Shining Armor turned to the side, cringing as he whispered to himself. "Awk-ward."

The breakfast with the royals left me feeling somewhat uncomfortable. It wasn't the fact that I was dining with the ponies in charge of running the country, as I felt completely fine with that. But when it came to eating a slice of ham around a vegetarian crowd, the atmosphere can get a little thorny. That was definitely the case when it came to the wives of Prince Blueblood. Most of them spoke under their breath, exchanging glances and insults at me for eating meat. After a few minutes, I decided to dine on the other side of the table on the far end of the room. Twilight went after me and tried to convince me to come back. I gracefully declined due to the others feeling uncomfortable and simply remained where I was.

My diet was something that I'd often kept silent about around other ponies. I've always been self-conscious of that.

Celestia soon came over to speak with me and took her seat directly beside me. Twilight sat on the other side as I tried to carry on with my meal. I managed to finish, but an odd sensation took me as I walked past the others, dismissing myself from the room. But before I could leave, Celestia summoned me to the end I originally sat at. She made a decree that if I was in Canterlot, I was to share my meals in her presence.

She also took notice of the mares and dismissed them permanently. Blueblood was not too pleased about that, but he accepted the decree out of respect. Cadance and Shining Armor went along to the infirmary ward to interrogate the changeling we caught on the train yesterday. And being that I had went through a lot just to get off of that train alive, I was going to get some answers. And despite Twilight's objections to take it easy, I tagged along with Shining in search of answers.

By the time we arrived, guards were changing out posts. The ones that were originally assigned to protect our main lead left out to lunch. Another two guards came by and set themselves in place. Meanwhile, the three of us went inside and saw the changeling bandaged up and cuffed to the bed. He gave us a smirk as we entered.

"So which one of you is going to give me my sponge bath today?"

Shining sat next to the creature and stared back with an icy demeanor. "You know, I could use you as a sponge to mop up the blood off of the counsel room floor. But that would defeat the purpose being that I'd be putting your blood on the floor instead."

The changeling seem undeterred by the stallion's comment. Cadance walked up to the other side and placed a tray at his side. "And a hello to you too. Perhaps you feel a little hungry?"

Apparently there were playing good cop/bad cop. It's obvious which one Cadance was going to play. The changeling smirked back at her. "And maybe you'd like to feed me? I could go for some homecooked loving right now. I also love the handcuffs. Very kinky."

Wow. I had to give this little guy props, he had balls. Shining Armor didn't like his comment too much, but he did manage to withhold himself from tossing the changeling out of the nearest window, to say the least. "That's my wife you're talking to, you ugly-"

"Shining. Mind your manners." Cadance said as she leaned in on the changeling. "So, here's how this is gonna go. You tell me what I want to hear, and I'll let you go."

I nearly dropped off the face of the planet when she said that. "Excuse me?"

"Let me finish." She responded, turning her attention back to the changeling. "And also, if you work with us, we might just decide to send you off to the Badlands without any complications."

"Badlands? Why would I go there?" The creature squawked.

Shining magically grabbed the changeling by the neck and pulled him in. "Because staying here would mean that I would have to kill you myself."

The changeling rolled his eyes. "Look, I'm starved, I lost a lot of blood, I'm nowhere near the hive, and I'm captured by Equestrian forces. To me it sounds like I'm well on my way out here."

He's got a point there.

"But it doesn't have to be this way." Cadance suggested as she reached over the bed and gave her husband's horn a light tap to knock out his magic. "I'm offering you a chance to work with us. And in exchange, I'll ensure that you go back to your hive fully mended and fed."

"Look, the only way I can eat is if I feed on love or meat. And I seriously doubt that you have any meat on hoof."

I chuckled a little bit at his statement. "Actually... they kinda do."

"Wait, what?" The changeling appeared to look at me with confusion.

"What can I say?" I pulled back my cheek and opened my mouth to reveal my teeth, complete with canines. "My species can actually eat meat. Though we prefer to roast it over an open fire." I let go of my cheek and proceeded to wipe my fingers off on my shirt. "But that does bring up a point, how does changeling meat taste?"

"From what I heard the dragons say, not very palatable." The changeling said.

"That's bullshit. All we need is a bit of salt, some pepper, a bit of garlic-"

"Nondis, we don't need to hear about your dietary preferences here." Shining said as he seemed a bit disturbed from the levels I manage to transcend to. I guess I overdid it. "We're trying to find out about why they attacked us yesterday."

"Yeah, I know. I just thought that maybe he'd like some motivation." I answered back.

"That's not how you interrogate, sweetheart." Cadance said while she leaned back down to his ear. "You see, motivation is like..."

*WHAM*

I stared slack-jawed as she planted her hoof firmly against his muzzle, knocking his head back into the pillow. He cried out in pain, trying to reach for his nose. But the cuffs that bound him to the bed kept him locked in place. "OWW! WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?"

Cadance continued to wear her bright and cheery smile. "I thought you said you were hungry! I'd be more than willing to give you a bit of love."

Obviously, Cadance was not the one playing 'good cop' here. The changeling continued to express his discomfort. "That doesn't feel like love at all!"

"Well I call it tough love, the best love there is."

Shining nodded sagely in compliance. "And she's the princess of love. She knows all kinds of love."

I became curious and started asking questions to further add tension to the situation. "So does that mean she knows 'insane love?'"

"She does. She's gotten jealous of Twily at times too. Kinda scary."

"So does she practice BDSM?"

"Ball-and-cock torture is her favorite."

Cadance went back to the tray and pulled off a monkey wrench and waved it in front of the changeling's face. "Maybe he'd like a sample. I'd love it when they scream for me through my special little toy."

"What toy?" The creature asked worriedly.

"Oh... you know. My ball-gag for my husband. I was thinking about using it for our session tonight, but I guess he'll have to wait for his punishment."

Shining placed a hoof on his chin and thought aloud. "You know, I never tried cuckolding. That sounds pretty fun to me."

These two play entirely too well off of each other. The looks in their eyes, the grins they wore, the glances the made at each other, it was like they were one in the same. It was terrifying. And obviously, the changeling agreed with me. "Okay! I got orders from the Queen! She sent the contingent here to scope out some useful candidates for the feeding!"

Wow, he broke before she even got started.

Cadance looked back at Shining Armor, giving him a nod as she placed the monkey wrench on the tray she brought in earlier. Shining took over from there. "Go on."

"Look, we needed food. We can't keep feasting on pony rations all the time. Our bodies don't derive nutrients from oats and hay all that well. In fact, our Queen would often stay up at night, wondering how she would be able to feed her colony. And every one of those nights, we'd watch her cry and-"

"You know, I've heard enough sappy stories for one day." I stated as I bowed my head to Cadance. "No offense."

"Non-taken." She said nonchalantly.

Shining levitated the monkey wrench off of the tray. "Yeah, I'm with him. So hurry up and get to the point, please. We have a city to help rebuild."

The changeling nodded hurriedly. "Right! So when she sent out our orders, she gave us our plans and told us what each squad should do. And when we had finished with debriefing, we started to head out and train ourselves for the offensive."

"So I'm to assume that the offensive was actually a distraction?" Shining said as he waived the wrench slowly across his face.

"Yes! We were using it as a distraction to round up individuals that could prove useful to the Queen!"

I walked toward him, wearing nothing but a bitter scowl on my face. I yanked him by his scraggly horn and lifted him up to eye level. "And in the process, you eliminated several commanding officers from their posts. Not only did you knock out all means of transport, but you also decided to kill passengers on the train as well. If you ask me, there's a lot more in play here. I suggest that you tell me what your real objective is, or was considering that your guys got your collective asses whopped from here to Appleloosa."

"It was a distraction! Nothing more! I swear!"

I took a deep breath, pulled out my own tool and placed it firmly against his skull. "You remember this little thing, don't you?"

His eyes widened at the sight of the gun I used to kill his officer being held next to his head. It seemed that he understood what it's primary function was. "..." He remained in a panicked silence.

"I'm sure your boys would tell you what it does, but last I checked they're at the bottom of a ravine right now. Now if you don't want to join them, then I suggest that you speak up now... or forever hold your peace. Either way is fine with me."

"...I-"

I decided to turn up the heat a bit. I pressed the barrel even further against his skull, giving him the impression that I was anxious to kill him. "I think you may wanna speak up a bit. Unless you're scared."

"Meep..." He squeaked out as he tried to move his head out of the way. I continued to grab his horn, shoving him against the gun.

"Now you have until the count of three before I blow your brains all over this bed."

"I... I..."

"One. Tell me what your objective is! Tell me now before I kill you!"

The changeling started to wiggle and writhe out of his cuffs, but his efforts were in vain. "Do you wanna tell me what you're hiding!? Because I can certainly blow that shit all over this pillow. Oh, and in speaking of which..." I removed my hand from his horn, grabbing the pillow he was going to rest on. I shoved it over his face and held the gun directly on top of it, making sure that the shot would align with his head. "Here, I'll give you one last chance! You tell me what your objective was or I send your ass back in a tupperware container alongside a can of bug spray! You've got until I count down from five!"

The changeling squirmed and wiggled as he tried to scream through the pillow. "But... I was only following orders!"

I screamed at him as I held the pillow firmly against his face. "FIVE..."

"Please, I just did what I was told!"

I elevated my voice, this time making it sound as if I was itching to pull the trigger. "FOUR-THREE..."

"Wait! That's too fast!"

I smothered the pillow into his face, pushing the gun along with it. "TWO..."

"It was for the hive! I swear!"

This time, I pressed the barrel into the pillow just enough that he could feel it. I screamed as loudly as I could. "ONE! TIME'S UP-"

"OUR COMMANDER, HE SENT US HERE! IT WASN'T THE QUEEN! OUR COMMANDER WANTED REVENGE!"

Cadance, Shining, and I all stood silent for a moment, caught off-guard from the changeling's answer. I pulled the pillow away from his face and put the gun away. As I did, Shining looked at the weapon with curiosity running through his mind. I didn't pay him no mind as I continued to question the changeling. "Okay... Your commander wanted revenge for what?"

The changeling shook a bit as he stared at me, scared that I would send him out the same way I did with his other compatriots. "H-h-he wanted t-to get revenge f-f-for the... the um... the invasion from two years back!"

I kinda tilted my head from the response I received. Why would anyone want to go to such a grand scale for revenge? It's one thing for killing off some of our guys but it's another thing when you just go all out and target the higher-ups. Had it really been their queen that sent the order, it would mean war. Perhaps it was intentional? "Okay, so what was this so-called revenge plan?"

"He wanted to have revenge for the failure of taking the city. Two years ago, our queen hatched a plan to take over the entire realm so that we could repurpose it for food. See, what happened-"

Cadance cut him off, staring back at me. "Let's skip to the now, please. I'm well-aware of what the story is and how it ends."

The changeling looked back at Cadance with anger, almost in complete disbelief. "Do you really know how the story ended for us?" He hissed in a low tone.

"Yes." She stated. "Last I remember, Shining and I cast our spell and shot your queen and her army a fair distance away. My wedding, our special day was ruined because your queen decided to become my impostor and marry my husband."

The changeling lashed back at Cadance. "Sure, your ending was all happy and care-free."

Cadance reared her hoof back, readying to strike him with all of her might. "Care-free? Our honeymoon was cancelled because we had to help with rebuilding efforts. We had dozens of families we had to apologize to because of you! I had to comfort a mother who lost her foal because of rubble!"

"That's it!? We lost almost an entire army! Only a few dozen remained out of what was a force of over a thousand! You lose a few lives because of indirect consequence. We lose several hundred of our best because of you two!"

I decided to cut in. "I'm still trying to get an understanding on why you needed to target top military officials. Can you explain that before you two go back to arguing?"

The changeling scoffed at the princess, tooting his muzzle at her as he turned his attention to me. "You wanna know why? Because it just so happens that one of those high-ranking officials were responsible. If you want to know more, then you should ask that stallion right next to you."

I looked at Shining, who looked back at the changeling with rage. He also stepped in and began questioning. "So you didn't think to target me instead? Instead of going for just me, you decided to go for all of our top-brass?"

"The commander was more than willing to absolve you as long as we crippled your ranks. You were just a cherry on the top, an offering to our beloved queen."

Cadance didn't hold back as she magically yanked the changeling by his throat. "My husband..." She forcefully spat at him. "Will not be offered to that ugly whore! So you can tell that bitch to leave what's mine to me."

Wow. The pretty, pink Princess Cadance made a swear... I have never seen Cadance this angry. She seemed as if she was a tug away from removing his trachea while she shook with anger and leaned in on him. She started to bear her fangs at the changeling, but the creature remained undeterred. Instead, he fought through her grasp and shot back at her. "She's more mare than you'll ever hope to be."

Cadance's expression twisted as she slammed the changeling back onto the bed. She looked over to the tray and grabbed at the monkey wrench, hoping to knock his legs inside out, but Shining held her down and prevented her from going full-in. Cadance had a unsettling glimmer in her eye, almost as if she was ready to kill him on spot.

Correction, I don't think I've ever seen Cadance any more angry than she is at this very moment.

I decided to take my attention back to the matter at hand. "Let's get back on track. Your commander wanted to cripple our military so that you guys could come back in and make a second go for the city?"

The changeling coughed as he tried to speak. "Actually, *ahem* we already took over the city *cough* the first time, or we were pretty close. We wanted to make up for what should've been, and that was our victory over Equestria."

"And yet you still lost?" I summarized.

"Because of those two." He said as he scowled at the two royals staring back at him. "But Canterlot isn't the only place our commander had his eyes on. Shortly after, our Queen finished mourning for our fallen and found a village of smaller creatures, filled with just enough love to revitalize her strength. And shortly after, she tried to go for a consolation prize."

I started to become somewhat concerned for where he was going. What was this consolation prize? "And that would be?"

"She tried to take a small town south of here. It was a place where there was more than enough love to feed our entire colony. As long as we had that little town to farm our love from, we could replenish our numbers and strength quickly. We'd be able to challenge Celestia once more."

A small town south of here? He didn't mean... "And your commander wants to make a second attempt for that town?"

The changeling laughed weakly, still recovering from being choked by Cadance. "He's probably attacking it right now. Poor little ponies don't stand a chance without a decent system in place."

And of course... That means that our being trapped here in Canterlot would only slow our response. And killing off our chain of command would only slow us even more. The rebuilding efforts... no way... He was right. This whole thing was one gigantic distraction. His earlier reason being absolutely bogus, I had figured as much, but this was even worse. That's why they were all running away in droves yesterday. And by blowing the bridge from here to the mountain, we'd have an even slower ability to mobilize our defenses towards any town. Add in the rebuilding efforts along with search and rescue, then we'd be left with little manpower to counter their next attack.

They could be attacking Ponyville right now and we wouldn't even be able to do anything about it.

"Cadance, Shining, we gotta move!" I said as I walked towards the door.

The frustrated princess turned back to me. "What's wrong?"

"They're going for Ponyville."

Shining sighed in disbelief. "And the bridge is out, meaning we'd have no way to get out of this damn city."

The princess hurried behind me as Shining started to trail behind her. She placed a hoof on my shoulder to get my attention. "There's another way out. But it's pretty risky."

"You have some sort of emergency escape tunnel for when the city's going under?" I asked.

"Several. They all run under and through this mountain. I remember the way in, but getting to the base of the mountain, that's something else entirely."

"Why not use one of the chariots?" Shining asked.

"The chariots are being used to carry supplies and tools for the reconstruction effort. They're all rented out."

"Fuck." I shook my head in defeat. "So we'd literally have to hoof it from here?"

"Yeah. But I'm not the only one who knows how to navigate the caves. Twilight knows the caves better than I do, at least she still remembers the way out should we get lost." Cadance added.

Shining continued to keep a calm composure as he turned back over to look at the bed-ridden changeling. "So what do we do about him?"

"Oh, right." Cadance walked back over to him stopping short of his bed.

The changeling looked at the princess oddly. "What now?"

"Oh, I'm sorry sweetie. I just wanted to wish you well and make sure that you'd get plenty of rest." Shortly after finishing her statement, she cocked a hoof back and gave the creature a powerful blow to the muzzle, knocking him unconscious. After, she walked back to the door and took the lead. "Okay, let's go."

She's Umbridge-levels of scary. And this mare was going to be my sister-in-law. Currently processing that.

It didn't take us long to notify Princess Celestia and Princess Luna of what we had found out. The moment we told them, it seemed that their reaction was somewhat calm. I guess being around for a thousand, you'd get used to things like this. But at the same time there was an unsettling scowl on their faces. It didn't matter how long they lived, they would still protect their subjects for the sake of the future of Equestria.

They were rulers, they were taught to remain calm in times of great turmoil. But Twilight, being still relatively new to royalty, did not react so calmly. She immediately stormed out of the room and vehemently trotted down the hall.

Shortly after, we notified them of what we were going to do. They held no objections to our plan, giving us the green-light to do what was necessary to protect Ponyville. Shining, Cadance, and I all made our way down the hall. As we hurried along, Twilight came running to us, letting us know how angry she was that she couldn't request any guards to accompany us due to the security risk of a second attack on the city.

The changeling did tell us that they would attack the city another time if the opportunity came.

Finally calming down, she traveled with us, guiding us down the halls of the castle, into a storage closet. When she moved a mop out of the way, she pulled a large metallic ring that connected to a set of floorboards. When the way was opened, she was the first to walk down. I walked alongside her, or attempted to, trying to calm her. Instead, she was becoming even more impatient with our pace and decided to speed up the process.

Cadance and Shining ran after the young princess and collaborated on which was the quickest route down the mountain. Shining tried his best, but his knowledge of the caves only led to another way going towards the waterfalls down below. Cadance and Twilight thought about just flying there, but they quickly reconsidered that idea, stating that neither Shining nor I could fly. I offered to hop on one of their backs and hold on until we got there, but I weighted too much to make it a quick trip and Shining was not to fond of being magically held by his younger sister at a height where clouds were a normal occurrence.

Twilight and Shining both thought about teleporting all of us to Ponyville, but Cadance brought up the fact that Shining was still somewhat recovering from our duel. And any significant amount of magical stress could result in re-injury. And Twilight was not powerful enough to poof us all there at once. She'd have to do it several times, sending us several feet from one end to the other. And that would only mean that she'd nearly KO herself from performing the spell with so many bodies so many times. It would be much easier for her to do just herself. It would be a lot easier for everyone to do it on their own, but Cadance didn't exactly master the art of teleportation.

And I can't magic, so yeah there's that.

Finally, Twilight had an idea. She and Shining would march on ahead to look for any ways that would lead to the bottom of the mountain. And being that there was a lot of jumping and hurdling over large gaps full of sharp, pointy crystals, that left me to Cadance, who knew her way around the caves to get us to a safe point to await for a teleportation to the bottom.

The bottom of the mountain isn't nearly as much hard work as it is teleporting to Ponyville in one go. At least, Shining wouldn't have to endure so much stress. And Twilight could easily get it done in a matter of seconds. If Cadance had mastered teleportation, then she'd probably take Shining's place. I guess that just leaves me. I understand that I'm not a unicorn or an alicorn princess, so magic wouldn't be my strong suit. I don't fly, so that would be another thing to add to the list. I know that certain earth ponies, such as Pinkie, do have extrasensory perception. Not only that but their bodies were way more capable of jumping down from larger heights without wearing down. Leg strength is a primary advantage of earth ponies in general. They'd kick a tree and walk off like they just stepped on a twig. If I tried to kick a tree, I'd break a leg.

Sometimes I think about how in this world of magic, a being such as myself would be considered a liability...

Snap out of it, Nondis.

I'm thinking too much. I need to focus on the matter at hand, and that's getting to the bottom of this mountain. Shining and Twilight set off into the depths of the caverns, leaving me and Cadance to wander through the tunnels to see if there were any safer routes for me to take. I guess it would make sense for it to be her, considering that she knew the caves. We continued to walk along a darkened path. As we traveled, the light started to fade into absolute darkness. But luckily, Cadance had a countermeasure for something like this. With a simple flicker of her horn, a small bead of light shone from her, illuminating the entire cave we walked through.

"This place... It sure does bring back memories." Cadance silently whispered. I couldn't help but to hear her words over my rambling thoughts.

"How so? Good or bad?" I asked.

She paused for a brief moment to think. "You could say both."

"Explain?" I inquired, hoping to receive a bit of context.

"Well, look over there." She pointed towards an area filled with shattered crystals. "That's where Twilight freed me from my crystal prison when I was replaced by that impostor on my wedding day."

I started to chuckle at the sight of two Cadance's fighting over the same Shining Armor. "I guess it must've been a really awkward ceremony to have two of you standing in the chapel."

"Not as much as it was terrifying." She said as she continued to walk down crystalline path. "Shining was placed under a spell at the time, so he couldn't tell who was speaking or what was going on around him. And the entire time I was standing in front of her, she kept touching him... placing her hooves on him. Caressing his chin..."

Her hoofsteps started to become louder. It seems that she was stomping rather than walking. Apparently, this impostor must've really been teasing her throughout the affair. "Well, at least the impostor doesn't have Shining now."

She looked back to me and gave me a stern look. When she turned around, I knew that she was serious about what she had to say. "Be careful. Those changelings can alter their appearance and pass themselves off as your loved ones. If you don't know whether they're real or not, ask them a personal question. They won't be able to answer those without stuttering."

I started to back away from her unusual stone-breaking glare. "I'll keep that in mind."

She turned back around and carried on, guiding me through a few more of the caves as we spoke. "So... How have things been with Twilight?"

I started to scratch my head a bit. "Well, I guess things are okay."

"Okay? That's it?" She questioned with skepticism.

"I guess so. I don't know."

"This is a serious question, Nondis." She spoke with an icy tone.

"What do you want me to say?"

"Do you love her?" She asked out flatly.

"I think this is a bit sudden, don't you think."

The moment she looked back to me, I knew that she was expecting an answer. And preferably one of the absolute variety.

I placed my hands on the back of my head as I spoke. "Yeah. I do. I know that I do. So why ask?"

"What do you feel when you see her? When you talk to her? When you touch her?"

"Well, I sometimes feel nervous when I'm around her. I know, I should be used to it, right? But that's the thing. I don't know how not to feel that way. As far as when I see her, I kinda let myself become distracted, especially when walking. When I first got here, she always used to try and get me to go outside of my room. I wasn't used to anyone doing that..." Only one other person did that to me, and we weren't even dating. "Well, with the exception of one, but that was before I even came to Equestria, and we weren't even dating. I do tend to get nervous because she is my first. I just don't want anything to go wrong, you know? And when I talk to her, I could let the world burn away. When she speaks, she talks about some of the most interesting things. Granted, she can talk about some pretty boring shit at times, but I'm pretty sure she says the same thing about me."

Cadance playfully giggled to herself. "When you first got here, she used to say that you rambled on about some of the weirdest things."

Somehow, that doesn't surprise me. "I figured as much."

"But she does take interest in what you say."

"Anything in the name of research, I suppose."

"Especially that." Cadance cosigned.

"But what can I say? When she touches me, I feel... funny. It's a combination of 'ha-ha' and 'not quite normal'. I feel my chest tighten whenever she says certain things to me. I blush whenever she talks about me to others. When I hear others speak of me from her perspective, I'd start to feel a bit uncomfortable, but I get over it. When she hugs me, there's a warmth that circulates deep within my stomach. It almost makes me wanna puke sometimes. I'd even tell her that she makes me sick, just from her touching me. Though the first time I told her that, I had to immediately clear that up before it turned into something nasty. I don't have a way with words but when it comes to actions, I'd then find myself conveying my thoughts much better, especially when I'm in motion."

Cadance smiled at my response. She turned back around to face me, wearing a bright smile on her face. "Well, then I'd be happy to share my Twilight with you."

"Thanks for sharing." I said in earnest.

"Just make sure you never cheat on her. Otherwise, you'd have to worry about me."

"I'll take your word for it." I began to laugh nervously as she stared back at me with a creepy smile.

"And if you think Shining hiding a few letters is bad, then wait till you see how I can hide a body. I'll make sure that you won't even have a chance to take in air before you scream."

And she said all of that with what could've been one of the most innocent smiles a pony could ever wear. And this mare was going to be my sister in law... I'm too terrified to even process that now.

"Ooooohkay. Let's talk about this mountain." I stated to change the subject. "Can we talk about how you managed to learn the way throughout the caverns?"

"Well, it's a long story." She began.

"Well I'm afraid that your little story will have to wait, dear." A disembodied voice spoke from seemingly nowhere.

Before we could even find out, we saw everything around us flash white. And just in that very same flash of light, we were located to some other place within the mountain. When we had looked around, I had saw that we were just a few feet away from an exit to the outside. It appeared that we were already at the bottom of the mountain. When we had looked around, we saw that Twilight and her brother were nowhere to be found. Instead, we both saw Discord sitting upside-down on a couch that rested on the ceiling.

As far as the logic of that statement is concerned, there is none. I've learned to just roll with it.

"Where's Twilight and Shining?" Cadance asked as she continued to look around.

Discord rose from his seat and walked along the ceiling. "Ugh... You mean to tell me that there are two more slowpokes wandering around these caves?"

"You think you can find them real quick?" I asked, still wandering how it must feel to defy all laws of physics.

"Of course. In fact, I've already found them."

"..." I proceeded to look at the chaotic creature, tapping my foot against the ground. "...And you didn't think to bring them here with us?" I questioned the draconequuis.

"Well honestly, I wanted to see just how quickly they'd be able to find their way down here." Before he carried on, Cadance and I gave him blank stares, indicating that we were not up for another one of his usual mind-fucks. With a sigh, he reluctantly snapped his fingers. "Bah, fine!"

*snap*

In a similar flash of light, both Shining and Twilight appeared along side us. The both looked at us with confusion wrought all over their face. Their confusion soon subsided the moment they saw Discord walking along the ceiling. Twilight didn't seem to care too much that he had randomly appeared.

"Discord, what are you doing here?" The purple mare asked.

"Well, I came to invite you over to Ponyville for a lovely cup of tea. I had originally hoped to hear more about your adventures from yesterday. I also read in the newspaper this morning that Nondis had actually saved a few lives onboard a runaway train bound for disaster. So then I decided to pay you all a visit and show you just how happy I was to see you." He suddenly reappeared beside me, pinching my cheek as if he was my grandmother.

I always hated that shit.

"I get it. But why are we down here rather than up in Canterlot?" I asked.

Discord disappeared once more and reappeared standing on the other side of the cave, this time wearing a yellow, frilly, southern-belle dress complete with an inverted umbrella. "Didn't you hear me before? The tea party was scheduled to be in Ponyville. But Fluttershy and I can't throw you one if changelings are running all over the town."

Twilight stepped forward. "Well, can you get us there?"

Discord playfully pouted and turned his back on us as he tooted his tail at us. "Well, I never. To think that I would be used for such ulterior motives. What in the wide, wide world of Equestria would make you think that I was capable of doing such things?"

"Raising the sun and moon at will." Shining stated.

"Turning the world inside out and transforming all of the roads in Equestria into soap water." Cadance added.

"Unlimited cosmic powers." I summed up in three words.

Discord turned back around and rolled his eyes at our answers. "Yes, but have any of you told me that you loved me at my bedside this morning?" He asked, now giving us puppy-dog eyes.

None of us were having his shit at the moment. All of us issued deadly stares back at him. Feeling that his jokes may have been a little too ill-timed, he decided to go along with our suggestion.

"Well, I guess I could make an exception." He said, snapping his fingers to summon a door that lead to what appeared to be nowhere. When he pulled on the handle, a series of tentacles carrying the ripped-up sukumizu he once wore for recreational purposes slithered out from the door and tried to grab at him. A gurgling sound could be heard as the creature reached for him. Immediately he slammed the door, looking back at us with a blush. "Oopsie. Wrong dimension. I should really have this thing recalibrated. You're probably wondering why I had it pin-pointed for that dimension. Long story short, Fluttershy and I-"

"DISCORD!" The four of us shouted out in unison.

The entity of chaos leaped back in response. "Sorry. Should be fixed now." He said as he opened the door once more to reveal a white light leading to what we had assumed was Ponyville.

We all wasted no time in running through the door.

When we had gotten through the door, we arrived in the town square, or what used to be it outside of the mess of green muck and pods filled with ponies. Some of the other ponies that were still free ran from hordes of changelings pursuing them. The insect-like creatures flew around the town, capturing whoever they could get their hole-riddled hooves on. Some had even started to feed on the pods that contained the captured citizens. Screeches and cries could be heard throughout the town.

The four of us stared in absolute shock that they actually did attack the town. And for me and Twilight, we were mortified to see the ponies we shared our daily lives being assaulted in front of our very eyes. Cadance and Shining looked like they were ready to kill something.

Discord mere shrugged his shoulders. "I told you that they trashed our tea party."

Author's Note

Sorry this one came so late. I had a lot going on irl while I was writing this chapter. Let me know how this one turned out. I don't think I did too well with this one, but considering the responses I had from the last two, I must be doing okay.

Chapter XXV

Author's Note

I apologize for the lateness of this chapter. My mind was constantly moving back and forth with other events in the future of the story and some probable ideas for others.

But now I'm back. And here's a chapter to celebrate. As you already know, this is going to be a long read, so strap yourselves to the chair/bed/couch and get ready (unless you have a thing against that kind of stuff).

There will be a bit of violence in this chapter. So any readers that are uncomfortable with that kind of stuff... mind the marker and skip past if you don't want to see that kind of stuff. As always, thanks for reading and feel free to leave your comments.

Just remember squeamish people: you have been warned

Chapter XXV

Five years ago...

I was sitting on the couch, shifting and churning my body as I continued to become immersed into the game I was playing. My eyes darted across the screen, checking many other peripherals as I moved my character across the map. The sounds of my grunting and screaming resonated throughout the house as I frustratingly snap the sticks on my Xbox controller. My eyes were glued to the TV screen as I watched myself run through a battle-worn building in the middle of a city complex. With each doorway I passed, I made sure to look by either way so that I could avoid any unexpected surprises.

Claymores planted by every door, knife-wielding players assisted with the infamous 'commando' perk, my UAV running a scan of the entire map, and my look sensitivity set on the highest level possible. I held onto my AK47, complete with a suppressor and red-dot sight, scanning through the rooms I walked by in hopes of gaining another kill towards my AC-130.

And with that AC-130, I could mount up the kills necessary to gain the coveted Tactical Nuke.

The Tactical Nuke was the holy grail of the game. If one should achieve a streak of twenty-five kills without a single death, or twenty four provided that you were equipped with the Hardline-Pro perk, that gift would be granted unto you, giving you the very key to winning the game, regardless of the score. The nuke would countdown, killing everyone on both teams and ending the game in favor of the individual who launched it.

Of course, it wasn't exactly easy to get.

I carried on my relentless grunts and murmurings, trying to focus in on achieving that hallmark. But it wouldn't take me very long to get my AC-130. All I needed was maybe three kills. Though I wasn't sure. Instinctively, I pressed the back button on my controller to check the scoreboards. I was fourteen and six, rolling on an eight-man killstreak. Thankfully, three kills on this map wasn't that hard to come by.

"Are you done playing that nonsense!?" My grandfather asked as he walked into the den. "Law and Order is on NBC tonight and I don't wanna miss it."

"It's already being recorded on the DVR, you can watch it when I'm done." I stated, trying to keep my eyes on the screen.

I wasn't paying him no attention as he calmly walked beside me, looking at my screen. "What the hell is this shit?"

"Modern Warfare 2." I answered nonchalantly, trying to run through the building and outside to catch another person camped out beside the stairwell leading into the street. When I had found him, I immediately pressed my stick in, dropping to the ground and firing my weapon at the camping player. As his body dropped lifelessly to the ground, I could hear a preteen kid on the other end, screaming at me while I moved onward to collect another kill.

"JESUS CHRIST!!! DUDE, STOP FUCKING KILLING ME!"

I giggled to myself while my grandpa just stared at the television with amazement. He proceeded to shake his head while I carried on with my hunt for kill number ten. "No wonder our country's going under. You got damn kids playing this senseless shit instead of going outside!"

"Times have changed, gramps. Outside is more dangerous than it is inside of the house."

My grandfather walked up to the Xbox, threatening to unplug it from the TV. I stood off of the couch, reaching out for him. "No! Grandpa, what are you doing!?"

Suddenly out of nowhere, my remote vibrated and halted. I looked back onto the screen to find my dead body lying on the ground while another player crouches over me repeatedly. I became furious. "NOOOO!!! LIKE WHAT THE FUCK!?! HOW DID I DIE!?"

My grandfather scoffed at me, finally pulling the cord from the TV. "Game over. Now go do something else useful."

I instantly vented my frustration out at him rather than the game itself, mainly because of his interference getting me killed. "I was doing something useful!"

"Yeah, like what?" He asked.

"I was... getting my AC-130 so that I could get my nuke! I was so close!"

He stared back at me as if I had gone crazy. Immediately, he completely unhooked the Xbox from the wall. After he collected it, he started to walk off with it. I chased after him. "No. NO! What are you doing!?"

"Kid, you need to get your mind out of this pre-programmed bullshit. The world isn't like what you see in that game."

"I know that! But what you taking my Xbox for!?" I snapped back.

"Because you, and a generation of young individuals your age and younger, are constantly being programmed into this 'shoot and kill' mess. I swear, since they took prayer out of schools, our fucking country started going to shit."

"Wha... who... What does 'prayer in schools' have to do with you taking my Xbox?"

My grandfather took it outside and started to place it in the back of his Ford pickup. Meanwhile, I was steady screaming at him to give it back. And unfortunately for me, he had one of the newer trucks that had a hood to the trunk bed that could be locked. After dumping my Xbox inside and locking the trunk, he turned back to me. "There, now go do something with your life aside for staying locked inside of this damn house. Go drive somewhere, walk down the street, get a job... Go play some goddamn football. Live your life rather than living on that damn machine."

"And be like everyone else, right? That sounds nice and all, but I don't have a life out there!" I angrily spat back at him.

"Then make one! Life is too damn short for you to sit on your ass all day, playing shoot-em-ups."

I rolled my eyes, kissing my teeth as I argued with him. "That sounds really easy to you, don't it!? To just walk into a school and make some friends? Life isn't that easy, grandpa!"

He quickly walked up to me, grabbing me by the collar of my shirt as he stared at me intently. "Apparently, you're not understanding what I'm trying to convey to you, son. You got it a helluva lot easier than I ever did. You get to sit on your ass all day. What do I get to do? Back in high school, I got drafted to Nam!"

"Okay grandpa, you seen some people die. Yes, that's hard. But that was back in your day." I answered callously.

"Well back in my day, we didn't have attacks on American soil. And no, Pearl Harbor doesn't count... Let me ask you something, do you know what burning flesh smells like? Do ya know what it looks like when it cooks? Do you remember the screams of your next-door neighbors while they bleed out next to you in the mud? Do you know what color brains are?"

I remained silent, horrified from the tone my grandpa spoke with. He talked to me in a low tone, slowly inching out the details of his affairs as he tightens his grip on my shirt. I didn't dare to speak, let alone interrupt him.

"You don't. And chances are is that you won't have to. I've seen what it looks like from the perspective of a soldier on the front line. I played that same game you were playing on just earlier. The only difference between you and me is that I had only one shot. You keep popping back to life as if nothing had happened on that stupid-ass machine. Those games, they don't look like what you'd see in real life, where your fellow soldier is literally bawling his eyes out from getting a little... dirty, for lack of a better word."

He unhooked from my shirt, shoving me back and away from his truck. He politely walked past me and made his way back into the house. "Now get your ass in here. Your mom should be coming home with dinner soon."

As I followed behind him, he continued to mutter on about how our generation 'didn't quite get it'. Personally, I didn't care. I just wanted my Xbox back. And I wasn't willing to do anything else until I had gotten it back. While my grandpa took his seat on the couch and changed the channel to watch his program. I called back from the other side of the room.

"Can I get my Xbox back, please?"

He turned to me, staring for a moment before shaking his head in pity. "You're gonna learn one day. And by God's grace, it won't be soon."

He tossed his keys over to me so that I could unlock the trunk. Before I had left the doorway, he hollered out to me. "Don't get so caught up in that bullshit. You'll be programmed for it, but you won't be ready. Not up here." He warned me, tapping against his skull.

I dismissively nodded and made my way back to the front door. As I opened the door, the light of the setting sun started to blind me a bit as I walked outside.

Present Day...

When I walked through the door, my jaw haplessly fell to the ground. We arrived in the town square, or what used to be it outside of the mess of green muck and pods filled with ponies. Some of the other ponies that were still free ran from hordes of changelings pursuing them. The insect-like creatures flew around the town, capturing whoever they could get their hole-riddled hooves on. Some had even started to feed on the pods that contained the captured citizens. Screeches and cries could be heard throughout the town.

The four of us stared in absolute shock that they actually did attack the town. And for me and Twilight, we were mortified to see the ponies we shared our daily lives being assaulted in front of our very eyes. Cadance and Shining looked like they were ready to kill something.

Deep inside, my mind tried to process all of what was going on. To my left were changelings flying after a filly, still holding her books from school. To my right was a changeling feasting on another pony wrapped inside of a green, sticky cocoon. Behind me was nothing more than more changeling circling through the air. In front of me, the three other ponies I accompanied readied themselves to pounce on whoever would come at us first.

They didn't have to wait long, as a small group of changelings, I counted five, barreling towards us. By the time they were within striking distance, Twilight launched magic bolts at three of them, knocking all of them out. The other two flew for us, transforming into exact replicas of Twilight and Shining. I froze from the sight of the two impostors taking form of two of my allies.

I tried to convince myself that they were fake, but my conscious still prevented me from taking action. I wanted to fight, but seeing Twilight's face... How was I going to attack her? Thankfully, Cadance was my solution. She ran up to the one that mimicked Twilight and gave him a powerful blast of magic, knocking him down to the ground, even undoing it's transformation. Shining easily put his faux self to rest, a hoof was all he needed to clobber the creature out of his form. The five that charged for us were then considered as a neutralized threat for the time being. We had much more ground to cover.

"It seems that they're getting their magic back." Cadance pointed out.

"Wait, those things have magic?" I asked curiously, still surprised from the transformations that occurred before my very eyes. "And since when were they able to morph into other ponies?"

"They've always been able to do that." Shining clarified. "It's just that they didn't have enough magic to do it when we were in Canterlot. But now that they're feasting on love even as we speak-"

"They're getting stronger." I didn't like the conclusion I came to, but it was all the more obvious with each passing moment.

"That's probably why they were resorting to guerrilla tactics." Cadance added.

Discord stared towards another direction, wearing the most unusual scowl on his face. I don't think I've ever seen him become serious like this. Then again, when everything you know and cherish, your way of live, is being threatened by an outside force, you'd probably be shaking with a vengeful fury too. "You all can take care of things here. As for now, I have to take my leave."

Before he disappeared off to realms unknown, Twilight stopped him cold. "And just where do you think you're going?"

"Well, Fluttershy wouldn't dare get into conflict with others, unless her animal friends were in serious peril. And in this case, her place is flooded with her love for them. You honestly didn't think that the changelings only fed off of ponies, did you?"

I was disturbed by that statement. Deeply disturbed. "What will they do to them? How would they feed off of them?"

Discord turned back to me. "They're too small to place in pods. So how else?"

I cringed at the implication of Fluttershy losing her animal companions in such a violent manner. Discord turned back around and faced the direction where her cottage was located. "Fluttershy can become quite violent when it comes to her friends. I'm merely going over there to look after her."

"You mean protect?" I corrected.

"To the last breath, of course." He said quietly before disappearing.

As of now, there were only four of us left. As far as where we needed to go, there were plenty of ideas. But for now, we needed to neutralize the threat before freeing the citizens. And going by numbers of changelings, I can clearly assume that we're far from getting started.

Suddenly, a white flash appeared before us, indicating that Discord had reappeared. Only this time, he wore a set of white and gold armor while holding a rose in his lion paw. "How was that? I've been working on that since I started looking for you guys. I consider it my best performance yet, award-winning at the very least."

Twilight facehoofed as Cadance and Shining groaned in disgust. I just simply stared back at him as he continued to waste time.

"What? You didn't think that I would say something so cliche and not give a proper delivery. If anything, I should be-"

"Discord," I interrupted. "Isn't Fluttershy back at the cottage in need of some help?"

Immediately he froze in place, quite literally. As he started to cover himself in icicles, he turned his attention back to the cottage on the other side of town. "Oh... I suppose that she would be in need of some reinforcements. Ta-ta!"

A final flash of light shone brightly and extinguished itself, taking the draconequuis with it. I could assume that he was long gone, but it's best not to be sure. He can appear out of thin air. But luckily he's on our side. I couldn't imagine how difficult life would be if he wasn't. At least he managed to get us here so quickly.

"Come on!" Shining turned his attention towards the Town Hall, which was littered with changelings. "We can't afford to play around anymore!"

The four of us battled our way towards the town hall. Cadance and Twilight took point, blasting changelings left and right. Shining and I covered the rear, whenever we were attacked from behind, Shining would blast the ones that flew out of the sky. I would take on all the ones that were on the ground and finish off those that were still conscious from the fall. I know that it would be a while before we'd clear all of them out, but we could at least start off with the one place that could serve as a viable command post. And Town Hall would be such a place.

As we carried on, it seemed that we were encountering less and less changelings. The lines thinned on the ground and in the air. But of course this was a battle, that meant that there were going to either be more ahead or more coming in from behind. Shining and I were well-aware of that fact and tightened our grip on our weapons. We looked around to see what was going on in the surrounding area. It seemed that we had cleared out the place. That just made us all the more suspicious, but we still had a command post to establish. Warily, we ran onward towards the besieged building.

By the time we had arrived, we had started to encounter some changeling bodies. Some were dead, others were knocked unconscious. We looked over to see a small company of ponies standing in front of the building, lined behind a wall of downed wagons and stacks of hay. It looks like they had already done what we had came here to do, with notable success.

"Hey, what the hay are you guys doing out there!?" I heard a familiar scratchy voice call out. "Get over here, quick!"

The four of us took the order into consideration and quickly made our way behind cover. When we had crossed the border, we had met up with a few other stallions and mares, many of whom were clad in armor, others not as much. It seemed that they had borrowed the hooves of a few able-bodied citizens to help fight alongside them. Meanwhile, Applejack and Big Mac had started reinforcing the barriers while Rainbow Dash kept a keen eye out for any signs of danger.

"What's the situation?" Twilight asked the cyan pegasus, who flew in midair.

"We got changelings running all over the place! Where did they even come from!?"

"Canterlot." Twilight answered. "They attacked the city just yesterday."

"I get that. It was all over the newspapers this morning. But what I'm talking about is where they came from before that."

"Southern Badlands." Shining verified. "They were hiding out there a few months back. It's best to assume that they were holding out until they saw an opportunity to hit us hard."

"But why now?" I asked.

"I'm not sure." He answered. "But we can't bring any guards from Canterlot to reinforce us here."

"INCOMING!!!"

When Rainbow shouted, we all immediately ducked for cover. By the time we did, a green bolt of energy barreled overhead and blasted the side of the building, leaving a light scorch mark. Several more bolts flew in and kept us pinned down behind the makeshift wall. Applejack started to ease her head out to see how many had gathered on our position, but a green blast of energy did more than dissuade her from going any further. She gave out an angry grunt and turned her attention back to us. "What do ya mean y'all can't get nopony from Canterlot over here!? Don't they have guards there!?"

"Bad idea. Not only the bridge to the city is out, but there's also the rebuilding effort and the threat of a second attack. If we were to spread our forces between here and Canterlot, they'd attack the city again." Shining answered as he started to put up a shield. But as he did, his horn flickered with jolts of energy that resembled sparks of electricity. Cadance placed a hoof on his shoulder and urged him to stop.

"And Shining is in no condition to put up protection spell over a certain area, let alone a city. It's one thing to levitate light objects and releasing bolts of energy, but dispersing your magic over a large area is too much stress on the mind. Shining had to fight with terrible migraines when he protected the city two years ago. Imagine the repercussions of trying it again with a cracked horn." Cadance added.

While another blast landed against an area of our wall not too far from me, hay started to rain down from above. I shielded my eyes from any incoming debris. "So, just how bad are we talking? Re-injury? Loss of consciousness?"

"Death." Twilight grimly summed up in a single word.

Shining gritted his teeth, bearing the shame of being unable to perform his duties to the best of his abilities. And I wasn't feeling any better, provided that I was the one who caused his injury not even a week ago. That nice little demon with the pitchfork, wearing a sign saying 'hindsight' is currently stabbing me in the ass with reckless abandon. Not a pretty feeling to have.

Rainbow Dash shielded herself from a blast of hay that exploded in her face. Applejack and Big Mac started to plan countermeasures by gathering every loose rock that had a decent size. Rainbow started to reach out to help, but a stray bolt of green shot from above, halting her advance. We all looked up to see at least six changelings with green auras surrounding their horns.

"THESE FUCKERS GOT MAGIC TOO!?" I asked out of shock and anger.

"Of course they do! How do you think they can shift forms?" Cadance wasted no time in clearing the air. It seemed that we were well on our way to being outgunned and outmatched, we were already outnumbered like hell so that went without saying.

"They weren't doing this shit back in Canterlot!" I stated, recalling my scuffle on the train just yesterday.

"They're feeding off of the ponies they captured!" Shining explained. "Yesterday, they had only enough strength to hail in, fight, and fly off. This time they got a source of energy backing them up. If they absorb any more than what they do now..."

"We're fucked." I answered bluntly.

"That's the generous way of putting it." Cadance answered as she cleared a small hole for Applejack and her older brother to buck rocks through.

"I'd head off to Cloudsdale and get some reinforcements, but we're kinda pinned in." Rainbow said as she offered to clear another hole for some of the other ponies that wanted to help out Big Mac and Applejack.

"That's it!" Twilight shouted out loud, coming up with an idea. "Rainbow Dash, I need you to go to Cloudsdale and get all the guards you can. Cadance will go with you and protect you along the way. She has a shield spell that she can use to cover you both."

"And what about you guys?" Cadance asked as she blasted yet another changeling out of the sky.

"Shining, Nondis, and I will stay here. I can place a shield spell over us and the Town Hall Building. We'll try to buy you some time until you get back."

"But what 'bout the ponies cross town? Pinkie's with Cherilee and the Cakes back at Sugarcube Corner! Ah'm pretty sure they got some ponies in need of protection!" Big Mac asked, surprising me that he'd break out of his usual silence and one-worded responses.

"Shining and I can go out and check them out. If they need help, we'll be there to chill things out a bit." I suggested.

Twilight's neck nearly snapped from how quickly she turned to me. "Oh no. And let you endanger yourself-"

"For fuck's sake! Do you trust me or not!?" I shouted, hoping to diffuse the argument before it even started.

"I do-"

I wouldn't give her a chance to finish. "Then we're off! Protect the town hall, princess! We need to go do our job!"

Twilight grew furious with my insistence to carry out the plan. But she knew that she had much more on the line than just me and her parents. There were ponies behind these barriers that needed her guidance and possibly more hiding inside of Town Hall. She had no other choice but to comply. She cut her eyes back to me as she raised a barrier over the building and our position, even reaching as far as the no-man's land that stood between us and the changelings. "You. Owe. Me."

"Got it!" I confirmed as I started to make my way out through the back.

Shining followed closely behind, making sure that we weren't going to be ambushed from any other direction as I took point. Swords brandished, we navigated our way around the building and left the safety of the barrier from the rear. Thankfully, the changelings congregated towards the front door, which was where Twilight and Applejack were stationed. As we left, we could see Cadance and Rainbow streaking across the sky towards the northwest.

"I'm actually surprised you managed to talk Twily into letting you go." Shining said quietly as we made our way towards Sugarcube Corner.

I scoffed as I kept my eyes peeled for any scouts or stragglers. "Well, we didn't have the time for an argument this go around. Don't you think this was a much better way to diffuse the situation?"

"Very." He answered in deadpan.

After our brief exchange, we decided it was best to keep quiet. We didn't need to draw anymore attention to ourselves, especially on the way there. If we fought every changeling we saw on the way to Sugarcube Corner, we'd be too tired to fight anymore. Also, fighting all of those changelings would take time. I can say that with confidence that we'd be worn out before we'd save anyone, and it would be a waste of precious time.

In this case, time was of the essence.

By the time we had arrived, we saw nothing but changeling bodies and emptied pods surrounding the area. Shining noticed that the pods were cut open by something sharp as opposed to opening themselves up to release the captives. That meant that whoever was inside had to have been rescued.

"Psst!"

Shining and I flinched from the sound, turning back to the source and readying ourselves to strike. But when we had turned around, we saw nothing but a half-open door leading into the bakery.

"Psst! Over here! Quick!" The voice called to us, this time accompanied by a pink hoof.

Recognizing that it was Pinkie Pie, we rushed to the door and entered into the bakery. When we walked in, we could see a few ponies laid out across a few tables, all of them with teeth-marks on whatever part of the body. The fortunate others were all busy boarding up the windows and barricading the back door in the kitchen. Some of the ponies were covered in a strange, sticky goo. Obviously, that same goo had covered Pinkie to a certain degree.

"Shining, Non-non, so glad you're here. We need help."

"We've noticed." I said, looking towards a pony with a blank expression on his face. When I went in to look closer, I could see that it was Carrot Cake that was wearing that same, lifeless expression, covered in green goo and slightly bloodied from where he was bitten. I think I had started to grind my teeth at the sight of him being a victim.

"He got bit while protecting the twins. Mrs. Cake is doing fine. She's in the back trying to push the stove against the back door." Pinkie explained.

Shining walked up to Carrot and scowled fiercely. He placed a hoof on the paralyzed stallion and whispered to him. "You're gonna be fine. Just wait a bit for the venom to wear down and you'll be back to your normal self."

Carrot groaned lazily in a low voice, indicating that he didn't even have much strength to speak. But he did manage to look towards Shining.

"Don't venomous bites usually kill?" I asked curiously.

"Not in the case of a changeling. They like to keep their victims alive for harvesting. If anything, lethal dosages would have to be numerous bites, a lot more than two or three. Besides, you can't milk something from a dead prey." Shining answered, turning his attention to Pinkie. "Now what's the situation?"

"Well, they tried to come at us, but it was a small group to check out about the pods being empty."

"So what happened to them?" I questioned.

"Well, I showed them what happens when they mess with the twins. You mess with the pink, you get the party cannon!"

I started to scratch my head, my mind trying to process two things. The first one was the absurdity of that statement, and the second one was how cheesy it was. Either way, the enemy is down and they're safe. The only problem is that we might have to fight off a few more changelings, which would be a lot harder considering that they were magically recharged.

Then again, I do have a gun. Point goes to me.

It wouldn't be that hard to fight a changeling when you could just aim and shoot, I learned that much yesterday. But still, I have to keep my eyes open. A gun can only go so far when you gotta deal with a bunch of love-stealing, ferocious, parasitic insectoids with magic.

In speaking of ferocious... "Hey, you guys the others?"

Pinkie's ears folded flat against her head as her eyes widened with uncertainty. "I'm not sure. We were separated when the changelings came swarming in. And it didn't help that they were going after the school."

"Where's Miss Cherilee?" I questioned, thinking back on just earlier. "Big Mac told me that she'd be here. And considering that they attacked the school, I can assume she must've brought the foals here."

"...Most of them are here."

"WHAT!?" Shining and I erupted, shocked at Pinkie's response.

"Rarity, Fluttershy and Discord were with us. When we were running away from the school, a group of changelings attacked us. We tried to fight them off, but we didn't have a chance once more of them came in. It's one thing to fight thirty changelings with six, it's another when you have to fight sixty with just three."

"Three? There was you, Fluttershy, Discord, Rarity and Cherilee. If anything, Cherilee would be trying to lead the foals to a safe place, leaving you with just four to fight. If there were only three of you fighting, then what happened to number four?" Shining asked urgently.

"Discord disappeared. Even now, we still don't know where he went."

"Discord was the one that brought us here. If I can take a guess, he's back at the cottage with Fluttershy and the others." I answered, appreciating the fact that he did come get us when he did.

"But that leaves only two of them against I don't know how many changelings." Pinkie stated as she raised her hooves to count.

I sighed heavily and dropped my head. "So that means that we need to head out to the cottage to assist them as well. I swear this day couldn't get any worse."

Shining opened the top half of the front door and looked in every direction for any incoming changelings. After surveying the immediate area, he found nothing and looked back to me. "Then you'd have to go."

"Why me?"

"Because... as much as I hate to admit it, you're the one who can still fight at full strength. I could probably dish out a few bolts and a smaller shield over this place. It's not nearly as big as the town hall and it's a lot easier than doing one over Canterlot. I should be able to pull it off."

That's sounds like a good idea, but things on paper tend not to pan out as easily as written. "Now you know Twilight would have a fit, right? If you tried to launch a shield over the bakery, you'd be nearly killing yourself."

"Well I have to do something. And it's my job as capt-" He froze for a moment to think about something. But after the brief pause, he steeled his resolve once more. "Brigadier General, excuse me... Just let me be useful, and you can go and help out the others."

"But-"

"Your new objective is to head towards that cottage and protect all civilians until the reinforcements arrive. If you are unable to locate them there, then search the area for any hints of where they might have ran off to. Their safety is top priority. Nothing else, do I make myself clear?"

I continued to object to his raising a shield and endangering his health. "Sir-"

"That's an order, captain. Follow it." He commanded harshly, stepping towards me.

With hesitation, I finally conceded the argument to him. "Sir, orders acknowledged."

"Good, now move out." He said as he started to make his way towards the kitchen to help Cup Cake move the stove to the back door and raise the shield over the bakery.

I didn't plan to waste any time on taking my leave, but Pinkie's voice did hold me for a brief second. "Nonnie!"

I looked back to her, wondering what she had to say. For the most part, she looked away and frowned a bit. I did manage to catch her looking at me for a bit, but she promptly looked away. She turned around completely, facing the kitchen as she spoke. "Don't get hurt. Pinkie promise?"

"Sure." I didn't have time to pull off the entire swear, so I just nodded my head and walked off.

As I walked outside, I looked in either direction, including the sky, to see if there were any changelings in the area. I didn't need to get caught on my way there, so I had to be extra careful, especially since I was without the extra set of eyes. Finally verifying that the area was clear, I quickly moved across the street and hugged the shadows of the nearest building. While I hurried in silence, my mind was focused on multiple things. But the main thing that was on my mind as I moved was getting to that cottage and neutralizing any threat along the way.

However, a fleeting though ran through my head, making me hold off for a brief second. Shining mistakenly called me 'captain'. I guess he might've let it slip as he was talking about how he...

Since when did he get promoted?

I can understand that there's been a change in the rankings, a drastic one at that. But I didn't think he'd be ranked so high now. If I can recall, he mumbled something about being a brigadier general... In which case, that would mean he was no longer held the title of 'captain of the royal guard'. So if he gets promoted, then that would enable anyone under him to replace him. In other words, me or any other individual in the royal guard division were placed under him.

Not only that, but I was trained personally him... and defeated him in a spar... and currently dating his sister... who is also a princess of Equestria.

Wait... Did he just give me a battlefield promotion!?

I kept my noise low and my eyes peeled for the small squad of changeling that stood in the middle of the path that lead to the Everfree Forest. It seemed that they were talking about something that ambushed them from within. From what their reports are saying, they don't seem to know who or what it is.

I knew that the forest wasn't exactly a place where you could just stroll through without consequence, or so I've been told. Could it be a monster of some sort? Perhaps a ravenous manticore on the prowl for it's next meal. Or maybe they pissed off an ursa minor, or worse... I've heard something from Applejack pertaining to timberwolves, perhaps that could be their issue?

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my.

"I don't care if it's a dragon in there! It's killing our fellow changelings, and we need to neutralize it now before this gets any worse!"

The group of changelings looked to their leader and stammered at the thought of fighting what was inside of the forest. I looked around to make sure that I was still undiscovered, and to my good fortune I wasn't found out just yet.

"YAAAAAAAAGHH!!!"

The changelings and I heard a bloodcurdling scream emanate from deep within the forest. The small group wavered for a short period of time, including that of their leader. But eventually, he shook it off and found some courage to walk forward. Meanwhile, his lackeys were too busy shaking at the though of running into one of the beasts I mentioned earlier.

"Forge ahead! We mustn't let ourselves cower before this creature. In the name of the hive, our beloved queen, and our sacred maiden, we must save our own! NOW ONWARD, TOWARDS DANGER!"

The squad leader blindly galloped into the unknown, leaving his lackeys behind him. The six other changelings stopped shaking and charged in after their leader. It seemed that the guys speech, a bit on the theatrical side, was more than enough to cheer them on. I gotta give these guys credit, they were at least willing to die for their fellow changeling.

I knew that there was a hive and a queen, but who the hell was this 'sacred maiden'? I guess it's not my place to know, nor will I ever find out. I'm just gonna run to this cottage and meet up with Fluttershy.

After hiding in some nearby shrubbery, I crept along to the entrance and knocked on the door. When I knocked the first time, I wasn't met with any sort of response. I knocked a second time, the result was the same. The third time, I spoke. "Fluttershy, it me. Open up."

Again, no response.

"Dammit. They probably don't even think it's me." I muttered to myself. I looked around once more to see if there were anymore changelings. "Oh shit!" I whispered. Jumping down off the walkway and running to hide under the small bridge that lead off her property, I could see some changelings in the far distance, but they were too focused on whatever in the center of the town to notice me in return. I guess I was lucky this go-round.

Climbing back out, I turned my attention to the cottage, who's windows were unboarded and unprotected. I found the sight somewhat unusual, being that there was an attack on the town and what-not. So I quietly snuck up to the window and saw nothing but the furniture within. It didn't seem like anyone was home. Perhaps Fluttershy and the others might've ran somewhere else.

But then something in my mind clicked. Perhaps it wasn't just a lion, tiger or a bear that attacked the changelings. Perhaps it was a strange amalgamation of the three, plus several other animals... mixed into one chaotic entity.

I guess my next trail of clues might be within that forest.

Taking a deep breath, readying my mind for whatever I might have to encounter, I strove forward to seek the separated party of schoolchildren and their guardians.

I didn't have time to fuck around.

Walking through the forest, I encountered nothing but more shrubs and greenery. I did manage to avoid a patch of blue flowers, more commonly known to the town populace as poison joke. But as I went deeper, I started to encounter changelings.

None of them were moving at all. I saw one or two mauled next to a tree. I saw another three knocked clean out. A few others were wandering around aimlessly, foaming at the mouth and suffering from what I could deduce to be some sort of an acid trip. I even saw one or two turned into stone.

Apparently, I was getting myself into some pretty deep shit.

*Crack*

I quickly turned my head to the left, pulling out my sword to fight. But before I could, I was blindsided from my right. Not even a second later, I was lying on the ground, looking at a very testy yellow pegasus who stared at me with a ferocity that I didn't even know she was capable of. After snapping out of her adrenaline-induced state, she quickly hopped off of me.

"Oh, I'm so sorry I did that to you!" Fluttershy whimpered quietly. "We thought you were something else."

I looked at her with shock pressed onto my face. For a few seconds, I couldn't think of any response but one. "...Okay?"

"You're not hurt, are you? Please don't be hurt! I don't want you to be hurt, especially because of me!"

"Fluttershy dear, he's doing quite fine." I heard the all-too familiar voice of Discord ring from my left. I turned over there to see him hanging off of a hammock in a tree. Not only was he swinging away without a care in the world, he had the nerve to drink from a coconut like he was vacationing in Honolulu.

"And fine, he is. For that, I'm glad. Just think of the injury he could have had!"

A third voice spoke out in rhyme. I got back onto my feet and turned around to see a zebra with blue eyes and golden neck rings walk up to me. A while back, she used to provide me with medicine for my headaches after a certain stallion beat my ass in a dark corner. Many of the ponies in the town came to know her as Zecora. "You're safe and sound, that's good to see. Though I've sat here and questioned why you have yet to visit me!"

"Well... It's kind of a long story." Fuck, where do I even begin? No, nevermind that. I have to complete my assignment. "I'm gonna have to elaborate on it later. I know it seems rude to just walk all this way and meet you again, in a time like this, and show concern for someone else. And I apologize for that."

"Oh, what are you here for?" Fluttershy asked quietly. "Not many of the changelings come this way. But when they do, we and my animal friends are more than willing to take them on."

Really? Fluttershy being brave? Who would've thought? "Animal friends?"

"Oh, it's no problem." She said as she looked past me. "He's one of us."

A chill ran down my spine as I thought about what her 'animal friends' had done to the changelings I walked past just moments earlier. I turned around slowly and met up with a chicken-lizard creature known as a cockatrice, a lion with horns and a scorpion tail known as a manticore, and a large brown bear she lovingly named Harry. "H... h-hi." I stuttered.

The three animals waived back in their own ways and walked beside a cheerful Fluttershy. Now add Discord, Fluttershy, and a shaman who was skilled enough to mix up some potions that could easily send them reeling into la-la land... Good lord, these changelings didn't stand a chance!

But I'm getting distracted. "Well it's nice to meet with all of you, but I'm afraid that I'm here on business. Is Rarity and the others with you?"

Fluttershy looked down to the ground in what appears to be shame. It's quite hard to tell with her mane blocking more than half of her face. "I'm sorry. But they're not with us."

I sighed out of frustration, completely baffled by the news of them not being here. "Oh come on!" I hollered out in frustration. "What happened? I thought that Pinkie said that you and Rarity were with the rest of the foals!"

"We were together at one point." Fluttershy explained as she walked towards the way I just came from. "But then a large group of changelings threatened us when we were just coming over to the cottage. Not only that, but they dared to threaten to eat Angel Bunny and his friends."

That thing has friends? "So what happened next?"

"I decided to stay behind and drive them off. They weren't going to feed on those poor little fillies and colts, not while I could do something about it!"

"Then later, as they wore her down, those three creatures had come around. And I offered to her a soothing potion, so that she could be back on her hooves and in full-motion." Zecora concluded.

"And of course, you know my reason for being here." Discord added as he teleported beside me. "Now the question is where do you think Rarity would take those poor, defenseless foals to? Naturally it would be City Hall, but as you already know-"

"That place is a changeling magnet." I finished. "Then how about the Carousel Boutique? That's the next-best place for her to go. She'd fight anyone who'd even come close to damaging that place."

"Oh, but I'm not even sure that she went over in that direction. She could be anywhere!" Fluttershy stated as she started to feel some concern.

"Then I'm gonna start there." I announced as I started to look towards the chaotic entity beside me. "Where do you think Rarity would go at a time like this?"

"My guess is as good as yours right now. But I can transfer you back into town so that you don't have to walk all the way back." He disappeared and reappeared in the tree he rested in earlier. "All of that walking can get a little boring after a while."

And the boutique was all the way across town. That's a lot of creeping around that I don't have the time for. "Better yet, just get me to the Boutique. I'll take care of the rest."

Discord stretched his arms and cracked his neck as his tail raised up and formed a set of fingers at the very end. "Well, I suppose that shouldn't be too difficult to do. In that case, I wish you the best."

"Many a folk, they will cry, if you were to go out and die. Stay safe and keep yourself low, for those changelings cannot track you if you're within the shadow." Zecora advised. I guess it's to my advantage that I stay in every dark area from here forth.

Fluttershy gave me a quick nuzzle. "You be careful! And let Rarity know that everypony else is okay."

"Got it!"

Discord appeared from seemingly nowhere to give me a slap on the back. I guess he doesn't like sharing the nuzzles. "Auf Wiedersehen, mein little soldier boy! Be sure to come marching back home in one piece!"

Somehow, that phrase made my departure all the more unsettling.

*SNAP*

In a mere blink, I found myself standing in the middle of an open square just a few blocks away from the boutique. It seems that Discord's aim was a little off, but I guess I can't complain too much. I had a visual on the small, extravagant home. That was all I needed at the moment.

*Hiss*

Or maybe I needed a big-ass flyswatter.

Seven changelings hovered just above me, hissing and circling me as they tried their best to intimidate me. And for a split second I was, thanks to them changing into some of the ponies that I was familiar with. One changed into a teenage pegasus mare with glasses, another into a smokey-gray pegasus colt with a silver Mohawk, and a few more landed on the ground. Three of them changed into the familiar faces of a red, bulky stallion wearing a yoke, a cream-colored mare with a purple and pink mane, as well as a carbon-copy of Pinkie Pie. The final two landed on the rooftop of a nearby home and transformed into two unicorn guards.

On second thought, they intimidated me quite a bit. It was a bit uncomfortable to raise my sword at familiar faces with the intent to maim or kill. But I clenched my jaw and kept a good grip on my sword. I let one factor ring aloud in my mind that would continue to motivate me throughout this fight: they were not who they portrayed themselves to be.

For a short while, they looked at me with odd expressions, unsure about what I was and why I was here. But that didn't matter to me, the first thing I needed to do was to take out the ones that were the closest.

I took my first step forward, breaking into a sprint. With sword in hand, I charged for the three ponies standing in front of me. The first one to stand in my way was the cream-colored mare. I wasted no time in trying to cut the impostor down. The mare bolted for me, causing me to veer left and leave a sharpened blade for her to run into. In trying to dodge it, I then switched the grip of my sword to a backhand form and cut deep into her side. Running past her, I dealt more damage as the blade ran across her body, hitting her vitals and crushing some of her ribs.

As the first changeling dropped their facade and fell to the ground lifeless, one of the pegasi fell from the air and tried to dive-kick me. Instead of taking the blow, I stopped myself and jumped back. As soon as the smoke-gray stallion landed, I ran forward with my blade gliding against his neck. In the fraction of a second, I could feel the droplets of his life essence splatter across the side of my face. I didn't bother to look back at the grisly scene, as my mind was more focused on the five that remained.

Both of the unicorns on the rooftop started to use their magic to levitate stuff at me and break off my attacks. I offered to use my gun, but I decided against it. If I was going to use it, it would have to be for a tactical emergency. Bullets aren't exactly a hot commodity here in Equestria.

Dodging a barrel and a bale of hay, I saw another changeling running up to me. This time it was the Big Mac replication that tried to catch me off guard and bite me. But I continued to avoid him as well as a well-timed wooden barrel that knocked him out of the way. I'd have to thank one of those rooftop changelings for their incompetence, as it has helped me tremendously. The next changeling came flying in from the air, eager to subdue me. But I decided to calmly take a step forward in a gambit to avoid the charge it made. Unwittingly, the poor creature landed against the ground with a powerful impact. However, it rose back up as if it hadn't taken any damage whatsoever.

"What the..." I mumbled to myself, uncertain as to what had happened. But I wasn't going to sit around and think about it. I needed to dispatch these bugs before I'm thrown into some ugly, gooey contraption used to harvest my love from me. The pegasi that assaulted me flew at me once more, dashing towards me. Instead, I gave myself enough room and let my sword take my place. By the time my blade made contact with it's third victim, the pegasus fell to the ground, this time permanently.

The changeling that pretended to be Big Mac then changed it's form to a body that was younger and faster. Disguising itself as Applejack, the creature snarled and kicked a wooden barrel at me. I fell to the ground, trying to somersault out of it's way. But as I did, the one that imitated Pinkie knocked me over. When I gathered myself, I rolled back over to my back and held my sword upward as the pink impostor came crashing down on my sword.

I knew if I was going to watch the life fade from her eyes, I was going to lose my mental edge. Even as a fake, the image of Pinkie dying would be a very disturbing one. With that in mind, I immediately kicked the dying changeling off of me and turned my attention to the final grounded changeling. Suddenly, a green blast of energy landed beside me. I turned back to the two changelings on the rooftop and grimaced in anger. The final ground-based changeling charged towards me. I pulled back my sword and went for a slice.

Dodging it, the changeling tried to snap it's jaws at me. But my agility and maneuverability proved too much for the changeling as I backed off, regrouping and driving my blade home, deep within the creature's chest. The fake Applejack cringed in pain as I pulled my weapon from within and gave it a final left-hook to the face. As soon as it hit the ground, the fake display faltered and all that remained was a bloodied husk of a hostile enemy.

Finally frustrated, the two unicorns fell to the ground and blasted their energy at me at will. The barrage was so much that I had to initially seek shelter from them. Running to a nearby fruit cart, I kept my head low. As I rested for a brief second, I could feel bits and chunks of fruit land all over me. Though the smell was rather pleasant, I knew that my aromatherapy session would have to wait. Sneaking an orange off of the fruit cart, I threw it high into the air to distract the two changelings. As soon as that fruit became airborne, I got on my feet and ran for the first one I could sink my sword into. By the time they had even noticed what was going on, I had plunged my sword into one of their necks and used it's body as a makeshift shield to protect me from the bolts of the other insectoid. When I was in range, I threw the lifeless body to the faux guard, making him catch it as I thrusted my blade into his mandable.

For a quick second, I thought the blade was to be stuck inside, but I had to place the lifeless carcass on the ground and my foot onto it's head as I separated my sword from his skull. After pulling it out, the body gave a quick jolt before remaining lifeless again.

When I had finished, I stood over the corpse, wondering what would've happened if their entire army came to attack us, at full-strength no less. This would've been a complete disaster. I wiped my face off from the blood and fruit pulp from earlier. I knew that Rarity was going to throw a fit for me getting this shirt dirty like this, bit she would have to deal with it. I'm not dying over keeping my shirt clean.

"Help!"

My ears led me ahead to a building a few blocks down. I looked back around to the Carousel Boutique, which was an arm's reach away and shook my head. I needed to take care of whoever cried for help rather than looking for Rarity and the others. They could be holed-in and in a safer position than whoever called for help.

Running forward, I encountered three more changelings. All three seemed to be circled around a certain area by another cart. It looked as if they were trying to capture another victim for their feeding. And as many ponies they have victimized today, I refuse to let another suffer. I didn't let out a cry, instead swinging my sword into the back of one's neck. The first one to the right fell with a yelp. The two others looked back over to see me rushing for them as well. Before the next closest one could get some separation, I grabbed it's horn and sank my sword into it's neck. It's eyes rolled back as it's hooves grasped at my arm to separate itself from me, but the effort, similar to it's breath, diminished to nothing. The third changeling screeched as it threatened to fire a bolt of magic at me. Instead, I threw the body back at the insectoid pony. The changeling, after receiving the lifeless body of it's comrade backed away in a panic. I quickly walked up to it and prevented what could've been a bad scouting report.

After catching my breath for a quick second, I turned around to see two faces staring at me with a mix of shock and horror. A young, white unicorn filly with a pink and purple mane as well as a purple baby dragon with green scales looked at me, almost scared to death. At that moment, I had remembered what I had done in order to save them both. Immediately, I felt shame.

"I'm so sorry you had to see that." I whispered, wiping more blood off of my face. "Are you two okay? Did they do anything to you?"

"I... w... y..." Spike continued to stammer through his mind for a response.

"Did they do anything to hurt you two?" I asked once more.

"N-no... They tried... to take us..." Sweetie Belle answered, still in a bit of a panic.

Great, now I've scarred these two for life. I guess I'm gonna have more than an earful from Rarity when I get these two over to the boutique. In speaking of Rarity... "How did you two get separated from the group?"

"The changelings attacked us when we were running towards the boutique. Rarity saved most of them, but some of the others were carried off. Spike and I are the lucky ones."

Great, as if this day couldn't get any worse. "Who did they carry off?"

"They carried off Twist and Rumble. They tried to cart off with Spike, but I managed to throw a rock at the one that carried him. When I hit it, they dropped Spike somewhere in town. So I went to look for where he fell, found him hiding in a bush and now we're here trying to make it down the street."

I quickly scanned the sky for any signs of hostile activity, nothing yet. "Well you two are in the clear for now. I think I've pretty much taken care of anything else we'd might run into."

"E-except... for one thing..." Spike stuttered.

I turned back to him, concerned for what he might have to say. "What?"

"That screech from that last changeling... that was a call for back-up."

Uh-oh. "Wait, you mean that there are more coming this way?"

*RAAAAAAGH!!!*

Sweetie gulped and started to back herself against the wall again. "More like... they're already here!"

I quickly turned around to see a few flying in the sky, four or five tops. "Well that doesn't look too-" But another screech from one of them summoned up yet even more of their friends to show up. At this moment, we were looking at about fifteen changelings in the air and nine more on the ground. "...Bad."

That's twenty-four going against three... Correction, twenty-four to one considering I was the only one who could really fight. That means that I'd have to get these two away from here. And if they were going to make it to that boutique, then I needed to play decoy as long as it would take for them to get there.

I guess I didn't have much of a choice. "Sweetie, Spike, when I run at them, you run behind me."

"We're not gonna fight those things, are we!?" The young dragon said as he started to shake a bit.

"I am. You two need to get to that boutique. I'll distract them for as long as you need."

Sweetie started to whimper. "But you could get hurt! And you could... you could-"

I looked back to the young filly and gave her my best smile. "I could save you two and be on my way over when I finish. How does that sound?"

Spike didn't say anything or did much but clench his jaw tightly. Sweetie Belle hid behind my leg and pulled against me, terrified of the situation. "You're gonna come back, right?"

"Yeah. I'll be okay. Now let's get you two off and running."

"But that plan will never work!" Spike argued defiantly. "They can fly and you can't."

"Look, do you wanna see Rarity again or not?"

"..." My question seemed to have hit home as he quickly became silent and cooperative.

Sweetie leaned against me, whimpering and sniffling as I raised my weapon and readied myself to charge at the gathering before me. The changelings hissed and screeched as they all looked at the three of us. A final changeling appeared, donning armor that seemed completely different from ours. It seemed that this one would be a low-ranking officer of some sort. The changeling in charge pointed at me and screamed loudly.

"He has slain our fellow members of the hive! Capture him and drain him where he stands!"

You know, I never did get a chance to ask this. "Hey Spike, what happens if they, quote-unquote, drain you dry?"

"Well, love is considered as a valuable life-force here in Equestria and it's also tied into your magic. So if they suck all of it out, then it's more than likely that you'll die."

"Well thank goodness I don't have any magic for them to suck dry then."

Without further hesitation, I lifted my sword and ran towards the growing squad of Changelings. Sweetie and Spike followed closely behind me. This time, I hollered at the group, letting my voice ring loudly throughout the area. I was already caught upon my being brought here, so it didn't matter what would happen if I went all-out. I wish I could say that my cry caused them to shudder where they stood, but they charged back at me without a single shred fear.

The first changeling I ran into didn't last long at all, my sword hacked into the changeling's hide and knocked it over. Another two came at me at once. I took a step back to avoid one changeling and another to my left to avoid the next. Spike and Sweetie still trailed close behind. Reaching for my waist, I pulled out my secondary weapon as I leaned in to slice another changeling out of my way. The struck changeling still continued to show resistance by pulling at my leg, so I sliced my sword for the hoof that held me down. Upon our separation, the changeling cried out in pain over it's missing limb.

Mentally, I'm regretting that Sweetie Belle and Spike has to see all of this. I pray that Luna eases their dreams tonight as she did with mine.

But that would only happen if I can manage to get them to safety. Another three changelings fell from the sky in an attempt to ram into me. Trying my best to avoid, I ducked and dodged many of the incoming creatures that launched themselves like artillery fire. As for the ones that tried to stop us on the ground, they were met with swift ends. The first ran at me, receiving a slash to the crown of their skull. The second's met with my hilt crashing into it's muzzle, with my sword coming back down to perform a leg sweep. While the changeling cried out in pain, I hacked into it's side to make sure that it wouldn't grasp at me like it's maimed comrade.

Reaching behind the throng of hostiles, I commanded the two young individuals to make a break for the boutique. They gave me a nod and dashed for safety as quick as they could. But their escape attempt didn't go unnoticed. Three changelings that hovered in mid-air turned their attention to them, giving chase to the filly and the young drake. But before they could even get within a few feet of them, my gun sounded three times. The first hit one of the changelings in it's side, causing it to fall like a dead weight. The second and third shots landed on another one of the changelings, the first hitting one of it's wings and the other the back of it's neck. After the first two fell, I fired one more round, but my aim was slightly off as I hit the final one in the back of it's leg. But despite my shot not doing what I had intended for it to do, the changeling still dropped to the ground, screaming in pain.

Spike and Sweetie Belle had long made their exit from the area and now there was only me and a group of pissed-off insects that could try to suck the love out of me. But I wasn't planning on fighting every single one of them. I needed to make my way to the boutique for safety. At least there I can catch my breath and prepare for the next onslaught.

*HISSSS!*

But that wasn't going to happen. I turned around to take a swipe at a changeling that was a few feet away from me. As I did, the changeling backed off and dodged my sword. Though what I lacked in my sword, my gun would pick up the slack. One more report sounded, sending the changeling that dodged me earlier to the ground in silence. The other changelings looked at me with bewilderment as their comrade lied dead next to me. But I had to aim carefully on my next few shots and use them only when absolutely necessary. I had a clip in my pocket, but that would only service me with nine more rounds. I had already used five out of the nine in my current clip.

But then I had thought about what would happen if I had deprived this squadron of it's leadership. One could assume that the chain of command would fall apart. So if I killed the commanding officer, that would have to spook them off a little bit. Not only spook them, but throw them into disarray. Orders would be mixed and there wouldn't be a strong command.

Scratch that, new objective is to kill the enemy commander.

I tried to look around for the changeling in armor, but the majority of changelings I saw were nothing more than lackeys. If anything, the one that would be calling the shots would more than likely be sitting somewhere in the back. And I'd have to cut my way through every single one that stood in my way.

I'll have to make this quick.

Raising my gun, I fired the remaining five shots, killing one instantly and seriously wounding three others. That left me with thirteen more to cut through, including their leader. While the changelings stared back at me with fear growing in their eyes, I took the opportunity to reload my gun. At this point, it seemed that they were being cautious rather than using their usual blitzkrieg tactics. And I wouldn't blame them, twelve of their own have been effectively neutralized in the matter of seconds and only half of their numbers remain. And I think they know exactly what I was capable of now.

One more time, Nondis. Ready up.

I ran towards the group of changelings, screaming as my sword pointed towards the ground, ready to strike at the first changeling to come at me. At first they stumbled, but then they charged at me with everything they had. I was met with a forceful opposition, three changelings raining from above as another four fired energy blasts at me. Meanwhile five rushed at me to take me down.

The first victim of my sword was a changeling that landed beside me a second earlier and tried to flank me from behind. When I heard it's high-pitched screech, my sword raised high into the air and made contact with the crown of it's skull. Pulling off of it, I looked around to see another changeling coming directly at me. I offered myself a simple solution, firing a round at the changeling. While my shot hit my target, it still ran at me. Firing another, I finally got it to fall.

"Seven left." I mumbled to myself while I started to run again.

As I tried to dodge more of the aerial assaults and green blasts of magic, I continued to push myself towards the one changeling that mattered the most. Finally getting a clear view of him, I raised my gun to eliminate him at will. While I aimed, I tried to avoid may of the incoming bolts of their magic.

There was one thing for certain, this was a lot harder than it looked when I was playing Call of Duty. For one thing, this was real. I couldn't afford to take any shots, whereas on the game, I could take a few and the screen turn red. And if my screen turned red, I could hide for a while until my screen was back to normal. I could afford to run blindly into a pack of enemies and pull off multiple kills, call up a killstreak reward and be on my way to the next one. This time, I had to avoid ALL of the shots barreling towards me, there was no immediate healing factor, and if I die here, there's no such thing as a respawn. Plus there was plenty of cover in the game, where here there's just me and changelings in the middle of an open area.

Aiming down the sights, I tried to line a shot for their commander. As I did, another bolt landed just inches away from my feet, blowing dirt high into the air and into my face. Shielding my eyes, I tried to avoid being blinded by the blast. But in doing so I found that my vision was still obstructed by the dust that managed to get past my arms and into my eyes. For a moment my eyes watered, disabling me from getting a clear shot.

Suddenly, I felt a powerful blow knock me back. A powerful jolt of energy rushed through my body, nearly shutting me down completely. I took immediate notice that my feet were far from touching the ground. And as I tried to figure out what was going on, I felt a painful impact on my back as I crashed through a vendor stand and into a wall. As I landed, I heard nothing. I felt nothing. I saw nothing but pitch black. I became desolate and quiet, still and unaware. I blacked out for a short while.

Get up...

That one command was the only thing my body seemed to respond to. My heart pounded into my ears while the sounds of the changelings around me seemed to be drowning in water. My vision slowly came into focus, starting from dark blurs of gray to lighter, more vibrant colors. My head moved on it's own, checking if my hands were still operational.

Can they move?

My hands bent, my fingers curling back and forth into my palm. Strangely, it felt slightly, yet unusually painful when my fingers dug into the paleness of my palms. My knuckles cracked loudly as my fist clenched shut. I turned my head to the other hand, the same happened. My head moved between both hands, my arms moving on their own accord. My eyes widened as the world around be started to come into complete focus. The sound of water drowning in my ears then transitioned into high-pitched ringing. The voices around me became much clearer.

Make a choice... Fight or flight...

It was almost as if I had taken a back seat to what was going on around me. My body slowly raised up to it's own feet. My hand grasping onto the ground as I anchored myself for support. I took slow and immensely deep breaths while I looked ahead to see the changelings before me. A few more showed up, some even landing next to me and immediately before me. I was completely surrounded with a wall behind me. I was cornered.

No other choice then...

I looked around me, looking for my weapons. I found my sword lying next to me, but my gun was crushed by a changeling that shot in from midair. Grabbing my sword from off of the ground, I stared back at the changeling commander.

Go!

I'm not sure what made me run forward, but the only thing I knew was that I had to run forward. The majority of my world became much akin to a strange blur, everything save the changelings around me was nothing but a hazy outline of shapes and figures.

Left!

I turned to my left, ambushing three changelings that dared to take a step towards me. In a single strike I sliced through two of them, cutting clean past them and grabbing one by the horn. Without thinking, I pulled my sword back and thrusted into the creature, not caring where the blow had landed. I didn't care that it's blood spurted forth like a miniature fountain. I only cared about the one thing that mattered to me right now; I needed to live.

Behind you!

I turned around to meet face to face with a changeling. As it grabbed me it chomped down on my right shoulder, sinking it's fangs in as far as my collarbone would allow. I felt pain, but not nearly as much as I thought I would feel under normal circumstances. I switched the grip on my sword to a backhand grip so that I could still combat the changeling. Driving the hilt of my sword into it's head, I repeatedly struck the creature until it released me. Upon my freedom, I wasted no time in separating it's head from it's shoulders. With a grunt I sliced through the insect's neck and turned my attention to the commander.

Keep going!

I continued to follow the commands as if I was some sort of automated device made to completely destroy all means of a threat. I ran at the armored changeling, blindly cutting down five more that charged at me. When the commander saw that I was heading directly for it, the creature took to the air for safety. It's cowardice only served to make me even more infuriated, so much that I would take it out on every other one of the changelings that came at me.

Mow them down! Do it now!

Voices and commands filled my body, each muscle moving and reacting in tandem to the ones I'd use on the norm. Chemicals released throughout my body, enhancing every sense I possessed. I could hear the breaths of every changeling around me. I could smell the gunpowder from my gun and the strong scent of copper from the blood being spilled. I could see everything that threatened to take my life. I could taste the air I breathed in. I could feel the slightest movements in the air.

Hurry up!

My feet pivoted and moved me back towards the congregation of changelings that stood to oppose me. I switched my sword back into it's normal grip and ran for the nearest changeling on the ground. The changeling stepped back in fear, but I pounced on it in time enough to make sure that it didn't become scared enough to run away.

Right!

I twisted myself to the right, quickly taking on another two changelings that looked at me with that same expression of regret and terror. I didn't think I gave them much of a chance to scream, swiping my blade against one's neck and the other's upper torso.

Left!

Turning back to my original direction, I gave yet another changeling a left hook and a strong swipe of my sword against it's head.

Left!

The changeling tried to snap it's jaws at me, but only received a snack in the form of my sword through the back of it's throat.

One more behind!

I swung my sword towards myself, placing it between my upper waist and my left arm. As I stepped back, I stabbed another changeling. I gave the blade a quick twist to loosen myself from the dying changeling and parted ways from it.

Above you!

I took a step to my left to let another changeling land on the ground. But as it raised it's head, my sword gave greeting to it's brain.

Left!

I just kept going.

Right!

I kept killing one...

Right!

After another...

Behind you!

After another... Until I looked up to the commander that mocked me. Every single muscle in my body flexed as I tightened the grip on my sword. I screamed loudly, as if I was a savage animal, rattling my weapon at the commander that continued to hover high above me. Finally in a fit of frustration I threw my sword at the armored changeling. He moved quick enough to avoid a deadly blow, but at the sacrifice of one of it's wings.

When it landed, I rushed over to meet with the wounded commander to finish the job. But I found myself trying to fend off another changeling that pressed itself on me from my left side. As it drove me next to a damage building, it tried to bury it's teeth into me. I threw up my left arm to take the blow and started to look around for anything I could use as a weapon. To my immediate left I did see a brick lying on the ground, but I couldn't grab it unless my left arm was freed. Trying my best to shove the creature off, I dug my right hand into it's skull and firmly pressed my thumb against it's eye. Pressing harshly, I didn't stop until I started to draw blood.

The changeling released me, screaming out in pain as I quickly grabbed the brick and changed it to my more capable hand. The changeling writhed on the ground, crying out in discomfort as I climbed on top of it. I shoved the brick against it's head, relentlessly bashing and bashing until I could see nothing but pink. I didn't mind the blood on my face at this point. The only thing I cared about was living... and for good reason.

Time's up...

My right arm fell lifelessly to the ground. And soon after, I felt myself follow suit. My body damn near fell apart as I leaned myself against the wall I was backed into. My chest rose and fell at a rapid pace as I tried to fill my body with enough oxygen. My eyes turned to another changeling that stared at me out of fright. It didn't think about anything else but running away. But the changeling behind it blindly charged at me out of trepidation, but became redirected by another blast of magic. We all looked over to see what had attacked the other changeling.

My eyes instantly grew as I saw Rarity making a stand directly in front of me.

"Now, dearies... if you don't mind, I would rather you to stand down and make yourselves scarce. I don't like fighting, as it leads to a huge mess." She stated as she looked at the actual mess I made. "Again, fighting's not really my thing. I'm more into fashion. But if you want to get to him, you'll have to go through me!" She screamed forcefully.

Wow, you go Rarity.

When the changeling commander stepped forward to face her, it wore a large grin as it sniffed her out. As soon as it had gotten a good whiff of her, the armored changeling had another idea in mind. "I smell an immense amount of love coming from you."

Rarity didn't budge as the creature walked closer to her. But before the changeling could get any closer, a large blur of pink swooped in from the air and knocked it into the ground with enough strength to crack it's skull open. When Rarity and I looked over we saw Cadance standing directly before us, wearing a smirk as well as a set of sliver armor. When another one of the changelings hissed at her, Rainbow Dash dove in and punched the creature onto the ground. The changelings started to back away as they saw the two standing in front of us. Rainbow Dash looked back at me with concern.

"You doing okay, rookie?" She asked as she stood tall against the changeling threat.

Rarity nodded as she answered for me. "He's going to be fine. I'm sure he's just a little winded is all."

"That's good to know." Cadance said as she waived her hoof in the air, signaling a large contingent of pegasi to rush into the town. Many of them were armed with spears and swords as they all rushed to battle. The changelings that still lived retreated to another part of the town. But for now, at least Ponyville would live to see another day without being held by changelings.

Rainbow walked over to me and extended her hoof. "Can you stand?"

I tried to lift my arm to meet with her, but my body had grown entirely too heavy for me to move. I did manage to lift it a little before my entire body slouched over. "I...can't...move."

"What!?" Rarity exclaimed as she jumped over to me, trying to inspect my wounds. Cadance was the first to notice the teeth marks in my arm.

"He's been bit!" She pointed out.

"Nnngh... Twice...shoulder..." I struggled to speak as my muscles became unresponsive.

Cadance and Rainbow looked at one another before trying to see if there were any more wounds on me. As soon as they placed their hoof on my shoulder, I winced in pain. My obvious contorted facial expressions showed them that I was hurt where Rainbow had touched me. Rarity gritted her teeth as she ripped the shirt apart at my shoulders to reveal another set of teeth marks. The three of them gasped in unison as they had realized that I had been bitten twice.

"Oh no." Rarity whispered behind her hooves.

"Augh! Rookie, what the hell were you doing!?" Rainbow screamed at me.

"He saved Spike and Sweetie Belle! If there's anypony you should be yelling at, it's me, Rainbow Dash!" Rarity defended as she glared back at the cyan pegasus.

"Nevermind cause-and-effect, ladies! We need to get Nondis to a medical center now!" Cadance commanded. "Rainbow Dash, Rarity, I need you two to get him on my back!"

"Ma'am!" The two sounded off unanimously. While the two ponies did what they could to straighten me out and prep me for Cadance, the pink princess tried her best to comfort me.

"You're gonna be okay."

After the next three hours Rarity stood by my side while Cadance and Rainbow continued to make their way across town, clearing out every changeling they encountered. It didn't take long for the army of bug-ponies to make their inevitable retreat from the town, especially after Twilight had gotten word of my condition. She stepped on the field and blasted every changeling from here to Sweet Apple Acres, driving them back. As far as their commander was concerned, they were never caught. The changelings didn't seem to mind leaving everyone they kept in their feeding pods here either. And on top of that, there seemed to be a lack of casualties as well. Many were wounded and taken in for feeding, but no one died from any of it. I guess that's more than enough good news for today.

The venom that was injected into my body had started to wear off. I wasn't exactly sure-footed but I was hobbling out of the hospital. That didn't stop Rarity from trying to help me every single time I nearly fell over. Unfortunately, the hospital didn't have any canes for anyone my size. Can't be helped. I was the last one they had in mind whenever it came to being crippled, albeit for a short while. And it hasn't really occurred to me that I might break a leg or something that might leave me to hobble around a bit. Though I have a distinct feeling that Twilight might change that around.

Twilight and the others, after finishing around town, finally met up with me at the palace. When we had arrived, we saw nothing but a multitude of downed changelings around the castle grounds. And after a certain point, the bodies just stopped. Twilight did make a statement on how this castle was enchanted by something called the Tree of Harmony, but that still didn't make any sense to me. The only think I could think of is that there was some sort of barrier erected over the castle that acted as some sort of bug-zapper.

No pun intended.

Either way, Shining finally met up with me and explained to the others that I would be taking more of an active role come tomorrow in the cleanup. He also had to explain to Rainbow Dash why I now outrank her. But my being a captain, I'm still trying to process that, still didn't stop her from calling me rookie. I thought that this would be a temporary promotion, but instead Shining is pushing paperwork come tomorrow to get me updated on the perks of my new rank. He also explained to me in private that being an officer would help convince any dignitaries of foreign lands that Equestria's youngest princess was getting married to a high-ranking official rather than a low-ranking grunt. So not only did my recent list of accolades earn me that position, but it was a means to pad my resume for the approval process.

It was a total power play, but then again I wasn't complaining all that much. Twilight even showed her approval, as the situation would let me and her, in her own words, spend more quality time together while she was on the job.

With all of that mess aside I asked to retire to my room for the evening. Both Rarity and Twilight assisted me down the hall, giving me abundant praises that I could do nothing but blush at. When we had gotten to Twilight's room, Rarity expressed her shock upon finding out that the one morning Twilight and I spent together wasn't just a special occurrence, but a daily ritual. She seemed a bit baffled at the news but she smiled and ushered us inside, bidding farewell and leaving us alone.

...Something tells me that she not too fond of me sleeping with Twilight on the nightly. I hope that this doesn't become an ugly issue later on.

Later that evening...

Rarity entered into the Carousel Boutique and stared at the mess made from the earlier commotion. As she walked through the room, she saw Sweetie Belle sitting at the table with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. They were discussing her earlier encounter with the changelings and the human that risked his life to save her. Despite her story being somewhat dark and gritty, it appeared that she had nothing but praise for him. The fashionista leaned against the wall, listening in for what her younger sister had to say to her friends.

"So what yer tellin' us is that Nondis saved both you n' Spike, from a pack of love-suckin' changelin's?" Apple Bloom questioned.

"Of course he did!" Squeaked Sweetie. "He actually sacrificed himself to save both me and Spike!"

"Wow, you really don't hear much of it from Spike." Scootaloo pointed out.

"That's because he was a bit shaken up from it all."

"What about you?" Apple Bloom asked.

"What about me?"

Rarity crept around to sneak a peak at the three fillies at the dinner table as Scootaloo answered Sweetie's question. "Well, if your story went anything like how you said it did, then I bet it must've been really scary to see Nondis like that."

The white filly's ears folded back as her head dropped. "Yeah, but it was a lot scarier to find out that he got bit. Rarity said that he got bitten, twice!"

"Is he doin' okay?" The yellow filly questioned.

"From what I heard from Rainbow Dash, he's supposed to be back on his feet by now." The orange pegasus recalled.

Sweetie raised herself as she spoke. "But I have to admit, it wasn't as nearly as bad as when we were foalnapped by Queen Chrysalis. She actually threatened to kill us!"

Apple Bloom cringed slightly as she hummed to herself. "That was a bit scary, especially since she killed that cat!"

"Not to mention how she captured Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity. She almost beat Twilight too." Scootaloo stated.

"Yeah, but that was when Twilight wasn't a princess. At the very least, she has wings now." Sweetie said with a bit of confidence.

"And her own set of guards." Scootaloo added.

"And her own castle!" Apple Bloom finished.

The three giggled happily as Rarity continued to watch on. She seemed relieved that her younger sister was now in safe company. Finally feeling content with that knowledge, she started to walk off. But she halted her movements as a single question reached her ears.

"So, are ya gonna tell 'em now?"

"Tell him what!?" Sweetie answered, sounding a bit flustered.

"Duh, that you have a you-know-what on him." Scootaloo answered.

"...Do I have to?"

"You gotta tell him! Spike's gonna be running around doing stuff for Rarity forever if you don't come clean to him."

"And plus, you saved his scaly tail too! He owes it to ya this time!" The apple filly exclaimed loudly.

"...I can't."

"Why not!?" The two other fillies asked simultaneously.

"Because... well... you know."

"We toldja once, we toldja a million times! Spike. Is-"

"Not my crush..." Sweetie confessed quietly. "He's never been."

"...But you told us that he-"

"That was a lie."

"So he didn't dump a bucket of goat milk over Diamond Tiara 'n Silver Spoon?" Apple Bloom inquired.

"No... That was just a cover-up."

"So, is your crush anypony in our class." Scootaloo asked.

"...I already said that he wasn't a pony."

The two sat in silence as it all finally came together. "...No." They both said in a low tone, expressing their disbelief.

"..." Sweetie remained silent.

"You can't mean that... he's your crush!?" Scootaloo asked.

"...I know it's wrong, but..." Sweetie sighed as she took a moment to gather her thoughts. "How do you deal with a crush, when you know they like somepony else?"

Rarity clenched her eyes shut as she found herself asking the same question to Spike every now and then. Usually, he'd give her a half-baked answer and continue to swoon her until she felt better. But those temporary solutions did nothing for her now. She continued to listen in over their conversation, turning a keen ear to the door. The other two fillies sat in silence as both Sweetie and Rarity awaited their response.

"So... How do I deal with liking someone, knowing that they promised their life to another?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Apple Bloom took in a deep breath as she gave Sweetie her honest answer.

"You don't."

Rarity's eyes grew as she heard the young foal's answer. The answer to her dilemma, the one problem that's been a thorn in her side since the beginning of this whole affair was that she constantly had to deal with being the second mare in line, perpetually caught in between her own happiness and that of her friends. Taking satisfaction of the answer she overheard, she marched upstairs to her bedroom.

"If I don't have to deal with it... then I won't."

She looked in the mirror, staring at the picture of her and all of her friends, including the one whom she loved immensely. As she focused in on the human that was circled, she found a new source of life within her. A wave of determination and bravery swept her as she came to her final conclusion.

"I'm sorry Twilight, but it's decided. He will be mine..."

Chapter XXVI

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter XXVII

At the Ponyville Train Station...

Spike looked to the billboard as he tried to think of a way to get to Canterlot after he saw the latest bit of news in regards to the traveling schedule. It stated that any trains which were originally slated to run through the city were cancelled until further notice. He let out a defeated groan as the other ponies commenced to reading the reason why they had to cancel many of their trips to the city. He knew that Nondis' story would eventually be brought up further in the explanation of the events two days past.

The last thing he wanted to hear about was how Nondis did something else to pad his resume, from saving passengers on a train to slaying changelings in the streets. Even the news of the human's promotion left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Facing away from the board, he turned his attention to the incoming train from Appleloosa. When the ponies stepped off the train, some of them complained about the delay of service due to a recent reroute being implemented for those who were on their way towards the northwestern region. Whispers and rumors of the situation in Canterlot started to infect the ears of every pony at the station. Spike, spiteful of hearing the human's name so often, closed his eyes, held his ears shut and walked away as quickly as possible.

His mind continued to ponder about ways to get to Canterlot. It seemed that balloon wound be the best way to get to the city, but then he remembered that Shining had to ride it back to the city while his wife and sister flew alongside him. And Canterlot, despite it's relatively close location, wasn't exactly a stroll down the street. Spike shook his head and felt anger take over as his ideas were shot down one by one.

It didn't take him long to realize that he was stuck in Ponyville with no way of reaching Twilight.

He needed to inform her what his situation was and why he would no longer be staying with Rarity. And the longer he sat at the train station, the quicker he found his solutions disappearing into thin air.

"Spike?"

The young dragon turned back around to see a familiar stallion; a burnt-orange stallion with a dark-brown, puffy mane similar to that of Pinkie Pie. Spike waved back to acknowledge Cheese Sandwich as he walked up to the young dragon.

"Thank goodness you're here! Look, I heard about the situation that happened in Ponyville just yesterday. I came here as quick as I could."

"Nah, it wasn't much. Just some changelings." Spike said, trying to downplay the events of yesterday while choosing to disregard the accomplishments of the human that saved both him and Sweetie Belle, gaining even more favor with Rarity.

"Well, I just came in today. Can you believe that they cancelled all the trains going towards Ponyville from Baltimare? I even had to ride my party balloon just to get here."

Spike seemed to perk up at Cheese's words. "You rode your party balloon here?"

"Well, not exactly." Cheese admitted. "I tried to ride it here, but then I had gotten caught in this thunderstorm just south of Foal Mountain. And after that, I found myself somehow carted off towards Dodge Junction. So I took the outbound line from Appleloosa to get here."

Spike didn't seem to care all that much about how he got here. He had only one concern at that moment. "Do you still have your balloon?"

"Well of course I do!" The party stallion decreed. "It's in the luggage cart. I'm pretty sure nothing else should've happened outside of that weird thunderstorm."

Spike had began to realize that there was much more hope for him after all. In fact, Cheese's arrival couldn't have come at a better time. "Do you think I could borrow it?"

"Well sure! What for?" The stallion questioned.

A smirk formed on the dragon's lips. "I need it to get to Canterlot, I need to tell Twilight something important!"

Cheese took a brief moment to ponder over the thought of loaning his balloon to the young dragon, but also took into consideration that he was also Pinkie's friend. And any friend of hers was a friend of him. "Really? I guess could let you borrow it for a short while. How long do you need it for?"

Spike's lips formed into a devilish smile, curling from ear to ear. "Just for a little while."

I couldn't seem to find out what was really going on with Rarity ever since Spike had left the boutique, but it seems that he was definitely a lingering thought. It was almost to the point where having him gone had left a hole in the fabric of the home. And throughout the rest of the afternoon, she spoke only about how she felt some form or regret for kicking him out of the house.

However, I myself had mixed thoughts in relation to the situation.

I suppose that was to be expected. After all I saved his life and he politely told me to 'fuck off'. In seeing his reaction, Rarity had one of her own. It was just one gigantic smorgasbord of emotions oozing from the cracks of the walls. But it seems that Sweetie Belle didn't let it disturb her, whatever she was doing upstairs. Since we came from the castle, she's hasn't come back down or said anything. Maybe it was because of my actions from yesterday. Sure I did save her, but I ended up having to show a side of me that wasn't meant for her.

Perhaps I needed to apologize to her about it.

"Hey Rarity, do you mind if I-"

I turned back to Rarity, who was too busy sweeping the floor in one spot to notice that I had called out to her. Yeah, she seemed pretty devastated over the situation that occurred just half-an-hour ago. Accepting that she was too far out of it to even acknowledge me, I took it upon myself to walk upstairs and pay the young foal a visit. Slowly, I walked up the stairs, remembering the times I had stayed here myself.

It wasn't too long ago where I was resting in the room Rarity once took for herself, waking up to the smell of something burning downstairs. Ultimately, I had to run down these very stairs to prevent whatever was threatening to burn down the house from doing just that. And of course, the very thing we'd often have to stop was Sweetie Belle as she was cooking breakfast.

To this day, I never could recall us having dinner here at the house. Instead, we were always ordering out or going someplace else to share a meal. And even when Rarity got a new stove, which was every three or four days, Sweetie would start cooking again to prove to me that she could make me breakfast. And honestly I'm thankful to every stove that broke down, may their sacrifices not be in vain.

No seriously, how in fresh hell do you set milk on fire by pouring it on cereal? Between Pinkie and Sweetie, those two have a knack for breaking the laws of physics and defying all logic.

As I finally reached the top of the stairs, I could hear Sweetie giggling further down the hall. It seemed as if she was having herself a good time playing with something, I guess it must've been a doll or something. Walking towards the room she hid in, I leaned my ear against the door.

"Of course, mister Nondis! You can have as much tea as you like."

I stifled a chuckle as I knocked on the door.

"Yes?" The young filly called out.

"Um... could I get in on this tea party?"

There didn't seem to be an immediate response from her, but she did seem to have some sort of answer. "...Uh..."

I guess she didn't want to be disturbed. "Nevermind, then. Sorry for dis-"

"Wait!" She shouted. Suddenly, I heard the rumbling of hooves against the floor as she scrambled to the door. The door opened to reveal the young filly with a pink apron that had Spike's name on it.

You know, I'm starting to find that Spike was into some really weird shit, or perhaps he was some sort of maid.

Anywho, I started to walk inside of the room when Sweetie levitated a small broom in front of me, pretending as if it was a spear.

So... how many brooms does Rarity have?

"You're not authorized to come in here without the password!" She stated sternly, holding the broom's handle towards my chin.

"Um... Is it 'please'?" I guessed.

"Nope! Try again!"

"Is it 'I'm a big doodoo-head'?" I asked with a deadpan expression.

"NO! One last time!" She said, this time pressing the broom against my throat. "And get it right this time!"

I rolled my eyes and thought of a password that I would know for certain. "Cutie Mark Crusaders forever?"

Sweetie bonked me on the head with the broom, expressing her disgust in me. "No no no! The password is 'password'! How could you get that one wrong?"

Of course. The word I'd least expect to be a password... except for when I'm typing into someone's computer. "Right... Sorry."

"So what's the password?"

"Password." I answered flatly.

Sweetie pulled the broom to the side, allowing me passage as she placed it to her side and giving me a salute. "You may enter!"

I shook my head, chuckling to myself as I walked in to see a brown teddy bear sitting at the table with a set of purple plastic tea cups. She closed the door behind her and started to make her way towards the table, instructing me to sit down.

"So... what are you doing up here?" I questioned the filly.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm having a tea party with Mr. Nondis."

"But I thought my name was Nondis, and his was Button." I questioned, looking puzzled.

"Nope! His name is Mister Nondis! You're just plain old Nondis."

...I'm not confused in any manner whatsoever. Nope, not at all. "Ohhh... kay?"

"So, what kind of tea do you want today?"

A tea that breaks all the rules. "A frappuchino, if you please."

"That's not a tea." Sweetie stated bluntly with a bit of a scowl on her face.

I guess I couldn't pull a fast one on Rarity's little sister. "Okay, then just get me a tea."

"What would you like?" She asked holding up an empty purple, plastic pitcher. "Black? White? Earl Grey? Green?"

Normally, I'd be a smartass and say 'Arizona', but I figured that I played that card already. "Green please."

"One green tea coming up!" She shouted as she walked towards another part of the room.

While she did, I stared back at the teddy bear, somewhat offended that she called me 'plain-old Nondis' while the inanimate object gets the formalities. But kids do as they would, and Sweetie Belle is no exception. It's quite obvious that she might see me in a more positive light than what I had originally anticipated, considering the random name-change for the bear.

I looked back over to where Sweetie had wandered off to, finding out that she was at a toy stove mixing away at her imaginary tea. I wouldn't mind playing along, especially with her. Finishing up her 'brew', she happily trotted her way towards the table and 'poured' me a cup of freshly-brewed green tea. I blew into the cup, trying to play as if I was trying to avoid burning my tongue. Afterwards, I took a sip and smiled.

"This is some really good tea! What did you put in it?"

Sweetie grinned from ear to ear, squeeing as she bounced up and down. "He likes it! He likes it! He likes-" She stopped chanting and took a deep breath. After releasing her kiddish nature, she mellowed out for a bit. "Well, a good brewer never reveals her secrets."

It's quite obvious that she had taken after her sister's charm. No point in denying that the classy snark and touted muzzle was a trademark of Rarity's. She even tried her best impersonation of her voice. I wonder if Rarity is as devastating in the kitchen as her younger sister is.

Uh oh... I can imagine Sweetie burning down a kitchen, Rarity would be an entire neighborhood. Yikes!

Sweetie then turned her attention to 'Mister Nondis'. "Here, Mister Nondis. I would gladly give you some more tea."

I decided to continue playing along. "So, how did you and Mister Nondis come to meet?"

"Oh, well Mister Nondis and I met at a concert! It was one of my very best performances, a sold-out crowd! You would've loved it!"

For a pony who really didn't want her vocal talent to be revealed, she seems to be really invested into her musical career. "Oh, so do you have an agent?"

"Yup! Mister Nondis is my agent! He and I go on tours and sing for everypony! I remember this one show where I sang in front of the entire crowd of over thirty thousand ponies in the Equestria Games!"

"Wow! Did you rock the house?" I asked.

"Yeah, I did!"

"And I guess it was all thanks to your producer for getting you there!"

"Well... Mister Nondis does a lot for me as it is. He does my booking, the management of the treasury, the production of the music, the writing of the lyrics, the mixing for the song, and he's even my musician!"

Wow, that's a lot of multitasking. But then again, she's playing pretend, despite her apparent knowledge of the industry. Perhaps she's a little more vested into the ordeal of singing than she leads on to be. "So... Have you two been close?"

Sweetie seemed to blush at my question, unsteadily looking at me and the teddy bear in an attempt to search for an answer. "Well... You see... He's kinda also my special somepony."

No surpris-hold on a sec. If she calls the teddy bear by my name and considers it/him to be her special somepony... Uh oh. "Really?" I asked, somewhat intrigued by her answer. "So how long have you two been going at it?"

"Maybe nine months."

"Is it serious?" I don't know why I'm so invested into playing pretend. She's really got me going along for the ride. But then again, the teddy bear is supposed to be a representation of me as her renaissance man. So I guess I would kinda be interested in her thoughts.

I wonder how I could go about this without hurting her feelings.

"Of course it is! He and I do have aspirations to get married, after all!" She answered.

I smiled, finally setting down the purple toy to speak with her on a more personal level. "So, you really wanna do this thing for real, huh?"

...NO NOT THE RELATIONSHIP PART! Don't even think about it.

"What do you mean?"

"Well I do play piano a little. Maybe I could be your musician too."

Sweetie squeaked as she held her hooves to her mouth. "N-no thanks! I already have one!"

"I'm not talking about pretend anymore, Sweetie."

The young filly began to shake at the thought of me being her musician for real. Instead of looking at her bear, she struggled to look me in the eye. "You'd... really be my musician?"

"Of course I'd have to fit you into the schedule, with my duties as a guard and what-not."

"OOOH! WOULD YOU DO SECURITY TOO!?" She hollered, jumping up and down.

"I'm not sure why you would need-"

"So you can kick Diamond Tiara out of every single show she tries to ruin. Please!?"

Figures. "She's still bullying you and the girls?"

"We haven't gotten our cutie marks yet. So no."

I thought I had talked her into submission. But I guess her tears was nothing more than a showcase of how she wanted to get out of the conversation quickly before I'd really hit a sensitive spot. Either way... "Okay, I could maybe see if I could arrange a patrol for one of your shows. How does that sound?"

"That would be a fantastic idea!" She exclaimed, bouncing up and down before coming back down to earth. Reality had came rushing back to her. "Oh. Right, I don't have a show."

"We can make you one." I offered, trying to cheer her up.

"Really?"

"It won't be real big. It'll be something really small, like you could sing for the old ponies across the way."

Her serious frown was more than an indication of her disapproval. I guess that's not a good venue for her.

"Okay, then let's go for a talent show!"

Her stern expression then faded into a fearful one. "I... well... um..."

Perhaps I needed to take this in baby steps. "Okay. Then let's do it for just everyone you know."

"Like who?"

"Um... Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and me. We can probably set you up at Sugarcube Corner. How's that? Your first big show!"

I knew that it wasn't really going to be that big, but for her that start would be something enormous. She warmed up to the idea and smiled back at me. "Okay. But you have to be my musician!"

"Right."

"And no Diamond Tiaras!"

"Done and done!"

"And you have to hug me!"

Okay, that was a little out of left-field. "Huh?"

She held out her hooves and turned beet red as she spoke. "To finalize the deal, we have to hug! I wanna hug to signify that you would keep your end of the bargain!"

Hugs are nothing to give away. "Okay. I'll hug you, but under one condition."

"What's that?"

"When you finish, you would promise me that you would become a little more open about your singing."

She nearly pulled back her hooves altogether. "What!?"

"I'm not saying that you have to show it to the whole world. I just want you to kinda acknowledge it more often. After all, that's one thing you haven't tried in getting your cutie mark."

A nervousness filled her mind, but was suddenly overcome with hope. "Wait, are you saying that I could get my cutie mark in singing?"

"Well, there's only one way to find out!"

The young filly seemed ready to explode, trying to bottle up her excitement as she tacked me for a hug. Her small hooves tried their best to reach around me, but they fell short of accomplishing their goal. Instead, I wrapped my arms around her. She broke off of me and climbed on top of my shoulders and screamed out loud. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS: SINGING SUPERSTARS!"

"D'ooh!" I yelped out, still feeling the pain from yesterdays battle in my right shoulder, now amplified by her climbing on top of them. "Yeah! Let's go!" I hollered out trying my best to feign off the pain.

I didn't want to turn her down on what could be her special talent, as well as an opportunity for her to shine. But I didn't want to lead her along, to let her think that I had some weird fetish for girls way younger than me. I could already assume that she has a pretty big crush on me, she's practically holding up a neon sign so bright it would put Las Vegas to shame. No doubt about it, but I am more than certain that her liking me is only a phase, as most crushes usually are.

As she happily rode on top of me, she giggled and expressed her excitement. Meanwhile, the door opened to reveal a serious-looking Rarity.

"Nondis, I could really-OH MY WORD!"

Both she and I looked at the fashionista as if we were a pair of deer staring at an incoming truck. She looked back at Sweetie Belle and proceeded to scold her.

"Sweetie Belle, you know that Nondis is injured! How dare you find it appropriate to climb all over him as if he was a jungle-gym!"

Immediately, the young filly jumped off of me, apologizing to both me and her older sister. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt him!"

"His shoulder doesn't need you climbing all over it! I'd figure that you would know better than that!"

Sweetie's ears folded back as she spoke in a solemn tone. "I'm sorry."

"Hey, Rarity." I began to interject. "Sweetie and I are going to be working together on a little project! Isn't that exciting-"

"And you mister!" She said sharply, turning her attention to me. "You know that the doctors have said that you weren't supposed to put any significant load on your shoulder! I've convinced Twilight to let you out of the castle so that you could mingle with everypony and you're already trying to put yourself back in that dreaded hospital! Do you honestly think I would want you going back into that place!?"

"Rarity, I'm fine!" I argued, but to no avail.

"No, you are hurt. You have come here to help me and Spike clean up. Now I know that Spike will not be assisting us..." It seems that Rarity finally started to break down again. "But please try to remain outside of that hospital. It was not easy trying to get you in there. And I won't explain to Twilight that your recklessness had managed to get you back in. I won't let your injuries fall back on me for a second day in a row!"

*Sigh* "I get it."

"Good." She said with a tremble. "Now get downstairs and help me get these things from out of the cabinet."

"Cabinet" I asked.

"I don't expect you to do much around the house now that I've taken care of the big stuff, so it would be best that you'd assist me in the kitchen. Dinner doesn't just magically jump out of the shelves and cook itself."

...I had a bad feeling about this.

Sweetie Belle continued to carry on with her tea party. Meanwhile, Rarity silently escorted me downstairs. Though I was intending to hurry back down to help, she seemed to have taken more time with each step. Eventually she stopped altogether and looked back to me. As she did, she wore a soft smile that glowed with a dim, but warm light.

"You know, It's been awfully long since I've seen you here, walking down my stairs without a moment's delay. And often I'd tell you to slow down out of fear of seeing you trip."

I slipped and fell once in the short period of time I lived here. I only wanted to see what the hell was burning downstairs, and that was the first encounter I had with Sweetie Belle trying to play Gordon Ramsey, but instead inadvertently playing out the hit song by Bloodhound Gang. Thankfully, the roof didn't have a chance to be on fire.

But it was a slip and I recovered from it, albeit with a bruised noggin.

"Rarity I told you that I was going to be okay."

She gave me a playful bump of her hind leg. "You need to learn how to slow down sometimes, dear. You can't get anywhere by running at full-speed all the time."

"I thought that you'd go a lot further if you ran faster." I stated, being literal with my response.

"Yes, but you can't say you've been somewhere if you're constantly running around aimlessly. You'll only be running in circles, and then you'll eventually find yourself going nowhere." She stated with a low voice.

"But what happens to you if you run in a straight line?" I questioned sarcastically.

Rarity rolled her eyes and gave me her full attention. "Nondis, do you know why a line that's consider infinite is also destined for nowhere?"

"Because it's never-ending."

"And do you think that if you continue to move along that linear path, you'd find the answers you're looking for?"

"Well, it's the only direction I know where if I'd turn around, I'd arrive back to where I came from. That way I'd never be lost."

She gave me a smirk and used her magic to pull on my shirt to bring me closer. "And that exact way of thinking gets you nowhere."

"Are you saying that I'm not taking any risks?"

"That's not what I'm saying."

"Then what are you trying to get at?" I questioned, just seconds before Rarity booped me on the nose.

"You need to expand your horizons. You'll never get the answers you seek if you're constantly running in a straight line."

If that was some sort of sign from fate telling me to search for the answers of my being here, then I guess I needed to take another route. I think I got where she's going with this.

Sophisticated conversations and thought-provoking statements, that's Rarity alright.

She turned back around, continuing to make her way towards the kitchen. "Now, let's get you fed. I don't usually carry any meat so I hope that you wouldn't mind if your meal was a bit vegan."

I wouldn't mind, but I'm seeing that Sweetie Belle takes a lot from her. And if Sweetie's burning down a house to cook, then I would have some concerns over my well-being in this case. Taking a moment to breathe, I took my first steps into the kitchen.

When we had walked inside, I could see Rarity already pacing back and forth from the fridge to the counter beside the stove. I also took notice that the stove seemed relatively new. I giggled a bit at the sight. "So what happened to the last one?"

"Sweetie's cooking lessons with Spike didn't go too well. At the very least, the stove managed to live three more fiery attempts thanks to the little guy." Suddenly, Rarity's head dropped. Obviously she was still thinking about what happened earlier.

"I'm sure he's gonna be alright." I said, trying to comfort her.

"He already doesn't like staying at the castle. I mean at first he was so excited to be there, but as time progressed with your being here, he grew to dislike it. Eventually, he moved out and stayed here with me." Rarity pulled out a few carrots and cabbages as she started to use her magic to pin her mane back, curling it into a bun.

"Really? So how long was he living here?"

"Immediately after you moved out. He wanted to stay in my room, but I offered him the room you stayed in previously."

"And how did he take it?"

The seamstress summoned an apron and tied it around her neck. Finally, she began to prep the food. "Not too well. But he did take the pleasure of realizing that the room was next to mine. Annnd then he became frustrated again."

"So did he try to switch rooms?"

"No. But he did manage to come by in the wee hours of the morning to let me know he's been having nightmares. He'd come knocking on my door, telling me the vivid horrors of his experiences and urging me to allow him to make a small cot on the floor beside me."

"Me thinks you've been had." I said, scratching my head.

"I know it. But to say no to those cute, emerald eyes and that adorable smile... To think that he had harbored such a disgust for you to such a degree. I didn't know that he was so..."

"Obsessed?" I finished for her.

"Interested, but for lack of a better word, yes. I knew that he was infatuated with me. I just never thought that he was the type to harbor such feelings of discontent."

I guess I would feel that way too if I had seen Twilight take interest in another dude after she kicked me out a few months back. I'd be absolutely livid. So yeah, I guess I could see where Spike was coming from, being that I was once in his position. The little bastard might be disrespectful as fuck, but he and I share a lot of the same qualities.

Like-charges repel, I suppose. "I guess. I kinda see where he comes from."

"How so?" Rarity asked.

"I had a friend back in high school. She and I did everything together, from going to the movies to even playing video games. We'd talk about anything that wasn't nailed to the floor. And overtime I grew to like her, not just as a friend but as something more. But she had long-since established that we were 'just friends'. But obviously I wasn't getting the point through my dense skull and continued to hold out hope, thinking that one day she'd see me as what she wanted."

Rarity seemed to become saddened at the sudden revelation of my past with Melanie. Unfortunately, it seemed to show quite obviously on her face. "Oh... So what happened between you two? Are you still holding out hope?"

"Not really." I answered. "No need of chasing down something that you can't have."

"Well that's a ridiculous way of thinking!" She exclaimed out of nowhere. "Whatever happened to the thrill of a chase, the feeling of earning one's heart through honest intentions and-" She paused for a moment, thinking about what had occurred with Spike earlier. "...Oh. Now I see why."

"Of course, my main difference was that I did have some ulterior motives when it came to getting her." I admitted, lowing my head in shame.

Rarity held a hoof to my chin, forcing me to look to her. "But you learned your lesson?"

"Yeah. I've moved on. And in doing so I found someone better, or rather she found me."

"Yes, she has..." Her words to me came out as an incoherent mess of mumbles.

"Did you say something?"

Rarity pulled out a knife and began to cut the vegetables in small slices. "I said that she probably did. And I'm sure she loves you for it. After all, Twilight... is a very well-raised mare. She seems to be very astute, outgoing, kind-"

"Beautiful, incredible, imperfection perfected."

"Could you go get me some salt out of the cabinet?" She asked, almost seeming as if she wanted to get off of the subject. Not wanting to make her wait I walked over to the cabinet on the far end of the stove, trying to scan the labels for something that resembled salt. Finally coming across something labeled as 'sea salt' I pulled it out and handed the item to her. She levitated the object from me and placed it on the counter.

But that got me thinking, why would she need that if she didn't have any water boiling? "Um... do you want me to get a pot running?"

"That would be greatly appreciated." She answered as she pointed towards the cabinet just beneath her.

As I leaned down and opened the cabinet, I pulled out a giant pot and showed it to her. "Too big?"

"Go smaller dear."

Digging around for one that was on the small side, I pulled at one that seemed to be her size. But I also brushed my hand against the handle of one that seemed to be a rather small sauce pan. Chuckling to myself, I pulled out the small pot and showed it to her. "Like this?"

"Now you're just doing this on purpose."

Finally placing the jokes aside, I pulled out the pan that I thought would be the best fit for the job. As I came crawling out, I could see nothing but a white, furry canvas with blue diamonds imbued onto it crashing into my face. I stumbled and fell back on the floor, earning a chuckle from the seamstress.

"Now you did that on purpose!"

"You get what you dish out, darling." She sang-sung as she started to place a blind eye to the vegetables she chopped with her magic. It seemed that she didn't really need me for much at all.

In fact, she didn't need me at all throughout the course of the day. It had me thinking to myself, what was my real reason for being here? I guess I felt entitled to know the answer to that question. "Hey Rarity."

"Yes?"

"I've noticed that you've been trying to prevent me from working because of my shoulder. But be honest, did you really need me to come here today?"

She stopped chopping and turned to me. "Why of course I do."

"But I haven't done anything all day." I stated.

"Exactly. You haven't done anything that would require you to stress that injury in your shoulder."

So... She brought me here, under what I understood to be the premise of performing a few chores, to prevent me from working? What? "Look, I'm not completely incompetent. I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed either, but come on."

"Well if you have any issues with my keeping you here, then you should speak about it to Twilight."

"Wait a sec, she put you up to this?" I asked, completely baffled.

"Frankly, it was my idea to have you over. But she wanted you to stay at the castle so you could heal up while she was away. But seeing that you would probably sneak out of the palace and do something else that could get you hurt, Twilight and I thought of a little plan to keep you entertained long enough to keep you from working in town."

So, I just got duped into essentially doing jack-shit for a whole day. "And let me guess, Twilight needed someone to watch over me closely to make sure that I wouldn't leave?"

"That's right. She placed you in the care of someone who does not have to follow your every order, or succumb to your rank every time you try to convince them to let you through."

That plan was very well thought-of. But really, I don't think that I would be that irresponsible. I couldn't be so careless to the point where I'd put myself in a high-risk situation where I could get hurt again... Oh wait, I already did that yesterday.

Okay, I might have had aspirations to walk around and help some of the locals with some of the repairs. Okay, they got me this time but I'm not gonna let them know that. "Whatever."

"Now, could you so kindly run some water into that pot?" She asked, turning her attention to the oven.

I obeyed her request without comment. After filling up the pot with water, I placed it on one of the eyes on the stove. She moved towards the cabinet where the baking pans were and pulled out a moderate-sized pan. She also pulled out another pot and placed it on the counter. "Fill this one up too."

"What do you need the second pot for?" I questioned, unsure why she didn't have me grab another for her just moments earlier.

"To boil my pasta in. We're having a nice broccoli casserole with fresh, creamy Alfredo sauce made by yours truly."

Um... that sounds like a five-alarm fire in Sweetie Belle's case. Then again, toast would be a three. Hell, she'd burn toast until it was no longer identifiable as bread... and would proceed to cook until it enters a different state of matter. At least Rarity sounds like she knows what she's doing.

I can only hope that she's just as good in the kitchen as she is in the sewing room.

After about forty-five minutes later, she called Sweetie from upstairs and began to lay the food out as I finished setting the table. When Sweetie entered into the dining room, she held on tightly to that brown bear she so lovingly called 'Mister Nondis'. Of course, she'd talk with the bear as if it was a living being. Meanwhile, Rarity sat the final dish at the center of the table. She gave the entire display a glance, squinting to make sure that everything was perfect. And with the laying of a single plate I laid down, she smiled and clopped her hooves together in approval.

"Just absolutely perfect. A dinner with my favorite client and my dearest younger sister."

I knew that she wanted there to be one more, it was evident in how the table was set up. She actually set up everything for a party of four rather than just three.

I get it, she's still trying to adjust to Spike's absence. Realistically speaking, she's gonna be like this for at least a few days before she snaps out of it. But it's as if she's holding out hope that things would work out between the two of them, that he'd come walking back through the door and picking up the pieces of their shattered friendship in an attempt to make things work.

More than likely, it would happen when I leave.

Sweetie looked at her older sister, seeing that she had wore a gentle smile on her face. But even she saw right through that facade as easily as I did. Hell, she probably heard everything that went on earlier today with Spike, as loud as those two were.

Rarity looked at the clock, letting loose a sigh before turning her attention back to us. And in between every little thing, including when she and I were cooking the food earlier, she'd look towards that clock and sigh as she just did. She seemed as if she longed for his return. It's almost as if Spike and her actually broke up.

And in a way, they did.

"Rarity, you gonna sit with us or are we gonna have to let you dine with your friends in la-la-land?" I asked her as I pulled up my chair and sat across from 'Mister Nondis'.

She jumped at the question, snapping herself back into reality. "Excuse me, what did you say?"

"You eating or what?"

She rolled her eyes and bit her lip as she sighed once more. "Well I should, being that I did work hard to make this meal."

"We worked hard." I corrected her.

"You kept trying to sample the dishes, despite my explicit instruction that you would taste my food when everypony was at the table."

I actually wanna know if I'm gonna die just from eating this stuff. I just thought of it as a preliminary toxicology exam. At the very least the food looks pretty delicious. It smells astounding as well, but even a bar of soap can smell wonderful and taste awful at the same time.

The white unicorn mare instructed me to keep my arms away from my plate as she levitated the saucer towards her. As she fixed my plate she gave me a quick wink. "Of course, the guest of honor does receive his meal first. You shall be the one to taste my work, knowing that it was also your participation that helped make it possible."

"Aw! I wanted to help!" Sweetie moaned in disappointment.

Rarity and I glanced quickly back at one another and we could see the blooming horror on each of our faces. I was the first to speak. "Um... maybe next time."

Rarity lowered the plate in front of me. As I was presented with my meal, I could smell the wonderful scents of her cooking. The warm steam rose eagerly from the broccoli casserole as her magic parted ways from it. Slices of glazed carrots mounded atop of one corner alongside with a mountain of steamed cabbage on the other. The casserole was rich with mozzarella and creamy Alfredo sauce. Though not exactly vegan, but very vegetarian.

She levitated the fork beside me and stuck it inside of my slice of the casserole and hummed cheerfully. "Eat as much as you like. I don't like having leftovers congest my fridge."

"Thanks." I think... I mean, the food smells good and it looks pretty decent. But how does it taste?

With caution, I grabbed the fork and used it to slice off a small portion of the casserole and hold it towards my mouth. My lips had second thoughts about allowing the food to pass through. But I proceeded to find courage within myself and took the first bite...

...Why the hell didn't I eat this earlier?

No seriously. I literally hurdled over the table and started to chomp away at the meal in front of me. I didn't know Rarity had this much talent in food! The casserole was creamy and cheesy, no too much of the Alfredo sauce to drown out the vegetables. The broccoli still had some of it's texture as well as flavor. The pasta held together nicely, packaging in flavors I didn't know existed outside of the realm of meat, or existed for that matter.

"I trust my making you wait was worthwhile then?" The fashionista asked with a cocky grin.

Finally finding my lungs again, I stopped chewing and briefly spoke. "Yes! So much!" And after those three words, I commenced to destroying all traces of food on my plate. Yet it seemed that my dining habits were a bit over the top, as Sweetie and Rarity both stared at me wide-eyed. Pausing for a moment to look back, I cleared my mouth out of some of the food to speak. "...What?"

Rarity started to show that same optimism that her younger sister had a little while back. "I've always wanted to see your reaction to my cooking. I guess I could say that your first meal with me was a resounding success?"

"How much of this is left?" I asked greedily, scarfing down more of my meal.

"Well, I could share some of mine with you." She joked.

She won't have shit to share if she does that. "Seriously?"

"No, but there will be some left over when everypony gets some."

While Sweetie fixed her plate and shared hers with her teddy bear, I reached out to fill my plate with as much casserole my eyes could take.

My eyes and appetite was definitely bigger than my stomach right now.

Meanwhile in Canterlot...

"If the changelings are in charge of the attacks, then we should respond with an attack of our own!"

"But it was a rebel faction! They acted on their own account!"

"But those gross creatures have made a mockery of our military! Not only have they killed many of our officers, they have invaded Canterlot twice now and caused millions of bits in damages! We must act accordingly!"

"By sending our guards to die!?"

"They will protect us on the lines of battle! We have already incurred losses, many civilian and guard alike! Let's take the killing away from our families and bring it back to their front porch!"

"Hear-hear!"

The voices of the politicians continue to travel back and forth between the two sides of the Parliament Chamber. Either side disagreed with certain aspects of one side's proposal. One called for an investigation of the matter, a hunting down of the commander in question that lead the changelings to attack Canterlot and Ponyville.

Meanwhile, Spike walked into the room, making his way towards Twilight. He was greeted harshly, as the purple alicorn was still upset with him from earlier that morning as well as far too invested in the debate. The three other princesses also stood to preside over the quarrel. Shining and Blueblood stood on either side of the royal tetrarchy. Cadance even got in on the conversation, showing her displeasure of fighting a war.

"So send our young and lively to the front lines, have their numbers die off a bit, and let our seasoned veterans come in from behind to knock back the enemy lines. That's your strategy?" Cadance inquired angrily.

"Well I'd see nothing wrong with it! It worked for countless centuries and not once has it changed! The changelings have been in need of a good talking-to for quite some time, unless you have forgotten that major debacle on the day of your wedding, princess!" A voice from the congregation called back out to her.

Twilight offered to speak in defense of her sister-in-law, but she was held of by Celestia, who offered her own words instead.

"I can understand that many of you wish to commence the shedding of blood. But is it to the point where we need to send our stallions, which are already so few, to fight in place of a more peaceful solution?"

"With an investigation, we could easily track down the commander in question and bring him to justice. We cannot give in to the option that would cause a drastic shift in our economy. And it won't be for the better." Luna further explained.

"So say we conducted this 'investigation'!" Another stallion from the far-right side of the room called out. "Would that mean you would be sending out your 'esteemed student' to diffuse of the matters once more? If there's anything she does, it's clean up after your messes."

Twilight took the podium and shouted back to the stallion. "And I'd gladly do it again! As a princess, it is my duty to-"

The same stallion refused to budge, even going so far as to cut her off. "With all-due respect, your highness, that would be a bad move to play, especially at this time of great peril! It is your duty, princess, to remain in touch with the dignitaries from the other lands and play your pawns! You are an invaluable piece that cannot be moved! So sending you would also be sending a foul signal to those dignitaries that you're supposed to be seeing, not in your name, but in the name of the princess who presides over you!"

Twilight looked back at her mentor, starting to feel hopeless of the situation. But Celestia's steeled composure remained, giving her former student strength in turn. The purple princess took another step forward. "I understand that it sends a bad signal to others. But I won't allow a war to be called as long as I hold my crown! It is my duty to see those dignitaries, but it is also my duty to protect my citizens from dangers seen and unseen! I may be an piece of great value, but that is all the more reason why I will move!"

The words of the young princess caused a stir amongst the rows of politicians. Many of them started to speak amongst themselves, trying to come up with a compromise. The stallion that heckled the young princess, after speaking briefly with his peers, continued to trade his words with Twilight.

"Very well then, if you insist in moving valuable pieces, then might I recommend to the parliament that we move our 'esteemed' captain of the royal guard to uphold his duties as a protector of the realm. Being that it was his responsibility to protect us from any threat, we shall hold him responsible of this unparalleled breakdown in security. As stated in the case of Equuis v. Canterlot, any pony who holds the rank of captain while enlisted in the royal guard shall be made accountable and will be punished... accordingly."

The stallion smiled as he glanced to Shining Armor, causing the stallion to bear his teeth back at him. Murmurs filtered through the room, causing an ambiance of words. Meanwhile, Twilight started to grow terrified of what was to come. Spike, on the other hand, started to take pleasure in hearing what would become of the captain's fate. Shining Armor remained silent as the room started to warm up to the idea of sending their captain out to do the dirty work. Twilight looked to her older brother, wanting him to say something.

"Shining, what are you doing? Make them stop!" She whispered to her brother.

Shining didn't say anything, but Cadance did speak. "Twilight, just let this one go."

"But why!? If they call out the captain-"

"Who, as far as they're concerned, is still your brother." Cadance explained in Twilight's ear.

Her words, however, didn't comfort the younger princess. "But that's still-"

"Twily, I got this." Shining whispered back to his younger sister.

The purple mare felt even more anxious than before as she watched the politicians continue to debate amongst themselves over if they would send him to hunt down the changeling commander or if they would call for war. Either way, Twilight was not going to like the outcome. Spike was more concerned over what the three ponies had been whispering about while the discussion was starting to wind to a close.

After the mutterings and whispers came to a halt, the head representative stepped towards a sole podium that sat directly in front of the princesses. As he cleared his voice, he took in a deep breath and announced loudly.

"Shining Armor, the parliament has decided to hold you accountable for the failed security measures of both Canterlot and Ponyville. As such, you will hereby be punished to take up the responsibility of leading a search party to locate and capture the changeling commander responsible."

Shining looked back to his younger sister and gave her a quick smirk before facing back towards the crowd of politicians that sought to condemn him. He politely bowed his head and spoke loudly. "I, Shining Armor, accept this responsibility. It was under my tenure that we were attacked, and it was under my command when we lost so many of our officers. So as a means of atonement, I will uphold my duties as captain of the guard and lead the search-."

"Captain? But I thought you were a brigadier general now!" Spike blurted out loudly.

The chamber became spattered with awes and gasps. The stallion who stood at the desk turned to the dragon. Cadance and Twilight looked at the dragon, horrified that he broke word of what had transpired in the ranks. Cadance was mixed with shock and disappointment, Twilight had gone completely limp. Her hooves barely supported the purple princess, shaking under the weight of, what felt like to her, the entire world. She slowly turned to Spike. "What are you doing, Spike?" She asked with tremolo.

"So, Shining Armor is not the current captain of the guard?" One of the representatives asked.

Spike ignored Twilight's expressions and turned to the confused politician. "Of course not! Nondis is the new captain!"

"Spike!" Cadance screamed at him.

"Since when was this transaction established?" Another one of the politicians asked.

"Yesterday afternoon."

"Spike!" Shining shouted.

"What? I was just telling them that you recently promoted him yesterday." The dragon asked innocently.

Shining held a hoof to his face in disbelief. "You do realize that we were trying to prevent him from going on this assignment?" The armored stallion asked.

Spike knew what he did would probably send Nondis a one-way ticket to the badlands. Deep inside, he was smiling while outside, he appeared to be naive. The young dragon continued to feign his ignorance and took a moment to 'think'.

"Wait, you mean... you and he were gonna... oops."

Author's Note

In the word of a certain announcer: BETRAYAL

So the question is what would happen next? Obviously, Spike is still bitter towards Nondis. But will he understand the consequences of his actions? All of this come next chapter.

Chapter XXVIII

Throughout their relationship, Spike would see the fashionista fall in and out of 'love' with stallion after stallion. Of course, her romantic fantasies were always a fickle aspect of her life. One day she's dreaming of being a princess beside Blueblood, the other she's imagining romantic getaways with Trenderhoof. Sometimes, she even took the rustic charm of Big Macintosh and let her mind wander about how rough he could be with her, but he was a stallion of tradition and would not often take interest in mares of a different breed. That was another reason why he chose to date Cherilee rather than Rarity.

Of course with every failure, Rarity cried and fussed about her failures and how she was shunned for various reasons. And as those times occurred, Spike was there to become her crutch to get over the emotional injuries. He didn't mind taking the role of being her emotional relief as well as her cheerleader. In fact, he was more proud of it with each time she needed him.

But all of that changed when the human, who appeared from nowhere, had stolen her heart and held it in his hand while he commenced to showing his love for another. And with each moment he played cheerleader, he found it increasingly difficult to shake the thoughts of him out of her. And the harder that became, the less she looked towards him and the more she sought the human. And with her increasing desire to have him, the harder she worked; the harder she worked, the less time she had for the dragon.

Overtime, Spike felt that his time with the mare he longed for had became far too little. And the reason why was because she was overworking herself just to please him, for little or nothing in return.

It made him angry. He was even reduced to bitter silence as he had to leave the boutique, seeing that Rarity had chose to keep Nondis around rather than keeping him. It was a betrayal of his heart when he watched her defend him. And now he had an opportunity to remove the human from the equation and place himself back into the position he'd normally take, which was right beside her as she cried. He would comfort her, cheer her up, convince her that he was such a good friend and warm up to her and become her 'Spikey-Wikey'.

The status quo.

And what better way to remove him than to send him off to a land he doesn't know, on a search for someone who could assume the identity of anyone? He didn't even have to think this one up, but rather it came to him in the form of screaming politicians.

He was always one for overseeing the order of things.

Twilight stood in silence as she stared back at the dragon, letting her mind wander around the possibilities of what all could happen if Nondis was to be deployed to a land he never been to or knew of. Spike, on the other hand, was more than willing to think of the fact that he could never return. His mind was more focused on Rarity.

The politician that once heckled Twilight spoke once more. "Very well then! If that is the case, then we shall make you even more accountable for your misdeeds, Sir Shining Armor. By passing the bill onto the human, we can now disregard any loss of stallions! You get to stay coddled up with your wife and we get to send the human in your place. At the very least he would be well-traveled in his search."

"You can't do that!" Cadance shouted back. As much as she hated to place her husband in any position that could cause him harm, she also hated when the wrong would be rewritten to be 'the right'. "He's not the one responsible for the security breach!"

"If you're going to punish anypony, then it might as well be me! So punish me, I'm the one you want dead!" Shining ordered firmly.

The politician scoffed at the stallion's idea of taking the blame. "And you expect to be given the easy way out? No, I'm not going to allow you to take that route. In fact, I am going to show you the consequences of your actions. Since you appointed a new Captain in your place, I will be going for him!"

"But I'm still responsible!"

"And you're still a prince."

Shining's words were choked short as his jaw fell. He wanted to say something, but couldn't as the politician did establish a valid point. Regardless of being a captain of the guard at the time of the attack, he was still a key political figure as well. "But... but I-"

"You, as well as your sister, are individuals we consider as one of those invaluable pieces to negotiate with dignitaries abroad. And as much as I'd like to personally see you off, you're just as protected as your sister is. So now, I will hold accountable the one who currently holds the rank without the royal title."

"You traitorous snake!" Shining shouted back to the politician.

"Oh I'm sure you let them in too, using your search for the human as an facade to cover your tail!"

"That's enough!" Celestia commanded in a firm tone. "I am afraid that he is unable to serve that sentence, as Sir Nondis is injured."

"He won't be injured for long, princess!" The barking stallion heckled back.

"Be silent, Senator Olive!" Cadance shouted back out to the proud stallion. "Under no circumstances are you to speak like that towards Princess Celestia!"

"Wait!" Twilight shouted, causing the entire room to look to her. "If you tried to send my brother to search for the changeling commander, then why are you just now stating that he's unable to go? That doesn't make any sense! You're contradicting your own statements!"

Senator Olive stood back up and called back out to the young princess. "Tell me, your highness, have you ever heard Shining Armor's name come out of my mouth?"

"But they made the announcement that Shining Armor was held responsible and that he would lead the search party!"

"But did you hear me say his name?"

Twilight froze for a moment, trying to think back on everything he said. "You said the words 'esteemed captain'."

"Yet the name 'Shining Armor' never left my muzzle. I left it at just those words because I was unaware of whom exactly was to replace him. And now that we come to find out that it's none other than your little... playmate."

A few chuckles emanated from the crowd, causing the purple princess to blush. Despite her becoming flustered, she still held her scowl at the stallion. She chose to defend the human. "For your information, he's-

"Pending for approval, I know. But little kittens still require toys to keep them happy. And it looks as if your little toy hasn't been doing very well, as stuck up as you are."

"Representative Crier," Celestia turned her attention to the stallion at the podium. "Let the record show that Senator Olive will be barred from making any more comments. Any further statements he make are to be marked from the record."

"Bar me if you so desire. However, that does not stop this meeting."

Twilight snorted at the senator and looked towards the representative at the podium. "Representative Crier, aside from today's meeting, have you been made aware of the changes in the ranks of the guard recently?

"I'm afraid not, your highness." He answered truthfully. "I wasn't even made aware that the Captain was promoted. From what I understood, Shining Armor was always the captain of the guard. And as long as he wasn't stripped of that title, then he would be held accountable."

"Yet you knew that Shining was also a prince! Why would you call his name?" Twilight questioned once more.

The young stallion looked around nervously as he tapped his hooves together. "...I'm sorry. I made a terrible mistake. I didn't mean to dismiss him being a prince. I was more focused on the 'captain' aspect of the law. I guess I was confused."

"Heh!" Olive blurted out. "Like all college interns, never could get it right."

"Speak once more, and you will be dismissed from the meeting." Blueblood warned the stallion, causing Shining and Twilight to look at the prince with surprise. "There are things I will not stand for. Dirty laundry, bad food, unsweetened deserts, and boredom are but a few. However, disorder is number one on the list."

Olive sat down with a grin on his face, having no shame in his comments. "Having that said now I will turn to you, Representative Crier. In response to your inability to remember a simple law and causing confusion in the parliament, Representative Crier is to be dismissed from his post as I will take the role."

The young stallion walked away from the podium and walked past Shining Armor with disappointment and shame worn upon his face. As he walked by the former captain, he whispered in a low voice. "...I'm sorry your highness. I tried my best."

"You did what you could." Shining whispered back.

As the stallion took his leave, Blueblood took to the podium and carried on the meeting. "Now let us continue. The last place we left off was that the captain of the guard was responsible for the recent invasions and that we were going to have him lead a search party. Being that the captain was also a royal at the time, it then places the responsibility towards one of the immediate rank lower than him."

"But that doesn't make sense!" Twilight called out. "Shining Armor is the one responsible. And he's willing to lead the search party. Can't we just leave it at that?"

"I'm afraid not, Princess Twilight. These matters, though gravely complicated as it has become now, are usually sorted out with a vote. And being that Olive's statements have been scratched from record, we can continue to debate this even later. As for now, we more pressing issue to discuss."

Olive stood up from his seat, screaming at Prince Blueblood. "HOW CAN THE SECURITY OF OUR COUNTRY BE A LESS PRESSING ISSUE!?"

"Guards, please escort Senator Olive from the room, as he has disturbed the order of the parliament for far too long."

The stallion didn't need much encouragement as he stormed out of the room in a fit of anger. Many of his fellow peers began to murmur amongst themselves. Meanwhile, Blueblood continued the meeting.

"As far as any immediate security concerns, Shining Armor will retain that role. We will meet with the new captain come next week, as we are allowing him to recover from the injuries he sustained in battle over in Ponyville yesterday. At that time, we will begin talks about the proceedings of national security. Also on the matter of the investigation, we shall wait until there is enough information before deciding on who would lead the search party. I believe that this is the best solution, and the only solution we can agree on for the time being. Any objections?"

No hooves were raised, as they seemed to have gotten their solution. Twilight drew a breath of relief that Nondis wouldn't have to march into impending doom anytime soon, but she didn't like how Spike had attempted to throw the human into the fray. Spike himself, wasn't very pleased with the outcome either, as it has left Nondis in Ponyville. Shining felt content in the solution being presented, despite that it would still put Nondis in danger, but in far less danger than what was previously proposed. There was a peaceful silence falling across the room.

"If there are no objections, then let there be peace. Meeting is adjourned."

Shortly after the meeting with the parliament, the princess all took their leave to their daily duties. Cadance was busy giving Blueblood praise for his method of handling the situation, stating that it was a very surprising move as well as an unexpected gesture of good will. Shining met with the young stallion that tried his best to resolve the issue in a matter where Shining could best save Nondis. Grateful for his attempts, Shining began to speak with him of matters how he was to be paid under-the-table.

"Twilight!" Spike, however, was busy trying to chase down his maternal figure.

"..." In response, she continued to keep walking down the hall, ignoring the dragon as he trailed her.

"Twilight, I'm sorry." He lied.

"..." The purple mare didn't seem to fall for it.

This time Spike ran at full speed, stopping just a few feet in front of her. "Please Twilight, say something."

"I'm not speaking with you, Spike." Twilight answered harshly, "You tried to get Nondis in trouble after what he did for you yesterday."

"But I said that I could handle it. I was in the middle of handling it when he came by."

"You are so ungrateful and irresponsible. I thought I taught you better."

Twilight walked around him and continued to walk towards a nearby window in the hall. Spike continued to run beside her, as her pace greatly outmatched his. "I said I was sorry."

"You're not. You're angry because Nondis managed to do something that got him in Rarity's favor."

Spike gritted his teeth and tried to step in front of Twilight. "It's not that. It's because Ra-"

"Twilight!" Cadance called out from behind the two. As she walked up, she magically pulled Spike to the side. "Okay, now you can take off. I didn't want poor little Spike here to get blasted to the wall thanks to you taking off."

"No, but-hmmmph!" Spike was silenced by a pink hoof covering up his mouth.

"You go on ahead, Twilight. I know how much you wanna get away from the politics."

"Mmmph! Mmmph phmmm mmmmn!" The young dragon continued to struggle as he tried to get himself free of Cadance's foreleg, but her strength was far too much for the baby dragon to overcome.

"Well, I'll visit you sometime and let you know how things are going on our end. You keep an eye out for Nondis..." The pink princess paused for a moment and started to laugh at herself. "Right. Like you needed me to tell you that."

"Thank you so much, Cadance."

"Hey, thank Blueblood. If there's anything he likes to see, it's the politicians' feathers being ruffled a bit." She stated, looking at a few more of the parliament members walking out muttering to themselves in disbelief.

Twilight cut her glance back at a few stallions that glared back at her. "I've always heard stories of the Parliament being at odds with the royals, I just never thought it would be that ugly."

"Politics is never pretty. Now go on while you can still escape."

With a flick of her wings, Twilight blasted off into the distance flying towards the lands beyond as the sun started to set in the sky. As Cadance and Spike watched the princess leave for Ponyville, she let go of the young dragon's snout. Spike, finally able to speak again, began to voice his displeasure of Cadance.

"Why'd you do that for? I was just gonna-"

"Intercede into the personal relationships of others. Not while I'm around." She answered swiftly.

"But-"

The princess of love cut him short. "Yeah, I know about her. I know about you. I sensed it this morning while we were at breakfast. I could already tell what was the reason for your hostility. Shining and I have already discussed it. The best thing to do is to let them handle this. If Rarity chooses to keep it a secret, I am more than certain that Nondis will speak up when things get out of hoof."

"But-"

Cadance interrupted him once more. "And do you honestly think that trying to throw him under the carriage is going to work? Seriously, like what the hell."

"He's ruining Rarity's business."

"No, she's doing it of her own choice. He's not holding a sword to her throat making her create clothes for him. He wants to pay her, but she's not allowing him. That's all her decision, not his."

"But-"

She politely shoved her hoof against his snout, silencing him before he could get another word out. She spoke to him in a more serious tone. "I had enough. Let's break this down in a way where you can understand. What is your worst fear? I'm not talking about simple things, or nightmares, or scary faces in magazines. I mean your absolute worst fear."

After the pink alicorn removed her hoof, Spike took only a second to think before his mind played out the worst scenario he'd ever experience on a personal level. "At first it was Twilight saying that she didn't need me anymore. And for a while I had thought that to be true, considering how she had so many assistants in the castle and guards. And at a point in time, that's how I felt like. But now, I guess with Rarity, I just want to feel needed, and to be loved."

Spike's head fell as the thoughts of him no longer being needed around those he loved started to swarm throughout his mind. Cadance placed a hoof on his chin to raise him up to gain his full attention.

"Now I'm gonna tell you mine. I'm scared to death of losing my husband. He's a wonderful stallion whom I love very much. Not only that, but he's my only family outside of Twilight and Celestia. Celestia's my adopted aunt, yet her love for me ends where her heartbeat does the same. Twilight and I knew each other for a long time, but we could never really truthfully call ourselves sisters outside of Shining. And him... he can fulfill my most treasured dream, and that is to give me a family of my own. Now how would you think I'd feel if I had lost that?"

Spike, despite incurring losses on a materialistic level, had never experienced a loss so personal. His answer reflected that very truth. "Pretty sad?"

Cadance sighed deeply as she lowered her voice to where only he could hear her. Her tone, once dark and heavy, had suddenly become light and mournful. "I know you've never experienced such an emotional loss. So let me explain this to you. If I lost him, I'd lose my home, my heart, my mind, I'd even lose my life. I'd especially lose my future, and if we didn't have foals before then I'd lose out on my dream of being a mother."

Spike turned around to look back at Shining, who was still speaking with the young speaker. As he saw the white stallion, he started to immerse himself in the thoughts of Cadance. "That sounds like a lot."

"It is. Now let's say that Rarity to you is what Shining Armor is to me." She whispered into the young drake's ear.

"She is!" He shouted loudly, causing a bit of a scene.

"Let me finish." She plugged his snout a second time to silence him for a brief moment. "Now, say that a random stallion came and took Rarity away from you, permanently."

"You mean... to another city, right?" He asked, trying to avoid the thoughts that started to unravel in his mind.

"Try six feet underground."

A shudder traveled down his spine. As it did, his thoughts started to reveal a new fear that had now started to manifest. But as his thoughts of Rarity meeting her end started to blossom, the images of Nondis standing behind Rarity as she defended him started to surface. His fear became quelled as his anger continued to burn for the human. "It's not the same."

Cadance walked in front of him to look him in the eye. Her tone hardened as she proceeded to scold him. "Well that's what you tried to do to not only Rarity, but Twilight as well. Not to mention the others who actually feel some type of way about him. If he was sent out and died because of your selfishness, do you think Twilight would ever let you back in?"

Spike tried to justify his answer. "But-"

"Do you think Rarity would ever want you coming back?"

"But he's different-"

Cadance wouldn't grant him the opportunity to speak as she continued to do so. "But the emotions he show, the love he gives out, the interactions, they're all one in the same just like you and me."

Much akin to a child, the dragon pouted and folded his arms. "He's doesn't deserve her."

Cadance placed a hoof on his shoulder and leaned down to whisper into his ear. "That may be the case, but neither do you."

The dragon's eyes opened wide as he turned back to Cadance, who looked down at him with a cold stare. Instantly, he started to feel small in comparison to the alicorn princess that stood well over his caretaker. Spike seemingly began to shrink as she continued to grow, but his illusion came crashing to a halt with the sound of Shining Armor's voice.

"Cadie!"

"On my way, dear." She said loudly, causing the dragon to jump at her voice. As she broke away from him, she whispered back to Spike. "Now you think about this discussion. And try not to pull something like that ever again."

As he watched Cadance walk off with her husband, he started to feel a myriad of emotions. Deep down, he wanted to argue with her about how he rightfully deserved to be with Rarity, how he fought for her affection time and time again, how Nondis was impeding with his time with the fashionista, how Rarity lusted after him. But the only thing that continued to burn inside of his mind was the image of Rarity and Twilight shunning him alongside Cadance. He didn't know what to feel at that moment aside from frustration.

Spike gritted his teeth as he started to think about how wrong she was about him. How much she didn't know about what all he did for her, the nights he spent by her side and cleaning up her home. The nights where she cried after Nondis and he comforted her in place of him. Fear and insecurity drove him to deny her words./

"I don't deserve her? I don't deserve Rarity? So he does and I don't? What makes him so different? He ignores her and lets her do all these things for him, despite everything costing her so much... He doesn't deserve her nearly as much as I do. I've earned her, I did! I deserve to be with Rarity, NOT HIM!"

His claws clenched into fists as he started to breathe smoke. His arms trembled as his teeth started to grind against one another, creating a dry chattering noise. His breath started to heat up as he thought about how he was deserving of Rarity. In fact, he would prove just how worthy he was of Rarity's love.

"He'll see just how much I want her. I want her... I want her... I deserve her... I... I... Spike..."

He held his head as a headache started to form. His eyes clenched shut as he started to breathe heavily, thinking more about Rarity and how much he hated Nondis for taking his time with the beautiful Rarity away from him. He came to the conclusion that he would have his jewel, his elusive diamond, his Rarity.

His decision was made.

"S-Spike... want..."

Back in Ponyville...

I really couldn't complain about the food that I was given. Instead, I was too busy complaining about how there wasn't enough of it to go around for round three. Rarity continued to express her apologies while I was more focused on trying to beg her to make another casserole for me.

Of course, she graciously declined due to time constraints.

Finally snapping out of my greed, I settled down and allowed the food to digest in my system. Rarity didn't seem to mind that I was laying on her couch, in fact she encouraged me to do so.

Sweetie Belle enjoyed herself as well and walked back upstairs with her teddy bear not too long after the conclusion of the meal. I didn't even notice her leaving until sometime after.

While I sat on the couch, I started to speak with Rarity about how her making my clothes was cutting into her profits. I tried negotiating with her a matter of my payment, but she remained stubborn as usual. Of course, she declined my proposals to pay her back or to work off some of the debt. Instead, she started measuring me up for more clothes she wanted to make. I initially refused but then she did the lip-quiver, puppy-dog-eyes thing.

I'm never gonna stop falling for that, am I?

*knock knock knock knock*

I rose off of the couch, feeling as if I was moving a bag of bricks. Apparently the food started to take a toll on me. While I stretched my arms forward to avoid shoulder pains, Rarity answered the door.

"Why hello, darling! And how did things go?"

"I'll talk about it in a moment." Twilight answered as she walked in. "Forgive me for just barging in like this."

"Oh, not a problem." Rarity answered in a cheerful tone.

Twilight immediately flew up to me and gave me a quick peck on the lips as she smiled at me. "Did you eat anything while I was away?"

Still feeling a little tired from my meal, I yawned my response. "Yeah, Rarity cooked."

"Oh, she did?" She asked, seeming as if she was surprised to hear that.

"Yeah, what's wrong?"

The purple pony shook her head as she grabbed my hand. "Nothing. I need you to step outside for a moment."

"How come?" I questioned.

She teleported behind me and gave me a light nudge forward. "Girl talk. Get out."

"What kind of 'girl talk' are you talking about? Is it the personal kind or the gossipy kind?" I playfully asked.

"Classified." Twilight answered flatly as she pushed me out of the front door. "Now wait for me out here. It shouldn't take me long."

As soon as the door closed, I was subjected to waiting outside of the boutique. And with each moment that passed by, I started to get a little restless for some odd reason. I knew that I was limited to doing nothing today, but my mind was still seeking something to do as I waited. I pulled out my phone and took note of the time and battery.

It was six fifty-eight while the battery was at twenty-three percent. Damn.

I guess Flappy Bird would have to wait until later. Why the hell didn't I bring my charger with me? Leaning against the door, I tried to make out what they were talking about. And to my misfortune, I couldn't hear much of anything. It sounded as if they were speaking from behind a pillow as soft as they were. Letting my curiosity get the better of me, I looked through the small glass window imbued to the front door. As my eyes shifted from left to right, I couldn't see anyone inside.

I began to grow impatient, mainly because I was just abruptly thrown outside with no proper reasoning behind it all besides 'girl talk'. And that could be in the realm of anything in this case. I'm not sure what they were discussing, but it was starting to take forever. I looked down to my phone again and saw that only two minutes had went by.

From the perspective of an individual who's mind or fingers were kept busy, I was very uncomfortable. When I was back in my world, I had a laptop, a computer, an Xbox 360, a toy keyboard, and a cell phone to entertain me. And even when those bored me I had the advantage, though I didn't really find much of a desire for it, of hanging out with a fraternity. Or sometimes I'd go to the parties my frat was apart of, get drunk, talk shit and get shitted on for it, and wobble my inebriated Texan ass back home.

Even when I was here, I was kept busy. Despite my lack of usual entertainment resources, I had found something to entertain me. I was shipped off to help the other ponies run errands as a means of getting myself acquainted with some of the town's layout. Rainbow Dash and Applejack would prove to be apart of some rather entertaining competition, and I wasn't much of a sports-guy myself. Pinkie was always pulling me along to help her with a few of her parties, which were awesome either way. Rarity would get me involved with her errands and tell me about the gossip going around the town, Fluttershy would let me interact with the woodland creatures, Twilight would take me to different places to have fun.

And don't even get me started on Discord.

Yet again, I checked my phone to see that another three minutes had passed by. Finally caving in to boredom, I swiped my screen and pulled up the Flappy Bird App. As soon as I was met with the start-up screen, I let myself get comfortable. I needed to get comfortable because this was going to be a frustrating, albeit fun, experience. Just as the game began to count down to my start, I looked at the high-score in the corner. Internally, I continued to scream at Melanie for making it past thirty-two of these damn pipes.

In short, the objective of the game was to tap the screen to keep your bird flying and to avoid the green pipes. You also can't hit the ground or the ceiling or else it's game over. And hitting the pipes will result in you hitting the ground which is also, you guessed it, game over.

When the game started, I had began to time my taps against the screen. It didn't seem to matter which way I was going about this, I wasn't going to reach that high score...

*Plap*

Or anywhere past the first pipe for that matter. Damn, I'm out of practice. As the results screen seemed to remind me that I got a big, fat ZERO on my first go in several months, I calmly pressed 'try again'.

Now that I was getting back into the mix of things, nothing could possibly go wrong.

*Ding*

Great! I made it past the first pipe.

*Plap*

...And crashed into the second. Game over.

"Fuck off!" I muttered strongly at the game.

Pressing 'try again', I continued to tap my finger on the screen, avoiding several more of the green pipes before my imminent demise.

*Plap*

Game over. My score was nine pipes passed. At least I could vent my frustrations on something that wasn't dealing with the two mares in the boutique. But with each game that passed, my legs started to feel restless. Standing up, I started to pace back and forth to keep myself calm... despite the metric fuck-ton of times I keep dying.

But my work wasn't without it's rewards. I was actually falling back into stride with each loss I incurred. The more I lost, the more pipes I cleared. And on occasion, I'd have a regression of pipes as well, but it wasn't all that bad. Soon, I was back up to my usual twenty-some-odd pipes. And after I hit pipe number thirty, I started to gain confidence that I would beat the high score.

I cleared yet another pipe to make my personal best of thirty one, when suddenly...

"Nondis!"

*Plap*

Just as Twilight called my name, I ended up rabbit-tapping my screen, causing me to smack face first into the next green pipe.

...I am a small yellow flower, flowing gently across the wind and landing into a beautiful lake. A lake full of crystal clear waters suddenly marred by the blood of my enemies. Their limbs floating by as the waters ran red and murky. Violent screams could be heard from far away, indicating that there were several more of them shouting out to their beloved dead. FUCK! SHIT! DAMMIT! AAAAAAAARRRGH!!!

"Nondis, you ready to go?"

I feel pretty... oh so pretty... I feel pretty, and witty, and- "Yes. Please."

Would it be fair to hold her accountable for this monstrous fuck-up despite her not knowing? No? ...Please? Well then I guess I could let her pass. Exiting off the app and checking the time, I could see that a whole twenty minutes had flown by.

"Alright, let's get going." She said as she started to walk off. I followed closely behind her as I continued to mentally sing to myself.

I feel stunning and entrancing
Feel like running and dancing for joy
For I'm loved by a pretty, wonderful boy!

...Wait a second.

As we made our way back to the castle, I could already see the vast improvements from this morning. Many of the holes that riddled the walls from yesterday were repaired as if nothing had happened. The scorch marks on the buildings were painted over and the broken windows were all repaired. The bodies were all cleaned up yesterday via the guards from Cloudsdale, so thankfully we didn't have to deal with that.

I gotta hand it to these ponies, they sure can work fast. I guess it's because of their magical abilities that they can make a town's repair go by so quickly. If we'd have these same issues back on my world, it would take months to get all of this done. They did it in the course of a single day! That's progress!

On our way back we managed to walk by the town square, or rather the place I had to do most of my fighting. Twilight did a bit more snooping around as she kinda played supervisor over the progress of the town. Applejack was busy directing a few ponies to raise up a wall towards a small house. Rainbow Dash, alongside a few other pegasi, were coming in from behind and hammering the nails in place to hold the wall up.

Meanwhile, Twilight approached them and started asking if progress was moving along smoothly. Obviously so because this town was a mess yesterday. I walked over to survey a group of stallions talking about how hard they had to work throughout the day. They threw in a couple of jokes as well to get each other laughing. I started to laugh along with them, but had realized that I hadn't even heard the joke well enough to be laughing. I guess their joy and optimism was contagious enough to draw me in.

"Nondis!"

I turned around to see Twilight standing beside her friends, looking at me. The purple mare walked over and magically pulled at my shirt to bring me back over. With a giggle, she tapped me on the nose and teased me. "Quit being nosy."

"What else can I do? You keep talking to everyone else but me. I gotta keep myself entertained somehow."

She gave me a smirk as her magic pulled out my phone. "Could I borrow this for a quick second?"

"What for?" I asked.

She ignored my question and called both Applejack and Rainbow Dash over. The two mares quickly made their way over and stood next to her. As she held my phone, she waved her hoof at me, telling me to stand beside her.

Okay, I get what she's doing now.

I walked over and stood next to her. As she used her magic to focus in on the controls, she took a picture of the four of us and pulled it back in to view the photo. Immediately she saw that my face was too high for the lens to capture, so she asked me to kneel down for a second one. As soon as I did, we took yet another picture. This time when we pulled it in, we noticed a certain pink pony that suddenly showed up behind us wearing a goofy grin.

Twilight wasn't impressed. "Pinkie!"

The pink mare giggled at us as she stuck out her tongue at Twilight. Applejack and Rainbow Dash didn't seem to mind about it. Actually, they started to laugh alongside her while Twilight looked as if her feathers had gotten knotted up real bad. Eventually she lightened up and started laughing along with them.

I could only watch as they happily exchanged their laughter with one another. But as I started to save the picture as a background, a random lion's paw came up beside me and grabbed my phone.

"And what do we have here? Such an interesting little gadget you have. What all does it do?" Discord asked.

Fluttershy, who accompanied him, grabbed my phone and gave it back to me. "It's called a cell phone, or at least that's what Twilight said."

"Yup." I confirmed. "Back on my world, it's a special cell phone called an iPhone."

"An eye phone? Well do you need some sort of eye magic or something to make it work?" Discord inquired.

"No, just the letter i. It's lowercase where the p in phone is uppercase. As you can tell from here." I said, turning the phone over and pointing to the logo.

"I couldn't help but to notice that the logo is the shape of a half-eaten apple. Is there any reason for that?"

"I dunno. That's just their logo. The company itself is called Apple."

"Do they sell apples?" Applejack asked, overhearing our conversation.

I started to scratch my head on how I could explain this. "Well... they don't sell the apples you know of. They're a company that specializes in computers."

"Com-what-now?" Applejack tilted her head at the word computers. Of course I had forgotten that my technology is decades ahead of what they already have established here in Equestria.

"Okay, to put it bluntly, they don't sell fruit. They sell phones, touchpads, watches, and all kinds of high-tech stuff that you'd see in a sci-fi movie, or better yet, stuff that you'd only read about in books."

"Yeah, but the concept of multidimensional travel is a work-in-progress when it comes to their world." Twilight noted in an attempt to one-up mankind. "Your technology is better when it comes to making daily life a lot easier, but when it comes to magical practices that could alter the fabric of time and space, humans don't have that one."

"Of course, we don't have magic. But we don't always have paperback or hardcover books that could be eaten by bugs. Instead, we have our stuff downloaded onto our phones and tablets."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Once again, daily life things."

"Once again, that could give us information at the touch of a button."

"But it couldn't survive getting wet in a thunderstorm, now could it?"

I think we're going to be at this for a while.

After our short argument about who's technology was better, we came to the conclusion that ponies had the best advantage when it came to the arcane and the supernatural, and that humans had the advantage of adapting and terraforming our environment.

Of course, when I brought up the fact that we had sent humans to the moon and back down at-will kinda gave them a shock. The last known pony to make it to the moon was Princess Luna, and she was banished there for a thousand years.

Of course, he started to get into an argument about longevity, but the sun had long set over the horizon, indicating that our conversation was dragging well past it's time of completion. But that didn't stop me and Twilight, who argued over what was what on the way back home.

"And? Ponies are capable of living up to well over a thousand years."

"That's Celestia and Luna, they control the sun and the moon, which have been existent for OVER FOUR BILLION YEARS in my world!"

Neither of us were willing to concede as we finally made it back to our room.

"So? Ponies on average get to live about sixty-eight years." She stated triumphantly. "So how about you humans?"

I sighed heavily knowing that I was beat on that topic. "Humans life expectancy is averaged globally to around sixty-seven years."

"That's right! So we ponies would ultimately live a year longer than you..." Suddenly, Twilight trailed off as she took the time to think about her statement. Her tone suddenly went from confrontational to remorseful. "...I'd live a year longer than you."

Already, I could see the sadness welling up in her eyes. I placed my hand on her cheek, caressing her as I stroke her. "Hey, it's just an average. I could be well on my way out far later than that."

"Or it could be earlier." She whispered as she looked to me. Her hoof sought my hand, grabbing and holding it firmly against her face as she nuzzled it. "I don't think I'll be ready for that."

"Well you don't have to worry about it, because I'm not dead yet." I answered, stroking her mane softly.

"I don't think I can handle losing you. We've just gotten to know each other... and now we're marrying one another. If you died today, I'd never get the chance to call you my husband."

Twilight breathed heavily as she leaned against me, hoping that I'd hug her back. I wrapped my arms around her and whispered into her ear. "How about we get off this subject before you get any more depressed?"

"Under one condition." She murmured into my chest.

"What's that?"

"You have to promise me that you'll stop trying to play hero. There's nothing wrong with being normal."

I chuckled at her request. I never really did see myself in a world of talking, colorful equines as the norm. "That's not exactly something I can do, you know. It's hard being normal when I'm considered as abnormal to everypony else."

"You're one of us. I think you are."

"Yeah, but how does everyone else see me?" I questioned.

She pulled off of me and gave me a frown, showing me that she didn't like the question I asked. "Stop that. You're trying to seek confirmation of your existence based off of everypony else's opinion of you. It doesn't matter what they think."

Yet in that instant, somehow my mind was fixated on one particular figure that hated me. The words he spoke as he growled at me, causing Rarity to stand in between the two of us. "I guess you could tell that to Spike then."

Twilight walked away from me, looking towards her writing desk with the diary. She shook her head as she looked back at me. "Spike... Spike tried to get you deployed today."

Wow, that little fucker decided to screw me over, after I saved him. He must really hate my guts, for what seems to be for little reason. I thought Rarity made it clear to him that her doing my clothes was a personal choice of hers. I guess love, or obsession, can blind one to reason. "Where to?"

"I don't know. But that just made me so uncomfortable, to see that there are ponies out there who were willing to send you out so quickly. If it wasn't for Blueblood buying you time, you'd be going off to a land you haven't been to or have little chance of survival."

Wait a minute... Did she just say- "Blueblood?"

"Yeah, I know right?"

I was still in awe over the two things that transpired in Canterlot. I guess that's why she was so willing to keep me close to her since her coming back. She knew that they were trying to send me off the entire time and I'd be nothing more than a martyr for their cause, or to go a step further, an obstacle moved out of Spike's way.

I'm still trying to process that he actually tried to betray me like this. Wow... I'm at a loss for words. I... I can't even think that he'd try to get me sent off, or worse, even killed.

"So he came to Canterlot after he left Ponyville?" I asked.

"Yeah. Apparently, he had more to say to me as I was about to leave, but Cadance came by and kinda cut him short."

So, the 'girl talk' from earlier wasn't the result of his ratting Rarity out. But still... "So what now?"

"I'll have him temporarily reassigned. Until he learns to calm down, he can't be here in Ponyville... I can't believe I'm even saying that."

"Why?" I questioned, starting to see her become even more saddened.

"Because... I promised him that I'd never send him away, and here I am... doing just that because of... I don't know." She started to hold back her tears. "Why does he have to act like this? Where did I go wrong?"

"It's me." I answered quietly. "If Rarity wasn't making all of these clothes for me at the risk of her business going under, he'd be a lot more stable. This is all me."

I wasn't willing to disclose her feelings just yet. If anything, I don't disclose that kind of stuff to others without their consent. I haven't even told Twilight about Pinkie's feelings towards me, so how could I contradict myself and do the opposite with Rarity? That would be unfair and it could break the bonds of their friendship. I was already walking on a thin line as it was, I couldn't just shovel all their dirt out for the world to see. And she said it herself, their friendship sessions was a chance for them to come clean with one another. I can't break that obligation.

"But Rarity already stated that she didn't mind making you clothes. I didn't know that her business would take a hit."

"I tried to tell her that I'd pay her however way I needed to. But she kept writing me off."

Twilight sighed as she turned to her journal once more. This time she levitated it towards her and summoned a pen. As she scribbled something down, she spoke. "I'll have something arranged for her. I'll try to deposit a few funds from my account to hers. It'll be considered as an anonymous donation, so that way she'll be unaware of who actually sent it to her. I'll pay her a specific amount each week and we can move on from there."

"Do you mind me pitching in?" I asked.

"Sure, I'm certain that she'll appreciate it. Just deny that you sent it to her and she'll never notice the difference from one of her other special clients."

I can get behind that. At least then I'd be paying her back rather than feeling guilty for each piece of clothing I wear for free. "Okay. But what about Spike?"

"I'm sure that there's more than just clothes in mind when it comes to him. He can be a bit clingy when it comes to Rarity. Again, I'll show him that he can't stick around if he intends to play foul with you."

"Are you sure about this?" I questioned, seeing that Twilight still had some thoughts against it.

"Sometimes we have to learn the hard way. I love him, but that doesn't mean that I won't show him the error of his actions." She stated firmly. "I won't try and find an easy way out of this one... not again."

I quirked an eyebrow at her choice of words. "Again?"

She paused for a moment, looking outside of her window. As she saw the moon climbing high into the sky, she remained silent for most of the time. Finally, she turned back to me and pointed towards the door.

"Let's go for a walk."

"Twilight."

"Yes?"

"I can understand that you wanted me to accompany you tonight, but why am I wearing a blindfold when there's already little light as it is?"

"Just hold on to me, we're almost there."

I continued to blindly follow Twilight, holding on to the very tip of her wing. I was trying my best not to injure her as a result of me grabbing her too harshly. For much of the way, she constantly told me about some of the adventures her and her friends went on, the dangers they faced and the trials they overcame as a result of their friendship. For the most part it was quite inspiring, but for the other it was frustrating to walk around blind. At least I could say I'd blindly follow her into danger.

In speaking of danger.

*crack*

"Careful of where you step. There's a bit of broken glass here and there as well as some rusty nails, so you might not want those in your foot."

Where the hell was she taking me? I didn't know any place that had broken glass and rusty nails when I was here. Perhaps this was someplace new. She slowed down, using her magic to remove my hand from her wing. She continued to adjust me afterwards, trying to move me towards one solitary spot.

"Stand right here. Don't remove your blindfold just yet."

As I heard her hoofprints trail off, I started to grow concerned of where I really was. "Twilight, where am I?"

"You're home." She answered quietly.

I cringed to myself, unaware of what to think. "Home doesn't sound like broken glass and creaky wood."

"You're right, it shouldn't... You can take off your blindfold now."

Undoing the knot on the back of my head, I could feel the bright moonlight reaching my eyes. As I finally removed the blindfold, I was met with a rather unusual sight.

I was standing on a wooden floor, all around me seemed to be the destroyed remnants of what appeared to be a library. To my left was what I assumed the doorway that led us here. To my right was a set of stairs that ended in ash and blackened wood. Remnants of window seals and walls was all that stood here. A few scorched books lied scattered across the floor. Even where I stood was covered in dirt and paper.

"Welcome to Golden Oaks Library, my home."

"You used to live here?"

"Mmhmm." She confirmed with a nod. "It used to be an abandoned Library that nopony really used since it's former owner left for Seaddle. The mortgage was partially paid off when I had gotten it. I finished off the payments, I bought insurance for it, and all of it came out of my summer stipends from Princess Celestia. Here was when I first started my lessons in the magic of friendship."

She walked up to me, magically levitating all of the papers away from my feet to reveal a star-shaped scorch mark that resembled her cutie mark. As soon as she wiped off the dirt, I began to see the other stars that circled around the larger one. It was definitely her cutie mark. "So how did this get here?" I asked.

"That spot there, that's where I was given my wings. That was the last place I stood as a unicorn, as a student of friendship. That's where I became a princess. It's also the very spot where we and the girls started our first adventure together."

"Seems like some pretty good times." I stated quietly.

"They were. And you won't believe how angry the insurance firm was with me. I had to constantly have repairs done for miscellaneous reasons. Rainbow Dash crashing through my window, Spike crashing a hole in my walls, my constant misfiring spells, the numerous times where the foundation was removed, apple juice spilling across the library, changeling attacks, they didn't know where to start. But there was one place they knew where to end."

She and I shared a laugh for a brief moment before she had gotten really quiet again.

Wow that's a lot. "In speaking of where it ends, what happened to this place?"

"Let's just say that I got caught trying to take the easy way out of things."

I looked around and saw the damage. I blinked twice and scratched my head. "This was the easy way out?"

She started to gaze off towards another direction, towards the front door and past the horizon. "I went against a mighty foe. My orders were to protect the magic of Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadance, and that of my own. They all gave their magic to me in an attempt to hide it from him. Instead, he found me anyways. When he first met face to face, he towered well over me. I was so scared when I saw just how big he was, and the fact that he could steal magic made him all the more terrifying."

"So you ran away?"

"I did. But it was to prevent him from stealing the alicorn magic. So I teleported all the way from Rambling Rock Ridge to here. But he already knew where I was headed. So he sent out a powerful blast of magic and well... this was the result. This could've been avoided if I had decided to fight him prior to my coming back here, but I didn't. And now whenever I pass by here, I'm reminded of what happens when I run away from my problems, when I decide to take the easy way out of things rather than the right way."

I could look at this mare and never even realized that she had lost so much. Instead, I'm sitting here in the middle of the very thing she lost. Her heart was broken beyond repair that day, and coming by here would prove to be a painful reminder. I couldn't imagine myself losing all of what I had worked so hard to keep, my home, the memories it contained.

I'll never get to know that pain, the pain of a tornado victim, the pain of a fire victim, the pain of a flood victim, the pain of bombs hitting your home, or even this pain.

The only pain I ever come to know is to witness the damage firsthand.

"So... Do you know the other reason why I brought you here?" She asked with a weak smile.

"No."

"It's because I want you to replace this."

I looked around, once again surveying the damage. "Don't you think that this is a bit of a stretch?"

She shook her head. "Hardly. A home can be repaired or replaced. The sentimental value of an item can only last as long as it does or the memories behind it. But the life of a loved one... There's no value on that. There's no replacing something that can only exist once. I can't replicate you, so having you in place of this makes perfect sense."

"So you'd want me to replace all of this?"

"If it's not too much to ask for."

I took a moment to think about my answer. But there was still something I wanted to know before I would agree to this. "One more question, why?"

"...Because you mean more to me than this."

I walked up to her, grabbing her by the chin as I held her up to look me in they eyes. Those beautiful lavender orbs that circled around in an endless sea, the way the moon glowed in them, I began to pant heavily as I leaned in towards her. "You're lying."

She took a step back, leading me slowly towards the door. "How dare you accuse me of lying."

"Then tell me, how much more value do I have over this?"

There was no smile on her face, no expression of happiness. But neither was there one of anger or disbelief. Instead it was one of determination, it was one of firm resolve. She leaned up to me, briefly making contact with my lips as she nibbled on my lower lip. Tugging and pulling lightly, she yanked me in. A small peck was all I was given, yet the strange glow in her eyes as if she was a feline hiding in the darkness, awaiting her prey as she shifted and readied herself to pounce, it sold me on the fact that she would give me more... Much, much more.

"Let's go back. I'll show you just how much you mean to me."

All guards were dismissed. All servants were sent home. All of the assistants and secretaries were placed on leave as Twilight and I ran through the halls. And the moment we closed the door behind us, we were left staring back at each other. Still gathering our breath, we calculated our next moves against each other. What began as a race to the room had now became that of a chess match. With each move she'd make, I'd counter with one of my own. My leg would move towards her, she'd move back. For moments at a time, our thoughts circled around one another, trying to find an opening.

Her horn glowed dimly, offering us the only bit of light we had available aside from the moon. I could hear the clattering of two small rings landing on the floor. Her breaths became heavy and baited as I stalked her towards the bed. I reached out to grab her, unwittingly grasping my hand around her throat. Her response was her magic dragging me in, tightening my grasp on her. Twilight moaned quietly as she writhed in my grasp.

"Ravage me." She did not say those words, yet she mouthed them. Her breaths trembled as she looked at me with pleading eyes.

I pulled off my shirt quickly, trying to free myself from the clothes that still symbolized any form of civility I might have had left. I started to work on my pants, while Twilight used her magic to pull at my hair, yanking me in to give her lips the attention she desperately craved for. Thought it was painful at first, I ignored it for a much better pursuit; ecstasy. I pulled the rest of my clothes off, tossing them on the floor to join with the chastity rings she had worn earlier.

My hands glided over her lips, sliding down in an agonizing pace to reach down and cusp it's way in between her haunches. Her body seized up as if a sharp bolt of pain ran through her body. But I knew that her cry was one of enjoyment. I gifted her with two, causing her to wiggle and grind against my moistening hand. My fingers would curl and flex inside of her as my thumb gently worked against the winking bud.

Effective immediately, her body tensed and thrashed wildly as her juices spurned forth as if I had struck the vein of a hot spring. Much of my hand became affected by moisture, causing me to slip out of her easily despite her walls pleading with me not to leave. Though she herself protested my retreat, she found an immense curiosity over her own flavor. Her magic pulled at my arm, dragging it towards her mouth where her tongue awaited. In between my fingers, her slimy organ heedlessly cleansed me, ultimately resulting in nothing more than a slobbering mess.

I didn't care much for it, as my main concern was that she cleaned so much of herself that I failed to get a chance to sample for myself, a problem she'd rectify with a long, heated, passionate wrestling of our tongues. When we separated, our lips were barely bridged together by several strands of saliva. We were ugly, uncivilized, slovenly, and yet we felt nothing but a wanton desire to send each other to a place neither of us could reach alone.

My body moved accordingly, spreading her legs wide as my throbbing form pressed against the lubricated entrance of her nethers. As my eyes trailed downward, I had broken myself out of trance to see that I was just an inch or two of voiding her title.

"We don't-"

I was silenced by the warm feeling of magenta flames encircling my lower body, pressing me towards her. She whispered to me as the sweat began to bead across her face. "I give you consent." She whispered under her warm breath.

As I inched closer, I felt what I had long desired starting to become a reality. I leaned against her, prodding myself head-first into her sex. Already, I could feel the tightness overwhelming me, almost pushing me back out. As I pulled back out, I felt the magenta flames intensify their grip around me, forcing me forward.

"I won't tell if you won't."

After I sank into her, she used her magic to pull me even further. Suddenly, she pushed me back out. I looked back down and then to her. She quietly mouthed to me in a small voice. "I trust you."

...Those three words were the last she spoke as a virgin.

To be continued...

Author's Note

So... Me thinks that the situation has gotten seven layers of real. Now that Twilight has taken the extra step, placing her very title at risk, what would become of her? Would Spike show just how much he resents Nondis? Would Rarity ever have a chance at him? Will Nondis cave and tell Twilight the truth? And who will lead the search for the changeling commander?

Only time, as well as a few more chapters, would tell.

Chapter XXIX

Last night...

All guards were dismissed. All servants were sent home. All of the assistants and secretaries were placed on leave as Twilight and I ran through the halls. And the moment we closed the door behind us, we were left staring back at each other. Still gathering our breath, we calculated our next moves against each other. What began as a race to the room had now became that of a chess match. With each move she'd make, I'd counter with one of my own. My leg would move towards her, she'd move back. For moments at a time, our thoughts circled around one another, trying to find an opening.

Her horn glowed dimly, offering us the only bit of light we had available aside from the moon. I could hear the clattering of two small rings landing on the floor. Her breaths became heavy and baited as I stalked her towards the bed. I reached out to grab her, unwittingly grasping my hand around her throat. Her response was her magic dragging me in, tightening my grasp on her. Twilight moaned quietly as she writhed in my grasp.

"Ravage me." She did not say those words, yet she mouthed them. Her breaths trembled as she looked at me with pleading eyes.

I pulled off my shirt quickly, trying to free myself from the clothes that still symbolized any form of civility I might have had left. I started to work on my pants, while Twilight used her magic to pull at my hair, yanking me in to give her lips the attention she desperately craved for. Thought it was painful at first, I ignored it for a much better pursuit; ecstasy. I pulled the rest of my clothes off, tossing them on the floor to join with the chastity rings she had worn earlier.

My hands glided over her lips, sliding down in an agonizing pace to reach down and cusp it's way in between her haunches. Her body seized up as if a sharp bolt of pain ran through her body. But I knew that her cry was one of enjoyment. I gifted her with two, causing her to wiggle and grind against my moistening hand. My fingers would curl and flex inside of her as my thumb gently worked against the winking bud.

Effective immediately, her body tensed and thrashed wildly as her juices spurned forth as if I had struck the vein of a hot spring. Much of my hand became affected by moisture, causing me to slip out of her easily despite her walls pleading with me not to leave. Though she herself protested my retreat, she found an immense curiosity over her own flavor. Her magic pulled at my arm, dragging it towards her mouth where her tongue awaited. In between my fingers, her slimy organ heedlessly cleansed me, ultimately resulting in nothing more than a slobbering mess.

I didn't care much for it, as my main concern was that she cleaned so much of herself that I failed to get a chance to sample for myself, a problem she'd rectify with a long, heated, passionate wrestling of our tongues. When we separated, our lips were barely bridged together by several strands of saliva. We were ugly, uncivilized, slovenly, and yet we felt nothing but a wanton desire to send each other to a place neither of us could reach alone.

My body moved accordingly, spreading her legs wide as my throbbing form pressed against the lubricated entrance of her nethers. As my eyes trailed downward, I had broken myself out of trance to see that I was just an inch or two of voiding her title.

"We don't-"

I was silenced by the warm feeling of magenta flames encircling my lower body, pressing me towards her. She whispered to me as the sweat began to bead across her face. "I give you consent." She whispered under her warm breath.

As I inched closer, I felt what I had long desired starting to become a reality. I leaned against her, prodding myself head-first into her sex. Already, I could feel the tightness overwhelming me, almost pushing me back out. As I pulled back out, I felt the magenta flames intensify their grip around me, forcing me forward.

"I won't tell if you won't."

After I sank into her, she used her magic to pull me even further. Suddenly, she pushed me back out. I looked back down and then to her. She quietly mouthed to me in a small voice. "I trust you."

A soft moan escaped my lips as I found myself sinking deeper into her moistened depths. Her body welcomed me with erratic spasms and clenching walls while I began to bury myself deep inside of her. As I worked my way back out, she used her magic to guide me back inside. Her eyes rolled back as I prodded myself back in slowly. Her left forehoof reached out for my chest, actively searching for my shoulder. The moment she found it and hooked herself against me, I winced for a brief moment, still feeling the sting from when I was bit. When she noticed my discomfort, she allowed me to pull out.

"Sorry." She whispered to me quietly.

I shouldn't have expected this to be a perfect session where she and I could claw and grasp at each other at will. Not only was I still with a fractured collarbone, but this was still our first time. I was just as inexperienced as she was, if not more. I leaned back down to give her a kiss. Her eyes started to fill with guilt. "You're fine."

"No I'm not." She whimpered. "I caused you pain."

Isn't that supposed to be my line in this kind of situation?

Determined to show her that I would still try to make this work. I lied beside her while guiding myself towards her entrance. As I did, she pulled away from me, sitting on the side of the bed. With a saddened smile on her face, she tried her best not to start tearing. "I'm sorry. I'm not really-"

"Twilight."

"Yes?" She asked, looking back at me with worry.

My mind traveled back to the very first time we were in this situation. I remembered how Twilight was anxiously moving herself on top of me, greedily grinding herself against me while I lied on the bed. At that moment, I had came up with the solution to our problem.

"Get on top of me."

"But-"

"It's fine. I trust you."

The instant I returned those three words to her, she found the courage to crawl back onto the bed, straddling me as she did. Her forelegs anchored themselves just beside me and her mane slid down just inches away from my face. As she leaned down to kiss me, her horn ignited and her magic began to massage my length as she aligned herself with me. Her body started to sink on top of mine, similar to how it was when we first got caught.

Only this time, her descent was much more abrupt.

"Nnn-gah!" In one single motion she impaled herself onto my throbbing sex, my mind ran awash of praises of how wonderful she felt. Thoughts of my shoulder became a distant memory as she pulled herself up. I looked down to see her rising off of me, small strings of her essence formed thickened pillars as her hips came sliding down.

In her slow pace, I became mixed of what I wanted to feel. I felt quenched, yet thirsty for more of her. I wanted to thoroughly enjoy her, but at the same time I wanted her to speed up. I wanted her to squeeze as much as she could from me, but I felt suffocated at the same time. Her actions were very much enjoyed, yet they were an agonizing torture.

"Haa..."

I felt a column of warm air brush against my neck and upper torso. When I looked up to the source I could see Twilight with her eyes closed, seeming as if she was basking in the immense pleasure she was experiencing. I couldn't blame her, the way she slid up and her walls clamped around me, hugging me, it was enough to make me put my hands against her waist and pull her back down.

I could feel a mighty heat coming from her as I held her. Her flanks rose and fell as my hands tried to urge her to speed up. Of course I was met with plenty of resistance, her insanely slow pace remaining constant. For a while, I started to become frustrated with her, but suddenly, she leaned down, leaning herself completely against me. Her small, soft body grew damper as she wrapped her hooves around my chest and her body started bouncing at an increased rate.

As I breathed, I could smell the strong musk of her body. I could also make out the strong scent of her sex as it started to make me crave for more of her. The princess panted as the sweat started to drip from her body and soak mine. I moaned deep into her neck, sending vibrations throughout her body. Her response was quite a surprise to me as more of her fluids dampened my crotch, as well as the mattress.

In due time, the sound of her body crashing against mine became more audible, matching in tempo of the bed springs. The wood of her bed creaked as she sprang up and down against me. My hips began to catch her rhythm and pull away as she lifted herself, and push back in as she fell. Her eyes opened in surprise of feeling me thrust back into her. She looked back down to me, seeing that I was taking in the sight of myself sinking to her. She quickly adjusted my attention to her as her lips briefly singed the skin of my neck.

"Ohhh... Yes..." She whispered, starting to let her lust get the better of her. Eventually, she decided to get greedy, smashing her hips against mine and circulating herself while I was still buried within her. Her walls flexed against me, causing me to shudder with unimaginable pleasure. She brought her lips against mine, briefly touching before our tongues started to war with one another. When our lips separated, so did our hips.

Her body shook as she separated from me. One of her hooves, drenched in a combination of both of our sweat, pressed itself against my chest. Her wings flared open as my hands started to travel upwards. I slowly took the time to admire the princess' slender body, curving down to her voluptuous waists. My fingers pressed themselves into her soft posterior, massaging her as she continued from where she left off.

"Nondis..."

She didn't say much after that, only her pace started to rapidly pick up. I knew that she had reached the heights she desired to reach. Meanwhile, I was starting to build up to mine as well. Her mane bounced wildly along with her body. My thrusts became much more forceful, as if I was trying to reach where she was going. Her eyes rolled back while she pistoned herself against me. Her moistened nethers proceeded to lubricate my length at a exponential rate. My very manhood was now wetter than what it was throughout our entire session. Twilight's back arched as she came to an abrupt stop. Her body tensed greatly while she looked to the ceiling.

I continued to work myself to my inevitable climax, her body now riding out her own orgasm. In what felt to be a monumental build, I found myself suddenly forcing myself to go as quick as I could. My fingers dug deep into the purple mare's hide as I leaned up towards her. My own nirvana came as suddenly as hers.

I couldn't exactly explain all of what I had felt the very instant I crossed. The only thing I could remember was that I felt as if I was suspended high above the world. It was so bright that I couldn't see nothing but the white light produced from the thousands of stars shining brightly overhead. My body rattled with excitement as I felt surges of electric impulses jerk me even higher. Breathless, I enjoyed the feeling of weightlessness before I started to climb back down.

My body flopped against the wind as my mind finally came crashing back down. But before I had hit the ground, I could feel a pair of hooves holding me by the back of my head. I snapped out of my trance to see a pair of purple lips closing in on me. Twilight and I shared what would be our best kiss. Our lips latched against one another for quite some time, our eyes closed as we savored our decent back to the earth below.

At last we were back in our bed, our sweaty, cum-stained, musk-scented sheets breaking our fall. The darkness had finally returned to the room, yet her face seemed to be the brightest thing in here. My arms leaned back against my side as she carefully hobbled off of me. Carelessly, she fell beside me, looking at me with stars in her eyes.

For moments at a time, we couldn't speak. The only thing that seemed to be a means of communication was the pants and breaths we exchanged. She smiled at me one last time as she nuzzled against me. I held her close to me while my eyelids began to grow heavy. As she rolled over, my arms reached out to pull her back towards me. I wrapped myself around her as she backed into me even further.

I don't think we could have worn any other expression on our face than a smile as we trailed off to sleep.

...You just made a huge mistake.

Shut up brain, go to sleep.

Meanwhile in Canterlot...

The castle in Canterlot was mostly quiet, save the occasional guard patrolling the halls. Each patrol, in sets of three, were escorted with a unicorn to illuminate their way through the pitch-black halls. As they walked by, they made their way through the hall and past a set of large, semi-circular doors. One was with white with a yellow sun emblazoned upon it, resembling the sigil that Celestia bore on her flank. The other next to it was a dark blue door with a white crescent moon sat upon it, resembling the sigil Luna bore on hers.

Yet only one of these doors had a sound coming from within.

The bedchambers of Princess Celestia remained darkened save a large window leading out to the balcony outside. The moon's light flooded from the floor all the way to the foot of the bed of the solar princess herself. The sheets of the bed shifted frequently, indicating her inability to sleep properly.

The princess, restless, shifted and rolled in her bed, trying to overcome the strange sensations that warmed her body. She'd felt it before, yet she'd never felt it in such a manner as this. Her heart rate picked up as her eyes remained closed in her attempt to strive through the heat spell. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to work for her, and for a distinctive reason why.

Under the sheets, she shifted her hooves, holding herself as she tried not to think about the lewd thoughts that traversed through her dreams. Her hooves clasped at her nethers, trying not to fall into temptation of relieving herself. Soft moans escaped her lips and her wings started to spread on their own accord. Her body temperature continued to rise until she could no longer take it.

"Gah!"

Celestia awoke, panting and covered in sweat, looking around her room as she tried to see if anyone was looking. After a couple of seconds, she lifted the sheets to see that she was very much bothered from the erotic vision she endured. Her forelegs slipped from in between her haunches as she observed a thin coating of fluids on her.

She shook her head in shame of the vision, and not just because of the reaction her body yielded.

*Knock knock knock*

A soft knocking on the door caused the princess to jump and quickly levitate a towel, as well as a bottle of perfume, from her nightstand. She proceeded to towel herself off, trying to mask any evidence that might give any one of her guards the wrong impression.

*Knock... knock... knock...*

Another soft knock, this one even slower, sounded at her door. The solar princess, finally finished with masking her feminine scent, called out in a quiet voice. "Yes?"

"Sister, I sense that you are not sleeping well."

"Luna..." She sighed in relief. "It's just you."

"May I come in?"

Looking around her bed, she saw a small stain from where her bodily activity took place. After spraying the sheets, she flipped the comforter over to hide the spot. Finally, she felt comfortable to allow her younger sister inside.

"Sister?"

"You may enter."

Luna opened the door slowly to find Celestia sitting at the edge of her bed, looking at her pillows as a means of avoiding eye contact with the younger blue alicorn.

"It smells quite wonderful in here. I take it that the servants have left the room like this?"

"Indeed, they have." Celestia answered calmly, trying not to sound nervous.

Luna gave her older sister a smirk. "Or perhaps you've fancied a chance to unburden yourself and sought to release the tension concealed deep within your body-"

"Luna please!" Celestia scolded quietly. "That is most inappropriate!"

"Oh sister, we have been existent for over a millennium. You should be used to tending to your own urges." The younger sister teased.

"I can assure you that it is not as simple as you would make it." Celestia argued.

"Really? I was confined to a celestial object of my own control for a thousand years. I have learned how to offer myself a pleasure that no stallion could ever hope to provide."

All of the talk of her younger sister exploring her sexual ideas had started to reawaken Celestia's recently quenched arousal. The older sibling began to blush in response. "Luna, let us not speak of such things. They are incongruous and most ribald."

"Sister, we are not fillies. This is a perfectly acceptable matter to converse upon, especially between two members of the like sex."

"Luna!" She rose her voice, starting to sound harsh.

"Very well. If I may ask, what has caused you to be so... busy?"

Celestia refused to look towards her sister, and even more afraid to stand up from where she sat out of fear of revealing her now-soiled comforter. "It is nothing. I had just received... quite a colorful dream."

"A dream which the victim suffers death ten thousand times, only to awaken in a puddle of their own vulgarity. It is a normal occurrence, one that is experienced by many, and is experienced by many colts even as we speak."

"Luna, could you not speak so lasciviously?" She questioned, trying to keep her mind off of anything lewd.

"Not until you reveal what has caused you to become so tense." The younger sibling demanded, sitting next to her. "Now what exactly has plagued you? What detail of the dream has caused you to awaken in such distress?"

Celestia could feel her cheeks heating up as the blood rushed to them. Her face began to turn pink from the sudden rush. "It... shamefully... it pertained to my former student."

"Perhaps the yellow one? I recall her being a former student of yours. I believed she was called Su-"

"It was not her I saw." She answered with nervousness.

"Then perhaps it is the one who holds true to your teachings, the student that has become your pride as well as your weakness."

"I do not see Twilight in that manner! She is my friend and former student, nothing more."

Luna quirked an eyebrow at her sister, growing concerned. "Then what is it about her that makes you so uneasy? What could have you thinking of her in such a salacious manner?"

Celestia started to answer her younger sister, only for her words to become shortened by her own thoughts. She continued to avoid looking at her sister as she thought about the image of her beloved student engaging in premarital coitus continued to plague her mind.

"I suppose it was just the thought of her."

"I see." Luna answered quietly. As she rose off the bed, she looked to her older sister and teased her. "Then perhaps it would do you some benefit to, as the guards would say, clop one out?"

"LUNA!" Celestia raised her voice to the point where she didn't come off as screaming to her to avoid unwanted attention. Meanwhile, she was growing even redder in the face.

"I'm merely suggesting it as a means of relief. It is your call on whether or not you would act upon it. Either way, the quickest way to sleep is a resolution to your body's requests."

"I am fine. Now please leave me alone. I do not wish to speak on this any longer."

Luna grew even more worried as she watched her sister avoid her. She saw the concern in Celestia's eyes and had already came to a conclusion as to what could be the cause of her unease. Turning back to leave, she whispered back to her older sister.

"Then I pray that you are gifted with dreams of good fortune. Goodnight, my dear sister."

After the door creaked open and shut, Celestia's hooves tensed as she started to think about her prized pupil once more.

"Twilight... I knew that you have done so much for me. And you have performed splendidly in your tasks... But this..."

The princess stepped off of her bed and walked towards her vanity, looking at a picture of her and the purple unicorn smiling brightly as they sat beside a telescope on a hill, gazing at the stars.

"How could I protect you from this?"

The next morning in Ponyville...

As my eyes opened, I could feel my arms cradling around the small purple body of my beloved princess. I could already assume that she slept with a huge grin on her face while I'm sitting her coddling her. As she lied silently, I didn't know how I was going to go about the day. There was a lot on my mind going on about yesterday, last night and what I was going to do today. For starters... Ahem...

I JUST HAD SEEEEEX! AND IT FEEELT SO GOOOD! Ahem... excuse me for that outburst.

The morning seemed a lot more serene in comparison to yesterday's unfolding of events. For starters, the sound of construction tools have been, for the majority, silenced. There's the occasional faint hammering of a nail or two in the far distance, but not enough to break me out of my sleep.

No but seriously, NO INTERRUPTIONS, NO AWKWARD WALK INS, NO 'HEY HOW YA DOIN!', JUST GOOD OLD FASHIONED, DIRTY, RAUNCHY...

Yep. You just had sex with the princess.

...uh oh.

It finally dawned on me that as I was sitting here with my arms locked around the purple pony that we had actually slept together, and I don't mean as we usually do every night. We had sex, I took her virginity, I actually stuck my dick inside of her knowing that she'd be in trouble over it.

Hell, trouble would be the nice way of putting it.

Quietly shifting myself so that I could get free, I had noticed that the arm resting under Twilight had fallen asleep, due to my muscles responding and my not feeling a thing. Carefully, I used my free hand to lift her up and relieve some of the pressure on my arm.

Dear fuck, my arm feels like it has like seven billion ants crawling all over it.

After slipping my arm from underneath her, I began to quietly creep towards the side of the bed. But my attempts to leave to the bathroom were suddenly cut short thanks to a magenta aura pulling my 'waking' arm back towards her.

"MMmmmm... Nuuuuuu."

"Twilight, it's morning. We gotta get up."

"Stay here with me." She moaned out in protest, pulling my other arm towards her.

"I need to use the bathroom." I answered trying to get myself out of the bed.

"Nooooo... Staaaaay!" Her protests have grown from slow and tired to lively and childish.

"Bathrooooom! Nooooow!" I fussed back, mocking her tone.

She turned over to look at me, wearing a devious smirk. "No. Not until I get a kiss from you."

*sigh* "Again with this?"

"Yes. Now kiss..." She poked her lips out as she leaned in towards me.

After a second, I agreed to give her what she wanted. For a few seconds, our lips met and separated. After we were done, I leaned back away from her and started to make my way off of the bed. "So, now may I use the bathroom?"

"Of course." She confirmed.

I shook my head at the purple mare, writing off her antics as nothing more than a teen in her first relationship. I guess it is true to a fault, but my mind was on a release. I got off of the bed and walked towards the bathroom, only to have the door slam shut in my face.

"What the-"

"You can use it after I finish." Twilight said from behind the door.

I looked back to the bed, seeing that no one was even there. How the hell did she... right. I had actually forgotten that she was a powerful princess with the ability to teleport from one place to another.

"Dammit!"

While I stormed off, I had started to pick up my clothes from off the floor. As I pulled up my shirt, I had noticed two silver rings lying next to one another. I already knew what they were, and sadly I knew they were going to represent a lie from this day forward.

I picked up the rings and held them in my hand, unsure as to what may even be the outcome of this. I knew I could keep a secret, especially at the cost of her career. But who's to say that no one else would catch what was going on? For one, these rings are supposedly enchanted. How am I to know that they don't have some sort of 'virgin-alarm' on them? If she puts them on, what happens? I know that they were given to her when she reached princesshood, so does that mean that they were given to her as a means solely to quell her estrus spells?

If that's not the case, then we could be in big trouble.

"Hey Twilight!"

"Yeah?"

"I think you forgot your... doohickeys!" Word is on the tip of my tongue, yet I can't find it.

"My what?"

Found it. "Rings!"

"Oh... oops. Thanks!"

Suddenly, the two rings that were in my hand disappeared, to whom I assume to be Twilight. And I've read enough books in this world to know that enchanted items tend to act as a double-edged sword, one wrong move and you could seriously hurt yourself.

And that fact made me even more uneasy. "Hey, question!"

"Huh?" As I heard the water running in the shower.

"What other enchantments would those rings have?"

"Umm... Estrus-busters mainly. I'm not aware of any other spells that would be cast on them."

"How about virginity detectors?"

Twilight giggled as she answered my question. "That's a silly thing to think about. That spell wouldn't work on mares without a hymen."

Oh... shit... "Uh..."

"And in case you're wondering, no. I didn't have an intact hymen when I was crowned. Even..." She paused for quite some time, I'm assuming that she feels a little bashful. "Even Celestia and Cadance checked."

I can bet that she's really blushing up a storm in there. "Really? You were checked by those two?"

"Well not really, really checked. But they did have a gynecologist on hoof to perform the final inspection. It took them a while to make me official because my mother had to explain the reason why I didn't have one."

So her mom had to give the princesses her daughters alibi. But for what? "Um... I don't mean to get personal with my questions, but could I get an explanation for how your mom cleared your name?"

"...I'll explain it to you later."

I guess that was too personal of a question. I suppose that it would be in the best interests that I'd get off that subject before it starts to get a little awkward. While the shower continued to run, my body reminded me of a certain function I needed to perform.

"Okay! I'm gonna go to my room, be back in a minute!"

"Why are you leaving?" Twilight asked from inside of the shower.

Do I really need to say how close I am to my next crowning achievement? I really shouldn't. "I gotta go use the bathroom!"

"Oh, well go on ahead!"

I started to put back on the clothes I wore yesterday as a temporary means to cover myself up. "I'll also be taking my shower in there while I'm at it, so don't rush yourself!"

"Okay!"

Stepping out of the bathroom, I wore another one of the shirts Rarity made for me. As I did, I kept in mind the sacrifices she made in order to make it for me. At one given time, as she was making this shirt, she had to have gotten into an argument with Spike over her staying up late. My mind is still on the fact that her business was struggling because of me. I know Twilight and I resolved this situation last night, but there was still the thought of how this was going on for several months.

It's not exactly a pleasant thought, you becoming the sole reason why your friend's job is failing.

But once again, that situation has already been discussed and will be remedied. But my mind was more focused on Twilight. I can't understand how she could act so carefree about our current situation. She and I broke the code of our approval process, thus invalidating her title. I'm really hoping that what she had told me wasn't a lie, about how she didn't have a hymen at the start of her reign. Otherwise, I could be getting in trouble, Twilight would be getting her rank revoked, and Shining could get his money's worth of whoop-ass out of me. That's a scenario that would only benefit Shining, mainly because he'd have a right to beat my ass on a daily basis.

"I hope she's right." I quietly mumbled to myself.

Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath, I tried to shove those thoughts towards the back of my mind, where they wouldn't show on my face throughout the day. I had to pretend as if what had happened with me and her didn't happen at all.

Wow... I get laid and now I have to pretend I didn't. How ironic is that?

Opening my eyes, I grabbed my backpack with the projector inside and walked out of the room. I decided that if I was going to distract myself, I could at least do it in a method that would only serve to turn my brain into mush. That's right, I was going to watch a movie. And hopefully get myself a laugh or two in as I'd look out for everyone else's reactions. Seeing the girls react to the movies of the human world, that would be a hoot...

Hell, why the fuck not!? I'll be too busy laughing for me to even focus on the movie, let alone a thought!

"HEY!"

I stopped walking for a moment to address the strange voice that called out to me. It didn't seem like it belonged to Twilight, not even in the slightest.

"YEAH YOU, HUMAN!"

I turned around to see a yellow unicorn with a red and yellow mane galloping towards me at full-speed. "Um... can I help you, miss?"

"You aren't supposed to be here! This isn't your world!"

She did have a point, but I don't know who the hell she is. "Uh... can I get your name, ma'am?"

"My name is 'get-your-butt-back-in-the-portal'!" She shouted as she started to use her magic to levitate me towards the opposite direction of where I was headed.

"What?" I asked, still left in the dark over who she was and what she was here for. "Look, you come in here-"

"Not only will I have to shove you right through that portal, I'm gonna have to wipe you memory."

"Huh?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

She stopped tugging at my shirt and stood in a pose, bracing herself to cast another spell. "Just hold on a sec. You'll be a little woozy, but I can assure you that won't feel too much."

While her horn began to glow a bright aqua color, I clasped my right hand around her horn to cut her spell short. "Um no. Don't do that."

She stared at me with shock, surprised that I was holding on to her horn. She tried to shove me off but I continued to hold on to her, making sure that she wouldn't even get the chance to cast her spell. She snorted at me with frustration. "Let go of me! Get your grubby fingers off of my horn!"

"Not until I get an explanation!" I shouted back. "You come in here, you try to drag me to the portal, and you attempted to wipe my memory so that I wouldn't remember a damn thing! Not only are those charges levied against you, but I could also cite you for trespassing!"

Shoving my hand off with her hoof, she rolled her eyes at me. "What are you, some kind of guard?"

"Captain, by the way." I answered with a bit of a smug expression, similar to a metaphorical 'take-that'. "Royal Guardian Division of the E.U.P.."

She stared at me for a few seconds, completely baffled at my response. She shook her head and walked past me. "I don't believe this."

"Don't believe what?" I asked, sticking my chest out in pride.

"TWILIGHT!" She called out loudly, causing my ears to ring a little.

"Fuck, you're l- Wait, you know Twilight?" I questioned, changing my demeanor from prideful to confused.

"You know Twilight?" She asked with a tilted head.

"Uh yeah. I got this job because of her." Not lying there.

As we continued to exchange silences and stares, I could hear another set of hooves clopping down the hall, getting closer and closer until a third pony showed up.

"Nondis, I thought you were going to come back to my room after you finished." Twilight said as she approached.

I moved to the side and revealed the unicorn mare, she and I pointing to one another. Twilight gasped with surprise as she ran over to her. "Oh my gosh! Sunset Shimmer, how have you been?"

"Sunset Shimmer?" I asked, looking at the strange unicorn.

"Nondis?" She questioned, looking at me in return.

"You know this girl?" We both asked in unison. "You know this guy?"

Twilight looked at us, unsure as to whom she would answer first. She ultimately decided to introduce us both to one another. "Nondis, this is my friend Sunset Shimmer. She's a pony who I write to every once and a while. When she was younger, she traveled to the human world and learned everything there is about their race. Of course her world is different from yours, but the technology is very much the same. She is also a bit of a gatekeeper as well... on the other side of course."

"I've noticed." I stated, looking at her with skepticism of how she just wanted to erase my memories.

"And Sunset, this human here is Nondis. He's a very good friend of mine, and an excellent guard. He even went against my older brother, and won! He's talented, and sweet, and caring, and selfless... to a fault."

"Hey!" I hollered out, feeling offended by her side remark.

Twilight giggled as she gave me a quick wing-hug. "But he's a good guy, one who is very special to me. But enough of my introductions, you two should start introducing yourselves to each other."

I looked at the unicorn and saw that she was looking up at me. She still seemed puzzled about my being here, obviously. "Um... I don't mean to be rude, but shouldn't he be a pony?" She asked Twilight.

Me, with hooves? I'll pass. "I'm fine as I am, thanks. Twilight suggested to turn me into one, but I denied her request." Mainly because she was drunk at the time.

"Really? But that doesn't explain how you didn't transform when you got here, let alone how you even came to Equestria." Sunset stated.

And of course she would ask the one question that none of us knew the answer to. I looked at Twilight, lightly shrugging my shoulders. She turned her attention back to the yellow unicorn. "Well we're not sure either. But I can say that he's been a very fun addition to the circle."

The unicorn looked around, taking observation of something. "In speaking of inner-circle, where's Spike? Isn't he usually with you?"

Figures.

"I'm afraid that he's in Canterlot for the time being." Twilight answered, letting her tone become noticeably saddened. "You know, official business."

"Oh wow. I guess life can be a bit lonely without your number one assistant." Sunset added, feeling pity for Twilight.

"It is... But I can manage." She said, looking up to me. "After all, why feel lonely when you have one person standing next to you through whatever?"

Sunset began to smile at the purple alicorn. "I guess you two really are close."

I kinda felt my cheeks warm up as Twilight started to nuzzle me. "We are. And I really do feel that way towards him."

The yellow unicorn continued to smile, only this time she resorted to teasing me. "So loverboy, how do you feel about her?"

"She's a great friend." I answered nervously, unsure as to why. "I mean she can be a bit bossy at times-"

"Excuse me?" Twilight said, pushing herself off of me.

"Selfless to a fault, remember?" I quoted back to her, mocking her tone.

The purple princess shook her head. "Ignore him, he's not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed."

"And neither are you, princess." I shot back, giving her muzzle a light thump, causing her to scrunch at me.

"How am I the silly one?"

"Well gee, I wonder. You assign me to a train and I nearly get ran off into a ravine. At this point I can say that you've clearly steered me wrong."

"You volunteered!"

"Only because you made me! You ordered me to stay on that train!"

"Well I'm not the one that sent you off into town two days ago, that time was all on your own!"

"And? I charged into the very pits of danger and I came out perfectly fine!"

"Define 'perfectly fine' because I don't remember having a fractured collar bone and two changeling bites as perfectly fine, pillow face!"

A light gasp escaped from my lips. "P-p-pillow? You swore that you would never speak of that again!" I spoke through my teeth.

"Well now I'm using it as ammo. Your shot, Nondis." She answered with a demonic smirk.

Okay, if she want's to play that game... "...So, what did mommy catch you doing not too long ago?"

She covered her muzzle as she started to turn red. "I thought that we agreed never to speak on that!"

Determined not to lose, I stood my ground. "I'm using it as blackmail. You've got your trump card, and I've got mine. Your move."

"Um... Don't mind me. I'm just visiting." A third voice called out.

The two of us snapped out of our childish bickering and turned our attention to the unicorn who stood and watched us fight. Immediately, we both became embarrassed of what we were ready to reveal to the unicorn mare. We halted our staredown and immediately turned to face her. "Sorry about that." Twilight said with a fading blush.

"Are you two usually like this?" Sunset asked.

"Every single day of the week. If we're not arguing about something, then we'll argue about nothing." I lied.

"Shush!" Twilight placed her hoof on my lips, making sure that I wouldn't talk anymore. "We're usually doing this at random. But aside from that, our relationship is perfectly normal."

"Define 'normal'." I said, pushing away her hoof.

"Define 'pillow'."

I was not going to even humor her. Doing so would ultimately result in her winning. I was not going to let her take that one.

"Okay princess, you have the floor."

After a few more exchanges, Sunset and I became acquainted with one another. Eventually, our conversations started to veer from how similar our worlds were to the little quirks Twilight would have in a human form. It seems that Twi didn't seem to like us talking about how she writes with her mouth, or bends her knuckles while closing her fists to imitate hooves. As to be expected, Twilight brought up the fact that Sunset too had to deal with those same problems.

But considering that Twilight's visits were confined to a mere ten to fifteen days out of a whole year, she didn't exactly have a chance to learn how to walk or move properly, especially when it came to using hands. But she did talk about how difficult it was to walk on her own feet for the first time.

I bet I would've lost my shit just watching her wobble all over the place... That and Spike being the size of a Beagle.

While we continued to talk about how different our words are, we started to exchange our differences in media, technology, infrastructure and social interactions with others in our age group. It turned out that she and Twilight are no older than probably eighteen in that world, despite their being a year or so older here.

Or at least I think Twilight's older than eighteen... right?

Again, their time is measured differently than ours. The ponies go by the lunar calender, also known as the measurement of moons. Ours, I mean by me and Sunset's standards, go by the Gregorian system, or as my world would so lovingly call it, the Anno Domini.

I personally prefer the term Common Era.

Either way, our exchanges have left us both with far more questions than time we had in order to answer them. It seems that our medias are similar, yet different. For example: Sunset would go online to a place called Facenote, where I'd go to a place called Facebook. And if we wanted to watch videos, she'd go to WhoTube, while I'd go on YouTube. 4-San to 4-Chan, Chirper to Twitter, Joogal to Google, PizzaBarn to PizzaHut, it seemed that what we exchanged to one another seemed like off-brand versions of one another.

It's kinda creepy just how far this trans-dimensional stuff goes.

So after a while, I had finally revealed to the two unicorns that I was hoping to have a movie-day with the girls. Twilight started to look at her schedule and see what day she could arrange a special seating for all seven of us, now eight to include Sunset Shimmer. But then she started letting her mind wander about the choice of movie that we and the girls could agree on. Instantly, I informed her that we would be watching a movie from my world.

I didn't think I could get their eyes to widen anymore than they did at that very moment. They both practically stared at me with wonder and relentless pleading. So I agreed to share a cinematic experience with Sunset. Not only would it be a formal exchange of our medias, but also a sharing of our technology with the ponies here.

But suddenly, I had thought about something. I also promised Celestia that I would show her the movies based off of the books I offered to share with her. I knew that it wouldn't really be fair to have that experience without her, especially since she was eagerly looking forward to it. I asked Twilight if she could also pull a few strings to get Celestia and Luna over for the time being.

I wonder if they'd actually like the movie, or the technology used?

Either way, I sent Twilight over to inform Celestia that I would like to formally invite her to share her time with me as I'd disclose with her the advancements of my world. I also added that Sunset Shimmer would be around to discuss how the devices work and how they could be applied to the equine way of life. It would be a ground-breaking demonstration for her, and she couldn't possibly ignore a technological marvel such as this.

It didn't even take Twilight a second to spread her wings and go flying at breakneck speed towards Canterlot.

About two hours later, I had already set up the projector in the grand hall. I also called the others to come by and get themselves situated to enjoy the show. While they waited, they spoke with Sunset Shimmer and how everything went with their human counterparts. I decided to listen in while I waited for Twilight to come back. But as the time passed, the others started to get a little anxious.

And it's nearly impossible to try and soothe Pinkie all on her own, just imagine how difficult it is with both her and her equally lively coltfriend. I couldn't even get them to sit down for the first half hour. Now, they started racking up signs in protest. Discord, of course, provided the materials and joined the protest merely because 'it would prove to be a distraction from the boredom of waiting'.

I couldn't really argue with him on that.

The sounds of hoofsteps came clopping by the hall, softly yet quickly. I poked my head outside to see Twilight walking down the hall with not only Celestia, but also Luna, Cadance, and Shining Armor.

No Spike to be seen, I guess.

As the group of royals entered into the room, Twilight held the door open for them while wearing a huge smile. I started to show them the projector, but suddenly a powerful force yanked me off of the floor and pulled me out into the hall. The doors to the hall closed and Twilight stood in front of me, not wearing the smile she had just a few seconds ago.

"Hey, Twilight. Wha-haah!?"

Before I could even finish my question, she quickly pulled me towards our room. As we ran down the halls, she started to show signs of panic. Rapid breathing, constantly looking at every turn we made, perpetually shushing me while we walked, whimpering to herself all the while, I didn't even know what was going on and it had made me start to panic with her. When we finally reached our room she opened the door, pushed me inside, ran in behind me, and locked the door shut.

"This isn't happening... This cannot be happening..."

"What?" I asked, trying to get some answers out of her.

"I can't believe it. I thought that the spell wouldn't work." She mumbled to herself, pacing back and forth across her room.

I'm still lost. "What are you talking about? What spell?"

"The spell, Nondis! The spell! The stupid spell!" She exclaimed loudly with terror set in her voice. "What am I going to do?"

I walked over to her and tried to hold her still for a quick second, just to get her to calm down for a moment. "Twilight, take a deep breath and relax. Now tell me what is-"

"She knows!" She whispered, trembling as I held her in place.

"She knows? She knows what?"

"Nondis, how could you forget? She knows about us!"

...Please tell me that she knows anything about us besides that. "You mean about what we did?"

"Yes!" She answered, shoving me off of her to pace around the room some more. "She even took my chastity rings away!"

"Oh fuck." Now I began to panic for real. I was under the impression that Twilight didn't have the necessary trigger to indicate a loss of her virginity. Instead, here we are talking about Celestia finding out. It hasn't even been a day and we're already in trouble.

...I'm dead. Shining's gonna have my head for this.

Called it.

I couldn't do much but hold my head and take deep breaths to let my thoughts gather, in hopes to drown away that little annoying voice inside of my head. "Okay... how exactly did she know about us?"

Twilight shivered violently as she continued to pace back and forth. "She told me that she had some sort of a dream about me. And when she went into detail about the dream, I knew then that we had been caught. She started to ask me specific questions, questions that involved you."

That still doesn't make sense. She still wouldn't come to that conclusion unless there was a confession made... oh no. "Did you tell her that we did it?"

*knock knock knock*

Our heads turned back to the door. We remained quiet for a short period of time before we carried on our discussion. This time, we brought our voices to a minimum.

"Look, I really need you to tell me that you didn't tell her."

Twilight looked off to the side, hiding her eyes from me out of shame. "...She asked me if we did. And even though I started to say-"

I pulled at my hair out of frustration and let out a groan. "You did not tell her?"

Twilight looked at me, completely terrified. "She wanted me to tell the truth! I couldn't lie to her!"

I give a fuck and I got fucked, only this time I ended up fucking over Twilight's career. GODDAMMIT, WHY COULDN'T I JUST KEEP MY FUCKING HORMONES IN CHECK!? JUST ONCE! "Ohhhh... This is completely my fault." I said while dragging my palm across my face. "Had I not-"

Instantly, I felt something forcefully tug my hand away from my face. And instead of looking into the darkness of my palm, I was looking at a livid purple alicorn. "Had you not? Are you saying that you regret what we did, what we shared?"

"Twilight, it's..." I can't answer that! I don't because I love her, but I do because I love her! How the hell does that make any sense!? I don't because I loved her so much to be able to share myself with her, but I do because I threw her career in the toilet and flushed it down the drain!

"So? Do you, or do you not, regret me and you having sex?"

"I-I don't know! I don't want to... but now that your career is-"

"Look, I don't know if you've noticed, but I've made so many sacrifices just to keep you here! If anything, I knew that I'd risk my title if I was to stay with you! That was why I chose to distance myself from you in the first place! But now that I decided to go all-in, you decide to have second thoughts?"

Wow that sounds really bad. "No! I don't have second thoughts!"

Yes, you do.

I am really not in the mood to hear from you, brain. Shut the hell up, I know that I love her.

"Then tell me, do you regret us doing what we did or not?"

*knock knock knock knock knock*

Damn this person at the door! They are not making things any easier for me. My heart starts racing, my thoughts start to swirl, my mind is saying things contrary to what I believe, my palms are starting to sweat, and Twilight is still waiting on my answer. I already made a decision to tell her the truth when it comes to anything in our relationship.

You call this a relationship? You've been lying to her from the start.

HOW THE HELL HAVE I BEEN LYING TO H- No, I'm not even gonna answer that. I have way too much shit going on at once for me to even answer that fucked-up question.

Oh please, you already know that deep down inside that you've wanted to show pity for the one that nearly gave up everything she had. Just. For. You.

REALLY? NOW!? YOU CHOSE THIS TIME TO FUCK WITH ME!?

"Nondis, I want an answer!" Twilight demanded, her voice beginning to elevate.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

Really now? "In a minute, please!" I shouted back to the door.

And what other way to show her that pity than to actually give her the one thing she so desired?

I really don't fucking care for what you have to say right now! I need to focus on answering Twilight.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

WHO THE FUCK IS KNOCKING ON THIS DAMN DOOR!? "I said wait a minute!"

"Nondis, answer me! Please!"

"I-"

If you loved her, you wouldn't give two shits for her career as much as you would for Twilight herself.

Please, just be quiet. I'm not so selfish to operate that way. Her title was something she obtained through years and years of hard work and striving past dangers seen and unknown. I wouldn't be that selfish!

"Nondis!"

This all could've been avoided the moment when she crawled to the side of the bed. Instead, you let your dick do the talking.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

Shut. The. Fuck. Up.

"So you really do regret it, huh?"

"I don-"

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

Oh for the love of... I stormed to the door, yanking it open and screamed at the top of my lungs at whoever stood knocking impatiently at our door.

"LOOK, FUCKER! I AM REALLY TIRED OF... P-p-pri... Princess Celestia."

The white alicorn had a stern look on her face as she stood at the door, her hoof still raised from knocking. I offered to bow, but she used her magic to hold me in place as she walked into the room. Closing the door behind her, she stood between me and Twilight. In a calm, yet commanding voice, she spoke.

"I believe that I should have a word with the both of you."

Author's Note

An explanation of the final part of the chapter. It was meant to be a demonstration of what takes place when one is placed in a situation where his thoughts are fighting against what he personally believe, as thoughts and beliefs are separate concepts of the mind.

In sorts, it is a conflict where one's belief is questioned by their own thoughts. Despite the fact that
"beliefs" run deeper than thoughts, it is possible that one's "beliefs" may be questioned and ultimately become a thought all on their own. All it takes is a mind that is able to convince itself that what that "belief" is, is nothing more than a concept taken to heart despite no factual evidence to support it. In short, the mind can ultimately convince you that a "belief" is nothing more than a self-bred lie.

And when in a situation where there is pressure involved, those "beliefs" may indeed become shaken to their very core.

But enough of being deep :trollestia:. More drama will ensue in later chapters.

Chapter XXX

Author's Note

WARNING: This chapter will have some instances of semi-grimdark elements. Those of whom that are not comfortable with that kind of stuff may proceed to skip the final section. Otherwise, enjoy the chapter.

Chapter XXX

Over 1000 years ago...

The halls of the Everfree Grand Palace remains in a state of disrepair after Celestia continued to lament the loss of her younger sister. As she walked down the hall, there were constant reminders of Luna's absence. Passing by one corridor, she could see the ghosts of Luna standing idly by as she continued to speak with a few guards. In another corridor she could see Luna hiding behind one of the pillars, waiting for an opportunity to request that her beloved night would last longer.

She also remembered the fight that caused a rift in between her and the younger sibling, how Luna thought it was unfair that her night was to be shunned out of fear and for Celestia's day to be praised. Rage and envy took over the younger princess and in place, Nightmare Moon stood defiantly against her. But in the end, after the fight they had with one another, Luna was banished to the moon despite Celestia's desire not to.

Since then, there have been significant repercussions in regards to how the system of rule was established. Since Luna's banishment, a group consisting of nobles and lords of the many other lands across Equestria saw that Celestia had the potential to become 'too powerful'. Thus they united and formed a parliament to represent the will of the ponies and to check the executive powers of Princess Celestia... or so they say. Celestia agreed out of her need of assistance. With Luna gone, she'd have more on her plate besides being the sole mage of the sun and moon.

Though she would grow to regret that decision.

Not too long after, Celestia and her close associate Starswirl the Bearded created a portal to another world, a dimension that mirrored that of what they had. Originally, it was a quest of expedition, seeking resources from other worlds that they could implement into Equestria's way of life. But then, her heart grew fond of a young ruler who presided over his realm with the same kindness and compassion she did.

In time, she began to make unauthorized visits to his world, constantly engaging in several private outings and brushing off her duties in search of a distraction from her increasingly difficult task of being the princess of the day, as well as guardian of the night. Yet she believed that she belonged in that place as his queen. And as in one of those meetings took place she offered the young ruler all something he would not refuse.

But as the time carried on, Starswirl became suspicious of the princess' disappearing act. In discovering this, the young king and the infatuated princess began to cut down their meetings to that of a few minutes rather than a few hours. For many years, she carried on this secret relationship, meeting with the king in clandestine settings. And in their final meeting, she offered her maidenhood to him. For an hour, they spent the time sharing their most primal desires with one another. When they parted, she was without regret.

Unfortunately, it was that very meeting that got her caught by Starswirl. And as he closed the mirror behind her, a nosy lord peered into the situation and observed what had transpired. Rumors began to spread throughout the land, and the name of the lord she fell in love with was all-too familiar with the nobles and the lords of the northern region.

Her walk would take her to her trial. The offense: high treason.

"Celestia, please do what you can to remain calm." Starswirl whispered to the besmirched princess.

"Treason. How could this be possible? I have done nothing to warrant myself such a charge!" Answered quietly as she continued to be escorted by the stallion.

"I can already conclude that this is nothing more than a miraculous misunderstanding. However, to charge you with treason is a bit excessive."

"They don't understand."

"I know, my dear. We can only hope they give us a chance to explain the situation."

The young princess glanced back at the stallion. "You never understood either..."

"But you had a duty to perform. You can't just go leaving on a whim, especially in a time where your citizens would need you the most."

"I just wanted some time, a moment to mend the hole in my heart. You've not only ruined that for me, but you've also destroyed what we he and I could have had."

"It wasn't meant to be, Celestia. You saw what you-I mean she- looked like in that inverted world."

"But that was her, and I am me!"

"Celestia, if you had chosen to stay in that world, then she would've came and took over this one. This is much bigger than you, and if you have to put your heart to the side and suffer quietly for the sake of the land, then so be it. It is your duty, not some errand you can save for later."

As the approached the door, Celestia shook her head at the unicorn wizard. "I have already suffered that, and you know it. This was something just for me. I had everything under control. If you had not been so blind to see that, you would understand why I feel the way I do now. You're just so blind when it comes to true love."

While the door opened, Starswirl whispered back to the young alabaster princess. "And you're too naive."

"TRAITOR!"

The two ponies stood in baffled silence as the parliament proceeded to heckle the princess, calling her everything but her name. Some even made fun of her as she remained still, petrified from the sight of her own ponies turned against her. Her heart grew weak as she heard more insults being flung her way. Starswirl gave the princess a pat on the back.

"You can do this. I'll be here with you."

His words didn't have much of an effect on her as she started to walk towards the center of the hall, for all to see and publicly shame. A dark gray stallion stood at the center as he banged a gavel on the stand.

"Order. We will have order."

When Celestia approached the stand, she gulped audibly as she awaited the start of the trial. When the room finally came to a calm, the judge began to pull out a scroll and read out the proceedings.

"Princess Celestia, you have been brought before the parliament via means of impeachment. In your otherworldly tenure, you have ignored several meetings, neglected to perform your duties at the times designated, evaded your tasks and assignments, failed to uphold the royal standard, and have been caught fornicating with an enemy of the realm. How do you plead?"

Celestia shook as she blinked, trying her best to be brave. She also kept in mind that her pleading innocent would result in a more severe punishment, and that pleading guilty would automatically label her as a traitor for the rest of her days. With those scenarios in mind, she opted to take the middle ground. "No contest."

Murmurs filled the room, as well as whispers that only served as insults to her ears. Starswirl continued to stand by the accused princess, offering her comfort while the judge continued the trial.

"Party of the accused has pleaded 'no contest'. Therefore, she shall be considered as innocent until proven guilty-"

"Innocent? Why she practically gave 'im a good shagging! A demon in the barn is what she is!" A heckler shouted out loud, earning many laughs.

"Order, order!" The judge banged his gavel against the counter several more times to get the attention of the entire parliament.

Celestia blushed as she knew that he was telling the truth, but scowled that he would also reveal that fact to the world so openly. "I am not so lewd as to-"

"The accused was not granted permission to speak. So silent is what the accused shall remain." The judge warned sternly.

Celestia pouted as she continued to sit through the trial.

"Will the prosecution present it's case?"

A stallion with an olive coat and a gray mane walked up to the princess and giggled before her, causing her to glare menacingly at him. He, however, proceeded to carry on the case.

"Your honor. My fellow lords and nobles... It is within our right to justly accuse the mare that stands before us. As for what, well we all know exactly why we're here. I am sure that the rumblings have managed to make it into your homes somehow, that our esteemed princess has done the unthinkable. Many of you are just as angry as I am, and there are some of you who wish you had a turn."

A few laughs erupted throughout the room, yet Starswirl and Celestia remained unamused.

"Anyhow, we are not here to joke at the princess' expense, but rather to bring the truth to light. Perhaps she did it, perhaps she didn't. As far as today is concerned, we don't know. However, with an investigation involving several nurses to pay witnesses, we may prove that the answers are just as clear as the sky above. In essence, her crime wouldn't really be that much of a crime. After all, she's doing nothing more than fulfilling her natural desires as a mare."

Celestia continued to stare at the stallion as he looked directly to her.

"But... there is one name that we all know that continues to instill fear within the hearts and minds of those within the snowy north. And as infamous as he is to us, as treacherous as he has shown himself to be, she has chosen to bed with him in spite of all of his crimes. And for that, we accuse her of the highest offense. Princess Celestia has shared her bed with the enemy, KING! SOMBRA!"

Gasps and shouts spattered throughout the room as hooves pointed to their accused ruler. She continued to hold her angry exterior, despite her growing more terrified as the time passed. Starswirl stepped away from the princess and took the floor.

"If I may be the voice of the defense," He stated loudly, looking to the judge. After a nod from him, the wizard carried on. "I would like to present to you the definitive evidence of our travels to this alternate world."

With a small wave of his magic, Starswirl summoned a number of items that were never created in Equestria. Some of the items made them turn their heads in curiosity. The first thing he held up was a small brown bag of ground up coffee beans.

"You see, this is a resource that is used in replacement of our tea we would normally drink. And similar to tea, it is to be brewed. Yet the process-"

"WE DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR STUPID TEA, STARSWIRL!" A noble shouted at him, causing the unicorn to be taken aback.

"Judge, please note that if my defense is to be interrupted again, I will make certain that his hide will be my newest cape."

"Duly noted!" The heckler shouted back as he quickly sat down. He knew that Starswirl was too powerful of a being to challenge on his own.

"Coward." Starswirl mumbled under his breath before carrying on. "Anyway, the main source of this beverage has originated from the very world that Celestia and I have recently closed off. As for the reason for our sealing that portal it is, as you'd say, because of a stallion. Nevertheless in this alternate world, the King Sombra as you all know does not reside there. In fact, the Celestia you know does not reside there either. It is a magical world that is very inverted from that of our own, meaning that their King Sombra is actually a fair king. Their Princess Celestia is a cruel and vicious tyrant. Their Princess Luna is a kind mare, devoid of any corruption."

"LIES!" The prosecutor shouted from the other side of the stand. "Starswirl, if anypony here knows anything at all, it is that you are a renowned magician with the ability to create items of a frankly specific nature. The items you've summoned could be here for nothing more than self-promotion. Furthermore, if there is an alternate world that exist, then show us to it! Let us meet this so-called 'just ruler' with our own eyes. Only then may we be able to confirm that your story holds true."

Starswirl grimaced at the stallion, knowing that he would be unable to do so at that very moment. The whole purpose he summoned those goods was to show them that they did indeed travel to other realms and worlds outside of this dimension. But their suspicions of his creative nature does hold true, he has created numerous spells and magical devices that have been considered revolutionary for their time. And if there was no portal to show, then his argument was rendered invalid. He closed his eyes and confirmed the truth of their situation.

"The portal is sealed. It will be for another several hundred years. I cannot undo the spell that I've already cast."

The prosecutor smiled as he continued to twist the trial in his favor. "Then this 'portal' does not exist."

"And neither does this 'King Sombra' you speak of... With your permission, honorable judge." Celestia interjected, hoping to defend herself. The judge nodded his head and allowed the alabaster alicorn to point out the contradiction of her accuser's statements. "If we abide by your logic, which states that these items are of his own creation, then it is simple to assume that this entire story about this 'alternate universe' is as invalid as any proof Starswirl has presented."

The judge observed silently as the prosecutor stepped directly in front of the princess. "That may be, your highness. But there is one piece of evidence that will either confirm or deny your truth about the existence of this 'alternate' King Sombra... Or better yet, let us examine the one thing that matters the most right now."

The prosecutor turned away from the princess and pointed his hoof towards the doors on the other side of the room. "Since the princess states that her relationship with King Sombra is nothing more than a work of fiction, I hereby call upon the royal maidens to conduct a thorough investigation."

Celestia's eyes widened as her personal maiden, alongside several others entered into the room. Immediately, her ears fell as she heard the announcement of her prosecutor.

"The nurse, alongside several other witnesses, shall perform an inspection of the princess' virtue."

Present day...

I stood silently, my heart trying desperately to climb up my throat and out of my mouth. Instead, it managed to bury itself against my stomach, causing me to become nauseous. The palms of my hands moistened while I felt a dull chill wash over my entire body. My eyes remained fixated towards the two mares in front of me. Twilight was looking down towards the floor, looking as if she was a word or two away from bursting into tears. And Celestia was quietly looking at me, just standing and watching.

Watching... and waiting... and waiting... and waiting.

Please say something...

Anything...

Just... speak for fucks sake. I don't care how much you wanna drive my head on a pike, I just want to hear you say something.

The tension in the room was practically thick enough, you could use it to line bricks. And right now, I was hoping that a brick wall would somehow drop in and break Celestia's gaze towards me.

Where's Discord when you need him?

Twilight almost looked as if she was about to fall completely apart as she whispered to her former mentor. "Princess-"

"In a moment."

I think if I had anything left in me, I would've shat it out by now. Those lavender eyes with burning daggers, they showed me just how pissed-off she was. I didn't know whether I should look away or get on my hands and knees, she obviously wanted me to do something. Just what it was I didn't know, but I'd be more than happy to do anything that could make her stop staring at me.

My mind ran several scenarios, trying to come up with the best possible action. While nothing came to mind, I tried to pester myself for some sort of response, anything that I could use to get that uncanny look out of her eyes.

...

Really? You choose now to shut the fuck up? Guess I'll just close my eyes and hope that this is some sort of nightmare.

...A nightmare, that could be it. I could be having a horrible nightmare and none of this could be happening. After all, I've had several nightmares while I was here. I even had one where I did something horrific to Rarity. This, in tandem to the events of last night, could be one of those horrible night terrors. And my only solution is to close my eyes and wish it away.

The next thing I allowed myself to see was the darkness my eyelids produced. I continued to hide behind my veil hoping for the dream to pass, but all I could hear was the sound of hoofsteps... really heavy hoofsteps... slowly closing in on me.

*clip-clop... clip-clop...*

My lungs demanded more air. I needed more air, yet I was already with plenty. I have so much air around me, inside my mouth, inside my lungs. Why the hell do I need so much air? Why the fuck am I not getting any!? I can't breathe!

*clip-clop... clip-clop...*

Bum-bump... bum-bump...

Now my heart was practically screaming in my ears. My body was shouting to me that I was an immanent danger. I knew that I shouldn't feel that way but I can't seem to get out of this damn dream.

"Well..."

My eyes opened as soon as I felt the moist heat brushing against my ear. Every consonant and vowel was so pronounced, so sharp that it could cleave through almost anything... including flesh. And that very word was spoke directly into my ear, the breath burning across my neck as it dispersed upon contact.

I am going to die, aren't I?

*gulp* "...Your majesty." I barely whispered, still afraid of what she would do next.

Next I felt something warm and airy at the left side of my face. A golden glow gently pulled me to look towards my right, looking directly into those same purple eyes. The eerie look she gave me has yet to disappear. I tried to turn my head away, but her magic held as if she had a hand clasping at my chin and anchoring me in place. She might not have reached up to me in height, but her power and her stare was nothing short of devastating. And her presence was far too powerful for me to just simply look past her. She's no Shining Armor, I can't just ignore her and look past her like I did in training.

And plus she was forcing me to look at her, which made me feel even worse.

"...What would be my-"

Suddenly, I felt my lips seal shut, unable to move any further as she walked into me. "Perhaps I have not made it clear in our first meeting that I had placed my complete trust in you... But here you are, violating that trust. You have placed one of my most esteemed pupils in great turmoil... I am most unhappy with you."

Disappointment, one of man's biggest fears.

"Both of you." She finished, causing Twilight to use her wings to hide her face. "The two of you could never understand the ramifications of your actions."

"I'm sorry, princess..." Twilight sniffled quietly.

"Twilight," Celestia turned to her student, finally giving me a break from that scary look she gave me. "I have warned you the last time, I have been lenient with you also. If anypony called for punishment then, it was you. But now I cannot sit idly by as you have broken your most sacred of vows. I'm afraid that I will be taking stern measures this time, young lady."

Twilight squeaked as she nearly curled into a tiny purple ball.

"And as for you," She continued, turning back to me. "...I trust that you are at full health."

Twilight jumped out of her pose and called back to the infuriated princess. "Please, his shoulder is still injured! You can't p-"

"I will speak with you later, Twilight Sparkle." She answered coldly, causing the purple alicorn to back away. She then focused her attention back to me. "I ask again, are you healthy?"

"...I'm up for whatever you may assign to me." It wasn't like I could refuse. At a moment like this, I wasn't in a position to make bargains. If she was going to give me an order, then I was going to follow through on it.

She placed a hoof on my shoulder to see how I would react. I twitched a bit from the pain, but continued to act as if I was unaffected. To my misfortune, she saw right through me. "I see... You are still recuperating."

"I can still-"

"You will have another six days before you report to Canterlot. Just be prepared for when I send for you."

I really didn't like that she didn't tell me exactly what she was going to do to me. "Princess, if I may inquire, what is to be my punishment?"

Celestia shook her head at me. "There will be something I'll have in mind for you. Until then, you may ponder on what the consequences will be."

So she was going to let me think about what she was possibly going to do to me? There's punishment, but then there's cruelty. She's being the worst kind of cruel by letting me wallow in my expectations. She could be planning a one-way ticket for me to head back to my place for all I know.

She looked back to her former pupil and sighed. "And you have already been notified of your punishments."

"Yes ma'am."

"After this demonstration, you and I will head back to Canterlot. We will carry out the manners of your chastisement there. So I suggest that you will be mentally and physically prepared for what you may have to endure."

Mentally and physically? Oh man, that doesn't sound the least bit of good. If I can recall what could happen with the princess if she was to be discovered, they could rip her title away, confiscate any royal assets and... in Twilight's case, take her wings away.

"Twilight Sparkle, you may dismiss yourself."

The purple alicorn made herself scarce as she slowly walked out of the room, leaving only me and Celestia inside. She continued to give me that creepy look while she spoke in a harsh tone.

"I have given you guidelines as well. Have you not used your clause to prevent such an issue to occur?"

"Ma'am, Twilight asked me not to enact upon that clause." And it wasn't like I was going to.

Though you should have.

...I really don't wanna hear from you right now.

Celestia closed the door behind Twilight as she spoke to me. "I can understand your desire to make good on your agreement with Twilight, but you have placed my former student, my best friend, a figure I could easily assume as my own daughter, in a precarious position. You know the consequences she will have to face because of you."

"Please, your highness. Don't take-"

"I have already decided on what her punishment shall be, and it will not be very pleasant for her. My only regret is that the law forbids me from overlooking this situation."

"But-"

"There have been rumors of her staff suddenly given a nightly leave, and this reached my ears upon our arrival into town. Imagine what would happen if I would allow this to fester any longer than this."

Wow, that's already circulating around the town? Word spreads fast around here, so it would be safe to say that her reputation would take a fall if it was confirmed that we were doing something. "I suppose it would cause a bit of controversy."

"Indeed, but as soon as the parliament hears about this, they will be clamoring for a punishment to be given. And if I would not give her one, then they would. And believe me, they would not be as merciful as I am."

The parliament? What do they have to do with this? I thought this was something Celestia did to protect anyone who was given a title. "What? I thought the law was in place to protect anypony who was inducted into royalty."

Celestia stood silent for a moment, wearing a frown upon her face as she lowered her voice. "...I made it so, but I was not it's creator."

So... she didn't create this law!? THEN WHO DID!? Why is it that I'm just simply unable to have a healthy relationship without all the extreme guidelines? Why is it that Twilight and I can't simply be ourselves and enjoy each other's company without a dark shadow looming over our relationship? What the hell is the cause of it all?

"I'm... I'm lost here."

"I can understand your frustration, especially since the law was created to punish me."

"Punish you? Punish you for what!?"

"I am sure you recall our conversation on the day I was smitten with a terrible cold."

I do. I remember something about her having a love interest and she was punished for it. Could that be it? "If I can recall, you said you've given yourself up to someone. I don't recall any other details aside from you being punished for it."

"That's correct. But my punishments were nothing short of... humiliating."

"Humiliating?" I questioned.

Celestia used her magic to lock the door behind her. Afterwards, she walked over to the bed and sat herself down, urging me to do the same. As I placed myself beside her, she began to speak.

"Perhaps, it is time I told you the story of how I fell in love... and how my name became tainted with shame."

Over 1000 Years Ago...

Several minutes later, the nurses walked into the room. Along side them was a disheartened Celestia who's bravado was all but extinguished. Though she tried her best to remain stoic about what was to come, Starswirl, as well as many others, could all see that she was visibly shaken. Even her hoofsteps, which were already slow to begin with, had become unsteady and clumsy as she tried her best not to show any emotion. By the time she made it back to the center stand, the head maiden turned to the princess.

"I'm sorry, your majesty." She whispered. "But I am under oath. If I lie-"

"I understand..." Celestia answered weakly, unsure as what her fate would be. The maid closed her eyes as she faced away from her ruler.

"We, the personal maidens of the princess have conducted a thorough inspection. And in the eyes of exactly seven other witnesses..." She hesitated to speak as she started to tremble.

"OUT WITH IT!" The prosecutor barked at the maiden, causing her to jump violently.

"A-a-and in t-the eyes of... s-seven other witnesses... she was found... impure."

Shouts and more cries were made at the sullied princess. Her face began to run red from embarrassment and shame, tears beginning to well within her eyes. Clenching her eyes shut, she held back her tears so that her accusers would not see them. The maid began to cry and immediately galloped for the exit, feeling as if she had betrayed the one who she served. Starswirl reached of a hoof to comfort her, but she batted him away out of fear that his touch would cause her to release before them. Taking a deep breath, she raised her head up high and proudly stood to face whatever punishment they may had in store.

"So, it is true that she has given herself to the like of King Sombra!" One voice called out loudly.

"Ultimate dishonor, she has brought shame to our realm! Our enemies will think that it would be as simple as sharing a bed with her to negotiate terms!" Another noble shouted out.

"THAT IS NOT TRUE!" Starswirl screamed back.

"Well, what does this prove?" The prosecutor began. "It doesn't prove that she is without stain! She has allowed the seed of an enemy to infiltrate her womb! She shall be punished!"

Starswirl stood before the angry crowd of nobles and started to channel his magic through his horn. "You won't! And I won't let you-"

"I'll accept the punishment."

Starswirl looked back in disbelief, seeing Celestia doing something that he wouldn't imagine her doing at a time like this. For the first time throughout the trial, she smiled.

"It was you who said that I should take more responsibility for my actions. And because of my actions, I have threatened our very way of life-"

"See!? She confessed! She confessed to her wrong doings!" The prosecutor pointed out to the judge.

Starswirl continued to defend the princess, attempting to give context to her statements. "You misunderstand-"

Celestia cut the wizard short as she started to walk off of the stand and towards her accuser. "And it is without regret that I have done what I've did. It is true that I offered myself to him, and I won't deny that now. The only regret I have is that I didn't do it as much as I would've liked."

"Brash statements, from the mouth of a traitor!" The stallion started to back away as Celestia closed in on him.

"I have betrayed nothing. If I choose to follow what is inside of my heart, then I would continue to do what is right. And what I did with him, the times we shared, the moments that will continue to burn throughout my existence as my sun will do so after my life has long ended, those thoughts will remain."

"Guards!" The stallion called out as she backed him into a wall, giving him little room to maneuver.

"And they will stay that way as long as I draw breath!"

"You will receive the ultimate punishment!"

Her mane began to transition from it's multicolored, wind-swept state to actual flames that started to shed embers onto the wall behind him. She snarled at him as she pinned him against the wall. "You cannot and WILL NOT EXTINGUISH ME! I, who holds control of the day and night, will continue to protect my citizens from any threat. And if you dare to strike me down, I will use my vengeful spirit to smite you as you sleep! All of you..."

As her head slowly turned to the guards and the politicians across the room, they finally fell silent before the cornered princess. Her mane gave off an immense heat that started to singe the tapestries that hung off the walls and incinerate the banners that hung in the air. Starswirl looked on with fear of what would happen if her anger swelled anymore than it did.

"Celestia..." Starswirl called out calmly. "My dearest ally."

"But doing that would solve nothing." Her eyes closed as she retracted her hoof, her mane returning to it's gentle and harmless state. "I have agreed to accept my punishment, no matter how painful it may be."

The guards that were about to subdue her looked at the spears they held. The iron blades that once pointed to her had become nothing more than drippings of molten metal. Celestia walked passed them and stopped just a few feet away from them. As she did, she looked back to them and spoke in a low tone. "If you wish to keep your jobs, then you would apprehend the traitor before you."

Casting their ruined arms aside, the four guards walked side by side with her, trying to maintain their distance should she provide an encore of her earlier performance. When she and her escort left the court, the judge finally found his voice once more.

"...Sentencing will commence at dawn tomorrow. For now... let us retire."

The next day...

The dawn of a new day sounded with the calls of several stallions chanting as they watched the prisoner approach the stand. Instead of wearing her usual regalia, she was bound by chains and locks, her horn sealed off and her wings bound to her body as she ungracefully struggled to the stand. The balls that trailed behind her moved faster than what would've been should they be placed on a normal pony, but they still affected her speed to the point where she could no longer run. Her eyes, filled with determination to see her punishment through, remained locked onto the stand. When she finally made her way up, the judge unraveled a scroll.

"Celestia, raiser of the sun and moon, walker of dreams, princess of the realm, you have been charged with high treason and have confessed to your crime. As naturally stated, the response would be death. However, due to circumstances that are far beyond our control, circumstances that only you may hope to quell with your own power, we have decided to offer a much lighter sentence. First, the power you once had prior to your arrest will be restored to you as of now. Second, your duties will resume as usual, but with constant supervision. Third..."

Celestia's eyes wandered around the room, searching for her dearest ally. Soon she started to realize that he was absent. "I suppose he wouldn't want to see me like this." She thought to herself, unaware of what was really going on outside of the room.

Meanwhile, further down the hall, the way to the room where Celestia was located was heavily guarded. At the same time, a white unicorn stallion continued to strive to get himself through.

"Let me through here! I command you to allow me to see to her sentencing this instant!"

Starswirl angrily stood against a pair of raised spears aimed for him. His horn was sealed off by two other guards, who looked away. They apologetically bowed their heads as they pushed back the unicorn wizard. Another guard continued to bar the door as he continued to stand against him.

"I said let me in!"

"I'm sorry. But it was under strict orders that we were to disallow you entry into the room. I wish we could, but we were given our orders."

"Then disobey your orders and let me in!"

"I'm sorry sire. But our orders came strictly from the princess herself."

"What!?" Starswirl's eyes widened with surprise.

"She said that you we going to do something irrational, and wouldn't want you to get into any legal trouble because of her. So prior to her formally being stripped of her power, she issued out a final order. She even told us to take the 'necessary precautions', to answer your question about us sealing off your horn."

Starswirl groaned angrily as he started to physically press his way through. "I don't care what 'precautions' she has in place, I demand access!"

The guard shook his head as he drew his sword, seeing that the wizard would not be so easily persuaded. "I'm sorry sir. But to go against those orders is to go against the kingdom of Equestria. I will not hesitate to perform my duties, even if I have to show you my stance on the matter."

Starswirl sighed heavily as he realized that he couldn't simply convince the guard to move aside. He knew that he would have to resort to more drastic measures.

"Very well then, if you insist..."

"WHAT!?"

Celestia shouted loudly as she looked at another scroll set before her, this one with several signatures wrote throughout the bottom. A smoke-gray unicorn stood beside her with a small phial of ink and a handkerchief sat upon a tray. The prosecutor walked up to the princess and pointed to a large empty space at the bottom of the scroll.

"There is where you will place your seal, princess. And don't worry about the ink, should you spill yours before you finish placing your seal upon it, we'll gladly provide you with more."

Celestia cut her eyes at the stallion who mocked her. "A law such as this is highly unethical and most repulsive! I refuse to agree to it's terms!"

The prosecutor gave the stallion standing by her a nod. "Unfortunately, you don't have much of a voice in the matter. We all have agreed to create this law, and no matter how many times you may try to pull it down, we will always ratify it. That is the power you gave to us, and now we shall use that power to it's fullest extent."

"I will not sign!" Celestia hollered out as she felt the stallion wiping her hoof with ink. As she looked at what he was doing, her eyes widened and her pupils shrank, realizing that they were going to force her into signing the law into existence. And given her current condition, she wouldn't be able to provide too much resistance.

As she felt the unicorn trying to extend her hoof outwards, she pulled herself back. But before she could fully retract herself, two other stallions jumped from their seats to help out. Celestia grunted as she tried her hardest to resist. The prosecutor held the scroll below her hoof, placing it just where she tried to curl away. Laying it flat on the ground, he placed his attention on the hoof that barely hovered above it.

"As... long... as you challenge one to a show of strength... you will win. But in the face of many..." He and the other stallions struggled as they pushed her hoof against the parchment. "You... will... yield!"

"Nooooo!" She cried out as they began to place much of their weight against her. The force they produced on her lonely hoof was far too great for her to overcome. Eventually, her hoof landed on the scroll and the stallions removed themselves from her. As she lied on the ground, feeling a sense of helplessness, the prosecutor held up the newly approved law high above his head, earning many cheers and praises.

And as they cheered, she felt the world around her crashing to the ground, sounding similar to shattered glass falling to the ground.

"Our new law has been made! And it shall stand as a testament to our power, that we will continue to check her every move! This princess is no longer above the laws we make! And should she slip, she shall be punished accordingly!"

Never have she felt so weak in her life.

"What say you, princess?"

Celestia refused to say anything to the stallion, instead she stared back at him angrily.

"Very well then! Now, we shall commence her royal majesty's punishment, as stated in our new law! As per the Law of Processu Approbatio, any prince/princess granted ascension or power, is to be chaste until approval by family and/or peers! Any violation of that power will result in the reduction, or total nullification of their power! Those that have ascended without wings, shall be stripped of flight permanently, likewise with horn! And in the case of Princess Celestia, who's origin has been identified as unicorn, shall be pushed accordingly!"

Celestia continued to remain bound by the chains and the stallions that sat atop of her. The politicians continued to mock and tease her as she lied defeated on the ground. Her mind ran with the images of the one she gave herself to, trying to use the memories they had together as a means to soothe herself. But her thoughts of him became clouded by the words of the prosecutor before her, waving their new law in her face... A law that would continue to plague her and anyone like her for the rest of time.

The Law of Processu Approbatio, commonly known as the approval process, was born.

Present Day...

I couldn't believe what I had just heard.

Seriously, the infrastructure of the government here was that bad? I knew that Obama catches hell no matter what happens, but she's literally and figuratively screwed over when they create a law. And back then, they didn't care about how it 'hurts your feelings'. They didn't care about your personal desires or what kind of relationship you're in. If you do something that's considered scandalous, which at the time was mares of noble/royal influence having premarital sex, then they would put your dirty laundry out to air and make sure that you were reprimanded for your 'transgressions', similar to how the old system of my world used to work.

Again, my former expectations of this being a utopia filled with talking technicolor equines have been all but dashed.

But that didn't stop Celestia from functioning. She continued to work through the hell they put her through. And I've got to hand it to her. Despite all of her constantly being mistreated, despite how many of her former students were punished severely, regardless of how the parliament made her so unhappy at times and cornered her, she didn't harden her heart. She didn't become cold or cruel. She let her heart stay open, no matter how many scars she'd get.

...What do I have to do to be as strong as her?

After our conversation, she continued to remind me that her punishment for Twilight would be inevitable. I often pleaded with her to reconsider, but she remained undeterred. I offered myself to be punished in place, but she argued that Twilight would never forgive her if she was to punish me in her stead. So my continuous bargaining led to absolutely no profit.

We left the room and carried on with our demonstration, though our time had to be brief. Cadance and Shining Armor was getting ready for a trip back up to the north while Luna had to be back in Canterlot to continue with her duties. And of course, Celestia was trying to get Twilight out of the way before the rumors got into the ears of one of those politicians. But Celestia did manage to pull the two of us aside to inform us that she would keep our 'extracurricular activities' a secret from Shining Armor.

As far as Cadance goes, hell she probably already saw this one coming from three months back.

As expected, the demonstration with Sunset Shimmer went well, and their interest in my world's media had captured their attention. We could only watch the first fifteen minutes of the first Lord of the Rings movie, but that seemed to be more than enough to impress everypony else. It's too bad that the royal entourage was too busy to stay, but then again Twilight seemed somewhat relieved when Cadance and Shining Armor announced that they had to take their leave. But at the very least, everyone else who wasn't wearing a crown or a title was free to enjoy themselves.

Unfortunately, I was not enjoying the reason behind Twilight's absence.

After the huge climactic battle in the final movie, I decided to take my leave. I did enjoy seeing everypony else's reactions to the movies, but the recent turn of events put a damper on my mood. Sadly, I was too nervous to enjoy myself and retired early, quietly exiting the room without anyone's knowledge.

As I walked back to the room, I tried to keep myself calm. I also tried doing push-ups and sit-ups to place my mind on something else.

That's not gonna work this time. Shoulder's hurt, remember?

Damn, I almost forgot. I guess exercise is off the menu.

Once more, my mind was busy thinking about what Twilight could be going through, what Celestia went through when she was on the hot seat, and what I'll be going through when the time comes. It's true that my shoulder isn't up to par as of yet, but something tells me that I would be needing to go hunting as soon as I'm called up to Canterlot.

...In speaking of hunting, where's my-

In the town square, somewhere on the ground... in several pieces. Changeling crushed it flat, remember?

...Fuck.

If I were you, I would be more concerned about what Princess Celestia is gonna do to Twilight.

That's the last thing I need to think about. I'm trying to focus on-

Okay, then let's bring something up front. How are you going to deal with it?

Deal with what?

...Sometimes I question whether or not I'm stupid or just ignorant.

*knock knock knock*

A knock on the door sounded as I laid quietly in the bed, hoping that an answer to everything would somehow fall from the sky and land on top of my chest. But here I am, business as usual. I hopped out of the bed and walked to the door, cracking it open to see a pink pony standing outside.

"Hey, Non-non."

"Hey... what's up?"

She gave me a comforting smile as she looked to the ceiling above, giggling all the while. "The sky, silly."

Her humor kinda fell flat on me this time, I couldn't really find the energy or drive to laugh. "Heh, that's pretty funny."

"What's wrong?"

"Why'd you ask?"

"Well, you just up and left. Sunset Shimmer had to go back to her world and check up on something before she came back here, but she told me to bring this bag to you while she was away."

"What bag?"

Pinkie scoffed and rolled her eyes with a cheerful grin. "Well if you'd open the door far enough, maybe you'd see it, Nonnie."

I opened the door wide and stepped out of the room enough to see that the bag was sitting right next to the door. I picked it up and unzipped it, seeing that the projector, the DVD player and the movies were all there Even the cords were neatly wrapped up. I can guess that it was Sunset's doing.

"Thanks-" Before I could finish my sentence, I felt a pair of hooves wrap themselves around me very tightly. The pink pony continued to nuzzle me as she hummed happily against my lower chest. As she balanced herself on her hind legs, she continued to give me her best hug.

"I just thought that you needed that."

"...Thanks." I was slow to respond, my mind flashing back to the conundrum of the relationship Twilight and I have, and what we've done that may have cost her everything she worked hard for. But I have to admit, Pinkie's hugs did feel kinda nice. I guess I could go for one more.

"I may not know what's going on, and you might not ever tell me, but I just want you to know that I'm here. And if you ever need a friend, then you'd know where to find me."

For some odd reason, I never could get away with hiding my feelings from her. It was almost like she could read me like a book, like a certain someone used to do back in high school. But then again I needed this in my life, now more than ever.

"Hey, Pinkie."

"Yeah, Nonz?"

"Have you ever done something so silly that it ended up costing someone else dearly?"

"...You haven't forgotten it, haven't you?"

"What?"

"You and... him.

Me and... "Caramel?"

"I didn't tell you the truth from the start, I just told you to leave it be. And in the end you got hurt, while I had to sit back and watch over you."

How could I forget about that asshole? "Yeah, I remember him. But I don't remember it costing me much of anything. Just bruised pride and a broken nose."

"And a concussion."

"That too. But still, all of that can be healed overtime."

Pinkie stopped smiling for a moment. "But it was at that moment I could have lost you for good. That was something I couldn't take for granted."

"I know..."

"Then why do you do it?"

"Because I've gotten used to it. I used to not be able to fight, but now I can smack around anyone who messes with you, me, or anyone else. It's not a big deal to me anymore."

Pinkie started to smile as she pulled away from me, releasing me from her grip. "Well, I'm glad you don't. Anyways, why did you ask me something like that?"

I thought about telling her the situation I'm in, but I didn't think she would need to know until after everything had resolved itself. I didn't want her worrying about something that not even I know the answer to, that's the quickest way to cause panic. If Twilight didn't tell any of the others what was going on, then perhaps it would be best for me to follow her example. "Meh... no reason."

The pink pony shook her head as she started to walk away. "Well, remember to talk to me if you need anything. Even if it's a hug, or a scratch on the back, or maybe a midnight snack! I have plenty of snacks stashed around-"

"Ponyville, in case of snacking emergency, I know." I finished with a bit of a chuckle.

"...I'm glad you're feeling better, Nondie. Goodnight."

"G'night, Pinks."

After our brief exchange, I closed the door and made my way back into the bed. As I laid down, I had realized that throughout that entire ordeal I had with Caramel, she had immense faith that I would be okay. Even though I looked like I was on my last line, she still hung on to the expectation that I would be fine. And that feeling of expectation soon found it's way into the universe, ultimately coming back to fruition.

Perhaps I too need to keep faith in Celestia and Twilight. I know that she will be punished, but perhaps it won't be as bad as what I had made it out to be in my head... or at least I hope so.

Hope is a good place to start.

Holding out hope, in the midst of trial and tribulations, that optimism that kept Pinkie fueled up, that hope that Twilight holds that our relationship would work out for the better, that expectation that Celestia has that everything would work to her favor despite the odds against her, that's what made them strong.

Perhaps I need to take a page out of their books and hold that same hope they've been sharing with me.

Laying my head down, I started to close my eyes. I took a deep breath and decided that hope would be my best alternative, considering that there wasn't much I could say or do to influence the outcome.

*knock knock knock knock*

Another one? "Who is it?"

"Hey, it's me."

I rose out of the bed and opened the door to reveal a familiar unicorn with a red and yellow mane. "Sunset? I thought you went to your world."

"I did. Can I come in?"

I opened the door to let her inside of the room. As she walked in, she carried with her a book bearing a sun sigil similar to her cutie mark. As I observed the book, I couldn't help but to grow curious.

"What's with the book?"

She levitated the book in front of her and started to flip through some of the pages. "Actually, this is what all I've discovered about the human anatomy and how I could use magic to influence the body's structure and all of it's internal processes. Basically, it's a guidebook on how a unicorns can use magic when treating humans for injuries."

That's actually pretty nifty. At the very least, Twilight doesn't have to keep sending me to the doctor every time I get hurt. "Cool stuff, who wrote this one?"

"Actually, I kinda did it all on my own." She said with a blush. "I'm not nearly as good as Twilight when it comes to magic, so I guess she could really put some of these formulas to good use."

"Sure. I'll put this on her desk so she'll see it when she get's back tomorrow."

"Thanks. In speaking of which, I noticed that she and Celestia have went back to Canterlot together. So you're just stuck alone?"

"Kinda. Why?"

Sunset held a hoof to her muzzle as she turned away, still blushing at me. "Well... in my world, she and I use a special pair of books that allows us to magically communicate with one another. I guess you could say I kinda knew about you since day one. She's been writing up a storm whenever she talks about you... and sometimes it kinda wanders off into the... *ahem* lewd department."

...Sooooo, how much does she know about us? Wait, better question. "So you knew about me the entire time?"

"Well I knew your name, just not how you looked or anything like that. Twilight kept her descriptions of you pretty vague. But what she lacked in the details about your looks, she made up for everything else... including those kinds of details."

So Twilight might have spilled on some of the details of our bedroom sessions. Then again, I shouldn't be surprised that she did. Girls will be girls and gossip. Guys do the same shit. But that still left a question that has yet to be answered. "So, what did she tell you?"

"Well she's been saying some really positive things about you, how kind you are, how sweet you can be, how much you drive her crazy. It's like I'm reading a romance novel where the main love interest is practically everything a girl wants in a guy. I think it's awesome that you two are getting along like this. Almost makes me want to try you out for myself."

I'll give her points for honesty... Wait a tic, did she just hit on me?

Yes she did, harem boy.

Shut it. "Well, okay." I stammered, starting to feel a bit flustered.

She gave me a playful punch and laughed. "I'm just pulling your leg. But for real, I think you're a cool guy and I'm happy for the both of you."

And I fell for it. "Right..." She stood in front of me, wearing this really awkward smile on her face. It almost seemed as if she wanted me to say something. Um... what do I say next? "So, you came to drop this off?" I said, pointing to the book.

"Yeah! I wanted to recommend it to her, especially since you're around. She even told me about how you constantly kept getting injured in your duties. I guess being a captain of the guard does make you a bit of a target. But anyways, I left this here for the both of you."

She continued to stand in the same spot, still giving me that really awkward smile. It seems that there was much more she wanted to say. "That's not really all there is to it, is there?"

Her face turned completely red as she turned away from me and played with her hooves nervously. "Actually... I kinda need a favor. The library's been closed down and I don't have a place to rest for the night. You know, too young to buy a house and what-not."

That's the ticket. "There's a guest room down the hall, you can stay there if you need to."

"Really!? Sweet! Thanks a bunch!"

Immediately, she turned around and gave me her brightest expression. Teleporting over to me, she opened her hooves and gave me the biggest hug she could. Though I was mainly caught off-guard by her teleportation ability, the hug came as suddenly as she appeared in front of me. After nearly squeezing the meat out of my body, she galloped off into the hall. She hollered back to me as she disappeared down the hall.

"You're awesome!"

Meanwhile in Canterlot...

The halls of Canterlot remained silent save the sounds of hoofprints and two voices conversing back and forth. Twilight and Celestia walked side-by-side next to each other as they made their way to a darkened hall. Twilight remained as nervous as ever while her former mentor told her the truth of why she needed to face a punishment, as well as what had happened to her.

"I can't believe they did that to you."

"I sometimes dream about it, replaying the events in my mind. I wanted to tell you sometime after you two were married, but it appears that now would be an ideal time."

"But why didn't you punish them? They were doing these horrible things to you and you could have banished them to someplace else? You should've done something to them anyways."

"Twilight, you already know what my mistakes could've caused, you saw this for yourself."

"...I know, but what they did to you was wrong also. They deserve to be punished!" Twilight stressed.

"They have all passed on. Whatever judgement they deserved, it was in the hooves of fate. I do not believe in vengeance, I do believe in taking responsibility for my misdeeds."

"But-"

Suddenly, Celestia stopped in front of a door in the center of the hallway. "We're here." She said in a low voice.

The door creaked and moaned as it opened slowly to reveal a bright light spewing forth, a doctor in a white coat appeared from within. Twilight felt her entire body temperature drop as she looked up to the tall, lanky stallion that stood in front of her.

"I trust that you are here for the operation, princess?"

The purple alicorn began to tremble as Celestia stood forward. "I trust that you have everything prepared."

"Your excellency, 'tis a simple practice. We should not be here for very long." He then turned his attention to the smaller winged unicorn. "And I also see that this is the one you sought to discipline. She is quite beautiful... and with such wonderful wings."

Twilight whimpered as she started to back away. The doctor smiled gently as he bowed before her. "Young highness, I am not here to hurt you. I am merely a doctor assigned to perform an operation. I am very precise and I do not seek to give you harm. In fact, my sole duty is to ensure that your process is as expedient and painless as possible. When I finish, you won't even notice."

The purple mare looked up to Celestia, nearly pleading with her with just her eyes. "He's alright, Twilight." The snow-white alicorn stated calmly. "He has performed many operations on me when I have needed them. He is my most trustworthy doctor. I can assure you that no harm will come of it."

Twilight shuddered as she stood in place, her hooves remaining glued to the ground. "Do you promise?"

"I give you my word."

The words of her mentor soothed her, but not completely. Twilight took a few steps forward, finally reaching out her hoof to the doctor. As he shook hers, he removed his mask and showed her a beautiful smile. "Besides, it's nothing more than a quick procedure. I guarantee that you will be good and wrapped up by the hour's end."

"So... I guess this is it?" The terrified mare asked, her voice trembling with fear.

Celestia gave her student a gripping hug as she whispered in her ear. "You're going to be fine, my most faithful student."

Her words began to calm the younger mare, allowing her to sink into her former mentor. Twilight closed her eyes as she hugged her back. Celestia began to shed tears as she pulled away from the young alicorn.

"You have made me so proud. And I could never hope to take all that you've obtained away from you. I won't go so far as to strip you of everything you've earned. But know that you have broken a dire promise to me, and that I will love you no matter what, I will still have to punish you. You may think that I am cruel, but I do love you."

Twilight tried to hold back her tears, failing to do so as she looked at her friend. She finally swallowed her fears and faced the doctor. Celestia stood in the hall, awaiting the operation's end. Meanwhile, both the doctor and the young princess walked through the door together. The doors closed behind them, leaving Twilight to stand before a table with two long pads extended from the sides. She could see the numerous tools placed on the rack beside the table. Her heart began to pound out of her chest as she looked at the doctor put back on his mask and wash his hooves.

"I'm going to need you to lie facing upwards on that table, miss. Don't worry, you'll be fine."

Hesitantly, the purple princess climbed onto the table and awaited further instructions. She looked back over to the doctor, who was placing rubber gloves on his hooves.

"Very good, now I need you to spread your wings for me."

Twilight whimpered a bit as she followed the instructions. She clenched her eyes shut, hoping that he would be done very soon. "L-like this?"

The doctor walked over to her and commended her for her bravery. "Just like that, you're doing wonderful. Now, I'm going to provide you with an anesthetic, you won't feel much of anything and you'll wake up when the procedure is done."

As he brought out a mask, he gently placed it over Twilight's muzzle and twisted the nozzle to get the drug flowing through her system. She soon started to feel the effects, her eyelids becoming too heavy to keep ajar. As she began to fade out of consciousness, she heard the final words of the doctor.

"Now then, where shall we begin?"

Chapter XXXI

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter XXXII

Our first stop of the day was to the local pawn shop, our reason being was that I needed to sell some of these gems and jewels for money. If I couldn't make anything much off of those, the I could make a little something off of the additional sack of bits I have. While Melanie drove there, she seemed to have gotten a call or two from someone, which she immediately ignored. I thought nothing of it, so I just let my window down and stuck my arm out to catch the breeze.

Stuff like this, riding around in a car, listening to Melanie singing off-key with the radio, and the dumb assholes who acted like they couldn't turn when the light was green, her reaction to said assholes─though I couldn't say shit being that I haven't touched a car in over nine months─ had all given me a bit of nostalgia for the human way of life.

I mean we still get threats from terrorists, but at least I'm not the one doing the fighting. Here I didn't have to worry about bullshit laws preventing me from having sex when I'm in a relationship, I don't have to command an entire army to guard the castle, I don't have changelings trying to bite my arms off, or an equally obnoxious girlfriend who acts controlling and seems as if I can't be trusted for shit.

...Wow, let me get my mind off of that. I'm in the human world, my mind should be on human things, like this pawn shop we're pulling into.

When we got out of the car, I saw Melanie look at me. As soon as I glanced back, she stuck her tongue out at me. "You suck!"

"For what."

"We could've been at a movie. I didn't mind treating."

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "I'll treat as soon as I get this money."

"Whatever."

I opened the door for her, waiting for her to enter. She politely bowed to me and gave me a shove. "Aww, thank you servant."

"You're welcome, maid."

When we had entered, there was an older man with a scraggly beard standing behind the counter, inspecting a TV for another customer. He caught a glimpse of us walking in and spoke in a burly voice. "Hey, howya doin' today?"

"Fine, actually I wanted to sell something." I notified him while he continued to ring up the price of the TV.

"Sure thing. I'll be with you in a sec."

While he went back to tending to his customer, I had noticed a wall with guns stashed all over. Taking an interest, I had strolled over to see the prices for some of them. Of course they weren't exactly cheap, but they were pretty well-priced. I also took note of the red sign on the wall, stating that I had to have a waiting period of thirty days before I could hold on to one, provided that I produce a valid license to carry.

I guess I won't be buying here.

To my left was a section where they had a few musical items out for display. Waltzing over to the section, I began to peruse the instruments they had in stock. I walked by a few cymbals, a violin, several guitars, a few basses and a couple of keyboards. My eyes suddenly locked on to a somewhat dingy Yamaha MOTIF 8. The keys seemed to be in working order and they had it plugged in, which was unusual for a pawn shop.

"See somethin' ya like?" The man behind the counter called out.

"Oh, I was just looking at this board here. I've never seen a pawnshop have one of these in a full size, let alone plugged in."

"Meh, some church sold it to me like two days back. I guess they upgraded to better stuff. But we usually have a few people come in and play on it. I especially have this one fella who's been comin' by to showboat."

I picked on a key, seeing if it was working. When I did, I was caught off guard by a drum loop playing as well as an unusual electronic sound. I guess they also plugged it into an amp. I quickly zigzagged my finger to find any button to stop it. I just pressed one and the shop returned to silence. "Cool stuff." I said awkwardly, causing Melanie to cover her mouth and giggle at my embarrassing encounter.

"It's up for sale. I could part with it for about eight-fifty."

Hell, that's cheap as fuck. "How much for the amp?"

"I can cut you a deal and sell it with the board for about nine-twenty-five."

Hmm... If I can get this board, then I could take this with me and get with Sweetie Belle for her music, like I promised her I would. And getting this shit for less than a grand? The board would be over twelve-hundred on it's own. Good bargain. "Sounds pretty nice. But I guess I kinda need money to buy it."

"We gotta layaway plan."

"Actually, that brings me back to what I came here to do. Do you mind if I sold you something?"

"Sure, what'chu got?"

I reached in my pocket and pulled out a brown bag and placed it on the counter. "These."

As the bag spilled open, a slew of bits came flying out and slid about all over the counter top. The man looked at me with dumbfounded silence and picked up the bag.

"Holy shit!" Melanie erupted with surprise. "Where did you get this?"

"I found it on a excavation tour. Me and my girlfriend went out with one of her friends and found some pretty nice stuff. I even found a few gems too." I said reaching down to pick up my bag full of gems.

*jingle*

Excuse me, my second bag of bits... Oh well, more to sell.

The man at the counter took one of the coins and bit into it gently. After pulling it out, he could see the faint traces of his teeth. He looked back to me and stared for a while. "Kid, where did you find these?"

"Excavation tour." I lied. "I even got another bag to sell."

As I pulled out my second bag and left it on the counter, he saw more of the golden coins sprouting forth. His hands trembled as he continued to sort through all of the coins and found all of them identical in state and composition. He sighed heavily and slid the bags towards him.

"Kid... do you know how much you could get for these?"

I just shrugged my shoulders. "I dunno. A piano?"

I feel rich. I feel fabulously, filthy, fucking rich. I know that I got shitloads back across the portal thanks to my pay-rate, but this was fucking fantastic! How so? Let's add up the numbers, shall we?

As of now, gold is running at about twelve-hundred dollars an ounce. One bit was an ounce and some change. I gave that man up to fifty bits, or around fifty ounces of gold, estimated of course. Fifty multiplied by twelve-hundred is sixty thousand dollars. But of course being that the guy was a bit of a cheapskate, I only managed to see about forty-nine thousand.

I still can't argue that. I came out with way more U.S. currency than I walked in with. And I walked out of there with a new keyboard, with the stand and the amp to go along with it.

I was right about one thing, I could pay my tuition for next year with this money. Hell, I could get a used car under a warranty and come out on top. And after that, I could definitely get some guns and have a shit-ton of money left over.

Yeah, I know that five-figures is a low amount, but I'm a college student. This means millions to me, and the best thing about it all is that I'm sitting on piles of it back in Equestria.

So to safely conclude... I'M RICH BIATCH! TOOT-TOOT!

Wow, I got laid and rich all within the same week, and in that order. At least there's some light to all of this BS swarming around me...

Now that got me to thinking. As soon as I'd walk back through that portal, I'd still have a bunch of issues to sort through. I'm still caught up in this relationship with all of these outside limitations, I'm in the midst of a heap of trouble should Shining find out about what we did, Cadance probably already knows and would possibly hold off on telling him until later.

I know that I should be more focused on the financial breakthrough I've managed to come across today. I should be walking on cloud nine as much money that I'm sitting on, and that's excluding the gems I've got stashed away back home. But I can't help but to think about how Twilight's going to be like when I get back. Nine times out of ten, she's going to be pissed that I spent time with Melanie without her knowledge. And if last time was an indication of just how distrusting she was of me, then I can't even begin to fathom what would be going through her mind now that she knows Pinkie and I kissed.

Why should that matter?

...You know, that's a good question. Why should it? What I do here is strictly my business. If I decided to change residence to Equestria, then why the hell should anything I do here be of her concern? Hell, she practically told me to fuck off after I offered to help her. If anything, I should be prepared for her locking the portal shut behind me.

Guess I should make plans, being that I might be here for an extended stay, after all.

"You okay?"

I'm suddenly snapped out of my thoughts, being brought back to the present time and place. With a blink, I had remembered that I was sitting here in the car, rolling down the streets of the Austin city limits. I looked back to Melanie, who was busy keeping her eyes on the road while noticing that I had become silent.

"Say what now?" I asked.

"You've been looking out to the world as if you've got problems. You wanna talk about it?"

I shook my head. "Shouldn't you be looking at the street?"

"We're at a stoplight, dumbass. Light's been red for a while."

I looked up to see a glaring red beacon staring me back in the face. Feeling stupid for once, I decided to brush off my embarrassment. "Shut it."

The light finally turned green as she spoke. "I've never seen someone who just got paid seem so entranced about something. You worried about getting mugged or some shit?"

Hardly the case. "No!"

"You've never really been a good fighter."

Despite that being true back in the day, that is no longer the case. "Excuse me?"

"I'm just saying. If you're worried about someone getting to you now, then you've got me to back you up."

I let my pride get the better of me. "Are you serious? I don't need your protection."

As she continued to drive along the right side of the road, leading up to the Barton Creek Square Mall. She continued to speak while she pulled into the large parking lot. "Hey, I'm just letting you know that I'm here for you. And now that I'm getting my degree in law enforcement, I can pretty much protect you whenever you need it. Just let me know if you need anything. Okay?"

I guess I could accept the fact that she was just being a friend to me. And I could also see how she could be concerned over me. After nine months of being missing, I come up with strange scars and bruises. Even now I'm sporting some new wounds still being magically treated. My left arm has an outstanding scar reaching from three inches away from my wrist to my elbow. And I'm not exactly hiding it with short sleeves.

I don't blame her for wanting to play this role. I'm all too aware of how it's played and what it takes to pull it off. I guess I'll let her have this one as long as I'm here. "Sure."

She began to smile as she pulled into a nearby parking spot. As she shifted the gear to 'parking', she gave me a devious smile when she cut the car off.

"What are you thinking about?" I questioned.

Suddenly, her devilish demeanor gave way to childish enthusiasm. Her arms flailed lively as she leaned towards me.

"I always wanted to say this. GET OUT, FUCKER! WE'RE GOING SHOPPING!"

Of course... I suspected her to go shopping all over the mall. I anticipated her to just splurge around and go to every clothing outlet around the place. I would've expected her to just drag me along as her errand boy so she could just pick out whatever the hell she wanted to buy off of my expenses.

I was so wrong.

The first place she ran to was the nearest Abercrombie & Fitch, but only to get two pairs of jeans and a few shirts, novelty of course. After that, she pulled me into the nearest GameStop, where she picked out some new games for herself and me. She also pulled out a copy of Grand Theft Auto V and asked the guy at the counter for two of the same game. When I asked her why, she just responded with a simple answer.

"So when I get bored, I can come hunt you down on XBox live."

She also grabbed two copies of Advanced Warfare for the same reason.

...Honestly, I don't like where the games are headed after Modern Warfare 3, but I'm not turning down a free game.

After our little excursion in the game store, she dragged me towards the movie theater. Of course she thought it was a cardinal sin that I didn't get to see Frozen, so she offered to show me the movie, off of my expenses this time.

About two hours later, we walked out of the movie theater. She was still humming out loud the notorious, ear-worm, musical sequence from the movie...

I can already tell that this song was going to annoy me after some prolonged exposure. There was no way I was going to be able to 'Let it Go' after two more hours of her humming it in the car. I can already hear myself going insane from the song being on her phone, stuck on repeat... While she's constantly singing along the track without a care for the notes she'll fail in holding. I'm gonna be in for one hell of a migraine, aren't I?

♫Let the storm rage oooooooooooooon♪

FUCK YOU, BRAIN!

...Do you wanna build a tumor?♪

I can already tell that I'm gonna need to go home and watch so much more Hunchback of Notre Dame after this. I need more Frollo singing in front of the fireplace.

After our time at the movie theater, we finally settled down in the food court. Of course with my new selection of choices─outside of the usual Equestrian cuisine─I had a hard time trying to decide on what I wanted to eat. I saw some sushi just down the way, but that stuff is way too overpriced. I would like some Chinese food, but that won't last me for long. I would hit up the Taco Bell joint, but something tells me that a bad case of indigestion wouldn't be the only thing I'd catch. I could go for a burger, but hell I always get those... But I haven't had one in a while, not with all pure beef and delicious french fries on the side.

Perhaps I could go for some ice cream instead... Nah! I get enough of that in Equestria, and get it much fresher and in better quality. Five Guys it is.

After making my order and sitting at the table, I could see Melanie chomping down on a king-sized burrito.

The car ride home will not be a pleasing experience... but rather one that will summon up bitter memories of a certain fellow that gassed me to near-death in the bathroom. Well golly gee willikers, I can't wait for my next post-traumatic experience!

"So... Tell me more about her."

I stopped short of biting into my burger as I looked up to the girl in front of me, asking me about Twilight out of the blue. "Huh?"

"You know, about Bella."

Who the hell's Bella-oh. I almost forgot that I lied about Twilight's name, but it was for a good reason. I didn't want Melanie to find out that I was dating something... not human. "Oh. She's okay, I guess." I answered, accidentally letting the final part slip from my mouth.

"You guess?"

"Yeah, I mean. Our relationship is pretty decent. We get into a few scuffles here and there, but it's not all that serious." I said before biting into my burger.

"A few scuffles, huh? Well if I remember anything from last time, you said that you and her brother aren't exactly on good terms. Could that be the reason for those 'scuffles' you mentioned?" She asked, seeming as if she was interrogating me for questions.

"Well, I'm not exactly sure if that's the reason. Anything me and him do in terms of an argument or a full-physical fight, it's usually on our own. She doesn't really seem to get involved in it."

"Uh-huh. And that scar on your left arm? Looks pretty new."

I knew that she'd take notice of it eventually. "Well... He and I got into a knife fight."

"A knife fight, with like actual knives?"

Dammit, I shouldn't have said that. "Well, he calls it 'manhood training'. He always has some thing about me walking with his sister and some random stranger pulling out a knife on us. So he takes the opportunity to teach me how to deal with armed opponents."

"Cavern explorations, running off to places with no reception, knife fights, brawls with her big brother, it sounds like you're really having a hard time."

*sigh* I wish that was the reason for it. "Yeah. It's kinda hard, but I learn to deal with it." I answered, finally biting into by burger.

"...You don't seem like you're having all that much fun."

"Why you say that?" I said after I quickly chewed and swallowed my food.

"You've been quiet since you've been riding with me. Often times, you'd stare out the window, deep in thought. Sometimes I'd call your name just to see if you'd respond. But it seems like you're... distant."

Wow, I was that bad? "Really?"

"Yeah. So what's really going on in your relationship. And don't lie to me, I don't like you hiding this kind of stuff from me."

I guess now is a good time to tell her what's going on. Of course I could always change up the scenario to fit something that doesn't seem too suspicious. "Well... We're just kinda in a rut right now."

"What kind of 'rut'?"

"Well for starters, she seems like she doesn't trust me at times. I go off and do something on my own and it's like I'm marching off to die or something." Technically, this is true. I often find myself in life-or-death situations that require me to think on my feet.

"Well given the habits of her older brother, I can see her reason for concern."

"It's not just that." I corrected her. "It's... um. Okay. At one given time, this was prior to us being a thing, one of her friends and I... kissed."

Melanie stopped eating her food and stared back at me. "What?"

"But I didn't expect it to happen! It just did. We don't have feelings for each other or anything. It's just one of those instances that kinda show up, like when you're playing truth or dare." Except that it wasn't even like that. "Okay, maybe not like that, but we didn't mean anything by it."

"Nondis, you just can't kiss a girl and 'not mean anything by it'. How did this kiss occur?"

I closed my eyes and tried to retell the story in a way that was as close to the truth without revealing the elephant hiding under the couch. "Okay. She and I came back from visiting her parents. See, she works on this farm way out in the boonies. And as I was going along, she had a conversation about me with her sisters. I overheard her saying that she was wanting to say something to me, but I didn't get a chance to hear what it was until the day after. So when I got back, that's when she kinda... laid it on me."

"So, she confessed to you?"

"In the form of a kiss. But I kinda had to tell her that I wasn't interested. I know, dick move."

"Nothing dick about it." She responded. "You spent some time with her and you kinda accidentally got her to like you."

"...Not exactly."

"Okay. So what did you do to kinda convince her to like you?"

I sighed heavily, knowing that this was going to get some sort of backlash. "So, I kinda stuck my nose in someplace where I had no business being. I did something stupid that ultimately got me into a world of hurt."

"Let me guess, you tried to play the hero and beat down the bad ex-boyfriend?"

"Yeah, stupid."

"Oh yeah, very." She confirmed with a light kick to my leg. "Now continue the story."

"Okay. So from there on, I kinda got props from her sisters for standing up for her. But I did it out of my being a friend, I didn't mean anything else by it. I didn't try to lead her along or nothing, I just did what a good human being would do and stand up for another who was in trouble. Yeah, I got my ass beat from it, but I still left with brains intact."

Melanie tapped herself on the cheek as she looked at me. "I think I know what that was."

"What?"

Suddenly, a buzzing noise reached our ears. She reached down to pull out her cell phone and proceeded to look at who was calling her. After a second or two, she denied the call and turned her attention back to me. "You just had a bad case of 'mixed signals'."

"Mixed signals?"

"It's kinda like... um..." She snapped her fingers as an example finally came to her. "Got one, you remember how you used to like me?"

Yeah, and now I see where she was coming from. "Okay, I think I'm starting to get it."

"Okay then, explain."

"It's like me liking you and you liking me. In your eyes, I'm giving off the hint that I'm wanting to be friends with you. But at the same time, I perceive you to having an interest in me. And when I tried to confirm what our relationship was, it turned out to be different from what I was expecting."

"Well, at least I know that your brains are, indeed, intact." She joked at my expense.

"Oh ha-ha."

"Yes, that's the majority of it all. But that's not everything. Sometimes we can start these misconceptions out of our desire for companionship. Other times, it's just an opportunity not taken by one or the other. In rare instances, it could be that both of the parties have mutual interests, but both are too afraid to take that first step."

...That does leave me with one question though. "So I'm curious. If I were me about eight years ago, as equally mature as I am now, and not-so clingy-"

"Yes." She answered without a moment's hesitation.

"You didn't give me a chance to finish the question."

"I knew what you were about to ask. And the answer is yes."

I didn't know why, but something inside of my chest seemed to come alive. I knew it was a sort of excitement, but I couldn't just outwardly express it. My mind was racing with several thoughts, many of them about what could've been. But I didn't understand why she was just now openly confessing this. "Okay, what sold you?"

"To be honest... it was a tie between the mature part and the not-so-clingy part."

Figures, I was pretty much clasping on to her like one of those prickly plants you'd have all over your shoes socks when you walk through a field. Had I had more control over the hormones back then, this would probably be a totally different conversation. "So... Wow."

"Yeah, I know. Sometimes, we tend to make mistakes that drive us apart. And it seems like what we really need is some time away from each other to get things right."

"I guess. Was I that clingy?"

"Yes... just yes." She answered truthfully, nodding her head quickly while giggling.

"Okay. So what exactly about the... clingy-ness that kinda drove you away?"

She folded her arms as she gave me a rather perplexed look. "So any reason why you're asking me all these questions?"

"I just need to know something about myself. I need to know what exactly I did wrong and what I can do to not repeat those mistakes."

SELF-EVALUATION! THERE YOU GO! GOOD STARTING PLACE!

The best starting place in knowing what's wrong is knowing yourself.

Obviously, I'm headed in the right direction.

"Well you used to get jealous. At times, I could understand why, but then you started to get a little too attached. You kinda tried to push your way into making me feel better and try and make me see you as something more rather than letting it happen. Another thing was that you had a bad habit of wondering about what I was doing with certain people. Yeah you had your hunches, but you tend to try and point it out with neon signs, and everyone noticed. Also, there was the... frequent asking about my sex life."

Right... that. Wow, I was horrible. I can't help but to cringe at that.

"I get it, you were horny. And sometimes when it was late at night, I kinda started to veer onto the topic. And I didn't need to do that, especially when I knew what you were going for."

"You know, I had completely forgotten about all of that until you had just brought it up."

"Well you said you wanted to know what all you were doing wrong."

I closed my eyes and accepted the heavy weight on my shoulders. "I know. And I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be. That's something that happened in the past that I've long forgiven you for. Though I still question how you deal with your girlfriend."

"Why?"

"I mean, obviously something's wrong in your relationship. You said she couldn't trust you because of something that happened in the past, prior to your relationship."

She changing the subject before we could get too deep in a certain topic. I guess with my past behavior, I could see the reason behind it. "Yeah."

"So what else does she do?"

"Well, she kinda told me to fuck off today."

"Really!?"

"Not in the manner of how I said it, but it was more of a shouting of 'leave me alone'."

"So what caused her to go off?"

Everything. "Well, we kinda have this limitation on our relationship, for religious reasons." Yeah, we'll go with that for now. "She and I can't procreate until we've been given the green-light from her folks, which is all the more reason why I'm kinda tolerant for her brother. We... kinda broke the rules and her folks found out."

"So was this something that you both did on accident?"

"No. Actually, we were very vocal with one another about our consent. Everything we did was within the permission of the parties involved. The only permission we didn't obtain was that of the family. And of course, she got punished for it... badly."

"So what did you do?"

"I told her that I had regretted that what we did ended up getting her into trouble. Instead, she got angry with me saying that what we did was something that she didn't regret and that I should feel the same way."

"Only you actually care about what she has to go through."

"Yeah, pretty much."

"So if she's angry with you because of that, how did the situation with the other girl spring up?"

"She and I confessed it to her. We also stated that we had no interest in building a relationship with each other. And she still blew up."

"You seem like you go through a lot of hell for her to just throw it back at you. You're practically doing everything that you need to do in your relationship to keep it healthy. It just sounds like she doesn't know how to react to it all."

Nailed it. "She doesn't."

"Is this her first time dealing with a serious relationship?"

"It's her first one, period."

"And this is your first one as well?"

"Yeah..."

"Sssss-oooh." Melanie cringed as she backed into her seat. "Yeah, she doesn't know how to react to any of it. Did she show any kind of remorse for what she did or anything she might have said?"

"At this point, I don't think so. I feel as if I've done everything I could to make this work, but I'm caught between a rock and a hard place. I don't want to deal with it because it's total bullshit, but I don't wanna seem like I was just in it for extra bases... if you know what I mean."

"Yeah." She said, picking at her burrito. "I can see where you're at. She already got in trouble for the shit she did, but she's giving you hell for being concerned over it."

"I know, I can't win." I said as I continued to bite into my burger.

After nibbling into her burrito, she gave me a light kick under the table while humming loudly. "...Actually, you can."

"What?"

"There's a way you can do this. And if things go south in the end, both the two of you can still come out on top."

I practically slammed the small corner of my burger onto the table as I urged her to explain to me what she had in mind. "How!?"

She shook her head as she gently placed the palm of her hand over her face. "First thing's first, there is no miracle way of doing things. You can't just pull a fix-all solution out of your ass and have everything magically come together. If there's anything that you can do, it's only for yourself."

I figured that was the case. "So that way of winnning 'where both of us can come out on top' doesn't really exist, huh?"

"Not a chance in hell... unless the both of you hate each other's guts."

Damn, I don't think we've managed to hit that low yet. "Well, that's not it."

"So you'd need to put your foot down. It doesn't hurt to show her that you're capable of moving on without her. If you're worried about the 'wham bam thank-you-ma'am', then she should've taken that into consideration before blowing up in your face."

"But isn't that a little mean-spirited?"

"No. It's mean spirited if you had the intentions of carrying on with your relationship for the sole purpose of sex. And as often as you wander off to La-La-Land, that doesn't seem to be the case. You care for her." She said, kinda looking off to the side as she spoke.

"So... show her that I'm willing to move on?"

"Yeah. She may feel like she's the only one entitled to you, but that's just exactly what it is: entitlement. Relationships don't work that way. It's a two-way street, meaning that the respect and concern you have for her, she should take into consideration rather than screaming at you every time you don't agree with her."

"Look... I'm not into these kinds of games."

"That's the problem. Love plays games with you all the time, why not play along? If you want to play safe, then you'll only get played out. Trust me, I know how it feels to be taken advantage of."

I finished the last of the burger and slowly started to munch down the fries on the side. "So I have to play games to make this work? This sounds like a bad idea."

"Now it starts to get risky after a while. You can still choose play, but there's one golden rule: NEVER play with her heart. You can play mind games all you want to, but don't go that far. If you feel as if you're going into some unfamiliar territory, tread lightly and carefully."

"This sounds awfully bad."

"I'm telling you what makes a possessive girl tick. If you don't want to play and just break things off for a quick moment, then that's your safest bet."

My heart isn't in it to play all these 'mind games'. I think I'll just settle with the easiest solution. I'll still show her that I'm willing to break the relationship and let her focus on what all went wrong. Not only that, but it will give me plenty of time to get to know myself a little better, get some much-needed answers to often-buried questions, and let me focus on my other obligations.

Yeah, I think I'll settle for safe. "I'll just break things off, that way it'll give us some time to cool off."

Melanie smiled a bit as she finally downed the rest of her burrito. "Okay. Then you do that. Just make sure you don't let her try and sweet-talk you into an early reentry."

"Deal."

*bzzzzzzzz*

Melanie's phone vibrated once more, this time indicating that she had gotten a text message. With a few swipes at the screen, she read the messages and sighed heavily. Immediately, she closed the message, got out of the chair and grabbed her purse.

"What's wrong?" I questioned.

"Nothing important, but it's getting late. Let's start heading back into town."

I leaned back in the chair on the ride back to the college. As we rode, I took in the sights of the city I used to call home. Much of it was still familiar to me, outside of a few developments that recently popped up in the past few years. But at the same time, I felt a strange sensation lingering throughout my mind, as if I had missed it here.

Childhood memories─the pleasant ones, of course─resurfaced in my mind, causing me to mentally relive certain events of my life. And I enjoyed them, the times I allowed myself to be filled with juvenile wonder. I could recall the times where I had watched the Disney movies in the nineties and had nightmares from them when I had gotten home. But on the car rides there, I used to sleep like a baby. My older brother would make fun of me for both being scared and sleeping on the ride home. But I didn't care, I had a Nintendo 64 locked away in my room that he couldn't play when he made fun of me.

Nostalgia, that's what it was.

I didn't have much to think about then, with the exception of how I was going to live through the next school day without getting pants'd or bullied. Then there was the schoolyard escape plans I had made up to avoid playing with everyone. Most of the time, they didn't work because of adult supervision. But on the days they did, I felt as if nothing could stop me.

I even remembered a crush I used to have back in elementary school. She called me weird and ugly, and that was the end of that. I don't know why I remember that one in particular, but I feel myself on the verge of riotous laughter when I had thought about just how easy it was for me to get emotional over the littlest things in life.

I cried when Snow White died. Dear God, how much of a pussy was I? But then again, I was just a four year-old at the time.

But now I'm grown up, complete with responsibilities, relationships, and a lack of that same childhood naivete. And the killer thing about it all is that as soon as I'm finished with my day, I'd possibly have to travel back to a world full of technicolor ponies that could fly, cast spells, and talk.

Sigmund Freud would have a field day with me. And I haven't even gotten to the guns yet.

...Oh shit, the guns.

"Hey, Melanie?"

"Sup?"

I can't believe I'm gonna ask her this. "I need to know something stupid."

"Like what?"

"Where can I get a gun?"

I could feel the car decelerate a small amount as she glanced back to me. "Why you need to know something like that?"

"Because someone tried to break into my apartment last night. I'd like to stay armed in case someone was to pay me an unexpected visit tonight." Yeah, like the occasional robber, crazed lunatic, or changeling hellbent on revenge.

"And why wouldn't you tell the cops?"

"Personally, I'd much rather have my own security. That and cops would bring me more attention than what I'm comfortable with." Again, I can't have cops wandering throughout my house and accidentally stumbling into Equestria. That's a worst-case scenario for me because then I'd have to prove that the cop is bat-shit crazy. That's not easy to do nowadays.

"Personally," she began to mimic my response. "I can't see how you can't bring yourself to trust a trained official, or someone in-training... someone like a friend you know... who just so happens to be a girl... whom you've been knowing for several years-"

"I get it! Look..." It wouldn't be any easier to have her discovering Equestria either, especially since my girlfriend isn't a human. That would be beyond awkward. "I just need a gun to protect myself."

"From what?"

"Well for starters, the world is full of ape-shit crazy fuckers who'd stop at nothing to see that they'd steal every last thing I own, regardless of what floor I'm on. And then you got the assholes who'd love to do horrible things to you while you sleep. And then there's the occasional psycho-killer who'd love to see just how red my insides are."

"Is this about the money?" She bluntly asked.

That's a decent excuse, let's go with that. "...Yes."

Melanie took a deep breath as she hit her turning signal. "...Okay. Say there was a person I knew. And hypothetically speaking, this person had actually let me rent out a few weapons of theirs while I was on my search for you. But of course, this person doesn't exist anymore."

"If you're worried about me snitching, then you can hang that one up. I'm the one asking for arms here. Hell if anyone's going down, it's me."

With a smirk, she pulled onto the street that led to fraternity row. "Okay. Now let's just say that this person who'd gave me all these weapons was someone I actually dated."

"And who would that be?"

Wow... I can't believe this shit.

Sitting here in the basement of the Delta Phi charter house was an armament of small arms and shotguns. And with a few kicks of certain areas, there were fully-customized assault rifles. There was even a sniper rifle or two. Of course, the main thing that was on my mind was just one question.

"How the hell did you get all of this down here!?"

"My dad owns a weapons shop here and my uncle owns one in Laredo." Rickey stated as he pulled out an M16, complete with laser sights. "Both of them are also ex-military and avid gun-nuts. I pretty much picked up the hobby from them."

"He actually gave me anything I needed when I was hunting you down. When you go out looking for a guy in the backwoods of Texas for nine months, you learn that it's best to have some protection." Melanie answered as she picked up a twelve-gauge shotgun.

"Remember the Chainsaw Massacre? Bet your ass won't be traveling alone without a gun then." Rickey joked. "You know, the ones that are the furthest from civilization, the ones in those towns that has a population of like twenty... sometimes they're not all there. That doesn't go for everyone, but not everyone is right in the mind either."

"World's gone to shit, I know." I openly stated as I picked up a Barrett M82, ultimately surprised of how heavy it was. "What's the price of this one?"

"Does 'your first-born child' sound like a fair price?" Rickey answered.

"Can't I just do an arm or something?"

"Has to be your arm."

Fuck, he saw right through that one. "Okay, I'm just gonna put this one back."

"No seriously, I think he can afford that one." Melanie stated.

"Okay, production sales of that one is actually eight g's. Since you're a frat bro, I can cut you a deal. How does four sound?"

I would personally love to be able to pick off changelings from a distance. All I'd have to do is chill out about eight-hundred yards back and start popping them off one-by-one. It'll be a classic turkey shoot. But there's one more thing. "How much is the ammo?"

"Three dollars per round."

Fuck that's expensive... but necessary. "Okay, so ten would be thirty?"

"Twenty-five. Save five bucks."

"Why so cheap?"

"You try running an illegal shop on a college campus without getting caught. Sell low, get business, gain community trust, keeps the narcs away."

"And I'm doing all I can to keep the trail cold." Melanie added. "Criminal justice major has it's perks, you learn how to work the system."

"You two are the epitome of awesome right now." I said as I handed Rickey the money for the sniper rifle and fifty for the ammo. I also picked up a shotgun and a side-arm for short range encounters. "How much for the shotgun?"

"Four-fifty. Ammo runs at about two bucks per shell."

"Good, I'll take twenty-five. Now how about the hand-gun?"

"Glock 42. Loads up to nine rounds, semi-automatic, lightweight, cheap-ass gun, ninety-nine bucks."

"Ammo?"

"Seventy-five cents per round."

"I'll take fifty."

As I handed him the rest of the money, Rickey couldn't help but to laugh at how much I bought from him. "Damn, what are you trying to do? Kill off a small army?"

He's not all that far off, actually. "Well, I kinda bought the sniper for dad. He likes to hunt in his spare time. The shotgun and the glock, that's for me." I lied, knowing that the sniper was for my personal usage. At least now I was more than capable of hunting down the changeling commander, injured or not. Rickey started to put on some gloves as he started to pack everything into a box.

"Well, I'll break this stuff down and we'll get it to the car."

As we made our way back to the apartments, Melanie decided to ignore what all I had bought. She seemed as if she wanted to ask, but was too afraid to do so. After confirming that I hadn't gone insane, she started to warm back up to me. Of course, I explained to her that I had always wanted to collect for the sole purpose of recreation, she started to ease up on me. But she still had a suspicion over what my intentions were.

I guess that was to be expected.

When we had arrived, I began to pull everything I bought out of the car, starting with the musical equipment. It didn't take us long to get everything moved upstairs beside my door. After I finally had everything leaned against the wall, I gave her a hug and told her how much fun I had with her. Of course, she didn't seem to like that I was unwilling to stick around for very long, but then again I had a ton of weapons hid in a box labeled as 'laundry'. After a brief hug, we parted ways and I began to carry my newly-purchased belongings into my apartment.

"What... the fuck?"

My apartment was not as I had left it. Apparently, my apartment looked like I had left some sort of maid inside to clean everything up I didn't have spruced before I left. The small amount of dishes I had in the sink were all washed neatly and sparkling brightly on the rack. My floors were immaculately clean. The carpets had been vacuumed and the shelves had been reorganized. The only thing that wasn't exactly clean was a large sheet of paper that hung on the wall with two words written on it.

I'm sorry!

I pulled off the sheet of paper to reveal a small scroll behind it. As it dropped to the floor, I had guessed that it had to have belonged to Twilight, considering that it was her seal on the parchment. When I had cracked the seal to read it, I immediately noticed that this note was more or a full-length letter rather than a two-worded note.

Dear Nondis,

I know that it has been quite some time since I have last spoke to you in a respectable manner. And I admit that I was indeed in the wrong for what I said to you. You didn't deserve what I had done to you, nor were you accountable for what was done. Everything was completely my doing, and in my ignorance, I have left you to anger.

Words cannot describe how terribly apologetic I am to you. You have done so much for me and you only wanted to see to my well-being. But in my fit of pain and anger, I shoved you off entirely. I was careless to throw you aside, and I didn't mean to make you angry. I don't want to make you angry.

The truth of what had happened was that I was left with what could be stated─in human terms─as a slap on the wrist. My title is till mine to hold, albeit with a temporary power reduction. My wings are still on my body, they're just a little clipped is all. And the portal is still open, should you wish to come back to us.

I would like for you to come back to us. I can't seem to imagine you deciding to leave us once and for all. The pain I would feel would be too unbearable, especially if I was the sole reason for your decision to leave.

I now understand that what occurred between you and Pinkie was prior to our relationship. And I know that I shouldn't be angry because of it. You have decided to remain friends with her after all and opened the way between Pinkie's and Cheese relationship. I should've kept that in mind while I was screaming at you.

And now I'm brought back to the one thing that I promised myself that I would never do to you. I screamed at you, numerous times. I distrusted you and became eager to call you out for infidelity. I just basically shouted at you without even knowing the context of the situation, nor caring to learn what it was.

And for that, I'm sorry.

Please come back home.

Forever yours,

Princess Twilight Sparkle.

P.S.: Your apartment was a mess, so I cleaned it up for you. XOXO

Somehow I figured that she would be so neurotic as to clean my apartment for me, but what I didn't expect was her coming here again. I honestly figured that she was pissed to the point of where she'd lock me out of Equestria for quite some time. But here I was getting an open invitation back. And I was more than willing to go back, but I had some things to grab.

Grabbing my 'laundry' and my musical equipment, I moved the goods towards the bathroom in preparation to take everything through the portal. After a bit of strain and painful lugging, I started to wince at the discomfort in my still-injured shoulder. I decided to strive through it and grab my things, gently carting them through the portal. As I did, I had began to notice that my efforts weren't nearly as strenuous as I would've thought it to be. Instead, I had actually gotten everything through there with relative ease. At last, I started to stick my hand through the portal.

"Okay... Now it's my tu-Uhuuurn!"

The moment I let my arm fall through, I felt something yank at me. A strong force grabbed my arm and proceeded to pull against me. For a short while, I could feel nothing but air... that is until I felt the familiar fuzziness of a pony's coat. The familiar sensation of hooves gently gliding across the back of my hand as my palm was met with moistened fur. Finally, it hit me. It was Twilight that was eagerly stroking my hand against her. Where I was touching was probably the tear-stained cheeks of her saddened face. The force that pulled my arm in─as well as my belongings─had to have been her magic.

Suddenly, I felt nothing but pure strength tug at my arm. The pain I experienced was slightly excruciating as she used every last ounce of her being to drag me back through. Without warning, I could feel my arm's resistance drop to zero. As I looked, I could see the familiar maroon flames engulfing my shoulder, spreading to my chest and crinkling the front of my shirt.

And with a final yank, I fell through the portal.

Melanie pulled up to her apartment, wearing a somewhat distant smile. And similar to her thoughts, she was off wandering about. Freely, she walked to her apartment at her own pace. Her mind was overflowing with the memories she produced with the man she accompanied just earlier that day. She didn't seem to care too much about her phone blowing up as she walked, her thought process was far too consumed by the words of the man she had known for many years.

"No mind games... Wow, you are a pretty boring person, Nondis."

Her words, critical in it's appearance, were actually quite gentle. She smiled at the thought of him, she enjoyed the time she spent with him, she even preferred to stay with him a little bit longer.

"I can't believe you actually said that, that you wouldn't play mind games with her."

Immediately, her voice got quiet and light, almost to a whisper.

"Some girls just don't know how to appreciate a good thing, I guess. It's too bad, I was kinda rooting for him to break up with her. I know it's mean..."

As she finally walked up to the door of her apartment, she continued to fantasize about him. "But I kinda had him first, in a way."

When the door opened, she was still lost in her thoughts. "I wouldn't mind if he'd actually showed that he still had an interest."

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!?"

Melanie snapped out of her thoughts, finally acknowledging the presence in her doorway. "Sorry-"

"I've been trying to call your ass for four hours! Why the hell haven't you been answering your goddamn phone!?"

"Sorry!" She shouted, seemingly annoyed with her boyfriend. "I was hanging out with a friend! I didn't think you'd mind me doing that much!"

"I already know who you been with! And I'm not cool with that shit! I don't give a fuck if he's been trapped on a desert island for nine years with nothing but a volleyball, when I call, you answer!" He commanded as he slammed the front door.

Melanie scoffed as she walked into the apartment. "Look, we're not like that. So can you just fuck off?"

Her boyfriend finally stepped towards her, getting as close as mere inches away from her face. "First off, who you telling to fuck off?"

"..." Melanie remained silent for a short while before she finally backed away from him, walking towards the bathroom.

"I'm talking, where are you going!?"

"I need to use the bathroom, okay!?"

Running to stop her, he grabbed her wrist, unwittingly in a violent manner and pulled her towards him. "Nah, you trying to avoid the question. Now who were you telling to fuck off!?"

"No one! Now let me go!"

The guy didn't say anything to her as he released her. As soon as she walked into the bathroom, she sat down and closed her ears, hoping to drown out anything her boyfriend might have to say. And for good reason. As she continued to sit in silence, a quiet knock came to the door.

"You know... I don't think your career can ever take off if you have all of these illegal firearm possessions under your record. I'm just saying. So while you're telling me to fuck off, I could just so kindly fuck you over in the same way. I mean it doesn't matter to me, it's not my career. And keeping yourself locked in that damn bathroom isn't going to help you either... In fact, what it's gonna do is make me even more angry. So open the door, and let's talk about this."

Melanie couldn't help but to hear what was going on past the door. Her hands couldn't block out the booming sound of his voice. The only thing she could do was close her eyes and prepare herself for the inevitable conversation.

"Melanie... please open the door."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

After a lengthy amount of time spent corralled in Twilight's hooves, she finally apologized to me in person. As she continued to say her I'm sorry's, Sunset and Rainbow explained to me what all they had said to her. They expressed what they wanted to say to me as well, giving me an earful about how the approval process could have left her in an even worse condition than what she was already in.

Rainbow got a hint of what was going on when Twilight had left her medicine back in the park. And after she confronted Twilight about me storming down the halls, she finally explained to her what was going on. Sunset overheard some of the conversation and decided to give Twilight her two-cents about what could've been said instead of her lashing out at me.

But that didn't stop Rainbow Dash from giving me an ear-full of how hard Twilight had to work to get her current position. She also insisted that I'd follow through on the saving-grace clause should I feel that I have needs. But as soon as Twilight shot her down on that suggestion, Rainbow remained silent from then on.

After a few more minutes of speaking with Rainbow and Sunset, we both separated ourselves from the two and made our way towards the bedroom we shared. While we walked, Twilight continued to clasp at my left arm with her hooves, dragging me closer to her as she talked.

"Nondis, you know I can't begin to express how happy I am you came back. I thought after our fight, you'd probably hate me."

"No." I answered. "But honestly, I didn't like how you just-"

"I know!" She interrupted while pulling at my arm even more. "And I'm sorry. But this time will be different!"

Somehow, I'm still feeling as if she's ignoring my input. The way she cut me off seemed... desperate. It was like she was trying to forget as if what had happened had never occurred. "Twilight-"

Twilight and I stopped just outside of her door as she continued to give her response, despite my trying to speak to her. "I swear to you that we can make this work! We can't just give up on this now!"

What is she even talking about? "Twilight-"

"From now on, every moment I have available will be designated strictly to you."

"What do you me-"

Tugging me down towards her, she emphasized her desire for eye-contact. "I'm gonna spend every moment I have, waking up to you and making sure that you smile. I'm gonna do all I can to please you, even more so than anyone else ever could."

Okay, this is going in a direction I'm not fully comfortable with. "Where is this coming fro-"

She gave me a quick peck on the lips, holding my face against hers with her hooves. "I won't risk losing you again! This time, I'm gonna work hard to see that you're happy. And if I can, I will do anything to make sure that you stay that way."

Somehow, that translated to placing her career at risk again. This is doing nothing but leading up to the same issues we're dealing with now. "Twilight, that's great but-"

"Nondis, I just want to be perfect for you."

"I never asked for that." I stated with a bit of strain in my voice.

"Well I just want to be! Is that so wrong?" She argued.

...Yes! "There's everything wrong with that. Twilight, don't need to validate yourself to me. You're not perfect, that's why I chose you to begin with. I'm flawed and you're as equally imbalanced. You're trying to throw away the things that drew me towards you. And no relationship is perfect. If there's any example of tha-"

Suddenly, I'm cut off by a pair of purple lips mashing up against mine. Upon our separation, Twilight proceeded to stroke my cheek. "Nondis, I love you. I don't want you to think that I'm imperfect. I know that I'm not as attractive as some of the mares that came up to you, and I know that there are probably others who can do a lot more than I can around the home, and I know that we're different from one another. But in spite of all of that, I'm willing to do anything it takes to make up for it-"

She's not listening to anything I'm saying right now. She's saying everything that she feels will make me feel better. But in truth, it's having the exact opposite effect on me. I pulled myself away from her, placing a hand on her chest. "Twi, slow down."

Grabbing my hand, she tried to stress how much she was willing to move on. "Nondis, we can make this work! We can fix the issue and carry on! I-if you want, we can amend our vows and marry whenever, since we've already broken our approval agreement! We can even set up our wedding for-"

"Twilight!" I shouted over her to get her attention.

Suddenly, she had a sad twinkle in her eye. Her face shaped into a depressed frown as her ears fell back. She looked up to me sharply as she continued to hold my hand against her chest. "What's wrong with me, Nondis? Can't we just make us happen?"

That's the problem, us has happened way too fast. I think with as long as we've gotten to know each other, and as quickly as we've became an item, there was literally no time before she and I were suddenly thrown into an argument over marriage. I mean, yes I agreed to it initially, but now this is moving on too quickly. I've gotten myself in something that I was unprepared for mentally and emotionally. I'd be more than willing to see that we'd still have something between us, but for now... I need to back up.

I need to find out the answers to questions long-buried. I need to focus on everything else, like my job, my obligations to others, my other relationships, my friends on both ends of the portal, my college life, how I got here in the first place, everything about myself. For the longest I've just been gunning ahead, ignoring the consequences and ultimately having everything backfire. And each time I've been trying to strive towards making our relationship work, I've been letting things get piled up.

And this relationship... I'm too trapped. No matter what I do for us, we go through pitfall after pitfall. And now she's throwing everything she worked hard for to the four-winds for me, when I'm trying my best to ensure that she keeps everything. Yeah, I think it's romantic, but now we're at a point where this romance has led to some pretty ignorant moments. I fight to keep her safe, she fights to keep me satisfied at the cost of what I'm trying to save... We're doing the same thing over and over again, and the results have yet to change.

...I can't do it anymore. I'm tired of it.

"Twilight... let's talk."

Meanwhile in the Crystal Empire...

Both the prince and princess of the Crystal Empire walked along side each other, accompanied by a crystal pony holding a lengthy scroll full of proposals for the upcoming months ahead. Despite Shining's calm demeanor, he was quite peeved at hearing all of the growing lists of demands made by the Empire's cabinet members. Cadance didn't seem to mind too much, her prolonged life-span alongside her experience with politicians made her immune to the prolonged exposure. Every once and a while, the princess could see her husband roll his eyes with disdain, causing her to chuckle.

Suddenly, Cadance ears flicked as her head bolted up from surprise. A strange jolt of energy trickled from her head and down throughout her body. Her hooves stopped moving forward, freezing in place as one of her forelegs were suspended in mid-trot. She quietly gasped to herself, catching the attention of her husband.

"Cadie, what's wrong?"

The pink alicorn princess shook her head slowly, unsure on what she should say. "Nothing dear."

The others proceeded to look back to her and saw Shining trying to reason with his wife. "Cadance, something's wrong and you know it."

The princess sighed at her husband's insistence to have her tell what she was feeling, but she was reluctant to tell him what she knew. "Shining, can you handle the meeting in Vanhoover tomorrow on your own?"

Shining rolled his eyes as he groaned. "On my own? Cadance, you know I don't like to play politics."

"I know, but I need you to do this for me. Please."

The prince looked at his wife with a stern glare as he gave her his answer. "You owe me."

"One night, whatever your heart's desire."

Shining walked over to his wife and gave her a kiss. "Okay, you know what I want. And I expect you to be at your best."

"One hour of sex, another of cuddle time, I get it."

Cadance stood silently as Shining and the others carried on down the hall. As she turned around, she called out to the orange pegasus guard standing behind her. "Flash!"

"Your highness?" He responded with a low bow.

"Clear my schedule for the rest of the week. I need to check on a disturbance to the south of here."

"Love-magic disturbances again, your regalness?"

"A big one." She answered as she started to make her way opposite of where the others were headed, Flash Sentry accompanying her along the way. "This time it's hitting a little too close to home for my tastes."

"Ma'am?"

"I'll be taking the first train to Ponyville come dawn tomorrow."

Flash could already feel himself becoming a bit nervous of one certain pony in particular. "We're visiting your sister-in-law, aren't we?"

"You've guessed it."

Author's Note

Back to work. Now a few things.
1. Sorry if this chapter hasn't been up to par for some of the readers. I had to rework myself back into the groove, though I felt that I had to force myself to do so, otherwise this story would never see completion.

If you did enjoy the chapter, then please leave a comment. If not, leave one voicing your concerns anyhow.

For every dimension, there is a being that is similar to how we operate both mentally and physically. And if Melanie is (as Nondis would describe) similar to Pinkie Pie, then this new guy is actually Caramel 2.0. Also, I have hinted that Melanie has had a reoccurring issue with bad relationships. So I was trying my best to get you all ready for this one.

Weapons, eww! Yes, I know this sounds like an awesome idea to some, but to others I can understand if this is a possible turn-off. SPOILERS AHEAD: Just know that they will serve the plot later.

I am sorry for getting sick on you guys. Again, my thoughts have been really scrambled and it will take me a chapter or two to get back into the groove of things. As for now, this chapter helps set up a few future events that I will safely say will entertain you. But no spoilers on that today. :trollestia:

Again, I hope that you guys enjoyed the chapter and forgive me for the wait.

As for the Melanie's boyfriend... He will be dealt with... very soon.

Chapter XXXIII

"A... break?"

Twilight stood baffled as I stood just in front of her as she stood beside the bed. Her eyes widened to the size of grapefruits. I could already see that her forelegs were shaking uncontrollably as she stared back at me in silence.

"It's just a break from our relationship. It doesn't mean that we completely broke up, but it also means that we can't really spend a lot of time together." I explained. "I know it doesn't sound very good, but I can assure you that this would be for the best when it comes to our relationship."

Twilight sat onto her haunches, her front legs still shaking. This time, she let her head drop as well as her ears. The bangs of her mane drooped low enough to hide the whites of her eyes. Her body began to shake. "This is because I yelled at you, isn't it?"

"Twilight, that's not even the issue. That's been long resolved." I confirmed by giving her a light pet on the top of her head. "What my main concern is how quickly we're trying to tie things up. And at this speed, we might end up wrecking what we have rather than salvaging it."

"But I was trying to salvage it. I tried my best." I could see her beginning to shed tears from behind her bangs. The indigo locks of hair could hide her eyes, but they couldn't hide the streaks of tears rolling down her cheeks and off of her chin. Her breathing had also grown nonrhythmic, her trembling increasing as well.

"Twilight," I tried to get her to look at me by clearing the hair out of her eyes, but her magic pushed my hand away from her bangs. I decided to leave her be. "You can't run into something that will change your life. If anything, you should at least plan ahead and make sure that you're making the right decision. You need to make sure that your heart, as well as mine, are in alignment for the long-haul. And us bandit-charging into marriage won't be a very wise decision."

"But we were friends before this. I was willing to give you everything."

"Friendship can be a beautiful thing in marriage... But that doesn't make it a good one. Friends have gotten into relationships as easily as we did and tried to rush things quicker than we ever did. But if you talk to those individuals now, do you think they'll say that it was the best decision they ever made? No. They'll lament on how they altered their friendships for the rest of their lives, how they've destroyed every memory they had prior to their getting entangled. Yes, there are some who end up being married for quite some time, but for many cases that's not it. Don't you want us to stay friends... even if we don't remain lovers?"

"Fri...ends...?" Twilight said on the verge of collapsing in on herself.

"I love being friends with you, Twilight. And I don't want that to be ruined because we ran into a life-long commitment without a proper plan or just out of bad timing. I can't imagine ourselves ending it on the terms where we absolutely despise each other. I just want us to keep that much, even if it all falls apart. And if it doesn't then we can be both lovers and best friends. All I'm saying is that I want us to have time to grow, into something healthy."

Twilight sunk a little lower as she spoke to me. "And this 'break', it's gonna make us stronger... right?"

"Truthfully, that's up to you. Focus on yourself and your needs, allow yourself the freedom from the stress of trying to appease to what I want. If you need to, then I don't mind you exploring for yourself. If I'm what makes you happy at the end of this, then we'll continue. If you find someone else that can do better than I ever could..." I took a deep sigh at what I was going to say. "Then let it be. Enjoy the future with that next-best thing."

"But-"

"Listen to your heart. And if your heart tells you that I'm not it, then I'm not it."

"But what if I hurt you?"

"Then I'll be hurt. It's happened before. I can learn to get over it." I personally knew that it would take me a while to recover from Twilight giving me the boot, but I've learned that heartbreak is a part of life, just as breathing, sleeping, and dying. I don't need to make the same mistakes I made a long time ago to get myself to feel better. I can do this.

"...Okay."

Somehow I wasn't exactly prepared for her to confirm the break. I didn't think she'd do it in contrast to her screaming and crying about how she wanted to stay together and work things through that way. "What?"

Finally, the purple princess lifted her head and looked at me with a bittersweet smile, the tears still brimming from her closed eyes. "Sure. Let's take a break. For our relationship, right?"

I'm actually relieved to hear that she's somewhat optimistic about this. "Yeah. I know it sounds-"

"I mean, 'lest the heart grow fonder', right?" Twilight said with a bit more enthusiasm. "We can keep our relationship fresh if we do this. So why not?"

Now I'm kinda concern as to how she pulled this miraculous one-eighty and changed her stance on the issue so easily. "Well it doesn't necessarily keep the relationship fresh per se, but it does keep it thriving."

"And our friendship will last, even if we don't... That's what you said, right?"

I could already hear the optimism leaving her as soon as she uttered those words. "Twilight-"

"I mean, I could never find anyone like you or you find anypony like me... but we can make it work... right?" She questioned with uncertainty.

I could tell she was trying to boast some confidence that we'd come out on top, almost with a sense of pride. But her sadness was catching on to her boastful banter. I didn't want her to start breaking down now, so I offered her some encouragement. "I'm sure that you'll always have a place in my heart. In fact, you're the first one I actually had the honor and privilege to call my own. And that's an honor that no one can take away."

Twilight gave me a smile as she started to walk towards me. In the fraction of a second, I could feel her clasping around my waist, holding me close to her as she nuzzled against me. "And I'll always have you in mine. But as you said, let's play friends for now. At least we can still hang out... if you want."

"I... I'm afraid not right now."

"Oh... I see. But you can still stick around the castle if you'd like."

But that would still leave me within arm's reach of her. If we were going to do this properly, I needed to stay someplace else. "Actually, I was gonna find an apartment in town. Someplace to chill for a hot minute until my shoulder heals up. Then I can station myself in Canterlot-"

"NO!" She exclaimed, catching me off guard. "I mean, that's unnecessary. The accommodations have been made for you already, in an environment where you're free of judgement. Your belongings, as well as the portal to your world, is all here. Why can't you just stay?"

"Twilight, we need to separate. Us being together in separation would do nothing, it would defeat the purpose of what we're doing."

Twilight hung her head low once more. "Oh... I'm sorry."

I leaned down and gave her a quick peck on the forehead, rubbing my hand against her mane. "We'll try for like two weeks to a month. If after two weeks I feel that need some more time, I'll let you know. If you need some more time, then feel free to let me know. Got it?"

Twilight quietly nodded.

"Okay then... I guess I need to start packing my things then."

"...Do you need some help? I'd be happy to assist." Twilight chimed in, trying her best to sound like her usual cheerful self.

"Actually, Sunset's in the room I used to have. She could help me. You already helped me get my stuff across the portal. You're fine."

"Please..." She insisted, trying to walk me to the door. As I began to walk into the hall, I barred the purple alicorn from walking any further.

"Princess, rest. I can take care of this without your intervention. I would let you carry on with your duties in the meanwhile, but do not feel obligated to interrupt your schedule to cater towards me. Last I checked, you are still recovering also."

Twilight's wings shifted a bit as she pushed me out of the door. Her shove was not like the usual playful push she'd normally do. Instead it was like she was shoving me away from her, as if she was gravely wounded and didn't want me to see. I could understand her pain, she was upset of the rejection of me staying here. And she was even more so upset with me rejecting her assistance. Twilight continued to look at me through the door.

"...Well... I guess I'll be seeing you then..." She said with a slight tremolo in her voice.

"Yeah... Later, your highness." I answered, giving her a low bow.

Swallowing her sadness, she produced the biggest smile she could ever give. With a waive of her hoof, she called out to me. "...Farewell, captain. May your nights be as pleasant as they were when you were here."

Her magic glowed brightly as she telekinetically closed the door. As the spacing between the two doors decreased, I could see her face contort into an extremely painful expression. In mere seconds, I could see the smile that once graced her face break into a quivering frown. Her jaw dropped as she fell onto the ground. As the large door banged shut, I could hear the princess sobbing profusely through the heavy wood.

...I'm really sorry, Twilight. But we need to do this.

After over an hour of gathering my clothes and other belongings, Sunset Shimmer assisted me in getting everything from the castle to a small, two-story hotel not too far away from the castle. By the time we had arrived, the lobby seemed completely empty with the exception of one pony at the desk, who was wearily tapping his hoof against the counter. When Sunset walked towards the front desk, he immediately straightened up, slicked back his mane, checked his breath, and produced a seductive smile.

"Welcome to the Ponyville Pamper, one of Ponyville's finest inns. I can mostly assure you that the accommodations will be to your liking, or your money back. May I take your items this evening, ma'am?"

As soon as I walked in, his facial expression soon changed as he realized that I was carrying some more bags. For starters, that devious smirk had then transformed into a confused frown. "Oh, so I suppose you will be having a room for two then?"

Sunset immediately blushed and galloped up to the pony behind the desk, almost climbing on top of it. "Hey, he and I are NOT having any funny business, okay?"

He proceeded to smile once more at the unicorn mare. "Yes ma'am. So two separate rooms?"

"Room for one." I confirmed. "I'd greatly appreciate some help with the luggage."

"Oh..." He instantly sounded uncertain with me being his guest. "Well... I wouldn't... think we'd have something in *ahem* your size."

"So are you saying that you don't cater to humans?" Sunset questioned, seeming to take exception to the statement. "Is that what you're trying to say?"

"No!" He said, starting to back down into his seat. "I-I just-"

"So it's because he's sporting arms and legs and him being a different species from you is why your facilities doesn't seem to accommodate to humans? Or is it just because you don't like him?"

"No way!" He screamed while waving his hooves. "I've seen just what this guy can do! He can kill a changeling from several feet away! And he's a hero who saved a train full of civilians up in Canterlot! He's a savior in my eyes! I-I'm just saying we're not worthy! Our beds were pretty much made with only p-ponies in mind. And there are much better establishments with way better views than here! We don't even have a penthouse suite!"

I shook my head and walked up to the desk. "I'm just looking for something cheap and brief. I had to carry a lot of shit here."

"Don't you mean 'we had to carry a lot of shit here?' Your injured shoulder couldn't even do as much as I could with my magic." She corrected, in a boastful way as she levitated about ninety percent of everything I owned.

"Right... that." I'm not gonna lie, her magic is damn-near up there with Twilight. "I owe you one."

The pony behind the counter grabbed a clipboard from off of the wall and started scanning the list for available rooms. He tapped on the clipboard twice and hummed aloud. "So... would a room down the hall work out for you, sir? It's fitted for two and we could mash the beds together if you'd like."

Sounds like a plan. "Sure! How much per night?"

"Just fifty bits, or a ruby if that's your preferred method of payment. You pay when you check out."

"Room service?" I questioned.

"Sorry, we don't have that. But perhaps I could arrange something of the sort for you, sir."

"Nah, let's just get to this room."

With a nod, he ran from behind the counter and started guiding us to the room he had prepared. Thankfully, it didn't take us more than a few steps and a turn down the hall. I was more relieved that we didn't have to deal with stairs, otherwise my shoulder wouldn't have made it. The guide opened the door to a cozy-looking room, complete with a chair, a bookshelf, and several hard-back classics, including an erotic novel that was a bit too steamy for foals to be exposed to.

After a short while, all of my belongings were lined up against the walls and the beds were pushed together. After a quick rundown of the services available to me, the guide gave me my key and walked out of the room, leaving me and Sunset panting at all of the hard labor we had just finished doing.

"Ahhhh... Done at last." She said as she plopped herself into the chair.

"You okay over there?" I asked as I sat down onto the bed.

"Just a little weary. Carrying so much junk with your magic can leave you with some pretty bad headaches, but I only get tired."

I chuckled to myself. "I suppose, considering that your magic is almost as good as Twilight's."

"Mine will never be as great as hers. I may have been Celestia's pupil at one given time too, but she actually finished the lessons."

"You... You were a student of Celestia?" I questioned, amazed that had similar knowledge with that of Twilight.

"Yup. I just didn't finish. I got too greedy and she didn't like it. I wanted to be princess but was too impatient to put forth the work-effort. So I performed some off-limits research behind her back to learn the secrets to ascension. And after I was found out, I was expelled."

She got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. "So you got caught being greedy?"

"I got caught being irresponsible and greedy, which is why I'm never going to amount to what Twilight can do."

Yeah, I know how that feels. But there was one thing that concerned me. "Quick question, why do you compare everything you do to Twilight?" I asked as I laid back into the bed.

The fiery-maned unicorn yawned and stretched as she remained in the chair. "Well... She's everything that I would've been had I decided to be more patient. And I know that my destiny wouldn't encompass me being an element bearer, but I would still have a crown. Ponies would look up to me for guidance-"

"Don't people do that to you now?"

Sunset yawned once more as she spoke. "To be honest, they still kinda speak more of Twilight. To them, I was the girl who drove them all apart where she's the one that brought them back together. I mean I'm friends with them, but they have a habit of bringing up past sins of mine. But that's a whole other story for next time. I'm just too tired to go into detail."

I looked at the complimentary alarm clock on the nightstand and saw that it was well past eleven. It was well past time for us to get ready to hit the sack. I'm pretty sure she had an early morning as well.

"Well I guess I don't mind escorting you back to the palace real quick-like. You ready to go?"

I didn't get a response.

"Sunset?"

I leaned back up to see the unicorn knocked out in the chair. She leaned peacefully against the cushion of the headrest while breathing softly. I shook my head with amazement.

"Damn, you dropped like a brick, didn't you?"

I stood up and grabbed one of the sheets from off of the second bed to lay on top of her. But as I approached, I began to feel bad for letting her take the chair while I was confined to the beds. Eventually I was stuck trying to make a decision based on my moral compass and my shoulder. But with deep consideration, my morality trounced my shoulder.

Grimacing and grunting, I carried the sleeping mare to one of the beds. I thought about lying down next to her, but I had remember how hot-headed she could be. If she had woke up next to me, she'd probably bash my head in with the nightstand.

...Meh, I'll take that risk. Chairs are uncomfortable to sleep in.

After laying her down, I placed the sheets over her body and left her to her peace. Laying as far as I could away from Sunset, I took my share of pillows and hunched up against the wall. I covered myself up to the best of my abilities, despite dealing with some small sheets, and allowed myself to get comfortable enough to let my knowledge of this world go and transcend into an alternate plane of reality.

*...SNOOOOOOOORREEE*

What...

The...

Fuck...

Please tell me that was just a B-50 bomber flying over us, and nothing else. I turned back around to see Sunset resting peacefully, quietly resting on her bed. Her chest fell as she whimpered lightly, almost as if she was a small puppy whimpering in her sleep. I guess that she couldn't have been the source of that loud, obnoxious snore from earlier.

*...SNOOOOOOOORREEE*

...I'm gonna be in for a long night.

*SNORT*

The previous night led me to have a rather... unusual dream. For some odd reason, I dreamt that I was in a circle of hooded beings all trying to decide my fate. And shortly after they pointed the finger at me, a large two-headed elephant came marching in the room, coming to my defense. When he finished, that's when I saw a small lizard, who was no larger than a short pencil, jump onto the stand and start screaming obscenities at me. Before I had even noticed, I was holding a sword and a menu with three options came up.

Attack, G-Skills, and Run.

Usually, there was music in this kind of thing to get me pumped up for the fight. Unfortunately, there was no such thing this go round. I have no idea what the Final Fantasy set up was for but I can say that I was thoroughly confused when I had hit run. And of course, the battlefield dissipated into nothingness. I was left in the middle of a black room, sitting in a chair as I watched a door in front of me. The door banged several times before breaking to reveal a black and red demon creature, screaming at me as he charged at me with a yellowish beam of energy. Suddenly, those three options were back on my screen... with one minor change.

Attack, G-Skills, and Die.

Die? Why the fuck is 'die' an option?

Trying my best to mash in the command for the G-Skills, I had noticed that the list was completely empty. The menu then dropped me back into the main selection screen, this time with one of the options scratched out.

Attack, G-Skills, and Die.

So I panicked and desperately called for the attack command. Screaming and shouting, I kept hollering out numerous attacks. Finally, the sword I held in my hand had broken into many pieces, leaving me with a bloodied hand and one less selection on my list. Again, there was a slight alteration.

Attack, G-Skills, and No Other Choice.

By the time I had tried to run, the commands kept overriding into other options, all with the same premise.

Accept it, Free Your Soul, And Give Up Fighting.

I screamed loudly, except that my voice could not be heard. Trying my best, I clapped my hands, stomped my feet, banged on my chest and legs, anything to make a noise. And nothing happened, just complete, desolate silence. I grew impatient and just hit a choice.

And the demon rammed his horn into my chest from behind me, my body jerked as I felt the impact. Immediately, I felt myself fall lifelessly to the ground as he continued to gore me into nothing. My body jerked continuously as he laid each and every hit. And in his next hit, the whole room turned black again.

I heard faint sobbing... Unusually sounding as well. The voice was somewhat similar to that of a single woman speaking in three tones simultaneously. The hellish voice continued to quietly sob for quite some time. That is until it just stopped.

I waited... and waited... and waited... and nothing happened. But I could feel something wrap my legs, preventing me from moving. Silently, I stood helpless, awaiting whatever was to come and take me. And I didn't have to wait for too long. Three bloodied faces on three separate snakes all screamed at me simultaneously as they bore their fangs, ready to dig into me. The last thing I saw was the inside of it's mouth, as well as my own self, whispering to me.

"Not like this... Not like this..."

A deep, blood-churning, gurgling sounded from his throat. And then he opened his mouth, stuck out his tongue and ate his own skin alive.

My eyes leapt open, meeting with the familiar sight of sunlight.

What the fuck was that!? No seriously, what in the actual hell was that shit!?

I wish I could answer that. But for now, I was just happy to be back in the real world again. Safe, sound, and with a cute mare leaning up against my chest...

Wait a minute... I'm not with Twilight right now.

Looking down, I could see the serene form of Sunset Shimmer nuzzled up against my chest as she snored loudly into my rib cage. I tried to back away, but found my left leg wrapped in something. Unraveling the covers, I found that much of my lower leg was coiled by her tail.

*SNORT*

With a few smacks of her lips, she leaned into me even more, whispering in her dream. "Mmmm... Please, let's try this again... no she-demons this time."

...Not even gonna ask what the fuck that's all about. But I need to get away from her before she wakes up and blames me for sexual assault. And in speaking of which, I could already feel her tail slinking up towards my crotch.

"Nnnngh... No..." She mutters out. "I'm way better than her... I'm more mare than she'll ever be to you."

Nope. I'm not even gonna stick around for this one. This screams 'grand-master, unicorn-style, ass whipping' and 'potential sexual harassment charges'. Carefully placing my hand on my thigh to break off her tail, I scooted my leg free from her grasp. But as soon as my leg experienced freedom, my arm was her new captor.

"Hmmm... You're not getting away that easily. Now... let me do... what I know how to do best."

Her sheets must be soaked, and that scares me. In a desperate effort, I manually unwrapped her tail from around my arm, gently and carefully to where she doesn't wake up from her dream. But then there was one other challenge that started to present itself. Her horn began to glow, summoning my hand towards her chest. Still lost in her dreams, she produced a seductive smile and a lip-bite. "I told you I was more mare than her. Now kiss me."

Oh-ho-hohohoho no. Noooo no no. Nope. Nope. Uh-uhn. Negative.

Using all of my strength I pulled at my arm, to no avail. But then I had to remember one simple principle about unicorn magic. Carefully tapping my finger on her horn, I cut her magic off and instantly freed myself from the clutches of her wet dream. But as I sighed in relief, I had realized that I had lost my balance and began to fall towards the floor, landing on my right arm and shoulder.

...That was the injured shoulder... Yup... Not gonna scream though. Want to, but nope... Okay, maybe just a little.

"Arrrgggh! Dammit!" I screeched through clenched teeth and tongue in cheek. My eyes jammed shut as I winced in pain. The excruciating surge of discomfort caused me to remained confined to the floor, grasping at my aggravated shoulder injury. I couldn't help but to be loud to a certain extent, despite my best attempts to keep quiet and let Sunset sleep. But right now, MY MOTHERFUCKING SHOULDER HURTS!

"Nnngh... Hey, are you okay?"

She's still going on with that damn dream? I could've sworn that I woke up the entire first floor with my falling out of bed.

"Nondis, where are you?"

Okay, so now she's awake.

"Nondis... Oh, why are you on the floor?"

...You. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you, but I fell out of bed."

"Oh. You okay?"

"...Shoulder. Landed on it." I spoke, still cringing in pain.

"What!?"

"Fell out of the bed, landed on my bad shoulder, in hideous amounts of pain."

She flipped the sheets over and leapt out of the bed, standing just beside me. "Oh my goodness! How did you fall out of the bed?"

...You. "I was trying to give you your space. And I backed away a little too far."

She tried her best to sit me up while causing me as little pain as possible. After she got me upright, she started to pull against my shirt. "Okay, I'm gonna need you to take this off. I need to have a better look at you."

Trying my best to remove my shirt using one arm, I used my teeth to hold my collar as I pulled my left arm through. Afterwards, I carefully maneuvered around the injury and let the shirt slack off of my right arm. As Sunset look at my shoulder, she had noticed some significant bruising where I had been bit.

"Oh, wow. That looks bad."

"What looks bad?" I asked worriedly, trying to find out how 'bad' my injury really was.

"Okay, hold still for a second. I'm gonna try something."

In a mere second, she summoned up her book of spells and flipped to a distinctive page and began reading off her notes. Taking a glance at my shoulder, she started to let her magic work at my wound.

"Nondis, I'm going to need you to grab onto something. This is going to feel really weird."

When she started reading her incantation aloud, her magic began to glow from aqua to pure white. Her horn sparked and produced a white ball of light that leapt off of her and floated into the air between us.

"Oh healing light, spring of virtue, heal that which is not of us. Grace them with your power and provide sanctuary. Let your loving embrace show them salvation from all wounds."

The white ball of energy sank into my wounded shoulder, causing me to feel a warmth inside of my body. I looked down to see that the area where the ball had entered my body was actually glowing under the skin. Unexpectedly, my muscles in my shoulder started to shift on their own, moving and swirling as if it was caught in a whirlpool. The bones also shifted themselves, causing me to feel a bit nauseous from the sensation. And in a low hum, the spell dissipated. The bright light within my shoulder faded out, leaving the area feeling slightly warmer than usual.

"Okay, how does it feel?"

I was at first skeptical about what would happen if I had moved my arm, but I had realized that the pain that plagued me just moments ago had no longer existed. Instead it felt like it was just... normal, as if nothing had ever happened to it. Even the bruising that was there had disappeared completely. Carefully, I shifted my shoulder in a circular motion.

And not a single ache was present.

I began to experiment with the other degrees of movement with my shoulder, including shrugging, stretching, cocking my arm in a circular motion like I was throwing the first pitch. Still, no pain to be had.

"This is great! Sunset, you could make millions off of that shit!"

"Thanks." She answered, still feeling a little bashful. "Again, I kinda wrote the formulas on my own. Though the incantation does need a bit of revising. I mean, 'Grace them with your power and provide sanctuary' does sound a bit corny."

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I stated as I leaned back down towards the floor. I began to perform my usual morning workout routine of a few dozen push-ups. "I'm sure as hell not gonna complain about it."

"Well... um... yeah. Do... Don't you feel like you're forgetting something?" Sunset asked nervously.

"What?" I asked, still lifting myself off of the ground.

"I can't say... I'm not exactly clear on what it is either... AH!"

"What?"

"We shared a bed!?"

Technically we shared two separate beds. It's just that we somehow got wrapped up by the time we woke up. "Not necessarily-"

"You slept with me!? Why did you sleep with me? Oh Celestia, this is so embarrassing." She said as she slammed her hooves over her face to hide herself from me.

"Hey, it could be worse."

"Nondis, did I do anything that might've rubbed you the wrong way?"

Well, since she asked... "Um... Your tail kinda coiled around my leg. So I kinda had to unwrap it-"

Grabbing her tail, she looked at me with a crimson blush forming on her cheeks. "Y-y-you t-touched... MY TAIL!?"

Raising off of the floor, I sat down and tried to explain myself to her. "I had no perverted intentions. If anything, I was trying to escape whatever it was you were dreaming of. And as a result, I fell out of the bed."

"I don't even remember sleeping in the bed. I fell asleep in the chair... you moved me, didn't you?" She asked.

"Well I couldn't let you sleep in a chair. That shit feels fuck-awful when you wake up."

"Well I never asked you to do it!" She shouted, feeling flustered.

She and Twilight are definitely two of the same boat. So I decided to shut myself down. "Okay, well I won't do it again."

"No!" She exclaimed before she covered her mouth to stop herself. She slowly drew in air and let herself calm down. She began to grab my arm and gently sit herself down next to me. "I mean, thank you anyhow... I-I just haven't grown used to guys willingly be nice to me outside of me... well... How do I say this, asserting myself. Bad habits, I know. But there was a time I wasn't exactly looked up to, or even looked at."

I'm assuming this must be the continuation of last night's conversation. Well at least we're back on track. "Okay... go on."

"Well after I was expelled, I found a portal to another world. And when I went through, I found beings that were completely inferior to me when it came to magic... and math. But I was inferior to how they moved, their mannerisms, their interactions with technology, all of it. So when I had gotten old enough, I had forged a few documents and enrolled myself into Canterlot High, where there were even more people who were inferior to me when it came to magic."

"I'm getting a distinctive feeling that your ability to use magic was something that made you feel superior to the humans you ran with."

"I did feel that way! And despite my inability to use magic in that world, I still had my cunning and intelligence to fall back on. So I finally found a small area where I could feel like I could enact my desire to rule, my desire to have control over everything. And me being crowned Princess of the Fall Formal-"

"Forgive for interrupting, but Fall Formal?"

"High school dance."

"Gotcha."

"So when I got crowned my freshman year, I did all I could to keep that power. I also learned that skipping class out of my disdain of going unchallenged in classroom curriculum does lead to... obvious consequences."

"Got held back?"

"I only showed up for test days. The homework I got was easy enough to where I could finish all of it within an hour's time. And they based your grade on both attendance and assignments. So being that I ignored one of the two, I got held back. Needless to say that I didn't make that same mistake the next year."

Figures.

"But I digress. After my first freshman year, I did everything I could to manipulate the entire school to give me the title again. And the same with sophomore year, where I actually had one person dare to stand up to me... Of course I did everything within my power to ruin her, and she resigned. After that, there was no one left to challenge me, no one that dared to show me that they were capable of destroying the legacy I had built. I had became the queen bee of the entire school..."

"But you still weren't satisfied."

"I was without the one thing that made me superior. And with it, I could expand my horizons beyond that of a high school. So when the time was right, I waited for the portal to Equestria to open, grabbed the first magical artifact that was closest to me, and bring it back as a means of activating my magic in that realm. I had three days to do it, but I finished it in less than one."

"So... you took over the school."

"If it were that easy. After stealing the Element of Magic, I had to earn it back in the one way that I continued to dominate the school."

"The Fall Formal?" I summarized.

"Bingo." She confirmed. "But it turned out that there was one pony who came from Equestria to take back what was hers, and would do anything to get it back. She even united the entire school against me, even going so far as wooing my ex-boyfriend."

"Ouch, that's gotta hurt." And judging from the theft of the 'Element of Magic', it would have to be Twilight who came through to find her. Otherwise, how would she have had limited knowledge about my anatomy prior to my being here? "Go on ahead."

"But she didn't do it in the way that required ruthless backbiting, or merciless sabotage of character. Instead, she did it using a method that I was completely unfamiliar with. And in a mere three days, she had undone everything I had worked so hard to build. My legacy as the princess of Canterlot High had ended when she had won the Fall Formal that year. But I didn't let that stop me. So I lured her back to the portal and threatened to destroy it by smashing the frame around it, making it unstable and unusable. But even in the mist of my threatening to take away the place she called home, she continued to persist. Finally, I had to physically take the crown from her by force."

"So then you had gotten your magic?"

"In a way unimaginable. I transformed into some sort of demonic entity, chocked full of magical energy and capable of transforming the entire school into my army of slaves. By then, I had set my sights for much higher grounds. Using my knowledge, my new-found power, and human weapons, I would take over Equestria with a small army of a few hundred, capable of decimating thousands without a single scratch."

"Well obviously, you didn't succeed. I don't see humongous statues of 'Sunset Shimmer; the Almighty and Immaculate Queen of Equestria'. So what happened?"

"Well... *sigh* Twilight happened. When I used the crown to activate my magic, I had completely forgotten about her being bestowed the crown first, meaning that her magic was long released before mine ever was. And when her magic manifested, it radiated so strongly that it infected the others that she stood by. Her magic then became theirs, and they all transformed into equine hybrids... After that, the last thing I could see was a prismatic light showering me, cleansing me of my demonic form."

"And that's how your rule came to an end."

"Yeah. I was completely destroyed by a magic far greater that anything I could've ever hoped to possess. And when I had realized that what all I did was the wrong way of gaining power, I had thought back to the very first one I had betrayed... my former mentor, Princess Celestia. And what stood in front of me was nothing more than the manifestation of what could have been should I have taken the righteous path, the path I didn't need to walk alone."

"So, you learned your lesson the hard way?"

"Yeah, I did. And not everyone had forgotten about my little 'reign of terror'. If anything, much of everyone still resents me for my past sins. I'm hardly looked at in a positive light, but I still had a select group of friends who were willing to look past that and help me feel like I fit in somehow... But I can't help but to feel that they too resent me for some of my past crimes."

I could see the uncertainty on her face, she didn't even try to hide that she was questioning how everyone still had a thing against her. And I knew how she felt. I too had a checkered past, but I know now that I had decided to move on from that life. I gave her a light scratch behind the ears as I spoke to her.

"Learning to forgive others is a process. It's not a slow one, but it's progressive in nature. They won't forget what you did, but they will also remember that you chose to leave the person you were behind. And being able to make that choice is what makes us human... or equine, if you'd prefer."

She smiled at me, seemingly thankful for words of wisdom I had shared. "Actually, I think human works fine for me."

I stopped scratching her ear and proceeded to gather some of my stuff to hop into the shower. "Well, since you told me yours, I could tell y-"

"Hey!" She shouted loudly.

"What?" I asked, confused and wanting to know what she was screaming at me for

"You decided to scratch my ears and run. I may not have given you permission to scratch, but I damn-well didn't give you permission to stop." She joked as she levitated my hand towards her head.

Seriously, this again? "You ponies are always a fool for these scratching sessions."

"Less complaining, more scratching. You owe me for the shoulder, remember?"

...She is just like Twilight when it comes to this.

Later after breakfast, Sunset took her leave towards the castle while I continued to go through some of my stuff, trying to organize what I would be more likely to wear throughout the remainder of the week. I had a few nice outfits to wear for the sake of just walking about but I didn't really have anything grandiose for show-out. But it wasn't like I was going to have much of a need for that kind of stuff anyhow. The only thing I was going to do was hang around Ponyville for a few more days before heading towards Canterlot. And when I got there, I was going to tell the politicians and nobles that wanted to send me out to an unknown land to hunt down an unknown individual to go thoroughly fuck themselves.

I can get behind that.

But what I'm still trying to get used to is the fact that I'm armed to the teeth. On my bed stood the sniper rifle, the shotgun, and the Glock 42. Immediately, I thought about the fight from earlier this week and mentally simulated how everything could've changed had I been armed with all of this from the start.

A lot would've changed. I wouldn't have been so reserved when it came to using my weapons. But at the very least, Twilight didn't get to see me use it. Spike and Sweetie Belle were a different story however, I couldn't help but to use it then. However, I won't change my stance on the situation. I was required to do some heavy fighting and my old Beretta did the job quite splendidly at cutting the numbers down.

But this was about more than cutting down the numbers. This was about complete and total annihilation of my target and any hostiles that were to get in my way. At least my shoulder was in top shape so that I could use the sniper rifle.

I picked up the long-barreled rifle, looking up and down at it's massive size in comparison to the handgun on the bed. Looking at the scope, I noticed a few dials with numbers on them. I would've like to know how they work, but considering the small amount of room I had in here, I guess I would have to go out and have a dry-run with it later.

*knock knock knock*

We weren't expecting company, were we?

I don't know who could be paying me a visit at this time of the day, especially considering that I haven't given out any information of the new place of residence. And house-keeping wasn't due for another two hours. Perhaps it could be someone from the front desk. Either way, I was not going to let them get curious of the lovely toys sitting on the top of the bed. I don't want them blabbering off to the news about strange alien devices being left in my room, otherwise that would bring more unwanted attention. When I made my way to the door, I placed the chain on the latch and cracked the door open to see who was standing outside.

"Hello?"

I didn't see much of anyone standing outside of my door. I guess I was just imagining thi-

"Hi there!" Shouted a voice from behind me, placing a hoof on my left shoulder.

"SHIT!" I screamed loudly, turning around and grabbing the hoof on my shoulder. As I pulled, I had stopped myself short as soon as I saw the golden slipper on the pink hoof, belonging to none other than Princess Cadance. "What the fuck? How the hell did you get in here?"

"Teleportation spell. And further more, I wanted to pay you a much-needed visit to have a much-desired conversation with you."

Right... The magical muffin button that miraculously causes maneure to manifest itself before my very eyes. "Well... can you kinda knock normally next time, so I could open up the door and see you standing in the hall, so that I could then invite you in."

"Well you weren't doing anything lustful. If that were the case then I would've given you a few more minutes."

"Wait, how would you have known about me-"

"Princess of Love. I've learned to differentiate between love magic and lustful urges. Plus sex just so happens to be a thing I can sense."

...Well that would've made things so awkward had I been jacking off. But still... "Look, can we just agree that I don't like being barged in on?"

"I can tell."

"Now to question four, why are you here? Shouldn't you be up north somewhere?" I questioned.

"I came here to pay Twilight a visit. And apparently you must have restocked since I was gone." She said, pointing to the bed.

SHIT, the guns are still out! "Oh, you weren't suppose to see those."

"So what do these even do?" Cadance asked as she poked her hoof at the smallest gun in view.

Grabbing her hoof quickly, I grabbed the gun and placed it in the box. "What do these even do? What are they even doing here? Why would these be out for you to see them?"

"Mainly because I just appeared in your room without warning before you could have the chance to hide all your dirty..." She looked at the box I had threw the gun in. "...laundry."

I laughed nervously as I started to grab the shot gun and the sniper rifle and place them in the box. "Well actually, there's a funny story behind all of this-"

Suddenly, I felt something yank at the sniper rifle. I looked back to see her magic grasping at the tip of the barrel. "Wow, this one's huge. Even has a little scope on it."

I placed the shotgun under my arm to free up my left hand. Tapping her horn, I quickly grabbed the weapon from her. Meaning that they weren't filled with ammo doesn't mean that I shouldn't take precaution in handling weapons of that caliber. "This is for my upcoming hunting trip."

"So what does it do?"

"Pick off changelings from over eight-hundred yards away."

Cadance gasped at the number, staring slack-jawed at the weapon I placed in the box. "...No way!"

"It will cut down on me trying to get close and taking out the changeling commander. Instead, I can take him out from a safe distance and be on my way home before they could even know what hit him."

Cadance walked right by me and started to levitate the shotgun out of the box. "So what does this one do?"

Again tapping her horn, I pushed the shotgun back inside. "That is for special occasions."

"Such as?"

For reasons quintessentially American. "For when I have to defend myself in short-range distances in wide-ranged areas. I lovingly call it 'boom stick'."

"Why 'boom stick'?"

"Because similar to your husband, you cock it, it goes off, it gets everywhere. And though billions of sperm cells are practically harmless to you, eight small, metallic pellets going off at about eight-hundred miles-an-hour are not."

Cadance winced at the possibility of how much damage could be done. "That sounds like it hurts. A lot."

"Well, if I shot a changeling in the leg with it, it wouldn't have much to stand on."

"Yikes! So if you hit one in the head?"

I just stared at her for a quick second. "...Heh, heard of the phrase 'bust the head to the white meat'? Well the 'white meat' would come busting out of it's ears."

Cadance stared at me, somewhat mortified at my explanation. "...Eww."

"I know, right. But it get's it done quicker than a sword would. And the best thing, I can bypass armor with this."

"OKAY... Let's change the subject!" She said quickly while looking at the clock on the nightstand. "I have a really important day with Twilight, I'm supposed to be taking her out to the spa and I should really be getting back with her."

"Oh, that's nice."

Cadance then turned her attention back to me. "Yeah... I kinda have a reason why I'm taking her out and about today. She seems to be in the pits lately. Any idea why?"

"Well..." She probably already knows by now. "She and I kinda got into a bit of a spat."

The pink alicorn sat on the bed as she spoke. "I heard. You two broke the cardinal rule of the approval process and gotten yourselves in trouble."

I shook my head as I verbally expressed my disapproval. "Remind me why that law exists?"

Cadance kinda cringed while she tried to explain herself. "Oh, well I can't really tell you. If you really wanna know how it got started, then you're going to have to ask Princess Ce-"

"Forced against her will." I answered in deadpan. "I know. Still wondering why it currently exists."

Cadance rolled her eyes at this one. "Oh, it went a little deeper as time went on. When Celestia tried to have it removed the first two-hundred-nineteen times, they always killed the motion in vote. And as time progressed, they tried to use it as a bargaining chip against the younger, naive princesses. Ultimately, they wanted to have their so-called trophy."

"Wait, so you mean they wanted Princess Celestia to marry with one of them?"

"Well this law was birthed from envy. When Celestia had her romantic getaway, they got flustered and thought to themselves 'how dare she give herself so willingly to an enemy rather than us'? And when the politics got thrown into the mix, it all became one huge mess."

Given that she was accused of treason, I could assume that much. Any personal matter dressed in politics could be sold to anyone who was stupid enough to buy it, but the problem was that the lie was so ingeniously woven that even some well-informed individual would believe it. And those who challenged the belief were considered as fools and branded as such.

Politics is sort of like the tale of The Emperor's New Clothes: personal benefit was the model and political ideologies were the 'magnificent robes' it wore. And of course, I would be one of those labeled as the 'fool' for my disbelief in a system that has been established and maintained for well over a thousand years.

That's a role I wouldn't mind playing. "But that doesn't make any sense. Why make a law-"

"If they couldn't have her, then no one could. And every other princess or prince that followed behind her, they suffered the same ordeal... It was much worse for the princes."

The princes? But wouldn't they have it easier for them being male members of the monarchy? "But why?"

"They couldn't take advantage of a prince. They couldn't use him in the ways they wanted to. So they did everything in their power to get rid of him. They'd even go so far as locking him in a room with ten mares on estrus just to have him tried."

...Ye olde politics, thou art fucked up. "Wow, now that's bullshit."

"The same with those on the approval list. If it's a stallion trying to unionize with that of a princess, then he'd pretty much be sent off to the front lines of battle, trained or not."

"WHAT!?" So they'd send these guys out to die, just to free up the princess from a possible marriage? Are these assholes serious? At least now I understand why they needed me to be a member of the military from the start. I see that Celestia had probably added that in for the sake of giving us 'applicants' some ground to stand on. "For what reason?"

"You have aging nobles, politicians, and legislators all wanting an additional grab for power. A stallion of elder age and mountainous influence would rather have his last hurrah by marrying a young and fertile princess."

So basically... "This is all about the sex, isn't it?"

Cadance sighed very audibly as she looked at the time on the clock. "I wish I had more time to get into it, but I-"

"No!" I shouted, standing in front of her. "These guys are trying to send me out to a land unknown to find a target unverified. And by their train of thought, they would be sending me there with nothing but a sword and a spear. I feel as if I should have a right to know if they were planning to do the same shit with me."

Cadance rose from the bed and started to walk towards the door. "I'm sorry, but my time is far spent. I have to-"

I ran around to intercept her before she could leave the room. "No, you've already told me this much. You might as well tell me everything you know."

The pink princess tried her best to avoid eye contact with me. I continued to stand in the way of her exit. Eventually, she sat back down on the bed and took a deep breath.

"...They've already place it in motion, they want you to lead the investigation for the sole purpose for you not coming back. Their first reason was that you weren't a pony to begin with, but since your approval process application has been filed, they just simply want you to disappear... for more obvious reasons."

So they are trying to get me killed... well it looks like my enemies are both seen and unseen. I can see the changelings from a mile away, but this was a dagger in the back by a system that had me put in place to protect it.

Completely stunned, I walked over to the other bed and lied down, trying to let it all sink in. "Why... just why me?"

"You're not the only one." Cadance whispered as she brought her hoof over to stroke my cheek. "Shining Armor had been placed in similar situations as well, many even more dangerous than what you'll have to endure. If anything, you have the tactical advantage of weaponry beyond our comprehension and manufacturing capabilities. Shining had a sword, a shield and his own wits. Every time he came back, he'd look at them just to see the scowl on their faces."

"But why us?"

"Isn't it obvious? I married Shining Armor so they're still hostile towards him, even more so being that now he's a prince. He's protected from all of these dangerous excursions, save any punishments handed down by Celestia."

"So again asking... Why am I the next whipping boy?"

"You've should've realized it by now, Nondis."

I took some time to think about it, wondering what had earned me the mark of being... Oh no. That's why Twilight was trying to... I quickly sat up from the bed and looked towards Cadance, who had a sad look on her face. She looked at me with empathy set in her eyes. By now I had finally came up with the main reason why they were so sold on having me sent out to fight. My mouth slid open to let words pass, but the air had failed to rise from my lungs.

Cadance remained silent as she turned away, looking back to the clock as she closed her eyes and tried to stop herself from welling up tears. "When she was first crowned, Shining and I tried our best to do whatever it took to protect her."

"...Twilight. They're trying to get with her."

Author's Note

Lo and behold, one of the first major plot twists in the story. I say it is major for specific reasons, you'll have to read in a later chapter to find out what they are though.

The tension builds, the drama unfolds, and eventually it will all come crashing down. To say that not even I had planned this one out was an understatement. But now I'm going to build on it. How? Well stick around for future chapters to find out.

And I know some of you are unsatisfied with the snail's pace that I'm taking. I personally don't like it either. I will try my best to snap out of it and get back to the usual pacing.

Thanks for reading and feel free to leave your comments below, should you have any.

~~Depending on reception, I may ultimately rewrite this chapter.~~

Chapter XXXIV

Have you ever had one of those days where you're just casually going about your day, it starts on a pretty high note and then all of a sudden it doesn't seem that way. Instead of carrying on that high stride that you originally started with, something comes around to knock you out of place and ruin that vibe you had, that drive of confidence that had you running towards the finish line. You hadn't made it quite halfway there, but you felt deep down that you were going to be the first one to cross that tape.

Much akin to that situation, my day has gone beyond that example. Instead of going about to celebrate my new weapons as well as my newly-repaired shoulder, I'm finding out more about this law that did so much emotional, physical, and mental damage to both me and Twilight. And nothing about it looks pretty.

We went from friends, to sharing secrets with one another, to sharing secrets with one another, to battling the press, to battling her big brother, to stressing the hell out of each other, to making up, to sharing intimate moments with one another, to getting steamy... You've pretty much gotten the point by now.

And all of that leading up to me and her being hunted down like wild foxes... by the individuals who claim to 'represent the will of the constituency', knowing damn well that they're doing all of this for themselves. And here I am, wondering what went wrong and how it all fell apart. And to think that it all had started with just one simple yet unexpected kiss.

Where do I even begin? Hell where do I even start? So allow me to recap this while I'm stuck in stare-mode.

I'm a dead ass because I'm in a relationship─that's now in a temporary hiatus─with Twilight, all because of her being a princess. Now let's go into detail...

I'm dead because some old farts want to get their dick wet, courtesy of a currently unwed princess who could be so kind as to allow them the opportunity of being their second or third wife... possibly even fourth. And now that I'm the one who's beaten them to the punch, they decided to screw me over by sending me into a land unknown, to find an unconfirmed target, and tried to do so while I was injured. And here I was thinking that Spike was the only one that had it out for me.

How Twilight kept this a secret from me for so long seems to be the only thing I can think about right now, that aside from taking my 'dirty laundry' to Canterlot and blasting every single one of these assholes to hell. This is a reoccurring issue that should have been resolved a century back, if not a few decades ago.

This was something that Celestia should've taken care of a while back... but something tells me that there's more to it. There has to be, she can't just let these guys keep running her over. Something tells me that they got leverage over her and are using it to their advantage. And as of now, she probably gave up hope that things would change.

Two-hundred-plus attempts at revoking a law with not one single repeal will do that to you.

...My life sucks right now.

"I'm sorry." Cadance whispered as she sat on the bed. "I know this is hard for you-"

"Just... stop please." I just didn't want to hear anymore about anything, let alone this dumb-ass law. If anything, I just didn't want to see anyone at all. I didn't want to deal with anything or anyone for the time being. The only thing I wanted to do was...

*sigh*

...I just want to be ignorant. Ignorance is bliss and I could sure use that bliss to keep my mind off of power-hungry politicians trying to make a move on Twilight. Just the thought of them trying to woo her just pissed me off immensely.

I want to just bypass logic and reason, I want to abandon conscious and guilt, I want to grab my gun and aim at every fucker that tried to send me out to my end. I could do just that, I had the firepower and know-how to pull it off.

But doing that would only play into their hooves, at least then they'd have a logical reason to have me killed. And this time under legal pretenses, where neither Celestia nor Twilight could do anything to clear my name. Can't say that I won't regret it, but I would feel some sort of sadistic satisfaction in seeing them lie quietly in a puddle of their own blood while the majority of them squirm in a corner.

Ugh... wow.

My thoughts are all sorts of fucked up right now. Here I am thinking of revenge fantasies, knowing what the real-world consequences would be. And the only thing that's preventing me from going this far would be my desire to keep both Twilight and Shining's names clean; Twilight for being with me and Shining for giving me this position of power. And again, it would play right into their hooves.

Cadance rose from the bed to give me a hug. "I won't let them hurt you either. Just like I'll protect Twilight, I'll do the same for you."

The feeling of hooves being wrapped around my body in a tender fashion didn't seem to move me very much. I guess I was too far gone in thought.

"You deserve so much more than this. And I know that this is all coming at you at a bad time, but I know that you'll do fine." Cadance unwrapped herself from me and held me as she tried her best to remain within my line of sight while I started to look away from her. "You're a wonderful individual, capable of winning the hearts of those around you. The aura you give off is positively wonderful. Don't let that warmth go because of other's selfish intentions."

I broke my long silence and spoke to the princess, the confusion still set in my mind. "Who can I run to? Who can I trust."

Cadance smiled as she brought both of her hooves onto my hand.

"I may have a suggestion."

After our conversation, I vouched to stay holed up inside of my room for purposes of letting me simmer down. Cadance voiced her concern that my staying in a darkened room with no one to talk to after the news I had received would leave me with 'destructive thoughts'. So instead of letting me clean my guns and wallow in the thoughts of exacting vengeance, she pulls me out of the room and temporarily places Twilight on the back-burner.

How come? Because she wants me to get engaged in some sort of strenuous activity, in hopes of 'letting me work out the anger and providing some time for healthy thoughts'. Obviously, she was very keen to the fact that I wanted to go to Canterlot and raise a significant amount of hell. She also mentioned that she had volunteered Shining for several physical jobs outside of the city for a few days to cool him off.

Apparently, he was just as livid as I am now.

Another twenty minutes and about five miles later, Cadance and I dropped in on the humble little house smack-dead center of Sweet Apple Acres. Afterwards, she and Applejack began to talk with one another in a separate room from where I was sitting. For a few minutes, I had gotten curious as to what they were talking about and let myself become drawn to the conversation.

I plopped my ear against the door and listened in quietly.

"They did what?"

Meanwhile in the Kitchen...

"Nondis and Twilight are having a break from their relationship." Cadance verified. "Apparently some things happened and now they both elected to take a split."

Applejack tapped her chin as she thought out loud. "Hmm... Think it could've been because of that game from yesterday?"

"Your friendship game?" Cadance questioned, seeming interested in what could have lead Twilight and I to call a hiatus.

"Well, some things were said an' from that point on, looked like Twi was ready to hound on Nondis fer somethin'. Ah can't say what it was, that's something fer them to talk to ya about."

"I spoke with Twilight already and she told me about Pinkie Pie. She seemed really apologetic about what happened between them. And when I saw her this morning, she was a complete mess. Her mane was horrible and she looked like she had spent half the night crying."

"What about the other half?" Applejack inquired with a quirked brow.

"Tossing and turning, I guess. Twilight's been having some odd dreams lately too. They could be premonitions concerning future events, but that's not my field of expertise."

Applejack shrugged off the possibility that some of those dreams could come to pass. "Premonitions, shremonitions. Ain't nothin' bad is gonna happen between those two... well nothin' drastically life-changin'."

"Nondis and Twilight got into a fight. Nondis left to his world, came back, and decided to put everything about them on hold. That doesn't seem bad?"

"Well, it could be that something coulda been goin on with Twilight. Fer some odd reason she was wearin a fancy cloak all day, and to add she's been experiencin' some strange surges of pain. She says it's stomach aches, but Ah've never seen a stomach ache that makes ya hold yer sides all day."

Cadance shook her head as she released a long sigh. "What is said here won't leave this room."

Applejack grew a serious frown on her face as she firmed her resolve. "Gotcha. Not a word."

"...Three days ago, Twilight and Nondis carried out something that they were strictly prohibited from doing. And as punishment, Twilight had her wings clipped."

The orange farm mare held a hoof to her muzzle as she looked back to the pink princess with shock. "They actually did it?

"Apparently so. And from what Twilight had told me, Nondis had vocalized his regret of doing so. Of course it was out of concern for her career, I wouldn't see him doing anything else except that. His intentions are too pure, he's shown that to me."

Applejack walked over to the nearby wall and grabbed her stetson hanging off of the mitten rack. "So what did she say in response to that?"

"She wasn't too happy about it, which was probably why she was in such a foul mood to begin with. And the situation with Pinkie only made things worse. Twilight takes exception to mares brushing up against colts she has an interest in, she's even shown it with Flash."

(Wait, seriously?)

"Well, Twi's never been really popular amongst the colts here in town. To them, she seems a bit too upscale, even compared to Rarity. But then again, Rarity was born an' raised here in Ponyville so there's that. And now that she's a princess, Ah guess that just made her all the more undesirable in terms of dating. Guess they were too afraid of the work it took to get acquainted with a princess, let alone approved."

Cadance chuckled to herself. "Tell me about it. Being a princess is a hard blow to one's aspirations of dating, considering the risks involved. Hell I had to pry Shining away from his younger sister for him to even notice that I was there, and after that he nearly wet himself when I had expressed an interest in having him. But of course, we're married now so it doesn't matter."

"Yeah, y'all told us about that story." Applejack placed the brown stetson on her head as she spoke. "So, what'cha need me to do today?"

"I need you to keep Nondis busy." Cadance said with a low volume. "Nondis is a bit frustrated himself because of the relationship and all that he had to go through, especially since the fight with Twilight. If you can keep him occupied for the entire day, then you're doing great. Got it?"

Applejack gave the pink princess a quick salute. "As clear as crystal."

I backed away from the door and quickly sat back down on one of the chairs across the room. Pretending as if I hadn't heard the conversation they had, I continued to feign ignorance to their plan. A few seconds later, Applejack and Cadance walked out of the kitchen and looked at me.

"Well, I guess I'll be heading off now. Gotta meet up with Twilight for our big day at the spa." The pink princess said as she walked by me. But before she completely cleared by, she had stopped herself short and turned her head towards me. "Also, can we speak outside for a quick moment?"

I shrugged my shoulders as I climbed out of the chair and followed her towards the front door. When we were finally left alone, Cadance gave me a really serious look as she spoke.

"Look, I know that you're angry about the current circumstances. But there is one thing I need you to not do, and that is tell anypony about what we had talked about."

I flipped my hands and sank my shoulders as I squinted at her. "Wha... Why? I thought-"

"Letting this news get out would cause a massive uprising that you─as current captain of the guard─would be assigned to quell and clean up after. And let me tell you, Shining and I went overseas to help control a country after a massive civil war and help clean up house. The aftermath was bloody."

Oh great. The last thing I needed on my plate was a mass political clean-up. But then again, threatening a political uprising could be just what the doctor ordered when it comes to these 'representatives'... Perhaps I could use that bit of knowledge to my advantage in the future. In fact, I could actually have that as my ace while I continue to accumulate a strong hand.

But since I'm going to be playing politics as well as soldier, I'm going to need to move at a cautious pace. I can't act too slowly or else nothing will get done, and I can't act too quickly or it will come off as a sort of radical coup d'état.

The violent taketh by force.

...That won't work.

The French Revolution worked out well.

And the concurrent Reign of Terror only worked out for the ruling party, that is until Robespierre failed at suicide, broke his jaw, and got sent to the guillotine anyhow. And then Napoleon tried to take over all of Europe after that-

Those were men who got mad with power. We're not trying to establish a new world order, we're thinking to repeal a law.

...Correction, we are going to repeal a law.

"Hellooooo? Nondis!"

"Huh?" I said, snapping back to the present time.

"Did you have fun on the moon while you were up there? Cause I need you back here."

I shook my head to get myself focused on the now. "Okay."

"No one is to know of your current situation OR what they have planned. Got it?"

I know that she has aspirations of killing this law too. I'm sure that she and Shining also expressed their distaste of those parliament members trying to stake a claim to her prior to their marriage. That means I have at least her and Shining in my corner, but I would have to play them carefully. This has now become a game where the stakes are high and the losses could be even higher than what's advertised. And the way I play my first hand could ultimately decide the outcome of this game before the next match could even begin.

No holds barred? Then let the games begin.

Sure, I can play along with her plan... for now. "Okay. But if anything goes south, I'm warning you-"

Cadance stepped in front of me, her magic dragging me down by the collar of my shirt. "You are NOT..." She gave another firm yank to pull me a mere inch away from her scowling expression. "...to instigate any sort of panic amongst the citizens. You will lie low until I have given you permission to move. Is that understood, captain?"

Wow, she can be scary! Apparently, she must already have a plan established. Guess I'll go along with it then. "Understood, ma'am."

Letting me go, she took a deep breath and proceeded to straighten out my shirt. "Again, I need you to trust me. Work with me, and we'll make sure that there isn't a future instance of this happening. Work against me, and you'll be on your own." She warned angrily. "I know you can be bullheaded, but I need you to actually listen to me this time. Shining was just one pony, we're talking well over a hundred with the ability to legislate until your existence is considered as meaningless. We have power, you don't. Do you understand?"

"I don't like how I 'don't have power' but-"

Cadance rolled her eyes as she clarified her earlier statements. "They don't listen to captains. They listen to those with the power to veto their every whim. You do not carry that power... yet."

"Yet?" I questioned with a yelp, causing Cadance to cover my mouth with a hoof.

"Please, would you keep it down?" She asked quietly through gritted teeth. Looking around, she tried to see if anyone had heard us. And after verifying that there was no one around, she "Work with us, Nondis. You won't be harmed if you're under our protection. We need you as much as you need us. Would you be willing to put aside your own anger and ambitions for the cause?"

Well, I would provided that I'd get some sort of explanation of what this cause is. After she removed her hoof from my mouth, I began to question her quietly. "What is this cause and why should I sign up for it?"

"I can explain later. My time is really cutting short here."

"I want an explanation."

Cadance sighed as she looked back at the dirt road leading back into town. "...Tell you what, I'll let you stick around here for a bit. And when you finish, I'll come by later this afternoon and we can talk then. By then I can give you a proper run-down on what we're doing to kill this law. And hopefully we can take down the primary voices that holds this bill in place. That's all I can say for now. But I need you to let me know if you would be willing to join us first... before we can give you the full details."

"Why?"

"Because we're putting more than our future on the table."

I bit my lower lip as I took a brief moment to think. I didn't want to get into something else that would end up as a massive clusterfuck of problems, but at the same time this law was already creating said clusterfuck. I don't even know what the risks are, and I'm not sure what they're putting in.

I've still got a whole day to think about it. I'll asses the possible risks and keep in mind my method of taking out those politicians. I know that they're working slowly, and slow isn't how I'd prefer to get this done. But if they're talking about taking out key figureheads of the law, then I'd be down for it. Still, haste is preferred.

Ugh... I do need some time to think this over. "Okay. I'll think on it."

Cadance showed a light smirk as she turned away from me and took a few steps forward. "Good. In that case, I'll see you sometime later."

"Sure." I answered as she readied herself to take into the sky. Buckling her forelegs and bracing herself for takeoff, she lowered her body just a few inches off of the ground. Suddenly, she stood still.

"Remember," She whispered, turning back to me. "Not a soul."

With a single flap of her wings, a powerful gust of wind stirred the dust from the ground, causing me to shield my eyes as she leapt high into the air. By the time the dust had settled enough for me to regain my sight, she was long gone. The only thing that remained was the large set of hoofprints in the dirt as well as two large areas where the dirt was kicked up by her wings. I looked towards the sky and saw nothing except for a few low-laying clouds and the bright sun. Cadance was definitely gone.

I stood silent for a few seconds, still thinking about her offer when suddenly the door creaked open behind me. I jumped back in response, only to sigh in relief as I saw Applejack standing in the door.

"So Ah heard that ya shoulder was doin' great. Glad ya feelin' better. Ya ready fer some hard labor?"

"Um... Don't I get a warm-up?"

"Nah, ya rested long enough. An' don't think Ah've forgotten ya not helpin' durin' the reconstruction effort. Yer makin' it up in full today!"

I don't like that tone she has. "So... I'm gonna be picking apples?"

"Pickin?" She hollered, followed by a hearty laugh. "Hoo wee, pickin apples. Nah, we're not slow-pokin' today. We're straight buckin' em off the trees!"

I looked back down to my legs and whimpered in fear of me getting injured again, and a likely candidate was a broken leg. "I kinda need my legs." I retorted.

"Ah know! Ya just gotta buck it at the right angle and watch the apples fall."

"Uh, no. Humans aren't built like that. You'd kick it hard enough and might break the tree, I'd kick it hard enough and my bone will pop out of my skin."

Applejack rolled her eyes as she started to push me towards the nearest apple orchard. "Nonsense! Ah know that ya humans gotta have some grit if y'all can bull down all those changelings!"

I continued to resist. "No. I will break my leg. Not doing it, final answer."

"Oh come on, Nondis! Ya took a lot of wear n' tear in the fight like four days ago! Ah'm sure y'all can take on a tree or two!"

"No means no!"

Suddenly, I felt myself completely at a standstill. Nothing pushed me forwards an I only began to stumble backwards a bit. Then the next thing I could see was a hat blocking much of my view as the farm mare laughed behind me. "Bahahaha! Are ya kiddin? No way Ah'd let ya break those stilts yer walkin' on! Take it easy, will ya?"

I find that hard to process when it's coming from the workaholic above all ponies.

"Ya need ta relax. Ah'm not gon start ya off with somethin' like that. Yer gonna do something a little easier on the legs. But it's still hard work, and Ah expect ya to put in as much as anypony else 'round here. Got it?"

Damn, she's really eager to put my ass to work. "Okay. So what am I doing?"

"Nothin' hard. But Ah may got a little somethin' planned fer ya." She said with a smirk.

...I'm not going to like this, am I?

I figured something like this would happen. Big Mac decided go take the day off an hour before Cadance and I came around. His reason: going on another date with Cherilee. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that he's getting his... but now I'm the one who's pulling the carts of apples from the orchard to the barn. And let's add in the fact that the barn is separated from the closest orchard─the one we're working on─by about seventy yards out. So I'm carting about a hundred pounds of fruit to the barn and fifteen pounds of wood back. And between here and there, there isn't much protection from the sun.

Thankfully this isn't a terribly warm day or else I'd be drenched in even more sweat than I'm covered in now.

But Applejack seemed to be taking her work in stride. With each kick, she knocks down the human equivalent of about twenty minutes of work. But again, that left me to haul and empty the buckets of apples into the cart for me to take out. And when she was done with a tree, she'd start setting up for the next one. I'd call it tedious, but thankfully Apple Bloom was setting up the trees long before we could get to them. So at the very least I didn't feel like I was doing all of the manual labor.

On my third run to the barn, Granny Smith hollered at me from the porch.

"Hey there, youngin'! I can see yer hardly workin'! Give it a few and I'll give you youngsters a treat!"

Apple juice or lemonade sounds about nice. "Sure thing!"

"Keep workin, ya hear!?"

"Yes ma'am!"

After that brief interruption, I pulled myself back into workhorse mode and pulled the cart full of fruit towards it's destination. This carried on for about another fifteen trips before I had started to really feel the burn. But as time progressed, I began to see a lot less red in the trees and a lot more green on the ground. Another two rounds after that, I had noticed that Apple Bloom began to rake up the leaves that we left behind. Applejack had gathered the buckets and stacked them up neatly as I pulled out the final shipment of apples.

"Be sure ta help me with these buckets when ya get through, ya hear?"

I... was... dog... tired. "Sure." I droned lazily, pulling the cart.

When I had pulled the cart in, I had to give myself a quick lean against the barn doors. As I looked inside, all I could see was nothing but mountains of red fruit that only made me angry. Internally, I was swearing and cursing the existence of the fruit that caused me so much grief and discomfort. But on the other hand, I was really hoping that Granny Smith would come out with the refreshments. And as much as I wanted to sit around and wait for a snack, I had made an agreement that I would help Applejack get the rest of those buckets from the orchard.

Dammit.

I carried myself slowly, letting the aches and throbs of my body weigh me down to a snail's pace. By the time I had gotten back, Applejack had pushed some of the stacks of buckets towards a halfway point. Guess I can't complain here. And so I carried the stacks of wooden buckets from the middle of the orchard back to the barn.

And mind you, that fucking wood was splintery as shit and heavy as hell.

When I had finished hauling back whatever Applejack had placed out for me to get in the next go round, I had started to become very suspicious of what she was doing. I began to notice that with each time I proceeded to move the buckets from the orchard, she and I have not crossed paths not even once. So I decided to chill out behind one of the trees and wait for her to come around. And the moment she showed up, she had the nerve to place down more of the buckets and walk off into the deeper parts of the orchard. But before she could-

"Hi there."

Startled, Applejack turned around quickly and smiled innocently. "Oh uh... Howdy there! Ya finished taking the buckets over?"

"Yup. And I just so happened that you were missing out on the fun. Care to explain why I'm doing this by myself?"

Applejack drew a long sigh. "Sorry. Ah didn't mean ta leave ya hangin' round like that. But Ah'm tryin' ta make sure that these trees aren't hidin' fruit bats. The southern orchard was pretty thin in product thanks to the fellers eatin' up our crop. If Ah can find a bunch of 'em here, that'll be a sign that we'll be throwin' away quite a few apples once we get back to the barn."

...Please don't tell me that we have to sort these things too. "We do?"

"Course we do... well not the throwin' apples away part. But anythin' else, yeah."

Figures. I knew that bringing these baskets out of the orchard was too good to be true. "Hey... I know you don't really have a care for what these buckets do to hooves, of course with them being hooves and all, but I think I might need to do a bit of plucking before I do anything else."

Applejack walked over to me as I started to hold my hands out. "What's the big... Yesh! What happened to yer hands?" She questioned as she noticed the sizable splinters of wood sticking out of my slightly bloodied hands.

"Wood happened. I got splinters like a bi-" Remember, language... "...like a mug."

"Arrgh, horse apples!" She angrily shouted as she proceeded to investigate my hands. "Ya look a mess! C'mon, let's get ya back to the barn and get this cleaned up."

I started to look back to the stacks of buckets and noticed that we still had a ways to go. "What about-"

"We'll take care of 'em later. For now we gotta clean ya up and get ya good and wrapped."

A few minutes later, Apple Bloom, Applejack, and I all took a much-needed rest inside of the barn. While Applejack was busy getting the buckets from the orchard, Apple Bloom took care of my splinter-riddled hands. She tried her best to pluck them out while causing as little discomfort as possible, but that was not going to be a possibility.

"The one thing that I didn't account for while I was carrying those dang things was the fact that I was working without gloves." I said as I watched the young filly pull out a large splinter from the palm of my hand via a pair of tweezers in her teeth.

"Me neither. Ah guess you're really not used to farm work, and Applejack wasn't exactly noticin' it either. Ah guess humans take a bit of warmin' up to when it comes to this kind of stuff." Apple Bloom stated.

"Actually, I'm just your average city-boy. My hometown is full of people and large buildings, a steep contrast to the farmlands way out in the boonies."

"Really?" She questioned.

"Yeah. In fact, we humans have farms similar to yours. It's just that we're not as strong as earth ponies are. You guys can kick a tree and apples come flying out, we kick a tree and we start screaming. So we kinda harvest our apples a bit slower than you guys do."

"Wow, Ah guess it takes days to go through an orchard for you guys, especially one our size."

"Sometimes. But when it comes to corn and other goods that come sprouting from the ground, we have machines to do that for us. So say we'd have a field the size of where we picked the apples from, filled with nothing but ears of corn... wait, how do you guys pick your corn?"

Apple Bloom hummed as she thought to herself for a bit. "Well... we kinda pick ours by hoof, so it takes a while to go through an entire field."

"Well that while would probably take us about one or two hours, using our machines to pick and harvest our corn for us. Our agriculture is pretty much industrialized more than anything. There are places in the world that don't use machines, but my home country has a bunch of them."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. I'd get you guys one, but I wouldn't be able to fit it through the portal. No luck there."

"Oh... So if you didn't have your machines, then would you pick em by hand?"

"Yeah, but we'd wear gloves to protect ourselves from all kinds of things, bug bites, thorns, poison ivy, and... the crap you're picking out of my hand."

Apple Bloom used the tweezers to pull out the last remaining splinter out of my right hand. Afterwards, she sighed and walked over to the counter to grab a bottle of what was labeled 'XXX'. I knew then I was going to be gritting my teeth when that stuff went on my hand. My arm tensed up as she grabbed it again, dangling the bottle above it.

"Now this may sting a little." She warned before she practically baptized my hand in the alcoholic substance. Immediately, I winced in pain and tapped my foot while I continued to use every profane word in combination with another word.

Shit-dick, humper-duck-fuck, holy-brass-nipples, ass-nuggets, goddamn this hurts!

If Applejack could hear the words rolling through my mind, she'd have a fit and try to wash my mouth out with soap. But eventually, the burning akin to a hundred fire ants simultaneously biting down onto my left testicle died down. The pain soon came down to somewhat bearable levels and everything was calm with the world once more... at least from my perspective.

As soon as she placed the bottle down, I began to feel a sense of relief. That was until she spoke. "Okay, now for the other hand."

...Fuck.

Applejack came walking in just as Apple Bloom picked up the pair of tweezers and started plucking away at my left hand. After hauling in the last of the buckets, she walked over to me and the younger filly. "Is he gonna be okay?"

"Yes, he's gonna be fine."

"Are ya sure, fer certain that he's gonna be right as rain?"

The young filly started to show how irritated she was becoming. "Yes, Applejack. He's gonna be okay."

The farm mare looked back to me, with worry set in her eyes. "Nondis, ya need anythin' else? Ah can see if ya need a-"

"APPLEJACK!" The young filly shouted, snapping her older sister out of her borderline-neurotic breakdown. "He's. Fine."

Opting to help the young one make her case, I voiced my opinion. "You're okay. It's just that I wasn't prepared to deal with this kind of stuff, nor was I even trained to handle this kind of work. But aside from that, I'm doing fine. Thanks for your concern, but Apple Bloom got me covered."

Yeah. She's got you covered... in the equivalent to that of hot sauce, habañero jalapeño peppers, wasabi sauce, sulfuric acid, salt, and lemon juice. And don't worry about missing out on the fun, there's going to be a round two of sticking your hand in some mystery-mix that puts xenomorph blood to shame! Doesn't that sound exciting?

No... it doesn't. Oh God why.

"Okay. Look, Ah really didn't mean ta have ya get hurt like this." Applejack said with guilt running her head heavily towards the ground.

"Applejack, this was on me. I should have told you that I wasn't gonna be able to move those buckets to the barn without proper-"

Instantly, she grabbed my still-soaked hand and started staring at it. "Why look at this! Ah can't believe Ah let ya get hurt!"

I kinda winced at her grabbing my hand, all while looking to Apple Bloom for some help.

"Sorry," the young filly said. "she can be a bit overprotective at times. She doesn't mind workin' but she doesn't wanna see nopony hurt. This is normal of her once ya get to know her."

"I see." I said under my breath, still trying not to vocally display my discomfort at the heavy-handed mare grabbing my hand. "Then I guess she wouldn't mind letting that hand go?"

Seeing that I was still showing signs of discomfort from her grabbing me, the elder sibling released the still-stinging hand. "Oops. Sorry."

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes at her sister and carried on to removing the splinters out of my hand. "So Nondis, you said that your hometown was actually full of big buildings. Does that mean that your hometown is bigger than Ponyville?"

"Well, I know that Ponyville is working with a population of around a thousand, so yeah. The buildings, the layout and how far everything is spaced from one another kinda makes Ponyville look like a decent size, but my place is bigger than here. It's even bigger than Canterlot."

Both ponies jaws fell at the thought of my hometown being bigger than Canterlot. Applejack almost seemed like she was about to headbutt me as quick as she rushed towards me. "Say what!"

"Yeah, I got a comparison from Pinkie's sisters, and they all say that Manehattan was pretty much the exact same size of Austin... population wise."

"No way!" Apple Bloom shouted with excitement. "Your place is that big!? Wow, Ah gotta tell everypony this!"

"Apple Bloom, mind yer manners!" The elder sister scolded. "It's rude goin' round tellin' everypony's personal business. He already gets enough attention as it is."

After earning a stern look from her elder sister, Apple Bloom quietly apologized to me... "Sorry." ...just before she flipped back to her questions. "So you're from the big city? You think Ah might ever get a chance to see it?"

"Well that depends." Applejack said, beating me to the punch. "The question is would Nondis allow us ta go to his world. Ah'm pretty sure it's filled with all kinds of fancy techy-stuff."

While Apple Bloom and Applejack turned to me, they both produced a toy-like squee as they grinned from ear to ear.

I've thought about it, I'm not gonna lie. I always thought it would be kinda fun to let the girls walk into my world and see it for themselves. I could show them around my school, take them to the mall, show them a movie, let them gaze at the skyline from across the Colorado River, show them to my friends back home, I've had the idea wander about. But at the same time I wasn't too sure as to what could happen, as well as trying to make it seem as if they didn't live under a rock. Twilight's been to my world twice already, but she's never left the apartment. So I guess if circumstances would allow, then I could bring them around to see the town.

That's one thing, but bringing someone at Apple Bloom's age could be risky. The foals here already trust adults because of the society allows them to do so, and in my world... not so much. So, for now I'd have to wait until I bring them around.

"Well, I can't really say that I could let you go just yet, Apple Bloom. Maybe sometime later."

The small filly folded her ears back as she dropped her head with disappointment. "Aw, rats."

"But I'd be willing to let the older ones play 'scouting party' to see if it's a place that they'd like. If so, then I'd bring them and you along with. How's that sound?"

Apple Bloom plucked another splinter out of my left pinky finger quickly as she brimmed with excitement. "Yes! Please, Ah'll do anything to get to see your world!"

"Okay then. But that also relies heavily on Applejack."

"Shucks, Ah don't mind not one bit! So when we goin'?" The farm mare questioned eagerly.

Wow, I forgot that she's usually straight to the point. No matter... "Well, I gotta make some time for us to do it. So we'll probably be looking at when my job at Canterlot gets done. I'd personally say about... uhhhh... a week from now, maybe. No promises though."

Applejack smiled as she expressed her excitement, all while kicking her front legs out with glee. "Yee-haw! Ah get ta go to... to uh..."

"Texas." I filled in for her.

"That place!"

...I tried.

Apple Bloom finally plucked out the final splinter and spat the tweezers aside. "Okay, you're all set."

"Then let's get yer hand clean!" Before I could open my mouth to respond, Applejack grabbed the bottle of liquid and began to pour all over my freshly plucked hand.

...All I can see now is stars, all I feel is insurmountable pain and indescribable agony. My foot pounded against the ground as I howled through clenched teeth. The muscles in my neck tensed as I cringed harshly, my eyelids reaching their widest point. A new stream of profane words came flooding throughout my brain while the pain continued to wrack my body into submission. I had grown afraid of closing my hands, as that would cause me to feel even more pain.

After all of that, I flopped against the bales of hay that sat behind me. My leg twitched a bit as I let the stinging once more fall back down to bearable levels.

"...Ouch." I squeaked out in a high pitched voice.

Applejack giggled a bit as she covered her mouth with a hoof. Apple Bloom however didn't look too impressed.

"D'oh, you big baby."

During the break, I had asked them if they had any bandages that I could use to wrap my hands with so that I wouldn't be touching anything that could cause an infection. The last thing I needed to do was to lose my hands to a gangrene infection. After wrapping my hands, Granny Smith showed up and treated us to some ice-cold apple cider, straight from the supply from yesterday. And for much of our time, she told us about some of her old stories, to which Applejack and Apple Bloom groaned in response to hearing. Of course being that I haven't heard of them before, I had become interested in what she had to say.

A few stories later, Big Mac came marching right through the barn doors. Applejack asked how his date went, his response being the usual 'Eeyup' he'd normally belt out from time to time. Granny Smith also started to hound on him and ask the blunt question of when he was getting married to her, to which he responded with a 'Eeeyuuuummm...', meaning that he wasn't certain. He also stressed that he wanted to make sure that he wasn't rushing into anything and wanted to 'take it slow'.

I could very much understand his situation. But when Granny Smith finally came out with the fact that he and her had been 'dating' for well over three years, I began to see where her concerns began.

Apple Bloom didn't seem too eager to speak on the subject of her teacher and her older brother getting hitched. That stuff wasn't exactly easy to talk about. It can get awkward when you talk about marriage with a sibling of yours, I'd know from the experience with my older brother. And my younger brother's probably too busy trying to see how many girls he can get with before high school was over... Except that it is over, and he's currently enrolled at Texas A&M.

...I really did miss out on a lot when it came to my family. My older brother had been got tied down and my younger had already started his first semester. I know that I don't talk with my family much, I've always been like that, but now sitting here with the Apple Family made me realize that I had just passed on something valuable, irreplaceable moments that I couldn't attend to because of my being here. And honestly, it all hurts.

It shouldn't being that I wasn't exactly too social with my kinfolk, but it does.

I got up from where I sat and walked out of the barn, making my way back into the apple orchard. When I had gotten deep enough, I decided to take a seat. I closed my eyes and let my mind wander around the fact that I missed out on some rather wonderful events concerning my brothers. I wondered if they had even know that I had came back. Probably so, thanks to mom and dad.

In speaking of mom and dad, I wonder if Twilight's parents had been made aware of what had happened with me and her. I'm sure they do, being that they're quite close to Celestia. It also came to mind of how I could go about introducing Twilight to my folks.

Hey mom and dad, this is my girlfriend from another world. Her name is Twilight and she's a pony from the magical land of Equestria. She's also a princess who battles evil beings and protects the ponies who serves her. I'm sure that you guys would love to come by and speak with her parents...

Yeah, my parents would probably send me to the coo-coo bin for that one, let alone for bestiality. If anything, my relationship with Twilight would have me jailed back on my side of the mirror. I don't need anything else complicating the relationship between me and her, I've already got enough holding me down.

In speaking of which... I'm still left in awe over the fact that these guys want me out of the picture so that they could make their advances on Twilight. I mean I'm angry, but at the same time I don't want to do anything that would look bad on Twilight or Shining.

I guess my time here did give me a chance to rationalize my thoughts rather than let them fester and allow myself to become something of ill-repute. But I still didn't want to see these political pigs get away with something so horrendous and allow for it to carry on as if it's a normal part of society. It is an outdated manuscript based off of jealousy and resentment towards Celestia and now they've decided to carry it out against anyone who dares to wear any sort of hardware on the top of their head.

They're nothing but a bunch of hypocrites, crabs in a bucket. Who's to say that if one of their own was to gain the heart of a princess, become approved, get married and consummate, wouldn't experience their peers turning against them? It would be an all-out brawl, a farce in the eyes of dignitaries from every other land. If that's what it could lead to, then what's the real purpose of this law even existing?

The more I think about this law, the more I find it as nothing short of pure stupidity. But then again, there's got to be a reason for why the government haven't collapsed in on itself yet. Suppose that they have a pact they follow. But again saying, these are politicians we're talking about. They do more backstabbing than any changeling or guard in service, and we actually kill each other.

Either way, this law was unnecessary, pointless, and obsolete as of a century ago. And despite the fact that it's been stable for a thousand years, does not mean that it's capable of withstanding the tests of modern time. Society has since moved on from the systems that once held influence over it, this law shall too see itself become dust.

No matter what, I just don't want Twilight to have to go through something like that again. It isn't fair that she had to get hurt for something so mundane.

"Hey!"

My eyes snapped wide open as I started to scan the area for the voice that called me out. I walked off from the tree I was leaning against and made my way back to the main path. When I showed myself, Applejack came trotting towards me.

"Y'all can't just walk into these here orchards without no guide! Y'all can get all kinds of lost back here!"

"Sorry." I apologized lethargically.

"What's wrong, sugar cube?"

I started to stretch out my arms and pop my neck. "Nothing much, just out here thinking."

"Bout what?"

"Meh... stuff."

Applejack looked at me with sympathy in her eyes. I knew that she was aware of what all was going on with me, or at least the portion that Cadance allowed her to know. She would be sympathetic towards me, it's to be expected. Instantly, she walked over to a nearby tree and sat herself on the ground. She patted her hoof on the dirt beside her as she beckoned me to sit beside her.

"Nah, I've had my time of sitting down."

"Well at least jus' stand here an' talk with me fer a while."

*sigh* ...I wasn't going to get out of this, even if I had tried. She would only take the next opportunity to speak with me about the subject. I might as well tell her my side of the story and hear what she has to say in response. Slowly, I trekked over to the tree and sat myself down again while Applejack began to speak.

"Ya know, Ah've noticed that ya kinda walked out on us durin' our family conversation. Sorry bout us talkin' so much about Big Mac hoppin' the broom. Ah can understand that it was a sensitive subject fer ya."

I shook my head as I leaned back against the apple tree. "Nah, I kinda walked out for something else. I just needed some time to think."

"About Twilight?" She asked bluntly.

"Yes... and then some. But she wasn't the reason why I walked out of the barn."

"Then what was?"

I groaned as I looked up to the leafy canopy above our heads, providing us with plentiful shade from the sun's light. "Not too long ago, my older brother got married-"

"SAY WHAT!" She shouted loudly, causing an echo to sound throughout the orchard.

"What's wrong?"

"Ya had a brother, an' ya didn't bother ta tell us about 'em!?" The farm pony asked as she jumped up on her hooves.

"Yes... well I didn't exactly share that information with anyone except for Twilight. But-"

"What's he look like?" Applejack asked as she jumped in my face.

"Well-"

"Does he look like ya? How big is he? Do ya have a picture of 'em? What does he do fer a livin'? Does he-"

"Time out!" I interrupted the excitable mare as she started to portray that excitement that Apple Bloom would show on occasion, along with the rapid-fire questions that came at me similar to how Pinkie would toss out questions. "Now, I'm gonna try to answer all of the questions you asked me real quick and we'll leave it at that. He's a human like me so yes, he's about three inches taller than me, I don't have any on me, and he works in accounting."

"One more question?"

"Shoot." I said under my breath.

"Do y'all get along?"

We do, I think. I just know that we don't try to kill each other, so there's a sign. And if anything I don't really show any real resentment towards him. The only thing I've felt was a sense of envy for how everything in his life came together so nicely, while I didn't quite stand as well as he did when it came to social experience. But now I think I'm starting to get the hang of it, mainly because I've been in a different world for almost a year. So...

"We get along, I suppose. I mean, he pretty much is better than me when it comes to math and social networking. Me, I suck at what he does. You might like him, he's a bit of a brain-head though."

Applejack quietly chuckled as she waved me off. "Nah, most ponies with smarts tend to be a bit condescendin'. Ah much rather have somethin' a little... more like me."

"So athletic and strong? I have a little brother who's like that. Plays football, runs track, really popular with the girls-"

"So yer a mid-pack baby? Huh, didn't think we'd have that in common."

I laughed a bit as I started to look back down to the ground below. "Yeah. It's awkward being in that position. You're more of a dork than your older brother, yet at the same time your younger brother looks up to you. It's weird trying to play the role of cool sibling when both of them had already gotten you beat. Makes me wonder what the hell were my parents on when I was conceived."

While I continued to laugh, Applejack didn't seem to take too kindly to my joke. "That's not funny."

"What's not?" I asked, still not paying attention to the stony expression on her face. Suddenly, I felt a slightly-painful force drive into my side. I had stopped laughing then and turned to the orange mare. "Hey!"

"Your parents thought of every moment they wanted to share with you."

Suddenly, she had my fullest attention. The Tennessee-like southern drawl she spoke with had all but disappeared from her voice as she started to take a few steps towards me. "What did I say?" I questioned.

It seemed as if she was trying to stress the importance of her words, making them all the more clearer and concise. "What were your parents on when you were born? They were on the emotional roller-coaster that circulated around the thought of you! To think any less of them is a shame in all sense of the word."

"It was a joke." I said with deadpan.

"Oh..." Applejack seemed to have dropped off of her soap-box and calmed back down as she realized that I was messing around. She immediately calmed down and bowed her head. "Ah'm sorry." She droned as she let her southern accent come back in full force.

"Nah, don't even trip. I got into a touchy subject with you. We'll call it even." Well at least I'll know when she's angry; she'll make an attempt to drop her accent.

She quickly gave me a strong tug as she hauled me in for a long and tender hug. And though I was caught off guard by it, I had began to warm up to the embrace. "Ah'm sorry. What Ah did was wrong and out of place."

"I forgive you."

Still holding on, she gave me a gentle rub on the back. "Ah know that it may seem like yer the rascal of the mix, but yer not. Yer folks loved ya, yer folks made ya in their image so that they could have a 'you' to share their memories with. Sure they might have another 'him' or another 'her', but they can't replicate something that's so special... like 'you'. Ya speak like you're not special in any kind of way, but you are. Ya might not look it in the eyes of your species, but to us... we can honestly say that there's only one of 'you'."

"Aww... Jackie-"

"Please don't call me that." She said as she pulled off of me, trying her best not to blush.

"Okay, just A.J. then." I said as she let me go and proceeded to make her way down the path leading to the barn. Obviously disgruntled, she didn't let me see her face. As I watched her walk away, I had began to think to myself on the words she had just shared with me.

It was true that I'd often see myself as the runt of the litter when it came to my brothers. My older brother had the height of a basketball player, along with the mind of a genius. My athletic younger brother was a full two inches higher than me by the time his sophomore year came to a close, and he's still growing. I was chubby, awkward, and shorter than them both at just six-foot-even. Hell, they could talk to anyone they wanted to without hesitation and were good enough to hold a conversation, while I couldn't even say 'hello' without getting an odd look or two.

But I've also learned something about myself throughout my stay here. I've learned that I have a talent that my brothers can't mimic. All throughout my life I have had many instances of being bullied. And though I stood up for myself every single time, I'd mostly embarrass myself because of my lack of coordination and horrible reflexes. So I'd get beat up a lot, but I did manage to stand back up and hobble away. But now I've gotten to the point where I could take on multiple opponents at once, even taking on those who had an advantage on me. So yes,I may be the runt, but I'm also the scrapper.

I can fight, and do it well.

"Ya comin' or what!?" Applejack asked from a distance, bringing me back to earth a second time.

"Coming!" I started to run back towards her, trying to catch up with her before I'd somehow lose my way in this orchard. Shortly after catching up with the farm mare, she shook her head with amusement.

"Ah swear we gotta keep ya nailed down to somethin' before ya start wonderin' off again."

"I can wander off every now and then. It means I'm in deep thought. There's nothing wrong with that." I argued in my defense

"Well just make sure ya don't go floatin' towards Cloudsdale, sugarcube." She said before carrying on.

"Another city I haven't seen yet, I might just let myself float on up there." I jested while walking beside her.

"Ugh... yer hopeless." She said with a groan.

While we continued to walk, my thoughts continued to weigh me against the dirt path we walked on. I had continued to keep in mind that I was capable of surmounting numerous odds throughout my life. And despite them being rather small in comparison to what I was facing now, I still had confidence in myself.

A lot has changed in the past few months. I've lost weight, gained muscle, learned how to fight, gained confidence in myself, even started learning how to have a conversation with strangers and hold one for a suitable amount of time without boring them to death. And even now, I've began to learn the intricate nuances of being in a relationship.

And if anyone would've told me that I would be able to do all of that ten months back, I'd call them stupid for even bringing that idea into existence.

Also, I've learned that this current relationship is full of political pitfalls and restrictions so tedious that the T.S.A. could hang their heads in shame. A law that would do nothing but ruin the love-lives of everyone who wore a title, ever-persistent for over a thousand years, backed by the legislators who would easily deny the motion or mere mention of repeal, traditionalist parties and social groups with enough funding to bribe the press, and a princess whom they've elected to override time and time again, that is what's making Twilight and us being in a relationship so difficult.

I shouldn't have to go to someone else for sexual gratification for the sole purpose of saving my girlfriend's career. We shouldn't have to be regulated in how we run things and what we do together. Love shouldn't follow a strict set of guidelines made by bitter nobles and aristocrats hell-bent on possibly herding those of royal influence. Ponies or people like me shouldn't have to risk their lives because someone in a position of authority takes an interest.

My mind hasn't changed, I still want this law to die.

Many hours of work later, I returned back to my apartment. My hands had began to heal up, thanks to a quick visit to Zecora and a few more medicinal baptisms... PAINFUL medical baptisms. With my hands free of bandages, I was once-more able to experience the full dimensions of movement. My hands didn't hurt anymore, but the memories of the pain would stick around for quite some time. And now that I was free from the extensive labor from earlier, I could finally rid myself of these clothes I was wearing. Pulling off my shirt, I started to make my way to the bathroom to run myself a bath.

*knock knock knock*

...You know, I'm really getting tired of hearing a knock on my door. Lately that sound has been associated with nothing but bad news. Reluctantly, I decided to go shirtless and crack the door open. And standing outside of my door was a bit of a surprise.

But then again, it's not really a surprise if you know who's at the door and for what reason

"Yes?" I questioned in a tired voice.

"I need to come in and speak with you again. Would you let me come inside?" Cadance asked.

Well as long as she wasn't teleporting herself in here to catch me off-guard again, then I had very little complaint. "So, how was the spa?"

As she walked in, she closed the door behind herself. "Quite nicely. Twilight's venting very nicely, she's even grown to accept that the demands she placed on you were a bit much. But she still doesn't feel comfortable with you and her seeing other ponies. She told me what you said, and for the most part I agree with you."

"For the most part?" I quoted, trying to get her to explain what exactly she didn't like about the plan.

"Well, I wouldn't agree with the fact that you said 'that there might be a chance that you'd probably have your heart on someone else, if all things went bad'."

"I never said that." I clarified, trying to state my case. "I told her 'if she found someone else that can do better than I ever could, then let it just be left at that'. Those were the words I said."

"And yet the statement you made could work both ways. Say you were to find another pony, then I'd have to do all I could to find Twilight another stallion who could meet up to her expectations, which after you would be a fucking mountain. Either that or deal with her sulking on you all day."

Twilight does do a bit of sulking when it comes to relationships. Understandable considering that it's new territory for her, and she doesn't like to fail at things. A failed relationship could disable her, but only for a short while. "Well, who's to say that I'm not just a fleeting thing, a phase she's in? We were all young at one point and felt like that our first had to be 'the one' for us."

Cadance frowned with disgust at my statement. "A phase doesn't go through all the things you went through for her. If anything, you should know that you and her are something much more than what is being presented."

"So are you saying that we were meant to be together?" I questioned. "That fate had ordained us to become one in unity for the remainder of our lives?

"I never said all of that."

"And yet the statement you made could work both ways." I said, throwing her quote back at her. "Am I wrong?"

Cadance closed her eyes and finally spoke what was on her mind. "I don't want you with anyone else, personally. You're different from many of the stallions that walk Equestria's grounds. And you are the only one who could break down Twilight's defenses in the matter of minutes. She thought of you since that moment you considered her as special."

To be fair, she was drunk when I broke down her 'defenses'. "But I did that to comfort her because of-"

Cadance moaned in disgust. "It goes deeper than that! She actually gives a damn about you, whether you know it or not. She had a choice of letting things go as planned, letting you leave our world to yours, never to return. And after that one night she decided to take a chance on you, even Celestia was rooting for the both of you. But since this is a 'fleeting thing', then it must've been a horrible mistake in letting you stay here."

"Ugk!" ...Damn... that's harsh. Now that she put it that way... "D-Don't get me wrong-"

"It was a 'fleeting thing' that drove Shining to trust you with a prominent position to boost your credentials, it was a 'fleeting thing' that I was willing to call you my brother, it was a 'fleeting thing' that Celestia had plans to ordain you as a prince, it was a 'fleeting thing' that we wanted to call you family. So apparently our thoughts were nothing more than just childish aspirations to you."

"I didn't mean it like that-"

Cadance wouldn't let me finish as she continued to throw even more weight to my statement. "So let me guess, you thought it was a fleeting thing to be with Twilight? Is that how you view your relationship, because at this point I really think that you were just in it for the se-"

*SNAP*

This time, I didn't hold my temper as I filled my lungs full of air and screamed right back at her. "NO I FUCKING DON'T!"

Cadance seemed appalled at my sudden outburst, showing signs of her own indignation. She vied to speak but I let myself go before her. I didn't let her title or her rank hold weight in this conversation. If anything, I was going to give her a piece of my mind and she was going to have to choke on all of it.

"Look, let me be real with you. Even I admit that my prior choices in life have had that point established. But I don't recall going through so much hell and high-water to even be in a goddamn relationship with a girl. If I didn't give a damn then I wouldn't be trying to fight for her, I'd be content with the fact that I stuck my dick inside of her and unloaded! I'd be happy with the traditional wham, bam, thank-you-ma'am approach, but obviously that's not the case! If I was happy, then would you for one fucking second think that-"

She interrupted me, trying to impose herself. "You won't talk to me that way-"

"You wanted real truth, so you're gonna get real truth! So you can sit your ass down and listen to what I have to say in regards to how I feel, or you can take your pink, candy-ass and get the fuck outta my room! I'm sorry if it comes off as disrespectful, but you pushed me here! So if I have to cuss and scream in your face to get my opinions to sink into your brain, just so that you'd remember them clearer, then okay! So what do you wanna do?"

The pink princess growled at me as she walked up to me, stopping mere centimeters before she spoke through clenched teeth. "You better hope your argument is worth it."

I didn't even let her nudge me an inch out of place. I locked on dead into her eyes and let my heart speak for me.

"Then riddle me this, who else nearly dies from this shit and keeps come crawling back for more? You want me to answer that for you, no one. Who, as a member of my race, would actually chase a girl for one purpose, knowing that they'd risk dying for it? If you think that a one-time lustful ordeal would be the death of anyone sane, you'd be lying through your teeth. I can give you one hell of an example of just how much we humans can love. We'd commit ourselves to the ones we love before going out on a battlefield to get our insides blown halfway across the field. We'd let our flesh cook as long as we'd come out of it alive, we'd be a prisoner and endure endless torture while our minds are focusing on coming back home, our best friends could have their brains splattered on our uniforms and we'd be happy deep-down to say that it wasn't us... just so we could see that one girl we loved, that one child we left them with, that daughter or son that loves us. We fucking die for love, we'd kill just to have that chance at love, we'd endure a lifetime of trauma for the opportunity to see the love we left in the world to flourish. And yet even when love seems to despise us, we still chase it as if we were some drug addict needing our fix. So fuck you if you don't think that I'd let myself close my eyes one last time to see that she's free to live her life without any danger to her or her freedoms. This shit isn't 'fleeting' for me... And if you can't see that, then your title is undeserved."

The pink alicorn looked ready to send a hoof crashing into my face. And as hard as she was breathing, her anger seemed like escaped pressurized steam billowing from a small chimney. Her entire body rose and fell with each intake of air and outpouring of frustration. Yet instead of the pipes bursting, she leveled herself off and walked away from me. For moments at a time she turned back to say something, but she'd stop herself short before she could even say a word. It took me a quick trip to my luggage for a sound to disturb the silence between us. And not long after, she finally said what she wanted to.

"So I don't deserve my title?"

"You say that you 'sense' love, then you should've been able to see this shit coming a mile away. I'm just saying that one of your magical 'expertise' should have easily seen what was in my heart."

She took a deep breath as she finally let all of her anger leave her, placing her hoof against her chest and casting the stress away as she exhaled. "To be honest, your heart is really cloudy to me. Sometimes I have to drive and push you in order for the truth to come out. And I'm sorry if it heats you up, but one's honesty is shown when they are pushed towards the edge. It's like if I was mining for precious resources, if I didn't continue picking away at you, then I would never see what your heart truly contains."

So... this was all a ruse, a test to see where I was on the matter of Twilight and if I was truly interested in her? Couldn't she have done something else to come to this outcome? "So you did this just fuck with me?"

"Just only to see where you stand... And it's obvious that you and I have like-minded intentions." Cadance stated, letting a smile crack from her lips.

"What do you mean?"

"And I quote, 'So fuck you if you don't think that I'd let myself close my eyes one last time to see that she's free to live her life without any danger to her or her freedoms.' That seems like a pretty definitive─and impassioned─statement to me."

...Wow... Did I just tell a princess to go fuck herself? Um... wouldn't I die from that? "Oh damn, I didn't think I was that pissed. I guess I kinda snapped-"

"No! That's great if you did!" Cadance said while throwing her hooves at me. "I want you to snap, I want you to be livid when you speak on your beliefs. I need that from you, and Twilight does too. It shows that you have limits to what you can take and what you won't accept... And something tells me that you don't necessarily like the laws that are currently in place."

"I don't." I confessed bluntly while shrugging my shoulders.

"So... do you think you could take your fight for Twilight to a more political level?"

To be reasonable, I didn't have to. I don't have to let myself be lectured on the workings of this world's political system and allow myself to live within the laws that were already established. I could be tired enough to say that I'd just simply leave things to Cadance and Shining Armor, while Twilight and I continue our relationship. I could just break up with Twilight and save myself the headache. I could even just throw my arms into the air, pack my shit, and leave this world with little intention of staying. I could be reasonable enough to turn down Cadance on her offer...

But I tossed reason to the wind when I climbed from under my sheets to see unicorns and pegasi surrounding my bed. Not one of my choices have been reasonable thus far, and I have reaped the consequences of those choices. But I have also harvested much good in return. Throughout my life I have let 'reason' become my worst enemy, the very thing that kept me chained to my lackadaisical lifestyle of internet porn and video games. And since I came here, the choices I made have been nothing short of influenced from the mistakes of the past. The only change that I'll be making is that I will stand in defiance to a law that doesn't need to exist, a law backed by much of the wealthy and powerful in standing for well over a millennium.

So reason? Nah, fuck that. "Yeah. Let's do it."

Something tells me that I'm going to see some things that would change my view of this world for the worse.

Chapter XXXV

No one man should have all that power.
The clock's ticking, I just count the hours.
Stop trippin, I'm trippin off the power.

As a musician, I never had an interest in what garbage the mainstream media spews out nowadays. Most of it is synthetic sounds, sampled audio, computerized drums, arpeggiated sequences placed in a four-chord structure, layered with a catchy-hook and some auto-tune. Kanye West was no exception when it came to his hit-song 'Power', which to me at first seemed like nothing more than him spewing out garbage, obscene lyrics, and underhanded call-outs to the cast of Saturday Night Live.

And this morning, I find that song miraculously stuck inside of my head.

I didn't know why it popped up in my head this morning, but it did. Of course it didn't help that the song was always played on stations around Austin, three times within the hour. So being that I was on a college campus full of people who took in what the media gave them, I heard that song on repeat. Even the marching bands at some colleges started playing arrangements of it in the stands. Over and over and over I'd hear this song, it's lyrics perpetually worming itself into my ears and slithering directly into my brain. Even now, when the song has aged past four years, I can recall much of it's lyrics.

So as I took my shower this morning, I started to think more of what the grand scheme of the song was. I couldn't help but notice that the verses of the song had actually started and ended on the same mainstream bullshit that everyone seemed so infatuated with; parties, sexual references in regards to women, how he could splurge on you, and─again─underhanded call-outs. But as far as the middle of the song, where everyone seems to forget the lyrics if it's not catchy enough, he starts to convey his thoughts in a concise manner, using vocabulary otherwise unused by those in much the hip-hop industry.

Ultimately, he started to explain how his ideas and views were kept under lock and key, silenced by the very media who made him famous. And if he wanted to keep making money to support his family, he had to keep his more controversial thoughts to himself. Not only did he have thoughts of the world around him, he had thoughts of the very medium to which he belonged to that, if spoken, could unveil a much darker truth to the world about the media and how we are all portrayed.

Not that some of us weren't already aware of it.

And it had me thinking: His arrogance was actually a sign of the frustration from the industry that sold out the art that once conveyed messages of deeper meaning, even expressing graphic truths, made a mockery and paraded around like a rainbow flag in San Francisco on gay pride day. He possessed an intelligent message that the media didn't want him to convey. So rather them lauding him on, they call him a condescending asshole who acts as if he's better than anyone, all because he doesn't want to play along. And being that he wants to support his family and lifestyle, the truth of the matter is that he's has become a slave to his own industry, and a frustrated one at that... Much like how I was bound by this world's politics when Twilight decided to take a chance on me.

...Then again I could be over-analyzing some music that I personally don't like too much.

Since yesterday, I've been thinking about the the risks involved, and boy were they gaudy. According to the parliament, since the law was 'sanctioned' by Princess Celestia herself, they made it perfectly clear that going against her was pretty much a big no-no. To keep it brief: we were doing some really serious shit that could put us out of a job, and then some.

It's funny how they chose to use her name to justify their law, yet refuse to listen to Celestia should she want it removed.

Politician logic makes no sense, but at the same time it makes all the sense in the world. No side is right, but no side is wrong either. But there is a definitive thing about this law of approval: it's violates the rights of those who seek happiness. I've only gotten hints and bits of how the Equestrian Constitution is set up, and it's similar to the one back at home. The only difference was that there was no judicial branch to check the two powers in place. Instead, there was a proceedings committee consisting of 'those that represent the will of the citizens'. And if you haven't noticed, those individuals have been making the laws as they go along. So it's automatically two against one.

I proposed to Cadance a few things from my world and thought that it would be a sound idea to revamp some of the parliament's power. I proposed that a judicial branch of power to be established for the purpose of eliminating this power gap. Not only would they keep the royals accountable in fair proceedings, but also reviewing the laws established by the parliament to ensure that they are fair and just.

But campaigning for this much change would definitely set off some alarms in the minds of the parties within the legislative branch, mainly because they would be deprived of the one weapon they had against Celestia. So amending the constitution here would be a bit of a struggle. Not to mention it would also take from some of the powers that Celestia, or anyone in a position of high authority. So I know that this idea would be challenged on both fronts.

And as Cadance stated to me, this system was easier proposed on paper than practiced.

I don't blame her, it's been a thousand years since the parliament has had any kind of reform. And a complete overhaul of power would probably get shot down the moment the bill landed on the podium. Not to mention that the process to pass laws would take significantly longer. But in my defense, it's better to have a third party to help regulate rather than leave it out of balance as it already is. And if I couldn't get these guys attention, I could always find ways to get their attention. But for now, I needed to gather my thoughts before heading out to Canterlot today.

Yeah, it turns out that I'm going up there two days early.

Later at Canterlot...

I fucking hate trains now. I just realized this on the way in that I wasn't too fond of riding the rails all the way towards Canterlot. As we had gotten closer to the bridge, I felt myself growing all the more anxious. And despite the bridge being completely repaired, I couldn't seem to stop myself from replaying the incident from five days ago.

I could still picture the large gaping hole that led down into the craggy ravine below. I could still see the flames from the engine car mushrooming from the explosion caused upon the impact. I could still feel my muscles tense up from all of the changelings I had to plow through in order to get to the front of the train. I could remember the close encounter that should've resulted in much worse circumstances. And yet I was going through that same area, crossing that same bridge while everyone else seemed to treat it as a daily experience.

So when we finally stopped, guess what I did? I ran the fuck off of that train for stable land, that's what I did.

Despite the uncomfortable ride here, I remained somewhat calm while eagerly making my way out of the station. When I walked outside, there was a guard holding my name on a sign and another flagging me down. Of course, I walked over to them and asked what was the quickest route to the castle. With a nod of approval, they pointed me in the right direction while offering to provide me with escort.

The reason there were guards waiting on me was because Cadance said that she had some business to attend to today. I asked her why Rainbow Dash couldn't come along, she also said for explicit reasons was why I couldn't be seen with her. She also noted that Rainbow somehow grabs the attention of a certain orange pegasus who would stop at nothing to chain me to her bed. So she assigned me two guards to guide me through the city.

As we walked, they asked me questions pertaining to the changeling invasion of Ponyville four days prior. And after that, they started to ask more on how I fought off more than fifty changelings on my own. Funny, I don't remember fighting that many. But then again, I faintly remember there being a few observers refraining from joining in. I guess they saw that I had my hands full as it was and proceeded to simply watch from afar. Cowards.

As we continued to walk, they continued to bombard me with more questions of how I became Captain of the Royal Guard so quickly. I guess word of my promotion traveled faster than what I had originally anticipated, but that only led me to wonder how it was possible.

"♪Yoo-hoooo!♪"

The three of us turned our heads around and tried to figure out who was catcalling whom. We saw quite a few ponies looking at us, or me to be more specific. Assuming that it was nothing more than a misdirected call, we proceeded to walk down the cobblestone street.

"Dear captain!" The voice called out once more. "Over here!"

Now I know that was directed at me. I looked around and saw nothing but the colors of ponies walking up and down the streets while I continued to question where that voice originated from. Suddenly, I felt a force tug at my shirt. Looking down, I saw a pink aura pull me towards a specific direction. As I finally faced the focal point of the magical snag, I caught a glimpse of a white unicorn mare with a blonde mane waving at me from across the street.

"Dear captain, would you come hither? Please join me for tea!"

I squinted at the mare, trying to identify who she was for her to call me over as if she and I were acquainted. Looking back to the guards, they shrugged and proceeded to walk over. Not wanting to feel left behind, I slowly trailed behind them. By the time we had crossed the street, the mare had gotten out of her seat and pulled me to her table.

"I'm so glad that you're here! I've been very much expecting you."

Seriously, who the hell are you? "I'm... flattered?"

"Oh don't be! I was just sitting here, hoping that you'd come along to talk with me. So I hear that you've been quite busy-"

"Uh... first off, can I get your name?" I questioned before she decided to talk up a storm.

The white mare gasped with surprise and pouted as she folded her forelegs. "Why I never! How could you forget who I was? We've met before."

"Have we?"

"Of course! We were in the palace at the time and you were eating your breakfast."

"..." I only held out my hand as I shrugged, still confused as to what she was going on about. My jaw hung slightly ajar as I crooked my head forward and gave her a confused expression.

"I'm Blueblood's fifth wife. We've met before."

"Oh..." I said, pretending to know who she actually was. But the only thing that seemed to ring a bell of any sort was Blueblood. So this is one of his wives? "I guess now that I actually see you, I know what you really look like. Though I still haven't gotten your name."

"You haven't?" She asked with a tiled head and an eyebrow raised.

"Blueblood didn't introduce me, nor did any of you introduce yourselves to me. If anything, I'd probably remember the time you all were very critical of my diet."

"Oh." She said, letting her head drop with guilt. "Terribly sorry about that. It's just that we don't usually see... well... meat-eaters at their work."

"And no, I don't just eat meat. I eat fruit and vegetables as well."

With that bit of information, her mood suddenly swung from remorseful to giddy. "Oh... well then I do have good news for you, the chef here does have an extensive knowledge in preparing meat-based dishes should any griffons stop by. I'll have to request that he comes to the table."

"Sure!" I hope he does a mean steak, I could really go for a juicy t-bone with sauteed mushrooms and mashed potatoes. I'm drooling at the thought.

"Oh... um... would you gentlecolts... errr..." Suddenly, she seemed a bit nervous as she looked at the two guards standing beside us, seemingly uninvited to the meal. "I don't mean to be rude, and I'm terribly sorry. But I would really appreciate that you'd leave us to our conversation."

I tried to vouch for the two guards that got me here. "Uh... they're kinda my guides-"

"Nonsense! Nopony knows the town better than I do! I can name you all of the stores around the city that has some of the best clothes that a mare could ever wear! I even know where the finest jewelers are, the best restaurants, the most extravagant clubs, landmarks, and areas known only to those of the finer influence! I could easily guide you through the town, provided you give me a... service..."

I didn't like how she said the word 'service'. "Um... Service?"

"Well I can't speak unless these prying ears were to be dismissed from our presence."

I looked at the two guards and cringed at what could go wrong should I happen to get lost. One of the guards spoke up as the other proceeded to walk away. "Sir, we understand that you need your private time. We'll dismiss ourselves."

With a salute, he turned around and trotted over to his comrade, leaving me alone with the unusual mare. Though I did find myself thinking out loud about his choice of words. "Private time?"

"Oh, thank Celestia that they're gone. And now we can get down to business." She said as she picked up her cup of tea via her magic. "Now the service I would like you to perform..." Oh boy, here it comes. "Is to provide me with conversation throughout the course of my meal."

...What? "Seriously?"

"Of course. I need somepony to talk to since the others are quite busy with their own vices. I'd much rather you stay with me and speak."

As she said what she said, a pink unicorn mare with a scarf covering her mane sat down directly behind me. Immediately, I knew that there was something up. Perhaps a trap? "So... What do you want to talk about?" I asked with suspicion guiding my eyes to the mare behind me.

"Well I want to talk with you just to get to know you. And since you don't know me too well, then I suppose I should start from the beginning. *ahem* You see, I was born right here in this very city-"

I'm going to get talked to death, aren't I.

"Psst..." The mare whispered to me. "Nondis, it's me Cadance."

...No seriously, what in the chronological fuck is going on here? "Say what?" I asked quietly, trying to get a glimpse of her. But my glimpse was cut short by a magical force turning my head back to the mare in front of me. Of course it was the wife of Blueblood who used her magic to regain my attention.

"-And I could easily say that I was the most gifted child out of my four sisters! In fact, father always used to-"

Obviously, she was just here to provide noise. Meanwhile, the disguised princess whispered to me. "Don't turn around. Keep your head forward, nod at what she's saying, and listen to me carefully."

I find that listening to the both of them was going to be a daunting challenge. "Ooooohh... kay?"

After hearing something that sounds like newspaper behind me, the princess proceeded to speak. "You know that many of these politicians will try and have you sent out as soon as word gets around that you're here. But since you have brought weapons from your world, this works out to your advantage. You have the ability to subdue your enemies from quite a ways away, so you going hunting for a changeling shouldn't be too difficult."

"And even my mother says that my looks would be quite a distraction to many of the stallions here in town. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Yeah, I think so too." I said, answering both mares simultaneously.

"See? Even you would admit it. But even then, my older sisters would always-"

This was difficult as hell. Meanwhile Cadance continue to speak. "But aside from that, both she and I are apart of an underground movement involving us the royals, a few sympathizers, as well as some politicians who work on the inside. We have important resources that are to remain safe and untouched, any word of this getting out and our whole operation goes downhill. Do you understand?"

"And even then, I'm actually more than happy that Blueblood married me. Don't you think we'd make a good couple?"

"Yeah!" I answered to the both of them. "I really do!"

"Wow! So you do understand! I can't wait till you actually see our wedding portraits, we had some of the best artist from across-"

Cadance flipped the pages of the newspaper and proceeded to talk. "So being that you now have exclusive rights to much of the criminal database, I expect you to be a resource as well. Shining used to have that privilege prior to our marriage, but since he's been ordained as prince, the politicians have limited his access to certain files. Your job is to find out any information pertaining to some of the key members of the parliament that continues to hold the law in place. If you do that, then we can start cutting away from their support by subtracting their numbers."

So she was asking me to find some information that could lead to arrests. And the more I arrest, the less of a support system the law has in place. So if we can wipe out the members who were championing the law, the sooner we can challenge it and push it out of existence... That sounds easy enough on paper.

"After that, we can start to convince some of the moderates to our cause. That would give us a foundation to stand on while we continue to eliminate those who opposes. We only need to detain them long enough for there to be a bill created, voted on, and signed. And once Celestia's name is on the dotted line, they won't be able to challenge it any further. But after you partake in some refreshments, report directly to the castle. She'll lead you in the back way. Are we clear?"

"So I told Nightingale that these plastic glasses that they use for some dinner parties really leaves a bad taste on the drinks. So I was wondering what kind of glass would you recommend?"

"Crystal." I'm still amazed how this mare can talk up on cue to allow me to answer Cadance. Obviously they must've had some practice.

"Crystal! That's my favorite kind of glass-"

Ugh... No offense to the mare in front of me, but this forced conversation really makes her sound like a bit of a dunce. But it was obvious that she was smart enough to play the role of the bumbling fool while allowing Cadance and I to exchange information. Meanwhile, the disguised princess continued to speak.

"As far as why we were talking like this, I can only say that the streets have eyes and ears. And if I was to show up as who I am, it would cause suspicion among those who would spy on us. Even now, we are being observed. I only asked you to keep your head forward because you would appear to give your undivided attention to the mare in front of you. But again, get yourself some tea, chill out for a bit, then make your way to the castle. Star will give you some much-needed conversation while you wait. See you at the palace."

The incognito princess rose from her chair and walked away, leaving only me and this 'Star' to talk for a bit.

"Oh goodness! I can't believe no one has come up to ask if you needed anything, I'll call a waitress over."

Of course that would leave me to listen to the other half of her life story. I guess it would be wise to order up a meal or something to get me through the conversation. "So... your name is Star?"

"Actually, it's Gleaming Star. But I prefer for acquaintances to call me either Gleam or Star, depending on how I feel about you. And you sir, I want you to call me Gleam."

She's already making things more difficult than it needs to be. "Gleam, okay. So you said that you know every bit of Canterlot?"

"Yes I do!" She cheerfully confirmed.

"So, would it be possible that you'd know another way into the castle?" I questioned, mentally discounting the caves below the city.

"Actually... I wanted to take you to someplace else. It's en route to the castle, so we won't really lose that much time."

Great, now she has me playing escort. Goody. "Okay, so where to?"

She continued to cheese at me while giving off an eerie vibe that made me feel as if I was going to regret what she had in mind. "Well..."

After a long conversation, she and I proceeded to make our way back out to Canterlot Castle. Thankfully, she knew shortcuts that would lead us to the grounds in a significant amount of time in contrast to navigating our way through many of the crowds across the city. And when we had arrived at a wall in a desolate area, she looked around to see if anyone had followed. I took note that the surrounding area had looked long abandoned rather than the mostly updated city around it. It almost looked just as depressing as a street in a forgotten city. After confirming that the alleyway was clear, Gleam lit her horn and cast a strange barrier around the two of us, though it appeared that it did nothing to us.

"I am the mare who arranges the blocks." She whispered quietly.

"Say what now?" I questioned the mare as she continued to keep her eyes locked on the wall before us.

*crack*

I turned my head quickly to where the sound came from. But before I could even say anything the wall began to dismember itself, brick after brick folded back until there was a large gaping hole in the wall. I stood silent while my jaw hung wide open, my mind trying to process what had happened and why. I knew that there was secret passages that lead out of the castle, but not once did I ever consider that there was one that lead in. Once more, I heard the familiar sound of bricks clattering against each other, this time creating a frame over the opened space. Then there was this bright flash of light, and not too long after, there was a watery curtain that lead into the palace.

"Okay, in we go." Gleam said as she began to push me inside.

"Wait a minute, what is all of this?" I questioned, trying to keep my voice low.

Before I could get an answer, my body phased through the curtain and I stood inside of someplace that looked like it wasn't the castle. In fact, it looked like I was in some sort of secret corridor. I turned around to see the watery curtain dissipate into a wall. I placed my hand on the wall trying to see if it was some sort of disguise, but all I felt was solid rock.

Apparently the only way I had to go was through here. And it also seemed like I would have to travel alone.

Feeling around my waist to assure myself that both my gun and sword was on me, I slowly trekked through the hall. After a single step forward, I had noticed that torches on each side of the hall lit up with blue magical flames, giving off an unusual cobalt glow. Though I didn't like the idea that I was walking in someplace that seemed to have automatic lighting, I just took a mental note of it and took caution while advancing down the hall.

After a little ways, I found myself in what appeared to be a miniature library, complete with dusty desks and shelves in a state of disrepair. Books slouched over lazily as the wood beneath buckled down from what appears to be moisture in the air. Then again that was to be expected when you have a mountain that has a waterfall on the side of it. Of course, spiders seemed to have called it home as their webs endlessly line against the ceilings and corners. It appeared to have three other corridors going into different directions, also lined with books and scrolls. And along the walls, I also saw cabinets filled with glasses and jars of... unmentionable items.

You know, degraded floating eyeballs, decomposed hearts, anything that had something to do with sixth-grade biology in Lucifer Middle School.

The air was quite stale, indicating that this place must have been sealed off for quite some time. But I did take notice of the floor that showed some signs of being recently walked upon, meaning that this place has been frequented. Looking at the ceiling, I could see all sorts of diagrams written in an unknown language as well as some old magical equations.

Apparently, whoever was here had done some serious experimentation. And judging from the jars of unmentionables, I'd say that they were dabbling in areas that shouldn't have been discovered.

*clip-clop clip-clop*

The sound emanated from the central hall. "Who's there?" I called out, placing my hand on my sword. After a brief period of no response, I drew my weapon in preparation to defend myself.

"Put it away, you. It's bad enough that you decided to come around, stinking up the place." A snobby male voice called out to me. Thankfully, I was already accustomed to knowing who it belonged to.

"Blueblood?" I asked while putting my sword back into it's sheath. "Is that you?"

"No, I'm the representative from the land of Saddle Arabia-Of course it's me!"

I take it that he isn't much for greetings as much as he is for sarcasm. "So how you doing, jackass?"

"It's not a matter of how, but more of whom. And the answer to that is your mother."

Oh, so you got jokes? "Sorry, my mom doesn't associate with eunuchs."

"Enough of it, both of you." Another voice called out from another corridor. This one belonging to Princess Luna. "The last thing I need to hear is the two of you exchanging insults at one another."

"Well, Shining Armor says that this is how he communicates with Nondis." Blueblood argued. "I figured that since they appear to have a bit of fun spouting vulgarities and insults at one another, I took it as a human method of greeting."

Well he's not that far off... if we were talking about New Jersey. "Well a chip-cheerio to you too, Prince Blueballs."

"Any who," Luna said, cutting herself between the both of us. "It appears that you have come with the intention of joining our cause. Cadance filled us in last night when she paid us a brief visit."

Yeah, in speaking of which... "Where is she now?"

"She'll be here shortly. As of now, she is explaining things to Princess Celestia and the ideas you had in mind."

"And let me tell you, those old-timers won't have it if you should bring in a third branch of power, depriving them of their judicial abilities over us. We'll have to work it in somehow come the next meeting." Blueblood stated.

"A third power to keep us all in check is a risky idea, yet we could profit from it. At the very least our struggles with the parliament would come to an abrupt end." Luna said with cautious optimism.

"But then there's the matter of a certain law that I don't really find necessary." I added, bringing us to the main subject of my interest.

"Ah yes, Processu Approbatio." Blueblood groaned angrily. "I had to go through that process a grand total of three times. Do you know how hard it is to manage three separate waiting periods for obtaining wives?"

Three times? Damn. But that does leave me with an intriguing question. "Um, I just wanna ask. How did you get seven wives and only go through the process a total of three times?"

"Polygamist ceremonies. I married two my first round, another two on my second, and three on my third. All seven years apart. Should've been eight now, if it wasn't for a certain mare who decided not to pass my little test and get cake all over my pristine white coat. Pink frosting leaves a stain in white and it's not easy to get out."

"What made you try and go after her?" I asked.

"I know it may sound shallow, but an element bearer as a princess rang in my head quite nicely. And plus she was quite beautiful, stunning beyond compare... with the exception of my fifth wife. Now she's a vixen, but hard to get her to come to the bed."

Gee, I wonder why. Well at least I've narrowed down who it was he was talking about. "Let me guess, you have to bribe her a bit-"

"Could we talk on this another time, boys?" Another voice shouted out from behind me, belonging to none other than Cadance. "Sorry, Nondis. I'll have to give you a more in-depth explanation of what we do and our history at a later time. But this is the only time we have available to us to discuss our ideas with one another."

"Princess Cadance, any news from Celestia?" Blueblood questioned as he walked to her for a greeting.

"Nothing much. But I do have some good news for Nondis in regards to his investigation. Flash and I have managed to get one of our changeling prisoners to cooperate with us."

"Which one?" I questioned, feeling appreciative that my job had become slightly easier.

"The one that seemed to have all that bravado until you shoved that weird-looking device against his head. Remember, he spilled on the invasion of Ponyville?"

"You mean the one that was captured off of the train?" Luna asked.

"That one. He says he'll tell everything he knows, but he's pleading to go back to the hive after he tells us everything he knows. Something about 'his queen' and how he wants to help her. Personally, I think we should keep him for future negotiations."

"How long have you been interrogating him?"

"Since Shining and I had gotten back from Ponyville. When I had left, I placed him in capable hooves... Of course, those hooves nearly broke the guy in two."

"No amount's too much if you can get him to talk." I stated boldly. "It may seem cruel, but I needed to get this information out of him immediately. I guess this puts me ahead of the curve."

"You can interrogate him after our meeting. But for now, we must induct our newest member of the inner circle." Cadance said as she placed a hoof on my shoulder.

Blueblood nodded with false approval. "Ah yes, induction. How do we know we can trust him?"

"He has his reasons, many of which involve an unnamed pony and how stressful his relationship has become."

Luna placed a hoof to her chin as she glanced back at me. "Hmm... I don't remember Shining Armor undergoing so much personal strife prior to your vows, Cadance. Should there be something more that we're not aware of?"

"I can't tell." The pink princess confessed. "His heart has a strange haze clouding over it. It makes it hard to see what his true intentions really are. But I managed to use an alternate method to see if his heart was truly in it for our youngest member of the royal family. And from that bit of exposition, I've managed to come out with solid conclusive evidence that he would be willing to fight alongside with us."

"Did you tell him that we could be losing more than our jobs?" Blueblood inquired. "If things go south, we could be losing our freedoms as well as our wings and horns."

"You don't have wings." I called out to Blueblood.

"Yes, but I am still a prince. So my crown would be forcefully abdicated should my name be discovered for this 'sanctioned coup'."

"Sanctioned?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Princess Celestia has given us the go-ahead to remove this law by whatever means necessary. And since a most recent issue, she's been willing to play dirty... to a certain extent. She's pissed over what she had to do to spare a certain somepony their title, so now she's going all-in."

Oh and now she wants to get mad.

"Personally, I don't think she should've punished them. She could've simply said that she had the unmentioned pony punished and let them go with a warning." I said, voicing my disapproval with Twilight's punishment.

Blueblood rolled his eyes as he interjected himself back into the conversation. "Oh enough with the incognito already. Yes, youngling Twilight still received a warning because of you in a prior circumstance-"

"And I'd still prefer that we'd keep her name anonymous." I argued strongly in her defense.

Blueblood looked at me with a devious smile on his face. "Oh, and if you're wandering if Shining Armor found out, then let me tell you of the massive fit he threw when he found out that his younger sister had to get her wings clipped-"

"Don't listen to him, Nondis." Cadance said as she placed a hoof on my shoulder. "If anything, he's just trying to ruffle you up for laughs."

"Well I don't think it's funny." I didn't show much change in emotions, but I did manage to feel my heart jump back into place at the mere mention of Shining Armor. He was already a hard fight the first time and beating him a second time would take some work, especially if he was operating on anger.

"Well I don't think it's fair that my sister would have to deal with such a prudent bunch. Isn't there a way we can just simply remove these individuals from their power?" Luna asked as she walked over to a nearby bookshelf.

"That's the problem, they've grown too strong financially to allow someone to challenge them." Blueblood concluded.

"Why not investigate these key members who fight to keep the law in place? Cadance told me that she would like for me to begin an investigation on them, checking for any blemishes on their record. They're politicians, they had to have done something illegal to get where they are." I stated while looking to the princess who gave me the suggestion.

"That's the problem." Blueblood retorted. "You take one out, they have several of their lackeys to take their place. It's like trying to kill a hydra via decapitation. Cut one head and two grows in it's place, and so on and so forth. And even if you were to stack these charges against them, then what?"

"The media finds out, then he's hung out to pasture. The moment a controversy comes up, the citizens would be eager and willing to crucify the accused... even if somehow he was to be found innocent of the charges. And should that happen, he would be so caught up in it that he would have no other choice but to step down later on. It's how the system works in my world, so I know it's the same here."

"Your world has a third branch of power, ours does not." The blond-maned prince factually stated. "And from what information Twilight learned of the human world, you also have a media base so powerful that information travels within the tick of a second. Not only that but it's so broad that even those of different countries could find out what was going on seconds within the news breaking. Consider our media base in contrast to yours. We have newspapers and radio waves to spread our information. And say that we'd use these radio transmissions, they would still be limited to a certain area before the signals fall off."

"Then how about the newspaper?" I inquired. "If the media has any integrity-"

"Which it doesn't. It never had any integrity and it never will. History has only been written by the ones who stood on higher ground. You don't hear the history of the nations long conquered in order to create this land, nor do you hear from the accounts of those fallen and shamed leaders who names are often referred to as a stain in the fabric of time. You hear only what the victors want you to know. And if the parliament wanted history to be rewritten to speak of their account, then all it takes is a little bit of financial persuasion to get the presses to release a different headline."

Dammit, here too? "Well why don't we make their records public? At that point, they wouldn't be able to hide if they wanted to."

"It would backfire on us. Who's to say that they don't know a thing or two about us? They have ears and eyes down low, they have finances capable of-"

Then let's flip the script. "Then if they want to play corrupt, we can play too. Why can't we-"

"That would mean we'd stoop down to their level. And at that point, we'd be no better than they are." Cadance intervened. "And Celestia has clearly stated that she wants us to-"

You know, I think I know the reason why they can't seem to get shit done. "If she wants to go all-in, she can't quit halfway. You can't just run into a bloody battle and blue-pill your way out. If she's really pissed as you say she is, then she would know what it takes; to cut loose all morals and political-correctness while doing whatever is necessary to win. That's the objective here. You can't win politics by taking the moral high ground, there is no such thing. And even those who did have done so while playing the game as how it's played, dirty and full of corruption. This is the only way our ends will be met. Enough of this bureaucratic nonsense and political red tape, it's time for action."

"Then how do you suggest we start?" Blueblood asked as he started to walk towards me.

"We start by exposing these criminals for who they are and what they've done. There's no time to accuse one of being hypocritical. We are all hypocrites by our own standards, whether you want to admit it or not. If you want something done, then you would risk more than your job here. If anything, we should be risking our lives for a freedom that they─and everyone else─have in this world. Why should we adhere to a law that was created by a jealous group of aristocrats from one thousand years ago?"

"Sir captain, you have proven yourself to be passionate of what you stand for." Luna said quietly. "But know this, the systems of your world are not promised to run as smoothly in ours. It is true that I too desire retribution for those who exacted a punishment far too severe upon my beloved sister. I even vowed to exact revenge on Celestia's behalf. But the legacy is what we wish to kill, not the individuals within the system."

"I understand that. But we have to come up with a plan to-"

*clip-clop clip-clop*

We all put our conversation to a screeching halt as we turned to the hallway that lead us here. The torches along the walls lit brightly as the female figure approached us at an expeditious pace. As she came closer, I immediately recognized her face.

"Bad news." Gleam said with worry set in her voice. "The parliament members have placed their meeting on halt due to some new information being brought in."

"What information?" Blueblood asked as he turned to his wife.

"They now know that the human has come to town. And they wish to speak with him in regards to his assignment."

"So word doesn't get around that quickly, right?" I recounted while turning to the blond-maned prince.

"To be fair, they always have loyal spies all over the city and messenger hawks with every last one of them. And just like Blueblood stated, they have eyes and ears down low. Not only that but you kinda stick out like a sore hoof, with being the only human and all." Luna retorted.

Great, that means I would have to leave this one early to listen to a bunch of idiots trying to yell in my ear over matters of 'national security'. Being told how to do your job by a bunch of assholes who probably haven't even donned a set of armor not once in their lives, doesn't that sound like fun?

Remember that hypocritical statement you made about politics earlier?

At least I openly admitted to it.

"So I guess I'll have to go see what these guys want, right?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Gleam answered with a nod. "They called a summons notice for you. And once you get one of those, you really can't do too much but answer."

I began to scratch an itch on the side of my neck as I spoke. "And should I refuse?"

"A pony... erm... individual of your position would be considered as an insubordinate member of military rank, meaning that you'd face a rather large fine and/or imprisonment. It's the equivalent to going AWOL."

Shit. That means I have to go... *Sigh*... "Okay. Just tell me where I need to go to leave this place."

"Out this way, please." She said as she walked back down the hall.

I groaned with frustration as I looked back to the royal ponies standing around the room. "So, I guess we'll talk later?"

"I'll keep you updated on where we'll meet next time." Cadance said with a soft smile. "But for now, just keep them entertained."

That shouldn't be too hard, considering that I'm the only human around. I'm literally a walking attraction, so I'm sure their childish wonder would surface eventually. "Okay. I'm out." I called back while I began to walk down the hall.

"And remember," Blueblood added. "Don't let them antagonize you too badly."

"Seriously, it's a bunch of wrinkly, horny, stuck-up, old ponies who's in desperate need of chilling out and getting with the times. I've dealt with that once before." His name was grandpa. "I can handle a few more."

As I continued to walk down the hall, I could hear Blueblood's voice faintly as he spoke amongst the others.

"Well, he's confident, I'll give him that."

One hour later...

...Yeah, it's not as bad as I had originally thought. It's actually ten times worse.

"We demand action!"

"You are the captain, do something!"

"Threats are looming over our city and yet you do nothing but lounge around!"

"Shining Armor made quite a miscue in assigning you your position!"

"A captain who is so irresponsible!"

"One of your ilk would only prove to the other nations that we have become frail and weak!"

"This is your responsibility!"

"Did he even come here with the investigation in mind?"

"He's probably been holed up with that purple brood!"

...That's just to recall a few of the responses I had received upon entering the room. And they didn't seem to hold any punches when it came to me being different from what they are. One even had the courtesy of throwing me a banana and calling me a hairless ape.

And here I thought that these were the brightest and most civilized minds in all of the land. Go figure.

"ORDER!" Celestia called out angrily. I guess she didn't like the 'purple brood' comment too much. "WE WILL HAVE ORDER!"

I only rolled my eyes as the members of the parliament began to lower their voices. But as they did, one stood up to speak, pointing his hoof at me. "Your highness, this is our Captain of the Guard?"

The white alicorn scowled fiercely at the pony who stood to mock me. "Yes, and he is more than capable of fulfilling his mission."

"He doesn't look any stronger than the average pony, in fact I can recall that you personally offered this creature a handicap when it came to the completion of his final evaluation for the E.U.P. Is this not true?"

"As you can see, his speed would not be on par of that of an equine due to the fact that he is a biped. So I only provided a fair and just change for such a biological disadvantage. However, his agility and wits have become something that has yet to be seen from many a guard at our service." Celestia answered clearly. "Now remain silent. Your antagonizing the very individual who holds the position of protecting you is most absurd and unbecoming."

I looked back to the princess and gave her a solemn bow. She signaled me to rise and gave me permission to speak. "If I may, your highness?"

"By all means, captain."

I walked away from the podium on the floor and made my way towards the greenish-yellow banana on the ground. After picking up the fruit, I decided to amuse them even further by peeling the yellow treat and taking a taste of the fruit. "Mmm... This is pretty good! It's sweet, fresh, has a good texture-"

"Would you like another?" One of the older ponies from the right wing called out. A few of the other members in that area proceeded to stifle their laughs and nudged at one another.

"Actually yes, I haven't had much sitting in my stomach since I arrived here."

One of the members threw yet another banana, similar to the one that I had just finish scarfing down. So I picked that one up and continued to eat it.

"At least you know your place, human!" One of them said loudly. "Now if only we had a cage to put you in, you would sell quite well at our local zoo."

While I took another hardy bite of the banana, I turned to the stallion that remained standing. "Okay, let's play a little game. If you can answer a question correctly, I'll eat another banana. However, if you can't answer the question correctly, you would eat a banana instead. Now here's the catch of it all, incorrect guesses may be reused while correct ones cannot. If you use a correct answer─or anything that resembles it─after it has been used, you will be charged with an incorrect guess. Okay?"

I have my older brother to thank for this one. He used this game to screw me out of so much shit when I was a kid. Of course, I've grown to call the game as it actually is: Bullshit.

After much silence and my garbling down the second banana, I cleared my throat and proceeded to initiate the game. "Now, let us speak for a moment, shall we? I hope that you don't mind that I took a moment for self-indulgence. But now I believe it is the time for me to speak what I have to say. And what I have to say is this, since I know my place, and that I am capable of eating fruit as many of you all do, then allow me to ask you this: How is it that this 'hairless ape' has entered into your world, trained with your forces, stood victorious over one of your best soldiers, and became a high-ranking military official within a matter of days after his graduation?"

"That fool Shining Armor-"

"Actually... you couldn't be anymore right. Shining gave me this position as a battlefield promotion. But riddle me this now, how is it that you have forces incapable of turning the tide of a changeling invasion without the intervention of those of the royals? And yet I stand here before you, alive and in perfectly good health, where you were probably guessing that I'd die on the first day of the job. So how do you summarize my ability to make it this far, since I am of an inferior species?"

The stallion opened his mouth to speak but withheld his answer. Immediately, his face contorted into an ugly frown as he stared back at me. Obviously he was too proud to admit that I had some sort of skill when it came to fighting. "...You got lucky."

"Wrong answer." I called back to him with a big smirk on my face. "Guess again."

"You had royal intervention!" He screamed.

"Ehhhh... no."

"But it's true! You, Princess Cadance, Prince Shining Armor, and Princess Twilight Sparkle were there to cleanse the area. Without them, you would be well on your way to being dead. You're lucky enough that Princess Twilight had even saved you from that situation with the train."

I held up a finger, offering to provide some facts to his clearly bogus statement. "Actually, Princess Twilight assigned me to that train despite my insistence to go along with her. So stay, I did. But Twilight didn't even show up until the train had stopped short of the ravine, an event that still has my name and face planted on every newspaper in all of Equestria. And if you're so smart, then you should've seen that at your table every morning for breakfast for the past few days."

I could see the redness in his face form as he continued to argue me down. "But there's still the matter of the attack in Ponyville."

"Princess Cadance had assisted us in the retaking of Ponyville you know that much. But there was another pony who actually led the effort, one by the name of Rainbow Dash. If anything, Princess Cadance was ordered to protect the young corporal as she rallied the reinforcements from Cloudsdale. Princess Twilight and Prince Shining did nothing more than protect the civilians. I was assigned to rescue operations, saving the civilians who were still wandering about or in danger of being abducted. My wounds were from that very operation."

"But Princess Cadance admitted you into the hospital-"

"Actually, another pony did. A civilian fashionista who lived probably just seconds from where I fought, found me in my condition and stood up for me. And since I had to provide the correct answer for you, that leaves you three down from all three of your incorrect guesses. And as of now, I've grown bored of the game since you have shown nothing but incompetence. You obviously aren't smart enough to play, let alone win. So you can feel free to scowl at this ape while you reclaim your seat, you inferior-minded ass. I'm sure that your colleagues would rather you remain silent instead of continuing your being bested by that which you considered as the 'inferior' species, who currently stands over your nations security... Need I go on?"

If anything, my older brother also had a way with words that would make you feel even more stupid.

The pony trembled with anger as he sat back down. He also looked defeated since I combated every single guess he made. If there was anything that I liked, it was the fact that my older brother's nonsensical game did play out in my favor.

"Now allow me to explain something to you in front of all of your colleagues while I'm at it. The same 'hairless ape' you mocked has bested you in a game of pride and honesty. If you had any pride in what you are, which you do, you wouldn't admit to the fact that an alien species had managed to usurp a prominent military position for his own taking, has actively defended two cities against changeling attacks in two days, only for you to throw bananas at the very 'hairless ape' that has challenged and bested one of the best soldiers you had to offer... and a prince, no less. In fact, if I was to carry out this investigation, I would find answers, strategize wisely, create a team, and carry out this mission within the matter of two weeks."

"That's preposterous!" Another member from the right side of the hall shouted as he stood up. "Two weeks is too little time for you to travel across all of Equestria to find that information! You would need months of reconnaissance and planning to provide a solid operation in order to apprehend the fiend!"

I walked back to the podium as I started to face Celestia. "...Do you know why it took me a while to get here since the summons were made?" I asked loudly to the stallion.

"Perhaps you were busy taking your time!"

"You're right, actually. But I took my time for a logical reason. You see while we were on the train, we managed to successfully capture a changeling. Our interrogation of him began the day after his capture. So since then, the investigation was already under way with the interrogation of the changeling prisoner. And just recently he decided to talk, giving us some rather useful information as to what was going on and the intentions of this changeling commander. He even gave us their location of their primary base of operations, should they decide to regroup and attack again. And let me tell you they're not just right under our noses, they are literally nothing short of a booger hanging just outside of the nostrils of Everfree."

Gasps and awes sounded throughout the chamber, even heavily emanating from the right side. Many of them began to speak amongst themselves as they tried to comprehend how they were so close to us, yet there was little to no sign of them being in the immediate area. Honestly, even I was surprised to find out that they were just a travels away from Ponyville. I continued my explanation.

"He also confessed the reason why they were hanging around the southern region, just inside of that large clearing within the forest. He explained that there were plentiful resources in that area, also snagging up some unsuspecting travelers for the consumption of their love energy. It's easy to access if one was to take the path from Rumbling Rock Ridge. There are creatures within the forest that will do much more to travelers, providing them with only one safe way in, and that's through the ridge itself. It also proves to be a funnel for any incoming armies to march into. And as you already know, that would do nothing for those who'd be on the offensive but provide an easy way of wiping out your own forces."

"But why there? All there is is a ruined castle over in those parts." One young politician asked from the upper-mid section. "Nothing about that seems attractive."

"Actually, that gap is the reason why Luna and I decided to take refuge there." Celestia added. "It is that very funnel we saw advantage in using against those who would dare challenge us. Not only that, but we allowed the creatures of the forest to become our protection from any unseen threats. It was a risk in placing a capital there, but it was one that paid off for many years. And it is that same reason for why they would probably hide themselves there..."

"Where they can see who's coming in." I finished. "They're good and holed-up inside of that clearing. And it doesn't sit low either, so they can definitely see who's coming in or going out."

The politicians continued to mumble amongst themselves as they continued to sideways glances at me. Celestia paid them no mind as she spoke with me. "How soon do you think this will be done?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Again, two weeks. One if you're really gunning for it."

Celestia was struck surprised as she tried to process the time period I provided. The frown on her face showed much insecurity of my plan. "Why so impatient? I value the lives of my-"

"If you think I'm going to be doing this by the means equines would believe to be conventional, then you are very much mistaken. Since this is an interspecies matter that requires a special kind of attention, then I would expect you to see me as your ace. The method of apprehension you have in mind would take months of reconnaissance and planning, that point I will acknowledge. But the way I'll run it, this will be planned within a week, finalized in a few days and executed within an hour."

"You don't intend on doing this on your own, do you?" The princess asked quietly.

...You know, I might be stupid enough to try.

Author's Note

Wow, this took a while to release. I guess I was kinda busy this past week. I had gotten sick again (nothing serious, but it didn't help my concentration. Of course there was one thing that prevented me from posting this chapter sometime on Wednesday. I had a wedding to play at in New Orleans that I had to learn music for.

List goes as followed:
Chain of Fools
You are the Sunshine of my Life
Respect
Sweet Thang
Proud Mary
Superstition
Ain't Too Proud to Beg
All I Do
What's Going On
This is How We Do It
Mustang Sally
Stand By Me
Happy
Purple Rain
Shout
Drunk In Love
Love em All
Partition
Rock Steady
Uptown Funk
She Came to Give It to You
Crazy
Stay With Me

P.S.S.: I got commissioned for two more weddings and three funerals... So it looks like I will be a little delayed. :raritycry:

Chapter XXXVI

If there is one thing that I've often known in life, it is this: if you want something done, then it's best to do it yourself.

Obviously that has been the case for many of my encounters throughout my life. But in many past endeavors, I have been far from successful. In fact, many times I have come away with bruises and broken bones. But no matter the situation, I have often thought about how peer pressure has shaped me to believe that getting help was often the cowards way out. So overtime, I have grown to have some sort of unquenchable pride resting deep within me that kept pushing me to stand on my own.

That ultimately became my weakness in many situations. I was always outmatched, outnumbered, or outwitted. I was headstrong and went into things without much thought, running from point-A and smacking into a brick wall on the way to point-B. I tended not to interact with others because I was always thinking that they were making fun of me at one point. Don't get me wrong, I was always made fun of for being 'weird, awkward, and funny-looking'.

But that was the past. Throughout my going-on ten months of being here, I've had those barriers that once stood between me and the world broken. The walls that prevented me from getting to know others had been breached as I was eventually forced to interact with others. But it wasn't a bad kind of forcing, it was a necessary one. I needed to break out of my shell. Twilight, Pinkie, and the others did that for me. Now I have learned to become dependent on others for many things. I'm still a bit headstrong, but it isn't as bad as it was. I have learned to put much of my pride aside... That is until I'm pushed to a certain degree.

Often, I have reverted back to my once prideful, stubborn, confrontational, jealous, selfish, impatient, semi-manipulative, perverted, angry, white-knighted, passive-aggressive self. I could list the times I took a few steps back, like when I first fought Caramel, my bout with Shining Armor, my ongoing feud with these politicians, and my sex drive... DEFINITELY MY SEX DRIVE.

I've had times when I'd look at a swishing tail for a chance to catch a glimpse of something (prior to Twilight and I becoming an item) and having a few lustful thoughts about some of the girls. Yeah, despite my outward showing of restraint, I was always thinking about the opportunities I had, like how Pinkie danced on me, when Twilight and I shared that one clandestine kiss in the hall after her getting in trouble for grinding on me the night prior, the times I was harassed by Spitfire and Twilight's mom, the moments where I began to interact with...

...I'm starting to trail off here.

Either way, I have done some backtracking. But thankfully it hasn't gotten to a point where it has gotten bad, nor has it affected my relationships with any of the others. In fact, I can say that I have done a great job in keeping most of my relationships harmonious. Much to my knowledge, the only one who seems to have a problem with me is Spike. And that's only because he was jealous over something that wasn't apparently there in the first place.

But all of that aside, I believe that today was one of those times where my pride really stood out. I was pushed by some snobbish politicians to prove my worth, to show them that I could exceed their expectations and show them just how powerful I really was. And it wasn't just any ordinary pride, but rather the pride of my being a human.

...And my pride said 'go at it alone'.

Technically, I could easily finish this changeling hunt on my own. And that's not even me being cocky... okay maybe I am a little cocky. But either way, just give me one more trip to my world and a thousand dollars in hand. I could come back with an assault rifle, several magazines, a few rounds of ammo and two suppressors. I hope Rickey actually sells the latter, as I would definitely need those for the handgun and the rifle.

I'll probably hold off on the sniper rifle until I learn how to properly use it.

When I had informed her that I would attempt to complete the mission on my own, Celestia took a moment to ponder my statements. As she did, a thought came across her mind that caused her to show yet even more uncertainty. She wanted to call Shining Armor down from the north to give me some more insight as to why I shouldn't try doing it on my own.

I tried to convince her that Shining was probably busy with much more important tasks, but she had stated to me. "When it comes to matters of national security, I would believe that he would take that in the highest priority."

She decided to hold an emergency meeting of the matter tomorrow. Since this was a matter of what she called 'grave importance', she took preference that I'd convene with the others before making a decision as brash as the one I had suggested. I also volunteered to inform her of the tools that I would be using to make it as much as an unfair fight for them.

Celestia suggested that I would also speak with Twilight, being that she knew the area. But I had insisted that Zecora would be a more viable choice, considering that she took residence within Everfree. Of course, she insisted that Twilight knew the castle and would be a better guide, also stating that 'a couple that fights together, loves each other longer and will protect one another to the best of their capabilities'.

I get where she was going with this, and also keeping in mind that Twilight would have a desire in going along with me for the sake of being protective. But I wasn't really fond of trying to push us together at this point. Yet she still persisted in seeing me accompanied by her, mainly for romantic reasons. She even brought up how Shining and Cadance's excursions had brought them closer together to the point where they were nearly inseparable, as well as expressing her hopes that we would be the same way.

I'm gonna have to tell her that we're on a break, aren't I?

...Nah, tomorrow. It's been a long day and I need my rest.

*chinkchinkchink chink*

The sound of rattling armor could be heard without interruption as one of the smokey-gray unicorn guards walked down the hallway, his horn alight as he scanned the corners and pillars for any intruders. As he passed, he would quickly inspect a few by shining his light around them. As soon as he confirmed that there was nothing there, he left and carried out his watch elsewhere. And once more, his armor rattled as he walked down the hall.

*chink chinkchinkchink*

Aside from that one minor disturbance, the halls of Canterlot Castle remained as quiet as ever. Especially in comparison to the bustle and hustle going on through the halls in the middle of the day. Instead, it seemed like everything was quite serene in the sparsely moonlit halls...

Everything save a small shadow coursing it's way through the halls.

A small hooded figure crept along the sides of the walls, trying it's best not to get caught by anyone. As it came close to an intersection, it slowed down and peered around the corners to inspect who was walking down the hall. And upon verifying that its way was clear, the cloaked shadow quickly scampered across and back into the security of the shadows.

Very little could be heard from the creature as it tried to move quietly and cautiously through the halls and corridors of the castle, even traversing stairs with expedience. After making it's way up a flight, the creature found himself in a grandiose hall adorned with portraits and yet even more guards.

This time, it's approach would have to be far-less speedy and ever the more cautious. Time wouldn't be on it's side, as the guards that were already at their posts were just recently sent to relieve the posts of others. So the creature had to be patient before moving along, though it would tap it's foot quietly with anxiety.

Several minutes later, the guards left their posts to engage with another watch group for conversation. Now given an opening, the creature hastily bolted down the hall and towards a door to the far left. The creature looked both ways as it tried to confirm whether or not it was at risk of being discovered. Working quickly, it drew in a deep breath and exhaled on the knob that held the door shut. The immense heat that came from the breath was enough to melt the knob as well as the locks. As the metal dripped towards the ground, the creature extended it's claws to catch the contents, drinking in the evidence of its tampering. In mere seconds, the creature broke past the lock and infiltrated the room.

Closing the door behind itself, the creature proceeded to scan the room for any signs of an inhabitant. But it wouldn't have to look for long, as directly in front of it laid a bed and it's snoring occupant. The arrangement to which the occupant slept was quite unusual, shoes and socks scattered at the foot of the bed while it's feet dangled out haphazardly from underneath the sheets. An arm lifelessly dangled from the side as the occupant's chest rose and fell.

"Sound asleep."

Removing the hood from himself while looking on with satisfaction, Spike quietly approached the bed with eager breath. A simple exhale became as hot as steam while the young drake flexed his claws, looking at the human that slept in the bed. But as he grew close, the human hummed in a low voice while he quickly turned in the bed. The dragon took notice that the human was actually experiencing a bad dream, so he decided to quickly take care of the situation.

"Nnnget... away..." The human murmured in his sleep, causing Spike to flinch.

The human's body finally calmed down enough where it slept silently. The drake crawled to the other side of the bed, grabbing at the sheets for a chance to hide should something go wrong. Spike slithered amongst the bedding, quietly making his way to the human's exposed neck, the extended nape as the human's head hung forwards. Sharp fangs glistened as small strands of saliva bridged the expanding distance of the dragon's maw. Hovering just above his ear, the dragon whispered into his ear.

"You took from me." He hissed with hatred in his voice, letting one of his claws glide onto the human's exposed neck. "And now I'll take from you."

With a quick and soundless intake of air, the dragon posed himself to rip into the human's neck and breathe fire into his very lungs. The human jolted in the bed, still twitching from his dream. Spike paid it no mind as he began to slowly dig his claws into the neck of the human.

*knock knock knock*

My eyes fluttered open as I heard the sound of someone knocking at my door. A creaking sound caused me to quickly sit up and grab my gun from underneath the pillow. "Who's there?" I answered drowsily.

"Nondis, it is I." Spoke the voice that belonged to Princess Luna. "Please get up."

Rising out of my bed, I tried to put on some pants. But before I had noticed it, the blue alicorn was already inside of the room. I looked back to her with surprise as I stared at the door with confusion. "How did you get in here? I thought my door was locked." I said with a yawn.

"Well I find it difficult to see how you could've locked yourself in when the door doesn't have a knob." Luna answered quietly.

Okay, maybe I was just hearing things, but there's no way that she just said that the door didn't have a knob. I distinctively remember turning the knob to gain access to this room, denying it, and sealing away any further access. But when my eyes looked towards the half-open door, I saw confirmation in something that would begin to perplex me. "What the hell? There was one there before."

Luna looked around the room, trying find any further signs of invasion. "It would be safe to believe that your security has been compromised, captain."

Damn, I just got here and I'm already on the hit-list. "This shit makes no sense."

"I was coming in here to converse with you on the matter of your recent nightmares, but it seems that there are far more pressing matters to attend to."

"Fuck, why me?" A question with a variety of answers. It could be that one of the politicians already see me as a threat, but that wouldn't make any sense considering that I haven't done much to piss them off as of yet. It could also be a pony who doesn't take too kindly of me being here, but that's like a rare chance of a thousand to one. But then again, there was the recent matter of the changelings assassinating anyone of high military power.

And an attempt on my life would more than likely stem from that very scenario.

"Security!" Luna called out loudly, causing me to cover my ears.

In the matter of seconds, several guards came rushing towards us, brandishing their weapons. "Your highness?"

"Captain Nondis' room has been infiltrated, or it would be safe to assume that is the case. His door knob has gone missing and his door left ajar as he slept. It would be wise to take into account that this would be a possible attempt made upon his life. I wish you to investigate further into the matter. Give me any clues or pieces of evidence you could find."

"Yes, your highness!" A brown unicorn said as he bowed before the princess of the night. We began to walk away, making our way towards another room. As the guards proceeded their investigation, Luna had turned her attention back to me.

"I am most uncomfortable that you have been placed in such a dangerous situation like this. Obviously, our security still has lapses. I suppose it would fall upon Celestia and I that your safety was not so assured."

"It's all on me." I stated while looking back to the guards hastily trying to gather information. "I should've taken this into account when I came here. It's my job, so I have to take responsibility for it."

"Not true, you had only just arrived and you are considered a guest. This is solely on us."

I really didn't feel like arguing-

"Oi! Stop him!"

Immediately, our ears perked and our bodies acted on their own accord as we ran back towards the room. On our way, we heard the sound of a window shattering. When we had finally arrived back on the scene, we could only see a broken window and a windswept curtain.

"What's going on?" Luna questioned.

"Little bugger snuck from the bed and zipped straight out of the window, he did!" A dark brown pony in armor said as he pointed towards the broken window.

"Send for pegasi to cover the air! I want unicorns at every corner and earth ponies at every gate! Find that assassin and bring him before us alive! He couldn't have gotten far!"

"MA'AM!" They all shouted in unison, scattering to their respective positions. Luna provided some escort to guide me towards her room while she carried on the search for the assassin. And here I was, still trying to piece together how I couldn't have noticed anything that was threatening my life.

...I can't believe I was literally sleeping with death.

Morning came a lot faster than what I was hoping for. I was still groggy from having to wake up at around three in the morning for the reason that I nearly had my shit cut the fuck off. Not to mention the subsequent security protocols I had to endure for the sake of preventing something like that happening a second time. So instead of being sent into a random room, I was immediately given permission to rest within Princess Luna's bedroom. So after being shoved into a bed and sedated─mainly because I couldn't chill out for the life of me─I then succumbed to sleep.

As for why I wasn't exactly in a chill mood, well you try finding out that your assassin was sleeping in your bed right next to you without your knowledge.

Even as I open my eyes, I could feel an unusual stinging sensation on the left side of my neck. I would've assumed that I must've slept wrong if it wasn't for the fact that I felt something dry and crumbly where the ache was located. Scratching a bit, I came to find out that what was on my neck was nothing short of dried blood.

In disbelief, I dropped my arm back to my side. However, it landed on something that seemed to be entirely too warm to be a pillow.

"Ughnnn..."

My eyes shot wide open as I jumped up to attention and looked back over to where my right arm had landed. As I looked over, I couldn't help but to stare at the white alicorn princess quietly sleeping beside me. Though she stirred a bit, due to my arm falling against her side.

I had many questions run through my mind as I watched her resume her sleep. The first question was simple, why was she here with me in Luna's room? I get that they are siblings but still, why would she be sleeping next to me? Why was she still wearing all of her regalia? If anything, she would at least take some of that clunky junk off once in a while. Was it really necessary for her to sleep with that on, and if so then why? Where is Luna, the one who originally took it upon herself to guard me while I slept? Shouldn't she be here instead of her older sister?

Other questions ran through my head but I decided not to entertain them. The one thing I needed to do was to get out of this bed and get ready for the day ahead. Shifting myself out of the bed, I began to take a foot off of the bed.

"Nnngh... Sombra..."

When I looked back, I could already see the golden aura around Celestia's horn beckoning my body to return to the bed. Before I even had a chance to escape, she pulled me in and wrapped her hooves around me. And when I struggled to escape, I found myself cocooned by a huge pair of white wings, closing in all around me. Feathers brushed all over my face as the high princess nuzzled against the back of my neck, murmuring to the figure in her dream.

"I found you... after all this time. Now I'm never letting go, not again."

What is it with sleeping ponies and their instinctual habit of grabbing anything or anyone around them? First it was Twilight, then it was Sunset, and now it's Celestia. These three, students and mentor, were very grabby while dreaming. If anything, she needs a huge hugging pillow.

But then again, Twilight was always grabby towards me in general.

I tried shifting out of her grasp somehow, but instead I had only managed to wiggle myself to where I was facing her. As her wings and hooves shifted, my head was crammed against her golden chest plate. I cringed as she continued to clamp onto me, pressing my face against the purple jewel embedded in her regalia. My cheeks compressed while I struggled to free myself. I had began to notice that the heat radiating off of her was making it significantly harder to breathe. Once more, my attempts to flee from her grasp had ended in outstanding failure, landing me just below her jewel-encrusted chest piece. At the very least, I wasn't at risk of being compacted by the combination of her hooves, wings and jewelry.

But then I had noticed something strange...

Just underneath her plate, I could see a small patch of fur missing. Instantly, I became curious of whether or not she was losing fur or whether it was a spot where her age began to show. Perhaps an unsightly battle scar, or maybe one she had gotten from fighting with Luna over a millennium ago. Either way, I began to entertain myself by slowly lifting up the chest plate to get a better look at what it was.

"Nngh... *gasp*"

As soon as I heard that noise, I knew that it was time for me to stop diddling around. I let go of the enormous chunk of metal, hoping to feign ignorance. But it was apparent that I was discovered when she unwrapped herself from around me, pushing me towards the other side of the bed and quickly climbing to her own side, facing away from me.

I obviously screwed up. "...I'm sorry."

Celestia briskly shook her head, still facing away from me. "No! I was at fault. It was nothing of you..."

I could tell she was lying. No one wakes up like that as soon as something gets grabbed, especially from the deep sleep she experienced. "I know that you're trying to make it seem like-"

"Nothing is your fault." She quickly stated as she stood up from the bed.

"Princess..." I paused for a second, remembering that she had made a request that I wasn't so formal at the times we were alone. "Celly, look... I got curious and snooped. That's ALL on me."

Celestia turned back around slightly, her mane obstructing her eyes. "...If you would, I'd prefer that you'd not do that again."

That sounded very much like an order to me. "Yes, ma'am."

Her foreleg reached upward, clasping onto the golden piece. "There are some things I would rather keep to myself, things that still haunt me."

"I understand."

"What did you see?" She questioned softly, close to a whisper.

Those words, they sounded all-too familiar. I could remember the last time I was asked that, it was the time I was still new to this place. Twilight asked me those exact same words, and of course I saw something that was exotic and unusual for me. I also saw something sexy and tantalizing. But this was a different case, this seemed to be something else entirely. I didn't get a good look at what it was, but I knew that there was fur missing from her coat.

"Well?" She persisted, trying to obtain an answer.

"Your highness..." I couldn't help myself, I knew that I did wrong and that she was upset from it. I just couldn't stop addressing her as my superior rather than my friend. "I... your... is missing there..." I couldn't piece together a response that didn't sound like anything offensive. Instead, my response became broken and disjointed from subject to predicate.

"What is missing?"

"Your... coat..."

For a moment we stood quietly, remaining in the same position for what seemed like half of an eternity. Celestia was the first to move after a while. She turned back around, facing away from me once more as she spoke. "Ah yes... that. It is nothing but a scar from an incident that I would rather forget."

"I won't ask anything else then."

With a few steps forward, she quietly spoke. "Please do not tell Luna. If she were to know, it would only plague her with guilt."

While she walked away, I began to think to myself. "Was she the cause of that scar?" Unfortunately, the thought had transcended past thought itself and manifested into the words that fell from my mouth like a weight landing on loose sand.

"Uguk!" Celestia froze in place as she thought about turning around to face me.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that out loud. I just-"

"Your breakfast and I will be waiting for you when you arrive. Please take your time, the royal bath is available to you, there are many scents and oils should you wish to wear or bathe in any, the water is warm and the towels are steamed. I wish you a pleasant morning, sir captain."

Those were the last words I heard from her before she teleported off. I was left alone in the enormous chamber that was Luna's bedroom. I closed my eyes and thought to myself that I had made a huge mistake.

"Another thing." Celestia's voice rang from immediately behind my neck, causing me to jump. "Try not to be so formal or polite around me. It is true that I am slightly flustered from your actions earlier and that I may seem upset by it, but I also asked you to place all of my titles aside. I am nothing for you to fear."

I wanted to look back, but was prevented from doing so by a hug.

"I forgive you for being curious, for asking questions. But please forgive me should I express a desire for you to remain ignorant to my circumstances."

"...Pr... I mean, Celestia-"

"Celly's fine." She quickly answered, brushing herself against me. "I know that I may seem touchy, but you already know that I am often devoid of that privilege."

"Right, sorry."

"Twilight will be here later today, though I am sure that she will have a few choice words should she see you. As for the matters of the occurrence from earlier this morning, we shall talk upon it later. Just know that for now you are in capable and trustworthy hooves."

Well at least she's not completely enraged like I thought she was just a minute ago. But I still feel as if I should tell her about me and Twilight now that I have a chance. At least it would kinda ease her off on pushing us together.

"Um... Celes- I mean, Celly."

"Yes." She asked quietly.

"...Do you think Twilight can be a bit, you know... overbearing?"

The alicorn eased from her hug and walked in front of me to face me. "Why do you ask? Has something gone wrong?"

I clenched my fists as I took a swallow to clear out whatever frogs would come hopping up my throat. "Well, we kinda got into it the day she came back from Canterlot with her wings clipped."

"Am I to assume that she was angry with you over the punishment or the argument you two had before that?"

"It was a mix of both. Either way, with everything as it is now and how fast things are moving... I kinda... well... you know."

"No, I don't." She answered sternly, immediately causing me to feel somewhat intimidated.

"We... kinda put our relationship on hiatus." I could already feel the room heating up. "Ever since the day I came back from a visit to my world, she's been a bit possessive. And with her being the way she was, it was almost as if I couldn't get her to completely trust me when I was alone with anyone else."

Celestia drew a sigh of disappointment as she sat on her haunches. "I see. Twilight is still new to the romantic aspects of friendship, even love magic has proven too potent for her to manifest on her own without consequences. May I ask how these seeds of distrust grew to manifest?"

Stretching my arms into the air, I spoke with a strain in my voice. "Well it started when she crossed over into my world without my knowing. She also caught me hugging with one of my friends back home."

"In your world, yes?"

"Yeah." I confirmed, rotating my right arm and shoulder. "She got angry because she had suspicions that my friend was in love with me."

"Well is she?" Celestia questioned.

"Um, I know that she considered dating me a while back, but that was well over eleven months ago, prior to us getting into it. But even then, dating and love are as different as night and day on my world. We could be dating just for the sex."

"Your relations are not all too different from that of us equines. I understand that much."

"Okay then, but either way she hasn't confessed anything like that. She only said that she would have gladly gotten into a relationship with me had I been the person I am now back then. But this was recently confessed to me, like the day Twilight and I had gotten into our spat."

"I see then..." Celestia seemed to have grown somber as she continued to ask me questions. "So how long did you two know each other?"

"About eight years now. We were friends since high school."

"Oh! Now I understand the case of familiarity. But that still begs the question, what do you feel about her?"

"I'm not gonna lie but when I first heard that she liked the current me, I got a little giddy. I had a crush on her for a while but since I've been here, she hasn't been on my mind nearly as much. In fact, Twilight kinda took over in that department. So again, I got a little giddy when I found out, but I didn't really feel as excited as I would have been should I had never met Twilight in the first place."

Celestia frowned a bit as she looked at me. "So you do have something for her?"

I looked to the air above as I waited for my brain to drop an answer down to my lips. "Eh... I wouldn't say I do. She's one hell of a friend and we got it like this." I held my hand up, crossing my index and middle fingers. But it's been so long since I was away from her, I began to look at our relationship with one another in a more platonic viewpoint. That and she's already in a relationship of her own."

"Okay. So... what else happened between you two, you and Twilight of course?"

Easy, she kicked me out of the room, smiled in my face as she told me goodnight, and broke down crying the moment the door closed. "For the most part, she took it better than I expected. Though I know that she was wearing a brave face, I couldn't help but to be content with it. I just didn't like making her cry, but to know that she held it together for me... It made it a lot easier to remain firm on my stance. Otherwise, I'd be clenching against her in the bed, hoping that the tears would stop falling eventually."

"So she doesn't trust you as much as you'd like?" Celestia summarized.

"That's pretty much it. That and her asking me to marry her quick, fast, in-a-hurry."

"Technically, you would've been able to. I am surprised that you didn't take the opportunity, considering that you were so adamant on showing the world that you were wanting to be with her."

"That's another thing. We were already moving faster than what I would've liked. The marriage thing at the end of the approval process really threw me for a loop. And now that the option is on the table, I guess I wanted to slam the breaks before we'd hit something big. I want us to actually end on good terms, should it all boils down to us actually breaking up."

Celestia closed her eyes as she gave me a solemn nod. "Then in that case, I now have an understanding of what has transpired in the past few days. Though I do hope that you two will do well in your break and find each other once more. I would fear what would happen should you separate yourselves for too long."

I don't see what's the problem. The worst that would happen is that we would probably call it quits after that. "How so?" I inquired, trying to gain a view from her perspective.

"I take it that you've forgotten how a break of significant time warrants signs of an impending severance of your relationship." She answered as she started to make her way out the door.

I already knew just where she was going with that. If I wasn't going to go back to Twilight, then there would be several others of a particular group waiting in line. Needless to say, I'm being pressured no matter the circumstance... and it's only beginning to piss me off. "She'd probably want to talk about it before it would even get to that point. And plus I told her that it would be about two weeks to a month."

Celestia paused in the doorway as she muttered to me "I can understand your decision, but let me remind you that you are at an extreme disadvantage since you two have broken your approval vows-"

You know wh─that's it.*snap*

"You know, if I can be frank and vulgar with you, I would like to say that this stupid-ass law fails to yield any sort of common sense. If you signed it, then why the blue hell can't you repeal it yourself? You've had over a thousand years to do it, so do something about it."

DUDE! WHAT THE HELL!

Sorry... But it's been on the burners for a while, and it's been clogging up space.

Celestia stared at me, completely dumbfounded and slack-jawed while I stared back, looking as if I had shot her in the side while the blood started to drip. With a foul grimace, she growled as she marched back to me. I would've liked to back away, but my legs remained locked in place. So in the matter of a few seconds, I was literally starring at the tip of her horn while she angrily looked back up to me.

"Do you honestly take me for a fool, captain?"

I got this one.

"No, not at all. I'm just questioning how is it possible that you can't repeal a simple document. You have the ability to play dirty and had the powers capable of eliminating every last one of those who ridiculed you."

"I told you, they are dead-"

"And this law still remains. Why? I'm getting my ass hunted down and damn-near assassinated in my sleep since I've found out that these fuckers have the hates for me. And I can tell that it was someone on the inside because a changeling wouldn't have easy access to the floor I slept on, which is the same one you sleep on. And furthermore, changelings don't have sharp horns and neither was I feeling woozy when I had gotten up."

I pulled down the collar of the shirt I was wearing and revealed the still dark-crimson scar on my neck.

"This shit isn't a bite, nor is it a horn. As straight and narrow as it is, that's the indication that a knife was politely resting against my neck. So please forgive me if I may seem a little testy, but I was about a thin layer of skin away from sleeping in my bed for good. Something is not right and I demand answers before I set out to do shit else."

Celestia grabbed me by the front of my shirt and yanked me down to eye level, all while wearing this intense glare on her face. At first she seemed like she was ready to unload on me, but after all of her snarls and teeth-barring, she eased her grip and allowed me to return back to my original height. She took a deep breath and allowed herself to become calm and peaceful. And instead of wearing that deadly glare, she returned to me a look of sympathy.

"I can understand your passionate distaste for this law, as I too have expressed my displeasure in being unable to modify it. Even I have grown impatient with the matter. And my heart ached when I have had to enact a punishment to protect Twilight. If anything, clipping her wings was a much more lenient punishment. But for now, just know that I have taken comfort that you too wish to fight alongside us against this outdated and unjust piece of legislature. As for the news on the assassination attempt, I told you your answers will come later this morning at breakfast. An officer will debrief us on his findings as well as any evidence that may have been located."

After hearing that I would be informed of the circumstances, I finally calmed down. Unfortunately I ended up snapping out again and reverting back to my past, argumentative self. But at least I managed to put myself in check before it all got completely out of hand.

Though I still felt that my concerns were merited for discussion. "I didn't mean to show disrespect, Celly. I'm just angry that I'm only getting answers when the time is deemed 'appropriate'. And it just so happens that those answers leave a lot more questions to be answered."

"And it leaves you still wanting more."

Both Celestia and I turned back around to see Princess Luna standing in a now-open doorway.

"Princess-"

"Luna is fine, Nondis."

I guess the princesses don't like it when their titles come first in these kinds of conversations. "Okay, Luna. I've got a question-"

"My sister was here to provide protection over your dreams while I carried out the investigation. It is a magical ability that both she and I share."

"Well that clears one thing up." I said as looked to Celestia, the white alicorn smiling back at me. "So what's the situation with the assassin?"

"We will inform you at breakfast. But for now, we wish you to carry out your morning rituals. It would be unwise for you to start with a sour and exhausted spirit in contrast to a more focused one." Luna suggested as she and her older sister proceeded happily push me towards their bathroom.

While I was forced into the bathroom, I turned back to Celestia to argue on why I needed answers sooner than later. "Look, I just want-"

"I understand. It was an attempt on your life, yet you are already assigned to an investigation of your own. Leave this matter to Luna and I, we will get to the bottom of this. But in the meantime..."

Immediately, I found myself standing in front of a small swimming pool filled with steamy waters and soap suds piled high. A few bubbles gently floated just above our heads as my toes clenched onto the lip of the enormous tub. I started to try and fight my way out of it as soon as I realized that I was still clothed.

"Hey, wait a min-AH!"

I couldn't even finish my sentence before a white hoof clad in golden slippers forcefully shoved me into the pool. When I had fell in, I was amazed by just how deep it really was. When my head came back out, I could summarize that I was definitely standing in about five feet of water.

...Of course I only managed to find that out while wearing clothes.

"Well what do you know, dearest sister? It appears that Nondis has taken a liking to our private bath." Celestia playfully stated with a coy grin on her face.

"And it would appear that he would be held up significantly by his clothes being wet. I suppose we'll just have to dry them off before he can wear them again, lest he'd catch a cold." Luna added with the same juvenile tone.

Really? That's how you two are gonna be?

"Well you heard Luna," The older sibling said as her magic began to pull my soaking-wet clothes off of my body. "Time to get out of these clothes. No need in carrying on an investigation if you're going to get sick."

"You two are Satan incarnate!" I screamed as the sun princess stripped me out of everything I wore, including my boxers. Thankfully there were enough suds for me to 'wear' for the time being so that I could prevent myself from showing out.

Luna grabbed my clothes as she walked out of the bathroom. "We'll leave you to your privacy. Your clothes will be ready in about thirty minutes."

Celestia, on the other hand, remained inside of the bathroom, staring me down with an unusual look. Immediately, I had felt somewhat afraid of what she had in mind. I already did the math: a naked me, a princess who eagerly stripped me out of my clothes, remaining in the bathroom, giving me a rather devious stare. I've watched too damn much anime to know where exactly where this was headed.

"So... do you like the bath?" Celestia asked as she unfurled her wings. "The waters deep within the mountain have been known to contain magical rejuvenation properties."

I immediately backed away from her just as she started to flap her wings and hover just inches above the water. "Um... shouldn't you be doing princess stuff rather than wasting your time with me?"

She licked her lips as she dropped one of her forelegs onto the water's surface, just enough to skim over it as she slowly hovered over to me. "Oh I'm free for this time block. Unfortunately for you, my block does last for another forty-five minutes." She bit her lower lip as she sped up her pace, almost acting as if she was a shark drawn to blood... my blood. "So that leave enough time for me..." Finally, she flicked the hoof that drug across the water and flicked it at me. "And you."

"Dammit! This is not funny, Celestia! Quit playin'!"

In the blink of one's eye, she flew directly over to me and stared me down face to face. I shook as her muzzle were but a few inches away from mine. Her hooves clasped against my jaw and cheeks, pulling me up to her as she giggled. "First, I told you to call me Celly." Then she gently yanked my head forward, missing her muzzle and pushing towards he ear as she whispered into mine. "And second, this is my sweet revenge for your little outburst. See to it that it never happens again, understood?"

...Wat?

"Enjoy the bath!" She said just a half-second before disappearing in a flash of light. I stood somewhat petrified as I still felt my heart gradually slowing down from my being a inch away from her lips. My cheeks ran red as I had thought about if she had stayed any longer, only imagining that my blushing wouldn't have been the only thing she would have seen. Even now, my body is still showing it's excitement in more ways than one.

And she did that out of revenge... She pulled a bluff and I fell for it.

...Goddammit.

After breakfast, I had to wait a few more hours before Shining came in from the Crystal Empire. Not only that, but Celestia had her own business to attend to prior to our meeting. Thankfully, it seemed like we were going to get things started early without Twilight being around.

I just think it would be awkward for us to be in the same room with her brother while we're in the midst of a break. It sure wouldn't help me on my presentation. But knowing that Cadance had showed up with my box of 'laundry' as I had instructed her to do yesterday, that did help me immensely. And besides, Twilight still hasn't seen me even have a gun, let alone using one. Cadance and Shining caught me holding against a changeling's head, but I never used it in front of them... that is until today.

The meeting I had proposed to Celestia was a second meeting in regards to the tech of my world and how we've applied our skills to weaponry. Of course, I have everything set up accordingly, even borrowing a few sets of armor that were lying around the barracks. Of course to prevent this from being a demonstration that would catch eyes all across the nation, I have only invited those of royal influence. A private room with no windows, no skylights, no cracks in the walls, no senators, no politicians, no media, no friends of any sort.

This was just strictly business.

"NONDIS!!!"

And now for the new order of business: soothing the raging princess of Ponyville.

"First, you left the castle without telling me where you were staying. Second, you left the town without my authorization. Third, you came to Canterlot without my authorization! Fourth, you decided to carry out your stupid investigation without consulting me! And fifth, I HEAR ABOUT YOU NEARLY BEING ASSASSINATED?"

...Yeah, I'm gonna get my ear chewed off today. As I turned around, I could see nothing but a purple and indigo blur charging directly at me from way down the hall. Twilight skidded to a halt just a couple of feet before reaching me.

"Where do you get off on doing things without my explicit permission? You know that this-"

"Is why we're taking a break." I finished calmly and quietly, causing Twilight to stagger on her response. After a short breathing exercise, the purple princess finally lowered her tone appropriate for an indoor environment.

"I... I understand that you want to get things done, but what about your health? How's your shoulder? Did they catch the perpetrator who tried to assassinate-"

"Not right now, they haven't. The only thing they managed to find was a black cloak that was torn to shreds in the sewers just below the castle. I'll get on it when I'm finished with the situation in Everfree."

Twilight took a few more steps towards me as she tried to reach up to me with a hoof. "Still, I want to know about your shoulder-"

"It's fine." I said, politely guiding her hoof away from me.

"But you haven't told me anything about where you're staying at now. If you're a target, then I need to make sure-"

"I'm fine. Believe it or not, the doors at the hotel are a little harder to pick at. And plus there's little chance for my assassin to break in and kill me when there's only one assured way in. Here, there are several escape routes that can be used as infiltration points."

Twilight rolled her eyes at me as she sighed with frustration. After a brief moment of her shaking her head, she grabbed my arm. "Are you sure your shoulder-"

"It's fine!" I stressed for the final time.

"How are you sleeping? Luna told me that you've been dealing with a few nightmares-"

"And that's all they are. I'm fine."

"When did you get that scar on your neck?" She pulled at the collar of my shirt, exposing my recent flesh wound. "Is that from the assassin?"

"Yes..." I answered, my own patience beginning to crumble.

"How was the train ride here, did anything happen along the w-"

"I don't wanna talk about it." I answered flatly, deciding against telling her that I have a thing against trains since the attack a few days ago. "I don't wanna-"

Twilight kissed her teeth at me and stomped her hoof. "I'm just trying to make sure that you're okay!"

"I AM PERF-"

"Twily, stop harassing him." A familiar voice called out from behind me. "You don't do anything but make ponies angry when you harass someone with twenty questions."

Twilight turned to the stallion directly behind me. "But Shining-"

"Nothing... Ease up, kiddo."

With a groan, Twilight stormed off as she made her way further down the hall towards the meeting room. Shining chuckled as she watched his younger sibling trot down the hall. "Twily's always been like that to me. Ever since I joined the guard, she's been expressing her desire to learn more protection and healing spells in addition to her offensive arsenal."

"I'd only wish she could tone it down a bit." I mumbled.

"She cares for you, that's why she's like that. Often times, we'd get into these arguments about who would handle what catastrophe in what area. When I volunteered for the security of the princesses during that whole fiasco with Tirek, she tried to talk me out of it. You should've seen her."

"Let me guess, damn near about to chain you to the flagpole?" I guessed, letting a mental image of Shining struggling while Twilight walked away with a key swirling in her magic.

"No. She was literally sparking out! She had all of the alicorn magic with her at the time, so she'd ended up teleporting from one side of the hall to the other, she'd levitate things against her own will, her mane would even flow like Celestia's. It was kinda frightening to see my little sis go through so much to protect everypony she loves."

I hummed to myself, remembering a conversation she and I had the night we had gotten to know each other. "...Tirek was the one who zapped her old home, right?"

Shining turned his head towards me with surprise. "She told you that much?"

"Yeah-"

"WILL YOU TWO GET YOUR SLOW FLANKS OVER HERE!? CELESTIA AND LUNA ARE WAITING ON US!" Twilight hollered from down the hall.

Shining stifled a laugh while slicking back his mane. "She must be a little rustled over my defending you. She hates it when I get involved with her relationships."

"Yup... Well aware." I could still remember the time he and I were going at it. "Let's get down there before she starts losing her shit."

"Right behind you."

Shining and I quickly made our way down the hall and into the meeting room where there was a few ballistic mannequins standing in the center of the room. One was dressed in chain mail, the other in scale armor, another in plated armor, and one more completely naked. And to the far end of the room was a table containing a series of weapons, many of which were sized down for pony use. I made out a few swords, one of them being as large as a claymore, a few crossbows, a bow with a quiver of arrows, an axe, a spear, a halberd, and a mace. Two different types of shields were also leaning neatly against the wall.

"Wow, I didn't think you guys were bringing your own goods." I noted to Shining Armor.

"Well I just wanted to know how our weapons would stand up to those of the human world." He answered. "After all, we try to make sure that our equipment is up to snuff. No sense in fighting a fair fight after all."

"There's never a sense in fighting fair. Go ask those annoying bastards under the rotunda." A third voice whispered from behind us. "And how are you fairing today, Shining Armor?"

"Better than you, considering where you just came from, Blue." He responded to the blond-haired prince.

"Well I do hope that this demonstration is worth my time. I don't like diddling over mundane affairs, I do enough of that when I'm in the parliament meetings."

"Well considering that Nondis here took on quite a few changelings, I'd say the demonstrations should prove interesting. You should've been there for his first one, where he glossed over the technology of his world. Some pretty mind-blowing stuff."

Blueblood looked at me with curious thoughts running through his head. "If that is the case, would you be willing to share these weapons-"

"No." I answered bluntly, not even thinking it over.

Both princes were taken by my forward response, the blond one staring back at me slack-jawed. "Well, why not?" He asked.

"You'll find out in a minute."

Shining shrugged his shoulders as he began to make his way over to the princesses. Blueblood stood for a quick moment before trotting off. I looked once more to the table and found that there was still one thing that I have yet to see.

"Excuse me." A female voice called from behind me. "But I believe this box of 'dirty laundry' belongs to you."

"Thanks a bunch, Cadance." I said with a subtle nod of the head while grabbing the box. "I owe you one."

"No, I owe you. I should've been here last night. If I was, I would've caught whoever was trying to kill you."

...I'm really trying my best to operate despite that setback. And them constantly bringing it up is not going to help me in the slightest. "I'm fine. That's all that you need to know. I'm alive, I'm breathing, I'm still functional, that's all I need right now."

Cadance smiled as she walked past me. "Spoken like a true guard. Now let's see what your 'dirty laundry' can really do."

With a quick glance to Twilight, I had already began to feel nervous of what she would think of the weapons I was about to present. But I knew I had to explain the reason why a lone-wolf mission would work in my case. In my mind, I'm already trying to piece together my arguments as well as a few opening statements. I gathered my thoughts and and walked before the small gathering of royals.

*sigh* Here goes everything.

"Good morning to all of you, my collective lords. I trust that you are curious as to why I have called you all here."

Author's Note

Busy busy busy busy. I've had more weddings and gigs than meals at this point. Quite a difference when you're up and about. But at least I'm doing what I love and getting paid for it.

Sorry if the pacing seemed a bit sluggish. Distractions made it hard for me to get things going. The next chapter will start a little slow as it picks up right where I left off. However, expect that someone will take the fall for that midnight visit...

...Hopefully. :pinkiecrazy:

Chapter XXXVII

"Good morning to all of you, my collective lords. I trust that you are curious as to why I have called you all here."

"Just cut to the chase already. There's no need for exposition, just give us action please." Blueblood heckled while tapping his hoof impatiently. Meanwhile, Cadance and Shining looked at me with morbid curiosity, Celestia and Luna waited patiently, and Twilight had summoned a notepad and a pencil to jot down notes.

"Well actually, the weapons you have here should prove to be useful in my expository statements." I said, pointing to the table. "If anything, I would like to start from the beginning of our respective ages and talk about how far along both of our species have come in the art of war. And from what I'm seeing, you have come quite a ways. Would anyone care to fill me in on the olden age of weaponry?"

Twilight looked to Celestia as she seemed eager to speak. The elder princess gave the younger a nod to indicate a show of consent. She looked back to me and walked towards the table.

"In ancient times, our tools were nothing short of just sticks and stones. We made clubs and spears for protection-"

"I'm sorry to interject, but I shall now inform you that we both started with those same technologies. However, our reason for the spear was not just for protection, but also our survival. We humans had started out as a hunting and foraging species, gathering berries and hunting down wildlife for the sake of food and clothing."

"But why hunt for clothes? Couldn't you live without?" Blueblood questioned.

"As for the reason why we wear clothing is simple: our bodies lack hair so we don't fare well in changeable environments. Our bodies are incapable of withstanding the changes of season on their own. We don't shed hair and expect to 'tough out' the winter. Should we go exposed to the harsher elements, we would easily die."

"Which is why you would normally see Nondis wear clothes everywhere he goes." Twilight finished.

"Thank you, Twilight. Ten points have been added to your score." I joked, yet still earning an enthusiastic hoof pump from the purple pony. Shaking my head, I carried on with my demonstration. "But after a while, our species─small in population─began to see many other tribes with some resources that would benefit both parties. So you know how the old song-and-dance goes: I want, can't have, I'll take. So then the tribes began to use the weapons against each other as a battle for resources. But our first real war didn't happen till about five thousand years back."

"As much as I do enjoy a lecture on the history of other cultures, I do believe that your time was designated for something else." Celestia suggested.

"Of course, but where would my world's technology be without it's history? But I'm more than certain that your tools were also used for warring purposes at the time." I said, turning to Twilight.

"It's true. A long time ago, there was dissension between the earth ponies, the unicorn, and the pegasi. They all warred against one another for a variety of reasons, mainly for resources. And our technology at the time was consisting of stone axes, spears, bow and arrows, and club maces. Even rocks were flung from a distance in the form of slings. But unicorns used their magic to defend against incoming weapons while countering with raw magic bolts, pegasi lifted their enemies to lethal heights and drop them from mid-air, and earth ponies created the ancestors to the more sophisticated tools that you see on this table."

I walked over to the table and picked up a spear. "As you would call these tools sophisticated, we would call these tools outdated. While it's true that they still do their job, we have given way to something a little more... efficient. Throughout our history, we too have had our share of conflicts. But from what I can recall, the three races of ponies have joined together as one. But humankind has failed to reach such an agreement. And with a lack of magic we only relied on our wits, our weapons, our terrain, the environment, and the more calulative minds of generals."

"So there was no peace agreement in your world?" Celestia questioned.

"No. In fact, quite the opposite. Our tribes grew into towns, our towns into cities, cities to states, states to countries, all with our own individual languages. And in that time, there was many differences in beliefs, economical policies, and resources unobtainable to certain nations. Thus, we continued to confront one another for the sake of power and pride. And with those things we began to plan the methods of conventional warfare; a war fought on uneven terrain. Throughout the ages, we created swords, spears, many of the weapons you have here. And we could've stopped where we were after a certain age, but we chose not to. We only sought to make things more convenient."

I took a sword from the table and walked over to the undressed mannequin. As I grew close, I sped up to a sprint and swung the blade into the mannequin's body, cutting deeply into it. As I pulled out the blade, I eyed the next target wearing the scaled armor. I struck at it, severing some of the scales from the armor as well as landing a solid blow on the mannequin. The third target I ran for had on nothing but chain mail. I swung my blade, landing a blow. Only this time, my blade slid off of the surface.

"Throughout time, we have created tools capable of killing. And in that time, we grew to create protection against these tools. Chain mail does much against a sword, but does little to protect against the crushing blow of a battle axe. It cannot protect you from the incoming darts of arrows or the thrusting power of spears. Let alone..." I walked back over to the table and placed the sword back down for the largest one that resembled a claymore. "A much bigger sword with a much more powerful blade."

Holding the weapon in both hands, I reached around to gather leverage from my left and brought it crashing down onto the mannequin from my right side. Despite the chain mail holding much of it's integrity, I could easily summarize that if this was a real pony, quite a few of it's ribs would be broken. But this time, I pulled myself in on the left side and thrusted the sword into the chest of the faux pony. As my blow landed, I could see a few rings fall off of the armor as well as the tip of my blade burying a few inches deep into it's target.

"Obviously, anything with a considerable amount of thrusting power or stopping power can render this variation of armor useless. But I also see that you have plated armor. This can easily protect much of your torso, but how about your legs? Grieves and shin guards can do a pony or a man good, but then they go after those joints where there's nothing but chain mail."

I walked over to the table to place the large sword back with it's much smaller counterparts. Then my attention turned to a crossbow standing on it's own at the far end of the table. I grabbed it as well as a few arrows. I began to load the instrument and aim for the open gaps where the armor didn't protect. Firing the arrow, I watched as it dipped a little lower than my intended target, yet land at an open space on the target's hind leg. Reloading the weapon, which too a considerable amount of time, I aimed for the most open spot I could find. Firing the crossbow, I landed a bolt dead into the cheekbone of the mannequin. Afterwards, I began the tedious process of reloading the crossbow once more.

"The crossbow is an incredibly powerful weapon. Even capable of piercing the armor plating. But the reloading process is... a tad bit inconvenient. It leaves me open for an attack and I wouldn't be able to respond in a quick enough time... unless I see my enemy coming from twenty feet away... and they were walking slowly. But there's still one drawback of using one versus plated armor. The further away you are, the less of a chance there is of penetration."

After I finally reloaded the crossbow, I aimed for the chest of the armored mannequin. Upon firing, the bolt smacked against the armor and bounced off. The sound of a wooden stick resonated throughout the room as the discharged bolt rolled on the ground. Afterwards, I placed the crossbow back onto the table.

"Of course, our world has crossbows of our own, and the more modern ones are even more powerful, strong enough to run this armor through. In their own rights, they are powerful enough to send their bolts, travel through a metal door of a carriage, and still hit their targets with merciless penetration. Of course the reload time is still an issue, but we only use those for tactical purposes. However, the materials used, the way it's strung, the composition of arrows, the different arrowheads, everything about it makes it a totally different tool than the one I just used."

"Do you happen to have one of those crossbows?" Shining inquired as he walked over to the table to inspect the weapon I just retired.

"I do not... but I have the variant of such a weapon." I said while walking towards my box of arms. "Say for example, I just want to easily dispatch my aggressor. If one was running to me, then I'd easily take them out without a moment's notice. Of course there are different variations of the weapons for specific purposes, but the results would only be the same. If I shot at you with the crossbow from twenty-five feet away, I would have to keep in consideration that the air and gravity would drag my shot down. But with my weapons at the same distance, I would have to only use precise aiming to get the shot I need. "

I pulled out my Glock and instructed Shining to remain behind me while I loaded a magazine and inspected the weapon for any stray dents, unusual lube deposits or markings that could ultimately alter my shot, especially since I hadn't really inspected it before.

"The only setback there is to preparation is that you would have to do it before setting out. But once you finish, carry your magazines on you and you'll be set until you run out of bullets. Each magazine carries a different amount of bullets depending on the model and the mag. But since we're going with the standard loadout and this seems to be a twenty-six, I can hold up to nine shots."

Sliding the fully-loaded magazine into the firearm, I pulled back the slide back to load the chamber and aimed down my sights. After deactivating the safety, I placed both hands on the gun, squared my shoulders for a steady look, and discharged my shot.

*POK!*

A few shrieks came from the princesses and Shining in response to the sound of the gun firing. The next sound was that of a shell landing on the ground. Walking towards the mannequin, I could easily see the the hole in the mannequin's cheek. I looked at the other side of the mannequin and immediately saw that there was an exit wound the size of all of my fingers crumpled together, a far cry from the entrance wound about the size of my pinky finger. When I turned the mannequin over for the others to see, they all gasped with shock and horror of the damage.

"You've been shooting those at the changelings!?" Blueblood screamed. "How do they even live after something like that?"

"Well considering that I shot this guy in the jaw, I'd say he'd live. But as far as his muzzle goes, a good portion of that would be gone. Shards of teeth becoming nothing more that shrapnel, bone shattered into dust... This guy would be sporting a broken jaw at the very least."

Twilight walked over to inspect the wound and saw it for herself. She shuddered in response to seeing the hole and putting together the imagery of what one's face would look like after a shot like that. "I know that you have these weapons, but would they all result in something like this?"

"No. This is the result of the ammunition I'm using. Hollow-point rounds carry a lot more stopping power and travel at a much faster speed. Standard rounds wouldn't be this destructive, and full-metal jacket rounds─or F.M.J for short─would be an in-and-out situation. But for now, yes. I ordered it that way because of the punch they carry. Of course these particular rounds aren't built for blowing through armor, but the FMJ's definitely are. One shot from those and that armor is considered deadly to it's wearer."

Cadance still stood with her mouth agape as she stared, but thankfully she didn't remain that way for very long. After shaking herself out of her trance, she continued to ask me more questions. "So... With that in consideration, what are the perks of carrying such a weapon?"

"Well, it's lighter than the standard sword. You can use it with one hand and pair it up with an off-handed weapon such as a knife, sword, or another gun. And there are also devices used to dampen the report of discharge; in other words, keep it on the hush."

"That is a very dangerous weapon, indeed." Luna stated. "I trust with enough of those, one could easily overcome the might of the changelings."

"And that's just the basic one." Cadance added as she started to walk over to the box. "There's another one in here I took with me from Ponyville. Nondis did feed me some pretty interesting banter on it, saying that it would eliminate a target from several yards away."

Uh oh... that means she left one out. "Umm... what about the other one?" I asked nervously.

"That's in here too, but I want to talk about this big one I'm holding." She said, magically pulling out the sniper rifle by the barrel. As it arose from the box, her magical aura consumed it as it floated towards me.

"Thank you." I said grabbing the rifle. "Now this beaut here... It punishes. If you're sitting on a hill several yards away and I find that you're too far for me to even point out, this will do you in. This is similar to the crossbow in it's design, only the barrel is much longer and the bow no longer exists. Not only that, but this takes a lot less time to reload. With many weapons of this caliber, it's required to have an off-hand free to clear your chamber and prep for the next shot. But that only takes less than a second. But this model doesn't need to have all of that. It does it all on it's own."

"So how far does it travel?" Celestia asked.

"About eight-hundred yards." Cadance answered eagerly.

Shining immediately walked away from the the group to investigate the rifle I was holding. "I call bullshit. Not even the strongest projectile weapon we have is capable of firing a dart that far, even with magical enchantments."

"Twilight, do you remember when you had told me about what happened when Tirek destroyed your home, like you were looking through a scope and suddenly his magic was barreling right at you?"

"Yes." She answered sheepishly.

"...This. This is the same thing on a smaller and less-flashier scale. You look through the scope, adjust to the distance between you and your target, line your shot, and fire. And if you're hiding behind a wall like the ones we're standing within, then you're as good as dead. If you're wearing that plated armor, you're as good as dead. If you're trying to run away, you're as good as dead. Even if this Tirek guy was standing at the base of this mountain and I'm up here... Need I go on?"

Shining tapped me on the shoulder as he gave me back the sniper rifle. "So... Just how much more powerful has human weaponry become?"

I gave him a more serious look as I remained silent, not wanting to say the answer out loud. After a short moment of silence, I gave him an answer. "Too much."

"Is it all that bad?" Twilight asked alongside her brother.

I shook my head as I put the sniper rifle back into the box. But as I did, I saw a box of playing cards sitting at the bottom. I didn't really question how they got in there, but I could only assume that they were in there since I was in my world.

However, they would prove to be a useful contrivance in my demonstration.

"Shining, Twilight, would you two like to play a little game?"

"I'm afraid that we have much time for games, sir captain." Celestia answered.

"Then allow me to play this one out real quick. It won't take me long." I said as I pulled out the box of cards. Upon pulling out the deck, I separated the joker cards and pulled out each number from the spades suit. "Two is the lowest count, meaning that we're starting from the bare essentials. And as we go up, the technology increases. If I was to compare your advancements to ours, I'd say that you'd stop at an eight."

I laid the cards down on the table, where both Twilight and Shining could see.

"Now going back to the little history discussion we had just earlier. Our technology improved, enabling us to create more powerful weapons that could bypass armor and quickly dispose of our enemies."

I laid down a nine. "This would represent the creation of firearms, the ancestors of the weapons I have shown you today."

I laid down a ten. "This represents the long-range artillery we created, capable of destroying walls and buildings in the matter of seconds."

I laid down a jack. "This is a representation of our naval abilities. Ships capable of long travel, high endurance, and significant transport value. We can ship off over two-thousand men on each vessel, imagine what an armada could do."

I laid down a queen. "This is the representation of our aerial power. Planes, helicopters, jets and bombers capable of striking a wide-variety of targets, from small towers to larger cities. If you wanted to clear out Everfree, we could do it in a matter of minutes."

I laid down a king. "This represent our orbital abilities and communications. In the case of Princess Luna, she was sent to the moon and was unable to return for over a thousand years... We went to our moon of our own volition and came back within a week. We have created a network powerful enough to send pictures from the darkness of space all the way to our own hands. Our database is so broad that it's initial purpose─being for war─has been made to accommodate for miscellaneous purposes such as internet, cell phones, and other things in tandem with communication, from orbit to the surface. And those same rockets that brought us to the moon has enabled us to strike from anywhere around the globe."

I placed down an ace. "And this, represents the science that has created the weapons of tomorrow. We now officially have lazers that are capable of shooting down ships and airplanes. Guns that are capable of detecting targets on their own will fire up to five-hundred of these little bullets in a second. Weapons that our governments won't even tell us about are currently hiding within the depths of our soil."

Shining sighed heavily as he thought about all of what mankind has created specifically for the art of war. "That's a pretty large arsenal aside from swords and spears."

"If you think that's heavy, then you don't wanna know how much worse it can get." I grimaced as I laid out the joker card.

Twilight tilted her head and quirked an eyebrow at the fact that I laid out a joker card. "We do usually use these."

"Well a long time ago, this used to be considered as the trump card. But overtime, everyone just decided not to use them anymore. In the games, there just seemed to be no use for them, but they're always around. They're on the side of the deck, just waiting for someone to use them. And of course... they have been used in the past."

"What's been used?" Twilight questioned.

"Twilight, have you ever used your magic in such a way where you have ended up destroying entire landforms?"

"Once. But that was against-"

"Tirek, I know. But we have used it only twice throughout the course of human history. The rest were tested for the purpose to see how destructive they were. And in short, many lives were lost in those two usages alone. I'd rather not dwell on it too much so if we can get back to current matters, that would be great."

The two ponies looked at me and frowned with uncertainty on their faces. Obviously they were concerned about what I had decided to keep undisclosed. But in truth, I didn't want to tell them about nuclear warfare... or at least not in front of Twilight. They walked back to where Luna and Celestia continued to quietly bicker amongst one another. Meanwhile, Cadance was tapping against the box.

"So..." The pink alicorn asked. "Do you intend to show us just what these other ones can do?"

"Unfortunately no. Not in here I can't, reason being is for strictly safety precautions. You've done good just to get a demonstration of the handgun, but that's only because I'm discharging one bullet."

"Wait, if you used one and there were eight still remaining, what are the other ones for?" Twilight asked.

"One word, one bullet for each letter: SECURITY." I said as I reengaged the safety and unloaded the magazine. Pulling the slide back, I freed the bullet still remaining within the chamber. As the bullet hit the ground, I immediately retrieved it and placed it back into the clip. The disarmed weapon was then tucked away under my shirt and into the waist of my pants. The magazine was then placed into my left pocket.

"Are you serious? Are you really going to sleep with that!?" Twilight questioned with worry in her voice.

"It's disarmed. I could have it under my pillow for all I care. It's much safer than having something come at me and try to slit my throat at night."

"I won't allow it!" Twilight shouted vehemently. "That is-"

"A weapon deprived of it's ammo and with safety devices in place to prevent accidental discharge. If it does go off, then I'm the one who's physically pulling the trigger."

"But-"

Twilight attempted to say something else, but was stopped by Princess Luna. "I believe that he has more knowledge of his weapons than any of us would. Though this demonstration has failed to produce sufficient results in his case for attempting the mission on his own, it is enough to show that he would be more than capable of protecting himself should he be 'frequented' once more."

"But Princess Luna!" Twilight argued. "Nondis wouldn't be able to protect himself while he's sleeping. He's not a light sleeper, nor is he easily woken from minor disturbances. I know this because I care over him. Please allow me to send him back to Ponyville, where there is little risk of him being attacked again."

The night princess hummed as she took a moment to think about a response. Celestia then spoke in her younger sister's stead. "Where do you intend to keep him?"

Twilight blushed as she boldly gave her answer. "Of course, with me!"

Celestia shook her head with disagreement. "I'm afraid that isn't possible, Twilight. If Nondis is the target of whoever infiltrated the palace, then it is almost guaranteed that you will become a target as well."

"I can protect myself!" Twilight shouted at her former mentor. "You know this, Celestia!"

My eyebrows rose as I heard the purple princess refer to her mentor by first name for the first time. Of course, Celestia didn't seem to care too much about it.

"Twilight," Cadance intervened before things could get out of hand. "I'm afraid that Nondis will be unable to stay with you. As Celestia said, you're at risk if you're with him. And I mean no offense to the captain..." She gave me a guilty look, causing me to whirl my hands and signal her to carry on. "But his life and your life have different values. You rule as a princess, he stands as a guard."

Despite the fact that I didn't quite like that I was considered as a lesser, I did take into account that I did vow to give my life in accordance to the future of Equestria and those who rule over it. Though that treatment was especially limited to politicians at this point. "Cadance has a point. I'm a guard by vow, so that means that I have to do my job, princess."

"Nondis-"

I decided to finally put my foot down in frustration. "Your job requires your full attention right now, just as mine requires me to do the same. There are guidelines and risks that comes with our respective occupations. Yours is more diplomatic, mine is more militaristic. You face hurting someone's feelings, and you already know what I face."

"That still doesn't give you any excuse to leave without telling me!" She hollered at me. "I'm trying to-"

"These next two weeks are for strictly business, princess. Now you either do your job, or someone else will do it for you."

Twilight reared back as she expressed her disbelief of the words I spoke. "How dare you-"

"Do we have a deal?"

Shining groaned as he placed a hoof on his forehead. "Aaarrrrgh! Again with you two arguing?"

"Wait, this happened before?" Cadance whispered to her husband.

Thankfully Celestia intervened before our argument could ascend any more in decibel level. "Both of you, enough."

Twilight and I stood quietly as the purple pony cut a unappreciative glance at me. I noticed it through the corner of my eye that she continued to scowl at me, but elected to ignore it.

"Sir captain, I am afraid that our time must come to an end. But I would be available the day after tomorrow should you wish to demonstrate the full might of the weaponry you chose to present." Princess Celestia continued.

I bowed before her, taking advantage of her invitation. But I had to come up with a location that wasn't anywhere close to town where they would be able to hear the gunfire, a place where there was ample space for me to shoot downrange without the fear of a stray bullet running into someone's back yard. Thankfully, I knew of such a place. "Then I wish to perform a demonstration at the outskirts of Ponyville, just on the lip of Ghastly Gorge. I will have targets and many other exercises planned for your viewing. I only ask that you bring proper protection for your ears. No press either."

"Agreed." The snow-white princess said with an extended hoof. "Then we are to meet then, sir captain."

"Wouldn't have it any other way, your highness." Hell, I might just go back to my world and buy an assault rifle with some suppressors to further enhance my demonstration.

Blueblood walked up to the door and called a few guards in to collect the items on display. The ones who grabbed the mannequin I shot had only stared for a quick moment before snapping back to reality and carting out the inanimate victim of my demonstration. He then turned back over to us.

"If that is all, then let us dismiss."

Throughout the day, I continued to converse with some of the guards that were conducting the search for the assassin. Once more, no dice. There's still the cloak from the sewer, but what good would that do if there was no signs of blood or damage that would lead us to the assassin? The trail is still cold and we've only gotten the fabric the guy wore.

Perhaps it was an enchanted fabric?

Either way, signs still point to a few politicians... namely the one that I embarrassed just yesterday. If he sent an assassin on his behalf, then I could easily see how he would have access to the castle. Cause the only way they would be able to casually walk inside was to be allowed in from within this compound. As far as secret passageways are concerned, they can only be opened from the inside of the castle. Not even servants and guards would be allowed inside without proper clearance, and those who were over the checkpoints didn't report anything. In other words, someone called the hit and left something unlocked.

If anything, the security of the castle─even if loosely guarded─is considered as highly organized and superbly effective.

...Perhaps I might have been wrong about my changeling assumption. The ones that invaded Canterlot a week back have fled to Ponyville for the next attack, but that doesn't mean that there weren't stragglers or spies left here... possibly even harbored by some concerned, yet naive, citizens. Then they'd drain them of their love and be on their merry way, complete with transformation magic.

A few could turn into guards and easily assume those roles until the time came for an infiltration. Not only that, but they have an exoskeleton that's not that hard to crack through. And who's to say that if it was a changeling, they didn't destroy the window just milliseconds before leaping out?

That could be the reason why we didn't see any blood.

But that investigation was not what I was assigned to. Instead I was assigned to the hunting of this changeling commander. And I had already established a completion date of two weeks from yesterday. In all honesty, I want it done by this coming Saturday. Not only will it be out of the way, but it would catch any spies off guard... should there be any. But if I attack sooner than announced, they will be caught off guard due to the false report.

And should there be any parliament members that would so happen to sell me out, the would be in for a huge surprise when I walk back in with a changeling in chains.

So again, why so soon? So that they won't have time to prepare. Enough said.

So with a few more visits to the changeling we captured from the train, whose name we've recently discovered was Padrig, I managed to obtain some bits and pieces on the guy we were hunting down.

"His name is Commander Guto. If anything, he's running the entire operation."

As I sat inside of the stony room, I watched him as he continued to squirm against the restraints of his chair. The holes in his leg did us a lot more good than it did for him. The heavy chains rattled as he shifted himself, trying to get into a more comfortable position... which was very unlikely. Just from across the table, I could already see just how uncomfortable that chair really was.

"So you said that this outpost was in Everfree, more specifically the old castle ruins there. If I may ask, why would he commandeer a fortress that had lost much of it's structural integrity? To me it doesn't seem to make sense."

The chains rattled once more as he made his final movement before calling it quits. "Why not? No one's using it, it's close to a food source, the food comes to you and it gives you a firm hold on territory. We can siphon forces from the queen and march them up here along our routes."

"Furthermore, why would your queen ask for such a large force to scope out candidates for a feeding. That excuse seems to make little sense to me."

"It's a counter measure for dragons. In the badlands, the dragons make their occasional trips through there in search of wandering travelers who'd seek to plunder their treasure. They'd also go on hunts for more loot and searches for possible mates. So we gathered a large group to protect ourselves from any dragons that would try and attack us, strength in numbers and whatnot."

"So you're the prey on that side of the map, huh?" I questioned while tapping my fingers against the table.

"Only because we are weakened. Since the queen's previous summoning attempt, we've been dragged against the rocks due to her inability to feed us anymore."

"Summoning?" I asked with a confused expression. "Changelings can do that?"

"It's just dark magic. But even then she had the assistance of three of her commanders, all of whom were drained considerably of their magic. And as a result, the rest of us suffered from it."

Now I was curious. Would I have to fight this abomination or would I actually have to physically assault the queen in order to gain it's attention? Either way, I was going to have to do one thing or another to protect myself. Thankfully I wouldn't have to do much, considering my weaponry. "So what happened to that creature?"

"From what I was told, the creature had ran off moments after we summoned it. Many of the commanders were very displeased with the situation as they thought that it was a complete and total failure, especially with the cost of their magical energy. The whole situation was horrendously bad, considering that one of them had suggested that we'd merely go to Tartarus and take one instead. But she advised against it, stating that it's guardian would be too much for them to handle."

Oh, so I guess I won't have to do anything in that regard. "So the risks didn't pay off and now everyone was shit out of luck because the fuck you summoned had ran off. Then in response, the commanders had gotten pissed and taken the simple feeding search into a full-blown military operation... How did this come up?"

"Of course, Commander Guto decided that just going on a feeding search would yield insufficient results. So instead of going on a search, he planned a campaign that would then redirect the efforts towards feeding his own units before feeding the colony. And as expected, everyone bought in."

"But what was the purpose of attacking Canterlot?" I asked.

"To weaken military presence, so that we'd be able to attack other cities as well. If the capital city where the head offices were attacked and prominent members of it's system were killed, they would have no other choice but to lock down the city and make repairs in the meantime while trying to reestablish a hierarchy."

"So their next phase was Ponyville, where they carried out their feeding methods." Not a bad plan, I'll have to admit. You put a country's capital in fear so that they would take from other's forces. And a severance in military power would cause a collapse of command, leading to orders being placed to protect the capital at all costs. It's a common war tactic that would cause for the enemy to throw it's defenses at the capital instead of the places where they needed to be placed.

I've played enough Age of Empires to know that much. But that still leaves much to be desired. How did they attack the city in the first place, especially without being noticed? "Did your commander send out any spies to infiltrate our forces?"

"A few of us who still had a decent amount of magic were 'dressed' as guards who neutralized the watchers, and many of us posed as civilians on the trains here. We had taken three trains, one from Appleloosa, two from Dodge Junction. And we had a much larger force that crept along the country road leading to the city. It was a well-organized attack that ended with miraculous results, considering that they had partially achieved their goal in Ponyville."

"I thought their goal was to take it over." I restated.

"True, but they managed to feed the entire army, did they not? Did any of them attack you with their magic while you were there?"

"Every last one." I recalled. "Dammit, they were taking us for a ride, no matter the outcome."

"But hey, at least Ponyville is still a functioning town in contrast to a functioning feeding farm. So there's that. I've secretly gotten my share of magic on the train here, but it isn't enough for me to do much but transform. And even with that, I can barely hold if for more than ten minutes."

"So, are any of those spies here in the city?"

"There are a few, of course they would probably be lying low. The caves and the sewers would be the ideal place for us to hide. And we can pose as guards for long enough to keep ourselves from being caught."

So that feeds one of my theories of changelings posing as guards to let in the assassin. But what else does he have in store for us? "Any future plans with this 'Guto' guy?"

"None that'll involve me." He scoffed. "I just want to go home before this all turns into a gigantic clusterfuck of miscommunication and power trips. My pod is calling my name and I've been away from her sweet embrace for far too long."

While he was busy reminiscing over his home life back at the hive-nest whatever, I took a quick moment to gather my thoughts. This does sound like something that has obviously gotten out of hand. So obviously he wants out. But that still doesn't lead me to believe that he has intentions of staying out. Perhaps I would need to keep him here until we capture Guto and bring him to a lovely stone cell down here in the Canterlot Dungeons. I would love to do it within a week so I can focus on much bigger matters at hand.

I'll make my decision on Padrig later. "So, do you have anymore information on what his future plans will be?"

"Nine times out of ten, he sent the travelers of Everfree to the feeding chambers of the castle ruins. And after that, they'll send the pony to the hive. Of course then the colony will be fed."

...Well that just changed everything. That means that I would need to capture Guto and give his cronies a Texas-style hello. My strike date would definitely have to be within the week at this rate. And that means... I would need to hire a squad to pull this mission off. Not only would I have to capture this guy, but I would also have to lead a rescue operation to free the captive travelers before anymore are sent to the changeling's nest, where there is a great possibility of them dying there. And any deaths could lead to an outcry for war.

Fuck, I hate it when the objective changes so drastically.

I pulled out my phone and checked the time. When I had discovered that I was down here for a significant amount of time, I decided that it was time for me to head back out to the world above. "Well as you already know, that little process will have to be put on suspension. She won't be feeding off of Equestrian citizens for any longer, so she better enjoy herself while she still got it. I suggest you memorize what I have said to you so that you will deliver those words to her when I let you go."

The changeling remained silent as he continued to sit in his chair. As I was exiting, two more guards came inside to remove the bonds from the chair and send him back to his cell. As he was being carted off, he spoke to me once more.

"From one warrior to another... protect your princesses, they do much for their citizens. I could only wish that my beloved queen had the power to do the same."

...What an unusual set of advice from one who is now considered an prisoner of war.

Later that night, I was sent to another room on the same level. And of course, Twilight had managed to work things out to where her room was directly next to mine. Shining's was just across from me while Celestia and Luna were a few doors down. With that being said, the security was absolutely air-tight. The only ones who would even get into this hall were the ones who slept here and the guards that kept watch.

The only difference was that Twilight had brought back Spike to talk with him about his previous dealings in the parliament. And as they continued to spend time with one another, it seemed that they carried out their usual boss-and-secretary vibe with one another. But they also appeared to be a bit disjointed with one another due to his actions that day in the meeting. It went without saying that Twilight vehemently chided him on his performance and demanded that he'd apologize to me. So after much deliberation and argument, Spike bowed his head as he gave me an apology.

And of course... it was far from heartfelt, so I didn't take anything he had to say seriously. If anything, he sounded as if he was saying everything from manuscript while a gun was pointed to his head.

So I informed him that it was 'just fine', but also made it very clear that another situation like this would require my personal brand of punishment. And boy did I have some ideas in mind. After our brief meeting, I went to my room, locked my doors, closed my windows, counted my bullets, loaded the cartridge into the gun, and placed it under the pillow. And thanks to the safety being in place, I won't have any accidental discharges... There you go, Miss Sassy.

But in all honesty, I felt guilty that I had to lie to Twilight about me sleeping with an unloaded gun. Hell if anything I've been sleeping with one since the invasion of Canterlot, until the day after where my Beretta suffered irreparable damage. And the only reason why I didn't have one with me last night was because I had actually forgotten it in the box since Cadance paid me an unexpected visit. Oops. But I refuse to let that white lie bog me down in this instance. I'll do what I can to protect myself, I'm entitled to that much at least.

The only concern was that I would probably experience that damn dream again. Between the one where I was on the train, the one I'm running away from a hell beast, and the one depicting the consequences of Twilight and I breaking our agreements, I didn't know what brand of nightmare fuel I was in for.

But still, I guess I shouldn't let myself lose sleep over what I would be dreaming of. If anything, Luna's got my back on this one. I'll just get some sleep and wake up to breakfast. And after that, I can gather my shit and mentally challenge myself to get on that train back to Ponyville.

Later that night...

I couldn't seem to keep my eyes closed for too long. Instead, my mind only wandered and I was too busy trying to fight myself to go to sleep. But the only thing I managed to do was toss and turn, relentlessly staring at the ceiling as I hoped that my eyelids would finally shut. I wasn't exactly aware of the pace the night was travelling. For all I know, I could be just fifteen minutes in, maybe even a full three hours.

I just know that I wasn't alone in my struggles.

Just next door, I could hear Twilight rambling and ranting about a variety of things. I could also hear Spike wearily answering her. Evidently, he was getting more sleep than anyone... that is until just now. It sounded as if he and her were having one hell of a conversation that seemed to involve a subject that he felt very passionate about.

I decided to let my curiosity take over since sleep wasn't exactly an exploitable option. Quietly, I rose from my bed, placed an ear to the wall on my left and listened carefully for what was said between the two of them.

"I don't see why you're so worried about him. He's just another stallion, albeit one that isn't actually a pony." The young dragon said as he stretched on his side of the bed.

"Well if you had nightmares about Rarity, then you wouldn't be saying these things, now would you?" Twilight struck back as she tossed to her side and placed a pillow over her head.

"Look, all I'm saying is that he's not really worth it all if he wants to separate himself from you."

Twilight threw the pillow off of her head as she sat up to look the dragon in the eye. "I told you, we're on a break! That means that he'll be right back where he belongs not too long from now. I don't intend for this break to last any longer than two weeks. By then, we should be back together again."

"Why do you like him so much, Twilight? I just don't see what's the appeal." Spike questioned.

"How could you not? He's caring, selfless, passionate, self-motivated, funny-"

"And he still can't be trusted. Who's to say that he hasn't been spending time with anypony else during this break? If anything, he's been really-"

"Spike, I think you should be quiet right about now." Twilight said quietly, yet with enough anger in her voice to get her warning across.

"But Twilight, you said it yourself! You said that he encouraged you to talk to other stallions. Who's to say that he hasn't been looking at other mares?"

"Goodnight, Spike!" She said in a frustrated tone.

"Twilight will you just listen to me?" The young dragon asked, trying to get the purple alicorn's attention. But he figured out after the third time he called her name that she was ignoring him. With a sigh, he gave up trying to pursue the issue even further. "Okay, you win. But I still find it hard to believe that he's been here with us for so long and not have his eyes on somepony else. Most stallions would've probably used their 'saving grace' by now. He's trying to minimize the fact that he's probably after one of the girls-"

"Spike, shut up or get out." The princess hissed angrily.

"And I'm not gonna let him have Rarity, I'll tell you that much."

"Just leave it alone."

"I'm saying Twilight, Rarity and Nondis already slept together in a hotel the day before he decided to stay... I know I'd stay just for her."

There wasn't much of a response from the young princess as she held her silence. But she decided that it would be best for her sake to rid herself of one nagging problem. "Guards!" She called out wearily.

A bit of time passed just before the sound of armor clattered and came to abrupt halt. "Yes, your highness?"

"I have grown restless. Spike has began his usual snoring fits and I can't get much sleep from any of it. Please assign me to another room."

"At once, your highness. Where to?"

I couldn't hear much after that as the door shut, but I could hear the sound of my blood bubbling in my own ears. So apparently Twilight's distrust of me was seeded from that little purple fucking iguana called a dragon.

Personally, I'm glad his ass decided to stay here in Canterlot. He would probably be stirring up all kinds of trouble if he was in Ponyville with us. He needs to stay here and get a damn clue about who's his friend and who's trying to take from him, because I'm sure as hell not trying to take from him what isn't already his. Possessive little fuck.

How can you claim a relationship that doesn't even-

*knock knock knock*

...Please tell me that isn't her.

I walked over to the door and cracked it open to see a pair of guards standing in the way. They both gave me a salute as one of them spoke. "Sir captain, I believe that a certain young princess has decided to seek your protection."

Yup, it's her alright. And it's not like I can just simply refuse without my looking bad. But then again... "I am weary from the daily activities as well as an assassination attempt made upon me from just last night. I can offer no protection of any sort in my current mental state. For further assistance, please refer to Shining Armor."

Before I could close my door, I felt a strong presence push back and even push me off of the door. But that presence soon gave way and allowed me to shut the door. Locking myself inside, I finally made my way back towards my bed... only to see a purple alicorn sitting in it instead.

"Ugh... Twilight, what do you want?" I started to rub my forehead as a headache began to form.

Immediately, I was magically toted towards one side of the bed as she scooted to the other. With a quiet voice, she tucked me in. "I'm here to protect you. And I won't let anyone come near you as long as I'm here."

"Twilight, go back to bed."

"I'm not leaving, and neither are you. You need protection, and I need comfort. I want to protect you, and I need you to just stay here with me. I know this sounds redundant, but I can't sleep if I know that you're in danger. Even the slightest possibility would leave me to wonder about your well being all-"

"Arrgh, go to sleep. I don't care, just lie down next to me. Do whatever makes you feel comfortable." I answered grouchily. I'm not even going to fight this one. I'm just going to let it happen so we can both get some goddamn sleep.

As she started to settle down, I had realized just how selfish I had appeared to be. But at the same time, I was growing tired of constantly being babied and sought after like I was incapable of protecting my own self. If anything, I was just exhausted from Twilight smothering me all day with questions and concerns that led into arguments. I understand that she's trying to do this for my health and benefit, but it's starting to become somewhat troublesome.

What could have her acting so...

Before I could finish that question in thought, my mind had already rewound the words that left Spike's mouth. The seeds of distrust he had planted in her had began to take root, snuffing out any form of security she might have had when it came to me. If anything those words─rather the details he purposely left out─had caused her to become uneasy.

I suppose I should add some closure to it. "Twilight..."

"Yes." She answered, facing away from me.

"Do you feel uncertain about me?" I was too tired to beat around bushes. I was going to nail this in the ass before it could fester into something even worse.

"What are you talking about? I don't feel anyway uncertain about you."

That's a lie. "I heard you and Spike talking while I was having trouble sleeping. The walls aren't that thick where I couldn't hear."

As she attempted to pull the covers over her face, she warded off the question. "I'm really tired, Nondis."

Pulling back the sheets, I got out of the bed and walked to face her. "You're not that tired if you chose to leave your room and come all the way over here. Now what's on your mind?"

"Sleep, now go away." She answered, still trying to keep the sheets over her face.

I rolled my eyes at her noncompliance in giving me some sort of eye-contact. I just decided to clear things up now before the thoughts start to manifest into dreamscape.

"...Spike left out the details that Rarity and I shared a room out of her being unable to fit a third room into the budget." Though I was still questioning why she didn't assign me with Spike, especially since she preferred 'a more privatized arrangement'. That would be something I would have to ask her later. "She also stated that Spike would be unfair towards me and that he had a serious snoring issue."

Twilight groaned as she started to remove her head from the sheets. "Yeah, he's not too great to sleep with. Sometimes I'd have to sleep with earplugs if he had ever gotten bad."

"Snore so loud, you'd hear that shit from Dallas. Hell, we'd probably hear it from Ponyville."

Twilight giggled as she placed a hoof over her muzzle. "Yeah." Her eyes began to wander towards me, but as soon as she met with mine, she immediately went back into hiding under the sheets. For a brief moment, I could see streaks of liquid trailing off to one side of her face. The dampened spots of her coat was a dead giveaway.

"Aside from that, don't take what Spike has to say about me seriously. He's just a little frustrated at me for... you know, stealing his mojo." I said as I walked back over to my side of the bed.

"...Did Rarity try and convince you to stay?" She asked nervously.

"Yeah, but so did Pinkie, and Sweetie Belle... and Applejack, Mr. and Mrs. Cake, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, quite a few folks. So no, you weren't the only one to ask." She sank into the sheets a bit more as I listed each name. "But, you were the one that gave me the extra nudge."

"...Did Rarity ever have feelings for you?" She asked sheepishly.

Well, I wasn't going to cause her anymore distrust. Lying here would result into something that would be unsightly, to put it lightly. And I did promise myself that I would eventually tell her about it if she would ever ask. Well, I can't back out of that now.

"She did. We talked it over. In fact, she confessed just before I was about to leave. But even then, I didn't change my mind. I just let her down gently and told her that I wanted to be friends. Nothing more to it than that."

Twilight turned over to face me. Finally, she pulled the sheets off of her face to give me a brave face as she spoke. "So, you two haven't done anything... have you?"

"No." I answered truthfully.

"No kissing? No vocal exchanges of explicit desires? No passionate secrets?"

"Not a one."

She took a deep breath and glanced away from me as she spoke. "So you two haven't done anything... like that?"

"No." I answered bluntly. "We have not engaged in any physical activities whatsoever."

Finally, I turned over and grabbed my pillow, getting myself situated for sleep. Pulling the covers back over myself, I hunched over and closed my eyes in an attempt to force myself to sleep again.

Yet there was one thing that shocked me completely awake within a few seconds of my eyes fluttering closed.

"...You know... I wouldn't have a problem with it."

Author's Note

This chapter was a bit of fun (sarcasm). Now onto a possible concern that would arise from this situation.

So let's talk about the elephant in the room: the names.
Guto and Padrig are both Welsh in origin, however their names carry specific meanings. What they are, you will have to research them to find out as they are a bit of a spoiler to their roles.

Nondis isn't aware of who attacked him, nor would he know considering that he was asleep. You all as the readers would already know this, but Nondis the protagonist would not. The reason it was written that way... I'll have to tell you later. YOU WON'T GET ANY SPOILERS OUT OF ME!!!

Another thing about everyone wondering about Spike. Twilight had already informed them of Spike being in Canterlot and that "he'll be fine". And that was after Fluttershy had shown some concern over his not showing up for their Friendship Day. So there has been concerns vocalized and answered in a previous chapter (Chapter 31)

And as far as why Spike made his attempt at Nondis... You will find out later as well.

Chapter XXXIX

Warning: There is a bit of language not exactly suitable for younger audiences in the latter portion of the chapter. But aside from that, well there's the other stuff that made this a mature-rated story. I apologize for that one instance and will look forward to a potential chastisement in the comments below. I hope that you do enjoy the chapter aside from it.

Cliff and Rickey continued to stare at me while their jaws practically dragged across the floor. For several seconds, they tried to process the fact that my initial story, originally perceived to be some sort of a shrooms trip, was actually legit. Meanwhile, Twilight was just as stunned to see the two other humans standing in front of the portal. Her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates while her hooves acted as if they were bolted to the floor. I was just quietly waiting for anyone to say something, preferably Twilight just so I could see their reaction.

Much to my disappointment, it was Cliff who spoke first. "So... you've been kidnapped by aliens, right? And you just so happen to have a portal to their home world sitting in your bathroom like 'fuck, might as well just keep this here in case I need it for reasons'?"

"Well... yea... no... maybe? No. NO, there's no way in hell I'll believe it." Rickey said as he was about to step through the portal.

"What part of this shit don't you believe?" I asked. "It's right in front of your face."

"Look, that purple thing over there may have wings and a horn, but I'll be damned if that... whatever-it-is can talk. Horses don't talk. They are incapable of speech. I bet that horn is fake as fuck, those wings are fake, that horse is dyed a different color for the purpose to sell your stupid little..." Suddenly his tone changed from complete disbelief to utter sarcasm. "Hey wait, didn't you say that they wanted you to marry their princess?"

I did not think he would remember that particular detail in my story. If the initial response was anything, it should be nothing more than a forgettable joke. Houston to damage control, we have a problem. "Well... um... you see-"

"What's the name of this princess you're trying to marry?" Cliff asked with a chuckle. "Princess Count DeMonay? Princess Seabiscuit? Princess Bella?"

Rickey turned back to face Cliff as they continued to joke amongst each other. "So is she named after Twilight, the story with the 'sparkling' vampires? I swear if she is, I'm going to lose my shit! Hey Nondis, is her name really Bella? If so, can we call you Edward?"

"Ugh..." I planted my palm directly over my face as I began to feel embarrassed. As I was continuing to express my grief, Twilight finally rediscovered her ability to walk and decided to walk beside the portal and shut it off. Meanwhile, Cliff and Rickey were too busy joking around to even notice.

"So we got team Edward. I bet 'Bella' must be some emo horse with a thing for bestiality." Rickey stated as he pointed to me. "So have you been running from dragons while you were here? Did she fall in love with a dragon too?"

"Okay, enough of the Twilight jokes!" While I proceeded to pinch the bridge of my nose, I turned to the purple princess. "I never really told them your name." She just simply shrugged. I turned back to the other two. "But either way... I think she took offense to what you guys said. So, can we get some sort of apology going?"

Cliff rolled his eyes as he walked towards her and offered to pet her. "Okay, I'm sorry miss purple horse. We're not here to hurt you-" But as soon as he reached in, his hand was enveloped by her magic. Of course, his initial reaction was panic. As he pulled, he couldn't seem to get himself free from her grip while she was giving him a devious smirk. At the same time, Rickey was trying to pull his arm free, but found that it was much harder than anticipated. I shook my head as I turned back to the purple pony.

"Okay, Twilight, cut it out."

She turned back to me with an innocent smile. "Oh I'm just making sure that they're done." She then turned back to the other two humans, who were far from laughing. "You two are done, right?"

They both stopped pulling and just stood silently as she allowed herself to speak to them for the first time. Neither one of them could believe that the pony before them was capable of expressing cognitive thought and coherent speech, not to mention magical capabilities. After she let them go, Cliff just let his arm fall to his side. Slowly, they turned back to one another and then made a dash for the portal. Rickey was the first to face plant directly into the mirror, producing a loud thud.

I had to give credit to Twilight though. If she hadn't cut the portal off, those two would be running for the truck by now. At least this gives me a chance to explain what all goes on here and why I've been here for the past nine, almost ten months.

Cliff just pointed to the portal and looked at me. "Bruh, this shit ain't workin'. Why the fuck does it not work?"

"Because she kinda wants your attention. After all, she's the one who built the damn thing. And yes, her name is Twilight... Twilight Sparkle to be more precise."

"Princess Twilight Sparkle actually, I'm the one who pretty much looks after Nondis... Annnnd I'm also the princess you just made fun of." Awkward. "But being that you weren't aware of my existence, let alone my name, I will excuse your ignorance and extend my offer of acquaintanceship. Do you accept?"

Rickey got off the ground, walking towards the princess. As she extended her hoof in welcome, he shook it briefly. "We accept, can we go back home now?"

"Rick, chill. She's not gonna hurt you. You act like she bites or something." I tried to reason. But then again I knew that the ponies here had a kink for biting ears. I'm not going to disclose that for obvious reasons.

Cliff started to rub the hand she previously caught in her magic. "Yeah, I don't know what the fuck that shit was, but I think she would bite the shit out of me!"

Twilight groaned as she walked away from Rickey and moving towards the man still rubbing his hand. "I promise I won't hurt you. I just wanted to show you guys that I was a lot more than what you perceived me to be, which was some animal incapable of speech and independent thought. The spell I cast on your hand was just a simple freezing spell, it prevents you or a part of you from moving."

"Spell?" Cliff quirked an eyebrow as he tilted his head. "So you can do magic?"

"Why yes." She answered eagerly. "I'm actually a natural-born unicorn. I just got the wings and a growth spurt a little later."

Cliff and Rickey both looked down at her and then to each other with a deadpan expression. I chuckled a bit at their reaction to Twilight's mention of her growth spurt. "Ponies here are naturally small. Even their largest one stands at about five feet... minus the horn. I'm guess there could be taller ones, but I don't know that for sure." I stated.

"So... we're in a land of magical midget horses?" Rick summarized.

"Yeah, pretty much." I confirmed, gaining a discouraging scowl from Twilight. "What? It's true."

"Yeah, but despite our small stature, we ponies can be capable of some things that you humans cannot do." She proudly stated as she summoned her magic, casting her manipulating aura around my entire body to lift me into the air. "For example, we have mastered the arts of levitation, telekinesis, summoning-"

"Anything we can't do outside of our body's basic functions, they pretty much can." I said as I floated well above Twilight's head. "They can even fire death lasers from those things, capable of destroying rock and earth. But they obviously suck at technology."

"What he means to say is that our daily lives are not as convenient as yours, as you can probably tell. Even your cell phones are devoid of any signals here." Twilight finished, causing the two men to pull out their phones and look for any incoming reception.

"Damn, no bars." Cliff said as he shook his head.

"I'm starting to see why you've been hard to get in touch with." Rickey cosigned. "I can't even get an edge signal here."

I pulled out my phone and looked at the time as I spoke. "Yeah, it's a little hard trying to keep in touch when you're working so much on this end and only have the time to come back every once and a while."

"Really, you work here?" Rickey asked.

"So what, do they have you in some cage at a local zoo?" Cliff questioned.

"No, not at all. I thought they were going to do that when I first got here, but surprisingly they didn't. But they did use me for research."

"It wasn't even that much!" Twilight clarified. "I already knew what a human was prior to your being here and it really cut down on what was needed to be researched upon. You just laid in the room for the duration of a whole week before I had to finally drag your lazy butt into town."

"Yup, sounds like him." Rickey joked while giving me a slap on the back, causing me to give him a displeased expression. He only continued to chuckle at my expense.

"Well, I'm not that lazy anymore. In fact I'm very busy with my job, which requires me to be in some form of shape."

"So what do you do?" Cliff inquired.

"Well I just do a bit of sec-"

"Nondis P. Haines, the first human to become a member of the Earth-pony, Pegasus, Unicorn guard... E.U.P. for abbreviation, and to achieve a high rank in such a short amount of time. Position held: Captain of the Royal Guard. Every mare in Equestria wants him." Twilight boasted as she placed me back down onto the ground.

"Okay, I was just going to say I ran security." I answered bashfully.

"Nonsense! They need to know just how accomplished you are on this side of the portal. You've achieved one of our highest military honors and have rightfully earned it. Not to mention you pretty much bear the scars of every conflict you fought in."

"Military?" Cliff questioned.

"Conflict?" Rickey asked, scratching his head. "What are all these 'conflicts' you fought in?"

"Just small skirmishes-"

Twilight saw fit to interrupt me once more. "Small? SMALL??? You got on a train and saved several civilians from a swarm of changelings and prevented them all from falling into a ravine on the side of Mount Canter. You helped me, Cadance, and Shining push several changelings back in the invasion of Ponyville. In that same invasion, you defeated well over forty changelings SINGLE HOOFEDLY! And then on top of it, you're going to be hunting down the changeling commander and bring him to justice, WITHIN A WEEK? Stop trying to downplay what you've done. You've done a commendable service for our nation and you're seen as a hero throughout the realm of Equestria."

"Like my accomplishments match up to what you do." I argued back. "I mean, hi-ho I got lucky on a train. Wooptie-fucking-doo, I fought a small gathering of changelings. It's not like I just went full-Kratos and slayed a damn god. You fought a ginormous magic-stealing centaur and blew up three mountains in doing so. You destroyed a king hell-bent on trying to enslave a small empire. You fought Princess Luna head on when she was possessed by that dark spirit. And you defended Canterlot from a changeling invasion. And the list of your accomplishments and the amount of windows in Canterlot with you face plastered all over them are too many for me to count. So yeah, my resume doesn't nearly look as decent as you make it out to be."

"First off, you're giving me too much credit! Second, it was Spike who saved the crystal ponies and helped Cadance defeat King Sombra. Third, it was Cadance and Shining Armor who defeated the changelings the first time. Fourth, it was a combined effort of me and the girls to defeat Nightmare Moon. Fifth, it took me and the girls to put Tirek back into Tartarus! And sixth, Celestia, Luna, and Cadance gave me their magic so that I could fight Tirek. Nothing was done on my own. You did everything on your lonesome. If anything, your accomplishments outweigh mine due to that fact alone."

"And you talk about me giving myself too little credit. Hello Sparklebutt, you saved the world, NUMEROUS TIMES! There are nations who are lining up to kiss the darkest part of your ass right now." While we had gotten caught up in our small argument, we had then realized that there were two other people standing in the room, watching us bicker. They only looked at us like we were crazy. I cleared my throat and brought the conversation back to ground level. "Sorry about that. Now, do any of you you have any questions?"

"A lot." Another voice rang out from behind us. As I turned around, I instantly felt my entire stomach drop as five other mares stood and stared at the other two humans standing in front of me.

"So, they can talk too?" Rickey asked as he eased back.

Everyone else outside of Fluttershy was pretty much floored while they only looked on while the yellow pegasus jetted towards both Cliff and Rick. "Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! I can't believe it! More humans! I just can't believe my eyes!" Timidly, she grabbed Cliff's hand and shook it violently. "You'll have to forgive me for being so rude, but I just can't help myself! So you two are humans as well? What's your diet like? What are your daily habits? Do you often-"

I groaned as the palm of my hand smacked against my forehead. "Fluttershy, please. They just got here, don't overload them with questions."

"Y'all two are related to Nondis? What do y'all humans do fer a livin'? Do ya do a lot of work?" Applejack continued to add to the pile.

"Do any of you play a lot of sports? What's your favorite thing to do? Do the two of you fight?" Rainbow added to the bombardment.

"My, what interesting choices of apparel. Is there by any chance you two would be willing to allow me to grab your measurements for some of my latest designs? Why I could have the three of you matching like, how do you say it? Yes, bread and butter!" Rarity teleported her measuring tape to her side as she crept up to Rickey, making him feel a bit uncomfortable.

Pinkie grabbed Rickey away from Rarity, gaining a look of disapproval from the fashionista. "What do you humans do for fun? Do you like parties? If you want, I could throw you both a huge, ginormous, fun-packed 'Welcome to Equestria' party! OOOH, I COULD EVEN FILL IT WITH CAKE AND STREAMERS AND CONFETTI AND BALLOONS AND-"

"ENOUGH ALREADY, GIVE THEM A CHANCE TO BREATHE!" I hollered loudly. While my voice continued to ring throughout the castle, I waited for the other five mares to stand beside Twilight. As soon as Pinkie plopped her pink posterior against the cold porcelain floor, I began to speak. "They're here for a temporary visit. They won't be staying for any longer than they need to. After all, they can't stay here like I can. They have lives on the other side of the mirror. And not only that, but the three of us have some business to attend to. So I'm going to have to ask all of you to leave for the time being."

A collective chorus of sighs and groans of disappointments sounded throughout the room. Twilight nodded and offered to take the others to the main chamber while the three of us got back to what had brought us here in the first place. I waited until they all had disappeared down the hall before speaking of what was needed to be done.

"So enough distractions, let's get those weapons moved over."

Cliff and Rickey looked at me as if I was speaking in a foreign language. One of them walked up to the mirror and gave the surface a knock, indicating that the portal was still off.

"Oh, right. Gimmie a sec."

I walked to the side of the portal and flicked the switch located just behind the back of the mirror. As I did, the familiar sound of magical machinery whirred and buzzed as the portal once again became active. Before I stepped through, I could still see the two other guys standing and staring at me still.

"You two coming or what?"

As we traversed back and forth from our world to Equestria, lugging the tubs full of weapons, Cliff, Rickey, and I had a long chat about what I was doing on the other side. I offered to keep it generalized, but they had only grown all the more curious since I was coming back with injuries. But I kept telling them that there were magic spells that would do the trick and lead to a much more speedy recovery than what would normally be expected should we enter into a hospital on our end.

In speaking of injuries, Melanie called me to let me know that she was finally getting somewhere with getting a case made against Jasper. Apparently, he's being charged with battery, assault, and sexual harassment. And go figure, it turned out that he had a similar incident involving a girl just two years prior. The only difference was that he tried to put his hands in places she didn't like, and the only thing that stopped him was a taser. And since he transferred here in secret, the girl couldn't press charges. Thankfully those charges will be compiled and he'll be thrown into a place where his cell-mate would be willing to show him what bottoming-out feels like on the receiving end.

After what he did to Melanie, it serves him right.

Melanie also asked me if I could come over and spend the night with her. I had to turn her down due to job restraints. I have a weapons demonstration that I have to perform tomorrow and my sleeping around here would only cause me to be late for the set-up. So I told her that I was going to be working and that I was terribly sorry.

Goes without saying that she took it well, and by well I mean her sending me sad faces as soon as she hung up the phone.

After that call, I had to finish transferring the weapons from our end to theirs. When we finished, both of the guys wanted to know more about the world I was confined to for the past nine-to-ten months... and they didn't wanna hear shit from me. Instead, they were vying for a chance to speak with the girls. It turns out that they were kinda interested in exchanging ideas and fashions of each world. But they obviously didn't believe it when I had told them that the white unicorn with the curly mane had made the very clothes I was wearing. No matter, I'm sure that Rarity would probably prove them wrong in a heartbeat.

And knowing her, it wouldn't even take long.

When we crossed over again, I had to scan through the halls to make sure that there weren't any other ponies around, as that would cause too much of a ruckus. After a quick runaround, I finally brought the guys to the main hall. I was more than relieved to not find any guards on the way in. We already have to deal with the incoming volley of questions, we really didn't need anymore from any of the maids or guards... especially the curious maids who constantly gossip about how Twilight and I shared our affection with one another. I REALLY didn't need them asking either Cliff or Rickey any questions that pertains to human mating habits.

Ugh... That would be too much for me to even mentally process, let alone explain it in a way where I don't look like a zoophile. Then again, I'm kinda already in that part of the danger zone. It's best that there are no questions that pertains to the more in-depth details of Twilight's relationship with me.

In fact, I think I should just gloss over those questions in general. Just ignore them. Nothing asked, nothing told.

"So what do you guys do for fun?" Rainbow asked as she hovered just above her seat. "I know that Rookie here doesn't really do too much of anything fun nowadays, with his being captain and junk."

Cliff scratched his head as he spoke. "Nothin' much. It kinda varies from person to person. Like Rickey could be goin' out to play some football with the frat. Personally, I'm cool with anything. Now I can't really speak for Nondis, but I think he likes to play video games from time to time. Don't let him catch you on the stick. He might set out to embarrass yo ass."

The mares looked at each other somewhat confused as they took a moment to decipher what Cliff had just said. After a moment of deliberation, they looked back to him as Applejack spoke for the whole group. "Um... pardon?"

Rickey offered to clarify on what was said. "He means 'don't let Nondis catch you playing with him.' If anything he's good at, it's games. Especially anything FPS."

The six mares turned their heads sideways in confusion.

"Guys, they don't know what video games are." I announced, making it known that the conversation about me and games wouldn't make too much ground.

After a brief moment of silence, Twilight perked up as she tapped her hoof against the table. "...Wait, isn't that the human medium to which you interact with a technological interface─I.E.: a box-shaped device and a screen with a functioning controller used to run the interface─for the sole purpose of entertainment?"

The three of us humans turned to each other, at first in silence but later in approving nods. "Pretty much." I answered.

"Oh, well I know that it's a form of recreation, albeit one that requires very minimal physical activity... or social interaction. I'm afraid that we don't have anything like that here. We don't even have televisions here."

Rickey seemed to have shrunk at that statement. "You don't? Then what do you guys have as far as media is concerned? How do you get the news out? The traffic, the stock market, local developments, the weather, the music?"

"They have radios." I began to explain. "So they have music. Their music is similar to ours, but they haven't exactly mastered the synthetic sounds just yet. They don't have cars, so traffic isn't really an issue. Things like the stock market and the local news usually make the newspaper. And for the weather... well I'll have Rainbow Dash explain that one to you. Rainbow?"

"We run shit." She answered as she sat down and cocked her hind legs on the table.

"Thank's, Rainbow. What's the weather looking like tomorrow?"

"It's gonna rain."

"Thanks, Dash." Well that would put a bit of a damper on the weapons demonstration tomorrow. I guess I'd have to reschedule.

Cliff shook his head with a snicker as he waved us off as joking. "Nah, y'all can't just be sittin here and dictating whether the shit's gonna snow or hail."

Rainbow immediately responded with a boastful tone. "Actually, we pegasi are the ones in charge of the weather. So if we need it to rain, we'll gather the clouds and knock them on. In short, we run the weather here. If you don't like it or you need the rain to come later, then you can just send a request through town hall. They'll report it to the weather team after that, then we'll clear the skies from there on."

"That's a magic specifically allotted to pegasi." Twilight followed up. "They control anything that has to do with the weather. Unicorns are more visual with our magic. We practice telekinesis and often use it for when we need to grab something that would normally be grabbed by hoof. The primary difference is that we often use it to handle more precise tasks. But it is possible to study beyond the practical uses for magic, or learning how to cast spells, summon for items, beasts, familiars for those in the dark magic realm, create shields, teleport from one place to another, or to use it as an offensive weapon. Earth ponies use their magic to tend the land and quickly grow crops. They are also known to have specific attributes that would allow them to endure a lot more than what normal ponies do. They can jump higher, run faster, carry more weight, and in rare cases can obtain extrasensory perception that makes them able to predict a variety of things. That of course varies from pony to pony."

As Twilight passed on that massive wall of information, both Cliff and Rickey looked at me as if I was supposed to explain everything to them. But as far as all of that is concerned, I have not been able to quite figure it out myself. So I was a little less stumped than they were, if not as much. "What she said. I guess they had to make things fair to the race that doesn't levitate anything or can't fly."

"Still seems unfair." Rickey mumbled.

"Put it this way, if you were playing an adventure game..." It took me a while to properly explain what I was trying to say in a way that was easily relatable. "Say you're playing Final Fantasy. They have a job system in place that allows certain attributes and stats to go to those of a certain job."

"But if a unicorn can cast spells, wouldn't it be possible for them to add a shit-load of buffers and spells to make them more powerful than the other two?" Cliff questioned. "I've played my share of FF7 and FF12 for me to understand that you could make one of your guys overpowered as fuck."

"Well, from what I can guess from Princess Purple, I think the horn is the main thing that gives them power. Knock that off and they'll be no better than the Earth pony... right?" Rickey summarized.

"Yeah, but if you knock off a unicorn's horn, they suffer a significant amount of brain-damage. Hell, a cracked horn is almost as bad as an aneurysm from what I've seen. So knocking one off and not giving them any medical attention would cause a loss of blood and immense amounts of pain, leaving them to die a slow and painful death." I stated, keeping in mind what had happened to Shining Armor. "And also, all you'd have to do is grab their horn to stop them from using magic."

"Brutal." Rickey whispered to himself. "But how do you do that if they're down range?"

"Yeah, like healers and black mages and shit. How do you stop them from shooting lightening bolts at yo ass?" Cliff questioned once more.

"That's a pegasi thing. Weather elements is their thing as far as I'm concerned." I said as I tried to think about a unicorn using elemental magic. "I know that it's possible for unicorns to do it, but only extremely high-ranking ones with appropriate licenses are authorized access to those kinds of spells, let alone using them. And it's not like you can just find a grimoire or a magic scroll with magic spells listed on it in your public library."

Twilight nervously rubbed the back of her neck as she laughed nervously. "Well... they weren't exactly public access."

"Yeah, Twilight had a bunch of them all lining up on the shelves back in Golden Oaks!" Pinkie shouted rather loudly.

I looked back at the purple princess and stared as if she had, which she did, done something completely stupid. Her response was a instant change to the subject. "Well, *ahem* I think we should get back to the previous subject at hoof... or hand. What other things do you humans have for entertainment?"

Cliff started listing off everything we'd normally have. "Movies, sports, music, books, games, parties, se-"

"OOOOH, WHAT KIND OF PARTIES DO YOU HAVE!?" Pinkie screeched with the highest pitch and volume she could produce. "DO YOU PLAY GAMES AT YOUR PARTIES!?"

"Eeeeyah." Rick said as he tried to rub the ringing out of his ears. "We have dancing games, table games, drinking games, games where we do stupid shit, video games, twister, truth or dare."

"Nobody's too old for truth or dare. Don't let em tell you that lie." Cliff said as he pointed to Pinkie. "So what, do you ponies turn-up?"

"Turn up?" Rarity questioned with confusion in her voice. "I'm not sure what you would call this... turning-up. Is it some sort of gesture referring to the attendance to the soiree?"

"It means 'turn up the hype' like you would the radio when your favorite song is on. Kinda like that feeling you get when you say 'this is my jam' and you start to vibe with the song. It's kinda like that." I graciously translated.

"Oh, I get it! Hee hee! Turn UP! Like turning up the party! I LOVE THAT, I COULD USE THAT! TURN UP!"' And now I'm going to be hearing that at every party Pinkie throws... great, just my luck.

"So Ah get that y'all have an 'ism fer bringing the party to a hype, but is it possible that y'all have a turn-down notch of sum-"

"TURN DOWN FOR WHAT!?" Cliff shouted at his loudest volume, exciting Pinkie even more.

"Non-non, I like him. When is he coming back?" Pinkie asked as she wrapped her hoof around his neck.

"When he decides not to be a bad influence." I muttered as I started to rub the bridge of my nose.

"Yeah, what y'all pony-folk do when y'all throw a party?" Cliff inquired.

Pinkie happily answered his question. "A bunch of stuff! We have a bunch of games we play. Like we play Tizzler," the pony version for Twister. "Apple bobbing, truth or dare, cider guzzling, whip cream eating, and muff diving!"

*THUD*

Rick slammed his head into the table as soon as he heard that last one. Cliff took a step back and stared as if the pink party pony had lost her mind. "Say what now?"

"Sh-sh-she said 'muff diving'." Rickey stated as he continued to giggle against the surface of the table. "Sss-s-she said it."

"Yeah, what's wrong with muff diving?" Rainbow asked.

At this point, Cliff took a brief walk around the room while Rickey was laughing himself to literal tears. "There's... s-s-sso much beauty in the world, you know?"

"Yeah, we kinda turn it into a competitive event. Rainbow Dash and Ah try to see who can come out on top by the night's end. Really great times to be had." Applejack added. "Rarity said that she wouldn't ever play with us though."

"I can't get my mane wet, darling. Do you know how long it takes for me to get these curls right?" The fashionista said as she started fiddling with her coiffure.

Cliff took a moment to hide his face into the collar of his shirt as he allowed himself to bust his guts all over the room. Rickey fell out of the chair and held his sides with one arm as he pounded the floor in an expression between delight and pain. "I-I... I can't fucking bre... BWAHAHAHAHA!"

"BRUH, I SWEAR I WAS NOT READY FOR THIS SHIT!" Cliff said as he gasped for air, just moments before he continued to laugh.

Pinkie announced loudly. "Yeah, between the whip-cream eating contest and muff diving, Nonnie loves those two the most!"

...She didn't just say that. She didn't.

She did.

Well fuck.

Both Cliff and Rick stopped for a moment to look at me with dumbfounded expressions, but the silence only lasted briefly as they snorted and spat just before laughing again. At this point, they were laughing and coughing up their lungs in hearing a statement made outside of context. They can have their fun, but it won't be at my expense.

"To clarify, Muff Diving is actually diving for muffins in this world. So whatever dirty thoughts you two might have entertained, they won't remain as such. What you do is you go diving in a giant tub full of muffins and try to snag as many as you could before the time was up. Whoever had the most won. And now you have your context for the evening, gentlemen."

The two still needed some time to recover from their impure thoughts. But it did leave them with a lasting impression. I'm only hoping that they were listing to a word I was saying, otherwise things could grow to become awkward between us. I don't need them finding out about just how far I actually went with a pony... or I could be facing a long term filled with scrutiny and uneasy stares.

Pinkie tilted her head at the other two humans as she spoke. "Doi, silly. What did you think 'muff diving' actually meant?"

Sniffling and wiping away tears, a exhausted Cliff answered her question. "Well, in our world, it refers to the act of eatin-"

"A furry peach." I said, offering a vague explanation that fully defines what was being said, and at the same time in such a way where the girls would remain unaware of what it really meant until much later. Anything to change the subject. "Next question please."

Rickey took a few deep breaths as he continued to hold his arm against the aching portions of his waist. "In speaking of eating furry peaches, how did you and the purple princess even get into this 'marriage' thing?"

Dammit Rickey, you were not supposed to ask that question.

"Ya know, we never really found that out fer ourselves." Applejack confessed as she turned to me. "How did y'all decide to just get into it, you know, full-blown datin'?"

And she is not helping me. Now I'm really gonna look like some sort of freak. "Well, it just sorta happened."

"Well it had to have been more than 'just sort of happened'. Shining went out of his way to run you into the ground in basic training." Rainbow Dash added, much to my displeasure.

I've always thought that explaining that I was dating a girl would be easy, but try telling your frat brothers that you've actually kissed a pony, not even screwing the equine princess, or going into detail how her mother caught her blowing me. Try selling that to National Lampoon.

It could be worse. You could tell them how you stuffed your face into a pillow lined with your own semen.

...There are times where I am glad that my worst thoughts remain as they are: thoughts. "Shining and I had it out for one another in the beginning. You know, overprotective big brother."

Pinkie began to speak. "Really, because I thought it was because Shining Armor walked in on you and Twilight just as she was-"

QUICK, CHANGE THE SUBJECT! MAKE UP A STORY! JUST SAY ANYTHING AT THIS POINT! "About to kiss me."

As soon as those words left my mouth, I slammed my head on the large table before me... Dammit. Why did I just say that?

Sorry, it was the first thing that came up.

...You're fired.

"Wait, you kissed a pony?" Cliff asked with a hint of disgust in his voice.

"Actually, I was drunk at the time." Twilight clarified, looking at me uncomfortably. I guess she had caught on to what I was trying to do. "I had just gotten through being rejected by another stallion I liked. So Nondis did what a good friend would do and came over to comfort me."

Thank you Twilight, for taking one for the team.

"Comfort you as in how?" Rickey asked, implying that I had did more than offer her words of encouragement.

Twilight blushed as she looked at me, wearing a sort of bitter smile. "Well, he told me that I was special, and that I was pretty." And she immediately began to gush. "And told me how he would do anything to prove to me how I was special to him. So I made a bit of a drunken choice and tried to lean in on him. But after my brother walked in... I kinda offered him more than a kiss."

Oh boy, I wonder how these two are going to throw this out of context.

"Oh sweet Celestia, it took me nearly an hour of scrubbing to get that vomit stain out of your tux." Rarity mumbled over to me, not realizing that she was loud enough where everyone else heard it.

...It could've been worse.

Stop tempting fate.

Cliff shook his head as he tried to hold on to his laughter. "Wow, you must've had you a bomb-ass time over here."

"Oh, and in speaking of a good time..." Twilight muttered as she gave me a devious look.

"What you staring at me like that for?"

Before I could ask anything else, she used her freeze spell on me and casually removed my phone from my pocket. As her hoof lightly tapped on the screen, she pulled up a familiar picture. "Would you two care to explain why Nondis wore this?"

Both Cliff and Rickey looked at the phone and smiled as they took the phone from her. On the screen was a picture of me wearing that maid outfit from the 'Gentlemen's Ball'. Thankfully they were in similar circumstances, so they wouldn't disclose too many details. "Oh shit, this was from that one thing we had before we crossed last year." Rickey pointed out.

Cliff snickered as he scratched the side of his face. "So you didn't think to delete this shit after we had finally crossed?"

Suddenly, I could feel my cheeks warm by a significant amount. "Wait, you two deleted yours? I thought Prett told us keep it on there as a 'ticket into the frat'."

Rickey shook his head slowly. "Uhh... yeah, and we deleted it immediately after probate."

SHIT! Why did I keep that damn picture on there? "I guess I was caught up in personal things to even think about deleting mine. My bad." I said with my cheeks turning redder by the second.

"Yeah, you were really in some shit, bruh." Cliff said as he lightly nodded in agreement. "But that just begs the question, how the fuck did you get here?"

"Beats me." I stated with a shrug. "I just woke up here."

"I was the first to find Nonnie running around the Everfree Forest!" Pinkie answered cheerfully. "He was wearing this orange shirt with a strange symbol on it and some pants, but I saw that they were really soggy. So then I said to myself that 'maybe this creature lost their way to their home'. So then I said hello to him and he ran some other way, hitting himself in the head with a tree branch."

"I... was told I ran into a tree just before I woke up. Explains the pine needles I found in my hair when I finally came-to."

"So you were still wearing the clothes you had on when you crashed your car into the gulf? That's... unusual." Rick said as he tapped against his chin, pondering on what would be the missing link between there and me showing up here.

"So you ate those shrooms, smoked every doobie you could, got a case of the munchies, drove your car into the gulf, and then bashed your head in with a tree branch? I mean we knew you was havin' problems, but damn I didn't think you was gonna literally trip yo depressed ass to the horse version of Narnia." Cliff stated.

Rickey placed his arm around me as he spoke. "Yeah, you were so hung up from that fight you had with Mel, I personally thought you had decided to just commit suicide by riding off of the bridge like that. Scary shit, dude."

Again, that decision could have either been purely incidental or premeditated. I'll never know, nor would I even remember it as I wasn't really working with a sound mind. "Yeah, not doing those kinds of drugs again." As those words left my mouth, I had realized that I had said them out loud. I covered my mouth to prevent myself from saying anything else about it, but it seemed that everypony else had already heard it. Pinkie wasn't too happy hearing that I was in such an ordeal. Rarity didn't seem to like that I was so depressed. Twilight just didn't like the fact that a certain someone was involved. "Long-story short: I'm okay. Now let's talk about something else."

"So... Melanie made you depressed?" Twilight questioned.

...Please don't start this. We're having such a good time, don't do this now.

Before I could answer, Applejack piled on another question pertaining to my long-time friend. "Yeah, who the hay is this 'Melanie' gal? Sounds like somepony ya know."

Pinkie squeaked as she raised her hoof in the air. "Ooooh! Let me! Melanie is Nonzo's best-est of his best friends! They had known each other since the tenth grade, and Nons has had a crush on her for quite some time. And also she really, really, really, really, REALLY likes him!" Not helping, Pinkie. "He's also been there since she's been in other relationships, making her smile whenever something went completely wrong with each one of them. But then he got upset that he kept being overlooked and confronted her over it, and she said no. So Nondie's been sad since then." REALLY not helping, Pinkie.

"Ehh... pretty much." Cliff verified, continuing along the same trend of providing information that Twilight would take out of context.

"Wow, you really have it for this 'Melanie' chick, huh?" Rainbow asked. I wanted to answer her and provide some insight, but I was too busy focusing on the burning glare that Twilight was giving off in my direction. She obviously didn't like that Melanie was so close to me. Once again, no one really didn't help me in that regard.

Thankfully, Rarity came to my defense. "Darling, they've been knowing each other since the latter years of their education. And I must say that eight years is a significant time-table for one to develop... dare I say... immovable desires. But I do believe that he has decided to move on from her, remaining her friend instead of vying to become her lover."

"Really?" Rickey asked with a quirked eyebrow. "Because she told me that she's been head-over-heels for the dude for years."

...You sonofabitch.

Aaaaand here it comes.

Twilight started to look towards me again while the others produced audible gasps. She offered to confront me about the situation. "So I was right when I said that she was experiencing feelings for you. And yet you had the intestinal fortitude to tell me otherwise? Is it possible that you just don't appreciate my company anymore?"

And it got worse. "No, you're getting ahead of the situation. At the time, I didn't know-"

"At the time?" Twilight started to shout. "So you mean to tell me that you know that she likes you!? And you haven't said a word to me about it!?"

"Please, don't." I raised my own voice in anger and frustration. "Twilight, I am tired of you continuously being on the offensive about every single girl I just so happen to know, IN MY OWN WORLD! And to answer your question, I wasn't made aware of this until recently! Can we talk about something else? I really don't wanna talk about this in front of everyone! And especially not now! I would rather us talk about it later and in a more private setting."

"Oh please, now would be a good time to do so! Come clean while you're at it, don't just rut me a few days before and expect me to be content with a 'break' from our relationship later on! What's the real reason why you're separating yourself from me! I wanna hear it!" She was trying to trap me in. And if it wasn't for Rickey and Cliff knowing her, I wouldn't feel that I would have to go on the defensive so much. But being that Rick is her ex, who still feels for her in some manner, that doesn't help me in the slightest.

While I had gotten some extremely shocked looked from the guys, I continued to argue with her. "I explained this to you last night! I don't need to say anything else!"

"You really don't love me at all, do you Nondis? Or is it that you take shame in me being something different than you?"

She went there. Wow. Now I'm really pissed.

"Oh no." Fluttershy whispered as she stood by.

"This got ugly." Rainbow mumbled to herself as she turned a blind eye to the two of us arguing.

Rickey stepped in and offered to get in between the two of us. "Hey you two, let's chill out for a second."

I pulled Rickey out of the way as I scolded him. "And you just sat here and blew up everything on spot. Do you know how hard it is to clear something like this up? It's been a really long fucking day for me. I'm just tired of thinking about..." The bruises on Melanie's face. "...Melanie is on my mind just as much as anyone else is right now." I then turned back to Twilight. "And I'm sorry, but she's my friend just as much as anyone or anypony else here. So with her being my friend, I have to be concerned."

I have a headache coming along... I need some fresh air.

"You keep using the word friend, Nondis. But I don't think you really mean that whenever her name comes up." Twilight rebutted with a scowl. "You sound like you're in love with her."

"But I'm not! So you can cut that motherfucking shitty-ass garbage short!" I replied rather sharply, gaining a few gasps from the others. Afterwards, I stood from my chair and walked from the room to give myself a much-needed break. While I did so, the others continued to call for me. But right now, I just needed to take a moment to let myself simmer back down to non-volatile levels.

"Non-non, where are you going?" Pinkie asked, her voice being the last I needed to hear at a moment like this.

"Pinkie..." I honestly thought about disclosing everything that happened recently, but I knew that it would be wrong to Melanie. And Twilight had already threw the dirty laundry out for everyone to see. If Cliff and Rickey didn't think less of me when they found out I was with a pony, they would now since they know that I actually had sex her. But I had stressed myself to the point of where I could no longer conduct a civil conversation without expressing any anger. I needed to separate myself for a while so that I could operate on that level again. "You said it was rude to ask personal questions. Everything's a little touchy right now. So I'm sorry that I have to leave. I need a moment, so if I may be excused."

As I walked towards the door, I paused for a moment to speak, but decided to just leave in silence.

Breathe in, breathe out...

Inhale, exhale...

Gather, release...

Expand, relax...

I don't really know the primary reason things just exploded like that. But I know that I wasn't too thrilled when everything came out. It was like the whole tone of the room went from zero to shit in like five seconds. I know that Rickey was playing games to make Twilight a little jealous, as he does with practically everyone. But the problem was that he didn't know just how deep it ran for her. So Twilight got beyond pissed as soon as she finds out that I'm being liked again. And it doesn't bode well considering that we had a conversation about what little had occurred between me and Rarity just last night.

In short, this was a massive snowball I was just crushed by.

So after our short shouting match, I took a leave and made my way back towards the room where the portal was stored. I crossed over for a short while to see if I had gotten any messages from you-know-who. I decided that I was going to speak with Melanie in regards to how we view each other. I know that she's dealing with a lot right now and that I was going to have to take things slow with her. But in the wake of all of this... I was going to need to talk to her about what I could disclose and what I would be willing to say to her.

Should I tell her about this alternate world? Should I even consider bringing her to Equestria? Would her and Twilight meeting potentially squash any beef or would it cause an unnecessary conflict? Better yet, would she even believe me if I had told her? I don't know where to go from here. Rick and Cliff probably think I'm some sick-ass weirdo who fucked a pony, the girls probably think I'm a habitual liar at this point, Cadance would probably clarify things to Twilight, but how long can she keep everything a secret from Shining? It's like no matter which route I choose, I'm doomed to disappoint someone. They say that the truth will set you free, but it feels like the exact opposite. Where do I even begin and who do I begin with?

...I guess it would be best to start with the two people who don't live in Equestria. Getting them back home is priority right now.

I finally crossed back over to the pony world and saw both Cliff and Rickey standing in the center of the room, talking amongst each other. But when they looked at me, they stopped their conversation. The river of words that flowed endlessly from their mouths, producing a calming sound of indifference, had shrank into a dry creek of silence. Their eyes rested upon while I contemplated on what I was going to say first. I didn't know what I wanted to say, so I started with two simple words.

"I'm sorry."

There wasn't much said after my words fell from my mouth and landed against the crystalline floors. It was like they had found out some irreparable truth about me. And given the time it took for me to compose myself, a whopping hour and thirty minutes, it would be best to assume so. Either way, the portal was open and they looked like they were ready to head back home.

"Well... The portal's open. If you two wanna leave now, you can. And I can understand if you-"

"Bruh..." Cliff started as he sat on the ground. "Let's talk about some shit."

Rickey walked over and draped his arm around my shoulders, guiding me towards the center of the room. "We kinda got the lowdown on what's going on. And had I known about it, I wouldn't have said anything about Melanie liking you. But because I did, I had to take responsibility for it. I sat ol' girl down, and we had a long talk about what had happened just earlier today."

Cliff scooted to the side to let me sit by him. "Yeah, so this 'Jasper' thing wasn't the first time you dealt with this kind of shit. From what we were told, you had to deal with the same exact shit over on this end... only with more bruises, more drama, more attention, and a lot more lawyers. And not only that, but it seems that you've been extremely dedicated to this Twilight girl, am I right?"

I nodded quietly, still looking at the ground. "I guess I'm a little weird to you guys now, aren't I?"

Cliff shook his head. "Nigga, you've always been weird as fuck. That's just some real shit." I kinda winced at the use of the N-word, but I knew he was just being honest. "But we gotta look at it from what you had to go through, which was a lot."

Rickey sat beside me as he started to speak. "Nondis, you've been here for a long-ass time. And you've grown accustomed to their culture as well as their customs. And it's not like they aren't sentient beings that are also incapable of reciprocating any sort of emotional response. The bodies are a little... lot different, but they talk just like us. They get mad, they laugh, they fuss, they cry, they smile, they go through as much as we do. And the stories we heard, reminded us a lot about Mel. They reminded us a lot about what we all had to go through."

"If I can be honest for a sec." Cliff interrupted. "If you had told us this without any context or proof, I would've had to knock yo ass out and take you to a mental hospital to get treated. But from the shit we heard and the scars you got all over you... including the one on your neck, this shit is pretty damn real."

I instinctively reached up to cover the scar from the attempt made on my life two nights prior. As I did, Rickey patted me on the back. "Yeah, ol girl told us about that too. But nobody else knew about it, so you might be in for some conversation when you guys meet up again. Other than that, bottom line: We explained everything that was going on with you on our end, they told us what was happening on this end. And we kinda know that it's a little hard for us to keep you out of trouble on this side. So we talked it up with Twilight and... she's gonna see if she can get something to get us all connected somehow."

"Basically, if your phone goes off, don't be surprised." Cliff summarized as he stood up from where he was sitting.

"Dude, we could never do the shit you did. And to be stuck here for seven months without a way back is scary as hell. But you stuck it out, and you made some friends while you were here. You learned a lot and you kinda got lucky while you were here... We might have some more questions about that later, but for now we'll just leave things as they are. We won't tell anyone about this, unless you do so first. But if you in some shit and you need some help, let us know. We got your back."

As I stood from where I was sitting, the guys continued to give me words of encouragement. Though I was more surprised by their lack of ridicule. I'm not exactly sure what all was said, but apparently it was substantial. But more importantly, I didn't feel like I was being shamed for what I did. But I was aware that they still had questions about the more intimate details about our relationship. But I can settle with discussing it with them on a later date. For now, I just needed to feel like they were in my corner. And I knew that they would be from this point onward.

...Thanks guys, I really appreciate it.

After Cliff and Rickey took their leave, I was left with the girls. And boy did they set out to slaughter me with questions about the assassination attempt. And at this point, they were doing a much better job than the assassin ever did, shooting question after question at me. It wasn't easy trying to explain that I was going to conduct that investigation after I had tackled the one I was already assigned to. But after a few more words of encouragement from the others, they allowed me to leave back to the apartment.

And while everyone was waiving goodbye from the castle gates, Twilight on the other hand was nowhere to be seen.

She wasn't even there when I had came back from sending the boys off. It was just everyone else except her. I didn't seem to care too much about it though, as I really didn't have any concerns for what she was doing for the time being. It wasn't that I was bitter, but unusually nonchalant towards what she thought of me at the time. I guess my brain had decided that I had enough of her antics. My thoughts of her had actually came to a complete shut-down. And I knew that was a sign for me to think about my future with her. No really, I think it's time for me to consider moving on. I'm not saying that I would break up with her, but the thoughts would prove to be a major distraction should I not address it up front.

As I closed the door to my apartment, I laid myself out on the bed and let my mind wander. I began to think about my future should I decide to let her go. But then I had remembered that I was going to be fighting more than just changelings. I had to argue down politicians while trying to make sure that no future punishments would come of either princess for engaging in a physical relationship. I could let my motivation be just that, but then my drive to do so would take a tumble. I wouldn't have too much of an initiative to fight the approval law should I lean towards breaking up.

But at the same time, it's almost like I'm doing something that wouldn't be worth it. Our relationship doesn't have just an external stimulus, but also an internal problem. We're actually fighting now, and that's not what I want. And sometimes it would be over petty stuff, making the problem much bigger than it needs to be. I didn't need to further endanger my health with stress and mental issues on top of being a guard.

There's also the relationship between the others should I opt out. What would the girls think of me if I wanted out? Would they come to understand, would they disapprove, would they remain indifferent to it? Shining would have a fit, Cadance would be trying to fuss at me for breaking it off, and I would develop a bit of distrust with Celestia. Spike would probably never let Twilight live it down. So then what? I end up ostracizing myself to the point where I'm no longer wanted?

There are too many variables and scenarios playing in my head at once. I can't concentrate on which would be the likely outcome because I'm focusing too much on the negative repercussions of the situation. And I've already committed myself to stay here, I don't like going back on decisions like that. And yet here I am considering going back on the main reason why I chose to stay here in the first place.

I shouldn't have to do this. I feel so conflicted.

*knock knock knock*

"Who is it?" I asked loudly, still staring up at the ceiling. For a few seconds, I didn't get any response from beyond the door, except one.

*knock knock knock knock*

"Yes!?" I hollered out, sitting up from the bed. Again, I didn't receive a vocal response.

*knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock*

"For the love of-" I rose out of my bed and stormed towards the door. As I pulled the door wide open, I was greeted by a purple alicorn sitting on her haunches, her ears folded back as she looked away from me. Her eyes were partially covered with her disheveled mane. Her jaw clattered while she sat there, awaiting whatever I was going to say. "Can I help you?"

She didn't say anything, but she did look at me with pink puffy eyes. They were obviously swollen from her crying. For a quick moment she looked at me, then she clenched her eyes and gritted her teeth. Pain and disgust showed throughout her expressions as a weak whimper left from her throat. In more simplistic terms, she broke. She ran into the room and magically closed the door behind her, flopped onto my bed and hugged the pillow I was just laying on.

While I stood and looked on with confusion, she levitated me towards her. Before I could speak, her forelegs locked around my chest tightly, her wings clamped around my body as her head ferociously nuzzled against my sternum. Her horn began to poke and prod into my chin while she pressed herself against me. Sobs and moans fell from her mouth, vibrating the very bones in my chest as she apologized.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" She said between sniffles. "I didn't mean for it to come out like that! I'm so sorry! I don't want you to be mad at me! I didn't know what was going on, and then I heard her name and I just... broke! I jumped ahead! As soon as I heard that she made you depressed, I just went on the offensive! I didn't mean to be so selfish! I didn't mean to question you! I'm sorry!"

I sighed heavily as her body finally pushed me against the mattress. It took me a while to finally say something in response. "I don't think you mean it." Yeah, stupid of me to say that, right?

"I don't! I just didn't like how you could talk about her so easily and hide me so casually! But I didn't take into consideration how you wanted to be seen. I acted out because I felt like you were downplaying what I was to you."

Honestly, she had a point. She was wrong for chewing me out like that and putting me on front street. But I was wrong for trying to make us seem like we weren't anything special. I know we're on break, but nobody deserves that... at least not without an explanation. "I'm sorry too. I cussed at you and let myself become influenced by peer pressure. I just didn't exactly know how to explain our relationship to anyone who's human. We don't really date outside of our species, so me with a pony would not be a thing my parents would want to come home to. That's not on you. And I'm sorry for making it seem like that."

"And I'm sorry for placing bad thought on Melanie. I know that she's your friend, and that I should accept that. She came way before me and I had no place for demanding a priority. From here on, what you do in your world is nothing of my concern."

"I guess I was trying to keep both lives as separate as possible. But I didn't take the time to let you know anything. And that's what my major fault was. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you all of what was going on."

"Again, you have that right. I can't dictate what you do in your home."

I smiled at her answer. At least now I was loosed from one side of my burden. But that would still leave us with a lot to work on. But this is a good start, and it's a normal one, a healthy start to a long road of recovery. I did my share of bed-making, so now it's time I'd clean up. "Yeah... So, squashed?"

Twilight giggled as she rested against my chest. "Hmmm.... Squashed."

While we laid silently in the room, I started to think that I was gunning to conclusions. Yes, I was angry at her for showing out, but I should be ashamed that I had let her get to that thought. Yes she's different, but I've grown to not let that dictate my perception of her. She's still beautiful, outgoing, and funny... annoying at times, insecure, and jealous also, but these are all things that come with the territory.

It took us a full ten minutes before we finally spoke to each other again. "Ugh.... relationships are hard as fuck."

Twilight used one of her hooves to play with my chest. "Cadance said that it wouldn't be easy. And I know that now."

"Same here. I knew that there was a bit of work to maintain one, but I never imagined it would be this much."

"...Did you feel like you were... you know... done with me?" She asked, her voice wavering slightly.

"At a point, I did. But, you came here to apologize. What about you?"

She stopped dragging her hoof up and down on my chest and rested her entire foreleg against it. "Wow... I can't say that I haven't thought about it. I had gotten so angry that I was ready to call everything off. But then..." Twilight sat up as she looked me dead in the eye. "If it wasn't for your friends, I would've called it quits."

"What did they say to you?" I asked, wanting to know how they convinced her to reconsider.

"...Enough. That's all you need to know."

There she goes, being all cryptic again. "So you don't want to fill me in on that?"

She gave me a playful boop on the nose. "Nnnnope."

"You suck."

"You'll be sucking soon enough."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"You said something."

"I said 'were we done with our break'?"

"No."

"Well, I tried."

Author's Note

This was at times a hard chapter to write, and also a funny one. I also apologize for taking so long, but I do hope that you've clubbed with enough baby seals to pass on the time. I will try to get started on the next chapter pronto. Comments are appreciated and criticism is welcome. :twilightsmile:

Chapter XL

*tick... tock... tick... tock... tick... tock...*

The lobby of the Ponyville Pamper remained quiet save the monotonous sound of a ticking clock echoing throughout the room. The room was dismally lit save the area where the front desk was located. But being that it was so late in the evening, there wasn't really a need for the lights to be on... It's not usual that the place had gotten any visitors or renters, thanks to parts of the large castle that loomed just overhead. Some feared that they would be crushed by some of the large ornate vines that hung above.

Though it wasn't really always the case. The magic seed that was planted nearby never really took into consideration the established property lines. And it wasn't like Twilight could actually relocate it elsewhere, not to mention surrender a building permit for it. Some of the homes nearby lost value as the tree-castle stood in place for the past one and a half years. And the Ponyville Pamper wasn't any exception.

So the attendee sits at his desk, hoping that the place would gain new customers for him to fill his book. But thanks to a certain human, the only one known to Equestria, visitation has gone up significantly. It was because everyone in the town wanted to spend a day with the local biped who saved many lives in the week prior. Heroes do bring about some strange and unusual company. They also tend to bring out some rather famous names. So it's not like the attendant hasn't had anything to do to entertain himself.

But this night was a little slower on the visits. Usually he'd have to tell the paparazzi to stop loitering or chasing off the local young mares trying to get a glimpse of which room the human stayed in, and 'chasing' in his definition would be defined as trying to bribe the girls for their mailing information. This night was vastly different, as there were hardly any visitations coming from even them. But there was a visitor or two to come about just to speak with him personally.

A beautiful mare walked into the lobby, humming eagerly as she approached the front desk. While she approached, the stallion behind the desk glanced back once and turned to his newspaper, only to glance back again with complete shock. He jettisoned himself to his post and stammered as he drooled over the stunning pony.

"S-s-s-ss'cuse me ma'am, may I b-b-be of any service?"

"Why yes. I'm looking for one of your residents. I believe that he's here for an extended stay. He's the local human by the name of Nondis P. Haines."

The attendant didn't even bother reaching for the book under his desk as he allowed himself to be taken in by the mare. "Room 110, fifth door to the right before you turn down the hall. You can't miss it."

"Much obliged, dear." She said, quickly walking off as the attendant pulled out a small sheet of paper with his contact information on it. He ran from behind the desk while trying to get the mares attention.

"If you need anymore assistance, then you can feel free to inbox me directly!"

The mare didn't seem to care too much about what the attendant was saying as she approached the door numbered 110. She at last finished with her walk and started to knock on the door before something stopped her.

"...Come on now, old gal, it's not that difficult. Just knock on the door, ask him your favor and... slowly work your way into the room. Frustration and charm should carry on from there. Whatever happens... happens."

After whispering to herself, she walked up to the door, lifting her hoof to knock as she bit her lower lip. Hesitation found it's way into her foreleg, stopping her from even touching the wood.

"D'oooh! Why is this so hard all of a sudden? Usually I'd bump right into him and just let the conversation flow from the apology... NO! Buck up, Rarity! You can do this! This is all you! You've had to deal with much worse circumstances. And he's obviously frustrated Twilight, so I have this small opening to work with. I have said to myself that I would put this aside to get the object of my heart's desire. And now I am going to strike while the iron is hot.... Just any moment now..."

Her hoof has yet to move.

"Any. Moment. Now. Any young filly could deduce that this requires a specific timing. I must get this right. And it starts with my knocking on this door, right now."

Again, her hoof has yet to even move from the same spot.

"Arrgh! Alright! In the words of my beloved... though they may come off the tongue quite crudely... fuck it!"

She forced her hoof to bang against door softly as not to cause much of a commotion. While she waited, she stated to whisper to herself again.

"Don'trunaway. Don'trunaway. Don'trunaway. Don'trunaway."

As soon as the door opened, Rarity smiled brightly for a brief second before her smile deteriorated into a confused frown.

"T-t-t... Twilight?"

The purple alicorn smiled cheerfully as she spoke, her horn alight with magic. "Hey Rarity. What are you doing here?"

Rarity cringed lightly as she started to back away a bit. "Oh, you know. I just wanted to ask Nondis a little favor. Though that does bring me to ask why you've come to visit."

Twilight looked back into the room, smiling gently as she sighed. "I had to apologize for my behavior earlier. I didn't know that Nondis had gotten into a fight just before coming back. And I felt really guilty for trying to put him on the spot like that. But he also kinda admitted that he was trying to hide what had happened between us. After him not saying anything about me and focusing on Melanie, I snapped."

"Oh, so did things go over well?" Rarity questioned with a hint of disappointment in her tone.

"Yes! No problems here, though we're still on break. We'll be back together soon enough. We might even get back together tomorrow!" Twilight announced with a massive grin.

"I NEVER SAID THAT!" A voice came from the side of the room, apparently from behind another door.

"He says that we would be more than willing to sweep me off my feet and carry me back into the castle."

"THERE'S A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WALKING YOU HOME AND TOTING YOU UP FIVE FUCKING FLIGHTS OF STAIRS!"

"We plan on sharing the room again."

"SHE WON'T LEAVE ME ALONE, I'VE BEEN LOCKED IN THIS BATHROOM FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES WHILE SHE'S BEEN TRYING TO SEDUCE ME THROUGH THE DOOR! HER MAGIC IS TOUCHING ME IN PLACES I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW EXISTED!"

"I have several make-up activities planned for his moving back in."

"MAKE HER LEAVE!!!"

Rarity cleared her throat before she spoke, all while placing a hoof to Twilight's horn to cut off her magic. "Um... Twilight, I'm beginning to think you have a bit of a um... I'm trying to place this nicely, err... conundrum?"

"What? What's the problem?" The purple mare asked.

"YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE! YOU AND NONDIS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE IN A BIT OF A SPAT!" The fashionista thought to herself as she translated her thought into something unoffensive. "Um, well I wasn't really expecting you to even show-did you say that you two were on a break?" She asked, finally realizing what Twilight had said long ago.

"YES, WE'RE SEPARATED FOR THE NEXT THREE-TO-FOUR WEEKS SO I CAN FOCUS ON MY JOB! NOW GET HER OUTTA HERE!"

Rarity cocked an eyebrow as she tried to look past the purple mare standing in her way. Twilight giggled as she glanced back towards the bathroom. "He's a bit rustled because I was making fun wit-OF... of him." Twilight stated with a nervous grin. "Yup... making fun of him."

"Oh so that's what she's calling it nowadays?" Rarity thought as she blushed a bit. "Well I'm sure that he would appreciate it if his distractions were at a minimum, wouldn't you agree?"

"THANK YOU!"

Twilight finally accepted defeat as she looked back to the bathroom with a gentle smile. "I guess I've kinda annoyed him enough. It was fun while it lasted. I guess I really miss being around him so much that I just kinda do what I normally do with him. Being close does kinda bring out those old vibes we had."

As the purple princess spoke, the sound of a shower running emanated from within the room. Rarity started to feel her cheeks become even warmer as her mind filled with the thought of the human stripping off his clothes and walking inside of the shower. With each heartbeat, an image of him came to her, every last inch of him completely bare and unclothed, his bashful attempts to censor himself, the dimples in his back, the muscles of his thighs, his linear-cut waistline thickening towards the top and thinning at the bottom. His upper pelvic region that she caught brief glimpses of while fitting him for some of her clothes. The small patch of hair that lead further down towards his most secretive area, the one place he continues to cover and the one place she has yet to see.

At that point, Rarity began to feel more of a warmth somewhere else. "Twilight, we should go."

"What's wrong?" she asked, seeing the distress in her friend's face.

"Darling, I think he's trying to take his shower in peace. Perhaps we should leave him to his hygienic practices." She said as she grabbed the purple mare by the hoof and ran down the hall. Twilight allowed herself to be drug along while the human remained inside of the shower to cleanse himself.

Rarity was thanking her lucky stars that neither she nor Twilight hadn't caught on to any musky smells.

Meanwhile, in the shower...

Damn teasing Twilight. You had to use your damn magic to start... FUCK! Cold shower it is.

The next morning...

Finally, I was ready for the big day. The day where I'd finally have to put on display the arsenal of the human race. It was something that I took a cautious amount of pride in, but pride is pride nonetheless. I could feel the immense amount of excitement running through my veins while I stared outside of the window. Of course that pride was overshadowed by something else.

*craaaklaBOOOM*

Yeah, it looks like my demonstration would have to take a rain check, really. As soon as I woke up, I could see the bright sun splashing it's light all over the town. But as soon as I stepped out of the shower and into the closet, the sky had gotten a little darker. And before I had the chance to make it to the lobby, the sound of thunder and the white flash of lightning just outside of the front door told me that I wasn't going to be able to fire anything downrange for quite some time.

When Rainbow Dash says it's gonna rain, it's gonna rain.

So I decided to entertain myself by setting up the MOTIF and the speaker on the far-end of the room. After I finished hooking everything up, from the cords to the sustain pedal, I impatiently pecked at the keyboard, uninspired for much of the time. I guess having one of my own wasn't all of what I had made it to be if I can't let my imagination take flight.

My mood was reflective of the weather outside. I felt just as depressed as the outside had appeared to be. And it wasn't like I had a television or an XBox sitting on the front desk that I could use. This would kinda make things a lot easier on me, considering that I had two new games that I haven't even touched since I had gotten them. And a computer would also help distract me for a while. My phone wouldn't do too much thanks to the fact that I'm in a world deprived of internet, cell phone signals, and transmission towers.

Now that I think about it, I've been in this situation before. The only difference was that Twilight was keeping me busy in the library, helping her categorize everything by the Dewey Decimal System. It took us an entire day, but we finished it all. And whenever it rained again, she would knock all the books off of the shelves and have us start over.

I never really did like the librarian-mentality she had when I had placed something in the wrong spot.

*knock knock knock*

Oh, visitors? I guess that would liven things up a bit. I walked towards the door and placed the chain on before cracking the door open. And to my surprise, Cadance was standing right in front.

"Hey Nondis. You mind if I we come in for a bit?" She asked.

"We?" I asked, before looking past her and seeing that Shining Armor was sitting right behind her.

Well this could go wrong quickly. "Oh... um... I wasn't expecting you guys to show up-"

Before I could finish my sentence, the door quickly closed shut and a magenta glow possessed the chain, moving it out of the way before opening the door once more. As soon as the door opened, Shining came busting in like he owned the place. "So what'cha with in here? I know the goods are in here somewhere."

I guess he came for the weapons. "Well, the box is over there, but you're not gonna find anything different in there than what you had already saw two days ago."

"Well that's a disappointment." I heard a third voice say from the hall.

As I jumped, I nearly broke my neck just to see Blueblood, Celestia, and Luna walking through the door. The only sound I could produce was something that sounded similar to a pelican. And shortly after, I had regained my ability to form words. "Wh-what... are you all doing here?"

"Well we were in town for the weapons demonstration, just like you requested. But it seems that you didn't consult with the weather ponies to hold off the rain." Luna stated as she looked out the window.

"This is a top-secret ordeal, Luna. I am sure that he would not be able to disclose the proper reason for canceling today's thunderstorm." Celestia said as she walked up to the bookshelf. She went through the books one-by-one until she had picked one up that caused her to blush a bit. "Um... Would it be cordial to read something like this?"

Luna glanced at the book and snickered. "Quite. But I do believe he saves it for a more... personal time."

Cadance walked over and bumped me out of the way as she cracked the book open and ran through the pages, stopping at a specific page. "Hey look, sweetie. This is the same one we practiced on the night of our wedding. I guess he's having some ideas on what he wants to do with Twilight."

I began to catch on to what they were looking at and tried to grab the book. Meanwhile, Shining had gave me a more serious glare. "As long as he's doing bad all by himself, he can practice as much as he'd like."

After grabbing the book, I slammed it shut and noticed that it said on the cover:

Pony Sutra; A Lover's Guide to Successful Mating Practice, Foal Conception, and Fun Tips for the Elderly

Why the hell would the elderly read this shit!? Honestly do anyone think that Granny Smith would pick this up and find some random stallion to go to town on... EWWW I JUST IMAGINED THAT! "This came with the room! I didn't bring this in! I don't even read it!" I tried to argue.

"And why not!?" Blueblood asked. "You would need to read up on what practices would be deemed appropriate as well as any additional kinks that young Princess Twilight may have."

"Mind you, that's my baby sister you're talking about." Shining said sternly towards Blueblood. Though I couldn't help that he was somewhat directing that towards me.

Her green, wrinkled pony posterior sploshing loudly against the young tender loins of an inexperienced human, his cries for her climbing ever so loudly as she continues to stare directly into his eyes, his own would look down below while her faded and cracked haunches rose and fell-

I need a drink, Clorox would do fine.

Cadance lightly pushed her husband. "Shining, Twilight's a big girl now. She can take care of herself. If she wants to sit on Nondis while slapping his ass with a riding crop while he's covered in primordial gelatin, then she has a right-"

Oh there's another thought... Granny Smith covered in gelatinous goo while she took her dentures off and licked you all over your neck, her warm saliva coating you as she began to slowly work her way down towards-

Oh please don't make me visualize that.

"Should we begin to change the subject to a more important matter? Perhaps the weapons he wished to demonstrate for us." Celestia intervened, trying to get us to focus.

Thank you, so much.

"Sadly, that would not be possible until tomorrow." Luna said with a hint of disappointment in her voice. "We would have to wait for the rain to stop."

Shining walked towards the keyboard in the corner and tilted his head with curiosity. "Huh, this looks like a piano. The keys are a lot smaller than what we'd normally have. Does it work?"

As soon as he brought his hoof down onto the board, all I could hear was the sound of several notes crying out in horror while his hoof remained. He brought down another hoof onto the lower register, bringing out a crashing noise that continued to assault the ears of everyone in the room. I immediately ran over and knocked the volume slider down to zero where his obnoxious banging could no longer be heard.

"Yes, that's a piano, dear." Cadance answered while giving her husband a disapproving stare. "But I've never seen one like this."

"Perhaps he does enjoy his intellectual pursuits." Blueblood said as he walked up to the instrument. "Though I am uncertain how this can function without strings and hammers. Are they built into the device?"

"What I'm more amazed of is that our captain is a bit of a musical enthusiast." Celestia walked up and stood behind me, gently shoving a hoof into my back. "Well, show us what you're capable of? Please don't be shy."

"I don't really play all that often. I just go to the music hall and play whatever's on my iPhone. I usually do a little bit of boogie, a bit of jazz, and a lot of anime and games."

All five of them merely looked at me with patient expressions as they awaited me to press a key on the MOTIF. Their eager expressions only made me feel even more uncomfortable. I never really had to play in front of a ROYAL AUDIENCE. No pressure in the slightest.

"I bet I can do anything he does better than him." Shining mumbled to his wife, earning him a light slap to the back of the head.

Okay... I had something for his ass.

"Okay... then let's start with the right hand, shall we?"

For a slight moment, the palm of my hand came to rest as my fingers curled over the mid-section of the board. And with a sharp intake of air, I began.

My right hand began with a small series of grace notes before fully erupting into a complete monsoon of runs and riffs. My wrist began to receive quite a workout while I continued to keep my jaw clenched. I continued to concentrate while my fingers were busy crossing over one another, my wrist leaping from one part of the board to another. My fingers flexed, curled and motioned as if it was possessed by a demonic arachnid, carefully striking the notes according to the chord structure as if it was hunting down a particular prey. At one point, I decided to add a bit of country flavor into the piece before returning to the point of emphasis. After a short while, I finally came to an easier part that allowed me to speak.

"Now let's add the left."

My left jumped in, providing more context to the runs my right hand was playing. It sounded almost as if there were two different individuals running two different pianos. My left was more focused onto bouncing from pinky finger to index and thumb. My right continued to improvise against the basic structure that my left was providing. This time, I had to concentrate a little more being that the particular piece I was playing was indeed difficult. At a few points, I broke into chords just before going back into the song itself. As I reached the end, I decided to break it down into chords once more, followed by a right-handed glissando leading up to the last note. When my hand reached to the two highest A♭'s I played one in the lower register as well.

In reality, I had made a total of forty-one blunders that would go unnoticed by untrained ears. To them, I was flawless. With an exhale, I unclenched my jaw and looked back to the once-cocky stallion. "Okay, your turn."

Shining backed away as the others stood completely silent. Cadance levitated my hand into the air and flipped it over repeatedly. Celestia walked towards the instrument and lightly pecked a hoof at it, trying to make sense of where I had even started. Luna offered to help Cadance with her inspection. Blueblood continued to squeak as his jaw remained nailed to the floor.

"You know... I'm actually envious of Twilight now." Cadance muttered. "Just imagine what these things can do in more sensual situations."

"Mi Amore Cadenza!" Celestia hollered to her niece.

"She does have a point." Luna consigned with the pink princess. "It does beg to the imagination. And I heard that his massages for wings are to die for."

Shining shook himself out of his shock and started to express a bit of frustration. "Hey, we're not here for this. I agree that it was impressive, but we're here for the weapons demonstrati-"

*RIIIIIING*

The sound of the room became nothing more than that of the ringing that came from within my pants. With complete shock and amazement, I yanked out the phone and looked at the screen. On it was Cliff trying to get a hold of me. My eyes expanded as my hands began to shake at what I was seeing. I GOT A FUCKING SIGNAL!

"No way.... This is a lie." I said as I swiped the screen to take the call. I placed the phone up against my ear and started to speak. "Hello?"

"Yo, wat up fool! What's up wit'cha?"

"Oh my fucking God." I whispered unwittingly into the receiver. "It actually works."

"You good? I was wondering if you were at the apartment since I was able to call you."

"Actually I'm errr...." I turned around to see the five royals staring back at me strangely. I decided to take the call out into the hall. "Give me a sec." I said to the ponies looking at me. As I began to walk out, I continued the conversation. "Actually, I'm not even there."

"Where you at then? You can't get no calls over in that other place?"

I closed the door behind me and walked down the hall. "You wouldn't believe this shit dude. But out of fucking nowhere, this place decided to give me a damn signal."

"WHAT!? SO YOU REALLY IN-"

"Yeah!"

"AND YOU TALKIN' ON THE-"

"YEAH! Like no fucking joke!"

"So we can call yo ass and ask if we can come over then?"

"I think, yeah."

"Aww foreal? OKAY! I'm gonna call Rick and tell him we can come by. We wanna talk some more with the pony folk."

"Su-wait what?"

"Can you get back to your apartment so you can let us in?"

I looked outside of a nearby window to see that the rain was nowhere close to dying down. "Well, it's a bit rainy over here. I guess I can run-"

*Bleep bleep*

I pulled the phone away from my face to see that a certain someone was also giving me a call. Instantly, I could feel my stomach grab onto everything in my upper chest and pull everything downward. "Oh... I gotta call on the other line. It's Melanie."

"Alright then. I'll hit you up when we pull in. Later, bruh!"

Switching the lines, I knew that I was going to have to explain this to her somehow. But the question was how was I going to get her to understand that I was dating someone of a different species. Cliff and Rickey had to talk to the girls for over an hour for them to even get a hint on what was going on. In her case, I doubt she would even give it two minutes. I would have to ease her into this 'alternate world' thing. But for now... "Hello?"

"Heya, long-time no-hear-from. What's up?"

"Actually, you kinda caught me at a bad time. I'm working right now." I knew that she was going to ask me to hang out, but if I was already inviting the guys over, then I couldn't oversee their safety if I was hanging around Melanie for the remainder of the day. And not to mention that I was trying to keep Rick and Cliff a secret from Celestia until a later date. Not to mention that Shining would be trying HARD to recruit them into the guard. No need for the extra trouble.

"Oh, well I just wanted to check in on you. You feel any better from yesterday? I know you got knocked around a little from the fight with Jasper."

"I'm fine. How about you?" I'm not the one who was beaten on by a significant other in their own apartment.

"Oh, you know... It's going. I haven't gotten used to him not being here just yet. But at the same time I don't have to explain to the landlord why I keep getting the bathroom door replaced. So there's that, I guess."

"I'm sorry I can't hang out today."

"No! You're working. I get that. *sigh* Just... make sure you make some time for me. I would really like to see you again. Deal?"

"I can't make any promises. My job is a little demanding, but I'll try to swing by whenever I'm free. How's that sound?"

"Sounds like a deal to me. Now get back to work, I don't want you getting fired."

"Nah, I won't have to worry too much about that." I'm not lying. The only way I'd get fired is if I did something completely stupid and unimaginable. Otherwise, I'm either gonna retire from it or die an early death... hopefully the former.

"Thanks, Nondis."

"Okay, catch up with you later."

"Alright then."

I pulled the phone down from my face, completely caught off-guard by the sudden change. I actually stared at my screen for several seconds before looking back into the call log, just to make sure that I had actually received those calls.

"You okay?"

Again, I was caught by surprise by the sound of Cadance's voice. When I looked up, I could see all five of the royals looking at me with confused expressions.

"It seemed like you were having a full-blown conversation with yourself." The pink princess questioned. "You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Just as I said those words, my phone sounded off once more. I looked back down to see that I had received a text message from Rickey.

Sender: Rickey
Hey, just gt wrd from Cliff. The humans r nvading pony wrld! #letsgetit

Oh boy. How in the hell am I gonna-

"Yoink!" Cadance said as she magically absconded with my phone, reading the message. As she read it, she tilted her head sideways, tilted the phone sideways, and finally flipped it upside down. "Wait, I don't get this. Is this some sort of code?"

"HEY!" I shouted as I tried to get the phone, failing to do so before it got into Shining's telekinetic grasp. For royals, they sure do have a knack for playing around. Then again, whose to say that they haven't always been that way? But this ponies-taking-my-phone stuff is starting to vex me a bit.

"Sender: Rickey? Who's Rickey and what kind of name is that?" Shining said as he held me just an inch away with his magic. He continued to decipher the message. "It says... 'Hey, just... g.t.? Word from Cliff.' How do you get a word from a cliff?"

"Perhaps it is another name." Celestia suggested.

Luna looked from over Shining's shoulder and frowned. "There is a distinctive lack of vowels in this message. Perhaps adding them would give us better context as to what the message is saying. 'Just g.t... perhaps an ancronym. Just got the word from Cliff. The-"

I snuck a hand to Shining's horn and gave it a quick thump, knocking his spell out. Then I snatched back the phone back from the blue-maned prince. "If you don't mind, I would greatly appreciate it if you didn't just hijack my stuff from me. Please, ask next time."

As I was speaking, Cadance continued to look over my shoulder, trying to read the rest of the message. I swiped out of the message screen and locked the phone before placing it back into my pocket. "Aww, come on! I was just trying to figure what it said."

"I know that it had the word human and pony in the same sentence. Perhaps it is a code of some sort discussing a subject between us equines and you humans?" Luna said while trying to look into my pocket.

"There's even a picture of him dressed in a rather... interesting outfit on that device. From what I remember, it could take photographs, record audio and video, something else about playing games." Cadance added.

"Yup, it can do a lot of things. But right now, I need to get to the castle." I said as I began to walk back towards my room.

I came back and saw if I had needed anything aside from my phone charger. After coming to terms that I would also need an umbrella while in lack of one, I decided that I could possibly borrow one from the front desk. After grabbing my charger from the side of the bed and walking out of the room, I made my way towards the front desk. Meanwhile, there was a royal entourage following my every step, making me a bit uncomfortable.

When I had gotten to the front desk, a flash of light appeared just beside me. After that, I heard a piercing shriek coming from one side of my face. I turned back and saw that it was not Twilight that teleported beside me, but rather Sunset Shimmer. "AH! Oh, it's you."

"Well 'AH!' to yourself. What are you doing back here?" I inquired while rubbing my right ear.

"Well Twilight and I stayed up from around four this morning till now to work on a little something for you."

From four in the morning? Must've been one hell of a 'something' for them to be working on it for so early in the day. "What is it?"

"Well, I came here to tell you that you needed to come to the castle in order to find out. Twilight and I want you to see this for yourself."

"Wow, early bird." Cadance mumbled from behind me.

"That's my little sis. She's always up and about when there's new things to be explored." Shining stated proudly while sticking his chest out.

Celestia nodded in agreement. "Twilight has always been like that, ever since she was a foal. Even when I would inform her that it was time for bed, she would stay locked up inside of the Canterlot Library, trying to find out about everything there is about Starswirl and magic."

Sunset laughed nervously while backpedaling a bit. She was obviously uncomfortable with Celestia praising her latter student so openly, and for a legitimate reason. "Yeah, that's... Twilight alright."

"Come on, let's go see what you and Twi have set up. I know that the both of you worked your butts off for you to be just now announcing it." I looked to the side to see Sunset smile again, as I walked up to the front counter. I rang the bell and spoke with the attendant. "Hey, got an umbrella I could borrow? I don't have one and it's raining a zoo out there."

"Um, we have some but they are a bit small for you, sir. I'm so sorry."

"Meh, it'll work."

After running through the front doors, I had taken notice that one of the umbrella stems had broke from the wind. I knew it was going to be bad, but I didn't anticipate that it would be that hard to deal with. But I was here and I had the capability to go back to my world and get my own. Tapping the umbrella against the open front door, I got rid of several loose droplets that would cause a mess. As I did, Sunset closed the door behind us while Twilight ran right up to me.

"Thank goodness you're here. There's no time to explain. Come on this way, I've got something that will blow your mind." She announced happily, despite her looking somewhat drained. I suppose I would be like that if I had woke up at four in the morning to create something.

As I walked behind, I couldn't help but to notice that she was veering off from side to side. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Never better! I've been up from three this morning trying to get everything organized if that's what you're wondering."

I didn't ask that, but it's a start. "Three? I thought Sunset said that you both started working on it at around four."

"We started at approximately four in the morning, not even a second late."

I looked back over to Sunset, who gave me a shrug. "I slept in early. Twilight notified me of what she wanted to do just yesterday evening. So I headed in early just to get enough sleep for me to not even be a bother."

Well that explains her. "Twilight, what time did you go to bed?"

"Does it matter? I'm more excited about what you're going to see in the portal room."

"What did you two work on?" I questioned Sunset once more.

"Don't even think about telling him!" Twilight exclaimed. "I want him to see it for myself."

"You mean... himself?" Sunset corrected her.

"Whatever!"

I nervously shook my head as we made our way up the stairs and walked into the portal room. When I walked in, Twilight hopped on my back with child-like enthusiasm. "TA-DA!" She hollered as she pointed to a rather large wire running from the back of the portal and up the wall.

Now I was confused. "Oh... what is it?"

Twilight slid and fell off of my back while Sunset used her magic to cushion the fall. The fiery-maned unicorn spoke for the both of them. "This is an inter-dimensional transmission cable. We're transmitting the signals that are being received throughout your apartment to here in Ponyville."

How the fuck do you do that? "I'm sorry, what?"

"Basically, we altered the portal a little bit. Instead of just being able to send you to and from your world, we placed several transmission antennas throughout your apartment and hid them in areas you weren't really using. So not only are they out of sight, but they're also out of mind... save the bunch of cords running towards the portal. But we also added a countermeasure for that too. We performed a cloaking spell on the wires so that you wouldn't see them."

"So now..." Twilight paused for a yawn. "...Excuse me, now you can keep in contact with all of your human friends on the other side."

Sunset gave me a slight nudge into my leg. "By the way, nice digs."

"Sunset and I also brought a bunch of your stuff over to see if it would work like it would over on your side. We can't get the internet to work just yet, but radio and satellite transmissions work fine here. However..." The purple princess yawned once more. "...Sorry, the signal drops every time the portal shuts down."

"So if you want to, you can make a few calls when it's up. As far as a time schedule that would allow you to make those calls, Twilight and I haven't worked anything out just yet. So you'll have to come and manually activate the portal for now. Just be sure to shut it off after you're done."

"Oh, thanks." Okay, now I know this wasn't a fluke. At least it explained how I was able to get the calls from Cliff and Melanie. This would make things a lot easier on my end, especially if I needed any help for something. In speaking of which... "Is it on now?"

"We just turned it off about a few minutes ago." Twilight answered. "So are you trying to go through right now or make a call?"

"Both actually." I said, walking past her and turning on the portal. "I just gave Cliff and Rick the go-ahead to come on back. They should be blowing up my phone by-"

"You're inviting someone over!?" Sunset asked while grabbing onto the bottom of my shirt. "When!?"

I looked back to the portal as she held onto my shirt, nearly ripping it off of my body. "Like, now-ish."

Sunset jumped away from me and squeed with glee. A click followed by a low-hummed whirring sounded in the room, indicating that the portal was activated. Looking to the side, I could catch the diminishing aqua flames around the lever. I couldn't even say anything else as I felt a strong magical presence force me towards the portal. As I was looking back to the flame-haired unicorn, she waved back at me.

"Well tell them to get their asses over here pronto! I want some more humans over to mess with!"

Not even a full two minutes later, the three of us walked through the portal towards an ecstatic Sunset Shimmer. The first portion of her conversation with the guys was typical pony-trans-human banter. And unsurprisingly, the guys took it with a grain of salt as soon as she stated that she couldn't transform to her human state in this world. Honestly, I'm not too sure that she even has a human form for as long as I've been around her. She hasn't shown any evidence of her being one. But I can't knock her off for being a liar if Twilight's able to identify what a human looks like prior to my arrival.

I'll have to ask her for a picture later.

A little bit later, I walked into the hall to see if there were any guards coming. When I had thought that the coast was clear, one came running around the corner and bolted directly towards me to inform me that Princess Celestia was in town (which I had long-been aware of). I also learned that in my short absence, there was an emergency weather change due to the appearance of Celestia in town. Nothing was asked, just done. Damn, I wish I had that kind of influence.

Not even seconds after he finished his report, Cadance teleported in and told me that everyone else was going to head towards Sweet Apple Acres. She also informed me that there's been a quarry eel advisory in place since they happened to come out more frequently after the rain. I didn't even consider those guys when booking the location so I agreed to postpone until a later date. She quickly responded with more news, saying that they asked Applejack if they could hold a privatized gathering at the back falls of Sweet Apple Acres. So I was to be expected to show up with just Twilight, my box of weapons was already there.

Yikes... They wanted this weapons demonstration and they wanted it today.

After shooing off Cadance, informing her that Twilight and I would be a little bit late, I crept back into the room where Twilight and the others waited. As I walked in, I thought about how I could get these tupperware bins to Sweet Apple Acres without alerting much of the population, despite the town now being aware of the royals wandering around town.

It made things a little harder to hide. "So... a guard kindly informed me that Princess Celestia was spotted in town and decided to head out to Sweet Apple Acres. We're gonna have the press on our asses in a few minutes."

"The press? Why are they coming after us?" Rickey asked.

"Well, Princess Twilight and Sunset Shimmer just so happens to be her former students, plus I'm captain of the Royal Guard, plus I'm the residential human who's being written as some sort of a hero. I still don't know how to react to that. So if they track us down, they'll probably get you two while snooping around the palace."

"Is that really a bad thing?" Sunset questioned.

"Considering that there are no other humans here besides me, yes. They'll gang-rush us and try to squeeze as many answers out of us as possible. It'll be worse than if we were Jay-Z and Beyoncé walking down the streets of L.A. ass naked."

While both Twilight and Sunset cocked their heads to a tilt, Cliff and Rickey had grasped the seriousness of the situation. "Yeah, that's pretty bad." Rick mumbled to himself. "So what now?"

"Well, let's just get to Sweet Apple Acres. Rickey and Cliff can come with us." Twilight suggested.

"Uh, it's raining a river out there." Sunset argued. "If anything, we're probably going to need to get these two back in the portal before the press comes marching in."

That's not a number we'd want to be in, but I think I may have an idea brewing up in my brain. "On second thought, I'm gonna need Rick with me. Cliff too."

"Howcome?" Sunset asked while looking at the other humans.

"Weapons demonstration. I kinda need to figure out what all I'm bringing." I said as I walked over to a turquoise plastic bin.

"I thought that was sensitive information." Twilight noted while glancing back to Sunset. "You said that-"

"I said no media, no press, no additional guards. I said that so that I wouldn't have to deal with the politicians when I had gotten back to Canterlot. And this was pretty much the main reason why." I finished before turning to Rickey. "So which of these are we taking, or rather what do you recommend?"

Rick clapped his hands and rubbed them together as he began walking around the room, pulling bins away from the walls. "They're color coded for each specific purposes the weapons inside of them would serve."

"Weapons?" Twilight asked with a surprised tone.

"Yup, I have them in bins of a certain color. Orange is self-defense, lime-green is tactical, the bluish-turquoise is assault, pink is for the things that goes pop, and the light-purple ones are filled with armor and junk."

"Sweet!" I guess I got more than what I for what I paid for. I already had so many choices with the guns, but now it's weapons and armor aplenty. We just have to find out what to bring with us for now. Not exactly a bad problem to have. "So you said the purple is armor, right?"

"Yeah, what all are you demonstrating?" Rickey asked.

"Originally, what I had bought the last time. Now, I kinda want to show the full armory."

"No need. Just get two bins, get one of the green ones and one of the blue ones. As usual, be careful when handling."

"Ammo's in the bins, right?"

"Yup!"

I reached into the purple bin and pulled out a protective vest. With a smile and a nod, I started to put it on. "Is this kevlar?"

"No, but there's a special ceramic plate inside that's built to resist bullets. It's good for the first couple of uses, but if you're taking on heavy fire, I wouldn't recommend it."

"Then I'll be set on this then." I said as I pulled out a second vest to toss to Cliff. "Hey, put this on."

"We ain't gon' be the ones getting shot at, are we?" Cliff asked cautiously.

"Nah, but I plan on just wearing these as a fashion statement."

"Okay, we cool then."

As the three of us continued to get everything ready, Twilight and Sunset grabbed each bin of the colors Rick called out. "We're taking all of the green and turquoise ones, right?" The peach-colored mare asked.

"Just one of each." Rickey announced as he took a bin and got ready to walk out into the hall.

"Wait wait wait, hold on a sec." I said as I turned back to Twilight. "We can't just walk out of here with these. There are two more humans present than what the guards would be used to. Do you have any sort of spell that could hide us for long enough to where we can get to the farm?"

Twilight scoffed as she rolled her eyes, a cocky grin showed up on her face. "Nondis, I can teleport, walk on clouds, summon powerful magic, and invert gravity. Cloaking would be the least of your worries."

Twilight... I'm so proud of you at times. This is one of them.

Unbelievable. I just couldn't believe my eyes. After all of that running and trekking Sunset and I did just to get into the castle in the midst of that thunderstorm, we came outside to see that it had looked almost as if we didn't even have any rainfall at all. We had lighting darting through the clouds and now the sun is out and beaming like it was just before I took my shower. But I don't have time to complain about how I didn't have that magical persuasion that Celestia had, we got shit to carry... dammit.

After about fifteen minutes of walking, the five of us came up to the gates of Sweet Apple Acres. Twilight and Sunset breathed a collective sigh of relief as they magically held on to the two bins we had brought along with us. For a while, the three of us interchanged the duties of lugging the heavy tubs from the castle to the farm. I wasn't more than surprised that they were a bit winded, those damn things are weighty as hell. But the three of us weren't the only ones who felt tired from the walk.

"Hey... *huff* ...how far... *guh* ...is this place?"

"Bruh... my legs are so gone."

"Shh..." I whispered to the two, who were still cloaked under Twilight's spell. "Just hang on a little bit further. We need to find out where they all went to first."

Just as I answered the two men, Applejack came trotting up with a big smile on her face. "Well, howdy y'all! Ah trust ya must be here fer the little gatherin' goin on at the swimmin' hole?"

"Oh for the love of..." I sighed while rolling my eyes. That's another ten-plus minutes of lugging shit across the farm. Sunset's tired of helping us with these large-ass tubs. Twilight's just tired in general. I know that Cliff and Rickey is tired as hell. We're all gonna be too tired to even do shit when we get there. "...So they're at the swimming hole?"

"Yup. Now Ah was told there was gonna be a bit of commotion goin' round the farm and that y'all didn't want nopony peekin' around. Big Mac an' Ah will try ta keep everypony off the back end of the farm while y'all do what 'n whatever. Just be generous an' clean up after yourself, ya hear?"

"Gotcha." I said as I looked at the barn. "You got a wagon we could borrow for a bit?"

Applejack looked at the bins and back to me with uncertainty. "What ya need a wagon for? Ya don't look like ya carryin' much."

"Applejack, please." Twilight pleaded. "These containers are a little heavier than they look, and we would much rather roll these back when we're finished instead of carting them off like we did on the way here."

The farm mare shrugged just before she walked off. "Oh. Well then y'all make sure Ah get it back fer tomorrow. Got a lot of harvestin' to do in the southern fields."

"Sure." I answered while placing the green bin I lugged here on the ground.

Behind me, I could hear the sounds of two bodies shuffling and resting on the ground. "Hey, how far is the swimming hole from here?" Rick asked.

"Ten minutes." Twilight responded as she placed the blue bin on top of the green one.

"Damn, I thought we were done walking." Cliff complained. "How the hell do you make these trips, Nondis?"

"I had to run against horses. My endurance is unbelievable since I left basic training... still doesn't stop me from getting winded from lugging fifty pounds of shit across town."

"Careful, don't let Applejack hear you say that." Twilight warned as she sat next the two bins. "You know how she is with you and cursing."

"The mice will play while the cat's away. I will continue to swear like a guard until I am no longer one." I responded carelessly.

"Well Ah suggest ya come on by more often for some good-hearted work!" Applejack answered as she came back with the wagon. "You'll be so tired, you won't even remember how to cuss! Ask Rainbow Dash."

And she's pretty bad when the occasion calls for it. "No thanks. I'm fine. My hands can't stand another round of that spiced rum."

Twilight got off of her haunches and powerlifted both of the bins with her magic, placing them in the wagon so that we didn't have to carry them across the farm. I could also hear Cliff and Rickey getting in the back while Applejack waited. After we finished loading up, Twilight, Sunset, and I walked in front while Applejack trotted off with the wagon.

"Hooboy, this here cart is mighty heavier than I thought it would be."

I could give her two reasons on why that is.

After a ten minute walk from the front of the farm to the swimming hole, we unloaded the wagon and dropped everything off by a table that Shining Armor had brought out. Again, it was lined with weapons of this world alongside the box of weapons I had brought to Canterlot. Several yards away were the same mannequins we used the last time, plus an additional five and one more just beside the table. Cadance was too busy looking at the sniper rifle, staring intently with a childish curiosity. Shining kept swinging his sword at the nearby mannequin. Luna and Blueblood seemed bored until we had finally arrived. Celestia was her usual composed self. Twilight and Sunset was relieved to get everything unloaded. And I am assuming that both Cliff and Rick are positively freaking out right now, as I could hear them squeaking about the two elder princess' manes.

Thankfully, they didn't speak loud enough to where it disturbed the others, but Twilight looked like she was on the last leg of holding her cloaking spell together.

"Took you long enough." Shining said as he shoved the blade against the fully-armored mannequin beside the table.

Twilight walked up beside me, looking as fatigued as she did just moments ago. It didn't go unnoticed by her former mentor. "Twilight, are you feeling well?"

"Just fine." She answered, producing a nervous smile. I am going to have to repay her for her troubles somehow.

"Indeed. And what's with that outlandish vest?" Blueblood questioned. "I know that Rarity wouldn't dare make something so... aesthetically compromised."

"Well this ugly-ass vest is armor back on my world." I answered as I walked over to the table and looked at the crossbow, internally laughing at how I was going to blow this thing out of the water. "Meanwhile, why did you bring all of this here again?"

"It's for comparisons." Shining responded. "I want to see if your human weapons would actually do the trick."

"The smaller one seemed to have performed admirably, last I remember." Luna added. "However, we have not touched the two larger devices."

"Especially the big one." Cadance cosigned while staring at the box.

With a smirk of pride, I walked over to the green bin and started to crack it open. "Well actually, I just wanted to add to the table today."

Upon opening, the first thing I came into contact with was a black crossbow with a scope mounted to it. Each side sported a drawing wheel and several torque cables. Along the bow itself lined the inscription TAC15. Oh this is gonna be fun. I carefully pulled out the crossbow and assembled the upper with the lower half that came with it. I then placed it on the table and started to crank the drawstring back using a ratchet that came along with it. As I did, Shining walked over and turned his head to the side. "No seriously, what in the actual hell is that thing?"

Luna walked along side him and looked on with bewilderment. "I am uncertain as to what it is. If I'm guessing by how the head is made, it would look like a crossbow of some sort."

"You guessed it." I answered. "I also brought a bunch of other goodies that would interest you. But for now, I'm gonna start with something that kinda bridges the gap between our worlds' weaponry."

"So that ugly thing with the holes in it is a crossbow?" Blueblood inquired. "I don't think that thing would even be structurally sound. One draw and it might break."

"That's why it's made of metal. But it's built with power in mind. This is what we humans would call a Tactical Assault Crossbow. It's used for a variety of purposes ranging from hunting to target elimination. This is also considered as one of the most powerful crossbows in the world to date."

"Okay, so if it's so powerful, what can it do that our crossbows can't?" Cadance questioned.

"Well, it's built to increase the weight and pressure that's used to launch the bolts into your targets. Of course this would be best mounted on a table, as you can already see." Before I could carry on, I felt a hand pat me on the shoulder.

"Mind if I get this one?" Rickey asked.

Well I didn't bring him for no reason. Guess I could let him carry on with the explanation. With a nod, I looked back to Twilight. "Oh yeah, I also took the time to not only add to the table, but I also brought in some help. Twilight, you can cut your spell now."

"WHAT!? JUST LIKE THAT!? But I thought-"

"I'll be sure to tell your brother to ease off. They're not interested in being recruited."

"Recruit who?" The blue-maned prince asked as he looked to his younger sister.

The purple alicorn closed her eyes and finally deactivated her magic for the first time of our tenure. Shortly after, there was a loud shriek that came from Cadance. The others looked at the pink princess as she pointed to the two men standing directly behind me. Gasps sounded as the group of royals stared at the three of us with nothing but complete shock across their faces. Sunset and Twilight did gain some amusement from their responses while Rickey and Cliff introduced themselves.

"Hey, there. My name is Richard Mario Santaña, my friends call me Rickey."

"Sup, y'all. My name's Clifford Deandré Stoudemire, they call me Cliff."

They continued to look at us like we were an alien species that just dropped down from the sky right before them. Though their reactions did begin to change overtime. I could already see the excitement building inside of Cadance as she begins to grin at the two new faces. Shining's eye twitched as he stared at us. Blueblood fainted on Luna, who held him away with her left wing. Celestia remained slack-jawed.

"Cliff, Rickey, these are the princes and princesses of the land called Equestria. These are my emp-."

Cliff was the first to break the ice between the two parties. "Imma let him finish, but I got something to say to the two bigger ponies. And forgive me for my bluntness, but I gotta ask... How the fuck do you do that with your hair? Like what the fuck do you put in that shit to make it like... that?"

Luna was taken aback while Celestia just gasped, sounding as if she was offended in some manner.

Mankind's first impression... yup, good start.

Author's Note

This chapter was difficult. I kept writing myself into corners and I had to redo parts of it over and over to make it work. Not too bad of a problem to face, but it does provide a bit of a challenge from time to time.

Also I wanted to show that the other royals do interact with Nondis in a non-casual manner. Even though he is the captain of the guard, they do tend to have a bit of fun with him being that he's getting along with Twilight. Shining and he are acquainted, yet they are rivals above all else. Of course he's only showing out since he's with company (Blueblood).

Now, let's discuss the personalities of the royals. Those of whom may want to wait until future chapters to figure them out would be encouraged to skip this part onward. Those who don't care as much may read up. Minor spoilers ahead.

Cadance, in case you haven't noticed, is a bit of a prankster, meaning that she has a care-free attitude about most things outside of her job. She's giddy and eager to learn about new things, almost to Twilight levels. But she's very determined to reform archaic laws that impede upon one's basic civil rights.

Luna is at times skeptical, yet she can be as care-free as Cadance should the occasion calls for it. And as indicated in an earlier chapter, she is quite the explorer towards anything unknown. But often, she may appear to be strict in certain subjects.

Blueblood is a playboy with the harem to go along with it. Despite his desire to live in a lavish lifestyle, entertainment, and enjoying the limelight, he's quite smart and can negotiate around much of what the politicians throw at the royals.

Shining Armor is the essential bridge of communication to those in the military. He's more of the representative of what's being said around the barracks, considering that he was and is a guard. His rivalry with Nondis is based on how a big brother would treat an in-law marrying his baby sister. But being that he has an unflinching respect for those in uniform, he does everything he can to see them move up in the world. So yeah, he tolerates and protects Nondis, but only because he wants to have rematch of their last spar.

Twilight Sparkle is the residential bookworm that does a lot of ass-kicking on the side. But thanks to her often-busy schedule, she doesn't have a lot of time to give outside of her inner circle of friends and family. And being that she was an antisocial for most of her life, flowing from a life of books, to one of danger and adventure, to one of princesshood at such a young age, she hasn't really had the time explore the things that most adolescent mares get to (like romance, sex, relationships, etc). So her personal life in regards to her is a little lacking, and adding in her nervous habits for over-analyzing things to the most extreme of outcomes, she tends to be a little clingy and prefers that everything would go by how she charts it out. But she hasn't quite figured out that relationships with significant others can't be wrote out in books or categorized on charts. She's a bit envious and jealous of other mares that starts to move in on Nondis (being that it's her first relationship and how she wanted to stress the importance of achieving it's perfection). She does show an unconditional desire for him... but how far would that desire go?

Celestia is pretty much an enigma. She's the only one I cannot disclose as it would reveal massive spoilers for future chapters.I have her character graphed and simulated, but I won't tell anything about her, you'll just have to read on to find out more about her and the Approval Law.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I know that the next one would require a bit of [weapons] research before writing out. So that will be a bit before you see it.

Chapter XLI

Let's imagine something real quick.

Say you and two of your friends go out to meet with a group of executives from a different country to discuss a variety of things, including walks-of-life, ideals, political viewpoints, weapons, technology, and moral values. Unwittingly, one of your friends walks up to said group of executives and asks them in a blunt and crude manner of how did they manage to get their hair to look the way it does, why would they wear that outfit and not something a little more comfortable, or how many 'outings' they've had. Now let's add in the fact that these executives are also your employers.... yeah.

Well if this wasn't an awkward way for your friends to introduce themselves to your otherworldly employer, then I don't know what is. If I was back in the U.S., I'd get severely reprimanded and possibly demoted, even fired for something like this. But since our worlds are vastly different, it falls within reason that they would ask something like that.

But most employers with high influence tend to judge you on the company you keep. If you seem to have a group of friends who just don't give a damn and likes to have fun, they look down on that. But if you surround yourself with those you call 'acquaintances' whom you actually despise and want to shove into a industrial compactor, they'll nod in approval and send you along your way. They will think positive of you and disregard your rising blood pressure and take pride that you're well-set in misery, as misery does love a company.

Corporate office jokes... never again.

They intend for you to work past your usual hours, ignore your friends and family for a minor corporate gathering, shove your spouse away for them to get involved with several other men/women while they look for a reason to take half of your shit, push your children towards a strange person who would be designated their nanny and grow up to be socially-challenged druggies that wished for your death so that they can claim some money to take more of the drugs that they abuse, and they want you to work until you're in your twilight years where you finally retire, only for you to realize that you've missed out on what was truly important in comparison to that job that nearly killed you several times now.

So in a delusional state, you start to persuade yourself that the money was what you worked for all along and that was all that mattered, that the money you have now can buy your family and happiness back, despite the fact that they've already moved on without you. Yup, those kinds of people who allow themselves to shove all of their basic interaction with the ones they gave life to into someone else's hands are the type of people I vowed to never respect. Those of whom chose to work for the money and not for the mouths they feed are the ones that pisses me the fuck off. But I digress.

Corporate bosses tend to look at those happy employees with disdain if they should invite those with friends that cater to their personal tastes to a upscale social gathering. But if your tastes are as bland and colorless as theirs, you'd be just fine.

As for my current employers, well...

"...And that's how our manes have gotten to be the way they are now."

Okay... Now I'm angry with myself since I haven't asked this damn question myself. Guess that's one less thing crowded in the back of my mind when I see them. As Celestia finished her explanation, Blueblood yawned and stretched his hooves. "Yes, we get it. Now can we get back to the more interesting matters at hoof?"

"Blueblood's jealous because Twilight and I had our manes like that at least once in our lives." Cadance said with a sly grin, glancing back to the blond-haired prince. "Even Shining had his mane overflowing with magic, despite the fact that it was for a brief amount of time."

"I'd much rather not be overloaded with magic next time it happens." Twilight mumbled towards her brother, who nodded in agreement.

"I think that we should also obtain some information about the two of you." Luna suggested with an outstretched hoof towards Cliff. "Perhaps you would like to tell us about yourselves. We would be more than willing to know what the both of you are like."

"Yeah, tell them about yourselves." Sunset encouraged with a slight magical push into Cliff's back to get him to walk up to the lunar princess.

"Well... y'all already know my name. Just call me Cliff, I'm a cool person to be around, I don't really know everything about here, and I'm just here to help with the weapons thingy."

"The demonstration?" Blueblood questioned.

"He's the asshole of the group. Don't mind him." Shining assured.

"So, you guys are royalty?" Cliff asked as he approached the moon princess, unsure as to how to return her gesture. Instead of shaking, he settled for a casual fist bump, earning him an unimpressed look from her. "Y'all seem pretty chill for some rulers."

"Many of us are more than willing to show that, but it's a little hard when your guards and citizens place you on such a high pedestal." Celestia explained. "But if you'd wish, you may call us by our names when we're gathered like this, but only outside of the public eye."

"Why not in public?" Rickey asked.

"Remember the pedestal remark she made?" I began to explain. "Many ponies would take offense if you'd address them by an informal title... or they'd simply think that you and that certain individual were involved in some kind of way... Or they'd think that you and the figure you're addressing aren't on good terms."

"So they'd think you were some sort of disrespectful brat, or a hook-up?" Cliff asked while wondering why the princess' hoof remained extended.

"Handshake, Cliff. Treat it as you would-"

Luna cut me short. "I changed my mind, I wish to celebrate this momentous encounter with ear scratches."

...Did she just... "I-I don't think that's how it goes." Twilight said with a bit of nervousness. "You're supposed to get to know the human before asking for them to scratch your ears."

"So I cannot get what I desire from them as you would from Nondis?" Yeah, she went there.

"But that's only because he and I started dating! I never asked him to do anything like that until we started going out!"

"But Pinkie Pie would often brag about how his fingers would soothe even the most unreachable itches, and in such a way where they would tickle ever so slightly!"

"Trust me, they're overrated." Did Twilight just write me off like that? Okay, we'll see how overrated she think I am when I go for the wings.

"But even you said that his fingers was something that was to behold. We even took a visual sample of what they were capable of just this morning."

"Luna, human fingers aren't really that interesting of-OOOOOOOHHHH-hohohohooo..." As soon as my fingers went to work against the hidden crevices beneath her wings, she started to make a soft whinny while her right hind leg thumped against the ground in rapid succession. "Ohhhhhh, I love that."

Celestia and Cadance looked at her with amused smirks, almost as if they were going to laugh. Luna deadpanned directly at the purple alicorn as she used her magic to guide me further in. "Surely, they aren't that great for you to be so enthralled by his ministrations."

"He's doing the thing I like, to which I respond with a-aaaahhaaaa..." She melted even more as I added my other hand to the area behind her ears and scratched. "Please don't stop." She whined.

Luna then looked back to Cliff and Rickey with vested interest. "Perhaps a free hand would be so kind as to find it's way to my ears as well? I also take immense pleasure in belly rubs. Would you kindly indulge me with your fingers as well, please?"

Rickey walked up, not hesitating to scratch behind Luna's ears. Instantly, she rolled her eyes and nuzzled into his chest with a soft moan. Her hind leg proceeded to do the same thing as Twilight's. Rickey found amusement in the princess' reaction. "Aww, she's so cute. You've been dealing with this for nine months? This is a lot less shitty than having to deal with cranky-ass teachers on a bi-daily basis."

Cliff turned to Shining and slowly reached out his hand. The blue-haired stallion started to back away slowly. "No. Stop. Don't. I said stooo-ahhh..." But he eventually succumbed to the dark-skinned male who brushed his fingers lightly against the back of his ear. "Oh, Twily, I think you're on to something, kiddo."

"GUNS, PLEASE!" Cadance screamed to the top of her voice, stopping both Luna and Twilight from flipping over to expose their stomachs. The two princesses snapped out of their pleasure-induced trances and straightened back up. Meanwhile Shining was to invested in getting his ears scratched by Cliff.

"So... are there like human females that do this too?" The stallion asked.

"Yeah, probably more so. They'd probably scratch you behind the ears and around the body too. Girls are just that into horses."

"Cadie, can we visit-"

"NO!" She shouted to her husband. "Now, mister Cliff, could you please stop scratching my husbands ears?"

"Keep scratching, don't mind her." Shining ordered while leaning against the hand that lightly scraped the side of his ear. Meanwhile, Cadance continued to watch for another second before exploding.

"Dammit, stop scratching my husband! Only I'm allowed to rub his belly and bite his ears, and that's only when we're mating! That is his fetish that only I can exploit!"

...I... uh... okay?...

Cliff backed off of him in the fraction of a second, Shining was scrunched up in the face as he started to blush over what his wife had said. The two looked away from each other and remained silent for quite some time while Cadance stared angrily at Shining. Twilight facehoofed in hearing her brother's fetish, Luna shook her head with a questionable cringe, indicating a 'not bad' expression, and Blueblood started to snicker.

Both Cliff and Shining sighed heavily. "We'll never speak of this again?" Shining said quietly.

"What you talkin' bout?"

"Exactly."

After a few minutes of everyone getting to know each other, we finally got back on track to what we all had came here for. The royal ponies─with the exception of Shining Armor─all sat a short distance away from the demonstration table while Cliff, Rickey, and I started unloading both of the bins onto the large table. Shining was the only one who was close by, acting out of curiosity as he inspected the weapons. We also instructed him on how to install the bullets into the magazines, which he took an enormous amount of pride in doing. And thanks to his magic, we were done setting up quicker than what we had originally anticipated.

As of that moment, we had a whole line of assault weapons and ammo lined up for demonstration. The sniper rifle was waiting along the side of the table. The other tactical weapons, such as the crossbow, a compound bow and several arrows/bolts is what we wanted to focus on, as they would be a direct example of how human technology has improved. Alongside the TAC15 was the standard-issue Equestrian composite crossbow.

Shining picked up the wooden crossbow and loaded a bolt onto the shaft. He looked down the sights and aimed for the closest armored mannequin. Within a second, he held his breath and fired. The wooden bolt launched from the weapon, zipping through the air and landing against the chest-plate of the mannequin. The bolt, however, made contact with the metal, compressed under the force of impact and splintered into several pieces. A few more seconds later, Shining reloaded and fired another, yielding similar results. And on either hit, the mannequin shook but remained unphased.

"That suit of armor is one of our finest ever made." Shining stated. "We can take a variety of blows and keep on marching. Of course during the last demonstration, Nondis pointed out that there were a few gaps in the system, but those are protected against slashing weapons."

"Yeah, but there's more to it than being able to take a wooden dart that could explode provided that there's enough reactionary force." I argued while picking up one of the bolts he used. "The problem with your weaponry is that there's a massive kinetic force driving against a still object with an exorbitant amount of shielding, and there is a massive amount of energy being displaced when impact is made. So your wooden arrows would often be a one-time use in the heat of battle. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That's why we changed to composition of the bolts to something a little less fragile."

Rickey continued from where I left off. "We pretty much upgraded the wood into a more durable material that could not only be lightweight, but it would also be a lot more capable of... driving the point home, so to speak. We have multiple kinds of arrows for different purposes. The ones we'll be using today is made of an aluminum alloy."

"Aluminum? But wouldn't that be a tad-bit costly to make?" Shining guessed.

"That's true, they are a dollar and some change more expensive than the standard fiberglass arrow." Rickey stated as he held one of the black arrows. "The idea is that with such a unyielding structure would allow the arrow a lot more breaching power. In other words..."

As he loaded the bolt onto the shaft of the TAC15, he looked through the scope and set his sights for the broad portion of the mannequin's chest. As soon as he pulled the trigger, the bolt soared across the field and found it's target. And as expected, the arrow continued to plow through the armor and didn't stop until the bolt was halfway buried. The impact was so powerful that the mannequin noticeably pivoted back before falling back into place.

"Your friend there wearing the armor, he's dead."

Shining blinked in amazement and stood silent for a few seconds before teleporting the besieged mannequin over to the table. As soon as it appeared, we all saw the back-half of the arrow sitting soundly in place, meanwhile the armor was punctured and the arrow protruding the back end of the lower neck. Cliff shook his head as he laughed.

"Damn, he a dead ass."

The other ponies approached the table and surveyed the damage themselves, gasping in shock and horror over what had happened to the inanimate guard. Twilight started jotting down notes while Cadance poked and prodded at the arrow in the victim's neck. "This is... terrifying." The pink princess said quietly. "This is what Shining Armor wears on a daily basis. And you just... ignored it. Disregard the armor he's wearing and just kill my husband, leave me a grieving widow."

Luna approached the black crossbow and inspected it. "A fearsome system in place, it looks as intimidating as it performs."

Rickey went on explain the crossbow's appearance. "The system of cables you see are hooked into those wheels, they run through a pulley system. I'm sure you guys have some knowledge on how it works with the displacement of weight. So the designers thought to themselves: if it could be used to move an object of significant weight with as little force as possible, why not apply it to one of mankind's oldest weapons? And not only that, but let's make the bow out of a heavy material with enough strength to produce a powerful draw without breaking the weapon. Hence why our bows are made of an aluminum-zinc compound instead of wood, to prevent breakage and promote higher levels of stress. There's a lot more specifics, but I'll just keep it simple for now. There are other weapons we want to show off before we head back."

After poking the arrow, Cadance groaned with disgust. "No thanks. I don't want my husband to be on the receiving end of this."

"If that's how you feel about the arrows. then you're gonna hate what we have left on the table." Cliff warned as he pointed to the array of weapons laid out. "We got handguns, shotguns, sub-machine, assault rifles, sniper rifles."

"That's a lot more than what you suggested the last time, isn't it?" Blueblood asked me.

"A shitload. I just brought enough for personal use last time. This is an arsenal made for a small army, and we got plenty more back at the castle."

"You didn't bring those?"

"That would be for the next demonstration, where we'll deal with things that go boom. Also we'll go over some self-defense items we'd use in daily situations."

"How much did you guys bring here?" Shining asked.

"A lot."

Our first series of demonstrations started out with handguns. And as expected, they did enough to please the ponies that beheld them. Of course, some of the rounds we shot bounced and grazed off of the armor plating, but the others that hit their targets head-on continued to place even more holes in the armor. But Cliff, Rickey and I grew impatient and started to move on towards the other weapons in the lineup. Unfortunately, it didn't stop Cadance from asking what the sniper rifle would do and if we could demonstrate it right away. So I decided that it would be the last thing on the list, considering that we would need to move a target some several yards out for us to demonstrate the results properly.

Actually, Rickey and I started to give Shining a few tips and pointers on gun safety while we were at it.

"And you never want to point the muzzle at anyone you know or yourself. Don't be 'That Guy' who picks one up and starts hollering out 'hey, look at me' while pointing it at someone's head." Rickey explained to the stallion.

"You could easily discharge the weapon and hurt someone you may know. There is a reason why we have classes for this kind of thing. Possessing a gun without training or knowing the proper protocols beforehand is like an untrained idiot grabbing a sharpened sword and swinging it at you." I also stated.

Shining nodded, indicating that he was absorbing some of the knowledge we were giving out. But before we went on to explain the other details about firearm safety, he proceeded to voice his concern. "I also heard there was a safety mechanism, can't that prevent any kind of accidental discharges?"

"Safety mechanisms are in place for children who just so happen to get a hold of these weapons while you're away, but that's never an initiative to just leave it on your kitchen counter. If you're going to have one in a home where you are with younger individuals, it is best to keep it locked in a safe or in a lockable case. Never leave these things out or you might find yourself having to deal with the authorities should your child decide to bring it to school for show-and-tell... or worse. It's also used for safe handling while you're carrying. You don't want to put this in your holster and shoot into your leg. The safety is there for that reason as well." Rickey explained as he picked up a sub-machine gun.

"Also, if you're using these for combat and you are with a group, be careful where you aim. If you strafe while holding the weapon up and looking through the sights, that is called sweeping. Never sweep past a friendly, you would put that individual in danger the moment that muzzle comes dancing past them." I added.

"But, isn't there a chance where you could shoot someone on accident?" Shining questioned.

Rickey took a quick breath before he answered his question. "I'm glad you asked that, because many individuals would find themselves caught off guard and shoot at anything that moves. Yes, that is a possibility, but there are also steps you could do take to prevent that from happening. This even goes for trained individuals as well, assess the situation before you think about raising that gun to eye-level. Don't be like some of our police officers and 'fear for your life' while unloading the full clip at someone's front door. You could kill a civilian acting that way. Warn the individual that you are going to shoot them prior to firing. And if you are firing at a suspect, do so with the intention to disarm. Never fire when their back is turned, always keep your finger off the trigger unless there is probable cause for engagement."

"And please note that 'probable cause' should not be based off of suspicion alone." Cliff strongly suggested. "Don't judge by appearances, don't act out of fear, don't shoot someone because you had a bad day. Take responsibility for your actions, think of the consequences, and most importantly do not shoot if there are other solutions present. If they are trying to kill you, that is probable cause. If someone walks out their front door with a wii remote and you start smokin' they ass on the front porch, that is not. And if you do fire on someone by accident, be man enough to admit that it was an accidental discharge by fault of the carrier."

"Okay. It seems there's a lot of responsibility that comes with carrying something so... small." Shining said as he looked at the handguns we had finished firing.

"Those three pounds seem a little heavier than usual once you realize that that small amount of weight could end a life so quickly." I stated while thinking of the one that I'd normally carry. "It's no different from carrying a sword. Both can be perfectly safe in the hands of those who act smart and remain responsible."

Shining nodded quietly as he watched Rickey walk up to the table with the gun he picked up just earlier. "I understand. So what about that?" He pointed out.

Rickey unplugged his ears as he turned back to me and Shining. Shining asked his question once more for him to answer. "This is an SMG, or a submachine gun. More specifically, the model of this one is called the Heckler & Koch MP5. The stock, the part you rest against your shoulder, is expandable to meet the demands of the user. Often, this weapon is used by special task forces because of it's maneuverability, size, and often for stealth. Most of the time, you would place a suppressor at the end of the barrel while using subsonic ammunition for the purposes of eliminating unarmored targets as quietly as possible. It is the ultimate way of eliminating your target quickly, discreetly, and without incident. They often prevent what we'd like to call over-penetration, meaning that they don't run through your target and accidentally hit something else. For example: when dealing with a hostage situation, you don't shoot the bad guy and accidentally hit the hostage behind him."

"That's understandable." Shining stated. "Has there been any cases of a hostage situation where you've needed something like that?"

I walked up to the table and looked at a Beretta that looked similar to the one I once owned. "Last week on the train to Canterlot, your dad was about to get eighty-six'd for standing up for another father protecting his family. They were going to wipe him out and toss him off the train, to which I responded with hollow-point rounds. The rest from there you can figure out."

As I recalled that moment, I had noticed a bit of discomfort settling on not only Shining's face, but on Twilight's as well. I guess I pulled out too personal of an example without thinking. In the end, I felt somewhat remorseful for saying it. I guess I let my pride precede discretion.

"Yeah, kinda like that." Rickey said. "But this time, we're dealing with weapons that fire at a rate of eight hundred rounds per minute. In other words, your enemies would be good and dead going against this without proper protection. As a standard, each one of these comes with three modes: safe, semi-auto, and full-auto. Semi is one shot per trigger pull, it's great for trying to fire in a controlled environment, or a closed area. But horrible for fighting in a firefight. You could be yanking that trigger back all day and your poor index finger could need some ice by the end of the fight. That's where the second mode kicks in. Full-auto is for any tactical situation where you would need to suppress your enemy and take them down quickly. This mode is preferred in more open areas where there is ample space."

Rickey first set the weapon from safe to semi-auto and lined it against his shoulder as he looked downrange. He lined his sights for the unarmored mannequin. As he pulled the trigger, a loud pop sounded as the gun tossed a small shell from the chamber. The mannequin he hit jiggled a bit before stopping in place. As he lowered the weapon, he jiggled his right ear a bit.

"Fuck!" He shouted as he rubbed his ear and placed back in the ear plug. "Also, keep your ears covered. These things are loud as hell when they're right next to your head."

I shook my head as Rick realized he made the mistake of not wearing his while Shining tried his best to hold back a chuckle. Rickey continued with the demonstration.

"Moving on, we're going to fire the rest of whatever's in this mag. I just fired one, so we've got about twenty nine left."

After setting the MP5 to full auto, he lined his sights to the mannequin downrange and unloaded the full clip. A rapid succession of pops sounded throughout the field as more nine millimeter shells came flying out and littering the ground below us. The mannequin was receiving a series of hits, but the majority of rounds landed either around or behind it. After he was finished, he released the magazine from the gun and placed it on the table.

"As you saw, there was a bit of recoil from each shot that kinda threw me off sight. So not every bullet is going to hit if you just dump everything from the cartridge at once. You'd need to fire in bursts so that you'd give yourself enough time to realign yourself to your target. You can fire this from the hip, but you would better off praying before spraying."

"They call that 'spray-and-pray' on our world." Cliff summarized. "It's for the guys who don't aim and fire all over the place. At that point, one of those bullets might as well be a prayer to God. So it's a slim chance that you'll hit something like that. You'd probably get hit first before you even hit the side of a skyscraper."

Shining was busy taking in the knowledge while everyone else who watch were asking questions. Twilight teleported the unfortunate victim to the side of the table for a survey. As we looked at the wounds incurred by the MP5, Rick had pointed out a few that landed on the neck, some that hit the chest, one that hit just above the eye-socket, and one more that hit the left foreleg. As he pointed them out, I told him which was instant and which were lethal due to bleed-out.

But out of a total of thirty, only seven hit their target.

"The accuracy is much to be desired." Luna proclaimed as she examined the entrance wounds.

"Again, that's the result of dumping the whole clip at once." I argued in place of Rickey, who was busy at the table. "Your sights get thrown off if you don't fire in controlled bursts. If you feel like shooting up the whole room, that would be ideal. But you would get a lot more bang for your buck if you fire out your shots."

"Oh, say can you see!" Rick exclaimed as he picked up a larger weapon. As everyone turned to him, we all saw as he gently kissed the side of an M16. "This is one of my favorites."

"Why don't you tell 'em what it is, Cassanova kissin' ass." Cliff joked while Rick eagerly patted the side of the rifle.

"This here is a Colt M16A4, made in the good-ol U.S. of A. This belongs to a class of weapons called the assault rifle. If you see someone coming to your doorstep with one of these, then you know that you're getting the boot. This particular model has three functions: safe mode, semi, and burst."

I continued to add to his explanation. "Remember when I said that if you dump everything out at once, it reduces your accuracy? This is that realization come to fruition. It doesn't fire everything at once, but it does launch a controlled three-shot burst. This is more efficient for when you're dealing with real-time combat situations, especially when you're dealing with a stubborn group of assholes. If the changelings want to keep shooting magic at you, respond with this. Three shots and you know they're out of commission."

"This gun is standard issue of the United States military, so what you're seeing is exactly what the boys use back home." Rick carried on. "Furthermore, this packs a lot of punch, capable of housing ammunition that could plow through drywall, wood, thin sheets of metal, and sometimes car doors. Even if you're armored in that clunk of tin metal, you're pretty much nothing more than canned meat. That armor was made for swords in mind, not an offensive juggernaut capable of ripping you to pieces and swissing your shit."

"Plate armor is practically useless against this." I stated as I grabbed the rifle from Rickey and loaded myself. "You'd be better off sitting behind a wall of sandbags over trying to hide behind a corner. This shit will chip at stone, break bricks, and still find a way to tag you."

Although he was mesmerized at the information we kept feeding him, Shining also took notice of the small scope sitting at the very top of the rifle. "So... what's the purpose of that? Is it like the scope you had on the crossbow?"

"Not really. This is an Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight, ACOG for short. It magnifies your sights from one-point-five times up to about six times. You use this for when you gotta deal with targets down the way. You're pretty much picking guys off from a safer distance. And not only that, I can actually use this at night. There's a built-in phosphor that highlights your reticles so you can lock on to your sights better."

"Yeesh, so you can hunt down changelings in the dead of night too?" Cadance questioned with a cringe. "It make me scared of what that thing can do."

"In speaking of which..." I quickly made my way to the table and made sure that there was no one in front. After setting the rifle from safe to semi. Looking down my sights, I had gotten ready to fire... but not before Cliff had tapped on my shoulder, indicating that I was seconds away from making the same goof Rickey made. After plugging my ears, I looked through the sight and aimed for the next armored mannequin out on the field. After I aimed for the center chestplate, I fired five rounds into it, causing the mannequin to pivot from the force. After I finished, I could see that there was a small grouping of three and two other holes in the armor.

"Damn, that bitch gone." Cliff muttered as Shining eagerly teleported the mannequin over to the side of the table. It didn't take him much investigation to see that this guy was good and 'dead'.

"Mother Faust... Our guys wears this." He whispered before bursting out into a depressed laugh. "Wow, this is gruesome."

The other ponies took a look for themselves, also taking a mental picture of the scenario playing out in an actual battle. Blueblood began to shiver as he pulled the armor off and saw the tiny bits of armor acting as shrapnel inside of the rather deep wounds. "If this was hide and bone, this stallion would be taking a major bleeding. He would be done for."

Cadance squirmed as she poked her hoof at the entry wounds. "You wouldn't even see this guy breathe once after this. One of these goes into the heart, one into the lungs, and I guess this cluster here would bore through his sternum, hitting both the aorta and the superior vena cava. Even if you were to miss the heart, this guy would be bleeding out in seconds. Ugh... and the bones would be shattered to bits, so that would make the wound even worse."

"If this guy wasn't wearing the armor, you'd be seeing exit wounds." Rickey added, causing the pink princess much more disgust.

"And this can strike past walls?" Luna inquired with a cringe.

"If it's made out of standard building materials and nothing reinforced or completely solid, yes."

"That's really horrible." Twilight mumbled while digging through the wounds with her magic to retrieve the bullets. "And they aren't easy to remove, either."

"And as a plus, if you find yourself in a close-quarter situation, you can use this to parry off an attack and attack with the butt of the stock. It's pretty damn durable, and good enough to use for a quick bludgeoning to disorient your foe before executing them at point-blank range. This thing was built for war, all aspects of it." I added. "Plus you can even attach bayonets to the end of the muzzle for more melee damage."

"That's it, demonstration over!" Blueblood blurted out. "This thing is more than capable of mowing down a few changelings."

"But he hasn't even set it in the other mode yet!" Rickey argued while I was setting my sights for the next armored mannequin downrange. This was was a bit further away so I had to be careful when firing. After confirming that there was nothing to interfere with my shot and there was no moving bodies, I set the rifle to burst and pulled the trigger. In rapid succession, three shells came flying out of the chamber. As I continued to fire downrange, I could already see the mannequin tilting with every shot. Eventually, it fell down without me emptying the chamber or the clip.

"Target neutralized!" I said loudly while Twilight was a little reluctant to teleport that one to the side of the table.

"This one's even worse." She pointed out, looking at the several holes in the armor.

"My boys and I wear this." Shining continued to chant with disbelief.

"It is obvious that this demonstration has showed us some rather powerful equipment." Celestia proclaimed. "I could not imagine what would become of a changeling drone should it come into contact with you humans. This thing has more holes than Queen Chrysalis herself."

"And that's a lot of holes." Cadance cosigned with a nod.

Sunset walked up to the mannequin and shook her head. "Such is the wrath of an assault rifle. But I thought that many of these weapons would run at full-auto."

"Some have been made like that. This is a later model." I said as I detached the clip and pulled back the charging handle to empty the chamber of a spare bullet. "And the best thing about this rifle is that you can customize it however you need to. If you want laser sights instead of ACOG, or add a grenade launcher to it, it's practically easy. And in case you're wondering, there is some non-lethal ammunition you could use for crowd suppression or criminal apprehension."

Rickey patted me on the back as he spoke. "All of that is inside of one of the orange bins back at the castle. That'll be for a 'part two' if there is one."

"That's up to them. I just came here with the intention of showing them how powerful our weapons are. In speaking of which, we haven't did the other assault rifles or even the shotguns yet."

"And I'm afraid that we would soon overextend our allotted time frame." Celestia said while looking towards the sun. "In a bit, I would have to head back to Canterlot and lower the sun."

"Lower the sun?" Cliff asked.

Twilight walked up to the dark-skinned male. "Oh right, we never really told you that part. With our titles, we pretty much represent a different attribute of Equestrian life. I represent friendship, Cadance represents love, Celestia represents the day and the sun, while Luna represents the night and the moon."

"Huh, what about those two?" Rickey asked while pointing to both of the white stallions.

"I guess Blueblood is the one who heads negotiations and politics, Shining... well... he kinda married into it, so I guess..."

While Twilight was trying to be nice, I decided to be blunt with her older brother's status. "Ahem, CONSORT! *cough-cough*" I joked, earning a displeased expression from the blue-maned prince.

"Hey pot, name's kettle. We've met before." Shining said to me with a bemused tone.

"Well... actually, he's not there yet." Cadance corrected her husband. "He'd have to marry Twilight before you can use that excuse."

"Yup, so I'm still technically a free man." I boasted.

"Correction, you WERE a free man." Cadance stated with a scowl. "And I do intend to remind you who you belong to and whom's wedding I will be presiding over." She was really gunning for me and her to get hitched, she's like that obsessive mother who's worried that her daughter would never marry at a decent age.

"Wow... Ol' girl said she got you on lockdown." Cliff said with a chuckle. "She cuffed yo ass."

"Well to his defense, he does have a right to sow his seed prior to the marriage." Blueblood rebutted. "It's an option that everypony who's marrying into the royal family has. I'm more surprised he hasn't exercised that right."

Actually, I did... with the pony I was engaged to... which was illegal. But Shining doesn't have to know that.

"That's because I asked that he would omit himself from that practice." Twilight snarled back at Blueblood. "So if you don't mind me saying, stick with your seven other wives before getting into the subject of my relationship with my fiance!" Oh boy, she's going sub-nuclear. That escalated rather quickly.

I wanted to remind Twilight that we were on break, but Shining's still around. I would eventually have to explain to him the reason why we had to split up for a bit, and then I'd have to explain the reason why we had a fight, and then I'd have to tell him that his younger sister had broken the rules of engagement, thus getting her wings clipped.

I'm sure Shining would be quick to learn how a gun works then.

Yup, time to change back to the original subject. "Okay, you two. We're not here to fuss and fight over our moral outlooks. We're here to shoot mannequins." I said as I placed the M16 back on the table and looked towards the shotgun. "Hey Princess Celestia, how long did you say you had?"

"I want to say another hour." She said, observing the sun's position in the sky.

"Okay, I got time for a few more demonstrations and some additional questions. Let's get this show on the road." I sure hope that Twilight was throwing a bluff while getting all defensive like that.

I cautiously observed the field ahead to see if there was no movement. When I had confirmed that the area was clear, I proceeded to pick up a few shells from a box to load seven into the shotgun I brought here, but I hesitated to do so in order to explain the weapon and what it does. "This here is a Remington 870, it's a more modernized version built for tactical purposes. Of course it's has the hand-pump action for reloading the chamber, complete with an intake of about six rounds. If you are a smart individual, you'd best find some solid cover because this here has a habit of mowing down whatever's in front of it."

*chick-chick*

Gotta love that sound. After one solid pump of the empty gun, I put on my thickest Texan accent while I went into detail. "You see here, this is the upgraded version of what gramgram and gramps would have while rockin' in their chair on the front porch, chasin' off whatever varmits come scamperin' through. Or if there were some dumb boy runnin' up the driveway at the middle of the night, tryin' to find his way back to his car after rompin' around with your little girl, that dumb son-of-a-bitch would be findin' his way to an alter with one of these buried in his back, I'll tell ya what."

"What happens if he says no?" Sunset questioned while snickering at my heavily-exaggerated accent.

"Well that boy might find himself at the mercy of the man or woman holdin' this thing at the back of his britches. He could be marchin' on down to the station for trespassin' or to a hospital for gettin' some fixin' up. Might not kill ya, but we would probably remove an arm or somethin'. But hoo-wee, this thing punches like somethin' fierce."

"Hey, let me get in on this." Cliff asked as he walked up to the table.

I bowed a bit and gave him the shotgun while he began to go into detail. "This thing brings it to your front door. There is a reason why whoever's in a tactical team with this weapon in hand would be front and center. This kind of weapon is used for breaching doors, blasting off doorknobs, and widespread massacre. Basically, this thing is not like the others. Like if you could look down the barrel of all of these guns─not saying you should─but if you did, you would see that every single one of those have rifling, identified by a bit of threading that corkscrews on down, kinda like your horns do. This does not."

"I don't see the reason why you wouldn't have something like that, considering that many of the other weapons have performed beyond expectations." Luna said with skepticism. "Perhaps there is an explanation for these 'threadings' in the weapons."

"Basically, the threading is there for the bullet. Think of it as a spiral. If you were to put a spiral with a hand-crank against the dirt, what will it do?"

"Well I suppose it would begin to drill into the ground." Cadance answered.

"Well that's the purpose. If you put enough spin to something in motion, it travels much further and stays in a straight line for a lot longer. Not only that, but there's still the drill aspect of it. If you fired a bullet from one of those other guns, guess what it will do?"

Shining placed a hoof to his chin as he pondered the process. "That explains it. That's how it passes through our armor so effortlessly."

"Exactly!" Cliff shouted with excitement. "Those other guns are built to have their bullets DRILL into you. Plain and simple. But here's where the game changes up on you: the shotgun doesn't have all of that. So the range is reduced, there isn't really a spin to keep it aligned, BUT there is a lot of these little shrapnel pellets built into the ammo."

Odd way of putting it. "Twilight, do you remember how Pinkie's party cannon works?" I asked.

"Of course. Is it the same principal of how the items are unguided and everything inside goes everywhere when launched?"

Cliff pointed to her and nodded. "I like her, she smart as fuck. Basically, this is a shrunk-down cannon that you carry with you everywhere. And being that it's a cannon, it's going to pack a lot of punch to get it's load out. And that means that it is going to kick right back at you. So in reality, this thing shoots at whatever's in front of it, but at a wider range due to the unguided shrapnel being directed out of the barrel at such a high rate. It's going to spread out the further it goes. So as long as you within twenty-some-odd yards, this thing will be taking all sorts of avenues in order to put yo ass into the ground."

"The only severe disadvantage to one of these is that it's not very effective past a certain range for penetrating armor." I explained. "And due to the lack of mass, it's severely unlikely for something like this to penetrate plate armor as thick as the ones your guys are wearing. So you'd be fine if you were wearing some real armor, and not that light stuff the Equestrian Specialists wears. Because if you were wearing something like that, expect for a sizable chunk of your chest to be removed, and don't be too surprised if you can see light pass through."

"That's a scary thought." murmured Blueblood.

"Yeah, it is." Cliff agreed while he took the shells I was going to load into the shotgun earlier. After placing six in the magazine, he removed the safety and cocked the shotgun to load the chamber. As he placed on one of his earplugs, he pointed to the unscathed, unarmed mannequin. "Take this guy for example, he's not that far off from us. He's as close as I would need him to be for me to make an example out of him. So... SAFETY OFF!"

As everyone stood well behind the firing line, Cliff quickly placed the other plug into his ear. He raised the shotgun to his right shoulder and looked down the sights towards the unarmored mannequin. With a single trigger pull, he buried several small beads of buckshot into the chest of the mannequin. The mannequin tilted back as the impact forced it back an inch. Cliff fired another round at the unfortunate victim, causing for even more holes to be buried into it's chest and neck. Cliff continued to fire every round until there was nothing left but smoke coming from the ports. The barrel chugged out smoke as if it was a small chimney while Cliff blew at it.

Twilight teleported the mannequin over, only to gag at the carnage. "Augh! That's bad."

Rickey continued to look downrange as he noticed that there was an armored mannequin sitting next to it. As he squinted, he tried to see if there was any damage to it as well. "Hey Twilight, can you zap that one over here too?"

"But Cliff wasn't aiming for it. He couldn't have hit that one."

"Yeah he did."

While everyone else was inspecting the mannequin with a massive crater in it's chest, Twilight proceeded to transfer the last armored mannequin over. When she got it over, she could immediately see the small scrapes and entry wounds on it's face. "Oh my gosh. He got him."

"What, no way!" Shining hollered as he galloped over to see the indentures in the mannequin's face where the armor didn't protect him.

Cadance came over to inspect the wounds of this mannequin while she and the others had already specified that the first was definitely a kill. "Okay, so this one pretty much got a few lacerations. This one at the eye socket, that would cause blindness. This one that went into the cheek, that would be a wound he'll recover from. This one a the front his neck is a straight shot to the carotid artery, it'll be slow but he'll bleed to death in a minute or two. So, yeah, this guy is a kill too."

"Oh, well that's moderately haunting." Luna whispered to her older sister, who only looked on with stunned silence.

"Yeah, so this goes without saying that this will bring it to your front door." Cliff boasted. "Don't even try to get in front of something like this unless you want to die."

As Cliff placed the gun back on the table, I went to the very end of the table and picked up the largest one laying against the side. "Twilight, can you move that last armored guy on across the lake below that mountain?"

"WHAT!?" She screamed loudly. "Are you crazy? That's way too far for even my magic to hit it! You'd be insane to try and put something so out of range. You're talking about at least eight hundred yards!"

I lifted up the Barrett and started looking through the scope. "Exactly."

Immediately, Cadance started bouncing up and down with glee as she ran towards me. "IT'S ABOUT TIME! SHOW ME WHAT THAT THING CAN DO!"

She shouted that so loudly, her voice came with a force that caused wind to blow my hair back. And for a spit second, I could have sworn I heard a loud rumbling noise while I was nearly blown off my feet. Her voice echoed throughout the area, even reaching as far as the mountains in front of us and bouncing back. Everyone continued to stare at her while I cringed at the present ringing in my ears. Both Shining and Twilight facehoofed while Blueblood and Luna shook their heads. Celestia was just as surprised as I was. Cliff and Rickey were staring with their jaws ajar.

She whispered with a growing blush. "Heh heh... *ahem* ...sorry about that minor outburst. You may continue when ready."

I gave myself a few seconds to rub my ears and get the ringing to stop before carrying on. "Yeah, please let me know when you decide to go caps-lock on me again. I have a feeling that I should have to be prepared for next time."

"Try dealing with that all honeymoon." Shining mumbled to Blueblood, earning him a laugh from not only the blond prince, but also Cliff and Rickey.

"I was doing that to you because you never lasted more than two minutes." Cadance shot back, causing me to walk off for a bit.

Damn, Cadie. I didn't know you were gonna be hosting a burn clinic. Ouch.

Meanwhile, Cliff started singing while laughing. ♪"Take me to the King. I don't have much to bring."♫

"Shut up, Cliff!" I screamed while I was trying to recover from my own laughter.

Luna failed to withhold herself as she exploded in raucous laughter. Celestia groaned with disappointment, all while trying to hide her smile. Twilight was too busy turning red from the embarrassment of hearing about her brother's marital performance issues. In turn, she grabbed the mannequin and quietly disappeared to the other side of the lake.

Blueblood snickered while holding on to the bemused stallion. "You know, there are ways to get around tha-"

Shining quietly picked up a handgun and pointed it towards Blueblood. "Do you really wanna keep speaking?"

Blueblood quickly learned how to silence himself as he backed away. "Oh no, I'm fine."

As soon as Twilight popped back up, she made it quite clear that she was finished with her task. "Okay, the mannequin's across the lake. Now please load that thing and fire it before I get anymore embarrassed! And Shining Francine Armor Sparkle, put that thing down!"

With his head hung in shame, Shining returned the gun back to the table while I was snickering away to retrieve the clip. "Heh, Francine."

Loading the clip into the sniper rifle, I began to feel just as excited as Cadance. This was going to be my first time shooting something like this. After plugging my ears, I began to look through the scope, trying my best to see where Twilight had placed the mannequin. After a minute of searching, I had finally found where Twilight had placed the armored mannequin. However the sights were a bit fuzzy, I couldn't make much out except for the golden armor standing out against the much green and gray canvas behind it. After adjusting the zoom a bit, I had gotten a clearer view of the target. But it seemed like there was much more to it. As I was breathing, my sights continued to move. I held my breath and concentrated on the chestplate. Without hesitation, I tensed my finger around the trigger and squeezed.

*BAAAANNNGGG!*

A miniature shockwave left the barrel as the bullet escaped from it. A small plume of smoke exited from several directions at the end of the muzzle. Behind me, everyone screamed with the exception of Rickey. As I had continued to look through the sights, I saw something that didn't exactly line up correctly. While I had aimed for the chestplate, I ended up landing my shot directly at the neck, completely decapitating the mannequin. Now I understand that these mannequins aren't the best representative for bodies being that they're so brittle, but this still provide some context as to what the results would be, especially considering that ponies were smaller than humans.

And even with that context, this will still take someone's head off.

"Holy shit... that was not supposed to go there." I whispered as I watched the headless victim fall back onto the ground. I got out of the scope and looked to it's side, noticing another knob that had an incline symbol on it. I think I might have gotten the elevation of the sights a little too low, thus causing me to aim for the neck rather than the chest. Either way, there wasn't much of the mannequin's head left, so it was a confirmed kill.

Note to self: Sniper rifles are a little more complex than the others in the marksmanship department.

"That thing is LOUD." Twilight whispered to her older brother.

"It almost sounded like a lightening bolt struck just five yards away. I couldn't tell the difference." Shining responded.

"Yeah but here's the difference," Rickey began. "Lightening has a few signs in telling you that it's gonna strike, this does not. You can see and hear a lightening storm when it approaches. The sniper rifle is a totally different story. If you hear it once, there might be a good chance that either you or one of your guys would be on the receiving end of that monster slug. And if you think the shotgun or the assault rifle was scary, then you don't know what it's like being on the other side of that lake, desperately trying to find out what's plucking your guys off. And while you're trying to find us, we know where you are, we can see you pissing your pants, we can continue to knock each and every one of you off from this distance while you're too busy trying to take cover behind a crate or a thin concrete wall. We'll still find you, and pick you off through that wall. And the worst of it all is this: it can go a lot further than eight hundred yards."

"How far can it go?" Cadance questioned.

"Do you want maximum effective range or just the range where you can see someone?"

"Just lay it all out there." Shining said while looking at the other side of the lake.

Rickey looked to Cliff, who was scratching his dreads. "You want this one?"

"Sure." Cliff shrugged as he provided the answer. "If you want max, then you're looking at approximately 1,969 yards, or roughly one-point-twelve miles."

"I-I'm so terribly sorry, w-what was that number again?" Celestia inquired, still in disbelief of the range. To be honest, I even thought that number was a total ass-pull.

"Eighteen-hundred meters in metric measurements. One-point-eight kilometers. Almost six-thousand feet in standard measurement."

"Cliff, I think they understand." I said while gawking at the numbers and thinking just how far I could fire this thing. I could be in a tree somewhere almost a mile off and picking off changelings like it's nothing. And just thinking about being on the receiving end of this already makes me want to curl up into a ball. I guess my research on this gun was very much insignificant. Still in a state of disbelief, I looked through the scope and looked at the 'dead' soldier. "There's no fucking way."

Suddenly, I heard a quick clopping sound directly behind me, almost as someone was getting closer. "Did you hit it?" Cadance asked while looking over my shoulder.

"I missed what I was aiming for." I answered softly. "But I hit him alright."

"What were you aiming for?"

"Dead center in the chest."

"Well what did you hit?"

"You wanna zap it over here and find out? It's not exactly for the faint of heart."

"Give me a second." Cadance said as she opened her wings and darted across to the mannequin. As she did, I turned the safety on and continued to look through the sights, looking for her reaction. The moment she landed, it appeared she gasped and continued to look further back. For a second she walked away from the mannequin and stood silently staring at something even further behind it. After a minute or two, she grabbed the remnants of the mannequin and flew it back over. As she landed, she stared blankly at the sniper rifle, not with a smile or a frown, but with a sort of absence.

"Honey." Shining said as he approached his wife. "Are you okay?"

As she stepped aside, she revealed the decapitated mannequin, causing everyone else to gasp loudly. Cadance didn't even look to her husband as she continued to stare at the sniper rifle. "Sweetie... I don't ever want you to find yourself in the line of this thing, okay?"

Shining gulped as he approached the macabre sight, seeing that the head was clearly blown off from the neck. "Noted."

Twilight proceeded to observe the wound while Blueblood stood even further away from it. The purple princess looked back at me with a mortified expression. "The moment it hit..."

Luna walked up to the weapon and spoke. "This thing, this is a harbinger of one's demise. It is a cruel way of ending one's life."

"That is the psychological edge this thing has." Rickey explained. "It doesn't intend for you to be honorable, it intends for you to eliminate your target no matter the distance. You could be thirty yards away or even a full mile, it sends you to a permanent sleep. If one is really precise, it could blow off some of your limbs. This was built for nothing but intimidation, that and the complete decimation of one's forces, with surgical precision."

Celestia took a deep breath as she slowly turned to me. "I see that you have made your point apparently clear, sir captain. These weapons are most impressive, and quite intimidating."

"Intimidating is scratching the surface." Spoke a still-shocked Cadance. "That thing just took the guys head off and kept going, heaving up dirt and breaking rocks along the way. Granted, the ammo didn't survive." She then pulled out the round I had shot and placed it on the table. The whole group wrapped around to see the cracked copper bullet warped out of it's original shape.

"So is it safe to say that the changelings don't stand a prayer?" Blueblood mused.

"These things are really going to provide us with an unfair advantage. I'd say we take that chance." Shining stated.

"Is there any intention to distribute?" Cadance asked.

I shook my head. "No, I plan on keeping these to myself. These are human weapons, built by humans for human warfare. I don't intend to let the politicians here get any ideas, hence why I've vouched against having any media or press."

"That doesn't mean that they've stopped following." Cliff pointed out. "Just think of the paparazzi, they don't care about your personal dilemmas or your privacy. They just want that inside scoop for that quick money."

"Hence why we're on private property." Twilight argued. "If there isn't an open media day on the farm, then nopony would be willing to get sued or charged."

"Doesn't stop the fact that our little demonstration hasn't gotten any attention on it's own." Rick added. "Both Cliff and I are still going to have to hide our asses on the way out."

"We'll take care of the both of you once we get back to the barn." Shining suggested. "From then on, we carry out the equipment from there."

Twilight tapped me on the back of the leg to get my attention. As I turned to her, she motioned for me to lean downwards. When I did, she responded by climbing on my back and whispering in my ear. "I had to stay up from three in the morning to now just to get you connected with your friends, I helped carry your stuff, I also cast an invisibility spell lasting for well over an hour, I even kept teleporting things from one side of the farm to the other. Could you do me a little favor instead?"

"Carry you?" I deadpanned.

"I'll love you forever." She whispered as she slumped over on me, causing me to take on all of her weight.

I rolled my eyes and stood on my own feet while she continued to anchor herself onto my shoulders. "You're such a massive guilt trip."

"I know."

"And a big baby."

"Shut it."

After cleaning up our mess and getting everything back on the wagon, Shining had took on the task of pulling the wagon full of weapons towards the castle. On the way towards the barn, Cliff and Rickey continued to speak with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, answering many of the questions that I couldn't really answer. It's not that I didn't have the answer to them, but it was more of me being preoccupied with something else.

*SNOOOOOOORE*

Yup, right in the ear.

While I continued to hang on to the exhausted princess, I could hear a multitude of conversations taking place behind me. Some were asking questions about humans in general, others were about the weapons. But there was one conversation that stood out above the rest, with was the one taking place directly behind me.

"Don't they look made for each other? I can't wait till they finally jump the broom. I can already see us planning everything for the wedding, just like Twilight did for us."

"Meh, let them do what they want." Shining Armor took notice of me carrying his little sister and looked away, gaining attention from Cadance.

"Aww, you're jealous."

"Nothing is more annoying than a public display of affection." He answered callously.

"You're one to talk, Mi Amore Shining Armour."

"How many times have I told you not to call me that?" He said before his wife nuzzled him.

"And you'll keep telling me that until you draw your last breath. I don't wanna stop hearing you complain." She answered playfully.

"Sweetie, we're in front of the others."

"Dearest, I don't give a damn."

With a bit of reluctance, Shining mumbled to his wife. "As much as I don't wanna admit it, my role as her Big Brother Best Friend Forever, is coming to an end. She's growing past me now, she's even a little taller than me too. But seeing her on him like she used to ride on my back, it kinda changes things, you know."

"Perspective, perhaps?"

"Yeah. I can't ever hope to pick her up as high as he can. I can only hope that she stays up there, and enjoy the ride."

"No matter how long or short it may be." Cadance whispered to herself.

"Say what?"

"I'll love you for showing me things that I couldn't see." She lied to cover her tracks.

Cadance may have fooled Shining with her cover, but I did manage to catch it just fine. It seems that she's also facing the reality that she and I could possibly go separate ways one way or another. Meanwhile, Twilight was snoring the day away while she peacefully bobbed and bounced on my shoulders.

But there was something else that I was overhearing. It was a conversation amongst individuals, but it came directly ahead. And from the tone of their voices, it sounded as if there was a massive argument between Applejack and someone else. All I knew was that it didn't sound good at all. I guess she was having a debate with her brother about something.

As we all pulled over the hill, we could see Applejack exchanging heated words with an unfamiliar stallion. He had a tan coat with a black mane and what appeared to be money bags for a cutie mark. I didn't exactly know who he was, but they were sure fussing over something big. But what also grabbed my attention was a third voice.

"Ah keep tellin' it like it is! Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo an' Ah didn't go very far in the Everfree forest! We just turned back around because Sweetie Belle wouldn't stop complainin' about how dangerous it was n'all!"

This already sounds ugly.

"But Silver Spoon said that she and Diamond Tiara had followed you three into the forest. In fact, she even said that she ran into the three of you!"

"We didn't even know she was followin' us! How could we run into her if we didn't even see her!?"

"Well perhaps you didn't notice!"

"Hey now," Applejack interjected angrily. "Now mah little sister went into the forest and came back safe and sound. Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom are here an' accounted for. Ah can understand that Apple Bloom did somethin' she shouldn't have, but what Ah don't appreciate is you comin' over an thinkin' y'all can just force her into a confession! Ah don't take too kindly to that!"

"I-I apologize. I didn't mean any harm or ill-intent. I'm just looking for whatever information you may have." The stallion said as he backed away. After a moment to gather himself, he continued with his plea. "Well if that's the case, then can you... I don't know, make a notification of some sort? Perhaps a message on each bag of apples, that could work. My daughters face could be on the front-"

"Now hold on a minute, ain't she yer responsibility?"

"She was under the watch of her butler! He's the one responsible in this situation!"

I tapped Twilight on the side of the leg, asking her to wake up for a bit before I placed her back on the ground. Groggily, she yawned and stretched. "Nnnngh.... wha-what's going on?"

"I gotta take care of some business. Sit here and wait, okay?"

As I walked towards the group of ponies, Applejack continued to argue with the stallion. "Ah can do ya this much: Ah'll make an announcement to mah friends, we'll try to look into it, we'll do what we can to get her back. You can do your part an' alert the authorities an' gatherin' all yer sources. Ah'm even sure we'll probably find her and have her back by either late tonight or sometime tomorrow-"

"But I can't! I have to take a train to Seaddle in an hour for a corporate meeting tomorrow with my smaller branch heads. If I miss it, then the future of my company could be in ruins! Doh... could I possibly trust you-"

...He just... yeah... He said it. "Excuse me, but can I interject for a bit?"

Both Applejack and the stallion turned to see me. The tan pony galloped over to me and breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, sir captain! Thank Celestia you're here. Listen, my little-"

"Pause for a second." I said while holding his muzzle shut with my hand, taking a page from Pinkie and Applejack's book. "Now when I let go, I want you to tell me your name, then I want you to explain to me what's going on here. Got it?"

He nodded his head quickly. After I let go of his muzzle, he proceeded to give me his name and an outline of the situation.

"I'm Filthy Rich, founder and CEO of Barnyard Bargains." He said extending his hoof for me to shake, which I declined for personal reasons. "Well pleasantries aside, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon wanted to follow Apple Bloom and her friends into the Everfree forest-"

I looked back to the young filly with a serious look. "Even though I placed out a travel advisory over three days ago in regarding to that forest, you went?"

"Um... y-yessir." Apple Bloom answered with a remorseful tone. "A-Ah thought we could go visit Zecora and see about gettin' our cutie marks in crafting shaman masks."

I looked to Applejack and gave her a quick warning. "I'm glad she's safe, but the next time this happens, I'm gonna have to hold you responsible, okay? Their clubhouse is on your grounds and that would make you the primary individual I'd have to question. Please be careful next time."

"Ah understand." The orange mare answered just before giving her younger sister an unforgiving look, causing the young filly to back up onto her haunches. I then turned my attention back to the stallion.

"Now back to you. Continue with the story."

"Yes, well... I had to handle a meeting with Mayor Mare and a few of my other associates today in Town Hall, so I left my daughter in the care of her butler. But when I had gotten out, suddenly Silver Spoon's parents come to notify me that Diamond Tiara and her butler had went missing."

"Where is the butler?"

"That's just it, I don't know where he is or Diamond Tiara for that matter. The last time Silver Spoon saw them was when Diamond had sprained her foreleg in the forest. She had told Silver to keep running for the town. That was the last time they were seen."

"So when was this 'supposed contact' made between Diamond Tiara and the group of girls she was following?"

"From what Silver had told me, it was after she fell off a ledge and sprained her ankle. The path was just below them. While peering over, she slipped on something and fell down."

"Well, now that ya mention it, we heard somethin rustle in the bushes ahead, so we kinda ran back into town cus we were a bit scared n'all. We thought we were gonna run into a manticore or somethin." Apple Bloom quietly interjected.

That explains the instance of 'contact'. "Did anything else occur?"

"Well, Silver said that there was a noise coming from deep within the forest while Diamond told her to run away." Filthy answered.

That already sounds like bad news. "Did Silver Spoon see what it was that was coming after them?"

"No, she just kept running. But she did say that a local zebra came around and guided her back into town. She also said that she would go inside the forest again and search for Diamond Tiara on her own."

That must've been Zecora. I guess I'll have to keep an eye out for her too. "When did all of this occur?" I asked.

"Just after the rain cleared up."

Okay, so this pretty much just happened. "You said that this was going towards Zecora's place, right?" I asked Apple Bloom.

"Pretty much."

"That's also along the way to the Castle of the Two Sisters." Twilight said as she approached with the other royals and an undisguised Cliff and Rickey.

Filthy became distracted by the unusual crowd and bowed before the group. "My lordships! I'm so terribly sorry that you would have to catch us as such a moment."

Celestia seemed unnerved by the stallion bending down to kiss the bottom of her golden slippers while Luna looked on with what appeared to be disdain. Apple Bloom was also distracted, but for another reason. "A-a-a... Applejack! D-d... t... THERE ARE MORE HUMANS!"

Applejack turned around to see the two men wave back. "Rickey, Cliff? What in tarnation are y'all doin' on mah farm?"

"Wait, y'all me-" Apple Bloom didn't get a chance to finish as her older sister answered her.

"Yes, we met yesterday! But that still doesn't explain how y'all got on mah farm without me givin' ya a tour of the orchard first. Feels a might-bit embarrassin'."

"We were with Nondis and Twilight on the way in. You might've missed us coming by, we were on the cart." Rickey answered.

"Guys, focus." I stated as I turned my attention to Filthy once more. "Okay, so this Diamond Tiara, what does she look like?"

Applejack took out a piece of paper with the filly's portrait on it. "Here's how she looks if ya need a reference."

After looking at the pony in the picture, my mind was brought back to an event that took place several months back. I had seen this little filly before, more specifically, I had told her off at one given time. She kept bullying Sweetie Belle after she had finished singing. Oh I remember her, too well. "So what is this young lady to you?"

"She's my sweet little daughter."

I balled up the paper and threw it back at him, finally letting my anger get the better of me. "EXCUSE ME!? She's your FUCKING DAUGHTER!?"

"Nondis-" Applejack scolded.

"Correct me later, please. I need to tear into his ass real quick." I said while stepping towards the tan stallion. "So let me recall something that you had said just a moment ago. You wouldn't take the time to look for this girl because you have to take a train to some other place, for a business meeting?"

"I have to! Butlers aren't exactly cheap, you know! And I have to do whatever I can to keep saving up for my daughter's schooling, as well as her toys for the next month, her allowance, her trips to other cities and-"

"Look, I can understand you wanting to give the world to your daughter, but how the hell do you intend to do so when that very same daughter goes missing? That is YOUR FUCKING RESPONSIBILITY and NO ONE ELSE'S!!!"

"I'm sorry. That's why I left her in the care of her butler!"

"Okay then, riddle me this. What time was your business meeting and about what time did you get out?" I asked.

"I got out of it when it was still raining. But in between that and Silver Spoon's parents telling me what had happened, I had... um... went for a daily outing at the spa with a client." He answered nervously.

"The spa, in the rain?" I gritted my teeth as I flexed my fingers, balling them up into a fist. "So you didn't tell your butler about the travel advisory going around in regards to Everfree Forest? I SENT THAT SHIT OUT THREE DAYS AGO!"

At this point, he began to sweat bullets. "Well, my butler Randolph usually grabs my papers in the morning and send them my way. I read something about a travel advisory, but I paid it no mind. I never thought that it was that important-"

You dense motherfucker. "Yet you can spend your time in the spa with 'clients'... When I find this girl and bring her back, you're going to hug her, I'm going to punch you in the face, and you're going to spend the rest of the day with her, capisce?"

"But I-"

"My job is to make sure that every one of you are safe. It's bad enough we already have changelings at the castle ruins over there. You do not need to be feeding them your butler OR YOUR OWN GODDAMN DAUGHTER!"

"Sensitive information, Nondis." Twilight whispered to me out the side of her muzzle.

"He has a right to know. If something happens to his daughter, he'll know upfront what's gonna happen." I answered back while turning my attention to the stallion. "So in short, your daughter will be drained dry by the crew that gets her, whisked away to the changeling army, milked damn-near to death, sent to the main hive, and milked again for every last ounce of her life force. Let me be blunt: SHE. WILL. DIE. And the butler's an added bonus."

As I explained everything to him, I could see the color leaving his face. Applejack only clenched her younger sister in response to what was said. Cliff and Rickey stood silent, unsure of what to say or do.

I quietly whispered into his ear as a means to send my point across home plate. "So yeah, that train ride seems mighty important right now, doesn't it? Money can't buy your daughter's life back, but hey I'm sure it can buy you all the 'clients' you want. Does make a lot of sense when you think about it. I mean, what's the loss of one life that just so happens to be of your own blood? Or better yet, what do you buy when the one thing you buy for no longer exists? It's kinda like buying that golden brush for your daughter that just so happens to be resting in an open casket in front of you... and her grieving mother."

He grabbed my arm and pleaded on his hind legs. His voice trembled as he spoke. "I-I'll cancel the train, the trip, I don't care! JUST GIVE ME BACK MY DAUGHTER! Please, I'll do anything. I'll give you whatever you want."

"I want you and I to have a long talk when I get back. Success or failure, we will have a chat."

While I stormed off, I made my way back into the wagon. Twilight gave chase, whispering to me with concern. "Don't you think you were a little too harsh? And that's just putting it lightly."

"True, I was a bit brutal back there. But in my world, we call it 'scaring them straight'. Give them a reality check and provide them with the worst-case scenario. They'll change their minds eventually, whether the guilt and pressure eats away at them within the hour or in a few minutes. It'll sink in, and they will change for the better."

"Filthy has always cared for Diamond Tiara. He's just been so busy with everything that he-"

"Hires a butler to stand in his place? I can understand him wanting to spoil his daughter with riches, but that's not the way to go about it. You don't just place your responsibilities on someone else because you're too busy making money. You learn how to balance the two, especially if you own your own company. Now where is that damn gun?"

Rickey and Cliff walked up beside me as I began to open the blue bin to pull back out the M16. While I started to rummage through everything, Cliff watched me with skepticism. "I thought this was supposed to be top-secret." Cliff noted.

"There are times where your own principles have to take a back seat to the situation at hand. I say a lot of shit, and if the time calls for it, then I will go against what I'll personally believe if it ensures the safety of each and every citizen of this world. And considering my position, I'd have to do a lot of things I wouldn't like doing. It comes with the job."

"So what? You're just gonna go in and start shooting up the place?" Rickey asked.

"They fight with spears, fangs, and magic. I'm armed with shit that could decimate a small army. So yes I'm going in."

While I continued to sift through the bin, I heard Cadance and Shining come up from behind. "Well?" She began.

"Well, what?" Shining asked.

"Say something. You know that going alone is too dangerous, even for him."

"Cadie, he's proven that he has the weapons to outmatch whatever's thrown at him. Have a little bit of trust, will you?"

"That ain't everything though." Rickey said to Shining as he walked up to me. "Yo D, let's go through all this shit when we get back to the castle."

"Why then?" I asked while holding on to the rediscovered M16.

"Because those pink bins has a lot more of what you could use. 'Stuff that goes pop' remember?" He answered with a devious smirk.

I paused for a moment and slowly placed the rifle back into the bin. "Explosives? You packed explosives?"

"Flash grenades, stuns, smokes, nines, you name it, it's in there. I'm saying load up before you start going Rambo against a bunch of these 'changeling' guys."

I placed the lid back on the container and got off the back of the wagon. As I faced Rickey I couldn't help but to feel appreciative for everything he's done. I started to smile, and then I began to chuckle. After a few seconds, I began to laugh.

I fucking love this guy. "A semester's tuition to pay for the defense of an entire nation... worth every goddamn cent."

Author's Note

Okay, two things:
Research on weapons are a BITCH to study. I had to look up several videos on how each one of them performed, looked up the different kinds of ammo, the specs of the weapons (such as the range, attachments, customizations, etc.), the results that would occur if each weapon was to go against a sheet of metal, and a bunch of other stuff. But even with all of that info, I didn't think that the ponies would need to know the specifics to each and every weapon for now, being that they don't develop them.

The situation with Diamond Tiara has been kinda hinted at from Chapter 9. As indicated, she has had some problems at home and Silver Spoon has made it apparent that it was an ongoing issue (thus the primary reason why Diamond started crying after Nondis chewed her out).

Also, you've all noticed that Nondis' outlook on things isn't so optimistic anymore. That's only because of the many things that has transpired in the matter of a week has kinda wore him down a bit. Of course, this will lead to future problems.
SPOILER ALERT: So be prepared for when he experiences a paradigm shift due to an event or two.

And alas, the changelings will be addressed to in the next chapter (obviously). What all happens next? Find out in the next chapter. And yes, I'm spoiling this one. It will be a little darker than the previous chapters.

Chapter XLII

Author's Note: Writer's block edition!
hooray.wav

Two. Nine. Six.

That number has been reported to me as of two days ago. And with each passing moment I ponder on the who, what, when, where, why, and how of things, that number continues to rise. It's not a number to be taken lightly. If anything, this number has been etched into my brain for the past two days, depriving me of sleep, spoiling my appetite, and ceaselessly whispering into my ear about how it wants to get bigger, how it's going to get bigger, and how I can do nothing to stop it.

As for what that number is exactly, it's merely the reflection of how many have been reported missing: two-hundred ninety-six.

So while I was making my preparations, giving demonstrations, dealing with relationship issues, et cetera, that number has done nothing but grow. At this point, I'm more than certain that the number has climbed well above three-hundred. A fault that falls on me now that I have been placed in charge of a nation's security. No excuses, no bullshit.

And there was nothing that I could do to stop it... until now.

At my disposal, I have some of the best weapons ever made, each with their own legacy and mark written across history. They may not be those enchanted weapons of legend, but they can slay just as many with little to no effort. Mankind's pride and joy, pain and sorrow, our blood and nightmares have been grafted into these weapons, our seething words injected into each bullet. Our hatred and our desires form the trigger, and just one squeeze could incur the wrath of mankind being funneled into an object the size of a pebble.

Yet the enemy would only have so many resources at their disposal. In large numbers they can overwhelm the ponies that they war against. They outnumber, use their abilities to con their enemies, they infiltrate and destroy infrastructures from the inside out. But what do they have to defend against a species who's history has been forged in nothing but the flames of war, whose weapons have cut deep, whose past sins have been far too terrible to imagine.

In this land, there are rules of engagement. You meet with your opposition center-field, each offers their terms, if they should agree then both parties walk away (with one side losing of course), otherwise they travel back to their respective armies and command from a distance. There are few rules in this case. There is only one basic principle: Search and Rescue. As far as details are concerned, eliminate all opposition to our objective. Save little-Miss-Madame-Deficit and her butler. Rescue who we can, and get some details on the enemy's layout.

Operation: QueenSave is now in effect.

Inside of the Main Lobby...

Cadance patiently waited beside the front entrance while a orange pegasus stallion clad in golden armor descended from the sky. As he landed, he panted heavily as the pink princess walked over to him. He looked up to her for one brief second and bowed before her. She bowed back in gratitude as the stallion continued to struggle for air.

"Your highness..." He tried to say without pause. "I came as quick as I could... You summoned?"

"Flash, thank you for coming through for me. Though you could've gotten a chariot."

The guard shook his head. "No thanks... I can manage... I've got my wings and I can fly pretty fast... It was just a quick flight."

"All the way from Canterlot?" She mused.

"Your highness," He began to recover from his fatigue and proceeded to speak normally. "Is there a problem?"

"Not really. But it's just that Shining is going to go on a little scouting trip through the Everfree Forest. And with the travel advisory in place-"

"You'd want me to accompany him for his security." Flash finished.

The pink princess pointed her hoof to the inside of the castle as she held the door ajar. "Please."

Flash and Cadance entered into the lobby as she started to walk down the hall towards the library. "I take it that you still don't trust him going alone on scouting missions?"

"Not since that one time where he was deployed to the outskirts of Griffonstone. Shining hasn't exactly been alcohol-free since then."

"Isn't that the one where he almost died?"

"No, Zebrabwe is where he almost died. It was during a hostility between the local tribes. I was with him on that one." Cadance answered quietly, thinking about how she had to constantly tend for her former boyfriend and current husband. "And that one happened much further down the line from the Griffonstone incident."

"I know where that's going. I've heard the stories, and I pity the survivors."

"Thus you will be going with him for his safety. After you get into the forest, you'll be updated on your objectives."

Flash hummed to himself as he questioned the princess. "So is there any further information on this objective?"

"I can't tell you everything. Classified information by order of both Captain Nondis and Prince Shining Armor. You'll just have to escort him along the way. I would feel so much better if you were to guide him along so that he doesn't go running into changelings on his own."

Flash nodded proudly. "Your highness, this is one task I will not fail."

Cadance smiled at the guard as she opened the door to the library. "Thank you. Now about the terms of confidentiality. You two will also be carrying a wagon full of precious cargo. This package that's being delivered is something that should not be revealed to anypony outside of Nondis and Shining Armor. So if any guards asks for your clearance, regardless of rank, you are to tell them that it's Classified: SECRET."

"That important, huh?" Flash questioned.

"Nondis made it very clear that news of this would cause quite a ruckus that could ultimately compromise the operation. This is why there are few granted clearance for this mission."

"Got it."

"And also, I would like to have you know that anything you see is to be kept classified. No excuses."

"Yes, your highness." The stallion answered.

Cadance closed the door behind the stallion as he entered into the library, looking down the hall, she made sure that there were no others that followed her. After confirming, she quietly closed the door and continued to debrief Flash on his mission.

"Alright," Cadance began. "This is the whole scheme of it..."

Meanwhile in the Portal Room...

"Move quickly, act as silently as possible, and let's get this finished before dusk. Celestia is giving us two hours of extra light before the sun starts to set. Everfree Forest isn't too kind to nightly travelers, so we'll be moving quickly."

While we were sorting through the equipment, every royal with the exception of Shining watched from a distance. Rickey was busy loading the components to the flash grenades. Cliff was also at work, installing the grenade launchers for the tear gas we were going to use. Meanwhile, I was taking inventory of what we would be needing along the way. Twilight had already given me an earful of complaints about how she didn't want too much damage inflicted upon the castle ruins, as the place was a crumbling mess already. So there wasn't any room for lethal explosives, but it did leave us enough room for an array of diversionary devices.

It was also to my advantage that Cliff and Rickey asked to come along. At first I had reservations of getting them involved, being that I couldn't afford for them to get hurt. But considering that I had about forty minutes of travel time on each trip as well as several changelings to plow through, it would provide me with a major tactical advantage if there were three humans rather than one using firearms. Easier to cover each other as well. Shining wasn't having any of the 'you're a prince so you can't go' talk either. Whether or not the parliament objected to it, he was adamant on leaving with us to provide magical support. And in turn, his bodyguard Flash Sentry would have to accompany by orders of Princess Cadance.

To state the obvious, Flash is currently being briefed on his assignments while the preparations between the rest of us are made.

So we're working with a five-member squad with three wildcards. Rickey, Cliff, and I will be armed with M16's with grenade launchers, three magazines per user, two tear gas grenades and three flashes per person, suppressed MP9's for both Cliff and Rickey, one suppressed Beretta 92fs and a sword for me. We're all packing three magazines per person in our secondaries, each filled with subsonic ammunition. Shining and Flash will be equipped with their usual arsenal consisting of swords, while Shining would be equipped with the TAC-15 crossbow and a few smoke grenades.

You can bet your ass that Shining's looking forward to this.

Meanwhile, we've finished with the majority of our load-outs, our bodies became a bit heavier counting the additional forty-to-fifty pounds of equipment. By the time we fully loaded up, we were on our way to a large wooden wagon. Cliff, Rickey, and I laid flat on the wagon as Shining and Cadance covered us with a white tarp. We had to make a few holes in the tarp to see what was going on ahead. And while we waited, we also exchanged last-minute code phrases with Shining Armor.

Basically, it was an exchange that they would have in their conversations while the three of us were going to go along for the ride. Thankfully, we were to be covered long before Twilight gave Cadance the go-ahead to have Flash rendezvous with us just outside of the castle.

I can only hope that Flash is somewhat level-headed so that he won't freak when he sees two other humans.

The sky was beginning to turn a bright gold while the sun sat tiresomely in the twilight. Though my view was only limited to a small slit in the tarp that covered Rickey, Cliff, and I. It didn't take Shining and Flash very long to get to the boarders of Everfree Forest. Just outside of the entrance was two armor-clad guards that stood guard. While they watched the two stallions approached, they met with them halfway.

"Good evening, gentlecolts." One of the guards saluted.

"Same to you, boys." Shining replied. "Whatcha got going on here?"

"There's been a foal reported missing just earlier today. Also, she was with a butler who appeared quite elderly. Unfortunately, we're expanding our resources within the forest to find the young filly and the butler, and to no avail as of yet."

"Have you found any clues?" Flash questioned.

"Not much, but it seems that there is an unusually high sighting of changelings within the forest. We believe that they are stragglers who had deserted since the battle for Ponyville a week back. Our boys are too few in number to deal with so many changeling sightings."

Little do they know that those guys aren't stragglers. Shining nodded quietly after acknowledging the information obtained. "So how do you intend to go about encountering these changelings 'stragglers?' Is there some method of engagement?"

"We've been advised to avoid the areas with the heaviest concentrations, as they seem rather... aggressive."

"Aggressive?" Flash inquired.

"As in they don't seem to mind taking our guards on one-on-one. It could be said that they have been feasting on unwary travelers. So I'm afraid that I'm going to have to ask you to take your leave, sir prince." The guard said to Shining.

Shining smirked as he walked up to the guard. "Actually, I'm here for a nice stroll through the forest. I can handle my own as well as weak-kneed Flash here."

As the alabaster prince grabbed the pegasus beside him, Flash's cheeks began to turn pink from embarrassment. "Sir, I can fight too."

"And besides..." Shining continued. "This wagon here is full of cargo that needs shipment."

"What's the cargo?" The guard questioned.

"Classified." Flash quickly answered.

The guard rolled his eyes as he knew that hearing that meant that he could no longer delve into the matter any further. I suppose that he was just being a bit nosy, as many of the guards tend to be at times... speaking from personal experience. With a nod, Shining and Flash were given permission to move forward.

Meanwhile in the back of the cart, the three of us humans were lying quietly, waiting for the moment to pop up from this tarp over our heads. Thankfully, we wouldn't have to do so for the first ten minutes of the journey. Cliff quietly voiced a complaint about how the wagon ride was a bit bumpy and caused him to bump his head against the bedding. Rickey was too busy trying to hold on to whatever so he wouldn't move around as much. And due to the not-so-forgiving terrain that the forest path provided, going slower than our established pace wasn't going to make things any easier. We were already on a strict time limit.

For many of the times I was caught up with the pointless banter of Shining and Flash, I managed to quietly inform Cliff and Rickey of what I was looking out for and how to tell which was friend or foe. And being that these changelings would be willing to disguise themselves as anyone, including guards, I would have to give them hints and tips on how changelings would act around unsuspecting prey. I shared a bit of my knowledge with the other two while instructing them to keep quiet. Throughout that whole process, I'd have to say that Flash only looked back about once or twice to see if he wasn't hearing voices.

Honestly, I'm surprised he hasn't just popped the tarp off of this thing already.

"Halt!"

As we started to feel the wagon come to a stall, I looked ahead through one of the holes we carved in. Directly ahead of us were two guards dressed in armor, yet they resembled the two guards that we passed by almost twelve minutes back. Even on hoof, this wasn't any trek that they could manage to make without running past us and jumping ahead. And there was only one road that lead in this direction.

Those are definitely not our guys.

"Halt, in the name of Princess Celestia."

Shining and Flash stood for a moment. Already, Shining was pulling off the bits and bridles that kept the two affixed to the front of the wagon. Flash was the first to speak. "Sir, we're on a tight schedule. I'm afraid that we can't stop here."

"There's been a travel advisory, didn't you know that?" The faux guard questioned.

Flash pointed back to the wagon as he spoke. "You see this? This is classified stuff we're carrying in the name of Princess Celestia. You're going to have to step aside."

"And we're going to have to see some documentation." The other 'guard' stated as he held his hoof out.

Three mistakes here. The first was that they disguised themselves as the guards we passed on the way in. The second was the guards' insistence to know what was in this wagon, despite being told that this was classified transport. And the third is that the guards asked for documentation, not realizing that most paperwork that pertains to classified goods or operations would be withheld from transport for not only security reasons but confidentiality. These guys are a mess.

Rick tugged at my shirt lightly as he whispered. "Do we shoot?"

"No. Save your ammo. We got bigger things to run through later. Besides, the two stallions carting us around, they're top-notch."

"Are you sure-"

Before he could finish, we heard the sounds of grunts and silenced screeches. When we looked back ahead, the two guards changed back to their original forms as they drew their last breaths. Shining had plunged a sword into the first changeling's neck. Flash was quick to run his speak through the maw of the second. Both withdrew their weapons and the two changelings fell to the ground with a lifeless thud. They were quick to move the bodies out of the forest path before we moved on.

"Damn, those niggas on some Assassin's Creed-type shit." Cliff noted.

"I said they were top-notch." I commented before bracing myself for the wagon to start moving again.

Meanwhile, Shining and Flash continued to trot ahead. "Dammit, I didn't think they'd be this far out." Shining muttered.

"Maybe those were scouts?" Flash suggested.

"In that case, we need to get moving."

I agreed with Shining. The last thing we need to do is kill a few scouts and stay close-by. We don't even know what their patrol shifts were like. Either way, they wouldn't be too much of an issue.

We carried on, moving deeper into the forest to where the green canopy began to thicken and the light from the sun was all but snuffed. We were heading into the mass of the forest, where it could be assumed that Diamond Tiara could've disappeared from. For a minute, I could see form within the tarp a small ledge that overlooked the path. And along it's front was evidence that something had slid down from it, not to mention the few broken limbs that rested at the bottom.

...I just realized. If Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were following the girls into the forest, then how did they managed to get so far ahead of them? We took the straightest─and the only─path that would lead us through the forest. And judging from the damaged ledge and wet terrain, they had to have come around while it was raining, far earlier than what I had been told. This means that they weren't following the girls, but rather were exploring the forest on their own accord. They probably took notice of the CMC on the way back from the venture.

Something tells me that I'm going to get a better story out of Diamond than I would from Silver.

I wanted to investigate it a little more, but the drag marks that Shining and Flash were examining seemed to be a better pickup. Obviously, the trails varied in size, one was smaller than the wide trail beside it. That definitely means that they were dragged off, and that's not a good thing to start with.

"It looks like there were two dragged away from here. Travelers?" Flash inquired.

"More like a filly and her butler." Shining answered. "This matches up with the description."

"What description?"

"To quickly sum it up, we're out here trying to quietly rescue a foal and her butler. Any others we see would also be taken back, hence why we brought the wagon."

"But wouldn't we need reinforcements for this kind of thing?"

"No need, we got it already. We have to hurry."

Thankfully, Shining saw the importance of our timing and cut the viewing short. Both stallions went from a trot to a slow gallop, keeping in mind of the three passengers. Flash didn't like the pace they were going at and vied for the alabaster prince to hasten their pace. Shining refused to do so under the excuse that their galloping would give them away quicker, especially with cargo on hoof.

But just a minute or two down the line, we heard something that resembled... laughter. And it wasn't a pony's voice. Instead, it sounded crackly and very nasally. Those were definitely changelings ahead of us. Just before a turn in the path, we began to hear another voice separate from theirs.

"Ugh... leave... me be, I will not go through... with being dragged around... by the likes of you."

That accent, that rhyme scheme, that's Zecora they got a hold to.

"Ah, shut it! You clocked out seven of our fellow changelings! You don't get a say!"

"It is my right to voice my disdain... from me, how much do you plan to drain?"

"To our hearts' content."

As I heard those words, I began to feel anger welling up within me. I reached back for my MP9 and began to prepare myself from popping from out of this tarp. I looked back to both Cliff and Rickey while I turned off the safety. "Okay, we're boarding off early. Don't hit the zebra."

"Zebra?" The two questioned as they looked to one another.

"Yeah, the zebra's name is Zecora. Try not to hit her, but do aim for the other bastards you see." I whispered before pulling the tarp up a bit to reveal my face to the stallions up front. "Yo, Shining."

Flash looked back with surprise while the prince nodded. "Yeah, I know. Twily would not like it if she were to be taken in by those guys."

"What's our approach?" I questioned.

"First thing, how many is it over there?"

Flash quietly removed his bits and peeked around the corner. As he was counting, I quietly crept out the back of the wagon by slipping under the tarp. By the time I had finished getting out, Flash had finished counting and began to quietly creep back over to me. "About nine of them. We can't clear them all out at once, we'll have to abandon stealth if we do. Maybe we could just let them pass and lead us to where they've taken the filly and her butler?"

"We already know where they're headed." Shining stated. "The Castle of the Two Sisters is currently being used as their base of operations."

"It sounds like they've made it to where it's heavily fortified, considering their numbers."

"Not at all." Shining answered. "We'll be back home before dark."

It took me a minute, but I decided that it would be best to play as a distraction while causing a smaller squad detaching from the total group. Not only will it cut down on noise, it will give us a chance to rescue Zecora with less problems. I looked on the forest path and found a few rocks to throw that would cause them to follow the noise to us. Then, we'd finish them off once they get close enough.

"Shining, Flash, I need you two to get behind the wagon. After I lure a few of them back here, we'll pick them off quietly. Any stragglers would give us away so we need to drop them quickly. You two will be on body patrol."

Flash looked at me with uncertainty while Shining gave me the go-ahead.

"Okay boys, suppressed weapons only." I said to Cliff and Rick, who were still hiding under the tarp.

I walked off and quietly snuck around the corner. As they were still talking with Zecora, I threw one of the rocks into a nearby bush. About two of them slowly veered towards the bush. One of them suggested that it was a squirrel and advised that they'd get back to assisting with Zecora's apprehension. I decided to up the stakes by heavily rustling a nearby bush by hand. That time, I managed to get their attention. Four were then sent towards my direction, granting me the chance to fall back towards the wagon.

I leaned against the front end, appearing as if I was tired from travel. With one eye closed and the other partially open, I feigned sleep. It didn't take them long to discover me sitting there while 'exhausted'. They began to smirk and snicker amongst each other as they approached. One of them took the liberty of getting close to identify whether or not I was asleep. "This one's out cold. It looks like that creature that attacked us in Ponyville last week."

"It is." One of the other changelings verified. "It got hit by one of our magic bolts, got up, got angry, and it just grabbed a brick and started swinging at us."

"But that same brick-wielding creature did wipe the floor with Yadrogg's platoon." A third noted.

"Well if it's here, then we can get revenge for our fallen comrades. Commander Guto would love to see this one in a pod." The forth said with enthusiasm. "Bite him and lets drag this hairless ape into the castle."

You know for a scouting group, they sure do talk a lot. "Nnnngh..." I moaned, still feigning sleep. "Nnnnn... drop 'em."

"What?" The changeling closest to me asked before the tarp fell back to reveal two more humans. Within the fraction of a second, three of them fell dead to the ground while the one that looked at me turned around to see the others laying motionless. Before he could say anything, I pulled out my weapon and planted one in the back of his head.

As soon as he fell down, my ears caught a brief shriek coming from behind the wagon. When I turned back around, I saw Shining cuffing his muzzle shut. I looked back with frustration and shook my head while Shining shrugged. "I'm guessing he wasn't expecting this at all."

Shit... So much for stealth.

"Gee, you think?" Rickey mumbled as he facepalmed. "Whatever happened to that 'stealth option' you were talking about?"
Before I could answer, another two changelings began to run down the road. As soon as they turned the corner, Cliff and I picked them off quickly. The one I hit had gotten one to the ear and began to scream. I quickly put an end to it's screaming and unloaded a bullet into it's skull. The other three changelings came running down the road and started shouting their commands to one another. At this point, I had no other choice but to step out and eliminate all three.

It went without saying I was swearing up a storm in my brain.

After all nine were confirmed for dead, we made our way towards Zecora, who was holding the back of her neck. As she looked at me, I could see that she was in a large amount of pain. I knelt down and tended to her. "Sorry about the wait, did they do anything to you?"

Zecora woozily tried to sit up to face me. "One bit me, his venom in motion... But earlier I brewed a resistance potion... NGH!" She yelped out in pain as she held her neck. "A filly and her escort, did I see. But off were they carried, by a huge changeling."

"How big?" As Shining and the others approached, I asked Flash to administer medical aid.

"His size was great, the strength of four. It even rivaled that of a manticore."

"Well that sounds fun." Shining dryly responded. "But what are you doing way out here? Your hut's back in the shallows of the forest, isn't it?"

"Indeed it is, but I could not sit by. Watching them go while I not bat an eye." She winced from the pain in her neck once again before she continued. "Ahead is a fork, where we had our encounter. A wagon lies there, but what you'll see will be quite the downer. When I saw inside, my tears flowed like water..." Her tone shifted from her usual uplifting rhyme scheme to a more grave, straight-forward one. "They lead those ponies to an inevitable slaughter."

We all looked at each other as we continued to let the words from her mouth weigh heavy in our minds. Obviously what we were going to see was not pretty in the slightest. Our hearts sank into the pits of our stomachs, causing many of us to become somewhat nauseous. Cliff and Rickey were beginning to wander for a bit, contemplating whether they should go any further. I already had an answer for them.

"Rick, Cliff, you stick around Zecora and make sure that she stays safe."

They both sighed in relief as I turned my attention to the two stallions. "Shining, Flash, we'll scout ahead and find this wagon."

The two stallions gave a nod before making a cautious trot further down the road. Before I followed in their hoofsteps, Cliff stopped me to ask me a question. "Bruh, you sure you wanna do this? I mean those ponies could be... I... I don't wanna say it-"

"He thinks they could be already on their way out." Rickey finished. "Personally, I feel the same way from hearing 'Cora's testimony."

"I know." I answered anxiously. "But this is my job. This is my responsibility, and I have to face the music when I finish, no matter what the end result may be. If they're dead or dying, then I'll get them back so that their families will have a proper chance to say their goodbyes."

"That's a lot on the mind." Rickey whispered.

"Yeah, but it's even worse when all you can do is write fucking letters to families, telling them that they'll be having a vigil and an empty coffin to represent their son, or their daughter, or their mother, father, husband, wife, and so on. If I could bring bring back something, anything, then I will knock on Hell's door to get it. The only thing I can't guarantee at this point is lives. So let me bring them something they can mourn for."

Cliff shook his head while brushing his hand through his dreads. "I'ma say this, then I'ma shut the fuck up. You more a man than my ass. I can't do what you do, run around and kill shit, let the fam know that they lost someone, all that other bullshit. I couldn't play the role you got. I'll fuck up and get some nigga killed... and I wouldn't be able to take it."

"You think I don't make the same mistakes?" I asked bluntly. "I do. Often. I question why the hell I even got this job, and then I remember what I'm fighting for, what I'm trying to prevent. It's not a matter of what I do, but what I don't do. Doing absolutely nothing is the worst choice to make."

Rickey stepped beside Cliff, giving him a pat on the back. "Well, we already made our choice. We're already here... and we don't know the way back, so... yeah."

Cliff looked at the ground with shame as he clenched his fists. Rick continued to pat him on the back while I offered him some encouraging words. "You know, I don't know any guards that would say the same things you do. Hell, I'm under a microscope because I'm different. My superior officers look at me with skepticism, it just so happens that the ones that truly matter are rooting me on. But either way, I'm still new to this. I just got out of basic training not even three weeks ago."

"Captain Nondis!" Flash called from up ahead.

"You two stay here." I reiterated before leaving them both to guard over Zecora.

I quickly ran along the path and kept moving ahead until I could see both Flash and Shining standing at the back of a unusually large transport vehicle, shaped almost like a huge cage wrapped in a black shroud. When I had gotten closer, I smelled something horrendously foul. For a second, I stumbled because of it and cringed even more when I was next to it. I reached down to my neck and grabbed my shirt and placed it over my mouth and nose while clasping against it tightly. Approaching the back of the wagon, the look on Shining's face had already told me that I was not going to like what I was going to see.

Stepping up to the back of the wagon and moving the covering to the side, my eyes were met with a sight most unwelcoming.

"Dear Mother of God..." was all I could say.

There was little room to move, or rather none at all, so walking inside was out of the question. Almost to the height of the roof, several dozens of bodies were stacked up, chained together as I could hear the haunting sounds of those captured moaning, coughing, and wailing very weakly. All of them looked malnourished, their coats were paler and matted with clumps of unshaven fur. I could see entire skeletal structures underneath them, and their hooves were cracked and unclean. Quite a few looked to me with empty eyes, their light completely snuffed out. The sound of chains rattling filled my ears as many hooves slowly reached out to grasp at me. The nightmarish sight was enough to cause me to back away in fear, the hand clasped around my mouth trembled uncontrollably. But the one thing that shook me the most was that I watched as one pair of hooves just simply drop... lifelessly.

My stomach turned and urged me to run to a nearby bush. Leaning against one of the trees, I let myself expel whatever sickness was inside of me. For several seconds, I was left coughing and gagging, succumbing to my body's reaction to what I had saw. Flash walked up behind me and spoke. "You okay?"

I spat out whatever bile was left in my mouth and wiped myself. Standing back up, I faced him with a sickened expression. "Hmmn..." Words failed me at that moment and the only thing I could do was shake my head while I felt myself beginning to heave again.

I was not ready for today.

The past forty-five minutes was spent on waiting. Shining, Zecora, and Flash made their way towards the town with the transport Zecora stayed in town to help with the medical effort while being treated herself. Cliff and Rickey, who caught a whiff of the transport that ran on by were busy keeping their shirts firmly covered over half of their faces. The smell lingered for a while before dissipating into the forest air. Meanwhile, I sat on the ground and kept myself busy by endlessly tapping my sword against the ground. When Shining and Flash returned, they brought back our own wagon, to which I looked at in complete disgust.

"We told the guards we saw on the way in to take them to the hospital. As far as I know, they'd probably still have possession of Diamond Tiara. They wouldn't have her shipped out as soon as they got her-"

"I know." I answered quietly while standing to my feet. I began to feel a mix of emotions, ultimately rage because I knew that they were doing this all over again. Even as we're sitting here discussing it. We've already wasted over an hour of gifted sunlight just trying to get this far, and we haven't even laid eyes on the castle ruins. All of it just made me angry.

So... fucking angry... and sad.

I began to feel my eyes well up with tears before I blindly ran towards the crossroads. From there on, I didn't know which way to go. The wagon was turned sideways so I couldn't have known what direction was where. Meanwhile, Cliff and Rickey continued to ride inside of the wagon we brought along. Shining advised that I get back in, but I made it clear that I was not going to be caught dead riding in that thing throughout the remainder of the mission.

After being informed that the path on the right would lead straight out to the Rambling Rock Ridge, we took the left path, leading us directly to the glade where the castle ruins lied. Along the way I was chewed out for my running ahead, and Shining had clarified what we were doing here. He emphasized that what we were doing was not a revenge mission, but a rescue effort. Diamond Tiara and her butler was our primary objective, but any others would be a welcome addition. Shining also made the decision that whoever we'd find that were on the verge of death or dead already were to be collected later.

I understood the reason behind it, we didn't have time to collect both dead and living victims. But it still made me angry.

When we arrived at the edge of the opening, we saw a large spikey wooden wall that surrounded the other side of the ravine. Along with the wall, we saw a massive amount of tree stumps that made our stealth approach all the more difficult. Shining had also taken notice that there was a large wooden truss bridge spanning the length of the ravine. He also stated that there was a suspended bridge that used to hang in place of the one that was here. As far as I'm concerned, they built that as a means to get their transports across. A suspended walkway bridge wouldn't be very convenient when it comes to heavy transport. And they used the wood from the trees leading up to the walkway to build everything, from the wall to the bridge leading up to it. So it us to work with an open field.

I have to admit, whoever was in charge sure knew what the hell they were doing.

The wall wasn't that big, but it was enough to make for a decent outpost boarder. And it wasn't like we couldn't find a way around it, our only way into the castle was directly across that bridge and through that checkpoint. Plus I didn't bring my sniper rifle, so it wasn't like we could just hang around and pick off whatever was in front of us.

But then again, the stealth option was never really intended for the changelings. We're deep enough into the forest where gunfire won't alarm Ponyville residents. I guess we can start on phase two.

Piece by piece, the plan in my brain began to slowly reveal itself. "Shining, toss a few smokes at that checkpoint. The changelings will be blinded from there and will be forced to take to the sky. Rickey, Cliff, you help me drop those fuckers as soon as you see them. After clearing out their sky detail, Flash and Shining will scout ahead and clear through the smoke. If it's clear, Shining will light up his horn, giving us the signal to go ahead. The rest of us will run in and I'll take point until we reach the front entrance. From there, it's on Shining."

Everyone nodded while Shining began to look into his saddlebags for the smoke grenades. Flash was keeping watch while we humans were trying to hide ourselves within the shade of the trees. Pulling out my M-16 and setting it to semi-automatic, I was already thinking of everything that could possibly go wrong, but I also acknowledged that we still held a significant advantage. In comparison to the fight in Ponyville, this would be significantly one-sided.

Shining pulled out two M-18 smoke grenades─one marked red, the other marked yellow─and pulled the pins before tossing them to the foot of the checkpoint. It took a few seconds before the smoke began to cloud over the entrance. The two colors began to violently flood the area, producing a plume that started to match the twilight sky. We only waited for about fifteen seconds before the first changeling popped up from behind the wall and flew into the air. But it didn't take nearly as long for Rickey to send it back onto the ground for a permanent stay. A few more flew up in response to their fallen brethren, they too were met with an abrupt landing. Some were even sent falling into the ravine below.

The reports of our rifles became synonymous to a quick death for many of those that flew into the sky, so they sent a small squadron to run through the checkpoint. But they soon found out that their decision would prove costly. It gave Cliff and Shining an opportunity to snipe them off as they were still on the bridge. One of Shining's victims fell to the ground with a shriek as an arrow landed into it's upper torso. One that Cliff took down was hit and sent tumbling off the side of the bridge. Meanwhile, they could only spectate where we were hitting them from.

After we cleared off the bridge, it appeared that no others were willing to come out. While Rick and I kept our eyes to the sky, Shining and Flash continued to look forward. The two stallions galloped for the checkpoint with swords drawn. As they carried on, we waited for several seconds. The smoke grenades even started to lose most of their life and flicker out. All that was left was a large fiery-toned plume rising into the sky. Suddenly, Shining came running back and ignited his horn, indicating that we were clear to make our entrance.

The three of us quickly made our way over and past the dead smokes to reach the castle ruins. Upon our approach, we failed to run into any other changelings. Of course we all had our suspicions, ultimately assuming that they had taken to the inside of the castle. The only thing it meant for us was that we could save our bullets. But bullets are a small price for saving whoever else was trapped here.

Shining cracked open the front door and slowly peeked inside. Looking to every side and bit of the craggy ceiling, he waved us in and instructed us to stay away from the walls. The very room we stepped in was a large hall with half-a-dozen smaller halls leading from it. And just ahead was two staircases feeding into a balcony. There were also some rather large banners marked with a green x along with the following words:

The hive shall be born anew.

Well... that's not a cause for concern.

"Keep your eyes peeled. Changelings tend to surprise you if you latch onto the walls. Not only that, but there are plenty of booby traps around the castle. Many of them are triggered by switches on the walls. If you don't want to find yourself in some random part of the castle, it's best to stay towards the center." Shining whispered.

"Why the hell would they have traps on the walls?" Cliff asked.

"Because Luna and Celestia had used them to amuse one another when they were younger, or something like that. Twilight told me that she read it in an ancient diary the two used to share." I answered.

"Wow, that purple pony is nosy as hell." Rick stated.

"Who are you telling?" Shining cosigned with a sigh. "She'd ask me all kinds of things like: 'Brother, who's this? Brother, why does this girl come over to our house? Why do you like her and not Cadance? What were you doing sneaking x-mare into your room last night while mom and dad were sleeping?' She used to hide in my closet just to pop out and scream every time I was close to getting intimate with another mare."

"You stayed a virgin, didn't you, sir?" Flash questioned, causing the rest of us to snicker quietly.

Shining's cheeks turned a rosy pink as he cleared his throat. "It was by choice, for your information. Now shut up and eyes open."

As he took point, we all fell back into silence and kept our eyes on every nook and cranny of our surroundings. Changelings have been known to crawl down from ceilings and walls to surprise their prey. There have even been accounts of them just dropping from the ceiling and landing on unsuspecting victims. However, we're more than equipped to prevent that from happening. But it doesn't mean that they won't try those tactics against us. And we're in the thick of the nest right now, meaning that they would opt for more ambush tactics. I have a funny feeling that we'll be busy shooting up the place before we end up finding the victims.

...But before we can find the victims, we need to find out which way to go first.

Okay, now I'm completely convinced that this wasn't nearly as big of a mission as what I had in mind. I'm more-so convinced that their commander had just taken their entire operation and moved elsewhere, because we've only ran across twelve changelings so far. And all of the ones we ran into were low-level drones. The ones we came across were the ones we had to euthanize after asking them for questions.

Fortunately, this does make our job easier. Based off of the information we received from one of the changelings we ran across, the 'feeding room' should be located in the dungeon halls below the castle. Unfortunately he couldn't make the trip with us, he bled out a while back. But he did tell us enough to where we could carry on from there. Shining had a general idea of the castle's layout, but there were still some things that he wasn't too informed of.

*click*

"Aaah!"

We all turned around to see Flash hovering over a pit while Rickey's back was firmly planted against the wall. Looking ahead, I could see Shining's hoof pressing on a button hidden underneath the moldy red rug. "Oh... sorry." He said as he lifted his hoof quickly, causing the hole in the floor to collapse.

Rickey looked up to the orange pegasus and kissed his teeth. "Man, how come you get to fly? I would to keep myself suspended in mid-air when some shit like this happens."

Flash just shrugged. "I was born this way. Can't help it. Now Princess Twilight on the other hoof-"

"Shh!" I called out to the stallion, noticing that Shining's ears had flicked and turned for a distinctive reason. And it didn't take me very long to catch up to what was grabbing his attention. Further on ahead, we could hear the sounds of some more changelings making their way down the hall. Quietly, we ran to the side of the hall where neither of them could see us as they passed. As we waited for our chance to strike, we watched and listened while they carried out their conversation.

"Sir, it seems that there's an attack on the castle. We need to get you out of here now."

"What's the status of our scouts?"

"That's the problem sir, none of them have returned yet."

"Grrrr... Derog and his insistence on hosting military exercises. He just had to rehearse one last attack on Ponyville, as if our previous failure wasn't enough to convince him that we're understaffed for a full-scale invasion."

As they stepped into the intersection, we could see that both of them wore heavy armor. But it seemed that one was far more decorated than the other. The first changeling was dressed in the usual dark blue armor that their captains were often seen wearing, while the other was in a dark-green armor with lime-green adornments and larger-than-usual pauldrons. He also wore a strange helmet that bore it's own fangs to match.

You've got to be shitting me... SERIOUSLY?

"What's the status of our transport? Has it reached the southern checkpoint?"

"I cannot say, sir."

"Well the queen would be more than interested in the status of her hive's next meal. Be sure to get the ponies to her before too many of them die again, I have had it up to my neck in her complaints of how she can't harvest from the dead."

"I'm just saying sir, why-"

"And I've already explained it to you. We're on the front lines, we're risking life and limb, why not reward ourselves? Why reward them with the first fruits, a bunch of lazy-ass workers sitting around the queen, trying to chew up and see who would be next for mating season, or even better, succession? Ha! Pure drivel, that's what it is."

"I'll never understand how this is for the good of the hive, sir commander." The changeling subjugate muttered as they walked out of sight.

"The queen will see what I'm doing, and eventually she will join with us. We will have our war."

"Not like we haven't started one already."

...Yeah, it's him. For once, the stars decided to align WITH ME for a change.

"So, do we take them out?" Flash asked.

"No." I answered quickly. "I got this one. You guys can cover me."

"The fuck you doin'?" Cliff whispered to me while I quietly stepped out and walked towards the two changelings that passed.

Without a moment's notice, I pulled a flash grenade from my waist, pulled the pin, and tossed the grenade in their direction. While Shining were trying to motion me to come back, Cliff was busy trying to pull him back, urging him to stay away. I plugged my ears and waited for the grenade to go off.

*BANG*

I ran out from behind the pillar to see the two armored changelings on their knees, squirming as they lied concussed on the ground. Running up to them, I removed the helmet of the changeling in the green armor and grabbed the other pieces of his armor. Taking out a knife, I sliced through the bindings that kept the armor on him and pried him free of his armor. Afterwards, I dragged him along to the hall we had just came from.

"What the hell are you doing?" Rickey questioned with disbelief.

I breathed heavily as I looked back at him. "Do you remember how Seal Team Six managed to bag Bin Laden back in '11?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Cliff asked.

"Meet changeling Bin Laden."

"Forgive me for asking, but who the hell is that?" Shining asked with confusion.

"Shining, I feel pretty fucking confident that I just bagged Commander Guto." I stated proudly while holding the dazed changeling.

Flash tilted his head with bewilderment. "Commander who?"

"Guto was the one calling the shots during the invasion of both Ponyville and Canterlot within the past two weeks. Those politicians said I wouldn't catch this fucker in two weeks. 'It couldn't be done' they said. 'You're being irrational' they goaded. And now-"

"You're going to shove it in their faces, aren't you." Shining said with a devilish smirk.

"Wanna join me?"

"Um, guys." Flash interrupted. "I thought we were here for something else, something in the realm of rescuing a foal."

"Flash, we got the guy who did it all. That's a pretty big fucking takeaway, don't you think?" Shining asked flatly while he started looking through his bag for some rope to detain the changeling commander.

"But how do you know this is the guy?" Rickey questioned. "Wouldn't they put up some sort of decoy for things like this?"

"A decoy, here at what's assumed to be the safest, most-secured location while their armies carry out their marching orders? Please." Shining answered. "You'd be better off saying that the commander of the entire army decided to fight on the front line."

"Ssssssoooo... Let me say this..." Cliff began. "To argue your point, this was far from the most secure location. And there were plenty of tribe leaders leading their armies into battle personally. And you being a prince here on a mission like this, plus Nondis, who is the captain of your guard, the two of you 'high-ranking officers' are currently behind enemy lines."

"See, there's the more to it." I rebutted. "That part, yeah I'll give it to you. But here's the big thing: the politicians sent me here under special orders of an 'investigation'. This 'investigation' was supposed to get me killed. Heh, and you won't even believe why."

"Different species?" Cliff guessed.

"Power struggle?" Rick suggested.

With a simple drop of my head, I gave them the answer. "Both plus one. The first reason is because I'm currently engaged with a princess of this land, in which our marriage would result in me being reclassified as a prince. The second reason is because I became Captain of the Royal Guard within a week of leaving basic training. And the third is because those fuckers are inherently xenophobic."

"They bringin' you down, bruh?" Cliff asked while giving me a nudge.

"Nah. I got it."

Meanwhile, Shining had finished tying up the changeling commander while binding his muzzle shut and sealing off his horn with a sodium compound that he rubbed on the changeling's horn. "Alright, he's good and tied up. Let's take him with us. We'll bring the survivors and this bastard with us."

"What about the other one on the ground?" Flash did bring up a good point. We can't really let him live. Perhaps we could take them both so that way we'd have two accounts to live by.

"Disarm him, strip him down, time him up, and take him with us. Blind them both while you're at it. The more officers we capture, the better."

After capturing both of the changeling officers, we continued to make our way through the halls and towards the dungeon area. But oddly enough, it was just a hall full of disembodied pony legs holding torches. And even further on down the hall was a massive corridor with two large doors leading into what we assumed was another room. Shining relieved the front and allowed me to take charge of the breach. Cliff and Rickey were busy lugging both the changeling commander as well as his subordinate. Flash guarded the rear as Shining and I took to both sides of the door. With his magic, Shining slowly cracked the door to see if there would be any changelings coming out. After a few seconds, we quickly raided the room and found a large web of green goo hanging from the ceiling to the floor.

Rickey groaned as he stepped in a puddle of goop and lifted his foot in disgust. "Okay, my gut's telling me we're in the right place."

Cliff reluctantly stood in the doorway as I drew my sword and started to cut my way through. "Bruh, this shit looks like somethin' straight outta Goosebumps."

"Yeah, that sounds about right." I said as I continued to carve our way ahead.

After hacking away at some of the icky webbing, Shining and I began to trek through the sludge. Flash followed closely behind, trailed by the disgusted duo of humans. Thankfully, our way through the slimy webs would be short, and we were then shown the rest of the humongous room. Shining, Flash, and I looked all around with disbelief as we saw multiple pods of varying sizes lined up against the wall, on the ceiling, and leaning against the corners of the room. Many of which were brightly lit and transparent, a few, translucent others gave off a dim green light, while the remaining ones gave no light at all and only showed a shadow of who was trapped within.

"What's up with this gak shit?" Cliff questioned as he poked at one of the darkened pods. "It feels like some thick-ass jello smothered in lube... And it smells like that shit you put dead things in."

As he continued to prod at the dark pod, he managed to inadvertently poke a hole into it. At first was a small popping sound with the drainage of some thick liquid. But soon after, the entire pod produced a sickly ripping noise akin to tearing a piece of chicken apart from it's limb. The massive amount of liquid spilled all over the floor and puddled just below the ruptured pod, along with an elder powder-blue pony with gray bushy eyebrows. As he fell onto the ground, Shining took notice of his still-open eyes.

"Dammit... this one's gone."

Meanwhile, I took notice of the large bruises around his abdomen and lower chest. "This guy looks like he took a nasty-ass hit. And judging from his wounds, it looks like it might have helped in doing him in."

Cliff was busy trying to wipe himself off as he spoke. "Fuck, man! I ain't tryin' to get myself covered in dead people. Shit, had I known that nigga was dead, I wouldn't even touch that shit, forreal."

Despite the brashness of his statement, his words did carry some observational wisdom. This guy came falling out of one of the darker pods, which could only mean one thing. "Guys, I think the darker these things get, the less they're likely to live."

Shining started looking through some of the brighter pods and saw that those individuals were still lively, despite their lack of movement. "Yeah, this guy was just recently brought in."

Rickey went over to a corner where there were several other pods stacked almost in a honeycomb formation. "Damn, they even went after the kids. Poor little girl."

"Wait, girl?" I asked, walking quickly to where he stood.

"Yeah, and a few others too. Some of them look like they pretty dark, but this one on top is like bright as hell."

I looked into the pod and saw a pink young filly with a lavender and white mane. On her flank was a tiara with jewels adorning the peaks. "Shit, it's her."

"Who?" Flash questioned as he flew above.

"Diamond Tiara. This is our girl here." I said while pulling out a knife to cut the pod open. After slicing the membrane, a waterfall of fluid came rushing out and spilling all over the other pods. I ripped the front apart and quickly pulled the young filly out from her cell. Shortly after pulling her out, she let out a exasperated groan followed by a series of coughs.

"Woah there, little miss. You good?" Cliff asked quietly.

With a nod, she cleared her throat and spat out whatever liquid was left inside of her body.

"She seems oddly responsive for a captive." Flash stated.

"It doesn't look like she was bit." Shining clarified. "I think they just stuffed her in because of her size."

Cliff shook his head with disgust. "That's some bitch-ass shit, bruh. Gon' fuck with the kids and stuff they ass in a feeding tube. This shit got me so messed up in the head."

If he thinks this is fucked up, which it is, then he would've lost his shit at the wagon from earlier.

"...Ran...dolph?"

Each one of our heads turned to the direction of the small voice that cried out. As we met with the source, we saw the freed young filly stagger towards the corpse on the ground. After giving him a few shoves, she began to sniffle, then openly weep into the elder stallions chest. Her soft cries sounded through the now-silenced room, echoing off of the stony walls. Both Flash and Shining closed his eyes and bowed his head in reverence. I stood and watched with gritted teeth and a fist clenched in anger, Rickey just quietly walked towards her and offered her comfort.

Cliff placed a hand over his face as his head sank. "I was wrong. That shit got me so messed up in the head."

Diamond Tiara shoved away the hand that reached out to her and continued to bury herself into the stallion's chest, nuzzling him as she wept.

"I guess that's the butler." Rick pointed out.

I felt my knuckles crack around the handle of the knife in my left hand. Without hesitation, I decided to act. "Guys, she's not the only one we're here for, we need to focus. We got our girl, we got the guy responsible, we need to save as many as we can."

"But what about our time limit?" Flash questioned. "We're working with little time as it is. We'd probably be back in the Everfree shallows when the sun sets."

"I don't care, we need to save as many as we can. Start with the kinda-dark green pods and work your way on up. Anything that's practically black, leave it be. We need to take accountability for the ones that are still alive."

Rick looked back to the weeping filly and sighed. "What about the others?"

"We'll have to come back later for them. The living takes priority, especially those that seem to be malnourished. We need to get them to a hospital as soon as possible. The able-bodied will be given time to recuperate, then they'll join us in our efforts. I intend to get these ponies back to their families as soon as possible."

"Are we really just gonna leave the dead!?"

"And let them fester while we walk back towards town? No, I won't let that shit happen twice in one day with two separate groups of ponies. I'm not going to risk the healthy getting sick and the sick becoming sicker. We come back later, collect, and leave. No other options."

Rickey walked up to me and grabbed my arm. "So when's later? Two days from now?"

"Actually, this magically-enhanced changeling goop they put the ponies in is known to be a type of stasis compound used regularly to resupply the nutrients into the bodies. Degradation is slowed, even for those exposed to the elements shortly after, but still happens. However, it doesn't stop things like rigor mortis from setting in." Shining explained as he looked at one of the blackened pods. "There are some setbacks, such as the natural requirements of food and water. So while there inside, they slowly starve or dehydrate."

Well if that isn't the most hospitable thing to offer your captives. "How long does it give us?" I inquired.

"Three days in confinement. One for exposure."

"We come back at dawn and finish up. Now lets get these guys out of these pods. Start from the foals and work up to the stallions."

While Rick reluctantly released my arm, Shining and the others began to cut open the pods and rescue the ponies trapped within. But for some odd reason, my attention was locked onto the young filly that was crying on the chest of her dearly-departed butler.

Again I'll say it, I was not ready for today.

We tried our best to quickly remove the captives from their pods. Unfortunately, there were already some who were beyond saving. Out of the seventy some-odd pods we cut open, only about thirteen were at prime health. Another twenty-one were very much in need of medical attention, water, and food. Sadly, the remaining ones had whispered their final breaths as they sought a much more colorful pasture. Stallions, mares, and foals alike, they all suffered. The majority of our time was tending to the departing souls, making sure that their final moments was within the company of those who sought to care for them rather than prey on them.

We were split into three teams throughout the dungeon, Rickey and Cliff both took care of the lively ones. Flash took care of the sickly. Shining and I took care of the ones who were ready to go. I also managed to keep our two prisoners nice and tied up while we did what we could. But it didn't make our lives any easier, he and his subordinate kept whispering out about how delicious their love tasted. Shining suggested that we gagged them to keep them somewhat quiet. Had it not been for him, personally I would've shot them both.

Over the course of forty minutes, Diamond Tiara finally let us move Randolph, quietly laying his still form in the 'passing' room down the hall. Afterwards, we made a confirmation of the final number of survivors. We moved everyone upstairs and into the greeting hall for evacuation. Cliff and Rick didn't say much as they ran alongside me, opening the doors to show the dying light in the sky...

Among something else.

"Shining..." I questioned with a feeling that resembled a cold punch in the gut. "Where did we leave the wagon?"

"It should be hidden within the trees just beside the forest path. I put a cloaking spell on it-"

"No it's not." I answered quietly, pointing to the mess of wood and wheels that ceremoniously welcomed us to the outside. "It's right here."

As Shining walked up, his eyes expanded as he saw the wreckage himself. "Well, there goes our transport."

"That ain't why we sittin' here tho." Cliff explained as he pointed to the gate ahead.

What stood directly in front of us was a large changeling that stood about the size of a Shire horse with the bulk to go along with it. It sported a jagged horn about the length of a ruler as well as some black armor with dark-green adornments. With a sinister smile, it looked at us as it threw down the tarp that covered the wagon. As he threw it down, several changelings started to rise from the other side of the wall... hundreds of them.

"I'm gonna ask a dumb question real quick, do we shoot it?" Rickey asked while pointing the muzzle of his M16 at the massive changeling.

Slowly, I pulled out mine. "I'm gonna give you a dumb answer, yes."

Cliff pulled his out and pointed towards the changeling. "Shit sounds dumb enough to work."

Without any further hesitation, we unloaded several bullets at the changeling. Shining and Flash covered their ears as they watched us continue firing at the overly-large parasite. But to much of our surprise, the large beast just stood quietly, staring back at us. We just stopped firing after a while and stared blankly at the changeling brute before us. The large changeling sat on it's haunches and tapped it's foreleg against the ground while it looked at us with what seemed to be disinterest.

"So, we're shooting that thing and it ain't dying." Rickey said as he kept his sights locked onto the changeling brute.

"Gas it." I quickly responded, hoping to buy ourselves some time.

Cliff quickly pulled out a shell and loaded it into the grenade launcher and aimed for the spot just in front of the huge changeling. He then launched the tear gas grenade and landed the shot just a few yards away from it. After one inhale of the air, the changeling coughed and backed off, urging the smaller ones to charge at us. But they too fell victim to the troublesome smoke, blinding and asphyxiating several others that tried to run through. The ones that flew above it were more fortunate than their ground-based brethren. And they came flying in at full-speed.

"They're coming for us! Back inside!"

As we ran back inside, Cliff pulled out a stun grenade and tossed it just before we closed the door. We waited for a quick second before the grenade sounded. Afterwards, we cracked open the door and initiated suppressing fire to ward off any incoming changelings. But as we continued to fire outside of the door, Shining shouted at the top of his lungs.

"CHANGELINGS COMING FROM TOP SIDE! HEADS UP!"

Both Rick and I looked up behind us and saw a few changelings flying in from the large hole in the ceiling. Immediately, we turned the muzzles of our rifles to the opening and fired at whatever crawled or flew through. After downing about nine of them, a few of them fell back to regroup.

"We're in trouble, aren't we?" Rick questioned with a panicked breath.

"Just a little." I answered. "Shining, you and Flash need to take everyone back downstairs. Take Guto and his friend with you, we can't let them know that we have their guy. It's bad enough we already took their food source, we don't need to give them anymore incentive to overrun us."

"Copy! Flash, grab the two bugs and let's get them to the dungeon."

"Yes sir!"

The two stallions ran off as we offered

After Cliff finished firing at the changelings outside, he closed the door and grabbed an old golden banner rod to bar the door. I ran over to help him as he grabbed the other side and helped bar the door shut. He then turned back to both me and Rickey. "Stupid question, why did they just now attack us when they could've ambushed us?"

"Judging from 'Bane' over there, I say it's more of a display of power. You know, a means of intimidation. But to know that he's just standing there after we shot at him a few dozen times means that we're probably gonna have to get close to kill him. Not exactly an easy thing." Rick answered while looking at the opening for anymore unexpected visitors.

Meanwhile, I was looking at the opening for a different reason. "Fuck, and they would show up just as we're about to leave. The sun just went down so we're in the dark here."

Cliff pulled out a red stick that appeared to be a road flare. "I brought about three of these just in case. Best to be prepared for anything."

"I know that shit lasts forever in video games, but how long does it actually lasts?" I questioned.

"Usually up to an hour, ten minutes at the very least." He answered.

"You're awesome. Now give us some light to work with."

After he pulled the cap off and struck it against the ignition pad, a bright red flame erupted from it as he quickly placed it at the center of the room. At the very least we would have some light for the next ten minutes, I had already figured that an hour would be stretching it. But making sure that we could see was the least of our worries.

"RAAAAAWWGH!"

The three of us looked at each other as we mouthed the words 'Oh shit' quietly while we slowly turned towards the door. By then we heard yet a second roar, only it sounded much closer to the door. Shortly after, we just heard a loud bang against the door. As the impact sounded throughout the room, we saw that the doors buckled inward and fell back into place.

"So, you think that will give us enough time to plan on how we can take this guy down?" Rickey asked while we watched the door.

"Bruh, I think it's time to go." Cliff stated as he checked how much ammo he had left in his magazine.

"Where? The front door is our only option out and we still have to buy the others some time." Rick argued.

The door continued to buckle from the battering, the rod continued to hold it's strength at the cost of being bent. I also noticed that the wooden locks were starting to crack, meaning it was only a matter of time. "And judging from the big guy, he must be eager to to see what we're made of. I don't see anything more than us charging towards a rampaging bull with knives in hand. We have to come up with a means to minimize our damage while maximizing his. If getting close is our only option, the I would be the best fit to go running in."

"You think you got it?" Cliff questioned with concern as he turned to the besieged door.

"I should be alright. I was trained for shit like this."

*BOOM*

The three of us jumped as we all pulled up our weapons and aimed for the door. But we had saw that it was only a strong hit. And then for a while, it seemed that the changeling brute had stopped. We didn't dare walk towards the door but we maintained a distance from it so we could avoid any attacks. We also took cover behind several of the broken pillars across the room, the last thing we needed to do was to let ourselves get out in the open.

For several more seconds, we heard nothing but our own breaths. Rickey shook nervously as he slowly peered out from behind the pillar and kept his muzzle on the door. Cliff was already taking out another tear gas grenade to load. But I had started to think that there was something wrong with all of this. If this guy was close to breaking down the door and leading the charge to our front porch, then why wasn't he taking the initiative? As the seconds ticked by, I started to see what he was doing.

"He's toying with us." I whispered.

*crackle*

The sounds of a few pebbles landing on the ground sent shivers up my spine as I jerked around and looked towards the opening. Nothing was in the sky, but more and more pieces of the ceiling came pebbling down. That was not a good thing for us... "Clever girl."

The other two humans looked at me with a panicked expression, knowing exactly what that phrase pertained to.

"So... we're in trouble, aren't we?" Rick reiterated.

"Oh yeah."

By the time I finished my sentence, the large changeling came darting from the ceiling and landing in the center of the room. The impact it made kicked up a sizable plume of dust, shook much of the room causing more of the weakening structure to crumble towards the ground, and even sent the flare Cliff set off flying towards the back end of the room. With a deep breath, the changeling brute unleashed a powerful scream that cleared the smoke from in front of it's muzzle and assaulted all of our ears. We closed our ears as we watched the large changeling squinting back at us, seemingly in pain from the gas we launched at it earlier.

And following his scream, we heard the door being assaulted once more, making it sound like a percussive drum that sounded out the impending battle of the beasts. With a snarl, the changeling scrapped it's forehoof against the stony floor and lower it's head to charge at us, all while it's horn started to glow a rich bright green. Sharpened teeth slowly revealed themselves as the brute growled, leaking saliva and changeling venom. It's armor glowed brightly along with it's horn while it tried to look towards Cliff, causing him to tremble while aiming the gun at him.

"Yeah, he mad at me."

Meanwhile, back in the dungeons...

Throughout the room, there were soft shrieks and gasps emanating from the freed ponies as they heard the rumbles and roars from upstairs. The perpetual sound of gunfire caused many of them to quietly contemplate on what would happen next. Shining stood by the door while Flash stood by the captive pair of changelings. As they waited, a few ponies began to panic at the thought that they would be recaptured.

"It sounds like those three are really having it up there." Shining muttered as he clenched his jaw.

As another loud rumbling sound came from above, Flash tapped his foreleg against the ground impatiently. "You think it could be the big one making it's way in?"

A single roar followed by a few more gunshots confirmed the pegasus guard's theory. "That seems to be it."

One mare who was pacing back and forth, stopped to hide her head in her hooves. "This is terrible, we'll never get back home."

"Yes you will, and those three will be doing everything in their power to stop that beast from getting in our way." Flash reassured, walking over to the mare and giving her a pat on the back. "You just gotta believe in us. Okay?"

"In speaking of which..." Shining quickly walked over to the two captives and removed the gags from their muzzles so that they could speak. "What do you two know about the big guy upstairs?"

They both laughed in response to the stallion's question. "Heh... Commander, they say that the three ponies they left up there will defeat Grommel. Isn't that amusing?" The changeling general stated.

"Indeed. Laughable circumstances, especially considering that they'll be going at our finest and best-fed grunt." Guto cosigned.

"Best fed?" Shining and Flash asked in unison.

The changeling general snickered to himself as he spoke. "He was often challenging the other drones for their feeding sessions, won over a lot of them too. It's a shame that those ponies would meet their maker in such a fashion, as he does like to take his time playing with his food."

"Those three aren't ponies." One of the victims corrected. "They're humans. They came here to rescue us, and they will bring us back home!"

While the others nodded in their firm belief of the three upstairs fighting, "Oh how positively cliché of you to say something like that. My dear, in this world it doesn't matter what or who you are. If you're not strong enough to survive, then you are nothing more than a weak larva squirming around, crying for your queen's milk. And besides, what good will these so-called 'humans' do?"

Flash tapped his chin as he started to think aloud. "Well, they aren't that fast, and their strength varies from one another. But the captain should be able to handle that guy."

"Nondis is strong enough to crack my horn from a punch and countered my magic with dental floss, I think he's top-notch strategist material. The only thing he can't do is run as fast as us thanks to our having four legs to his two."

"...His two?" The changeling general questioned with confusion.

"He's a biped." Flash answered.

"But he does kinda look like a hairless monkey." Diamond Tiara added, earning some rather displeased looks from both Shining and Flash. "What, what did I say?"

The changeling general jumped at the mention of the human's resemblance. He quickly turned to the direction of his superior. "Sir!"

"The furless primate... IT'S HERE!?" Guto screamed with disbelief.

"Furless primate?" Shining parroted with confusion.

"I thought that tall weakling was a misfire!" Guto continued. "There's no way that thing is still alive!"

"Apparently so, the Equestrians must have gotten to it after we did. It seems that they've bred it into a soldier of sort." The general exchanged with his superior.

Shining was left bewildered as he heard the conversation take place. "What are you two going on about?"

Guto groaned as he bumped his head against the wall out of frustration. "Dammit, damn it all... The queen's summon. Months ago, we tried to summon a foul beast capable of killing whatever stood in it's way. And we even had to study multidimensional magic for several months, just to land the candidate that was best suited for the task. It took all of our magic─or rather the rest of it─to summon one of what was assumed to be the most efficient and lethal killing breeds known or unknown to equine kind. But we assumed that our spell backfired when that ugly, furless ape manifested in the middle of our circle."

The general continued from where his superior left off. "A sopping-wet and irrational mess it was, rolling around the ground and hugging the leaves. After realizing that we had made a terrible mistake, we abandoned him in the Everfree forest, never to be mentioned or heard from again. It was an embarrassment, the remainder of our magic used to summon such a useless monkey-thing. We starved for months, completely unfed all because of that thing! It was because of that... that FAILURE, we had to do this! But... I suppose it's your burden now, not that it would bring up any good."

Shining leaned forward and briefly pulled the blindfold from Guto's eyes as he whispered directly into his face. "Actually the jokes on you guys. You left him for dead, and now he's returning the favor en masse."

"How so?" Guto questioned.

Shining wore a grin as he whispered to the changeling commander, making sure that his words sank in.

"That 'failure' happened to kill a bunch of your guys in Ponyville with just only a sword and a brick."

Meanwhile upstairs...

"Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit!" Cliff screamed as he ran behind another pillar to avoid the rampaging changeling brute. Meanwhile, Rick and I were trying our best to offer support in light of several changelings shooting magical bolts right back at us. The three of us were left with far fewer bullets while they were left with significantly less changelings. But they were doing well enough to get us on the run. There were several other changelings crawling down the walls as we tried our best to pick them off while Cliff was running back towards us. After hopping over the fallen pillar, he laid down and took cover from more of the changelings' magic bolts.

But as we did, we noticed something that could have a noticable effect on our bullets. As a brick-sized piece of the stone ceiling came crashing down on the brute, the armor glowed once more and decimated the rock before it could even get within a foot of distance from him. Finally, it dawned on us.

"You think that armor's enchanted?" Rickey questioned as he peeked over the pylon and shot back.

"Looks like it, we can't even throw rocks at the guy without that shit glowing." I answered while scanning the wall behind us for any changelings.

"So he got bullet-resistant armor, that's some bullshit." Cliff said as he reached for his belt to reload his MP9.

"Aim for the eyes then." Rick suggested. "That armor can only protect what it's covering, right?"

With a groan, I snuck back over the pylon, only to see a large green bolt headed my way. "Dude, you're asking us to hit a tiny-ass target, in a small window, while it's moving at full speed, while it and it's friends are busy shooting glowing green shit at us from multiple sides. I may be trained, but I don't think it's that fucking easy!"

"I see your point. And this shit ain't got a respawn system. You die then that's it, you're dead." One changeling flew over to us, trying to ambush us from above. Rickey didn't take any time from neutralizing the changeling.

"Exactly!" I confirmed. "This shit is real!"

Cliff came back up from behind the pillar and shot at three other changelings, instantly killing two and wounding three. "How many you think we got by now?"

As I tried to make a mental note of the ones we took down, I added the five Cliff had managed to subdue. "I wanna say about ninety. A third of those are dead for sure, I'm pretty sure that some of those who got hit would bleed out... eventually."

As I finished talking, Rick jumped up to his feet and grabbed my attention. As he started to run off, he screamed to the two of us. "BIG ONE'S MAKING A RUN FOR US! SPLIT!"

I instinctively grabbed Cliff by the collar and pulled him out of the way as the large changeling ran straight towards us with his horn ignited, pulsating with a significant amount of magic. As soon as he came close to the downed pillar, he shot a large green beam that shattered the entire stone column into rocks and dust. Cliff and I just escaped, the changeling's armor just scraping the topmost layer of skin of Cliff's left arm. "Shit, he almost got me─"

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Rick hollered as the changeling brute changed it's direction towards us. Immediately, I shoved Cliff elsewhere while the brute ran up. Suddenly the next thing I knew was that I was being knocked back, or rather carried into another pillar that stood up to the ceiling. Upon impact, I could hear the sound of the ceramic plate in my armor cracking and shattering while my back pressed against the stone. The wind quickly evacuated my lungs while my head trashed back from the force and hit the stone pillar. For a few seconds, my entire body felt numb and unresponsive as I fell to the ground.

For a brief moment, I could hear the world sound as if I had gone underwater, the sounds drowned out completely then gradually fading into the clear. The first thing I head was my name being called out. "NONDIS!"

I coughed for a bit as I struggled to breathe. Afterwards, I finally found the ability to breathe, the dusty air choking me up a little. While the air started to fill my body once more, I started to feel something painful at the right side of my chest. With every moment I took in air, the pain would resurface. As I winced in pain, I tried to get up on my own willpower, but found myself standing a little higher than usual. Instead of my own legs supporting my weight, it was the large changeling that held me with it's magic as it wore a sinister smile on it's face. As my arms were compressed to my sides by the green aura, I watched as the changeling bore it's fangs at me and hissed ferociously.

At that moment, I could only close my eyes and wait for the inevitable pain to set in.

*SMACK*

"Ooh shit, what was that?" Rick blurted out.

But instead of feeling the pain of a changeling bite, I only felt the pain of my body collapsing onto the ground. Once more, the pain in my chest throbbed immensely. Looking back up to see what had happened, I was merely stunned by what I saw.

The changeling brute's face was knocked aside by a golden-clad hoof attached to an alabaster foreleg. Celestia stood on her hind legs as she placed all of her force into the hit, sending the changeling brute flying into a nearby wall. Landing back on her forelegs, the sun princess unfurled her wings as she stood before me. I couldn't see much of her face as her mane was flowing quite fiercely, obstructing my view. But I had already assumed that there was a very unfriendly scowl she wore. Her head as well as the front of her body dropped a bit as her foreleg scraped the ground, signifying that she was going to charge at the brute.

"Bruh, ain't that ol girl?" Cliff questioned.

"Yeah." Rickey confirmed as they watched.

While Celestia stood firm, many of the other changelings started to flee from the scene. The only ones that failed to do so were the ones that were wounded from earlier. The high princess then scraped the the ground with enough strength to cause sparks to form from her slippers as she watched the body of the large changeling move. The brute stood from it's crater and stood back on all fours and roared at her. Not even a second later, the brute galloped at full speed towards her.

"C'MON!" She screamed loudly, her voice shaking the very foundations of the castle.

The changeling and the princess met with one another, the brute grabbing at her in an attempt to force it's fangs into the princess' neck. But Celestia countered by using all of her strength to push him back. As she fell back down, she swung her body around and used both hind legs to land a blow into the brute's chest. After it was sent flying a second time, the changeling flapped it's wings and hovered in mid-air to prevent itself from hitting the wall. Celestia filled her horn with magic and shot at the changeling, who dodged the incoming bolts as it barreled towards her.

Upon landing, it caused a shockwave that threw her somewhat off balance. In response, she flapped her wings to catch herself and continued with her assault. Levitating a large chunk of the pillar he destroyed just a moment earlier, Celestia threw it towards him. However, she could only watch as the massive slab disintegrated before her very eyes. The changeling's horn fizzled out and smoked as it finished launching a bolt at the massive piece of stone she hurled.

It galloped towards her once more, only this time levitating it's own ordinance to use against her. Brick after brick, the changeling brute hurled everything that wasn't bound to the mortar. Celestia placed over herself a large golden shield that circled her entire body. The changeling then made contact with her once she let her shield down, grabbing at her neck and shoving her into the ground. Using it's magic, the brute then shoved her face into the ground repeatedly before Celestia used her physical will to break through the changeling's magical push. Slowly but surely, she rose to face the changeling, only to receive a devastating blow to the upper chest that sent her tumbling into a lone-standing pillar.

As the damaged pillar fell, much of it's load fell upon the princess, causing her to cry out loudly. Celestia, wounded and battered, stood from the wreckage with a slight limp as well as a wing that appeared to have folded backwards, causing me and the others to grimace.

"Ohhh... that looks broke." Cliff stated.

"Yeah, definitely broke." I confirmed as Celestia looked back at her misshaped wing, she cringed in pain as she looked at the damage. With a strained expression, she started to use her magic to gently move it back into place. And by gently, I mean just outright forcing it back into it's folded position, which yielded into...

*CrrrrUNCH*

"OOOHHH!!" Rick, Cliff, and I moaned in unison.

"I was not ready for today." Rick muttered from behind his hand, as he covered his mouth in disgust.

"I don't think any of us were." I responded tiredly.

The changeling brute began to chuckle at the wounded princess, who finally spoke since the beginning of their physical exchange. "Well, you actually fought better than your Queen. But apparently, I'm sure that 'mommy dearest' hasn't taught you never to play with anything hot."

In the blink of an eye, she disappeared, causing the changeling to look around the room. But the brute was unable to see where she had showed up next as she ported behind it, wielding a large golden spear. Before it could turn around, She embeded the spear through the changeling's left hind leg into the ground. As it buckled over from the pain, it tried to squirm itself free.

Meanwhile, Celestia had teleported back into place and started charging up her magic. As she did, we all could feel the temperature of the room beginning to increase. A strange whirring sound filled the room as Celestia's horn became even brighter, until it was too much to look at. Shielding my eyes, I could barely see the princess partially kneel down and unleashing a magical beam large enough to cut out a small tunnel. But as she was unleashing, she took a deep breath as she reared her body back a bit. And with a loud grunt, she doubled the beam's size and strength.

The three of us merely stared as we watched. The changeling brute unearthed a bloodcurdling scream before it finally dried out into the light. And when Celestia and finally withdrew her power, it took some adjusting for our eyes to get back into seeing in the moonlit hall. But once we had finally regained our vision, we saw the brute standing with the charred bones of it's foreleg shielding it's face. As it's body sizzled and crackled, it fell into a pile of ash and molten metal. The battle-weary princess slowly walked towards the remains of the brute, watching as the armor cooled.

"I suppose she truly failed to let you in on that life lesson. A shame, really."

After performing an about-face, she galloped directly for me as Cliff and Rickey just stared at her, slack-jawed with amazement. "Okay, if y'all can do that, the fuck you need guns for!?" Rickey inquired.

"Nondis, are you alright!" She asked as she helped me get back on my feet, then promptly greeting me with a hug.

To be honest I was a little concussed and I would be certain that I would have a bad case of whiplash. But considering this world's medical magic, that's not even remotely close to an issue. "A little winded, that and some aching in my chest." A lot of aching. "But what about you? You won't be flying anytime soon."

"Alicorn magic, remember? I thought I already explained that to you." She said with a slight giggle.

"Yeah, that was the day you sneezed on me." I quietly whispered to her.

Celestia rolled her eyes as she dismissed my comment. "Well since you're okay, I would like to have a word on your lack of punctuality."

"We were heading out when this happened." I answered, already aware that she was working her way into a lecture of how we needed to complete our mission within the time allotted. "But to tell you the truth, we had some other stuff to wrap up."

"Such as?"

"You know, saving the other captives, assisting with the passing of a few others, search and rescue, clean-up, nabbing Guto and all that other shit." After that sentence, I knew that something was wrong with me. My chest felt like I was being impaled by something jagged.

Celestia pulled back away from me and held me with disbelief. "You-"

"Yeah, he's downstairs with Shining and Flash." I stressed while leaning against the pillar I was rammed into. "Fuck, my chest feels like shit since that damn changeling ran me over."

Rickey and Cliff came running over as the tried to see what was wrong. As Rick placed his hand on my armor, he felt that it was a lot softer than before. "Shit, I can see why you feel like shit. This damn thing's a sand bag."

Both of them quickly got me out of the vest and lifted my shirt to see an unusual imprint on the right side of my chest. Both cringed and looked away as they saw what it was.

"Forgive me for asking this," Celestia began. "But is that imprint a normal occurrence for humans?"

"Hell no." The both whimpered with disgust.

"I figured that would be the case."

After it was confirmed that I had three broken ribs and a concussion, I was placed to the side while the others had taken care of everything else. But Celestia did offer high praise to the armor I wore, considering that it didn't buckle in and become a pseudo-iron maiden suit. Honestly if it weren't for that armor, I'd be heaving my lungs through my trachea and sleeping soundly against that pillar. But instead I'm alive and still breathing, very painfully.

A moderate-size contingent of royal guards came swarming the castle just a few minutes after. They also managed to bring in a few large wagons to safely transfer the victims to Ponyville, as well as to collect the dead for future identification. But aside from ensuring the safety of the victims, the remaining guards were too busy gushing over the fact that there were two more humans here in Equestria. I originally wanted to prevent something like this from happening, but Cliff and Rickey seem to have roll with it rather well. I guess this makes it their official debut to pony society, though I would've preferred it under much lighter circumstances.

On the way back to town, I was placed in a wagon with the survivors. Diamond Tiara was also keeping me company. Of course, her version of keeping me company was her pulling on my shirt, screaming and crying, asking me how come we didn't show up any sooner to prevent the death of her beloved butler. But she did eventually simmer down and lay next to me, thanking me for saving her. And as soon as those words left her mouth, the other ponies in the wagon offered me hugs of gratitude, which I cautiously declined. After I had explained that I had a few broken ribs, they saw the reason for my desire to remain free of any embrace.

After all, I was tired as hell. So I closed my eyes for a short while.

When I had woke up, I found myself in a hospital bed. As I looked around, I could see a number of things. A bunch of cards sat next to the bed as well as some balloons and a stuffed teddy bear. Then there was a massive wall of flowers lying next to the window, and through it, I could see that the sun was well into the sky.

I had to make a mental note that I was still recovering from broken ribs when I had got up. But as I rose, I couldn't feel anything. And it wasn't like I was hopped-up on morphine, it was legitimately as if I had never broken my ribs in the first place. And if I had to take a guess on who was responsible, I would say that the fault would solely belong to a certain fiery-headed unicorn.

I bet she's really tired of me getting hurt all the time.

"You're finally awake, that's good to see."

I turned to my side to see Celestia standing by the bed, looking at me with a gentle smile. I smiled back, but somewhere in the back of my mind I wondered just how did she get in here... or was she in here the entire time? "Princess. Good morning... I think."

"Yes, it's morning. Going on towards eleven, but still morning."

Yeah, yesterday's operation really did take a turn for the unexpected. I guess it would be best to assume that I passed out from the pain, that and the exhaustion from all the running. I still have a slight headache, but that shouldn't be anything that a little aspirin can't fix. "So... what did I miss?"

"Well, you did miss out on a few visitors. Sunset came to heal you. Filthy Rich came by to wish you well on your recovery. Twilight and the others came around to give you flowers. Cadance and Shining came around for a visit. Luna guarded you as you slept and I watched over you out of a request by your human friends."

"In speaking of which, where are they?" I asked as I started to stretch.

"They have returned to your world. Though they have strongly suggested that you take it easy for a few days."

Well, I can take that into consideration. I'm not really in a fighting mood right now. "Okay, so what of-"

"Guto and his general have been retained. They have been discreetly transferred to the Canterlot dungeons. I will report them to the parliament when you are ready to come by. After all, I know that you wish to personally display your achievements before them."

Damn straight. Did it within a week of my saying so. "Thanks a bunch for that. I just want to see their faces when I pull the hood from their heads."

Celestia continued to smile lightly, but I could also see that there was something bothering her. She seemed to look away at times, perhaps something came up between the time I passed out to now. "So... you seem to be really nervous. You okay?"

She took a deep breath as she walked up to me. As soon as she got close, she grabbed my hands with her hooves. The white alicorn looked at me with uncertainty as she spoke. "Have you ever... felt abandoned?"

I have to admit, that was a really unusual questioned. "I'm not sure where you going with this."

She shook her head. "Oh! I'm reaching a little too far ahead, sorry. What I meant to ask was... do you feel a purpose in your being here?"

"I guess I do. How come?"

"Well... I just wanted to know if one of my subjects... I'm sorry, friends. I wanted to know if one of my friends feels as if their existence here has been due to fault."

Something tells me she's waltzing around something, more specifically my being here and the reason behind it. "Do you think I'm an inconvenience?"

"NO!" She exclaimed, her wings popping out from her back. "I don't feel─"

"Hey, your wing looks pretty good." I pointed out.

"Oh! I guess... I suppose it healed up shortly after we had gotten from the castle ruins. I'm just more focused on how you're doing rather than my wings."

"That's great. They look beautiful."

"Uh..." Celestia backed away with a slight blush as she covered her chest with her wings. After realizing her wings were in front, she retracted them back to her body as she held her hooves to them. "They're not that pretty. They used to be several years ago, but my age has sadly caught on to them."

She's flustered? Oh, I'm going to have a little fun with this. "Really, you don't look old. So I can't find any reason to believe that your wings are actually aged. I think they're─"

Celestia's smile disappeared as she looked down towards the ground with a saddened expression. "They will never be as beautiful as they once were. I've accepted that, now just leave it alone."

I suppose it must be a personal thing if she doesn't want to talk about it. "Sorry. I didn't mean to─"

"You're fine... I just need to talk with you, about... you." She confessed as she grabbed my hands once more. "About where you came from."

"Well, I know I'm from Austin, and I managed to somehow get here on a drug trip. I'm fine with that knowledge."

Celestia started to look at me with worry in her eyes. "D-drugs?"

"Not a very proud moment of my life, I'll admit. I was depressed and I started taking them because I thought that I could really be the 'life of the party'. But I didn't do anything but turn a lot of people off. So, I took more drugs and tried to drive myself to the fast-food place across the water and... I crashed my car into the gulf. Next thing up, I'm in a forest, I'm running, I meet a talking pony, I hit my head on a tree, and then I wake up to you guys. So I guess it isn't really a bad trade-off."

"...It isn't?"

"Yeah. I kinda found my purpose in life, as well as myself here. I also made pony friends, made amends with my human friends, and I'm doing something for the benefit of a nation. I couldn't be anymore happier... well, with the exception of a few things. But you get the point. So this 'do I feel abandoned' crap is far from true. I feel embraced, revitalized, the shit in this room lets me know I'm appreciated. So yeah, I would kinda like to find out that missing link of how I got here in the first place, but I think I can go without it."

Are you sure?

I have solace in my existence. I don't need the answers to everything, that's one thing I can go without. Yeah, I'm curious as to how I got here, but do I need to know? Should I know, or should I live for what was given to me? Ignorance is bliss, and I'm already swamped with enough bullshit to last me a lifetime. I know there will be things that come up and cause me more grief and personal conflict. I'm comfortable with the load I have, thank you very much.

Celestia released my hands and wrapped her hooves around my body instead. She nuzzled me softly as she whispered. "If this is what makes you happy, then I will not change that for you."

"Thanks."

"Although, I do wish for you to know that your friends will be welcome to appear here as often as they wish. So we'll be creating portals for them."

...what?

Author's Note

Nuff said.

So yeah, that added onto a hectic summer filled with weddings, parties, and gatherings, it's been difficult. Musically, I've hit my stride. Writing-wise, I've kinda suffered. As it gets closer to the end, I start to get my mind back in shape. Also, this is the conclusion of the changeling assault arc, so next up will be a lighthearted chapter that advances the relations of a few characters. That's all I'm spoiling.

But in the meantime, I apologize for my lack of updates and my inconsistencies in this chapter (writer's block messes with the flow, especially if the only way to overcome it is to keep writing).

Thank you for being patient with me, and thank you followers. I will try to make the next few chapters much better than this.

Chapter XLIII

So... this is a thing.

When I was unconscious, both Cliff and Rickey were given status as Honorary Equestrians due to their heroic bravery and courageous sacrifice. Hence they were given full permission to come and leave as they wished. And especially given that they often come to my place in order to pay a visit, Twilight saw it as inconvenient and offered to build both of the boys portals. And they said yes.

So now the media is on my ass asking about them both, Shining's on my ass to get them recruited into the military even after I specifically informed him that it would be out of the question, Twilight's on my ass about trying to see if I can finally introduce her to my world outside of my apartment... and Melanie's on my ass for not being able to come through today.

So what do I do in the midst of all this chaos, especially if this is supposed to be my day off?

Issue a statement to the media about how I will no longer accept any questions that involves the human race, remind Shining that my no is still a fucking no, politely inform Twilight about how weird it is for humans to date anything outside of other humans, and casually explain to Mel that I was and still am out of town due to 'job reasons'.

Also, I managed to get a voice message from dad. He hounded on me about not visiting home since I had gotten back. I'm being swarmed by several townsfolk about how heroic I was for saving whoever lived. I've received a lot of flack from politicians for recovering only one-hundred-thirty-nine bodies out of a missing total of three-hundred-plus victims.

Those fuckers are lucky that they just said this to a person in the newspaper rather than to my face, otherwise I'd be more than happy to ship THEM off to the changeling queen's doorstep. Let's see if they'll find who's missing from there. One of them even had the gal to call me irresponsible and noted that this success had, quote-unquote, "Failed to yield any sort of valuable information as to apprehending the changeling commander responsible for the Canterlot attacks." And on top of that, they note that Celestia's involvement was a sign of weakness in the guard, stating how the guards have fallen in image since my tenure as captain.

...I really need to get my head out of the newspaper.

Aside from all the fallout of this bullshit. We also had to give out hush money to the families that watched us take two changelings in captivity. Thankfully they don't know their ranks or who they even were. The only thing that they needed to know was that the ones responsible would be apprehended "soon".

Aside from all of that mess, I am more than happy to say that I now have a day to myself...

Correction, no I don't.

"There will be no further questions at this time. All information regarding the two humans are to remain classified until further notice. Have a nice day!"

A throng of reporters and photographers moaned and shouted with disgust as I walked away. The few that tried to pursue me were then directed elsewhere by a few guards. To their frustration, I made sure that there were some capable of using advanced magic to detain any ponies from questioning me any further. I had also placed pegasi guards around the area to prevent any reporters from flying overhead.

After that was done, I took to Sugarcube Corner to snag a quick bite to eat. Unfortunately, pony hospital food consists primarily of hay and oats, so I couldn't fill up on that, especially dry oats. And thankfully, my favorite baker was in the building.

"Hey, Non-non! Want something sweet?"

"Two cherry danishes, undevoured, two cubes of sugar, one teaspoon of cream and one cup of coffee."

"Coming right up!"

As she walked off, I began to reminisce on the simple beginnings of how all of this came to be. Several months back, you wouldn't dare catch me being a member of any nation's military, or punching out abusive boyfriends. I've managed to do both in less than a year, but that's not that significant of an accomplishment.

Another thing I have to take pride in is my willpower and self-preservation when it came to lustful encounters. From month number five, I have been the topic of every mare's conversation at one given point. And here I am still struggling to wank one out every now and then. I guess without the porn, it does become a little difficult to use the imagination. And considering that ponies are a different breed altogether, the imagination tends to run a bit dry... that was until one faithful day where Twilight decided to hike her tail up and show me that she wore enchanted chastity rings.

From then on, my imagination ran at a million miles an hour, but my body was getting tired from the long days outside, in court, dealing with various issues, and fighting. So once again, I was reduced to being tired and going to sleep while choking the snake. Made for some rather awkward mornings.

But I know that the one thing that really threw my mind over a loop, the one thing that sparked my interest in ponies was one event. One momentous night, a pony decided she wanted to dance after I had voiced my refusal to do so. She pins me on a wall and she parks her pink ass on my pelvis. The one thing that enhanced my desire to get with ponies was the vanilla perfume that Rarity wore, the way her hooves pulled me down as she soldered her lips on my cheek, prompting me to show a bit of excitement for her. The thing that finalized my desire for a pony was the scent of lavender invading my nostrils as Twilight planted her lips on mine. And then it transcended a kiss, going from an exchange of tongues to her straddling me.

Yeah, this kinda went on for months now. And the one time I get laid, I have to deal with a bunch of consequences pertaining to a reason that's completely archaic and irrational. And now I know that the politicians want my ass dead because of a purple princess deciding to ride me like I was her first toy.

Wait a minute... why am I even thinking about sex in a public venue anyhow?

"Here you go, Nonnums."

I couldn't be anymore impatient as I grabbed the fork that she placed down on the table. But I was more than surprised to know that she had gotten my order intentionally wrong. Instead of two danishes, she made me wildberry pancakes topped with syrup and whipped cream. Of course, my coffee was placed on the side.

"Pinkie, did you─"

"Nonzie, you deserve it. You saved a bunch of ponies yesterday. And the ones that you couldn't save, you brought them back to their families anyhow. They wore smiles on their faces, they passed on in peace, knowing that they were in good hands. This kind of thing you always do for us, you did it for everypony. So I can't just let you go around with a partially filled tummy and a lighter wallet. This one's on me."

"Pinkie..." My grandfather would always say that it's best to take what is given to you with appreciation rather than argument. Of course his reason behind it is that he would give me a bunch of clothes for Christmas when I was a kid. But I was not going to say no to free food. "Thanks."

"You're Ponyville's big hero. You deserve it."

Before I could start digging in, I had felt a soft presence mashing against my cheek. I turned my eyes to the side to see the pink party pony planting a wet one on me, humming gleefully as she pressed. As she removed herself, I could feel the area she kissed become drastically colder, causing me to place a hand over it.

Pinkie then pulled a chair from a nearby table and sat it in front of me as she spoke. "So, what's your plans for today? I heard that you have the day off."

I started cutting into the stack of pancakes as I answered her. "Well, I was going to try having a day to myself. I have a LOT of things to do on the other side. I'm supposed to be visiting my folks and trying to get them to chill out on my 'disappearances'. I guess I should start off with calling mom, she's been the one who was worried all this time."

"My dad is completely unreal." Pinkie confessed as she pulled the danishes she was going to give to me out of her mane. "He wants me to bring Cheese over for a dinner with the family. He also keeps bugging me on why I haven't... you know."

"What?"

"Well, he wants to know why I haven't won you over yet."

"Seriously? Did you tell him that I was dating someone else?"

"Yeah... In speaking of which, I have a question."

"And I may have an answer."

"Since you and Twilight been together, I haven't seen either of you make any plans for going out on a date. So would it be called 'dating' if you both haven't really gone out?"

"I..." She has a very valid point, and a troublesome one at that. Not once have Twilight and I made any kind of accommodations for anything like that. But it was for a good reason. The first three weeks were dedicated to getting me installed as an official citizen of Equestria, the two and a half months that followed was me getting yelled at by Shining Armor, and the past two weeks have been a chaotic mess of occurrences. So no, we haven't even had the time to have one.... especially since we're on break from our relationship. I suppose I could set one up at the end of this trial period to see if we can still connect.

"Non-non?"

"I guess so. I mean, we already took it as far as it could possibly go outside of marriage... and we even got in trouble over it."

"Yeah, Twilight mentioned something about it back at the castle when you both had that big falling out."

I felt a bit of embarrassment as I recalled the event. She even said it out loud to where every guard in the castle could hear it. I guess it would make sense that she'd know about it by now. "Okay, so you know we went there."

"Also, what exactly caused you two to break up?"

"We haven't broken up yet." I corrected. "It's just a break for us to evaluate our options. Whoever wants to move on can do so. And whatever happens stays between that individual. I already told her that she could do whatever she wanted, and she agreed that I would be subject to the same limitations."

"Meh... I don't think it's really fair, per se." She said as she wolfed down one of the danishes.

"How so?"

"Well, Twilight can't just go around town rutting stallions. There are restrictions placed on her for that."

"Oh yeah. But I don't think I'm going to do anything that gets out of hand. If a trip to third base is as far as she can go, then I don't mind stopping there."

Pinkie sighed as she shook her head. "No, that's not what I'm talking about. I just don't want you to do something that the two of you will regret. I like seeing you two happy."

As I finally took my first bite of my breakfast, I shivered in response to the flavors that exploded in my mouth. A mix of cherries, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, and nuts abducted my tastebuds and sent them into overdrive. My mouth watered as the light, fluffy, buttery texture melted in my mouth. "Oh wow, these are amazing... But seriously, I wanna ask you a personal question."

"Okay, go for it."

"Are you and Cheese happy with one another?"

Pinkie hesitated for a brief second, mainly because she started hounding down the second pastry. "Sure. We may have a few issues that needs working out here and there, but I think we get along pretty nice."

I noticed that she began to stare at me for a little bit, then look away with a nervous smile on her face. She tapped her hoof repeatedly on the table. I guess she was still somewhat flustered over my being here, asking her more personal questions about her relationship. "Last question, then we can change the subject. Do you ever feel angry over how I kinda took a siesta from your life just to bring you two closer together?"

"Very. At that time I was practically ready to give all of myself to you, and you just disappeared. Not really disappear-disappear because then we would be sending out rescue parties to find you, and then we'd probably be upset if we couldn't find you and try to look for you some more. Then I would really start to be a crying mess who couldn't control her emotions because the one I adored had completely abandoned her... But it actually stung a little more since I knew where you were exactly and not knowing why you decided not to talk to me. It was the main reason why I brought it up at our last friendship gathering."

"Because I was trying to get you both together and separate myself to minimize my presence so that you and he could grow closer in the intimate sense."

"I guess. Wouldn't really mind if I had dragged you a random closet so we could get to know each other in that same way."

WOAH! We've just hit the fifth gear here. "Have you... ever thought about that day you... tried to drag me upstairs─"

"Every single day." She confessed while biting her lower lip.

Well that was a little more forward than I would've expected her to be. "Really?"

"Yeah, still have thoughts. But they only stay that way. I mean, how weird would it be if Cheese and I were romping it out and your name were to come out?"

I'd say that would be a major boner-killer, unless you were that kind of guy who'd be willing to fuck the memories out of a girl, which is pretty impressive. "...Has that actually happened?"

"Only twice, but it was at the very beginning of our reunion. I don't think I would mind having that thought stay in my head, locked away somewhere. But sometimes I do kinda close my eyes and let my imagination do the work... *sigh* Cheese is a great colt, but... the sexual appeal is... not really all there."

Oh wow, that's a bit of a problem. "So what do you think is the cause of that?"

"Well, for starters, our first time was actually his first time. And I might have touched on this a teeny bit but stallions don't really last as long as we mares would prefer, let alone putting up a decent performance on the first go. Let's just say that we finished a little sooner than what I had in mind."

Cadance said the same thing about Shining just yesterday at the weapons demonstration. So apparently that's a thing here. "Really then? So what's your demands, like what are mares usually looking for?"

Pinkie pursed her lips as she hummed to herself. "We want stuff like a ten-minute session, we get about three or four. So it's kinda hard to get to the finish line when you get a stallion that's pretty much a one-and-done deal. Cheese and I are working on his endurance and he's improving, but I usually end up finishing on my own."

I just wanted to ask myself this, why are we talking about sex in a public venue? Then again, I have a friend on the other side of the mirror who wouldn't mind going into detail about this kind of stuff, even while we're at the mall or in class. "Oh, so do you guys go to a specialist or something?"

"Personal question, Nonnie."

This whole conversation is personal beyond belief! You're just now calling that out!? "Sorr─."

"My turn!" Aaaaand she flipped the script, typical of her. "So, since you and Twilight managed to go all the way, what was your performance like?" She asked with a slight blush. "I'm kinda curious on how you humans mate."

Wow, this conversation went from zero to light-speed. "Well, I don't usually believe in the 'kiss-and-tell' thing, but since you kinda opened up..." A whole fucking lot. "She and I really had the foreplay thing down. But I guess her big thing was edging. I'd get close as shit but then she'd pull off and haul ass somewhere. Plus she'd use a bunch of spells to prevent me from finishing off. In general, I was a frustrated ass trying to desperately get my rocks off."

"That's nice to know, but I didn't ask about you and Twilight." She stated while finishing the last danish. "I asked about you and you alone, silly."

Oops... I might've told a little too much on Twi's end. She's gonna kill me for that. "Well, I may have done well? Ish? I don't know. I'm probably thinking in terms of female human standards. I may have done pretty shitty now that I think more on it."

"That's the thing! You're talking about human standards, but how is it applied to the equine standard? Mares want a ten-minute romp, so how long do human... mares try and go for?"

Yeah, I never really did get around to explaining the differences between human males and females. I'll give her a pass on that one. "Well, there are some women on my planet that has the same issues. Sometimes they want a full thirty-minute thing like they see in porn, but realistically speaking, it doesn't work like that. And those guys usually spend about ninety minutes to two hours filming all of that shit. A female orgasm usually takes at most seven to eight minutes to occur. And even then, most sessions are about fifteen minutes on average."

Pinkie stared at me with her jaw melting to the floor. "Holy fudge pops! Are you kidding me Non-non? Thirty minute sessions? I'm sorry, but I can barely do eighteen, and that's me on marathon-mode. Anything after that, I start to get a little sore." She stated as she kinda sank into her chair.

"Yeah I feel you there. Anything more than about three in a row for me and I'm starting to feel the burn."

"So... what's the human recovery time like?"

"Varies from person to person. If you got it like that, then you can actually go for several minutes. The professional guys usually bust one and get right back into it. There are some guys who can do the same thing, I guess I could do it after a few seconds to let off the steam and get going if I really feel like it."

"Twilight Sparkle, you lucky... NNNNGH!" Pinkie muttered with a bit of frustration while biting down on her hoof.

*ding-a-ling*

Both of us looked back towards the front door as we watched a familiar face staring at us while another random pony entered into the room, the white unicorn mare covered her mouth with a large blush on her face. "Oh... um, Rarity. How long have you been standing there?" Pinkie asked.

The fashionista looked towards the green mare and whispered. "Um, I'm afraid that the counter is closed for the moment. Could you come back in a bit?"

"What she said." Pinkie confirmed as her face turned into an actual shade of rose red.

The mare shrugged her shoulders and walked out of the front door, the bells jingling as she left. Rarity then carried on with her explanation. "Well I wanted to come by and ask if you were busy this afternoon, Nondis. But I may have... interrupted a sensitive conversation?"

Yeah... really. "How long were you here? We didn't hear the bells when you walked in."

"Well you two were talking a bit and Pinkie screamed out something about fudge pops. So I came in and found that you two were talking about... things." She stated while she looked in every other direction except for ours.

"Yeah, get this Rare, Nondie can actually─"

"I need you at the boutique so that I can get your measurements for a new tux I want you to wear for me." Rarity interrupted, trying to change the subject.

"Why a tux?" I inquired.

"Well, Mayor Mare will be honoring you sometime later this week. It would be best that you show up in your best outfit. I also informed both Cliff and Rickey to dress their part as they too will receive an honor." Rarity said while pulling out a small notepad. "I also do wish to capture their measurements as well so that I may gift them both a cute little outfit."

Okay, I guess I can do that. "Well if it's possible, I wanted to have the rest of my afternoon to myself so I can go back to my world and take care of some matters there. Why don't we head over to the boutique right now?"

"Nondis, I understand your need to reconnect on that end, but don't you think that you're pushing yourself a little too hard? You just got back on your feet from the recent operation. Even the others said that they would need a day or so to process what all transpired." Rarity suggested.

"Yeah, but I need to talk with my folks. Plus I almost died yesterday, so I'd much rather get in a final goodbye. After all, tomorrow is not promised to anyone."

As soon as I finished saying those words, both mares sunk their heads as they began to dismay. With frowns and folded ears, they both sat quietly in place. "Non, don't ever say that again."

"We've already have far too many things to worry about in our daily lives. Don't have us sulk in the possibility of losing you, please."

I guess my words were a little too realistic. I didn't mean to put a damper on the whole thing. "I'm sorry. I guess I was just quoting my grandpa. But still, I wanna clear some things out over there. I also have─"

"Well darling, if you're in such a rush, then you should march from behind that table and to the boutique so that I may capture your measurements. Each time I look up, you begin to lose inches in certain areas and you gain in others."

Reasonable, considering that I do a lot of strenuous activity. "Okay, then let's go."

"But not until you finish your food first!" Pinkie chided as she ran around the table just to keep me seated in place. "I didn't cook all of that just for you to have left-overs."

"And then we'll talk about your abhorrent beverage decisions come later. But for now, I will rid you of that coffee and substitute it with a nice cup of tea." She said as she walked off with my cup of coffee... that I've been meaning to drink.

"Hey, it's what he ordered."

"And you know that it's not good for him. Tea is the best way to make sure that his vocal cords are safe from all that screaming and shouting."

"I suppose you're right. But I don't think it's any of our business what he drinks."

"But it is our business to make sure that our friend continues to remain in good health and well-dressed."

"And to make sure he's also happy."

Geez, these two. It's like my mom and my aunt when I was younger. "Okay, I get it!"

A few minutes later, Rarity walked me over to the boutique. As soon as we walked in, she informed me that the tux would be a bit before completion, as she needed to go out and find some sapphires, cut them down to size, and clean them off. She didn't hesitate in telling me to take off my shirt either, but I had gotten so used to it that I just start stripping at the front door. Granted this time, she was a bit slower than usual today.

As she walked off upstairs, I spent some time in front of a mirror. As I stared at the reflection, I had began to see how many scars had showed up on my chest and arms. I had managed to get several gashes on my shoulders and arms, and there was the one spot that seemed slightly cut into on the right side of my chest. I guess my chest did take a significant beating from the changeling brute yesterday. And my abdomen seemed as if I was ready to chisel up in appearance.

...Wow... I can actually be vain enough to say this. I look kinda buff.

Rarity came walking back downstairs with a bunch of stuff in her magical grasp. But very little of it looked like an actual tuxedo. Instead it looked like armored padding for some odd reason.

"Put this on." I tilted my head as she tossed me the large padded vest, along with what appeared to be a protective mask.

"Uh, I thought I was supposed to be taking it easy today." I said while holding the vest and mask.

"You are, but I'm going to need to see something about you first. So, suit up."

I looked at the stuff she gave me with a bewildered expression before shrugging and putting it on. I ultimately decided that she was doing this to prove a point about something... whatever it was. As I began placing it on, I had noticed that each and every part of the vest was made to the specific measurements from my last visit. Though I continued to praise her for her ability to make human clothing, I had not anticipated that she could actually make stuff like this. By the time I finished putting on the suit and the mask, I had noticed that there was the hilt of a fencing foil pointed towards me. "Um... what is this?"

"It's a sword. We're going to have a little spar, you and I. It's just for a bit, you can take that suit off once we're done."

A spar, what are we sparing for? "Um... can I get an explanation on what exactly this is supposed to be for?"

"A friendly competition. Of course, it does come with it's own consequences."

"So you're betting on this? How much?" I don't wanna do this for a variety of reasons. The first thing is because I'm trained to fight, the second is because I'm a male, and the third thing is because I don't see any profit from doing something like this.

"Oh, it's just a small wager. It will be decided in a series, three of five wins." She stated as she simply grabbed another foil without wearing any sort of armor.

"Um... I'm not doing this. First, I don't have anything to profit from it. And second, you're not wearing any armor."

Rarity smiled as she used her hoof to slightly flex the blade. "I don't believe you realize just how much of a fool you're making yourself out to be, Nondis dear. The armor is for your protection."

...Did she just imply that I was going to lose? "Come again?"

With a smirk, she used her magic to point her sword at me. "What I'm saying is that you're not strong enough to beat me."

"I get that you're trying to entice me to come at you, but I'm not interested. I don't want to fight you."

"So I suppose Shining's sentiments of you being weak is something of a oft-unspoken truth?"

She almost got me there. "No, I can handle my own. I'm just not willing to challenge you."

"My dearest Nondis, I'm not saying that I could teach an old dog new tricks... but I can teach a stubborn one how to sit."

Yeah... she just implied that I was a─ "Are you actually calling me a dog?"

"Well, I wouldn't exactly put it that way. There's this special way you have of saying it. Let me try to remember. Let's see... hmm... I remember that it was a vulgar connotation that you'd use on rare occasions... Ah, yes! Bitch."

She just... she just out and said it. "You... *srnk* Bwahahahaha!"

"Well, are you or are you not?" She asked with a serious tone.

"Hahaha... phew... I'm so gonna kick your ass." I said with a finger wave and a giggle.

"Okay. GO!"

As soon as I looked up from laughing, all I could see was a while mare with a sword lunging for me. Immediately, I stopped laughing and took a step to the side. Before I could raise my sword, I felt something poking me in the neck. I looked down to find a smug-faced fashionista holding her sword against my throat.

I knew then that she wasn't playing any games. "Damn. Okay, I'll stop laughing."

"One of my biggest peeves is not being taken seriously, Nondis. You would do well to pay attention to what's in front of you." She stated as she pulled the sword from my neck. "That's one-nil."

"When did you get that fast?" I asked, completely baffled at how quick she took me on.

"Oh, well I do happen to take a few courses in self-defense, I've also practiced swordplay in my spare time with Rainbow Dash, magic dueling with Twilight, and urged myself to master the art of negotiation. There are many things I have faced in my time of being the Element of Generosity, and there are still many more dangers for the girls and I to face. So saying that I am incapable of fighting you is nothing more than nonsense. You have your secrets while I have mine."

So in other words, I actually have to get serious for a minute. "Okay, I can respect that."

"And you will, Nondis." Rarity backed off of me, giving us enough room to see the gap between our swords. Her smile dissolved as she looked at me crossly, almost with a quiet anger and a stony demeanor. "I won't give you any other choice."

But what I saw in total scared me. It wasn't the fact that she looked intimidating, which her elegant appearance sort of detracts from. It was the fact of how beautiful she was. I actually had goosebumps looking at her, and it made me see her differently than many other times I've done so. I was actually terrified that she had this effect on me, where all I could do was... mesmerize. It's like one of those moments where you look at someone and you find that they look amazing.

...Wait, what am I even thinking about? My mind's all over the place today.

"Keep your eyes on me." She said in a low voice.

I had no intentions of it. My eyes were locked onto her, reading her bodily movements. Watching her as her right foreleg raised, her hind legs moved towards me. As soon as her hind legs met with her anchored left foreleg, her body lunged forward. In the fraction of a second, she disappeared from where she once stood, darting towards me with sword in tow. Taking up a defensive posture, I kept my sword in front of me as she approached.

Her first swing came quickly, striking upward as she pressed forward. I took a step back to keep myself in balance as I dodged the blow. A second strike came slashing back down, to which I parried off to the side. As her sword fell away, I took the opening and slashed forward. She ducked quickly, avoiding my blow while she regained her form. When I went in for a second strike, she used her free hoof to bat my arm aside while curling her sword back around into my abdomen.

"Two-nil." She said triumphantly. "I suppose you guards aren't all that up to snuff when it comes to sword combat."

To be perfectly fair, sword combat in this world is heavily based to unicorn magic and hooves, meaning that the blade is either free-moving with weak strikes or firm with strong strikes. But too much of either was considered a quick and easy way to get one's self killed. And my wrist provided that middle ground where I could twist my blade as freely as a unicorn or stand as firm as an Earth pony. I've taken on multiple stallions at once in training and have successfully beaten even the likes of Shining Armor.

But Rarity was in a class of her own. She mastered the balance between magic and hoof. But I had to point out that she still had an advantage of her being able to use her magic so fluidly, accurately... Then again she's the pony who puts thread into needles without any effort. She has the advantage of knowing surgical precision. Her timing is unusually odd in count. And she does make it difficult for me to be able to telegraph her moves. I was just thrown off by her and her alone.

In other words, I got caught looking. DAMMIT NONDIS, FUCKING FIGHT!

Shaking my head and placing the foil aside, I proceeded to slap the sense back into my brain. "Okay, come on. You got this. Concentrate." I said to pep myself into fighting. "Focus. You. Got. This."

"So... do you admit that I've made an old dog such as yourself sit?"

Her banter quickly moved me back from the realm of thought to reality. "Sorry, I'm hardheaded. I don't learn very easily. You can ask my folks, they'll say the same."

"Oh, well I suppose I wouldn't mind putting you down then. Disobedience does not appeal to me."

"Really, then what does?"

The white unicorn cracked a smile as she turned her back towards me. "Well, how does unconditional servitude sound?"

"Like I'm a slave." I answered in deadpan.

"Very good, that tells me you're learning after all."

I groaned as I waited impatiently for her to start our next match. "What is the point of this conversation? Is it to distract me?"

"Oh no, I know how to distract you... but I'm not sure that you would be willing to see what I'll distract you with." She said with a swish of her tail.

Okay, I really need to finish up and leave before this turns into something unexpected and one of us comes away hurt. "I think I'm done here."

"No, you're not."

Without warning, Rarity leapt around and fired a magic bolt past my head, which caused me to lose a bit of my balance as I dodged it. With all of the momentum in her favor, she swung from the side I stumbled to. I stumbled a bit more as I continued to struggle with regaining my balance. She then jumped into the air and pounced on me, causing me to land flat on my back as she pinned me against the ground. With a smug grin, she chuckled slightly while her magic summoned the sword to tightly press into my neck.

"...Now, you're done here."

I looked back at her with disbelief and frustration. "You cheated."

"Ah-ah-ah-ah! I did not cheat, I distracted you and warned you beforehoof. You were unprepared, and so you lost. Three-none."

"I want a rematch." I responded rather grumpily.

"Oh, suck it up. You lost, which means you lose the wager."

"We never agreed on anything." I stated, thinking back to the beginning of our 'spar'. "You just said go and kept pounding at me until you managed to hit something."

"That is where you're wrong. If you go back to the second session, my first few strikes were to maintain control of your central line. Thus once I gained that advantage, I began to read your body language. Believe it or not, Nondis, your motions are quite readable. You step left with the intention to swing from right towards the legs, and countered by removing your sword from play. After, you were fully exposed to me and my blade."

"Okay, you got that ONE round."

"Then explain what happened in rounds one and three."

"You caught me off guard on─"

"That's where you need to stop. I caught you off guard TWICE."

I tilted my head as she pressed the blade even deeper against my neck. "You did a dick move on that last one."

"When in battle, you fight to survive. There is no such thing as honorable combat, or a 'fair fight' if your objective is to survive. You have shown this yourself that one day where you charged at the changelings just down the street from here. I wanted to see if you could recreate that little performance against moi."

"And I didn't. Sorry for the disappointment." I responded dryly.

Pulling the foil off my neck, she slowly got off of me as she spoke. "And for your failure to do so, I demand a reimbursement for this tiny little stint."

As I pulled off the mask, I took a deep breath as I felt the pressure on my chest lessen. "Okay, you won. You won through questionable means, but you got me. So, what's this debt I owe you?"

"Tomorrow evening."

...Seriously? "I'm not so sure as to what you─"

Rarity trotted up to me and used her magic to yank me down to eye-level. In a sweet, low voice, she whispered just inches away from my face. "You know exactly what I'm referring to. Tomorrow evening, no later than five-fifty. Our chariot will arrive by six. Come dressed in casual outwear. And treat me as I am your very own."

Her grasp at the front of my shirt didn't get any looser as I spoke. "I don't think that's such a good idea."

"And I don't think your 'break' with Twilight is as you say it is. To me it looks like you two flirt as often as you have once before, just with arguments added. Quit walking on your 'infinite line' and going nowhere. Branch out, assess your options, you can never truly find what you're looking for if you remain complacent with what you currently have."

"I have a feeling you want me to break up with Twilight for good." I answered back.

"I never said such a thing. What I'm merely saying is this: if you're on break, then go out and venture. That is the purpose of your Saving Grace clause, is it not?"

"I promised Twilight that I wouldn't use it."

The white mare tightened her telekinetic grip and dragged me in even closer to her, our lips just mere centimeters apart. "I'm going to tell you a little secret. Twilight is naive, she doesn't know what she wants. She's like you, willing to stay on the first choice she makes, unaware of the consequences and the outcome of that choice would be. The both of you have decided to venture out, so now I'm opening that door for the both of you to explore your options. I'm doing this as her friend, and yours."

She gave me a quick peck on the cheek before she whispered into my ear.

"Plus, I know very many things about you that she wouldn't know just by looking. Isn't that right, Patricia?"

"Uguk!" ...I'm genuinely scared shitless. "How did you know my middle name? I never told anyone that."

"You used to leave your wallet on the ground a lot when you first got here. I'd graciously return it to your room... among other things."

"Clothes?" I questioned, considering that was how I managed to obtain a solid majority of my current wardrobe.

She quickly grabbed my head and pulled me towards her as she leaned forward to set her lips just in front of my ear. "You could say that."

I remained paralyzed as she merrily trotted off. I was reduced to a stone statue, standing on it's knees as I questioned myself on what had just transpired in the past ten minutes. The only thing that I could remember was that Rarity challenged me to a duel, won, gambled me into a date, and told me that she knew my middle name. But I did manage to find the ability to adjust my eyeballs to her. When she walked, she had that similar sway she once had, more specifically after the day she and the others made me wear a dress. Only difference was that she stopped to look back this time.

"Oh, and that will be all for today, sir captain."

...Just who the hell is this mare?

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

After another hour or so of dealing with more reporters trying to juice more information from me, I left Ponyville and traveled back to my world. When I went to check in on some messages, I began to remind myself that I could have done that without crossing over. I know that as of yesterday, I could check them in Ponyville. But I suppose it does take some getting used to the fact that I can indeed use my phone in the pony world, but only if the portal to my world is open. As a result, I had managed to get a few messages from Cliff and Rickey expressing their concerns about my well-being. I had a voicemail from dad, telling me that I needed to speak with the family more often. And another message from Melanie asking if I was free today.

So being that I was in lack of a ride home, I decided that I could knock two birds out with one stone. I pulled up her number and tapped the screen on the green call button. As the phone rang through, I started to get on the computer to check in on some of the recent news. Apparently, not much else has happened outside of typical human developments. ISIS executed another journalist, the chokehold death situation in New York has gotten everyone in an uproar, and Robin Williams is still gone.

I don't even know why I check the news anymore if it's all going to be depressing.

*click* "Hello?"

I turned my attention to the girl on the other side of the line. "Hey, Mel. What's good?"

"Nondis! I thought you died for a second. Where the hell are you?"

"What do you mean 'you thought I died?' I'm still alive, apparently." I answered.

"Well you just told me that you were working and I thought that you would at least let know what time you had got off your shift."

"Yeah. Sorry bout that. Hey, have you gotten any info on your case yet?"

"Yeah, he's apparently willing to snitch us out. But I guess they won't have much of a case if there's nothing to support his viewpoint."

In other words, they can't go by his testimony if there's no evidence to back it. Glad it's all disposed-of, so to speak. "Gotcha. So, I have a favor to ask you."

"Okay, go for it."

"Do you think you could ride me over to my folk's house? My parents have been really on my case when it comes to visiting them."

"And I don't blame them. It's like you wander off to another planet or some shit. We can barely get a hold of you. I mean it was nice that I could hear you talk to me yesterday, but I'd much rather have you see me instead."

"What for?"

"I miss your company? I don't know."

"Okay... I don't mind breaking you off some gas money─"

"I really don't give a fuck about that right now. I'm on a full tank. I've been needing to get the hell out of this apartment, but I had no one to do it with. So you already know my answer."

"Great, what time will you be over?"

"I'm getting out of the car now and headed towards the stairs."

Gotta admit, she's fast. "Okay, well I'm on my way out there."

"Great. Now get off your ass and come entertain me!"

"Miss you too."

After I hung up, I grabbed my keys and took to the door. When I had walked out, I had immediately regretted not wearing a jacket. The temperatures were vastly different from Equestria. At least at this current time, the weather still feels like late-summer going into mid-September. And then again, it was late October so it's to be expected that I would need a jacket when it's almost Halloween. I walked back into my room and reached for my closet, trying to find something that would somewhat match what I have on. And knowing Rarity's particular style, it will be hard to do so with basic human clothing.

*Clip-clop clip-clop*

My head shot upwards as I backed out of my closet and turned to the bathroom. While I slowly walked towards it, I felt my heart rate increase with each step. When opened the door, I didn't see anything that resembled something that would walk on fours. So I turned around to resume what I was doing earlier.

"Heeeello there."

"AHH!" My heart skipped several beats while I jumped in response to see Twilight sitting where my bed used to be. But that wasn't the thing that scared the soul out of my body. It was the fact that her winged, horned, four-legged likeness was sitting right in my bedroom. "Holy fucking shit!"

"What?" She asked confusedly. "I just came around because of─."

I clenched my hand around her muzzle to quickly silence her. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I just wanted to drop on by while you were here. I wanted to see if we could spend some time together here in your world. I mean, I do come over every once and a while to help Sunset with some experiments and tidy up the place." She said through a clenched muzzle.

I rapidly shook my head. "Oh no. Not like this, you aren't. You are not going out like this."

"What's wrong?" She asked, beginning to look worried.

I removed my hand as I began to pace back and forth across my room. "You're a pony, you've been one this entire time. I know that, but you're a pony HERE, in my room. I can't just walk around town with a talking purple winged-unicorn." I stressed as I pulled out my phone to read a text message from Melanie.

Sender: Melanie
wtf i hurd u scream, r u ok?

Dammit, I can't stick around for this. "Look Twilight, I can't show you around right now. I have to go."

"What? Why are you in such a rush? And why is it I can't go with you?"

Look, there are two... no three reasons why I can't let you hang around here for long. First, there are no such things as talking equines in this world. Second, I have downstairs neighbors would would become overly suspicious if they constantly heard the sound of hooves clopping against the floor. And third, I'm visiting my family, who is super religious and super conservative. They already don't like the fact that I denounced Christianity back in freshman year of college. Xenophilia would probably be a big NO in their books. "Can you just stay in this room for ten minutes?"

Twilight sighed as she face-hoofed. "Nondis, come on. I want to meet everyone you know so that I can get to know them, they can understand what you go through, and why you constantly disappear every so often. I feel somewhat responsible for how your family's been feeling since your absence, so I want to give them closure."

"Twilight, I can't let that happen. I know you're anxious to meet my folk, but not now. At least find some spell that could turn you into a human, then we can talk. Aside from that, I can't disclose Equestria's existence to─"

"HEY NONDIS! YOU OKAY IN HERE!?"

SHIT! I FORGOT TO CLOSE THE FRONT DOOR! "Aww fuck me." I quietly turned to Twilight and hissed through clenched teeth. "Don't you say a word. I need you to stay as quiet as possible."

"But Nondis..."

She didn't finish her statement as I quickly grabbed the first jacket I saw from my closet and quickly walked out of the room. As I turned the corner, I could already see Melanie making her way towards my room. "Sorry about the wait. I had to grab something real quick."

"Yeah, I figured as much. I also heard a noise, almost like someone was talking to you." She stated with a raised eyebrow. "So who's in there? Got a pretty girl in your room?"

Not exactly a human girl, but... "Nah, that was my TV. I was online in Halo Reach and someone called me out before I cut everything off." I lied. "I know it sounds stupid, but Halo Reach is better than the recent installments."

"Are you sure that there isn't a girl in there, none by the name of... 'Bella'?" She questioned trying to look over my shoulder.

"No. She's still in Arlington. But really, do you mind if I get a ride?"

She folded her arms as she leaned against the wall, giving me a bemused expression. "Okay, but I do have to ask you something. What did you have to grab that was so important to leave your front door wide open? If I was some random stranger, I would've came in here and knocked your lights out and did whatever to you and this place."

As if that's possible, considering that you're the only one headed up here. "I know. I'll try to do better. Now let's get going."

"To your parents' house, right?"

"Yup."

While we walked out of the door, she continued to ask questions. "I don't remember you telling me you had a job."

"Yeah, I do security." For a whole nation. "Sometimes I do it out of town, especially in Arlington."

"Oh, so you went with Bella yesterday?" She questioned, seeming disappointed.

"No. Just strictly business. I just got back in not too long ago and decided to chill for a good portion of the day... that was until my dad gave me a call."

"Oh, I guess that makes a lot of sense. You look the part, except the jacket, that thing looks like you're wearing a red duffel bag." She joked.

"I guess I do need something that's a little less baggy." Now that I think about it, my whole wardrobe on this side is too big for me to wear. I suppose that is a little bit of a problem. But that can be solved by packing my clothes from you-know-where and bringing them over when I need to spend a night or two.

"And for fuck's sake, that thing is ancient. You've had that since junior year of high school."

"My granddad had odd tastes for clothing. You know this." That man did nothing but give me old clothes from the thrift store, and some weird stuff to wear for Christmas. The jacket I'm wearing is nothing but a reminder of two things: him and how much weight I lost from then till now.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. You ready to go?" She asked as I was locking the door.

"Yes, now let's get going. The sooner we get there, the less I'll have to hear from dad."

Twilight sat inside of the room, her ear placed against the door as she listened in to the humans having their conversation. She didn't pull away until she heard the sound of the front door being pulled shut. After she stopped listening in, she quietly sulked as she sat motionless, a frown forming on her face.

"Bella... Am I so much of a hassle that he has to change my name? What is so bad about him being with me that he has to hide me every time I'm here? I thought that with Cliff and Rickey, he would be willing to tell everyone he knew about Equestria, about us... Or maybe we're just too different for them?"

The purple mare rose to her hooves and slowly walked back to the bathroom. Before she left the human world, she looked at the reflection of herself. Her ears fell as her face indicated depression. The more she thought about how he acted, the more her head fell. Finally, she looked back to the bedroom before making her exit.

"Are we so different?"

Author's Note

Of course after such a chapter, I had to tone things down a bit. So I apologize if this chapter seems a little slow.

Twilight's dilemma stems from earlier chapters, more notably the chapter where she met Cliff and Rickey for the first time. Rarity doesn't seem to give up on what she wants, so I suppose she decided that waiting it out was taking too long and make the first move. And now Nondis will have to deal with his mom and dad next chapter. What would happen next time? Read on to find out.

I finally got the juices flowing again. Hooray.

Chapter XLV

"Nondis..."

"Yes, Melanie?"

"Uhhh.... what the hell is this?"

The butterflies in my stomach... I think I'm gonna vomit.

"Nondis, what the hell!? I thought you locked the door!"

...what?

Due to my confusion, I finally gave myself the courage to open my eyes and see what was in front of me. But what I saw was quite a shock to behold.

"Oh my God! Did they take anything? And why is the couch laying longways against the wall?"

Yeah... I'm just as confused as she is at this point. But who am I kidding? I was like three milliseconds from my heart punching me in the gut, causing me to spew chunks, all of it in a not-so glorious sequence of a Rube Goldberg project. At one given point, I felt the acid in my stomach bubble a little bit and reach the back of my throat. Upon swallowing I felt disgust at the taste, but I also felt the exuberance of not seeing a single equine in my living room.

Naturally, I decided to roll with it. "Oh man, did they take anything?"

"Go see if they took anything in your room, for the most part it looks like they did a bit of rummaging through everything." She suggested.

"What are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna look around and see if I can find any clues."

"Okay, you check in here while I go take inventory."

As she continued to slowly look around the living room for any hints or clues, I quickly darted to my room as any victim would. I ran inside my room and shut the door. With my back against the wall, I sighed in relief and quietly pumped my fist with jubilation. A big smile formed on my face as I slid to the floor. But in a few seconds, my smile then dissipated as I saw that my once-tidy room was what appeared to be a war zone. Obviously the girls were here at one given point, but I'm still confused as to why they decided to tear my room to shreds. Even my computer desk was in complete disarray.

I walked over to the computer and saw that there was a few tabs open on my Internet Explorer browser, a browser that I hardly even use anymore. With an eyebrow raised, I investigated what was on the tabs and also opened my internet history. As I looked through the tabs, I saw that one was set on the google maps page, pointing out the address to my fraternity's on-campus home. Another tab showed a local news site with a video asking if I wanted to rewatch the video. But as soon as I looked at the header above, I saw that it was about the investigation of my disappearance. Another three tabs had something to do with human media, weather patterns, and... a search page of human sexual positions?

I did not search for that.

If anything I would do my porn searches on my laptop, that's why it's here and locked. But my attention was now brought to the glaring thing that seemed to have shone brightly on my computer, four notifications from Steam. As I pulled up the application, I had gotten three recommendations for what to buy. One game was called I Am Bread, another one called Kernal Space Program, and a final one that seems to be an often reviewed game called Five Nights at Freddy's. My curiosity getting the better of me, I decided to see what was this was all about.

I did a short search of the game and the first thing that came up was a video with a large purple... dog? Otter? Whatever it is, it had it's mouth open and breaking the fourth wall. So I clicked on the video and waited for it to load, as I watched, there was just a person clicking on a few buttons while sitting in a room. The room was pretty quiet except for the rapid clicking noise the 'door' button made. Suddenly, a screen popped up in my face, showing me several cameras and lots of static. The display fell down and then...

REEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Out of instinct, I shoved my hand against my mouth and jumped back as the screamer of a purple... something just eating away at my screen. My heart was going at a marathon's pace while I had already started to feel the small dose of adrenaline surging through my veins. Immediately afterwards, there was a brief screen of static before there was a pitch-black screen with that purple thing staring back at me... sans eyes, producing a static-filled screeching sound.

Oh hell naw.

I looked away for a moment and hoped that the screen cut off, but instead all I was was two white beady eyes and A HUGE ASS ROW OF FUCKING TEETH SMILING AS IF IT WAS GOING TO DEVOUR MY SOUL! The noise became even more distorted and louder. Afterwards, I could see a menu of what appeared to be a bear, a duck, and that purple thing just motionless... except for the occasional head tilts and static flashes.

No. Not even gonna touch this shit. Not even once. I've had my fucked-up experiences yesterday, last week, and every other time between. Before I could click away from the video, I heard a light brushing noise from within my closet.

That was the last thing I needed to hear, strange sounds emanating from my closet. I swear if I see something purple come out at me, I'll be punching it in the face. When I walked up to the closet, I balled up my fists tightly and slowly reached for the door. Without warning, the door swung wide open and out came a purple pony who ungraciously fell on her face.

"Ow... Last time I'll ever stuff myself into a closet."

You know, purple is the last color I'd wanted to see right now, at this immediate moment. But considering that it's Twilight... yeah this is probably even worse. "What are you doing in my closet?"

"Well, you're the one that sent Sunset the text that we should hide." Twilight whispered.

Did I send out a text? Last I checked I was too busy panicking over Melanie trying to get into my apartment to worry about sending out text messages. I don't remember sending out one in such a short amount of time. Pulling out my phone, I saw that my screen was on the conversation between me and Sunset. Inside of the room was only one text.

Sent to: +1-(929)-284-1323
Melanie is coming upstairs, hide and don't come out until I say so. Will explain later.

Discord, you cheeky dickwaffle. "Yeah, I did send out a text." I lied. I owe Discord this one. "But I do have to wonder why you are here in my world... again?"

Sunset removed herself from underneath a pile of clothes as she whispered. "Well, we wanted to make sure that Discord wasn't here."

As she stood in place with a pair of black boxers on her horn, I shook my head and face-palmed. "Sunset, why are you in my clothes?"

"It was the only place I could hide in such short notice. When you and her were coming through the door, I was still shoveling these over my head."

I tried my best not to laugh as I informed her where she was hiding. "Well if you would be so kind as to not hide in my dirty laundry next time, I would greatly appreciate it."

Sunset looked at the boxers on her horn and covered her muzzle as she shrieked. Rarity jumped out from beside her and they both proceeded to levitate the clothes off of their bodies. Pinkie simply hopped out with a smile as she quietly screamed 'surprise' at me. The other ponies looked at her strangely as she finished. "What, was I too late again?"

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy came from within the bathroom as the timid pegasus spoke. "Pinkie, I think our concern should be on the location of Discord. We can't just let him roam around here so freely, or it would cause a lot of trouble for Nondis."

"Can't see how, he's already in trouble as it is. Melanie knows we were here." Rainbow stated while holding my deodorant, teeth marks noticeable in the powdered stick. "Hey Nondis, your human salt licks taste like shit."

Okay, remember that day when Twilight shoved a pillow full of semen on her face in front of her mom and dad? This is getting close to it.

"Plaaah!" She blurted out in disgust as she brushed her tongue to get something off. "And seriously, what's with all the hair? This is like the fifth one I ran into."

On second thought, it's right up there with it.

Sunset looked on mortified of what the rainbow-maned pony had bit into. Her mouth dropped as she watched the pony starting to bite once more. I quickly intervened, grabbing the remains of my deodorant from her. "Rainbow, brush your teeth. That 'protein bar' was actually deodorant, I rub that under my arms to keep from smelling bad."

I think I had actually seen all the color drain from Rainbow's mane and coat as she stared at the thing I held in my hands, zoning out into a thousand-yard stare. "There is no greater sorrow then to recall our times of joy in wretchedness.”

In speaking of which, I now recall that time she and Applejack made me wear a dress all through the town. I had to pretend I had no problems wearing that thing when the panties I wore with it rode up the crack of my ass...

Eat it up, Dashie. Eat it all up.

The prismatic pony hopped up to her wings and bolted into the bathroom and proceeded to run the water to brush her teeth with as much toothpaste as possible. Sunset sank her head in disgust as she brought a hoof over her face. I decided to shrug off the image of what had just transpired and place my attention back to the purple princess in front of my closet. "So, why do you think Discord is here again?"

"Well I had a conversation with him just before he left. I was talking about how everything was so different in your world compared to ours. But when I said that my magic goes unchanged when I come here, he decides to run off somewhere. He made the excuse that he would be going to Fluttershy's for..." Twilight's cheeks started to turn pink as she glanced over to the yellow pegasus. "...reasons that shall remain undisclosed."

Not even gonna ask.

"NONDIS, COME HERE!"

As Melanie's voice boomed through the apartment, I felt a familiar sense of urgency take over my mind. I turned to the group of ponies and whispered. "You guys, can you all quietly get back to Equestria?"

The ponies agreed to comply with my request, but it didn't come without additional commentary. "But what about Applejack?" Sunset questioned quietly to Twilight.

"What about her?" I asked, overhearing their question.

"Well, she was somewhere in the front room when we all had gotten the text you sent. None of us have seen her come in here."

That means she's in the front... SHIT! "What do you mean, she isn't with you!?"

"NONDIS!" I heard her call from somewhere down the hall, her footsteps growing even closer to the room. The girls went back into hiding, much to the misery of Sunset and Rarity. Pinkie didn't seem to mind too much about hiding in my soiled apparel, then again I have to keep in mind who I'm talking about. Nevertheless, I walked out into the hall and quickly closed the door behind me. Just a few feet away stood Melanie. "What took you so long to respond?"

"I was kinda distracted by something, sorry."

She scoffed at my answer. "Well next time say something, I thought the intruder was in your room and had gotten to you. You didn't say anything while I was in here looking around or when I called your name."

"Okay, I won't scare you like that again." I apologized. "So what did you find?"

"I found that someone had been going through your drawers in the kitchen. And apparently there's a strange set of tracks on the floor."

Uh-oh... "Let me see what you're talking about."

We walked from the hall and into the kitchen, where there was a pair of hoofprints on the floor, highlighted by my crushed stash of Zebracakes. Damn, I was looking forward to eating those, shit... I looked at the floor with dismay as I stared at the cream filling being violently spewed from within a crushed cake. Such violence implemented against a delicious snack. Pinkie Pie would surely assist me in my mourning...

PINKIE, YOU CRUSHED MY ZEBRACAKES!

"Well... there goes my snack." I announced in deadpan.

She pointed out the unusual oval-shaped prints on the box as well as well as an adjacent pastry. "These don't look like they were stepped on, but almost like they were hammered in by something. Whoever was in here really doesn't like your choice in snacks."

Rather they did, but was careless in their─Pinkie's─indulgence. "Well fuck you too, strange person who invaded my place of dwelling."

"Well I'm gonna get this taken care of, right now." Melanie didn't make any further issue of it as she pulled out her phone.

"Um... Mel, what are you doing?" I inquired while growing concerned.

"Calling the police, what else?"

"No no no no no no!" THAT'S EVEN WORSE! "Uh, don't do that."

"And why not?" She questioned, placing a hand on her hip.

"Because I'm stashing over here. You know, those guns I bought from Rickey, some of them are here and I haven't exactly been able to get rid of them yet. I can't exactly have the police snooping around unless you want me to get arrested!" I made up, knowing that all of the weapons were far from in this apartment.

"Nondis, some idiot just broke into your apartment, went through all of your shit, and now you're just telling me that they could be armed to the teeth?"

"No! I'm just saying that the police would arrest me on the count of possessing illegal firearms without a license. And if you're here, then that makes it probable cause for you to be taken in as well."

She rolled her eyes in response to my argument. "How the hell would they even have probable cause?"

"I don't know, perhaps your ex-boyfriend─who just so happens to be a criminal justice major─could have ratted us out about the weapons. And if I was a vengeful sonofabitch, I would drag your ass along with it just because you said that you were done with me!" I may have been on my off-game when it comes to lying lately, but this one was definitely legit.

Melanie thought about it for a second before hanging up the phone. "Well since you put it that way, he probably told on us by now. I'm just surprised that I haven't gotten a knock on my door yet. The most I've ever gotten was a phone call in regards to my case."

For the first time today, one of my own lies actually worked out in my favor. "Exactly, so don't call the police. We don't need the extra attention right now. At least let me get rid of the remaining stash and then we can talk about involving law enforcement."

She nodded quietly as she put her phone away. "So, what do you insist we do next?"

I began to scratch the back of my head as I thought aloud. "Well I guess I could clean this place up a bit. I'm kinda embarrassed that you walked in on it looking like this earlier. A second time is kinda brutal, don't you think?"

Melanie smiled a bit as she poked at me. "Are you sure you don't need any help?"

"Yeah, I'm good."

"Are you certain?"

"Yes."

"Then, you're gonna be okay?"

"I'm not dead, so yeah. Plus I'm armed, if anyone decides to walk in here and come at me, they'd be in for a rude awakening. Not really much of an awakening as it would be getting a permanent Ambien inserted into the skull."

Mel giggled a bit at the dark humor and walked towards the front door. I escorted her along the way down towards her car, where she gave me a final hug. She asked once more if I was in need of help, to which I graciously declined... again. But after we hugged, I had noticed that she hadn't took off yet. Instead, she was still standing in front of me, almost waiting on me to say something.

"You okay?"

She pulled out her phone and started tapping away at the screen. "Well, I remembered that you said you had a gift you wanted to give me this upcoming weekend."

I did say that, but in a blind panic. "I... guess I do."

"You guess?"

"I mean, I do, but... I don't know what it is yet."

"...So, if you're giving me a gift, then would it be safe to say that you're open this weekend?"

Oh dammit. "Sure. I don't mind going to a movie or something. We can hang out for a bit before I head back to work."

"M'kay. Then let's do my place at five."

Your place? "Why your place?"

"Just like you said, we're hanging out... Unless you wanted it to be a date or something, which I'd be kinda cool with."

I totally walked into this, I should've just left it at 'her place'. "Okay then, hangout at your place it is."

She smiled as she walked up to me, pulling at my shirt as she yanked me down and wrapped her free arm around my neck. The only thing I felt next was the gentle sensation of her lips softly pressed against mine. My heart began to jump throughout my chest, my stomach began to feel light as her right hand unhooked from my shirt and joined with her left arm in cradling my neck down to her. When I tried to back away, she leaned in on me, pulling me in even more as her lips parted and her mouth released a heated vapor against my lips. A soft gasp sounded as she tilted her head and pressed in for more.

Nervously, I started to move my hands to her chest to separate us, but she used her left hand to place my hand against her waist, moving it back towards the back of her jeans. On her next assault, she dipped her head slightly and shoved herself back in, using her lips to separate mine as her tongue secretly snuck in to greet mine. That bit of our exchange was brief, but it was definitely memorable. When she pulled off, she smiled and whispered.

"That... was my way of thanking you for getting rid of Jasper."

"Melanie─" I offered to speak but was silenced by a simple peck on the lips.

"I'll see you this weekend."

For the longest period of time, I was petrified. I could only watch as she walked over to the driver's side of the car, start up the engine, and pull off. As she left me smelling the gas from her exhaust pipe, I couldn't help but bring a finger to my lips. Eventually, my mind had finally caught up to the fact that she had actually kissed me.

Melanie kissed me. Melanie, my crush since high school, my sole desire throughout college, my downfall into drugs and despair, the beacon that spoke of my existence long after my absence, had actually burdened my lips with her own. Of course I would need a moment to process that.

Slowly but surely, I walked back into my apartment. Upon closing the door, I could already tell that my mind was awash with a mix of emotions. One such feeling was none other than excitement, I-I-I just kissed Melanie... no, she kissed me! The peach-mango lip gloss she wore, I could still taste it on my lips. I could still memorize the feel of her tongue brushing against mine. And I could even feel the blood rushing through my veins and my manhood growing. I just got a kiss from the girl I liked...

But that's when the truth of it all came crashing down. I just got into a full-fledged make-out with the girl I liked, as in past-tense. I let her sink her lips into mine and... I felt the warmth of her hips. She pulled my hand closer to her rear-end. She's hoping for a date, she openly kissed me, she's constantly asking what I am doing on X-day. She's attracted, thoroughly! Oh no, I can't have that! I've already been involved with three others, and I've got a date with one of them tomorrow. Another one had openly expressed her desire to sleep with me, and the third is already my FIANCEE, A FUCKING PRINCESS OF A NATION!

And here I thought Twilight's neurotic breakdowns were epic.

...Inhale. Exhale.

Okay, maybe I'm going about this the wrong way. Instead of going into an absolute blind panic, I should focus on the fact that Twilight and I have already made our qualms with the current situation. We've already expressed that we're in the midst of a break and that we would explore our options. We BOTH agreed on this, Rarity knows it and furthers that fact by asking me out on a date. Melanie knows it and furthers the fact by implying that we'd have a date.

And I told myself that I would try to prove that I could move on if things had gone wrong. I should go into my room with the thought process of having options rather than feeling as if I have committed a cardinal sin, because I haven't. And if I do go in here with a guilty mindset, then I won't be able to face Rarity on our date tomorrow.

I need to stay true to my word and treat this as it is; a legitimate break to our relationship, a chance to tread the waters before making my way back onboard.

Okay, I'm at peace.

*THUD*

"SHIT!" I screamed while looking around the room, only to find an orange pony laying beside a sideways-lying couch. As I looked closer, I could see that the thin cloth mesh used underneath was ripped wide open.

"Applejack..."

She looked at me with a nervous smile, rubbing the side of her head. "...Heh heh... sorry."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

I suppose I should ask her a soulful question. "...Hwhhhhaaaaiiii the fuck... are you in my couch?"

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Shortly after a much-needed sprucing of my apartment and ordering the girls to fix what they had messed up, I finally gotten a more in-depth explanation of the matter. Thankfully, they weren't lounging about for too long, probably around thirty minutes prior to me and Mel's arrival. And I even manage to get a decent explanation on why Applejack decided to rip open my couch and hide inside of it. Apparently, she was busy trying to clean frosting off of the floor to prevent Melanie from seeing a sugar-coated trail of evidence leading into my room. So she decided to take one for the team and clear the floor until I had started fumbling with my keys at the door.

In hindsight, my foolishness did manage to buy her some time. So I guess it wasn't a total loss.

After our departure from the human world back into Equestria, I proceeded to find some way to mask Discord's disappearance. So I released him just outside of the Everfree Forest, and performed a quick check on my phone to see if anything had changed much. The only glaring thing that made me upset─despite being a trivial matter─was the fact that Discord had beaten the high score Melanie put up. And by beat, I mean completely eviscerate her score by an outstanding margin.

There was no way in any variation of hell I was going to beat nine-hundred sixty-nine pipes. Fuck that, I'm deleting this app.

But the thing I didn't know about was that Sunset had gotten a hold to Rickey in order to get my number, and it was Rickey who informed her that there was some strange abomination roaming around the frat-house, freaking out the visitors and frat members alike. So it was apparent that they had already knew that Discord was in the human world, hence why they all showed up at once.

I guess I can say to him that I tried my damnedest to keep him in the clear, but it's too bad I won't be able to say much to him now that Fluttershy has him under lock-and-key in a cage tied to a short leash. She was beyond pissed at him, mainly for disclosing what they were going to do later on, but also wrecking havoc in the human world. He did explain that he was only going to observe rather than partake in the chaos of my world.

It wasn't like he had much of a choice in the matter. They would've chopped him up had he revealed himself to the wrong crowd.

When I had gotten back to the apartment, I threw myself into the bed and stared at the ceiling, thinking about what all had happened today. My thoughts accumulated on the many tasks and findings that I would have to sort through. The first big one is that I have a week-and-a-half before I get Twilight to introduce herself to my folks. Then there's the situation of how Discord can use my world's media to transport himself, meaning that he could even use the internet or satellite signals as a bridge to get him virtually anywhere on the globe. And to add on top of that, there was the big thing that I never would've expected in a million years; Melanie kissing me.

That kiss was the main thing on my mind, it shocked me to know that I was still smelling a light hint of mangoes and peaches. It has been several years since I fantasized of planting my lips on hers, and often times in her discomfort, I foolishly tried to make a move to accomplish that. Regardless, my excitement was secretly building within me.

I told you there was something left for her.

You again?

Congratulations on getting your first kiss from Melanie. Now if you could tell her that you weren't interested in going any further than friends.

Dammit, I know. Don't you think I tried that?

Letting her guide your hand to her ass and grabbing it was not 'trying'. That was just the endorphins making you do shit that you had no business doing. You can't just squeeze cheeks, and expect for this to not result in anything.

But I specified that our get together was going to be a 'hangout', not a date.

Yeah, but did you solidify your position of it being a hangout instead of casually calling it that? Because she was heavily insisting on calling it a date. She's been gunning for this from the moment you threw the first punch at Jasper, hell long before that!

Okay, so I'll just break it down for her the next time we meet, and specify that we are to remain friends. I know that she'll be hurt for a while but I gotta do this. Besides, her personality and situation is quite resemblant to Pinkie.

Other than the non-existence of a scapegoat? Remember when Pinkie was leaning towards you and you vouched for Cheese to be with her in your place? Yeah, who's gonna be that third wheel to keep this thing running? I don't see any suitors, and Rickey already made his peace with not being with Melanie anymore. She's head-over-heels for you. How are you going to set this up in a way where the damage to your relationship with her is minimal?

Oh fuck... I didn't think that she'd just openly swap spit with me! How am I supposed to predict these kinds of things?

Look, there's only one thing you can do at the current time, and it is this: Sit down and tell her what is going on over on this end. No fairy tales, no lies, no bullshit, just truth. It doesn't matter if you can trust her or not, just come clean about everything.

I honestly don't know if I could do that. I'm terrified that she might see me differently, and not in a good way.

The choice was made almost four months back. It was decided that you traded everything on that end for everything on this one. You've managed to get two supportive friends who would help you along the way, but who knows how long they can keep a secret from their families, from their friends. You need to let your family know that you're not really just a security guard. If death comes knocking at the door and takes what it came for, then how are they to find out about you then? Who will mourn you on that side if no one knows what's going on? Do you honestly expect Cliff and Rickey to tell your parents that you've died in battle? They will be left with way more questions than answers!

...I know.

Then just tell them the truth, you don't have to keep stacking lies upon lies upon lies upon even more lies. You don't have to let it all out at once. Just get them to understand─

Understand!? How do you understand THIS!? Hi mom and dad, I've been spending my time in an alternate world. Don't know how the fuck I got here but here's my not-human pony girlfriend, who I fucked on one occasion and got into some shit over it. Now I'm fighting horsey-parasites with a shitload of illegally-obtained weapons that cost me next year's tuition. But who gives a fat, flat, faggotty, flying fuck for that when I'm crowned prince in a MAGICAL LAND THAT GOES AGAINST EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOUR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS!? I KNOW YOU'LL DISOWN ME LATER, BUT AT LEAST I TOLD YOU THE TRUTH! SEE YA! I HOPE YOU CALL ME WHENEVER YOU FEEL LIKE IT, WHICH WOULD PROBABLY BE NEVER AGAIN! YOU'LL PROBABLY THINK... you'll probably think I'm a total disappointment, like you went completely wrong in raising me. You'll praise my brothers... as usual. You'll call them your pride and joy... while your fucking shame in-between it all does nothing but infuriate you... just like it's always been. The deviant you always shamed for being locked in his room... the one you called different... he made it. And you won't give a fuck, even if I'm having to carry the whole goddamn world on my shoulders...
You'll never love me like you love them...
...because of what I am.

I know it's hard.

Go fuck an imaginary cactus.

...There used to be an old scripture your grandfather always said whenever you lied about something.

...Just go away, please?

"Now no one after lighting a lamp covers it over with a container, or puts it under a bed; but he puts it on a lampstand, so that those who come in may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light. So take care how you listen; for whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him."

...

Book of Luke, chapter eight: verses sixteen through eighteen. You hated it when he said that. But I think there's more real-life wisdom to it than you'd assume it to be.

...In the silence of my room, I thought about that verse. It used to terrify me when I was younger, but later in life it just infuriated me.

And now, I'm scared of it again. I'm gonna be up all night thinking about that shit now.

Good morning, I wish.

My night was harsh on me. I couldn't even get any sleep until about five in the morning, and even then my alarm was set to seven. So after getting what could be explained as a late-night nap, I hopped in my shower and gotten everything prepared in advance for later this evening. The clothes I set aside to wear were none other than Rarity's own designs, which would probably be bonus points for her.

But the thoughts from last night still plagued my mind, even as I was trying so hard to think about other things like how I was gonna go to Canterlot tomorrow and show those politicians what for. I might even bring Cliff and Rickey along just to piss them off even more. I just hope none of them resort to calling us monkeys. I really don't wanna see Cliff get tossed from here because he beat the shit out of some old fart who couldn't comprehend basic decency or lacked the tact and consideration.

Then again, Shining might make provisions for future visitations if that actually happened.

*knock knock knock*

I walked over to the door and looked through the peephole to see a pink alicorn eyeing back at me. With a shrug of my shoulders, I opened the door and allowed the princess to enter. "Morning, your highness." I said in a bit of a raspy tone.

"Oh wow, you sound exhausted. How did you sleep?"

"Shitty." Best word to describe it.

As she walked into the room, she quietly levitated the door close. "I guess you must've had a lot on your mind, huh?"

"I did." I confessed with a yawn.

"Well if you're this tired, then you should get some rest. I have a pretty important task for you to run this evening."

I blinked for a second before rubbing my eyes. "I'm sorry, this evening?"

"Yeah, I need you to fill out some paperwork pertaining to the operation in Everfree. There's quite a bit of documents that require your signature."

Oh boy, a schedule conflict. "Um... I'm afraid that I'm booked for this evening. Is there any way I could just get it out of the way now?"

Cadance shook her head. "The only time I would be able to get those documents in to you would be later this evening. I'd say they should be at your door by around six."

"I'm not gonna be able to do it at that time, I cleared my block from five to ten this evening." I informed her while stretching my arms.

"Well I can't let you have this stuff pile up. You have well over two-hundred letters to sign and you also have at least thirty more files to sort through."

Don't I have a secretary for this? Well I'm appointing one. "Could I kinda let the pony at the front desk hold on to it until I get back? I'll finish everything by late tonight."

"I'm going to need those papers by late tonight." Cadance stated.

"Any reason why?"

"Because we can't let the victim's families go on without a confirmation of their loved-ones' status. This was supposed to be given to you yesterday afternoon, but I found out from another source that you had left to your world on what was to be called 'family affairs'. I wasn't going to let your day get spoiled by this, so I just need you to fill this out today and make up for what you missed yesterday."

Yeah, I'm calling bullshit on that one. Celestia made it a royal order that I'd not do any official business until I have returned to Canterlot to make my findings in regard to the changelings known to the parliament. Then I can start doing paperwork again. This is not in compliance to her orders, so... "Sorry, no-can-do. Princess Celestia made it clear that I was to take my time to get my thoughts in check, and get as much rest as possible."

"Then what's this prior engagement you have?" She questioned aggressively. "If you're supposed to be resting, then why are you trying to book something in that time-slot?"

Aannnd I get it now. "Okay, I'm going on a date." There, it's out in the air. No point in lying about it now since she already had an idea of what's going on before she even came in.

"A date? You mean with another mare?" She inquired.

"Cadance, you know that Twilight and I had already established that this was what we were going to do. I'm not gonna stop her from dating other stallions, that's clearly her choice. The point of this break is─"

"I know what the break is for!" She stressed. "But why are you dating another mare?"

"That's the purpose of this date, we're trying to see what we want. We talked about this, several times now."

The pink princess shook her head with disapproval. "I can't believe you're dating another mare before you'd even gave Twilight the first go!"

That's true, we never did go out on a date. "I understand your frustration with that, but don't just start throwing shit at me when you don't like it. I agreed to help you and the others with your political problem, don't make my life any harder than it needs to be just because you don't like that I'm going with someone else. It's a date, and it's within the realms of the Saving Grace clause."

"You mean that thing that Twilight explicitly asked you NOT to use?"

"Cadance, we're not gonna be fucking each other's brains out all night, if that's where you're going with it. It's just a little outing, nothing else."

An exasperated sigh fell from the pink mare's muzzle. "Nondis... Okay. Okay... Okay."

"Okay what!?" I am not in the mood for games. I am cranky as hell and have had no sleep. If she came in here to play games, I am going to ask her to leave.

"I mean okay, you can do whatever you want." She replied with an attitude. "Just who is this mare, how long have you two known each other?"

"Since day one." I answered dismissively.

Cadance's jaw fell to the floor as she stared at me wide-eyed. "One of Twilight's friends? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR CELESTIA-DAMNED MIND!?"

"To clear it up, she challenged me to a duel. The wager was that if she won, she'd have me for a date. She kicked my ass in a best of five and now I have to go with her. I am merely fulfilling my end of the bargain, there's nothing else to it."

"I can't believe you're doing this. Do you have any idea as to what this does to not only your reputation but the bond between Twilight and her friends?"

"This was a thing long before Twilight and I even started messing around. And yes, this pony did make legitimate advances towards me prior to anypony else. If anything, this is merely to get it out of the system and to close that chapter for good. I've already shut down one, I am going to get the rest out of the way."

"No, you're not. You're not closing anything as much as you're opening the floodgates to a complete disaster! You need to call this one off before it gets ugly."

"Cadance─"

Before I could say anything else, she walked towards the door with an angry scowl on her face. "You are making a huge mistake, and I might not be able to save you from the consequences. Keep that in mind, captain."

"You're acting as if I have intentions of sleeping with the girl!"

She didn't turn around to face me as she spoke. "Twilight hasn't been too happy with yesterday, and from what I heard, I wouldn't be happy with it either... The paperwork will be here at around 4."

Those were her last words before she walked off down the hall and out the front door. Instead, I was left waiting for a bunch of papers that I wasn't supposed to sign on until tomorrow. Perhaps her reason for being so aggressive was from an issue dating back to yesterday. Now that I think about it, since I had gotten back I had noticed that Twilight hadn't looked at me since. Perhaps she was upset that I was with Melanie again, which I would kinda expect to happen.

But still, I had made my intentions known. I am going on this date for a number of reasons. The first is to tread the waters, the second is to clear the air with Rarity, which I thought I had already done before. I guess this time was to make sure that it would stay that way.

I hope nothing bad comes of this.

Several hours have passed since my run-in with Cadance, and the paperwork came to my door like clockwork. But it didn't take me but forty-five minutes to scribble my name on everything, and it only left me with a light cramp in my right hand. My frustration had all but disappeared when she left, causing me to think more on what I could do to clear the air. It's obvious that I'm doing something that I shouldn't be doing, considering that Twilight herself ordered me not to get close to Rarity. But at the same time, I could tell that when she said it, it was out of jealousy rather than it being a request. She even went into detail as to why a relationship between the two of us wouldn't work. She highlighted the most problematic issues with Rarity, while glossing over the fact that those same issues would be more frequent with her.

And I know the dating a friend thing isn't exactly playing nice, but I can't simply ignore the fact that this mare has been very frequent in her advances. And Rarity does have a solid point about Twilight; she's naive and would be eager to lock it down with the first stallion she got close to, and that would be me... except for the stallion part.

Upon pressing the door bell, I heard the bright tones that resembled the Westminster Chimes back on my world. It only took me maybe four seconds of waiting before the door swung open to reveal a gussied-up Rarity. She wore the usual blue eye shadow while lining her eyes in a darker blue, her mane partially hiding the left side of her face. She had on a black satin dress with silver highlights swirling towards the rear. Her shape became more pronounced as she turned to the side. Part of her tail hid underneath her dress to give her the appearance of a plentiful posterior (which was already plentiful enough). Her jewelry consisted of Alexandrite earrings, a silver necklace, and an odd addition to the tip of her horn consisting of silver and pearls.

"Um... Did I underdress?" I questioned, beginning to feel as if I hadn't followed Rarity's orders to dress casual.

"No, my dear. You look stunning, now come on in!"

Initially, my feet had lost the ability to move, my legs frozen in place. But as she grabbed my hand with her hoof, it zapped a current in my system that allowed my legs their full range of motion. Eagerly, the unicorn mare pulled me into the foyer of her home and quickly closed the door.

"I know that I don't have to tell you to make yourself at home, so do as you'd please. I will be upstairs making some final adjustments. Call for me when the cabby shows at the door."

I guess I could chill out for a while. "Sure. I'll keep an eye out."

I walked over to the platform with the three upright mirrors and stood before them. Of course I really didn't get a good look at myself from them considering that they were all shorter than me. So I had to stand away from them a bit so that I could get a better look at my entire getup.

I also got a closer look at my face and saw that there was a booger at risk of popping from out of my nostril. Thankfully, this was the time to ensure that my appearance was devoid of filth, so I rid myself of that and quietly walked towards the front door to keep a lookout. The carriage showed up a few minutes later. I pulled out my phone and looked at the time, seeing that it was no later than 5:50. These guys sure do show up to be on time, I'll give them that.

"Hey Rarity, the ride's here!" I called to the upstairs rooms.

"Okay, I'm on my way down!" She called back, not even giving herself a few more minutes before trotting down the stairs. As she stood in at the bottom of the stairs, she gave me a wink and struck a pose. "So... how do I look?"

I had noticed that the thing she had on her horn had disappeared. "Didn't you have a little... thing on your horn?"

"I did, but I figured that I was doing far too much for a casual outing."

Really, and your current look doesn't give that off? I feel vastly underdressed to the point where I'm butt-ass naked. "That begs me to ask, what is 'too much' to you?"

"Wearing earrings, horn accents, ribbons on the dock, glitter on the cheeks, a light spray of Amor D'Bacchu's─which is a guilty pleasure of mine, hiked-up tails, and false eyelashes."

You know, of that entire list, I can see and smell up to four of those violations. Her tail is hiked, she has on earrings, she's wearing that perfume, and of course... "Don't you always wear false eyelashes?"

"Shush up and get in the carriage, Nondis."

Throughout our ride, the drivers─the stallions at the front end pulling us along plus the one mare holding the reigns─took us through the more scenic locations of Ponyville. Slowly, we were taken by the park, the central plaza, and the riverside, over the bridge to the other side of Saddle Lake. There, we were brought to a pretty sleek restaurant that would almost resemble something from my world. As we came to a stop, I couldn't help but notice that all the windows of the restaurant, as well as the outside eating area, was exposed to Ponyville itself. The water was just a few feet away from the open-air dining area and in front of it were several paddle boats shaped like swans.

Since when was all of this here?

"I know what you're thinking, Nondis. And I can completely agree that your frustration would be warranted upon finding that this location was hidden from you throughout your stay. To be honest, I thought that you would already know of it."

"Yeah, so... what is this place?"

"Maison du Fleurs, it's Ponyville's hidden gem. Quite the bold little establishment, and often a place of interest for those of the... canine-gifted."

"You mean as in the dog or─"

"Teeth. Meat eaters, dear."

"Oh." I guess that makes this a good place to have a pork chop or two. "Okay, I can't wait to see what they have."

"Don't be surprised, darling. I am going to warn you in advance that the prices have been removed from the menu. So the bill would be quite high."

And I guess that I'm paying for it. "Oh, well I'll just try and... ease my appetite to something small."

Rarity looked at me with a disapproving glare. "If I'm paying for the both of us, you better take advantage of it."

Seriously!? "Well, shouldn't we kinda split the bill?"

Rarity giggled as she grabbed my arm to pull me inside. "Darling, let's get inside."

It didn't take us very long to have a trio of waiters bowing at us, nor did it take them any time to secretly question my apparel. But they all guided us to our table next to a large stage where four musicians stood next their instruments, ready to play their first piece for the conductor. However, it appeared that the conductor was nowhere to be seen for the time being, so they just sat there. The only exception was a gray earth pony mare who appeared to play the cello, she waited until Rarity and I were seated before coming over.

"Rarity Belle! I thought that was you strutting through the door."

So... Belle is her surname? Okay, that's new. I thought it was just Sweetie's name that ended in Belle. Perhaps there was more to equine names than I originally thought... or perhaps she was a special case.

Rarity stood from her seat and embraced the smokey gray mare. "Octavia, my dear! How has everything been?"

"Oh, well you would not believe this, but Lyra isn't here yet! And to make matters worse, our conductor has practically disappeared since earlier this afternoon. We all left to take a Saddlewood luncheon, but since we came back about an hour ago there's been no signs of him. Can you believe it!?"

"Oh my, that is quite the predicament." Rarity responded while looking to the stage.

"Yes, so for the past hour we've been taking requests from the audience. Unfortunately, we haven't had much of a selection due to Lyra being missing."

"Doesn't she play the lyre?" Rarity questioned.

"Yes, but she's the only one that can play that piano she requested. It's a custom-made grand piano, the keys are far too narrow for Twelve Tone to play, being he's an earth pony."

I eventually became uncomfortable just watching the two go at it, so I entered into the conversation. "So what's the purpose of narrowing the keys?"

Octavia, I believe that was her name, she lightly gasped as she shook my hand with both hooves, trembling as she did so. "Why I can't believe that the famed captain has made his presence here at our establishment! To be honest, I was quite eager for the day you'd walk through the door. It's a tremendous honor to meet with you, sir!"

"I'm flattered..." And at a loss of words over how giddy she was. "My name is─"

"Captain Nondis P. Haines, you currently hold the prominent position of being the captain of her majesty's royal guard, as well as hero of Ponyville, saint of Everfree, and consort of Princess Twilight Sparkle!"

"Eh..." I hated it when they used that word, it just made the whole thing feel a bit awkward to me. But let's not focus in on that, where did the 'saint' part come from? "Saint of Everfree? Whaaa?"

"Oh the numerous accounts of your deeds performed just earlier this week and last week, along with the little-known fact that the first place they found you was just outside of the Everfree Forest, practically landed you that little moniker. And from what I heard, you were quite the fighter!"

"He's alright." Rarity stated dismissively. "He's a little sweaty behind the ears, but he'll catch on."

Octavia smiled as she nodded at me. "Ah, such high praise from a natural-born fighter. I'm am quite stunned that you haven't gotten that as your mark."

"Oh no, my heart is right where it should be. Fighting is a bit exciting, but the looks on others faces when they see my works of art and wearing it as their own, THAT is what thrills me the most." Rarity answered with a squee.

"Oh, well not to take the attention away from you dear, but my ensemble could use a request or two to keep us busy. Do you happen to have any that would interest you?"

"Um... try Sforzando's 9th?"

"Excellent choice. I do hope that the both of you among many others would be entertained by our performance."

The gray mare walked off to the stage and proceeded to whisper to the other musicians, each of them gave her back a nod and waited for the drop of Octavia's head to begin playing. As the music began to fill the air, the other patrons began to either sit and listen or speak a little louder. In either case, the restaurant became significantly livelier. In speaking of lively...

"Hey Rarity, just how long have you been fighting?" I questioned the fashionista.

"Since about nine years old. My mother and father has been very demanding that I'd take a self-defense class if I was to look after Sweetie Belle. So it goes without saying that I trained in martial arts for as long as I could throw a hoof. As I told a dragon who threatened Spike at one given time, 'Fighting's not really my thing, I am more into fashion.' But I did let him know that I was going to tear the scales right off his body."

Damn, that's violent. "Can you actually do that?"

Rarity returned to me a sideways glare with a stern expression. I was not willing to go through dueling with her again, no thank you.

"I'll take that as a yes."

"My dearest Nondis, I may be a unicorn who's looks paint a picture of my being frilly, fashionable, and fragile. But believe me when I say that 'momma's got it'. And if any stallion in town knows who I am, then they know not to act fresh with me."

She's not bossy as much as she is assertive, but I'll be damned if she doesn't like being the boss. That's just who she is, and she doesn't like it when others look down on her. Meaning that she's much smaller than me, doesn't give me the ability to say anything over her... I wonder if she's the type who likes to put collars and ball-gags on stallions... Let me stop.

"Yeah. So if I may ask, why do you like me?"

Rarity watched as a waiter presented her with two bottles of wine, she pointed at the one in the staffer's right hoof and ordered glasses for the both of us. "Why wouldn't I? You're positively amazing. You're very-well spoken, but your crudeness gives you a certain kind of... it's hard to say."

"Edge?"

"No, I was trying to think of a less-vulgar way of saying how my... self pines for you. You give off a rather curious scent that most mares wouldn't recognize upon the first few meetings. The scent you carry is unique, and it does end up exciting me along with several others."

"Would your 'pining' have anything to do with the conversation you walked in on yesterday?"

"When you and Pinkie were speaking? Well not really, it did ruin some of the suspense I had building for you. But I suppose that the suspense could be equally contributed to on the other end."

"Beg your pardon?"

"I'm saying that I have secrets that very, VERY few stallions know about me."

This conversation quietly trailed into the saucy direction. "What would those be?"

"Well it depends, do you wish to find out?"

Not gonna lie, I've had some thoughts about it. "Well... I'm not exactly sure."

"Why not?"

"Because my wanting to know those secrets could lead to my getting in trouble."

Rarity quietly levitated her chair next to me as she walked from one side of the table to the other. As she sat down, I could feel every consonant bat against my ear with the force of a warm summer breeze. Very quietly, she whispered into my ear. "That is why they are secrets, nopony is to know about them."

"Well I would know about them."

"...There a certain part of me that's not like the rest. As for the reason why, well let's just say that I was born with it."

"What is it?" I questioned, letting my curiosity exceed my better judgement.

Suddenly, I felt a light tug against my earlobe, a set of teeth lightly pulled against them as warm words began to stir into my thoughts. "You'll have to work for it. You see, it's like the fine wine I ordered, you don't let everyone get a taste. With enough care and oversight, it starts to transcend from a simple thing to an unforgettable experience, one that requires several years of work and experience to hone."

At that point, judgement had taken a back seat while excitement was having a turn at the steering wheel. My hand began to slowly slide over to her chair, my fingers feeling the warmth that radiated from her body. When she yanked at my ear again, my toes curled and my fingers flexed to their limits. Her lips lightly singed the bottom of my ear, trailing down my neck. "I have the sentiment that you're talking about something... concupiscent." I said in a low voice.

"And I have the feeling that you're becoming titillated whilst my words are sung sweetly into your ears." She said with a more seductive tone. "Perhaps it would be best to restrain yourself before your excitement proceeds you."

"Pro-tip: I'm not a stallion." I whispered, my hand slowly working up the side of her haunches, lightly brushing against the alabaster fur.

"Word to the wise: that was not a suggestion." She said, pulling off from me. As she removed herself completely, she used her magic to hold my hand in place as she levitated her chair back to her side of the table. Her devious smirk indicated that she knew what she was doing, as well as knowing what the end result would be.

I'm not even going to lie, but I was pissed when she just left me like that.

A waiter showed up to the table and pulled out a notepad as he spoke. Rarity folded her menu and magically pulled mine down. When I looked at her, she continued to place innocently by focusing her attention at the waiter. "Have you two decided on what you were going to eat?"

Honestly, I don't think my hunger quite matches up to my thirst tonight.

"So then after this, she goes out of her way to make an entire line out of my fabric. She does absolutely nothing but make the dresses out of them, knowing that they were only supposed to be highlight material."

"Wow, seriously?"

"And you would be amazed at what all I had to do to pull the competition in my favor. In a single night, I grabbed whatever was in the hotel room and created a brand-new line from a bed-spread, some keys, a few bars of soap, some of the curtains, and a lampshade!"

I started to laugh at the hilarity of the situation, knowing that if she did this in my world, she'd be arrested on spot. "Wow, that is crazy as hell!"

"I know, looking back at it I could actually laugh! So when I had gotten the news from Suri's former assistant, Coco Pommel, that I had won the show, I was completely at a loss for words."

"I would be too. At least you can say you beat her using the crappy stuff they have at the hotel rooms."

"Now let's not go too far, the stuff in the hotel wasn't that horrendous. In fact, I made most of it work."

"Oh, well you still beat her when she stole your stuff. So... win for you."

"Yeah, but I can tell you of this one village I went to that had absolutely NOTHING that I could work with. Like... it was bad, Nondis. It was really bad, unfathomable even. The only thing that they had in fashion was this cloak made from a potato sack."

I chuckled as I took a sip of wine. "There are some things that they just can't do like you, Rarity. Ponies don't have your ingenuity."

"Ugh, I know that there was this one time where I was said to have created mountains of clothes, outfits for a full fifteen seasons, that's almost four years. And then I started turning the town into crystal and paving the roads in gold!"

Considering that massive castle Twilight lives in, that would kinda help get it to blend in. As for now it does stick out like a sore thumb in comparison to the thatch roofs and brick houses. "Honestly, I'd kinda want to see what that would look like."

"Twilight, Princess Cadance, and Princess Luna wouldn't be too fond of your opinion. They had to undo all of the magic, thanks to an enchanted grimoire Spike had me read."

"Oh, well what happened to the grimoire?"

"He ate it whole. I didn't even question him on the other half of the process."

Ouch, that sounds like he got more than his fair share of fiber. He must've shat out coal from that. "Eeeyeah, I wouldn't either."

Rarity poured herself a glass of wine as she stared at the bottle. For some odd reason her smile seemed to have waned, in its place remained a somber frown. She took a sip of her wine before pulling the glass from her lips and swirling the contents around. She gave out a quiet sigh as her ears folded back a bit.

"Is something wrong?"

Rarity was hesitant at first, but finally opened up after another swig. "...I'm questioning if I did the right thing with Spike. I haven't seen or heard from him since he left Ponyville. I know you said that he was doing some work in Canterlot, but I didn't think that he would be there for so long."

"Yeah, it turns out that he does a lot of stuff for the politicians. He's quite a helper to the ponies in the parliament, they even give him an occasional praise. He's doing pretty fine on his own."

"Well, that does ease me a bit. But I still feel as if I've drove a wedge between the two of you. I felt as if the two of you would've gotten along hadn't it been for the circumstances being what they were."

There was no such thing as driving a wedge in something if that thing didn't exist in the first place. "I'm not too sure. But I know that Spike doesn't like me at all, he even tried to get me to carry out the changeling commander mission, albeit I can rub the results in his face now. And even in the beginning, Spike had threatened me whenever it came to you."

Rarity's head arced back as she expressed her disbelief. "Seriously? I thought that you two were always on dicey terms, but to hear that he threatened you?"

"Yeah, he grabbed one of your broken mannequin stands and welded it back together as a means of telling me to 'treat her with more respect or he'll weld my lips to my toes'. Crazy, huh?"

Her jaw dropped at the words I spoke, she could only shake her head with denial. "My Spikey-wikey said that to you? Why didn't you tell me this sooner?"

"I guess I wanted to protect his image. But after the stunts he pulled these past two weeks, I'm feel at liberty to express what I've been feeling about him. And to simply say it, I don't like him."

Rarity felt saddened as she heard my confession. "I... I didn't know that you and he were on such uneven terms. I'm so sorry."

I started playing with the very little food on my plate. "Even that one morning he told me to screw myself in front of everyone, I was doing everything in my power to not give him a solid kick in the ass. My arm and shoulder was messed up so I couldn't get away with punching him."

The fashionista grabbed my hand as she used her magic to pull my chin up to face her. "Don't you ever go through that kind of bullying and not tell me what he's been up to. Do you hear me?"

"Oh I know that now. As I said, I'm not gonna hold any punches with him. He's going to get every piece of my mind."

"But I am going to make a request that you are not to hurt him under any circumstances. You either let me or Twilight deal with him, do I make myself clear?"

I cringed at the request, thinking that it was a bit unfair. "Even if it requires self-defense?"

Rarity didn't stutter when she spoke. "You look for me or Twilight. Call for us, we know how to deescalate the situation with him. He'll listen to us regardless of how he feels, and we will put him in his place."

Still, I think that agreement is kinda shitty. "No promises, I can't do those. If he hurts one of you, I'm not going to keep calm and just let him do as he likes. I don't care if it's emotional, verbal, or physical assault, I will physically put him to sleep."

"Well I can give you my promise that nothing of that sort of thing will happen." She answered while rubbing my hand with her hoof.

"Okay, then we have an agreement. As long as the two of you aren't hurt, or anyone for that matter, my hands are tied." I hate making this agreement, but I really don't want to break anyone's trust. It's not like I haven't done enough damage as it is.

"Well then, we have an accord." She said as she magically raised her glass while filling mine. "Then, a toast?"

This would probably be one of the most bitter toasts I'll ever have the displeasure of partaking in. I have a feeling that this won't end well. "A toast to friendship; let our ends be favorable and our bonds strong."

After our glasses clanked together, Rarity stopped herself short of a sip as she exclaimed. "Wait a minute, I almost forgot to ask you something!"

"Hmm?" I said with my glass up to my lips, my mouth full of wine.

"I have a small proposal for you. Actually it's quite large to me."

Pulling the glass from my lips, I swallowed the wine to speak. "Go on."

"I need you to model for me sometime next month."

Wow, just throwing it out there, huh? "That's a bit bold of you to ask."

Rarity whined lightly as she playfully pouted. "I know, but I need you to do this for me. Please?"

Okay, I'm gonna need more information before I deny or agree to anything else. All of this agreeing to shit is going to overrun my schedule. Guess I'll have to make this a lightning round, just to make it a bit more fun. "What for?"

"What?"

"Lightning round, Rarity. What for?"

"Um... well─"

"You gotta throw it out there! What for?"

"G-g-global premiere of my line."

"How big is it?"

"Held at the Canterlot Unity Center."

That's pretty big. "How many guests?"

"Hundreds. All of the Canterlot elite will be there."

"How big is this to you?"

"Mountain-sized."

"Got a DJ?"

"Octavia's roommate. She's good."

"I want Justin Timberlake."

"What?"

That went over her head. "Human music, I want human music behind me."

"Bring the songs and we'll try to play them."

"Vinyl disk or cassette tape?"

"Cassette."

I could buy a cassette adapter for mp3 players and use the song on my phone. Or better yet... "Sound system?"

"Enormous, professional."

"DJ contact info?"

"Will send to you later."

Lightning round over. "Done deal."

"You'll do it!?" She asked with excitement.

"Sure, if it doesn't conflict with anything in the schedule."

The alabaster mare jumped from her seat and galloped around the table to tightly wrap her hooves around my neck, hugging me as she constantly kissed me on the cheek. "Oh! Oh thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou! THANK YOU EVER SO MUCH YOU ADORABLE HUNK OF STALLION!"

"Choking... not breathing." I whispered lightly, tapping against her hoof.

"Sorry!" She said as she immediately released me.

After she was done blushing for a bit, she started to erupt into a giggle fit. Of course it became quite contagious as I smiled and poked fun at her for acting like Sweetie Belle did when I told her that I first told her that I would go crusading with her and her friends. I suppose that juvenile exuberance never really did disappear when they get older.

"Now we can have a toast." I stated as I rose my glass.

"To Rare Couture; may our future be bright and our fashion lines unforgettable!"

Again, our glasses collided and we took our drinks. Rarity continued to sip away at her wine while I playfully indulged in mine. As we finished, the ensemble finished their latest piece and the cellist walked up to our table once more.

"So, would you two like for us to play anything? Unfortunately, we're not getting very many suggestions tonight."

"But didn't I call in two requests earlier tonight?" Rarity questioned.

"That's the thing, Lyra isn't here. We were informed not too long ago that she and the director had ate something somewhere and ended up with a bad case of the trots. So we'll be without them for the remainder of the evening... unfortunately" Octavia whispered.

Actually, I wouldn't mind making a request of my own. In fact, I think I'm going to make things a little more interesting. "What's the deal with that piano that nopony can use it?"

If I showed you, you'd probably think I were to be insane. But the keys are all narrow, for what Lyra calls 'wanting to do something different'. She took a lot of inspiration from the griffon composers, and as a result she narrowed the keys to what their talons would normally be able to play on without an extreme amount of stretching."

"Oh, I forgot that Spike does play a little bit." Rarity added.

"How many keys?" I questioned.

"A lot. I heard of custom models such as this used in the Griffon Kindom, but never have I seen one so closely."

I stood from my seat and cracked my knuckles, stretched my fingers, and popped the joints within. With a somewhat nervous stride, I looked to the piano onstage. "So, is that thing in-tune?"

Both Octavia and Rarity tried to stifle a laugh as they looked at me. "Dear, that thing up there is not a toy, nor is it something that's playable without a horn and magic." The gray mare warned.

"Spike, and your traditional griffon has four fingers, I work with five." A thumb is not a finger, but I'm sure they can roll with it.

As I proceeded to walk up to the piano, Octavia trailed right beside me, continuing to express what was on her mind. "Sweetie, do you have any idea on how to play that?"

"I can't sight-read worth a damn. And I often dabble around when no one's looking. I suck in comparison to the professionals in my world. But I have an idea."

Rarity galloped after us and tried to convince me in not playing. "Sweetie, I'm sure that you can bang around whenever you please, but could you not... here? There are a lot of high-profile members of Ponyville here, and I really don't want you to be embarrassed."

With a smirk, I sat on the seat and lightly slid my hand onto the keys. As I looked to the left end of the board, I could see that it started on an A, a difference in the usual C that most pony pianos start in. Also, I could count that same A up to the C eight times in the keys, meaning that this was a full-size piano. Placing my fingers on the wooden bars, I could see that they were made with griffons in mind, but even then the resemblance to a human instrument was strikingly familiar. They were a slight-bit wider, but they were very comfortable to play on. "Hmm, almost just like the one in my room." I quietly mumbled, earning a slight gasp from both.

"You don't." Rarity stated almost defiant of the idea.

As I started to pick out the chords in B♭, I started singing the words in my head.

Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide,
No escape from reality.

The two mares stared at me, slack-jawed as I smiled right back at them. "This one is called Bohemian Rhapsody, written by Freddy Mercury. It's a timeless classic in our world."

Taking a deep breath, I let my fingers sing the words within my head, fill in the orchestration as I highlighted the melody, and let my imagination take me back to the song as it was first conceived.

Open your eyes,
Look up to the skies and see,
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy,
Because I'm easy come, easy go,
Little high, little low,
Anyway the wind blows doesn't really matter to me, to me.

As I came from my miniature climax, I slowed down to carefully capture the melody in a more intimate nature. Rather than making it sound like the power ballad it was written as, I decided to make it more classical. The room grew all the more silent as I continued to play, I closed my eyes and pretended that I was still in the confines of my hotel room, playing the MOTIF just in front of the window. When I calmed down, the words continued to flow from within.

Mama, just killed a man,
Put a gun against his head,
Pulled my trigger, now he's dead.
Mama, life had just begun,
But now I've gone and thrown it all away.

With a crescendo, I transitioned into the key of E♭, my chords becoming more robust and open, as if to express the sadness of the young man singing to his mother.

Mama, ooh,
Didn't mean to make you cry,
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow,
Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters.

After the chorus, I switched back to the first key, taking it as if there was a repeat written in the sheet music. As I continued to play, I could hear the two mares bickering at a whisper.

"Were you aware he could do this?" Octavia questioned.

"No! I heard things from Sweetie Belle, but not this!" Rarity quickly answered.

"You've been hiding out on me again, haven't you?"

"He's been hiding out on us!"

I decided to ignore the rest of their conversation as more of the words fell from the top of my mind.

Too late, my time has come,
Sent shivers down my spine,
Body's aching all the time.
Goodbye, everybody, I've got to go,
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth.

Mama, ooh (anyway the wind blows),
I don't wanna die,
I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all.

As the guitar solo approached, I pretended the keys of the piano were the notes being strummed on Freddy's guitar. My mind began to paint a vivid picture of him wearing his red Captain Crunch outfit, rocking out while hunching and nodding his head at each and every note he sustained. I could even see him biting his lower lip as he shook his head slowly at his best riffs. And when the time came for the bridge, he would kick his leg and dip his head at the imaginary band behind him.

That image broke when it came to the most technical part of the song. My hand became light as I bounced on a B♭ Major chord, keeping the notes short and staccato.

I see a little silhouetto of a man,
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?
Thunderbolt and lightning,
Very, very frightening me.
(Galileo) Galileo.
(Galileo) Galileo,
Galileo Figaro
Magnifico.

I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me.
He's just a poor boy from a poor family,
Spare him his life from this monstrosity.

Then came the part I liked, the part that would throw off the listener.

Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?
Bismillah! No, we will not let you go. (Let him go!)
Bismillah! We will not let you go. (Let him go!)
Bismillah! We will not let you go. (Let me go!)
Will not let you go. (Let me go!)
Never, never let you go
Never let me go, oh.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Oh, mama mia, mama mia (Mama mia, let me go.)
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me.

By this point I too began to bang my head a bit on the rhythm. Instantly, I began to feel the excitement running through my body as I took on the next portion of the son. WIthout any sign or warning, I revised the role Freddy would have in writing this portion of the song. A harsh smile came on my face as I vibed with the notes in my head.

So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye?
So you think you can love me and leave me to die?
Oh, baby, can't do this to me, baby,
Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here.

When I had finished the next few solos, I started to feel the sweat drip from my brow, saturating my eyes as I played. The light stinging sensation didn't exactly register as I was still playing out the song. My motions then toned from aggressive and powerful to soft and quiet. I knew that I was getting to the end of the song when the next few words played out in my head.

Nothing really matters,
Anyone can see,
Nothing really matters,
Nothing really matters to me.

And as the song came to it's quiet resolution, I worked into it's final key. The somber coda came into a soft-spoken F Major chord progression. The final line of the song echoed as my fingers struck their final notes.

Anyway the wind blows.

Upon finishing, I had realized just how much energy I exhausted from playing a six-minute piece. I had an airy demeanor when I looked to the ceiling took a deep breath. My hands fell from the board quietly, careful as not to disturb the silence.

Not that it mattered when the whole restaurant exploded in cheers and whistles. Cries of an encore ensued as the other musicians applauded my performance. When I had looked to the audience, I had saw cooks and waiters lining up throughout the restaurant. Even the carriage drivers stomped their hooves with delight. Both Rarity and Octavia shook me me wildly with excitement as they displayed their thoughts of my first public performance.

"I've NEVER heard that one!" Octavia screamed to the top of her lungs. "Please tell me you have sheet music!"

Before I could answer her, Rarity used her magic to forcefully turn my head to face her. Within the fraction of a second, she mashed her soft lips against mine. My eyes broke wide open as the mare continued to latch herself onto me. In a second or two, she broke out with an audible 'mwah' and roughed up my hair with her hoof. "You've been hiding this from me! How dare you!"

"You hid your swordplay from me, we're even!"

The carriage ride home was filled with the sounds of the stallions in front whistling bits and pieces of the song I played. Even Rarity joined in on the fun. They all decided to hum really loudly along the way, some hitting notes, some missing notes. But my performance was something memorable to them, compared to a much-more jaded audience of humans, they've heard this stuff dozens of times and there are videos of it on YouTube. But here, there was no exposure to the music I just provided, to them it was something fresh and thought-provoking.

When we were dropped off at Rarity's boutique, the carriage and it's drivers bode us farewell and congratulated me on the performance. Rarity pulled at me gently, guiding me to the front door with an immovable smile on her face. The fashionista continued to shower me with praise, making me blush all the while.

"And when you finished, I was just left with tears in my eyes! You really didn't have any means of telling me that you were capable of doing that?"

"Well, not really. I don't like to record myself playing nor do I really give out performances, per se. To me, that wasn't really a performance as it was just a revisualization of another's work. I don't make this stuff up."

"Well it was certainly new to me." Rarity said while lightly shoving me with a hoof.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it." I answered with sincerity, feeling as if this had turned into a really special night.

I walked Rarity up to her door and awaited her to unlock it. And thanks to her magic, she could do so while giving me her full attention. "I truly enjoyed myself tonight. To think that you too had a hidden talent you failed to reveal, after all of this time of our knowing one another."

"Playing piano is more of a hobby to me, much like a few other things."

The locks of her door clattered as she turned the key, the door creaked open as she stood motionless. "You... I..." She struggled with her words as she started to play with her forelegs. "There's probably a chance you wouldn't even want to do this again, is there?"

"Personally, I don't mind. I want to..."

IDIOT, WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?

Oh shit, wait a minute. "Uh, I mean... You and me, we could... hang out more often. Yeah, we could hang out like we did tonight. I-I had a lot of fun and I don't think I've had this much fun in a long time, especially with a girl─I mean especially with you. Cause you are... amazing... an amazing friend."

You're a bumbling idiot. You don't know what the hell you want!

I have no idea what my heart is saying anymore. I've never been this confused. Not once have I had the chance to fall in love or go out with someone on a date. I didn't really have anything like this in high school or in college. Hell, since I've been here I have never had an experience quite like this one tonight. I haven't had a one-on-one with ANYONE like I did with Rarity. And in doing so, I feel so... happy. I shouldn't feel this way but I do. This night was beyond my expectations and Rarity is actually... amazing. We get along, we kinda know each other but at the same time we don't know everything about one another. She and I shared so many laughs, and she's really... different.

It's terrifying, but it's so wonderful.

"Nondis?"

My cheeks burned a bright-hot red as I tried my best to avoid looking at her. "Yes?"

"Could you face me?"

While I was thinking about whether I should or not, she simply turned my head for me. And in the pale moonlight, I saw exactly what I didn't want to see.

I saw a mare that made me want to seek her, to know more of her, to truly know her. It scared me seeing her in such a way, knowing that this was already pushing it. I wanted to speak, I needed to talk to her. I had to talk to her, under no circumstances am I to become captivated like this. It shouldn't work. Even my body acted on it's own accord, dropping to my knees and facing her. I tried to look away, but there was something within me that directed my right hand to clasp at her cheek and pull her towards me.

Our lips met, parting immediately as an unknown desire guided me to seek her. My tongue became the very thing that violated her. The only thing I kept thing about was the feeling of her lips pressed against mine for the first time. The moment where I was at my peak, she thrusted me even further into the stars, shoving me along until I had reached a destination that I didn't even know could exist. Her hooves didn't deny me, as they pulled me in. We separated for a quick breath, our tongues assaulting one another. A sloppy separation caused a bit of saliva to fall upon my chin. Her greed drove her to clean me with the pink fleshy organ that hung haphazardly from her maw.

She looked at me with half-lidded eyes. My breath became short and unstable. My heart danced uncontrollably when we looked at each other, realizing what we had done. She was the first to speak.

"We should stop."

"Yeah, I know. Your door is like wide open." I said, trying to get her to go inside before something else should occur between us. And at this very moment, my mind was filled with ideas.

"Yes, I'm aware. I'm letting in all sorts of little critters, aren't I?" She whispered to me quietly.

"Yeah... you should really watch what you let in, Rarity."

Our heads quickly jerked to the direction of the open door. In the darkness was nothing but a voice... a familiar one that started to make me tremble. A dim bulb started to give light in the darkness, gradually getting brighter. And as the light proceeded to illuminate into a bright magenta glow, we could see the indigo bangs that covered the crestfallen eyes of it's caster. The pink highlight showed brighter than anything else. The wings behind her unfurled slightly as she looked up to me with tears streaming down her cheeks, a stoic expression on her face.

"Twilight..."

"So... Did you have a good time, Nondis?"

Author's Note

I'm exhausted. For the record, I am not sorry for this cliffhanger. You will have to wait, but in the meantime feel free to take one of the sacks of small woodland creatures and drown them in a tub, club them, or take them home and have them as pets until the next chapter rolls out (which shouldn't be too terribly long of a wait). I hope that the chapter was appealing to you. I had a bit of a giggle fit writing the first portion of it.

Also if I could get an artist's rendition of the final scene, that would be freaking epic. I would throw money to the first volunteer.

Chapter XLVI

The my sight slowly came into view. My eyes opened to see that I was in my room at the Ponyville Pamper. Beaming directly onto my face was the light from the morning sun. For some odd reason, my sensitivity to light was unusually high. Seeing all of the light in my face had only made me slightly nauseous. When I blinked, I felt a light stinging in my face just beside my right eye. I placed my hand to cover whatever it was that stung, only to find something crusty and hard covering a decent portion of my face. As I ran my hand down it's length, I began to recall what had happened the previous night.

* * * * * * * * * *

"So did you have a good time, Nondis?"

My legs shook uncontrollably as I stared at the grief-stricken princess, who stared at me with an indifferent expression complete with tears rolling down her cheeks. "Twilight... ahh... what are you doing here... late at this hour?"

She didn't even seem to care about the words that fell lifelessly from her mouth. "I was dropping Sweetie Belle off. She and I were having a bit of a conversation when the two of you pulled up. So we waited, and we watched, and of course... you..."

"Twilight... I am so─"

Her teeth shone brightly in contrast to the darkness around us, the calm demeanor she once carried seemed to have completely imploded into pure unbridled rage. "No. I know how sorry you really are. You don't mind breaking oaths and promises, disregarding the boundaries I placed to protect not only you but my friends as well. So you take it upon yourself to meet with one of my best friends and... throw yourself at her?"

Rarity offered to speak. "Twilight, dear─"

But Twilight lashed at her violently, even her wings flew open sharply as she screamed at the fashionista. "And you, YOU know what I've had to go through since last night, you know what I've been dealing with and how I've been feeling about it. So you turn around and do this, to me, behind my back? I trusted you!"

"...I understand your frustration─"

"Do you really!?" She interrupted once more, not even giving Rarity a chance to speak. "Do you have any idea how long I've constantly told myself that this would all work in the end? I've had to make so many ends meet, even breaking laws to ensure that I was showing him how much I wanted him in my life. You didn't care, you didn't care for me."

Rarity cast her head down as she turned away from her friend, guilt causing her to become quiet and meek. "I know it hurts..."

"Yeah, it hurts!" She shrieked as she fell to the ground, her legs unable to support her weight. "I can't seem to recall how much pain I felt all at once that would even compare to this. My chest aches, so badly." When she said those words, her eyes expanded and her hooves collapsed beneath her weight. My jaw dropped as she clenched her eyes and exhaled heavily. The moment I saw her fall limp to the ground, I quickly walked to her.

That moment for me was playing out as if it was a flashback to my senior year in high school. When I heard something akin to an aching chest, the only thing I could remember was a familiar circumstance involving my grandfather. Needless to say that it ended in unfortunate circumstances. So despite her sobbing, I acted on instinct and rushed over to check on her. Lightly, I shook at her, hoping to get a response.

"Twilight, you okay?"

I got the one I was expecting, but I was far from prepared for what happened in sequence. "GET AWAY FROM ME YOU... YOU... LIAR!"

It all happened so quickly. Her wing unfolded and gave me a powerful slap across the face. I backed away from the blow and stumbled for a bit as I started to feel the side of my face burning more than what it should have. A warm liquid pooled down my cheek and onto my chin, dripping onto both my shirt and the ground below. The next thing I heard was the collective gasps of both Rarity and Twilight. As I opened my eyes I felt something seep into my right eye, causing a strong stinging sensation to occur. I quickly placed my hand over my eye, only to find that it was actually blood that wandered in.

"Nondis!" Rarity called as she used her magic to pull my head down and inspect the wound.

At the beginning, I questioned myself how a simple slap would cause me to bleed so much. But then I had remembered a crucial detail regarding to pegasus pony anatomy. The feathers that are often used to slice through wind were become even sharper should their wearer become agitated. And despite it not being sharp enough to cut skin on it's own, I do remember that the feathers─with enough kinetic energy behind it─would be capable of slicing into one's skin if they're large and sturdy enough. And Twilight's wings were far above the average size.

Add it all up, and now I know that the deep-rosy stain in Twilight's remaining primaries were not there for decoration.

Twilight looked at the wing she used to strike at me and saw the small splashes of crimson caught in her wings. Her eyes then locked onto the drippings of blood on the ground. Her pupils shrank to the size of sewing needles as she ran over to check on me, apologizing as she slowly closed in on me. "Oh no... no... No, no no... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry... I'm so..."

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Rarity screamed to the horrified princess.

Honestly, I was awash with emotions. But the main things that I felt was anger and a sudden urge to retaliate in some manner. So I ended up saying the first thought that was in my mind at the time. "...Twilight... I don't think we're going to last like this." I began to not even care if what I said had actually hurt her, I was just speaking what was on my mind.

A squeak left her throat as she teleported next to me, burying her face against my left arm. "I didn't mean that, I swear! I only meant to─"

"I get it, you hate me. You hate my guts right now. That's why you swung at me." I answered with indifference.

"I DIDN'T MEAN TO AND YOU KNOW IT!" She screamed loudly, her voice echoing throughout the town.

Rarity gritted her teeth as her magic started to glow even brighter. Her eyes narrowed and her expression became firm, her glare sharply cutting to the purple pony on the opposite side. Before she could do anything else, I freed my left arm from Twilight's weight and grabbed at Rarity's horn to cut her magic flow.

I realized from just Rarity's expression alone that this was getting really ugly. And should it continue, these two would end up fighting. I then regathered my thoughts and backed away from the two. The purple princess levitated my left arm towards her and grabbed at it to cusp against her tear-stained cheek. Seeing that Rarity was becoming even more angry, I pulled myself free once more and backed away from the both of them. I turned to the purple alicorn, looking at her with my good eye. "Twilight, let's all just... ease away from each other... for now." I said softly, knowing that things between the three of us was at a volatile state.

Rarity grumbled with protest but complied with my request. Twilight didn't seem to hesitate as she walked backwards a few steps, all while quivering. "So... it's over, isn't it?"

I shook my head, realizing that this was theoretically the breaking point of our relationship. I had betrayed her by going with her friend, and she caused physical harm to me. All of this had taken place within a time frame of about fifty seconds. The rapid escalation of our confrontation as well as the sudden turn of events... I just had to admit to myself that this probably was going to be the last time she and I would consider each other as more than friends. Even I said it myself, I didn't think things would be able to continue like this.

But something deep inside me spoke against making that decision just yet. Sure I wanted to minimize the damage by cutting things off here, but who's to say that the repercussions were to come back and add more damage to what was there to begin with? I wanted to know if this was in my heart to say that things needed to end here rather than let this isolated instance of dissension become the sole evidence required to conclude matters here and now.

Either way, it was time to make some tough choices, but I do need some time to process the result of each one. "...We're rushing to conclusions again. And our emotions are making the decisions for us in this situation. So to give it a fair thought, we are all going to go our separate ways, somber up, and continue having this discussion tomorrow."

"Why tomorrow?" Rarity questioned, seeming critical of my choice.

I tried to move my hand from my wound and open my eye, but the burning sensation didn't seem to wane any. "Because I need some time to think and be able to see out of my eye. Let's start there."

The moment I mentioned my eye, Rarity called out to the purple pony who started to walk away. "Twilight─"

"You heard him, Rarity. We'll finish this tomorrow." She answered quietly before disappearing in a flash of magical energy.

I decided to take after Twilight's idea and just head home, but something tugged at my shirt as I tried to walk away. "Do you need me to walk you home?" Rarity questioned.

"I'm fine. I just need some ice and some ibuprofen. Can't really say I didn't deserve that lick she gave me." I answered just before wincing a bit at more blood getting into my eye.

"Nondis, I can't let you walk around with an open wound!" She argued while trying to drag me into the boutique.

"I'm fine." Unfortunately, my words didn't seem to get anywhere close to her ears as she levitated my entire body into the boutique and sat me on the couch. I started to get up but her magic continued to hold me in place as she started levitating an assembly line of medical supplies from within the kitchen.

"Nondis, you might as well stop it. You're not leaving my sight until I can clean you up and provide you with a change of clothes. I won't let the town see you bloodied and defeated." She answered sternly, using her magic to grab a cotton pad and doused it in alcohol. "Now hold still, this will sting a bit."

As the pad came in contact with my wound, I grunted and dug my fingernails into the my palms. As she was doing that, I could see in the far corner of my eye that Sweetie Belle was looking on with sadness. When our eyes met, I started to feel the real weight of shame fall upon me as she turned away, appearing uncomfortable in my appearance.

Rarity grabbed the side of my face and directed me to look to her. "Sweetheart, stay still."

"...We made a mistake, didn't we?" I questioned to the white mare.

Rarity looked off to the side for a moment, halting whatever she was doing to my face. She wouldn't turn back to me when she spoke. "I don't think you did. But I do want you to make the right choice, Nondis."

"Being you?" I asked bluntly.

She remained quiet for several seconds while using her magic to once again clean my wound. "I never said that. But I do want you to be happy, truly happy with whatever you decide on."

"...What if I said that I wasn't sure of what I wanted anymore?"

She quickly turned her head, facing me with an expression of astonishment. Perhaps my statement took her by surprise.

"To clarify─"

* * * * * * * * * *

"Arrrgh!" A slight surge of pain brought me back into the present time, causing me to wince lightly. "Ah fuck."

So... to summon it all in three words: You got greedy.

How did all of this happen? Seriously, I don't mean to do wrong, I just thought─

"That kissing Rarity was a good idea at the time, right?"

How was I supposed to know that Twilight was in the house? I didn't even have any intentions of kissing her, I just wanted to say goodbye and be on my way.

Strong in you, the thirst it was.

Shut up. I could give less than two shits over what reference you pull out of your ass right now. I need some aspirin to kill this damn headache I'm getting.

The light, it burns. But not as much as this scar on your face.

Now that I think about it, I think I just walked here and grabbed something to place over myself to clean up the wound. I don't recall going in front of a mirror.

Indeed you have, my young padawan.

Will you quit with the damn Star Wars jokes?

Oh I got a few more I might crack throughout the day. Just be ready for them.

...I'm not even going to acknowledge you when that happens.

Stumbling out of my bed, I stretched and yawned for a few seconds before standing up and walking towards the bathroom. As soon as my hand hit the light switch, I could feel an intense burning in my eye, piercing me all the way to the back of my head. For a couple of seconds, I had to resort to closing my eyes and gradually taking in the light. With squinted eyes, I peered back into the mirror to see something dark running down the side of my eye. When my eyes finally got used to the light, I could finally gawk at the massive scar on my face.

♪Luuuuuuke,
I'm your father.
It is uuuuseless tooooo resiiiiiist♫

How much more of this will I be getting throughout the rest of the day?

Only what you can take and then some.

So... an unbearable amount?

Smart man, you deserve a cookie.

Ugh... I can't believe that this is my life right now. How did she even find out?

Well, Twilight did mention something about her dropping Sweetie Belle off. Perhaps she could've blown up your spot.

Or a certain pink princess could've tipped Twilight in on what I was doing, thus leading her to the boutique.

That could be the case, she did seem pretty livid at the thought of you going on that date.

...Oh please tell me that she didn't tell Shining, I really don't want to have to fight this guy for real.

Dissension amongst the royals, those politicians in the parliament would love to hear more of that.

Wouldn't they? I can't believe all of this happened. I can't believe I kissed Rarity. I can't believe Twilight slapped me... on second thought, this wasn't the first time she did it though.

Yeah, the last time she used her hoof. Just think of how many teeth she could've knocked loose last night.

I need to go apologize to her.

For putting your foot down and doing what you said you were going to do on this break? Honestly, you need to call it off and just explore your options if you're going to keep going on this route. There's also the option of sucking it up and getting back with her.

Twilight and I are an absolute mess right now. Committing myself completely to her at this point in time is a dumb decision and would only lead us into rushing things again. She's already expressed that she's all gun-ho for hopping the broom, and even has the ability to fit everything wedding related within the next week or so. I already broke the approval process law and my only option is to get married to her.

There is another option─

I am keeping my balls, thank you very much. If anything, I am operating out of the saving grace clause to keep the waters murky. If those politicians even catch the slightest glimpse of me and Twilight possibly breaking up, I'd lose my sperm rights for certain. And I can't really have a successful long-term relationship with anyone after that if I'm not able to establish pipe flow. Let's face it, a vasectomy on humans, a vasectomy period, isn't really in the equine's dictionary of health practice.

Well that's another reason to get rid of that stupid law. And knowing Cadance, it would take a lot of time to do so.

And being perfectly honest, I can't really keep waiting around like this for her to come up with some plan to get started on. She and the others were talking all of this shit about getting everyone to eradicate this law.

And getting married is going to do nothing but solidify your position as a royal to them, making you an enemy. So not only would your methods of coercion fall short, but you'd be as voiceless as they are in the matter. So yes, marriage is out of the question... but so is breaking up with Twilight. If what you say is true, and I believe it to be so, reuniting with Twilight would be the express method of cuffing yourself down. And at that point, your voice would be no louder than a marry-in like Shining Armor. Playing the saving grace card is your only option and you'd have no other choice but to keep playing it as long as this law continues to exist.

So I can only stir the waters until then... huh, guess this would be a good thing to explain to both Twi and Cadance, never thought of it that way.

That's why I'm here; To write you out of your mental corners.

Though it doesn't stop any of the emotional turmoil that comes with it, now does it? It's only going to make it harder for you to look her in the eye.

...I know.

*knock knock knock*

Well, I wonder who that could be, probably Twilight or Rarity.

I walked out of the bathroom and walked over to the door, set the latch on the door and cracked it open to find that my previous assumptions to be false. "May I help you?"

A unicorn guard clad in his golden armor stood with a hoof raised to his brow, saluting me as he levitated a scroll with a silver seal on it. "Sir Captain, I trust that you are well-rested this morning."

Not so much due to my thought-plagued dreams. "Yeah, I guess. What's going on?"

"The parliament has requested a summons for you, they ask that you'd show up immediately. As for the reason behind such a request, they state that they are, and I quote, 'Dissatisfied with your inability to save even more lives and coming away from the Castle Ruins with hardly anything to show for it.' They also state that the reports of your, again I quote, 'Lolly-gagging has shown that you have a complete disinterest in your objective and are unsatisfied with your performance.' Failure to comply would result in the termination of your tenure as Captain of the Royal Guard. "

Oh goody, guess I'll be dangling the changeling commander in their faces a little sooner than expected. I guess that'll brighten up my mood a bit. I'll have to make arrangements for Cliff and Rickey to get here and through to the boutique by their scheduled times, while making preparations for going out to Canterlot. I'll also have to make secondary preparations for another lecture I would give them, one that would inform them why having me as their captain would be in their best interest. And not only would all of this get me a much better approval rating, I'd get more votes of confidence from some of the politicians, leading me to gain some influence.

I think my mind is brewing up one hell of a stew, I know how I can play this game. I don't believe in what Cadance was telling me as how they'll only listen to those with the power to veto. In fact, I'm going to use my current standing to gain sway of some of these guys before putting a master draft together. I need the pieces to fall in place to go along with what I'm doing. As long as I can keep the status of captain, I can do a lot in terms of getting this law pulled from the books. All I have to do is play along for a short while.

"Okay, I'll be around sometime this afternoon."

The guard gave another salute before dismissing himself. I closed my door and took a deep breath as I started to focus back on my original train of thought.

So, they obviously have a thing for you.

Of course, I'm engaged remember?

Yeah, so what are you gonna do now?

Well I'd be stupid to squander my chances due to procrastination, I've already done enough of that in high school. First part of the plan is simple: Go to Canterlot, let them run themselves to the fumes, scare them a bit, give the ol' razzle-dazzle, whisper some sweet words on how our partnership could cause our enemies to tremble, and they'll be eating the shit right out of my ass. Those white-heads always love a good show of patriotism and nationalism. Play that card along with your fear card and they couldn't possibly say no.

You seem like you got this all figured out, despite Cadance's suggestion that we'd go after the more outwardly corrupted politicians first.

Blueblood already explained that it would take forever to go down that route, and he's the closest royal to being one of them. I doing things my way because I know it would be much quicker.

Yeah... now what are you going to do about the current situation? You know, Twilight and Rarity?

...I can't tell Rarity what's going on with the law. Cadance already made it known that it would cause too much of an ordeal if the citizens were to know the reason for the law's continued existence. I suppose I'll tell Twilight since she's as much as a victim in this as any of the rest of us.

Now that it's been brought up, does she even know about what Cadance and Shining is trying to do, what they're putting at risk?

...That is a terrifyingly good question.

After fixing my hair and trying to disguise my scar to the best of my abilities, I questioned exactly how I had gotten to the point in my life where I had decided that wearing makeup on my face was perfectly the norm for these kinds of circumstances. But being that my hair wasn't as long as I hoped it to be, I just had to make do with my usual style and cover my scar under three layers of powder and cream. After making sure that the scar was virtually invisible from a distance, I felt myself relieved of the frustration and moved towards the other arrangements of today. But this endeavor costed me about forty minutes of mixing, matching, and trying to get the complexion right without looking like I had gone to town in the stuff. I felt like a bit of a tranny, though I don't knock on those who make that choice... I just don't see myself doing it. The time it took me to do this was beyond comprehension.

As for why there was makeup in my room... Rarity gifted me some from her collection to hide the scar on my daily outings. She insisted that I'd go to her and get her to put it on for me, but I think I pulled it off quite nicely.

I'm just a SWEET TRANSVESTITE from transsexual Transilvania.

Shut it.

Luckily, it didn't take as much time to make the arrangements for the rest of the day. Thankfully, Cliff and Rickey came through the portal and made it through town without incident. After getting their measurements out the way, I had to explain to them that I was going to make a round to Canterlot on some official business. They insisted in coming with, mainly to see the sights of the town. But I didn't have a single clue as to how to navigate the city all the way, so I had to pull a move out of desperation.

Twilight was very quiet when I first talked with her after the events of last night, but she didn't seem to have any issues in guiding Cliff and Rickey through the city while I made my way to the meeting. In fact, she looked forward to showing the guys her hometown. After all, who would be better suited to guide them than one who was born and raised in the capital city of Equestria? I also had to grab quite a few things and make sure that my phone's connection was still capable of receiving and sending a 4G signal, which it was. I just hope my connections don't drop when I'm in Canterlot.

Their conversations with one another continued to remain as lively as when they initially arrived. But as the time progressed, they began to notice that she and I would never speak with one another directly, not even coming after one another to correct anything. I guess that's to be expected, considering that we used to be so openly back-and-forth.

During the train ride to Canterlot, I stayed locked onto my phone, trying to block out the image of the passing scenery and the sounds of the train clattering against the tracks. Twilight did manage to explain to them that I had recently been in an incident that involved this particular route. Once they got the gist of it, they opted not to speak on it further. Hell, I wasn't complaining, I don't want to even think about how close I was to seeing my possible fiery demise.

When we arrived in Canterlot, all eyes seemed to be on us as we stepped out of the train. A herd of press ponies came gushing through the terminal to get individual interviews with Cliff and Rickey. Thankfully, both Twilight and I had the authority to secure a path through the boisterous crowd of reporters. I even had a crew of guards to escort everyone on through to the castle courtyard. After that, I had made a request to the patrol to give them both a tour through the castle.

Twilight, for the first time today, spoke after me and suggested that she'd lead the tour personally, giving them unrestricted access to all of what the castle had to offer. I didn't refuse her request, nodding to the guards that they were to be dismissed.

Meanwhile, I dismissed myself for a more... lively venue.

"A guard of extreme incompetence such as yourself should acknowledge when you have failed to meet the standards you swore to uphold!"

Wow, they're not playing around today. Them's firing words.

"Princess, must we have such an inept creature─who readily relies on royal intervention─remain at large in a position he is clearly incapable of maintaining?"

The royals looked at the outspoken politician with scowls on their faces. Cadance and Blueblood seemed to show theirs the most as Luna yawned at the screaming stallion. Shining stood behind the lower podium below Celestia as he came to my defense. "Senator Fiscal, I have made the decision to make Nondis captain due to not only his unwavering─"

"Fraudulence?" The senator interrupted. "I cannot begin to point out where his faults have continued to devalue our military power. The other nations are laughing at us!" He stated while holding up a newspaper published by the Griffon's Gobbet. "In the article, it states that the collective consensus of the Griffon Kingdom has issued a derogatory statement in regards to the Equestrian Captain of the Royal Guard. They state that 'his existence would be no more of a bigger failure than the administration of King Guto of the Griffon House of Galefront!' They mock us as we continue to deliberate on how we can repair our economy after the recent attacks, all of which have been sourced from that 'human' thing!"

I gotta give them credit, they upped their game since the last time I was summoned... a week ago. "Wait a second, how were these attacks sourced by me!?" I questioned.

"Because the changelings took advantage of Prince Shining Armor's search for you! You vanished without a trace and then reportedly reappeared the day of the attack! If anything, there is a reason for us to see you as nothing more than a potential threat to our Equestrian way of life!"

His response only caused me to scratch my scalp. "Um... how do you... conceive this notion of me being a threat to your way of life... even after I was sworn in to protect it? And to counter your argument, I 'disappeared' back to my own world for a brief visit, to see my family and friends, to which I returned from the eve before the attack on Canterlot had even taken place. Be that as it may, I have been tied down since by a particular purple princess who decided to appropriate my king-sized mattress for her own resting pleasure. Your argument, whatever it may be, is invalid."

This Fiscal guy only ignored what I had said while plowing through my statement... with another article from what appeared to be a Saddle Arabian publisher by the name of the Whispering Sands. "This one says: 'The decision made by Princess Celestia to ordain a fresh recruit into the position of such prominence displays not only a hastened but unwise choice of judgement! In the years of her rule, she has never shown such weakness as to desperately fill a position after the many high-ranking members of her military circle were killed in a raid that has also claimed the lives of dozens of civilians. This illogical move by Celestia has many questioning the validity of not only her judgement, but also the strength of Equestria's military!' This is a vote of no-confidence, princess! We need to act on this now that he has shown how incompetent he is!"

Damn... these people from around the world are really chewing her out over this. This does sound bad, but I do think I have the proper response to such accusations. I have the one advantage that these other nations don't have: firepower. "Hold on a sec, timeout, flags are all over the place but could you tell me what the penalty is, ref?"

"I'm not sure as to what you're referring to, but I am more than capable of naming a few penalties. First, you continue to linger on about while knowing that an investigation─carried out by you─is placed on hold. Second, you ignore everything there is that pertains to your objective by performing other tasks that does not have any relation to that of the investigation. Third, you successfully rescued only seventy-nine out of the one-hundred thirty-nine bodies found in Everfree and that's not even taking the other one-hundred eighty-four into account. Fourth, you allowed Princess Celestia to fly in sans escort into what was to be the changelings' hideout. And fifth, you have failed to capture your primary objective, only dragging in two prisoners that were written on the report as 'changeling scouts'. These results are POOR, UNACCEPTABLE, INADEQUATE, AND INFERIOR TO THE RESULTS OF WHAT MANY OTHER GUARDS JUST A FEW RANKS BELOW YOU WOULD SET!"

I rolled my eyes at his long list of insults as I looked up to Celestia. "You went unguarded?"

"Well I didn't exactly have time to assign a guard to accompany me. They would've slowed me down, honestly... Not saying that the guards are incapable of combat." She confessed quietly.

I then turned my attention back to the politician who advocated for my removal. "So, I'm not doing my job is what you're saying?"

"Not only that but our administration has been heavily scrutinized with your erroneous promotion. I'm merely saying that with your continued track record of needing assistance from the royals, it would appear that you humans are incapable of holding a position so important to the nation's security."

"He's an inferior species, just say it out loud! You don't have to be afraid of that monkey, Senator Fiscal!" A voice boomed from the far-right side of the room.

I turned my sights to the stallion standing at his station, glaring at me defiantly. "So... I'm an inferior being... who cannot properly strategize nor have the abilities to─"

"Engage in combat! Let's be realistic, if you humans actually declared war on us equines, the battle would be short-lived! You humans know nothing when it comes to fighting!"

Celestia then broke her silence on the matter, screaming at the outspoken politician. "How dare you speak such nonsense! Nondis has been more than capable of dispatching several changelings in his short, but highly decorated career! You only seem to focus on the times where he would be most vulnerable, which is being outnumbered in an enlarged space and going against a changeling with enchanted armor! You fail to focus on how competent he is as a fighter by highlighting the strategic setbacks he had to encounter, for the most part, on his own!"

"Princess, your words fall upon deaf ears. If there is a strategic advantage in favor of the opposition, his job is to counter that advantage with an effective strategy! Your coddling him and labeling him as a 'protected species' has done nothing but produced a weak and frail creature to lead our forces!"

Shining interjected. "Nondis is hardly weak. I'd say that he's performed quite admirably in his duties. He's even─"

"Don't blow your load too soon, Shining." I had to stop him before he said too much. "I got this, apparently they want me to explain to them why I am the best fit for this job."

"Well nopony on our end is going to argue it." Blueblood answered.

"And that is why our country is going to fail, because you fail to ask the hard questions that need to be asked!"

Okay, time to go into scare mode. "So here's a question... if we were neutral parties, and I was the very representative of all of the humans in my world, and you were the representative of all equines here in this one, and our armies were standing behind us... ready and willing to go at each other's throats, what would be your choice?"

The politician laughed boisterously as he dismissively waved a hoof at me. "A choice? There's only one correct answer and that is to show you monkeys your place. The only disadvantage is that we'd run out of bananas sooner than we could throw them."

I nodded my head with pursed lips as I pulled my backpack off and started pulling out the projector I borrowed from Cliff. I also pulled out a pair of speakers with a small subwoofer. "Uh-huh, go on. How would you defeat every last human on Earth?"

I could see a sadistic smile crawl onto his face as he walked from his station and met with me on the floor. As he approached, he continued to boast. "You humans have no magic, so how do you levitate? How do your create your shields to protect the platoons of soldiers? How would you even take to the sky when you have no wings? If you needed to have a handicap for your final evaluation back in basic training, then how would you even be able to endure the fight? You have no spells to cast, no metal as sharp as our steel, no weapon capable of piercing the armor of our soldiers. You all would be weak, feeble, and would pale in comparison to the might of our impregnable forces. Even Celestia would proudly witness her nation overcome your world."

Celestia shook her head as she muttered back to the delusional politician. "Surely no fool would dare to dream of such fallacies."

The politician looked back to the princess with anger. "YOU KNOW THIS TO BE TRUE! These humans are nothing but─"

"Let's just throw a number out there, one-hundred thirty-five thousand." I interrupted, finally getting the projector plugged up and plugged a USB from it to my phone. I drew a sigh of relief upon finding out that this was a projector attuned to apple products. Obviously, my research on the train wasn't for naught. I turned back to the politician and pointed to him. "Just keep that number in mind."

Shining looked at me with a concerned frown. "Why that number?"

"I'll get to it in a bit." I answered as I looked at my phone's reception meter, reading out a solid two to three bars of 4G connection. Thankfully, that would allow me to access the internet though my data plan. This wouldn't take long at all then. I held up my phone and showed the front of it to the politician. "As you can see, our technology is far more advanced than what you all could have ever dreamed of. At the flick of a wrist, the swipe of a finger, the touch of a button, we can obtain information faster than what any of your newspapers can ship out. In mere seconds, we would be able to search, obtain, and ascertain any information we chose to pursue."

I then pointed the phone to myself and sent it into video recorder mode. As I held it up, I slowly walked up to the stallion and awaited his response. He didn't take to kindly to me invading his personal space, trying to point me away from him. "Get that thing out of my face, you stupid monkey!"

I backed off of him and pressed the stop button. After I pulled up the projector app on my phone, I quickly pulled the video back up. I then pointed it to a blank wall. "May we have the light's dimmed?"

Celestia nodded as she used her magic to close the windows and darkened the lights. I finished hooking my sound into my phone and turned on the projector itself. After it had finished warming up, the signal came through and showed the old pony standing just in front of me with a play emblem over the center. I tapped on the screen to start the playback. There were audible gasps as they saw the video appear to them from my point of view. As I stepped closer, the footsteps were very audible as a snort came from the politician.

"Get that thing out of my face, you stupid monkey!"

The entire room exploded into gasps, awes, screams as they watched the short video come to it's end. In the dimmed light, I could see the same politician I recorded stand in place with his mouth agape.

"I don't think I'll ever be so brash in this kind of gathering again... But HOLY SHIT!" Blueblood exclaimed excitedly. "Did you... did you see how clean and professional it was? That's beating all of our best film cameras out in development! The quality, the sound, the frame-rate, motion pictures would never be the same!"

"What source of magickry is that miniature device?" The stunned politician asked quietly.

"Well..." I'm really getting tired of not knowing this guy's name. "Pardon me for a sec, what was your name again?"

"Senator Count DeMoné." He replied.

"Senator Count... I'm gonna call you Moneybags. But to answer your question, there's no magic involved. This is all human ingenuity. In fact, this device here is capable of much more than a simple video. It can record audio, take pictures, and even maintain real-time connections with anyone else I choose to speak with."

I pulled up the face-time app and hit up Rickey. As I waited, the projector continued to display the screen as I was seeing it. As soon as Rickey's face came up, the entire room gasped.

"Sup Nondis!"

"Hey Rick, how's everything going?" I questioned.

"Man, I'm just walking around here looking at everything on this tour. Hey, would you believe that there's actually a stain-glass window of that one guy we saw on Wednesday?"

"Discord? Yeah, his presence is met with mixed results, but he's a pretty cool guy once you get to know him a bit."

"Oh hold on one second... Hey Twi, come look at this!"

As the view shifted elsewhere, the color of the lighting started to turn pink-ish as the purple princess came into view. More gasps sounded throughout the room as they watched the princess speak through the other device. Shining Armor and Blueblood whispered to one another about how this could be useful for some 'wish you were here' talk. Cadance only grew more approving of the subject as she watched Twilight speak.

"Oh wow, I knew human technology was advanced, but this is something totally new to me."

"Hey Twi, how's the tour going?" I questioned.

Twilight tried to keep her eyes off of the screen as she continued to look at everything else around her. "I-It's going well. Where are you right now?"

"You know, crappy summons. I guess they didn't like my performance from the past week and a shitload of other countries are sitting here throwing shade at us for my being the captain."

"Shade?" She questioned as she looked to Cliff with a puzzled expression.

Cliff whispered back to Twilight. "It means they trying to put him on blast."

"Seriously? Are you in the Hall of the Parliament now?" She asked.

"Where else would I be? I'm getting chewed out here!"

Twilight groaned with disgust as she rolled her eyes. "Ugh... I'm on my way!"

"No, you're fine. You keep giving them the tour and I'll take care of this."

"Well, the next spot on our tour of the castle would take us past there. So I guess I can show them the parliament at work, should prove to be an educational experience." She responded as she walked down the hall.

"Uh... just take them out to lunch or something, I'm kinda in the midst of some negotiations."

Then out of seemingly left-field, Cliff came barging into the picture, taking the phone from Twilight and speaking onscreen. "Yo Nondis, you just up and disappeared. Where yo fightin-ass at!?"

"He's in a parliament meeting right now." Twilight responded as she tried to take the phone back, failing to do so when Rick got a hold of his phone once more.

"And he's face-timing in the middle of it? So unprofessional." Cliff taunted in the background.

"Yup, and they're getting a kick out of it." I motioned to Celestia to briefly raise the light level so that I could show them all of the ponies in the room. "Say hello to the Earthlings, boys!"

As I panned the phone across the room, Cliff and Rickey waved at the group of ponies. A few of the politicians waved back in response, eagerly getting in their greetings to the two strange faces. Rickey chuckled as he watched some of the members of the right side of the room remain seated and unimpressed. "Damn, they looking at you real shady-like. Tell those guys in the back to smile a little more, at least stop looking so constipated."

Before I could pull my phone back down, Shining ran from his seat and levitated the screen towards him, waving eagerly at the camera. "Hey Twily!"

"Shining, you're there too?" The purple unicorn asked with her usual cheerfulness.

"Yeah, they're really dumping on Nondis. I think he might pull a fast one on them again, wanna come watch?" He questioned with a prideful smirk on his face.

"Yeah I wanna come watch!"

"Wanna come watch what?" Cliff questioned as he popped back up on the screen.

Twilight answered the dark-skinned human with a cheerful grin. "We're going to see the parliament and Nondis in a hot-topic debate. Should serve to be some─"

While they're at it... "Hey Twi, can you pick something up for me while you're on your way down?"

Twilight still didn't look at the screen as she answered. "Sure, what is it?"

"Can you get the two changelings we nabbed in Everfree back on Tuesday?"

"Oh, the changeling commander and his boy? Yeah, where they at?"

The room just gawked and shouted with disbelief as soon as those words left his mouth. The politicians on the far-left started shouting at the opposing parties to the right, likewise the right to the left. Many of the ones that began to toot their snout up at me on the right had to pick their jaws up from off of the floor. Shining and Blueblood cheesed triumphantly as they gave each other a hoof-bump. Celestia remained silent, but the small upward curve on her lips indicated that she wanted to scream 'I told you so' as loud as she possibly could. Instead, she loudly called the room to order, giving me back the silence the room once had.

...Way to blow my load there, Cliff. "Uh, downstairs in the dungeon, fifth hall to the right, pass by the interrogation room, go past the level-three security checkpoint and it should be a cell at the end of the hall. If you see some Hannibal-Lecter-looking motherfucker staring you in the face from way down the hall, then you're in the right hall. His cell is directly next to it to the left."

"Hannibal Lecter? That nigga ain't gon eat me, is he?" Cliff questioned with concern.

"Nah, Caramel just looks like that because he's pissed about being locked up. He might try to start some shit with you, so just ignore him."

"Roger that. ♪I'm locked up, they won't let me out! Won't let me out!♫" He sang as he walked off screen

"You sure you're going to be okay?" Rickey asked as he was about to let

"I'll be fine, now go away. I'm gonna show them some really scary shit."

"Okay, but try not to instigate a war while you're down there. I don't think they would be able to win that one."

I looked back to the politician who stood on the floor. "Solid copy, catch you later."

As I was about to hang up, I saw Twilight grab the phone once more and stare for a bit at the screen. She seemed as if she was trying to look at anything else in the room aside from my face, but she resigned to turning away and whispering in a soft, broken voice. "...Love you."

"Love you too." Somehow, saying those words seemed as if it started to hurt me a bit. But I know what I'm doing and I know that my plan will work out for the better.

By the time I finish, I should be saying those words with the full intention to make up every single time I would hurt her during this political stint. But for now, I need to keep a brave face on while I do this...

I've never felt so conflicted in my life.

As I hung up the call, the politician that stood on the floor spoke on the final words Rickey said before he left the call. "What does he mean by 'I don't think they'll be able to win that one?' I believe we're more than capable."

"We're not." Shining bluntly responded, the entire room staring at him as he made his confession. "Their weapons are far beyond our comprehension. Their technology is beyond comparison to anything we could ever hope to possess within the next two decades. You saw that for yourself and yet you still continue to delude yourself."

Senator Count looked to the sun princess for any chance of her rebuking the young prince. Her response was nothing different from what Shining had said. "Their weaponry dwarfs our capabilities. We'd only succeed should our armor become heavily enchanted and saturated with magic. Even then, they have alternative means of disabling their foes, rendering them harmless for several minutes at a time."

Shining continued from where Celestia had left off. "It's how he's managed to get Commander Guto. And even on the way out, we started going against over two-hundred changelings, plus the likes of a changeling brute. That number dwindled to about eighty when we were done. And the only reason why Celestia intervened was because the brute was saturated with magic and wore enchanted armor, meaning that it was a foe that only a high-level unicorn could defeat. The rest either died instantly or bled out while injured."

Cadance followed up her husband's statement with one of her own. "And these guys can take out a target from over a mile away. We've borne witness to it, and it was terrifying. Whatever armor it was wearing, it dug right through it and shattered it. Even their bows and arrows have the power to ignore our defenses, driving through our armor as if we were wearing nothing but tin cans."

Celestia spoke once more. "And it sounded as if thunder had assaulted your ears. Their very creations were so powerful that they even had to CREATE more armor to counter it. Honestly, what would've killed Nondis only resulted in a few broken ribs because of the armor he wore, and he was rammed into a stone pillar by the changeling brute."

"They depend on conventional tactics, but their method of execution combined with their weapons, their strength, their agility, their mental focus... You would only scream if you'd see what they were capable of." Shining concluded, causing much of the room to fall into an uncomfortable silence.

Senator Count started to sound out a chuckle, his voice echoing throughout the quiet room. "Weapons that kill beyond a measure of one-thousand yards? Surely you jest, no weapons are even in development. Not even magic can be cast in such a distance."

"Then why don't you tell that to Princess Twilight Sparkle, who originally lost her home because of a greedy centaur who's only desire was to consume all of your magic and rule over you with an iron fist." I argued angrily, taking some personal offense of his comment. "If you ask me, it's more than possible with magic. I've even bore witness to just how powerful a full-release beam of magic is capable of. Being that we're without that, we figured out how to get that same message across the field, with much finer placement. And to prove my point, I will give you all a brief demonstration of just how much of your words you'll be eating."

I walked over to the other side of the room and asked a unicorn guard on watch if I could borrow his sword. With a nod, he levitated his sword in-scabbard to me. As I drew the sword, I continued to speak.

"This weapon is indeed well-made. Very tough stuff, good for cutting through the meat of your problem. It has the two focal points which the blade flexes to makes it all-the-more resistant to shattering and breakage. But even with such craftsmanship, there will always be a force stronger than this, and capable of breaking even this kind of steel."

I flipped the sword into a reverse grip and plunged the blade into a nearby wooden table. A few gasps came from the seating area as the royals remained silent. They already had an idea as to what was going to happen next.

"So nice, so structurally sound. The smithy did a pretty good job on it. Glad these things are standard issue though. Because as much as I would like to swing that thing around a little more, I'm afraid that we humans have come to the terms that those tools, as well as they complete their intended function, are obsolete. They perform their job wonderfully, but we have only come to realize that these things are relics, artifacts, devices of an age long remembered yet their technique mostly forgotten. But they do make for a nice household decoration or items for collectors."

As I walked away, Senator Count frowned as I started to walk back to my bag and pulled out a silver briefcase. He continued to show his disdain for the words I spoke. "That is ludicrous! How do you humans expect to be a force to be reckoned with if few of you have knowledge of the art of the sword? What kind of excuse does your species pass as soldiers?"

As I opened the case and started assembling my weapon, Shining's ears perked as he saw the weapon take shape. "Hey Nondis, is that the one rifle you used back in Everfree? I think that's the M16, if I'm not mistaken."

"You've been paying attention, well done." I commended the blue-haired prince as I finally placed the weapon back together. I also looked to the stallion who poked at his sword buried in the table. "Hey, I'm gonna need you to forget about that thing, it's not gonna last the next few minutes. So if you could come on over here and stand behind me, that would be golden."

"...Sir." The stallion complied with a confused demeanor.

"You have yet to answer my question, sir captain." Senator Count stated.

"Well Moneybags, if you want to know what's our version of soldiers are like, then you're gonna to have to find out how we've been fighting wars in the next few seconds. So pay attention, and keep your eyes on the prize over there." I said while pointing to the sword.

"Um..." Shining hummed as he used his magic to keep my rifle down. "To all the members of the parliament, this is going to be really loud. So just be prepared."

After taking out my headphones, using them as makeshift earplugs, I loaded one bullet into the chamber and set the mode to semi. I proceeded to speak as I took my aim. "Now, I know what you're thinking. What the hell is in my hands? To answer your question, I've manage to bring you a weapon that no pony could possibly use due to anatomical differences. And the use of this weapon is to eliminate your enemy from a distance rather than getting close up. Take away the advantage of their strength and overcome that with range and stopping power. Tear their ranks limb from limb and watch the grunts run with their tails between their hind legs. In other words..."

*POW!*

As the politicians screamed from the sound of the gun firing, they shouted even louder as they watch the hilt of the sword fall from it's severed blade, bouncing off the table and tumbling to the floor. Talking amongst one another, they continued to point to the sword and then to me with shock and awe.

"Miniature political horses, meet mankind's long-time companion: Boomstick. Circa, 1271 Anno Domini. We are currently in the year 2014 Anno Domini, or AD for short. From around the time this weapon was first created, the world was slowly transitioning from traditional methods of sword combat to more sophisticated means of killing. We created machines to knock down walls, break through gates, casting bolts from one side of a field to another. But this weapon did not start seeing it's real use in modern combat until about the 1500's. By then, armor became thick to a fault where the wearer would be slowed and vulnerable to items that inflicted blunt-force trauma. Even mere mud would become their undoing."

"You have more of these... There are more of these... boomsticks?" Senator Fiscal questioned.

"More than there needs to be, from my personal point of view." I responded quietly. "But yes, these things would prove to be very efficient in their job, but the earlier models were inaccurate. Fast forward a few hundred years and you'll find that problem had been all but eradicated. Now... let's go into the early 1900's. Senator Moneybags, what was the number I gave you?"

"Uh... *gulp* one-hundred thirty-five thousand?"

"Good, keep that in your brain, we'll get to it in a sec. But this is a crash course of more recent events in human history, dating back to a little over a century ago. See, there was this thing called the Great War, the first of it's kind. It was a conflict in which many countries threw their lots and sided with one of two groups: the Allied Powers and the Central Powers. Keeping this one short and sweet, the Allies won. Why keep it short, because this is not the war that I want to talk about. But it was known as one of the deadliest conflicts in human history."

"How bad was it?" Senator Fiscal questioned.

"Over the course of four years, three months and two weeks, thirty million civillians and soldiers died. But that's to be expected when over thirty countries go at each other's throats."

There was a ghastly pause and a wave of melancholy fell upon the room at the revelation of this news. Shining felt his forelegs support him with the strength of graphite as he gawked in response. "That's nothing to gloss over! THAT'S OVER SIXTY PERCENT OF EQUESTRIA'S TOTAL POPULATION!"

"Yeah I know, but I'm moving on for the sake of time. That war was then renamed as World War I. Now let us move on to the late 1930's, 1939 to be precise. Of course, many individuals of that war would often recount their tales of horror and strife in the trenches, saying that there would never be another war like it. And they were right... until World War II.

The room fell into a deafening silence as Cadance came from behind her podium and walked up to me. "Please tell me that this one wasn't as bad as the first."

"It wasn't, it was far worse." I said as I turned my attention to Shining. "Remember our conversation about the deck of cards?"

"Yeah, and how there were trump cards?" He guessed.

"Exactly, this time around it was like everyone involved had nothing but the higher suits to play with. The whole deck was there, but everyone was playing their best hands. And as a result, there were deaths that surpassed even that of the first war. I'll tell you that number in a minute, but let's get back to this war."

"What's so special about this number you gave me?" Senator Count questioned.

"I'm getting there. Now, there were three main countries on one side: Germany who played the villain in the first war decided that reprising it's role was the best thing to do, Italy, and Japan. There were three other main contenders that fought against this trio known as the Axis Powers: the Soviet Union, China, and Great Britain. Though these were the heavyweights, they were not the only ones in the ring. Once more, this conflict was a global matter that costed the lives of millions. But my home country, who was a big-time player in the previous war, wanted nothing to do with it. And much like the first war, they were provoked into it."

"How so, if I may ask?" Princess Luna inquired. "I find some interest in how this conflict involved that of your homeland."

"This is where it start's coming full-circle. December 7th, 1941, this was the day Japan decided to poke around and bombed a naval base belonging to our country, decimating much of our naval forces. This did not end very well for them. Enter, the United States of America, the fourth heavyweight, gloves completely off. We declared war with Japan, and Japan's allies declared war on us, you can figure out the rest. Meantime, we started our battles against the Japanese armies overseas, and trust me when I say this, they were a fighting ass. We were getting our asses kicked in the start, but the tide turned in our favor later in the conflict. Fast forward to the year of 1944, Italy and Germany bowed out, leaving Japan as our only problem. So we focused much of our efforts to the Pacific Ocean, and from then on is where their resources started to dwindle, if not already."

"So, how bad was the battles?" The guard questioned with curiosity.

"Each man had a story to tell, you don't wanna know what they were. I'll assure you that." I answered before getting to the main subject. "Now, forward to the year 1945. My home country, the United States, finally got to where they were prepared to invade the mainland of Japan. But it was brought to our attention that the deaths of our own soldiers could not be lightly weighted. Throughout this oceanic campaign, we lost over several million young lives, all by land, sea, and air. A much smaller nation provided such a fight to where it had us on the ropes from the very start. Invading the mainland would result in more of these casualties. But there was another option that our leader was presented, a weapon once pondered upon by the Germans, but gone unrealized due to the evasion of one scientist in particular."

"What was the weapon?" Questioned Senator Count.

"A single bomb."

Shining and the others began to look at me with bewilderment as I presented them with the ultimatum. "Well, that seems a bit anticlimactic, don't you think?" The guard asked.

"Sure, it does. You think it would be like that, but upon seeing the results of the final test of the weapon, one of the developers even quoted these words: I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. And the catch of it was that there was more than one of these made, but they would only use one at a time because they could only drop one before getting out to safety."

"Why one?" Shining questioned.

"Shining Armor, you and I had a brief discussion of trump cards, and I recall telling you that we've only used them in wartime twice." I went back to my phone at the projector and pulled up a picture of an aerial view of the city of Hiroshima before the drop. As the picture stood on the wall, I turned to the politician. "That number I gave you, what was it again?"

"One-hundred thirty-five thousand." Senator Count answered.

"Bingo." I said as I swiped the screen to show the after image.

Cadance gasped as she walked beside her husband. "Um... That last picture, there were buildings there. What are we looking at now?"

"You are looking at the same picture, only what could be considered as what the result was just four minutes later."

With a shortness in breath and rolling eyes, Cadance fainted where she stood as every voice in the room screamed in horror. Shining's ears fell back as he expressed a look of despair. Blueblood trembled as he tried to keep his hooves from clattering against the floor. Senator Count was left speechless. Celestia breathed heavily as she and Luna tried to contemplate the numbers that were just shared.

"A total of 135,000 casualties, 87,000 killed instantly. For those caught in the epicenter of the blast, only their shadows remained permanently etched onto the ground. Where they walked, the black figure that conjoined with their body was permantly set in place as the bodies themselves were vaporized into ash. Rock and concrete turned into dust, clouds bowed and broke in it's wake, structures crumbled, bridges blown away, homes reduced to their foundations, those who felt the heat had their clothes melted into their skin... Do you know what burning flesh smells like, do you know what it looks like when it cooks? It has a tendency to bubble a bit─"

"ENOUGH!" Shouted the mortified Senator Count. "You humans are atrocious!"

I walked up the the shaken senator and grabbed him by his horn as I proceeded to violently shove my words down his throat. "Oh please, don't even let me get into detail about the eighty million DEATHS in the war alone! THAT WAS OUR WORST FUCKING CONFLICT, TO WHERE WE DECIDED TO KILL OURSELVES EIGHTY MILLION TIMES OVER! AND YOU THINK WE WON'T HAVE THE CAPABILITY OF DECIMATING YOUR LITTLE FUCKING ROCK OF LAND!? LEARN YOUR PLACE, HORSE! THERE ARE SEVEN BILLION OF US, YOU! CAN'T! FUCK! WITH IT!"

My voice continued to echo throughout the halls of the parliament, my chest rose and fell rapidly as I tightly grasped the stallion's horn. My teeth clenched tightly as I stared an entire century's worth of conflict into his eyes. My anger started to have me think about violent thoughts, but I had to remember where I was and who was watching for me to come back to the present. His eyes watered as he essentially broke down into a foal. After taking in a deep breath, I set aside my pent-up rage and spoke in a quieter tone as I released him, letting him drop to the floor.

"That is what I will say to your enemies. Those that mock you, they don't know what you know now. They have no fucking clue as to what you've done. You've made yourself the top-dog, the chairman of the board in having me in this position. In four days after my summons, I've captured your guy. I fucked around because the investigation had been closed. Our instincts, once they're turned on, we become the deadliest thing to encounter. We have persisted through the worst the world had to offer, an ice age, several plagues, we've had wars that killed more than all of our epidemics and natural disasters combined. Thirty-five thousand years of being the world champs of evolution, populating faster than we can be killed. One dies and hundreds are born every second. They who claim against you, they are nothing but mere rugs to us, trophies to be mounted above our fireplace, to be sat on when we rest, to become our clothing, our food, our shelter, our tools. We are the genus species Homo Sapien, we are the death, destroyer of worlds..."

Turning my attention to Celestia, I gave her a gentle smile as I bowed before her. I knelt down and placed my right arm across my chest as my head rose, my eyes meeting with hers.

"And we, we are your friend."

A few whispers sounded throughout the room as they continued to debate amongst each other about what they had just learned. Even Celestia and Luna talked amongst each other as Blueblood and Shining both tended to an recovering Cadance. Just as I had started speaking, Cliff and Rickey had walked into the room with Twilight and the changeling commander, bound in chains.

"Your enemies shall become a footstool, a place to rest your weary hooves after a long day of work. Our alliance would yield much more than what your enemies could ever provide in a state of economical, military, political, or geographical consolidation. They could send their best, we'll send them back broken and bereaved. Would it not be better to have such a threat to call you friend than foe? Would you not accept us, even as our deeds continue to be of your benefit? Of course, there are hundreds that have passed on in the course of these past ten days, but there are thousands upon thousands who didn't have to see such a fate. So I ask you all, members of the Equestrian Parliament, allow me to be your shield, your sword, your trump card! And let us laugh at those who continue to criticize us, because they're the ones who chose to live under a rock while you all have chose to evolve. Let me lead the way, to an era of social renaissance. Those who wish to stand with me, stand as you are now."

The room remained silent, not a single sound filled the room. Looking through the crowd, I could only see faces of uncertainty. Glancing back towards the royals, I could see them quietly watching the politicians. At first the massive amount of confidence I had started to waiver a bit, then started to fall apart at the seams while they only looked towards one another. It felt as if all hope was lost, that is until...

*clap clap clap clap*

When I looked behind me, I could see both Rickey and Cliff clapping as they cheered. Though it did initially bring me some sort of comfort, I felt that it was a bit awkward that the only ones clapping were the only other two humans in the room.

"Yeah! Synergy! Corporate! All that other shit! Let's do it!" Rickey hollered, gaining a chuckle from both me and Cliff.

"Okay, let's go! Let's go unite!" Cliff added. Though his attempt was kinda cheesy, I appreciated his enthusiasm.

But then something else surprised me, the sound of a pair of hooves clopping together. "Woo-hoo! Let's do it for friendship! Yeah!"

I thought Cliff was corny, but Twilight was... wow.

Then suddenly, I heard the sound of hooves clopping from, surprisingly, the stands. A lone stallion on the left side rose to his hind legs and clopped his hooves excitedly. "Hear hear!"

Gradually, more cheers started to sound out throughout the entire room. Voices called out from either side of the room.

"Equestria will be well protected with your help!"

"Our country's military will be stronger than ever!"

"Our nation will stand tall above the others!"

"We will show them who's foolish!"

"Those Changelings don't stand a hell of a chance now!"

"Yeah! Let our banner hang high in the skies above!"

"Let our nation become the greatest there ever was!"

The entire room was giving me a standing ovation. Even the silent Senator Count could only watch quietly as the other members of the parliament stood in favor of keeping me around. Now I had them where I wanted.

"Let us stand together, both Equine and Man! Together we will build upon this land and show those beyond that we have evolved! You are the champions of your evolution, we are the champions of ours! And none, neither dragon nor changeling shall stand in our way! Together, WE EVOLVE!"

Rambunctious cheers fell from the mouths of every representative, senator, and lobbyist who stood. Even the guard that stood on the floor grew excited from the speech and started a "Long live Equestria" chant. I turned back around to the group of royals and gave them a smile and a salute. Turning my attention to the changeling commander, I scoffed back at him and moved my line of vision to both Cliff and Rickey chanting along with the politicians while looking towards each other with amusement. Blueblood looked on slack-jawed, his lips slowly transforming into a smile. Shining only proceeded to shout alongside the politicians after he was certain that Cadance was doing well. The pink alicorn walked up to me and used her magic to pull my ear towards her.

"What is this?"

With a smirk, I proudly answered her. "Your highness, this is the first step of removing your law."

"This was not what we had planned!"

"There never was a plan to begin with, Cadance. Unless you had something better, obviously my way would be quickest and the most decisive. Give me two months, and this law will be on it's way out."

Cadance released my ear, instead grabbing my head and pulling it down as she spoke. "Two months, two months for what!?"

"You'll see. I only ask you to play the part I want you to play. Now we could either ball hard or ball their way. Choose."

The chants continued as Cadance grew all the more disgruntled. "Nnnngh! We're gonna have a long talk about this later."

As Cadance walked off to speak with Twilight, I walked back to the table and grabbed my phone to check the time. As I finished, I started piecing together the next part of what I needed to do. The next time I'll speak to them, I'll have to have a brief discussion of human history and military tactics to keep arousing their nationalistic fancies. I need to keep them where I can give them what they want while simultaneously denying them of what they want to see of the royals.

Hypothetically speaking, I am going to edge these old guys to a denied orgasm... That sounds really gay as hell, but I'm secure enough in myself to make that analogy. You know what, yeah I'll play the part. I'll be similar to that of the high-class hookers they hide in their offices every once and a while. Blindfold them, whisper sweet words into their ears, stimulate the conversation, arouse their egos, get them excited in a variety of ways, and once it's time for the big finale, take it all away. And in their state of confusion, take the prize and leave them on the bed hogtied.

Now that's how you play dirty politics.

After the summons I had received quite a few questions from politicians, press, and royals alike. More often I had to divert some of the questions to Cliff and Rickey, as they were often questioning the details of the wars I had mentioned. Thankfully, the other two were more than eager to share their knowledge of the subject, but I did have them hold out on any information that pertained to the atomic bombs. I didn't want the politicians getting any ideas that I was advocating for a hostile takeover of every other nation. I also had to verify that to the press so that they wouldn't report something that was inaccurate.

My only objective was to tease them with the possibilities of an alliance with mankind. The warmongering talk would be saved for any future changeling threats. And knowing those guys, that might not be too small of a possibility. If anything, I had directed the guards to increase the security around Ponyville tomorrow because of the ceremony that would take place at noon tomorrow.

Unfortunately, due to the perpetual questioning sessions as well as engaging in talks with Princess Celestia, we had missed our final train out of town going towards Ponyville. So we were confined to Canterlot for the night. Again, Cliff and Rickey didn't have too many objections about it, which I started to find really strange because I would've figured that they would've been tired of the questions and wanted to go home and rest. I know this for certain, they're gonna want to go back after sleeping in these beds.

The hours have grown late and the celestial bodies changed places with one another. Celestia made it her personal responsibility to guide us to our rooms. She led us to stay in the west wing of the castle, providing us with a pretty decent view of the city just outside our balcony. While inside, we were too busy trying to make provisions.

"Not it!"

"Not it!"

"Not─FUCK!"

Cliff called out late and missed out on getting one of the beds. But I decided that since this was his first time here, I would take the sofa instead and let him have the bed. When I walked over to the sofa, I had remembered that sofas here was smaller than the human variety of a love seat. And it wasn't like they had recliners where I could just prop up and go to sleep on. I reluctantly made the choice to sleep on the floor.

"You sure you good down there?" Cliff questioned.

"I'm okay. I've had worse. I know one thing's for certain, I'm not sleeping on a tiny ass hotel bed they have at every other lodge here in town."

"Yeah, I was wondering if they had any larger mattresses?" Rickey asked while climbing into the bed.

"Sorry guys, they don't make them bigger than Luna-sized. The makers here have it somewhere in their brain where they don't make beds any larger than the one Celestia sleeps on unless it was a custom order. And even then, it's expensive as hell to get one that size as a custom order anyhow. I'd be looking at a deficit of around twenty-thousand bits."

"Damn." The both sounded in unison.

"Yeah, that's why I just brought my mattress over from my apartment to this world... And now Twilight's drooling on it every night."

"So you just let her take your stuff?" Rickey asked with a chuckle.

"We were sharing the damn thing anyhow." I argued.

"Yet you stay at a little hotel across the street from the castle. If anything, you're in the literal definition of a doghouse right now." Cliff joked while peeling back the covers.

"Yeah, it's like that, I guess. I could never really understand what I was thinking to not grab that on my way out. I suppose it would end so much potential back pain just to get on that." I said as Cliff handed me the comforter so that I could make a make-shift futon to sleep on.

"Oh yeah. You gotta get your mattress dude. Do you normally sleep on the floor or do you have a set of beds you use?" Rickey inquired while giving me his sheets to sleep under.

"I have two beds I racked together, but I'm having to sleep diagonally just to make it a little more comfortable. My feet and lower legs usually dangle on off the edge, but I've manage to make it work with the recliner they had. But it does limit where I can toss and turn. Also I fell off twice now. Standard twin mattresses for ponies aren't really a good thing for a human to sleep on unless they're shorter than five-feet four-inches."

"And you're six feet even, why didn't you buy another mattress back home so you can chill out there?" Rickey grabbed two pillows off the sofa and threw them down to me.

"Because I needed someplace where Twilight doesn't have full access. The last thing I need to wake up to is a purple pony staring me in the face."

"Why do you feel that way towards her? I thought you two were hittin' off." Cliff questioned while poking around on his phone.

"We... we're not at the moment. Twi and I got into a bit of a scuffle last night, admittedly it was my fault. And because of it, I find it increasingly difficult to talk with her."

"Oh yeah, she told us about that earlier. I didn't think you were the type of nigga to mess around."

With a sigh, I flopped back on the sheets with shame clouding my thoughts. "Yeah, me neither. I'm not gonna pass the blame on it, I did what I did and I broke a promise."

Rickey tossed yet another pillow from the sofa directly to my face. "So... what are you gonna do about the thing you got with Melanie?"

...Oh yeah... shit. "Argh... I guess I'll have to reclarify to her that we were supposed to be hanging out tomorrow. I can make some time after the ceremony."

"Uh, but didn't whatshername mentioned that she wanted to throw a party to celebrate tomorrow?" Cliff asked. "You know, the pink one."

"Pinkie? Yeahhhhh-shit. I can't do tomorrow."

"Actually, let me give you an idea." Rickey grabbed the pillow he threw at me from off the floor and swiped it at my head, only coming into contact with my arms shielding my face. "Invite Mel on over."

"What?"

"Seriously, I think Melanie should get to know what's all been going down for the past nine months. She's been the sole reason why your folks haven't made funeral arrangements for your ass. I think you owe it to her."

As much as I would like to, I don't know if I can do that. There's too much at risk for me to casually invite her over, especially now. "Uh... can it wait till later?"

"No, it can't wait till the day after tomorrow. It has to be tomorrow. Think about it this way, this party would prove to be an icebreaker between her and pony society." Rickey suggested while walking back to his bed.

"But it'll also introduce her to the fact that I'm dating someone that isn't a human girl. She'll be the first one out the gate to blow a fuse at that fact."

"Look, she did keep looking for you and she trusts you enough for her to be able to come to you whenever she's in trouble. You should be able to trust her enough with this."

Again, I'd understand that if not for one additional reason. "Yeah, but what if she tells my parents?"

"They're going to find out eventually. But you need to tell them before she does. And if you need the time to do so, then let her know that from the start so that she doesn't start mouthing off about it." Cliff stated.

"This is still going to lead me to trouble. What if something─"

Rickey was quick to interrupt me with a pillow thrown from his bed. "Dude, are you going to be stuck on what-if's for the rest of your life? Cause I would sure hate to live like that for the rest of mine."

"I don't really know if I can right now." I answered, throwing the pillow back at him.

Cliff threw his at me as he spoke. "Bruh, let me spit somthin' at you real quick. You saying you worried about Mel being too open with your folks, I see it as a potential doorway. If you can somehow convince her that this kind of life is something you'd be okay with and she comes to understand that you're happy living this way, then I'm sure you can move on up to your family. It ain't gotta be momma and pops, but it could be a cousin, a brother, niece or nephew, anything like that."

That's true, I've never thought of it that way. But that's still a huge risk to play on. "Okay, if I can miraculously convince Melanie that I'm not losing my mind, or that I'm some sick and disgusting man with an abnormal fetish, then I'll be more than happy to do it."

"We got you, bruh. All you need to do is call her tomorrow morning and let her know that you want her to come over and show her a surprise, and we'll take it from there."

"You honestly think that will actually work?"

"Dude, you already got it set up." Rickey confirmed. "She called me yesterday, letting me know that she was setting something up with you and that you had something to show her, what you called 'a belated birthday gift' could be the truth of what all happened for the past nine months." Rickey stated strongly.

"She's not gonna like it." I argued.

"That don't matter at this point. She might not like the circumstances, but she'll love you for keeping it one-hundred. And as time goes by, she'll grow to accept it. Once she experiences this for herself, it'll grow on her."

I'm still uncomfortable with this. "...Are you sure?"

"Yes!" They both answered in unison.

"You ain't got nothin' to lose at this point. If anything, it all goes up from here. You gotta make it for yourself, cus ain't nobody gon do if for you." Cliff said while coming over to grab his pillow back.

"Meh...I'll do it, if I can keep the pillow."

"Bruh, c'mon man! Quit playin!"

"Nah, you threw this at me! Your punishment will be not getting it back." I said as he initiated a tug of war.

"Seriously guys? Cliff, let him keep the pillow."

With a glance to Rickey, Cliff let go of the pillow. "Imma get yo ass back." He mumbled under his breath as he walked off.

"Goodnight!" I jokingly called out.

Rickey turned to his side to cut the lamp off, the room becoming lit by only the moon in the sky. For several minutes, it was so quiet that I couldn't hear even the crickets chirping outside. Perhaps it was because our room was several stories above the ground that the sounds have been reduced. But my mind grew curious in the silence, begging me to ask one last thing. "Hey, real question guys."

"What?" They answered at the same time.

"If Twilight told you what happened last night, why didn't you do anything like, I don't know, punch me in the face or throw me down a set of stairs, some stupid shit."

I could already see the silhouette of a man with dreads sit up in his bed, looking at me with an unrecognizable facial expression. "Man you dumb as fuck. Take your ass to sleep."

Rickey laughed to himself as he just flipped over. "You know, I always remembered that you were the main one in our pledge group that asked some of the stupidest questions. Why the hell you think we've been pelting you with pillows all damn night?"

"Okay, but why pillows?"

I heard a scoff come from Rickey's side of the room, followed by a disgruntled sigh from Cliff. "Okay, then let me ask you this. Would you rather get some pillows in the face, or would you rather catch some hands?" Cliff asked.

I'm not even gonna pretend I want the latter, they've been doing fine with the options they've given me already. "I think pillows are fine. Thanks, goodnight." I quickly answered while turning onto my side.

"Stupid ass..." Rickey muttered before letting the room become engulfed by silence.

Though that wasn't exactly the question I wanted to ask, it did answer yet another that was on the back of my mind. I didn't seem to have any issue with going out of my way to ask this one, if it hadn't been for the fact that they had already answered it. And they were right, I did need to tell Mel about what's been going on. She's been in the need of knowing since that moment she planted her lips on mine. I can't let her fall too deep for me otherwise I'd only end up hurting her even more than I would just telling her the truth from the start. I might as well man-up and face the consequences. In order to improve my relationships with other people or ponies, I needed to come clean.

...And I'll do just that tomorrow.

*BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUrip*

Oh come on! "Please tell me that was under the covers"

*sniff sniff-cough* "Rickey... Nigga..."

"Sorry, had to let that one go. Pony food gave me gas."

Well fuck, I guess I'll be inhaling green eggs and spam for the rest of the night.

Author's Note

Agony is the word of the month. It turns out that all that free time I was promised was then shifted towards a SHITLOAD of studio-time and gigs. Granted, I'm getting a new keyboard for my troubles, but I'm still ripping and running through town every day. It's given me plenty of time to think about stuff, but when it comes to jotting it down I don't get the time to do so.

So with that bit of news, I apologize for the long silence and lack of chapters. But at least this one should be a decent size.

As far as the story's progression, I know it's been hard for me to get even a single day in one chapter anymore. This should be my breakthrough of that trend, as it is actually a full day (plus highlighting the events of last night). But at the very least the politicians that once mocked Nondis will be quiet for quite some time... well most of them.

But over the next few chapters, Nondis will be hitting some points where he'd never thought he'd experience. As to what that is, I can't tell you right now (classified: top secret).

Onto the next chapter I go, thankfully I've already have an established direction of where that will head.

Chapter XLVII

I had a very strange nightmare... I don't think I've had anything like it yet.

It started as me in an unusual state: being a pony. But instead of my being in the room with other humans or my friends, I'm standing before a white unicorn with an alabaster mane, tail, and beard. Though it felt oddly unrealistic, I could feel myself walking with hooves. The stallion who looked at me was covered from head to toe in chains and bindings. Below him was a circle of runes and inscriptions, emblems consisting of a variety of shapes such as triangles, pentagons, diamonds, and the like. It was very unusual to see.

He called out to me, "You fool! Do you know nothing of those who are over you! Their intent is not for the better of the ponies, but of themselves!"

"What's going on, where am I?" I questioned the stallion, though he seemed to ignore me.

"You are an imbecile for thinking that they would be so 'righteous'. If you really want to see what they want for the citizens, then look out that window!"

It didn't take me long to find where the window was, as it was the only source of light in this seemingly medieval setting. Above me, the chains rattled and swayed from side to side. Upon walking towards the window, I felt something heavy knock me on the side of the head and throw me to the ground.

The ringing of cathedral bells sounded in my ears as I looked up to see what had hit me, only to see a bloodied set of chains swinging from the ceiling. And up above the rafters, I could only see the smile of a tan stallion in a crimson-stained blouse. To the side of him was another one, this one wearing an impractical outfit made completely of leather belts with a black mask over just his eyes. The only thing that followed for me visually was the dark-brown curtain that quickly shut over my face. Shortly after, I was picked up and thrown from a high place. I assumed it was high because it took me a very long time to come into contact with the ground.

When the bright flash of light shone in my eyes, it then seemed as if millions of light particles started to fade from various locations. After the mess had cleared, I was brought back to the darkness of the brown sack over my head. The sound of the church bells then sounded as if they and I had been plunged under the water. Upon being unveiled, I stood before dirtied, spotty gray mare with a long pink mane lying on the ground. I tried to move towards her but found nothing within my body responding to me at all. It was as if I was just some mere camera recording everything taking place. From over my unresponsive body crawled a shadowy figure, who looked at me with a sinister, gut-churning smile.

With a hoof raised to his muzzle, he shushed me before rapidly grabbing me and tossing me next to the gray mare. Upon landing, I felt something wet underneath me. I looked down to find myself sitting in a puddle of blood, the mare whimpering quietly as she sat in a mess of what appeared to be feathers and clumped fur. I opened my mouth to scream, only for my voice to come from her mouth as she jerked her head backwards to look at me with absent eyes.

Gradually, as I continued to scream, the pitch of it no longer became mine as it morphed into a bone-chilling eldritch-like screech. She blinked once, revealing her eyes in their completely terrifying display of agony. I couldn't quite make out the color as quickly faded into gray as soon as they appeared.

Then from nowhere, she spread the appendages upon her back and took flight. As she rose into the air above me, I had noticed that the things she used to give herself lift were nothing more than bloody stems flapping wildly. As I continued to lie in the mess she wallowed in, it had started to piece together in my mind that the feathers before me were her own. Looking back up to her, I saw her standing just above me, her head completely inverted as she screamed out in pain.

I wanted to run away from that unsettling image, but instead the only thing my body allowed me to do was stand before her. Her hooves launched at my head and quickly pulled me in, that inverted smile being the only thing I saw as she puckered her lips and sank onto me. As she released me, these words left her lips.

İ̝͖̰͙̱͍̎ͥ̔ ͉̟̄̑̓̽t̘̣̣͓͈̲ͯͬ͐ͪͯ̔ͧͅr̫̘̯̳̱͍̖ͤ́ȗ̙̯̭̹̬̤s͖̣̙͌̿̃̍͌ͦ̋t̙̗̞̙̅ͣ͐̾̚e͓͈͇̼̥͓̺̋͑̾ͣͦ̅d̪ͤ̾̅ ̠͚̰̺̲̱͗̌̓̃̄̌͛y̟͉͚̙̩̋ọ̱̞ͫ͑̂̄ͨu̻̜͖̝̮ͅ,̖̞̺͊͗̆͑̑̚ ͚̃̅ͪ̌̐m͇̠̯̆ͫy̘̝̰͊̑̔̄̇ ̋ͣ̀͋d̰̋̑̈̊ͦ̇ė͎̣̣͓ͤ̈͋ͣă̹̲̱̖r͙̜̪͚͍̥ͬ ͎̣͊̑c̠͍͛̓̽ͪͧ͂a̱p͈ͯ̈͂ͦͨͩ̾t̽̅ͯ͗͌͂a͕̫̹͇ͮȋ͚̹͇͔͎n͙̲̠͓̈́.̠̪̲͇̘̖

With those words, I felt the movement in my body return to me. Yet even with my new-found freedom, I was still a prisoner to her grasp. The pink mane she wore had then transformed into dark-red flames, her smile curled even further up her cheeks as she pulled me in once more.

"Haaah!"

My eyes bolted open as I breathed heavily from the experience. I quickly raised up and placed a hand on my forehead to wipe off the sweat... only to find shaving cream mashed against my face.

"GUAAHAHAAAA!" I screamed once more at the top of my lungs.

The next voices I heard were, thankfully, familiar. Using my other hand, I cleared the shaving cream from over my eyes and took a quick peek at both Rickey and Cliff laughing it up on the other side of the room. Rickey was too busy holding himself to even look at me while Cliff was busy pointing at me. Behind me was also another source of laughter. Upon turning around, I had seen the familiar coat of a certain prince.

"Holy shit, I caught that!" Shining announced in a fit of laughter.

"Oh fuck, that is definitely going to Vine!" Rickey stated with a recovering sigh.

Well it already seems like he and the other guys have been getting along just fine. "Yeah, real funny." I answered back in deadpan. "What time is it?"

"Time for you to get the hell up, guardboy!" Shining answered as he used his magic to press the button to stop the video recording on what seemed to be Cliff's phone. "You've overslept past your call-in time."

"Ugh... I was called in?" I questioned.

"Yeah, so that you don't miss the next train to Ponyville. From what the other guys have been telling me earlier this morning, you've got quite the errand to fill."

I guess he means with Melanie... wait a minute. "How would you know about any errands and what exactly do they pertain to?"

"They said you were bringing a friend over. Twily and I have been kinda anxious to see who it is."

So obviously they haven't told him who I'm supposed to bring over. I guess that does make things a bit easier for me to process. The last thing I need to deal with is Shining trying to buddy up with her and find out about any of my... ancient sins. Eugh! Though that does leave the question... "Wait, Twily?"

"Yeah, she was around earlier when we found you sleeping. She also said that she found your maintenance of schedule to be, and I quote, lackadaisical."

"Why am I not surprised by that?" I mumbled to myself. "Whatever, what time is it?"

"Well, we came in about an hour earlier and found you out for the count. The others woke up when we came in, but you were just out of it. We tried shaking you awake, splashing your face with water, the usual works... none of that worked. But to answer your question, it's about 9:46."

"WHAT!" I am outrageously late, I'm even at risk of missing breakfast.

"What time does the dining hall close again?"

"10:30, but your train leaves about fifteen minutes before."

Well, I guess I could send the guys on the train and make my way on down later. But that won't work because I need to be there to maintain certain security measures. "Ah shit!"

"It's okay... I've already gotten things taken care of." Another voice called from outside in the hall. Twilight, who waited patiently outside, entered into the room. "So are you boys done having your fun, because we're way behind schedule."

My bad. "Sorry, I overslept."

"Yeah, you've been sleeping like a rock as of late, are you okay?" Twilight questioned.

"I'm fine. I just had the weirdest dream in-what do you mean by 'as of late?'" Yeah, because I wanna know exactly how she would even know that.

"Well, from injuries to hard times, I've been pretty much trying to keep a tab on you just to make sure that you were okay is all."

This coming from the mare who tried to watch me take a shower several months back out of pent-up sexual frustration. "Uh, I'll... buy it?" Though in hindsight, I myself was trying to catch glances.

Shining cringed as he slowly looked to his sister. "Eeeeeeyeah, Twilight... that's a little... unusual, don't you think."

The purple princess touted her nose to the air as she turned her back to her brother. "I am merely performing the duties that I was originally tasked to perform when he first got here. Furthermore, the assassin from the previous attempt has yet to be apprehended. It's perfectly normal for me to zap into his room and periodically check if he's doing well or if he's gone unharmed through morning. That's not creepy, that's called doing my job."

"Twily, it's creepy."

"IT IS NOT!"

The two siblings continued their argument as they made their way into the hall. "Is too." Shining tossed.

"Is not!" Twilight tossed back.

"Is too."

"Is not!"

"Then explain the hair from this past Monday?"

"Genetic studies!"

"You have a habit of chewing your own mane. Plus you admitted to Cadance that you chewed on his as he slept sometime last Monday morning."

"Oh come on, IT WAS JUST THAT ONCE!"

...Yeah, it's time for me to take a LONG shower.

So after a quick shower, because that's all I had the time for, and a snag of breakfast, The five of us all made our way towards Ponyville via a VIP train. Though we weren't in any sort of a hurry, we were quickly brought back into town. And thankfully, that ride didn't last any longer than what I had left in my battery. So for a few more minutes after getting back, I had to play the waiting game with my cellphone and wait for my battery to get a decent charge.

Around forty-five minutes later, I was sitting at a doable thirty-nine percent. The only thing I needed to do was make a quick call to Mel and let her know to come over my apartment at a certain time. Meanwhile, Cliff and Rickey had already crossed back over to greet her while I was speaking with Twilight, warning her that the new friend coming over might not be so open about this whole situation. She gave me a nod as well as her given word that if anything were to go tragically wrong, her memories would be erased.

I know it's a cop-out method, but I can't risk others thinking that she'd gone off the deep-end should she start running around screaming about this. Texas folk aren't exactly slow to judge.

So I made my call, grabbed a thick blindfold and a set of earplugs, and walked across to my world.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

For about thirty minutes, we sat and waited in the den. While we waited for Mel to come on by, we had just decided to pull out our phones and see what Cliff had posted to vine.

And though it was at my expense, the video had garnered some two-thousand replays. Again, it was at my expense, but I was somewhat impressed that a mere six seconds of my goofing off would have the potential of being a viral hit. Go figure, every one with a short attention span would love to see a prank on some unsuspecting victim. Though now that I looked at the video, seeing how my arms looked like spaghetti while waiving in the air, my voice sounding like a anime-version of Hank Hill, I guess I found some humor in it... some.

I also managed to break down my plan with the others to kinda get myself prepared for the worst. Though I would wish that it would not come to pass.

"So that's what you're planning?" Rickey questioned.

"Yeah, it's fool-proof. If it goes anywhere remotely right, I'll be in the clear and she won't have to look like she just lost her mind. If she overreacts and it goes awry, Twilight will zap her and her memories of it should be gone." I answered.

"That's a hellova cop-out." Cliff said while scratching his head.

I responded with a shrug of my shoulders. "Sorry, I just can't risk Melanie's reputation being put at risk for the sake of something that's seemingly nonsensical. If she rejects, I'll have to start from scratch. After all, if she does something irrational, then how am I going to explain to the others that we're not like that?"

"Well, we're not like that." Rickey suggested. "They'll only see it as a one-out-of-four thing. Not everyone's gonna like it, but a majority of people wouldn't mind. It's just that simple."

*knock knock knock*

I could already feel my palms becoming even more sweaty as I rose from my seat. "I hope so."

Rising from my seat to open the door, a variety of scenarios played out in my head. With each step I took towards opening the door, there was an increase of tension throughout my body. My muscles started to tighten significantly, causing my stomach to feel as if it was being pressed upwards into my chest. My heart could've been easily displaced somewhere inside of my neck was how nervous I was. When the palm of my hand came into contact with the knob, I had wondered what caused it to be so cold all of a sudden. Turning the knob, I found that it was locked... Well that's stupid of me.

Unlocking the door and taking a deep breath, I opened the door and welcomed in the person... who wasn't Melanie? What?

"Good morning sir, are you the resident known as Nondis P. Haines?"

I quirked an eyebrow as I looked at the seemingly mature woman with brown hair, short stature, wearing an all-black getup, complete with a black trench coat.

"...Who wants to know?" I questioned suspiciously.

She reached in her pocket and pulled out what appeared to be a wallet, flipping it open she revealed a silver badge with the numbers A45LS6. "I'm Chelsea Whitaker of the Austin Crime Investigation Unit, I'm here to discuss the matters of what all had transpired sometime around this past Monday afternoon. I came here to ask a few questions in regards to my client."

"Your client?" I parroted.

"My client happens to be an acquaintance of yours, a miss Melanie Brewer. She's right here with me to give me a positive ID on who you were. I need to know what you know so that I can present a report to the lawyers representing the defendant. Your testimony would be very beneficial to producing a conviction in our favor."

Ugh... I knew this was unavoidable, but it couldn't have happened at any worse of a time. I'm under a strict time limit here and I can't afford to be pissing around like this. "Unfortunately, I'm kinda busy at the moment. Perhaps you would rather have this conversation with me upon a later date?"

"Sure, what time will you be available either this afternoon, or evening if possible?"

Neither. "How about sometime tomorrow? I can't do today because of a variety of things I need to get done."

"Well if it's so important, then could I possibly get five minutes out of your schedule?"

No. Your 'five minutes' would drag on to about a half-hour. "I'm sorry."

"Nondis... please." Melanie said as she hung around the corner.

Shit... "If I can give my account in five minutes, will that be all you need for now?"

"Yes. I will also ask around for the other three witnesses to the incident, then all of you would present your testimonies to a court of law."

And two of those three would be here with me. I don't have time for this. "Okay, do you have a tape recorder?"

"I do." She answered.

"Great, because I'm not slowing down."

I was right. Those five minutes lasted over half an hour. If I hadn't so openly invited her inside, she wouldn't have seen Cliff or Rickey. But since she did, she wanted to questioned them both as well. After recording our sides of the argument, she then informed me that I would be contacted later this upcoming week. More interruptions, joy.

But Melanie did show her appreciation for us being in one place to get this process done quickly, otherwise it would've taken her the entire day to do so. She told the investigator that the final witness was not really there to see the incident occur, nor were they involved with much of it aside from holding him down. And even then, he had already filed a written report. The investigator, Mrs. Whitaker, was adamant on getting a vocal testimony on record to see if the stories were anywhere near consistent. To much of our relief and Melanie's request, she proceeded to pursue him later on.

That only left us with one thing to get out of the way.

"So, why are both Cliff and Rickey here in the first place?" Melanie questioned.

"Oh we're here just to hang out with Nondis. He called us up and wanted to have a miniature gathering so that the four of us could celebrate new beginnings." Rickey answered.

"New beginnings?" She asked with a squint and a tilt of the head.

"Yup, we got everything cleaned up and cleared out. So now everyone is clean of any weapons plus you're clean of a shitty boyfriend."

Melanie tapped her fingers against her waist nervously while looking towards me. "Oh... so what did you guys have in mind, like what did you three wanted to do to celebrate?"

"We told you what we were celebrating. We just never told you where." Cliff answered.

"Okay. So where did you want to take me?"

Both Cliff and Rickey elbowed me in the sides as they wanted me to dive in after their initial icebreaker. Now that some of the weight of an explanation was lifted off my shoulders, I decided it was time to put the plan into motion. "You remember when I said I had a surprise to show you?"

"Yeah, what is it?" She asked impatiently.

"I'm gonna show it to you, but you're gonna have to close your eyes."

With a frustrated sigh, she looked at me with a serious glare. "Really?"

"Yes, now close your eyes."

She seemed to do more rolling than closing, but she got her eyes closed eventually. Afterwards, Rickey grabbed a blindfold and placed it around her eyes.

"Ah, what the hell!?" She exclaimed.

"That's to make sure your eyes are closed, no peeping!" Rickey answered.

Cliff also placed some noise-cancelling headphones over her ears as she squirmed in place. "SHIT THAT'S LOUD!" She shouted as Cliff pumped some music into her ears. For a brief moment, he pulled one speaker off of her ear to speak to her.

"This is so you can't hear what's going on. Grab my hand and follow me. Nondis will grab the other and kinda direct you on where to turn."

"What?" She asked before the headphones came back onto her head.

Slowly, we led her through the apartment towards the bathroom. And eventually, the four of us managed to quietly slide through the portal without incident. At least we're off to a good start.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

As we were dragging her through the halls, Melanie bobbed her head with the music in her ears as she tried to sneak one of her hands up to her blindfold. Thankfully we already had countermeasures against that. Whenever she tried to jerk her hand free, either me or Cliff would lightly jerk it back down as a means of telling her not to peek. It wouldn't last for very long as we had entered into the throne room of the castle.

Completely devoid of guards, quiet in the surrounding halls, and with plenty of seats in front of a massive table, we politely appropriated the chairs all around the room. I sat her down in one of the chairs and the three of us looked to one another, nodding to say that it was time to show her the surprise.

First, I slowly pulled off the headphones and asked her a question. "Hey, you doin' okay?"

"You just had to pull them off when my song came on." Melanie answered with a pout.

"Yeah, sorry. But anyways, we're gonna remove the blindfold and need you to keep your eyes closed until we say open."

"I've been blindfolded for the past two minutes, can't I just open my eyes after you move the blindfold?"

"Just do as we ask, please."

I didn't need the blindfold to come off for me to know she rolled her eyes at me. "Okay, whatever."

Slowly, I peeled the cloth from over her eyes and removed it from her head completely. I slowly crept over to her and whispered into her ear as she kept her eyes closed. "We're not in Kansas anymore, Dorthy. You can open your eyes."

The first thing she did was turn to me with a questioning expression. "So what, we're in the magical land of the Wizard of O-OOOOOOOLLLY SHIIIIIIT!" She shouted as she looked around the room and saw how cavernous it was. The most she could do was gawk and scream out obscenities. "Da... Ge... Wha... Fu...Hu... How... What the fuck!?" She said while jumping out of her chair. "What the fuck is this place!?"

Well she's here, there's no point in beating around the bush anymore. "Well if you want to know, we're in a─"

"Let me guess, you got more money from your explorations with Bella and bought out the entire apartment building and renovated it, right?"

How is it possible you came to that conclusion? "No... that really─"

"Please tell me I fell asleep along the ride to a new house you've bought."

"Actually, if you'd let me─"

"And what the hell is up with this chandelier? It looks like the roots to a tree. Neat decor but I'm kinda curious on how this all came out."

Okay, now I'm beginning to feel frustrated. "Mel, will you listen to me for one second!?" I said as I slammed my fist into the table.

Suddenly, I felt something cold and icy swallow up a portion of my fist as it stayed on the table. I looked down to find that the table had suddenly transformed into what appeared to be a map. With surprise, I yanked my hand back and stared at it in shock. Cliff and Rickey both stared at the map with confusion. Melanie was looking on with excitement. "Holy shit, that is so fucking awesome! It almost looks like a cross of World of Warcraft and Star Wars."

Rickey quietly shimmied to my side and lightly tapped me on the shoulder. "Uh... Did you know this was here?"

"Fuck no, I didn't even know this shit had even existed." I whispered back to him. "How was I supposed to know that this massive table I used to eat on was actually some sort of enchanted holo-map?"

"Oh I don't know, the fact that you've been here for what's going on ten months now?"

"Correction, six months total. It's been six months total I've been in this building. And not even once has this shit even come up. Twilight didn't tell me this shit was actually enchanted."

"So now what, the chairs are enchanted too?"

Okay, I give. "You know what, fuck it. Everything's enchanted, bottom line."

Melanie wasn't paying us any attention as she was running her hand through the land formations, squeeing with glee. "Oh my God! Eeeeeeeee! How is this thing even powered!? It's so cool!"

"Magic." The three of us answered in unison.

"No, but for real, how is this thing even powered?"

All three of us drew a collective sigh, producing different expressions of exasperation.

Mel looked at us as if she said something wrong. "What did I say?"

I suppose I would have to explain everything to her first before we start getting distracted. "Well─"

She didn't even give me a chance to speak as she double tapped on a pair of gates located at the very bottom of the map. Suddenly, the entire display shot towards that individual location. My head dropped as I stared in disbelief of the map sitting in front of us. As the display showed on the table, a box with words showed up right next to the foreboding set of gates.

"Tartarus?" Rickey questioned.

Cliff placed a finger just below his chin. "If I'm not mistaken, ain't that the Greek connotation for Hell itself?"

The four of us just stared at each other in silence, realizing that we were essentially looking at the pony equivalent to the gates of hell. It was very unsettling, to say the least. Immediately, we wanted to get back to the map. "...Okay how do we get back?" I said as I started rubbing my hand across the table, only shifting the view of the place. Melanie tried double tapping the gates again, causing them to open and another large box of text to appear. "Mel, stop trying to break all of Hell loose."

"Sorry, I thought it would've worked like how I did it the last time. Besides, none of this shit is real anyways."

"Um, I'm not so sure about that." I said as I placed both hands on the table and tried to push away.

Cliff continued to read from the box. "Hmm... It says here that there are many foul and terrible creatures that lurk here, be wary of your journey and take caution of the guardian Cerberus."

"So we God of War now?" Rickey questioned sarcastically.

"I guess. It also says something about a centaur by the name of Tirek and how he is to remain locked down there for several millennia. Wow, multiple thousand-year spans. This guy must've done some WORK to get locked up that bad."

As I sat there, these words I spoke yesterday reverberated in my mind.

Then why don't you tell that to Princess Twilight Sparkle, who originally lost her home because of a greedy centaur who's only desire was to consume all of your magic and rule over you with an iron fist.

Yup, that sounds about right. "Oh yeah, that guy. Twilight mentioned him to me once before, but she never really speaks on it on the account of traumatizing circumstances."

"Oh!" Both Rickey and Cliff answered with a sagely nod.

"Well that's nice to know... But who's Twilight?"

...Oh shit, I forgot she was here. "Uh, she's... a friend of mine."

"Just gone get it over with, Nondis." Cliff said quietly as he propped his feet onto the table. "She's here for a reason."

He does have a point, we've gotten distracted for a while now and I need to get back on focus. "Okay... um... I guess I should start from the top. Mel... I know this is gonna sound crazy, but I need you to work with me for a minute."

"Okay, though it sounds like you're gonna say something completely shit-fucked crazy."

Believe it or not... "Yeah, remember when I had gone missing for nine months, and how you guys couldn't find bit or trace of me?"

I could already see the corners of Melanie's mouth beginning to unravel. "Yeah, what about it?"

Here it goes, all-in. Time for the draw. "So... yeah. I was... here. Not exactly Texas, not exactly New Orleans or anywhere in Louisiana. I fell in the Gulf, and somehow awoke here. Secondly, Bella... she doesn't exist. I mean she does, per se. But she doesn't exist as what you would identify her as. I've been calling her 'Bella' because her name was... actually Twilight. And another thing─"

"Whoa, hold on a second..." Melanie threw her hands up at me, trying to get me to slow down. "So you're telling me that 'Bella' doesn't really exist, as much as she is another person?"

And now for the turn. "Yeah. She is a completely separate being. But the thing of it is that as of now, we are no longer in the United States. You, me, Cliff, and Rickey, we're all in a totally different place. This isn't even Earth anymore. There's no Austin, no Texas, no USA, no Mexico, no Canada, none of that shit. I know this is gonna sound bat-shit insane, but we're in an alternate realm of existence."

Melanie giggled with dismay as she shook her head. "Okay... Now I know you've lost it."

"He's not insane Mel." Rickey came to my defense. "That map you saw, that's the place you're in... well somewhere on that map."

Melanie looked on the table and scoffed. "So we're inside of the gates of Hell? What a fitting explanation for the state of emotional distress I'm in."

I looked at the table and planted both of my hands on the table and thought to myself. When she was poking around, she ended up double tapping one location, almost like an application on one of our phones. It gave birth to a hypothesis, a theory, and an idea as to resolve the issue of the map. Sliding my hands closer together, I hoped for the best. And as I did just that, the view of the gate suddenly shrunk, the gates closing and the text box disappearing. I repeated the process until I could see that the entirety of the map as we once did before.

"Oh so it works like a phone?" Cliff questioned. "That's kinda neat."

When my eyes locked onto Ponyville at the center, I double tapped on the table and zoomed onto the small town. "No... we're actually here right now."

Mel wasn't interested in seeing what the table was showing as she turned somewhere else to avoid looking at me. "Well, I know the one place I want to be right now, and that's home."

"See, that's the thing!" I shouted. "For six and a half months, I couldn't get a way back to home. And when I did, I was then drafted into the military here. And it took me about ten weeks and some change to get it all done. When I had finished, that's when I went on my first patrol, had a fight with ol dude, you know... Bella's older brother?"

"BELLA DOESN'T FUCKING EXIST! That's what you told me, right!?" She screamed at me.

"I said that the 'Bella' was actually Twilight... and her older brother is named Shining. So I got into a fight with him and we settled our differences. And as a result, we were given a few days off. So on my first day off, I decided to come back home. And that's when I showed back up."

Melanie wouldn't even give me the time of day at this point. "You're so full of shit, your fucking eyes are spewing brown. The breath you breathe is the very excess of waste that comes from out of your ass."

"I get it, I haven't been honest and it hurts! I just didn't know how to explain... this to you, at least without showing you in person."

"Rickey, can you take me home, please?" She asked, nearly on the verge of tears.

"Mel, he's not lying to you. You know all those strange scars he's been getting? He's been a killing ass since he's been over here. We've seen him in action, he's like fucking Achilles with a damn sword. And yet he's been coming back with scars, bruises, broken bones, and all this other shit. He nearly died like three times now from fighting. And that's not including the assassination attempts or threats."

"I'm not listening to him, so why are you listening to him? Why are you even thinking that any words out of his mouth is anywhere near fact than it is a fucking lie?" She asked with tears beading down her face. "I gave NINE MONTHS of my life to make things right between us, I was blackmailed and shoved around for a good portion of them. And now he wants to tell me that those months, after I sought him, really doesn't amount to some fuckface's fanfiction?"

Okay, that hurt a bit. "Mel, I know that none of this makes sense, but you're gonna have to accept this. This is what I've been doing, all of the times where I've been working out of town, this was it. I just didn't know how to explain any of it to you, and I was scared of what you would think of me─"

"I FUCKING LOVED YOU, WHAT PART OF THAT DON'T YOU GET THROUGH THAT THICK ASS SKULL OF YOURS!?" She screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice echoing throughout the halls. "I felt passionately invested in you, since the day we met. And now you're telling me that this miraculous story is why you've disappeared. You've been telling me all about this awesome relationship with this girl, whose name you've hid from me for so long. And you won't even consider me anymore because of this Twilight girl. I'm not sure what to think anymore."

I don't know what I wanna do anymore. I wanted to get part two of my confession out of the way, but I guess I can call it a day now. She seems as if she doesn't want to even know the rest of the story anymore. I can't talk to a brick wall. "Okay Rick, I guess it's time we just leave it alone."

"No, she needs to know all of the truth." He argued strongly as he stood beside Melanie. "And you, you need to listen to what he's saying."

"What else is there to listen to?" She questioned, sounding and appearing completely distraught. "I come here to find that everything is all crashing down. I just wanted to spend some time with Nondis, I didn't want any of this."

"Well, you're spending time with him. And while this time is going on, he's trying to talk to you and you're trying to ignore him. He's at least trying to be fair to you, I believe it would be fair if you listened to him. Sure, things are a fuckton different in this world, but that's just the way it is. Nothing is the same, our laws of physics aren't even the same."

"I can't do this." She whispered in a broken tone, looking to me. "I'm sorry, I can't deal with it. None of this is real."

Rickey grabbed Melanie's hands and stood between me and her. "Okay, Nondis is military, he's being awarded for his bravery. There's a ceremony that takes place in the next two hours. Then after that, we have a party to go to. All I want from you is to make it through the ceremony, just to support Nondis. If you can make it to that much, and you still wanna go home, then we'll get you back home. Bottom line."

She continued to shake her head as I started digging though my pocket for my wallet. "I don't believe it. I don't."

Quietly, I unfolded my wallet and placed it on the table, showing my badge and number. Afterwards, I removed the dog tags from around my neck and placed them on the table next to my badge. Next up was my sword and sheath. She stared at the items on the table, completely silenced by all of the evidence stacking up before her. She looked up to me in shock as I spoke.

"I'm doing a lot more than security, Mel. I'm entrusted with the lives of not only my superiors, but this world's citizens as well. The things I've seen and the pains I've endured are far too much to put into one sentence. I have seen innocent lives perish right before my eyes, I have felt the blood of my allies on my hands as they pass over. I watch the light fade from the eyes of each being I kill. I have terrible nightmares. And when I wake up, I have to write letters to the families of each victim or fallen guard, telling them how remorseful I am. And I go back to my own world, knowing that I wouldn't be able to do anything for it. Not only that, but I have to deal with my parents and try to explain THIS to them."

She shook her head. "You can't be... no way."

I took off my shirt and showed her the scars and bruises from each of my encounters, including the red marks from where I had broken my ribs. "I get hurt like this every time I go out. But each time I come back, I get an opportunity of saying to my friends that I've made it through. I just now decided to let you in on what Cliff and Rickey had known about for like the past week. So if something should happen to me, you'll know where I was and what I was doing. I know that you've given nine months of your life to find me, but now I'm coming to you to tell the truth after all of my lies, after all of the nonsense. And I would understand if you don't want to forgive me for it, but it would mean the world to me if you knew the whole of it."

She cleared her throat as she wiped the tears from her eyes, though they were still being produced. "So, what's the whole of it? You're fighting some kind of war in a land you don't even know, for a people who could think of you as less than them?"

"That, and I've made my decision on what I wanted to do with my life. I'm happy here, in spite of it all. And I want you to see this world and it's citizens as how we see it. It's a beautiful place and it's full of kindhearted beings who would be welcoming towards you. They wouldn't mind providing if you asked. It's much nicer than what we live in... with the exception of a law or two, but it's way better than what the future would hold back in the USA. Think about it, you finish college, you spend your entire life paying off your student loans and then try to pay your kids way into college on top of it, we're looking at a retirement age of sixty-eight at the very least when you're not rich."

"You really think running is your best solution?"

"Don't get it twisted, I have taxes to pay here as well. There's no running from those. It's just that here, I can pay off everything on our end significantly quicker. I can look at a retirement age of thirty-five at this rate. Those bags of gold you saw, that's just a piece of my bi-weekly paycheck. I'm putting my life on the line, but I'm getting stacked because of it."

She looked back to the table, tapping at the large castle on the map. "So, we're in an alternate dimension where you fight whatever comes at you and get paid an exorbitant amount of money? Wow, seems like the high life."

"It's not as high as you think. I already told you what comes with it."

She finally cracked a smile for once since my confession began, albeit a very small one. "I guess you being a military boy makes you all the rage with the girls too."

"To be fair that all happened beforehand, we're the only humans in this world, and I was the only human up till five days ago."

Melanie did a double-take as she stared at me with a dumbfounded expression. As she continued to mentally process the words that came from my mouth, she tried to see if what I had said was actually what I had said. "Oh... so... the girls of this world... had an interest in you... all throughout the course of your being here... and none of them are human?"

And we're rolling... "See... define human for me?"

"As in walking on two legs, capable of expressing a full range of emotions, able to speak full sentences, and capable of giving consent to any form of relationship, like we humans do."

Rolling... "Well... they're about three-fourths of the way there."

"Okay. *gulp* What's the fourth that's missing?" She inquired with a terrified expression.

"Hey guys! Are you three getting ready for the ceremony!?"

Melanie jumped out of her seat and quickly turned around to see three ponies, two with a horn and wings standing in the doorway alongside an equally tall white unicorn stallion. Twilight who looked on with surprise took about two steps back before speaking again.

"Oh... wow. I guess I know why you guys were taking so long."

"So this is the friend that you three said you wanted to bring over?" Shining questioned as Cadance smiled and waved.

"Great! What's her name?" Twilight said before she took a step forward.

Melanie turned to me and chuckled briefly. "Nondis, I think I'm drunk."

Rolling on the river, here it is. "Yeah, the fourth that would be missing is the two-legged part."

"Thought so."

*THUD*

...And she's out.

Melanie awoke a few minutes later to find that there was a yellowish-orange unicorn with a red and yellow mane staring her in the face. As her eyes opened, her face contorted into a look of abject horror. Slowly she blinked twice at her before speaking.

"Hi."

"Hey there, Nondis said you passed out and I was grabbed from my place to come and see if you were okay."

"That's nice. I'm gonna scream now─"

"No you're not." Before she could even get started, I quickly placed a hand over her mouth and quickly moved Sunset out of the way before she could start squirming. The last thing I'd want to happen is for Mel to kick around and accidentally send a pony flying across the room.

"Mmmmph mmm phmmm (Let me go)!" Melanie screamed through my hand.

"Sorry. Look, no one is here to hurt you. You don't need to worry about anything. Trust me, I'd know."

I pulled my hand off of her mouth and allowed her to sit herself up. when she had gotten to where she could move herself to rest on her left foot, she quickly stood up to question me. "Okay, then can I ask, WHY ARE THEY TALKING?"

Okay, that I can answer. "Yeah, I kinda had that question to begin with. It turns out that their evolution process was pretty similar to ours, sans the Ice Age. But they are kind and─"

"And why is that one staring at me like that?" She asked as she pointed to Shining Armor.

Shining merely tilted his head with curiosity. I tried to see what exactly he was staring at, but failed to get a beam on what exactly his eyes were locked on. Cadance looked at her husband with a growing concern. But Sunset was quick to catch on to what he was staring at.

"Twilight, Princess Cadance, do you mind if I do something real quick?" She asked while glancing towards the stallion extremely violently.

Cadance nodded to the orange unicorn. "Sure, what is it?"

Sunset walked up to Shining and used her magic to pull on Shining's ear, causing him a great deal of discomfort. As he winced and whimpered in pain, the orange unicorn spoke through clinched teeth.

"What did your mother ever tell you about staring at things you shouldn't!?"

"Ouch! Oh come on, you're really asking me this? OW! My mom, she'd say I'd should ask more about her before taking her to dinner! OW!"

Cadance gave her husband a seething expression as she pulled on the other ear, matching Sunset's efforts. "I think that's the wrong answer sweetheart. Maybe you should reword your response into something a little more educated."

"Here, I'll be blunt." Sunset stated as she gave Shining's ear another tug. "STOP STARING AT HER MAMMARIES!"

"Wait, those are her teats!?" Cadance asked, shock apparent in her voice. She then used her magic to pull even harder at Shining's ear and proceeded to give him a stern talking to. "Shining Francine Armor, I know damn well that you're not staring at another mare's personals! And you have the audacity to do it in my presence? I will fucking end you if you get any ideas about you and her─"

"Ugh... This is wonderful." Instantly, I felt my own palm smack my face with a force filled with embarrassment while Melanie started to blush and cover herself a little with her arms. "Sorry Mel, but you are the first human female they ever came into contact with. So disregard his lingering eyes for anything besides anatomical curiosity."

"Okay... I guess..." She answered nervously.

"They're not oogling at you as much as they are questioning─" I was then interrupted by a light push from behind as Rickey walked past me and towards Melanie.

"Dude, you're not helping." He stated before giving Melanie his full attention.

Meanwhile Cliff was taking some amusement in seeing Shining getting berated by not only his wife, but by Sunset and Twilight, who recently joined in to urge that her brother would respect that staring would be a violation of her privacy. After he was done getting an ear-full of punishment, Shining didn't even dare look towards Melanie's way.

Melanie actually started to giggle along as Shining was reared, which indicated that she was starting to open up about it. Personally I was relieved to see that, especially after over forty-five minutes of arguing and fainting. She didn't have problems finding amusement in seeing Shining's ears turn red from being tugged and screamed into. Thankfully, Sunset and Twilight were very forgiving as to giving him a few words of discouragement. His wife on the other hand was VERY stern and would be eager to put him in check.

It make me wonder, would Twilight actually develop to be this aggressive towards me should we get hitched ourselves?

"So now that you three had your fun, do you think it would be time for us to start heading out towards Town Hall?" I questioned while playing with the map on the table again.

"Actually, we needed to be at Rarity's Boutique next. Cliff and Rickey need to pick up their tuxes and you need to get dressed as well." Twilight answered as she ignited her magic to quench the map's image from the table. "We don't have time to dilly-dally around."

Mel placed her hand on her chin as she turned to Rick. "Um, that does bring me to ask, what is going on today to require you to wear a suit?"

Shining didn't even look in the direction from where the question originated as he answered her. "Well, there was this little operation that took place earlier this week. There were originally three of us who were assigned to find a young foal who was kidnapped by a horde of changelings. Cliff and Rickey volunteered to join with us and all five of us had not only rescued the the filly, but also several dozens of others. And the icing on the cake was that Nondis successfully apprehended the changeling commander in the process. From the time his assignment started to it's completion, it took him a mere four days to get it all done."

Mel looked towards me with confusion. "Um... filly?"

"Little girl." I briefly summarized.

"Oh, okay." She said with a slow nod. "So it took four days to find the filly?"

"Actually, the filly situation came up the day of. It only took us an hour and ten minutes to find her. So we had to do a lot of improvising when it came to the operation." Shining responded. "The fact that it took him only four days to get his entire assignment plus an added search done would be overwhelming considering how many there was guarding where they were. I'd say it was about a good two-hundred of them."

"They asses weren't there when we first showed up!" Cliff boasted loudly.

"Yeah, but they weren't fucking around when we were about to leave." Rickey argued. "That really big one ran Nondis into a pillar. If it wasn't for that damn armor we were wearing, he would've puked out his lungs and guts."

Melanie shuddered as she imagined the scenario. "Ugh... Nondis, you really grew a pair while you were here, didn't you?"

"I guess so. But I think we should get going so that Rarity doesn't kill us for being late."

"The dressmaker?" Cliff chuckled as he thought of Rarity being violent. "She's probably the least likely to do shit like that, bruh. If I know even the slightest shit about her, she don't like getting dirty."

I shook my head as I had to remind him of one glaring issue. "Um, she fought off a small contingent of changelings and challenged me to a sword duel on the sly, not that I haven't held my own."

"You lost three-nil!" Cadance interjected. "Apparently 'holding your own' must be the equivalent of you lasting for over ten seconds."

Mi Amore Cadenza, Princess of Love and indiscriminate wrecker of everyone's shit. Guess that was my penance for laughing about Shining's trigger-happy sex drive.

"Wait, seriously?" Shining laughed heartily in hearing of my recent defeat. Cliff and Rickey cringed slightly and turned the other way as they whistled and hummed various tunes. Melanie just simply facepalmed while shaking her head. Twilight remained indifferent as she continued to hold the door open for us to walk through, evidently growing impatient.

"We have to go! The ceremony starts in less than an hour and we don't have the time to sit here and laugh! You can joke about along the way."

As everyone left the room, Melanie was the last one to exit. She lingered in her walk and kept her eyes locked onto the purple princess standing before her. Twilight looked back with a kind smile as she ushered the woman through the door.

"This is a first for the both of us. I've always heard many things about you, but I never got the chance to actually meet you for myself." Twilight said with an upbeat demeanor.

"Yeah, I've heard pretty much everything about you too. The only thing he didn't tell me was your being a... pony." She answered back with a nervous smile.

"Yeah, and from what I know, he's been talking to everyone on that side of things that I was a girl named Bella from a town named Arlington. I mean seriously, what kind of story is that?"

The two girls shared a laugh as Melanie shook her head. "Oh my God, I know, right? It's like he was trying to make up some story about how he disappeared and managed to find his way back to civilization and suffered from amnesia along the way. If anything I would have against him is that he's horrible at lying."

Twilight smile weakened as she looked down towards the ground. "Yeah, tell me about it."

"So... you two are dating, like for real?" Melanie inquired.

"We are." Twilight confessed. "It just kinda happened, one moment I'm caught in a mix of alcohol and my feelings, the next I'm in his arms."

"Well you know what they say, love is blind, right?"

"It really is."

"Well... It's just too bad that sometimes that we get caught up in the things that we know have significant odds stacked against it."

"Yeah, that's true too." Twilight agreed with a somber tone.

Melanie's smile had suddenly disappeared as she grew a more serious expression. "Well in speaking of the odds, I've heard that you two went at it. And now it seems that the both of you are taking a bit of a break."

Twilight's head shot up as she looked at the woman before her. "Wait, he told you that?"

"Well yeah, he was telling me about how everything to him seemed so one-sided. Especially after you had gotten into a bit of trouble from the two of you doing something you had no business doing."

Twilight's smile was wiped away and a frown sat in it's place. "I know I was wrong. I shouldn't have taken it out on him like I did. If anything, I consented to what we did."

Melanie scoffed as she flicked her wrist at the purple pony. "Sweetie, that's not it. I'm saying that the two of you had no business doing what you two did."

Twilight became uncertain and somewhat defensive as she closed the door, leaving the two to converse in the room alone. "What do you mean?"

"I'm saying that you and Nondis, the two of you sleeping together, that's not okay."

With a deep breath, Twilight closed her eyes and answered her back. "I know of your rules, no man should ever lie with something that is not of it's own, nothing that is sapient."

"Close, but I mean if you and him were to go to our world and do what you two did that night, he would be in really big trouble. I'm not talking little-stuff either. I'm talking life-changing stuff. Him engaging in a sexual act with you would result in his imprisonment and a required registration as a sex offender. That could ruin his entire life, or at least as long as his registration lasts. I'm just telling you from a criminal justice major's point of view."

"And I respect your warning. However, we don't have such laws here in our world. Here, we are all equally sapient and just as intelligent as you humans are. And if Nondis can consent, then I too am capable of consent, then that means that what we did is essentially lawful."

"No, boo-boo. It just means that he slept with a talking horse, that's still illegal."

Twilight began to let her temper boil as she calmly spoke. "What I am saying is this, Nondis is a naturalized citizen. That also means that he is subject to our laws and the freedoms we have. And if he chooses to rut every mare in town, then it's his prerogative to do so. You have no place in telling him what he can or can't do. It's as you said, love is blind."

"That doesn't mean that the love you two share is a natural love." Melanie argued.

"How dare you say that our love is unnatural! He and I─"

"Should not even see each other anymore."

Twilight choked from the shortness of breath she received from hearing that statement. Immediately, she walked up to the woman and stared her down. "And what place do you have in telling me that we can't be together?"

Melanie looked down to the purple alicorn with disdain. "You can't possibly give him what he needs. He needs stability, freedom, and a girl who doesn't snap on him when she gets into trouble. He's not happy with you, and you're too fucking blind to see it. Your relationship won't last a month, I know this. So just be prepared for when he walks up to you and say that he's no longer interested."

Twilight stopped for a moment and just stared at the woman who towered before her. Unfurling her wings, she mustered all of her strength as she hopped into the air and hovered to where they were looking eye to eye. For a brief seconds, the purple pony laughed and smiled coyly at the human girl.

"You really don't know anything at all, do you?"

"Oh that's cute, you can fly too. I'm surprised that your body can handle that swollen cranium of yours."

Twilight bit her lip as she smiled with an assured sense of victory. "Yes, go on with your petulant insults, it doesn't change the fact that you'll never have him for yourself. You can hug him all you'd like, you can press your lips against his and sink your tongue into his throat like you did just three days ago. But you'll never get to feel the warmth of his arms, the smell of his hair after a long day of work, the strength of his fingers as he tickles your... most cherished secrets. You could never claim to be his first kiss, his first mutual love, his first steps of going even further and beyond the veil of friendship. And even now, you will never be an option as long as we're betrothed."

Melanie's eyes widened as she whispered back the word that caught her attention. "Betrothed? You mean─"

"To be married, yes. See, the thing about it is that I knew exactly what I was doing when I chose to surrender myself to him. I knew what I was placing at risk. I knew what I wanted in my future from the moment I lightly brushed my lips against his. I gave him the chance to stay with me, and he did. I gave him the courage to face any trial, and he overcame every obstacle. I gave him my virtue, which he responded with eager acceptance. We give unto each other and I could care less of the consequences. And the consequences of our late-night engagement is─"

"You bitch, you set him up!"

"No... I'm giving him what we both want, a future together. This break may be painful to endure, but I've stuck through much worse than this. And in all honesty, I was hoping that you'd come here to play this little game with me, because now I can know for certain that I don't have to hold back anymore. I like what I have, and between you and me, I will destroy mountains to keep it. So now I'm going to give you a choice, miss Melanie Brewer. Bow down or..."

Melanie's eyes widened even further as she watched the purple pony disappear from in front of her. Suddenly she felt a stream of warm air brush down her neck from behind. The woman slightly trembled as Twilight concluded her sentence.

"Get brought down."

Melanie turned around to face the purple unicorn, only to find herself staring at nothing more than a wall. She turned around to look for where she had gone, until a voice chimed in from directly above her.

"Now do you understand your place in this?"

Melanie looked up to meet with the purple princess, finding nothing but thin air. Suddenly, a hoof was brought down upon her shoulder and the woman stared back, terrified of the purple mare with a sinister smirk on her face.

"You don't have one. He's mine, so do yourself a favor and maintain your distance until you can learn to accept your role. You're yesterday's news while I'm the hot-topic of the week. Capiche?"

Despite Twilight's awkward comparison, Melanie's legs gave way and buckled under her weight as she felt completely overwhelmed and helpless. She fell onto the floor with a slump as she could do nothing but watch the mare waltz by her and open the door for herself. She paid the fallen woman no mind as she teleported over to the side of the man whom she loved. Twilight then tapped against his lower waist and whispered into his ear. He shot back up, seemingly to question her but her falling over did seem to catch his attention. She seemed genuinely tired from her front as she looked up to the tall human. With a scoff and a roll of his eyes, he lowered himself and allowed Twilight to climb on his back and proceeded to lay against him. With a tiresome glance, she made eye contact with the Melanie as her horn ignited, causing the door to glow a similar color and close just before her face.

Meanwhile, Melanie was left distraught and in confusion as she tried to mentally process what all occurred in the few minutes they spent together. Although she felt the anger urging her to move forward, the fear paralyzed her legs. She could still feel the sensation of the purple hoof pressing into her shoulder, the warm air skirting past her neck, the sound of her voice coming from all directions. She was completely terrified for what was ahead.

"What the fuck did I just get into?"

Author's Note

DING DING DING! SHE'S OUT!

The feud between Melanie and Twilight is now underway. As for why this is a thing, well to be honest it was being developed from both sides.

Melanie always had an infatuation with Nondis, but she just now had the courage to put it all on the line as soon as she realized how easy it was to lose him. After nine months of searching for him, he reappears and she tries to make up for lost time. But she finds her desired time interceded upon by a girl who she never met, to suddenly find her the main topic of the guy she likes. And now that she knows that the girl he likes is not even a human, it becomes too much for her to handle and she decides to take the aggressive approach to getting what she wants.

Twilight has always had a thing for Nondis, but since the trial with Caramel, she found herself trying to compete with every other mare in town and throughout the nation. It didn't get any better once she found out that two of her friends had even considered him to be an option. So in her jealousy, she would advise any others not to get too close to him. But that was only made worse when she had saw him kiss not just her best friend, but Melanie as well. So when Melanie takes the aggressive approach, she ultimately fights back (especially being that she's not shy about fighting).

Boiling tensions have now come to froth over. What happens when a moving force interacts with an immovable object?

I know that the next chapter would be interesting since it does go by the way of Rarity... Uh oh.

Stay tuned and thanks for reading.

Chapter XLVIII

Warning:
This chapter will change perspectives, this is merely a notification that informs you the readers of this change as it will probably confuse a few of you.
In any case, enjoy.

***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

My morning was the furthest thing from pleasant. I didn't get any kind of sleep, nor did I take any semblance of a rest when I had gotten back into town. I went from managing the security protocols, to guarding the rooms where He and the humans slept, to conversing with my mentor about how I would go about my day. Don't get me wrong, I've staked out for much longer than this, but that doesn't make it any less tiring. I'm not some sort of anatomical enchanted device that can run off of the air. I have other needs and desires to be attended to... many of them are needs.

Aside from that, when I went to wake him up, he seemed unresponsive. But at the very least his snoring was an indication that he was still alive. Still, I have never seen him so out of it. I was almost scared because when my brother dumped ice cold water on his face, he just snored right through it as if nothing had happened. I never seen anything like it, and neither did Cliff or Rickey. Eventually, he did wake up from his dream. And hilariously, he was reprimanded for his inability to correspond with the schedule I had established from the night prior.

Later in the day, I traveled with Shining Armor and Cadance to help with the ceremony. Celestia and Luna would be here any moment and I had to make sure that the town was in tip-top shape. Even the roads had to be cleaned to a specific degree. Pinkie had the cakes and pies all ready for this evening while Fluttershy was getting her show ready. Applejack was helping with the stage and platforms, reinforcing them to allow three humans, as well as other ponies, to stand on.

If I knew anything at all about humans, they were generally much heavier than very many of us ponies. And that stage was going to have not only Cliff, Rickey, and Nondis, but also me and the other royals. Plus if we add on mayor mare and my friends, Filthy Rich and his daughter, we'll definitely need to ensure that this stage is going to take whatever punishment it gets.

Rainbow Dash is going to fly an air show with the Wonderbolts to celebrate the occasion. I tried to inform the Wonderbolt Corps that adding in a show was a little overkill, but Captain Spitfire insisted that she'd put on a show...

Something tells me that her version of a show goes a little further than what I would like.

After confirming all of the evening activities and jotting them down on today's schedule, I had to gather everything I could from the bakery and send it off to the town square. Finally, it was time for me to check in on the three honorees.

Upon my return to the castle, I had found a rather unusual surprise waiting for my siblings and I. Sitting in my chair was none other than a human female, more notably by the name of Melanie. She looked at me, then back to Nondis, whispered to him, and then looked back to me before fainting.

Forty minutes later, Sunset had managed to get her out of her comatose state. And after rearing my brother on what not to do when encountering a human female, I tried to hurry and get us to the boutique so that Rarity can get the three honorees dressed and looking their best. But on the way out, Melanie and I stayed behind to have a little... conversation.

She started off with a smile and some small-talk, but she was very much about cutting to the chase. To sum it all up, she wasn't too fond of Nondis dating me. Instead, she was very adamant on trying to invalidate what we have, because of some of the laws from her world. She said that he would be at risk of jail as well as being considered as a sex offender. Scary stuff he's dealing with on that end, considering that he's practically labeled as a criminal every time he crosses over. And her trying to say that I was not anything he needed... it just made me go off.

I really tried to be friends, I tried to be loyal to Nondis' request of keeping the drama between us down, but he only specified that I didn't start it. And being that she came at me so aggressively, I had no other choice but to put up a front of my own. So I explained to her that I was so much to him already and that we were well on our way to marriage, which she didn't believe. And even further, I had to solidify the fact that I wasn't one she would want to engage with. So in a fit of jealousy and selfishness, I took to the air until we were seeing things eye to eye.

Never once have I actually had to fly on snipped wings. Not once have I actually had to undergo such an affair over such a trivial thing. But having my wings clipped, I had to use my unicorn magic to enhance every stroke just to keep me airborne. And then teleporting from one place to another while doing my previous task leaves me with very little energy left to stand on. After the final time, I had to feign a triumphant front while quietly trying to keep myself awake. But it went without saying that I proved my point to Nondis' friend.

So I left the room and went to his side, asking him if he could carry me on his back. After his usual response of calling me lazy, I climbed aboard and leaned against him. From there on, I knew that my trip going forward would be a little easier. At the very least I can take a quick power-nap on the way there. But it didn't stop me from getting my final message through to the dumbfounded woman, who knelt over and stared at me from within the room I left.

She may feel welcome in our world, free to engage in any activity she'd like, only if she should choose to behave from now on. But for her show of disrespect to me, I will refrain from opening another door for her.

She's a human, she's smart enough to be able to see her own way out.

***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

I'm still trying to process what is going on at the given moment. I wouldn't be able to tell you who from what, but the only thing I could tell you is that her little power-show did manage to seal my mouth shut for quite some time. This Twilight girl is dangerous and Nondis knows it, which is probably why he's reluctant to break things off completely with her. Imagine if she was to just snap at him and completely lose her shit, I don't think there would be much of a single flake of ash that would even exist of him after she was done.

Even with her smaller stature, she could be pretty intimidating.

After I trailed behind the group, we managed to come out of the castle and onto the streets of what seemed like a pretty medieval establishment with a bit of a rustic charm to it. As I looked on, I could see a prism of colors walk past me, whether it was one direction or another. The colors weren't in any given order, it was just an explosion of colors, wandering around on four legs, bidding each other a lovely day.

And I'm just sitting here staring at their asses like the tramp-stamps they wear are a mere fashion statement. Hell, looking straight at them, I'm not exactly sure which one is the fucking male or which is the female. But I could definitely tell the white one who stared at my boobs just a few minutes ago was indeed a male.

Kinda easy to notice the set of cojones swinging from hither to yonder. Thought it is kinda interesting... and funny to watch him walk. I could imagine a clock's pendulum swaying with each second that passes.

Tick-tock. Tick-tock.
Left-right. Left-right.
Bouncy-bouncy-bouncy─Okay I really need to stop staring at this guy's balls.

But then again, it's kinda hard to tell what's what if they're standing still, mainly because their tails do get in the way of things and then I'm forced to guess just from what the shape of their ass looks like.

...Nevermind, it isn't even that hard anymore. Anyone of these guys with a box-like build of the rear end, those are males. Anything with curves that glide on down to the back legs, those are females. Also, the female's tails tend to sway a lot less during a walk... for a damn good reason.

I noticed that the pink one's tail barely even moves at all when she walks. I mean you can see her hindquarters shift at a diagonal tilt with each step. But if you're some curious onlooker, you're not going to catch much but a blonde-pink-and-purple curtain blocking your sight. Obviously, the girls here knows what's up and how to hide the goods from any perverts.

But that only makes me think.

In historical times, there was the often-practiced concept of comfort mating. In other words, this was a concept used during times of war or in times of a long departure. Soldiers, sailors, pirates, anything of the like, they all would often have moments where they'd have their pent-up frustration become an issue of how they operate, both mentally and sexually. It's even practiced in the prison systems today. If there are no females to seek after, then it was common at the time for them to bring along cute, young servants to have a little fun with.

For some, it was a rite to manhood (gross), but for others it was just simply a means of getting off until the next contact with a female. Of course, those activities weren't exactly exclusive to human boys. At times, animals were put into play of being comfort items. And for a time, that was actually the norm for many soldiers and men out at sea.

Though they did have their practices, there were also sets of rules in regards to the situation. Many of which would commit intercrural acts, meaning that there was no case of penetration. Being that the concept of intercourse with another man was often displeasing to the mind, they would settle for the inner-thighs or the crevice of the the buttocks to give them a place to create the friction needed to achieve an orgasm. But with animals, some of their guilt just went out the window. Of course, you'd have those who would go further than the practice of intercural sex and go straight into penetration.

And that's what concerns me in this situation.

Nondis, being here for well over six months without any sort of visual stimulants, any human-like female anatomical features to stimulate the arousal, nothing but females of another species, he grew desperate and found a need for a sexual release. Now add in the purple pony with wings, who he called 'Bella' and stated that he was 'cared for' by her. That means that she was with him for a substantial amount of time for him to grow somewhat attached to. And being that they could express some very sapient thoughts and reactions, it would be easy to trick him into something akin to a relationship.

And this time, Nondis is being given what he wants, but at a price of some sort.

Honestly, Nondis was always a sucker for attraction. If any girl wanted him to do something, she'd only have to act nice for him to do it. That's how he was throughout high school. And to my own shame, I too have taken advantage of that weakness of his more than once in the past. Whenever I just had a nasty break-up and needed someone to tell me that I wasn't worthless, I'd call him up just so we could hang out. When he'd find some other girls that was just as available, he'd take the opportunity to at least try.

But for some strange reason, he grew out of favor with those other girls. It was almost like he was clearing his plate for something important. By our senior year, he wanted to give all of his attention strictly to me. And then came prom, he asked me out. Being that we had known each other for quite some time, two years to be exact, I agreed.

That's when he dropped the bomb on me. Those three words that indicated that he was clearing the table all this time, just to prepare himself for me. And what did I say to him? Nothing... I just stopped dancing and walked towards the parking lot. He followed me out there, but I didn't want to give him an answer until I knew for certain what was on my mind. So I just told him that it would take me some time to think it over. It only took me three days, and on the following Tuesday I told him that I had appreciation for him and his honesty.

From then on, I could see on his face that he was a broken man... but he was one that still held hope that things would turn in his favor. But when it came to me, I was just experiencing a slight amount of pain whenever we spoke after that. He made a vow that the two of us would never speak of what happened that night and the events after it again. But I knew that he, just like I did, didn't want to focus on such a blemish to our friendship.

Honestly speaking, I wanted a do-over.

Throughout our college years, we'd run into each other every so often, but not as frequently as we did in high-school. He had classes that interfered with my schedule. But we did show ourselves for each football game, and that's when we had our little exchanges to get ready for Sunday.

Those weekends we spent with each other, I had every chance to make things right, but I just couldn't grow past how frequently our conversations started to go towards sex. It was awkward for me to talk to him about something like that because of the fact that I considered it as a major red flag to what we had. And not only that, but I was really active in that area of my life whereas he was not.

I was more comfortable having sex with other guys because I knew that the consequence to it was minor in comparison to getting into a rout with Nondis. I've considered him as a partner, but never have I gone through with the thought of saying that I could do it. Not to mention that each time we'd veer onto the subject, I started to feel a little guilty because of what I was doing. But after a while, I started to realize that our conversations were starting to excite him a bit.

There was one time where he hugged me a little longer than what I wanted. His hands wandered for a bit, sliding from the top of my waist and down towards my... It was the only time he did that after I slapped him for trying to cop a feel. That was during sophomore year of college, where he got evicted out of his house and placed into an apartment just off campus. He wouldn't stop texting me for days, apologizing and saying how he'd never violate our friendship like that again. And after hearing those words from him, I continued to hold him to his words as much as I held him to a respectable distance.

We remained like that until sometime around senior year of college, where he and I had gotten into a dispute about him joining with a fraternity to make his fifth year as memorable as possible. I felt like he was doing something wrong, something that would result into him becoming disappointed in his life and making some unintelligent decisions that would cause people to look at him a certain kind of way. I knew that the humiliation he'd endure would cause others never to take him seriously. Of course, he ignored me the first time. He looked around at a few frats, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Phi Beta Sigma, Gamma Rho, and finally Delta Phi.

It goes without saying which one even considered him for joining.

After hearing about a series of antics the newbies were performing, I decided to go to one of their house parties and see for myself. And of course, the first thing that greets me is Nondis dressed in a French-maid outfit complete with high heels and headdress. I couldn't do nothing but take him outside to scream at him, especially after he was an inch away from kissing my feet at the request of his 'big brother'. So we got into this huge spat that ended with him losing his cool and calling me a bitch.

At first, I was in total disbelief that he would go so far to insult me. And then I had just become so angry that I left the party and stayed home for the weekend. Even after I heard word of him and his cross-mates being inducted into the fraternity ranks, I decided to purge any thoughts of the probate from my mind. He called me about fourteen times the day after and text me over thirty messages, telling me how sorry he was. And the only thing I did was pick up my phone to call back and screamed 'just go die' to him.

Huge mistake.

Even though I was angry with him, I had no right to react the way I did. And two months later, I get a call saying that his car plunged into the gulf. Oh my God, I was so destroyed in hearing that. My heart dropped to my bladder and I nearly pissed myself as soon as I made another call to confirm what I had heard. And when they showed the news report, the footage of his car being pulled from out of the water, I lost it.

But as soon as it came up that his body was nowhere to be found, I had instantly made up in my mind that he was still alive. I continued to stare at my phone for several minutes before making the first phone call to find him. The police declared an ongoing search for him and I decided to aid his family in the search however way I could. I also met up with one of his fraternity brothers in the process and he and his friend offered to help.

Though it was true that Rickey and I ended up dating, I was still emotionally invested in my search. But even our time together, I just couldn't focus on him, and he couldn't focus on one girl for the time being. So again, my relationship ended in sadness. And in due time, I was introduced to Jasper, who was eager to help me find Nondis at first. But overtime, he started to whisper into my ear that it was past time for me to give him up, that he was nowhere to be found. He even made the statement that he was eaten by the fish, that there was nothing left of him.

So, he started to 'convince' me that I was just doing this search because I was feeling guilt for whatever I said to him beforehand. And to be honest, he was right. I was trying to find some way to apologize to him. I was trying to do whatever I could to keep in my head that my search would lead me to seeing him again, starting our relationship from square one. I wanted to get a second chance at him so that I could prove just how much he really was worth to me. I didn't want my final words to him to be something I wouldn't dream of saying to him. I wanted to make things right.

And nine and a half months later, I got a phone call from Rickey, my ex. He says he has a surprise for me and that I should come over right then and there if I wanted to see it. And when I saw Nondis standing in the middle of the room, I buried my head into his chest, just wanting to hear the heart beating inside. The warm air that flowed from his nose to the top of my head, the beating drum underneath his skin, the heat of his arms being coiled around me... it was real.

But what I didn't expect to be real was this alternate reality he was stuck in for several months. Even with my best efforts, I wouldn't have even come close to finding this place. I would've been better off trying to find the mystical land of Narnia than trying to find this place.

In speaking of places... "Ugh... Hey, do you guys know where we're going? We've been walking for several minutes."

Nondis turned to me as he walked ahead. "Oh, we're going to see a seamstress so that Cliff and Rickey can get their clothes."

A pony seamstress, making human clothes, here? Well then again, that seamstress must have a lot of experience considering that Nondis is well-clothed. But that does leave the question, how the hell did they even get her to make the clothes if there were no humans to exist beforehand? "Okay. How much longer would that be?"

"Just a few more blocks." He answered with a bright smile. "Just kinda hang in there, you can walk for another mile or two."

Another mile? Excuse me!? "Oh, I didn't think I'd need my walking shoes for this... Is there any possible way we could take a taxi or something?"

"Nah, this is a pretty small town. It's not like we're walking towards Sweet Apple Acres or anything." He answered as he turned his attention to the road ahead, leading to an exotic-looking, carousel-shaped building. Meanwhile, I'm looking head in misery as my legs start to ache. As I looked towards Cliff and Rickey, they pointed towards the carousel-looking building and rambled on about how their clothes were gonna fit. And I'm just sitting here wondering how the hell Nondis goes through with this walking routine everyday. Imagine if I had to walk a total of five miles a day just to get my clothes. And then go out and fight whatever the hell he's fighting. I can barely hang in for three miles at this rate.

I can't go on like this.

"Welcome all! And I do say that I have been waiting for quite some time for you gents to come along."

As we entered, I've noticed that this place had a pretty swanky interior. The curtains seemed to be made of an expensive material, the walls were adorned with Victorian-era silver and lavender accents, sparkling jewels glimmered on every candlestick, every photo on the wall perfectly straightened, and every pony outfit looked as if it came straight off the runway. Even the chest on the far end of the wall had the fucking Gucci print all over it, only with the letter 'R' and diamonds adorning it instead of the two G's intersecting. And just on the other side of it was a small box full of... baby-blue sapphires?

This bitch, she must be loaded.

"Sorry, Rarity. We were caught up with a little something." Nondis said as he walked off towards an area that had at least three mirrors sitting in front of it.

Gotta admit, she's got it going on. As I slowly made my way towards an area with a velvet curtain, my eyes grew wide with mounting anticipation as well as childish curiosity. As I placed my hand on the curtain to take a peek, a voice shouted from behind me.

"Goodness gracious! Nondis, when did you invite yet another friend of yours!?"

"Oh, Mel? She just got in maybe an hour ago."

Immediately, I could feel something cold and bright swallow my hand and pull it towards the opposite direction of where I was looking. Effective immediately, I was slapping at the blue-ish flames that manipulated my arms, but was stopped as soon as I felt something else come into contact with it. Looking further on down, two hooves grasped at my hands as two sapphire platters blinked and sparkled brightly as the white unicorn seamstress (at least that's who I think it is) smiled from ear to ear.

"Dear Celestia! I can't believe that you're actually here! We've been hearing many things about you from Nondis, but never have I actually considered that the honor of seeing you would come so suddenly! Surely the two of you must have quite an archive of adventures!"

And she's well-spoken with a Trans-Atlantic accent to boot. Well I'm severely outclassed. "Um... charmed?" I didn't want to sound so... normal around her. At least I wanted to show that I was somewhat cultured.

"Oh, and I do apologize about the magic, dear." What was she talking about? "I just tend to grab Nondis the same way whenever he gets a little curious. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to let anyone back there out of a confidentiality agreement with one of my clients."

"Magic? Grab? Clients?" Yeah, slow it down please? I'm still stuck on the somehow-grabbing-me-from-across-the-room part.

"Oh yes. I forgot that you humans aren't too savvy with magic. I suppose Twilight should better explain it."

Nondis shook his head as he walked over to a nearby couch. "Not even once. That lecture costed me an entire week of afternoons and miss purple princess here gave me a pop-quiz on it afterwards. You don't want to hear her lecture on it, and besides..."

*SNOOOOOOOORE....huuubuububuh*

"She's out for the time being."

The pink pony laughed lightly as she walked up to the purple one and summoned a light-blue aura around the purple pony's body to slowly lay her down on the couch. "That's Twilight for you. Expend all of her energy and go on a binge of organizing events, disregard her sleep schedule for making her work schedule for the next three months, and then trying to get everything done for this event on the next day."

The white stallion apparently summoned a sheet from I-don't-know-where and placed it over her sleeping form. "Yeah, she's always like this. Sometimes, you have to stop her before she overworks herself. She goes through quite a bit to keep a portion of the country running at full-speed."

Oh yeah, she is a princess. "But doesn't she have a secretary who does that for her, or at least one that she keeps around her to help out?"

Nondis didn't seem to say much as he walked towards Cliff and Rickey, but he did scoff a bit as he walked over to a nearby rack and filtered through most of the outfits on there. But the seamstress didn't have a problem answering my question. "Oh, Spike is away at Canterlot on business... or so Nondis tells me."

"In short, he's helping a few of the politicians with some important paperwork. That's all we can really say on his behalf." The pink one stated as she looked towards Nondis with a bit of concern.

Immediately, I recognized exactly what the issue was with the situation. I whispered to the white stallion who stared at my boobs. "So, do they not like each other or something?"

"Honestly, I have nothing to do with those two. It's best that you don't ask me."

Nondis pulled out a black bag that looked very much like... a body bag. Okay, now I'm REALLY concerned. "Um... do you think they have some sort of rivalry going on?" I questioned to the pink pony.

"That is a personal issue that I'm not allowed to speak on out of respect for the parties involved. If you need to ask anyone, you need to speak with Nondis. The two of you are friends after all, I'm more than certain he'll speak with you about it."

As if he'd speak with me about anything. It took him a whole two weeks for me to even get in on what he was doing here. I don't think he'll be so eager to share with me what's going on. Nondis meanwhile pulled out another body bag and handed the two bags over to Cliff and Rickey. As soon as they pulled out two matching pairs of tuxes, my face contorted into a mix of confusion and anger. The white seamstress unicorn giggled cheerfully as she urged them both to go change in an adjacent room. Nondis was merely looking on as he remained silent of anything.

Perhaps I needed to ask him about this on a later date. It seems to be a bit of a downer subject for today.

Rarity walked up to me and gave me a bright smile as she spoke. "And as for you, I can see that my dimensions would have to undergo a drastic change for me to conjure up a little something for you to wear."

"Yup... As far as those three are concerned, I don't share any of the baggage they got."

She tapped a hoof to her chin and continued to stare slightly downwards towards my chest. "Hmm, I suppose your *ahem* pectorals would be a far-cry different from that of the gents. Perhaps there's a reason for it?"

"Rarity, what are teats for?" Sunset called out from the other side of the room.

Immediately, I could see a massive surge of red fill her cheeks as she coughed into her hoof and looked away, trying not to bring her attention to my tits. "Well... Um... I suppose that you'd use those for the nurturing process."

I leaned down to her and whispered back. "Between you and me, these things get the boys attention. They can also be used for... stimulation."

"They're also a major pain in the back when they're big enough." Sunset whispered to Rarity as she walked beside her.

Wow... she gets it. "Oh my gosh, and try running with them without getting any attention to yourself."

"Or mind you showing a little cleavage. Sometimes the girls gotta breathe a little."

"Fucking thank you! Breast sweat is like the most annoying and embarrassing thing to have whenever you're around a guy."

"And don't even get me started with bra sizes."

"Especially if you're trying to go for a match with your panties."

"Yeah, I mean sometimes I walk into a store and see all of this cheap shit and ask myself─"

"Why the fuck can I never find anything that matches with the top or bottom I like?"

"EXACTLY! Or why the hell does it seem like I'll be showing too much when I'm just casually walking about?"

"Yes. Have you ever walked around the house with just your t-shirt and panties?"

"No bra included?"

"OH GOD, that is just like the most liberating thing. If I didn't have horndogs trying to get between my legs every other day, I'd do it more often."

"Tell me about it."

Yes, she knows the struggle... Wait a minute, she's a PONY! HOW THE HELL ARE WE EVEN RELATING TO EACH OTHER LIKE THIS? "Um... See you know too much, where are you from?"

"I am a pony by birth, but I've spent my time in another universe, one populated with another breed of humans that have trace amounts of magic. And we can transform once we cross over from one side to another. I'm a pony now because I'm in the pony world, but for over nine years of my life have been me being in the human world. So I know how to rock the opposable thumbs as well as a guitar."

Wow, I think I might like to hang out with her more often. She seems like a pretty cool girl to hang out with. "Sunset, right?"

"Yeah, and I know you... well heard of you. Nondis talks about you all the time."

So I've been told. "Well, I don't really get to hear much of you guys on my end. So how about we get to know each other for ourselves?" Yeah, cause poor Rarity (I think that's what Sunset called her) has been just watching us gossip while she's been completely left out.

"Sure, I don't see why not." Sunset said as she summoned a cellphone from out of nowhere. "So what's your number?"

"Oh so you can use cellphones here?"

"Well actually, we really couldn't until Twilight and I did a little fiddling around in your world to get the transmission signals to operate whenever the portal is open. And judging from my lack of reception, I'd say that the portal is out. So not right now, but maybe later."

"You've been to my world?" I asked with amazement?

"Yeah, unfortunately the only place I've been to was Nondis' apartment. But he never usually finds out about us going there until we tell him what we've added on to the portal. Like now, you can access your phone's networks and stuff like that."

"Oh. Well, I guess this would be kinda cool to talk between dimensions." We'll be like fucking Star Trek at this rate. I pulled out my phone and swiped at my screen as I gave her my number. "Okay, my number is 512-235-9913."

"Sweet. My number is 821-348-5640. Hit me up if you wanna hang out or need some Q-and-A about anything Equestrian."

With a smile, I locked in her number and tabbed her into my contacts. "Great, I'm probably gonna harass you about Nondis every now and then. He seems as if he doesn't want to tell me anything lately."

"Oh I'll keep you updated. I'm usually called in whenever he gets hurt and I need to use my magic to perform healing spells on him." She answered with a pretty smile.

"Really, you ponies can do that?"

"Crazy, huh? I made up a series of incantations that would work well with the human anatomy."

"I'm a former med student, fuck yeah I'll keep in touch with you!"

It took the guys a total of fifteen minutes to get themselves situated. While they were getting ready for the ceremony, I decided to get myself acquainted with the workings of this world. And to be perfectly honest, much of any of it eludes me. The big thing I can't seem to wrap my head around is how magic in this world works. Hell, I'm more on the fact that magic is even a thing. I wanted to know the things like why does magic exist in this world, what would be the purpose of having it here if it can be such a source of mischief, how is it that a miniature horse that has wings smaller than their body can fly as if they were fucking predator drones, and how is it that Nondis (who's been here for nearly a year) is incapable of using it?

Obviously, I wasn't going to get all of the answers in one go. But that still didn't stop the blue-haired stallion from giving me a crash course through the subject.

"...And that's how object-manipulation is applied to the process of magic."

In a nutshell, it's how they can lift shit. "So it can even manipulate moving or living objects?"

"Of course, it's how we can carry others to safety in the E.U.P."

"E.U.P.?" An acronym, I don't know what the fuck it means.

"It stands for the Earth-pony Unicorn Pegasus guard, E.U.P. for short." The pink one is called Cadance, I just recently figured that out. At the very least she has a pretty normal name in comparison to the others.

But I'm still curious about a few things. "So if it's the E.U.P., then why was it that Nondis was able to join if it's strictly for the three groups you mentioned?"

Cadance tapped against her husband and leaned against him with a proud smile. "Yes, you would think that it would only be for just strictly ponies. But actually, there's an array of beings who enlist. There are ponies, bulls, minotaurs, mules, and donkeys who enlist. There are even the meat-consuming races such as the diamond dogs, griffons, and dragons on extremely rare occasions. Nondis would be the very first human to set foot into the ranks. He's also the very first true biped to endure the training."

"And as for the reason why we don't expand the acronym... well there's just too many letters to remember it by." Shining added as he turned to his smiling wife.

Understandable. It's like they took the cautious way out and just decided what would be best in terms of budget. If they'd list every being that signs up into the organization's name, one's representation would eventually become lost in the translation. It's similar to the LGBT movement. At first it was just those four and now it's gone to LGBTQQIAAP complete with asinine amounts of pronouns that pratically translate into a mix of fucking Elvish and Klingon.

Not knocking their cause, but they could cut down on trying to force the college board into making us students remember so much shit on top of our classes. I shouldn't have to worry about if this person wants to be called 'zergself' over 'bunself' on this particular day of the week. Lets just agree on 'themself' as it is gender neutral, it already exists in the English language, and there's not too much to worry about fucking up on it, okay? Okay.

Either way, I can see the primary reason why they just kept the original moniker. "Okay, I gotcha."

"Yeah, don't let my husband get on to you or your friends about joining. Nondis has already warned him of it, but Shining just rants on and on about how the guard would be if there were a squad of about ten of you guys."

"What, I can dream!" Shining argued back. "Besides, think about what ten of them could do to an army of changelings. Queen Chrysalis would be scraping her changelings off the walls in her own castle if Nondis had some serious help. Plus there'd be a lot less visits to the hospital."

"He does do a lot of the work and come back hurt every single time, but that doesn't mean that he's incompetent." Cadance stated as she lightly pushed her husband. "Remember when I told you about that time he fought off about fifty of them with a sword, and then with just a brick?"

Okay, now I know Nondis is bullshitting around if he's going around spreading stories about him taking on fifty alien-like monsters (I'm assuming) with a sword and a brick. "Seriously, who came up with that story? Was it Nondis?"

Cadance actually gave me a bit of a bone-chilling stare as her toned softened. "Actually, it was Rarity who watched him do it. Furthermore, he saved her younger sister and Spike in the process. I just came in on the tail-end of things. You should've seen him, he was drenched in blood."

...Okay, that definitely doesn't sound like Nondis. "Oh...kay... Are you sure you didn't get the wrong guy?"

"To be fair, he's not a shy individual to fighting. Back in basic training, I sent about four or five guys to take him down all at once. The first few weeks he struggled, but later on he started to hold his own, even wrestling down all of them by the end of training. I gotta admit, you humans are no pushovers. You guys can be really scary." Shining stated as he walked over to the platform standing before three mirrors.

"In speaking of scary..." Cadance began. "Is it true that you all had wars that killed over several millions? I know Nondis brought it up at one given point with the parliament, but I doubt eighty million is the not-so-magical number."

Sadly, World War II did yield that many deaths, and that's not even taking into account of those reported missing. "Unfortunately, but that war ended several decades ago. My grandfather wasn't even alive for that one."

The pink princess shuddered for a brief second as she closed her eyes with disgust. "I can't believe he wasn't making that up."

"Yeah, it was pretty ugly. But the average citizen didn't really grasp the true horrors of war until like sometime during the Vietnam War. Since then, our nation's been a little more reluctant on their recruiting methods. Back in those days you were drafted into the war."

Shining groaned as he turned to face himself in another mirror. "Eugh! I'm not interested in trying to grab colts and send them to a hell they're not prepared for. I knows how to feel to be on that end."

"Really?" I questioned curiously. "I didn't think you guys had the draft, being that you had to volunteer for your forces."

Shining looked back to me with an unhappy expression. "Yeah, they used to have them almost four-hundred years back. But after that war, there was far too little stallions to go around for mares. The population faced a severe collapse if we had continued to draft colts into the guard. From then on, the majority of draft laws were abolished."

"Yeah, we weren't looking too spiffy on our own drafts either. We were sending boys straight from high school to the field. It was how Nondis' grandfather got enlisted into the military."

"Seriously? Nondis is a legacy of military?" Cadance questioned with amazement.

"Actually, it was only his parents who didn't sign up. But from what his mother tells me, everyone from his grandfather on up was either an enlisted or a draftee. No doubt he had family who served in either one of the World Wars."

Shining chuckled as he tapped his chin. "So... Nondis is a legacy brat... Guess he's got more pull than I had originally thought."

Before our conversation could go any further, Cliff and Rickey both approached from a nearby room, dressed in some really suave tuxedos, complete with jeweled accents and cuff-links. My jaw fell to the floor as I just thought to myself how the fuck did they manage to look like they were on their way to a high-class ball, considering that there were no human tailors here.

That Rarity horse is a fucking god.

"Hey Mel, how do we look?" Rickey questioned as he brushed off his shoulders.

"Dayum." That was pretty much my only response for the time being. And their outfits were neatly done.

"Bruh, she did this just in a day." Cliff said as he looked beyond the podium with the mirrors. "She don't play around. This shit so clean!"

As they were too busy admiring their new clothes in the mirrors, my mind had slowly drifted back to the one man who wasn't in the room. "Hey, have you guys seen Nondis?"

Rickey was fixing his hair, trying to comb it back as he spoke. "I think he went upstairs to get his hem fixed. Rarity's up there with him."

Actually, Nondis hasn't really said much since we first got here. I think it would be best if I checked in on him. I don't want him to linger on about some bad blood with this Spike character.

Now that I think more on it, didn't Cadance say he saved his life?

Quietly, I walked up the stairs and ignored the mix of voices coming from the foyer below. Instead, I let my ears lead me towards another room down the hall, the door partially cracked open. I tried to be quiet as to listen in on what they were talking about, as it had sounded like they were really going back and forth. They weren't arguing about anything, but it did seem like there was a discussion taking place.

"Sweetie, you're going to have to stay still."

"Rarity, that's enough. I'm good."

"No, you're not. Now stay still while I put this makeup on your face."

Makeup? What the hell is she doing that requires him to wear any sort of makeup on his face? As quietly as possible, I snuck towards the doorway, leaning in as they continued to speak towards one another.

"Rarity, I can manage just one little scar." What scar? I don't remember him having anything like that.

"I swear Nondis, you humans have a really bad habit of accumulating perspiration on the brow."

"Well sorry, that's just how we're made. We sweat just like you ponies do."

"Yes but we don't sweat nearly as much."

Creeping my head around the corner, I could see what appeared to be a massive scar running down Nondis' face. Instinctively, I placed a hand over my mouth to prevent myself from making any kind of noise. How did he manage to hide something so large from everyone for so long? And it isn't like he can just pretend that thing doesn't exist. I continued to watch the conversation unfold.

"How long do you think this will take?" He asked as she used her magic to pat some makeup onto his face, obviously to hide the scar.

"It won't be long. Just keep still and this won't take very long at all."

Nondis rolled his eyes as he sighed with dejection. "This wouldn't have happened if I chose to stay at my apartment and do the paperwork Cadance sent me."

"It's not on you, darling. That was all Twilight and her lashing out at you."

"Who's to say I didn't deserve it though?"

"You didn't. Now stop putting yourself down over that."

He gave out an exasperated sigh as he spoke. "Sorry, it's just a little hard not to, you know."

She placed the pad she used to powder his face onto the nightstand as she used a hoof to cusp his chin to face her. "...So our date was what caused this?"

Date? WHAT!?

"Rarity, don't, please. I already have enough on my plate as it is." He answered, trying to turn away, but her magic holding him in place.

Softly, she leaned him downward to give him a kiss on the forehead. "I understand why you would feel this way, but it was not your fault Twilight discovered us."

"Yeah, I know." He answered with a dismissive scoff. "Cadance was probably the one who told her. I told her about the date because I had to explain to her that I was trying to get my evening free to make good on a promise I made. And as soon as she heard that, she just stormed out of my place with this really foul disposition. In all honesty I'm not even surprised that she would do that, considering that Twilight and her are so close. Hell, I wouldn't even be surprised if Cadance was even trying to convince her that I was─"

"It was my fault, actually." She interrupted while politely planting her hoof against her muzzle. "If Cadance had something to do with it, Twilight would've intervened far sooner than she did."

Nondis frowned as he lightly tapped her horn and turned away from her completely. "You're just saying that to make me feel─"

"I took Sweetie Belle to her earlier that morning... I needed her to watch over her for the time being. Applejack was gone, Fluttershy was with Discord again, Rainbow Dash took Scootaloo for some training to get her to fly, and Pinkie was busy for the day. I didn't have a choice."

He laughed in disbelief as he stood from his seat and walked off. Out of mischievous instinct, I pulled my head from view and hid around the door quietly, my heart-rate started to pick-up a bit as I heard his footsteps come even closer to the door. As he got closer, he spoke to the white unicorn pony.

"You can't be serious. You mean to tell me that you just... Rarity, you don't walk into the den of a sleeping lion and announce yourself."

The patter of hooves clopping grew louder as she ran towards the door, planting his back against it. The door slammed shut just before she spoke. "I had no other choice! If things had gone on like they did after you dropped me off, it would've been a fairly indecent situation, one where I wouldn't permit my younger sister to be here to witness."

...Again, WHAT!? Did she imply that she had PLANS TO SLEEP WITH NONDIS!?

"Seriously? Do you think that I would've taken it any further than where we had gone?" I heard him speak through the door. "Originally, I just wanted things to end in just a hug, I'd walk away and go back to my place. I took things too far, I'll admit that. And I know that doing something like that was just completely idiotic and dysfunctional on a intimate level. Not only was it disrespectful to you that I just acted out of an impulse, but now if Spike hears about this, it's gonna drive an even deeper wedge between the two of you."

...So who's this Spike guy and why is there this talk of wedges between them? Could it be that this guy is actually sprung for her and she's just not into him, or she and he got a little something going on that Nondis is stepping in on, or maybe a bad case of chasing pavements between all three of them? Like seriously, what fucking soap opera am I listening to right now?

Though I've gotta admit it does sound kinda juicy.

"Nondis, I've told you where I stood with him. You know where I stand with him. And you should also know that my feelings for you would not count on his personal desires. I already explained it to him dozens of times that I wasn't interested, and he responds by... by... essentially violating my privacy. There's been many of times where I've caught the clues of him burrowing through my personals and journals, looking for various ways of trying to prove to me that he was the 'big thing' for me. It had gotten so bad that I just stopped writing in my journals just to see what he would do next."

"Okay, now I know that Spike can be a little possessive and a lot of protective... and somewhat overly obsessive, but I know he would at least have the decency of acknowledging your privacy. He'll be quick to preach to me about doing that, so why would he go against his principles like that? It doesn't make sense to me."

"...I did sometimes ramble on with him as much as I would to you. But I do notice when your name comes up, he grew this really sour disposition and acted as if he was the one that I was to give a chance to. And I've already explained this so many times, why do I have to explain this again?"

"Because, I don't know, you're probably not giving him the whole truth of it all. I don't mean to come off wrong, but it sounds like he's being obsessive for another reason besides him crushing over you. I've been on his side of the fence before, I know what he feels." Doesn't he, I've put him in that position so many times before, and for a selfish reason. Nondis continued to speak. "Better question, what is it about me that you'd say is sufficient enough to make a judgement of my having more value than him? Again, I can understand the age thing and the 'baby dragon' story is something you don't need to go into detail about."

Hold on, baby dragon? A baby dragon is at the center of all of this? Wai-wha... What did I miss?

"Do I really have to spell it out? Ugh, you and him... you say that you and he have had the same struggle at one given point. But your mind is at a different point of time than his. Not only have you matured in the mind, but you've got the strength to match. I would say that I could easily fall in love with any colt or stallion with the fortitude Spike has."

"Then what's stopping you?"

"Nondis, how dare you. You know that real love doesn't just poof itself into the mind and continues be this burning thing that drives one towards the edge of insanity. This thing I feel about you has been cooking up for months and even after nine of them, despite the words you spoke, in spite of them hurting me in various ways, I can't bring myself to stop. I promised to be friends with you, but I don't want that from you."

"But I don't want a relationship─"

"That kiss you left on my lips says otherwise!" She stammered. Suddenly I could hear the sound of the wooden door creaking, almost as if the weight was being shifted along it's surface. Within a few seconds, I could hear a soft smack followed my a deep breath from the seamstress pony. "That kiss... you just told me that you wanted a little more from me."

"...I'm not gonna give you anything."

"And you don't have to right now. But if you want to, I'm here for it."

The heavy weight of my mandible drove a subtle separation between my lips, my fingers found their way over the open gap from where the air escaped. My mind was cluttered with shock and confusion, leaving all rational thoughts by the wayside.

"...Rarity, please just finish this makeup so I can leave."

I could hear the sounds of footsteps and hooves trailing away from the door. Quietly the sound of a heavier body sitting on a smaller wooden chair penetrated through the door as a strange, ethereal whirring noise stirred. For quite some time, they continued to be quiet as my back remained plastered against the wall for whatever reason.

I really was not ready for today. "Oh my God." Was all I could whisper to myself.

"It sounds like you ran into something that wasn't supposed to happen."

Chills descended through my entire body, my arms and legs growing colder by the second. The goosebumps on my skin became super-sensitive to the sudden change in the air. Looking behind me, I could see the familiar face of a purple pony staring back at me, her horn brightly lit with a magenta glow. Around me, I could see the walls and the ceiling glow a similar color, seemingly highlighted by the energy her horn gave off. I shrieked briefly before covering my mouth. By then, I knew that someone would come by the door in a matter of a second.

"Oh no, you can scream and shriek as much as you'd like. This spell I'm producing is a bubble of silence, nothing outside of it can hear anything of what goes on inside. But the same does not apply from within." She said in plain volume, almost as if she had not a shred of regard for whatever's going on inside of the room.

I could feel my stomach turn as she took a few steps towards me. And my legs started to lose their strength as she held me in place. What really put the icing on all of it was how innocently she smiled as she approached. Now I was utterly terrified.

"As much as I would like to ask more of the history between you and my fiance, I'm afraid that my mind is on a more important matter. So what I want to know was what Nondis and Rarity were talking about in that room."

***Point of Perspective: Nondis***

As Rarity continued to apply the makeup over my scar, I could feel an unusual tightness within my chest as I felt my whole entire world spinning around me. And all throughout this treatment, it was obvious that Rarity started to become a lot more sensual with how she approached me. The way her hoof would turn my head as she stared closely at me, it felt as if she was beyond motherly. But the lingering taste on my lips from just a few seconds ago is what gave me the hint that her 'maternal' care was far from. With the remaining hint of mint in my mouth, I could still feel the sensation of her tongue crushing mine in it's own dwelling place. Even her breath was noticeably icy as she lightly tilted my head to the side and kissed my neck. And as I sit in front of this mirror, I can see all of her emotions spilling from within her.

"I don't like playing second..." She said with a sniffle, her voice breaking as she spoke and her tears slowly crawling down her face. "But if that is your wish, then I will do whatever it takes to satiate your desire, both quietly subtle... or immensely gross. I love you, my dearest captain."

Now...

Now I really know how much I fucked up.

Author's Note

PLAY THIS.

As for why I added this music to the end of the chapter, it just went perfect with the theme at the end of the chapter where Nondis realizes he fucked up as Rarity is busy kissing on his neck while putting the makeup on his face. The composition also works well with the heaviness of what's going on between Twilight and Melanie. So it went without saying that this chapter... yeah.
It has gotten several shades of real.

Also I thought it would be refreshing to change up the perspectives. For now it will be just between Melanie, Twilight, and Nondis. I may consider Rarity and another character, but that will be for later. I only hope that this chapter wasn't confusing to some of the readers. If you think this is a bad idea, I'll consider not doing it again until certain chapters. If so, I will see if I can implement the change more often. Comments are always encouraged and appreciated.

Stay tuned for the next chapter, and thanks for reading.

Chapter XLIX

Have you ever just gotten yourself into a situation just once in your life that started to become so convoluted that everything and everyone you know, or at least your perception of it all, becomes warped and transformed?

Just me, huh?

Unfortunately, I'm not exactly in a situation I could just talk myself out of. And the worst thing of it all is that everyone around me knows it. I'm the only one who's just coming to terms with all of it.

And the worst thing of it all was that I didn't even know where it all came from. Had I been a little better at reading the signs, I would've avoided all of this, I wouldn't even be sitting here with this massive scar on my face, or this mare trying to disguise it while simultaneously nibbling on my ear and telling me how much she loves me.

I know, I was going to come here and make amends for our not having this conversation yesterday. And I'm well-aware of the fact that she has feelings for me. But what I didn't anticipate was when she said that she would WILLINGLY place second. She knows that I don't want this from her...

And that's just a problem I've had on the surface.

Goddammit, from that moment I had that dream in Canterlot dealing with her, I knew that my mind had started going someplace where it shouldn't have. And though I never practiced on it in the physical realm, my mental realm has been plagued with similar thoughts. And it's not like she hasn't been sowing these seeds from the start.

That moment in the barn, thought I was dressed in something frilly and girly, I felt more testosterone-driven from the moment her lips seared my cheek. Even my body showed the signs of arousal as she walked off, my eyes glanced as her tail swayed from side to side, her plot shifting from left to right. The only thing that stopped me was the threatening glance from Spike, who stared back at me through the open doorway as he waited on Rarity.

And at that time, I had to psyche myself out of that lust-driven mode before walking out. I didn't need for Applejack and Rainbow Dash to see me walking around town like that, especially when I knew what I was going back home to face. I could even say that my lust had started to manifest from when Pinkie backed me into a wall and mashed herself against me. I was so lucky that I was wearing clothes, otherwise it would've been so easy for me and her to...

AAAARGH! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!

But that's just it, that's not gonna happen. As long as Rarity is sitting here, kissing against me, suckling the lobes of my ear, her quiet pants worming in my ears and through my mind, as her hooves glide up and down my chest just underneath an unbuttoned shirt. I want to move from this seat, but I know the main reason why I won't dare to do it now.

I am throbbing with what could be the most painful case of arousal, and my pants aren't exactly loose enough to hide my current state.

"Rarity... stop."

She walked around to my front and placed her forelegs on my shoulders, her haunches raised as she straddled over my lap. As soon as she regained contact with the floor, she sank down on me with a seductive smirk and coiled her forelegs around the back of my neck. While we were eye to eye, she lifted herself and fell on top of me with a menacingly slow pace.

Dammit. "R-r-r-arity." I stuttered as I felt myself flex against the tightness of my pants. My fingers flexed and balled into a fist as she lifted herself once more, falling on top of me with a slow decent. But this time, she forced herself to sit even closer against me. My hands clasped around her waist. As I slowly lifted her off of me, I tried to shimmy myself away, only to be stopped by the guillotine-like drop of her hips. As soon as she landed, I felt myself losing more and more. Self-control was starting to become a foreign concept as another violent throb sent my hips upwards.

Suddenly, I felt a strong yank from my hair as Rarity arched her back and threw her head up. Her magic ungraciously tugged my head towards her as she looked at me with a frustrated scowl that melted into a painful stare. Her teeth tried to grab onto her lower lip in an attempt to stabilize her trembling jaw. The large curls of her mane fell over to the side of my face as she looked at me with those greedy eyes, the eyes of a yearning woman. Her tail wrapped around my leg tightly as she let her entire weight fall on my lap.

Reaching back, I grabbed her tail and tried to pull myself free. Her eyes left me this one time, rolling into the back of her head while her inner thighs raised themselves off of me. A sigh came off her lips as one of her hooves left my neck and pulled at my chin. For several brief moments, her lips would press against mine, her tongue would actively invade, and her magical tugging would pull my hair to control me.

My heart was beating at the speed of the millions of thoughts racing through my head, the sound of her high-pitched squeaks causing me to lose my grips on reality. Half of my mind was trying to get away from her, but the other half as well as my entire body was making a case on why this should keep going. It wasn't like I didn't want it... and that's what scared me. I wanted it, bad. And realistically, I could have it right now. She's basically telling me to give it up, and don't I want to.

"...That's all you'll get for now."

"Wait, what?" I whispered back as she scoffed victoriously, climbing off of me while leaving me a frustrated wreck.

Rarity slid a hoof down my cheek as she answered back. "You said you weren't going to give me anything. So, I just decided that I wasn't going to give you anything either."

Oh, that was WRONG. "Wait, yo... Bu... We... Wha... De... You can't do that."

"Sweetheart, you're the one who said it. I merely complied with your request."

No, that's called being EVIL. "Rarity, you don't just go around doing that kind of stuff to people."

"No... but I am going to do it with you." She responded with a playful smile, booping me in the nose.

"For 'not giving me anything' you sure gave a lot of 'nothing'." I complained as I buttoned the shirt she had undone.

"Well I'm not selfish, now am I? I'm going to at least let you try on the goods before wearing it."

Oh, you are so maniacal. "You know you're wrong."

"We both are, dear." She chimed as she gave me a kiss on the cheek, just before walking towards the door. "But at least I know that you're willing to play along."

As she opened the door, she cheerfully walked into the hall and hummed along the way, pretending that what had happened just now hadn't even occurred. Meanwhile I'm left with a lingering sense of guilt, as well as a case of blue balls. And for a minute, I had to wait inside of the room before my pants could become a little looser in the crotch. As I waited, I fixed my hair, straightened my appearance, and made my way towards the door.

As I walked, I could only question myself: How did my life even get to this point?

Upon entering the downstairs lobby, everyone else waited with eager faces and even-more eager legs. Even Twilight seemed really eager to get things moving along. "So, are you ready to go?"

She really looked energetic compared to what she was like a minute ago. "Wow, you look like you could take on the world. Better than what you were looking like this morning."

"And what does THAT supposed to mean?" She questioned with a scowl.

"It means that you looked a little fatigued earlier. You shouldn't force yourself to do so much during the night hours." I said as I reached out to lightly bop her on the head.

"This coming from the one who wouldn't even wake up at the appropriate call-time. We're running fifteen-minutes late."

"The ceremony doesn't even start till one this afternoon, doesn't it?" Rickey asked.

Shining shook his head. "Don't even try it. You're not gonna win. She likes being an hour early for everything. And if you're not an hour early, then you're late."

"Late for what, being on-time?" Cliff quipped.

"Tardiness is a sign of disorganization as well as indifference. That reflects poorly on not only me and the other royals, but the E.U.P. Guard as well. Now let's get a move-on." Twilight said as she used her magic to open the door, quickly trotting outside.

Rickey lifted his hand to say something else, gaining a discouraging head-shake from me. With a shrug, he just walked out the door and followed the purple princess. As I held the door open, I waited for everyone else to walk outside. The last one to come out was Melanie, who was walking extremely slow. When she walked past me, she gave me a light bump against the chest.

"So did you two have fun in there?"

My eyes expanded as she picked up the pace and caught up with the others. I was left with a dumb look on my face as I was trying to figure out how she would've known about what I was doing in there. But I guess it wouldn't really matter at this point. Rarity closed the door just before she kissed me, so she couldn't even know what she was looking at, even if she were to eavesdrop.

But I know all-too well that Rarity's door wasn't exactly soundproof.

We finally managed to make it to the front steps of Town Hall, where a large stage was built to accommodate for all the humans and royals. Though the stairs would've worked just fine on their own, there wouldn't be enough room to hold all of us in one setting. But the possibility of a stage collapsing underneath my feet was the last thing that was on my mind. Meanwhile I was just in an isolated area nearby, pacing back and forth as I was trying to get my thoughts together.

And I will be the first to admit that I was in a world of mess.

I nearly lost all control back at the boutique. In the matter of a few seconds, I went from not wanting to have anything to do with Rarity to a mere layer of clothes preventing us from burning a hole in the floor. And then when she finished, she left me in such a state to where all I could think about was a sexual release. And with the little time I had plus the venue, I wasn't able to fap one out or take a cold one to the balls. No, I was literally walking around town with a small stain in my boxers and with a foul disposition to match. And my mood had already gotten even worse since Melanie started asking me questions about Spike along the way here.

She seemed really interested in trying to find out what's going on with the two of us. I wonder why she'd hold such a vested interest in just that over the shit-ton of everything else that has to do with the world we're currently in. I mean anything else would be a welcome subject over talking about Spike... or his relationship with Rarity... or my relationship with Rarity.

Dammit, I'm still horny.

She took you like a pro.

Is now really an appropriate time for this?

Nope, but when has the reproductive functions ever decided to follow that protocol?

Touche, but I'm not gonna let─

The way she grabbed your hair as she stared at you was really kinky. Twilight never did that shit to you, and plus it could be implied that Rarity has a lot more experience on the subject.

Aren't you the one who supposedly writes me out of my mental corners, not into them?

Sir, I am sorry to inform you that you are beyond running into mental corners. You've ran through reinforced concrete and a fucking retainer wall into a river, you're so caught up.

Well aware of that, thank you for the reminder of what happened a while back. But I can still shift the blame towards the one who came up with the suggestion that I'd go through with this saving-grace thing. Twilight explicitly─

Are you not on break from her? Because it seems like you really wanna get back together right now and just ignore the future consequences of that action... All while you're secretly wanting to nail her best friend into the hardwood.

Ugh... You know what, you're right. The only action I really want to take is to put an end to this bullshit. I could care less about what's going to happen with me and Twilight as long as we're not hurting each other anymore. Hell, let's just get a fucking harem started already. Blueblood's managed, so why can't I?

Nice sarcasm, but I don't think it works that way.

Okay, then let me say what I wanna do. I wanna be able to turn back time and stop myself from even agreeing to shoving my dick in Twilight. Then, I wanna just pretend that this law bullshit was only as bad as it appeared to me on paper. Hell if I want, I can just tell Twilight that the break is over and we can just try to make it work from there. At that point, we can go right back to the way we were prior to the split.

You're backtracking. Your desire to end it all is based solely on trying to cut the break short and force yourself into something you're not sure you're ready for or what you'd even want. If anything, this split plays to your favor.

I'm sorry, I don't see how that's possible right now.

Well, if I were you, I'd take advantage of the fact that you have a secondary route of expedition. You can at least browse the personalities of everyone who has an interest in you. THIS is what you've should've done from the start, instead of getting yourself tangled into this septic tank of politics and drama, you could've browsed the personalities and given them a chance instead of fawning over one girl, KNOWING DAMN-WELL WHAT THE RISKS WERE EARLY ON! IF YOU WANNA TALK TIME TRAVEL, GO THAT ROUTE!

I know.

Do you really? Cause you act like you want everything to just become right in just the snap of a finger. You knew that Rarity was going to be an issue, you knew that you had feelings stashed away for not only Twilight and Rarity, but for Melanie and Pinkie too. True, Pinkie had something going on with her and you were right to lay off until everything between her and Cheese was settled. But you also knew that Twilight wasn't going to be able to have a normal relationship with you. Even Shining spelled that shit out for you when he choked your ass out.

I KNOW THAT!

You do? Well how is it that you figured having a relationship with Twilight was indeed the best option?

...Look at where I am now, and look at where I came from. I've done much more than what I had originally convinced myself that I was capable of doing. I'm making a change, and now I have friends beside me who would help me in spite of all the differences.

So you want to make a difference, huh? Okay then let's start here: What are you going to do about Rarity and Twilight? You three have yet to discuss what the deal was on Thursday night. And if I were you, I'd toss Melanie in for the sole purpose of clearing the air with her.

Don't you think she's gotten the point already?

She can hear everything else from everyone else. But if you don't fucking drop those fucking blue-ass marbles sitting in your damn boxers and lay it all out for her to hear FROM YOU, then she's not going to hear it from anyone else!

Yeah, that worked out the first time. Remember what happened with Rarity, let's go back a good fifteen minutes.

Oh for fucks sake, YOU WANTED THAT! And don't tell me otherwise, I know what you're thinking. And the reason why Rarity did that was because you left the door wide open for it to happen. You had this shit combed through from the moment she cried on your chest that other day. You told her what you wanted to do and allowed her back into the line-up like you just didn't say shit. Here's some truth for you: that date was something you could've called off.

Okay, I don't wanna go back on my word. If I make a─

Promise, then you should keep it regardless of how blah-blah-blah. You keep writing yourself into corners and I'm trying to get you out, dipshit!

You know what... FUCK IT! You do it! You deal with everything for the rest of the fucking day! I am completely─

Tired fighting with yourself? See... that's a bitch move. Run from your problems, and eventually they'll disappear behind you. Reality check: Twilight is supposed to meet the folks next weekend, Melanie is supposed to be your gauge for the reaction your brothers would have in seeing all of this shit, a law threatening your personal health is currently in place, and you're caught in between two mares. Let's not even throw in the politicians. Oh, and then there's that bastard that tried to set you up for a death sentence. What was his name again... oh yeah, SPIKE.

"Argh! Just shut up already."

"...Um... who are you talking to?"

I snapped out of my mental argument and realized that I had said something out loud. Looking down, I could see a young foal clutching a newspaper with my picture on it. Instantly, her face was wrought with confusion.

"No! That wasn't directed towards you! I swear! I was just..." I'm currently at war with myself so please excuse my going insane. "I was... telling myself that I should just be quiet for the rest of the day."

"...Huh?" By then, the foal looked at me with a tilted head and a raised eyebrow.

"I mean... I'm just stressed. It's nothing about you. Now what were you talking about─"

Before I could finish, a mare ran up to her daughter and scooped her up while apologizing to me. "I'm sorry about that, sir. My daughter has been really going on and on about how she wanted to meet you. Had I known that you were in a mood, I would've advised her to choose a more appropriate time, like after the ceremony."

I could do nothing but sigh slowly and cover my face as I spoke. "Ugh... It's not you. It's not her. It's me, I'm just dealing with a lot right now. And I am truly sorry for that."

The mare shook her head as she calmly grabbed my hand. "No I understand! The fight with the changelings, the whole rescue ordeal, being wounded, having the captain position quickly thrown on you, and not to mention all the things you could've endured. I'm quite sure that there's a lot of things that you're coping with as a guard. My father was once a guard himself... It was hard on him too, even a little too much for the rest of us."

Okay, not where I thought this conversation was gonna go, but I'll take it. "You shouldn't have gotten that from me. I was wrong... If you want a day for me to come on by, maybe I can set something up to where I can come by the school and hang out with the foals." I am in major need of some innocence in my life right now.

"Well that's mighty nice of you, but we should be going. The coronation starts in half-an-hour. Don't wanna be late for your big day."

The happiest day of my life, right? "Yeah. If I see you guys, maybe I'll bring you on the stage with me and the others, I can share it with you guys, how's that?"

"Sounds good to me! Well we'll see you later." As the mare and her daughter walked off, I couldn't feel anything but a crushing guilt as I heard the conversation between them fade into the noise of the town.

"Momma, do you think he'll really see us?"

"Honey, I think it's better we leave the human alone for a minute. He's obviously struggling with something."

She couldn't be anymore right, unaware of the reason but she nailed the 'struggling' part down. But what I'm dealing with is a personal ordeal, I should've just let my thoughts stay in the back of my head. That's where they should've stayed. At least I would be able to walk down the street like a sane person.

"Nondis?" I looked back up and to my right to see Cadance calling at me.

"Coming!" I responded.

But before I could take a step forward, I suddenly found myself being tugged away from where I stood and pulled into the town hall building. As Cadance dragged me along, she urged a group of planners to carry on without us. Pulling at my shirt, she trotted into the shadows of the alleyway with me in tow. She glanced back as she growled at me.

"What in Equestria was that all about!?" She asked angrily.

"Nothing, just me being stupid. Now where are we going?" I asked as the doors to the inside quickly closed us inside.

She simply looked ahead as she ignited her horn and zapped the both of us someplace else. "Shortcut."

We were transported to one of the smaller rooms within Town Hall. Promptly after our arrival, Cadance sat me down and urged me to wait there for a minute. It didn't take her very long to get back with me, but she did manage to bring up not only Twilight, but Rarity and Melanie as well. With a scowl on her face, she spoke while pacing back and forth.

"I have often made it known to myself that I would not EVER force myself to intervene into relationships."

Twilight was the first to speak. "But what about─"

"What I did then was get in the way of a petty squabble. And even then, I have not once walked into somepony else's situation since Shining and I decided to be together, because I learned that relationships aren't solved with magic spells, love potions, and gifts. That was a lesson your brother taught me, and I married him because of that."

Melanie folded her arms and drummed her fingers against her arm. "Um, is there a reason why I'm here, miss relationship counselor?"

"You're here because you need to be." Cadance answered quickly. "Now all four of you have something you need to tell to one another, and since Melanie's been here, Nondis has been stressed beyond comprehension. You all need to get it all off your chest and speak. I'm going to go outside and see if I can buy you some time. Your medal will be given early in the program and if I know anything, Celestia and Luna will be busy with their visit to Sugarcube Corner, so they should give you a good thirty minutes at least."

She knows damn-well I can't get everything off my chest. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"No. Talk to them. Cause you obviously need to clear the air with what's going on with everyone in here. Got it?"

"B-but─"

"Bye!"

...So can I explain to Melanie why I'm in this situation to begin with? No, I thought you would make things harder for me. Great... now I've got to dance around the subject.

The low hum of the AC system continued to be heard inside of the room as the four of us all looked towards one another. Unfortunately for me, I was placed in the situation where I couldn't properly explain my position. Cadance made it very clear that I was to keep the issue with the law under wraps. Meanwhile, my recent session with Rarity went into every direction but the right one. And I have no idea on how Twilight's going to respond to this.

I might as well start from the top. "So... Ladies, what's on your mind?"

Melanie was the first to make a move, walking over to me and grabbing me by the arm. "I've got a lot on my mind, and I think we should go somewhere else to talk about it."

"Well I do believe that Cadance pulled all of us in here for a reason." Twilight rebutted as she walked over to the two of us. "And I think we should start off with what's been going on as of recent."

Knowing that look on Twilight's face, it sure doesn't spell out a short discussion. "Actually... maybe it's best we'd start from the top."

"Yeah." Melanie agreed as she turned to Twilight. "So lets start off with the elephant in the room. How did you two meet up?" She then turned to me. "And furthermore, how the hell did you even find this place to begin with?"

Twilight cleared her throat as she sat on her haunches. "Well, in terms of how he got here, nopony really knows this for certain. The only thing we know is that Pinkie found him wandering just outside of the Everfree Forest."

"That's another thing." Melanie added. "Why do you use the term 'everypony' instead of 'everybody'? It would make a lot more sense─"

"Darling, that's just how we are." Rarity answered, cutting her question short. "Though we do question why do you humans use such unusual names for yourselves, we try not to harp on the subject out of respect."

"Well... it's kinda been bugging me since I've gotten here. But that aside, back to the first question. How did you two even meet up?" Melanie questioned once more.

Twilight continued to answer the question. "Well diversions aside, I was introduced to him as an unidentified species. But being that I had experience with humans prior to his arrival, I was placed over his protection."

Melanie shook her head with confusion. "So let me get this straight, you've had experience with humans before him? So how did that come up!?"

"Magical portal to another world similar to yours but with the same naming system and hide pigmentation of ours. A friend, who was then a nemesis, of mine by the name of Sunset Shimmer stole my crown and intended to use it's magical properties to lead an army of adolescents to our world in a bid of a hostile takeover."

"Now we just completely went out towards left field. What?" Melanie continued to express her confusion. "Magical... ugh, my head hurts."

"Yeah, the magic thing is a headache-inducing subject. Stay away from that. But in a nutshell, it didn't work out, Twilight got her crown back, and Sunset realized the error of her ways. So she and Twilight often help one another and write to each other for advice. Friend stuff." I added in to level out some of the confusion.

"Okay, Sunset is the one with the yellow and red hair, right?"

"Yeah. She was the one you were talking to in the boutique."

Melanie gave a slow nod as she confirmed who she was talking to. "Okay, now back to you two."

Twilight, levitated my hand and pulled me towards her. "Yes. Since then, I've been trying to get him to interact with the citizens of the town. But he just refused to come out of the room for almost over a week. And then I succeeded in doing so up until the first set of clothes Rarity made for him completely gave out on him."

Rarity's hooves lightly scraped against the ground as she turned her head away. "It was my most catastrophic design, to which I could do nothing but apologize for. So since then, I've made it a personal goal of mine to take on the task of building his wardrobe for him. The second time was more of a success... but then he promptly vomited in the outfit. Of course, my friend and voluntary assistant Spike didn't appreciate that too much."

"I wanna get on that subject next, but that still doesn't explain how you two decided to be an item." Melanie continued to stress.

"Well, there was this one time I had gotten rejected by a colt whom I've considered a... close friend and interest. I got a little upset and started drinking the bottles of wine I had in the room. And Nondis came around to comfort me during that little binge."

"And what he wore that night was the second outfit I made him that had gotten vomit all over it." Rarity added with a scoff. By then, I was already fed up with his inability to keep anything clean and quickly had him to make it up for me the day after."

"Yeah, that's what happened the next day. But she was talking about how Nondis and I had started our relationship." Twilight stated.

"Actually, all of this is adding more context to everything that's going on right now." Melanie responded with a shrug. "I'm just listening to whatever you girls are throwing out there."

"Well, the question was about my and Nondis being together, perhaps I should answer that first before we go in all these separate directions." She said as she glanced over to Rarity. "Now as I was saying, I had gotten a little inebriated but recalled him calling me special. Since then, I was more towards getting to know what he was all about. Another thing that happened was that Rainbow Dash pulled him out of the room in nothing but his underwear."

"What?" Melanie asked as her head dropped a few inches.

"Before you ask, Rainbow Dash was trying to get him to referee a competition between her and Applejack. So I promptly dragged him back into the room and the next thing I notice, he─"

"Ran out the room." I answered quickly out of nervousness, unsure as to why I was feeling so embarrassed about that event considering that she already knows we slept together. "Then I placed a bet, lost, and had to wear a dress while walking throughout town."

"Seriously... you had to wear a dress... again?" Melanie questioned with deadpan.

"Yeah, not my proudest moment, but I sold it. And then I had gotten into a fight the next day with some jerk. Knocked unconscious, concussions, constant nosebleeds, the whole nine."

Melanie facepalmed as she sighed. "Nondis, what did you get into a fight over this time."

I really hate to bring this up so soon, but it's the only way to get my point across quick enough. "...You remember Jasper, right?"

She looked at me with disapproval. "You know, I really don't wanna talk about that."

"Yeah, well Pinkie had her variation of him. But he was a whole lot worse than him. There were things that happened that I don't have permission to go into detail over. So I'll just leave it at that and skip ahead. So after I got my ass whopped, Pinkie's sisters came rolling in and beat his ass, then he sues me for his medical expenses in regards to the ass-whopping he rightfully deserved. Then there was this month-long ordeal of my wearing shorts this one time and the press just lost it over this one instance of showing some skin for the first time in four months."

"Oh, so that's when the girls here started wanting to take you for a ride on the wild side?" Melanie questioned.

"Yeah, and for two weeks I've been getting some really raunchy fan-mail, some with some really unusual yet musky scents."

"Uuuugh!" Melanie shuddered with disgust. "Just move on already!"

"Yeah, it was creepy. But come the end of the trial, I'm let loose and he's sentenced to jail for forty-five years... no parole."

"...You have some leverage with the jail system here, don't you? I mean you've got all the connects." Melanie questioned.

"I have significant access with my current position, yes. Why?"

Melanie pulled at her skin as she groaned into her hands. "Uugh!!! Why the fuck did I not bring Jasper here!? He's gonna be sitting in the courthouse jail for another five months before his trial even gets started!"

Him, here? No. He did his crime in the U.S.A., he'll get punished by the U.S.A.. "I think we're getting off on the wrong end, let's get back to the main thing at hand. So a month after that ordeal, Twilight's been looking after me and whatnot. Then one day we have this brief conversation that kinda lead to one thing, and then to another... and then to another... and then..."

"We kissed, numerous times. And I was basically on the verge of getting to the bottom of things... so to speak. And then my brother walked in."

"So let me guess, you two have been going at it because of that incident, right?" Melanie questioned as she looked back to me.

"Yeah. Then I was kicked out of the castle for nearly two months until the portal was finished. And then when that happened, she kinda confessed her feelings last minute. So... in spite of my original decision to leave, I stuck around for the chance of making things work. I was also thrown in military by her older brother as a result, but it could've been worse."

Melanie placed a hand on my shoulder and gave me a sarcastic smile. "Nondis, you're in this massive interspecies love triangle, I don't think it could be worse!"

Uh... technically... "So to run through all of it in a few minutes, I'll keep this short and sweet. Spike is Twilight's surrogate baby brother-thing, Spike has a crush for Rarity, Rarity doesn't like him but she has expressed an interest in me, Twilight is my first choice but we're on break right now, Pinkie had an interest but was conflicted with her now-boyfriend Cheese Sandwich, I'm helped Cheese get with Pinkie so she's out, and finally there's you. So... honestly speaking there's about a total of seven-sides to this whole conundrum."

"What the fuck is up with you and your love for amorous polygons!? That's way too many sides!"

"ANYWAYS... I'm kinda in the middle of a crisis. Pinkie and Cheese is out of the equation right now, so I'm delegating my attention to the other five sides. I know that Spike will continue to be an issue, I can't help that. If he wants to see one side of the argument and ignore the other, then I can't persuade him otherwise. And he's not Shining, I can't just wail on the kid... no matter how many times he tries to fuck me over. Rarity, Twilight, and I have already come to a consensus that we would have our discussion at a later time. So again, that leaves you."

Melanie took a deep breath as she folded her arms. "So what do you mean by that?"

It means that the foot's gotta come down. "Mel... I really─"

Before I could finish, Cadance teleported back into the room and immediately made a beeline for me. "Okay, guess I couldn't buy you any time after all. You're first on the program."

Wait, what? "I'm first? But what about all of the festivities, the performances, the extra razzle-dazzle and shit?"

"Who do you think this is for? You're getting honored out front and the performances are set for the entertainment of you and your friends. They don't want you walking out on stage after the performances are done."

And just as I was about to lay it all out there, you couldn't have come up at a worse time. "Five minutes, just give me that."

"Well I'm afraid that five minutes is five too many at this point. Sugarcube Corner is a closed-off venue and it will only be open for the after party. And in their current state, I'm not sure if Celestia and Luna wants to wait another five minutes. It's been ten minutes past the start of the ceremony. Mayor Mare is expected to call your name in the next minute or so."

"Really?" Dammit, and I was so close. You know what, I'm on the clock. I might as well get this ceremony over with and give myself some time to think about how I'm going to say what to whom. And I can't exactly weave stories like I've been doing to Melanie. I've gotta be firm, or I might end up making the same mistake I did with Rarity. "Okay... How long does this ceremony lasts?"

"Well, we're looking at about an hour and a half, if you all can keep your speeches on the short end." Cadance said as she marched towards the door. "But I guess we could look at an hour and fifteen considering that Celestia really wants her sweet-tooth satisfied."

Okay then. At this point I should just close my eyes, take a deep breath, loosen my shoulders, and just get it all over with. Enjoy the ceremony, smile and wave to the crowd, answer a few questions for the press, and then move on. This was the day where I decided that I would be completely open with Melanie, I should stay true to just that. If I fuck up on everything else, at least let me get this one thing right. If I can get it right with her, I should have a chance at making things right with the others. Alright, I can find solace in that. "Mel, I'm gonna need to talk to you later. Okay?"

Rarity and Twilight ran up beside me as I started to make my way out the door. "So... um... have you... made a decision on... us?" Twilight questioned.

My feet grew a little heavier as I started to walk though the hall with that thought on my shoulders. My stomach even started to slowly crawl up my throat as the thought continued to shift through my brain. After I walked outside to see a large crowd gathering before the steps of the Town Hall, I found that I wouldn't be able to say what I wanted to until after all of this stuff had run it's course. I would have to approach them individually, telling them what I wanted to do for the time being.

Whatever I decided, I knew that any sort of progression would be a step in the right direction.

***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

From the moment he set foot out those doors, the voices of the crowd reached deafening levels of adoration. Smiles and cheers lit up the entire area, almost the whole town was watching him walk towards the stage. Meanwhile two other ponies, much taller than the rest and also with crowns, pointed him towards his seat as the cheers began to die off a little. As I looked into the crowd, I could see a sea of flags being waved in the air. Some of the ponies were even cheering in midair, performing somersaults, backflips, and barrel rolls. A small row of what appeared to be mares all looked to the stage with tears in their eyes, holding up signs with Nondis' name surrounded by bright red hearts.

Well he wasn't playing around when he said he had a fan club. But what also surprised me was that there were a few other signs, obviously done in a rushed fashion, with Cliff and Rickey's names on it. Horseshoe prints were planted all over in pairs, making a pseudo love heart. Though the gatherings for them were much smaller, their voices were just as loud.

Nondis was given his medals, one award distinguishing his being wounded in the fight, another for his bravery, and two smaller ribbons for the completion of his assignment. Cliff and Rickey were granted medals for high valor, and honorary citizenship. They were also given the key to the city by the mayor. Twilight also honored all three with her personal medal, the Sigil of Friendship. In honor of the families who had experienced loss and were cared for in their final moments, Nondis and Shining Armor were granted awards from Princess Cadance, the Emblem of Compassion.

After that, all four were lined up front and center as five other ponies walked up on stage. The five other ponies bowed their heads as they held handmade reeves made of an assortment of flowers. As they finished, a pink pony with a wildly-puffy mane pounced on Nondis and proceeded to give him a hug, nearly breaking his spine.

"Non-Non, hugs! Hugs for you, I'm so proud of you!"

"Pinkie... breathing... is... important."

"Oh sweet Celestia, I knew that you were going to go a distance, but for you to be recognized as a national hero just makes me so proud!" She said hysterically, completely overwhelmed by tears. "Don't ever let anypony get you down, Nonnie. You're doing great."

As soon as those words left her mouth, I could see a small amount of uncertainty in his eyes. But he didn't seem to linger on it for too long as he pulled off of her and smiled brightly. After that, the five ponies were standing proudly next to the four heroes. As they were standing there, they quietly whispered to one another about something. Then they all turned to Shining, who notified them of something that had them kinda frowned up in the face. Nondis shook his head and continued to smile and wave for another minute. Finally, the four took their seats as the celebratory activities ensued.

Honestly, I don't think my Saturday could've been this interesting. The entire ceremony was a big ball of fun for me. Watching the flying ponies take to the sky and do a series of aerial stunts, followed by a few fly-by's on the stage was pretty awesome. Even the rainbow-maned pony seemed to have shared the same excitement I had in seeing these guys fly around. And then there was the group of younglings who put on a small play to honor the actions of the heroes...

If you ever seen that throwaway gag in A Bug's Life, it was similar to that with the exception of all the heroes dying at the end. Instead it was a bittersweet ending about how a young filly lost one of her trusted friends in the fray and how they were saved. The filly who played the part of the victim walked up on the stage... rather galloped as quick as her little hooves could take her and tackle-hugged Nondis. The security detail was unsure as to how to respond to the situation, but the really huge white pony really didn't seem to mind as she called them off. Meanwhile, the young pony stayed on stage, crying her little eyes out.

Rickey later informed me that she was actually a victim that they helped rescue, and that her friend was actually her dearly-departed butler. My heart went out to the poor thing. But a brown pony, standing beside a pointy-nose mare whispered to the young filly and pulled her off the stage quietly.

Nondis seemed to be happy that everyone was safe, but he seemed upset about not being able to find the one filly he ran into on the way here. He looked down for a bit and it started to become obvious to everyone watching. Though they didn't know the real reason why he was so downtrodden, so they assumed that it was because of his being unable to save more lives. Yeah, I don't think I could even have a job that would have me apologize to every one of the families I couldn't save.

After the final remarks and a speech from Cliff and Rickey on how they felt welcomed in this world, everyone started packing up and the honorees were then guided to the marketplace just in front of what appeared to be a candy-coated, gingerbread-smelling, frosting-laced establishment.

As I stood somewhere else, watching the three boys get swarmed by a group of mares, I pulled out my phone to check the time. I also took notice that I was still without a signal. I guess I won't be calling my attorney anytime soon to let her know that I'm not going to be able to see her later this evening.

"I see you humans have similar devices."

I looked behind me to locate the source of an oddly mature voice. Upon my discovery, I was greeted by the white pony who called off the security detail when the filly ran onstage. Despite the fact that she was significantly taller than the rest, she was very much shorter than me. But the thing that grabbed most of my attention was her hair. Though it flowed like she was suspended underwater, I had to keep in mind that there was little to no wind blowing.

Okay... But seriously, how the fuck is she doing that? "Oh, well we all have our own smartphones. It's how we stay connected."

"So I've been informed. Nondis hasn't made too much mention of you to me, nor has he announced that he would bring another friend of his to us."

Well that's a first. Everyone here seems to act like they know me somehow. "Oh yeah. Honestly I didn't even know I was going to visit until I just randomly showed up here. I don't even know how we even got here to begin with. I keep hearing things about a portal, but I don't recall Nondis having anything really sci-fi looking in his apartment... well aside from his computer."

"So I take it that your first visit to our humble little town has been pleasant, or maybe even acceptable?"

I shrugged my shoulders as I gave off a smile. "Yeah, it's been a bit of fun. But I'm starting to see that Nondis might not see things the way I do. Then again, he knows a lot more about this place than I do."

The white pony smiled really weakly as she glanced over to Nondis. "The past two weeks hasn't been very kind to him. He's been very busy with a lot of security details as well as a bit of desk work. I tried to give him a full week off to recuperate from what was diagnosed as a 'fractured collarbone'. He responds to me by standing in front of the parliament saying that he would take up his assignments just four days later."

"Please tell me he isn't that stupid." Seriously, fighting with a broken shoulder bone is not how you would want to get your honors. And if that's the deal, then why did they not suspend him if he was going to risk his own health?

"I wouldn't say that he's... stupid." She hesitantly answered. "But he does a lot of running in. I'm just thankful that his brash and obscene tactics work out in his favor. And even then it's because of the weapons he uses."

No doubt, Nondis did make a purchase on the guns the other day. I guess he had a reason why he would need a sniper rifle. "Oh yeah, I remember him buying those."

"Yes. Though I'm concerned that he's getting himself into more fights than he can handle at this very moment."

I can see the cause for concern. "He's been like this. Since he was a kid, he'd have all these fights with the kids who bullied him. He'd lose every time, but you could never say that he doesn't stand up for himself... at least not as often as you could say he didn't know how."

"Well he's certainly knowledgeable of it now." She joked, giggling a bit.

"You know, I never did get your name, ma'am. Judging from earlier, you seem to have a firm grip on the security around here."

"I'm just a friend of Nondis. You may call me Celestia. Or Lesty, as what Nondis called me once."

Lesty? I guess that's not awkward sounding... It kinda is. "Can I call you Celly instead?"

She tapped her hoof against her chin as she looked towards the sky. "Hmm... Celestia, Celly... I think it could catch."

"Big Momma Celly! That's so cute, I wanna call you that!"

She laughed quietly as her cheeks started to turn a bright shade of pink. "Oh, big momma... I suppose if it makes you feel comfortable."

I reached around her neck and gave her a big hug along with a huge smile. Giddily, I rocked back and forth as I talked. "You're so awesome, I love you!"

Now her laugh became a little nervous. "Oh ho ho, I love you too, dear."

Pulling off, I gave her a bit of space as I continued to speak. "So, not to be rude, but... I've been dying to know... Can I touch your hair? It's just... wow. That shit you got going on is amazing!"

"Well, I don't see why not. Grab a handful... that is how you say it, right?" She questioned with uncertainty.

"Yeah!" As soon as I threw my hand into her mane, I became mesmerized of how it felt like a mix between hair and water. When I pulled my hand from inside, I was completely amazed of how it was still dry. Once more, I had to stick my hands inside just to make sure that it wasn't water. Again, I pulled out and was flabbergasted upon seeing that my hands were as dry as a desert. "So, how did you get your hair to do this?"

"Well, it's really more of a surplus of magic surging through my body that allows for my hair to become so animated. It happens to a lot of ponies who undergo powerful spells, incantations, or unleashing a large amount of magical energy."

"But don't your horn usually light up when you're casting spells? I know Shining told me that horns do glow when magic is used." I inquired, seeing that hers was hardly even ignited. "And if that's the case, how is it your mane keeps doing that if you're not casting spells?"

"Well you're not wrong. But pegasi and earth ponies do have magic as well. It's just that unicorn magic is the most visible kind of magic. And to answer your latter statement, you might find your answer hidden in plain sight... just above you." She said as she pointed her hoof upwards.

Looking to the air above, I could see nothing more than the clouds and the sun shining brightly in the sky.

"I'll give you a hint: Try not to look into the situation for too long, the knowledge would ultimately alter your sights on life."

Easy hint. "The sun? I know if you look at it for too long, you might go blind."

"Bingo, as Nondis would say."

So... what about the sun? "So what, you get your magic from the sun?"

"Well, actually it's not quite like that. But I would advise you to take notice of your shadow."

As I looked down, I saw my shadow slowly lean from one place to another. Eventually, the black figure then turned to a mere puddle beneath my feet. Looking up, I definitely saw the sun shining in a different place. My head slowly drifted down to the white pony standing before me, her horn lit with a bright golden glow.

...She fucking... moved the sun... with her brain... an object that weights over 2 OCTILLION tons... a hot-ass star with a surface temperature of ten-thousand degrees... from a distance of eight minutes... in light years.

You know what, fuck it, she's God. "Excuse me, ma'am... Are you even real? Is any of this real?"

She then proceeded to laugh as she walked towards me and draped one of her really large wings around my waist. "Oh I can assure you that this is very much real. Though I now realize that I have failed to get your name. You're quite a character!"

"M-mah... Nnn... Mel... Melanie?"

"Melanie? I see. Now that your name has come up, I believe Nondis brought up your name once. I remember him saying it during the day we scheduled the return to his home world. Of course we're so excited that he chose stay, but I never knew that you would actually find your way to our wonderful realm."

"Neither did I." So apparently everyone either knows about me, knows me, or knows of me. Then again, I can't really accuse Nondis of bringing my name up when the whole country practically knows him by name, let alone the city of Austin. "So... Celly... are you the ruler of this place by any chance?" Someone of this much power, I can't see how she couldn't rule a nation with an iron fist.

"Well I'm actually a co-ruler with my younger sibling, Luna. She's the dark blue one that's just short of my height. And as a mark of my sibling, her affinity is that of the moon, as mine is the sun."

Great, so there's two of them? "Oh, but what do you mean by the phrase 'a mark of my sibling'?"

"Well, if you would take notice of the mark on my flank, you would see that I have a sun crest. My younger sister would have a moon crest on hers. Much similarly in a way that would hit closer to home, Shining Armor's mark is that of a shield and Twilight is that of a magical spark, yet the two share the same six-pointed magenta star, indicating their strong attributes in magic."

That would explain the teleportation. Anyone with wings and a horn is capable of teleporting from one place to another... unless it's just a spell that people can learn, which I really hope that it's the former. "Oh... I've noticed that." No I haven't.

"I know this world is completely different from that of your own, but I do want to see to it that you feel welcome here. And just as Cliff, Rickey, and Nondis have enjoyed their stay, I am sure that you will find your experience to be the same."

"Oh... Thank you so much." I said while bowing over, now confirming that she was the head-honcho of this place.

"No, the pleasure is all mine." She said as she placed a hoof and lifted my chin up. "Now let's get in here and quietly move towards the cake, I don't want you missing out on what Pinkie and Applejack baked."

"Oh okay, sure!" I said as I walked towards the bakery doors alongside Celestia.

As I walked inside, I could see a multitude of ponies all chattering and laughing amongst each other. But as soon as a guard walked up and stood by the door to announce Celestia's presence, they all turned and bowed out of respect. As I looked to her, I immediately saw her frown a bit as she looked towards the guard. Then suddenly...

"Hey, cut that out!" Nondis called out to the room. "We're having a party here, you can bow down on a later date. She just wants to have fun like the rest of us, so just chill out."

The guard beside us blinked with shock as he called back out to him. "But captain─"

"You're making her uncomfortable with all of these formalities. Ease up a bit."

"But─"

"It's also an order."

"Yes sir."

I briefly looked back to Celestia, only to notice that she had finished sighing and smiled. The ponies throughout the room looked back to each other and continued where they had left off. Nondis walked up to the two of us and pointed us towards a table near the back of the room.

"Your seats are over there."

"I see that your overprotectiveness continues to know no bounds, captain." She said aloud, but mouthing a few other words to him. "Thank you so much." I read from her lips.

"Go on and take your seat." He said back. She proceeded to make her way to the table, I began to follow her example. But as she cleared past another two tables, Nondis gently grabbed my wrist and lightly tugged at me. "Actually... I need you to follow me upstairs."

Upstairs? "What's going on, is there a special table for the humans or something?"

"No, none of that. But I need to talk to you about something."

Me and him, upstairs alone? I'm already feeling nervous.

"...That's how I feel about all of this. I wanted to tell you on Wednesday, but I didn't know how to explain all of it to you."

We've been in this small room for a little over forty-five minutes. And in that time span I felt a variety of emotions, ranging from excitement and joy to sorrow and disappointment. I couldn't do much but fall quiet as he went on and on about what he had experienced these past ten months... or close to it.

In the end of it all, he told me these words.

"I love being your friend. And I will go to hell and back for you. And that's how I want it to be. I know that I did some things that really upset you and kinda put you off. But I feel like if I wanted to go back to that, then it would be a little harder for us to do it. Of course I still think you're attractive as hell and that you really got it going on, but I would be doing us both a disservice if I chose to cater towards that. I don't feel as if I should get into something with you and find out later that... we can't make it work. And then after that, we're trying to go around and pick up pieces of something damaged beyond repair. Yes it sounds like I'm cowering out, but I'd much rather keep what we have."

Meanwhile, I'm just as stone-faced as ever. I don't want him to see me cry, but it's not easy. Every so often, I'm catching breaths or having to look up to the ceiling, just to stop the tears from welling up past my eyelashes. But as it went on, I was quickly flicking them off of my eyes with my thumbs. My chest grew cold and my arms started to feel a little numb. Meanwhile I could feel this discomfort growing in my face, indicating that I was a few seconds away from bursting. So then I tried to be brave and speak.

"...You know, I've been trying to say that this entire time." Oh God, my voice is choking up. "And..." I had to take breaths to stop myself from bursting. "I... really wanted to make you happy. I wanted to make it up to you by starting over, being your girlfriend. At least then I could've made up for lost time."

"Mel, I don't want you to do that."

"I wanted to." For real. I really wanted this. "At least for you." But mostly me.

When Nondis placed his hand on my shoulder, I felt the pressure starting to become too much and I coughed a bit. I had to push him off just to stop myself from erupting. But he still got uncomfortably close to me as he spoke. "Melanie, look at me."

I closed my eyes... dammit I couldn't stop them from falling, shit. "No."

"Mel."

"No. Whatever you're gonna say, you need to say it." Just say those little words that you always said to make me feel better. Everytime I was like this, you would say those words.

"Melanie... look. Please?"

I sniffled and opened my eyes, looking at the sincerity on his face as he placed his hand on my shoulder again. "You are... really special. I don't have words to describe the mark you've made in my life, and to be honest I was convincing myself that I was incapable of thinking of... how you could be replaced. Truth be told, I know that I can't replace you, and I won't put anything else in that little place. I like that little place just the way it is. And I know it feels like it doesn't make sense to say that after all of these years, especially when you have a second chance... but that's how I remember you."

He started to choke up a little, but I know that I was way too far ahead to be able to stop myself from going any further. "...I told you to die. Why would you hold on to that? I don't need you holding on to things like that. That's not how I wanted it to be!"

"We're friends, and we're gonna fight. That's the best thing about friendships, you could say some really offensive shit, and piss each other off, but if you know that the two of you are actually stronger than the words you used to hurt each other, then what's the point? Bygones are nice, but that shit boils over eventually. If you remember what you did, and what you said to each other, then you'll know that you won't do that shit again."

"You're so fucking dumb." I wanted to just hurl whatever was near me at him, just to stop the pain, my pain. I just wanted him to stop touching me. He doesn't have a right to touch me like he normally does whenever I'm like this, not anymore. The same words he used to comfort me, those words just made it hurt even worse.

"And I know that I called you a bitch, and I haven't let myself get over that for a while. Yeah I kinda let it marinate in the back of my mind, but I made a promise that I would never do that to you again. I did some really stupid shit, that continues to make me cringe every time I think back on it. But I keep that dumb shit in my head so that I put it on a giant yellow fucking sticky that says DON'T DO THIS in all caps and bold print. Because you're my friend, I'm not gonna forget that shit because it's worth remembering."

My breathing started to become really heavy, my arms just shot around his waist and up his back, the pain in my chest started to feel a little better with each moan I made against his chest. Each second I sobbed, I internally screamed how much I hated him, how I just wanted to watch him get hit by a bus or some stupid shit. But at the same time, the painful release started to become something of a catharsis. Every now and then, I'd beat on his back with my weakened arms, I tried to push him over but leaned into him and felt his warmth wrap around me.

A bittersweet embrace that I tried to avoid for several minutes, the entire day actually, I was now free from the pain I was afraid to experience... and it was because I had to experience it for myself. I know it sounds stupid, but I love this moment.

I hated him for the time being, but I loved him for this.

Ugh... Ever since I've been here, I've been bawling my eyes out. From the whole 'alternate universe' thing to the 'let's stay friends' thing, this day has been nothing but an emotional roller coaster. Can't really say that I haven't been opening myself up for these kinds of things. But I am feeling a certain kind of way because I chose to become a little aggressive.

If I hadn't kissed him Wednesday, this wouldn't hurt so much. If I hadn't let myself meditate on our being together today, I wouldn't feel so let down. But if I hadn't acted out against Twilight earlier... well I'd be in the same situation regardless but I wouldn't feel as if I had this coming.

So instead of staying around while everyone danced and played games, I took a moment to get some fresh air. Looking at my phone, I could see that I was definitely gone for a good portion of the day. If the sun going over the horizon and the moon rising from the other side wasn't an indication, I was definitely here for the entire afternoon. A total of seven hours had passed since I've been here.

And out of those seven hours, I've spent about an entire one just crying my tear ducts dry.

Right now, I'm just tired of crying. I feel like I have nothing else to let loose. My body's even started to feel a little weaker from all the emotions, and it also helps that I've been power walking a mini-marathon. At least I know how Nondis managed to lose all of his weight.

For a few more minutes, I was just looking from a distance. I could see the festive merriment taking place through the window from across the square. And I know that somewhere in there, Cliff is teaching those ponies the meaning of 'turn up'. Rickey's probably having a blast dancing around like he normally does, he's actually a pretty good dancer. I'm not sure about Nondis, he's always been a bit of a wallflower since I've known him. Even on the first day we met, he was watching everyone else dance. He's not that bad of a dancer, but his movements can be a bit jerky and awkward. I'm just happy he has a sense of timing, otherwise it would not end well.

I wonder if Twilight gets him to dance. I bet miss purple princess is one hell of a dancer.

After another minute or so, I finally decided that I've gotten all the fresh air that I could handle. So I took a peek through the window and saw who appeared to be Sunset dancing really close against Cliff...

...And I mean DAMN, what the hell!? Never have I really seen Cliff sweat over a dance, but he's fanning himself with both hands as she just lightly lifted off of him and bashed herself against his pelvis. Rickey looked on with a tilted head, his fist covering his mouth as he squinted. Her hips swayed seductively from one side to the other, rocking back and forth as she looked back to Cliff, who was now chewing on one of his dreads. Nervously he looked towards Rickey with a nod and pointed at her.

Well fuck, had I known the ponies here were like THAT... This is just ridiculous. No four-legged creature is supposed to do some really humanesque dancing like that. After that, I saw her walk up and use her magic to pull Cliff towards her. She pulled him to the ground promptly after and planting her hoof on his shoulder as she slowly sat on him. Her head slowly moved downward towards his abdomen before she pulled back up and poked her hoof at his nose, lightly pushing his head back down.

Yeah, I see why Nondis was so easily convinced.

While the crowd was focused on the two humans at the center of the room, I quietly snuck through the door, past the gathering and up the stairs. As I walked down the hall, I could hear Cliff's voice shout loudly.

"DAAAAYUM, GIRL!"

Obviously he was having a good time.

I made my way into the room Nondis took me into when we had our talk, I didn't even bother turning on the light when I walked in. I made my way towards the bed for a seat, but as I plopped myself down, I felt a very unusual lump in the bedding. And simultaneously, the lump seemed to have yelped in response to my weight being thrown upon it.

"Eeeh!" I squeaked as I noticed the lump move. Out of instinct, I cocked my fist back and readied to throw everything I had at whatever it was that spooked the shit out of me.

"Ah! Don't hurt me!" It hollered back to me. "Well, I can take a hit or to, but not to the face!"

"Wha?" I asked as I ran over towards the door and turned on the light. As soon as the light came on, I saw a small creature with purple and green scales. It's height probably didn't climb any higher than the middle of my thighs. But I did notice the one particularly tall spine that would've reached up to my crotch. That was a bit unusual to see, but other than that...

I have a confession to make... "Oh! Aren't you the cutest thing ever!" I gush over cute things.

"Well, I'm not really that cute, to be honest." He responded while scratching his head, blushing a little as he turned away.

"Oh yes you are! If I had my way in this, I'd take you home and just snuggle you all the way up! Yes I would!" I said as I walked over and started rubbing him on the top of his head, which he responded to quite well.

"Heh heh... thanks." He said as he smiled with a look of pure delight.

"So sweetie boo, what's your name? And what were you doing under the sheets?"

"Well I was actually on top of the bed. You just kinda sat on me."

"Oh... oops." Honestly I thought I was sitting on a really uncomfortable pillow for a moment, that is until the scream came out. "Sorry about that, Mr... um..."

"My name's Spike."

"Spike, right. Is it because of that fin at the top of your head?" I questioned while pointing towards the obvious.

"Actually, it is my namesake. If anypony usually sees the large green spike walking around the room, they'll know it's me. Plus it helps to be the only dragon in miles, so I'm real easy to point out."

Once more, I reached out and scratched his chin a bit. "Aww, so you must be a little baby dragon for you to be so small."

"I'm not as young as you'd think. I'm actually thirteen going on fourteen."

EXCUSE ME? WHAT FUCKING AGE REGRESSION SHIT ARE YOU USING? I'm scared of turning thirty at this rate, and I'm only twenty one. "Oh, well happy in-advance birthday to you."

"Thanks... Um..."

"Melanie, my name is Melanie. You can call me Mel if you want." I said, extending my hand for him to shake. When our hands met, he seemed have a grasp of how we humans exchange pleasantries.

"Melanie. I gotta ask you a question."

"Sure, what's that?"

"How did you get here?"

"Well... I don't know." Sad truth of it is that everyone else knows how. I just know that there's a portal involved, but as far as where it is, I have no earthly clue.

"So you don't have any memories of how you got here?"

"Well I do, but I don't. I was blindfolded by a few friends and they kinda pushed me over here. Right now, I'm not even sure if I'm in Texas anymore. If I get back, I might be in some other country. All these possibilities, it's kinda weirding me out."

"Oh, I know how you feel. Done a bit of cross-dimension traveling myself." He admitted while pointing towards himself. "I also knows how it feels being the odd-drake out."

"I'm pretty sure you do. Being a dragon in a world of ponies must've been one hell of a culture shock, huh?"

The small dragon shook his head. "Not for me, I was hatched in pony society so I'm used to doing everything the pony way. But my claws do put me at an advantage of being capable of things not all of my friends were able to do."

"Like what?"

"Well, I can grasp things like you can. I can play several different instruments, including the piano. I'm also fluent in magic."

Oh wow, he actually does magic. I wonder what his variant is, like is it flame magic or some other weird stuff? "Awesome! So you know how all this crazy shit works?"

"Pretty much, I have Twilight to thank for it."

"Twilight, that's the purple one, right?"

"Yeah, but she hasn't been busy with her magic lately, she's been doing more princess-y things... that and being all lovey-dovey with her special somepony."

Again with these equine-based terminologies, how is it that they use these without it sounding like a really bad pun? "Oh. So do you think that this 'special somepony' is a good fit for her?"

Spike huffed and flicked his wrist. "Not a chance! Twilight should've dumped him a long time ago. In fact, he's not even supposed to be here right now."

"Well, why not?" I genuinely want to hear what he has to say.

"Well if you wanna know, he's looks kinda just like you. You know, human. We completed the portal to his world six and a half months after he arrived. The whole day, he was telling everypony how he would miss them and sorry that he had to go back to his world. He had his bags packed right next to the portal! And then outta nowhere, he just says he's staying here, knowing that Shining Armor wanted him dead for nearly taking Twilight's virginity."

So I've been told. "Oh wow. So he and Shining used to fight?"

"Oh yeah, swords and everything. But Shining lost as soon as he cracked his horn. And since then, he's been walking around as if he has this 'savior complex' while trying to play white knight!"

"Savior complex?" To be honest, I wouldn't deny that Nondis has been poking his chest out a lot more often than he normally does. But I don't think it's gotten to his head like that... has it?

"He thinks he's a hero for doing his job. He's a guard, not very many guards get the praise he did as soon as they got out of basic training. It's all because he's different, it's why the masses hold him to such a high esteem. Just recently, he even got over half of the parliament cheering him on like he's some sort of big-shot."

Okay, I know that Nondis kinda rode the beta-train before he vanished. So I could understand him developing a superiority complex... just a tiny bit, but not that much."Well I guess it must've went to his head a bit, right?" I joked while laughing nervously.

"Oh yeah! And then he has the nerve to put Rarity in such distress! Her business is struggling because she's busy making more clothes for him, knowing that one of his outfits consumes three-times more material than the average pony. And she never charges him, she'll never be able to open a shop in Canterlot with her constantly spending all of her money on him."

"That is a problem." From a business standpoint, that is a very dangerous move. Could it be that her feelings for him is affecting her business decisions? Or maybe there's some ulterior motive behind her doing that.

"I know. And now he's even turned Rarity against me. Rarity, my best friend."

You know, her name has been coming up a lot in this conversation. It seems like he's really fixated on her. "...What do you think about Rarity?"

"Where do I start? She's beautiful, she's generous, she's a wonderful singer, she's an awesome designer, a pretty nice artist too, and she's strong, smart, and funny, and all around charming." He went on like a young preteen boy fawning over a crush in his class.

"You sound like you like her."

"...I don't think I like her anymore." Okay, that's a bit unexpec─ "I think... I think that I actually would be willing to take the next step for her." ─Ah there we go.

"What do you mean by 'next step'?"

He opened his mouth, but paused for a moment and walked to the door. After looking both ways, he walked back into the room and closed the door behind him. He then walked back to the bed and hopped back up to take a seat, his claws tapping against his stubby legs. Something tells me that this conversation is going to get a little deep. "I wanna try and do well by her. I can carry whatever load she puts on me, I can do anything she asks me to and I'm willing to be honest to her about anything that goes wrong. I just... I just want her to see that I'm really interested in making 'us' happen."

"So, do you think about her in any other way aside from in a lovey-dovey way?" Might as well go deeper to see where his real intentions lie.

"Like what do you mean?"

"Have you... you know... have her come to mind and your... body starts to react a certain way?" I'm trying not to just come out and say it.

"Well yeah, I get butterflies and my heart starts to beat really fast. And then there's this thing about her that makes me feel like that I could go all the way with her."

"All the way?"

"It's... kinda embarrassing to say."

Ah, now we're digging for gold here. "Well, I won't tell anyone. And besides, we're grown folks here, so whatever you got to say, just say it."

"...Well... if it's not weird... I start to feel my entire body grow a bit, but when it happens and I'm thinking of her, it doesn't grow past a certain size. So I'd usually get to where I'm like standing on my hind legs, practically at eye-level with any bulky stallion. And then... it takes over."

Drilling for oil now. "What takes over?"

"...That side of me."

"What side?"

He played with his claws nervously, shifting his legs as he spoke. "...You know... the grown side. It happens and I usually have to rub myself to get myself back down to size, if not wait for a while. And when I'm do it, I just find myself thinking about how Rarity could make me feel even better."

"So... you fantasize about her?"

"Fantasize?"

"You know... think about kissing her and doing other things."

"Oh, all the time! Sometimes I'd have to do it thrice or four times a day."

Wow, he's really cranking it. "Have you ever caught yourself... being curious about her?"

His legs tightened against his body, his upper portion shifting forward as his arms folded over his lap. "...A few times, I even caught her doing something... doing it... touching her... you know. And since then, I've been so focused on that one moment, and then I just can't stop thinking and I end up growing again. The sounds she made wasn't like what she'd make during the day, they were... Please don't tell Rarity."

...Okay, we've hit BP levels of offshore drilling, complete with an oil spill. "Don't worry. I got you covered." Don't worry, I'll probably quietly inform her and the local authorities of your snooping around. This is beginning to become an unhealthy crush.

"Thanks. I didn't even think I could tell Pinkie because she's so in love with Nondis, she'd tell him. And she's friends with Rarity, if I don't make her promise, she'll blurt it out eventually. And I couldn't tell Twilight, she'd tell me off and punish me. I would've come back to Ponyville, but lately, I've been trying to keep myself busy at Canterlot so that I don't... grow in front of her."

"Really, I thought that Rarity turned against you and made you leave?"

"Well that too, but do you think I wanted to stay away from Rarity as often as I do? Adding him into the mix only makes me angry and then I start to get really big then."

"Like how big?" If he can get bigger than what he said he did, then this could be a problem.

"...One time, I grew so big that I had climbed to the side of a mountain. And I don't want to ever get that big again. The last time I did, I nearly got Rarity hurt, and I wasn't myself. I actually grabbed her from her bedroom and started climbing everywhere with her coiled around in my tail. I destroyed over half the town. What if I was to drop her? I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I had hurt her in any kind of way. I want to hurt him, but I know that she'll be in the way."

Okay, this is very serious now. "Why do you want to hurt him so much?"

With a light snarl he dug his claws deep into his legs, causing me to wince in response. "Because he took everything away from me! Twilight, the one who hatched me, the one I call my big sister, turned her back on me and left for him. Rarity stood in front of him, telling me to get out. Cadance told me that I didn't deserve Rarity! I worked for several years by her side, taking whatever the world threw at her for the sake of making things easier for her. And his being here makes things harder for her, yet she carries on with this big smile on her face, almost as if her dwindling profits don't account for anything! She has a dream of opening a shop in Canterlot, but she can't do that because she's losing the ability to pay on the land, the construction costs, anything, because of him! She's ruining her own dream because he's simply here to do it."

Yeah, it's about that time to chill out for a bit. "But still, I don't think you should hurt him. It would make a lot of people upset. And I don't think it would be fair─"

"Well you're just like him. Maybe you can do something about it!"

...Excuse me? "I don't even know what I would do to make this easier for you, or Rarity, or whoever."

"Please, you gotta convince him to leave. He doesn't belong here. He's been causing everypony discomfort and grief, he should be much happier in your world. That's his true home, right?"

"Yes, but I─"

"You don't want him here, I know it! You want him back in your world, so that he can keep doing human things with his human friends, living in human society, all of that! Don't you think it would be the best thing for him? He knows where his home is, at least he knows his parents, he has all of that in his own world, why should he be content with taking what's ours? He doesn't belong here and he should go back with you. Put it this way, if you had feelings for him and he liked one of the ponies, wouldn't you feel somewhat betrayed?"

"...Actually, I do." Wow... you are... a manipulative... sorry... Ugh. Hoo, you are just like he used to be. But at least he was somewhat subtle about it. You... damn.

"Then do something about it! Stand your ground and make him leave."

I could do that, but I think I have a better idea. "...So, here's a question. Say hypothetically, Rarity and Nondis had feelings, what would be your response to that?"

This time, he hissed out smoke and jumped up from where he sat. "Nondis needs to go. I can't even imagine him kissing Rarity. She said that he was a friend, but I know she wants more than that. Nondis keeps insisting that they're 'good friends' but I know he's up to something! And if he even tries to hurt her, I'll... find him... hunt him down... I'll... I'll─"

Here, let me finish that for you, Liam Neesan. "Kill him?"

"..." The way his claws slowly undone themselves from fist form let me know that he was just as serious about what he was saying.

"...That's pretty extreme." I really don't need to talk to him anymore. I stood from the bed and started to walk towards the door when I heard him speak once more.

"...Well, I think he should've died a long time ago."

My feet just froze in place as I thought about what he had just mumbled under his breath. And the only thing that ran through my mind was the image of the car being slowly pulled from the gulf. I remembered the onslaught of tears that fell from my face as I dropped to my knees, shaking while my hand desperately tried to block my screams. I actually pleaded to the TV, screaming how I didn't want him to die and apologizing to the image of his soaked car.

I should've just left the room then and there, but I was too pissed off to leave what was on my mind in it. "...You are so selfish."

"I'm not. I just want to protect her." He tried to refute his purpose as being something noble.

"So wishing death on someone that Rarity might like is protection? That's what you call it?"

At that point, his expression became really stoic, his eyes almost empty as he asked. "Are you gonna convince him to go back to your world or not!?"

My hand was on the doorknob, I could've left the room and let him sit in the dark. But instead I just wanted to turn back to him and give him a brief speech. "...You know what, Nondis used to act just like you."

"DON'T COMPARE ME TO HIM!" He screamed at me, his eyes beginning to glow a dim emerald green.

"He'd say the same crazy shit to me, telling me that he'd protect me, and that he'd do anything to keep me. Every time I'd have a relationship with someone else, he'd frown up in the face and tell me how I was making a mistake. Often, he was right, but he felt as if he was entitled to have me because he was the 'nice guy' and he did everything for me, he 'protected' me. And you feel as if since you've been helping her throughout her career, you're entitled to spread her legs and go to town."

"But I earned her trust!"

You dumb fuck! "You didn't earn shit, much less her trust. You've shown that you only care about what you want for yourself!"

"Other ponies don't want him here either. They either want him dead for being with Twilight or removed from Equestria altogether."

Just like you, huh? You want him dead or gone so that YOU can be happy, so that YOU can kiss up. "Selfish reasons, right? They're all in the same boat as you. 'I can't express my feelings because this guy, who's not only different but doesn't belong here, is with the girl I like. I'm a good person, or pony, or whatever the fuck I am, and I deserve to be the one who gets to tap that ass on the weekends.' How fucking entitled of you..."

"Well you don't know what it's like to have feelings for somepony, and then have to watch them go off to like somepony else! And each and every time they end with failure, they comes crying to you like you expect to make everything better. Then when they do feel better, the go on to someone other than you."

Oh I know exactly how that game is played. I played it too, and I just so happened to get burned the same way. But eventually, I learned how to do something... "Maybe she wants to keep the friendship she has instead of ruin it with a bunch of drama. Maybe she likes you but only to a certain extent. Maybe she's not even interested but just keeps you around because she respects you, and appreciates you, and actually fucking care about you! And you don't even have the fucking decency to respect her privacy? You talk about doing all of this bullshit to protect her, but in reality you're the one doing more damage than any of her romantic interests. Maybe she's not something to be objectified, a prize at the end of your journey! Maybe she just wants to be a friend. But fuck that, you just wanna get your dick wet."

"I never said that!"

You don't have to, sweetie. You just explained it. "Nondis said the same shit early last November, go figure. And each of our conversations eventually went to sex, and then it stayed there for a significant amount of time. Maybe the two of you haven't even got to that point, but I know it will eventually. You say that you wanna stay away from her when you 'grow', so why is it that you don't want her to be around? Is it because you just have a total lack of self-control?"

"I DON'T WANT RARITY TO SEE ME LIKE THAT!"

"Yet you have the balls to peep in on her when she jills off. You want privacy and modesty, but you can't seem to dish that shit out for her in return. You know what, I'm done with you. I thought you were cute at first, but now I know that you're an even bigger creep than what Nondis used to be. At least he was more honest with his shit, and at the very least he tried to cop a feel. You wanna play 'white knight' and manipulate your way into sex. That's not how relationships work."

"I LOVE RARITY!"

Love doesn't mean you watch her masturbate in the privacy of her own room, you sick shit. "If you love her so much, then you would let her fuck whoever she wants. If she wants Nondis to plow her into the bed springs, you should love her enough to respect her choice. I'm not saying you should let her run over you, but you should still have the decency to acknowledge whatever decision she makes. You don't have to like it, but here's the beautiful thing about all of this: You have options. You can choose to be hurt every time she goes somewhere with a guy. You can also choose to be with someone else, someone who might be a better fit for you."

"Rarity is the only one I want!"

"Well guess what, boo-boo? She doesn't want you. Maybe Nondis wanted to tell you but knew you wouldn't listen. Perhaps she's been trying to get the point across but you just keep living in your little box off the avenue of maybe and hopefully. You even told me that Cadance tried telling you this, yet you still have it in your head that you two should be together. Stop lying to yourself, stop feeling bad for yourself, stop telling half-truths, grow the fuck up, find another pond to fish in, and maybe she might consider it. No woman, girl, pony-chick wants to spread their legs for some brat who can't stop singing 'woe is me'. It's off-putting, it's annoying, and it's a symbol of a bad product. And if I'm Rarity, I don't want to invest in something that's badly manufactured. I want something to convince me that I'm in for an experience in the long-run, or at least something that might break me off a little something good. But you, I wouldn't give you the time of day, you're not even worth the salt. I'd waste time and vaginal fluid fucking around with a pathetic, selfish, piece of shit like you."

"..." His head dropped as I finished. As he stood looking like he was feeling sorry for himself again, I was trying to catch my breath. My head started to throb a bit as I felt my chest rapidly expand and compress. I felt myself staring holes through his body as I continued to rant.

"But at the same time, I've already dealt with someone like you. And it took me this long to say what I really wanted to say to him, because I was trying to make things work without letting it all go into an argument. Yeah I'll admit that I'm projecting a bit. But now that I've seen how much he's grown as a person, in spite of his still-present flaws, I'm interested. I'm interested based on the fact that others are interested. What did I pass on that he's got going on? Intrigue, mystery, that shameless self-promotion he's got going on nowadays, the confidence he has and the demeanor he carries with himself. I want all of it. And if you grow up, you'll get that."

When I finished, he glanced to the side while slowly playing with his claws. "...I don't want anything else. I just want Rarity."

That's it, I'M. FUCKING. DONE! "...And just like that, you've wasted my time. Go fuck yourself."

I walked out of the room and purposely cut the light off before closing the door. My head throbbed painfully in rhythm with my beating heart. My chest continued to rise and fall rapidly as I massaged the sides of my head. My body was feeling such a rush from that rant, but it took so much out of me that I had exhausted the little energy I had left from earlier today. Slowly, I leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor, letting myself rest... before a slight tap to the top of my head made me grimace a bit.

"So, did you two have fun in there?"

Looking up, I could see Nondis giving me a big smile... How much I wanted to punch the shit out of it right now. "...You know, you can be a complete asshole sometimes."

He quickly backed off and waved his hands in front of him. "Whoa there, what did I say? I was just joking."

"I was too." No I wasn't. You hit me, you bastard... Okay I'm overreacting a bit, but that shit still hurt.

"Oh." He said as he extended a hand out to me. I grabbed on as he pulled me up to my feet, my arm feeling like he was about to tear them off. At that moment, I had actually felt how strong he had gotten, and it actually spooked me out a bit because I wasn't used to him strong-arming me around. When he finished, he started to massage the side of my head for me while cracking a variety of jokes... most of them unfunny, but one actually got me to giggle. After he finished, we started to make our way down the hall towards the downstairs. As we came down, I had noticed that the whole place looked completely empty from earlier.

"Where did everyone go?" I inquired while scanning the room.

"I took the party outside." He confessed. "You two were kinda broadcasting the conversation a bit so I felt that it was time to move it out the door. Besides, we were gonna watch Luna raise the moon anyways."

"Why do that?" I questioned.

He gave me a slow nod after a toothy cringe. "...I think it was best that everyone didn't get to know your business. And the paparazzi would've had a field day with that─"

"Hey Nondis..." I interrupted.

"Sup?" He questioned.

"...Thanks for growing up." I totally hate your guts right now but I know I will still love you for everything you do. These are just one of those moments where I'm feeling moody and you're here to distract me. Better yet, you're here to make me feel better than I did five minutes ago. Your jokes might not be that great, but you really are a good person... when you try to be.

As he opened his arms, I felt myself being sucked in. Though I disliked him for the moment, I was totally cool with this. At least until he started talking. "Was I really that bad where you'd have to give me that same 'reason you suck' rant you gave Spike?"

"...How long were you listening?"

"A bit. My favorite part was the 'waste of vaginal fluid'. That's some really creative thinking."

I pushed off of him and pounded my fist into his chest. "Ugh, you really are an ass!"

"I am when I want to be. But if I ever do come off as one, please feel free to bop me in the head with something blunt."

I'll give him points for honesty. Yet... "I might find something sharp to poke you with."

"Meh, that works too." He dismissively answered as he ignored what I had my eyes on.

We started to walk outside as the sun started to really sink below the horizon. Meanwhile, the moon started to slowly climb from beyond the mountains. As much as I was weirded by the whole 'moving celestial objects' thing, I wasn't too worried about it anymore. In fact, I just felt comfortable knowing that I had someone to watch it with, someone I knew. And that someone just so happened to be a really strong guard, who doubles as my best friend on the weekends.

Oh, in speaking of weekends... "You know I thought about something. An after-party could really go well with a movie."

He started to giggle as he scratched the side of his neck. "I already showed them Lord of the Rings. You got beat to that one."

"Well I was thinking more in the terms of... something magic related?" Since the whole theme of this day was magic, I felt it was appropriate to end it with something like that.

Nondis immediately caught the hint as he started to bob his head rhythmically. "...Snape. Snape. Severus Snape. Snape. Snape. Severus Snape."

"Dumbledore!" I jumped in, getting him to laugh a bit.

"You're such a dork."

My eyes darted down to the sharp thing I could poke him with. "Can I borrow your sword?"

"No."

Chapter L

Later in Canterlot...

The sun no longer poked over the horizon as it once did, instead the moon has climbed high into the sky. And much like a teacher walking into it's classroom, the stars have begun to respond to the roll. Gradually each small speck appeared in the darkness above, one by one until the entire canopy was littered with them. Each one of them shone their own light, facing the grounds below as one individual screamed back upwards.

"STOP LAUGHING AT ME!"

Spike couldn't help that he felt like the stars were all sharing the amusement at his expense. Instead, the only thing he could do was quickly scamper off into the castle. As he walked inside, he saw a slew of ponies all cleaning and maintaining order within the halls. Upon entry, he saw Cadance talking with another guard at the top of the stairs. Not wanting to even be bothered by her, he plastered a false smile on his face and quietly hummed to himself while walking past. When a few of the guards acknowledged him, he threw up his claws to wave, quickly speaking to each one as he passed.

"Hey there, how's it going? Yeah, nice stars out. Luna really outdid herself."

But when a few asked if he was at the ceremony, he quickly lied while playing it off as something minuscule.

"Are you kidding? Why would I wanna go to that junk? It's just him getting a medal, no need in getting the Wonderbolts involved. Meh, I heard it was pretty boring though."

After clearing the halls with much of the ponies running about, Spike took a deep breath and took another step forward towards the hall leading up to the room where the parliament meetings took place. Upon walking inside, he found that the massive room was just as empty as he felt. Traversing through the darkness, he sat in one of the chairs and folded his arms over his head while thinking of Rarity.

"...What if she really did kiss him?"

More thoughts of Rarity filled his mind, followed by the things that Melanie had told him. Ultimately, it got to him. He didn't know just how much those words of hers did so much damage to his confidence. Throughout the train ride, he couldn't help but think of the words that were injected into his brain. Worthless, selfish, entitled, creep, pathetic, just like him. Each one of those words hit him like a freight train, launching combos of body blows, slowly wearing him down to his knees. And hearing how similar he and Nondis supposedly was ended up being the haymaker to the nose. He didn't want to admit it, but that onslaught of vulgar vocabulary and stark insults took him for one corybantic mental ride.

And he wanted off.

Suddenly, the sound of the door squeaking behind him sent the small dragon to a bit of a panic, causing him to jump from the seat to underneath one of the desks. As he hid, he noticed that there was a sky-blue light filling the room as four hooves softly clopped against the carpet. The figure passed by him, bearing four pink legs as it moved down the aisle to the speaking floor below. When the marching stopped, Spike looked through the cracks of the chairs and tables ahead to see a familiar princess standing before him. He bore his teeth in anger as he secretly cursed Cadance for following him here.

"...I know you're in here, Spike."

He refused to speak, knowing that acknowledging her presence would lead to a conversation he'd much rather avoid. So he pretended as if he never heard her.

"Spike, you can't keep running from the truth. It would only hurt you in the future to do something like that."

Again, he remained silent.

"I don't care if you're hiding. But I know that you were at the ceremony earlier."

His lips remained sealed.

"And Nondis sends his thanks. He felt like you weren't going to come around because of personal issues developing between the two of you, but now that he knows that you were there, he feels like there's some sort of admiration you have for him."

His will to remain silent was quickly breaking.

"Also, Rarity even took pride in knowing you showed up. Twilight was rather pleased to know about it. And the others were starting to question if you wanted to join with them tomorrow for some quality time."

Yet he remained as quiet as ever.

"They say that Nondis won't be there. But also, Rarity would be unable to attend. But Twilight and Shining Armor will be there, I'll probably go along with to accompany him before we leave out to the Crystal Empire later that afternoon. You can come along with us, if you're up for it."

Not a word was said as he stared back to the pink alicorn below.

"Just imagine it. You, Shining and Flash, the three of you going around the empire, doing things that colts do. And you're already a hero there so you'll get all the preferential treatment you'd like. Plus there's a bunch of ponies there who would be interested in seeing you. You wouldn't have to do much, you can just stick around if you'd like. It'll be a fresh start, you'd have a chance to do everything you wanted to do. You'd be just like Nondis there."

Spike refused to remain silent any longer. "I'M NOT LIKE HIM!" He screamed while still hiding underneath the desk.

"Spike, I'm only offering this because you need the opportunity to become your own self. I know you're not like Nondis. I just said that to get some sort of response from you."

"I don't need you! I don't need Shining, I don't need Flash, I don't need anypony telling me what my options are! I don't need you to tell me what I'm doing wrong! I don't need any of that! I'm doing fine here on my own! I didn't get your help to stay here, so leave me alone."

"Spike..." A third voice whispered from behind him. "Please listen to her."

He looked behind him to see a pair of white hooves, clad in golden slippers, standing just a few inches from where he hid. He quickly tried to scamper from there to another place, but was stopped before his claws could touch the ground. Instead, he was pulled from underneath and quickly drawn to face Celestia.

"We are offering this to you so that you would give yourself a chance to grow, to mature as an individual." She said in a calm, maternal tone.

"I don't need it. Just let me be alone. I don't wanna see any of you! SO JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Spike, we can't leave you alone until we know that you're willing to go about and make a change."

"WHY ARE YOU EVEN TELLING ME THESE THINGS!? I DON'T WANNA LEAVE!"

"Spike, please just─"

"Well you heard him, princess." A fourth voice boomed from the open doors above. "If a dragon seeks to pursue his happiness here in Canterlot, then you cannot deny him that. Doing so would be a violation of his Equestrian civil rights."

Spike smiled with relief as he dangled in Celestia's magic. "Senator Count, boy am I glad to see you."

"I see you've been getting yourself around trouble, Spike. Not a very becoming look for you." The stallion said as he continued to hold the door open.

"Senator, we're trying to have a heart-to-heart with a dear friend. Please, don't disturb us." Cadance argued.

"And last I checked, a heart-to-heart doesn't require you to have him chained up in your magic, devoid of free will and restricted from movement." He rebutted. "If you wanted to negotiate a deal with him, you would allow him the option to freely walk away."

"Thank you!" Spike shouted as he wriggled in Celestia's magical grasp.

Celestia closed her eyes as she spoke to the dragon she continued to hold. "Spike, I do not think you should stay here, for fear of your safety as well as your future."

"Spike, you could be so much more than this. You have a future outside of these walls. Come with me and Shining, you'll be much better off. We're trying to help you, to get you the help you need! We want what's best for you!" Cadance added as she walked towards him.

"Then why is it that Rarity isn't apart of this, huh!? Where is she in all of this? If I go to the Crystal Empire, then who's to say that I'll ever see her again?" Spike questioned.

"Spike, she has a life of her own. If she does something in her work that would lead her there, then it would be possible for you to see her, albeit for a very short while."

"But Rarity's work, her dream is to come to Canterlot to work! I can't just leave on her!"

"This isn't about you! You want to stay in Canterlot for the possibility of seeing her again. She can't see you if you're not willing to look towards the future of your own self. In fact, she wouldn't want to see you if you don't make that change. We're offering the off-chance of you and her possibly working things out between yourselves, and it starts with your development of self. Spike, Rarity will never love you like you want her to, but it is possible for you to have a friendship with her."

"Unrequited love, THAT'S YOUR BEST OFFER FOR MY FUTURE!? I TOLD YOU WHAT I WANT IN MY FUTURE! AND IF I WANT TO WORK TOWARDS THAT IN MY OWN WAY, THEN I HAVE A RIGHT TO DO JUST THAT! YOU DON'T NEED TO TELL ME WHAT I NEED TO DO WITH MY LIFE! I AM THE ONE WHO CONTROLS MY OWN FATE, AND MY DESTINY SAYS THAT─"

Celestia quickly interrupted him. "Your destiny is not something that is taken without consent! It is something that is to be offered to you. Not everypony gets to fulfill their destiny due to a variety of reasons. Death, murder, prison, opportunities left to expire, I have seen all of it. And you are letting your personal feelings decide that for you. You are walking a road where very little will be offered to you. That is your choice."

She placed the dragon on the ground as Cadance walked beside her. Spike looked back to the senator standing in the doorway as he spoke.

"My destiny is that I am to be with Rarity. I believe in that, and I will work towards getting that."

Celestia, placed a hoof on Spike's shoulder as she offered her final argument. "Even if you chose to jeopardize the lives of others around you?"

Spike pushed her hoof off of his shoulder as he quickly ran over to the politician standing in the open doorway. As he looked back, he could see the two other ponies looking at him with pity. He then turned his attention to the smiling stallion beside him.

"See there, he has made his decision." Count said as he rubbed the young drake on the head. "He's not as helpless as you think. He's quite intelligent actually, I would be looking forward to showing him how to properly apply his talents to that of actual matters. He'll receive actual respect, true instruction, not false promises of friendship and a very real broken heart. Let's go, Spike, we have a lot of work to do."

The doors closed behind them, leaving only Celestia and Cadance to stand in the empty room. The white alicorn princess dropped her head as she sighed defeatedly.

"So... what now?" Cadance questioned to the elder royal.

"...If what Melanie told us is true, then a mere squabble would be the least of our worries. Sending him to the Crystal Empire for rehabilitation was our best option for him, a means of saving face. But now... He will control his own destiny, even if it means that he is only offered the worst."

"But what if he causes too much trouble?"

"Then I'll deal with him myself." Celestia answered, raising her head with an unusually cold glare. "I won't let Nondis get involved with that matter, it would only provoke them both into anger. And as far as human weaponry is concerned, I fear the day that Spike would find out first-hoof of their true strength. And even on the other side of things, I can't bring myself to watch Spike lose control of himself... Then it would be very little that Nondis could do to defend himself."

Cadance and Celestia turned their attention to the desk that the young dragon hid underneath. "He knew this was coming."

"We all did."

The Next Morning in Ponyville...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

I was slow to wake due to my body's desire to remain in bed, even waking up seemed too much of a chore to accomplish. I'd often find myself trying to get my eyes to open, only for them to promptly close after. My head felt heavy and my body really seemed unresponsive, VERY unresponsive. I don't even think my fingers are moving, and I'm giving out the signals to move them. Instead, it was like I was just stuck in my bed, my eyes partially cracked open as I see the shadow hovering throughout my room.

Somebody else is in here.

I started to frantically send signals throughout my body, urging that my limbs answer my request. Yet the only thing I could get out of them was a return signal, not much movement. I tried to open my eyes a little more, but they refused to budge. My vision grew really hazy as my brain proceeded to send out signals of distress. The shadow that wandered around my room suddenly whispered whispered into my ear.

"Mmmmmn... you're mine, you little shit..."

Now my body wanted to respond. Finally, I regained the activity of my limbs and quickly forced myself to sit up. With my eyes wide open, I scanned the room and saw that the shadow was nowhere to be found. But what I did find was the sight of the blue pegasus pony laying in the bed next to me...

Wait what?

"Nnngh... I'm gonna... run you into the ground..."

...Okay, I don't remember her being in my bed last night. If anything she was in a cot I ordered for the room. As for the reason why she was in here... yeah, there's an explanation for that.

To paraphrase, Melanie decided to go back home for fear of being out of touch with her lawyer. Rickey proceeded to take her home while Cliff was quietly gawking at something on his phone. Don't know what it was, but obviously it had his attention for quite some time. After Mel and Rick left, Cliff proceeded to unhinge himself and let loose the party monster within by challenging some of the ponies to a drinking contest. The contestants were Applejack, Shining Armor, Cliff, Spitfire, a pony named Berry Punch, and Rainbow Dash.

...You know exactly where I'm going with this.

As for the results, Berry Punch was already drunk, so her first two shots put her under the table. Applejack decided to bow out before she really let herself get too far gone. Spitfire fell out of her seat after seven, lightweight. And Rainbow Dash couldn't even grab the glass after her twelfth go, so she stumbled away from the table and ran into a wall. Shining and Cliff were going for a while before Shining gave his younger sister a run for her bits in Porcelain Prayers to the God of Exile. Promptly after winning however, Cliff took one more before he walked off and joined Shining at the alter.

I know Cliff is going to be saying a totally different prayer to a totally different god this morning.

But back to the story, Rainbow Dash was far too slammed to fly around, her words began to runtogether andslurrr rintah onenothe. Withun necessary pauses alongwithrapidrun-ons. Now stick your finger on your tongue, press down, and repeat everything that I just told you. Now try to comprehend what the hell she was saying.

It was a little... complex in getting her home. By law, pegasi are to remain earthbound if they drink past a certain amount. Now add that bit into the fact that her house is suspended in mid-air just east of town, and you'd realize as a non-flying creature how hard that would be for her. Twilight was too busy trying to get her brother out of the public scene so that his photo wouldn't be all over the tabloids for the week. Pinkie decided to take in Cliff, giggling along the way as he continued to scream about how he was 'nothing to fuck with', perpetually stating that 'he was the best'. So it was safe to say that he was going to be in town for the night.

Later, Rainbow tried to fight me over her loss, she went into hysterics about how much she didn't want to lose, and promptly let her defeat run all down her chest... eww. By the time she finished, we were a block away from where I stayed and I offered her my shower. I ordered a cot while she finished up, she came back out trying to fly to her house and I had to keep her locked in my room until she stopped screaming at me to let her go. So one half-hour later, she passes out, I place her on the cot, I clean my bathroom and hit the bed. Pretty long night.

So yeah, that explains why she was in my room, but not why she was in my bed. And being that I was mostly sober for the night, I can confirm that there was no funny business involved. But there was one thing that I really didn't like about my current circumstances, I was too tired and lazy to take a shower myself after I had gotten through cleaning it out.

So I gathered my stuff and proceeded to the bathroom to do just that. After following through with the daily exorcism, I proceeded to undress myself until I was wearing nothing. As I ran the water, I waited for a bit to run through the frigid water that settled in the pipes so that the hot stuff came running through. Once I felt the steam rising, I knew it was about that time.

*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG*

"Well shit, okay!"

Don't know what was so urgent for Rainbow to nearly batter my door in, but I quickly covered myself with my dirty clothes to crack the door open. But before I could ask anything she bashed her way in, smacking me in the face with the door and causing me to drop my clothes. She moaned and let out what was left over from last night. And after she was done with a quick round, she turned to me with a worn expression. "Morning."

"Top of the morning to you." I replied awkwardly.

"Wood." She quickly responded before having a light chuckle.

Looking down, it dawned upon me that I was just as pitched as ever. So in a mad scramble, I placed my shirt over myself, causing her to laugh even more.

"I heard of pitching a tent, but I never saw one like that!" She cracked as she pointed, before shortly losing her delight and relocating the toilet bowl for another round of upheaval.

"Just clean my toilet when you're done." I said out of a small fit of anger.

After I walked away from the bathroom, I stood at my phone and looked at the time. When I finished, I had noticed that my phone started to vibrate, indicating that a call was coming in. Looking at the screen, I could see it was Melanie who was getting in touch with me. "Morning to you."

"Morning to you, horse boy. How's it hanging?" She asked.

What a contrived choice of words. "Well, it's hanging. How did the phone call with the lawyer go?"

"Ugh, don't ask." She answered with a long groan. "I never knew there was so much to stuff like this. Paper work this, sign that, report this, say that, show up on your court date. That's to run an hour's conversation down to a sentence."

At least she had phones. "Yeah, it's kinda tedious. But if you want this guy to go away, then you gotta play by the rules."

"Well it would be nice, if it wasn't for the fact that Jasper was trying to file a counter-suit against you."

"What?" Oh, not this shit again. "What did I do that was so bad?"

"His lawyer's probably pushing him to do it so he can get paid a little extra. No point in losing a case and not getting anything in return."

"Correction, no point in losing two cases and not getting anything in return. Remember, I got stole-on first, that's self-defense."

"I know... *sigh* But you'd probably want to keep your phone on so I can keep you updated about that. The mugshot they took of him has the evidence all over his face, extra emphasis on mug."

"Yeah. But enough about that, let's talk about something else." Because I don't need to hear shit about me needing to show up for more legal bullshit.

"Well... I saw that Cliff was really surprised by Sunset last night. Rickey even said that he was starting to feel a little... aroused by the idea of her dancing on him."

"Yeah, the mares here will surprise you." Knowing from experience, of course.

"So, I just wanna ask out of morbid curiosity... Do they... you know?"

"Have sex?"

"I mean it would be kinda different for them than it is for us humans, wouldn't it? Don't they mate like in one season out of the whole year?"

Actually, this is a pretty good question to ask. And for some odd reason, Cliff and Rickey have yet to be brave enough to ask it. "Well, yes and no. There is a season where sexual activity is peaked, but as for the reasons why it occurred would be vastly different from the estrus in our world. There's the fact that it was born in the equines in our world, while over here it was kinda brought up due to unfortunate circumstances that drove the mares to fall into that. And centuries later, it's still practiced because of it."

"And the reason being?"

"There are way more mares than stallions, like five to one."

"Damn, that means only one girl's gonna get it while the other four luck out."

"No. They herd in the larger cities, and there really isn't a law forbidding polygamy. So there are stallions with multiple partners, but usually it's so much of an emotional and financial strain to woo them all. So the guys would have to be really skilled lovers with high charisma, really rich, or both."

"So where do you sit?"

"Neither. But to jump back to the top, there is a season where sex is all the craze. But just like us humans, they have grown to realize the recreation factor of it all. So very often, ponies will engage in sex whenever they so choose. Though I was told that the level of arousal outside of estrus is much more appealing due to the fact that it isn't as... tedious, for lack of a better word."

"So... no menstrual cramps, huh?"

You know, I never asked that. Theirs is a little more covert than us humans. It happens every three weeks, but still. "...IIIIIIII doooon't think so... They don't do the whole uterus-shedding thing. And then I never really got around to asking."

"We get cramps, only in estrus though." Rainbow announced from inside of the bathroom.

Okay, that'll work. "Rainbow says hi, and yes they do, but only during that special time of the year."

"Oh, tell her I said hello."

"Mel says hello!" I hollered to the bathroom.

"Great. But that estrus thing is hell for us! Twenty-one days of straight cramps, cravings, and sex."

I think it would be better to have those two talk it out. "Hold on, I'm putting you on speaker." I walked to the bathroom and placed the phone on the counter. Meanwhile Rainbow was still snickering a bit as she watched me place the phone down.

"Geez Nondis, you're still pitching tents?"

I quickly covered myself again before slamming my palm to the center of my face.

"Wait, what? Do you two room together or something?"

Rainbow snickered a little more as she walked up to the phone. "Yeah, just for last night!"

"She got drunk." I quickly answered. "Pegasi are under a no-fly restriction once they take in a little too much."

"Safe flying, I like that." Melanie responded.

"Hey, I can fly when I'm drunk. I can do a lot of things when I'm drunk. I'm not a lighty like your egghead girlfriend." Rainbow said while giving me a shove.

Obviously her hangover isn't as bad as I thought it would be. "Okay! Back to the subject. Estrus." What an odd subject to converge back into.

"Yeah, so we get a little moody as well. Hormonal imbalances can really fuck up your mood, especially when you're just in the crave for somepony to fuck the lights out of your eyes."

"Wow, it's like that?"

"How about this, have you ever had somebody punch you in the stomach while they have sex with you? It's unpleasant but that sex is what's drawing the pain away from that. Now just imagine if all the nerve endings inside of you were working on overtime, and you're just seconds away from your best orgasm. So you start to feel yourself convulse, you're soaking wet, and you're practically screaming for someone to finish you off with one good shove. The moment of entry is like the best thing, it sends you every time."

You know, I'm just standing here like I'm fully clothed when I know that's not the case. And this conversation is not really helping me hide my curiosity... let alone more outstanding issues. "You two really seem like you're invested in this stuff. So I'm just gonna sit on the bed and close my ears off until you're done."

Before I could turn around, Rainbow Dash bolted to the door and shut it behind me. The next thing I felt was a pair of hooves pushing me towards the toilet. "Oh no, you're gonna get educated today, mister. Sit your ass on down."

"Did he try to leave?"

"Yes, he's not leaving. He's about to learn what us mares go through on a yearly basis."

"Do I have to?" I groaned while pressing my hands over myself in a feeble attempt to hide myself from view.

"Nondis, sweetie, you have to learn this shit. You made the decision to get with a girl of another species, you will have to take responsibility for whatever happens during certain times where the needs are dire and the desire for company is greatest. You chose this, so now you have to educate yourself on the ordeals of the female perspective."

I was afraid this was what it was gonna come down to. "Can't I just get Twilight to teach me?"

Rainbow Dash spat as she shoved me back down on the toilet. "Seriously? I know she's a bit of an egghead, but lets be honest, she's been wearing those enchanted rings on her vag since we've met her. No way she knows what estrus REALLY is. And by the next cycle, it'll probably crash down on both her and you... Mostly you."

Did she even clean this? "Um, can I─"

"There's a towel next to you, cover up and sit tight. We're gonna have a little lesson in Estrus 101."

This is going to be a long day, isn't it?

Much later after our extended conversation about the respective reproductive cycles, my mind was full of information while they were stuffing it in through both ears. Thankfully the conversation had gotten so drawn out that I had finally calmed down and grew desensitized to the whole subject while keeping an open ear to the information I was being provided.

After about a full hour of lecture, I felt that it was past time for me to take a shower. Meanwhile, Rainbow entertained herself by ruthlessly banging her hooves on the MOTIF in the corner of the room. Often times, she would call back to me to tell me that the thing was broken. But shortly after climbing out of the shower, I walked out to see what she was talking about.

Apparently she was complaining that the keys were too small and broken apart for a normal pony to play. After a ten-second serenade, I confirmed that nothing was wrong with my board. Meanwhile, she had to make sure that what she heard was correct. And the only thing she did after that was poke me over and over, telling me to do it again. Eventually, she wore me down and I decided to play the same tune that I played for Shining Armor.

Her response... "Hey... do that again. I wanna see if I can do that."

With hooves, I don't think so. "Don't you have other things to do?"

"Don't you?" She rebutted with a smirk. "I mean I'm not the one with the title 'Captain of the Royal Guard'."

"And I'm not the one with access to the magical maguffins used to save the world." I argued in return. "Shouldn't you be busy with a friendship problem, or something?"

Rainbow Dash giggled as she rolled her eyes. "Yeah, if I had to answer to a friendship problem, both you and I would know it."

"Well, why are you still here?" I asked.

Rainbow took to the air as she hovered up to my eye level. "Um, doofus, I'm here to annoy you. And I'll be sticking around until I can find a way to make up for last night?"

"So you're trying to find a way to thank me?" I questioned with a puzzled expression.

"Hey, I'm not doing anything that I don't wanna do though. I just wanna do something. And try not to make it sound so... corny. Thanking you? Me saying that to you would really look bad on me?"

"To who, yourself?"

Rainbow looked back at me with a serious look. "I'm not saying it. And besides, don't actions speaks volumes in contrast to words?"

"Okay... what do you have in mind?" I'm starting to get this weird feeling like I'm going to end up in something I'm going to feel really conflicted about.

Rainbow Dash smiled as she hovered even closer to me. "You wanna know?"

"Sure."

She then hovered about a few inches away from my face. "You really wanna know? I'm not gonna tell you if you don't feel like knowing."

"Just say it."

She tapped me on the nose with her hoof as she scoffed. "Nah! You don't look eager enough."

"Well fine, I won't find out then." I said while turning around and folding my arms.

"Hey!" She shouted, sounding somewhat offended. "You're supposed to beg to know what I was going to do!"

"Nah, I don't need to know. Besides, I'm not 'eager enough' to know."

A drawn-out groan was the next thing I heard before she spoke. "Augh! Fine, you win!" She said as she flew around to meet with me face-to-face. "I'm gonna give you something."

"What is it?"

She gradually flew behind me as she spoke. "Close your eyes, and you'll find out."

I rolled my eyes as I felt her hooves come into contact with my eyes. Afterwards, she gave me a quick nudge towards the bed. At this point I had began to confirm my suspicions and grew uncertain as to how to respond to her. After she unveiled my eyes, I was completely thrown for a loop.

"Bam! Tickets to the Wonderbolts show in Cloudsdale! That little stunt show they did during the ceremony yesterday was mainly for promotion. You're gonna be going with me, this time to MY hometown.

Well that's great. But... "Um... I don't think that would work. Thing about it is that I'm not─"

"Twilight has a cloud-walking spell. And in speaking of walking, you should be walking to her to get it done... like now."

When we arrived into the throne room of the castle, we encountered two familiar faces. One was as bright as ever while the other was a little more pale. Rainbow flew up to Shining Armor and sat beside him. "Wow buddy, you look like shit." She said, earning a rather annoyed look from Twilight.

"I wish that was all I'd have to deal with." Shining groaned. "I should've ate more before going bottoms up."

Smart man. "Yeah, I forgot to tell you that Cliff is a prodigy drinker. We use him in the frat battles back on campus, between drinking and singing, I don't know what he does better."

"Well, if my brother hadn't gotten himself like this, he wouldn't be feeling this way." Twilight said as she stared back to her older brother.

"This is the second time I've been beat by a human... Why the hell can't I recruit more of these guys?"

"Cause I said so." I answered bluntly. "In speaking of guys, how's Cliff doing?"

"He and Pinkie should be here any minute." Twilight answered. "Pinkie said that he's been getting along quite well. And she's also been feeding him and giving him lots of coffee."

See, he gets coffee, why the hell am I restricted just to tea? "Well at least he'll be well on his way."

And just on cue, the doors open up to reveal both Pinkie and Cadance escorting Cliff inside of the room, most of his dreads covering his face. "Nigga, I never knew the sun could be so fucking bright."

"Morning, pukeface." Shining said in a low voice.

"Fuck you." Cliff answered with a long groan.

"See? They're already best friends." I said sarcastically.

"Yo, Nondis. I think Mel liked it."

For a moment, I was left scratching my head. "Liked what?"

"This world thing. I think she was open to it."

"Oh yeah." Now that I think about it, she's supposed to be the gauge for the reaction my brothers would have. "So, does that mean I gotta work on Alex and Stanton next?"

"Alex? Stanton? You have more friends you wanna bring over?" Cadance questioned.

"Actually, they're my brothers."

Effective immediately, Shining jumped out of his seat, hopped on the table, grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me as he screamed all of his vomit breath in my face. "YOU HAVE BROTHERS!? YOU HAVE SIBLINGS!? WHY THE HELL WAS I NOT INFORMED OF THIS!?"

"I would say that the idea of you having brothers is quite odd. I always thought of you as an only child." Cadance confessed.

"Nah, that nigga got brothers. He got an older one who's a technician, and a hunter who'd go out with his granddad on trips and shit. The younger one is a football player who plays at Texas A&M. Both of they asses taller than him." Cliff added.

This time, Cadance pulled her husband off as she causally spoke to me in a soft voice. "You motherfucker, you were holding out on us."

"Blame genetics. The tall ones on my mom's side of the family gave us this height advantage. I just lucked out and got my mom's shortness." I answered with a sigh. "But why does it surprise you?"

"Because we didn't know you had siblings." Shining answered. "I wanna see both of them, now."

"Hold on a sec. I haven't even told them about anything yet. As far as they're concerned, I washed up onshore someplace in Louisiana─"

"THEN TELL THEM, DAMMIT!" Shining shouted before being silenced by his younger sister.

"Well, I would be interested in getting to know them for myself. I heard you saying something about that, like how your older one was getting married and your younger one was graduating." Twilight said, earning an earful of decibels from her brother.

"YOU KNEW OF THIS, AND DIDN'T TELL ME!?"

"You're not recruiting them, that's a done deal." I outright suggested.

"DAMMIT, LET ME JUST BREAK ONE MORE IN!"

"Anyways, I'm not here to chew my husband out just yet. I do have some business to discuss. Shining, Twilight, Nondis, could we excuse ourselves?" Cadance said as she made her way out the room. The three of us she called out soon joined with her outside of the room and began to have our discussion. Cadance continued from where she left off. "I just came in from Canterlot this morning. Celestia and I had gotten in touch with Spike last night, and it would appear that he was there at the ceremony and the party afterwards."

We know that much. "Yeah, and?"

"...He decided not to come with us."

"Yeah, I wonder what made him go off like that." Shining inquired as he looked to Twilight. "Since the whole breakfast fiasco a while back, he's been really resentful of Nondis."

"Well, being that he and I are somewhat alike, you could say that likeness repels. Though I would've expected Spike to go for the second chance." I thought aloud.

"Honestly, I'm not too happy of how he's acting." Twilight said with a frown. "But I would like to see him come back to us. The Crystal Empire was the best place for him, especially since he has a decent following over there."

Cadance shook her head as she spoke. "We're beyond that now. Senator Count has taken him in, and you know what his agenda is."

Yeah that's bad. "So, now he's with the politicians? What do you think his plans would be?"

"I know it's going to hurt us a lot, that's for certain." Cadance affirmed.

"Ugh Celestia of Faust." Shining sighed dejectedly. "I just hope is involvement with them goes as far as paperwork is concerned."

"Who's to say that he hasn't already been doing that?" Twilight asked. "And Spike is smart enough to know if he wants something done, he can do whatever he wants to achieve that end."

As we continued to ponder on the situation, Cadance tapped me and pulled me to the side. As we excused ourselves, Shining and Twilight continued to discuss their views of the situation. Walking down the halls, Cadance and I shared our thoughts.

"We can't let him get too close to Rarity. He's completely obsessed with her, and also with you." She said in a low whisper.

"I'm not surprised. Hell I wouldn't even be surprised if he called a hit on me any second, or if he hadn't already. The conversation I heard between him and Melanie last night really opened my eyes to just how far he would go for her."

"I was trying to put together an intervention of sorts, one that didn't involve you or Rarity."

"I understand, remove the stimulants and provide him with the options of leaving over staying here and letting whatever get to him. Though personally, I think he just needs a good-ol Texas-style boot to the ass. Makes no sense that he'd be so obsessed."

"Melanie said you were the same way."

I closed my eyes as I took a deep breath. "I used to be, and starting over was the best thing that happened for me. My being here did turn me into something, a better product of self. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I started working towards how I could make a good first impression. And eventually, I grew to become that first impression, I stopped being entirely selfish and moved on towards doing for others rather than myself."

"You still have your flaws, but they are nowhere as outstanding as your perks and accomplishments. You're doing just fine."

"Somehow, I feel like Spike is my responsibility. I got him to where he is now because of my closeness to Rarity."

"He doesn't have a clue how close you two really are. I just wish you weren't as close with her as you are with Twilight. I mean, I understand you're using your saving grace, but there's still a code of ethics to go by. And the both of you realize that this is essentially wrong."

"...Have you ever done something that you knew was wrong, but you felt somewhere inside that it's not as wrong as you'd think?"

"I'm married to Shining Armor. I knew that my being close to him would cause him trouble, and it did him a lifetime's worth of damage. But I don't think it to be a completely negative thing. Even though I was selfish in wanting him and did everything to point the signs my way, I still felt that guilt in realizing that he would have problems with his life, his career, and his health. But he stuck with me in spite of it, and now I have a friend who is my husband. But your situation is different."

"I know. I'm involved with a princess─"

"Whom you've engaged in sexual activities with."

"That, and I'm also in favor with one of her best friends. I never thought that I would have to deal with something like this in my relationship. I thought I was going to be decisive, direct, and just do the right thing in my first relationship with a girl. But here I am, caught up in my own mess. And it's not like where it's completely one-sided, we both want something of each other."

"So, do you feel as if this was a mistake?" Cadance finally asked.

"I can say that I wasn't sound in my decision making, but I won't say it was a mistake. Everything in life has a purpose to which these things would occur. And yet it would appear to be unfair for some, it somehow benefits for others. My involvement with Twilight while this law exists damages our relationship from the outside as much as from within. But the knowledge of this situation will drive me to remove this law from existence."

"The truth of the matter is that though it is a majority that continues to see the law in existence, there are more than a few who would rather see it die. We have powerful allies in the parliament, just more powerful enemies."

"And I take it that this Senator Count is one of those enemies?"

"In terms of ranks, he's one of the highest proponents in keeping this law alive. He's a big player, but he's only one of them."

"So... all the crows of Canterlot calls to him, now with Spike under his helm. He's probably going to make sure that Spike gets what he wants, and considering the conversation we had with Mel last night, he might want me dead."

"Melanie did some damage to him, and I mean a lot. I've never seen him so despondent, it was like the time he failed to light the torch at the Crystal Games almost two years back. Only difference was that he sort-of walked with a limp. When we told him that starting over was a better option, he just shut us out and did what he wanted to do."

"...I don't think I have it in me to tell Twilight that her surrogate child is advocating for my death."

"I don't think you'll have to."

***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

I can't believe it. Spike sided with them, the politicians. Where do I even go from here? I can't even begin to describe how utterly defeated I feel, or describe the sense of betrayal I am currently exhibiting.

I understand you, Spike. I knew that you loved her from the day you laid eyes on her. But for you to betray me and seek her alongside the infamous Senator Count, I couldn't. One of his fellow constituents already tried to set Shining Armor up to die, and you know how much he suffered because of that. You know how he came back screaming himself out of his sleep, the long evenings where he would toss back bottle after bottle of rum. You know all of this, yet you still chose to ally with him.

Why?

I can understand your disconnect with Nondis. Sure, he's been taking a bit of my time away from you, and even the time you had with Rarity. But is it that much to where you have to continue antagonizing him? He saved your life and you repay him by trying to send him out while he was wounded, you 'apologized' to him and yet you're going to confide in the pony who could really care less of you? Nondis may not be the best, but I know that he can be a good person. Our relationship isn't perfect, nor will it ever be... to my dismay.

Are we even capable of having a relationship at this point?

"Twilight!"

My head turned, seeing the tall biped walking towards me, on his face a smile as he knelt down to me. "Yes?" I answered to him.

"Rainbow Dash said you knew how to get me to walk on clouds."

Okay, an unusual question to come from him, I wonder what for. "I would know a thing or two about it. How come?"

"Oh great. Rainbow Dash has been telling me about the upcoming Wonderbolts show, she wants to take me to Cloudsdale to see it."

...Again, you put me aside. "Sure. I just so happen to know a spell or two that would do just the trick."

"Okay, well if it's not a problem─"

"Just hold still..."

Realistically speaking, the cloud-walking spell is a great way of traversing the nimbus establishments floating throughout Equestria. But there was a list of concerns I had in seeing him up in the sky. For the first thing, he wasn't exactly air-worthy. Another thing, what if he was to fall somewhere and there was nothing to break his fall. And my most-terrifying thought, how long would the spell last before he falls through? I know we ponies are different and that the spell would last for a little less than three days, but I've never applied it to a human. I guess I could make provisions. Yes, I have to be certain that nothing falls through on his visit to Cloudsdale... no pun intended.

"What's taking you so long, egghead?" Rainbow questioned as she impatiently tapped her hoof against the ground.

I looked back to the rainbow-maned pegasus and allowed my concerns to be known. "Rainbow Dash, how do we know if the cloud-walking spell would work or not? Nondis' magical composition is completely different from ours. He practically yields a magic factor of zero, what if he was to simply absorb the magic─"

"I think if that happened, I wouldn't be walking around right now. If anything, I'd still have a broken shoulder and three ribs puncturing my lungs. Safe to say that I would be a dead ass, considering the differences in human and equine medicine." Nondis stated as he walked between me and Rainbow Dash.

He has a point. Their society is so advanced compared to ours, and it's beyond terrifying just what they're capable of when it comes to the violent side of things. Without the aid of magic, their medical knowledge would have to be top-notch for them to survive such circumstances. But still... "It's not that I don't have confidence in my abilities, it's just that I'm not sure how it would work for you."

"Well, there's the balloon we could rent from Cherry Berry." Rainbow suggested. "So if anything happens, we can kinda keep him on there until the start of the show. He'll only walk on clouds for a short while if the spell has a few things that could be worked on."

"My spells don't need working on!" Who am I kidding, I'd probably have to augment the formula just to Nondis' specifications. I guess my pride was the only thing that made me want to continue onward, knowing the risks. And besides, if he's in the balloon, then it would limit his time of exposure to the clouds, giving him more time to be able to walk around.

"Wait, I don't get it. Does the spell start from the moment my feet hits the clouds or from the time of it being cast?" Nondis questioned.

"To be frank, the spell starts when I cast it. Gradually, the magic will begin to wear off in about two or three days. But that's only for ponies, I haven't tried it on anything bigger than that, much less a non-magical being."

"Twilight, what did Nondis just say about him and magic?" Rainbow asked as she flew beside me. "He'll be fine! And plus he can't get around the town without a balloon anyhow. He's not staying a night over there, we're just watching a show."

I looked back to Rainbow with a more serious look on my face. "Nothing is going to happen to him, right? He's not going unless I know he's going to be okay."

"If I can say something─" Nondis began before I cut him off.

"I've gotten plenty of word from you and how you'll come back in one piece. And up to this point, I have continued to foot the bill for your medical expenses..." At that point, I pulled him down to my hooves as I whispered back to him. "You know how I feel about you getting hurt."

"I'll be fine." He said with deadpan. "Please cast this spell on me."

This was still going against my better judgement. I didn't want this to be something that I would ultimately regret later on. But he looked at me with the assurance that I wouldn't hear of him undergoing a tragic accident. Instead, he continued to look at me with his best puppy-dog expression. And of course, I folded. "...You're despicable."

"Thank you." He whispered, finally closing his eyes and waiting for the spell to hit him.

I took in a sharp draw of breath and released slowly, clearing my mind for the magical equation I needed to complete inside of my head, my horn warmed significantly as my magic began to manifest. Bowing my head towards him, I aimed my horn for his chest, and awaited for the final variable to be set in place. At last, the equation was complete and the bit of magic that welled upon me flooded the spiral of my horn and released a concentrated flow of energy for him. Upon opening my eyes I could see my magic envelop him, transitioning from it's usual magenta glow to a bright-white shine. After the initial flash, the afterglow of the spell taking place subsided into nothingness, leaving him to appear as his usual self.

"Did it work?" He questioned.

"I'm pretty sure it did." Rainbow said with a smirk. "I'll go get a few clouds and see if he can step on them."

Nondis however, seemed a bit uncomfortable. "Oooh... I feel really bloated and gassy." He said while holding his abdominal region.

"That's just the spell kicking in. It's a minor side effect, but I can assure you that it's nothing to worry about." Now we need to get you walking on clouds. If we can confirm that you can stand on them without any signs of sinking, I'll be more at ease.

Rainbow Dash came back into the room with a few clouds shaped into stairs and sat them within a foot's reach of Nondis. After setting the stair-shaped nimbus before him, she flew behind him to give him a bit of a push. "Well, come on. You're not gonna be stuck on the ground all day, you know."

For a second he stared at the cloud, gulping back whatever was eating away at him. Slowly, he raised his foot... and brought it down on the cloud step. For a second he tried to drive his foot even further downward but he smiled as he realized that he was free to walk on the cloud. Another two steps and he was jumping up and down at the top of the stairs like he was an easily excitable foal. And after confirming that he was far from sinking in anytime soon, he looked at me with the biggest smile on his face. Rainbow nudged me in my side as she whispered in my ear.

"You two really are made for each other, Twilight. He's just as excitable as you."

...At that point I didn't know if that was a compliment or a low dig.

Later throughout the day, I was busy saying the usual goodbyes. Nondis left for Cloudsdale with Rainbow Dash, Cliff recovered and left back to his world, Pinkie returned to the bakery, Shining got an earful from Cadance and was dragged back to the Crystal Empire, while Sunset was getting ready to make her own exit. Eventually, I would be back inside of this castle, all on my own again.

It's not that I have a problem with being left alone, but I just haven't grown used to the fact that this huge place is something that was left for me. And even with Spike here, it still seemed a bit bigger than what I'm normally used to. Even the bed I sleep in doesn't feel right after so many nights of being alone. It just felt... I don't know, depressing.

Often times I would find things to do outside of the castle, or I would try to revert back to my original self by immersing myself in several books. The ones Nondis left for me have gone untouched on my nightstand since he left, the bookmark still buried towards the front pages of the first book. Really, I wanted to read these books with him so that I could discuss human literature with him, and in turn he would tell me what the differences were within the motion picture adaptation.

I guess that subject will have to wait another two weeks.

"Hey, Twilight."

Turning around to the open door leading towards the library, I saw Sunset still standing there. "Oh, I thought you had left already."

"Yeah, it turns out that I was kinda asked about a few things when I got back. Seems like the others really wanted to see you again."

It has been several months since I've last visited, the last time being the time I had to help them stop the sirens that Starswirl banished there. It would make for a good change of scenery if I were to visit them. Furthermore, I wouldn't have to feel so alone if I'm in the company of others. "Oh right, I haven't been there in a while. I know they're doing well, but they're probably just as confused as how I'm doing."

"Well... do you wanna come on over? It feels a bit empty in here when there's not much going on."

You're right about that. "Do I? I didn't know that I had to be invited?"

Sunset giggled as she summoned her phone. "Yeah, you kinda were, and in popular demand."

"Great! I guess I can come around to visit for a while. I really need the time away from here." Not just the castle, but from Ponyville as well.

"Okay then, I'll get the portal ready."

Sunset teleported off as she left me still walking through the library. As I finished, I approached the center of the room. I looked up to each shelf, acknowledging the cavernous heights that even Nondis failed to reach.

...Each time I think of him, I start to grow even more depressed. I really should put my mind on something else, and this visit would be the perfect venue to do just that. Shaking my thoughts out of my brain, I moved forward through the aisles of books and marched towards the mirror I had hidden within. Sunset looked at me with a chipper smile as she spoke.

"Everypony is going to love seeing you again."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Seemingly in an instant, I was once more inside of the world of Sunset Shimmer. Just before me were the steps leading up to Canterlot High, and on them were the five familiar faces of everyone I knew.

"Twilight!" They all shouted as they ran over to me.

I waved a hoof at them...

...Oh yeah, forgot about that. I opened my palms and extended my fingers as I raised my hand high into the air, waving to them as they approached. I looked to Sunset, who was still snickering a bit. "What?" I asked.

"You did the pony thing again."

"Old habits die hard, I can't help that I haven't been doing it long enough to where I can play instruments."

"I keep telling you, give it a week and you'll start to get used to it."

"I like my cute little hooves just fine, thank you." I said, balling my hands into folded-over fists. Again, still not used to the human body movements. "So, what have all of you been up to?"

Pinkie spoke first. "Weeeeellllll..." And there she goes. "We were actually in the middle of something when we had gotten the text from Sunset that she was going to visit your world on Tuesday, but when she came back she had said something about running into a pretty attractive guy that she said that she would probably go for. But after that, we heard that the guy had just gotten back from a big rescue operation with your boyfriend back on the pony end, and that several ponies were either missing or in really bad shape. Our condolences. But then we also heard that you went to another version of our world, one without magic. Can you imagine that? So after that, we heard that your boyfriend on the pony side of things was caught kissing another girl. So then on Friday, we wanted to see if we could arrange a weekend for you to come on by so that we could cheer you up. But then we heard about the huge ceremony that they had going on later on and that you were giving a tour to the new guys. And then the day after, Sunset met up with that one guy while you were with your guy, and then Sunset's guy got drunk while your guy got into a drunken fight with your Rainbow Dash. But then you guys woke up this morning and Sunset got in touch with us about how you were going to visit us. So we came here as fast as we could to greet you. And poof! Here we are."

That was impressively long-winded and detailed. But that's Pinkie for you. "Oh, so all of you came to greet me?"

"Oh, pfft! Of course, darling! How could we not meet up with one of our best friends from another realm?" Rarity answered with a flick of the wrist.

"Even if she is a pony, we don't discriminate round here!" Applejack said.

"Especially Flash." Rainbow mumbled with a chuckle.

"Rainbow Dash, you know that he made us promise about that." Fluttershy chided.

"About what?" I inquired. "What promise did you guys make?"

Sunset quickly intervened before anyone else could say something. "Okay, I think we should get off that topic now. So, who's up for ice cream?"

"ME! OH ME ME ME ME ME!" Pinkie shouted jubilantly as she ran off towards the bus stop across the street.

"Well I suppose a bit of indulgence at the creamery downtown wouldn't pose too much of an issue with me." Rarity answered as she walked off to where Pinkie was.

As the others followed, I had to pull Sunset back for a bit to ask her. "Is there something going on that I should know about?"

Sunset whimpered as she tried to explain herself. "Well, lets just say that─"

"Hey, get a move on!" Rainbow hollered from across the street. "The bus is just down the street!"

Looking towards the direction Rainbow pointed towards, I could see the city bus gradually slowing down as it made a complete halt at the stop. "The buses sure do come around at convenient times." I said to Sunset.

"We probably timed it. C'mon, we can talk more once we get to Sugarcube Corner."

We finally arrived at Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie running in head-first as she rushed to the counter. Pulling some money from inside of her shirt, she held up a finger with dollars in hand.

"I want one order of the deca-scoop deluxe, divided into six parts, my portion covered in sprinkles and lots of chocolate."

"Uh... It's like that for all the sides." The person behind the counter said.

Pinkie glared at the person she suspected of being inadequate and proceeded to question him. "Hmm... you look new around here."

"I am." He answered with confidence.

"...The banana."

"Underneath, sliced longways and made specifically for you and five of your friends."

"The chocolate?"

"Warm, not chilled."

"Sprinkles?"

"Shaped into rice grains, not circles."

"...The cherry."

"Fresh and placed directly on top, the whipped cream swirled counterclockwise, the stem still attached to the cherry, small bits of wafer at the bottom, served in a size gargantuan glass bowl."

Pinkie looked to the guy with a vicious glare as she extended her hand with the money. "What's your name?"

"Cheese Sandwich." He answered with pride.

"Oh, I couldn't really tell with your name-tag upside down." Pinkie responded with a smirk.

"But you can't read upside down, can you?" He responded with an equally dominant smirk of his own.

Pinkie's smile was instantly wiped off of her face as she grabbed her change from the clerk. After she finished the transaction, she pointed towards her eyes and back to him, warning him with a fierce scowl. I couldn't help but to roll my eyes as we all sat in place at a table right by the window. Pinkie continued to back into her seat while staring a hole into the cashier. Rainbow Dash was the first to speak when we sat down.

"So outside of changeling invasions, how's everything been?"

"Well, they've been going." Probably nowhere at this point. "Things are definitely on-track. How about you guys?"

"They've been great for us. We still don't get how we transform and whatnot, but it's not like it happens every day." Rainbow answered.

"But it still leaves us to ask how it's possible after Sunset was defeated."

"I'm not sure." Nondis can't even hold spells for a day and these girls have been enchanted since the first time I came and left. "Perhaps this world has some sort of mana-content residue."

"If that's the case, then I could understand why." Rarity added. "If there's a large amount of something being poured out at once, then there's bound to be some sort of left-overs."

"You mean like radioactive superpowers?" Pinkie questioned.

Sunset and I looked at each other and thought aloud. "I never thought of that." She confessed.

"You and me both." But that's still not an acceptable answer for all of this. Even after a certain period of time, there has to be a period of regression, similar to that of mana-infected materials and half-lives. By now, the magic should've worn off, or regressed to where they could no longer transform.

"Yeeeaaa-no. That junk only works in comic books." Rainbow Dash answered, shooting down Pinkie's theory. "And even then, if it was anything like radiation, it would probably kill us."

Same answer here. A dose of highly-concentrated mana particles can result in some serious harm. If there's enough of it, it could dispel a much larger reactionary process, but just a normal pony being hit with that much magic would either render them immobile, unconscious, or vaporization if there's too much exposure. Perhaps this universe was already predestined for magic. But then if humans can use magic here, then why not humans from Nondis' dimension?

"Um..." Fluttershy began as she started to look around the table. "Forgive me if this is a bit off-topic, but I wanted to ask you since you've gotten here, where is Spike?"

"Yeah, don't the little critter usually come running by ya?" Applejack questioned.

Sunset proceeded to give them an answer. "Spike is away on business, so he couldn't come along with Twilight this time. Maybe sometime later."

"Oh, that's really quite a shame. I love the way his little leg kicks when I give him belly rubs." Rarity said while mimicking the motions she would do to Spike in his dog form.

Personally, I don't think I should tell them what's really going on. It's not really an issue that they should be concerned with, especially being that it's one that stays in our world. "Yeah, he won't be around for quite some time. He's doing big things in Canterlot." I said with a fake smile. Sunset noticed my discomfort with the subject.

"Right, so back to the counter thing." Sunset said, quickly changing the subject. "Pinkie, what was that all about?"

"New guy at the counter. He really seems like he's got some of his stuff down... some." She said while glaring back to the teen behind the counter, who returned a coy smile.

*ding-a-ling*

When I looked around to the door, Sunset was quick to call my attention. "Hey, Twi."

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Don't look that way. Just try to keep your eyes over here."

"Huh?" Now I was really confused about her request. "How come?"

Rarity rolled her eyes as she spoke. "Oh come now, Sunset. If Flash wants to speak with her, then he'll probably─"

"Hey, girls!" A familiar voice called out to our table

"Hey Flash! Twilight's here!" Pinkie stood and shouted, causing Sunset to slam her head into the table.

"Seriously?" He questioned, walking over to the table with a much quicker pace than what I was used to seeing him walk. Upon noticing me, he smiled nervously. "Hey! Wow, you're here! F-from your world!"

"Yup, I'm here." I answered shyly, blushing lightly. "How's it been?"

"Oh let me tell you, it's been a long time since we last met. I really missed you!"

"Really, well I missed you too." I answered, standing from my seat to give him a hug. Before my arms could land on him, his arms were already thrown over my shoulders and behind my back. His grip became so... demanding. When he pulled off, he quickly cleared his throat while giving me a little bit of space.

"Sorry. Just haven't seen you in a bit, you know."

"Yeah... We haven't seen each other in a while." And for a good reason. "Hey, um─"

"Oh my gosh, Twilight, I have some new to tell you."

News? This is moving a bit fast. "Really, so what is it?"

"Me and the band have gotten accepted into Canterlot University! We're going off into the big school downtown starting next year!"

Oh, just a bit of good news. I can take that. "Wow, congratulations! You must be really excited!"

"Oh, I am lit. But Sunset hasn't been telling me much about you. She'd tell me that you're doing okay, but that's it. I've started to think that you've forgotten about us."

Sunset was still buried into the table head-first as I continued to speak. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Wow... you have no idea how long we've been missing you."

"By 'we', he means him." One of the other guys said as he pointed to Flash.

"Hey!" He stammered as he grabbed the other two guys he came in with. "W-what I'm trying to say is... we're gonna be holding a little gathering to celebrate. So... we were on the way here to see if our reservation was still in the books."

"Why didn't you call up here if that was the case?" Rainbow asked as she picked up her phone.

"Well there's also a deal on double-fudge sundaes on Sunday. So me and the guys wanted to eat up before we started rehearsal this afternoon." He said as he reached in his pockets to pull out a lint-covered coupon.

"Yeah, you guys sure do look like you're bookin' up somethin' fierce." Applejack said with sarcasm.

One of the other guys stepped out as he challenged Applejack. "Well at least I'm not stuck on some raggedy four-string."

"Learn yer fingerings before you even touch a five-string, partner. Yer the only bass player Ah know that plays with a capo."

"Well, we're the ones getting paid. So, ha!"

Flash and I looked to each other as I pointed to the two arguing with one another. "Do they always do that?"

"Every time they see each other in public." He answered plainly.

"Oh, they seem to get along." I stated.

"They're rivals."

"I figured." I responded, thinking back to Shining and Nondis' interactions. Now and then they would hurl insults at one another and laugh at any shortcomings they'd reveal to each other.

The final guy with a pair of sticks in his back pocket pulled the other guy aside and pushed him towards the counter. After the small argument was diffused, Flash focused his attention back to me. "So, the reservation for our big shindig is next Saturday. If... if you're not busy... maybe you could come out and ...party with us?"

"Ooh... party." I moaned with a bit of discomfort, repeatedly pulling at my bangs "I'm kinda partied out right now. We had a big thing for Nondis last night and... yeah. Took a lot out of me."

Instantly, I could see his face change, going from gleeful and blushing to nervous and uncertain. "Oh... yeah... I-I-I didn't know... you were with someone else."

"Wait, you didn't?" I asked.

Flash quickly looked away from me, towards the girl sitting with her face in the table. "Sunset never told me you were with someone else..."

...Oh no. "Well... um... I didn't mean I was with him, like with-him with him. Although we kinda were... and still are... I mean, it's complicated."

He looked off to the side as he still carried that fragile smile. "Right. I mean, we all get into something... right? I mean I just got out of a relationship myself."

Oh, didn't know he was actually dating. Then again, he's Sunset's ex, so I guess he would be the main one who's practically out there. "Yeah. It's been kinda weird between us. But I think we'll manage."

"Yeah..." An awkward pause grew between the two of us before he spoke again. "So... you said it was... weird between the two of you?"

"Well, when you're dating a human, it can be really weird at times." ...I probably shouldn't have said that. "But it's fun. We make the best of it."

"Oh, so he's not a pony?"

I could see something akin to a gray blanket of melancholy spreading over his body as he continued to look anywhere except where I was standing. "Yeah. He's kinda... different." I'm sorry... I don't want to say that he reminded me of you... that would be really hurtful for the both of you. "At first he was kinda awkward, but then he grew on me. So yeah, I'm kinda in the middle of something."

"Well, I hope it works out between the two of you." He said while feigning a smile.

Returning the same smile, I stopped playing with my hair to look at the boy in front of me. "Yeah. Thanks." I hope that it does too.

Truthfully, I'm just tired of Nondis paying all of the attention to everypony else. I mean I can understand that we made an agreement that he and I would give each other some space to see what we wanted in our future relationships. But I can't bear to watch as my friends fall for him while I'm still trying to do what I can to keep his attention. And after all that I shared with him, I couldn't bear to think about if everything we worked so hard to obtain was suddenly thrown away at the end of this cycle.

I don't like having to take this break, I don't like having to say that my relationship is complex. And I sure don't like how he can easily go on a date with Rarity and not with me. Not once has he even asked me, or considered that I would be a suitable option for a proper outing. I acknowledge that this is petty of me, but I still would like some time to actually bond without our jobs or certain laws getting in the way. I just want to have some fun outside of the castle or some ceremony where either he or I are at the center of attention. I just want the two of us to go someplace and enjoy the venue without the extra interruption.

If Rarity can do it, then so can I.

Another pause grew between the two of us as Flash pulled out his phone and looked through something. He continued to peck away at his phone as he stood there, completely silent. Suddenly, Sunset spoke up. "So, are you going to check up on that reservation?"

"Yeah!" He said as he put down his phone. "I was just... answering a text."

...You know what, that's it! Maybe I should bring him here for our first date. If he and I come here, there's less of a chance that he and I will be followed by the press. Not only that, but here I'll have friends who will do everything they can to make sure that we go off without a hitch. And not only will I show support to Flash, but I can also introduce the girls to Nondis. Not to mention the technology here will be similar to that of his own world, so he should be pretty comfortable. "So... this thing is next Saturday?"

Flash back to me with a somewhat eager expression. "Yeah."

"What time?"

"We're gonna try and shoot for seven that evening. We'll be done by nine." He answered with a little more life in his words.

"Great... I'll see if Nondis wants to come around, that way you all can meet each other."

"That... sounds like fun." He answered, sounding unexcited about it. "I'll meet you there."

Flash walked off to the counter and met up with his friends. Both of them shook their heads and covered their faces as he shrugged back at them. Meanwhile, Sunset rose from the table and sighed with relief. "You handled that better than I could."

"I just don't see why it was so difficult to begin with." I answered back.

Rainbow spoke up once more. "You would if you knew what we knew." Her words earning a look of disapproval from the others.

"Well we can't say what he told us not to, but we can say this. He hasn't really been in any stable relations since your departure following the Sirens." Rarity added. "Though he has tried admirably to do so, it's just that a certain name comes up in every conversation."

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"...We tried to start over." Sunset quietly confessed.

"And?" I inquired.

"He felt that our past interaction left too much of an impression. Once again, my past sins come up in ways I didn't think were possible. So he left me alone after that, and held off on any interaction with girls. Guess that special thing that took his heart by storm never really came back to check in on him."

At this point, all I had to do was fill in the blank. "Because of me?"

"But hey, I didn't tell you anything." She said as she pulled out her phone. "Besides, what else can I do if I can't make up for past mistakes? I moved on months ago."

"Then why did you hide your face when he came here?"

Sunset looked over to the counter as Flash and his friends walked off with treats on hand. "Well, I can't really say that I'm proud of myself. But I kept the information of you being in a relationship a secret from him. I just felt it was a little painful for me to break the news to him, so I left it up to you. I'll admit that I was a little jealous of him fawning for you, so I just never told him anything. Big mistake, I know. I'd say that you were doing fine and tell him that you were happy, but I never went into detail of what was going on with you. He would've been... desperate, you know?"

"Desperate?" I asked with a furrowed brow.

"Sunset, do you really think this is appropriate?" Rarity questioned with a hand on her shoulder.

"...I never promised Flash anything. But since Twilight's managed to find out on her own, I might as well say it." She said before she turned back to me. "Twilight, I think this break between you and Nondis has been one-sided as hell."

I felt my heart drop into my stomach as soon as I processed the words that came out of Sunset's mouth. I already knew exactly where she was going with this conversation. I could only shake my head in response as she continued to confirm what was to be my worst fear.

"As a friend, I'm asking you to consider Flash as an option."

Author's Note

The funny thing about real life is that this occurs too often. If an opportunity reveals itself to one, most others in their emotions would choose to explore that option before deciding that it's worth the risk to their relationship. Sometimes the risk pays off, other times it can be harmful to the better. Either way, someone is coming out maimed.

Either way, what's good for the goose (Twilight) is good for the gander (Nondis). But the question is how do they react to the circumstance before them? Do they agree to take the option, examine the product before buying in, or leave it on the shelf?

Also on the Flash thing... It's been 47 chapters since Twilight has made an attempt at Flash. However I specified that alternate dimensional beings may hold different feelings in contrast to the counterpart that exists in the original world. I have made it that Flash in the pony world is accepting to Twilight's friendship, but he knows about all the strife that comes along with being in an actual relationship with her (subtle foreshadowing to chapter 8). So in his rejection, he spared himself of the trouble.

But this Flash only knows the Twilight that he keeps bumping into, the girl that keeps smiling back at him, the one that hugged him, and if you've seen Rainbow Rocks, the one he nearly kissed. His feelings for the pony princess is a little stronger than usual, as absence makes the heart grow fonder. And hearing of her through Sunset, the girl Twilight reforms, makes him want her even more.

But this brings me back to the top of the board, what is Twilight's reaction to hearing that she may have to play foul in order to make things fair? Next chapter will reveal the answer.

Please don't shoot me.

Chapter LI

***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

"Me, with Flash? NO WAY! I can't do that to him, or Nondis for that matter."

My sudden outburst seemed to have grabbed the attention of everyone in the parlor. After a quick gaze-around, I confirmed that Flash and his friends were nowhere to be seen. Catching my breath on that note, I found myself burying that thought deep in my mind. I needed it buried enough to where that thought became nothing more than a forgotten occurrence. I won't even think of it.

"Twilight, look at me." Sunset requested while trying to grab my shoulder.

"No. I'm not doing it." I answered with growing frustration, pushing her arm away. "I have more respect for Nondis than this."

"Even though he doesn't seem to give it back?" Rainbow said as she pulled out her phone. "That's like him getting nudes from somebody else! And we already know that he kissed another girl behind your back."

Wait, does she mean back in Nondis' world? Cause that was the only instance I told her about, not even including the situation with Rarity. "Well to be fair, he and I did get into a fight over it and I ended up doing something... unspeakable."

Fluttershy grabbed her backpack straps tightly as she asked quietly. "What did you do?"

"...I kinda slapped him."

Applejack rolled her eyes as she waved my confession off as insignificant. "Girl, please. If he done got caught foolin' round me, Ah woulda found more than a slap in my system. Ah'm like a bull, mess on me an y'all best be ready for them horns."

"But I made him bleed!" I said, trying to get her to understand how much I hurt him in doing it.

"Dearie, did you wash your nails after... um... wait..." Rarity started to fumble around with her thoughts as she spoke. "I know ponies have hooves, but wouldn't that result in something more blunt? Or did you end up breaking his nose?"

"I didn't do any of that! I just slapped him with my wing."

The others didn't seem to convinced. "Yer wing? Ah know they're big and all but was that the best you could come up with?" Applejack questioned.

"Actually, pegasi wings are very sharp when the owner becomes agitated or panicked. So her slapping him with a wing in something as tense as a fight would probably leave a nasty-looking scar." Sunset clarified, the others nodding with understanding. "But still, I haven't seen anything like that on him."

"He's wearing makeup every time he goes out. But it's there, and it's just as big as ever." I added.

"Again, horns." Applejack briefly interjected. "He done messed with the wrong one. An Ah just don't get it, why would he leave someone of yer league fer some floozey?"

Rarity is not a floozey. "Um, can we just all agree that Nondis did some bad things, but doesn't deserve to be betrayed like this?"

"Sweetie, dearie, darling... no." Rarity answered. "It's not about the matter of disrespecting him, it's the matter of respecting yourself."

Fluttershy looked towards Rarity as she followed up. "It's also about proving to yourself that you're capable of independence. You can't have a circumstance where he becomes the controlling one in the relationship. If anything, you have to dictate the pace and be the one to set the tone. If he doesn't respect your new boundaries, then it's time to let him go."

I never thought those words would leave her mouth, Fluttershy of all people. But there's much more to it than they know. "But it's not that simple."

"Twilight, you and Nondis agreed to a break. This is your chance to make the next move." Sunset said as she grabbed my hands. "And trust me when I say that your decision to give Flash a chance would ultimately show Nondis that he's not the only interest you have. It will cause him to think. It's not revenge, it's a show of being able to move on."

"So what, I'm just gonna hold his heart hostage?" I asked angrily, pulling my hands away from her.

"He already has yours in a cage." Rarity stated. "The only difference is that he left you with a large-enough gap between the bars where you can just simply roam free."

I can't. "...I'm not ready for that just yet. There's much more to it."

"What more is there!?" Rainbow asked loudly.

I looked to Sunset, who looked at me with pity as she already knew what I was dealing with. She couldn't do much but shake her head. I took in a deep breath and gave my answer. "I can't tell you now. Doing so would be a danger to not just all of you, but also to what's taking place behind the scenes. I know that Nondis is doing some hurtful things, but there's gotta be a reason for him stepping so far out from himself. He's never like this nor has he shown that he was like this before."

Everyone sighed with frustration as they threw the conversation to the wayside. Rarity shook her head as she mumbled. "Poor dearie, he's got you that tied down."

I stood from my seat and slammed my hands on the table, ignoring the stinging as I shouted back to her. "He's my fiance! I'm not going to throw him away like that!"

"Fiance?" Everyone looked at me with shock as their jaws slacked and fell.

"We're getting married... at least we're supposed to be." I then turned to Sunset with a scowl. "And I'm not going to put Flash in a situation he can't handle. I am going to make my own decision without hurting anypony... anybody in the process."

Sunset looked away from me as she spoke once more. "Twilight, we're just trying to show you that you can go another route. It's not like I asked you to sleep with Flash, I just asked you to give him a chance."

"For me to break his heart when I finish?" I questioned passionately. "No, I'm not gonna hurt him. I have my own wounds that need licking, I can't cause another pain because of some knee-jerk reaction... not again."

Sunset frowned as she looked back to me, this time with a pleading expression. "A date. Give him that much. You don't have to go far, you don't even have to kiss him or anything. Just go as friends, and let the conversation do the rest."

"I've already scheduled a date with Nondis this upcoming Saturday. Now Flash can meet Nondis and they can interact, but I won't go as far as talking with him outside of Nondis' company."

Rarity looked to me with worry on her face. "Why are you willing to put up with so much from him?"

I already knew where this conversation was going, and opted to stop any further suspicion. "It's my own choice, nothing else. He's not a horrible being, he's wonderful with a heart of gold, he may be confused at times but I know that he only seeks to do right by everyone. You haven't seen him at his most vulnerable, nor do you even know the sacrifices he makes. He fought my brother just to be in my corner. He risked his life to save everyone, including my parents. And there are so many stories that others would have of him, horrific stories that he ended up writing towards a brighter direction. And I'm just going to throw all that good away because of a single flaw? I may be stupid in saying this, but I'm going to love him... even if I have to learn how. It might not be the easiest way or the one that makes sense, but it's the right way."

The entire eatery was silent as the sounds of footsteps came even closer to our table. Everyone at our table wouldn't say much of anything else as they all quietly acknowledged my statements. But the silence was soon broken as a large bowl was set at the center of our table.

"Here you go, girls." The cashier said as he began to distribute the silverware.

"What took you so long?" Pinkie asked angrily.

"Freshly made wafers, hot from the griddle. Figured you'd like that, ma'am." He said before quickly walking back to his post.

For a brief moment everyone looked to Pinkie, who picked up her spoon and turned to the rest of us with a stoic expression. "...He's not that cute."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

***Point of Perspective: Nondis***

Well it goes without saying that I had a pretty enjoyable evening. Celestia made a guest appearance for the show, watching as the six-member stunt group took to the skies to perform a series of daredevil stunts that were deemed far too insane for any normal pegasus to perform. But being that they were so impressionable to the younger members of the audience, they brought out a flying mascot who flew out with the Princess to give out the standard message of 'Don't try this at home'.

Rainbow quickly informed me that she did just that when she got home when she was at such an age, her father ultimately tying her wings to her body and bolting her room shut so that she'd keep from hurting herself. And it didn't get any better for him when she got older.

Going by her current status, those risks are paying off handsomely.

We left the Cloudsdale Colosseum as the sun was setting over the horizon. Several young ponies flew out in droves, performing backflips, somersaults, and barrel rolls. The smiles on each one of their faces as their idols finished performing for them, they were absolutely ecstatic. Rainbow continued to rave on about how she tried a few of the stunts that they pulled, saying how easy or difficult each one was. As she rambled on, I felt the familiar vibrations against my leg. Pulling out my phone, I saw that it was Stanton calling me for something. Putting her on hold for a moment, I quickly answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Nondis, big bro, how and what are you doing?"

"Well, I guess you could say I'm seeing strange clouds and spaceships over Austin. What's up?"

"You high, bro?"

"On life, yeah. Just got through with a big party yesterday. So I'm kinda in the rehab, but at the same time I'm okay. I feel great."

He proceeded to chuckle as he carried on. "Yeah, Melanie was telling me something about that party y'all had. She said that it went on all night and that she kinda took off early. You and Cliff were the only ones that stayed up."

"We weren't the only ones." I mumbled quietly, unwittingly forgetting that my mouth was still against the receiver.

"Excellent observation, my dear Watson. Shall I proceed to call you Smartass?"

I rolled my eyes as I answered my younger brother. "Of course, sir. Might I try a new name in your honor, Shitlock?"

Rainbow flew beside me as she asked quietly. "Who are you talking to now?"

"My brother." I answered, pulling the phone from my ear.

She nodded as she glided down towards the phone and screamed. "Sup, Nondis' big brother!"

He groaned with uncertainty as he spoke. "Who the fuck was that? Was that your girl Bella?"

HELL NO! "Just a friend I'm hanging out with. She's not even into me like that."

"You don't know that." Rainbow said in a mumble, causing me to look at her with a serious expression. "Sheesh, I'm just yanking your reigns."

"Yeah, just don't yank too hard." I really don't need to have any more ponies confessing to me at the moment, I just got two on my plate as is and I can't afford to get myself into anymore trouble with Twilight.

"What's up, handsome?" Those words were stealthily inserted into my ears as I jumped in response.

Upon getting something that felt like a kiss just under my ear, I leaped back for a few feet. "SHIT! What was that?"

"Uh oh... here we go again." Rainbow said with a sigh.

"Here goes what again?" I questioned.

"I don't see how we're going again if we didn't go the first time."

Oh... oh no. That raspy voice, almost sounding as if it's been years of smoke and whiskey done it's toll on her vocal chords. "Captain Spitfire... What a pleasant surprise." In speaking of trouble...

"Captain Nondis P. Haines, you're looking good as usual." She complimented with a smirk.

"I see you remembered my name this time."

"Hey, did I call at a bad time?" Stanton asked on the phone. I had completely forgotten that he was still on the line as this conversation was taking place.

"What was that? Who's voice is that? Where is it coming from?" Spitfire questioned as she looked around me.

As I held off the orange pegasus with an arm, I tried to respond back. "Yeah, I'll probably hit you up in a─"

"Why in a bit? You and me could hit it right now, if you want it." Spitfire said, finishing my sentence.

"Damn, okay." Stanton said in response to Spitfire's words.

As I was holding my phone away from my mouth, I tried to stiff-arm the orange pegasus to give myself some breathing room. But as she complained, I started to catch a familiar scent of alcohol. "She's drunk again, isn't she?" I asked Rainbow.

"She's always drunk after a show. But the thing about her is that she's one of those... functioning drunks. You know, the ones that can drink and still operate like a normal being?"

I find that hard to believe, but there's more than one instance of that being a real thing... even in my world. They can keep high-profile jobs while suffering their addiction, but it would never show unless you actually seen it. It's kinda scary once you see it for yourself. "I guess. I asked because her breath is like it didn't get any less Bourbon-smelling than last night."

"That's Spitfire for you." Rainbow answered with a shrug. Okay, better question, why are all the high-ranking members of the guard drunks?

Before I could get any resemblance of an answer, Spitfire cut across from my left and held my right ear, her alcoholic breath filling my nostrils as she spoke. "Mmm... I know what you like. I know that you're pent up from dealing with your pretty little princess, I bet that even after that party she didn't even so much as touch you. You wanna get off, I got you covered. C'mon, let me fuck your brains out."

The way she just quietly whispered that in my ear was nothing short of a rousing statement, but the booze on her breath was definitely an outstanding testament as to why that would be a bad idea. But her constantly nibbling at my ear was beginning to make it a little difficult to say no... a little.

"Um, Captain, don't you think Soarin's looking for you?" Rainbow threw in, mainly to get a response from the inebriated pegasus.

She pulled off of my ear and groaned with disgust. "Ugh, that fuck? He's probably out nailing Fleetfoot right now. You know he has a thing for you blues." She said while glancing towards Rainbow Dash, causing her to blush a bit.

"Yeah, I kinda got wind of that. He's not my type."

"Seriously? I thought that you liked the 'no-strings-attached' thing."

"I do, and frankly I don't care too much about commitments right now, haven't found anything worth keeping. But Soarin's a total tool, he tries too hard to get laid by any mare he comes in contact with. If he wants it, he's gonna have to work before I pull my tail aside for him."

"Wait, why don't you just hold off until you meet the right one?" I questioned. "That way you don't get hurt."

"Because sex isn't the be-all-end-all to things." She answered while hovering in mid-air. "Sex is recreational, it's fun, it's also natural. I'm not gonna offer go around giving it away at the same time, but I'm not gonna let it be the sole bargaining chip in my arsenal."

"PREACH!" Stanton hollered from the phone... Ah shit, I forgot it was still on call. "Sex isn't some shit you can just say 'it is bad', it's perfectly normal. You can have a relationship later on when you feel like you wanna settle down. But this is our youth here, let's have fun! Fuck that shit about you gotta find someone to love right now, take the love shit slow. You wanna have a good relationship, you have to get around and see what you like! But don't let the good sex be the only thing you want."

"He sounds like he got his shit straight." Rainbow said with a proud smile before screaming into the phone. "You gotta name?"

"Stanton." He replied. "Nondis, who the FUCK you with? I like this chick."

Before I could answer, Rainbow hollered into my phone. "I'm Rainbow Dash, and the other one you're hearing is Spitfire. We're both pegas─"

Yanking my phone away now. "My brothers don't know about this shit yet!" I screeched through clenched teeth while pressing the receiver into my chest.

"What do you mean they don't know? You nearly died like three times and you were honored in a big ceremony just yesterday!"

"What ceremony? You were honored?"

I really should've considered using the mute option. Ugh... this is going to be hell. "Hey, what are you doing tomorrow?"

"Classes, a bunch of them that I don't really want to attend. But can we talk about all this honored and you being nearly killed? I feel like you have a totally different life going on when you're with this Bella chick and her friends. Hell, they sound like a wild bunch."

I'd much rather not, but since he's going to be asking a million questions, I figure that I should go on ahead and answer them before he gets to asking around. Last thing I need right now is getting mom and dad involved when I don't even have a clue as to how they'll react from this. But if I've gained anything from Melanie's visit, I'd say that Stanton would be cool with it. But I'm gonna need some major convincing to get this shit done. "Where are you now?"

"I'm at the campus. Why, is something wrong?"

Yeah, let's just get this part over with so that I can make this upcoming weekend a little easier for me. If I get a strong-enough support network, then I can face my parents with confidence. "I need you to come by my apartment by tomorrow morning, let's try for ten."

"I can't, I got classes in the mornings."

Oh yeah, I almost forgot that he was in college. "Tell them it's a family emergency regarding your former missing brother. I'm sure the school and your coaches will give you a pass if you give out a notice tonight." Because the best thing about being in college is that they don't have to call up to your folks and get a pass.

"What do I say to them? You know they're gonna ask about the cause of your issues."

While that much is true, they won't go too far into questioning it. He can just say it's a personal matter with the family and get off with minimum punishment. But I don't wanna risk that. Maybe I can cook up a little something from past experience... Okay, I got one. "Um... I was mugged by a guy named Jasper. He beat my ass with an aluminum bat, and I'm in stable condition while suffering a concussion, three broken ribs, several contusions, and a fractured collarbone. I'm currently instated at University Medical on East 15th Street. The guy that beat me was found and put in the slammer downtown, Cliff and Rickey are my witnesses."

A long sigh came out as Stanton expressed his amazement. "...You're really good at coming up with excuses. That sounds pretty fucking legit."

Well, the only parts that are lies are the ones about me being bludgeoned with a baseball bat and being in a hospital. The rest is actually factual, even with my quick recovery. "What can I say, watch a lot of Law and Order."

"You hate that show."

Still do. "I tried getting into it, just not my cup of tea. I'm more into Scrubs."

"Yeah... but why do you want me over there at ten in the morning?"

"Because Alex won't be available in the evening. Morning would be the best time for me to explain everything to you. And from the way things are, it'll take up most of the afternoon as well."

"You're trying to get him to come over too?"

"Yeah, I'd figure that I'd tell you both what's been going on with me. And this time you'll be getting the details of it all." No point in leaving one brother out and having the other in the know. It would be best and easier to get the both of them here and tell them the truth.

"...I'm really worried. What you got going on over there?" He questioned, his tone seeming to be a bit softer than usual.

It took me a while to think about how I was going to put it in words that he would be able to understand. But I knew that I had to be straight forward with him, so I can't take any shortcuts. With my stomach almost pushing its way up my chest, I confessed to my younger brother. "Okay, don't tell mom or dad. But I happen to undergo a bunch of shit that could kill me in an instant. I've nearly died twice now and Mel was telling me that I should go ahead and let you guys know what I'm doing. So if something was to happen to me, you'd be in on the loop."

By now, he started to show the nervousness in his voice. "Okay... I can already say that I'm not gonna like what you're gonna tell me."

"It's not a matter of telling than it is showing. I don't wanna hide from you guys anymore. So if you can, please come on by so I can get this mess off my chest."

"You're gonna be okay, right?" He asked, sounding as if he was ready to hop in the car and burn his motor out on the freeway.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"I mean nobody makes up those kinds of stories on the fly, not that fluidly. Are you sure you're okay?" He emphasized his question, trying to get something out of me other than what I had already told him.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just make sure you get down here safely."

"Sure. I'll keep in touch with you."

"Thanks─"

He interrupted me, this time sounding a bit angry. "Hey. If you got some guys fucking with you, you let me know. I'll fuck their shit up real nice-like."

"Yeah, okay. See you tomorrow." I replied with nonchalance, trying to sell him on the fact that I was completely at ease.

"Later, bro."

Three beeps indicated that he managed to hang up, his name disappeared from the screen as I locked my phone and replaced it back into my pocket. Rainbow hovered beside me while she spoke.

"So, they're coming tomorrow?"

Though I was happy that I was finally getting a chance to get my brothers in on what's going on, I couldn't help but to feel a sense of discomfort crushing me as the realization came to mind that I was going to be talking to my brothers. My day had gone south just that quickly. I didn't know how I was going to get these guys introduced to this society, and here I am winging it like I'm perfectly fine with this. What the hell, was I even thinking?

You can thank me later.

Figures...

"Nondis?" Rainbow asked once more.

"Don't talk on my phone unless I give you permission to do so, okay? My brothers didn't know a damn thing and I didn't want them to until I found a way to get them acclimated." I snapped back to her quietly.

"You could've just cut that thing off, you know." She does have a point, now that was on me. "Besides, I thought you would've told them what was going on with you already. I mean they're your family, shouldn't they be the first to know?"

Easier on paper than it is in practice. "Dash, if you knew anything about my past life on the other side, you'd find out just how quick I am to confide in anyone OTHER than family."

I walked off towards the balloon, quickly gathering my thoughts for tomorrow. Spitfire, seeing the anxiety on my face, realized that now wasn't really a good time to flirt and proceeded to fly someplace else. Rainbow Dash, however, was quick to trail after me. As I climbed inside of the balloon, I had to duck my head below the awfully-low clearance and sit myself down. As I remained in the basket, I could see the familiar shadow of the cyan pegasus perched over the rail, the silhouette draping over my own and onto the other side of the basket.

"...Sorry." She whispered quietly. Her sudden softness causing me to look back up to her as she stared back down to me. "I guess I kinda messed up big, didn't I? I mean, I didn't mean to get involved with something so personal to you."

I'm more frustrated with myself. But at the same time, I couldn't just have her blurting out that she was a pegasus or something. That would've made the whole conversation we were having just a little weird for Stanton to handle. And I have no idea of how I was going to approach tomorrow, considering that Cliff, Rickie, and Melanie had classes tomorrow. I was going to be on my own with this, and it's not going to be easy.

"I can make it work. But I wanted to give it some time so that way I could come up with the proper method of approach. Guess that's off the table now." I made my thoughts known to the pegasus pony, letting my head drop a little more as I felt my mind struggle. For a few moments, we didn't say anything and I just kept my head down as I contemplated on how I was going to convince them that this was... ugh... I have nowhere to go from here.

Eventually I felt a tap on my shoulder, causing me to raise my head. "Hey, I don't like owing anypony favors! So whatever you want, I'll do." Rainbow said as she climbed inside of the balloon.

"Don't bother."

"Nondis, please. I screwed up when I told him my name, so now I gotta pony up for it."

"Why even? You're good." I said, trying to make her understand that I wasn't really in the mood to be 'reimbursed' for her actions.

"NO I'M NOT!" She insisted, grabbing my shirt.

"Why do you feel so indebted?" I asked while trying to free my shirt from her grasp.

"Because I'm me! I don't owe anypony any sort of favors! If I do anything, I'm paying you back right then and there! So whatever you want, I'll do it!"

"Don't let your pride get in the way. That's what I want you to do." I answered, knocking her hooves out of the way.

"That's not good enough!" Again, she hooked her hooves back into my shirt.

"Then what do you want to do?"

By the time I finished asking my question, she had just noticed how close she was to me. She started to grow flustered as her cheeks turned pink, her face contorted into a violent scowl. "...I really don't like you."

"What?"

"You're making me put that on the table, aren't you?"

I became uncertain as to what she was going on about, hoping that she wasn't going towards any physical direction. "What are you talking about?"

She slammed her hooves into my chest and asked in an unusually feminine voice. "...What do you want from me?"

"If you're trying to sell yourself short, then I'm afraid that you're in for some bad news." I responded, trying to not say it directly.

"I'm not selling myself short! I just..." For a moment, she remained still before tightening her grip on my shirt and whispering back to me. "I'm saying that if you want, you can get to know my personal issues."

"There's no stealthy innuendo to your statement, correct?" I questioned, being indirect on what I was implying.

"If you've got sex on the mind, then you're gonna be in for some disappointment." She bluntly answered with a dead tone.

Oh, thank God. "Never asked, nor do I want to know about your personal issues."

Though I wasn't trying to come off as mean, I just didn't feel myself ready to take on more than what I'm already swamped in. But Rainbow didn't seem to see it from that perspective. "...Why not?"

"Why should I when you never tell me? It's too invasive." Not to mention that I can't just go around carrying everyone's emotional baggage.

Now you're just being selfish.

Rainbow tapped against my chest, still bearing that scowl on her face. At least the light raspiness in her voice returned. "But I invaded yours. You have a right to invade mine."

"I've got enough baggage I'm carrying, no thanks." When those words carelessly left my mouth, I felt something inside of my abdomen push back into my diaphragm, a brief but powerful chill that told me that I was doing something wrong. Now that I think about it, I am being selfish. I'm going back to that same mode I was in when I was younger. I'm busy trying to wall myself off instead of working towards a solution. I really should apologize─

"...You're carrying it, and you don't have a choice."

...Let me hold off on that. "What makes you say that?"

"Because we're friends, dumbass!" She said, grabbing my head and butting into my forehead with her own.

"OW!" I shouted as I felt myself becoming all the more combative. "We don't even really interact like that. We never did, not even in the months I've been here."

Again, she gave me a solid buck in the head as she burrowed her forehead against mine, her eyes locking on mine. "But it's never too late, we're buddies. And I don't like hanging around ponies I barely even know. When I hang around you, it means I wanna get to know more of you. To me, you seem like this one pony I see everyday and never really talk with one-on-one. The last time we even had something like that was when you were on your first day of patrol, and I was giving you instructions."

"So you're saying that I don't hang out with you enough?"

Yet again, she rammed her head into mine, causing me even more discomfort. "Exactly! Everypony I know has had a moment or two with you, to get to know a piece of you, that you that you claim is your past self."

"But what if I said that my past self was nothing that I wanted to talk about, that it was nothing like the me I am today?" And I almost showed a piece of that side just now.

Before her head came ramming back in, I placed my hand in the way to take the blow. Instead of hurting my forehead this time, it was my fingers that took the punishment. She didn't seem to slow at any given point either. "Then I'd be getting to know a lie. I wanna know the truth about you, not some stupid shit you did when you were younger. I wanna bond with you, be your friend! I hate being called your friend and I know almost nothing about you! The way you and your human friends interact, the way you and our friends interact, you don't share that with me! And frankly I'm beginning to feel cheated out of everypony."

I tried to take a moment to explain myself to her, that I was never really one for socializing. I offered her a glimpse of my past self. "Rainbow Dash... Look, I'm not a book you can just read from cover to cover. It takes a moment to get me to respond to you. You're really big on small talk and can go a mile with it. I'm just getting the hang of it. You're all out there and I'm more to myself. I can socialize with others when I choose to, but not when I'm forced to. I chose to socialize with the ponies here because this was a new experience for me, and I wanted to know more about the world I'm in."

"Oh, I know that." She said as she pulled away completely. Feeling somewhat relieved, I pulled my hand from my forehead. The only thing I seem to have an issue with is that she took the opportunity to pull my hands out of the way while giving me one final butt to the face. This one was significantly lighter, but landed on a still-tender area. "I'm just saying, I'm tired of hearing about you and Twilight, or you and Applejack, or you and somepony else, somebody else. I wanna get to know you, because you're awesome. And you might not know this, but I'm very open to my personal matters when it comes to my friends because I know I can trust them. The more I can interact with you, the better. I want to trust you, I want to give that to you... Is that too much to ask?"

I took another moment to think about everything that happened to me in the past month. Much of it was still pretty overwhelming and I was still recovering from some previous discoveries and incidents. A reluctant confession silently leapt from my tongue and into the world. "...Rainbow, I don't know if I can carry anything else."

The soft sensation of her lips being planted on the top of my head nearly sent me into shock. Instead of looking up to her with surprise, I was more confused. She chuckled as she pressed her hoof on my forehead. "That's what I'm here for, buddy! I'm here to help you get from point-A to point-B with all that stuff in tow. Haven't you learned anything from your months of being here?"

Suddenly, those words echoed as if I was trapped in a massive concrete hall several hundred feet long. The memories began to pour like a light flooding a pitch-black room. In my one moment of selfishness, my weak point of where I decided that I just couldn't function with much else on my back, she reminded me that I wasn't truly alone in this. Yes, I wouldn't have the human assistance like I normally would, but it still stands that I have friends here who would be willing to help me get my point across... even if it was to send my brothers into shock.

Though my mind was still in chaos, I became calmed in seeing that little bit of order revealed itself. Eventually, it will begin to spread and cause me to become serene, but for now that bit of order was just enough to give me some direction on how I would go about with tomorrow...

Not just tomorrow, but from this point onward. "So, if I let you carry this weight, you'll help me get to the next point?"

"What are friends for?" She answered with that smugness, that cocky smile she often wore. Her confidence became infectious, leading me to make my first move since I've been corralled in this basket.

"Okay. Then I know what I want you to do for me..."

When we returned to Ponyville, I tried to meet up with Twilight so that she could undo the spell. Being that I was already finished with my first venture in the skies above, I wasn't too fond of being in the air several thousand feet. Not to mention that the weather at that altitude was a bit nippy.

For a while, I waited in the throne room. I didn't quite understand where she went after I had left, but I wasn't going to use this magic any longer considering that it was said that it would be used for an extra two days on top of today. And even then, she wasn't very sure if three days was the working time frame for us humans. Personally, I'd much rather not find out.

The thought of me walking on those clouds and suddenly plopping through them as if somebody turned off a light switch was very unnerving.

Finally, the familiar patter of hooves sounded throughout the halls. The doors opened to reveal the purple alicorn I've been waiting for. She flinched in response to seeing me sitting here. "Oh goodness. Nondis, you startled me."

"Sorry for that." I responded, standing from my seat to walk up to her. "I just came here to undo the spell."

Twilight tilted her head at my request. "Huh? Why now?"

"...I don't like extreme heights." I answered flatly. "Found that out today, the moment I looked down was when I saw the world spin."

"Oh yeah, the spell kinda does have the side-effect of enhancing any preexisting cases of vertigo. Perhaps I should've checked if that was an issue of yours."

Going back to that train ride that almost got me at the bottom of a ravine two weeks ago, yeah I could see that being an issue. "Yeah, undo me please."

Twilight continued to voice her concern. "Are you sure? We can just give you some ground-based clouds to walk on if you need the boost of confidence."

"Nah, I'm good."

I watched as Twilight's horn lit for a moment and glow white, but suddenly cut off. "Oh, another thing. What are you doing next weekend?"

I had to think for a moment as to what she had planned. "Actually, I was going to try and see if you could see my folks next weekend."

Her face immediately lit up as she ran over to me and grabbed my hand with her hooves, dancing all the while. "REALLY!? Oh my gosh! I would be honored─Wait, as in me still being a pony? In YOUR world?"

Yeah, about that... "Uh, not the pony part. But yes, if you can manage to find some way to turn yourself into a human."

She started to lose that eagerness as soon as the thought started to circulate through her mind. "Oh. Nondis... Um..."

"What?" I questioned.

She proceeded to let me go as she landed back on her front twos. "Oh... what day did you have in mind?"

"I think Saturday would be a good day for us to go there. If not, we can set something up for Friday. Just don't ask about Sunday." Please for the love of all fuck, not Sunday.

She turned around and walked over to the table to sit in her designated seat. Turning back to me, she gave me a saddened look. "I'm sorry, but I have something planned for Saturday. And..."

I circled my hand in a whip as I implored her to continue. "...And?"

"Nondis... I can't change who I am, not this soon."

"Well, why not?" I asked.

"Because, I haven't found any way to get myself to become a human, much less look like you do." She said as she played with her forelegs. "Is there any way we can kinda... postpone our meeting? I mean, I would love to... but..."

"Don't you have a spell that can transform me into a pony? I remember you saying that when you were drunk several months back. So I'd figure that you'd know how to reverse the process."

Twilight shook her head. "No. That's the thing, I was drunk when I said it. I didn't really know how to turn you into one. I was just... drunk and flirty."

"So there's no way you can change? Not even for a day?" Dammit, well there goes my plan with Rainbow Dash, not to mention the dinner on Saturday night.

"I'm sorry. I can work on one this week, but it won't be done by Saturday." She said as she summoned a notebook and a quill next to her side. "But I promise to call on you when I've gotten something cooked up. Would that make sense?"

I sighed dejectedly, feeling nothing more than loss after loss. "Ugh... Well, I can talk to my folks and see if we can reschedule. But they're not gonna like it, especially being that Discord had already signed you up─"

"DISCORD SIGNED ME UP!? HE WAS IN YOUR WORLD, WASN'T HE!?"

Well since he was busted by Fluttershy, I guess there's no point in me trying to cover it up now. "For a short while. But he spoke as you to my parents over the phone. If you had a talk with him, he'd tell you all of the details. I'm more focused on what all I have to get done tomorrow."

Twilight thought about saying something, but froze in place as she took a moment to reset her words and say something else. "...We haven't gone on a date since we've been together."

"Twilight, what does that have to do with anything?" I questioned out of frustration.

"Everything. We just haven't had the time for each other since I was punished. I feel like that date you and Rarity had was something that kinda stepped over the line."

"Twilight, it's not like I slept with her." I answered with a groan.

"Yet!" She quickly interjected. "At this point, I don't even care anymore! What you do now is solely on you!"

Okay, she just... I am so lost. "What? What do you mean you don't care? You just said you felt like me and Rarity going on a date was 'stepping over the line' despite the fact that we agreed to do this to begin with."

"I'm saying that I want an equal opportunity!" She exclaimed. "Just like you said we can go over some things and see if we want to move on, I want to see if we can assess the situation and see if there's a chance we can get back together after this."

"Twilight─"

"I know we're on break! I just want a fair chance for you and me to have some time together, in a way where we can socialize outside of the eyes of every journalist in town. Nondis please, I want to show you just how much I can be to you, not just as your special somepony... but as your girlfriend, your fiancée."

I shook my head as I let myself become distracted by this conversation. "Twilight, we can talk about that later. But tomorrow I need to throw together a plan."

"I'm not moving on from this conversation."

At this point, I became really heated. "Then fucking undo this goddamn spell so I can leave!"

"No!" She answered defiantly. "I won't. Not now, not tomorrow, not ever again! I'm not going to cast another spell for you until you can FUCKING LEARN TO LISTEN TO ME!"

...what?

As her voice rang through the halls, I had to come to grips that this was actually the first time she had screamed at me like this... using profanity. I was instantly flabbergasted, but at the same time, I was still just as angry as I was when she diverted the conversation onto this particular topic.

I took a deep breath and proceeded to back away. "Obviously, we've escalated the conversation just a tad. So what I'm gonna do is back off... and leave you here... because we both need to separate."

She stepped off of her chair as she walked towards me. "Oh there you go, running away like you usually do."

"Twilight, I don't wanna hear this."

She quickly snapped back at me, letting her anger get the better of her. "Then tell you what, next Saturday is a day I will dedicate towards working on my relationship. You don't have to be involved, I could easily find someone else."

She just... yeah.

*SNAP*

"...So... You can find someone else... right?" I questioned, pursing my lips with a sarcastic smirk. "Someone who's willing to fight politicians, who can get to where I'm at right now, can live through all the shit I did, can deal with the bullshit law that continues to punish the both of us? Sweetie, you don't have a fucking prayer in finding anyone like that here!"

"Oh that's the beauty of it, Nondis! I don't have to! I could just simply go with one of your friends, since you've done that to me."

I actually felt my legs move on their own as I marched towards her. "So that's how it is?"

"Yeah. But I have a much better moral compass than you do, so I'm not gonna do that. I'm going to go for something even better, someone who loved me from the start! He doesn't know about all of these stupid laws, he doesn't know anything about these crazy politicians, he doesn't require saving every time I look up, and I don't have to pay for his medical expenses when he goes to a hospital because he doesn't get hurt! I don't have to worry about seeing him die because he's out of harms way!"

"SO I FUCKING BLEED FOR YOU, BERATED, BEATEN, CHOKED FOR YOUR UNGRATEFUL ASS, AND YOU SAY THIS SHIT TO ME!? FINE, GO HAVE FUN! I'D SAY FUCK YOU, BUT I ALREADY DID THAT!"

...You did it again.

...Oh no.

By the time I had realized what I had said, I saw Twilight standing before with a seething frown, complete with tears running down her face. Instantly, I felt my own words cut into me as the guilt slammed right into me. I had done the one thing I had told myself that I would try not to do.

"Twilight..."

She tried not to show any emotion in her voice, speaking in a low tone. "...So... goodbye then?"

Ugh... I swear this is like a bad drug. I keep screwing up each time, yet I keep doing this, knowing that it's gonna hurt someone else. "...I never meant to say that... I was pissed, and I just... just screamed."

She used her magic to pull me down, angrily staring at me as she met with me face to face. "...You are..." She couldn't finish what she was saying as she proceeded to break down into tears. "You... I hate you..."

I didn't know what else to do besides wrap my arms around her and constantly tell her how sorry I was in her ears. I did everything I knew, I stroked her mane, I nuzzled against her, I kissed her just below her horn, I squeezed her tightly and cradled her head in my arms. Initially, she pushed off of me, battering her hooves against my chest. But a few seconds in, she just clenched her hooves around my body as she sank into my chest. Not only crying, but screaming apologies at me.

"I'm so sorry." I repeated several times. "I... I was hurt... I snapped... I said that shit I knew I shouldn't have said..."

"I just started throwing things..." She moaned. "Whatever could hurt the most, I just went at it."

I quietly confessed as I continued to clench my arms around her. "Twilight, I was scared. I was so scared. I never been in something like that."

"You're scared!? You idiot, I was the one playing out of my feelings. I wasn't myself."

"...I became something I didn't want you to see."

"We are absolutely horrible at this."

"I have a lot on my mind, I just... ugh. I'm so sorry."

"No... I did something that I just said that I wasn't gonna to do."

I tried to pull off of her to see her face to face, but she used her magic to draw me back in. Her body trembled as she held on for dear life. My hands shook as I tried to make amends.

"Twilight, I don't care what you do. Just don't let us get to that point again?"

"That was me... You tried to walk away and I just panicked."

I shook my head as I kissed her again. "I should've been better than what I was. I didn't need to keep that going, and I did."

"We're both wrong, you idiot."

"I know."

Her foreleg climbed up to the back of my head, caressing me as she lightly rocked from side to side. "We should've... we should've never did this..."

For several minutes, going on to an hour, we stayed wrapped up in each others arms, coddling each other and telling one another how much we didn't mean for the words to leave our mouths like that. That one moment of our emotional weakness ended up completely overwhelming us at that instant, causing us to see just how childish we were being. We bore witness to just how easily our friendship could've dissolved.

It was that obvious just where this was headed.

The Next Day...

The previous night was one that was something that we actually needed to get out of the way. Every last bit of our emotions for the past two weeks were just building and building, eventually it was going to come to where we had a good case of the screams. But when we had finally unleashed, both of us walked away with some pretty deep scars.

Ones that needed immediate attention.

For the first time in weeks, we shared a bed. For the first time since our break, we kissed each other. Oh God, how we missed that one moment of our lips coming in contact with one another. I didn't even care how sinful this was, but we sure didn't bother to think about what we were doing. Everything we did was breaking the rules, and we happily played right through them. I never heard Twilight scream so much. She never saw me convulse so violently. I never saw her back arch so far in. She never got a chance to see my eyes roll back. We sweated underneath the sheets, for hours on end, as we drove for every yard except for the ninth.

Turns out she could still get in trouble for that.

But after countless hours of teasing, the stacked up seconds of each culmination, and several minutes of cuddling one another, we came to a consensus of what our future would consist of. Of course, we also discussed the matter of my brothers' visit. She was very surprised to hear that I would try to regale them here rather than wait for a future time. Realistically speaking, I could've made it up in my mind to cancel this morning's appointment. But I chose to go on with it just to knock off one less obstacle... rather two.

The portal was started once more, the mirror shimmered as I stood in front of it. Twilight pulled at me just before I could leave, turning me around and sinking her lips into mine for yet another time. As she pulled off of me, she muttered at me.

"Remember our promise."

With a nod, I showed my agreement. Though it was something that I had some reservations against, but if she wanted this to be, then I would fight tooth and nail just to see to it that it comes to pass. I owe her that much.

With a brave front, and somewhat shaky legs, I marched through the portal, letting myself become engulfed by the mirror's image.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

From the moment I walked through the door, I could see the familiar set-up of my apartment bathroom. It didn't take me long to get a phone call from my older brother, who was calling to say that they've been knocking on the door for thirty minutes. Of course he would make it a habit of showing up to something ahead of time.

I walked out of the bathroom, into the the hall, unlocked the door and allowed my brothers to enter the apartment. Each one of them made a note of the air being somewhat stale, but that's only natural when you occupy a space and don't really open any windows. Not much I can do about it considering that I'm not here that often.

Each one of them sat on the couch as I walked into the kitchen. "You guys want anything, snack, food, drink?"

"Nah, we ate BK on the way here." Stanton answered as he pulled out his phone. "So whatcha got going on?"

"Nothing much. I'm just gonna get me something to drink before we begin."

Let's be honest, I wanted to take one cap-full of water and sip on it slowly. And we were not going to get started until I had finished my second bottle. But that would be completely wrong, and I don't want to make myself look like a total dick... not when I've pulled out the master-dick card for yesterday evening.

I simply grabbed two bottles and quickly downed the first as I was standing in front of my fridge. After opening the second, I took a bit of it back before closing it back up and making my way back towards the den. Both Alex and Stanton was eagerly waiting for me to say something, while I was just hoping that us sitting here would just magically somehow get them from this side of the mirror to the other. So for a while, we sat still, looking back at each other awkwardly.

"So..." Alex began. "I heard you were staring on Thursday night's game."

"Huh?" I blurted out.

"He means me?" Stanton said as he raised his hand. "I'm getting the first start of my college career."

"Wait, how did you manage that?" I questioned.

Both of them sighed before Stanton answered my question. "You haven't been paying attention? Our first string guy got hurt something fierce. He's got a hairline fracture in his tibia. He's gonna be out for the rest of the season."

"Let me guess, SEC defense?" I questioned.

"We were playing Bama." He quickly answered, causing me to cringe. As much as we hate hearing about them, Alabama was nothing to be played with, even with their overrated schedule.

"So how did that go?" I asked.

Alex shuddered as he looked at Stanton's face. "They lost, 59 to 0."

"ANYWAYS─" Stanton was quick to change the subject. "We're not here to discuss football scores, now are we?"

"From what Stanton was telling me, you've been doing something dangerous." As he glanced to me, I could hear Alex speaking while I opened the bottle of water and proceeded to chug it on down. "He's even heard something about you being honored or something of the like."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, pushing myself to get it over with. "Yeah. That's true."

"You also said something about you being nearly killed twice now, is that also true?"

"...Three times. I had an attempt on my life that I had completely left off the count."

The both of them remained seated as they expressed their outrage. "What the hell are you doing to get yourself in these kinds of situations?" Stanton questioned.

"I'm not doing anything illegal. But at the same time, I'm not doing it here at Austin." The both of them looked at me awkwardly as I rose out of my seat. "Follow me, if you would."

The both of them slowly rose from their seats and followed me to the bedroom. As I opened the door, both of them kinda took notice of my room being in a bit of disarray. But their faces didn't completely twist and turn until I had gotten to the bathroom. When I had let the both of them inside, they both looked at me as I closed and locked the door behind us.

"Guys, I think there's a little something off with the mirror you bought me."

Author's Note

So yeah, things have kinda fallen out a bit this go round. But what will happen next chapter, and what is this promise that Twilight asked Nondis to keep? Answers will ensue upon reading further between the lines. But I can assure you that the next chapter will be interesting.

There was a theme in today's chapter.

That one particular montage paragraph depicting Twilight and Nondis reconciliation, as well as the fight beforehand, it was pretty much written with this theme in mind. Yes I know this is a cover, but I kinda prefer this one. This one is pretty much the words Nondis has in mind as he's... making up.

I'm beginning to think that I should do these themes more often.

Chapter LII

"What do you mean there's something wrong with the mirror?"

Alex looked at me with raised eyebrow while Stanton walked over towards it, taking a look into it to investigate. Upon further viewing, he couldn't be convinced on a visual oddity.

"What do you mean, there's nothing here." He said while looking at the mirror some more.

"Stanton, what does this mirror have to do with anything?" Alex asked with a hand scratching his chin.

I walked through the both of them and stood just in front of it. "It's not so much of a thing you can see, but rather something that's beyond our comprehension."

"If it ain't Narnia or some shit, then you've wasted our time with this stunt." Stanton said with an eye-roll. "Now stop fucking around and tell us what's going on."

Closing my eyes and placing my hands behind my back, I let myself get psyched up for the news I was going to deliver. "So... what if I was to tell you that I didn't wash up on the shores of Louisiana?"

The both of them looked at me with frustration, Alex becoming even more angry with the news. "Are you kidding me? You made up this big story and told everybody that all that shit was actually true?"

Stanton scratched the back of his head as he nodded. "Yeah, I can see that." He confirmed. "When we were on the phone yesterday, he told me this long-winded excuse I could use to skip my classes today. Something about him getting beat up by Jasper and thrown into a hospital."

"Now THAT I would believe." Said Alex. "Nondis was never one to fight very well."

"I love your confidence in me." I replied sarcastically. "It's like you actually trust in me to do one particular thing."

"Yeah, how do you expect me to believe that you beat up a criminal justice major in a one-on-one fight? Not only that, but Melanie's boyfriend?"

"Ex-boyfriend." I corrected. "He's in jail for some abuse charges."

"So, I guess that makes you the main guy that he did the abusing on." Alex retorted.

I proceeded to snap my fingers as I was thinking up of a way to prove to them that I was, at the very least, was truthful about that. But doing that would waste more time than I needed to expire. "Look, we're not here to have this argument about all of this stuff. Can we talk about what happened with the Louisiana wash-up thing?"

"Why!?" Alex questioned angrily. "You just said that was a lie."

"Because I've been trapped in your mirror for almost nine months!" I snapped back, not realizing how little that made sense.

Stanton squinted as he reached out his hand. "What?"

"What exactly!" Alex shouted. "How the hell do you go from drowning in your car to trapped in your mirror!? None of this makes sense!"

"Yeah, you're kinda wasting our time, dude." Stanton cosigned while turning back to Alex.

"Okay, it sounds crazy but it's like Narnia and the Matrix had twins. The first one is like it's pride and joy. The second one is like the illegitimate reject, which is me."

"And you lost me!" Stanton cried out while throwing his hands into the air.

"Alex, Stanton, please just─" Before I could finish, I felt something grab my shoulders and pull me through the portal. The last thing I heard was the terrified screams of my bothers hollering a piece of my name.

Both Stanton and Alex were panicking wildly as they watched their brother fall through the mirror. Rather, they watched two purple appendages cusp his shoulders and yank him into it. Both of them backed away as they watched their brother disappear without so much of a trace. Their immediate reaction was to quickly unlock the door and run outside of the bathroom. By the time the reached the den, the continued to scream at one another.

"WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED!?"

"I DON'T KNOW!"

Stanton paced back and forth as he tried to process what had occurred before their very eyes. "Oh my God... Ooooh my God... God, I know he might not have belief in you... But please don't do Nondis like that."

"Shit, I don't know how we're gonna talk to mom and dad about this." Alex said while clutching at his chest.

"Mom, dad, the mirror we bought Nondis just fucking ate him." Stanton said as he grabbed at his forehead, still cast in disbelief. "I don't know... I don't know anymore."

"Is that the gateway to hell?" Alex questioned with a tremble. "I mean, the last time we heard anything of him before he came back was that he drove his car into the gulf. He was high, he wouldn't have got out in time."

"So you're saying we're dealing with a ghost?"

Alex's eyes expanded as he turned his head towards the room. "...So he was dead this entire time... Then who the fuck were we talking to?"

Stanton followed suit as he slowly walked towards the hall leading up to the bedroom. Suddenly, he heard something fall onto the ground from within the bedroom. Stanton ran immediately for the front door and tried to open it, only to find that the knob refused to budge, almost like it was jammed from turning. In a panic, he proceeded to pull at the door and yank as hard as he could... but to no avail.

Alex quickly went for the windows, trying to unlock it. But much like the front door, the locks were fixated in place. He then walked towards the kitchen, quickly pulling open drawers to find a hammer. As he continued to search, he could hear something similar to a hammer knocking against a table, all of which coming from inside of the bedroom.

Terrified beyond measure, Alex and Stanton just went for whatever they could find in the kitchen that was sharp enough to cut with. Neither one of them wanted to be a victim of some strange demonic creature or apparition to take them and throw them through the mirror. Then suddenly, a voice sounded from inside of the room.

"He's not here."

Stanton quickly reached for his phone and pulled out the number dial, 9-1-1 showing on the screen as an emergency call. But before he could press the call button, he dropped the phone out of a panic and cursed at himself for doing something so stupid. As he reached out for it, the phone moved away from his hand, towards the hall. He reached for it again, only for it to slide all the way down the hall before stopping just in front of the bedroom. Stanton shook his head and backed off.

"You're not getting that back." Alex said while jumbling his breaths.

"Nope. I needed an upgrade anyways." He said as he watched the phone slowly slide into the bedroom.

Alex placed his knife on the table as he took off one of his shoes, placed it over his hand and walked towards the window. Cocking back and driving forward, he let his protected fist land against the glass, only to find that it wouldn't break. Instead, there was some force that prevented the shoe from landing a blow against the glass.

"You're not getting out..."

Stanton screamed back at the room to the top of his lungs. "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US!?"

"...You. Both of you."

The looked to one another and grimaced with fear. Alex slowly walked towards the hall and spoke. "You don't need us. You got our brother, that's good enough."

"Do you want to see your brother again?"

Stanton shook his head as he answered the voice. "Nope, I'm good. Our brother died nearly ten months back."

"He's not dead... He's with us..."

Alex became a little bolder and walked into the hall. "Who are you?"

"I'm a friend. You don't have to be afraid."

"That's a fucking lie!" Stanton exclaimed while trying to pull his brother back.

"For over nine months, we've kept him. And he has been with us, for us. We are not your enemy."

"Well if you kept him, then where is he now?" Alex questioned. "Where did you keep him?"

"If you want to find out, come back to the mirror. There, he will explain everything."

"Who's he!?" Stanton questioned.

"...Nondis."

Stanton turned back to his older brother and pulled at his arm. "I don't trust this."

"Neither do I, we could be getting ourselves killed."

"If we truly wanted to kill you, then it would've happened by now. Stanton... Alexander... please trust us, as your brother has already done."

They looked to each other and readied the knives, quietly nodding to one another. "And if we don't?" Alex inquired.

"Then you'll stay here... The choice is yours."

The two brothers looked to one another a final time before slowly making their way into the hall. Quietly, they crept down the hall and into the room. The knives in their hands trembled as they entered into the room once more. Stanton looked at the bathroom, only to see his phone quickly slide inside. Alex quickly gulped as he nodded his head towards the bathroom.

The siblings walked side-by-side as they entered into the bathroom. Stanton's phone lied at a rest just inches before the mirror. The two of them proceeded to prepare themselves mentally just before the dived in. Alex raised his fist, followed by his index, middle, and ring fingers in secondly increments.

When he counted to three, he pointed towards the portal and moved in. Stanton quickly moved behind him.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

After passing through, both Stanton and Alex stood dumbfounded as they saw an entirely different room than where they walked from. The both of them looked around slackjawed as they tried to contemplate what was going on and where they were. I then quietly shut off the portal as they remained distracted with the architecture. Alex, was the first to speak.

"Okay... where are we?"

Stanton, before passing through the portal, took the opportunity to reclaim his cell phone. He then pulled it out to GPS the location, only to find that he had no connection whatsoever. "Wherever we are, I don't have any signal."

"We're not in Austin."

The two looked back towards me, brandishing kitchen knives as they readied themselves to attack.

I just shook my head in response. "Really? Didn't grandpa always say never bring a knife to a fight if you don't know how to use it?"

"He said that... To Nondis." Stanton said, referencing me in third-person. "But who the fuck are you?"

"Seriously, how did this come up? I've been me for the past nine months. I could tell you everything that's happened."

"Bullshit." Alex denied. "Our brother wasn't nearly as skinny as you are. I thought it was strange how you passed off as our brother... only as a more in-shape... and athletically built... and better-dressed person, BUT YOU GET MY POINT!"

I shrugged my shoulders as I took out my wallet. "Well, that's the thing. I was trained for combat, currently in the military, and I also have a fashion designer as my personal closet. That was in case those were questions rather than observations."

"Look, I could care less. Where the hell are we?" Stanton questioned, tightening his grip on the knife.

"You know, I never really did get to catch you guys' events. Stanton graduated from high-school, biggest achievement to date... aside from winning state in junior year. Then he got recruited by Mr. Sumlin. I can only imagine how proud dad must've been when he saw that coach sitting just across from him at the dining room table. I know exactly how you felt, Stanton. You felt like you made it, that this was the big jump you needed to get into the NFL. So why play for lowly-old Texas in the Big 12 instead of going to the 'Best Damn Conference in American Collegiate Sports'? You chose to go to the SEC because they offered you more. You had a shot against big-bad Bama, and the Devil from Tuscaloosa himself, Nick Saban. You had a chance to show recruiters that you had more in you than what your second-string tag implies."

Alex walked up to me and proceeded to place the knife just inches away from my throat. "You shut up! You weren't even there for anything, much less you trying to clam yourself as our brother."

"Yeah... You know, funny thing about you is this: You and Vanessa, I grew up idolizing your relationship. I mean, I always said that I hated seeing you two hugged up every once in a while, or when she draped her leg over yours. Stupid shit, that's what I'd call it. But in reality, I was envious because I didn't have that, nor did I have anyone who was remotely interested in doing those things with me. And here I am, not even close to being on your level. You got married and here I was, stuck in some world that I had no clue about... or even how I truly got here."

Alex lowered the knife a bit as he whispered back to me. "What do you mean 'some world'? Where is this world?"

Stanton loosened the grip on his knife and leaned against the wall. "So... you're you, right?"

"Yeah, and I had a friend who helped out with all that Paranormal-Activity bullshit." I confessed before I started laughing. "Yeah, she said that you guys sounded scared as shit."

Alex reared himself, raising the knife as he feigned an attack on me. "I'm gonna fucking skin your ass alive."

"I would make fun of you for that, wouldn't I? You've always been a dork." I said, mocking my older brother.

He then lunged at me, giving me possibly one of the most life-threatening hugs I've ever had. I tried to return the hug, but at the same time I was really nervous of the fact that he still had that knife in his hands.

"You're gonna drop that, right?" I barely squeaked out.

"No, I'm still gonna skin your ass."

"Figures."

Suddenly, Stanton dropped his knife and pointed at the doorway. "Uh, guys?"

We pulled off of each other and looked towards the doorway, both Stanton and Alex's eyes expanded as they looked at the purple pony standing in the doorway. She smiled lightly as she watched us have our miniature reunion.

"Oh... it's purple." Alex pointed out.

"Yeah... and small... and cuddly-looking." Stanton added.

"It's all of those things, plus very verbal." I answered while walking towards her.

As my brothers continued to stare for a moment, she raised her hoof and waved at the both of them. Both of them exchanged uncertain looks as they waved back. "Aww... she's so... cute?" Alex said.

"So, you've been hiding all along that you've had a pet the entire time you've been in this world? That's your big secret?" Stanton questioned with a light chuckle.

Twilight smiled coyly as he continued to wave at Stanton. "Actually, he's my pet. I'm the one holding the leash."

That very moment her lips moved and words came running out, their smiles were wiped completely off of their faces. They continued to stare and gawk while I was giving the back of her ears a brief scratch.

"Yeah... just like that, you lovable monster." She moaned while leaning her head back.

Alex had to take a moment to get through his antics. First he opened his mouth to speak, then cut his breath short, pointed to the air, paced back and forth for another twenty seconds, stopped for a few seconds to think of something to say, paced the floor for another five seconds, then walked up to me, and grabbed my shirt with a abstract smile. "...Explain."

"Talking equine creature." I answered.

"Yeah I see that. Detail."

"...They're sapient." I deadpanned, earning a tighter twist on my shirt.

"Hoooooooow?" He asked slowly, causing me to feel relieved that he didn't have a case of bad breath this morning.

I proceeded to throw sarcasm back into his face. "Well Einstein, we believe they have evolved brains that process and produce language and syntax. Also they can make a range of sounds and tones that they use to form hundreds of thousands of words, just like us."

He pulled me over to look at the purple princess standing right next to me. "You, how old are you?"

"Well being that your years are an equivalent to that of our own annual cycles, then I would be eighteen in human years." She answered eagerly.

Alex looked back to me slowly and frowned. "Lovable monster... she called you that."

"Yeah, she kinda calls me that from time to time."

He released me and took two steps back. With his hands pointed to the both of us, he repeatedly crossed them over. "So... you two?" If there's one thing I can say, Alex is far from slow and will piece anything together in the matter of seconds.

"Hi. I'm Bella by the way. Not really my name, but I suppose I was mentioned?" Twilight quickly blurted out, preventing me from saying anything.

He quickly grabbed me and tugged me to come a few inches away from him. With a strained smile and a twitching eye, he questioned me through his teeth. "...What the hell?"

"Well to be fair, I kinda asked myself that when all of this first started."

Alex was very low on patience and was not fond of my jest. He pressed his forearm into my chest and drove me back a few steps before I buckled my legs in place to hold his advance. "Do you not realize that A: This shit is wrong? B: This shit is illegal? C: Mom and Dad will disown you for this?"

"Or D: We're in a totally different dimension where magic is often practiced, where mystical creatures you hear from various mythologies come to life, the pony before you is capable of human intellect and expresses such emotions, laws forbidding interspecies relationships are non-existent, and they are capable of trans-dimensional travel? Sir, this shit is Star Trek levels of out there."

"No, this is apparently The Twilight Zone levels of fucked up!" He answered angrily. "Now please explain how all of that shit makes sense."

I shook my head with a sense of defeat, realizing that their belief would have to come from seeing as well as hearing. I turned to Twilight with a tired smile. "Get him off me, please?"

Alex looked down to see that his arm had locked up somehow. His face began to show abject horror as he noticed that his arm was slowly being moved from my shirt without any physical assistance whatsoever. I backed off and walked over to Stanton, who was still shocked silent.

"Yeah, Twilight here is actually a life-time practitioner of magic. Even so much that she's managed to master levitation, telekinesis, and even... teleportation."

Twilight walked up to the magically-frozen Alex and extended her hoof towards him. "I knew that Nondis had brothers, but never did I actually think that I would get to meet you both today. I was kinda caught off-guard when he told me that he would be getting you two acclimated to what's going on."

Alex flexed his neck, attempting to shake his head. His fear grew even more as he recognized the voice that haunted them earlier. "Please don't kill us."

Twilight reared back a little as she realized that he was still terrified from being frozen. "Oh, no! I'm not going to hurt either of you!" She promised. "That thing back at the apartment was Nondis' idea."

"They're here. So it paid off." I responded with an unapologetic shrug. "Besides, that shit was kinda funny."

"You asshole!" Stanton hollered as he started to walk towards me. "Why the hell couldn't you tell us all of this to begin with?"

...Seriously? "Magical talking unicorns in a land far, far away. Start that off with the words 'Once upon a time' and you would've thought that I was quoting a children's book."

"Yeah. So who's the author?" Stanton asked sarcastically. "Sounds like some kid with a power fantasy who couldn't get popular at school and wrote a story that made them feel better about themself."

Thankfully, this was all just as certain as taxes. "Yup, can't get anymore real than that mashing you took from Bama." Alex shouted to Stanton.

"THAT WAS A BAD DREAM AND SHALL NEVER BE SPOKEN OF AGAIN!"

Twilight looked to me with a quirked brow. "Did I miss something?"

"Football, my younger brother is a student athlete. Went against one of the better schools in the nation and got creamed on from what I last heard."

"OH FUCK YOU!" Stanton shouted to the top of his lungs.

Twilight began to giggle at my brother's response and walked up to him. "Hey, just look on the bright side; there's always next year."

Stanton stared daggers at the small pony. "You have no clue how bad..." He paused for a moment to process what he was doing. "God dammit, now I'm talking to a pony." He mumbled to himself.

"You should've seen Nondis when he first got here. We got him in a bed to recover from a head injury and the next thing he's doing is hiding underneath all of the sheets."

"So are we doing embarrassing moments now?" I turned to her with a false grin.

"Sure we are, pillow face." She smiled devilishly in response.

"I can't say shit about you. FUCK!" I shook with frustration and rage. For me to get one in, I'd have to disclose what happened that day to my brothers. And doing that would give her the automatic win. Either way, she got me. Dammit, I hate it when she wins.

"So... What bizarre womb of fuck did we just walk into?" Alex inquired as Twilight released him. "Are we in Narnia, Oz, Middle Earth... Japan?"

"There would be more prepubescent girls and tentacles if we were in Japan." Stanton joked. "Plus the purple one would be talking to us in Moonspeak."

"Nope, none of that. Though I can confess to you that there's one pony here that can speak Spanish." I responded while scratching the back of my head.

"So is it an Andalusian breed?" Alex inquired.

...Well that's a question I never really did get to ask in all of my time being here. Figures that I don't have that answer considering that I've spent so much time in this world. "Good question. We'll probably ask later."

Alex shook off that question as he proceeded to walk over towards the door leading out into the hallway. "Well let's get back to the main question that was asked when we first got here."

I glanced back to Twilight as I spoke. "Now that I can answer."

It took us a full hour and a half to discuss everything that happened with me in the past nine months. For the most part they took it exceptionally well, but the relationship with Twilight was still murky waters to them. And I haven't even gotten in detail about what was going on with the romantic side of things. I decided to wait until they were somewhat comfortable about the interspecies relations thing before giving them the full run-down of what's been happening with me and Twilight... and others.

Being they're my brothers, I do have to inform them of the Approval Process law eventually. Telling them now would further add to the argument that me and her seeing each other was a bad idea. And I would love to get their help on this, especially considering that Alex was the brains of the litter. Stanton could be of assistance, but I don't see what I could use his brawn for aside from fighting. And that's the last thing I need these two to do whenever they come around.

*BANG*

Each one of us quickly turned to the door with our guards up, anticipating whoever busted down the door like they were going to unload at us. But instead of some intruder with a weapon, we get a particular unicorn clad in his purple armor with a spear in tow.

"Nondis! We've got an emergency─" Shining stopped for a moment to address the elephant in the room... both of them. "So... you two are new. Names?"

My brothers looked at the stallion as they grew surprised of Shining's response, or rather his lack thereof. Twilight answered him before I could so much as inhale. "Shining, this is Stanton and Alexander. These are Nondis' brothers."

Cadance immediately rammed herself into the room, flying at the two towering humans at lightening speed just before stopping a few inches before them. "Holy cow! You guys are huge!"

"Yeah, Nondis happens to be the runt of the litter when it comes to the height department." Stanton said as he pointed at me. "Manlets, will they ever learn?"

I decided to ignore my brother's comment and tend to the more outstanding issue that has revealed itself. "Anyways, what's going on that you gotta be dressed up like that?" I asked the alabaster prince.

"We've got an emergency escort mission, there seems to be high-end trade talks that would take place here in Ponyville. We were given the task of being personal security to Princess Celestia as she carried through her talks with the Crystal Empire and the Neigerian prime minister."

...Okay, I have so many questions now. "Well, let's start with the first question. Why here?"

Cadance wandered away from my brothers for a bit to answer my question. "Because they said that they wanted to be in a location that was considered by many international standards 'low-profile'. Furthermore, Shining and I were still in town due to his sickness from the night before last. Ultimately, we were discouraged from travel as it would put a strain on Shining's recovery."

"What did he have that made him so sick?" Twilight questioned, who as just as curious as I was in the matter of Shining's health.

"He just couldn't travel without the massive headaches. Plus you know how the guards can be once any one of us feels a little under the weather. At that point, we've experienced everything from travel restrictions to dietary supplements."

Stanton looked towards me with a raised brow. "Um, how is it that a security guard is capable of all of this medicinal crap?"

"All guards placed in a position to where they would eventually have to protect royalty would be given the specifics to care for their assigned superior. Allergies, blood types, phobias, whole nine, even food tasting is required in certain circumstances." I quickly responded.

"You're not assigned to one, are you?" Alex asked with a uncertain frown on his face.

"My title is formally Sir Nondis P. Haines, Captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard. So by my job description, I'm assigned to every royal family on staff. If one gets hurt or worse, then it's my head that's going before the parliament."

Both of my brothers looked at each other, cringing as they held their necks. Shining laughed as he clarified my statements. "It's not really his head. But should something occur, then most often the one holding the position would be severely reprimanded. But I can assure you no executions would take place unless it was a traitorous act."

Alex sighed with relief as he turned back to me. "So let me guess, you've got no other choice but to go along with this escort thing?"

As much as I hated the timing of it, I didn't have much of a choice. "Eeeyeeeaaaah, can't skip out."

Stanton stretched his arms as he popped his neck. "Damn, too bad we can't really stick around. I kinda want to know more about this place now that I skipped a day of class for it."

"Yeah." Alex cosigned. "I might have to call the wife and tell her that I'm gonna need some covering for. This is... pretty damn revolutionary, if I should say so myself."

Twilight nodded as she started to formulate some sort of plan. When she looked back to me, I could see the sparks in her eyes as her vision proceeded to manifest into a doable scenario. "Nondis, I have just the plan for how I can get them to see this world from their own eyes."

"What do you have in mind?" I questioned with a concerning stare. "I can't let the masses know that I have siblings right now. That would lead me to having even more problems later on."

"I know. And I also know that you don't really want them wandering through the town without you or some close oversight. But let's just say there happens to be a guard that we can trust, one who won't tell anypony else about your brothers."

By that time, she had me interested in her proposal. "Go on."

Twilight disappeared and then reappeared with Rainbow Dash by her side. It didn't take her very long to get acquainted with my brothers, but it did take Stanton a very long while for him to cope with the fact that he was talking to the same rainbow-maned pegasus over the phone yesterday. Of course, there grew a bit of an awkward silence between him and Alex once she hinted on how exactly they spoke prior to their meeting in-person.

Poor Stanton was absolutely trap-jawed.

Though the silence didn't last for very long as Shining and I started to make our way to the armory and pick out a few weapons to take along with us. Shining wasn't really comfortable with the concept of holding firearms just yet, so he simply stayed with the composite crossbow. I just took a pair of Colt 49's and stuffed them into my pants before walking to the front gate. After our preparations, Cadance, Twilight, Shining, and I made our way towards the Town Hall to commence with our meeting.

Rainbow Dash and my brothers, however... they went a different direction.

--Sugarcube Corner--

Rainbow Dash and the two human siblings walked inside of the the bakery, Alex looking around as the bell rang just above. Both he and Stanton walked into the building, growing more impressed with the level of organization the venue displayed. Ponies quickly walked in and out of the kitchen doors, each one of them quickly taking up inventory of the display case. The first one to notice the rainbow-maned pegasus was none other than the shop's owner.

"Good morning to you Rainbo-OOOLY SWEET CELESTIA!!!" Mrs. Cake shouted as she was taken by surprise by the two humans standing behind her.

Three other heads peered from the kitchen to see what was the cause of the commotion, only to let their jaws fall on one another. Pinkie ran from the doorway to the register, extending her hoof to the display case. "Hey there, you guys look new! Are you new friends of─"

Before she could get really get started on her endless parade of questions, Rainbow stepped in and saved the two from receiving a sea of questions they couldn't answer. "Yeah, they're new around here. The tall one is Stanton, the even taller one is Alex. Apparently they wandered around somewhere from their world and manged to make it out of Everfree alive."

"Did you tell Nondis about it?" The pink pony questioned. "It sounds an awful lot like the first time I found him."

"Nah, he seems to have some sort of escort mission that he's doing. Can't really tend to them if he's caught in his assignments." Rainbow stated as she looked towards Alex

"Oh, well that's too bad. Maybe Nonnie can help them get back to where they belong."

"Yeah, but I did manage to get in touch with Twilight. She says that he preferred that we'd meet up at the usual picnic spot later today so that we can talk things out."

"Well I'll be there then. I wanna see the look on Non-Non's face when he sees that two more humans wandered into Equestria." She cheerfully said before turning to the mildly distracted Stanton, who was looking into the display case. "What can I do for you guys!?"

"Uhh..." Stanton began while squinting his eyes at the sweets behind the glass. "Are these edible?"

Alex walked up to his brother and gave him a quick slap on the head before apologizing. "Excuse us. My brother Stanton here doesn't believe you ponies know how to bake things. It's not as much of it being an insult than it is a culture shock. He means no foul play."

"Oh I get it." Pinkie stated as she tapped on the display counter. "Nonzo had the same reaction when I first told him I was a baker. Nowadays, he loves to come over and eat everything he sees. He loves our apple cream danishes the best."

"Wonderful. Then we'll get two of those, please." Alex ordered, earning a worried look from his younger brother.

"Sure thing! I'll have you guys set up with some of the best sweets in all of Equestria!"

Stanton shoved his brother out of the way as he questioned the pink mare. "Wait a minute, don't we have to pay?"

The pink pony shook her head as she giggled colorfully. "Silly billy, you don't need to pay! You guys are new! If anything, I should be setting you two up for a HUGE party! I'm wondering what I should call it though."

"Oh no, you don't need to do that!" Stanton responded quite loudly. "We're not even gonna be here for that long, right?"

"Hmmm... I don't know. Nonnums was here for a whole nine months before he went back to his world. But I'm kinda happy he didn't go back like he originally planned to do, otherwise he wouldn't be here now."

Alex looked around before grabbing a chair to sit in. "So, this guy you keep referring to... Does he have a name, because I'm hearing you call this guy all sorts of names."

"Nondis P. Haines? Yeah him, he's like one of my bestest friends!"

Pinkie smiled brightly as the two siblings looked to one another. After exchanging a nonverbal glance, they proceeded to turn their attention back to the pink pony before them. "So can you tell us more about this Nondis guy?" Alex inquired, hoping to gain some perspective. "Like, what does he do and how do you feel about him?"

Pinkie eagerly tapped her hooves against ground, pouncing around until she was sitting at the table with the two brothers. "Oh where do I even start? Nondie has done a lot since he's been here! He joined the military, fought a bunch of changelings, stole the heart of a princess, invited a few friends over, saved a few lives of ponies throughout town..."

"Not to mention becoming the first human in the E.U.P. Guard." Rainbow added enthusiastically. "I didn't think he'd get past Shining Armor when the training started, but he surprised me. Oh boy, let me tell you, Shining had it out for that guy! Thankfully they seem to be on good terms nowadays."

"That sounds promising." Alex said while looking to Stanton.

"So... Did this Nondis guy get beat on while he was here?" Stanton questioned. "I'd really hate it if one of our own was wailed on and he couldn't really defend himself."

It was Rainbow and Pinkie who exchanged looks this time. The prismatic mare ducked her head as she took to the air. "Oh... Hey, I'm gonna go check back with Twilight. Gotta get the usual update. You three keep on keeping on while I go and... um... that."

The cyan pegasus quickly bolted out of the room, leaving the three to converse with one another. Pinkie blushed a bit as she confessed to them about some past issues. "I can't say that it keeps happening, but it's more due to an accumulation rather than what happened the first time."

Stanton tried his best not to let himself address himself as the brother of the individual she spoke of. "Okay... so what happened with my─ I mean, this guy on the first go?"

Pinkie paid the slip-up no mind as she quietly looked back towards the kitchen, seeing a brown stallion still poking his head out of the doorway. "Oh, give me a second." She said as she used her hoof to pull her front-most curl down, causing a notepad to spring out like a slice of toast.

Grabbing the notepad, she darted over to the kitchen and informed the brown stallion of a take-out order that needed to be delivered to a residence across town. With a salute, he grabbed a box from within the kitchen, filled it with cupcakes and darted out the door, leaving behind only a brown blur. With a sigh of relief, Pinkie sat back down at the table and looked back towards the moderately dumbfounded humans.

"Sorry about that, now where was I?"

Alex shook himself out of his stare and carried on from where Stanton left off. "This Nondis guy getting beat up." He then turned back to his younger sibling and whispered under his breath. "As usual."

"Right!" Pinkie confirmed. "That was something personal that involved me and I'm not sure if I can tell you guys what all happened. But I can say that he took one for me and I haven't really looked too far away from him since... Or rather I can't seem to get him out of my head."

"Oh, so you like the guy?" Alex joked, nudging his brother with a playful smile.

"Like him? Well... you could call it that."

Alex stopped smiling as he turned back to the pony with shock. Both he and Stanton couldn't believe what had come from her mouth. "So is that a confession?"

"Not really. But we kissed only twice. Now THAT'S a confession." Pinkie said with a carefree grin.

Stanton's forearm dropped onto the table as his jaw fell from place. Alex merely stood up and walked away for a short bit before sitting back down and laughing back at her nervously. "You kissed him?"

Pinkie bit her lips as she played with her forelegs. "If the stallion that left here didn't show up when he did, we'd be a little further along, both me and Nondie."

"A little further along?" Alex questioned.

"As in how?" Stanton added.

"As in we were a door away from... um... I really shouldn't be telling you guys this, should I?" Pinkie said, her pink cheeks growing redder by the second.

Alex felt his own cheeks flushing with color as Stanton shook his head with disbelief. "So, any other things that you might like about him?" He asked, letting his curiosity get the better of him.

"Lots!" Pinkie confirmed without hesitation. "He's an amazing friend. Not only that but he's funny, smart, charming, really considerate about the feelings of others. He can be a bit dense at times, but that's just the inexperience doing the talking."

"I can taste the salt." Stanton mumbled to Alex.

Pinkie continued, completely oblivious of the side comments. "He's really a great human, and I think that I'd do just about anything to get him to understand that the position he placed me in isn't really a very comfortable one."

"Why not?" Alex asked with intrigue. "I don't see much wrong with the brown guy you just sent out."

Pinkie lightly smiled as she looked back to the door. "He's great too... but I'm starting to find out that I'm not really what's best for him."

Alex nodded slowly as he spoke. "Well, what brought you to that conclusion?"

"I think more about Nonnums then I do of him. It's not like I want that to happen, but it's kinda like I don't want to impede on what he's got going on and I know that he doesn't want to interrupt what Cheese and I have going on." Pinkie's ears perked up as she realized what she was going on about. "Oh! No, don't mind that. I'm just rambling on about nothing. Don't even worry about that. Now about you two, tell me about the two of you."

Alex softened his tone a bit as he spoke. "No, don't ever keep things bottled up inside of you. You end up hurting yourself doing that. And not to mention the fact that you're causing more harm than help by not talking to this guy you're with about any of this. Don't you think that's a bit unfair?"

Pinkie looked back to the counter and saw a chocolate cake in the display case. "Say that there's a distinctive flavor of cake you like. You'd be willing to pay anything to get the best of the best of that flavor. Then along comes a totally different brand, you know it doesn't get the taste quite right. However, you also know that the ponies who makes that other brand are new to the job, but they're honest, good, and kindhearted. So you feel sorry that you're giving your money to something that's warm and gooey, but you know that there's no love being put into it. It's just a fabricated brand made with the most expensive ingredients to taste the best, but it's still missing that punch that makes you fall completely in love with it."

Alex and Stanton looked to one another, confused beyond explanation. "Say what now?" They both ask in unison.

"What I'm saying is that Cheese is the rich and gooey cake, and Nondis is the brand that's not quite there but they do all they can to get your taste buds singing. Meanwhile, I'm just completely broke as I don't know what, and then this honest pony... they pony up the fee for me to eat that really yummy cake. So when you bite into it, it doesn't taste as sweet as you remember. You're too busy thinking about that one pony who just paid for your snack, without a care in the world, even though it only helps their competitor. And he keeps doing it, over and over, time and time again."

Stanton no longer felt that the conversation was awkward, but rather growing somewhat depressing. He too proceeded to ease his tone. "...I know this is going to be really weird for me to ask, but is there any chance that this 'honest' guy ever gives you the light of day to express how you really feel?"

"He does, and he knows. But he also has a pretty strong sponsor who he fights for just as much as he does for me. And she and I are like the bestest of best friends. Hard road to walk when your best friend loves the guy you want, and then he proceeds to push you and the guy you don't deserve together."

"So is it the guilt that drives you apart?" Alex asked.

"Yeah... a lot of the time it is. And then on top of it, Non-non met my family while Cheese didn't. My dad still thinks I'm with Nonnie, I can only imagine his disappointment when he finds out that I'm with somepony else."

Alex stood from his seat and walked beside the pink pony. He reached out his hand and thought about petting her on the head, only following through after a second thought. "I think you're putting too much pressure on yourself."

"Why do you say that?" Pinkie asked.

"Because you're saying you don't deserve something good. You're putting everyone around you on a pedestal while advertising yourself as damaged goods, bought for a bargain price. And let me tell you something, you are not damaged to where you can say that you're not worth the good that's being expressed to you."

"Yeah, you're looking at it from the perspective of your own self." Stanton joined in. "Have you ever looked at it from the view of that cake you like so much? You seem to think that the flavor is wonderful and you can't really afford it. But have you ever considered that the maker of that really tasty brand is struggling behind the scenes? They pour their best into what they're offering to you, and it's like you only see the price tag. Sure, the off-brand guy is buying you the goods, but he could also see the damage that the other seller's taken. So I can kinda see why he's looking to put you and him in the best position to where you both can profit."

"I think this Cheese guy is pretty nice to hang around for so long, especially when he feels like he's taking a back seat to everything that's going on. And mass production doesn't happen overnight, they work hard, starting off as that really yummy product. So after so many years of making that same thing, seeing their demand go higher and higher, they start to make compromises to where they can make others just as happy. You see where I'm going with this?"

Pinkie gave the two humans a nod, trying her best to stop the tears from welling in her eyes. "I do... It just... I never thought having a relationship with somepony would be so hard. And I know it's even harder when you have to be honest with him. I just don't know how I can without hurting him."

Alex continued to pet Pinkie's mane, also adding in a few ear scratches for good measure. "I think that the two of you need to sit down, talk things over. If I've learned anything from my relationship with my wife, I know that communication is very vital to the long-term stability to your relationship. And if you look at it from the side of just yourself, then how is he going to get a word in? Likewise the other way around, both of you should be having this conversation together."

The pink pony took a deep breath, trying to hold back some of her tears as he voice trembled lightly. "You humans find ways of breaking me down, don't you?"

"It's not trying to break you down, it's trying to get you to see what you're doing to the man you're with. Sure it hurts, but commitment comes at a price of self. You can't commit while having side options, you're going to end up getting hurt in the end. And you might find yourself without anything at all."

She closed her eyes once more, this time with a gentle smile on her face as she whispered back to the human behind her. "...Thank you, Mr. Alex. I'm sorry, I know you humans have last names."

"Don't sweat it." Stanton quickly answered, knowing that a reveal of their last name would go against his brother's wishes.

Pinkie tilted her head to look Alex in the eye. "Hey, can I do something really quick? I promise it won't take long or hurt you in any way."

Alex shrugged nonchalantly. "Go for it."

Next, the pink pony jumped out of her seat and glomped her forelegs around the taller human's neck as she lightly nuzzled him. Alex leaned down from the sudden increase of weight, grunting as it took him by surprise. "If there's one thing you humans are definitely good at, it's giving out hugs."

Finally realizing that she was trying to show affection, Alex nervously laughed as he wrapped his arms around the pink pony to return the gesture. His actions granting him a look of skepticism from his younger brother. "Well, I have to learn those kinds of things. I wouldn't be married otherwise."

Pinkie giggled as she flirted with the human. "Hee hee! You might have to warn her about me, I give out the best hugs in Ponyville."

"Hey Stanton, you want a free hug?" Alex asked his younger brother with a playful tone.

"Nah, I'm good."

Pinkie unlatched herself from the human's neck and quickly trotted up to the younger sibling, giving him the same treatment. "Silly filly, you don't get married with that attitude."

"Who cares about marriage right now? Relationships are way down the line, I'm just having fun right now." He answered, causing the pink mare to tap him on the chest.

"I have a friend that thinks just like you."

"Yeah, we've met." Stanton said, getting a strange look from the pink pony.

"Well how would you know that if you just met? Dashie isn't one to have those kinds of conversations with just anypony."

Stanton looked around frantically as he tried to come up with an excuse. "Um... rumors?"

Alex planted his palm in the middle of his face as he felt shame in knowing that this person was sharing his bloodline. And unlike Nondis, Stanton was never really good at lying on the fly.

"What, did I say something wrong?"

--Carousel Boutique--

After their snack and a long conversation, Pinkie and the two humans came to know one another. Soon after their exchanges, Rainbow Dash returned to take them on their next leg of the tour. They walked throughout the town gaining several strange looks, some were of amazement, others were of curiosity. And there was many a whisper going on as they passed through the streets and towards their next destination.

Upon reaching the Canterlot Boutique, the two siblings drew a breath of relaxation. Though Stanton was conditioned for long walks and strenuous physical activity, Alex was not so fortunate. Instead he was slightly winded, hoping to see the comfort of a chair within the proximity. The man shook his head as he gave up and sat himself on the floor.

"There is no way in hell we're just on our second stop of this tour. It feels like we've been walking for ages."

"Trust me, this is nothing." Stanton said with a smirk.

"Yeah, fuck that. I'm not even at my peak conditioning right now."

Stanton giggled as he nudged at his brother. "Aww, you used to be. You could at least hang in for a little longer than this."

"What can I say?" Alex said while standing back on his feet. "That's because I haven't went on a hunting trip in I-don't-know-how-long. I tried going on one since grandpa died, but that didn't work out well."

"Well look on the bright side, at least that doe you nailed made for some fairly decent sausage."

Alex rolled his eyes and shook his head with disapproval. "It saw me and ran, I got it because I just barely got the shot off. Plus that meat was gamy and you know it."

"Ehh, a little." Stanton said with a shrug. "But the burgers were decent."

Alex paid his brother no mind as he mumbled to himself. "At least grandpa made the meat taste good. To this day, I still don't know how the old fart did it."

Stanton grew somber for a moment as he turned to his brother. "Think it could've been the 'experience' he had with a rifle?"

"...It would sure explain a lot."

"Yeah... I never did like going hunting with him. It seemed... painful to watch, you know."

"It's little difference in shooting the cans back at the old cabin we used to rent out."

"Yeah, but there's still the blood."

"Um... *ahem* Excuse me?"

The two siblings looked towards the direction where the voice came from. Upon looking, they were met with a pair of sapphire eyes who looked at them with a somewhat horrified expression. She blinked for a few seconds as they stared back at her.

Alex took notice and promptly acknowledged the situation. "Right. Sorry, forgot where we were for a moment. My brother and I were just having a conversation. I greatly apologize for the subject that occurred, that was clearly something inappropriate for the place and time."

Rainbow stopped gawking long enough to formally introduce the two humans to the fashionista. "Ohhhhkay then. Alex, Stanton, this is my friend Rarity. Rarity, this is Alex and Stanton. They're new here, and apparently they seem to be a little comfortable talking about their hobbies."

Stanton quickly jumped in to clear his name. "Hey, hunting is not my hobby. My hobbies are girls, sports, games, and girls."

"You said girls twice." Alex deadpanned.

"Don't make me say it, Alex."

"Yes I know, and your lack of maturity completely shows such."

Stanton blew off his brother's comment. "At least I'm not bound by the 'eternal' bonds of matrimony. And besides, how is it eternal when you can get divorced five years later?"

"Yup, and those rings you buy can get bent and broken just as easily, nothing eternal about it."

Alex completely dismissed the younger sibling and turned his attention to the refined mare. "Question for a stranger's opinion, what do you think about marriage?"

The fashionista tried her best to fumble through her words to come out with a concise answer. "W-well... I-I believe... that a marriage is a wonderful occasion, ultimately cementing the bond shared between two individuals. Though they may not last as long as one would expect due to a variety of reasons, it is that one outstanding moment of gross indulgence that becomes a beautiful memory that continues to follow that set of individuals, no matter how many times they may undergo such a ritual. For some it is love, for others it is finances, and for a few it is for pedigree. And for the not-so refined gents, it is for trophy display. But regardless, these moments are meant to be beautiful and memorable milestones in one's life."

Alex and Stanton looked at one another, slackjawed from the response that fell from the pony. Alex gave a quick nod as he proceeded to call it a plus for his argument. "Well there you go, straight from the horse's mouth."

Rarity immediately took offense to the statement. "Well I never─"

But Stanton quickly clarified what it meant. "It's just a human statement, we mean no offense. In our world, it's a euphemism declaring that something came from the highest authority. We didn't intend for any insult to come as a result, right Alex?"

The taller human bowed politely as he spoke. "My sincerest apologies, ma'am."

"Oh, well I should be a little less offended then." Rarity stated as she walked up to the humans. "Bygones aside, what are you two doing here and how did you manage to get here in the first place?"

Stanton proceeded to answer the question, considering that Alex initiated the last bit of dialog from Pinkie. "We kinda found ourselves here, we were just wandering around and poof, we're here."

Rarity smiled nervously as she continued to ask more from the men. "Oh, I suppose that you have wandered here by the means of your... *ahem* hunting trip?"

"YES!" Alex exclaimed, now finding a somewhat feasible explanation as to how they arrived here. "We were hunting and then we wandered here for some reason. But I assure you that we didn't kill anything on the way in. Stanton would've scared it off anyways."

"Hey!" The younger shouted, taking great offense that his brother would use him as an excuse.

Rarity looked at the shirt Stanton wore and read aloud. "Texas... A&M... Football?"

"Yes, my younger brother here is an athlete. Too bad they got whipped during their last game." Alex said, poking fun at his brother.

Stanton rebutted his brother's taunt. "I'm sorry, I'm not the one that graduated from that one school with a shitty cow pie for a football team. What was the name, UT Austin? How bout them Longhorns?"

Alex gave the younger sibling a firm slap to the back of the head as he glanced back at him angrily.

"Ow! What the hell was..." As soon as it finally set in, he realized that he made the mistake of referencing something that shouldn't been said. "Oh, right."

"UT... Austin?" Rainbow questioned.

Rarity's eyes lit as she dragged the rainbow pony to the ground with a large smile. "Darling, UT Austin is Nondis' hometown!"

Stanton really began to feel the scorn from his older brother now as he tried to clear up their names. "Whoa, hold on there." He began to explain. "Now meaning that my older brother graduated from that particular college, it doesn't mean that we might know this Nondis guy. There's like forty-thousand students enrolled at that school, plus the metropolitan area has a population of over a hundred thousand. If anything, that's like finding a needle in a giant haystack. Plus we're from Houston, not Austin."

"Houston?" The two mares questioned.

"Houston, Texas. It's like a good three hours from where we are."

"But how would you know the specifics about Austin if you're not from there?" Rarity inquired.

"Our grandpa lived in Austin." Stanton quickly blurted out, not giving a chance for Alex to cover for him.

"Oh, so you do have family in Austin!?"

Stanton grew figgity as Alex bumped him out of the way to answer. "Just our grandfather. We used to visit on occasion, that is until he passed."

"Oh my." Rarity said, her ears folding downward. "My sincerest condolences. I know that must be a touchy subject for you."

"Yes, now I see that you have this nice looking interior." He said, changing the subject. "I also see a lot of mirrors and mannequins... I think those are mannequins. Anyway, what do you do here, miss Rarity?"

"Oh, I sell clothes, decorate the interior, and also create dresses for many events and gatherings, quite a few being weddings if you want to bring the conversation into full-circle."

Alex walked away from his brother to the center of the room. "Yeah, just look at this place. Everything down to the curtains and fixtures, it all screams... it screams... BAM!"

The fashionista squeed with delight as she took pride in his words. "Oh, I knew someone would appreciate a cautiously put-together interior. I wanted it to scream my name every time I'd walk in, that way I'd know that I was truly at home."

"Oh, so you live here?" He questioned.

"Of course, darling. Why would I ever go through the extra pain and stress to get all of the colors to pop a certain kind of way? I wouldn't be able to do much of anything like this with a business. For some ponies, all of this glitz and glamour can be a bit jarring to the eyes, but I intend to make that all a thing of the past after my big showing in Canterlot next month. Ooh I'm so excited that I could just scream to the top of my lungs!"

"Well it sounds like business is doing pretty well." Stanton commented.

Rarity jumped with excitement as she magically pulled at Stanton's arm, his reaction to the blue aura surround his arm and tugging him along was fear of an acute amount. "Oh why I wouldn't be so bland as to simply talk about my work. Why don't I show you a few of my past designs?"

"Oh, so it'll be like a window shopping experience?" Alex inquired.

Stanton tried his best to pull away from the eager unicorn, turning to Rainbow Dash. "Um, like is there anything else we need to do within the next, say, thirty seconds?"

Rainbow chuckled as she started to slowly hover towards the front door. "Sorry, I gotta check in on the Captain and the trade deal. But you two can stay and look around while I'm gone."

Silently, Stanton shook his head with urgency as he whispered to the cyan pegasus. "No. We need to move, like right now."

"Hey Rarity, make sure you tell Fluttershy to meet up with us at the park later today. Nondis and Twilight is supposed to be meeting up with us by then." Rainbow finished before taking a leave.

Rarity quickly trotted to the door to bid her friend a temporary farewell. "I'll try to bring the cucumber sandwiches!"

"Sounds good!" Rainbow shouted before she flew into the sky above.

Stanton dropped his head as soon as he realized that this was going to take more than a few minutes of their time. Meanwhile, Rarity closed the door and magically shut the curtains to get the room to become pitch black. Then, a bright blue light shone throughout the room, emanating from the very tip of the fashionista's horn. She walked towards the two humans with a proud smile on her face, a certain boldness showed in her eyes.

"Now, I know that my collection is rather large, but I do intend to make do with a much shorter display. So might I introduce to you the abridged, yet revolutionary works of Rarity's line of Chique and Sweet!"

From up the stairs to down below, a long line of mannequins came floating down wearing an assortment of outfits. Each of the themes vastly unique and colorful, the dresses left a bit of an impression on the two humans. Though the impression that Stanton had was how creepily the faceless mannequins looked in the lighting. Meanwhile Alex clapped his hands as he oohed for the mare's designs. Her face lit up even more as she saw the human's reaction. She decided that it was time to take her display up another notch.

"Oh, I know what you're thinking about now. You're probably asking 'But Rarity, those are for the mares, where are the clothes for the colts?' And for that I have the answer! Say hello to one of my later lines, the Stallion at Post; Charm and Grin!"

More of the mannequins came from upstairs, this time looking as if they were marching down in an orderly fashion. Each outfit lined up in order from most subtle to the most ambitious. The varying degrees of modesty gave quite an impression towards Alex once more. Stanton was too busy trying to keep his eyes away from the faceless heads, trying his best to look at the clothes. The older brother continued to clap, causing the younger to join in despite his nervousness. The fashion-minded mare grew all the more impassioned.

"So, what do you think of that, my dear gentlecolts?"

Stanton nodded as quickly as possible to simply get the lights back on. Meanwhile, Alex had more to say. "Well this is all nice, but I'm afraid that my interest can only go so far as admiration is concerned. I'm afraid that much of these designs are more catered to you ponies."

Rarity had a fiery glare in her eyes as she strutted towards the human that made his additional statements. With a smirk, she was sure that her greatest reaction would come before her just seconds from now. "My dear Alex, you have not the slightest clue as to who you are talking to. Why I could be more than certain to find something that would interest a man such as yourself."

"Well if it's not human-shaped, I'm afraid that I can't buy into the hype." He stated with a light shrug.

"Alex... You are dealing with one of Ponyville's best kept secrets, the diamond that will soon take this world over in the name of fashion. You honestly think I have nothing that will grab at you? Ha, you fool only yourself. I am Rarity Andalusia Belle, and if there's one thing this Belle's got, SHE'S GOT IT!"

In a dramatic style, the mannequins all faced towards a set of purple curtains on the other side of the room and bowed. The curtains drew back to reveal something that had even both of the humans holding their mouths shut. In what would appear to be a slow yet regal march, a set of tuxedos came marching through the center aisle of the mannequin audience, all of them very much designed with the human anatomy in mind. Certain designs with jewel-encrusted buttons, others with ruby-studded cuff links. Hats, canes, vests, blazers, pants, jeans, she had it all marching out like it was some sort of grand invasion. The lights came back on as the humanesque clothing stood front and center before the two brothers.

Alex could feel the air gently breezing inside of his open mouth as Rarity walked up to him. "I suppose that this doesn't grab at you in the slightest?"

He quickly turned to her and pointed at her. "Who the hell are you?"

"I am merely an artist who is willing to work with whatever material she is given. And I believe that you are a size too small for the outfits that I have done already."

Stanton walked up to one of the suits and lifted up the arm to look at the cuff links. "Damn, this thing looks like an actual blue gem!"

Rarity giggled as she quietly nudged up to the human. "Well, although those are very hard to come by, blue diamonds were my best option for this particular outfit."

"I'm sorry, what is this made with?" Stanton asked, trying to make sure she didn't just say what he had just heard.

"Blue diamonds. I don't do that fake plastic jewelry they implant in all of the human clothes I usually see. I have a talent for finding rare and precious gems, to which I use to give my creations that additional push of creativity."

Alex stumbled as he tried to reach out for his brother, unsure as to what to think about the whole situation. Instead, he asked the first question that was on his mind. "How much does this cost?"

"Well, about a hundred twenty-five bits."

Stanton grabbed his brother by the collar of his shirt and whispered at him. "One twenty-five. This shit is worth at least seven digits and she's putting it out on the market for less than two hundred dollars."

"I don't think that's what she meant." He replied, still in amazement of the price. He looked over to the fashionista once more. "How much for that tux again?"

"One hundred twenty-five bits. It would also be on sale for the equivalent of seventy-five karats."

"You don't mean seventy-five carrots, as in we pay you in carrots, right?" Stanton joked as he was about to bolt out the door and find some farm to raid. "Cause I can go down to the store and buy some."

She laughed at the human's attempt of a barter. "If you're talking about the vegetable, then you are very mistaken. Here we exchange bits and gems as currency. Karats are just the classification of the jewel's quality. And each jewel has a specific value."

"Do you take dollars?" Alex asked as he pulled out his wallet.

Rarity used her magic to levitate the wallet back into his pocket as she spoke. "Sweetie, no. Those small shreds of paper with the pretty colors won't count for much here. Seriously, paper money, what for?"

"You said the cost was one-twenty five." Stanton argued.

"In bits." Rarity specified, summoning a coin purse to pull one out. "This little coin here is called a bit. We use these for completing monetary transactions here."

Alex grabbed the coin and stared at it for a while. He then took the coin and bit onto it, finding that the metal wasn't as hard as what he had expected. Pulling the coin out of his mouth, he turned his attention back to the mare before him. "What is this made out of?"

"Gold, what else?"

"Excuse us for a minute." Said the elder sibling as he grabbed the younger by the shoulder and guided him away from the mare. Alex and Stanton walked off to another portion of the room, leaving the mare to stand on the other said with a bewildered expression. Alex whispered into his brother's ear. "So... we just confirmed that our brother is a walking Smithsonian Vault."

"Didn't he say that he was running security and that he was getting paid for this?" Stanton asked, reminding him of the conversation they had at a dinner the previous week.

"Exactly, which means that he's getting paid in solid gold every two weeks."

Stanton paused for a moment to think of the irony of the situation, scratching his head all the while. "So the guy that mom and dad considered to be the mishap of the family, is scoring NBA figures? I don't mean that rookie level, six-digit shit. I mean that two-comma, eight digit, house in the Hills with a penthouse in Miami type of money, Kevin Durant money."

Alex began to count to himself on his fingers, doing the math in his head. "...Mom and dad could possibly retire in the next five years. We'll be set for the next three decades if he'd let us all in on this. College loans paid off in full. Car notes, mortgages, debts to Sallie Mae, all of it, gone."

"Our brother is rich beyond reason, to hell with human morals. He can kiss any ass on this side of fence, he's getting shit done."

Alex proceeded to go deeper into thought, trying to simulate the primary question that's probably on Nondis' mind. "If we somehow explain this to mom and dad, I don't know what their reaction would be. I can imagine mom to straddle the fence, but dad is kinda bull-headed."

"Fuck the NFL, I want this job! Free health care, gold, if I get injured then my future is assured still, the only trade-off is that there's no girls here."

"Oh, I'm sure there would be plenty of pony girls who'd take an interest."

"Look at me, Alex. THERE. ARE. NO. GIRLS. HERE."

"Stan, you need to kiss up to the next available princess or something, or you could do like Nondis did and land a desperate girl in power."

Stanton grumbled as he tried to think of himself attempting to seduce a pony, which only stimulated the worst of his imagination. "I gotta have sex with one of these things?"

"Sex with a pony, for at least a seven-digit income. And they seem to have a good idea on how to please if Nondis was so easily swayed."

"Rookie level income is about six digits. And that's considering if I'd even get drafted, make it through training camp, pass the physical exams, avoid the insane groupies and false allegation suits later on."

"And what other option would you have if you didn't get drafted or picked up by some NFL team much later? Arena football is only good for eighty thousand a year. I suppose you would be okay but that would probably put you on the low end of the middle class. And you already know how the current economy is treating them."

At that thought, Stanton closed his eyes and swallowed whatever pride he had remaining. "...Yup, that's it... I'm going to hell in a kerosene snuggy, God forgive me."

"Pay your tithes, he might consider it." Alex joked.

"Is everything alright over there?" Rarity asked from the other side of the room, completely oblivious to the conversation taking place. She was busy snipping off a loose thread on one of the tuxedo jackets to care about what the two humans were going on about. Naturally, the siblings turned back to the mare and quickly answered her question.

"We're fine."

--Sweet Apple Lake--

When they arrived at the location of the picnic, both Alex and Stanton collectively keeled over as they tried to regain their breath from the lengthy walk. By the moment they reached the blanket, they sprawled themselves over the grass and lied there for a while. Applejack, who gave them an unwanted tour of the farm, shook her head as she watched the two humans regain their breath.

"Rattlin' bushels, Ah never thought y'all be plum tuckered out by the time we get here."

Stanton couldn't even draw the strength to turn towards his brother as he spoke. "See... *huff* this is... *gah* why I don't do... *ahh* cross-country conditioning."

Alex was swallowing whatever fluids his mouth could muster, not even batting an eye to his younger sibling. "I... *puff* fuck... *cough* can't breathe."

Applejack winced at the slight splash of profanity from the taller human, but realized that this was a guest and not a stay-in like Nondis. So she decided to make her request known in a polite manner. "Uh... if'n y'all don't mind, Ah'd like to bring up that this here is a family establishment with a... um... family-friendly environment."

"Fuck she said?" Stanton tried to get in one breath.

"Stop cursing." Alex simplified in a similar manner.

"Oh sorry."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes as she spoke to the orange mare. "Well they wouldn't be so tired if you didn't give them a tour of EVERYTHING here. If it were up to me, I'd at least put them in a balloon or something."

"Balloon sounds nice." Stanton blurted out.

Applejack scoffed at the rainbow-maned pony. "Rainbow, you know Ah don't like doin' the short 'n sweet version of touring the farm. Ah wanted them to see the heart and soul of every tree here in the orchard, the generations of hard work and sacrifice that went into makin' this here farm. Why if ma and pa were here, they'd do the same."

"But they've been running through all of Ponyville just to get here! Don't you think you could've bypassed that part and head straight to this place?" Rainbow questioned.

"Well Ah wasn't made aware of that! And plus, we need their help to set up the picnic."

"Awww..." The two guys groaned dejectedly.

"C'mon fellas, Ah promise it won't take ya long."

With the little energy he recovered, Alex nudged his brother. "Hey, you're a sports guy. You do a lot of lifting and pushing, go for it."

Stanton lifted himself from the ground, sitting up halfway. "You used to help gramps carry all of that heavy hunting equipment, and you were in the woods as much as he was."

"We have towers for that shit, we can sit around and wait until our target comes along."

"No cursing, remember?" Stanton quoted with a fiendish smile.

"You make it hard for me not to!"

Applejack simply walked up to them and hauled the wagon full of food and refreshments. Meanwhile, the smell of the food brought the two men back to life. Quickly, they stood on their feet and opened their arms to take whatever they had to drop off. "Glad y'all lookin' like the young bucks ya are. Now carry some of them crates on over to the blanket and start unloading. No snackin' till the others come on around."

"Dammit." Stanton muttered under his breath.

"No cursing, remember." Alex shot at his brother with a shit-eating grin.

"Fuuuughhh yuuuuuuuuh!" Stanton stressed though clenched teeth.

Applejack looked towards the snickering pegasus, who simply watched as she hovered above. "Same goes for you, sugarcube. Mosey on now."

"Okay, I'll help then." She responded, seemingly annoyed with the farm pony. "Why you gotta enslave everypony?"

"Hard work makes the heart grow stronger and the belly grow fuller, that's what Granny Smith used to say."

"She still says it." Rainbow sneered towards the two men, who found some energy to laugh.

As they continued to work, Pinkie, Rarity, and a third pony showed up to the grounds. Fluttershy gasped and held her hooves against her mouth as she stared at the two humans moving about. Quickly, she took to a low altitude and darted her way over to meet the two.

"Oh my goodness! I didn't think that there would be more of you humans coming through today!" The yellow pony said as she quietly hovered just at their eye level. "I am so honored to meet with you!"

Alex extended a hand, only for it to be grabbed at by two hooves and rapidly shaken up and down like a vibrating shake weight. "Wow, I didn't know you ponies were so outgoing." He answered nervously, earning a slight chuckle from everyone else beside his brother.

Rarity showed up in a royal purple shawl and shades as she spoke to the still-ensnared human. "Oh not at all, Fluttershy is just eager to meet more of you humans. You are considered as a protected species and whatnot."

"Protega-what-now?" Stanton gawked.

Fluttershy stopped shaking Alex's hand long enough for him to feel the blood swelling up his fingers. She turned to the other one, greeting him in the same manner. "Well, a protected species is considered to be a very rare and uncommon species never before seen in the history of all of Equestria. Usually those titles go to many exotic animals and plant life, so you humans would be most assuredly remain on the list... at least until stated otherwise."

Stanton felt his hand being turned loose as he pulled his arm into his body. He could still feel the shaking taking place long after he was released. "Oh... So something tells me that there hasn't been very many humans here in Equestria."

"Save one, if I'm correct." Alex finished, flexing his swollen hand.

"Yes, and there are about seven billion of them where you're from, correct?"

The two men looked around as an unusual voice came from what seemed to be all around them. Given their earlier experience, they figured it was another prank being pulled on them. At least until a white flash appeared before them, revealing a creature with many mismatched body parts. The eldrich horror display caused the two men to scream at the top of their lungs.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?"

"CURSING IS WARRANTED RIGHT NOW! WHAT IN THE ACTUAL HELL IS THAT THING!?"

Discord guffawed as his serpentine body took to the air and circled around the two humans, cutting off their routes of escape. "Oh, I wouldn't be afraid of me, I'm harmless. I can even prove it to you." He said as he turned into an oversized life preserver and landed haplessly on the ground.

Both of the men tilted their heads at the strange development taking place before them. "What the..." Alex slowly worded out before he was interrupted by Discord, who was wearing a sukumizu while setting up a diving board on the back of the cart Applejack hauled in.

"If I was anything near dangerous to you, I would assure you that you'd have a lot more trouble on hand, if that's how you humans say it." He said just seconds before literally cannon-balling into the dirt, producing ripples and surfacing between the feet of the two men. "You two should really come in for a swim, the water is fine."

Alex stared as he tried to mentally process what was going on, and how the laws of physics were being broken left and right. He could only come up with one solution. "So... if this was to be Wonderland, and we're the Alice, that must make you the Cheshire Cat."

"That's a cat? Because I don't recall a cat having the ass of a komodo dragon." Stanton replied while trying to avoid the creature that swam between them.

"Oh, I'm not quite sure as to what you're talking about, but I do have a bit of a clue as to what you really are." Discord answered.

"Let me guess, this Nondis guy?" Alex questioned.

Discord then floated out of the ground and snaked his arms around the two men, pulling them closer until they were cheek-to-cheek with one another. He then whispered into their ears. "Of course, why your brother and I have pulled quite a few pranks not so long ago."

The two siblings froze in place, now with their bodies running colder by the second as the low-pitched crackly voice of the creature between them wormed into their brains. "Who is this guy?" Stanton asked.

"I know that he isn't some fucker with the last name News, first name Good." Alex whispered.

The girls could see the discomfort in the two men's faces, Applejack being the first to question them. "Hey, y'all alright there?"

Discord gave the two a strong pat on the back as he answered the question for them. "Of course! Why we were just getting to know each other a little better."

"Discord!" Fluttershy called out sternly. "I can easily tell that you're making them feel uncomfortable with your antics. Doing all of this with us is one thing, but with beings from a non-magical place who has no idea who or what you are can be a bit unnerving. Please give them some space."

Much like a frustrated child, Discord pouted and removed himself from their side. "Doh, fine! I was hoping to have a little more fun."

The two looked at each other with an uncertain stare, caught off-guard by the fact that this creature from what appeared to be an amalgamation of animals spawned from the depths of hell came up to them announcing who they were, what they were, and who they were related to. The hunger that was one in their systems had completely fizzled out. That encounter alone was enough to silence them for the remainder of the preparation time.

Eventually, everyone grew concerned as they remained somewhat distant to the conversation. Though they were welcomed to join in with their input, they simply gave none where it was not required. The entire moment felt awkward for the entire group, even more for Discord due to Fluttershy staring holes into his body. She knew that he had said something that changed their entire demeanor, but he refused to confess to anything. And as the time passed, they seemed to have lost any means of getting through to the two men. That was until...

"Hey girls!"

The group of mares all turned to the hills to find that Twilight had called out to them. They shouted and waved back at us, welcoming us to come on over. Accompanying me and Twilight was none other than Shining Armor and Cadance. However, we were also in party with Blueblood, Celestia, and Luna, who were given tips and clues that there was to be a surprise for them at the end of the day. Personally, I blame Shining Armor, as he couldn't keep his mouth shut about it the entire time. But at the very least, he didn't tell them outright what it was that was going to be the shocker.

As we approached the hill, the other royals were left speechless as they saw the other two humans sitting mainly to themselves. But seeing them so distant had concerned me greatly, especially with this group. I decided to walk up the the guys and see what was going on, but was barred from doing so by the others.

"Nondis, thank goodness you're here." Rarity said as she turned her head towards my brothers. "We've just got these two in today."

Celestia and Luna quickly approached the other two sitting to themselves, Blueblood following close behind. "So, we've got another two to visit, huh?" Blueblood inquired.

Twilight could see the discomfort in their faces as the princesses approached. She quickly teleported over to halt their advance. "Um, I believe that this is probably something that should be handled by a familiar party."

Celestia raised an eyebrow as she turned to her former student. "Twilight, is it not customary for us to greet those who come from the human world with a warm invitation to our humble world?"

"It's not that." She replied. "Something's bothering them."

I walked up to the guys and quickly tried to get them engaged in a conversation. "Hey, you guys doing okay?"

The two seemed reluctant to answer. It took a while before Alex could finally pull me aside and tell me what had really happened. Apparently Discord gave them a bit of a scare and now they feel as if they've compromised my reason for keeping our relations under wraps. Also, they felt as if he was more of an enemy than anyone that was not out to do harm. That part is understandable, considering his background and his previous misdeeds, but I had to explain to them that he wasn't really a problem. Afterwards, I pulled them back to the main group and stood them side by side.

"Fillies and gentlecolts... and eldrich abomination from the seventh tier of hell." I joked, putting Discord out on front street. "This is Alexander and Stanton. They are humans from my world."

For the most part, they all nodded as they replied in unison. "We know."

"Yeah, but it seems that they've gotten themselves in a bit of a wander and found their way here." Applejack informed me, providing me with the story I originally set them out with. "We were wantin' to know more about 'em, but Discord had to go and say somethin' to get them feelin' all creeped out."

"And he still hasn't apologized." Fluttershy said with a frown. "We were really looking forward to getting to know them, but instead he placed them at a position where they couldn't get comfortable."

"Discord, haven't we had this discussion?" Celestia chimed in. "You cannot go around scaring off ponies who are visiting the realm. That also applies to humans as well."

"I didn't say much!" He argued.

"Well don't say anything else!" Twilight chided harshly.

Obviously Discord didn't mean any ill will, and I didn't want him to get into any more trouble than what he was already in. I decided that I should just simply explain what I had going on. "Actually, there's a bit of truth I wanna say about these guys."

The ones who knew the truth were quiet as the others were eager to find out more about them. "What about them?" Celestia questioned.

"Your majesty, might I introduce you... FORMALLY introduce to you, Alexander and Stanton. These two are my brothers."

While the others simply gasped... "YOUR WHAT!?" Rarity erupted, sending an echo throughout the orchard.

"I told you it was worth it." Shining mumbled to Blueblood, who was having some issues in keeping his mouth closed.

Stanton quickly pulled at my arm, speaking through is teeth. "Hey, Nondis, what the hell are you doing? I thought you were keeping this a secret."

"I was keeping a secret, and I still am. There are a lot of jokers around here that want my head on a platter, as evidenced by a recent assassination attempt. I just didn't want anyone to know that you two were related to me, otherwise it would put the both of you in danger."

"But why tell them?" Alex asked, sharing Stanton's grief. "Wouldn't this be dangerous as well?"

I shook my head while throwing my arms over their shoulders. "It doesn't have to be. The group I shared this info with are the ones I can actually trust. And I wanted you to meet with them so that way you too can learn to trust them. They're good people... or ponies if you want to be politically correct. You've already met with Twilight Sparkle, Shining Armor, Cadance, and Rainbow Dash, but I haven't shown you the ones who also helped me along while I was trapped here."

Applejack was the first to walk up to them. "Land sakes, Ah knew Nondis said that he was the runt of the litter, but Ah didn't think it'd actually be true." She extended her hoof to them both, causing them to wince and retreat their arms from her reach.

"I think we've already done the aggressive formalities for now." Alex said while still flexing his hand.

"I know that Shining was telling me that there'd be a big surprise for us, but never did I actually think it would be something like this." Blueblood said as he walked up to the three of us. "Siblings, each of them vastly taller than Celestia? Twilight, I think you're on to something. You should marry the other two along with Nondis, just to see how that goes."

The next thing we saw was an armor-clad hoof punching Blueblood's head into a crater... that previously didn't exist until that very moment. "Yeaaaaaa-NO." Shining firmly stated. "One human is enough."

"Ain't it?" Twilight muttered under her breath, flying just below the radar of her older brother.

Celestia and Luna extended a hoof to the guys, welcoming them with synchronization. "Well, I didn't anticipate that you would have siblings, Sir Captain." Celestia said with a bright smile. "I can clearly say that you are definitely a family of impressive giants."

"Well this is most exhilarating, to be able to see a family of humans before our very eyes." Luna said to follow her sister.

The guys were still a tad bit reluctant to accept their greeting, I suppose they were still a bit shaken up from Fluttershy's greeting. And if Applejack had showed them any sort of welcome, I'd pretty much be traumatized after both of those occurrences too. "Guys, ease up. These two are the head rulers of this nation, they won't be so harsh on you."

Cautiously, the greeted the princesses halfway and lightly exchanged a hand-to-hoof shake. While they were exchanging pleasantries with the two sisters, Pinkie and Rarity decided to give me my fair share of scolding. Shining and Cadance continued to talk to Twilight on how they managed to get here, and we all sat ourselves onto the blanket to talk more about one another.

Blueblood was still eating the dirt inside of the crater Shining's hoof shoved him in.

--Twilight's Castle--

The day came and went as the sun began to creep towards the western horizon. Celestia and Luna returned to Canterlot as they took on great pride in hearing that they had more human friends to visit. The girls seemed to go their separate ways after we had one final meetup in the throne room. Cadance and Twilight went down the halls towards her room so that they could speak to each other about something. As far as what it is, they left it at the vague description of being 'filly stuff'.

Meanwhile, the two siblings stretched and yawned as they stood around the portal, speaking to one another.

"So there's a lot of guns in here." Stanton pointed out as he snuck through some of the bins strewn across the room. "If that's how Nondis has been getting his big paydays, then I can see how he's doing so great. But I thought that he said he wasn't getting involved in anything illegal."

"Check this out!" Alex announced as he pulled out a Barrett .50 cal. "I mean damn, this was the shit I wanted for my birthday since I went hunting with gramps before he passed."

"Well no wonder he's doing so great. He's practically playing GTA, only this time it's for keeps."

Alex hummed to himself as he placed the weapon at shoulder height, looking through the scope towards the wall. "You think that's the reason why he's been getting death threats and trying to keep our names on the low?"

"He said he had an assassination attempted against him." Stanton recalled. "I don't think he's playing very nice to get the pay he wants."

"So you think he's playing dirty?"

"I love our brother, but this... I don't know. I feel unusually... I can't explain it."

Alex immediately provided an answer for his brother. "You feel like something's off."

"Yeah! He's been telling us all of this, but what else has he been getting into since he's been here? I hear more of his heroics and how he saved this lady's little sister, or how he stopped this terrorist army from killing this lady's parents, bunch of shit like that. But what's really going on behind the scenes?" For a moment, Stanton grew quiet and took a long look at the bin of guns before him. And then a single thought crossed his mind, finding it's way to his lips. "I hope that Nondis doesn't get into the shit that gramps did back in Vietnam."

Alex put the rifle back into the bin he retrieved it from and whispered back to his brother. "Nah, he's not that stupid. And it's not like there's a massive war going on here that could kill him in an instant. No guns blazing─"

"There's gotta be guns blazing around here." Stanton argued passionately. "He's got all of this for something, they've gotta be packing some pony-equivalent of a firearm."

Alex leaned against the wall as he stared at the other bins lying around the room. He took a quick breath and gathered his thoughts. "Our brother can't be doing this. I'm still on the fence about the dimension thing, but this is kinda making me lean right. We need to know what he's up to."

"I might be able to fill you in."

The two brothers looked back to the doors, seeing a white unicorn with a duel-toned blue mane standing in the doorway.

"Tell us what you know." Stanton requested without hesitation.

"I can say that we sure as hell don't have any of these issued around to our troops." Shining began. "Nondis made it very clear that this stuff remain restricted to whatever help he brings in or to me. And I'm not quite sure as to how to use one of these yet."

Alex and Stanton looked at one another before they continued to question the prince. "What do you mean 'whatever help he brings in?' Who's he bringing in to help?"

Shining tapped his hoof as he thought about it. "Well, would you two happen to know two men by the name of Rickey and Cliff? They're both shorter than him, one has a dark brown complexion with what appeared to be a human variation of dreadlocks."

Alex growled at the stallion for mentioning the two names. "You mean those two assholes who just stood by as our brother nearly got himself killed!?"

"The frat boys!?" Stanton questioned. "He told the frat boys before he told us!?"

"I guess you guys aren't exactly on good terms?" Shining asked, seeming a bit surprised by their reaction. "But they've done a great deed by helping Nondis in a recent assignment. They were all honored just this past Saturday."

Alex rose from off of the wall and paced the floor. "So he's bringing them over to help? I can't believe this. Who else did he bring over?"

Shining tapped his hoof against the ground once more. "Well... I know that I was kinda drunk on Saturday after a contest with Cliff, but I can definitely recall a female human who came to visit. She seemed very well-acquainted to Nondis."

"Melanie!?" Stanton said as he stood motionless, shocked that she'd even be in on this. "He told her too?"

"Anyone else?" Alex questioned once more.

"No, that's it." Shining confirmed. "I just know those three."

"Oh, but that's not quite the whole story." Echoed a familiar voice. Shining turned towards the direction from where the sound emanated from, only to find a strange-looking lamp sitting on the floor. Suddenly the lamp gave off a quick flash of light before transforming into the creature that initially scared the two brothers just earlier.

"Discord?" Shining grew cautious as the creature appeared before him. "What do you know that we don't?"

The draconequus vanished with another flash, this time finding his way into Stanton's phone. The phone vibrated as he appeared on the screen as an animated sprite, his voice booming from the speakers. "Well just last Wednesday, Nondis made a trip to his family home, it was after he and Twilight had a little spat. But shortly after, there was a situation that occurred for him to dismiss himself from the dinner table, I'm sure that you both can recall that."

"How do you know about the stuff that you weren't there for?" Alex questioned, growing even more concerned as how the creature knows so much about what all happened that day.

"Well I'm showing you right now!" Discord answered as he knocked back on the phone's screen, producing an audible clunk. "Rickey and Cliff managed to run into me that day while I went venturing in the human world, I suppose they caught me at an embarrassing moment. But Cliff took a photograph of me and sent it to Nondis."

"And you, being the Cheshire Cat, somehow hacked reality itself to send yourself into Nondis' phone from the photo, right?" Stanton completed.

Discord chuckled as he pulled up the apps menu. "Well, if there's one thing you three brothers have in common, you all can piece things together fairly quickly. At least it makes for a shorter explanation. Now where is that game with the handicapped bird that keeps running into the green pipes?"

"Flappy Bird, third row, second column." Stanton answered. "But that's how you came to know of us, then?"

"That and he's been rambling on about how he was going to find some way to get Twilight to meet with your parents."

Alex's eyes grew as he heard Discord's words. "Oh no. That is definitely not going to end well."

"Mom and dad? Nondis trying to get through to them? HA! And I thought I was the dense one." Stanton said as he watch Discord fumble through the first set of pipes.

"Well..." Shining began. "I'd actually like to meet them myself. Nondis had already met with ours and that went well, considering my dad is a very stern conservative on who he allows to marry into the family. All while I was growing up, he was stressing me to marry a full-blooded unicorn to keep the magic line going. But they found out that Twily is the one with that gift. And now they're pretty happy considering their trades. I'm with an alicorn princess, and Twi's with a human who can destroy changelings with nothing more than a sword and a brick. Kinda works out."

"Wait, seriously? A brick?" Stanton questioned, growing distracted from the original topic.

"Can we focus on the big thing here?" Alex recommended. "The fact of the matter is that Nondis is not going to be able to convince mom and dad that any of this is okay. Hell, I don't think Stanton or I could even come close to doing it."

Shining grew concerned as the two brothers remained adamant on their opinion. "Well, I don't see the problem."

Stanton peered away from his phone to give Shining some eye contact as he stressed the point. "If you know Nondis like we do, you'd know that he's stubborn. He is a down-to-the-wire copy of our father, who has even less patience and the skull density of a fucking steel girder. He doesn't change his mind on anything, I don't even know how mom deals with him."

Shining began to feel discouraged to argue them any further in trying to help Nondis convince them that a visit would be beneficial. And he knew that his chances would only continue to get worse from there. "Then... what would be your reaction to finding out exactly what Nondis is doing right now, and what's he caught in?"

Alex stopped pacing for a moment and glanced back at the bins lying all over the room. He turned to the stallion and walked towards him, knelt down to where they were close to seeing eye-to-eye. "Just what kind of powder keg did Nondis set off?"

Shining closed his eyes and whispered. "To put it in your terms, Hiroshima."

As I looked at my phone to check on the time, I continued to make my way towards the front door. Rarity, who walked beside me, was being escorted out to the streets. But this moment between the two of us only gave her more time to dig at me about not telling her that I had siblings. She did the usual dramatics, screaming 'how could you' while issuing her complaints, the constant nudging me as I walked, the endless times her tail whipped at the back of my legs, and the forward glances as she pretended that I wasn't there while ironically acknowledging my presence by screaming at me.

But as we showed up to the front door, her tone changed a bit as I held the door open for her. Instead of taking her leave, she magically removed my hand from the door while avoiding eye contact. On her face was a stern expression, obviously displaying some dissatisfaction. Probably still on the fact that I didn't tell her about my brothers.

"So..." She started. "You and Twilight must've talked to one another."

Honestly, that caught me by surprise. I thought she was going to go on about what she's been complaining about for the past hour and a half. But I see that she's got another issue that's causing her some discomfort. "Maybe. Perhaps we decided on how things will go moving forward. Would that be much of an issue?"

She gave me a deadpanned expression, complete with pursed lips. "Well, I can't say that I'm surprised."

"Then what do you say you are?"

"...A mite bit disappointed, perhaps."

"Why?"

"Because you're getting yourself back into trouble." She warned. "You know that you're going back on your word by doing this. You said that you would be fair to yourself."

"I am being fair to myself. We've already discussed what's going to happen moving forward."

The fashionista clenched her jaw as she lifted her chin. "So, you and Twilight will carry on with this madness you call a relationship?"

"Actually..."

"So what?"

"She made me make a promise to her last night as we... made amends."

Rarity didn't seem too fond of hearing of our extracurricular activity, even though I made the comment as tasteful as possible. "So... what?"

"...Twilight and I, we decided..."

Author's Note

There comes a time where an author realizes that when an end is as easy to make, but realizes as the writing goes on that it is much harder to execute. This entire chapter was a difficult process, mainly due to so much third person (which I haven't done in so long and in such an amount)

But yeah, the boys will be in for a bit of a rage-fit as soon as they find out just how deep Nondis dug himself. But their reaction will come at a later time, say next chapter. But I'll probably try to release a new one within the next two weeks (and possibly a third if time will permit me to do so).

Everyone started to notice that the word count per chapter have been consistently above the 10k mark for quite some time, with a few dipping into the 9k's. This is because time for me has been a little sparse considering that IRL has gotten me a lot more business. But I can say that I'm having fun.

But enough about me, what will happen with Nondis now that his brothers will soon be in the know? What is this promise that Twilight made him keep? And just where does everyone stand at this current moment? But now's the bigger question approaching:

What would be his parent's reaction to all of this?

I won't say, but you'll know in future chapters.

Chapter LIII

"And that's pretty much the short and simple of it."

The two siblings remained in awe from hearing what all their brother had endured throughout the past two weeks. Not once did they anticipate that he would have had so many injuries, traumatic experiences, or negotiations with stubborn politicians, some of which who wanted him dead. It was only made worse when they were told exactly what he was doing with him and the others.

"That's quite a precarious predicament your pal's managed to put himself into." Discord cosigned. "But he's willingly made his choice on what path he would take."

Stanton and Alex leaned against the wall, trying to find some comfort from their aching feet and throbbing heads. The younger sibling pinched the bridge of his nose to alleviate some of the pressure. "So... He's trying to pull a Moses in saying 'let my people go.' I knew that he was self-righteous to a fault, but this is a new one."

"Especially when there's politics involved." Alex said as he turned to the prince. "So is there any way he can get out of this, or a way of convincing him that this isn't a good idea?"

"Not as far as I'm concerned. Cadance was adamant in having him join the cause, but his latest stunt managed to put her in a predicament. Now he's adored by the left-winged politicians, essentially being praised as the 'champion of the citizenry'. Not very often have I had such praise, but then again I don't have weapons that can break swords and burrow through armor as if I was poking holes in cheese."

Discord crept a look inside of one of the bins and stared blankly at the weapons inside. "...I don't see what's so intimidating."

"Well it's not about you seeing it as much as feeling it." Alex responded. "And sometimes you won't notice it until it's far too late. By the time I even finish my sentence, you've would've been killed at least seven times over... if you were a mortal."

"Oh, I'm the furthest thing from immortal!" Discord confessed. "Similar to Celestia and Luna, enhanced longevity seems to be a common trait we share. But let's be honest, if something was to come along and disable her like any other pony, she'd fall victim to blood loss like any other. My only get up is that I can change my body to avoid the killing blow. But if I allow it to happen, then I can die."

"Yeah, well we humans are not like you. We can fall victim to a dandelion sandwich. But at the same time we can also fall off a small building and still have a chance to make it out alive." Stanton said as he flexed his muscles. "We just happen to know all the various ways we can be killed off and apply those concepts to one another."

"And we ponies are no different." Shining added. "We just happen to be a little slower in the method is all. Our technology is not like yours, we're ages behind you humans. So if you're worried about your brother being a victim to the weaponry you use, then that's not an issue."

"It doesn't have to be to our weaponry." Alex argued. "It could just be something that could kill him. Being that he's in your military, he's probably placed in many a situation that could result in him dying. And now that you've told us what's all going on with him, I wouldn't be surprised if every last fucker in that parliament signed him up to go to war with whoever, using this technology as a front-line deterrent. One man can't fight a war on his own."

Shining smiled as he heard those words. "So are you saying that you would help him whenever the occasion called for it?"

Alex knelt down to Shining, placing his hand on his shoulder. "Look here, if my little brother dies, how the hell would I explain this to our parents? If Nondis doesn't tell them what's going on, then there's no chance in hell that they would even understand anything. And that would be bad for all of us."

"Bad as in how?" Discord asked curiously.

"You don't wanna know." Stanton quickly answered.

"That said..." Alex began. "If Nondis has to fight anywhere, then you already know that his family will be there to back him up. You should already know how this big brother thing goes."

"I do, that's why I wanted you guys to understand where he was and how far he's come along. I know that it probably isn't my place to tell you what I said, but if it gives him a chance to battle back─"

"And your politician issue, we'll work that one out too. Just tell us where we fit in, and we'll get in." Stanton added, providing Shining with some semblance of relief.

"You guys are awesome. I couldn't ask for anything else outside of this."

Alex looked at the portal for a brief moment before looking back down to his phone. "Now Discord, you said that there was something did to the portal that would let us communicate with Nondis, right?"

The draconequus teleported himself to the side of the portal, turning it on as he spoke. "From what I remember, Twilight and Sunset had put some sort of system in place where he could maintain a connection with the human world, even if he were to go as far as Canterlot."

Stanton looked down at his phone when he noticed it vibrating, indicating that he had received a few text messages from his teammates. He nodded slowly as he read the messages. "Yeah, it works alright─HEY!"

Alex walked up to his younger brother and pulled the phone from his hand. "You're getting an upgrade, remember? Now shut up."

"You're paying for it?" Stanton questioned angrily.

"Of course, but your excuse is that it's a stolen phone."

"The only way my phone got stolen is that you took it from me, dipshit."

"Shining, catch." Alex said as he tossed the device to the blue-maned prince. He caught it with his magic before it fell onto the floor.

"Oh, now I see where you're going." Stanton said as he realized what was taking place, the prince being a little slower to recognize what was going on.

"What, why are you showing me this for?" Shining questioned.

"That's yours. Try not to call anyone else aside from Nondis or me, unless you know them and they have a cell phone too."

Shining nearly let his magic fall as he tried to process that they were actually giving him one of their devices. "S-se-seriously?"

Stanton reached in his pocket and pulled out his charger, draping it around the prince's neck. "Yeah, you're gonna want to charge that every eight hours... or three if ol' dude plays Flappy Bird on it all day.

"...How do I use it?" Shining questioned.

"I'll work with you on that." Discord said as he pointed towards the center button at the bottom of the screen. "You press that to go to the main menu. Then you gently tap at your screen on this icon here with the two-ringed binder, and then you scroll upwards by dragging the screen upwards─"

"Um... I don't have fingers." Shining deadpanned.

"Oh, I remember Twilight grabbing Nondis' phone earlier. Apparently she used one of her feathers as a stylus." Stanton said while eyeing one of Discord's wings. Quickly, he snatched one of the feathers from off of his wings and giving it to Shining. "Here, use this."

"ARGH! That really hurts, you know!"

"Sorry, dude. You were the closest thing I could use."

Shining magically grabbed at the feather and proceeded to tap around the screen, getting a feel for the device. "Oh, I see how I can do this now."

Discord continued to talk Shining through as he pecked and prodded at the screen. Meanwhile Alex looked at his own phone and took notice of the time. "Hmm... I wonder what he usually does at this time of the day? Usually, he's locked in his room screaming at his Xbox. But now that there's no video games here, does he ever come back for a brief session?"

Alex put away his phone as he watched Stanton walk over to help Shining work the phone, causing the stallion much delight. He pulled up the phone book and started scrolling through names.

"Okay, now let's get some preliminaries out of the way..."

Rarity remained silent as I finished my explanation to her. Her lips were parted as a hoof muted the audible gasp that fell from her mouth. For seconds on end, she would only stare back at me, unsure on what to say or how to react. After a while, she shook her head with disbelief.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it."

"Surely you jest." She murmured.

I shrugged my shoulders and looked towards the stairs we just left from. "Nope. Twilight apparently told me that I was going to have to make my confession to Shining Armor eventually. And telling him what's all going on between us is going to be the hard part, anything else after that is pretty much child's play."

"Are you sure this is such a good idea?" Rarity questioned, grabbing my hand out of worry. "I mean, the two of you just got back on good terms. Anything like this would ultimately cause a rift between the two of you."

That much is true, but I'm more than likely won't tell him until after the law's been neutralized. That way he can kinda chill out when I break the news. But for now, I don't need to cause any trouble between us, especially since we have a bigger cause to give our attention to. "I think it's more about the timing. I need to let this one simmer down while the pan's still warm."

Rarity took a deep breath as she let me go. "So... you and I?"

I know that something in my moral compass is driving me against this, but considering what all my promise entails... "Let's just say..."

Before I could finish, a cheery voice called from up the stairs, ringing throughout the halls as it sustained the second syllable of my name. "Non-diiiiiiiiiiiisss!"

Quickly, Rarity and I backed away from one another and maintained a unsuspecting distance. When I turned back to the hall, I could see Pinkie prancing down the stairs towards us. She seemed awfully enthusiastic about something. "Pinkie? I thought you left already."

"Nope." She answered quickly. "I was just in the bathroom and I was wondering about a few things. Of course, when you sit in the bathroom, you start to notice that time really flies past you. So when I finished, I ended up walking back into the hall to find absolutely nopony there. Then walked through the halls and saw pretty much everypony else, like I saw Cadance and Twilight talking in her room about something that the two of you were going to do, and you won't believe what I heard!"

While I started to feel my palms sweat, Rarity glanced back to me nervously as she asked. "What did you hear?"

The pink pony turned her head in every direction before she whispered to us. "I heard that Twilight said that she was going to help Sunset Shimmer break the ice with Non-non's friend, Cliff!"

Oh well that's not what I expected to─WHAT!? "Uh, what's going on?"

"Yeah, Sunny likes Cliffy! I think it's soooo cute of her!"

Well this could either end in disaster or awkwardly. Cliff still has a very deep attraction to the human female, last I checked. "Wait a minute, hasn't anyone thought about how Cliff feels about all of this? I don't think this is─"

"That's the deal, Nonnie! You're gonna find out for us, so that way we can get the green light to put it all together."

In the anime community, they would call this kind of instance 'Shipper on Deck'. "No. I can't. Cliff's taken for." I lied.

"Really?" Pinkie questioned with a quirked brow. "Cause when Sunset danced on him, she asked if he had a girlfriend back in his world, and he said he didn't. So are you saying he's lying?"

Shit. "Well, I'm saying that he might not be open to seeing a pony right now, if you know what I mean. It took me a while of being deprived human company for me to even become... err..." Desperate enough to get a curious glance of every mare's ass just to conjure up some sort of image that I could masturbate to. The level of cognitive dissonance I had to overcome was pretty staggering, though I can say the process was vastly accelerated when this pink pony pressed her plump party-having ass against my pelvis. By that time, my dick completely lost the ability to tell the difference, all while I was questioning my sanity and sex preferences. Either way, it took me more than four months. "...interested."

"Nonnie, you gained interest when I danced on you." Pinkie stated openly, driving a metaphorical nail into my brain. "It wasn't like I couldn't feel it, I just wanted to see what it looked like, you know?"

She's gonna get me killed. "Well... why would you do that in the first place?"

"Realistically speaking, most stallions chub when I dance on them. Seeing yours in hiding made me kinda curious. Frustrated in more ways than one, but curious."

There is one thing I will never not give her credit for, and it's being honest. "Okay, let's change the subject. Sunset crushing on Cliff and we've confirmed that there's a very little chance of that happening. Closed book, let's move on."

Rarity blinked as she had to shake herself out of the conversation that took place in front of her. "Oh, yes. Now what else did you hear?"

Pinkie tapped her hoof against her chin as she continued to speak. "Well, I saw Discord and Shining talking to Nondie's brothers. They seemed really upset about something that you were getting involved over. I didn't hear what it was, but it kinda got them riled up a bit, even saying that they'd do whatever they could to help you fight! Hee hee, it looks like you got some brawling buddies, Non-non."

Dammit, I told Shining not to fucking recruit anyone! "Augh, shit! Where are they now?"

"Portal room. But after that, I started to make my way down the hall and then I meet up with the two of you whispering to each other. What kind of secret are you two hiding?"

"Nothing, gotta check on these two knuckleheads. Later!" I was quick to drop her question and dash back up the stairs and down the hall to find the two siblings staring back at me angrily as I walked in.

"So, little brother..." Alex said as he folded his arms. "Guess what game we're going to play."

Aww shit.

The next morning, I had awoken from the same nightmare that plagued me late Friday night to early Saturday morning. Only this time, there were a few more shadow-like figures that ended up tormenting the eldrich horror to a hellish scream. And as I woke up that morning, I couldn't help but to instinctively throw a fist directly up into the air and fight off whatever was facing me. Thankfully, I didn't hit anything besides some dust particles. But to my disadvantage, I ended up falling out of the bed.

A rude awakening made somewhat better by the mental note that everything that I had saw was nothing more than a terrible dream.

Normally in a human bed I wouldn't fall out of it from a little toss and turn, but obviously this wasn't my actual mattress I was sleeping on. I went back to the hotel shortly after my departure from the castle. I guess I kinda preferred the silence... and the fact that I wasn't missing any small amount of hair.

Yeah, Twilight has a bad habit of chewing my hair when I slept. I guess that's a good reason why her mane is so short in contrast to the others. If she had anyone else's mane length, she'd be a wreck with it. I even asked Shining about it once and he said that she normally does it to whoever she sleeps with. Naturally, that included him as well...

Now that I think on it, I remember the night I got mugged by Caramel. Her mane was all over the place, and it looked like the bit of hair she had going down the back of her neck took some damage. Perhaps she also does it whenever she's stressed about something.

...Why am I even thinking about all of this?

Oh right, the reason why I decided to sleep in my hotel bed as opposed to sleeping with the princess who appropriated my actual mattress. Not to mention that I didn't wanna have to wake up to her asking me to make sure that my end of the promise was going to be fulfilled.

You're running away from it.

I know. She's asking me to do something that I don't want to do when it's all said and done.

So what? You finish getting rid of the damn law, you free the royals, you confess to Shining what you and Twilight did, you two then break up, she keeps her heart, you keep your balls, and you both go your separate ways. What's so hard about it?

The fact that she even suggested a break up, and it wasn't like it was after everything was done and we were just tired in bed. She said that shit as she fucking edged me off! And hell, from that point onward I was trying to fuck her out of desperation so that she'd somehow change her mind mid orgasm. But as soon as I woke up in the morning, took my shower, and went to confront my brothers, she says it again.

Hello? You've been the main one saying you wanted a way out. She gave it to you, and in spades. You've gotten everything you could've asked for. She's doing this to prevent the damage from going any further between the two of you. Did you not remember what you two were saying to each other when you fought? She outright said that she would find someone else. The time she slapped you, she realized that what you two had was over and done with.

That's because she was mad that I kissed Rarity.

She's a girl, and a damn smart one. She's capable of expressing her feelings, and you should've been accepted that from the moment you two met. I'd go as far as saying that she's human enough to make that generalization, but obviously... yeah.

So... Twilight is pretty much doomed to fade out of the picture. How am I even supposed to make things right between me and Rarity?

Dude, just face it: She gave you away to her. You can feel it every time she talks to you, compliments you, or kisses you for the sake of appearances. Just accept that you're going to eventually fade from her query. Break up sex was great, despite the fact that railing her one final time would've been the cherry on top of it all.

...It's almost like I have a reason to keep this law in place, no matter how wrong it is. Almost.

Sir, the cake is gone, the evidence of it's disappearance is littered all over your face. You can't have what you've already ate.

Bullshit, I can order seconds.

Then you end up taking more damage than what you've already received. And when the bill comes in, you can't pay it.
You can't cash this one in, kid. This route is officially closed. Game over.

So what, I just hop up to Rarity's front porch and say 'Hey, you and I both know that I'm unofficially single at the moment. Whatcha got planned?' That shit is disrespectful.

And this would be disrespectful to whom? A mare who attempted to fraternize with you, on multiple occasions, who expressed her displeasure of you being accounted for by her best friend, who mugged you into a date, knowing that her best friend was the one you gave dick to? The writers for The Young and the Restless couldn't even think this shit up!

And that's something to be proud of?

All I'm saying is that it's technically just the two of you now. At least pretend that you could see things through to the end, and that's on all fronts. You wanted to pursue Rarity for a second opinion, here's your chance. You wanted to keep things on good terms with Twilight, she's giving you that opportunity. You want to get rid of this law, the one that had Twilight clip her wings, go for it.

*knock knock knock*

My attention was brought to the door as the arguments in my mind continue to swirl around, leaving me with much to think about and little time to process it completely. Upon opening the door, I was greeted with a familiar face.

"Hey."

"Good morning, Twilight."

She didn't seem too energetic this morning, she looked rather tired. Can't say that I've been keeping up with her nightly habits as of late, but something's been gnawing away at her... not to mention her mane. "May I come in?"

I didn't want to let her in, I knew where she was gonna go with this conversation. It's been played out. But due to the fact that I didn't want to seem disrespectful... "Sure." I couldn't bring myself to refuse.

She walked inside and hopped on the bed, allowing herself to lie on her belly as she spoke. "Did you sleep well?"

Nope, was busy tossing and turning from night terrors. "It was okay." Worrying her was the last thing I needed to do. She's obviously stressed about something that's going on, so I won't put anything on her.

She looked at me, almost with a pleading expression as she patted her hoof against the bed, beckoning me to sit by her. "You know I had a dream about you last night. It really scared me."

"Let me guess, I died again, right?" As usual. I don't understand why she keeps getting those.

As I sat down, she used her magic to push me against the mattress. Slowly she climbed on top of me and sat on my chest. "You pretty much guessed it. I know that's not what it means, but I'm just worried that something might happen that could hurt you. The message isn't what scares me, it's the image that I keep getting shook over."

Right then, my mind took control of my mouth and quietly whispered out in complaint. "Why are you even here?"

"Personal reasons." Twilight answered back, leaning her head against my chest. Eventually, she started to pat her hoof lightly against my abdomen in a rhythmic sequence of three. Two light taps followed by a rest.

"What are you doing?" I questioned.

"They say that the style your heart beats in shares the same rhythm with that of a waltz. In some of the books I read, a courting between higher-ups and royals can be decided with a waltz. If the two hearts beat as one, the two will dance as there's no coda. Eventually, the music does stop after a while."

Now I'm confused. It's not like I don't understand the musical terms, but still... "What are you─"

"Unfortunately, I realized that my pace may have been too fast. I know I'm trying to get used to the love thing, but I never thought it would be so... thrilling."

"Let me guess, there's no change in what you're gonna do?"

She stopped tapping as she raised her head to look at me. "Nondis, I love you. That won't ever change. But I can't let ourselves get hurt over this."

"...What if I said that I was perfectly fine with being hurt?"

"Then I'd call you a masochist."

"Just chain me to the wall then. I can take whatever you give me."

"Well you're just gonna have to be chained to that wall. I can't give you much of anything anymore."

"Is there any way I could convince you... to reconsider? I would─"

Twilight pulled herself towards me, our eyes meeting as she drifted over me. "You would let me get hurt again? Would you risk getting me in trouble again? Would you actually make me accept that my name has little to no merit?"

Somehow, I knew what she was alluding to. And for once, I let my greedy self take over. My hands started to slowly slide to her hips, suggesting that they'd take a dip towards south. A frustrated groan left the princess' lips.

"No." She said as she pulled herself back upwards. "Look... it's not like that would ever happen again."

"But you want it to, don't you?" I murmured as my greed got the better of my words.

I rose from off of the bed and turned the tables on her, pinning her to the sheets. She looked away from me while letting some of her mane eclipse over her mouth. My face became a bit flushed as my hand slid towards her abdomen. She sighed heavily as she started breathe a little faster. Her hips slightly adjusted upwards, her forelegs pulling onto me as she shifted her entire body upwards so that I'd reach my destination a little quicker. "Yeah... But I can't."

I started to pull off as she said those words, but her magic grasped at my hand, still guiding me lower. "I thought you wanted me to stop."

"Just keep going. You'll see what I mean."

Unsure as to what to expect, I quickly brought my hand down her body unceremoniously. The tips of my fingers finally came into contact with the moist surface of her nethers. She bit her lip with the intentions to cut her gasps short as my fingers started to work their way in.

*ZAP*

OW, SHIT! "Aah! What the hell was that!?" I screamed as my fingers quickly pulled out in response to the painful jolt I had received. Instinctively, my fingers went right into my mouth, not really thinking about where I had just pulled them from as much as my intention to nurse them back to health.

Twilight closed her eyes, and for the first time of my knowing her, pulled her tail between her hind legs to cover herself. "That's just it. Cadance placed my chastity rings back on, only this time with a bit more... enchantment than usual."

Finally realizing what I had just did, I quickly removed my fingers from my mouth and settled on shaking the pain out of them instead. "...Can't you just take them off again?"

"Not this time, my magical signature is nullified whenever it even comes close to it. It's magically sealed now, so I can't take them off even when I want to. And they stay that way until Cadance and I are within ten yards of each other. The good news is that the enchantment should dissipate in a second or two. The bad news..."

*POOF*

Within a second of Twilight's pause, Cadance appeared from a bright-blue flash of light, standing with a serious scowl on her face. Quietly, she growled at me and walked towards Twilight.

"The bad news is that it immediately alerts Cadance when somepony else touches them." Twilight finished as her sister in law grabbed her hoof and pulled her off of the bed.

"Twilight, are you okay?" The pink princess questioned.

"I'm fine." She answered as her face started to turn red.

"Any side effects?"

Twilight sank her head as she let her wings unfurl a bit. "Not really..."

"Twilight."

"Okay, it tickled me a bit!" She blurted out loudly before a curtain of feathers shaded over her face.

"Well that's good to hear. I don't want you getting hurt from the effects." She answered before cutting back to me.

"I guess that was karma biting me in the ass. I totally deserved that one." I openly confessed.

"Nondis, you are just too eager to get yourself into more trouble then you're already in."

I took a step back, thrown off guard from Cadance's sudden animosity. "Wait, hold on. What did I do?"

Cadance stormed up to me, her words becoming sharper as she got closer. "You managed to completely ignore my advice when I told you not to go with Rarity. You totally wrote Twilight off when she suggested a date with you. You then hurled insulting words and foul comments at her while trying to guilt-trip her into believing that you're making so many sacrifices for her, completely disregarding the ones she makes for you! AND THEN YOU TRY TO FUCK HER INTO BEING WITH YOU, AFTER SHE SAID THAT SHE'S DONE WITH YOU!?"

Wow, hearing it from the outside sure does make it seem like I'm a total ass. "...You know what, I'm not even going to apologize."

"EXCUSE ME!?" She screamed violently.

"Let me finish. I won't apologize because saying something like that would indicate that I have any regret for actually trying to make amends in my relationship. Yes, I know the physical aspect is kinda... yikes─"

"Then why the hell are you even trying to─"

"Have you ever known what it was like to have nothing, then go from that to having everything you could want, only to be knocked on your ass by some law that shouldn't even exist, and then have that everything fall apart because of some outside influence? Because I sure as hell felt desperate to do anything to keep what I had gained."

"IT WAS TWILIGHT THAT TOLD YOU THAT THE TWO OF YOU SHOULD'VE NEVER EVEN GOTTEN THIS FAR!"

"Cadance─" Twilight tried to stop her sister-in-law, but felt her voice becoming all the more quiet.

"AND FRANKLY, I DON'T CARE HOW MUCH YOU SACRIFICE! YOU DON'T GUILT SOMEONE TO KEEPING SOMETHING WITH YOU, YOU DON'T 'PERSUADE' ANYONE TO STAY WITH YOU, AND YOU DON'T TRY TO COERCE THEM SEXUALLY TO DO WHAT YOU WANT!"

"It's not like that─" Twilight tried to explain, but was cut short.

"Twilight, we are leaving!" Cadance tried to pull at the younger princess' hoof to get her to move, but Twilight sat on her haunches to protest. "What are you doing!? We are not staying here with this poor excuse of a colt!"

*SNAP*

That's it. I had enough. "Cadance, get out of my room. You're not welcome here, you never were."

"EXCUSE ME, I AM YOUR SUPERIOR─"

"WELL EXCUSE ME, SHINING ARMOR! I DIDN'T KNOW YOU TRADED YOUR BALLS FOR TEATS AND A DICK CANAL!"

"Nondis, that was too far─" Twilight chided, still finding herself lost between the two of us.

"OH, IN SPEAKING OF TRADING BALLS, GUESS WHO'S GOING TO LOSE THEIRS!"

"ENOUGH!!!" Twilight shouted over the both of us, her horn lighting up the entire room. Both Cadance and I were frozen in place as she and I angrily scowled at one another. Twilight huffed and puffed as she held the two of us in stasis. "Cadance, I made an agreement with Nondis. I wanted to protect him by pretending that he and I were still in our relationship. After that, I decided that it would be best for me and him to go our separate ways once the Approval Process law was repealed."

"And you and I made an agreement as well!" Cadance argued. "You said that as long as the two of you were going to pretend that you were going to carry on this ruse, you would limit your advances on Nondis. I know how you can get, and I also know how it feels to be caught in the heat of the moment. But that doesn't change the fact that you need to put your hoof down and say that you want to hold off on anything that you two used to do behind closed doors. Why, because the two of you no longer share each other, you both decided that it was over. And by definition of it, that would mean that you two would carry on a friendship without any beneficial attributes."

I looked back to Cadance with a shaken expression, feeling somewhat guilty. "What? Twilight didn't tell me that she was going to do anything like that with me. And I was at the castle for another two hours before I left. We were chopping it up just before I left, and not once did this come up!"

Cadance looked back to the purple princess. "Twilight, is this true?"

She looked back to me and smiled weakly. "I'm sorry. I just couldn't... I didn't want to bring it up because..."

I looked back to Cadance and immediately realized that this entire situation was all brought up because of a simple matter of miscommunication. At that point, I knew that we escalated to a point that was excessive and unnecessary. I decided that it would be best that we would make amends, but only after I get some sort of explanation from Twilight. "Twi, you gotta tell me this stuff. Just look at this mess, Me and Cadance trying to be on the same side while screaming our guts at each other isn't going to get shit removed any faster than what it's taking. You never told me that you would hold off on us... doing... you know."

"I'm sorry, I panicked!" Twilight confessed as she looked to Cadance. "I didn't keep my promise because I still felt that if I didn't at least keep his personal interest, he would altogether lose interest in pretending we were still with each other. And I know that Rarity is vying for his attention, I'm still a bit jealous of it all. And seeing him with somepony else while pretending to be with me was... hard. I couldn't sleep last night just thinking about that."

That explains the damaged part of her mane. "So that's why you've been chewing on your mane? Not because of some dream of me dying?"

"I didn't want to appear possessive." She said quietly, releasing her magic and allowing me and Cadance to interact with one another once more. "But honestly, I don't want to give up on you. So I'm going to stay with you, not just for pretend but for real, until we get the result we want."

"And should we fail to do so in less than three more months?" Cadance questioned.

Twilight looked to me with remorse. "Then I guess we'll end up being unhappily married."

Actually, that doesn't sound too bad on it's own. But I know all too well what that would lead to. "And that would leave me living with the guilt of being married to the girl I feel for, while powerless to do anything to prevent others from dealing with the same situation down the line. Sorry to say, I'm not Shining Armor."

Cadance shook her head. "Honestly, Shining didn't even have a chance to oppose them. They kept him busy by sending him on missions to places that were worlds away for unreasonable lengths of time. And there were situations where I asked to be escorted to those places by him, only for the request to be denied because of his assignments. You're different because of your species, and your weaponry makes your work significantly faster."

Yeah I almost forgot that I completely unloaded on her. "Cadance, I'm sorry about what I said."

The pink princess held a hoof to her head as she leaned her head back in shame. "Ugh, and I tried to use my authority as a means to supersede your personal affairs and space. I cannot believe I let myself become so angry to use that card against you. Not only that, but I came barging in with the understanding that you and Twilight had a conversation about what she and I agreed on, only to find out otherwise. I guess I also owe you an apology."

Twilight sighed as she started to smile brightly. "Now that everything's settled─"

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Both me and Cadance shouted as Twilight tried to ease her way into another subject.

"You still need to tell him what all you can and cannot do!" Cadance continued. "I'm not going to risk you getting into any more trouble than what you've already gotten yourself into. And you already told me that you were just a mind-change away from getting yourself into trouble again."

"Seriously?" I questioned.

"Oh yeah, she told me all about the way you two dissolved your recent spat. Of course she didn't tell me all the juicy details, but she did tell me that she thought about just giving you a piece of her mind, if you know what I mean."

Twilight shoved the older princess with a hoof as she cried out. "Cadance, you weren't supposed to tell him!"

Honestly, I would've indulged. "I got the hint a while back. She had a book with her, marked on the page introducing the subject of 'intercrural engagement'. I never knew thighs and haunches could feel so fucking─"

"NONDIS!" Twilight screamed.

"Sorry, got a little drooly." In both places.

Welp, that ended well. Cadance told me her reasoning, Twilight told me why she held out on the explanation, Cadance and I blew off some pent-up steam, and I end up finding out more about the magical enchantments that can be applied to items of sexual chastisement. And as an added bonus, I can no longer participate in any sexual activities with Twilight until either the law is repealed or we were to marry. Now add the fact that I spilled the beans to Rarity just yesterday afternoon on our status.

You can imagine how she's acting.

"We have two more stops before our little roundabout is done. Just a few more items and we'll be ready to head back to the boutique."

Yup, I'm with her today, running some errands while I'm out and about. We met earlier while I was walking in the street towards Sugarcube Corner to grab myself a snack. Instead of finding something to land in the bottom of my stomach, I found myself being nearly abducted as she pulled me off and quickly threw things in my arms... lots of things. You can imagine how that conversation went.

* * * * *

"Nondis, it's so great to see you out and about today!"

"Hey Rari─"

I didn't even get a chance to continue as she started to use her magic to pile stuff on top of me. "I was just in the need of an extra pair of hooves to assist me with a few things. But since I can clearly say that hands are much more versatile for my needs, I will be pulling you instead."

"Actually, I was just─"

She added something that caused me to lose my balance for a bit before stumbling back in place. "Hold these things for me, and follow me to my next stop. We haven't a moment to lose!"

I stared at the pile of junk she dropped in my arms as it towered just above my eye level. I can't believe she's doing this to me... again. "Did I just become Spike?"

Rarity called back to me as I started to place everything on top of a nearby vending cart. "Oh *pfft* goodness no, dear. Spike would do whatever I want without having me to ask him. With you, I have to drag you by the ear to get you to go along with me."

"Or pull me away from my lunch." I answered as I got rid of everything that was unwillingly shifted into my possession.

Rarity pulled out a short list and a pencil, checking off a few items off of her list. "You will have to forgo that meal, I'm afraid. Our day will be very much busy and I will not be back at the boutique for quite some time."

"We could eat out?" I recommended, pointing to my destination down the street.

"And pay more bits to enjoy something I could make in the comfort of my own home? You are so funny." She answered while walking up towards me.

"Rarity, come on."

Her tone softened as she looked at me with pleading eyes, her sapphire orbs seemingly shimmering as she stared, pursing her lips all the while. "You wouldn't refuse a lady, now would you?"

Puppy-dog eyes, I can't stand it. "That's cheating."

"So do I have your yes?" She questioned, shifting from side to side like a shy child.

If there's one thing that equines have as an advantage, it's that their huge eyes can really make their expressions stand out a whole lot more and become greatly exaggerated. This has been the nth time I've been begged to while a pony uses that expression. And the worst thing of it all is that it's very difficult to say no to. And don't say no the first time, or else they'll be using that expression on you for the next ten minutes followed by dog-like whimpers.

I was not gonna win this one. "Ugh... ponies."

* * * * *

It's been about four hours since I was dragged from the street to the nearest thread outlet. And in my time running around, I dropped everything twice. Rarity would help me pick it all up, but would still run around with her hooves and horn free while I was walking damn-near bowlegged, buckling from the weight of everything.

Oh the joy.

"Wow, Nonnie! You look totally swamped!"

Looking to my side, I found that Pinkie had managed to suddenly appear to my right. With a concerned expression, she stared at the large pillar of items I was holding. "Thank you for noticing." I answered back sarcastically.

"You need help, give me some of that." Before I could react she immediately nudged me over, knocking over some of the stuff I was carrying. She then caught everything I dropped and balanced it all on her back. Whatever loose items hit the ground, she managed to place inside of her saddle bags.

Rarity then turned around to see that Pinkie was suddenly standing next to me. "Pinkie, when did you get here?"

"I saw Non-non struggling with a tower of stuff from like a mile away. I didn't want him to have too many problems with everything on his own, so I'm offering to help."

The fashionista shook her head while she started to levitate some of the stuff from off of Pinkie's back and back into my possession. "Miss Pinkie Pie, this is an issue of manual labor. Nondis is more than capable of handling it. Just think of it as a form of... endurance training."

Pinkie was not amused. "Rarity, you're putting way too much on Nondis. Shouldn't you kinda slow down a bit on trying to work him to death?"

"Madam Diane, we're only doing this for two more stops. And after that we're headed back to the boutique so that I can recap on his measurements."

Again, the pink party pony was unamused. "Nondie, I know you've been walking around all day. Did you get anything to eat?"

"Oh, I had a large breakfast." I lied, knowing that I didn't have any. But in some oddly contrived way, my stomach decided to speak out of term, informing Pinkie that I was hungry.

She stared daggers at me. "You didn't eat very much between then and now, did you?"

"Nope." I confessed.

The pink pony turned back to Rarity with a frown. The seamstress already knew what was coming. "Pinkie, we have only two more stops to go before we finish our tour. Then when we finish, we're going to head back to the boutique to get his measurements for a new outfit and then I'll make him dinner."

Pinkie rolled her eyes and pulled against my arm. "Non-nums, let's get you a snack. You don't need to keep working with low blood sugar."

"Pinkie, I'll be fine. How long could this take, really?" An hour, at least by Rarity's standards.

"You can't even stand straight." Pinkie argued as she pulled me towards one direction.

"Pinkie, we can't! You'll spoil his appetite by giving him something before dinner!" Rarity proceeded to pull me in the other direction.

"I also need to talk to Nondie! You can't hog him the whole day and starve him to death!"

"I won't let him starve! Now if you would excuse us, we have more errands to finish!"

And suddenly I'm a makeshift rope in a game of tug-of-war. "Girls, I'm still carrying shit!" I shouted, finalizing that they should stop pulling me apart like a wishbone.

The two backed off a bit while they stared at one another. Pinkie was the first to speak. "I need to have a moment with him, it's urgent."

"Well in that case just say what it is, Pinkie. I'm your friend too, don't just leave me in the dark." Rarity voiced with concern.

Pinkie sighed as she grabbed the items Rarity placed back on me and whispered to me. "I can't do it. I can't do it anymore, Nonnie."

Looking at her face, I could tell she was really disturbed about something. Even when she first showed up, she didn't smile as often as she normally would. "What's the problem?"

The three of us walked onward as Pinkie began to explain the situation. "So yesterday, I had a long conversation with your brothers."

"So I was told." Alex even said that she sent Cheese out of the bakery just so she could say what she wanted to say.

"Yeah. After I left the castle, I came back into the bakery only to find Cheese sitting in the kitchen talking to Mr. Cake about something. They were discussing a bunch of things that involved flowers, chocolate, cheesy poetry, and then there was this one thing that really had me in a foul mood was... the talk of a ring."

Rarity squeed loudly as she hugged the pink pony. "Oh gracious Celestia! Pinkie Pie, he must be talking about the two of you getting married!"

Pinkie didn't even laugh nervously or crack a fake smile as she pushed Rarity away. "I know."

"Then our first stop should be the Boutique! I've already got your measurements down, so it would be easy for me to get you set up."

"I thought we had two more stops." I noted to the excited unicorn.

"We'll forgo those two items and find them on sale tomorrow."

Seriously? Then why are we still out here? "Okay, please tell me you have plans on dinner while we're at it."

"NO!" Pinkie exclaimed loudly, interrupting the two of us while gaining the attention of the entire town square. "I don't want a dress! I don't wanna plan anything! I don't want a wedding! I DON'T WANT ANYTHING THAT'S WHITE OR FRILLY!"

Rarity reared back in response to her friend's outburst. "Pinkie Pie, don't you want to─"

"I don't want to. I don't want things to go further between us. I can't do it." At that point, she started to break down while she leaned against me. "I'm just not ready for it. I'm scared."

I placed everything to the side as I gave my attention to the crying pink mare. "What are you scared of?" I whispered, hoping to diminish the attention we were getting.

"I'm terrified that I'm leading him on. I'm scared that he loves me so much, knowing that I don't feel for him as strongly as he does for me. All this morning, he's been really chipper towards me, smiling at me, hugging me all the time, kissing me. I know I don't deserve it, but it's like he doesn't care that I still have feelings buried for somepony else. I try to talk to him about it, but he cuts me off by telling me how much he wants me. I had to run away from the bakery because I kept feeling like I couldn't breathe."

I gave her a pat on the head and a light scratch behind her ears as the folded. "Have you ever tried telling him that you felt like you needed some space?"

"I couldn't." She whimpered. "I keep saying that we need to talk, we need to talk, we need to get some things out of the way, but he doesn't let me when all he keeps saying is he loves me. I'm scared, Non-non. I'm hurting him and he's acting like there's nothing wrong at all."

"Pinkie."

"I can't marry him... bottom line. I won't do it for somepony I can't love, or give him what he wants."

"Oh... dear." Rarity said as she paid attention to the gathering crowd of ponies. Both Pinkie and I looked up to see what she was gasping at, but found very little other than a large wall of eyes glaring back at us.

Immediately, I started to direct the traffic. "Okay, move it along! Nothing to see here, folks! Mosey on out of here!" I continued to point the ponies in various directions, trying to disperse the attention from us. But as I had gotten closer, I began to see what exactly Rarity held her breath at.

Standing in the midst of the throng, was none other than a burdened Cheese Sandwich. He stared at the pony who made her tearful declaration, his face wrought with disbelief and despair. In his left foreleg was a box of chocolates with a string connecting a small box to it. Pinkie looked up to see that I had become nearly petrified, and grew to show the same expression as I did once she caught a glimpse of the stallion standing before me. Rarity didn't change her face as her horn glowed, her magic removing all of the items from Pinkie's back and saddlebags. The pink party pony stumbled forward as she saw the absence of life all over his body. The only thing that seemed to not lose any of it's color was the bouquet of flowers he held in his mouth.

"Cheese..." She called out weakly.

He didn't say anything as he dropped everything in his hooves. Pinkie took a few steps to reach out to him, meanwhile he continued to stare back at her. She quickly galloped over to him, getting close enough to where she could hug him.

"Cheesy... look. It's not like─"

In an instant, he snapped out of it. An oddly wide smile blew up on his face as he draped his hoof around her. "Are you kidding!? I thought we were speeding things up too! I can't believe I was so ambitious to put myself out there like that! I felt like I was being pushed to the brink! Phew, thank Celestia I wasn't the only one!"

Pinkie's eyes closed, her tears began to run freely as she tried to caress the hoof that draped around her neck, only to be abruptly pushed off. "No. Don't, please."

"Pinkie, I'm fine! I'm just happy you could express yourself! I know I've been really doubling down on showing you how I really felt! I mean, that conversation I had with Mr. Cake on how settling down was going to be the best decision I ever made turned out to be a big lulu! Watch that first step, they'd always say!"

Pinkie grabbed his hooves and tried to speak to him. "Listen to me─"

"You know, I had an idea or two about how I was gonna propose to you, after knowing you for over two years! I thought I was going to finally come to Ponyville and put myself aside to settle down with you! I cancelled every party I had booked for the next two years, just to focus on starting something with you! I mean, what's one or two runts running around!? But I could care less!"

Pinkie tried to hug the stallion, embracing him for a short second before he shoved her off and erupted at her. "Cheesy─"

"I couldn't care any more, you keep pushing me away! You keep talking and talking and ranting and raving about 'this guy' and what he does for you! I know that I'm not up to par when it comes to certain things, but I know that my heart is still there! Meanwhile you send me out of every room whenever you start to talk about him! You kicked me out of the bakery yesterday when the other humans came along, and you talked about him then! I just have to accept the fact that I was always playing for second!"

"That's a lie!"

"YOU'VE BEEN LYING TO ME THIS ENTIRE TIME, PINKAMENA! YOU HAVEN'T EVEN TOLD YOUR SISTERS OR YOUR DAD THAT I WAS IN THE PICTURE! EACH TIME YOU TALK TO THEM, I'M THE ONE THING YOU DON'T MENTION! But I get it now... so I'm happy with whatever you choose."

Pinkie shook the stallion, her eyes growing colder as her mane started to deflate. "No. Don't be happy, please. Be angry. Be furious. Say that you're gonna fight for me. Just scream at me, call me whatever you want! I deserve it!"

Cheese shook his head as he held on to he roses in his hoof. Cracking his usual smile, he kissed her on the cheek. Looking up to him, Pinkie felt herself overcome with grief as he held her chin up to where his eyes met hers. "I love you, Pinkie Pie. That will never change."

His jaw quivered, his forelegs grew shaky as he looked at her. His breathing patterns became erratic as he tried to hold back the tears that welled in his eyes. And in one quick movement, he made an about-face and made a beeline down the street. The flowers still in his possession as he ran away from the demolished pink pony, who could only lie sobbing with her face in the ground. Rarity and I looked to one another as we tried to process what had just happened.

"Perhaps we should've held our tongues until we were behind closed doors?" Rarity said quietly as the crowd of ponies whispered amongst themselves.

At that point, I just didn't care for being nice to anyone who remained. The only thing that was my concern was getting Pinkie out of the public eye with her emotions soaking the cobblestone streets. I ended up playing a role I didn't want to play at the moment. And I know that I would have to apologize for my being rude, but I wasn't going to let everyone stare and point at Pinkie. And it wasn't like we could drag her from the area with the road this clogged up.

"GET OFF THE FUCKING STREET! NOW!"

We returned to the boutique with Pinkie and our items in tow. Rarity carried half of what I was once carrying, I guess she figured that now wasn't the time to test my might. I was finally relieved to be someplace where I could rest for a while, but it all came at the expense of Pinkie having a breakdown in public. So it went without saying that I couldn't enjoy the rest, not as long as Pinkie continued to sob on the couch. After setting everything down, Rarity walked up to the depressed pony and gave her a light nuzzle.

"Pinkie, darling. Everything is going to be fine." She said in an attempt to cheer her friend up. "Things like this, fights and whatnot, they all happen at one given point of your relationship. So it's only natural that there would be a breakdown somewhere."

"This isn't a breakdown." Pinkie responded with a somber tone. "I completely destroyed everything. This is all my fault."

I walked over to offer my own words of wisdom. "So you've made a mistake, we all make them. Relationships are never perfect, you're bound to get something wrong later on down the line. It's not that you made the mistake of telling the truth, it's that you didn't put your hoof down and tell him sooner. But at the same time, he feels betrayed because he let himself get to a point where his expectations could not fit reasonably within the current situation."

"I should've just went along with it." She moaned as she let her face fall into the cushions. "I didn't want to have him look like that."

I shook my head as I pulled Pinkie from the cushions. "Look at me. This 'blaming myself' game isn't gonna make you feel any better." Some awfully hard preaching that I might find myself trying to practice. "But you also need to realize that rushing things would've only made things worse. You didn't need to go along with anything that you felt you were not ready for, bottom line. It's true that I might've pushed you two together and hoped that things worked out for the best. But you can't just make comparisons every time you're with someone else. That hurts, you know."

Rarity also threw in her two cents. "Besides, you said it yourself: You were not ready for a marriage. I can't convince you to just give up on what makes you comfortable if you're not ready to commit. The aspect of marriage takes two to come together, not one to make a decision and for the other to comply."

"And your relationship can't go any further unless both of you are giving it one hundred percent. Half and half in relationships only makes for a half of a whole. A whole and a half doesn't make things work either, you can't just make things work by cutting corners." I added. "On the other hand, you have to realize that this was going to happen anyhow. Yes, his finding out about all of this was painful to take, but would you rather let him live in a lie as opposed to telling him the truth that you're not ready and wanting to slow things down?"

She looked at me with reddened eyes as she tried to gather herself. "So, me crying was gonna happen anyways?"

"Yes, fucking cry! Get it all out because telling someone the truth is going to hurt regardless. But I'm also going to tell you that mostly everything from here onward is going to only result in your benefit. Why, because there is a unity between the two of you and there is an established mode of communication. Furthermore, a trust has been built between the both of you. This means that the two of you will begin to open up on getting to know each other in greater detail."

Rarity placed her hoof around the pink mare's shoulders and brought her in for a hug. "All it takes now is you telling him that this isn't the end of things, just a request for you and him to drag your hooves a little. Yes, distance can make the heart grow fonder, but it can also distort your view of things. That's why you feel as if it's moving too fast, because you've gotten to know the Cheese on paper than in reality. You can do this, I know you can."

Pinkie wiped her eyes while she tried to get herself together. Sniffling, she took deep breaths to stop her from crying anymore. Stepping off of the couch, she stood to face the door. Her puffy eyes then looked up to me as she spoke. "Nondie, you're gonna help us work things out, right?"

"Later. Now go get your boyfriend before I have to hear about him going missing." I suggested before giving her a firm slap to the rear end as a means to invoking a fire. "Now... MOSEY!"

Pinkie didn't so much as budge as she turned back to me with a incredulous expression. "Non, the next time you do that, I'm biting your hand."

I guess that doesn't work for her. Strange, it usually works for everyone else... oops. "Sorry about that."

Flicking her tail at my face as a means to return the favor, she snapped her attention back towards the front door. With a deep breath, she galloped at her fastest speed out of the boutique, searching for the stallion that broke down before her. She cried out his name as she ran, gaining much attention from random onlookers while she zoomed her way through town.

Rarity walked up beside me and leaned against me. "You really don't understand just how potent your words can be."

I shrugged my shoulders as I walked back into the boutique. "I had practice with Melanie for a few years. After a while, I've gotten used to being the one who gave comfort... or at least lied enough to make her happy."

"Lie?"

"I had ulterior motives at the time... not my proudest achievement. I guess you could say I once played the role Spike plays now." I admitted to the fashionista, who only mumbled in response.

"Oh, I see..."

"The past me, the one that lived before the accident that nearly snuffed the air out of my lungs, I wasn't a very proud thing to look at. I was selfish, angry, misguided, self-righteous, and manipulative. In the end, I said some things that mostly benefited me, and ended up being the sleaze I proclaimed myself to protect her against."

"So, what you told Pinkie."

"Nah." I shook my head before she could even finish her thought. "That was all for her. I don't benefit from that, don't want to. Being here has taught me a lot of things and it also made me want to refresh my image. I wanted to become a better me, one who helps others without any ulterior motive."

"So you become something that you're not?" She questioned.

"I became something that I need to be."

Rarity used her magic to grab my hand and pulled me into the kitchen while simultaneously closing the front door. "Then, would you become something that I need you to be?"

I watched as she started to pull out numerous items from the cupboards, pans and seasonings quietly floated onto the counter. "Depends. If they're not unreasonable or questionable to my morals."

She pulled out a chair to sit in and quietly spoke. "Well I'm afraid that you're going to be a bit conflicted with my request. It will be a bit of a tall order, but it isn't one that's impossible to fulfill."

I'm already getting bad vibes from this. "Is it about the modeling thing?"

"No... It has to something to do with Spike."

"Cheese!?"

For three hours, Pinkie Pie ran throughout the town in a desperate attempt to find her distraught coltfriend. And in those three hours, he was nowhere to be found. Each area she searched, a pony gave her confirmation that he headed towards one place or another. Eventually, a pony notified her that he appeared to be leaving the town through by means of the path leading through the Everfree forest.

"Cheese where are you!? Please answer me!"

Her pace slowed significantly from when she first started her search, going from a pink blur to that of a slowed trot. The sweat on her brow beaded down her face as she looked from side to side. Meanwhile, her mind was awash with the grim scenarios that were to be a possibility if she delayed her efforts even once. One such thought was finding him unconscious in the woods, passed out on the verdant path ahead. Another was that he just simply disappeared into nothing, unable to be found or heard from ever again. And her worst fear came to play out in her head as she felt an icy chill run down her spine. The last thing she'd wanted to see was him lying in some bush...

...A cadaver who's eyes gazed into the infinite darkness, his cold hooves locking in place as the color faded from his coat. "You know I don't like coming out here, this isn't funny! Unless you're more into dark humor, but I'm not too much of a fan of it!" She said aloud in some attempt to assure herself that her recent thought was nothing more than playing into whatever joke he set up. Unfortunately for her, it was highly unlikely that he would ever pull such a prank on her given the circumstances. Her heartbeat began to increase when that grim image started to sink into her brain.

Pinkie continued to walk further into the woods, her eyes widened to catch anything that moved or resembled a pony. Instead, she only ran into a cloud of pale orange haze that hindered her view of the path ahead. Her mind was made up when that scene played out in her head once more, her internal cries becoming more and more realistic. After a slight hesitation, she mustered whatever strength she had remaining and darted forward.

The further into the cloud she went, the more it started to affect her. Her eyes watered from the mist, stimulating her allergies enough to where she could do nothing but sneeze. Whenever she tried to breathe through her mouth, she ended up coughing a little. Placing a hoof over her muzzle, she took a deep breath and called out into the woods. "Cheese, I don't like this. Whatever sneezing powder you got going around, it's not making me feel any better."

Unfortunately, the response she got was one she didn't call for.

*HISS*

Turning to her left side, she heard a loud thud resulting into the rustling of the leaves above her. She jumped back to see a black face squirming in a tree, complete with light blue eyes, sharpened teeth, and a craggy horn. It continued to hiss at the pink pony while it appeared to be stuck in place. "A changeling?"

Another voice came from the direction of the ensnared changeling. "Your time has come, the hour is nigh. You invaded my home to take me, and now you will die."

Pinkie recognized the voice and felt some form of relief as the shadow behind the changeling emerged. The silhouette slowly started to resemble the shape of a zebra. "Zecora?"

Quickly, the shaded zebra lunged forward, pressuring a crudely-made spear against her throat. "HALT IMPOSTOR, STAY SILENT AND COME NO FURTHER! UNLESS YOU'D RATHER ME RETURN YOUR LIFELESS BODY BACK TO YOUR HOLE-INFESTED MOTHER!" The cautious zebra appeared before her with green paint masking her eyes and cheeks, her muzzle was covered with a tattered cloth that was being used as a makeshift mask.

"It's me, Pinkie!" She pleaded, trying to spare her own life.

Zecora looked back at the changeling, who still struggled with being caught between two massive tree roots. She turned away from the creature once she confirmed that an unassisted escape was highly unlikely, and replaced her weapon at the neck the sweating pony. "Your symptom of poison joke, reveal that much to me. Only then will I recognize you as friend and let you go free."

"My tongue swelled up to the size of my hoof and had grew blue polka dots. I couldn't get through a sentence without spitting on something or somepony. You had a book containing the cure, ironically one that Twilight had when she was back at Golden Oaks─"

"Very well, I'll let you on by." Zecora interrupted, confirming that the pink pony wasn't an impostor. "But do tell the reason why you are here, Pinkie Pie."

Pinkie sighed with relief as she watched the spear leave her personal space. "I'm just looking for somepony. Have you seen Cheese Sandwich anywhere around here?"

Zecora found the name to be unfamiliar to her, could only quirk a brow in response to Pinkie's question. "I... do not follow."

"You know, orange stallion, really lanky, puffy mane and tail like mine but brown, bright green eyes, cutie mark of a cheese sandwich sliced in half and stretched apart." Pinkie quickly described in one breath.

It took a while for the description to process an image, but Zecora stomped her hoof as the revelation came to her. "Oh dearest me, I did see somepony of your description. Though I couldn't help but to hold my spear with heavy suspicion."

Pinkie quickly grabbed the zebra and shook her. "You didn't attack him or anything, did you?"

Zecora shook her head as she pried herself from the vice-like grip of the pink hooves. "Quite the opposite, I called out for him to hear. A warning I offered to him, that there were changelings still near. Not nearly as many who continue to roam, but the one you see stuck tried to take me in my own home!" She spat venomously while glancing at the changeling she chased earlier.

Though Pinkie was relieved to hear that nothing had happened to her, thoughts of the changeling stragglers continued to add to her fears. "He didn't say anything?"

She took a moment to think, only to recall that his lips produced words not directed towards her. "No, I don't seem to remember him saying much. But he walked with a mope, holding flowers... a bunch. Tulips and daisies was what he had, but he picked at the petals as he seemed so sad."

"I know he is." Pinkie confirmed before she sneezed once more.

Zecora took off her mask and tied it to Pinkie's muzzle. The pink pony looked at the zebra oddly as her cheeks seemed flushed with an otherworldy shade of red. She proceeded to look among the brush for a large leaf she could use to make do with a temporary replacement until she could return back to her hut. "Perhaps there is more to know about this fellow? You must know more of him, for your tone to be so mellow."

Her allergies were still triggered, causing her to sniffle as the pink pony spoke. "He's... my special somepony. Or at least I think he still is."

Using her spear, Zecora cut a large leaf from a nearby tree. Brushing off the surface, she covered her muzzle as she questioned Pinkie. "Forgive me as I know that this is not my place, but would you tell me the reason why he walked with tears streaming down his face?"

Pinkie closed her eyes and replayed the events that transpired just a few hours ago. "He overheard me talking to Nondis about our relationship and how I felt about it all. I told him how I wanted us to... you know, slow down."

"Slow down? That doesn't seem too bad. Though I could only─"

"I mean, he apparently had aspirations for us to get married from the very beginning, like before we reunited. I wanted to slow it down because I wasn't comfortable. I just felt like we were taking things too fast and he was pushing me to love me in a way where... I just became so unsure about myself. I mean, he's a good pony, and I really adore him. But I just want to keep things simple between us. But I might've said some things that might sound bad out of context. I said that I didn't want to marry him, I even made a huge scene about it in town... I'm so embarrassed."

The zebra gave a slow nod as it started to make sense to her. "Ah, now I see why those eyes resembled a saddened pup. From your latter words, he derived the tell-tale signs of a breakup."

Pinkie looked down the misty path and saw nothing but the pale orange haze grow even thicker ahead. "So where did he go?" She quietly asked.

"I'm afraid that he silently wandered to the verdant paths further in. As for what direction he took at the fork, I don't know where to begin. But I do fear that his safety may be all but secure. As quite a few changelings, his love for you will lure. And should his essence be discovered, they'll become enraptured. Then sooner or later─"

The pink pony gave off an audible gulp. "He'll end up getting captured!"

Pinkie started to make a dash for the path again, only for her tail to be ensnared by the zebra's teeth. "Wait, do not leave, your scent is still strong! These changelings will find you and feed on your love, it will not take them long."

"I'm sorry, I have to find him now!" Pinkie argued, trying to grab her tail away from Zecora.

The striped shaman dropped her spear, lunged forward, and grabbed the pink pony with her hooves to further deter her progress. "No! Do not go! These spores are too dangerous for you to ingest! You must wait until the mist dies down before you can progress!"

Pinkie looked at the reddened face of her zebra friend while trying to free herself. "Zecora, I need to go now! If Cheese is captured, then─"

Zecora wasted no time in trying to verbally convince the pink pony that going on was bad idea. Instead, she threw the pink pony down to the ground and pinned her to the leaves below. Slowly the leaf fell from her hooves, leaving a panting Zecora to stare back at Pinkie. The party pony looked up nervously as she noticed that she was receiving an unusually distant stare from the mare above. When she tried to move, the zebra inched a little closer, panting all the while. "Nnngh... The spores being spread, simulate the effects of estrus. You must go now, seek help from Nondis! We ponies are far too sensitive, submission occurs far too soon. But I know that the humans... they will most assuredly remain immune."

Pinkie then began to realize that no matter what she tried, it was going to become a whole lot more difficult to move deeper into the forest, even with the mask protecting her. But she also noticed that Zecora was uncharacteristically close to her, even going as far as petting the pony's cheek. She turned her head away as she avoided the zebra's gaze.

"Go now, while you still have a chance. I must remain here, and─" She couldn't finish as she felt a pair of hooves thrust into her chest, causing her to fall back. For a brief moment as Pinkie got up, the Zebra could already see the pony's face growing slightly redder by the minute. But her eyes seemed to show signs of panic.

"We're gonna get you help! Stay here!" She screamed before galloping on the forest path back to Ponyville. Her tale quickly bounced up and down as she ran, leaving a frustrated Zecora to remain.

"Hurry now, race back to the town! Before these spores take you and your coltfriend down." She called out before slowly retrieving her spear and turning her attention to the still struggling changeling.

For a while, she stared at the changeling while holding the spear to it's crown. Suddenly, a sharp thrust of pain surged through her abdomen, causing her to lose her balance and fall back onto her haunches. Using her spear as a means of support, she took deep breaths to alleviate the discomfort. Her eyes clenched shut as the pain passed through her body, rendering her temporarily immobile. A sharpened cry left her lips as she failed to suppress her aches.

It was far too much for her to operate on. "Nngh... An antidote, I must concoct. To give to the unwary traveler a means to surpass this terrible onslaught. But first..."

The changeling looked up as it saw the spear raise over the zebra's head, falling down onto it. Another surge of pain caused Zecora to throw her aim off, hitting the tree trunk instead. It became apparent that she wasn't going to be fighting with her cramps hindering her movements. So she made the decision to come back whenever she found a means of relief.

"I pray that the human male come not to see me... lest he permit that my imagination would run free." She joked before setting off to her hut for some medicine.

"Surely he should, this 'human'."

Zecora felt herself become alert as the unfamiliar voice echoed throughout the forest. Pulling the spear from the tree, she readied herself to fight. "WHO GOES THERE!"

Before she could get an answer, a bright green bolt of magic barreled towards her. Zecora leapt out of the way, only for the bolt to land amongst the tree roots that contained the changeling. "Oh please, zebra. Put that thing away, you'll poke your eye out." The voice called out before a shadow manifested itself before her. As it's hoof flicked out, a large black flower landed before the zebra, emitting a light cloud of pale orange dust as it landed.

"Drakeseed spores." Zecora grimaced as her suspicions were confirmed.

"It's a good thing that I decided to spread these around the forest just to see what effect these will have on the local population. A remote location that's not too far as to avoid a travel route, and not too close to draw attention. But having you, the local population, fall victim to it's effects is nothing short of a bonus." The shadow crackled. "But having you in my possession, the spores being released, it's all but a ploy, a smaller part of a much larger masterpiece."

"ENOUGH! I will run you through!" Zecora shouted as she got back on her hooves. "My spear is sturdy, the point is jagged, and my aim true! It seeks to find it's way inside of YOU!"

With a mighty cry, she barreled forward to the shadow figure before her, only to be quickly undermined by a magical blast that sent her into a nearby tree. Zecora moaned in pain as she tried to recover from her hit, just to have a much larger body pressed against hers. A green magical aura held her in place as she felt a large pair of hooves immediately glide down her body to her most sensitive parts. "Yes that's cute. And you seem to be very... stimulated. Is that why you're so quick to turn, so that I wouldn't find out?"

"...Go to hell..." Zecora hissed from the side of her mouth, looking everywhere but the creature that violated her.

"Oooh, I love it when you snarl. It makes you look so brave, so determined to mask your fears and weaknesses. But behind those eyes, there is nowhere you can hide. The truth is revealed right through them, and I can already see the image of my objective."

As the larger hoof brushed itself between Zecora's haunches, the shaman tried to wriggle herself upwards as a means to lessen the contact. "I will not... submit..."

Zecora tried her best to keep her eyes closed as the hoof continued to rub against her, increasing it's pace while pushing up against her. She found herself unable to adjust any further and took the brunt of her molester's advances. She grunted as she shifted whatever way she could as a desperate means to free herself, but her actions only made her situation even worse as she felt herself endure a small surge of pleasure that left her assailant's hoof moistened. "It seems you already have. Now tell me something, zebra. You live in this forest, you know it's creatures and it's workings. So that means that you would immediately identify if something were to appear out of place. Something that was rumored to be... different."

Zecora gritted her teeth while the hoof worked quickly against her, her eyes clenched so hard that she felt herself become slightly dizzy. The creature whispered into her ear as she turned away.

"Tall..."

The hoof that was free began to push the zebra down lower as she whispered once more.

"Strong..."

The hoof rubbed against her at an alarmingly rapid pace, causing Zecora to breathe heavily. Writhing in pleasure and shame, she arched her back and screamed in disgust.

"So full of life..."

The green magical aura manifested it's presence upon Zecora's chin, to face her attacker. The zebra's eyes grew from shock as a pair of lips forced onto hers mid-gasp, her tongue being tortured by an invader of similar function. Quickly, they separated with an audible smack as the zebra's eyes met with that of a changeling's.

But rather than the usual blue glossy orbs that were often shared amongst the regulars, they were large, green, reptilian, and filled with greed. The zebra shook with horror as she realized that she was being violated by not just any changeling. A sinister yet playful giggle was heard as the infamous queen herself grew giddy from the taste of her victim's tongue. Chrysalis smiled deviously as she imitated the voice of a recent visitor.

"So, have you by any chance seen the otherworldly creature I've summoned?"

Author's Note

This past month has been a difficult one for me. The past month has been met with a variety of issues IRL. One such issue was that the transmission died on my car, so I've been having to work extra hard to get it paid for while trying to maintain everything else. Unfortunately, I still have a bit of work to do before I can fully pay it off.

So I apologize if this chapter isn't quite up to standard, ideas have been really hard to push with everything going on. But I will try to make up for it in the next few chapters.

But lo and behold, the mastermind shows herself. What is it that she has in store and what is she up to? Will Nondis be able to find Cheese before it's all over and done with? Or will Cheese find himself being another victim to the changelings? Next chapter, folks. See you then.

Minor spoiler for next chapter: Rarity will explain herself to Nondis.

Chapter LV

Inhale... Scream... Repeat.

Inhale... Scream... Repeat.

They say if you scream enough, it offers a sort of relief to whatever that ails you. Well... I don't feel like I've done enough screaming. But you may be wondering why this is my beginning thought.

It was a long day... a long two days, actually. And it started off with my killing a Pinkie-impersonator. From there on, it's all been tumbling down to where I'm currently strapped to a bed, screaming my lungs out. But let's get back to where it all started, back when I was staring at the pink body for several minutes before it transformed back into it's true form.

So... what is the calling card of the changelings? To be able to mimic your friends and family, lull you into a false sense of fidelity, and even going so far as to imitate experiences. But the thing that makes it crazy is that they can be capable of even knowing your nicknames. They can perfectly match the pitch of any one pony you might know and could trust. And a well-informed changeling could even completely replace the one you know and love.

However, when it comes to remembering certain details about one's life, they seem a bit cloud-minded when it comes to recalling the scenario and what all was said. I could've made up the fact that Pinkie had a funeral for her mom, God forbid, and she would've ran with it. They're trained actors, true thespians to the art of putting on a show and displaying emotions.

Yet... they only focus on one aspect: love. Why does it have to be just that one thing? It could've been hatred, anger, joy, happiness, confusion, sorrow, or fear. I guess they decided to go with the one thing that makes you go insane. It has been proven that an absence of love could ultimately destroy one's existence. It's not just pertaining to people who could be single throughout their lives, or individuals who constantly experience heartbreak at every turn.

This pertains to the love a mother would give to her child, a father would demonstrate to his own, a sibling would share with others, a friend who would show that they care, or even a significant other who could give you that indescribable release. Without any of that, one's will to live would be unceremoniously buried. We'd lose sight on the single purpose that brought us into this vein of existence. We'd become resentful and bitter, and find ourselves more susceptible to an early curtain call.

Yes, those things that can annoy us so much can be wrought from love. Pain can be born from it, and sometimes it would feel like love would rather shut us out than embrace us. And our only response to it is desperation, almost like we were a drug addict looking for our fix or a new high, ultimately becoming so dangerous that we'd risk our lives for the thrill of being able to touch the skies above. And yet we can't live without that drug, the drug that nearly kills us or does kill us in the end.

The drug that claims millions of lives every year, the one thing that the pharmaceutical companies can't hope to mimic.

But these changelings, they've got it to where they can sell it to you right off the street. They've become these pseudo drug dealers, giving you the fix you need for a bit of your existence. And much like any other synthetic drug, the toll on the body can be devastating. You could be happy for the rest of your life, but that happiness would be short-lived. You could swear that the sky was within your reach, but you're actually sinking even lower.

The higher you feel, the further you fall, the future jumps end up going from stepping stones to sky-scrapers, to space elevators. Now suddenly that jump you used to get doesn't seem so high, yet it's the same jump you had when you started. And the further you go, the deeper you fall into the stigma, the higher your reaching point feels. All relationships can feel this way, as if things are getting old.

And again, the changelings offer that second drug, the one that has a little more pizzazz than the last one... you know.

The cycle continues, until eventually you run out of payment. Your condition worsens, your skin loses it's glow, you become ghoulish, you lose track of time and self. Now ordinarily, this is the part where you become desperate and try to steal, pawn, borrow, beg, and kill for that next hit. But that's not the case in a changeling's eyes.

Once your payment's up, that's it. They see you as a nuisance, and will treat you as such. And what does a dealer do to a problem? Well, what does a crooked man do when he wants to tie up loose ends?

Pursue and strike until the target has been rendered silent.

At first, I thought the changelings were just some militia of bug equines wanting to overtake a region of land for the sole purpose of expanding their territory. But as of late, I ended up learning a much crueler truth...

Our venture back down the stairs was a lot less energetic than our ascension. Instead of running down like we finally got rich and found a way to leave the country, we took it slow and quiet as Cheese came to terms with what happened back there. I know that I'd be out of place if I had an identity thief take the role of my girlfriend, whisper sweet words in my ear, let me fuck her shitless, and find out that she was nothing more than a fake... all of this after something I perceive to be a break-up.

Hell, the grounds for what he did would constitute a long-term separation period. Then on top of that, he's under the pretense that the real Pinkie's done with him. And the main thing that's on his mind is the fact that he has to walk up to Pinkie and tell her that he cheated on her, but not really because he thought the changeling was her... Huh, that is one hell of a dilemma.

Do you know how many pastors on the down-low would love to have that as an excuse?

Whatever. Religious quips aside, this seems to be a very steep situation to get yourself into. I mean how would anyone respond to something like this? How do you react if you heard about this coming from your significant other? It's a lot to think on, and I know that I'm probably somewhat relieved that I myself don't have to think on that level. I fucked a changeling, how do you respond to that? I mean it's not normal, but even then there's some animosity to be had in the fact that you're unable to differentiate between what's real and what's make-believe.

Ooh, I feel sorry for the dude.

"Padre nuestro que estás en los cielos, Santificado sea tu Nombre. Venga tu reino. Hágase tu voluntad. En la tierra como en el cielo."

Well that's familiar. "Rickey, what now?"

Alex power-grabbed my shoulder and shoved me forward to see what all the commotion was about. "You're the one talking about rocks, executions, deceased spirits and shit. EXPLAIN!"

It didn't take me long to see what they were pointing at. At the center of the courtyard was a dirtied, spotty gray mare with a long pink mane standing beside the rock. She seemingly cried softly over the stone, her body jolting at each sniff. I tried to get a better look but ended up bumping the muzzle of my rifle against the stone wall of the stairwell.

By then, we were noticed... and we really... REALLY, didn't want to see what was staring back at us. There were bloodied appendages upon her back that opened up like a pair of plucked wings. As she looked back to us, her head was completely inverted as she first smiled at us, then screamed like some sort of eldrich horror. She bent down, bracing herself for a leap. The bloodied appendages spread wide open as the screaming apparition took into the air and disappeared right before our very eyes.

The majority of us wouldn't do nothing but look at each other. But I was left wishing I could do at least that much. My chest rose and fell at a rapid pace, my heart throbbed faster than what my breaths could keep up with. My hands trembled as they found their way to my mouth. My jaw quivered as this icy chill shot down my spine and persisted in the back of my head... almost as if she was right behind me.

Check the rear. Check the rear. CHECK THE REAR!!!

Quickly, I twisted around to see if my nagging sense of fear was correct. Instead, I was relieved to find myself in the wrong. But I was not one bit satisfied in knowing that thing existed, much less it being here in the castle.

After we waited for a few seconds to see if it would show back up, everyone else stopped holding their breath. There wasn't a single one of us who weren't left with a chill down our spine as we all let our paranoia set in. We looked at each other, looking up to the ceiling above, glancing around the outside while popping our heads back in the hole like a tortoise avoiding trouble.

"Shit!" Rickey whimpered as he grabbed my arm, shocking me out of my thousand-yard stare. "Dude, what the fuck was that!"

I only shook my head. "No... Nope... We need to go. Now."

"What. In creaming... Cthulhu FUCK was that?!" Alex asked as he tried to regain his breath.

Suddenly, Cheese brought up an idea. "Um... Is that supposed to be one of the legendary ghouls that haunt this castle?"

The three of us turned to the stallion with an incredulous expression, quietly asking if he actually implied that there were MORE of these creatures lurking around the castle grounds... ON TOP OF BEING A FINAL RESTING PLACE FOR SEVERAL DOZEN OTHER PONIES THROUGHOUT THE PAST WEEK. That was not okay to ask, not out loud.

*shink... shink... shink... shink... shink...*

I nearly felt myself release solids as the sound of rattling chains echoed from up the stairs. Rickey's face contorted as he pointed up the stairs, Alex's grip on his rifle got even tighter, Cheese grew paler than he already was, and I was trying to urge myself not to release any sort of bodily waste.

Not even gonna spare seconds here. "Go. Go. Go. GO. GO! GO!!!"

All four of us made a break for the outside and ran like hell for fear of not wanting to see that thing again. Our hearts raced as we made it past the rock at the center of the courtyard and back to the small wall that separated the rest of the yard from the 'festivity' area.

*SHLINK...klink*

Cheese turned back around to look at whatever made that sound, while I was trying to grab at him in an attempt to urge him forward. "What the hell are you looking at? Let's go!"

Cheese quietly pointed back to the tower, and stared blankly. After that, it was as if he was completely ignoring me. I decided to satiate his desire for me to look and glance back at what he pointed to. And not even a fraction of a second, I was already cursing myself out for making that mistake. From on the rusted hooks that prodded out of the tower's walls, two chains held the body of the changeling I killed. It swung silently, twisting and turning peacefully as the still expression on it's face was still worn from when it smiled at me, just before I pulled the trigger.

I got a hand-full of the stallion's mane and pulled violently to get him to run. The next thing we heard was that unholy scream that thing made from when we first discovered it. When we reached the doors to the inside of the castle, we closed them quickly and ran towards the front entrance, not daring to look back a second time.

We were not making any return trips any time soon.

Back at the front entrance waited Melanie, Cliff, and Stanton, who all waited impatiently for us. Fortunately for them, we were not going to waste any time with a conversation of how their tour of the lower levels went. As soon as they saw us, they cheered for Cheese's safe return. Meanwhile the four of us ran right past them screaming.

"Get that ass moving, Mel!" I shouted as I breezed past the other three.

"¡Vamos al la ciudad! ¿¡AHORA POR FAVOR?!" Rickey shouted as he zoomed between Stanton and Melanie.

Stanton quirked an eyebrow as he turned to Rickey, who had blurred by him. "Um, translation?"

"Let's go back to town! Now, please!?" Cheese hollered back to Stanton.

"What are y'all running from?" Cliff asked as he picked up his weapons and started to run in the same direction.

"Don't ask! Just run!" Alex shouted.

The other three didn't give the time to share a shrug as they just quickly fell in line with the rest of us. As we were running, the scream that terrified us just earlier sounded just from within the front corridor. Melanie, Stanton, and Cliff didn't bother to ask any further questions as they picked up their pace and matched us step for step.

We dashed through the trees and the beaten path as we continued to run as if we were still being chased. By the time we were close to making the fork in the road, we had started to slow down to catch our breath. I had leaned over to a nearby tree as the others puffed and wheezed from exhaustion. Mel was the first to ask. "Okay, what the fuck was that?"

Rickey was about to sit himself as he spoke. "Some seriously fucked up shit!"

"Like how fucked up?" Stanton questioned.

"The Blair Witch Project meets The Omen Child." Alex quickly responded.

M̘͎ͫͦ̃ͬͥ̈̈y̻̻͕̺̔̽͋ ͇͓̠̙̭̪̉̋̆̔ͭ̃̌ͅṕ̗̘̦̉ͩ̌̍̄̑r͖̭̾͐ͩ̀̎ͣ̓e̠̐͐ͭͫͧ͆c̗̬̯̟̹͑ͣ̆̋̾͗i̝͗͆̋ͯ̌́̐o̗̜̯͓̠͍̎ͩ̀ͥ̚u̝̮̿̂s̭̞̹̍̍ͫ̈́ͮ̚̚ ̭͍̰̻̖̟ͦ̃͗ͧͯ̎͐k͍̩͙̞̙̎̌͊n͎̥͓̋̐̆͊͌i̘ͬ̉̐̋ͥ̈ͦg̫̼̦͍̱͈ͤ̾̏̎̓͌̌hẗ͖̝͇͙̼̼̙ͨ̚.̹̍̃ͭ̈̍̓̾

We all turned around to see the figure standing on the road, calling out to me with a huge creepy smile on it's upside-down face. At that point, every last one of us screamed in horror as the grisly creature walked towards us slowly.

"We need an exorcist!" Melanie screamed.

"We're beyond that shit, we need an inquisition!" Stanton hollered as we started to run again.

"Fuck y'all mean? We need Jesus!" Cliff squawked.

"No, we need to run!" I corrected while running.

The creature began to increase it's speed and began to move at a quick trot. It continued to call out to me, referring to me as her knight and urging me to stay behind. From the inverted head, grew a long horn that glowed a dismal grey aura. Before I knew it, I felt something grab at my ankle and yank me into the ground. "SHIT!" I called out as I fell. The others jetted past me, Melanie and Alex slowing down to check on me.

"Nondis!" She cried out before I climbed back onto my feet.

"I'm okay, keep running." I said just before I was yanked back by another presence, preventing me from moving forward any further. My stomach filled with butterflies as I realized that I was probably going to have to hold this thing off for a few minutes, or at least long enough to let the others get back into town safely.

"Nondis, we are not going without you!" Alex stated loudly.

Looking at my ankles, I found myself being tugged back by some manipulated vines. I quickly pulled out my sword and hacked off the vines, stood to my feet and grimaced as I held my ground. "You don't have a choice, now go! I'll buy you guys some time!"

Alex tried to make a lunge for me, but was pulled back by Melanie. Grabbing onto his collar and wrapping her arm around his abdomen, she yanked him back with all of her strength. Alex initially tried to fight her, but eventually succumbed as he saw the creature slowly approaching me. He turned to Melanie and gave her a worried look. "Mel, I'm not leaving him."

She grabbed onto his wrist and started pulling as she continued to run. "Trust me, he's got this. He's one hell of a fighter."

"Mel!" Alex grabbed her back as he glanced back towards me.

I shouted out to the two stragglers one final time. "You two stop arguing and get the hell out of here!"

Alex groaned and ran behind Melanie, making their way through the path. "You better come back in one piece or I swear I'll kill you myself!"

"Duly noted!" That's if I don't die first.

Turning back around, I caught a face-full of the hellish image of her face smiling right at me. She tried to force herself against me while expanding those bloodied wings of hers. As her hooves tried to wrap around me, I backed up quickly and found myself bumping into a nearby tree. She lunged at me, thinking that I was completely cut off. Instead, I slid to the side and allowed the creature to land face-first into the tree.

Yeah... ghosts don't plant their faces into trees, nor do they yank back and scream from the pain.

With that small bit of confirmation, I tightened my grip on my sword and ran for the creature. And with a quick slash upwards from her right side, I carved into the red meat of her side. A hellish cry echoed through the forest as she stumbled over and tried to tend to the wound that I caused. Instead of granting her a chance to do so, I hammered my blade into the side of it's neck. The creature's cry went from loud and deafening squeal, to quiet and throaty groan. A long, garbled hissing sound came from where my blade sat, causing me to feel a bit uneasy. So I lifted my sword and swung for the spine.

A few seconds later, the body completely stopped resisting and fell to a peaceful silence. I was left panting from the image of this ghoulish creature standing before me, and took an observation of something strange at the front of it's chest. Just at the tip of it's inverted horn, was a T-shaped wound that appeared to be branded in place. Another thing I noticed was that the mane had also turned gray and weedy. And upon a closer look, I saw the blackened marking set on it's flank, resembling a circular object with eight black flames flowing from the center. Going against my better judgement, I brushed off the dirt and grime from the image to reveal a cutie mark...

...Oh dear God...

I came back to the castle a disheveled mess, my friends and brothers being the first to greet me. Shining and Cadance were also present as they continued to speak amongst Cheese. Melanie was probably the first to hug me, just before noticing a sizable amount of blood on my person. Mildly disgusted, she pulled herself back and gave me a soft pat on the back.

"Welcome home, soldier."

Alex stared at me with nothing but mere admiration as he looked me up and down. "Geez, what the hell did you kill!?"

"A changeling." I quietly responded.

"Wait, hold on a minute." Stanton interjected. "How the hell did you kill a changeling when the last thing you were fighting was a ghost?"

I turned to the purple mare who stood at the top of the stairs. "Yeah... I have a question to ask you, miss princess."

"Nondis!" She called out, teleporting from the top of the staircase to a mere inch before me. "Oh thank goodness! You're safe! As soon as I heard what you were up to, I wanted to fly right out to where you were! Are you bleeding?"

"Twilight, I'm not─"

She didn't let me finish as she summoned a rag and a bucket of water. "Okay, shirt off. We need to clean your wounds, now!"

"I'm not hurt!" I hollered out, causing her to remain at a standstill. "But I am a little shaken."

"What happened?" The purple princess questioned, still holding the rag to wipe the dirt and blood off of my face. "Did you run into something else?"

I nodded just before I tried to give her a concise answer. "Do you know of any changelings that can somehow feed off of anything aside from love?"

She started to wipe my face slowly as she answered my question. "No... I don't recall them being able to do something like that. Though I've heard of changelings who feed off of sex. And even a rare instance of a romance occurring between a pony and a changeling."

Alex interceded. "Forget the changeling bullshit. I wanna know what the fuck that thing was that chased us out of the ruins!"

Shining walked up to us and offered his input. "Wait, you said that you ran into a changeling you felt operated with a different premise, right?"

"Yeah..." I looked to my brothers and away with discomfort, knowing what revealing this bit of information would bring. "The only time I saw that thing... I had a nightmare about it just before we talked to Mel about this place."

Stanton was the first to throw his words in. "Whoa, hold on a minute! You had a nightmare about that thing? Why, how the fuck did something like THAT come up?"

I could only shake my head. "I don't know. I had it again just earlier this morning."

Twilight finished wiping my face and used her magic to hold my chin to face her. "Okay, look at me. How many times have you had any type of nightmare within the past few days?"

"...I wanna say two. But it's not as bad as you'd think."

My older brother groaned as he planted his face into his palms. "Oh fuck, Nondis. You know what this shit leads to. Why didn't you clue anybody in on this!?"

"I didn't think it was all that important. Two of the same dream with a few days in between, that's not too bad."

"Yeah, you keep saying that shit. You remember gramps saying the same thing?" He scolded.

"Alex, I'm not like him!"

"And what was it you said back there? Something about 'the eyes having a glossy haze' or some shit?"

"That's because the changelings fed on them to where they were too weak to move!"

"There's more you're not telling us!" Alex screamed. "You know it!"

"Alex, I'm okay!"

"Oh yeah, fine. Just perfectly sane? You're walking yourself into insanity if you think that being 'calm and collected' while the fucking world's falling around you is gonna get you by!"

Finally, Cadance intervened. "Okay, if I'm not intruding, what is it that you guys are arguing about?"

I walked away from the purple pony and threatened to leave. "You know what, if I'm not gonna get an answer to my question, then I'm going to change out of these clothes and take a long shower."

"Hold on!" Melanie silently instructed Alex to hold off while she spoke. "Okay... You said something about a changeling responding to something other than love? So being that this thing that was chasing us was straight out of your nightmares, are you insinuating that this individual changeling you killed was actually responding to fear?"

"Uh... that's practically impossible." Rainbow Dash suggested. "Changelings can't feed off of fear."

"No... we don't have very many accounts of changelings who could." Cadance added. "But they can practice fear tactics so that they're able to intimidate their opponents. They're adept practitioners in the art of psychological warfare. As far as feeding from the fears of an individual, the idea itself doesn't seem too entirely far-fetched."

"So what you're saying is that it's not impossible for that to happen?" Melanie questioned.

Cadance looked to her husband. "I don't like being in dark, small places underground. That's always been a fear of mine. Their method of getting rid of me so that they could take Shining Armor: throwing me in a small room in the crystal caves beneath Canterlot with no food, water, or light. The only thing I could surmise is that the ones who do this, they tend to be well-informed of their targets."

"So that's the changeling's trump card? Love me or fear me, huh?" Cliff questioned.

"I know they couldn't dare imitate what my fear is, I've already lived it." Shining said before he turned to me with a scowl. "But leaving others out in the cold about your condition does not help you in any way. You need to chill for a bit before doing anything else. Aside from that, I'll have Princess Luna talk to you tomorrow night. But as far as fighting is concerned, you need to take a break before you overwhelm yourself."

Cadance agreed with a nod. "You can't do that to yourself. If it's something in your dreams, we can help you."

"I thought that dreams have something to do with the subconscious." Stanton noted. "That being the case, I don't know if we can do much for him."

"Actually, Princess Luna's special trade doesn't only consist of moving the moon." Twilight informed my brother. "She's capable of tending to the dreams of ponies, dragons, and other beings alike. She even wandered into Nondis' dreams a few times. If his problems are so deeply rooted, then Princess Luna would be able to weed them out."

Alex gave a frustrated grunt. "Where the hell was this Luna lady when our grandpa needed a late-night rescue from his repeats?"

"Sounds hella convenient." Cliff stated as he started to stretch. "You think she might be up for visiting Nondis tonight?"

"Unfortunately, she's tending to a report of nightmares from the survivors of the Queensave Operation." Shining answered. "We'd be lucky if she even accepts our request to tending to Nondis tomorrow. But doing nothing is only going to make things worse."

After they were informed of Luna's abilities, I promptly took a gander at the shirt I wore, covered in changeling blood. I decided that I've gotten the answers I needed for now and would tend to my showers. "Well... this was one hell of a day. I'm tired, I'm a bit icky, and I think I'm gonna take up Shining's advice to chill."

The others quietly watched as Rarity stepped forward. "Nondis... you really need to hand me that shirt once you're done. I can't let those stains hold or else they'll ruin the fabric. I'll escort you to your room. You can give me the shirt there and I'll run it to the boutique."

"Thanks..."

After I had returned to the comfort of my room, I couldn't help but feel as if the lights were vastly dimmer than what I was comfortable with. I couldn't shake this urging feeling to look behind me every five seconds. If I was to ignore that feeling, then there would be this uncomfortable tingle in the back of my neck, shooting up to the the rear portion of my brain. And anything hidden in darkness prompted a significant amount of hesitation on my part. Even walking into my bathroom to turn on the light was a bit of a chore.

I haven't had this much going on with me since I saw The Exorcist when I was a kid.

And much like then, I was trying not to keep my eyes closed for any significant amount of time. The only problem with that was the hot shower that made me feel a little more laxed than what I would've liked. Add the fatigue I suffered from the daily venture, plus the rescue, then the run from the ruins, and my not being able to eat anything all day, and you'd get me leaning lazily against the shower wall in hopes of finding some comfort.

The only thing was that I saw that thing's face every time I kept my eyelids down. So I'd startle myself back to life, and continue to scrub away. Then the fatigue starts to set in again, I lean against the wall, I close my eyes, I see that thing again, I wake up, and the cycle repeats itself. That whole task took me what normally takes five minutes, a whole twenty to complete. Realistically speaking, I didn't want to even step out of my shower, or this bathroom for any reason other than it being morning.

But that wasn't going to happen. The bathtub is way too small for me to sleep in comfortably. And I was going to give myself a nasty crick if I tried to stay in here for over six hours. The rest of my night is going to be like this, isn't it?

*knock knock knock knock*

"Nondis... Are you alright in there?"

The sudden sound of Rarity's voice began to fill me with a sense of comfort. But I also knew that I had to keep my guard up. "I'm fine, I called back out of the bathroom, finding it strange that she would find her way in my room. "How did you get in here?"

"I know you're going to be mad when I say this, but I had the door latch set where the door would stay cracked."

If I wasn't so tired, I'd be steaming a little. Way to compromise my security, Rarity. "Augh... okay. What are you doing here?"

"I need you to come by the boutique when you're finished." She said through the door.

I held up my guard. "Rarity, I can't run anymore errands."

"Look, will you..." She paused for a moment, seeming as if she sounded a bit upset. "...Nondis, can you trust me? I know what you've been through and I know that you need to find some moment to relax. But I can't help you if you won't let me."

Maybe I'm being a little too on-guard. Perhaps this is the real Rarity and I'm thinking too much into it. Perhaps I do need to slow down and take it easy for once. "Okay... Let me get dressed."

"I'll be waiting out here."

When we finished making our way to the boutique, I started to notice that my legs were feeling a little heavy. I wrote it off being nothing more than the fatigue from the day's outings. But that didn't stop Rarity from dragging me in from the collar of my shirt. She continued to trot along as I stumbled behind her.

She marched us both back into the kitchen and sat me at the table. She then used her magic to open up the oven and pull out two plates of food, one with a slightly damaged appearance while the other seemed to remain untouched. She offered me a fork as she sat the food on the table. She pulled out a chair and sat herself while pointing to the empty chair behind me.

"Sit. Eat."

Meanwhile, I was left with a look of astonishment. "Huh? What's all this?"

She gave me a furious scowl. "Do you really expect me to slave over a hot stove and let my food go untouched, especially while you haven't even had anything all day?"

"W-w-well I-I... Uh"

"You've had a long day." She said as she took the fork she gave me, dug it into the food on my plate and held it up for me to consume. "There's no reason to have you malnourished as well."

"Rarity..." I wanted to say it was just a meal, that I could go by without one day of food. But the determination she showed at the moment, I wouldn't dare insult her. How could I? If anything, she was like my mom at the moment.

...Yeah. Mom would do something like this. She always did.

7 Years Ago

Here I was again. This makes it the ninth time in the past two years. I'm at the dinner table with my cheeks swollen up, a bag of ice planted just above my right eye socket, my arms scarred to heck, my older brother slightly bruised, and my father screaming in my face over how much of a disappointment I proved to be. He's been on this for the past hour and a half, mainly because my brother almost got suspended from school for going to another school and beating someone up.

It's like the fourth time this happened in the past two years. I hate middle school.

"You gotta learn how to defend yourself!" My dad said, screaming at me again.

"Dad, please. I think he's got the point already." Alex said, trying to take up for me like he usually does.

"Obviously not. He almost got you suspended... again." And the next time, Alex won't be so lucky to get off with just a warning and a phone call to dad.

"Harold, he's not gonna get any better if you keep berating him." My mom called out as she started placing our plates on the table.

"He's gonna get it through his thick skull one day, he needs to learn how to defend himself. I'm starting to think that having him live with his grandfather isn't such a bad idea. Obviously he can teach these other boys how to be men." Dad mumbled, causing grandpa to look at him with a raised eyebrow.

"HAROLD!" Mom shouted, slamming his plate on the table.

Dad looked up angrily to mom, seeming as if he was going to direct some of his anger with me at her. But he held himself against her, a perk he didn't think of offering to me. He pointed his finger at me sharply as he made his point clear. "You're gonna stop getting your older brother in trouble. If you don't stand up for yourself the next time, I'll bring you home and whip your sorry ass myself."

"Did Nondis get beat up again?" Stanton asked, seeming to push a few buttons with me.

"Jeremiah!" Our mom called us by our middle name whenever we did or said something bad. And being that my middle name is what it is, I really don't wanna get myself into trouble when in public.

Meanwhile, my dad didn't seem to pay Stanton no mind for his comment. He continued to hound on me, like he usually does. "...Fucking... I just wish you would wake up one day and do better. I would like to wake up, go to work, get a phone call saying that my son got suspended for fighting and beating up someone in self-defense. I look forward to that. This..."

"Harold, not another word." Mom said through gritted teeth, slapping him on his chest. She turned to grandpa and sighed. "Dad, can we get a word of prayer?"

We all bowed our heads as grandpa spoke. "Dear heavenly father, we come to you today with a heart full of forgiveness and an appreciation of all that you give to us each day. We give you our thanks for each and every day you guide us through yet another hardship in our lives, causing us to take yet another step on this Earth which you created. We bow before you as we take a moment to reverence you and your mighty works. We ask that you would bless this food for the nourishment of our bodies and minds, bless the hands that prepared it, and may we be given yet another day to walk in your grace and favor. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen."

"Amen." We all said, including myself.

"Eat up, sweetheart." Whispered to me with a smile and a wink.

Dad took a moment to offer his own prayer. "God, grant my son the strength so that he may be able to stand for himself and ward off any enemy presence that threatens him."

Grandpa, who sat right beside me, tapped me on the shoulder and whispered to me some encouraging words. "Whatever, tell 'em that you'll get 'em next time. You've got a fighter in you somewhere, I can see it."

Dad didn't like the fact that grandpa was making me feel better about myself, but was silenced as my mom held up a steak knife as she glared back at dad. He started to eat his food without any further interruption. Meanwhile, mom looked at me with a stern glance. "Don't wait for my food to get cold."

With fork in hand, I quickly responded to my mother. "Yes ma'am!"

Present Day...

"Nondis... my dear, is everything alright?"

Somehow I completely missed the tears streaming down my face. Why was I crying? "Uh... Sorry, I don't know what's going on." I said as I wiped my eyes. "Something came to mind and I guess..."

Rarity got out of her chair and walked over to me. "Come here." She said softly as she brought her hooves around me in a hug.

"Ugh... Have you ever thought about what it's like to go back? Not really being homesick or nothing, but─"

"Going back to when things were simpler?" She finished.

"Yeah." I confirmed as she continued to hold onto me. "I never really knew how much my granddad held me together... even when I was a total disappointment."

Rarity laughed off my statement. "I'm not sure as to whom you feel would view you as such, but I can assure you that you're far from it."

I shook my head as I answered her. "My dad... If he saw me like this, he'd be telling me that I should be stronger."

Rarity kissed me on the cheek as she used her magic to bring the fork closer to my mouth. "Open up your mouth."

I rolled my eyes at the mare and complied. "Ahhh."

As the taste of warm food graced my mouth, I felt a painful hole open in my heart, releasing a stream of emotions. My eyes watered some more, a few tears escaping as the alabaster mare continued to speak. "I don't know any other being as strong as you are. You need to stop giving yourself so little credit." She placed the fork back into the plate and shoveled up some more food to stream into my mouth. "You've had a rough day and it's been eating away at you. Whatever little pampering you get, you deserve it. It's not often one would put their lives on the line for something, fight the very manifestation of their fears, become strong enough to battle through all of it."

"Now you're giving me too much credit." I answered back, prompting the white mare to poke my nose with her hoof.

"Shut up and eat my food."

Meanwhile in the Everfree Forest...

Changelings gathered around a lifeless body, seemingly hacked into by something with a considerable amount of strength. The changeling queen buried her face into the bloodied side of the changeling who remained lifeless on the ground. After a few more seconds, she raised her head and sniffled one last time as she ordered another two changelings to cover the body and carry it away. Still silent, she turned to her assistant who spoke on her behalf.

"Iris has been a great warrior in our times of dire need. And often, she would speak of her fears of not being able to help provide for the hive. Often times, she could consider herself a useless asset, unable to feed from love or give love to others. But we know that this wasn't her fault, this was something she was born into. But upon her latter days, she began to realize how her services could be used for the betterment of the hive. From that day onward, I often seen her smiling as she identified her purpose. Eager to serve, she yearned for a role in which she could participate."

The saddened Queen Chrysalis choked back a sob as she closed her eyes. The assistant paused for a moment so that she could regain her once-stoic nature. For a few seconds, there was nothing but the sounds of the wild creatures talking in the distance. With a deep breath, she opened her eyes and spoke. "Continue."

"She soon found her path leading to the ruins ahead. And in these ruins, she thrived in using her special talents to pave the road which we traveled to get here. But now... she rests knowing that her duties were well-served and her life had meaning. And as what the hive have given to her, it shall be returned unto it. Hide and shell, blood and bone, these things shall remain. But the magic she took upon birth, it shall be returned to the hive so that it may retain purpose. Iris... may Mother call you home."

Chrysalis took a deep breath as she slowly loomed over the lifeless body, whispering to it. "My child, you may rest."

As she opened her mouth, a lime green mist began to rise from the body. The queen's horn glowed a similar color as her body also became enveloped in a similar aura. The mist manifested into a magical vapor, winding it's way into the queen's maw as she inhaled. The body's color began to slowly drain, turning from it's charcoal gray hue to a vastly lighter ash gray. As the magic finished flowing, the queen's body stopped glowing and the deceased changeling was then a husk of it's former self. Chrysalis' eyes opened and flashed a bright emerald green as she looked at the emptied body below.

"...This is the fourth time today." She moaned painfully.

The assistant walked up to comfort her queen. "I am certain that we will be successful in our endeavor, my queen."

"We have no other choice but to be." The queen murmured as she raised up and turned to the army silently waiting before her. "We will validate their existence, by carrying out what they had been assigned to do. They will rest, knowing that the hive shall flourish. For soon, our weapon shall be in hoof. We shall regain what is rightfully ours from the wretched claim of that arrogant, inept Princess Celestia! They think that we are defeated, that all that remains here are nothing but mere stragglers. I say we let them believe that for this one final night, and show them our true strength come the following days!"

The assistant bowed her head before the queen. "We have everything we need to know about the creature spoken from the zebra. All information has been shared. If we are to strike, early morning would be our best time."

Chrysalis petted the assistant tenderly as she announced to the army. "I have sanctioned you all a feeding. Zecora will prove to be a worthy host for the time being. If you should wish to feast, she will be in her usual dwelling pace. Take from her what you will, but leave enough for the others. It will be plentiful, but not infinite. Feed, my children! You will need your magic to be strong in the coming days! Let us show these Equestrians why they should continue to fear us!"

Off in the distance, back in her hut. Zecora remained devoid of strength as three changelings looked at her lustfully, their tongues licking their lips. One of them approached from behind her and forcefully turned her head to where they could sink their lips into hers. The zebra closed her eyes and screamed into the mouth of the first changeling, the next changeling began to feed from the nape of her neck. The sound of Chrysalis' voice could be heard from the distance as they continued to assault the zebra.

"FOR THE HIVE, LET US SWARM!"

After I finished eating, Rarity was kind enough to escort me home. Yeah I know, seems kinda wimpy for me to be escorted by someone else, but she thoroughly insisted that she'd show me to my room. And she was even more persistent that I would allow her to stay the night. Unfortunately, that was a request I was going to turn down. I didn't want her away from her place of work when she's set to wake up so early and work. Her place is all the way across town and I wouldn't want to put her in a position where she'd have to run from end to end just to get her work done.

I know, a long-winded excuse to have her not see me suffer at night. I know, selfish. But at the same time, I'm beginning to understand why gramps didn't want us to stick around for too long whenever we were at his house. Usually, he'd have spells where he'd wake up in the middle of the night screaming for medics, reinforcements, and a bunch of other things. Other times, he'd ended up being an incoherent mess who couldn't stay sleep without his gun. It's an embarrassment of self, and I didn't want to let her see me like that.

So instead of carrying a gun to bed, I decided against sleeping in it altogether and running a warm bath in hopes of resting there for the night. I knew that I was going to wake up with a stiff neck, but the arm water would be a great thing to sit in when I need that soothing off to slumber land.

Like that helped any. Every forty minutes or so, I had to toss and turn because of that nightmarish image tormenting me. And I couldn't get away with going to the bed because of the significant light difference between the bathroom and the bedroom. The lights in here were almost at daylight capacity, and that's what I felt the most comfortable in.

I timed myself for six hours... at least trying to get some rest in that time period. Eventually, the fatigue just took over and my brain simply decided that it was time to shut down. Thankfully, I was so tired that I couldn't dream of anything for the final two hours. By the time my alarm rang, I breathed a sigh of relief when the numbers read 6 A.M..

Silver lining: I was already well-bathed.

My day would start a whole lot earlier than usual. All I had to do was throw on some clothes and make a quick march for Sugarcube Corner. As to be expected, Mr. Cake was the one running the counter. Unfortunately, Pinkie was till caught up in her symptoms and had to be boxed off for a temporary time. Meanwhile Cheese was still recovering from the side-effects from being a feeding victim. His recovery time would take no longer than a day, so there's that to his advantage.

The only problem is that he's been really wanting to see Pinkie, while she's been readily trying to avoid him... and me... and any male presence for that matter. But thankfully, her symptoms should cool off within the next two days. Those spores are bad news if they hit anypony nearby, causing them to suffer an entire twenty-one days of the summer heat effect. But Twilight's managed to have a book hidden in her library that has an antidote formula that could ultimately curb the effects, bringing the entire cycle to an end in the matter of a few days. Doesn't work for the real thing, though.

Now if only it had something for nightmares and lingering thoughts. That would be great.

Since the sun seems to be out in all of it's blazing glory, I made the decision to stay outside of my apartment for the remainder of the day, or at least until it got dark. That way I can see everything that's going on, what's coming from behind, and what to avoid. Of course, it's common sense to avoid hanging around the alleys for too long. It's also a good idea to refrain from staying in a room by yourself, lest the paranoia start to fester.

Yes, being in a public place where others continue to roam seems like a better idea than locking myself in a room. Maybe I should've considered that last night. I suppose sleeping would've been a little easier.

Per usual, hindsight kicks my ass one day at a time.

"Ah! You!"

I turned around and tried to identify a voice that came from behind me. I looked down to see Zecora standing directly behind me. "Oh hey, what's up? Making your rounds for herbs and spices?"

"I cannot believe how long it took." She said, seemingly out of breath. "To find you that is... though I'd say you'd look rather shook."

She's not the first to notice. "Yeah, rough night. Took a stroll yesterday and ran into some uncanny company. I'd advise you to keep your guard up, there are still some stragglers about."

The zebra laughed heartily as she placed her hoof on my hand. "My dearest Nondis, you needn't worry for me. Many a tool for defense I hold, and deadly would they be."

Good to hear she's armed. That's no change from Pinkie's story from yesterday. "So I heard you ran into one, or that one ran into you. Whatever happened with that?"

"Oh, well I had to clear that one out. I couldn't let it roam. It caught me at my most intimate, within my own home."

"So the guy got caught looking, huh? What a pervert."

"Indeed, I've found myself a victim of that awful spore. My legs were shaking, my body was aching, I couldn't take it anymore." She confessed before realizing she was saying this in a public street. At that point, her cheeks started to turn cherry red as she quietly spoke to me. "Forgive me if I may sound so crass. My body still longs for relief, so I may seem to lack my usual class."

As long as she's not up to practice a new form of 'stress relief' then I'm perfectly fine with it. "You're fine. But you might want to get that checked out. I heard Twilight's got an antidote that would clear that away within the next few days."

"As to the reason why I am here, I've used much of my herbs. The antidote is very costly to make, but I had enough for a potion to quell the urge." She said as she pulled out a scroll. "So I've come to town to find more ingredients for a new brew. And then I happen to run myself into you."

So she's practically dropping by to say hello. "Oh, okay. So you came around to say good morning?"

She smiled coyly as she gave me a strong bump against my leg. "You do not visit me enough, I began to feel so sad. Is it possible that my being near you makes you feel bad? Perhaps I make you feel ill when I am around? Please let me know if I were to bog you down!"

"No! That's not it at all." I said, trying to convince her that my lack of visitation wasn't out of disinterest. Then again, she's always been like this with me. Out of anyone I know, she's probably the last one I'd get to see because of her location. I don't go in Everfree as often as I'd wander around town. And then I'm often busy with something else to go see her about anything in particular. I haven't even got started giving Sweetie Belle voice lessons like I promised months ago. Then again, I might leave that to Cliff since he's actually a singer. "I was just busy with a few errands that I'd have little chance of walking around the forest, especially given how dangerous some of the creatures are there."

"I could've sworn that I heard you say you took a stroll. Then perhaps I should make it where visiting me should be your toll."

A little aggressive today, aren't you? Well she did warn me that she was going to be in a mood of sorts. And given that they have cramps during estrus, I should probably avoid anything to do with annoying or stimulating her. "Okay, okay. I promise on my next visit to Everfree, I'll drop by."

She proceeded to smile as she put away her list. "That was all I could ask. But I would like to know, what is it that made you lose your usual glow? Your eyes seem to sag and your face seems flat, now tell me what could've caused that?"

I shrugged my shoulders as I answered her. "Eh... lack of sleep. I saw something in the forest that kind gave me a bit of a scare."

"Oh?" She grew curious. "Permit me to ask, if it wasn't too rude, what was it that you saw that put you in this mood?"

I thought about telling her, but the mere mention of it caused that image to pop up every time I'd blink. "...I much rather not say."

"Hmm... very well. Though I am surprised, did Princess Luna not visit you to have your issue... neutralized?" She asked.

"I think she's busy. Could be occupied tonight for all I know. A town full of kids and adults dealing with a bunch of nightmares is more important than one person. And the worst of it all is that the survivors came from mostly Appleloosa. We have a few here, but she seems more focused on tending to the majority over a few cases spattered around here."

The zebra tapped on her chin as she thought aloud. "Hmm... I too remember a dream I once had. And much like yours, I found it to be quite bad. For nights it would replay in my mind, until there was this one potion that proved to be quite the find."

A potion? Perhaps I could probably wait out Luna's run, or have her become a permanent solution later with this potion being a temporary fix. Should my name run at the bottom of the list, I'd like to take a chance and alleviate the situation before I'm stuck with two sleepless nights. That seems to be a better idea. "Continue."

"It is an old shaman's potion, passed down from my homeland. It will grant you a night's rest, and your dream shall become wonderland."

If this were some sham-selling fuck who wanted my money, I'd pass on buying it. But Zecora has proven time and time again that she's has my best interests in mind. Still, I'm worried about the side effects. "Okay, so what's the catch?"

"It will require a full three hours before the effects begin to show. You'll become a little drowsy, then off to dreamland you go."

"No nightmares?" I asked one last time. "I'm not gonna turn blue, or grow a tail, or find myself walking with hooves?"

"Nothing like that, I give you my word. but it only works for a single night, meaning your nightmares will be deterred. I would need a few hours to concoct your little fix. I'd say wait for me at your place, I'll be by there at six."

"This evening?" Hell, I'm not gonna refuse. Anything but staying locked in the bathroom again. "Sounds good to me. Thank you so much!"

"I will assure you that no option would be greater. I will finish my shopping, brew the mix, and I'll see you later."

I started to walk off towards Sweet Apple Acres, realizing that lingering around town wasn't going to help me pass the time any quicker. I needed to do some farm work to keep me busy. "Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. I will do whatever it takes to pay you back."

As I vanished further down the road, Zecora walked in the opposite direction with a smile. "I'm sure you will."

Later That Evening...

The sun began to cast itself beyond the horizon, sending forth long shadows all throughout the town. Rainbow Dash flew towards the small motel just beneath the overcasting shadow of the castle. In her hooves were a variety of items, flowers, a card, a box full of chocolate, an old dreamcatcher, an embroidered sleep mask, and a small trophy with her name on it. She mumbled to herself as she landed on the ground and entered into the lobby.

"A trophy isn't going to help him any, especially one with your name on it." Rainbow said, mocking Twilight's voice. "Stupid egghead. It's the award for the most totally awesome! I was practically at war with myself when I thought about giving him this thing! I swear she has no idea on what to do with him. I'm not like everypony else, who do I look like giving Nondis flowers? AND WHY AM I THE ONE GIVING THIS SHIT TO HIM!?"

"Um..." Called out a young male's voice. "Can I help you this evening?"

The rainbow-maned pegasus blushed as she slammed everything in her hooves on the counter. "Yeah. Okay so check this out, I need you to deliver all of this stuff to room 149. The name of the giver is to remain anonymous."

"Oh... well actually, that resident hasn't come back yet. I'm afraid he hasn't been here all day."

The cyan mare reared back as she heard the news. "Wait, what? Seriously? He's not here?"

"Nope, hasn't been here since..." The attendant pulled out the log-book and took a note of the time of departure. "Approximately 6:03 this morning. But I can hold his stuff and be sure to give it to him once he comes in."

Rainbow Dash looked at the clock on the wall and groaned. "Applejack told me that he was going to come straight here! Something about Zecora giving him some medicine. I'd like to think that he'd be perched on his bed or something. It's like fifteen minutes till six."

"Well I can't do much if he's late. And if he doesn't come back for this 'Zecora' pony, I'm afraid that I would have to ask her to wait here."

The rainbow-maned pegasus snorted as she firmly planted her haunches onto the floor. "Then I'm waiting here for him so that he can come get his shit!"

"I thought you wanted the giver to be anonymous." The staffer quoted.

Rainbow rolled her eyes as she explained herself. "I'll give it to him and say that it wasn't from me."

The staffer cracked a smile as he coyly leaned over the counter. "Oooh, sounds to me like you have a bit of a crush on this guy."

Rainbow's cheeks began to turn a rosy shade of pink. "WHAT!?"

"Flowers, Chocolate, a miniature statue with your name on it? This all seems like little forget-me-not's if you ask me."

"I DON'T LIKE THAT BASTARD! HE'S FUCKING UGLY TO ME!"

"First step is denial, second step is anger, third is bargaining─"

The rainbow-maned mare slammed her hooves into the floor as she screamed at the stallion behind the counter. "IF I HAD A CHOICE TO HIKE MY TAIL FOR HIM OR A DIAMOND DOG, I'D GO WITH THE MUT!"

"Fourth step is depression..."

"FUCK YOU! I'M OUTTA HERE!"

Enraged, the pegasus disappeared into nothing but a rainbow blur. As the pegasus took her leave beyond the horizon, the staffer proceeded to giggle to himself. "Wow, the queen was right, you are an easy trigger to pull. Too bad, if you would've simply confessed, I might've let you say goodbye."

He walked away from the counter into the back office room, closing the door behind him as he looked at a severely weakened stallion lying helpless on the floor. His coat was significantly pale and his eyes devoid of color. The stallion who imitated the voiceless staffer smiled as green flames erupted all over his body. A changeling stood before him as the voice spoke to him in a feminine tone. "Well, you were one pathetic lay, couldn't even last for a good twenty minutes. And don't even get me started on the sex."

His eyes lazily looked to the female changeling that stood over him, her fangs showing as she closed in on him.

"Such a pathetic mate, untouched by a mare, completely inexperienced, average looking, meek and easy to take advantage of, not to mention totally tail-hungry. You're an ugly little pervert, the queen would waste her time sanctioning you for feeding. But I will say this..."

The stallion looked ahead, knowing what was to come next as she whispered in his ear.

"Poor little ol' mommy knew how to love such a foal. At least you proved useful."

I wasn't too thrilled to be waiting in the bathroom all this time. Again, the lighting in my room is piss poor. And keeping myself in there only made my episodes even worse. I already was in a bad mood thanks to Celestia deciding to lower the sun a whole ten minutes early. If I could've made an agreement with her to hold off until around nine, that would've worked for me. And this place being in the castle's shadow sure doesn't help worth a damn.

*knock knock knock*

Hot damn, doctor's here.

I quickly ran out of the room and opened the door. Sitting in front of me was the zebra holding a small bag with what appeared to be a wooden cup. Strapped to her side was an exotically decorated waterskin. She smiled as she glanced around the room. "I must say, the mood seems a tad compelling." She said in reference to the lighting. "Perhaps there's a little bit of yourself that you'd be interested in selling."

Oh, she's got jokes now. "Sorry, but I'm currently off the market. And I am to believe that the spores are still doing the talking."

"One could have genuine interest, that you'll never know. Unless you were to force me down, and let your curiosity flow."

"Yeah, they're still talking." I deadpanned as I closed the door behind her. "So, you got the medicine done?"

She sat on the bed and pulled the waterskin from her side. "T'was a costly little brew, that detail I could not miss. But I will assure you that after the next three hours, you will once more know a goodnight's bliss."

Okay, let's just go on ahead and get this over with. "Great. So, can I try that medicine now?"

She pulled out the small wooden cup from within her bag and placed it on the adjacent night stand. She uncorked her waterskin and poured into the cup an odd-smelling concoction. She politely handed me the cup of the forest-green mixture. "This brew took a few hours, of that you could tell. Though I may warn you of the taste and smell."

"Nah, I get it. Medicine in our world isn't the best tasting stuff either. And sometimes it reeks of hospital and death, I'd have to damn-near air out the room. This seems relatively tame in comparison. But then again, this is all natural rather than that synthetic shit they have you take with all the side effects."

The zebra became inquisitive of the subject. "Interesting. Tell me more about your world's medicine."

I took a quick swig of the medicine in the cup, downing much of it in the first go. "Well, I told you mostly everything there is to know. It stinks, often tastes bad, and it's lab-rat formula. It's also expensive and damn near costs you your first-born child just to talk to a doctor. Don't get me wrong, the med science is top-notch. But the doctors in my home country are just too damn eager to charge you a lifetime of indentured servitude, just to pay for treatment." I finished the last that was in the cup before giving my opinion of it. "Huh... not bad. It's much better than what I was prepping myself for. Kinda on the sweet side, if you ignore much of the grass taste."

The zebra quirked an eyebrow. "Grass... taste?"

"Don't ask how I know how grass taste." I mumbled, remembering all of the times I was shoved into the ground when I was younger. "Just know that I've had a hard time outside of home."

"I do not find your past plight amusing for any reason. I prefer to think of it being more of an unfavorable season." She responded.

"Yeah, that happened to me quite often." I replied sarcastically. "Never did understand why."

"But you've grown so much stronger since you first arrived. It's been over ten months, yet you still survived. That is much more than any mere feat, to overcome death's grasp and cheat."

Yeah. Let's be honest, there were a whole bunch of times where I could've handed in the game and let the dealer take me in. Thankfully, it hasn't come to that just yet.

Something is seriously wrong.

Well... I seem to feel fine. In fact, I feel a lot lighter on my feet.

Well that's funny, I can't seem to get any neural response from those.

...What?

Stand up, go on and give Zecora a hug.

Okay, I guess. I dismissed the internal ramblings as another paranoia episode and proceeded to walk to Zecora...

...no. Instead, I proceeded to fall on the floor in front of Zecora. My chest and neck were the only things I could move at the time. Yeah, now I know for certain that something's horribly wrong. "...Ze...co...ra... what... is..."

Oh no... it's getting really hard to breathe. Out of the corner of my eyes I could see a bright green flash. Suddenly, I was turned over to face...

NO... NO, NOT AGAIN!

"I̞͇͉̝̥̅͗ͧ̉̋̚t̲͓̥̻ͤ̌͒̎̃̎ ̋ͩͬ̅t͓̤̤̪͑͛ͣṏ̳́̍̒́̐ő͓̩̭̜̭͖k̫̙͕̤̖͎̾ͧ̔̊̾ ͣͪ̍m̩̟͔͈̲ͥ͛͒̅̏̒ĕ͗̅ͬ ̗̻̭̋f̗̰̙̠͙͍ͭo͍͕͕̠̫͇͊͋̂rͅe̬ͨv̺̥̻̘͖̅̒e̻͇̳͙̟̐r̞͊͛̌ͫ ̺͖̟͍̦͔̘̓t̤̠̗͈õ̯̣̰͓̦̦ ̍̋ͭͦ͒̒̓f̬̜̯̖̜ͪͅi̹n͇̠͔ͥ̓͂͊̈̑ḋ͇̟̞̹̝ͭ͆ ̠͈̋͌͌̚y̪̝͔͍̻ͤ́̈́ȯ͕͔̰̦͉̖ͥ͆͐̊̓ͅu͂̿̂ ̰̱̗̳̭̖̜̓̚a̹̜̘̭ͭͫͭͫ̎̚g̰͎͖̺ͭͨa̮̣̯̭̣̻̘ͮ́i͖̖̫̬͊͐n̯̮̏͆ͬ̒,͇͖̍̚ ͕̜̱̃̋̏̐̈́̍͗m̝͙̰̳͇ͮ̑ͦͮͯͤ̎y̤̜̲̭͇̲̘̏̏̅̽ͤ͆ ̺̂̈̽̂͛̋d̠͌̈́̎ͫ̑̐ͣe̗̪͓͖͓̺ͩͮ̾ͦ́ͅã͙̤̩ͯ̌͆̚ṛ̳͓̜̫̍̈ͮͧͫ̅̂e͙͙̟̘̼ͥ̊͗ͨͫ͂̑s̙̙̯͉̥ͥṱ̣̖̻̃̈́ͪͮͣ́̚ ̜͕̓̑͒͌̋k͌ͭ̄̉͗ͮn̻͓̲̪̜͗i̘̠̰͔̩̭ͤͣg̲̰͑̔h͇t̙̞͇̰̺̺̓͒͋̔ͪ̾ͯ.͔̥̩̲̹̗͍ͪ̔̇"

That thing, it's back again. It's speaking to me. And just like in my nightmares, I can't move. Shit, I fucked up! As the fear began to show in my eyes, I watched as the creature began to crackle and laugh as it's eyes flashed green. This time, the entire room glowed green as similarly colored flames engulfed the body. It's face became more horrific in the shadow of the eldritch-like fire. But before it's image could break me, it transformed into a far-less intimidating face. Rather than being unsightly, it was... horrifically beautiful.

A female, her eyes vastly different than many of the changelings I've slain. Upon her head sat a deformed, crooked crown adorned with pale-green pearls. Her eyes were a mix between emerald and jade green, her hooves had a similar length to that of Princess Celestia herself. Her fangs were not as huge, but her body would only make it appear so due to her immense size. Her neck was long, her wings dwarfed any others belonging to a changeling. She had a mane, unlike any other changeling I've ever seen, flowing down her body, collapsing all over my neck as she spoke.

"You've grown to be quite a delicious little tart, haven't you."

I wanted to ask who she was, but my body would only allow me to squeak and grunt in place of forming full sentences. "Uuh... ahh... urr..."

She forcibly turned my head and pulled it up to her as she continued to speak. "I am your existence. Now pledge me your fealty."

I was left helpless as she forcibly shoved her tongue into my mouth, more fluids being funneled down my throat as she crushed her lips against mine. Her eyes remained partways open as she sunk herself into me. She backed off for a quick snag of breath before resuming her assault. A quick pant sounded as she broke off to adjust herself, her tongue abused mine as I could only remain as motionless as I was when I fell. She quickly snapped herself out of it and yanked herself back. A large grin indicated that she was more than exuberant from the exchange.

"Holy mother of the hive, you're flooded!"

Once more, I tried to get my limbs to move, resulting in very little save a few twitches. She also took notice and raised her eyebrows, indicating that she was very much impressed.

"You still retain some movement? With as much venom that I had you swallow?" She returned her eyes back to mine. "No matter, I'm sure the fresh batch I sent into you will deal you a great deal of damage. You'll be lucky to be walking in a few days!"

I tried to avoid looking at her, she seemed dead set on making me look her in the eye.

"Oh, that's right. You don't seem to remember me at all, don't you? After all this time, you don't even remember the one who even brought you into this world."

...No... way...

She giggled a bit as she magically pulled my head by the hair. "You seriously don't? Well perhaps I could generously remind you of your miserable arrival." She hissed violently as she licked her lips, appearing to make for a second assault. "Now, show me again just how flooded you are."

This time, when she kissed me, I began to see a multitude of things. I closed my eyes, and saw not a haunting image, but almost an instant replay of what happened ten months ago. Things kept moving as if it was a slideshow going on and on, failing to stop for even a moment. Gradually, the pictures began to show motion, as if a roll of film sputtered at first and started to speed up to show the very scenes that were once locked away...

...I remember it, I remember now how I was brought here.

TownePlace Suites
Galveston, Texas
Ten Months Ago...

"Give me the fucking keys!"

For fucks sake. "Get out of my way! I'm just going to get a snack!"

Drowsily, I stumbled out of the hotel lobby and tapped the lock button for my car so that I could find it. As soon as I recognized the lights blinking in and out, I smiled as I aggressively pushed towards getting into my car. I pulled on the handle, realizing that I haven't gotten around to unlocking any of the doors. I tapped on the button once, unlocking the driver's door and quickly barricaded myself inside. Prett and Rickey continued to scream at me from outside.

"Nondis, get out of the car!" Prett screamed loudly.

I groaned as I watched Rickey stand in front of the hood, daring himself to not move an inch. "GET OUT OF MY WAY!" I screamed at the man before me, honking my horn as I threatened to start the car. My head was swirling as I impatiently tapped my fingers against the steering wheel.

"Yo, N!" Cliff called out as he ran up to my side of the car, banging on the window. "N, you know we can't let you drive around like this! You know you could get yo ass locked up!"

"GET OUT OF MY WAY! I'M NOT GONNA SAY IT AGAIN!" I shouted, this time starting up the car. As the engine turned over, I could see Rickey trying to will himself to stand still. Prett walked to the other side of the car and banged on the window as hard as he could, doing all he could to break inside to stop me.

"Nondis, you are in no condition to drive! Get the fuck outta the car!"

"GET OUT OF-UGH!" I shouted, bashing my hands into the steering wheel. I shifted my transmission to drive, letting myself idle forward. Rickey's eyes grew wide as he backed out of the way. I started to drive myself out of the parking spot and recklessly swerved out on a right turn, nearly hitting Rickey and knocking back Cliff. Prett tried to make a grab for my passenger-side mirror, but I quickly left him in the dust. Pulling out of the parking lot, I could still hear them screaming at me to stop. I responded by turning my radio up to the loudest volume possible.

"Hey, you're listening to 91.7 F.M., the KOOP! We bumpin' the hottest tracks straight from the club, 80's, 90's, and today! We trynna do it big for y'all tonight! This upcoming song is a request from one of our late-night callers! We got you on the mix! Throwed Off! By Treal Lee!"

Why am I on this station and who the fuck even is this guy?

♬"WALK AROUND THE CLUUUUUB, FUCK EVERYBODY! (Woof)
CAN'T SEE, CAN'T WALK, FUCK EVERYBODY!"♫

Nevermind, I'll keep this one on.

As the three men started to show up in my rear-view mirror, I pounded my foot on the gas as I drifted into traffic. A few other cars stopped to avoid being hit as I continued to let the song on the radio influence my mood... and ultimately my driving. So I began to sing along... singing my own skewed up version. I wasn't very knowledgeable of the lyrics.

"WALK AROUND THE CLUUUUUB! FUCK EVERYBODY! FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU, FUCK EVERYBODY! DON'T GIVE A FUUUUUUCK, FUCK EVERYBODY! FUCK EVERY LAST BITCH UP IN THAT LOBBY! YEAH!"

Bouncing my head along the beat, my eyes were practically closed as I began to... in Cliffian terms, 'feel myself'. Every once in a while, I'd check on what's going on on the road, making sure that I was avoiding any kind of attention from the cops. As if I wasn't eye-grabbing enough bouncing to the rhythm while I repeatedly used the horn to sing along with me. I was just too far gone to even notice where the hell I was going at that point. Eventually, I just kept driving, causing myself to become even more disoriented by banging my head up and down to the song.

*POW*

A sound similar to a shotgun being fired on my left side sounded, causing me to rapidly come into a panic. As I looked up, all I could see was myself swerving out of the left lane and nearly into another car. I tried to drift out of the way of an incoming freight truck, then bumped my rear end into another car that stopped just ahead of me... or behind me... I don't know which direction it came from. But then I noticed that the road became significantly starry... and my headlights couldn't find any sort of paint lines. It was as if the road became non-existent, and for good reason.

The next thing my headlights found was a solid body of water. The windows became dark, my headlights flickering out as I tried to process where I was. Eventually, water began to fill my shoes, rising quickly up to my legs, and eventually engulfing my seat as I haphazardly pulled against the lever to open my door. My heart began to race as I started to realize that I was trapped inside. I tried to bang my fist against the window, hoping that it would somehow bash the glass open. I tried rolling down my windows, but they wouldn't respond on the account of them being electric.

"DAMN IT!" I screamed, as I turned my attention to the seat belt, quickly unfastening myself before I allowed the icy water to snuff out my air.

"SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!" I screamed to the top of my lungs, climbing as quickly as I could to the back of my car, where there was still a pocket of air. I started to pat around in my pockets for my cell phone, realizing that I'd still have a few seconds to talk to somebody before the battery short-circuited, but a dismal expression grew on my face as I realized that I didn't take it with me. I started to breathe quickly, screaming to whoever could hear me.

"HEL*blublublub* HELP! PLEASE! GET ME OUTTA HERE!"

The water began to take over the backseat area, quickly sealing away the little pocket of air I had. Eventually, I realized that no one would come to help me, even if I asked 'God' for it. My only priority was to use this last gulp of air to climb my way out of this damn car. So with a deep breath, I felt myself being completely submerged. In a bid of desperation, I began to pull on the handles and use my feet to push the door open. Eventually, I managed to get one open, but I was running out of time.

I tried to swim out as quickly as I could, but I felt a crushing weight all over my body. The air that once filled my lungs was eventually snuffed out, being replaced by water at a rapid pace. I flung my arms for the surface as best as I could, but couldn't find the strength to climb.

It was too late. I started to black out, my arms grew weak, and I finally realized that there was no getting out of this. So I did the only thing that was available to me. I breathed in, choked, and waited...

I waited... as I quickly lost all sense of existence... This is it. This is how I leave. This is how my time ends, me being alone, no one even giving a damn, and the girl I love telling me to 'go die'. I really don't want to go out like this, but I don't seem to have much of a choice. Well Melanie, here you go. At least dad won't seem to give two shits if I die, he already labeled me as a disappointment. My younger brother did better than I ever did, my older brother's practically got his own life. And I lost everything that pushed me forward.

Lots of thoughts for a dying person? Turns out when this happens, you don't have all the time in the world to think. It all comes flooding out at once. Questions, concerns, regrets, fears, the terror of knowing that it's coming within a matter of seconds, you don't get the time to think about each one at a time, you rush through all of them. Lord, I don't wanna die.

...God has already damned me enough, why the fuck do I have to die here, like this?

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

It's hard to breathe. Not enough oxygen... Kinda need that to focus right now.

...Wait, I'm not dead?

*Gukuuuh... kahak... ukhak.... uguhuuuuh*

Oh... fuck... air... I'm alive... I'm alive!..

"This... is what we summoned?"

Those words sounded as if they were still drowned in water, my ears haven't seem to fully reacquire their optimal functionality. And neither have my eyes, everything is blurry as shit.

"My queen... This is the deadliest creature you could've summoned, from any dimension?"

"I don't understand... I performed the spell perfectly! What is this thing?"

"Perhaps our magic wasn't enough?"

Ugh... what the hell is going on? My throat and chest feel like a half-empty juice box, my nasal passages are burning, and my body feels like a fucking rock. And who's voices are these I'm hearing?

"So many months of feeding... saving up for the one thing that could've saved our hive...

"All for this?"

"No! There must be some purpose for this thing to be here! I-I-I could probably feed from it, see if I can get back anything!"

The shadows in my eyes began to converge, finally coming back into focus. The lights, though they blinded me, were a welcome sight to experience. Even the pain I felt from my pupils dilating was a welcome feeling. But what didn't seem so welcoming was the fact that the little strength in my limbs felt like it was being drawn slowly out of my body... Though that only lasted for a short while.

"Aaaugh! Blech! Ugh, how revolting! I can't even feed from that"

My hearing finally phased into focus, I became perfectly capable of hearing the discussion taking place above me.

"Great, a useless vessel whom we can't even use? Even changelings can feed off the love of other changelings! But even now..."

"There doesn't seem to be any sort of magical energy within this thing! It's barren!"

"And our mutual feedings, the sacrifices of the hive, they've all been for naught!"

...Feeding? Magical energy? Hive? What the hell is all of this.

"Well, my queen, what shall we do?"

Before I could respond, I watched a pair of legs, seemingly filled with holes, walk up to me and stop just short of my face. I looked up to see a frowning face from an unrecognizable creature. Now I'm terrified beyond belief, all it needs to do is─

"This thing... is useless." There we go, now I can really start to contemplate whether I'm in hell or not. "You are barren. You have no magic. You show no form of intelligence, you only produce incoherent babble. Perhaps you are a sea creature that we pulled from it's habitat, judging from the water all over your body."

You know what... I'm gonna go with that if it saves my life.

The long-haired creature growled as she kicked dirt in my face. "If I had any of my magic, I'd find some compassion as to euthanize a mistake such as yourself." I really don't like the sound of that. "But... I believe that you will succumb to the other creatures within this forest. They seem to have an interest in larger game."

"So... we're going to leave it here to die?" One of the smaller ones questioned.

"If it lives, then perhaps we could take interest in it. If it dies, then so be it. I honestly prefer the latter." The long-hair responded.

Another one of the smaller ones ran from inside of a bush, announcing to the long-hair. "Patrol incoming. We need to leave now!"

"Rrrgh... Let us return to the hive. We'll continue to revise our plans there." The long-hair looked at me with a disdainful expression, her nose sitting high into the air. "Pathetic creature, you'll find death within the hour. I can assure you that."

...Not that I wanted to say anything, but I did have a response. I stumbled up to my hands and knees, slowly making my way towards wherever that creature came from. My body slowly dragged along as I dredged through the bush and found myself enveloped within the emerald-colored canopy.

Throughout my drudging around, I slowly began to regain the ability to run. Eventually, I started to push through everything that was in my way. I ran from whatever resembled a living creature. I shied away from anything that had eyes. I was not going to get myself killed here. I was going to live somehow, one way or another. I don't care if this was hell, or if this was a part of the mushrooms I took earlier, but I don't like it one bit.

I didn't keep track of time properly, but it felt like hours since I woke up in this forest. And the shades' angles seem to reflect the fact that I've been out here for a significant amount of time. I am lucky to say that I haven't encountered much aside from a few weird-looking snakes, a chicken with a lizard's tail, and an alligator of some sort. Eventually, I managed to run into a path and walked it's beaten surface until I ran into an opening.

After what felt like... I couldn't even tell you how long it felt. But I finally came to the forest's end. The sun shined down from above as I huffed and puffed from exhaustion. There were no creatures following me, none threatening to eat me, or challenge me for trespassing in their territory. I leaned against a nearby tree as I felt a bit of relief in knowing that I was safe.

"Hi!"

Correction: I once felt safe, that was until I looked up to see two huge blue eyes staring me down in the face. I screamed as I tried to make a break for the forest again, but was stopped short when I ran smack-dab into a low-lying tree branch. My vision flashed white as the impact sent me towards the ground. From there, I could only see darkness.

God... where the hell am I?

Present Day...

My vision blurred as I watched helplessly as a green ghostly mist came floating out of my body and slowly into her mouth. Chrysalis looked at me with exuberance while her jaws closed shut, her body glowing a sickly green. She happily cooed in my ear as she spoke.

"Mmm... And here I was, thinking that you couldn't be fed from! It turns out that you needed a bit of a tender love and care to get you into this wonderfully delectable state! But at least I came to make good on my promise. Since you didn't die, I suppose that I'll be taking you in now! DRONES!"

I couldn't do much in terms of looking around for what was going on, but I did hear my door swing open, followed by the sounds of two other changelings. "My queen, what can we do for you?"

"We got what we came for. Now proceed along with the plan. We move on to phase three. Have them leak the information and let them try and stop us! I FEEL LIKE A GOD RIGHT NOW!" She roared.

Her lackeys seemed to have responded to her energy as they started to buzz their wings happily. "Yes, your highness!"

I didn't feel much of them grabbing me and dragging my paralyzed body into the hall. The only thing I could surmise is that everything seemed significantly darker. At this rate, I was just so exhausted that I could barely keep my eyes open. I wanted to go to sleep, but I had some rational fear hidden deep within me that pretty much explained to me that if I were to close my eyes, there would be a strong possibility of my not waking up. So I forced myself, with what little strength I had left, to stay up and take note of everything I saw.

If I was going to be kidnapped, then I'm going to know where I am and how to get out.

It seems that they grew tired of dragging me around, opting to carry my body on their backs. It took about three changelings to completely suspend my body, including my limbs, off of the ground. The three continued to speak on the matter of how heavy and cumbersome I was in contrast to them carrying a pony, which is what they're probably used to the most. Then again, they've been doing this long since before I was even brought here.

As I was carted around to the back door, I had seen a wagon filled with dirtied pillows and stained sheets. Also, I saw a few changelings disguise themselves as what appeared to be transport workers. Each of them donning a Boston accent, or whatever pony equivalent there is to it. The three that carried me quickly transformed their appearance as well, speaking to each other as if I was nothing more than their next shipment... Hell, I was their next shipment.

"Alright boys, let's get this sack onto the dolly." One of them said as two other changelings that disguised as pegasi workers grabbed one of my arms and lifted. "One... two... three... HEAVE!"

Groans and grunts sounded ad nauseum, each of them struggling as my body was slowly lifted and lied out into the large wagon. Soon, frustrations were made verbal as they noticed that I couldn't fit into it straight. So they pushed on me until I was folded into a semi-fetal position. My back scraped against the wood as I was shoved carelessly against the side of the wagon.

At least I'm placed somewhere where the accommodations are moderately comfortable.

"Hold the rest of the pillows! We got another sack to load!"

I wasn't sure as to what they were referring to, but I can easily say that I wasn't too fond of the idea of them carting off more 'sacks'. And being that I couldn't move, I wasn't able to sit up and look for what they were loading next.

"Alright, this should be the last one!" A familiar voice called out. I immediately recognized this one as the stallion at the check-in counter. I was wanting to scream for him, but the venom I swallowed did such a number on my throat that I couldn't speak properly. Screaming was definitely out of the question.

Too bad... What happened next actually made me want to do just that.

They placed a bundle of covers right next to me as the stallion's voice called out to the others. "Alright! Finish loading so we can get out of here."

For a moment I laid quietly looking on in horror of the ear sticking out of the bundle of sheets. As they started to place more and more of the sheets on top of me and the poorly-wrapped body, a corner of the cloth unfolded itself and revealed the lifeless face of the staffer, who's voice still sounded just above these sheets. I stared for a few more seconds, growing all the more unnerved as I noticed a stark difference between the both of us. My chest rose and fell lightly, while his remained unmoved. He didn't blink once. On his face was the gloomy look of despair. My face contorted into a horrified cringe as it became more obvious of what was before me.

The staffer, who looked up to me every time I checked in, the one who greeted and sent me off with a smile every morning and night, he was no longer of the living.

The unsettling image remained ingrained in me as I was pleading with my body, urging myself to do something. Even so much as a twitch would be enough. But the only thing I could do was watch as the light that filtered from the sheets above slowly grew darker. His voice continued to speak his recently-deceased corpse lied in desolation right next to me.

The fact of his voice being spoken as I stared at his dead body was more than enough to take me off my hinges.

"Okay then! We're all set! Let's get a move-on!"

No... NO... You, whoever the fuck you are, how DARE you speak in his voice!

Fear started to transcend into anger and hatred. I was loathing whoever mocked his voice, whoever decided that it was appropriate to take his appearance after denying him his existence. I wanted them to suffer, more than what I endured. I wanted them to experience pain... slowly. I wanted to see them scream as I jammed my sword into their gullet. I wanted to see the expressions on their face change as I patiently tilted my sword from side to side, leaving them with unimaginable pain.

The worst of it all is that I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm their prisoner now, I'm at their mercy. I'm going to be interrogated, tortured, and possibly brainwashed into believing that I was in the wrong from the moment I declared myself an Equestrian citizen. I'm going to be harassed in my dreams, even more so now than ever because they will probably do everything they can to make me see them as my superiors, my masters.

I'm going to become their slave. I'm going to probably die as one.

The wagon started to move and shift, I couldn't find the strength to get those haunting images out of my head. Now I was seeing each and every one of them. That thing that haunted my dreams, the bitch who set me up, the face of the dead body I'm riding next to. And it's not like I could open my eyes and it all go away. I was in the dark, and just in front of me was my latest addition to my nightmare-fuel compost heap. And it's not like calling for help would do me any good.

"HALT!"

...Or maybe I didn't have to?

"Sorry, ma'am. We can't linger about here. We have a very tight shift and we need to get this laundry to the cleaners, ASAP."

The female's voice sounded very much like... Rainbow Dash? Then again, who's voice could I even trust at this rate? "A laundry call, huh? Last I checked, Call Bell didn't have a need to wash so many sheets at once."

This time, it was his the staffer's voice that responded. "Oh, I didn't think I'd see you again so soon?"

"Call Bell, what the hay is going on?"

"Well we had a complaint this morning from Nondis that we had a bit of a bedbug issue. So I just thought that if I could replace the sheets and the mattresses, then we could quickly get rid of the problem. That's another reason why he hasn't checked in just yet. We're not set to be done with the replacement protocol until seven tonight."

"Ha... seriously? You've had bedbugs, this entire time, and just now decided to do something about it?"

"Why yes! He's the reason why I'm doing everything I can to remove them. I only have one guest right now, and he's paying the bills. I can't afford to lose him, or else I'll lose my business. I'm even lucky that his expenses paid to get the mattresses replaced."

"Well, you seem to have your reasons. But you totally fucked up on the escape."

"What are you talking about? Why would I be trying to escape anyth─"

"Because Nike isn't anything I've heard of before Nondis came here. And the shoe you left at the back door... still sitting there."

...Thank you. Thank you so much American retail! For once, you saved my ass! The faux staffer didn't seem to show much change in his tone. "What do you mean? There's nothing sitting th─"

This time, it was Twilight's voice that came from behind the wagon. "Oh... So this shoe doesn't belong to any of you, now would it? I don't recall stallions needing any hoofwear that reaches so far out."

This time, it was Cadance's voice that sounded. "Yeah, and we had visual confirmation that Nondis actually checked into his hotel at approximately 5:31 this evening."

Twilight's voice continued from where Cadance's left off. "I look outside of my balcony every time he checks in, just to make sure that he made it back in safely. And we made a small care package for him, to let him know that we were all still in his corner and that we appreciated everything he's done for us. For Rainbow to come back and tell us that the one at the register joked about her, we knew that it didn't sit right with us."

"Yeah." Rainbow cosigned. "And for you to sit here and make fun of me for something like that, I knew for certain that you weren't the one who we remember being there on a daily basis. He's a lot more unstable in a conversation than you showed yourself to be. He always stutters and apologizes when he says something wrong! And you just continued to press my buttons... Not so funny now, huh?"

"I don't know what you're talking about! You're all crazy!"

This time, Rarity's voice sounded. "Yes... and I'm sure that the other shoe you left in the hallway and the drag-trail that lead up to a certain point was nothing more than mere coincidence?"

I love these girls. "Rrgh! We're leaving!"

"Oh no ya aren't!" Applejack's voice sounded from behind me.

Suddenly, the entire wagon was knocked over, causing both me and the staffer to roll out onto the ground. My body flopped as I was left onto my back, lightly sliding against the cobblestone. As the light flooded my eyes, Cadance came into view. "Nondis... no."

I looked back up to her, causing her to sigh in relief that I was still alive. Twilight stepped over my body and quickly ignited her horn. "You... You will suffer FOR HURTING WHAT'S MINE!!!"

Without a moment's hesitation, she unleashed a powerful beam of magic onto the changeling who mimicked the staffer, knocking it out of form and into a nearby wall. In response, the others removed their disguises and hissed at the purple princess. Cadance quickly levitated my body out of the way and made a break for the castle. Two other changelings, who saw Cadance take me, quickly gave chase. But their pursuit were quickly hindered as both Rainbow Dash and Rarity quickly dispatched them. Another changeling, still wearing their disguise, fought off both Applejack and Rainbow Dash with ease before charging for me.

Another magenta blast came barreling in from the direction Cadance ran to, hitting the cleaner dead in the chest. But this time, there was barely any reaction to the hit at all. As the changeling continued to charge, Shining Armor teleported behind his wife and blasted the changeling with everything he had. This time, the changeling fell back from the blow, but remained in form as it laughed.

"You're going to need to do better than that."

"Give me some credit." Shining responded. "I haven't even warmed up yet. Though I can tell you're a cut above the rest. Then again, the queen of the changelings wouldn't be so easy to topple and lose form like the others, now would she?"

With a coo, the cleaner unveiled to be none other than Chrysalis. "Ah, so I can't seem to fool you more than once. I'd expected as much from my dear husband."

Shining growled as he scraped his hoof against the dirt, readying himself for a charge. "I am NOT married to you."

"Oh poor Shining, you'll never be able to take away the fact that we both passionately made love for hours, shared our vows with one another, and turned your meddling little sister away. Just admit it, I'm so good that you'd disown your own sister."

"Just admit it, you'll never get over the fact that I disowned you. You could never get a husband on your own. My love was the best thing you've tasted in a while."

"Ugh, I've had so much better in the recent times. Now move out the way, I'd like to feast on more of it."

It's been an hour since the situation from earlier. I've been in this bed, quietly looking up to the ceiling as if I was staring at the heavens above. Secretly, I wish that they were the heavens above, just so I could scream at God and ask him why the hell all of this was necessary. Why did I need to suffer like this and be placed in this position? For what purpose am I to be thrown into something like this? What part of his 'master plan' is it that I'd be summoned by creatures who kill and abduct innocent lives?

I know I'm not one of those innocents, but there are several others who fit the bill.

Call Bell was far from anyone capable of posing harm to anyone. He was a young and quiet individual, one who actually was a fan of me long before I was a hero of the town. He'd even tell me how my being different and being an outsider was his inspiration to achieve greater things. Sure, he'd talk about mares like it's no one's business, but that's just who he was. He was shy, but opinionated. Didn't open up much when it came to casual conversations, but he was quick to input on anything of a deeper level. And every time he'd wake up in the morning, he'd tell me that he would find someone who'd give him a chance.

He was one of those seeking out something that he was unsure if it would find him otherwise. All he wanted was a humble little family who could help him run the hotel. On the broader perspective, you could compare him to Mr. Cake and notice nothing different aside from the fact that Carrot had found success in that area.

Now he's gone, unable to even live the dream he had spent so much time setting up.

His face is in the back of my eyelids.

I did everything I could to help the guy, even paying my rent months in advance just so he could keep the place running. I know he was somewhat upset that the lobby didn't have those complementary breakfasts the other places had, but he'd still share the morning paper with me, telling me what the reporters are writing about me. Little casual stuff like that, stuff that you'd think would be inconsequential...

All of it seems so big now.

What's also hurting me is that Chrysalis used Zecora's image to fool me into drinking that potion. Was Zecora even alive at this point? I'd be beyond terrified to find out that she too grabbed on to death's hand. It makes me look back at all the times she made a mention or cracked a joke about me not coming around to visit. I can't believe that I'm sitting here, loathing over the fact that she's either taken or gone completely.

I don't mean to ignore her. I just couldn't find the time to spend with her between dealing with my friends here, my friends on the other side of the portal, my brothers, politicians, fighting, and a bunch of other things. I wanted to make the time for everyone, I truly did. And if I had checked in on her yesterday when we finished our patrol... this wouldn't have happened. The events that transpired today wouldn't have even occurred, and both of them would still be here.

What scares me the most is that not only was she one of Twilight's friends, but that I had known almost little about her. If I had given myself the drive to go out in the forest and see her back when I was waiting for the portal to finish, I'd probably know her as much as I did Call Bell. But it's eating away at me, I can't speak much of her because I haven't put forth the effort to do just that. And I couldn't tell the difference between her and a changeling? She was one of the first ones to welcome me to the town!

...I lost both of them, in broad fucking daylight.

"H....haaa.... haaaa..."

My voice, it's starting to come back. If I could've screamed for help then, would it have mattered? He was alive just earlier in the day, he wasn't that cold... or was he?

"Haa....aahhh... Ahh..."

And Zecora, would she really risk herself to come out and make some medicine for me, even though I don't even give her the time of day?

"Ah..." *gasp*

Yeah. I think I know what to do now... I just need to take a deep breath, put it all into perspective, and...

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

Inhale... Scream... Repeat...

inhale... Scream... Repeat...

Author's Note

Ugh... the hardest thing about this chapter is the fact of trying not to make the protagonist look like they're holding the idiot ball. I get that there are times where we do hold the ball for a short while before dropping it. But sometimes when you have a scenario playing out behind the scenes, it begins to make the setup a little difficult. But that's just the on the writer's part.

However, I took a unique approach to how the MC would react to certain stimuli, given recent run-ins and certain circumstances. I wanted to approach the situation from the standpoint of an individual who watched a (good) scary movie before going to bed. Usually you might have that haunting feel that drives you to check behind you every time you have that crawling chill down your spine.

I tried to make his breaking point somewhat believable (probably failed massively at it). Now he's wracked with guilt and frustration, not to mention idled by fear and venom.

Of course, I always thought about a changeling's purpose. Their origin was that they were faries replacing a child during infancy. Then the show broadened the definition by giving them the leeway to replace anyone they so desired for the sake of feeding off of one's love. I wanted to expand upon the psychological aspects of these traits and take things a step further.

Lore Spoiler:
What would be the effects on those who found some of their friends being replaced, or deceased loved ones being recreated? We already saw in the comics that they were capable of draining love straight from one's body, nearly sucking the life out of them and rendering them useless. The fangs are just there to help subdue their prey as spiders often paralyze theirs. And the rational fear of being spirited away plays into their favor, proving to be a strong psychological edge.

I also took into account of any possible recessive traits that could be born with being a changeling since their drawing on love, while stirring fear, was their calling card. The worst thing is that there could be some who thrive solely on the psychological warfare front, rather than the emotional drainage... Enter: Iris.

Just as easily as love is sniffed out by the changelings, fear is easily picked out by anything that lives. Iris is a feeder of fear rather than love, giving the changelings more edge to that second side of their brand (I know, OC-ish). But given that there could be some who do specializes in fear tactics to prevent escape or to drive away unwanted company, I surmise that there are multiple facets to how the changelings are easily considered as a deadly adversary to the Equestrians.

But if I'm wrong in believing in that, please feel free to elaborate in the comments. I've always been up for a debate on changeling functionality and how far their abilities can be utilized for different tasks. Love these little creatures for the potential they have, and how easily they can be written.

Chapter LVI

The sun quietly hid behind the vast western horizon, a mere tip could be seen as it readied to cast all of itself into darkness. The spire from the castle over Ponyville shimmered as the dying light gleamed off of it's surface. The streets of Ponyville continued to be quiet after the huge scene made at the hotel just beneath the castle's shadow.

A multitude of ponies continued to look at the multitude of guards pacing back and forth to restrict access to a crime scene. Shining Armor directed the flow of the guard, changing the shift every fifteen minutes as a forensics team moved in to bag the lifeless body of the hotel staffer. The stallion formerly known as Call Bell was ceremoniously placed in a black body bag, while his mother continued to look from behind the restriction tape. She screamed in agony and despair as she watched the armored guards zip the bag closed, hiding the body of her son. A somber gray pegasus mare with a blonde mane held the weeping mother while giving her a much-needed hug.

Rainbow Dash groaned as she watched the scene unfold, feeling a bit uncomfortable from having to watch such raw emotions spill out in front of everyone. "Hey, Shining." She called out informally. "I'm gonna scout the skies for anything unusual. They couldn't have gotten very far from the time they took off."

Shining nodded. "If you find anything, come back and let me know. Be careful up there."

Spreading her wings, she took to the skies and hovered high above the clouds. She began to cruise over the town, catching a glimpse of everything that took place around the way. One such sight was a group of ponies speaking just in front of their kiosks in the marketplace. Another one was a stallion doing all he could to keep his twin foals from crying as he kept them tightly secured in a stroller. Another thing she saw was a pony quietly moping in a cloud towards the far east. But what caught her attention was the sight of a single pony walking down the path that lead to the Everfree forest.

Upon closer observation, she noticed that the pony would look back and forth suspiciously, even checking behind themselves on occasion. She grew suspicious and elected to give chase to the jittery pony. Just as they disappeared into the thick, vine-coated woods, she took a careful dive into the green canopy below. After she wrestled through many trees, she caught the image of the pony transforming into a changeling, bowing before none other than Queen Chrysalis herself.

The queen waved her hoof as she spoke in a regal tone. "Status report."

The changeling that bowed to her raised his head as he responded. "Love is in the air, sweetening the smell. Yet the fear persists, contaminating our senses."

The two carried on with their conversation as they began to walk further into the forest. "It will not be so easy to claim this, not without our plan falling into motion."

Rainbow Dash continued to carefully travel from branch to branch as she heard the conversation take place. "Do you think that the intel was correct about the possibility of being more?"

"We only summoned one, there are no others." Chrysalis answered dismissively.

"I do not believe it to be so either. The amount of magic it took to summon just one was enough to starve our hive of magic for weeks. Plus we have no sources that support those claims. It could be that we─" The changeling found himself cut short by his queen.

"And even with the combined magic of the princesses, they would not be so reckless as to risk their duties to bring forth yet another."

Rainbow then saw the queen turning back, almost discovering her. In an attempt to avoid the changeling's gaze, she carefully hid herself behind one of the larger trees that deviated a bit from the path. Chrysalis, who saw nothing, turned back around as her informant continued to speak. "So it's fair to say that the stragglers from Guto's group are not to be trusted?"

"Trust is reserved for the worthy, those who serve the hive first and self second. Guto's little insurgency are to be punished swiftly and immediately for their dishonorable conduct. Those who serve themselves do not serve the hive, and they serve me no longer."

"That is a bit extreme."

"Sometimes a mother has to be tough on her offspring, should she wish for them to grow and make the right decisions. But they are under no circumstances to be killed."

Rainbow carefully made her move as she moved from the tree and back down to the path, her hooves quietly walking the path just behind the two collaborators. "We are currently siphoning their magic back into the hive's circulation. Soon, they will fall to forced hibernation for a period of thirteen months. Upon awakening, we would see to it that they are to be reprogrammed via memory wiping and rigorous reconditioning. Would that be acceptable?"

"That is fine. Now find the others and welcome them back accordingly."

After the subordinate nodded, he quickly left the city and made his way towards the feeding hut further down the road. Rainbow continued to fox her way towards the changeling queen, when suddenly...

"Your stalking methods have always been far too impressive for one of your standing, Pupa."

The rainbow maned pony groaned with disappointment. "Aww... Just when things were starting to get fun."

"Your transformation's wonderful, dear child. Now rid yourself of that disgusting image."

The rainbow maned pony rolled her eyes as she complied with Chrysalis' demands. A bright green flame shot around her and quickly engulfed the pony, revealing a changeling with a bob-cut mane. "That fight was a pretty close call. I had to ditch the scene afterwards or else I was going to find myself a victim of that crystalline death trap they call a castle. I had to scream into that thing to get them to come out of it. But at least you won't find too many problems roaming inside."

The queen smiled as she turned her attention to the large castle looming over the distant town. "That turned out to be a fun little excursion, didn't it? Though I couldn't bare to see you risk yourself getting too close to the opposing party."

"My queen, the role was too easy to play. The only thing I had to do was pose as the rainbow one after I tied up loose ends."

"And you did make sure that Rainbow Dash was kept busy?"

"Did I? I practically made her question herself on whether she actually loved the guy or not. And from what I sniffed out in the lobby... well let's just say that she has... aspirations."

The queen's ears flicked as the statement resonated throughout her mind, her interest piqued. "Romantic?"

"She didn't give off that kind of scent, unfortunately. But she did show strong emotions when asked about him. She makes it very hard to sniff out, but she's easy to read. Could be that she's festering some feelings for the creature."

"I see... I also took notice of a strong emotional response from the Princess of Friendship. It could be possible that their feelings all intersect with this creature, so using him would probably be to our benefit. He could prove to be very useful after all." Chrysalis said before giving a light chuckle.

"So... what's our next move?" Pupa asked.

"You will continue to have our spies monitor him from within the town. We have perhaps two changelings in close proximity to that castle who could pose as weather ponies and pinpoint this creature..." Chrysalis paused for a moment as she corrected herself. "No, this human. I remember Zecora mentioning something pertaining to that name and him in the same sentence."

"What am I to do, your highness?"

"I'm going to make my move there later tomorrow. You may feed tonight, and then you and the others will hide in the brush until I give you the signal to come out. I intend for you to keep our esteemed guest company throughout the course of the day. From there, you will have a scout search the paths for any undesirable elements. Should one be found, have our guest transported to another location of the forest. If things goes as planned, I might not have to use you for much."

Pupa's ears fell as she heard those words leave her superior's mouth. "Those words seem quite discouraging, my queen. Are we of no use to you?"

"Far from it. Let's just say you are a hoof I much rather play to trump my opponent should things take a turn for the unexpected."

"And how will you know he will decide to go along with us?" The smaller changeling asked quizzically.

"I made sure to verbalize certain key words to cause him regret. If he finds out what we're offering, then he would reconsider joining us. Given my time with him, I am sure that the guilt would take a toll on his mind."

"Do you think he'd give himself so easily?"

"I know he will. And his turn against Equestria could prove to be too great of a loss to the naive princess, the fool formally known as Twilight Sparkle. Oh, how I long to see her writhe in despair when she sees that he becomes her enemy."

Pupa gave herself a moment to reflect on the possibilities that were to take place if they had the assistance of the human at their disposal. "The deadliest creature from the failed summoning, now joining us?"

"You're beginning to visualize the conditions for our victory."

The smaller changeling started to liven as she spoke. "If he is as what the stragglers claim he is, then we could quickly tilt the scales in our favor."

"And unlike the Canterlot fiasco, we'll claim our victory long after it has taken place." The queen hissed with a low tone, remembering a past error that costed her a chance to claim Equestria. Pupa cringed to herself as she saw the expression on the queen's face. The smaller changeling left her to stare back at the castle in the distance as she walked off in hopes of finding the hut that her fellow changeling had ventured off to.

"The wisest choice, your highness."

"GAH!"

Zecora breathed heavily as she lied on the ground. Her eyes looked back towards a changeling who rose from behind her, smiling as he stepped away. Between his hind legs dripped a trail of fluids, her own nethers ached as the same fluids slowly drained from within her. She wanted to reach back to hide herself, but was prevented from doing so by a thick slime that glued her hooves down to the ground. Even her tail was hiked to the side as to permanently reveal her swollen passage.

She became increasingly shamed for being in such a compromising situation, embarrassed from the aching that took place in her abdomen. Yet the constant floods she received seemed to douse the unwelcome flame of estrus, a fire that was initiated by the inhalation of many drakeseed spores. A sizable changeling stood guard over the breathless zebra. "She's starting to turn. At this rate, she won't last throughout tomorrow evening." He stated.

Pupa approached her from behind giving the zebra a glance. "Not that it matters, everyone has had twice their fill by now... Everyone save myself, I had a pitiful feeding back in Ponyville. But she seems to be a wonderful vessel, makes me question on how she was capable of sharing so much of what she apparently 'didn't have'."

"Well they say that friendship and love comes hoof in hoof. And being that she cares deeply for anypony she calls her friends, I'd see just how she was able to last so long." Said the changeling who just finished with the zebra, cleaning himself while watching Pupa transform into Shining Armor.

"That and her resilience to not succumb to us, that could also feed into the equation." The faux Shining stated as he gave Zecora a light grope, causing the mare to cringe with pain and unwanted pleasure.

"Just as long as anyone remembers that she is not to be physically harmed, they can do whatever they'd like to her." The large brute stated as he walked to the other side of the room, eager to watch what would happen next.

"In speaking of which, I believe that it is time for me to indulge myself." Shining said as he crouched down over the immobilized mare.

"...No...please..." Zecora barely mouthed, her voice grown tired from screaming.

"My dear stripes, is there really a reason to resist?" He questioned as he sniffed her disheveled mane. "After all, you're in heat. This is what you've been longing for, is it not?"

"No...stop it...please." She whispered as the impostor sank himself into her.

He ignored her cries and whispered quietly into her ears. His foreleg wrapped around her neck and pulled he head up to face him. "I am infatuated with your moans, the little grunts you make are sublime to my ears. If I had to make a choice on whether or not you'd be up for barter, I'd keep you for myself. But that would be unfair to the others, as we serve hive first over self. So I would have to apologize in sharing you with the multitude of others."

"...Get...out...of me...please..."

As a show of defiance, he pulled out as to where he was just barely within her and viciously slammed his hips into her backside, the ripples of his impact travelling across her body. Zecora gasped loudly without voice, causing the fake prince to smile at her. Slowly, he worked himself in and out as he melted with pleasure. The zebra shook violently as she could do nothing but accept him with increasing despair. Her glassed eyes tried to steer away from the visage of the crystal prince as he whispered to her.

"Those rings on your neck really were a pain to remove. And then to add to the long list of issues I have to deal with, we'll be moving you elsewhere. So now we have to not only keep you alive, which is more trouble than it's worth, we also have to keep you mobile until the queen deems it necessary to have you at a standstill. I expect recompense for my troubles. After all, I have yet to have my turn with you."

"...You're...disgusting..." She mouthed before being dropped. The stallion above eyed the nape of her neck and bit into her. As he pulled up, he quipped back to his victim.

"As are you in your current state. But you don't see me complaining about it."

"Why am I even thinking about this?"

Just on the far eastern reaches of the town, Rainbow Dash lied lazily in a cloud, mumbling to herself as she tuned out the world to focus on the dilemma that seemed to have gained traction with her. The one that made fun of her for being shy had managed to stir the thoughts she kept in the back of her mind. Ultimately, she wallowed in frustration over herself and her inability to present Nondis with a gift basket that everyone contributed to. She knew that something simple like that should've been easy for her to pull off, but she simply failed in doing it.

"Flowers, chocolate, a miniature statue with your name on it? This all seems like little forget-me-not's if you ask me."

Those words didn't stop floating around her as she tried to brush them away. The tone of the pony's voice seemed to play back like a scratched record, playing the same groove loop over and over again. Finally, she erupted with anger.

"This is so stupid! I don't even like him! And me with him... ugh! I don't even wanna go near that thing he's hiding in his pants! What's so fucking important or so secretive that he has to cover himself up every single day!?"

"Now you're asking the important questions." A voice called out from a cloud nearby.

Rainbow jumped as she heard the familiar raspy voice speaking out to her. She turned to see who it was that talked to her, only to find out that it was none other than the captain of the Wonderbolts. "Oh... Hey Spitfire... What are you doing here?" She asked in bewilderment.

"Well, a little birdie told me that Nondis might've invited two more of his friends from the other world. And from last I remember, one of them might include a brother of the elusive human himself."

The cyan pegasus drew back in confusion. "Huh? Who told you that?"

"You blurted it out loud while we were back in Cloudsdale, remember? Everypony in the city's trying to make a quick visit to Ponyville in hopes of catching a glimpse of the human's sibling."

The rainbow-maned mare was left scratching her head as she tried to figure out when she said anything about his siblings to her. "I didn't blurt it out─"

"You nearly told him about your being a pegasus, which in turn prompted... fill in the blank."

At that point, she started to fill in the blanks. By the time she finished, she remembered that Spitfire was walking right beside them at the time. The prismatic pony's ears flopped as her cheeks reddened a little from embarrassment. "Oh...right."

"So, what's got you so sappy?"

Her cheeks grew even redder as she heard the word sappy being used to describe her. She angrily responded. "Nothing! It doesn't matter what's got me in what mood! I'm just thinking to myself! Key word here: MYSELF!"

"About what reason he has in wearing clothes?"

At that point, her ears even started to show hints of red. "You dropped in at a bad part!"

"I've been hearing you from several clicks away, you've been moaning and groaning about some hotel attendant giving you flak. Now spill." She demanded.

Rainbow knew that not saying anything would only lead to Spitfire persisting. Despite her reputation for being free-spirited, she didn't like when associates, acquaintances, or friends were dealing with problems that could be resolved by talking through them. She took on a softer tone as she buried her head into the cloud she rested on. "Maybe I wanna drink this one in, you ever thought about that?"

The yellow pegasus quickly flew over to Rainbow, tapping her on the back. "You're not one to let things keep you down. How about we fly over this one?"

Rainbow Dash wasn't going to refuse a moment of some free flying, but knew that there was a reason for it being called free-flying. In most situations, she would take to the air and leave her problems on the ground. It was her way of venting, as opposed to letting it all boil over. She wasn't going to be able to keep silent if she took flight. "...Okay, but I'm not going any further than what I'm comfortable with."

"Might not have to worry about that." Mumbled Spitfire, knowing that Rainbow would be telling everything there is.

The two mares took to the air, hovering just above the clouds as their shadows eclipsed the land below. Rainbow looked around at the ponies who walked the ground. Spitfire began to corkscrew around the rainbow-maned pony as she waited for her to speak. Lethargically, Rainbow turned to her back and flew as if she was swimming on water. Finally, she broke the silence between them. "...So, I was accused of having a crush on Nondis."

Spitfire stopped in her tracks as she tried to stop herself from laughing. Inevitably, she failed to do so and let herself go after a few seconds. "That's it!? You let a little something like that get you down!? I mean who doesn't want to get with the guy? He's been hot topic since the trial your friend had. Him getting into the ranks was just a bonus."

"I don't wanna hurt his feelings, but it's just that he and I are WAY too different. I don't see how Twilight was able to look past the human part."

"Maybe you're being too close-minded." She suggested coldly. "Have you ever thought about giving it a chance?"

"Well... no... maybe... no..." Rainbow wasn't getting any breaks from Spitfire, who stared back at her unimpressed. Finally, she confessed. "Yes. That's why I was trying to push the whole 'friendship' agenda on him so that I could see what makes him so... him. If Twilight is willing to get into some trouble with him and get into fights about who he spends his time with, then there's gotta be a reason. What makes him so nice to keep around?"

"Maybe you haven't been paying attention." Spitfire said, her words going mostly in and out of Rainbow's ears.

"I know what he does for everypony else, and they're his friends. But what's the thing that made Twilight look past his being different?"

"I dunno, maybe his determination to prove to the world that he's in love with her?"

Rainbow grumbled and dismissed Spitfire's argument. "Yeah, but seriously, why give that a chance?"

"You haven't been around the royals long enough, have you?" The yellow pegasus questioned.

"What about it?"

Spitfire's hoof quickly found it's way to her face as she shook her head with disbelief. "Guards and staff tremble whenever a prince or princess mentions them in a conversation about dating. You mean to tell me that you haven't gotten that memo yet?"

Rainbow shrugged as she spoke. "Well of course there's that stupid law Twilight's always blabbering about. But she wouldn't be that desperate... would she?"

"She plays for keeps around the guy. She even went so far as to kissing him in my face while telling me to 'no touching'. And that was after his little bout with Shining Armor."

Rainbow got off of her back and proceeded to fly normally. "It can't be because he stood up to him, is it?"

"You really can't be this cloud-minded."

The cyan pegasus sent forth a dejected sigh. "Okay, so what is it?"

"If you saw him in the image of being a stallion, what would you think of him?"

Rainbow hesitated to answer, knowing that she didn't want to say it. "But he's not a stallion."

"But if he was? Hypothetical question, Dash." Spitfire deadpanned.

The rainbow-maned pegasus rolled her eyes as she realized that there was no working around it. She finally stated what was on her mind. "Well, I guess... if he's... you know?"

Spitfire rolled her hoof as she motioned for Rainbow to finish. "What?"

"I don't know. But I wanna find out what makes him so... appealing. And I don't wanna do it in a way where it compromises their relationship. I just wanna see him for who he is outside of what he is."

"And in the name of friendship, you intend to do just that?"

Rainbow felt her stomach grow ticklish as she tried to hide her face. "Well of course─"

"RAINBOW DASH!!!"

A voice called out loudly to the colorful flier as she and the Wonderbolt captain both scanned the skies for anything that might've resembled anything calling out to her. Instead, it was another yellow pegasus who jettisoned from the ground below. In a blur of yellow and pink, the pony rose to the skies above, meeting the two surprised pegasi.

"Is that Fluttershy? Wow, I didn't know she could holler like that. Bitch got some pipes." Spitfire joked, earning a bit of a glare from Rainbow.

"Fluttershy, what's going on?" She questioned.

"Is it true?" Fluttershy asked, quickly gliding over and grabbing the cyan mare.

"Wha-huh? What are you talking about?" Rainbow asked, seeming a bit blindsided by her friend.

"The changelings. When Princess Cadance brought Nondis in, she said something about him nearly being abducted by changelings. His eyes were so pale!"

Rainbow threw Fluttershy's hooves off of her as she erupted into panic. "WHAT!? WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE WAS TAKEN IN BY THE CHANGELINGS!?"

Taken aback by the sudden display of ignorance, Fluttershy tried to explain herself. "But Cadance said you─"

"Nevermind that, dear Fluttershy. It's apparent that she wasn't even there to recall anything that happened." Answered a disembodied voice. One of the nearby clouds then turned pink, growing a head and tail. After he grew himself, Discord reshaped his body to it's more draconian form. "Of course it would be easy to deduce the reason for that being so."

"But Twilight just told me that Rainbow told her about the pony at the counter started acting really suspicious." Fluttershy stated.

"Probably an insider, another changeling who probably impersonated Rainbow Dash." Discord replied, taking the form of a pony with Rainbow's head and a changeling's body. "Guess that means we'd have to be particularly careful."

Spitfire was quick to call herself into action. She took initiative and started to make her way to the northwest. "Changelings are serious business. I'll get the others from Cloudsdale and do a quick flyover to see if there are any ponies acting suspicious. You guys stay safe, and don't let anyone you don't know get too close to you."

Spitfire darted off in a blaze of fiery orange. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was left wallowing in confusion as well as regret. "...I left him alone."

"Rainbow Dash..." Fluttershy tried to comfort her friend.

"It's all my fault. It's all my fault."

"Dashie, look at me."

"I totally screwed up! I left him to get hurt! I should've just delivered them to his room instead of just fussing and screaming like I did."

Quietly, Fluttershy picked up her friend's head as she spoke softly to her. "But that's not the bad news."

Rainbow grew quiet, almost biting her tongue as she thought about how anything could be worse than nearly being carted off by changelings. She finally faced her friend head on as she put on a brave face.

"...Please tell me he's okay."

***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

"YAAAARGH! GAAAAHHH!"

Loud and erratic screams filled the halls of the castle as I could do nothing but listen just outside of his room. I closed my eyes with each moment his voice cracked, trying to hold back the tears I wanted to shed. I was somewhat successful at my attempts, but not everyone else was so strong. Fluttershy seemed quite bothered with him sounding so panicked. Rarity covered her ears as she tried to block out the sounds of his voice ringing loudly through the halls. Applejack buried her face into her hat, a means of trying not to show her broken-hearted expression. Shining was stoic enough to look like it didn't bother him, but Cadance was visibly disturbed on both his and her behalf.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash stood in front of the door, almost seeming as if she was embracing the maddening yelps from within the room. She appeared to be distant as she stood motionless. "...I totally left him alone..."

Applejack continued to hide behind her hat. "This ain't your fault, sugar cube. We all had the wool pulled over our eyes on this one."

Rarity pulled her hooves off of her ears as she slammed them into the floor with a scream. Her eyes started to let the tears flow freely from her eyes, causing her mascara to run. "Poor Nondis... I can't believe they would go to such extremes as to putting him in this state! Those brutes!"

I was still in shock over what nearly took place. I was so grateful to have him come back safe, but was so mortified when I heard him as he started screaming. "I can't believe this happened. Changelings in the town itself? I can't believe we had such a security lapse, and it all happened on his day off."

"...The others are not going to like this once they get wind of it." Fluttershy said as she walked up to Rarity in an attempt to comfort her.

What she said had me think for a while about how I would break this to Melanie and the others. A whole array of scenarios ran through my head as I tried to fathom their emotional response to this. I couldn't even begin to visualize just how angry Alex would be in knowing that his younger brother was nearly taken in by the changelings and rendered in such a state where his only response is a blood-curdling scream. As the moments went by, I could already hear the long stream of words spilling from his mouth about how we failed in protecting him.

The worst scenario that played out was that they deemed us ponies incompetent and carry him home to be treated, never to be returned, to be seen or heard from again. I was just a breath short of a panic attack as I made a hasty decision. "They aren't getting wind of anything right now."

The others looked at me with shock as they tried to reason with me. Fluttershy being the first to object. "Twilight─"

"Until we know what happened, until he snaps out of it, we're not going to stress him out even more by giving him more things to worry about. And I'm certain that he wouldn't want his brothers or his friends to see him in the way he's in now." I've been with him long enough to know that he doesn't like others to see him when he's down. Even when he was hurt, he wanted to prove his point and make himself look like an indestructible beast that wouldn't know the meaning of a loss.

"Twily, that's not our choice." My brother argued.

Honestly, I know what I'm doing is considered as wrong. But I don't care. I know what Nondis would do and how he would act. And in his mind, he's probably wanting to hide everything he's going through. If he was so quick to hide our existence from his friends, then this would probably be no different. I am not going to make any decision on his behalf that he would disagree with. So with a firm resolve, I stood my ground against my brother's argument. "Well as princess, I'm going to make that decision. This is not to be released to any of the other humans until Nondis heals. No further questions. Not a word, or even so much as a peep."

Cadance was quick to side with Shining. "Twilight, this is─"

"My responsibility. I was designated as his caretaker since his discovery, so I'll be the one responsible. Chrysalis should've never had access to him. So if they hear that Nondis was nearly taken away, do you think for one second that they wouldn't take him back to his world, possibly never to return for the betterment of his health? I'm not taking that risk!"

Again, I'm being selfish. But I'm not gonna let him leave here if he doesn't decide to do so on his own.

"Twilight, they may be able to help!" Shining argued.

I shook my head with denial. "They will only make things difficult for now. Let's just find some way to get him talking rather than screaming."

And just on cue, another scream came piercing into the castle halls. My ears folded back as his voice alone was enough to cause me pain. And it seemed that I wasn't the only one who felt that way.

"What in Equestria is going on?"

"Surely that couldn't be... him... could it?"

I quickly trotted to the two ponies who entered into the castle, finding some sort of relief from the immense amount of despair we were feeling. "Celestia, Luna, thank goodness you're here."

The two elder princesses galloped towards me as Luna spoke. "You sent me a letter of the utmost urgency. What is it that you need?"

Applejack straightened herself out and pulled the hat from over her face. "Nondis was contacted by Queen Chrysalis. Whatever they did to him messed him up somethin' fierce."

"Chrysalis was here? How!?" Celestia questioned, she appeared not only in shock, but also angry.

"That's something that only Nondis can tell us. But he won't stop screaming." Fluttershy added.

With a quick bow, I hurried with my request. "Princess Luna, we need you to enter his mind and fend off whatever's haunting him. I know that he's been dealing with some recent issues in regards to his nightmares, and there was the report of a changeling taking advantage of that. It feels like they triggered something in his brain that causes that image to pop up every so often."

"Are you sure?" Luna inquired as she looked to the door.

"I think there's more to it. If Chrysalis contacted him, then perhaps she told him the truth of how he got here." Shining stated.

"Oh for pony's sake, he was dumped in a wagon with a dead body next to him! Don't y'all think that would be a slight bit unsettling to deal with?" Applejack asked, throwing her hat to the ground out of a fit of anger.

"Is he restrained?" Celestia questioned.

"He's infested with changeling venom, restraint is the least of our worries." Cadance noted as Nondis screamed once more, causing all of us to feel uncomfortable.

Rainbow Dash stopped appearing to be a motionless statue as she finally turned to me and the others with watery eyes. "This is all my fault... I shouldn't have left him."

I felt myself wanting to rush over to her and shake her out of her self-blame. Instead, I politely made my way to her and placed my hoof on her head, causing her to give me her full attention. "You look at me, Rainbow Dash. Do you honestly want to bear that guilt, because I don't think you do. You just got played like the rest of us. You don't carry any responsibility in this except for the fact that you were probably told that he wasn't there. And if that's the case, then how were you to know otherwise?"

"I should've just went down the hall and gave him that stupid gift basket. None of this would've happened."

She seemed really insistent in taking the blame. But I wasn't going to let her take it. "You would've been just as much as a victim, darling! If you barged down that hall and waited for Chrysalis to show up, then you would've been taken in along with him. You did all you could in getting us."

Finally, she exploded as she snapped her wings open and screamed to the top of her lungs. "THAT WASN'T ME!"

Everyone froze as those words continued to echo through the halls, even powering over Nondis' screams. I felt myself become cold as I realized that she wasn't screaming this for no reason. Rarity tried to speak to her as Fluttershy rushed over to comfort her as well. "But you─"

"I wasn't anywhere near the castle! I was so damn frustrated that I just flew off! If I hadn't ran away, he'd be safe! He'd probably holed up in his room still, but he'd be safe!" She kept repeating those final three words until she couldn't get through them without her voice breaking. She covered her face with her wings as a means to hide herself from the shame she felt. As she went on, I felt myself succumbing to the same sense of shame and regret as I couldn't distinguish the difference.

I was fooled too, Rainbow. But I couldn't help but to take appreciation in the fact that we had gotten Nondis back throughout this whole ordeal. The only problem is that the situation left me with more questions that I didn't know the answer to. Why would a changeling, who works under Chrysalis, call for us and tell us that they were going to take him away? They would've succeeded had no one said anything.

"A changeling impersonating Rainbow Dash? Seems Chrysalis wanted to keep her bases covered." Shining said as he started to pace back and forth.

Cadance also threw out her thoughts on the matter. "But that's just it. Why would a changeling go through all the trouble of telling us that they were taking him? We didn't find ourselves in the midst of some deadly trap, so there's little reward for it other than being thwarted."

Shining continued to brainstorm. "The 'Rainbow Dash' I encountered said that she would scout the skies for anything unusual. And being that the real one is here, then the other one could've sent out a sit-rep in terms of our security and his location."

"That's it!" I shouted, realizing that this would play into our advantage. "The castle has a magical barrier placed around it that disables most of the changelings. If we keep him here, then we'd be keeping him from any future changeling attack."

"Hold on." Shining interjected. "The last time I erected a barrier to keep the changelings out, Chrysalis was still able to get in. If anything, we should still be cautious."

Applejack didn't seem to agree with Shining's intuition. "As if she'd ever get her grubby hooves set on one single tile! Not to discredit ya or anything, but this castle is powered by the Tree of Harmony itself!"

Cadance continued to side with her husband, offering a stern warning. "If there is any magic that is capable of triumphing over any obstacle, it's love magic. And Chrysalis is a practitioner of love magic, in spite of her primary purpose in feeding from it. It's best we'd be careful."

"But for her to break past a barrier, it would require an immense amount of love magic to be absorbed." Celestia surmised.

When she said that, my mind flashed back to that very moment Applejack kicked over that cart. And as Nondis fell out from within, I could very well see the lifeless expression that settled over his face and the hazy film that coated his eyes. The truth had been obvious from the start. "...She fed on Nondis."

A moment of pause came and went as it sunk in for all of us. Luna, however, wouldn't let it stay that way for very long. "Wait for me. Do not be alarmed when the screaming suddenly ceases."

Luna quickly marched over and opened the door to Nondis' room. He continued to let out more screams as the moonlight princess entered into the room. She closed the door behind her, leaving us to only speculate. The cracks around the door started to glow, gradually getting brighter by the second. A high pitched whirring sound was then followed by a bright flash.

"YAAAAAAAAGH─"

At last, silence. But that bit of silence was all it took to unnerve the rest of us. It was as if his voice was just simply snuffed out. To say that it was jarring would be an understatement.

"...Did anypony else felt a chill down their spine?" Rarity questioned.

The rest of us merely looked at one another and remained silent as we waited for Luna to finish with Nondis' treatment. Luna then walked out of the room and whispered to us as she glanced back to the sleeping human.

"It's going to be a long night. I should be done by two in the morning. I'll extract everything I need and give you a head's up on what I find out."

Let's hope we find out exactly what happened.

***Point of Perspective: Nondis***

I felt my consciousness fade in and out for a few seconds before I saw everything around me come into focus. To my misfortune, I was not where I was last placed. Instead, I found myself locked away in the same tower we rescued cheese from. All around my legs were these heavy chains that coiled around me as if I was standing in a pit of boa constrictors. My arms were chained to the ceiling as I watched the doors open before me. They opened to reveal a familiar face, her emerald-colored eyes gazed upon me greedily as she smiled and strutted towards me. I responded by trying to yank my arms free and pulling myself out of my bonds.

Strangely, I was somehow aware that this was a dream, yet I couldn't force my will upon it. Even the space around me distorted as I tried to free myself. But much like my chances of saving Counter Bell, I couldn't break myself out of here. The changeling queen flicked her wings as she stood motionless before me. For a second, we only stared at each other, just before she jumped up and hovered to meet with me face-to-face.

"Well aren't you as fiery as ever?" She cooed seductively.

"You again?" I answered, feeling very annoyed.

She covered my mouth as she slithered against me and whispered into my ear. "Now now, I can't have you screaming this early in the morning. There are others who are sleeping. It would be rude to disturb them. So a simple mind-entry would suffice for now."

Mind entry!? She's in my fucking head now!? "What do you want from me!?"

"Oh nothing much. But while we're here, I'd like you to look at a beautiful little creature we came across not so long ago." She said as she pointed towards the door, her horn glowing a sickly bright green. The doorway then turned into a weird deformed archway covered in changeling goo. And in place of it's doors was a window showing the face of the zebra she once presented herself to be.

"ZECORA!" I shouted loudly, trying to call out to her.

Eventually I realized that I wasn't going to get through to her as I watched a pair of hole-infested hooves wander up and down her body, touching her in the most intimate of places. Her face grew angry and red with embarrassment while the changeling queen continued to molest her. Eventually, Zecora screamed loudly as she was forced into climax. Shortly after her ascent, she was slammed into the ground face down, her tail being violently pulled towards Chrysalis. The forelegs then pinned themselves just less than an inch from zebra's upper half, the view closing in on the leaf-covered mane of the zebra. From there, it faded into nothingness.

"A little sneak peek into my memories, this gift... I give to you."

I don't think I've ever felt myself become so angry of what I saw. I lunged at the insect queen and barked at her. "WHAT DID YOU DO!? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING TO HER!?"

She simply laughed as she taunted me. "Such language, so much vulgarity, the stains on your lips are so vile and disgusting. I'm surprised I haven't tasted it earlier."

"ZECORA, NOW!" You fucking bitch, if there was a Caramel beating on your ass, I'd pay to watch.

"Oh no... I can't let that happen just yet. You'll have to wait to see her when your body becomes active again."

A low growl was birthed from the hatred I felt at the moment. "I want you and all who serves you to die." I said, shaking with rage.

"Killing me would not bring Zecora back. It would only seal her fate. But you can still save her." She said, trying to sound as coy and seductive as ever.

"Cut the bullshit! You probably already killed her."

"No, but should she remain in my custody for more than twenty-four hours, she might find that holding on would become quite a chore. And I wouldn't blame her if she were to close her eyes and embrace a much needed rest. Why I can imagine the somber look she'd wear in knowing that all has come to her miserable demise. But that's only after my changelings finish feeding from her. I even have quite a few who took it upon themselves to help quench her heat. I was even so gracious as to lend her a helping hoof to start."

All of my hate, you deserve every fucking last drop of it. If I could drop nukes, I'd purge every last one of you changelings from existence. I would love to see each and every one of you scream and squeal from the burns as your loved ones' shadows are permanently seared into the ground. "You are FUCKING Satanic!"

The bug queen seemed surprised at my insult and pursed her lips, seeming impressed. "Well that's a new one. I'll keep that one noted for all the names I was called in all of my years of life."

"Where is she?" I hissed.

"I can tell you where she will be. But only for a promise..." She said as she summoned a small black box from seemingly nowhere. It was full of puzzle pieces of various sizes and colors. She immediately began to rummage through every piece.

"I can't make promises with backstabbers, and for good reason." Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...

"Then I'll take it that you'd leave the zebra to die?" She asked as she removed one small gray piece and waved it around for a bit.

"How do I know you're not lying?"

She continued to run her hooves through the small black box as she pulled out a few other pieces. "You see, Luna isn't the only one to jump from mind to mind. I do it to subjugate my victims and slowly bend them to my will. Of course, I won't have to do it so much with you. You'll decide her fate for yourself. And I'd say that you'd be ready to make your way out in... about twelve hours, from what I'm grabbing from your brain."

While my eyes were staring at that black box, she started to pull out a lavender piece with a indigo stripe on it. I took notice of several other pieces surrounding it, resembling the colors of each of the girls. That means the one she was going to pick up was... "STOP READING MY MIND, YOU SWISS-CHEESE COCKROACH-LOOKING BITCH!"

She stopped herself short of pulling it out of the box and instead slammed in onto the ground. Suddenly, I felt an extreme jolt of pain as she slowly lifted her hoof and began to press onto the box. At that point, it started to feel like something was trying to cave my skull in. I grimaced and groaned as the changeling queen made her point very clear. "Remember where we are. Remember that it is you who are still asleep, I'm just standing above you. I could end your life in one fell shock!"

When her hoof pulled off of the box, I felt my entire body collapse for a few seconds before regaining the strength to stand on my own. And I knew that I couldn't save anyone if I was dead myself. If anything, that would probably be very problematic, considering that my brothers would probably be hunting for blood. And knowing the others, they'd join in just for the satisfaction of seeing ends meet. I decided that I needed to calm down and rethink my approach. Perhaps I could work something out with this bitch. "...Tell me where she is. I'll do whatever it takes to keep her alive. Just stop hurting her. She didn't deserve any of this."

She grabbed the black box from the ground and toyed with the gray piece she dug out from earlier. As she toyed around with it, it started to glow green as she put it back inside. "Come to the outskirts of town by sunset. Come alone and come quietly. Should you inform any others of our deal, you would find that Zecora will make her way to you, but not in the way you'd wish it to be."

I wanted to break out of these chains so that I could strangle this insane bitch with my own two hands, but I wasn't going to find the strength considering that she's running the show. It only made me angrier to know that she had this much power over me. "There's a special place in Hell for you, and a napalm snuggy for you to wear."

She gently placed the box down to the floor, causing everything to shake a little before she walked out of the doorway. She turned around and smiled as her horn began to glow. Before she closed the door, she giggled while imitating Twilight's voice.

"...You will remember our promise, won't you?"

My eyes expanded as she slammed the door shut, causing everything to turn pitch black.

"Ah!"

I woke up in a panic. I felt my body to see if I was still chained up somehow or if I was latched to anything that resembled anything that would cause bondage. Thankfully, I was free of any physical presence that restricted body movement. My arms were a little heavy and my chest still felt like I was being sat on, but at least I knew that I was moving a little better than I was last night. My legs, however, were very much unresponsive. I suppose walking around is not an option available to me for the time being.

"Nondis, you're awake!"

I turned my head to see who was at the door, seeing none other than Twilight and her brother. Shining was somewhat relieved to see that I had woken up, while Twilight was all the more exuberant. Though I can't help but to feel like my head got pulled into a vice and squeezed like a melon. Any more of it and I'd swear that I was the final act of a Gallagher skit. "Yeah... I swear yesterday was a bad dream."

"I know. And I'm sorry." She said, seeming a bit sad.

"Ugh... don't be. My head hurts like shit." All I could do was wince for the time being. Even the light from the outside caused me a great deal of pain.

"Migraines?" Shining questioned.

Let's see, aching head, unrelenting throbbing, light beating the shit out of my senses, guess we have a winner. "Feels like one."

Shining kissed his teeth and marched to the door. As soon as it opened, Cadance was standing in the doorway. He sounded rather frustrated as he spoke. "...She was here."

"Dammit, already!?" Cadance shouted as Shining walked out of the room, leaving me and Twilight alone.

She wasn't too pleased with herself. "Again, I can't believe I let her get you... again."

"Twilight, I'm fine. I just need some time to get myself together." As I said that, I tried to get myself to sit up out of the bed. But when I started to apply some pressure to my arms, it felt like there were a millions ants crawling all over my arms, a few of them biting. Anything from my waist on down to my upper thighs were ten times worse. The word annoying would be the accurate word to properly describe how all of this feels to me.

"You shouldn't be so casual! Don't you understand what this means for you!? You're a target, she will be trying to claim you for─"

"She's the one who brought me here in the first place, and I respond by cutting down her lackeys. Of course I'd be her target." That's unlikely to change. For someone who gambled their weekly savings on a poker game and folded their hand when the dealer called 'all-in', I'd be trying to swipe some sort of consolation off of my potential gains too.

"...She wasn't supposed to be the one to tell you."

Okay... now I'm officially lost. "...What?"

Twilight paused for a moment as she sat next to the bed, grabbing my hand as she tried to explain herself. "Celestia wanted to ease you into it. She wanted you to know, but she didn't know how to bring it up. You were just so busy, and you kept bringing your friends from the other world so it was easy to get distracted."

"Hold on." So I'm just wandering around here like it's absolutely nothing wrong with my being here, and these fuckers happen to be the ones who dropped me off at your doorstep? But even with that being the case, YOU FAILED TO LET ME IN ON IT!? "You mean to tell me that you knew this from the start?"

"No! We didn't find out until after your first trip to the castle ruins. And even then..." She paused for a moment as she started to rub my arm. "I didn't want you to know. All of this, it's all my -responsibility. If you had known from the start, then maybe none of this would've happened."

"It was gonna happen regardless." Considering who the fuck we're dealing with, I'd call it completely unavoidable. "But what I'm angry about is that you knew and you wouldn't tell me."

"How was I supposed to tell you?" Twilight asked, seeming as if she was a breathing exercise away from a panic attack.

"Just sit me down, take me for ice cream or some shit, I don't know." I answered with sarcasm.

"I was scared. I didn't know what you would do!"

By the time she said that, I had instinctively removed my arm from the touch of her hoof. I understood that her response was a bit sudden and frantic, but it still registered strongly with me. "You didn't know what I would do?" I questioned incredulously. "You thought I was gonna just say 'Oops, I was brought here by changelings. Might as well jump fence. See you guys at the end of my sword or something.' And yet you..."

Twilight's panicked response didn't come without it's apology. "Nondis, I'm sorry."

"You know, for being the Princess of Friendship, you seem to have a lot of trust issues." I answered despondently.

Twilight backed away from me, seemingly offended. "How do I have trust issues!?"

"You withheld this information. If you would've said from the start 'I know how you got here' then I would've been all ears. But you took a chance in thinking that if I knew the truth, I would just shift sides on you or lose my mind somehow. I've already made my decision on who I served, but obviously you weren't convinced."

Twilight used her magic to yank my head around to face her directly. A livid glare sat in her eyes as she made her argument. "I honestly do place my trust in you! You think that I'd let you stay here without it!?"

By that point, I started to realize that this wasn't any fake show of conviction she was trying to impose. Rather, she was being completely serious with me. Instead of letting me believe in what my anger would've pressed me to believe, she shut me down and made me see that I was in the wrong for assuming that of her. She at least trusted me enough to take many of her firsts and become her greatest tribulation. Yeah, I think it's best that I'd apologize and explain myself. "Twilight... I can't help but to feel like everything's turned against me right now. I wanna say that I can be strong, but there are things that keep poking at me. And I want to be able to do something about it, but I know that my options are limited. I'm sorry that I seem so weak-minded right now."

"Look at me." She didn't take my apology with smiles, rather with a stern frown. "You have friends here. That's all you need."

And for some odd reason, the haunting thought of Chrysalis hiding under my bed like I'm trying to hide from the boogeyman was more overbearing than my desire to accept the comfort she offered. "...I'm afraid that friends aren't going to be able to help me with this one. I'll be hurting you more than anything."

Not long after our short debate, Shining and Cadance returned with both Celestia and Luna following them. The eldest princess was the first to break the freshening silence. "So he's awake?"

"Shining and Cadance has informed us that Chrysalis has frequented you." Luna said as she walked up to me with a intense stare, looking as if she was examining my appearance.

"I don't know. It just feels like a simple migraine to me."

She didn't seem convinced by my words and lit her horn with her magic. "Please hold still."

From previous experience, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to relax on the bed, almost as if I was going to let sleep take me. She softly hummed to herself as I heard Twilight break the question. "Do you see anything?"

"Just...a little...more." Luna said, seemingly straining an awful lot.

I guess wondering through someone else's mind can become a bit tiresome. Even stressful. Probably a bit painful. Very painful. It could feel like someone is using a champagne cork remover, slowly twisting and turning, churning away at the skull into the gray matter like it was waiting for something to spill out or go pop. And instead of that pop, you get what feels like a pencil being inserted into your brain, eraser-end first, just casually and haphazardly shoving everything around. Migraine has now become completely unbearable. "...AAAAAUGH!"

Luna quickly separated herself from me as she deactivated her spell. Both she and I were left panting, I was more writhing in agony over what had happened. I couldn't help but to clench my eyes shut and rock myself until the pain subsided. "What's wrong!?" Cadance questioned.

"This is her work alright. She's placed a block on his mind. I cannot delve too far in, my reason being obvious."

"That shit really hurt like hell." I confessed while still trying to rock away the pain.

"I know. And I'm sorry, but I can't go any further in helping you. To do so would cause you irreparable damage to your brain, and I won't do that to you." So not only does my head feel like I had an amateur lombotomist dig through it with a rusted fork covered in hot sauce, but I can't get anymore help from the main one who actually has the ability to alleviate my circumstances. Great, as if I didn't have enough problems to write a fifty-chapter book over. This sense of hopelessness while knowing that your primary pain reliever is going to be considered as ineffective, I wonder if this is how it feels like to have AIDS.

It didn't take them long to come to a consensus on how things were going to pan out... thankfully. "Okay then. We'll have to wait this one out. If she doesn't cast her spell on him any time soon, he'll probably be back to normal. Then we can focus on his security." Cadance stated as she turned to Shining.

"I agree." Concurred the blue-maned prince. "The main thing we should worry about now is the possibility of Chrysalis holding Zecora."

Okay, that sounds like a good idea, but with only one question clouding my mind. "...What's going on?"

"Zecora. I saw in your mind that you fell victim to a ruse by Chrysalis, who disguised herself as Zecora. Do you not recall?" Luna inquired.

"Who's Zecora?" I asked.

The whole room stared back at me as I remained somewhat flabbergasted from their incredulous response. I guess I must've missed something important. "Zecora... you don't remember her?" Twilight questioned. "You saw her just yesterday."

As far as what I remember from yesterday, I can remember that I was visited by someone who knew me. And in that first meeting, there were talks of my nightmares and something about fixes. Then there was my time on the apple farm and then I slowly made my way back to the lodge room, where I met up with the pony at approximately six in the evening. From there on, I was paralyzed and nearly taken in by Chrysalis. But as far as the face of the one who wronged me, I can't seem to get past this unusual grey blob plastered all over their face. The sound of their voice, I can't even remember what it sounded like. If only I knew who this 'Zecora' person was, that might help me out a bit. But the only thing that resonated with me was the shocked expressions worn on everyone's face.

"So... Am I gonna get an answer from this or no?"

Author's Note

To be continued...

Chapter LVII

***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

"Temporal lock?"

Applejack continued to scratch her head as she and the others looked back to Princess Luna with confusion and disbelief. I was mullion on the thought of him going through such a circumstance. I was also angry beyond reason at Chrysalis, who would go so far.

"Ah'm not so certain what's goin on with this... temple lock." Applejack reinforced.

"Temporal lock" Princess Luna corrected. "The temporal lobe is the portion of the brain that processes sensory input, obtaining a variety of signals that pertains to visual memory, language comprehension, as well as emotional association. When using spells that alternate one's brain pattern, they usually target this area in particular. And in the case of many changeling victims who continue to be manipulated, they become aggressive in their reasoning and may even resort to ultimatums. For those of the higher ranks, they can alter the memories and sever certain connections that would retain the memories of certain individuals. This is used as a long-term solution to permanently replace someone from their memory."

"That's terrifying to hear in detail." Fluttershy said quietly. "I can't imagine someone going through my head and removing the memories I have of one of my friends."

"To think that she'd go so far as to keep her intentions secret. What's she planning?" Shining questioned.

"Whatever it is, she must be doing everything she can to keep us out of it." Called out a voice that resembled Pinkie's. By the time I turned around, Rarity had already confronted her.

"Pinkie, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be resting?"

Rarity's not wrong. Just by appearance, she doesn't look like much of herself. Her mane was partially deflated, her hair wilder than usual. The bags under her eyes indicated a lack of sleep, and the way she walked indicated that she was still suffering from her abdominal cramps. Yet she was here speaking with the rest of us, even appearing angrier than the rest of us. "Resting? Not when my special somepony's been bumping funnies with a changeling and Non-non getting picked on by that ugly bug-queen. I don't think rest is what I'll be doing any time soon."

"Are you sure you feel okay?" Rainbow asked.

Pinkie tried to smile as she answered her. "What's a little ache and pain compared to hearing somepony you know screaming bloody martini throughout the halls? I say we find Zecora, to make sure that she's safe, and then show Chrysalis the way out."

"Now that Ah can agree to." Applejack said with an emphatic hoof slam.

"Hear-hear!" Rarity cosigned.

"I would feel awfully bad if we were to let something happen to her." Fluttershy added. "We need to make sure she's okay."

"If Zecora is with them, we'll take her back!" Rainbow announced passionately.

I guess that settles it. We're all in this together, united by the desire to protect our friends. We've known Zecora for years and have grown close to her as not just a mentor and doctor, but as one of our closest friends. She's helped us in times of need when we needed her guidance and have shown us the way when our time grew dark. We already have Nondis under our protection, we must do the same for Zecora.

A strong surge of magic flowed from the bottom of my hooves to the tip of my horn. Even the hairs on my head seemed to grow sensitive to the powerful wave washing over me. But it wasn't just me who felt it, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity all felt it, and we all felt it within one another. Our powers were amplified as we stood in place. The six of us knew what this meant.

"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, I would like for the two of you to remain here while we search for Zecora. The two of you will be the last line of defense between Nondis and Chrysalis. We need to keep them apart for the entire day, up until sometime tonight so that this lock-out spell wears off." I requested of the two elder princesses.

Celestia nodded with compliance. "We will keep an eye on him and notify you should his condition become worse or improves."

"Yeah! I wanna wring my hooves around that ugly bitch's neck once I see her!" Rainbow said rowdily, taking to the air. Unfortunately, her vulgarity was met with harsh criticism by Applejack.

"Rainbow, we're going after Zecora first. Remember what we're setting out for." Fluttershy corrected.

"Fine, whatever." Knowing her, she was just ready to go out there and fight until she dropped. There are times she can be overeager, but I wasn't seeing anything that would put us at risk. In fact, this level of aggression could be useful to have in many situations. "I'm fired up, and I wanna know if these stupid changelings have her. If they so much as lay a hoof on her, they are going to wish they were dead."

"I don't like what she did either, but I'm not going to express myself until I know that Zecora is fine." Fluttershy said, also taking to the air to join with the rainbow-maned pegasus.

"Is everypony ready?" Cadance questioned to the six of us.

The majority of us nodded with approval, while Rainbow was quick to stop herself and ask. "Hey, don't Nondis and his friends usually take longer to prepare for stuff like this?"

"Their preparation is vastly different from ours. We'll be taking only ourselves." I answered, knowing that we weren't going through any bins and boxes for any reason.

"Twilight, I'm counting on you." Celestia said, wishing us well.

Before we all started to set out, I walked over to my brother and spoke with him. "Shining, I need you to stay here. You're going to be the first thing Chrysalis sees when she decides to make an entrance."

"Twily─"

I know what he wanted to ask. I could already see the disappointment growing on his face as I spoke. "I know, you've been working really hard at mastering their weaponry. But I don't think the girls are quite prepared to see that just yet."

"Then let me─"

"Stay here. Please?" I begged quietly, not wanting him to leave Nondis alone.

"I don't like you going alone."

"I've got five others to tag along." I argued, looking back to the others who waited for me to join them.

It took him a moment before he finally took a deep breath, rolled his eyes, and accepted defeat. "Be careful out there, kiddo." He said, giving me a hug, followed by a quick noogie.

"Hey, you just make sure I don't come back having to save your rump for a fourth time." I said as I tapped my hoof against his nose.

"Tirek doesn't count." He answered with a scrunch.

No matter how many times he'll never admit it, it still counts. But I was always willing to let that one slide. "Fine, a third."

Cadance walked beside him and magically held him by his ear. "Don't worry Twilight, I've got him on a short leash."

I gave Cadance one final hug before I too my leave, the two of us exchanging words as we embraced. "You stay safe."

"I should be saying that to you, miss Element of Magic. Now go on, leave the boring things to us."

Our embrace was severed as I joined with my friends. The six of us looked to each other and confirmed that we were all set to go. While we were walking away, I could hear Cadance and Shining going back and forth behind me.

"When Chrysalis shows, I'll be sure to show her a surprise worth her time."

"You're keeping your grubby hooves off that stuff, mister. No human weaponry practice for you."

"Aww... Cadie─"

"NO!"

"...Dammit."

A few moments later, we managed to traverse into the hollow shading of the Everfree Forest boarder. The six of us, who were lively and loud on the way here, were silent as we took into consideration that we were essentially stepping into enemy territory. Even though we weren't even fifty yards in, we still had to keep our voices low to accommodate our stealthy approach. Our conversation was significantly softer, our eyes and ears all the more attentive. Rainbow continued to fly, though she lowered her elevation to about a mere six feet above us. As she gazed ahead, she looked back to Pinkie, who was still wincing as she walked.

"I don't suppose we should be cautious of any lingering spore clouds, should we?" The rainbow-maned pony questioned.

"No, I'm sure that the stuff Pinkie came across has settled down by now." Rarity answered back, though cautiously placing her hoof over her muzzle for good measure.

"But shouldn't we be on the lookout should they use it as some sort of weapon?" Fluttershy suggested, causing us to pause for a quick moment.

"You know, you have a point." I said as I began to mull over the possibilities of them using it as a weapon. Even though it would take them a long time to accumulate the volume of Drakeseed plants to produce the spores at such a level, I figured that it would be best to be prepared in the event of there being such an outburst. I lit my horn with my magic, closing my eyes as I started to cast myself a spell that would protect me and all of my friends. A bright light flashed from just above my eyes as a magenta dome covered the area surrounding me and my friends. The magic continued to glow from within my horn, giving live to the orb we were shielded within.

"A bubble of silence?" Rainbow questioned.

"Also reinforced with a clear-air spell. That means as long as we stay in this bubble, we should be safe from any sudden spore attacks." I stated, proudly holding my head up high as a means to channel the spell directly above my position. As long as I moved, it would move with me, until there was any interruption that would cause me to release my spell.

Applejack lightly tapped the outer edge of the barrier with her hoof, trying to be careful as to not burst the bubble. "With this, we can creep up on those varmints possibly holdin' onto Zecora."

"Bingo." I confirmed.

"But where would they hide her? Don't tell me we gotta go all the way to the ruins to find her." Rarity said with worry.

"I think our best bet is to check back at her hut. If she's there, we should be able to quietly get her out of here." I suggested, allowing for Rarity to take the lead as I held the center of the formation.

"Can't hurt to look in the most sensible of places, after all." The fashionista said with a upbeat tone.

"I just hope that she's safe." Fluttershy reaffirmed.

Pinkie proceeded to voice her optimism. "Zecora's tough. She was just about to put away a changeling when I showed up just two days ago. No way she'd let them do anything to her."

"I sure hope you're right, Miss Pie." Rarity said as she marched forward.

I hope she's right as well. I don't see Zecora letting herself become a victim to something like a few changelings. "Very well then, to Zecora's hut we go."

As we marched on, Rainbow looked back to see if anything had moved behind us. As she double-checked to see if we were being followed, she turned her attention back to the group and traveled along with us. Meanwhile, a sleeping manticore sitting in a tree opened one of it's eyes to see the group of six ponies disappear into the verdant shadows beyond the path. It chuckled as it transformed into a female changeling with a short-cut mane. "So he sent them to find her? Figures that the creature would pull something like this to gain a preemptive advantage. Guess the queen was right about her having a use for us."

Pupa leapt from the branch and onto the ground. She turned around and made her way in the opposing direction, making her way into the town as she mumbled to herself.

"Too bad they're in for a surprise. Guess they'll have to take whatever we give them. On to the next phase, I guess."

Meanwhile, At the Castle...

Shining Armor paced back and forth from one side of the foyer to the other as he started to grow impatient. For the past hour, he was placed to guard the main entrance should Chrysalis make an appearance. As of the moment, he was only amused by just how many tiles he could count on the floor before getting bored. And his restriction on toying with the human weaponry was eating away at him on the inside. And he wasn't too much in a hurry to wear out the little battery he had left on the phone he was given. If anything, the red bar and blinking icon made him panic every time he'd turn it on. So he'd keep it off to make sure that it didn't die on him.

Fortunately for him, there was the welcome sight of one of his guards bursting through the front door, seeming as if he had some urgent news. "Your highness!"

Shining perked up and stood tall as the armor-clad stallion saluted him. "Yes, what is it?"

"Sir prince, a changeling has been sighted at the center of the town. It keeps preaching about how Equestria will fall to the changeling queen. He even foretold an invasion that would take place sometime noon tomorrow."

Though he was happy that his mundane shift was interrupted by some excitement, he wasn't too fond of the reason. The alabaster prince rubbed his chin as he thought aloud. "Warning us over a threat to Ponyville? That is a bit confusing."

"Your orders?" The guard questioned with a bow.

"Have them detained and sent to Canterlot for interrogation. We're not letting them get the better of us."

"You wish not to interrogate them personally?" The guard inquired.

Shining didn't want to simply tell his exact reason for being here. If this was to be an informant, then telling them so much information would prove to be a complete compromise of their security. He elected to remain silent on the matter. "No. If they are attacking tomorrow, then it's best that we'd shore our defenses now should they catch us by surprise at midnight. My post shall remain here at the castle."

"Your highness!" The guard cried with a final salute before taking off into town once more, leaving the prince back to his boredom. Fortunately for him, the encounter grabbed more than just his attention.

"Interesting choice." Cadance said from atop of the stairwell.

"He's not one of them. If that was Chrysalis, she'd be pressuring me for questions." Shining stated with confidence,

"About why you wouldn't personally investigate their reason for being here?" Cadance concluded.

"If they know why we're here, they'd try to pull something to allow them a chance to strike." Shining surmised. "You know how Chrysalis is a fiend for the spectacular. I'm not going to give her that chance."

Cadance giggled as she hopped over the railing and glided down to her husband, giving him a quick nuzzle for a job well done. "And you're not giving them that opening."

"Exactly."

The pink princess planted her lips against the stallion's briefly as she praised him. "Hmph! And these annoying senators say our military is completely inept from top to bottom."

"I gotta do whatever it takes to make our boys look good."

Cadance rolled her eyes at her husband as she realized that he was getting cocky again. "Including getting saved by your younger sister?"

"Who also happens to be a legacy-class magic user?" He argued.

"Still, your younger sister?" She answered, goading him on to simply admit his defeat. Shining realized that Cadance wouldn't ever let him live it down. Eventually the debate would go into how many times he was saved by her, and it would end just as quickly as it did earlier. He immediately conceded defeat.

"...Yeah, that's still pretty bad."

Back in the Everfree Forest...

After a few more minutes of trekking through the forest, we only managed to run into a few changelings. But for some odd reason, the ones we were running into were all plotting some sort of escape from somewhere. Upon capturing a few, we found out that they were being detained for some odd reason. As to the reason why, they didn't say. But they did manage to tell us something about how they wanted to escape the queen. Upon further investigation, we surmised that they were genuine in their desire to defect from the hive.

Just what in Equestria is going on with these changelings?

They tried to get me to grant them asylum, but I knew that Celestia would probably have them questioned on their loyalties first. And being that there were far too many ponies who didn't take too kindly to a changeling presence, I couldn't do much but point them in a different direction. I did, however, question them on Zecora's whereabouts.

Unfortunately, they were just as clueless as we were. But they did mention a small holding camp being located further down the road. Something about a feeding hut that their captors used to strengthen their forces. Much to the irony, Zecora's hut was further on down the road as well. I took it as mere coincidence, but Pinkie took it as a suggestion that we should hurry to the hut if we wanted to check on Zecora's whereabouts.

Eventually, we approached the hut that our friend called home. As we looked around the place, there were signs of broken vials, bottles, spilled liquids and fallen masks. A few crudely-made spears were lying next to the entrance, all of which seemed to be unused or not properly assembled. Now it's definitely obvious that this place was ransacked. I walked up to the door and whispered softly. "Zecora?"

At first, I pressed against the door to see if it was open, as many situations like this would normally leave doors unlocked or ajar. But as I peeked inside of one of the cracks in the rickety door, there was nothing but darkness filling the room. Not even the cauldron glowed from the otherworldly concoctions brewing in the center of the room, which mostly ended up being brighter than the flames that boiled it. I pressed my ear against the door, hoping to listen in and see if there was anyone inside. Silence. Finally, I knocked on the door, knowing that this would probably be the highest risk to our objective. Still, nothing showed.

"It doesn't appear that anypony's home, I'm afraid." I murmured with uncertainty.

"Yikes! This place looks like a mess." Rarity whispered as she kicked over a broken bottle.

Meanwhile, Pinkie walked around to a back portion of the hut and climbed to one of the windows that peered into the back area, covered by mostly shadow. "Pinkie, get down from there!" Applejack called out quietly, still trying to vouch for a bit of modesty. "It's rude to look inside of one's personal spaces!"

"Well she's feeling better." Rainbow joked as Pinkie jumped back down. She looked to Rainbow Dash with a wide-eyed stare, seemingly out of place for her.

"Girls, I think we might wanna break the door down." She said in a hurry, trotting to the best of her abilities.

"Why?" Fluttershy questioned.

"There's a changeling doing some really naughty things to Zecora." She plainly explained as she kicked her hoof into the ground, readying herself to charge in.

I was just short of breath as she said that, my magic spurring to life without me even thinking about it. I pointed my horn to the door as I let my newfound anger direct my magic into the wooden door. I'm sure that we have enough money in the Equestrian National Budget to cover the cost of one measly door. "Well this will only take a second..."

In a single blast, I bashed the door off it's hinges and charged inside, tackling who or whatever stood in my way. "Who goes ther-AUGH!"

After I shoved off the body that halted my progress, I let my magic illuminate the entire room, revealing a sizable gathering of changelings. Many of them hissed at me as I screamed to my friends behind me. "Three more to our left!"

Rainbow came swooping in from behind me to dive-kick one, she quickly spun around and punched the other two unconscious as she called out to the door. "Two on right!"

Rarity and Applejack came charging in, hopping on the two that barreled for me. Applejack gave one of the changelings a punch before she grabbed it's head with her hooves and slammed it into the ground. By that point, the changeling just jolted a bit from the shock, but remained disabled. Rarity was far less personal on her approach, she tripped the changeling as it tried to run past her. It ended up turning back to her with anger before bearing it's fangs. Her response was a well-timed magic blast to the face that immediately knocked it unconscious.

The one that crouched over Zecora continued to hiss at us until Pinkie ran in from outside, grabbing one of the spears from outside. Immediately, she threatened to run him through, causing the changeling to back away. But as the tip fell off, the changeling grew confident in his chances and charged for her. Pinkie simply responded by giving him a simple whack to the side of the head, sending him to the ground as he wiggled in immense pain.

Fluttershy walked into the door and turned to her right, quickly ducking cover as a final changeling simply flew over her and running into a nearby wall, causing a shelf filled with huge books to fall onto it's head. For a brief moment, it shook from the impact, but seemingly grew stiff as a board when it's body fell over. That seemed to be all of them.

Pinkie walked over to the one she hit in the head and raised herself onto her hind legs, stomping on his head. He stopped all movement as she called out to the rest of us. "Clear!"

I ran right past her, calling out to the accosted zebra. "Zecora, are you alright?"

I pulled on her, causing her to roll over and finally face me. She seemed shaken for the most part, but she was responsive. Her voice sounded immensely weakened as she spoke. "Ngh...sorry...that I've been...so weak. But...it is Nondis...now whom I seek. The queen...she seeks...to take him away. She aims...to complete her task...by the end of the day."

"Well that seems like a good idea." Rainbow said sarcastically.

I was simply relieved to see that she was alive, but I felt shame in knowing that they had done something to her. Even looking at her I could tell that they did whatever they wanted to her. And it showed in her face, she wasn't very open on anyone touching her, but she wasn't rejecting us either. There was a bit of confusion, hesitation, uncertainty that she had about her. Each time she looked at one of us, she'd promptly glance away while instinctively trying to cover herself. That much could be understood, given her condition.

Still... her response had me thinking of something else at the same time. She confirmed that Chrysalis was going for Nondis, and that she would try to have it done by sunset. But a changeling called us out to stop her, and there are more changelings somewhere in the forest trying to escape from her. For what purpose, I'm not certain, but I do know that they're against being detained by Chrysalis as opposed to being detained by us Equestrians. Even then, there's a bit of chaos going on with the changeling chain of command. Something's going down, something huge that we're not fully aware of. And right now, it's starting to show.

I just wish I had the time to crack it. But right now, our focus is on the zebra before me.

"Twilight... I know this is going to sound absolutely preposterous, but I couldn't help but to look at her mane."

Applejack stared back at the fashionista with a deadpan glance. "Rarity, we know, it's messy. Don'cha think we should be worried about her well-being over her mane?"

"No, she's onto something." Fluttershy said as she flew over to carefully investigate the mare's appearance. "The second black strip of her mane, it should have two slits as opposed to three."

I continued to look at the zebra's mane, realizing that their words rang true. Yet I didn't exactly see how it would prove to be something that would indicate a botched attempt of recreating Zecora's image. There had to be more evidence to support it. I looked at the rings on her neck and counted them... two too many. Still a trivial thing to look at, but Zecora was always one to explain that she was comfortable with the rings she wore, not too many where it would restrict movement of the neck or too few where she'd become so loose.

Pinkie was the one to point out the defining feature that indicated the realization of my worst fear. "And the spiral on her flank, it should be running clockwise. Also there should be eleven triangles surrounding it, not twelve."

They still got her. They got Zecora.

"No! This cannot be! I can assure you that I am me! Whatever─"

And the sudden change in her voice, where it seemed so fatigued had become far too lively for it to naturally fluctuate between tiresome stress and panic. I proceeded to piece it all together. "First, you appear to be abused by some random changeling, then you make it look convincing as you're hidden in a dark corner, concealing your flaws. Then to top it all off, you mimic her speaking patterns to sound as convincing as possible."

"But I─"

There were times in my life where I found myself losing control of my emotions, when my magic acted long before I had a chance to think about what I was doing, where it reacted out of instinct instead of rational thought. This was one of those times.

"ENOUGH!" I gritted my teeth as I flicked my head upwards, levitating the the faux zebra into the air. Somewhere inside of me, I wanted to see this creature suffer, and my body acted on that instinctive rage. I dropped my head, slamming the impostor's body side-first into the ground with all the force I could muster. The stripes that once covered it's body had disappeared, revealing the true form of the changeling. He squirmed painfully as I approached him. "Now you're going to tell me where Zecora is. I don't want any lies, no false leads, nothing. Now spill."

The changeling drone squirmed as he was in pain, but tried to laugh with his response. "I will not be intimidated by the likes of a fool. Though, our hive shall continue to give you our thanks for our release."

I raised his body and slammed it into the ground once more as my rage started to take over. "I'm not playing games with you."

Again, he responded with the usual snark. "Twenty-one questions seems appropriate. Maybe if you ask nicely, I could tell you where she is."

My magic whirred as I was just about to thoroughly have him acquainted with the floor, possibly intimate with it. But I found myself interrupted by a hoof politely tapping me in the horn. "Twilight, we're not getting anywhere with this one." Applejack said quietly, calmly nudging me out of the way as she looked down to the changeling. One side of his face was beginning to stain red from the small pool of blood he accumulated from his blow. He looked at me and spat at my hoof, a tooth flying into my foreleg.

I turned to the farm mare and politely dropped my aggression. "Applejack, do you mind?" Because I am about a second away from killing him myself. And taking any form of life was something that weighed heavily on my conscience. I'm more afraid that this would probably be the first instance of my taking a life without a second thought. At least with her, he'd still have a chance at living... not that it's something that he'd want.

"No, princess. Ah don't, not when one of our friends' life is on the line." She responded, causing the others to walk outside. Rainbow tsked as she shook her head. Fluttershy's ears fell as she walked out. Rarity cringed as she followed. Pinkie and I were the last to walk out as Applejack continued to stand over the changeling.

I looked to the ground and levitated the damaged door back into place, at least providing us with a barrier of sorts so that we wouldn't hear too much of what would happen in the next few minutes. "We'll be waiting outside, try not to be too harsh." I requested, knowing that the next few minutes would be filled with screams that would be most jarring.

"Given our precarious situation, Ah'd say that we're offered little choice. After all, what would poor little Apple Bloom think of me if Ah let Zecora go?" I understand that interrogation was a last-resort when it came to getting information from an unwilling captive, but Applejack wasn't as hesitant as I was. She was... unique. If there was something that interfered with her personal connections or her values, she wouldn't think on it as much as I would. She's very true to herself, and if she's angry about something... she was going to express it. If she didn't like what you were doing, then she'd be very adamant in her efforts to coerce you to do otherwise.

Much like Pinkamena, it was very rare for Jacqueline to show herself. "Don't waste too much time."

"Ah'll be quick." She said, her voice getting deeper as she waited for the door to close behind her. As the broken door was set into place, the farmpony continued to look down at the changeling with a lifeless expression. "Now, what am I to do with you?"

The changeling's eyes dilated as the mare spoke her sentence. He quickly stumbled to his hooves and tried to make for a nearby window, only for him to feel a pair of hooves pull at his wing. He turned back to see an orange hoof surge into his cheek. His head jerked back as he scampered up from his blow and try to get away from her. His effort would be futile as he felt a leg sweep him off of his hooves. He made an attempt to roll towards the door, only to be leapt over and bucked into a nearby wall. Panicking, he limped towards a nearby bed to hide under. His attempt of avoiding her ended with him being tripped from his left hind leg, pulled into the center of the floor and kicked in his chest. He screamed in pain as he tried to find some way to leave her.

"Come now, I don't like being too forceful. But since you've pushed me this far, and being that there's several vines I could use in place of my old rope, I'd think you might wanna come clean."

He squirmed a bit, trying to get back on his hooves. He was promptly denied that privilege when she gave him a swift kick to the face. He felt himself become numb for a second before he phased back to the present, finding that he was being petted like he was her dog. She looked down on him as he shook with fear. "No more... please." He begged.

"I'm sorry, Jackie doesn't do plea-bargaining. Would you still like to try a confession?" She asked as she flipped him over and planted her hoof on his chest, pressing down on his rib cage.

"Didn't...you...have an accent?" He strained as she proceeded to place all of her weight on her hoof.

"Sugarcube... violence is a language of the primitive and indignant mind. There is no such thing as a language barrier, as it is a universal concept understood by all creatures, sentient or otherwise. Therefore, it doesn't require an accent. So I don't need to translate anything to you as long as I speak a language that we can all agree on. Now you can play deaf however long you'd like, but I don't tend to be ignored for very long. Perhaps I need to increase my vocabulary, speak a little more eloquently, whatever it takes to get you to understand."

He tapped his hoof against the ground as she started to shift herself, planting her other hoof on his chest. He squirmed as he closed his eyes and whispered to himself. "Forgive me...my queen. I wish...to...live."

Applejack tilted her head as she continued to apply her weight on him. "Okay...Guess there's a B-side to this conversation after all."

Meanwhile, at the castle...

"And... sent."

Shining nervously stared at the screen of the phone as he watched his message go through to the intended recipient. His eyes roamed back and forth from the blinking battery icon to the main display. He perpetually looked between the both of them, hoping that the message was sent before the phone died.

As he watched the screen reflect the message's status, he felt himself become a bit uneasy of what was to come next.

"What are you doing?" His wife called out to him from the balcony above him.

"Nothing!" He answered, jumbling the phone before stabilizing his magic to where he could put the phone away. Cadance flew down to him and grabbed it before he could dismiss the device.

"I thought you were supposed to be looking out for intruders." Cadance chided, looking on the screen to find out what her husband was doing in his spare time.

"Well it's easy to look out for something that hasn't showed up yet." Shining rebutted as he took back the phone and placed it back into his saddle bag. She looked at the stallion with distrust, appearing stern as he smiled nervously.

His fortune would turn sweet as he became distracted by the sounds of hooves clopping from the staircase. He looked up to see Celestia making her way down from her post. Shining found relief from his wife's glare as he questioned her.

"Princess Celestia, has his condition improved?"

"It appears so. He's regained the full functionality and strength of his arms, though he complains that it still feels a bit uncomfortable in his legs. In his own words: 'It feels like a million ants crawling in my skin as I move. A bit annoying but I'll get through this... vulgarity.' Of course he said another word at the end, though I find myself sounding ridiculous when I say it."

Shining and Cadance looked to one another with bemusement as they tried to identify what it was that made Celestia act so awkwardly."Shit?" Cadance concluded.

"That one." The solar princesses confirmed, pointing back to the pink princess. Cadance chuckled as she teased the elder royal.

"Wow, Auntie Luna was right, you are shy of doing and saying bad things."

Celestia giggled as she accepted the younger royal's banter. "I remember a time where my frequent usage was often criticized..." Her laughter grew silent, and in place of her smile was a seemingly depressed frown. "...And my bring-it-on attitude ended up sealing the fate of many." She turned to the pink princess and spoke with a regal demeanor. "In due time, you too will see that such things are of significant consequence."

The younger princess shook her head, rejecting her words. "Auntie, c'mon. This is completely different from way back when. Auntie Luna even embraced the modern world and is just as carefree when she's outside of the public view."

Celestia looked to the top of the stairs, her eyes locked on the hall where Luna was stationed within. "And I'm proud of her for being just that. I want my sister to be free of the things that held me down throughout most of my life. And if I have to be the one to live the stressful existence to give her that, I will."

Cadance walked up to the elder princess, placing a hoof on her back. "I'm beginning to worry about you. Don't you feel that you deserve the same opportunities?"

"I do, but I have been acting for so long that the character I play has inevitably become the real me..." She paused for a moment to correct herself. "Forgive me for my misquote. Not the real me, but the me that others wish to see. I cannot allow myself to be seen as indulgent or careless in the face of our subjects." Celestia closed her eyes as she stood motionless. Thoughts of the past and her experiences made her stomach turn as she imagined everything that transpired in the wake of her failures. "They would perceive me to be weak."

The pink alicorn watched as Celestia proceeded to walk back up the stairs to rejoin her sister. She grew to pity the solar princess. "It's okay to indulge a little, even you told me that. You can live a life that's worthwhile for yourself, serving others as well as loving yourself enough to pursue your own brand of happiness. But to reject that and throwing the better number of your years to only serve others and maintaining an alias, it's unhealthy. That line of thinking doesn't allow for you to lead a happy life, you know."

Celestia stopped walking as she placed a hoof over her chest. After another short moment of reflection, she gave her response. "And I've accepted that. I am willing to limit my personal satisfaction for the sake of my citizens, even to a fault."

Just as the alabaster princess disappeared to the upper levels, Cadance scoffed angrily as she snarled to herself. "That fault is what got us royals in the doghouse for a thousand years."

Shining felt himself shrink a little as the phone buzzed back at him from within his bag, indicating that there was a response from one of his recipients. As he pulled out the phone and unlocked the screen, he gulped and closed his eyes.

"I just hope I won't be in the doghouse with Twily."

Later, in the Everfree Forest...

It took Applejack ten minutes to finish her questioning. She seemed rather upset over what she knew, even going so far as to taking it all out on the changeling she captured. And once she told us what they were doing with her, our hearts broke for Zecora. Many of us were on the verge of breaking down as soon as we realized that they were just doing whatever to her, even going so far as to passing her around the entire encampment. She didn't deserve anything like that.

But as far as a location, the changeling only hinted that their camp was located to the south, going towards the ruins.

So as we walked through the forest, we kept our eyes peeled for any changelings who could tell us the immediate location of Zecora. We ran into a few who decided that they wanted to taunt us over the fact. And those few were quickly silenced by Rainbow Dash, who didn't spare any options of killing them while she questioned them. In fact, she'd tell us to go elsewhere while she tried to It wasn't like we were strangers to death and unsightly demises, but we preferred not to bear witness to it unless when necessary.

Knowing Rainbow's line of work in the guard, she wasn't going to opt out any possibility of using intimidation to get what she wants out of a group.

Eventually after so many encounters, one changeling just outright told us that they were stationed at the ruins. As they made their confession, we dragged the changeling worker along for the trip, allowing them to become our ticket inside. Rarity herself volunteered to the idea of being taken captive by the changeling, who then would be trailed by us. And when they allowed for her to go inside, she would cast a flare spell to blind the changelings within, allowing us to slip inside and quickly take down whoever was standing guard. It was a well-formulated plan with the exception of one primary issue...

No changelings were stationed inside of the ruins. There weren't even any signs of activity that could conclude that they were here within the past twenty-four hours. Of course, the changeling worker laughed as she looked to Rainbow Dash, who was just three seconds away from putting her to rest. She spoke quietly. "Over twenty-thousand acres of forest, one hut, and a dilapidated castle. If you think we'd hide in plain sight, you're mistaken."

"She's not here, is she?" Rarity questioned angrily, walking up behind the changeling.

"Of course she is. She's in the highest room of the tallest tower. Or maybe in the darkest room of the deepest dungeon. Or..."

"Or what?" I asked, losing my patience.

She then transformed into the image of our friend, smirking as she mimicked her voice. "Or maybe she's been walking with you all along. No matter the choice you'll make, it will always be wrong."

Rarity let her magic surge to her horn as she channeled her magic in a high concentration. Eventually, a few sparks flew from her aura before she released a relatively thin beam of magic at the changeling. As the fake Zecora laughed, the bright blue beam burrowed into her back and out of her from her chest. The changeling worker finally stopped laughing as she hissed from the pain. She fell over, straining as she grew short of air. Gradually, she faded, but not in silence.

"Prismia s-sssave... the Queen." She whispered in Zecora's voice.

The changeling ceased all movement as Rarity stepped over her. "I've had enough of this. I'm ready to find Zecora, no matter the cost."

Fluttershy looked on quietly as she watched the changeling's corpse slowly revert back to it's original form. I felt even more frustrated as we were left with nothing more than another dead end.

"...We need to form three teams. Rarity, AJ, you take the lower halls. Rainbow, Fluttershy, you take the upper levels. Pinkie and I will be taking this level and the courtyard. Search every trace and every corner, trigger every trap door if you need to. Anything that looks like suspicious activity or that points to changelings being present, report back with your findings."

"Right!" The other five said in unison.

The other two groups quickly departed to their respective areas as Pinkie and I made our run towards the courtyard. Pinkie murmured as she ran. "Why are we taking the courtyard?"

"Because there's a lone-standing tower that looks over the entire area. If we can find anything inside of here, we need to check every nook and cranny. Zecora may not be here, but any evidence that points to changeling activity may lead back to her. Where else would they hide a camp full of changelings aside from the one place where there's room enough to contain them all."

"I'm beginning to thing this is a massive ruse." Pinkie stated.

"Well even then, that tower oversees all of the immediate area, as well as a few other places. I could cast a location spell while inside, causing me to quickly point out any location she could be kept at. If we're lucky, we could possibly find some changeling activity."

Pinkie groaned with uncertainty. "I hope it reveals something."

"Me too."

Nothing.

My efforts and spells have all come up to nothing. I couldn't find anything that could conclude there being a changeling presence within the previous twenty-four hours. And my spell practically covered the entire surrounding area.

Obviously, Pinkie's intuition was spot on when she said this felt like a ruse.

The only thing we found in the tower was a series of magical seals that seem to have lost their enchantment over the years. A few hoofprints, several prints that resembled human feet, an old tattered bed with aged blood splattered on it, and a huge chain depository. Originally, I thought the room was to be used to house some large bells that could be rung during the time of festivals. But once my eyes caught glance at an old wooden rack that had some moldy ropes affixed to a crank, I realized that the room was not a good place to be in.

We didn't find anything on the way back, nor did we get any other signs or clues that could've proven conclusive. So we made our way back into the main hall. As we arrived, the others eventually wandered back empty-hoofed.

"Anything on your end?" I asked.

Everyone dropped their heads as they all responded with various groans of disappointment, a single 'no' being sounded from Fluttershy.

Applejack threw her hat on the ground in a fit of frustration. "Consarn it! Ah just don't get it! We've searched everywhere they could've hid her!"

"I'm beginning to thing that all of this was probably nothing but a big fat joke." Fluttershy responded, sounding disheartened.

"I said the same thing earlier." Pinkie moaned.

"Well we can't give up now!" Rainbow Dash argued passionately. "We just gotta find some way to make sense of everything that happened so far."

"Rainbow Dash is right." I cosigned. "There's much more to this puzzle than what we're seeing. Zecora's not being here means that she's still in Chrysalis' custody."

Rarity sighed as she vocalized her thoughts. "The thing that doesn't seem to make any sense is the overall situation. While they're still planning on taking Nondis, I'm beginning to think that Zecora and Nondis are somehow in play with one another."

"That's a good way of seeing things, but we still don't know much at this point." Applejack argued.

"And that one changeling we bagged back at her hut was the main one that lead us here. And then the other one was pretty much confirming what the other one said." Rarity added as she looked back to the motionless changeling from earlier.

"And they lead us into a dead end. Oh, I can't help but to worry for Zecora." Fluttershy whimpered.

Everyone dipped their heads at her statement. My body shook a little as I realized that there was little we could do outside of being patient. Yet the longer we took, the longer Zecora had to suffer. I took a deep breath and made my feelings known. "Who isn't worried? I'm terrified. But knowing that Zecora's gone missing, and Nondis' memories of her were sealed off, then that means that there must be something that he knows."

"But we can't access that information if he can't remember who we're saving." Rainbow pointed out.

I know this is going to be a risk that I would honestly oppose, but it seems like we can't win this round. If anything, we should renew our focus on the main one who does happen to know of Zecora. Our only chance may end up being when he snaps out of his spell... THAT'S IT! "We should start heading back."

Everyone looked at me dumbfound as Rainbow tried to argue my idea. "What, but Zecora is still─"

"She won't be harmed too horribly if she's plays a part of Chrysalis' master plan. I say we go back to town and regroup our efforts. From there, we can assess where to look next─"

"Um, can we think about this fer as sec?" Applejack tapped her hoof on the ground impatiently, interrupting me before I could finish. "Hasn't it been a while since we've been looking around?"

"Yes, we've been looking all day." Rarity noted as she pointed to the opening in the ceiling, noting that the sky had begun to turn yellow.

Pinkie rubbed her chin as she spoke. "Huh... Shouldn't Nonnie's memories be unlocked anytime soon?"

"By close to the end of the day." I answered as the blueprint my idea began to unveil itself before the others.

Rarity grew a large smile as she ran over to the pink mare and shook her wildly. "Pinkie Pie, you're a genius!"

"I try to be." Pinkie answered with a shrug.

I rolled my eyes with amusement as Pinkie took the credit. Meanwhile I simply finished where I was interrupted. "If we go back and meet up with Nondis, then we should be able to get a better idea of what's going on. Nondis holds the missing piece to this puzzle, and if he gets his memories back, then we can get Zecora back together!"

"That makes plenty of sense, except that Chrysalis is after him, not Zecora." Applejack stated.

"But that's because she already has her." Fluttershy said in response to the farm mare.

Rainbow Dash quietly sat for a minute before she said anything. "...She's offering a trade."

A what now?

"A trade?" Rarity asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"Think about it, she'd probably trade Zecora to us for Nondis. And the lock-out spell doesn't wear off until later this evening. So if we offer to meet with her for Zecora, she'd demand Nondis in return." Fluttershy pieced together the final remnants of Rainbow's theory.

"So our best bet is to head back to the castle, wait for her to offer her terms and the place of the exchange, and then we can formulate a plan where we walk away with both." Pinkie summarized.

"And she'll walk away with chains!" Rainbow screamed enthusiastically.

Applejack picked her hat off of the ground as she turned to me with a blush. "Ah trust that's what you were gettin to before Ah cut yer idea short?"

"Maybe. Not gonna lie, the trade part threw me off."

"Oh, well a thousand pardons anyway." She said as she dusted her hat before placing it back on her head.

"Okay girls, let's head back." I suggested one final time, much to the accord of everypony. We all quickly galloped out the front door, into the sunset-coated forest of Everfree. As we were running, I realized just how little light we had left if we were to run back to town and come back around for a negotiation. By then, Celestia would've drowned out the sun's light as Luna raised the moon. Perhaps I could reason with her and barter for another hour of sun.

If Celestia would grant us a little more light, a little more time...

***Point of Perspective: Nondis

It's been a while since Luna last paid me a visit. Though I was rather annoyed with the frequency in which both Celestia and Luna entered and questioned me, I understood their reason for doing so. And I'm not wanting to face that thing again as long as I'm here. From what I was told by Cadance just earlier during the day, I was safest here. Something about the barrier that protected the castle from a multitude of changeling drones. Yet that leaves the question of why Celestia and Luna questioned me of my visitors so often.

I'm just not too keen on the situation that's evolving in front of me.

But what makes it worse is that there's this random Zicara, Zocera, Zecora, whoever the hell it is, gone missing. And they keep telling me that she's going to be okay for some odd reason, that she'll be rescued pretty soon by Twilight and the others. Meanwhile, I'm stuck here in questionnaire limbo.

You can only imagine just how freaked out Luna was when I told her that Cadance paid me a visit.

As far as any other questions they ask, it's primarily about how I'm feeling. Unfortunately, the migraines haven't lessened as of yet, my legs still feel like ants are crawling in my veins, and I'm still in this room. But on the good side of things, I'm able to walk again, freely moving from the bathroom to the bed with an occasional stumble, but I can manage to cut down on the oopsies if I take my time walking. My arms are just fine, my hips are free of the 'sleep' feeling. And everytime I close my eyes, I don't always see the face of my dead friend.

Progress in small amounts is still progress.

"Hey there!"

I turned around to the window and saw the purple princess flying outside my window. I got up and opened my window to allow for her to enter the room. "Twilight, what were you doing out there?"

"I wanted to check up on you. We just got back from looking for Zecora."

I guess there's some good news to be said if she's back by now. "Oh, that one lady. Did you find her?"

"No." She answered, folding her ears. I suppose by that gesture, she was desperate. "But do you remember anything yet?"

I would if I knew anything about her. Too bad I don't seem to recall, yet I'm beginning to feel like I should. "...Nothing about her. But I can remember everything else okay. I'm still in disbelief that I let myself get carted in like that."

Twilight used her hooves to grab my hand, clasping it closer to her. "It's okay. It was bound to happen sooner or later."

By then, I started to feel a bit odd. 'It was bound to happen sooner or later?' What kind of response was that? "What do you mean by that?" I asked, trying to pull my hand away.

"I mean, don't you want to remember anything about her?" She questioned desperately, not allowing me to pull my hand away.

"I... guess I do?" I responded, trying to pull my hand away from her. Instead, watching my hand being enveloped in a green glow.

"Then you'll have to promise me something." She said, her horn glowing the similar green light.

As soon as she said those words, I felt my entire world spin around for a bit, making me slightly nauseous. Then my head began to pulse vividly, causing me a surging pain that disabled me from doing much of anything. I could only cringe harshly as the pain disabled me from even screaming. I could only wheeze openly as I collapsed to the ground. I wriggled and writhed as if I was a snake exposed to a hot flame, my body contorting into various angles I didn't know were humanly possible. I was left trying to support my upper torso with just the back of my head. My back arching to a significant degree. The feeling of a dull tool being driven into my skull was the only thing I could feel as the purple alicorn stood over me.

"Oh no! Is it another migraine? I think I know a spell for it, hang on!"

I tossed and turned on the ground as the pain continued to dig into my brain. Her horn glowed once more, this time directing a beam of energy into my head as I continued to suffer from the pain. Eventually, the sharpened pain that almost drove me insane was alleviated rather quickly. My body stopped moving on it's own, allowing me to regain control as the beam continued to shine on me. I felt myself becoming closer and closer to being at ease, even to the point where I started to close my eyes.

"Somepony... help me... please..."

That voice... it sounded vaguely familiar. As my eyes remained closed, I could see a dark cloud storming throughout my vision. A lightning bolt flashed brightly, causing me to see several faces of a female zebra. She had blue eyes, wore a mohawk for her mane, she had her tail latched to left side of her flank, gold rings lying all around her as she weakly protested a changeling settling on top of her... violating her. The eyes that once glistened with life had become cold and hazy, a gray film diminishing the quality of sapphire her eyes displayed. She turned and looked to me with horror as a black, hole-infested hoof propped her head up to face me. A voice whispered out to her...

"Poor, poor Zecora."

I felt a surge of energy blast throughout my body, filling me with a rage that I never knew... or rather one I already had within. I squinted my eyelids shut, allowing for myself to see the memories of each face that was once blurred out throughout the months of my being here. The same face that greeted me everytime she made a potion. The same voice that would occasionally ride on me to visit her every so often. The big blue eyes that looked up to me, usually accompanied by a great big smile.

Zecora's smile... That smile no longer existed. And in it's place was the expression of one who was ready for it all to end.

I peeled myself off of the floor, turning to the purple alicorn, who's magic dissipated and her eyes flashed green while she looked at me. "There, are you feeling better?" She questioned, coyly with a innocent smile.

Now... I was no longer fooled as to who this was. She had a friend of mine, and I was going to do whatever it took to get her back. And if I have to burn down all of Everfree to find her, then so be it. I was NOT going to let another one die before my eyes, under my watch. I won't fucking take it! I am going to negotiate for her back, that or I will be seeing heads roll. Choice is hers to make now. I cracked my neck and balled my fist until the tendons popped right over the bone.

"...Okay, Chrysalis. What do you want?"

***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

Panting and gasping, the six of us made it back in enough time so that the sun didn't quite set on us. As we broke through the front doors of the castle, Shining and Cadance were the first two to greet us. My older brother being the first to embrace me, he ran for me and gave me a hug.

"Twily, you're back!" He shouted just before he separated, giving Cadance a chance to give me a hug as well.

"Any luck in finding her?" She questioned.

I shook my head in response. "No. But I feel that we should have some soon enough. And we've come to the conclusion that we really wouldn't need to wait until all of his memories come back. In speaking of which, how is he?"

"He's not quite fully recovered, but he is experiencing movement in his body. He does have a bit of trouble controlling his legs, but that's just him rushing things along rather than it being a huge problem. It seems that he's well on his way to a speedy physical recovery." Cadance answered.

"Well that's good to know. We really could use his help in turning the tide of this negotiation to our favor."

The two looked to one another and then back to me as they asked in a synchronized manner. "Negotiation?"

"Zecora might be a trading piece that Chrysalis is using to get us to cough up Nondis." I quickly explained.

Cadance became stunned at what I was hinting towards. "So you want to go along with the trade, giving Chrysalis Nondis for Zecora. But how will you compensate for the loss?"

"We won't have to. We're gonna come up with a way to come out with the both of them." I responded confidently, despite my still formulating a plan as to how that would work.

"Let's not be too hasty." Shining retorted, looking back to his wife. "Remember, this is the queen of the changelings we're talking about. Who's to say that she wouldn't offer a ruse in being able to keep both?"

Cadance agreed with her husband, knowing exactly how the changeling queen would play her game. "That's something to keep in mind. She wouldn't be so quick to give up her only piece if she knew she could get something potentially better while she's at it."

"Well as long as we hold her main prize, we can play that game too." Rarity said as she stood firm.

Applejack started to explain the plan. "We'll demand the real Zecora. And we'll offer─"

Before she could finish, a loud scream echoed throughout the halls from the upper levels. It sounded like it belonged to Princess Luna. "NONDIS!"

"That doesn't sound good." Shining mumbled as every one of us made a dash for the room he was stationed in. Running up the stairs, through the halls and making a left turn, we ran into the two other princesses who stood with mouths agape. The door to his room swung wide open as they stared at the image inside.

"Luna, what's wrong?"

"I was just coming from a conversation I was having with Celestia! And as I arrive here to check on him, he's..."

Pinkie wasted no time in running into the room and pointing out the obvious. "The window!"

All of us ran into the room, taking notice of the window left ajar, swinging slightly in the breeze. I poked my head outside of the window, noticing that there was nothing that indicated any possible escape. There wasn't even any sheets or impromptu ropes guiding down to the ground below. Not that it would matter because of the height would still prove to be harmful. Either way, there wasn't any evidence of his being below. "I don't see him anywhere!"

"Apparently, she's been here." Cadance said in a low voice.

"Are you sure?" Fluttershy inquired, prompting Cadance to point to the rug she was looking at located at the foot of the bed. As soon as she pointed it out, I used my magic to flip the rug. What we found was a ring of scorch marks, a sure sign of Chrysalis using her magic to send Nondis elsewhere. And in the center of the blackened ring was a piece of paper folded into thirds.

"A note?" Celestia asked as she started to read it aloud.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

How was your day? As you are reading this letter, you probably noticed that I have made myself scarce. As for the reason being, I cannot disclose. You know, classified: top-secret. But I have decided to make this letter one of a possible final farewell. I know that you would do anything to keep a hold of your friends, and that would also apply to me. But I won't let you that, not this time. I've got some important business to finish and I would rather you stay out of it. It's not that I don't want your help, but rather that I don't need it.

I hope that we'll meet again somehow. And I'm sorry that I won't get to fulfill my promise to you. But know that I will always have a place in my heart that only you can fill. I wish you the best on your future as well as the others on theirs. I am sorry for making you all sad, but it's time I accept responsibility for everything that has happened. I only ask, as a final request, that my family is to never know the reason why I am to never return here. My friends from my world, they are to be kept in the dark as well. If they are insistent in knowing, inform them that I was deployed to Rainbow Falls for the next four years.

I love every last one of you, and I want you all to be happy with the memories that I left behind. I am sorry that my absence disappoints you. But who knows, this letter might just be a precaution as opposed to a farewell. Gotta keep my bases covered, right? Either way, just know that I love each and every one of you, and that I thank you for everything that you've done for me in my time being here. But I'm not going to let Zecora suffer any more than what she's already been put through. In short, it will be either me or Zecora who will come back to you. And should she be the one who gets the winning ticket, I would expect you all to accept that and await for my return. And in the event of my not returning by later tonight, protocol has been presented and I'd wish it to be put in place.

Thank you all and, again, I love you. Live long and prosper.

Sincerely,

Nondis P. Haines

I couldn't help but to feel my heart push into my stomach as Celestia finished reading the letter. Something within me screamed for me to act, even my instincts pushed me to believe that this was going to end very poorly if we were to not intervene. My hooves, my entire body shivered, my heartbeat filled my ears, pulsing throughout my body as situation presented to me a white noise that drowned out mostly anything that was going on around me. Something felt like it compressed my diaphragm, leaving me to take in shorter and shorter breaths. I think something tried to shake me as all of this was going on, but I was more focused on the irrational fear that started to override my senses. I was going to lose him, for good.

"Twilight?" I heard a faint voice call out to me, pushing me back into the present. "Twilight!" I blinked several times, shaking myself out of the trance I was locked in. My chest became loose again, allowing me to breathe easier. I turned to the one who removed her hooves from my body. "Twilight, I know that you're in a bit of a panic right now. But you have to stay focused. What do you want to do?" Cadance asked me.

I didn't hesitate with my answer. "We have to find him, now." I said as I started to trot to the hall. "If we don't stop him from doing this, then who knows what will happen to him! We can't afford to lose either one of them, Zecora or Nondis! If we could find Nondis and talk some sense into him, maybe we can come up with a way we can walk away with both of them! I'm not losing either one of my friends, or worse... both!"

Shining galloped to stop me head on. "I have a plan." He stated as he blocked my way. "Twily, look... You're not getting anywhere with this taking-the-blame shit. If Chrysalis is going to play dirty, we need to be able to show her that we have a much better set to play. And in order to do that, we need to be willing to show her that we're not losing anything should she appear to have the upper hoof."

"I'm not giving him up! Now get out of my way, please!"

Shining took a moment to breathe before he placed his hooves on my shoulders, looking me in the eyes as he spoke to me in a low voice.

"Twily... do you trust your big brother to help you out this one time? I know that I haven't done much in contrast to what you've done and everything you've achieved, but I can help you. All you have to do is let me, and I'll get you anything you want. Just give me the okay, and it's done. C'mon kiddo, let me in on this one."

...You know, there are way too many times where I seem to get everything wrong. And today has been nothing but a reflection of that. Today was one of the days where I try to do something right, but end up finding myself several steps behind. It's like I try the best alternatives and methods, but I come out with the least-desired result. Every single time this happens, one of my friends seem to cover for me and make things right again.

Perhaps I need to allow for someone else to take the role of thinking. I'm overworking myself. I think it's better that I'd let myself take a following role in this situation. Shining, I trust you. Please help me, I don't know where to go right now. I'm just trying to think on my hooves, but I can't seem to formulate anything substantial. Whatever you have planned, I'll follow.

"Okay... what do you have cooked up?"

***Point of Perspective: Nondis***

I am dreading this whole experience. My day has been totally shit thus far. First I find myself in the midst of a very restless sleep fueled by Princess Luna's dreamscape battle royale, then my mind gets hijacked by Chrysalis. Next I wake up to a shit-ton of questioning, my legs not working, and finding myself unable to remember Zecora worth a damn. And finally after a good twelve hours, I'm get thrown into a burning ring of green fire and dropped off at my hotel room. And to top it all off, they left a letter on my door with a few of Zecora's leg bracelets telling me where to meet should I wish to see her saved.

I'm not very happy about this, nor do I have any desire to walk from my hotel room to the outskirts of town while my legs have yet to fully recover. I wasn't even given a chance to arm myself properly cause stupid-ol-me decided to leave my handguns in the castle back when Rainbow Dash got plastered. I kept telling myself that I should've left the son of a bitch under the mattress, but it's too late now. The best I could do in terms of arming myself was a decent-sized bowie knife.

Guess gutting a trout won't hold a candle to disemboweling a changeling, but I guess I'll have to set my conscious aside for that.

All throughout my travel, I had noticed that the sun remained perfectly still in the sky, despite the fact that it was long overdue to set beyond the horizon. I suppose Celestia had a hand in that. But to be honest, it was a bit jarring to see the sky not move or change from the twilight coloring scheme for over thirty minutes. But at least I was going to have a bit of light before this deal went down.

At last, I reached my destination. Standing just outside of town was a purple and white brick bridge that fed the path into the Everfree Forest. And just at the end of the descent was none other than the changeling queen herself, who sneered evilly. "Ah, so you've arrived?"

"Alone, and nobody knows where I went. Just how we agreed it to be." The only reason I didn't disagree was the fact that she was trying to sell the fact that Zecora wouldn't make it past the night if should she remain in changeling captivity. And judging from all of the visions she fed me today, I wasn't willing to take a wager on that. And bringing anyone else would only void the deal, pretty much sentencing Zecora to death. Not a loss I'd be willing to take after the one I got hit with yesterday.

The changeling queen proceeded to walk on the bridge, slowly approaching me as she spoke. "I never knew you humans could be so reckless."

She initially attempted to hover upward and make a grab for my chin, but I quickly brushed her hoof aside. "Don't flatter yourself, this is just for me to handle a personal matter. This is between you and me, just the two of us."

She bit her lip while quickly zipping behind me, whispering into the nape of my neck. "Well if that's what you want, then I guess I wouldn't mind obligating myself."

I responded by taking a speedy dip to get her away from my neck and turning myself to face her. "Again, I'm not here for you to play with. See I have this thing for digging to the bottom line. And I'm really all about my business. So let's cut the chase, get to the end of the dotted line. Where's Zecora?"

The queen chuckled as she simply imitated the zebra's voice. "Well if so short-timed you must be, then look no further. I am me!"

I started to feel myself become angry again as I reached for my knife. "See in my world, shit like that gets you shot and killed on spot. And that's just in my country, don't even let me get started on what they'll do to you in the Middle East."

The queen proceeded to show her disdain for my lack of humor. "Ugh! There's no having fun with you, is there?"

"Zebra, hand now, please?"

The changeling rolled her eyes as she started to circle around me. "Are you sure this is what you want?"

"You said that you would show me that she was alive if I came for you."

She withheld a response for a few seconds, but honed in on my ear as she spoke to me in a sexual tone. "But who's to say that my context of 'came' was exactly what you had in mind?"

I gritted my teeth as I pursed my lips, growing back at her in a low voice. "If you don't quit playing with me, I will shove my fist into your ugly, yeast infested cunt and rip out your ovaries. Then you can worry about whether or not I 'came' for you."

Seemingly put off by my rebuttal, she backed off and hovered back to her side of the bridge. "Are all you humans so violent?"

"Genocidal. We make executions a public spectacle. And unlike the petty stories ponies have, we had vicious dictators and blood-thirsty tyrants who have killed many in their wake. One such man had even vouched for the extermination of over six million lives, many of which his own citizens. But go on ahead, try me."

She wore an expression indicating that she was far from impressed or intimidated. She remained stoic through most of my rant. "Well you sure talk big."

I smiled back at her, giving her my best impression of innocence as I openly said these words. "You know, there's a bit of a dark secret that I haven't told anyone while I was stationed here, but I think I can tell you. Horse meat tends to be a bit on the sweet side. The older the buck, the darker the meat, the deeper the flavor."

She was far from stoic at that point. "ACK! No, that is utterly disgusting!"

I tapped my fingers on the handle of my knife as I spoke. "And I haven't eaten all day, so hurry up before I decide on what my next meal would be. Savvy?"

As she continued to display her level of disgust, she turned back to the wooded path. "Very well... Then feast your eyes on this. BRING HER IN!" She commanded loudly. "Pupa, show him the offering!"

As her words were sent into the green shades, a party of three changelings, including one with what appeared to be a short kelp-green mane, holding a dark storage pod. The three changelings then placed the pod on the ground, two of them backed away as the kelp-maned changeling used her magic to dissolve the barrier of the pod. As the grimy wall of gunk transformed into a green mush, the changeling then used her magic to lift the zebra from her containment and unceremoniously placed her at the foot of the bridge. The steady motions of her chest rising and falling, albeit rather slowly, gave me comfort.

I calmly stood in place as my fingers continued to tap against the hilt of my blade. "What all did you do to her?"

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow as she grew confused from my unenthusiastic response. "You know, I thought you would've had a stronger reaction than this."

Oh I'm absolutely livid, I just don't wanna pop off the handle and start carving you up like a Thanksgiving ham before I confirm on whether or not this is the real deal. Just let me confirm on whether or not this is real or false, and I may just simply go for the jugular. But as far as why I don't seem so intimidated...

Experience permits me to put up a calm front. "I've seen some shit, and your boy Guto was the one dishing it out. Though I'd have to apologize to the both of you, being that I'm responsible for the deaths of... um... let's see... twenty-six plus ninety-seven, carry the one... then the Canterlot train thing where I killed another twenty-three, then the forest thing was like another four... plus scouting missions... AH! One-hundred seventy-eight, all killed by my order."

The smaller changeling barred her teeth as she snarled at me. "You're bluffing."

"Oh yeah, we have your boy Guto too. So how about we talk this one over, Guto for Zecora. Sound's good?"

The changeling queen didn't seem to move at my suggestion. Instead, she grew bold as she chuckled in my face. "Guto? That traitor? You would sell me a traitor for something you call a friend?"

Honestly, I didn't expect her to throw the 'no fucks to give' card out there like that. Color me impressed. "Humankind cannot gain something without first giving something to return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. And if you're feeling greedy, we have another seventeen changelings lined up on the chopping block. They're not here right now, but I can arrange for you to pick them up in Canterlot sometime tomorrow."

Once again, she remained unmoved. "Again, traitors for one friend."

"Traitor or friend, a life is a life. I even gave you the sweeter deal by throwing in the ones we haven't executed yet."

The smaller one spoke as she brandished her fangs. "Then I suppose a dead Zecora is what you'll be getting."

Before I become intimidated by that threat, I need to find out exactly who they got sitting in front of me. "How do I know if that's the real Zecora?"

The zebra struggled to speak, causing her to be straight forward with her response as opposed to the usual rhyming I'm so used to hearing. "Ugh... you vomited...when you were...first introduced to the town...nine months ago. Spike and you...were never on good terms."

And that was the spontaneous answer not even a changeling could tell me outright. Before the smaller changeling could bark at her I stepped down and stood between her and Zecora. I balled my fist, ready to strike at whoever dared to get close. "Okay, you're the real deal. Now what do you want?"

The changeling queen gracefully glided towards me, yanking down my left shoulder as she whispered in my ear. "I. Want. You."

Figures. "Me? No 'I want a million dollars' or 'I want the passage to the royal treasure' or anything of the sort?"

Her breath started to tickle my ear as she continued to speak. "I want you to surrender your services to me. It's not like you have much of a choice." Her words slithered into my ear, causing my inner-ears to itch.

"Last I checked, I do. And my choice is that─" I saw something glow green to the side of me, and then... "I agree... wait, what?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite hear you properly. What was it you said?"

...Oh no. No. She's not capable of this. I'm not asleep, and this is MY brain. I am fully capable of maintaining my own individuality. "I said fuck that─I would be more than happy to comply with your demands. NO I WOULDN'T!" O-o-okay, maybe this is happening.

"Well, it seems that you're quite beside yourself on the issue. Maybe you need a little more time to go over it once more."

Okay, now I'm mad. She's not gonna get me this time. "Whatever you're doing, I want you─to accept me and allow me to serve you, my queen. I couldn't be─any more disgusted! STOP IT!"

I tried to shove her away, but my body wouldn't respond quick enough... rather it didn't respond at all. My arms were attached, so I wouldn't understand how they wouldn't be able to receive the signals I'm sending out. Or maybe... she's still in my head. sending out signals for me. Oh God no. "So you're finding out how this goes now?" She asked. She's reading my thoughts! "Well, I'm more than certain that you would be open to trading yourself for Zecora. And this time, your first answer will be the definitive one."

"I don't know what bowel of hell you crawled from, but I know who the fuck I'm not serving." I grasped control of what little I could, clenching my eyes and trying my best to tune her out.

"Is that so? Then say it. Who would you serve?"

"I─" I couldn't even finish as another one of those extremely painful migraines came running through my brain. Once more, I felt the sensation of something blunt shoving my brains around, swirling it like my mind was in a mixing bowl, beaten as if it was a batter made back in the stone age. I was rendered to my knees as I couldn't help but to scream from the pain. Even that wouldn't last long as the pain was so unbearable that I almost blacked out.

"Oh how cute, you're resisting me. I can honestly say it's a valiant feat that you could even see this one coming. If I wasn't any more pressed for time, I'd love to toy with you for a little longer. But for now... I want what's mine. Can you tell me what that is?"

I struggled, I staggered, I bashed at my head, trying to get the pain to stop until eventually... "Egh...agh...rrg...geh..." ...I lost. "...I am yours, my queen."

She smiled at me wickedly as she walked in front of me. "And what do you wish to do?"

"I wish to serve you, then I want to press you down so that I may make love to you." Now that's─rather inciting. Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho... no, not that. Please not that.

"You would give your love to me?"

"Yes, my queen." Oh God, please don't do this.

"And who else would you love?"

"I would love no one else─GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" There we go! Fighting back! I can't even begin to describe this experience. It's like I'm watching myself being taken over by a brain-altering parasite. Let's be honest, that's exactly what's going on right now. I stood to my feet, watching as the changeling queen walked back over to the path leading into the forest, standing beside her underlings.

She gave me a victorious smirk and lightly chuckled. "See, you're starting to realize just how futile your attempts to defy me really are. We were meant to be, you and I. Surely this is obvious to you now."

"I see just how much more powerful you are to─Mmmph phmm phmmph!" I did not command my hand to muffle my mouth, she did. And much like earlier...

"Speak."

My body obeyed her every demand. "I really am in awe of you, your highness."

"Bow."

I knelt before her, prostrating myself before the fetching length of her forelegs. My lips quivered as I slightly raised my head to see her present one before me. Greedily I lunged at it and licked my lips as I─AW HELL NAH! "Stop...fucking with me..." I strained... still straining.

"I am going to enjoy having you around to serve me. It will only be a matter of time before my magic completely encases you, though you will still be conscious enough to watch as you obey my every whim. Now rise." My body only allowed me to remain on my knees, definitely in ground-based reaching distance of the changeling queen.

Though my thoughts struggle to remain consistent, my memories are the one thing that will never change. Whatever I see before me is exactly as it is and not as what she wants it to be. And somewhere deep in my subconscious, I will still remain who I am, even if I was to no longer be myself in a conscious state. At least, I hope this will be the case, unless she's still toying with me.

"S-stop... Stop it..." Suddenly, a voice came from behind me, at first speaking softly, but growing into a scream. "STOP THIS, CHRYSALIS!"

"I have no time for your rhymes, Zecora. I've a new toy to play with." Oh this was so unnervingly disgusting on so many levels. "Present your tongue."

I pressured myself to clench my jaw shut, but she ignited her magic once more. Her grip in my mind caused me to become at war over my facial functions. Gradually, my jaw cracked open, my tongue slowly pressing past my teeth. I couldn't stop myself from obeying her. Zecora continued to show her disapproval. "YOU ARE DISGRACEFUL!"

I tilted my eyes towards her for one brief second before they were forcefully driven to the changeling monarch before me. "Your concern is no longer her. She will be free from her shackles soon enough, while you will experience the bondage of yours."

"Get away from me─my queen."

I've never been in a situation where I've been so terrified. I know what's going on and it's playing out like I'm in some demented dream. And my worst fear is that I can't wake up. I'm stuck like this, taking the disadvantageous pose of a hungry canine begging before their master. My tongue hung freely from my mouth, my body started to feel an unusual flame that caused me to look at her with a lustful desire. My muscles loosened and the resistance within my body melted away like my cares for the zebra behind me. The queen clasped my chin in her hooves, holding me with a tender touch I haven't felt in so long. This moment made it obvious just how starved I was to experience the warmth of the opposite sex. God, I wanted her.

"You will try to disobey me at first, spitting on me and calling me out of my name. I will find myself becoming enraged as your spit rolls down my face, but I will force you to comply. I may retaliate when you have your little outbursts, but I am only looking forward to seeing just how disgusted you would be with me. In due time you will learn to willingly serve me, giving me whatever I ask for. You will answer when I call. You will obey when I order you to. You will abandon all of this and embrace your new reality. I will take from you until you have dried and crumbled, and then I will take from you again. You will remain my property, you are under my total control. And your first objective will be to please me in any way I see fit."

I would willing sacrifice all of my being just to experience one moment of her manifesto. My loins ached for her, I wanted her. I wanted to show her how much a human could send her to heights unparalleled. I owe this to her, and more. "...Yes, your highness."

"Good. Now show me your love, human."

Yes, your majesty─

"NONDIS!"

Ugh... You know, being interrupted in the heat of the moment seems to be a reoccurring theme that happens to me as of late. Turning my head to the direction where the voice came from, I could see a purple pony standing on the other side of the stream. My frustration became manifest as I rose to my feet, turning towards the purple princess who previously kept me captive. Upon seeing me, she and her friends came running to the bridge. My beloved queen leapt high into the air before casting a powerful blast of magic upon the bridge's roadbed, impeding the party's progress. The looked up to her as the queen spoke.

"Oh, I see that you came to wish us a happy honeymoon." She stated proudly.

The purple princess squinted angrily at her majesty above, enticing me to do the same to her. The pink princess who accompanied her tapped her and pointed towards me, causing them to gasp. The purple alicorn violently shouted to the queen. "Let him go!"

I scoffed at the naive princess' request, turning to the immobilized body of the zebra. She looked to me as I picked her up from the ground, toting her towards her fellow compatriots. My queen gave them an adequate response. "I'm afraid that I cannot. He let me take him in place of Zecora. But you may feel free to do with her what you will."

As I placed the zebra on the other side of the bridge, I didn't bother speaking to the ponies who continuously called out my name. As far as I was concerned, each of them were an enemy to me. And of course, I don't intend on conversing with those who oppose my superior. Quickly, I removed myself from their side and walked towards mine. The alabaster pony with indigo curls ran to the disabled Zecora, checking with her. "Zecora! Oh goodness gracious! What did they do to you, you poor thing!?"

Next, I felt a presence grasp at my left leg, preventing me from moving any further. I turned back around to see the purple princess staring at me with sadness in her eyes. She promptly turned away from me and towards the queen above. "You've crossed the line."

"Eighty-seven." My queen mumbled to herself.

"You've gone past the point of my being able to forgive you!"

"Twenty-five."

"How dare you take from me what is mine!"

"One-hundred ninety-six."

"And I─Okay, what are you doing?" The purple princess asked, appearing a bit rustled.

My queen laughed lightly as she answered the pony princess. "Oh no, don't mind me. I'm just counting certain little phrases I've heard barked at me in all my years. But please, do continue."

Next, the pink princess stood by her sister-in-law, calling out to her majesty. "You're in for a rude awakening, Chrysalis."

"Ugh!" Queen Chrysalis wailed with disgust, lowering her altitude to where she was standing next to me. With a simple flicker of her horn, she dispelled the magenta grip that locked me into place. "I swear that's all I hear nowadays! 'You're in for a rude awakening' they say. 'There will be consequences' they say. What's the consequence? What's the supposed rude awakening? It's like there's very little creativity going into the art of calling out insults nowadays."

Apparently, the young princess didn't take to kindly to her spell being broken before her eyes. "I will make you... you..."

"Go on, say it." My queen encouraged.

"YOU WILL SUFFER FOR HURTING MY FRIENDS!" She screamed to the top of her lungs, producing an echo.

Pupa laughed happily as she walked onto the bridge, mocking the princess over her impassioned outburst. "Oh yes! That emotional response, the vocal fluctuations, the heavy breathing, I love it! It's like you have some sort of relationship with this creature."

The purple one folded her ears as the pink princess beside her tried her best to comfort her. The naive royal then responded, denying Pupa's allegations. "...I don't."

But it was far too late for her to correct herself. My queen took notice of her response and was more than interested in teasing her for it. "If you say so." She then turned back to me and politely tapped on my leg. "Dearest pet, would you kneel for your queen?"

Once again, I placed myself upon my knees, allowing for the queen to reach me. "Your highness, is there anything more you require of me?"

She passionately clasped her hooves to my cheeks, cooing as she glanced back to the purple alicorn. "Present tongue."

At once, I opened my mouth to present myself. She followed my gesture with an indecent display of greed, slipping her tongue into my mouth, clenching my lips with hers. The incredible burning sensation I felt just earlier returned in greater force. A stiffness swelled in my crotch as she leaned in against me, nearly taking me down to the ground. Half-lidded, I looked to her with a longing to feed her my desires. Though I couldn't help but to feel dismayed that her attention was very much stuck to the purple alicorn, who charged her horn with powerful magic.

"NO, DON'T!" The pink one shouted as she tapped against the younger one's horn. "You'll hit Nondis too."

Our lips would occasionally separate, but not without experiencing a fierce reunion. Her tongue lashed mine with a dreadful desire to prove her dominance. As I became more engrossed by her ministrations, I too wished to invest my passion into her. With a sudden grab, I pushed back up, balancing myself and pressing against her. Taken aback, she lost her balance and fell on her back, my arms pinned her down on either side. Her eyes widened as I became her primary focus.

Deeply, my tongue pierced past her defenses and brushed against the back of her soft palate. I broke away for air, and crashed into her for a brief lick. The queen, thoroughly surprised by my advances remained grounded for some time before she rose back to her hooves. She seemed impressed by my display, even turning back to the purple alicorn with a shocked expression that screamed with jealousy. Her emerald glow turned my head to her one last time, granting her a few more pecks before I was reduced to a slobbering cur. Her lips glistened with the gifts I left her. I proceeded to show my admiration of her. "Thank you so much my dear queen, your lips are ever the sweeter than any I have ever tasted."

The two of us turned back to the young princess, who stared back at us with a bitter grimace. Her face was torn asunder with tears and blinding rage, yet it was the pink sibling who screamed in her place. "You. Bitch!"

My queen wiped herself as she spoke. "Aww, I was hoping that the naive, little princess would be the one to call me out. Either way, my newest pet should give you a response based upon the most colorful gesture his species could ever conceive."

In a vulgar display of non-verbal communication, I resolved to simply lifting my right hand and leaving all but one finger buried into the palm of my hand. As Chrysalis continued to laugh at the purple pony, the young princess finally started to break. She tried to run up to me, but was quickly blocked off by Pupa, who transformed into a mirror image of the princess herself. She pleaded to my queen loudly. "LET HIM GO! WHATEVER YOU WANT, I'LL GIVE IT TO YOU! JUST LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

I can only express my astonishment of her. With everything in her being, she's crying out to the queen that I'd be spared and that she'd be taken in my place. To know that she would be so careless, so determined... So stupid.

"...Twilight...s-s-stop..." Can't... let... her... make... stupid choice...

"That's not the proper response, pet!" She responded as her horn glowed green once more.

Aw shit, not again... "Forgive me for my outbursts. You may punish me as you see fit, your highness."

When the queen finished her brief verbal chastisement, a white stallion with a blue mane and black saddlebags trotted forward to stand beside his seemingly heartbroken sister. "Thank Faust." He said with a sigh of relief. Stroking his sister's mane, he turned back his wife. "He's still in there somewhere."

Cadance looked behind her, turning around to face yet another alicorn, this one being a dark shade of blue with a starry mane. "Princess Luna, one's body responds to a series of electrical signals sent from the brain, correct?"

"Yes, that is true." The night princess confirmed, prompting a response from Pupa.

"Of course. What of it? It's not like you can cast any traditional zap spell on him. To alter the mind's neurotic responses and render the body immobile, you would have to administer a constant stream of electricity through his entire body. And the only spell you could cast that would come close to doing that would only prove fatal to him. JUST FACE IT, HE'S MINE NOW!" The queen turned back to the young changeling with a fiery glare. Pupa immediately realized her mistake and corrected herself. "I mean... that is what our queen would like to say. I'm just merely projecting."

A cautious stare was given to Pupa, who backed off a few steps. The other two changelings behind us snickered and sneered as the queen turned back to the princess of love. "What she said."

The blue-maned stallion looked to his bag, magically lifting the flap to grab something from inside. He groaned as he looked to me with a unwavering expression. "...Nondis, this is going to hurt a bit."

"What's going to hur─AAAAAAAAAHHH!"

One would expect a serious amount of pain to come from being on the receiving end of what could amount to a total of fifty thousand watts being placed in your body, followed by a few surges of ten-thousand watt pulses. Of course it goes without saying that my body haplessly collapsed to the ground, my limbs locking in place as the electricity overrode any signals being transmitted through my brain. The only thing I could feel was pain.

But the one thing I didn't expect was Chrysalis to grab her head as her horn sparked a little. "GAH! What was that!?"

Shining then pointed behind me, showing the bug queen a black device with a yellow boarder just at the end of the muzzle. "Human Weaponry 101: Taser gun. Sends a current of electricity through the body, and at non-lethal amounts. Great for disabling your adversaries from a distance. Me opening my bag was merely a distraction to teleport the weapon to his back. Though it was a little hard to ensure that I avoided the spine, that would've been ugly."

Well that was a risk I wasn't too fond of... but I got my body back. My body belongs to me again! "Ahhh! Thank you!...Hurts like hell...but thanks!"

Chrysalis shook off the brief surge of pain and snarled at me as I started to recover. "A minor setback in your programming, but I can fix that!"

Just as I was sure about having my body back, I ended up having yet another one of those incredibly painful headaches. Thankfully, Shining knew what was up. "My queen─AAAAGHAAA!!!"

Not-so thankfully, I was still at the mercy of a taser being embedded in my back. Though I suppose the ends justify the means, as Chrysalis once again experienced the pain from earlier. She grabbed at her head with one hoof as she tried to swipe at Shining with the other. "AH! STOP IT! STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!"

Shining backed away from her, smiling as he sent one more jolt through my body, zapping her in turn. Cadance stood by her husband, ready to him from anything else Chrysalis was willing to throw at him. "See the problem with tampering with mind magic, Chrysalis? If you were to use mental spells against your victim, you would have to keep in mind the risks of having said bond impeded upon. Being that it requires a serious amount of telepathy being used and mental concentration involved, there's a toll that comes along with it. If the proxy itself was to become corrupted by a signal interference, then the user would also be affected just as easily."

"A pretty...technical explanation of it!...But yeah!" Shining cosigned before teleporting to my side and using his magic to help me stand up. "Had fun?"

My hands were still shaking as I reached at my back and forcefully pulled the two prongs out of my body. "You tell me."

"Look like you were dancing a bit there." Shining joked. "Jumping for joy, eh?"

"Ecstatic. The thrill of getting my body back was positively electric." I answered, starting to walk on my own.

Of course, the only one who wasn't so thrilled in seeing me walk on my own free will was the changeling queen, who raged to the point where she blasted a large beam of magic into the air. "THAT'S IT! I HAD ENOUGH!"

The queen panted and wheezed as she shook violently. We didn't pay her any mind as we were walking away. But as we approached, Cadance's eyes grew wide as she pointed behind us. When we turned back around to see what caught her attention, we were almost mortifed at the sight of a large changeling army standing just behind their enraged monarch. I estimated them to be around three hundred strong, which was definitely a number that dwarfed ours. "Oh great, she brought the whole crew." Shining groaned.

Pupa flew up to her ruler's side, looking towards me as she questioned her. "Your majesty, shall I go after him!?"

"WHAT ARE YOU ASKING ME FOR!? JUST DO IT!"

With a snap of her wings, the changeling barreled directly for me. I ducked down in enough time to where she couldn't grab me. As she missed her intended target, she banked around to make for a second go. Twilight then charged her magic and sent a blast of energy to cause the changeling to veer off course. Twilight continued to send bolt after bolt to the changeling, who evaded every shot sent her way. Twilight growled as the changeling giggled at her. "Sorry princess, but whatever my queen asks for, I get it! There's no─"

*POW*

A single shot was heard as we watched the changeling lifelessly drop into the creek bed. Upon landing, Chrysalis watched in horror as her beloved changeling remained motionless, her blood starting to color the water she lied in. For a second, it took the queen to register what happened before her, but as soon as it clicked, she responded within seconds. "PUPA, NOOOOOOO!" She cried with tears welling in her eyes.

She was about to dive for the downed changeling before Twilight turned around and called out loudly to one of the buildings. "Nice aim! Did better than I did!"

...Nice aim?

"I swear, it's always the same with you. What does this make, the twentieth time I've ran in to save your ass?"

My heart rate skyrocketed as the familiar voice of my older brother graced my ears. I turned back to the Ponyville side of the bridge, seeing him walk up with the sniper rifle in tow. Following behind him were none other than Stanton, Cliff, Rickey, Melanie, and Celestia. Each of the humans that showed up were carrying an assortment of weapons and sidearms. My jaw dropped as I felt myself being showered with relief.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same. You stay getting your ass kicked somehow. But we'll give you the 'magic' excuse this time." Stanton said as he quickly waked over towards me.

"That's some fucked up shit they did to you, sir!" Rickey called out as he followed.

"Bruh, I know you feelin' some type of way off of that shit. I'd be pissed off too." Cliff said while he helped me off of the ground.

Melanie wiped a bit of dirt off of my face as she questioned me. "Are you okay?"

Well... I'm currently in my right mind. And despite the slight headache, the massive tasering I took that made me nearly piss myself, and the fact that I had to manually remove two electrical prongs from out of my back, I feel like a million bucks. "Kinda..."

"Good, cause you'll need this." She said as she handed me a Glock. Hell, like I was gonna refuse.

As to be expected, Chrysalis was not too cordial about what she saw before her. "S...si-six? SIX? HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO ACCUMULATE SIX OF THEM!?"

Melanie turned around and looked directly at the queen, who hovered above. "See, there's this little process they had to do. First, you stick your fist out. And then you crank it on back and... Ta-Da!" She sang-sung as she gave the changeling monarch the middle finger.

Stanton turned back to the ponies and shooed them away. "You guys might wanna go for a walk, it's gonna get ugly... really quick."

Alex shouldered the sniper rifle and pulled out a customized M16 rifle. "Not that the ugly hasn't shown it's face already. Seriously, she's got gloryholes for days and can't get anyone to take interest of their own will. She's the very definition of trying too hard. She's like that one whore in the whole university who'd run through the entire athletic department just to try and cuff some poor sap into fucking her raw because she wants some money for personal spending."

Rickey continued to take a dig at the changeling queen's appearance. "Serious question, if there were fifty dicks waiting in line to take a hole each, how many would she go through in any given session?

"I'd say about half, the full fifty if they just outright DP every hole she's got. But then that would present a problem." Melanie rebutted.

"What?" I asked.

She lightly giggled as she glanced back to the queen. "There wouldn't be enough cocks to cram into her mouth."

Chrysalis was growing infuriated at the humans who continued to insult her. "SUCH IMPUDENCE!"

"Case in point." Melanie concluded.

"YOU LOT HAVE TO BE THE MOST DISRESPECTFUL, SELF-ABSORBED, DEMEANING CRETIN I HAVE EVER HAD THE DISPLEASURE OF SEEING!"

Again, Melanie didn't care enough to hold her tongue. "This coming from the bitch who couldn't get some fucker to dick her on any given night. So you have to resort to mind control, fear-mongering, and mental gymnastics to get some guy to please you the way you want it, without giving him any option to disagree or express his opinion. If I hadn't known any better, you'd be one hell of a third-wave feminist."

"That's a bit of a low blow." Alex argued. "Feminazi's don't go out there actually raping people as much as they try to get men to close their legs on an empty subway."

I then responded. "Nah, she'd be more comparable to a Catholic priest, forcing the love of Jesus down one's throat and spreading his word all over their face."

"But she doesn't take young boys like they do... or does she?" Stanton inquired, growing curious of what she would do. He then turned to the changeling queen and asked. "Excuse me, miss bug slut. Uh, just how young do you take your victims? I know that kids are easily impressionable, but still─"

"ENOUGH!" And it looks like she finally snapped. Too bad, we were just about start the banter. "I DON'T CARE HOW YOU DO IT, KILL THEM ALL! MAKE THEM SUFFER!"

Meanwhile, Melanie applied the logic of law enforcement to the situation growing before us. "And just like that, we feared for our lives."

"So... Kill every last one in the name of self-defense?" Cliff answered as he cocked the shotgun he carried.

"Except her, she's last." I said, pointing to the changeling queen.

"Personal with the two of you, huh?" Alex asked before he turned off his safety.

If only he knew just how personal this was to me, he'd know the reason why I felt like every last one of these changelings that charged for us had a huge target on their faces. Slowly, my demeanor began to unravel, my anger proceeded to take charge, and my fingers grew itchy for a squeeze. At last, I snapped. "She has picked at my brain for the last time. I want her to deteriorate in the filth of her dead. I want to squeem at the sight of her drowning in the blood of every single one of her minions! THEIR SCREAMS WILL HELP GIVE ME BACK THE SLEEP I'VE LOST! EVERY. LAST. ONE OF THEM DIES!"

The changeling queen dismissively spoke as we were non-factors. A fatal mistake on her part. "Ha! You think that a mere six of you could possibly─"

I think I felt my voice crack as I screamed to the very top of my lungs, almost blacking out while I did.

"OPEN FIRE!!!"

A cacophony of gunfire and muzzle flashes became our inaugural fanfare to the changeling queen and her forces. Her eyes shrank to the size of push pins as three of her changelings grabbed hold of her and tried to fly her towards the back of her army. Her head twisted left and right, only to see the steady amount of her changelings being driven towards the ground while covered in blood. One of the changelings that carried her ended up being one of the victims to our emphatic symphony. The changeling squealed loudly as it clung onto it's queen, all before succumbing to it's wounds, loosening it's grip, and plummeting towards the ground.

"Spread out!" She called out to her changelings, who were growing even more confused at how many of their own fell around them.

"CLEAR THE AIR!" Alex hollered, doing all that he could to pick out every last one he saw in the air. Stanton was happily sending his shots into the direction of whatever threatened to close in on us. Many of his shots ended as grazes and non-lethal hits, but proved to be critical due to their inability to recover from their being hit. Those who were hit either bumped into the others and lowered their altitude, or fell to the ground, ultimately gaining more life-threatening injures due to the fall distance. Alex was patiently helping him out as he picked off the ones that tried to regain their balance. He ended up tearing them apart as soon as they became stationary.

"WOOHOHOHO! WE'RE SKEET SHOOTING TODAY!" Stanton shouted out with a victorious laugh, earning an eyeroll from Alex.

Any of the changelings that were left in the air quickly grounded themselves out of fear of being shot down. A lot of them grew tentative of advancing. Yet the ones that were already on the ground were just as hesitant to make a move. A few other changelings tried to swoop in to rescue their wounded, only to become caught in the crossfire.

Meanwhile, Chrysalis did whatever she could to keep her forces calm. She tried to remain stone-faced through the attack, coming up with her own counter-maneuver. "Magical barrage; counter battery formation!" She hollered to her forces. A line of changelings quickly formed up front in spite of the few of their comrades being sent to the ground for a permanent rest. They lowered their heads, ignited their horns with changeling magic and hissed violently when their queen gave the order. "Launch!"

Blast after blast, waves of green energy bolts whizzed past our heads as we stood on the bridge. All six of us ran back to the Ponyville end of the bridge, dropping to the ground as they proceeded to counter our ranged attack with one of their own. One bolt even hit the road deck just in front of Rickey, sending a bunch of dirt and a few pebbles into the air.

"THEY'RE SHOOTING BACK!" Rickey said, pointing out the obvious.

"THOSE ONLY STUN YOU, BUT DON'T GET HIT!" I called out.

As one blast nearly hit Melanie, she scooted back before her head was completely out of the way. She looked back down to the creek below and shouted to the rest of us. "TAKE COVER IN THE DITCH!"

We kept our heads low as we tried to make a mad dash for the other side of the river again. This time, we leapt from over the railing of the bridge into the creek below, trudging through the bloodied stream and quickly taking cover behind the slanted wall of dirt and grass. Though we were separated by the bridge, we still maintained contact underneath. Rickey, Melanie, and Alex were on one side, poking their heads just above the grass. Stanton, Cliff, and I were on the other, trying to wait for them to make their next move. As we all waited, we took the time to reload our weapons.

"They're backing off, breakout!" Chrysalis screamed to her forces, getting them ready to flank us by whatever means. They advanced their position, however they did so at a snail's pace. They appeared to be uncertain as to what would happen next. And their wounded comrades were still squirming around them with previously unseen holes in their bodies, spilling out blood as they lied there. Those that marched on were greatly intimidated.

As soon as he heard the command, Alex blinked dumbfoundedly as he partially lifted his hand. "These guys are stupid."

That's a given, but what's also true is that they're completely ignorant to the weapons we're using and their effective range. Our edge is exclusively based on weaponry and it's psychological effects on their intended target. All they have to do is run directly towards us and we can just mow them down. And given Chrysalis' most recent order, they'll be doing just that.

"Reloaded." Stanton asked as he finished replenishing his weapon. "Do we commence to a turkey shoot?"

"Nah, I got something better." Rickey whispered as he briefly slid back to underneath the bridge. "Cliff, you still got that bag of goodies I told you to get?"

"Like I'm gon' be stupid and not bring 'em." He answered as he took off his backpack and unzipped it. As I peered over to see what was inside, I felt my jaw drop a few inches as I saw a ton of hand grenades. I could only nod with approval.

"Oh, so we're doing that now?" Stanton questioned as he pulled out a few.

"Wait until I call it out, then y'all can start tossing shit. Hopefully it'll be better than all the interceptions your team threw against Bama." Rickey whispered before he got back to his side and climbed up the slope.

Stanton grumbled as he pulled the pin on the grenade and held the handle down. "Nnngh! If only we had one of these in a football that night..."

I wasn't going to risk anything going wrong, so I made it decisively clear that I didn't want any part of the throwing game. Besides, Stanton has an arm, I'm more than certain that he'll be able to catch quite a few. Cliff grabbed one as well just a second before we heard the words from the other side of the bridge. "FRAG OUT!"

One grenade went flying high into the air just before Stanton strong-armed his towards the front of the changeling line. Within a few seconds, two explosions were heard followed by a bunch of screaming from the changelings. I took a peek over the top to see that they had started to scatter. A few others started to run back to the forest as their queen yelled out in horror.

"MY CHANGELINGS!"

"KEEP TOSSING! PRESS 'EM BACK!" Rickey shouted as he threw another one.

Cliff tossed one of his own as Stanton picked up another and flung it towards the scattered formation. A few changelings grew so intimidated by the explosions deemed it necessary to take to the air to avoid more of them. But as a result, Melanie and Alex proceeded to pick them from the air. The changeling formation began to fall back.

"They took their foot off the gas, what now?" Melanie asked.

Meanwhile, I had an idea of my own. "Quick, who has a grenade launcher mounted on their rifle?"

"Just about all of us." Cliff answered.

"Rickey, Cliff, I want you two to start pounding them from the back, encourage them to stay awhile. Stanton, Alex, and Mel will cover for you." I suggested, still looking at the changelings formation drawing further and further away from us.

"What about you?" Stanton asked.

"What else can I do? All I have is a handgun and a combat knife, let's keep it that way." If anything, I want to be certain that nothing else happens to where I'm suddenly possessed again. I'm actually surprised that she didn't go to that option sooner, but that doesn't mean that it's not on the table.

"Why?" Melanie inquired.

"Just in case. I'll help you guys keep them quiet." I answered as I reloaded my weapon. Shortly after changing the magazine, I hollered out to the others. "SUPPRESSING FIRE!"

Everyone stood at the top of the bank, Cliff and Rickey started to angle themselves to where the could fire their grenade rounds just at the treeline. The changelings who still stuck around at the front tried to marshal whatever forces they could to reassemble their counter-battery formation, but was swiftly convinced otherwise when several of them went down to incoming bullets. The ones who remained alive tried their best to get their shots off, sending bolts of magic high into the air. One such bolt even hit a changeling that was hovering above. Alex pulled out his sniper rifle and began to shoot for rear most changelings.

His eye was on his target as it encountered it's commander. "My queen! We're getting bombarded from the rear!"

"WHAT!?" She asked loudly while the sounds of explosives preached to her ears from behind. She turned back to see a series of explosions all going off just within the outer boarders of the trees.

The changeling shook with terror as it spoke to the queen. "Explosions, they're tearing us apa-ACK!" The changeling was abruptly silenced by the familiar sound of gunfire, one shot being significantly louder than the others. The changeling grasped at it's neck as it felt the blood spilling forth in small spurts. The changeling queen, at last, started to see that her fight was indeed an unwinnable one.

"...Fall back... FALL BACK!" She commanded loudly, trying to command what was left of her forces.

At least one changeling manage to break through the chaos and barreled towards me. I tried to shoot for it, but the speed and the angle in which it approached caused me to abandon that idea and reach for my knife. As it tackled me, I used my pistol to strike it's head before following up with a quick slice at it's back. The changeling screeched in pain while I adjusted my grip on the knife and hammered the blade into the side of it's mantle. As it struggled to free itself from the blade, I placed the glock against it's head and pulled the trigger. The changeling simply slumped as I threw it towards the ground. Using my foot as an anchor, I held the body in place as I retrieved my knife.

After the quick scuffle, I turned back to the others, partially covered in blood. "MEL, STANTON, SWITCH TO YOUR GRENADE LAUNCHERS! ENCOURAGE THEM TO STAY A LITTLE WHILE LONGER!"

While some completely abandoned the formation and sought to retreat to the sides, Melanie and Stanton launched their grenade rounds at them as a means to deter them from going in those directions. Unfortunately, the ones that took to the sky were the ones that spared themselves of a grisly end.

As she watched, Chrysalis grew into a state of shock as she fell onto her haunches. Her body stopped moving for a while as she watched her beloved changelings being slaughtered before her very eyes. The pain of seeing them in such a state caused her to break her character, ultimately pleading for us to cease fire. "STOP IT! STOP IT, YOU MONSTERS! YOU'RE KILLING MY CHANGELINGS!"

One of the wounded changelings tried to grab at my leg, only to receive a bullet to it's head. I turned back to the queen and quoted the words she screamed to us prior to our battle. "I DON'T CARE HOW YOU DO IT! KILL THEM ALL! MAKE. THEM. SUFFER!"

"MURDERERS! YOU MURDERERS!" She shouted, igniting her horn with her magic.

Before I could respond, I felt the familiar pain of my head being toyed with again. The pain was vastly greater than the previous times, causing me to fall to my knees. My arms shook, loosening my grip on the gun until I dropped it.

"Oh no you don't!" Alex cried out as he took one more shot, this time for the changeling queen. My body quickly felt a light zap that left me unable to move for a second before I was able to get back up on my own accord. I looked back to Alex, who seemed disgruntled about something. Then a blood-curdling voice cried out into the air, immediately grabbing my attention.

"MY HORN! MY HORN!" Chrysalis screamed out as she fell to the ground. Upon a closer look I discovered that her horn was displaced to a few feet away from her. Her hoof reached out as she tried to simultaneously stop the blood from streaming from out of her. A weak green glimmer was all I saw on the horn before it inevitably faded away.

"She was gonna do that mind-control shit, I'm not gonna let her fuck with you again!" Alex shouted as he changed weapons again..

Thank goodness he knew what was going on. I don't think it would've ended well if she had gained total control over me again. "Good shot!" I hollered back, turning my attention to the now-enraged remnants of the changeling army, who bravely surrounded their queen. Once again, I grew violent and decided that I was going to get to her no matter the circumstance.

She's been giving me hell for the past two days, and I was going to get mine. "BLITZKRIEG! BLITZKRIEG! PRESS 'EM IN!"

Another changeling tried to make a suicidal dash for us before being taken down. "You bastards! I'll─"

The changeling was rendered silent by Melanie, who screamed at the newly dead body. "AND STAY DOWN!"

Chrysalis started to quietly weep as her horn being removed caused her to experience a great deal of discomfort. Her pain was further amplified by the sights of her beloved changelings being brought down all around her. She even looked up to see one changeling trying to pull away with one of their own, before ultimately being gunned down themselves. The painful moans throughout the field filled her ears with a sound that threatened to drive her to madness. "My queen..." One voice called out for her from beside her. The changeling's chest rose and fell rapidly as it struggled to breathe, it's neck slit open. The changeling reached out with a blood-stained hoof, the light fading from it's eyes as it spoke once more. "Mother─"

It's chest stopped rising, falling for one final time as the hoof fell quietly to the dirt. The changeling queen's heart was broken as yet another one of her own was killed before her. Her body was racked with despair as she finally cried out to the skies above. "HELP US! PLEASE! SOMEONE! HEEEEELP USSSSS!"

The moment we heard that, our advance slowed. "You... son of a..." I mumbled to myself as I became overwhelmed with anger. I shook my head and continued to press, killing more of the changelings that protected her before she screamed again.

"SAVE US, PLEASE! ANYONE!" She cried out, her voice sounding broken and filled with grief.

The others acknowledged her call, causing Melanie to scream to the others. "Cease fire... CEASE FIRE! STOP SHOOTING!"

All the while, I was caught in some sort of trance. I didn't stop moving towards her. But before I was within a yard's reach of the changeling queen, I felt a pair of hands wrap around my abdomen, pulling me back. "Hey bruh, chill out!" Cliff yelled as he held me back.

Honestly, I didn't care for her screams. Not now, not after what little stunts she and her friends pulled. I continued to fight with Cliff, eventually wrestling him off. "No, don't you start asking for sympathy now! You're not gonna get any." I aimed my words directly for Chrysalis.

When I finally stood above her body, she looked up to me with blood-shot eyes. Her face lined with blood, dirt, and tears. "You... monster..." She whispered as she cried.

My hands trembled as I looked down at her, breathing heavily as the muscles in my face tightened. I swallowed whatever spit was in my mouth while she continued to shed her tears. The only thing I felt when I looked at her was the shame of being rendered useless, humiliated before everyone I knew and loved. She tried to take everything that was mine, she killed one of my friends and savagely brutalized another, she did all of it with a confident smile on her face, like she was going to get away with it all and I was going to accept it.

No, not today, not ever. I sure as hell hope you enjoyed watching your kids die, because you have no idea how many signatures I had to sign, how many families I had to inform that their loved ones would never come back, and how many mothers beat on my chest telling me to bring back their kids. All the flak I took in the news, all the politicians who shoved it down my throat, every last security failure, and I had to take it because you didn't keep your entitled little fucker on a goddamn leash, and you couldn't keep your fucking legs closed.

You brought me from one hell to another, and now I'm going see myself out. So here, have these words you threw at me, you crater-infested cunt. "I haven't heard that one before. I'll keep that one down for all the names I've been called in my life. At least you'll die having that honor."

I pulled my gun to her, aimed directly for her head. I had to control myself because my aim was so shaky from my being angry. And I wanted to pull the trigger so badly, but fortune found favor to spare her yet another few seconds. "Nondis!" Melanie called from behind me. I turned around to see what she wanted, just to find that my world was suddenly tilted to the side.

I took a blow to the head, causing me to stumble before regaining my balance. I turned to my left to see a bloodied changeling, riddled with bullet wounds, standing on three of his legs. He cracked a smile as he shouted. "Protect the queen!"

Instead of letting him catch another wind, I let him catch one quick shot. Quickly, he slouched over and died. Looking back down to the gun, I could see the slide locked back, indicating that I was out of ammo. Out of frustration, I threw the gun aside. "Well fuck, your guy took your bullet... and I happen to be out. Guess I'll do this old school."

Without much time to think about it, I pulled back out my bowie knife and grabbed a handful of her seaweed-colored mane, yanking her body off the ground. Just before I placed the blade against her neck, I heard a scream from Melanie.

"Nondis, what are you doing!?" Stanton asked incredulously.

"What does it look like? I'm doing my job!"

Alex tried to walk up to me, placing his hands out to signal me to slow down. "Dude, don't do that."

I then briefly directed my anger at my brother. "Explain to me why I shouldn't. She has dragged me through hell in a kerosene handbasket for the past day and a half! I haven't slept under my own will for two fucking nights! She raped one of my friends, and killed another for the sake of having me become her fucking slave! She violated the inner-sanctum of my own goddamn brain just to do whatever she wanted! SHE ALMOST HAD ME TURN MY GUN AGAINST ALL OF YOU! DO YOU THINK I'M GOING TO LET HER LIVE!?

Melanie stared at me while she was covering her mouth, trembling as she was scared to look at me. Rickey walked up to her and comforted her as he politely instructed me. "Put the knife down. She's done."

"I'm not gonna let her get me, not this time."

Cliff shook his head as he tried to slowly explain. "She's got you, bruh. If you do what you're about to do now, she will stay getting yo ass. Just let her go. You ain't gotta do shit else, you got it already."

I looked back down to see the bundle of hair in my hand and the knife being firmly placed against her throat. As I saw the blood trickling onto the blade, it all started to process exactly what I was threatening to do.

Oh... shit... what the hell.

My conscience kicked in and I finally realized that my intentions were going to be gruesome. I was actually going to go through with cutting off her head. At one point, I was going to saw through her neck for a few seconds before separating her head from her body. I was going to be toting her around by her hair, and it was going to feel like a grocery bag. I nearly vomited at that thought, and I realized that doing something like this was not within my constitution. I couldn't go through with something like that.

Alex tried to reason with me once more. "Nondis, don't. Don't let your obsession become something that makes you cross a boundary you'll never come back from. We all have our choices in life. She's made some incredibly bad ones, don't you make that same mistake."

For some odd reason, I knew what I was doing and couldn't find the strength to drop the knife. It was like my arm was locked in place. Deep in my head, I was trying to reason with myself on why she needed to die. I wasn't going to be comfortable in knowing she would live. I couldn't let that happen, she did way too much to warrant a death sentence, and that's legally speaking. "I'm justified!"

Alex stepped forward as he continued to reason with me. "And you got yours. Don't fuck that up. Cause if you do, then I don't know what I'll think of you, or any of us... or them, for that matter."

As he tilted his head towards the other side of the bridge, I felt my body nearly collapse under it's own weight. On the other side of the bridge, I could see a multitude of ponies all staring at what's going on before them. There were a few colors and faces I could make out from the crowd. I could see Cheese standing by Pinkie, who covered her mouth with shock and horror, just as Melanie did. I could make out the harrowing expression made by Princess Celestia. Twilight wore a worried look as many others around her whispered to one another. Applejack was holding her hat with concern for the yellow filly standing next to her. Rarity shielded Sweetie Belle's eyes as she chewed on her hoof. Fluttershy was buried in her bangs as she shook. Rainbow Dash hovered in the air, mouth stretched in awe.

Each one of them had their eyes on me. Even as I shifted my arm a little to stop it from cramping, the multitude of ponies all gasped loudly when I moved. Some of them even turned away as they thought I was going to go through with it.

But in all honesty, what choice do I have? She's a threat to our nation and to me personally. Who's to say that if I let her go, she won't come back with even greater numbers and better protection? Who's to say that she won't take away someone's kids and drain them dry, or do what she did to Zecora? How many more will they stuff into wagons and bring them across the country, diseased and dying? I can't let her live knowing that there's a distinct chance of her going through with some ploy for revenge.

I didn't have to cut her head off, but I can't let her live.

Would you really want to do this?

You shut up. I have every reason to do this.

Are you willing to toss your remaining humanity away? Over a disabled parasite?

I think it's best you'd put it down, junior.

I'm not... I'm not gonna listen to either of you.

You're going to kill the main one who saved your life? And that ain't the magic bullshit talking. Be reasonable.

Are you willing to go back to being that vengeful idiot you once were? Are you willing to throw away the friends you earned for the sake of power and revenge? Would you let them see you like this, and then have the nerve to smile back at them after? You would only become a murderer by textbook definition, you'd be just what she claimed you to be. And not only that, you would be just a cold-blooded killer in the eyes of everyone else. How would you be able to smile at Melanie, Twilight, Rarity, or anyone for that matter without them seeing blood all over you?

I've already killed so many.

And not one of them pleaded for mercy. They all went down fighting. Some you had to kill because you had something or someone to protect. Others, it was because the pain of their wounds was too much for them to bear. Do you think it would be best for you to kill one who has lost so much before them, and let others bear witness to it? She cried for mercy, and she doesn't look like she can fight anymore. You can't justify that. Don't make that choice, not the one that haunted gramps for so long.

...God damn you. Damn everything.

My heart won out. My mind and my heart, for once, were in agreement with one another. And my body finally responded to their wishes. I removed the knife from her neck and sheathed the blade. I dropped the changeling queen and walked over to her broken horn, placing my foot on it to make sure that she didn't try to make a grab for it. I didn't quite know how changelings heal themselves, and I wasn't willing to find out. I was just wanting to be sure that whatever magic she had, it would no longer be cast through it.

"...We're even. You left me to die in a forest in some unknown land. But you saved me from certain death... and left me to die after...." I picked up the horn and pointed it towards her. "I don't have it in me to end you like this. Turns out public execution isn't really my thing. For some, yes... but not me."

I could hear everyone breathing a sigh of relief behind me, especially Melanie. "Thank God."

"But I'll warn you, the next time you set foot on my boarders, you so much as take one last soul from me, and I will have you impaled on spot. Do I make myself clear?"

She didn't respond to me directly. Instead, she gently petted the changeling whose lifeless eyes stared right back at her. Quietly, she began to whisper the names of her deceased offspring. "Pupa... Iris... Larvae..."

I couldn't quite gauge my response to her doing that. I didn't know whether or not I was supposed to feel compassion for her, or anger from the fact that she just now showed this side of her when all of this could've been avoided. She didn't have to make the decision to leave me behind or summon me for the sole purpose of decimating the Equestrian forces. All she had to do was tell me that I had a purpose the very moment I opened my eyes and everything would've played out differently. Instead, she treated me as a failure and sentenced me to die alone.

In retrospect, I would've been a whole lot different from who I am now. And I would've been the one leading a charge across that bridge. Maybe I would've been on this field like the others. But none of that happened. I was harassed, violated, and haunted with the most damning of situations. I'm here, defending everyone who's watching just across that creek. And up till now, I was probably hailed as a hero.

Maybe I am a monster, but I have my own morals. And the morals I have on that side of the bridge, I have to maintain them. I will swallow every sacrifice and foul deed I've done, and do right by the ones I know and love.

As she continued to go through the list of names, I quietly whispered to her. "All those names... You have no idea how many I've had to apologize for on my end... or maybe you do. Well over two hundred souls I've been held responsible for, been grilled on flame over. You better remember every last name you failed to save, because I sure as hell remember all of mine."

I wasn't quite sure that she heard me or not, but I think that what happened today spoke volumes. It wasn't quite the direction I would've preferred, but it was a necessary one. I couldn't let this go unchecked, and I had to set a precedent. I know that I will be looked at differently, all of us humans. And if these other five don't agree to it, then I'm more than willing to go at it alone. I didn't want them to be along for the ride, at least not this far into it. I wanted this to be my sin alone.

I suppose I'll be carrying another five while I'm at it. "Muzzle her jaw shut, cauterize her wounds. We'll let her and the other survivors to clean up after themselves." I ordered as I staggered back to the bridge.

Stanton started to wear an incredulous look on his face as he asked me. "Where are you going?"

"No amount of water can wash the blood off my hands, doesn't mean that my entire body has to be an example of that."

As I walked back to the other side of the bridge, I could feel every pair of eyes gaze through me. My legs grew heavier as I marched through the streets of Ponyville. None of the others approached me as I made my unceremonious trudge to the castle. Whispers flew through the town as side-glances were all I was given. In my hands was nothing more than a broken horn and a ton of baggage, much of it emotional and mental. The weight of it all slowed me down as I walked the open streets directly to Twilight's castle.

If I had to look at the bright side of this, I managed to get Zecora back.

Silence. Silence at last.

I don't mean the total absence of sound or the silence that one would get when they ask a room full of people to be quiet. I mean the silence that comes with a moment of self-isolation. The silence that comes without the multiple pairs of eyes watching your every move, the absence of judgement, that silence. I needed that silence after everything that happened for the past three days. I needed one moment to reflect, not to fear, not to prep myself for the next assignment, just a moment to question myself.

It's been an hour since I took my shower and holed myself inside of the portal room. No doubt that the sun was well beyond the western horizon. And of course I was expecting someone to check in on me eventually, but I needed this to ask myself some very important questions. I needed clarity on a variety of things that I knew affected the others.

Was it really within my right to bring them here?

Would it have been better if I just told them what I was doing and not necessarily show them a first-hand example?

If they felt uncomfortable with what happened today, then do I just have their memories wiped for their sanity?

Or should I wipe their memories of everything altogether?

If I don't wipe their memories, what would be the effects on them seeing me the way I was?

How do I even go back from what happened today?

Do I make them accept what happened?

What do they think of me?

...Oh God, did they actually see me dive headlong into first base with Chrysalis? Fuck, my life is over. I mean I can still taste the bitterness of her tongue being shoved in my mouth... and I even remember mine going damn-near into her throat. And I damn-well remember her hooves trying to find the goods on the sly. AND this was all in Twilight's face, like she didn't even matter.

Ugh... I think I'm ready to vomit now.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

I didn't respond to whoever knocked at the door. I didn't feel like answering to anyone unless I absolutely needed to. Yet, the door opened anyhow. The first sound I heard was the distinctive clopping of hooves. A pony visitor, I suppose.

"I didn't say come in."

"You forgot whose house you're in." Twilight responded flatly. "Though I can understand your desire to be left alone."

That's good to know. "Okay. Any reason why you're here then?"

"Because being left alone after a day like this is in itself a bad idea. An idle mind breeds mischief and madness."

"So what? I'm mad. Old news."

She walked up to me and sat herself beside me. "You're not crazy."

"Twilight, I am the very definition of crazy. Did you see what I was about to do to Chrysalis today?"

She used her magic to turn my head to face her. "Do you honestly think that what you did was crazy? A bit brutal, yes. But by no definition were you out of your mind."

"And how would you know?" I inquired.

"Look at me. There's a side of me that you have yet to see. And even though you saw flashes of it throughout our relationship, you haven't seen the worst of it. Back when I was a student, I actually hypnotized half the town just to solve a friendship problem, when I was the definite cause of it! I drove myself into madness over something as small as a scheduled letter to Princess Celestia. I actually tried to stop my brother's wedding because I was being overly protective of him."

"But that was justified. What I did today wasn't."

Twilight glanced back at the doorway and then turned her attention back to me. "You know, I don't think you realize just what you did for Ponyville today."

"Provide a body count?"

She placed a hoof on my shoulder as she brought me over for a nuzzle. "No. Whether you realize it or not, you actually stopped an invasion of changelings. Sure, they would've retreated and tried again if you would've let up, but you didn't."

"That sounds a little odd coming from the Princess of Friendship."

"And might I remind you that you took the blows to save Zecora from certain death. Not only that, you fought to defend your friends and everyone you loved."

I tried to pull away from her as I slowly spake. "Twilight, I. Was going. To cut off. Someone's... Heeeaaaad. I was in the process of decapitating someone who begged for mercy, knowing damn well that she couldn't fight back anymore."

"Newsflash: You didn't go through with it."

"Yeah, but I thought about it."

"And when you realized what you were doing, how did you feel then?"

"I was fucking terrified." I confessed, looking back at my hands. "Here I was, holding her like I was gonna start toting her around like a bag of groceries on the way back from market on a lovely spring afternoon. The fuck kind of shit is that!? I don't have that in me, and still I dared to even act like I was going to do it. Everyone was scared shitless when I held that knife against her neck."

Next, I felt Twilight placed her entire weight against me as she jumped on my back. "Okay... Can I tell you a little secret?"

I groaned as she continued to rest on my back. "Yeah, what?"

"I... I hold some pretty serious grudges. I might not say it to anyone or tell someone upfront, but I do. And sometimes, when I get to a certain point, I feel like I could do anything to destroy somepony over things they did to me. And at times, I become inwardly violent, playing out these weird revenge fantasies in my head."

Okay... that's a turn for the unexpected. "I don't see you acting like that."

"You remember what I told you about Tirek, right? Well I know I haven't told you about Discord. Discord caused me and my friends to all turn against one another. And the first thing I said to Celestia when she ordered for Discord to be reformed was 'HOW COULD YOU BRING DISCORD HERE!?' in her face, loudly, thinking that she was being incredulously incompetent. What I'm trying to say is that we all have moments where our anger and grudges alter our immediate judgement."

"Yeah, but you never felt like you wanted to decapitate someone."

"Chrysalis, for trying to marry my older brother and dooming my former foalsitter to an obscure end, also endangering my friends and family, invading my hometown, striking my teacher down, and turning everyone I knew and loved against me for the sake of making me out to be some obsessively compulsive younger sister who didn't want her older brother to marry anyone? Cadance could tell you just how much magic I used in the caves when I was sent down there. She'll even tell you just how close my hooves were from crushing in her windpipe. And mind you, that was just part one!"

Okay... maybe I do see her acting like that. "You nearly killed Cadance, for real?"

"I would've slaughtered to keep my friends and family safe. I destroyed a mountain for less, and that was because of a pet. When you love something, or someone, you don't care for the repercussions because you know that you would kill or be killed to keep that special thing around. And if you died knowing that things would be bittersweet for that special someone, you wouldn't have any regrets. Sure, you'd be scared of dying, but that's it. And I know I'd much rather be scared of knowing that when I close my eyes, it's over for me... as opposed to losing you."

"Twilight─" She lightly petted the side of my face as she kissed me on the cheek.

"So no, you don't get to be the crazy one in this relationship. I'm the crazy one. Got it?"

I have to admit, she makes it hard for me to sulk. I know it's mainly because she's often selfish, but I think I can grow to appreciate that about her. However, I felt a little pain when she said the word 'relationship'. Both she and I know exactly what's gonna happen at the end of everything. But I suppose I'll just take it, and go along for the ride. "Got it."

"Good... Now all of your friends wanted to know if it was okay for them to sleep over for the night."

Wait, what? "Huh?"

"They said they didn't feel like going home and sleeping alone, something about not wanting nightmares."

Ah shit. I guess we'll need Luna to be over for the night, though it will be a while for the nightmares to be siphoned out. "Well, I guess I'll talk to them and see what's up with their schedule for tomorrow."

"Oh yeah, they said don't worry about getting them on schedule for anything in your world tomorrow. They'll be here all day."

Pardon me for asking... *ahem* "...FOR WHAT!?"

Author's Note

Holy shit this was hard to write.

Truth be told, the last chapter was actually the first portion of this chapter. But once I realized that this would be more than twenty thousand alone, I decided to cut my losses and dump it into a chapter to set up this one. Other than that, it was rather difficult to write a chapter that contained hypnosis from the viewpoint of the main character. And ultimately, I didn't know how to pull it off. So I colored the mental takeover sequences, making the protagonist seem changed in not just the dialog, but the narration itself (which I am unsure on whether or not has been done).

Basically, the concept is based on this old Age of Empires tactic.

If you ever played the game, when your pieces or soldiers are converted, they not only change color, but also sides as well. So that house (or that scout you used to light up the map) you had before, not yours anymore. So as a result, it then plays for the opposing player (or CPU), and the light it gave off is now darkened.

Basically, the perspective takes place in the midst of the conversion process, turning Nondis against who he once allied himself with. Though I personally found the "converted" Nondis to be a bit annoying.

And then there's the battle scene that's sure to cause a bit of controversy. Spoilers: The issue will be addressed at the beginning of next chapter. I'll spoil you that much.

And finally, the end piece where Twilight is talking to him, telling him about her darker conflicts and how she wished she outright did in Chrysalis. That being the case, she sympathized with Nondis on how he felt, and went further to explain just how angry she got. I know it's a bit of headcanon thrown in there, but then again, it's fanfiction.

Though I try to stay within reason of how the characters would act in the show. The only real OOC moment had to have been Applejack, but I was actually saving that card since Chapter 34.

Nondis: Aww, Jackie─
Applejack: Please don't call me that.

Again, if there were some issues, I apologize in advance. But I hope that this chapter wasn't too terribly long.

Comments are always appreciated and it helps me write the story better. So get to complaining! :twilightsheepish:

But in the meantime...

I've got an NBA game to watch. PLAYOFFS!

Chapter LVIII

Canterlot Castle,
Office of Senator Count DuMonee...

The halls of Canterlot Castle were bustling far more than usual for the evening. Both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were absent as maids and guards ran throughout the halls alike. The maids were all trying to assist the guards with the movement of defensive supplements to every last armored pony in sight. Every battlement was quickly shored with spears and shields while they heard the immense popping from the south, followed by faint plumes of smoke.

Politicians watched from the window as they pointed and mumbled to one another. They spoke softly as they tried to assess the situation that transpired in the town of Ponyville. A mere twenty minutes of sounds and explosions made them aware that something had gone down. And the smoldering plumes of smoke were the last thing they saw before the sun went down.

While the moon's light showered down upon the mountainside city, a unicorn stallion galloped down the hall to run towards a room at the end of the hall. As he ran, he shoved many others out of his path as he held a newspaper in his magical tow. Hot off the presses, he was eager to reach the office of his superior. And upon arriving, he broke through the door as he announced himself loudly.

"Sir!" He hollered. "News from the Ponyville front!"

Senator Count rolled his eyes as he stopped looking at several other documents. "What is it now?"

The understudy quickly slammed the paper on his desk, causing the other documents to fly off from the impact. The senator grew moderately irritated at his having to clean up the mess. As he started, the understudy tapped on his desk. "This was just reported in from Ponyville. Late-breaking news pertaining to the changelings and our 'esteemed' captain."

Just as he went to pick up another page of his paperwork, he stopped and left it on the floor as he walked over to the desk. "What is it this time?"

"You might want to read this for yourself."

Senator Count looked back to his understudy with a quirked brow before reading the headline.

STAGGERING DEFEAT!
Changelings Dealt A Fatal Blow In Recent Invasion. Queen Chrysalis; Wounded Yet Spared.

Those words jumped at him like the image of the human captain jumped on his nerves. He widened his eyes as he yanked up the newspaper and skimmed through the passage quickly. His eyes darting from left to right as he read. Upon a quick read through, he politely placed the paper back on the desk. "Spared, huh? A changeling queen invaded our boarders and was spared the sword?"

The understudy started to pick up from where his superior left off and began to pick up the fallen documents. "According to many witness accounts, it appeared that he was set to execute her. But after a moment, he reneged on the decision and allowed her to be treated for her wounds. As for how badly wounded she was, that information's been held classified."

Not long after, the senator slammed his hooves into the desk and swiped every last paper off of his desk, much to the dismay of his understudy. Shaking his hoof with irritation, he cursed the captain. "Damn that ape!"

The understudy sighed as he rolled his eyes. Not wanting to clean up after him a second time, he just simply left the papers on the floor. But he also realized that he would probably be sent off on another errand. He beat the senator to the punch. "Should I begin our lobby for a summons?"

Count snarled at the captain's image as he glanced over to his dormant fireplace. "What choice do we have!? This is unacceptable! He should've killed her then and there, I don't care how many civilians were watching!"

"Many would say that he was convinced by his human friends, to not kill the queen as opposed to killing her." The intern stated.

Count facehoofed as he drew a sigh of exasperation. "I knew they were a truly weak species. All of that rant and banter about us 'evolving' ended up being nothing more than a farce. I'd be less surprised in hearing that this mystical 'World War' never existed in his world."

"I'll lobby for the summons. Should he be requested to arrive sometime tomorrow?" The intern questioned.

"Of course! And if you would, I would ask that you give me the papers citing the summons. I wish to call him out personally when we arrive for Ponyville tomorrow. Be sure to get it done by dawn."

"At once." The intern confirmed before running out of the room, accidentally bumping into a young dragon, who waited just outside of the door. Spike walked in to see that the room was a complete mess and immediately started to pick up every sheet that was lying around. He could tell that the senator was very much frustrated.

"So what happened this time?"

The senator sat back down to his desk and opened one of the drawers to pull out a small glass and a bottle of brandy. "Oh, you know... your ape friend decided to not do his job. So tomorrow, I will call him out for a summons where we can address this complete and utter show of ineptitude."

Spike briefly picked up his head as he turned to the senator. "Tomorrow? Isn't that─"

"Why of course." He interrupted before tossing back a glass of the drink. "That is why I will be bringing you with me. Yes, I'm sure that the look on his face would be quite grand in seeing his newly-sealed papers. And I know that he would be unable to refuse should he grow rebellious. I have weight against him, serious weight, and I am certain that he would much rather for this little weight to not hit the ground."

Before he picked up another sheet, Spike looked at the senator sternly. "It's not gonna hurt Twilight by any chance, right?"

The senator couldn't even drink his second glass without addressing the young drake. He laughed lightly as he answered his question. "Of course not, I would never try to jeopardize her position. After all, she is your surrogate mother."

Spike sighed as he started to pick up the papers once more. "Just as long as Twilight's okay, I'm willing to go along with whatever you do."

"And just as long as you obey me, you would be content in knowing that the Princess of Friendship will remain unscathed." The senator said with a smirk, tilting his glass at the drake.

Spike was not all too enthused, more dissatisfied with his response. For a second, he grumbled before answering Count directly. "Sure... Just what do you have planned?"

As Spike handed over the documents he collected, the stallion magically grabbed his papers before setting them in their proper place in his filing cabinet. As he flipped through several folders, he stopped as he found an image of a disheveled Shining Armor looking back into the camera with a thousand-yard stare. Attached to it was a grievance report and another picture of a scowling gray unicorn mare with a purple and silver mane. Instantly, the corners of his mouth raised towards his ears.

"Oh... a familiar mission. I believe one of my former esteemed colleagues vouched for Shining Armor to serve it well before the time his wedding bells rang. And given the level of difficulty, I might be able to rid us both of this back-riding monkey."

As the file was pulled from the cabinet and slammed on the desk, the contents splayed across the desktop. Spike took a glance at the grievance report and grew uncertain. "Isn't that a bit risky?"

"Spike, you should know this. It's okay to tell the same joke twice, just change the audience and the joke remains fresh." He said as he grabbed the newspaper. "Light my fire, would you?"

Spike walked over to the fireplace and blew his breath on the slightly-ashed log. After the fire became strong enough to sustain itself, he stopped blowing and turned back to the senator. "But what if someone spoils the joke?"

The senator politely folded the newspaper back to shape as he stared at the human on the front page. With a delighted hum, he tossed the paper into the fire and watched the image quickly become ash.

"Believe me, my young draconian friend... The joke will still be told. After all, the show must go on."

Meanwhile in Ponyville...

GODDAMMIT!

How in the hell did I lose track of time just that fucking quick? First it was just a bunch of changelings who tried to take me away, then there was the queen herself who basically made me lock lips with her in front of EVERYONE, then my killing most of her changelings. But now I have to deal with the fact that Twilight's birthday is tomorrow.

I gotta say from my point of view, all of this shit leading up to it wouldn't make me feel like my birthday would be of any importance. Even if there was some intermittent thoughts of trying to return to normalcy, it wouldn't end well unless tomorrow happened to be such a day where everything is perfect and nothing goes wrong. And given that Zecora is still in the back of her mind, I don't think it would be possible to not see her break down at one given point. Either way, tomorrow was her birthday and I'm more than certain that everyone else would be doing whatever they could to salvage the day.

In the meantime, I tried to play off the fact that I lost track of time. "Oh yeah... who could forget such an important day?"

And of course, Mel was the first one to see right through that. "You didn't remember, did you?"

I sunk my face into my palms and quietly confessed. "Not really..."

The next thing I heard was a symphonic groan from the others, with Melanie's voice being the sole standout. "Ugh... Nondis!"

"Okay, I'm too distracted as fuck for me to remember that her birthday fell exactly tomorrow. With all the invasions, being brainwashed and whatnot, I find it way too easy to lose track of time. The only thing I knew is that it was supposed to happen sometime later this month." I explained, trying to defend myself.

"So... Pinkie didn't harp on you about this?" Stanton asked. "I mean she should've at least had you in the know a few days in advance. If she's the one pony in town who's known for having everyone else's birthday down packed, then she could've let you in on the two-minute warning."

"How would she do that?" I questioned back. "She was just as busy as me, minus the fighting and the being nearly abducted."

"Guys remember, it's easy to judge someone off of hindsight." Alex responded, coming to my defense. "Plus I'd be more concerned with making it to the next day as opposed to looking forward to someone's birthday."

Still, everyone else had a point. I should've been able to remember Twilight's birthday, especially if I can remember everyone else's.

Fluttershy's was in the summer months leading into the estrus period, her gestation process was a full twelve months before she was born. That would place her at around the time of the Summer Sun Celebration in late June. Pinkie's came in May. Rainbow Dash was a month early, born a premie back in April. Applejack was a May-Day girl. And I was around for Rarity's birthday when I was shacked with her for those two weeks, back in early June. As far as Twilight's concerned, she's the only one who was born outside of the estrus-season framework, so hers is a definitive standout.

All of this has me thinking so hard, I could swear I taste iron.

I felt a light tap on my shoulder, turning around I could see Stanton trying to get my attention. "Uh... you okay, dude?"

"Yeah, what's up?" I responded, initially unaware of what he was looking at as he spoke.

"You got a little... red... under your nose."

I nonchalantly wiped my fingers under my nose, only to find that there was blood sitting on my fingers. Upon wiping again, I could see another crimson smear on my hands. Quickly, I walked to the bathroom and blew my nose. After washing my face, I had to plug my nose with toilet paper for a brief while. By then, I was reintroduced to the discomfort of having to breathe out of my mouth, a discomfort I thought I grew out of since my first separation with Twilight.

Aw man, not this again. "Well I guess that mind-control shit had a few side effects."

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Melanie asked as she held up her right hand. Both her index and middle fingers extended themselves while the others remained folded.

"Two."

"Do you feel sick, like you're gonna vomit?" She questioned, placing a hand on my stomach.

"Not really."

This time she lightly moved my head to it's resting position. "Move your head to the left." I moved my head in accordance to her direction. "Now to the right." Once more, I complied. "Do you feel any stiffness?" She questioned once more.

Vomiting, sight disorientation, stiffness of the neck, all of these would normally point to one thing in particular. "Mel, I don't have an aneurysm."

"Yeah, but you were holding your head a few times like you had the worst headache ever." She brought up the fact that those spell caused me a great deal of pain. And as of now, I can still feel a slight aching. But none of it feels like my head's just gonna pop at any minute.

"That's coming off of the migraines. I'm tired as shit because I haven't gotten much rest, my mind's been fucked with, and I got Chuck Norris'd by a changeling. I'm not going crazy, I can walk just fine, and neither of my eyes look like I'm looking at you like Sandy Duncan. I'm fine."

Alex chuckled as he poked fun at me. "No, I'd say it's more like a Thom Yorke."

Welp, I'm lost. "Who the hell is that?"

"Radiohead, Nondis. You know." I rolled my eyes when Alex started singing. "When you were here before, Couldn't look you in the eye."

"I know Frank Sinatra." I quickly responded while waving my middle finger back at him. "Yoooou, shut the fuck up to-night!"

"Okay, he's good." Alex responded with a sarcastic shrug.

"Eh, he got a little voice on him." Cliff said with a smirk.

"Cliff, don't start." I started to shake my head and write off his complement as an incorrect observation.

"Well if it's anything like his dancing, you could be in for a surprise." Melanie said as she gave me a light shove in the back.

"Mel, don't feed the trolls."

I tried to warn her, but it was already too late as Stanton was the first to respond. "Him, dancing? He's gotta be one of the most uncoordinated guys out there! He's my brother and I love him, but let's put it out there."

"Ehhhhh... yeeeaaaah... Him being turnt is a pretty awkward sight." Rickey confirmed.

"But doesn't he play piano pretty good?" Cliff questioned.

Alex chuckled as he answered him. "Pretty well. And yes, though dexterity and eye-hand coordination is a little different than being able to move without looking like a spasmodic plastic bag in hurricane-force winds."

What a classy way to describe my dancing. "Oh fuck all of you! Kiss my whole ass!"

Stanton tried to hold his laughter as he pointed at me. "Uncoordinated ass. Hey, does your left ass cheek still sit slightly higher than the other?"

"I don't know, you tell me whether or not your opposable left finger still works." I jabbed back, taking a shot at his left thumb.

"Excuse me, it's a thumb that doesn't bend. And I still whipped your ass in every fighting game ever."

"Name one!"

"Mortal Kombat, Rival Schools, Soul Calibur, Tekken, BlazBlue, Killer Instinct, Virtua Fighter, Fighters Megamix, Marvel vs Capcom, Street Fighter─"

I quickly stood up and started to march out of the room. "Okay, you know what. Wait here, I'm getting my TV and my X-Box. We're gonna get this shit settled, right now!"

Alex was quick in grabbing me by the back of my shirt and dragging me back into the room. "No! We're not bringing video games into the alternate world! Now shut up, both of you!"

A little peeved that I couldn't bring over my stuff, I smacked his hand off of my shirt and walked towards the bed. "Okay then, fuck it. I'm going to bed."

"Nondis, c'mon!" Melanie giggled a little as she teased at me. "It's just a bit of fun."

"Why am I the only one being grilled?" I bluntly asked.

"Because you forgot your fiance's birthday. If you were any relationship with me, you'd know I'd be doing WAY more than raking your ass across the coals." She responded, picking up a pillow to throw at me.

I sighed as I lied down. "I was distracted! And I forgot exactly what day it fell on! I couldn't help that I thought it would be this Thursday."

"Today is Thursday." Rickey corrected.

"...Well at least I thought it was a day earlier."

Stanton laughed as he himself leaned back against the floor. "Yeah, you do need some sleep. You don't even know what day it is, you definitely need some R&R."

I placed the pillow Melanie threw at me underneath my head as I started to get comfortable. "I can't help that it seems like every day for the past week seemed like it just mushed together. Ugh, I guess I'll have to throw something together tomorrow."

"Yeah, you do that. Don't leave her nothing on the most important day of her life thus far." Alex noted. "The next phase is... marriage, I think? Then it's the anniversaries, and then birthdays. In that order. No I'm sorry, anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Thanksgiving... in that order."

Being that this is coming from the newly-wed who hasn't made it a year since walking down the aisle, I knew to take whatever he said with a grain of salt. My brother likes to act like he knows everything, but half the time he's really unsure of himself. But he does have good intentions, and I know that he only means well when he tries to give out advice... even when it's sometimes wrong.

It doesn't matter, I'll just probably go run somewhere and get Twilight a gift early tomorrow morning. It'll have to be sometime before eight, by then she's starting to crack her eyes open. Thankfully, the whole town will be up by seven in the morning. I can go out and get some flowers and be back by seven-thirty. No biggie.

"Okay... I'm out."

***Point of Perspective: Melanie***

It's gotten late.

I stared through the window to see a few houses lit by candlelight and fireplace. The town was eerily quiet, guess that means there's not much of a night-life here. But then again, who would want to be up and about when there was just a changeling invasion just a few hours ago? I don't think anyone would take interest unless they'd risk being knocked on the head by something and finding themselves replaced.

I need to get my mind off of those little bastards, so let's think about something else.

...Oh yeah, the town. It amazes me that the ponies here chose to live a simplistic life. They have most of the technology we'd have back in the forties and fifties, yet they don't really use it all that much. The lighting in most buildings are still based on fire or some sort of luminescent stone. I can understand the latter choice, but they've also shown to have some electricity running through the place if we can charge our phones. And I was even told that they have a hydroelectric dam someplace nearby.

It has me thinking, really, just how advanced is this world's technology?

Everyone is laying around or sitting someplace thinking about their own thoughts, all save one person. "Is he sleep?" I asked.

Rickey got off of the floor and looked at the peaceful Nondis as his eyes were closed, his chest slowly rising and falling, and his face showing all signs of relaxation. "Yeah, he's out." He confirmed.

Alex scoffed as he spoke. "Not even snoring, that's unheard of."

"You're telling me." Stanton cosigned just as the door opened.

"I might have something to do with that." Twilight sounded out as she walked into the room with a bunch of futons. "We wouldn't have enough mattresses to accommodate for your respective sizes, so I ask all of my friends to chip in and see what all we could patch together."

Poor Twilight, her eyes are showing all kinds of tired. "Hey there, princess."

"Is everything alright in here?" She asked as she magically placed every two futons together and laid them out for us to sleep on.

"Yeah, we're just a little jittered from earlier today. But at least he's safe now." Alex responded with a yawn.

Cliff was the first to get his futon as he spoke. "Yo, how ol' girl from the motherland doin?"

"Who now?" Twilight asked with confusion.

"I think he means the Zebra." Rickey clarified.

"Oh, Zecora! She's recovering..." Twilight stopped piecing the futons together for a moment and frowned. She was definitely upset about what all had happened today.

"I don't like that look. What's wrong?" Stanton asked quietly. He walked up to her and proceeded to pick up where the princess had left off.

Twilight took a deep breath and let herself vent. "I can't help but to be angry over everything today. Chrysalis had my friend tied down and violated, shared for her entire hive. And Nondis was forced to do things that he normally wouldn't do, he was put in an awkward situation that I couldn't have gotten him out of. And because I couldn't do anything, I just... I don't know how I'm gonna feel tomorrow. I know everyone will want me to celebrate, but I don't know if I can do that at the moment."

I turned away from the window and faced her as I spoke. "Can we make a suggestion?"

"Go for it."

I paused for a moment on what I wanted to say and how I was going to say it. The others seemed to have started collecting their own thoughts as well. But when my thoughts were finally pieced together, I let them loose. "I don't think you were useless by any stretch of the imagination. Hell, Nondis is here because you responded to something that you knew was wrong. And it may be true that you were played into that part by something that wasn't actually what it appeared to be. But had you not responded when you did, Nondis wouldn't be here right now. And it goes much further than that."

Alex continued from where I left off. "You picked him up and took him in when he was stranded. Then you did the incredibly impossible thing by giving him a means to return home. Not saying it's impossible for you ponies, but it was impossible for us. Like days before he came around, we started to think about memorial arrangements. We literally lost our brother, and was given a second chance to be with him because of you. Do you not see the value in something like that?"

Rickey piggy-backed on Alex and said what he wanted to say. "Yeah. And who cares if it was just this one time? Sometimes our help's gotta come from somewhere else. I know you wanna take responsibility for everything he does and everything that happens to him. But you also have to realize that there will always be certain things out of your hands, hooves, whatever you ponyfolk say."

Cliff also threw in some words. "And your friend may be down on her luck, but you should see the fact that she's still among you. You went out of your way to find her, and though it took some dubious shit to get it done, you got her back anyways. I think you should look at it from the standpoint of everyone you know and love being present and accounted for."

We all turned to Stanton, who was just listening in. He looked back at all of us and shrugged his shoulders. "Man... I can't even add to that. They said everything that needed to be said. The only thing I can possibly throw in is that Zecora's stronger than you'd take her for. I mean I might not know from experience, but she seems like she'd be the main one who would probably be happy that she's not where she used to be. Like for example, did she look at you or anything when you came to visit her?"

"She smiled. But she was probably being brave for me. I know she's in a lot of pain right now." Twilight recalled.

"That's it though. When you got the ability to look at someone dead in the eye and try to smile at them even though you been through it all, that's the sure sign of a strong heart. I've seen people my age break bones and not even crack anything because they're so worried that their careers are over. But for her to crack a smile when she had all of that happen to her, you telling me that she ain't gonna top it? She got the satisfaction of knowing the main one who did it to her got hers in the worst possible way. Bug queen probably moping around now, her ass still locked up in the hospital thinking about that shit. I bet somewhere in the back of her mind, Zecora's like 'gotcha bitch'."

Alex stopped Stanton before he could say something else. "What he's trying to say is that she knows that justice was served. Just to shorten that last part down."

Twilight looked around to see the five of us surrounding her with smiles and encouraging words. She too shared her smile and felt a bit of relief. "You know what, you're right."

"Hell yeah, we are." Stanton blurted out, earning a smack to the back of the head by his older brother.

Twilight giggled as she watched the two brothers grow into their miniature spat. "What's so funny?" I asked.

"Yeah, I can tell that the three of you are definitely related. Nondis tends to be a bit cocky when he proves his point, not saying that I'm guiltless of being that way myself."

I tried to hide my own jubilation as I covered my mouth. "That's what makes him who he really is though. Sometimes he'll rub it in."

"Yes. All of it." Alex mumbled as he cosigned on my sarcastic footnote.

Twilight walked towards the bed as she continued to speak. "But that's fine with me. I love him for being that way, he's like the counter to everything I do. And I couldn't imagine my life without him." She hopped into the bed and pulled some of the sheets over his upper torso as she settled herself in. "My greatest gift for tomorrow is for him to wake up to me in the morning and say hello. He doesn't even have to get me anything else, just wish me good morning and I'll be the happiest filly in the world. The smallest things like that, that's what I really need." She leaned over to give him a kiss on the cheek and smiled down on him as she whispered in his ear. "Goodnight, my sapient prince."

Finished with piecing the futons together, Stanton passed them all out to each one of us to lie on. "Yup, that means it's bedtime for the rest of us."

While everyone picked their own individual spot on the floor, Rickey began to pray himself to sleep. "Now I lay me down to sleep─"

I could see that Twilight wasn't quite asleep yet and stopped Rickey where he was. "Seriously, don't finish that one off."

"Right, the waking part." He finally realized that the context of the prayer would be a bit too disturbing for the princess to hear, given all that had happened today. He proceeded to finish it to himself and lied down on the futon. "Goodnight."

Everyone had lied themselves down, each one of us slowly started to drift off to sleep. Twilight finally blew out the last candle that lit up the room, leaving us with only the pale moonlight filtering through the window. The room had gotten silent for the most part... that is until Stanton had to make fun of me.

"Mel's jealous."

I was quick to respond. "No shit, Sherlock. Now take your ass to sleep."

After I closed my eyes, the next thing I felt was someone's toes crumple into my back, causing me to jerk forward. "Ow!"

"Sorry." I heard a voice above me whisper.

I rolled over, trying to identify who it was that just assaulted my back with their sharp-ass toenails. Whoever the hell it was needed to be reacquainted with a fucking nail clipper. My vision was slightly blurred, seeing that there was barely any light outside. The sky was a royal blue, indicating that it wasn't quite sunrise just yet. The room was still dark, making it hard to see who exactly just walked up to the door and left the room. But as I sat up, I noticed that the bed was noticeably disrupted. One side of the bed was completely left in disarray.

Where the hell did Nondis go?

I quietly stretched and stood to my feet. Trying to navigate carefully through the maze of sleeping bodies, I walked out of the room and into the hallway. I crept through the halls, seeing maybe one or two guards tiredly patrolling the halls. I asked one of them where Nondis went, and they kindly informed me that he had left to the throne room for early morning conditioning.

Just what in the hell was he conditioning himself for?

Walking towards the throne room, the door was slightly cracked. Sneaking my way towards the crack I could see a shirtless Nondis pressing the ground.

"Thirty-seven... Thirty-eight... Thirty-nine... Forty..."

Just as he finished counting, he slapped one arm against his back and shifted his weight towards his right arm.

"Forty-one.... Forty-two.... Forty-three...."

Just sitting before me was Nondis planting himself up and down off of the floor. Though his pace seemed to have slowed a little, he didn't seem phased by the sudden change of weight. He started to sweat lightly, the muscles of his body glistening as the morning dew graced the grass outside. Every grunt and groan he made as I watched him pound the ground had me a little caught up. Before I could control myself, I was tilting my head in awkward positions to get a better view of the man.

I know I'm acting like a total teenage girl, but I see something I like.

He switched arms again, counting off from the number sixty-one.

"Sixty-two.... Sixty-three.... Sixty-four...."

Eventually, I bit my thumb as I stared at him doing his push-ups. The more he did, the more I thought about how awesome it would be if he'd let me crawl under him and count for him... in the opposite direction... with my face facing upwards... catching all the sweat dripping off of his body. I bet he smells musky as hell, all that sweat.

"Sixty-eight.... Sixty-nine...."

I wonder how it feels to have my throat fucked that way... WHAT THE FUCK AM I EVEN THINKING!?

"Seventy─AH SHIT!"

Without warning, he got up off of the ground like something was threatening his life. But what nearly scared me half to death was nothing more than him reacting to a leg cramp.

"Augh, fucking charlie horse!"

He stood on his feet quickly and stood straight as he stretched high into the air. For a few seconds, he was facing directly at the door, causing me to get a glimpse of the hair covering parts of his face and the sweat glazing his entire body. I could even see the scars and bruises that decorated his body. Looking towards his navel, I could see a thin trail of hair that pointed down from his waist towards his pelvic region. The way he was cut wasn't quite perfect, but I noticed that there was some semblance of a six-pack down there. I could see just where his waistline started to curve cut up into his abdominal region. And not to mention the noticeable bulge at the front of his shorts.

I can't even claim this, I'm so mad.

"Shit, should've stretched first." He mumbled to himself.

He started to stretch a little, pulling his arm across his chest. Next he spread his legs a bit and tilted his body from side to side. After that, he bent backwards a little, causing his pelvic region to stand out a little more. My eyes made a bee-line for the area of growth and my mind was thrown for a loop as I thought I saw a throb.

"Wow..."

He stopped stretching for a bit and looked back at the door I was peeking through. "What the hell?"

SHIT, I SAID THAT OUT LOUD! I stood in the gap of the door like a deer caught in headlights. For a second, I couldn't properly react, that is until my brain finally got past it's flatulence and sent out a command to quickly walk away. But to my misfortune, it had to come just milliseconds before Nondis' hands pulled the door open. "Mel?"

Double shit. "Hi! Good morning to you, sir!"

"What are you doing up so early?" He asked, oblivious as to what I was doing just a few seconds ago. At least he didn't notice that I was staring down his junk like a total creeper.

Hey, girls can be creepers too. Sexual tension works both ways. "Well gee, I don't know. It's like someone kicked me in the back or something."

Nondis looked at his foot and promptly realized that he was the reason why I'm here. "Ah... Sorry."

"I heard you the first time. But why are you up out of bed?"

He looked back down to himself and remembered that he was shirtless. After that, he quickly walked towards the throne with the purple star sigil emblazoned upon it and grabbed his shirt off of it. "I'm trying to make sure I'm still loose for the day. Gotta stay fit."

Goddammit, don't cover up! "As much walking around as you do, you think you're gonna gain pounds?"

"You never know." He answered as he finally covered up his chest. I'm still secretly hoping that his sweat can make that shirt somewhat see-through or form-fitting.

Seriously, I really need to stop perving out. "Okay... So I have a recommendation."

"Being?"

Could you pick me up and dry-hump me against this door in suspended congress? NO! "Could you please go back to bed? I know you're trying to do your whole morning routine, but can you not for once and just maybe chill?"

"Why, what's wrong?"

Ugh... I hate doing the right thing sometimes. It's just so boring. "Alrighty then, I guess we're gonna have to have a brief heart-to-heart. From guy to girl: Just roll with it. You have no idea just how much waking up to the one we love really means to us. Some mornings it could be the most wonderful thing to ever see, other times it could be the bane of our existence." The bane of my existence is not being the one in your bed, secretly doing naughty things with you underneath the sheets...

Okay I'll stop.

"Twilight always wakes up to me."

Sure she does, douchebag. "Yeah, but think about what all happened yesterday. I think she'd find your being in bed a lot better than breakfast in bed."

"Oh... I haven't really thought about that."

Of course you don't. You're daft as shit. I'm giving you the signals to BURY ME INTO THE FLOOR. Yeah, okay I'm really aggressive today, something inside of me is making me lose my mind. I think I've got a case of the morning dew. Either way, this is not about me. Fuuuuuuck. "Look, little mistakes like that could mean a lot to one's confidence. Just be careful."

"I'll keep that in mind." He said as he started to heed my warning and march towards the princess' bedroom.

As I was left in the room by myself, I could only fight with myself over how stupid I was for letting my hormones get the better of me in that immediate moment. Sex was the last thing he wanted from me and probably the last thing he was thinking about. Either way, I was somewhat astounded that he didn't stick around on his own. Why did he leave the bed so early?

"Damn, to think that he would've learned all of this from me way back when. Maybe he had something planned."

***Point of Perspective: Nondis***

Welp, there goes that idea.

I wanted to get my exercise out of the way so that I can focus on running through town and getting whatever I needed to surprise Twilight. The last thing I needed to be is swamped with an overabundance of testosterone and running through town with a chubbing semi. But since Mel managed to catch me and insisted that I spend the morning with Twilight, I'm not gonna refuse her advice.

So I lied quietly for about an hour and a half with my eyes closed, stayed another hour with them open towards the ceiling. And I didn't want to upset both Mel and Twilight by being away for the very moment she opens her eyes. Knowing that Melanie would never let me live that down, I decided that my best bet was to watch Twilight as she slept.

Watching a girl sleep while still dealing with a morning case of arousal. I feel like a total creep right now.

By sometime around seven forty-five, the purple alicorn princess finally opened her eyes and beheld them to me. "Good morning, your highness." I whispered.

Wiping the sleep out of her eyes, she yawned and stretched her hooves for me. "Good morning, captain. I didn't expect you to beat me to the punch."

"I went to bed a full three hours before you did. That's to be expected." Woke up a full three hours before you too, but I'm not gonna say anything about that.

"So... did you have a good night's sleep?"

No nightmares, I don't even remember dreaming anything. I guess it was good. "Don't know. Closed my eyes and the next thing I notice when I open them, it's morning. I swore I only blinked."

"Well that's a good thing. I had a weird dream."

"Why was it weird?"

"Because I dreamt that I woke up beside you. And then I actually woke up out of that dream to see you staring at me."

One bad Inception joke, coming right up. "But Twilight, don't you see? You haven't woken up yet. You're still in the dream matrix. You dove too deep! You have to wake up now!"

Of course, that joke panned. I could immediately tell when she used her magic to shove a pillow to my face. "You're such a jerk!"

"I used to be. But now I've gotten to the point where all I have to do is play around with you... And I usually end up getting off a lot faster." I joked, wrapping my arms around her.

Twilight glanced down underneath the sheets and silently gasped. She briefly bit her lip before trying to push herself away from me. "Okay. You need to chill."

Suddenly, I remembered just what Cadance had told me about the restrictions placed on Twilight's relationship with me. And the thought of that only made me a tad more frustrated. I still loved her, but just angry that I can't do anything dirty. I'll probably find a way around it. Meanwhile, I rolled my eyes and mimicked a tone disappointment. "Alright, I'm sorry."

I started to roll over and get out of the bed before my shoulder was held by a purple hoof. "No no no, where do you think you're going?"

"Taking my shower?" Because I haven't even scrubbed the sweat off of me from earlier.

She yanked me closer to her and buried her muzzle into my back as she spoke. "You showered last night, This is my time now."

"You do this every time I wake up." I groaned as I turned my head to her.

She climbed on top of me and planted her hooves on either side of my body as she used her magic to slightly turn my head a little further towards hers. "I don't care, now bring it over here."

She was awfully ambitious when she planted her lips against mine. I allowed her to do so as she shifted her weight into me. Our lips sounded with a loud smack, her eyes half-lidded as she focused directly on me. I closed my eyes, only to find a magenta glow underneath my eyelids, slightly pulling them open.

"You look at me when I'm kissing you, soldier." She commanded firmly with a seductive smirk.

"Yes, your highness." She's being awfully greedy for a girl that can't do much. I wanna do things to her, but know I can't because of that damn set of rings. But it's like she's teasing me on purpose, making fun of the fact that I can't even get in between her haunches for one good rub. Even her hooves started to wander south of the equator, exploring every inch of my abdomen just above my pelvic region. A quick breath was all I could afford as I felt myself stiffen at her touch. Even as I struggled to contain myself, she giggled as she continued to plunder my lips for every last ounce of flesh.

What a cruel dictatorship I find myself in.

"Apparently, you two need a room." Someone said while the others started to chuckle.

Dammit, I forgot they were in here. I separated and raised myself as I could see Stanton staring back at us. "Yeah, you're right. Get out."

Cliff stretched his arms as he raised himself off of the futon. "Bruh, I get you two cuttin' up and shit, but I need to know where the bathroom at. I got my own cuttin' up to do."

The next bit of laughter came from Twilight herself. "What are you laughing for?" I asked curiously.

She gave me a smug grin as she tapped me on the nose. "Oh, just that one time you called Shining your 'undying savior'."

"See, we're not even gonna talk about that." Why does she always have to bring up past dirt with me? I shook my head and politely instructed Cliff on where to go. "Down the hall, to the right. That room should be empty."

"Celestia's in that room." Twilight answered.

"To the left then?"

"Luna's in that one." She answered once more.

"At the end of the hall?"

"Cadance and Shining Armor's in that one."

Ugh, and goodness knows what kind of kinky stuff they get themselves involved in. "Uh, walk outside of the room and make a left turn and it should be the first door to the right─"

"That's the library."

Okay let's try this again. "First door to the left."

"That room's off limits." She responded with a flattened tone.

Okay, I give. "Shit... Just go to my old room."

Cliff stood up and started to walk out of the room before he paused and turned back to me. "Where's that at?"

Oh boy, okay... Let's see if I remember it correctly... "Go past the throne room, take a left, keep straight, room at the very end of the hall." Yeah, I think I got it.

"Shit, I gotta go across the whole goddamn castle?" Cliff moaned with complaint.

Yezzir. "That's the plan."

Cliff kissed his teeth as he walked out of the room. "Man, I'm gon' call yo ass if I get lost."

"Kay." I said, placing my attention back to the birthday girl in my lap.

She looked around with a slight blush in her cheeks as she saw the others looking at us. "I guess we should hold off on the morning pleasantries until we get everypony situated."

Not like this could get anymore awkward. "Agreed."

***Point of Perspective: Melanie***

Well, it looks like the birthday girl is happy she got her wish. Still...

HOLY SHIT, I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY WENT AND FULLY FUCKING MADE OUT LIKE IT WAS NOTHING! Oh my God, that was... different. I can't believe I watched that happen. I mean I saw it happen yesterday with that one bitch with the holes in her legs, but he was under a mind-control spell. This time, he did that shit like... 'Hey, just another Friday morning. Let me swap spit with my non-human girlfriend and damn near get my nut busted all over the sheets'.

Wow, I can't believe it. And she's just getting it like she's sporting a pair of human lips and tongue here. I mean, she's a fucking pro at it! She's very... human with the way she kisses. Oh damn, if that's how it's like when they kiss, then I don't wanna know how she gets when she's in the mood. Okay... A lot of things I'm gonna have to get used to here. They're engaged after all, and they're gonna do premarital shit like that all the time. And more than likely, I'm gonna have to be prepared to see more of it before the wedding.

But seriously, that kiss was all I could think of when I went back to our world and got in my car this morning. I've been stuck on it for the past two hours! I'm still trying to process that. Just how do two ponies go at it here? Or did Twilight learn how to kiss a human because Nondis had to teach her?

Okay, I'm asking myself way too many questions about this. I need to find a distraction─Oh look, a familiar face that isn't Twilight or Nondis! "Morning!"

It was her brother Shining Armor standing in the middle of the hall, seemingly going over a few things with one of the maids. "Oh, hey there! I wasn't expecting you."

"Yeah, I just got back from my world. Wanted to give Twilight a little gift so she can keep up with Nondis and the others." I said as I pulled out a plastic bag with an ATT GO-Phone, still in the packaging.

"A cell phone?" Shining quickly identified. Meanwhile the maid was staring oddly at the wrapped device.

"Well of course you'd know what it is. In speaking of which, how did you get yours?" I asked, genuinely curious as to how he managed to text us yesterday.

"Stanton gave it to me, He and Alex said that he wanted to give it to me so that I could keep them noted on how Nondis was doing and if he needed any help with anything."

Well then, it seems that Alex and Stanton was one step ahead of me. "Well, kudos to them for thinking so far ahead."

"Yeah, Twily was a little beside herself on how she wanted to deal with Chrysalis yesterday. Needless to say that she wasn't very open to letting you know what was going on."

"I understand. She was probably operating out of what Nondis would've done himself. I can come to terms that she'd try to think in his place." That's the only excuse I'm giving her. Other than that, what she did was a little reckless. I don't think we could take Nondis away from here unless it was REALLY a life-or-death issue, like if he's bleeding out and need medicine or something.

"Definitely, she was always one to act on example as opposed to acting on independent thought. Doesn't mean that she's incapable of it, but she tends to cave easy when it comes to doing things, for lack of a better way of putting it, by the book."

That explains a lot. Usually those who act solely on written knowledge struggle when it comes to critical thinking. And judging from all of the books she had on her nightstand, I can tell she's well-read to a fault. "Oh yeah. I can see she's a real reader. All those books in her room and she's got each of them bookmarked."

"That's my little sis alright."

You know, there are a few things I can see about her just by going into her room. And one of those things is that she's an intellectual who thrives off of learning experience. But when it comes to putting theory to practice, it doesn't really bode well. I almost think that the relationship she has with him is some sort of experiment. Maybe that's the jealousy talking, but it's also a bit of insecurity and worry. I know damn well that I have no place in questioning their relationship, but I just want to know one specific. What, beside him being human, is the thing that made her fall for him? "I can't help but wonder, why him?"

Shining grew bewildered from my question. "Why him what?"

"Why a human above all things? I mean, can't a pony be a bit easier to be with? I mean not that there's anything wrong with it, but wouldn't there be any other stallions who'd take interest?"

"Well... she had a crush before Nondis. It turned out to be one of my guards back at the Crystal Empire, who'll be here later today. And for a while, Cadie was all for getting him to be the one, you know, my little sister's first relationship." Oh shit, so Nondis is the first? I remember him telling me that but I didn't know it was actually legit. "He realized that she liked him, but he didn't... reciprocate the affection like she wanted him to."

"Okay, so what happened with that and why didn't he agree to stepping up?"

Shining looked at the maid beside us and nodded his head the other way. She smiled nervously as she bowed and galloped down the hall, leaving the two of us alone. "There's a little difficulty in being a royal and finding a suitor. Laws in place punish us for being frivolous in our interactions with our associates and guards. Even our citizens are shown red flags if we were to even come close to having a relationship with one. Friendships would be scrutinized heavily if there were any signals of an impending non-platonic bond."

"Really? So was it like... hard to get Cadance to marry you?"

"Oh that was easy. It was hard for her because she was the lineage of royalty I married into."

So he married into his title, that's a thing? "Oh, so you're married in? So how did you become a prince?"

"Like you said, I married in."

Well, apparently that is a thing. "Oh! So that's how it works here?"

"Yeah, are you surprised by that?"

Of course, not once have I heard of a man walking through the doors, marrying a princess, and being vested with power and riches. "Yeah! In many countries in my world, marrying into royalty was heavily one-sided. If you were a girl marrying into royalty, you'd get all the titles, the perks, the recognition, and the power of your being inducted into royalty. A guy marrying in, he wouldn't even get so much as a title, let alone the power and perks to come along with it. It's more of a 'congratulations, you've married someone way out of your league, good job'."

"That's discouraging." He said as he folded his ears back.

"Yeah, but that's the way it is. So long as the male produces sperm, he's a carrier of the lineage."

Shining shrugged as he spoke. "Yeah, that's not like us at all. If you're capable of giving birth or sowing seed, you're good to go. And plus, stallions are considered to be a hot commodity in our world. Mares outnumber us a total of four to one."

"OH GOD!" That is a huge gender discrepancy. I'm amazed that their species continue to exist at this rate. "I see why there's no discrimination. Populate the species so that the males can make a resurgence."

"Actually, our chromatic genes heavily favor producing females so that there are more of them to give birth."

So if there's four girls for every guy, then that must mean that their guys must have multiple partners. "So I take it that monogomy-based family units are a rare breed also?"

"In smaller towns like Ponyville, no. Larger cities like Canterlot, yes. If you ever met Blueblood, you'd know that he's a complete mare-hoarder. Even his seven wives will tell you."

Oh no. Hell no. I'd be in jail if I found out that I was 'number seven' on the list. That's like the ultimate show of disrespect to me, to even consider me as a mere seventh option? Oh yeah, somebody will be dying tonight. "Seven wives? Oh no, he would get killed if he came anywhere close to me."

"I take it that the females in your world are different then?" He asked.

"Yeah. First off, we outnumber the guys, but it's sitting at a ratio of forty-nine guys to fifty-one girls, out of a hundred of course."

Shining's ears perked as his face was wrought with shock. "Oh wow. That's a lot of males."

"Second, most of us are raised to feel that we are to remain wholesome to only one. So in many societies, it's seen as wrong when there's more than one partner involved. Some places and religions practice polygamy, but they don't hold out back in my home country."

The stallion prince gave me a slow nod. "Okay, that's another interesting fact."

"And third, we are selfish as hell. If we see another girl on our man, we're already sharpening knives, burning clothes, keying cars, taking our kids, and walking away from marriages with over sixty percent of the total assets. And don't even get me started on child support."

"Really???" Shining seemed completely floored from the bit of information I shared with him. I guess that was a bit of a culture shock for him. "And here I thought Cadance was overly jealous whenever I talk to one of the maids for over five minutes."

"Exactly how we are on a daily basis. I don't want no girl talking to my guy, getting all friendly with him if he's gonna start giggling and talking low."

Shining seemed to grow smaller as he looked at me. "Okay, I guess you and Cadie would be the best of friends."

"Yup..." Indeed, but lets get back to the main topic. "But since we're trailing back to her, what was so difficult about her getting married to you? I understand the lineage thing, but how hard could it be?"

Shining took a while to find his words before he could properly voice his opinion. Thankfully, it didn't take him too terribly long, as I was genuinely interested in what made it so hard for them to be together. "Well, I can say that from experience that maintaining the relationship can be a bit difficult. In the process of being engaged to the royal family member, or the Approval Process as we call it, we can enjoy our relationship under the strict principle of maintaining celibacy throughout the process, which can last as long as eighteen months, or as little as eight in Twily's case."

Okay, so there's a required waiting period for a marriage to be certified. Well that's pretty normal, unless you were already in the relationship prior to the start of this whole process thing. By that point, I can see how it can be a bit annoying. "Why so short for her?"

"Because my mom argued to Celestia that she didn't want any outrageous waiting periods for her daughter to get married. And because of an incident involving me, my mom was adamant in saying that she didn't want Twilight's fiance to endure such lengthy deployments."

Lengthy deployments? That sounds a bit fishy. "What happened with you?"

And to confirm my suspicions, he lowered his voice as he looked in every direction for possible eavesdroppers. "Well... If I can confide in you."

Okay, something tells me that this is going to be some pretty heavy shit. But I'm willing to learn more about what Nondis is getting himself into. "My lips are sealed."

He magically tugged my ear, urging me to come lower so that he could whisper in my ear. I knelt down to see him eye-to-eye. He then looked around the place one last time before he quietly told me his experience. "The parliament despises us. Anyone who's even up for suggestion are sent to long-term deployments or deadly assignments with low survival rates. I endured both... And to this day, I can hear my fellow guards screaming before their deaths. Even now, I am blamed for every last one."

Oh... wow... heavy was right. "They do this to you? Why?"

"We don't know. We know how the law came into place, but we don't know why they still support it. It's archaic, spanning the length of a millennium. And even now, they still practice it."

I started to look around myself, considering what I was told had ended up being some really controversial stuff. "Nondis is caught in this, isn't he?"

"Yes. He seems to get an overall positive response from the parliament. His recent victory over Chrysalis will only shore up more support for him. But as long as he pursues Twilight, he's seen as an adversary to a very powerful group of senators and representatives. They're gonna want him dead, but he's buying himself time. His being a human grants him this much advantage, but I fear how long it will last."

Okay, so the parliament is actually trying to kill him. As for the reason why, I can assume that it's because some guy is either xenophobic or envious that he can't get the princess in bed. Either way, Nondis is in trouble as long as this law is still in practice. But that brings me to question something. "So... none of you have tried removing this law?"

Shining gave out an exasperated sigh. "We still are. Even Nondis fights it of his own accord. Whatever he's planning, I'm going along with because he seems to invoke a response unseen by many in his position. I was Captain of the Royal Guard before him and haven't seen so much as a single round of applause. He made them cheer, chant, he made them believe in him. So our hope is shored on how long he lasts."

I have an even better question. "Does Alex and Stanton know about this?"

"Yes, I told them myself. And they elected to back him no matter the circumstances."

"Well that's good to know." At least his brothers know about what they're doing to him. And if something pops off, they know exactly who to look for when they start wearing their hunting gear. Hell, I might join them if they fuck with Nondis like that.

Shining quickly grabbed my hands with his magic, holding it in between his hooves. "I only ask that you show your support for you friend. He needs it now, and will need it all the more in the latter stages."

If anything, I'd be trying to kill the bastards who keep this law in place. Give me a gun, a name, and a visual description and I'll have it finished by the end of the day. Though this is politics, and I have a feeling that Nondis will be trying to play things slow. "Well, you've got my vote. I can't let them do whatever they want to you guys. And if Nondis is fighting for it, then I'm gonna be there to get his back."

He breathed with relief and smiled lightly as he expressed his gratitude. "That's nice to hear. Just knowing he has the backing of his friends makes me comfortable for his sake. And don't even get me started on how Twily feels."

I looked around a little bit as I urged him to come closer so that I could whisper back to him. "Um... If I may confide in you?"

"I'm listening."

I continued to look around as I spoke. "Before Twilight started getting all hugged up and wishing him good morning... I was kinda holding him in my hand for a bit."

Shining grew smug as he asked. "Oh, so you two have history?"

I cringed a little as I nodded to confirm his statement. "...It wasn't a very good one. I played my games and wanted to keep him at a distance. It took a huge wake-up call for me to realize that I made a huge mistake in not being honest with him. I guess you could say that I'm getting my fair shake of karma."

"So, one sided?" He guessed.

I continued to pour my heart out to the prince. "Yeah. It's almost like I miss him blowing up my phone every weekend. But since he's been on his adventures with her, I got a little jealous because it was almost like he didn't even look for me anymore."

Shining grew astounded, left in awe as I told him everything. "Do you accept that?" He asked, seeming intrigued.

"Well... my mom always told me that if I love someone, I should accept it if they were able to move on. It's better to have loved and lost than not love at all. Then again, my parents have been divorced since I was a little girl."

Shining backed away a little as he heard the news. "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

"Nah, my dad was a proverbial womanizer." I explained. "My mom is very happy she's back on the market. And though she tried to take care of me for most of my life, I started to see that she was being more liberal with whoever she associated herself with after I left for college. Now she's rolling full-steam ahead into cougar country. It's like she never left the dating scene."

Shining laughed as he started to think to himself, all while speaking out loud. "I know how that goes."

"Shining!"

Suddenly, there was the voice of his wife ringing through the halls. "Hold on for one second." The stallion requested as he began to shout back into the halls. "Yes, sugar plum?"

"I need your help in setting up the banquet hall! Please come by and lend me a hoof!"

The stallion prince groaned as he called back to her. "Cadie, I'm watching the door!"

"Shining Francine Armor!"

Uh-oh, middle name status means that he's in some serious trouble. I guess I should let him go. "I got you covered. Just tell me what to look out for." I said, hoping to offer him some sort of relief.

The stallion shook his head with thankfulness while he turned back to me with a visibly stressed expression. "Oh, you are a life-saver. Just make sure we don't have any suspicious-looking personnel walking through, anything like paparazzi, uninvited guards, stuff like that. You know who to look out for. If it's an unfamiliar face, you come get me and have them meet with me in the banquet hall. I'll decide on whether or not they can stay." He said at almost sixty miles-per-hour.

"Roger that." I responded with a salute, all before his wife's voice came booming through the halls one last time.

"BRIGADIER GENERAL SHINING FRANCINE ARMOR, YOU GET YOUR ASS IN HERE, STAT!"

He didn't hesitate that time. The hairs on his head stood tall just before he took off for the dining hall. Apparently she had him on a short leash whenever it came to doing stuff together. And by recent interactions I had with the two, she seems to be the dominant one in the relationship as opposed to him playing that role. I couldn't do much but giggle to myself as I watched the prince disappear into the halls beyond.

"Yup, she's got him whipped."

A while later, I managed to relocate the entrance lobby. My finding it made me realized that I only knew so little about this place. The only place I can navigate to and from is the throne room, the portal room, and this place. Even looking for the throne room this morning required the assistance of a guard, considering that I was coming from Twilight's room. Shit, even getting to Twilight's room was a hellish task in itself. But at least I know how to get there from the portal room.

This place is so huge.

Honestly, I started to pity any attendants and well-wishers if they didn't know the layout. Twilight's friends were pretty much one of the few who got this place down to the bolts and screws... if there are any. But unfortunately for me, I wouldn't be able to tell them where to go from here. I only got a hand-drawn map telling me where to find the dining hall, and I only have one of those. So whoever came by would have to wait while I go run each visitor to Shining for evaluation. Sounds tiresome, doesn't it?

Thankfully, no one came to visit yet. So I've been stuck here in the lobby for what seemed like an hour. But let's be real here, I was only there for fifteen minutes before I caught glimpse of some company. "Hey Mel."

At least it was Stanton, who's already been verified a long-ass time ago. "Hi." I responded lazily.

"What'cha doing over here?" He asked playfully, seeming as if he was mocking my appearing bored with life at the moment.

"Keeping a lookout for whoever decides to illegally put themselves on the guest list."

He quirked an eyebrow as he looked back at the door. "Okay... why?"

"Because we don't want Twilight's big day to be dragged out into the streets for everyone to see in their morning papers." We get enough of that from Hollywood. People, if you want to know about people's weddings, then get invited to one!

"Yeah, I forgot this was celeb status."

And considering yesterday's little bonanza, I don't think we'd want any of them to catch us out there. Well, hope Nondis is keeping them busy during his rounds of being out and about. "Of course everyone else came in before now, but it's been a while since the door last knocked." As if it's ever been knocked on in the first place.

"So kicking back and laying out is the better option as opposed to keeping a lookout? Wow, you could've let in all kinds of assassins and shit." Stanton joked.

"Oh if it was an assassin, you'd know it." I responded in deadpan.

"Of course, you'd be dead as fuck." He stated. "Place would look like a crime scene."

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

Well there it is, the first knock of the day. Hope it isn't some idiot with a shitty press pass and an expensive-ass camera because that shit will get broke. But there's one thing about this visitor that seemed to irk me a tad more than usual. "Jesus, whoever's at the door is really impatient." Stanton pointed out.

"Now I know this has got to be the paparaz─" Just as I reached out for the door, I noticed a lavender glow surrounding the door handle. And it just so happened that the next thing I saw was a wall of gold and wood rapidly making a beeline for my face. Next thing was a flash of white and a very painful smack against the left side of my face. "AAHHH!!!"

Dazed a bit, I fell on my backside and held my face to make sure that I wasn't bleeding or had something knocked out of place. Stanton was quick to see if anything had happened to me besides that. "Oh shit, Mel! You okay?"

As I was holding my face, I could hear sets of hooves clopping against the floor. One particular set was rhythmically faster than the other. "Ugh, I swear the unicorns around here are so slow!" A female declared with irritation in her voice.

"Could be earth ponies, dear. But it never hurts to be patient." A male voice called out after hers.

"I have been patient enough! Now I do intend to see my two favorite candidates mushing up today."

Stanton saw that I was a bit preoccupied to pay attention to whoever walked in the lobby. He walked up to the pair and tried to halt their progress. "Uh... excuse me for stopping you─"

The female voice then shouted loudly at Stanton. "NONDIS! Just who I wanted to see!"

"Wa-whut?" Stanton said, just as confused as I was.

"That's right, you! Now I demand to know just how things have been going for the two of you."

I pulled my hand off of my face to see a blue unicorn stallion holding a camera and a purple book. "I'm sure it's been quite progressive without your ramming in, dearest."

The female apparently was a gray unicorn mare with a white and purple mane. "I don't just ram in, that's rude! I announce myself as I enter, that's how you're supposed to do it."

Obviously, I'm gonna have to put my check-up on halt, these two are holding cameras. "Um, are you looking for Nondis?" I asked before the mare dashed up to me in a gray and purple blur.

"Well I'll be covered in pillows and fluids! Crescent, look at this! ANOTHER HUMAN!" She announced as she gave me a squeeze.

The stallion rubbed his chin with intrigue as he looked at me. "Indeed... though I find that the chest is a bit different."

Again with this? I never felt comfortable with guys staring at my boobs, no matter the species. But now I can expect this to be the common question that will be asked, alongside the issue of Big Momma Celly's mane. "Yes, I am a human FEMALE. How can we help you today?"

The stallion looked enthused as he stared at me some more, not that I wasn't uncomfortable enough. "Did you hear that, Velvet? A female human, get Nondis over there to mate with it and we might see more of the little humans running around!"

Now things were really awkward. Stanton cringed as he tried to explain to them their mistake. "I really don't mean to rain on your whole parade here, but I'm not Nondis."

"Why of course you are, you're not fooling anypony." The gray mare said with a laugh.

The stallion looked at Stanton and started to piece together the differences. Though the three of them has some facial features that are borderline identical, they don't share haircuts. "Does Nondis keep his hair this short?"

The gray mare still refused to give up on misidentifying the man. "Mane stylists are a bit for every bunch. Though I would like to question─"

"My name is Stanton." He said, finally putting a rest to the theory of him being someone else. Then he pointed back at me. "And this is Nondis' childhood... foalhood friend, Melanie."

I could see the stallion taking a breath to ask a question, but was quickly silenced by the gray mare who continued to squeeze me like a squeak toy. "FOALHOOD FRIEND!? You were friends with Nondis since the blossoming days of your youth!?"

"We only met in high school." I answered, struggling to breathe a little.

"How long has it been?" She asked.

"About seven to eight years." Her grip was INCREDIBLY strong for a creature being almost half my size.

At last, she removed her hooves around from my back and neck, allowing me to breathe like normal. But then used her magic to stand me up and grab my hand before trying to drag me down the hall. "Good enough for me! Let's walk!"

The stallion walked up to her and grabbed her attention before she really got going. "Velvet, I'm sure that the human lady is expecting, you know, something imperative."

"OH! Goodness me. Melanie, Stanton..." She paused for a moment as she stared at the human on the other side of the room. "You look so much like Nondis, I could swear that you were kin to him."

He smiled nervously as he spoke. "Yeah, but we would like to know if you were to take any photos─"

"That reminds me!" The gray mare exclaimed as she looked to the stallion. "Crescent, did you grab the camera?"

"It's right here." He answered. "Do you want me to take a picture of you and the female human?"

"Can we get names first? I really don't mean to come off as rude!" I said, trying to get some formalities out of the way before having to kick them out. Honestly, these two are starting to give me a headache. And I'm still trying to feel if my face is somehow disfigured from earlier.

The gray mare let go of me as she walked besides the blue stallion, introducing themselves. "Oh dear, I am so sorry for that. But in case you haven't heard already, my name is Velvet. My husband here is Crescent."

"I also believe that you bashed the door in for her head. She's still holding on to it, the poor thing." Crescent stated while pointing towards me.

"Ah! You are absolutely right! Come here, dear!"

Oh no! I gotta get the hell out of here fast before she squeezes me to death again. "Um... I'm okay now."

And of course, running wouldn't do any good if she uses her magic to hold me in place while her hooves nearly crush my thighs. Holy shit, is she part boa constrictor? My legs are going to fall asleep at this rate. "Why I am so terribly sorry for causing you harm! I really didn't intend for you to get hurt. Please don't report me to the authorities again!"

Okay, now that third one was from way left-field. "Say what now?"

"I didn't mean to strike at you with purpose. I was just frustrated from all the recent commotion and the delayed trains that I couldn't hold it anymore. I harbor no ill-feelings or intentions towards you." She said as she tightened her grip around my legs. I think I was going to faint from the sudden buildup of pressure.

"Help?" I squeaked out.

"Humans are classified as a protected species. And as such, unlawful contact would result in severe consequences." Crescent explained. That wasn't quite the help I wanted, but that's a nice bit of info.

"Oh... We gotta be protected?" Stanton asked.

"Well of course! You humans are not only from another world, but also considered as undiscovered in ours... well prior to Nondis showing up."

"I see."

WILL YOU TWO PLEASE FUCKING HELP ME!?

She continued to tighten her grip on my legs, and I'm just on the verge of breaking both of my femurs. "Please find it in your heart to forgive me! I can't go to the dungeons again! Do you know what they'll do to mares like me in the dungeons?"

"Dearie, they don't do anything to you in the dungeons." He responded with a bored tone.

"EXACTLY! Strapping young-blooded stallion guards all just walking up and down the halls, paying you no sort of mind." Lady, I think your priorities are mixed up... And second off, WHAT!?

Stanton looked from Velvet to Crescent, and then back to Velvet before asking the mare. "You're married to him, right?"

The stallion gave him a nudge as he laughed loudly. "Of course we're married! She just wants more daughters to give away and I'm perfectly fine with that. Shining and Violet both have been so much of an experience for us that we just had to have another. Of course I made it quite clear that I would not be footing the milk for the batter. Twice was more than enough, especially with their magical surges and arcane outbursts. That'll be the last time I turn into a cactus."

"Well, I can't help that you and I broke the mold twice. And it sure doesn't help that Shining hasn't given us a grandfoal yet. I mean the nerve of him, how dare he chooses to be so selfish!"

You know, I may be slowly losing consciousness, but I know for certain that I hear Shining's name thrown into the mix. So if I may ask... "Who's Violet?"

The mare finally released my legs as she explained who the second name belonged to. "My daughter! You mean to tell me that you're in this castle and you haven't met my dear little Twilight Violet?"

I tried my best to keep my balance as I felt the blood rushing back to my legs. "I know a Twilight Sparkle, but I don't know anyone by the name of Violet."

"Well if I may be so formal as to properly introduce myself to you. *ahem* I am Twilight Velvet Sparkle. My daughter is Twilight Violet Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship. She wears the bangs like I do, but mine ends with a curl as opposed to a cut. Our color schemes are different, as for the reason why I named her Violet." Velvet explained, stating that the purple mare that locked lips with my best friend was actually her daughter.

You know, that makes plenty of sense considering how this lady was acting and how Twilight acts with Nondis. Sexually aggressive, flirty, demanding, smug, outspoken, everything. The only difference is that Twilight's a lot less liberal with her relationships, though not by choice. Makes me wonder what kind of girl Twilight would be if she wasn't the princess of a nation. I can only imagine just how freaky they'd be.

"These are her parents... She's her mom..." I slowly stated.

Stanton pointed to Crescent. "He's a cuck."

The stallion chuckled heartily as he tapped on his leg. "Oh, I'm far too advanced in my age where I can handle another night with her. You see, I'm more into watching the cute little faces Twilight makes when she's teetering on the precipice of an oblivious experience. After all, I made a vow: her joy is my satisfaction."

You know, being that this is the first time I heard Twilight called by another name, I can only imagine the situation forming out to be some weird incestuous voyeur fetish that this guy has. Watching Twilight have sex and masturbating to it from the other side of the room. One particular song placed out of context would just turn this into a fucking nightmare...

I loved her first, I held her first
And a place in my heart will always be hers.

...Oh dear God, I had to imagine it. I need serious help.

"This is interesting." Stanton said slowly, probably thinking along the same train of thought as I am.

Meanwhile, Velvet had different ideas. "I'll say! A human female, and Nondis' best friend at that! You and I have got to chat, my dear!"

As soon as her magic glowed around my hand, I tried to think of something that would get me out of going with her. "Ohhh... Wellll... As much as I'd like to, there's this thing I'm supposed to be doing right now─"

"My good sir... Stanton was your name?" She asked him, who responded with a nod. "Great! Please do watch for the press at the door. Last thing I want is a nosy reporter trying to be invasive."

"Not like you aren't already, dear." The stallion quipped.

"Crescent, we've talked about this."

Walking beside his wife, he gave her a kiss on the cheek as she dragged me along for the ride. "Yes, you're the one to be invaded."

"Smart old bug you are." She responded with a wink.

"You've always called me that."

Obviously I was not going to get out of this no matter how much I pleaded. The only way that I'd be able to do anything like that is to saw my own arm off. And even then, I'm pretty sure she'd drag that and me along regardless. She was going to have her time with me, and apparently I didn't have a choice in the matter. The most I could do was drop the map to the dining hall for Stanton to see before I disappeared into the halls.

He gave me a wave before I disappeared. "I'll keep an eye out, Mel! Good luck with your... talk!"

One Hour Later...

Guests eventually began to slowly sift into the castle. Stanton stood guard by the door as more friends, associates, and even his older brother made themselves known. Of course, there were the occasional groups of reporters that tried to ask him questions, but were frequently turned away without answers. Reporter traffic especially skyrocketed just a mere two minutes after Nondis returned.

The last reporter tried to pass themselves as a childhood friend of the princess. But it only took Stanton asking them for Twilight's middle name before they got bounced from the scene. Of course there were a few that he managed to argue with before finally allowing them access to the castle. One of those ponies he tried to boot were very insistent in paying the princess her respects. He later found out that she was actually the mayor of the town as opposed to a party crasher. And as a result, he promptly apologized while personally walking her to the dining hall.

After returning, he heard another knock on the door. Upon opening it, he was greeted by two unicorn stallions that appeared to be advanced in their years. "Yes, how may I help you?" He asked the two stallions.

"Well look who it is to greet me at the door! Captain Nondis, it's quite a pleasure to see you." Senator Count responded while trying to mask the sarcasm in his voice.

Eventually, the human acknowledged that he would be correcting several ponies in the midst of his watch. "Captain Nondis is upstairs. My name is Stanton, how may I help you?"

The stallion immediately corrected himself. "Oh, well you know how it is. It's always hard to tell you humans apart. And to think I was going to complement you on your new haircut."

Stanton was not too amused in hearing the assumption that all humans looked the same. He grew highly critical of the two stallions standing at the front door. "Thanks, what are you here for?" He responded with a slight tone of frustration.

The two stallions levitated their gifts as the intern spoke on behalf of his superior. "We're here to offer our respects to the princess on yet another year of success."

"Yes, another year that entropy marches onward to claim our mortal flesh. Isn't it exciting?" Stanton mumbled.

"That's a grim outlook on things... but yes." Senator Count answered back, unsure what to think of his statement. "I am Count DuMonee, and this here is my young associate Single File. The both of us are workplace associates to the princess. We have a third, but he's currently lagging a bit behind. He's off using the lavatory in one of the nearby venues."

"You look like press." Stanton outwardly stated, already placing himself in a position to block the door.

Single File smiled innocently as he turned back towards the senator. "We can assure you that we aren't. Actually, the one who's absent for the moment happens to know the princess personally."

Stanton folded his arms, already setting aside a list of questions that he would ask. "Is that so?"

The senator looked back as he saw a purple figure running down the road at full speed. He breathed a sigh of relief as he shouted to the approaching figure. "Quite. Spike, come introduce yourself!" Senator Count said as he turned back around to face a small reptilian-like creature walking on two's. Stanton knelt down to analyze the creature as it approached him. With a bow, the young drake introduced himself.

"It is an honor and a privilege to meet you... mister uh..."

"Stanton?" Deadpanned the human.

"Yeah! My name is Spike. I'm Twilight's number one assistant, and I have held true to that title for over ten years."

Immediately, he started off with the number one question that he wanted to ask. "What's her middle name?"

"Violet, Twilight's mom named her Violet so that they could differentiate between the two at the dinner table or in discussions." Stanton was about to ask another, but Spike continued to list off more details of the pony in question. "Her mane doesn't end in a curl because Twilight has a major mane-chewing habit that she's reverts to whenever she's nervous or stressed. She has a pet owl named Owlowiscious. Her favorite color is blue. She's obsessively compulsive. She prefers her books on the first and third weeks of the month to be sorted by alphabetical order, and by the decimal system on the second and fourth weeks. Fifth week, she sorts out the books by genre, author and has them shelved by a reverse index system."

Stanton was left in dead silence for a few seconds as he gave a single nod. It was obvious that the young dragon knew her quite well. After a while, he pulled out his phone and started to text his oldest brother. "Yup, she's a bookhorse alright. Guess Alex owes me twenty bucks." He stated proudly before turning his attention back to the young dragon. "Well you seem like you really got her down to a science."

Spike walked into the foyer and pointed towards the hall to the left of the stairs. "Science lab is down this hall, make a right, downstairs into the basement, and the first door to the left."

Again, Stanton was shocked by his knowledge. In actuality, he envied the young dragon for his attention to detail. "And you know this place inside out. Where the hell were you this morning? I got lost somewhere in the castle and I couldn't, for the life of me, find my way back to the throne room. Hell, I'm happy to have found the front door!"

Spike giggled as he offered some advice. "It takes some getting used to. If you memorize Twilight's pattern of organization, you'll find that the layout is a lot less inconvenient."

Stanton couldn't argue the dragon, he knew way more about her than he knew for himself. Much of what Spike told him was nothing but revelation after revelation. And being that the others were considered to be co-workers, he wasn't going to deny them either. "Well I'm not gonna argue that. Since you know your way around, I'll leave you to finding the birthday girl on your own."

"Sure thing. Thanks for opening the door for us." Spike responded while holding his fist out for a bump.

Stanton grew amused by the dragon's charm and gave him a fist bump. "No prob, little dude. Do what you do."

The party of three quietly walked to the upstairs hall and made a turn towards the library. Senator Count silently mumbled to his intern. "Nondis is a fool for having him at the door. Monkeys aren't as smart as he plays them off to be."

"He doesn't look like anyone we've seen. I've seen what they all look like, and that's not one of the ones I've seen before." Spike stated as he pulled a dusty key from behind one of the crystal pillars.

"A new addition?" Single File questioned.

"Obviously, he's gotta be." Spike said with a scoff.

"Well no matter, we're here to make our grievances known." Senator Count said as pulled out a scroll with a blood-red seal emblazoned upon it.

"You memorized the floor plan, right?" Spike questioned as he handed the older stallion the key.

"I don't think I'd be here without doing so." He stated, turning towards his intern, who removed a folded map from within the crack of his present. "And even then, we have a secondary reference."

Spike looked both ways to make sure that they weren't being followed or looked at. Applejack and Rainbow Dash could be heard talking in the distance. As Spike pushed the two stallions out of view, the two mares walked past the hall while giggling and whispering to each other over how Twilight would react to their gifts. He grew silent as his heart became heavy while he watched them pass by.

Deep inside of him, he realized that there would be a part of him that he would never be able to recover if he went through with the plan, but acknowledged that one indirect circumstance would be easier to explain as opposed to being a direct reason. It was a risk that yielded the possibility of him not being able to return to his normal life. But it was a conclusion that was drawn out long ago when he ultimately decided that Nondis had to be out of the picture for him to live his normal life again.

With a coldness in his chest, he swallowed his hesitation and turned back to the two stallions. Pointing towards a door down the hall, he spoke to the two. "My room is just in front of the library, you guys can hang around in there until I tell you to come back out. Be sure not to be seen by anyone, and keep the door locked until you hear my voice."

Spike started to walk off as the two made their way towards the room. "Where are you going?"

"There are a trio of scents that I have grown to sniff out over the past few years. Honey suckle, fresh powder, and vanilla."

Single File waited as Senator Count unlocked the door. As the older stallion entered, he remained outside a little longer to question the dragon. "Alright then. Any particular reason why you would single out those three scents?"

"Because any combination of them would usually result in one pony in particular."

"I see." Single confirmed as he snuck into the room behind his superior. "I wish you the best of luck on your search. At the very least, your part in this operation is almost done."

"I know. Now if you would excuse me... I've got a new look to show off."

Spike took a deep breath as he closed his eyes and envisioned the mare of his desire. His claws began to dig into his palms and his muscles grew stiff all throughout his body. As she plagued his mind, he started to see himself standing above her, looking down to her as he held her from behind, embracing her with a tender hug and a soft kiss to the neck. His breath became heated as he also saw the image of the human standing before him, watching with a jealous frown. The dragon became enthused as he imagined the mare staring up to him, holding him as opposed to defending the human again. A toothy grin was all he gave the human in retaliation.

Upon opening his eyes, his arms was drastically longer. His legs were slender and taller. His chest was slightly more pronounced as his stomach was flattened. His claws were the length of small kitchen knives as he extended them. He then stood at a formidable five feet, six inches. He towered over any pony he would stand next to, even over that of Celestia herself. His voice was several tones deeper as he turned his attention to the hall Applejack and Rainbow Dash walked through. With a smile of confidence and a new swagger that made him seem as if he was glowing with charm, he marched towards the smell that graced his enlarged nostrils.

"My Rarity awaits."

Author's Note

And we're off.

So I've been wondering how to bring Velvet back to the story for... reasons. I kinda have fun writing her and I was laughing up a storm when I first wrote her back in the earlier parts of the story. I guess this would be my primary means of bringing her back, but this time as an additional element to Shining's development. Now the question you're all wondering: Why in the world does she have a mugshot?

Lo and behold, the dragon has entered the ring. Spike has finally learned to control his rage and passion to maintain a form that is capable of showing a physical presence as opposed to being his normally cute and small self. As for the reason why he won't grow any higher than that, it will be explained in a later chapter.

Of course, I kinda had Stanton to hold the idiot ball, but only because he (nor Alex) knows anything about Spike up to this point. And if Senator Count revealed that he was a senator, it would jeopardize their entire operation. As for all what the operation entails, you will have to keep reading to find out.

But now that there are so many elements in one place, how will it all play out? The only way to find out is to read the next chapter.

I can assure you that it will be interesting.

Chapter LIX

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

A half-hour has passed since I've managed to return from town. My outing resulted in a fruitful outcome of a large bouquet of white roses and tulips. Unfortunately the reds were all bought out by a local funeral home for a future ceremony. And the pinks were all bought out by everypony in town to send to Zecora for her well-wishing. So I was left with a choice of orange, white, and yellow. I didn't see how orange would fit with her, and yellow would've been a bit off of what I wanted to say. So white was my final offer. Thankfully, I was still with finance afterwards to buy a large box of chocolates.

I wanted to also buy her a book, but I figured with the size of her library, she'd probably read every written tome and grimore in this world's existence. Well so much for my Plan-A. I guess Plan-B would work just as fine and I could nab a book from my world tomorrow. I can't really afford to tax what little time there is left in the afternoon.

*BZZZZ BZZZZ BZZZZZZ*

The slight vibrations of my right pocket indicated that I was getting a phone call. As I looked on the screen, I noticed an unusual Austin number. Of course it isn't telemarketers or I'd be seeing an area code from a different state. I guess I'll see who it is. "Hello???"

"Hi! Oh my gosh, it actually works!"

My ears quickly picked up the sound of a certain young female expressing her irrational exuberance over the fact that her cell phone works. Can't be no one else. "Twilight, is that you?"

"Yes! Melanie managed to get me a new phone! Isn't that great!?" She responded, seeming all the more excited over being able to get in contact with me like this. Then again, I can remember anyone from when I was still in middle school expressing the same amount of joy. The thrill of being in the small-but-growing cell-phone circle was something that any sixth, seventh, or eighth grader could relate to. I was relegated to getting my first TracFone my freshman year. It was great at first, but then I started to see what all I couldn't do that everyone else could do.

Uh oh, I hope Mel got her something decent. "Yeah, that's great!"

"I already have your number locked in as well as Melanie's, Stanton's, Alex's, Cliff's, Rickey's, and Sunset's! I can't wait to start getting text messages from you!"

Oh yeah, very much like a teenager with their first phone. "Hey, don't rush the texting thing. It might take some getting used to!" I warned, trying to explain to her that texting wasn't really for everyone.

"Hold on, I'll send you one right now. I call you back in a second."

Before I could speak, three beeps indicated that she had already hung up. I was about to call her back when she sent me a rushed message to my inbox.

Sender: 1-(512)-982-3314
Received: 3:12 pm

ffibu afdsb iuF EVIY efiuof eo iune fbyu

So... she might not quite understand the texting method. It's easy to operate cameras and swipe at screens, but the texting thing is a totally different thing. Also, it looks like she was just mashing at buttons. She then called me again to speak to me.

"Did you get it?" She questioned happily.

"Yeah, did you use your hoof to text me?"

She paused for a moment before finally answering in a shy voice. "...Maaaaaybe..."

"Use your magic." I bluntly suggested.

"I can't, using my magic directly causes the screen to go all wonky!" She explained. Perhaps the screen hasn't been properly calibrated to a magical aura, especially considering that magic is ever-constantly moving.

"Then use your feathers." I offered.

"Okay... give me a second."

She hung up on me again as took the opportunity to lock her into my phonebook. The next message wasn't as quick, and it was slightly more legible in contrast to the last one she sent.

Sender: Twilight Sparkle
Received: 3:14 pm

Typng ziso ahrd usign winsg.

I giggled to myself as I realized that she was actually using her wings as fingers to type on the screen. I shook my head and texted her back.

Receiver: Twilight Sparkle
Sent: 3:14 pm

You'll get used to it.

Meanwhile Downstairs...

"I'm a famous journalist with a Pulblizer Nomination! You can't do this to me!"

"Well I nominated your ass to go somewhere else! Now get!"

"You'll pay dearly for this!"

Stanton stood at the door, watching two other guards escort a fiesty pegasi stallion from the front door as he mumbled on about his credentials. The human shook his head as the pegasi continued to struggle with the two guards who escorted him five hundred yards away from the castle grounds.

Shining approached from the upstairs hall as he noticed the tail-end of the human's situation, growing more curious as he saw him slam the door shut. "Stanton? What are you doing here?"

"I'm playing the bouncer. I've already kicked out several idiots with press passes who think they have these special privileges to talk to Nondis about the shit that happened yesterday."

Shining sagely nodded with acknowledgement. "You didn't answer any questions for yourself?"

"Not really, I just asked them why they were here. And if I found out that they were press, I'd ask if they could leave. Besides, if I answer anything, Nondis would probably have my ear sent off to my head coach for ransom."

The stallion chuckled as he stared back at the door. "Did you catch any unruly ones?"

"One bullheaded reporter from a place called Canterlot tried to shove his head through the door. I ended up showing him an example of how far I can throw. The thing that was so hard about it was that he was a pegasi, so he tried to fly his way in after."

"Did he get far?"

"No. I had to be a little more physical with him. So I apologize if you get any rumblings or headlines of how humans have specified weaponry to disable ponies."

Shining grimaced a little as he expressed his concerns. "You didn't shoot him, did you?"

"Only with a stun-gun, nothing lethal."

The alabaster prince felt himself relax as he heard his answer. "That's a relief."

"No, I'm not gonna kill anyone and cause a problem for the administration. That's Nondis' job. In speaking of which, you here to take over?"

The stallion quickly shook his head. "Nah. Cadie told me of a very particular pony who wished to be in attendance today. I'm on my way to the market, wink, to pick up some precious cargo, wink wink."

Stanton was quick to pick up on what he was referring to, and followed the stallions example by not speaking the name out loud. "So what's the shipping costs look like?" He asked, referring to how much he'd have to bribe the overseers.

"For something that would give Twily a big boost for her big day, it pays for itself. As soon as I get back, I'd expect you to gently escort her to the dining hall."

"Can do." The human confirmed just as another knock came at the door.

Shining, who was already on his way out, walked towards the door. Upon opening the door, he quickly identified who was at the door. "Blueblood?"

The blond-maned prince proudly stepped forward into the foyer and teased Shining. "And you thought that I would not show up and make my presence known!? HA! You really are a riot, Shining Armor."

"And you're a bit of a dickweed. What are you really doing here?" Asked the younger prince with a lack of amusement.

"We're royals, we stick together." Blueblood declared as he draped his foreleg around Shining's neck. "I wouldn't designate my company with any of the other rift-raft floating about Canterlot."

"Oh please, what's the real reason?" Shining asked through a forced smile.

The blonde-haired stallion walked away from the younger prince and waved at his wives to move ahead. "Ladies, I would like to have you make your way to the dining hall, please. We're going to have a bit of stallion talk."

As the seven mares walked by Stanton, they looked at him with astonishment. "He cut his hair?" One of the wives asked to the others.

"Too bad, he almost looked cute with all of it on." One of the other wives stated with a scoff.

"I'm not the guy you gals are talking about. He's upstairs." Stanton clarified, once again realizing that they had him confused for his older brother.

The seven mares all oh'd in unison as they looked to one another with embarrassment. The group quickly trotted off to prevent the moment from becoming any more awkward. Meanwhile, Shining continued to question the visiting prince.

"So again, why are you here?"

Blueblood began to whisper as he walked closer to Shining. "We have a situation. The parliament made a summons for our bastard of the month."

Shining's eyes grew for a moment. "What? Why?"

"Apparently, the ones on the far-right were unsatisfied of hearing that Chrysalis was spared. And being that a certain group of representatives have the power and say, the standing majority voted for a deployment."

"That's bullshit!" Shining hollered out, suddenly gaining the attention of the human standing nearby. He then took caution and kept his voice low. "Deployment, where?"

"Between you and I, Shining, I say that they're going to get him involved in the worst situation overseas. Either that or probably the most dangerous territories in all of Equestria. They're going to do what they can to have him 'prove his loyalty' and come back a broken husk."

Shining began to express his frustrations once more. "Shit... We've gotta block that summons."

"It's already been shipped out. I tried to get one of my wives to be the carrier, but the sealed document was said to have left the city in the early morning hours. Someone with the authority and paperwork had to have removed the document themselves."

Shining glanced back to Stanton, who was pointing towards the upstairs hall, informing Blueblood's wives where the dining hall was located. A guard picked up from where he showed them to escort the group to the hall. Shining quickly asked his questions before Stanton could intervene. "Who do you think it is?"

Blueblood rolled his eyes as he droned. "Who else would it be? Senator Count is said to be the main one who called for a summons in the first place. He must be trying to get that piece of parchment to Nondis before the sun's setting."

Shining kicked his foreleg with frustration as he turned back to Blueblood. "Dammit. What should we do?"

"The best thing to do is to resume as normal. If we show signs of our knowing this, he will try to strike sooner than expected. We'll pose our increased security checks as a lookout for the fine fellow that tried to barge himself in here just moments ago. I can only hope that the castle's layout would prove to be a deterrent should he find himself inside of here."

The human finally reached the two stallions as Shining quickly turned to him. "Stanton, quick, did anyone come in here aside from family and friends?"

Stanton lightly tapped his foot as he started listing everyone off he let in. "Um... the mayor. Two workplace assistants, one little guy who apparently knew the place inside out."

Shining took a quick second to think about the list of possibilities. But the one that stood out to him the most was the mention of someone who knew the layout of the castle thoroughly. Only one name came to his mind. "...Spike."

"Last I checked, he was doing some errands for Senator Count last night." Blueblood confirmed.

"Wait, Senator Count?" Stanton questioned.

"His full name is Senator Count DuMonee. He's a far-rightist with an agenda that's borderline fascist. He's also a complete xenophobe with no regard to equine decency. May often refer to you humans as derogatory labels." Blueblood explained.

Stanton tapped his finger against his chin as he let the name marinate in his thoughts. "Count DuMonee...." But before he could make out a face, the name was something that he heard recently. More specifically, that name came along with a small creature that knew the place inside-out. He felt an overwhelming sense of defeat as he slapped himself on the forehead. "AWWWW SHIT!"

The two princes quickly glanced at each other with concern. Shining proceeded to plan on his hooves while he made his way out to town. "Blueblood, if you see that bastard running around here, I need you to kick his ass out."

The blond prince bowed to the other as he heeded his request. "I shall see to it that my presence is very much valued."

The blue-maned stallion galloped out of view as Stanton shouted out to the departed prince. "Shining, I'm sorry!"

He then felt a hoof tap against his leg, accompanied by a voice. "Personally, I won't blame you. But I do think you need to hold that apology for your brother once you see him." Blueblood stated. "Meanwhile, leave the front door to me. You go look around the castle and see if you can find Spike. He's the one you need to worry about"

Stanton gave a single nod as he walked off. As Blueblood started calling out guards, the human pulled out his new cell phone and quickly tapped into his recent calls list. Though there was only one number on it, he punched it like it was most important one. The line rang for a few seconds before a voice answered on the other end.

"Alex, I fucked up. We've got a problem."

Back on my side of the castle, there seemed to be very little disturbance outside of a few giggles and whispers, raised by none other than a giddy fashionista who walked towards the room I changed within. Rarity looked on either side of the halls before she knocked on the door. A devious smile showed on her face as she quietly spoke into the door. "Nondis, I'm hear with your new clothes."

"Give me a sec." I announced as I tried to cover myself a bit after I stripped out of my clothes. Grabbing my jeans, I hopped and skipped in my attempts to keep the mare from waiting too long. I opened the door to see her levitating my new outfit beside her. When I reached out for it, she drew her magic field back and the clothes along with it.

"All of that being shy, why don't you let me bring this in to you?" She teased devilishly.

I smiled back as I extended a hand out to her horn, causing it to quench her levitation spell. With quick reflexes, I planted my hand out to catch the clothes she carried over before they could hit the ground. "Cause I said so."

Rarity didn't seemed too thrilled at my desire to keep her flirtatious advances at a distance. Unfortunately, I wasn't in the mood to play around with her and then clean myself up for the birthday girl. Today wasn't that kind of day. I gave her my sincerest thanks before I closed the door behind me and started changing.

The seamstress wasn't at all pleased. "So rude." She said with a frustrated scoff. "The nerve of him, I try to assist him in his wardrobe and he doesn't even give me the satisfaction of seeing if he's wearing anything correctly! It's a certain order to that outfit that pulls it off just right, I can't just have him wearing anything all willy-nilly. HMPH!"

The mare pouted as she turned her tail high into the air at the direction of the door. She closed her eyes, stuck up her nose, and groaned a little more before a voice suddenly called out to her. "Rarity?"

The voice seemed unfamiliar to her, causing her to turn her attention to the direction where she heard her name being called from. Her ears flicked once as she tried to hone in on the source. "Who's there?" She called out, trying to get the voice to call back out for her. Instead, she heard a slight scraping noise coming from behind one of the massive crystalline pillars. She slowly crept up to the left side of the hall as she tried to summon yet another response. "I know that you're over here..." Her ears confirmed as she started to hear another light scrape against the ground, indicating that someone had backed away somewhere. But she was far too keen on her senses as she pounced out and met with her summoner. "AHA!"

The large purple figure that towered above her caused her jaw to drop and her eyes to expand. Her curiosity became fear as the figure started to walk towards her. Her horn lit with a powerful magic, seeming that she would have to defend herself. The draconian figure then spoke.

"Rarity, it's me. You know... your Spikey-Wikey."

Her magic dropped in a mere instant as she froze in place. She gasped as her hoof found her lips. "S-sp-sp-Spike... w-w-what a-are you d-doing here?"

The purple dragon shrugged casually as he answered her. "Well why else would I be here? I came to wish Twilight happy birthday. I'm trying to find Twilight so I can give her my gift and here I am running into you."

Rarity was still in shock over what she was seeing. It wasn't the fact that his growth was new to her, but she was surprised how controlled he seemed. Instead of trying to grab anything that wasn't nailed down, he was standing before her with his usual demeanor. His speech was neither primitive nor broken. He fully recognized her as what she once called him. His voice, which was once light and juvenile, was strong and mature. His height reminded her of Garble, which was enough to disturb her. And much like Garble, his teeth were sharpened, his breath smelled of ash, his eyes was filled with a deep sense of determination. Everything about him drew her attention. "You've gotten so... big."

He smiled as he walked up to the mare, lightly brushing the back of his claw against her cheek. "Well I've been working on myself for a while now. Seems that I've gotten the look you like."

The mare's pupils dilated as she felt the ruggedness of his scales against her coat. Though the dragon proclaimed himself as her former assistant, the hand on her cheek seemed too foreign. "What are you...? Spike─"

The dragon quickly lunged forward and picked up the fashionista, swinging her around in his arms as he excitedly spoke to her. His grasp was powerful against her, nearly crushing her. "It's been so long since I've seen you so close. Lately I've been doing all kinds of things, running around throughout Canterlot, errands, paperwork, organizing, the usual stuff. But since I've come back here, it made me realize just how much I've missed you guys."

The dragon then placed her back on the ground, but not letting her go as she responded to him. "Well we miss you too, Spike."

"Did you miss me?" He asked as he got on his knees to become a little more at-level with her.

As his claws gently picked up her right foreleg, she felt herself becoming a bit flustered as his lips lightly pressed against her hoof. "Well... I started to acknowledge the sudden change of presence, or lack thereof."

He placed her hoof against his face as she started to become unnerved at his advances. He continued to speak as though he were enchanting her. "Mmm... Fresh powder and a touch of honey behind the ears, it's just like when we first met."

Rarity blushed lightly as she pulled her hoof away. "Spike, please." She responded nervously.

"I've grown quite a bit. Now I'm pretty strong, I can fight just about anything like this. Like this, I can protect you." He answered before his greed finally took over, clouding his judgement. His claws reached for the mare's chin, he interrupted her in the middle of her sentence.

"Darling, with all due respect─"

Without warning, he snaked towards her. Her head tried to turn away, but his grip was far too strong to ignore. He moaned passionately as he sniffed her neck. "He doesn't know what you're capable of, does he? Your charms, your wit, your cunning, the way you word things to hide your true desires, your manipulation tactics. I find them amusing, but I know you only mean to achieve your own ends. Though sometimes I question why you insist on being so generous, giving others a look while I stand next to you going unnoticed. I've been mostly seen as a errand boy by you, haven't I? Well I'd much rather say that my place would be beneath your hooves, that is if you wanted me to be that way."

Finally finding an opening to turn herself away, she took it as she tried to push him off. "I think you should go."

"I love you, Rarity. If I could hoard the worlds treasures for the sake of trading you away, I'd be the most pathetic dragon with the smallest... and yet most beautiful token."

His words failed to flatter her, she continued to do whatever she could to escape his grasp. "I'm not going to ask you again." She strained as he hugged her once more.

"I can show you that I'm worth more than him. I've been here for you all this time, and he shows up and drags you down. You don't deserve anyone who's going to drag you down. You deserve better, someone who will wrap their arms around you like this." He murmured as he glanced back towards the door down the hall.

Rarity, who finally realized that the dragon was not actually himself, lit her horn and produced a bright light, blinding the drake enough to where he had to shield his eyes. By the time the light faded back to bearable levels, Rarity was standing just in front of the door. He wiped his eyes and tried to clear the afterimage of a black blur from his sight. Eventually, he could see again, walking towards the mare before she stood firm. "Leave. Now."

Spike saw her scowl at him, not even close to being her usual frustrated expression. This time it was a show of pure anger. He felt a coldness in his chest, his heart climbing into his throat as he saw the mare use her hoof to wipe her sweat in such an undignified fashion. Her mane had lost some of it's volume, her main curl falling just over her left eye. He then realized that his greed took over and caused him to act out of his desire. He backed away a little before bowing down before her.

Though he was excited to see her, what he said was not what he had on his agenda. And now he was at risk of losing his audience. "I... am... so sorry. Rarity, I didn't mean to do that to you. I lost focus, things got heavy and I just went─"

"I've noticed." She spat at him. "Don't you ever accost me in such a manner, even if you were to 'lose it' again."

"I'm sorry." He stated, and then repeated an innumerable amount of times. His face was so acquainted with the rug he stood on that he felt himself worthy to be trampled upon.

The mare found it admirable that he held himself to the extent that he didn't fully press on her, but found it problematic that his new form rendered him so close to succumbing to his greed. Rarity realized that his size would probably diminish should she distance herself. She turned away from him and whispered. "Now I would appreciate it if you were to distance yourself, Spike. Perhaps we could meet later in the dining hall when I have calmed, but not now."

Spike rose as he heard the sound of her hooves growing distant. He continued to speak into the carpet, feeling himself unworthy of her gaze. "...I can't. I can't without telling you how much I need you to help me."

"I can't help you, Spike." She responded coldly, still walking the other way.

Out of desperation, he finally broke. He had to say something that would get her attention, to get her to see him in another manner aside from the beast that grabbed her to whisper sweet nothings into her neck. Those weren't the words he wanted to utter, as opposed to the ones he felt himself growing to speak on.

Raising his head a little to glance around the halls, he called out to the fashionista. "I feel like Twilight is going to suffer because of him. And eventually, she will." The seamstress halted her process and looked back towards the dragon. She paused for a moment as he continued to speak. "Rarity, I need your help. I need you to─"

"He's not leaving, Spike." She answered, jumping straight to the bottom line of his argument. "I know where you're getting at. But I'm not going to tell him to do something that he would disagree with."

In the back of his mind, he was already playing out the scenario that he would eventually lead the two politicians into the dining hall to crash the party. And if they were to find out what they had in store, then he would be seen in a negative light by all of his friends. The thought of being alone and abandoned by those that befriended him terrified him. It was something he long wished to avoid, especially with Twilight.

If she were to find out, he could definitely see her leaving him to the world. Again, it was something he greatly despaired. "Rarity... for your sake and his, please convince him to leave to his world. It's not too late, there's still time."

Rarity wasn't blind to the fact that he had ulterior motives. She quickly called him out on it, even on his past sins. "...So I take it that there's some grand scheme that I am unaware of? Something that might alleviate you of his presence, dare I say, in an abominable fashion?"

Spike looked either way as he walked up to the mare, whispering to her in a low voice. "You know what this is all about. It's bigger than me and you. By the end of it all, I'm scared that Twilight might suffer more than he would. And I love Twilight, she the mother I never had. And you know that I would do anything to protect her, just as I would protect you."

Rarity looked at him blankly as she spoke. "Then what's causing you the stress? What are they going to do with him?"

"I don't know. But I don't want to see you or Twilight in pain because of a loss."

Rarity pursed her lips as she thought for a moment on why she thought his words to be half-backed. She proceeded to show her reason for distrusting him. "My dear Spikey-wikey, would you lean down to give a small mare your ear and your cheek?"

"Of course."

As he obeyed her wish, she used her magic to tug him down a few more inches before questioning him. "Now I would like for you to recant a little something for me. It seems that there were words spoken and heard on separate accounts that align with one another. Perhaps a little something that stated the words 'Well, I think he should've died a long time ago'. Those words wouldn't happen to belong to you, now would they?"

Spike felt his heart race at speeds only Rainbow Dash could reach. His eyes shrank to pins as he felt the tremendous weight of her question being placed on him. He remembered saying those words to Melanie, but never have he said them to anyone else. To hear that there was a second account of those words being herd caused him to panic. He knew that Cadance and Celestia quickly confronted him later that night. In his panic, he tried to deny his ever saying those words. "...No."

"Run that by me one more time." Rarity said once more.

"No. I didn't say that. And even if I did, it would be out of frustration more than anything. But who remembers what all they say when they're frustrated? C'mon! We all say things we don't mean when the moment doesn't feel all that great."

With a deep sigh, she released the dragon and started to walk back towards the door. "Well, I'm glad we had this talk. I shall wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors."

The dragon quickly turned back to face the seamstress. "Rarity, come on. Don't be like this."

She then decided to drive her point home, providing him with the words that effectively shook him to his core. "If anything were to suddenly happen to Nondis, then I would rather you never see me again. Don't come knocking, don't bump into me at the market, don't even write me letters telling me how sorry you are."

Again, the drake panicked in his response. "Please, don't do that. Rarity, I can't─"

"Then you better hope nothing happens... I know I won't be the only one who would feel that way."

His heart began to free-fall. What was once the feeling of something climbing back up his throat had finally lost it's grip and fell deep into his stomach. The feeling of guilt began to overwhelm him. "I'm sorry."

The mare apparently grew tired of hearing those words. This time, she didn't hold back as she dealt another crushing blow. "Oh I know. The remorse you would feel when Twilight packs your belongings and ship them to Canterlot, I can be certain that you'd feel absolutely everything crumbling away because of your selfish desire for attention. Be sure to give Twilight your gift on the way out."

The dragon felt every word of her statement burn underneath his scales, her stoic demeanor was nothing short of convincing that she had no patience for him and his antics. He knew that this time was for real. "For every rose, a dozen thorns. My scales are thick, but I can still tell when you're prickly." Spike answered weakly. He started to walk away as he turned back to the mare for some final words on his defense. "But just know that all of it is beyond me."

As he walked away, Rarity leaned against the wall beside the door. She let out a depressed moan as I opened the door to speak with her. "Miss Belle, your savagery knows no bounds." I said, even showing goosebumps from her wrathfully personal response.

Her hooves covered her face as she sat in place. "He lied to me. I gave him a chance to come clean and he lied in my face."

Obviously she was upset. I know that she's a bit dramatic at times, but the quiet subtlety definitely makes it all the more disturbing. I tried to sit beside her, but her magic field froze me in place just as I was about to land.

I guess even in her dismay, she refuses to let her clothes touch the ground. Though I could understand why Spike would lie to her. I gave her my perspective of how I too would've panicked. "Little secret to tell you. All men lie about something. It doesn't have to be big, it just has to change your mood. And if it does it for the better, we might as well keep feeding that to you as long as it makes you smile."

Rarity raised her head out of her hooves and looked at me. "So you would lie to me as well?"

"I'd be more honest about it." I responded sarcastically, trying to lighten the mood.

She rolled her eyes and stood. On her face was a rather unimpressed expression. "I'm beginning to think you're no worse than him."

"Hello kettle, pot's the name." I playfully owned up to the fact, all while clearing away the curl from over her eye. Though to be honest, I'd have to say that she looks a bit prettier this way.

"When you put it that way, we're all a bunch of liars." Rarity said with a smile. "How many times did I convince a stallion or two to do something for me with just a mere wink and nudge?"

"Honesty's too brooding for the party to feed on. Gotta give it that spice." Oh great, now I'm taking after my dad's sense of humor.

By the time I finished my sentence, she was already adjusting my clothes and tucking in portions of my shirt. "Speaking of parties, what do you think will happen now?"

"Well... I saw the residential party couple enter the castle a few minutes before I did."

"Oh, they're here together?" Rarity inquired.

"Yeah." I confirmed. "Let's just hope Pinkie's not having any trouble with Cheese. I know she's still a bit miffed from the changeling getting more action than her."

Rarity giggled as she started playing with my hair. "Darling, those two will reconcile soon enough."

One Hour Later...

***Point of Perspective: Melanie***

"Cheese, listen to me! We can't do a traditional basket weave texture because we'll run out of colored frosting."

"But the design would cause it to be symmetrical on all cuts based on a one-inch wedge-cut system."

As the couple stood in the kitchen, both seemed agitated with each other as they both pointed to a five-tier birthday cake that was only covered in eggshell-white frosting. One set of blueprints lied just next to it on the counter depicted the anticipated design being filled with several stripes and edible ribbons. Pinkie groaned as she walked over to the counter and picked up a piping bag filled with indigo frosting.

"That may sound great, but we still need more frosting! That or we could space out the lines."

Cheese walked over to the counter and picked up the blueprint, almost shoving it in Pinkie's face. "Spacing the lines would compromise the cutting system in place, leaving us with fewer guests capable of getting a third slice! It's uneven distribution!"

The pink mare deadpanned. "Cheese, you should know that there's always spare cake after the party."

"Pinkie, I'm just saying that it would be best for us to make more frosting."

Pinkie rolled her eyes as she walked off to open a few of the cabinets. "Cheese, look at this place. Does this place look like it's remotely stocked to handle baking for a large venue such as this?"

"We're in a royal castle, why wouldn't it be stocked?" The stallion questioned.

"Because the last one who went grocery shopping was Spike, and guess when was the last time Spike was here." The mare responded sassily.

It took Cheese a moment to recall, but he gave his best educated answer. "Two weeks ago?"

"EXACTLY! And given all the late-night munching Twilight's been doing since his disappearance, I'd say that there's hardly anything to make the volume required to follow the design."

Cheese grew surprised to hear that the reason for there being so little stock was because of Twilight. He looked towards the stove and scratched the slight stubble on his chin. "Twilight cooks?"

Pinkie's eyes grew big as she sighed with bemusement. "She tries, only to have a hazmat unit to come clean the mess. Really, she's more of a snack-food aficionado. Spike's usually the one who does all the cooking for her."

The stallion grew astounded. "Well if she snacks on junk for most of the day, then how come she doesn't gain weight?" He asked quietly while searching more of the cabinets for ingredients.

"Alicorn metabolism." Pinkie quickly responded. "She scarfed down a bunch of hayburger meals at one time and didn't even flinch."

"She must do a lot of ordering out." Cheese said as he grabbed a step stool to reach some of the higher shelves.

"Why do you think we have so many orders of chocolate eclairs being shipped out every other day?" Asked Pinkie, who opened the fridge to find a half-eaten dandelion sandwich, a large box with only a corner of baby carrots, an unwrapped hayburger, a can of whipped cream, a small bag of cherries, three of the aforementioned eclairs, and a carton of milk with Nondis' face on the side. Above his face was a 'MISSING' caption at the top. She looked at the expiration date and saw that it was still within two days of it's expiration date.

Meanwhile, Cheese finally managed to find a bag of confectionery sugar sitting on the topmost shelf. "Hey Pinkie, I found some powdered sugar up here."

"Seriously?" Pinkie asked as she slammed the fridge door and galloped to the stallion.

Looking up, she could see that he was trying with all of his might to reach the large plastic bag. But even with the added assistance of a step stool proved to be too little to even open the cabinet, let alone reaching for a bag on the top shelf of a cabinet so high up. "Yeah, but it may be a little too high."

Pinkie grimaced as she realized that everything was set up to where only unicorns and pegasi could reach. And being that the both of them were earth ponies, the situation proved to be a difficult one to overcome. Thinking on her hooves, the mare realized that getting to the top was going to require the added height of two ponies. And being that Cheese was quite taller than her, she realized that his height would be a better means of getting to the cabinet as opposed to the stepstool he stood on. At the very least, he could elevate her a bit. "I'm gonna need you to hold me while I get it."

Cheese climbed off the stool before standing on his hind legs and offering his back like a ladder. "Okay, I'm ready."

Without hesitation, she climbed on top of him, reaching up to his shoulders as he grimaced from the pain of her hooves driving into his body. He endured his discomfort as quietly as possible, offering Pinkie a bit more height than what the step stool would've offered. His hind legs started to wobble a bit as she shifted all of her weight onto his forelegs. The lack of stability made the pink mare feel uneasy about her current position.

"Hold still, Cheese!" She demanded.

Growing a bit impatient from her commentary, he quipped back at her. "Look, I might not be... the strongest stallion in the world... but maybe.... This is a tiny little suggestion..."

Pinkie turned back around to face the struggling stallion below her. "I am not that heavy, Cheese!"

"I'm just saying..." He struggled as she shifted her weight once more. This time, she tried to use one of her hind legs to climb up to his right foreleg. For a second, there seemed to be promise as Pinkie was mere inches away from tapping onto the bag. But his hind legs wobbled again, causing the pink mare to slip from his hoof. "CRAP!" The stallion exclaimed as he moved to break her fall.

Pinkie began to show more frustration as she turned back to the stallion below her and screamed at him. "CHEESE! C'mon and lift─"

Suddenly a vibration and a small blast of warm breath caught her immediate attention. "Hmmph?" He hummed as his muzzle was buried just underneath her tail. Her tail instinctively wrapped around his neck as she jumped. A series of sparks electrified her senses as a light tingle of pleasure sent a shiver down her spine. Her face quickly reddened as she realize where his mouth was located.

Trying to remain composed to carry out the task at hoof, she slowly spoke to the stallion. "...Okay. Look, I know we're still recovering from the spores, but can we focus on the thing at the top of the cabinet?"

"Mmm hmmph, mplmmm." He moaned, trying to use his tongue as a means of breaking through to some air so he could breathe. The pink mare felt his hoof press up against her flanks, her tail tightened around his neck in response. For a quick second, she wanted to let her eyes roll to the back of her head while his hooves pressed into her. She lowered her head in an attempt to suppress a moan, but her efforts were in vain as she let out a trembling breath

"Try pushing me back up without using your tongue, please." She requested quietly. Her body was already feeling heated as he pressed her upwards. But he too started to show that his desire began to outweigh his willpower to carry out the task before them. With a light kiss to the dock of her tail, he pulled back for a brief moment before plunging his tongue against her moistened nethers. Pinkie grew ecstatic from the sensation of being worshiped with reckless abandon. She started to pant in a rhythm, biting her lower lip by just the skin of the inside of her mouth. With an expression of carnal desperation, she whispered to the stallion below her. "Okay, maybe a little tongue."

Her hooves no longer reached for the bag of sugar, instead pulling back down for the stallion that drove her mad. The heat that seemingly came from nowhere ended up sending a painful ache in her lower abdomen, indicating that she was anxious for a release. Her walls stretched and throbbed as his tongue worked inside of her. His hooves, instead of pushing up at her, wrapped around her haunches to hold her down. His soft grunts were the indication that he himself started to feel frustration of not being tended to. He balanced himself as best as he could while he continue to devour everything she gave him. Her tail shook, causing her eyes to shoot open with shock.

Nearly throwing herself off balance, she turned back around to the door to watch it quickly open. Revealing a party of three who conversed with one another.

"I'm sure that this is the dining hall, right he─"

...HOLY FUCK! WHAT THE HELL DID WE WALK INTO?

Pinkie stared back at me as if I were a large truck running into her in the middle of the night. She froze in place as both Mrs. Velvet and Mr. Crescent stared at the two slack-jawed. The three of us were staring at what could be the greatest discovery since the Kama Sutra... Of course in my eyes, it was the equivalent to that combined with a National Geographic documentary on the mating habits of sapient equines. And I mean damn, he's making me feel like I got a little cheated in life.

And he's even sporting a fifth leg to boot.

"Dining hall's down the hall, first door to the left." Pinkie said after a moment of silence, being accompanied by a bag of sugar falling out of the cabinet onto the floor.

"Oh my God... This is embarrassing." I muttered while I was red in the face, trying to face away before Mr. Velvet had to poke around the kitchen.

"Oh is that the cake?" He questioned, looking towards a five-tier cake with no decorations on it.

"Mmmphmm." Cheese confirmed.

Quickly trying to move towards the room, I pushed for our party to move forward. "I think we should get going."

But Mrs. Velvet was not turning a blind eye to the two-pony totem pole standing in front of us. Instead, she marched right into the kitchen with a scowl on her face. "Hold on, I'm going to address this unsightly display the only way I know how."

"Mrs. Velvet?" I started to question, before she lit her horn to separate the two ponies.

Cheese, who seemed out of breath, proceeded to show his appreciation for his renewed air supply. "Oh thank you so─"

But he was quickly interrupted as he was levitated to face the other way. Pinkie was laid on her back on the island counter, just directly in front of Cheese. Her legs were pried open as the older mare quickly opened the fridge and dug out a can of whipped cream and a cherry. I was almost floored as she just took a quick taste of the whip cream before spraying it all over Pinkie's muff to create a pair of panties, planting a cherry just on top of her clit.

After scooting the stallion forward, she smiled at her work and proudly kissing her hoof like it was her greatest masterpiece. "There, problem solved. Now don't be shy when it comes to licking that little pink button or she won't be getting off the right way."

Crescent shook his head at his wife before whispering to Cheese. "Be sure to press your tongue up a little when you do, that G-spot isn't going to stimulate itself. Also throb a little against your abdomen, helps you edge off a little before you go plunging in. You last longer, and you get a pretty nice load off."

"Well come along, Melanie. We don't want to stop them from going at each other's throats." Mrs. Velvet stated as she started to walk out of the kitchen.

"I'd say her throat must feel mightily neglected. Should be solved soon enough." Mr. Crescent joked as he followed his wife.

"Wash up when you finish." She added as we all stepped into the hall.

"Be sure not to mix up the batch of batter... unless you're into that kind of thing." He said as he closed the door behind him.

The two ponies that accompanied me were nothing short of brand-name insane. I still couldn't process these two, and these are Nondis' future in-laws! GOD, Nondis' mom is going to throw her son into a bottomless pit. "You two are... indescribable."

The grey mare shrugged as she responded. "You expect us to not share our wisdom? Do you not know what we've created in the heat of those epic moments where even our horns are throbbing and oozing with magical discharge?"

Okay, now it's overkill. "ROOM IS THIS WAY! LET'S GO NOW!"

Velvet chuckled as she used her magic to push me in the exact opposite direction of the place I was trying to get us to go to. All while she moved me, she and her husband continued to tease at me. "Well come along, Crescent. She's obviously a little stirred up from seeing the two romancing in the kitchen."

Crescent merely laughed at my discomfort as he muttered to himself. "Ah, what it is to be young and fresh to the world of sex."

These two really think I'm a virgin??? Like seriously, I've whored myself out to like five guys in high school, and had a fuck buddy when I stayed on campus. Hell, Rickey and I even had sex in the front seat of my car! Seriously, a virgin??? "I am not! I'm freaking twenty-one years old."

"Again, young and fresh!" Mr. Crescent teased.

Okay, nevermind this. I'm still trying to go to the main place I need to escort them to. "Okay whatever. Can we please make our way to the dining hall?"

"And not get to have more fun with you!? Are you absolutely mad?" Mrs. Velvet questioned. "I swear both you and my daughter have this thing in common where it's so awkward to talk about the natural responses our bodies have to certain situations."

"I wouldn't call it a common case." He responded to his wife. "Melanie walked in on two others having fun. Twilight was having her fun with Nondis when we walked in the last time."

NO FUCKING WAY! He was doing that same shit with her!? "Wait, seriously, you two walked on those two?"

"Oh, what a story it was!" Mrs. Velvet declared as she gave me a devious smirk.

Okay, now she's got my attention. Morbid curiosity won out this round. "Alright, I'll bite. What were the two doing anyhow?"

"Well..."

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

Quite a while later, I was happily walking down the halls with both Cliff and Rickey when we suddenly ran into an unexpected guest. Sunset Shimmer paid us a visit from her world to wish Twilight a happy birthday and to discuss with her some more findings in her medical research of how magic can be further optimized when being used on humans. She also spoke of her friends on the other side and gave them high praises of their willingness to offer themselves for the sake of medical practice.

Honestly, I can't say that either one of us would be so willing to take up that challenge.

But since she arrived, she's been rambling on nonstop about how everything worked out in her research and how she was willing to show Twilight her work. She promptly started to search me for any wounds that she could use her magic on. To her misfortune, I wasn't wounded enough to become a test subject. I did, however, tell her everything that happened to me for the past three days, causing her to become a big concerned. But I obviously showed that I was still sane and healthy.

"But really, thanks for showing up, Sunset. I know that Twilight's a little unbalanced from yesterday, but I'm willing to bet that she'd love to have you around to talk to."

"Yeah... I can't believe that Queen Chrysalis made an attempt to ghost you away."

"Well that's life, I guess. Things happen." I answered with a sigh.

The mare gave me a sideways glance, showing a bit of worry. "But with you, I'm starting to suspect that you must have the worst luck of any being in existence."

"Nah, I get some pretty promising perks on the side of what I have to go through." I answered.

"Do you really?" Rickey asked playfully.

"Well I get to frequent the castles of the nation. I also get paid to stand around and look pretty. Sometimes I'm paid to answer questions. It's like being in the NBA, without the massive salary."

"But didn't you almost die this time?" Sunset questioned. "It's like you're always on some precipice of death whenever Twilight calls me in to heal you."

"Nope. Just a bad headache, plus being dumped in a wagon next to a predisposed acquaintance of mine, and having my mind controlled like a ham radio set. But thankfully I didn't need anything that required me to go to a hospice." Yeah, cause losing my mind the first time around wasn't enough to completely disable me.

"Yeah, that's because you had some help." Rickey stated while slapping me in the back, which happened to sting a little.

"I'm not denying that, hell no. I'm actually glad you five came along when you did, otherwise I'd be doing some pretty unspeakable shit."

"Like shoving your tongue down that bitch's throat?" Cliff deadpanned.

"Ugh... or worse than that." I said with a cringe.

At last, we made it into the dining hall, where there were several balloons and banners strung from high above. Tables were placed in bunches as a candle decoratively lit the center of each one. Discord was mingling with both Twilight and Fluttershy while Applejack and Apple Bloom left their gifts on the table. Granny Smith and Big Mac were taking a glimpse at the friendship journal that stood just beside the table reserved for the guest of honor. Rarity and her family all conversed with one another, with Sweetie Belle waving at the four of us as we walked in. Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash already started playing games to pass the time until the party got started.

Mayor Mare was quietly conversing with both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Princess Cadance was busy checking the decorations and seeing if anything was out of place. Being that she knew Twilight so well, she figured that anything being slightly off would actually irk the birthday girl by a slight amount. Shining was speaking with a few other mares... Blueblood's wives to be more precise.

Huh, wonder what they're doing here.

Just as Shining took notice of me, one mare in particular broke from the group and casually trotted over to us. "Captain Nondis! It's been ages!"

"Gleam, hello! How you been?" I asked with a bow to the princess.

"I've been hearing more and more of your accolades while I was in Canterlot. A stupendous congratulations on your successful capture of the changeling queen! That's a feat beyond many a guard's dream."

I raised up and faced the other two men who accompanied me. "Well, it was either her or me. But I did have some help, these two here are my friends─"

"Rickey and Cliff!" She shouted, quickly reaching out to Rickey's hand to shake. "I've heard quite a few stories about the two of you helping our esteemed captain! As a princess of Equestria, I welcome you both. Honorary citizenship is nothing that is given lightly."

"Rickey, Cliff, this is Gleaming Star. She's Blueblood's fifth wife─"

She quickly switched over to Cliff as she interrupted me. "And one big fan of humans! I wouldn't have known there would be so many different shapes and sizes you all come by. Even darker ones with longer manes. You two wouldn't happen to be single, right?"

Wait, what? That was a bit sudden.

The two men stared at each other as Sunset took the opportunity to speak on behalf of the both of them. "Well I'm not really sure if that's something to be discussed so openly."

"Oh I was just being curious. But I can definitely speak for the many associations in Canterlot that view humans as a potential target for herd building." Gleam stated with a sing-song tone and a bright smile.

"Herd building?" Cliff and Rickey asked in unison while looking to me for an answer.

Gleam continued. "Oh you didn't know? Mares in Canterlot are willing to share the experience of being some of the first ponies to share a non-platonic relationship with humans."

The two men ceased all movement after they turned their attention back to her. "Non-platonic??? As in─" Rickey asked before he was interrupted by a high-spirited Gleam.

"Oh and let me tell you, many of them are quite young and eager to the thought of sharing our mating practices with you humans. I'd thought I tell you that since you were curious. Or at least to give you a heads up so that when you get some fanmail, you'll know what they'll be going after."

Sunset grimaced as she watched the two slowly turn to each other, unsure of how to answer the princess. Without further hesitation, she quickly spoke for the both of them. "I don't think they were curious at all!" She emphasized while stomping her left hoof into the ground, her face slightly reddened. "Why would you tell them something so off-putting?

Almost instantly, Gleam's smile was wiped from her face, being replaced with a saddened frown. "Oh. I didn't know that you humans were uncomfortable with the notion of being pursued by us ponies. I do apologize, honestly I am so sorry."

As her ears folded and her head dropped towards the ground with regret, Rickey tried to say something that would cheer the mare up. "I mean... uh..."

Cliff then followed up. "It can't be that bad. I mean if Nondis can work things out with Twilight, then I'm pretty sure that we can kinda... you know... work through it."

"They didn't seem to have any problems working through it this morning." Snarked Rickey, referring to the morning banter between Twilight and I.

"Exactly, and... You ponies kinda know how to dance a bit. Little bit of prolonged exposure, and I think we might start to lose the ability to tell much of a difference." Cliff stated.

I then decided to add my personal take. "Exactly what happened with me. I was nervous like hell when Twilight started making advances, albeit when she was inebriated. But as time went along, I slowly became more open to it and embraced the possibility of being in an interspecies relationship. It just takes some time getting used to it. And despite the fact that Twilight and I started going at rocket-speed, it was still a slow process that took a few months of being integrated into equine society."

"What he's saying is this: Now that we know what's going on and how we're viewed, just give us some time to ponder the idea and think about it while we slowly come around to deciding whether or not we're interested." Rickey concluded while Cliff cosigned with a nod.

"Still a possibility, but it will take a little convincing." I added, causing the princess to breathe a little easier.

"Oh, okay. That's a little encouraging to hear in contrast to what the young mare beside you stated."

"I'm Sunset Shimmer, one of Princess Celestia's former pupils." She responded, not happily introducing herself.

Gleam grew a bit of her excitement back as she glanced towards the highly-distinguished royal. "Oh! So I take it you must've graduated from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns?"

Sunset became a bit more reserved in her response. "Uhh... Let's just say that I had to leave because of... personal reasons."

"Drop out, huh?" Gleam called out with a murmur, causing Sunset to feel a bit bad. "Well there's a lot of those who couldn't handle the slow pace of the lessons, and I understand that there were a few who were envious of the personal attention a select few of the students were given. I think there were like a total of ten unicorns who's development was personally overseen by Celestia. My younger sister told me all about it before she dropped her courses there five years back."

Honestly, I don't think she harbored any ill-intent with what she said, but it's obvious that being called a 'drop out' was quite painful to Sunset. "I meant to say, the reasons were personal between me and Celestia herself."

A slow nod was given as a response from Gleam. "Oh wow. I hope everything is alright between the two of you."

"Why are you saying that like we were dating or something?" Sunset questioned, becoming a bit flustered.

"Well, a lot of her personal pupils end up developing feelings for her throughout history, despite her desire to push them away once they reached a certain age."

Okay, now I know that response wasn't by any means of the word innocent. "...Cliff, Rickey, why don't you two go over there and mingle with the crowd."

"Okay." The two said, glancing at Gleam before they walked off.

"Hey, wait up!" Sunset said as she chased after the two. "I'm coming with you."

The three others left us, causing our conversation to become a one-on-one affair. I started to correct her on her comment, but she held a hoof up and spoke. "I am aware that my comment was colorful and without decorum. However I believe it was necessary to find a way to isolate you. My apology to her will come later. We have an important thing to discuss, but we need to go to an isolated part of the room before we can resume dialog."

Before I could say anything else, she walked off and led me to a table on the other side of he room. She looked around for a second before taking her seat and urging me to do the same. As I got comfortable, I then prompted her to continue. "Now, what were you saying?"

"Blueblood's been around for over a hundred years, so he's been telling me the things that he saw with his former mentor. It turns out that she's very prone to developing personal relationships with her students, often experiencing a great deal of pain when they were punished for their breaking the law. It was said that she would mourn profusely when they endured an excruciating amount of pain or died."

I see, dancing around the issue to kill time. She did this the last time to ward off a few eavesdroppers. I decided to go along for the time being. "So, there were others who were punished?"

Or maybe not, she tapped her hoof at the center of the table, pointing to the smaller sun sigil placed directly above Twilight's cutie mark in the center. "There is one scroll in particular with all the names of every pupil she had throughout her history. Those names were of the ponies who managed to reach the status of royalty, only for it to be taken away by their personal desires or a politician's cruel joke. She would write their names on the scroll and their reason for no longer being her equal."

Hmm... an interesting little story she's trying to tell. Perhaps I've seen this scroll once before. "I take it that she keeps it inside of a magical safe hidden in her room."

"No, not anymore. Rumor has it that a former prince, Fair Charity, was traveling in caravan towards the Horseshoe Bay. They were quickly dispatched by a raiding group of beasts that took everything and left the prince with an obscure end. He had the scroll with him before he died. They didn't find anything but bodies when they went to search for the lost tribute, and even the initial search party was ripped to pieces."

Okay, this story got dark real quick. "Any reason why he had it?"

"For the same reason why he was so determined to have Processu Approbati removed. Back during that time, he was considered to be a champion of the guard, an avid fighter as well as strategist. Guards of the E.U.P. would rally under him, and the people would look up to him as a proud leader. But one thing he was known for was practicing the forbidden arts, hence why he ventured so far south to avoid practice upon Equestrian lands. Of course this was when the border of the kingdom was extended as far as Appleloosa. He vowed to learn the forbidden arts to combat any supporters of the law. And he carried a strong support group of aristocrats, abolitionists, scientists, guards, journalists, you name it."

That explains the presence of the tribute. "Basically, he had enough resources to start a revolution."

"Precisely why he was on his way to Horseshoe Bay, so that he could carry out his plans and field a conflict that would uproot the entire parliament. But there were a few within his camp who saw his plans and thought it to be too radical. Brainwashed by politicians and aristocrats, they lured the beasts to the caravan and smote everypony, including the prince. As their reward, they were hailed as martyrs, for they too they were slain by the beasts."

Damn, at least the traitors were given their just due for ratting out their superior. "So what happened next?"

"Nothing much. The parliament saw fit that they would have a hoof in the activities of the military's workings to prevent the seeds of rebellion growing that strong ever again. By that point, every guard feared finding themselves in any emotional favor with a royal. And even though their influence would wane over time, they would have some guards be an example of their power. Long deployments, dangerous missions, inexperienced commanders placed in the position of leading them, all of it would result in massive casualties. Stallion population eventually grew so short that Celestia herself had to enlist mares. By then, the deployments decreased and the drop in stallions came to a crashing halt."

Wait... IS THIS WHY THERE'S SO FEW STALLIONS NOW!? "So these guys fucked up the population and got away with it?"

"Oh no, Celestia had the ones responsible for the entire operation executed. They were quartered and sent to the various sides of the boarder. She also assumed the final say for much of the parliament's deployments, and enacted the Emergency Herding Act of 694 P.C.D.."

"Mating requirements. Damn, didn't know the country was that fucked up." Quartered, huh? I guess they didn't bother with the 'drawn' part. But for her to send the ones responsible to the gibbet, there's some admiration to be had for Celestia. However, that just leaves more questions about the torture tower back at the ruins. What all were they doing over there?

"Many of those who were in that parliament system were eradicated. But back to the main topic. The prince was killed and the seeds of upheaval were all but extinct. And though the practices of putting certain guards in positions where they were made to be an example were limited, there was one recent account where they completely embarrassed the guard for that sole purpose."

Recent? I don't like the sound of that. "And when was this?"

"Six years ago, they sent Shining Armor to the mountains south of here. The beasts that were rumored to kill the prince attacked his battalion, resulting in only four survivors, two that currently live to this day."

...Oh hell no. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because Senator Count has sent out a summons for you just early this morning. And judging from your accolades and growing influence, he may want to set an example out of you next."

You know what, Sunset, you were right. Fate really seems to hate the fact that I chose to stay here. "Well I guess I gotta do the tap-dancing genie and put on a show tomorrow."

"He's here in the castle, along with his assistant, They will be looking to give you your deployment papers today."

Damn. So not only Spike's here, but that asshole too. I am really going to have to make for some strict security reform when this party ends. For fucks sake, Twilight doesn't deserve this on today of all days. "How bad do you think it is?"

"Possibly a six to eight month deployment. Blueblood came here to warn you of that."

That's why she's here, it's to pass on a warning. "Okay. I'll send out a search party for the senator and have him escorted out. He's not ruining this day for Twilight."

"Blueblood has already taken the reins of security. You would be better off staying in here until the senator is found. Going out to find him, and eventually running into him would mean that you wouldn't be around for the party, or the rest of the night for that matter." She said as she stood up from her seat.

Thinking back to what had occurred between Spike and Rarity earlier today, I know that this would be favorable to us. If he's genuine in saying that he missed the girls, then he's more likely to let things fall to the wayside. I wanna be able to eliminate the chance of him ever showing up, but doing that would probably go against Twilight's desires.

I don't wanna give him a chance, I mean damn I want him kissing the bricks with his nose, but that's Twilight's trust and Rarity's promise that I'd be breaking. But should he pull some stupid ass stunt, I will bash his head in till my knuckles turn purple. "I don't think it's a matter of when he will, but if at this rate."

"Nondis!"

The two of us looked up to see the guest of honor walking up to us. Gleam whispered to me before she departed. "I'll be on my way to apologize now, you tend to your princess. After all, it's her special day you're celebrating."

After bowing to Twilight, she excused herself to make her way towards Sunset Shimmer and the others. Meanwhile, Twilight had grabbed my arm and gave it a light nuzzle. "I've been looking everywhere for you!"

"Birthday girl, you doing okay?" I asked.

"No, you were nowhere to be seen!" She stated with a demanding tone. "And I've already made it clear that I want to spend my day with you."

"Okay, okay. I'll stick around." I answered as her magic then coated my arm to escort me over to wherever she walked.

As the purple princess happily carted me off to mingle with the others. The one she introduced me to was a brown mare with a green dress who also looked a bit like Rainbow Dash, but with large purple glasses. As she started to talk with her, she carried on from when I was fighting changelings on the train. The mare took quite an interest in the story and prodded the both of us for more details. While Twilight rambled on, I couldn't help but to wander off into thought about what was going on. And more importantly, I was worried if that senator would be making his entrance into here anytime soon.

Please let someone find them before it's too late.

As the party guests started to gather inside of the dining hall, Spike paced himself in the shadows of the pillars to avoid all the security. As one duo of guards walked past, he watched from wherever he could hide. And given that his larger form would give him an easier chance of being spotted, he shrank himself down to his normal size, making it significantly easier to hide. As he was hiding, his gift started to show signs of slight wear. His palms continued to ooze with sweat as he clamped onto the box for dear life.

The patrol finally turned the corner, causing him to draw a breath in relief. "I miss being able to walk down the halls without having to hide from security." He griped. "At least I could talk to a few of the guards before being placed on errand again."

"SPIKE!"

The dragon jumped as the voice directly in his ears screamed his name. He quickly tried to run, but found no chance of it when a pair of pink, frosting-covered hooves wrapped around his small body.

"It's been four evers since I last saw you!"

Looking up to see a familiar smile, he felt himself loosen up and chuckle a bit. "Hey, Pinkie. How's it hanging?"

"It's been going. But what about you? I heard that you were doing some pretty important busy stuff in Canterlot. What they got you doing up there where you can't visit us!?"

Unsure as to what to tell her, he generalized his answer. "Well, the usual... stuff."

"Like???" She inquired with a huge smile.

The young drake scratched his neck as he gave his response. "Well it's not that different from what I do with Twilight. I just help with paperwork and running errands. That's all."

Again, the party ponies' hooves glomped around the baby dragon as she squeezed him tightly. "I knew you had to come by and visit. Twilight's birthday isn't something you'd usually skip out on. I completely understand that you and Non-non aren't on the best of terms, but I really think she would appreciate it if you showed up and stuck around."

Spike saw a pony wrapped in a white cloak and Cheese walking up with a five tier cake covered in magenta and indigo stripes. As the two approached, he felt another tinge of guilt strike at him, causing his smile to slowly fade. "She would, wouldn't she?"

"Is that a gift behind your back?" The pink pony asked, pointing to the present hanging off of Spike's tail by the ribbon.

"Yeah! I just wanted to give this to Twilight... but it seems like I won't have the time. Got a lot more busy stuff to do."

"Oh come on with that!" Pinkie said while taking his gift from him. "You think I'm gonna let you get by without having some sort of interaction with Twilight? She misses you, everypony does!"

"Do they?" Spike asked, feeling as if they shouldn't.

"Of course, it's not like we don't ever ask about you! Sometimes we're left wondering what ever happened to you. It's almost like you disappeared off the map!"

"Maybe it's for the best." He thought to himself before he started to slowly pry himself loose from Pinkie's grip. "I still gotta go. Hey, can you take that gift to Twilight for me?"

Pinkie started to feel a little depressed in seeing that Spike was so eager to leave after they had met. She wanted to encourage him to stay, but realized that he would be just as dedicated to trying to find a way to leave. Unfortunately for the dragon, Cheese saw a means to keep him around for a small amount of time, even if it was for a few extra minutes. "Fat chance, little buddy. We're in need of a third set of hooves to help us with this stuff! We're trying to get this cake in here along with our other big surprise."

"What's the surprise?" Spike questioned.

Cheese looked to the pony covered in the cloak. As two hooves, with distinguishable stripes, reached up to briefly unveil the face that was so carefully hidden. "It has been ages since I've last heard or seen scale of you. Spike you crafty little dragon, how do you do?"

"Zecora?" Spike said with a bit of excitement before realizing that her hooves were devoid of it's usual decorations. Her neck was even shown as opposed to the silver rings he'd see her wear during any occasion. Even her eyes were slightly glazed as darkened circles formulated underneath them. It was evident that she had undergone some degree of strife in his absence. "What happened to you?"

She cloaked herself once more, even hiding her legs as she answered him. "It is a tale for yet another time, when I am ready to tell. On that subject as of now, I am not ready to dwell. My pain and struggle shall be placed last for today. I don't intend to sully the mood of Twilight's nineteenth birthday."

"Oh. Well I don't wanna screw up the mood either. I think that my presence would probably be a bit of a problem." Spike stated as he tried to smooth-talk his way out of helping with the cake.

Instead, Spike found himself being pressed along for the ride as the cake shook a little. Cheese and Pinkie both tried to do whatever they could to prevent the cake from taking a fall. After the cart stabilized, Cheese gave his argument. "I'm sure that she'll be more than willing to let you hang around. Everypony will understand. Now come on! Grab that side of the cake and I'll get this one. Pinkie can guide us where to go next."

As the troupe started to march along, both Pinkie and Cheese winked to one another. Zecora took notice and prodded at the couple. "The two of you seem rather upbeat from when I last saw. I trust that your reunion was with limited flaw?"

"I had to get over the fact that a changeling took advantage of him. We did a bit of making up before we finished the cake." Pinkie responded.

"Suppose I shan't need to ask. I feel the result was quite crass." The zebra joked.

"Yup." Replied Pinkie, who erupted into a giggle and a snort. "We made sure to clean up before finishing though."

"That poor can of whipped cream didn't stand a chance." Cheese mumbled before he continued to egg the little dragon onward as the doors to the dining hall came into view. "Come on, Spike! Put your back into it!"

I've had an interesting little development.

Apparently the mare Twilight introduced me to was actually the author of the Daring Do books herself. She went on to tell about some of the amazing discoveries she's made in the forest south of of the Badlands. She introduced herself by the name of A.K. Yearling, which is apparently a play on J.K. Rowling. She also told me about how she wanted to discover more of what my species had to offer in terms of culture, I told her that I'd try my best to share it in book form. Twilight was also just as giddy to hear the news and demanded that they'd engage in a book swap from time to time so that way each can share what they've learned.

Such is the life of two bookworms.

"There's my little birthday girl!"

Well that voice sends a shiver down my spine.

When I turned around, I could see two familiar faces standing next to Melanie. Of course the voice would belong to none other than Crescent. His wife Velvet casually waved to her daughter, prompting the purple mare to gallop towards them.

"Mom! Dad! It's so good to see you!" Twilight said as she hugged both of her parents.

"Oh Violet, nineteen years and you still haven't grown out of chewing your mane." Velvet teased as she played with her daughter's hair.

"Mom, not so loud." The younger mare urged as she tried to reflatten her disrupted mane style.

"Why I am so happy to be able to give you away! You have no idea how nervous I was when you were first declared princess." Twilight Velvet stated as she looked back to me with a bright smile.

I waved back at the mare as Melanie came walking over. She squeed as she lightly shook me while pointing at them. "Well did you three have fun?" I said with a mocking tone.

"They're fucking batshit insane." She whispered through clenched teeth.

Oh, she must've caught a glimpse of their true nature. "Yeah, we'll get used to 'em."

"You haven't yet?"

Considering that this is only the second time we've met... "Nah, still working on that."

"Yeah, I'd figured. I wouldn't really recover from the fact that they walked in on her giving you a blowjob."

...Just how much did she disclose to this girl? "We're not going to discuss that. Not ever."

For a while the two of us stood next to each other without saying anything. But Melanie wasn't too keen on keeping silent about it. "...Did it feel good?"

"Stop asking me awkward questions." I requested while trying to walk away.

She pulled at my arm, yanking me back towards her as she teased me. "You used to ask me awkward questions and I used to answer them. Payback's a bitch, ain't it?"

"Yeah, I dropped that one bad habit. You drop yours."

She gave my arm a light smack as she pouted. "You're no fun."

"Ran into your little friend earlier today." I mumbled into her ear.

"Which one?"

"Spike."

She glared at me with disgust. "Oh God no, he's here?"

"And apparently so is one of the senators. You know those guys I love talking about so much?"

She took a second to think about who I was talking about. "You don't talk about them very often."

"Precisely." I confirmed.

Melanie groaned as she placed her palms over her face. "So, what are we going to do?"

"As far as what I was told, security will be heightened and on the lookout for the senator and his accomplice."

"Meaning?" She asked with a hand flexed outward

"Meaning that we should chill out for the time being."

"Bad idea."

"Yeah, I know. But you said it yourself: Sometimes your company is all someone would want of you. And obviously, Twilight wants that from me today. So I'm gonna do my best to make sure that she's happy until the moment she blows those candles out. When she starts tearing through her gifts, I might take a break to check on where we are on the search."

She looked towards the guest of honor while she spoke. "But what if you run into the senator out there?"

"Then I'm out of sight when I get my paperwork. End of story. I come back in here with a little extra weight."

"You better hope that's all you'll be coming back with." Grumbled Melanie.

"Me too."

A few seconds went by before the doors that opened to reveal Pinkie Pie walking in with a huge cake. "SURPRISE!" She screamed cheerfully, darting up to the purple princess to give her a hug. Twilight returned the gesture as she saw two figures walking the cake in.

"Happy birthday, princess!!!" Cheese said as he stopped pushing the cart. His assistant started to grumble about the cake.

"Seriously, how is it that a cake like this is so hard to move!?"

"Spike?" Twilight called out, separating herself from the pink party pony. The room grew incredibly quiet as she walked up to the dragon.

"Oh, uh... Hey Twilight." He greeted his guardian with a nervous grin.

Without a moment's notice, he was scooped up by Velvet and given a hug. "Well if it isn't our little dragon hatched from a humble little egg. Spike, we haven't heard word from you, child!"

The young drake nervously responded. "Sorry, I was kinda busy."

"Busy or not, you needed to be here with the family! Come here!"

While Velvet carted Spike off in her magic, Melanie looked on with disgust. "I can't believe she's so hugged up with him."

As I looked at her, I could see the contempt growing in her face. I knew that she wasn't too thrilled to see him, not after what he had told her. But there was one significant issue that she overlooked: context. Without it, she would only see this as a newly made friend chumming up with the scum of the earth. And that was something I had to explain to her. "Mel, there's one facet of this whole puzzle that you don't know about right now that turns this whole thing into the correct perspective."

"Okay, what?" She asked vehemently.

"Twilight hatched him at a entrance exam when she was a filly. She was literally the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes. To him, it's a mix between his elder sister and his surrogate mother. To her, he's the little brother she never knew she wanted but loved to have. So he's been with their family for I guess the better part of a decade. I don't like the bastard either, but I can respect that much of their dynamic."

She folded her arms as she watched Crescent give him a quick noogie with a boisterous laugh. "So he's adopted?"

Twilight then draped her foreleg over his shoulders and gave him a hug, smiling as she embraced her 'number one assistant'. "Entirely, yes. And being that he came first, he's gonna get the benefit of seniority over me. To Twilight, he's her family as much as he is her number one assistant."

"And Rarity's stalker. What is he going to do when he sees her?"

I scoffed at the mention of that. "Rarity got him locked down. She's a savage when it comes to letting him know when he's right or wrong. And earlier today, she put him on notice. I was holding a shotgun while changing clothes, and she was burning his shit to the ground. She's made it clear to me that she's got him, she doesn't want any interference."

"Are you sure?" She looked at me with uncertainty.

I looked back at her as I whispered back. "...She told me on a date to not get involved with him."

Her worry then turned to criticism as she gave me her full attention. "I hope you know you're playing with fire here."

As I turned back to look at the family, Shining and Cadance eventually got in on it and greeted the drake, but from a foreleg's length. Cheese was setting up a camera on a tripod as Pinkie and Cliff sat the cake off towards the gift table. "I've dealt with worse." I stated as the festivities continued to unfold before me.

"Cadance, Shining, get in a little closer!" Velvet requested, urging the two to obey.

"Camera's set. We're good to go!" Cheese said as he gave a quick nudge towards the birthday girl. From behind him, a cloaked figure showed up. Immediately, Mel and I were up on our guard while the stallion carried on like nothing was happening. "On the count of three, I'm gonna need you all to say the magic word!"

"What's the magic word?" Twilight asked.

"We'll let you find out, kiddo." Shining said, while giving his younger sister a light nudge.

"Just know that it will be a surprise." Cadance added before Cheese started to count.

"Okay, everypony on me! One... two... three..."

"ZECORA!!!" The married couple shouted to the top of their lungs. As her name was called, the robes came off to reveal the recuperating zebra. Twilight held her hooves to her face as the mare walked up to her and gave her a huge hug.

"OH MY GO..." Twilight became overwhelmed with emotion, shaking as the shaman clung on to her. Her eyes brimmed with tears as she felt herself collapse under her own weight. While the princess sobbed, both Melanie and I stood speechless.

"Oh my God. When did they get her here!?" She asked, her face turning slightly red and her own eyes welling up with tears.

"Your question is as good as mine." Personally, I was more relieved that it was her as opposed to any politician with the intent to cause trouble.

Twilight rose as soon as she found the strength to recover from the sudden shock. "Zecora, you're here... You should be in the hospital!"

The zebra shook her head with defiance. "My time in that room made me depressed to no end! So I thought it appropriate that I'd spend my day with a friend. Though I am slightly weak, that much is true, I wanted to see that face on you!"

"Zecora, I'm so sorry!" Twilight whispered as she embraced her friend once more.

"Do not be, my dearest friend. It's because of you I have yet to meet my end."

As the two continued to embrace, I took a quick glance at the cake and grew a pair of horns. I only wanted to take a swipe at the frosting, I swear I wasn't going to tackle the whole damn thing. But if it was good, I might end up hurting myself. "You know, I think I'm gonna leave this one to them." I muttered to Mel as I tried to sneak towards the cake.

But I didn't go unnoticed as I tried to ninja my way towards the five tiers of what appeared to be heaven. Zecora called me out. "And where do you think you're going, I've still have you to thank! I wouldn't have made it another second without your recklessness, if I may be frank."

Not before long, Twilight teleported herself next to me and dragged me towards where they were taking the family picture. As I saw Spike staring back at us, I felt that I didn't belong. "I don't know if I can get in on this."

"You can and will!" Twilight demanded.

"I'm not a family member." I argued.

"You will be soon enough. Now look for the camera." Velvet said as she assisted her daughter in dragging me along. Melanie started to dig for her phone as she walked up to stand next to Cheese.

Every once and a while, I'd look down to where Spike was, only to see him looking right back at me. Our animosity towards each other showed, but we tried our best to not let it remain etched in this picture. Thankfully, we were outside of each other's reach. I towered above the ponies that surrounded me. Cheese took a few photos before he was done. "Okay, one more."

As the final flash showered the room in white for a brief second. I felt myself wanting to walk away before I got dragged into some more conversation with Spike nearby. "Don't move yet!" Melanie said as she finally pulled up her camera on her phone. "I gotta get one more in."

"Is it really necessary?" I asked.

"Yes." She answered sternly. She started to scan the room, seeing both of my brothers talking with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. "Alex, Stanton, come here! Get in the photo!"

The two perked up as Alex answered her. "Not sure if that's a good idea right now."

"Just get in!" She said, urging the two to come around. Both of them hesitantly got up from their seats and walked over to stand behind the row of ponies. Spike took a glance back to see that the two that stood beside me towered just a few inches above me. Meanwhile, Crescent was more surprised of them being included.

"Oh what are these two doing here?" He asked.

Melanie gave the ponies a bright smile as she loudly announced to the room. "Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle, meet Alex and Stanton, Nondis' brothers, older and younger respectively."

A light gasp came from the stallion while Velvet actually screamed bloody murder. "YOU HAVE SIBLINGS!?"

Immediately after that bit of news, Spike stopped staring at me and looked ahead, eyebrows fully raised. Melanie glanced at the drake before she took her next picture. "I thought you should be getting to know the extension a little, so there you go." Spike then forced a smile as Melanie adjusted her settings. "Now say 'smiles'!"

"SMILES!"

Two Hours Later...

The party continued to drive on as if nothing could stop it. Despite our concerns of having the senator paying us an unexpected visit, we had fun. The CMC practically zerg rushed my brothers as soon as we finished taking pictures. The mayor then spoke to them and went on about how honored she was to have my siblings visit 'our humble little village just in the shadow of the capital'. We danced to quite a bit of pony music and Cliff introduced them to the electric slide, which they pretty much loved.

Sunset seemed very talkative with Cliff after he finished dancing, even sharing a nice conversation about her world and how everything was so similar to ours. Gleam continued to speak with Rickey about everything she told him about the 'Hooves for Humans' fan club back in Canterlot. I can already tell that those two mares are already throwing their pitches to the guys for dating equines just for the experience. I was already aware of this being a possibility when they were discovered, but I'm just relieved that it didn't devolve into the hysterics that occurred during the trial with Caramel and Pinkie. That's a relief.

Spike partook in most of the games and dancing while a few of us watched with careful eyes. We were very keen on not letting him out of the room to sneak in his yet-to-be-discovered party members. But from what we were seeing, he couldn't care any less about them. On occasion he would ask Rarity to dance with him for a bit, getting rejected by some other 'interruption' by running off into a table that was engaged in a very vocal discussion. He did manage to get a dance or two from Sweetie, who then danced with Alex.

Of course, Velvet dragged me out of my seat and onto the dance floor... Is there any way I could get a memory spell to bleach out the parts where I did embarrassing things to try to make myself look half-way decent at dancing? At least Twilight got a good laugh out of it.

Finally, it was time to serve up the cake. Everybody managed to wait in line for a slice except for Melanie, who stated that she was 'just not up for sweets right now'. Too bad, the cake was pretty fucking nice. I had to go back for a second and third slice. Celestia walked off with about fifteen slices while Luna descended back to her table with nine of her own. Cadance grabbed about six. And whatever wasn't already cut, Twilight claimed the rest for what she called 'culinary study'.

But once the birthday girl started to open her presents, we made sure that Spike's was first to be unwrapped. He sent her a book, replicating the friendship journal she had out for reading, filled with his entries and everything he learned since his departure from Ponyville. After that, we politely escorted Spike to the hall, where I and my brothers spoke with him about Senator Count and how he needed to be escorted from the premises.

While I had to stick around for Twilight, they didn't have any problem being the dragon's entourage for the time being. Instead, they were quite eager to get done so they could head back. "Hurry up and walk faster." Stanton commanded.

Alex followed closely behind with a taser in hand, and a firearm on person should anything get dicey. "You're lucky to even be in here right now. If it wasn't for the fact that Twilight and you go way back, we'd kick your ass out the moment you walked into the room."

Spike grew complacent with their orders as he led them towards the room he left the two stallions inside of. "I get it, you guys don't want me here."

"No, we don't want you AND your friends here. There's a difference." Stanton corrected.

"I know. And the only way I get to stay here is if I somehow convince them to leave?" Spike tried to confirm.

"Overnight stay is out of the question, but you can stick around for another hour or so. Just as long as the birthday girl gets her fair share of you, we'll tolerate your being here." Alex stated as watched the dragon stop moving, causing both Stanton and he to remain still.

"...Can you guys hide for a quick second. I need to convince them that the area's clear. Then I just need some time to talk to them."

Alex whispered as he crept towards one of the crystal pillars beside the door, hiding completely from the view of the occupants. "We're keeping an eye on you, so hop to it."

"No funny shit either, or you'll find out just how much heat you can take." Stanton whispered as he did the same to the opposite side. Both raising their tasers and waiting for the moment the two would walk out. Spike then quietly approached the door.

*Knock knock knock*

He didn't get an immediate answer, but he called into the room for the two to identify his voice. "Hello, it's me. You guys can come out now."

Again, no response.

Spike rolled his eyes and groaned with frustration as he pulled out a golden key and placed it into the lock. When he opened the door, he called out once more. "Guys?" But as soon as the door opened fully, he could see that the room was very much empty. Neither one of it's former occupiers remained. The dragon fell to his knees. "Oh no!"

"What, what is it?" Alex asked, quickly coming around from the corner and rushing into the room. Stanton followed suit as he continued to arm his taser.

"They were in here! I swear! This was where I left them! I told them to wait here until I got back!" Spike explained, but not getting as much as a look from the two brothers.

"Apparently they got tired of waiting." Alex concluded.

"As many fucking security sweeps we had in the past two hours, you mean to tell me they didn't get caught not once?" Stanton asked.

Alex looked around the room, but noticed that there was a dusty vent grid laid on the dragon's bed. He then looked up to see an open shaft where a few strands of fur and horse hair dangled from it's edges. "Not if they avoided the halls altogether." He said as he pointed to the hole in the ceiling.

"They're in the vents!? SHIT!" Stanton growled as he took a quick exit towards the dining hall.

Alex grabbed the dragon by his most prominent fin and dragged him out of the doorway. "You're coming with us to point these bastards out. You know the layout of the castle, so you'd know where these vents are and how long it would take to get from point-A to point-Z."

"We could probably catch them in the dining hall. Since that's the one place I know they'll be going for, we can spring a little something on them when they arrive. Don't even give them a chance to talk, just tase them and cart their sorry asses out." Stanton suggested while Alex gave the dragon a vividly crossed expression.

"You better hope we find them before they find the party, or your stay might be cut short."

It didn't take them long to find their way back to the dining hall. The older of the two seemed a bit out of breath while Stanton was marginally sweaty. Spike on the other hand was a lot more exhausted than the other two. But as he came through the door, Velvet marched up to him and pulled him up to their table. "There you are, you little dragon you!"

The young drake tried to explain himself before she cut him off. "Mrs. Sparkle, I'm sorry I can't talk right now─"

"Of course not. Little Violet is going to raise a toast, and she wanted to wait until you were here."

Spike glanced back towards the two human siblings with guilt starting to turn his stomach inside out. He began to feel nauseous. "I really don't think I should be here."

"And why not?" Crescent asked.

"Look, it's not that─"

*ding ding ding ding*

The sound of a fork lightly tapping against glass hushed the room to a dead silence. The guest of honor stood up from her seat as she began to announce to the entire room. "Good evening, everypony! I hope that you all are enjoying this party as much as I have enjoyed you throwing it!"

"THE PARTY SHALL LAST FOREVER!" Pinkie shouted to the top of her lungs.

"I wish!" Twilight responded loudly to match with her friend. "But in all sincerity, I can't begin to put into words the wide array of emotions I felt when I saw each and every one of you. Today is a day I wanted to celebrate with everyone. And even though I've gotten to avoid the dance floor, it's nice to know that my fiance thoroughly embarrassed himself in my place."

"You still owe me a dance, princess." I announced in front of everyone.

She gave me a light giggle as she answered. "That I do. Just don't call me out for having two pairs of left hooves."

"I will make no such promise." I announced once more.

Twilight continued. "But before I start humiliating myself before everyone... again, I would like to say a few words of thanks. Of course to my mother for giving birth to me." She said sarcastically while pointing to Velvet.

"Ugh, she actually protested her own birth. How do you stage a sit-in within my─"

The princess was quick to disrupt her mother before she said something to embarrass her. "My distinguished brother and wonderful sister, who granted two unexpected wishes today. Mine was to know if Zecora would be fine, and Zecora for getting out of the hospital room to mingle. Of course it goes without saying that I owe a tremendous thanks to my friends, who've been with me through every possible turn of my life, allowing us to achieve the impossible when all hope seemed lost. Obviously I can't forget Spike, who also helped me keep sane whenever I was about to lose my mind. Another thank you to Sunset, who's magical contributions allowed me to keep my fiance from getting hurt anymore than he already was."

"I'm just happy he didn't break anything this time!" She joked loudly.

"You and me both!" Melanie agreed.

"Yes. To our distinguished guests, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, who taught me many things in my life, as well as the in's and out's of being royalty. I also heard that Blueblood was really working in overtime on the security detail."

Shining scoffed as he shouted a comment of his own. "Possibly the most work he's ever done for the past ten years!"

While everyone had a chuckle, the blond prince gave his fellow royal a simplistic response, knowing that he couldn't top the comment. "I'll owe you for that one, Shining."

Twilight finished laughing before she carried on with her speech. "And who could ever forget the five massive giants standing here in the room? To all our human friends, we thank you not only on an individual level. But the entire nation of Equestria owes you all our deepest gratitude. Without any of you, this day would never have been possible. Several ponies would still be missing, Cheese would still be in the hooves of the changelings, and we would've never been able to retrieve our friend, your friend, your brother. And for this, I give you my utmost respect. Now as for you..." She said while turning to me with a sassy look.

She's gonna rip me to shreds, just watch.

"How are you gonna let changeling get you on your day off?" Everyone broke out into a chuckle as soon as she said it. I knew that was coming. "And then you have the nerve to sacrifice yourself to save one of my friends from certain doom. I know that you are the captain of the guard, but can I at least share one grievance with you?"

"You may, your highness." I said, ready to take anymore blows she might have for me.

"You are the worst when it comes to coming out of anything in one piece. You keep doing it over and over again. And each time I have to clean up after you, I'm left worrying whether or not you'll bonce back from it this time or the next. I can even remember the first time you did it, you nearly got yourself killed. You defended one of my friends earlier in the day, but was caught walking in the evening and ended up in bad shape. Then you nearly got my brother to kill you, twice. Then you nearly got yourself killed alongside my mom and dad. Then again in Ponyville three weeks ago, and in the ruins of Everfree two weeks ago, then just yesterday."

"I get it, I suck at staying healthy." i said, stopping her from rambling on about my medical history.

"Boy do you! But I also understand that it's par for the course when you're a guard. And the sacrifices you've made are way too much to be ignored. If I wanted to, I would keep you in a cage and throw away the key just so that I could keep you to myself for a week. If I could keep you safe with me for one week, that would be all I'd want. And I know I'm being selfish, I don't care! But I'm being selfish because I'm beginning to realize that I can't function without you, not as well as I used to. You damaged me, and I'm hurt whenever you leave. And I remember the day when you fought my brother, when you said that you would carry me whenever I got tired..."

I could already tell from the gradual decline of stability in her voice that she was was on the verge of letting loose a few tears. I grabbed a nearby clean paper napkin as I knew she was going to start crying at any moment. "I did."

She took a few breaths to get herself together before she spoke. "So... I can expect you to take full responsibility in keeping me together. If you leave me, I won't ever be the same. You owe me this, because you changed me so much. And if I can't close my eyes and see that I've shared my life with you, I'd wander this land without purpose until I could..."

When she paused, I could already see her tears falling right off of her cheeks. I quickly reached over and tried to wipe her face. "Hey, hey. Look at me. I'm here." I tried to make light conversation of the situation, ultimately to get her to chuckle a little. "Don't haunt me after you die. Just don't die, please."

Instead, she just lightly shoved me. "You idiot, I should be telling you that!" She screamed, becoming a bit emotional.

"Just stop." I got out of my seat and quickly gave the purple mare a hug, prompting her to tightly wrap her hooves around me. She lightly rocked me from side to side, nuzzling me as I held her. "You know I'm just as scared of losing you. That's why I'm doing this."

"Yes! And do it, you shall!!!"

The sound of a boisterous male echoed from up above us, causing me to separate from Twilight and scan the room. "The fuck was that?" I asked.

And just on cue, a vent grid fell from the ceiling and landed against the ground with a loud clang. Following it were two stallions who fell into the nearby table, where the cake sat on. As they landed on the center of the table, snapping it in two, they caused the cake to launch high into the air. As it arced towards Blueblood, Gleam stepped forward and halted the cake just a few feet from hitting both her and her husband. The blond prince sighed with the relief of not having to relive a past experience of being covered in cake. Rarity rolled her eyes as Blueblood's other wives applauded Gleam for her quick thinking. As the cake was set aside to another table, everyone's eyes were then on the two stallions and the compromised table they laid on.

"Ugh... I knew the fall was going to be painful, thank goodness this table helped break the impact. Help me up, Single File."

The second stallion hopped off of his superior and used his magic to assist the senator to his hooves. "Yes sir!"

Count continued to dust himself off as his understudy aided him on his task. "I swear it took us an hour to find this damn place. The library, the bathroom, the princess' personal chamber, the kitchen, the broom closet, WHY DOES THE BROOM CLOSET NEED VENTILATION?"

"Probably to give some poor, unfortunate souls a fighting chance should they find themselves locked away." Single File answered.

Princess Celestia was the first to address the party crashers. "And what are you doing here!?"

"Don't you have something to do other than impeding on other's privatized matters?" Princess Luna chided.

Shining pointed his hoof at the two stallions. "I trust that you don't have anything to contribute, so I'll be so kind as to give you a walking order. SECURITY!"

Already without Shining saying anything, my brothers had moved in to take both of them. Senator Count tried to speak as he pulled out a scroll with a red wax seal. "Your highness─" Suddenly, the scroll was batted out of his hooves. Next thing the senator felt was a hand firmly grab his horn, strongly yanking him towards the ground. As he looked up, he saw Stanton holding a taser next to his ear. "You again? Have we met?"

"Yes, at the front door. I didn't know who you were then, but I know now the reason why you're here. So you can take this as a formal request to get your pale, flaky-and-crusted, sorry ass out."

As both Stanton and Alex yanked the stallions up and started to push them towards the door, Count tried to make his case before his exit. "I completely understand your desire for me to leave, but not without a word─"

"Sorry, no freedom of speech here. This is a dictatorship." Alex said, cutting him off.

Single File tried to speak for his boss while Alex continued to shove him along. "Summons have been made, and have been set to expire by midnight. It's for the captain."

"Alright, let's get them outta here!" Blueblood cried out as she dismissed the two stallions with a hoof.

"Gag his ass!" Melanie called out as Stanton reached out for something to mute the two with.

As the two were slowly being shipped away, Shining walked towards the scroll and levitated it towards him. He carefully broke the seal and started to read the contents of the scroll. While the two started to struggle with the non-compliant stallions, his eyes glanced at a single word that caused him great dread. His heart sank as he read the word 'Arimaspi' and looked back in the earlier part of the sentence to the word 'deployment'. The stallion's eyes grew quiet and cold as he dropped the scroll and marched towards the two senators. Cadance saw her husband march forward without posture as he walked up to Alex. "Shining!? Shining what's wrong!?" Cadance called out.

Shining looked at the taser in Alex's hands and then stared back to Single File. After looking up to the human, he mumbled in a low voice. "Let me borrow that."

"What?" Alex questioned.

Shining stood motionless for a few seconds before he used his magic to disarm the human and fire the taser directly into the back of Single File. The young stallion screamed with agony as over a thousand volts were sent churning through his body. Shining let loose of the trigger as she started to question the stallion.

"ARIMASPI MOUNTAIN!? YOU'RE SENDING HIM TO ARIMASPI MOUNTAIN!?"

I kinda scratched my head a little at the word, but my arm could feel a pair of hooves nearly squeeze it to sleep. I looked down to see an absolutely mortified Twilight leaning against my arm, breathing heavily. Looking back down, I could see Spike covering his face as Velvet and several others, jumped out of their seats. Senator Count smiled innocently as he explained himself. "It's only for a week. I can assure you... that the assignment is short."

"You know that place is a DEATH SENTENCE!" Cadance screamed with horror, obviously causing me a great deal of concern that I was being shipped to this place. If I didn't take it serious before, I do now.

Single File continued to explain calmly. "Well it's not like he's going alone. He'll have a few guards to accompany him. Just a few─" And all that calm was surged away as Shining Armor sent another thousand volts into the stallions body, even holding the trigger for an extended period of time before Alex and Stanton had to yank the taser away from him. "Thirty! Thirty guards will accompany him!" He answered, not wanting to get hit with another blast.

Twilight started to pet my arm as Zecora stood from her seat. "You know he's been through enough as is. Let him be, he just captured Chrysalis!"

"Captured, but not killed." Count stated as he slowly stood, free of Stanton's grip. "Your image took a pretty big hit, captain. Among my colleagues, your name has been the source of ridicule and judgement. You would do well to answer the call before you. The next train leaves in an hour."

Celestia stamped her hoof into the ground as she spoke. "I will suspend any summons made for him until tomorrow at noon."

"No, princess. We require him now. We demand answers for his negligence, his lack of security, and his absurd methods! The charges have been filed, he is to leave tonight should he wish to keep his job, and moreso his freedom."

Finally, I found the grounds to speak on the matter. "Look, I'm not leaving tonight, okay? I'm spending time with my friends and fiancee, it's her birthday. And furthermore, it's way too damn late for any business to take place. So if you would please find your way out─"

Senator Count took a brave step forward as he cut me off, causing me to buck back at him. "You think that all of the charges are against you, captain. I can assure you that they are also towards another party. So if you'd wish for your princess to keep her wings, or for me to keep my silence about the fact that she had her wings clipped due to her engaging in premarital coitus with you─" At those words, Shining turned to the senator with enlarged eyes. Count looked back to him with a smug smile. "Oh my dear, I was not supposed to say that in front of Shining Armor! Then again, I'm surprised that nopony has even told him already."

Just like that, the air jumped from my lungs as Twilight's older brother looked back to the two of us, heartbroken. Twilight buried her face into my arm as he stared at us. I honestly couldn't find the strength to look him in the eye as he seemed to grow numb. Velvet walked away from her seat to confront the senator. "And it matters what my daughter does in her relationship and why?"

"Because, ma'am, it's law." He answered with a smile, whispering in her face.

Rickey turned to Princess Celestia as he asked loudly. "Quick question. Can we shoot the messenger?"

The senator chuckled as he turned back to the one who asked the question. "It would be unwise. I am the only one to stop the charges from following through."

"He's bluffing." Crescent called out.

The senator then summoned another scroll, unveiling a grievance report. "Oh I am not. This here, this is a copy of the formal application of charge, a grievance made against the princess for corruption and treason against the country. Again I shall say, you owe us your company, sir captain."

I could feel Twilight still rubbing herself against my arm as she started to lean in on me. I looked at Shining, who seemed empty as he stood in place. Cadance walked up to her husband in an attempt to comfort him. Both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna angrily watching, realizing that there was officially nothing that they could do. By law, if a summons were to be announced before a royal audience, it was automatically made official. At that point, I'd have to answer it.

And given the MASSIVE leverage he has against me at the moment, I can't refuse without Twilight having to suffer some sort of defamation or physical pain. And it wasn't like I couldn't let Twilight go through something like that again. Even seeing her go through with getting her wings clipped was nothing short of agony. I couldn't let it happen again. I won't.

With a deep intake of air, I closed my eyes and threw my head to the ceiling. When I exhaled, I felt myself already being sent to a situation where they were going to do something to send a message. And even though I was warned earlier, I still struggle to deal with the fact that it's happening to me. In defeat, my head dropped, my eyes opened, and my voice found words. "If I was to go with you?"

What was a bitter pill to swallow only became even more so as Twilight then pulled my arm down, trying to anchor me in place. The senator silently answered my question. "Then I would revoke my charge. Then you would hear your options, would be granted a time period to ready yourself, wish your compatriots farewell, and then ride with your fellow guards to your assignment. The arrangements are already in pending and will be fully realized come tomorrow afternoon, you ship out Monday morning."

Rickey slammed his hand into the table as he groaned. "You sir are the worst scum of the earth. And that's accounting for my world too."

"Fucking Adolf Hitler looks like a damn saint next to this bastard." Melanie stated.

I raised my head and accepted my task, not that I had much of a choice to begin with. I didn't even say anything as I started to make my way from around the table and out of the dining hall. But then a powerful magenta aura surrounded my entire body, gluing me to the floor. Looking down, I could see Twilight's horn being lit. "Twilight, I gotta go."

"Mm-nmmm. No. You stay here." She answered weakly. "I can take whatever I get, but I'm not going to lose you."

At the sight of compassion, at the mere show of one dedicating their own health and life to another, the senator's colors were finally revealed to everyone within the room. "You see that, Spike? This is what your surrogate mother is reduced to. She's willing to abdicate her position for the desire of one lanky monkey."

Soft gasps sounded throughout the room as each pony expressed shock. Rickey launched himself out of his chair as he reached for his gun. "Did he just─"

Cliff... did NOT take the comment too kindly. He snapped and pulled out his gun, putting the senator down his sights. "HELL NAH! You dyin today, nigga! You finna catch a whole clip in yo ass!" He shouted as loud and clamorous as possible, the sound of his voice echoing throughout the room.

"GUYS!" I shouted out, trying to stop Cliff from killing the senator out of a reason he didn't necessarily understand. "This one's on me."

As I said that, Twilight amplified her magic. Celestia lightly tapped on her student to get her to remove the spell. While she didn't wish to, she did so without a choice. Her former mentor lightly tapped her horn, causing the spell to drop. After I was freed, I slid my arm out of Twilight's grasp. She watched in silence as I walked away from her side, out of the room, and into the hall.

Next, Count's voice rang out in the silence. "Very good. Now come along, Spike. Our time here is done."

***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

I can't.

If I had to sum up everything that I'm feeling at this very moment, it would be best defined by those two words. My forelegs felt the coldness that replaced the once warm feeling of my fiance's arm. Seeing him so removed from his normal demeanor scared me. But it didn't scare me as much as the sight of my brother staring so lifelessly towards the ground. It terrified me in knowing that my fiance would be sentenced to the same torment my brother once faced, the very same torment that forever robbed my brother of a goodnight's sleep.

Just imagining Nondis coming back with every bit of baggage my brother carried made me feel so weak. The thoughts of him walking every family into the lobby of the morgue, apologizing for the lives he couldn't save or bring back, made me sick to my stomach. Even the scenario of seeing him being brought back in... pieces... I didn't know whether or not I wanted to cry, vomit, or close my eyes thinking that this was all just a bad dream.

I'd probably do all three just to be safe.

The sound of a chair scratching against the floor woke me out of my trance. I jumped as soon as the sound reached my ears. When I finally came to, I could see Spike slowly climbing out of his chair, marching at the pace an undertaker would have after digging a few graves. He didn't look at anyone as he left, he just stared at his feet moving forward.

While walking past mom, she tried to send her hoof to bar him from going any further. "You can't be serious, dear child."

"..." Spike didn't respond much outside of looking up to her.

She then put herself in his way, defiantly halting his progress. "No. You cannot be this naive to think that this abomination has any morsel of respect for you or Violet! You just saw him threaten her! She is your family, and you are willing to turn against her? Why, Spike!? Why do you betray us like this!? Did we not give you enough!?"

"It's not because of Twilight entirely." Rarity responded with a soft tone. "I, too, am to blame."

My mother paid her no mind as she placed her hooves on the dragon's shoulders. "Spike, we are your family! This is your home!"

He started to pull himself away as my mom pleaded with him. Eventually, he broke from her grasp and he walked towards the door. Cadance called out to him. "Spike, you know that going with him now would result in you not being able to come back."

"He knows. And he knows that we would rather him never return if he left. Because our friendship was obviously worth so little in the sight of his greed." Rarity responded harshly, causing Spike to stop on his own. He looked back to Rarity who angrily got up from her seat and walked past him on the way out. "If only you were more mature, I'd would've entertained the thought."

The senator waited for Rarity to pass by, who smacked him in the face with her tail as a show of disrespect. Count felt his cheek as he started to feel himself become enraged. He turned back to the dragon standing before the doorway. "Spike, let's go. We don't have all night."

I was left shaking as Rarity said those words to him. A part of me wanted to correct her for being so harsh to him, but I knew that Spike had done something to hurt her. I couldn't get in the way of that. But I still wanted to say something that would cause him to reconsider. But everything I wanted to say was already said by mom. Cadance already told him the consequence of his decision to leave. Rarity only served as an example of how harsh the reality of his choice was. I can't say anything right now, I couldn't even if I tried. Something inside of me snuffed my words out as they were in my throat, causing me to choke.

Spike started to speak as he looked back at me. "Twilight... I..."

Senator Count tapped the dragon on his head, urging him to leave quicker. "You're the only one to stop those charges, Spike. You've bore witness to the escort, the conversation that took place between her and Celestia."

Spike turned back to him, shoving his hoof off of his head as he screamed to the senator. "I DID NO SUCH THING!"

A sickening, demonic smile formed on the senator's face as he blurted out to the whole room. "Or perhaps you'd share that it was you who tried to slice him as he slept!"

A wave of gasps and murmurs filled the room, I was the only one to remain quiet. Again, I couldn't say anything. I was too shocked to say anything as the sudden revelation hit me worse than any blow I received from my worst enemies. Spike, the one I hatched and raised as my own blood, the one who was so loyal to me, tried to kill the one I called my own half.

I can't respond to that.

"Spike... no." Pinkie moaned with an aching sadness.

"That explains the door." Princess Luna mumbled as she looked that Spike.

"Wow... fuck me." Melanie cried out as she threw her glass at the ground in a fit of rage.

The stallion picked up where he left off, stomping a hoof just inches before Spike's face, caging him like a father would his own foal. He fabricated a loving smile while he leaned in towards him, whispering in his ear. "There's no going back, Spike. Now that it's all said and done, there's only one place you truly belong. Now let us return to Canterlot so YOU can remove those charges. You wouldn't want your surrogate mother to lose her wings, now would you?" He said as he started to pet him.

Spike finally broke down, falling on his knees as he wiped his eyes. He tried to keep his eyes on me as he spoke, failing because of the tears that continued to fall. "I'm...s-s....Sssoorry."

The senator who caged him in, retracted his false kindness, using his magic to lift him and shake him violently. "QUIT YOUR CRYING! DO YOU WANT TO SAVE HER OR NOT!?"

"Move your ass, Spike! We got a long-ass train to Canterlot! And you already know I hate trains!"

As Nondis' voice sounded from halls outside, the senator tossed Spike towards his understudy. Catching him in his field of magic, Single File was generous to check in on the dragon before Spike ran outside of the room. He followed closely behind as the senator remained in the room to speak one final time.

"Tough crowd, huh? I know how that can be. Fillies, gentlecolts, and monkeys alike, I bid you adieu."

He then looked at me as he levitated a slice of cake from the table. With a carefree smile, he dug his fork into the cake and took a taste. After he took his first bite, he hummed with delight.

"Oh, and happy birthday, your highness."

Author's Note

Ugh...

It's been a hellish month and a half.

It's not that I've been dealing with writers block, as that is not even the case this go around. Instead, life had gotten a little real for me... A little TOO real.

Not all was bad, but not all of it was good either. I'll probably explain from recently to when all of it started to get to me. I know this is a little personal, but then again this site tends to be a bit of a cathartic method of relieving stress and bad moods. So if this is too much, then feel free to ignore it.

Now enough about real life. Let's get to the story.

√ Portals Arc
√ Guardians Arc
√ Changelings Arc (you are/were here)

Of course this set up took a while and I did think about breaking it in half. But I decided against it for the sake of actually letting the story flow. I honestly didn't want this to drag longer than it did (and yet it still does, go figure). With the sequences of the backstory, it leads into the next arc of the story.

Welcome to the Senate Arc, where cutthroat politics and underhanded business is all in a single helping of breakfast. Of course Nondis will be getting some breaks, but it will take some work getting them.

The question is what new plot armor shall the protagonist wear for the next arc? Well next chapter won't have any, but I can assure you that there might be some walking around. Stick around next chapter for what could be a rather interesting train ride to Canterlot.

Chapter LX

***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

The party wrapped up without fanfare or dance. Decorations were torn down and the gifts I had received were stashed away while many of the guests found their way home. Zecora was escorted back to the hospital, Mayor Mare had her memory wiped of what she had heard and saw, Big Mac and Granny Smith took both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom home. Blueblood's wives had all taken their leave on the next train with Nondis. Both mom and dad remained to speak with Shining and Cadance. Celestia and Luna remained observant of the guards that remained.

I couldn't be anything more than depressed. Even with my friends beside me, it wasn't enough to help me see the brighter perspective of tonight. Flash tried to offer me a few words of encouragement, but they went from one ear to the other at the moment. For my nineteenth birthday, I was given the gift of a harsh reality. And Nondis was going to suffer because of it.

"THIS IS BULLSHIT!"

Alex and the others still remained in our world, making it evident that they weren't going to go back until Nondis returned with any news of his assignment.

"This son of a bitch just fucking condemned our brother to a death sentence and we're just sitting here twiddling our fucking thumbs like there's nothing left for us to do!"

Rickey tried to offer a different perspective. "Dude, I'm just as mad as you are, but even I know that we can't just come in here expecting some semblance of human rights to be set in place. There are no humans here!"

"That's a bunch of ass! They had Nondis for ten months, that gives them plenty of time to make up some damn rules about the ONE FUCKING THING THAT ISN'T NATURAL TO THE GODDAMN EARTH! HASN'T ANYONE AROUND HERE HEARD OF A CONTINGENCY PLAN!?"

"It's pretty hard to come up with one to a species that doesn't belong to you natively." Rickey argued.

"Seriously? I doubt it takes ten goddamn months to come up with one measly little passage."

Cliff looked at him with pursed lips, the right corner of his mouth tilted upwards. "...Bruh."

Alex rolled his eyes as he quickly answered him. "What?"

"Have you ever heard of a little thing called the Emancipation Proclamation?"

Those words paired together appeared to be a rhyme of some sort, but as far as what the importance of it was, I had no clue. Obviously it must be something important to the humans. "What is that exactly?" I asked.

The five humans looked to one another as Cliff shook his head and stood. "Well since we now know that this world is just as corrupt as ours, I guess we ain't got no issues sharing this-here skeleton in that-there closet."

Every one of them shrugged, Stanton being the one to speak next. "Might as well, ain't no point in hiding it now."

"Hiding what?" I asked.

Cliff continued to speak. "To give a little history on the subject. There was this thing called the Atlantic Slave Trade, where they took human beings from a place called Africa to various places of the world, Spain, Britain, France, and the American Colonies. They were captured, by some opposing tribes, others by traders and merchants, chained up, thrown onto ships, stacked on top of one another like merchandise, and shipped some eighty-eight hundred miles over the period of eight months."

My stomach felt a slight churn at the thought of having ponies being placed in a similar situation. "That sounds unsafe. What about medical conditions─"

"None of that mattered." Melanie said as she cut my words short. "They were considered as property. And some were even thrown overboard to collect on insurance money."

Stanton groaned as he came to the realization of something. "Fuck, I remember Nondis saying something the day we rescued Cheese. He said something about ponies being stacked..." He then raised his head as his eyes expanded with shock. "Stacked up."

Rickey added in. "And when that wagon passed by, we could smell some really awful shit."

Flash gave a somber response. "Some of them were already dead."

Now I was sick to my stomach. Melanie hunched over as she covered her mouth. Alex's jaw dropped as everything was added together.

"Yeah, just like that." Cliff carried on. "Keeping the history lesson short, we're gonna pan over two-hundred years and head into our country's little dispute, known as the Civil War. There was an executive order issued from the highest authority over the land, known as the Emancipation Proclamation. Basically, it stated that those slaves were then freed and were to be recognized as citizens of the United States of America, the future name of the North American Colonies. Though signed into law, it took two years to become indoctrinated throughout the country because of the war."

"Hence my reason for saying that Nondis won't be getting any special treatment anytime soon." Rickey concluded. "We're considered a protected species because we're designated as visitors. In his case, being that he's a member of your nation's military, he's no better than a second-class citizen in the eyes of your politicians."

"Which pisses ME off to no end." Cliff stated strongly.

Flash rubbed a hoof on his chin. "Which reminds me, why were you so angry about the senator calling him a monkey? Nondis usually takes very little mind to him."

Alex walked over to Cliff and picked up his arm. "Because back in those days, the days of slavery, they were trading and buying guys of this skin color. And when they were freed, they didn't get much preferential treatment."

Cliff removed his arm from Alex's grasp as he spoke. "They would call me all sorts of things if I was born in those times. Ape, darkie, negro, jigaboo, blackie, tar baby, spade, blue-gum, pickaninny, nigger... Even today there are a few that would call me these things, thug, sambo, those people, monkey."

I started to see why they all looked so angry when Senator Count called them that. Melanie continued. "Meaning that Nondis is willing to take those blows to the chest because he's being blackmailed, doesn't mean that we're going to take too kindly to being referred to as such."

"I see." More of an incentive to have the senator watch his words from here on. "Now I can understand why you all were so angry."

"With all due respect, princess. There are just some things that we have to take caution to. For him to openly call us that as a label to our being, makes it so much more severe than applying it to one race of people." Stanton said as he spoke with a serious tone. "At this point, we're questioning just how many ponies may see us in a similar light. Of course it's not that many, but it is still a subject that needs to be discussed."

"And being that my friend is treated with such a disgusting demeanor by someone who sees our existence as problematic, I would say that it's best to err on the side of caution. But believe me when I say it... When, not if, Nondis snaps, he'll be letting that motherfucker know where he's placed in his eyes."

Alex grimaced in response. "And believe me, neither that senator, nor you, would like that answer."

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

It's always a given that I would say that I don't enjoy a train ride to Canterlot, or to anywhere for the time being. So you can already summarize how I felt being on this particular train, on this particular night, given the current circumstances. My only issue... Hell, all my issues are stemming from the fact that I am officially in blackmail hell, and that I can't do jack shit for myself that doesn't place Twilight in a compromising situation. But that's not the only thing that's gotten me in a tizzy.

While I sat in my seat, I could see Count DuMonee quietly sitting at the front of the cart. Every once in a while, he would peel back the newspaper he was reading and glance over to me. When I look back at him, he glance back at his paper with a cheerful smile. I was sat at the middle. And his assistant seemed to be silently staring out of the window, looking at the scenery outside. Both he and Spike were seated towards the back of the cart.

And don't even get me started on the little fucker, especially now that it's been revealed that he was the one who tried to kill me in my sleep. The levels of how angry I am at him go beyond revenge. I wanted him to suffer, just like all the suffering he caused us back at the castle. Even if he wanted to change things in the later parts of the party, it would've been better if he hadn't even showed up at all. If it was really his intention to make amends and try to rekindle friendships, then he would've came alone like he did the last time.

Of course, he didn't do that.

So while the train glided and bounced along the tracks, I stared to feel even more enraged with each moment, growing closer to the city that only proved to be the shining beacon of my misfortune and despair. Canterlot, the crown jewel of all of Equestria.

More like the crown jewels being shoved up my ass.

Silence wasn't going to make me feel any better about the situation, I needed some ambiance aside from the clatter of the train against the tracks. I suppose since that one pony is here, he's more of a not-so neutral party. He looks a little green to the whole corrupt politician scheme, so I guess it's worth a little something to get him speaking.

"Yo! Pony in the back!" He didn't seem to respond. So I just continued on. "What school you're coming out of?"

The pony looked around and pointed to himself. "Me?"

"Yeah. You look a bit young to be running the desks of legislature. So why not talk a bit. We're around the same age, pretty sure we got some similarities."

"Single File..." Senator Count called from the front of the cart. "Please do fetch me a cup of tea. I feel that my throat is a bit parched from the party. Also that cake was a tad dry."

The young stallion rose out of his seat and walked from the back towards the front, slowing down slightly as he strolled past me. He didn't look at me, but he did acknowledge my presence.

"Hurry up! I want my voice to be in prime condition when I am to speak in a bit." He sped up his pace, trotting to the service carriage to the front of us. When he stepped through the doors to the other cart, Senator Count looked at me once before flapping his newspaper and reading again. "Mmmm Hmph!" He hummed victoriously.

By that point, I started to feel myself split at the seams. "Like seriously, dude. What's your problem?"

He continued to read his news paper, not even budging as my voice reached out to him.

It didn't take the young stallion long to accomplish his task, he returned from the carriage with a steaming cup of tea. The senator then called him back as the young colt was about to return to his seat. "One more thing. Please hold my paper for me, I do grow weary of using my magic for this. If I lay down, the the paper will cover my face."

The intern rolled his eyes and followed the senator's orders. As he sat beside his superior, he held the pages with his magic. The older stallion then gave me a quick glance before turning back to his articles.

"Single File, there is a story that my uncle told me whenever I gotten in trouble. Would you like to serve as an audience?"

"I suppose." He responded.

Little monkey, little monkey
sitting in a tree.
Little monkey, little monkey,
how naive was he?

He waited at the table,
Only dirt filled his palm,
when suddenly she entered,
the little monkey's mom.

'Mommy, mommy,' did he call
his mannerisms were remiss
'What did you get', he greedily asked
She responded, 'I got you this.'

A brown, soggy fruit was laid
the little monkey grew sad.
He turned to the bigger monkey.
'That was all they had?'

The mother monkey nodded,
His sadness did she see.
'I'm sorry my little monkey child,
but there's more in the danger tree.'

'I could go get some for you,
but the storm is truly fierce.
The wind are so strong right now,
through me, the lighting will pierce.'

He rose from the table.
He then threw a fit.
With pride he said, 'it matters not.
I will go get it.'

He ran down the viney path,
and he climbed up the tree.
The most dangerous tree
The tallest that all could see.

He reached for a pod,
but then his founding gave
he fell the ground below...
he could not be saved.

The monkey mother wept
her child's death did she see.
When a snake crawled from out of it's roots.
And whispered, 'He should've never climbed that tree.'

As he finished, he was looking directly at me. I could only growl back at him as he smiled. "Lovely little psalm, isn't it?"

Single File didn't say anything as he assumed that his question was directed at me. I didn't want to say anything because I know that I would have quite a few words to say. But it didn't take him long to goad something from either of us.

"Well somepony give me an answer, I believe my question wasn't a rhetorical one."

You know what, fine, I'll give you a goddamn answer. "I think it's pretty─"

He then disrupted me as he turned back to his subordinate. "Single File, would you kindly inform that monkey over there that I have no interest in his opinions. Obviously I said everypony, not everything."

...Inhale.

...Exhale.

...Fuck this. I'm tired of composing myself.

I stood out of my seat and marched right up to the smug-faced cunt and pushed that File guy out of the way, tore the newspaper out of his face and stood high above his smart ass. "Well I'll tell you this, this is the one thing that you don't wanna fuck with. So if you got something you wanna say, we can do it like men. I don't have to fucking respect you, nor do I have to get out of your face. The moment you threw personal shit out in the air was the moment where you removed all privilege of your personal space being maintained. So effective as of now, I'm in your shit."

He turned away, trying to look as calm and collected as he talked out of the side of his mouth. "Single File, it's talking to me again."

"So you're deaf now? Got something for that." I yanked that cup right out of his lap and doused his face in his tea and backwash. My nails dug into my palms as I balled my fist up as tightly as I could. My right arm twitched as it swung loose, ready to make contact with the side of his face. He slowly wiped his face and looked back down to his lap. My forehead butted against his as I was ready to take my first swing. "I bet you heard that. Fuck you, pussy-ass bitch. Fuck your goddamn tea. Fuck your newspaper. Fuck your friends. If you don't wanna be a man, then don't say shit! C'mon, man up!"

"Ugh... Just leave it alone, Nondis."

...I believe I heard that voice come from the back.

I left that shitty senator in his seat as I made my way towards the back of the cart. I sat down next to the dragon, earning myself a groan of displeasure. He looked away as I stared holes into him. I clapped my hands once as I took a mighty deep breath. "Tell me you're not this stupid."

Spike refused to speak as I continued to look at him.

"I'm begging you, tell me that you don't lack the fucking brain capacity to process action and consequence. Cause I know when I did some stupid shit when I was a kid, I got my ass tanned with belts, switches, and extension cords. You need to tell me whether or not you've got it. Please tell me you do, because I know you're of age."

He glanced back to me, his jaw slightly ajar.

"Yeah. From the very moment I heard you tell Mel that you were rubbing your meat off, I knew that it was that time. When I heard that you watched Rarity in the privacy of her own room, I knew that it was definitely time for a man-to-man. The moment you had it in mind to put your grubby little hand on your dick to visualize yourself in between Rarity's legs, it was finalized that you were damn-well aware of what the fuck you were doing. You had a fucking agenda, you wanted to play a grown man's game. Well, game fucking over."

Spike turned away as he mumbled. "Please just leave me alone."

"Hell no! You had it in your mind, or at least let someone put it in your brain, that you didn't have to leave me alone, and come into my room in the middle of the night to slit my throat. I'M FUCKING AMAZED, that you didn't have the wherewithal to think about Twilight or anyone else's feelings towards any of that shit. Yet you can think about your dick getting wet, something that takes two to do? You have to have a pretty developed mind to express these things. You're not a fucking child anymore!"

He covered his ears at that point, to which I climbed even closer to him to get my words through.

"It wasn't a child that tried to make a move on Rarity in the hallway earlier. Yeah, I saw that shit too, had my door fucking cracked watching you getting a club-chub while sniffing her hair and shit like you were fucking Roman Polanski. Fell flat on your face after she flashed your ass for acting like a sex-crazed moron. And you had the balls to put on a little size to say that you could rank up to me."

"I didn't say that." He finally responded.

"The hell you didn't. You insinuated that shit. You whispered it to her. You fucking made it a goddamn headline that you were willing to prove to her that you were the alpha dog. You, motherfucker, you said and meant that shit."

"Go away."

"So tell me, Spike. Now that you've practically drove an arrow through every one of your friends' hearts, gave Twilight a good stab in the chest, and metaphorically slit my throat after failing to do so in real life, do you honestly think that I am going to just let it go? My fucking experience here has been nothing short of being authored by fucking George R.R. Martin. So tell me, Spike. How am I supposed to act? I'm gonna let you answer this one for me. Go on, shoot for the stars."

Spike shoved me away as he murmured. "It's not my fault."

I think I just felt a peace unlike any other wash all throughout my body. It was as if my very existence was ascended from the mortal plane to the realm beyond consciousness. All of my limbs seemed so loose, so easy. I could easily rest knowing that he's not to blame. I am totally at peace with that. And it's strange because you would think that I would react so violently to an answer that throws away all sense of accountability. Seriously, I can't think of anything else to say. If it's not his fault, then clearly it is the response of a juvenile who knows nothing of his actions or the fact that they have consequence. Again, I can understand.

*SNAP*

I couldn't even count seconds due to how fast my arm slung around to drive my fist into that little bastard's face. As he started to reel back from the pain, I placed my left hand on his neck while I continued to connect with my right. While he squirmed, waving his hands to ward off any blows, I simply threw him into the center aisle and stood from my seat. He started to crawl away before I reared my right foot up and power-stomped his tail. With a cry, he hopped back up and tried to swipe his claws at me.

I pulled back to avoid his blows, following up with a quick left jab that sent his head bouncing off of my fist and onto the carriage floor. I flipped him face down and placed my knee into his back as I hunched over and grabbed both sides of his head and mash it down into the floor. For a while he squirmed until I stopped for a moment to send another series of blows to the back of his head.

"Sir, he's gone mad! We've gotta stop him!" Single File cried out as he and his superior galloped to try and break us apart. I used just my right hand to send him stumbling back ten feet before I clamped my fists together and gave the dragon one more blow before DuMonee's magic placed my arms in restraint.

Spike was slow to stand as he felt his face. Everything was still attached, but the trail of crimson that poured out of his nose was more than an indication that my point had gotten through to him. He then snarled at me with heated breath. He flexed his claws and then hissed a thick stream of smoke.

"Oh, now you wanna man up? You're a month late, motherfucker!" I wasn't going to hold anything back. I know this is slimy as hell, but I wanted my words to hurt just as much as the physical pain he's in. "While you were playing secretary to Count Castratti over there, I had to help Rarity get through a few errands myself. And it was... well worth the reward."

"SHUT UP!" He screamed loudly.

"And I have to admit, Rarity has this thing she does with her tongue that makes kissing so much fun." I said with a light chuckle. "Sorry you missed out."

By then, Spike too reached his snapping point. With a menacing grimace, his body proceeded to increase in size as he flexed his claws. "Spike... KILL YOU!" He said with a much deeper voice.

"GO AHEAD!" I hollered back to him. "At least I'll die knowing she sat in my lap! Have fun sitting on his!"

The dragon's chest expanded as his teeth began to show more and more. His lips parted to make way for his breath while he grabbed onto the nearest seat to anchor himself down. But before he could finish his intake, Single File sealed off his head with a magic bubble while trying to urge the dragon to not lose his temper anymore than he already did.

Meanwhile the senator continued to stoke my flames with his only insult. "Enough from you, you stupid monkey!"

Now my attention was drawn to the stallion who continued to mock me. I had every intention to unload on him as well. "Oh I'm pretty sure your daughter would love to mount for some hot monkey dick. Why don't you get us to meet up real quick, I can blow my saving grace all over her ass."

"I have a son." He stated sternly, thinking it would still chance my way of thinking.

"Well I'm pretty sure he doesn't mind bottoming out. All these daddy issues he's got, it's guaranteed he's blown his uncle a few times back when he was young. His cousins, his teachers, the curious colts in the locker room, he's bound to have a thing for getting his prostate punished."

Using his magic, he yanked my arms down to pull me closer to him. With a low voice, he growled at me. "You're dealing with the wrong one."

"You're dealing with the wrong species." I snared back before jumping up and jamming his left ear in my teeth. Using my canines, I bit through and pulled back to give him a notch. He screamed as he felt the pain of his ear being partially split. His magic completely abandoned my hands and arms, freeing me from his grasp. He promptly started tending to his newly-wounded ear. But before he could start mending himself, I clamped my hand around his horn and shook his head as I shouted to the heavens above. "I WILL FUCKING EAT YOU! SHOOT YOU DEAD AND FUCKING PAN YOUR SHIT TILL IT'S BROOOWN AAAAAND GREASYYYYYY!"

My throat started to experience a bit of discomfort after that statement. But it was one that placed the three of them in dead silence. Single File stared in terror, covering his mouth as he saw his superior being towered over and handled like dog on a stick. The senator remained wide-eyed as his intern whimpered.

"You haven't─"

"PLENTY!" I screamed quickly, scaring him and knocking his magic out of focus. "NOT SINCE I'VE CAME HERE... but you might be the first."

Senator Count tried to rebuild his calm demeanor, failing to do so as his legs shook violently. "You are angry. That is the only reason why you seem to act so irrational."

I lifted him by his horn, causing his hooves to dangle as I stared into his eyes with an icy cold glare. "In my world, we ride beasts like you. We farm using you as our engine. We capture and tame you. We own you as pets. We slave you as dogs. We breed you so that there will be more of you to serve us. And when we are done with you, you either become the glue that holds our shoes together or the food on our plate."

"I─"

I wouldn't let him finish, branching my fingers around his neck to compress his windpipe. My thumb mashed strongly against his trachea as I spoke. "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth'. Genesis: Chapter 1; Verse 26. That is the scripture we live by, and it is the very scripture we hold to even in death. This is your world, but it is MY decision to keep it or purge it. Cause once mankind knows of this land, we will scourge it... Test me too much, and I WILL saw my knife into your neck, while your family is sold to the highest fucking bidder."

Just as he started to lose consciousness, I let go, allowing him to breathe once more. The senator coughed and wheezed as I slowly turned to his assistant.

"And if you need proof, you can ask every changeling you found just outside of Ponyville yesterday. I'm sure that they can speak on some sort of account, despite the fact that they're dead."

As I walked back towards my seat, I felt a clump of fur against my teeth and the distinctive taste of iron. I cleared the object from my mouth and spat out a small chunk of fur, slightly bloodied. I raked my fingernails against my tongue to remove the remnants of his fur from my mouth. Count remained silent as his assistant voiced his disgust. "You are a monster!"

I looked at him with a sarcastic smirk as I responded. "You have no idea, do you? You raised me to be a soldier, I became that. You called me to be your captain, I am that. You corner me and prod me into becoming a monster, I will be just that."

While the young stallion continued to look to me with horror and disgust, the once confident senator grew hesitant in his tone as he questioned his assistant.

"Single File, would you help me dress my ear?"

Upon arriving to Canterlot, the senator and his assistant remained quiet until the doors opened to allow for two guards to enter. As they boarded, they looked to both the senator and Spike, noticing their injuries. One guard questioned Single File, but Senator Count spoke out to say that it was because of their rambling around in a ventilation shaft. With considerable haste, he took Spike with him and ran towards the castle. Single File and I walked together towards the castle, but at a much slower pace. He seemed to be dragging time along so that I could be at a distance from the two. All the while, he looked at me with the fear of a being who has watched someone commit a barbaric act.

Looking back at myself, I could definitely see the concern. Not once in all of my life have I been that angry. The closest I've ever been was when Chrysalis tried to take over my mind. And the distant third was when Shining was dumping water on me and having me do push-ups in mud. But even in those circumstances, I had some measure of self-control.

This time... restraint became a foreign concept.

I stirred on how I lost every last ounce of my composure as we made our way to the castle. Though it took some time to relocate, I did manage to salvage enough to where I could walk into the parliament chamber without grabbing someone's weapon and impaling every last smirk and grimace in the hall.

This entire night had me up to my jaw, and the day started so well.

When I entered, I noticed that there was a vast amount of empty space in the seats. On the left side of the room, there seemed to be nothing but unclaimed seats. On the right side of the room was the usual ruckus. About fifty-five percent of the room was filled with politicians and lawmakers, which immediately told me that this was going to be a kangaroo court case.

"TRAITOR!"

"YOU LET HER LIVE!"

"SHE TAKES OVER THREE HUNDRED OF OUR CITIZENS AND YOU LET HER WALK FREE!?"

"YOU ALLOWED HER TO TAKE YOU!?"

"CIVILIANS DIED BECAUSE OF YOUR INCOMPETENCE!"

"YOU ARE AN EMBARRASSMENT TO OUR NATION!"

"RESIGN YOUR POSITION!"

All the jeers that reached my ears as I took to the podium at the center of the floor started to have me drop whatever little patience I had left. The sound of wood creaking as a door opened only served to be a pleasant distraction. But to my dissatisfaction, it was none other than Senator Count taking the seat where Celestia would often sit. He, and his bandaged ear, stared at me from above as he pounded the gavel against the stand. "Order! Establish order!"

Eventually, the jeers and complaints started to fade into silence. The senator started to make his statements as I turned to him and tried to inform him of his violation. "That's not your seat, sir."

He ignored me as he continued on with the proceedings. "Summons have been called into order. Placed charges are of as followed, conspiring with an enemy of the kingdom─"

Again, I tried to address him. "Sir... That is not your seat."

Once more, he ignored me. "Harboring an enemy of the kingdom with suspicious intent, failure to maintain security, negligence to which caused the death of a civilian─"

At this point, I shed off some of my patience and walked towards a nearby guard holding onto a spear. Quietly, I asked to borrow it from him. Without question, he surrendered his weapon and I walked towards the podium at the center of the room. I looked back up to the stallion in Celestia's seat and saw that he was still rambling on. So I heaved the spear above my head and slammed the pole into the podium, acting as an extremely-loud gavel. The loud smack of wood against wood caused the entire room to jump with surprise. Even Senator Count stopped reading to look at me as I finally grabbed his attention.

"Sir... That's not your seat."

The startled senator proceeded to explain himself. "This seat does not belong to one pony in particular, it belongs to whoever presides. And since there are no royals present or accounted for, it would be placed upon the parliament to elect one who is most fitted to the task of presiding."

I looked back at the empty pews on the left side of the room and then back towards the right. "I only see half a room with seats filled."

"They are empty because they protested the decision of our vote." One of the other senators called out. "No point in being abysmal in defeat."

A few chuckles sounded throughout the room as Senator Count continued to explain himself. "Furthermore, if a royal isn't present, do you expect us to sit idly by and allow for our nation and it's proceedings to go unattended? Why, it is because of the possibility of a royal performing an act of treason or being unavailable that we establish a protocol where we may continue to perform our duties to this nation. If your commander were to fall in battle, would you stand by and await orders?"

...Okay, he has a point there. Taking a deep breath, I nodded and regained my composure. "Very well then. I do not like the fact that there is no royal present, and only half of the room who seems to agree with your political philosophies is here to bear witness, I acknowledge when I am wrong."

Senator Count then gave me a sarcastic smile. "Yes... It would be best for you to hold your tongue from here onward. Accept your charges and your consequence, remain silent, and go about your way."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Whatever, just tell me what I gotta do on this 'Arimaspi Mountain' bullshit mission, so I can pack my shit, kick some ass, and be back in time for dinner."

As I finished my statement, I started to grow a tad confused over the response of the everyone within the room. Murmurs and whispers sounded throughout the room ad nausem. One of the representatives looked back at me broad-eyed, seeming perplexed and astounded at my words. "...You've made your choice already? Without even hearing the terms?"

Okay... I might have jumped into something I didn't quite know all the details to. "Wait, I have options?"

Another representative facehoofed as he spoke. "Ugh, Faust help us. Presiding Senator Count, did he even read his summons report?"

"Unfortunately, Shining Armor read it and threw it away before he could. Then he started rambling on about Arimaspi Mountain as soon as he read the words. At the moment, he's triggered. Could be all night with it... again."

"Yeah..." Didn't even know that was in their vocabulary, oh well. "Well either way, I wanna hear my options since I was scurried out of the place before I could get a chance to. Now what am I dealing with?"

Senator Count cleared his throat as he went through my options. "Of course you know of your first choice. The issue you'd deal with is more in the terms of fighting off barbaric creatures who will seek to eviscerate your unit with every swipe of their claws. Your task is to retrieve a lost tribute and to return the wealth to Canterlot soil. Failure would result in severe reprimands, the stripping of your position, and possibly a dishonorable discharge. Your allotted time will be fourteen days, as to minimize casualties. Thirty guards will be your escort."

So that sounds like there's going to be a lot of dying going on. More funerals I'd have to attend, more letters to write, more grieving families beating on my legs about how I didn't do enough to save them. And it's a guaranteed set-up to have me fired. Pass. "Okay, next option."

Another senator stood from the middle-towards-right area of the room. "Another task would be to send you and one hundred guards to the Frozen North. There will be an outpost where you will be stationed. It's quite far from the Crystal Empire leaning just ten meters away from the border of Yakyakistan, so I'd advise you not to make treks to the city unless you were willing to exhaust supplies and freeze to death. Your opposition would be the usual of the northern rift-raft. Yetis, bugbears, Yakistani spies, smugglers, Sombra supremacists, the dark magic cult called the Order of Umbra, and a few windigos. The deployment period is to last for eight months."

Eight months in deep freeze, ugh. I don't think I can last with my lack of fur. And even if I'm properly equipped, there's too many variables that would go wrong at any given moment, threatening the lives of me and my guards. Hell, it's not even guaranteed that I'll make it past six months if I live on equine rations the entire time. That's guaranteed death. Pass. "Next option."

Another senator from the far right of the room stood up as he spoke. "Your final option will be to colonize the outtermost reaches of the Undiscovered West. There, you will maintain your position and establish a new town in the area. You will be provided four hundred guards, we will try to distribute an even number amongst the sexes so that colonization carries on with minimal incident. During your deployment, you are denied visitation from royals or delegates. It is only after the allotted time frame you've been assigned your post will you be able to accept visitation. Princess Celestia will come and survey your progress. From there on, you will have the choice to remain there and become it's founder, or return to Canterlot. Your only condition for a premature return would be the failure of said task and/or the losses incurred to where your forces stand less than twenty-five percent."

Well that one sounds long as it is. I can already guess that this would probably be at least a year before I'm done. And the element of surprise is evident in the word 'undiscovered', meaning I could be running into a myriad of things that could kill us. Of course, there's a master catch to it all, especially considering that this could be either the easiest assignment, or the most difficult. "Okay... What's the deployment length?"

"No less than twenty-four months."

...Okay, now that's a keep-away if I ever saw it. Eight months is somewhat reasonable, but it's in deep freeze. And they've got me going two years into a redzone for the other option. If anything both of those choices are practically pointing big-ass neon light arrows at the first choice, and that's the one that seems to be oddly easy in comparison. Kill some beasts, grab some gold, and return to base.

"Oh... and another thing." Count DuMonee added. "I've done a little bit of research off of your last three endeavors. And I can't help but to draw a bit of concern over your... human friends."

Oh great, he's showing 'concern'. This is probably some other brick of bullshit he's throwing my way. "What?"

"Well it's just that the past three situations you've encountered the changelings all involved non-members of the E.U.P. Guard. Shining Armor and Flash Sentry are glaring exemptions, but even those two's affairs on the front line should be limited. Shining Armor is a prince and a brigadier general, whose place should be behind the battle lines as opposed to the front lines. Flash's position is much like yours, but his specialty is in the private sector of security. He has affiliation with the Crystal Empire, a small yet marginally separate nation. They're only involved in our affairs because they are under a pact that would allow them to remain a satellite nation. And in return, they give us trade and allows for our northern boarders to become their jurisdiction."

Really, now they're saying that Cadance and Shining are DIGNITARIES!? "So the Crystal Empire has no affiliation with the Equestria?"

Another representative spoke out. "Their true borders are circled by Equestrian land. They depend on us to offer them further protection until they fully establish hierarchy, economy, longevity, and stability. Till then, they are a developing nation with their own hired security. So Flash Sentry is a hired hoof, a branch of special forces separate from the E.U.P. Guard."

Okay, now I know they're just making shit up. "Then how is it that Shining's position in the E.U.P. valid if he's a prince to a developing nation?"

"Because he was our captain first. And he signed paperwork to allow him to remain involved in our nation's security... A move we're currently regretting. If you're as incompetent as he was during his own wedding, then there's no point in keeping you around. You're here to prove that YOU can do YOUR job, not have a merry band of your species prancing about danger alongside you."

"They volunteered!" I tried to argue, but was shut down by Count.

"Yes, but you are the captain of the royal guard, a member of the E.U.P.. You swore your life to protect us from dangers foreign and domestic, and that vow stripped you of your protections. They are a protected species and that label will remain until they are what you are. So to keep your confusion to a minimum, you are strictly prohibited from allowing them to become involved in this assignment, no matter the choice you make."

And there's the coup de grace. "So... if I refuse all three of these assignments?"

"You will be stripped of your rank and title. Of course it goes without saying that your approval process would be nullified effective immediately. And once nullified, you are barred from reapplication with either royal. No dishonored shall take the hoof of a royal in marriage, so that they may become a disgraced prince to our nation. You've already embarrassed our country more than once with the changelings. This is your final chance to prove yourself. You either get down, or lay down."

He then hopped off of the stand above to jump down to where I stood. After he stopped a few inches away from me, he muttered to me quietly.

"And I'm sure you'd be willing to get down as opposed to laying down. Because laying down would also have a certain pony we both know lying on an operating table. I don't mind taking those wings away from her... I'd prefer it."

...Shit. Now I remember exactly why I lost all of my composure. I was beaten in so many ways, I couldn't defend myself no matter what route I took. I was at his mercy for the time being. And it would take me a while to find a way out. "If I simply fail?"

"You lose your rank and status. You'd lose your right to marry in. That's as far as it would go."

This is coming from the guy who just said he'd prefer if Twilight lose her wings. "I don't trust you."

"Well if you don't trust me, then work for me... Dance, little monkey."

"We've had this discussion already."

"And we're having another... in a public forum, no less."

I glanced around to see the politicians whispering to one another as they waited for me to make my decision. I turned back to him and whispered into his injured ear. "It only takes one time for me and you to be alone, not even that. Just give me you and five-hundred yards of space."

"And one operating table with little Violet's name on it... Your call on whether or not you want to play selfish."

That cocky fucking smile he's wearing tells me that he's got more moves than I can counter. And it's obviously telling me that he's hardly even budged from my earlier outbursts. Even playing that card has gotten me nowhere. I threatened to sell his family to the highest bidder and he's still smiling like he's got the world and a half in his hoof. All of his compatriots are sitting around waiting for an answer that would cause me to get killed, take a fall, or go away for an extended stay. And if I leave for a long time, it would only make it harder for me to assert an agenda to have Processu Approbati removed.

He rigged the deck to where I'm pulling a low count on every suit. No matter what my hand looks like, he's got a flush to drop when I throw my chips in. I can't move, not as long as Twilight's name is on the table. And I've been dealt a shitty hand with no chance of a win. I've lost this round. But I'll be damned if I don't shuffle for the next draw.

I'll fold for now. "I'm gonna plaster your face on every creature I turn into a cadaver.... I'll bring you back something nice."

It felt like a long ride back to Ponyville. Everything that happened for the past five hours either made me explode, had me agitated, or become physically aggressive. And I was more than upset that I was forced to make a choice that many would probably see as a bad one. And I know that I would have to serve my apologies to the families and soldiers long before we set off.

But taking the circumstances into mind and what I could probably get out of it, I feel I made the best choice for anyone involved. I can't just let my guards die recklessly or without proper reasoning. I've watched so many ponies die, each one starting to hurt more and more as time carries on. The more losses I take, the less likely I'm gonna be able to function. The more I get cornered, the more hostile I become. The more they write me off, the more I feel like showing up with an assault rifle and blowing their brains out...

Deep breaths, Nondis.

There's that aggression again.

I suppose there's nothing much for me to do other than to do my job and figure out something later. I know he'll think I'll just do anything from this moment on, but I'll be trying to dig up every grain of dirt on his ass. I swear he'll fucking regret looking down on me.

Moments later, I arrived back in Ponyville station. After noticing that it was around two in the morning, I made a long trudge to Twilight's castle across town. When I walked through the door, I could already see a guard, supposedly on watch, posted against the wall with his spear supporting much of his upper body as he dozed off. I walked up to him and snapped my fingers, causing him to jump back into attention. He apologized for his exhaustion and proceeded to watch the door.

After that, I made my way up towards the dining hall. When I poked my head inside, I could see an empty room with a few chairs and tables sat to the side. All the decorations were gone. The presents were already removed, no cake, no signs of life. I wearily shrugged and made my way towards one of the guest rooms.

Doing so required me to make my way through the throne room. As time progressed, I could hear a painful wail coming from deep on the other side of the doors leading into the throne room. The voice appeared to be a male moan, which initially caused me to pull back with a bit of uncertainty. But my brain was telling me to just roll past it and make my way towards a bed. I wasn't going to argue that logic, some sleep would be fucking nice.

I walked into the throne room, only to see three alicorn princesses, six other ponies, and five humans. Each of them stopped whatever they were doing to look at me as I entered. I just stared back at them. "So what, we having another sleepover?"

Twilight wasted no time in teleporting from her seat to my side, yanking my arm down and hugging it again. As she did, another wail came from further down the halls. It was followed by another voice.

"Shining, I'm here sweetie. Just relax."

Just those words sent flashbacks to me about my grandparents. On occasion when me and my brothers stayed the night over on his ranch, we'd hear him moaning and grunting. Sometimes he'd just bust out hollering. And whenever that happened, my grandma would whisper to him that he was safe at home.

Obviously, my brothers were showing a similar display of discomfort. Twilight closed her eyes, seemingly trying to shut out the miserable noises coming from her brother. She pulled even harder on my arm as she gritted her teeth. Melanie, Rickey, and Cliff seemed a bit disturbed, but not on the levels where my brothers were.

Pinkie, however, didn't waste any time. "So? How did it go?" Twilight started to breathe heavily as she clench onto my arm even more. I looked back at the pink pony and answered her question.

"...I ship out Monday morning on the first train smoking."

"Where?" Melanie asked.

"Well... Apparently they're shipping me off to Arimaspi Mountain."

"NO!" Twilight screamed to the top of her lungs as she broke down in hysterics. On her way down to the ground she scraped a small layer of skin off of my arm. Seeing her like that caused me to give immediate response towards her disposition.

"Twilight, what's wrong!?" I asked with a bit of panic.

She reached up to my arm again, smacking and battering against it with all of her might. "Not you too. Please, don't do this. I can't take another night of you screaming! Not again!"

"Wait what? WHAT DID WE MISS?" Alex questioned as he tried to make sense of Twilight's statement.

Rainbow Dash was the bravest one to answer. "...Nondis was kinda... packed away next to a corpse while Chrysalis was about to ship him out the other day. He was paralyzed throughout his body while all of this happened. So I guess he kinda had a bit of an episode Wednesday night."

Stanton covered his face with both of his hands as he groaned with frustration. "Dammit, we just had a conversation about this."

Alex, on the other hand, seemed significantly calmer. "Has he had the episode since?"

"Y'all were here with him. We wouldn't know it but you five would." Applejack said as she took off her hat. "But in the meanwhile, Arimaspi Mountain is said to be a pretty nasty place. Hardly nopony who even goes there even comes back alive."

The farm pony was bumped in the side by Rarity, who quickly corrected her. "Darling, I do believe that given the current circumstances that the words you spoke were of ill-timing." She then pointed to Twilight who continued to bat away at my arm.

I tried to be a bit optimistic about my decision, considering that it was only for a short while. "Well it won't be a long deployment. It's just two weeks. I've done two-week work in less than ten days, admittedly with some help."

Princess Celestia then spoke. "But I do not think you are truly weighing the gravity of your choice. You are responsible for thirty other lives who will accompany you. Arimaspi Territory is a dangerous place to tread. So getting to the mountain is in itself a feat worthy of acknowledgement."

Luna then tagged onto her sister's comment. "Getting to the cave of the mountain is merely reaching a point of no return. We've lost dozens of guards who were on assignment in that area. You would be better off serving another deployment."

"One choice is in deep freeze for eight months. The other is heading out west for two years to colonize. Two weeks to kill some shit and grab some gold is pretty tame in comparison."

Melanie started to speak. "Well we can he─"

But Celestia cut her off by raising a wing to stop her. The alabaster princess looked at me with pity as she spoke. "You are indeed very tired. I see that your judgement is only clouded by your fatigue."

Luna looked towards her sister and saw a dark expression on her face. The younger sibling immediately caught on to what the elder was planning to do. "I agree. To see you so confused is quite disheartening. Perhaps we should escort you to your room and allow you to rest. I will personally send you to your dreams, and watch over you as you sleep."

"I will guard." Celestia stated as she ignited her horn, causing a golden ring of magic to cuff around my left wrist. She hurriedly pulled me along, even as I showed minimal protest. Luna then pushed me along as the three of us quickly left the room. The others were left to silence as Twilight shook. Her friends started to show concern over her, while the humans were more focused on my manner of exit.

"You know... there's a bit of scariness to this whole situation." Rickey mumbled.

"What do you mean?" Melanie inquired.

"To quote something from Shakespeare, 'Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest'."

All of the humans in the room looked at him with shock and disbelief. Cliff promptly shook his head. "Rickey... No."

Twilight was quick to pick up on the vibes that were just introduced to the room. She immediately grew uncomfortable just based on their expressions alone. "Wha... What does that mean?"

Cliff groaned as he closed his eyes and cursed himself for what he was about to say. "It's a old saying in our world. Angels singing you to your rest usually pertains to... well... afterlife."

Every pony in the room felt an icy chill run through their bodies as they watched Celestia and Luna leave with me in tow. Twilight shook even more as the next sound was that of her brother moaning in his post-traumatic state. She hunched over and tried to cover her ears as her brother groaned a little more before Cadance calmed him down.

Applejack hid her face in her hat as she whispered to herself. "Sheesh. And Ah thought my timing was bad."

While I was pushed into one of the guest bedrooms, I tried to emphasize that my actual bed was in Twilight's room. Ignoring my complaints, they shoved me in the room and slammed the door behind us. Luna locked the door behind herself as Celestia then used her magic to lift me off the ground and place me in bed. While I tried to fight my way out of it, she slammed her hooves beside me to cut off my escape routes.

"Luna, the spell."

The younger sister obeyed her sister command without question or hesitation. Meanwhile I was forcibly tucked in the sheets. My attempts to kick the sheets off of my body were foiled by the older sister's magic. I screamed at the two alicorns. "What the hell are you doing!?"

Celestia didn't bother addressing me as much as she hounded on Luna. "Sister, what is taking you so long?"

"I'm trying to consolidate the dreamscape! If you truly knew my line of work, then you would understand that it takes some time to prepare!"

"Does it take all of that!?"

"Yes!"

And again, I'm being ignored. "CAN SOMEONE FUCKING EXPLAIN WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?"

Celestia turned back to me and sighed. She placed her hoof on my chest as she drastically cut her volume down to a whisper. "Relax."

"I'm not relaxing until─"

Her magic then traveled to her hoof, pushing out a warm glow throughout my chest. I could recognize the spell's effect, it was the same one she used when they had informed me that the portal was ready. But it effect was slow as opposed to being an instant knockout. The princess' hoof slowly rubbed against my chest. "We are not trying to intimidate you. We only wish to explain."

"What is this?" I asked.

"I am placing you into sleep. The dream you will have will explain everything that we fear for you. It's not to intimidate you, but to inform you and enlighten you."

After she said that, I could hear Shining groan further down the hall. The sound of his pain was accompanied by his wife comforting him. Celestia looked back and her face softened, seeming sad and empathetic. I questioned her. "What are you trying to show me?"

Celestia closed her eyes as her horn suddenly transformed from a bright gold light to a heavy magenta glow, similar to both Twilight's and Shining's. Even the soft hum that usually came with it was made deeper as the colors transitioned. "The reason for his mourning."

Luna walked up to the other side of the bed as she continued. "Even he does not want to remember all of the details of what happened, the reason for it was because something of his doing that he ultimately regretted. Yet despite my sister and Cadance counseling, they couldn't remove many of the haunting images... or the regret that came along with it."

"And using a memory spell would be dangerous, as it would leave a sense of emptiness where the loss occurred. Add that with the fact that many who knew the fallen would constantly remind him of his failure. It would truly make him unstable." Celestia explained. "And I could not take away the nightmares that followed him, as I have no power in the realm of dreams."

"Neither could I." Luna added. "These nightmares stem from a personal experience, as opposed to what could've possibly happened like in yours. I could wipe his memories, but my sister has already explained why that is not the most sound decision. And to add to the dilemma, I was still in banishment when all of this occurred."

As they continued to talk on and on, I felt my eyelids becoming significantly heavier. It was like weights pulled on them, forcing me to close my eyes. The soothing feeling of Celestia's hoof petting my chest became the one thing that shattered my willpower to stay awake. That compiled with my fatigue from the day made me complacent, comfortable with the circumstance. While their words started to fade, I allowed myself to surrender to sleep.

Not that I had much of a choice.

"For you to understand the gravity of what you're walking into, you need to see what it is that we all fear for you."

My eyes opened to find myself standing inside of a candlelit tent. The sounds of crickets and frogs singing in the night made me realize that I was the furthest thing from home. At least it used to be a little more quiet as opposed to all this damn racket. I suppose I could get used to it while I'm out here...

~...Wait, where am I again?~

"Captain?" A voice called from behind me.

Turning around, I was greeted by an off-white pegasus pony dressed in full armor. The pony took off it's helmet to reveal that it was actually a she. She had bright green eyes and light gray freckles all over her face. Her hair was a little frizzy, mainly from our hike. She had a manecut that covered one of her ears and spilled down towards her chest. Her cheeks were a bright red as she walked into the tent. Before I could say anything, she gasped and turned around to quickly close the tent. After tying off the entrance, she trotted towards me.

"I came as you requested."

I turned away from her, feeling a bit of excitement for what was going to happen. I looked towards a photo I had hanging on the tent and saw six familiar faces. The tallest being Princess Celestia who stood in the back, the ones standing just in front of her were─

~Shining Armor, Mrs. Velvet, and Mr. Crescent.~

And finally, dead center on the front was little Twilight and a kneeling Princess Cadance.

Suddenly, I felt a tinge of regret as I looked more into the photo. Staring at the front row was the source of my guilt. I knew that she'd probably have strong reservations about me doing this. But even my father told me that I had needs and that I should seek to quell them before they became an issue. But hey, it's not like I married... not yet.

But at this point, was it really worth it?

With a clenched jaw, I turned the photo around. The photograph pinned to the wooden pole was simply levitated and flipped.

~Levitated? I'm using unicorn magic!?~

"Captain Armor?" The mare called out from behind me.

~So... That explains it then. This isn't just a story, it's a literal walk in someone else's shoes.~

+++Point of Perspective: Shining Armor+++

Once again, I contemplated on whether or not this eventual marriage was worth any of all the trouble I had to go through. After all, I'm only using my saving grace clause because Princess Celestia got Cadance under lock-and-key. And even when I tried in Canterlot, Cadance would always find a way to keep me from getting an easy out.

If anything, this whole process, the reason for my deployment, all of it, I was mad. I actually hated the fact that I was in a relationship with Cadance sometimes. Even when I know she's probably rooting me on to do what I can to come back to her, it's like I'm being made to suffer for almost no reason. And I'm honestly to the point where her just smiling at me makes me angry because I can't love her without some fabricated consequence. I almost question why the hell she even chose me to begin with. For two years, I've been to hell and back, teased to death by Cadance, and dragged through the mud by every rightist in the parliament.

But then I remember the times she's with Twily, how little Twilight just beams whenever she visits. I see how mom and dad are so open with her, almost as if she was a mere neighbor from next door as opposed to a royal. They had so much hope that I'd be with her. They pressured me into giving it a shot. Cadance made her case on why she had to have me. And I thought she was the cute babysitter that would drop on by every once and a while.

If only Twily told us exactly who she was before I agreed.

If only they all knew what would happen to me when Princess Celestia gave her stamp of approval. If only they knew how hard I'd get it, for dad to suddenly realize that his son would be a guard against his wishes. For my mother to constantly hold Twily close while she explains to her that her big bro may never come back. All because some old bastard wrote on a piece of paper, dictating how someone's status should be carefully guarded. Bullshit.

I didn't deserve this.

I turned around to look at the mare standing behind me. Only this time, I wasn't so focused on hiding the picture pinned to the main support post of my tent. She smiled nervously as she looked down at the ground. Playing with her hooves, she whispered to me. "You know, I didn't think we'd be able to do this."

I didn't know what to say to her. I mean, I knew her since basic training but she's been pretty distant for me to just have casual conversation with, much less pillow-talk. "Yeah... um..."

While a silence grew between the two of us, she started to become panicky. She eagerly jumped up and started rambling on about anything and everything to fill the void of empty space. "Well I mean I understand how you feel! Plus the fact that this assignment is really stressful, plus the fact that we just got started on a three month deployment. And then there's the matter of the rations, of course we have to distribute carefully because we don't know what's in this forest that's edible. So I'm honestly just as nervous as you. But hey, if there's anypony who could get us through this, it's you!"

Honestly, I'd wish she just stop talking and get this over with. "Corporal Songbell─"

"Our morale will still be pretty high. We've only been here for a total of three days. We didn't lose anypony. I think you've done a fantastic job as our captain. If anything, you'll probably be a hero like─"

"Corporal..." I felt like she was talking for the both of us at this rate. So I raised a hoof to put her on wait so that I could get a few of my own words in. "Can we just... talk about outside of why we're here?"

"Well... I guess we could talk about a few funny rumors I've heard running around Canterlot. Though being who you are, I'm pretty sure that you've probably heard them all. Like one time, there was this maid who tended for Princess Ca─"

Growing a little more impatient, I had to stop her. "Let's talk... about right now. Let's talk about the moment we're currently in." I felt my throat drying out as I spoke. So I swallowed and continued to get my words out. "Let's just talk... you and me."

She shifted her hooves again as she started to giggle. "Well... what do you have in mind?"

I couldn't really think of any words to say, I was just extremely... excited to say the least. If I could equate my feelings into anything, it would've been the fact that I had tapped my hoof against the bottom of her chin, tilting her up slightly as she started breathing a little heavier.

"Sir, this is really─"

Instead of being interrupted by a hoof, it was her lips that silenced me. She wanted to pull back a little, but I pressed myself into her even more. I stumbled forwards and felt myself becoming unsheathed. She watched as I pulled away and made no attempt to cover myself. Her expression changed completely, her eyes shimmered when she saw that I was willing to go further. She backed away a bit and covered her mouth with shock.

"Oh... Am I moving too fast?" I questioned.

She remained stoic as she shook her head. Her face turned red, her ears flushed with pink while I used my magic to undo her armor. She didn't say much of anything as I stripped her of the unnecessary wardrobe. All while I did it, she avoided looking me in the eye. When I finally unlatched the belt that protected her flanks, I was so enraptured by her shape that I immediately dove in to cover the bell-shaped cutie mark with kisses. Her tail flicked from the surprising sensation of my lips adorning her voluptuous curvature, a small gasp left her lips.

Taking notice of her, I gave her tender hide a slight nibble. Her head quickly lifted while she tried to turn towards me. The flank I once worshiped was turned away from me, in it's place was a pair of soft lips. And with their greeting came another guest, one that took me by surprise. Her tongue slid past my lips quickly introducing itself to mine. While at first when I pushed against her, she succumbed to her own greed.

When we broke apart, she quickly turned around and flicked her tail to the side, inviting me to take her. I was greeted by a pair of moistened lips. She breathed heavily as she took a step backwards. "Shining?"

In seeing her bare herself the way she did, I felt myself throbbing at the thought of parting the glistening entrance. Her forelegs buckled slightly as she lowered herself a few inches. A tap against my stomach, caused by my own sex, gave me notice that I was in need of release. I trotted up towards her and hopped up to mount her. A light moan sounded from her throat as my magic encircled my shaft, trying to aim directly for the one thing I've longed to feel for many months.

When my tip met with her lips, I felt something open up slightly to me. And in the fraction of a second, it closed around me, slightly clamping me as I slipped back out. She moaned lustfully as she took another step back into me. Before I knew it, a portion of me was inside of her, causing me to groan in agonizing pleasure. My hips acted within their own accord, driving into her flanks and sending me deep within her. She arched her back at the power of my thrust. She called my name under her breath while I felt her clench and massage all of me.

As I pulled out, I felt a positively strong throbbing sensation travel throughout my length. My eyes shot open as I started to realize what was going on. I tried to pull myself out of her slowly, to minimize the wonderful sensation she gave me. And I didn't want to take my ascension too soon.

Without fail, I pulled myself from within and kept just the top of my flare inside. Growing impatient, she drove her hips back into mine, causing my entire length to become engulfed by her gluttonous desire. Another powerful throb sent shivers up my spine, telling me that a release would soon be imminent.

"Slow down." I whispered to her, trying to get her to give me a chance to reassert myself.

"Faster, please." She begged, this time gyrating her hips.

The sensations of her moving in a circular motion, especially with her taking me all the way to the base, it caused me to freeze. I backed away, she stepped back into me. When she looked back and gazed at me with the flames of her desire set in her eyes, she gritted her teeth and pulled herself forward and shoving her hips into mine.

"More!" She demanded, trying to do whatever she could to find herself a means to satiate her aching.

Meanwhile I had realized that my defeat was assured. Whether I resisted or not, the result would be the same. I finally acknowledged my shortcoming and willed myself to indulge her in whatever way I could. I pulled my hips back and pounded into her one strong time before a final throb caused me to grunt loudly. I pushed her back forward, causing her to fall on her face while her flank remained suspended by the combination of her hind legs and my magic.

My flare expanded, her walls accommodating for my sudden growth. She turned back in disbelief while softer throbs indicated that I had initiated my climax. I continued to pound into her as hard as I could, causing me an immense amount of pleasure that I was so excited to experience once more. Spurt after spurt of my seed filled her, my hips started to lose rhythm. By the time I was on my way down, my body spasmodically jolted, sending a few light thrusts as I emptied everything that I had stored for the past several months.

While my hindlegs wobbled from the immense pleasure, hers remained completely stationary. I collapsed onto her, sending all of my weight onto her. Still, she retained the strength to hold both of us. I was left in a pant while she seemed unfazed... or rather unsatisfied. She let out a long sigh, indicating that she had much more she wanted to do.

I regained enough of my composure to where I had pulled myself off of her, uncorking her nethers and letting my seed spill out in abundance. She raised herself off of the ground and slowly started to gather her belongings. While she refastened her armor and grieves, I watched as her tail slowly crept between her legs. When she crouched down to refasten her flank armor, she turned away from me. Her shortened tail covered up whatever it could while I could still see my seed dripping out of her and onto the ground.

At long last, the regret came pouring in.

I started cleaning myself up. Looking back to her, I saw her grabbing a nearby cloth to sit on. After she drained herself for a minute, she wiped herself and stood. For the longest time while I was cleaning myself, she stood quietly at attention. I started to really feel the pain of my decision while she quietly stood ahead. But it was written all over her face, she was depressed.

I didn't want to leave her without talking. "Hey... you okay?"

She responded in a soft, yet broken voice. "Yes sir."

I wanted to just walk up to her and hug her, but I didn't know if she'd accept it or not. Gauging her expression, I'd say she'd probably want to run away. "Is your armor straight? I could help if you need─"

"No sir. I got it, sir."

I didn't want to let her sit there anymore. I walked over to give her a hug, she inched away, indicating that she'd be unwilling to touch me for the time being. "...You... you were... you were great."

Quietly, she whimpered to me. "Thank you, sir."

By now, I was just desperate to see her do something other than cry. "S-s-Songbell please, j-just tell me whatever you want. I'll give it to you. T-this experience, I... I don't want it to define us. I swear... just..."

"Thank you for conditioning my mind and strengthening my body... sir." Slowly, she started to unravel before my very eyes. The one instance of confidence and passion she carried herself at that one moment we shared was shattered, leaving behind what could only be described as a young mare with a broken heart. I felt a strong sickness overtake me as the mist in her eyes started to form a visible dam of tears. Her eyes shone brightly as she looked at me for a second. "Permission to dismiss."

I had made such a huge mistake. I slowly wrapped my hooves around her, bringing her close to me in a hug. While she leaned against my chest, she started shaking and leaned against me. I gently used my magic to pet her head, causing her to look at me with those beautiful emerald eyes. "You are worth more than this. I'm sorry."

"Permission to dismiss, captain." She requested once more, still rejecting my display of remorse.

At that point, I realized that I couldn't say anything to change her mind. My only hope was to let things settle down between the two of us and make an apology tomorrow. I'll just have to be hurting until then. "Permission to leave granted. Dismissed."

She wasted no time in leaving me, she untied the entrance and left me to wallow in my regret. As she exited, I could see a brown stallion clad in armor holding the flap as she exited. He looked at me with an icy glare before he 'slammed' the entrance shut. "Hmph!" He growled with a snort.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that I had just done something stupid. Walking back to the post where the photo was pinned, I contemplated on turning it back with the image facing outward. But after what I had just done and how I was feeling, I believed it was not within my right to look at that picture.

Nobody deserved this.

For the entire day, I continued to order around my guards to perform various tasks to keep ourselves out of danger. Many of which consisted of numerous scouting assignments, just to keep our position from being compromised. The last thing we need is some arimaspi to come barging into camp and bashing our lights out.

But the main thing that started to become a concern was the fact that my first lieutenant was hardly in any mood to take orders from me. Ever since last night, he's been growling and snarling every time I gave an order to somepony. It's been a problem, especially considering that he's been jabbing at me when my back's turned. It only took me once today to walk in on him yapping about how I should be the first to fight the arimaspi, only for me to get my guts ripped out of my body.

When I confronted him on it, he denied the authenticity of the statement and called it a mere show of frustration as opposed to a genuine threat. I promptly warned him that any other instance that I should hear of it, he would be reprimanded and deranked for noncompliance and insubordination.

Though who am I to even call someone out for doing wrong? He saw Songbell coming out of the tent. He held the tent open for her to leave. I wouldn't be surprised if he felt angry about me. He knows that she's been crushing on me since we started basic training together.

Hence the reason why I felt so much regret, because I knew how she felt about me. Rumors get around Canterlot easily, and it wasn't much of one when it went around. She even dropped me a confession in my supply locker just after graduation. The only reason I asked because at the time I was just really frustrated and I let my dick get the better of me. I literally looked at her as soon as I saw her come off of the train and had thoughts to relieve myself. And like an ass, I totally dropped my douche card and invited her in my tent once we got settled.

From there on, it's pretty obvious why I had it ingrained in my being that I had to apologize to her.

Around sunset, I did everything I could to keep my guards' morale high, their senses sharp, and their spears clean of blood. I also kept a closer eye on each unit that was closely affiliated with First Lieutenant Caramel. I didn't need him stirring up any trouble that would cause division within the ranks.

Especially since I've already done it at the officer level.

The night finally came, and without incident. There might've been a rumor or two that got around about what happened last night, but it wasn't anything that the guards were too disturbed about. In fact, it was pretty often that members of the guard would sleep around with each other if the opportunity presented itself. Things would become a hot-button topic if it turned out to be a rape cover-up, or if one of the parties were married, or if the reason behind it was to climb ranks. Even when a few officers got with some of the enlisted, it was pretty much though of as a moderately controversial issue.

With me, especially being engaged to a princess, many just shrug and keep moving. It's not that they don't care, but it's because it's written within our laws that we applicants are allowed to shed seed. But if this group knew all of the circumstances pertaining to Songbell, I'd might find myself on the receiving end of a mutiny. There was almost one started when I visited the tent barracks that Songbell was assigned to.

"Corporal Songbell, report!" I called out.

Many of the guards inside of the tent looked to one another before shrugging.

"Corporal Songbell!" I hollered out once more.

From behind me came my first lieutenant. "Corporal Songbell was sent out to scout the area ahead. She is no longer on base."

Funny, I don't remember her name being thrown out to scout the area. "Who gave her the assignment?"

He stuck out his chest as he proudly answered. "I did, sir."

"And did you come to me with this request, Caramel?"

"No sir." He answered, causing many of the others to cover their muzzles and whisper to one another. Even a soft childish 'ooh' came from one of them as I marched up to meet him face to face.

"And who's final decision would it be to send our guards out into danger?"

He seemed to have lost that confidence he walked in with as he had to answer me. "...You, sir."

"So... Let me ask you this. Who in Equestria gave you the power to initiate any type of assignment that would cause risk of body, or life?"

He grimaced, gnashing his teeth together as he looked away. "Nopon─"

"YOU ARE IN THE POSITION OF ATTENTION! YOU ARE A FUCKING OFFICER! I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO REMIND YOU OF SUCH BASIC INSTRUCTIONS!!! NOW WHO ARE YOU!?"

His eyes shifted directly forward as he begrudgingly gave me an answer. "First Lieutenant Caramel... sir."

"AND WHO AM I?"

"Captain Shining... Francine Armor, sir."

...He called me by my middle name... Yes, I'm livid. "GOOD... AND SINCE YOU HAPPEN TO FORGET WHAT RANK YOU REALLY ARE, PERHAPS I SHOULD REMIND YOU! STAFF SARGENT CARAMEL!" His face quickly sharpened to intense anger as he heard of his new rank. "I'M REDUCING YOUR RANK FOR THE CONDUCT UNBECOMING OF AN OFFICER AND INSUBORDINATION! YOU ARE TO RESUME YOUR DUTIES UPON BEING DISMISSED! SONGBELL IS TO REPORT DIRECTLY TO ME AFTER SHE RETURNS FROM HER SCOUTING ASSIGNMENT! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!?"

"Sir... yes sir." He hissed angrily.

I pointed him in the direction of the tent's exit, seething with anger as I had to wait another hour or so before she even gets back. "Now get the hell out of my face, enlisted!"

The tent quietly watched as Caramel stormed off elsewhere. All of the guards who watched were deathly quiet. I turned to them and spoke.

"No one is to give executive orders on this assignment without my express knowledge or say-so. Do I make myself clear?"

"Sir, yes sir." They all responded.

"Good form." I gave them a nod before leaving the tent, making my way towards my own. "As you were."

An hour and a half passed by, causing me to grow a bit anxious. I know that she's very well trained and can hold her own in a fight with any creature that comes barging on by. But given our predicament, I couldn't help but to let the guilt start tearing me apart. It was like everything in my tent all whispered how much of a shame I was.

Even the photo pinned on my tent post remained flipped since last night, seeming as if they had faced away from my shame.

While I was thinking to myself, the entrance to the tent flapped loudly. I turned around to see two ponies standing in the doorway. Both marched forward to the center of the room. The first that I laid eyes on was the one I called for, who repeatedly violated her position of attention as a means to avoid looking at me. The other was Caramel, who's fiery gaze made the attempt to bore through me. His presence made me upset.

"Staff Sargent Caramel, what are you doing here?"

Songbell seemed surprised as she heard of his new rank. He, however, remained determined as he placed a hoof in front of her and stood before me, face to face. "Well captain, I have to ensure that my fellow guards are safe and taken into account. Also I am here to ensure that she carries out the correct procedure to giving you the scouting report."

"I didn't order you here. And furthermore, she can speak for herself." I argued while our heads butted. "You can go scout the camp for something else to do!"

Finally, it got personal between the two of us. He pushed back as he tried to assert his physical dominance. "Well I am protecting my subordinate. And if I see something malicious that stands in the way of my accomplishing that objective, then you can take it up with both of our superiors. I'm sure your demotion would be coming as soon as we get back to Canterlot. You're gonna get yours... Francine."

Again with this. I must have not put him in place yet, I really haven't. Since he wants to protect his subordinate so damn much, I'll let him. "...Warrant Officer Songbell, please give me your status report."

He pulled back and looked at the mare beside him with shock. She seemed entirely bewildered while she looked back to him. He turned back to me and growled. "You─"

"Promoted her, I know." I responded with a stern frown. "She's your superior as of this moment forward. Your subordinates are outside in the other tents throughout the encampment. I'm sure you can protect them. Now fall back, Caramel."

The brown stallion roared as he lunged for me. Acting out of instinct, I quickly summoned a spear to my side and prepared to defend myself. But before things could get started between the both of us, Songbell stepped in between us and turned directly to me with a strong glare. Her eyes seemed eerily sharp as she stood between Caramel and I. After a few seconds, she finally spoke. "Caramel, you are dismissed."

The stallion snorted before he spoke. "Your playing corrupt will catch up with you Shining. It's only a matter of time." Grinding his teeth, he begrudgingly acknowledged her order. Without any further disruption he left the tent and screamed angrily into the night. Her attention was still focused on me. While I still held my spear in my magic, she used one of her hooves to tap against my horn. The spear fell to the ground with a clunk.

I rubbed my head just as I felt a headache coming along. She stood in silence as I tried all I could to relieve myself of the pain. "Dammit, why the hell was he even assigned to my squad?"

My new warrant officer gave a response. "I would like to say that our objective comes before our personal gripes."

"Too bad he doesn't see it that way." I complained.

"Permission to speak freely, captain?" She requested.

"Sure, why not." I gave her a nod, giving her consent to do so.

"I don't think there's much room for you to speak."

When she said that, the only thing I could imagine was everything that happened the night before. The look of disappointment, the sight of her welling with tears. The whole entire day, I spent it trying to make sure last night wasn't so much of a issue that I started letting my private matters get in the way of my work... again. In essence, she was right. "I can't really argue you. The only thing I kept thinking about was how I wanted to speak to you─"

"I have a scouting report, sir." She interrupted me, trying to get business out of the way before anything else.

"...Sit rep?" Again, I stood by as she spoke.

"There's a cave to the west of here. From what we gathered from the wind patterns and obvious signs of erosion, we've determined that it is a pathway directly into the mountain, and that the mountain has multiple tunnels which also connect to the cave we just discovered. There's a slight breeze coming from within, so it could be possible to find our objective somewhere within the tunnel network inside of the mountain."

That's more than good news. This means we can start the next leg of our journey. "Well done. I suppose we'll be out of here within a month if we can get our hooves on the lost tribute."

"We can start our excursion in the morning if you wish, sir."

Great, the sooner we get this done, the better. Only one question to ask. "What does it look like in terms of hostile presence?"

"Minimal. We went into the caves and saw nothing that threatened us. If we move quietly, we should be able to infiltrate the mountain and grab what we came for."

"A job well done, you're practically fitting into your new rank." I was about to pet her on the head, but she backed away before my hoof could get close. Of course she's still in business mode. I cleared my throat and continued speaking. "We'll gather our regiment and move in tomorrow."

She gave me a salute, seeming as if she was ready to be dismissed. "Very well then, I will see to it that our guards are ready to move at dawn. If it may be to preserve time, permission to be dismissed?"

"Wait." I said, quickly preventing her from leaving the tent. Her eyes still remained locked on me as I approached her. I sat before her and extended a hoof. "...Can we talk?"

"I've disclosed all of the information I've had, sir." She retorted. "There is nothing─"

Of course, she's using protocol to bypass what I want to say to her. There's only one way to snap her out of it. "Guard, attention." She snapped herself into the position of attention, eyes forward, hooves straight, head level. "Parade rest." She rested her haunches onto the ground, she remained silent as she awaited her next order. "At ease."

Finally, she spoke her mind. "Why do you want me here? Is it because you want me to service you again?"

I shook my head. "You're not here for that. I called you here so that we could talk about last night."

She turned away with a saddened frown. "With all due respect, I don't want to talk about that."

"I'm sorry." I responded, trying to hurriedly speak my mind before she decides to close me out. "What happened last night should've never happened. I was just acting out of my pent-up frustration when I asked you for that. And on top of it, I took advantage of how you felt about me and went after you because I felt that you would've been─"

"EASY!?" She screamed at me. "I knew what I was getting into, and I showed up because I felt like maybe we could connect somehow before just running into it! You didn't even consider a chance to talk to me before you had gotten me so hot and bothered! You didn't even ask me anything about how I felt about any of this! You just went straight into it, you got yourself off, and you went back to pining for your fiancee! Real easy to take advantage of me, right!?"

"No..." I calmly answered, trying to establish a tone. "I didn't see you as easy─"

"That's a damn lie!" She called out. "You knew I liked you, you knew that I was willing to go along with something like that! And I went along with it because I was desperate! So you can only imagine the pain I felt when you said the words 'You're worth more than this'. I cried to sleep knowing that you had said those words to me, just after using me so easily. I was expecting you to be so much more than selfish, but apparently I made myself believe in something that wasn't really there."

While she clenched her eyes shut, trying to hold back the tears that had already started to streak down her face, I realized that any sweetening of my words would only result in making things worse between the two of us. The only way I could make things right is if I told her the truth. At last, I confessed.

"You're right... I did see you as an easy out. And I did take advantage of your feelings. And I have no right to tell you that you're worth something more after I had just made your value to me seem so little. That is all my fault, and I can't find the words to tell you how sorry I am. And while it would be gluttonous to ask you for your forgiveness, I only wish that you would somehow allow for it to become a possibility."

I started helping her wipe her tears away when she slapped one of my hooves off of her. "Don't touch me."

She was starting to shut me out. I began to panic and fumble my words as a result. "And really, I couldn't look at anything resembling Cadance because I knew that when I called you in here, I violated both her trust and yours. I gotta face that when I get home. But if I could atone for just one of you right now, let me take the one that I know is hurting this instant. I am not that stallion you saw last night, not completely... I don't want us to be defined by that one moment."

"Just stop it." She whimpered.

I opened my forelegs and wrapped her as I quietly expressed my guilt. "I won't ever see you as something like that. You're beautiful, you're smart, you're selfish, you're a strong leader, you're honest, you're completely incredible, you're more than what I'll ever be. So please..."

She initially made an attempt to shove me off, but after one or two pushes, she buried her head into my chest and sobbed softly. I tightened my grip, causing her to return the hug to me. She would occasionally beat on my chest and muzzle, but she'd still hug me. After a while she finally pushed herself off of me, wiping her eyes as she avoided me. "You're the worst stallion I've ever met. And I don't want anything to do with you after we're done here."

My heart fell while she said those words. A cold drop formed within my chest, digging into my stomach as I answered her. "I understand."

She sniffled as her voice stabilized. "You don't get it. I can't forgive you right now. I will never be able to just instantly forgive you for something like this. And there may be a possibility that I won't ever forgive you at all. Meaning that I would be willing to try doesn't mean I would be capable. Only time can tell if we're able to move on."

"Songbell─"

"So the answer right now is no. And I hope you understand that. And I hope that someday, I will be able to revisit this and say yes."

As much as I was a bit hurt from the decision she's made, I was content with the fact that she called out the possibility of our being able to move past this. As she said, only time will tell. And I'd much rather look at it that way than seeing the immediate answer. If it takes years for her to say yes, then I can accept that. "Thank you."

Immediately following her emotional outpouring, she stood back at attention. "Permission to be dismissed."

"Granted." I got the answer I wanted, just not at this moment.

She gave me a salute and promptly exited the tent. As she departed, I could see Caramel holding the tent open for her to leave. As she walked past him, he carefully observed her before staring back at me. "Evening... Captain." He spat to me foully. After that, he disappeared into the encampment, trailing Songbell closely behind.

Meanwhile, I looked back towards the photo on the post. I thought about turning it around and looking at the faces on it without any regret. But after some pondering, I decided against it. I decided that it would be best to save it for when I completed my mission. If I focus on what I have back at home, I'd lose focus on the now. And the now was a trek into the mountain tomorrow.

...Yet somehow Songbell was still embedded on the front of my mind.

I won't ever make another mistake like that again.

Dawn came. The sound of birds chirping in the distance, the creatures that all greeted one another as the sun climbed above the horizon, it produced a soothing sound of a peaceful day. Clouds were apparent, but limited to an appearance here-or-there. The wind seemed calm and welcoming for anyone with a set of wings to fly above.

Unfortunately, we were not able to enjoy the peace as the forest natives have. We were on the march, and our hooves were battering the ground as we sped through the forest. Our objective could be spotted high above the forest canopy.

Ahead, we saw a mountain that broke the clouds above, an immensely large one-eyed skull adorning the peak served as a warning to all within it's view. It stated to many, especially to us, that these were their lands, and they would be free to roam it. If we were to set hoof on it, then our fates would be of their choosing.

That memo came loud and clear when we woke up to the scene of an arimaspi tossing everything within the mess hall tent out into the other tents. Apparently it was seeing if we had carried something of significant value, gold and such. Screams and cries could be heard as we all jumped out of our beds and armed up. Thankfully, it was just one of them, so about forty of us fighting one arimaspi was not too difficult.

The hard part came in seconds before we dealt the finishing blow. Before Caramel could dispatch the creature, it roared for it's friends. By the time it drew it's final breath, many of us had started gathering our gear and dismantling our tents. A few of us had sustained some injuries. Two had sustained broken legs, one with a broken wing, another displayed concussions symptoms, and a few others were just cuts and bruises.

We didn't have the time to properly tend to them, as we were trying to establish a new position due to our encampment being compromised. But once we stopped just at the foot of the mountain, we determined whether or not we were followed. Once we confirmed that we had lost our pursuers, we initiated an inventory check. After that, we finally tended to the wounded and got everyone patched up. Two of our own had to be carried because of their injuries. The one that suffered a concussion was walking, a bit disoriented but he'll fight through it. Everyone else was set to march onward.

A loud roar came from deep within the forest, indicating that our time spent on the wounded had bought them enough of a grace period to catch up to us. Some of the guards started to panic, shaking as they held their spears. Songbell then pointed us towards the position of the cave she found last night. No one had any objections to her suggestion, so we all ran up the mountain to make our way into that cave. If we could just hide out there, we could avoid confrontation. From there, we could make our way within the mountain.

Unfortunately, the mountain was our safest option considering that the arimaspi were out and about. Fighting them in a forest was going to be hard to do because they took the trees as an advantage. If we were going to fight them, we would have to do so in a place where they had restricted movement. Fighting in a cave, where they're funneled in will allow us to take on up to four. And gathering from the sounds that followed us, there only seemed to be that many. Again, we assessed our options, and hid within the cave.

We approached the cavern, seeing that we weren't so much in a tactical advantage. The mouth was wide and the space inside seemed gargantuan. And to add to our issues, it was dark. The only way we would be able to see was if some of us used our horns to illuminate the cave. But that would only put us at risk for the time being, compromising our position to the creatures. One was hard enough to take down, but taking on four at once would definitely cause fatalities.

We needed our numbers for transport, so we couldn't risk a situation─

"Captain..." One of the guards whispered from behind us.

All of us turned around to see the darkness of the cave, and a large silhouette standing in front of us. One of it's limbs raised, showing the form of a unicorn being raised. His horn lit up as it revealed his horrified face, as well as the face of another arimaspi that lied patiently in wait. Slowly the creature turned one of our own to face us. He breathed heavily and sniveled as he whispered one last time.

"We need to─"

Without warning, the creature yanked the unicorn into the air and callously slammed the guard into the ground, causing the light of his magic to spark out in a single flick. The soft ethereal hum that normally came with it produced a high-pitched snap as it was snuffed out. The gruesome sound of his armor being caved to fuse with his bones, a haunting yelp, and the indescribable horror that was his voice being pressed into silence became the article that allowed us to depart with our constitutions. An icy chill ran down our spines as our spears too bore witness of the terrible murder of one of our own.

I opted to illuminate the room, but found that the room was illuminated for me. And as the torches began to come to light, so were the many faces of several arimaspi clad in golden horn dresses, with claws that resembled the blades of scythes. Their eyes all tilted downward to us, looking past their noses as we were insects. A growl sounded from outside of the cave's entrance. I turned around to see another three blocking our exit.

A total of about twenty-five of them all bore their teeth as a show of their eagerness. The sight of the one that killed our own scraping it's palm clean of our late comrade filled us with desolation, and provided us with the distinguishable image of our impending demise. Casualties were inevitable, and escape seemed highly improbable. There was no avoiding this, we were going to have to bore through the three that followed us so we could escape.

Otherwise... We are due to the barracks above. "...Songbell?"

"They weren't here yesterday." She said as she shook. "They weren't here last night. We didn't see any of them!"

Another guard spoke as he backed into one of the others. "I can attest to her statement, we didn't see shit."

Caramel grimaced with horror. "Our patrols were frequent. How in Tartarus did this happen!?"

Only four words came out of my mouth in response to theirs. "Push... Your... Way... Out..." I whispered.

All of the guards gave a nod in fearful compliance. Our entire unit performed an about-face and galloped directly for the legs of all three of the arimaspi that blocked our path. The rear line became our front as I tried to gallop through the formation. But in a matter of seconds, I was selfishly counting my blessings that I wasn't one of the first guards to meet with their palms. Six of our comrades were sent into the air. One of them, being a pegasus, halted themselves in the midst of their spin-out and flew high into the ceiling. One of the unicorns caught themselves causing two others to fly over his head and land against the wall. Another brave unicorn made the attempt to soften the blow of one other earth pony guard, only for her to be violently batted away towards the back of the formation.

As I glanced behind us, I could see the entire horde engage in a bandit charge for our platoon. One such arimaspi leapt into the air, grabbing the airborne unicorn guard and placed him under his rear hoof seconds before landing. Upon impact, blood puddled beneath it's cloven hoof. Afterwards, it scraped it's leg against the ground, removing whatever remnants was left on it's hoof. I quickly turned my head from the disturbing sight, planting my eyes on the one arimaspi that made the strike. As it recovered from it's swing, I let loose a loud yell as my spear was sent barreling to it's neck. Though I landed a direct hit, it only landed directly for it's trachea, rendering it voiceless. And I was warded off from dealing a finishing blow as another arimaspi came to the defense of it's wounded companion.

My sword became my newest instrument to survival. As I drew, Songbell took to the air and zigzagged around the third that blocked our retreat. As she avoided every swat the creature tried to make, the guardsmare made a sharp bank and dive-kicked the spear I had planted into the first, knocking it into a hard left to rip through several muscles and finally into it's jugular. As that one fell, Caramel and four other guards charged towards another one of the beasts. While one was snatched up mid-charge, Caramel drew his spear and dug into it's leg. The stallion then used the weapon to spring himself upwards towards the shoulder and drive his sword into it's shoulder. The beast cried out in pain while two others tried desperately to free their ensnared ally.

Caramel yanked his sword out of the creature's shoulder and made a lung for it's neck next. Unlike my aim, his was significantly more precise. As soon as his sword plunged into it's target, blood gushed and streamed from the creature's neck. In response to it's new wound, the arimaspi released the guard and grasped for it's neck to hold the blood in. Caramel jumped off and landed on his hooves as the creature stumbled over and fell backwards. While two of the creatures lied on the ground flailing around, three pegasi joined with Songbell to make a run for the third. Songbell and her squad swiped and clipped at the creature, their swords slashing away chunks of flesh.

While the creature was distracted, I aimed my sword for it's legs. As it reached high into the air, I used my magic to cast a jumping spell on myself, giving me the ability to leap for the sky and slice at the tendons that connected to it's hocks. Afterwards, the creature screeched as it collapsed to the ground. The creature then turned onto it's belly and used it's claws to support itself, rendering it mostly defenseless. I could already see the light outside, unobstructed by any being that once stood in our way. We made a break for the opening, free to flee for our lives, to live and fight for yet another day.

But even that vision seemed to be clouded by shadow, or rather my seeing the sun being blocked by a huge claw curling from above my head. Sharpened claws smashed into the rock just a few feet in front of me. Just a couple of feet above my head, I could see the palm of an arimaspi caging me in. Quickly acting before it could crush me, I charged my horn with my most powerful magic and blasted a large hole in it's palm. That claw quickly rose back off of me, being reeled in by it's already-crippled owner.

One other stallion with a wounded guard on his back tried to break for the exit, urging the dying pony to live on. "We're gonna get you home! We're gonna get you home! Just stay with us!" Even thought those words seemed filled with dire hope, they became something of a mantra to convince me to keep pushing forward. But in a single instant, even that was taken from me.

Another few arimaspi bulldozed through our formation, breaking our ranks and leaping over our lines. One creature even encountered the pair and swept it's legs from underneath him. The newly amputee screamed in horror while another drove a fist flat into the guard he carried. Repeatedly, it's fist rose and fell, bashing the equine into a pink smear with bent shreds of armor being hammered flat into the rock. The pony made a desperate scramble for his own legs, but stopped as the creature stood in front of him with a toothy smile on it's face. It's claws flexed one more time before they were sent to the guard, slicing him down and snuffing any hope that his words may have shown me.

Up above, pegasi tried to play as a distraction to the arimaspi so that the others below could fight their way through. But another one of the creatures jumped from the ground and raked it's claws through the air, impaling one pegasi mare on it's claw before dragging it out of the sky. "FAIR WEATHER!" Songbell screamed in horror as she watched one of the pegasi who fought beside her struggle to remove herself from the rugged nail embedded through it's body. With another swipe, the pony was flung into a wall, putting the mare to rest once and for all.

Caramel looked left and right with horror as two of his brothers in arms lied lifelessly on the ground after being trampled on. Turning back quickly to the rear, he could see nothing but several of his fellow guards fighting tooth and hoof for their own survival. Some were already broken to the point where they swung at anything that moved towards them. A few others were merely crawling for the exit while being battered into the ground. A few were holding their fallen brethren in their hooves, whispering that peace would come soon. One unicorn guard simply screamed hysterically as she built a shield over herself and waited for her attackers to grow weary from chipping away at the green dome. Even one pegasi was suddenly surprised by a guard spear being lunged from an arimaspi below and into it's neck.

While the stallion fell from the ceiling, another guard laughed while trying to take his own life. He feared being torn apart and flung about like the others, so he resigned to easing his own state of mind by bringing death to himself. However, his attempt was quickly discovered by the beasts and he was yanked up and carried by the tail. And swing after swing, they bashed him left and right against the cave floor. After a few times of this, the creature then threw him to the others to play with. Next came a volley of stones and rocks, pelting at the pegasi in the air. Caramel screamed in anger, brandishing his sword as he charged back inside to avenge the fallen and rescue the living.

I was left a trembling mess as the carnage fell upon my eyes. Three arimaspi came running to me with every intention to tear me apart. Two of them still had the very solid remnants of my unit still embedded in their claws or palms. Jumping and leaping from side to side, I was doing what I could to get to the exit. However, the sight of my guards being slaughtered stayed my hooves from seeking their own salvation. Using my magic, I sent several beams to the creatures. But they continued to move towards me undeterred.

I teleported myself out of the fray, only to find myself being pulled from behind by a wounded guard. "Captain." He called out rather weakly, holding me with one hoof, his entrails in another. My eyes had never seen such a sight. The sight of a pony still alive after losing half of it's body sent a definite jolt of fear into my system, causing me to shriek loudly. I teleported away from him out of the fear of seeing his dismal state. Even the unicorn who once held her magical shield over her body lost her ability to cast and fell victim to another creature, who toyed with her until they merely pressed into her.

Without warning, I felt my world being bashed into a blur. For a while, my body spun against the bloodied ground until I slid to a halt. I tried to stand, only to have my tail pulled into the air. The next thing I could see was a huge eye staring back at me as I hung from his claws. Just as the creature looked at me, I saw images of my life. Each memory I had with each individual, good or bad, they all came crashing into me at once. It was way faster than what I could process. And the mere sight of being so close to my demise finally sent a message I couldn't ignore.

I had to get out. I had to avoid dying. I didn't want to be here let this be my end. There were too many questions left unanswered. I have too many regrets, too many open ends, too many things to experience, too many apologies I had to make. I didn't want my little sister crying over me. I didn't want have my mother weeping over my body. I don't want this to take me away from them.

"Not like this." That was all I could whisper to myself.

The next thing I felt was myself falling to the ground. Looking upwards, I could see Songbell, splattered in blood, guiding me back down to the ground safely. She sat down and shook me back into focus. "Shining! Shining, snap out of it!"

After what seemed like an eternity of holding my breath, I unwound and proceeded to breathe again. The world seemed to come back to me with a sharper focus. Glancing back up to the arimaspi that picked me up, I could see the creature reaching back for us. I quickly summoned a shielding spell to protect us from the first blow and teleported the two of us out of harm's way.

As we ended up in a secluded corner towards the entrance of the cave, I rubbed my head and realized that my magic was taxed out. Looking back, it seemed that the one that attacked us was left in confusion while the others seemed distracted. I shook from the close encounter, trying my best to calm down. "That was cutting it close." I muttered to myself.

"Hope you don't mind showing off, I had to shave your tail." She answered while looking around.

I stood by, looking around as I surveyed the damage. While many of the creatures seemed to be distracted by their new 'toys', I was desperately trying to find a way for the both of us to escape. "We gotta get out of here."

"Steelshoe and Windfall managed to get out. Caramel should be on his way."

"You're next." I answered, still breathing heavily. "We're leaving together."

She silently looked at the exit, and finally to me with an unusually calm smile. "Shining... you need to get out of here."

As I looked behind her, I could see one large peering eye turn towards us. The creature started to march towards us while I made an instinctive move to protect her. She responded by tapping my horn and whispering to me.

"Shining, I can't walk." She looked back to her wings, which had already started to become coated in blood. As I looked down, I could see a small pool of blood running down her flanks and around her body. "I got nicked by a sharpened rock when I was up above. Part of my spine is severed. I can't stay on my wings either. You can't worry about me or we'll both die."

Now that I realized it, I should've seen it as soon as she sat down in the midst of a battle. She seemed defenseless when her back was turned. I charged my horn and tried to ready another teleportation spell, but my magic indicated that I was still taxed from earlier. I tried to argue with her. "No. I'm not leaving you here. You can't leave me─"

She closed her eyes and chuckled a bit before she whispered. "Caramel, please save our captain."

I looked behind me to find a brown stallion covered in blood rearing a hoof back. "Yes ma'am."

The next thing I felt was my body going limp and being packed on Caramel's back. She quietly whispered as she turned around to face her demise. I desperately called out to her as my view of her gradually grew distant. "SONGBELL! SONGBELL PLEASE! DON'T GO LIKE THIS! COME WITH US!"

"You can still run. I can't even do that anymore."

"SONGBELL! YOU KNOW I CAN'T LET YOU GO LIKE THIS! PLEASE!"

"Just go home, Shining! You have much more than what I've got!" She screamed back, not even looking my way.

"DAMMIT! GET YOUR ASS OUT OF THERE! THAT'S AN ORDER!"

Already I felt my vision blurring and my eyes burning. A deep sadness caused me to shut my eyes and scream out to her one final time.

"SONGBELL, I'M SORRY!"

As I disappeared from view, once more exposed to the sun above. Songbell finally turned her face towards the cave entrance. She finally showed the tears streaming down her face as she heard the beast approaching her from behind. She sniffled as she took deep breaths and spoke with herself.

"Shining Armor... How can I be something so dear to you when you already have something worth so much more? Why are you apologizing to me? The feeling of holding you just once like you were mine, Though I don't really like the reason for it coming up, I can be content in knowing that I lived for that. Now you've gotta live for yours. I got what I wanted from you. I left my place in your heart..."

The one-eyed creature lingered above her, raising a paw above her. She closed her eyes as the thoughts carried on in her mind.

"Strange, I got mad at you for taking advantage of me. Yet I'm leaving you with more questions than answers. Throughout your life, you'll wonder about if I ever forgave you. And I'll never give you an answer. If anyone's sorry, it's me. You're being left with so much pain... the seeds of regret that I've planted in you. And it will follow you throughout your life."

A final roar could be heard as the paw was brought down. Her final thoughts sounded loudly before she felt the immense pain that followed the blow.

"You're worth so much more than this."

Four days later, I was omitted into the hospital ward, placed into intensive care for my having several broken ribs, all obtained from the arimaspi that slammed me across the cave. I collapsed from the pain as Caramel carried me to the nearest train station. Caramel was treated for cuts and bruises. The others were considered to be mentally unstable.

Of course, I soon joined that list as well.

On that morning, the newspaper read a headline of a crimson Appleloosian morning. Just outside of the town, several bodies of guards were placed on display as a warning to those who dared ventured into Arimaspi Territory. On the headline was an image of guards clad in armor, being hung on sticks, crucified corpses that only appeared to be halfway present. Second from the left of dead center was the familiar face that left me screaming into my pillow throughout the morning.

"SONGBELL!!!"

There she was raised, her entrails swung in place of her non-existent lower body.

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

"AAAH!"

I jumped IMMEDIATELY out of my bed and felt myself. My arms resembled that of human arms, my legs were my own. I didn't have a horn sticking out of the top of my forehead, and I didn't seem to have hooves. But I could still feel the chill going down my spine, my fingers shook as I turned them over. I wiped my face, making sure that I was who I was. For a brief second when I closed my eyes, I could see a large claw covering my face right where my hand was. When I opened up my eyes, I quickly pulled my own hand out of my face. My heart slowed it's pace while my mind was still in the rush of things.

Well... um... that's a thing.

More importantly, that's a thing I signed up for. Holy shit, absolutely fucking not.

"I see you are awake."

I turned back around to see Luna staring directly at me from across the room. I could see that the sun was soaring high into the sky from the angle of the light hitting the walls. I shook my head once to get myself reestablished with my current self. "Okay... no more of that. Little too heavy for my taste."

"Unfortunately, this is the reality of what you are going to deal with when you go out there to fight."

...I gotta fight those... THOSE things... Oh no. "So... just to ask, how many went on that little excursion?"

"There were around forty that left Canterlot, from what I've read in records. And they only yielded a return of four from that entire skirmish. Two of them committed suicide, one was disavowed, and the final one was─"

"Shining and Caramel served together." That's another thing I had to process. All of this just had me left with so many questions. I'm terrified of what I'll have to face and how I'll have to face it. And those things, evidently, are no fucking joke.

"Unfortunately, my sister made the decision to show you what the consequence of your choice would possibly be in choosing that assignment. But considering your options, it is apparent that they would make this one seem to be the easiest of the three."

I had to pace around the room for a while, mainly to get myself used to walking on my own two feet. Which brings up the main thing on my mind. "I don't understand. It all felt so real. Everything."

Luna stood as she answered me. "My dreams can make one feel as if they are actually playing a role in them. Once I had you fully assimilated into the dreamscape, it was all a matter of keeping you asleep. My sister fed me the memories, thus in turn allowing me to recreate the sequence of events."

"That's crazy."

"It is what you perceive it to be. But I trust it made quite an impression?"

Like hell it didn't. "You have no idea."

"I do." She answered as she summoned a wicker basket from seemingly nowhere. "Now if you don't mind, I must attend to the bedding."

I was left scratching my head for a little bit. "Um... why?"

"With realistic dreams, comes very realistic sensations, to which results in wholefully realistic bodily responses. It goes without saying that there was one particular part of the dream that might have left Celestia with a... warmer complexion."

A warmer complexion. I don't recall anything that could've left me with... oh... OH.... OOOOOOHHHHH... "Right."

Princess Luna chuckled as I made an instinctive reach for my crotch. "Don't be embarrassed, those responses are quite normal. In fact, I take pride in seeing that one aspect of my duties will leave dreamers with a sense of relief, even should they not feel fully relieved in the conscious state."

I glanced at the moon princess with uncertainty. "You're a bit of a pervert, aren't you?"

"If you were confined to a space devoid of inspiration and sentient presence for the better part of a millennia, I would guarantee that your fancies of the newer generation and their openness to the subject would excite you as well."

"So that's a yes then?"

She grabbed the sheets off of the bed and stuffed them into the hamper while smiling coyly at me. "Tease me, child. You might taste something you can't tame."

Wow, she's surprisingly open to that. "I'm not a child."

"You are one until you can stop wetting the bed."

Okay, she got me on that one. I never took her as an expert in banter. "Well played. Clever girl."

"Now while I go tend to these, I believe there is somepony whom you should speak with. Make a left when you leave the room, third door to the right."

As she walked out into the hall, I felt myself again to make sure that I was indeed human. After a final check up of every aspect... EVERY ASPECT, I walked down the hall and knocked on the door. For a while there didn't seem to be an answer, but as I was about to knock a second time...

"Nondis..."

Shining Armor answered the door. He was obviously fatigued and very tired. His eyes seemed red and puffy, almost as if he was crying for the night. His mane was a mess as he seemed... uncharacteristically weak. But as of the previous night and what was shown to me, I've come to understand what he's gone through and how his mistakes ended up making him who he is now. The only issue is that I can't just bring it up to him because that would shut him out or probably make him more aggressive towards me.

However, he's probably also one to understand that we all can fall victim to our mistakes or past transgressions. I know that I do owe him an apology, and that I want to understand him as well as have him understand that I would be willing to help him in any way. But there's one question that highlights all of this.

Where do I even start?

Author's Note

Well... this was hell. I'm sorry for the wait and even more sorry that there's so much to plow through. But then again, I should take after one particular ghostie.

Songbell Highwind, poor little thing.

Now, onto the art. There's this one dude that I'm trying to promote because he's really in need of some follows and commission bucks. He's pretty reasonable with pricing and whatnot. Even gave him the honor of being my first commission, a thing I've heavily considered up till now. Again, the artist is CreepysCurse. So if you happen to have a few bucks, shove em towards this amazing guy because he really does try. He also does lewds. So please feel free to send him some patronage.

As far as the next chapter and what to expect, it will be a lot more forward-moving. I can say that it will go over two days of time and will pretty much set up the operation. As far as the flashback is concerned, I wanted to give a different perspective, especially since nobody can quite tell it like the one who's been through it all. Ultimately, it's to draw the few parallels between Nondis' lashing out and Shining's. It's also a red flag to the MC that if he lets his emotions run him, he might lead others down a path they can't come back from.

So expect the next chapter or so to be I guess... 15k or bigger (I'm really trying to sneak away from this 20k marathons as I'm getting more of my time back).

So either way, I hope it was enjoyable... and a bit cathartic... and that it offered a different perspective. Be patient with me, I'll try to get you guys the next chapter asap.

Also, good artist is good.

Chapter LXI

Shining Armor was obviously fatigued and very tired. His eyes seemed red and puffy, almost as if he was crying for the night. His mane was a mess as he seemed... uncharacteristically weak. But as of the previous night and what was shown to me, I've come to understand what he's gone through and how his mistakes ended up making him who he is now. The only issue is that I can't just bring it up to him because that would shut him out or probably make him more aggressive towards me.

However, he's probably also one to understand that we all can fall victim to our mistakes or past transgressions. I know that I do owe him an apology, and that I want to understand him as well as have him understand that I would be willing to help him in any way. But there's one question that highlights all of this.

Where do I even start?

"...Morning." I responded uneasily.

"Morning." He parroted, seemingly disinterested in anything I would have to say. Aside from his drowsiness, there was a distinctive expression of resentment. Obviously, he's not too thrilled in learning that his little sister's first time came prior to marriage, thus endangering her political career and placing him in a rather precarious situation.

And of course, it's rightfully deserved. "So... long night for all of us?"

The disheveled prince deadpanned as his horn ignited, his magic manipulating the handle of the door. "You have five seconds to get to the point before I pull your face into this door as I slam it shut."

Since I was on the clock, I just blurted out any kind of response that would gain his immediate attention. "It won't be like last time."

His eyes widened as those words slipped out of my mouth. When I realized what I had said myself, I slapped myself in the face. I was cursing myself out for even thinking of the company he served with and the one individual he ran into that ultimately became the face of his sins and failures, the one visage he couldn't drink himself out of seeing.

Okay, maybe I need to shut off my brain because it's still operating off of the dream I was just given.

Whether you want to say it or not. It's the one thing you'll be dealing with all week.

Yeah... that's definitely true. Perhaps I'll need to talk to him about the choice I've made.

Or rather, the choices you've made over the past two-to-three weeks.

I hate it when you speak the truth.

Well if it hurts, it works.

Dammit.

"What are you talking about?" Shining asked, seeming to become a little defensive.

And much like a deceased pony of interest, I started rambling on. "I mean... I'm sorry about everything I did. I know that everything that lead up to this point was all avoidable and that things between the two of us, I mean between me and Twilight, should've never gotten to that point, but I only ended up making things worse when I just let it get out of hand. And if I had responded with my brain instead of my body, our relationship would be in a much different place."

That's a lie.

"Okay, maybe not because there are some other things that are in the way, like my job and whatnot. But still, perhaps if I had the discipline to talk this over instead of just running to the stables, we, you and I, would be in a much different standing than that of the now. So I know that my carelessness has caused you to see the scenario of your worst nightmare coming to germination, I can only ask that you─"

Shining paused me right away, holding his hoof up as he finally got a few words in. "Your time's been up. Why are you still here?"

I bowed before him and continued to ask for his forgiveness. "I'm sorry. I know we're in this position because of me. I only ask that you allow me to find a way to get us out of this mess. And I know that it would only be worse if we were to never talk about this at all. So please, just allow me to─"

The prince used his magic to zip my lips shut. I looked up to see a grimacing frown on his face. "I gave you a chance already. Now you're in a position where not only I can't do anything for my sister, but you can't do anything for yourself. The choices you've made are the ones you'll have to deal with. I can't accept any apology you make because you promised me that none of this would ever happen. I gave you a chance to carry Twily, and you dropped her. She's hurt because of you."

He's beginning to get aggressive. "I know. And I've done everything I could to make well of the situation. But now I'm stuck in something that only..." I can't say him. If he knows that I've been informed of his intimate past, there's no telling what would happen to me. I needed to keep a distance between him and his past. "... that very few know of now. And I feel that you would be best to tell me─"

"You're going to the mountain, aren't you?" He asked, cutting our conversation to it's bottom line.

"...I was informed of what I was walking into. I came here to ask you for advice, before I face what could be the thing that my ultimately final answer. What is man? What am I? What are the things I could've done to atone for my sins? Is there actually a God? Do I actually inherently believe in an eternal reward or an endless torment?"

Shining propped himself on his right pair of legs, leaning against the doorway. "You sound like you have a lot of questions on your mind, and not many answers for them."

"You seem like you have a lot of answers to give." I responded in kind.

"I don't." He quietly answered. "But the one piece of advice I can give you is that you should never walk into a dark cave. Monsters lurk there for plenty of reasons. Don't find yourself being one."

Judging from his answer, he was dedicated in trying to dismiss me. But I wasn't going to leave without an answer to one question. "Could I ever ask you for forgiveness?"

The stallion sighed heavily as he started to open up. "When I close my eyes at night, even when I so much as blink, I can see the faces of those without closure. And each night, I pray to the heavens above so that they'd hear me. All I can say to them, to the faces of those I've served with, is how sorry I am for living my life on without them experiencing the things I've come to enjoy since our parting. Tell me Nondis, what is their response? And don't think of any half-baked words that would be sufficient enough to replicate their answer."

To be honest, I don't know what kind of answer they would have. Some would be quite angry. Others would probably be sad that he's suffering so much. Maybe a few would see it otherwise. Maybe a select few would probably want him to be happy. But there's no way of saying how the collective of their spirits would bring about a unified answer.

"If you couldn't think of anything, and all you could do was allow the silence to reach your ears, you're right. That's exactly what they say to me each and every night, as they stare back into my face with lifeless expressions. Their answers are written all over their faces. Would you speak for them?"

If I could, maybe I'd answer him. But the conversation has already gone deeper than I was wanting it to be. Any deeper and I might just end up regurgitating his past experience. And being that it's a personal issue that he seems to keep to himself, I can't just out and speak. I don't have a place to. "...If I could, I would. But I'm not a shaman who can converse with the spirits of the long deceased. I just want us to have closure."

The disturbed prince seemed to look past me before he could answer, his gaze caused me to turn back to see what captured his attention. It was a unicorn mare with a black maid outfit and a rather stern look on her face. In her possession was a manila envelope. She walked up to me and flapped the envelope towards my face. "S'cuse me, captain. but Prince Blueblood had me deliver this to you."

I pulled the envelope from her and cracked it open. Already, I could see a few things labeled as damage reports, debriefing papers, collateral payment plans, settlement case files, and autopsy reports. As I slowly slid some of the contents out, a photograph of a small battalion fell from my grasp. As the image fluttered onto the ground, I could see the forty faces of all the guards that were assigned to the first excursion. Another thing I saw was Caramel rolling his eyes as Shining had his helmet placed in front of him. Obvious to say that on the row immediately behind him was the familiar image of a mare with green eyes holding her helmet to the side as she stuck her tongue out, closing one eye as she saluted.

She's an obvious standout in this picture. Honestly, I thought she was kinda cute.

But a groan from behind me indicated that Shining wasn't too thrilled to see the image on the ground. He pushed himself back onto all of his hooves, his magic once more manipulating around the door handle. "You fucked my sister, she's probably going to lose her wings and her job, Spike set you up for Count, you're going to the Arimaspi Territory, you could possibly die there. You know what's going on. There, closure."

The door slammed shut. Shining was beyond reaching at this point. I picked up the picture and stared at the group of ponies. There were quite a few faces I could make out. Unfortunately many of their faces here seemed so carefree as opposed to the images I was given. I can say that seeing them for myself was mildly unpleasant. I can't even begin to think about how it felt for Shining Armor.

"So... the residential human proved to be trouble for my princess. Tell me something new." The maid mumbled.

"Excuse me, but don't you have some other busy work to be doing?" I questioned. "If there's something that's not your business, then maybe you need to prop your nose in a different direction."

"Oh it's in a different direction now." She replied scornfully. "Then again, you've forcefully turned my nose once before. I guess that much hasn't changed about you, human."

She flicked her tail with a pout and walked off. As she did, she shook her flank from side to side.

"See? You didn't have to slap my flanks for me to take my leave this time. Guess we all learn a bit from a first encounter."

Though my brain was slightly hazy as to the topic of her remark, I did find myself taking note of her words. We all learn from the first encounter and try to make a change from what occurred in the first meeting. And it doesn't ever have to be in the view of the one who's already been there and back. Sometimes it takes a second brain to come up with an alternative and a response potent enough to override the results of the first encounter.

I suppose this envelope will hold some crucial details on what I'm dealing with.

An hour later, my brothers and friends from my world all stood in the library with me as we searched for any other information that could prove to be useful. Twilight managed to conjure up all the books that contained any information about the arimaspi beasts. But since studying them was often seen to be such a high-risk issue, very few specialists were sent to gather information. And it's withered fruit showed few signs of usefulness.

About three books, one being an encyclopedia entry, contained any information that pertained to the creatures. Anything else was laid out all over the table. Twilight and Sunset continued to pace throughout the library while the six of us talked at the table, going over the files that I was given.

"Okay, let's spot check." Melanie called out while holding the debriefing files. "These guys are apparently smart, big, and really fucking hairy. They rarely ever leave their borders unless provoked. They never go without watch groups in either the day or night. The mountain they live in is apparently a network of caves and tunnels much akin to an ant's mound. As far as their social interactions are concerned, they seem to pride in humiliating their trespassers. When one is hurt, it will call to others for aid. These creatures are said to be strong and very effective in neutralizing anything that's not of them."

"And apparently they're somewhat versed in psychological warfare." Rickey added, picking up an old tabloid with the picture of dead ponies staked on the top of a hill. "Seriously, this is some fucked up shit."

"They be on some Vlad Dracula type shit." Cliff pointed out while looking at the tabloid. "I think a few of these guards are female too. Damn, no fucks given for the fairer sex, I'll tell you what."

Melanie groaned with disgust as she looked at a few of the victims. "Yesh... True feminism is some really scary shit."

"Let's cut down on the issues that don't really matter, and let's focus on the shit that apparently exists." Alex stated as he stared at some of the mental health reports. "Apparently there were four survivors. I wonder if we can get in touch with them."

"Two survivors." I corrected. "Steelshoe and Windfall, the first two profiles in that record, they committed suicide. One jumped from the battlements of Canterlot and to the base of the mountain, no wings or parachute. The other one got in touch with a poison dealer and bit a pill. Not quite cyanide, but it removes oxygen from the cells throughout the body. They found him bluer than what he normally was."

Stanton shook his head. "All of this screams 'fucked up beyond all comparison.' So what about this Caramel guy? It says here that he was disavowed."

"Disavowed, dishonored, and currently detained in federal custody. He was caught with domestic abuse, assault, aggravated sexual assault, battery, violation of a restraining order, and endangerment of a protected species." I answered.

Rickey whistled at the list of charges. "Rap sheet running from Austin to New York City. I guess asking him is out of the question considering the time we have left. Who's left?"

"Shining Armor." Alex pointed out. "But asking him about this would be like asking gramps about how Vietnam went for him."

Stanton and I shuddered as we thought about that story. "Nope, can't even imagining myself in THAT kind of situation. That's the shit that would break a man." Stanton muttered.

"Well he screams himself to sleep like it, I'm not gonna even open up that shit." Especially considering the history behind his episodes.

All six of us sighed as Twilight and Sunset came back. "Anything new?" Sunset questioned.

"Nope." Melanie answered. "The only thing we didn't look at was the autopsy reports."

"Let's be real, who really wants to look at that shit?" Cliff asked. "We like sleeping too damn much to be peeking into shit like that."

"Well, the six of you got way further than I ever hoped to." Twilight responded. "Each time I look at that folder, I only start breaking down over how we had to look after my brother. Shining was never the same after that. He didn't tell Cadance or any of us about what all happened. We had to keep him locked up in a room. My mom even assaulted one of the members of the parliament and got sent to jail for a few weeks over this. My dad tried his best to reconcile with the families of the deceased, but when all they want is Shining's head, there's little he could do to please them. It took four months for all of this to clear up, or at least for my brother to start walking again."

"He had issues walking?" Rickey inquired.

Alex then read off Shining's medical report. "Five fractured ribs, one sprained hoof, one cracked leg, one orbital bone fracture, several cases of internal bleeding, spinal hemorrhaging, spinal fluid drippage, several other bruises, and extreme cases of post-traumatic stress. That's a hell of a diagnosis. I can see if he's been bedridden from this."

Rickey's jaw dropped from hearing Alex read off the list of injuries. "Jesus Christ, what all happened to the poor guy?"

"I don't know." Twilight muttered sadly. "He never talks about it to me."

"Would Cadance know anything about it?" Melanie asked.

"If she did, she'd be reserved in telling me. But it's obvious that she's just as clueless as I am."

I looked at the medical file, seeing a photo of a haunting image of Shining's thousand yard stare. "Has Celestia ever worked with him on this issue herself?" I asked Twilight.

"She has, personally. In fact, I think she's the only one who really knows what all happened to him. She shows that she has a knowledge of his issue. But when I ask her about it, she only tells me that Shining will tell us when he's ready. And of course, he's never been."

Alex shrugged his shoulders as he spoke. "Well we can't force him to speak on it. If it's his pill to swallow, then we can't get him to cough it back up"

I walked over to the one folder that any of us has yet to even touch. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before opening the folder and striving through the images. "No... Nope... Ugh... Damn, that's ugly... OH GOD..." Eventually, I landed on one name in particular, knowing that this individual was the primary suspect in Shining's ordeal. "Hello darkness, my old friend..."

As I closed it, I made sure that her file was bookmarked higher than anyone else's. Twilight watched me as I placed the folder down. "What happened?"

"Nothing you need to see." I quickly answered. "But I need you to get in contact with the railway maintenance union. I might need some materials that could help me out on this assignment. Take Sunset with you."

The two ponies looked to each other with uncertainty. "What are you trying to get?" Sunset asked.

"Some stuff to clear obstacles in the way, wink, so that I can get to my location a lot easier, wink-wink."

While Twilight remained a bit confused, Sunset lightly grimaced at my true intentions. She gave me a nod and quickly dragged Twilight along with her.

Meanwhile I tapped Melanie's shoulder. "Forbidden affair."

She looked at me with bewilderment as I walked up to Alex and pull out Shining's file from the medical records. Alex was left scratching his head. "What are you talking about?" She asked.

"Yeah, you're acting like you know something that we don't." Alex stated.

"Precisely." I rebutted. "Lesty and Luna didn't drag me down the hall to simply tuck me into bed for story time... Actually, that's exactly what happened."

"What?" The others asked in unison.

"To make a long story obscenely short, Shining, and this poor victim..." I moved Shining's file just above Songbell's photo quickly enough to where it hid the mess. Only leaving the profile picture of the mare in the corner visible. "...They were close."

Stanton walked up to the picture and tried to move Shining's report. "Really, how close were they?"

I slammed my hand on the report, stopping him before he ended up seeing something he wasn't prepared for. "There's a little thing in this marriage law that allows any suitor to go all 'dicks out' before the wedding day. She was such an example of the use of this clause. Unfortunately for him, it posed as a bit of a problem between the two of them because of some other issues I can't necessarily go into detail about."

"Well if you can't go into detail about it, then why are you explaining this to us?" Cliff inquired.

"Because minimal context is best suited for those of a third party. We are that party." I plainly answered. "Now to explain further, she was also the second-in-command to Shining, this following Caramel's demotion. She made a scouting report, Shining made a bad call, and shit went to hell after that."

Alex tapped his chin as he spoke. "Oh... Now I understand why you asked about Celestia working with Shining. She told you all of this, didn't she?"

"Well I'd be horribly rested if she just stayed up all night telling me this. She and Luna instead fed his memories to me in a dream. I can tell you the main reason why Shining's medical report is so extensive. In fact, I'm willing to bet that the orbital fracture he got was from Caramel giving him one good clock on the noggin to sit his ass down."

"A case of friendly fire, huh? What for?" Rickey pondered aloud.

"Because Songbell saved Shining from death. Shining wanted to save her, knowing that her wounds would be a cause for slowdown. She didn't like that, so she order Caramel to save Shining by any means necessary. And from what I could gather, Caramel didn't like that too much, but followed orders because she was above him in rank."

Stanton made the attempt to piece it all together. "So what you're saying is that Shining got with what's-her-face and the other dude got mad because of some specific reason that pertained to the girl because... What?"

Much like him, I was left at 'what'. "That's a question I've yet to ask."

Melanie picked up the papers and started reading on Shining's report. "Poor guy looks like he's been through hell."

You have no idea. "Quite a bit. Loss is hell to anyone who experiences it. That togetherness─"

"So what happened to her?" She said, looking at Songbell's picture.

I shook my head with pity as I warned her. "Well since you're the one with the medical knowledge, plus the constitution to be able to digest what you're gonna see, go on ahead and flip that page."

She rolled her eyes as she lifted Shining's medical report and stared wide-eyed at the autopsy photos. She breathed in sharply and arched her neck back with disgust. Her lips pursed with revulsion. "Uuuhaaa... Oh... God she got it bad."

The others were reluctant to satiate their curiosity by looking themselves. Alex and the others could already imagine the level of disgust she was experiencing just off of the look from her face. "That bad?" Rickey questioned.

Melanie shuddered as she started to read the report. "Victim was found impaled and without the rear section of her body. Tissue damage and scarring indicates that the victim's body was severed when alive. Abrasions and lesions shown on the underbelly, as well as the various disconnections involving the intestines, indicate that she had crawled for quite some time before succumbing to her injuries. Another wound was located on the back, cutting into the spinal area and severing many nerves that disabled her from walking and hindered flight capability. This wound was verified to have occurred prior to the composite abdominal tear."

Alex was on the verge of turning pale as he held his hand over his mouth. "Oh... *HURK* Shit."

Melanie quickly gave me the papers as she tried to calm my brother down. "Okay, whatever you do, don't vomit."

The others merely looked back at me as a grim expression showed on their faces. Stanton shook his head. "You're not going on that assignment, are you?"

"I guess I ain't got a choice." I said as I took a glimpse of the autopsy photo, quickly wishing I didn't. "What these monsters did last time won't happen again."

Rickey scratched the top of his head as he started to pace back and forth. "Yeah, cause the last thing we need to see is some picture of you with your shit fucked up. You need some extra shit."

"I got enough already." I argued.

He glared back at me with a deadpan look. "No sir. You're getting some extra shit. I mean EXTRA shit. Give me five hours and I'll come back with some shit my dad won't sell to anyone else. Just pray I don't get pulled over on some dumb shit and you'll be fine."

"Rickey─" I tried to debate with him on the matter, but he interrupted me.

"No sir. You. Need. Some. Shhiiiittt. I'm not talking about stuff that'll get you by. I'm talking about the shit that's redundant. I mean that good shit that you get when you need it. I'm talking about some shit that's gon fuck them to sleep. I'm talking about them getting the good dick up the ass so they stay sleep for a long time."

We all just stared at Rickey for a moment just digest what all he said. I just quietly placed my hands in a T-formation to indicate that he needed to stop for a moment.

"...Time out."

Two hours after our meeting, all the others set out towards our world while I made my rounds throughout the town in search of the one by the name of Cherry Berry. From what I remembered when Rainbow took me towards Cloudsdale, she was the renter of the sole travel balloon in Ponyville. And of course, anything that would give me the ability to scout the lands from high above would give me a sharp advantage. Plus it would give me a hell of a vantage point where I could snipe off any of the beasts blocking my path. All I'd have to do is stay high, look low, bomb and shoot from above.

That would make my job so much easier, if it wasn't for one tiny detail.

"DAMMIT!... Who rented the balloon?"

The pink mare with her blonde mane snarled back at me. "Hey bub, whoever I sell to is my business and not yours. I know you did a lot for the town, but business is still business. Somepony came around and rented the balloon out."

I could probably salvage from the situation. "How long is it being rented out?"

"Well, they paid me enough to rent it out for... I wanna say almost two weeks."

...Okay, now I KNOW that someone's fucking with me on this. Nearly two weeks and it just so happens that I have an assignment that's set to last for two weeks. It's entirely too much of a coincidence just for it to be mere happenstance. "When did they rent it out?"

"Just two hours before you came here."

That's automatically telling me that this was done as a means of interference. "Thank you, ma'am. Sorry for disturbing."

"Hey, I'm sorry somepony bought me out before you could. But business is business and I gotta eat." I wasn't going to argue with her logic there.

As we departed, I made my way towards the office of the local railworker's union. I could only hope that my fortune is a little better there.

"I can only hope that this will be enough to clear your problems right on out the way!"

Before me sat three wooden crates full of dynamite. Albeit it was all they had to offer without depleting their entire stock, the sticks themselves seemed a bit on the short end. I suppose they'll do some damage when a bundle of about seven or eight are used, but their output would probably only be enough to break a boulder the size of my body.

Still, it was a better outcome compared to my last venture. "I can work with this. Of course I'll be spreading it thin to maximize the usage, but I'd rather have this much than nothing at all."

"I only wish we could give you more. The princess told us that you were going to be headed towards Arimaspi Territory. That place is mighty terrifying, even to many of the guards we hire for our maintenance checks. Of course, the top of those rails are a little gritty, but they won't derail you if you insist on going at a moderate speed."

That means that we'll probably have to travel slow. This would give those monsters enough time to met us at a drop-off point. We'd be stepping off the train into a fight. That's more strife than I would like them placed under for their first day. I'll have to think of something that would lessen their load.

Whatever, it will have to come later. "I'll keep that in mind. But is there any way we could ride through there without being caught?"

"You'll have to come up with one, we haven't even so much as traveled a good two miles inward before seeing two or three stalking us."

"So what do you fellas do when they start stalking you?"

"Well they're often a cautious yet greedy type. You ride in slow, you stay inside, you'll minimize your trouble. Get out of the cart, be best to part with some bits. One or two bags will buy you a good ten minutes. You come with a large bag filled with bits, and you might clear yourself of some serious trouble for the day. They're like griffons in that regard. Share the wealth, and they'll share the peace, if only for a day. But going into their forest is often seen as a big taboo."

"How big of one?" I asked curiously.

"One of our boys tried to take a break in the shade one time. They leaned against a tree, only to find an Arimaspi in their face screaming at them. We had to end our job for the day before they decided to put us in permanent retirement. Waste of bits, that was."

They didn't give me any bits, so it looks like I'll be running in hot. "Thanks for the advice. I'll try to give them a tribute worth remembering."

As I walked out with the three crates stacked on top of one another, the stallion at the desk bode me farewell. "Good luck on your trip, sir. We're rooting for you."

Four hours later...

I hate that I'm doing this.

No seriously, I already don't like trains as it is. And I know this mission will require me to get on a train, much to my dismay of it. But I seem to be missing quite a bit of details pertaining to the creatures at large. And the only way I'm gonna be able to get more information on these creatures is if I take it from someone who's already had a meeting with them face to face.

So I made an express trip towards Canterlot on the next train smoking. By the time I had gotten there, press and photographers were blasting my face with flashes and questions. And I wouldn't be able to get rid of them until I was well on castle grounds. But my trip wasn't just to here. I had to make it past the security at the front gate, the security at the barracks, the security at the correctional hall, and finally the security checkpoint leading into the dungeons. Finally, I made my way through the halls, walking onto the level where Guto was detained and walked straight down the hall towards a brown pony sitting in a chair with a muzzle restraint.

Two of the guards gave me a salute before they one of them opened the door, the other guard walked inside and removed the muzzle restraint to allow him to speak. I finally entered the room last and sat before the brown stallion as he stared at me with a cold heartless glare. The other two walked outside and closed the door behind me.

"So..." I began. "I trust that the amenities have been to your liking?"

The stallion stared quietly at me.

"...I guess that's not much of an answer. But maybe I can get some sort of response from you."

"What do you want, creature?"

Honestly, this is the first time in a while I was referred to as that. Had he said monkey, I'd probably would've decked him. "I've got shit to do and it requires some serious planning. Doesn't help much that I'm looking at you."

He finally cracked a smile as he chuckled. "I suppose my hoof driving into your skull was quite the memorable experience? I would've suspected that you'd get nosebleeds at the sight of me, yet you're here with a guard's dog tag around your neck. Isn't it interesting how these things work?"

I shrugged in response to his taunt. "I guess so, considering that you're supposed to be wearing some yourself."

His grin disappeared as he put on a stoic face. "My days serving under that buffoon of a captain are over. Even Celestia's name is tarnished to me. All of my service and I walk away with memories that haunt me every time I close my eyes. The faces of my comrades all stare back at me at night... I could only save three, and two of them threw my courtesy back in my face when they decided to kill themselves. And you know... I'd sleep easier at night if I saw HIS FUCKING FACE with them."

"The captain, you mean?" I asked the slightly enraged stallion.

He looked at me with a foul disposition, much like he did when we first met back in the alley. "You're asking too many questions."

I lightly nodded, acknowledging my perpetual prodding of his past. "I suppose that it was a bit invasive. But you don't mind if I piss you off for a little bit, right?"

His eyes narrowed while his voice seemed to lower into a growl. "You should be cautious. I've been trained in ways that would terrify you. I have faced monsters you will never face."

"Before you start monologuing , maybe I should add a little context to what's going on now. See, while you were locked away, changelings attacked the city, killing off a decent amount of those in the higher chain of command. Prince Shining, who you hate so dearly, has been promoted from captain to brigadier general, leaving the captain's position open for a twenty-four hour period."

Caramel was quite infuriated in hearing of Shining's promotion. "THAT BASTARD GOT PROMOTED!?"

"Imma let you finish." I said, holding him off of his blood-fueled rampage. "But that position, the captain one, was filled the next day. Shining did the thing he did to you, to me. You know, on-the-spot ranking? He made me Captain of the Royal Guard."

Caramel remained stupefied as he tried to process the information he just received. "...Wha...tha... you?"

"Now, were gonna go back to that bit in your monologue, the thing about you facing 'monsters I will never face'?"

Caramel tilted his head as he squinted his eyes. "You're digging far too deep."

"Well... the politicians who sent you and your dearly departed platoon on their suicide mission... Well, guess where I'm going on Monday morning?"

He straightened himself up and gave me a lifeless stare. "You're all going to die. Tell me the reason why they send you to die."

"Well to keep it short, there's a princess who thinks highly of me─"

His stare was suddenly more intense. "How many are you sending to their graves?"

"I'm not necessarily sending them to their graves, but about thirty."

"So... Just like Shining Armor, huh?" He asked.

I shook my head. "That's the thing, I'm not like him─"

Once more, I was interrupted. "So, who do you have to quench your lustful urges this time? How many other comrades are you going to screw over because you decide to place your dick ahead of your duties? Or maybe you're going to rut them on the way there."

By this point, I had grown tired of him preaching to me over my moralities when he has shown his failure to hold any of his own. "So who else are you going to abuse? Pinkie didn't do anything to you, she only tried to make you happy. And yet you decide to beat her head in and tell her that she wasn't shit."

"We are not going to talk about her." He answered vehemently.

I pulled out the manila envelope, going straight to the autopsy files and pulled out Songbell's file and showed it to him. "Then talk about her!" As the image was brought before his eyes, he looked right at me. "Because I know you were protective of her, so why not the one who actually tried to give you a second chance?"

At that moment, he snapped. He jerked and pulled against his restraints as he shouted at me. "YOU BASTARD! YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING! YOU JUST─"

"Songbell Highwind, given the role of second in command the night before the day of the incident. She's gone because you obeyed her final order, saving Shining while she volunteered for her life to be taken instead. She knew that she would slow you both down and decided to make the best of your chances. She decided that it was better if you and he lived. Quite the saint, actually." Bitch, better believe I know something.

This time, he raised his voice significantly higher. "SO WHAT? YOU GET A MODEST PEEK OF WHAT TRANSPIRED FIVE YEARS AGO, AND HERE YOU ACT LIKE YOU KNOW EVERYTHING! YOU ACT LIKE YOU HAVE ALL THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD! BUT HERE'S THE TRUTH, YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT HER! YOU WANT TO PRETEND THAT YOU KNOW THE STRUGGLES WE GO THROUGH, BUT YOU HAVEN'T HAD THE CHANCE TO SIT WITH HER EVERYDAY, TO LAUGH AND HEAR HER RANT ON ABOUT HOW SHE SEEKS THE ATTENTION OF SOMEONE OTHER THAN YOU!"

Okay, so that confirms one of my suspicions. "I understand that you had feelings for her─"

"YOU SHUT UP!" He screamed. "IF YOU HAVEN'T HEARD HER SING, YOU'D HAVE NO RIGHT TO SPEAK OF HER. Shining had no right to use her in the manner which he did. Her heart was broken when she came back down to the ground, to realize that her emotional and sexual high was nothing but his relief method. And then to have someone later on down the line who tries her best to imitate her so that she could make me happy. You have not a single clue how it feels to have the one you love being replaced right in front of your eyes. It's insulting, IT'S DISTASTEFUL!"

Okay... that's something that I didn't know. Obviously he thought Pinkie was trying to replace her. I calmed my tone and spoke to him. "Okay. I know I can't change your mind on how you see that right now. But maybe we can come to an agreement here. Those furry bastards are bad news, and we both wanna do whatever it takes to get as many of our fellow guards out of that hell."

He shook his head, closing his eyes as he shuddered. "You don't know... How many have I tried to get out of there, including her. There were so many I tried to rescue, but failed because of my limits. And the politicians who sent us out there only called us failures because we couldn't find what they wanted. The berated us survivors for not doing enough, and Celestia did nothing for us... just him. We put our lives on the line and only he gets any sort of attention and reinforcement."

I knelt down to him, looking him in the eye as I spoke. "My guards will get all the praise that's due once we come back with our shiny-ass payload. But I can't go that far unless we talk."

He finally looked at me again, with a slightly softer expression. "You won't know. You won't know the weight of your words until the bodies pile up."

By now, I was done with exchanging pleasantries. I was running short on time, and I wanted to get to the bottom of what all he knows. "If the arimaspi has a weakness, what is it?"

He was quiet for a moment before he answered my question. "If there was anything that could kill them before they reached you, that would be to your advantage. But even our best crossbows will only be truly effective within fifty yards. The big catch... They can close that distance quickly, so it's pointless to go with all crossbows. Close quarters, your best bet is to not hesitate. They swipe with the anticipation that you would retreat, a critical mistake."

"I've also come to understand that you've taken a few down. So now I gotta ask, if you were to face one mano-a-mano, what would be the chances of survival should there be a guard who fights one on their own?"

Caramel tilted his head with a sigh and looked at me lazily. "That depends..."

"On what?" I questioned.

He looked to the autopsy image of Songbell, his voice grew somber. "If they feel like toying with you. Pray they're in a playful mood, or you might find your lights abruptly snuffed. Either way, you're better off bashing your head against the rocks before they get to you. Maybe the confusion would cause them to reconsider. At least then you'd walk away with only brain damage."

I shook my head at his answer, knowing an advantage that I have that they didn't during their deployment. I shrugged my shoulders as I questioned him. "Are your outlooks always so bleak?"

He looked back at me with an unamused expression. "Are you always so careless, fighting an opponent you know nothing of?"

I rolled my eyes and gave my response. "Why do you think I'm here?"

Another four hours later...

After the long train ride back to Ponyville, I started to go over in my mind the ways I could approach any encounter with an arimaspi. Throughout the ride, my mind was honed in on how I could be able to outmaneuver them. Not so much in the physical sense, because I'd be beat every time based on physical aptitude alone. Instead, I had to think about how to adjust my approach outside of shooting them right in the eye. And give that their eye takes up about forty percent of their face, it won't be that hard of a target to hit, especially if they're as straight-forward as Caramel mentioned.

So when I returned to the castle, I stayed in the library to cram for another two hours. I had Twilight put up a notice that I was not to be disturbed, no matter how important the situation may be. After that, I dedicated myself to another hour of explaining how they moved to Twilight so that she could manifest enough magic to run a simulation of sorts.

It didn't take her long to make a crude wooden doll shaped to an arimaspi's estimated anatomical proportions. In fact, she went the extra mile and provided me with three puppets, to better simulate what could happen if I were to be in a position where I had to fend off more than one.

For three hours, I did what I could in terms of fighting off the puppets... to very little avail. "Run the simulation again!"

Twilight appeared to be bored as her magic manipulated the first doll, which I affectionately named 'Jasper'. My body was soaked with sweat as I felt my hands being sore from swinging my sword at the puppets. My shoulders were burning from my constant swinging. My chest pounded as I continued to get my cardio work in from all the running, jumping, rolling, and somersaulting.

My body was telling me that I needed to call it quits, but my brain was so determined to see a fruitful result. So in my fit of insanity, I made a dash for the puppet and blocked the first blow that threatened to land a kill-shot. Following my block, I had to stabilize my balance as the strike was powerful enough to throw me off. The other claw came swiping in for another slash, but I dashed forward, running underneath the creature and in between it's legs. While the creature looked down to track me, I sliced for the tendons in the back of the leg, as seen from the dream I had last night. The puppet faltered, allowing me an easier access to it's neck.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't be realistic if this was a fair simulation. By the time the first puppet collapsed to the ground, the other two, named 'Horace' and 'Cruella', made a run for me with the anticipation of wrecking my shit... which they often did. To my left, another claw came sweeping in. I laid flat on the ground to avoid the blow, rolling underneath the creature's pinky. Quickly, I jumped back up to my feet and countered with a swipe at Horace's arm. It drew the arm upward as a response to the pain, but Cruella found her way to me. A shadow covered my entire body, indicating that another claw was sitting directly above me. Before I could escape, the palm of Cruella's hand came falling on top of my head, giving me a light bump to indicate that I had been subjugated.

Again, I lost.

The puppets were sent back to the walls as I was left a sweaty mess. "SHIT!" I screamed, expressing my frustration in my defeat. By then, I had to acknowledge that it was time to give my body a break. So I collapsed on the floor, sprawled out and took several deep breaths as I rested. Twilight relinquished her magical possession over the mannequins and walked over to me. She looked down to me with a saddened stare. I knew what that look implied. And honestly, I understood it's reason for being. back when I first started this exercise, Twilight was eagerly doing what she could to push me along. But somewhere along the line, her eagerness transformed to optimism, then slowly to boredom, and now to despair.

And the look on her face just screamed 'please don't do this'.

"Okay... In ten minutes... I'm gonna... get off of this floor... and we're gonna run... the simulation again." I panted out.

She closed her eyes and held her head back to stop herself from welling up tears. "Nondis, rest, please."

"I think I... got it this time..." I continued. "Just let me have... a few more times... and then we can stop."

She responded to me by laying on my chest as I breathed. The purple princess whispered to me. "It's late. You've had a long day."

I grunted as I noticed the sudden increase of weight on my rib cage wasn't helping my air intake. "You know... you sitting here... is not helping... my breathing."

She buried her face into my shirt, appearing depressed while she remained mostly motionless. Her hoof lightly rubbed against my abdomen. She then mumbled to me. "Have you ever thought there was so much going on, that you wanted to run away?"

I released the grip on my sword to pet her mane. She tilted her head towards my hand as I responded. "Not really. But I do think there's a lot of bullshit that comes equipped with my job."

She didn't show much of an emotional change. Instead she continued to express herself. "I don't think it's fair to you."

I continued to hold her head while I spoke. "Well, welcome to the life of the royal guard."

She didn't move much after that. "You're a guard, alright."

"Yup." I answered with a light sigh.

"...If I ordered you to come with me, would you?"

While my eyes stung a bit from the sweat, they opened wide at her question. For a moment it took me a while to process what she was saying. But after a while, I caught on to what exactly she was trying to get across. "You mean... like running away?"

"Going out to the west, to the ends of Equestria, you and me."

I raised my head to look at her. "This is a bit sudden."

She used her magic to push my head back down to the ground for rest. "I've been thinking about it since last night. I could hear my brother screaming down the hall and I thought of you. I thought about what could happen to you. Then Celestia came in and told me that you were asleep. We talked, she told me about her fears for you... And she told me that I should be ready to receive the reality that we would never see each other again. I couldn't sleep without crying."

At least I'm not the only one thinking about that possibility right now. Considering the beatdowns I've received at the hands of the puppets, there's no telling what an arimaspi will do to me in real life. And unlike these simulations, I don't get a do-over. "Do you think I'll die?"

Her hoof dug into my abdomen as she spoke. "I don't want to. I mean, I can't imagine a week from now where I get a letter telling me that you've gone before me."

"That's what I'm working hard to prevent." I stated with a little more energy.

She raised her head, demanding my full attention while she spoke. "If you loved me, you'd leave with me tonight."

Admittedly, her timing caused me to raise my head through my fatigue as if it was non-existent. "Twilight, c'mon."

"I mean it." She argued strongly. "We'll leave Ponyville, we'll go to the west. It might be a long journey, but at least I can do what I can when I get you someplace safe. When we arrive, we'll marry. I'm a princess, so I would automatically be a licensed overseer of ceremony. I know enough of the bylaws to make us official. No more politics, no more fighting, no more of us being in trouble. We could spend the days loving each other, all day and night long. And I can build another portal, it won't take me any time at all. I'll make sure that you can still see everyone in your world."

Although I was starting to see the benefits of her offer, I couldn't bring myself to agree to it just yet. "That isn't going to work, Twilight."

"I can still be a princess, I'll just keep you hidden until I finish with everything."

Now she was making no sense. Again, this was really unusual to see from her. "I can't just abandon─"

She didn't give me a chance to argue. She raised herself and lightly brushed her hoof against my cheek. "Your time in the guard has been memorable, and it didn't come without significant accolades. If you ask me, your service has been more than satisfactory. But if remaining in the guard is going to doom you for certain, then I won't allow for you to remain. I love you too much to see that happen."

"You're being selfish again."

"If we get punished, it might as well be worth something, right?" She jokingly asked with a nervous chuckle. "We'll just have our own little─"

"TWILIGHT!" I called out loudly, causing her to jump. She stopped ranting from that point onward and started to look down. I raised my arm and placed my finger on her chin, lifting her up to look at me. "You're asking me to abandon everything. I'd abandon my promises, my duties to the country, my duties to the other guards, the royal family, and you."

She shook her head, levitating my hand away from her. "I'm giving you permission! Just take it!"

By then, I had to be strict and forward with her. "I'm going on this mission. The reason is bigger than us both. I've already agreed, and they're sending the other thirty out there whether I'm leading them or not. Present or not, their blood is on my hands. At least I can be accountable for something I'm there to manage."

The purple princess took a deep breath before she levitated me off of the ground, her wings flapping open and sustaining her as she hovered a foot above the ground. She drew herself away from me for a brief second to allow me to stand on my own. While I started to flex my hand, I realized that my body was indicating that I was going to be sore tomorrow. But I chose not to let it discourage me. I reached down for my sword, getting my mind prepared for another run at the puppets, when suddenly...

"Oh no you aren't." Twilight said as she levitated the sword away from me. She slid the blade across the room towards the wall.

When I tried to chase after it, she used another one of her spells to petrify my movements. Next, she lifted up my entire body and politely toted me towards the bedroom. While I was suspended in mid-air, I watched as she marched towards her room, opening the door, and kindly lay me down on the bed. She then threw the covers over my body and rubbed my forehead and cheeks. Her eyes never left me for a second while she kissed me on the forehead, her lips lightly embraced me with a soft, dampened sensation. She drew away from me, looking at me with concern masked over by a gentle smile.

"I don't think your having magic to suppress me is fair." I complained.

"Tough love." She answered. "Now get some rest."

I groaned with frustration, trying to get myself out of the bed. But Twilight's magic held me down still. "Twilight..." I tried to argue.

"No. We're not having this conversation. You are going to get some sleep, you are going to wake up tomorrow feeling refreshed, and you are going to go out there and tell these ponies a grand old story and a rousing speech before you and them set out to..." She suddenly paused, swallowing whatever choked her words before she could get them out. But they failed to manifest from her throat, leaving her with nothing but quiet breaths suppressing sobs.

I finished her sentence for her. "Die?"

She clenched her eyes shut as she tried her damnest not to think about what could happen. "You don't understand. Celestia's already stated that you would... It's different now. These aren't changelings, they're huge beasts that nearly killed my brother. To this day he's tormented by them, and he won't tell anypony why or what happened. When you were screaming mad the other night, I felt like I had failed to protect you."

Her magic weakened as she went on to explain it. Obviously the stress on her mind was throwing her magic off balance. I was able to move my body more and more. Eventually, I was freed of her hold over me. What I did with my newfound freedom? I walked over, knelt down, and hugged the purple princess until she stopped shaking. She was acting the same way just last night at the party and when I came back from Canterlot.

I can only imagine what she's feeling at the moment.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

Our moment became short-lived, a knock on the door that seemed to be too urgent to ignore. I stood back up to answer the door. When I opened it, I could see Rainbow Dash ignoring my presence to engage with her friend. Under her left wing was a letter with a broken red seal.

"Twilight, we gotta talk." The cyan pegasus quickly said as she pulled the princess along. I offered to go along with her, but she screamed at me. "I DIDN'T CALL FOR YOU, DIPSHIT!"

Twilight was taken aback by the pegasus' reaction to my accompanying her. "Rainbow Dash, you know better than to call him that."

"Twilight, it's a friendship emergency. The others are already on their way to the throne room. You need to be there." She stated as she looked at me. "I'm sorry. But this is Mane-Six business."

I was still left with a perplexed look on my face while Rainbow seemed to wear her worrisome frown. Twilight grimaced as she turned back to me. "Nondis, get some sleep. Tomorrow's a long day."

Well, it's not like I have much of a choice at this point. If this is between Twilight and her friends, then I not getting involved. "I suppose."

The two ponies quickly left the room, the door closing shut behind them. Left with no other options at the moment, I followed Twilight's instructions and got back in the bed. I know, all that fussing and fighting and NOW I choose to follow instructions?

Turns out that my mattress is the best thing since sliced bread.

So I laid down in the bed, dressed myself in the covers, turned to my favorite side, and let my thoughts wander until my eyelids got heavy. The fatigue from my training session wasn't really helping me stay awake either. Though I really could use a quick shower before I drift off.

Meh, I'll do it in the morning...

"Wake up..."

The sensation of a hoof being driven into my chest stirred me from my sleep. As I opened my eyes, I could see a purple blur standing just in front of me. She poked me with her hoof even more as I started to slowly come to. Twilight continued to shake and poke me until I was somewhat up and functional, albeit a bit cranky.

"Wake up. Wake up Nondis." She urged.

I yawned and wiped the blurriness from my eyes as I saw her standing before me, holding a familiar parchment with a broken red seal on it. Twilight continued to shake and poke me until I was completely sitting up on the bed. As I stretched, I tried my best not to sound grouchy. "What's going on?"

Next, the parchment was shoved into my face. I briefly flailed my arms as the parchment attacked my face. When I pulled it off, I could see Twilight with a devastated look on her face. She appeared to be even more shaken up than before. And the words she whispered seemed to be an indication on what it was that caused her to react so unusually.

"He's a monster."

By the time she said those words, I had to force my eyes to come out of their rest and focus in on the words of the parchment before me.

Dear E.U.P. Guard member,

In light of your service to our nation and your commendable achievements, we recognize your valor and acknowledges the sacrifices you have made throughout your service. Your unwavering professionalism and fortitude in the face of dangers to our nation shall forever be seen as a valuable and priceless to any and all who live in this great country.

With this being brought forward, we humbly ask of you to provide your service to our nation once more. You are hereby ordered by the account of the Equestrian Parliament and the Board of Domestic Affairs to engage in the AM-2 Deployment protocol. Your name has been provided in a list of others who's services would also be of optimal use throughout the course of this assignment.

UNICORNS
Heatwave
Shining Spark
Waning Moon
Dawnrise Twinkle
Glory Morning
Azure Sword
Aegis Shield
Sword Dancer
Blindside
Swift Justice

PEGASI
Nightwing
Falling Sky
Silver Rain
Downburst
Humbreeze Highwind
Rolling Thunder
Rainbow Dash
Stormfront
Cloudwall
Sunny Skies

EARTH PONIES
Cloven Helm
Strongheart
Warpath
Brave Fencer
Spearhead
Iron Clad
Buckwild
Rosey Hoof
True Valor
Strongleg

The one whom you will be commanded by is Captain Nondis P. Haines, Captain of the Royal Guard. Further information shall be provided to you at the Castle Charlie rendezvous point at approximately 1600 hours. Details and intel will be provided to you as well as information in regards to the assignment.

We thank you for your continued service to our great nation and wish you well. Our guards are always a valued part of our country's history and your account will forever be remember by future generations of Equestrian citizens. Your sacrifices as well as your achievements shall not be forgotten.

Glory's greatest; Equestrian Proud,

General of the Guards Stonehenge

...Okay, NOW I'm pissed.

Twilight looked at me, expecting me to say something to her about it. But my anger only made me realize that I couldn't say anything to her. The only thing I could do was grouchily wake up out of my sleep to some more bad news that made me even grouchier. Now I couldn't sleep, even my fatigue couldn't stop me at this point. I was ready to go on a rampage. At this point, I'm literally one strike away from packing my guns to Canterlot and using Count DuMonee's lifeless body for target practice and ballistics testing.

They pulled Rainbow Dash into all this bullshit. What are they trying to accomplish?

I could only look up to the ceiling to an imaginary deity as I expressed my grief the only way I could for the time being. "God, you win."

With those words, I walked out of the room towards the library to study up more on how the arimaspi functioned, the autopsy files, the mission debriefings, everything under the goddamn sun, from Al to Zed. Twilight initially tried to stop me, but I grabbed her horn before she could use her magic to freeze me again. And once more, I shut myself inside of the library and crammed like the college student I was. For another three hours, I studied every bit of literature there was on them, every tome, every anatomical finding, every fucking piece of scrap paper that had the word 'arimaspi' on it. Inevitably, I passed out from exhaustion.

A twenty-hour work day will do that to you if you're not used to it.

The next morning...

The sun beamed from the windows and skylights above the shelves, as the slight dust particles highlighted the strands of sunlight pouring onto the shelves and the table at the center of the room. While the door quietly creaked open, the silhouette of a pony walked through and looked back into the hallway. As they acknowledged what they were looking for, their eyes then locked to me.

I, however, was in no particular mood to care. I was sleeping.

"Arimaspi are the powerful members of the Bovidae family, being the only ones to have an ability to walk on their hind legs for extended periods of time."

...Sleep mumbling to be precise.

"Known as the Bovidae Daemonio Hircum, they are often associated with their demonizing nature should intruders or foreign species invade their territories. However, these creatures often felt entitled to roam regions, near or far, for gold and other illustrious treasures."

The silhouette then stood quietly as a soft clunking sound could be heard nearby. Again, I was more invested in my sleep.

"Fur often is thick enough to accommodate a wide variety of climates... *SNORT* Keeps heat from inducing a high rate of sweat production as well as keeping the body warm in cooler climates. These creatures are often attracted to rocky areas regardless of altitude."

The sounds of wood clanking eventually became so noisy that it stirred me from my slumber, causing me to dismiss the shadow in my extremely blurred vision.

"Ugh... Fuck off, Cruella."

...Cruella???

Opening my eyes for a moment, I could see a partially blurred puppet towering over me with it's claw raised. Without warning, the claw descended towards me. Summoning up whatever strength I had left in me, I leapt out of my chair and away from the desk with a shaken disposition. My mind was suddenly on full alert as the puppet removed it's hand from the remnants of the desk I once slept on. When my vision cleared, I started to make out the magenta aura that surrounded the puppet.

"Damn girl, I know I said to keep the simulations realistic but this is going too goddamn far!" I said in reference to Twilight.

The puppet didn't seem to care too much as it lunged for my position, swiping and swatting for me. I ducked and dodged as best as I could, but my ability to evade the blows was drastically reduced due to the fatigue my body experienced the day prior. It was like whatever bogged me down had chained my legs to the floor. So I was eventually knocked aside into one of the nearby bookshelves. From there, my body simply gave up while I watched the puppet run for me on all fours before sliding with it's claw raised high into the air to strike me down. The shadow of the Cruella's paw shifted into a sharp image as it closed in on me. I could only close my eyes as I was left helpless and disoriented.

"If you're gonna fight like that, then there's no point in even leaving tomorrow."

While the puppet froze in place, I was aware enough to recognize that it was Shining who was talking with me for the time being. Of course, I was more than surprised to know it was actually him. He walked out from behind one of the bookshelves and looked down at me.

"If you think Twily's given you the experience you thought you needed for this mission, then you were mistaken." He said coldly. "The 'simulation' you experienced was wholefully realistic, with the exception of my sparing your life. You should be more wary of your surroundings, sleep lightly and with the intention to wake up ready to fight... Or you could not wake up at all. Choice is yours."

I shook my head and rubbed my eyes as I tried to stand on my slightly-wobbly legs. "Now... *yawn* ...to be honest, I dozed off while I was studying. I think it was three in the a.m. when I drifted off."

"That's not an excuse." Shining responded harshly, showing no sympathy for my lack of sleep. "You have to be ready for when they strike, no matter how much sleep you have." He then focused his attention to the puppet as he continued speaking. "Or else you could cost the lives of your subordinates. Now try to march in that parade should you come back."

Well, at least he's talking to me about it... somewhat. "Sorry. I have troubles braining when I don't sleep. At this rate, they're dying because I'm too tired to think."

Shining then grabbed my shirt and yanked me down till I was eye level with him. "Then you learn how to brain while you're rubbing the crust out of your eyes. If you can walk, if you can speak, you can think. Even second nature requires a thought process."

Geez, you seem awfully shitty today. Is it because Twilight and I did the thing? If it's that, then I kinda know where you're coming from. If not, then what the hell? Either way, I'm not in a mood to argue with him. I'll just nod my head and pretend all the shit he's asking me to do is humanly possible. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind, sir."

"Yup. Don't fuck up."

Honestly, I'm starting to think he's projecting a bit. "I've made the preparations to take on this assignment. I've did all my research on arimaspi and all of their unique abilities. Unfortunately, there's much to worry about when it comes to the fact that they can see in the dark."

The stallion scoffed as he started to make his way out of the library. "I noticed. You crammed till you were spouting the shit in your sleep. Both you and Twilight have those bad habits, only you do a lot less studying."

Hey! I was rocking a decent 3.0 GPA before I was suddenly dropped here, thank you very much. "I don't have the magical wherewithal to do all the multitasking she does. Allow me to have that as a fault, please."

"Then if you're so-well learned, what's your strategy for taking on these creatures?" He asked as we made our way out of the library.

"Well I'm trying to maximize my ability to take them on without the use of human weaponry─"

"Wrong." Shining growled. "Your strategy IS human weaponry. It will be the thing that saves your life, and others who follow you."

"Shining, it's one thing that you and Sunset know how to use human weaponry. It's a whole other ball game to teach them how to use human weaponry."

"You don't have to. You're short on time, you need an out, and there's something in mind that would fit you just fine."

...Okay, I already know that I'm not gonna like this.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

After our small debate over my strategic approach, Shining and I made our way towards the portal room with 'Cruella' trailing behind us. Shining then notified me that the others had returned to speak with me yesterday, but could not get a hold of me. I asked if they had tried to call me, he said that everyone who had a phone outside of Twilight, who was in Sunset's world for the time being, had only heard my voicemail in lieu of a dial tone. I notified him that I'd usually kept my phone on at all times in case of emergency, but when I pulled it out to reach the home screen, I ended up finding out that it had died.

I guess I forgot to put my phone on a charger yesterday. Whoops.

I quickly activated the mirror and slipped over to my world. I stepped out of my bathroom and slid my phone onto a charger by the computer. By the time the screen came back on to the home section, notifications started popping up in my text feed. Obviously, I missed SEVERAL texts and even a few voice messages. I started to sort through all of them and see what was going on. I was going through message after message, some asking me what I was doing, others telling me that I had a surprise waiting for me when I got back. And then there were a few voice messages from Alex and Rickey. When I finished going through everything, I took a moment to wait for my phone to get a decent charge, but that was hampered by a sudden phone call.

I picked up the phone and saw that it was dad calling me. I wasn't too eager to speak with him at the moment, I had way too much on my mind as is and I already had a feeling that he was going to say something I wouldn't like. So I swiped the screen to ignore the call. I placed the phone back down but then he called again. Once more, I swiped the ignore option. And then he shot me a quick text telling me it was a medical emergency.

I'll be damned that I wasn't going to answer it this time. "Hello!?"

"Oh thank God above I can still talk to you. Guess I don't need to send the padded wagon for you after all."

I was still focused on the medical reason he had me calling for. "Yeah, but what happened!? You said you had a medical emergency, what happened!? Is mom okay!?"

He chuckled back as he responded. "Oh, that. I just wanted to see if my son wasn't crazy for ignoring my calls."

...Typical, dad. Real mature. "Well, I'm glad to hear that this was a false alarm. But I'm kinda busy at the moment. Talk to you─"

"Alright, now what time are you and Bella coming by today?"

...Wait what? "Come again?"

"Bella and you were supposed to be visiting us this weekend. You remember that conversation we had in the kitchen last Wednesday."

Sssssssshit! I know it was actually Discord who talked with them and told them all of that stuff, but I still can't be bothered to try and feed more lies to him and mom. I didn't have the time, I had more important things to do pertaining to life and death than to be hearing my father come up with all sorts of bullshit to piss me off. "Ugg-Goddammit!" I mumbled under my breath. I can't believe I let that one slip right by me.

"HEY, YOU WATCH YOUR TONGUE!"

Right, I forgot who I was talking to. "Sorry dad. But it seems that a few things came up and I need to be away for a while. Right now I'm at work and I'm not gonna be able to come around today."

He didn't seem too thrilled to hear it from the tone of his voice. "Well that doesn't seem like it would be good for you to skip out on your family for your job. I can understand that you're working, but you still gotta prioritize your time. You can always earn a wage, but you can't ever make up for the loss of a family member."

"Dad, please don't equate this to death." I groaned angrily. "It's bad enough as it is."

"Well can't you have Bella come by and visit us anyhow? I ain't gonna do nothing creepy to her. It's just that your mother and I are wanting to meet this young lady whom you allege saved your life."

"Dad, that's a bit of a stretch." Like a multidimensional stretch, as in trying to find the secret to traversing dimensions without magic and breaking every known law of physics and theory known to mankind. "Bella got called in on her job as well. She's just as busy as I am, we just got called in last night, and we're trying to do whatever we can to make it work. Maybe some other time, but not right now." Yeah, let's wait another three months before we open that can of worms. "But my manager is looking at me real mean-like, so I'm gonna have to call you later." I lied.

The truth of the matter was that Rickey was calling me on the other line. I swapped lines and then addressed Rickey. "Hey, sorry I missed you yesterday. I had to do some stuff."

"Hey, I get it. But next time keep your phone on so you know what's going on, dude."

Okay, who am I on the phone with again? "Yes mom. But seriously, my phone was dead. I was out and forgot to charge it since the whole birthday fiasco."

"Ohhh." He droned on. "Then I'll go on ahead and tell you what's going on. But only if you unlock your door first."

Smart, don't want the government to listen in on our conversation in case we start talking about guns and weapons. "If you were anyone else, I'd probably have you investigated for that request. But okay, I'm in the apartment now so you guys can come on over."

"Actually, we slept over Mel's for the night. All five of us. I lost out and had to sleep in the bath tub so I might be a little grouchy."

He's doing better than me. At least he could actually rest in the bath tub. Last time I did that, I had to sleep with all the lights on. "Okay, well y'all come on by, door's open so you guys can just walk in."

"See you in five."

"Okay then." I was about to hang up on my end but then a thought darted through my mind. I'm running on fumes right now and I hadn't had much in the ways of sleep. So it was obvious that my speech to the troops wasn't going to be that inspiring as much as it would be a chore-and-bore. Now was my chance more than anything to get what I have longed for since my disappearance. "Oh wait. Before you all pack in, can you tell Mel to get something for me?"

"Okay, what you need?"

"Tell her I need the after-midnight crammer's special: Final exams edition."

It's so good to be back.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

While I waited for them to come back, I crossed back over and started to look over some of the weapons I could take with me as well as my choice of ammunition. Of course I was going to need some higher-caliber ammo but I was going to need to also have enough to where I can take on as many as needed, while remaining somewhat light on my toes. I also took into consideration all the sticks of dynamite that I was given. Unfortunately, I was looking at a whole lot more wick than I was the stuff that goes boom. Upon hundreds and hundreds of feet of ignition wick that I could possibly use to level off an entire treeline, but only so much explosive to collapse maybe destroy a moderate chunk of a cliff. In terms of rationing my explosives, I had a lot of number crunching to do.

Twilight, Shining, Cadance, Rarity, Pinkie, and Applejack all watched as I sorted through my stock and set everything in place so that I could keep my numbers in fair shape. The last thing I needed to do was to miscount on something and find out that I could've worked with more later on, or discover that I packed too much and needed only a fraction less than what I had on person. While Twilight was eager to help, Shining knew better than to let her get too close for her own safety. Both he and I know that she has a knack for prying and neither one of us wanted her to do anything that would cause anyone harm. So she silently watched as the two of us loaded the table. Shining also pointed to two other boxes that sat at the other side of the room, but advised that we should wait until Rickey came around to tell us what it was.

And it was only minutes after that statement when his face came around.

Finally, the others came walking though the portal. It took them a total of thirty minutes before they came back with food in hand. Melanie was the first to speak. "Special delivery!"

As soon as she came through, the smell of the food permeated throughout the room, causing me to drool in my mouth by a substantial amount. "Mel, please tell me that's it."

With a smile, she handed me the bag and the drinks that came along with it. "Two sausage-cheddar-eggs, apple jam spread, one orange juice and a double expresso con panna, all straight from the local Starbucks."

I hath arrived. "Oh yes. Melanie Abigail Brewer, you give me so much life. I love you for it." I said as I rummaged through the bag and sat at a nearby table to eat.

"It's what friends do." She answered. "Now I'm wondering why you chose the Final exams edition of the cram pack. How long have you been up?"

"God knows how long." I answered.

"I woke him up at around 6:30 this morning." Shining said.

"And the last time I saw him awake was sometime around 2:45 this morning." Twilight added. "So that might not add up to much sleep."

"Yup, that's final exams for you." Alex stated with a light chuckle. "Nondis, what the hell were you doing up so late?"

"Like I said, cramming." I answered while wolfing down the two sandwiches and chasing it down with the orange juice. I finally slowed down when I got around to the double expresso, gradually sipping on it due to the fact that Starbucks usually made their coffee at SCALDING, SECOND-DEGREE BURN-INDUCING TEMPERATURES.

Aside from that only complaint, I was practically raised from the dead.

Meanwhile, Pinkie was giving Rarity a snarky look, who was not at all too thrilled seeing me drink coffee. Rarity glanced back at Pinkie with a bitter look. "Oh, now don't you stare at me like that, Miss Pie!"

With a prideful smile, she turned her head away from the unicorn mare. "Oh no, I didn't say anything."

"You were going to!" She argued with a slightly more aggressive tone.

Pinkie simply smiled and waited a while before she spoke again. "Non-Non looks so happy to get what he wants."

"PINK-A-MENA DI-ANNE PIE, YOU ARE THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE RIGHT NOW!" Rarity shouted as Pinkie looked back to her with a hoof pulling down one eyelid while poking out her tongue.

Alex and the others looked to each other as Rickey was the first to ask. "What's up with those two?"

Everyone else shrugged. After I had finished my meal and coffee, I felt a monstrous surge of energy that could possibly be compared to that of a microwave being plugged directly into a fusion nuclear reactor. I was pumped, primed, and ready to power through the day. After a bit of stretching, I turned back to Rickey. "God, that was so nice. So, what was that thing you wanted to show me?"

"Things, compadre. I got things to show you."

"Yeah, we all did a little shopping around yesterday to see what we could find that would be of use." Melanie added. "Of course, if you're going against these beasts, I'm sure you're gonna need some ammo and weapons."

Apparently, I wasn't going to be fighting these things with an advantage while using swords, at least not the ones I'm using. "Okay, what do you got for me?"

Rickey walked over to the other side of the room, pulling out one black crate with the name 'Fabrique Nationale' engraved upon it. Along the sides were a series of clamp locks that seemed to keep whatever's inside safely secured. After undoing the clamps and opening the lid, what was revealed to me was a rather nice addition to the arsenal.

"Rick... how?"

"Twelve-thousand dollars, that's how." He answered nonchalantly. "This is the M240B G.P. Machine Gun. Uses for it can be for mounting, carry, or something nice to put inside of a glass case at your local gun show. Of course you're not putting this in a display case, so I can expect a few scratches to come up every now and then. Just don't be mean to her, she's rather timid."

She even has a smell. Hard steel and not a trace of gunpowder. Of course the foam that surrounds the weapon is something that definitely adds to the aroma. "Oh damn, Rick. You didn't have to throw yourself in debt over this."

"Did you not remember that my dad owns a gun shop back in Austin? And then on top of it, my uncle has one in Laredo. You'd be surprised what I ran across. Hell, I've ran into all kinds of fireworks you could only dream of shooting off in your average first-person shooter. You would be amazed."

"Okay, well that still leaves you with debt." I responded.

"Only if I didn't have the money you gave me. You landed me like over thirty stacks. Sure this ate over a third of it, but this is the least expensive thing compared to what I bought next, also taking into account the quantity."

"Ammo?" I asked with a head tilt.

Rickey chuckled before he walked over to retrieve yet another black box, this one quite a bit smaller than the other. As he placed the box down, he carefully opened it for me, pulling out a gray block with yellow writing on the tape. "Catch." He said as he tossed one to me. I barely caught it and finally had a chance to read what it said on the wrapper.

"Composite 4 explosive." FUCKING C-4!? "Warning: Store in cool areas. Do not expose to open flame or extreme temperatures. Do not ingest. Do not store near electrical appliances." That goes without saying. Like I'm gonna be stupid enough to shove this shit in a toaster and say 'I like my bricks nice and warm'. By the time I even shove the switch on down, the coils would probably set it off, causing me to be quite beside myself... among other places in the kitchen. It'll probably be the one time I can consider myself as omnipresent. "How the hell did you get this?"

"My dad and uncle are ex military. I thought I told you this shit the first time."

"Our granddad was ex military and he didn't get all of this shit for us to play with." Stanton mocked. "Now I feel like I didn't get enough as a child."

Melanie was the next to walk to another area of the room, pulling out a long cardboard box. As she placed it down, she peeled the seemingly-tampered postal tape away and cracked the top open. Next, she pointed the open end towards me. "Pull this, please."

I took a gaze into the box, seeing that much of the content was a bunch of newspaper and bubble wrap with the exception of something that seemed like a knob. My fingers gently traced out the knob, feeling a series of grooves and elevations in the form. As my hand traveled further within, it was soon realized that I was grasping at a handle. Getting a firm grip, I pulled back, hearing a soft metallic scrape lasting a while as the item was slowly revealed.

Much of the room was filled with gasps of wonder and amazement as I pulled out a Scottish Claymore. The length terrified me as I glanced at the enormous blade. As I held it, I could already feel that the weight would be enough to do damage to a creature such as an arimaspi. Slowly, I turned the sword point-down to the floor as I measured the weapon in comparison to my body. From blade to pommel, it stood all the way up to the mid portion of my chest. The handle was especially long enough to accommodate both of my hands and a third. The blade seemed to be as wide as three inches towards the base while the blade itself was sharpened only up to about a hand's length away from the hilt.

Melanie then pulled out the sheath and belt from out of the box as she spoke. "It's not the one that goes 'boom', but it should still do quite a bit."

I could only shake my head as I laughed at the absurdity of the blade in my hand. "Mel... This thing, it scares the hell out of me."

"Well it should. This is the nice pointy thing I threatened to poke you with." She said with a innocent smile.

"Please don't. This thing will run through me like a heated steak knife through room-temp butter."

Shining walked up to the sword and looked up and down it's length. "Is she trying to throw you a hint? Is she calmly saying you need to be compensating for a shortcoming of yours?"

"Oh no, he's fine on his own." Twilight mumbled to Cadance, earning a blush and a light hit from her sister-in-law.

Luckily for me, Shining didn't hear his sister's background commentary as well as I did... or maybe he's trying his best to ignore it. I'm personally hoping for the former. Applejack whistled at the blade as she saw her reflection on it's surface. "Hoo howdy, this thing's bigger than Celestia herself! Y'all sure this thing's fer totin' around?"

"Well it was used for about three hundred years." Melanie explained. "It was a pretty effective weapon against armor and a great blade for executions. Sadly, it saw it's use cut short with the rise of firearms in the eighteenth century."

Shining's magic started to wrap around the hilt as he spoke. "So... you said this could be used for executions. How effective is this thing really?"

I tapped his horn as I slowly slid the blade away from his curious grasp. "Ha ha ha ha... Nah. Not even going there."

"Well we better find out, it's not like you can judge it's effectiveness without applying some practice to theory." Cadance suggested. "Arimaspi are said to be a little thick in the hide, so you gotta have something that can cut into it."

Both Rickey and Alex stated in unison. "It's thick enough."

Melanie then added some perspective. "Well if you want to know a human comparison, then I can tell you of one historical account where there was a swordsman carrying a blade similar to this magnitude. He severed the heads of a few with one single swipe. And it swings so deeply that it cleaves from the shoulder well into the human chest cavity, bypassing several ribs and the sternum itself as it destroys the lungs, heart, and everything else in between."

"Basically not even a decent swing of this and your body is halfway separated from your head." Cliff added.

Cadance quietly got a little giddy as she pushed the matter further. "Well, can we get an arimaspi comparison? Humans are fine, but what can it do to one of them? If you're going to be toting this thing to the forest, you need to know if it's effective or not."

Stanton was quick to call her out on her activity. "You're just dying to see what it can do, aren't you?"

The pink alicorn smiled nervously as she hugged on Twilight. "It's for research."

Twilight looked crazily towards the larger alicorn, but complacently went along with Cadance's reasoning. "Well it would be nice to calculate your chances going from an Equestrian longsword to... well... that."

Now that Twilight's involved, there's no way I'm getting out of this without a demonstration. Guess I should get it out the way now before she starts to really push the matter. "Shining, can you bring me Cruella again?"

Shining and Applejack backed away from me, giving me enough room to swing as Shining's magic gave life to the clunky wooden puppet. The puppet charged for me, reaching it's claw out towards me. Without much hesitation, I swung the blade at the hand that tried to grab at me. The blade sunk into the wood for a length of five inches, causing me to stress a bit on trying to pull it back out. Shining was left stunned as his magic left the puppet. Somewhere in his mind, he had already simulated the realistic results of this demonstration. "...That thing's arm, it's either cut so deep that it's useless or it's just gone."

As I planted my foot into the arm, I slowly wiggled the blade free of the wood. "Yeah, and blood makes for a good lubricant when you wanna get things dislodged from bone and whatnot."

All the ponies in the room grew slightly paler at the image before them. Though there was no blood or proper material representing flesh and bone, it didn't take much imagining to piece together what Shining was thinking all along. However, I was thinking about how much I struggled to get things going in my simulations last night and compared it to the devastation this blade caused to the main puppet that caused me grief. I couldn't help but taunt the wooden effigy and cheer myself on.

"Well, I don't think this mission will be any more difficult from this point onward. Questions?"

After another two hours of setting up materials and cautiously prepping the C-4, I was taking inventory of what all I could bring in terms of my ammunition. At first, I was vouching for anything that was already out on the table, but then had a second thought of the supersonic reports the bullets would cause. But then I was conflicted with the possibility of sub-sonic ammunition not reaching deep enough into the body to cause significant damage due to a lower velocity.

Thankfully, Rickey had already thought of it. His opinion was to simply use whatever ammo and weapon that would be tailored to the situation. If it was the middle of the day, go loud. The downside to it would be that the reports would probably bring more attention to me than what I would be initially willing to take. But another side thought of that is the possibility of my dwindling their numbers during the day due to the situation possibly evolving into a hypothetical 'turkey shoot' scenario.

In terms of using subsonic ammo, that would probably be best for use at night. Even though they can see me at night, it doesn't mean that they have to hear too much of me. Being that my visibility will be decreased by then, it would be better that I use night-vision to match their advantage. Furthermore, the use of silencers and thermal sights would further enhance my chance of survival. Guess I'll be relying on my old hunting instincts to carry me through.

Also judging from what I had seen in that dream, it's best to avoid open spaces as often as possible. If I fight them in the safety of the trees, dwindle their numbers there, while limiting their mobility and simultaneously giving myself additional sources for cover, I can quickly and quietly dispatch any arimaspi I encounter. Plus being that I'm much smaller than them would give me another advantage: Swinging first. My swordplay might be limited to thrusting, but their ability to fight will be hindered by trees and branches. That would require them to clear the brush before accessing me, giving me more than enough time to run a few inches of steel into whatever body part is closest.

Now in terms of fighting in the tunnels, I've got the dynamite for closing off caverns and caving in ceilings to the degree of making passageways unusable. Then to top it off, I got C-4 that would be used to close off certain access points. Alex also made a comment on how I can use chalk to mark certain areas where I can go and others that lead into traps, dead ends, nests, et cetera. After that comment, Twilight made a run for the local schoolhouse to obtain some. She came back with around twenty-four different colors, claiming that the different colors could be a code for what's what. I attempted to argue her down to the use of three: Yellow for circling a path I'm traveling at the time, red for stating that a certain area was to be blasted or ignored, green for confirmation that the path was leading into somewhere useful. She insisted that I carry another three just in case I run out of those. Six is better than carrying the full Crayola spectrum.

By the time we came to a confirmation of our tactics, the recruited guard for the deployment started to slowly feed into the castle. Almost all of them had a gloomy look about them. Some with beaded eyes shook as they looked to one another for comfort. Others seemed angered by their assigned position, ultimately leading to their fate. Even as I looked among them, I could see Rainbow Dash staring at her deployment notice with a nervousness that seemed different from what I was used to seeing from her. While she glanced up to me, she grew angrier and turned her face away from me. Even her mane flicked a nearby pegasus pony harshly on the muzzle as he passed.

Shining walked beside me and tapped my leg as he whispered. "They look so despondent. It's like they're expecting to die."

"They don't know what they're facing. Hell, I'd be the same way if it wasn't for the fact that I prepped." I answered as I looked to a guard sitting on the wall, wiping his eyes as he looked at a photo.

"They didn't get a chance to, not yet anyways. If they went in as they are now, there's no doubt there would be casualties."

"That's not gonna happen."

"But can you tell them that? Maybe they'd be willing to listen to what you have to say. Probably sitting there on the ground hoping that something would change for them. But can you blame them if they believe that things don't work that way?"

I shifted my focus to another guard, a mare with a small golden locket in her hoof. After a light kiss, she dropped the locket down beneath her chest plate, using her mane to hide the golden chain around her neck. "I know I wouldn't believe me if I said it. But sometimes you have to say some things to sell the fact that we're going into danger. I know it seems cruel, but even we have to lie to ourselves to be able to make it convincing to others. You have to have faith in what you're selling."

"Even if it all goes wrong?"

"Even then. We lie in the faces of dying guards and citizens every time they take one more breath. If it eases them, then it's fine for them to accept what is to come."

"Even if it's terrifying?"

"You know, sometimes it's good to be terrified. It only amplifies the instinctual desire to live all the more. And in this case, we're going to take advantage of that terror. If they believe that they're going against the most devastating creature known to them, then it is my job to supplant that image with myself. Disobeying me would mean certain death, only because I will be the one thing that can protect every single one of their lives. If they obey me, they live. Simple as that."

"That's Chrysalis' line of thinking, isn't it?"

"She's poked around my head long enough for me to understand that fear is meant to be taken advantage of. I want to take advantage of that instinctual fear long enough for me to get them back home safely. It's dirty work, but I'll be damned if I have to write another letter to their family telling them how remorseful I am. My hand cramps after so many signatures."

Shining looked back towards Rainbow Dash. "So, do you think now that you have an element bearer in your company, that desire to get them home safely is amplified? Senator Count practically placed the fate of this nation in your hands. She dies, everything we are ends with her. She's just that paramount."

"Are you saying her life is more valuable than the rest of theirs?" I asked quietly.

"Unfortunately." Shining answered with brutal honesty. "You can't replace her."

"I won't have to." I answered before I walked off.

Shining proceeded to follow me for a short while. "So what about the dissenters? Will you make your case against them?"

"Fear and security drives the herd. Independent thinking breeds mischief, mischief breeds trouble, trouble breeds consequence. Is that not what you taught me in basic training?"

Shining stopped following as I descended the stairs.

"GUARDS, ATTENTION! CAPTAIN IS PRESENT!" One of the guards called out as I walked towards them. By the time I reached ground level, each of the guards scattered to their positions on either side of the hall. Quite a few broke their attention stance by watching me as I approached them. The ones who did quickly shifted their eyes back to whatever was in front of them. One of which I approached seemed a bit off in comparison to the others. Of course, 'a bit' was a total exaggeration. The helmet on his head was bigger than his actual head. So his eye holes didn't quite line up, nor did his ears, or his snout. His nose was practically carrying the damn thing on it's own. He was already a small-bodied guard, he didn't need anything that would've made it stand out even more.

"Isn't that helmet a little too big for you?" I questioned him.

"No sir. It's just the right size, sir."

Upon further inspection, I noticed that the metal was far more tarnished than any of the other helmets being worn. It was also scratched up to a significant degree, had a few notches in it, a couple of dings, and even a small crack at the side. It wasn't a compromising fissure, but it was noticeable up close. "What's your name and rank?"

"Humbreeze Highwind, sir. Private level two, Charlie company, 103rd Battalion."

I gave a quick nod as I thumped his helmet. "If I told you to find yourself another helmet in the armory and have it by sometime tomorrow, would you be able to do that?"

"Yes sir." He answered.

"Good, cause that's your order for the evening. Now drop and give me fifty wing-ups for that helmet."

He visibly cringed with dismay as he complied with my order. "Yes sir."

While he started counting off his wing-ups, the door opened to reveal an unwanted face, being accompanied by a unicorn stallion with a notepad and quill. The obnoxious stallion looked to the thirty guards and nodded. "Hmm... not bad. Not a bad company at all... Of course an element bearer elevates your status to that point."

I fucking hate this guy. "What do you want, Count?"

"Well I was here to see what the captain was up to. I just brought over an associate of mine to ask you a few questions in regards to your assignment. Also he wishes to have permission to ask some of the recruits about their feelings on the matter. You know, a sentimental piece on all the brave guards who selflessly throw themselves into harm's way. I mean let's be honest, the guards hardly get any good recognition nowadays."

Gee, I wonder why. "Denied. Mission details are classified."

"Well, that's the thing. Mission details are to be recorded at all times because of a certain somepony who's currently in your ranks. Might I also remind you that she is a hero of Equestria, along with all of her friends who saved this nation countless times from threats paramount?" He responded with a sniveling grin.

You know, there's a claymore upstairs. You can test it out here and cleave that bastard's smile in two. Won't that make you happy?

Must... resist... urge to kill... rising... "Count... Door, use it."

The senator chuckled as he refused to leave. "What's wrong captain, do you not want to tell them of their extremely slim chances of getting out of this assignment alive? Do you suppose the pressure to ensure their safety is too much for you to bear? Or is it that you want to rile them up before they take the plunge into the abyss, feeding them lies upon lies before you send them to their untimely demise? I figured that what you say to them should be quoted for the ages, something passionate, something thrilling, something cinematic! The more flamboyant, the more memorable it is, you know."

The guards around us started to grow even paler as they heard the senator dwell on their chances of survival. Unfortunately, it wasn't helping the morale much as opposed to their desire to abandon all hope and kill themselves right off the bat. "Do you honestly think their chances are so minuscule?"

"Well if you consider the results of the last attempt, it rings in about ten percent. That means one out of every ten of you will live. Of course that's counting before the other two killed themselves and also the other one before he became a criminal. So I'd say your chances are one-of-forty to come out of it virtually unscathed. But I'm not even taking into account the mental toll it takes out on─"

I grabbed the senator by his chin, leaned down to him and whispered. "I think our chances are good. So if you don't mind, can you take your puffy little cheeks out of here before I squeeze?" I asked as my fingers slowly started to dig into his cheeks.

He smiled innocently as he spoke. "Now captain, you know better than to assault a senator, especially in front of your subordinates. Think of the example you're setting."

"Yeah, just make sure you get your forked ear fixed, jackass." I answered with a flick to his injured ear.

"Might I also remind you that we are in front of the press?" He whispered back.

I took a deep breath and then looked at their faces, torn with grief and fear. Meanwhile, I had found a new means of shifting their morale to a higher plane. "You see this guys? This is the asshole who sent ALL OF US into danger. You hear that condescending tone he has whenever he refers to us as a unit doomed to failure? This is what he's paying the book for. This is who's in your parliament. This guy here, he doesn't care about you not one bit. He's so focused on getting you killed that he's not even looking at the consequence of his actions. He's looking at the result, he wants it all to crumble around him. He wants all of us to die. Are you going to accept that?"

Not very many of them said anything, not so much of a whimper.

"Maybe I worded it wrong. It could be a chance that you're not responding due to the lack of detail I'm putting in. This individual is sending us away from our family, our friends, our loved ones, our lives, into the uncertain. Everything we are and everything we've done would be nothing more than a footnote in the pages of history. 'They tried again, and they failed' it will say. The books will quote: 'They left this world to die in a desolate place, by the works of foul beasts and grave wounds. The blood that marks the stones will be caked and dried, only to become dirt and dust by the end. Only the stones will recall our presence, our warmth, our light. The wind will whisper our voices for all eternity. They fought for honor, and they perished with it.' Perhaps that is what you want to hear?"

Again, they were silent. Count looked at me with a raised brow and a smirk.

"Or perhaps you wish for something passionate, deep, thought provoking. Unfortunately, I've no words of my own... so let me start here."

Count turned to the reporter, who was scribbling away at his notepad. "This should be good."

"Do not go gentle into that good night. Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right. Because their words had forked no lightning they do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay. Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

Count seemed amused by the words I borrowed. The others continued to frown with dismay as they took in those words. Fortunately for them, I wasn't finished.

"That is what I would leave you with... if our day were to come. But the dying light has long since came and went. Those who have gone before us, those who have sent their own spears into the mark, those are the ones who raged against the dying of their light! Star Trail, Feather Flight, Hard Case, Silver Heart, Songbell to name a few. Though their images have been remembered as unsightly, that was the cost of their sacrifice. They didn't die to become the personification of our inferiority, but rather the representation of camaraderie; Where many have failed, few shall live and tell of how their sacrifice became the reason for their still standing."

I then turned back to Shining Armor and continued speaking.

"And those few that remain, they tell their stories and teach us how to overcome our past mistakes, ancient sins, insurmountable odds to which lead us to a path much different from that of our predecessors. It is also their sacrifice in which we learn to remove ourselves from the precipice of failure. Failure is not marching into death or going headfirst into danger, it is the inability to move forward. Progress is the earmark of our evolution, the foundation of who and what we are now. Revolution is the upending of an order or construct built to suppress us and replacing it with a new method. And at times, our revolution comes in the darkest of the night. It comes with warning, but it comes overwhelmingly. And by the time the light of dawn spills upon the lands we walk, a field once silent for the fallen shall cry out with the sounds of a new generation beckoning for change."

Shining looked away from me and turned his head to the ceiling above, closing his eyes. Count grew nervous as my speech went on. The reported continued to scribble onto his notepad with a fiery passion for keeping up.

"So no, we do not rage against the dying of the light. We rage against the rising of the sun, the dawn of a new day. We rage against the expectation of things to remain the same, whereas our methods and bodies are different. If you are afraid, be just that. Be afraid enough to fight for the one standing next to you. They are the ones who are just as afraid as you are, and your lives will be in their hooves. Our being afraid is a sign that we are not only alive, but have a will to live. We have a desire to make it through our day, through our night, through sun, rain, wind, hail, sleet, snow, moved earth, fire, and brimstone. We persist because we are afraid, and we evolve through our fear into becoming that which is feared!"

What was once a look of dismay upon the faces of the guards had gradually changed. Each of their chests poked out a little further than the did earlier. The sweat that once formed on their brows were dried, their eyes now filled with determination. Count saw this and bit his lip with frustration as his facial muscles twitched.

"So with that all being said, I urge you to fear me. I ask you to do so because I am the one who will protect each and every one of you. If you follow me, do exactly as I say, each and every one of you will come back home without so much as a broken bone in your body. You will be sound in mind, healthy in body, and a little richer in your sacks. Let's be real, we're digging gold out of a hornet's nest, might as well get paid."

The guards all chuckled a bit with the exception to Rainbow Dash, just rolled her eyes.

"Today, we rewrite the story. This time, we're going in and coming out as a unit. And if you see an arimaspi, I promise you it will be a dead one. If it lives, it won't for long. We're all coming home in a week or so. Work with me, and that week will be short. All you gotta do is let me pave the road for you, and you can run that bitch as much as you like. We're coming back and we're coming back rich! All of us will, no matter what this stallion tries to put into your head." I said as I pointed to an indignant Count. "Fuck what he says, he doesn't have what we have. But we'll have what he's been getting."

By then, I turned my attention to the senator, who appeared to have a completely soured expression.

"You politicians believe you can dictate the course of history by money and wealth alone. But all it takes is the will of a single man and his sword." I looked back to Shining, who was still facing the other way from everyone. Twilight walked past him, levitating the claymore that was given to me. She offered me the hilt, to which I used to draw the massive blade before all of them. The journalist who scribbled away at the notepad had become frustrated as he ran out of pages. But upon looking back up, he jumped back in response to the blade I held in my hands.

"So did you get all of that down?" Twilight asked the shocked reporter.

"Not quite." He said as his eyes were still locked on the blade.

Twilight then summoned up another notepad for him to use and a fresh quill. Afterwards, she walked past me with a prideful smirk and whispered to me with a giggle. "Amateurs."

Count was stone-faced as the massive blade was then planted into the ground, standing up to about the middle of my chest. His face seemed relaxed while his eyes were larger than usual. The guards inevitably broke their silence with whispers towards one another and shared their thoughts on the sword. I turned back to them with a smile.

"Now..." I said as I gently rested the blunt of the blade onto my shoulder "If there are no further questions... COMPANY, FALL OUT!"

The guards dispersed back into groupings, conversing with one another on their thoughts of the mission. Meanwhile, Twilight walked up to her brother and saw that he still had his eyes closed, his head turned to the ceiling. She whispered to him. "Shining, you okay?"

"I'm okay, Twily." He answered softly.

She noticed that he was clenching his eyes shut the entire time, coming to one conclusion. "Are you crying?"

"Nah. Just... absorbing." He whispered lightly.

Twilight grabbed her brother's left hoof and turned him towards her. She wrapped her hooves around him, causing him to clutch onto her tightly. The strength of her brothers embrace caused her to briefly seize up, but she quickly returned the affection, knowing how he was feeling at that moment. "...Does it still hurt?"

"It never stopped, kiddo." He answered with a broken tone.

Their display went largely unnoticed as the guards continued to fraternize around the hall. Some were making comments about the senator's face while I was speaking, others were making wise cracks at the size of my sword. But in all, they seemed more at ease than they were when they initially came in. The only one that didn't seem too changed about my speech was Rainbow Dash, which I found a bit worrisome. I walked over to her and spoke. "So, how was it?"

She glanced back over to me. "It was... good, I suppose."

Honestly, I know that she's upset at the fact that she's being assigned to me for this assignment, but I didn't want her to be angry over it. I chose to confront her over the situation. "Then what's wrong? Is it something about me? Does my breath stink?"

She turned away altogether as she answered me. "You're doing things your way again, aren't you?"

I shrugged my shoulders with indifference. "What's wrong with that?"

She scoffed in response. "You do this shit all the time. You just go in without saying anything to anypony. 'Let me pave the road for you', that's what you said, right?"

"I'm doing this to keep you all safe. You're all in this position because of me, so I have to take responsibility for it."

She turned back to me with a scowl, her eyes cutting through me when she spoke. "So you're just gonna do it alone again, right? Just run in, do what the hell you wanna do, be the lone wolf howling to the moon on the mountain? Just you and you alone?"

"Rainbow, if you know what I know─"

"You do this shit all the time, and ponies wonder why you always get hurt!" She erupted, grabbing everyone's attention in the hallway. Everyone stopped their conversations and looked at just the two of us. Rainbow breathed heavily for a few seconds before she finally collected herself. "You don't get it! You can't just... You just run in by yourself, and you always get hurt. We just went through this three-to-four days ago. But obviously... you don't get it." She jumped into the air and hovered to where she spoke to me at eye level. "I thought you'd have a little more trust in me as a friend to help you, I guess I was wrong. Turns out you're more like Twilight than I thought. No wonder you two are perfect for each other."

Ouch...

As she hovered off, I was left with a lasting impression. I felt what she had said, and it resonated strongly within me. My exterior was made to show no change after her words, but my heart was hurt in hearing one of my complaints being thrown right back in my face. Unfortunately for the both of us, that bitterness was going to be what I'd be getting from her throughout this week.

Might as well get familiar to the taste.

Author's Note

...So, this was a challenge and a half.

I had so many distractions and interruptions while writing this chapter. Of course I've made a brief post about what had happened sometime in early September, but I guess I can feel more comfortable in elaborating on the symptoms and aftercare. Of course, spoilered for those who don't care.

For almost a week leading into my visit to the hospital, I had troubles sleeping. Not really so much as tossing and turning, but being completely incapable of sleep. For nine days straight, I could not so much as close my eyes and let the hours seemlessly transition to day. I was awake for every minute, every hour, looking at my clock while hoping I could close my eyes finally. But little had I known that my body was actually trying to prevent that from happening. The reason for my being unable to sleep is because my body was trying to tell me that I was VERY DAMN CLOSE to falling into a coma.

Yeah, that bad.

So upon being sent into the emergency ward, I was completely dehydrated, despite my drinking almost a gallon of fluids. And when fluids were being pumped inside of my body, I had started to develop cramps all over my body. My feet, my legs, my arms, my chest, my neck, everywhere. So I was treated to a stay in the hospital for three days before I was cleared to leave. Of course, I'd have nearly $10,000 to pay out of pocket because of health insurance ordeals, but that's another story.

But now, my condition has drastically improved. What used to be my having issues sleeping is now gone. I'm drinking almost 3 liters of water a day, and my body has rewarded me with the ability to have some of my life back again. Of course I'm a little more busy with my life because of that massive medical bill, plus the concurrent doctor visitations that I also have to pay out of pocket, lab bills, cost of medicine and supplies, and even more issues around the home in general. Hooray for debt!

Anyhow, I tried my best in getting this one out with everything that happened. And I know it took me one month longer than usual, but I finally got situated enough to try and regain my groove. Again, I thank each and every one of you, the readers, for sticking with me (and my inconsistencies thus far). I will try to do what I can to keep writing, because as some of you know, this is my secondary creative outlet. And I'm more than happy to write for you guys.

Again, you all make my day. Thank you for well-wishers and I truly appreciate each and every one of you. If I could hug you all, I would. But since I can't, here have a pony.

I hope that you will stick with me for the next chapter. Commentary's always welcome, even negative. I'm just happy to be alive and still writing.

Chapter LXII

Politics, in the eyes of many average citizens who are looking in from the outside, is often seen as a some sort of melodrama, a television or web series or consisting of slow facial zooms, camera pans, fourth wall breaks, and funny one-liners. Yeah, all of this seems like what you would be accustomed to seeing when you think of mainstream politics. Or if you're more of a cable whore, you'd see people getting their heads lopped off, their families slain before their eyes, their friends getting shot, or their adversaries getting molten gold poured over their heads as families fight to claim sole proprietorship of the much-heralded iron throne. Perhaps all of that strikes a nice-sounding chord with you.

However, not every mind is tuned to understand the majority of the political world. Understandably so, most of it is quite boring. Not everyone has the patience to turn their TV to CSPAN and watch a slightly grainy feed of several old, monotoned people sitting in a room arguing over what bathroom we can use and where we can send our illegal immigrants. They would much rather find out who we're sending our soldiers to or launching our missiles at, because VIOLENCE. We love the shit out of some violence, but we can't really stand bullshit that pertains to our everyday lives. After so many minutes, you'd go to sleep waiting for them to get to your topic of interest. They much rather find out from some 'reputable', by that I mean paid off $o much you $tart to $ee dollar $ign$ in every $entence, third-party source who can simplify the words and jargon used in many of the halls consisting of our legislative branch of power.

Thanks, Obama.

We often blame everything wrong on the one in charge of the executive branch, because they EXECUTE things. See that word, EXECUTE? It means to carry out or to initiate a set of orders, plans, or a course of action. Of course everyone is more drawn to the second definition; to carry out the death sentence of a condemned person, group of people, peoples, or a nation. Without this branch, things can't really get done. You can't just have a kingdom with no king and expect shit to carry on like normal, there's an hierarchy that needs to be established. Hell even with a king, president, führer, emperor, shogun, czar, or a prime minister, there's drama abound in the rankings. Revolutions have not come with peace, but rather with purge, violence, or an abuse of power. You see these things when you read between the lines of their rhetoric and become informed of how to stand for or against it.

But everyone's too busy letting others translate things for them, placing blame on certain elements of the opposition when it is a lack of cooperation that leads to dysfunction. And for a thousand years, this dysfunction has punished an assortment of individuals of all ranks, now including myself. But I have to wonder...

Nah. I just need to keep my mind off of random shit.

~Day 0~

Around three hours have passed since I've said my speech. Walking back and forth through the lobby, I took an observation of the murmurings of the guards placed under me. Their tones seemed brighter, yet highlighting some of the concerns they have of this assignment. But it went without saying that they understood the context to which my speech was made. They even seemed relieved in knowing what I was going to do, except for one discerned individual that I called my friend.

Rainbow Dash, shortly after chewing me out yet again, took her briefing files and dismissed herself. Unfortunately, I had too much of a soft spot for her to treat her like the others. She was the one who guided me through the first few weeks of basic training and giving me words of encouragement. Of course, that love is long gone. And in it's place was an angry mare who didn't like what I was doing to keep others out of danger. I understand that she may have a personal reason for why this is so, but I don't quite understand what it is. Perhaps I would be filled in later.

That is if she can open up to me before the old grit-and-grind.

Shining took leave also, deciding not to taint the atmosphere with his experiences and stories. The both of us knew that if they started babbling on about how this assignment would be now that I'm leading, he'd probably share a bit of his experience, lowering the morale by a substantial amount. Senator Count was more than eager to see that happen. Yet as the time continued to roll on, he grew disinterested in seeing the other guards so optimistic. He, too, took a leave of absence. The reporter also followed him, and didn't give any concern for the mood of the guards or their thoughts.

Twilight seemed a bit worried that Rainbow Dash yelled at me, but she seemed very understanding of her. So of course, her words were directed towards me. "You know, there was an instance where one of the girls tried to do too much and spread herself thin. Eventually, she ended up being so tired that she started performing badly in all of her tasks."

Hard working to a fault? Applejack. "Okay, and?"

Twilight grabbed my wrist with her magic and proceeded to escort me up the stairs as she spoke. "What I'm trying to say is that we've seen what happens when somepony tries to do too much. I understand what you're doing, but I also understand why Rainbow Dash feels the way she does."

"That being?" I asked.

"I won't tell you. You'll have to get it from her. If you talk things through, you might find that it becomes a little easier for you to understand how she feels about this. And I know that you won't change your mind."

"How are you so sure?" I jokingly asked.

"Because you're stubborn." She answered flatly.

By that point, Rarity came trotting out of one of the other halls and saw Twilight pulling me along. Without hesitation, she marched towards us and looked to her friend. "My goodness, Twilight! Whatever did he do to deserve such belligerence?"

Twilight glanced back at me as she answered her question. "He knows what he did."

Rarity gave Twilight's horn a light tap before she used her own magic to politely return my hand back to me. "If it is something deplorable, then a good scolding should be more than enough. Don't resort to bringing harm to him. His wrists are very precious and I don't think it would be wise to tug and pull on it in such a way to cause accidental spraining."

"Rarity, he's fine." Twilight responded nonchalantly. "I know what I'm doing, and I'm obviously not harming him."

The unicorn mare rolled her eyes and turned her attention to me. "Now Nondis, what are you doing later this evening?"

I was going to answer her, but Twilight found it appropriate to speak up for me. "HE will be getting ready for his assignment tomorrow. That means he'll be sleeping in EARLY, so that he can get on that train ENERGIZED and READY to take on his assignment."

"And what do you intend to feed him for dinner?" Rarity questioned. "I don't recall you doing much in the way of running a kitchen."

Twilight then grabbed my hand with her hooves as she stared back at her friend. "We are eating delivery tonight. Meaning that my shortcomings in the kitchen are well-documented, doesn't mean that I will allow for OUR dinnertime to be impeded by an outside element."

Rarity was about to throw a few words Twilight's way, but then a third voice broke between the two. "A dinner party with Nonny! That sounds like a load of lively laughter and loving bonds."

The three of us turned to the side to see a pink head peering from behind one of the pillars. For some odd reason, I couldn't help but sigh with relief. The pink party pony pounced towards us and paused her advance as she pranced in place.

"It might not be a total bonanza... because of time constraints, but I know that throwing something together in honor of our best friend is the best thing ever! Maybe we should have it together, OH, and with Non-Non's human friends too!"

The last supper, huh? Well Jesus, guess they're expecting me to visit you soon enough... if you exist.

Twilight seemed a tad flustered at Pinkie's suggestion. "Seriously? Pinkie, what I meant to say was─"

"It'll also be a great way to make up for some of the lost time back on Friday night. Everypony's already waiting in the other room for you guys. C'mon, let's get moving!" She cheered to the two mares.

Rarity shrugged her shoulders and became complacent at the offer. "Well I suppose a small little soirée would be more than appropriate for this occasion. I can agree to that."

Twilight, begrudgingly, trotted on ahead. "In that case, I guess I can sacrifice one of our evenings to share it with our friends. I'm sure it'll be fun anyhow."

Suddenly, the tension that seemed to clog the hallway had all but completely dissipated. With a light breath, I could finally relax a little and move forward. But as I took one step forward, Pinkie's tail jettisoned it's way into my path, becoming something akin to a wall of cotton with the stopping power of brick. I looked down to her and asked. "Okay, just what the hell is your tail made of?"

She turned her head to me, no longer looking towards the two mares who walked the hall without even looking to each other. "You may not know what you're doing, and that's fine for the time being. You got bigger things to worry about right now. But you really gotta sort this out Nonzie."

I gave her a long sigh. "Yeah, well it's a lot harder than it looks."

"I know." She responded. "I just wish I could've warned you sooner."

"Warn me about what?"

Pinkie shook her head with pity. "That the two of you would separate before this was all over."

...Okay. I tried to downplay her statement. "Well, I don't think we're quite to that spot just yet."

"Non... Even Shining knows the two of you are breaking up." Those words caused me to jump with surprise as she continued on. "But I knew that Twilight wasn't one to let go easily. She's caught in between trying to keep you to herself and not be that close to you. It's a funny thing, you want them to back off but you don't want them to leave you. You're ready to take independence for yourself, yet you have fears of being forgotten once someone better comes around."

Something inside of my chest sank as her words phased into my thoughts. I understood everything she was telling me. "Pinkie─"

"You are who you are, Nondis. But being too complacent in your situation won't help. I understand that you two can't pull off of each other in the public sense, but I think you two need to come to a definite answer before it's all over and done."

Honestly, hearing all of this coming from Pinkie was slightly harrowing. "What if I say something that ends up hurting them?"

She looked at me with a sad grin. "Then let them be hurt. You didn't have any issue when you did it to me. I'm still hurting now, knowing that I was never your choice. And it's so bad to where I'm hoping you see that I'm still willing to let you in if things go wrong. But I love you enough to not become a distraction. And I'll be happy dying that way."

Oof...

What the hell was that!?

Sorry, I tripped.

Okay, I think my heart just skipped several measures in the sheet music. "Pinkie, don't say stuff like that."

"Nope. As my friend, you're gonna have to deal with it." She said as she swept her tail out of my path. "Hopefully you love me enough to come back after this and complain some more. Now let's get in there and get some grub."

While I walked, she pranced beside me cheerfully. On her face was a bright smile as she hummed carelessly. But there was one thing that I noticed as we made our way. Her smile slowly faded as we got closer to the dining hall, her bouncing fell to a light bounce, eventually to where she was walking. When we finally reached the door, she grabbed my hand and smiled. "I look forward to walking with you again. I wanna throw a huge party for you when you get back. I wanna be able to hug you, me and all the others. Before we go in this room, you promise me that we'll be able to do that."

It was her way of saying 'come back alive'. Though I was going into some really questionable territory, I had confidence in knowing that not all of it was truly undiscovered. But once I went into that mountain, I was going to be marching with my back turned towards the firing squad. No telling that I might just come out of it in one piece, but I don't like the thought of dying.

...At least I don't glorify it like I did in middle and high school.

Still, I didn't want to just simply say that I was uncertain. Even if I know that death is a strong seventy percent chance of occurring, I'm not gonna let her see that in me. I won't let anyone see me like that. When we leave this world, we leave on our own. But not everyone has to see your conflicts, put on a front and fight. Swallow up, stand up, chin up, man up. I'll try my best to not be a liar. "I promise." Even if that was a lie, I would be happy in having the image of everyone smiling burned into the back of my mind. I'll carry that sin to my grave, and will accept whatever judgement awaits. Pinkie didn't seem to mind it, so neither will I. A soft whisper was all I got from her as she opened for the both of us.

"Thank you."

The dinner was pretty lively, everyone conversed with one another openly. It wasn't so much of the dagger-throwing that happened back in the hall, but some playful banter was exchanged. Meanwhile, there was a bit of sadness in the air due to Rainbow Dash deciding not to attend. Fluttershy offered to retrieve her, but she returned alone. Cadance was discussing a few things with me and how I was going to be celebrated once I had returned successful. And she even offered me a prominent position in the Imperial Crystal Guard if it didn't go so well. Alex gave me some advice on decision making in critical situations while Stanton had me run through some old hunting/survival tips we knew from when gramps took us out to the wild for deer.

Melanie didn't say much except that she was proud of how strong I had become and would look forward to having us throw a party at the frat house when I came back. Rickey gave me a few tips and pointers on the C-4 while Cliff had given me some words of encouragement. After the dinner, I left the hall and arrived back into the guest room I once stayed in. But before I could get settled, Twilight dragged me out and had me sleep in her bed... our bed being that she appropriated my mattress. I stared at the clock as the lights eventually went out.

In the darkness of the room, I couldn't help but to let my mind wander. Several life questions were raised, and among them were concerns over past events and future circumstances. Not once have I even told my parents about this place, of course for a good reason, but it would be better in terms of trust that I did. Maybe when I gut up the courage to do so, I'll somehow drag them here. And probably Vanessa too since Alex's been regularly visiting.

Yet even more thoughts came up about what Pinkie had said to me about my situation. At this point, I really was confused on what I wanted. And it wasn't helping that Pinkie is trying her damn hardest to make herself seem desirable. But when she said that she'd die loving me enough to not become a distraction, it ended up contradicting her intentions. Because of her words, I'm finding some trouble sleeping.

"Hey, Nondis."

Well, I guess I'm not the only one who has trouble sleeping. "Yeah?"

Twilight rolled over to face me as she used her magic to move some of the covers off of her. "Can you... forget what I said to you last night?"

"...About the running away thing?"

She paused for a moment before answering me. "I should've never offered that. It was out of desperation, not out of logic."

I shrugged as I acknowledged her request. "What are we talking about again?"

She didn't quite catch my humor, shoving me in the back. "I'm serious!"

"Twilight, you're too serious. My response was meant to be a way of acknowledging your request without making a reference to the aforementioned topic."

She groaned lightly. "I see..." For a while, she just stared at me silently. Next, she stretched out her hooves to my shoulders. "...Are you unsatisfied with me?"

"Twilight─"

"I need to know." She said abruptly. "I know that I have issues cooking, and that's my fault because I was so used to Spike doing all of that while I studied and stuff. So I got used to not really being in the kitchen. Is that what you don't like about me?"

"At least I can trust your cooking. If Spike cooked for me now, I'd be suspicious." I answered, causing her to turn away. It seemed that she wasn't very fond of my comment.

"...I'm sorry for what he tried to do to you. If I had known that it was him, I would've did something."

"His choice, not yours." By that point, I was already tired of talking about the little bastard. Then again, it was kinda my fault because of my stoking the topic. "I'm pretty sleepy."

Her lengthy silence indicated that she realized my desire for a change of subject. "Right... So... Are you and Rarity... you know?"

"What?" I asked.

"...Seeing each other?"

"I haven't had the time to address that. So no."

Her voice seemed a little lighter when she heard my answer. "Well, I guess that does takes some time to sort through."

"What about you?" I threw back at her. "You tired of my being in your castle yet?"

She turned over to look at me again. "You're always welcome to stay."

"But that's not answering my question. Are you tired of me?"

She groaned with thought for a moment. "I don't know. I know that when I say certain things about you or when you say certain things about me, they don't seem to carry so much weight like it once did."

"Do you think that's an indication of our feelings towards one another?"

"I don't want it to be."

"Do you still want to break up with me?"

This time, she wasn't so quick to answer me. "I don't think it's fair for me to have you suffer because of what feels natural. So I don't want you to deal with any more pain."

"You just dodged my question. Do you want to or not?"

She drew a heavy breath as she gave her response. "Do you want me to be honest?"

I rolled over and tried to look at her face to face. "I can't tell the difference between you putting up a front or being honest. So I need to hear it from your lips."

She then rolled me onto my back and climbed on top of me. Shifting the covers off of my body, she nuzzled my chest while using one of her wings to draw the outlines of my body. "I want you to suffer."

That answer definitely warranted a lot of concern from me. "So are you being serious or are you just playing around like usual?"

"I want you to keep guessing."

I was not up in a fit of raucous laughter over her joke. "I am not amused."

"Well don't you think you already know the answer to a question like that?"

"So you are breaking up with me, for good, right?" I asked, being firm.

She lightly smiled, as if realizing that her 'joke' had gone awry. "Nondis... Really, you don't have to be like this."

"I do apparently." I said as I tried to sit up. "I'm tired of games. I'm tired of you taking advice from the "love guru" who probably tried to have her now-husband under so many fucking restrictions that he upped and fucking lost his mind over it. Shit like that is the number one reason why he's so fucked in the head."

While I had immediately realized that I had just quietly exploded and revealed some sensitive information, Twilight looked at me oddly. "What are you talking about? My brother is messed up because of what he had to go through, not because of Cadance!"

Before I decided to spill more personal information, I cut myself and the topic short. "You're right. Not everyday you get to see your subordinates palmed under and turned into a pink and red paste. I forgot, I'm sorry."

Twilight grew incredibly quiet for a time. Much of the time, she stayed on my chest just staring blankly at me. The look on her face showed that she had a lot to say, but she refused to let herself release any of them. Eventually, she found the activity of her limbs and removed herself from me when she spoke. "Forget it. Maybe we're just bad for each other right now."

"Of course we're bad for each other right now. I'm going on a mission that's life-or-death, and here you are teasing me while saying that you want me to keep guessing whether or not our relationship is on or off. I'm putting my neck on the chopping block and here you are shoving a broom up my ass. Do you think that's fair or funny? Relationships aren't a game, Twilight. They aren't something so easily brushed aside."

"I could say the same to you! You wanted a break from me, even when you KNEW that I was going through a hard time!"

"You were being completely irrational!"

"And I said I was sorry! Was that not enough?"

Again, I didn't feel like dwelling on a subject. It was long past my time for rest. I pressured her for an answer one last time. "...Are we finalized?"

Twilight groaned with frustration. "Stop asking me that, you already know the answer."

Since she likes me to keep guessing, I suppose the only way to make her see the failure of her logic is to apply it. "Okay then. Nice to know that my ex-girlfriend has put the finishing touches on our relationship. Guess me dying isn't too much of an issue for you now?"

Twilight jumped out of the bed and walked towards my side, staring me down. "Now don't you dare think I would be so callous to think of any harm coming your way wouldn't affect me! I love you too much for that to happen!"

*knock knock knock*

The two of us stopped arguing for a moment and noticed that we were being frequented. Twilight teleported to the door and opened it up to see Cadance standing in the way. She looked towards her younger sister-in-law with concern. "Twilight, I heard you two arguing down the hall. What's going on?"

The purple princess gave her a slow reply. "I...Nondis and I... It's like..."

Cadance, usually championing her fellow royal, walked in the room to confront me. "What is the issue?"

I got out of the bed and stood to answer her. "What's my issue? I'm tired of these psych-1 student mind games. And Twilight is sitting here trying to advertise the fact that we're going to break up, so now I decided to push her to make the decision about it BEFORE I go out here and maybe get myself killed."

Twilight then rebutted. "So is it wrong for me to have you as mine until this is all done?"

"Not if you're going to be dangling our relationship in my face. I'd much rather know if this is all for naught than to go out here and die for something that was probably on the way out anyhow!"

Cadance then used her magic to levitate Twilight out of the room. "Okay, then you can leave that thought to yourself. Twilight and I will be together while you mope and brood over what was already explained to you."

"Thank you. Goodnight." I snapped back at her, just wanting the late-night circus to end.

The pink princess quickly left the room, slamming the doors shut. I shook my head and started to get myself settled. But then murmurs from beyond the door started to draw my curiosity as both of the princesses' voices were suddenly raised.

"What did you say to him?"

"I just told him how I felt! I didn't say anything demeaning or anything like that!"

On that note, I stuffed the pillow over my head and drove myself to try and sleep. It was obvious that I was getting more upset over this more than I should at the moment. I understand that I'm frustrated and that I'm looking for definite answers to all of my questions right now. But shouldn't I have a right to know?

I want you to suffer... You know, if I die, those words will probably be the last thing I remember.

~Day 1~

I woke up to what appeared to be an overcast of clouds and fog. Not much in terms of sunlight mainly due to the fact that it was so early that it hadn't cut beyond the horizon. Yet the sky was a dark blue, indicating that Celestia would probably raise it within an hour. The clock read 4:45, just fifteen minutes before my alarm clock went off. I got up anyways and preemptively disabled the alarm and unplugged my phone from the wall. I also flipped the switch on the golden alarm clock to prevent the bells from going off. Following that, I hopped in the shower, got a quick shave, grab a pastry from the fridge and went towards the portal room to stock up on inventory.

I had already decided on what I would be taking. The sword was an automatic choice, being that I needed something in case my ammo ran low. Next I grabbed an M16 with the mounted grenade launcher, suppressor, and twelve magazines of subsonic ammo. I also grabbed a Smith and Wesson 629 with .44 Magnum rounds, a Remington 870SP with a bandolier carrying fifty slug rounds, my new M240 with five-hundred tracer rounds, an armored vest, a bowie knife, a duffel bag full of C-4 and medical supplies, twenty roadside flares, night-vision goggles, an iron skillet I borrowed from the kitchen, a map, a compass, two crates of dynamite, a cigarette lighter, a chocolate eclair, and a week-old issue of H-FASHION! magazine.

I don't think I packed enough. I'm still missing something.

TAC15 and a few bolts for espionage?

That's exactly it.

By the time I had finished gathering all the materials, I couldn't do much but breathe after seeing the small hill of shit I'd be packing to the train station. I wasn't going to be able to do this alone. I suppose I could grab a unicorn guard or two and have them tote some of this stuff with me. The more guards, the less time it takes to get this stuff sent out. Looking at my phone, I could see that the time had changed to 5:18 a.m.. I was actually ahead of schedule, considering that our departure time was set to be at 0630 hours.

You should go talk to Twilight before you go.

No thanks. Miss 'I wanna keep you guessing' is already playing games with Cadance. And I'm not up for it right now. Whatever she wants to do, it's obviously trying to keep me in the frog of her hoof. Not playing that game again.

Maybe she just as indecisive as you are.

Where are the guards located?

...Ignorance is an unfortunate trait of yours.

I walked into the hall and saw two guards coming off of their shift change. They obviously seemed a bit tired, but I couldn't let them clock out just yet. I ran down the hall and confronted the two yawning guards. "Gentlemen, coming off your shifts?"

The two guards gave me their best salute as they masked their fatigue. "Yes sir. What do you need?"

"I'm sorry to throw a bit of overtime into your schedule, but I need you two to make something happen for me."

The two guards nodded with approval. "Whatever you need, sir."

"Follow me, please."

It took us about thirty minutes to get everything from the castle, halfway across town, to the train station to the southeast. There, the guards who attended yesterday's debriefing were all conversing with family, friends, and loved ones before their departure. But as I arrived with my cache of weapons, I saw another face that I wasn't too fond of. And unlike the others, he seemed to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. He turned to me with the largest smile I've ever seen him wear as he and his assistant stood by the window, seemingly waiting for the train to roll up.

"Why good morning to you, Captain. I trust your night has been quite peaceful."

Oh God, he a morning person. For fucks sake. "What do you want?" I deadpanned.

"Oh come now, don't be so cranky. After this assignment, you'll be more likely to experience all the rest you'd like." He joked as he continued to smile brightly. As one of the bathroom doors swung open, I could see yet another face that drew my ire. Spike walked from out of the bathroom and turned to the group of guards. As I was watching this, he continued to ramble on. "Even though you might not place them in danger's path, you will be the one in to take the brunt of it all. Why I believe that your strife will only shape to be a vainly effort, considering that you will be charging the forest alone. It's only a matter of time now."

"You can kiss my whole ass." I grumbled before turning my attention to the two guards that helped me get all my equipment here. I gave them a salute before they dismissed themselves back to the castle for punch-out.

"Aww, what's the matter? Is there an issue brewing between you and your fiance where you couldn't be bothered to show up with her under your wing..? Perhaps I worded that incorrectly, I meant to say 'you being under her wing'. We already know who's the inferior one in that relationship."

I ignored him and turned to his assistant. "Yo, Single File, what time is this train supposed to be chugging in?"

The assistant didn't say anything, but Spike did. "It's supposed to arrive by 6. It's going on about 5:50 now."

Funny how the guy who actually tried to kill me has a better rating with me than the guy who wants to see me die. His political career is going to be so fucked when I get back alive. "So we've got ten minutes before we start loading up."

Just as I said that, I noticed that one pegasus who had helmet issues yesterday. He still had that helmet on his head. I walked over to him and interrupted his conversation with what appeared to be his parents. "Excuse me, ma'am, sir, me and the private need to have a quick chat."

They weren't so easy on allowing me to chew out their son. "Excuse me, I understand that you are the commander of this operation?" The mother asked.

"I am." I quickly confirmed. "But if you─"

Then the father came roaring in at full force. "So I take it that you will be sending our child to death just like the last one did? Hmm??? I suppose that seems to be the order of things."

The mother then piggybacked off of her husband's statement. "You were even promoted by that no-good Shining Armor! Well I'll have you know that in spite of his being a prince, I will never recognize him as such, nor will I ever recognize you! Not even a month into your graduation from basic training and suddenly you're captain of the guard? I don't know if there could be a more inept choice!"

"Inexperienced and untested. You send our son to die while you run away! Is that what your plan is this time, captain!?" The father spat ferociously.

I don't even know where these guys came from but they already giving the arimaspi a run for their money. "Ma'am, sir, your son is in violation of safety dress code protocol number twelve; section one, subsection c. He needs to report to a barracks and get his combat-ready dress situated for the safety of his own person. Any further harm to the head or neck would be seen as a negligence in dress-code application as well as a mark on my record."

The father was unmoved. "Already playing the blame game? Deflection and lies will get you nowhere!"

The mother then provided an argument, albeit a foolish one. "That helmet would be more than optimal for his protection! He should be very capable of combat. And furthermore, any trauma would be absorbed by the helmet, and the extra roominess would allow for a hit or two to not affect his head in any way!"

I simply placed my hand on the helmet and turned it around on his head, covering his face completely. "Blinded, no sense of awareness, presents a danger of bodily harm to friendlies... seems legit." I shifted the helmet back to normal and gave it a knock. "His head's like a fucking clapper in a bell, one good knock and his shit gets rung."

Before the father could argue it any further, I could hear the whistle of a train in the distance. As I looked outside of the window, I could see a pillar of smoke gradually making it's way to the station. The train slowed to a stop as one more whistle indicated it's arrival to the station.

Senator Count chuckled at me. "Well, I suppose one final trip to the barracks wouldn't help you at this rate. The train's already here, it's time to load up."

With every bit of restraint, I turned back to the two parents and forced myself to smile. "Ma'am, sir, I can only try to bring your son back. I say 'try' because I know what kind of business we're caught in. But I can assure you whatever your son will face won't even be that bad."

The father grimaced at me as his voice reached deep. "You say that. But you fail to understand that the last one who said that came back with our daughter's blood on his hooves. If there is any semblance of something awry, you send my boy home. This is all we've got left, do you understand me!?"

I knelt down and looked him in the eye. "With all due respect sir, I too have a father. Now he doesn't know that I'm here in this world, but if he does find out, then I would be on the first ride smoking outta here. So it's my duty to keep them safe and keep myself alive with all limbs attached. And if I can't come out of hell alive on my own, what makes you think that I'd be dumb enough to send any of these ponies there? I'd die before any of them would. You remember that."

When I got off of my knee and stood back up, I could see that everyone had been watching our conversation. Even the families of the guards all took observation of my words. Some seem more confident, others seemed slightly optimistic. Slowly, the room began to empty out and the few bystanders that stood in the room quietly watched as all the guards filed into the train. As each of them filed in, I had felt something bump into my leg. Looking down, I saw that Rainbow Dash had walked past me, ignoring that I had existed. Following her was a stallion with a similar mane but with a powder-blue coat and yellow eyes.

"Sorry. My little Dashie can be a bit brash at times."

Oh, so he must be her dad. "Nah, I'm used to it."

He gave me a nervous smile as he handed me some saddlebags with Rainbow's cutie mark on it. "Now inside of here are a few things that she likes, a few other things she needs, and a thing or two to keep her... you know." I nodded with an awkward smile of my own. "Rainbow's wings often stiff out on her due to her constant flying, so she needs to apply her wing balm every morning. Stiff wings won't make for a good lift, I'll tell you what. Then in this compartment are a few apple fritters that one of her friends made for her. And in this compartment is her personals. And this compartment is for her... safety devices. Don't want to be a grandfather too soon." Condoms, oh boy. "And also, here is where she keeps her diary and photos of her and her friends."

I know that he has more to tell me about her bag, but I felt that it would be better if I had took it to her instead of getting this lengthy report of where she stashes her condoms and wing balm. "I'll be sure to take this to her, sir."

He grabbed my pants as he continued on. "Oh, and please do let her know that there's going to be a few days of high winds in the region. Don't want her veering off course into danger."

"Sir, I'll be sure to tell her."

Again, he continued. "Be sure to make her brush her teeth every morning, noon, and night. Make sure that she stays loose in the air. And remind her to write me every day she's away. If she can't write me, you write me and tell me how she's doing. She reads a lot of Daring Do, so be sure to keep her books safe, it's in the other bag in the back compartment."

"Sir, we have to leave─"

"She's all I've got left." He whimpered, quickly bringing me to a silence. "I want her to be happy. Please bring her back to me."

I couldn't say much after him. I only nodded and walked off towards the train. But as I was turning off, I had noticed Single File perusing through my inventory. I decided to take advantage of this. "Since you're so interested in that stuff, why don't you help me get it on that train?"

By then, he dropped what he was holding and quickly walked off. However, a few bystanders were courteous enough to help me get it all loaded onto the train. I had located Rainbow and given her the saddle bags, which she rudely snatched out of my hands. A few more parents came to me to talk with me about their young guards being sent with me. Even a few husbands and wives were aggressively finding my ears as I tried to explain to them that I would try my best to get them back home safely. Meanwhile Senator Count stood by on a wall and chuckled as he looked at his pocket watch.

"I guess you finally see the weight of your success... or failure. I would sure hate to see you betray all these young lives at your disposal." He said, emphasizing the concerns of the citizens.

"Well their lives are on me, you're right about that much. So if I die, then they come home?"

"Whatever you want to decide. Personally, I have no time for you."

I decided to tease him further. "So what would you do if I were to come back with each and every one of them alive, racked with so much gold that they could literally raise the GDP of the nation by a full percentile point?"

He rolled his eyes as he continued to look at his pocket watch. "I seriously don't have time for you monkeys. Take off." He muttered to me in a low voice.

I walked up to him and whispered into his forked ear while lightly tugging at the other. "Well I'll be sure we'll have all the time in the world together when I get back. Because once I get back with success under my belt, I will be sure to unbuckle it and give your career the fuck it so desperately whores for. And when you're done losing your status, your job, your support base, and your political assets, I'm gonna keep going. I won't give a shit how red raw your asshole gets, I want you to feel every fucking inch while your lunch gets shoved right back in. At least then you'll say you had seconds... Good day, mate."

He didn't move or say anything after that. I did, however. I grabbed whatever wind was at my back and every chip on my shoulder and marched into the train. As I boarded, I could see the wood of the platform become scarcer as more and more ponies started to show up. Fellow guards all poked their heads out of the window as the family and friends waved towels and hooves at us while the train gave a final whistle to indicate our pulling off. All the guards posted at the station, including the two I borrowed from earlier, gave a salute to the train as we started to pull off.

While the world shifted past us, I had started to see that a much larger crowd had waited for us along the line. It was like all of Ponyville was waiting for us to come by. Among the crowd were some familiar faces. The Cake family waved with their aprons in the air. Zecora bowed her head in reverence. Filthy Rich and his daughter waved as we passed. Spitfire showed up in full ceremonial dress, giving a salute to the train along with several other Wonderbolt members. Then I saw Shining standing beside his wife, who waved at us with napkins. Pinkie chased after us, and the others were all waving towels and signs showing their support.

Sunset, Rarity, and Applejack all raised a banner telling us to 'Stay safe, y'all', Applejack holding the 'y'all'. Fluttershy stood by with a bouquet of flowers and tossed it towards the train, only to be caught by Rainbow Dash. She then freaked out that it was Discord and dropped the bouquet altogether. Even Celestia and Luna stood by to see us off to our mission.

Twilight's not here.

While that thought seemed to have moved me a bit, I knew that my focus couldn't be on that. Instead, I had to immediately plot on how I was going to get each of these thirty lives back home safely. Then my relationship can take a front seat.

It may seem cruel, but Twilight's not important right now. Our lives are.

Back at the train station, Senator Count closed his pocket watch with a sigh of relief. As the lobby started to clear out, Spike watched Rarity from a distance as the young assistant walked beside his superior. "Well, the dirty deeds have been done. I couldn't do much, but I do believe it will be a hindrance to his objective if he finds that some of his devices are malfunctioning."

The senator hummed as he took in the status report. "Single File."

"Yes sir?"

The senator then glanced over to his assistance as he quietly asked him. "Did you ever send out those documents?"

"Sent and waiting for the arrival of the cadaver."

The senator chuckled lightly as he used his magic to grab at Spike, prying him away from the window. "Good. While his human friends will be vying to give him a proper resting place, we will have legislation passed to have him examined for future scientific research. It will be a message sent to the other monkeys waiting around, and an even more powerful statement made to the royals."

"I believe what we may find would probably be revolutionary... and quite disgusting." Single File replied.

Senator Count then looked to the young dragon while he spoke to him. "Hmm... Princess Twilight is a purveyor of magical and scientific research. I wonder... Would her curiosity be piqued in our future endeavors?"

Spike didn't answer him as the assistant grimaced a bit, seeing the expression on the dragon's face. "Don't you honestly think that would be classified as overkill, sir?"

"Of course not. She's always up for learning new things. This will be no different."

Hours have came and went as the train continued to clatter along the tracks. The contingent of guards seemed to be in eased spirits while a few remained cautious. Rainbow Dash was still giving me the cold shoulder while conversing with the other guards. But whenever I came around, she just angrily stared at me without saying a word, even when I sought a direct response from her. I guess she's not going to warm up during the first few days. I knew what I was getting into. Even walking towards some of the other conversations, I could hear a variety of concerns.

"What would happen when we find what we're looking for?"

"I'm more worried what they'll do to us while we're trying to escape."

"Didn't you know, the last group barely stepped hoof into the mountain before getting slaughtered."

"I would really hate to get lost in that mountain."

"Nopony's ever mapped it out, even the captain gonna have a hard time if he doesn't know where he's going."

"What if he takes us with him to the forest after our stop in Appleloosa? Won't we be caught along with him?"

Thankfully, I heard something more than just concerns, signs of optimism, signs of hope. It eased me to know that there was much more than dark murmurings of doom and gloom. Truthfully, I needed to hear it.

"I don't think it will be all too bad. I saw the captain drag some stuff here, I guess he'll be using all of it to get us to the mountain!"

"It's probably the human weaponry the papers talked about."

"I heard the weapons were so strong that it broke a sword's blade right off the hilt!

"I even heard he fought off fifty changelings with just a sword and a brick!"

"You mean that huge sword!?"

"Nah, one of ours. A sword like his would probably make the brick seem useless in comparison."

And of course, I saw this part coming.

"Yeah, a sword like that makes it seem like he's compensating for something he's a little short on. It'll probably make any dick seem useless in comparison."

A groan of disapproval sounded throughout the train. "You fucked up the joke, dude. You're not supposed to talk about the dick directly, it's supposed to be implied."

And the conversation quickly took a turn for the humorous.

"What about you, your dick too small? Seems like you're the only one making that direct comparison."

"I am WELL ENDOWED, thank you very much. You can ask my girlfriend."

"So I take it that your girlfriend is your right wing?"

"Nope, she's your mom."

And eventually it took a turn for the raunchy.

"I bet your dick isn't even that big."

"Yes it is!"

"Okay, put up then. I wanna see it right now."

"You can't just ask to see my dick in public."

Then Rainbow jumped in the conversation. "Okay, how about this. If it's big, Sunny Skies get you off. If not, you'll just have to bear with the embarrassment of being called shorty."

"Fuck that, you AND Sunny Skies get to blow me!"

Rainbow replied. "Sorry, I don't do desperate for attention."

"This coming from somepony who wanted to be in the Wonderbolts, a troupe of show-offs."

"Oh please, you'd be desperate to eat me out right fucking now."

"Right, like that'll ever happen!"

Rainbow stepped out of her seat and walked towards the stallion and flicked her tail at him while looking at him seductively. "Buck up and eat, or shut up."

The stallion jumped out of his seat and ran towards her, tongue dragging from out of his mouth as she hovered just above his reach. The entire train erupted with laughter as the stallion fell over and landed on his back. One of the mares walked up to him and whistled. "Wow, you are just short on 'average', eh Downburst?"

"Hey, pegging is a pretty hot thing. Maybe he'd get off on a prostate exam."

"GO TO HELL!"

Okay, I think I had enough fun on someone else's expense. It's time to step in. "Okay, okay, you got what you paid for. Don't dig too deep into it."

Downburst, while quickly jumping back to his hooves and hopping back into his seat, offered an immediate subject change. "Hey captain, you have all kinds of crazy tools. In what ways would you use them to the benefit of the mission?"

"Jumped off that bitch real quick, didn't you?" I asked, gaining a chuckle from everyone on the train.

"Well I'm just trying to focus on the assignment unlike these slack-offs here."

"You started it, shorty!"

While everyone gave a quick chuckle, I went on to describe the function of each of the weapons. "Basically, I'm gonna be taking the one-shot approach. In my world, one-shot or one-hit is a term we use in gaming for overkill. Pretty sure you've heard of the phrase curb-stomp." Everyone seemed to recognize it as a few murmurs all indicated a confirmation. "Well, I myself am going to be following the one-shot strategy with the double-tap rule, meaning that I hit a second time to make sure that whatever I face is indeed dead. And in most cases with the weapons I'm using, it will only take a few shots to put them down, from virtually any distance."

"So you'll be attacking them, but not from head on?" Sunny Skies inquired.

"Exactly. Getting too close will be taxing in a fight against multiple targets. My initial objective is to take down as many from a distance before the real grunt work begins. I will be scouting the area for any paths, grounds, and outposts we'll be using. And then by moving ahead, I will infiltrate the mountain and do what I can to scout out the path that would quickly lead us to our precious cargo, the jackpot if you will."

"But what about the arimaspi? Won't they be in the way of your doing that?" Downburst questioned.

"Well they can try. But again, I'd be thinning them out by then. And also, I'll be planting explosives along the way to keep them from getting in the way of the retrieval party. These explosives will be placed at the mouths of any cavern not leading to our overall objective. Upon your arrival, they will be detonated, and our path will become clear enough to where we can pick off any stragglers without incident. A group of thirty of us can overcome one or two of them at a time. Another bonus objective I will by completing is a matter of thorough detail. I will be studying them when given the time to do so and pinpoint the quickest method of eliminating our opposition to maximize our efficiency."

"Will you be taking any of us with you?" One of the guards questioned.

"Not this time. I insist in getting each and every one of you home, because your families and loved-ones are all jumping down my throat about it."

Then Rainbow brought up a key question. "So what happens when you run out of ammo? Have you ever thought that far ahead?"

"Well by then I would be well on my way out of the forest. And I packed enough to last me a good while, so─"

She interrupted me again. "Then who's to say that something goes wrong with your tools or if there's more arimaspi than you can handle all on your own? Not all kills are instant."

"I'm sure they have a very huge target plastered in the center of their faces. So it wouldn't be too hard to─"

She carried on with a relentless barrage of questions, each one bringing up valid concerns. "So what happens when you get wounded? What's your means of communication once you're in the forest? What do you do once you're inside of the mountain and it's too dark to see? How do you counter their attacks in the dark since they're capable of seeing in the dark? What do you do if the arimaspi corners you? How can you maintain a perfect balance of rest and combat when there's no others to take your shift? How do you defend yourself in the dead of night? How are you going to get any rest when you're constantly on the run? How will you call for reinforcements?"

After she finished, I answered all her question via lightning round response. "Med bag has all my needs. This train has a wireless com-link and a radio transmitter that will allow me to maintain contact in the open spaces. The roadside flares we used during the Queensave operation will be more than enough to illuminate any space. Night vision goggles. Step one: Shoot one down, step two: Repeat step one. Hide in the brush and avoid open areas to maximize defensive efficiency, side arms will answer all needs from there. Sleep. See answer to question two."

Rainbow didn't seem too happy about my answers. "See that's the problem. You're far too shortsighted. You're going into enemy territory with a bluff, who's to say that they won't have any traps lying in wait? You're gonna get yourself killed and we won't know anything about it until they one day just leave your body outside of town for the whole population to see. Then what?"

"Well I wouldn't be worried about that if I'm dead, now would I?" Probably the most harrowing answer I could give anyone. There wouldn't be a 'then what' or a 'next' should that happen. Just the thought of it brought my morale down a few points. Despite my sarcastic response, there was a significant amount of weight behind it. "It's true that I'm going in with a bluff, but behind that bluff is some pretty huge advantages that I have, skillsets I've always had since I was nine years old. I also have the tactical and technological advantage where the element of surprise would even fall victim to. My element of surprise lies in my ability to barge into this situation head-on, followed by an arsenal capable of wiping out a small army. You should know this, you've seen me and my friends clap over two-hundred changelings in twenty minutes or less."

The train had gotten deathly silent. Rainbow didn't have anything outside of a non-verbal response.

"Rainbow, if you let me protect each and every one of you, I will personally walk you into that mountain, grab our shit, and get out without one goddamn minute to think about it. I want ALL OF US to live. I wanna live, and if I don't do that, I'm not going to send you into a hell I can't conquer. I am not thinking in terms of glory or accolades, I'm thinking of a smart way to minimize our casualties and maximize our efficiency. If you don't let me do my job, then I would've failed all of you. Let me lead you, let me try the water before we all jump in. Let me lead by example and not by order. I already told all of you, we're all going home. Let me do that, please."

Guard all over the train took off their helmets as they all looked to me. Even the young private, who's helmet was too big, removed his and rested himself beside it as I spoke.

"I know I can't do this on my own, but I know that if we play our best hand first, they might pull something better. Then it will become a battle of attrition, one we can't win. We could always try a scorched earth approach, but that is a war you don't wanna fight. The arimaspi are very intelligent creatures, ones we can't just simply bring our best at. And they have no moral code when dealing with the fallen of their adversaries. They specialize in psychological warfare, not in the mental realm that the changelings operate in, but the art of intimidation. And I can give that back to them."

I walked up to Rainbow Dash and spoke to her directly.

"It's not that I don't need your help. It's not that I don't need you all to help me in the overall. But it's that I don't want any of you to see what I have to do to achieve the desired end. I am afraid that I become something akin to a monster to you if you saw me like that. The hell I'm going into is not one created by them, but one I'm going to provide. You, my friend, don't need to see it. You've seen enough."

The next sound we heard was from the engine car just ahead of us. "Next stop, Appleloosa station! Appleloosa station!" The engineer hollered loudly through the speakers. I looked out of the window to see the country-western town slowly approaching. I then looked back to the guards that all followed me and spoke softly.

"When we get into town, you all will remain on standby until I return. Rest up, ease up, do whatever you want until I get back. Enjoy yourselves, because once I get back... You will be seeing a very ugly result. Do you copy?"

"SIR, YES SIR!"

I turned my attention back to Rainbow Dash. "You are second in command, so I expect you to keep them safe until I come back. If I don't come back and I don't respond in four days time, you get them all on this train and you take them home."

She raised her voice at me for a moment. "But─"

I quickly cut her off and remained firm on my instruction. "Normalize, file it, burn it, return to base. That is THE order. Do you apprehend, corporal?"

From there, she raised no further questions. "...Yes sir."

An hour after we landed at the station, we all reviewed our files and underwent a final debriefing before my departure. I continued to stress that their orders were to stand by until I gave a notification to do otherwise. After that, I went through a few of the local inns and locked up a few rooms for the guards. Unfortunately, it was too many of us to stay in one hotel, so we broke it down into four different groups. It honestly wouldn't have mattered if I placed them in separate housing based on gender, they were adults and they were going to do adult things while I was away, even if they had to sneak to do it.

And from what I gathered on the train, Rainbow Dash wouldn't really care about that stuff either.

As far as my room was concerned, I had a presidential suite allocated to me because of my significant height amongst the ponies. Also, the beds in the suite would be equivalent to the one I slept in when I first came to Equestria. I also ordered a futon of a similar size so that I could sprawl out.

I really hope I find this tribute because this shit was worth a small fortune.

Finally, it was about my time to depart. Before I loaded up on the train, I went through a quick weapons check to see if things were in working order. The last thing I wanted to happen was for my life to be unceremoniously cut short because my weapon wouldn't fire.

And wouldn't you know it, some brave soul jammed newspaper deep into the barrel. Although bullets run through paper like it's nothing, I know how hard paper gets when you fold it past a certain amount. And whoever jammed the barrels had a significant amount of strength to pack the paper in so tightly. Going through every weapon I had, I found that a few of them had the same issue. Wow, somebody had me set up for the okey-doke. Thank goodness none of this shit was loaded, or else cleaning them would be just as dangerous as holding a bowl of molten copper with your bare hands.... Now that I think about it, Single File was awfully curious about these weapons. I didn't have time to ponder on it. The cleaning process took me a whole forty minutes to get done, placing me damn near an hour behind schedule.

After that, I grabbed my gear and made off to the train.

Not too long after that, the engineer and I were already outside of the city limits. I had started to load my weapons as well as getting my mind set to face off against the wilderness of the Arimaspi Forest. Along the way, I could see stampeding buffalo wearing what appeared to be garments similar to those worn by Native Americans and the distinctive tribes. But after a while, the land started to slowly transition from an arid climate to a scene of rolling hills as far as the eye can see. The mounds were a beautiful assortment of orange, gray, red, yellow and white. Eventually, it turned a bit craggy, and the land seemed to cast shadows all over the rails. Trees started to show in sparse amounts, dotting the mountainside until a tunnel swallowed us in it's darkness.

It wasn't a short ride either, for around two minutes, I couldn't even see my hand placed just in front of my face. For a while, I had to use the backlight of my phone to see what was going on in front of me. When the ride through the darkness came to an end, a bright flash of light caused me to shield my eyes for a brief second so that they could adjust to the levels of luminescence. Upon looking to the right, I could see a huge mountain in the distance. On the top of it was a skull that seemingly had one eye socket. It was quite distinguishable from a considerable distance, it had me thinking that the arimaspi I was going to face were nothing short of titans standing at almost fifty meters tall.

God knows they couldn't be that big... could they?

A green canopy stood a consistent ten meters out from the rails, I could probably guess that was for maintenance purposes. Looking to the left of the train, I could see a good seven meters before a sudden drop. The distance between the chasm and the rails varied in some spots. At my most comfortable, I was at least looking at another fifteen meters. At worst, I'd be staring straight into the bottomless chasm just two meters away. There seemed to be some retainer wall to keep the train from falling, but much of it was so rusted that holes formed. Some of the stone that they used to reinforce the steel had become so weathered that the steel was supporting the crumbling material. Even the rails we rode on sounded dirtier than the ones that lead back into town.

I also know that Caramel had even told me that these were the very rails that lead to the gates of Tartarus itself. He called it the railway to hell, and five years ago that place and this one seemed very similar to one another. I could already see the relation. The grade leading into the forest wasn't so sharp to prevent an exit, but it would prove to be difficult for an amateur engineer to escape. Even as I continued loading my weapons, I couldn't help but to subconsciously pray to a god I didn't believe in. To be honest, that was something I needed to help me fortify my mind for the shit I was going to face.

In speaking of facing, one arimaspi waited along the side of the tracks, watching us pass by.

Oh thank God, it's like two or three Kevin Durant's stacked on top of one another.

Here I was thinking I was going to be facing some fuckers the size of Ferris Wheel at the state fair, instead I'm just looking at some creatures who seem a little easier to take down. Then again, I still wasn't too fond of the smashing thing they'd like to do. And from what I saw in that flashback of Shining, I wouldn't like to experience it first-hand.

As I was staring at the creature, who stared back at us, the train started to slow down. Looking in the distance, I noticed that the mountain was pretty close in relation to what I thought it was going to be. It seemed like I would be traveling a whole five miles to get to it. The engineer hollered from the front. "This is as close as I can get you! It's going to be hell out there considering where we are! I suggest you hurry up before they start swamping us!"

"How long will that be!?" I asked, gathering my weapons and equipment.

"Forty-five seconds, tops!"

Oh shit... Not much time to introduce myself. I guess I'll have to do it the Vietnam way: Fire upon drop-off. Cocking my shotgun, I screamed back to the engineer. "That's plenty of time for you to steam up that other engine, right!?"

"No good! I need you to buy me some time!"

"I just cleaned out my wallet today! Damn, greedy bitch!" I joked as I noticed that the number had grown from just one to seven that quickly. I was only on here for ten seconds! These guys will be rolling deep if I wait any longer. As the conductor ran past me, I hollered back to him. "Get your ass in there, start that engine, and clutch it!"

"Ain't gotta tell me twice!" He hollered as I ran to the door and hopped off the train to come face to face with one of the hairy guys. Immediately, I froze in place as it stared back at me, looking down at me. The single eye that towered above me glared down as the creature's claws were raised slightly, almost expressing curiosity and amusement in the new creature that stood before it. It's horns were adorned in gold bindings with pearls dangling off the tips, it's wrist coated in gold bracelets, it's silver mane bound with golden sleeves, a ring affixed to each finger, and it's teeth a few shades lighter than it's massive yellow eye.

How exactly would Cliff say it?... These shits is BIG.

The engine from the outbound engine hissed, alerting the seven arimaspi that stood idly by. One flexed and started to charge at the train, causing me to flex in return. The shotgun in my hand quickly found elevation and I squeezed the trigger, hitting the one before me dead in the center of it's chest. It fell back with a mighty screech and a heavy thud, causing the one that charged in to look back to it's fallen comrade. It then glared at me and growled fiercely, causing the others to follow suit.

I regained my bearings and cocked my shotgun to eject an empty shell. With a slight turn, I aimed for one of the creatures' eyes and sent another slug flying. In a fraction of a second, it's eye exploded and blood was sent forth in an eruption of flesh and bone. The creature instantly fell lifeless. After another turn to face another one of the creatures, I cocked once more and fired another round. This one landing a blow to the creature's throat. It fell back, grabbing at it's neck in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding.

By then, the other four all made a dash for me. Claws brandished, they charged in to cut me down. I took a quick pivot to down one of the creatures, causing for another one of them to fall over it's body. I sent another slug into the leg of another, causing it to collapse and roar loudly. My final shot was a direct hit to the last one standing. A powerful blow to the chest left it standing motionless for a few seconds as the blood trickled, then streamed out from it's body. It collapsed to the ground, landing onto the one I left wounded. The arimaspi that fell over rose from the ground, swiping a claw at me. Using the shotgun to defend myself, I held off the attack. While I stood my ground, I obtained a good look at the massive hook-like claws that could've cut my arm off.

It's claw reared back to make another swipe, but I drew my sword in retaliation and parried the blow. I dropped my shotgun to man the blade for better protection. Another swipe came in from my left side, causing me to hoist the blade to protect my left shoulder. After a well-placed parry, I countered with an overhead swipe, cutting deep into the creature's arm. The arimaspi stepped back while I took the offensive. I slashed at the creature, slicing into the flesh of it's unscathed arm. Still carrying some momentum from that swing, I turned the sword inward for a precise thrust upwards to it's jaw. The blade pierced as far as the bottom of it's eye, but the creature sagged from the impact, causing it to sink further onto the blade until it's brain was taken by it.

I yanked the sword out from it's chin, causing a small shower of blood to fall all over me while I tried to escape from the creature's dying weight. Finally free, I sheathed my sword, picked up the shotgun and started reloading. However, I had time to only load one due to the creature still screaming, possibly alerting the others to come by. I walked over to the ailing creature and planted one round into the side of it's head. It fell quiet at last.

Clearing the chamber, I pulled rounds off of my bandolier and loaded the shotgun as quick as I could. After I was reloaded, I switched to my M16 and watched after the train. A rustle from the bushes indicated that there was another one coming. As soon as it's head popped through the lush greenery, I sent a burst of rounds into the creature, hitting it's chin, neck, and upper chest. I released another burst for it's head, two rounds lightly grazing it's left cheek before a round hit an inch into his eyeball. The arimaspi stumbled, landing on it's face before sagging over. I slammed my hand on the train and hollered to the engineer. "How much more time do you need!?"

"Give it a few more seconds!... GOT IT!"

A loud and powerful hiss spilled from the undercarriage, causing me to jump back from the train. Slowly, the train inched towards the way we came, the engineer popped his head out and spoke.

"You don't want a ride back, sir!?"

"I got eight of em! Tell that to the troop back home! I'll ring you when I'm ready to leave!" I said as another roar came from within the forest. I looked back to see two more arimaspi running towards us. I took a quick aim and fired a burst of rounds at it's chest and abdomen, causing no slowdown. I made a quick switch to the revolver and put a few more rounds inside of it's chest, causing it to eventually slow to a halt. The other creature took notice of the fallen and tended to the one still holding it's neck to stop the bleeding. I turned back to the engineer and yelled. "Change that up, I got ten of them!"

"Sir, I count nine─" He began before I pulled out the shotgun again and sent chunks of the last one's head flying into the trees. The driver grimaced and quickly corrected himself. "Ten it is!"

"Good! Now get that ass MOVING!" I screamed before the train finally kicked into gear and increased it's speed. It started off slowly, but then started to roll quicker.

Another roar came from within the forest, only this time it sounded like there was more than one. I heard about three different roars before the shrubs parted ways to reveal yet another four. I shook my head with disbelief and exhaustion as I cocked the shotgun.

"Fourteen and counting..."

It's only been six hours.

One day has already made me feel like I've done nothing but undershot every objective I sought out to complete. It's like I've done so much and come so far, only to look back and realize that I only made a quick venture across the street. It was similar to the feeling of my first day out in Ponyville. And what makes me feel so unaccomplished is the fact that I was dropped off just five miles from the mountain.

And here I was just three miles in.... and six miles north.

That's right, the mountain I was so close to had in fact become even longer to get to because of the constant waves of arimaspi that came hunting after me. And all throughout my advance, if you could call it that, I was running for cover and dodging creature after creature after creature. I stumbled and fell so many times that my ankle had become sprained because of so much running, pivoting, fighting, tripping over plants and rocks. My shoulder started to ache from the constant recoil my body endured for such a long period of time. I was dirtied in mud and blood, some of my clothes had started to stick in places unimaginable. Every step I took felt like I was barefoot in a swamp, despite my wearing boots. Now I understand why gramps was so anal about his socks coming up missing.

The sun is setting and I'm still sitting here against one of these trees like I have the luxury to rest, knowing damn well that I don't. It was only fifteen minutes since I gave myself some much-needed downtime. Unfortunately, that was all I could afford. Cries from the forest beyond reached my ears, telling me that there were more than a few of them coming. Fuck dammit, how many did I take out already?

Just thirty-one.

I ran into over sixty of these bastards and they keep coming for me. I only managed to bring an end to half of them. By most standards, that would be an achievement all on it's own. But compared to the changelings, who I fought against in a blinding adrenaline rush, these things are the real deal. And it wasn't like I could take the gold from their bodies, I didn't have the time nor did I have the strength to lug around so much metal. I was already toting enough shit.

I just finished up an ammo check. My shotgun rounds numbered in the lower twenties, indicating that I was relying too damn much on it. My revolver still had plenty of rounds, so I can share a few of those. But the reports and muzzle flare would be more than enough to give away my position, and these guys had some amazingly keen ears. My assault rifle had enough to last me a trip to the mountain and back, if I didn't encounter a whole army along the way. Although I knew that the machine gun back on the train would probably be a godsend, but that was too much weight for me to pack. And this goddamn claymore was starting to get heavy as shit.

All I could feel is pain and exhaustion. The fatigue of fighting for your life and surviving in the wilderness for over five hours did nothing but tax me up to this point. And it wasn't like there was some mystical hotel around the corner or a campground I can lay my head down and recover all of my health at. Even though I went up against creatures you'd see in an JRPG, I wasn't given the amenities of such. There's no save points, there's no instant potions, there's no superpower sword art that I can use to one-shot these guys and earn gold and experience points, and I'm not a unicorn that can cast spells. No knockouts, no continues, no life waters, angel's plume, or phoenix downs, or restarts. I was going to be deader than Aerith if I screw up.

But that didn't matter, not compared to what I was doing. Looking down at my improvised ankle brace, I tilted my head back to look to the green canopy above. With an exasperated sigh, I thought about the lives I didn't have to compromise to get here. I imagined each of their faces, all wearing bright smiles as they all made fun of how I looked right now. I even went so far as to imagine the faces of the parents who all urged me to protect them.

Even when I personally felt like this was all for nothing, I leaned back to the words my grandfather spoke of on the rare occasions when he'd tell of his ventures in Vietnam. My hell was different from his, and much less harrowing. Even looking to Shining's dilemma, my situation was far better than his at the time. In fact, it was around twenty-five of those monsters that wiped out thirty-seven ponies out of the forty-one that came here five years ago. I managed to get here on my own and sleep over thirty of them. So if I managed to accomplish those feats, then why did I feel so... inadequate?

It's felt like I was missing something.

*WRAAAAAAAK!*

...Here they come again. Here's hoping I can make it through the night.

The light of the sun has since long died off. I wandered through a dark forest full of nightly creatures of varying species. As I passed through, there was much chatter among the woodland creatures, and upon my approach, their dialog would be placed on hold until I had staggered off. Obviously I couldn't contribute much to the conversation, but I could at least listen to them. Because much like how I walked through here, there are much bigger things stomping about. So the quieter the forest became, the closer they were.

I had to commend myself in making the purchases I did way back when. Walking through the forest with night vision goggles helped me immensely in trying to avoid arimaspi encounters, but they didn't save me worth a damn from the massive redwood trees I kept bumping into. There was the possibility that I could use a flashlight, but then I'd give myself away before I could even get into the mountain. But the silver lining is that I managed to fight my way back inwards, meaning that I was now 3.6 miles northeast as opposed to the original 6.3 miles away from the mountain.

But the bad news was that my body was giving me signs that I needed rest before it started to shut down on me. So yeah, sleep, have to get that squared away. However, that was much easier said than done, arimaspi are still warm on my trail. And my only hope to avoid a confrontation was to hide away in one of these bushes. And yet there was a risk of one of these monsters sifting through here and crushing me like a small bug.

My luck wasn't too terrible though. It took me another hour, but I managed to find a hollowed-out tree that seemed to be an old outpost of some sort. Goes without saying that there could've been some ponies who made use of it five years prior. Upon a further inspection, I could confirm that was indeed the case. Left inside was a empty packet that used to house an MRE as it cooked, a few empty pouches, and a dirtied set of plastic utensils. I stuffed my materials inside before I crawled in, doing what I could to make myself comfortable. And to my surprised, I was barely able to fit my entire body plus my materials. I guess that could be chalked up to some dearly departed soul who managed to dig this outpost. Whoever you are, thank you.

You just gave me a place to sleep on my first night in hell.

*growl*

...In speaking of MRE's.

~Day 2~

Ugh... my neck... my back... my shoulders are burning.

The fatigue of yesterday's roundabout started to show in the form of bodily aches and pains. Also it didn't help that I was in such a cramped space for over six hours, in what could be the most uncomfortable condition that humans could ever sleep in. It also didn't help that I had a tree root up my ass. But considering how things are for the time being, I suppose that they could be a hell of a lot worse. I could be missing an arm, a leg, or worse. Not to mention that the sprain from yesterday wasn't too terribly serious where I needed to keep off of it for a few days. Now that I think about it, there's a lot that could've gone wrong.

But my complaints are pretty much of the first-world variety for now, nothing too traumatizing.

*RAUK*

...That's not good.

Grabbing the revolver, I quietly snuck my head outside of the opening. I tried to make sure that not just my movements didn't indicate any rush, but also my breathing. Slowly and quietly I crept out of my hiding hole and saw a creature resembling a lion with bat-like wings and a scorpion's tail. For a moment, I was washed with relief. "A manticore." I whispered to myself. But that relief was short-lived as it's eyes managed to lock directly onto me. It's tail raised high into the air as it started to growl and walk slowly towards me. Without hesitation, I drew my gun and cocked the hammer back. With my sights lined for the center of it's mass, my trigger finger grew twitchy with every step he took.

But then, it stopped walking towards me. It looked up at the tree and roared angrily, expressing some form of dissatisfaction. It was only a second before my question of 'what was he complaining about' found it's answer. And in a mere second, a large hairy body came leaping from above, landing directly in front of me, standing on it's hind legs while beating on it's chest. With a mighty shriek, the arimaspi responded to the manticore in a display of dominance over it's territory. Screaming and howling, the two continued their debate, leaving me to be an observer of the exchange. However, the manticore started to gradually back off, drawing off of the shouting match by lowering it's tail and grumbling instead of roaring.

The arimaspi snorted proudly before the manticore slunk off into the shrubbery. After the display of dominance, I nodded quietly in acknowledging what took place. It would appear that the creatures here have an understanding with one another. If something bigger and badder comes around, they'll eventually sod off out of fear of getting their shit wrecked. But there is a bit of a contest between the two, seemingly to say that there is a debate over prey. And it would also appear that they have a mutual relationship in terms of predatory relations, similar to that in our world. If one species is hungry while the other is not, the species that is hungry will eat. But if both species are hungry, the larger one has priority in the pecking order.

Obviously, it was hungry enough to debate for whoever wanted me. But that debate went on for long enough to change my revolver to a shotgun. The creature slowly turned back around to glare at me with it's solitary eye. It's teeth showed a gruesome smile while it panted.

Hauh... Hauh... hauh hauh hauh hauh... hauh-hauh-hauh-hauh-hauh-hauh...

Correction: While it laughed at me.

The very thought of this creature expressing laughter sent a instinctual shiver down my spine. Not only was the arimaspi aware of my presence, but it was smart enough to laugh in seeing me, it was sentient. Suddenly, the added context of what happened to Shining's company five years ago became even more harrowing, the macabre scenery of the arimaspi playing with their bodies like bloodied ragdolls... and laughing. They weren't just intelligent creatures, they were fully aware of what they were doing and they had no shame in their game. That means that they were very aware of what Shining was doing, what they had planned, what they planned to do. That ambush wasn't something that came out of nowhere, it was a completely orchestrated feint.

It was a lure of false security, and they sent one to bite into their forces and lure them out of hiding. And just like that, they were brought to their front doorstep, ready to be slaughtered. That means the ones they saw trying to kill themselves, they denied them the opportunity on purpose. The one that stood before me hid in the tree, knowing that I was here.

Two more fell from the tree, landing in various blind spots. The others fell in places where the roots and the trunk of the tree hampered my view of them. They were there, and I was in the center of this deadly triangle. My turning for them was going to end up being a distraction, an opening for this other guy to drive it's claw deep into my chest cavity, making me the newest Christmas ornament on their tree of bodies. Given their intelligence, I wouldn't be surprised if they took my anatomy into consideration and made me into the star that they'd set on the very top.

In short, I got shafted.

My heart was just going, Usain Bolt speed, while the adrenaline in my body throttled through my veins. Even the smell of the forest was overridden with the scent of blood. The muscles in my arms and legs all loosened while I held my shotgun, the pain throughout my body was given a temporary reprieve as the creature walked to me.

Raising my shotgun to meet with it's head, I kept it in my head to make for the tree, not for the opening ahead. If I was gonna have to fight three on one like this, I was gonna have to keep it funneled tight. The arimaspi snorted before it made off into a dash for me. I responded with a quick trigger pull and was rewarded with an instant stop to the monster's advance. But in doing so, I alerted the other two to come from around the back end of the tree and run for their fallen comrade. As they both tried to inspect the body, I quickly cocked the shotgun and fired off one additional round into the one that appeared from my left, hitting it in the side. The other took notice of what I had done and charged for me, so quickly that I didn't have time to line up a third shot. Making a quick retreat for the tree, I crawled inside of my little hole.

While I was thrown off of my mental balance, I watched as the creature roared and planted it's hand against the tree, pushing it enough to lift some of the roots I sat on. Reacting with a significant amount of panic, I lined my barrel the best I could to the creature's face and unleashed another shot. I knew it was a bad shot once I heard it shriek with pain. It released the tree and fell to the ground, kicking and screaming over what seemed to be the loss of it's eye. Yet the feeling of the tree turning over didn't stop. Instead, it was completely ripped off the ground by another two arimaspi that stood behind me.

Shit, I thought there was only three!

Out of the sides of my eye, I could see all of my equipment flying in several places. My sword was sent flying towards another part of the forest while my medical bag, also filled with C4 land amongst the kicking arimaspi. My other weapons landed several feet in different directions. I cocked my shotgun once more to chamber another slug and sent it flying into one of the creatures, killing that one instantly. However, it was misfortune that I was dealt an empty barrel. "Oh shit." I felt my entire body move on it's own as I made a mad scramble for the revolver in my waistband. But before I could pull it out, I was quickly scooped up from my leg and sent rolling into the bushes.

I eventually came to a stop, groaning from the pain I was dealt. Looking for my revolver, I couldn't find anything more than 'Rarity Fashions®' on my boxers. But at the very least, my sword was about ten feet away from where I landed. Looking down, I confirmed that my legs were still attached and ran for the sword. But barreling towards me from behind was the arimaspi who sent me flying. I had to cautiously navigate my way through narrow-planted trees and tight brush to weave my way to the massive blade. While the creature turned for a bypass on all my methods of derailment, I was given the second enough to grab my sword and bat off whatever claw came my way.

In my doing so, I was thrown off balance and sent collapsing to the ground. The creature's hand then tried to slam down upon me, causing me to prayerfully point my blade upwards and close my eyes for the eventual case of my attempt failing to stop anything and bringing an end to everything I am.

Sights of my father punching me quickly jumped in the back of my eyelids, the image of my mother hugging me tightly as I watched my grandfather being put into the ground, the moment I first rode a bike, the time Alex threw a punch to protect me, the moment where Stanton made his first touchdown in a park football game, the image of grandma taking care of her horse on the ranch in Wimberley, the moment Shining drilled me under a raincloud, that one heated exchange Twilight and I had in the table room, the time she and I first shared our first time together, the moment Pinkie danced on me, when Rarity kissed me on the cheek while I wore one of her dresses, the moment Chrysalis called me a murderer.

All of these things, the very voices, they all flashed before me as I felt the massive weight being brought onto my chest.

God, please don't let me die.

Later in Appleloosa...

Rainbow stood at the train station, quietly looking at the clock, watching the seconds go by. Tapping her hoof impatiently, she groaned with boredom as she looked to the train engineer standing beside the caboose with a bloodied hand print smeared on it. With another grunt, she rolled her eyes and broke her vocal silence. "Hey," She shouted to the engineer. "When do you think Nondis will radio you!? It's been a whole day and he hasn't said anything."

The stallion shrugged. "Beats me. I'm just glad that I got out of there when I got the chance. Poor fool got swamped as I was leaving the stop, it's a miracle he even took on as many as he did when I was there."

Rainbow grew anxious the more she looked at the bloodied hand print. "You should've did the smart thing and got his ass out of there!"

The engineer remained unfazed. "Ma'am, if you saw what I did just yesterday, you would have a lot of faith in his ability of self-preservation. He was mowing those damn monsters down left and right. He shouldn't have any problems, really."

The rainbow-maned pegasus drew a breath of relief in hearing the engineer's words. "So, no problems, huh?"

"Yeah," He started with a devious smile. "Unless we're talking about having his legs broken, or him being knocked into one of those redwood trees, or him being smacked against the rocks, or him getting trapped in a corner while five of the bastards start tearing him limb-from-limb."

"YOU'RE NOT HELPING ME!" She shouted vehemently.

The engineer chuckled heartily as he made fun of the mare. "Relax, it's only been one day. You're making it seem like he's dying out there, which he isn't. He's got everything going for him, and I doubt he's in any present danger that will end his life."

"How am I supposed to trust you!?" She questioned.

"I dunno, you do it." The engineer rebutted with a shoulder shrug.

Rainbow let loose a cry of disdain while she yelled with enough force to cause his mane to become swept in a breeze. "You are the worst thing since the Flim-Flam Brothers, I swear! It's like you expect me to magically trust any word that falls from your mouth like it's rain from the sky!"

The engineer cringed a bit as he ended up being bombarded with a small amount of spit from her yelling. He wiped his face off, but not before noticing something sitting behind her. "Well I don't mean to spit on your worry parade, but what's that in the sky?"

As he pointed to the object of his curiosity, Rainbow quickly recognized it from previous endeavors. "Huh, looks like Cherry Berry's hot air balloon."

"Who's Cherry Berry?" He asked.

"Some pony in Ponyville we rent the air balloon from."

Her response caused him to scratch his head for a second, he took a moment to think about what she had said to him, the direction in which it came from, and pieced it all together. "Okay, so if it's an air balloon from Ponyville, which is due north of here, then how is it coming from the south?"

The two paused for a moment to look at each other before Rainbow Dash bolted high into the air. She sliced through the air with such an intensity that a cone of sound started to form around her body. When she approached the balloon, she saw a yellow, scrawny unicorn stallion with a brown, disheveled mane. As he floated through the air, he cleaned the lens of his camera while humming an upbeat tune. The cyan pegasus quickly called out to him. "Hey! Hey you! What are you doing coming from the south! Airspace south of Macintosh Hills is strictly forbidden!"

"It's only forbidden because the establishment doesn't want to do the dirty work and peep around for valuable information!" He called out with a cocky attitude. "But forbidden territory is where I thrive!"

"I mean it's off limits!" Rainbow clarified, hoping to get through to him that he was coming from a restricted area.

"It's only off limits when you don't have a press pass, lady." He responded while holding up a laminated badge that dangled from around his neck. "That's how the world works. See, the difference between you and I is this: you follow the establishment and all of it's stupid rules the royals set up. I am a purveyor of information, a rebel against the establishment, a voice to the voiceless, questioning the authoritarian system and it's guidelines, inner-workings, and figureheads."

Rainbow quickly glanced at the camera and it's expensive-looking lens he was wiping earlier. "You're a paparazzi, aren't you?" She deadpanned.

"You know it! Digging up the juiciest of gossip is my numero uno!" He shamelessly confessed.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Look, this place is still off limits. We have an operation going on─"

"The big op involving you, an element bearer, and the captain of the guard? Oh yeah, I got the innie on that one. And I mean the scoop is HUGE BABY!" He declared, pulling out a manila envelope of photos.

Rainbow looked inside of the basket he rested in, seeing a opaque trash bag covering what seemed to be a pan. She also noticed an unusually strong scent coming from within the bag. She immediately concluded that he had taken some pictures of whatever took place down below. "Seriously, I'm gonna have to ask you to park it. This balloon's gotta come down for inspection of sensitive material."

The stallion opened up the envelope while shaking his head at her. "Lady, if sensitive info is what you're pushing for, then I'll give you the insider on the captain that will break headlines on every page in the nation!"

The mare started to become impatient, more than she was initially. "Park the balloon or I clip you out of the sky!"

"Check this out!" He said, pulling out a set of pictures and then giving her the set. She sifted through the first three before her expression fell from annoyed to almost complete melancholy. He continued to ramble on as she looked at the images. "I call it, 'fairy tale ending'... or maybe 'immanence', maybe 'silent will'... I don't know, title pending."

Slowly, she felt her heart crumble away into nothing as the view from above showed a human leaning against a tree, wearing a transfixed grimace on his face. His body was bloodied while a deep gash showed in his arm. A small stream of crimson leaked from his arm to his upper torso as he fearfully placed a sword upon his chest, pointing upwards towards an arimaspi that threatened to strike him down. In her mind, it was something that she never saw from him. She heard him scream in horror once before, but never saw the visual expression the human was capable of expressing. Her chest grew tight and icy, her mind already having difficulty processing the image and thought of her friend being brought to silence. "Nondis..."

"Yeap, that's the juice right there! That face right there, that's the face of every mare in his fan club." The stallion said as he looked at Rainbow's face. He wasn't entirely concerned with the mare's emotions, rather he was looking at the perceived numbers on his next paycheck. "Dig this headline: 'Quenched; Captain of Royal Guard Lively Flame Burns Out'. Maybe that's too long. Oh how about this: 'Snuffed; Captain Nondis' Final Moment!' with a question mark at the end."

Throwing the photos back at him, she followed up with a powerful grapple and suspended him just a few inches above the basket floor. "Where is he now!?" She urged loudly.

He used his horn to telekinetically move her hooves out of the way and place him back in the safety of his basket. The stallion then collected the photos and placed them back inside of the envelope. "Lady, I can only tell you to wait until he shows up on that hill over yonder, at least what's left of him. But let me let you in on this, miss: Wherever he is, he won't be for long. Maybe you'll find his corpse, but not much of his being. You get me?"

"No." She spat venomously, trying to make a grab for the envelope. He magically swiped it just outside of her reach before hugging onto the envelope in an enormous fit of greed.

"Hey, hooves off the merch! This here proof stays with me until the papers send it. And being that Appleloosa is just down there, I guess this small dust town can be the first place to break history. The death of the first human to set hoof in the Equestrian E.U.P. Guard. I'm gonna be so rich!"

Rainbow tried again to snatch the envelope from his possession, but continuously failed. Each of her concurrent attempts slowing down to a desperate crawl before she eventually stopped and let herself sink a few feet in the air. "This can't be real."

"Oh it is.... And I'm gonna need twenty bits for that disclosure."

Author's Note

Sorry this one took a while to write. I didn't have much time to myself lately because of working reasons. I can safely say that a new chapter will quickly (what is quick nowadays?) succeed this one.

Also, the beginning rant, that was written way back in late October.

Now for a minor explanation because some parts would cause a bit of controversy, so spoilers in spoiler text: There was a misunderstanding that took place and there is a fissure that's grown because of it. No more spoilers... Okay, maybe one. Misunderstandings usually lead to things taken out of context.

As I am writing this now, I've already got a one-thousand word start on the next chapter. So I should be well on my way to releasing it before New Year's (barring no more interruptions).

Also brownie points for those who realizes who the paparazzi is a reference to before the next chapter gives it away.

Chapter LXIII

A large gathering of guards stood outside of the Appleloosa police station. Many of them have shed their armor for more casual outwear or just came as they were, others were clad up in full-dress armament. However, there was an uneasy hush amongst the ponies in the group. Rainbow, who lead the group, could only pace back and forth, too stunned to hover in the air as she normally would. As the others continued to mumble around her, she started to curse herself for not thoroughly voicing her displeasure of what the commanding officer had in mind. And it was because of her petty decision to ignore him, she bore the weight of possibly losing her friend.

She, in seeing the pictures from earlier, was unwilling to be convinced that he was alive.

Yet in her welling sadness, which she hid so well from the others, she apprehended the paparazzi pony and had the local sheriff book him for trespassing in a military-only zone, or a red-zone as it was often referred to. She wasn't willing to let him post those pictures to the press unless it could be verified for certain that the captain was indeed a fatality. And one mere photo of his being cornered didn't completely resonate as a death to her. It did, however, stir the fears that had already crept throughout her mind and made her even more terrified.

A few moments later, more and more ponies started to gather around the police station, genuinely curious of the gathering as opposed to the possible news of a human death occurring in Equestria, all of the civilians were unaware of that. And the crowd kept growing, and growing, and growing so big that the guards were eventually put to work as crowd control officials. A few tried to direct the traffic flow of pedestrians and occasional carriages that came through the town square. Some others were doing what they could to disperse the crowd from the police station. And it almost seemed to go smoothly, that was until Sheriff Silverstar emerged from the office with the paparazzi beside him.

Rainbow Dash approached him quickly, trying to grab the unicorn stallion as quickly as she could. "So, you're taking this one to the slammer?"

Silverstar shook his head slowly and removed the pegasus' hooves from the unicorn's own. "I'm afraid not. I can't arrest him."

The cyan pegasus was infuriated and expressed extreme impatience at the sheriff's decision. "Bu-bu-but why not!?"

The paparazzi smiled and started to walk towards Rainbow Dash slowly. "See, I told you that you couldn't touch me. You need to accept that I am well within my right to enter that area until it becomes a red-zone. Any journalist can waltz right in the place if there's no indication of a red-zone being established."

The gathering of guards started murmuring to each other as a few voiced concerns of what was going on. "But I thought that the whole area south of the Macintosh Hills were off limits to civilians!" Humbreeze stated.

Sheriff Silverstar then explained the reasoning. "Actually, it's classified as 'yellow', or a neutral zone. Civilians are advised to not enter the area, but it's primarily a warning as opposed to a restriction. Arimaspi Mountain itself is the red zone according to these documents this journalist was carrying." He held up a beige folder with the photographer's name on it.

Rainbow turned to the sheriff with bewilderment. "Journalist? This idiot's a journalist?"

The stallion puffed his chest out proudly as he walked past the rainbow-maned mare. "Paparazzi is one of the things I do for money. But I distinctively told you what my purpose was. 'Purveyor of information', you remember that tidbit?"

Rainbow was left flabbergasted while she tried to find words to say. But the sheriff went on to explain the folder. "It's noted that he's a beat writer for the Cantered Voice news agency up in Canterlot. Often they'd get writers to expose some of the most intense developments in the parliament, the royals family, the bankers, the social elite, and the high-profile athletes. They've sent reporters into red zones, but often while it was considered as a neutral zone. I guess you could say they have a knack for being there when the news happens."

With a smug smile, he held up the manila envelope. "And of course, I've got a story to break, so if you'll excuse me."

Rainbow extended her wing, cutting through the air and shaving a few hairs off of the journalist's coat. "HALT!" She called out. "I cannot let you post questionable information that could possibly incite a change in the the chain of command as well as a breach in national security. You need to prove that these photos aren't doctored and fully factual."

The journalist scoffed before he turned around to face the pegasus. "Lady, look. You saw me making the damn things in an industrial garbage bag, the sheriff over there was even so kind enough to let me retrieve my finished work. And the to top it all off, I wouldn't have the time to doctor any photo if I'm trapped in a confession room. Nice try, but I've seen the whole situation as it went down."

"Then would you care to explain it if you saw what happened?" Private Humbreeze inquired.

The stallion rolled his eyes dismissively at the young guard. "Okay, look here. This is the unshakable, certified, Dream Star truth. As I was flying in the air, I noticed that there was some loud popping noises being made in the forest. When I tracked it down, I came to this one clearing where there was this tree. And then there were like two of those huge monsters that just picked up the damn tree and tossed it aside. Now the captain managed to down one of them, but the other knocked his ass into another part of the forest. Next, he finds his sword and then tries to defend himself. But as he did, he lost his bearings, he crumpled over, and in comes that picture I showed to miss lady over here ."

Did anything happen after that?" The sheriff asked.

"Oh yeah, I just saw the creature's paw come crashing down and then I heard a really loud scream. By the time that paw started to come down, I knew it was going to be gross. So I just looked away and got my ass out of there because I didn't want to be seen by one of those things. And to make matters worse, the guy had this really ugly look on his face before the paw came down, clenching his eyes shut and everything. Safe to say that he's pretty much gone."

The sheriff turned to Rainbow Dash. "Did you see any of the photos he was talking about?"

Dream Star then pulled out the same picture he showed to Rainbow earlier and gave it to the sheriff, who grew a bit paler in seeing what was happening and allowed his imagination to take him to a gruesome place. The sheriff shook his head. "This looks to be supporting what he said, I don't see traces of the image being edited in any way. I'm afraid to say it, but he might have the merit here along side a witness testimony. We can't do much to stop him now. By constitutional law, I can't deny a freedom of press."

The cyan pegasus' ears folded back as her eyes slightly watered. She took a sharp draw of air and clenched her eyes shut to hold back her emotions. The journalist walked back up to Rainbow and gave her a hug. "Aw, well for what it's worth, he did kill a lot of those monsters before the got to him. But a story is a story, no matter how you tell it. Now if you excuse me, I got a story to print and post to every stand in the country."

The guards that all waited in the town square were silenced completely as the stallion galloped for the nearby newspaper printing press. After running into one of the buildings, seemingly the location of the local gazette, he screamed at the top of his voice.

"STOP THE PRESSES!"

What actually happened...

All while my life was flashing before me, I desperately pointed my sword upwards as a prayer in being able to defend myself. I wasn't thinking too much into the results or the possibility of failure, it was either live or die. The creature's hand tried to slam down upon me, causing me to close my eyes for the eventual case of my attempt failing to stop anything and bringing an end to everything I am. It wasn't going to be pretty, and I wasn't sure if death was truly instant. I know that I would feel pain when it happened, but it was all a question of how long. Either way, I was scared to know the result.

The creature's hand cast a shadow over my body, giving me no room to escape. And as it was brought down upon me, the world got significantly darker. Even with my eyes closed, I could see that the morning light was being snuffed out. My sword was forced downwards, the pommel being driven into my chest. More and more, I felt the weight come down upon me. And as this was happening, I caught myself praying.

God, I know I haven't been very clean in life. I just tried to do the best that I could, and I wanted everyone to be happy. I want to see everyone again, I'm not ready for this yet. Please don't let me go out like this. I don't wanna die. I'm not ready to face my judgement, I have so much more to accomplish. Please don't let this be my final moment, I'm so scared. I don't wanna die. Please, I don't wanna die. Don't let them see me like this. I can't let dad and mom see me like this. I can't go back home like this. At least let me go back home whole. They deserve better than that, to see their child so disfigured. Please don't let my mother experience that, she'd be broken.

More of the weight shifted onto my chest, now causing me to have troubles breathing. By that indication, it was a definite show that I wasn't going to live. It was about that time.

God... I made several mistakes. I've probably sinned too much for me to even be in your good graces. But if I am to die here, then it is so. I may not accept it, but I know there is no other choice. I don't like how I'm being taken away from my family to serve the ultimate punishment, but if you would ease their pain... everyone's pain, then I'd ease closer to my destiny. And I know this seems like an oddball request, but there are these ponies I want you to look after and help ease their pain as well. They may not be in your master plan, but they are good folks. Give mercy and love to them, and I will proclaim that you are truly the great I AM.

Thus, I waited. I waited for the resolution that would probably never come.

"Boy, if you don't get off your butt and get moving."

For a second my eyes jumped open at the familiar voice urging me to go forward. It was my grandfather's voice. But instead of seeing his face, I saw a callous-ridden oversized hand in my face, just maybe a foot or two away from my stomach, inches away from my face. My hands felt a warm fluid trickling over them, and above me, I could hear screaming. I trembled as I felt air feed into my lungs once more, my body shook while my hands rattled the blade I held onto.

Suddenly, the creature yanked it's hand back and shook it off the blade. I was left lying on the ground, covered in it's blood. For the most part, I couldn't say anything, I couldn't even move initially. I was in shock, mentally, physically, and spiritually. The creature cried out grasping at the palm of it's hand, seeing a hole that continued to produce blood.

Without my knowledge, the muscles in my legs activated, causing me to stand up. My arms flexed as my hands regained a firm grip on my sword. When I had gotten back to my feet, I saw the creature look back at me. This time, my mind was already sending signals throughout my body, telling me that I needed to fight like hell. Without thinking about anything, I ran for it. My legs willed me into the creature, my arms and hands sent the blade into it's abdomen. With another painful cry, the creature tried to remove me from him. But when I saw the uninjured hand, I violently pulled my sword out and put every last bit of my adrenaline-enhanced strength into that swing. I felt initial resistance, but I suddenly found nothing but gravity take over.

Part of the creature's arm yanked back, only half of it remained. Looking towards the ground, I saw it's claw, flinching and flexing. And as the creature started to express shock over losing it's arm, I turned back around to slice into it's leg. That time I didn't cut completely through, but I managed to disable it's ability to stand. The creature collapsed without warning, leaving it to crawl with a bad hand. In seeing the creature crawling from me, I felt that I needed to finish the job if I were to live. And I wanted to make sure that I finished that thing off for certain.

Walking up to the creature, I drove the blade into it's side, dragging upwards until I met with the severed arm. I walked around and thrusted my sword into it's neck. And in seeing that one spurt of blood from it's jugular released a totally different feeling within me. I traded a thrust for a slice to the neck of the creature, and yet another, and yet another. Repeatedly, my sword mined for blood as a man's pickaxe mined for gold. Chunks of meat and small fragments of bone flew into the air as I hacked and hacked away at the creature. My face was splattered with it's blood, the creature stopped moving aside from the jolts it received whenever I sliced into it. I felt the fatigue eventually wear me down, bringing my swing to a weakened thud.

By the time I realized it, I had actually started swinging into the dirt.

Quietly, I wiped the blood out of my eyes with an even more bloodied shirt, causing it to smear all over my face. When I got a somewhat clearer view of things, I had realized that I had cleaved through the creature's neck, leaving not even a single muscle fiber connecting it's head to it's body. In fact, I had left a v-shaped indent in the dirt from where I was chopping. I didn't have much to say after that, I just leaned against a nearby tree, sank down and rested. My hands trembled from the absent feeling of force being placed into it, even the hilt of the blade sat lazily in my open hand. I took deep breaths, not even wanting to look back at the mess I've made.

The sound of a twig breaking didn't even move me as much, causing me to slothfully turn my head to the right. I saw the manticore from earlier, staring back at me silently. Walking towards my direction, I realized that I didn't have the energy to fight it. But it didn't seem to want anything to do with me, instead walking towards the decapitated body of the arimaspi, sniffing it, cautiously looking at me, and then walking off into the deeper parts of the forest.

...I guess we have an understanding.

Three hours later in Canterlot...

Spike sat in the corner, quietly reading a comic book as he heard the indistinguishable mutterings of an annoyed Senator Count. Stacks of documents pertaining to several legislature changes were met with disdain, a few with approval. But most of the time he shook his head while stamping the documents with a red sigil, declaring his disapproval of the document. Spike often looked at him with an unkind glare, becoming more and more incensed over what took place the previous Friday. The young dragon didn't like how he was thrown under by the senator in front of all of his friends and family. Because of the circumstance, it forced him to stay with the senator, the only one who kept his freedom intact.

So long as he stayed with the senator in his work to or from the parliament, neither the senator or his associates could be arrested. A law put in place that was to originally protect royals had then been extended to include members of the parliament and their assistants. Senator Count often quoted this clause as he stayed around the palace, sleeping in his office and remaining on castle grounds, and it continued to protect him as he hatched the most heinous conspiracies known to anyone in the senator's faction.

However, few opposed him. And Spike knew why it was so: he blackmailed everyone, including him.

The senator groaned while opening his drawer for a silver drinking flask and a bottle of pills. "I swear it's getting worse than usual." He mumbled to himself. The senator then turned to Spike as he started to throw two pills in his mouth and take a quick sip of his liquor. "My little dragon, would you mind telling me what you're reading?"

Spike didn't answer immediately, but knew that it would be best to entertain the senator's conversation... for now. "The latest issue of Power Ponies. Kids stuff, you wouldn't like it."

The senator shrugged. "I don't have a complaint for that series. In reality, I had many students who read that stuff when I was teaching back at the school. It's been carrying on for how long, twenty years?"

"The first issue came out exactly twenty-nine years, nine months, three days, and seven hours ago. The thirtieth anniversary issue will be coming out in a few months."

"Indeed." The senator stated as he took another swig of his drink. "I think it is nice to have a hobby outside of the usual grassroots politics and lobbying for the suppression of the Royals' privileges. A change to fantasy is always appreciated, though I do discourage an overindulgence in escapism."

The young dragon rolled his eyes as he closed his comic book. "Let me guess, you have something else you want me to do?"

"I'm more than glad that you are so perceptive of my demands." Praised the senator. "I do wish there were more assistants of your caliber, Princess Twilight knew not what she gave up in you, and neither does that fashionista."

The young dragon frowned as he thought about what Rarity had said to him and how she walked off from him that night. The tone she had with him was far colder than ever and Twilight seemed totally distraught in seeing him go down this route. "I just want thing to be what they once were."

"Spike, you and I do share that common belief. Conservative values are to be looked at with a fondness as opposed to a disdain for traditional moral values. And the bipedal primitive presence here is nothing short of a disturbance of that. Now young fillies and mares everywhere are fetishizing these monkeys, creating culture clubs and advocating for 'human rights'... damn him and his rights. The only right he has is the one to leave."

As much as Spike agreed with his sentiment, he didn't appreciate his method or his attitude towards him. The drake opened the door to leave as he spoke. "So what do you want me to do?"

"I want you to go fetch me a few phials of red ink. I fear that my stamp will soon dry if they keep pushing all of these proposals in my face. I swear, so much money being spent that could be put in infrastructure and they're using it to fund these supposed 'party planners', our national budget is going to keep seeing red if there's a party or 'x-festival' being held every other day of the week."

Spike thought about Pinkie Pie and her work, he then felt another strong tinge of remorse for working under the senator. "You really like hurting my friends, don't you?" He mumbled to himself.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" The senator questioned.

"I said 'You really like... cutting loose spends, don't you'?" He said with a nervous smile.

The senator shrugged at the young dragon. "Just get me the ink, please."

Spike was about to set foot out of the door before the senator's primary assistant galloped into the office, causing a whirlwind of air to enter the room. Stacks of papers fluttered all over the office floor in the wake of his speedy arrival. In his possession, he held a newspaper. "SIR, READ THIS!"

Senator Count glanced at his assistant and the mess he caused when he entered. With a groan, he telekinetically took the paper and unfolded it to read the headline. But nothing grabbed his attention quite like the photo on the front page. Instantly, the senator forgave his assistant for his transgression. Upon reading the headline, the senator knocked a few quills off of his desk and smiled from ear to ear. "By Holy Faust, HE'S A GONER!"

Spike, out of habit, started to pick up the papers off of the floor before Senator Count leapt from behind his desk and started dancing with Single File, crumpling up a few of the other documents. "I figured you would need something to cheer you up, sir."

"Just look at his face! You can see he knows it!" He shouted with a jubilant cry. "Spike, come! See the face of a creature who is no longer!"

The young dragon halted what he was doing and looked at the picture on the front page. The human he detested the most had become a front page article for what could be the last time. As he read on, he could hear the two ponies dancing and singing with one another over the likely death of their adversary. Spike wanted to smile over the news of hearing that the one who took Rarity from him had gone before him, but was reduced to a bitter state once he remembered that Rarity wouldn't have anything to do with him. And since he help get him in that front-page headline, he knew that the others would not be willing to see him anytime soon. If anything, he felt that he would be truly abandoned, especially now that the Count had gotten what he wanted and how his purpose was essentially fulfilled.

What awaited him next was a lifetime of loneliness and isolation. Cadance and Shining would not welcome him back to the Crystal Empire for this, Twilight would never want to see him again. And Rarity had long since dismissed him. As he held onto the newspaper, he began to realize the cost of his actions and what he no longer had. His worst fear had come to fruition. So for the first time, in looking at the human in the headline, he bowed his head and cried.

His desire for things to go back the way they used to be would only go unrealized.

In Ponyville...

Shining stood outside of his sister's bathroom, Twilight lying before the toilet as she heaved up the contents of her stomach. While she was in between heaves, she was heard crying loudly, mournfully in not only hearing the news of the human's possible death, but in seeing the paperwork sent to her. Shining was not too pleased in seeing his younger sister suffering in such a manner. He didn't want to think about the fact that there was a piece of paper naming her one of the top researchers in the dissection of one human cadaver.

Cadance wasn't too thrilled to hear of it either. "This is disgusting. Count DuMoneé is a monster."

Shining wanted to plug his ears as he heard his sister in so much pain. He couldn't bear to watch her go through so much. He was still in complete disbelief over the situation. "This is unbelievable. There's no basis to it other than some witness account from the journalist."

Cadance turned to her husband. "You're suggesting he was paid off to write something like this?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if that photo was made up."

The pink princess scowled as she realized that now their plans were in severe jeopardy. "Dammit, we needed him. He was the one thing that was gonna keep us afloat. And now that's gone."

The alabaster prince started to walk off as he spoke to his wife. "He's not dead, he doesn't go out that easily."

"Shining, what going on? What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking of a contingency plan. If he is dead, then we need to get him to his family. They don't need to see him in a display case in some museum. You get in contact with his brothers and let them know what's going on. They need to hear about this."

Cadance for a brief moment followed her husband into the hallway. "Hold on, you aren't going to do anything rash, are you?"

He turned back to his wife and smiled. "I wouldn't do anything you wouldn't do for me. I've got top ponies in mind for what I'm going to do."

"What? Who are you talking about─"

He turned around and placed a hoof on her muzzle, giving her a smile before he left to the weapons room. "Top. Ponies."

In Austin, Texas...

Alex drove quickly from work, making his way towards his younger brother's apartment. All while he was running through yellow lights and weaving though traffic, he got a phone call from his youngest sibling. As the Bluetooth connector in his car indicated he had a phone call, he tapped the screen on his radio to answer it. "Hello?"

"ALEX, PLEASE TELL ME THIS IS JUST SOME BULLSHIT!"

"I don't fucking know!" He hollered back. "Here I am getting a phone call from Cadance telling me that our brother could be dead!"

"HOW DO WE EXPLAIN THIS TO MOM AND DAD!?" Stanton asked frantically.

"You're asking the wrong goddamn person! And it's not like we can call him and ask either, his phone is out of service!"

"YOU TRIED CALLING HIM TOO!?"

"Why wouldn't I? He's our brother, we gotta make sure he's alive somehow!"

As he was driving, he could hear his younger brother breathing erratically on the receiver. "OH GOD! ALEX... I-I-I CAN'T DEAL! I CAN'T DEAL, ALEX! I WANNA BELIEVE HE'S ALIVE! HE HAD ALL THAT GOOD SHIT THE OTHER DAY!"

As Alex tried to calm himself down, his radio indicated yet another phone call. This time it was Melanie who called him. "I'm getting a call on the other line, hold on a sec!" He then switched off to answer Melanie. "Hello?"

"ALEX, THEY'RE GONNA FUCKING CUT HIM OPEN LIKE A FUCKING FROG!" She screamed loudly, distorting the receiver.

Alex, suddenly looking up had realized that he was going to rear end a person at a stoplight. Slamming on the brakes, he avoided the fender bender and took a few deep breaths. "Shit, I almost fucked you all the way up." He mumbled before returning his attention to the phone call. "Mel! Calm down! I'm on the way to the apartment! Stanton's on the other line, I gotta keep talking with him!"

"HOW CAN YOU BE CALM ABOUT THIS!? THEY'RE GOING TO DISSECT HIM LIKE A 5TH GRADE SCIENCE EXPERIMENT! TWILIGHT IS VOMITING HER GUTS OUT AND I'M PROBABLY GONNA HURL CHUNKS JUST FROM THE THOUGHT OF WHAT THOSE BASTARDS ARE GONNA DO!"

The light ahead turned green, Alex slowly applied his foot to the gas and spoke in a softer tone. "Mel, I gotta talk to my brother. Let me at least calm one of you down so I can stay calm. You just get to the apartment and we'll talk about everything once we get there."

"OKAY!" She answered back before hanging up, leaving him back to the conversation with his brother.

"Stanton?"

"Dude, my fucking brother's dead! They took him from us. We haven't told mom or dad what the fuck's going on. How do we do this!?"

Alex was trying his best to remain composed throughout the phone call as he heard his brother breaking down on the other end. "You, I need you not to call them just yet until we can confirm that this is real. If we see our brother again and physically see that he's not breathing, then you can call them up and have them make the arrangements.... We'll explain everything later."

"Alex, we just got him back." Stanton said as he wept.

"And we're gonna keep him for good this time, okay." He said, trying not to choke up as he spoke.

"Love you bro."

"I love you too. Get here safely, don't panic yourself into an accident. I can't lose two of you today."

In Arimaspi Territory...

After a while, I finally got off the ground and wandered back to my campsite. The aches and pains from yesterday, now with more of them built from this morning was bogging me down. Each time I took a step forward, it felt like I was walking through four feet of mud with heavy plate armor on. And it didn't get any better because I had to scavenge around the site for my equipment.

And to also kill of that one arimaspi I left blinded.

It took me two and a half hours to track down everything that was scattered in that early morning ambush. I managed to find the revolver, the shotgun, the rifle, the grenades, all my ammunition, my crossbow, the knife, the com radio, and my equipment bag. In speaking of that, I was definitely in need of some medical equipment because as it turns out, I had this incredibly large gash in my right arm that just started burning recently. It could've been the fact that I was so hopped up on adrenaline that I hadn't even noticed that I was hurt. To be honest, I thought my arm was just covered in the blood of my enemies. Guess that'll only apply to my face for now. I probably look a terrible mess and should smell like one...

Smell... Now that I think about it, when I went hunting with Gramps, he'd always tell us to mind our bodies and keep away from strong artificial scents. I guess that was one thing I overlooked when I bathed yesterday morning. I just went in the shower and walked out feeling like a million bucks, but I forgot to mind the smell of the clothing. Well can't do much of that now, I'm covered in dirt and arimaspi blood, a mix of earth and strong copper. Safe to say that I won't have access to a bath to keep myself clean, so I'll have to keep with what I have on. Maybe the mixtures of scents will throw mine off and keep them off of my trail.

In speaking of scents, I wonder if the MRE's also had something to do with that.

Looking around, I also noticed that the area had offered a pretty nice view of the sky above. I guess I also broke one of my own rules; I wandered into a clearing as opposed to a enclosed area. But now that I know that they like to hang around in the trees, that would probably be an issue as well. And it probably didn't help that I had let them gang up on me instead of taking the preemptive route and running for the hills. I also didn't set up any alarm system that would notify me of an impending threat, so I left myself wide open.

As much as this could've been a tragic end for me, it wasn't. It turned out to be a deadly learning experience, and it definitely turned out to be a one-shot prayer in the dark that managed to get me out. Guess I'll chalk that one to the mystical man above and keep it moving. And moving was definitely something I needed to do asap, the flies are starting to gather and the smell of death is getting a little pungent.

The last thing I need is to get killed by something that's been dead long before me.

It's been a total of four hours since my morning wake-up call. But I did manage some good news: I've made it to the foot of the mountain. Originally, I was going to be here by the sun's setting of yesterday evening. But things happened, mistakes were made, and calls were close. But I managed to walk away from it with more knowledge of what I was facing and how I can work around my disadvantages.

I even came away with a useful piece of information in terms of cutting down our opponents with the cruelest of efficiency.

As far as what these creatures actually are, I'm still questioning the depth of their intelligence. It may seem odd that I still am after that ambush, but I'm more curious in knowing if they can express a method of communication outside of grunts, roars, and laughs. Wolves travel in packs and can communicate with one another. Gorillas can communicate with humans, expressing a variety of emotions. But the thing that separates the realm of being sentient or sapient all relies on if they were taught to communicate with humans or if it is done naturally. Gorillas were taught sign language, and are smart enough to use it. Dogs are taught to speak or sit. Cats are taught to 'knock' or notify their owners if the need something. The logic could also go for humans and equines of this world, but our brains are far more developed than theirs.

Hell, mules, donkeys, changelings, dragons, griffons, yaks, centaurs, minotaurs, cattle (hence why I cannot eat beef here), sheep, and even special offspring of the canidae family are capable of speech and communication with other species. Even then, they have governments, societies, methods of tool-building, an ability to express consent or discontent vocally with an enhanced vocabulary. Their level of emotions surpass that of sentient animals, and it's a farcry more diverse than that of our world. Could be the magic factor, but that's a thought for another time.

So in the case of the arimaspi, is it possible for either of our species to communicate with one another? Can they be taught to do so? I do know that they can communicate with money, but they automatically have a kink for shiny things. And they can be capable of expressing laughter, but that doesn't go far enough for me. Is it possible that their savagery is because they lack an in-depth understanding of morals?

See, that's another thing. While gorillas are taught to communicate, they are born with a sense of duty and morals. If one of their kind was caught trying to rape another, the whole gathering would turn against that one and cast him out. That level of intelligence immediately registers as sapient to me. But there's been a lack of that same principle for this particular group of bodivae.

And yet, they have a very keen awareness of death. In the case of a gorilla, f they see a dead body of another animal, they leave it be. If they kill something, they leave it be. In the case of an arimaspi, they kill it and play with it. If they see something dead, they leave it out for the other species to pick up after it...

...The more I think about their mental state, the more it becomes clear that these creatures are truly of some nightmarish shit.

You know what, I think I'll reclass them as sapient, but only to a certain degree. It would take a significant event for me to consider them as otherwise.

Rumblings from with the forest alerted my ears, causing me to quickly hide amongst one of the trees. I may have been on the foot of the mountain, but I was still a distance within the treeline. Of course clearings were more apparent, but cover was still plentiful. And it didn't take much for me to hide my presence, considering that I was covered in dirt, leaves, and dried blood. In fact, that might actually help me as long as I'm within these trees.

But as three arimaspi came walking back, holding a headless arimaspi corpse in their possession, I started to realize that my encounters had dropped off by a large margin. I still ran into a few on the way here, but it seemed that their focus wasn't so much on me as it once was. Perhaps my human scent was dulled enough by the earth to thrown them off track. And it also helps that I didn't use any MRE's on the way here. Of course that left me a little hungry, but that's a risk I'm willing to accept until sunset.

I sat behind the tree, patiently watching as the three arimaspi were greeted by a fourth. This one was significantly more decorated than the others. This one had golden nose rings, a golden brace on it's left ankle, and even more gold on it's mane. If anything, this was a lot more gilded than it's lighter-shaded counterparts. The three dropped the body before the one I'd call 'Goldilocks', they then backed away with their heads hung low. Goldilocks looked at the body with a grunt and roared at the group. One of the three then presented it's head to them, placing it atop of it's own back.

"RAAAK!" Goldilocks roared viciously, repeating that same roar as it ran in a circular motion, knocking over whatever piece of wood it found loose on the ground, whatever rock was not claimed by the earth. For around thirty seconds, this continued until Goldilocks settled down, looking at the body laid before it.

The others grunted quietly. "Nak... Kadaas shigge sommda. (Sir, we're truly sorry.)"

...Okay, they are VERY sapient. I just wish I knew what they were saying.

One of the bowed creatures grunted a response. "Jaanki soodu zolzadii! Kardah vaddah yinnu Nuda goah lae jaanki. (This is unforeseen! Our Chief would never stand for this.)"

Goldilocks placed it's hand upon the corpse, examining the damage done to it. After a few seconds, a conclusion was quickly made. "Mmmmmnn... Kloppu. Kloppu ekka yindehnaae lae jaanki. (Hmm... Ponies. Ponies are responsible for this.)" He stated before pointing to the neck on the body. "Kuur, kuur. Onae jahm yoddo gadei sek maambidae. (Look, look. The neck has been cut repeatedly.)"

One of the other creatures further examined the body and groaned. "Ugi. Onae sek egunu kradrah u denagi goj. Jaanki uhe u gadduba, nanke ruudah kuus ja nago dembe. (Yes. The cut seems like a butcher job. This was a slaughter, never before seen of their kind.)"

"Nem! (No!)"

As I remained hidden, I could see a large dark-gray body approaching from the distance with another arimaspi in tow, draped over it's shoulder. The lifeless corpe seemed to have been left a while as it showed signs of rigor mortis. As the dark gray creature, whom I'll identify as 'Smokey', laid the stiff body before the other four. Afterwards, I could see a golden choker on it's neck, seemingly to signify a status of prominence. He pointed at the creature's chest.

"Ka nukk domei kloppu, vahen jaanki zobe ja owagabo. Bal vaha naag anki edajemogo, onae klaas zempabo va jaanki sheddik. (We don't recall ponies having this kind of strength. Nor have they ever displayed the tools capable of this carnage.)"

"Raak gonbo de baj mede? U griffod? (What could it be then? A griffon?)" Goldilocks grunted.

Smokey gave a response. "Nem. Dejambu ruud onae sekkabu, vaha bende jo edabu jaanke, onae zuad ja kardah bojaga noniem, vaj bende za onae indu, ja u funaaka ankonuki dobugo, bu zakkajiku ja gokkes. (No. Reports from the wounded have come to verify that the source of our sudden scourge has come in the form of a bipedal creature carrying an assortment of sticks.)" I'm sure they're having an interesting conversation that pertains to these bodies.

"Gokkes? (Sticks?)" The first lackey grunted.

"Funaak? (Biped?)" The second lackey groaned.

Goldilocks grunted back at Smokey while digging in the hole within the body of the fallen arimaspi. "Nem gokke gombo anki, zabuk jaanki ogabojuke. Ka vaha mugo gachi-bo ja kardah, nudae ona jaanki ankonuki. Moja zuulbaje soodu jaanki? (No stick could ever cause this genocide. We have lost fifty-eight of our tribe to this creature. What hellspawn is this?)"

Smokey clicked his tongue, flicking it's two fingers back and forth, the index and middle going in opposite directions to mimic how a human would walk. "Ka jambogo noju de... Funaki. (...We shall call it... Funaki.)"

Funak as biped, Kii as ape, broken down definition as 'bipedal ape, or ape-walker'.

"Bamengo un kii vaj, nen poajoge ga nuam. (Surely an ape has not evolved so much.)" Goldilocks groaned out while touching the decapitated body.

Smokey knocked against the petrified arm of the fallen arimaspi and snorted. "Bame moja uhe kuus, d'ja goge, d'ja ganti, benu d'ja zalaki bomjaku jaanke ja un kii, bakalago mu dej aboga majengi. De uhe benu zahe jaanke. de nemai jaanke ena, naum bekano ja ajiga dogak. Bomaj onae bogaki ja u kloppu, dago onae ujikobanki ja nemi. (From what was seen, it's head, it's paws, even it's posture resembles that of an ape standing on it's hind legs. It was even said that it runs that way, much similar to young dragons. Twice the size of a pony with the intellect of one.)"

Goldilocks grumbled with a low growl. "Ku moja goe soodu kanej, ikan jaanki Funaki soodu nemjigobo. (If what you say is true, then this Funaki is dangerous.)"

Smokey then proceeded to collect the two corpses beneath him. As he slung the stiffened body over his shoulder once more, he did the same with the other and bit the mane of the severed head to carry it. "M'boh u gobuje ja kardah nudae, omedi klaje ya demageki kokunji. Igaba kaj onae ankonuki Ak jegaboboa, burje nem kongu klo gokka. Kea nomo goe bojugo de... (Such a threat to our tribe should only be removed quickly. Search for the creature I described, spare no rock or tree. And when you find it...)" After collecting the head, he turned to the other three and growled with an authoritative tone. "...Kill it."

...Those two were the only words I could understand, but they were a VERY STRONG statement. So not only do they have a developed language, but it seems that they can also speak my language, at least this one can. Either way, I was trying my best not to shit myself with the imagery that I was presented with. Smokey took the two bodies and the severed head and crawled back up the mountain, Goldilocks took the two lackeys and went back into the forest for a search. The only thing that lingered was the smell of the corpses Smokey collected.

Yo... He's carrying his buddy's head... IN HIS TEETH.

That was probably the most disturbing thing I grabbed from that whole exchange, but don't think that the small amount of his spoken English was a distant second. These guys are the full package, no bullshit, no ethics for sanitation, no fucks to give. You walk in their den, you're about to get looked at... in a way so intimate that you'd get to know more of yourself in the process. 'Oh, I didn't know that my X was that color' would be some words that would come to mind. Suddenly, the shit from five years ago became monstrously terrifying, there was no way to alter the perspective.

I gotta get the hell out of here.

I know I said that I had to get out of here.

I know what I saw was enough to send any sane man off on a trip to rediscover the meaning of life or something. I know for certain that hearing that these creatures can very well speak means that I can't get away with saying anything without them picking up on it. And the fact that they're on an actual manhunt for me should be a critical factor in making the decision to leave this place in order to keep my organs in place.

So why in the hell am I following Smokey with his two dead buddies draped over his back like they were the newest fashion trend?

As he walked towards the caves on the mountainside, I was steadily finding less and less to hide behind. Every now and then there was a rock I could use as cover, but the trees had completely disappeared. It was starting to get so open that there was no possible way that I could avoid being seen. Eventually, I had to wait until he finished climbing up the mountain before I could advance. And then I had to scope the area for any other of his fellow headhunters. Thankfully, I didn't see anything that threatened to creep up the mountain behind me. No movement of trees from below, no grunts, no roars, no clicky-grunty talk, not a single trace.

After verifying that I was in the clear, I hurried up the side of the mountain and stood quietly outside of the cave's entrance. When I looked inside, I could see that the place was somewhat lit with luminescent stones and torches on the walls. Upon entering the room, he laid the two bodies to rest. A small gathering of five smaller arimaspi with shorter horns, others completely without. I can safely assume that these are females looking after the establishment while the menfolk are away.

Also on a side note: I was right. Smokey was a dude, balls as big as Boston.

The females, which I could call nannies in this case, were looking over the bodies and shared some conversation. Obviously they must be mourning their fallen.

"(More of them? I can't believe this is one creature doing this!)"

"(Disgusting, is this creature truly of ape descent?)"

"(It's too bad, we're losing some attractive mates. The next season will be a busy one with re-population in mind.)"

"(I personally wish to see what this creature looks like. It's obvious that it must be pretty strong to do this much with a stick.)"

While the others grumbled and grunted, albeit in tenor voices unlike their contrabassy male counterparts, Smokey grabbed the head from out of his teeth and placed it on the back of the corpse it was once attached to. "(The Funaki appears to linger towards the mountain. I do not understand why it is here, but it's purpose must pertain to this location, being that it's sightings were always within the vicinity of the mountain.)"

One of the females appeared to respond directly to him. "(Our tribe is already dwindling because of the stragglers who leave in search of their own riches. This kind of loss cannot be sustained for long. We will try and look for this creature and do what we can to capture it.)"

"NEM!" Smokey roared loudly, causing echos throughout the cavern. "(We will not leave it alive, just as it has not spared the fifty-eight lives it claimed.)"

"(Sixty-four.)" Another one of the females grunted. "(Sixty-four has been claimed. It seems that two have bled to death, we could not use our methods to treat them. The other four have seemed to contracted some foreign illness, they have been ex-communed to the sky chamber, where they will await their fate for the good of the tribe.)

Sky Chamber. Maspian translation: Gui Kalajigo.
The sky chamber is often used in sky burial ceremonies. It is an open-air dome where the bodies of the deceased are laid for birds and bugs to feast on. Sometimes the remains of the bodies after these burials are kept as ceremonial items or cosmetic adornments. The gold on their bodies are collected before the ritual and given to the young to grow into.

"(This creature is the bringer of death.)" Smokey growled back at the female. "(I am even more convinced that it should be treated as the ponies.)"

You know, it would be really interesting if I could decipher any of what these guys are saying. The most I can possibly get out of the two recent exchanges is that the word 'nem' must be some expression similar to a denial of passage or request. Would make a lot of sense if it was simply put as 'no.' It's probably just that given the body language Smokey uses when he says it: quick horizontal swipe of the hand and a slightly horizontal head turn. I hear the word 'Funaki' being thrown around as well, probably could translate that on a later date. I heard the word 'griffod', so I can assume that it's griffon. Kloppu... cloppu... clop... I don't get it.

Putting that business aside, I know that I can decipher a situation. And it's pretty obvious that I'm not going to be able to get in this way. If I walk in there, even if I just outright used a flashbang grenade to sedate them, it would more likely alert others in the cave and have them chase me down. I've already had enough of that from yesterday and this morning. I'm being chased as of now, no need to find myself in their home turf without any sort of guidance or assistance...

Guidance... If only they would capture me alive, I'd be willing to trail inside, talk my way to the leader, and fight my way out as opposed to fighting my way in AND out. And I know for sure that these bastards want me dead because Smokey wrote it out for me in plain English. Plus it's not like they have an ambush ready for me when I walk into one of these caves. If I walk into anything, it would be them standing there looking back at me with a grin and possibly sharpened claws and a stone club. I'm not too interested in their definition of club-hopping, it's not something I'm dying to experience.

I suppose I'll just keep looking for entrances.

Back in Ponyville...

Five humans have quietly gathered as eight ponies silently looked at the newspaper at the center of the throne room table. The princess of friendship sat at the head, her face showing signs of her crying for an extended period of time. The other at the table could do nothing but hold back tears as the image on the front page stirred a strong sense of emotion as well as an unshakable feeling of doubt and despair. Pinkie was the only one of the ponies who kept a stoic resolve.

The humans, on the other hand, were not so calm. Alex was trembling, Melanie cried lightly while trying her best to not break all the way. Stanton paced back and forth while blaming himself for the situation that lead up to his assignment. Cliff sat on the ground with his head resting on his knee and a forearm covering his face, still overcome with disbelief. Rickey got on one knee and proceeded to pray while holding his bible. While he prayed, Stanton shook his head at the sight. "You know he doesn't believe in God, right?"

Rickey broke his prayer and responded. "It ain't gonna stop me from praying for him."

Stanton sighed with a sense of resignation before he spoke. "Yeah... I guess that's all we can do. Pray to God that my brother is still alive somewhere."

Cadance took pity over the humans and offered her words. "I know that you wish for it to be one way. But just know that no matter the result, we will still be here to support you. I want him to be alive too, but you'll have to forgive me for my lack of faith."

Applejack traced the outline of her hat as she spoke. "I know you guys wanna see him again, and I know that you all wanna be able to confirm what's really going on. But I gotta ask... Is it really something we're prepared to see?"

"Don't talk like that." Melanie pleaded. "It's like you know he's gonna be dead."

Twilight finally spoke, her voice sounding damaged and broken. "Statistically speaking..." She swallowed to remove the words that tried to choke her. "Chances of a return on a solo mission to the mountain is calculated to be 5.2 percent. Chances of surviving multiple days in such an environment drops it to 3.1 percent."

Cliff interrupted her. "Well I'm hoping for that 3.1 to become 31 percent."

Pinkie followed up on his statement. "I see 310 percent. He's gonna make it through. I know Nonny, he doesn't let this get to him."

Fluttershy quietly spoke up as she continued to look at the image on the front page. "I know this may seem grim, but I think that the arimaspi in this picture got to him far quicker than we could ever do anything for him."

Shining looked to his guardian Flash Sentry, and whispered to him. "Has the preparations been made?"

"Got him on the Crystal Express line. He's good and sealed up, so he won't be getting loose anytime soon."

"Good job." Shining praised the young guard. "We just gotta get to him before anypony else does."

"We even have a few of those crates you told me to grab from the other room. Are you sure this is a good idea, sir?"

"This is our only option of getting in without having to worry about getting too close. Unless you wanna fight those bastards mono-a-mono, this is the safest option."

Flash groaned with uncertainty as he cringed. "Sir, let's think about this. These are foreign weapons, that only you trained for, which you've never even used in a combat situation, much less against a group of larger opponents capable of wiping out an entire platoon."

"Hence our other weapon on the train."

Flash decided not to argue the point any further, realizing that it was no use in debating. "Your highness, I hope this works for us, or they'll be looking for OUR bodies."

"Just follow my lead, and you'll be fine." The prince said before he mumbled to himself. "I'm not making the same mistake twice."

Cadance and the others had finished their conversation when she turned to her husband. "Is everything ready to go?"

"Yeah, we're all set." Shining stated openly while giving his wife a salute.

She then turned to Twilight to see how she was holding up, noticing that she was still somewhat unstable. The pink princess drew a long breath before she summoned a clear crystal orb to give to Shining. "This will allow for us to communicate with one another. From what the humans state, the strength of the signal their devices use to communicate with one another fades out past the Everfree Forest. You know how to use it."

"Uh-huh." Shining hummed to himself while he took the orb and placed it inside of his travel sack. "I got it. Stay safe, don't get in too much trouble, run a five-point scan of the area before settling in, blah-blah-blah, don't die."

Cadance forcefully grabbed her husband by the chin as she spoke. "Yeah, but guess what, asshole? Remember the last time you went there? Don't put me through that again."

"Promise." Shining said just before his wife gave him a long kiss on the lips. As he pulled back, she gave him one more peck for good luck and cleared his mane out of his eyes to look at them one more time.

"You can't keep doing this crazy shit and not put foals in me."

"Meh, I'll think about it."

Later That Evening in Appleloosa...

Often the scene in a saloon would normally be rowdy, loud, and filled with drunken mischief. There would normally be someone who was causing issues at the bar, screaming for another drink. But the bartender was wiping off a glass in peace, the squeaks it produced could be heard across much of the room. The saloon, however was not empty, quite the opposite. The entire platoon that was sent on the mission gathered there to discuss the future of the assignment and the eventual course of the mission. As it was previously determined, Rainbow Dash presided over the conversation.

The train engineer was still denying the image that was sent to every newspaper in the town, throughout the nation for that matter. Many of the townsfolk called him mad or so far in denial, but he retorted by stating what all he saw from the human. "I swear, he's out there alive! He's still ripping those bastards to shit!"

One of the guards looked at him with a hopeless frown. "Then I'm pretty sure these photos are actually hyper-realistic paintings then?"

The engineer argued once more. "I'm not denying what's in the photo, I'm just saying there's a possibility of his not dying. If you saw how he fought those beasts once he got off the train, you'd agree with me."

"Well we didn't." Private Humbreeze replied. "We can't just simply ignore the fact that he hasn't been on the link or anything for the past day."

The engineer once more argued the point. "Well it could be that he's in enemy territory. Would you break your cover and make a call to us when you're behind enemy lines?"

The private then answered. "I would if my life depended on it, or if it was an emergency! What if this was the result of an ambush? If so, then there's little chance of him living past that! A cave of twenty-plus arimaspi wiped out a small platoon like it was nothing! You honestly expect that they wouldn't do the same to him or us?"

Rainbow finally broke her silence as she stared at the mug of foamy apple cider sitting before her. "He's not gonna call for help."

The young private then turned his words to her. "And why not!? Was it not him who said that we should fear each other, because our lives were in each other's hooves? Our lives are in his hands, and he's possibly somewhere in the forest being drug in the dirt!"

Rainbow quickly answered him. "You should remember that he left us all here while he went out there into danger by himself. Nondis went on a glory trip, this isn't about us, it's about those politicians who sent us here. He left to make a statement, a dumb one."

Once more, the young guard tried to bring up another point. "B-but he said that he didn't send us with him because of the hell he was going to bring."

And just as quickly, Rainbow shot him down. "Let me explain this in a way you should be able to understand. All of us, every last one of us, are placed under his responsibility. That's thirty lives on his shoulders, all placed there because one politician exploited his tendencies and placed him in a compromising situation. Why you ask? Because he's kissing a young princess who's probably having second thoughts right now. What purpose does this serve? He tried to make a statement saying that he'd still go out there and take the brunt for us, because his own ego got hurt and he got blackmailed. He won't tell you that much, but the hell he's bringing is probably translated to 'Don't follow my corpse.' There it is, the manifesto of our 'late' captain."

The room grew silent once more. Even as the others looked into their drinks, the young guard dropped his head in defeat. The engineer was even left without words, the bartender continued to wipe his glasses and clean the counter. Downburst was the first to quietly bring up the question. "Then... what do we do?"

Rainbow clenched her teeth and closed her eyes, looking back to the engineer. "...It's only been a day. He told us to give him four days at most to let things ride out. If Nondis IS alive, he'd get in touch with us. If not, then we withdraw as his orders stated."

Another one of the guards then raised the hoof to question her. "But if he's already dead, then why are we still here?"

The cyan pegasus kept her eyes closed, still clinging to hope while she tried to appear unphased. "Let's say he didn't die. And then he tries to get in contact with us tomorrow or something. If he were to live through all of this, radio us a message to come get him, and we're not in place but quietly sitting back home, then we would've left one of our own behind, correct?"

Humbreeze shook his head without a shred of hope. "It took a little over a week before they saw the bodies on the hill just five years ago. What makes you think we'll hear from him or even confirm that he's dead before the next three days?"

Suddenly, another voice interjects. "Corporal Dash has a point."

The entire room of guards turned their heads to the front door, seeing another fellow guard standing in the way. As he walked in, he continued to speak.

"Nopony gets left behind, even if it is in Arimaspi Territory."

Humbreeze jumped out of his seat and screamed violently, throwing his helmet at the guard. "FUCK YOU! THEY LEFT MY SISTER TO ROT! NOPONY GET'S LEFT BEHIND? EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM GOT LEFT BEHIND, AND IT TOOK A WHOLE FUCKING WEEK AND THEN SOME TO GET THEM BACK! WE COULDN'T EVEN SEE HER BECAUSE OF THE SMELL! WE HAD TO FUCKING CREMATE HER BECAUSE SHE WAS RENDERED AS A GODDAMN BIO HAZARD! FUCK YOU!!!"

Flash Sentry, staring back at the young guard with widened eyes and flared wings, collected himself and picked up the helmet that was thrown to him. "Sorry for your loss. I'm sure if things were different back then, you'd still have her with you. But that's not the case, it's in the past. I can't ever hope to tell you that I know your pain or that I can understand, I sympathize with you. But meaning that process was bypassed for the sake of saving the lives of the survivors, it's not without reason. Those who knew their time was done, they did what they could to buy time."

Humbreeze didn't back down from his stance. "TIME FOR WHAT!? GIVE ME BACK EVERY LAST ONE OF THESE FIVE YEARS I HAD WITHOUT MY SISTER, THE TIME MY MOTHER SPENT CRYING OVER HER GRAVE! BUY ME THAT! I'M FUCKING TIRED OF BEING LIED TO AND FINDING OUT THAT EVERYTHING WE DID WAS FOR NOTHING!"

Flash gave him back his helmet and maintained his discipline for a moment. "There is not a single moment where our work is 'for nothing'. If anything, this past month has been a testament to how much we do for our country. And if you ever got to experience the things I did, private, you'd recognize that our purpose is hardly for naught. We're the one thing between danger and our citizens. So if our guards are citizens, naturalized or natural-born, we make sure that we collect on each and every one of them." After placing the helmet on the table, Flash then yanked the young stallion and slammed him on the table next to it. "And the next time you make an outburst like that against your superior, I will be sure to have you shipped to deep-freeze to cool off. Do you copy?"

The young guard grunted with anger as he complied. "Solid copy."

After he left the young guard on the table, he turned his attention to Rainbow Dash. "Staff Sargent, being that you're the highest ranked here, I need a sitrep."

Rainbow jumped out of her seat and saluted the guard. "First Lieutenant Flash Sentry, what are your demands?"

"There's some business to discuss with you, comes from a higher paygrade. You're with me from now on until our assignment is completed."

Rainbow looked back to the room of guards and expressed herself. "With all due respect, sir, this platoon has been placed under my care."

"We have another to take your place. We need you on staff for your eyes."

As Flash continued to explain the situation, Rainbow noticed Soarin walking right past them, he gave her a quick nod before he brought himself before the group of guards. With a loud boisterous voice, he called out to the room.

"COMPANY, ATTENTION!"

Later on the Crystal Express...

The exquisite caboose was hardly filled with anyone as four ponies sat in the cart. Rainbow Dash quietly listened to Flash's perspective of the news breaking in town. Though it appeared to have taken place a few hours after it broke in Appleloosa, the effects would still be the same. Ponies who were saved from the changelings started to organize various vigils around town while Princess Celestia tried to calm the citizenry. The political response appeared to be mixed, with varying emotions on either side of the room. But the most important thing she was notified of was the response her friends had to the news.

Though the cyan pegasus remained quiet about the situation, she felt herself slowly losing her ability to maintain her facade over the news. But she tried her hardest not to let her emotions show. As she was being debriefed, the mare paced her breathing to prevent herself from breaking composure.

"So what you're saying is that we can't leave his body here?" She asked sadly.

"Under normal circumstances, even the humans would be fine with him being buried in Equestrian lands. However with the recent developments that came forth, it would be best to return the body to the humans so that it can get buried." Flash explained.

"And what's stopping him from being buried here?" She questioned.

"We believe there is a forged document that stated he gave consent to the Ministry of Science and Magical Research to retain his remains for research purposes. And to top it all of, paperwork is being pushed by a certain political faction to have the Princess of Magic to assist in the research since her knowledge of humans was deemed beneficial."

She clenched her eyes shut as that bit of information hit her exceptionally hard. She started to realize that there was more difficulty in remaining emotionally stable when finding out your friend is set to be the newest science museum piece. "So they're trying to get Twilight to engage in a crappy science experiment to dissect her special somepony? That's ridiculous!"

"From what I was informed, the princess was vocal about her thoughts of the idea. And it also seems that the humans are very much unsatisfied with the circumstances, stating that there would be severe consequences if the whole process goes through as planned."

In the back of her eyelids, she envisioned the angered expressions on both Alex and Stanton's faces. And she knew what the were capable of after seeing what happened with the changelings just a few days ago. Her stomach turned at the thought. "...I can only imagine."

"To safely put it, Princess Cadance has made a very strong point that we would evacuate the body quickly and without notice so that he can be returned to his family to be laid to rest."

Rainbow caught herself wiping the blur out of her eyes, only to find her hooves coming out with streaks of wetness on them. Her breath grew shorter and shorter as those key words became the final breaking point. After an entire morning, afternoon, and evening of trying to keep herself from crying, she had finally come to terms that her friend was gone. As she sat on her haunches, she found her exterior rapidly deteriorating, revealing a much softer and broken side of her. She sniffled, trying to stave away hysterics. Stomping on the ground, she vented her frustration and anger over the situation, at last leaning against one of the seats with half her mane covering her face. More tears fell from her cheeks while she whispered to herself. "...I can't believe this is happening..."

Flash realized that she hadn't given herself a chance to mourn and immediately reconsidered giving her the assignment. He then walked over to one of the doors and opened it for her to leave. "I know how saddened you are, and I completely understand if you wanted to stay here. Chances are it's not gonna be pretty when we show up. The mission is dangerous and could be a very traumatizing experience if you were to─"

The cyan pegasus let out a high-pitched scream and smacked herself, the impact being so powerful that she stumbled afterwards and broke her crying spell if only for that moment. Flash ran up to her to make sure she was okay, only to be shrugged off. "I'm already on an assignment that's gonna send me over to the mountain anyhow. All this is gonna do is help me confirm whether or not I need to send my company back home."

"Soarin's already arranging that. As soon as the word comes through, your company will be sent back to Ponyville Station. You'll be sent back home as well, it will be labeled as a failure, but I have a strong feeling that the politicians and press won't have too much of a grievance about it, especially with your name being thrown in the mix."

Appearing to be a little more stable, Rainbow gave him her answer. "You said you needed my eyes. Just tell me what I'm looking for."

Rainbow Dash quietly sat on the train, watching the scenery pass by. As the sun's rays were quenched by the horizon, she stared down at the lip of the window seal. A storm of melancholy and despair stirred within her mind while thoughts of her friend made her realize how little time she truly spent with him. Many of the questions she had about him, including the ones she had in relation to him and her, would go unquestioned while she went off to meet with him for what could possibly be the last time. It was the all-too-familiar sensation of a bitter farewell wished upon someone far too soon.

It's always difficult to lose an acquainted coworker in any circumstance, much less having to bear the idea of their voice being doomed to slowly become a faded noise. She clenched her jaw and her eyelids closed shut to stop more tears from welling up. The five other crystal guards on the train watched the mare and tried their best to offer words of laughter, healing, joy, whatever could be categorized as a positive emotion.

"You know... I heard many good things about him. Even the prince makes a few comments about how he wants to shove his hoof in his ass come the rematch of their spar." One guard said as he cleaned his sword.

"I heard he was always getting in way over his head, but that he'd somehow come out of it. I just don't believe he'd check out like this." Another guard stated as he checked the tip of his spear.

"You guys are sitting here talking about the guy, and you hardly even know him." A third guard argued. "Do you believe in all of the rumors you hear?"

"I'm just basing everything off of what I've been told." The first guard stated.

The third guard shook his head while he checked his crossbow. "I swear, someone of a prominent position dies and you guys start chattering like you hung around him for a deployment or two."

"I heard he wore a dress one time." The fourth guard added, causing Rainbow to chuckle a little bit.

All the guards looked at the mare as she slowly let herself laugh at that one mention and poked at her over it. "It seems like she might know something about that."

Rainbow turned away from the window as they entered the tunnel moving into the mountain range. "Yeah. Turns out he lost a bet when that happened."

The five other guards looked to one another as they smiled and gathered around the rainbow-maned pony. "Really?" The fifth guard questioned. "Can you tell us more about him?"

The third guard rolled his eyes and scoffed. "If you're going to blow him now, you might was well be aware of the fact that he's not getting hard anytime soon."

The other four guards brushed off his comments and vied for the mare to continue her story. "Nevermind him, he's just mad that he's a rental." The first guard said with a dismissive tone.

The third guard snarled at the stallion's sentiment. "So I guess that our worrying about the inevitable encounters with creatures almost six times your size isn't nearly as important as learning about paltry gossip parlor. No wonder the guards will always be seen as incompetent, even the leadership is just as useless."

While the others felt mildly offended by the stallion's words, Rainbow took them personally and directed her quandary back to the guard. "Look, whatever the hell is your problem, it's got nothing to do with us. And you're probably some green-boot momma's boy who couldn't even fathom what it takes to be in the E.U.P. Guard. You have no idea what we sacrifice in our daily lives for the citizens we protect."

The guard immediately responded. "I know when I see fridge operation, I call it as it is: Fresh meat sent for slaughter for the sake of political viewpoints, geological appropriation, and socioeconomic greed. You know nothing of me."

Finally, Flash and Shining entered the cart dressed in dark green camouflage robes. The prince held out six similar garments and distributed them to the others with a scowl on his face. "Put these on, ditch your armor."

When the other guards realized that they would be without optimal protection, they started to feel uneasy and quickly raised concerns about the situation. "Uh sir, with all due respect─"

Shining lashed back at the guard who questioned him. "Do you wanna give away our position every time you so much as take a step forward? Do you realize that where we're going is considered as hostile territory? Stealth is our only approach here. If you wanna live to see the Empire again, I suggest you follow my lead. No questions asked, got it?"

The stallion saw a hint of something cold in the prince's eye. Instantly, he acknowledged the prince's commands. "Y-y-yes sir!"

As soon as the first guard grabbed his garments, the others were already dressed by the time he even got started. Rainbow proceeded to change on the other side of the train, where the other stallions couldn't glimpse at her and rejoined the group once Flash pulled out a blue bin from the caboose just ahead. Rainbow immediately recognized what the bin was and saw Shining pull out a travel bag and filled it with magazines. Next he pulled out an ACR and inspected the weapon for the safety function. After going through the weapons check he was taught by Rickey, he gave a hearty snort with a triumphant stomp of his right hoof. "Now it's my turn." He whispered to himself, closing his eyes and reminiscing on the days gone by.

Rainbow walked up to him and whispered. "Why are you using the humans' weapons? None of us know how to use this stuff."

"I do." Shining states matter-of-factly. "And when those monsters even think of looking our way, they're going down right where they stand."

The group arrived at the drop-off point, just where the other engineer marked his stopping point. As soon as they got off the train, they were greeted with an unimaginably foul stench that caused two of the guards to gag. Rainbow and Flash covered their snouts with disgust while guard number three and Shining didn't even so much as budge. The alabaster unicorn took point and looked around the drop-off point and saw that the area was clear. There was almost no sign of an arimaspi in the area, but only stains of dried brown remained baked into the grass. Guard number three walked over to one of the spots and scraped it with his hoof, seeing that a little of it chipped away.

"Obviously something violent took place here." He pointed out. "Could be to our advantage if we'd simply follow the trail of blood."

Shining looked at the photo of the human frantically battling the arimaspi, the same image that graced headlines across the nation. As he looked at the trees around it, he saw that the tree he rested on had a deep gash five feet above where the human laid. Also observing the lighting of the photo, he deduced that this event took place in a fringe area where an opening was close by. "We head straight in the direction of that mountain. Going by what I see in this picture, it seems like he was last seen close to a clearing. We'll have to get closer to the foot of the mountain and then search for a tree with a deep gash in it."

Guard number three looked at the surrounding trees and deadpanned. "This place is riddled with gash marks. This is also a clearing and an area that's close enough to the mountain where the canopy above isn't a complete sun quencher."

Shining grumbled and pointed to the brown streaks leading into the forest. "I'm not arguing your suggestion, in fact I'm more into following it."

The guard rolled his eyes and marched forward. "I guess this will have to do then. I still can't shake the feeling that we're walking into a trap."

"Not this time." Shining grumbled while trotting forward into the forest.

Flash and Rainbow noticed that the two had an odd chemistry between them, it seemed that the third guard was mostly out of order, but Shining didn't immediately correct him like he would any of the others. It stood out all the more considering the fact that he jumped down the throat of one of the other guards just earlier on the train about the camouflage robes. To see him deal with such a mouthy guard with such patience was unusual.

"Hey, Flash." Rainbow started to question. "What's the deal with those two?"

"Apparently, they both served with one another way back when. I guess that camaraderie between them is stronger than what we could produce with him at the moment."

Rainbow shook her head with disbelief. "Wait a minute, no way. Shining would jump in my tail if he'd caught me talking to him like that."

"Just like I'd jump in both of your tails now." Shining interrupted, levitating the two pegasi to the middle of the pack after being left behind. "Now shut the fuck up and march." The two looked to each other and carried on while showing a desire of not being mauled at verbally. The third guard chuckled and turned to the road ahead.

"I see he's still just as diva as ever."

Much of the forest has turned a deep purple, indicating that the sun was taking even more light than what the group was comfortable with. The crystal guards that joined Shining and the others have already begun to lose their confidence, slowly growing even more intimidated by the eerie lack of conflict they've experienced. From what they were informed, they were expecting some encounters just from getting off of the train. But it seemed to be the exact opposite. Even as Shining mumbled to himself how all of this seemed familiar, it only made the others more uneasy.

Rainbow Dash kept a good eye out for any sudden movements, which were often the cause of birds and forest creatures. She was already starting to feel like the other guards. Flash tried his best to put on a brave front, but his shaking legs were a stark contrast to his face. The third guard seemed too collected for the group they traveled in, causing Rainbow to inwardly question his sanity.

"Keep your eyes sharp, they may just try to surprise us." Shining noted quietly, causing one of the guards to swallow his spit to moisten his dry, nervous throat.

"They already have." The third guard whispered, causing everyone to stop and stare at him. "This smell... It's a weak stench, but it's the smell of one of them tracking us."

"How are you so sure?" Flash questioned.

The third guard turned to the orange pegasus. "I did a scouting five years ago in this area. Our group managed to kill one that tried to swat us around, when it roared at us, I could smell it's breath, so strongly that I've come to identify the smell immediately from a short distance. After so many of them, you learn to identify what's what, whether it's a pile of dung, a puddle of piss, or even a corpse. And they have the lung capacity to breathe on your neck from even five feet out. But bad breath is still noticeable from twenty feet out."

"You mean to tell me that it's been following us?" Rainbow asked.

Shining lifted the rifle and readied himself for an encounter. "And we should be seeing it soon, now that we've brought attention to it."

The sound of a branch breaking from behind them caused them to sharply turn their heads to the rear, while Shining and the third guard continued to look forward in anticipation of it landing. And without fail, the creature descended upon their path with a powerful thud, landing on it's hind legs and front claws.

The immense size of the shockwave it made upon landing caused much of the group to fall to the ground. One of the other guards whimpered as he realized what he signed up for. "Holy crap, that thing's huge."

A loud roar came from his mouth, spewing forth an unpleasant odor and giving the guards a strong confirmation of the third guard's testimony. "It's coming this way!" Yelled as the creature started to charge for them.

Shining cocked the rifle and frantically aimed it for the creature's head. With a cheeky grin, he summoned his magic to pull the trigger. But his expression changed to abject horror as the only thing that was produced was a single click from the weapon. "SHIT!" He called out with a frustrated groan. With the creature barreling towards them, he emitted a shield to protect the group, which required him dropping the rifle from his telekinesis and applying that to his total magic strength. When the creature's claws came in contact with Shining's shield, the stallion buckled back three steps from the impact. While the stallion grimaced, the other crystal guards felt their morale immediately crumble to nothing and they ran to hide amongst the trees. Rainbow was left paralyzed from the amazing display of strength the creature had shown. Flash tried to fly in and distract the creature, only to anger it into wildly swiping the air around it.

Seeing that the situation had gotten dangerous, the third guard ditched his cloak and yanked out a sword. "Oh for Faust─"

Without any further hesitation, he charged from the creature while it's back was turned to the group, still trying it's best to swat Flash out of the sky. The earth pony stallion then ran between it's legs and sliced the tendons connecting it's haunches to it's hooves. The creature stumbled and fell with much resistance, trying to grab at one of the trees. Flash drew his crossbow and fired a few bolts into the back of the downed creature, causing very little damage.

The brown stallion came back to action and ran for the creature's shoulders, slicing the very pit of it's arms, blood and matted fur flying everywhere as the sword escaped the bloodied entanglement. Flash shot another bolt into the back of the creature's neck, causing it to cover it after it was wounded. The stallion groaned as his job was made a little more difficult and elected to improvise. Driving his sword into the creature's arm, he quickly withdrew the blade and jumped into an open space where the side of it's neck was exposed. With surgical precision, he drove the sword into the side of it's neck, causing for it to lose blood rapidly.

The creature fell into shock, twitching as the stallion jumped off of the body and grabbed it's bloody sword with disdain for the creature he brought down. One of the other guards who hid in the trees jumped back down while praising the stallion. "Whoa... He's on a whole other level of fighting with these things."

While the others proceeded to praise him, Rainbow Dash grew indignant from the sight of him. Upon tossing his cloak away, she immediately identified him. Flash flew beside her and gave her a pat on the back. "Phew! If he wasn't here, I'd be dead."

Caramel walked up to Shining, who had picked up the rifle with disappointment. He spat at the alabaster prince. "'A revolutionary method of combat?' The only 'revolution' I see is your head once they knock it off."

After picking up the rifle, Shining saw that the chamber was still empty. He quietly swore to himself as he cocked the slide and bore witness to one of the rounds falling in place. "I shorted it, that's all." Shining argued.

"And in using a weapon you never once practiced with for use in formal combat, you almost paid with the lives of yourself and your squadron. Going in on preparation without any proper practice, some things never change." The brown stallion snarled through gritted teeth.

"Rainbow Dash!" Flash hollered as he tried to pull back the cyan pegasus.

While she was being restrained, she continued to lash out against the stallion as violently as she could. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE YOU SON OF A BITCH!? YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE WASTING AWAY IN JAIL!"

Caramel rolled his eyes as he turned back to the mare and scoffed at her. "And undisciplined guards? I see your prima donna ways have led to a lack of principles and conduct. No wonder the rest of you lot are incompetent."

By that point the other guards went from admiring him to feeling contempt for his statement. As he marched onward into the forest, past the dying arimaspi, Shining used his magic to freeze her in place. "Rainbow, let him go." He calmly ordered.

"But he hurt Pinkie, and now he's standing out here?!" Rainbow lashed out at the prince.

Shining walked beside her as he continued to hold her in place. Not even looking at her, he whispered towards her sternly. "You either wanna live or you wanna join Nondis. Your choice."

Rainbow stopped lashing out at him, only for the thought of her friend being dead to swirl around her mind once more. An overwhelming sadness brought her argument to near-silence. Shining felt that her physical resistance had dropped significantly and released her from his telekinetic hold. She clenched her eyes shut and walked off seething in anger. She continued to mumble at the prince, still showing dissatisfaction over his decisions. "I never thought that the brother of Twilight Sparkle would be so stupid. I guess brains don't run in the whole family."

Shining walked in front of her and stood over her as he growled his response. "I am still your commanding officer, and you will treat me with the utmost respect. You have no choice in the matter, you do it, you accept it, and you will like it."

Realizing that she couldn't disobey the orders from a commanding officer as well as a standing royal, she clicked her tongue and grumbled through gritted teeth. "Yes sir."

After she begrudgingly accepted her orders, the rainbow-maned pegasus flicked her tail once and stormed off. Caramel chuckled at the peeved prince. "No discipline, low morale, and we're on a mission to find something that's in the possession of the arimaspi. I didn't think that history could be so deja vu."

Shining then turned his attention to the former guard and gave him a similar stare. "You shut it, I'm only tolerating you because of your skills."

The stallion shrugged his shoulders with a sarcastic smile. "Or you could just ship me back off to the prison, but I suppose that's a risk you'd be willing to take then?"

A quiet sound of teeth grinding against each other was heard by much of the group as Shining Armor stared at the stallion. He decided not to entertain him and his mind games any longer. "...Let's go. Everypony, shut up and keep moving."

Shining started to walk forward as Caramel made yet another remark. "Remember Shining, there's no innocent mare for you to take advantage of this time, nopony to unload your frustrations on."

Shining ignited his horn and immediately raised the rifle to his side, his anger almost pushing him to aim the weapon at the stallion. He took a deep breath and stopped himself before he devolved into killing the stallion in cold blood. He once more gave his order, this time with a blood-culling tone. "Let's... move..."

Caramel obeyed his order, as did the rest of the group, who now shared a disdain for the former guard's attitude. The brown stallion didn't show much concern for their reaction to him or their sour expressions. He simply walked past them as if they were so far beneath him. As the group followed Shining and Rainbow, the stallion mumbled to himself while he looked at the prince.

"Guess I hit a tender spot. But realize, if you still sting from it, then you should know that I was burned by it, for five continuous years."

Shining continued to lead the group as they arrived at an open area where the moon could be seen above. The stars above started to gather all around the sky, while the sound of nocturnal creatures created the ambiance capable of putting any casual listener to rest. Shining, however, didn't find that it was an appropriate time to take in the sounds. His eyes were met with a unusual scene in the clearing. "This seems to be the spot."

Caramel walked beside him, bumping him out of the way. "Well, wouldn't you know it, it's the old stakeout spot. Songbell, Fair Weather, and I used this spot to map out the arimaspi migratory patterns."

Flash looked around and saw that there was hardly any cover to use aside from a fallen tree. "I don't see how you could camp out here, it's way too open."

"There was a tree here." Caramel explained as he looked to the fallen log. "A large trunk with a nice area we hollowed out to accommodate for three ponies. Seems it was uprooted recently."

Rainbow Dash got a closer look at the tree, noticing that many of the leaves were still very green and healthy. She also took note of how the dirt and roots seemed to be elevated in an unnatural manner often seen when trees uproot and fall over. "Not just uprooted, pulled out of the ground."

The fifth guard walked around the area and stepped on something hard. When he moved his hoof, he could see an unusual yellow cylinder with a brass base. He picked it up off of the ground and showed it to the group. "What in Equestria are these little barrels for?"

Shining walked over and saw the item the guard held. Immediately, he confirmed what it was. "That's a shotgun shell. Nondis was here!"

While the group had circled around the unusual item, Flash took notice of another disturbance in the forest. He saw a clearing in the bush, seemingly cleared away by a sharp object. In the distance, as the pale moonlight highlighted another opening in the canopy, He saw a tree with a large scratch in the bark. "Um sir, you said to look for an area where there's a large gash in a nearby tree, right?"

Shining threw the used round aside as he trotted over to Flash's side. "You found it?"

"Seems like it. Also looks like the area's been leveled. Branches and smaller trees seemed to be either knocked aside or cut to size."

Caramel walked beside the two stallions and looked at the tree in the distance. "I remember this place, our stakeout group ran into a smaller arimaspi here. Rare occurrence of a female leaving the mountain to forge for food. It found us and we had to fight it off. Thankfully it's size made it a far-cry easier to put down, but it didn't go easily. It tried to swipe down Fair Weather against that tree, but Songbell dealt the finishing blow."

Shining turned to his most gifted flier and gave her a clipping of the picture from the newspaper and issued an order. "Rainbow, I need you to fly up and confirm the angle of that photo. If it matches, then we got the right spot."

Without even saluting or giving a vocal response, she took the picture and quietly flew into the air, past the verdant ceiling and a considerable distance from the forest floor. She hovered around the area, trying to match the perspective of the photo with her own. In the matter of a few seconds, she caught a similar angle and raised the picture in front of her, a complete match. Without warning, she jettisoned towards the tree, leaving the others below to just simply go by her example.

"She's not even going to come back to us and confirm it?" Caramel joked.

Shining didn't need a verbal confirmation, her response was more than enough to convince him that they had the right angle. While he and the others were catching up, she landed just a few feet from the base of the tree, staring quietly at a small puddle of blood on the foot of the tree. She trembled as she held the photo, looking between it and the tree before her. Shining called out to her. "Dash!"

She turned to the prince and pointed at the spot where he was supposed to be laying. Her eyes showed a terrible emptiness, her voice trembling as she started to fear the worst. "He's... he's not here."

Caramel sighed as he shook his head. "Well... I suppose they took him in for a good time before they'll eventually leave him to pasture on the hills."

The other guards turned the heads downward in a solemn display, realizing that their mission was a failure. Flash offered to comfort Rainbow Dash as she folded her ears and collapsed under her own weight. "So, he's gone?" She questioned weakly.

Shining brought a hoof to his face and pressed as he felt himself lose confidence and faith. The others remained silent while Rainbow sobbed softly. Flash patted her head as she took in the news. He was left with nothing much to say that would bring comfort. In the end, they couldn't even bring a body or any remnants of him back because of this. Caramel showed disinterest, seemingly bored while also wanting to repeat the words 'I told you so' in ad nauseam. While everyone had their moment of silence, Flash couldn't help but to notice something odd about this. One outstanding fact resonated in his head:

If a pony were to be crushed in such a manner, it would leave more blood than this. If a human is twice the size of a pony, then shouldn't there be even more blood on the tree? "...Wait a minute."

The orange pegasus slowly placed Rainbow back down as he started to investigate even further. When he looked at the tree, he noticed that there was indeed blood spilled, but there was an outline of where the blood fell and didn't. There was only one conclusion that came to his mind as Caramel stared at the suddenly-lively stallion. "What?"

"He's gone, but he's not dead." Flash stated.

Shining opened his eyes and walked towards Flash as Caramel rolled his eyes at the thought. "Excuse me?"

"This area here, the blood stains here seem to be fresher than the other places we've looked. And if he died against this tree, then there'd be way more blood than what's on it now."

"It still smells like death." Caramel pointed out.

"That's true, but it's much too similar to the smell we encountered once we got off." Flash stated. "Albeit it's much less concentrated, it's distinctive qualities are still present.

"I'd like to think that we all rot the same way." Caramel stated in deadpan.

Flash walked over to an area next to Shining Armor, where there was a definite sign of blood being spilled indiscriminately. He walked over to the drying puddle and saw the dark crimson streaks trail from there to the direction where the mountain was. "Yes, but these track marks, they indicate that something large was forcibly moved from here, and quickly at that."

Rainbow rose off of the ground and tried her best to collect herself as she questioned him. "An arimaspi?"

Shining looked at the streaks and saw more of them trailing towards the mountain. As he saw that, it started to click in his mind as well. "That explains so much... They're collecting their dead. That's probably why we haven't seen any of them near the rails."

Caramel dismissively waved his hoof at the prince and scoffed. "So you mean to tell me that the creature I easily defeated one-on-one in a back alley is the one doing this to the arimaspi?"

Flash examined the puddles of blood even more, especially in one area where it seemed like the dirt was an indication of the kill. "There seems to be a large collection of blood here, and also appears to be a bit of a miniature trench dug here. It's not thick at all, but it looks to be similar to the work of either a shovel or axe."

Shining nodded with confirmation. "Nondis carries a sword that reaches up to his chest. So it could be possible that he killed the creature that made an attempt on his life..."

Rainbow, who seemed to breathe with new life and energy as she started to feel optimistic. "And the picture that was captured was actually a fake?"

"Not a fake, but misleading. The one who snapped the photo probably knows the truth behind it." The first guard stated while looking at the puddle of blood.

"He just told me that Nondis was dead, confirmed by his own eyes." Rainbow argued.

Caramel, who once was a skeptic of the whole situation, realized that there were too many facts supporting the fact that this was not the human's final resting place. "He just told you an outright lie then. Somepony must be shilling out to get the narrative they want instead of the truth. I changed my mind, this should be interesting."

The fourth guard started to look around the area some more, only to see a large creature slowly revealing itself outside of the bushes. "Sir... sir!"

Shining quickly turned around at the sound of the panic in the stallion's voice. "What?"

As another arimaspi revealed itself through the bushes and snarled at the group, the guard pointed towards it. "Can we draw an interest in... *gulp* that?"

Shining and the others all readied themselves for the encounter, especially Caramel who brandished his sword. "Enclosed areas are always the easiest to fight in."

The creature, it's wool locks covered in golden sleeves, walked up to the group and raised a claw to crush them. Caramel had already started to formulate his approach in taking down the creature, when suddenly...

*KAPOW*

The loud sound of a report startled him and the others. The arimaspi that stood before them dropped it's arm and stood motionless for quite some time before blood started to trickle out of the creature's eye and nostrils. As balance gave way, the creature slumped to the ground without so much as a whimper. None of the limbs moved as the whole group stared at the downed creature. All of them were amazed, and also confused, in the sudden death of the creature. The all turned to Shining, who was holding the rifle in his magical tow, the barrel still slightly smoking.

"Well I lost interest in that pretty quickly, what's next?" Shining said confidently.

Caramel shoved one of the guards out of his way as he walked up to Shining, completely stupefied. "It was over there, how did you─"

"Revolutionary methods of combat. Welcome to the new age." The prince answered to mock the brown stallion with a smug grin.

The fifth guard, who picked up the shotgun shell from earlier, picked up the shell that was ejected from the rifle. "These barrels seem a whole lot smaller than the others." As he held the small object in his hoof, he soon realized that he committed a significant mistake. The frog of his hoof stung with pain as he shook the casing out of his possession. "AND SIGNIFICANTLY HOTTER!"

Caramel looked at the weapon once more and quirked an eyebrow. "You know, for a revolutionary method, it's rather loud."

"I'd rather it be loud than ineffective." Shining responded happily.

In the distance going back towards the train, they heard a loud shriek, followed by a series of grunts and roars. Both Shining and Caramel's disposition immediately changed. "And more of them will start tracking us down." The brown stallion added.

"Should we head back to the train now?" Flash asked.

Caramel didn't give Shining a chance to answer, rather he responded in his stead. "That seems to be our safest bet right about now. If anything, we're looking at another three or five looking to find wherever we are."

As the group started to plan their way back, Rainbow stared at the base of the tree, staring at the area where the human once laid. She thought about the times she argued with him over how she thought him going alone was a bad idea. As her mind ran those conversations on a loop, she looked towards the bloodied path and grew emboldened to do something drastic. "Sir, if I may offer a suggestion?" Rainbow said as she called out Shining.

"What is it?" He asked.

She didn't show any signs of backing down, she felt like she could do something since she came this far. She knew there would be no turning back. "If we know that Nondis is somewhere around here, then why don't we try to find him. He's probably made his way to the mountain by now."

Most of the group turned back to her, they seemed floored with the very thought of going towards the nest of giants. Shining didn't think to answer her, rather giving one out of instinct. "No chance."

"Absolutely not. I am not going back into that nightmare of a cave. That's not what I signed up for!" Cosigned Caramel, who had started to show signs of anger.

The second guard also agreed with the others. "I think it's better if we just count our chickens and run back to the train. The sun's already gone down and it's almost pitch-black with the exception of Princess Luna's lighting."

"I'm actually with Rainbow on this one." Flash said, gaining some favor with the cyan pegasus. "There's a whole unit of guards waiting for their commander to give them word of something. And for all that we know, he might not have a means to get back with them."

Shining then provided another argument to counter Flash's. "The engineer specified that he had a com system on him. If he wants to speak with them, then he's capable."

Rainbow then tried her best to debate the issue, resorting to noting the objective they were set to complete. "It's still helps to check. If the com is out of range, then he can't get through anyhow. You saw that picture of him, he's probably got knocked around like hell, and he's easy on getting hurt. We need to verify the status of his body, and as far as I'm concerned, we've only come to the conclusion that his body isn't here. Who's to say that he didn't get himself killed between the incident that took place here and now?"

Caramel looked to the heavens as he showed carelessness for her argument. "Who's to say that he didn't already make it into the mountain and died there?"

"Precisely!" Rainbow exclaimed. "If he's dead, then we owe it to the others to get him back. This isn't just our issue, but a transdimensional dispute we're trying to resolve."

"I don't care what dimension he's from, they're going to have to accept it." He bluntly answered.

"And if he's alive, then we need to see if he's okay because there are others who are waiting for him. And I'm sure that the humans would be more than willing to get a visual confirmation as opposed to a verbal one. And even if it was a verbal one, wouldn't you rather hear it from the mouth of the one in question? I know if I had a brother, then I'd wanna know if he was okay, I know that I'd wanna hear him say it."

Caramel groaned and faced Rainbow, even walking up to her as he made his point. "You're asking us to go into a place, knowing that they will be set on killing each and every one of us, for the possibility of finding your friend? No way in hell, I'm not being dragged out here for a second suicide mission."

"We're already here, we might as well go forward and commit." Rainbow responded, crudely shoving her face back in his.

"I understand your concern, but I don't think it's ideal." He replied with a condescending tone.

"We have an ally behind enemy lines, and a substantial one at that. You mean to tell me that you wouldn't take up the opportunity to preserve that ally?"

"I'd take up the opportunity to preserve my sanity over taking up the opportunity of dragging a dead body out of that mountain."

Seeing how this was going nowhere with Caramel, Rainbow turned her debate to Shining Armor. "I don't know what happened with the two of you five years ago. And I can understand that it must've been pretty bad. But can't─"

"If you understood it, then why would you even recommend something so stupid?" Caramel interrupted.

Rainbow ignored the stallion and started to provide an argument that would be more likely to persuade Shining. "Your highness, if I can make any statement to spur you to action, it would be for the sake of our future. Not just mine or yours, but for the future of any royal or guard. You know this mission is bigger than just us, it's a turning point. If we come out of this, then how much social pull do you think Nondis will have if he lives? How much political power would be gained if he was shown to be trustworthy with even the hardest assignments? And if he can pull this off, won't it also hinder the efforts of any of your opposition as well as bolstering the chances of removing that stupid law that got him into this mess in the first place?"

Caramel then proceeded to present his own argument, one based on past experience. "Shining, your decision should be based on the logic of preservation. Think about your unit, making selfish decisions and executing poorly is only going to get most, if not all of us, killed. We need to look at the chance of us living when we return to that train vs the minuscule chance we personally know of when we enter that mountain. We have no means of moving forward, we don't have the numbers, we don't have the ability─"

"Nondis made it this far by himself, because he knows what's at stake." Rainbow interjected in an attempt to give her argument more ground. "He did this to save us, though I honestly think he's doing it for pride as well, but there's some weight to his actions. And I might be angry at him for not trusting me enough to go with him, I'm not gonna be angry enough to leave him here alone, with less of a chance of making it. If we join up with him, we would have that much of a better chance of making it out of this alive. For all we know, that train could be a trap right now, and they could be waiting on us to show up again. Why not take a chance and maximize our strength and our opportunity to get out of here alive?" Rainbow then bowed to him, prostrating herself as she plead to him. "Why are we leaving behind someone who we could save?"

Caramel didn't bow to him, but walked up to him and grabbed him by the collar of his cloak and shook him. "How many deaths have you been responsible for up to this date, Shining? Would you be so foolish as to commit the same mistake as last time? Would you fuck us all for your glory and your own pleasure?"

Shining grabbed Caramel and threw him off of him, freeing himself of the stallion's grasp. Caramel looked at him with an icy gaze and stood up quickly. Shining then froze him in place as he turned to Rainbow Dash.

"...I know what happened in the past, I can't stop dreaming about it. Each time I do, I wake up screaming. And you should already know just how broken I was when I saw that newspaper. I had to apologize to every family and still got wailed on for it." He then turned to Caramel and bowed his head. "And you were right, what I did to Songbell was unforgivable. And I let myself become petty in that respect as opposed to leading like a leader should. I made hasty decisions without research or thought, and that was what caused us to fall into that ambush." Shining finally turned his attention to the rifle that was slung over his chest, then to the dead arimaspi lying right before them. "But now the tables are completely flipped, they're being ambushed by a single being with an arsenal of weapons that's capable of slaughtering hundreds within minutes. I've seen the humans do it. And I'd say that this time, we've got a shot."

"But you just said NO!" Caramel hollered, causing the other guards to nervously look around for fear of his voice drawing more attention.

"I said no because I was caught up in the past and I fell into the same trap I always fell into: making hasty decisions based off of emotional response. This time, I need to commit to route that's right, not the one I think is safest or the easiest. If I learned anything from five years ago, it's that I should never be willing to accept what's actually not there."

Caramel was more wary to mask his voice, but the resentment was still just as strong. "Shining, you are making a CRITICAL mistake."

"We have a CRITICAL advantage. I may not know how many have been killed before we arrived, but there are a whole-lot less of them now then there will ever be. There was a point where we needed to stop, and we have clearly passed it. So I'd say 'let's keep going and see what happens'."

"Madness... Madness, that's what you're full of." The brown stallion snorted vehemently.

Shining dropped the stallion out of his magic field and highlighted an area around the stallion's neck. As the magenta aura surrounded his neck, a set of arcane runes appeared, they started to glow a light blue as the prince smiled coyly at him. "Yup, and you don't have a choice in the matter, remember?"

Caramel clicked his tongue with exasperation and pouted, sitting on his haunches as if he were protesting his moving from that spot. "If we ever die, which we will, I pray that every tormentor of yours will wear my face so that I may mock you. I pray that when we meet in Tartarus, I will get to see you suffer more than I ever will." The runes on his neck flashed white for a fraction of a second, causing him to feel a painful burning sensation that drove him to his hooves. The stallion stressed as he breathed, holding his neck with his hoof until the prince saw that he had enough. Caramel, groaned with irritation and walked towards the direction of the mountain. "Fine! At least I'll get to see you in Tartarus with me!"

Shining smiled smugly as he responded to him. "No chance, Cadance will probably drag me back just to make me give her a foal first."

The group continued to move in the path, sparsely illuminated by the pale light of the moon above. Shining forced Caramel to take point as Rainbow Dash covered the rear. The group proceeded onward in that manner until they came to the foot of the mountain itself. Though the large skull on the top wasn't as visible, the silhouette of it made it appear all the more menacing. Shining took a deep breath, closed his eyes and chanted to himself. "This is not the past, what's happened before won't happen again." With those words, he took his first steps in walking the same path he once took five years prior.

As they went up the mountain side, the trees gradually disappeared, leaving them with no cover or any place to hide. Caramel, feeling a sense of deja vu, walked up the prince and whispered to him. "Can we possibly get an explanation as to why we're here again?"

"You know why we're here." He answered.

"I mean on this mountain, there's hardly any cover, and the caves don't fare a better chance of survival."

"I told you, we're here to confirm whether or not our objective is active duty, missing in action, or terminated."

"This is insane." Caramel grumbled. "Isn't there any way we can mark this as a 'missing in action' so we can leave? I'm getting the unicorn-blackout shakes again." He said in reference to the event that triggered the ambush.

"We're in a smaller group, it should be harder to track us like they did five years ago."

As they walked, Flash took point and scouted the area ahead. The orange pegasus looked around and saw a small arimaspi laying on the side of the path. He quickly glided back down to the group and whispered to the prince. "Sir." He motioned for the group to keep it quiet as they moved forward. Upon reaching the area, he pointed to the smaller-bodied creature. "Look."

The creature appeared to be resting, it's body slowly moving up and down indicated a sign of life. Caramel whispered in a quiet voice to Flash. "Primitive creatures with no sense of decency or moral conduct."

"Looks to be a youth, never seen one this small." Flash added.

"Let sleeping beasts lie, no use in poking it." Shining advised, urging that the group move past it.

"I say we kill it anyways. Kill it before it lays eggs, or however these monsters reproduce." Caramel stated.

"I'm sure they're method is as mammalian as ours." Flash argued.

Shining waved his hoof at the two bickering stallions. "Cut the chatter, keep it moving."

With utmost caution, the group of guards crept past the resting creature, one heard a light grunt coming from it, causing the others to freeze in place to make sure they weren't discovered. When they figured it was safe to move forward, they did so with as minimal noise as possible. After passing the creature, they crept their way into a nearby cave. Inside, they saw how dark it was and realized that there was no chance of visibility from that point onward. Caramel tapped on the prince's shoulder and motioned at him. "Shining, you're the leader. Take point."

The unicorn prince swallowed his nervousness down and crept inside and cast his illumination spell. The room lit up to the same magenta glow that his aura produced. The cave appeared to be mostly empty. After looking around the area, he confirmed it's uninhibited state. "Clear."

The others galloped in, each of them conducting a five-point room scan, even going so far as to check the ceiling of the cave for any sudden surprises. After they verified everything, Rainbow walked up to Shining. "There's nothing here, it's a dead end. No tunnels, no passageways, no arimaspi raining from the sky, I think we're in the clear."

Caramel stopped for a moment to sniff the air. His antics went largely unnoticed by the group while Shining continued to illuminate the space. "Well I say this is probably good news. If there's no tunnels to feed into this place, then this should be an easy out."

Caramel sniffed around until he realized the smell was coming from outside of the cave. This time, there was a slight scent of iron, mostly attributed to blood. He then heard a rock fall just outside of the cave. Without a second to process the thought, he ran back to Shining and drew his sword. "You might wanna redefine that 'easy out' you just mentioned."

More rocks fell from the mouth of the cave, indicating something was just outside of it. Just as more rocks fell, a pair of horns and a single eye peered just from the top of the cave's entrance. When the creature took notice of what was before it, the creature flipped itself down to it's rear hooves and landed facing the party of guards. It's hair was adorned by several golden sleeves and it's neck was adorned with a beautiful choker. On it's chest was a streak of blood. Standing on it's knuckles and hooves, the smoke gray creature looked at the ponies, slackjawed and smiling.

Rainbow Dash giggled and saw the significant number advantage they had. "Dumb idiot, you've let yourself enter into a cave without reinforcements?"

However, the arimaspi snorted with amusement as it scraped one claw on the floor. After that, another two approached from either side of it, joining the creature to form a party of it's own. At that point, the number advantage was for a moot point. Flash stared at the tight-lipped mare with a deadpan expression. "...You were saying?"

"Shining, you should try out that that 'revolutionary method of combat' you've been bragging about." Caramel mumbled to the prince.

The right arimaspi threw a sizeable rock at the party, causing them to scatter in avoiding the impact. But in the aftermath, their party was split to either side of the cave. "(Filthy ponies.)" The center one grunted incoherently.

Caramel kept his head low as he appeared to be readying for a charge into the center creature. "Click your tongue as much as you'd like you walking carcass. But coming across me is a death wish!"

The creature appeared to laugh before pointing at the two parties on either side of the room. "(Slaughter them.)"

The one on the left then threw a barrage of rocks at the group, causing Shining to dedicate much of his magic to defend everyone in the cave. Flash volunteered himself to take to the sky, only to be yanked down by Caramel in an attempt to keep him alive. The center arimaspi made a charge for Shining, who raised the rifle to aim for the creature charging after him. His attempt was foiled when another rock landed just before him, causing him to move his right hoof out of the way to avoid being hit. Next, the smoke gray arimaspi grabbed the rifle from Shining, causing the stallion to panic. "What the─"

The creature inspected the weapon and held Shining by the tail as he did so. "(This strange stick, the Funaki has one like it. The creature is with you!)" It roared before tossing Shining into a nearby wall. As he was in mid-air, Shining enveloped himself in a protective barrier that allowed him to take a significant amount of damage. When he landed against the wall, the impact caused a substantial amount of stress on his forcefield that he inevitably dropped it before he hit the ground, taking even more damage. The creature then tossed the rifle to the other side of the cave, causing it to fire a stray bullet into one of the walls.

Flash flew over to quickly help up the prince. "It sounds really angry." He noted as Shining tried to regain his focus.

As his vision blurred in and out, he looked to the creature that tossed him aside. From the vantage point, he saw a flashback leading to that one fateful moment five years prior. As the creature walked slowly towards them, he started to see the phantom image of Songbell sitting just before it. Looking at the creature's wool locks and facial features, more aptly, the jagged smile it wore, it was all-too familiar.

In fact, it was the exact same arimaspi that plagued his nightmares. "Caramel, this arimaspi─"

"Whatever it is, it can wait!" Caramel shouted from the other side of the cave as he was trying to fight off one that threatened to crush one of the other guards. Rainbow, who narrowly escaped the claw of one of the creatures, took to action in trying to distract the larger arimaspi.

"On it!" She shouted before she flew in with a powerful divekick. After she landed her hit, she took to the air once more and used her spear to slice into the creature's face. Though it took a blow to the brow, the creature snatched her out of the air and spun her in a circle by her tail before throwing her against the wall. "Gah!"

"Rainbow Dash!" Flash shouted as he tried to support Shining until he came to.

While she was dazed to a significant degree, she stumbled onto her hooves. In trying to take a step forward, she ended up taking one backwards, causing her to collapse onto the ground. As she writhed without complete awareness of her surroundings, the creature towered over her and raised a claw to crush her with. "(I will enjoy watching you crawl.)"

Before the creature could bring it's claw down to crush the rainbow-maned pegasus, the sound of an arimaspi body falling to the ground beside it, caused it to delay. As it laid lifeless, it's single eye staring into infinity, the gray arimaspi noticed the series of bloodied openings in it's chest. The then turned around to confront who it was that slayed it's comrade. Picking up Rainbow Dash, it roared loudly. "(Who dares?)"

"What was that?" One of the guards questioned.

As the other Arimaspi fell down to the ground, the other guards breathed a sigh of relief. "Whatever it was, it just saved our lives."

"I fucking swear..." The next thing they heard was the sound of an irregular rhythm of hoofsteps. The group then saw something covered in blood run past them, holding a large sword. With a mighty blow, the creature that held Rainbow Dash was left holding where it's right claw once was. Rolling on the ground, the creature screeched loudly and terribly.

"(MY ARM! MY ARM!)"

While Smokey still held onto a bloody nub where his claw used to be, I looked around the cave and saw a bunch of ponies standing around. I looked to check on Rainbow Dash and saw that she was still recovering from whatever blow she took and turned my attention back to the creature, who writhed in agony. While he continued to scream, I walked up to him and slit Smokey's throat to stop it from screaming, but not in a means to kill it. With a tired groan, I wiped the blood out of my eye and put my sword down.

"So... Guess stealth is out of the playbook."

Author's Note

Okay, that took forever to finish. The main reason why it took me so long to get through this chapter was two things entirely. The first reason was that I had a lot of distractions IRL that caused me to nibble away at this chapter, which makes the second reason more frustrating. The second reason was that I never had the opportunity to create a new language (which I'm pretty sure is some botched-up tribe language). I wanted to show an example of how the arimaspi dialog would appear to be in practice.

Needless to say it was terribly frustrating as hell. The reason the rest of their dialog is in parenthesis is pretty much translating what they're saying (of course) and to simplify the reading experience. Eventually, I will come back to this language and try to implement it in more situations where it would be appropriate.

Another thing to notice in this chapter, I gave a lot of significance to background events that occurred, giving things more context to the overall picture (which is needed in this case). It would allow for more fluid story-telling as well as foreshadowing to future events.

As for how Nondis managed to get to the cave so quickly, I'll point out one thing in spoiler: The answer was right in front of you.

I've already started on the next chapter, and hopefully I can blaze through that one with the little time I have in this month. Madi Gras makes for some good money to be earned.

See you next chapter. Thank you so much for being patient with me and I hope some of you stick around.
I'm also sorry to those I've disappointed.

Chapter LXIV

A rich magenta glow filled the cave as the faces of everyone seemed to only reflect it and the shadows cast by their own features. All stood by while watching as I pulled a flare out of my bag and toss it onto the ground beside the writhing arimaspi. The monster continued to cry out into the cave, roaring meekly as it stumbled. Smokey seemed unsure what to tend to first, the severed arm or the sliced windpipe that prevented him from screaming so loudly. Meanwhile the freshly-removed arm twitched beside me while I walked forward. The scene was a sudden mix of purple, pink, and red, the flare becoming the more dominant light source as Shining's magic gradually faded. Running up to the frantic creature, I sliced into it's legs, causing it to collapse onto the ground with a loud thud. After it fell, I could see the red-lit faces of Caramel and a few others.

Huh, I wonder why he's here above all ponies.

"Holy Faust, what are you compensating for?" Caramel commented as he walked up to the lightly twitching claw of the creature.

"Your lack of integrity." I responded while kicking away the still-living limb in disgust. "And Smokey-boy's lack of a limb now."

All of the other guards in the cave proceeded to look to one another while Flash quirked an eyebrow. "Smokey?"

I pointed to the creature I've downed as it still rolled around on the ground. "Yeah, the one I left alive? Now help me cut the other arm so I can get started on the tendons in his legs."

The creature, by the strength of it's own determination and will to live, used it's remaining arm for support as it stood on threes. The creature snarled as it leaned back against the wall, just long enough to hold the gap in it's throat closed. "(YOU WILL NOT TAKE ME!)" It croaked airily, struggling to produce a solid sound.

Without warning, Smokey used his arm to push off against the wall, giving himself a running start on his hind legs. My eyes expanded as I dodged to the side, barely missing an opportunity of becoming wholefully intimate with the frogs of his cloven hooves. "Fuck." I mumbled to myself, seeing how close of a call that was.

The others made an attempt to chase after it, only to get the creature to turn on them and swipe a claw at them. "Look out!" One of them cried out while they avoided the potentially lethal blow. When he fended them off, he hobbled off into the night, crawling to another part of the mountain.

I grabbed my sword into a backhanded grip while pulling out my assault rifle. "So you guys aren't gonna help me get him?"

"I'm not sure if that's a good idea. He might lead us into a trap, sir." One of the others brought up.

"More than that, this cave is probably a trap. There's another arimaspi out there to worry about. Might be small, but it's claws are still as sharp." Caramel noted.

"Wait, what now?" I asked.

"There's some arimaspi cub just outside of the cave. Guess it would be awake with all of that commotion just now."

By that point, I had recognized what they were talking about. It seems that they were referring to the little one that was on the mountain side. "That? Oh yeah, Junior's dead."

The other guards looked at me astounded, one of them asked in confusion. "You killed it?"

"Yeah... and hid underneath him for cover when a trio of Smokey and his bowling buddies went looking for me. I affectionately named them Larry and Dan." I said, looking towards the other two creatures that lied dead in the cave. Apparently I got two of the three stooges there.

"So is that why you're covered in blood?" Shining asked, referring to my current fashion statement.

"It's a long story, but it ends in my being underneath him. And he was a bleeder."

"Right... So you're alive, huh?" Flash confirmed.

"Yup, and I feel like trash. A shower would be ideal, but those fuckers don't like the scent of clean. I've done all but dive into a pile of shit up till now just to mimic the smell so I could lower my chances of getting caught." I responded.

Caramel walked up to me, giving me a few sniffs before covering his nose and inching back in revulsion. "You're a tad too high on iron content to match."

"Meh, I'm almost used to the feeling of blood drying in my ass crack, I could care less right now. I'm just gambling to stay alive."

He then looked at me with a tilted head. "You're not sane, are you?"

"There's a loud, distorted screaming in my soul, I cough up blood that's not mine, all I can see are demons, I'm starting to believe in God right now, and I can't talk to my therapist until next Tuesday. So I decline myself to be in a state where I can function as a member of society." I answered sarcastically, albeit truthfully.

Shining finally came to, seeming as if he was out of sorts for a while before doing so. "Well that's a side I haven't seen in months."

"Oh, morning sweet-prince. Did you remember something getting knocked around? You look like you were trying to uncross your eyes for the past three minutes." I joked.

The prince rubbed his head while he attempted to give my comment a chuckle. "You don't look so good yourself."

"Yeah, I've probably caught hepatitis, but I'm still alive. Questioning whether or not that's a good thing now."

He seemed to finally get it all to fit, and a giggle didn't seem to cause too much of a headache for him anymore. "Good for us. We don't have to use the body bags to clean you up and tote you back home."

Body bags? Why do they need body bags for? I'm not even dead, why would─you know what, I'm just gonna roll with it. I got help, might as well use it. "Not even gonna question that, don't care. Now is there any reason why you guys let Smokey go?"

"Because it's too dangerous to approach when cornered." Caramel answered on behalf of the group. "Why are you trying to capture that thing anyway?"

Looking back at it, I think it was frustration that drove me to be an ass for the moment and oversee the simple fact that they didn't know what I knew. "Because I was gonna interrogate it into telling where the gold is." I answered with a condescending tone.

And it was obvious that I went over their heads. "They're arimaspi. What are you going to─"

I interrupted Flash and told them outright what my reason was. "Smokey speaks fluent English."

"...What now? What's English." Caramel inquired.

"English is to me as Equish is to you. We're all understanding one another now, right? Well I understood him when he said 'Kill him' in plain ol' spreken ze Hitler."

Mumblings of the group started to fill the cave with idle questions about the topic, including the one that Shining presented to me. "You're telling me these things can talk?"

"To each other, oh yes. They had a full-blown conversation over two dead bodies I've killed while Smokey toted them both off. He had both of them on his back and one's head in his teeth."

By that point, all the mumbling stopped as they all stared at me with a bewildered expression. "A head?" Flash questioned.

"Yeah, there was one that almost killed me. I killed it back. It's head weighs about thirty-four pounds."

The group proceeded to look to one another while Caramel brought up the question. "...You're functioning, right? You're not so far gone where you're just seeing meat and bones?"

Clearing my throat, I gave a brutally honest response. "I think I vomited enough to stop caring... at least for now. If this were humans, I would probably be so far gone to stop associating myself with life in general. But this isn't the Pacific Theater, the Rape of Nanking, or the Vietnam War. Count my blessings when they land."

Shining looked at me oddly, croaking out a long 'um'. "I don't know what either of that is."

I only felt my eyes expand as I answered him. "You don't wanna." I quietly answered with an expression I wasn't truly aware of making. The only thing that swirled in my mind was the thought of those events happening in this world. Eventually, I had to snap myself out of it and focus on the present. "Now! Since all of you are here, I'm not gonna question it. I'm just gonna do what I'm gonna do and you guys are gonna help me. Sounds good? Sounds great. Let's go."

Yeah, cause the longer I sit here and dwell on it, the more likely they'll prod it out of me, and the more likely I'll end up scaring them for life.

As I had walked over to the other side of the cave to recover a firearm tossed aside by Smokey, I heard a familiar voice. "Nondis?"

Looking back to the source, I was suddenly reminded of the fact that Rainbow Dash was here as well. I walked up to her and helped her up to her four hooves. "Now you, I'll have to ask about later. Just get back on your hooves and walk with me." After that, I walked up to Shining Armor and gave him back the AR-15 after confirming that there was no real damage done to it. At this point, I wasn't going to complain too much. "Also I see that you were so comfortable to grab one of the rifles from the storage back home. I have no qualms with that except that you didn't put a suppressor on it. It's gonna be loud in those caves, so I suggest you fire only when it's necessary."

Afterwards, I approached the mouth of the cave to scan the area. I looked around and found nothing but more rocks and a trail of blood leading up the mountainside. Caramel tapped my leg as he inquired me one last time. "You're not going to question any of this?"

I simply shrugged. "Not right now."

"Well... then I'll ask one. Where are we going?" He followed up with another question.

I gave him a raised brow before I knelt down and patted him on the head with a fake smile. "Main cave entrance. I'm sure you'll familiarize it with the name Songbell."

His face quickly became a stark contrast to mine. "Oh no."

After traversing the mountainside for another hour or so, we managed to relocate the cave I stumbled onto earlier. But the scene was very different from the sudden influx of arimaspi walking around the place. It was quiet, almost abandoned with a few sticks being left against the walls. The place seem dimly lit with a few luminescent mushrooms growing from out of the walls. The light they gave off wasn't enough to completely illuminate a room, but it was enough to provide a glow bright enough for nocturnal creatures to benefit from. It was as if the moon was so waned to produce a light that was barely usable for the creatures of the night. And given the fact that an arimaspi's eye is capable of nightvision of the biological variety, it would only benefit them if we were to enter the place without some sort of visionary aid.

I dug around in my bag to pull out the night-vision goggles I had packed. Once I had them on, I searched the room for any life signs or heat signatures. The only thing that seemed to register was the mushrooms, which still seemed to be so dim that they barely registered a reading. "Clear." I whispered to everyone else, motioning that the group could enter the cave.

"Okay boys, nighties on." Shining quietly whispered to the group.

When I looked back, I could see an assortment of golden goggles with orange lenses resting upon the faces of every one of the guards that accompanied me. Though I was surprised, I was quite relieved that they came somewhat prepared. Though it begged the question as to why they didn't use them before, but again saying, I wasn't going to prod too much into it. Time was against me and I needed to work quickly.

However, both time and my body were telling me that I was too tired to keep pushing myself for the day. I know that they just got here and that they can go on forever in their current condition, but I was already fatigued to the point where any future decisions I make could be impaired. And that would easily put anyone around me in a bad position. One thing I learned in a quick-run of the officer guidelines is that I should never let my personal health become the source of dysfunction for the unit.

But rest had to be put on the back burner until we were clear of the open-aired entrance.

As we took the most direct path, I made the choice that it would be better to set up a temporary rest camp to get ourselves together. We walked onward for another fifteen minutes, managing to enter yet another junction. Despite the smaller array of choices, it's easy to say that our future decision would be even easier. There were only three choices to make instead of the seven we were greeted with from the start.

And yet, 'even easier' wasn't really the best choice of words.

"(So it is true.)" A voice rumbled from up ahead.

"What the hell was that?" Flash asked as he brandished his spear.

As I continued to scan around, I started to make out only one heat signature. "Obviously them talking, probably to us. Don't ask me to translate this shit."

But when the seconds ticked by, I started to see more and more heat signatures. Looking to the cave on our left, I could see a couple slowly approaching us, with what appeared to be a torch. Looking to the cave on the right, I saw another three walking up to greet us, again with a torch in their possession. By that point, I had to take off the nightvision goggles due to the images readily becoming indistinguishable. Directly ahead, there was another six arimaspi approaching us, all of them carrying torches. The one in the center continued to speak in it's own tongue. "(The Funaki has revealed the ones who he crawls under. A creature sent by the Cloppu to undermine us.)"

As the others started to mutter the word 'cloppu' ad nauseam, Shining nervously held his gun while he pointed towards the approaching throng of creatures. "Cloppu? What the hell is that?" He mumbled.

I shrugged my shoulders as I pulled out my own rifle to match. "I have no idea, that one's been escaping me all day─" Suddenly, as one pointed to Rainbow Dash, I realized what the word really meant. "Pony! That's what it means, pony! I get it now! Pony makes clopping noises when walking!" You know, I feel somewhat dumb for not getting it when I had said the world 'clop' earlier today. "I wonder if that's a dig for how loud you guys are when you walk around."

"Shining, who is this dolt?" Caramel asked as a means to insult me.

Again, the creature who lead the group spoke to us in it's native tongue. "(Five years ago, your army descended upon our lands to take what is ours, and now we will show you retribution for your insolence. You dare to return with more, we shall─)"

While it spoke, I rolled my eyes out of frustration and arrogance and used my hand to mimic the visual of a mouth talking. It was apparent that my patience had been worn long before I came here. By the time it started to ramble on and on about something, I had to step forward and interrupt it's monologue... if that's what it is. "Okay, okay, cut that shit out! Right now!" I said while walking up to it angrily. "Look, I know you guys are so smart where you can speak to each other and us, but this talking in junk-speak doesn't help your intimidation factor not one bit. I know you can understand what the hell I'm saying, otherwise you wouldn't be able to set up that trap from five years back without some intel. Now with that being said, why don't you start over, and speak a language we can all understand?"

The creature seemed taken aback by my sudden response and raised a claw to swipe at me. "(Your impudence will only hasten your─)"

I proceeded to interrupt him and throw out a tired rant, venting my frustration for the current situation. "No no no! I don't hear anything in that! I need. You to. Intimidate me. In a language. We can all understand. To me, all I can assume is that you're talking about how your day went this morning. You could be saying this: I had a cup of coffee this morning, but it wasn't good. It was burnt, and they ran out of the creamer I really like. So I went to the store and tried to find it, but the store clerk said they didn't have any in stock. So I came back home frustrated as hell, only to find my wife─mate, yeah we'll go with that instead─mate fucking the guy in the cave next door. And after she finished, she told me that she's taking the cubs and filing a divorce because my dick was too small. She then emphasize that she needs some real dick in her life, she needs that Jeep-Grand-Cherokee, not a pinto. Dragon size is the only size she wants to completely rip her ovaries out of her coin purse, and you're just sitting here with that limp little twig hoping to make things meet with your family. Yeah, I bet that must be working real well for you!"

"...Urg...Burg..." It responded slowly, raising his fist higher and higher. But as his fist remained suspended in the air, I saw that it had started shaking before it inevitably came back down. Looking at the creature, I saw that it was actually gritting it's teeth and clenching it's eyes shut. A powerful snort from him blew wind past us and nearly made me lose my balance.

It wasn't so much of the strength of the gust, but rather my surprise from the creature's actions... That and the smell of it's breath was overwhelmingly abysmal.

Caramel stared at the creature with eyes squinted in disbelief, making out what the creature was doing. "Is it... crying?"

The other arimaspi looked back at him, seeming to be just as puzzled as the rest of us. Eventually, the creature grumbled in a quiet voice. "...Mate left... three weeks ago."

...WHAT? ...WHAT THE FUCK!?

That response had me floored. Again, it was the element of surprise that caught me off guard along with the bad breath. But hearing the absurd response and actually encountering it was something that I had long thought would be a comical happenstance. Instead, it just came off as awkward and... a bit sad. Of course I failed to show any true sympathy for a creature that's three times my size and has the ability to squash me like I was a grape in Verona, Italy. While I thought to kill it initially, I thought better of the situation and decided that I could possibly use the creature for the time being. After all, I needed a talker who could give me directions to the gold. Of course it would be without his consent, but I'm not in this to be nice.

...Or maybe I could play the role and move forward with the conversation, giving myself a chance to strategize a means of getting out of this mess alive. Well, it's worth a shot. "Oh, dude, sorry about that. I didn't mean to step on your... tail?"

"It's okay." The creature answered back. "I didn't wear my horns with her. I didn't give her any attention. I was so focused on foraging and tribe work that I haven't spent any time with her or the cubs. Now she's leaving me for good."

No doubt he's a smart one. I bet there are a few in this cave system that would be able to speak our language, let alone speaking it almost so naturally. I could possibly assume with it's appearance, the massive golden rings in it's mane, the huge choker on it's neck, the golden wristbands, that this one is an officer of some sort with a damaging resume. Seems he must be well-acquainted with Equish/English speakers or quite astute to pick it up as time goes by. If that's the case, then communication with these creatures is more than possible, it could be beneficial.

But for now, I think I'll just keep the talk small. "It'll be okay buddy. I know I've got my own relationship issues to deal with back home. Dad and mom things, mate things too, it's... it's just hard you know."

Everyone else around the two of us were just as confused as the ones who opposed them. For a moment, both equine and arimaspi were both in uniform in expressing their confusion over the situation. Some of the arimaspi looked back to each other and shrugged. Meanwhile, Caramel was the only one who could vocalize his opinion. "Okay. Is no one going to give some sort of explanation about this?"

One arimaspi walked up to the creature I spoke with, giving it's shoulder a shove while grunting to him. "(Quit stalling and kill them already.)"

"(I know, wait!)" Hollered the one I spoke to, causing the other to snort and back off. He returned his focus to me as he asked. "So what do you suggest I do?"

By then, our conversation nearly became organic. Of course I'm pretty sure he's coming up with a way to kill us while I'm doing the same. If anything, we're probably dancing around each other at this point, waiting for the song to end before the blood starts flying. Hell, if he's so damn smart, he'd probably find a way to avoid any personal harm to himself while throwing the others in the flames. Given that I have a preceded reputation, I can assume that he'd want nothing to do to become personally involved... which would seem strange since he led the group to ambush us here.

The only way to find out what he'll do next is to keep dancing. "Well I know that in my world, divorce is a pretty shitty situation, especially for us males. It's like we enter the relationship with our own things, and in the end she leaves with all of hers, half or yours, and your left arm. Alimony's a bitch."

The creature gave a short chuckle. "Tell me about it."

Hmm... That response. That simple response actually gave me a pretty damn good clue to how their system is ran. I guess I can make a mental note of the fact that their social environment is built similarly to our own, minus the technology and moral compass. In other words, I could use this to my advantage in future encounters. Understanding the enemy's culture is a sure-fire way of learning the trades of waging psychological warfare on them. Process of elimination by factor of inclusion. I know how I'm gonna get out of this now. "Yeah, but you know, there's something you can do."

"What?"

You can lead us to the gold, by not leading us to the gold on purpose. Now, to give the incentive. "You can take all your shit, clean your bank account, take every last piece of gold, and then leave to the north. I heard that the Yaket Range is pretty nice this time of year, and I don't think any of these fuckers would mind you getting yours and getting back at that bitch. Start over with a nice mate who'll love you in spite of your workaholic tendencies, and hold the home front when things get hard. Besides, I heard the girls up there are into the hard-working type. And they got this pretty white fur that blends in with the snow, it'll make for a good game of hide-go-seek." A little bit of book knowledge also helps.

Appearing a bit fired up, he gave my answer a hearty laugh before revealing an unsettling smile filled with jagged rows of sharp yellow, tartar-covered teeth. "Now you're speaking in my language. You know what, you're okay with me. I'm gonna go back home and clean out my valuables, and then I'm going to go to the north and raise a family with a mate WHO WILL ACTUALLY APPRECIATE WHAT I DO FOR HER!" He screamed back into the cave.

Feeling a bit carried away from his sudden influx, as well as my excitement from realizing that my plan had worked, I juiced him up even more. "YEAH, THERE YOU GO!"

He walked back into the center cavern, gleefully marching as he hollered into the darkness. "I'm taking back my life!"

"You go, motherfucker! You do that shit!" I said, continuing to cheer him on.

"And they can take yours!"

Okay, maybe I got a little too excited to immediately notice what he said, but it didn't take long to realize it when the others raised their claws. "Yea─shit."

Five minutes, thirty seconds later...

Thank God for automatic weapons.

As for the reason why that statement came to mind, it was because of the result of the ambush they had set up. Apparently ol' dude decided that he wanted to get the drop on us by sending his boys in for us. And given that there were ten of them vs eight of us, it meant that each one of us would have to take on more than one arimaspi at a time. But being that we had the technological advantage, Shining and I managed to dispatch our aggressors with ease. In short, our battle ended about four minutes, forty-five seconds ago, no casualties on our end. The rest of that time, we used to set up camp.

On a positive note, at least they brought us fire to use.

After we managed to set up our futons and whatnot, I sharpened my knife one good time as Caramel stared at the downed party of creatures. "You know, five years ago, this wouldn't have happened. We'd be well on our way to dying now. Those weapons are quite beneficial."

As I continued to sharpen my tool, I gave the earth pony a response. "Caramel, let me let you in on a little something. My species existed for over thirty-five thousand years, and we're the only strain out of seven possible links to make it this far. Now in the course of those tens of thousands of years, we had our fair share of fights, wars, genocide, all the works. Eventually, we got good at it, and we started making all sorts of toys that could decimate a human body."

"Hiroshima?" Shining called out.

"We haven't gotten there yet, Shining." I answered back, refocusing on the individual I was originally directing my commentary towards. "Now we have these special little sticks that shoot rocks faster than any bowman could ever hope to draw and loose arrows. From slingshots to shotguns, we became marksmen in our evolution. Close quarter combat is an art form nowadays. Martial art competitions, fencing matches, kendo, boxing, sword dancing, relics of a time where we were mentally dull to the sight of a man losing the light in their eyes as we stared into them, as they stopped breathing."

The others looked to me with concern. Flash seemed the most distressed. "So I take it that humans are very used to violence and war?"

"Hell no." I answered with a scoff and a laugh. "Most of us are squeamish as fuck when someone gets a damn paper cut. Hell, back in those days, it was often you'd see a young guy get his leg cut off because it or his foot was broke. Even going back a century, the sight of seeing someone dying was a haunting experience. World War I set the tone of humanity collectively fearing war. That's not even going back to World War II, where my great grandfather died in the Battle of Midway, or the complete shitfest known as the Vietnam Conflict."

By that point, everyone started to gather around. They seemed no longer concerned, but they were indeed curious. "What happened with those two battles in particular?" Caramel asked out of curiosity.

"It's not everyday you hear of human conflict on such a scale." One of the other guards said as he leaned forward, seeming like an eager foal who wanted to know more of their bedtime story.

For a moment, I stopped sharpening the knife and scratched my scalp while I thought about some of the details. Unfortunately, not much came to mind. "The Battle of Midway took place in the middle of the ocean. My great grandfather was assigned to the ship U.S.S. Yorktown. It was the only U.S. carrier that got sunk in the battle. Much of the crew didn't survive, and he was one of them. I wouldn't know much about that battle, but I heard it was hell regardless. My grandfather, on the other hand, served in Vietnam."

I guess being that these were guards who were already used to combat stories, they implored me to share more. "Any stories from that one?"

This time, I rubbed the right side of my face, eventually using it as a prop to rest my head on. "Several. One instance was where they were posted in a village after fighting local forces. Of course, when the government feeds rumors to the people of what your enemies can do to your kids, your mind starts getting warped into telling them that it's better to die with honor than to live under your rule. And being that the locals would buy into the estranged brand of patriotism, they'd do whatever it took to aid their nation's effort to push back against the offending forces, even resorting to the most desperate of tactics."

"Safe to say that it didn't end well?" Shining questioned.

I turned my head to the ceiling, remembering what all my grandfather said. Though his account was far too graphic for me to keep in mind, I decided to generalize the whole situation. "Kid walked up to a few soldiers with a bomb on his chest, fucking commander went apeshit, ordered everyone in the village to be seen as hostile targets or aids to the enemy."

That statement alone put most of the group on edge, not needing much context to add up to the scenario. "A whole village?"

Then the memories of one certain night came to mind. It happened when I was much younger, when I went on a weekend trip to the ranch out in Wimberley. It happened around three in the morning, and my brain couldn't even process why exactly my grandmother told us to keep our ears closed. By the time I got older, he explained it to us.

Even now, it causes me to put things in perspective. "...My grandfather would see their faces every night for the rest of his life. He'd wake up out of his sleep, screaming for forgiveness. My brothers and I watched it happen twice. It's why my dad never joined the military, and a primary reason why he encouraged us to go to college instead of the service. He was adamant in keeping us away from that life, and my grandfather would be harsh on me for playing video games based on war and shooting at people."

"I see..." Rainbow said, stretching out her wings. "So is your output on your species a positive or a negative one?"

I looked back at the knife in my hand and concluded that it was sharp enough for use. At the same time, I could see the silhouette of myself in the blade. "I have a positive sight on it, but I see more gray than black-and-white. I see the means to justify an end, but I see the consequence that comes with the means. The reason I often speak about war and conflict like it's our finest hour is to grandstand really. It's also a warning above all else, but mainly grandstanding to keep the politicians from contemplating a hunt for us humans. I can already point out a few who'd rather us become scarce again."

Shining laughed off my comment, thinking it was absurd that we'd become so few. "I'd like to think you guys would be hunting us. I think you said your numbers were in the realm of seven billion."

In response to Shining's statement, the entire group jumped up in surprise. Caramel screamed. "SEVEN WHAT!?"

I started laughing as I thought more about it. "Yeah, all those wars and we can't even keep the population from increasing. Ain't that some shit?" Though to be fair, it's not like we want war, much less the brand that WILL actually wipe us out. I don't want it based off of the simple fact that I've fought skirmishes here. Personally, a war here would be easier to stomach than one involving human life. Not saying it wouldn't come without regret or sympathy towards the loss of life, but I suppose it's an instinctual response to be more accepting of a species other than your own. It's easier to lose a pet of twelve years than a brother you've had for the same time. "It's our desire for love and happiness to keep us fighting. Yet we declare war because of the greed and envy that ensues."

After a few seconds, I had realized I said that last part out loud.

"You humans are terrifying." Rainbow Dash muttered in a low voice.

Hearing her say that made me feel a bit uneasy. And knowing what I was going to do next would probably bring credence to her argument. However, I know that I can't do much to keep them safe or fight for them if I'm not able to do so. Rising from my seat, I walked up to the nearest arimaspi and placed myself in survival mode. With knife in hand, I carefully measured out the body and took note of where to cut. Afterwards, I gave the motionless creature a forceful plunge of my blade. "I try not to show that side of what we are. We really are more into enjoying peace, even though there are some really edgy fucks out there who want a bloodbath or some shit."

As I drug the knife downwards, I pulled out and cut the creature in a horizontal motion. Caramel took notice of what I was doing and questioned my actions. "In speaking of blood, why are you cutting at that arimaspi?"

"Because of three reasons. The skin would make a nice rug, the skin would make a nice fur coat, and the M.R.E.'s you guys have contain hay, which my body can't digest. I need protein to keep from passing out. This may be a bit disgusting to you guys, but it's something that I need to do in order to survive." The majority of the group winced and grimaced at the sight of my hand sinking into the abdomen of the creature. After getting a feel of the texture of the meat under the skin, I felt the cut I wanted and guided my knife to cut out a proportionately-sized slab of meat. Next, I pulled out the bloody chop and wrapped it within a cut of the skin. Following that, I grabbed the skillet I packed with me, placed it over the fire, and waited for it to get hot.

Caramel, who seemed the most disgusted, tried to cover his face. "Well, it's not like we've never watched any griffons eat meat. Just... why them?"

"You expect met to pass on some perfectly good meat? It's like an overgrown chop of goat." I said, pulling out an M.R.E. and removing some of the spices they included for the hay-based side dishes to season the meat. I removed the skin wrap and applied the seasonings evenly as Shining watched.

"Well, aren't you brave?" Said the prince as he poked fun at me.

"If there's one thing I've learned being out here in this forest, it's that the creatures, including the arimaspi, have a system here. Whoever's more intimidating and capable of killing, they're on the top of the pecking order."

"And you're trying to establish that?" He questioned.

"Unlike most of you, Rainbow and I gotta come back here within the next seven days. I think now would be a great time to put that system into place."

"I hope that doesn't backfire." She said while I walked up to the skillet and threw the slab of meat onto the skillet, causing a sizzling noise and a meaty smell to permeate throughout the cave.

"It won't."

Well... Can't say that steak didn't really go down smoothly.

As I ate it, I noticed that the meat tasted extremely gamey. And the seasonings weren't really a good choice to go with that particular cut of meat. It seemed to throw off the flavor way too much, and it ended up being a failed project that was even tougher to chew and swallow. I suppose that's because I failed to tenderize the meat first, but I didn't really have anything clean to put it on that would allow me to do that. Of course, if given the opportunity to try again, I would probably consider it when the conditions are more ideal.

After meal time, we all racked up and got some rest. Shining and I were on guard duty, making it even harder for me to get some rest. But I decided to get the first crack at staying up. It wasn't just the fact that I wanted to make sure that we weren't going to be slaughtered in our sleep, but also the fact that the food didn't really settle well within my stomach. For the better part of my three hour shift, I had to deal with a few stomach aches and some heartburn. But at least I was capable of keeping my guard up.

But by the time the third hour came around, my stomach finally settled down. However, I started to feel myself being too worn out to keep guard. The weight of my own eyelids started to override my ability to keep a lookout for anything. My head dropped more frequently, indicating I was nodding off. And a few times, I snorted loud enough to wake myself up. Anymore of this, and I'd be inviting the arimaspi to take us for a ride on the expressway to the afterlife.

Groggily, I walked over to the slumbering prince and nudged him awake. "Shining, wake up."

In similar fashion, he slowly raised his head. "What? What's going on?"

"Time's up, shift change." I answered with a yawn.

Shining rubbed his eyes and stretched. "Oh yeah... Let me get the gun."

As he got up, he walked up to the rifle he brought and levitated the weapon towards him. He stared at it for a few seconds before he started to make his way towards his post. I chuckled weakly as I mocked him. "I swear, you're starting to act like me when I first got introduced to firearms."

"And what does that make me then?" He asked.

"A nine year old kid who's been bullied to hell and can think of almost nothing else but revenge fantasies." I joked.

"That's... mildly concerning." He said with a nervous chuckle.

"Yeah, so then my grandfather thought of a method to curb my internal violent tendencies. We went hunting every two months." I further explained.

"Hunting? Hunting for what?"

"Deer. My grandfather owned a ranch out in a tiny town called Wimberley. We'd go out, he, my brothers and I. We'd hunt a few stags, run to the next stop, get some deer sausage and come back home to eat."

"That's all you did?" He inquired.

I broke out into a yawn as I answered him. "No, not really. Thing was that I saw my older brother kill a deer once, and he didn't get his aim right. So he had to finish the damn thing to make it stop suffering. Since then, never really had any intention of using a gun on anything living unless I felt my life depended on it. But my older brother was more encouraged to get his aim right."

"Was your grandfather upset with you?"

I shook my head. "No. He was proud as fuck. He practically paraded me around as his personal little project, teaching me a whole lot of things about life and the choices I make. He'd even talk to me whenever my dad was a total hard ass on me, calmed me down whenever I wanted to just scream at him."

The young prince naturally grew curious. "You and your dad don't get along too well?"

"...Don't know. I've never really tested it."

"What do you mean by 'never really tested it'?"

As I thought about what I had said, I realized I blurted out something I didn't meant to say. I was beyond tired, it was time for me to cut this conversation short. "...It's getting late. I should be getting some shut-eye."

As the subject was left to die, I laid myself down and closed my eyes, waiting for sleep to take me. As I waited patiently, Shining stirred me once more with a question. "Hey, Cadie gave me this to use whenever I found you."

"Why?" I asked, not even attempting to look at what he was trying to show me.

"So Twily can know how you're doing."

...She wants to know how I'm doing? She didn't even send me off or say good morning, so why would she even care if I was alive if she wanted me to 'suffer' for her? I swear I've started losing track of where her mind is nowadays. "So that's it?"

"It's not just her. It's your brothers, your friends as well."

With another yawn, I started feeling myself slowly drift off. As I spoke, my words were slurred more than usual. "Well you can do what you want. I'm not ignoring the fact that they're wanting to know about me, it's just that I've been through hell today. My staying awake on this shift alone has not been good to me. I'm dozing off too often."

I'm sure Shining had looked at me with frown, probably because I wasn't in the mood to speak with his sister. He obviously knows that there's friction between us, and he's probably just now seeing his previous prediction about us starting to manifest. I'd be upset too. "I understand, too tired to really say anything else."

"You pretty much got it." I mumbled tiredly.

"Okay then. Get some sleep, we get up early."

As the world slowly drifted away, I whispered to myself, realizing that I'd be extremely tired when I woke up. "Four hours is better than none."

Meanwhile, in Ponyville...

The halls of the castle have been quiet for several hours with the exception of the hourly patrol. The floors were illuminated by only the pale light of the moon. It seemed that there was only one room that had a light on in the entire castle. In that room remained the princess who claimed dominion over the castle. With her was a slumbering visitor, a human woman who seemed distressed in her appearance. Twilight stared into the pages of her friendship journal, highlighting one entry in particular.

It was the very entry he made before they shared their first intimate moment together.

In my time here in Equestria, I've learned that when others do you a major favor, your best option is to humbly accept what they did and to give appreciation. I remember where I was given a home to stay in and food to eat, even though the accommodations were a bit small and the food was all of the horse variety. But even then, I was given the chance to be amongst them; to be a member of their society as one of them instead of just being something so different. Instead of complaining about every little thing, I took into account that everything they tried to do for me was with heart and love in mind. Even now, I'm urged to record my experience ~~for Twilight to read later~~ ~~to be quizzed on while this purple pony threatens to shove a quill up my urethra~~ for future posterity.

Her friends are a bit wacky, crazy, also seeming to carry some emotional baggage, and even overzealous, but if I could spend more time to get to know them before I left, I would truly try my best to show them the kindness, the generosity, the laughter, the honesty, the loyalty, and even the care they have shown to me. I know that would only give me another three to four months to do so, but I wouldn't trade that time for an express ticket back home.

I can't make the demand that I'd be unforgettable, I can only hope that I was. I won't ever forget this place, the ~~people~~ ponies that live here. Even though I would be called crazy for believing in such a place ~~and possibly thrown into the nearest mental institution for psychiatric evaluation~~, I won't ever forget the incredible friends I wish I could carry over.

I have to stop writing now, the purple one is getting invasive. ~~LOL! (human expression meaning laugh out loud)~~

Yours in memory,
─Nondis

P.S.: Magic out the crossed-out sections if you would, Twilight. I know you're reading this.

For the past three hours, she repeatedly went back to that same entry, looking at the words scribbled on the paper. The message inscribed on the parchment was what kept her up, hoping that things between then would somehow be rectified. For once, she started to feel the very same weight of regret she'd often criticized Nondis for having.

And it crushed her terribly as the time slugged on.

Meanwhile, further on down the hall was the guest room assigned to none other than Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. Princess Cadance, the embodiment of love and grace rested peacefully in her bed.

*SNOOOOOOOORE*

Sitting beside her was a faintly glowing crystal orb. As sound was produced from it, the orb would glow even brighter, nearly illuminating the entire room.

"Cadie." Shining's voice called through to wake his slumbering wife, who was dreaming of the past her and her husband shared, namely before their arrangement was set in place.

"Nnngh, tell that bitch she can eat my─"

"Cadie!" The voice called even louder, causing the room to become almost daylight bright.

The alicorn was quickly startled from her sleep and fell from her bed to the ground below. "Shit!" She whispered as she removed her blindfold, being greeted by a bright light. Shielding her eyes, she looked at the source and saw the image of her husband in the crystal ball. "Uhh... Shining?"

"Cadie, you there?" He asked once more, trying to get her attention.

"Shit. Baby are you okay?" She said, immediately bringing herself to focus on her husband. She also took the opportunity to use her magic to control the brightness of the orb to where it became bearable to look at.

"Yeah. Gotta be extra quiet though." He whispered to his wife, looking at the others around him.

The pink princess yawned and covered her mouth as she spoke. "Oh sweetie. It's so early, the sun rises in like the next two hours and forty-five minutes."

Shining continued to look offscreen, bringing his attention to one particular individual. "Where's Twily?"

"She's sleeping in her room with Melanie. Melanie stayed over to help her feel better. Those two are practically holding each other together at this point."

"Babe, I know you're tired, but I need you to take me to Twilight."

Cadance felt something inside of her sink deep into her stomach. She was already preparing for the worst to come, but mentally she felt herself to be unprepared. Still, she strove on. "So you found him?"

Shining took a deep breath. "Yeah."

"Ahh shit... Hold on a second." She said as she completely dimmed the orb, not paying attention to the image of her husband trying to stop her for a second. She groaned with discomfort at the butterflies in her stomach teased her. "I swear it's too damn early in the morning for some grief."

The pink princess walked out of her room and past a patrol of two other guards who were almost on the verge of falling asleep at their post. As soon as she passed, they perked up and saluted her. With one thing in mind, she ignored them and approached the room of her younger sister-in-law. Politely, she knocked on the door to get her attention.

*Tap tap tap*

To her surprise, the door opened almost immediately. Twilight stood at the door, waiting. "Cadance."

"Oh Twilight, you look like you haven't slept." She said, noticing the bags under the young royal's eyes as well as her disheveled mane.

"How can I?"

"May I come in?" Cadance pleaded.

Twilight moved aside, allowing the older princess to enter the room. The door closed behind them, by will of Twilight's magic. Cadance walked over towards the bed to notice Melanie, who had dried tear streaks on her face as well as a relatively stressed appearance. A peaceful frown decorated her face, subtle yet telling of her distress. Twilight walked beside her and spoke quietly. "She went to sleep about two hours ago. The poor thing cried her heart out."

"So this is the expression of human grief... The same signs show on her face as it would on ours."

The words Cadance spoke alarmed the younger princess. She started to feel the sickness that graced her earlier in the day creep up on her once more. "Why did you come here so late?"

Cadance placed a hoof on Twilight's shoulder, slowly informing her of the news. "Shining found him."

And as quickly as those words left her mouth, Twilight's tears started rolling down her face as she expected the worst. "...Ca...dance..."

The pink princess held her younger sibling by the shoulders and petted her mane. "Sweetie, I need you to be calm when you see your brother. I don't want us to wake up Melanie. She can find out when she wakes up."

Twilight sniffled and responded with a broken tone. "...Okay..."

While Twilight cupped her mouth closed, trying to keep her sobs from being audible, Cadance pulled out the orb she carried with her and restored the image. "Shiny, you still there?" She whispered back to her husband.

"Yeah, I'm here."

"Brother?" The purple alicorn snatched the orb from Cadance and held onto it with desperation.

"Twily. You doing okay, kiddo?"

With her pursed lips that quivered and a breaking expression signifying the immense pain of her realizing what was to come, she shook her head in denial. "Just show him to me. Just let me get it over with."

Shining saw the pain in his sister's eyes and felt completely ruined by her. At the sight of her being so destroyed, he turned away from her and instead replaced his own image with that of the human's. "Here he is. You're gonna have to be quiet."

Twilight blinked only once, before her tears ran rivers. Her words were choked up and incapable of being soft. She covered her face with her foreleg and sobbed. Cadance held on to the pained alicorn as she spoke to Shining. "Oh goodness, you found him there? He doesn't look pretty."

Shining gave the human a slight nudge, causing him to grunt and breathe in heavily. "He went through hell, and he's still breathing somehow."

Feeling completely overwhelmed, the young princess fell over and lied on the ground, breathing heavily. Cadance quickly brought her attention to the hyperventilating mare. "Twilight?"

"She's probably having a relief attack. She catches those whenever─"

"She finds out about something drastically life-changing being nothing but pure speculation. It's almost like I foalsat her for over three years." Cadance finished with a deadpan expression guided towards her husband. "But is he seriously alive?"

Shining rolled his eyes with astonishment. "Hell, he saved us."

"Oh... Shining you have─"

"Hold on a second." He said before getting a picture of the human's sleeping face. He gave his nose a light poke. "Hey, say something."

"Tell that shitfaced politician... suck my left teeth and get his nut punched." Groaned the human in his sleep.

With a huge sigh of relief, the pink princess sat down and felt the knot in her stomach become undone. Twilight jumped up and clamped her forelegs around her sister, sobbing into her chest. Cadance lightly stroked her mane as she whispered to Shining. "Those are some crude words we are so happy to hear."

Shining snickered for a second before turning his attention back to the human on the ground. "Likewise."

Later that morning...
~Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer~

My eyes opened up to the light of the sun hailing through the window, battering down upon my face. Feeling the discomfort of one side of my face being warmer than the rest of my body, I turned over to my side. After I tried to situate myself to get some sleep, I realized that my body was more in a waking mood than my usual snooze. It's happened to me before, the morning after they found Nondis' car in the gulf. It was the familiar feeling of realization that I had lost a friend, and it didn't leave much in the way of rest.

Neither did the sound of quills loudly scribbling against paper, nor the sounds of papers being shoved around like crazy.

My eyes shot open to see what the hell was going on, and then caught a glimpse of Twilight trotting around the room with at least sixteen pages of paperwork she levitated around her. As she read one, she was signing another without even looking at the dotted line. And when she switched to another sheet, she signed yet another paper that she didn't read.

How the hell was she doing that?

I sat up from the bed, feeling a bit more-to-life than I was just last night. "Twilight, what are you doing?"

"Good morning." She responded with an upbeat demeanor. "I'm putting together some paperwork. I'm going to shut down that contract that was forged under Nondis' name."

After I stretched and felt that my hair was a mess, I started walking to the bathroom for the morning relief. I walked in the bathroom, looked around and saw that the system was similar to mine with the exception of an absence of tampons and other feminine products. "So he doesn't end up on the table in the morgue?" I wondered how she takes care of those 'natural occurrences' outside of estrus.

As I sat down and let myself go, Twilight spoke through the door. "He won't be seeing a morgue."

"What do you mean?" I questioned as I was letting myself finish up, reaching out for the roll of toilet paper.

"He's a bit exhausted, and covered in blood from head to toe. But the dead part?... He might be when I see him again." She explained as I wiped myself, flushed the toilet, and washed my hands.

"Oh thank you, Christ." I said, nearly collapsing into the sink in what could be the best bathroom trip I've ever taken in my life. I dried my hands and walked out to hug the purple pony after hearing the news. "I gotta tell you, if you would've told me the worst, I would've lost my shit... both figuratively and literally."

We pulled off of each other, Twilight gave me a look of determination as she held up all the papers in her possession. "I'll also try and clear out the media situation and let them know the truth."

"Actually, I'd advise against that right now." The two of us turned back around to see a light-gray unicorn mare with winter blonde hair. Her gray eyes shimmered as she exaggerated her entrance. "Oh... Knock knock, I'm coming in."

As the pony approached us, I grew suspicious of her sudden appearance. "Um... Who are you?"

She also seemed to speak with a very snooty attitude, which immediately gave me the feeling that I wasn't going to like her. "I'm also a princess, but only through marriage." She said as she proudly placed a hoof on her chest.

"She's one of Blueblood's wives. Vanity Charm, Charma for short." Twilight stated. And with a name like that, I already knew that I wasn't going to like being around her.

She didn't even bother bowing or extending a hoof to greet. She just flicked her mane out of her face and propped it up. "Wife number two, at your service."

"Out of how many?" I asked towards Twilight, realizing that if I had to deal with any sarcastic answer coming from the bitch, I'd have to get locked away for causing an transdimensional incident.

"Seven." She answered back.

SEVEN FUCKING WIVES? WHO HAS THE FUCKING TIME TO MARRY SEVEN TIMES? "Well that marriage law can't be that bad if he's done it that many times."

The mare gave me a glance, seeming to be dismissive of me while she talked to Twilight, also indirectly making commentary towards me. "I can assure you it's problematic in every sense of the word, but I digress. I think you should just let this one ride out. If he's alive, then let the press be the first to put it out there. It would look peculiar, as a royal, to break the news you'd supposedly have no sources on. Last I checked, Shining Armor made it where this whole fiasco was to be kept classified."

"She's right, you know." Said another voice, this one being that of a male. However, it still sounded just as uppity as hers. A white unicorn stallion with a rich blond mane walked into the room without even knocking, almost as if he owned the place. "Any probing of the result would reveal that he had assistance, a situation that wouldn't bode well for his return considering the strict guidelines he was given."

As he walked in, he turned his attention towards the purple princess' dresser. He then proceeded to crack open one of the drawers, earning a frantic blush from Twilight. "So to keep it simple: They're sticking their dick in an electrical socket." I responded, making the commentary a dual reference to the politicians and his own snooping around. Of course, Twilight lit her horn and sent a small amount of concentrated magic into the left flank of the invasive prince. He still managed to shield himself from the blow, but he sure as hell got the fuck away from her drawers. The purple princess blew her horn cold with a cocky grin.

"I was going to say 'their horn in a wood chipper', but yes."

~Day 3~
Meanwhile at Arimaspi Mountain...
~Point of Perspective: NONDIS~

Waking up, our morning consisted of darkness, smoke, craggy rocks poking into our backs, water dripping from the top of the caves onto our faces, and the lingering smell of death as the corpses from last night's debacle started to waste. One hell of an alarm clock to smell something so foul before setting out. Thankfully, Shining got our asses up before the situation could get to the point where we could get deathly ill. Only drawback of it was that I only got three hours of sleep instead of four.

I guess a nap will have to do in my case.

Gathering our stuff and slapping on our night-vision goggles, we pressed onwards to the center tunnel. As we entered, I marked the entrance with a white stick of chalk before committing to fully going in. It was already assumed that this wouldn't be a dead end because of our good friend from last night deciding to engage in his revenge tour while taking this route. If he didn't lead us to the place we wanted to go, then it's convenient to know that he gave us a starting point.

Though that didn't help my demeanor one bit.

We were already two junctions inward, and things started to look the same. "Jeez, this place really smells like fucking corn, cheese, and corpses." The smell, however, was dramatically different than previous areas.

"An odd combination of comparisons, wouldn't you say?" Caramel mumbled while he continued to sniff around. But his ears fell back as his nose caught something. He then ran from the front and grabbed two of the other guards and pulled them to nearby cover. "Get down." He said, still pushing the two guards' heads down below a nearby rock. From our positions, we waited silently for the creature to pass.

But then the creature called out. "Hey, Funaki!" He said in what I think to be a whisper... with plus-bad breath.

While our goggles made out the image of a large arimaspi standing six yards away, Rainbow felt confident to whisper back towards Flash. "Isn't that the same bastard that tried to get us all killed yesterday?"

"Shut up!" Caramel chided quietly.

The creature stepped forward and raised a torch. "I know you're here, Funaki." He said as he threw the torch towards us.

The torch landed just a few feet in front of us, giving me a bit of a chill as it landed directly in front of where I was hiding. We had to remove our goggles because the light from the torch reduced our visibility with them on. But at the very least, the cave was lit well enough to prevent us from not seeing anything in front of us. "Keep quiet." I mouthed to everyone in the room.

"You may choose to not answer me, and that's acceptable. But I should warn you of our tribe's greatest warrior. After yesterday's mess, I can say that Kali'Ma will be taking you for trophy, not for leisure. He will seek revenge for how you have shamed him. By blade you took from him, by blade he swears to take from you what is most precious."

And with that warning, he turned his back towards us, revealing a bag that he carried filled with gold trinkets, bits, and jewelry. The sack however, was stained with blood. Upon a closer look I saw that his back had significantly deep cut wounds, definitely reminiscent of a cut caused by a sharp object. The creature staggered towards the left of the room. Many of us watched in wonder and worry as he grunted with every step. Droplets of blood fell from his body onto the ground while he walked. Flash turned to Shining while pointing at the creature. "They use swords?"

"Never seen that. I've seen them use rocks and sticks, but never swords." Shining answered. By then, we had stopped hiding. Obviously the guy wasn't in any mood or condition to attack us. He seemed more helpful than anything else, which caught our curiosity. The entire group stood in the center of the room and watched as he staggered to the path going towards the left.

"...If you seek a quicker way to the outside, this is the route you must take."

Shining, even to my complete bewilderment, stepped forward and questioned the creature. "Why are you helping us?"

He then turned back to the prince and answered. "Do you not see me as I am? I am no longer of them. Their future is none of my concern."

A bone-chilling comment made by the creature, considering that they've been hunting us down for quite some time now. Shining continued to question him. "But you've been here. This is your home."

The creature then faced the prince head-on and gave him a retort. "We arimaspi envy you ponies. You take our land centuries ago, and build beautiful city on it. You see the sun, the moon, the sky. Here, there is no time other than what the scouts tell you what it is. This is our city, and they call it beautiful."

Gotta admit that their version of 'beautiful' is something that not even Rarity or Jesus can fix.

The creature carried on. "I have read your scrolls, the bits of knowledge given to us by the works you and your predecessors left behind. They speak of beautiful halls and gold-clad warriors. Yet they also spoke of betrayal, even towards your highest order." The creature then turned back around and started walking towards the exit. "We wish to become you, yet we punish the dissenters. I am one who has been punished, never to return. I am not the first, many others have gone before." He stopped walking forward and turned just his head to Shining and I. "If your loyalty is too strong, you will be blind to the cruelty you create. But will it be used for the right reason?"

While he disappeared into the darkness, I felt my arms grow numb. An icy chill ran down my spine as he, an arimpasi, challenged our ideals and shared wisdom we once previously thought they were incapable of displaying. It was an enlightened creature, of course that's to be expected when you get ousted by your own tribe, but it was disturbing to say the least.

He was gone, but he left us a light to guide our way. Walking up to the torch, I picked it up and stared at the curious flame as it danced. While it showed the paths ahead, it also highlighted the drops of blood he left behind.

For minutes, we were stunned to silence. Whatever preconceived notions we had were all blown up in our faces, leaving us with more questions than answers. And much like the flame that flickered in my hand, how the shadows wavered and changed along the ground and the walls, we were moved.

Eventually, Flash broke the silence. "So... what's next?"

"Doesn't hurt to keep our guard up in the rear." Caramel said, showing he was more tense than ever.

I took back out the chalk and marked the cave to our left. "I agree. Let's take the right tunnel. We'll note the left as an exit route." I said, also pointing out the trail of blood our new friend left us.

"Now we'll know which is what when we leave." Rainbow Dash said as she and the others walked onward.

"These caves are humid, something tells me that there's water nearby." One of the guards stated.

After I finished marking the exit, I caught back up with the group and took point. Shining then walked beside me and whispered to me. "You think that chalk will keep up?"

At this rate, I hope it does. The longer we're down here, the less our ammo holds up.

The long and winding web of tunnels would've sent any man who entered into a frenzy, an uncontrollable panic as he scrambles to find which tunnel was the way back out. Hell, just the thought of it is making me insane. But if it wasn't for the small amount of blood littering the floors, we'd just be as lost as any other man. And thanks to our old friend, it seemed that our journey has been simplified for the better part of another three junctions.

That is until one particular split where there was only two paths, a fork in the road where both paths showed blood. One side seemed bloody enough, with what appeared to be a splotch of it on the wall. The other seemed to have a brushed trail. Either choice we made, we were going to be confused. We took a moment to decide and cast a vote to decide which tunnel would have the better chance of it reaching our desired destination.

We decided to go to the left route, moving towards what could be the endgame of our excursion. One thing was for certain. "The smell is getting worse." I said.

"Then we must be close to where they're based." Shining said with a firm tone, seeming as if he was ready to burst out in a full gallop to see what lied ahead.

But the more we progressed, I started to feel a bit queasy from the stench that overtook my senses. So often, I had burped or gagged. The others didn't seem to take it too well either. Caramel even resorted to holding his nose. "This smell is becoming overwhelming. We're entering a dangerous area. My nose will not be able to pick up on them if they should ever get close." He warned.

"That is a problem we can live with. But as far as the smell is concerned, do you think it's a trap?" Flash asked while clearing his throat.

"More than likely. They're probably throwing us off so they can ambush us." Rainbow surmised.

"An ambush is unlikely, given what happened in the last scenario." Shining responded. He seemed as if the smell didn't bother him entirely too much. Perhaps he's dealt with this kind of stuff more often than I would've thought. Either that or he's probably so desensitized to it by now.

"We had the element of distraction that time around. This time it won't be so casual." Caramel said before the stench started to overwhelm even him, causing him to grunt and hold his breath. "This is really starting to get bad."

Finally, we reached an open room where the stench came from. It was an entire mega-cavern, with openings in the ceiling to let the sunlight and open air come through. A river ran just on the far-end of the cavern, introducing a beautiful view of the forest and the Appleloosa River. The place was filled with a bunch of arimaspi...

...Dead arimaspi.

"Try not to lose too much of your breakfast." I said in an attempt to be a practitioner of my sermon.

"Oh...wow." Flash grimaced at the sight and coughed violently.

"Shhhhhit!" Rainbow said as she clenched her eyes shut, not wanting to look at what we've been smelling for a good while.

"Uf... guess we found that third thing you smelled, en masse." Caramel said before his gag reflexes overrode his self-control. Walking towards a nearby corner, he and two others relieved themselves of their previous meals.

"Holy fuck, what is this place?" I asked, now deeply regretting that arimaspi steak I had for dinner.

"There's corpses everywhere." Shining pointed out.

"Breakfast is served... again." One of the guards replied sarcastically, looking at his own vomit puddle.

Caramel, who finally recovered from his emergency ejection session, spat the remnants from his mouth and covered his muzzle. "Why would they do something like this? Don't they understand that this is a hazard to their health?"

As I looked around, I realized that the conditions were ideal for exposure in contrast to this just merely being a grave site where they dump their deceased family and friends. The gears in my brain started turning as a term I once saw slowly crept back to the forefront of my mind. "I think they do... We're at the base of the mountain again. There's openings all over the place."

"This is not how I want to die." Flash stated while he held his nose.

As my eyes scanned the room, I saw one particular body laying on the ground while, I guess, some other arimaspi was lying on top of it. But then I noticed the missing arm and it dawned on me. "I don't think you'd have to worry about that. From the looks of it, they were probably already dead to begin with."

"How can you tell?" Rainbow asked sarcastically.

"Cause the one that tried to kill me is currently sitting on top of himself over there." I pointed out.

As Shining walked over to me, I crouched down and pointed at the corpse I mentioned. It's arm was missing and it's head was placed right-side up, facing the river on the other side of the room. Shining's eyes grew as he nodded slowly. "You cut it's head off? I'm genuinely impressed."

"I lost my shit and I wanted to make sure he was dead." I explained while looking at more of the 'fresher' bodies lying around. "For some, I can already see some with bullet wounds to the face. The others, they appear to have been down here for quite some time."

Shining cleared his throat while he cringed at the sight of another body, which was long into the decomposition process. The creature's eye was missing, clumps of fur and discolored flesh covered most parts of the body while the bone was exposed on some of the smaller limbs. While it lied in wait, flies hovered around while it's young crawled around the openings. Vultures were so numerous that they could be mistaken for clothes, they picked at the body. One of them flew up to one of the fresher bodies and started picking at the eye, slowly devouring it. "Are the maggots and vultures any more of a clue for that?"

Eventually, the words that marinated in the front of my brain was sent to my tongue. "...Sky burial."

"Excuse me?" Shining asked.

"That's what this is. A sky burial."

Rainbow Dash looked around and responded with confusion. "I don't see any clouds anywhere, so what does this have to do in correlation to the sky?"

I went on further in my explanation of the subject. "A sky burial is a method of body disposal. They take the corpse and leave it in an area away from the village, someplace where there's plenty of open air and exposed to the elements. There, the bodies are left to be taken by the forces of nature. Birds, bugs, bacteria, anything capable of breaking down tissue, it all comes here. In parts of Mongolia and a few other parts of the Middle-East, this practice is still being used in my world. It is said to have the deceased rejoin with nature, and to once more become a part of the earth's cycle... An endless circle of life, death, and reincarnation."

Caramel gagged before he spoke. "They're putting me underground, that's the end of that."

As soon as he said that, I watched as a vulture sat on top of an older body jumped into the air as a piece of rotting flesh fell right off of the bone. If anything else didn't trigger my gag reflex, that sure as hell did. It felt like someone had a rope hooked into my diaphragm and yanked it into my neck. The force of it caused me to lunge forward. While nothing came out, I knew that staying here would probably encourage my last meal to do so. "I couldn't agree with you more. The thought of some bastard doing something to me after I die is something too terrifying for me to think about. I'd be comfortable with being cremated, just burn my shit and get it over with. Spread my ashes on a beautiful beach and let me be with the earth in that manner."

Caramel shared my sentiments in his own fashion. "Well while the detour was nice and we learned a little something educational along the way, obviously what we're looking for is not here. Let's get a move on before one of us serves another helping of leftovers."

I don't think I've ever moved that fast to leave a room that didn't contain an immediate threat. And it wasn't just me who thought of taking an expedited withdrawal. Shining however lagged behind as he took one last look at the final resting place of our adversaries.

"I don't blame him on why he left if this is what it all leads to. I'm getting too royal for this."

I know it's been hours and hours since we left that burial chamber, but the smell and sights of it were still just as fresh in my mind as ever. However, there was more to detract from the macabre imagery. For instance, there's the fact that my arm wound has stopped throbbing as much, while my feet are throbbing even more. or even better, how potentially lost we are and not having a clue as to how much time has passed or if it's day or night. Ol' dude had a point, that is a depressing thought. It's like a prison, with the exception of the guards.

Hell, your meals would be an indication of that.

Meanwhile, the same dreary caves we've ran into have resulted in nothing but turn after turn after turn into a web of tunnels. And to make matters worse, the blood trail we used to get us here had disappeared. It's hard to tell which ones lead to where, I'm even concerned about how these bastards even get around with the monotony. I suppose they've gotten so used to the passages that they've learned it by memory. The only saving grace is that torches have become a little less rare.

Thank goodness, because our first one had kinda flickered out like two rooms ago.

Shining carried the role of torch bearer from the point where we entered that open-air morgue from earlier. Meanwhile, I was taking into account which tunnels we walked into and which ones lead back to where, which ones were dead ends, which ones were caved-in, which ones were roundabouts, and which ones were the ones that led further into the mountain. As we were making these decisions, I had drawn out a crude representation of where we've been, where we've came from, and where we're going.

I felt like an adventurer in a dungeon filled with monsters, though the 'walking around' part had always bored me.

"Hey." Rainbow called out.

"Yeah?" I responded in monotone.

"How many tunnels have we marked that didn't lead to the right path?" She asked.

"More than what I'd like to count." I said in the same tone.

"If we ever come back to this place, is there any way you're going to be able to differentiate between them?"

"I've already made up in my mind how it's going to be done."

"That being said, have you mapped any of this shit out?"

I yawned from the boredom of walking around in circles, from seeing the same craggy mouths that lead to more craggy mouths, of hearing the occasional water dripping from the top of the cave. I handed her the map and stretched my arms afterwards. "Hard to do when there's no landmarks of any sort. Not impossible, but I do have a decent representation of what direction we're going."

Rainbow, Shining, Flash, and Caramel all looked at the paper. To their disappointment, the only thing they saw was a few circles with lines drawn from them, which then connected to more circles, which then connected to yet even more lines, almost like a tree growing from the roots on upward. "This looks like the scribbling of a foal, how am I to take this seriously?" Complained an impatient Caramel.

"Life and death is a pretty serious matter in itself. You take what you can get." I argued back, taking the paper away and putting it aside for us to keep walking onward.

"Well can we get something that's a little more beneficial?" The brown stallion questioned.

"My representation is simple and easy to read. If you want fucking Leonard Da Vinci, or whatever pony equivalent you guys have, to map this place out, then too motherfucking bad because guess what? None of us can draw." I openly stated, losing a bit of my patience.

Caramel kept grumbling to himself before he finally blurted out as a shot at me. "Brightened Star would've did this whole exploration justice. She didn't skip a beat, always on the lookout for the environment and scribbling as she went along. I miss her."

"Me too. Though I did often question her particular choice in artistry." Shining cosigned with a nod.

"What did she draw?" Finally, something else to talk about. I was legitimately getting bored of just walking around with rocks in mind. Who am I, Maud?

The brown earth pony chuckled as he started to reminisce on his previous assignment. "She was the one in the company that was known to be a top-notch pervert. She drew a exact-to-the-visual representation of Shining's... intimate parts. She drew mine, she drew half of the stallions in the company. She even went so far as to draw us peeing."

Can't say I'm willing to pass on the subject, this was all we had to talk about for the time being. Might as well indulge in the lunacy. "Well that could've been worse." She could've sold those pictures for profit to every mare in the company. Might have dealt the exchange in M.R.E's or shift changes.

"Oh it got worse alright. She also drew some of the stallions when they were in the bushes to 'relieve themselves'." Caramel stated with a scoff.

Shining snickered as he pointed back to the brown earth pony. "I believe that was you relieving yourself."

The entire group burst out with laughter as the brown stallion blushed heavily, subconsciously trying to cover himself with his hindleg and tail. "Exactly! She even captured my face the moment I cut loose. I never felt so violated."

Flash looked around and stopped laughing. As the monotony started to settle back in, he started to look around nervously. "Well I'm sorry for your loss. But right now, we need to check on where we are."

I pulled back out the map and saw that we were in yet another room to note. However, I've noticed that we've already marked one of the entrances on the walls. "I think we're here." Rainbow said, pointing to a random room.

"Nah, I think we're here." One of the other guards said as he pointed to another random room on the map.

"This map is so hard to read. It's like there's so many lines intersecting, there's even one that just curls back to three rooms before this one. And you haven't even jotted down anything new." Caramel continued to bitch like he did earlier.

Yeah, my patience is almost non-existent. "That's because we're back in the room that had the one cave we took that led us three rooms back from where we were then, which is where we are now." I think I've gone cross-eyed trying to explain that.

"Well, we're lost." Shining said with a submissive sigh.

"Not entirely." Oh yes the fuck we are. "We still got the left path to take that could lead further inside. Let's try this one instead."

No one really argued at this point, we've just given up on trying to decide which is going where. But this at least shortened the time it took to make a decision. We followed the path until it lead up to what appeared to be a stony rotunda, sans decoration or sunlight of course. However, the path eventually led to a steep drop off point into a dimly-lit chasm. "Well then, it appears we are at an impasse."

Flash and Rainbow looked to their back, flapped their wings twice and smiled. "Not us. We can glide into the chasm and see what's below or above us." Flash responded.

"Glad you volunteered, Flash. You wanna go on ahead and do the honor of enlightening us?" I said to the pegasus stallion, who gave me an eager salute and backflipped into the darkness.... Showoff.

It took him all of seven minutes to come back and give us his findings. And judging from the massive smile on his face, he must've found something good. "There's a large hall down there with huge doors at the end of it. The doors seem to be made of a really heavy wood with golden embroidery. Also, the place seems to be a little more 'in form' compared to the rest of the halls we've walked through. I managed to wait around for one of the arimaspi to come around and open it up, and I've confirmed that your payday is right through those doors."

Best news I've ever heard, but it came with a significant catch. "And of course, it's not accessible from here unless we all grow a pair of wings and float on down. So close, yet so far."

"How long have we been in here? We just caught the waning of the afternoon sun back in the corpse room. But it feels like we've been in here since forever." Rainbow pointed out.

"It's been forever since we last ate." Flash said.

"It's been forever since we last slept." Caramel stated.

Hell, I'm probably just as fucking tired as ever. If they say they're tired, then I don't blame them. I was running on fumes up to this point and I think it would be better if we took a siesta to get our energy back up. Our fight thus far has been very light, and it's only going to get harder from here on. No point in continuing if none of us are in peak condition. I'm on board with it. "I might be wrong, but I think camping out for now seems like a good idea."

Shining gave me a weary nod. "Agreed."

~Day 4~

Once more, Shining and I shared shifts on sleeping. The only difference was that Flash made it a little easier for us to do so and that Shining cast a barrier spell to alert him whenever something went past the borders. As far as what we had for breakfast, we had the usual M.R.E exchange and chowed down. Granted I couldn't eat much of what was provided, some of the others went into their rations and pulled out whatever they could to give me a decent meal. I tried to offer them a means of showing my appreciation, but they said that some gold from the vault would be a nice payoff.

Guess that means I'll be working my ass of to get them what they want.

Everyone seemed a lot more energetic today, probably because we knew what was gonna go down today. And just below us was the vault that held all of our wildest dreams, a room grossly filled with treasure as far as the eye can see. My dick was already getting hard from the thought of coming back with this stuff just to piss of some of the politicians.

Hardly anything stood in our way as soon as we left the camping spot. We pushed and plowed our way through every hall, marking each one as we walked through them. We ran into a few arimaspi patrols, and they fell as quickly as they called themselves to action. We were all so high on the thought of success that we considered our encounters as nothing but a mere nuisance. Shining and I placed our shots well to minimize our ammo usage, running short on supply was starting to become a concern. But once again, our shots landed pretty well, mainly because we aimed for the eyes.

So we carried on, deeper into the system of caves. Morale was so high that we were almost negligent in our stealth... almost.

And yet, after the first two hours, things eventually crept back into the same monotony as before. It felt like we were riding high on life, only to come back and see that we've never really left where we were in the first place. It's the feeling of flying higher than before, but you realize that it's only a marginal increase because you're jumping up while going down a steep flight of stairs. But at least everyone seemed to have more of a sense of humor.

Rainbow Dash, who seemed to be the most eager of the group now, marked our next route on the walls. "You know what's funny?" She asked.

"The fact that Nondis sleeps under a dead arimaspi?" Cracked a smart-ass Caramel.

The others shared a laugh, even Shining took pleasure in the joke made at my expense. "Well that's worthy of a chuckle in my eyes, but we have seen more arimaspi when we came in than we do now. We ran into a few, but they've been so easy to take down that it's leaving nothing in terms of suspense."

"Killing made easy, these weapons were made with that in mind." I said while tapping my fingers against my rifle.

"I'm just saying this is odd in every sense of the word. It doesn't seem like we're getting any closer, yet we've got a visual of the vault." Rainbow stated.

"Yeah, things have gotten slow." Flash agreed.

I was prompted to give a response to them, but before I could even take in the air to push back out, a voice grumbled out from within the cave. Following the usual routine, we hid amongst the cracks and crevices of the walls. Just ahead, there seemed to be a much different formation of the cave. For the first time, there seemed to be the semblance of a perpendicular intersection, no rooms, no extra choices, just a hall.

We waited, and they came from the right. "(And he has the nerve to leave me here with OUR cub, like he's leaving the tribe and everything)" One female arimaspi grunted angrily.

I mouthed my words to the others while they walked by. "Let them pass. We'll take the route they came from and sneak by."

"(That just lets you know what kind of mate he was. He was never really in it to raise a gathering, he was just in it for himself.)"

"(I wish that the tribe did more than just strip him of his gold and status. He should be decaying in the sky chamber.)"

"(In speaking of that, did you hear about the tribe's best warrior getting bested by that new creature everyone's talking about?)"

"(Yes, and he is ANGRY. He even took the tribe leader's sword and started searching the mountain for him.)"

"(Too bad, I wonder if the creature could be broken in as a pet.)"

Finally, their voices disappeared down the hall, leaving us with all the freedom to walk down the hall. "Okay, we're clear." I called out, causing the others to quietly dash for the intersection. I then motioned my hand to move towards the direction they left from.

Caramel hummed to himself. "Wonder what they're on about."

Shining quickly answered him. "We ain't got time to find that out. Let's just focus on what's ahead."

As we went along the route that was provided to us, the halls started to shape up. It gradually went from craggy mouths, to smoother tunnel bores, all the way up to crudely-shaped pillars. There seemed to be a prouder sense of masonry here and it was apparent that some effort was made to create the halls of a grand castle. In fact, the pillar scheme seemed to poorly replicate the ones we've seen from the Castle of the Two Sisters, the ruins in the Everfree Forest. But it was obvious from the erosion-worn surface that the construction was halted probably centuries ago.

Guess they must've got tired of trying.

But damn was it convenient to see the whole place being lit like a nightclub at closing time. For the better part of the past three hours, it was like we were just eating away at the flares whenever Shining got tired of lighting up the place. And there weren't any glowing mushrooms to give us a heads up on where the walls were when we wore our nightvision goggles. Two of our guys broke their specs because they ran into walls with them on and cracked the lenses.

So yes, this was a nice change in scenery.

We inevitably ran into more and more arimaspi we had to hide from. And as it went along, the halls started to become more and more intersected. The entire place seemed to be constructed like a city more than a cave at this point. And glowing crystals that emitted bright light were used in illuminating the 'streets' while torches outlined the intersections. Guess they provided those to whoever was going up to surface, a rather nice system if I might add. The torches last long enough to keep burning while they go up, and they probably have the way memorized for when the go down....

Or are we going up and the surface is going down? I've honestly lost the ability to tell what was what.

As far as cities went, there always tends to be that one busy intersection that lets you know you're close to a location of prominence. And with enough time, we managed to run into said intersection. We were slated to cross whenever the traffic died down, but it seemed far from wanting to do so for quite some time. However, Flash remembered the features of the hall we needed to take, and to our misfortune, it was directly in front of us.

So for several hours, we stood in hiding. And we kept waiting... and waiting... and waiting... annnd waiting.

And eventually the traffic died down to where we could cross. But as a counter measure, Flash and Rainbow planted dynamite on the ceiling of the other two halls that intersected with the ones we needed to stay open. As far as closing the other halls, we'll have to do that on the way out.

After they were finished with the planting, I borrowed one of the torches they provided for us at the intersection and blew the those halls into a crude pair of walls. It didn't go unnoticed, so we ultimately had to postpone our moving forward to blow the other halls leading up to it anyhow. And judging from just how much rock fell from the ceiling, we were looking at a total collapse. When we finished, I took notice that the rock was made of a mix of schist and sandstone. The schist could hold out against the dynamite, but the sandstone could be very easily broken with enough explosive force put on it. And due to the structural weakness of the material, further enhanced by the unevenly-shaped structure and poor shaping from the masons, the halls were easy to bring down.

Huh... Guess that explains why they've stopped chiseling.

Flash assisted me as I took point from there on, guiding us towards the massive hole in the ceiling where he flew in from. And the more he pointed out the thing that were familiar to him, the more excited the group got. I was just on the verge of jumping out of my clothes as we finally saw the massive set of doors that closed in our prize. I looked at the structure from top to bottom, seeing that it was made of a hardwood. I whistled as my eyes drug along it's height. "That's a huge-ass set of doors."

"And these doors look far too heavy to move on our own." Caramel stated as he tapped his hoof against the door. "We might have to plant some dynamite at the hinges and hope that they break."

I examined the hinges and saw that they were made of something I never thought I'd see while I was down here. The rusted iron hinges appeared immensely thick, far too thick for just a few sticks of dynamite to separate, even in the current state that it's in. If it's capable of holding this much weight, then obviously it's capable of standing up to a few sticks of dynamite. "Seriously?" I questioned with a sarcastic tone.

"Yes, those stick things you used to blow the other caves back there in the intersection?" Caramel responded with a condescending tone.

I shook my head as I unzipped my bag and started rummaging through it. "My point is this: Why use something so primitive when you have a job that requires precision?"

The brown stallion rolled his eyes as I continued to go through my bag. "Well I don't think you can get a lock pick that will fit that door."

As my hand reached in and met with a softer substance, I pulled it out and drew out a brick of C-4. "Don't need one when you've got the master key."

Shining's eyes lit up as soon as he realized what was taking place. "Oh I remember those, that came in the crate Rickey gave you."

After I finished rolling up the bricks into longer strands for the hinges, I turned to the two pegasi in our group. "Rainbow, Flash, I need the two of you to plant these on the hinges of the door. And when you plant them, shape them into a thin line that will outline the area we're trying to cut. If you see any more contact points that's holding the door in place, you put some there. Use only what we need, not what all we have."

While the two saluted and started putting everything in place, one of the guards walked up to me and curiously asked. "What's this clay-like dough going to do?"

"It's gonna blow the door right off. If it's too big for us to move, then we only need to blow off what's holding it in place. C-4 goes boom, door falls down in front of us, we walk inside, we take what we want, we get the hell out before it gets hairy. Classic smash and grab." What I also failed to mention is that C-4 is a very precise plastic explosive when used properly. Unlike dynamite, which was clunky in shape, could not be made into a precise form unless manufactured as such, C-4 could be used to hit a certain area without causing too much structural damage. Dynamite would've caused numerous problems.

Shining trotted up to survey the process and expressed his thoughts. "You'd think we were robbing a bank."

"We are, theirs." I responded with brutal honesty.

The two pegasi flew down and gave me a salute. "Everything's been set."

"Did you set the charges?" I asked.

The two looked at each other and and shrugged. "Oh... How do we do that?" Rainbow asked.

...Dammit, I forgot to run that by them. My mistake, bad oversight there. "Okay, you see this button right here? You're gonna press this on all of them." I said while showing them an example out of one of the spare bricks I had on hand. "You see how the light turns green on them, that means they're ready to be used. Don't ever do this with the ones you still have on you, or you might find yourself in a crude state of omnipresence."

By that, I mean they'll be blown all over the place.

"Okay." They once more glided back up to the door and set the charges on the C-4. When they came back down, they gave me a nod. "Charges set."

About damn time. "Alrighty then, everyone, behind the pillars and keep your ears pinned down, it's gonna get louder than what it was earlier." After everyone fled for cover, I pulled out the detonator, closed my eyes, and called out to everyone in the area. "Breaching!"

The small charge buttons on the C-4 bleeped red for a fraction of a second before they instantly turned the white clay-like strands into a series of fiery explosions. Powerful blasts sent shards of rusted metal, wood, and rock in every direction. The doorway itself cracked and crumbled in places, but showed that there was no significant damage to lead towards a cave-in. The door creaked and groaned as it tilted towards us, landing with a enormous slam. "Well let's see what we've got in here." The smoke slowly dissipated, but I grew too impatient to wait and see what was ahead. I took the initiative and marched through the plume of smoke.

"Oh... my... Father who art in heaven. Hollowed be thy name for the riches you've provided."

Those were the first words I said when I walked in. The room was heavily lit with luminescent crystals, which only amplified just how golden it was in there. Bits and relics from every era, from every part of the continent, it was all stored here. Beautiful, boundless, benign to the eye, a man could lose himself in the gross wealth that was accumulated here, a man could only live long enough just to count what all was in here. Riches abound, as far as the eyes could see.

I fell to my knees, feeling as if I had saw what heaven had in store for me.

The others followed and stalled when they saw. "This place is more stacked than a dragon's horde."

For just that one moment, I felt ignorant. I had a damn good reason to be. I felt like an average college student who just walked into King Tut's wealth. Without further hesitation, I grabbed my bag, dug for my phone, turned it back on, and posed for a picture. "This is so beautiful to me. I gotta take a picture of it. I gotta selfie this shit." I said it like I was gonna update my Facebook profile with that image.

I don't care, I'm entitled to feel like a fucking dork right now.

Caramel was paralyzed at the sight of it all. A few tears even fell from his face as his legs grew weak under his own weight. "Five years of haunting nightmares because of our search for something we felt didn't exist. I can't be happy for this because of what all we've lost. I am numb."

Shining gave the brown stallion a pat on the back as he watched the others dart forward, leaving the two of them behind. "You have a right to be." He said, closing his eyes and covering his face with a hoof.

As each of the others guards spoke their desires for what they would do next, the two reflected on those that they lost when they first tried to come here. Shining's eyes watered, and he eventually gritted his teeth as he wept quietly.

"I'm going to give this to my wife!"

"I'm getting this for my little daughter back home. She'll be so thrilled to see what I've brought for her."

"I'm rich!"

"I'm finally out of debt! I can be free now!"

The wealth of commentary caused the two stallions, who were originally the most composed, to being the most emotional. They dropped their heads towards the ground while the ghosts of their departed comrades wandered into their thoughts, their voices replacing the comments from the others. They imagined what they would've heard them say. And in turn, their own words were lost to the bittersweet moment they shared. For the first time in the five years since their previous expedition here, they embraced each other and shared their emotions as brothers in arms.

I looked at them from afar, taking in pride of seeing the two finally getting some form of closure in that incident. Those two carried the weight of nearly forty other spirits in getting here. From the experience of walking in Shining's shoes, I felt even myself welling up tears for them... That was until one of the guards called out to the others. "Body bags out, boys. We're snatching all we can carry."

Wait, what now? "Body bags?"

"We thought we had to collect you, or what was left of you." Rainbow explained awkwardly. "But hey, they're not going to waste!"

...Okay, I'm lost. "I don't think I would've been in a presentable state if I was going to be able to fit in one of those."

"Hence why we brought multiple." Rainbow answered.

...Um... Okay? "...Nevermind, let's just grab what we came here for."

"Your highness?" Flash called out to Shining, interrupting the two veterans' embrace. The prince departed for his subordinate and the two proceeded to converse over something they found in one area of the room. They stayed there for an extended period of time before I eventually came over there to see what the excitement was all about.

"Shining, you found something?"

"Something valuable. We've got the key piece of it all." He said, holding up two items not made of gold.

"A scroll and a book? Out of all the gold in this place, and you pick those two items?" I inquired with a puzzled look.

"It's what's inside of them that warrants a blank price tag." Shining stated as he steeled his expression. Seems something really made him angry.

"We're all packed." One of the guards hollered from behind us.

"It almost feels like we've hit all horseshoes in Las Pegasus! We've totally made it big!" Rainbow screamed.

But our cheerful interaction with one another came to a screeching halt as we heard something metallic scraping against the walls. What followed as a loud thud, along with a loud clang. "...What the hell is that sound?" Caramel asked, immediately jumping into full-alert.

More of the scraping sounded from within the hall, slowly dragging from what I concluded. I ran out to the doorway to see a familiar creature, limping towards us with one arm. "Funaki!" Angrily cried the creature.

It seemed that Smokey, or Kali'Ma as they call him, came for a visit. "Hey buddy, you look like you've seen better days."

The creature then turned to face me head on, revealing the severed arm wrapped in bandages. In it's place was a large rusted sword which appeared to have been used as a prosthetic limb. "I've got a present for you!" It whispered angrily, still dealing with his damaged windpipe. "Do you like it, Funaki?"

Pulling out my sword, I readied myself to fight while secretly reaching for my sidearm. "If this is a dick measuring contest, then you've won."

"No. I've won only when I've claimed you as my newest trophy."

I scratched my face, sword still in hand. "Um, I don't know if you got the memo of the change in the pecking order, but you're not that high."

"They all know of you, what you are, who you're allied with. And now they will see your body upon my horns."

"Full-out penetration? Hey buddy, can't you wait until the second date at least?" I joked.

"This is the second date." He responded with a unsettling smile.

For a moment, I had to think about it and in doing the math, yeah he was right. "Oh... I guess it would be... Then I suppose this excuse would work then. I'M NOT IN THE MOOD!" I said as I pulled my gun on him.

"Well you don't have to give me consent. I'll just run you through."

The arimaspi charged at me, using the momentum from his three other limbs for a swing from his sword-arm. I fired three rounds into one of it's legs, causing him to lose a bit of momentum. Seeing that even the higher caliber rounds weren't working on him, I parried his incoming blow. But as a result, I was thrown back several feet. Getting back on my legs, I pulled out my shotgun and used whatever slug rounds I had left to send him careening into the ground. I fired off four rounds, one being a miss and two being shots that landed in the shoulders. The final shot ripped through it's hindleg, sending blood and bone fragments into the air. The creature landed on the ground, resulting in a rather unspectacular victory.

Such is the fate of one bringing a knife to a gun fight.

"Stranger danger, for fucks sake." I said as I renewed my composure. "Haven't you folks ever heard the phrase 'no means no'? What the hell, you can't just go around and shove your things inside of others without them giving you consent."

Smokey's eye turned to me, his sword arm trying to make a lunge for me. "You're no different, taking things that don't belong to you."

After avoiding the wild swipe, I closed in the distance to hack away at the creature's improvised limb. He cried out as best as he could while I took what was left of his arm away from him. He tried to fight me back on that with an attempt to crush me under his other hand, but that too saw the edge of my sword. The others quickly joined in and started piercing the creature from all sides. Smokey became overwhelmed by the onslaught and stopped any resistance. I climbed on his chest and looked him in his eye as I spoke.

"You know... There's a song that we sing every time we enter into a new stage in our lives, it's informally called the New Year's song. Not everything is the same in the new year as it once was in the years past. Some figures have gone on, some have remained, some have faded, some have moved on to travel their own paths. In your case, your new year begins with a bang. And it is the beginning of a new state of mind for you: absolute oblivion."

Smokey writhed in pain as more of the spears dug deeper into his body. With his best effort, he screamed at us. "You all will suffer!"

I ignored his warning and proceeded to sing. "♪Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot in the land of Auld Lang Syne?♫"

Shining then sang along with me, but with different lyrics. "♪When family can not be here, having journeyed far and wide, we sing a song to honor them in the tales of Days Gone By.♫"

Caught completely by surprise, I turned back to him and asked. "Oh so y'all have a version of that?"

Shining then levitated the rifle up to his chest as he forcefully levitated Smokey's head to turn towards him. "I have one for him." He said with an icy-cold dullness in his eyes. "From my friends, to you and yours."

While Shining nearly bore a hole into the creature's skull with just his looks alone, I started to see the look of a man who just found his bounty. I saw the image of a man who lost something precious to him, a man who sought revenge and closure. Even though there was plenty for him to lose out on, he didn't appear that way. He looked dangerous, like he felt that this kill was for personal business. With that in mind, I jumped off of his chest and called the others off of him. This was something he longed to do, obviously. It's only fair he gets final blood. "Well I wanna hear it, Shining. Go on, sweet prince. Sing this guy to his rest."

In a low, venomously sadistic tone, he sang to him. He pulled his ears open, and he sang to him quietly as if it were a lullaby.

Should auld acquaintance still remain
And haunt thy weary mind?
We linger on to torture them
In the tales of days gone by.

For years we'll never get to see
And days we've lost to time,
We linger on to remind them
Of the days of auld lang syne.
Of the days you left behind.

What is yours... is also... mine.

We left the chamber and directed ourselves out of the mountain, taking the paths we marked down. The weight of our gold was so tremendous that the bags stressed in carrying them. But as we left with our prize in hand, not a solitary word was spoken amongst us. Flash was pale as a ghost, Caramel was rendered completely mute, and I was left thanking the heavens above that I was on the same side as the unicorn stallion who accompanied us.

Shining's revenge was far from short, and distant from merciful. After he finished singing, he snatched my sword and hacked away at the creature's abdomen. He swung my sword with his own strength, but his magic was solely dedicated to pulling the lower half of the creature's body away as he hacked, whacked, smacked, and thwacked away at his body. Shining didn't just give it a good slice, he was removing pieces and bits of his entrails. He stepped on them, stepped in them, stepped within them, and he did it without a single change in his face. When he reached his vertebrae, he abandoned the sword altogether and just jumped on it repeatedly until it was completely severed. And after that, he used his magic to finish separating the lower half of his body from the torso. Finally, he performed the coup de grace: He left him there to wilt.

I do not wish to recall the sounds and smells of it.

Most of us left when he started, Caramel and I remained to watch him continue his pace for a brutal three minutes. As he walks now, he's covered from head to heels in blood. The sight of him being like that made me realize that I was perfectly sane. But him, he wasn't sane. That wasn't him, that wasn't the Shining I knew. That was a member of the Spanish Inquisition doing God's divine will by punishing the heretics. That was not a pony that just did that.

My brain had two hours to dwell on that in the darkness of the caves. But I vowed to myself that once we left, it stayed there at that moment.

I made good on that promise once we saw the sun starting to meet with the horizon. Another two hours after that, the sun had started to set. We got back to the train they came in on, and the others waited for the conductor to come out of hiding. Meanwhile, I saw Caramel looking back at the path we just walked from. As I approached him, he started to speak.

"Songbell wanted to give her brother something nice. She said that she'd always spoil him, even when it wasn't deserved."

Though my interaction with her was through a memory replay, I could gather that she was a pony of good intentions. And it's evident with the impression she's left on others around her that she lived well. But again, I could never speak like I know her because I didn't. So my response was minimal. "Seemed to be a pretty decent gal."

"Beautiful." He stated with a nostalgic smile. But that smile gradually filed down to a frown. "I still can't let Shining slide for what he did to her."

Once more, my response had to be minimal. "She forgave him."

Even though I honestly expected him to explode when I said that, his face didn't change at all. "I know. That's just who she was."

We remained silent for a few more seconds as my mind started to wander on the topic of past sins and forgiveness. I was compelled to remember what he did to me and what he put Pinkie through. I stopped looking directly at him then. "I don't know if I can forgive you for what you did to Pinkie."

"...I don't blame you."

It was strange, I felt the same way he did at that moment. It became more apparent when I had remembered Pinkie's words to me. "She forgave you."

"...She always did." He said with his ears folding down slightly.

I shook my head and scratched my cheek as I finally curbed any sense in vengeance in my spirit, realizing that I didn't want to embrace that. "Man to man, why did you do the things you did to her, knowing that it was bad?"

"Because I'm a terrible pony." He answered plainly. "I let my past override my present judgement. When I think of something that tries to mock me of what I've lost, I become violent. And I thought she mocked me. I know now what she tried to do was to give me a second crack at a normal life."

"But it all came crashing down on you?" That's a fact that I know all too well.

"..." He didn't change anything except his ears folding even lower.

"I know it may be a year and some change too late, but─"

"I know what you're going to propose." He said, interrupting me. "And I'll have to kindly ask you to drop it."

"Don't you want to hear her say it instead of me?"

He turned to look at me, not with animosity or with an intention to rag on me. He just looked... normal. "Human... Nondis, there are some pains I can endure. But I feel that hearing those three words would only burn me worse than Songbell did." He said with an awkward laugh that ended with a sigh. "She has a life. She has a web of comrades that will fight for her, no matter their weaknesses. She has a future. I have none of that, and I will continue to not have that."

I know he did wrong, and I know he did me wrong, but if I'm willing to put Shining choking my lights out aside, then I know I can put my personal grudge aside if Pinkie can do so as well. However, I wasn't so willing to overlook his prison sentence. But I do see that he's come to terms with the fact that he made a mistake and that he's hurt by his own actions. Again, not excusing him for what he did, but he is along the road of rehab. For a moment, I let Pinkie's judgement overtake my own. "...You know, if you get out on good behavior within the next ten years, I might just drag you back in the guard. You won't be that old."

He cut his eyes at me then. "Do you want to know why I was dishonorably discharged from the guard? I got drunk and pissed on Celestia's face... A statue of her in town square at high noon, but it was the closest representation I could get. The response she gave to our decimated company was minimal. And I refuse to serve her because of her lack of response. It is not you, nor Shining that drives me away, but her. I will continue to fantasize about violently raping her in my prison cell as a means of masturbatory aid, so no I do not think I will be getting out on good behavior."

Well then, so much for that hand I just threw out there. Lemmie just... pull that back in real quick-like. "Obviously."

He then looked at the other guards, who were playing with their bags of gold. The stallion shook his head. "...Shame. All this gold and I can't see none of it."

"What did you originally want to do with this gold?" I asked out of curiosity.

"The only sensible thing to do with that much wealth, drink."

Okay, I see what he is now. "You're an annoying cunt, but I'll drop you a beer. But only one, can't have you giving golden showers to the guards. Big no-no."

He then gave me a hearty laugh as he walked back towards the train. "Aw, take the fun out of it, why don't you?"

While I watched Caramel get back in the train, Shining was just outside of it, ordering the other guards to get the cargo put away. "Take everything and store it in the back of the passenger car."

"Yes sir!" The others cried out in unison.

Shining then turned to me and pulled out some crystal ball and held it out to me. "Final chance to talk to everypony while I'm here."

I thought about it for a moment and contemplated the thought, but took into account my current image. The last thing my friends needed to see was me covered in blood. "Nah, they can wait a little longer. I'm not really in presentable fashion."

"I don't think they'd care." Shining said.

I looked at him and saw that he and I were practically in the same position, except his hasn't really caked in like mine has. "Well I don't want to haunt them in their dreams, so no thanks. Just let the newspapers report me when they see me."

He shook his head as his eyes rolled to the back of it. "Okay. Just try to stick it out until the next train comes around."

"Look at who you're talking to. I hid in the corpse of an arimaspi child, I think that's a testament to my survival instincts." I said, giving him a salute. He raised his own and quickly dropped it, mine followed suit. And the blood-bathed prince disappeared into the train without much else being said. While the others started getting themselves on the train, Rainbow glided over and tapped me in the waist.

"You sure you wanna stay here for a little while longer?"

As much as I wanted to hit the showers, I was at least aware that I was scripted to be dead or dying. And something told me that if I went against that, it would probably end badly. "It would look pretty funny if I were to just show up on this fancy-looking train. I rather play it safe and keep my distance from you guys on the ride inbound."

"It'll be a few hours or more, are you sure you don't wanna come with us?" She questioned.

"I got it covered."

She reached in to hug me before ultimately realizing what all I was covered in. With that fact rolling in her head, she crept off a little before just nudging me in the side. "You owe me once you get cleaned up."

"I'm not gonna ask what it is." I answered, still playing my usual troll game with her.

"So you don't care to know?"

"Nope." I answered quickly.

With a grumble, she feigned a pout. "You're a fucking asshole, you know that?"

"Old new, what of it?" I said with a dismissive shrug.

She took off with her wings and hovered towards the train before turning back to grab my attention. "Stay safe."

I gave her a playful smirk as I waved my hands, motioning her to go away. "Get back to your post, corporal."

She managed to get half-way through the door before she stopped herself and fluttered back towards me. "Can I correct you on something?"

"What?"

She motioned me to get closer, which I fell for. She then grabbed my collar and stared me down in the face. "My rank is staff sergeant, not corporal."

Even though I was ranked higher than her, she was still the seasoned vet. And that still had some weight on me as one word came to mind: Oops. "I'll condition my mind to remember that next time."

"You better."

Later in Appleloosa...

When the train arrived at the station, only two ponies stepped off of the train. The first pony to leave was Flash Sentry, who took the initiative to visit with the defacto commanders of the company. Rainbow was the second to step off the train. While both were swarmed with questions from local reporters who were interested in getting the next big scoop, her hawk-like eyes made out a familiar figure standing in a window in a local inn. Blasting from the train station, she dusted reporters and ignored questions. Her attention was on the one who started the misunderstanding in the first place.

Dream Star, who cozied up in his room with his freshly ordered bottle of apple cider and his cameras, looked through the window to see the rainbow-maned mare charging for the inn. "Oh, her again." He said with disdain. He then trotted to the door to preemptively greet the cyan pegasus, who would be standing in his door in just a second or two. He looked back to his camera and started counting. "One, two─"

"Hey!"

He looked to the ceiling with discontent, faked a smile, and warmly greeted the mare. "Well, if it isn't the missus who wanted to pull my story from the headlines."

Rainbow wasted no time in speaking her mind, she grabbed his horn and yanked him towards her, meeting muzzle to muzzle. "You're a pathetic piece of shit! That's what you are!"

"Whaaat? I did nothing outside of my job. I report on what I see." He answered coyly.

"You reported a lie. Nondis' isn't dead and you know it."

He shrugged dismissively as he smirked at her. "Is he? Last I remember─"

"You took that picture and saw what happened afterwards. I know what you did."

He then held a bottle of apple cider in her face, to which she snatched from his possession. He continued to try and play himself as calm and poised while he openly confessed to her. "As do I. I know what I did, I threw out the biggest headline in the nation. I broke a story that's worth several awards and more notoriety than a guard taking an arrow for Princess Celestia. I'm hitting the big time."

Rainbow begrudgingly popped open the bottle and took a swig of the cider before she spoke again. "You're paid off, sold off to someone in the political circuit. You're posting a story that remotely true, all to meet your kooky narrative."

The stallion then faked his amazement by clopping his hooves together with glee. "Bingo! That's the deal. And you're not gonna say anything about it."

She got back into his face, angrier than before. "Like hell I won't─"

He then threw away his facade and planted a hoof into her mouth. He gave her a stern look. "Disclose that you broke orders from your commanding officer, kept secret that you and a royal went into the forest to fetch a body before the forensics team could, and apparently aided him in his mission? Yeah, I won't mention anything about that."

When he removed his hoof, Rainbow was left baffled from his knowledge. She was left stumbling with her words. "Wha-bu-you-th-I─"

"Look, missy, I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. I know everything about you. And my client is paying me top bit for the word in the streets to be what I say it is. Now, I know that if I see a train made of crystal, I can easily assume that it's from the Crystal Empire. I mean, the whole little show you guys put on, the bringing in of officers and specialists to train your little rag-tag company, as they deemed the situation 'an emergency transition of power, to replace the captain with another pony who was more fitted to taking the command because you were deemed 'too inconsolable to take the position'. I'd run with that excuse if I were you."

Rainbow Dash could not believe that he was so far ahead on her. She felt angry that he knew because she already concluded that this was effectively him blackmailing her and Shining. If any news came out to support that Shining joined up with Nondis, it would do some serious damage. Dream Star continued his rant.

"I know, right? Pretty nice operation you guys had there, even drew in the local media to write a few fluff pieces on the contingent. Of course they're getting their hay day now that I broke the dam for them to shower in on the glory. But if you go out here and blow my story, then I might just have to blow your entire career, as well as the career of Shining Armor, the human's, and even that of your friend, the Princess of Friendship. Now, I know you wanna have nice things. But I can't let you have it right now, m'kay?"

"Your career was ruined from the moment you published that headline." She spat back.

Once more taking up his snarky persona, he placed back on his mask and continued to taunt her. "On the contrary. It's just getting started. Now why don't you go on down those stairs and mingle with the other jarhead folk."

Rainbow wasn't budging, she was more determined to crack him than ever. "Who's paying you to lie like this?"

He then used his magic to swipe the bottle back from the pegasus while holding up his press badge. "Classified, miss. Golden press badge required to know more information. Meanwhile, our little conversation can be off the record if you leave now and pay no mind to my doing business."

Rainbow gritted her teeth and hollered out of frustration. She bolted past him and back towards the door, now holding the bottle of apple cider. His eyebrows lifted high upon his face while she snarled at him. "I hope you get fired, killed, or tortured! You don't fuck with my friends like this!" She screamed before slamming the door and galloping off into town once more. While he watched the mare run through the street with her new bottle of cider, he gave an exasperated breath and nodded while he thought to himself out loud.

"She's really a dumb one."

Author's Note

HOORAY, I LIVED!

I'm sorry if the chapter seemed a bit slow, but I really REALLY tried my best to pace this thing out. This seems to be the longest chapter to date. However it throws in a few nuggets for good measure. So be sure to study extra hard, children.

No but on the serious tip, this chapter is long as hell because information is being thrown out there like plunderseeds, gotta know when they're gonna hatch.

Holy crap this past month was BUSY!!! Where I live currently, there's this thing that takes place before Lent called Madi Gras. And where I live, it's a big contribution to the local economy. Hell, schools close on Fat Tuesday because of the festivities. It's kinda like one of those festivals you see in anime where the kids get out of school and celebrate their local holidays. Anyhow, that holiday had my band getting booked like crazy, even getting double engagements, two balls in one night, playing on an awesome stage, all the works. It's crazy.

They really go all out here.

But yeah, nothing like earning a little more to keep the Comcast fascist overlord happy. If the gods are unhappy with their offerings, I am unable to provide ~~quality~~ content to the ~~masses~~ few dozen readers I have left. I've started on the next chapter, like 5,000 words as is, and I have gone on rambling long enough.

Now if you excuse me, I'm going on a Filthy Frank binge (like I already wasn't on one now).

See you next chapter for those still following.

Chapter LXV

~Day 5~
In Canterlot Castle...

The halls of the castle have been ignited with the sounds of debate and talk of the upcoming selections. While ponies wandered around the halls in excitement over what was to happen now that their captain of the guard was perceived to be dead. A few of the maids expressed disappointment in their lack of getting to know the captain, others appeared to have dismissed him in saying that he was too engaged in political grandstanding to be proficient at his job. There were also rumors of how his connections to the royals were the cause of his early demise, and even anxiety felt for the guard Flash Sentry, who was rumored to be Princess Twilight's next choice in the line of suitors.

It was a possibility that disheartened many of the maids, as they saw the stallion as a young heart throb.

But not all conversation throbbed about the state of the guards, as there were a few politicians who saw this moment as a victory to their purpose. And the usual suspect was at the center of three other stallions, who colluded with the senator with boastful remarks. "I cannot believe your idea worked! It's like the gamble you paid managed to show dividends." One such senator stated while smoking a cigar.

Count DuMoneé only showed an air of superiority as he wrapped his foreleg around the back of his unicorn assistant. "You don't get anywhere in business or politics without playing the table. It's necessary to create the best result. You want something done, you have to be willing to make a sacrifice."

As they walked, the other senator continued to speak. "I know your career has taken a hit since you've recommended Rainbow Dash, an element bearer, to be on the assignment, but I can assure you that his death will do nothing but further our agenda."

"And with one less human, we will be seeing our nation slowly falling back to more traditional and healthy outlooks on personal relationships. And with him out of the way, I believe the royals have lost their primary playing piece to keep them in the game. This will be more than enough to remove their current attempt in amending Processu Approbati."

The three stopped in their tracks as the politician whispered to Count. "In speaking of royals, I see a disgruntled one approaching our direction."

Count took a few seconds to quickly groom himself and check his breath. After confirming that it didn't smell out of place, he proudly marched up to the distressed royal with a bright smile on his face. Going so far as to planting himself directly in her path, causing two guards nearby to step forward, he outwardly bowed to her. "Princess Celestia, why the sun you've raised on this beautiful day is so bright and warm!" He greeted loudly. "I almost thought it was spring. Though that comes of no surprise when you call in a three-day emergency torrent to 'counter the drought set upon Canterlot'."

The other senator gave Single File a nudge and a wink while whispering. "I'd say a drought of hope."

Celestia's face showed surprise and then a polite smile while her inward emotions were vastly different. She wore her mask as she spoke. "We are overdue for some rain, wouldn't you agree? Much of my garden has been dried and I thought it would be appropriate to revitalize the greenery throughout the city."

As she tried to walk around him, he raised himself up and trotted beside her. "Revitalizing the greenery? It's autumn, your highness. Have you not forgotten that your sister's moon is slowly claiming the balance of the sky?"

"It is an opportunity we've agreed upon that would allow for other to appreciate her night." Celestia replied with a faux smile.

"I also noticed that the moon has seemingly been concealed with clouds lately. Overcast to reflect her mood of the current situation? She could never really hide her emotions when things didn't go well for her."

The alabaster alicorn slowly became indignant, though her face showed the same smile. "That's is Princess Luna's personal business. I do not interfere with that."

The senator then cut his voice into a low murmur as he tickled her ear with his words. "Your majesty, let's cut the charade. We know you've been casting these clouds because you've lost hope. Over eight hundred years of record do not lie when it comes to your mannerisms and the weather."

"I am feeling quite fine today." She responded through the clenched teeth of her fake smile.

"Are you? Or are you upset in realizing that keeping the rain up would cause for significant flooding of certain districts? I read the reports of the second day. Here we are in day three, and the world seems to be a bright and happy place. Thought to be honest, I'd be upset too if I couldn't have the world brood with me whenever I felt down in dismay."

"That has nothing to do with it. I decided that it would be sunny." Celestia said in a sing-sung voice.

The senator chuckled as he continued to pester her. "You are most amusing, your highness. However, I truly appreciate the day you have given me. It makes me feel like I've climbed the mountain and shouted to the lower peaks that I've conquered them all."

"Well, I am happy you feel that way. Unfortunately for me, I have important business to attend to." She said, her dialog becoming more forced as the conversation carried along. She continued to trot forward.

"Such as finding a replacement captain?" He said, chasing her down again. This time she stopped as he barred her from walking past him. He then held out a manilla envelope and levitated it towards her. "Don't think we haven't noticed that either. So today at 1 this afternoon? I do have quite a few pieces lined up who are ready to take the position if given the word. And I should bring up the fact that our nation's security is at stake."

As Count's white magical aura was engulfed by Celestia's own, she stepped around him once more. "...I may consider it."

This time, he took a few steps to match her. "Thank you for your cooperation. With this we shall truly move forward as a nation."

While her lips didn't move, her mane did. Though it's flow was continuously slow, it sped up for the fraction of a second, showing a slight tinge of red where her pink was. She looked down to the senator with glowing lavender eyes. "Piss off." The senator heard as her voice echoed through his head, causing him to stop in his tracks. The sudden intervention of guards also prevented him from going any further with the princess. He walked away and returned to the two stallions with a laugh in his throat.

"Well this is truly one of the best days of my life. Princess Celestia telepathically sharing her vulgarities, my newest adversary dead, the hopes of the royals completely dashed, and soon to be one fresh cadaver on the dissection table with the Princess of Friendship to hold the scalpel."

The other senator gave him a slow nod in response. "Quite a combination, sir."

"Indeed." Single File murmured to himself.

As the infuriated princess walked down the hall, she continued to feign her smile for the others to see. Though one figure caught her eye as he walked down the hall with claws filled with folders and paperwork. Spike crossed paths with Celestia, neither of them maintaining eye contact. However, her words were spoken to him in the similar manner which she used to send away Count. "You brought this on yourself, Spike." She said harshly, causing the young dragon to stop in his tracks.

But he wouldn't have the chance to reflect on her words. "Spike, what are you doing? Get over here with that paperwork now!"

"Yes sir..."

Last night in Appleloosa...

"Nothing? You went around the forest and found nothing?"

Rainbow sat quietly in the bar they gathered in just a few days ago. Every seat was taken as others in the venue continued to ask Flash questions as if they were nothing more than the press itself.

"It's believed that his body may have been moved to somewhere within the mountain. All evidence suggests this as there was a trail of blood leading to that direction and the paths ahead were deemed too dangerous to walk. We checked the area the photograph portrayed, there was no sign of a body. Blood, plenty of that, but no physical body or remains to be collected."

Along with the contingent sat Spitfire and Soarin on the other side of the room. Soarin groaned with disgust as he whispered into his glass of apple cider. "They're toying with him. How fucked in the head do you have to be where you start playing with a dead body."

While the others grew somber, Private Humbreeze screamed loudly into the air with hopelessness. "Those monsters are a plight on ponykind!"

Spitfire, who was equally downtrodden, got off of her stool and walked out of the bar. "Call it what you want, it is still their territory. And I do expect for them to pull this kind of stunt considering the reports from five years ago."

Soaring followed suit, with Flash Sentry accompanying him. Downburst was the first to ask anything else since the revelation. "So... does that mean we head home?"

"You'll get your orders sometime tomorrow. For now, just be on the lookout for any sudden tributes sitting on the top of a hill." Spitfire answered, seeming a bit angry over the situation.

When the trio of officers left the bar, Humbreeze slammed his head into the table in submission, causing his glass to rattle from the impact. "I sure can't wait to see that... again."

An occasional cough sounded from the back of the room, only to quickly die off. No music played over the old loudspeakers or even on the player piano beside the old rickety stage. No one drank from their mugs, even as they were paid in full by Flash. Rainbow was the only one to do so while remaining somewhat levelheaded. After a long period of sustained silence, one voice came out from the middle of the room. "So... Captain's dead."

"I don't get why we're acting like this is new to us. We knew this was the case from two days ago. This isn't news to us." Another voice muttered.

"It's still a bummer."

"How?"

"Dude, we just lost the one who took the brunt for us. I'm feeling kinda shitty for not volunteering to go with him. And I'm sure Staff Sergeant Rainbow Dash feels the same way."

At last, the train engineer placed his input. "I felt he was gonna live. I knew he would, I saw him fight."

"He's not fighting anymore. Don't you get it?" One of the guards responded.

"I don't believe it. He's not dead to me." The engineer replied.

Sunny Skies shook her head with pity for the engineer as she spoke. "First stage of grief: denial."

"I wanna believe he's alive." The engineer said, firmly placing his belief in something that seemed to everyone else as very unlikely.

But his words didn't reach the others, who already resigned themselves to the worst. Downburst approached the stallion and gave him a firm shake on his shoulders. "Stop. It's time to stop. We need to start getting our shit together so we can head out in the morning."

While the others started to slowly down their drinks and file out of the bar, Rainbow gritted her teeth in frustration. She felt as if she wanted to share with the others that he was alive, but knew that it would put the entire operation in jeopardy. Yet the sight of her comrades trudging off in defeat was something she felt was too cruel to put them through. So she offered a bit of optimism in the favor of the train engineer. "I think we should stay around."

All of the guards froze in place for a second to look back at the cyan pegasus as if she had finally lost it. Sunny Skies walked up to her and spoke softly. "Staff Sergeant, with all due respect, the higher ups have classified you as 'unstable and inconsolable'. They said that you would probably hold out for any hope of there being a chance he'd come back because of your personal relationship with the late captain. Warrant Officer Soarin will come by and give us our shipping orders tomorrow once he returns from the visit to Canterlot."

Again, she knew of the gag order on the details, so she continued to play the role she was given, no matter how much she didn't want to keep dragging things out. "So I'm being ignored? So that's it? I'm just here to be a talking dummy for everyone to ignore and push aside? That's how it is? I was given this position to be over all of you by Nondis. Why can't you recognize my word as his?"

"Because it's been almost four days, and there hasn't been word." Downburst stated. "We've been following his orders, and it's confirmed that he's long gone. It's time for us to start pulling out."

Rainbow, who knew the truth and couldn't speak on it, grew all the more frustrated with the contingent's attitude towards her. Before she could refute his statement, another guard who left the bar not too long ago came bursting through the doors, panting breathlessly. On his back was a heavy box of equipment and a large antenna, his neck was covered with wires and sweat as he strove towards the bar. "Hah... Trans... Agh... Chest hurts... Huff..."

Rainbow Dash sighed as the word 'finally' was mouthed in silence. She pushed aside her argument and answered the distressed guard. "Corporal Low Drag, what's wrong?"

The pegasus stallion groaned as he tried to get his words out. "Somepony's... hailing... the comm link."

"What?" Said one of the guards. The others froze momentarily as they felt a bit of hope, but opting to carry on as their thoughts had already been set on going home.

"Probably an emergency transmission." Another one of the guards said, writing off any hope that was left.

Rainbow didn't waste any time as soon as the equipment landed on the counter. She yanked the receiver off of the comm device and started hailing. "This is Staff Sergeant Rainbow Dash, come in." A long trail of static was her only response. "Come in, do you read?"

"ASNF....ASUEYE....ASYGD....SUEUGG....Tbwbwbstbb...."

While the machine whirred and whistled, the transmission was far too junked for anyone to understand. The engineer stated the obvious. "It's too garbled up."

"I'm trying to adjust it now, shut up." Rainbow said as she frantically turned knobs and sliders. "Repeat, do you copy?"

"Grrrbrbrr....Grrururb....Grubrb-read-rbrb."

The stallion who carried in the equipment finally caught his breath and sighed heavily. "Jammed transmission. Can't get a signal to come in."

While Rainbow was adjusting the volume, she continued to hail at the receiver on the other end. But her attempts to do so all came back with a tattered sentence or a gargled set of words. This continued for a little while until...

*KLACK*

Most of everyone in the immediate area placed their hooves over their ears as the loud sound caused the device to feedback. But when the noise subsided, a transmission finally rang through.

"Motherfucker, this shit's a goddamn paperweight."

Every guard who hadn't left the bar had their jaws drop from the voice they heard on the other side. Rainbow, who was already aware of his current situation, faked a dramatic cry of concern. "NONDIS!?"

"Wait, you guys can hear me through this piece of shit? Had to improvise with the old 'Flintstones' method but... seems to be good?"

"Captain! Holy fuck, you're alive!?" Low Drag exclaimed.

"Yeah... barely. What'd I miss?"

"A whole lot. Is everything okay down there?" The engineer responded.

"No. I've got blood in my ass cheeks, and it's like I have to pry them apart every time I sit down. A shower would be nice, I wouldn't even mind if it was cold as fuck, just get me clean."

"How about we get you out of there for starters?" The engineer asked with a brimming smile.

"I thought that was implied in my statement, but yes. Fucking please get me out of here."

"On my way, sir!" The engineer said before galloping off towards the train.

A few murmurs and even some cheers came after the transmission ended. Everyone in the bar started to become optimistic while Humbreeze, who stayed behind to finish his drink, jumped for joy at the news, shouting it throughout the tavern. "Captain's alive! CAPTAIN'S ALIV─" Eventually, Rainbow's hoof was planted in his muzzle to silence him. She then announced to the guards who were still in the pub.

"Uh, let's try to keep this tidbit of information on the quiet for now."

Present Day
Canterlot Parliamentary Chamber...

Celestia sat at the center of the chamber, presiding over the affair while she looked at the five stallions standing below in full ceremonial dress. Upon their uniforms were a series of medals and ribbons that would have the human look terrifyingly inferior. Though she wouldn't openly admit it, their résumés were almost ostentatious in comparison. Their years of dedication did permit them to service the country to the extent that their accolades were terrifyingly too great to overlook. And they weren't that old either. Each of them seemed to be in their early-to-mid thirties. They had experience, and they had a lot of training. They were solid choices to lead, and yet the princess felt she would betray herself to select any of them.

And what made matters worse was the fact that each of their names carried a strong approval from military families, including that of Shining Armor's. And yet twice she snubbed them for the younger assignees, Shining Armor and Nondis. Each of them presented their longing for the position numerous times, but she would hold out because of political interests. However, she found it harder and harder to justify her reason for doing so. And with the latter of the young appointees declared as dead, she knew that there could be no refuting their proposals.

"Your majesty, I would advise against going against our picks." One of the senators stated firmly.

"They are capable commanders and level-headed strategists who would be more than capable of defending this nation should danger arrives." Another argued in favor of the heavily-decorated guards.

Celestia continued to look at the folders of the five guards, while Luna tried to debate the matter. "I do not believe it would be fair to dismiss the humans so─"

"Princess Luna, Prince Shining Armor's pick has shown much in the department of weapons and the ability to handle equine-sized opponents, which still bode as a significant challenge for him. We can no longer afford a non-magical being to be perpetually trumped by the most elementary of spells." Count DuMoneé proclaimed.

"Which is why we're vying for a new legislation that would bar any non-magical being from ever taking the captain's position again." Another senator claimed from just a few seats below Count.

"He is shortsighted, no strategic planning or levelheadedness. He's constantly just barging in and doing what he likes while showing off his toys. I do not believe this is the future of our nation's security." Heckled yet another senator.

"I agree. We must take a vote on the replacement now." The right side of the hall started to become noisy before Princess Luna motioned for order. The room calmed down as the night princess made her statement towards her sibling.

"Sister, I'm afraid that this has ended with nothing that would allow for a search party for the possibly deceased captain."

"He's dead, carry on." Count stated without a care of sensitivity.

As he said those words, one guard walked from his post and stood behind Celestia. She then leaned her ear towards the guard who offered her a newspaper. "What's this?"

"New headline from Appleloosa, your highness." The guard replied before bowing out.

Placing the selection on hold for a bit to read the headline, a few of the senators grew angry from her actions. The newspaper hid her expressions from the mass of politicians who would try to force her into yet another decision. "Hmm... I see..."

"YOUR HIGHNESS!" Count screamed violently, rapidly losing his calm with the royal.

"Senator, under no circumstances would you be permitted to disrupt the order of this meeting in such an inappropriate manner." Luna chided vehemently.

"Forgive me for my impatience. I grow weary of all this procrastination." He said while pointing to the presiding royal, who appeared to be casually reading for the weather.

With a light hum, she folded the newspaper back into it's presented shape. She took a deep breath and looked at the five guards with reverence. "Well, thank you all senators of the parliament. But in my judgement, I believe that the one who is most suited for the assignment is the one who is most qualified for the position, one who has truly shown the qualities of a leader, who is able to overcome any obstacle in his or her way. And they are to be a highly decorated guard of significance, to both the constituency and the international community at large."

Four of the five guards looked down at their accolades and saw that one of them dramatically outranked each and every one of them. One unicorn mare stepped forward with a proud smile and a salute. "Your highness, it would be my ho─"

"The captain has already been decided. Thank you, my most esteemed guards, but your qualifications would be better suited for another office." The others didn't seem to budge as the rejection came down. The mare who stepped forward, however, had a soul-crushing expression written all over her face. She then quietly swallowed her words and gave the princess a final salute before galloping out of the room from the embarrassment.

The whole right half of the room were incredibly livid at Celestia's decision. "YOU'RE ELECTING TO NOT APPOINT A CAPTAIN WHEN OUR COUNTRY'S SECURITY IS AT RISK!?" Count shouted.

"ORDER!" Luna called out, continuously banging the gavel on the desk to call for order. It took several seconds for the arguments to disperse before Celestia carried on with her statements.

"I have already decided who it will be, Senator Count DuMoneé."

The senator rolled his eyes and sat back in his seat. "Then would you politely introduce us to your choice?"

Celestia then wore the same smile she wore earlier, only this one was far more sincere. "It is with honor and tremendous privilege that I declare the captains's seat officially filled, with all powers to be given to office. Although he is unavailable to attend this proceeding, I still present to you, the official Captain of the Royal Guard."

The mention of availability caused Senator Count to stop leaning back in his seat and had him edging to the end of it. "...No."

Celestia chuckled lightly as she proudly stood before the gathering. "Captain Nondis P. Haines, who has shown exemplary valor in the face of adversity.... Whom I will also mention..." She raised the newspaper to show the image of the human standing beside a few of the other guards with gold draped around his neck, over his shoulders, resting at his feet, and with bits pouring from his hand. The entire room gasped as their eyes met with the image. "Left alone to the mountain, and returned from the mountain... with prize."

Even the guards who stood on the floor, who once waited for their selection, had raised eyebrows and applauded the accomplishment with nods of approval. The left side of the room cheered loudly with applause. A few laughs and taunts were exchanged through the senators. Then entire right side of the room were silenced, with the resounding exception of a senator slamming his hoof into the desk, cracking the wood.

"NO!" He screamed, repeatedly slamming his hoof into the desk and shaking his head wildly as if he were a foal throwing a temper tantrum. "No! No! No! No-no-no-no- NAUH!!!"

The entire room was silenced by the outlandish display of the senator, who's appearance took a significant drop. Strands of his mane covered parts of his face while he huffed and puffed. His eyes were filled with unparalleled hatred as he stared at the Princess of the Sun. Veins popped up through his forehead, his neck, and even his chest as he wheezed from the rageful display. Luna wandered to her sibling's side and read the headline for herself. "Sister, is that headline a forgery?"

"Actually, it was written by the same journalist who reported on the captain's compromising position just earlier this week." Charmingly quipped Celestia towards both her sister and the disheveled senator.

"He's not alive." He said venomously. "I can assure you that he's─"

Celestia then opened the paper once more to read aloud. "His response reads, and I quote: 'I'm covered in so much blood that I feel like I've grown an extra layer of skin. But I do feel myself to be twelve-times richer than I did when I first came here'. End quotation."

As Single File ran into the chamber to his superior, the latter hissed at the ruler with an angry glare. "I do not know what tabloid you read. But all of my sources have confirmed that he is indeed─"

Before he could carry on further, the young stallion presented him with the same newspaper. "Sir... maybe you should read this."

While he started to read, the newspaper started to feed in from each of the other senators' respective assistants. Eventually, the whole left side of the room grew into a standing ovation for, not the newly-appointed captain of the guard, but for the complete transfer of power from Shining Armor to him. Count DuMoneé shook the newspaper violently before tearing it into shreds and punching the desk some more. While the others continued to cheer, Celestia called them into order to say what she wanted to say.

With a bright smile directed for the angered senator, she offered her words. "Well... I see that my beloved sun has a reason to shine so 'warm and brightly' today, though I feel sorry that your parade has been rained out."

Luna smirked as she leaned removed all the folders from the desk and moved on to the next subject of business. "It seems he's been brought to order. Let us carry on with the next order of business."

Celestia, while she maintained silence towards the stallion, her voice rang through his head in a taunting manner.

"Your cracks are showing, senator."

Meanwhile in Appleloosa...

The local tavern seemed to have a stark contrast in comparison to the massive change in the atmosphere. Once more, it was filled with guards, but they all were drinking in celebration of the return of their captain. They were also getting drunk thinking about the perils they were to soon face, hoping the ciders, sprints, whiskeys, and gins would provide them with enough courage to run into an infested cave with a blindfold on. They stuck around this time because of an enormously huge tab left in Flash Sentry's name.

Needless to say they gave a toast to him as well.

Rainbow walked through the bar and heard the many musings of her comrades, some of it being concern, others being criticisms.

"Holy hell, he managed to get out of that!?" One said as they read a copy of the same headline that took the parliament by storm.

"I'm just as confused as you. I thought when we saw that picture, it was all over for us." Another one stated, referencing the last headline that made waves.

"Well, I guess that means we're not gonna be seeing home anytime soon."

"Honestly, I was almost hoping that we didn't have to go in there." A young guard stated with nervousness.

"Hey, if the captain managed to come out of it alive with no help, then he could get all of us in and out of there no problem."

"It's easy to look out for numero uno, but not quite so easy when you have dos a treinta."

"Aren't we giving him too little credit here? He's gotten out of a pretty nasty jam."

"Yeah, and what if we get in one ourselves?"

"Then the captain would get us out like he did himself. Have some trust in him, for Celestia's sake."

"Like he trusted us to go out there with him?" As one of the guards said that, Rainbow couldn't help but to feel apathy for the guards that served alongside her.

"We all know why he did it, but..."

"But what?" One guard questioned, causing Rainbow to stop walking up the stairs to the second level. She turned to the crowd of guards on the floor below and listened.

"I wonder if he really thinks of us as a burden."

"I hope not. We need him as much as he needs us."

"But he got it done on his own."

"Yeah, but there's still the matter of carting off the gold. He can't do all of that by himself."

"So our purpose is hard labor instead of protecting each other? Are we really so insignificant?"

Rainbow let her mind wander on the words that were spoken and felt herself becoming unsatisfied with her role. She groaned in frustration and started to make her way towards the next level before a familiar face caught her attention. "I take it that you're not completely inconsolable, huh?"

The cyan pegasus rolled her eyes at him and spoke. "So... you managed to write your way out of a massive fail in your career. How does it feel to be the puppet master of the masses? Is our emotional response so amusing to play with that you want to get any sort of reaction from the readers?"

While he offered Rainbow to come closer with a bottle of unopened apple cider, he gave a sarcastic reply. "That's my job, missy. You want me to not do my job?"

"Why are you here?" Rainbow snatched the bottle away from him and scowled.

"I'm a journalist. I collect the truth."

"And you lie to the world about what you see." She said as she opened the bottle to down the contents.

The reporter then smiled a little while biting his lip, watching the mare gulp down the drink without hesitation. As the bulge in her throat bounced up and down from the drink, lewd thoughts came to mind. "Have you ever heard of this nice little concept called plot development? Or maybe you heard of rising action? Perhaps you'd be interested in a little cliffhanger?"

"This isn't some fucking game." She hissed at him.

"Actually, it is. It's a game to garner enough buys to line my pockets with as many bits as possible. Who knows, I might even get a few gems thrown in."

Rainbow scoffed with disgust as he got up from his seat and stood beside her. "When everypony finds out─"

"About your little operation?" He whispered directly into her ear, causing her to shudder with disgust.

"You're here for more than just money, you're here to push an agenda."

Dream Star backed away and brought out yet another bottle of cider to entice the pegasus. "Look, it's called an angle, sweetheart. You tell the story as you see it, you omit the details but hint at the specifics of what transpired, you give out a nice hitpiece here and there, then you break this big son-on-a-bitch, and you keep milking the story for what it's worth, which happens to be every bit in all of the world. It's not just Equestrians who are buying."

"And I'm not one of them." Rainbow said as she shoved the bottle out of her face.

Surprised by her sudden refusal of the drink, he opened it and offered it to her once more. "Lady, your boyfriend's fine. Pretty sure he's doing great now that he's cleaning all that blood off of him."

"Fuck you." She responded, enunciating every consonant and vowel.

"You've got a nice ass, you're just throwing it out there?" He joked, pointing at her.

Her response to the joke was not laughter. Instead, it was violence. She grabbed the reporter by the foreleg, feigning the tiniest bit of affection. Just as she watched the stallion lick his lips she gave him a half-lid stare before sending her right hoof directly into his muzzle almost at the speed she could fly. Pulling the hoof she grabbed, she then yanked him towards her and flipped him onto the ground. While he lied on his back, she let her eyes wander lower and saw the stallion's endowment revealing itself a tiny bit. She gave a quick nod of approval before stomping her left hoof into his balls.

While he howled in pain, causing the whole bar to take notice, she planted her hoof on the side of his face before pushing it towards the floor. "Drop dead."

As she took off towards the stairs to the upper levels, he wormed around from the pain. His eyes remained clinched for quite some time as his forehead started to show sweat. He breathed as if he was in labor, trying to pant off the pain. Finally opening his eyes, he rolled over and tried to stand up.

"Feisty. Little too tangy for my taste, but maybe she's got something going on with the captain. Wonder if Zephyr knows anything else about her back at the office... I'll ask him when I get back.... Fuck, my balls."

Rainbow, at last, managed to reach the floor of the penthouse suite, grumbling and complaining about the reporter that teased her. With each step, one certain phrase he spoke remained stuck in her head. Her frustration showed all the more, her hoofsteps were as heavy as her temper. However, her face had a light blush as she chanted to herself over and over again.

"Boyfriend, who the hell does he take me for? He's a human, why the hell would I even remotely have an interest in him? And plus he's with Twilight, what the hell would he want to see in me? I'm not─" She stopped herself, realizing what had just escaped her lips. Her blush increased. "Ugh! What the fuck! Why am I even thinking about this? He's totally different from what I am! He's a fucking human, and he's with Twilight." More thoughts started to roll off the tongue, bringing up arguments against herself. "But then again, Twilight's gonna break up with him when this is all over with.

Eventually, she started to argue with herself.

"But then he'll go with Rarity. He'll probably sleep with her."

Again and again, she threw words towards herself.

"Rarity might not even be that interested in him. She's a hopeless romantic. She doesn't do relationships too well. She's always breaking up with somepony after a few months of being bored with them. Just like she thought Spike's crushing her was cute at first, it's grown a little creepy to her. She'll probably have her way with him and kill it off when she gets bored."

Once more, a scenario played out.

"Then he'll probably go with Pinkie. I can see that happening since she already spilled guts for him in front of everyone. Even Twilight was pissed because of that. No way he turns her down for the rebound."

And again, a point was brought up to shoot it down.

"He didn't do it already. And it's not like he and Rarity didn't have plenty of chances to knock horseshoes. If sex was all he cared about, you would've been fucked him."

When she realized where her mind had went, she slapped herself and scrubbed her tongue for the thought that left her lips. She gagged with revulsion and shook herself straight. Afterwards, she took a deep breath and gathered her thoughts.

"Protocol, Rainbow Dash. Protocol. Just go in and get the update on our assignment."

When she approached the door, she noticed that the door was cracked open, letting out a small draft. She initially thought there was something wrong, and broke past the door to see what was going on.

"Hey Nondis, you okay in he─"

When she broke in, she heard me hollering back at her. "HOLY SHIT, DUDE! C'MON!" I hollered out, reaching for a towel to cover up my crotch. Meanwhile, my bare ass was shown to her as I tried my best to censor everything I considered to be intimate.

"Agh! Sorry!" She said, covering her face with her wings with a deep red blush.

"Could you knock sometime!?" I chided.

"Or you could not leave your goddamn door open like somepony had walked in here and just offed your stupid ass!" She yelled.

"It's not my fault that this fucking place ain't got a lick of some damn cool air!" I complained while tying multiple towels together in an attempt to robe my crotch. "It's like a fucking sauna when I get out the shower. I had to crack the window, then open the door to get a draft going. Otherwise, I'm sweating like a damn cup in a hot-ass car."

Rainbow, who continued to peek through her feathers, stammered through her words. "A-anyways, d-don't you have something that covers up a little more than... that?" She pointed out.

"I'm pretty covered up now, no thanks for you just busting in."

"Yeah, but it's like whenever you turn around, I see... those."

...You know, for someone who's trying to hide behind her wings, she sure got her eyes locked on the prize. Damn towels don't do no kind of service. "Well how about you stand outside, and we'll talk through the door, that thing you were supposed to do AFTER knocking."

"Whatever, your balls are weird and wrinkly anyways." Can't say that I wasn't embarrassed when she said that. But she did oblige in the suggestion and walked outside before carrying on with the conversation. "I came here to get a briefing for the next phase of the assignment."

I gave her a long and drawn out groan. "Rainbow, I just got my balls clean, can I get one day to recover from this shit?"

"But what if─" While her head poked in to speak, she remembered that I was still trying to conceal myself and popped back out. "But what if they dig out that rubble to the vault?"

"They won't be able to." I said, walking into the bathroom to get my still-wet boxers from out of the sink. Had to improvise on doing my laundry since I forgot to pack clothes.

"How are you so sure?" She asked from in the hallway.

"That cave is already in bad condition. Anymore sudden movements might cause a cave-in and that would be bad for both parties involved." I answered while I shuddered from the coldness of the boxers laying on top of every flaccid inch.

"You mean it will be bad for us."

While I didn't have my boxers dry, I did manage to get my shirt and pants out the way. I didn't mind them too much since I was gonna get them dirty again. But the boxers, I had to pay extra attention to because Rarity instructed these to be hand-washed only. "In the context of our not being able to get the goods and get the hell out of dodge, yes. But even worse because it will be guaranteed casualties."

"But you're giving them a day to work around all of that." She argued.

"They will be spending a day to recover their wounded and dead. The rebuilding effort comes later." I stated.

"How are you so sure─"

"You saw their means of waste management." I reminded her.

While she did pause for a few seconds, she gave a response. "Yeah, but that just means they'll be dumping them off in some room on the other side of the mountain."

"True, but I've noticed something significant." I started to explain. "What I've managed to gather from my being around them, I noticed that the amount of gold they wear on their bodies are a strong hint to their social status. Now given the example of the one arimaspi who just walked right by us on his way out, he didn't have any gold on him at all. Why is this?" I inquired.

"Well, he's leaving the mountain. I guess he must've got booted out."

I said as I thought about putting on the rest of my outfit, but ruling against it due to my disdain for needlessly wearing clothes all day. I wasn't going anywhere, nor did I have any intention to do so until much later. At least my clothes would be unsoiled until then. "Exactly, if he's getting excommunicated, then his status would be stripped from him to show that he's not one of them. So now let's apply that to the fact of the fresh stack of bodies we left on the way out, including all of the ones who got buried when we blew the caves shut."

"...The dead can't hold a position in society, they're dead." She answered.

"Precisely." I said as I grabbed a pillow off of my bed. "This means that they'll be collecting their guys and girls, stripping them of their goods, and dropping them off in their local cemetery. And to add to it, they seem to have some capacity to mourn their losses as they would show sadness in dealing with their own social issues. Safe to say that these guys will be trying to search for survivors to keep their defenses up and running. And even then, casualties would be so massive that they wouldn't be able to tend to the wounded as well as giving their deceased some final rites. By the time they'll be finished with all of this, it will be three days down, and that's the estimated time before a reconstruction effort can be established."

"So we're walking in while they're still dealing with the mess you've made?" She quickly summarized.

I then punted the pillow through the door, hitting the wall outside while raising my arms. "And the kick is good." I said as I walked outside to talk to Rainbow Dash. "That is exactly how this is going to go. Even if they were to be ahead of schedule, it would be a whole eight hours before they could find us and mount a full-blown counter-strike. They can't ambush us if we've already sabotaged their numbers and infrastructure. We have a clean path to the gold and a quick way out."

"Huh, I didn't think you had all of that in mind when you did all of this."

I walked over to the pillow and grabbed it off of the ground. "You honestly expect me to run in the fray without a purpose? My grandfather would probably find his way to this world from beyond the grave and drag me back with him if I did some shit like that."

"Well to be honest, you do that most of the time." She responded in deadpan.

I gave her a shrug as I thought about it. "That's only when I have weapons as a primary advantage. With the arimaspi, I realized that I had to change up my plan a bit. Admittedly, some of what I do is improvise. But in terms of the results given and the opportunity given to us outright, I have to plan accordingly. I got lives riding on me for this, can't afford my usual spray-n-pray method." I said while giving her a glance, knowing that this nation couldn't afford to lose her.

"Now I'm really starting to question your tactics." She said as I walked back into the room, keeping my door cracked open.

"Don't. It's an opportunity given to us by fate, not taking it would be tempting fate itself."

Back in Canterlot...

The sound of papers being scattered across the room appeared to be the befitting soundtrack for the moment, in the accord of one extremely disgruntled politician. Single File leaned against the wall as he watched his superior bashing his hooves against the desk, swiping papers left and right to the ground. Spike sat beside the fireplace, reading the very newspaper that set off the senator. Even as he walked, he trampled over important documents without a concern for what they were. Along with the sounds of papers rattling around the room, grunts and yelps of anger were apparent.

Count DuMoneé was incredibly livid.

"We were so CLOSE! So close that we TRIPPED the finish line! Why in all Faust's creation should I be so close in tasting my victory that it becomes so disgusting when it enters my mouth!? Oh, I know why, BECAUSE THE WAITER GOT MY ORDER WRONG!"

While the senator continued to play golf with his paperwork, his assistant just stared at the mess being made. "Quite an analogy to summarize the situation, but wouldn't it be something foreseeable if it were as simple as your metaphor makes it out to be?"

"You're right. It's more of an allergy being set off when I instructed them to not give me peanuts."

The young assistant rolled his eyes and shrugged. "I suppose that change-up works. Still, he's alive and he's probably figured out a way to get to that treasure with minimal casualties."

As the senator rose from his tantrum, he took several breaths to regain the oxygen he lost. Without much else to knock down or rip apart, he looked at the young drake who stood beside the fireplace. "SPIKE!" He hollered as he used his magic to snatched the newspaper away from the young dragon. He then threw it into the fire as he quickly approached him. "You, you did this, this is all your fault!"

"I don't think he's to blame here." Single File responded, earning a nasty glance from his superior.

The senator bit his lower lip, drawing a tiny bit of blood while he pointed his hoof at the dragon. "You had one job, one task I gave you. The moment he embarrassed me, I knew that you were the perfect one to fulfill my task. You did everything to get to him, but you CHOKED! You let the royals get to him. You could've slit his throat, but you just had to put your own little twist to the deal. Instead, this happens."

Spike, who was personally relieved that his human adversary persevered the daunting task of the mountain, he felt himself become defensive of his criticisms. "It's not my fault that he made it out alive. He's the one that didn't die. Don't take this out on me!"

The older stallion produced a fake laugh before snapping back. "Oh, don't think that I'm unaware of your little photo of you and your friends. I know you're probably so lost on thought that you can't dedicate yourself fully to me. What have I told you, huh? I said that things of the past are weights to drag you into your grave. I told you that leaving that childishness behind was going to help you further your goals for your future. Instead, you let that mare get in your head. Since then, you've never really served me, even after that monkey turned your face into a paintbrush!"

"You mean the same human that bit a piece of your ear off?" Spike asked with an angry scowl, causing the stallion to raise his hoof at the drake.

"So help me, I will... I will..."

As his words slowed, his balance was thrown off. Stumbling to keep himself from passing out, the senator held his head and clenched his eyes shut. It appeared that he had a migraine of some sort. Seeing the senator in such distress, Single File acted accordingly. "Sir, do you need your medicine?"

The senator hobbled to his desk and opened a drawer, closing it with disdain, and leaned back in his seat. "Medicine. Ibuprofen. Whiskey. That order please."

While the young stallion did what he could to fulfill the wishes of his superior, Spike took notice of the orange bottle of prescription drugs. The senator opened it, followed by a white bottle filled with painkillers, and then poured himself a glass of whiskey. He grabbed three of the prescription drugs, two of the aspirin and popped them down his throat before chasing it down with the whiskey. Spike grew concerned. "That stuff will kill you, you know?"

After taking another swig of whiskey, the senator dismissed the young dragon's show of concern. "I've been doing this for nine years. You don't know what I'm capable of enduring. I'm stronger than you think."

"Well your body's still gonna shut down if you keep drinking with your meds." Spike rebutted, causing the senator to swirl his glass.

"Spike... You just... don't get it, do you?" He asked before downing the whole glass and looking at the freshly emptied bottle with irritation. "I take you under my hoof, you fail me once. I let you back under, you fail me yet again. I still persist, and yet you fail me all the more in trying to keep your little friend circle happy. Where's the loyalty in the one who covers for you?"

Spike grew bewildered as he tried to make sense of the senator's argument. "So my telling you that your drug habits are bad is somehow a show of disloyalty?"

Groaning from the lack of alcohol in his bottle, the senator got out of his seat and walked over to the dragon. "Spike, I can easily say that this is not an environment you are ready to embrace. But I will break you into it no matter the cost."

While Count attempted to place his hoof on Spike's shoulder, Spike brushed off the false display of affection. "But what if I want to be true to my friends?"

The older stallion chuckled. "What friends? Those mares you think of as your friends? They know you're a killer. Nopony wants friends like that, especially a sensitive group of fillies who can't bear the thought of a guard losing his life. And that especially goes for a backstabbing traitor such as yourself."

"They wouldn't know if you didn't tell them!" Spike replied angrily.

"But I thought friends were honest to each other that they were accepting of you no matter the grievances placed against you, a friend like me. I must say that I am hurt that you would never consider me to be so close to you." The senator said, teasing the dragon of his decisions, dangling them as if he were holding the keys to his redemption.

With a snort of smoke, the young drake stormed towards the door. "I'm leaving."

While the senator didn't budge when the smoke lightly thumped against his face, he didn't let him leave without a threat. "Don't leave for too long... unless you'd prefer the guards to look for you." He then used his magic to hold the door shut before Spike could walk out. "And I'm sure that you'd be comfortable in a cold isolated room, separated from all of the nation."

"It doesn't matter to me." Spike answered coldly.

"Extra, extra! Princess Twilight to have her wings removed effective immediately." The senator said with a smile.

Spike growled as his voice deepened by several tones. "If you─"

The doors swung wide open behind the dragon, nearly hitting his tail. Spike looked behind him to see the hallway filled with politicians, guards, and maids. Count called to him before he telekinetically shoved him out of the room. "Be sure to bring back a nice bottle of scotch while you're away. And don't tarry on for too long, I would sure hate it if that got around too soon."

"...I'll keep that in mind." Spike answered before the door was shut on him, leaving the distressed senator to rub his head from the massive headache.

"I'm not sure you should've peeved him off like that." Single File stated, appearing to be worried for the safety of his superior.

"He's not cut out for what's next. I can't involve him or else he might try to bring me down."

As the senator showed that he was calming down, Single File removed himself from the wall and offered the aspirin once more. "I take it you have an alternate plan to make your life simpler?"

Count rejected the aspirin this time as he spoke. "It is imperative that the monkey does not come back to Canterlot alive. He has to be eliminated before he even gets close to the front gates."

"It's unlikely that he'd be killed by an arimaspi when he's managed to survive on his own. I suppose a secondary trip would probably yield the factor of less supplies to work with, but still..." He paused, thinking of the reinforcements the human would have.

After rubbing his head for quite some time, he stopped. His eyes opened as his health appeared to be almost normal. His body language in general changed from frantic and stressed, to calm and calulative. Even the look in his eyes shone as they did under normal circumstances. It was almost like a switch that was hit, he was back to his self. He motioned for the young stallion to come closer as he whispered in a low voice. "I am removing my problem, and I will do it in a way where it eliminates any chance of a detection."

Single File's eyes grew for a second before he showed a neutral expression. "Then you must be doing something for cheap." He muttered.

"I think I know where to hit, but cheap won't be in the dictionary for this to work." Count said as he opened the drawer, pulled out a mirror, and quickly slammed it shut.

"What do you have in mind?"

While the politician held the mirror up to his face, he summoned a brush from thin air and restyled his mane. "I need a... worker. I need a worker to trim the hedges and know what he's dealing with in a greater detail. I'm looking for an artist."

"You must have someplace special in mind."

As he finished with his mane, he placed back on his monocle and cleared his throat. "It will take eight hours to get there by express airship. I will need to brush off my passport."

Single File, who was not new to this side of the senator, remained discreet in his statements. "I see, you're going to see a specialist that knows how to deal with the locals and the rouge element?"

"It doesn't matter how rouge the element is, as long as steel prevails against the bush."

"You do realize that such a trip would be very costly."

The senator paused for a moment to reflect on the potential cost, drawing a heavy breath before he concluded that the ends were worth it. "I know what my risks are. It shouldn't be too costly where it starts to delve into my monthly deposits."

"You can never be too sure, sir. Their kind happens to be just as greedy as the locals of the hedge." The young assistant said, referencing the arimaspi.

Count lightly smirked as he replied. "I can haggle my way through most anything. You'd be surprised of what you'll see."

9 Hours Later
The Outskirts of Griffonstone...

Senator Count looked at his pocket watch, observing the time and the engraved image of griffon patrols proudly circling the town of Griffonstone. After confirming the time, he flicked his pocket watch to see a drastically different image. It was the same place depicted in the picture, yet there was no semblance of the majesty or strength the kingdom once had. Instead, buildings looked ransacked, ran-down, or completely desolate.

However, the state of the properties didn't stop griffons from living there. Albeit there were significantly less than what legends had accounted, there was a still sizeable population that kept whatever was left of it occupied. The locals seemed to clash with one another, some fought over scraps of gold they'd see in the street. It was an unpleasant sight.

While they walked, they saw another griffon getting brutally mugged for their gold, it's wing being cut off for the negotiation of it's gold. Upon hearing the refusal of the victim, the attacker sliced the former's wing and flew off with it's new trophy. While the victim howled out in pain, they clenched on to their gold as if it was the last thing they had left in this world.

It was the very image of what was left of this society: A gathering of wounded natives that desperately clung onto their former glory.

"This place is absolutely terrible." Single File stated as he watched the griffon writhe in pain.

The count continued to turn a blind eye to it and walked forward. "Precisely. Here will be the best location to hire our ruffian to do our bidding."

Single File caught up with his superior and expressed concern for the plan Count had in mind. "Are you sure this is a good idea? This could possibly cause an international incident."

"They need annexation anyhow. They have no commerce, no economy, no government, no structure whatsoever. An Equestrian takeover is a more than welcome boost for the local economy." He responded with nonchalance before a loud crashing sound distracted them both. Just up ahead of them was a green female griffon running away with claw marks on her side, on her face were tears. Trailing her was a brown male griffon with a series of scars on his face, presumably from another griffon.

He threw a rock at the retreating female, missing as he he screamed loudly. "AND SCRAM!"

The griffon fell to his face and rolled around in the dirt before he laughed wildly. The show of absurd lunacy caused the younger stallion to become perplexed. "He looks... off."

"He's suppose to. It's a cover for what he actually is." The senator stated.

"No, I mean he looks more off than last time."

"He's giving it his A-game."

While the two appeared to know him from a previous circumstance, they were all the more cautious of their approach. The griffon who rolled in the street caught glimpse of the two and hopped up wildly to heckle the visitors. "Damn ponies! What the hell do you want!?"

The two looked to each other for a second before Single File nervously spoke. "Good day to you sir, I was wondering if this was enough to buy a few minutes of your time." He said while holding up a small bag of bits. Just the sound of the bag rattling caused a bit of a stir within the locals. Five griffons seemingly poked their heads out from underneath the very cobblestone that lined the streets. The brown griffon then snatched the bag and hollered to the top of his voice.

"You crazy ponies keep coming here expecting a tour! Well how about you having a tour of my feathery ass!? I got a place where the food is always fresh!" He said as he turned around to lift his tail and present himself, causing the two to back away in disgust.

Single File shuddered at the imagery he was given. "Such vulgarity."

"I suppose you don't mind a little incentive?" Count added with yet another bag before the griffon sliced the bag open with his sharp talons.

"Get the hell out of my face you stupid, mule-faced bastard!" He screamed as several bits rained onto the ground. By that point, every griffon that watched the whole transaction, they jumped at the opportunity to obtain some of the spilled bits. At the sight of the raucous, the two ran away, being chased by two other griffons for their belongings before they stopped their pursuit. They looked back to see three griffons fighting in the street where they once stood. The others gathered around to either watch for the victor or joined the fray. The two stallions quickly abandoned the town and took to the safety of the mountain.

Single File looked back at the town and grimaced. "That was a waste. He seems genuinely disinterested."

Now frustrated, Count sat on his haunches and tapped his chin for thought. "Dammit. That's one hundred bits for an insult. Could've hired locally with that money."

The two shook their heads and carried on down the mountain, navigating their way to the airship they used to get there. Single File watched as his superior continued to remain enveloped in deep thought. "So, what do you have for plan C?"

"Hmm, I'm not quite sure, I never really thought this would fail." He responded with a groan of complaint.

"You're always a sucker for my act, you need to wise up a little." A voice called out from behind them, causing the two to jump and look back at who followed them. It was the same brown griffon who chased them out of town just earlier. Though he was dirty in his appearance from the previous antics, he did seem to be mentally competent. He tossed the first bag he received up into the air repeatedly, proudly showing his acceptance of being an audience to their request.

"Oh, so you're bothering to listen?" Single File asked quizzically.

"Are you kidding, I had to drive you out of town somehow. As you saw for yourself, griffons there are starting to get chippy over just a single bit lying on the ground. Can't let them see more than five or else you'll be getting the whole town's attention."

"Poverty seems to be a strong selling point of his argument." The young assistant stated.

More than relieved that his time and money didn't go to complete waste, he put his game-face on and started with negotiations. "Then I'm sure that you're willing to take a price worth it's weight in gold?

"Depends, what's the weight you're putting on me?"

"My good friend Gaston" He said with politeness. "I need this ape here to meet with it's maker to answer a few questions." He said while giving him a copy of the newspaper from Appleloosa. He pointed at the human in the picture. "He's not that hard to find in a crowd."

Though he was unaware of how the creature looked, he was familiar with the references often thrown out by a local dedicated newspaper that reported on the findings of the international community at large. Being a heavy donor to the cause, it helped him remain in the know of certain changes in the political climate. It was one of the very few working systems left throughout the ruined kingdom. "Oh, so this is that 'human' creature I've been seeing? Yeah, we've been hearing about that one for a month. How is he still alive, by the way?"

"That's a question I no longer want to ask myself. I need you to put an end to that voice in my head." Senator Count said with a growl of hatred.

Gaston finished reading and gave the two ponies a slow nod. "You're asking me to do some pretty heavy landscaping. This might be a good stroke for a war, if it weren't for the fact that the griffon army is only five-hundred strong now."

"I trust that five thousand would be a pretty bit to hold." Count said with a coy grin.

Gaston laughed. Loudly. "Five thousand bits to show up at your filly's birthday party? Sure."

Count knew that his number was far too low, and then decided to double the amount to see where he would stand. "Ten thousand?"

"Oh, so I get to STAY at your filly's birthday party?"

By that point, the stallion's demeanor changed from a smile to a moderate frown. "Twenty thousand."

"So I'm providing entertainment for the party then?"

His face started to slowly turn to a scowl as he closed his eyes. "...Fifty thousand."

"So am I killing your next door neighbor again? I don't go further than Canterlot for less than one-fifty grand."

The senator choked up as he stumbled forward. The asking price ended up being far greater than where he was initially comfortable with. Seeing the older stallion visibly perturbed, Single File confronted him. "Sir, that's eating into your deposits."

With a groan of desperation, he swallowed whatever was in his throat and succumbed to the griffon's price. "...One fifty then?" He knew that this was already going to be expensive, but had secretly hoped that the finances wouldn't break him to the point where it caused a disturbance in his economic ecosystem. But he considered it to be a risk worth taking for the sake of his career.

Gaston smiled as he brushed the dust off of himself, cleaning up his image. "Okay, now where am I going?"

"Arimaspi Territory." Single File answered for his superior.

The griffon looked at the two, seeming to be taken aback by the suggestion of where the assignment were to take place. "Joage mea buniko ja mejugu. (You're three kinds of crazy.)" He muttered in Maspian.

"What now?" Count asked, very much confused over the strange language that was spoken to him.

"I said that'll be two-fifty." Gaston lied, upping the price for his participation.

At that point, it was Count's time to take a dive into the dirt for some incredibly wild rolling around. "But you said one-fifty! You agreed on it! Both of you agreed! Wasn't that the deal!"

The griffon the grabbed the young stallion and scowled at him fiercely while flicking a hidden blade from out of one of it's wings and firmly placing it against his throat. "Considering where I'm going, the equipment I'll need to survive, and the profile of the hit in question, I'm not sure if I can take anything less than that."

Count stopped his wild flailing and intervened for the sake of his subordinate. He pleaded with Gaston. "Ol' chum... Please... I can't give you that much. I can't do that, my monthly deposit─"

The griffon removed the blade from Single File's throat and pointed it at Count. "Would you rather take a month in the red or a whole career of it? Apparently you want this guy dead and bad. So it's obvious that he's a problem for your political career. In other words, you want him dead so you can keep him out of your business. And your profits will only take a dive just this once. Consider the possibility of eliminating your opposition and then making up your lost earnings over time."

Senator Count gritted his teeth as he stomped his hoof into the ground several times to express his frustration. After he finished, he hissed at the griffon. "I could always find somepony else."

"Oh please, other than your son, who else knows all your deep dark secrets?" He whispered in a low voice, causing the senator to become silent. "And even you said it yourself, your relationship with me is keeping that little twink of yours out of the picture. Or..." He paused for a moment, walking around the stallion with a teasing grin. "Should it be that third party you don't want nopony to know about? Oh yeah, I'm sure if that one comes right out of the gates─"

"Two hundred." Count said, succumbing to the pressure of Gaston's taunts.

Single File looked at the senator with complete disbelief as he watch him cave so easily. The griffon, however, patted him on the back with yet another price. "Two twenty-five."

"Augh, two fifteen!" Responded the defeated senator, knowing that there would be no way of winning the transaction.

Gaston took a few seconds to mull it over, but inevitably agreed with one additional perk. "You're buying my ticket to Zebrabwe after."

"Why not, I'm already swimming in red." Grumbled the senator.

Flipping the knife into the air, the griffon's wing flared outward, absorbing the knife without any harm to his self. With a proud smile, he playfully nudged Count and laughed. "Blood's not that bad to swim in, the metallic smell is pretty soothing once you get used to it. See you in Canterlot, ol' buddy. You just paid me twice the amount of Griffonstone's GDP."

While the griffon took to the sky, ultimately to stole away on the airship, Single File stared at his superior. "Sir?"

Meanwhile, Senator Count was stunned beyond comprehension. He was left utterly slack-jawed and significantly lighter in the pockets. Everything he had planned had backfired on him so quickly that he couldn't even walk towards the airship. Instead, he dropped his head.

"I feel sick."

Back in Ponyville...

Alex nervously marched to Twilight's room after receiving word that she was still located in her room with Melanie. In his mind, he could think about nothing but the status of his younger brother. His teeth chattered and squeaked as they ground against one another. Upon his arrival, two guards gave the human a nod before allowing him to enter into the hallway. He didn't have to knock on the door as Melanie opened the door, catching him by surprise.

"Hey Mel, what's going on?"

Also caught by surprise, she opened the door to let him in. "Alex, surprising to see you here today. Didn't you have to go to work?"

Alex winced with embarrassment as he responded. "My wife is getting a little testy about that, but she understands that this is a family matter. I'm starting to realize how stressful these trips are on my life and relations back home."

Melanie sighed, expressing empathy for the man's struggle. "I'm just lucky most of my shit can be submitted online, otherwise I'd be getting F's across the board."

"Yeah, too bad Stanton doesn't go to the same school. His commute is too damn brutal to make these trips, not to mentioned he got benched for his next game for not showing up to practice." Alex explained as he entered the room, Melanie closing the door behind him.

"I never knew how hard it was on you guys, much less Nondis." Twilight said, greeting the human.

"Nondis got it easy." He said, noticing the party of ponies in the room. "All of his friends know where he is, two of his brothers can vouch for him, his alibis are solid, and he's friends with a chimera-like dragon who can run through dimensions like a sharp knife to hot butter." Blueblood, Vanity Charm, and Twilight stood in the room as Melanie sat down before a slew of scrolls scattered around. He joined her as she unfurled one of the scrolls.

"Seriously?" She asked with an expression of bewilderment. "He's friends with a creature like that?"

"Now that I think about, you've never met Discord, have you?" He asked, point to her.

"I would say no." She responded slowly.

The doors then swung open behind them. Alex watched as Twilight ran to greet the visitor. Both her brother and Flash had returned. "Shining! You're back!"

Feeling a bit queasy from the sensation of his heart dropping to his gut, he crumpled over and held his head with anticipation of bad news. "Oh jeez."

Melanie looked to the hugging siblings, noticing that the stallion appeared paler than usual. It appeared that his coat was robbed of it's luster, his eyes not so shiny anymore. Twilight too took notice. "You okay, Shiny?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine, I'm good. Just a lot that happened, a long conversation with our borrowed assistant, and a small detour on the way back here, but I'm fine." He explained quietly, causing a bit of concern from everyone in the room.

"You look like you've been through it again." Blueblood stated.

Shining smiled to his little sister as his horn ignited. "I'm actually doing well now. In fact, I brought you a little something."

Then from a white flash, two large black bags filled with gold landed on the floor beside the door. Everyone grew slackjawed over the massive amount of treasure that just appeared from thin air. Flash Sentry then collected off of the floor whatever had spilled out. Melanie tilted her head with amazement. "Now that's a haul worth risking it over."

"Wow, shiny." Vanity hummed with delight.

As Flash continued to clean up, Shining levitated a golden necklace with rubies and placed it around his sister's neck. "Anything for my beautiful little sis. I just want you to keep smiling."

Touched by her brother's generosity, she hugged him in return. "I think you've already given me that."

"What, what's going on?" Alex questioned frantically, standing to his feet. "You're back from the place with gold. What happened to Nondis? What happened to─"

A rolled up newspaper lightly smacked him on the top of the head. He looked over to see Melanie offering it to him with a smile on her face. "I think this should answer your question."

He took the newspaper from her, unrolled it and gasped at the front page. "Holy fuck, he looks like hell."

"Surprised he's still in working order after the way we found him." Flash responded.

Alex was too caught up by the image to read the article, but expressed some relief in seeing his younger sibling alive and well. His voice cracked as he expressed his excitement. "That's my little brother, that's the brother I used to slap around when we were kids, that's the little bastard who'd eat my damn hotpockets. The hell happened to him!?"

"He was hiding from the arimaspi, inside of another arimaspi." Shining briefly explained, causing everyone in the room to hold their stomachs in disgust.

"Goodness gracious." Vanity whispered while trying to cover her muzzle in an attempt to retain her constitution.

"Ewwie." Melanie said as she cringed.

Alex didn't seem entirely too phased by the news and just pumped his fist with pride. "That fucker's a man now. You couldn't pay me to do that shit."

"Well the good news is that he's alive, I don't think anything else pertaining to that matters." Melanie said as she recommitted herself to the assortment of scrolls at the center of the room.

Alex once again joined her. "So what are you doing here? Going through some paperwork?"

"I was looking over some of the articles that are in place here, namely to that law Nondis kept talking about."

Alex glanced over to Twilight, who didn't seem as happy as before. "I heard of some shit that got 'Bella' in trouble, this it?"

"Yup, apparently named the Approval Process Law, or Processu Approbati, reportedly signed off by Celestia herself."

"Forcefully signed." Shining clarified. "She was physically held down and made to sign it."

"On some Game of Thrones shit?" Alex questioned.

"Yeah." Melanie confirmed. "Seems that the legislature punishes royals for getting too physical outside of marriage. The problem is that the punishments are voted on by the Parliamentary branch, the rulings are then decided by the Parliamentary branch, and the execution of the punishments are carried through by, guess who?"

Alex shook his head. "Holy shit, that's bad."

"Exactly, it's checks and balances without the balances part. It's so one-sided."

He then sat down and started to go through the scrolls. Melanie passed him the one he needed to read on that was the copy of the actual document itself. He looked through the content of the text and verbally paraphrased it for others to possibly correct him. "So to run down what I'm reading, royals are at risk of losing their wings and horns as well as their positions if they just get caught having sex???"

"It doesn't stop there." Blueblood said with a mutter.

He continued to read. "It also states that any suitors who are male or female are forced to join the guard. They then have to gain the accolades becoming of a guard with high standard and discipline."

"Apparently so. Nondis is currently in that position." Melanie confirmed.

"Any suitors are given a 'saving grace' period before the finalization of the marriage; They are allotted the opportunity to express their fundamental freedoms of premarital fornication with a party belonging to or not belonging to the royal in process, but are prohibited from engaging in premarital coitus with the party whom they are betrothed. Basically saying you can fuck a stranger or even their mom, but touching them is off-limits." Alex's face started to show a bit of confusion.

"You know, Tumblr-bred feminists nowadays wouldn't know a good cause if it triggered them." Quipped Melanie.

He carried on. "To not abide by these rules would present the consequence of a punishment to both parties, the suitor and the royal. The royal, as mentioned previously, would be pushed by the means deemed necessary by the standing judicial party, a.k.a. the Parliamentary branch. The suitor will then be forcibly married to the prince or princess in question without either party retaining power. Refusal to abide by the marriage would then result in the... THE REVOKING OF THE SUITOR'S REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS!?" He quoted loudly, standing on his feet at the thought of losing his balls for having sex.

"Yeah, I had to stare at that one for ten minutes." Melanie stated as she watched the man express the same feelings she had when she initially read the statement.

His eyes continued to expand as he read along. "...The revoking of the suitor's reproductive rights, or they are banished to the wastelands of the Undiscovered West. Those who are found guilty of forcibly engaging in sexual intercourse with a royal without given consent are then to be sentenced to the removal of reproduction rights. This is to be followed by the capital sentence: Death by beheading or disembowelment."

Melanie groaned with discomfort. "I know rape is wrong, but they could've just left it at cutting their shit off. Disembowelment is a bit too archaic, very Dark Age of them."

Alex then threw the scroll on the ground, expressing his anger over what his brother had to go against. "This is bad. This is U.N. sanctions-imposing bad. You guys are fighting this, right?"

"It's been a losing battle for over a millennium." Blueblood explained. "There was one chance of it being overturned with the possibility of a revolution taking place, but that got wiped when Prince Fair Charity got ambushed by the arimaspi in 519 P.C.D.."

"Hence the discussion of the lost tribute comes into play, as well as the relatively few assignments that were given to retrieve said tribute." Vanity said, adding to her husband's exposition.

"What happened with the tribute?" Twilight asked.

"That's about a fifth of what was sent." Shining answered, pointing to the two bags filled with gold.

Alex chuckled lightly. "Get rich or die trying."

"This is a fifth? And Nondis brought back a bag with him, that makes it three-tenths, right?" Melanie inquired.

"My haul and that of the other guys are what Nondis considered as 'charitable withdrawals'. His tally is sitting at one-tenth of what was to be sent. I just got the important pieces of Fair Charity's work." He stated as he summoned up an old scroll, nearly in tatters and stained with ancient blood. The ink seemed a bit hazy, but it was still mostly legible.

As Melanie and Alex carefully opened the scroll, Twilight asked her brother. "What's this supposed to be?"

Shining's voice grew solemn as he watched the two humans fumble over the parchment. "This is a list of all the mares and stallions who have either lost their power, limbs, or lives pertaining to Processu Approbati. Fair Charity wanted this to be seen by the masses as a show of their corrupt parliament, hoping to spark a violent revolution in favor of the royal family."

As they continued to unfurl the list, Melanie and Alex had to walk to opposite sides of the room before the slack started to fold over their feet. Melanie's hands trembled while her eyes grew. "This... is a terrifyingly long list."

"Celestia had an eye for detail when she wrote it." Shining stated quietly. "He also carried with him a diary, detailing some of the things that happened after Celestia was forced to sign the law."

Shining watched as an expression of horror started to show on Twilight's face. "What happened?" She asked.

Not wanting to inform his younger sister of how her beloved mentor suffered, he closed his eyes and stood firm. "...Classified: Top Secret."

"C'mon, you just classified it on the spot!" Blueblood stated as he walked up to the stallion, who then froze him in place with an inertia spell. While the magenta aura surrounded the stallion, Shining walked up to him and emphasized his words.

"Classified, you're not ready to know."

As the spell was then dropped, Melanie started to roll up the list on her end as she spoke. "So just to paraphrase, it was nothing good then?"

Shining looked at her with a thousand-yard stare. "To answer your question, I might pick up where Fair Charity left off."

~Day 6~
Canterlot Royal Palace...

Inside of his office, the frustrated Senator Count sat quietly while staring out of his window. Both of his front hooves seemed glued to one another as he stared down towards the garden below with disdain. He felt as if the world had mocked him for his failure, even the light from the sun appeared to taunt him as it beamed brightly onto his face. A scowl of hatred and a growl of growing indignation was all he could produce as his assistant sheepishly walked through the door.

"Sir, can I speak with you─"

The senator didn't let his assistant finish, cutting him off before he could finish. "Half of this transaction has already eaten into my monthly deposits. I am going to lose my mind if this doesn't go well."

Looking around the room, Single File noticed that it looked even worse than when his superior threw his tantrum just yesterday. His curtains were tossed aside, his paperwork was trampled on, crumpled up, and tossed to the floor. The only thing that seemed in place was a lone glass sitting at the center of his desk. It appeared to be freshly emptied of it's contents. "Perhaps it is time to take your medication, sir?" The young stallion nervously suggested.

"No, not now. I haven't gone through the episodes quite yet. And I'll need to spare it till the next pay period."

"Perhaps you could possibly embezzle some of the funds from the next charity drive." The young assistant grimaced as he realized what he proposed.

"Can't pull that one off again." The senator said dismissively.

As he thought of a less controversial means of obtaining some financial gain, the young stallion felt himself becoming more and more nervous. "What about increasing your interest rates on some of the loans you gave out to other senators? It might not be much, but it could help with your financial situation. Soften the blow a little while you lick your wounds."

Count turned around in his chair and tapped his chin with his hoof. "Hmm... That would still leave me tens of thousands short."

"Then what do you propose?"

The senator took an exasperated breath and looked to the ceiling with a frown. "...He's got me in a corner, Sig. If he works out, I'll have to pay him. If he fails, my career is ruined. But if I pay him..."

The young assistant had been around him to know enough of his personal connections, he immediately thought of those that worked closest to him. "Then other sources get involved?"

The senator then got out of his seat and walked over towards some of the papers strewn across the floor. His magic slowly started to manipulate the pieces of parchment, organizing them into small stacks. "...I suppose I could cook up another scheme or two to line my pockets with something to help curb the blow of the second payment."

Finally, the assistant felt himself grow even smaller at the thought. "Sir?"

"The second payment, I believe the second payment is the half of what we agreed on?"

While the senator continued to organize the papers, Single File moaned with a bit of anguish and defeat. "...Sir, the payments were made in full."

As soon as he finished his statement, all the papers came to a complete stop. Those that weren't organized found themselves fluttering in the air until they hit the floor. The senator turned to his assistant with a tremble. "E-e-excuse me?" He quietly whispered.

"The payment he had received was a complete withdrawal made in advance. It would seem that somepony had made the withdrawal from the joint account you had at SoundTrust Bank."

The senator slowly turned back to his desk before chuckling to himself. The young assistant, unsure of what to do next, joined him with a nervous laugh of his own. The two went at it for a few seconds before a powerful beam incinerated one of the stacks of papers he organized. The room smelled of burning paper, ash, and smoke as nothing was left but a black scorch mark on the floor. Cinders fell to the ground as the senator screamed. "THAT'S PREPOSTEROUS! WHO THE HELL WOULD MAKE A WITHDRAWAL ON THE JOINT ACCOUNT SO LARGE!?"

In a frantic attempt to keep the other papers from catching fire, he shoved any bystanding documents towards the unaffected areas. Following up, he shoved any scorched documents that showed signs of ignition into the fireplace. "Well that's the thing. You share that account with two other partners, usually stashed away for hedge fund purposes. The only one who would be more likely to have such power in removing that much money from the account would be the one who's currently throwing in the bulk of the funding. And that would mean..."

The senator plopped into his chair, opened the drawer, and looked through the contents. At the bottom of the drawer was the image of him standing next to a rather plainly mare, three younger attractive maids, and others who were either faded out, or their faces were distorted from an assortment of sticky items and alcoholic residue. One face stood out in the picture, causing him think about his past.

"I could never be what you want me to be."

The words continued to tap into his brain, scraping and scratching at his psyche like a toothbrush inserted through his nostrils. The voice became a little louder.

"I could never be so young."

He violently shut his drawer, panting and shaking his head. As he came back into the present, he realized that he forgot what he was digging around for until he realized that it wasn't there. "...Please bring me my medicine."

The young assistant grabbed his medication off of one of the bookshelves and walked over to the antique radio over the fireplace. As soon as he cut it on, the device whirred and whistled until the frequencies matched up and started to produce the soothing symphonic sounds of violins, horns, and clarinets. "Classical music?"

Count dug underneath his desk for a bottle of gin, only to remember that it had long-since been emptied. "The only music worth soothing me. Hopefully they have something nice on the airwaves today."

The young stallion muttered as he summoned a pink gift basket containing a dark green bottle, wrapped in golden foil and decorated with a red bow. "Spike brought this before going off on those errands you sent him to do this morning. Said to be a withdrawal on your tab."

"...How much did this cost?" The senator asked cautiously.

The young assistant grimaced as he quietly answered him. "Well if I'm not mistaken, that bottle alone is worth ten-thousand bits."

At that moment, the senator dropped his head on his desk, a resounding thud resonated throughout the room as he screamed into the exquisitely crafted tabletop. As his own scream rang through his ears, up until the tinnitus started to set in, he felt despair while he whimpered to himself.

"...Damn her..."

Meanwhile in Appleloosa...

"GET YOUR ASSES IN PLACE! LET'S GO! LET'S GO! MOVE, MOVE MOVE!"

Guards from various inns and motels scrambled throughout the streets of Appleloosa, appearing to ready themselves for conflict. Many residents of the town watched as the wild stampede of armored ponies trampled through across the roads, making their way towards the nearby train station.

"CHECK YOUR EQUIPMENT AND ARMOR!"

"I WANT THOSE SWORDS SHARP AND READY!"

"GET THOSE WEAPONS AND EXPLOSIVES IN THE TRAIN, STAT!"

The young foals of the town watched with excitement as the guards sprang to life. Some even thought it to be fun to run alongside the guards, prompting their parents to pull them back out of the street out of fear of being in their way. But the excitement wasn't solely shared amongst fillies and colts, it was a spring well of action to cover for members of the local media. The few that stopped a guard or two scribbled at their notepads, getting words and wishes from the departing guards.

One such reporter didn't exactly find himself interested in the scrum of reporters. Instead, he had other things in mind. "Hmm... they appear to be on the move today. Guess they've already have things sorted out. I must say, a day of rest and then a push for the big finale, that would be quite interesting. Writing a story on it later would be pretty huge, but what's the fun in that?"

After he finished mumbling to himself, he looked over towards an old wooden building with a large rusty antenna sticking out of the roof. Behind it was an old windpump tower, several of it's blades missing as it creaked and moaned from the friction of the rusty parts. At the top of it was another antenna, but one that produced a much stronger signal. He rubbed his chin before an imaginary light bulb went off over his head. Without any further hesitation, he galloped inside of the building and slid a couple of feet when he braked at the front desk. Behind it was a heavyset yellow mare with orange hair and bright red lipstick, donning a brown stetson hat. "Howdy, what's your business here?" She asked with a thick southern accent.

After catching his breath a little, Dream Star proceeded to embellish on a story. "Emergency address from the captain of the royal guard! I need an emergency transmission put through to all of the nation! The matter of national security is at stake if we didn't put this message through! These directions need to be heard on every radio wave throughout the nation!"

"Whoa there, hold your horses now." She said with a kind chuckle. "You know an emergency transmission is only for actual emergencies."

Dream Star continued to pitch his story, building on it further to sell her on his idea. "I know, he sent me here! You gotta do this for us, please! The life of an element bearer is at large right now!"

The words 'element bearer' caused her ears to perk up. The image of the six national heroines ran through her mind, causing her to jump out of her seat and dart from behind the desk. "One of those girls!? Shoot, two of 'em managed to come 'round here and brought us back our magic after that thievin', no-good Tirek took it away! Well why the hay didn't you say it in the first place!? Booth is over to the end of the hall, first door to the rig─"

The journalist shook his head as he slammed his hooves into the ground. "We're gonna need a mic to be where they are now! This isn't something you can just bring into a booth! This is a once-in-a-lifetime broadcast!"

Feeling a bit confused, the mare tilted her head and quirked an eyebrow. "I thought you said it was an emergency."

"I beg your pardon, ma'am. But in the context of what's about to go down, it is. We're talking a possible war between Equestria and the arimaspi!"

The false words of a war stirred the mare into action. "Well shucks, no denyin' that!" She carried on from where she left off in her frantic scramble. He smiled as the mare called out to one of the booths. "TUMBLE, WE NEED THE LONGEST MIC CORD WE GOT FOR AN EMERGENCY NATIONWIDE BROADCAST!"

The journalist smiled as he mumbled to himself. "I hope your words are memorable like your performances, captain. The world is listening"

Later in Ponyville...

Shining Armor walked alongside Stanton, who carried a bunch of books and papers. Though he didn't appear to struggle with it, he didn't have much of a grasp of the loose papers that trailed him. Luckily, Shining assisted him in that endeavor by levitating the pages back to Stanton.

As the two entered Twilight's room, everyone else was already there. Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Blueblood, Vanity Charm, Melanie, Alex, Cliff, Rickey, and Flash all waited within. Stanton called out as he placed everything down on the ground. "Okay, so we came up with a few copies of our government's Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the Amendments that follow. Maybe there could be some articles you could pull from in recreating the balance inside your government's structure."

Rarity grew concerned, she showed it by growing a frown. "I don't think it's impossible to change a law that stood for over a thousand years, but it will be hard to break out of the status quo."

"In China, they had rulers and dynasties for over three thousand years, and it only took a few years to completely demolish that. They are a democratic republic, with a hint of socialism thrown in, but they are pretty big in holding the world's wealthiest corporations in their boarders. They are a global superpower as a result of abandoning their former structure of government." Melanie stated, surprising mostly the other royals.

While they went through the papers, Twilight accommodated what was noted to be many of the human's study habits. Most of them couldn't go through all the paperwork without some music to keep things lively between them. Though Twilight generously disagreed with the theory, she didn't impose any opinions on them. They continued their research on the Equestrian legislature, but they bobbed their heads up and down as they did. Cliff seemed to be the more impressed. "Huh, who's that on the radio? She's got bars."

"That would be none other than the one and only Sapphire Shores. I actually got a chance to design her outfits for the tour she's currently on. She's also sponsoring my fashion show in the next two weeks." Rarity proudly stated while patting her mane, causing Vanity Charm to scoff in disgust.

Melanie, however, saw a bit of amusement in watching Blueblood's wife squirm. "Oh that's nice. Guess you've made it up in the world."

Rarity cooed brightly as she looked towards Twilight and the others. "I only have my friends to thank. Without them, I wouldn't be in the situation I was given. I can remember how excited I was."

"And how you were constantly jumping up and down on Spike's tail." Twilight recalled.

"That too..." Rarity said, trailing off into a tone of disappointment.

"Yeah..." Twilight droned, doing the same.

While the humans looked towards one another as the awkward silence ensued, the radio whizzed and buzzed before the sound of a male nasally voice disrupted the song.

"We interrupt this broadcast for an emergency transmission sent from Appleloosa! The voice you are hearing is none other than the now fully-anointed Captain of the Royal Guard, Nondis P. Haines."

Everyone perked at the words they heard. Applejack was the first to speak. "Fully anointed!? Ah reckon Princess Celestia tabbed him for the job full-time. Good on him!"

"Ah, so he was an interim. Figures." Alex stated as the broadcast continued.

"My fellow America─no wait, FUCK!"

Every human in the room facepalmed while Rickey shook his head. "Smooth, Nondis. Smooth."

Streets of Manehattan...

The streets of Manehattan were abuzz with the sound of the voice being sent throughout every loudspeaker in the city. In the downtown square, ponies stared at the suddenly changing lights below a few of the building's second stories. Instead of stock numbers and weather reports, words scrolled noting the captain's voice.

"I don't know why this room is echoing so damn much, but whatever..."

Many of the citizens stared at each other blankly before one stallion with a grumpy attitude muttered towards the guy sitting beside him.

"This is what's set to protect us and the princesses? Well, we're doomed."

However, the stallion's commentary didn't stop the message from being put forth.

"My fellow Equestrians, guards whom I share the honor of serving along side with. We are here today for the assignment we were initially given, that goes without saying. But I want you all to know that we are on our way to something significant, a change in the long-storied history of the E.U.P. Guard."

Royal Dining Room Hall of Canterlot Castle...

Cadance, Luna, Celestia, and the other servants stopped for a moment to listen to the radio. One of the guards walked up to the console and dialed it towards a working station. As his words came through, Celestia felt herself shaking her hoof with triumph.

"To many of the world, hell, to this nation, this moment won't be as significant as the greater feats of old. Hell, I know there are plenty of stories in my world that would do this one in. However, this is not the apex of such a story, but rather a beginning. I cannot satiate the romances and chronological desires of historians on this one in terms of scale, and accomplishment, but it would be a step in the right direction. Again, this is the beginning, this is where we take the first step forward."

Streets of Cloudsdale...

A few families stood quietly as they listened to the announcements over the loudspeakers. Namely, the parents of Humbreeze and Rainbow's father stood in place. They clenched onto whatever they held in their hooves, and if they didn't hold anything, they found a cloud to clutch onto.

"I know that for many, this carries a weight far too large to ignore. And I know that there are families belonging to each and every one of you who would want to see you again. And to them I would say that I would bring you all home... That is improbable to say the least. To many odds-makers, we are unlikely to come back home without casualties. And they are right. But what some would confuse for casualties, they would already count in fatalities. That is wrong. I too have returned as a casualty, yesterday I had my arm sewn shut. But I will be damned if I let any of those things become a fatality. I will let nothing stop us."

Ponyville Schoolhouse...

Young students of the small school listened in as Cherilee sat at her desk, carefully adjusting the volume knob for anymore accidental profanities. Applebloom and Scootaloo seemed invested in the words he spoke. Sweetie Belle and Diamond Tiara were more invested in the individual speaking them than anything else.

"I'm not saying that death is not a factor, because it is. But I will say that neither of us will be experiencing it. If anyone is the first to take that on, it will be me. I will not allow us to become a mark of the same brand, that has plagued generations before us. But let this be a mark that will steer our future, our posterity, to a higher ground. And let us not look back at the flag that waves for us, we shall look ahead, past it. Our homes, our kids, our families are waiting for us back home. And I wanna get you back to them."

Streets of Canterlot...

More of the families of the guards sent away to the assignments, even the families of those of the previous company sent, listened to the words of the captain. For some there was a drive for vengeance, for others it was a request for closure. But for either parties, it was something that ignited something within them.

"But to get you back there, I have to bring you through hell. And as I once told you, I am not sending any of you to a place I've never been. I will never send you into a hell where I have no knowledge of conquering. Your politicians can do that, but I'll be damned if I won't fight tooth and nail to keep you all alive. I refuse to leave any of you behind, and I won't let anything happen to you. I will protect every last one of you... So help me God."

The Office of Count DuMoneé...

Senator Count pulled hairs out of his mane as the words overtook the soothing docile tones of his classical music. It only enraged him the more since it was the words from his adversary, more specifically of the topic he just spoke on. He knew it was a not-so subtle jab at him and what he was doing.

"In the uncertainty of the darkness that lies ahead, we look back to the past and take appreciation for what was done to get us here. We look upon the faces of those that have gone before us, and we carry the light they once held. We walk into the darkness with a path paved for us, not because they were told to do so, but because they believed. They believed in a future where the obstacles they once encountered could be conquered. We take that light, and we march with it."

While Single File continued to flick through frequencies, the same voice came on over and over again. The young assistant finally conceded defeat and looked to his superior, who was starting to accumulate a small pool of his own mane and tail hairs. "Sir?"

The senator merely knocked his glass off the desk and pointed to the expensive wine. "Give me that damn bottle."

Complying, the assistant did what he was ordered to do before the senator vehemently snatched it away, popped the cork off of the bottle and started chugging the contents as if it were a cheap drink of water. Streams of crimson escaped the bottle and ran down his jaw and neck while he committed himself to bottoming up the entire bottle.

The assistant hissed nervously as he cringed. "There goes ten thousand bits."

Ponyville Castle...

"One individual asked me a question, a damn good one. 'When I close my eyes at night, even when I so much as blink, I can see the faces of those without closure. And each night, I pray to the heavens above so that they'd hear me. All I can say to them, to the faces of those I've served with, is how sorry I am for living my life on without them experiencing the things I've come to enjoy since our parting. What is their response?' But when I walked down those same paths, I heard each of their voices whispering at every checkpoint. 'I believe'."

Receiving the answer to a question he long asked himself, Shining felt himself break his composure. At first, it came as a bolt to the chest, sending him into shock before the feeling started to resonate throughout his body. But the moment the shock subsided, Shining could do nothing but cover his face. He jolted a few times before his tears broke past his exterior, his hooves weakening under the weight of the words he received.

"Shining, what's wrong?" Twilight asked, seeing her brother in pain.

The others looked before Alex jumped up and hugged him from behind. The two rocked back and forth while Alex soothed him. "Hey, man. I got ya. I got ya." As the young prince started to unveil his emotions, Alex hugged him even tighter, empathetic to the stallion's struggle. "We're all here for ya, buddy. Express yourself."

While the others looked back to the grieving stallion, the broadcast continued.

"With each moment, each memory, and each whisper, we carry on as they express their belief in our future. They tell us what they fought for, and we fight to finish it because they believed in us, long before we were something to believe in...."

...Then there was a period of silence.

"Nondis?" Rainbow called out quietly.

...It's not everyday a man gets caught up in his own speech. It's not that it's a good speech, to be frank I had started rambling because of how nervous I was. But in the attempt of giving someone an answer they wanted from me a while back, I ended up blurting out something that I needed to hear.

We fight to finish it because they believed in us, long before we were something to believe in.

I couldn't keep speaking because I had to compose myself. But reflecting on those words caused me to think about someone I lost who once thought of me to become something greater than what I thought I was. And throughout all the times I felt myself feeling like I had no purpose in life, even when I feel so insignificant to the grand scale of things...

Have you ever had someone in your life who hugged you, told you that it was going to be okay, or they pushed you to do better and told you when you were right and wrong? Have you ever felt that moment when you were younger, that you felt like you didn't quite become like everyone else, that you didn't meet the standard? Have you ever felt like a disappointment? And even after that, has someone ever walked up to you and held belief in that you would still go far, that this wasn't even the beginning?

I have... and he's looking at me being what he once was. And when it was all bad, he was there to tell me to keep going. He didn't have to get out of his grave to say that, but to have someone who actually loved you enough to be present long after they're gone... Just because you're worth something.

It hurts, but it's the good kind of hurt.

"Gramps... thank you." I whispered quietly, wiping the wall of tears from my eyes. "Even now..." I cleared my throat, trying to break out of that deep emotional hole I fell into. "They're sitting in their homes, on their jobs, in their schools, waiting for us to come back, our families and friends. The ones who left us are whispering to us not to stop for them, but to keep going. They believe in what we are and how we can move forward. They speak. I. Will. Believe."

Because they believed in us, long before we became anything worth believing in.

"So when you march forward, know that there's more than just a pretty reward waiting on us, but believers in what we are and who we are. And it's not just at home, it's right here. Each and every one who believed in me, thank you. To all of you in this room, I believe each and every one of you because you are greater than the cause you portray. You're that strong father who loves and teaches his kids, you're that mother who feeds and loves on them, you're that aspiring wife or husband who's willing to bear their faults on their chest because each one of you are significant."

Maybe I'm getting swept into my own speech, maybe I'm hitting some very deep scars in myself in doing so, and I'm probably looking red-eyed because of it.

"Turn to the one next to you." But if I could get them to feel the way I do now. "Now look at them and say, I will believe." We would become unstoppable. "Turn to the other one, and say it."

They obeyed my instructions, the guards seeming a little more enthused.

"I." I started speaking...

"I."

Not just to them... "Will." ...but to myself.

"Will."

And the more I said it... "Believe!" The more they bought into it.

"Believe!"

On their faces were the smile of guards who knew that they had more to fight for than their own lives. They looked brighter, a glare seemingly showed upon them.

"I."

"I." They looked to their future.

"WILL."

"WILL." And they screamed at the trials before them.

"BELIEVE!"

"BELIEVE!" And they were ready to give hell their best shot.

Streets of Appleloosa

Just outside of the train station, there was a huge gathering in the streets. Every stallion, mare, and foal chanted back at the loudspeakers, in unison with the guards in the back ground.

"I!"

"I!" A few of them raised their hooves. Others threw their hats in the air on each word.

"Will!"

"WILL!" And when they screamed, they didn't hold back anything.

"Believe!"

"BELIEVE!" They produced a sound so great that others in the nearby towns could hear it.

Streets of Manehattan...

But it wasn't just nearby towns who heard it.

"I!"

"I!"

There were cities.

"Will!"

"WILL!"

And they jumped on board with the rest of them.

"Believe!"

"BELIEVE!"

Office of Count DuMoneé

Though not everyone agreed with the message, that goes without saying who.

"I!"

One such individual drank from a rather expensive bottle of wine.

"Will!"

He stared at the radio with a menacing glare as Spike entered the room.

"Believe!"

Spike watched as Count completely emptied the remnants of the bottle, his face completely flushed from all the alcohol he ingested.

"I!"

Wearily and halfheartedly, he chanted back. "I..."

"Will!"

"Will..." He called back with decreasing patience.

"Believe!"

"Believe." He mumbled before he threw the expensive bottle at the door, shattering it into several pieces before flipping his chair and screaming at the radio. "I WILL BELIEVE YOU'LL BLOODY DIE!!!"

As we continued chanting, I finally decided to have a little fun with it.

"I!"

"I!" They responded like normal.

"I BELIEVE!"

"I BELIEVE!" This time, they were slightly caught off guard with the addition of another word.

"I BELIEVE THAT!"

"I BELIEVE THAT!" They shouted back, raising their hooves into the air.

"I BELIEVE THAT WE!"

"I BELIEVE THAT WE!" They returned, with increasing volume.

Finally, I shouted to the top of my lungs. "I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN!"

"I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN!"

I started to jump, giving pulse to the chant. "I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN!"

"I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN! I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN! I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN!"

Manehattan...

As the chant spilled forth throughout the streets, ponies started to recite it as if they were in the room themselves. Taxis throughout the town honked along the rhythm, creating a metronome to which everyone in the streets proudly jumped to. Stallions who worked at street venues banged their hooves on whatever clear surface they had. Those who didn't jump, they danced instead.

Canterlot...

The streets of Canterlot were jumping with ponies of every color and race. They too danced, jumped, screamed, shouted, and paraded through the streets. But it didn't stop after the castle checkpoint. Guards who held spears racked their weapons against their chest plates, producing a loud snare-like rattle as they too chanted. Inside of the castle halls, maids clopped their hooves together and cheerfully chanted. In the dining hall, the celebration was beyond a military purpose. Celestia, Luna, and Cadance all chanted with their agenda in mind. Luna danced wildly, nearly knocking over a precious vase. Celestia pranced cheerfully in place as she took in the jubilant feeling, Cadance chanted loudly along with the servants.

Meanwhile in his office, Count listened as the radio and the ponies outside of his halls chanting the words over and over again. He smiled sarcastically as he bobbed his head back and forth. His horn ignited to bring up the newspaper showing the captain's survival. When it landed at his desk, he politely grabbed a quill, flicking it back and forth, seemingly composing to the rhythm. Spike and Single File then watched as he completely lost his mind and started barbarously stabbing the image to the beat. Back and forth he went, clenching his teeth before erupting into a long scream. Inevitably, his quill broke and he was left with his hooves beating into the table. Chunks of wood splintered around him as he relentlessly bashed and mashed the paper.

Cloudsdale...

Pegasi who worked at the local weather factory kicked lightning out of some spare thunderclouds to the rhythm of the words chanted in their ears over and over again. They chanted so loudly that the thunder appeared to be soft thuds in comparison. A few reserves streaked across the sky, barrel rolling past the factory and over the streets of the town. The family of Humbreeze chanted hoof-in-hoof with Rainbow's father. He proudly shouted to the world below the very same message his daughter and her company was giving to the world.

Appleloosa...

Our morale was at an all-time high. While we chanted in that tiny little room, everyone clopped their hooves, stomped, or cracked their spears to the others. I was beating on my chest in rhythm as I screamed. "We're going to fight them off!"

As the rhythm continued, I couldn't help myself but to shout some more.

"A seven nation army couldn't hold us back!"

When I realized what I was saying, I just rolled with it.

Personally, I thought it was far too appropriate. "They're gonna rip it off, taking their time right behind our backs!"

Ponyville...

"And I'm talking to myself at night because I can't forget!" Melanie sang, as the other humans bashed their fists into whatever they could without breaking something.

"Back and forth through my mind behind a cigarette!" Cliff sang before they briefly doubled the speed of the rhythm.

"And the message coming from my eyes says leave it alone!" Alex screamed before all the other humans jumped onto their feet and started singing.

"♪Ooooh oh-oh-oh oooh oooh!♫" Over and over, they repeated that part as if it was their battle cry. Some of the ponies in the room were completely thrown off guard as the five continued to sing. But inevitably, they found harmony with it.

Throughout the streets, they did nothing different from what the other towns and cities did. They too danced and shouted in the streets, foals ran to the playground chanting it as they dismissed themselves from class, leaving Cherilee to frantically attempt to rope them back into class. In unison, the entire crowd sang and chanted.

"I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN!!!"

Appleloosa Overlook,
MacIntosh Hills...

A small radio continued to play the chant over and over again as it's own soon walked up to it.

"I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN!"

"I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN─"

With a single click, it was all brought to silence, save the faint cheering heard from across the desert. Standing on the edge of the overlook was a griffon with several knives and bolts sitting on a soft blue tarp. As he looked to the small desert town to the north, he hummed proudly as he chanted in defiance.

"I believe that I will win."

The wind blew past the griffon, causing his feathers to sway and rustle. His wings pulsed twice before he walked back to the tarp. His smile didn't diminish as he rolled up his tools and safely placed them on his back. He then thought to himself out loud.

"A revolutionary, so Count's got his hooves full with this one. I can hear the cheers from Appleloosa all the way from out here. Obviously he's worth more than what I'm dropping him for. This one might actually put an end to Count's agenda and possibly his career, I'd be wanting him dead too if he was so much of a threat to all I've worked for. It's too bad, he would've been a great drinking partner."

The faint sound of a train whistle could be heard from the distance. As he turned around, he could see the smoke coming from the main smokestack of the front engine. The whistle sounded once more, indicating that the train was setting off. Noticing that the locomotive was heading towards his direction, Gaston took a deep breath before hopping into the air, hovering on his wings, and flying off.

"Oh well... Nobu jo buka jo bine. (Time to get to work.)"

Author's Note

Theme (whichever you prefer):

Well this took a while and dragged a lot out of me. I hope everyone is doing well and that their lives are healthy and happy. And even if things aren't going well for you, well...

There was a message for you.

I deeply appreciate all of you for sticking with me up to this point, even as things get hectic. I wanted to get this one done sometime by the 28th, but I guess I got distracted again... dammit. But I will try to push for a new chapter by sometime this month, hopefully I actually get around to doing it instead of letting distractions get in the way.

The upcoming showdown should prove interesting.
And don't even get me started on what could happen next, I wanna gush it out so bad because I'm excited for it. But that's all you'll get outta me! YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE, SUCKERS!

I also managed to rip that little chant from this, which is probably the better version of it.

Chapter LXVI

Somewhere on Arimaspi Mountain...

Cries and roars continued non-stop throughout the dark morning of the day. The lack of sun and abundance of torches only made it more apparent of how truly dismal it was. Shadows on the walls would flicker and warp to the beat of the flames. The abundance of cries emanated from further within the cavern. As the halls would eventually light up, there were one or two who quietly marched on to the junction where their leader stood to give directions. His claws would point to one direction or the other. Beside him was a pile of gold trinkets that were once worn. He looked back to see the pallbearers marching down the hall.

The dreary backdrop of a darkened cave seemed far more depressing as the bodies of arimaspi were dragged and laid to the side. The smallest ones were immediately sent to the cave that lead to the burial chamber. The larger ones were set to the side as their bodies were stripped of their gold. Lord Macuahuitl (mǎh QUEE tuhl) would direct the groups to keep order in what was obviously a time of great peril.

"(Hurry and get these wounded some water!)" One voice from deeper within the cave hollered.

Wearing a prominent scowl on his face, he watched as the two pallbearers bowed before him with another victim laying between them. "(We lost another, sir.)"

He stepped forward to inspect the body of the deceased creature, taking note of it's limp figure. He stared at the face of the deceased creature, it wore a face that showed despair, yet it was peaceful. Much of it's body was covered in dirt, dust, and rock. Much of the bodily features have been battered, mangled, or covered in blood. Lord Macuahuitl groaned as he grabbed at the creature's wrist to remove the golden bracelets. "(Strip them of their honors, their service to the tribe has ended. Then take them to join the rest.)"

While he threw the bracelets to the pile of gold in the corner, the others did as they were instructed and followed suit. As they carried on with their task, one of them grunted. "(There have been too many. Too many to this one creature.)"

"(I agree. No group of ponies should have been able to find our horde so easily, much less one Ape-Walker.)" The second worker stated.

"(Even our champion has been thoroughly embarrassed by this creature. Vengeance must be paramount!)" The first declared angrily, going as far as chucking one of the hair bracelets into wall above the gold pile.

Lord Macuahuitl then directed two others, who showed up after one of their trips to the burial chamber, to take the freshly-cleaned body away. He gave the first worker a strong glare for damaging one of the bracelets. "(We shall worry about our tribe first. Vengeance must come after we regain our strength.)"

"Or rather, vengeance will come to you."

The five living creatures looked around in an attempt to source the unfamiliar voice. Upon looking towards the tunnel that lead to one of the outer passages, Gaston walked up to the party with a casual stride. One of the arimaspi grumbled in a low voice as his claws raked against the walls. "(Griffon...)"

The griffon held up his talons, showing a sign of submissiveness. "(I seek not conflict, but come as one who seeks to aid.)"

Without noticing what had just occurred, one of the arimaspi shouted at him. "(You are a griffon, why should we trust you!?)" After the heated response, many of them looked to one another with confusion and disbelief.

Another arimaspi who was just as stunned pointed to the griffon and grumbled. "(He speaks our language, this is unheard of.)"

"I am a relic of an old age, rather the descendant of one." Gaston proclaimed proudly.

The tribe leader, who was already detesting the sight of visitors destroying his tribe, had very little hesitation in making his judgement. With an icy expression, he turned his back to the griffon and gave his order. "(Kill him.)"

The griffon, as he watched two of the arimaspi linger towards him, made a claim to save his own life. "(The Ape-walker is called a human. The ponies call him that.)"

Once more, the arimaspi were stupefied in hearing any news of the one that decimated much of their ranks. Even the leader who was more into terminating any creature that didn't resemble him had grown hesitant to cut the griffon down. "(You have information of this... human?)"

"It is limited, but I too have come on a mission to kill. He is my intended target."

Lord Macuahuitl shoved the other two aside to lung his forearm forward, grasping the griffon tightly in his claws. He then held the griffon to his face as he snarled at him. "(You seek to claim our bounty!?)"

"Not in the slightest, I was hoping that we'd help each other." He announced meekly, trying to spare his own life before he found himself crushed in the larger creature's claw.

"(Then you can help by seeking the knowledge of our fallen tribe members.)" He asked in a threatening manner before threatening to slam him into the ground.

"If you are to kill me, then I should give you this warning then." Gaston proclaimed as he strained for breath under the weight of the leader's grasp. The leader held off long enough for the griffon to speak. "(The creature returns, this time with equine numbers.)"

The entire room lit up with grunts and mumbling. One of the pallbearers quietly asked. "(It returns!?)"

"(There will be no time for the preparation of our wounded. We would be unable to find the ones needing to be rescued!)" Replied the other pallbearer with dread in his voice. "(This scourge seeks to destroy us!)"

Finally gaining enough of the leader's attention to spare his life, the griffon found himself with a little more breathing room as the grip on his chest became less life-threatening. Macuahuitl then moved the griffon to the closeness of his face. "How many?" He asked in full Equish/English.

"Thirty, ten short of the last convoy that tried to take what was yours." Gaston answered outright.

As more started to gather from their duties, they were filled in of the news being presented to them, prompting one of the to run back and inform the others back at their assigned posts. More murmurs could be heard amongst them. "(Perhaps he does seek to destroy us.)" One claimed.

The tribe lord raised his left claw and stated loudly. "(No... They seek the gold. That is what they came for the last time.)" With the wealth of information brought to their attention, Macuahuitl placed back on the ground to walk under his own power. But Gaston could take a single step without the tribe leader pushing at him with one of his claws in a teasing manner. "You are a griffon, do you have no pride in yourself?"

The griffon shrugged carelessly. "That war is long over. The Idol of Boreas is no longer with us, your champion saw to that. Our nation no longer exists, there is no pride to be had besides in one's own gain." He stated before he bowed down to the immensely large creature. "So I submit my services to you, to the victors goes the spoils of war."

The tribe leader chuckled humorously, mocking the affairs of the once-mighty griffon nation. "Interesting, I have not heard of the Griffon Kingdom surrendering so easily, we only sent five to you, how many did you receive?"

With a cringe that made him want to press his face into the cave floor all the more, he sheepishly confessed to him. "Only one. I take it the Equestrians picked the rest of them off."

"I see..." The tribe leader finally erupted into a loud and rowdy laugh, bringing him humor in a time of great sorrow. After so many years of his ancestors fighting the griffons nonstop, it only took until now when they received news of the kingdom's downfall, especially after a little less than a century. Feeling a bit of confidence as well as pride, he halted the relief effort to give attention to the upcoming fight. "(So he returns... Let him.)" He stated while walking down the hall towards the others who were still working. But before he left completely from view, he signaled for two of the other arimaspi to direct the griffon to walk beside him. "While we walk, you will tell me everything you know of this creature."

Realizing he didn't have much of a choice, he complied. "Whatever you wish, it is my command."

Two hours later.
At the Foot of Arimaspi Mountain...

After a long ride on the train, everyone seemed high in spirits. There wasn't so much of the chatter that we had on the way to Appleloosa, but rather talk of the Appleloosian citizens strutting through the streets singing the hook of the Seven Nation Army while simultaneously chanting 'I believe that we will win'.

Apparently someone must've snuck in a microphone and had me recorded. No wonder the room had this weird echo in it.

But the guards didn't care much, the were hyping it up just as much as the rest of them, and they were the ones to go into danger. Honestly, I find it amazing how carefree soldiers get when the mood is right, how amped they get before the big push of an invasion. I suppose if you had a possibility of dying the next day or the next hour, why the hell wouldn't you party for one last time?

So when we got off the train, everyone seemed stone-faced and disciplined, not too cocky, not too careless, not too blissful of their surroundings. And when we started marching, they marched like soldiers. If I took a step forward, they'd tried to match tempo, albeit finding difficulty in doing so because our my having two feet and their having four hooves. They lined up in two columns of fifteen in an attempt to throw off any presumptions of our numbers.

When we traveled, we had ten large wagons with us. And one of those wagons had a wooden crate with most of my weapons in it. The same wagon managed to house my new toy. I wasn't really looking forward to using it because it would mean that we were dealing with far more than just arimaspi running at us. And as such, many of the guards grew curious of the contents inside of that black case.

In their eyes it looked so unassuming. "Sir, if I could ask, what's in that crate?" One of them asked.

"Which one?" I replied.

"Obviously we can see what's in the wooden one. But the black plastic one seems a bit out of place."

As we came up to the foot of the mountain, I held the company in place to squint out any moving figures going up the road we were to take. After confirming that there were no signs of movement, even as Rainbow confirmed it, we moved forward. "Well consider it an easy button for our problems."

"Not exactly descriptive, but I would be hoping that it's something good?" Another one of the guards asked.

"Yes, it's good as long as you're not in front of it." I briefly stated before Rainbow tapped me on the shoulder.

"Hey Nondis, noticed that we haven't ran into a single Arimaspi since we got here?" She questioned quietly.

As our company made it up the mountainside with very little problems, even getting through the forest with as little resistance as possible, I started to project my thoughts about what it could mean. "That is a bit unusual, I thought about it too. I'm thinking that they could've called them back in to help with the mess we left them."

"You mean the mess you left them?" She said quietly, correcting me.

"Whatever, but we still need to be on our guard."

When we marched through past the tree line, around one side of the adjacent mounds of the mountain, we could see the huge massive skull on the top of the peak. Taking it in so close where our necks were stressing to look up to the top, most within the company felt as they were faced with a daunting task. The rationality of the situation started to set in, displacing the morale high. "So... This is the legendary Arimaspi Mountain." One stated before gulping.

"Seems... harrowing." Another voice said.

Humbreeze, who was already shaking in his armor, felt fear. "Anyone thinks this could end in disaster?"

"How so?" I asked, trying to gauge his mind.

"Well, it's been so easy to get here." He said while his too-big-for-his-head helmet rattled around him. "I think it's a trap."

Well, if there's one thing I learned from my time out here, that's exactly what it is. However, the trap would more than likely to occur when we arrive at the mouth of the cave. And considering that we still have some ways to go, we should be fine. Others didn't feel as secure, one guard by the name of Dawnrise Twinkle, looked the pony next to her. "Should we send a scout?"

"Sending one of you will only get that one killed." I argued. "Sending a party of you is like asking them to send us a message." And heavens knows that I didn't want to see either of these guys laying on the side of the mountain or posted there as some macabre warning for us to leave.

"Well we can't just keep moving like there's nothing wrong." Humbreeze stated anxiously.

I calmly argued with him, realizing that his fear was growing from rational to irrational. "That's the exact point I'm trying to make. It's easy for them to pick us off while we're divided. A large group fighting one arimaspi at a time is strenuous work in the sense that it would take forever to fight. But it's the most efficient option."

And gathering what information I got from Shining's perspective, that seemed to be the best option. When they entered into the cave, it was every pony for themselves. And when that happened, there were makeshift squadrons created to combat one arimaspi, leading to a four-to-one ratio of guards-to-arimaspi. However, the largest issue was that they had more than just ten of them, there were twenty or more. That means while they were fighting, other arimaspi would easily pick apart the guards that remained, resulting in a complete slaughter.

All those faces on those ponies, I didn't want to see it happen to this group here.

However, not everyone saw eye-to-eye with the young guard. "Not really, considering all the praises the conductor had about you. Seems like you took on an entire army of them and won." Bragged Downburst, who had given the younger guard a light shove in the back.

Thought he had the high confidence in me, I felt myself shy away from that notion. I only did that to gauge our approach, and to scout out where the gold was. It wasn't like I had the answers to everything on my own. I couldn't even get through it all without Shining's help. Even if it was marginal, I needed whatever help I could get. "That's not something I can do again." Not just with the reduced ammunition, but also with much of the element of surprise used on the first go.

An earth-pony mare by the name of Strongheart smiled as she continued to place her vote within me. "Well if you feel you need to let up on something, we're here to back you up, captain!"

"Thanks." They were comforting words because I knew that I could lead without having to carry so much. True, I'd try to do most of the dirty work, but if I could incorporate them in some manner, it would help me protect them. And I wanted all of us to get out of here alive. I was adamant on that. Eventually a roar in the very far distance sounded throughout the area, causing most of us to shy away from noise. "Let's not keep talking for too long, this is their territory." I whispered in a low voice.

The others nodded in agreement.

While we carried on, we came across a cut on the side of the mountain. It seemed to be a perfectly sliced wedge that looked almost like the work of a few stone smiths. Much of it was eroded so it didn't look so ridged. Uncertain with it's stability, we made sure it wasn't prone to collapse. The last thing we need for this to be is some 3rd world scenario where the road collapses beneath us. After confirming that the area was safe enough to cross, we made our way through. One pony by the name of Strongheart was kind enough to offer his geological talents to ensure we were in the clear.

But soon after we cleared the makeshift tunnel, he called back out to me. "Sir, we've got light seismic activity."

His sudden warning had me stop dead in my tracks, halting the advance of our party. "How are you so sure?"

"My hooves are sensitive to the land. One of my traits is to detect seismic activity in the ground and be able to relay that information to the commander. Usually it's an indication of what's coming, be it an earthquake, landslide, or an army marching onto our position."

That last choice definitely had my attention. Obviously it wasn't a landslide because he wasn't going insane. "So what do you feel right now?"

"Other than our own movements, it feels like something is impacting the ground above us."

I looked up and saw nothing but a few misty ledges. I stared for a moment to make sure nothing had moved. One unicorn stallion by the name of Aegis Shield shook his head as he mocked Strongheart. "Are you sure that wasn't just some rock you felt?"

"Shut it and keep moving." Rainbow ordered, ending that debate.

But as I looked back to the gifted stallion, his eyes slowly expanded as the seconds went by. "It feels like..." Suddenly, a few pebbles came rolling down the mountainside, landing just before my feet. Then I heard more of them clatter before me. "CAPTAIN, GET BACK!"

Aegis lit his horn, using his magic to quickly yank me back before a massive chunk of rock landed to the side of the mountain before bouncing just a few inches above the road where I once stood. The loud crack of the boulder had me entranced, causing me to blankly stare at the very-real possibility of my life coming to an unexpected end. It was as if I had watched myself being launched from the road and down the mountainside below. It was enough to cause me to fall to my knees from the shock of it all.

Holy fuck... my heart was bashing my chest cavity open. My lungs forgot how to operate, my brain was sending out all kinds of signals, but none of my muscles were receiving them. My eyes were so wide that I felt like I could see the various atoms in the air. My sense of smell was overridden by the odor of blood and adrenaline. It took another boulder, significantly smaller, smashing against the road to wake me up.

After I came back to the present, I hollered back to Strongheart. "Landslide!?"

"Apparently so!"

I wasted no time after that. I got back to my feet in enough time to see another one completely missing the road we were on. Along with that one came the primitive scream from a path high above us. "(I hope you feel that, Funaki!)"

Right then and there, that told me what it was. "That's not a landslide, get to cover!"

"AMBUSH!" Rainbow screamed out.

The entire company made a rapid dash for the tunnel we just came through, while many of which were set in a place were they could avoid any of the rocks, there were a few such as myself who were partially exposed to the incoming shower. My arm was struck with a small pebble, causing it to sting a little. "Sticks and stones may break my bones... but boulders the size of minivans are good enough to kill us."

"They've got us pinned! We can't move back!" Someone from the rear called out.

"There's way too many of us to hide in this one area!" Another screamed.

Aegis, who was brave enough to scout out their positions, stepped out to cast a shield over himself, only to get smacked in the head with a smaller rock. "Argh!" He yelped out as he fell to the ground. I and another guard ran out to grab him before anything substantial came crashing down again. The two of us got hit quite a bit by the smaller rocks, but they were just as pain-inducing as anything else. We huddled back into the tunnel and tended to the injured unicorn.

"You okay!?" Questioned Rainbow Dash.

"They're throwing rocks at us. They're throwing jagged rocks at us!" He replied as he wiped the blood from his forehead before it could reach his left eye.

While a massive boulder bashed against the path we were set upon, it loudly rolled down the mountainside, bowling over some of the trees as if they were pins. "They're trying to keep us at a distance." I summarized.

"Their aim ain't that bad, I gotta hoof it to 'em!" Azure, who went out with me, stated.

I turned to the wounded unicorn and asked him. "Aegis, can you still use magic!?"

"I'm all good!" He said proudly while lighting his horn.

While more and more rocks came crashing down, including a smaller boulder that went completely over the tunnel's ceiling and tumbling to the ground below, I started to think about how to best get ourselves out of this situation. It was one I didn't plan for originally, so I had to improvise and be quick about it. The more time I spent, the greater chance of their claws finding us next.

"I need you to cover me while I get back to the foot of this mountain. Blindside, I need you to keep me from tumbling over and to guide me safely to the ground. Azure, you cover them both while I'm going down. Strongheart, you keep monitoring those tremors, if you feel this place starts to become unstable, then you and Rainbow get everyone the hell away from here. If it all goes to bust, I want you all to haul ass back to that train, don't stop for anything. I'm not losing any one of you today!"

While I shouldered my weapons, Rainbow Dash screamed at me as I was making my way towards the outside edge of the tunnel. "Wait, how are you getting back down the mountain?"

"Express route!" I said as Blindside's magic wrapped around my waist and eased me down the side of the mountain.

While I made my way down the mountain, I felt Blindside's magic get weaker the further away I got. Feeling myself getting out of his range of manipulation, I started sliding down the mountain at the mercy of gravity. It didn't take long for me to reach one of the lower paths below. When I landed, I heard Rainbow Dash screaming to me. "They're getting closer!"

Whichever ones were closer to them, I quickly shot at. The ones that got hit didn't seem to mind all that much until a few seconds later when the pain started to register. They became hindered, some even losing balance and falling off of the mountain. I turned back around and made a beeline for one of the trees. Suddenly, Azure called out to me. "CAPTAIN, HARD RIGHT!"

Following his instruction, I ran right to avoid a basketball-sized boulder. But as I did so, I got hit with a barrage of smaller rocks that threw me to the ground. I think two or three of them hit my head on the way down. Rising up, I wiped my cheek to check for blood, only to find I had a large gash from my right ear to my cheekbone. "Damn, sharp ass rocks." I muttered while I got back on my feet and ran towards one of the trees.

"CAPTAIN, WE'VE GOT INCOMING!"

Looking up, I could see three of the creatures already pinching in our company. Two approached from the front while one stood to charge from the rear. With my cheek burning from the pain, I grimaced as I lined my sights for the three. "Okay, I'm done with this shit." I mumbled out of frustration, pulling the trigger to my assault rifle. Without a single indication of warning, the two in the front buckled over from the bullets. The one in the back twisted and fell as one of the bullets hit him in the neck. "Motherfuckers wanna throw some shit, I'LL THROW RIGHT BACK!"

More and more slid down to meet with the stranded group of ponies, who couldn't do much for themselves outside of the unicorns launching highly-concentrated magic beams at them. Even as they landed, the only served to push them back. But I had already saw the signs that my fire was doing very little to push back against their offensive. "(Advance! Slaughter every last one!)" One of the arimaspi roared from the top of the ledge above the path.

Guess I was going to have to go hard early. "AEGIS! SLIDE ME THAT BLACK BOX!"

"YES SIR!" He called out, immediately moving to action.

Without much time to operate, he threw the box from the cart and over the side of the mountain. While the box tumbled downhill, I winced as I watched the exterior take some significant damage. All while it tumbled down to a few yards away from where I stood, I quietly prayed to myself in hopes that the weapon inside didn't take any serious damage. When I finally reached it, I didn't waste any time dragging it with me, I flung open the latches and pulled out the weapon. After seeing there was no damage, I gave myself little time to sigh in relief. Pulling back the foam lining, I pulled out a bandolier of ammunition for the machine gun, loaded the chamber, and ran back to an area where I had clear shots on the ledge the arimaspi sat on and the road below.

While Aegis hoof pumped triumphantly, one of the creatures hovered from the edge of the tunnel ceiling, smiling as it eyed the company of ponies. "Holy Faust, he's big." Rainbow whimpered.

"(Pony scum!)" The creature shouted out before pulling his arm back for a blow.

Azure and Aegis both tag-teamed the creature with their magic, blasting it square in the face. Losing it's balance, the creature fell head-first to the ground. "Keep blasting them!" Aegis called out while looking towards the edges once more.

Azure looked to the ground below and saw the monster they brought down writhe in pain, it's face bloodied. "He won't stay down for long." He stated before screaming to me. "CAPTAIN, THEY'RE CONVERGING ONTO OUR POSITION! ORDERS!?"

"KEEP YOUR HEADS DOWN!" I shouted back. The entire company dropped and ducked to their stomachs as the creatures started surrounding them.

When a few started to barrel for the group of ponies, I threw off the safety lined my sights the best I could, and pulled the trigger. Loud, rapid pops and white streaks of hot lead filled the air. Like flaming arrows, a volley of tracer rounds sent crashing against the rocks and the flesh of our enemy. The ones to feel the impact of the bullet hitting them were quickly sent to the ground. Those lucky enough to die quickly didn't quite feel the pain of the rounds hitting them. Some were so unfortunate that they danced as they were hit with round after round after round before they slumped over. All while they started to hold their advance, I screamed back at them. "THROW THESE, YOU FURRY BITCHES!"

While more and more tracer rounds continued to smack against their ranks, few even tried to crawl back up to the ledge they jumped down from. However, their efforts proved to be in vain as many were struck with bullets, causing them to lose their grip and fall. When the wounded ones staggered back to their feet, I made sure to finish them off. Just in the matter of minutes their fatal numbers started to climb. One. Two. Five. Ten. Twenty. Thirty-five. They were losing more than what they had anticipated, especially from a group of ponies.

Eventually, one of their leaders called to the others. "(Fall back! Fall back!)"

While the remnants fled to the darkness of the mountain caves, those who remained were calling out in pain, trying to help one another. I sympathized with them from the aspect of watching their brethren lose their lives and having to crawl off of a field of defeat, but that was were my call for concern ended. I had my own company to protect, and I weighted just one of their lives heavier than fifty of theirs. One creature weakly crawled on it's belly, using it's arms to pull towards my fellow guards. It only remained alive for as long as the bullet took to leave the chamber to reach it.

At last, the mountain was peaceful again. The carnage that was inflicted made it so. "The tremors stopped." Strongheart stated as he sighed with relief.

"Is it safe to come out?" Rainbow asked.

While I looked at how much ammo I spent on that one attack, I saw that almost the whole belt was gone save thirty some-odd bullets. "WHO'S NOT DEAD? SOUND OFF!" I shouted, switching the safety back on.

One of them, I couldn't tell which one it was, called out to me from above. "I THINK WE'RE OKAY!"

Taking into consideration how badly we were outnumbered, I think we did pretty damn well. Again, I didn't think I'd have to break out the big gun so early, but that just goes to show that it's better to be prepared for anything and not to underestimate any resistance we'll be facing. Thankfully, I had more rounds in the wooden crate. But I wasn't going to be as liberal as I was just then. From now on, I'm using it when I absolutely need to.

But first, I need some medical supplies for my face. "Copy, maintain position! I'll be back up!"

After about thirty more minutes of running back up the mountain and everyone else cleaning their wounds, I finally got a chance to patch myself up. Of course the antiseptic was not a pleasant experience to endure when dealing with such a large area on your face, but I guess that will be something I'll have to manage. Pain and frustration aside, I reloaded my machine gun for the sake of having more than enough before the next reload as it takes some time to get everything set in place properly.

I didn't have the luxury of using up 3-4 seconds to make sure everything was set up right.

When we finished checking up, we moved our party to the cave I left from just a couple of days ago. When we walked in part-ways, Rainbow stopped me and notified me that there was a lack of air flow coming from the entrance. So I and Azure walked through the cave, only to find a bunch of rocks piled from ceiling to floor. The hole had been plugged, which meant we had to take the long-way through the mountain.

Imagine my enthusiasm for that.

So we had to walk all the way to the front end of the mountain before we could even set foot into it. The moment we arrived, I already knew what was coming next. Humbreeze, who was still shaken from the first arimaspi encounter, was practically rattling in his helmet again. "This is a rather large cave. Is this where you went in last time, sir?" He whispered.

"Yes, but no doubt this is a trap. They've probably have it lined to the ceiling with their guys." I whispered back, making my way towards the wooden crate full of weapons.

The young guard didn't show any signs of confidence, though I can't blame him given the experience from earlier. If I just explained to him that it's a trap, he'd be trying to throw some ideas on avoiding it. "Sir, if I could interject with some insight of my own─"

"I appreciate your input, but this is a different scenario."

I wasn't intending to bypass it at all. In fact, with the arimaspi you have to be upfront about yourself. Even the way they fight demands you to take more steps forward than back. And since springing the trap was my best option, I had to do it in such a way where I had the advantage. The only thing I needed was a light bright enough to fill the entire room. Looking over to the company, I noticed one of the guards using her magic to brandish her spear.

Looking at her aura, I decided it would be her. "Corporal Dawnrise Twinkle, step forward please."

Running towards me, she gave me a salute. "What can I do for you, sir?"

"I need you to give me a light."

Her stance, which was rigid and firm, slacked as she expressed her intimidation. "Muh... Me???"

I lightly tapped her helmet as I praised her. "Yes ma'am, you. Your magic aura is the only one that glows white, I need a non-discriminating source to illuminate the cave."

While she shied away from me, Humbreeze didn't. He tried to press his point further. "Sir, if I could just interject─"

"Again, appreciate the input, but it's not warranted." I know it seemed a little mean-spirited to shut him down, but I couldn't let my thought process wander. I was thinking of a way to get in that cave without having to get pounced on. And that very idea was what made Dawnrise nervous. I turned back to reassure her. "Now, I'm not gonna have you just walk inside and become the first victim, I need you to go on my command."

She was still comfortable with the situation, and rightfully so. "But how are we gonna go through that cave without someone getting hurt? If it's an ambush like you say it is, then don't that mean we'll be walking into almost certain death?"

"That only applies when they aren't disoriented." I said as I started rummaging through the wooden crate, pulling out a sizable green bag filled with items.

Rainbow flew over as I started pulling everything out, trying to come up with something that would get the job done. While she carefully inspected whatever I pulled out, she held up the first item I tossed out. "What's are these?"

"Ah, Illudium Q-36 Explosive Cave Modulators." I said jokingly.

"Excuse me?" Rainbow asked with a quirked brow.

I knew better than to expect her to get the joke, but it was one I wanted to get it off my chest just once. But I shifted back into serious mode when I pulled everything out and categorized it for her to see. I started with the one thing she held in her hoof. "Frags, C-4, flashes, stuns... bingo."

"What?" She asked quizzically.

While I pulled out a nine-bang flash, I felt myself nodding with boisterous approval. I honestly didn't think I had packed any, but I ended up bringing one anyways. I had also checked to see if it was armed and confirmed it was, that just led me to shaking my fist with triumph. Grabbing the machine gun, the flash, a frag, and my shotgun, I looked back towards the mare with a wink. "Just sending these guys to cloud nine before we start."

As I crept up to the side of the cave, I felt myself being pulled back as I was about to pull the pin on the grenade. Humbreeze was adamant on getting his suggestion across. His voice was moderately raised. "Sir, I would really advise against─"

I quietly snapped at him, not meaning to be mean or anything. But he nearly had me pull the pin on myself and the others. So I explained to him my reasoning and what my intentions were. "Their eyes are terrible when it comes to sharp light intake, that's contributed to their sitting in the dark for so often. Now if you knew anything about these bastards like I do, you'd know that they mainly come out during the sunset and early dawn hours and would often waltz around during the night. Fun fact, they roam around in the day only after their eyes get fully acclimated to the light levels, which takes up to five minutes or so. With that being said, they're sitting in a dark-ass cave, what does that mean?"

The young stallion, who was surprised by my sudden outburst, had eased off of me while appearing intimidated. "That they're susceptible to light─"

"Exactly. They can't see in pitch black but they happen to carry around torches, that's because torches are a low-level light source. Compare that to seeing the sun." I said to him, causing him to nod quickly out of trepidation. "Now sit there and stay quiet." I then looked back to Dawnrise and held her behind me as I crept to the mouth of the cave. "Count to ten, if you don't hear that many, you don't go in."

While I snuck up to the mouth of the cave, I could hear quiet murmurs. While the creatures were quietly speaking in their native tongue, I waited for a little while to mentally establish myself. I quietly grabbed the pin, twisted and pulled it loose, clamped the fuse trigger and took a deep breath before I ran to the edge of the cave. I used all the force I could muster in my arms to hurl the grenade to the cave and very quickly snapped myself back to the wall just outside of it. One by one, the loud explosions and flashes signed off an internal number in both my and Dawnrise's head. While the creatures within the cave could be heard screaming over their temporary loss of sight, she looked to me with a frown.

"I only counted nine." She said, seeming confused.

I pulled the pin on the frag grenade and chucked it inside. "Keep listening."

After another four seconds of rest, a loud explosion followed by more painful cries. She looked back up to me with her horn glowing. "Ten?"

"Now you can get your ass moving."

The two of us ran into the cave. Her horn shone a light so bright that I myself ran the risk of being blinded by it. When we entered, there was the sight of a few wounded arimaspi as well as a large amount of them writhing around on the floor. Without any further hesitation, I proceeded to gun down every one that remained in the cave. Round after round went into their bodies, indiscriminately penetrating whatever it hit. While they had a few who were either fully aware or just coming to, I took extra care to knock them back down. The ones who were still struggling were spared a few seconds before I gave them my undivided attention.

As I continued shooting, I noticed that the light inside of the cave started to dim considerably. I looked back to see Dawnrise on her haunches, struggling to keep her light blasting at full. It made me realize that she was putting her all into making the room as bright as it was. I'll give her credit, she was the equivalent of the flash you'd see from a nuclear blast, and I'm certain that kind of concentration takes a lot out on the mind. I called back out to her, urging her to be strong. "Don't flicker out on me!"

She heard my words and took a deep breath before she firmly planted her forelegs into the ground and lifted her head, straining and screaming while I did my best to finish quickly. The last one I had to kill was sitting a few feet away from her, so I had to squint in order to see it. After I landed my final shots and ensured that it stopped moving, I hollered out to her. "We're clear, you're good!"

As soon as her magic dropped, so did her entire body. I ran over to check on her, feeling incredibly concerned for her. She opened her eyes and saw me standing over her and squealed loudly thinking I was a monster of some sort. I calmly assured her that it was just me. She then lowered her volume immensely and her cheeks turned red from embarrassment.

"You okay?" I asked.

She rubbed her head as she started to regain her balance. "That was the first time I had to ever light a room like that. I don't know how Princess Celestia does it."

Probably because she's been doing her natural-born talent for over a thousand years. "You did it too, and you did great. If it wasn't for you, we'd be in a much worse predicament."

"Well I heard what you said to Humbreeze, and I thought about trying to brighten up the room like the sun. Five minutes would've been great... if only I could've lasted that long."

"No, you did wonderful!" I praised her. "I kinda wish I brought you along the first time."

"Oh... Thanks." She said shyly, before awkwardly jumping back to all fours and giving me a salute. "I-I mean, I'm glad to be of assistance, sir. Use me as you see fit."

While the others started to file in, Rainbow was staring at me with much disapproval. I looked back to the young mare and saluted back. "You're a fine guard, corporal. Wouldn't trade you for any other."

While the other unicorns produced their own lights, Humbreeze looked around and saw the carnage around the room. Awestruck, he walked up to me. "Captain, what did you use?"

"Nine-bang flash grenade, blinds whoever's in the room. Fragmentary grenade, produces deadly shrapnel that can maim or kill, mostly maim and injure in this given circumstance."

Rainbow hovered right past me, flicking her tail in my face as she gave attention to recuperating mare. "Dawn, you okay?"

She tried to take a step forward but stumbled a bit before catching her balance again. "...I think."

"She's fine, probably a little shook." I stated. "I know using that much magic would probably leave you with a pretty nasty headache.

"I can handle that." She stated before rubbing her ears. "But my ears are still ringing, it was so loud."

I forgot they don't really have ear-plugs, but I can easily attest to that being that I'm aren't wearing any either. It would take some getting used to. "Sorry about that. My ammo and configurations haven't exactly allowed me to be the quietest of campers."

Rainbow snorted at my response. "Well they know we're here now, so what's next?" She said with a bit of animosity towards me.

I wonder what I did wrong this time? "We keep going. If they get in our way, then just walk around them."

Humbreeze looked at the open halls all around the room. "Not sure if they'll let us do that."

I just simply pointed to the route in the center, past five of the arimaspi corpses. "Remember the famous phrase 'over my dead body'?"

"Ohhhhh." He droaned out quietly. "Okay, it's pieced together now."

Our progress through the caves were nothing short of a speed run, especially in contrast to the first time I was here. Of course that's also to be expected when you have a crudely drawn map studied into memory. And if there came a part where I wasn't so sure, I had that same piece of paper in my pocket.

The advantage this time was that I didn't have to worry too much about the torches. I only used the torches because I didn't want to seem out of place to any wandering arimaspi. We're weren't so worried about that because we had numbers and other light sources to brighten up our way. And it relieved a lot of stress for many of the unicorns we had when we changed them in shifts.

When we arrived at the junction leading to the fork in the road, the others grew disgusted from the smell of death, as it appeared to be quite fresh. "Permission to speak freely, this place stinks." Humbreeze stated while covering his muzzle with his foreleg.

I looked around the room, seeing some areas marred in blood. In one corner were the sheddings of hair and fur, in the other was more blood. The blood trailed from the cave we walked from to the path on the right. "The morgue's down one of these halls ahead. If you're smelling something that's urging you to puke, that would be it."

Humbreeze looked at the with uncertainty, still covering his muzzle to stave off as much of the smell as possible. "Morgue, sir?"

"They have an open air chamber where they rest their dead and decaying so that the birds and bugs can take what they can. They call it a 'sky burial' in some of the places in my world."

"That seems awfully unsanitary." He replied before dry-heaving.

"Their home network is to the opposite direction." I noted as I pointed to the blood-stained path. "Of course, you're still gonna smell something foul when we arrive, but that's just their hygiene."

Rainbow, who already knew where the other path lead out to, curiously checked the other path. When she hovered on, she eventually smacked her head on something solid. Using her hooves to feel out the area, she came to a sudden realization."Hey Nondis, check this out."

I had one of the unicorns escort me towards the hall Rainbow flew into. As we arrived, she was hovering just in front of a large boulder planted in the center. There were also several smaller rocks surrounding it, forming a type of seal to close the exit off. Huh, go figure. "Holy hell, the bastards actually planned this out a bit. No wonder our first entrance was so hard to push through, they've shored it up with a big-ass rock."

While the unicorn who lit our way seemed confused from the conversation we were having, Rainbow tapped on the boulder and sighed. "Safe to say we won't be going out this way."

I looked at the edges as well as some areas of the boulder. I could see a fairly deep crack going around the left side of the massive rock, indicating it had a weak point. In either case, weak points or not, I wasn't going to let it stop me. "Hmm... I beg to differ."

Rainbow looked at my face and quickly caught on to what I was suggesting. "White stuff?"

"White stuff." I agreed.

The two of us quickly made our way down the hall to the wooden crate. As I started to pull out a few bricks of C-4, I started to visualize how I wanted to go about it to minimize our chance of a cave-in and maximize our destruction of the boulder. The unicorn who accompanied us, Waning Moon was her name, walked up to Rainbow Dash as she grabbed a hooful of supplies. "You know, you said all that stuff as if you know what it does."

Rainbow's eyes briefly expanded before she tried to come up with an excuse. "I'm kinda there for the whole explanation bits when he gets this stuff."

She played it off pretty well, gotta hand it to her. "Yup, she was there."

A few minutes later after we set the charges in place, notably on the left side as well as dead center of the massive rock, Rainbow activated the charges and gave me a salute. "Okay, we're all set."

"Clear the hall." I ordered. The three of us ran out of the hall and rallied everyone out of the way of the cave in case anything were to happen that would cause any debris to come flying out and hit someone. We all packed onto the path on the right. After we had Strongheart to measure the tremors in case of a potential cave-in, I was ready to hit the detonator. "Fire in the hole." I called out, mashing the button.

A loud explosion sounded throughout the area, almost deafening most of us. We felt the rumbling from the other side, as well as the impending avalanche of shattered rocks. The dust from the other side started to fill the chamber and I walked out to see if anything had happened. Other than seeing the small ray of light from the outside world, nothing happened outside of the area being a little bigger than before. But the ordeal we once had in getting here was not going to stop us from getting out.

Luck was on our side.

The others walked around to see the newly formed exit, as well as the seemingly endless pile of rocks. Strongheart kicked around a few as he spoke. "Well, this looks like an easier exit, but what about all these rocks?"

I looked back to our original entrance. "Plug the way we just came through, if there are any others to come an stop us, they'd be wise to do it here as it would leave them three places to advance from. We could be chased on our way back, so that's one. This new opening to the surface of the mountain could very well be option number two, so our fight's already going to be fairly difficult. I haven't even began to mention those caves in the front all feed from their various living quarters and outposts. And given that our first entrance was filled with a bunch of them, it's better if we minimize their feeding points."

"Congest the traffic and redirect it to the wide open air, wouldn't that make for an easier target practice?" Humbreeze questioned.

"I'd rather a target practice than a mosh pit. At least for me it would be a turkey shoot." I said as I started picking up a few rocks.

"But wouldn't this have us coming from a higher part of the mountain?" Dawnrise asked.

While I stressed carrying some of the rocks from one side of the cave to the other, I explained my case further. "That's our advantage, the main entrance would be below us, making it easier to cave in from above as opposed to doing it on ground level."

"But what if this isn't enough rocks to plug that entrance?" Humbreeze inquired, causing me to place down the rocks I carried. For a moment, I had completely bypassed that scenario. If it were too few rocks, then what good would it do us if it only served to arm them with things to hurl at us? That was something I couldn't take a risk on.

I owe that little guy, he stopped me from committing a grievous oversight. "Give me a sec." I said as I immediately stared at the massive hole I was trying to plug. When the seconds came and went, I started to see what I could do as opposed to just relying on the mess we made. My only option is to make an even bigger mess. "Hey Strongheart, Rainbow, Waning, I need you three to come with me for a second."

The three ponies I called out did as they were ordered. But Waning was still somewhat confused by what I was having them do. "What are we looking for?"

"Check the ceiling." I said, trying to look for anything that might give us the best chance of destroying this tunnel.

It didn't take Strongheart any time at all to get my attention. "I see what you're going for." He said, pointing to one area on the ceiling. When I ran over to look from his perspective, I started to see what he was looking at. "That fissure right there, any more stress and this entire tunnel might come crashing down."

Rainbow wasted no time plugging the area with explosives and priming the charges. When we finished setting that up, we ran out the tunnel and stood from a safe distance before I pressed the detonator. And as Strongheart predicted, the entire tunnel came crashing down. The other pegasi were nice enough to fan the dust away, just enough to confirm that we had completely plugged the entrance.

"Well that makes it easier." Humbreeze stated with a smirk.

I nodded as I slapped his helmet. "Yeah, now let's get to moving these rocks."

That entire affair of moving the rocks was something I'm glad I had help on. Two-thirds of our entire company consisted of either earth ponies or unicorns. Between the two of them, moving the rocks were almost child's play, they almost made me feel so weak in comparison. But thanks to their magical abilities and strengths, they cleared that entire hall in less than thirty minutes. I would say that I was surprised, but I've seen most of Ponyville get repaired in almost a single day after a massive changeling attack.

When it comes to working fast, they've got that down in spades.

Along the way, we ran into a few other arimaspi defenders, which were quickly gunned down. Most of our work going through the caves consisted of the usual boring travel that often came with the monotonous scenery. It had gotten so bad that even the blood trails leading back to where we came from had done little to grab our attention. But thankfully the intersection we closed off two days ago remained that way, so we didn't have to wait for traffic to die down. Counting down from the time we arrived from the train to walking into the hoarding room, I would like to say that it took us four hours and thirty minutes.

We only broke the record by like, what, THREE DAYS.

When we walked in, much of the company expressed the same disbelief I felt when I first arrived in the room filled with riches beyond logic. Many just gawked and stared for a few seconds before praising their own god. Humbreeze was the first to do so in such a loud manner. "Holy Faust in a bread basket!"

"Yeah, kinda had my own come-to-Jesus moment when I first saw it too." I replied, grabbing a handful of shiny coins and stuffing them into my back pocket like I had just grabbed a shit ton of quarters.

The others stopped gawking and broke off on their own, digging, sweeping, and kissing whatever gold they grabbed. While they celebrated, dancing on top of piles that gave way and had them surfing down to ground level, a few of them had already started to ramble on about how they were going to change their lives. Rainbow, who had already experienced this, was the only level-headed individual here. "Well captain, we're here. What do we do now?"

"COMPANY, FALL IN!" I called out loudly. Everyone dropped what they were doing and immediately fell into a block formation, six rows of five. They stood at attention, awaiting the orders to soon follow. "Remove your bags, move the wagons to nearby piles so that we can minimize our trips to them. Collect the gold in the bags to minimize collateral. Next, I want two pegasi to keep watch at the door to give me any indications if we're being pursued. Unicorns, I need you all to transfer the bags to the carts. Earth ponies, you'll be in charge of freight. All other pegasi, I need you to get to the top of these piles and start grabbing."

"YES SIR!!!" I don't think I've ever heard them speak so loudly. Then again, they're looking at something no other pony before this week could ever hope to reach.

"FALL OUT!"

"You all heard him, it's time to get to work!" Rainbow called out. They fell out of formation into grouped units, each unit forming into a system of seven ponies each. And each of them worked harder than ants. The pegasi would kick down the top of the piles so that the would spill over to the ground, making it easier for the others to collect. The bags started to fill like water balloons, and the wagons filled like buckets of sand on the beach. They were so zealous that they made sure to fit in whatever loose coins or items they could after the crates were full. And the earth ponies didn't have a single issue with toting the goods around to the exit.

As I surveyed the work being done, I could hear a conversation taking place between a group of ponies. "Hooo boy, we're gonna be insanely rich! I can't wait to get back home and renovate the place. I'm gonna have an indoor swimming pool in my bathroom!"

The next voice I heard was none other than Azure. "You might wanna hold off on that."

"Why?" Asked Humbreeze.

"Well from what I know is going to happen and based off of previous history, most of this stuff is going back to the government."

"Wait, just how much of it?" Strongheart questioned.

Azure hummed as he looked at the wagon they were loading and frowned. "We're possibly looking at about eight wagons of it."

"But wasn't the original tribute like two wagons?" Humbreeze stated.

"I'm speaking from a realistic standpoint. If we return with ten wagons, the parliament would probably see to it that eight of them would be placed in the treasury."

"And the other two?" Another pony inquired.

"I'm sure they'll redistribute it in our pay." Azure answered with a depressed moan.

"Yeah, AFTER taxes on top of taxes." Rainbow mentioned with a frown on her face.

The group sighed heavily, seeming to be a little discouraged of what awaited them. As I thought more about it, I realized that none of our jobs really came with any form of incentive aside from getting a medal to put on our uniform. No bonuses, no compensation, it was as Caramel mentioned.

I intervened while grabbing another handful of gold. "Well I think that's bullshit. You guys came all this way to get this stuff, not them. You deserve nothing less than what you claim. If it were up to me, I'd have you give them what they missed out on and that's it."

"But then that would be a form of embezzlement, that goes against the guardian code." Humbreeze stated.

I gave a quick nod before I stuffed my pockets and walked towards the middle of the room, I quickly grabbed everyone's attention and spoke to each of them with a loud voice. "Can I be frank with you guys?"

The entire company stopped doing whatever they were doing at the time to pay attention to what I was going to say.

"Now... I know that I'm sitting here with these fancy toys guiding you through the mountain on the whim of a demented politician, but they didn't send us here to get this gold. As Humbreeze can attest to many of you, they've sent us here for another reason: To be martyred. They sent you and me, mostly me, as an example to other guards, this happened five years ago with your current brigadier general and reigning prince. They came to the same forest, walked into the same cave, encountered much of the same arimaspi. Difference is that we'll walk out of here with what WE sought."

Many of them looked to each other before one of them spoke out. "Our lives?" Dawnrise guessed.

"More than that, a fat bonus check, tax exempt." A few of the other giggled at my quick response. "And if we get back to that train, I expect every last one of us to line up before that parliament and look them square in the face while we roll in the goods. I can assure you, there's gonna be this one senator on the far right side, he's gonna look at us like he's got a mouthful of lemons and soap." I took in a deep breath. "Ahh, the powerful scent of clean." I received quite a few chuckles after that remark. "In speaking of which, we're giving them three carts, that's 1.5 times of what they've lost so they can't say shit. The other seven, they are not to be reported under any circumstances."

Humbreeze raised his hoof and spoke. "But sir, wouldn't that violate the guardian code─"

"Kid, I respect you for believing in what's right. And believe me when I say it's not easy doing the right thing. I know that from experience." I then got personal with the young guard. "And I would like to announce that your sister also died doing the right thing, putting another before herself for the sake of their future. But the overall reason behind her death was wrong."

His ears folded back as his head dropped down. As I continued speaking, he took off his helmet and solemnly looked at it.

"They are using us as fodder, I refuse to adhere to a guideline that makes us as valuable as toilet paper." I then reached out from my personal experience, informing them of the reasoning behind my views. "My grandfather told me this more than once: They ship us off, we lose our friends, limbs, and family, we come back, they give us a shiny medal and a handshake after we've worn loyalty and courage on our sleeves in the face of death and adversity. But because of what we did, we had no parades to honor us, we didn't deserve them."

I knew that the mood had gotten a little darker, but I didn't want to let them go back and not know what was going on. If I had to drag them this far, I wasn't going to let them walk away without understanding. They needed to know the real weight of their jobs, as I found out the hard way.

"They don't parade us, not because we don't deserve it, but because we're 'doing our jobs.' The citizens don't feel like that because many of their own volunteered to serve. But because of what the paid media puts out, they think of us to be incompetent, like we're nothing short of incapable of this nation's security. Damned if we do, damned if we don't. So I say damn them first."

Murmurs from the group started to sound throughout the room as they exchanged their thoughts and ideals. I carried on.

"So when we get back, we'll give them what we set aside. After that, we take four of these wagons and use these to pay the families of the previous expedition our respect and condolences. The other three we split up amongst ourselves. So if you wanna get paid, I suggest you load those wagons a little more."

I dumped everything that was in my back pockets into a nearby wagon and spoke once more.

"If I could only express the pain of those who lived through that experience from five years ago to you, none of you would continue serving. But I want every last one of you to go home, wiser to what the parliament does to ponies and people like us. I respect and love all of you too damn much to let either one of you die here for their political gain. I'm with you as long as you're with me. I'll fight for you, if you'll allow me to do so. And I won't stop until I give you the recognition and accolades you all truly deserve. I had a parade before and that's fine, but EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU deserve what I had when we go home... With that said, I'm proud, honored, humbled, and blessed to be your Captain of the Royal Guard."

A long silence persisted as I stood motionless. On their faces were looks of uncertainty, anger, and even despair. One of them hollered out to me. "Oh we already know about the corruption thing. Welcome to the club."

The sudden response had me surprised. All over the room, they laughed, mumbled and mocked me as another called out. "Oh yeah, I don't think they'd ever send us to live out here."

"I heard Arimaspi Forest was nice this time of year, so I decided to take in the sights."

"I heard the locals were friendly too."

"Yeah, heard there were some hot-n-heavy bitches over here too."

"Hey girl, lemmie smash!"

"Well I heard there were some actual males here who were great for help around the home."

"Yeah, like one big-ass cyclops can dig up your garden for you!"

"I mean they're so strong."

"Their hygiene could use some work."

While they were busy joking around, one of them decided to be serious and speak out. "Well, either way sir, we knew what we were getting into when we came for briefing. None of this is new, you just said what we were all thinking when we first stepped on the train from Ponyville. In fact, you led us farther than anypony else could."

The others hollered and hooped in agreement.

Strongheart shouted at me. "And you said that you'd get us home in one piece, so we can't really afford to turn on you! After all, you saved our hides more than once, why the hell wouldn't we be here for you?"

Dawnrise was the next to speak up, brushing herself against me. "We all have our differences and shortcomings, but to know that you had enough belief in us to help you out in the heat of things made us feel like we were worth something, definitely made me feel like doing way more than what I thought I was capable of. Somepony who'd go so far for us and in our defense, we'd practically do anything for you!"

Humbreeze offered his words as well. "All throughout this journey, I've been thinking about the last moments my sister shared in this world, and how I thought I could get revenge. This whole thing showed me that it wasn't as easy as I thought it to be, not that I thought it was easy. But when it came to the moment of truth, I couldn't do anything but hide my face. You made it look so easy."

"And you didn't back down when it got ugly." Aegis stated. "You took every hit and you kept moving like it was nothing. I wish I had that tank-like mentality you have."

"And your weapons are a pretty big help." Rainbow added. "You're not gonna wanna go against anypony who can wipe out two-hundred changelings in twenty minutes. Or fought off fifty with a sword and a brick. At first, I thought you were slow and lazy. But since I've gotten to know you, you're way cooler than I thought you to be. You're still an idiot and I might not be able to have you as a flying buddy, but an 'O.K.' in my book."

I rolled my eyes at the rainbow maned pony and smiled at everyone who spoke. "Well, I don't know what to say to you guys. I really do feel amazed that you're all would be so willing to throw in for me, even if I kinda walked through the door taking one of the highest positions in the office."

Dawnrise giggled as she tapped my leg. "Believe me, it's warranted."

I shrugged nervously as the others snickered and murmured. "Okay then. Maybe next time, stop me if I get a little preachy."

The entire room shouted to the top of their lungs. "YES SIR!"

Couldn't help but to drop my head on that and take that loss. "Okay y'all, get back to work so we can go home!"

"SIR, YES SIR!"

I started to grab whatever I could get my hands on, paused for a second and announced one last time. "What we've discussed will not leave this room, make sure of it."

Rainbow tapped me on the shoulder and whispered. "Um, I think they already got that."

While the Equestrian convoy proceeded to collect their fair share of riches and laughs, Gaston hid behind one of the pillars in the hall, looking after the group of ponies eagerly talking about their future ambitions. The griffon flew up a large hole in the ceiling and landed onto a ledge. When he landed, he made a clicking noise with his beak and whistled. From higher up in the ceiling, a phoenix came swooping down to land by his side. While the phoenix attended to it's feathers, he pulled out a small sheet of paper and started writing on it.

While his pencil scribbled, he thought about his target. "You are a problem. I really see why Count wants you dead. But I guess I could help him out on his withdrawal." With a large smirk on his face, he thought about the massive payday he'd receive by absconding with some of the arimaspi wealth himself. He nodded with approval. "Tell you what, I think I will. But not before I give the client an advanced word."

When he finished writing his message, he rolled it up and tied it to one of the phoenix's legs, giving it a nuzzle before speaking.

"Send this to Canterlot, and get there as fast as your fiery wings take you. Be sure to not scorch the message, dear Phaela." The griffon ordered. The bird nuzzled him back before setting off into flight. The phoenix left the area, bringing a glow wherever it traveled. Gaston walked back to the ledge and looked down to the hall where he heard the movement of the convoy. He scoffed at the ponies below.

"There'll be no bonuses for the likes of any of you. Mark that."

Fifteen minutes later...

After verifying what had occurred in the vault, Gaston reported his findings to the arimaspi high chief. When he arrived, he saw a council or arimaspi gathered around one of their fellow chieftains, who laid wounded from gunfire. He didn't move, but offered what he knew to the council. From there, they debated.

"(We can't keep fighting this creature. We'll lose too many should we continue.)" One of the lower chiefs stated with a growl.

"(We can't just roll over and let them take what is ours either!)" Another chief stated, slamming his fist into the ground.

Gaston approached the group as the conversed, immediately grabbing the high chief's attention. "(YOU!)" He shouted in his native tongue before confronting the griffon. "You promised us that you would help us remove this creature!"

With a coy smile, the griffon shrugged and answered him dismissively. "I am, but the timing must be correct in order for me to do so."

Macuahuitl raked his claws against the stone walls of the cave and hollered to the top of his lungs. "I am losing my patience!" His voice roared so loud that it echoed through many of the caves.

"In the end, this is all you can afford. We must be patient in waiting for their passage through the mountain. We will attack them on the surface." The griffon suggested.

"I don't want them to so much as leave from within this mountain alive!" The high chief screamed before turning away to his lower chiefs. "(Take the remnants of our forces and send them to the main entrance! We will ambush them there. I will lead myself.)"

The griffon jumped in front of the chief before he could walk off and meekly replied. "Actually, you'll be with me."

"For what purpose?" Asked Macuahuitl angrily.

The griffon cleared his throat and quickly pleaded his case. "You want the human dead? Well with me, your chances of revenge are greater than your own. He seems to have a variety of tools to use to his advantage. I too have my own and can strike from any distance."

The high chief waved at one of his lower chiefs after giving him a discerning look, he left to another room as the arimaspi lord stood tall over the griffon. "What tools do you bring?"

The griffon unfurled his wings, revealing a series of knives and scalpels. As they spread open, a variety of objects rolled to the ground before Lord Macuahuitl. "Arrows, darts, explosives, daggers, blades and wares, you name it."

The large creature tapped his nail against a baseball-sized black orb with a fuse sticking out of the top. "What is this?"

"I call it a fragmentary bomb, ceramic-lined interior with a thin steel exterior that can absorb most of any impact within 25 feet. They seek to maim or kill anything in it's vicinity. The ceramic is sharp like glass, but brittle to maximizes internal damage upon movement."

The tribe chief looked at the other things that lied before him and tapped a few of them. "Everything else?"

Gaston held up every item as he introduced it to the chief. "Flash bombs, these small pellets have been enchanted with light spells to create a temporary blinding effect, that coupled with peppered smoke makes it harder for the victim to see. I call it 'spice'." The chief seemed unamused by the griffon's proud remarks, the griffon carried on regardless. "This is the griffon pride, the manticore tail. Beautiful little crossbow with an instant reload action, spring activated, and the bolts are made of some of the strongest oak, crafted and tapered to cut through even the thickest of armor plating. And being he doesn't wear any, this will easily run him through." The griffon noticed that the lower chief who was sent away earlier had come back with a large blade wrapped in manticore skin. "Dynamite for the road." He stated before finally flaunting the blades hidden within the feathers of his wings. "And my finest edges, they are so merciful, so lenient to the flesh that it would part through without the victim knowing."

As the high chief pulled the blade from it's sheath, he tilted it downward towards the griffon, pointing it's blade to him with a large toothy smile. "I have a blade of my own."

While the massive blade appeared to be a bit on the short side in relation to it's wielder, it was still enough to significantly dwarf anything a pony could present. However while it's simplistic design was practical for many uses, it's blade did entail a small amount of rust. The griffon was not too impressed with the appearance, but the sight of a large blade pointed at him didn't give much room for criticism. "An old iron sword."

"This was made in the days when our ancestors took great pride in our mountain before our resources ran dry. Swords from gold break too easily." The high chief responded as he proudly rocked the blade from side to side.

"I concur." Gaston stated with deadpan.

Macuahuitl turned back to his lower chiefs and hollered at them. "(WELL WHAT ARE YOU ALL STANDING AROUND FOR!? MOVE OUT, I WANT EVERY LAST ONE OF THOSE PONIES DEAD!)" After collecting his goods, the griffon also pounced at the tribe chief's order. But before he could go any further, the blade stopped his progress as the large creature side-eyed him. "You take his head, I want the rest."

Growing nervous for the sight of the blade blocking his path, he took a step back from it. "I'm not quite sure if my client would agree to that. After all, he made it very clear that he wants the body─"

Macuahuitl flicked the blade sideways, introducing it's slightly rusted edge to the griffon's eyes. "His head is all he'll get, or I'll take both you and him."

"I know when I am beaten out of pure strength..." Gaston said as he looked back to see another three of the arimaspi lackeys run past them. "...and numbers. Perhaps we could work something out with the body?"

Backing the griffon against the wall, he slid the blade underneath the griffon, prompting him to stand on his hind legs. "...I want the creature's flesh, it would make for a nice hilt for my sword, wouldn't you agree?"

Gaston refused to argue any further. "That I can agree to."

It's been a while since we finished gathering the gold from the vault. Thankfully, there wasn't much to prevent us from moving forward except the weight of our newly-acquired freight. However, it was a freight worth carrying. There were the occasional patrol of arimaspi, but they were quickly silenced. While the talks of future ambitions driven by newfound wealth died down, our desire to get out the mountain started to make itself evident in our body language. Many of the earth ponies who carried the heavy wagons had already started to feel the burning in their muscles and the fatigue that came along with it.

Even as we approached our new route, they started to slow their progress. "Permission... ngh─to speak freely... augh─this shit is heavy." One of them wearily stated.

While I continued to take point, I looked back to the struggling group, who was at this point being assisted by a few unicorns. But even their fatigue started to show. I knew I was going to be buying them drinks for the next week over this, a price I was willing to pay. "We're almost to the exit! Hang on a little more and it'll all be downhill from there."

Rainbow continued to do her best in aiding the group of earth ponies to get their loads moving. Meanwhile, Humbreeze called out to me. "Captain, don't you find our exit to be a little... strange?"

"You mean the minimal resistance?" Thank God, the less I had to shoot, the more ammo saved, the better chance we had of surviving.

The young stallion nodded. "It's almost as if it's too easy. Maybe that's just my thought on the matter, but this doesn't seem to make much sense to me."

Though now that I was thinking about it, it started to dawn on me just how easy it was for us to get out of here. In most circumstances, they'd be chasing us down to the ends of the earth for taking something they religiously hoarded for themselves. And our bouts of resistance came from what was in front of us, even then it wasn't much. His words had me thinking. "You know, I can see where you're coming from. Even if we sealed that main corridor, we should be expecting some company behind us."

When we came to the junction that led to the new exit, Rainbow smirked as she pointed to the collapsed tunnel from earlier. "Exactly, it's like they're expecting us elsewhere." She stated sarcastically.

I know that much... but still. Even with the distractions... Oh to hell with it, let's just keep this easy train moving.

At the Main Cave Entrance...

While a patrol group came running back, one of them frantically reported to the high chief their findings. "(THE PATH IS SEALED! WE CAN'T GET THROUGH!)"

Gaston rubbed his chin as he started thinking about the human he was trying to subdue. "He's either smart or utterly stupid. Why would you seal yourself in, that other exit is thoroughly blocked."

"(It's impossible to pass, even we can't bypass it without removing the boulder blocking the path.)" Another one of the arimaspi stated.

While the griffon brainstormed on the possibilities, he simulated what he himself would do in order to sneak in, grab the gold, and leave. While he figured himself to be unequipped to perform that task, his target was not. Eventually, he started to toss his thoughts towards the high chief. "Wait, you said that your vault was broken into, right?"

Lord Macuahuitl responded. "Those doors stood for centuries, and then they're suddenly laid down before us like they were cut down."

Looking at the sword, the griffon started to go further into his analysis. "Could it have been possible that the hinges were compromised by rust?"

"(No, it was like a mighty force sheered them off of the wall.)" One of the lower chiefs answered.

"So what you're saying is that they used something that could've sliced through solid steel?" Gaston asked.

"(Perhaps pony magic.)" One of them suggested.

The griffons shook his head. "The average unicorn wouldn't be able to destroy a cave this large. Perhaps an explosion of some sort."

Another one of the less-decorated lackeys spoke to the griffon. "(After we fought off the ponies that first time on the mountain, the Funaki seemed to have used something that caused some sort of explosion. Reports from the grunts said it happened when he entered the cave.)"

In hearing that, the high chief grew furious and grabbed the lackey's throat. "(WHAT! YOU KNEW OF THIS!)"

"(The explosions weren't enough to destroy the cave! I swear it on my life!)" The creature responded, pleading for it's life.

Gaston continued. "Okay, maybe I'm thinking strategically here. But being I'm a mercenary, I'm going to put myself in his position. If I were wanting to destroy the hinges of a large door, and a few caves, wouldn't I carry some amount of explosives to make that happen? And given that the explosives were strong enough to destroy a cave, then would it be possible to do the same for a large boulder?"

While the question was laid to the floor for the others to think about, the high chief didn't take as long to piece it all together. "(TO THE OUTSIDE! HURRY!)"

Just as Macuahuitl's words were heard, others ran for the opening. As they ran, the high chief and the griffon assassin followed. The tribe leader ran so quickly that he nearly trampled all who stood in his way, only to be pulled back by one of his followers. A large explosion sounded from the mouth of the cave, causing large chunks of rock to come crashing down. One of the creatures hollered to the back of the group to stop shoving the formation forward. "(Cave in! Hold the advance!)"

A few seconds of chaos ensued, leaving four arimaspi seriously injured from the sudden collapse of the roof. The opening had been plugged, but not sealed. Small streams of light pierced through, indicating that there was very little stopping them from getting out. The griffon looked at the damage dismissively. "That was sloppy. We could dig ourselves out of this in seconds!"

"Buying themselves time." The high chief stated before shouting to his followers. "(DON'T JUST SIT THERE AND LOOK! DIG!!!)"

As it was predicted, it only took all of fifteen seconds to create an opening large enough for one to pass through. One of them were foolish enough to crawl out into the open and scream to the others still buried within. "(We're out!)"

The sound of a solitary round echoed throughout the mountainside, startling the griffon. Gaston shook his head in disbelief over the noise he just heard, the sound being similar to that of a mere firecracker. Peeking his head out of the opening, he could see the arimaspi from a few seconds earlier. It lied motionless as a pool of blood expanded from the back of it's head, turning into a river towards the path leading down the mountain. The griffon was left astonished. "There's no way the human is capable of killing you bastards this quickly."

"That pretty much sums up our week." The high chief responded, seeming even more exasperated as the casualties mounted up before him.

The griffon snarled as he saw a convoy of ponies already reaching the foot of the mountain. With them were wagons filled with riches and wealth. Gaston grew impatient. "Dammit, I am not letting my bounty get away!"

Without warning, the griffon was thrown to the back of the cave by the tribe leader, who plunged his entire body into the loosened wall blocking the exit. "(OUR BOUNTY!)" He shouted as he smashed through the barricade of rocks. While he stopped himself from careening over the side of the path, the rocks and boulders were not capable of halting their own momentum.

Below on the foot of the mountain, I saw a large wave of massive rocks rolling at us. Instead of aiming my gun at the source of the disturbance, I felt genuine fear for getting crushed and ran the opposite way, calling out to the others. "ROCK SLIDE! TO THE TREES! TO THE TREES!"

Everybody and their wagons were quickly sent behind what cover was available. Though a few crashed into the trees, knocking them to a tilt, none of them were so easily uprooted. Some of the unicorns lent their magic to halt some of the larger ones to prevent their fellow guards from getting bowled over. Sighs of relief were shortened as Humbreeze pointed towards the mountain. "Sir, it looks like they've got through!"

Looking up to confirm, I saw a rather large arimaspi decked out in gold holding a large rusty sword. Already in my mind I knew that was a fight I didn't want to see. He was already bigger than the rest and he looked as if he could take more than the fair share of bullets I give to the rest of them. Running was the better option here. "THEN GET YOUR ASSES MOVING!"

While we ran into the covers of the trees, I could see a few of them running after us. Just above our heads, we could hear the sounds of branches breaking off of trees as a few rocks rained down from above. "They're throwing rocks again!"

Pulling out the machine gun, I gunned down three more pursuers. Thanks to the fatigue and the frantic situation, my accuracy suffered. Instead of aiming for weak spots, I simply aimed for the center of mass. As I feared, they took a lot more bullets when under the influence of adrenaline. And seeing that there were still a few chasing us down the mountain, I knew I had to buy the company some time. "I'LL HOLD THEM OFF, GET TO THAT TRAIN, STAT!"

"Extraction team, we're Opal Moon! Get going!" Rainbow screamed to the others running down the forest path. She then took a few seconds to scream at me. "Nondis, you better move your ass too!"

After seeing the large one making a move towards us, I took a quick about-face and ran the other way. "Right goddamn now!"

Rainbow flew beside me to help cover the rear. While I ran, I heard something whistle past my ear to my right. And then something else flew right past me on the other side. And before I knew it... "Move move, keep it moving! Keep it mo─VAUKH!"

Rainbow tumbled from the sky, hitting the ground hard. My eyes shot open as I ran over to her. "DASH!"

When I ran to her, I saw something that surprised me. A wooden bolt was firmly lodged in her chest, causing my hear to sink deep into my stomach. My fingers ran cold as she coughed in pain. "Shit, they've got crossbows too!?" She asked while in pain.

Two others who straggled behind looked back to see me trying to pick her up off the ground. They sprinted toward us and checked on us, I handed her over to them and screamed to the top of my voice, being emotional I commanded them. "GET HER OUTTA HERE!"

"What about you!?" One of them asked.

"I'll catch up, just get that train smoking!"

They showed no hesitation as more bolts came flying at us. They quickly took her ahead as I lingered behind to hopefully pick off the ones that followed. In my mind I was more focused on the friend that was just shot down right in my face. The gravity of the situation wanted to have me sit in place, ultimately to bemoan over my friend being injured. And it wasn't like it didn't slow me down, because I was slowly running ahead, hoping to get revenge over what had just happened. But while my hands ran red from her blood, I slammed my fist into one of the trees to stop myself from going into a trance.

I had to focus, but I couldn't do it all too well. "Goddammit Rainbow, don't you blank out on me."

I kept running and running until I had grown so winded that I needed to take a breath. The image of Rainbow's injury was burned into my memory, causing me to feel a significant level of stress and discomfort. In my brain, I could hear her father's words urging me to keep her alive.

"She's all that I have." I recounted him saying.

Then the unthinkable scenes started to play in my head. I'd run into the train, I get back and the company was sitting quietly waiting on me. While the train pulled off, I'd hear nothing but silence as we rode along. I'd ask if she was okay, and they'd look at me gravely. And then I walked down the aisle and see the medics mending to Rainbow just standing around her. She's not moving, she's not breathing, her eyes are halfway open, her jaw's slightly open, and she's looking to infinity. She died, and it's all my responsibility.

Then more faces came to meet with hers. Counter Bell, who worked the counter at the motel I stayed in, Diamond Tiara's butler, the several other ponies I watched die before me, even those who's deaths I saw in the midst of a nightmare. All of them as gruesome as I remembered them. My stomach churned and my body responded in kind.

Bent over, I felt myself expelling every last memory, wishing for it all to go away. But instead I was merely forcing my breakfast out of my system. I was left dry-heaving, my chest aching in pain as everything was pushed to the surface. I had nothing left in me, but it still kept going and the memories still remained. I couldn't stand it.

"FUNAKI!"

A voice so loud that it felt like I was twenty feet from a fog horn. The noise was enough to shake me out of my state of sickness and place in me the fear of losing my own life. I turned to look back at the path, seeing the large arimaspi standing there with a rusted sword in tow.

I groaned in dismay and picked myself up to face him. "Look, I'm in a bind, and I don't have time to fuck around with you. So if you would so kindly walk away and pretend you never saw me, that'd be grand."

The creature snarled as he spoke. "You're not walking anymore. You die today."

During an attempt to clear my mouth of the taste from my earlier sickness, I cocked my shotgun and spat at him. "Okay... how many times have I heard that shit? Those three words pretty much sums up my goddamn week."

"Well it's nice to know we're on common ground. But it would appear that only two of us will walk away from this."

I nodded with pursed lips. "Both of us? Great, so I can fuck off then?"

"No, you're not included in this deal."

Suddenly, a similar bolt that hit Rainbow hit me dead in my chest. While it didn't shatter my armor, it did have enough power to knock me back a few feet. Looking back up, I could see a shadow shaped like a griffon hiding in a tree with a crossbow. And given that griffons are the closest creatures to humans in terms of fighting abilities, this means I was dealing with a similar opponent.

The situation just got real. "Shit."

I kept running erratically, doing my best to avoid any bolts. But I could tell from the way the weapon was fired, it wasn't an ordinary build. There were far too many bolts being fired too often. It was like dealing with a semi-automatic pistol, if it's wielder were shooting at me slowly. Two arrows landed beside me into a tree, causing me to hide behind another. I hollered out to the arimaspi. "Hey buddy, who's your friend? He's got some pretty shit aim." Then out of nowhere, I saw something land beside me. It was a small object with a lit fuse. I quickly kicked it away before hiding behind the tree again as it exploded. "Though he's a crafty son of a bitch, I'll give 'em that!"

The creature roared at me once more. "Come out, Funaki! I want a new hilt for my sword!"

"Look, I'm not that into you, okay?" I shouted back before a much larger grenade landed beside me. It looked much like the ones you'd see in an old cartoon but I knew that they were deadly nonetheless. "Oh that looks bad."

I ran out from behind the tree, falling and landing on my stomach away from the explosion. Without much time to respond, I had to roll away from the arimaspi's sword. I jumped back onto my feet in just enough time to avoid another swing. Another swing was sent at me, causing me to run behind another tree. When I saw him quickly run up to me, I ran behind yet another tree as he cut deeply into the first one I hid behind.

I counted myself lucky for not staying there, I would've been nothing but head and shoulders for the most part. I ran behind more trees, and he kept cutting through many of them until he hit a much thicker oak tree, causing him to spend a little more time trying to free his weapon. But when he got free, I was already well-hid. "Come along and play, Funaki! After we're done, you can go back to your home."

"You know, not having skin and living seems to be the incompatible equation here. Much rather keep that to myself." I mumbled under my breath.

While I hid behind another tree, probably thirty feet away from where he was, his accomplice dropped another one of his smaller bombs. Prompting me to run away from the blast. Needless to say that both my movement and the bomb gave me away to the much-larger bastard trying to skin me alive. By that point, I decided that it was time to stop running and start tossing some ordinance back. On me I had a flash, a frag, a smoke, some ammo for both the machine gun and shotgun, my sword, my knife, and enough brown in my pants to make the UPS marketing department green with envy.

I'm not even playing. "You know what, fuck you and your friend."

I took to the offensive this time, unloading what was left in the machine gun at the arimaspi boss, sending bullet after bullet into it's body until my weapon clicked on empty. Lightening my load a little I dropped the machine gun and pulled out the shotgun. To my advantage, the bullets were enough to stagger the boss a little bit, giving me a second to line my shot. But before I could get a bead for it's head, a well-aimed bolt was sent into my left arm, piercing it all the way through.

"DAMMIT!" I screamed out in agony, falling against one of the trees as the pain completely knocked me off balance. "Your friend got better!" I hollered before I attempted to snap the bolt in half, only to yank at several muscles and damaging tissue, causing several pain receptors in my arm to vehemently instruct me not to do that shit again.

The movies made it seem so easy to do.

"I'm glad he did. I knew it would be a matter of time before you tire. You're too slow now." The creature stated as he hobbled over to me with his rusty sword, holding it above his head in an apparent effort to cleave me in two. "Last words?"

Thinking quickly, I realized I still had one uninjured arm and a prime-and-loaded shotgun at my right side. I slowly moved my arm back across my body and grabbed the shotgun. With a coy smile, I spoke. "Yeah... You're just that stupid."

The sword was brought down, cleaving the tree down the center. Being the tree was relatively small, it was easy to cleave it in two, but the resistance it gave was enough to buy me a second. I rolled between his legs and fired my slug directly into it's pelvis, causing it to roar out in pain. I quickly gained the advantage from there. Using my injured arm to eject the empty shell and load another into the chamber, I stood back up and circled to the side where I could see his head. With a single slug, the creature slumped over. While the life faded from it's limbs, I ejected another shell and yelled out to the forest in celebration.

"ONE DOWN, WHO'S NEXT!?" As expected, the griffon that joined him hopped from an adjacent tree holding a crossbow towards me. I held the shotgun at him. The two of us were in deadlock for a few seconds. "You know, that was a stupid question."

"Would you fall for me?" He asked mockingly as if he was being romantic.

"No thanks. I'm taken." I said before one smaller explosion to the side of me caused me to drop to the ground. With a smirk, he shot a bolt for my right hand, cutting it open and causing me to drop the shotgun out of reflex. But as my weapon fell to the ground, one round fired off to destroy the crossbow's bridge. The griffon, seeing an opportunity to grab at the shotgun, lunged forward. While using it's wings to wield a small dagger, he forced me away from the weapon and picked it up for him to use. He aimed for me and pulled the trigger.

But nothing came, as he failed to chamber a round. He looked at the weapon with confusion, just long enough for me to pull out my sword and swing the weapon out of his talons. He looked at me with a surprised expression.

"Nice sword, do you humans always overcompensate for your shortcomings?"

I rolled my eyes as I held my sword to him. "That's not the only time I've heard that, but there's someone I know who would argue against that theory."

His right wing lunged at me, producing several blades at once. Using my sword to parry the blow, I countered with a swing at it's outstretched wing. That blow was blocked by a small sword he summoned from seemingly nowhere. It's left wing lunged at me, shaving my right arm before I backed away. I tried to slash as I retreated, but he only threw a knife at my already-injured left arm.

I think at this point I was so hopped up on adrenaline that I had yanked it out and kept going. Even the arrow wound in my arm had stopped throbbing, making it easier for me to maneuver around. In fact, it felt like my entire body had taken enough adrenaline to override my pain receptors for the moment. And as a result, I started getting careless with my attacks while pushing him back. The griffon had started to stumble away from me while I was pressing the issue, sending slash after slash at the griffon.

I felt that going for a thrust would be too much of an opening, so I restricted myself to slashes and swings towards the body. And it mostly paid off, any attacks the griffon made with it's wings and it's talons were countered with swift swipes of my lengthy blade. As my confidence started to build, so did my attacks.

But then something started to happen as I swung at the griffon. I noticed that my vision had gotten a little blurry. It threw me off for a second while I blinked my eyes to recover. After that, my vision was straight again.

The griffon also noticed the sudden lapse in my offense. "You look a little dazed, this ought to wake you up a bit."

He held up what appeared to be a small gray pebble and slammed it into the ground, producing a bright flash that blinded me for a few seconds. While my eyes were covered, I kept them covered as my pupils had trouble dilating. But then I felt something invade my nose and attack my throat, It was something akin to tear gas, which caused me to back away like hell to get out of the area. My back was soon greeted with the bark of a tree before I could start to open my eyes again. Coughing erratically, I got as much of the substance out of my lungs and throat.

The griffon approached me, holding the shotgun. He stared at it for a while before waving it around like it was some useless toy. "I see. You have a tool for any and everything. Clever of you to come so prepared."

Yeah, he's fucking with me at this point. "You know, you could've killed me there. Why'd you stop?

"Because I haven't had a thrill like this in ages. Obviously you're a keeper, I wouldn't want to kill you too soon, I gotta make sure you're hopes are raised so I can dash them quite spectacularly. It's my whole shtick."

"Well I don't wanna break your fun here, but I got things to do." I took a step forward, but felt horror as I felt no sense of balance in my system. It felt like I was walking off a ledge into a bottomless pit. But at the same time, the ground was right beneath my feet. I looked up to see a blurry image of the griffon tossing the shotgun aside.

"Like dying? Oh no, the pleasure's all mine."

While I was disoriented, I tried to source out the cause of my sudden lack of coordination. But there was so much that came to mind that I couldn't just single it out. And it's evident that I'm coming down from my adrenaline rush, yet my arm was free of pain. Something's definitely wrong. "...Okay, now I'm curious, what the hell did you do to me?"

"Feeling woozy, can't see too straight?" He asked. "That feeling you've got is from acute blood loss. Even though your chest and neck are areas you guarded well, your other limbs are a lot more exposed. You've probably been ignorant to it up till now, but you've lost a lot of blood."

Looking down, I saw my pants legs cut open and covered in blood. And as I looked to my left arm, I started to realize just how bad I looked. My left arm looked like popped sausage while my right arm looked like a tiger mauled it. "Holy shit, I didn't feel that at all."

The griffon chuckled with glee. "Yes that's the point. The blades I have in my wings are all doused in a heavy concentration of analgesic fluids, meaning upon landing, the pain is instantly subsided. Also in the composite mixture is a strong form of anticoagulant, meaning your blood will thin faster than it could congeal. And the increased physical activity means that you'd be hastening the administration of drugs through your body. So while you're naturally expecting chronic blood loss, you're actually losing more blood than what can be replaced."

As his wings expanded, I started to see that they weren't any practical blades used for assassination at all. They were surgical scalpels, meaning that they're gonna cut into my skin like a hot knife through water. And if these blades were filled with any other toxins, I'd be well on my way. "Gotta admit, that's some Bond-level genius."

"I'll take that as a complement. Meanwhile, you're gonna be a little woozy from it all, so I suggest you take it easy. It'll be around forty-five minutes before you suffer from hypothermia and another fifteen before you start feeling pain again. The only reason why I didn't attack you earlier is because why attack something when it's at full health and fully rested head-on? See, I'm not interested in long and drawn-out contests where swords clash, that's so archaic. Fun, but archaic. And I also realized a little something about the weapons you use, you need to aim with those, don't you?"

He probably figured that out when he shot my arm earlier. "You're well researched. Gotta hand it to you, I didn't see this coming."

"Neither did I. See, with ponies, the whole process ends in minutes. Of course also with ponies, I know where to cut to accelerate the time needed for the kill. With you, I'm kept guessing and guessing. Your anatomy is so different, it's so unique. I can't help but to question where I could strike next. So I decided to have my fun with you, it's nothing like going for a kill with a unique skill-set and anatomy. The boundaries of discovery are limitless."

Well now that's been brought to light, I feel very uncomfortable staying here with this bastard. He'll more than likely show me my own innards before I clock out. Better for me if that didn't happen. "Well, since I'm gonna die off pretty soon, you mind if I go veer off someplace?"

"Now that I do mind. I've got to keep you to myself. Have a little fun with you before we set off into the sunset."

What does he mean by 'fun?' "If I may inquire─

"Oh you know, prying open, dissection, probing here or there, the works."

Okay, that verifies it for me. He's completely gone, sanity wise, His frontal lobe must be damn-near non-existent. "Yeah, that's cool. But see... I have this friend."

With a kind smile, he takes one of his scalpels and drives it into my right arm, shoveling around the meat in my arm."She's probably dead by now." I'm mentally thanking him for all the drugs he's got me hopped up on, otherwise I'd be screaming bloody murder. In any case, I'm not intending to stay here.

"I'd like to say she isn't, but I still wanna find that out for myself. But if you don't mind me asking, can I show you something?"

He yanks the scalpel in my arm, pulling it upwards to rip open some of the skin and muscle tissue. "Sure, what do you want to show me?"

Using my left arm, I dug onto my hip and felt myself grab the flash grenade. With a headbutt, I knocked him back so I could use my right arm to separate the pin and the grenade. I tossed the flash grenade towards him the best I could. "The light." Before the flash went off, I shut my eyes and closed my ears as much as my arms allowed. While the shock wave threw him off, I leaned over to pick up my sword and made an attempt for the shotgun. After that, I heard the train whistle going off in the distance.

After popping a smoke grenade to cover my retreat, I quietly stumbled to the sound of the whistle.

"Gotta... get... to the train."

The past ten minutes getting out of the forest could've been a lot easier. I've been trying to keep my whits about me while I've slowly been losing blood. Not only that but it seems that some of my muscles have been torn to shreds. It's probably nothing short of a miracle that I'm still moving, either that or his poor anatomical knowledge on humans. Either way works for me, these drugs are doing a number on me.

Finally, I arrived at the train. A small group of guards have been patrolling the area, doing what they could to keep the way clear. Thankfully for their sake, the last arimaspi known to even get so close to here is lying to waste somewhere in the forest, I made sure to that. When I walked up to the patrol, many of them stared at me as if they had seen a ghost.

Or rather a dead man walking. "CAPTAIN!" They all shouted, running over to check on me.

Dawnrise, who aided in the patrol, took great observation to my arms and legs. While blood dripped from every part of my body, she grew frantic. "You're hurt!"

"Yeah, I am. Now let's get the hell out of here." I said as I limped onto the train.

The watch patrol packed all of their belongings and ran aboard the train. The engineer, who already had the train on standby, sent the locomotive on it's way to Appleloosa. While I staggered into a seat, ponies crowded all over me. Some asked the others to stand back and give me some air, others were already putting in the request for medical supplies. "Captain, what happened out there?" Humbreeze questioned.

"I got tag-teamed by an arimaspi and a griffon. Bastards had me in a tight spot. I couldn't even line my sights before some random explosive came falling out of a tree."

The others carried on with their medical duties, trying to tend to my wounds. Dawnrise used her magic to inspect my arms while she attempted to wipe me clean. "The antiseptic will sting a bit, try to hold still."

While she poured a tremendous amount of alcohol on a white towel, she started to wipe off my wounds. I showed no emotion other than fatigue as I turned to Humbreeze. "How's Rainbow Dash?"

His ears folded downward and his head dropped as he spoke quietly. "She's... not doing well."

At those words, I did my best to perk up and bring myself to full-awareness. All while I was fighting, the thought of her dying was something that I couldn't bear to embrace. I was scared. "She's gonna make it, isn't she?"

While Dawnrise was more concerned from my sudden movement, Humbreeze continued his report. "We don't know. She's seriously hurt. That arrow managed to pierce a fair share of organs. Didn't reach her heart, but her right lung seemed to be the main victim."

While the young unicorn mare wiped and wiped, her towel only continued to get redder and redder. Eventually, she started to resort to using her magic for first aid. "Your wounds aren't healing up well, sir."

"Thanks to the griffon. He used all kinds of stuff on me, blood thinners, pain killers─"

"Sounds like a pretty generous guy." She joked.

"A little overzealous, but it's even better when you coat knives and scalpels in all of that junk. So my blood is thin, the chemicals are rampant through my body, and if he would've cut me in other places, I'd be long gone."

The others looked towards one another. Mumbles and statements started to fill the cart. Before long, one of them came to the obvious conclusion. "Sound like an assassin to me."

I started to slump into my seat, laying down as my body felt weary from the travel and blood loss. "He was. Very skilled at his craft, never got his name. God, I'm so tired."

As there were no pillows to keep my head suspended, they opted to use the bloodstained towel to keep me propped up. Humbreeze pleaded with me. "Hey, just try to stay awake. We can't do much for you if you pass out. You're far different from us."

As I turned to my left arm, I watched as they carefully removed the arrow lodged in place. Dawnrise then did her best to use her magic to close some of my wounds and dress the others. While she tended to the arrow wound, I looked to my right arm, where the assassin jammed a scalpel into me. A light stinging sensation started to resonate slowly in my arm, but after a few seconds, the pain began to get worse and worse. At last, I could feel everything I was meant to feel, all at once. It was so much that it overwhelmed me.

The pain was so unbearable that I started to sweat from the endurance of it alone. My breathing increased to a rapid pace, my eyes clenched shut as I writhed and wormed around. My teeth clenched so tightly that I felt that they would crack under the stress. The hell I went through as it hit me all at once, it couldn't be completely described in words. My only response was a rudimentary one. "...It hurts."

Humbreeze and Dawnrise looked at me with worry as they tried their best to tend to my every need. "What hurts?" Dawnrise asked.

Because of the torment I was going through, I was on the verge of crying because of how unbearable it was. I wanted to be strong enough to deal with it, but it was so much to take in. And it was way more punishment than what I was ever used to taking. "Everything."

"AAAUGH!"

Somewhere further down the aisle, towards the very front of the train, I heard Rainbow screaming, pleading with her medics for relief. They also raised their voices with her, trying to keep her contained. "Staff Sergeant, you have to keep still!"

"GET IT OUT OF ME!"

"I'm sorry, we can't! You'll bleed out and die!"

"GET IT OUT OF ME! GET IT OUT OF MEEE! PLEASE, IT HURTS!"

My entire body felt like it was ready to fall apart, I was on a complete coaster ride where each and every throb on one part of my body resonated with the rest. When they approached me with a small bag of what I believed to be a type of painkiller, I quickly realized that the small amount would've spared me perhaps the next thirty minutes or so.

I wanted it, God knows I would've killed for it, but I know someone whose life is worth a lot more than mine. She was the main reason why I did everything the way I did. I refused to let her go on like this. "Give her some morphine!" I ordered.

Dawnrise tried to argue with me out of the fear of my being inconvenienced. "But captain─"

"Whatever you were gonna give me wouldn't work. I need three times as much as she does. Treat her first!"

Rainbow heard me, and was quick to refute. "DAMMIT NONDIS... YOU STUPID SON OF A BITCH!... SAVE SOME PITY FOR YOURSELF!... I GOT THIS!"

They did as I ordered, placing the bag of morphine on her line. She grew quiet as her pain gradually subsided, while I had started feeling more than just the pain. It was starting to get cold, really cold. I started shivering, instinctively grabbing my arms to rub some heat into them, only to cause a great deal of pain to myself. I spoke to Dawnrise, who was at a loss for words in how bad things appeared to be. "Blanket... please. Getting a little chilly in here."

Another stallion came by to bring one over and cover me. While he did so, Humbreeze lightly tapped me. "Captain, I know you feel fatigued, but we need you to stay awake."

*THUD*

At that very second, the whole mood inside of the train shifted. All of us were cautious as the able-bodied fanned out towards the windows. Aegis raised a barrier around the train as a means to defend any possible arimaspi attacks. Azure was the first to ask out loud. "What was that?"

While the sounds continued from atop of the rail car, I tried to listen in to what distinctive noises I heard. At first I heard a soft pitter-patter, followed by a hard clatter. And as we turned, we heard something scratch the metal above like nails to a chalkboard.

When I looked out the window, I could see him staring directly at me with greedy eyes, wide with anticipation. It was the similar dilation that occurred when a predator had it's eyes locked onto it's prey, it's those very eyes you see just the fraction of a second before they pounce. Even the feathers on his neck puffed a bit as he slowly lowered his talons to break the window to my seat. I quietly noted to the others as I watched. "We have company."

We entered into a tunnel before he could break inside. The darkness surrounded all of us on the outside, while the lights lit the car from within. The ride throughout the tunnel had been eerily silent with the exception of the train clashing against the tracks. When we passed through the mountain range, all seemed peaceful. For a few more seconds, we were offered that last bit of security to have many of the other guards settle down. A few even shrugged their shoulders.

I knew that was a bold-faced lie. And then...

*CRASH!*

Broken glass filled the cabin, resulting in a few ponies getting a few cuts from the stray shards. Just seven rows away from me was the griffon assassin, screaming at me while he charged. "I DON'T LIKE BEING TEASED! NOW C'MERE!!!"

Others tried to stop him, but his bladed wings were enough to protect him from many of the incoming strikes of the other guards. Though his wings did take significant damage, he persevered. "Bring him down!" Humbreeze hollered before being cut down by the assassin.

"YOU'RE IN MY WAY!" He hollered, shoving Dawnrise out of the way.

Pulling out a thick jagged blade, he threatened to plunge it into my throat. I used my arm to fend off the attack, using all of my dormant strength to fight for my life one last time. I struggled as the knife was just inches from my neck. As I pushed back he pushed forward, putting his entire body into it. His head raised slowly and tilted as his jaw shook with soft chants longing for my death.

Humbreeze quickly recovered and smacked the griffon in the head with his helmet, knocking him loose so that I could pull out my knife and defend myself. With indignation, he turned to the young stallion and lunged at him. I pulled him aside to grab him away and I drove my fist deep into his chest, my knife going much further than my fist. I twisted the blade within him, creating a sickening popping sound. I shook as the pain caused me great discomfort. I pushed him towards the back door of the car and held him to the railing.

The griffon looked at me with shock and awe, and then he smiled. "Well... if it isn't too much say...maybe we could...share a drink...sometime." After he finished his sentence, he spat blood all over me. His body grew heavier as he lightly tapped me on my shoulder. "I know a great bar...maybe...you could join me..."

That smile faded as quickly as his life did, I pulled my knife from out of him, causing him to tumble over the railing and land on the tracks below. His body slowly shrank as we moved along the horizon. I walked into the car again, this time to several faces looking at me in abject dismay. I was more amazed of how I was still capable of movement. Everything inside of me was throbbing just as bad as before... but somehow it was actually worse.

My right arm dropped, causing something inside of me to tug. Slowly I looked down, noticing a hilt sticking out of my stomach. My entire expression contorted, not into horror... but resignation. As I staggered towards another nearby seat, the others started running about.

"GET A MED KIT, NOW!"

"ENGINEER, FULL STEAM FOR CANTERLOT!"

"SEND A MESSAGE TO CANTERLOT AND TELL THEM THAT WE'VE GOT AN INJURED V.I.P.!"

The throbbing was so intense that I felt it throughout my entire body. It was like a stomach ache, but colder, and a lot more painful. The shock of seeing it all had just sent waves throughout my body. I wanted to just be observant, but much of me was far too tired for that. I leaned my head back in my chair and watched as the world got a little darker, my eyelids getting a lot heavier.

"Hey, look at me." I heard someone say, the most I could make out was a nose and a pair of lips. "It's gonna be fine."

Even their words sounded so... distant. It was almost like they didn't even matter anymore.

"Just stay with us."

"He's losing a lot of blood."

The world seems so painful... I just want it to stop.

"Celestia, help us."

Everything is so weary. All these lights...

"We're almost there! Just keep holding on!"

And it's so cold... it's freezing.

"STAY WITH US!"

So many faces...

"He didn't just go like that. Please tell me my brother didn't just went out like that!"

They all look so alike... blurs.

"Nondis please!"

Enough please... it's too much... the pain... the suffering... I wanna rest... I want it to stop... Please make it stop...

"It's not over, you can still come back! Please don't leave us! You have so much─"

...It's stopping.

...You're tired, aren't you?

Yeah...

Life sucks, doesn't it?

Of course...

...It still hurts, doesn't it?

...Please make it end.

It will eventually. This kind of stuff takes time.

Seriously?

Oh yeah, it always takes some time. This stuff doesn't just happen, unless... you know.

You know, you know what?

It almost happened a while back. You were in the kitchen, you and dad got into a big fight, you got whopped pretty hard.

Oh yeah. Mom got in the way.

Twice. The first time was when you tried to throw a punch at him, and you hit her square in the nose.

The second time... I see what you mean.

I don't think she was willing to have two funerals in a week.

I'm scared...

Why?

Cause I don't know what happens next. Is this like... it?

What, you expected some famous composer to write you a eulogy piece? Or maybe you were waiting for John Williams to strike up some tear-jerking score while it all goes to nothing.

The silence isn't necessarily soothing.

That's to be expected, welcome to reality.

So what am I supposed to do, just wait here till it happens?

Yeah. What else?

"Aw geez."

(A sudden voice appears from nowhere. It appears to be a male of a similar age.)

Who are you?

(He didn't quite answer my question.)

"Dang, didn't think you'd be here in the great in-between so soon."

(He approached from behind me, from the vast void of blackness surrounding me. He wore what appeared to be some old military dungarees. On his helmet and uniform were bamboo leaves. On his arm was a saying 'Take it, leave it, lose it, take it again.' I wasn't quite sure what that meant, but it must've been something relating to whatever conflict he served. But I did notice he looked almost like a carbon copy of me.)

I don't remember wearing retro military fatigues... or my nose being that big.

(He chuckled.)

"Geez kid, ya gotta church key for a brain? It's like opening a can while the bit's inside it."

(Upon a more thorough inspection, I started to see he looked familiar in certain ways. But he then rolled up his sleeve and showed a tattoo on his arm. It read 'Hell has no fury like the jungle.' It was then that I was awakened to who he was.)

...Gramps?

(His reply was rather sarcastic.)

"Well, didn't think ya'd catch on so quick."

You look so... different. Where's the glasses, the moles, the wrinkles, don't you kinda look like you do when you die?

(He rolled his eyes and groaned.)

"Why? What's any good about that, backpain, heart issues, two hip surgeries, and a crooked walk? I think I was drooling every time I said something."

(From what I could recall, he wasn't wrong.)

Just a little, but you look so... young.

"Well I thought I wanted to be relatable, ya know, hip to the occasion."

(I knew he was always seeking to reach out to us youngsters back when I was much younger, that was until the video games started taking over my attention span. But for the time being, I wanted to kinda wanted to join him in his awkward calling out of dated terms.

The cat's pajamas, huh?

He cringed, but then he laughed.

"Kid, that's the 1920's, leave that there."

(I laughed along with him, causing the vast amount of space to turn gray.)

Well... You look good.

(While we laughed, he continued to throw out more dated phrases while I tried to figure them out.
When I couldn't figure it out, he'd translate for me what he said.)

"Yeah, I had my fair share of paper shakers back in high school. Cheerleaders, to catch you up."

(I felt myself going back to when I was 12, when she was still alive. She showed me and my brothers pictures of her when she was in high school. Back then, cheerleaders wore sweaters with a huge letter in the center and often sported a skirt that fell just two inches above the knee.)

Yeah, Grams said she used to be one.

"Oh yeah, she had me from being all hanky panky to going steady... to being an outright servant boy. But that's an okay trade for a gal who stuck it out for you."

(His statement lacked context...)

Um...

(...which was quickly provided.)

"I mean through the rough times."

Right.

(He chuckled once more.)

"Kids these days are so dang fresh... So I thought I told ya to get on up and moving. What cha' doing here? Don't tell me that big yeti monster got to ya."

I'm surprised you weren't paying attention.

(His smile disappeared.)

"Sorry kid, it's busy in the by-and-by. I kinda snuck around when I got flagged for a young ankle-biter that barely experienced life. Kinda strange when ya look down and see it's the one that used to bite yer toes."

(He's referring to something I did when I was an infant, or so I've been told.)

So... am I here for something? Judgement, maybe?

(He shook his head, smiling at me. When he did that, the world around me turned to a light gray.

"Oh no, if that were the case, ya'd be seeing a... hmm... I guess a dead ten-foot tree behind ya."

(I looked behind me to see what he was talking about, but I couldn't find anything relating to what he was describing.)

What tree?

"Exactly."

But... I... what?

"You'll understand once it happens for real. Though I might warn ya, the trial is a bit scary, ain't gonna give you the details. But what I will let ya in on is that yer gonna be dealing with a tiny bit of technical difficulties upstairs, if you know what I mean."

(He pointed to his head before his image started to gradually fade. The world around me turned white while distant noises started to sound out. As he started to disappear, I reached out to grab him.)

Wait!

(While my hand failed to reach him, I felt a deep sadness welling inside of me. I started running towards him, getting no closer than where I stared.)

"I know, you're kinda emotional right now. Ya got so many questions and so much to say, and I bet ya feel like it's been a mighty long time since it got so dang dark."

(I called out to him as he started to grow further away.)

Gramps─

(He gave me a smile, it was nothing like the smile I remembered him giving when he was alive. It was much warmer, much brighter, like a flame guiding me through my darkest hours. It was so beautiful, and yet so saddening to know I would never see it again.)

"I know, all that. But it's only been a few seconds in yer time. Etta Pearl and I'll be looking after ya. So, do yer thing, make yer girl happy, and uhh... stay frosty, or whatever they said in those dang video games you used to play."

I couldn't help but to smile tearfully, almost collapsing to my knees as most of him disappeared but his face.

Okay. Love you, tell Grams I said love you both.

"We love ya too... Now, I might just gone on and let ya know ya gonna start hearing some things and it's gonna feel a little odd."

Hear what?

The low hums and whistles that almost felt like they were underwater, slowly gained definition. Muffled sounds became clearer, eventually becoming distinguishable sounds. It was like I could hear the world around me reaching out to me, as if I was a few inches under the ocean's surface.

Their words became clearer...

"Epinephrine inserted!"

"Defibrillator charged."

"Apply here and here... Okay... One...two...CLEAR!"

???

My eyes cracked open to a bright blur of light. It was as if I was probably staring at the entrance to heaven. But what I quickly discovered was the light was just a bright overhead. I also discovered I was laying down with my head and back propped up. Looking around, I started to make out an unfamiliar face.

"Oh... Well there you are."

The face belonged to a white mare with pink hair and blue eyes. She had on a hat with a red cross in the center. I croaked out weakly. "W-where... am I?"

As more of the room started to come into focus, I started to look at my surroundings as another voice talked from the other side of the room. "You're in the royal medical ward, in Canterlot Castle. I'm quite astounded that you've managed to make it through this whole ordeal."

Recognizing the voice, I called out it's name. "Mel?"

She approached from my right, walking up to me with a smile. She was dressed in sky blue medical attire, holding a clipboard and a pen. "Good afternoon, but... good morning."

Her outfit was probably the main thing that threw me off a bit. "Scrubs?"

"Well, I had to be a nurse for the past six days." She answered, indicating how long I had been out for.

While I laid there, I felt a sense of relief in knowing that I was among the living. However, that feeling was short-lived when my mind wandered back to what was going on in the train. Ultimately, an ailing friend was the main thing I remembered. "Rainbow Dash... Is she─"

"She's fine. There's a long story to that but she's doing a lot better than you." Melanie answered.

Finally feeling like I could truly rest, I resigned myself to relaxation. "I'll take that then." As I felt a slight amount of aching on my leg, I looked down to see a familiar pony resting at the foot of my bed. Her face was covered by her mane as she slowly turned to me.

"Twilight here's been worried." Mel explained as the purple princess gave me a light smile.

"Hello sweetie." She whispered softly.

...Sweetie? "Now I know I'm dead."

Twilight gasped with joy as she levitated my hand and placed it on her face. "Far from it.... If only you knew the story."

Melanie, seeing that Twilight was already on her way to being emotionally aggressive, she tapped the princess' wing and intervened. "Actually, I think that's enough for now. Nondis needs some time to gather his mind and get himself situated."

Twilight stood up from her seat and jumped up to speak with my nurse. "Is he ready for anymore visitors?"

"Not now. But he will be soon."

Twilight then turned to me, using her magic on my hand again. "How do you feel?"

"A little sore." I confessed.

Melanie politely grabbed my hand while tapping her horn, placing it back to my side. "That's morphine for you, you're at least going to feel a little stinging here or there. But in the end, you're not completely overwhelmed by pain, especially where we needed to pay extra attention to you."

Another memory from the train came back, but it flashed at hyperspeed. Still images of the assassin coming after me, of him attacking one of my guards, him dying, and the knife he left in my stomach. "Oh yeah, got stabbed."

Twilight, being a bit active, walked up to nuzzle me. "Do you remember anything on your way here?"

But she was stopped from doing so by Mel. "Your highness, no more questions please. He's gotta rest."

Twilight looked at her with agony in her eyes. She touched me one time and whispered on the verge of tears. "I'll see you later, sweetie."

After that, she ran out of the room. As the other nurse left the room, Mel called out to her. "Thank you so much, Nurse Redheart. Without you guy's help, we wouldn't have been able to save him."

"It's just what I do, ma'am."

Melanie looked to follow after her, but paused for a moment and decided against it. She closed the door and sat beside me. "Can I be brief?" I asked.

"Sure." She answered quietly.

"In high school, I'd thought I'd be stuffing you, not the other way around."

She giggled lightly as she tapped the pen against her clipboard. "You can say that again." Her face fell from a slight smile to a worrisome frown. She appeared to try and find the words to say to me but failed to do so. The only thing she could say was what was on her mind at the time. "You flatlined on us."

My mood became somber after that bit of news. "Oh..."

"As soon as we got done reviving you, I had to leave. I couldn't stop crying for twenty minutes straight." She confessed, her voice seeming like it could break at any second.

While the still images of my trial played throughout my head, I came to realize one astounding bit of information, one obvious bit of information. "...There's no blood here."

"I beg your pardon?"

"There's ponies everywhere, I couldn't get a pint to save my life. How'd you do it?"

She sighed as she spoke. "Me and Stanton."

"Oh... I have a lot of ass-kissing to do, huh?" I joked.

She reached down to touch me and hesitated for a moment. "Can I hold your hand?" She asked.

"Sure, you're the one that's sitting inside me to a degree. I owe you more than that much."

She did the same as Twilight, placing the palm of my hand against her face. Afterwards, she kissed my fingers gently, doing her best to not cry. "You're so warm right now. I love it."

Seeing her reaction, and even Twilight's, had me wondering just how bad it was for them. I've never seen them so cautious or embracing. And it was going to be a sure thing that they were going to treat me a little differently than before. I wanted to know what they were thinking. I wanted to express what I was thinking too. In general, we both asked each other one question.

"What all happened?"

Author's Note

So I haven't dropped off the planet after all. That's a surprise.

A lot has happened IRL that has utlimately threw wrench after wrench after wrench for my head. Ultimately, my schedule was hell on earth for a while. I had gotten through a total of 4 weddings, 20 gigs, two showings of The Wiz (The Wizard of Oz), and a few funerals... one of which was a little... unsettling.

That last funeral was a primary reason why I didn't get on the ball as soon as I did. I was slated to continue by sometime late May, after the first showing of the Wiz. But then a musician I played alongside with had gotten into a motorcycle accident. He was headed home when he tried to navigate around a UPS truck and he was struck. I caught a glimpse of the aftermath...

I couldn't sleep for a week because of it.

My entire thought process was turned while I was still processing the fact that someone I had seen not too long ago and even considered to go on the show with me had their life drastically cut short at the age of 19. I had a bit of an existential crisis because of that and my train of thought for this chapter was completely thrown out the window because of that image forever burned in my memory.

Mac was a great musician and a wonderful young man who was on his way to bigger and better things, and I wish his family to find peace in their tragic loss. As I knew if this incident caused me to lose sleep for a week, God knows how the family would recover from this.

Onto the brighter side of things, the Wiz showing was hilarious and though there was a bit of a budget issue for the second showing, we made it through. But the rehearsal times were so lengthy and demanding that it completely detracted from my writing and I had to focus on it for a while. But again, it came out pretty well.

So I spent this past week reconfiguring my thoughts and reading myself back on track. So obviously there is some areas where the style is inconsistent. But I probably might come back in the future and rewrite this chapter... maybe.

But for a brief explanation on that second to last segment:
This area was something I wanted to show from a different perspective. As of the scene, this takes place in the void between life and death. To simplify it, it is the moment where the spirit ultimately waits for the guardian angel to guide the spirit towards their impending trial.

To explain it further, the scene is meant to be a minimalist spiritual conversation that takes place while the mind is shutting down and the spirit is close to severance from the body and mind altogether. The subconscious mind takes a back seat to the spirits engaging with one another. The mind does a bit of narration as the incorporeal conversation takes place. As far as the character in the story goes, he will not remember something like this in a conscious state, but his enlightened spirit will.

In general, this entire chapter was extremely difficult to put out because of so many outside distractions and times where my mind has gone blank on the concept. Parts of this were actually reworked to make sense in terms of this story's canon.

But you'll get to find out something about Nondis, that was hinted on in this chapter, in the next chapter. So stick around.

Thank you for being so patient with me and continuing to read. I'm honestly escaping so much when I do this.

Chapter LXVII

From everything I remembered over the past week, I could only comprehend so little. After all, what was a day in the eyes of time? A day only proves to be a mere quark in the fabric of time. He, she, whatever it is moves at it's own pace. It sits with some, it runs with others. And this past week, it felt so odd to say that I'm only thinking of yesterday...

...Yesterday happened six days ago.

And as predicted, I would only have three words to speak. "What all happened?"

"While you were out?" Melanie asked.

I tried to move my arms, but found it quite difficult to do so. It didn't leave me with much in the way of scratching any itches, that's for certain. "Sure. Six days for me means I probably missed an invasion or two."

"No, we didn't have anything crazy like that. But a lot of stuff did go down."

I wonder how much of it was good news at this rate. If anything, the damn politicians would be hellbent on shoving their asses in my face taunting me to kiss them just where the tail and the butt connects. "So I take it that the parliament didn't like my coming back that much?"

"Oh no, they loved it for a reason."

Now that answer did manage to wake me up a bit. "That being?"

"Well, your favorite conservative nutcase, Count DuMoneé, decided to disclose some rather interesting info about the haul you guys brought in. Apparently there were a total of ten wagons stacked with gold and shit."

While my facial muscles couldn't convey emotions very well for the time being, my brain was very capable of doing so. Must be all the drugs. "They didn't."

"They did. Sorry." She answered sheepishly.

A soft groan was all I could manage. "Did they at least give anything to the families of those lost in the first operation from five years back?"

She sighed before she answered my question. "There was an interesting discussion about that. Unfortunately, they were really wanting to drag you out of the hospital to call you out in summons."

I still had enough left in me to roll my eyes. "Oh great, that bullshit again."

She giggled at my weak, yet begrudging tone. "Yup, and they were going to try and use a memory read spell to see exactly what your intentions were and what all had happened up from the moment you were assigned to your mission, to the moment you passed out."

The corner of my mouth twitched as I brainstormed over the idea. "That's not legal, is it?"

"Well when it comes to, what Count emphatically described, interrogating guards for any possible signs of treason against the government, they've got all kinds of tricks and loopholes in place. It wasn't the only time they did this, they did it to Shining Armor after his tenure. Also a little fun-fact: Mrs. Velvet went to jail after physically assaulting a senator in charge of the interrogation."

Another tidbit of information that unlocked more of my natural tone of voice. "I don't blame her."

"No kidding. She told me that she did it because, in her exact words, 'They were treating him like a criminal when he was a victim of the very asinine bullshit, excuse my colors, they sent him to.' So she reportedly stabbed him in the leg with a quill three times before she was apprehended."

She was going for blood, Jesus. "Yikes, how'd she get off?"

"Her answer to that question was what you'd expect."

"Right." I deadpanned.

"But in all seriousness, the senator she assaulted dropped the charges and retired soon after the incident. His current whereabouts are unknown."

And for good reason. Imagine if those families went after him as bad as they went after Shining Armor. "Smart man. No point in standing in plain sight for other vengeful family members to gun you down."

After holding my hand for so long, she placed it on my chest and continued on. "But back to the summons situation. They motioned to send a telepathic communicator to you for the reason of finding any evidence since you had no lawyer, spouse, or next-of-kin at an age of consent to represent you. Twilight offered to do it, but there was one problem─"

And it's obvious. "We're not married."

"Exactly. I wanted to represent you, but I had to spend most of my time here tending to your recovery. But then Alex stepped up and... kinda told them that he was your older brother."

That bit of news alone probably jolted all of my facial features to life. The only thing that ran through my mind was that those politicians knew who they could go after if they couldn't get to me. "Oh no."

"Well he thought it was for the best. If they sent the guy over to probe around in your head, Shining would've been found out and accused for tampering. You would've been reprimanded more than you already were. And they would've found out that you were holding out regardless. So Alex went to bat for you that day. He held up pretty well."

I didn't have the strength to shrug, but I did manage to nod a little. "It's Alex, he could probably talk himself out of a murder if he wanted to."

"Well those politicians murdered any chance of your merry band of brethren going home with anything other than a shiny medal. And to add insult to your injuries, they demanded that your medal was to be withheld on the charges of attempted embezzlement."

To be honest, I knew that would've been the result had they found out. Guess I'll probably find some time to go back for more... nah. "Well that sucks."

"Oh, that's it for bad news. The good news is that all of the surplus and whatnot is considered as addition to the royal treasury instead of going to the politicians. Since that's what you were recovering, that's ultimately where it went."

That doesn't change the situation though. "Okay, and that's good and how?"

"Because Shining and Blueblood happen to have access to said treasury. It'll take some sneaking around the red tape, but you guys are still getting what you left with... I think."

Now that's a possibility I hadn't kept in consideration. This works out, actually. "Huh... I should've thought of that sooner. But that leads me to question how did Count find out about what we were holding back and what we were gonna dish out?"

"Who knows, politicians have spies everywhere."

Even in the arimaspi forest? Then again, it could've been that reported who snapped a picture of me nearly being mauled to death. "Interesting."

"Another bit of good news that came as a result of the bad: Since Rainbow Dash was critically wounded, Count Dumbass was the one to take the brunt of the public criticism. Because he drafted the list of the recommended guards to accompany you, he was looked at as reckless by many of his peers. There was even a kind young fellow from the center left side of the room that called him out on his blackmailing habits."

This is nothing new to me. I knew our coming back alive would look bad on him. "Oh, so he's getting a little chewing, big whoop."

"Actually yes, that is a big deal. Because of his gamble, most on the left labeled him as irresponsible and tactless. Even several news outlets called him out on his list. Turns out that Spike leaked the draft directly to Blueblood."

...My neck just got full range of motion from that. "Who did what now?" I asked, turning my head sharply to face her, causing her to become a little unsettled.

"Easy! You're still recovering!"

As I was reminded of that, a small jolt of pain ran through my stomach, causing me to wince. "Right, that's a thing still."

Melanie quickly huffed a breath of air out of the corner of her mouth and patted me on the head. "I think for now we can kinda put this conversation on hiatus. It's better if we did."

"But I still have so much to ask."

She moved a lock of my hair from off of my face, giving me a smile. "I know, and I think I told you way too much already. I gotta let you rest."

She started to walk out of the room when I called out to her. "Mel." She turned back before cracking the door open. "Thanks for letting me know what happened."

She held off on leaving for a second to respond. "Sure thing. I'll let the others know you woke up today."

"That's if Twilight didn't already beat you to the punch." I stated.

"Yeah." She sighed as she opened the door. "An assistant will be back later to give you your dinner."

"Thanks."

Melanie was right, just that bit of rediscovering my face and neck took a bit out of me. I didn't even know that was possible, for something so simple to become so indescribably taxing. I fell asleep for another hour for lunch before an assistant woke me out of my sleep to pump some saline in my arm. As the cool liquid was sent into my bloodstream, I felt it run up my arm, through my chest and into my head.

It was so potent that I tasted it, quite the experience.

The assistant then took my blood, ran my temperature, monitored my life-signs, read my blood pressure, everything they'd do to you to cause an inconvenience to your sleep schedule. And it wasn't made any better with the fact that I was laying on two hospital beds simultaneously. If a nurse bumped into the buttons of the lower bed, my lower half was made completely uncomfortable.

At the end of all of that trial and tribulation, I was granted the permission to rest once more. Just all of that rigmarole ended up making me tired again. Sleep was important, it gave me enough strength to bear with whatever came up next. So I closed my eyes and commenced to carrying out my rest.

A few moments later, I cracked my eyes open to the smell of something delicious. When the world came back into focus, I saw a mint green pegasus with a blond mane smacking away at a plate sitting on a service cart. While he was munching and chewing freely, distributing a fair share of crumbs all over the floor, I somehow felt like that was really meant for me.

Quietly, I confronted him on it. "You look like you're having fun."

The stallion snapped his head to look at me and spoke with a mouth full of food. "Oh, sup sleepy head? Heard you got hurt or something."

As he talked, I could see everything in his mouth being churned and slobbed over. More of the wet crumbs fell from his mouth, sticking to the floor. I cringed with disgust. "Oh...kay. Who are you?"

Oh thank God, he swallowed. "Aw, I'm just your typical cool colt taking a quick break. And I must say, you look positively gross." Who's talking now? "What kind of condition you've got there? Haven't seen a pony with these kinds of breaks ever. Poor thing, you might not even walk again."

I looked down to my feet with sarcasm and back towards him. "I walk on two legs."

"Oh okay. Is that a... umm... medical condition you were born with or something?"

...Medical condition... Holy hell, I could feel my arms tingling with a desire to choke him. But I know he's ignorant and should be somewhat patient with him. "Yes. And I am not a pony, I am a human."

"Human, hmm, Human... nope, never heard of ya, buddy."

...I've never met someone so oblivious. "Who are you again?"

"I'm just one of the new hires here. Awesome kind of gig I got set up with. I get to have long breaks, talk to some hot babes in the lobby, also rich, and they're so full of interesting stories."

'Hot babes'... I know what this is now. "Name one."

"Off the top of my head?" He asked nervously. "No way, Jose. They told me so many stories that I couldn't keep track of any of em. But I did hear of this one chick who was stationed here that I liked."

"Really now?" I was actually asking about the names of the nurses, but I'll take the obvious deflection and run with it.

"Oh yeah, and I mean she got the finest ass, OH!"

Inhale. Exhale. "Try not to get a little too anxious to cock your pistol there, cowboy."

Then he started to get really excited about this one girl he supposedly likes. "Can you blame me really? I mean I've known her for years and years, and she's totally got the worst case of the hots for me. Great flier, awesome style─not quite like me but hey she tries, bless her heart─she's got that cute voice that cracks every now and then, make you wanna see just how bad a case of the cracks she's got, if you know what I mean."

I have enough energy to cringe, let's do that. "Yeaaaaaahhh..."

"Oh and get this, she got hurt cause of some douchebag! Why if I saw who did it to her, I'd give him a good hoofing..." Wait for it. "And watch her melt all over me."

I don't know who this girl is, but I'm feeling pissed for her. "...I swear it's like watching a guy die of thirst."

"Oh and you won't believe this." He said, motioning me to come to him. I simply looked down at the beds and shot him a dumb look. "Oh right." He then walked over to me and whispered in my ear. "But imagine this: her alone, morning and night, everyday, complete nympho."

You know this is starting to feel very familiar. "Look dude, I don't know you."

"Yeah, that's right. I haven't given you my name."

"Sure." Not that I'd want to know it that much.

"Name's Zephyr Breeze. The fellas call me Z-dawg." God, make it stop. "Ladies call me Z-pain, cause that's what I give to em. Z-nasty cause they like it like that." OH FUCK'S SAKE STAHP! "And my friends call my Zeph. You, my maliciously mangled bud, can call me Zigs."

Euthanasia: because being in a veggie state won't allow for suicide. Just grab a buddy and unplug that monitor, you'll be good and sleepy soon enough! "...You're a virgin, aren't you?"

He stared at me for a second before giggling at me. "Pfft, nah! I had my fair share of mares, but none of them came close to that one awesome mare that stays stuck in my mind like a catchy chorus to a bad song."

You are a bad song, who the fuck wrote you? "Look, we're both dudes here. Now you don't have to be afraid of telling the truth because we're talking about real stuff here. If you wanna know the truth, I couldn't lose my virginity until a month back. I'm 21, going to be 22 in the next two weeks."

While my honesty was laughed at, I couldn't help but to grow amused from his lie. "Seriously? I lost mine a LOOOONG time ago."

"With who?"

And as quickly as I asked the question, he proceeded to act like he was stuck on stupid. "Eeuuyaaahhh, you dunno her!"

"Figures." I said while rolling my eyes.

The stallion grew annoyed at how I dismissed him. "You're talking to me like you've got it down packed."

Once more, I gave him my honest perspective. "Maybe I do, maybe I do have it down packed somehow. But I also happen to have a lot of problems and baggage that comes with the new choices being presented. Maybe being 'the cool guy' doesn't add up to much but a lot of indecision, stress, pain, trust issues, you name it. You hurt others a lot when you try to be 'the cool guy'. Not quite something I'm keen on."

To which, he laughed at so carelessly, dismissing my testimony as simple mutterings. "You're thinking about it too much. You ever heard of herding? Just try that."

"Have YOU ever tried herding?" I inquired.

"No, but I would. Of course I have my número uno."

Back to this girl again. I couldn't help but to ask him for the sake of my understanding the dynamic's between him and her. "Is she even into you?"

"Of course, she just likes playing hard-to-get." He responded dismissively.

I shook my head and looked at him. "Maybe she's not that into you. Have you ever thought about that?"

"Nah. But I know you've got your sights on a girl though."

Though there's much I can say to disagree with him on any other issue, he's not wrong here. "...Don't know which one at this point. Sounds weird, but my species isn't too big on having more than one wife."

"Wife? No thank you, bub. I'm just going my own way. I'm an island, I don't need nothing to latch onto."

Although I can understand his mindset, especially since my younger brother says it so often, I remembered the words of my older brother. "Islands sinking without so much of a trace, I think that's a sad outcome."

"Whatevs. I'm going back to lunch." He said, completely writing off my comment.

I looked at the clock and read the time as 5:15. "Oh yeah, it's pretty late for you to be having lunch. You haven't eaten yet?"

"I had a snack like maybe two hours ago."

...Yeah, I forgot he's eating my food. I should bring some attention to that. "Hey, if you could, there's this red button behind me. I can't really use my arms too well, so can you press that for me?"

"Sure thing, pal." He answered. He did as I instructed and pressed the button and held it down as he spoke. "So who's the lucky nurse? Ever get one of em to give you a nice sponge bath, wiping the places where the sun doesn't shine?"

I gave him a stoic expression. "Well I can't answer that, I wouldn't know. Comatose."

In just a few seconds, the door swung open to reveal Nurse Redheart. "Can I help you, sir?"

I nodded my head in the direction of the stallion and calmly answered her question. "This guy ate my food."

"WHAT!?" She screamed, slamming the door behind her.

"Hey's it's not his lunch. I was given this plate not too long ago, and I was on my way to the cafeteria, but I decided that it would be better to chat it up with one of our esteemed patients." He said while trying to play up for sympathy by hugging me. I'm more insulted than the moment he called my being human as an odd medical condition.

"THIS IS THE THIRD TIME IN TWO DAYS!" She hollered.

He lifted up his hoof and revealed a silver watch. "Hey, his food was scheduled to come at exactly 5;00 p.m., it's currently 4;40."

The nurse grabbed his foreleg and scowled at him. "Your watch isn't even moving."

"My watch does move. Yours might be wrong."

She quickly countered that argument holding her watch to his face, followed by pointing him in the direction of the clock above the doorway. In seeing the two clocks synchronized with one another, he giggled sheepishly.

"Oh... My bad."

Those words sounded like the words of a guy who had lost his job. And then the nurse's anger seemed to reflect on my theory. "I cannot believe how many times this has happened with you!"

"Oh come on, it was just a little slip-up. I can fix it in no time, just let me finish lunch." While he said those words, the door swung open with a mighty gust, causing him to shiver a bit from the sudden breeze. "Hey, whoever's holding that door open, you're letting in a draft."

I looked to the door and saw a familiar face, but with an unfamiliar display of disapproval. She flapped her wings once more, sending in a more powerful gust to grab his attention.

"Hey, what's the big... i...deauhh..." His jaw was locked to the ground as he watched the yellow pegasus walk into the room.

"Excuse us for a moment." Fluttershy said as she reached out for the stallion's ear.

"OW! NO NOT THE EAR! PLEASE─AAAAHHHHGH!" He screamed as she dragged him along. Shoving him out of the room, she turned her attention to me.

"Um, it's really nice to know that you're awake, Nondis. Don't worry, we'll be back with your food soon enough." Said with a kind voice before looking back to the stallion with a very unfriendly tone. "Won't we?"

"But I haven't finished lunch─AAAAHHH!" He screamed as her hind leg kicked out at him, hitting him on his foreleg.

Where she turned to him with a grimace, she turned back to me with a nervous grin. "Please wait here, we'll be right back to feed you."

The door slammed behind the two of them, cutting off much of the volume of their argument in the hall. And from what I was hearing, she was absolutely CHEWING his shit. I've never heard her so angry. "This Zephyr Breeze guy... who screened him?"

The nurse proceeded to clean up after the stallion and put away the half-eaten plate of food. "His sister's urged us to fill a favor for her and give her little brother a job."

"He's not cut for this." I bluntly stated.

"As we're now finding out." She agreed.

"I've never seen Fluttershy so angry and assertive..."

Yeah you did, it was that one time after you and Discord hung out. Then she jumped at him and─

In a confrontational way.

Nurse Redheart took a deep breath and sanitized the floor. "Well that's just how those two are. You know how it is, big sister knows best."

I wouldn't know anything about big-sister things, but I guess I could relate to that. Especially when Alex would chew me out over my doing some dome shit... Pause. "I could've sworn you just implied that Fluttershy was his sister."

"Well... yes." She confirmed with a nod.

My jaw dropped, my eyes expanded, and my brain was firing off as many pistons to calculate what the hell just happened. I was so stupefied that I had ended up placing my hand on my chin to think. "How... In God's name... did she come before THAT? How is it possible that she... and he... are..."

"Sir, your arms!" She pointed out.

"Oh. Apparently my brain farted out neural commands from the sheer absurdity of the situation. That's cool."

She blinked about three times before she shook herself out of it. "Let's get you fed and checked, shall we?"

While that whole ordeal woke me up from my sleep and nearly put me back in it, I still managed to keep awake for the next thirty minutes, which were spent reprimanding Zephyr Breeze and giving me a new dinner plate. Melanie did come around this time, and she came with company.

Before I knew it, the room a lot livelier than before, even considering all the yelling and ear-pulling that took place. Fluttershy made a return visit, Applejack accompanied her. And Pinkie Pie came by a few minutes after they did, bringing a huge bag of letters and get-well cards. She also filled the room with enough balloons to almost sent the whole castle floating.

At last, I was able to be comfortable and eat after the food was brought. Melanie walked through the door with a surprised expression. "I cannot believe some random guy just walked in here and ate your damn lunch. And you sat down and let him!"

"It took me a minute to figure that out, and then I had him call security."

"But why not stop him sooner?" Applejack questioned.

The image of him chewing with his mouth open was something that had my stomach churning. Eating seconds behind that guy was a death wish. "Because he already ate off of my plate. I should be accepting of that and let him finish before calling security."

"Needless to say that won't happen again." Applejack said with a smirk.

Fluttershy helped Mel place the food on the bed, uncovering my meal. "Here you go, I'm so sorry about earlier. But now you can eat up as much as you'd like."

"Thanks." I said, smelling what was being presented. Sitting before me was a cup of warm soup, a small slice of bread, some fruit, and some unsweetened tea. Not that I was complaining about the tea, I was just absurdly hungry. "Food, glorious food."

While I started to move my arms more and more overtime, I tried to remove the plastic covering the cutlery. Melanie grabbed the small sack as she spoke. "Hey now, you being able to move your arms doesn't mean your arms are fully functional."

As soon as she popped the bag open, she produced a plastic spoon. "Give me that spoon." I commanded. She didn't hesitate in obliging, only doing so to prove how stupid I was. When I had dug the spoon in the soup, I was reminded of the mass of IV tubes in my arm. Even moving one of those tubes caused not pain, but an awkward discomfort that made it far too difficult to accurately hold things in place. After a few seconds, I conceded my spoon to my nurse.

"A hard head makes for a soft ass?" Melanie asked mockingly.

While they sat me up, I groaned with displeasure. "That bastard nearly took me out, I can't believe I let myself get like this."

"If it was an assassin, then you're just fine. You should never blame yourself for something like this." Fluttershy suggested.

"The report said that you were attacked while on the mission." Pinkie stated as she started to go through the letters. "From my heart to yours, wishing you the best of a speedy and full recovery. Signed, Spitfire."

"Aw, I didn't think she'd send me something. I'm flattered." I said to Pinkie before jumping back into the conversation at hand. "Yeah, I got double teamed by the big boss of the arimaspi and what I assume to be his pet griffon."

"Now Ah saw what all you guys brought back, do ya think they paid him in order to get someone from the outside to do it?" Applejack questioned.

"No. I know they don't like outsiders walking in their place. And griffons are considered as their natural-born enemy." I stated.

While Melanie fed me, she brought up an interesting tidbit of information. "In speaking of which, they found the body of a griffon just outside of the MacIntosh Hills yesterday morning. Apparently he was caught stealing gold and was completely mutilated. The picture was so graphic that many of the outlets were ordered not to disclose it for the concern of the image being what they claimed as 'not press friendly'."

I mulled on that excuse and thought it to be contradictory of what the press would normally put out. If they could produce an image of me being close to mauled to death, then it would've been very possible that they would've shared the gruesome image of my body all over the country. And there was also one particular event that was more brutal that resulted in a photo being mass-produced. "Actually, they did one way worse about five years back."

"Oh dear. How bad was it?" Fluttershy inquired.

"Same area, same result, a lot more bodies." I answered, keeping the answer as generalized as possible for the sake of keeping my appetite.

"Maybe there were laws put in place to prevent something like that from happening again." Pinkie brought up.

"And then I'm reminded of the situation that happened last Thursday." I replied.

"You mean almost two weeks ago." Melanie said, correcting me.

"Right. Either way, the pictures they took of the changelings being hauled off on wagons, those were wagons filled with corpses. Kinda contradicts their reasoning here."

Fluttershy pondered the possibilities before she came out to ask. "What are you suggesting?"

Putting everything together, I said what was on my mind. "It's obvious, this is a spruce-op. They're trying to write a different story, I killed that griffon and watched him die, held him as he died, he stabbed me before he died."

"So what you're saying is that this situation was fabricated?" Melanie guessed.

"More than likely." I answered with a nod.

She groaned softly while she continued to feed me. "Well we're not going to go into investigations now. You need to chill out for a bit until we can get you walking again."

"You can get me walking today, let's go." I said, being eager and all-the-more foolish.

Showing a bit of anger, she put the spoon back in the soup and argued with me. "You're barely able to move your toes, you can't use your arm to carry your own weight, you're a wheelchair patient at best right now."

Still insisting to be stubborn, I wanted out of the hospital room. "Well wheel me outta here and let's get moving."

"Yeah we will, in maybe one or two days. This place obviously doesn't have a wheelchair for you to use."

"I need one so I can get in on this. The sooner we expose this for what it is, the more likely we can get an investigation going."

Being firm, she raised her voice and stared me down. "You need to stay in this bed, doctor's orders. I'd much rather not move around so much after everything you've been through."

"Yeah, getting stabbed is kinda painful to deal with, but I think I can manage for... twenty minutes. This can't stay in the room." I urged.

"Well we'll be sure to put in a word to one of the outlets and get your perspective out there." Melanie said before grabbing my hand again. "Nondis, I'm going to be very straight forward with you."

As I looked around the room, I could see everyone's faces darken. Frowns and shows of concern replaced what was to be a jubilant environment. It was a dissonance of atmosphere that caused me to become a bit uneasy. "Okay what's the deal? Why is my moving around such a bad idea."

Melanie took a deep breath as she clenched my hand tightly. From the look on her face, I could already assume it was bad news. "Because while you were out, we found a heavy concentration of blood thinners in your system, followed by several other toxins. So we had to run you through dialysis, which flushes all the bad stuff out of you manually, then we had to perform a few blood transfusions in order to keep you alive, the first time was before we found out you had all those blood thinners. Then there was the brief period of when your body rejected Stanton's blood─"

"Okay, time out." After I interrupted her, I took a breather on what had already seemed to be a lengthy list of issues. I felt distressed over hearing about everything that occurred. "What all happened to me again?"

But to my misfortune, she wasn't done. "We had to feed you through a tube, keep you on a ventilator to keep the oxygen flowing through your brain, remove two feet of your intestines because of significant tissue damage, and then we had to revive you after you flatlined for approximately thirty-seven seconds. Under most circumstances, that's relatively short, but we're talking about acute blood loss, which drastically shortened our time frame from around twenty minutes to forty-five seconds due to hypothermia."

"...Woah..." At that moment, I was facing the very real issue of my mortality. It wasn't as if I thought I couldn't die, but it was like there was a drive in me somewhere that told me I wasn't going to be so easily brought down. I was running off of the high of hovering my foot over the brink and taking it away that I didn't think about the time that I'd actually fall in. Now we're talking alterations to my body that have changed my life, possibly for the worse.

I instinctively pulled up my shirt and saw a large scar on my abdomen, covered in stitches. I lost my breath at the sight of that.

"By traditional merits, you shouldn't even be here, but you are. That's why I refuse to move you, because a nagging princess begged us to keep you alive by any means necessary. I broke so many protocols and did some things that even compromised your dignity while you were out. We did all of this to keep you here, and we're more astounded that the damage to your brain was so minimal. So yes, you're going to have problems moving and you're not getting around anytime soon until we can verify you are healthy enough to do so."

The others looked away while my scar was exposed. Deciding I had seen enough, I covered the wound and resigned to a period of disbelief. "...Did all of that really happen?"

"Well yes, but your intestines have healed and you're ready to eat like normal, aside from the soup we're giving you."

To be frank, I didn't want to finish that soup anymore. "Oh... okay."

"That's right, invincibility isn't one of your traits." A voice called out from the doorway. I looked over to see Rainbow Dash walking into the room. "You finally understand what I've been saying to you?"

In what felt like a dark hour for me ended up becoming significantly brighter. I felt relief for the first time since waking up, it was an answer to a question that ran through my mind on occasion. "Rainbow, you're alright."

"Yup, I'm a lot better than you. I healed up pretty fast." I can see she's still herself.

"You had an arrow in your lung, how are you walking around like nothing happened?" I asked incredulously.

Rainbow snickered as she pointed to herself. "Well, we element bearers have a healing factor, so our vitals are often easy to heal with the aid of magic. But you, from what I heard, had it pretty rough."

"Apparently so." I said as my hand slightly ran over the row of stitches on my stomach. "I missed out on a lot."

Melanie, realizing that I wasn't going to get fed with all of the distractions, politely announced to the entire room. "Okay everyone, I think it's time to leave our patient to finish his dinner. After that, he can take a moment's rest and we can come back─"

"No." I interrupted once more. "You already told me everything to get my attention, you might as well give me the whole story."

Again, she showed extreme concern for my well-being. "I don't think that's a good idea."

While my hand lightly traced the outline of my new stitches, I felt confidence in my condition. I held a personal belief that my willpower would be greater than earlier. I wasn't just rested, but I have a little bit of food in my system to give me energy. I may not be able to walk out of this room, but I can stay awake long enough to hold a conversation for another thirty minutes. "I think I can handle this. If I can hold death off a bit longer, then I can handle a story."

Melanie grasped my hand, moving it away from my scar. "A lot has happened."

Pinkie smiled gently as she grabbed my other hand. "Well keep it short, Nonnie."

Canterlot Royal Medical Facility
Six days ago...

In the lobby of the medical center, two guards stood at attention by the door. Just outside of it were waves upon waves of reporters who wanted their questions answered or just to get the inside scoop on what had happened to the gravely-wounded Captain of the Royal Guard.

At the center of the room was the party belonging to the patient in question. Applejack hugged her hat tightly as she watched Pinkie fall on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Rarity quietly stroked the pink pony's flattened mane while Twilight rocked back and forth in her brother's hooves. Cadance and Fluttershy looked out the window, seeing a crowd gathering just outside of the castle walls.

Multitudes of ponies all stood in the streets, holding up improvised signs while chanting ad infinity 'I believe that he will win'. Cadance felt the passion of the citizens reaching up to the room she looked from, but felt uncertain that their words, their spirits, would reach to the one they chanted for.

The humans, on the other hand, were a completely different display. Only Stanton, Alex, Rickey, and Cliff stood around. Cliff sat on the ground with his head bowed and his face covered. Rickey held a bible in his hand, he quietly chanted the Lord's Prayer in Spanish while rocking back and forth. Alex paced back and forth impatiently, seeming as if he couldn't bring himself to hold still.

Stanton appeared to be in the worst shape. The white warm-up shirt he wore for football practices remained balled up in his hands as he cried into it. Stained in the blood of his older brother, he lamented the thought of having to lose him after doing so much to get him to treatment. After carrying him on his back, he was left in shambles psychologically.

A bell suddenly rang from within the lobby, a set of doors opening with two nurses walking through. One nurse was brought in from Ponyville, another made a nurse by an emergency royal decree. Cliff didn't bother standing up as he and the others prepared themselves for the worst.

Alex was the first to speak, stopping dead in his tracks. "Mel, what does he look like?" He asked quietly.

Stanton screamed into the blood-stained shirt as he pleaded with her. "I don't wanna hear it! I don't wanna hear it, please!"

"Stanton, shut the fuck up!" Alex screamed, feeling on-edge about the situation. He then proceeded to pace back and forth again.

Cadance walked up to the bloodied human, calmly asking her. "What's his status?"

"He's in critical condition." Melanie said, her voice slightly trembling and worn. "As of the moment he is questionable on whether or not he'll make it through the night. For now we've placed him in a magically induced coma to keep him as stable as possible. If it weren't for magic, he'd be gone."

Cliff drove his fist into his leg with anxiety weighing heavily on him. "So what do we do now? We just wait?"

"We pray... for both of their sake." Melanie responded.

"Dashie's gonna be okay." Fluttershy muttered from the other side of the room. "She'll be okay, you'll see."

"You think so? You really think that's the case right now?" Rickey asked, snapping himself out of his prayer.

"We know how strong she is, darling." Rarity replied confidently. "If anypony's going to pull through out of this situation, it's definitely her."

Stanton beat his fist into the wall, shaking his head. "Yeah, I wish I had that kind of comfort. My older brother in there, possibly sitting on his death bed."

"Stanton, shut up!" Alex commanded again.

The younger sibling broke into full hysterics, kneading his fingers into the stained shirt. "Oh God, how the hell are we gonna tell mom? How the─how are we─what do we do─"

"Stanton!" Alex called out, grabbing his younger brother by the shoulder, shaking him. "Sit down. Shut the fuck up. Stop panicking because that's not gonna do anything worth a damn."

Still feeling terrified from what all happened, an emotionally-charged Stanton shoved his arm away from him. "YOU TELL ME HOW THE FUCK WE'RE GONNA DO THIS, ALEX!" He screamed to the top of his voice. "Can you imagine dad's face when he sees him like this, HERE of all places!? You're. Not. Fucking. Getting it. Through your head! Our brother is DYING!"

While the two were in each other's faces, Alex pointed at the door Melanie walked through. "You don't think I know that? I'm more terrified than you are. I'm in shock. I'm responsible for both of you and he's on the verge of clocking out. I've got his blood on my hands."

Stanton then shook the shirt in his brother's face. "Well I literally got his blood on me, I carried him off of that train."

"None of this is on you." Cadance used her magic to divide the two, holding them both back as she stepped between them. "This is something that was the result of an external influence. We will be doing what we can to investigate this situation."

One of the pony surgeons barged through the door, urgently grabbing the attention of Melanie. "Madam nurse, we have a situation occurring with your patient."

Visually distressed, Melanie felt herself looking her composure again. "Excuse me, I'll be right back." She said before storming through the doors and disappearing down the hall.

Shining continued to hold on to his little sister, petting her, nuzzling her, doing whatever he could to keep her calm. "You okay, Twily?"

"I'm going to faint." She announced weakly, "I'm gonna faint."

The stallion then kissed his little sister on her forehead, holding her close as he whispered to her. "We'll be here for you, kiddo."

Canterlot Parliamentary Chamber
Five days ago...

One guard who donned a ceremonial uniform as opposed to the usual armor ensemble, stood at the center of the chamber to defend the position of his injured captain. Azure Sword, who stood to represent his unit, vehemently argued against them, but to no avail.

"But with all due respect─"

"It doesn't matter what you say, sir. What matters is what was going to be done, what's already done, and what shall happen. Your regiment was reportedly taking the surplus of what you were assigned to recover and divide it amongst yourselves. And that bit of attempted embezzlement is what's up for debate. Your names are cleared and we will hold those weights against the leader who took all responsibility over you."

"But what about the families of those─"

Count DuMoneé interrupted the guard once more. "Reparations have long since been offered. And if a lawsuit were to come about from either of those families, then we'd merely bring about the statue of limitations and end that discussion there."

"You speak as if a flag and an urn of ashes is the only reparations necessary!"

"And giving them gold is going to bring back their loved ones?" Count argued, gaining the support of his party. "So their lives have monetary value, that's it? So you're saying that if you give them gold, justice is served? Their lives were nothing more than a liquid asset? I'm so interested in hearing you'd treat your fallen as such."

The young stallion grimaced as he elevated his tone of voice. "I don't. They deserve more respect than that. Which is why─"

"Which is why all of what you recovered will be confiscated and reviewed by the parliamentary committee. Once the investigation on your captain has been concluded, the items will be sent to the treasury. That is all, you are dismissed."

Knowing that there wasn't much he could do from there, Azure gave a salute with a scowl on his face and marched out of the room.

Twilight and Blueblood, who would stand in for both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna for the next three days, watched as the doors closed behind him. Twilight, noticing the proud smiles on some of the politicians faces, already knew what was to come from their confiscating the gold. And she would call them out on it.

"I do not feel that is ethical."

Count looked at her with a quirked brow and a coy smirk. "My esteemed ladyship, Princess Twilight Sparkle, I figure you would hold some grievance on this matter as your family is one of the families who would benefit from the guard's proposed method of dispersal. However, being you and your brother, who is a victim, are royals, then it would make sense to hypothetically say you'd seek these benefits for yourself."

Feeling her character was being questioned, the young princess barked back at the conniving politician. "That is not true! How dare you accuse me of being so tactless! That is an inflammatory statement made against me whereas I have no means to perform such deeds!"

"Oh I'm sure you've done your share of covering up, your regalness. Of course those sins aren't to be made public, lest the image of the Princess of Friendship takes a downward turn." He said, giving her a wink. This infuriated the young princess further as he continued. "In speaking of which, I trust your fiance has had better days. I am told he has yet to wake from his coma."

"You are sick, demented─"

Blueblood held a hoof to the purple princess muzzle before he cut in. "Ad hominems are not to be made, presiding Princess Twilight. You know better." She knocked his hoof away, much to her chagrin. The blond-haired prince then brought his focus to the politician who challenged her. "And as for you, senator, you seem to have forgotten the name of that treasury."

The senator, at last, lost much of his bravado as he tried to slyly answer the prince. "The Equestrian Treasu─"

"Ah!" Blueblood immediately cut him down. "You've missed something. The account is legally registered under the Equestrian Royal Treasury. This means it came from our account. And surely the purpose of this mission was to return the amount and whatever surplus obtained was to be sent directly to that account."

Feeling his plan was falling out of shape, he called out to the prince loudly, gaining the support of some of his peers. "THAT'S EMBEZZLEMENT!"

"Ah, but note that an unauthorized third party intervention into that treasury account is often seen as... Well I sure don't want to say treasonous, but it does cross that line by just a hair or two."

A rain of boos started to cascade down towards the floor. One politician beside Count called out to Blueblood. "It is a proper investigation─"

"One not of your jurisdiction since it was withheld from this particular account. What is returned shall be returned. And the liquidation of the surplus assets shall be made by the owners of that account. I am to understand you'd have no qualms on this."

The boos got louder, chanting out 'shame' as more politicians screamed and yelled at the prince. "Greedy, disgusting royals. The citizens will hear of this!"

With not a care for their concern, Blueblood banged the gavel just once. "I'm sure they will. Next order of business."

After the lengthy session, Twilight gathered her many papers and files and went about her way. As she walked through the hall, a number of politicians called her out for being silent on what they considered as 'royal greed'. Her face soured as she started to speed up her pace, causing a few of them to follow her out of spite. When they really started to get under her skin, she simply teleported to the other side of the hall. She turned down another corridor and marched past less and less of her opposition and eventually encountered only a few guards who stood at attention.

From there, she could brood in peace. "Princess Troublemaker." That was until Blueblood galloped from behind to catch up to her.

She knew he often called her that regardless of her situation, and she was always annoyed with that moniker. But she felt that today was such a day where it even stirred some thoughts of violence within her. "Ugh. Leave me alone, Blueblood."

"Young little Twily, you are so incredulous to this political grandstanding thing, aren't you? It's funny cause your fiance seems to be a natural at it."

Another thing that made her angry was that he'd call her the nickname her brother would often call her. "Leave me alone." She said, shoving a wing into his face.

The blonde-maned prince chuckled as he trotted beside her. "You really fail to understand how much power you have, don't you? With a stretch of your wings, the crowds of citizens would be at your beck and call. You and your friends saved this country a number of times, you could make a difference if you decided to put aside this pristine, picture-perfect pony persona."

Her wings flared open as she raised her voice at him. "That's not what I was taught! I didn't get in my position by forcing an issue on others and playing dirty."

He rolled his eyes and moaned with disgust. "See, that's what I'm talking about. You, Celestia, and Mi Amore are all so goody-goody that you don't even bother to stand up when they come batting against you. It's a sign of weakness."

"Well as Celestia's student, I was taught differently." She said, pointing towards herself.

"And as a former protege of hers, I can say that not all of her methods are tried and true." He responded by placing a hoof on his own chest.

"Yeah, that's probably why you don't have wings." She said harshly, flapping her wings once before storming off again.

Feeling a bit hurt from her statement, he continued to pursue her. "See, that animosity against me, use that on them. Even Celestia's sure to show the cracks of her facade when somepony pesters her enough."

"Playing by the rules, not by my emotions." The princess proclaimed as she sped up her pace.

"So did you play by the rules when it came to Nondis?" He asked, causing her to come to a complete stop. Staring at him with a menacing glare while he smiled back at her. "My point exactly."

She walked up to him, her ears folded back as she scowled at him. Hissing under her breath, she strongly displayed her anger. "Meaning we both hold power doesn't mean that I'd want anything to do with you. And as far as I'm concerned, your teacher and my teacher are two separate ponies."

He calmly whispered back. "The difference between us two is that I've lived long enough to see where that naivete leads."

Seething with rage, she spat at the alabaster prince. "Resign yourself from speaking to me. I'm leaving to the medical wing."

As she walked off, Blueblood rubbed his hoof on his chest and inspected himself for any dirt. "It's sad your brother can see more than you can."

Canterlot Royal Medical Facility
Four days ago...

Melanie sat across the table, facing Alex as they talked over a boxed lunch from the royal cafeteria. The white boxes were torn apart to make them into a paper tray for them to spread their selections on. Though the cucumber sandwiches were completely deprived of meat, they found them satisfactory for the time being, even if it was more of a salad between two slices of bread. Plastic miniature jugs of milk and unopen bags of haychips sat just beside their meals as they talked.

"So wait, she's getting cleared for checkout, tomorrow?" Alex inquired.

"I don't get it either. From what I was told, the 'element bearers' are actually so irradiated with magic that their bodies heal five-times faster than other ponies under similar treatment. From what I saw today, she's perfectly fine." Melanie explained.

Alex lifted the top slice of bread from his sandwich and looked inside for anything that he didn't like. "It makes me wonder if there's any kind of magic that would help Nondis."

Melanie took a bite of hers, chewed and swallowed before speaking again. "Oh don't get me wrong. His shit is weird as hell too. I don't think I've seen a human heal up so quickly after surgery, but then again, I've never seen magic applied to the human body. And it isn't like what you see in some stupid Final Fantasy game where you just cast 'heal' on them and watch all of their wounds completely disappear. It's a lot like watching paint dry, but with the added morbid nature of watching the wound slowly close in on itself."

Alex finished pulling the tomatoes out of his sandwich before he finally bit into his. "So what was the surgery procedure?"

Reaching over her own food, she appropriated the discarded tomatoes and placed them on her sandwich instead. "Small bowel resection. Some areas were so terrible, it looked like someone just jiggled the knife inside of him real bad. Had to remove a total of two feet of his... stuffing. Guess that's why I'm completely cool with not having meat today."

As a few strands of hair fell onto Melanie's face, covering her eye, she took a few seconds to fix her hair. Alex watched as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail again before resuming her meal. "Mel, I dunno how you do it."

Opening the bag of haychips, she pulled one out to taste-test. "They have you practice on cadavers in med school. So I'm no stranger to dead bodies that are well put together. It's the 'living person' thing that gives me the shakes... and also the 'best friend' part to boot."

"And the blood?" Alex asked while Melanie munched on the chip. As soon as her face lit up with surprise, she grabbed yet another to taste.

"I got that out the way when we first got him. Human body carries eight pints, so it's gonna be messy."

Seeing how she was enjoying the exotic snack, Alex opened his bag and tried one for himself. He was pleased with the results. "These are actually kinda good."

"No shit." She replied grabbing a handful. "Let me know if you don't want yours."

"Nah, I'm good." He said as he also grabbed a handful of the salty snacks. "And how about the other doctors? I know that cutting open a human was new grounds for them."

"So much they had a scholar on hoof..." Realizing what she had said, she facepalmed out of embarrassment. "Shit."

Alex snickered as he chewed. "I get it, pony stuff, happens when you're around them for so long."

"Well I can certainly say I've gotten to know your brother very well." She said, seeming to be put off by the situation.

"No kidding."

Melanie soon found the bottom of her bag of chips, audibly showing despair over the moment. "So how did that situation go?"

For a while, Alex felt like he had missed a part of something she said. But it hit him after some thought. "Oh yeah. I just told them that Nondis got hurt on the job. I also let them know he's recovering." He said, pertaining to his parents.

"Well you're not really lying, are you?" She asked sarcastically.

"Stanton wanted to tell them more about it, but he reserved better judgement when it came to dad. Mom may be a little more understanding, but she's prone to telling dad stuff when we're not looking. She's always been the buffer between us and him." He said as he also reached the bottom of his bag.

Melanie watched as Alex widened the mouth of the bag and poured the remaining contents into his mouth. "I know. I just wish we could bring them here to understand once and for all what's going on. But as I'm quite sure─"

"That's not gonna happen anytime soon." He said, finishing her sentence.

She sighed with disgust, lamenting her past experience with Twilight. "If my initial reaction to this is anything to go by, then I can say that idea is as productive as handcuffing a pedophile to a preschool bathroom stall."

Alex erupted into laughter as he spoke. "You're a trip, Mel."

While the two shared a brief laugh, it was soon brought to an awkward silence between them. Her frown found her face again as she looked to the double doors that lead to the medical wing. "Three days of dialysis, blood transfusions, shoving tubes in strange places, and surgeries. We can finally wait it out."

He looked at her with a sense of admiration. His smile became soft and inviting as he watched the young woman stand to her feet. He felt her stand with a strong sense of determination. Her chest stood outward as she started to make her way towards the trashcan with her trash. He spoke to her. "You're awesome, you know that?"

"I try my best." She said, returning the smile he offered.

Suddenly, the doors to the medical wing opened, revealing Shining Armor and Twilight. She still appeared to be a bit shaken as her brother comforted her. The two walked out of the lobby and back into the halls of the castle. Alex scratched his head as he mumbled. "...I wonder."

"What?" Melanie asked quizzically.

He shook his head. "Nothing, it's nothing."

Canterlot Parliamentary Chamber
Three Days Ago...

The session of this day was a lot less emotionally charged. The disdain for the royals were still apparent but not nearly as verbal as it once was two days prior. Instead, the usual group of politicians had cooked up a ploy to get their revenge against a failed attempt to appropriate some funding for their various desires. Twilight was left with rage as the situation unfolded before her.

Alex stood beside her and loudly questioned them. "What do you mean you're sending a druid council for Nondis, what does that mean?"

"It means that your friend is under investigation. He's being accused in meddling in the royal treasury." Count DuMoneé proclaimed with a snobbish demeanor.

"I can assure you, Nondis hasn't done anything like that." Alex refuted, coming to the defense of his unconscious brother.

"Oh I'm quite sure he has. One of my spies managed to overhear a discussion in Appleloosa saying their motive was to collect what was to be given to the royals and to retain the rest. That is not only in the realm of grand theft, but treason as well." Count replied.

"He's comatose, so whatever you wanna get out of him is not gonna happen anytime soon."

Count pointed around the room as he answered Alex. "Nopony is here to stand in for him. So the summons shall carry over to that venue."

Alex grunted out of frustration and turned to Twilight. "Princess, with all due respect, can't you do something about this?"

"She cannot." Count called out. "She's engaged to the human, that much is true. But she does not retain spousal rights, nor does she have the legal rights to call up a representative in his defense. Therefore we shall bypass that and enact the Articles of Charter v. Druid: Any party to withhold information critical to the operations of the nation, treasury to say the least, shall be investigated regardless of physical, mental, psychological, or mortal state."

"On what grounds!?" Alex shouted to the senator.

"Funding any sort of criminal movement against the parliament and/or royal establishment." He simply stated, earning a few calls of approval from his peers.

Knocking away a few papers, Alex shouted to the senator. "That's bullshit!"

"If it pertains to the security of our very nation, then I find the reason to be invasive is nothing short of justified." Said another senator, cosigning with Count.

While calls of 'hear hear' rung throughout half of the room, Alex looked to Blueblood and spoke. "So what you're saying is that you take spouses, right?"

"Correct." Count called out.

"So how about next of kin?"

Blueblood nodded, knowing what was to take place. "Those's parameters are acceptable."

Alex held up a finger as he dismissed himself from the room for a few seconds, only to show back up on the floor of the room. The room started to fill with mutters and whispers as the human stood at the center of the room. "I'm gonna be royally honest with you then, that's my brother in the hospital." Those whispers then turned into gasps, the murmurs increasing in volume. He pulled out his wallet, yanking out his state ID and proudly showing it to the whole room. "Alexander Martin Haines, three years senior to Nondis Patricia Haines, son of Harold Luther Haines and Martha Abigail Dixon-Haines. Now that's out of the way..." He then threw the ID onto the table on the floor's center, slapped his chest twice and pointed to Count. "Lawyer me."

"An older sibling!? He was in our faces this entire time!" One voice called out from the left side of the room.

"Completely absurd. He's just now coming about with this?" Another called out from the the right side of the room.

"How do we know you're not doing this to stand up for your friend?" One senator asked, from the center area of the room.

Alex grabbed his ID card and politely tucked it back into his wallet while he was speaking. "Because my brother's an idiot who couldn't even learn how to fight for himself until recent times. Thanks for throwing him into the army, it at least taught him how to fight his battles without having to call on me all the time, like my senior year back in high school. Though I'll make an exception this go around because of, well, you know."

"How oddly specific." One politician from the middle of the room responded. "Tell me, are you aware of an incident where he was mugged in a back alley by a pony prior to his service?"

Alex shrugged. "Not surprised, he had worse when he was in middle school, and I was often suspended for fighting for him. But stories aside, let's talk about now. I want my lawyer."

The group surrounding Count encircled around the senator to discuss their next course of action. After some time of deliberation, they pulled back with Count taking the lead. "Actually, you'll do fine."

Alex blinked, pursed his lips, held up a finger, slowly turned to Blueblood and chuckled. "He's trying... to fuck me. He's trying to fuck me, right?"

Blueblood saw the expression on the humans face and became amused himself. "That appears to be so."

Alex then threw his hand to the air and turned back to the prosecuting party. "They don't know me. And I'm so glad they don't."

Count produced a chuckle of his own, standing tall amongst his party. "I'm glad to see you're so confident in defending your brother. This makes it all the more easier for us to completely dismantle any narrative in your brother's favor."

From there, Alex placed on his best salesman smile and presented his best impression of Bob Barker. "How would you like to play a game?"

Count's smile gradually faded as he started to find himself in a familiar situation. "Is it similar to the one your brother did?"

"So you know the rules already? Good, let's get started."

Two Days Ago...

Twilight, Shining, Cadance, Alex, and Melanie waited outside of the chamber, gathering their ideas on how they were going to go about defending their incapacitated ally. Though the session of yesterday was mostly successful, there was still much to be discussed.

However, today's session appeared to have positive reinforcement. Alex had gone blow for blow against Count in all of his accusations, presenting arguments and bluffs that could trip up anyone who wasn't careful to not watch where they stepped. A web of arguments and hypothetical ended up becoming the undoing of the very individual who initiated the scheme.

Count DuMoneé was now in question over whether or not he was the one who drafted the list, as opposed to the standing Council of the E.U.P., an offense to be taken as an example of tampering. But with no hard evidence, there wasn't a way to pursue it other than letting the situation unfold.

Other than that, the mood for the day was mostly optimistic. "So what's on the menu for today?" Melanie asked.

"More of this guys mouth. My dick's feasting today." Alex answered before catching himself, looking to a blushing Cadance. His cheeks quickly turned a rosy color from the embarrassment. "Sorry for the crude language."

The pink princess shook her head. "No, it's just... different not hearing Nondis do it. It's like you're kinda like him in areas but not in others."

"You'd be surprised." He muttered.

Cadance continued to look at the human, squinting her eyes as if she had seen something that grabbed her attention. "Your heart is filled with conflict. Is something wrong?"

"Cadance, isn't that a little invasive?" Twilight questioned.

Alex dismissed the pink princess. "Yeah, I don't think I have any concerns right now other than going against this guy again."

Shining walked up to him to give him a hoof bump. "But you've done so well yesterday. All the bluffs, and even the insults, I've never seen him so angry."

"Then you've missed a truly stellar performance." Called out a familiar voice.

The group turned around to see the two high royals standing next to each other, being escorted by a pair of guards. "Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, welcome back!" Twilight called out, bowing to them both.

The two then bowed back as a show of respect towards their own. "Yes, the Scholar's Summit in Zebrabwe was something to behold. Discoveries from all around the world and new scientific findings were all but spared. For us, we received a lot of questions relating to humans and their interactions with equinekind." Luna stated.

"In mention of that, we were also alerted to his health upon his return. We hadn't received word of his state until the next morning. How is he?" Celestia asked, walking up towards Alex, who pointed to Melanie to answer them.

"He's stable. I had to a lot of work to get him there, but he's carrying on smoothly. Tomorrow we're going to start removing some of the devices attached to him so he can be a little more independent, and comfortable for whenever he wakes up."

Celestia placed a hoof on her chest, showing her relief. "That's wonderful to hear. I wouldn't hear the end of it if my dear captain were to expire just before he officially took office."

"We will be by there to visit." Luna offered.

Before Melanie could respond, they all looked around as some music started to play.

♫If I could walk five hundred miles, then I would walk five hundred more, to be the man that walks─♪

Before anyone else could say anything, Alex had already pulled out his phone, read the caller, and swiped the call to ignore. He then turned his phone to vibrate. Melanie was quick to identify the ringtone and it's purpose. "Phone call from Vanessa?"

Alex then put the phone back into his pocket. "Obviously concerned. I managed to tell her the truth about Nondis, but not quite everything about here. She thought I was crazy... at least until I showed her the pictures of where we were and what happened."

"You took pictures of him?" She asked, seemingly disturbed by the thought.

Alex quickly clarified the situation. "Post-op, not pre. I'm not keeping those images around for me to lose sleep over."

Melanie slowly nodded as she grew to understand the logic. "Well in the circumstance of your parents, photographic evidence is a good foundation for your case."

"Yup..."

Cadance stared at the human one more time, seeing something else that grabbed her attention. "The conflict grows."

"Cadance!" Twilight chided.

The pink princess acted before Twilight could stop her. "Something about this 'Vanessa' seems to worry you."

Alex then took out his phone again, going to the photo album and pulling up a newlywed photo. He handed the phone to Cadance for her to see. "Of course, she's my beautiful wife."

Shining, Twilight, Celestia, and Luna quickly circled around the device, seeing him dressed in an elegant tuxedo and a fresh haircut. Vanessa stood smiling next to him as she held onto his shoulders, kissing him on the cheek. She wore a white dress with a diamond tiara. The others cooed sweetly while Cadance's attention was directed to Alex. "I didn't know you were─"

"Yeah, she's on my ass about my disappearing so often. She thought I was cheating on her."

Cadance then bowed her head out of respect to the human. "I am so sorry."

He waved it off, taking his phone and placing it back into his pocket. "Why? It's good to have discerning folks around you, they can tell you what you don't wanna hear and they can tell what's wrong with you. Those are your real friends right there."

Unsure of how to respond to his leniency, the pink princess was left dumbfounded. "I suppose."

Another voice then called out for much further down the hall. "Sir Alex!"

The man turned around to see a pony galloping in his direction. If there was anything that was rarely seen amongst even the royals, it was Blueblood engaging in a physical activity that exerted a lot of energy. As he approached, he held a manila envelope in his magic. "Prince Blueblood, how's it been?"

"Wonderful. And a high greetings to all of you." He said with a slight bow. He then turned to Twilight with a smirk. "Good afternoon Princess Twilight."

"Afternoon to you." She said coldly.

"Oh don't be so icy, my dear." Blueblood said with a lighthearted laugh. But he placed teasing the young royal aside to give him the envelope he held in his possession. "Alex, I know a certain name attached to this little leak of information is someone you don't find fond. But you should really take a read of what Spike mailed in."

Alex's eyes shot open as he held the envelope. "Spike?"

While he opened the package and pulled out the material to read through, Melanie wasn't too thrilled to hear the name of the young drake. "What's that miserable little pervert want now?"

Alex quickly silenced her as he read the contents. He looked at Blueblood with amazement. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

A jubilant chuckle was produced from the alabaster prince. "I knew I'd get that look from you."

Alex placed the material back into the envelope, he followed up with an enthusiastic fist pump. "Oh hell yes. This is great."

"What is it?" Twilight asked.

"Remember my bluff from yesterday, saying how I thought he was the one that sent in a memo to change the list of guards, to purposefully include Rainbow Dash?"

Twilight recalled the moment she saw the list and showed it to her fiance. "Her name alone caused Nondis to stay up another three hours studying and practicing."

Alex quickly explained what he saw as Melanie took a turn to read through the material. "He sent the names. All of them. From an element bearer, to inexperienced guards, recruits fresh out of boot camp, to even a family member of one of the victims from five years ago! He sent them all, these are the draft notes, there are even the post-it stickers to place in the names and connections so that they'd get the main head of the guards to sign on it. This is beyond great, this is hard evidence of tampering and blackmail!"

Melanie ooh'd with a childish tone, indicating that there was trouble ahead. "All of this shit in failure's perspective would've made it a PR nightmare for Nondis. Oh, little dragon went in!"

Blueblood had a triumphant smirk on his face as he talked to Alex. "You're gonna make him squirm, are you?"

Marching to the door, he responded. "Sir, my dick's in his ass now, and I don't have lube. This will be the best case of rug burn I ever get!"

Bursting through the doors, he marched forward in front. As he approached the center of the room, Celestia and Luna stood at the top of the judicial's desk. A guard stammered at first, but quickly got himself composed to announce to the room. "Hear ye, hear ye! This summons is now in session! The honorable Princess Celestia now presides."

While she sat in her seat, Count called out to her in a mocking tone. "Back from your trip, I see. I trust that her highness has been well rested from her excursion."

Few laughed at the senator's words this time. Celestia looked down to the human on the floor and banged the gavel. "Alex, please don't waste our time."

That he didn't.

*FWOMP*

At the well of the chamber, the place where the votes would be gathered, he slammed the incriminating evidence onto the table, producing a loud sound that echoed throughout what felt like the entire castle. The sound was deemed as satisfying to many of the royals as it indicated a turn in their ally's fortune. For Alex, it was the beginning of an epic means of getting his revenge. And for Count, it was the beginning of a change he failed to see coming.

With a glare that could be described as a hunter looking through his scope to snipe his prey, Alex pointed at the senator and spoke with a slow and aggressive tone.

"On the behalf of my brother, whom you tried to undermine... I have tons of questions for you."

Present day...

As they finished the story, I couldn't help but to feel a proud smile possess my face. I couldn't do much of a fist pump or any physical celebration other than lightly give a thumbs up. "That son of a bitch." I said, referring to the embattled senator.

"Oh yeah, Alex got him good that day. He creamed Count DuMoneé at his own game!" Rainbow reported.

Melanie went on to gush about her satisfaction in seeing the senator being so out of comfort. She spoke so vividly that I felt myself wishing I was around to see it. "It was like we saw someone completely different up there. He was so defensive, and then he started rambling on about a whole bunch of things that didn't involve anything with what was up front. He fumbled a few of his words, tried to change the subject, pass the blame on someone else, but none of that worked."

"So what happened?" I asked.

"His name is out there in a bad way right now. Granted it will take some time before they pay some press outlet to write him out of trouble." Said Melanie.

"Hey, don't even give them a chance. Push this story until the wheels fall off." I responded.

Almost as if the timing had been perfect, Twilight opened the door and walked into the room. Everyone turned around to watch as the purple pony entered. The room grew silent with the exception of the EKG monitor by my bed. The only one to speak was Fluttershy.

"Oh Twilight, Nondis was finishing his food."

"I'm glad." She said quietly, walking up to me. She used her magic to grab my hand and held it to her face, much like Melanie did earlier. "You're okay."

"Yup. Nearly took a siesta there." I joked with a chuckle. Unfortunately, she didn't laugh with me. Even Mel, who's usually the one who would laugh at something like that, chose not to. The mood of the room shifted once more, becoming a lot more serious. I felt like I did something wrong there. "...Sorry. I shouldn't have joked about that."

The young princess didn't say anything to me, she just smiled. I started to feel a little concerned over her lack of response to me other than a kind smile on her face. "Twilight?" Fluttershy called out, snapping the purple mare out of her trance.

Twilight looked around the room and whispered softly. "Could everypony leave us for a moment? Nondis and I need to talk alone."

And just like that, everyone didn't complain or give any kind of argument. They simply stood up, packed whatever they brought with them and filed out of the room. Rainbow Dash was the last to leave, Melanie held the door open as she looked back at us. Rainbow appeared to have a scowl on her face before she turned around and left.

I wonder what that was all about.

The sound of the door clicking closed was the very trigger she used to break the awkward silence. "So..."

Her single-word statement only lead to a period of more silence as she started to play with my fingers. I turned my head towards the window and hummed. "Yup..."

"I'm glad you're okay." She said quietly.

"Thanks."

She looked down to the empty cup of soup and the partially consumed slice of toast laying before me. "How's the food?"

"Could use a little more flavor, this place's food is so... bland." I answered honestly.

"They said not to give you anything too spicy because of your, um... newly configured system." She said, politely bringing up the matter of my condition.

"Yeah, but a little more salt can't kill me."

For a few more seconds, we sat in silence. She turned her head to the door. "So, I take it they told you everything?"

"Pretty much."

She hummed softly before she let go of my hand, walking to the window. "Did you know there was a large group of ponies outside of the castle walls cheering you on?"

"Really now?"

"Mhmm." She answered, turning back to me with a soft smile. "They were all waiting for you to pull through. They cheered you on. It looked to be over half of the city outside of the gates with signs and stuff. Looks like you're pretty famous now."

I knew that in many ways, I was going to have some sort of support base. But never have I imagined that there would be a crowd, not to mention half of the nation's capital. It was humbling to say at the very least. "Well I guess I should draft up a thank you speech."

"I think that would be nice." She responded.

"Thanking all the doctors and whatnot."

"Of course, can't forget about them."

As the silence resumed for a few more seconds, I noticed there wasn't any cheering going on or anything. For something that's supposedly grabbed the attention of half the city, I should be hearing something other than the EKG monitor. Maybe they've been made aware of my condition, maybe not. Still, I was curious. "I'm wondering if they even know if I'm okay."

"Outside of you not being dead, that's about it."

Well that's some good news, it's much better than having my face on the newspaper saying that I was dead like the last time. "I missed out on so much. I feel like I'm gonna be so behind on everything."

Twilight walked back up to me, this time with a frown on her face. She looked away, folding her ears back with a feeling of uncertainty.

"...I've been thinking..."

Canterlot Royal Medical Facility
Yesterday...

Alex stood quietly over Melanie as he watched the young lady slowly and cautiously pull a small tube from out of the patient's nose. As the final inch was removed, she whispered to him. "Okay, there you go buddy."

Alex, who stood mildly disgusted, covered his nose and mouth as he cringed. "That just looked extremely uncomfortable."

She placed the tube on a blue mat, covered it up and sent one of the other nurses to dispose of it. "Well that's just the breaks of what we do. We don't like it, but it saves lives. Either we did that or we send one though his stomach, which wasn't going to be in his best interest due to his job."

"Oh." Alex said with a slow nod. "I can accept that,"

After cleaning up after the procedures, wiping the patient's face, and taking another blood sample, she looked at the unconscious man feeling proud of her strenuous work.

*knock knock knock*

"Come in." She called out.

A group of six ponies walked into the room, following them was Stanton. Pinkie ran over to see the human, but was held back from touching him by Melanie. So the pink party pony was left to stare at the patient, her friend. All over his arms were the markings and indentures of several scars and wounds. Though they were still in the process of healing, the top layer of tissue was still partially visible. One such scar reached from his ear to his cheek. The patient was softly breathing while he appeared to be somewhat peaceful.

Pinkie looked to the human with pity. "Wowwie, Nonz. You look like you've had better days."

Rarity covered her muzzle as she tried her best to keep from opening the well of emotions within her. "I can't bear to see him like this."

"If you think it's bad now, you should've seen him on the operating table when they brought him in." Melanie said proudly. "He's come a long way."

"You tended to all of his wounds?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yup. A lot of stuff happened. But we got him fixed now."

"Well that's good news." Applejack responded. "Just the other day, we were already thinking of the worst."

Stanton walked up to his older brother, being preemptively held back by Alex. "Nondis... *sigh* It's so good to see you man."

"As long as that thing keeps beeping, we're good, right?" Alex said to his younger sibling.

"I'm just glad he's okay." Fluttershy said to Melanie.

"Don't we all?" She answered.

Twilight teleported past everyone, reappearing beside the unresponsive human. She reached out with a hoof, before hesitantly pulling back. "...Can I... hold him?"

Melanie stepped between her and him, pushing her back a bit. "It wouldn't be wise to do so. His wounds are still closing right now. Just moving him around could dissipate the magic field around him, reopening some of those wounds."

"I'm so happy he's alive. I'm just so happy he's okay..." She said quietly. Looking at her fiance, the young princess found herself pushing against Melanie out of instinct. While she was being held back, she would try to ignite her magic for another teleportation spell. Alex, remembering something his younger brother did, reached out and tapped the alicorn's horn, dissipating the spell completely. When she tried again, Melanie learned from his example and held the mare's horn. After a few seconds of weak resistance, the mare appeared crestfallen. Her head falling as she whispered. "...It's too cruel."

"What do you mean?" Rarity questioned.

Melanie held on to the princess as she placed a hoof on the arm that barred her from going any further. She closed her eyes, trying to hold back tears. "It's times like this where I wish I could hold him, be there for him... but I can't even touch him."

"It is what it is. I'm sorry." Melanie stated, giving the mare a hug.

"Don't be." Said Rainbow, standing in the doorway still. She stood in place with a defiant pout, her head turned away from the emotional display. "Don't be sorry. You didn't do anything wrong. You didn't say anything wrong. So just leave it alone."

Everyone seemed unnerved to see the cyan pegasus act so coldly. Some even felt slightly offended while Stanton looked at her and asked. "Rainbow, you okay? Is there something wrong?"

"Nnngh..." The mare said with a grunt. After a minute or so of silence, her emotions finally crested over, she finally erupted at the group. "Fine, yes! There's a lot wrong! And I'm gonna say it! Applejack, I know you're the element of honesty, but I need to take your title for a second."

Unsure of what to think about her friend, Applejack cautiously answered her. "Sure thing, surgarcube."

Rainbow trotted up to the purple princess standing beside her and Melanie as she spoke. "You're crying, moping around about how you think it's unfair that you can't touch him. But you couldn't even wake up in the morning and see him off. You woke up, left the castle early to greet me off before going back home, but you weren't at the train station to see us off. Why is that?"

Breaking out of the hug, Twilight tried to explain herself to her friend. "...I was angry at him. I was─"

"Yeah, you already said it!" Rainbow yelled bitterly. "You were so mad that you didn't even bother to say goodbye to somepony who stuck it through for you! I looked at his face on that train, no matter how mad at him I was. And even I felt sorry for him when he realized the one he did all of this for wasn't anywhere to be seen. And the worst part of it is that I know what's gonna happen when it's all done. I already know, and it's pissing me off!"

After trying to hold back her tears for so long, she became so emotionally charged that she let them go. "I know. I made a stupid mistake because of my feelings. And I shouldn't have been so petty."

Rainbow moved Melanie aside as she stood muzzle to muzzle with the princess. "Twilight, don't you get it!? The last moment you two had with each other was an argument!"

"You don't have to point that out to me!" Twilight screamed.

Melanie jumped between the two, holding each of them apart. "Ladies, I understand that you're a little heated. But either both of you can quiet down or step outside."

Rainbow, in a display of bitterness and contempt, walked away from her friend, standing by the bedside of the unconscious human. Her own emotions started to boil over, her eyes watered as she stood firmly by the human. "Well I'm here. I've been around for the entire time, from when he found us in the forest, to when he was passed out in a chair, shivering like he had a cold. I was hurt, but I saw all of it. And I'm crying in my hospital bed knowing damn well how I thought my friend wouldn't make it through the night."

Feeling insulted, the princess spat back. "You don't think I feel anything? How dare you! I'm just as sad as you are─"

Rainbow exploded once more. "Why are you even here, Twilight!? YOU'VE BEEN FUCKING HURTING HIM SINCE THE GODDAMN MOMENT YOU TWO GOT CAUGHT THE FIRST TIME!" At those words, Alex looked down to the princess and stared as Rainbow's rant continued. "Everything he's done... I'm sorry to sound cruel to you, but you don't deserve him after this. He wakes up, you two are done!"

"...You know what... I felt like that too." Twilight said, wiping away her tears for a moment. "But don't think I haven't been hurt from anything that's happened, I'm hurting too! I'm sorry you had to look at us from an outsider's perspective, but if you even understood just a fraction of how much I love him and what we've been through, you'd probably be no different than me." At last, the princess' words started to break as she spoke. "My own friend... how dare you."

Twilight stormed out of the room, leaving behind a place filled with confusion and questions. As the door slammed shut, Melanie dropped her head and rested it on two of her finger and her thumb. "Ugh... my brain."

Rainbow tried her best not to display anything of what she personally considered as 'soppy', but an understanding Fluttershy stood by her and brought her in for a much-needed embrace. From there, the rainbow-maned pony softly sobbed to her best friend. Fluttershy petted her mane while Rainbow dug her face deeper into her chest. The two carried on while Alex's attention was designated towards the one who left the room.

"If I could be excused for a moment."

Walking through the halls at a brisk pace, Alex continued to ask guards posted at various areas of the castle if they had seen hair or feather of the young princess. A few chose not to answer out of respect for their leader, others have been distracted with other things to notice, but one was polite enough to point towards the direction of the castle chapel. After getting an escort to guide him to the area, the guard quickly left out of fear of being reprimanded for leaving his post.

Alex took a quick breather, cleared his throat and opened the door. Walking down the corridor, he saw an elevated platform sitting before a barren alter. Twilight stood motionless, staring at the scenic view of the city. Her ears folded back and her head held low, she remained quiet up until the moment Alex called for her. "Princess. Princess Twilight."

She turned around, her ears perking up for a second before she showed her disappointment. "Oh, it's you... You sounded like him for a second."

"I get that a lot more often than you think. It happens." He answered nonchalantly.

She turned away from him, falling back into her sulking mood. "I'm sorry. I've been trying to make things right. I just couldn't ever talk with him."

He walked over to her and sat down beside her. He started to say something, but he felt it was better to be honest. "I'm not gonna say that I'm not upset for my brother."

"I know. Rainbow practically said it all, didn't she?" Twilight agreed.

He scratched his neck as he spoke. "I gotta say I'm kinda floored by all of this. If you would've asked me how the two of you were, I would've said 'inseparable'. But now that all of this came up, I'm really looking at the two of you and wondering what was real and what wasn't."

Twilight jumped up at his words and quickly defended herself. "All of it was real! I just made so many mistakes and I know that I get mad at him for looking at other mares. And I feel like I'm always blamed for whatever bad happens to him! From the media, to even my closest friends."

"From what I'm gathering, it sounds like the two of you ran into an obstacle." Alex noted. "Did Nondis ever do anything stupid. cheat on you, hurt you, whatever?"

The mare gave a long sigh before speaking. "I can't even say that he did. We're separated right now."

Acknowledging that she didn't outright deny anything, he immediately took in the possibility that something had happened and it made her upset at him. He dug further into the matter. "Did he kiss someone else other than you?"

The mare proceeded to play with one of her wings. "Rarity... and Melanie."

Alex blinked as the answer caught him by surprise. He continued to dig for more. "Did you talk to him about it?"

"He talked to all of us. He's says he's trying to do the best for us, that he's trying to find where his heart is. But it's like we're the ones getting hurt too, you know?"

Alex leaned back to lay on his hands, propping a knee up as he took a moment to think about everything she told him, He laughed a little before he patted himself on the chest. "...Yeah, I'll take responsibility for that."

"What do you mean?" Twilight questioned.

"When I was younger, I wasn't so... honest. I was running game with like three other girls, just like he is now. I let him see that, and I let him see that I wasn't interested in playing fair. That was when I was in high school, I was the playboy who could talk to the cute girls, say a few things I didn't mean, and get what I wanted for whatever time. Stanton saw a bit of that too, going into middle school."

She giggled lightly as she responded. "Young minds at an impressionable age. But that kind of stuff is normal."

"Yeah, it is. But it wasn't something that I needed to show them... or brag about, because that was one of my biggest things. And of course, Nondis and Stanton both tried to see what they can do and who they could pull. Eventually, it turned into something serious, an entire competition for who essentially had the biggest ego. One of us wasn't as fit as the others were, and a lot of girls didn't really fall for that. They toyed with him, taking advantage of him, making him do whatever they wanted for the empty promise of a date."

Already having an idea of who he was referring to, Twilight shook her head. "That sounds terrible."

"It was, until he found a girl he fell head-over-heels for. And I mean he fell HARD."

"I know that feeling." She confessed. "Seeking out something that was never there."

Alex quickly corrected her. "Well, you can't say that. She did like him, after he decided to veer off from our path into the 'high school sweetheart' route. All those other girls that played with him, he just stopped talking to and devoted all of his attention to her... He was a bit clingy."

She gasped with surprise and followed it up with a light giggle. "That's funny. I would've never thought he'd be clingy like that."

"Yeah. He opened his mind up to an emotional investment he was not mentally ready for. So he stuck it out for her, going strong for two years before going to prom with her. And then he made the one mistake every dude makes in high school."

"What, what did he do?" She asked, feeling a bit invested into the story.

"He said the 'L' word. The girl he liked was happy, but realized that she was happier with the way things were in standing. She never questioned his affections, but she did give him an answer. It hurt him pretty bad. Yeah, that whole week leading up to that situation was terrible. They say bad things sometimes happens in threes."

The ominous statement he gave had her reflecting on his words, and also the possibilities. "Oh... Well that's something I never heard of."

"It's like that sometimes. But it was like a three-strike system. The following Sunday after prom night, our grandfather passed away."

Her suspicions were correct, his words were ominous, causing her to feel a little upset. "That's terrible."

"Her confession took place on Tuesday. And she had a dude that really was attached to her. He saw her getting upset over everything that happened, but he didn't realize she was fighting with herself. So ol' dude confronted my brother, and my younger brother got involved. The result: The one that got involved got suspended."

"Was there a fight?" She inquired.

"Yeah. The brother that got suspended was also on the football team, and it threatened his chances at a college scholarship. He had the eyes of a few recruits because of his speed, but that whole fiasco flipped that script real quick. So you can easily say our dad was beyond pissed."

"That doesn't sound like a good evening." She muttered.

Alex continued his story. "To keep it short: Nondis and dad fought, and Nondis was beat on really bad. He tried to throw a few punches back, but one of the blows ended up hitting mom, who tried to break them both up. She jumped in at a bad time."

"Ouch."

Alex pulled out his phone and read the time. He then sat back up and checked his text messages, many of whom belonged to his wife. "That was strike three for him."

Concerned, she turned to Alex and asked. "Strike three for what?"

"All of this happened in the course of four days, the passing of a loved one, the rejection of someone he thought he loved but was too mentally immature to handle it, and physically fighting his parents. All of those things made him implode. Him and dad were already at odds because of his introverted behavior, but this was something that erupted into a very ugly scene. Next thing I get is a phone call from mom panicking, telling me to come back home. When I arrive, my mom's staring at a hole in the wall and a gun on the floor, telling me that my brother tried to kill himself."

The young mare felt a metaphorical punch to the stomach as her heart dropped from her chest to her abdomen. Her eyes widened significantly, her face showing an uncomfortable frown. "That's... that's heavy."

Alex finished texting his wife and stood back up to take in the beautiful view of the Canterlot skyline. "Yeah. So he had to spend a night with his closest friend, the one that rejected him earlier in the week. Mel did her best to calm him down, and he eventually did."

At that moment, the pain started to swell within her. What once felt like a punch started to feel more like a knife being slowly turned inside of her. She grasped at her chest, trying to make sure her heart was still in place. "She was there for him the whole time."

"And she's doing for him even now. It's like my family had already decided a while back that if she wasn't around him, Nondis would be so far gone. And it showed that day he drove his car into the gulf. Now was that suicide, I'm not gonna answer that because I can't tell you if he was thinking that at the time. But we came to a consensus that she'd be the fit in our family to keep him on track."

The pain started to overwhelm her, leaving her to crumple up as she spoke. "I mean, why isn't she? She's human, I guess she's pretty for human standards. She's blunt at times, supportive, caring, concerned, knowing... protective..." Her words cracked as her voice started to lose much of it's foundation. "It's like I'm constantly asking myself where do I compete? Rarity's pretty and she cooks him meals, she makes his clothes, she does his hair, she gives him a bed to sleep in, and she makes him smile. Pinkie does whatever she can to keep him happy and stands by him when he's looking somewhere else, her parents and sisters all love him for what he did for her. She's so supportive, no matter how much he hurts her..."

Seeing the mare come apart before him made him uncomfortable, he tried to do the best he could to care for her. "Hey now─"

But she had already crossed the threshold, letting her emotions override her senses. "And what am I known for? Throwing up on his shirt when I got drunk? My older brother choking him before I could get a chance to sleep with him the first time? His getting hurt all the time? This stupid law? These politicians trying to kill him? Sex? He regretted us having sex because of me. And I screamed at him, I even slapped him more than once. I threatened to do something horrible to him in a fit of rage. And because of my anger, I chose to be petty and argue when it could have been the last time we saw each other. What am I even worth to him, when he has so much around him?"

At last, the mare completely broke down sobbing. Her tears pooled just before her, her hooves desperately trying to clear her face, which was quickly stained with more tears than before. Her body shook with regret, sadness, and self-loathing. She collapsed to the ground as he went in to pat her on the back. "...That's a lot of weight you're carrying there."

She hysterically cried out to him. "My mom walked in on me giving him a blowjob!"

He was quickly shocked into covering her mouth for a second. "Oh-kay, um..." He then used his hands to politely cup her chin and face him. "Look at me."

She returned his generousness and removed his hands from her face. "He called me special out of pity, because the one pony I liked turned out to not like me back. I was drunk, I was pathetic. I'm a princess and I can't even perform the basic functions of maintaining a trusting relationship with somepony. I can't cook, I can't make clothes, I'm nothing. He's everything and I can't be there for somepony who's so..."

For a few seconds, she lost the ability to speak coherently. Alex, who tried his best to comfort her, grabbed her attention once more. "I think you're giving yourself too little credit here."

"How!?"

Using his thumbs to wipe the tears off of her face, he started to inform her of everything she did. "Well for starters, you kept him going for nine months straight in a world he's never even heard of before. If I recall, you were initially made out to be his caretaker, right?"

"Yeah." She said between sniffles.

"And you were responsible for his health and well-being while he was here, right?"

Once more, she downplayed herself over the achievements of his best friend. "That's nothing compared to what Melanie's doing for him!"

"She learned that stuff to save other people's lives, he just happens to be someone who needed help." He explained.

"But she even told me that she tried to look for him!"

"Excuse me, princess, can I get your full attention for a moment?" He said as he picked her off of the ground, planting her back onto her hooves. "I'm not gonna lie and say that Mel hasn't earned my vote, because she's won it long before you showed up. But what I will say is this: She defers to you, his fiancee. If there's anything to be said, you've got her vote. I mean she could argue to Nondis up and down from Austin and back over how much she deserves to be with him, how she has a right to be with him, and that won't matter."

"How?" She questioned shyly.

"Because he's already bearing a cross for you..." He took a moment to think about his statement and tried to clarify himself. "Not to be overtly religious, more of metaphorical. With you, he's trying to introduce you to our mom and dad. He's been talking about you and your family to us, his own family. And what makes matters worse is that he's going to get crucified when mom and dad finds out you're a pony. Dad might even try to kill him, but he'll go to bat for you."

Still perplexed, she sniffled as she spoke. "I don't understand. Why me?"

"Because you were the first to openly show him you." He answered. "He could've left his heart back with Melanie, to ultimately build on something that could've ended one way or another, but you were the first to go to bat for him."

"I didn't do anything special." She said.

"Didn't you say your brother was going to choke him out, or something? Wasn't it just because he got up with you?"

"That was because of sex and that stupid law. Our relationship was pretty much based around that." She confessed pitifully.

"If you don't mind me reverting to my crude self, why is he fighting so damn hard for a piece of ass he's already taken?"

Unfazed by his statement, she gave her blunt assessment. "To defend himself, what else?"

Alex took a moment to think about himself and his brother. He knew that other than their strengths and weaknesses in social interaction, much of their thoughts would run the same. So he spoke from his own perspective, projecting himself as he did his best to convey on behalf of Nondis. "...My brother's an idiot. He's going through his growing pains and more than likely he'll pop right out of them. It's the main reason why I don't take Stanton so seriously when he says he'll never get into something serious, because I said the same shit when I was a few years younger. I'm twenty-five, married to a beautiful wife. My words for now are 'I'm not having kids anytime soon' but that too could change."

"What does that have to do with me?" She asked.

"It means you're growing too. I think this might be your first serious relationship, but the stress of things might be getting to the both of you. You're letting things distract you from whatever brought you two together."

"And what is it that really brought us together?" Twilight asked, knowing the answer for herself.

"Can't say. I'm not him, nor am I you. But the sex wasn't something that just pop up between the two of you, it had to have came from something else. You gotta find what that something is before everything is said and done. And if you can't find it right now, then take your time to do so."

She took a while to ponder over what he said. Feeling that her crying phase had cleared her, she stood a little sturdier. "So what do I do?"

"I wanna give you an exercise." He said, kneeling towards her. "I want you to push yourself away from him, and then get to know yourself. You've been on break without even being on break, you've been on-and-off and you're getting confused on what you want, what you don't like, all that good jazz."

Coming to the sorrowful conclusion of his statement, she swallowed her fear and finally said the words she dreaded to speak for a lengthy period of time. "So you're saying we should... break up?"

He nodded quietly, causing her to become depressed. "...Even pretending to go on is going to give you a lot of scars. If you're genuine in saying that you're not so sure if you're the right one and you can't find any reason for coming together other than sex, then I think that it would be for the best. No playing around for public appearances or anything. Just cap it and be done with it for now."

The purple mare then pleaded with him. "If we do that, we'll never be together again."

Alex, being knowledgeable of the law, winced a little in thought. "It's a pretty big risk, but at the same time there's a reward in place if he does wish to get back with you, for keeps this time." He held the mare by her hooves, smiling at her. "If he's serious about this relationship, or your friendship and wants to be that anchor in your life, you let him do that without distraction. If he finds his way back to you, you'd know it."

"What if I don't wanna do that?" She asked, fearing that their separation would only lead to the finalization of their relationship.

Alex then gave her a grim warning. "Then you go on as usual. He does his thing, you get free, and he breaks up with you after a tumultuous period of enduring pain and hurt. The friendship you had will never be the same. He'll get depressed and lonely, you'll do the same. Neither of you will be able to feel like you can move on because there'll be so much that's left unresolved."

"Do I have to let go?" She quietly asked herself.

"What I'm saying to you is the honest truth. You let him go, he'll be okay."

"But what if I hurt him?" She asked guiltily.

"I'll talk to him. I'll even give him a good talking to for being an insufferable, indecisive jackass, but I'll talk to him."

"I'm scared if it'll get worse before it gets better." She said, expressing her concern.

"I would rather you both trust each other and come back when you're ready. If he really wants you, he'll know what to do to get you back."

"How do you know that for certain?" She asked, starting to let her thoughts play out into the worst possible scenario. He quickly stopped her and pulled up a text message that was sent to him by his younger brother. As he looked at the message, he whispered to the princess,

"Can I tell you a secret?"

Present Day...

"Twilight?"

"Huh?" She snapped her head towards me as she came back from her trance.

"Yeah, you just went blank for a minute."

She smirked a little as she blushed. "Sorry. I guess I let my mind do all the talking without saying anything to you at all."

"Eeyup." I deadpanned.

"I want you to be honest with me." She said quietly, once more grabbing my hand with her hooves. "We're still friends, right?"

"Yeah."

"And friends still do for one another, correct?"

"I don't think there's been much of a change in that department."

"Hypothetically speaking, if something were to happen, anything at all... would you still... fight for us?"

Her questioned confused me. It was because of what she said, but rather how she said it. "...Yeah, I would."

"How far would you go?" She asked quietly.

I looked down at myself and remembered how close I was to death. I gave her an honest answer. "I don't think I can go much further than this. Sorry."

"No." She said, nuzzling my hand again. "You're wonderful... too wonderful."

"...I see..."

"I never really got a chance to say how amazing you are."

Okay, I know where this is going. She always did something like this just before she brings up one topic in particular. "...Yeah, I'm still gonna keep your promise."

"No, it's fine." She said, placing my hand back on my chest. "I decided that I wasn't going to put you through that."

For the first time in a while, I felt like I was greeted with something unexpected yet incredible. Something inside of me felt like I could do whatever I could to get myself to sit up for her. Under my own strength, I ended up sitting up to look at her. It took much effort, but I felt myself becoming emboldened to do so. "So we're together?"

She wrapped her forelegs and her wings around my body, holding me tightly while she whispered. "...You're so sweet to me."

"You didn't quite answer me." I said with disbelief, feeling a bit excited over what was being said to me.

"Every morning I woke up to the sight of you, the smell of your hair in my nose. Often you'd use my shampoo, so the familiar scent of lavender would greet me when I stirred. Each moment you touched me was with the taste of honey, milk, and chamomile. My dreams would be filled with you, I made them so that I wouldn't miss you as I slept. The slender length of your fingers always spoke of several stories, none of them I've ever gotten the chance to hear. Your mind could construct the greatest tapestries, showing me a culture unlike my own."

I tried to interject. "Twilight─"

But she ran through me. "Every time you went to bed, you'd sometimes get a little hair over your eyes. I'd brush them off to watch you sleep. The sight of your chest rising and falling as I laid on it, the rhythmic waltz of your beating heart would rock me to sleep. You muttered many things in your rest, I remember each of them, each vowel and consonant. I first found it funny how you almost spoke like Applejack often, but then I got so used to it that I found myself talking like you. We had many conversations, several of which led to an uprising of sorts."

She let me go, smiling at me with a face full of tears. Beneath my hands was a scroll of parchment. Upon further inspection, I realized it was the very scroll I signed before Twilight and I were legally engaged. But instead of the wax seal remaining in one piece, it was broken. And it quickly added up to what this meant for me.

My heart felt like something icy had gone through it, the smile on my face completely wiped away. "What did I do wrong?"

She kissed me on the forehead, whispering into my ear. "I could get lost in you, so much that I've lost myself. All these things I loved about you ended up changing me, and I think it's so wonderful that you showed me a world beyond the boundaries of friendship. You've showed me the stigma and wealth of being emotionally jealous. And you've guided me into adulthood, leading me gently along the way. If I could ever tell you what you did wrong, it's that you spoiled me too much. No stallion or human will ever give me what you gave to me, and it will hurt me forever."

She proceeded to walk away, walking towards the door to leave me alone. With every step she took, I felt like something inside of me trembled terribly. I felt like I had lost something of irredeemable value, and pain was the only thing that filled the void that remained. "Violet." I called to her, immediately grabbing her attention. "I'm sorry."

"No more pretending. Let's be ourselves, like we once were." She said with a bittersweet smile on her face.

I tried to speak my heart, pleading with her over this. "I lo─"

She stopped me cold, not even giving me a chance to say it. "Don't make that mistake again." She said with a tender voice. "You give that to me when the time is right."

Feeling more of an ache all over my body, I tried to reach out for her. "But we won't be able to─"

Her magic engulfed my hand, placing it back on my lap. "No... not now. But that depends on you."

"I can't function without you." I begged.

Almost with a twist of the cruelest irony, she gave me probably the biggest smile I've ever seen her wear. "You made it this far, don't give up yet." She said, her voice betraying the mask she wore.

I finally understood what was taking place. It was something she didn't want to do, yet she committing herself to pulling it through. But I couldn't help but to be selfish in the moment. "...Violet, you're really cruel to me."

"I could say the same thing... Patricia." She said while turning away from me. She dropped her head slightly before she perked back up and kept her head up high. "We'll start your rehab tomorrow. Stay springy for us."

The moment that door closed behind her, everything just hit me all at once. It was like I was slapped with fatigue sledgehammer, sending most of my muscles into a semi shut-down state. The grief of realizing what was in my hands and why it was there completely threw my heart into a downward spiral. And it came after she spoke sweetly of me, such words that I'd only hear in what would be a wedding vow, and my heart fluttered like a butterfly in the mild spring breeze. My mind was filled with colorful pictures of flowers and sweet scents, the image of her staring at me with a heavenly gleam.

Now that it's all gray again, it felt like breathing was almost pointless.

Melanie slowly opened the door a few seconds later. She poked her head inside. "You okay, champ?"

Realizing I was far too tired to move under my own will, I felt my torso grow heavy. I fell back, slamming into the bed, bumping my head against the headrest. The pain registered quite vividly, but I remained stoic. "Do we have any extra pillows?"

"No, not today." She answered kindly, walking into the room.

"Oh, that's too bad." I muttered. Looking down, I noticed my right arm was carelessly slung over the side of the bed. I tried to move it back, but soon realized that it was a futile endeavor. "I can't move my arms anymore."

Melanie sighed as she sat next to me."C'mere you big baby." She lifted my arm and placed it in her lap. Clearing the little bit of hair from my face, she rubbed my forehead gingerly.

The pulling of my heart didn't stop as I felt her do her best to console me. Instead, I felt the twang in my body that caused me to react with watery eyes. "You gotta stop treating me like this."

"Nope." She said laying me down, straightening up my bed and pillows.

"Figures you'd say that."

Too tired to function, too tired to ponder more on the present, too tired to cry about it, I closed my eyes and wished for the present to cede to the hours ahead. I felt the breathing device being placed over my face as I drifted out one more time. Melanie rubbed my face, cleaning the tears that streamed down my cheeks. With a tone that sounded so inviting, so motherly, she whispered in my ear.

"It's gonna be okay."

It was those words that hurt me the most.

Author's Note

Theme of this chapter:

Well, 16 days between chapters? I didn't think that was possible. Guess I got on a roll. Then again, I used to be able to do this in the period of 2 days. But life happens. It's a lot smoother this go around, probably because my June wasn't booked to hell.

Ah, the moment has come, and sooner than expected to many. But why did it come, well of course there's a legitimate reason for everything, isn't there? I will only say that it will be explained in a chapter or two.

Obviously this was a rundown chapter, stating what all happened and setting the stage for the next series of events to take place. And I know I'll get some comments on Rainbow Dash, so I highly encourage you to PM me and I'll give you my answer for my explanation of why this happened.

I will do my best to keep things interesting and not too out there like for the past few chapters have been. Things are on the slow down for now until the next event, but I'm not saying what it is. I can only thank you with words on a webpage, but know I'm sincerely humbled by the continued following.

Stay tuned, there's more to build on.

Chapter LXVIII

I went to sleep after everything had hit me all at once. While the stress of my day eventually wore off little by little, I was left with this cold patch somewhere inside my chest. I couldn't tell if I was nauseous or just in physical pain altogether. But the more I thought about her, the worse it got. So all throughout the night, tossing my head back and forth, I tried to flush my brain of it.

Eventually, my sleep became some sort of epic fight where several nodes and kingdoms would try to charge against a huge crystal spire that contained my sanity. I sent armies in various directions, plotting, planning, devising a way to defend my keep. Eventually, the keep would look an awful lot like the one that encircled Canterlot Castle. The massive crystal spire turned red as I tried to do whatever I could to keep the outside forces from getting in. Large beasts broke the gates, and I was forced to call everyone back in.

The immediate threat was then sent away, leaving me to clean up the damages. But it was never-ending, I was sending troops from one area to another, to another, back home, to another, back home again, and then to another, glowing rings surrounded the castle, icy explosions of power shattered the sky above, and all was left was this dark red sky that ended with a painful jolt into my left hand.

It was a hell of a weird dream, that had me to wake up to the sight of Melanie using a butterfly needle to draw in blood samples. She giggled as my eyes cracked open. "Morning sleepy head."

"Morning." I croaked out weakly.

She was kind enough to wipe the sleep out of my eyes for me as she spoke. "You seem like you've been awake for a while, I take it you didn't get much sleep."

I looked at the clock and saw that it was 6:30 in the morning. But the last numbers I recorded from that clock on the wall was in the early hour of five. The sky outside my window had started to turn from deep navy to a rich royal blue. "5:15 in the morning, I had it internalized over the past few days." That was the time I'd usually get up, but it appeared that was the time I had actually fallen asleep instead.

"I'm not sure if you were waking up over that time period, you were in a coma for a week, remember?" She noted.

I groaned tiredly. "That's something I'm still trying to process."

"I understand, it takes some getting used to." She said before she started poking at my forehead. "But I do have to beat it into your head just to get you to realize that whatever was on your schedule wasn't going to fit anymore."

While I felt a significant increase of strength in my arms from yesterday, my mind felt like complete mush. At that point, I was just saying whatever without really meaning it. "I feel like I can go for a little more today." I lied.

"Oh, not that there's much of a choice in your case. The parliament is wanting to see you today, another summons." She said with a sarcastic tone imitating some childish jubilation.

At least this reaction from me was indeed genuine. "For fucks sake, another one? What do these assholes want!?" I think I sounded like a frustrated angsty teen.

"It's not requested by the politicians, it's requested by the royals."

Again, I was angsty. "What do they want?"

"Well, I think it had something to do with your little piece of paper over to your right." She pointed out, having me look to the scroll with the broken wax seal. My heart started to ache again as I recognized what gave me trouble sleeping.

"Oh yeah, that's a thing now." I said as I tossed to my side. At least I had the little bit of energy to do that.

As I laid on my side, my eyelids proceeded to get heavier and heavier. At one point, I was ready to fall back into my sleep before the door swung open, giving way to a loud and boisterous Cliff. "Haha! My man!"

I just can't win today. I turned back to face the door and see Cliff and Rickey walking into the room. "Look at you, being a total jackass to death himself." Rickey stated happily.

"Ugh, this makes it how many times now?" I groaned, taking that thought into perspective.

"Dunno. But we went out and got you a little something-something." Cliff said as he walked back into the hall, using his foot to prop the door open. When he walked back in, he was pushing an empty wheel chair up to my bedside. "Bam!"

"Aw, for me? You shouldn't have." I said with a froggish tone. While Melanie raised my bed to sit me up, I started to move myself to sitting on the edge.

"Mel was bitching to me about getting a wheelchair for you on the way here today." Rickey said crudely before he shied away from the mean-mugging nurse. He sheepishly tried to correct himself. "I-I mean y-you're not a─"

"I don't care, asshole." She harshly stated. "Stopped caring since we broke up."

I felt the room become slightly tense, offering to change the subject back to the present. "Oh. Did anyone harass you about that on the train?" I asked in regards to the wheelchair.

Cliff shook his head. "Hell nah. Remember when ol' girl said something about making us portals?"

I remember something along those lines... Celestia told me herself that she'd allow for them to come as they pleased. Damn, I forgot that shit takes only a month after they figure out where you're going. "Oh they finished those!?" That bit of news did wake me up significantly.

"Yeah, we get a free pass on our own now. Of course we might have to take a drive to your apartment if we wanna get to Ponyville." Rickey quickly answered.

I suppose that makes the travel from one place to another significantly easier. It's rather interesting how our word can be used as a sort of nexus port where we just drive fifteen minutes down the street to get from Canterlot to Ponyville. Normally that would take us four to six hours, depending on the delays and rail conditions on the mountain. For me, no more trains, love it already. But that does leave a few questions. "Where does it come through to?"

Cliff was the first to speak about his portal. "Mine's comes out of my closet, sorta like yours. I had to buy a damn body-length mirror before I went and did some dumb-ass shit trying to climb through the frat bathroom mirror."

Rickey raised his hand, pointing to Melanie. "Mine's kinda being used already. It's at Mel's place."

Holy hell, that just turned my 15 minute drive to a five minute walk! This nexus portal thing could be pretty handy, dangerous to a certain degree, but useful. "What's yours doing all the way over there?"

"Because I threatened to share his embarrassing fetish to the whole campus if he didn't." Melanie answered with a stern look to Rickey.

"Blackmail, seriously?" I asked.

"It works when it's an emergency situation."

...Not even gonna ask, it saved my ass so I can't complain. "So I got a question?"

"Bathroom?" Melanie finished, causing me to save my breath.

"You read my mind."

After my visit to the bathroom, I was given some privacy to shower and brush my teeth. Afterwards, I had gotten some help from Alex in dressing me. Alex, who had gotten in from talking with Vanessa again, had went out and bought some clothes for me to wear since I was a distance away from Ponyville and the portal on that end was shut off for a maintenance check. By the time I had thrown on the clothes he had bought me, I realized just how odd it felt to wear them.

Usually everything I wore were to my EXACT measurements. So whenever I wore a t-shirt, it was never exactly a large, medium, or what have you. It was me, it was perfect, and it was often a lot more expensive and more decorative. So me wearing a plain cream Marc O'Polo shirt with some Wrangler jeans two sizes too big around the waist was a bit odd for me.

But luckily the belt he purchased was woven instead of notched, so I could tighten it to my size.

After all of that, I was made clean and absent of old-person-trapped-on-the-hospital-bed smell. I smelled like Old Spice, I got a bit of a trim, and my hair was combed to look like I was ready for business... for the most part. I never really paid attention to it, but my hair had grown down to shoulder length. I also had a mustache, and a fairly trimmed goatee. Guess I'll experiment with the look for a while.

After all of that, I was finally checked out of the medical wing for a bit to attend the summons. Alex, Rickey, Cliff, and Stanton all accompanied me as we entered the chamber. When I was wheeled into the room, a deafening hush soon washed over every senator and politician present. A few of them turned to their peers and whisper while pointing at me. What started as a light series of hisses from one area grew to imitate a pit of angry snakes. Blueblood called the room to attention. "Order! We will have order!"

As I was wheeled in place beside Blueblood at the center of the floor, one senator from the right side of the room threw out to his peers. "Behold, the esteemed Captain of the Royal Guard. It's like he chooses to be lazy at his job."

Alex was having none of it. "Another outburst like that, I'm gonna show just how quick I can make you shut up."

"It's just a bit of banter, a little ribbing. Obviously he can take some of that if he can take a knife." The same politician responded.

"Careful, I heard he's a cripple now." One other senator threw out harshly.

"Is that why he's being lugged around like some box on a dolly?" Another senator asked.

"Special delivery!" One senator joked at my expense.

"ORDER!" Blueblood screamed.

"Up." I heard another politician whisper to one of his colleagues, causing him to giggle.

While I took the ill-willed banter for nothing greater than a group of jabbering idiots, I proceeded to clear my mind for the cause ahead. But in the inner recesses of my mind, I was thinking to myself.

Gee, I'm starting to think that 4chan, for all the shit it's known for, is such a pleasant place full of nice people.

Finally, one of the politicians got to the program and opened up the floor for dialog. "So I suppose you didn't piss off the royals, did you? Never seen a royal summon you to court."

"Oh he's been summoned to court alright!" Another senator joked, causing a few giggles to erupt.

I instinctively held my hand to refrain my older brother from lunging himself into the stands. "Alex, chill."

He spoke through gritted teeth, trying to push past my arm. "But these guys─"

"Are on edge. You got their main guy, and now they're doing whatever it takes to save face." As I was saying that, I scanned the room for one face in particular, only to find that Count DuMoneé was nowhere to be seen. Pity, if he were here I would've lost my composure some time ago, but it feels like they're just trying too damn hard to get to me. Granted, their barbs are a bit irksome, but it's like the sting isn't there. "It just happens that they suck at it."

Blueblood cleared his throat as he loudly announced to the room. "Hear ye! Hear ye! Summons is now in session! The honorable Princess Celestia presides."

The quartet of alicorns approached the panel. Celestia and Luna sat at center while Cadance sat beside Luna, Twilight sitting beside her former mentor. Shining followed the four and sat beside his wife as Celestia looked down and smiled at me. "Captain, it is good to see you."

"Likewise, your highness." I said with a nod, lowing my head as much as I could to notate a bow.

"My lady, are you certain that this cripple is capable of carrying our country's security under his current condition?" A politician from the right stated. "He appears to be unfit for the task if walking appears to be an issue."

"Your highness, it does concern us that he would remain in office if this were to be shown as a life-long issue." One senator from the left stated.

"Finally, someone on the other side of the aisle speaks some sense!" Another politician, noticeably sitting where Count would normally sit, states with a proud smirk.

"Order!" Celestia called out, instantly silencing the room. "He is my selection, and I am confident in his abilities beyond his duties on the front line. From what I was told, his condition is only temporary."

Alex then went on to speak. "To simply explain, he's recovering from a lack of muscle movement as well as overexerting himself in the hospital yesterday. He's currently recovering from his wounds, and he will be ready to take back his position within the next two weeks."

"Two weeks seems like a promise for our enemies to come by and pay us an unexpected visit." Another politician replied.

"Then I'll be more than capable of taking over that position." Shining declared.

"You're even more incompetent than him!" Another representative stated. "At least he came back from the mountain with all thirty of his guards! How many did you come back with? I believe that number was pretty... minuscule in contrast."

"You guys are just biting at anything you see in the pond, aren't you?" I called out to the members of the parliament.

Another stood up and pointed at me. "I'm just waiting for you to be reprimanded on your trying to take from the royal treasury!"

"That's right! Lock him up!" One hollered out, causing his peers to cheer and rally behind him.

Luna looked to her older sister, who nodded at her. She then slowly took a deep breath, unfurled her wings, and unleashed a volume that could deafen whoever dared to be within inches of her. Her voice rattled the room, an omnidirectional soundwave that caused the very fixtures in the room to shudder.

"ORDER! WE WILL HAVE ORDER!"

While Alex and the other humans were knocked to the ground, I had already plugged my ears closed. It was often that I heard of the legendary amplification effect of one's voice, known as the Royal Canterlot Voice, or YE-OLDE-CAPSLOCK. But never have I thought that plugging your ears would only result in a minimal noise reduction. Don't want to be in her face when she does that again.

Celestia thanked her sister and carried on with her statements. "We have spoken with him as he recovered from his injuries. It is confirmed that his intentions were solely focused on the welfare of the former victims' families. Therefore, we do not find him guilty of inciting any treasonous activities on the funding of obtained royal goods."

An eruption of jeers and cries of disapproval came raining down from over half of the room. Luna quickly brought their complaints to an end with yet another round of her booming voice. "ORDER!" She hollered. Only this time, the other humans were well prepared for the blast.

As the room stood in dead silence, we heard the noise of one figure clearing her throat from the overseer's stand. "Your highness, may I take to the floor?"

"You may proceed, Princess Twilight." Princess Celestia said with a nod.

With instant transmission, she poofed her way to my side, walking to face me, standing between me and the several hundred politicians. "Nondis P. Haines." She said with a humble bow. "Your service to our country has been nothing but admirable. In the short period of time you have face one of our most sought-after adversaries. And though you showed the power and might of your species, you have also showed the compassion and respect often recognized in a leader of the highest standing."

A few of the politicians rolled their eyes and waved their hooves to mock her talking. "Stroking his ego, there she goes." One muttered.

The next of him replied. "What an absolute brood."

"SILENCE!" Shining's voice hollered out, not producing as much volume as Luna but giving a more intimidating edge to the sharpness of it's presence. Even a few of the bickering politicians drew back out of fear.

While others have been oblivious as to what was being said, my brothers and I weren't so oblivious. The three of us would often go on our hunting trips out in Wimberley, but our grandmother had a ranch out that way. So whenever we visited our grandparents, we'd tend to the various animals there. "Brood... brood... broodmare?" And we were VERY familiar with that word and it's connotation. Alex was quick to show his anger. "Your highness, can I shoot him, please!?"

I gave him a nudge and whispered. "Alex, chill."

The purple princess smiled sweetly as she saw that I too wasn't very thrilled to hear the insults to her but was strong enough not to break her example. "Thank you. The show of class you continue to display is what we often seek to maintain the mantle of leadership in our country. So with an honest heart, I hereby congratulate you on your official status of being the Captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard."

More eye-rolling and groaning came from the usual area. "More of this ego polishing? Seriously."

Twilight's ears fell as she used her magic to grasp at my hand. "Now I shall speak to you as a suitor. In your unwavering service to me, I have seen you achieve the unthinkable, braving through what could be said as the hardest trials a non-magical being could ever face in his lifetime. It takes a lot to be able to maintain your composure when going against things you fully don't comprehend. But you still showed me why you are an excellent candidate. You would be nothing short of miraculous for any mare, and I love that about you."

I bowed my head in acceptance. "Thank you, your highness."

"However, not all things are endless." And then the bitter reality of what was happening before them started to manifest on the others' faces. Some politicians rose from their boredom and propped themselves up to listen. Celestia grew a concerned frown as Twilight continued. "You have, once more saying, showed to me and many others in this room that you are capable of standing before the life you swore to protect with fealty and admiration of them. And I shall surely take notice of your accomplishments. So it is with a heavy burden that I must say to you..."

Blueblood looked up to Shining with confusion. "What is going on?"

And finally, she said it.

"I, Princess Twilight Sparkle, hereby relinquish my suitor from his premarital duties."

The entire room broke out in gasps and shouts of awe and disbelief. Politicians on the right were so off guard that they didn't even know how to give a response to it. Some on the left were debating amongst themselves about the affair. Luna and Celestia stared at one another with shock. Cadance took a deep breath and turned her head.

Shining crumpled and covered his face with his foreleg. "No... Dammit."

Blueblood seemed to look back to the other royals before turning back to show a grim scowl on his face. "Faust fucking sake, another one? Tell me we are NOT doing THIS again."

Meanwhile, the other humans who joined me were showing signs of disgust, mainly at Twilight. "WHOA, HOLD ON A MINUTE!" Stanton hollered at her. "You're just gonna dump him!? IN PUBLIC!?"

"That's how it is here." I intervened, realizing this public display was for a valid reason. "If anything, this was long-since planned. I expected this to occur."

Cliff stepped in front of me, grabbing my shoulders as he shook me a little. "Non, my nigga, how da fuck you good with this?" He then balled his hands into fists, gritted his teeth, took two steps away before storming back at me and knocking against my chair. "You in a damn wheelchair, straight from the hospital, and she just out and throw yo ass in the street like that? C'mon, bruh! Da fuck you mean, you cool with da shit!? I'm straight-up heated for yo ass!"

"Dude, we've been fighting for a month straight. I think this is fine." I confessed, causing the others to look at Twilight with newfound mistrust.

Celestia threw in her voice to interject. "Well then... I suppose we should discuss this."

Twilight then cut her short. "There's nothing else to discuss. He and I decided that our relationship had grown too hostile for us to stabilize."

"So..." Blueblood hissed slowly with anger. "You are aware that a severance here would mean his disqualification of any future pursuit of you, correct?"

Twilight's head fell at the thought and her eyes threatened to release tears, but she shut them to hold them back. She took a series of calming breaths, placing her hoof on her chest and extending it out in front of her. Finally, she perked up and looked at the blond-maned prince with a brave front. "I am aware of this."

By those words, Blueblood simply gave a sarcastic nod before trotting away from his post and out of the chamber, never to return. Luna stammered to carry on where Blueblood had left off. "Y-y-you sir, you are also to be made aware that this severance would mean that you are prohibited from engaging with her or any other royal in standing."

It's not like I have much of a choice in the matter. Even if I didn't want this to happen, the severance was mainly her power and hers alone. If I did it, then it would bring about some rather nasty charges that would probably have me become something akin to a eunuch. This is before a host of witnesses, she's the one laying the law, and I'm the one who will abide.

Again, it's not something that I want to do, but for the sake of our future as friends... "I am aware, and will acknowledge."

Celestia, who appeared crestfallen, called out to her former student. "I must say... I am... dismayed." She pleaded to her once more. "Twilight, he is a truly wonderful suitor for you. I know that you two may have had differences, but to break off any potential future the two of you will have is rather bewildering."

"It is to be expected." One voice in particular spoke out, itching the high royal's ear. "He hasn't been completely honest with her."

Unfortunately, my legendary patience with the politicians didn't translate to the likes of Cadance. In her case, she was directly interfering with our relationship, our love life, and my interactions with others. So she became the first one I fired back at. "Like you haven't been completely honest with your husband and your attachment issues?"

Those words, not even that loud in volume, brought a hush that not even Luna could invoke. Twilight covered her muzzle with horror while Shining shot back up to defend his wife. "Nondis, that was out of line."

I didn't care at that point. If this was going to happen, then I'm going to put everything out on the floor for them to understand. So I offered my apologies to the one that I did have decent terms with. "I'm sorry Shining. But it's like every conversation Twilight and I had, she played third wheel and jump in Twilight's corner without even asking me what the hell is going on. She's always treating me like I'm some sort of problem when it comes to everything!"

"That's because I've known her for a while. You might not see it, but I get on her case too." Cadance explained.

I quickly replied. "You take her to spa days, I get briefed and then worked like a damn Hebrew slave. You know, for one holding the title 'Princess of Love', you sure are very partial of who you share your advice with and how you go about it."

The pink princess chuckled as she mocked me. "So you're mad at me over a spa?"

"No, I'm mad because you fly in saying you're the love doctor where you only end up playing the role of the feel-good girl for half of the party. It's like for the past twenty-some-odd days, you've been so crabby that you don't even give me helpful advice as much as you jump into arguments to find ways to complain about me. You need to own up to your controlling issues before you even consider wearing that teacup-looking ass crown of yours. As a counselor you're supposed to be impartial, not running to the defense of your sister-in-law. You are part of the reason why we're like this, because you inject so much of yourself into us, that you forget we're completely different people."

The atmosphere of the room became awkwardly tense, leaving the politicians to be nothing more than a mere audience to the debate she and I had. "So did the wheels come off of the love train already." One whispered to another.

I looked at the one who made the comment, who turned his head away whistling to the ceiling. I turned my attention back to the pink princess with an emboldened tone. "So yeah, thank you Cadance, for destroying what we had between us. Mi Amore Cadenza!" I paused for a second and mumbled to myself. "Your name should be Mi Total Bitch Cadenza. I think that's fits you better."

Celestia quickly turned to the pink princess and spoke. "I was unaware that this rift had occurred. Cadance is this true?"

"I only did my best to help Twilight with all of her questions." She answered in a innocent tone.

"And you helped me by doing what?" I continued to grill her for the truth.

"I tried to keep you out of trouble. You chose not to listen to me, you never do! I can't help someone who's not even willing to help themselves." She said once more, blaming me for her interactions. Her response caused me to push against the armrests of my wheelchair, anchoring me as I staggered to my feet.

"You..." Before I could say something else, a crushing fatigue ran rampant throughout my body, causing me to quickly lose balance and stumble back down. The locks on the wheels weren't set in place so I nearly ended up falling to the ground. If it wasn't for Alex and Stanton holding me up, I would've taken a bad spill.

Gasps and cries of awe sounded throughout the room as I was assisted back into the chair. Twilight, in seeing the two of us going at each other in such a manner grew upset. She clenched her eyes shut as she quickly teleported to Celestia's side. The eldest princess comforted the younger while Luna looked to me with disappointment.

The visual of the exchange of emotions fueled debate amongst many of the politicians, some even hatching theories and conspiracies. One from Count's camp even stood up to point at us and shout to the congregation. "Incredible, the royals turn on the very one they championed to their side! Oh sweet irony, thine face is beautiful!"

Luna continued to give me a stern expression as she questioned me before the gathering. "Nondis, agreeing to something like this would ultimately remove you from many considerations of power. And it is your only chance to be with her. If you turn this down─"

I could already tell from the sight of Twilight hiding in her wings that this thing had ran on long enough. Shining walked up to his younger sibling and comforted her, she responded by throwing her forelegs around him in a tight hug. He petted her as he turned to me with a hurtful frown. I wanted to do something for her, but I knew that was no longer my place.

With a sigh of exasperation, I weakly replied. "Your highness, I am weary. Please be done with it so that I may rest."

"...Then it is decided." Celestia said softly with a deflated tone. "By royal decree, I hereby strip Nondis P. Haines of the title of royal suitor. And under the articles of Processu Approbati, your considerations are permanently revoked. You are hereby prohibited from pursuing any other of royal stature. May this decree be known in the highest office and be sent to the lowest lands of Equestria. Motion is carried."

With one solid smack of the gavel, I felt like I was just sentenced to prison. The whole room felt like I was going to be put away for a long time, where in reality it was the furthest thing from being that. Yet I still couldn't help but to feel that way. Maybe it was the sad sound of Celestia's voice, or even the bitter glares I got from Cadance, I felt like I just hit a brick wall in life.

Thankfully, that feeling didn't come with handcuffs of any kind, but support from my peers... mostly. "Bruh, you fucked up." Cliff said while shaking his head.

I watched Twilight slowly recover from her emotions, eventually standing stoic with an empty expression on her face, Shining continuing to pet her mane as she stood in place. My heart sank looking at her like that. "For once I'm hoping you're wrong." I answered back.

Celestia wasted no time, she sent me off and tended to the parliament once more. "Summon is hereby dismissed, onto the next order of business."

If you thought the politicians rambling and ranting on about what happened in summons was noisy, then the news spreading throughout the castle would be as ear-friendly as a roaring jet engine in a small concrete room. Everywhere we went, there had to have been one group of guards passing by on patrol muttering about it, only to get quiet and stare when we pass by. The maids were probably the worst offenders, they had so many jokes and laughs at my expense and then got quiet when we came around.

And of course, it wasn't like we didn't talk about it either. Stanton had pushed me along while he spoke quietly. "I cannot believe y'all just up and split like this."

"It was coming. I didn't want it to happen." I explained.

Stanton patted me on the shoulder as if to console me after a hard blow. "But what are you gonna do now? Aren't you supposed to be helping them with that dumb-ass law?" Rickey asked.

"Dude, why even bother?" Cliff growled bitterly. "If she's gonna do you like that in your worst moment, then they can suffer for all I care."

...Okay, that's an odd response. But I understand where his anger's coming from.

A bit of background on him: Cliff had an ex girl who he really felt like was 'wifey material'. They were going out since junior year of high school, graduated together, enrolled together. But as time went along, the end result only produced pain and heartache on both of their parts. She did some things, he did some things, she got mad, he cussed her out, she cheated, he found out cause the guy she was cheating with was fucking her during a phone call. Then the video got leaked around campus, she changed schools, and he's been single since.

So his anger comes from a lack of trust for girls who 'play dirty'. But still, Twilight isn't that type of girl. I challenged him on his words. "Don't you think you're being a little too personal about this?"

He gave off a grunt and a long sigh. "Okay, maybe I overreached there." He said, patting himself on the chest to admit his wrongs. "I'm just... pissed. Aren't you?"

How can I not be? I didn't even get a proper reason for why I woke up from a coma to getting dumped. But then I had to remember that our last time together was a fight. Perhaps this was for the best. "It happens."

"You're in a fucking wheelchair, how could you not be pissed?" He argued.

Again, he brought up another valid point. And it's not like I felt like a total embarrassment when I fell out of the chair earlier. But I was going to keep those thoughts to myself. "It's a small stumbling block, this isn't something permanent."

It's not healthy to hold things in.

While my mind started to become a bit of a distraction, something else proved to be an even greater disturbance. A loud voice rang through the halls. "IN-CON-CEIVABLE!"

The sharpness of the tone caused many guards and maids in the hall to scatter about, hiding behind the stone columns. And for many of us, we already knew who's voice that belonged to. "Ooooh... isn't that─"

And it came from the hall just up ahead. "Yup. Let's check in on them before it starts to get ugly."

When we approached the corner, we tried to remain hidden from the view of the two arguing princesses. Standing on one side was Princess Celestia who looked far more incensed than usual, and the other was a pleading yet composed Cadance. The two carried one while we watched them from a distance.

"I'm sorry, auntie! I was just concerned for Twilight! I only followed your example!"

"You followed your intuition without any valid evidence, it's prejudice! Your meddling has caused a rift in not only the relationship of Twilight, but also the future of Nondis!"

Judging from the sound of her voice, Celestia sounded like she was more than heated. But it didn't stop Cadance from making her case.

"You commended Twilight for following her intuition, why should this be any different!?"

"Because Twilight knew you, she knew what to look out for. Even if I was so blind to see it myself, she was observant enough to discern if your husband was marrying you or an impostor! Her reasoning was valid!"

Cadance pointed to herself as she emphasized her point. "And I know Twilight! I know how easily she can get hurt with these things!"

By then, Celestia stepped in Cadance's way, speaking closely with an unusual timbre. Each word sounded like steam from a boiling tea pot. "Excuse me... So are you to assume that my hooves-off approach on her intimacy was without merit?"

Just the expression on Celestia's face made even me want to step back, and I was way further down the hall. But Cadance remained undeterred. "I'm just saying a bit of guidance and intervention was all it took for me to give her the best outcome for her future! Everything up to a certain point was as you wished it, hooves off. But that only got them in deeper trouble. I saw how they were acting after you called them aside! I knew then that it was time to step in."

The elder royal stepped away for a second before looking back to her minor. "Cadance, do you not remember the times when I consoled you, when I offered guidance during your engagement? Not once did I ever overstep any boundaries with Shining Armor. Indeed, I was very stern with him, but I was also stern with you."

"I know, and I was stern with Twilight too! I did everything I could to keep her on the right path, to keep her out of trouble! I went the extra mile, and even she grew objective towards me."

"But for some odd reason, I could never imagine her being so vehemently engaged with you. And it's not as if I haven't noticed your bias for Twilight. She is your sister-in-law, that is true. But your treatment was disproportionate. You spent more time discussing with her than you did negotiating with Nondis. You hardly informed him of anything that you and Twilight agreed on, leaving it to her to break the news you knew she was hesitant to tell." After her rant of obvious disappointment, Celestia calmed her voice and urged Cadance to continue walking with her. "If you were going to intervene in such a manner, it would've been a practice of decorum to approach them simultaneously!"

"As if I can keep up with him! He's always on the move!"

Celestia chuckled at the younger royal's excuse. "I remember when Shining was half a world away and how easy it was for me to maintain some form of consensus between us three." But then her tone changed to that of a serious one. "You failed in that regard, and now a life is forever changed! If Twilight still feels for him at any point, it will be damning to any of her future suitors! And you can already attest to how difficult it is to find her one, or even how insurmountable it was to have Shining agree with your terms during the start of you relationship! You played their sides as if you were in the relationship with him, and you failed!"

Finally, Cadance backed down with her ears lowered and her head bowed. "I was just doing what was for the best."

Thought Celestia still showed disappointment and some anger, she was still able to appear rather maternal to the younger royal. With a hoof to the chin, Cadence's head was raised to look at her mentor. "And it was made worse, Cadenza. This is a lesson to learn from, follow my example and step no further than I would."

The two proceeded to walk down the hall once more, their voices trailing off as they slowly disappeared from a clear focus. We continued to listen up until they left. "So... what now?"

"A stabilization period is necessary for the next three months. We shall continue the search for an appropriate suitor as she recovers. Then we will provide her with a promising proposal."

"Still following on Mrs. Velvet's request?"

"This time we'll have to move to one with an already distinguished career. We don't have time to start over."

"Well there's always Flash Sentry─"

While their voices tapered off into the distance, the rest of us finally took a breath and process the conversation that took place. "Ain't that some shit?" Cliff said with a scoff.

While the words started to fade into the air, they only grew louder in my head. Just after this was all done, they're already trying to do what they can to get Twilight involved with someone else... I know, I know, I was the first to advertise this so it shouldn't affect me. But for the strangest reason, it feels like I'm so small in the grand scheme of things, especially after so long of feeling so big.

Reality came to send my skyward ego barreling towards the ground. "So... that hurts a little. Guess I was the rebound for Flash after all." I muttered quietly.

"That's a pretty terrible suggestion."

The five of us quickly turned around to see who had snuck up on us and spoke. Most of us had grabbed either for our chests or for the nonexistent weapons on our waists. Alex was the first to address the orange pegasus standing behind us. "Where did you come from?"

"I was patrolling around and then I saw a bunch of humans peeking around a column. I just waltzed around to see what the fuss was about. And unfortunately that came up again." Flash said with a nervous voice.

"What came up again?" Rickey asked.

"You mean you and Twilight?" I correctly guessed.

The pegasus rapidly shook his head. "No thank you. I don't have that charisma or the techy stuff to distract Shining Armor with. And Cadance was already mouthing up a storm about you. Oh, and don't even get me started with the unreasonable demands from the parliament. You stuck it out far better than anypony ever could with your track record."

"Weren't you her first crush anyways?" I inquired. "How did that even come about?"

"She walked through a magical mirror, walked back out, and both her and Cadance stared at me from the end of the hallway. That went on for months before Cadance started buttering me up on Twilight, and at first I thought it was kinda nice."

The others gave him a sagely nod as Alex spoke up. "And then big brother came along?"

The pegasus cringed as he thought about it. "Yeah, he told me about the Approval Process Law to get me ready. By then, I already made up my mind."

"Chocolate box full of nope?" I said.

"It was horrible. Cadance forced me to go on dates with Twilight, and it doesn't help when Shining's breathing down my neck. And her mom was... out there."

He's not lying there, I can testify to it. "I feel you, buddy."

"Oh yeah, and then there's the massive pressure from my family to go through with it anyways. Plus... well..."

Cliff waved his hand in a circular motion, urging him to continue. "What?"

As he started to explain himself, Flash's cheeks started to flush pink while his eyes shimmered brightly. His voice became airy and filled with an adolescent-like charm. "There's this cute mare I don't know how to approach. She's a bit of a bookworm, and all she does is study. So it's like awfully hard to talk to her or even get her attention without getting her upset. So I just leave little notes on her welcome mat telling her how great she is.♥"

For the others, his description seemed to paint an almost familiar face. For me, it painted only one picture. "You sure you're not talking about Twilight?"

"No chance." He answered coldly while crossing his forelegs.

All of us stared at each other for a few seconds as his face started to turn beet red again. While his mind wandered, his body started to rock from side to side as he giggled and hummed with glee. Apparently he was caught up in some memory of whoever his crush was. But the fact that he started to sway around was making it awkward for the rest of us. Ricky looked at me with raised eyebrows as he spoke to the stallion. "Well, we wish you the best. Have fun with your um... courtly love there."

"Ah... Moondancer.♥" He replied longingly. I could already see the hearts swallowing the pupils of his eyes.

Alex nudged me and whispered in my ear. "Let's bounce before Lil' Romeo here gets a little excited."

"No kidding."

After getting back from the summons, I was promptly reported back to the medical wing. There, I was given my first meal of the day and a nice period of rest before the hard work of getting myself back on my feet ensued. Usually, I'd have the upper body strength to sustain myself, but being that I was out cold for a week my muscles hadn't completely recovered from the lack of signals being sent to them.

So when I was asked to walk from one side of the room to the other, I encountered significant issues. The first thing was that my body was terribly woozy after trying to hold myself on the support bars for so long. The second was my legs, not being as active as my arms were in the past twenty-four hours, were so unsteady that I could only take baby steps. And finally, the frustration of realizing that I was nowhere near where I should've been.

Admittedly, I spent half of my time cussing my legs out like they were the ones who stabbed me in the gut.

After the first hour, I was so frustrated that I had to pout about it. Meanwhile Melanie patted me on the back proudly. "I don't know why you're so angry with yourself. You did good."

"I don't remember walking being this hard to do." I confessed.

"Nondis, you're just coming out of a near-death state. It's been a week and you haven't moved at all. You've started off eating some solids, where most times would call for straight liquids. By all accounts, you're doing better than what could be conceivably human. You took knives to some important tendons and ligaments, and walked through most of it. I know some of it is magic, but your ability to do the things you did before you passed out has me thinking that the time you spent here made you something more than human."

I scoffed at her notion, leaning back from my exhaustion. "I don't feel that almighty."

"Of course not, it's not like you're lifting the pen out of my hand using your mind. But your body is showing some really strong willpower. It wants to recover quickly, maybe too quick but we'll have to see if it is a problem."

"Maybe it's all the spells they put me under."

Mel thought about it for a quick second before tapping her pen against the clipboard she held. "That may be the case."

"Well let's hope these spells can get me walking." I said, stubbornly trying to will myself back to my feet, which was met with her pulling me back down to rest.

"Not now. You need to take a break."

"C'mon, Mel."

"I'm the doctor now, so you do as I say. Doctor's orders."

I rolled my eyes as I obeyed her instruction. "Really? *sigh* Fine..."

While I sat, I looked at the wheelchair just across the room. I found myself staring at the object with disdain for it being so far away. But being that my exercise was to walk towards the chair and sit back down, it didn't make me very fond of it. But I thought back to when I was a kid and how I always wanted one of these to play with.... Not a thing I'm very fond of right now.

My drive through memory lane was quickly interrupted by the door next to the chair being opened, producing a familiar face. "Yo!"

I waved weakly at the cyan pegasus with a smile. "Hey Rainbow, what's the forecast?"

"The forecast for Canterlot is: I don't do the weather in Canterlot." She joked. "But it appears to be sunny with a smidgen of cloud cover."

"Sweet. Guess that's a nice thing to have for a picnic." I said before slumping forward.

The pegasus then looked at me with worry. "So, you doin' okay?"

"Still trying to walk." I answered quickly.

She looked around to see the two wooden bars I sat between and the chair that was on the other side of the room. The pegasus quickly became crestfallen. "...Oh."

Melanie then stepped in to explain the situation. "Don't read too much into that. I know you equines are born walking, but we humans aren't."

"We aren't born walking either." Rainbow clarified. "We at least start standing up a few hours after we're born, some of us even learn how to fly in a few days."

"That's my point. Usually takes us six to eight months to start moving around, and it's even longer before we learn to balance ourselves in standing, walking, and then running."

Rainbow blinked with surprise as she was enlightened on a few facts about the human race and our early stages of development. "Oh... You guys are slow learners." She said with a snicker.

"Try walking on your hind legs for an entire day." I answered back.

She laughed at the thought. "I don't think I could do that."

Melanie then walked over to me and started running her fingers through my hair, massaging my scalp. "Eh, don't worry. We're usually like that. But that moment we share with our little cousins, nieces, nephews, and even offspring, it's almost emotional to see them wanting to take those first steps towards independence."

The rainbow-maned mare scratched her head with curiosity. "So is it gonna take you months to learn how to walk again?"

"God no!" I interjected. "It might take me a few days, not even a week."

Melanie patted me on the head as she gave her own evaluation. "We're gonna try to go for a week at least."

"Mel, my legs aren't that bad. I wasn't out that long. I should be up and at it in a few days."

She politely tugged at my hair to have me look her in the face. "But it's important to not overexert yourself, causing more damage to your body."

"I'm not overexerting, I'm just determined." I rebutted.

"You're just hard-headed." She thumped me on my forehead as she said that.

"I am not!" I argued back.

The two of us bickered back and forth for a few seconds, almost forgetting that Rainbow was sitting right in front of us. She stared at the two of us going at it for a while before she finally asked. "So you two are pretty close, huh?"

"We've been best friends since high school. That's almost seven years for us." Mel answered.

"Honestly, if anypony were to guess from an outside perspective, the two of you seem a little closer than that." Rainbow suggested.

Mel shook her head. "Nah, we already talked about that."

"Two of us decided it's better we'd stay friends."

"Though he did kinda shut me down." She said flicking at my ear.

"Me!? You did it first!" I called out.

The two of us continued to argue back and forth. "It was prom! You don't ask me to be the number one in high school when I have other relationship issues to work through."

"But you called me whenever you had a breakup."

"And you called me for phone sex."

My cheeks started to flush red as she said that. "I-I-I did not explicitly call and ask you for phone sex."

"You'd ask about my sex life, you dirty cuck!"

"Hold on..." I said while grabbing her arm. "That does NOT count."

"You were beating your cock like a prisoner of war."

"Like you never masturbate?" I threw back at her.

She shrugged off my comment, feeling unaffected. "If I don't have a guy, I have what matters."

"Let me recall something. 'Mandingo', isn't that the name of the one you keep in a tube sock?"

She gave me a guilty smile. "There's also 'Fernando' and 'Lucy'."

I cocked an eyebrow as I looked to her with bewilderment. "Um... 'Lucy'?"

She dipped down to whisper in my ear, pointing her finger out in front of my face. "She... um.... rotates." She said while circulating her finger before my eyes.

Reproductive system status: fully functional. Erection protocol online. Initiating consolidation phase. Now loading... Twenty percent... Thirty percent... Forty percent...

"...Is she any good?" I asked with a might need of knowing.

Her response was a light moan and a giggle.

Seventy-five percent... Now initiating protocol T.H.R.O.B.. Sensitivity up two-hundred percent. Dopamine and endorphin release imminent. Semen standing by.

"AHEM!" Rainbow cleared her throat, bringing me back to the present situation.

To be honest, I was glad she was here to snap me out of it otherwise I'd be in a very compromising situation. Thank goodness these jeans are so baggy that they hide whatever's trying to show up. "Hooo, forgot you were here."

Rainbow's face was flushed while she showed some anger. "Yeah. Obviously."

The door was knocked on once more, bringing in Nurse Redheart, who was accompanied by a guard to hold it open. "Captain Nondis." The guard said with a tone of reverence. "I know you're in the middle of your regiment, but you have a visitor. Princess Celestia wishes to see you personally."

AW SHIT! ABORT MISSION! ABORT MISSION! INITIATE CODE BLUE!

Goddamit, I am going to feel that for the next few hours. "Just wheel me outside, nurse." I mumbled. Mel stood up and pulled me by my upper torso, guiding me up as I tried to plant my legs where I could stand up using the support bars. She wheeled the chair over to me, had me seated, and moved the bars out of the way before Nurse Redheart took over. I was promptly moved out of the room while Melanie and Rainbow waited for me to come back.

Rainbow gave the woman a nudge on her side and quietly asked without looking at her. "So... this 'Lucy' thing, you said it rotates?"

Surprised that she even heard that conversation take place, Melanie's cheeks burned with embarrassment. "Yes."

"...You got another one of those I could borrow?"

After Celestia came around to make a formal statement on the matter and a small apology on Cadance's behalf, I was left with a moment of reflection. After everything I heard in the hallway, I decided to question her about finding another suitor for Twilight. She was initially surprised by my knowing of the subject, but then gave me an honest answer. Apparently Twilight's mother was terrified that her daughter wouldn't wed because of her status and how undesirable it would be to undergo the similar circumstances I went through.

I suppose she'd be the best one to know from a parental perspective. Both her son and daughter were affected by this law. Shining was nearly made mentally incapacitated as well as physically handicapped because of the Arimaspi assignment. And then to watch your daughter become the very cause of someone else's suffering, I know that would be hard to watch. So she made Celestia and Cadance in charge of finding her a husband, much to Twilight's initial displeasure.

We finished our conversation, and I was allowed to work out again. And after three more hours of work, my progress improved by a few inches. But the more I did it, the worse my arms felt. So I was brought back to the room to rest up and eat. Fluttershy was kind enough to bring me some food as Rarity poked and prodded at my clothes. Obviously she didn't like the fit of them. My arms were too weakened for me to use for eating, so Fluttershy was kind enough to feed me. As she tended to me, Fluttershy also told me an amusing story about Celestia's pet phoenix named Philomena.

So she has a pet phoenix... why wasn't I made aware of this sooner?

By the end of the story, she had just finished up feeding me my food and wiping my face clean. "There you go, all fed!"

While I was kinda embarrassed from being babied for a bit, I was incredibly humbled by the moment. It left me with a newfound appreciation for the yellow pegasus. "Thank you kindly, Dr. Fluttershy." I said, also throwing in a reference from her story.

"Oh I wouldn't get too thankful, the doctor's note will be quite expensive." She joked with a light giggle.

I felt my head drop a little when she mentioned the medical bill. I already knew it was going to be tough to pay for that as is, considering that I've been here for over a week. I just hope my healthcare plan takes care of the brunt of it. "Yeah... don't remind me."

"Don't worry about that, I'm sure the local charity groups would do what they could to lobby on your behalf. I'll just keep your name tabbed in case something were to go wrong." She said reassuringly.

That's another thing, usually under the Protected Species Act, I'd have my heath and dental care paid for in full. But now that I'm a guard, that eliminated the former for a latter plan that didn't cover nearly as much. Already, I have several visits under my name, and I'm sure my carrier wouldn't want to touch me with a ten-foot caduceus at this point. But Fluttershy's network with charity groups for animal and emergency relief funds was so substantial that there weren't any doubts about her abilities to work something out for me.

Again, I was humbled by her. "Thanks again."

"Not a problem at all." She said before she hopped out of her chair. "That will be all I can do for you today. Discord and I promised that we'd set aside some time for tea today, it's been a long week without it."

"You know, you don't have to put your life on hold because of me. I mean I appreciate it all the same, but I'm sure Dizzy wants time with you more than you think." I told her.

She replied. "Actually, he's been rather upset with your condition. He's been in higher spirits now that one of his prank buddies is on the mend."

"What a softy." I said with a slight guffaw. "Tell him I said hello."

"He'll be more than excited to hear from you."

Fluttershy took her departure, leaving me and Rarity in the room alone. The white unicorn mare used her magic to play with my toes a bit as she talked to me. "So, you're having trouble walking?"

"Seems to be the case." I admitted. "But like I told Rainbow, this is probably going to be a few days before I'm back up to speed."

Walking to the foot of my bed, she used her hooves to grab at my feet, gently rubbing them while she spoke. "Please, darling. The last thing you need to do is rush yourself back in here. It's already bad enough that I can't use you as a model for the upcoming fashion exhibition. I had to find another model, I can't get any humans to do it either."

...Aw shit, I forgot about that. I was supposed to model for her one of these days. But I still don't think she could've went without a human to display her new new line of human wear. "You asked Cliff and Rickey?"

"Cliff and Rickey are shorter than you. Not only that, but their measurements aren't similar to yours. And if that wasn't enough, they said they were going to spend their weekend catching up on some of their academics. There are times I forget that the bulk of you are actually students."

I know that I missed out on a week's worth of activities, but it's like the past month had shot by. Everything's been fight here, argue there, train here, rescue there, do this, don't do that, et cetera. But it's already that time of the year, huh? "Yeah, that's college life. But usually the weekends are reserved for whatever parties are going on."

"Well, they also said something about studying for finals."

"Yup, it's that time of the semester."

"Indeed. It would also appear that Melanie had been doing some off-time reading. Twilight says she would help in her efforts, but I fear her methods would be a bit tedious."

"Hmm...." Just the thought of me studying with Twilight already seemed more sweat-inducing than hard labor and sex. But if we were in a normal relationship, somehow that's exactly how this would turn out. She'd probably dangle the reward of what could be the best and kinkiest sex in my life in front of me every time we'd take a break. And if I didn't do too well, she'd give me some positive reinforcement along with a foot in the ass. Even more so, she'd tell me she'd love me whenever we finished up and we got through teasing each other about our study habits.

That or she could be an absolute Hitler with me, forcing me to pay attention to every footnote and word on her flashcards. She'd probably call me a jerk for not taking things too seriously and scream at me, like she did when I was being introduced into the E.U.P.. She would've probably surprised me with something cute later on if I did well, or punish me if I didn't do too well. And no doubt she'd be more interested in our material than I would, she'd be a crazy bookworm, more than she already is.

Rarity spoke up, breaking me out of my train of thought. "Oh right, the two of you..."

"Yeah." I said slowly, realizing that it would be unlikely for us to become that. Our relationship was never normal to begin with, and I guess there was some part of it that ended up being fun to a certain extent, the taboo factors and whatnot. But the rest of it, it wasn't. A lot about what happened today made me think about myself as a suitor to anyone, not just Twilight.

Moving on will take a bit of time. Of course there will be moments where I feel like I could stick my dick in just about anything, but there wouldn't be anything past that. I couldn't take anything seriously for a while if I chose to carry on, because there were so many firsts with her that I can't help but to compare and contrast for the time being.

And given the individual sitting before me, I know that doing something with her would be problematic for the foreseeable future. She's expressed that she wants me to give her a chance, and I've entertained the thought a few times. But as far as giving her a relationship or anything physical right now is out of the question. Basically, I need some time and space before we start talking about anything.

But that didn't stop Rarity from her attempt to break the ice. "So..."

That attempt would go short-lived.

*bzzzzz bzz-bzz bzzzzz... bzzzzz bzz-bzz bzzzzz*

Over on the stand by the window, my phone vibrated to indicate I had a call coming in. Rarity walked over to it, using her magic to grab it. "I suppose that must be that device of yours."

My arms were still too weak to lift themselves from the ordeals of earlier today. I opted to relegate the opportunity to operate my phone to the fashionista. "There's an icon on the screen that looks like an odd horseshoe, you see it?"

"Slide to answer?" She said, continuing to read the screen. "It also says 'Dad'."

...That could be a problem.

I thought about it for a few seconds, realizing that I hadn't called him or talked to him in a long time. I also realized that ignoring him would only mean he'd call back again. It didn't matter how long I'd waited, he'd blow up my phone just to get me to either cut it off or answer it. Cutting it off wasn't really something she knew how to do, and I wasn't going to subject her to the torment of the games my father plays. "Tap your hoof lightly on it and slide it to the right." I instructed. "Next, tap where it says 'Speaker'."

She held the phone up in her magic as she looked at it. "Okay, what do I do now?"

As soon as she finished speaking, my dad's voice came blaring out of the phone like an alarm, nearly spooking the poor mare. "Hello!? Hello, who is this!?"

"Just follow my lead." I whispered to her before answering the man on the line. "Hey dad."

"Lord above, boy, I've been trying to get a hold of you for days!"

"Sorry, I was kinda busy. Couldn't really reach for my phone." I replied.

"For nine days, son? You've been going straight to voicemail for nine days! I'm concerned!"

I shook my head as I answered him. "I'm fine, dad. What's going on?"

"What's going on!? Me and your mother get a phone call from Vanessa telling us that you were in a hospital! You tell me what the hell is going on!"

...Oh shit... "I got a little banged up. But I'm okay now."

Suddenly, the door flew open, startling both me and Rarity. Applejack was the first to barge in as she announced in a loud voice. "Hey Nondis!" She hollered as Rainbow, Melanie, and Celestia trailed her. "Rainbow and Ah was talkin' with Princess Celestia and Melanie on how we can work together to get ya up an moving again!"

While I couldn't move my arms to gesture anything to get them not to talk, My dad managed to overhear her loud booming voice. "WHAT THE HELL!? WHO THE HELL IS RAINBOW AND PRINCESS CELESTIA!?"

Rarity facehoofed while I could only stammer. "Oh, uh."

"Maybe we should all be quiet for a bit." Melanie said, quieting the others as she took the task of explaining what was going on to my father. "Hi Mr. Haines, how are you?"

When he heard her voice, he was not amused. "Melanie, I know you like to cover up for my son because you like him, but right now I need some honest truth. What the hell is going on with my son!?" He inquired furiously. "I'm hearing something about him getting 'up and moving again', Vanessa done called me and Martha tellin' us you were in a goddamn coma, and now even his brothers are lying to us!"

Again, she tried to explain the best she could. "He got into a pretty serious fight, sir. He got into a fight, and the perpetrator brought a knife to fight with. The man who attacked him was apparently..." She censored her language, not wanting to bring up the fact that I killed someone in my defense. "Promptly removed from the place, but Nondis ended up getting seriously hurt."

He then asked the million dollar question, the one Melanie couldn't answer. "Where are the two of you now?"

I quickly came up with yet another lie, to throw off the possibility of him trying to pay me a visit. "I'm in a hospital in... apparently Calsbad, New Mexico."

"Why the hell are you a state over!?" He screamed loudly, his voice becoming distorted through the speaker.

"My job asked me to take a long road trip to help with some security. That's all. I got caught with my pants down, I lost a lot of blood, and I'm currently on the mend. I should be back in a week." I answered as calmly as I could.

There as a brief period of silence while he gathered his thoughts. There were apparent grunts of both stress and disbelief.
But in the end, he reacted as he rightfully should. "Son... You can't keep a job like this." He said with a depressed sigh. "Now I know you feel liberated in knowing you're out there in the world, making whoever feel safer, but I'm beginning to think you're involved in some pretty bad stuff. I can't let you keep going."

"Dad, I'm fine─"

He quickly interjected before I could finish my sentence. "No you're not! And the first thing I need for you to do is come directly home, don't go to that damn apartment, you come straight home. You come here, and we can talk about this. Now if working is the way you wanna go, we can talk about getting you a safer job, even one that pays pretty well. I'm thinking we can pull a few strings with Vanessa's father and get you in on something."

What was once a conversation that was considered to be somewhat of a check in became a personal exchange displayed before everyone. Celestia's face turned to sadness, as she pretty much found out that I failed to completely inform my parents that I was a member of the guard, much less lying about it. "Dad, it's okay. I'm getting paid plenty, and I mean we're golden."

"Son, listen to yourself."

He's not wrong. At this point, I started to sound like I was into some illegal stuff. Of course I did some things that would be illegal and more than once, but I wasn't prepared to tell him that, not yet anyways. "It's more than just money, dad! I'm doing what's right! Please have some faith in me."

And as a concerned parent should be, he acted as he should. He chose not to trust the words I spoke. "You get healthy, you come home, you bring that Bella girl cause I feel like she's at the root of all of this, and we're all gonna talk it over. I already don't like the news I just got, I don't need to lose you to something I can't see or have no knowledge of. And if you don't come home, I will call the police to search for you and set you right. My son will NOT engage in any illegal activity, much less something that puts his life at risk."

"You're overreacting!" He wasn't. I just wanted to avoid getting him to see all of this. Because if he saw what I was doing and heard of what I did, he wouldn't just scream at me, he'd completely disown me.

"I'm a father to a son who nearly got himself killed, I think I have every right to be."

And it isn't like he'd come back and tell me that we could compromise on this like other decisions I've made. "Fair enough."

"Don't have me lose a son on Thanksgiving week. You come home and greet us, ya hear?"

He'd probably think of me as a perverted freak, a man with no moral code or fear of God in him. He'd want nothing to do with me, and mom wouldn't either. I'd cease to exist in their eyes, and they'd cry to themselves asking where did they go wrong. "Yes sir."

My father always told me when I was younger: If I ever did something that made me inhuman in his eyes, he wouldn't hesitate to do what must be done, even if it meant to take my life. And me being here, living here, embracing the ponies here, becoming intimate, that would be more than enough to drive him to that point. I've always been terrified of that, but there's one thing I've always been preparing for...

"Alright then. Me and your mother will be talking and getting you another job, one in a place that much safer." He's brought his attention to Mel, who covered her face with visible signs of distress. "Melanie, you keep an eye out for my son, got it?"

"Yes sir." She replied obediently.

"Alright, now I don't wanna hear no mess. Y'all stay safe. Love you son."

"Love you too, pops." Even if you may find yourself to not love me anymore.

"And answer your phone when I call, don't care what you're doing, you let us know you're still breathing."

"Yes sir."

"Okay then, talk to you tomorrow."

"Yes sir."

"Take care."

"Yes sir. You too."

*beep-beep-beep*

The three tones sounded out loudly indicated that he had hung up, the call was over. The room was a eerie silent while everyone just stared at each other for a few minutes. I'm sure what should've been a joyful and playful conversation was all but wiped out as the mood was so heavy. No one didn't even want to break the silence until I said something.

And I did, the words I mumbled to myself. "...That was a mistake."

Applejack walked over to me, looking at me with a chilling glance with her green eyes. They were angry, and they looked like they were ready to cut me down. "Yer folks seem mighty concerned there, Nondis."

I couldn't even bring myself to look at her. "Yeah..."

She stood just inches away from my face, staring down my cheek as I looked at my weakened limbs sitting on my lap. "Don't you owe it to em to tell them the honest truth?"

It's not like I didn't want them to know, I just can't bring it to words. I don't know how to describe it. I just... "I don't know."

By then, hot air brushed against my neck, indicating that she was probably seconds away from punching me in the face, she was so indignant. Each and every breath she took, I could hear the light wheezing through her nostrils as she hissed at me. "Oh... so you're just living a lie? Lyin to yer folks like ya don't even care bout em?"

"I can't tell them, not yet." I replied, being as honest as I could with her.

"Oh, well then." She whispered, pulling back suddenly. The speed which she pulled back had me wincing as if I was expecting a punch of some sort. But my flinch was for naught as she just hollered at me. "Ah guess you can stay in that bed and don't worry bout walkin' no time soon."

"Don't you think that's a bit harsh?" Melanie interjected. "You don't know anything about his family, who are you to judge him like that?"

"Well Ah can say that Ah'd sure tell em everything."

Celestia chimed in as well, showing her hurt and disappointment. "You are a captain of my guard, is that not something to be proud of?"

"That's not even it!" Applejack exclaimed. "You're lyin' to the ones who love ya! You don't have a shred of respect for your parents! Well Ah tell ya, Ah didn't take ya for a no-good sleaze, but ya sure did change mah opinion of ya!"

Melanie quickly came to my defense. "And you're one to talk!? Well I wonder how you'd tell your parents about the things you've done. You don't ever seem to talk about them that much, so I can assume you're just as bad as─"

At that point, I had to stop her. "Mel!" I called out, knowing why this conversation was such a tender topic for the farmer. "I got it."

"So lemmie hear it, Nondis. What's yer brilliant excuse of lyin' to yer folks?" She asked before her voice got really low, and her country accent mostly diminish into proper English. "...I'm very sure you got something interesting to say."

I know that some of the ire drawn at me is somewhat deserved, but there was also a lack of context going into it. And Celestia seemed more disappointed in me over this. So I finally broke down and decided to come clean to everyone. First, I started with the highest authority.

"Your highness, it's not that I don't take pride in everything that was offered to me here. I'm more than proud, I wanna brag about it so much."

"Then what is the problem?" She questioned.

"My parents aren't as open-minded as my brothers are. If it was just my mom, I wouldn't mind convincing her that this was a thing..."

That's not even true, she'd lose her mind and it would take her a long time to get her comfortable with the circumstances, if she were willing to accept them.

...It's not just on their side I'm concerned about.

Telling the ponies the half-truth won't deal easy consequences either. You need a corner to sit at,
you need someone to ice you down after you take a few hits. If you can't trust the ones already doing that, then they're not going to stick around.

That's some hard truth to be telling.

Then maybe it's time you toughen up. No more games, just be real with them and only then would you have the courage to push forward. It would be much better than for them to find out later.

You have a point... Let's take it from the top. "Maybe I should start by being honest with all of you. You all now know the world of humans exists, but it's not the same way over there. Many of my species wouldn't even understand any of this without having some long conversation about it. And even if that were to happen, then there would still be a lion's share of those who'd try and villainize this world for what it is. If it's beyond understanding, it's something to be feared, and if it's something to be feared, then it's..."

Celestia, who was all too experienced with that philosophy, came to the inevitable conclusion. "Something to be killed."

The air grew tense as I finally explained to them the risk of my circumstance. "I'm sorry. My parents would never be able to understand something like this without demonizing any and all of you as abominations. I don't see you that way, and... that brings up the hard part."

"Humans and ponies, in their eyes, should not love one another." The rest of us looked at the door, seeing Twilight standing in the way. She looked at Melanie as she said these words. "They see us as something inferior."

Not a single person or pony in the room could resist frowning at the information the received. Most of them just stared blankly at me and Melanie, wondering if we had felt that way towards them. Rarity, who seemed taken aback by all of this politely asked me. "Is that true?"

Just their faces made me grimace with discomfort. It was like at that moment we alienated ourselves, especially considering how they treated me when I first arrived. I was the subject of curiosity but I was also welcomed. For me to say that it won't necessarily be the same way on the flip side of things felt kinda like me throwing that kindness back in their face. I know there will be international interest in a talking pony, but it would be more spectacle than genuine interest. Others would probably see this as a show or for amusement. And with that kind of draw, ESPECIALLY considering my state, we'd be inviting dangers to show up on our doorstep.

I'm sure you were a spectacle for them as well. You still are.

This is different. I'm just an average citizen who lives in a college town, not some high ranking political official with enough pull to change some legislation on that side of the mirror. I don't have Twilight's influence, whereas she can say that she saved the world more than once. Who'd listen to me over her?

I'm certain that's a question best saved for later. Right now, you have the ears of the ones in this room. Let's start of with them, then worry about the big stuff. You don't just start off running, you start off with the smallest steps forward. And those steps would be to explain to them why you haven't talked to your parents about any of this.

...You're right. I need to get back on track. "The reason I never told my parents about the guard or any of Equestria is because they'd never truly understand. And then my dad would probably be angry enough to pass judgement on me."

"Ah introduced you to mah family, but Ah never thought that yers would be so... unwelcoming." Applejack said, her perspective now slightly changed.

I turned to Twilight, explaining myself further. "That's really why I had to call you 'Bella'. I wanted to tell everyone about this amazing world and even the ones who looked after me, but I'd be called crazy. My dad would really kill me."

"But I don't understand, dear." Rarity mulled.

"You heard him say it, all of you did. 'My son will not engage in any illegal activity'. A human being with a pony, that's illegal throughout most parts of my world. And in my home country, I would go to jail for it, my family would be shamed."

"Now they're threatening to take you out of the guard." Rainbow pointed out.

I nodded slowly as I confirmed her statement. "My mom would freak if she found out I was doing military behind their backs. And that's primarily because of some issues with my late grandfather."

"And you're only in the guard... because of me." Twilight slumped as she offered herself to take the blame.

But I corrected her. "That was my choice, I decided to go along with it. I'm just stuck with trying to convince them of accepting this new life of mine. Maybe I can work something out, without it posing a danger to anypony. But until I can do that, I have to keep making up stories." For their sake.

"So there's nothing we can do?" Celestia asked.

I drew a long sigh before I answered her. "No. Not right now."

Applejack removed her hat and scratched her mane. "Ah'm kinda lost, surgarcube. If being with a pony is bad, then why'd ya choose to do it?"

Again, I gave them my honest explanation. "Because I learned to look past what's on the outside. It's because we can communicate as naturally as humans can with one another, because you've shown me how to love in spite of what makes us different, because you've all shown me how much we have in common with each other is why the barriers came down. And it took me months of being here, feeling like I was alone, with you all being in my corner, to accept that. Maybe I'll never be able to tell them the truth, but if it came to being disowned by my family over wanting to fight and protect something I love and those I've grown to cherish..." Yeah, I made this decision a long time ago, when I decided to stay. "Then I can be ready to face those consequences. I gave up too much, went through it all, I'm not gonna stop it here."

Melanie then spoke as she stood by me. "And we're not gonna abandon you. You deserve the happiness you've found. It might not be for me or some of the others, but I'm not going to let them take you away from this. I may answer to your folks, mainly because they want me to marry you, but I'm on your side the whole way."

"Ahem..." The sudden sound of a mare clearing her throat made me quickly raise my head. Celestia sat at the door, her eyes closed as if she was contemplating something. "If you should ever feel ready to speak with them about us, you have me present so that I may speak on your behalf." She opened one of her eyes, looking directly at me. "I will not have my captain fight a war on two fronts."

Rarity also chimed in. "If there's anything we can do, you have our support."

Twilight did the same. "And if it doesn't go as planned, I can be sure to practice a memory spell should the worst happen."

Applejack took off her hat and held it to her chest as she lowered her head. The body language she produced was that of remorse. "Ah'm mighty sorry bout what Ah said. Ah just wish y'all would've told us something sooner, we would've done the best we could to keep things harmonious for ya."

For some odd reason, this very moment felt similar to the time when I first arrived here. I was staring up at them, uncertain of what the future would hold or what would happen next, much less how I was gonna get back home. It was like I had the opportunity to make something different of myself, to put myself in a different light. And I tried my damnest to do just that, only to come up with old issues that never really went away.

But once again, I'm reminded that I have more than just me, myself, and I in my corner. I even have more than just the friends I made here in the present, I have the friends I made in the past. I may not know what the future may throw at me, but I'm sure I've got some more friends who would be waiting right there to pull me up and push me forward.

Even if it does seem a bit scary because of the personal stuff, I slowly feel like I can make the steps to go forward. They are my strength, my guidance, and my will to endure, It's because of them that I feel determined. "Thanks. To all of you, I give my thanks."

The room was quiet for a few seconds before Applejack hollered out at me, slapping her stetson back on her head. "But ya still gotta tell yer folks!" She said firmly. "All of these lies ain't gon give ya nothin but hard times and bad situations. Ah'll tell ya that much from experience."

The way her mood just swung from one extreme to the other caused me to have a little bit of a whiplash response. The only thing I could do at the moment was laugh.

"I'll work on it."

***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

After several hours of talking and trying to find a way that was best to work things out, visiting hours came to an end. The nurses proceeded to file us out of the room. Celestia, who had left a while back to set the sun and continue with her duties, left me with a suggestion that I should look into researching. Which only made me feel nervous for what was to come of it. Even if we were to somehow convince Nondis to bring his family here to explain it all, their response was what made me feel uneasy.

The entire time I walked down the hall, it was like my hooves were stepping in broken glass and rusty nails. Everything about this whole situation took a turn for the unexpected the moment I was told about his family. And just before my very eyes, one of the things I found hard to believe seemed to find a way to manifest itself.

And all of this came moments after I come out to the public and say it's over between us.

What was I supposed to feel? If his friends are all mad at me, they have a valid reason to be that way. I just left him in what could be the time of his greatest need. And it wasn't any better than seeing him trying to keep strong in the face of those who ridiculed me. It was like the more time went along, the more I started to feel like my purpose for calling a summons was unwarranted. It wasn't even like I wanted this to happen, nor did I have any intention for this to end between us. But the words his brother said to me, they made me more scared to lose him as a friend than to lose him altogether. At least if he was taken from me, I'd maybe fool myself into this false sense of closure.

Yeah, like that would ever work.

But the thought of him despising me, being among the living and actively trying to dismiss me from his life like I was some illness that needed to be remedied, that would hurt me more than anything. Because I'd know then that I would be dedicating myself to making things better between us only to make it worse. Like placing salt and honey in fresh wounds, it would eat at him until it turn him into something unsightly.

The thought of it made me sick and terrified.

But there was no avoiding the discomfort I felt as my friends and I walked down the hall like we had just got through one of our usual friendship sessions. The only one that seemed to dwell on it in the slightest was Applejack.

"Ah can't believe Ah just called him out of his name like that. Ah was just so darn heated that Ah didn't care about what he felt or what was goin' on."

"You apologized, what else do you have to do?" Rainbow quickly dismissed.

The orange pony seemed a tad bit brighter as she started to think about what she could offer. "...Ah could bake him and his friends a little somethin' just to show mah support."

Rarity cooed happily as she spoke. "I think that would be a lovely gesture, he needs a little something sweet right about now."

Popping in from the ceiling above, landing face first on the ground, Pinkie raised her head, shook the stars from her eyes and quickly pounced on Rarity. "Somepony say 'a little something sweet'?"

Even if she was being herself with her antics, I could never quite figure her out. I just grew to accept her being able to pop up from thin air. "Pinkie, where did you come from?"

"Oh, I was helping some of the chefs in the kitchen serve up some cookies and cupcakes to a large party in the barracks. Shining helped me too, I never knew he was so good in the kitchen." She said before she quirked an eyebrow at me. "Which kinda makes me wonder about you, Twilight."

While the others snickered at my expense, I felt the blood rushing into my cheeks while I tried to defend myself. "I-I-I'll get there!" I said, stammering through my words out of the shame. "J-just... give me some time."

Applejack nudged me in my side, giving me a wink. "How about we just teach ya and then ya can kinda let things go yer own way?"

Rarity agreed with her. "If you're ever going to have a husband, it is priority to learn to be able to cook dear. The quickest way to a stallion's heart is to his stomach."

I quietly whispered into Rarity's ear as I felt a bit confused by her statement. "I thought it was to someplace else?"

Immediately catching on to what I was suggesting, she corrected me. "That's his brain, dear."

"Oh, so that's how that goes." I mumbled to myself.

While we walked on, a familiar face turned the corner. Just the scowl on his face told me that he was not up for talking or any kind of banter. It wasn't like I cared for him that much, he tried to go after one of my friends in such a disrespectful manner. He even mocked me on occasion for being the youngest royal in line, so seeing him frowned up in the face was somewhat of a positive note in my book.

"Hey, isn't that Blueblood?" Pinkie called out.

As he got closer, I could see he was beyond visibly peeved. There was no point in getting his attention or bringing attention to him, it was better to leave him be. "Just be quiet and keep walking, girls."

Rarity didn't seem to have any argument to my advice, she only tooted her nose in the air and trotted forward. "You don't have to say anything else. Hmph!"

Our party passed by him, not a single one of us looked to him. But something grabbed my attention, causing me to stop dead in my tracks. It was his words being sent into my brain.

"You're more trouble than you're worth, girl."

The others had walked past me, leaving me several feet behind them before they turned back to see that I was standing in place, looking at the stallion who passed right by me. Applejack was the first to say anything about it. "Is somethin' the matter, sugarcube."

I looked at him with a cutting glance and waved my friends onward as I started to backtrack. "You girls go on ahead. I've got some things to do."

While my trot grew into a gallop, the other four I left behind had looked back at me as if I had done something irrational. Pinkie looked at the others and calmly asked.

"What got to her?"

When I turned the corner, I saw Blueblood storming in the direction of the medical wing. He didn't seem to acknowledge my physical presence until I teleported from where I stood, blocking his path upon reappearing. I echoed the words he transmitted to me.

"So I'm more trouble than I'm worth?"

"Oh I'm sorry for stating the obvious, little Twilight Trouble." He said, using his magic to move me aside.

I refused to let him storm off, teleporting once more before him and extending my wings to block him even more. "Under what circumstance do you find yourself capable of judging me? I did what was right."

"You did something that could either be a borderline good thing, a bad thing, or a terrible thing. And given the circumstances, you might have made it into a bad thing. I swear both you and Cadance are always in the way of progress. It's like every turn I make, you two are there to impede and set me back. Now the plans have to change because of you."

I rolled my eyes as he ranted on, scoffing when he finished. "I'm sorry if your method was deemed too radical for Celestia's preference. You should've known better."

He then tried to justify himself. "It wasn't radical for Celestia, it was radical for Cadance because she was concerned how you'd feel about it... far too concerned. And now I see she's been a thorn in his side as well."

As he attempted to push through me, I continued to hold my ground. "Whatever you're planning, I feel like it's bad news."

The stallion then inched towards my face and whispered in a low volume. "Riddle me this, Twilight Trouble. If I were to send away the only means of starting a new revolution to remove an article of inequine guidelines, how long do you think their motivation to help would last before they eventually lose momentum and interest?"

"Nondis isn't like that. And personally, I think he needs a break from all of this."

"You say that, but you also know that a few of your friends are just as interested in him as you are. And now they are more inclined and qualified to take what was once yours. How long would it be before other things pry him away from what could be our greatest moment?"

I remained unmoved from my place, staring back at him as if he had something suspicious going on. And his frequent desire for Nondis' involvement only made me grow even more indignant. I spoke through gritted teeth, hissing at him. "You're being selfish."

"And you are unqualified for this purpose." He said before finally teleporting behind me. "Don't bother to continue, I'll take care of the rest."

For a second, I felt like the world had just rose a few inches. When I tried to turn around and stop him, I felt my hooves being pulled towards the ground. I looked down to see if there was anything keeping me down, only to see that the very floor itself was reacting similarly to quicksand. After an inch or two, the ground solidified around my hooves. Stuck in place, I was left straining for my freedom. Meanwhile he continued to walk towards the medical wing as I hollered at him.

"You stay away from him!"

He replied with a careless shrug, moving on as if nothing was going to stop him. "It's funny. I'm playing by my rules now and even your brother's on board. Continue to live in your birdcage, it'll be decimated soon enough."

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

It's been a while since the visiting hours closed up. The door remained shut for much of the time with the exception of a few nurses coming in to check my blood and vitals. They even urged everyone to leave the room for the sake of making sure I could be well-rested.

And then I proceeded to laugh about the irony of their statement. It wasn't like they weren't going to poke at my arm and force me to undergo several tests before letting me sleep for another two hours, just for them to do it again. And then they'll wake me up in the morning to do it again, and again, and again...

I trust you're seeing the pattern here.

So instead of going to sleep at midnight, I get my snooze on at eleven to give myself an extra hour to make up for the time I'll lose in the performance of those tests. Other than that, I sat in silence with my overhead lamp on. And since there wasn't much in the way of entertaining myself, I was forced to think about everything that happened and what would come in the eventual future.

I wondered how it would've felt like to have a normal relationship with Twilight. I wondered what it would've been like to date Pinkie, she was already rolling out the red carpet in having me visit her family. In fact if it wasn't for Mrs. Cake, she and I would've probably had sex numerous times by now. If I had chose to stay with Rarity, I could only imagine all the things we would've did. With those two, there weren't any limits other than the ones we place on ourselves. If things would've been like that with Twilight, then would it be possible that we would've sustained our relationship up to this point?

Would we have really broken up sooner?

Don't get me wrong, I liked spending time with her. But it was like those first few weeks were just me and her finding out what each of us liked in terms of what we could do to tease each other sexually. And for many times, she'd edge me so close to the point of no return, just to get 'distracted' by something else and leaving me to cool off. And then I'm having all these highly tense exchanges with the others, basically because I was left unsatisfied.

But on the other side of the spectrum, would I have gone so far for either Pinkie or Rarity? If they gave Rarity wings and a crown, would she have done the things that would've kept me coming back for her? Twilight was an odd case, I just did everything because it was all I knew how to do. Just stick with it, pull through the trouble, stay around and it'll eventually reward you.

It rewarded me, but not how I wanted it to. But I also felt that if I had left things alone when I did get something physical out of it, it would've been terrible between us. And if I was still a freshman in high school, that's exactly how I would've went about it. But then the question leads to 'why would you work so much to get one thing and leave it alone once you got it?' It was the question that made me realize that later on in life I wouldn't be worth much if that was all I wanted.

Yet this past relationship made me feel like I was left with one thing, a lack of satisfaction. Of course the sex was fun but what else did we have going for us other than being a cute fling? And what did it leave me with other than anger and distrust for the system that I fell victim to? It was like I ran into an abusive relationship, without her even touching me. And it wasn't like I didn't have any other choices, I just kept running in for the reason of spite.

And suddenly it ends without a ring, without me doing what I had set out to do, without a single promise being made. So it left me with a hunger, a state of confusion that couldn't be described as anything rational. It was as if I had succumbed to insanity. If this situation were to happen with any other person, would it have mattered? What's the point of even trying if it all ends the same?

Was this really just a waste of my time?...

Sometimes, I let my thoughts wander until it comes to a terrifying conclusion. Perhaps it was time for me to get some sleep after all. So I did the only thing I could do: Turn off the lights, close my eyes, and hope that the doctors would soon come in to distract me with more of those prickly needles.

For moments, I could see nothing but the darkness behind my eyelids.

"If you let your guard down, that opens the door for assassins to finish the job."

My eyes shot open as I heard an unusual voice. My eyes darted around the room until I saw an alabaster stallion with a blond mane, sitting in the chair next to my bed. The sudden presence startled me, causing me to flinch back into my mattress. "Blueblood, holy shit! Where did you come from?"

"I came from being out in the halls, that's what lies outside this room."

Though I never intended to get a visit from the smart-ass, it was still somewhat pleasant to find myself distracted from my earlier train of thoughts. "Makes sense. But it's so late at night." I said, looking at the clock as it read 10:46 p.m..

"I understand that, and I know that I'm well past visiting hours. But I came here to ask if you were well?"

I thought it was odd that he'd show some concern over me. I wasn't anything special to him or even in his inner-circle, I was just a subordinate. "I will be in a few days, by then I should be walking just fine."

He hummed to himself while he walked towards the window, opening the blinds to let the moonlight cascade into the room. "I remember the contraption you were wheeled in on. Many of the politicians see your current state as pathetic. They even summarize it as the primary reason Princess Twilight made her decision."

"They're always throwing their views on something they have no context to, let em."

"But I can't help but to feel a bit of insecurity." He said as he looked back at me. "See, your breakup with Twilight made things look bad for you. But on the other side of the coin, it appears that your feud with Mi Amore Cadenza has driven a conspiracy that you would soon turn against the royals. After all, if a royal interfered with your relationship to the point of sabotage, then it would be plausible that you'd turn your tongue against the ones that took away your promising future, your power, your rank. Quite the bit of trouble, don't you think?"

If you say it like that, then of course it's gonna sound bad. "Cadance may be a total bitch, but I don't wish ill of her. And I don't think it'll make me feel angry toward any of the rest of you."

The stallion tapped his hoof on his chin before his face suddenly perked up, appearing as if he had hatched some sort of scheme. "Actually, I want you to play with that part."

I looked back at him with bewilderment. "Come again?"

"The feud of you and Cadenza, you should keep feeding that to their faces." He went on to explain. "And behind the scenes, we'll confer on a few things that would ultimately turn the foul numbers of our plight inside out. I have a process in my mind, the repeal process which would give us a new chance at our future. And it might even give you a second chance with Twilight, if that's something you're willing to pursue."

You know that insanity thing I was talking about a bit earlier, about that... "A second chance with Twilight?"

"Yes, once more with feeling. And when I mean feeling, I mean... knowing." He said with a confident smile.

I cocked an eyebrow and questioned him. "Knowing in the biblical sense?"

"Elaborate further." He requested.

"In my world, we have this book simply called 'The Bible' which has been a best seller for centuries. In it's text, the phrase 'he knew of her' would often mean he bedded her."

The prince then chuckled at my dry attempt at illicit humor. "In that sense, yes." He then stopped himself and glanced out the window. "Or if you were to become overly ambitious, you could try your luck with another princess, one who would be more deserving and more open to your demands."

"I think I'm good on Twilight as of now. But if it'll give me a second chance..."

It was like he knew exactly what I was thinking a few minutes ago. It's like he predicted that I would feel like this. The way he spoke to me didn't give any room for doubt. "Wouldn't it feel good to have her against you again? To hold her in your arms, to ravage each other as you once did, to explore all your kinks and dormant desires, to toy with you as often as she did before the punishment set her against you?"

I gave him my honest response. "Yeah, I feel like I could've stuck it out for her during those times. It was a much simpler situation, it was so easy for us to be together."

He trotted from the window to speak with me at the bed, whispering at me while he tapped me on the chest. "Then you would join me in my efforts? I want to remove this law quickly, and I don't want to keep this going on any longer than it has to."

"You and me both." I said, almost making up my mind in that instant. "But..."

"But what?" He asked.

I wanted to initially ask him what Celestia's involvement was going to be in his plan, but I decided against it when I remembered something that Cadance had brought up in the past. Moreso, the conversation that I listened in on from earlier made me think about how in cahoots she and Celestia were. I decided against it. "Ah forget it. Whatcha got in mind?"

"First I need to know if you're willing to play by MY rules? They could go against Celestia's personal wishes."

I was all for it, but that only opened up a whole other realm of possibilities should things go wrong. "That's kinda dangerous."

"But it will work. And if things go smoothly, it will be two months when it's all signed and sealed." He assured.

"Sounds too good to be true." I stated skeptically.

He leaned in and tapped me on the chest again, also grabbing my shoulder as he whispered. "It's time to play dirty, Nondis. This is what you wanted."

I knew what I wanted, and I was well-aware of some of the risks. But it felt like I was signing myself up for a game I wasn't quite ready to play just yet. "Politics isn't really a clean road to travel."

"Neither is that of a soldier, but think of the lives you'll save." He said as he summoned up the photo of me fighting an arimaspi. "The excursions you'll prevent."

Just the way he said that made me realize that this was a heavy turn I was going to make if I agreed to it. But at the same time, if that heavy turn made it to where I could get something done to at least give others a shot for a normal love life... that is if they felt like a relationship with a royal was something they were interested in, then they should be entitled to that. Not only that, but I'm sure Luna and Celestia could go for some spice in their lives. And the instance of what happened to Shining Armor would never happen again.

And it's not just those interested, it's also those they fight alongside with, their family and friends. But it ended up having me question whether or not I was really going to take a hit for this to happen. I wanted to, but the secondary thoughts were overloading my brain with possibilities gone wrong. "I feel like I could lose myself here."

"Oh no, there's no turning back. Once you dive in, you're going to get dirty." He explicitly warned.

"I thought you didn't like being dirty." I said, mocking him on his pristine appearance.

He snorted and scoffed as he responded. "I fought campaigns that were dirtier than this. This is easy."

For him to say that this was easy, considering that there have been centuries of failed attempts to get it accomplished made it hard for me to believe him. But in the end, I really wanted to buy in to his ideology of getting things done. Cadance hadn't even come up with any sort of plan other than asking if I would join them in their efforts. And of course the politicians were going to keep me busy until it was time for me to get married. But since that's off the table, they have no reason to stop me now...

...That's right!

I'm single now. It's official, I'm no longer a suitor. That means no extreme deployments, no unreasonable assignments, no hyper-deadly excursions, no having to worry about the blackmail, my balls are completely in the clear here, I can make as much noise as I want.

In the words of Pinocchio: I've got no strings to hold me down. To make me fret, or make me frown. I had strings, but now I'm free...

There are no strings on me. "Two months?"

A large smile appeared on Blueblood's face as he saw me come to realize where I stood and just how much freedom I had in playing along with him. He proudly announced to me with a grin. "Two months, even with senator Count in the way."

At that moment, I think I couldn't produce any more of a twisted smile in my life. It was like the insanity I harbored in my brain had been given an outlet. The anger of not being able to do anything other than argue about why the law should be removed, it was given a place to reach for. It's not quite a slasher smile, nor one of destroying the world.

Rather, it was the smile you could see in a mans face when he realized that the gloves had come off. Or rather... it was the smile a certain butler made when his employer told him to go and 'quiet that racket in the halls'. He'd put on his gloves, and give off this menacing grin like he was ready to clean the hell out of his bosses mansion. These silver glints in his eyes, almost blade-like, would show as he pulled the gloves on. And it wasn't like it was that much of a mess, it was just a little argument going on in need of a permanent Ambien.

A one-thousand year old insomniac was in need of a long-overdue rest. It's high time this butler puts her to sleep.

"...Sign me the fuck up."

Author's Note

In case you were wondering about the smile I was referencing.

WARNING YOU NOW, DON'T READ SPOILER TEXT IF YOU DON'T WANT ANY SPOILERS!

So it's been a long time. I kinda got distracted by several things. I got distracted by numerous weddings, one of which where some guy dropped the wedding cake on the way out and another stood on his head drinking beer from a keg. Another instance of being double-booked for gigs. Then the occasional writers block. Studio work of course. And finally, to my shame, was busy getting golden gun for Symmetra...

No aim, no brain, all of that mess.

But several distractions later and now I'm back on the grind. I've even gotten a good thousand words jotted down for the next chapter already. Of course the concern for many at the end of this chapter would be the sudden jolt in the plot at the end. Of course he's in no condition to get political so that will be for later. But I can say these next few chapters should be a bit of a cool down from the arimaspi saga. So yes, he will be taking a break.

But also, it seems that the public breakup wasn't for naught. And I want to make things clear that Blueblood isn't quite being evil here, more like being a chaotic neutral acting out of frustration. He's mad at Twilight because he had plans established, some of which will be revealed among other things in the next chapter. But when something you worked hard for changes on the fly to a result you haven't quite calculated into your plans, you become frustrated and sometimes spiteful. So instead of taking the high road, you take matters into your own hands and try to play off the change as best as you can to make things work.

But other than that, the story will cool off for a few chapters before it starts to get heavy again. Other than that, I do thank you all for reading and will hope that you will stick around for more. If there was something that upset you, then I do apologize in advance (writing out of block kinda sucks and ruins any cohesion).

I hope to read from you all sometime within the next two to four weeks.

Chapter LXIX

The lower halls of the castle remained dimly lit as guards stood at attention near every pillar. The guards, instead of being clad in armor, were simply dressed in chainmail holding spears and crossbows. Nearly every single one that stood was a unicorn standing at the ready. The halls were scarcely illuminated by torchlight, some blazing brightly while others flickered as they would experience their last breaths.

The increased security didn't seem to phase Cadance as she trotted down the hall with a scowl on her face. What she quickly approached was a tall door that lead to some deeper passage. The guards at the checkpoint walked up to her and didn't even salute her before they held out a hoof to stop her progress.

"Halt!" The chain-clad guard ordered sternly. "These halls are only for those with proper clearance, those who do not have clearance will be turned away swiftly."

The pink princess rolled her eyes and held out her hoof. One of the other guards ran from the checkpoint with a ink pad and a paper with a square in the middle. The pad was placed to the floor for Cadance to step on, the parchment was laid beside it for her to stamp her mark on, and the paper was taken and evaluated for marks identical to her profile. The guard who stopped her then said. "The sun sure is bright outside."

She promptly replied. "Yes, but it's better carry an umbrella."

He spoke again. "Surely a hawk can see much."

"But a sparrow sees the value in humility." She replied again.

The guard rolled his eyes for his next phrase. "...Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake."

"Clap your hooves and do a little shake." She said, devoid of any dancing.

The inspector gave the head guard a nod before he stepped aside. "How far do you wish to go, your highness?"

"You know who I came to visit, Warden Hard Edge." She answered harshly. "I need an update."

As they made their way through the tall doors, progressed through the halls, and bypassed many of the other prisoners, they conversed. "She's not budging. Her horn also seems to be on the mend. So apparently changelings can grow back their horns while we ponies cannot... as if our situation isn't disadvantageous enough."

Cadance groaned with slight frustration as two other guards raced ahead to their post. "As expected from a species who can shed their outer appearances and even their anatomy."

When they finally reached the door of the prisoner they sought, the two guards stood quietly as some light laughter came from within. The warden turned to the princess. "What do we do with her for now?"

The pink royal didn't waste any breath as she barked out her request. "I want a moment with her."

The warden winced at her request. "Your highness, I don't recommend─"

"That's not your decision." She harshly corrected him.

The warden then cleared his throat and bowed before her as the two guards ignited their horns. "At once, your highness."

The two stallions placed their illuminated horns into two separate sockets, sending magic through a complex series of runes before their auras flooded at the top. As the magics combined, a white glow cut the stone door in two, allowing passage to the princess.

The moment she walked in, the door was closed behind her. Though she couldn't see them, she could hear their voices through the stone door. "She's really on edge as of late."

"Think it could have something to do with the captain's break-up with Princess Twilight?"

"I heard there was some blaming in the matter."

Cadance, who was already fatigued with the topic walked up to the captive prisoner. The changeling sat in place, her horn taped with binding gauze, her eyes blinded so that she could not see her visitor and their current appearance for fear of her taking that form to attempt an escape, and her hooves chained to the floor so tightly that she was only allowed to bend down to eat anything. Dormant runes encircled the two figures as the changeling quickly discerned her visitor just from the sound of her hoofsteps. "Princess Cadance, it's been ages since we last talked."

"Shut up." She instinctively called out, feeling as if her voice was mocking her.

The changeling queen chuckled while she continued to carry on with her casual tone towards her captor. "Oh come now, you're here because you want me to talk, not because you want me to be silent."

Realizing that her initial choice of words was counterproductive to her desired ends, Cadance started outright with her question, "The invasion, why did you do it?"

Chrysalis felt the princess to be so close to her that she could even tell what snack she ate prior to her visit. She merely smiled as she responded. "You know, I heard the funniest little rumor from the guards standing post outside. Apparently the human was deemed unworthy to be the purple one's toy."

Growing more frustrated from was seemed to be the talk of the day around the castle, she forced the discussion to her desired topic. "The invasion, Chrysalis. Tell me why!"

The changeling queen didn't give in to Cadance, continuing to mock her. "I thought he would've been excited to be the subject of interest to that of a princess, but it seems to be more of the same with you all. I wonder if insecurity runs in the family."

"INVASION, CHRYSALIS!" Cadance screamed, using her magic to hold the changeling by her hair. "I want to know why you invaded, why you took my place."

Despite the pain she felt from her mane being yanked so cruelly, the changeling queen didn't stop teasing her adversary. "I wonder if the human was as untouched as Shining was with you."

"Answer the question." Cadance urged.

"Do you want to know the answer?" Chrysalis asked with a strained smirk.

"Tell me." The princess hissed through her tightly-clenched teeth.

"Do you REALLY want to know?" The changeling mocked.

Cadance used her magic to yank the changeling's head further back, causing a few strands of her mane to pop. The princess then whispered to her enemy. "I had enough of your games, Chrysalis. I could have you executed, easily."

"But doing that wouldn't do you any favors, now would it?"

The pink princess looked down at her prisoner, still holding her head by the mane. Cadance felt an intense lust for vengeance while she stood dominant over the one that once had her imprisoned in solitude. "It would do me the pleasure of seeing you pay for what you did to us."

Chrysalis merely giggled at her treatment. "So that would make it twice that I'd walk down the aisle, being the center of attention." She stated with a playful hum. "♪That day was going to be perfect, the perfect day in which I dreamed since I was small─♫"

"Shut. Up." Cadance stressed emphatically as she realized what she was singing.

"♫Everypony gathered 'round, said I looked lovely in your gown. Even your husband fucked me silly all night long.♪" Chrysalis finished as she erupted into a brief period of hysterics.

"I SAID SHUT UP!" Cadance screamed, releasing the changeling's mane. Clumps of seaweed-green hair fluttered to the ground while the pink princess stepped away from the changeling. Closing her ears from the lyrics of her song, the princess tried to process out the memories of what happened to her when she was captured.

"Oh come now, what's the point in being so serious? It's just something to look back and laugh at. There's no need to be personal."

Cadance could still faintly hear her voice, despite plugging her ears closed. "I hate you!"

Chrysalis cackled while she heard the princess nearly induce herself into an anxiety attack trying to keep herself in control of her emotions. "I know, just the thought of it makes you so angry, doesn't it?"

The princess grumbled to herself, chanted repeatedly, underwent a cycle of deep breaths before motioning herself to breathe it all out. Finally reaching a point where she could maintain her civility, the princess whispered to herself. "Okay..."

"Your breathing exercises won't help you now." Chrysalis teased.

In a calmed voice, Cadance then returned to her topic. "There were many approaches you could've made to this invasion. You could've just walked your drones in as normal ponies, and then waited until the night before you slaughtered us. You could've easily disguised yourself and played the role of some stallion to woo Celestia and lure her into feeding you her love, you would've been unstoppable then. Or even playing as some dark and mysterious stallion for Luna to play with. You could've even played as Shining Armor, pretending to be my loving and dedicated fiance, just to feed love from the Princess of Love herself."

"I could've done all of that, couldn't I?" Chrysalis said, instinctively yet vainly raising a hoof to her mouth.

"You instead chose to play me instead. You fed off of a stallion who was no more powerful than any other high-ranking magic student, not even a full mage or wizard. You chose him of all ponies to feed from. You sent out the anonymous notice of an invasion, you did all those things that set up your failure. Why?"

"It was a little sloppy, wasn't it?" Chrysalis said with causality. "Maybe I should take my ideas from you."

Unable to put aside her personal feelings for her husband, the emotions within her rekindled a passionate emotional flame. She inquired the changeling on the matter. "Tell me why! Why him, he went through enough!"

"Because I thought it would be fun." She simply answered.

"Enough of your games." Cadance said, turning herself away from the changeling queen so that she could calm herself once more. But she started to find it much more difficult as the changeling put on display the depth of her cruel mockery.

"It was like you didn't want me, Cadance."

"Just stop it." The princess whispered while she tried to breathe her anxiety away.

"It was hard, trying to be the stallion you wanted me to be. I wanted things to be normal between us, not all of this. Did you ever even considered what I wanted before you just made me feel like I was so useless, so unwanted? You wanted everything about us to be at the front of my mind but you didn't want to even touch me. But at the same time, you wanted me to stay away from any other mare that even so much as smiled at me. I wanted to have a normal relationship, not to be imprisoned in some political cage."

"I did everything for y─" Cadance stopped herself as she realized that the sound of her husband's voice didn't come from him. "You need to stop this."

"It was like you didn't love me like I loved you. Everywhere I went, you wanted me to be loyal. You even disguised yourself as a guard twice to follow me. And each time, you knew that you were forbidden to do so. Yet you still followed me, just so I couldn't find interest in another mare. So imagine my relief when I found out you finally told me that you were tired of waiting. I was so happy. I felt like you finally wanted me. I don't think I could've ever felt so passionate, to make love to you like that. I couldn't stop because I wanted to show you just how much I wanted this. Didn't it feel good, to watch me─"

*SMACK*

The sound that resonated throughout the room was nothing more than the sound of princess losing her composure and applying that flash of rage into the face of her adversary. Chrysalis was slapped so hard by the princess that her blindfold was shifted to where one eye was exposed. Cadance breathed heavily while her hoof stung from the impact she made with Chrysalis' face.

The changeling merely laughed. "Heh... ha ha ha... Ha ha ha ha... AHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" While the blow was potent enough to draw blood from the changeling's maw, the captive queen still smiled in the face of her enemy. "Oh how it still feels good to remember what it was like to take what was never yours."

"You bitch." Cadance quietly whispered as her magic warped into a ring around Chrysalis' neck.

While the magical grip grew tighter, the changeling continued to speak. "Come now, Cadie. It's not like he never took on every mare other than you. I just merely gave him what he wanted. And since I knew you were feeling so lonely in the caves, I just thought that you should see the passion your husband had for you... Oops, I guess you were too busy crying to notice."

By that point, Cadance finally abandoned all hope of being civil. By then, she had completely given herself to revenge and hatred. Even the magical ring around Chrysalis' neck started to slowly spawn crystals as Cadance retained her grip. "It will not be long before they bring you to trial, and I will be there to watch you get the punishment you deserve."

While she only had one eye to see, it was enough to bring confidence to the changeling queen. "You don't get it, do you? I didn't take your 'precious' Shining Armor because it would be better. I took your role because it was far easier than any others to take. Just think of how you'd act in a stressful situation. You know your special day is going to be overshadowed by the looming threat of an invasion, the stallion you worked so hard for is paying more attention to everything else other than you, you're left with the hard work of trying to organize your special day without the assistance of your dear husband. It's just like you! We have much in common, you and I."

Cadance stared at Chrysalis with an icy glare, gazing down at her. "You and I are NOTHING alike."

Chrysalis then listed a few things the two had in common. "We both hold a position of authority, we both seek to look after those who serve under us, we both adhere to the responsibility of our power, we even have the same taste in colts."

"I had enough of you." The pink princess said, almost with a dead tone.

While she stared back at the princess, the imprisoned queen cooed with satisfaction. "But there is one thing that's different about us, Cadie. It's not just that we're changeling and pony, it's the main reason why you trying to appear as if you're wanting to give him a normal marriage. Even I can have his offspring without so much of a care about anything... meanwhile you're really too terrified to even have a foal!"

Within a single beat of the princess' heart, she summoned jagged crystals from the ground, encircling the changeling while one particular stalagmite pressed against her windpipe. Even Chrysalis was surprised by how much the princess had snapped. Cadance's voice was mouse quiet when she whispered into the changeling's ear. "I will bleed you here and now if you every say something like that again."

Genuinely impressed by the contradicting display made by the Princess of Love, Chrysalis felt the time for her fun had reached it's end... "Tell me something, Cadance." ...But not before one final joke. "Does my voice get you wet?"

Cadance didn't even give any emotional acknowledgement to the queen. Instead, she dropped her crystal spell and removed the magical grip from around her prisoner's neck. Chrysalis started to laugh again as Cadance tapped on the stone door. The door quickly opened and closed as she left the cell.

When she walked out, every guard that stood before her cowered from the expression she wore. The guards didn't dare to question what had made her so angry, but they quickly sealed the cell and reactivated the containment runes. She walked over to another guard and asked him. "Did either of you hear anything that came from within this cell?"

The entire group shook their heads quietly with pursed lips.

Cadance then tapped her hoof against the tip of another guard's spear, slowly guiding along it's sharpened edge. "...I know that there are times where even I may show hatred or even a desire for swift vengeance. Believe me, I have my fair share of wanting the past to become just that. And even I may want to exact some cruelty of what I went through towards others so that they know what a true struggle really is. But I deem myself to be better than that. I am a mare of moral standing, and I will even offer the amenities that even I was not afforded by my worst enemy. It is not often felt as fair, but it is just."

Cadance removed her hoof without as much as a scratch. She tapped the shaft of the spear and took a deep breath. Her composure softened again, but her orders were not as such.

"Throw her in solitary confinement, one month, one meal per day, bread and water only."

"As you wish, your highness." The warden said with a bow.

After several minutes of trying to pace herself back into a non-confrontational state, the Princess of Love trotted back to the halls of the castle, finding her way into the royal throne room. As she entered, she saw her guard Flash Sentry actively attempt to dodge her presence. He cringed before he unfurled his wings and barreled down the hall at full speed. The pink princess shook her head as she walked into the spacious room. Luna stood to the side, reading off scrolls and parchments while Celestia trotted back and forth in the center of the room. Cadance already knew what had recently transpired. "Did he say no again?"

"He walked in already knowing what was in store." Celestia responded, still pondering over the situation.

"Well that is unfortunate." Cadance mumbled. "Would've figured that he'd change his mind after a little while."

"It would be less unfortunate if you were to have kept your meddling at a minimum." Luna called out as she used a quill to scratch out the guard's name at the top of the list.

Feeling annoyed, the pink royal groaned on the matter. "Celestia has already lectured me on that, Luna."

Luna, still wanting to get her words in, chided the younger royal further. "And I still find it to be a solid point of emphasis, especially to the one that carries a namesake such as yours. Now it could very well be that the humans are looking at us for the wrongdoing."

Cadance rolled her eyes and placed a hoof on her chest to admit the blame. "If that is to be, then I will be the one to take responsibility."

"No need to." A voice boomed from the entrance of the room. The three princesses looked back to see a human briskly walking into the room. "Oh, and knock-knock."

Luna then called back to the human. "You do realize that an appointment was needed to be made far in advance before you can just barge in here, correct?"

"Well I believe I come here as a representative of my brother. So forgive me for being so brash."

Celestia stopped pacing and smirked at the human. "I find it odd that you're so willing to roam around the castle so freely, Alexander."

The man placed his left hand over his abdomen and his right to the one he acknowledged. He then bowed before the Princess of the Sun. "Your highnesses, if there's any responsibility to be had, then it would be on my end. I'll make sure that my little brother won't play the village idiot and actually go all-out with you."

"Do you really think that he would be willing to still see us as allies?" Luna questioned.

"Of course. If anything, he's more into grudges than outright revenge." Alex answered.

"I'm not sure, Chrysalis seemed pretty close to losing her head to him." Celestia rebutted.

"She's an irritant to everyone she encounters." Cadance stated with a kiss to the teeth.

Luna chuckled while she pointed at the pink princess. "You would know. I've recently gotten word that you've placed her in solitary confinement with minimal nourishment."

"Again, irritant." Cadance responded with a low growl.

Alex, who became genuinely curious, proceeded to inquire about the changeling queen. "Okay, I was told that you and her were enemies, but not the reason for it. Should I dare to ask?"

"She threatened to invade the city and took the form of Cadance to try and abscond Shining Armor." Celestia quickly summarized.

"Oh... so it's nothing personal?" Alex joked.

While the bit of shock humor took both Celestia and Luna aback, they then found the sudden causality of his response to be somewhat humorous. Luna snorted while Celestia held a hoof over her muzzle as she giggled. Cadance, however, didn't find his well-timed bit of sarcasm ticklish. "Funny, laugh it up. I don't understand how the rest of you humans can be so casual to us royals. Even Nondis was once afraid to look at us."

Realizing that he did touch a sensitive spot, he apologetically bowed to the pink princess. "Well if I am to be honest, the three of you do look endearing. And all three of us have had our experience with equines in our world, you know with going on our grandparent's farm and whatnot."

"Yet it feels like there's some disrespect..." Cadance soon found herself interrupted by the sensation of Alex's fingers running through her mane, gently caressing her head. As his fingers made their way to her ears, he began to scratch at the back of them lightly, causing the younger princess to silently tilt her head towards his hand. While she didn't want to show a smile, her eyes closed while she melted at the sensation. "...I now see the reason why Twilight would speak so fondly over these little things."

"Soothing, isn't it?" Luna asked, knowing exactly what the younger mare was feeling.

"If only my husband could do something like this when I'm so irritated."

Feeling that his apology went through in spades, Alex then refocused to his initial intent. "In speaking of irritation, I kinda wanted to put in a bit of a request, if you'll be willing to hear me out."

Luna smiled while she grew a bit giddy. "As long as I get next with those fingers of yours, I'll be willing to listen to whatever you may have on hoof... or rather on hand."

With the confirmation of two princesses, the human went forward with his proposition. "There's this holiday coming up in my world─"

Celestia, who already knew what was going on, interrupted him before he could finish. "Your father is quite assertive."

"Oh so Nondis told you about him?" Alex asked, still scratching Cadance's ears.

"Or rather, his words and voice gave me much in the way of context." Celestia answered, causing Alex to stop scratching and look to her with surprise.

"Oh... Phone call, huh?"

The solar princess continued. "I should also warn that he'll be eager in scolding you and Stanton in the near future. And I should note that a 'Vanessa' was named in his rant."

Alex stiffened his lips and nodded with understanding. "I'd figure my wife would tell him. Better her than me, or else I'd be blabbering off more details than what Nondis would allow for the time being."

"Ah, a common sympathy amongst the three siblings." Celestia replied jestingly.

Cadance, who was a little annoyed that the scratching stopped, used her magic to grab at the human's hand. "Now if we could get some context to that."

Alex already knew what the princess was alluding to in grabbing him and happily complied. After all, he had no reason to displease the ones with the authority and power to put forth his idea.

"Of course, it does file in with my request after all."

The next day...

The morning came with very little in terms of fanfare. The sun was raised above the horizon and the birds chirped sweet songs to celebrate the coming of a new day. The view of Canterlot's taller buildings casting a shadow among the streets of the citadel made certain areas cooler to many of the early-risers. One such early-riser found it somewhat difficult to get out of bed that morning as a maid knocked on the door.

"Your highness..."

"Muhhhhg..." Cadance croaked wearily.

The door sounded with a knock once more. "Your highness..."

"Ugggh... Dawn already..." She mumbled to herself. "I'm up!" She groggily called out.

The maid then opened the door and closed it behind her to offer the princess some privacy from the guards standing watch outside. The maid approached with a chalice filled with water and a miniature chocolate mint sitting on a silver saucer. As she approached, Cadance glanced over to the curtains. As they were opened, the princess winced in pain from the light.

"Agh... I know Celestia said she'd never intentionally brighten the sun, but it sure seems brighter than usual."

"Have you slept well?" The maid questioned.

"I had a rough night's sleep. Doesn't help that my husband snores and goes on occasional bathroom breaks, but it's what it is." She says as she extended her limbs in a state of pandiculation. She looked over to the side of the bed her husband once slept and groaned in dismay. "I'd wish for once he'd actually love me enough to greet me when I wake up."

"It's only because he's busy, your highness."

Cadance looked at the chalice and levitated it towards her lips. Tossing the golden goblet back, she emptied the contents and looked at it with dissatisfaction. "Bad case of cotton-mouth this morning." She said before snatching the mint off the small plate and eating it.

"I will be sure to send for some of the finest spring water in all of Canterlot for you, my grace."

"Just bottled water will do, don't stress yourself." Cadance said through a yawn. "Might drink the bath water if I'm really feeling it."

"Well I'd advise you to not do that. I'll just quickly bring some, princess."

"You are truly appreciated." Cadance said as the maid bowed before her.

The maid quickly ran out of the room, shoving guards out of the way as she called the others to make way for her errands. While the halls slowly began to liven up, the princess stared at the pillow her husband slept on and closed her eyes. Faint cries filled her head, reminding her of what wasn't her memory of him. Each time she breathed, she felt the world become smaller and more confined. Even the scented oils and lavender that graced her nose was disrupted by the recall of stale air, a foul stench, and a sour odor. The sounds of the bed creaking back and forth while a mix of laughs and moans sounded as her voice greeted her mind with the familiar despair of watching herself becoming intimate with her beloved husband, all while being trapped in the dark caves beneath the castle.

Her heart began to race as the anxiety overtook her. Opening her eyes, she expected to be in a dark dampened cave with several crystals refracting her image. But she was greeted with the bed she and her husband slept in the previous night. The pleasant scents of the room returned her to the present. Her heart slowed while her body loosened. She drew a long sigh as she realized that her past was not set in present time.

*knock knock knock*

"Who is it?" She called out.

"Cadie, it's me. I brought you some water."

The familiar voice caused the princess to express relief as she called out to him. "Why the hell are you knocking, get in here!"

Shining obediently entered the room, closing the door behind him. The sudden sensation of a magical aura pulling him towards her caused him to stumble before he walked over to her. "Geez, sweetie. You okay?"

"Kiss me." She ordered. "I need you right now."

The stallion sweetly shook his head and gave his wife a series of pecks on her lips. "Love you, sweetheart."

"You can do better than that." She groaned with dissatisfaction.

"Oh, guess you want more than the usual." He said as he backed her into the bed. "You're so greedy at times."

He used his magic to sweep her off of her hooves and shove her back into the disrupted sheets. He planted his forelegs on either side of her as he gave her a devilish grin before he pressed his lips against hers. His head tilted slightly as she accepted his morning offering. His tongue quickly worked into her mouth, dancing with hers. His magic started to pull at the tip of her wings while she moaned from the pleasure of having them tickled. The stallion looked at her as he assaulted her, she looked at him back.

But it wasn't out of passion that she looked at him. She was observing him, taking note of the difference he had. Obviously he was doing whatever he could to arouse her, but that moment didn't supply that to her. She was more attentive to the eyes that looked at her, half-lidded as if he was watching her every move. She grew accustomed to the fact that her husband kissed her with open eyes, but it was not always that way.

Before they were married, their kisses were so invested, he could let himself get lost in the moment of contact long awaited by the both of them. It was like each time they knew that it would lead to trouble, but the risk of it all made it all the more exciting. But after the wedding, his touch and his approach was far too calculated. And thought she felt satisfaction in the heat of the moment, there was still the air of uncertainty between the both of them. For him it was the fear that the mare before him was a lie. For her, it was the knowledge that her special moment was taken from both of them.

The night of their marriage, the week after, the month to follow, they went without claiming each other until they were afforded the opportunity and comfort. Though they were quick to make up for lost time after that one night, her mind wandered to that one day her husband was claimed before her very eyes after they were finished. And under most circumstances, she'd see this as an opportunity to reclaim what was rightfully hers.

Today, her mind was plagued by the words of her enemy. Her body reacted in kind, even as her husband's head crept beneath her haunches. The sight of him parting her hindlegs did not excite her. His grins, his coos, his determined stare, nothing. She felt numb to it all.

"...Stop." She ordered.

Shining's head rose up, confusion on his face as he readied himself to dive in. "What, what's wrong? You usually love it when I do this."

The princess closed her legs and rolled over. "I'm just... I just got a headache. Maybe later."

The stallion started to show signs of disappointment as he had to urge himself to climb down from his state of arousal. And it showed on his face as he realized that his efforts were to go unrewarded. "...Is it me?"

Cadance knew the answer to his question, but chose not to answer it directly. "I just wanna cuddle." She replied. "When have we ever just laid here, enjoyed each other's company? I haven't woken up to you by my side in months, it's like my husband doesn't even have time for me anymore."

Shining laid behind his wife, hugging her closely as he nuzzled her. "Sweetie, you know it's been pretty busy lately. My new position doesn't exactly come with an Applewood breakfast hour."

"Shining, you're gonna have to find time for us, you know." She urged. "We need this for us to work."

"I know. And I'm sorry I haven't been giving that to you. It's just I've been so damn busy. And this morning isn't any different. I had to overlook a prison transfer this morning. And then I had to overlook a few protocols in the courtyard, messy affair."

Cadance stopped him there as she kicked her hind leg into his. "Shining... Us, please. Let's just worry about us right now. No more princess stuff, no more sex, no more guard duties, just you telling me that I'm yours and me telling you that you're mine."

Shining lightly winced from the kick, but still hugged his wife in spite of the slight stinging. "...Is something wrong, Cadie?"

She leaned into him as she spoke. "It's like there's something wrong with us right now."

The stallion brushed her mane with his hoof, lightly stroking her face while he whispered into her ear. "All it took was one kiss, and I'm sure the wheels of fate turned and brought me a perfect moment of tenderness and happiness. From now on, every moment, every second I have, I will spend beside you to make you happy."

The pink princess whimpered as her husband quoted his wedding vow to her. Cadance felt weak as she pulled her husband's hoof against her face. Tightly she clung to him, rocking back and forth while she cherished the hoof she held. "I feel so... terrible."

Shining, who was aware of how his wife acted since they reencountered Chrysalis, knew what had bothered her. "...Is it her again?"

"It's like I can't even be the mare you wanted to marry anymore. It's like I'm constantly watching you do your best and it feels like I can't even get with you at times. Even now, you're mad because I called you off."

Shining grunted as she alluded to his current battle with his sexual frustration and offered words of comfort. "Sweetheart, you are the only thing I'm worried about right now. Sex just comes when all the pieces are in place. And right now, I'm more concerned about what parts of you are missing. I'm here because I chose to be here with you. I didn't choose to be anything other than your husband. And I'm damn proud to be able to say that you're my wife."

As they laid in the bed, another knock came at the door to disrupt them. It was the voice of the maid. "Your highness, your presence is requested in the Royal Parliament Chamber."

Shining looked back at the door and called out. "She's not feeling well, please come back later."

The maid then responded. "Sir, also your presence has been requested by Princess Luna on the matters of security. She says it is urgent."

The princess moaned sadly as she called out. "I'll be right there."

"Honey, are you sure?" Shining asked.

The mare rolled over to face her husband. "Are you my husband?"

"...Don't let 'em get to you." Shining answered.

"I remember saying those same words to you way back when." She said, giving her husband a peck on the lips.

"Well don't mind me, I'm just giving them back." He stated as the princess stepped out of bed and quickly put on her regalia.

"You and I gotta set aside some time for us." She said as she brushed her mane to look presentable.

"Guess there's no time for a bath for the both of us." Shining joked.

"Later, Romeo." Cadance replied. "We'll fit in some fun time for later today."

"Sounds like a date."

"I miss going on those."

"No kidding." Shining said as he hopped out of the bed and ran towards the door. "So, later tonight, Canterlot Royal Spa? Figure we could both go with some unwinding."

Cadance smiled as she accepted. "It's like my husband is actually trying to make me happy for a change."

"Oh whatever." He said before he left the room.

Cadance's smile quickly faded as she started to hold her head. The tightness in her throat started to make itself apparent as she found herself trying to swallow whatever saliva she produced. She then levitated the bottled water her husband provided her. In seconds, she gulped the contents of the bottle and swallowed. Much of her condition had gone unchanged.

"Ugh... Faustdamn cotton mouth."

Canterlot Royal Medical Facility...

My body felt great after a much-awaited shower. It was like I had finally started to smell like a normal person as opposed to a bedridden hospice patient. My arms regained most of their strength, allowing me to become semi-independent in climbing out of bed and into my wheelchair.

Still processing that phrase at the moment.

My feet could move almost as freely as they once could, but my leg strength wasn't quite where it needed to be to consider independence. But that's a process I can wait on. My neck didn't feel that great from being in an awkward bed predicament, so I wasn't active in turning my head as much. And it wasn't like I could roll my neck and pop my spine for that one instant of relief.

My digestive cycle has shortened, so I'm going into twice-a-day bowel movements. My abdomen aches from time to time, but it's nowhere near as painful as it was when I had gotten stabbed. Sometimes I get a few chills, but that's just the effects of the blood transfusion. Mel told me that I would feel it from time to time, but not in frequency. No rejections of platelets, no fevers, just a little itchy, and no hives to be seen. I can safely say I've been on the good side of the mend.

Alex, Melanie, and Stanton were all here to visit. And though we had discussions about many things, there was one thing that managed to nibble at our curiosity. The four of us made our way to the courtyard and came in contact with a unexpected... and rather macabre, surprise.

"Oh... wow." Mel said as she looked on.

"Don't wanna be them." Stanton said as we looked to the gallows set up at the center of the courtyard.

At the gallows hung three lifeless changelings and one bloodied rope. The three had an assortment of expressions, but many still reflected the finality of their existence. Eyes half-lidded, jaws hung halfway open, limbs silent. The only thing to be heard was the sound of the ropes creaking and squeaking against the wooden bar from which they swung.

"Je-sus, no wonder they cancelled public executions." Alex said with a bit of unease. "I know they're changelings and it's not doing much to me in the psych department, but that shit would be fucking nightmare fuel if you had a front-row seat."

I wheeled myself a little closer as I looked at the blood that dried on the scaffolding. When I had gotten close enough, I noticed a significant blood splatter on both the planks and the cobblestones below. And judging from the way it ran a trail from the platform, to the ground and pooled after a bit of a turn, I came to the conclusion that the final rope had done more than it's job. "Yeah, still a few errors to be had. This guy at least got the quick end."

Melanie cleared her throat as she gotten a little closer to me. "Yeah, where is that last guy? Obviously they left these three here for insurance, but that last rope's been used."

"My guess." I started to summarize. "Apparently this guy got hung like the rest and I supposed they gave a little too much slack, he went down incorrectly."

"Meaning?" Stanton asked.

"His head popped off." I concluded. "Too much of a mess, can't keep that here or it'll start to smell."

"Well they'll start to smell if they keep them out here." Melanie argued.

And almost on cue, two guards came from within the castle with a covered wagon. As they approached the gallows, the two greeted us brightly. "Good morning, humans!"

While the other three seemed thrown off by their emotional detachment to the situation, I wheeled on over to greet the two. "Hey fellas, what's the word on the post?"

One started to unhinge the door to the back of the wagon while the other spoke to me. "Well captain, apparently a lot has happened the past nine days. You've been the topic of eight of them, nice to see you up and at it, by the way."

I raised a hand as a gesture of thanks. "Yeah, I could be as cold as these three, but I'm still flailing my arms around. So who gave the okay for this?"

"Princess Luna gave the word that these three were being uncooperative and unrepentant. So she signed them off and brought them here for their final words before dawn. Brigadier General Shining Armor was the overseer."

"Oh, so what you do with number four?" I asked, tossing a thumb back at the fourth rope.

"Yeah, they said that one was a bit active in trying to wiggle his way out of it. Apparently he was a little too eager and caught the rope wrong, so there's a mess we have to clean. Just toss a bit of acid on the stones and wash it right off, and you can have a dinner party here as if nothing happened. Of course we don't want them here long enough to smell so we're pulling these guys and dumping them off on the mountainside."

"Kinda crude way of disposing the bodies, don't you think?" Melanie questioned.

"Not really." The guard replied. "There are actually the benefits of what we do to the scavenger's ecosystem. There's an endangered strand of buzzards living on this mountain that don't get a lot in terms of the food they eat. So we toss these guys off, then the local critters, insects, scavengers and whatnot take advantage of it. It's much more economically efficient to do it this way as well as being a benefit to the ecosystem of the mountain."

"Well you make an interesting argument..." Melanie stated with a glance to the three changelings.

"And thus the circle of life completes itself." Alex summarized.

"So the last guy, did you already toss him?" Stanton asked.

"Dunno, might wanna ask the overseer if he knows anything about that."

The other guard finished laying out the bed to place the bodies and pulled out a tarp as he finally spoke. "In other news, there's an ongoing investigation of that griffon assassin they found on the McIntosh Hills. Apparently he was a Griffonstone native, so there could be some talks of an investigation against the Griffon Kingdom.

"Oh no, not this again." I muttered out loud.

"That investigation won't involve you, captain. So be sure to rest up."

"Much appreciated." I answered.

"Also in rumors around the castle, five guards were caught in an underground gambling scandal, two maids were caught having an illicit affair with each other in the garden, one stallion who worked in the medical ward got fired for eating the patients' meals, and one senator misplaced his meds and hasn't come out of his office for the past three days. And also, the infamous Senator Count DuMoneé is under investigation for blackmail."

"Ha! They nailed his ass." I crackled with pride.

"You're welcome." Alex said holding his fist out for me to bump.

"Also in prison news..." The first guard added. "The changeling queen has been transferred to the X-block for a month. Apparently she said something to piss off Princess Cadance and she gave the order to have her shipped from her containment cell in level-3 block G to level 5 block X. Her diet will consist of bread and water, once a day, solitary confinement, mana dissipation seals of the class 8 variety, and forced hibernation removal so she can't sleep her way through it."

"Huh... no wonder why she was so tense last night." Alex said, causing all three of us to look back at him with bewilderment.

"Context, please?" Stanton requested.

"I had a nice chat with the princesses is all. No need to overanalyse the situation."

The two guards didn't pay any mind to us while they started loosening the nooses for the changelings to slip through. As they were freed, their bodies collapsed to the ground. While one started working on the next one, the other hauled the lifeless corpse into the back of the wagon. By the time one body was put away, another fell to the ground. It was like watching a morticians gleefully carrying about their duties as if it was them loading groceries on a sunny day. Of course they tossed back and forth a few jokes about the changelings, but they were so efficient at what they did.

For a moment, it disturbed me how easily they went about it. "Uh, gents..." I called out. "How is it that you guys are so calm while doing this?"

One of them answered. "It's never easy dealing with the dead, easier dealing with changelings, they're our enemies who takes the lives of our families and friends. They don't show the emotional dynamic we ponies do."

"It's an odd thing." The other answered. "To be honest, it's just feels easier to deal with something that doesn't really feel like us. I'm sure it's similar for you humans to watch us die and not feel too much for us."

It's true. It was surreal to have a pony die in my arms, but it didn't carry the emotional toll it would if someone I didn't know in my world was grasping at my shirt trying to understand what was going on, only for them to just fall limp. But there was one thing that did manage to break me. "I think I can understand your point. But wouldn't it start to take it's toll after living amongst them for quite some time?"

"It would if we were allies and knew peace amongst our species. Maybe that reality is years off or even months, but as of now what do we know about them? Should we care about something that seeks to not care about us? There are still over two hundred of our citizens unaccounted for thanks to them." The second argued.

"If you had to ask us as guards, the two hundred you claimed was just reward for two hundred of ours. How many lives have been altered because of them? Thousands, maybe? It goes further than their recent operations. Is it our hatred of them that causes us to become so callous? There's a reason for our madness, and it's as simple as the old adage goes: It's better them than us."

As the last body was loaded onto the wagon, the wooden bed was shoved in, the back cover was lowered and tied off. Finally, the back door was hinged shut and the guards bridled themselves to take the corpses to their final resting place. The two stallions gave me a salute before they set off.

"Captain, it's better to stay optimistic in the most trying of circumstances and be able to find a way to cope with or overcome your odds." One of the guards said. "It's how you stay sane in our line of work."

The two disappeared beyond the path and out of the castle checkpoint. The four of us looked at each other as another group of stallions quickly ran in from the castle and started to pull apart the gallows. Since many of them were unicorns, several of their tasks were made expedient due to the their ability to multitask. So in the span of five minutes, the platform that once showed death was suddenly removed to only display an empty patch of cobblestone. Even the blood was washed clean. And as the two clean-up guards declared, it appeared that nothing had even occurred.

Flowers were planted, hedges were trimmed, and sweet-scented oils were dashed on the stones to give the place a smell that could've made any unsuspecting individual eager to stay a while, to bask in the uninterrupted beauty of the royal courtyard. Six other guards then posted themselves at various points of the courtyard. One such guard called out to the others.

"Maintain your posts! We'll be having some important guests coming later this evening for the City Celebration Banquet. Make sure no tourists are guided here, and keep the grounds clean."

"SIR, YES SIR!" They all called out in response.

The one who barked the order then walked up to me and issued a salute. "Captain, it is nice to see you doing well this morning."

After all that I just saw, I could only come up with one response. "Uh-huh..."

Our stroll through the halls of the castle were uneventful up till recently. We somehow managed to run into two of the guards that served alongside me on the deployment. They managed to fill me in on how everything was going with the restitution situation. Apparently the politicians were even more impatient that they couldn't loophole their way to getting some of that gold we retrieved, especially after Blueblood and Shining managed to tell them off by inviting them to go retrieve it for themselves if they're so willing to have some.

Obviously, there were no takers.

So the parliament have mostly given up on that pointless pursuit of greed, and turned their attention to the matters that have grown to become a concern, the Griffonstone investigation. Seems there's some serious mumblings of a potential campaign brewing if the griffons were to become uncooperative. I suppose that would be a problem if it did ever come to that.

As we moved along, a rambling individual had his head buried in the headlines of a newspaper as he trotted right into me, knocking me back a foot while he fell to his backside. And as his head poked through the newspaper, I was surprised by the very face I saw.

"...YOU!" Count DuMoneé screamed.

I gave him a cheeky smile while I waved at him. "Hey, good morning, Count! Sun seems pretty bright for November, I'll tell you what."

The senator stumbled onto his feet, causing me to get a good look at him. His mane was not as well-kept as he would normally have it, his eyes seemed sleep-deprived, his coat seemed untamed while his clothes were wrinkled. I looked down to his hooves to see a variety of paper cuts, seemingly from going through several files for various reasons. He didn't seem as composed as I last remembered him being, especially after I bit his ear.

He jumped up, used his magic to grab at my collar, and proceeded to scream at me. "Why have you been created!? Your vileseome existence nauseates me beyond compare. It is politically correct when discussing your faults to use certain words to denote your equinity above your disability. But in your case, there is nothing equine. You are just challenged, you are just different. Given a choice of stepping in something nasty on the sidewalk, or bidding you good morning, I would happily choose the former. Single-hoofedly, you have wrenched all meaning out of life."

Yeesh, and your breath smells worse than an arimaspi's ass. "Um... Sir, I think it would be within my kindness to offer you a tic-tac."

"TIC TAC YOUR KNOBBISH SLAG OVER THERE AND FUCKING LEAVE FOR ONCE! NOT FOR A DAY, NOT FOR A WEEK, NOT FOR A MONTH OR YEAR, GIVE ME A DECADE OF NEVER SEEING YOUR FACE! OR BETTER YET, PLEASE, BY ALL MEANS, JUMP OUT THAT WINDOW! AFTER ALL YOUR PRETTY PRINCESS PARTED FROM YOUR PATHETIC PRIMATIVE POSTERIOR AND POSSIBLY PROPOSED TO ANOTHER PONY!"

While his breath nearly had me in Vietnam flashbacks to the one time I was forced to taste the flatulence of a pony in a fast-food restaurant, I resorted to covering my mouth and nose before my lungs felt like I was inhaling mustard gas. I turned to Alex and asked. "Dude, what the hell did you do?"

"Dude, what the hell is that smell?" Alex was a few feet away from me, also covering his nose.

The stallion then shook me again. Meanwhile I was quietly praying to never undergo another alliterative assault accompanied by an ambush of spit. "Oh you think you're so lucky to be rolling around in that chair, don't you!? Well I can tell you this much, YOU WON'T TAKE ME ON! C'MON!"

I then pressed my hand on his chest, another on his horn to prevent him from casting any spells. While the struggle commenced, Alex and Stanton tried to pry the pony off of me. But their effort would come to a stop before they even began as he ran a spell through his horn to rapidly heat it up, causing me to remove my hand from the burn. A small bubble formed over the both of us and expanded enough to knock both of them to the ground.

My struggle would go unassisted for a few more seconds before his assistant ran up to him from behind, wrapping his hooves around his chest and pulling him off of me. And with the addition of his magic, Single File successfully pried the two of us apart to a considerable distance.

Alex and Stanton both rubbed their heads as they got up, while I coughed from the fumes the stallion left behind. "Sulfuring succotash. Thank you for getting your mans over there." I said while clearing my throat and wiping my face of his spit.

"I'm so sorry, he's been lacking in sleep and he hasn't been himself as of late." Single File said, straining to hold his boss back.

"I don't give a fuck what he hasn't been doing." Stanton replied. "Your dude needs to fucking chill. Tell that asshole to smoke something, fucking drugs, get him to hang loose a bit before he gets his lights turned off."

Single File continued to restrain his employer, but suddenly he found very little resistance in his struggle. The aged stallion almost froze in place as his eyes zigzagged around the hall. Then one word was whispered from his lips. "Hang..."

The stallion seemed completely different now that he had stopped. It was like he became a lot more docile while his assistant slowly let him go. We watched as the stallion took quiet, short steps in looking around the halls.

"Who's hanging?" He muttered. "W-wh-wh-who hanging..."

He looked around the hall, walking back and forth from pillar to pillar as he really started to ramble on.

"Wh-who's hanging? Hanging... hanging swinging... swinging creak... it's creaking... all this creaking... all this fucking creaking... what the hell is this creaking noise?... Noisy... noisy creak... all that racket... hanging... Ceiling hanging... Hangingfromtheceilingallthisnoisethisfucking NOISE!..." Suddenly he snapped at the pillar standing behind him. "STOPTOUCHINGME!" He finally calmed down for a second before he looked to the center of the hall, staring at the ceiling. "It's you again, isn't it? I told you I didn't want you here, why are you here?"

While this amalgamation of a breakdown took place before our very eyes, we were left staring with abject terror and a sudden desire to back away slowly. Melanie held a hand to her mouth as she mouthed to herself. "Oh my God."

The stallion's head popped as he sharply turned to Mel, looking at her with a jaundiced stare filled with madness. She lost her balance and fell to the ground. When she looked back up, he was no longer there, instead he was standing right behind her. He placed a hoof on the top of her head, making her shriek while he held her in place with his magic. Slowly, he forced her head to the side, breathing on her neck. "Where are the marks?"

Single File quickly galloped to her and grabbed the deranged stallion off of her. While he held him back, he promptly received a hoof to the eye as consequence.

"LETMEGO!WHOTHEHELLAREYOU!?GETYOURHOOVESOFFOFMEBEFOREI─"

And with a single flash, the older stallion collapsed to the ground. The chaos had finally ended while the young assistant laid his employer on his back. He quietly bowed his head as a show of remorse. "I am so sorry. He has not been this bad in a long time. Whatever compensation you need, I'll be sure to have it sent to you for this."

Alex shook his head. "What the SHIT is wrong with him?"

Mel, who was left shocked for most of the time, stayed on the ground as she moaned quietly. "Heee's goooooone. He's faaaaaar gone."

While my brothers and I were used to breakdowns similar to that, especially in the case of our grandfather, the three of us came to a silent consensus that what we saw was a completely different class of mental malfunction. The three of us were left stunned by what we witnessed. Melanie didn't even want to get off of the ground, she was so shaken.

"So, Single File... You had to catch up with this guy, right?" I asked.

"You wouldn't believe how hard it was to keep him in one area. He's been all over the palace, reading newspapers, clipping headlines, checking his drawer."

"Does he have any meds?" Melanie quietly asked.

"Thiothixene. If you see an orange phial with that word on it, please send for me."

"...Okay." She replied.

The stallion started to proceed down the hall before he stopped to look back at Melanie. "I should also request, on the family's behalf... Please mention nothing of this. I will bring you reimbursement for any damages incurred. I bid you all a safe day."

The young stallion walked off, leaving the four of us to reflect on what all happened today. I looked down at my legs and nervously bit my lip.

"I got baby issues here."

We never really talked about what we just saw earlier. I'm sure the guards who paid witness to what happened further down the halls didn't speak much about it either. Melanie only mumbled to herself as she chanted the word 'thiothixene' over and over again. Alex wouldn't stop pushing me along while Stanton wouldn't ever get three feet away from me. But then again, could I really blame them after what happened.

This whole day has been one giant question mark to all of us. I can understand the courtyard situation, that was just protocol. I guess it was my first time seeing something like that and it kinda threw me off for a bit, especially with how quickly the mood was shifted towards normalcy.

There was no normalcy with what happened earlier, hell no.

Two other faces turned the hall, greeting us as they approached. Cliff and Rickey had returned from our world after a few classes and with some spare time in between their lunch break and study period. And thankfully they were here to change the mood. We were kinda dead for a while, and it just felt like a long chain of awkwardness being wrapped around the four of us.

"So what's the news on the street, soldier boy?" Rickey questioned.

"Apparently Chrysalis got transferred, a few changelings got put down, there's gonna be a dinner party this evening, and we have come to terms that Count DuMoneé is completely insane." I said, going down the list of everything I experienced today.

Cliff laughed. "Bruh, we been knew that motherfucker was leagues gone when he decided to pop up out of an air vent."

Hindsight now tells me just how terrifying that could've been. "We're thinking on another level of crazy."

"He has meds." Melanie added. "And obviously he hasn't been taking them."

Rickey and Cliff's eyes widened at the revelation. "Ohhhhh, yeah I can see that being a bad thing. What's he taking it for?"

Stanton quickly interrupted. "You mind changing the topic, we really don't wanna talk about that right now."

"It's just bringing up some bad memories right now." Alex murmured.

The two thankfully complied and switched to something else that was moderately uncomfortable to me. "So any of you guys seen Twilight?" Cliff inquired.

"No not today." I answered. "I just know that she went back to Ponyville for a few errands. Then again her life is more over there than it is here. I just wish we could visit the others today, getting a visit from Pinkie would be a day-breaker."

"Honestly, I'm kinda curious on why she's not staying for the dinner party this evening." Stanton brought up. "Wasn't it something that had to do with the city? Usually princesses are all about public functions."

"Yeah but not every princess attends every function." I rebutted. "Normally they have like one or two to sit at the table and mingle with the crowd."

"So, safe to say if it pertains to the city that Princess Celestia would be there." Alex assumed.

I didn't even give it a second thought, this is the city SHE founded after all. "I can confirm that she will be there. And I know that Blueblood would also be the number two option since he's the big-city talker here. Some of the upper crusts of Canterlot he's pretty close with so I can imagine him getting a few jokes in at everyone's expense."

"Sounds like he's the life of the party." Melanie said mockingly.

"Actually, from what I know about past dealings, he is. Often times when it comes to these uppity social events, he's usually there to do three things: drink, joke, and poke at the mares there for... you know. Essentially what we did every Saturday night at the frat house, he does with the rich folks."

Cliff, Rickey, and Stanton smiled at the thought. The three had a delightful and approving nod while Stanton spoke. "Oh yeah, we gotta hang out with him sometime."

Melanie grimaced with discomfort. "I don't know. He seems a bit too prickish for me. He's more like that guy who's an asshole for shits and giggles. I don't think I can trust that."

"I feel you." Alex agreed. "He's great for the political work, but his party persona might be a ruse to get some really shady shit done under the table. Seems to be a lot of ulterior motives that comes with hanging out with someone like him."

"He might be a little troublesome to hang out with at times." I admitted. "But he's at least nice enough to show you around to get you familiar with the current climate."

*POOF*

Melanie yelped loudly as a unicorn randomly teleported themselves directly in front of us. I tightened my grip on the wheelchair as the teleportation spell came with some smoke, I was readying myself for whatever was going to come at me next. One of my arms tensed up as if I was ready to throw a punch until a purple aura swallowed my right hand. And through the clouds, an unexpected individual waved her hoof to clear the smoke.

"Ohh hohohoho, gracious! I have done that kind of spell in YEARS!"

Melanie held her chest as she released a long-held breath. "Mrs. Velvet─"

The mare didn't even let her finish as she just strung together her greetings. "Oh-hi-there-miss-Melanie-I'm-sure-you're-doing-well. Oh-hello-mister-Cliff-and-mister-Rickey. Mister-Alex-and-Stanton-I-know-these-past-few-days-have-been-quite-a-trial-I-completely-understand-but-I-need-to-borrow-your-brother-for-just-one-moment."

I blinked wildly as her aura wrapped around my entire body. "Ma'am─"

She planted a hoof over my lips to silence me as she pointed to the others. "You, you, you, you, and you, nice-seeing-you-again. Ta-ta!"

And in a poof, she disappeared with me in tow. The smoke cleared to reveal a wheelchair filled with only the clothes I wore. The group of five stared with astonishment and confusion. "Did she just take him... and NOT his clothes?" Melanie asked slowly.

Cliff laughed jokingly as he pointed to the wheelchair. "Damn, I didn't know she got down like that."

Then another smoke cloud appeared as she reappeared to grab the clothes and finally the wheelchair. "Oopsie-day! Forgot-you-humans-wear-clothes-and-that-he-needed-this-to-get-around! Pardon-me!"

Just as quickly as she appeared, she disappeared leaving behind only a small cloud of smoke.

Alex was left with a floored jaw and a finger on his chin. "Excuse me, whaaaaa─"

She fucking saw everything. And it wasn't like she was disgusted by what she saw, she was genuinely curious. She stared, for seconds... and thirds. She even tapped it once 'just for funsies' before she disappeared and reappeared with my wheelchair and clothes. She tossed me my clothes and turned around long enough for me to slip on my boxers and put on my pants. I only managed to get my shirt halfway back on while I was speaking.

"Thanks for giving me my clothes back. Now what's with the─"

She snapped back around and pressed her muzzle against my nose, looking at me with a frantic expression. "YOU AND TWILIGHT ARE BREAKING UP!?"

The sudden reaction had me jump back a bit as I answered her. "Well it was kinda her decis─"

The mare angrily slammed her hoof into the ground repeatedly in protest. "NO! I refuse! Not happening! I've already sent out wedding invites to my four sisters, my two brothers, my thirty six cousins, my five uncles, my nineteen aunts, my mother, my father, my best friend, my ex boyfriend..."

...Say what now? "Hold on, ex boyfriend? How far back are you g─"

"GRAAAAADE SCHOOOOL!" She growled hysterically while grinding her teeth.

"okay..." I squeaked.

Obviously today was not the day for sanity.

The mare then ran over to a cabinet and rummaged through the contents while she ranted on. "Oh, and then there's the wedding planner to consider, the banner maids, the musicians, the cooks, the day where we were supposed to spend out together finding Violet a ring, introducing you to the other members of the family. and this is all on MY side of the family tree! I haven't even began to start counting up Crescent's family members. His sisters would love to attend, his cousins all missed out on Shining's wedding and promised that they'd show up for this one!"

I raised my hands up to signal at her to ease up. "Can we slow down?"

She jumped out of the drawer, holding an unsealed envelope. Running up to me, she shoved the envelope in my face. "Take, TAKE!"

I calmly took the envelope and reached inside. "Okay, what is this?"

She started to lift me off of my backside and plant me in my wheelchair before pushing me into the kitchen, showing me a large poster on the wall. "Ticket's dear, zeppelin tickets to Prance! The two of you will be holding a private ceremony of family only and it will be a romantic spot set up on the edge of the river. The gondolas will pass by, introducing a quartet of singers and even Cadance will be willing to unionize the two of you! I also have the keys to your hotel suite, your passport, your clearance to the private tour of the Eifoal Tower, your brand new disguise, your proof of reservation for the Café Dú Pón─"

"STOP!" I shouted loudly before covering my mouth to chastise myself for screaming so loudly in a residential area. "What is all of this?" I asked at a much lower volume.

"I'm getting you two the happy ending you deserve!" She said as she took out a suitcase and started packing her clothes and other personal belongings.

I walked up to her and closed the suitcase before she could pack anything else. "I've never seen you so... off your rocker. You okay?"

The lines of stress started to reveal themselves on her face while she tried to use her magic to pry my hand off of her suitcase. "You get news of your daughter not being able to seal the deal with the ONLY ONE who could actually give her some hope in her misery-filled political career. Instead, I'm watching you just casually waltz around like there's no problem for any of this."

While my left hand still stung from the last time I grabbed a horn, I had to face the pain and cut her magic short to keep my hand on that suitcase. "Not my choice. Her choice."

"THEN WHAT DID YOU DO!?" She hollered loudly.

I opened my mouth and pointed at her before I ended up stopping to think about it. Unfortunately nothing concrete came to mind. "...You know, I can't even answer that question. She never told me, she just said 'we're done' as soon as I woke up."

The mare threw her hooves on her cheeks and raked them downward, pulling at her cheeks as she groaned. "Don't you know what this means? She'll never get married because of that stupid law! She'll always look around for candidates, but politicians will turn against them, and then they're going to quit! And then it's going to start all over again until I'm on my death bed looking at my unfulfilled and unfertilized Violet. And who knows what may happen when I and her father die. She may lose herself, she may even start having secret, scandalous rendezvous with the dragon she raised!" Velvet then squeaked like a mouse before she started crying hysterically. "MY DAUGHTER'S GOING TO BE AN OLD MARE WITH A DESPERATION DRAGON FETISH!"

Somewhat perplexed on how her thought process managed to come up with such an unbelievable scenario, I shook my head quickly and reset my mind to respond to the mare. "So what's wrong with dragons exactly?"

The mare grabbed at my chest sobbing with theatrics. "NONDIS, YOU NEED TO REVERSE THIS SOMEHOW, SOME WAY, AND SOON! I refuse to watch my daughter become as desperate and depressed as one of my other sisters!"

Oh, well... apparently it must be something absolutely terrible. "What's wrong with her? What did she do?"

"It's horrible!" She cried out.

"Okay."

"It's the worst thing a mare could ever do in her middle years."

"...Call an escort?" I guessed.

The mare briefly broke her performance as she completely seemed normal for a few seconds. "Actually, that's quite normal. Even my husband and I do that once a month for our special day in." And she promptly snapped back to the dramatics. "But she does the worst thing in all of the worst things you could ever do in the midst of a midlife crisis."

What, is she the secretary of some pompous asshole? Is she some sort of janitor for some middle school? Is she a stripper.... wait, she would have to be putting on the clothes in order to be stripping. "Does she put on clothes in front of others in some weird exhibitionism fetish?"

"It's far worse than that!"

"Really, what is it?"

She quietly squeaked as she hugged me tightly, nearly pressing the air out of my chest in doing so. "You. Don't. Want. To. Know!"

I peeled her hoof off of me and calmly spoke to Mrs. Velvet, hoping that I would be able to calm her down. "I know you're in a bit of a shock over everything that's happened recently, and trust me when I say 'I don't blame you'. But if there's one thing I can promise to you is this: Twilight will not be alone in her future years, nor will she be harboring some weird not-incest thing for Spike, or even slowly and seductively putting on clothes in the middle of town square for everypony to drool over. You wanna know why?"

"Oh, you're just trying to give me words of comfort." She said wiping the drama-induced tears from her eyes.

"It's because I will be doing everything in my power to make sure that she won't. And it won't be anymore of this 'suitor for the approval process' crap either. I'm going to do my part in trying to convince these politicians that this law is outdated and far too archaic to remain in place."

She looked at me for a few seconds before she burst into tears again. "My daughter IS going to have a desperation dragon fetish!"

"No, she won't." I reiterated. "And I think I may have a plan on how we can do it. I can't share it right now, but I can give my word that this law will be done before the start of February. By Valentine's Day, I swear that your daughter will be knocking horseshoes with whatever stallion she so chooses... Not to say that she would shack up with just anypony, but she will be liberated to choose whoever she feels comfortable with."

She looked at me with a bit of hope in her eyes as her jaw slacked open a bit. Her eyes glistened with optimism as she asked. "What's Valentine's Day?"

...Okay, I fucked up there because I don't really know anything about the pony equivalent of Valentine's Day. I never really got a chance to learn what it was. "Okay, what's a lovey-dovey day that you ponies celebrate in February?"

"Hearts and Hooves Day?" She answered.

"Okay, for humans it's 'Valentine's Day' while it's 'Hearts and Hooves Day' for ponies. Fourteenth of February, right?"

"That's right." She nodded.

"Well your daughter will be having some sort of illicit activity on that day, consequence-free, I guarantee it or your money back."

The mare then frowned as she looked at me. "B-b-but... There's one thing I want!" She wined, similar to that of a filly.

"Okay, what?" I inquired.

She then summoned the envelope she tried to give to me earlier tilting it to the side over and over as she cheesed from ear to ear. While the mare bounced excitedly in a nod, she continued to flaunt the tickets inside.

I shook my head with some disbelief before I inevitably gave in to that smile she wore. "Okay, now here's the deal on that. If she doesn't think I'm a total tool after all of this, we MIGHT think about something like that. But only if we're thinking of getting back together."

The mare sadly pursed her lips, quivering them as she gave me her best puppy-dog impression. The moment she tried, I looked away, not wanting to be tempted by that damn face. She then whimpered as if she was a crying puppy, making my struggle significantly worse as I knew that looking at something like that would quickly win me over. I turned my back on her, only for her to walked back in front of me hold her head up high, displaying her pleading face with full gusto. Even her pupils grew nearly the size of her eyes as she continued to plead her case, holding the tickets beside her face. I looked directly ahead, wearing my best poker face, placing myself at attention as I would in basic training.

She then came out with the hurt. "I'll love you no matter what, son."

Knowing that I was losing the battle, I threw my head in the air and chanted to myself. "Nope. No. Nuh-uh. Not gonna do it. Not gonna fall for it."

Suddenly, as sure as the rising sun, she levitated herself to make sure her face was seen. At that point, I couldn't help but to see her, her cute pony hooves dangling from her body much like a tiny excitable puppy begging for a treat. Her hooves dangling from the air made it seem as if I was picking her up and looking at her directly. Even her cute belly poked out like a small bit of pudge that I swear I could poke my finger into and make her laugh.

Hmm... Impressive. She's playing off the charm of her being a smaller creature and ramping her cuteness factor up to eleven for maximum heart-attack inducing, sugary-sweet adorableness. You know what she reminds me of? She reminds me of that one cat on grandma's farm, who'd knock over the bowls when he couldn't get what he wanted. I think we named him Simba... God I miss that cat.

FUCK. "Okay, we'll talk about it."

The mare landed on her hooves just long enough for her to excitedly trot in place with probably the biggest Twilight-like smile on her face. Her giggles made me smile and feel like I was dealing with her daughter for a few seconds before I was brought back to the present.

"Now slam the brakes, this doesn't mean that we're going to get married. It just means that we'll talk things over once this mess is sorted out. If she agrees, WITHOUT ANY EXTERNAL INTERVENTION, we'll start dating again and we'll take it from there."

She couldn't stop smiling as she pranced around where I was sitting. I was starting to see that Twilight picked up a lot from her mother, even her name. Guess that's par for the course. She cheered as she pranced. "As long as you're involved in my Violet's life I am cured of all worries!"

A few serious thoughts came to mind, some of which wandered in the darker realm of possibilities, but I set them all aside just to watch this older mare act like a younger teenager all over again. I'm actually surprised she didn't pull a muscle or anything.

She stopped for a moment and then panted heavily while wiping the sweat from her brow. "Oh, goodness me, I can't pick em' up and put em' down like I used to. But it's good to feel like that once in a while. I've just been so busy all day that I can't even spare the energy for a little excitement."

Ah, there it is. "It's okay. At least I know where Twilight get's her charm."

"Which one?" She asked with a smug smile.

"Yes." I responded with a similar expression.

She tapped my shoulder with glee while she giggled. "Oh, you are a charming lad. I sure do hope you do well in your mission. If I paid any bits for what you're doing, then I sure wouldn't like to see it come back my way."

She threw her forelegs around my neck, nearly causing me to fall out of my wheelchair. She noticed that I wasn't properly balanced and adjusted herself to make it more comfortable for me. I returned the embrace and absorbed the little bit of normalcy for the day.

But I was still a little curious. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"What is it dear?" She responded.

"You said your sister worked in someplace horrible for a midlife crisis. What's so horrible of a fate that you'd want Twilig─err... Violet to avoid?"

"Oh, my sister Twilight Azalea, she works in retail!"

...Huh... retail... FUCKING RETAIL!? "I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing."

She then clasped on to my shoulders while her horn crackled up with the sound of electricity and the loud hum of a teleportation spell being cast. She then whispered into my ear almost as if she was death itself. "...You don't?"

It was at that moment, I knew I would regret my decision. It was also the same moment I grabbed onto my boxers for dear life.

"Uh-oh."

Cadance carried on about her day with limited smiles, often stating that she was under intense stress over a set of issues plaguing her. Much of the morning's interaction with her endearing husband had ran rampant through her brain for the greater amount of the day. She was more than frustrated.

She was depressed. Her husband tried everything he could to please her and she found nothing to be thrilled about. And somewhere in her mind, she was already criticizing herself on why she couldn't even allow her husband to enjoy himself. Tinges of regret and worry ended up making her play out scenarios of him looking elsewhere to indulge, a problem she was all-too familiar with during the days of his bachelorhood.

Jealousy was never one of the things she could fully control, on the contrary. She was very protective of her status and she would often stake her claim to him among the guards to emphasize that he wasn't to try his hoof at anyone at any point until she was allowed to do so.

Many memories of their time together before the infamous deployment continued to run on repeat. And it would often get so bad that Celestia would intervene on her behalf. And as a result, she'd have her stallion quietly standing in place... at least for the time being.

More of her past, she continued to compare to her present. And it made her ache that she spent so much time trying to play the similar role to Twilight, only to set her husband's desires on the back burner. They would interact frequently, but not to the level she was used to in their marriage. The result, she longed for him deeply and more than ever. And yet, she denied him when he had the very little time he was afforded.

That was something she wanted to cement. She wanted to know her husband again. The thirst for him had became so insurmountable that she was even physically dehydrated. She wanted to ensure that the evening had no further interruptions between them. She wanted to work on her marriage and she wanted to be fulfilled emotionally.

With her desires, she took to the princess' throne room and approached the alter which she sat. "Princess Celestia, your highness." She called out with almost a childlike tone.

The alabaster royal, who was holding up an assortment of scrolls around her, lightly folded a corner to see the pink princess standing below her. "Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, how nice it is to see you again."

The younger mare lightly winced at her full name being spoken. "Please, Princess Cadance is fine."

The elder continued to tease her niece. "If your full name is such a burden to you, then why don't you practice a more informal approach? You've always approached me so formally after being scolded."

A slight blush tainted her cheeks, making them pinker than usual. "Auntie, it's like I want to say much to upset you after being scolded."

"I see that." Celestia said as she placed away the scrolls and jumped off of her seat to speak with her fellow royal. "But I am most certainly glad you are here. I was going to send for you, but now that seems to be an issue of five minutes past."

Cadance, feeling a little more comfortable, started to open back up to her superior. "Well I too wanted to speak with you. I was coming here to inform you that I was going to take some time off with my husband. He and I haven't gotten much time with one another lately and we agreed that this would be our evening together."

The elder princess smiled at first, but then quickly shifted her mood. And then she looked to the scrolls she set aside and groaned with guilt. "Ssssss-oooooh gracious."

Already, Cadance saw there was an issue with her request. "You had plans for me?"

"Well that's what I wanted to talk to you about." Celestia slowly explained, expressing her remorse for placing her niece in such an unfavorable position. "Tonight is the City Celebration taking place in the courtyard and I'm afraid that I'm so caught up in research and paperwork that I'll be unable to attend. So I was hoping you would go in my stead."

Cadance then tried to reason with her. "But surely Luna could attend in your stead? I know that you're the founder of Canterlot, so it would mean a lot if someone so close to you like her would be able to attend in your place... right?"

Celestia shook her head. "I'm afraid my sister is running her new night shift as well as the guard duties for the evening. I would've assigned it to Shining Armor, but it seems that he placed in his request for an early leave around two weeks ago."

The younger alicorn's eyes grew from the unexpected news, and soon fell to the ground with despair. "He had this planned for two weeks!? I'm such an embarrassment right now! I can't believe I'm going to let him down like this."

Celestia groaned as she spoke. "It would've been better for the both of you if you had spent a little more time tending to the marriage you're in as opposed to the marriage that was originally planned around your dear sister-in-law."

Realizing that her aunt was right, she refused to argue against her. Instead, she already started to prepare herself for what was to come. "I don't know how I'll be able to make this up to him. Now not only will I have to deal with upsetting him, I'll have to deal with the annoying chatter and rumors about Twilight's breakup."

"I am certain that Blueblood will be able to keep much of the conversation based around him. So you should find some solace in his being present." The older princess stated.

The younger could do nothing but rub her head in disgust. "I'll find an even worse headache than I have now in him. Couldn't one of his wives take this one instead of him?"

"He already volunteered to go with me. But because I'm doing the research to be able to meet Alex's request, I'm having to turn to you. Twilight's already out of town, Shining's got the night off, Luna's running the night shift, and you know we always follow the rule of two when it comes to these gatherings."

Feeling all the more defeated, Cadance drew a deep breath and released as she flexed her foreleg outward. "...I will talk to Shining."

After leaving the palace, Cadance did whatever she could to track her husband down. She ran over to the various spas all over the city, trying to find her husband so that she could explain to him why she would be absent. But her search was brought to a small private establishment in the upper-crust community, an abnormal choice considering his tastes for the simplified treatments he preferred. As she walked in, he was already at the counter eagerly running down a list of their services.

"Oh, and the marsh bath, I'm sure Cadie would love something like this."

The elderly mare standing behind the counter giggled as she pointed to Cadance. "Well I'm not sure if you want to know this, but I think you should probably ask your wife over there."

The stallion turned around and jumped from her sudden presence. "Cadie, I didn't expect you here so early!"

Cadance walked up to her husband, giving him an extended warm embrace before she gave him a peck on the lips. "I didn't expect you to be in a place like this. I thought you would've done something a little more close to home."

"Yeah, but I know how you like your crystal spa treatments, and this is one of the very few places outside of the Crystal Empire that would've offered something like that. Plus there's this new treatment they have that I'm sure you're gonna love. See, there's this thing called a marsh bath where they─"

Cadance silenced her husband with a hoof on his lips and looked at him with a bittersweet smile. "I can't believe you set this up two weeks early."

The prince shrugged. "Well you know me, I'd like everything to be in place and in order. I wouldn't be my dad's son if I wasn't." After he spoke, he noted that her smile had completely disappeared, replaced by a frown. "Is something the matter, honey?"

Cadance, not wanting to bear the expressions on her husbands face turned away and whispered. "They called me in tonight."

Shining then realized that his afternoon scramble was all for naught, causing him to feel a bit upset. "Oh... Well that's... Yeah, I guess that's what to expect with our line of work."

Cadance hugged her husband's foreleg, clinging onto him as she pleaded with him. "Shining... I swear I will do anything to make you happy."

"I know." He replied despondently. "I just know that you were so busy and I was so busy and I knew that you'd feel a little off because of our not spending any quality time together other than anything having to do with work, and the Empire, and the situation with Twily..."

"I owe you so much, Shining Armor." Cadance answered sadly.

"Maybe next time then." He said. A lengthy pause grew between them as the mare behind the counter opened up the register and started counting the bits he deposited. "Well I already paid the reservation for two of us. I'll just nab somepony to hang out with."

Cadance laughed weakly as she tried to find her emotionally stranded husband some good company to spend time with. "Well, I know Rarity would be in need of a good spa date, with her preparing for the show. She'd need to take some stress off of her life so why not her? She'd appreciate it."

"Yeah, I'm sure she would." He replied.

Cadance knew that his words didn't have any hard feelings behind them, but hearing them still made her feel like she had done something wrong. Tilting her head in defeat, she started to make her way back to the palace. "Well... I guess we can try this again sometime. We're married so we have all the time in the world to spend with each other."

"Yeah, I'm not going on any long deployments any time soon either." Shining joked.

"That's true."

"And can you imagine what it would be like if we had a little one to look after? Our day would be shot."

"That's also true. Then maybe you should be happy that I haven't gotten the mind to have anything like that until you're ready." She said with a light smile.

Shining smiled as he hugged his wife, giving her a kiss on the forehead. "I love you, Cadie."

"Love you too, Shiny."

After what I could consider to be a pretty unusual─and I use that term lightly─day, I was shipped back off to the medical ward and then given one hour to work my legs into shape. I've managed to get a little further than yesterday and I've regained a bit of my balance. Standing unassisted is something not too far off from now but walking with crutches was something that was discussed very liberally.

I wasn't very fond of the idea of crutching up and down the numerous stairwells in the castle, but it sure did give me some independence outside of staying in that wheelchair. Apparently I forgot about the numerous areas of ligament damage I suffered from that griffon's knives. Guess I'll be doing a little better than most humans under my world's medical knowledge.

And by 'a little bit better', I mean that I shouldn't even be talking about crutches right now.

Still, it was an idea that came to mind about whether or not I'll start tomorrow or the next day. But Melanie advised that I wait one more day before I start checking myself out of the medical ward for the day. Trust me, that's something I couldn't wait to do, I was tired of sleeping on those hard-ass mattresses on those small-ass beds. Can't even turn right in them, have to shimmy in place just to move.

The evening came, the sun started bidding the world adieu and the few of my friends started to fizzle out slowly. Rickey left first stating that he had to go over some material for the semester finals. Cliff, while he wasn't too far behind, was busy chatting it up with a few curious maids who swore to not let him leave unless he spilled the goods on both me and Mel's friendship. Alex left a while after to talk with Vanessa and dad about the whole 'me-in-the-hospital' situation. The only ones who were left were Mel and Stanton, both of them giving me some advice and words of encouragement.

All was pretty civil, that is until a certain somepony entered into the room.

"So I trust that the walking thing is set for sooner than later?"

Melanie pursed her lips while Stanton greeted the blond-maned prince. "Hey, your highness. How's the day treating you?"

"Oh, let me tell you about the food I just got my hooves on in the courtyard. Pumpkin spice cheesecake, lemon meringue pie, pear butter muffins, fresh strawberries glazed in a light red sauce over a warm, fluffy spongecake. Oh, the tang, the tart, the sweet, the savory mix of flavors that require a sophisticated taste pallet to understand. It is absolutely to die for."

Stanton kinda winced back at the prince's choice of words while Melanie outright asked him. "You do know what they did earlier this morning, right?"

The alabaster prince shrugged. "That? Oh please, it's just another day in Canterlot. It's not as if they left the bodies to decay out in the open sun while the flies and maggots gathered. What happened this morning was rather civil if you asked me. I've lived long enough to tell the difference."

"You're speaking like you've seen all of this before and don't give a damn." Stanton said.

Blueblood quickly replied. "Well it's a different time, that is true. But it's not as bad as the times when the executions were still a public spectacle. They were much less appealing to those of a weak constitution and Celestia fervently agreed. It was only after so many executions in the lower town square in the slums that the area was then dubbed 'Canter-rot' for the stench that lasted for months. The punished were left to be an example, the poor suffered disease while the wealthy and well-to-do were living in the cleanliness of inner Canterlot proper. It was then changed by decree of the politicians as many of them started to catch a whiff of the stuff. Nasty business, that was."

Mel, somewhat disgusted, shuddered as she visualized the image of a rotting pony corpse being left to pasture. "Not something I'm interested in knowing."

Stanton, however, grew morbidly curious. "So whatever happened to the lower slums?"

"Ah, the bodies might have dwindled significantly, but the stench and the filth hasn't changed. It just took a different appearance. Instead of being a gallows of sorts, Canterrot became more of an underground to the common dealings you'd see on the regular. A bed of seedy interactions, corruption, gambling, prostitution, drug trade, black market, and even an exclusive fight club where the most influential would be said to gather. A hotbed of activities that brings about elation, spectation, masturbation, copulation, emasculation, and even the rare case of decapitation. If you fancy a visit, t'would be better to go well-dressed... unless you were willing to have a pair of guards knocking on your door the next morning."

Just the mention of that stuff sent Mel into a frantic thought process. "That does not sound like a good time."

"It isn't, but the prostitution could be worth the risk if you know who to find." He responded, giving a light glance at me. "In speaking of knowing who to find─"

Mel quickly stood between me and the prince. "Oh no. Ho nonononono. You're not dragging Nondis into any of that bullshit."

Blueblood scoffed and laughed as he rebutted. "Seriously, him? He's too high profile to blend in. He obviously stands out more than an arimaspi climbing a skyscraper in Manehattan. He'd sooner be ousted before reaching the front door."

I then inquired the prince. "Well you found who you were looking for. Guess I should ask what would you want with me?"

The prince leaned against the wall as he pulled out a gold and ruby-encrusted pocket watch. "Well I was wondering if you had any time to permit yourself for another outing before the ward decides to shut the doors on your visitation hours. At least when the expire, you'll still be out and about, socializing with the crowd."

Mel interrupted me before I could answer him. "Well you're gonna have to elaborate a little more before I let my patient go out past his bedtime."

"It's just a social gathering in the courtyard. I'm sure you heard of a little something called the City Celebration. Your presence there would be quite a hit with the mares and the affluent members of society."

Stanton then questioned him. "Is this for some plan you have cooking up? Maybe some way to pay a few others off to 'bat an eye' at my brother's appearance to this 'Canterrot' place?"

"Again, I could not involve him with such a situation." Blueblood replied sternly. "That's too high risk."

Finally, I got in my question without some form of interruption. "So if I'm getting this right, you want me to chat it up with the rich elites of the city for... what?"

"Of course, connections." The stallion answered. "You've got to have those moving forward if you want to push forward with the removal of a certain article of legislation. You want lobbyists, backers, sympathizers, boosters, and even members of the parliament on your side. Your recent activities practically made you a hero in the eyes of many and a valuable asset to any who might join us in our plight." He then looked at me with a glint in his eye. "I'm sure you've heard of the story of Prince Fair Charity."

The other two looked at me with confusion as they were deprived of the context of our conversation. After a moment of thought, I responded. "I have."

"Then you do realize what you've done could paint you in a similar light?"

"You mean me being a martyr?"

"I mean you being a symbol of change. Whether you believe it or not, in spite of the circumstances that brought you to our very world, you are destined to amend what we could only dream of for the past millennium."

Mel and Stanton looked at me quietly, almost like they were waiting on my answer. I could already tell how upset Melanie was getting just from her body language alone. Stanton was cautious, but he wasn't going to stop me unless he felt this was going to directly bring harm to me in one way or another.

I simply closed my eyes and accepted the wrath that would come from my nurse later. "I sure hate you put me in the whole 'destiny has foretold of a hero' shtick. Not really my cup of tea."

Blueblood merely smiled. "Don't think of it that way, just think of yourself as a much-needed agent to change."

It didn't take me long to get ready to make my way downstairs. In fact, it still took me more time to carefully get myself down them as opposed to putting on some shoes and pocketing a gun for safe measure. I'm not quite sure why I was so eager to take one with me for an event that was filled with so many posh ponies, but today wasn't exactly comforting for the mind either.

And of course there's also the threat of an assassin wanting to finish what the other guy started.

When we reached the lobby of the castle, I could see an assortment of ponies wearing all kinds of dresses and suits. Jewels and precious minerals were so abundant on the wearers that they could easily surpass the GDP of Cambodia. Hell, a visiting arimaspi would be swiping away at them just to horde it all for themselves. Suddenly, I was so conscious of my own appearance and felt that I was severely underdressed.

My initial entry in the room was rather quiet, not grabbing any attention due to my not standing over everyone. Still a bit taller than everyone else, but my presence wasn't as profound as it usually is. And for a while, I was comfortable with it... that was until Blueblood walked beside me and called out to the masses.

"Everypony, may I have your attention please!" Just the regal tone of his voice caused everyone to stop what they were doing and shift their eyes to the prince beside me. With a cocky smile, he raised his hooves and flicked his mane. "The party has officially arrived!" He called out quite boisterously before turning to me with a slight chuckle. "Oh, and I brought a guest or something." He said almost as if I wasn't worth shit.

With pursed lips I threw up my hand and flicked out a wave. "Hi." I replied, sarcastically matching his careless tone.

Whispers and murmurs were had at the sight of our arrival, but much of it was covered by the sound of applause. While Blueblood bowed twice and stepped aside, he pointed his hoof at me, causing a few whistles and hoots to sound throughout the room. Blueblood then turned to me. "The officially-anointed Captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard, Captain Nondis P. Haines, long may he serve crown and country!" A servant then galloped our way from one of the halls, holding two glasses of champagne. Blueblood raised the glass to the crowd, which they responded in kind while he finished. "To the dawn of a new day, a new future. We will believe!"

"WE WILL BELIEVE!" The crowd chanted back, holding up their glasses.

I found myself staring dumbfounded at the prince, realizing that those words seemed awfully familiar. "Um... what was that all about?"

The prince patted me on the shoulder as he answered. "Oh, you know that nice little speech you used to garrison the troops before you set out to get the goods? Well all of Equestria has heard of it, your voice is an icon of the nation. And as long as you hold the responsibility of our safety in your hands, many will be willing to follow in whatever direction you so choose." The prince threw back his drink before levitating the one that remained on the tray. "Surely you wouldn't let a drink go to waste."

While Mel's voice started to nag in the back of my brain, I felt some regret in turning down the offer. "Sorry, alcohol's forbidden until I'm walking. Doctor's orders."

"Eh, suit yourself." He said, tossing the glass behind him. While the drink spilled on the ground and the glass shattered, I was left staring at the new mess he made. I wasn't allowed to stare for very long as he started to use his magic to push my chair along. "Now I know the main thing that's going to be the topic of the day, but I want you to play this one out as long as you can."

"You mean with my being here?" I asked.

"Surely you jest." He deadpanned. "The inquiring ears are all for one thing and one thing alone: your breakup with Princess Twilight."

"Oh that..." I droned. "What scandal..."

"Of course you've gotten your part down, right?"

Wait, what part? "I'm sorry, you lost me there."

"The feud between you and Cadance." He whispered. "If anypony asks you on the subject, then you should respond as if she is the one to blame. Play this card, and you will be quite the topic of discussion for many of the more powerful members of the Canterlot elite."

"How are you so sure of this?" I asked cautiously.

"Because they're a glutton for hot-topic gossip. Any one of them will easily pull you to the side and introduce you to a few friends. Engage in the conversation and you will find yourself in a promising position. After you manage to grab their names and engage in some more... intimate conversation, then you come to me. Till then, you're on your own."

The prince's eyes quickly wandered to a well-dressed mare that walked right by us. And just as quickly as she disappeared, so did he in pursuing her. I didn't quite catch him leaving so I ended up striking a conversation with myself. "So what's the first place─"

When I realized I was on my own, I put on a nervous smile as I looked to the next flight of stairs I had to work down.

"...Gee, you could've bought me dinner before fucking me over like this, dude."

Cadance sat at her table impatiently tapping her hoof on the top as the two mares before here rambled on about the situation involving Twilight and her ex-fiance. The pink princess then glanced at the window looking up to one of the castle halls leading towards the royal residential wing. Feeling a bit frustrated, she closed her eyes and imagined her husband standing right beside her.

"Ugh... If only you were here to make me feel better, I wouldn't have this headache." She mumbled in a low voice.

Her headache would only get worse as the conversation before her dragged on. "So I'm thinking that maybe since he's having problems walking that she let him go because he can't... you know." The first mare stated.

"No way, you obviously didn't hear about the outburst he had with the other royals over this in parliament. Princess Twilight is not even to blame." The second one responded.

"It makes you wonder how inept of a mate he is."

"I'm wondering if something happened between them on a more personal level."

"Do you think he could've got tired of waiting for her to give him 'the goods'?"

"Likely, she's a princess. She's not going to give herself out like that, it's not like she's legally able to either. I wouldn't be surprised if he pressured her to do some pretty saucy things to compensate."

"Or maybe he went after another mare?"

"Maybe one of her friends?"

The first mare gasped and covered her mouth. "The Ponyville girls? I heard that mares like them don't like herding!"

"And the princess has been there for years now, since she was fourteen! No doubt she's in the 'no herding' syndicate."

"Which means she'd probably take him asking her friends for a go as something to be offended by."

"Well the question would also be if any of her friends like him too."

"This is so scandalous! We could be on to something!"

"I'd love to get some perspective on it."

"What do you think, Princess Cadance?"

The pink royal felt a bit nauseated over the subject as she gave a quiet response. "Whatever happens for them will happen, whether it's for the good or the bad. I personally don't care."

The two mares looked at her with bemusement and stood from their seats. "Well, I suppose we were talking so much that we made you a bit uncomfortable." The second mare stated.

"We're sorry about that. It's probably a subject you're looking to stay out of, it was irresponsible to ask you so outright." The first added.

Without anything else said, the two wandered off to mingle with the crowd, leaving Cadance to look at the plates of half-eaten cake slices sitting before her. "I could've been at a spa with my husband by now."

"So what would you like?"

That was probably one of the first questions that made me genuinely uncomfortable tonight. I had just managed to find three mares who were nice enough to wheel and levitate me down the flight of stairs. Then the conversation slowly ran from 'tell me how the mountain was' to 'can we see your battle scars' to 'when did you start dating ponies' and then shotgunned it's way to the aforementioned question.

And it was evident that they weren't just asking for no apparent reason. Oh they had that look in their eyes like they were ready for an answer and were willing to mold themselves accordingly to whatever answer I gave. I could say I was into necrophilia and one of them would probably dig up a fresh corpse for me to partake in.

But it didn't end there.

"We know that mean 'ol princess left you high and dry, especially in your most dire need. It's just that we all feel like our hero could have so much better than what she gave you." The first one stated.

"Which was nothing!" The second one called out eagerly.

Unfortunately for them, Twilight managed to beat them to the punch by a month and then some. "Ladies, I know you all mean well, but─"

The third one, which seemed to be the most aggressive of the three, stepped forward, rubbing my shoulder as she talked in a seductive tone. "You deserve a proper welcome. So the three of us decided that we'll be the ones to at least entertain you for a while. All you have to do is escort us to one of the guest rooms."

"I'm not sure if I have the clearance for that." I responded trying to wheel myself back.

"Well if you're out here, then maybe you can escort us to our hotel this evening. It might be a little dangerous for us to walk in the dark alone."

"Hello ladies."

Suddenly a voice called out from behind me. Before I knew it, a stallion walked up to me with a confident smile and stood beside me. The three mares appeared somewhat irked as he stood before them. The more aggressive one continued to assert herself. "Hello, I am so sorry but we were in the middle of an important conversation."

"An important conversation that pertains to harassing our esteemed guest? I am quite sure that he is more than willing to part the time with the three of you some other night. As of now I do believe that he's feeling quite uncomfortable."

The assertive one started to become angry, but she wasn't for long as the second one tapped her on the back and pointed to the stallion's chest. The three then quickly retreated without so much of a word. Meanwhile I was left wonder what the hell just happened. Yeah, turns out I've been asking that question all damn day with hardly an answer for any of it.

"Swoon Song, Fond Feather, and Dear Darling, those three are a mess to deal with." The stallion said with a gentle yet sassy voice. "Let them take a night with you and you'll sooner find a herd giving you foals via assembly line."

"Um... I don't think that's physically possible for me." I replied.

"Oh-ho, they'll make it happen. You're looking at three of the most infamous welfare queens in Canterlot. You name an orphanage and I can give you three names of each foal and the name of the poor sap that hired a legal team to ditch them."

You know, this guy finally gave me an answer today. And not only that, but he also banished those three off to the darkness of the outer courtyard. So I might as well thank him and formally introduce myself as a reward for saving my ass from the cold clutches of unwanted child support payments... if that's even fucking possible.

"So what was your name again?"

"You said what now?"

Cadance, who stared slack-jawed at one of the attendees, unwittingly held a passing server hostage within her magic. The unfortunate colt was caught in a light blue aura, preventing him from moving. Meanwhile the tray of wine-filled glasses he once held was then slid beside the pink princess. She stared with shock while the attendee happily informed her of the news.

"The captain is well! He was even formally introduced tonight. Of course I'm not quite sure as to why he's not walking, but I can say he's doing well for himself to be a cripple."

The princess forced herself to give off a huge smile, her cheeks twitching from the stress of her cheesing so hard. "So you're saying that he's here? Tonight?"

The stallion turned around as he tried to recall where he last saw the human. Without much of any kind of hesitation, Cadance levitated every glass on the silver trey and proceeded to lob back the wine. Most of the robust flavor any other guest would savor was serviced to nothing more than a placebo to help her feel any better about her night. She went through about three glasses before he finally pointed out where he previously saw the human. "He's last been sighted on the other side of the courtyard." He said before staring at the three empty glasses the princess held in her possession. "Your highness, are you alright?"

Cadance continued to fake her awkward smile and dismiss the stallion. "I'm fine, peachy! I'm just a little surprised that he would be here is all. Guess he's doing fine after all to be here. My congratulations to him on his recovery." She said with a anxious smile.

The stallion, easy to read her mood, was already finding himself wiser by opting to not say anything further and take his leave of absence. She then looked to the colt server and broke her smile as she demanded of him. "You will bring me the bottle of this or I will have you relieved of your job."

The terrified server, upon being released from her arcane clutches, frantically saluted her. "Y-y-ye-yes ma'am."

While the stallion galloped off, she tossed back another drink and gargled it for a few seconds before gulping it all down. A feeling of anger and frustration made her commandeer an empty table with rolled eyes and a pounding headache.

"...Oh, fuck all kinds of duck."

For much of the night I spent rolling around in my wheelchair, I was frequently asked of my ordeals in the forest. Stallions and mares of all walks of influence approached me with eager haste and more questions than I felt comfortable answering. But thankfully, I met an interesting individual who managed to breeze me through many of the more talkative encounters. If he was a wingman at a club, I'd probably be getting laid ten times over.

It's been around an hour since I was dragged along by this kind stallion, whom also happen to be a member of the city council. When he disclosed that to me, I felt a bit honored to be worthy of so much personal attention. But then the reason why he accompanied me for the entire night was soon to be realized as he introduced me to those of his inner circle.

"Captain Nondis, these are my associates. Paramount Palomino is a member of the firm known as 'the Sun's Trust', stocks and bonds, all those things." Another posh stallion with a pompadour mane-style dressed in a black blazer with a partially unbuttoned shirt. "This pretty lady here is none other than Cherry Cabaret, she's owns a distillery chain for fine wines and spirits. Anything you drank here tonight would probably have her family's seal on it." A more mature mare with her mane done in a bun. While her look was more conservative, her coat seemed so well-polished that it would put Rarity to shame on her best day. "And finally, a good lad of mine─"

Before he could finish, the stallion walked up to me with a broad smile and an extended hoof. "Ah ol' chap! It's been quite some time since I've seen you off the papers, eh!?"

I did recognize the stallion from one place before, but his face failed to register a name. Though I didn't want to seem entirely rude, I politely greeted his hoof with a smile of my own. "Hey... I've seen you before!"

The stallion chuckled as he responded. "Of course, you remember the morning we were introduced. Rarity was the one to bring you and Spike to see us that one time. Though I can't fault you for forgetting a name, you've had your mind on so many things as of late, I'm sure."

Well at least he's nice enough to read the mood. "Heh heh, yeah. I remember seeing you too. You were with your wife, correct?"

"Indeed! Fleur's here, but I think the last time I saw her she was keeping one of the princesses company this evening."

I took a moment to think back and process who I've met on that day. Of course it was a little hard to do since the bulk of my day was spent being out cold due to Celestia zapping me unconscious.... I never understood why she chose that method of approach to this day.

"Why ol' chap, you look as if the gears in your engine have gotten stuck. Perhaps a bit of priming is in order. Allow me to reintroduce myself to you, Nondis. I am Fancy Pants."

As soon as he said his name, I snapped my fingers as the name seemed to have blared out in bright neon lights in a dark room. "Ah... So you're Fancy, huh?"

"And he's got it." Fancy said with a smile. "Alabaster Charm, since when were you going to tell me you knew Nondis!?"

"I just ran into him tonight." The stallion said. "Quite fortunate to convene with the newly-bestowed Captain of the Royal Guard. He is pretty interesting, isn't he?"

"I'll say. Though I will note that he's not quite as towering as I saw him last. Did something happen on that assignment? We the citizens were given note that you had entered hospice with hardly a single shred of news to be announced until... you know, the situation with your... *ahem* estranged."

Ah, I knew that topic would show up again. "Yeah, it's been a day."

"─and it's like I'm often punished for loving my husband so hard. I mean really, how do you put me on the spot like this!?"

Cadance continued to rant and ramble on about her circumstances, but with more than the glass and the wine listening to her concerns. Fleur De Lis nodded quietly as she shared her experiences. "I know! It's like the time I'm forced to take my job as a model over my duties of being a wife. It is nice to travel the world and to occasionally get away from Fancy, but when the heart grows fond, it's like the absence extends itself."

Cadance took another sip of her glass before she continued with her rant. "And I swear, I would've gotten to spend more time with my husband if Twilight's ex-fiance wasn't such a dense idiot with no compassion for what Twilight deserves. He has no self-control, no sense of moral decency, no loyalty at all."

Fleur nearly choked on her own drink as the words Cadance spoke shocked her. "Oh... um... Your highness, I don't think I should be allowed to hear this─"

But the intoxicated princess carried on with her rant. "Oh and let me tell you, if he hadn't dedicated himself to cheating with Rarity, Twilight would have so much more trust in him."

At the mention of the fashionista's name, Fleur's eyes lit up as she did a double take. The mare then whispered to the princess. "Um... I know that she invited him with Spike at one time. But when did they ever start talking?"

Cadance deadpanned and answered Fleur. "Are you asking me when he decided to live a double life? If you wanna know my guess, it's probably shortly after he finished basic training. Guess he couldn't take the stress of being a suitor. But it's okay, my little Twilight dumped his sorry ass in front of the entire parliament. Guess he wasn't as strong as my Shiny after all, goes to show what Celestia knows."

Fleur looked around to see if others were listening. "Shouldn't we talk about this someplace else?"

"Sure thing, girl. Walk with me, talk with me, I need some unwind time with some relevant company instead of keeping up with appearances. Probably keep me out of the wine bottle too."

"Indeed." Fleur responded with a slight blush.

As the two walked away, a party of three distinctive mares popped up from within the bushes to snicker and giggle over the gossip they just got in on. The three mares squeed as they hollered out in unison.

"SCANDALOUS!"

A small gathering had started to formulate around the area where our group stood. Instead of a large concentrated gathering, it was just a cluster of smaller groups standing at various places. As we walked and talked, I had taken notice that some would even shadow our party in some strange fashion.

By the end of our stroll, we ended up at the very same spot the gallows were set up this morning. I didn't say anything about that, even if it was at the front of my mind for some stretch of time. Instead, I was explaining my perspective of the situation.

"At the end of it all, I just wanna say it was some unnecessary intervention involved. So that's what happened."

The group of ponies appeared to be surprised as Fancy interjected. "By Faust, I never would've imagined that a royal would intervene in the personal matters of another one of their own so actively. I suppose doing so at a distance would be a bit predictable, but never thought your encounters were so micromanaged."

"Well that's the issue they're dealing with. That Approval Process law is something quite fierce." Alabaster stated.

"Tell me about it." Cherry Cabaret stated before walking beside me. "My sister, though if you could keep this bit of news between us."

"Not a soul." I assured as she leaned into my ear.

She looked around twice before covering her muzzle with one hoof and whispering in my ear. "See, when one of my sisters was managing one of the ports out in Clopistan, previous-captain Shining Armor's brigade were frequent visitors for some of the exotic wines we sold. And she would tell me stories of how he'd relieve himself of his pent up desires. Though she'd say he was adept in size, she spilled on how quick he sent his soldiers marching, if you catch my meaning."

I held a stoic face as I wondered to myself if this situation was before or after his trip to the mountain. "Okay... Not telling a soul, lest the wife grows vengeful."

"Good lad." She said while giving me a pat on the arm. "But almost anypony who's a suitor had always had excursions."

"Who's the exception?" I asked.

"Well of course, Shining Armor." She lied loudly.

I merely shrugged at her words and played along with her. "Oh yeah, especially considering how in love those two are with each other, I couldn't imagine him getting frisky with anypony else."

Alabaster chuckled as he rubbed his chin. "Indeed, a noble stallion of pure cause."

"Guess he picked up from Blueblood." I said, causing the group to erupt with laughter.

"I swear, it was as if the birds they acquired started to sing a funeral march while he walked out on the balcony!" Alabaster said, causing me and the others to grasp at our sides for air.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to talk about a thing called life. Electric word, life, it means forever and that's a nightly long time, but I'm here to tell you that there's something else: the afterworld." I quoted while growing short of breath.

"A world of neverending depression." Palomino added, causing me more misery from the laughter.

After a while of trying to catch our breath, I was left clutching my abdomen in hopes that I didn't reopen any wounds. "Oh shit, I forgot I shouldn't be putting myself through that kind of abdominal stress. Hoooo that hurt, but that was funny as hell."

Cherry wiped a tear from her eye as she spoke to me. "I don't see how you even lasted that long. Being a suitor to a royal is often said to be one of the most trying things you could ever volunteer for."

I leaned back in my chair as I started to remember everything I went through just to get out of basic training, the fight on the mountainside, and everything before and after all of that. I took a deep breath and responded. "You know, I was really hoping something would've came out of us being together. But I guess laws and shit like that is the only thing that seems to matter when you want a relationship with these individuals. And the politicians don't make it any better."

"Oh, every last one of them are subscribed to envy, they want all the prestige of the one lucky family without any of the work to breed it into existence." Alabaster stated. "It was like Shining Armor was almost bred for royalty from the outright. Even his little sister being chosen to the position was a rallying point for many of those ugly bastards to try and dress their sons up for the role. But when they found out she wasn't interested, they got heated."

"It's been like that for hundreds of years." Palomino stated. "Why even in my younger days, I was dressed for another one of Celestia's students. But when I found out she wanted priority, I checked myself out."

I lightly scratched my head as I questioned the stallion. "Priority?"

"She wanted first dibs, no saving grace clause, no wandering the realm for any ulterior motive. And I wasn't interested in having a one-sided affair where the first twenty-four months was nothing more than my being a hood ornament on her royal carriage, then to get the approval of Celestia herself."

I nodded in approval of his decision. "Funny thing is this, I kinda had those same restrictions. But I would've only had to wait for another six months for mine."

"Then I suppose it must have something to do with how open she was with you." Fancy said. "Getting to know you and the family plays a key role in that stuff, so it's often a year or two before the finalization paperwork gets drafted. Quite a strenuous affair, you've done well to last so long."

"I really did love her." I confessed. "But it's like the longer time dragged on, we started... disagreeing over what was or wasn't fair."

"Fancy!" A voice called out from across the yard. The five of us turned to see the direction of the shouting. The individual being referred to was quick to pick up who was calling out to him and waved at his wife.

"Fleur, dearest, come here! We have a special guest with us tonight!"

Meanwhile, Alabaster had grabbed my attention for a few seconds. "Well I am sorry you had to go through those things. If there could've been something done differently, I would've definitely tried putting in some work to get it changed."

I quirked an eyebrow at his suggestion and quietly asked. "What do you think you could do, to pull something off like that?"

The stallion shook his head. "Oh no! I couldn't hope to bring about any kind of change like that. I'm just a hoof on the city council. My line of work is more around the aesthetics of Canterlot, streets, lights, trees, even some residential areas."

"But you're a representative of the everyday citizen, that's a great place to start your political platform. Just run under a ticket where you emphasize the infrastructure─"

He returned to me a rather damning glance with a broad frown on his face. "I will never engage in the world of royal politics." He said sternly. "Those ponies are far too greedy and corrupt to represent any kind of agency on the citizens' behalf. I can't even begin to measure how many have suffered under their nonchalant watch."

Seeing the bitterness on his face, the scowl that replaced a once-brimming smile, I realized that he and I were on a common ground. He hated them just as much as I did at this point. I said nothing further to him as I turned my attention to Fleur and.... oh no.

With a roll of her eyes a click of her tongue, and a groan of frustration, Cadance turned her head. "You again." She whispered under her breath.

While the others looked at her with confusion, I paid her no mind and continued my conversation with Alabaster. "So... I take it that you have a thing against the politicians?"

"My reasons are my own." He answered harshly. "I don't find them favorable nor would I find them useful. Bicker and complain, those lot do a lot of that. Individuals I know have even fell victim to their underhoofed practices. And it's a world I've been made to know of for years, since the days of living with my uncle in Trottingham."

That sounds like a lot of emotional baggage that I shouldn't be prying through. Better to find a way off the subject. "I'm sorry for your situation. I guess I kinda know how it feels to be on the receiving end of things. Like would you believe this one guy wanted to send me to the Frozen North for eight months?"

"I can only imagine you being so frail to a little cold weather." Cadance murmured, grabbing the attention of the group again. "Just throw on a cloak and you'll be fine."

I took another glance at her, gritting my teeth as if I wanted to say something back, but chose not to. I didn't want to feed her passive-aggressive behavior, so I carried on with my conversation. "And I mean I'm sure there's a lot to look at up there, but I don't do cold too well."

"Obviously, you can't take a little heat either." By then, I completely turned my entire body to face her while she mumbled on. "I mean, it's just only a few months, you could've lasted longer than that. Guess Twilight was right in dumping you." What she said next was what ultimately completely grabbed my full attention. "You 'carrying her' was nothing more than a disappointment. You're a failure."

Fleur quickly interjected while stepping in front of the princess and producing an awkward smile. "Oh, you'll have to forgive her, she's been a little invested in the fine product Cherry Cabaret's provided for us this evening. She's not quite sound in judgement, you see."

While I knew better when it came to unicorns and drinking, I called the princess out on her words. "I'm not quite sure where her statements are from, but I can assure you that they are without foundation."

"Oh, and let's not even go into how Twilight had to go through the embarrassment of having her wings clipped because of you!" She shouted, grabbing the attention of the whole courtyard.

...She's drunk, Nondis. Don't lose your cool. Just deny and debate. "Well, I do believe that situation was unfortunate and could've been avoided, it was not as if I allowed my actions to carry on without some form of consequence on my end. I gave the appropriate response to the situation and sought reason, only to find that I have quite a few individuals painting targets on my back in the parliament."

"It also helps that you chose to do what you want while abandoning sound judgement. Tell me how your date with Rarity went, by the way."

"And our relationship couldn't really patch up well when you have someone stabbing at the scabs." I lashed back before immediately calming myself. "But it doesn't matter, what's done is done."

"Yeah, you're right. It is done. So don't ever think you'll find any way of getting close to Twilight again, she'll be moving on from you soon enough. And you'll just be the shining example of the best thing she never had for the long-term. Suitors are always available, and we can easily find one better than you."

I'm not quite sure what it was in that statement that made me pull myself out of my wheelchair, but there was something behind it that pushed me forward. For a few seconds, I could take a few steps at her with the deepest scowl on my face. I almost felt the desire to get physical with the altercation. "Oh I'm sure Flash will do just fine, except for the fact that he knows what's up. The jig is old, we know what it does and how it ends." Shortly after, I felt my balance give way and I was sent towards my hands and knees. "Obviously I know how it ends, so who the fuck you think would put as much on it as I did?"

My use of language managed to elicit a few gasps of shock. Few covered their mouths while Cadance argued back. "You know, you don't look so high-and-mighty now that we're on the same level. Be honest, this is what you deserved, and I wouldn't be surprised if it lasted longer than you'd hope it would."

Of course the conversation we were having was rather personal, I wasn't very fond of her mocking me while I was down. So I vouched to hit her where it hurt the worst. "I wouldn't be surprised if Shining left you for someone else. It's not like you had to stop him before, right? It's not like someone stepped in and gave him the time of his life while you cuffed him, right? It's not like some other bitch rode his dick before you did, right?"

She got mad, and boy did she ever had the guts to buck up to me while I was knelt down. "Oh funny, last I checked, it was me who had to help step in and save your balls from the surgeon. Guess you don't appreciate anything I do."

"Bitch, you ain't did shit." I replied. "Only thing you probably did was annoy Shining with how often you jump in on something you're not involved in. Makes me really think about how much you project yourself on Twilight, playing your relationship through her. I'm more feeling sorry for the poor guy for having such a terrible wife who'd rather spend her time looking at everybody's issues except for the shit she needs to get done."

Cadance used her magic to suspend me upwards to her face as she vehemently stared in my eyes. "You know nothing of our relationship! You can't even maintain one long enough to be able to tell me what I need to do in mine."

"How long have the two of you been married? It's been like what, almost three or four years? And he's still drinking himself to sleep at night, what do you do to help that?"

Cadance dropped her magic as she turned her face away from me. "I do what I need to do as his wife."

"Aww, that's sweet." I replied sarcastically. "I don't hear a single concrete answer. Please tell me how you make the scars go away, the very same scars he had because of you."

"That wasn't my fault!"

"Of course it is! You're the fucking princess he got chained up to. And because of that, he had to suffer because you wanted to hold that chain as long as possible. Twilight broke up with me at least implying that she didn't wanna hold that chain for my sake. Now what the fuck does your sorry ass do?"

Cadance looked at me for a second before her eyes grew several sizes. Her foreleg started to shake as she placed it over her muzzle.

"Oh yeah, that's right, you dragged his ass right through the pain and torture just because YOU believed in love, where true love would've been let that shit go and watch from a distance. You didn't love him enough to do that, did you? No you were greedy, you had to have him for yourself, to hell with the consequences. You held him prisoner all throughout the course of your engagement because you wanted to not be alone, knowing it would probably kill him. But if that shit did kill him, then what the fuck would you look like right now? 'Stupid' is it."

Cadance leaned over, closing her eyes and folding her ears so she could minimize what she could hear. I only got louder as the longer she stayed there.

"Oh, and why the fuck y'all ain't got no kids? Three years and all the fucking y'all did and he's saying he's gonna at least entertain the thought in the future. Lemmie guess, it's because you respect your husband's opinion right? Hell no you don't. You dragged him through a year of hell and then some just to be able to marry up. Surely a cuffing-ass bitch such as yourself would also do the same when it comes to kids. And especially after three-or-four years of y'all getting nasty, you'd think that the recreation value would be non-existent in your brain. Now why is that!?"

Cadance's eyes wandered while she started to slowly step away. Still feeling incredibly heated from our exchange, I grabbed at her hindleg and pulled her back.

"Oh fuck no. You don't get to walk away after you decided you wanna start some shit on the sly. You wanna look down at me while I'm down on my luck, sailing against the wind, talk down at me like I'm a child goddamn KNOWING I WAS TRYING TO FUCKING HELP YOU! YOU BETTER LISTEN TO ME BITCH, AFTER ALL THE SHIT I PUT UP WITH AND HOW I ALMOST LOST MY LIFE FIGHTING FOR YOUR CAUSE! OH YOU BEEEETTER LISTEN TO ME LIKE A GROWN ASS ADULT! I DON'T CARE WHAT YOUR FUCKING TITLE IS, YOU DON'T GET TO LOOK DOWN ON ME! I LOST SO MUCH OF MY BLOOD THAT I CAN'T RECOVER ON MY OWN! I LOST TWO FEET OF MY INTESTINE, CAN'T GET THAT BACK! I HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO WALK AGAIN, TELL ME WHAT ELSE I'M MISSING! OH, THAT'S RIGHT, I LOST MY PEACE OF MIND INVESTING IN THIS RELATIONSHIP AND YOU HAVE THE GAUL TO TELL ME THAT I CAN BE EASILY REPLACED!? OH TELL ME CUNTDANCE, WHAT ALL DOES THE NEXT POOR FUCK'S GOTTA LOSE TO GET SOMETHING OUT OF THIS?"

The princess tried to yank her hind leg back away from me, but I continued to hold on, grasping it even tighter.

"Oh, is he gonna put his neck on the chopping block and help you get rid of this stupid-ass law? Is he gonna laugh in the face of every politician and wear a confident smile, knowing that he's terrified as shit of a world he knows he shouldn't belong? Or is he going to avoid Twilight and the rest of you like the plague because of the fact that you know that whatever future they might have is similar to yours? If I were you, I'd know one thing's for certain: I'd be terrified to tell my mortal husband that I can't have his kid because of an ancient law that would put their very life on the rack."

With a small jolt of magic, Cadance numbed all the nerves in my hand and forearm, causing me to let her go. She only managed to take one more step away before she paused and heaved. Her chest expanded and contracted rapidly before she dropped her head, clenched her eyes shut, opened her mouth, and unleashed a powerful red stream of vomit. Out of reflex, I jumped back away from the mare while she continued to disclose the amount of wine she had ingested. While she carried on, Fleur walked up to her side and held her mane out of the way as it started to become undone and cascade over her face.

The pink princess whimpered quietly while the multitude of onlookers watched silently as the princess' unflattering display carried on. After many seconds of her expelling the contents of her daily diet, she was left dry-heaving and holding her chest from the pain. And as she was close to finishing, she slowly turned to me, almost as if she was going to say something. But before she could, her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and her entire body collapsed under it's own weight. Her chest continued to rise and fall, but significantly slower and lighter this time. In the shortness of her breath, she produced silent moans and grunts.

Shrieks and screams could be heard from all over as a few guards who watched the affair ran in to assist the suddenly-ill princess. Two of them ushered the remaining guests in the area to return to the foyer of the castle. While the crowd was quickly herded away, including the group of ponies I was with, I stayed to oversee the situation. One guard walked up to me with my wheelchair with a stoic expression on his face. I gave him a appreciative nod as I tried to get myself back in my seat. As I shuffled myself back into place, I heard him whisper behind me.

"Now you understand why we never talk to them."

I turned around to look at the guard that pushed my wheelchair in place as he finished his statement.

"Why should we love them when it only brings us harm or worse? It's better to take what you can get on the street and live a normal life. At least all of this could be avoided. Their love ain't that strong."

I turned back around and proceeded to wheel my way onward after I gave the guard a rebuttal.

"For all I went through and suffered, I beg to differ."

Author's Note

Holy hell. I have made a terrible life choice. Remember to stay away from competitive Overwatch kids. Getting a golden gun for Mei, Sym, and Bastion ain't worth it. But other than my sodding around, I've managed to get myself a myriad of engagements and sessions that ate my weekends alive. So I apologize for this multi-holiday spanning absence I've had. And I know it seems like I just up and left, but that was not the case.

I was so busy so often (as well as distracted) that I couldn't get my brain together for this chapter and it was hard to push it through. And you know it's bad when you have to read back on your own material to regain your train of thought. What ended up taking 4 days for me to do have suddenly become a slog over a month's length or more. And as of late, I'd usually set aside a weekend or a group of them to finish it within the month or so. But that didn't work as planned... oops.

So again, I apologize for the absence. As for why Cadance is a little (lol) miffed this chapter is for reasons that pertains to a high level of stress. I started to look back at the character (or her lack thereof in the show) and went back into how she was portrayed in the story to ultimately give me an idea of how she would act on what would be her worst day. We've always seen her or visualized her in her usual mood of "I'm the princess of love and I will do what it takes to protect my citizens." But the question was always in my brain "What would she do if her calming exercises she introduced to us in season 3 just simply didn't cut it anymore?"

So the answer was simple: Go back to the epic chewing-out Shining gave to Twilight in "A Royal Canterlot Wedding."

...And she decided to replace her bridesmaids because she found out the only reason they wanted to be in the wedding was so that they could meet Canterlot royalty! And if she hasn't been on her best behavior with your friends, it's because with me being so busy, she's had to make all the decisions about the wedding!... She's been completely stressed out because it's really important to her that our big day be perfect!

This, of course in the context of the story in the show means that Shining was making excuses for his 'fianceé'. But I started to think on the morbid end of things and realized that more often than not that changelings would research the individuals they're taking place of, whether by a minimal amount (season 6 finale: group of changelings imitating the mane 6) or to the smallest detail (season 6 finale: Thorax in imitating Twilight, Trixie, and Starlight). This means that Chrysalis had to have done her homework to fool Celestia, Luna, and Shining so well.

And then the idea began to manifest: What if the 'Cadance' Shining was defending was actually true to the character of his fianceé? What if in actuality she was like that whenever her breathing exercises weren't cutting it? The impending invasion and the fact that her husband is so busy in trying to defend the city while she's left with every aspect of planning a wedding in the midst of all of this chaos. It would then be sensible to assume that the fake Cadance is actually how she's portrayed in a situation where her patience has run out. We've seen Cadance in an uncomfortable position before, but never have we seen her actually go outside of that comfort zone.

With that being said, I had to think about how she would respond to anything that got in the way of her spending time with her beloved husband, which made her so irritable from the jump. And of course, that combined with the stress of the current plotline in this story, she would react accordingly. That of course gets taken up to 11 when you add in the x-factor known as alcohol. And being that Cadance is often the first to step up to a fight when threatened, it would be best to assume that she would be normally reserved in many situations outside of being in conflict. Alcohol will flip that script and make her openly brash and allow her to freely speak her mind.

Phew, that's alot to expand upon when it comes to how Cadance is so "OOC" in this chapter. But it's merely a headcannon I've expanded upon when I went back to read some of the earlier chapters of this story. And of course, there's a reason for this conflict happening. So I can only ask that you be patient as this will simply resolve itself in due time, perhaps sooner than later.

Of course, Nondis seem to have had enough and lost his cool a bit. Of course when someone loses their temper, they tend to come off with an unlikeable demeanor or become extremely confrontational. I had to put him in that situation because it was right for him to be angry at her after what all of what was said and heard since the breakup. To be fair, many of us would not be so calm and collected when someone's putting your personal stuff out in front of the mouthiest elites of society. So there's that.

But as for what's next, I can't spoil it. I'll let you guess what will happen in the comments while I'll be stirring up the pot to see if someone can decipher what I'm cooking up.

Until next chapter, I hope you all had a Merry Festivus and here's to a new year filled with many things to look forward to in life. I hope you are all doing well and I am interested in hearing what happened to all of you in the past few months. :heart:

Chapter LXX

It's been a rough day, that's pretty much my way of describing it as plainly as possible. If I had to go into detail, it would take a while to do. As of where it all led me, it landed me back in the medical ward. I managed to bid farewell to the guests before having to pull my own weight back up the stairs. Of course after I was finished, I was relieved to be sitting back in my wheelchair after the strenuous affair.

But it didn't take much longer to find myself under some form of stress.

Granted, I know that none of this was my fault and frankly I had it up to my eyeballs with the shit Cadance was talking about me. But in the end, we needed each other for one reason or another. I might not have to like her, but I'm not gonna let Shining's wife go into care without some form of escort.

From there, a unicorn doctor with a rugged jawline, a slicked-back pepper mane, a five-o-clock shadow, and several age lines on his face with frost-blue eyes that have probably seen more than a hundred lives end before him, casually walked over to the counter with a clipboard.

Of course I wasn't really calm due to the fact that I might have something to do with her condition, I'd call it fair if Shining wanted my head for a horn warmer. "So what's the deal, doc?"

He glanced at me and quirked an eyebrow. "You again, the hell's wrong with you this time? Did your leg fall off or something?"

"Uhh..." I wasn't quite sure where I knew him from... or even if I had seen him at all. "Who are you again?"

The doctor sighed while shaking his head. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense, you were in and out on the operating table, so I can understand you not remembering a damn thing."

"You operated on me or something?" I asked.

"No, I'm the tooth fairy. I was there pulling some teeth out of your stomach. Apparently you got knocked out so bad that you swallowed a few."

Smart-ass. "No really, who are you?"

"I'm the angel of death. Now show me your paperwork so we can get this thing going."

Whatever stand-up routine he was practicing, I wasn't too fond of. I pulled out my wallet and fumbled through my various ID cards before pulling out the one that mattered for the occasion. After showing him my military ID, he verified that I was a guard and requested further proof of my rank. I then pulled out another card that appeared to be completely blank. His horn glowed a dark purple glow, almost as if it was black. The spell illuminated various details on the blank card and showed my rank and status.

"Well we don't know if you're a changeling or not." He said.

I then lifted up my shirt to reveal the still-mending scar covered in stitches. He took a closer look and hummed to himself.

"Dehiscence indicate that you were involved in something you had no business doing. Invoking some sort of stress on the abdominal region. You're reckless."

"I had no help in climbing up the stairs. Not every unicorn has the focus strength to move my heavy ass up and down three flights of marble and carpet. The wheelchair is fine though."

"Your human friend is far too squeamish to pull off another operation like that. Maybe it's better off that you find some help before you find yourself having to drag more of yourself along the way."

"Noted." I responded, trying to rush back to the original topic. "So what's the status, doc?"

He looked to me with disapproval and proceeded to flip through the papers on his clipboard. "I have a name, it's Shack. Dr. Shack, I'm the one who helped put you back together again. Your human friend didn't like me calling you 'Humpty Dumpty', so I just call you 'Dumpty' instead."

"That's nice to know." I replied sarcastically. "So how's Cadance?"

"So you're calling her on a first-name basis. Didn't know the two of you were so close."

I threw out the palm of my hand, impatiently wanting him to get to the point already.

The doctor sighed and threw the clipboard back on the counter. "As figured, you humans are really lacking a sense of humor. No mind, your princess is currently dancing with elephants the color of her coat. Dehydration, blackouts, increased blood flow due to thinning, the obvious case of nausea, and... Was she aggressive in any kind of way?"

"Well we were in the middle of a heated argument." I confessed.

"Oh good, it is your fault then."

"Ha ha, very funny." I deadpanned.

"Thank you, I'll be here all week." He answered back rather quickly before pausing himself. "Rather I'll be here two of those other days."

...Yup, he's a doctor. Too legit, so caring. "So what do you recommend?"

"Intravenous intake of saline, rest, and more importantly, no more alcohol."

"I think we can take care of that last thing you mentioned."

The doors leading from the castle hallway burst open with a magenta flare. Shining came bursting through with a slightly warm towel wrapped on his head and a mud mask on his face. The stallion puffed and wheezed while he asked. "Where's Cadance? Is she alright?"

"She's a little inebriated." I responded. "Kinda like another night of the week at Delta Phi. Have her drink some water, keep her away from the stuff, and make sure she stays in bed."

After the doors were on the verge of coming to a standstill from swinging wildly on Shining's entrance. Rarity quietly walked in to join with Shining. Unlike him, she was far more presentable for the emergency appearance. Then again, she'd be the type to perfectly reapply her makeup while at a full-sprint. "Is everything alright? Shining and I came from a lovely spa visit to get a notice from one of the guards saying that the princess was feeling ill."

"She's─" Before I could get started, she had started sniffing the air. With about two or three more sniffs, she quickly made her way to the doctor.

"Which room is she in? I'll do my best to make sure that she gets back to her room and made comfortable." Rarity asked urgently.

"First door to the right."

"Um... isn't that my room?" I asked.

"Yeah, we wanted to work quickly and since your room was really a semi-private suite that we appropriated a second bed for your comfort, we had to make provisions. Besides, you were set to check out tomorrow."

"That's nice." You fucking son of a bitch, I swear to God if my bed smells like vomit. "So she'll be leaving now, right?"

"Of course, this isn't something worth an extended stay." Dr. Shack announced. "Though that IV needs to be taken with her to help her recover quicker."

"Is she capable of standing?" Shining asked.

"Of course not. Her motor skills are the equivalent of a drunken delinquent teenager on prom night. Be sure to get her to her room quickly so she can rest." The doctor answered.

It didn't even take forty-five seconds for Rarity to get Cadance from her room. Though the princess was incredibly discombobulated, Rarity made sure that she was guided well in the direction of her husband's waiting hooves. Shining, who had quickly cleaned off his face and laid the towel on his back, turned around to allow his wife to mount onto him.

"Hey there, hot stuff." She croaked weakly.

"Hey honey, we're gonna get you in bed, okay?" He said, standing up to carry his wife off. Rarity followed them with all her medical necessities.

Cadance dry heaved once more, almost falling off of her husband before Rarity caught her. The princess groaned in discomfort. "Ughh... I feel like I just got through shitting myself."

My eyes immediately shot wide open as I quickly turned to the doctor and laughed nervously. "Doc, please tell me you have a sanitation crew on watch. Please tell me you have that available."

"'EeeaappyArtsWarmen (Happy Hearth's Warming)!" She slurred loudly before disappearing through the doors.

The doctor then looked at the clock on the wall and smiled. "Oh, I guess that's my call time there. Later, kid. And try to keep your wounds clean."

He quickly teleported himself out of the castle before I could even hope to grab him while I called out in vain. "DOC!"

As easily as he solved Cadance's issue, he disappeared. Meanwhile I was left mulling over the fact that Cadance had shat in the bed I was due to sleep in. And unfortunately, I wasn't with any of the key cards to the empty rooms either. Plus there was no way for me to grab anyone with said cards until the next bi-hourly check-up period. So there was only one thing to do at a time like this: Wait.

"Fuck it, I can sleep in this goddamn chair. It's good enough."

"Nondis?"

Great. guess I didn't have to fall asleep for long. Though I swear I had only closed my eyes for around five minutes. But of course, you lose track of time when you go to sleep so that's one reason why. But I suppose it's time for the nurses to put me back into bed and prod around my body for a few more minutes before sending me back into my broken slumber for yet another two hours.

"Nondis, Nondis dearie." A voice continued to call out as I was stirred from my nap.

"Oh, I didn't know the nurses were so nice this early in the morn."

When I slowly opened my eyes, I saw the silhouette of a unicorn mare with an unusually stylish mane for her profession. But as my eyes cleared, I started to make out the shape of a familiar face.

"Uh... Rarity?"

The fashionista, who was sitting before me had removed her hoof from my cheek and quietly whispered to me. "What are you doing out here, darling. You should be in your bed."

I started to yawn while my eyes grew heavy again. "Can't go to bed. Bed's messed up."

Rarity looked at me oddly before she silently chuckled to herself. "I can assure you that she did nothing of the sort."

I cracked my tired eyes open for long enough to get a good look at her while I responded to her claim. "How are you so sure?"

"I had to get her and her IV. You won't have anything to worry about." She explained, lighting her horn with her magic.

While I found myself being wheeled from where I once rested, I was trying to get a good look at the clock across the room. "What time is it?"

"It's only been twenty minutes." She said as she guided me back to my room.

I wiped my eyes and shook my head, kinda surprised by it all. "Oh, no wonder I feel like I didn't even get to close my eyes."

"Well we can't just leave you in that contraption all night, you'll be getting sores in unflattering places." The mare nagged lightly. "So let's get you into the bed and have you get a proper rest."

As if the nurses will ever let me, thank God I will be doing this for only one more night. "Thanks a bunch."

The moment she opened the door, the room had already been cleaned and mostly remained as I last left it. Rarity, standing behind me, placed her hooves on my shoulders as she whispered in my ear. "See? Nothing to worry about."

I wanted to take things from here and get myself back into bed, but I was helped by Rarity again. This time, she folded the sheets back off the bed, levitated me out of the chair and into the bed, tucked me in, and rolled my wheelchair to my bedside in case I needed to leave for whatever reason. She did all of these things while wearing the most comforting smile on her face.

Sometimes, I realize that I don't deserve any of this but she still chooses to cater to me if I need the help. And I know that I could do more than just merely saying one word to show my gratitude. But as of the moment, I could only offer just that. "Thanks."

The unicorn proceeded to walk out of the room, cutting out the lights. While her horn glowed to manipulate the doorknob, only her face showed as she spoke to me. "You know, you're going to have to be more careful. Twilight can't look after you anymore, well not in the way she wants to."

Before she could close the door, I called out her name. "...I don't know why you do this for me. I know, but then I don't. You understand where I'm coming from?"

"We can talk about it in the morning. But for now, let's get you some rest."

I laughed at the idea of me having any rest tonight. "You know they'll be in here in an hour and some change to fuck with me anyways."

"Well consider it your last day." She responded with a smirk.

"I guess." muttered before I laid myself to become comfortable. While I closed my eyes once more, Rarity whispered to me one last time.

"Goodnight."

The Next Day...

As per usual, the nurses did their thing at their scheduled times. one nurse even tried to stick a butterfly needle in my arm in desperation of trying to find a vein. They didn't quite find that vein on the first go, or the second, or the third... or the fourth. Basically they've been poking me like a bratwurst in October.

Call me a voodoo child, cause they've pinned me so bad that I might've cursed someone else.

Thankfully, that didn't happen the second time they woke me up at four in the morning. But it did make me trust them even less when it came to making things as efficiently and painless as possible. And after that, I was left to sleep again until six, where they did their usual rounds a third time.

I managed to get another hour of sleep in before my body clocked itself awake. And by the next time the nurses came in to do their checkups, I was already wide awake with the anticipation of putting something in my stomach. Today's breakfast pretty much consisted of a portion of eggs, toast, and a banana with whole milk. Lastly, Mel came in to pay me a visit and to check my progress on my walking before giving the staff the 'OK' to move me back out to society.

But that would come after a lengthy rehab session.

"Hmm... you're doing pretty damn good today. What you've been up to?"

While Mel lauded my efforts in getting halfway across the room unassisted, I was busy keeping myself suspended on the support bars on each side of my body. "You know, yesterday was such an eye-opener for me. Maybe my mind decided that it was time to push ahead. After all, I could be having more problems than this."

She bit her lips nervously while nodding. "Yeah, ol dude was something else."

"You're telling me. I didn't even know the bastard would be so out of whack when I got back. Guess that's a good thing, I'm finally getting under his skin."

"Haven't you always been doing that?" She asked. "I mean, the two of you aren't exactly the best of friends. Hell, I'm more curious as to how that managed to get started for you."

"I dunno, probably a racist asshole who hasn't even opened his mailbox or checked his front porch since 1962."

"Does it really exist like that here?" Mel questioned curiously.

I laughed and sighed. "You have no idea. Eating meat is already a touchy subject to ponies, so there's one. Griffons here try to work off some certain stereotypes, that's two. Most ponies see dragons as a blight on ponykind and would often resort to violence to settle the matters, that's a third yet reasonable example. Changelings, you already saw that one and it's for a good reason. Oh, and don't forget the micro-aggressions that many hybrid species have to endure, the mules especially get hit kinda hard."

"The mules?" Mel questioned.

"They're usually the product of a donkey parent and a pony parent. And though the pony side is imbued with magic, even if it was a purebred unicorn, that donkey parent nullifies any chance of that being passed down to a foal because of their lack thereof. So in turn, they end up being classified like us humans: level 4 arcane species."

Much how I was when I was first introduced to this topic, Mel sat with her legs crossed and waited like an attentive child in a classroom. "Okay, so what's these levels then?"

"Level one's are pretty much higher beings on multiple planes of existences, Discord is one of those beings and they find themselves willingly able to jump from dimension to dimension with hardly any effort. Physics are practically zeroed with them and they can manipulate anything at will. Level two's are what you see everyday. Ponies are often no more powerful than the strongest alicorn in existence and even though they can transfer dimensions, it would take a substantial amount of research and magic to do so. And since that's what's most common, that kind of the bar set for all species here."

"Kinda like what we do with everything back home, relate it to humans and classify their levels of intelligence accordingly. That's interesting"

"Yup, so there's the primary cause for the racism towards other species right there. It also leads to some of them attempting to play 'God' and try to ascend their capabilities past what is physically and magically possible. But that's a conversation for another day. Level three's are also magic users, but their magic is so inconsequential that there's nothing they can do in the realm of the arcane. There's no jumping dimensions, no marks of destiny, no incredible feats of any kind outside of what they can do under their own physical strength. Cloud walking and the like is available to that class, but not many of the other stuff, like weather manipulation, isn't something within their control. Physics have pretty much gotten them nailed down."

"So I take it that a level four would put us no further than an animal we'd see at the local zoo." Mel stated.

"No magical capabilities, no dimensional abilities, no attributes whatsoever, we're bound by the 'Laws of Physics' forever until the end of time. We've got the technological advantage in our world, but who's to say that there aren't other worlds where humans may have better tech or even magic at their disposal?"

Mel pulled out her phone and swiped at her screen a few times. "Like Sunset's world?"

"I don't know if they have magic over there." I stated. "Never really got a chance to ask. But they do have our level of technology."

"Well, Sunset says she always walk through the portal and change into a human in that world."

"That's probably because there's a spell on the portal we don't know about." I replied.

"But she said that even Twilight has had experience walking on her own two legs, working with her own two arms, and et cetera."

"Not really throwing my argument out there." I rebutted.

"But from what Sunset texts me, she and her friends on that side have magical abilities that they've used to subdue other magical beings. That means their world has some good amount of it while ours doesn't."

I rolled my eyes as I started to let myself down to the ground, giving my arms some well-needed rest. "You know, that has me thinking if this 'Jesus-God' spiritual mumbo-jumbo actually has some merit. I think I heard my grandpa back on the mountain."

"You sure that wasn't your brain playing back a message of some sort? These things happen when your life flashes before your eyes."

I tossed my tired arms in the air as I answered her. "I dunno, could be magic seeping into the brain making me hear and see things that aren't there."

"Or it could be the first signs of schizophrenia, especially dealing with high-stress situations and psychological trauma."

You know, she could have a point there.

Shut up. "Well I'm not having full-on conversations with myself, nor am I waking up with Vietnam flashbacks. So there's that. Besides, I'm very happy to have the problems I have now cause I know I can work around them."

Mel shrugged as she pulled out her clipboard. "Well, work-aroundable is one way to describe your situation. Soon as we get you out of here, we're gonna get you back to my place for the rest of your rehab."

"Your place?" I asked curiously. "You don't mean that you have other things to do other than probe me at night, right?"

"No needles, I swear. I'm just gonna have you build up your leg strength so you can get back to your running-and-gunning thing. An hour or two each day on a treadmill will do you some wonders."

"Could we also hit the gym on some of those days?"

The woman giggled as she held the clipboard under her arm. "I didn't know you had an investment in leg day."

"Living here with no legs, are you kidding me? You've walked from Twilight's castle to Rarity's boutique before. Didn't that kinda wear on you a little?"

She didn't say anything to invalidate my point. "Well if you wanna visit the gym, we can probably do a little something on campus. I'm sure the world would like to see you a little more than in the news."

"Only after I get to walking again."

"Of course."

On that note, I pulled myself back onto my feet and continued with my rehab. "Oh yeah, you're gonna have to introduce me to your friend Lucy sometime, I wanna see what happens if I throw it at one of these annoying-ass politicians."

"Excuse you. but Lucy is not up for chucking, she's a shovel girl."

"So you fuck a shovel?" I joked.

"Well your sorry ass isn't getting it done, so yes I'll be shoveling myself till I strike for oil."

"Or blood." I murmured.

"Oh she's so goddamn wonderful to me during my period."

I opened myself up for that one, but I still feel like I shouldn't have gotten that response nor was I prepared for it. "...Ewwww."

"Warm-water bubble bath, best way to do it. It's like having less than fifty minutes on the prepaid phone you managed to keep hidden from you parents while you were grounded. Survival of the fittest."

Finally, I was signed out at the front desk and given my instructions on what to avoid as well as what not to do in terms of physical activity. But I honestly figured that I would be reminded of that on the daily because of one former med-student that happens to be my best friend.

Guess that means I'll be getting nagged to death if I do something wrong.

While I rolled myself down the halls, I could see a multitude of busy bodies running around the halls. Several guards were posted in their assigned spots while more maids were running the halls like the afternoon rush hour. I managed to see a few parliament members walking through the gridlock as well. The only things that were missing was the sounds of cars honking, the resulting smog, the scene of a city far down the road, and radios being turned up to full-blast as the vehicles inhabitants jammed out in waiting.

I looked up to Mel and asked her. "How the hell did you get through all of this?"

"It wasn't this bad when I came in. Guess they picked up while we were working on your rehab."

I looked back at the mess ahead and said in turn. "It's never been this bad. I don't think I've ever seen the halls so busy... or this noisy."

"Kinda reminds you of the commute in Austin?"

"With a lot less road rage." I responded.

"I think we had enough road rage from yesterday to make up for it." She joked lightly, referring to Count.

We then started to push our way through. In the initial seconds, the bustling exchange was quite problematic as the only thing I could see was an assortment of colors and manes. Even different smells varying from cheap cologne, scented oils, fresh powders, and minty mouthwash, all the way to I-forgot-to-put-on-deodorant, a trace of I-didn't-wipe-myself, and even the occasional visit from a guard's I-just-got-through-fucking-some-maid-in-the-broom-closet-and-they-were-the-highlight-of-my-week.

You wouldn't believe how quickly all of that parted like the Red Sea and the aisles of Congress when discussing tax code. The areas around us practically went from the fervor you'd experience in discussing a Mayweather fight to the passion of a cold chamber in your local mortuary; quite literally life standing still.

All eyes were on us while we made our way through. Some covered their muzzles as they mumbled to the ones standing next to them. A few snickers could be heard from some, others with gasps of shock, the remainder would just stare. Of course the same went to the guards, who were essentially abandoning their posts. Few would look at me with revered smiles, others with indifference, and even a select few with disgust.

Our entire walk to the outside garden was consistent of the same spectrum of reactions. Melanie, who had cussed out a few of them for staring at me, felt like it was because of my current state of health. Meanwhile I had already realized what was really going on.

Melanie then checked her phone for the time and went through some unopened text messages before she finally spoke to me about everything that happened on the way here. "Jesus, you'd think they'd at least treat you with some dignity instead of staring holes in your chest."

"It's not them. It's me." I tried to explain.

"Yeah, I get it. You're not walking and it's a bit of a culture shock to some. Guess they haven't seen something like that before and I guess they're curious about what's going on. But that still doesn't mean they should be staring right at you like that."

"Oh, really now?" A voice chimed in from above. The two of us looked up to see a yellow pegasus mare wearing a Wonderbolt uniform, staring from behind a cloud as her tail swished from side to side like a curious dog. "Don't tell me that you ain't got the dish on hot stuff down there."

Mel looked up at the mare, covering her eyes from the sun's glare, she then turned to me and asked. "Okay, who is she?"

"She's thirsty."

"By how much?" She asks.

"Watch and wait." I answered before calling up to the pegasus. "So any reason why you're just sitting up in the rafters? The show's down here."

Without any further discussion, Spitfire jumped from her cloud, pulled off a backflip, dived through it in a stream of lightening clouds and rumbling thunder, slammed into the ground, and flipped her mane back as she shot a wink at me.

Melanie was not impressed. "Well I'm glad you already have a fall-back girl to your fall-back girl."

The yellow mare held her hoof out to greet the woman, grinning all the while. "The name's Spitfire, my friends call me Spits."

Looking at Mel's face, I could already tell she was growing something ugly inside of her. One definite sign of it: she smiles back as if she was a preppy high school teenager from San Fernando. "Hey Spitfire, my name is Melanie Brewer, but my friends call me Mel. I'm actually a female of the species if you didn't know."

Spitfire remained determined as she quickly finished her hoofshake with Mel and bolted to me. "So pleasantries aside, what the hell have you been up to? I'm off at practice in Ponyville only to find out that you're not even in the area! Then Twilight tells me that you're in the middle of some busy work for Princess Celestia like you're guarding her on some errand or some shit."

I chuckled nervously as I could already see Mel starting to simmer and seethe behind her. "Well I was a little busy... recovering from a few issues."

"Yeah, you had no idea how pissed I was at you when I heard you came back home on the brink of death. I was literally gonna bust down your window and scream you back to life. After all, you're the newbie of the ranks."

Even though I am practically the same rank as her, I still forget that she's several years my senior. "Yeah... I was pretty damn close there."

"Well you're pretty damn close now. Cutting it kinda thin with Shining, eh?"

At that point, Mel stopped being moody enough to inquire on the subject. "So what the hell is going on again?"

Spitfire looked back at her and smirked. "Oh yeah, I forgot that you weren't in the loop. It's a pretty hot topic." When she finished, she just stuck her hoof out and a magazine just lightly fell right into her possession, causing me to wonder how the hell she managed to suddenly summon that here.

"Uh... how did you─" She wouldn't even let me ask about it when she interrupted me.

"Was reading this when I came by this morning. I had the day off and I figure that I drop by and harass you a little. So you can imagine my face when I read the front cover."

She tossed the magazine into the air and smacked it with her wing towards Mel's direction, who then fumbled the reading material until she gained full control of it. She then flipped it to the front cover and read it out loud. "New Captain and the Princess of Love: Getting Physical?"

"Gotta admit, I was a little heartbroken when I first read the headline. Here I was thinking that he'd rather give a bone to some married princess and lose his balls. But then I actually read the article and holy shit Nondis, you've got some ass-kissing to do."

Oh how nice, she actually knows my name. "Not something I'm very interested in doing at the moment." I replied. "To be fair, she started it and she was drunk enough to talk shit."

Mel quickly thumbed her way through the pages to find the start of the article, she read the first few lines, impatiently scanning for the meat of the issue. By the time she reached the finer details, she was already walking towards me with the intention of grabbing my shoulders and shaking me out of anger. "WHAT THE HELL, ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE MORE ENEMIES THAN YOU ALREADY HAVE!?"

"Again I will explain, she was wine drunk." I rebutted.

The woman then breezed through the article to the end and sighed heavily. "This is why you've been getting the creepy eyes all day, huh?"

"It was why I didn't say much of anything." I confessed. "It's still something I'm not quite proud of and not to mention the fact that she's sick because of the booze."

"Wine's not booze." Melanie corrected. "And also, who do you think you are grabbing at Cadance's leg? Shining's going to kill you!"

"Well it's not like he hasn't already tried." Spitfire added. "So when's round two coming up? Sure as hell wouldn't mind watching that again."

I groaned with exasperation at the thought of a rematch. "No thanks, bastard broke my arm last time just before I cracked his horn. I think we're good on rematches."

Mel threw down the magazine and asked Spitfire politely. "So where did you get this?"

The yellow pegasus mare hovered into the air and fetched the cloud she was resting on. "Well, there's this one booth downtown that's selling the goods. But if you're thinking of having that story repressed, then you're in for a rough time. Apparently that story's so hot that it was picked up by every magazine, newspaper, and presser in the city limits. You might see this one out around the entire country by next week."

"Everyone's picking this up, even the fashion magazines?" Mel asked.

"Oh, and there's soooooo many spins on this shit too. Watch." Spitfire said as she settled the cloud just two feet off the ground. With a hind leg, she bucked the cloud, causing a moderate thunderclap to sound out. Following the thunder was a downpour of different kinds of magazines, newspapers, article clippings, and even artist renderings of the event. While both Mel and I were stunned to silence over the amount of material falling on the ground, we were left questioning what the hell we were seeing.

"Um... where did all of this come from?" Mel asked.

Spitfire shrugged casually as she answered the question. "Oh, I bought every article and every damn mag that had this stuff. And then I just kinda shoved it all in this cloud. Of course the fashion magazines also have a little something in them about it too."

Mel and I walked over to the pile as the woman tapped her cheek. "Cloud. Storage. You took a literal cloud from the sky... and stored a bunch of information inside of it. Well played."

Meanwhile, I was sifting my way through the pile of material, calling out the various titles. "Scandal at the Veranda, Canterlot Clash, Friskful Fury, A Bridge Too Far, Malice at the Palace, This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Two of Us, Reasons Revealed; Memorandum of the TwiDis Breakup, Royal Relations Status; It's Complicated." And even then I managed to come across some rather unusual titles. "Secret Lovers; Sultry Affair Brewing Before Our Very Eyes? Bad-Boy Streak? Clutching on for Dear Love?" Then there were two that definitely caught my attention, two headlines with my face in the backdrop. "He's Free; Twenty Ways You Can Grab His Attention. Love Is An Open Door; Ten Possible Positions To Blow His Human Mind."

Mel then looked at the pegasus with a contorted expression. "...The fuck?"

Spitfire walked beside me and politely grabbed the magazine from me. "Oh yeah, that last one was a really good educational article on how the two species can use their size and physical differences to maximize the experience for both parties. It also has a few hints and tips on what the human can do on the flip side of things, belly rubs, wing massages, preening practices, horn tease, horn worship, frog sucking."

"Frog sucking?" Melanie asked almost to the point of screaming.

The mare then proceeded to give us a more... hooves-on detailed explanation. "Oh yeah, it's where you suck on the bottom of our hooves, the sensitive parts of it especially, and then you lick down the middle. Rainbow Dash fucking loves that shit to death, she squeaks like a total filly when that happens."

...That's... information. That is exactly what it is, information.... Yeah... "Um, I have so many questions."

"What happens in Las Pegasus..." Spitfire replied with a smirk. "Oh and speaking of things on the low, you might wanna come to the show tomorrow night in the Cloud Bowl. I've got a front-row ticket for you, maybe you come by and get a bit of attention from a certain pegasus, or even just to get off the castle grounds for once. You'll get VIP access and even some time with us Wonderbolts."

While Spitfire kicked the cloud one more time, it sounded off less like a storm and more of an actual cough. A blue and gold ticket then fluttered out and into her wing. Grasping at the ticket, she presented the item to me. As I reached for it, I could see a scowl on Melanie's face. "Thanks. I'll... think about it."

This time, the mare's face grew serious as she poked her wing at my neck. "This time, I mean it. Show up, rookie. There's some shit we need to talk about on the serious side of things."

This already sounds like trouble. "And if I don't?"

"Well let's just say that brawl number two is going to be very bloody, on your end specifically."

Okay, that sounds like a thing I need to not ignore. "Solid copy."

One of her primary feathers then traced up my throat to my chin as she grinned devilishly. "See you there, big guy. Don't disappoint me."

Melanie walked up to me and grumbled out loud. "I wonder if they somehow forgot that you can't walk at the moment?"

"You know that's not gonna stop me from making an appearance." I said, picking up the magazine with the ten positions. As I ran through the pages, finally running across the article, they had illustrations of a teddy bear on top of a stuffed pony doll. And though I felt the subject was rather ridiculous, I grew morbidly curious when a third position had the pony grabbing the leg of the 'human' depiction laying on it's side. Just the idea had me tilting my head to the side like a curious puppy. "Gah-dayum! They can do that?... I wonder what other crazy shit they got in here."

Mel snatched the magazine from my hand cruelly and chewed me out. "Can you think about the reality of the situation instead of thinking about how deep you can drive your dick in one of these damn ponies?"

"Just look at the page, Mel." I urged strongly. "That there might be some Kama Sutra shit."

She then started to look at the page while continuing her rant for a while. "You are in some serious shit, dude. If anything, you should be finding Shining Armor and having a long man-to-man with him before he comes after you with a rusty─" Her train of thought was quickly derailed as she was silenced at the contents of the magazine. She too had to tilt her head at the wild proposals. "...How do they bend like this?"

"If I had a bit for every time I asked that question..."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Melanie's Apartment
Austin, Texas...

Shortly after our stroll through the garden, we went back to our own world and Mel had me running on a treadmill for a substantial amount of time. Of course Cliff and Rickey paid us a visit before they had to go about their studies for the semester finals again. We also had a brief discussion on our plans for Thanksgiving and even what we'd do to avoid certain family members that were either annoying or too awkward to deal with.

For Rickey, it was his uncle. Everyone in his circle knew that he was an alcoholic that often leaned heavily on surrounding family members to take care of any outstanding issues in regards to his life. Most of them were not fond of it, and offered him rehab at every opportunity. But seeing how he wasn't with kids and wasn't in any relationship other than loose associations with a few neighbors around town, he wasn't an outstanding liability to anyone other than the ones who lived with him. Rickey says he's a great cook and a generous guy, but often said that his mother hadn't seen the lawnmower since he loaned it out.

For Cliff, it was one of his cousins. If I ever told the story about Cliff's situation with his ex, his cousin would be the one to exclusively blame for all of it. In short, the girl kept it in the family and Cliff was never the same with either of them since. His cousin wouldn't be here for Thanksgiving, but he would be around by Christmas. He's also coming by with his Cliff's aunt, who was at beef with his mom over something about the estate of his grandmother. It's no wonder why he wants to keep himself isolated after finals, maybe that's why he's been excited over his shiny new portal to Equestria.

Mel, of course, will be spending her time with her dad over the next week in Houston. He recently moved there around two years ago, citing that Mel's absence was the reason why he felt like he could go back there. The reason: Austin reminded him of the wife he lost when Mel was a child. But she wanted to stay here so badly that she pleaded with him for a week straight. So he endured for several more years, because he loved the shit out of his only daughter enough to give her that until she grew up. Unusual story, to say the least, but it's her story nonetheless.

Vanessa will be coming back from Dallas, clearing out some issues with Alex. He missed more than a few days of work worrying about me, but he's already assessed the risk of losing his job over losing his brother, and he's bound to take that over a job that can be easily replaced. The only reason why he had the job was so that he could cushion up to Vanessa's parents before marrying her to begin with. He worked in accounting and collections, not sure if they'd give him anything close to a peace of mind.

Stanton's gonna be a little busy this weekend, final game of the schedule and he wants to make a good impression with the coach after a few days off. He's probably in need of a little conditioning from his days off, but he'll be back for the last game and the postseason Liberty Bowl. Granted, he'll be looking to impress in that game.

I, however, am coming to realize that my time to return back home is quickly approaching. Thanksgiving is around the corner and I need to be back in dad's face with a girl to play the part. Of course it wouldn't be hard to grab some girl on Craigslist to fill the roll for a quick buck, but that came with risks. I could also kinda sneak into the fine arts facility and do a lot of asking for a girl who'd be willing to stay down here for the break, learn a few lines, and play the part I have assigned.

Ugh... But how in the hell am I going to pass this girl off when my mom's gonna be trying to friend her on Facebook? But then again I could always fake an account and she might take it at face-value. It's not like she's so computer literate where she's able to reverse search an image on google. I think I could make it work.

And then I made the mistake of letting Melanie in on it. She quickly shot my idea down and yelled at me for not trying to tell them the truth, which is what she wanted me to do in this instance. She brought up the idea of memory spells and other things that could be used if things weren't to end well, but I had reservations about that, especially being that I had my mind tinkered with.

I felt and knew that their initial reaction would do more harm than good. And if I did try to bring them to the portal, they'd look at me like I was stupid by bringing them into my bathroom, which would bring them into a room full of automatic weapons and explosives. Not a good starting argument in my favor.

I could always tell them that I simply broke up with 'Bella', which would also be true. However, that would probably cause dad to go on and on about how I need to find a job and a new source of income, inviting several other issues like him possibly being so irrational as to cancel my lease on the apartment and having me live under the same roof again, complicating things further than what it needs to be as I will be unable to bring any company from and to Equestria whatsoever.

Not a resolution I'm interested in.

And being that there's no such thing as a spell to turn anypony into a human, I think it would be safe to say that an escort of some kind would be my best bet for the time being. And again, Mel argued with me over that point. We pretty much fought over the damn thing until she got tired of trying to convince me otherwise. Her final response was calling me more stubborn than my dad.

Not a comparison I was proud of, but as long as the situation can be defused safely I can deal with it.

Guess I'll have to pay a visit to the frathouse tomorrow and have Cliff scope out a few girls for the fit. Since he's a music major with a focus on vocal, he's easier to trust in when it comes to talking with the girls in the FA department.

As far as the rest of the day, I don't really have anything substantial planned. Guess I'll order us some pizza, watch some TV to catch up on current events, and call it a day.

...I wonder what the girls are doing.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Meanwhile at the Sun Cryst Resort
Upper Town Square of Canterlot...

"Alright everypony, great rehearsal! We'll see you all at around five tomorrow evening! Keep those coats clean and be sure to come ready to strut your stuff!"

Rarity trotted towards the empty stage as she looked at the dress rack on the far right of the room. Her smile was as bright as ever as she levitated a series of outfits to the rack she had her eyes on. At the end of the rack, she saw something slightly disarranged and made a quick adjustment to set everything in place for the next day. Her eyes were squinted, concentrating on the material she was adjusting and made the appropriate change to ensure that her design was without flaw.

Then as an imaginary lightbulb flashed over her head, she hollered out to the leaving throng of models. "Oh, and ladies, please remember to bring your heels as the matching accessories will only be worn the day before!"

Finally, the hall was empty with nothing but her assistant from Manehattan. The young mare looked at her with excitement over the arrangements and showered the fashionista with admiration. "Your new line will be an absolute hit! I can't wait for the debut, the community will be raving about what you've done with your new style!"

Rarity sighed as she removed her ruby red glasses and placed them on the table near a sewing machine. "It's all about the hard work and dedication that makes the model shine the most. My designs can only take me so far if I don't have the right ones working them."

"I just wish you had your other model to show up. The human would've turned head for sure!" The mare said with a slight blush. "With all the stories you've told me, I'm kinda interested in meeting him myself."

Rarity giggled as she shook her head. "Health comes before strut, Coco Pommel." The mare then let out a dejected sigh as she eyed another rack beside the stage, one set up to be much taller than the others. "After all, how can I have him model if he's unable to walk for the time being? I'm not going to put any more stress on him than what he's already caught in."

Coco walked up to the rack and unzipped one of the black bags and visualized the outfit she gazed upon. "Oh, shame. *tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk* I would've loved to see him wear this."

"As do I, it's not just something I could have him wear on the street for the day's running about. I wanted him to wear me."

"Or work you." The young mare joked raunchily.

"Dear Faust, you have no idea." Rarity huffed with a quick trot to a much smaller bag at the end of the rack. "I actually made this one months in advance."

Coco watched as Rarity pulled out the outfit with a smirk. "Uh, I don't think that would fit him."

"Of course not." Rarity replied. "This is for me to wear."

"Oh, so it's sitting on the rack you had set aside for him? Throwing the hint out pretty quickly, huh?"

"No, actually. I've made him very aware of what my intentions were." The fashionista then pulled out the outfit. "There's one piece I've already worn to this. And I quietly hid it in his drawer when he was staying at Twilight's castle. Of course he doesn't know who dropped it there, but who am I but a demure little filly looking to poke the beast within the docile creature walking in our world?"

"Well since Princess Twilight broke up with him, I figured he'd be up for giving you a shot next." Coco stated.

Rarity then put away the outfit and placed the bag back onto the rack. "I'd like to think that as well..."

A long moment of pause from the fashionista drew concern from Coco. "What's wrong?"

Rarity then grew saddened as she looked at the rack one last time. "Shining told me last night how devastated Twilight was when she spoke to him. She even took the leave back to Ponyville to set her mind in order because of how she was feeling on a personal level. She really does feel for him and he feels the same for her."

"You feel like you can't compete?" Coco summarized quietly.

Rarity quickly shot that down. "Gracious no, if anything I'm in the running. It's just that he's going to take some time to clear some things up with his personal life and his family. And judging from the interaction we had from a few days ago, I can clearly understand why he would take issue with some of the things Cadance said about him."

"Oh yeah." Coco said with a slow nod. "Your name was thrown out there, wasn't it?"

"I know. And I always wanted what was best for him instead of what was hardest. Him and her was always going to be something that he wasn't going to stay with because everypony has needs. And Twilight's extremely limited in what she can do for those needs, especially with her being so stingy about his privileges. If you were to go through a whole year being teased in such a manner but constantly unfulfilled because of some piece of paper saying you can't because 'we said so', would you think that it was fair to you?"

Coco mulled over the situation and answered her. "Well if I went through the whole year, I'd probably be used to it by the end of it. And the teasing would get a little boring after a while. Of course I'd find some ways of getting what I want out of the deal, but then it all points back to self-control. Other than that, not really"

"Now imagine if there was somepony getting involved, telling you that you can't engage in anything, not even with the one you're currently with."

The young mare quickly shook her head. "Absolutely not. I'm a grown mare, if I want to be adventurous then it's my right to be that way."

"That's summing up what he was dealing with the past few months, outside of the political turmoil." Rarity explained.

"In that case, why didn't he ever get with you to start off with?" Coco asked.

"Twilight and Cadance purposefully withheld the information. And as a result, all of this happened."

"I see why you're concerned." Coco said as she tapped her cheek. "It's not fair for him to be in such a relationship where everything's kinda decided for him. I'd be happy to know she cut me loose."

Rarity started to take a final survey of the space before she started to gather her personal belongings. "...To be honest, I was hoping to not do a wedding dress for her. I felt like watching him get married to her would've been so unfair to both me and him. There's just so much at stake and I'd much rather see him break up with me over something trivial."

"Why?" Coco asked as she walked to the door.

"Because at least we'd have something normal for a change. We'd at least get to have some semblance of a normal relationship."

"Even if you're the Element of Generosity, a national hero on multiple accounts, a fashion icon, and a trendsetter for upwards to millions of impressionable young fillies everywhere?" Coco inquired.

"Food, sex, and intimate interaction, he'd be getting all three of that from me at will.... Plus free clothes."

The two mares walked out of the hall, turning out the lights and closing the door. As the sound of the lock clicking in place, a tall shadow-like figure stepped out of the back of the stage. Upon stepping to the taller rack, she picked out the smaller bag and tore the zipper off of it. The black bag was ripped open at the creature's haste.

Slowly from the tattered remnants of the bag, a thin, lacy black lingerie was revealed to the creature who held it. Then, a teal color aura surrounded the lingerie as the caster chuckled quietly. Looking both ways, the intruder quickly set the outfit upon herself and walked as she wore it. The mare quickly galloped to one of the mirrors stationed backstage and dimly lit her horn. She smiled with malice as she surveyed the scantily clad image of herself.

"Sorry, sweetheart. I might just pay you back later for this. Besides, I wear it better."

Later in the Canterlot Throne Room...

Alex groans with disgust and disbelief as he sat at the table, looking at one of the magazines published around Canterlot. The man could do very little outside of mumble under his breath and shake his head. Celestia, who sat across from him, watched him as she too showed a lack of amusement. Each party sitting on each side, ready to make some sort of statement on the account of the incident from the previous night.

The man would start first. "I knew things between him and Cadance were shaky, but I didn't think he'd take it this far."

"That is something that could be said on my end as well." Celestia said, levitating the magazine in front of her. "Now the breakup went from being a hot topic to a debate on the stability of the royal inner circle."

"I'm just floored he'd do that shit. I get that you're angry but you don't ever put your hand on another man's wife, that's just asking for trouble."

"And Shining has made no mention of it. He's been with Cadance all day, helping her return to form."

"Didn't this article say that Blueblood was there too? Doesn't he have anything to say about it?" He asked.

"He's been tight-lipped on the matter. Seems he's more knowledgeable of it than any of us and willingly allowed these things to happen. He had to have been involved, Nondis was introduced to the guests by him and no other. At times I wonder what goes through his mind while he continues to set us up for disaster. Now it appears that there is some dispute going on behind the scenes."

"The only dispute I know of is that Nondis wasn't too happy with what was said between you and Cadance." Alex said, gaining a strong draw of attention from the high princess. "It's not that I'm placing any blame on you at all, we know the gist of it. You just wanna do what's right for Twilight and fulfill her mother's wishes. Unfortunately we were down the hall when the topic came up─"

Celestia slammed the magazine on the table, evoking silence from the human. Her hoof even managed to crack the surface of the table as the pages of the magazine were stamped so tightly together that the would become inseparable. "The situation is Cadance's responsibility. I know how she is when she's afforded the time to spend with her beloved, only to have that taken away. I should have known to see to it that there were to be no additional guests brought in on Blueblood's behalf as well. He's always been starting trouble for the sake of attention."

Alex tapped his foot on the ground as he pondered out loudly. "Having that said, do you think that Blueblood would push the envelope in having these two meet up?"

"No." She quickly responded. "He's not so blatant to get himself caught by putting iron to iron. He's more into letting the situation unfold while he looks on the sidelines. As you can probably summarize from the article, he was with a party of four others not named Blueblood."

Alex walked up to the magazine and picked up the stamped booklet. Flicking his fingers through the corner of the pages, he identified which area would likely hold the article and attempted to pull it apart, only to have it tear outside of where Celestia's hoofprint was pressed. "Well I don't think I'll be able to confirm that right now. But in either case, Nondis had to have known she was drunk. What he should've did was escort her to the other guards, have them take her to her room, and then he can enjoy himself for the rest of the night. He could've avoided the confrontation, but I know my little brother. If his honor's on the line, he's gonna start a fight." Alex then chuckled at the situation for a quick second, recalling the past he and his younger sibling shared. "You know, I can't even really say if he was gonna get his ass beat this time, he came up quite a bit since he was younger."

Celestia also shared a chuckle with him. "That's for certain, I assumed him to be beaten by some mere ruffian in some dark alley all those months ago. But a confrontation between him and Cadance would end badly for your brother, she's no slack when it comes to using a sword and spear. And I'd highly doubt she'd let a gun find it's way into the conversation."

"Apparently, if Shining knows how a gun works." Alex said. "But we've gotta get these two to chill."

"I will do my part in keeping these two in peace, I'm even willing to have the two of them convene together. But that will have to take place at a time when the two of them have dissipated much of their hostility towards one another."

"Sounds like a plan." Alex agreed before breathing out a sigh or relief. "I still can't believe this happened."

"It's to be expected in some cases." Celestia said as she picked up the magazine. As she levitated the item in her magic, the pages began to crisp and blacken. "But for now, I will do what I can to dispel these rumors and promote peace and stability to our inner-circle."

"And the preparations?" Alex asked.

Celestia looked at the man with her horn alight. "I was unable to formulate anything in the little time I had that would work towards your plan. But I do have something worth looking at."

"Really, what?"

The princess smiled deviously as she took a step towards the human. "Well I'm not one to suddenly bring about trouble but I do find myself being fiendishly curious at times. But you wouldn't let me try out a little something on you, would you?"

Alex, starting to become a bit nervous, slowly backed away. "Your highness, with all due respect, that sounds like trouble."

"Oh not at all... I only want to find out how tall you are in comparison to me."

The Next Day...

The morning came quietly while I was busy being shacked up on Mel's couch for the night. This morning had given me a bit of a pleasant surprise from the jump. It was like my legs were starting to get back under me. Of course there were still a few instances of my losing balance frequently, but it appeared that a heavy treadmill routine was doing some good in forcing me to relearn how to walk. Granted that running was not a thing I could do well, I could stumble and keep my balance for a significant amount of time.

Mel also took a look at my legs and saw that all the tendons and muscles that were cut had been repaired to almost one-hundred percent. She hailed it as the miracle of medicinal magic and grew more invested in the dividends it would produce if it was applied with our world's technology. Though a successful run would end with a Nobel Peace Prize being shipped to her P.O. box, that wasn't something the world was quite ready for.

Hell, it's almost like she's ready to be a nurse again instead of going through criminal justice.

After another two hours of moving on the treadmill, I was feeling more stable and ready to move on my own. I managed to question her on why it took me so little time to get back on my feet outside of the magic procedures the doctors used on me. According to her, it was mainly because of the short amount of time I spent being in a comatose state. Once again, magic had a strong play in it, but because I was out for so short of time, I ended up being on a short recovery schedule in terms of how human's operate. Of course there's a longer period for equines because their legs are so integral with their everyday lives and their having four of them, they want to make sure that they're capable of moving forward with as little complications as possible.

Mel then told me that I was moving around too little while being in care, and with the lack of the equipment to accommodate human patients, I was unable to get some real work in. And even though I shouldn't be walking under normal human med practice, there were too many variables to allow me to continue being handicapped. I have a lot to thank those doctors for. Now if only I can get these stitches out of my stomach, damn things are starting to itch and I can't scratch em.

But the positive of what I've encountered over these past few days is that I know that the ones in my corner are really there to prop me up when I need it most. I couldn't imagine me feeling like I needed the time to think about what's all gone wrong in that atmosphere. Too much time to think, too little noise to distract, and having too few visitors will start to make you ask a lot of questions about yourself, especially after getting a break-up notice upon waking up. You start to feel alone, like you did something wrong, like life's been a little unfair to you, and you start to think whether or not you're really a burden on others around you.

And then, the monster hits you, the big one. And for some, that monster's been lurking for quite some time in their life. The silence alone gives it a new breath, the fact that you're forced to look at it's face is nothing short of playing a round of Scary Maze; it terrifies you and causes you to periodically look behind you at every dark corner. And then, just when you think you're getting somewhere, you close your eyes and the question pops up in your face:

Is living really worth all the pain you can possibly experience?

For many, the answer's yes because there's a lot to be said when it comes to seeing the glass half-full. It's easy to see the positives when you're so optimistic. But with all that I've seen...

...After breakfast, Mel and I merrily pranced our way through the portal into the land of Equestria once more. As a shocker, Alex was already here, and he was sitting on the ground in an odd fashion.

"Hey guys!" Alex said waving his hand. He then stopped for a moment and looked at his arm. After a split second, he shook himself and regained his focus on us. "So you're up and at it, huh?" He asked me.

"Yeah, though I'm wondering how you managed to get here." I said.

"Oh, I went through Cliff's portal." He answered. "Cliff's in the dining hall stuffing his face full of pancakes. I'm just here to see you guys in."

"Well isn't that nice of you." Mel replied sweetly. "I just wish your brother would do the same for me for just one morning and tell me that he's been waiting for me to wake up."

"You're looking for the shadow of your own reflection if you're wanting me to do that." I deadpanned. "Either that or you could be looking for a stalker to take hair clippings from you while you were sleeping."

Alex shook his head while he laughed. "Mel, you might as well stop playing with him. He's kicked you to the curb, apparently."

"Well I gotta keep up appearances." She answered with a light nudge on my arm. "He's got other girls here trying to cozy up and show off in front of him. And they've got magazine articles depicting what sexual position they could take to supposedly blow his mind."

Alex titled his head as he looked at me with confusion. "Excuse me?"

"I ain't tell them shit. That's them, they're the ones that wanna use my legs as a stripper pole."

My older brother could do nothing but facepalm at the absurdity. "I swear shit here's been crazy."

"Now try living here for nine months." I recommended. "Crazy will start to look a little differently after a while."

"You ain't gotta tell me more than once." He said with a smirk. "You're your own brand of crazy after the other night."

I groaned shyly while I felt myself not wanting to look him in the face. "Oh, so you heard of that?"

"It's everywhere, dude. No doubt you've probably got Shining pissed as fuck." He stated. "Did you ever talk to him?"

"Outside of the initial hospital visit, no." I confessed.

"Oh yeah, he's marinating in that shit. You might wanna set out and make an apology today if you can reach him."

Well, I suppose it would be a good start to diffuse the tension a little. "Yeah, I guess we can make that a venture for today."

Alex then stood on his knees and hand while he spoke. "Yup, let's go."

While Mel and I started to walk, I started to notice Alex crawling on his hands and knees in an odd fashion. It was as if he was between kneading like a cat and miming like he was picking up coins. For a hot second, Mel and I turned to him and looked at how weird he was looking. An awkward stare was all I could produce as he mumbled to himself.

"Okay, left-right front, right-left back."

"Um, what the hell?" I asked, causing him to snap his head up and realize what he was doing.

Still on his knees, he kinda looked at us funny while he took the time to realize he was crawling on all fours. His cheeks started to run red while he smiled at us nervously. "Oh, yeah. Disregard that." He said, finally standing on his own two feet.

Meanwhile I was left nodding slowly. "Oohhhhkaaaay then."

After a few minutes of traversing the halls, I started to catch myself being a little winded from the travel. I suppose there's much to be done in order to get me back into fighting shape, but I'm still a galactic mile from where I was when I first woke up. If anything, this was just my body telling me that long walks across town wasn't a good idea. Guess I'll have to take that into consideration for the next few days until I recondition myself for the travel. But we did manage to come across the throne room. When we approached the doors, the two guards standing by each side had uncrossed their spears and gave me a salute. I returned the gesture and our party made our way into the throne room.

Even though I was placed in a position of prominence, much of the palace has remain unseen from my perspective. So my entering the cathedral-like hall was met with nothing but outright silence and wonder. Not once have I set my eyes upon this room, nor have I been assigned near it. And on each side of the hall stood a multitude of stained glass windows. I walked up to one, seeing two ponies standing in a circle, the two shaped like a heart with their horns touching at the tips. And from that contact drew forth a heart so bright that it banished back a horde of darker shadows. Judging from the color of the two ponies in the depiction, it would be best to assume it was Cadance and Shining Armor.

But that wasn't the only one.

I walked up to another, depicting a party of six standing on the bottom, shooting a large beam at a shadow-engulfed alicorn on the top end. The colors would indicate it was none other than the girls in Ponyville. Just another seal down was the figure of a creature manipulating what appeared to be a unicorn, a pegasi, and an earth pony like mere puppets. Just the imagery alone told me it was Discord being malicious. And yet another window, this time with a small dragon holding up a blue heart, banishing off a great shadow that threatened to swallow the land whole.

Damn, even Spike got one of these damn things.

The next one kinda threw me off a bit. It was the image of a centaur taking the magic of the world while a purple alicorn attacked it from above, almost as if it was holding a spirit bomb to throw on the centaur's head. I wasn't quite sure what this creature was, but I knew that the purple depiction had to be one individual in particular.

"That was a battle she nearly lost."

The voice startled me as I quickly turned back to see none other than Princess Celestia standing there. She walked up to the window and continued speaking.

"It was a battle that we all came so close to losing. If we never entrusted Twilight with all of our alicorn magic, then Tirek would've surely taken it for himself. But we were shortsighted in our efforts, failing to remove one bit of evidence to throw him off our trail."

"And what was that?" Melanie questioned.

Celestia simply walked over one window to show the answer staring us in the face. Before us was a stained glass effigy of Twilight, standing with a much different crown than she'd usually wear. The jewel upon the apex shone brightly, producing a magenta star the same shape of her cutie mark. Wings unfurled, she stood regally with closed eyes and a humble smile on her face.

"We forgot to take this one down." The princess replied with a light chuckle.

"Yeah, you couldn't just give her a bright neon sign saying 'come and get me', right?" I joked.

The high ruler nodded as she guided us from the windows to the throne she sat on. Leading up to it was a long red carpet reaching from the doors to the seat. The stairs that lead up to the seat was made of fine white marble and coated in the finest gold flakes. And on each side was a miniature fountain that flowed onto the floor itself. The beautiful banners that hung from the walls on each side and the tapestry that hung above gave the throne an imperial look that would rival some of the richest heritage back on earth. But as she sat down, we all realized that there was something odd about the setup.

"So I take it that the throne is shared?" Melanie questioned.

Celestia sighed as she ran a hoof through her mane. "I suppose you would be used to it after sitting here for over nine-hundred and fifty years. But it's not a setup I'm fond of at the moment. It is rather weary to look at over and over again. It just screams 'ALL HAIL THE SUN AND IT'S GOLDEN GLORY' in a royal Canterlot voice."

"Well isn't that the whole idea?" Melanie asked. "I'm sure that your subjects would've had this in mind when they fitted the place for you."

I took a quick look around the place and realized that if these pillars were on fire, it would really look like a firelord would own the place. All it needs it some fire, a lot of it, then the guests could say 'praise the sun' all fucking day while sweating like a pig in a pressure cooker. "It does kinda have the overlord-of-the-land thing going with it. I don't even see a throne for Luna."

"And that's exactly the problem!" Celestia chimed loudly. "I can't see myself ruling over this place like I have for the past millennium. I want my sister to feel involved instead of feeling like she in my shadow for every waking moment of the day. I don't want to rule over her, I want to rule beside her. And this current setup isn't going to allow me to do that."

"Ever thought about renovating the place?" Cliff inquired.

"I already have a blueprint in the works with one of the royal contractors. They say it will be a complete and total revamp of the room, giving it a total lighting overhaul and a fresh new coat of paint. Less gold and more marble and pearl. They'll also be raising the throne's pillar another two feet to stand out more. And of course, a second throne and two rear exits to a new balcony outside. Also, two additional stained glass windows to display the holder of the seat. And with a little magic, they can be changed to whomever assumes the seat."

"That sounds like one hell of an upgrade." Alex states with a whistle. "Does it come with LED lighting in the fountains?"

"Though I am unsure of what these LED's you are talking about, I am certain that the fountains will have special magicite crystals installed to give it a more dynamic effect."

"Outright fancy." Melanie said. "When do you think it'll be done?"

"It will take some time. But I do wish them to do it correctly over doing it quickly. I love my sister enough to where I want them to make sure that she is safe when she sits beside me."

While the thought of having this already magnificent room redone threw me for a loop, I had to keep in consideration that she's been here far longer than my home country's been a sovereign nation. And there's been a lot of history in these past two-hundred plus years.

My mind wandered back to the windows and the images that were depicted in them. More importantly, the images of the six ponies doing various deeds that have deserved the notoriety of their being immortalized in these windows. It made me reflect on my deeds and I started to have a bit of confidence issues. "Yeesh, these girls have probably saved the world more times than I would've made my dad proud of me throughout my life." My self-depreciating joke fell flat, earning anything but a laugh. But I suppose the context of the situation didn't add much humor. I took a second to sheepishly laugh at myself, only to drop my head and feel like an idiot.

...Yikes, where the fuck did that come from?

I offered to correct myself, but was quickly silenced by Celestia. "I understand things are hard right now. And I know things will be difficult for when the time comes. But just know that we'll be here for when you feel like you're ready to make that move."

"Yeah, dude. Don't sweat it." Alex said in his attempt to comfort me. "You're gonna be fine, I promise."

Melanie's eyes wandered back to the portrait of Cadance and Shining Armor. She walked over to the window once more and questioned the royal. "Big Mama Celly, can I ask you something?"

"Go on, what is it?" The mare replied.

"So these black creatures, what exactly are they. They look like ponies, but they're not."

The alabaster alicorn held her head up high as she looked at the portrait. "You are no stranger to those. They are changelings."

Oh how can we forget, we just saw some hanging in the courtyard two days ago. But that does bring up a thought. "Hey, I was wondering if you had spoke to Shining Armor."

Celestia didn't even turn to me as she responded. "He made it very clear that he wished not to see you. I'm afraid that requesting an audience with him would be problematic for all of us, especially you."

"Figures." I mumbled under my breath. "But I still need to talk to him, I wanna get what happened the other night off of my chest so we can work things out."

Alex then intervened. "Just let him be, if he wants to talk about it then he should be the one to bring it up to you."

"I'm just afraid this might turn into something ugly if we let it fester for too long." Mel added.

"Cadance has recovered much of her strength, he has been with her to aid her recovery. He only wishes that your involvement with them were to be limited to the magazines issued out among the masses for the time being."

Man that's icy, completely tuning me out. "I see. Then can I leave a message for him if you should ever see him?"

"He's also made it clear that there were to be no messages to be passed on." Celestia stated.

I guess that venture for today is a dead topic. Melanie then intervened. "Then could we talk with Blueblood? I'm sure we can talk to him about what happened that night."

"Blueblood's been running around town, it will be hard to catch him." She answered. "You will have to go out around town to see what he's up to."

"Are none of his wives in?" I asked.

"From what I was told, they stand in solace with Cadance and offer no ear to you. I am sorry."

I can't even get to Blueblood, what kind of shit is this? "Okay, I get it. I probably need to separate myself until things cool down a bit."

"Seems to be all you can do at this point." Mel said with a shrug. "Guess we'll have to try next time."

Celestia then offered us some advice on the way back to her throne. "If I can give you any words of encouragement, it would be that not all disputes are long-lasting when alcohol is involved. Give it a few more days and I'm sure that it will blow over."

"Sounds good to me." I said on our way out.

We took a quick glance at some of the other windows and saw nothing of interest and left the room. When the doors closed behind us, Celestia tapped her chin deviously and smiled.

"Nondis P. Haines, earth pony... about four inches shorter... I wonder what's in stock for armor in the barracks."

Since Shining Armor seemed to be a no-go for anything today, I then decided that our focus was to be the one responsible for my being at the party. So far, the search for Blueblood has been rather uneventful. We checked all the usual hot spots. Saunas, spas, steam rooms, restaurants, and even some of the most exclusive venues─though they just barred us from entering the area because they want that verified royalty/rich status─had all come up with no results for the blond-maned prince.

Basically, we just wasted another two hours of combing through a third of the upper-class establishments, apparently there's a lot of those here. Of course the main reason why is because of Princess Sunbutt sitting on her throne of gold and marble just down the road. Kinda sets the pace for everything going around it.

Heh, I wonder if this so-called Canterrot is actually a middle-class suburb filled with wanna-be thugs and tough-guys. I honestly wouldn't be surprised. Though the comment about decapitations would be a bit obvious if we ran by the place. I wonder if he's there.

Unfortunately, that would require me to have some legs left under me to do that. At that moment, I was growing more and more fatigued from the travel. So stops in between locations became more and more frequent. At this point, I was ready to call it quits for the day. No need for us to keep going, the castle is a fair distance from us....

Ugh, that means we'd have to walk all the way back to the castle from this labyrinth of streets, business, and hotels. That's at least another forty-five minutes just to get to the back-end security checkpoint... or is it fifty-five? To be honest, we walked all the way here on the words of only the ponies on the street. We had no map, no compass, and the only hint we had was the massive castle overlooking the city. But the way these streets were laid out made it hard for us to determine how far everything is from one another.

It's almost like I'm having to get used to pony distances all over again.

"Stop her!"

Our eyes were tilted up and everywhere as the command rang loudly through the streets. But in a single moment, I felt something akin to a punch in the solar plexus. My knees buckled and my body collapsed onto the ground. Writhing a little, I held my abdomen and looked back to see what had hit me.

Sitting on the ground, rubbing her horn was a young unicorn mare with a ripped apron. In the distance, I could see two armor-clad earth-pony stallions turn the corner. They started barreling right for us when I tried to stand back up on my weakened legs. When they arrived, they grabbed the mare and roughly tried to subdue her, pulling her tail, jumping on top of her, holding her on the neck, anything to encourage discomfort for every moment she moved.

"I didn't do it! I swear!" The mare pleaded.

"Stop resisting, dammit!" One of the guards ordered.

"It's not my fault! I'm innocent here!" She said once more.

"Tell it to the chief constable, lady!" The other guard said as he held her down.

As I was still recovering a bit from the pain, I reached out to a seething Melanie, who had walked in to disrupt the chaos unfolding before us. "Hey, can you get the fuck off of her and let her say something for once?"

I walked over and politely guided her away from the scene and intervened myself. "Guys, what the hell's going on?"

"I'm being accused for something I had no business with! I want a lawyer!" The mare screamed.

One of the guards rolled his eyes as he then explained the situation to me. "My apologies on disturbing you on your day off, captain. It seems that this mare's being accused of stolen property."

"I only stole a bit of food from the kitchen. I work so damn hard all day and what do I get for it, a nonexistent lunch-break, a short dinner break that I'm often forced to work through, and a weak paycheck that the landowner eats on like a chocolate mini bite."

"That ain't the only thing you stole, is it?" The other guard asked antagonistically.

I shook my head and temporarily stepped back into my role. "Okay, guys. Get off of her."

"But captain─"

"I don't recall that being a request." I said sternly, causing the two to comply. The two stallions didn't budge after that as the mare stood back up on all fours.

The mare looked at me with a smile as she expressed relief in her newfound freedom. "I don't know how to express how much I appreciate you, sir."

I shook my head and held my hand up to stop her. "Well I hate to inform you, but we're not done here. You're still stealing from your employer. Now I get it, you might not have enough for food, and you don't get treated fairly by your boss. Trust me, I know how all of that feels. But I'm sure if you explained your circumstances a little more clearly, this wouldn't have happened the way it did."

"Don't you think I tried that!?" Chided the mare. "I told them I didn't steal whatever outfit was in that damn hotel."

"Outfit?" Alex asked, scratching his head.

"Hotel?" Cliff questioned.

One of the guards then explained further. "There was an article of clothing stolen from the Sun Cryst Resort, just a block away from here. And looking into her work hours and where the other workers said she was sighted at during the time, it was probable cause to detain her for further questioning."

Mel angrily interjected. "So you tackling her to the ground and pulling her tail like some rapist was justified under probable cause?"

"We had to stop her from running!" The guard stated in his defense.

"I really don't think that's how you stop anyone from running away from you!" She rebutted. "You've had better training than that, I know you did."

The two stallions tried to defend their actions, but dropped their heads in shame. "I know it was bad, but I had to stop her somehow. Unicorns are crafty, and grabbing one part of them is a good way to stop them from zapping themselves from one place to the other."

I then interjected. "That's highly debatable. Usually most unicorns don't really teleport because they are unknowing of how to do so. The only ones who would are magic students, higher-ranked guards, practitioners, those with a natural gift for magic, or even royalty." I then walked over to the mare and lightly peeled back her apron to reveal her cutie mark. "And judging from this, she's neither one of those categories. Her specialty appears to be nothing more than cleaning."

"Sir, with all due respect, a cutie mark merely displays a talent or trait of the individual. It doesn't explain any other attributes or hobbies a pony may have." One of the guards debated.

"I understand that. But think about it this way, even if she were to be a scholar, then wouldn't it be possible that she would've poof'd out from the get-go instead of running on her own legs to get away from you?"

"She could've baited us, sir."

"And if so, she could've assaulted you with her magic. Did she do so?"

"No." The guard confessed.

I looked back to the mare and politely instructed her. "Ma'am, there's several questions on whether or not you're innocent or guilty of this. But in any likely case a guilty party would run or provoke some sort of chase. Granted some others are just afraid of getting arrested because of what it does to their reputation and that's understandable. But in the event you encounter something like this, just follow through with the process and allow your testimony to be what decides your innocence."

"But I am innocent!" She replied.

"I'm not denying that. And you deserve a fair shake instead of being falsely accused. But running away from the problem is only going to make matters more convoluted than what it needs to be. You tell them everything you told us and you explain what you did during the time, and if you're innocent then okay. Just trust me, it'll be okay."

"Please... I'm already going to lose my job, just please help me." She pleaded tearfully. "I didn't do anything wrong outside of what I've been doing. And it was only food."

"I get it, just talk to them and I will see what I can do on my end, okay?"

The mare quietly shook as she rubbed her forelegs nervously.

I then looked back at the two guards. "Now as for the both of you, I want you to escort her to the local authorities. Under NO circumstances is she to be withheld in the manner you've displayed just recently. You've been trained to do better and to make it safer for not only yourselves but also them. I have every right to send demerits in your names over what I just saw, and I will expect you both to do better than goddamn school children fighting over a swing set. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir." The two solemnly saluted.

With that, the two guards quietly escorted the mare through the streets towards the nearest precinct. While the they walked off, I groaned in discomfort as Mel approached me. "Demerits? That's all they're getting for that?"

"I've already reprimanded them personally, those demerits will ultimately go towards their paycheck and any future hopes of a promotion. They were sloppy, they're going to get punished for it."

She shrugged her shoulders and scoffed. "Okay I guess. How's your legs feeling?"

"Not that great. I'm kinda tired to be honest." I confessed.

"Well why don't we visit this Sun Cryst Resort, and see what they've got going on. I mean we could look into what happened and you can get a little bit of rest while we're there. It's only a block down from us." Alex suggested.

"Talk about a matter of convenience out of inconvenience." Mel said.

Lobby of the Sun Cryst Resort...

A grand establishment with the amount of floors to dwarf many buildings in the surrounding area, this resort was often seen to be as one of the grander establishments of service and comfort that could be offered in a city filled with competition vying for the crown. Despite the castle's fixtures of genuine precious items and surplus of gross wealth, this inn was often seen as one of the more notorious places to house some of the most influential and wealthy upon a visit. And that list would go on for long enough to garner some international attention from a few delegates and celebrities as well. Of course, a hotel of that reputation has always been seen to be rather busy and strict to the service schedule.

But this weekend was a different monster for the manager who sat at the front desk.

"Hurry up with those collations to room 425! Get those sheets replaced in room 981! And make sure you keep looking for that damn dress! Will you ladies hurry up with your shifts, I'm already going to have to fire one of you later this evening! CHOP-CHOP!"

The unicorn stallion sat at the front desk with a bitter scowl on his face, looking through his guestbook and groaning from the varying tasks and errands that led to him becoming all the more stressed. He slammed his hoof into the ground as he mumbled to himself.

"Dammit! I cannot believe this all happened under my establishment. A theft with one of my former employees at the center of the investigation. Even if I were to sever my ties with her immediately, the amount of damage this does to my record will be far too reaching. I'm going to have to not only lower my prices, but I might actually have to engage in.... ugh... community outreach."

A middle-aged mare walked up to the counter and meekly interrupted the furious manager. "E-excuse me, s-sir. I just wanted to let you know that we have a bit of a problem with the lavatory down the hall."

"THEN FIX THE ISSUE! DON'T COME TO ME ABOUT IT!" He angrily snarled, causing the mare to scamper towards the scene of the issue. The manager pressed his hooves on each side of his head while he screeched through his teeth.

"WHY ARE ALL THE LOWER FLOORS MUST BE FILLED WITH SUCH UNCOOTH COMMONER SWINE!? THIS IS A RESORT FOR THE REFINED, NOT SOME TOURIST ATTRACTION!"

The manager then slammed his head onto the desk and whimpered from the headache he inflicted upon himself. The stallion then refused to move from the spot for several minutes until the bell beside him was rung. Then he was moved slightly, appearing to mumble something under his breath. The bell rang once again, this time being tapped twice for good measure.

A few gasps from some members of the staff down the hall caused the manager to snap his head up and turn to the direction of the whispers. He then yelled at the staff. "I AM NOT PAYING YOU TO SIT AROUND AND LOOK PRETTY! TO WORK!!!"

The staff in the area scattered quickly, leaving the manager to close his eyes and slam his head back on the desk. The silence lasted for a few seconds before the cruel sound of the bell being forcibly smashed repeatedly in his ear was all it took to trigger him to raise his head to face the one that annoyed him so dearly.

"ALRIGHT YOU, I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR─" His rant was quickly snuffed as he saw Alex and Mel towering over him like giants. The stallion then swallowed the rest of his animosity and perked up. "Oh my, you creatures are much taller than they make you out to be in the papers. This is a Sun Cryst first."

Melanie then placed a hand on Alex's shoulder to guide him aside as she took on the role of speaking to the manager. "Hello, I am Melanie Brewer. How's everything been for you today?"

"Fine I suppose." The stallion blinked twice as he eyed the woman. As he looked tallways at the figure standing before him, his attention was soon brought back to the main feature that stood out most on her. Eyeing her chest, he grew absent from the face of the figure the sizable bosom belonged to. "That is certainly a first."

While Mel was prompted to tell him that he was getting a little too invested in her feminine features, she took a calming breath and continued on. "The reason you don't see this on the others is because I'm the female of the species."

"That so?" He questioned curiously, still looking at the mounds from underneath.

She then folded her arms, covering the objects his eyes were locked onto and was forced to draw away from them. "Indeed I am. But back to the topic of why my friends and I have paid a visit."

While he was drawn to other places of the woman's anatomy, he was still catching a glance or two of the fleshy mounds she tried to conceal from his eyes. He quickly drew to a conclusion. "Are those teats?"

Mel, who was absolutely flabbergasted at the stallion's question, moreso his audacity to ask such a question so openly, blinked a few times before tilting her head. Slowly and awkwardly, she confirmed his answer. "These are my mammaries, yes."

The stallion's cheeks shot hot red as his jaw fell loose looking up at the mounds. His tail wagged as his eyes softened with a shimmering childlike wonder. "I'd fancy a cup of tea with those. Two lumps and all the cream in the world. Marvelously enormous." He muttered to himself.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" Mel asked as she started to become annoyed.

With almost a feline-like curiosity, the stallion's foreleg lifted part-ways as he started to reach upwards at her. "How soft are they?"

With a deadpan expression and Alex doing what he can to make sure that she wasn't armed, she barreled through the question and ran herself back to the primary topic of discussion. "I was wondering if you would mind if we stayed here for a moment. My friend is in pain and I would like to see if he can rest here to recover from the fatigue."

The stallion then snapped back to his business mindset as he pulled out his logbook and shifted through the many pages. "Um, I don't think we would have a room that would accommodate for a human guest. But I suppose we could make a few arrangements to have him rested for the night."

Alex looked back at Mel and shrugged, holding out his hand in a gesture to symbolize money. She cringed with the sudden realization that whatever currency she had on her wouldn't satisfy the manager. She then explained herself. "Well, you see... it's not really for the night."

The manager then dulled his search back to the front of the book, only going down the first page. "So a rest and refresh then? I can't say that you will get anything with a good view or any extra provisions."

She then explained further. "Actually, this is just a temporary stay. If you don't mind, we'd just like to chill here for around forty-five minutes, and we're gone."

The manager then slammed his guestbook and looked at her sternly. "I'm sorry. We do not allow loitering in this establishment."

"I know what it sounds like, but our friend is really in need of some rest. He's a guard in the military, and he just got out of the hospital─"

The manager then coldly interrupted Melanie and turned his back on her. "You have five minutes to vacate the establishment. I will say nothing further. I've already had enough trouble in my establishment, I am not interested in more."

Before anything else could be said, the stallion lit his horn and disappeared. Mel groaned with disgust as Alex offered some words of condolence. "Let him go, he's just another asshole. I'm sure if he had any damn moral code or conscience, he'd check in on us."

While I sat, trying to make myself comfortable on the inadequately sized couch sitting in the lobby, Mel walked up to me and sadly told me as I closed my eyes for a second. "I'm sorry, Nondis. He gave us five minutes before we had to be out of here."

Cliff groaned as he reached back to straighten his dreads down the back of his neck, "Man... They ain't got no maps here, do they?"

"Well we'd ask but the guy who runs the counter is an elitist asshole." Mel replied. "Guess we're on our own."

Alex looked around the lobby and took in the stunning decor the establishment had to offer. "Figures, we should've seen that coming when we walked in the lobby."

Mel looked to me, seeming a bit saddened as she said to the others. "We can't let him walk all the way back to the castle on his own strength with so little rest."

"To be fair, you offered to go back after the first three stops." Cliff stated.

"Yeah, that's on me." I admitted with a tired sigh. "I got a little too overambitious, should've stopped when we were still in walking distance to the castle.

The others looked at each other and gathered together. Mel looked back at me and placed a hand on my shoulder. "We're gonna find a way through this. Even if we can find another hotel that'll take you in for a quick minute, that'll be much better than sitting here for five minutes and running around town like we're new to the place."

"We are new to the place." Cliff stated.

Alex grabbed Mel's hand and pointed towards the door leading outside. "Hey bro, we'll be back in a minute. Just rest up and chill for a minute."

Like I was in the mood to do anything else. "Sure."

The other three promptly walked out of the lobby and started to converse with one another on the sidewalk. One moment, Mel was pointing at someplace to the left, while the other two cringed to indicate their disapproval. Then Alex pointed out another location directly across the street. Mel was caught in thought for a second while Cliff shook his head to state his obvious answer. He then pointed at someplace to the right, which seemed to have gotten some mixed response. He then seemed to explain himself and the other two were quickly convinced. They took their walk to the right while I tried to make myself as comfortable on the tiny couch. I closed my eyes for a brief moment, hoping that their errand wouldn't take too long. I wasn't interested in hearing that douchebag over the counter talking shit again.

But to be realistic, I've probably been here for two minutes. Won't be long before he gets preachy.

I've had my eyes closed for just a little while before I could hear the sound of hooves slowly clopping towards my way. And even though I was uncomfortable as hell, I was already feeling the fatigue drawing me into a light slumber. The hooves got louder and louder, while my eyes got heavier and heavier. The muscles in my face started to relax, I dozed off for a moment before I could barely hear a voice whisper to me.

"Excuse me, sir?"

"Nnnnhhh..." I couldn't even produce a single complete thought, more like incomplete constructs of a incomplete thought, I was so dozed.

The voice called out to me again. "Sir, Mr. Human?"

My dozing spell was finally broken when the sensation of a hoof poking at my arm reminded me of the discomfort I was in. Some parts of me were already starting to indicate that resting here was a bad idea. All of these things made me open my eyes to see a cream-colored mare with a dual-toned cyan mane was looking at me with her matching eyes. The pink and purple flower sticking out of the back of her mane was a solid indication that she was far from one of the workers here. "Oh, I thought you were one of the maids here." I mumbled.

She didn't seem to mind my reaction at all, instead being too invested in curiosity. "Oh wow. You humans are a lot larger than the papers make you out to be."

Not the first time I've heard something like that today. "Yup. Sizes may vary though." I croaked out tiredly.

Already, she was grabbing at my arm, placing my hand on her head with her hooves. As my hand covered much of her face, she gasped with amazement. "Oh wow, she wasn't kidding." She squeaked eagerly.

"Um... what now?" I questioned.

She returned my hand to it's former resting place and cleared her throat. "Oh, excuse me. I just got a little overexcited there. I heard something from a friend of mine and I just wanted to find out for myself. Well myth confirmed, your species is larger than life."

I yawned while I started to sit myself up. "Well, it's nice to meet you too. Though I'm afraid that I haven't gotten a name before you kinda... you know."

The mare started to blush a little as she covered her muzzle. "Oh. I guess an introduction would be appropriate. Coco Pommel, my business partners and associates call me Ms. Pommel, but my friends call me Coco."

You know, it's not many human-like names I get to hear around this universe. I'm genuinely surprised she's got something so normal to hear. I thought about telling her my name, but for fear of inciting a fan-girl episode or a long train of questions pertaining to the incident involving Cadance, I elected to withhold that information. "Well Coco, it's nice to meet you. But I'm afraid that I'll be leaving here pretty soon, as per the instructions given to me by the manager of this establishment."

"Oh, that's terrible. You seem to be pretty tired to get thrown out on the street."

"Yeah, but apparently I'm a 'loiterer' in his eyes."

She groaned with displeasure as she spoke. "Well that's too bad. Maybe if you knew the Captain of the Guard or something, he'd might give you a second thought."

"If only." I said while rolling my eyes.

"Wait!" She exclaimed. "Aren't there only six of you in this world? That means you have to know the captain!"

I chuckled to myself coyly as I answered the unsuspecting mare. "Maybe I do, but I wouldn't want to take advantage of my relationship with him like that. It's a little bit of a dick move."

"No way!" The mare interjected. "You should be able to take advantage of this, I'm sure he would do that for you if he's your friend."

I stood on my feet, woozily gaining my balance before having to kneel to the ground. The crash of my fatigue being so much of a burden that it had literally smacked me back down to the ground. "Ooh.... Haven't felt like that since I've got out of recovery." I mumbled to myself.

Coco walked beside me and grew concerned over my apparent issue of fatigue. The earth-pony mare used both of her forelegs to prop me up a bit more. "Oh no, you can't leave here like this.... Or at least I don't think this is normal for you."

"It isn't." I quickly confessed. "But I gotta get outta here."

While she propped me up still, I watched as her eyes hurriedly look around until they ran down my side. And when they fell low enough, her eyes stopped moving altogether. I looked at her as her jaw fell open. When I tried to identify the focus of her attention, she used a hoof to pull on a corner of my shirt. She then looked at the hemline and squinted cautiously. She looked back up to me and whispered. "This is Andalusian Silk, imported from the outer boarders of Mustangia."

I was completely unaware of whatever she was talking about and merely nodded to agree. "Yeah, I guess."

She then ran her eyes further down the hem and her hooves reached inside my shirt, feeling the textures of the inside of it. Her eyes expanded exponentially as she whispered. "This is her sewing trademark. You've got a sponsor, don't you?"

I blinked wildly in confusion and grew cautious. "Okay Ms. Pommel, maybe it's high time I ask what kind of business you run."

She continued to rummage through my shirt as she answered me. "I do a lot of sewing. I'm a seamstress from Manehattan, my most recent work is with 'Henny of the Hills' production. Originally the job was going to go to somepony way more deserving, but she managed to patch me in her place. I've looked up to her worked with her since." She finally got out of my shirt and started to push me forward towards the counter. "Just follow my lead, and I'll get you a room in this hotel no matter what."

"Really?" I asked as I willed myself to stand through my fatigue.

"Just follow my lead." She said as she and I approached the counter. Her hoof rang on the bell just once before the stallion magically reappeared before our eyes.

"Oh, Miss Pommel, I am sorry about the situation that has occurred. I assure you that we currently have the authorities on the matter." The stallion said before he looked back up at me. Suddenly his tone shifted drastically. "I believe that your five minutes have expired, sir."

She placed a hoof on me as she started to weave her story. "If I may ask, this poor human has a terrible health condition and must find a place to stay for a short while. Surely you have some compassion in you to be able to allow for this human to remain here."

"I don't have an interest in those without the funds to engage in business. I'm sorry, but he cannot stay. That's policy." He said, touting his muzzle in the air and folding his forelegs. His eyes remained shut as he hmph'd at her suggestion.

The mare then looked up at me and then shifted her tone in response. "Well to be honest, he's not just any ordinary human. He also happens to be one of the models for the fashion show this weekend. My associate has an entire line of human wardrobe she's set aside for him to model." The stallion's eyes cracked open as he started to look at the mare. "But for you to deny her of her only human model would bode badly for your reputation.... I suppose the stolen outfit valued at some thousands of bits wasn't enough to put your business in a questionable spot."

DAYUM! She's fucking going at his throat right now. As soon as she said that, his forelegs got loose and his nostrils weren't exactly sitting high-and-mighty anymore. His interest was instantly grabbed as she carried on.

"And then there's also the matter that her fashion show was the main thing responsible for bringing all the big names to your hotel this weekend, including one Sapphire Shores, one Princess Twilight Sparkle, all of the Element Bearers, and many of the highest names in all of fashion. Can you imagine the notoriety, or lack thereof, you'd receive if you were to shun away one of our biggest clients?"

His face quickly went from not giving a damn to visualizing the bad press he'd get from the backlash. Clearly Coco had bought more than his attention. She, however, didn't stop there.

"To be frank, your actions could definitely have us reconsider the terms of our contract. If anything, the breach of security─which your facility was assigned to manage for the course of the week─was severely lacking and resulted in the grand theft of personal property. And if one of your workers were suspected to commit the crime, then it would only be just to postpone the show until a relocation was successful. And whatever advertising your establishment would receive as a result of that would surely reach back to your employer, who I would think would be more than willing to look into the matter of your performance."

At that moment, he was sweating a little more than bullets. He was sweating missiles.

"Oh, and being that this client is her ONLY client for a line that no other brand dares to touch or even knows how to cater towards, that would ultimately hurt a potential outreach to the growing human demographic. That's also a minus for her business, so the losses would ultimately be liable to come out of your establishment based on cause-and-effect."

Those missiles appear to be armed with nuclear warheads now. Without any hesitation, he spoke up. "Okay, okay! If you can verify his status as one of her best clients by bringing her here to confirm personally that this is true, then he can stay in your room! All amenities will be billed under her name, however."

The mare smirked as she responded with a sweetened tone. "Give me five minutes."

That five minutes came and went, suddenly Rarity came trotting down the hall with a bright smile on her face as she saw me standing at the counter. If anything, the sight of me only spurred her to move a little faster. As Coco walked up to the counter with Rarity beside her, the manager looked at me with pursed lips. Rarity quickly spoke up to the manager.

"Oh, well. I do believe this is the upteenth time I've seen you today, dear."

The manager politely nodded his head at the fashionista in reverence. "Ms. Rarity, you are the only thing I wish to please. I was told that this human was actually a client of yours."

"Oh, more than a client, darling!" She confirmed. "He's one of my friends! I'll do anything for him! He's been helping me on my line for a few months since he came out and he even asked me to sponsor him by making him clothes. So I offered that as long as he'd wear them in public for all to see. And he has done so, every single day, religiously, with no complaints. And now he's my number one client who happens to be Captain of the Royal Guard, which I'm not sure if he told you that."

The stallion shrank a little in hearing who I really was. "Oh... so the health issues were legitimate."

"Indeed." Rarity said as she looked at me. "Though I'm really wondering why in Celestia's name is he standing here in the middle of town instead of resting in bed."

The stallion quickly bowed his head in an apology. "I am so embarrassed by my display of ignorance. I should've been more attentive."

Rarity's magic then lifted his chin, causing him to look at her as she fluttered her eyes at him flirtatiously. "My dear, if you have any questions or concerns for my client, I would rather you direct them through me. I will be looking after his well-being and you can get back to managing your business while we carry on as if none of this has ever happened."

The stallion's cheeks ran red as he looked a little flustered. "W-w-well, I can only apologize for─" Before he could continue, Rarity flicked her tail, causing the luxurious indigo locks to whip to one side. The stallion snorted with broadened eyes, almost with military discipline. His whole body seemed turgid while he proudly served the fashionista. "Yes, ma'am. Any further questions will be directed towards you. Would you require anything else today?"

"Nothing at all, dear. Carry on." She said simply, grabbing my wrist and guiding me down the hall. She looked back to Coco and hollered at her. "Oh, and if you do see any more humans, be sure to tell them that Rarity picked up for them so they can take it easy as well."

"You got it!" The young mare said proudly.

While Rarity pulled me to the elevator, I grew a little bit intrigued by her actions back there in the lobby. While the elevator door dinged, indicating that the signal for a pickup was received, I asked her while we waited. "So... that thing you did with your tail."

The alabaster mare giggled lightly. "Yes, what about it, dear?"

"Can I ask what that was about?"

She flicked her tail again, causing it to sway from side to side. "Oh, just a little thing. nothing to worry about."

"I'm not sure if it's something to worry about, but you sure did grab his attention in several ways, I'd like to assume."

She smiled coyly while the elevator dinged one more time, causing the doors to open. "Well, that is a little something I might have purposely done to get him to comply."

Her answer had me raising an eyebrow. "So you seduced him?"

"Only a little. A little bit of a flirt goes a long way, especially with somepony who's been fawning over your for years." She admitted.

"You know him?" I inquired.

"Bell Bottom and I went through grade school together. He had a bit of a crush on me and I thought about entertaining the idea of giving him a chance. Of course I reconsidered when he started spreading word that he and I were set to be an item."

"But you said that you'd consider the two of you dating."

"Consider is the key word here. I then reconsidered when he started saying I was something that I was not."

Ah... so there's some young-blood drama here. "So what's his issue? Seems pretty stuck up for a Ponyvillian."

The doors closed on us as we continued our conversation, Rarity further divulging on his history. "Well, he's been looking to impress me for a while now. Being a manager for an upper-class resort where you'd encounter all sorts of 'someponies' and big names would grab some social interest if he were talking to many other mares."

"But what about you?" I asked.

Rarity puckered her lips as she spoke. "I kinda found interest in larger fish."

"You said you found interest in larger fish, what does that mean?"

She was quiet for a while this time. She didn't even bother pressing the buttons on the panel. She would eventually go on to tell me an answer. "Well let's just say that I'm not unfamiliar to being an escort."

I nodded slowly as I easily summarized what that meant for her. "So you've been around?"

She cut her eyes to me and quietly snarled. "I am not easy, if that's what you're inferring."

"Never meant to say it that way."

She then took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Have you ever heard of something called 'estrus' darling?"

Yeah, bird does what, bee does who. "I've been made aware of it in an insane amount of detail."

"Well in that period, a mare has needs and she needs to find some means of comfort. However, even then I'm very selective. Other than that, I have had very few partners outside of feeling the yearly requirement to mate."

"So if you don't mind me asking, have you had other partners where you've been interested in them for more than sex?"

"Most of those I have never done anything with. Their eyes were on somepony else or that they were not who I was expecting them to be." She said quietly. "The ones I did try to get with for more than that, and inevitably did go a little further than a kiss, they didn't last for long."

"If you don't mind me asking─"

Before I could finish, she already knew what I was going to ask. "If I don't include my bouts with all the estrus seasons, a true few. If I included the heat season, far too many to count... though that's just the testimony of many mares in general."

I wasn't quite sure, but I felt something inside of me fall apart at that answer. It was almost like I was expecting some other answer, something more definite instead of a vague answer I'd get from Mel. It was... odd. "So... where am I on that scale?"

Rarity pressed one of the buttons on the panel and didn't bother looking back at me. She did however speak to me. "Are you really that interested in knowing?"

"Maybe I'm curious." I said cautiously.

She then flicked her tail once more, this time raising it a slight amount as she spoke. "Then answer this. What kind of mare do you think I am? Would you think I'm interested in you for the sex, or would you think I'm interested in you for more than that?"

...If there's ever a such thing as a trap question, that would be it. "That's a pretty tough question to answer."

"Is it?" She asked.

"I feel like if I answer that question, you would either try to prove me wrong or become what I think you to be."

"And I like to keep my interests on their wits, never knowing and always guessing. It's good to keep the interest fresh. What's wrong with that?" She teased.

I leaned back as I rested my head against the wall. "On one side, it's like I want more than just one thing... but on the other it feels like I won't be ready for something like that. Don't get me wrong, I'll go all in if it did ever come out to be something serious, but... I'm still processing what just happened to me. Honestly, I'm scared to say that you've found a place somewhere inside me, an unreachable place, but that's just what it is. From the jump, you've done for me and I'm feeling something that I know is going to cause some hurt... if I ever told you."

"Does it feel like you're being greedy?" She asked.

"It feels like I'm being turned into something I thought I'd never be. And the more I'm exposed to you, the more I feel like I want to explore some possibilities...." Rarity glanced back at me as I pounded my fist against my forehead. "It's so wrong, I never want to take advantage of anyone, especially my friends. And I don't wanna hurt anyone because I'm just feeling giddy at the first moment a girl does for me, it shows that I'm impatient and completely immature. I thought I learned that lesson a long time ago.... Obviously I've got some more growing up to do."

Rarity's magic surrounded my fist, preventing it from knocking against my head anymore. She looked up to me with not a smile, nor a frown, nor a look of indifference. I couldn't really describe the look she gave me. It was only accompanied by her straightening my shirt and smoothing out the wrinkles. "It really seems like you're in need of a friend."

"But we're already friends." I said as the doors open to show an empty hallway.

Rarity, still grabbing my hand in her aura, pulled me along to follow her to her room. "And for right now, that's perfect for what you need. You don't need to worry yourself with 'romantics' and 'going-further-than' in any capacity. All you need to do is breathe and vent your frustrations."

"It feels like I've been venting my frustrations at everyone." I said as we came to a stop in front of a lone-standing door at the center of the hallway.

Rarity summoned a black card with gold runes set at the center in a circular fashion. When she placed the card at the door, the golden symbols glowed white until it became nothing more than a full circle. At it's center, a green flash shone brightly as the door clicked and opened on it's own.

Rarity pushed me through the door, following close behind me while I entered. The door closed behind us with a snap of the tumblers and the curtains immediately opened to reveal a beautiful view of the Canterlot city proper. The streets were so far beneath us that anything that walked appeared to be insects. My eyes wandered around the luxurious suite, taking in all of the accommodations that came along with it, the perfume oils of cinnamon and pumpkin spice, the halfway-consumed bottle of wine, an unopen tub of rocky road ice cream, a fresh set of slippers for hooves, and a shelf filled with classical literary works that included some more... mature titles.

The fashionista walked towards the bedroom. What I heard next was the sound of the beds being moved across the carpet. It took her all but thirty seconds to complete her accommodations for me. When she finished, she then called for me. "Nondis, come in here."

I felt my legs lose strength when I saw the two beds pressed into each other longways. I trudged forward and opened my arms as I was set to dive onto the mattress. But my progress was stopped as the familiar sensation of magic wrapping around my arms pulled them into the air. Next, my shirt was removed off of my chest and I was sat down. Rarity walked in front of me, took off my shoes, my pants, and folded my clothes while I laid myself beneath the sheets.

"The menu for room service is right on top of the nightstand. All you have to do is lift up the flap on the service tube and tell the chefs what you would like. They'll prepare almost anything for you. Just be sure to specify which room it belongs to before you get your meal otherwise they'll be sending up to some other room."

"Got it." I confirmed.

"Now when you wake up, your clothes will be in the chair by the bookshelf, the shower will be available for you to use, and the towels will be waiting on you when you get out. I'll place a 'do-not-disturb' notice on the door so that the maids don't come knocking you out of your sleep."

"Yes mom." I chuckled.

The fashionista continued to hover over me as she whispered. "I'm so glad you're back on your feet. Just try not to be so reckless next time when you go out."

"Sounds like a plan."

She turned my head to face her and gave me a soft kiss on my forehead, lingering there for quite some time before I felt an instinct to close my eyes. "Why don't you go to sleep?" She whispered, causing me to finally leave the world of the woken. My entire body was put to easy while I simply forgot where I was and what I was doing. It was almost siren-like how I was led to this bed, and much like the unfortunate sailors captivated by it's song, I would stay here for quite some time. I didn't want to leave and I didn't plan on going anywhere else. Besides, staying in the castle has given me some ugly nightmares.

...I wonder how long Rarity will be staying here.

Three hours later...

My eyes slowly cracked open as I woke up to the sound of something tapping against the window. Stirring from my sleep, I grunted as I sat up from the comfort of the fine linens and cloud-like pillows. My arms raised themselves and stretched outward while they pleasantly popped and cracked into place. I felt a little tired, but only from the fact that I had just came out of my sleep. Other than that, I was filled with a lot of energy and hunger.

My legs were still slow when I rolled to the edge of the bed, so I had to firmly support myself against it when I stood up. Still hearing the tapping against the window, I walked over to see what it was that was pattering against the glass. I opened the curtains to reveal a pony sitting on a scaffold cleaning the windows of the resort. He stopped momentarily while he stared at the human standing across the glass, his jaw left wide open as he looked up to me. I waved hello, he tilted his hat as he fumbled his squeegee. Afterwards, he seemed excited as he carried on with his job.

I never thought that me waking up in a hotel room would make me look like some sort of celebrity.

*knock knock knock knock knock*

Suddenly, a knock on the door had quickly caused me to turn my attention to the front door. I guess it could be either Rarity, Coco, or room service. If I had to take a guess, it had to be room service sent up by Rarity to drop some food by. It wouldn't come to be a surprise to me if that were the case.

I made my way to the door, my stomach rumbling as I turned the knob. However, my stomach would have to just keep rumbling as I looked down to see a cyan pony with a white mane looking up at me. She wasn't wearing any apron, which clearly indicated that she wasn't working here. So I addressed her as politely as I could. "How may I help you, ma'am?"

She was holding in her hoof the 'do not disturb' tag that hung on the door. She continued to look up at me as Spitfire came from the other side of her. "Rookie, I see you're back on your legs."

I smiled lightly in response. "Guess I got tired of being in a chair, you know I don't like staying put."

After a snicker from her and the brief exchange of formalities, she then slammed her hoof into the ground as she hollered at me. "What the hell are you doing, rookie!?"

More than surprised, I had to rub my ears and make sure that I didn't go deaf. "I was resting for a bit, was a little tired from walking all day and had to recharge. How'd you know where I was?"

"You're not hard to hide." She said as she threw another newspaper on the ground, showing a picture of me, Alex, Cliff, and Mel walking into the hotel lobby. "You're a hot topic, and you're getting the attention of a celebrity because of the princess dumping you and your spat with Cadance. You'd be lucky to even avoid a swarm of paparazzi hanging out at your window."

The two pegasi mares barged into the room as I answered back. "Yeah, not much here except for some guy cleaning the windows of the resort. Seems like a nice dude."

"Oh yeah, I'm sure he is." The other mare stated as she walked into the bedroom portion of the suite. When she entered the room, she quickly drew back the curtain to reveal the same guy I just saw. Only this time, he was holding a camera against the window. After the sudden exposure to another pony, he looked up to see the two mares looking back at him and me standing in the back. He didn't seem to skip a beat as he waved hello to me again, taking another set of pictures.

Spitfire turned to the other mare and ordered. "Fleetfoot, can you take care of that?"

"Confiscate the camera?" She questioned.

"Nah, just take the roll out and expose the film. He can't get anything for a bad roll."

The one named Fleetfoot then darted out of the room, leaving behind only the wind. Spitfire promptly turned to me and folded her forelegs. Meanwhile I was left looking at her like I was confused. "Did I do something wrong?"

The mare groaned as she rolled her eyes. "Please tell me you haven't forgot about the show tonight."

I tapped my chin for a second before I remembered her kicking the cloud yesterday to give me something. It started to come back to me. "Oh shit! When is that?"

"IN FORTY-FIVE MINUTES!" She hollered.

"Forty-five minutes? And you're over here giving me the wake-up call!?" I asked loudly, more astounded that she pulled from the prep of her show to come by.

"Well obviously you weren't showing up on time! As a VIP, it's customary to be in your seats at around an hour before the show. You were not there, nor were you en route."

"Sorry. I didn't know any of this. When were you going to tell me?"

"It said it right on the back of the ticket! Don't you have it on you!?"

I felt around my body, realizing that I had on no clothes other than my boxers. And while Spitfire didn't seem to mind my appearance, I did and ran over to the seat where my clothes were laid and felt around the pockets to see if I could find anything. Confirming what I was afraid to admit, the ticket was nowhere to be found. "Aw shit. I left it in Mel's apartment."

The yellow pegasus roared with dissatisfaction. "Can't I trust you to remember one simple thing?"

Like how you kept calling me anything but my name when we first met? "I'm sorry. It's back in my world, I can't go get it because the palace is like forty to fifty minutes away."

Spitfire temper seemed to have gone on a slow decline as she paced back and forth for a few seconds. Snapping back up, she threw me my clothes and spoke. "You need to get your shit together and get a way down there! After the show, you can stick around for the VIP party, since you're going to be late. Might as well now, since you couldn't even show up on time. There's some important shit you need to know and you need to know it now before all hell breaks loose."

"Wait, I don't even know where this place is!" I argued, trying to hop on one leg in getting my pants on.

"Just hail for a taxi and tell them 'Cloud Bowl' when they show up. Can you manage to remember that!?"

"Yeah, I can manage." I replied as I finally got my pants back on. "But I don't have any bits for fare."

"Let me guess, you spent it all resting in this swanky-ass room, right!?"

"No. A friend managed to get me in here, and she happens to have a fashion show in two days. She got me in here, I didn't even have bits then." I confessed.

The mare facehoofed and sighed. "Okay, whatever. Just use your friend to get you there. You got forty minutes, be in place."

After throwing on my clothes and making my way to the lobby, I was greeted by Rarity once more. She seemed a little upset that I had planned to leave the hotel without spending any time with her or anything, so you can only imagine how miffed she was when she found out that I had to find some means of a fare for the taxi ponies. But she agreed to it, provided that I'd do her a favor for the fashion show this weekend.

She wanted something different the models could walk to, so I agreed to provide the music to the DJ and have a set made for the audience to enjoy as her newest styles were shown to the world. Thanks to our world's technology, I'd pretty much be able to stream any song I wanted to put out. I think I may have a little something she can enjoy. And what's old to me isn't old to them, so at least I've got something easy to do.

Much easier than having to carry her supplies around town like after that one time.

The stallions who gave me a ride were eager to serve her. Then again, she's shown me that she's a bit of a charmer. All she has to do is flaunt her looks a little and any stallion running around town will bend the rules just to get a smile. So she managed to get my fare on the low end─their negotiation, not hers─and I was able to get to the Cloud Bowl with five minutes before the start of the show.

The show went on as planned, carried out as planned, and ended at the time it was scheduled to end. Wasn't really anything perky in terms of being seated in the VIP section other than you getting a good gust of wind from the members of the squadron. But their routine was fun and enjoyable. There were even a few moments where I was concerned if they would be able to pull up in enough time to stop them from hitting the stands, but they can somehow withstand the insane G's of pulling off a ninety-degree turn away from the ground.

I'm sure there's a lot of physicians in our world that would be raising hell over how this is impossible and how these ponies should be good and dead. But after spending so many months here and seeing what I've been seeing, I figured it's best not to ask as any explanation will result in some lengthy equation that will put me back in a math class I so long wanted to escape from.

But if there was one thing that did happen in the show, it was that Spitfire played the horseshoe toss with my head being the post. In the midst of her routine, she successfully landed a VIP pass on my neck and zipped back into the air without me even realizing what the hell had actually happened. The only way I found out was when she stopped later in the show, pulled her googles from over her eyes, and gave me a playful wink.

Honestly, I think she was enjoying giving me some personal entertainment far too much.

When the show ended and all of the fans started to make their way to the exits, one of the members of the Wonderbolts flew down and sat beside me. The pegasus took off her goggles and smiled confidently. "Sup, you remember me?"

The voice sure gave it away. "Um... Footfleet?"

She smirked as she shrugged. "Eh, close enough. I see Spits got you the pass for the after-party at the hotel."

I looked at the pass dangling around my neck. "So do you guys always do stuff like this after every show?"

"Nah. It's the anniversary of the city. So the E.U.P.'s holding a big bash back at the hotel. Usually, the VIP is filled with some pretty high-profile ponies. And it gets even better once the lights go out."

Naturally, I wasn't one to turn down a party or a good time, but something seemed a bit familiar about what she just said. High-profile ponies, I wonder if Alabaster from the city council will be at this one. Or better yet, I wonder if there's going to be any press or photographers there. "Ain't no press involved, right?"

"Nah, the VIP section is in a whole other part of the hotel. It's a much smaller party, but it's where the good shit happens. There's also a bit of a confidentiality agreement we have with everypony on whatever happens in the room, as long as it's not illegal."

"Is this a hotel y'all stay at or visit?"

"We've got the overnight for the party. Of course it's a good way to unwind a bit... if you know what I mean."

Ah, the 'after' of the after-party. "Okay, sounds like fun. Guess Spitfire wants me to show up for obvious reasons."

Fleetfoot stood up from her seat as she whispered. "Oh, she's not the only one."

Fleetfoot and I waited a while before the next taxi arrived. I questioned her on why she didn't fly off to where she needed to go, and she responded by simply pointing out that I didn't know where the hotel was. She had a point, and I wasn't about to say anything to go against it.

When we arrived, I noticed that the place was more or less a three-star resort, a stark contrast to the five-star Sun Cryst. When we walked out, we could already hear the rhythmic bumping of the bass coming from within. Standing at the door was a few bell hops, some security guards, and some guest dressed in some rather skimpy attire. When we passed by, there were two twin mares looking at me with smiles. Each of them waved their hooves in sync with one another.

Three other stallions, obviously party goers, had stopped their conversation and stared while the two of us walked by. Fleetfoot looked at all five and smirked deviously. Her right wing covered my forearm as she guided me inside. Those five quickly turned the other way while the prideful Wonderbolt tooted her tail up high and mightily shook her flank side to side. Apparently, this was another way some mares would stake their claim on something. Or maybe it meant something else, that she was merely putting on a front. I didn't bother to question it while we went along.

The music got even louder, pumping so much bass that even my chest started to feel the blast of the subwoofers. The sounds of synths and sinewaves sent my ears into a syncopated throb. The music was so much that I started to feel myself walking in rhythm to the kick. And as a pair of doors opened and an eagerly excited couple stepped out, I was met with a huge blast of energy and music that it nearly caused me to stumble. I started to pick up my pace and reach the doors that sourced the bombastic sound of bass blasting the foundations themselves.

In the room was a huge gathering of ponies, estimated to be around a good five hundred ponies, all of them dancing wildly and smiling without a care in the world. Those closest to the stage were jumping and pumping their glow sticks in the air like it was a midnight rave. Sweat and the dying scents of perfumes being overran by musk filled the sweltering air. Some were grinding against one another, others were dancing on support beams like stripper poles. The bar was busy and the patrons were good and intoxicated.

For a while, it amazed me that I would see this here in Equestria. But then another feeling started to come up right behind that, nostalgia. It was a while back, but I felt myself being a bit of a wall flower at these venues, that was until I met Melanie. Ever since, I was more active in the dance scene, no matter how bad or uncoordinated I looked. And she'd at least try and get me to practice in the weeks leading up to stuff like this. But when college came around, this kind of stuff started to happen every other weekend.

So it wasn't so much of a 'I remember when I was a kid' nostalgia. But rather a 'this reminds me of back home' nostalgia. Immediately, I forgot I was in a land of equines and offered to throw myself into the madness of not caring. But the feeling against my left arm was that of a wing holding me back from going any further. I looked back to see Fleetfoot still walking, pulling me away from the lively scene. As we walked away, I turned back to see the doors close, muffling the sound of the music and sealing the chaotic scenery within.

We walked for a little bit before we ran into a room with a royal guard standing at the entrance. He looked up at me and nodded, which was an odd and unusual way to greet me. Never have I been so informally addressed, but I figured since we were at a party, it wasn't worth correcting him over. He didn't even stop me, just giving me a quick glance before he opened the door to another room, this one filled with smoke.

Walking into the room, I felt like I was walking into something straight out of a music video. The room was lit red, showing very little in the light but barely making out the faces of the few ponies that were present. A pole in the center of the room with a stool sitting beside it, was one of the first things that grabbed my attention right off the bat. Another thing that grabbed me was the slowed and chopped music playing in the room. The sound was a different tone, being not just mellow, but somewhat erotic. Kicks were deep and methodical while the snare would slap you in places where you'd least expect as well as in the places it rightfully belong.

On one side of the room was a bar with various liquors and toxins, each bottle lit up from underneath by a blue light to create a purplish-magenta glow on the wall. A unicorn stallion with a shortened slick-back mane wiped the counter while two Wonderbolt members sat at the counter. On the other side was an arrangement of tables sitting and facing the pole at the center of the room. Those tables had a few giggles and even some onlookers as we walked in. Others who were in attendance didn't even care about us.

Even as I stood at the biggest thing in the room, I couldn't break one of the Wonderbolts off the lips of a fellow pegasus mare. Audible smacks could be heard as his hoof inched down her back. Her hoof circled the top of his chest, causing him to stir a little as she pulled off of him. The stallion smirked. "So how was that?"

"Ehhh... Three out of five." She said coyly.

"No way Spits is a better kisser than me." He stated adamantly.

"She knows how to use her tongue. You're kinda missing that... that 'umph' factor."

Obviously aroused to the point of revealing himself, he lightly pushed himself onto her and grinned. "Okay, you wanna bet I can get you to jump out of that seat?"

"You can try, but you're not getting any." She said, firmly planting her haunches against the stool she sat on.

"I can try to convince you?"

"You ain't fucking me, okay?"

"It ain't even gotta be like that. I'll just do a little something for you."

"Like what?"

"You said Spits got a better tongue than me, right?"

"Oh... you wanna convince me that much."

"You scared?"

"You ain't shit, Soarin."

"Two-hundred bits, I can't make you cum on this table tonight."

The mare bit her lips and looked down as she wiggled her hips in her chair. Her tail swished from side to side as her hips continued to rock in the chair. "I'm might give you a head start."

*WAP*

My body seized up as the sensation of a wing slapping me in the ass quickly grabbed my attention from the tables. Looking down, I could see Fleetfoot giggling at me through her shades. The mare rubbed up against me seductively as she teased me. "Oh, so Mr. Human can get hot and bothered?"

Suddenly, I felt myself blushing and fumbling my words as I tried to find an excuse as to why I was GENUINELY INVESTED in seeing the two Wonderbolt members having a go at each other. I was even subconsciously holding my arms over my crotch to hide the fact that I was sporting a flag at half-mast. "I been to some parties, but I didn't know ponies got down like this."

"You're a complete rook. I dunno what those Ponyville girls do at their parties, but it ain't just cupcakes and cheap phonographs playing crappy music." She said, pulling my arm once more to guide me to one of the tables in the back. "Now sit right here, I'll be right back."

She quickly trotted away to the bar, seemingly to grab a few drinks. While the barkeep ran through his bottles and stirred up his concoctions, she and he proceeded to strike up some conversation. As they were doing that, I snuck my glance back to the table where the two ponies were going at each other.

The mare, once proudly stating that she wouldn't move from her seat, hopped onto the table and let her tail dangle from off the edge. The stallion licked his lips while his hooves ran up her hindlegs. The mare waited anxiously as he kissed her belly, moving further and further down until he pulled off from her and chuckled at the flustered mare. She appeared to show some signs of frustration over his speed, or lack thereof. But he didn't pay her no mind. To him, it was more of a game of anticipation, something he had already won when he had her wiggling in her seat. And it showed that he was doing more than enough to get her fired up, he blew into her haunches, kissing the soft virgin flesh leading to the main attraction.

I couldn't see much from my point of view, but I saw his head press inward. In response, I saw hers fall back, her wings spreading out as she laid on the table. As I sat in my seat, I placed myself in such a position to tend to the growing interest I started to develop in the scene playing out before me. Trying my best to appear disinterested, I placed my chin into the palm of my hand, resting my elbow in my lap. While I caught glimpses of the two, I felt myself twitch in response. My elbow provided more than enough resistance to entice me to flex myself. My right inner thigh grew warmer as I kept my show of excitement to a minimum.

"Enjoying the debauchery, I see."

The voice that suddenly rang beside me started me so much that I reached for my waist to pull out a gun that I didn't have. My eyes focused in on the face of the individual standing beside me. But even the low red lights couldn't hide that much blond. "Blueblood, is that you?"

"I see you've made a few waves the past few days. Color me impressed."

"He's obviously making waves in his pants." Another voice pointed out, this time from the other side of me.

I looked down to realize that I completely abandoned my efforts to try and hide how interested I was in one pair's particular brand of conversation. Still twitching with excitement, I ended up showing just how aroused I was to a hooded stallion. Suddenly, a small knife was levitated to where I had so eagerly showed my enthusiasm. On the hilt of the blade was a familiar glow of magic. I looked up to see a horn lighting up the face of the stallion who stood before me as he removed his hood.

"We need to have a conversation about this shit you pulled with my wife, a LOOOOONG.... conversation."

Author's Note

"Well hell, now that Madi Gras is over, I can get back to writing."
*realizes he had 18K words already in place*
"Okay, well I guess I can go on ahead and finish this up real quick─"
*Writers block ensues*
"...Fuck, lost my train of thought."
*Overwatch ensues*
"Shouldn't I be doing something right now─FUCK YOU JUNKRAT, SPAMMING FUCKTARD!"

And with all of that, I am led back here. Rehearsals and engagements have kept me busy for a good portion of January and February. And now I'm starting to take more time to thoroughly make sure I don't hit ctrl+w and erase my progress when I go to hit ctrl+s (which has happened twice now and I've had to rewrite up to 4k words (tell me how fun that is). But onto the story.

The chapter is pretty much a cool-down and insight into some character aspects. There are also parts that give you a more in-depth of some of the issues that hides deep inside the MC's closet. Now as for the walking part, it was always to be expected considering that he was hopped up on magical spells that his recovery process would be expedited far more than what would be considered reasonable. But if you go back to two certain chapters, you might get a little something extra on what's to come.

I know the pacing in this chapter was a bit slow, but I can assure you that it will start to make sense as time goes along on why I did all of this. But now I need to get started on next chapter, and with this one, I'm placing a hard deadline on it to finish within 4 weeks or less. I feel like I'm about to go on one of my old marathons (where I wrote chapters every 2 days). Hope the IRL thing doesn't sit me down and tell me to slow it down this time.

Thank you for reading this far and if you're willing to go further, I'll see you guys in 4 weeks max.

Chapter LXXI

It's not that I was so tense that I felt like anything I did would've resulted in some damage to myself, it was the fact that I know the one holding this knife can put out so much that magic would be virtually useless in trying to 'grow' it back. And that's something I'm not willing to wager or find out. So I remained calm and quiet as Shining stood over me with a grimace, holding a knife to my dick.

I guess I should've taken Mel's warning a little more seriously.

"Shining, I know you're upset. But can I please get a word in?" I quietly asked.

His face then turned to confusion as he tilted one of his ears to my direction. "I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the music. You said you wanna start singing?"

"I SAID LET ME TALK TO YOU, DAMMIT!" I screamed, temporarily falling into a state of panic before I cleared my throat and corrected myself. "There's two sides to this."

"I'm well aware. But why should I care about what you say when you've put your hands on my wife?" He said vehemently. "First, you diddle around with my sister. Second, you get her in trouble. Third, the two of you break up. And lastly, you decided to go after my wife. You two might not agree with one another, but I'll be damned if you ever touch her again. You've got a lot of balls, I'm starting to think you got a little too much for your good."

"Trust me, I think I've got enough." The knife inches up to my pelvis, tapping me directly between each testicle. My toes curled up tightly as my hands balled up into fists, ready to take whatever opening I could find. The muscles in my arm tightened as I felt a strong need to punch his lights out before I suffered any further long-lasting harm. I looked at him as he stared at me cautiously. The whole situation turned into a Mexican standoff between me and him, one I wasn't going to lose.

"Annnnnnnd... SCENE!" Blueblood shouted out, causing me to flinch a bit.

Shining retracted the blade and quickly started laughing. Meanwhile, I was too busy trying to catch up on the much needed oxygen I deprived myself of for the past thirty seconds. While Blueblood started to laugh as well, Shining slapped my shoulder and sat beside me. "Ah, you should've seen the look on your face... OH WAIT, I GOT IT!"

Shining then pulled out his phone and started showing me some playback of what occurred just moments ago. Obviously I was tense as hell, but I didn't imagine that I'd look like my life was on the line, like I was genuinely scared. But that's how it looks in the eye of an indiscriminate source. The stallion not only prided himself in his ability to use human technology, but also getting me to buy into one of the biggest feints he ever pulled.

I shook my head angrily. "You're about to lose so many teeth."

Blueblood finished laughing as he waved at Fleetfoot. "Okay you two, settle down. We've got other things to plan aside from childish pranks."

That 'childish prank' was going to have some very adult responses if it had gone on any longer. Needless to say I was not amused. The two stallions settled down and then started their conversation. "Well now that phase one has shown more than it's fair share of fruit, I suppose we should start gathering our resources and move on to phase two." Blueblood said.

Shining, who was still messing with his phone, responded. "I'm hoping that Cadie has less of a role in this one."

"Only the fact that she needs to continue disliking our curious friend here."

"Should I also show some public animosity as well, to make things seem more convincing?" Shining asked.

"If anything, that would be perfect. The two of you have had more than one feud so it would be more than believable if it were to continue in the eye of the public. After all, I'm sure he'd agree that your previous performance was nothing short of award-winning."

I turned to Shining. "Now correct me if I'm wrong, but did you just say that you were in on this?"

"If I wasn't, I would've came after you in your sleep." He bluntly explained. "You know what I can do."

Yeah, I've seen it for myself in gory detail. And then there's the whole 'unicorn capable of using a gun' thing that could easily get me killed. I definitely need to watch my ass going forward. "Well if anything, I'd like to apologize to you because I know that's kinda crossing the line in the 'man-code' thing. Touching another man's wife is a big no-no."

Shining shrugged and pointed his phone in the direction of the table where the two Wonderbolts were giving much of the audience a show. "You honestly think I'm heated over that? Sure I'm upset, but I know what had to be done. Touching her is still off-limits and that's a big no, but the other stuff, the arguing, the back-and-forth, I'm fine with it. Besides, she let the two of us have our outing, I think it's fair that you two should have yours."

"But don't plan on fighting her." Blueblood warned. "It's not so much of her way with a sword that'll do you in, but rather her craftiness in combat magic."

"Is she that bad?" I asked.

"How long do you think you can live while being encased in crystal?" Shining questioned. "Under most pretenses, she'd use that spell to stop her opponents, but then she's lenient enough to leave a few air holes for you to breathe through. All she'd have to do is take those away and... yeah."

"And then there's the whole summoning crystals from the ground thing, she's really good at catching you off guard with that. You'd sooner find yourself impaled than touching her again." Blueblood added. "So a 'no holds barred' would only be a definite death flag for you."

"Especially how pissed she is right now. You should've seen her in the morning a few days back, Chrysalis pissed her off when she went to interrogate her and Cadie's been nasty since. Smart thing to do is to feed the lion, but not using your own limbs." The young prince warned.

"Basically, don't talk to her directly." I clarified, earning a nod from the both of them.

"Also..." Shining continued. "I know a lot of issues between you and Twily have come on the end of Cadance suggesting some restrictions."

"As far as what I know, she's trying to play the role Celestia had with you when you were in your waiting period with Cadance." I said. "I caught wind of that when I saw Celestia chewing her out the day Twilight made our breakup public."

"We all know what happened. We were there." Blueblood said with a pout.

"Didn't you walk out on us when that happened?" Shining asked.

"Well wouldn't you show some frustration after having things laid out and set in place, only for something major to break up your initial plan? I had a process laid out for everypony, but now that's changed and there's no point in discussing it."

"So you've called us both to salvage what you had lined up." I stated as I noticed through the corner of my eye the couple on the table getting a little restless with their performance. The stallion's head was forced into the mare's haunches as her chest rose and fell quickly, her head tossed back as her back arched inwards. Her eyes shot open as she stopped moaning altogether, waiting for a few seconds before a loud grunt sounded through her teeth.

Blueblood also took notice and leaned back to enjoy the show. "Pretty much the case. Those two sure are ambitious."

Shining scoffed as he used the phone to record the two. "Hell, it'll be a while before I get any from Cadance with how out of it she's been. I might as well get some material for later tonight."

Yeah, he's definitely learned how to implement the exploitative nature of a camera phone. Thank goodness Equestria doesn't have internet. "Yeah, those two have been at it for a while. I'm just watching to see if she lets him jump her off."

"Twenty bits, she lets him but they take it to a room first." Shining said.

"Thirty says they won't make it out the room." I said.

"Fifty says they'll break that table when it's all said and done." Blueblood said.

"Seventy-five says Soarin will last less than five minutes from now." The three of us looked up to the left, seeing Fleetfoot balancing three drinks on her right wing. She slanted her wing, allowing the three glasses of whiskey to slide onto the table. After, she grabbed her own drink and slid herself between me and Blueblood. From there, she leaned up on the chair and smiled. "I expect my money before you guys leave the hotel."

"I don't have any money on me." I pointed out.

She didn't seem bothered by my confession, only taking a sip from her glass. "I know you're broke. That's why I got something else planned for you if you lose."

"What's that? Scrub the toilets, mess hall duty, guard watch for six hours in a dark hallway?"

The mare looked up at me and tapped me on my side. "Let's just say that Spits put me on to you. Ever since she told me that story of you in Arimaspi Mountain, I knew I wanted to see just how much you can handle."

...Oh no, not this again. "And this is Spitfire's idea?"

"You, me, Spits, ten minutes each."

I looked back to Shining, trying to change the subject. "So, about this plan, what's up next?"

Fleetfoot interjected in his place. "You're gonna want some favor with the higher ups of the ranks. And I mean more than just him. You've got a lot of seasoned minds and peppered manes wondering how the hell you qualify for the position."

"Yet no one assigned to my units die." I argued. "That seems like an unfair assessment."

"You'd think that, right? But here's the thing." She went on to explain. "All of the ones who call foul are the main ones who secretly buddy up with members of the parliament in promise of some political doors to open for them. And you already know that we don't get paid nearly enough other than a moderate yearly wage."

"But these guys at the top should be loaded, right?" I asked. "They've been around for years, they've got the rank to match the paycheck."

"But after retirement, which happens in the late-thirties to mid-forties, what's next?" She asked. "If anything, you're just as good as some bum on the street in the grand scheme of things. It's even worse when you've spent over thirty to forty years of service to crown and country, only to leave and get nothing out of it other than a few shiny medals and a hard time trying to fit back in to civilian society."

That's the least of their worries if they've been through some nasty situations like I've been in. It's a valid point of concern and I can not only speak from the experience of going through it myself, but also from watching my grandfather suffer through his PTSD. And if there's no structure in place for those leaving the service, then it's hard to pick back up where you left off before enlisting. It's becomes a strange world. "No doubt that's a hard thing to do. But why take it out on me?"

"Because they want a landing spot for when they get out." Blueblood stated taking a sip of his drink. "They want some place to belong. And if they play favors with the ruling party, they'll get whatever they want. Money, power, drugs, a nice place to retire, land rights, you name it."

"Meanwhile I'm just some wet-behind-the-ears rookie. So what can I do to convince them?" I inquired.

Blueblood chuckled lightly as he stirred the content of his glass. "I'm sure the words 'I believe that we will win' will ring a bell."

"I'm sure the words 'A seven nation army couldn't hold me back' would also do a lot to grab their attention." Fleetfoot added.

Shining then added. "And you've had that monster tirade you pulled off in front of the parliament when you got back from capturing Guto and his assistant. If anything, you can find something to say that would convince them."

...Apparently my speech to the troops had gotten out by word of mouth, I'd assume. Regardless, I'm still left with a situation that brings up far more questions than solutions. "And you want me to somehow talk smoke up their ass so they'd switch teams?"

"It does seem like a good place to start, having the support of the entire E.U.P. and a few politicians." Blueblood responded casually.

I sat back in my chair and pondered on the situation. As of the moment, the only thing that's standing in my way are the politicians. And if they're insinuating that these higher-ups are just playing nice to get some extra benefits, then maybe it goes beyond Count DuMoneé. Perhaps he's got some sort of syndicate he's working with that's hard on keeping things locked in place. And if I remember correctly, Shining was sent off on a deployment similar to mine just a few years back and Count wasn't involved with that as directly as he was with me.

In short, I'd be no better off cutting off the head of a hydra. It'll be a battle of attrition on our part, we'll get our guy, they swap up, rebound, attack, and it's back to square one. If we were to direct our attention to the higher-ups trying to buddy up, then... "That's all pointless." I quietly concluded.

"Why?" Fleetfoot questioned as the others looked back at me oddly.

"Think about it. You want me to convince some guys in the higher ups to change their mind when their conservative mindsets have already been long established and their bank accounts already filled? We're not talking about 'new money' here, those guys are trying to get in where they fit in. We're talking about a bunch of guys who's been getting the support of the wealthy or influential. And these guys have been like that for a substantial amount of time, even for longer than they would've breathed on this earth."

"If you're planning on attacking the highest of the upper crust of society, then I can only sell you the bridge leading out of town." Blueblood stated.

"We don't need to go after them directly." I clarified. "Just the proxies they have in place that hold all the cards. These are individuals who have founders, backers, brokers, lobbyists, loyalists, hard assets, liquidated assets, depreciables out the wazoo, even off-shore accounts, private agents overseas, mercenaries, and votes. We're talking politicians here."

"So you're suggesting we bypass the corruption in the higher ranks?" Shining questioned.

I held up my hand and wiggled each of my fingers as I spoke. "You don't cut off someone's finger and expect them to not retaliate. I though my exercise in the garden was a way to network and find some means of getting in on the grapevine. So I tried to treat it as such. One of the city council members don't like politicians, I can start with him and his circle of business owners and entrepreneurs."

Blueblood rubbed his chin and hummed cautiously. "The thing about playing with circles is that you're going to have to get in through mutual associates. You may have been a topic of interest for that individual, but how are you going to get yourself in with the others?"

I took a sip of my drink and smiled. "That's it right there. I have one already. This guy by the name of Fancy Pants is the one other guy I can use to get in. Alabaster is the guy on city council I talked about, he and I share similar ground so I plan on using his influence to get me in a more favorable position. Whether he realizes it or not, city council is low-level politics and I can sure use some under-the-table city backing to get some dirty work done to clean up the much from the inside."

"And this Fancy Pants?" Shining questioned.

"He and I share a mutual of our own, Rarity. Happens to be that we met three months ago, before I even got in the service."

The young prince nodded with approval. "So you've got a guy in the fashion circle and another in city council. Not a bad start to give you an opportunity to get you a lobbyist or two."

Fleetfoot snickered as she waved off Shining's praise. "Grassroot politics is nice and all, but you need to start with something that's gonna have your back if you wanna take these things seriously. Say if these other parties don't agree with your direction and they decide not to fund your cause. Or in the case of some of the larger owners, they have international interests to take into account, so if word of them gets out backing some sort of underground political movement, then they're in deep shit, their business is in deep shit, and you're shit out of luck."

"You have any suggestions?" I inquired.

Fleetfoot shrugged with a light giggle. "I can't believe you didn't notice the ones that's been rallying and calling for you the entire time you've been captain. You sure need to show them a bit of love after all the things they're trying to get passed in your name. Try that 'Hooves For Humans' organization. It's a bit small, but I heard the head chair is pretty loaded."

Hooves for Humans, I know I heard that somewhere. It feels like I heard that from somebody. Oh well, not questioning it. "How much is pretty loaded?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"Loaded as in they own like twenty percent of the properties in all of Canterlot, five percent in Cloudsdale, seven percent in Manehattan and fifteen in Las Pegasus. And a lot of the property in Canterlot's notorious zones like Restaurant Row, Spa Central, Haberdasher Haven, Antique Aisle, and even some places in Cloudsdale like the illustrious Rainbow Road, if you wanna purchase or rent anything empty on the block, it's gonna have their name on it."

"That seems like a good place to start." I said, reconsidering my earlier option. "I might have to check them out first."

"But then you have to think about what they might want in return for their service." Blueblood warned. "Hooves for Humans isn't quite an organization as much as it is a fan club. You might find yourself to be in the service of some uncanny individuals. If their demands appear to be unsettling in any way, better to pull yourself out before it gets... interesting."

"I don't think it's that bad." Shining suggested. "If anything, they've been pretty defiant of the decisions politicians made to put you in compromising situations. This could actually work for you if you know how to negotiate."

Fleetfoot quickly interjected her feedback. "Oh, and to correct Prince Blueblood, they pretty much put in the work to become an organization. It's small, probably got around forty mares in it, but it's gonna get big when you get directly involved."

I turned to Fleetfoot and pointed at her mockingly. "You seem like you'd wanna join up with them yourself."

"Well lets just say that I've been to a meet-up or two." She answered with a shrug. "You get in on this, and you're gonna get some pretty big bucks."

If there's a thing I can learn from my world, having a major property owner backing your cause in any movement is going to get you much further than a march down the street with a few random supporters, gaining a supposedly sympathetic 'We hear your pain' speech from a politician who's special interests only lies in the money. If this is my quickest route for funding, then I can't really refuse. "I'm in."

Fleetfoot smiled brightly as she nudged me in the side with her wing. "I knew you'd be smart about something."

"Well I do have my moments." I said, not ignoring her shaded insult. "Now in what way am I not smart?"

Shining snorted as he held a hoof over his muzzle and looked to the side. Blueblood replicated the action and looked to the opposite side. Fleetfoot continued to smile a bit before a loud smack caught all of us off guard.

"I SAID NO, ASSHOLE!"

Our eyes turned to the two Wonderbolts on the table. While Soarin was holding his cheek, the mare shoved him off and angrily slid off the tabletop. The stallion then retorted. "Can you at least pay me for the bet?"

"Check in the mail, now fuck off!" She hollered, pushing her way past the turgid stallion.

"C'mon, you can't leave me like this." He pleaded desperately, trying to walk beside her. "I gotta get something."

"You smell that stuff all over your face, use that for inspiration, and wing it out." She replied with a tout of her nose. "Not like you're above self-service anyways."

"Please!?" He begged, running in front of her, kissing her hooves in an attempt to find some form of relief.

She then knocked his head back, causing him to fall onto his back. With his limp hooves, he looked at the mare standing above him with a scowl on her face. She gritted her teeth with disgust as she unfurled one of her wings and folded the feathers with the exception of her most prominent one. She noticed the stallion had already flared tremendously, his length throbbing against his stomach. Her feather planted in between his two swollen dark orbs and slowly traced up the center. The stallion grimaced as her feather moved agonizingly slow up until halfway. Then without warning, she flicked the remainder of the stallion's girth, causing him to grunt loudly. While he was heaving enormous breaths under pressure, she looked ahead and walked over him while whispering. "You are disgusting."

The stallion laid on the ground while the mare walked out of the room, feeling more than satisfied with what she received and also annoyed by the individual she left behind. The stallion then let out a small whimper as his mast stood on it's own, twitching once before a thin stream of his seed cascaded onto his stomach. With a last-ditch effort to savor his peak, he summoned both hooves to task, stroking himself as the river of seed coated his stomach and much of the floor he laid on.

Although his release was achieved, his efforts to break the plane of climax fell short. And it showed in his motions that he was unsatisfied, he was quick to remove himself from the ground afterwards and showed a look of defeat. His eyes looked at the white puddle slowly soaking into the carpet as others at the bar called out to him.

"Hey Soarin, I heard some chicks in the Lower are running the block tonight." One heckled.

"Maybe they can get you off right this time." Another joined in.

The bartender soon joined in the fun. "Hey, how's bout a drink on me!? One 'Sex-on-my-Face' cumming right up!"

"FUCK ALL OF YOU!" The stallion shouted as he quickly stormed out of the room covered in his own seed. The room erupted with laughter as the doors closed once more.

The four of us were sitting in the corner giggling like the rest as Blueblood wiped a tear from his eye. "I pity him, at least I know when to quit."

"I wonder who's cleaning up after that. That's gotta be hard to remove all the way." Shining said with a chuckle.

"All I know is I'm not stepping in that." I stated strongly.

Fleetfoot placed a feather on my chin as she snarkily replied. "I know this much, that was a grand total of three-minutes and forty-seven seconds from the time we made our bets. And he's busted a pretty terrible one, but it's a bust regardless. Pay up, boys."

Both royal princes rolled their eyes as they summoned their pouches and started counting out the bits. I could only plant my hand over my face as she collected her dues. After they finished with the payout, she stood on the table proudly and smirked just inches away from my face.

"Now... about your payout options."

With much of our briefing out of the way, Fleetfoot didn't bother wasting any time with getting me out of the V.I.P. lounge. She did run me into a few of her acquaintances and cadets before dragging me up to the top floor of the hotel. After unlocking the door, shoving me through, putting a 'do-not-disturb' notice on the knob, and closing the door, she pounced on my chest with the intention of driving me to the ground. Though I stumbled terribly to keep my balance, I only managed to plant my back against the wall.

She, however, was more than eager to get me in a more compromising situation. While I tried my best to keep her from getting to frisky, I tried to get her to calm down, even changing the subject to long-winded discussions of nothing to distract her overboiled sex drive from getting the better of her, and me for that matter.

"Fuck, you humans are strong as hell." She said as she grabbed my shirt, trying to drive me to the ground again.

"I'm only as strong as Celestia's passion to... uh... indulge in ice cream?" As you can tell, I'm not very good at trying to diffuse a ticking sex bomb. Still doesn't stop me from trying to find a way to shut this thing down. "Yeah, so I like ice cream. What kind do you like?"

"Any of a nut variety." She replied eagerly.

That was a bad topic, let's try something else. "So I heard about the things that are implied by a cutie mark. We humans don't have anything like that in our world, so would you carefully explain in a twelve-page essay how this concept came to be and how it's applied in modern society?"

"Oh, so you like roleplaying, huh?" She inquired, trying to do whatever she could to take my shirt off. "I don't mind being your tiny little pony student."

Fuck, I thought taking Twilight's boring method of learning would try to drag her down. I know what else I can try. "So, what's up with Soarin? It seems like he's the hot topic of debate around you guys."

"He has a weird fetish for degrading himself to nothing more than a lesser being. Spits seem to got him locked in that shit after one night with her." She simply explained as she fumbled around with the buttons on my shirt.

"So you mean to tell me that shit he just got through doing on the ground, he actually likes that shit!?"

She shook her head. "Nah, he's into the whole busting-a-nut-in-mares-without-contraceptives thing. Gotten himself caught up three times already by some local mares around here."

If those three are who I think they are... "Oh... Small world."

"I swear if I could get a bit for every time he told some poor mare 'I can pull out in time, trust me, I know what I'm doing', then I'd be retired."

Well I'm glad we've hit a topic of ire, now we can expand on it. "Holy hell, he must've gotten so many mares pregnant."

"Hey, can you get a mare pregnant?"

So much for swapping the subject to a topic of ire. Might as well lie. "Oh, please! I get mares pregnant like crazy. My hormones are so wild that I knock up dragons!" I lied through my teeth. "We're talking quadruplets, quintuplets, whole litters. If you had two humans of the different sexes, you'd be dealing with an infestation!"

A sinister smile cranked her cheeks high up on her face as she leaned against me. "That must mean you've got spunk for weeks. Oh I can't wait till estrous season, then you can fuck me full of fillies!"

That went nowhere, I've seen perpendicular nosedives go further than that. Maybe I need to cut the crap and man up. "Lady, look. With all things considered─"

"So where do you humans hide your junk!? You're always wearing clothes, just adds to the mystery honestly, like why is your species so damn provocative!?"

"I'm not interested." I bluntly called out, but to little success.

"You lost a bet, so now you've gotta up and give me what I wa─"

I emphasized my point by grabbing her muzzle and pulling her down to where I could butt heads with the mare. "My. Dick's. Not. For. Sale."

While she still smelled strongly of whiskey and musk, I could see the drastic change in her mood. Her eyes shimmered for a second before they turned away, appearing upset. "...So that's what you're gonna tell them?"

"Tell who what?" I asked.

The mare sighed as she climbed off of me, rolling her eyes as she used my chest to support her ascent. "...Look. You're in a position to get whatever you want. And you ain't got no change to be giving out either. If I were you, I'd stop being a total virgin and get with the program."

I politely moved her hoof off of my chest before she left an imprint under my shirt. "I'll say it again, my dick ain't for discussion."

"Well you better drop that idea or you won't be getting paid." She warned, tapping me on the nose. "These are the higher ups of Canterlot's social and financial hierarchy. If you ain't dancing for them, you ain't getting no coin."

"So this Hooves for Humans thing is a bunch of mares looking to get their jungle fever looked at, am I right?" I questioned, still feeling the mare's hoof pressed slightly against my nose.

"They've gone to bat for your kind more than once already. And with the past few weeks, you've been getting a hot stream of donations from their inner circle to help mitigate the cost of your medical expenses. Ignoring them is a quick way of losing your only road to achieving your agenda."

"And you think I can't get a train back to Arimaspi Mountain to drag some gold back for that same reason?" I asked as I folded my arms.

"That's cute if you think you can do a trip like that twice." She rebutted.

"I've been there, grabbed the goods, and came back twice as it is. What's gonna stop me on a third visit?"

She laughed condescendingly at my statement. "So you getting hospitalized ain't enough for you to understand that a third visit in unmarred territory is gonna kill you? You think that you can go solo on a full combat operation just a few days out of the hospital? I didn't think you were that stupid."

"So what am I supposed to do? Lay on my back and just take it?"

The mare shrugged as a knock sounded at the door. She spoke as she walked towards the door. "What's cheaper than sex?" When she cracked the door open, a stallion appeared with a bottle of champagne leaning in a bucket of ice. Quickly, she grabbed the items, gave him a tip, and slammed the door behind her. Then she focused her attention back to me. "I think you're looking at this from the wrong direction. I get you wanna save yourself for your princess..." Her statement was followed with a scoff. "Which I think is ridiculous, cause if she was so in love with you, she'd let you rut every mare you'd meet, knowing it was gonna be a long wait for you, and it would've been fairer on your end if she didn't have any issues with you getting a night or two with some other mare to pull some of that stress off of you, but that's none of my business."

I merely tilted my head with an unamused expression as she veered off topic.

"Where was I?" She questioned briefly before snapping back on subject. "Oh yeah, the sex thing. Look, you ain't gotta sit in no chair, bound and gagged against your will, waiting for some crazy bitch to slit your throat with a knife just so she can bathe in your blood while she masturbates."

"I'm not feeling convinced by any metric at this point." I quietly deadpanned.

"But if you think about it, giving them the goods is what could give them a new lease on life, a whole new unexpected chapter to a story long written and long drawn out. You'd be better off just offering the sex for the cause."

I shook my head as I strongly responded. "I'm not interested. First you had my attention when you said this person owned x-amount of property. But now I'm more or less willing to try things at my own pace."

"Your pace will take months, almost years." She responded. "If you were all-in for this cause like you say you are, you'd take the quickest way."

"I'm not really trying to prostitute myself like this. I get it, I'm a hot commodity, but I should be worth more than that." I responded.

"A piece of you would go for an actual twenty-thousand bits easy, if you wanna be literal." She said, causing me to do a double take at her. "I mean your arm's probably a good several hundred thousand, your leg is short of a million, your brain is probably a cool ten million in good condition. But that's according to the markers down in the southern quadrant. And then we're not even talking about the resale market to scientific researchers on the low."

If I didn't feel like taking a piss earlier, I sure as hell did now. "I'm sorry... what?"

"The whole head is around five million for every pound. Lots of dark magic practitioners who'd be more than interested in getting some company on those quiet, lonely nights of not trying to reanimate corpses."

...Um... "Excuse me, whaaaaaaaaa─"

"It's safe to say Hooves for Humans aren't looking to do any of that. And if anything, they're looking at some laws regarding some basic protections for your species beyond being a 'protected species'." She finished.

I took a deep breath and asked her again. "So they're trying to help me, without my interference already. Wouldn't they do this as well?"

"Not if it benefits the princesses, who they're not a fan of since you were announced to be engaged. I'm sure their fandom of them is not so good either, you know with the public breakup and all."

And taking into consideration a recent confrontation I had with Cadance, it wouldn't be surprising if they didn't want anything to do with that. But I'm still gonna try to at least get a few bits... I'm just worried that this will lead to some strange prostitution ring. "If I consider a meeting with these ponies, can it be assured that this will go no further than a day at the park or something?"

"I'm sure it won't be anything more than some setup for the estrus season, which to us mares is payment and a half. At least you'll have a whole eight months to disappear before that happens."

I'm not one who usually goes back on my word, but if it's to avoid some raunchy business with a group of overstimulated strangers capable of magically altering anything on my body, I would take my chances. "Tell you what, I can think about that now that you've given me a loophole. But I'm not really looking to do anything like that until I am ready." As if I'll ever be.

"Sweet!" She called out while pumping a hoof in excitement. "Now, we've got the wine, we've got some music going, we can cut the lights low, and you can lay on the bed and let me─"

"Masturbate while I sleep in the other room." I coldly responded. "Goodnight!"

The mare slammed her hoof into the ground as she hollered at me. "You are so FUCKED when you wake up in the morning!"

"Don't jump me, I'm celibate!" I called out before walking to one of the other rooms, closing the door, and pulling the covers over my head.

As she groaned disparagingly in the other room, I was shifting around underneath the sheets. It was never normal for me to go to sleep while fully dressed as it was rather uncomfortable, but I knew if I wanted to protect myself from any of her advances, I would have to keep them on. At least then I would be able to tell if she was getting too frisky for her own good.

Forcing myself to close my eyes, my mind recounted the recent events. A lot had ran through my mind pertaining to the possible deals I would be making with these organizations and council members to achieve my goals. But that was a fleeting topic compared to the more vivid retelling of the two ponies being so close to having sex on the table. Just the sight of her grabbing the stallion's head as she climaxed in his face, the aftermath of him writhing on the ground as he helplessly unloaded all over the floor, the advancements Fleetfoot made at me just then, the thought of her masturbating in the other room...

...Dammit, now I'm gonna be sleeping through a massive hard-on in my jeans. As if my balls aren't blue enough.

3 A.M. in the Morning...

My phone vibrating in my pockeet was the first thing that woke me up. While I was successful in forcing myself to sleep, I was not a happy camper waking up. I was grouchy, angry, frustrated both emotionally and sexually, and sweaty due to the heavy-ass clothes I slept in. It didn't help that they had the heater units running because of the season change, so I was waking up a damp rag trying to flop my way out of the suite. Didn't have time for a shower because I knew that if I had stayed any longer than I needed to, I'd run the risk of waking up Fleetfoot.

"Nnnngh..."

The sudden groan caused me to sharply turn my attention to the bed on the other side of me. As I locked my eyes onto the disheveled fiery mane sleeping in the bed next to me, the mare mumbled in her sleep. "Watch both ways when crossing the runway, rookie..."

Spitfire seemed quite peaceful while she slept, all the better motivation to get my ass moving.

With no chance to hit the showers, I smoothly climbed out of my bed. And even as I did, I ended up seeing that same mare from earlier this evening sleeping right beside me in the same bed I was in. She seemed satisfied in more ways than one, so no point in bothering. I quietly grabbed my shoes, my phone, and my other belongings and tiptoed out the door. And even as I tiptoed to the suite exit, Fleetfoot was sitting on the couch. Apparently she was passed out from drinking, and the strong musk in the air clearly indicated that she was put out by more than just the alcohol.

I wasn't gonna risk being loud, so I slowly opened the door, put all my stuff on the side in the hallway, and carefully inched the door closed until a soft click sounded. I then crept down the hall a few more doors before I slapped on my shoes and bolted for the elevator. And from there on, I was free for take-off. Out the elevator, through the lobby, out the main entrance, and past the awning, I was free from the clutches of the Wonderbolts.

But the one thing I was not ready for was the sudden breeze of the chilly November air. I was still damp from sweating earlier, so any breeze felt drastically colder than what it actually was. But I was psyching myself to brave the conditions and make my way to the castle, which was going to be a good hour-and-a-half walk from here to there.

Legs, you've got this.

Two Hours Later...

After a long and arduous walk, which felt like the Bataan Death March through the Siberian Alps, I reached my destination with barely enough feeling in my arms to get me to ignore the cold air. Pneumonia was definitely a possibility, but I believe my body would prove my brain otherwise. Not that it matters now, I'm more than willing to push my way through anything at this point, as long as it has a warm bed waiting for me at the end.

The sky started to turn light blue, the world started to slowly awaken, the birds that remained in the city chirped their greetings towards one another. And though the sun hasn't poked it's head over the horizon just yet, it was enough twilight to give me a good view of the gates. The guards that stood by hadn't even batted an eye while they lazily slumped over, trying in desperation to keep their eyes open. I didn't disturb them, I'm tired myself.

Entering into the halls of the castle, I yawned and felt myself losing some strength in my legs. Obviously my conditioning hasn't set back in yet, so that's to be expected. Should be around a week before I get moving like I used to. Maids were at work making their rounds through the castle, changing out the dead flowers for live ones, sweeping the floors, wiping the banisters, and even an entourage of musicians lined up in the halls with their instruments. It drew my attention, to say the least, as I walked over to see more about it.

The group quietly sat in place as a few of them yawned, others were running through their sheet music one last time before the conductor nodded to the group. They shortly acknowledged the maestro and trailed behind him. And in mere seconds one glanced at me, smiled brightly, trotted out of place and greeted me.

"Well if it isn't Mr. Hot-Topic himself." The gray earth pony said with a smile.

"Miss Octavia, right?" I recalled, earning an approving nod. "I haven't seen you in a while."

"As I to you. I thought that you would be in the midst of your recovery phase. I suppose those rumors of you wandering around town on your own strength was nothing to scoff at. Good to see you doing well."

"Missus Octavia!" The conductor whispered out harshly. "I trust he's helping you with your instrument!?"

Realizing I had gotten her in trouble, I quickly responded to him. "Yes sir, I'm here to carry her cello."

As I took her instrument for her, she blushed out of shame and folded her ears back in embarrassment. As we walked down the halls, I quickly noticed that we were making our way towards the residential quarters of the royal princesses. "So, what are we doing here?" I whispered.

"Oh, we are the Dawning Ensemble. Basically, we come here in the minutes before the dawn to bring forth the music to indicate the special day of one of the royals. As of now, we are currently stationed before Princess Celestia's door."

I gave her her instrument. She popped the case open and pulled out her cello, readied the bow and stared at the conductor. He brought his baton up, counted to six and the ensemble proceeded to play. The horns and cello carried the melody, while the upper strings laid a soothing foundation. As the piece went along, the strings carried the melody while the lower voices laid the counterpoint. What was a humble broad sound was then transformed into a light waltz, earning the attention of many of the residents. The door opened and out came Celestia, dressed in her usual regalia. She smiled lightly as she spoke.

"All these years and I can't find a snooze button." The joke earned quite a few giggles around the hall. "But it is nice to hear such a wonderful sound regardless."

The conductor then turned to her and bowed. "Your highness, It is truly an honor to see you grace us with your sun today, a day that very few will ever get to know. The day has begun, and another year of your being blesses us far more than we could ever hope. Happy birthday, your majesty."

She looked at the ensemble blankly for a second before it finally dawned on her. "Oh, it is my birthday."

Quiet claps sounded throughout the hall. I looked around to see the usual individuals, Shining, Blueblood, Luna, all seven of Blueblood's wives, and Cadance, each of them applauding the high princess. But when Cadance's eyes glanced over to my direction, she stopped clapping and spoke. "To my dear auntie, I wish you nothing but future happiness and more prosperity upon you and your realm. Forgive me for yet another retirement, I grow ill."

And on that note, she walked back into the room, leaving only Shining to speak. "Your highness, it is without fallacy that I'd announce how beautiful you look today." Shortly after that, a light blue aura grasped at the stallion's mane, dragging him back into the room. As soon as the door slammed behind him, Luna snickered. "I guess your adopted niece feels as if you'd steal her mate."

"Cadance is still a little under the weather, I see. Sad." Blueblood said before he walked back into his room, his wives following suit.

Luna looked at me with a smirk and turned back to her own room. "I will be returning to my quarters for some freshening up. The bath is ready, sister."

The group of musicians then dismissed themselves, Octavia included. But she gave me a playful salute before wandering off to God-knows-where. I looked at the princess and shook my head. "Huh, I didn't know it was your birthday today."

"Not many do, I'd rather keep it that way to keep it as intimate as possible. If I didn't, there would be massive feasts and huge festivals throughout the day. I'm more comfortable with the peace of being with my friends and family."

Yeah, I can see why. She just had a chamber orchestra to function as her damn alarm clock, I can safely say that her exaggerations would really be more of an understatement. "Well, happy birthday to you, princess."

She tapped her hoof as she stared at me unimpressed. "I remember you giving me a nickname. Care to use it anytime soon?"

I rolled my eyes as I started to sing to the princess. "♫Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Ceeellaaaaa.... Happy birthday to you. And many moooore!♪"

She still seemed unimpressed, this time walking up to me. Tracking a circle around me, she held her eyes on me before she walked directly into me. She sniffed at me a few times before looking up at me. "Your hygiene is questionable today, captain."

No surprises there. "I do apologize, this is far earlier than my usual report time. I woke up at around three and walked here. I just got here maybe around fifteen minutes ago."

"Did you not bathe?" She questioned.

"Consider it a post-workout sweat." She still seemed unimpressed, as if she knew what I was not telling her. "Okay, to be honest, I slept in these and I didn't get a chance to out of fear of a few Wonderbolts getting curious about my anatomy."

"You are awfully sour today, captain. Questionable or sub-appropriate hygiene is not becoming of a guardian such as your rank. What would your brothers say if they caught you like this? I'm sure none of your friends would stand for it."

You know, she's being awfully kind to be grilling me right now. "I understand, I will do better, your highness."

She then smiled, snickered, and broke into delightful laughter. "Oh dear, I can't get you break, can I?"

"I'm sure you would if you tried. I know what you're capable of." I said, inwardly breathing a sigh of relief. "But on the real, I'm sorry about the smell."

She gave me a tight hug, not even minding my current condition. "If anything, I just want you to understand. Meaning that we are friends won't mean that I won't correct you on your upkeep. And it is my job to inspect every guard if I notice something out of place. And if I find you're out of place, I won't hesitate to chastise you for it."

"Acknowledged." I said with a polite bow.

Suddenly, her magic swallowed my entire arm as I was about to walk away. I was then dragged into her room and into the bathroom. "And since you acknowledge your error, I will have you correct it by any means and I will have you correct it immediately. Thus..." She then threw me into the tub, clothes and all, and playfully winked at me. "Feel free to use my bath for the time being, I will get back to you once I've raised the sun."

The doors closed, leaving me in a pool of soap and exotic perfumes. As the door remained closed, I took advantage of the brief moment of privacy and stripped out of everything. Though I still felt that this is somewhat inconvenient, at the very least, I knew that my clothes weren't going to be sour anymore. I took off my shirt, my shoes, my socks, my pants, and finally my boxers when suddenly...

"Well well... My birthday isn't until June, but I do accept this wonderful gift." I yanked my boxers back into the tub, as I quickly turned around to see Princess Luna standing behind me, sans any of her regalia. The mare smiled devilishly as she jumped into the air and dove into the pool. The moment her horn surfaced, I felt like a victim swimming in shark-infested waters. The light trail of ripples followed her until the next thing I felt was my boxers getting ripped right out of my hands. She then surfaced with my boxers in her mouth. "I trust you will entertain me as we bathe together?"

"You're gonna get me into trouble, aren't you?" I asked, trying to grab my boxers.

"Only a little, but nothing law-breaking." She said as she flipped my boxers onto her head and slid her horn through the front slot. "How nice, human wear does accommodate for the horns of ponies."

"That's uh... where my... yeah..." I awkwardly explained as she seemed as jubilant as ever.

"I'm aware of what it is. You've forgotten that I've cleaned up after you when you had your dream session." She explained. "Do I not look silly, does this not amuse you?"

I quietly grabbed my boxers off of her head and answered her. "To a degree. But for now, I'll just hold on to these."

As soon as I said that, the pair of boxers simply disappeared from existence. I looked at my empty hand and back to the smoking gun that was Luna's horn. "You humans really attach yourselves to these things far too much. I think it's better to be natural for a change." She said, teleporting the remainder of my clothes out of the bathroom. "Now, you're in our bath, which is usually off-limits to guards. It's time you pay your way in by entertaining your Princess of the Night."

Oh my fucking God, you play too damn much.

Meanwhile...

As the sun was finally set upon it's path to drift across the sky throughout the day, Celestia exhaled as she quenched her magic. Upon finishing, her ears flicked slightly as she could already hear the good-mornings and how-do-you-do's of the citizens below. Her balcony oversaw all of the city, allowing her to get a magnificent view of the southern, eastern, and western lands of her kingdom. The birds flew below, tweeting out songs and sounds of the morning, the sound that made the high princess smile for a little while.

But her smile faded from the moment she turned her head from the world, back into her room. From the moment she set hoof back into her chamber, the curtains closed off all access of light. The door was locked shut as the princess walked over to her bed. Looking at the sheets, she groaned despairingly.

"You are too old for this, Celestia. Harden yourself."

She promptly yanked the sheets off of her bed and teleported them off to the laundry room. And as quickly as the old sheets were pulled off and sent away, a new set of linens neatly dressed the bed. After she finished with that, she walked over to her nightstand and stared herself in the mirror. For a long time she examined herself, seeing nothing out of place, her regalia all in the perfect position, almost as if she had went to sleep in them.

She, in fact, did sleep in them that night.

But she did find that the objects she wore on her felt uncomfortable at times. And the longer she looked in the mirror, she felt more and more uncomfortable wearing them. So she ensured that the door was locked and the curtain was free of any revealing crevice. And at last, she proceeded to remove her crown, her slippers, her chestplate, all of her regalia that hid so much of her through the course of a thousand years.

For the first time in many months, she stood as merely herself, looking in the mirror. But this time, there was a lot more to see. Scratches, hidden scars, even a slight tan line from the chestplate she wore. But as her eyes wandered onto her chest, she became disheartened.

"Princess Luna, quit playing too much!"

"Behold my new attire! They dress the derriere quite fittingly, don't you think?"

"Please give me back my shirt!"

Celestia giggled slightly while the sounds of the two playing in the bath brought her a small amount of joy. But what soon followed was regret and dread. The princess sulked once more.

"How long did I rob you of the years with me?" She asked quietly. "How long have I known there were other ways? I could've banished you to the pillars of this world, to the roots of the Tree. I would've seen you so easily then, to watch you grow, to tell you what all I've done in the passing years. I would've protected you, sister. But I've hurt you more than you know."

Placing her naked hooves on her exposed chest, she clenched her eyes shut thinking of what could've been.

"If you were still with me throughout all those years, would things be as they are? Would I have been so selfish? Would I have been so deeply wounded that I would seek some form of solace? Would I have stayed pure? Would I have condemned so many to a fate so unsightly, so demeaning? Would you have saved me... from my mistakes?"

*Knock knock knock knock knock*

The princess jumped, immediately tossing everything back onto herself. She then grabbed a bottle of scented oil and spread it upon the sheets of her bed. Upon finishing, she trotted to the door and called out. "Who is it?"

"Hey, your highness. It's me, Alex."

Celestia didn't hesitate to open the door and greet him head on. "My goodness, I didn't think you'd know your way around here so well!"

"It kinda helps when you go snooping through your brother's phone while he's unconscious for a week, and you just so happen to run across a series of photos labeled 'castle floor plan' in his porn folder."

The princess' cheeks ran scalding red as she glanced back to the bathroom. Covering her muzzle with a hoof, she timidly asked the human. "Does your brother actually ingest those kinds of things?"

Alex shrugged. "Dunno, he's been around ponies for a while so I'd like to assume that he's just forgotten about the stuff. And I don't think he would need to considering that he has a girl....friend..." Alex soon stopped himself to correct his statement. "Had, he had a girlfriend."

The exchange between the two grew silent for a few moments before Alex broke the awkwardness.

"Anyways, that's what happens when your passcode is your damn birthday."

Celestia sighed as she leaned against the door. "I suppose it's no different from Luna. She's caught up in her own perversions, even being a bit flirty with some of the guards. Of course they fear being the subject of her attention and for good reason."

"Approval Process Law a.k.a the Bullshit Evolved Clause?" Alex answered.

Celestia giggled for a few seconds before she smiled at the human and said. "Oh, it's more like they've watched what I've done to Shining Armor during his engagement to Cadance."

"Ah, protective sister." He responded. "I know how that goes."

*SPLASH*

As the sound of water crashing against the floor alerted the two, Celestia took the proactive approach of stepping out of the room, closing her door behind her as she carried on the conversation. "Sorry, Luna's taking her bath. She's a bit playful but she's a strong practitioner of good personal hygiene. So, what do you want to talk about today?"

Cutting straight to the point, Alex questioned the princess. "I'm here to ask about your research. Any improvements?"

"Tremendous, you should know." She joked, winking at him.

Alex shuddered as he rubbed the goosebumps on his arms. "I think I'm more into keeping my hands today, also my wife would not be happy with me being anything other than what I'm supposed to be, kinda came with the whole marriage contract thing."

The princess giggled behind her hoof innocently. "Well I suppose I'll be the subject of experimentation today. How does that sound?"

Alex looked at her with some concern. "Are... you sure you wanna do this?"

She looked back to her room, thinking of the two playing in the bathroom. "We both have someone we need to help. It's only fair that I do this for you since your brother has done so much for me already. After all, you can call me greedy, but I am taking a strong preference to having him remain as my captain of the guard."

"So you're just holding my brother hostage?" Alex joked. "That's mean."

Celestia's horn glowed dimly at first and then surrounded herself with the aura of her magic. "Not really keeping him hostage. Just call me a bit... possessive."

"Are all you princesses like this?" He asked.

She smiled. "Don't we all deserve something?"

Sometime Later...

If there is one thing I will come away with from this morning, it's that I will probably never bathe with Princess Luna again. It's not that she's annoying as hell, in fact she's fun. She's pretty funny, free-spirited, and even eager to be hospitable towards me. The thing is that she can be a bit of a flirt, too much of it even. Granted she didn't go all-in and grab the goods while she had every opportunity to do so, but the fact that she rubbed my inner thighs and her leaning over my back while doing so made me a little more excited.

Compile that with the bad case of blue balls I'm suffering through and you've got yourself a flag at full mast ready to sail the sea and plunder some booty. And it took every maneuver possible to keep that mast hidden from view, including an uncomfortable tuck between the legs. She's the girl that knows you can't fuck her but she's gonna have her fun with you regardless. She's the virgin tease, in other words she's a virgin that knows what she wants and will make you anticipate the thought of being the first to explore the unknown territory. It's not like I didn't know this before, she clearly warned me.

'Tease me, child. You might taste something you can't tame.'

I was thisclose to doing just that. She even present several openings and even moved her tail in my lap, giggling in my ear, telling me all sorts of dirty jokes she's learned since coming back from being banished. And she would describe how lonely it was for her to stay on the surface of a barren satellite. She even shared one of her most embarrassing stories of what she did during her loneliest days of being a banished tyrant. She then proceeded to tell me the ways she would dominate me, of course just to poke fun at my growing level of pent-up sexual frustration.

So for my sanity and my well-being, I'm never bathing with Luna again. She's fun, but she plays too much.

After that little experience and getting back my clothes from the suddenly pouty princess, I walked down the hall to one of the guest rooms and regained some of the sleep I didn't get. I didn't wake up until the middle of the day, around elevenish. When I woke up, I smelled a strong hint of coconut and butter. Though my own scents were strong, that scent was not the one I was wearing. My eyes shot open to see Ms. Coco playing with my hair.

"Your hair is so soft. I don't understand why you humans choose to shave yourselves all over your bodies."

I looked at my hairy arms and then back up to her. "We're just born like this."

She stopped playing with my hair and offered to help me up out of bed. "Yet another interesting fact about the human species. You creatures are so interesting!"

"I don't know if Rarity would like you leering over me like a vulture." I groaned through a yawn.

"I think it's a wonderful experience." Speaking of which, she was sitting on the other side of the room patiently waiting with several bags of clothes in tow. "Oh, and I don't mind it in this case."

I scoffed lightly while rolling my eyes sarcastically. "So you'd leave a total stranger to greet the guy you may have interest in, waking him up no less? Don't you think that's a bit reckless?"

"Don't mistake my curiosity for your species as an invitation for anything physical." Coco quickly responded. "You might be the talk of the town, but you don't look like you can give me what I'm really looking for."

Yeouch, don't set the flames too high. "Sorry. I'm kinda guarded at this point, it feels like everypony's been hunting me down for that reason."

"Well you're single, you're back on your feet, and you're roaming the Canterlot night scene." Rarity elaborated. "If anything, the press have been blowing you up."

Coco then handed me a tabloid, depicting the image of Fleetfoot hugging up my arm while I was walking into the hotel. The headline read out as 'Moving On; TwiDis Relationship Toxic???' I turned to the page to see a bold column with a quote from anyone not named Nondis. 'She's so controlling, I needed my space!' I couldn't do anything but stare. "So this is what passes as journalism nowadays?"

"It's just a bit of celebrity spin, dear. You'd be surprised how lenient they are with you, otherwise they would've already used your fellow humans as sources." Rarity explained.

"Well I'm not amused." I answered frustratingly. "These are not my words."

"Everypony knows that." Coco assured. "The tabloids aren't meant to be taken seriously."

If only she knew how stupid people can get, bless her innocent little mind. "I suppose, but I don't have to like it."

"Get in line, darling. I was in the post for weeks when I disclosed the fact that I wore false eyelashes." Rarity replied. "Now there's no time to lose, I need you to be up and at it." She said as she used her magic to pull at my arms, forcing me to stand up out of the bed. But when the sheets fell off, I tried to desperately free one of my hands to grab the blanket to hide my boxers from the two ponies. But since Rarity's magic was so strong, I was left standing in nothing but my boxers, and Coco quickly examined them.

"Hmmm... that's a pretty nice thread count. Looks like it's well over four-hundred."

"Only the best for my dear Nondis." She said coyly. "Thought the thread count is truly revealed once you take them off."

As her magic began to outline the front of my boxers, slowly peeling them back, I yelped back at her. "Can you not!?"

The alabaster mare looked at me with an innocent smile and allowed the waistband to smack against my skin. "I'm so sorry, I did not know that I was doing anything wrong. I just wanted to show her your thread count." She finished with a bit lip.

She released my hands and presented me with a new shirt and a pair of jeans to wear. "Thanks for the clothes." I answered, quickly grabbing the items to put on my body, which she also assisted with. But as I put on the shirt, I noticed that it was a little tight around the arms and shoulders... basically everything in general. "Uh... I think this is a bit small."

"I know it may feel that way, but trust me when I say this. When you start walking down these streets, you're going to feel more comfortable than ever! Why this shirt exudes confidence, style, flair, and most importantly..." She used a small amount of magic to rub down the center of my shirt. "Advertisement."

"Adver-what?" I asked while looking down at my shirt, only to see her signature logo at the front.

"Now when they see you, they'll know that Rarity-For-You is your primary source for all clothing and apparel! And I haven't even gotten to mention the back."

I tried in vain to look over my shoulder and see what was on the back, apparently she had another logo.

"On the back of it is an ad telling those who see it to check out the show tomorrow... at approximately 8 p.m. Celestial, 9 p.m. Central, and 10 p.m. Lunar." She said rather quickly.

Is this being televised or something? Do they actually have TV's here? "Why the time zones?"

"Because not everypony lives in Canterlot, The Crystal Empire, Cloudsdale, Ponyville, Dodge Junction, or Appleloosa. I've got to advertise it according the radio broadcast."

How does THAT work? "A fashion show, over the radio?"

"You'd be surprised how well it works." Coco added. "The anticipation and speculation over the clothes as they're described to the audience in quick and thorough detail, then the release of the official catalog a week later, basically anyone who wants a dress will be eager to see it in person. Then comes the celebrity endorsements."

"Check." Rarity interrupted.

"The buildup leading to the release of the catalog."

"Double Check."

"And then the huge announcement made at the end of the show... of course after the radio broadcast comes to an end."

"That one is still in progress, but I can assure you that it will be a 'check' by the end of the month!" Rarity said giddily, trotting in place as she looked at me. "Oh, I so do want to tell you, but I want you to say nothing to nopony, not even your fellow humans, as this release campaign will be done gradually!"

"You're re-branding from Carousel Boutique?" I questioned.

"Obviously, Rarity-For-You is not something I recently came up with, it was something I had to patent and file, which was sent in and approved of just four days ago! But that's not the big BIG announcement!" She stood and patiently remained silent, nudging me to further inquire on the issue.

"What is it?"

She ordered me to bend down and lend me an ear. I obeyed and did as she asked. She then quietly whispered in a low voice. "I will be starting my next two branches within the course of the next six months."

She's going all out, she's franchising her name-sake. That is not something to be taken lightly or even remotely shrugged at. I quickly picked up the pony and spun her around, hugging her as I showed my admiration for her big break. "Congratulations! Holy hell, I didn't know you were out here like this! I mean I know you're a go-getter but to see you hitting the gas like this is pretty damn awesome!"

"Okay love-birds, we need to get going!" Coco interrupted, causing me to look at the pony I held in my arms. I felt a little bashful while Rarity just smiled warmly.

"So you don't mind wearing my little billboard today?" She asked.

"Hell no! You did only-God-knows for me, I gotta show you some love."

My first half of the day pretty much went by rather predictably. I spent a few moments standing outside of the Sun Cryst, grabbed a few eyes, passed out a few fliers, got a few winks, and even received some fanmail in the process. As I once pointed out in the past, some of the letters were rather raunchy, a few smelled funny, and I even received a fractional few amount of anonymous death threats.

But the other letters were overwhelmingly positive. A few have told me about the stories of missing family members recovered by my operation QueenSave, and some expressed grief over lost loved-ones, but showed gratification of bringing their family members back so that they could rest in home soil. Others were survivor stories of that event. I even got a few letters from the families of the deceased guards that took on the assignment at Arimaspi Mountain five years back. And then there was the usual foals that came up and wanted their picture taken with me.

As far as mares on the prowl, I did some talking to them as well. Apparently my breakup with Twilight had a split reaction among the demographic. Some were just trying to see where I was on dating ponies in general, others were trying to make themselves available on their schedules so that they could go on a date with me. And then there were the loyalists to the princesses, they condemned my breakup as my being 'insufficient to serve the royal appetite.' And as they carried on, so did I...

Honestly, I did more interacting on my own behalf than on Rarity's.

But by the end of my three hour stand-in time, I was walking back into the hotel lobby for a much-needed rest. Walking up to the counter, I saw a huge set of speakers rolling in behind me. Two stocky earth pony stallions accompanied a mare wearing black-rimmed shades with a purple tint. She pointed forward and took a deep breath. "Where the hell is the guy who runs the counter?"

She took a brief glance around the room, then her head locked onto my general direction. She tilted her shades down, revealing her magenta-colored eyes to see me standing against the wall.

"You!"

I looked around for a moment and then pointed to myself. "Me?"

"Yeah, you're that human that dropped by the hotel last night!"

"...Yeeeaaaahhh?"

She walked up to me, wearing a bit of a scowl on her face. "So what, my music ain't good enough for you?"

I looked at her with a show of confusion. "I... I'm sorry, what happened?"

"You walked right by the place. The vibe was kicking, the bass was knocking, and I see the doors open in the back and there you go walking up, and by the party I was DJ-ing."

I didn't know that was a personal offense. "Yeah, I was with the VIP party. Sorry."

"Are you kidding, you went to that boring shit? You had the opportunity to cut shit lose and you go to that snooze-fest?"

Well it wasn't really anything to snooze at, there was some sex. Granted, I've been to parties with a lot more going on back in my world, especially at the frat house, but the gathering was still fun to experience... despite the sexual frustration that carried over from that. "I didn't really have much of a choice, you know, military things."

She sighed and shrugged at my answer. "Whatevs. You're wearing Rarity's logo, so I'm assuming you know where the ballroom is."

I shook my head. "Afraid not. I was just brought here to advertise outside."

The mare groaned out of exasperation and facehoofed. "Isn't there somepony around here who can help me unload my shit to the correct spot!?"

"Give me a second." I said, running up to the counter and ringing the bell one good time. No response. I rang it again for good measure. No response. I tapped on the button another five times to pretty much change only how much noise was in the front lobby. "Yo, counterboy!"

Finally, he stepped out of his office and stood looking at me with an uncaring face. "Yes, sir?"

"We're trying to get to the ballroom. Sound equipment needs to get there for the big show tomorrow."

The mare then walked up beside me and slammed her hooves on the counter. "We need to have sound check done by the end of today! I have a gig later at a club downtown, I'm getting paid to set up the other half of my shit over there, and they're getting that done even as we're talking here."

The stallion didn't change his mood, but he showed some form of cooperation. "Down the hall. You're going to be using the entire room so it doesn't really matter which door you're going through. It's all on the right."

"Thank you." The mare said as she quickly turned to her guys and pointed down the hall and then pointed right. And with a nod, they quickly toted their cargo to their destination. She turned to me and took off her shades. "Thanks a bunch. It's been a pretty long day. Some jackass spilled a drink on my mixer when I was packing up this morning. So I had to drop everything, head out to Ponyville, buy another mixer from my guy down there, head back up here, set up half of the shit I used for last night, send all my good subs, my tops, my monitors, all that shit here for the big show, and then I'm running extra late."

"Sounds like one hell of an afternoon." I said.

"Yeah, I'm sure the past few days you've had your share of bullshit, arguing with a princess, breaking up with another, all after getting out of a coma and having to learn how to walk."

I paused for a moment and looked at her. "How did you know about─"

"You're front page, bub. And my damn roommate never shut the hell up about how well you play the piano. You know Octy?"

"Octy?" I asked quizzically.

"Octavia Melody, plays cello, gray mare, charcoal gray mane, purple treble clef cutie mark?"

Yeah, ran into her earlier. "You had me at cello. I just saw her this morning with an ensemble in the royal residence hall."

"Yeah, she's a big fan of yours."

Those are some words that haven't worn on me lately, not that I don't appreciate it. "Cool. So what do you need help with?"

"Got some other shit to tote in here. Might be a bit heavy to go at alone, so I brought the other two to help."

"Okay."

"And maybe later tonight, you can drop by the club and hear me perform."

That might not be a possibility. "Well, if you're performing tomorrow, then maybe I can hear you at the show."

"It ain't the same." She complained sadly. "It's too many restrictions, censor this, cut out that, fade here, cross there, scratch here, dip the volume there. I'm just doing this for a check here. But me at the club... It's pure art."

"Maybe sometime later."

While the mare didn't seem very enthusiastic, she was happy to take that as an answer. "Sure thing."

As we walked outside to get her stuff, I opened the door for her. "Just one more question."

"Sure, what?" She looked at me with a quirked eyebrow.

"Does your mixer have a RCA input channel?"

After I finished helping Vinyl Scratch with her equipment, we finally ran into Rarity. While she was nice to the DJ for her engagement, she was not as withheld when it came to me. When she realized that I held lug her equipment in, she went off on me for putting too much stress on my body, possibly reopening my wounds from surgery. And at the end of the day, I was pretty sweaty and tired, so she banished me to the confines of her suite until she came back up to speak with me.

That would take hours before it happened. Most of the time I spent was on my phone, which I had plugged into the wall religiously. After a few rounds of Candy Crush, I grew bored of the game and decided to ride the ye olde wave of the internet. I caught up on some current events, apparently a lot has happened while I was gone. But it was nice to see some instance of modern technology reviewing some instance of modern technology.

Yeah, other than gaming content and cancerous comment sections, that's YouTube in a nutshell.

I looked through my messages to see if I had missed anything important, other than my father getting upset that I missed one of his calls yesterday evening... oops... all seemed well. But that one phone call would lead to a lot of trouble if I didn't respond. So I called him up once and waited for him to answer.

"Hey this is Harold, I can't come to the phone right now, but if you leave me your name and number, I'll call you back. Alright now, stay safe."

I hung up immediately, realizing that I hadn't really prepared myself to say anything to him. So I looked at my phone and started thinking out loud, reciting what I was going to leave on his voicemail.

"Hey dad, Nondis here, I'm just calling to let you know that I'm on the road to good health again." He's gonna want me to come back home if I tell him that. "But my recovery isn't quite done yet. Just a few more tests I need to get through before I'm cleared for take-off." He's gonna want to know a finite date. "I should be around by this Tuesday. So I can see you guys then." He's gonna ask about Bella. "Bella couldn't come, she's..." Just tell him upfront. "She and I broke up... so we're not seeing each other right now." He's not gonna buy it. "She's really mad that I cheated on her." Yeah, that would be a great way to start Thanksgiving with your judgmental parents.

Ugh... okay, let's start back on Bella.

"Bella had to go to work, s-she works on the holidays." Where does she work though? "She works in... uh..." A college student who works on the holidays? Since when did that make sense? "She's gotta support her family."

This is clearly not working for me... fuck...

"...Hey dad, I'm just here to let you know that I'm never coming back." Now that's an easy way out... not a good one.

Maybe I should just leave it at that. He'll know I called him and I'll just ignore his call. We can toss this back and forth until we meet up on Tuesday, consequences be damned. Why the hell did I ever try to call him in the first place without even planning this shit out?

I'm such a fucking dumbass.

...I continued to use my phone to browse around on YouTube, I needed to watch something funny to break my mind out of this slump. So for the following fifteen minutes, I've watched people embarrass themselves for six seconds of fame, And since each video was around nine minutes or so, I was easily distracted for a while, that was until the laughs grew empty and the videos started to get repetitive.

It opened my eyes to the world of some of these Vine content creators, when one of them hit something good, they try to run that gag into the ground. I mean, whatever gets you the attention. But after so many videos, you start to see that they're clearly not giving it like they used to, like they're losing interest in the things they love because of the expectation to provide more of this thing they love. They start to feel a bit numb to the experience and then with all the editing and extras, it starts to feel like a traditional 9-to-5 shift. By then, who's really enjoying the content, the fraction of your subscribers who don't watch your videos anymore because they found something new to capture their attention?

I wonder if the fashion industry is any different.

If Rarity was, and she truly is, a content creator, then what would happen if the ones who was there for the humble beginnings start to feel jaded and start accusing her of 'selling out' instead of sticking to the same formula all the time? Would she panic or would she just be content with the fact that those who've followed her for so long will begin to feel like they're looking at a whole new and unfamiliar Rarity? I can't even begin to understand what it feels like to say you're expanding your brand, only to get called a sell-out.

Rarity truly deserves this.

The door clicked and opened, revealing Rarity with a bottle of water in tow. On her face, she wore her red sewing glasses as she greeted me. "Did you ever get some rest?"

I continued to look at the videos on my phone. "I got some for an hour, but I pretty much got bored after a while and started to do things to keep me occupied. It feels a little weird to not be on duty, it's like every second I'm fighting something or going somewhere."

She trotted over and sat herself beside me. "I just didn't like how you went out of your way to put stress on yourself. You know you're fresh out of the ward, I don't like the possibility of seeing you go back on an error of your own doing."

"I'm fine, really." I argued strongly. "If anything, I'm just tired of hanging out up here with no one to talk to or nothing to do."

Rarity glanced at my phone and leaned up against me. "It looks to me that you've been keeping yourself entertained."

Yeah, the novelty of entertainment on the go. It's like having over a hundred channels of cable and say 'there's nothing to watch'. I mean how much of a lie is that?"

She reached her hoof to the phone and held it in her possession. "These little things you humans have are quite outlandishly advanced, so quirky and yet so fun-looking."

"Well would you believe that tiny little thing is actually a window to the world as I know it?" I asked her.

"Well maybe you can open a window for me and let me see something from your world?" She cooed anxiously.

I tapped one of the apps on the screen, pulling up Siri. As the screen popped up, I spoke into the phone. "Google Austin Texas Skyline."

And as soon as the command was received, the first image that popped up ended up causing Rarity to nearly drop my phone. She stuttered for a second or two before I confirmed what she was looking at.

"This, this is my home. It's where I was born and raised."

Though the towers didn't impress me at all, they did impress the seamstress. She spent long moments staring at the image. "So this is your hometown? Well you're not a small-town boy now are you?"

"Yeah, but that ain't all." I said as I pulled up Siri again. "Google University of Texas at Austin images."

I took the phone from her for a moment, pulled up one picture and showed it to her again.

"This is the college I go to, or went to before I was spirited away to this world."

Again, Rarity was very much amused. "This is your university? Oh my goodness, it looks positively enormous? How many attends the institution?"

I took my phone and started running through the photos, going back to some of the pictures we took after we were inducted into the fraternity. "Well, it's around fifty-thousand students, around forty-thousand undergrads."

"That's about the size of a small town!" Rarity exclaimed. "Oh dear, don't let Twilight hear you say that or she'll be begging you to take her to the library."

"Yeah, and she'll be reading there all day, I'll never be able to show her anything else in my world." I cosigned as I finally came across the picture, showing it to her. "This is the fraternity I joined last year. You might see a familiar face or two."

She closely examined the photo, seeing the humans all in various poses standing before the frat house. She started to point out the obvious. "I see Rickey, he's not that different from what he looks now. Cliff, on the other hoof, appears to have shorter hair. I don't think I've seen him with it that short." Finally, her eyes came across me. "Oh my... that's you?"

I looked at the one she pointed to, confirming her guess. "That's me."

She looked at the image of me and then to the me that was sitting beside her. As she did it, she shook her head in disbelief. "My goodness, you are so different from when you started off. I mean I never really noticed it from just seeing you day-by-day, but I did take a slight notice because I was always taking your measurements. It was like each time I had to rework every outfit because you were always losing weight."

To be honest, I almost forgot how chubby I was at times. Now that I've got another pair of eyes looking at both the before-and-after, I've started to see what shocked my brothers so much. "Well that's what happens when you're forced to walk everywhere you go for over ten months, plus military training."

"You mean you don't walk everywhere you go in your world?" She asked.

"It's more of an option in my hometown. It's kinda like Canterlot on steroids, imagine thousands of carriages moving ponies at will from one side of town to the other, or up the street, or even to a friends house."

"I would imagine that the poor carriage driver must be tired of running such distances." She said, rubbing her chin.

"Not at all. Our carriages, or cars and automobiles as we'd call them, are a lot different. For starters, they run on gas instead of actual labor, kinda like how the trains run on steam. And then we actually drive them ourselves. Most of us have one but then there are others who don't. That stuff aside, we're all pretty much out doing our own thing."

"Ah, I see. That's a pretty farfetched concept, everyone having a carriage of their own."

"It's not to me. It's been like that since long before I was born, decades even."

"I see it would enable some degree of indolence." She joked, poking at my stomach. "Guess all that walking from the castle to my boutique did you some good."

I leaned over and looked at her unimpressed. She merely responded by poking her tongue out at me. I responded by lightly grabbing her tongue, holding it out of her mouth as she yelped out in dislike. "Poke at me again, I dare you."

She responded by lunging her head forward, opening her mouth as if to chomp down on the two fingers I used to hold her tongue. I quickly let her go before I lost any fingers. While I was laughing at her, she pouted with crossed hooves. "How rude!"

"You started it!" I responded, this time poking at her stomach. She chirped with surprise as I withdrew my finger.

"Excuse me, you don't have to poke and prod! It's rude to treat a lady this way, to taunt her for her body!"

Instead of poking with one finger, I lightly poked at her with all five. She quickly broke her pout as I ticked her stomach. I then added my left hand for maximum effect, tickling her sides and hooves at will. She started to giggle uncontrollably, wiggling and kicking her hind legs. "Ha ha ha ha-Non-dhis, cu-hut hit out!"

"Fuck that, you started it. Imma finish it!"

Her horn lit up, holding my wrists off of her to break me off. After freeing herself, she jumped on me and smiled as she held a hoof on my chest. "I do believe that I have the final say."

"You and your magic, why don't you ever try to win a contest with me without using any of that shit?"

"Because I like putting you in compromising situations." She quipped with a growing smirk and narrowing eyes.

"Like how you were gonna pull my pants down in front of Coco?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." She answered innocently.

"How about you take that magic of yours off of my wrists? Then we can talk."

She looked to the side with a fiendish grin, leaned in close to my face and whispered just inches away from my lips. "Nnnnope."

I tried to lean up, but her magic pressed against my shoulders, pinning me to the back of the couch we sat on. She giggled with glee while I looked up at her with moderate frustration. "What do you want from me?"

"I don't recall wanting anything from you." She said quietly.

The next thing I felt was a warm presence grabbing at the crotch of my jeans. Lightly the aura massaged and pinched at the tough fabric, reaching at the very thing I feared she would use against me. As I struggled in place, she leaned into my neck and bit my ear. My pants grew considerably tighter and more uncomfortable as she continued to put her magic to use. My hips desperately tried to guide away from the magic, but she somehow matched the tempo and moving in opposite to my motions, making it feel like I was willingly push into her magic. The slow sound of a zipper being undone was the one thing that made me close my eyes. "Ah, shit."

"But I do recall you wanting something from me... I remember we were in the Boutique and I was in your lap, doing girl things."

"Describe 'girl things' to me." I said, starting to grit my teeth.

"Having a little bit of fun." She mused, whispering in my neck, biting into me again.

Though she was busy having her way, she left me with a small opening. The nape of her neck was easy for me to reach with my head alone. Realizing she was too invested in her activity, I responded by giving her a bite of my own. Her eyes shot open as she felt the tips of my canines poke into her skin. My jaw tightened slowly, but enough to force her to remain still. The taste of coconut and butter made me savor the moment even more as she squeaked loudly. Her magic broke, allowing me to take charge.

I flipped her over to rest her back, her hooves dangled as I dominated her size, leering over her as if I was some predatory monster with a starvation for meat. I dove in and sank my teeth into her neck again, making her arch her back and hug me in place. A long moan escaped her lips while I grabbed her, lightly choking her a bit.

"Nondis, stop!"

Her words caused me to pull back, snapping out of my trance. Her body remained on the couch, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she looked at me.

"What time is it?"

I reached for my phone and read the screen. "6:27, why?"

"Damn!" She hollered, pushing herself out from under me. "I planned a short fifteen minute visit, not a whole half-hour and then some! I've got to be back downstairs for the dress rehearsal!"

I was left on the couch for a few seconds, cursing at the cushions before I stood back up. My arm tensed as I felt like punching something out of pure anger. "Is there anyone who could look after the whole thing while you're gone?" I selfishly asked. "Doesn't Coco know how the show goes?"

She looked back at her flank and stomped her hoof. "Agh! You were not supposed to tease me like this! Now I'm a mess and I've got to clean myself before the other stallions get any ideas!"

"You started it!"

"Well I'm afraid you're gonna have to finish it on your own, dear." She said, galloping to the bathroom. "I can't work under these conditions!"

I quickly walked up to the couch and grabbed a pillow, screamed into it several times, and realized it had her coconut scent in it, which resulted in me screaming into it more. After a few minutes of that and her freshening up, she quickly trotted to the door. I ran over to stop her, but her magic held me in place as she opened the door.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. I have to get going."

"Tonight? Please?" I pleaded desperately.

"I'm afraid that I'll be up until the sunrise working on some final alterations and wardrobe fortifications. I know how you feel, I am obviously not pleased myself."

"Before the show?"

"I need to be focused. I can't afford to have a tryst while trying to go over the final plans before the curtains rise." She responded quickly.

"After the show?"

"I've got the VIP dinner, the discussions with sponsors, payouts for the staff, hanging out with the girls. I'm gonna be tired when I get back."

"I'm gonna put you to sleep. You ain't waking up till Sunday afternoon."

She trotted up to me, yanking me down by the collar of my shirt. "Don't you have me anticipating something like that and not live up to the expectations."

"Consider it the after-party."

Her lips crashed into mine, her hooves pulling me closer as she shoved her tongue against mine. Our eyes didn't close once while our tongues violently met several times. In an instant, she was doing whatever she could to keep us latched together. Her breaths grew short while she moaned and greedily used her magic to grab at my crotch again. My hands wandered to the base of her tail, pulling it slightly. A soft whisper left her lips. "Harder."

Before I could oblige, she shoved me off of her and smiled.

"I am going to have to keep you on a leash in a kennel."

"You need to hurry up before I drag you back in this room."

She narrowed her eyes, appearing angry when she hissed through clenched teeth. "Oh, absolutely NO masturbation. If I can't get my bit of stress relief, neither can you."

"I want you mad when you're coming through this door, I want you to rip off the clothes you made."

The mare groaned out of frustration as she stepped up to me. "YOU!..." She paused for a second to rationalize her thought process. "Me. Elevator. Downstairs. Rehearse."

On those last four words, she teleported herself out of my presence. Leaving me at the doorway. I closed the door and sat back on the couch, covered in the smell of coconut and butter. I stuffed my face back in the pillow I screamed into earlier and took a deep breath, catching the wonderful scent. As I did that, I had only one thought that ran across my mind.

"...Since when was she able to do that?"

The evening was pretty quiet with the exception of me watching videos on my phone again. The sun ran beyond the horizon and the moon was brought up in it's place. The lights of Canterlot gradually outshone the pale moonlight as the town got busy for the weekend. It appeared that the residents have come out of hibernation and started bombastically taking to the streets to do whatever they wanted to do, finally free from the stress of the workweek. Everyone was happy and anxious for what was to come next.

And I was no different.

Even though I was confined to this suite, I was already putting my mind on tomorrow. Just the things we did earlier was enough to put a spark in my mood, one I haven't had in a long time. I didn't have to worry about who's life I had to save, what army I was going against, or even which politician was giving me grief. For the first time in a long time, I could casually stick around for something so personally exciting. And I'm doing more than anticipating it, I'm strategizing for it.

I picked up every magazine on the subject, looking like I was cramming for semester finals for it. Even that one article I felt was ridiculous just two days ago, I was reading like it was scripture. I took note of the positions, the little techniques, the things that unicorns liked, and how I could take it to the next level. I was a total scholar and I was pretty much waiting for it like a kid on Christmas Eve.

I know I'm not supposed to be rushing shit, but I wanted this. Hell, I needed this.

Under most human circumstances I could've looked up a few items on my phone, find out where these items were being sold, take my car, drive up to the place, pay and pick up, ride back home, set up, light the candles, play some music, let her walk in, and see where the night takes us. But the most I could do was order some wine for tomorrow evening as well as some food for now.

Probably for the first time in a long time, I was having a sing-a-long by myself. My phone speakers cranked up while I was dancing to the slow beat of the song.

♪I'm just a bachelor
I'm looking for a partner
Someone who knows how to ride
Without even falling off
Gotta be compatible
Takes me to my limits
Girl when I break you off
I promise that you won't want to get off♫

When the main verse came up, I practically started dancing, grinding on the couch like a dumbass. For a moment, you couldn't tell me shit, I knew I was the best fucking dancer, if I was a terrible dancer then I was the best fucking terrible dancer you've ever seen. I was having a party of one, it was a Friday night, and I knew what was coming in the next twenty-four hours.

Life was good.

*knock knock knock*

I didn't pay any mind to it initially, I was too caught up in the second verse to be caring about who's at the door. But when I realized that I had placed an order for room service, I had danced around the room towards the door. Again, you couldn't tell me to stop. So I smoothly glided to the door, opened the door, and looked down to see...

"Twilight?"

My ass stopped dancing then. She looked up to me, appearing very displeased with me. I'm standing in the doorway looking Fifty Shades of Stupid and she's looking like the Diary Of a Mad Purple Mare. "Hello, Nondis. It appears you've been active for the past few days."

...I already knew this was gonna dampen my mood considerably. She's probably looking to have a long conversation with me about all of this. "Well, some things happened and─" And here I am forgetting that my phone was still playing music in the background.

♪If we're gonna get nasty, baby
First we'll show and tell
Till I reach your ponytail♫

Twilight angrily looked at me as she snarled. "Till you do WHAT!?"

"Siri, close tab." I called out to my phone.

"~Closing tab, now opening search for 'personal lubricants'~"

Twilight's mood didn't get any better as I continued to fumble with my phone. "Siri, close tab!"

"~Closing tab, now opening search for 'KY Yours and Mine Couples Lubricant'~"

Goddamit. "Siri, close Safari." The phone did as ordered and closed the web browser, leaving me with a face full of palm with a slight hint of coconut.

Twilight walked past me, into the suite as she spoke. "So you've been here with Rarity this entire time? You not only come out to embarrass yourself, but me as well. And then you also come here expecting one of my friends to appease you on your own time."

I rolled my eyes and calmly explained to her. "Twi, Cadance was drunk. She and I had a drunken altercation, we both did some stuff that was gonna catch the eye of the press."

"If you knew she was drunk, then why didn't you have her escorted to her quarters? You do realize that is a power you have?" She vehemently replied.

"Well I didn't know. Things happened as they were and I can't do anything about it right now."

"You can't do anything about it? Is that what you believe?" She questioned.

"So what, you expect me to just say 'I'm sorry' and watch the whole issue of her getting drunk and calling me out in a public setting ride by like it's all water under the bridge?"

The purple princess ignited her horn, summoning a small stack of papers. She then shoved them in my face. "This is a carefully, well-written public statement I want you to make effective tomorrow before the show. In it details a list of transgressions and a heart-felt apology to Cadance and Shining Armor."

I took the papers and put them aside as I argued with her. "Hello, you do realize I was NOT THE ONE STARTING SHIT!"

"I couldn't care less who started what!" Twilight responded. "I'm trying to finish it! I don't want either of you to end up bickering and blabbering about he-said she-said. The royal image is tarnished enough as it is without any of this, I'm doing this so that there can be peace among us. We're all on the same side, we don't need to go to war with each other."

I merely laughed at the though of Cadance and I going to war. "Twilight, we're not trying to kill each other. It's just a squabble. We're adults and we can smooth it out on our own time."

Twilight reintroduced the papers to my face, standing pat on her position. "I don't think there's a better time than present. So get it done."

For a moment, I was stuck in thought, trying to rationalize a means of how I can pass this off without appearing too bitter over the issue. Truth be told, I'm not allowed to apologize to Cadance until all of our plans come into play. And if Shining and Blueblood hasn't given the word to Twilight, then she's clearly on the outside looking in. So I pulled up my phone and started texting while I spoke. "Maybe... I don't feel like it's the right time."

"What?"

"I feel like you're forcing this because you want everything to be well, but this is the real world. People need time to simmer down, and I don't think things have gotten to that point. Shining's pissed off at me and he's probably thinking about killing me again. You honestly expect me to just make things good between us like that, but it's not gonna happen."

Twilight continued to argue me down. "Then give this whole situation a place to start simmering down! Make the statement tomorrow at 4 p.m. and I can set up a dinner between the four of us so we can hash things out."

"I can't do that. Cadance needs to apologize first." I said adamantly. "You don't call my integrity into question at a party among the social elite and expect me to take it sideways."

She groaned with irritation and shoved the papers down the front of my shirt. "Fine, I will talk to Cadance about it. But you better meet me halfway with this. Make the statement tomorrow at the time I appointed to you, not a moment later."

"I can't do that." I said again, this time ripping the papers she stuck in my shirt. "I know you want it done, but you need to wait."

Twilight, finally deciding she had enough of me, screamed at the top of her voice. "I need to wait!? FOR WHO!? I'VE DONE EVERYTHING I POSSIBLY COULD FOR YOU, AND YOU CAN'T EVEN DO SOMETHING SO SIMPLE FOR THE SAKE OF OUR KINGDOM'S IMAGE!?"

I simply shrugged. "...I can only explain everything later. Just be patient with me, please."

"Oh, I can be patient." Twilight said sarcastically. "You're going to damage the image of our kingdom over some petty squabble, but I can be patient. You're already discussing plans to have sex with one of my best friends while I still have feelings for you somewhere, while the embers of our break-up are still red hot, but me being impatient?"

I looked at the infuriated princess and sighed. "I'm not asking you to trust me, I know that's beyond done at this point. But I can and will explain everything when it's all said and done. And you don't have to like me after, but the only thing I'm asking you to do is to listen to me when I'm finished. Can you do that?"

She and I stood there looking at each other for quite some time, neither one of us breaking eye contact. She only summoned yet another copy of her papers and shoved it in my face again. "You won't have anything to say to me until you've read what's on each page."

She allowed herself out of the room, storming through the doorway. Twilight didn't look at me since, even as she spoke to me one last time.

"After all, we've broken up. I guess you're free to do whatever you want. But I wonder how much of your time with me was actually worth something."

The door slammed shut, leaving me in silence. The mood from earlier was replaced with uncertainty and regret, instead of eagerness and anticipation. I looked at my phone one last time as I sent out my message. My head dropped as I sat on the couch, not really knowing what I was going to do here. I'm sitting in Rarity's suite, planning to do the unimaginable with her and suddenly I'm met with the cruel reality of my circumstance. And I don't have any excuse for myself in regards to Rarity. I just went where the blood flowed and now it's probably going to cause more hurt than harm if we go through with this.

*bzzz bzzz*

I looked at my phone to read the response.

Author's Note

I try to get things out faster than I do, but life seems to get in the way far too often. At least I was 3/4 of the way there before I was pulled in various directions. But as a consequence (if you could call it that) I will be with a significant head-start on the next chapter.

In speaking of which... Give it a week.

Chapter LXXII

The ballroom of the Sun Cryst was mostly empty as the music bumped at a moderate volume. The models who wore Rarity's newest line all showed their confidence and presented their attire with nothing more than the highest desire to entice the ghostly audience. Each model poured their all into the practice, strutting in line as each of them drew smiles from Coco and Rarity.

The two fashionistas looked on at their lists and checked each item off as the time passed. When the set came to an end, each of the models all stared back at the two. Rarity clopped her hooves together as she grabbed the attention of every mare and stallion in the room.

"Attention everypony!" She called out in her more boisterous tone. "Tonight was a complete success and I am more than happy to work with each and every one of you. To all your fellow agents, I do offer my sincerest gratitude as many of them could have taken a more fulfilling engagement but elected to send you my way. As such, I will be doing whatever it takes to make sure that all of you are taken care of."

One mare raised her hoof, Rarity pointed back at her to speak. "Now if I'm not mistaken, the music you said will be at the show tomorrow wasn't what was being played tonight, correct?"

"Indeed." The fashionista confirmed. "The music you will be strutting to will be the choice of a personal friend of mine. He was supposed to be modeling in the show with you all but I elected to not stress him out too much because of recent developments. I'm sure you all heard about the Captain of the Royal Guard? He will be in attendance."

A few ooh's and whispers started to sound throughout the group. A few of the models even grew excited.

"Of course, he was supposed to be the model for my new human line, but I've elected to withhold on him until he was feeling better for the next show. And since that was going to be one of the surprises, I might as well spoil that one for you."

A few moans of displeasure sounded throughout the room, some mares showing some disappointment while a majority of the stallions were indifferent to the news.

"Meanwhile, I will see you all tomorrow at 4, no later than 4:30. Come without any sign of meekness, if you're angry at anyone here, I suggest you leave it at the door. We're all in this together, we're all going to come out of this together, and each one of us is going to look absolutely fabulous! Until then, ta!"

As the models started to disperse, a few of them walked up to rarity with their outfits in tow. Some presented issues with the stitching, others expressed a desire for adjustments. Coco started taking inventory of which items needed to be tended to throughout the course of the night. Rarity looked the clock on the wall and sighed.

"Now begins the pre-show rush."

"Ugh, tell me about it." Coco cosigned. "It reminds me of when I was working for Suri. She'd dump everything on me and expected me to put it all together just a few hours before the show. The only thing she'd do is look at me while I worked my tail off and demand coffee at every turn."

Rarity expressed some concern as she looked at her coworker. "I hope that your experience with me isn't as similar, I really do try to lighten my load on you."

"It's fine. I'm used to the pressure. Manehattan will do that to you after a while." She responded as she grabbed a hanger to hold a dress she was presented with. "I'm not so much upset with the work involved, but I'm still pretty peeved over that pony who stole your stuff."

Rarity's ears fell back as she looked down to the ground. "I had that one saved for him. I was going to wear it after the show for him. I suppose I can be upset about it, but I'll have to be upset about it on a later date. We have a lot of work to do."

"Sewing machine is still in the suite, right?"

"Of course, never leave home without one."

"Well, we're gonna be up for a long while, might as well see if that complementary coffee maker is up for an all-nighter." She said with a smile. "I could kill for a cup, personally."

"Well... I suppose I won't mind some of my own." Rarity said as she stretched her legs. "Really a worker's beverage."

"No point in talking about it, let's go."

As I sat in the room, looking at the pictures in my phone, I realized that I had came across one folder I had forgotten to delete. Inside of it was a numerous amount of pictures and mock-ups of celebrities. There were also a few videos of the substantial run time of around twenty-four minutes. For a moment, I stared at the materials and wonder to myself how I would feel while I was watching this stuff.

It started to become more of a question of curiosity and self-discovery. So I became brave and played the video. At the start was a pan from a carpeted floor up to the high heels on the well-toned legs of a woman, smiling at the camera as the guy behind it started speaking.

"So you're gonna tell me you name?"

The lady responded. "My name is Staci, I'm twenty-three years old, and I'm a Virgo.

The cameraman continued to interview here as she smiled all the while. "Yeah, I caught you walking just earlier and I kinda wanted to bring you over to see if you wanted to make a little something on the side. But before we do that, you wanna tell me a little more about yourself?"

The girl giggled as she playfully shied away from him. "Oh my God, you're making me nervous. Well, I'm kinda shy, I like to have fun but I'm kinda quiet."

"You're also really cute.

She smirked at him, lightly slapping him on the leg. "Stop it."

"No I'm serious, you're really cute. We've had some cute ones around but you're probably the cutest by far."

While I couldn't help to roll my eyes, she cooed innocently. "Aw, you're so sweet."

With an impatient sigh, I dragged my finger along the timeline and stopped to where she was bent over the couch, folding her thong halfway down her ass. She looked back at the camera, smiling while she teased the viewer a bit, holding her hand over her crotch.

The camera man broke his silence. "Can I see your pussy?"

I merely dragged my finger over to the right a little more until she was palming base as she was bobbing her head in and out, her lips firmly gripped around his cock. Again, he felt it necessary to speak.

"Ah yeah, that feels so good."

Once more, I pulled my finger further to the right to see a large stain on the couch as she was laying on the couch with one leg behind her head. She moaned incessantly as he pumped himself in and out of her. He did appear to be of a considerable length and she was perfectly waxed, but the sound of her moaning didn't feel real to me.

Maybe it's because I started to feel kinda jaded to this fake stuff. It was obviously professionally made, the image was so high def that you could easily see the goose bumps on her skin. The cameraman was having sex with her and he's got a camera man on the both of them. Her moans are more extra than a crowd for a major Hollywood blockbuster. I'm basically twirling my dick and having more fun with that than watching this.

I swiped my thumb against the screen, looking to get to the next video. The next clip was an amateur shot film in their own bedroom. The girl was already on the receiving end of her boyfriend's penis. He's not so much talking through everything, but her moans, not as numerous as the previous video, are very much real.

"Oooooh shit.... Hah...

Just that much from her was a lot hotter than the 'academy award winning' performance of the girl from the earlier video. She was more invested in selling for the camera. This one was one of those built-up moments in their relationship. I can already tell this had started up with the two of them just hanging around each other, the guy gets playful, she kinda pushes back, he keeps going, she's still pushing back despite the fact that she's okay with the circumstances, and he's practically toying with every piece of her body.

It was a real situation that had a real consequence, and it was deserving of a real reaction out of me.

My hand started to do more in terms of teasing myself than actually playing with it because it was there. My thumb ran up the length of myself, stopping at the ridge of my head. A single throb was all it took to invite me to gradually invest more of my fingers to the task. As I watched the video, I noticed that he was taking her from behind, pulling her hair as he planted a hand on her shoulder. He was rough with her, aggressively so, and she was into it. At that second, one word in particular rang in my head from earlier.

"Harder."

Rarity whispered that to me as she was kissing me, as I pulled on her tail. Suddenly, the video I was watching had started to become more of a distraction while my mind was already pulling on imagination. The background noise of the video playing, the soft slaps of skin on skin, the moans were already doing a great deal of damage to me. My hand stopped toying and started grasping. My eyes closed as I started to think about what I wanted to do to her. I quickly unbuttoned my jeans, pulled them down enough to give my hand some room to work with. One leg remained propped up as the other stretched as my fantasy started to play itself out.

One throb was all it took to urge me forward. "Oh... shit." I whispered under my own breath.

I could already hear her voice talking to me in the distance. The sweet coos she made earlier had done nothing but made me bite my lip out of longing as well as concentration. As I worked my grasp, my hips rocked in a circular motion, imitating the performance I truly wanted to give. Even then, I felt her calling my name.

"Nondis, darling. I was wonde...ring─"

My eyes flew open, I instinctively shoved my hand over my crotch to cover myself. I looked up to see the door open, the mare looking back at me with her jaw agape. Coco stood beside her, holding a hoof over her mouth while the video still played on my phone. I frantically reached out with a free hand to exit back to the home screen, but the damage was more than done at that point.

Coco silently pointed at another direction. "I'll... go get... the coffee."

Rarity continued to look at me while I tried to wait out my arousal. She crossed her hind legs as she snickered. I groaned painfully as she used her magic to pull up my pants. "I see you were having a little bit of fun." She teased.

While everything felt so painfully awkward for me, I couldn't bare to look her in the eye. "You caught me off guard there."

The mare leaned against the doorway as she mocked me. "A captain of the royal guard being off his guard? Now where have I heard that one before?"

She's probably making fun of me from the spar we had. "Well, I'm caught. I guess it's up to you on how this goes."

The fashionista took a deep breath, grinding her teeth as her magic held my pants in place. For a second, I could feel her pulling them back down. My arousal wasn't subsiding either, so it was more than likely she was going to get even more of a sneak peek of what I had to offer. But she wasn't budging from the doorway, even as Coco called out to her.

"Hey, Rarity... Most of this seems to be a little bit of a patch job here, a stitch job there, really simple stuff. If you want to, you can just rest up for tonight so you can be up bright and early for tomorrow."

She still didn't move as she stared daggers at me. She quietly mouthed at me. "Didn't I tell you no funny stuff?"

"Sorry." I whispered back.

She got out of the doorway, walking towards me with a sewing needle and a roll of thread. I quietly waited as she stopped right beside me. As my hands stayed over my crotch, she began the slow process of pulling each one of my fingers back slowly to move my hand out of the way. But before she could get a good glimpse, she covered it up with the sheets of the bed, almost teasing herself with the idea. Her eyes locked onto mine as her magic shifted focus onto my shirt, yanking me closer to her face.

"I don't like you stimulating yourself using some other means. You have me, is that too little for you?"

I quickly shook my head. "No not at all. In fact, my mind kinda went to you, and then everything else was kinda like a distraction. I just... I─"

What I felt next was the sensation of her magic grasping at my thighs again. The sudden warmth brushing against me was sufficient enough to make me lean into her. She, however, pulled herself away from me in response. My hand tried to hold myself down, but her magic around my thighs held them off. Finally, she planted her hoof along it's length above the sheets, denying me every touch possible. Her eyes grew as her hoof pressed down, feeling me recoil in response.

I instinctively grabbed her hoof and pressed her further down. The tension I felt was so incredible that I forgot how to fold my fingers around her hoof, using only the open palm of my hand to hold her down. She started panting lightly with anticipation before she found the discipline to snap herself out of it. The moment her hoof left me, I was left with a familiar chill and a sense of longing.

"Um... Ahem... I have a bit of work to do. I'll be up all night so don't be afraid to let me know if you need anything..." The mare paused for a moment and looked down at my hand, still grasping at myself from over the sheets. "Anything but that, of course."

Her magic glowed around my hands as she closed her eyes, seeming to cast a spell. Her horn changed colors from light blue to a prismatic glow. As her magic color changed, so did some parts of her mane. Brief flashes of yellow, purple, and blue streaked down her curls, her eyes opened to me when she finished. She leaned forward, seemingly a bit out of breath. I reached out to see if she was alright, but I noticed something strange had occurred.

My sense of arousal was drastically heightened but my body's response to it was drastically muted.

"I had to tap a bit into the reservoir to pull this one off. I'm not like Twilight, who can conjure up spells for any occasion at a whim. But I do know my fair share of buffs and nerfs to help myself along our adventures."

I quickly pulled up the sheets, watching myself run flaccid. But in my mind, I still wanted her, more than ever. It was infuriating, sickening, perverted, down right wrong. "What the hell did you do to me?"

She gave me a quick peck on the cheek as she explained herself. "I placed a certain spell on you. It's not quite a 'magic school for gifted unicorns' spell. It's more of an estrus buster for the long journey away from home, don't want to get caught up by some random stallion in a land unknown. Female travelers and business ponies often use these spells to keep themselves focused on the task instead of getting riled up for any... *ahem* peddled wares that come swinging by."

So she essentially cast a spell meant for females on me. Well that's as awkward as needing to use some lady's douche for an enema. "...Quoi?"

She summoned one of the dresses for tomorrow's show and started working on it as she spoke. "It'll wear off in around twelve hours. But for now, none of that funny stuff until I'm ready." She stated strongly. As I flopped back into the bed, feeling several times more frustrated than usual, she also absconded with my phone. "Oh, I'll also be taking this. Quite obvious that this will probably do more harm than good."

My head fell back into the pillows, I started to feel rather testy. My hands were just itching to pound at something because of the enhanced case of blue balls I've contracted. With a exasperated grunt, I watched the mare quickly trot out of the room, wave at me with a coy smirk on her face.

"Goodnight dearie, dream of me while you're asleep."

Four Hours Later...

My eyes cracked open slowly, revealing a blurry dark room. I could hear the faint sounds of machines humming in the other room. The place smelled of coffee and perfumes while my arms stretched a bit. After that, I reached for the covers and shut my eyes and waited for the sleep to take me again.

Only this time, it didn't.

For the strangest reason, I couldn't pass into the realm of dreams. Instead, my mind was pushing me awake, my body felt restless, and of course any feeling of arousal I had from last night felt no different. I reached out to where I last put my phone, only to remember that Rarity took it with her. So I rubbed my eyes, grabbed a nearby alarm clock, and barely read out the time to see that my sleep had only lasted for a small four hours.

I was groggy, yet restless. And it didn't seem to make me feel any better thinking about the issue. I assumed that it was just my body telling me that I needed to go to the restroom. So I did just that, achieved some mode of relief, got back in bed and tossed sleeplessly for another fifteen minutes. Being tired from being tired was the only thing I could say to describe it.

So finally, I got out of bed and stepped into the main part of the suite.

Rarity didn't appear to miss a beat as she wore her red glasses, going through outfit after outfit after outfit after outfit. The whole place started to look more like her draft room in the Carousel Boutique as opposed to a hotel suite. Pieces of cloth, fine material, jewels, and glitter saturated the room everywhere. Ribbons were strewn across the floor as Coco walked in with yet another dress. I rubbed my eyes to make sure that they weren't lying to me, and as such I was proven to be very much awake to the circumstances.

Coco was the first to see me, appearing somewhat puzzled. "Oh, I thought you were still asleep. What are you doing up?"

"I could ask the same thing out of you two." I replied. "I thought this was just supposed to be a quick patch job."

Rarity broke her long silence and spoke with an unusually high amount of energy. "Well there's no such thing as a patch job on something that's meant to be perfect. I'm also making a few alterations on some of the outfits to make them pop out a little more. I'm also finalizing some designs and adding the finishing touches to them now."

I was left scratching my head at her reasoning. "Um... shouldn't the finishing touches be finished the day before the dress rehearsal?"

Coco chuckled a little as she held a cup of coffee. "Oh yeah, I guess you wouldn't know about what we do. This is just another Monday afternoon to us. We're always making final adjustments the day before the show, sometimes the morning of."

"Seems like a lot to take on mentally." I stated. "Wouldn't you be a little fried before the show then?"

"Are you kidding? I've redid an entire line overnight with a different design choice... which was originally Rarity's theme." Coco stated.

"That wasn't you that stole my fabric." Rarity interrupted. "That was all Suri's doing. I hold none of that against you, dear."

"I know. But it's even worse for her to force you to redo your entire line from scratch the night before and the morning of. I bet that must've really pissed you off."

"In a competition, no less." The alabaster seamstress stated.

"Well it's a good thing you still won, right?" Coco added.

Rarity stopped sewing for a moment and looked at her assistant. "And if it weren't for you, I would've been more stressed in doing the costumes for Henny of the Hills. Again, a thing I would've done easily if it wasn't for things happening like they did. But I wasn't going to let that opportunity become something to add to my own resumé, especially after you did what you did. I had to repay you, there was no other way to express my gratitude."

"I'm just happy to have my own name in Manehattan! You gave that to me." Coco replied.

I shook my head as I mocked the two mares. "Oh will the two of you kiss each other already? I swear it's like both of you are in love with each other."

"Of course we love each other." Rarity replied, winking at her associate.

Coco walked up to Rarity, pulling her closer to her as she looked into her eyes. "You're just jealous that you're not as close to her as we are together."

Rarity giggled as she poked a hoof at the young mare's nose. "You are a doll."

"And you are a babe." Coco answered as the two started to lean into each other, their lips almost making contact.

While they went on with their performance, I felt the chill in my loins grow drastically colder while my mind started to burn with nothing but thoughts of how I was going to get my revenge on Rarity for condemning me to suffer, I covered my eyes and walked towards the door. "Okay, you win! Can you two stop fucking me over like this, damn!"

The two mares laughed it off as Coco replied. "Are you kidding? I love Rarity, but I'd never do something like that with her. You've gotta get your mind out of the gutter."

"Surely a wholesome friendship isn't so much of a lewd concept. You must learn some self-control." Rarity added.

As if I'm the only one who's sexually frustrated in this room. "Hi kettle, name's pot. Have we met?"

The two laughed a bit more before Rarity finally asked. "So what's got you up, dear? I know a sewing machine going off in the wee hours of the morning isn't the sweetest lullaby, but surely you weren't so disturbed by us working."

"I'm not sure. Maybe it's the spell you've put on me." I answered. "You mean to tell me that you've never had to wake up early because of this ridiculous spell?"

Rarity rubbed her chin and grew a little concerned. "I suppose there were some other side effects to consider for some parties. I'm not exactly sure how the spell will effect you entirely outside of it's intended purpose. But at least it will only be for another eight hours. From there you can rest up if you still feel like you're running on empty."

I only shook my head. "Hell, if it's for another eight hours, then I might as well make myself useful." Especially since this damn spell was practically Red Bull mixed with anti-Viagra. "What do you ladies need?"

"A bed with a strong stallion to cuddle me in it." Coco muttered under her breath.

Rarity smirked at her friend. "I'm fine so far, unless you'd want to get us some coffee."

I looked at the mare and deadpanned. "You. You want coffee?"

"Coffee is meant to be a 'burn the midnight oil' beverage and I expect it to be black to keep me awake. It also does nothing but give you bad breath in the morning." She stated, instinctively checking her own breath.

"But the lobby's pretty much dead now. So if you wanted to order some of the complimentary coffee packets for the coffee maker, then you're shit out of luck." Coco added.

Sometimes, I wonder how Rarity has the energy for this kind of stuff. Not even Pinkie would be up this early in the morning, probably within the next hour, yes. But she's not even remotely energetic in the morning, she's got a whole ritual to inflate her mane to it's usual poofiness. But Rarity's chugging along just fine.

It's four-something in the morning, I doubt anyone in Canterlot is serving coffee at this time. Hell, the guards don't even get a complementary cup for keeping watch during the night shift. But I do know a place that will serve regardless of the time. "I can get you girls some coffee. Just a catch though."

"What's that?" Coco asked.

"I need a quick ride to the castle."

Thirty Minutes Later...

I was granted a taxi to the castle, where I ran through Mel's portal, borrowed her car, made a quick trip to Starbucks, and came back without her noticing anything. I however did leave her a few bucks on the counter for the gas I spent on the trip. I also bought her a little something for breakfast in the microwave as a bribe to not chew me out when she woke up. But when I got back with the three cups of still-scalding-hot coffee, the two mares just froze in place.

They both herded towards me like cats hearing towards an open can of tuna.

"Alright, I've got a little something special for the both of you, to reward you for your hard work."

As I held out one cup, Rarity took one and removed the lid. She was surprised by what she saw. "Whipped cream? Nondis you bought me some whipped cream?"

Coco took hers as I replied to her. "Not entirely. That is a Caffè Mocha, rich Columbian roast with beans from the continent of South America, with steamed whole milk to give it a richer composition, a bittersweet mocha sauce, a tad touch of hazelnut creamer, topped with a dollop of sweet whipped cream."

Coco quickly popped the lid and took a sip. She pulled the cup down, smacking her mouth as she tasted the concoction. She then took yet another sip for reassurance. And another for good measure. Though she was panting from the heat of the beverage, she was left nursing the rim of her cup while she smiled sweetly at the drink.

"Whatever you brought us, she's positively enraptured by it." Rarity stated as she also received her first taste.

Her reaction was very much similar to that of her associate. The two mares were left nursing their cups carefully as to not spill a drop. As I went through my bag, I pulled out a little something extra. "And if you think you're in heaven now, just try it with the cheese danish."

The two took their danishes and chomped on them quietly. The two ponies practically wagged their tails as the delicious combination of beverage and snack made them stop working long enough to savor the tastes. From there, I took my own drink and looked around the room at all the dresses they've finished on.

It would appear that their break was a much-needed one, they only have a total of four dresses to do now.

Coco looked at me and broke her silence. "So... Where'd you get this stuff?"

"A little chain of stores from my world." I answered, causing both of them to jump at the answer.

Rarity looked at her coffee and smirked. "Well, it's no wonder why you're so addicted to this stuff. It's a sin."

"Much like you eating an entire tub of ice cream when you're sad?" I joked, earning a dark glare from the seamstress.

"Your insult requires the payment of one pint of pistachio almond, I expect that payment by noon tomorrow."

"How about a cone at the downtown creamery?" I smiled back.

"You're paying." She deadpanned.

"Not an issue. I collect my bits today anyhow."

She raised her cup to her muzzle once more as she glanced to me. "I also want one stroll through the park."

"Fine."

"And I want another cone there, it can be vanilla, it doesn't matter."

"Okay."

"And I want a day at the spa, both of us."

...I think that pint of ice cream is looking really inconsequential right now. "About that pint of ice crea─"

"I DEMAND COMPENSATION FOR THE FEELINGS YOU'VE HURT!"

She's so cute when she's being a hammy dramatic. It was always one of the things I loved about her, it was funny to poke and prod at her until she'd pout and explode from seemingly nowhere. I might as well treat her since I've 'insulted' her. "So you want a date?"

"...Maybe."

"Maybe isn't a yes." I replied.

"We've got the suite for another night to rest up. So if I'm feeling somewhat energized... maybe."

"Or I could just go back to my world for the day and spend my time working out with Mel." I quietly mumured, peeking back to a pouty mare.

"So you're going to take back everything!?"

I looked at her with a devilish grin as I whispered out slowly. "...Maaaaaaaaybe."

Needless to say she was not amused. "Noon tomorrow. Canterlot Creamery located on the corner of Bit and Spur. No later. We'll have ice cream, we'll walk in the park, we'll have ice cream again, and then we'll head to the spa."

"Dinner?" I inquired.

"We can call room service for dinner. I'd like our dining to be more private."

"Wine?" I asked, walking up to her.

"Meaning that you can stand high over me doesn't mean that you're that intimidating, Mr. Haines."

I didn't say anything, I just chomped my teeth at her, causing her to wince back and hold her neck.

"You're going to make me wait for that, aren't you?"

Hell, if she's got me under this weird ass spell, then I might as well make her wait for it a little longer. Granted, I won't be so happy to do so, but I'll probably enjoy it more when the time comes. Or I can just toy with her and make her think that I'll hold off until tomorrow. "Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe?"

The mare said nothing when she used her magic to grab at my collar. "Those deliciously sharp teeth will be in my neck after I get back."

"You better promise to repair the shirt you'll be ripping off of me tonight. Besides, you made it."

A light popping noise emanated from the collar of my shirt as she yanked me down to see her eye-to-eye. "Consider it a date."

I chomped my teeth at her again, making her coo lightly with juvenile anticipation. Her cheeks grew redder as her hind legs crossed over one another. She even wrapped her tail around her leg for good measure as I stood back up.

Coco just stared at the both of us as she enjoyed her coffee. "Will you two just fuck already?"

Several hours passed since my quick coffee run. Rarity managed to finish her final touches to every outfit in the models' wardrobe. Just the thought of having to do over seventy some-odd dresses by hoof made me realize that I was better off losing an arm in a fight than working myself to unsightly cramps. And it also made me realize how much energy Rarity actually had in the tank.

Just after finishing up, there was no cup of coffee to keep the two mares awake. The effects of the caffeine took a toll on them, having them take a few more bathroom breaks than usual. Guess they got sluggish after a while and dropped dead on the floor. Since Rarity was knocked out, I took the opportunity to grab my phone. The moment I found it, I noticed that she took some creative liberty in altering it's appearance.

Huh, guess my phone's covered in precious rubies with diamonds replicating the Apple logo. How much is this phone worth now? I sure as hell can't take this out in public or get the screen repaired if I accidentally cracked it. I'm not gonna be able to upgrade it for that matter unless I'm just using this for novelty. Guess I can't get rid of it now, whatever the case may be.

...No pun intended.

Again, I had the opportunity to watch the sun rise from the land of shadow. I didn't really feel too tired, even though I should've been just as unconscious as the other two. But the restlessness of this spell made me mentally drained. Personally, I don't see how this spell helps ponies do their job in the heat season, it doesn't do anything but make you feel like shit for the better half of the day. And you might as well have damn vibrator in you instead of running around like this.

Well I suppose the only way to get tired now is to get moving again.

I snatched up my stuff, took careful consideration of my extravagantly expensive phone, and made my way out the door. When I reached the streets of Canterlot, I just started running. As I ran, I had some music on speaker to pace myself to the rhythm. And as the time passed, I got sweatier and sweatier. I didn't immediately run for the castle, I actually ran a lap around the keep. Onto the walls, through the checkpoints, down the battlements, hitting every stair both up and down the way. But when I finished, I worked on my upper body.

Meaning that I was on break didn't mean that I couldn't condition myself in some manner. The last thing I need to do is lose my physical edge and courage after a hospital visit. Granted, sit-ups and push-ups were a definite no-no, but pull-ups were fair game. So for pull-ups, I had to walk to the stairs of the battlements, drop down to an area where my feet couldn't quite reach the ground and pulled my own weight. Reason for it was simply because they didn't have a bar high enough for humans to use. If anything, their bar would be hitting me on the shoulder.

When I finished, my arms felt more like limp noodles and my legs like reinforced concrete pylons. The cool late autumn air made me familiar to the fact that I could easily catch a cold or something worse if I stayed out here sweating like this. Shortly after a break, I made my way into the castle. And just as I was about to open the door, an aura of magic surrounded the handle and yanked the door open.

"Just absolutely ridiculous! I'm doing my best to help you, but what have you gotten me!?"

I just stepped aside as a disgruntled Single File stormed out of the door, apparently talking to himself.

"You give me nothing but grief, you ask me to stay by you and yet you call me all sorts of names when you're all there. But as soon as I'm going out to use the bathroom it's all 'Please don't leave me, I'm so alone!' Well if you're all alone, then go to your freaking house, you've got a killer mansion and not once have you ever stayed the night over there!"

I know he's going in on whoever, but I'm kinda genuinely concerned for the guy. He's starting to create a bit of a spectacle all by himself. "Uh, hey?..."

He didn't even know I was here. "Oh, and I'm always bringing you dinner, never the other way around. Like seriously, how do you even live the way you do? You sleep and eat in an office, you haven't even given me my day off since the whole court debacle. Now you wanna take my nights away too!? I'm not your fucking─"

"Hey!" I called out, quickly grabbing his attention.

He stopped for a moment and looked around to see a few guards posted around the front lawn staring at him or talking to each other as they're pointing at him. The stallion's face grew pinkish as he pouted at my presence. "Well it's... something to see you walking again."

...I'm just gonna let that one slide. "So is your ex-girlfriend clinging on to you or something?"

Suddenly, he snapped at me, becoming somewhat defensive. "Oh I'm sure you'd love to talk about your ex-girlfriend, don't you!? So how's she, I remember her dumping you in public. How did that feel?"

"I'm pretty sure I'm just fine to move on. You look like you're having issues, domestic abuse issues."

The stallion groaned as he pounded his head with his own hoof. "Why do you even matter!? You've just been more trouble for me ever since you pissed the old bastard off!"

Oh... It's in relation to his boss. "You think you've been the only one with issues? Have you seen the tabloids lately?"

"Who hasn't!? You daring to yank the princess' hindleg like that? You're practically in the news and the old fart hasn't stopped yelling at me over it." He stated angrily. "I hate him when he's like this! He's always finding a scapegoat for his problems!"

Well at least he's open to discuss it, maybe I can get some information out of a talk or two. I guess I can find a way we can relate. "Yeah, I know how that goes. I've been the scapegoat ever since I've been promoted as the new captain of the guard."

"Whatever. Just leave me alone." He groaned, walking past me.

Before he could walk off, I trailed beside him to continue the conversation. "Hey, you're not the only one with issues here. You're dealing with a boss who's probably got a bit of an issue."

"Have you seen your boss?" He argued. "Princess Celestia isn't exactly the shining beacon the average ponies make her out to be. You do realize she signed off on the whole 'Approval Process' thing you had to go through, right?"

Very aware. "I don't think she meant to sign on it."

"Well she did!" He spat back. "A thousand years of no change in that department. How many guards have been doomed to die because of that? You're a guard, and you damn-near died on your own assignment!"

"You helped with the proceedings, didn't you?" I questioned.

"It's my job, what else am I supposed to do!? He says build a fire, you build a furnace around it. He says build me a bridge, you build a railroad leading to it. He says jump, and you're supposed to say 'off of what?' That's just how it goes." The stallion said before he sat on his haunches. "He's not usually like this when he's on his meds. But now he's gone all wacko. It's like he's forcing me to not even have my own life now!"

I pulled out my phone to take a peek at the time, noticing it was just a few minutes before nine. I scratched my chin as I spoke. "You drink?"

"Oh and don't even get me started on his drink selections! He's making all of this money, but for some odd reason he goes with the cheapest stuff. Buy one thing of quality to appease his peers and he's hounding me for it."

Yeah, he could use one. "Hey, wait here for a bit. I'm gonna go in and collect my weekly. When I get back out, we're gonna head out to one of the pubs. At least there we can talk."

The stallion cringed a bit as he questioned me. "Drinking, in broad daylight, IN THE EARLY MORNING?"

"Sure. If you were were I'm from, you'd consider it a daily dose of Vitamin A. Just don't do it before driving out."

The stallion stared at me unkindly. "This is not some sort of playful college shenanigans, it's real life!"

I placed my hand on his shoulder as I knelt to him. "Bud, I'm a college student, a senior no less. And to top it off, I'm also a frat boy, I wore a forty year-old lady's high school prom dress just to get in. Do I regret my decision? At times. Has it led to bad things? Of course. Did I follow up with our weekly community service obligations? Hell no. Did I do drugs? That's how I got here... indirectly."

The stallion quirked an eyebrow and spoke. "You are interesting to say the least."

"Yeah, but you don't write books off of that stuff and expect to sell 'em." I said, realizing I went off track a bit. "Anyways, drinks in the morning, nothing new to me. Some parts of my world don't even care for a casual glass or two to start the day. Just as long as you're responsible. We're not going out to get pissed drunk, we're relieving the stress. easing up a bit so you can go back to doing whatever it is you do best."

Single File looked at me quizzically, wondering if I was even sane. "You'd do that for me? Me, the one who helped sign your name to donate your body to science after you die, the one who helped along your worst political adversary?"

You know, now that he mentioned it, it would probably be no consequence to drag him off the side of the outer battlements and drop him a good thousand feet or more. But I'd be betraying my own self if I did something like that without hearing him out. Maybe I can negotiate something out of this. "...Yeaaah..." I said, partially seething inside. "Look, you said it yourself, it was your job. I've got a dirty job of my own. We can talk things out over the drinks, cool?"

The stallion looked a bit reluctant, his eyes glancing back at the upper levels of the castle. "If it gives me a break from him, I guess we can trade an olive branch or two.... for today."

"Hey, I've got nothing to do at the moment. Let's go."

Meanwhile in the Canterlot Dungeons...

The guards who stood over the entrance to Chrysalis' cell bowed in reverence to the visiting princess. Cadance paid their show of respect little mind as she marched into the confinement. Her eyes glanced around the room, seeing nothing out of place. But this time, she noticed a sickening burning odor that made her wince back as she initially came across it. The
blinded prisoner chuckled as she spoke to her visitor.

"If my nose doesn't deceive me, that scent is practically worn to death by a certain insecure princess."

"You know why I'm here." Cadance replied, not wanting to waste any time.

Chrysalis smiled as she produced a villainous cackle. "So you can torture yourself some more? I never took you for the masochist type, but I'll take that into account when I am freed from this prison. I'll even do you the courtesy of letting your sister-in-law participate."

Cadance rolled her eyes. "Do you think she'll let you after she's soundly defeated you?"

Chrysalis sighed as she sat to her haunches. "She was the one who freed me, you do realize that? She'd be too naïve to let her brother suffer at my hooves again. And as a result, she'd offer herself for whatever. He'd argue. She'd refuse. You'd turn your head while I torture the little pony princess with my endless wave of drones. At least she'll be more than experienced in the art of mating."

Cadance, taking exception to her beloved sister-in-law being threatened, stood in the face of the disgraced changeling queen. Her magic grasped at Chrysalis' regrowing horn. "If I didn't make a vow to be the upstanding figure of authority that I am, I would treat you no differently."

"Again, Cadance? You're so easy to taunt." She replied, appearing bored of the predictable response the princess gave her.

"You may be calm and collected now, but that'll only last as long as I'll let it."

The changeling queen didn't even flinch, she simply spoke to the mare before her as if it was a casual conversation. "So what do you have planned? Shocking me, burning my hide, pulling at my wings, breaking my horn again? You honestly think that your husband hasn't already tried to have that done? Oh, I teased him while he watched me suffer. You'll be no different."

As the queen was more casual in her tone, Cadance was far firmer. "I promise that it will be different."

"Just like he promised himself to you before you two were married?" She asked while standing expressionless.

The princess paused for a moment, giving the thought of her time with Shining Armor some replay before she calmed herself. "I already know it's not going to happen again."

"Oh, then I assume you know of how he had another before you?"

"I'm sure." Cadance confessed as she reflected on her engagement period with Shining.

"Even a pegasus mare who died under his watch was one such mare, it's the reasons why he has nightmares at night."

"And it's the reason why we never consummated on the night of our marriage. Nothing is hidden between us." Cadance replied calmly.

The changeling queen cracked a smirk, taunting the princess once more. "Not because he told you, but because you always depend on Celestia to tell you everything. And it's not just her, it his counselors, his doctors, his closest friends, his fellow guards. You get everything about him with the exception of one thing, the direct source. So tell me how does it feel to have a husband who could never trust you enough to tell you the truth?"

Cadance continued to suppress her emotions when she replied. "I have a husband who's inconsistent, he's only a pony. I love him regardless."

"And still with almost half a decade under your names, you fail to have a foal with the one you love."

With the changeling queen finally hitting a nerve, Cadance pointed her horn at Chrysalis' neck. "Maybe I want to wait until I've rid the world of you to do that."

The captive queen guffawed and taunted the mare further. "Oh it would be so much fun if you had a son. Imagine him coming to see me every lonely night, kissing me, holding me like I am his one true love. Showing me how much of his father he has in him." Cadance clenched her eyes shut as she continued. "Or maybe a daughter! My drones would love to take your daughter in and show her what it means to be a brood."

A light blue ring of magic encircled the prisoner's neck, holding her up as high as the shackles around her legs would allow. The pink princess twitched while she hissed at her. "You are disgusting."

"And you need to stop wasting my time with your visits. The only thing you do is tell me how much you want me to suffer without actually doing anything. Personally, I think that's a bit of an insult. At least your husband has the balls to watch me scream in pain." The changeling queen felt her air flow become more restricted with each passing second. With the little air she was afforded, she provoked the princess further. "Then again, Shining Armor always had a thing for making me scream. I wonder how many of my changelings are stemmed from his seed."

Cold crystals started to form at the hooves of the pink princess. Her eyes grew in tandem to the amount of bloodlust she felt. Her body gave off a bit of a chill while she completely compressed the changeling's airways. "I am─"

Before she could continue, the sound of the door's mechanics moving behind her prompted her to release the prisoner before her indignant behavior was discovered. And upon entering the room, the visitor waved at the mare. "Hey there, your pinkness."

Cadance looked back at the guards, who realized that their allowing the unexpected visit would earn a modicum of the
princess' wrath, quietly shied out of her view, letting the doors close once more. "How did you get through security? How did you get clearance?"

Alex threw his hands in the air as he approached slowly. "You know, it's funny how this one guys keeps his really important information in his phone, in his porn folder no less. So what else am I supposed to do other than exploit it for situational reasons?"

The princess brought a hoof to her forehead in a show of disbelief. "Figures... Nondis would be so irresponsible."

"To us, yeah. But for random ponies trying to crack his pass code, not so much." He said, walking up to the two equines. His eyes slowly trailed towards the captive queen. "So, this is where queen bug-breath's been stashed? I kinda expected it to be a little more dramatic, her cage surrounded by a massive lava pit and two large magic laser guns pointed at her cage in case it broke open."

"How comical." Cadance replied sarcastically.

"So, what are you doing down here, Miss Cadance?" He asked.

"I'm here to interrogate a certain somepony over some much-needed information. Now if I may ask, why are YOU down here?"

"Well it turns out that in order for my little plan to move forward, I need a bit of basic information out of miss power bottom over there."

Alex's comment managed to break the captive queen's silence, eliciting a light chuckle. "Well aren't you a charmer, your voice is rather unfamiliar and I do think you'll be worth a look, if they didn't place this wretched blindfold on me."

"To be frank, I'm not looking for anything like that. But I do want something from you." He answered.

"And what would you want out of me?" She asked.

"Magic, of course. We want to know the basis of your mana structure..." Alex stated, earning a perplexed stare from Cadance and a unhinged jaw from the changeling queen. "Now I don't know shit about magic, I was asked to ascertain that information for another purpose."

Cadance dropped her expression as she realized that the surprisingly detailed question was actually from another source. "Oh, you almost had me there."

The queen's mouth then tilted to show disapproval. "Oh, then it would be safe to assume that you are one of them then."

"I'm not sure what you mean by 'them.' Can you spell it out for me." He inquired.

"I have no business with a breed of murderers." She answered coldly.

"Well you called for one by summoning them to this world, might as well accept the fact that you brought this on yourself." Cadance chided coyly, earning a growl from the queen. "Oh, is that a touchy subject still? Guess I'll never get to experience the loss of two-hundred of my own offspring from various stallions. Who's the brood now?" Cadance asked with a cruel delight.

"Your husband. I'm willing to bet that he'll ride me again." Chrysalis teased back.

The moment of triumph Cadance experience was brief, now substituted by seething anger. "My husband despises you."

"Oh, isn't that how it all starts?" She continued to provoke the princess, her smile growing bolder with each second. "He'll get angry, I'll tell him about how impotent he is, he'll argue me down, I'll get him angry again, I'll keep making him angry until he finally reaches that boiling point. And then he'll pin me to the ground, he'll yank my mane, and he'll go to town just like last time."

"WHAT!?" Cadance screamed vehemently.

"Oh he tells me just how frustrated he is with you... or at least he thinks it. And then he'll take out that frustration on me, thinking he's raping me. Truth be told, I'm expecting him to crack sometime tomorrow afternoon." The queen shuddered as she cooed with glee. "Oh the things I'd give to tame his most feral pleasures. I'd might even give him a family for that one. I'll even tell him that all the changelings I breed from that point on would be his very own foals. And after I tell him, I wonder how he'll come to terms with murdering his own flesh and blood."

Cadance quickly went back to trying to choke the mare, the room growing colder as her horn glowed again. But before she could get a solid grasp, Alex tapped her horn and placed a hand on her to hold her back. "You do realize she's riling you up, right?"

"Let. Me. Go." Cadance heaved as her chest rose and fell dramatically.

"Yeah, I know. She's in your head. You gotta put that shit aside and take it with a grain of salt."

"She is plotting to hurt my husband, to use him. How dare you stop me from ending her existence. SHE IS A BLIGHT TO EQUESTRIA AND SHE SHOULD BE EXECUTED!"

"That's what she wants you to say." He stated. "You're falling right in and you don't even know it. You think you're doing something noble for a nation's safety, but you're just going on emotions. You need to compose yourself before you do yourself AND your peers some damage."

Chrysalis sighed as she appeared unamused. "And it was just starting to get fun."

"I remember someone trying to cut off your head once." Alex pointed out. "I'm certain you didn't think that was much fun, especially after we cleared out your extended family."

Chrysalis was finally silent, clenching her jaw while he spoke.

"Now, I didn't come down here to break up a catfight. I'm here for information, and you're gonna tell me everything before we find out the hard way. And trust me, lady, you don't want to find out exactly how that's going to be done."

"...Maybe I'm inclined to find out. Maybe I'm curious." She replied quietly.

"Maybe you don't mind if we take one of these changeling prisoners and examine them all the same, eh?" He said as he leaned into her ear. "Or maybe you'd prefer if I take you and a few others back to my world, where there is no magic to feed on. At least then I can make a fortune by selling you guys off as aliens from a different world, you'd fit the bill. And then we can talk about how you can talk, which would lead to some government agency taking you in and cutting you open for anatomical research faster than any animal rights activist can raise up a chant in protest."

The queen tilted her muzzle towards him as she growled. "You are irrepressible, disgusting, inequine."

"And that's not even the end of it. There's still the matter of seeing what all you can endure. What all can you withstand, are you strong enough to live throughout some of the most devastating things that humankind has ever concocted? What is your reaction to... corrosive fluids, potent nerve agents, cruel gasses that could make a mere human like myself gargle and drown in my own fluids, foaming with spit, blood, and bile. How long would it take for you to withstand the radioactive exposure potent enough to kill me in... five minutes tops?"

The changeling queen tried to inch herself away, but Alex grabbed her head, firmly pulling it towards him as he whispered. "I wouldn't mind seeing you go through all of this, after what all you did to my brother. I would've love to see you suffer, getting your head cut off is too damn good for you. At least now I know your shit's about five pounds." Stroking his fingers through her mane, he used his other hand to trace the outlines of her tendons in her neck. "Oh what I'd give to see you stand helpless while your offspring are made into scientific research. I would love to watch you mourn as your sons are cut open, each part of them excavated to benefit the advancement of mankind's knowledge. I only need another two hundred lives, we can breed the rest and watch them grow, watch them breed, watch them become born, and watch them die on our tables. I'm sure their cries will be as muffled as possible to minimize the noise."

"ENOUGH!" Chrysalis demanded.

Alex continued to stroke her neck, this time using the other hand to place a finger into one of the hole in her foreleg. "What interesting creatures you are. I'm even begging to ask how exactly you would taste with a bit of salt and rosemary. Maybe even grill a few ribs and drizzle some sauce on em. Texas is famous for it's BBQ, I guess I could sell the stuff for millions."

Suddenly, the room was permeated with the strong scent of ammonia. Alex looked down to see the shaking queen soling the ground she sat on. Her head became unsteady as he felt her tremble in his possession. Cadance looked at him with shock and a bit terrified as he smiled in her ear.

"So... about this changeling magic you've got."

Five minutes later...

Alex walked out of the room, playing back the psychologically tormented queen's voice as it went on to explain the nuances of changeling magic. Cadance stepped out beside him, not so much as looking at him as he happily put his phone away. The guards just stared, completely unaware of what took place in the cell.

"Well, that was a page from Jeffrey Dahmer's guidelines of how not to act like a human. Hope I won't have to do that again." He muttered to himself as he looked to Cadance. "You alright, princess?"

Visibly shaken from what she witnessed, she stopped holding her breath and placed a hoof on her chest. "What was that?"

"What was what?" He asked.

"Do you humans... are you..." She stammered for a while, still trying to find the words to say.

Alex didn't flinch as he answered her. "We wouldn't without reason. We eat meat because it's what we've inherently done for over a thousand years. In the days of little harvest or cold winter, we would hunt to feed our families. And of course we don't always prefer meat, sometimes we'd like a salad or something light. It's normal for us, and I understand it's not common for you. But it is what it is, and that's not likely to change anytime soon, especially if it hasn't for some two-hundred thousand years."

"So when she summoned for the most dangerous species─" Cadance began.

"We're a pretty damn good answer." He concluded. "But where I'm from, we don't like to turn our teeth on equines. So bear that in mind. We're not gonna hurt anyone without a reason to do so. Some will, that happens with anyone and anything, but as long as we can communicate with each other, we should be able to make peace and coexist."

Cadance finally looked at him for the first time in a while. "So what you said in there, what was that all about?"

"There was this one guy in our world by the name of Jeffrey Dahmer. He was a bad person to say the least, he did a lot of things that made many of us terrified, especially those with young sons or brothers. I won't go into detail but he had a preference to males. The things he did would lead many of us to believe that he was nothing more than subhuman, a monster, a murderer. To this day, he's remembered for the seventeen lives he's claimed, raped, dismembered... or worse, defiled."

"What made him that way?" She asked.

He sighed as he shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. He was clinically sane at the trial, so they threw him in prison. Few of the prisoners heard about him and started a riot, just so they could get to him. They did the world a favor, and now he's only a name to which his legacy left behind a series of writers trying to replicate the creature's mind in murder and suspense novels, the perfect villain who met a perfect end."

Cadance shook her head with astonishment. "That is a villain if I ever heard of one. But what made you bring his character up?"

"I wanted to play a mind game with Chrysalis, I wanted to make her snap. Of course next time, I'll have to beef up the performance... if there is a need for a 'next time' that is."

"And you played the role of the villain?"

"We're already antagonized by her, it'd only make sense to ham it up a bit. Besides, she fucked with family."

Cadance shuddered as she thought to herself. "I would hate to see what you would do if she actually killed your brother."

Alex wouldn't look at her as he walked forward. "I wouldn't let you find out. I'd protect him from anyone, even from ourselves."

"You love your brother that much?"

"Just as long as you understand my place..."

He made sure that his words came across as sharply as possible, causing the princess to pause for a moment, watching him walk down the hallway alone to the stairs leading up back to the surface. He turned back to her and stared.

"Don't fuck with my family."

Later at the Bun-n-Barrel Sports Bar...

My legs seem to be getting their strength back as I found today's commute not as troubling as it was a few days ago. But I was still relatively tired because of the exercise from earlier. So we settled for one of the local sports bars and caught them as they opened. Being that it was early in the day and a couple of hours before the lunch rush, it was still rather empty. So Single File and I had an opportunity to talk things out.

And did he have a lot to talk about.

"And then he just grabs the bottle and downs the whole thing! That thing was one of the rarest bottles of wine, four-hundred years of age, magically tended to refine it's flavor over the decays of time, two-hundred thousand bits, down the hatch like it was some cheap punch."

Obvious to say he had some things to vent on.

"And then my marefriend's already seeing some other stallion on the side! I mean, I haven't caught them or anything, but I don't remember buying her a new bracelet from the shopping district, I never go to the shopping district for anything other than food and drink runs!"

Oh yeah, and he has some relationship issues too.

"I can't leave her. I want to be able to trust her but I know she's losing her patience for me. My job's been keeping me so busy that we can't even see each other that often. I don't get weekends off, maybe a weekday or two but she's working on those days. And I'm caught between my boss and his son's issues."

I guess I should give him some interaction for a change. "What's the issue between him and his son?"

"I can't say. He trusted me never to tell of him. But I can say that he's a bit unusual to say the least. He has tastes..."

I took a sip of my drink while I asked. "What tastes?"

"I... I can only say that he doesn't like him too much. But even then, you'd find it strange how he never goes home. If anypony had a problem foal, they'd still be able to go back home and sleep in a warm cozy bed and deal with all the dysfunction in the morning."

Father-son issues... if that isn't a familiar talking point. "So you think the son is living a lifestyle that's kinda making Count lose his mind?"

He shrugged as he chucked back another swig of his drink. "I don't think that's what's hitting him like this. It had to be something really beyond that for him to act all deranged like you saw him the other day."

"If he wasn't out to kill me, I would consider helping him." I bluntly answered as I picked up a menu. "But being that he's out to ruin my life and Twilight's, my hands are tied."

"You did give him the old smack talk when you first showed up to Parliament." He stated.

"That dude I played 'bullshit' with was him?"

"Yeah. You not only embarrassed him and shut him down with your performance, you actually showed him that with enough support, you could be a threat to his political ideologies."

"He's a traditionalist, isn't he?" I questioned.

"Not quite. He's a staunch nationalist with the agenda of putting Equestria's citizens first and foremost. With you being an outsider holding a position of prominence, it presents some rise to opposition. However, you're not the only one he has it out for. He honestly doesn't like Spike either because of... you know."

"Dragon." I concluded.

"Yeah." He confirmed, shyly rubbing the back of his neck. "He doesn't like dragons, humans, donkeys, mules, zebras, yaks, or even alicorns for that matter."

...He doesn't like alicorns, despite their being ponies themselves?... Well then. "So he doesn't like anything that isn't an earth pony, a pegasus, or a unicorn... to sum it all up."

The stallion cringed a bit as he lowered his head. "Actually, with a few documents he's proposed, you can argue it goes a little further than that."

I leaned in and whispered low. "How far exactly?"

The stallion merely tapped his horn three times with a tilt of his head, I looked past him for a bit as I thought he was talking about something beside him. But he shook his head and tapped on his horn another three times, this time letting a small spark of his magic to shine through.

"Oh... unicorn supremacist." I whispered.

"He always talked about how powerful unicorns really are of all the three races. If need be, they can grant the other perks of the other two pony races for a temporary period of time. Levitation can be applied to self, giving off flight-like capabilities, but it takes a lot of magic to pull off. No normal unicorn could hope to pull it off, only high-level magic users. And earth pony magic involves super strength and tending the land, which there are buffs for, but not nearly as effective as the real thing. He'd often quote 'A unicorn is capable of moving the very world we live on, the sky we look up to, and even the bodies that give us night and day. Our future is no different from those things, we move them as the rest.' He practically said that before every parliament meeting."

...That is a familiar line. I've actually heard Twilight say that once, like when she tried to force me to go out of the castle for the first time. But there was something different. "Isn't that a Swirl Star reference?"

"Starswirl the Bearded, but yes it is his quote with the exception of one minor word changed to his purpose. The original goes as 'A pony is capable of moving the very world we live on' and so forth."

Huh, that does explain a lot, but one thing is off. "Why the hate for alicorns?"

"Because alicorns hold all the executive powers. Not only that, but they control the freaking sun, moon, and stars! You'd think they'd be threatening to your species if you introduced them to your world, right?" He questioned. "Of course you might not think it, but I'm sure a bunch of you humans would take some issue with a creature able to raise your sun and moon without your ruler's permission."

I guess that would be an issue that could cause some global panic, he's not lying there. But it does bring up an argument. "Actually, our planet revolves around the sun. So it's not so much of the planet sitting in one spot while the sun and moon goes on this circular pattern. But the planet itself rotating around does give off a day-and-night cycle of twenty-four hours. I could go into detail, but that'll take forever."

The stallion stared back at me absolutely stunned over what he just heard. Quickly he grabbed my shirt and whispered in a low tone. "Before we continue this conversation, don't let anypony else hear you say that. That is NONSENSE."

"Well it's true. We don't have two deities controlling the sun and the moon. And for the record, we've been on our moon without the aid of magic. The ones we sent did their walking, they picked up their fair share of souvenirs, planted their flag, and came back down to the surface just after eight days."

He looked to me with astonishment. "You've broken the sky? But there's no possible way to break the sky. Even some of our most talented fliers in all of history have dared to go up so high before freezing to death or falling to their doom."

"And we only dared to go back through time to see the world as it once was before our respective times, even to undo past mistakes. But you guys got that down to a T." I responded.

"To break the sky... wow! That's absolutely astronomical!"

"We found other planets as well, none with life unfortunately. We do have plans to create life on other planets in our system, but that process will probably be just getting started when I'm laying on my deathbed."

The stallion hopped out of his seat, prancing in place as he showed juvenile levels of excitement. "This is so exhilarating, so fascinating, the archives couldn't hope to house such interesting knowledge and facts! You've got to tell me more about your world!"

I chuckled a bit at the stallion. "Yeah. It's like our two worlds have so much to share between us."

The stallion gradually stopped dancing in place, he started to look at me with his ears folded back in sorrow. "Yeah... and it's like the ones we work for are always so hellbent on ostracizing what's so different between us."

I walked up to the stallion and placed a hand on his shoulder. "My world's no different. We inherently fear what's different, what could change our understanding of the world around us. And we will sometimes attack what we are scared of most, not even looking to ourselves as the subject of our worst fears. But it's okay, it just has to take time. Believe me, in my world there was a time where we didn't believe a trip to the moon was possible, that it was just object in the sky. Hell, we once believed the earth was flat in some places. But we're capable of learning, and that's what gives me so much hope."

The stallion looked at me for a while and politely pulled my hand off of him. "You know, maybe I'm working for the wrong guy. But if something should happen where I don't have to work for somepony like him, I don't mind coming to you for an opportunity to prove myself."

"You sound like a dude who wants some change in his life." I stated, he answered with a single nod. "I know how you feel, I was in the same position just less than a year ago. It will change, we don't know when it will, but that time will reveal itself eventually."

The stallion turned away from me. "...I just realized I made a huge mistake."

"What is it?" I asked.

The stallion's mouth opened as he tried to say something, but nothing came out. Instead he appeared to be mannequin-like, stationary and silent, not even breathing. The stallion just froze until his legs gave way under him. Without warning, he just flopped to the ground like something had shot him dead. I ran over to check on him, he was completely unresponsive. I called for the bartender to reach for emergency services. But before he could leave the room, Single File snapped out of his trance and rubbed his head groggily. "Ugh... w-what happened?"

The bartender looked at me and then tried to prop him up. "You okay, bud?"

"What was I saying? What was I doing?" He asked, finally coming to his senses.

"You were talking to me." I answered.

"Hmm... no more alcohol for you. Can't have you running drunk this early in the day." The bartender stated. "Bathroom's gotta last me till later tonight, can't have you making a mess too early."

While the two walked over to the door, I was left standing in front of the bar. I was more than perplexed by what I experienced, I was left with even more questions than before. He didn't even have two drinks, he was more into nursing his beer over chugging it all down. He wasn't drunk enough to stumble, he was moving perfectly until then.

What just happened?

After I left the sports bar, I pretty much roamed around the streets of Canterlot. My getting a little tired from the other day gave me a bit of an incentive to learn the city a bit before I go off to my world for Thanksgiving. I was taking in the sights for the first time since I came here... for the first time. Four months and I haven't learned a damn thing about the city streets I'm assigned to protect, not a good look. Hence, I gave myself a challenge to learn as much as I could about this place until it was time to report to the Sun Cryst. That gave me around four hours to browse around.

Maybe it was the more-condensed feel of everything being in one place, or everything not taking ten minutes to walk to, but it was starting to brew the idea of trying to find an apartment to stay at. I mean, I wasn't going to be staying in Twilight's Castle anytime soon, and it would put me a lot closer to work. Of course the girls would be upset that I left, even the CMC's, but given everything that happened, it might be time for a restart.

I'm going to need my mattress back while princess star butt is sprawled all over it.

But on the flip side of things, I could really use the portal there for a quick transfer down the mountain, turning a three to six hour affair, all at the mercy of the mountain's stability and wildlife, to about fifteen to twenty minutes. If it was a dire emergency, that trip would probably be no shorter than five. And it would probably give Twilight less of an incentive to go into angry ex mode.

Though I'm really questioning whether or not she'd actually have the moxie to dump the rest of my stuff off of her balcony. Either way, I'm not wanting to find out.

And then there's the thought that it would take me away from the girls, who still do a lot for me. I know I shouldn't show so much dependence on them, but they are the ones who know what I need and can give it to me without taking advantage of my income or status. And that's a serious thing to consider if I move here. I'm a hot topic because of drama and other things, they are going to find ways to bleed me dry. And staying in the castle barracks will pretty much deprive me of privacy cause I won't be having any relationships without them snooping around.

...I think it would be better to talk to the new owner of the hotel I'm at. I know Counter Bell's mother is overlooking the property now. I've missed her son's funeral because of the mission at Arimaspi Mountain. I owe her more than an apology, I've gotta talk with her on what she wants done. From there, I can start to make plans.

My walking around town did pick up a few paparazzi ponies trying to ask a few questions. A few of them were nice enough to approach me with a couple of questions about my well-being and how my trip to the mountain went, they didn't take long, just two minutes out of my walk. I answered those as I moved along, telling them about the personnel I've had the pleasure of working with. But for the ones that just wanted to ask me about the break-up, my issues with Cadance, or any possible love interests I might have on the side, I felt it's fair to pull a Heisman maneuver or two.

The four hours passed and I was already a bit tired from the walking, but I needed to get my legs back into Ponyville commuter standards. I headed back to the Sun Cryst hotel, headed back to the hotel room, and walked up to the door to find the door had already been propped open. From inside, I could hear a variety of giggles. So I knocked twice and entered, finding that the girls were already here to give Rarity a bit of a pep talk before the big show.

"Well Ah'll be, already on yer legs! Ya need to take it easy sometime, sugarcube." Applejack said when she walked up to me.

Rainbow flew over to give me a fist bump. "Ha, look who's talking. Aren't you the workaholic of the group?"

Rarity chortled, covering her muzzle with a hoof. "I think she's learned her lesson by now. I believe she's right, you do have to take it easy on yourself."

Pinkie essentially leaped from the ceiling onto my back, startling me a bit. "Nonz! You should've wrote us a letter that you were gonna get back on your feet."

The slight amount of pain I had in my back was negligible compared to the comfort of having a friend close by. "Let me guess, cause you wanted to throw me a party for being able to walk again?"

"No silly." She replied. "I wanted to work on your Congratulations-on-Returning-Alive-from-Arimaspi-Mountain party and a Happy-Getting-Checked-Out-of-the-Hospital party."

"Wouldn't it be better to call it an appreciation party?" Fluttershy suggested. "It's a little easier to fit on the banner."

Pinkie tapped a hoof on her chin as she thought out loud. "Hmm... I do need a few more banners. Guess I'll just call it an 'Nonnie's Happy Appreciation' party on paper. At least I can save one or two for his birthday."

Rarity then interjected. "Wait! I don't think we've ever celebrated your birthday."

It's because my birthday is on January 11th. That was just two days after I got here in Equestria. "Well it's a bit too early to celebrate it, we're still a little while off."

"A little while off might even mean ya been here for a whole year." Applejack pointed out. "So does that mean that it's sometime next month or is it the month after?"

Pinkie yanked at my pants leg and shook me. "C'mon Non-Non, tell us!"

"Well, to be honest, it was about two days after I got here."

The group stared at me blankly while Pinkie crawled up my leg and hung her foreleg around my neck, giving her leverage to prop herself against my chest as she pointed at me. "You mean to tell me that you've been holding out on us? That we missed your birthday?"

"Well to be fair, it was a while ago and I was too nervous to say anything. So it's nothing to worry about."

"It is rather sad that you had to experience your birthday in a land you didn't know." Fluttershy sad as she flew up to pull Pinkie off of me. "But that doesn't mean that we should consider it as 'nothing to worry about.' You're our friend and we'd feel much better if you were to make up for it."

"Yeah, come on out with it so we can get a bash going!" Rainbow shouted.

"I'm sure we've got some gifts for you that are long overdue." Rarity added with a wink.

"Ah'm probably gonna have it out on the orchard, lots of open air and plenty of space away from the nosy press ponies. Sounds fair?" Applejack questioned.

While the other five continued to interact with me, Twilight sat by the window, not so much as responding to the atmosphere. I can probably assume she's had some words with Shining already, but she's appearing to be unhappy about it. Everypony's tone tempered down gradually as they slowly realized that one voice was completely absent from the conversation.

"Uh. Twilight, you alright over there?" Applejack asked, reaching out to her.

As the farm pony touched her, the purple princess got out of her seat and walked past all of us. When she walked past me, I felt a warm sensation push me at the back and shoulders, guiding me towards the door. "Nopony follow us." She murmured.

The others looked on with confusion while I was only introduced to the back of her head. She removed the latch that kept the door open and allowed the two of us to remain locked outside of the room. She dragged me a little further down the hall before she finally spoke to me.

"Shining and Cadance will be here tonight." She said angrily. "Your brothers and your friends will be here tonight. Everypony who is worth anything will be here tonight."

I could only drop my head as she threw a scroll to my feet. "This again?"

"I don't know what you're doing, but I don't like it." Twilight hissed. "You are playing our stability for a soap opera. And I can't have that, especially when you're using my friends as an emotional anchor."

Apparently she doesn't know all the details, but she's gotten the gist of what we're trying to pull off. "That's not what I'm trying to do." I lied.

Slowly, the scroll was levitated to my face as she stomped her hoof in anger. "I expect nothing from you but this. If you have any love for me left over, you would read this and separate yourself from Rarity."

I looked at her and took the scroll. "Why are you being so controlling? I thought we were better than this, we were okay when we broke up."

"You were begging me at one point as I walked out." She recalled. "I could say the same thing."

"Twilight, you left me in a bed when I couldn't walk, I woke up from a coma and you tell me that it's over. Don't you think I was somewhat hurt by that?"

Twilight looked off to the side as she answered me. "I had no other choice. There was a reason I did that, I thought you knew."

"So it's okay for you to have a reason to hurt me but I have a spat with someone else and you choose to be angry about it? How fair is that? That's what I've been trying to tell you from the time I said we should take a break. You didn't get the memo then?"

"Like how you left me with clipped wings, how you never once comforted me at that time?"

"Comfort you? I tried doing that and you screamed at me." I responded quickly. "I left to my world to get away and decompress because of how unfairly I was treated. Or maybe you just like seeing me suffer, like you've always wanted."

"I didn't mean it that way!" She argued. "I just wanted to have a little fun with you, you thought it was something else."

I pursed my lips, giving her answer some thought and pocketed the scroll. "Tell you what, we both have our secrets and miscommunications. So while you have yours, I'm entitled to have mine. And this miscommunication we've got right now, it can stick around until I'm ready make things right. But for now, I have shit to do. You ain't gotta like it, all you gotta do is wait."

"When do you think it'll be too late, Nondis?" She asked sadly. "Because right now, I'm really starting to see that too late will be later tonight."

That moment, I think I snapped at her in a way I never thought I would. "Then you need to stop doing everything in 'Twilight's time' and actually adjust to the real world. Stop being a spoiled brat and actually look at the circumstances. You broke up with me, you deal with that consequence. I know I sound like an asshole now, but you need to hear the asshole tell you what's up. We're done, you said it, stop forcing me to do and say things you want at your convenience."

Twilight's ears peeled back as she angrily snarled at me. "So you'd sacrifice the stability of our nation for your personal agenda─"

"Yes I would because it would set you free." I bluntly answered, causing her to appear heartbroken. "Road to hell is paved with good intentions, might as well enjoy the ride."

For a moment, we stared at each other in silence. Twilight's eyes were starting to well up with tears while my eyes were on the verge of doing the same. I felt my heart aching as I tried to suppress my emotions as best as I could. I was left swallowing the spit in my mouth, trying to not make myself vomit from the sickness I felt. She closed her eyes, holding her head up to the ceiling, tears streaming down her face.

With a soft voice, she finally spoke again. "I truly do love you. I know it hurts me when you do the things you do, say what you say, act in whatever way. But I have a duty to my country, and I must do what is right. So if you do anything to damage our stability any further, I will come for you."

"That's just doing your job, I expect you to do that." I answered. "But you're overreacting again. Equestria's not gonna go into a thousand years of darkness because of me. Just find some ability to watch me work instead of trying to dictate whatever I do. Deal?"

She walked past me, making her way back to Rarity's suite. "Give me some time..." She said broodingly.

"...I'll take that as a yes."

After a quick talk with the others and a few words of encouragement from me, Rarity went on backstage to manage the models that were going to present her hard work. Coco joined her in her endeavors, aiding many of the models. After I had the playlist in place, I was grabbed by Coco to meet with the models backstage. We talked a little bit, a few of them took pictures with me and hoped that I would see them again at the next show they were called to do. But the truth of it was that they wanted me to change out the clothes I was wearing and into one of the outfits Rarity had made for the show.

This was all without Rarity's knowledge.

So they sat me in a chair, made me all pretty, dressed me up in an outfit that made me look more like a party member from a Japanese role-playing game, had me change my shoes for some white and silver boots, played the outfit to my facial scars and sat me in front of a mirror to check myself out. And though I fucking loved the shit out of this look, I was not a fan of the extra beltwork on my chest and legs as it made me feel a bit uncomfortable. Also the shirt had a v cut so low that my pectorals damn near looked like breasts.

If I could make a comparison, I'd say I look like Squall from Final Fantasy VIII with a tiny hint of Sephiroth. The only key differences are the facts that I don't have a massive scar over the center of my face, I have two on the sides, and I have a bit of a beard. Also I don't have a gun blade to my use, and he doesn't have the Equestrian royal crest on the upper right arm and over the heart. It appears to me that this was more of a test of my look as Captain of the Royal Guard, if I could look the part in some shounen anime.

By all accounts, I looked fabulous, white pleather trench coat and all.

When Rarity stepped backstage again to manage the first phase, they pushed me out of the shadows and threw me in front of her. The mare paused for a moment and covered her muzzle with both of her hooves, and then covered her face. She sat on her haunches as Coco hugged her friend. The models all cheered as Rarity sniffled and tried her best to fan her tears away. I gave her a hug as well, only she held me even tighter than she did Coco.

After that, I was sent to the DJ again and we ran our music for the show. Ponies bobbed their heads to the rhythm of the music, watching the first set of models go on by. There was even one extravagantly dressed mare in front mouthing all the words to the song in perfect sync, catching every beat with her head and shoulders. Vinyl pointed out that she was the artist of the particular song that was played. While the ponies moved to the song, I was already getting the look from the DJ to pull up my song to start the second phase.

The strobe lights of the stage popped off with each hit of the snare of the first set of songs, the stage lit with a bright lively orange as the models marched from the back, towards the front, paused for a moment, quickly posed a few times, and made their way off to the back for costume change. Vinyl counted out loud to make sure that I was in sync to her, and when she pointed her hoof at me, I hit the play button on my newly-jeweled phone.

The heads stopped bobbing as the sudden orchestra hits interrupted their groove. It was dramatically different from what they were listening to. The strobe lights caught every single hit. On the second hit, the lights in the room and onstage blacked out, causing many to question what was going on. Even I was thrown off for a bit as the same progression of hits played out, only letting the strobe lights flash on them. Then a row of lights onstage beamed upwards to the ceiling and fell onto the stage in a dramatic fashion. The next five hits ushered the theme of the song, coming in frequent rhythmic succession.

The sound of glass breaking played on the speakers as the lights on stage turned blue. And on the beat drop, the model stepped forward to the sounds of the song.

♫I'm bringin' sexy back (yeah)
Them other boys don't know how to act (yeah)
I think it's special, what's behind your back (yeah)
So turn around and I'll pick up the slack (yeah, take it to the bridge)♪

Heads bobbed all over the room, with many showing signs of excitement and shock as the new sound was introduced to their ears. But what was new to them was old to us humans, as the six of us in attendance mouthed what we remembered. Even the models tried to contain their excitement as the unfamiliar song made them strut even harder than before. Vibing off the song, they pushed to the rhythm and posed for the cameras.

But before the second verse came in, the lights flashed once before the stage was suddenly sunk in a red glow. The music also changed, the beat suddenly working in cut-time. The audience members still felt the prior beat, but this time some elements of trap threw itself into the mix as the more explicit lyrics came into play.

♫I'm bringin' sexy back (yeah)
Them other fuckers don't know how to act (yeah)
Girl, let me make up for all the things you lack (yeah)
Because you're burning up, I got to get it fast (yeah, take it to the bridge)♪

Vinyl, being one to familiarize herself with a good mash-up, had an expression of pleasurable disgust. Bobbing her head to the new beat. But her enjoyment of it would be short lived as the song swelled back into it's original tempo. Again with that same pleasurable disgust, she shook her head and cursed at her mixer as she continued to manage the volume. For the remainder of the second phase of the show, ponies throughout the room got to experience a taste of the human media, and it was overtly well-received.

The hours came and went, the show ended, announcements were made, and everyone involved with the show went to the back to collect their compensation. I was approached by my friends and I got a slap in the back from Cliff because I used Justin Timberlake's live concert version of the song. Of course, they had plenty of jokes about the new outfit, many of which were so funny that I laughed through the funnier ones.

All in all, it was a good night, but our night wasn't completely over.

I tried to change back into the outfit I wore before the start of the show, but Rarity ended up dragging me with her before I could hope to get the first belt of this costume unlatched. Somehow, I think that was her intention as she quickly threw me in the face of some celebrities at her V.I.P. dinner. The first one she introduced me to was one by the name of Sapphire Shores, she claimed her to be the pony of pop. And she came at me with many questions about the song I played, to which I didn't have a full answer to.

After my run in with her, I ran into yet another vocalist by the name of Countess Coloratura. She praised my outfit and asked me more about how I liked it here in Equestria and how it compared to that of my own hometown. There were many more encounters with other celebrities and high-level social figures.

I started to feel bad, really. I hardly made any attempt to catch up with pop culture here, I was really more into myself and trying to keep those around me happy, I couldn't really get a chance to engross myself in those kinds of things. What really made it bad for me was that they were caught up with all of my exploits, with many of them wishing me well and good health since I was relatively fresh from the hospital.

Of course, these meetups didn't come without a few celebs taking interest in dating me as well. I tried my best to play it down to keep it ambiguous but simultaneously rejecting their suggestions. I didn't want to be a part of any publicity stunt and cause more trouble with some of their more... devoted fans.

After a while, I stopped being social and took to myself outside. The silence was rather comforting as opposed to all the noise from earlier. I even gazed at the stars, realizing there were far more stars than usual, so many that shouldn't be visible from the city streets. I guess Luna was feeling good enough to make things more pronounced tonight. Regardless, it was all beautiful, it was perfect.

Thoughts of what was to come later started to roll through my mind. Excitement began to build as I knew that it was only a few hours, maybe not even that long before I made my way back to the hotel suite to get ready to take off this outfit. I guess Rarity won't be ripping this one off anytime soon.

Hell, what am I still doing here? I'm trying to get back to the room so I can get focused.

On the way out into the hall, I looked back to see Rarity still chirping it up with some other ponies. In my mind, I was already telling her to stop talking with them so we can go upstairs. It's too bad that telepathy isn't something I can pull off, though with enough magic it's possible. However, I have no such thing and can only hope to get her to leave this place so we can get things rolling. She did manage to glance back at me, motioning that I'd come back into the room.

Suddenly, I felt something bump into my leg. I looked down to see a blue unicorn mare with freckles looking up to me. "Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to bump into you!"

"That's okay, I was just on my way out." I stated looking back to Rarity.

The mare looked towards the direction I did and then glanced back at me. "Oh, she must be a friend of yours."

"She makes my clothes." I confessed. "She's been doing that ever since I've got here."

"It must be nice to receive that kind of personal attention from somepony of her stature." The mare said with a smile. "She's a true ally to the cause."

I looked down at her. "To the cause?" I quoted.

She shook her head dismissively. "Oh, I say that about everything. If you give me a cheesecake after dinner, you're an ally to the cause. If you help a friend in need, you're an ally to the cause. Stuff like that, y'know?"

You seem awfully upbeat. "Yeah. Then I guess she's down for the cause then."

She glanced up to me and nudged me. "So what about you? You look like you've got a cause of your own."

I have a cause, but I'm not gonna tell you what it is at the moment. "I could. But maybe my cause is something bigger than this."

"Like?" She asked curiously

"Ah, political crap. Don't worry about it."

She walked in front of me this time. "I don't think political stuff is unimportant, it's essential to make sure that your voice is heard in the face of opposition."

She had a point, but she's pretty insistent. "Maybe you have something you want to discuss with me."

The mare crackled playfully as she spoke. "Oh no, It's just... political crap. Don't worry about it."

I quirked an eyebrow as I watched her just quote me in a mocking fashion. "You have something you want to discuss."

"No, not at all." She replied. "I'm just yanking your leg."

I looked around and realized that there wasn't anyone out in the hallway, so I stepped out and leaned against the walls with my arms folded. "You know, I'm starting to find your bumping into me a bit too convenient."

"Maybe it was a coincidence." She said, closing the door behind her. "Nothing more."

"Or you have business to talk about."

"No. I'm just here to socialize. It's up to you whether or not you're up for talking about business." She said as she sat down.

"...You have a name?"

"Well where I'm from, stallions introduce themselves before asking for the name of a lady. That's just the courtesy in our world." She said as she pushed a turquoise-cerulean curl from over her emerald eye.

You are being real cheeky right now, aren't you? "Nondis."

"Blue." She responded in kind.

"What about the color blue? I know you're blue but what does that have to do with your─" She didn't seem amused by my joke. "Blue. So your name is Blue."

"Yes it is." She answered flatly. "Blue. Nice to meet you, Nondis."

She seems a bit standoffish, and even her name can't just be Blue, it wouldn't be right, even by pony standards. "I can't help but to think that you've got something else with that Blue in your name. So is it Blue Wave, Blue Ocean, Blue Belle, Blue Sky?"

"Perhaps I'd be willing to tell you if you gave me the courtesy." She replied with a smirk.

I rolled my eyes at her and conceded. "Nondis P. Haines."

"There, was that so bad?" She asked with a coy smile, I was not as amused. "So, tell me more about yourself, Mr. Haines."

"If I can get a name out of you other than Blue, that would help me describe you to my friends and superiors." I replied.

She walked up to me with a smile as she slowly tongued every syllable. "Blue. Ro. Yal."

"Blue Royal, pretty name." I answered. "It's nice to meet you, miss Blue Royal."

"Likewise could be said of you, Captain Nondis P. Haines. I'm sure humans would have similarly uncommon names such as yourself."

"Now with that out the way, I'd like to know exactly who are you." I inquired as I unfolded my arms.

Her horn flashed a emerald green aura similar to her eyes. She summoned a card from out of nowhere and presented it to me. "I'm just a mare looking to socialize, doesn't have to be anything physical."

I took the card and read the name. Apparently she's a realtor. "You sell property."

"It's just a trade of mine, family owned, been in the name for generations." She replied. "If you wanna talk business, send a line my way and I can get you what you want."

I continued to look at the card, looking on the back as well to see a blank slate. I held it up to the air, thinking that some light would alter it somehow, but to no avail. "You said the words 'doesn't have to be physical' just earlier. Now what does that mean exactly?"

"Exactly what it means." She said with a slight exaggeration of her lips, whispering her last word. "Sir."

"Are you trying to talk me into trouble?" I asked outright. "It feels like you're talking me into trouble."

"Maybe talking to you is something I've been interested in doing for a while now." She answered as her horn glowed again. "You should check the back of that card again."

I looked back down at the card, this time some emerald letters showed up on the back as well as an emblem, a horseshoe in the center of what appeared to be a human hand. All of a sudden, I felt my free hand tugged at and a hoof in my palm. By that point, I realized what she was really here for.

"So, what day are you available for a visit?"

Blue Royal.

As it turns out I didn't have to go looking for that Hooves for Humans organization at all, apparently they were looking for me from the jump. And if things are what I think they are, she might be that property owner Fleetfoot mentioned to me a couple of nights before. So I can safely assume she was scoping me out to see what I was like in the flesh, kept her name ambiguous to get a genuine reaction. She seems pretty smart and very savvy when it comes to communication and getting things across.

If anyone worked in real estate, it would be mandatory to be that way if you wanna close the deal.

Of course, I explained to her that this Monday was a pack-up day for me to return to my world, Tuesday on down would be the days I devoted to the 'vacation' back to my world, and with the following weekend to be my possible return days. And though the Monday after should have me back on the clock, I made a statement that I would try to fit some time for the afternoon slot to negotiate something that could work for both parties. We had a pretty lengthy discussion spanning over an hour.

You know it's been a long time if Rarity had to come out there and drag me back in the room to talk some more. So I kept the business card and introduced the two of them to each other. It ended up being a pretty lucrative engagement because Rarity's got a location in mind for her new venue. I'm just glad that she didn't pop off at me for not being social as that was the only thing I was being for the past three hours.

Honestly, I was tired of talking.

The V.I.P. dinner ended in success, Rarity managed to pick up a few more sponsors for her next show, and everyone was satisfied with the food that was served. But my time with her would have to come later, she obligated another hour or two to the girls. And while it was fun to have my friends at the dinner to take some of the weight off of me, many of them had to set up their own plans for Thanksgiving. And that left me to go back to a hotel room on my own. As for Coco, she found herself a security guard to keep her busy. Guess she picked up where the night was headed and got a room of her own.

I sure hate to be the staff at this hotel after tonight.

Another hour passed, leaving me with more than a huge amount of time to weigh my options of approach. But for some odd reason, I never changed out of this outfit. The only thing I did was go through my phone's browser and watch a few videos on current events in my world. A lot of things happened, good and bad, though I'm starting to see the bad a little more often. It was a pretty unsatisfying sight to see that so I changed my viewership to YouTube again.

I watched a few animated shorts, a few musical numbers from my childhood, some comedy specials, and even a few gaming videos on what was going to come out this holiday season. I already had my mind on Christmas, trying to overlook Thanksgiving as much as possible. And all the ads reflected my decision to do so. Marketing's been running the Christmas thing a little too hard lately, I've noticed that. But in either case, my mind was already set to Christmas and what I was gonna get myself.

A few videos later, I realized it was another hour and a half down the pipe. I was starting to get a little sleepy. My eyes were already trying to find ways to close themselves without my knowing. So I got off of the couch and did ten push-ups for every time I started to doze off. It was enough to keep me awake a while longer until the door opened.

As soon as she stepped through, she yawned as she spoke. "Oh drat, I forgot I had one more thing to do."

...When I saw that, I already knew I wasn't getting anything out of tonight. "You look tired. Did you have fun?"

She smiled towards me and trotted over. "Not as much as I wanted to do, but it was fun anyhow."

"What happened?" I asked.

"Oh, Rainbow Dash got into a drinking contest with Applejack again. Pinkie got into a drunken rant with Twilight which ended in tears and hugs, Fluttershy caught her brother at the bar flirting with a drunk Rainbow Dash thinking he was going to get far."

It seems like I miss out on all the best shit nowadays. "So what happened then?"

"She took him by his ear and dragged him out of the bar, taking him straight to a motel for the night, where she's keeping an eye on him until he comes to his senses. Otherwise he'd be flying home drunk."

"So where does that leave you?" I asked.

"Thinking about tomorrow, I'm afraid." She confessed. "I'm in Canterlot for one more day. So I don't see why I can't spend it with you."

There's that at least. "So, do you want me to carry you to bed?"

Her eyes grew wide as she blushed. "Oh that would be nice... wait. You don't have to do that!"

I took her by her waist, picking her up and carting her over my shoulder. "Too late to reconsider."

As I walked, she squealed and battered against my back. "Let me go, you brute! I can get there on my own!"

I opened the door to the room with a free hand, looking back to the fashionista over my shoulder. "So you don't think you deserve being serviced for your long hours of hard work, all the talking you had to put up with, all the staff and rigmarole? I don't think you should have to move another hoof tonight."

"And what do you think I deserve?" She asked as I laid her on the bed.

"Some much needed pampering."

She looked to the window and saw the midnight skyline of Canterlot, the lights of the city glowing all around. She looked back up to me and frowned a little. "I really do wish I could've had you model more of my stuff tonight."

"I think this will be enough for now."

Rarity sighed and sat up from the bed, despite my gentle attempts to keep her in place. "I don't think it's fair for you to sleep in that. I've got to get that off of you."

"Give me a second."

Rarity watched as I stood up slowly. I looked at the outfit on my body, thinking about yanking this belt off of my waist and dumping my pants in the corner of the room. But she wouldn't be pleased by that. So I started with the trench coach, unbuttoning myself from top to bottom. When I was finished with it, I wrapped it around her. I placed a foot on the bed, slowly undoing my boots, letting my feet free as I took them off. Neatly, I set them aside the bed. The mare giggled at me.

"What, what's so funny?" I asked.

In between chuckles, she found some decent amount of air for words. "If I could be objective here... I mean... I don't mean to interrupt─"

"I'm bad at this, aren't I?" I questioned.

She just started busting out laughing, hitting her hoof against the bed. "I'm sorry! I just..."

"Yeah, strip-teasing isn't a forte of mine, but I got all the clunky stuff out of the way now." I said as I removed the belts from off of my chest, letting only the shirt remain. "But the show's just starting."

I took off my belt, slowly, dragging every inch through the loops. And with every inch, my pants began to sag off of my waist. She stopped giggling when I held the belt in my mouth, letting the strap hang from my teeth as I teased the idea of unbuttoning my pants. The fashionista, who was at first mocking me, started to become a little interested in what I was doing. And when I popped the button free from it's trap, I looked up to her tossing the coat I placed on her to the ground.

I took the belt and folded it in half, slowly pressing each side in until an O-shape formed at the middle, growing wider as my hands got closer. Suddenly, I pulled my hands apart quickly, causing the belt to snap loudly. She became startled over the noise as I held the belt just in front of her muzzle. "You know, you keep making a mess, I'm gonna have to punish you for that."

The mare bit her lip as she giggled again. "By what, putting all of that stuff back on and taking it off again?"

"Oh, so you got words, huh?" Even though her response had made me a bit upset with how she was making fun of me, I took my sights onto her tail. "I remember you had some feelings for when I did this to you." I said as I reached down and pulled her tail.

She gasped from the sudden sensation, slapping a hoof against my chest. "Ow! Not so hard." She said in a sweet tone, feigning her growing approval. She licked her lips as she watched me wrap more of her tail around my hand. With the remaining slack, I pulled her tail in until it lied between her haunches. Gently, I pulled up as she gasped for air. Her hoof quickly found it's way to my shoulder, making me sit down next to her. Lips separated, her mouth agape, her eyes walked down my chest and towards my hands. With avid breaths, she waited for what was to come next.

Biting my own lips with a greed of my own, I tugged on her tail, wedging it against her most sensitive places. Her horn glowed, my unused arm glowing in response was guided in between her legs. I reached my hand in, this time of my own will, to lightly brush my fingers against her tail, pressing deeply to trigger her more feral side to reveal itself. Her hoof tensed over my shoulder, trying even more to pull me against her.

She started off slow, punishingly slow, grinding her hips against my hand as I pulled against her tail with the other. And as her hips rocked back, the tension of her tail increased, making her feel as if I was pulling even harder. She squeaked softly, licking her lips again, letting out a full breathy moan as her head leaned forward. She gave me a quick peck on the lips before she moved her hips in a circular motion for a short while.

My hand underneath her tail had grown moist, offering me more than enough lubricant to give my fingers a warm welcome. The musk she gave off was unlady like, and it contrasted so greatly with the sweet coconut cream smell she normally gave off. But I loved it, it was inviting, intoxicating, I was high on it. Her eyes closed as I started to move my hand away from her crotch, causing her magic to force my wrist to stay in place. I leaned over her, giving her voiceless instructions to lay on her back.

And at last, there she lied with her tail crammed between her legs. One area of importance started to show an indentation, her tail slightly outlining the treasure it hid. Peeling it back as if it was a gift, I discovered something far more interesting. She didn't hide it either, her legs parting ways to open herself more towards me. A darkened set of lips, ebony even, with thickened strands of fluids spanned to the tail it was freed from. Her body quivered as the cold air hit her, giving her the appearance of a vulnerable filly questioning her trust of me.

My hand rested just above her, my thumb being the first to touch her in such a way where it completely made her writhe. The impatient mare groaned with dissatisfaction, her pleading eyes telling me that I should do more for her. Her hips raised themselves, pressing against my thumb. With a twist of my wrist, I began to tease her with the idea of giving her what she wanted. Two fingers slowly sank themselves into uncharted territory as my thumb worked in a circular motion. Her grievances grew even more, complaints of avarice made itself know with the reintroduction of her magic to my wrist, shoving me forward.

Realizing that my toying with her was making more and more needy, I positioned myself off of the bed, dragging her to the foot. For a brief moment, she appeared confused over what was going on. But a thin trail of saliva fell from my mouth, landing on my occupied hand. I knelt down, holding one leg as I descended. Her pupils dilated when she realized what I was going to do. And with that anticipation, her back rose into an arch before I could even place the lips of my mouth against the lips of her sex.

"Nondis, dear, If I could give you a bit of a warning─"

I didn't care. I dove in, my tongue meeting the folds first. She squeaked loudly, her hind legs kicking wildly while I pressed further. Looking down at me, she could only see my eyes meet with hers. The sight of what I was doing to her made her far more excited than she expected, and the strength of my tongue sent her into a minor frenzy. I felt a warm force drive me even closer towards her. Her hoof slammed against the bed as she strained to keep me in place. All the while, she chanted to herself.

"No. No. It's too early. Not yet. Not yet! No─"

That was all I heard before the surge of magic ran through her body. The powerful aura pressing against the back of my head nearly caused a deal of pain as she used her hips to ride against my tongue. Her body shook violently with her very first orgasm. My mouth was flushed with a sudden intake of juices, the surprise made me want to pull back. But the more her magic held me in place, the more I felt like I was about to drown. Whatever didn't fill my mouth ran down my chin and onto my chest. For a few seconds, she stayed at her climax until gravity sent her back towards the earth. With a magicful of my hair, she held my head back as she panted tiredly.

"I've tried to warn you, but now you've ruined my shirt."

"Correction, you ruined your shirt." I replied with a sly smile, wiping my chin. "And I didn't expect you to be this uncivilized."

Rarity pouted. "Fine, then I guess I can go to bed happy with what I've received." She said, not making any motion to go through with her threat.

I finally unzipped my pants, letting them fall to the floor as I replied to her. "Now you and I both know that it ain't gonna end like that."

Finally free of my tight prison, I was already thinking of another way I could satisfy her. But this time, I was not too fond of being on the generous side of this engagement. So I crawled on top of her, pulling her flank towards me as I aligned myself for the plunge. Her small stature made it so easy for me to dominate her, I felt empowered by it. Her horn glowed dimly, her eyes shimmered as the distant lights of the skyline was caught in her eyes. A hot wave of air rose into my chest as I asserted myself, cradling my hips forward.

"Finally." I mumbled to myself, getting a single crackle out of Rarity.

"You have no idea how long I wanted that." She said, savoring my length with her inviting depths. "Just this much."

"Just stop me if I get too rough." I warned.

"No such thing." She moaned while her hips started to rotate in a circular pivot. The mare bit half her lower lip and used her magic to situate herself where she could take as much of me as she could. In a moment of surprise, I quickly pulled out and rammed my hips back into her, making her squeal loudly. As I pushed in, I rocked inward so that I felt just how deep she really was. She heaved a few times before she spoke. "Okay, too much for me right now. Ease it back a bit."

She and I were of a similar mindset, we wanted to take our time with this. The long day we had and all the ordeals that came with it, we felt as if we deserved this. And even if we weren't together officially, it was the show of a deeper level of friendship than I knew was possible. And tonight, that friendship had crossed a line that would forever change us. And that line would have to be crossed again, and again, and again, with each thrust.

The darkness of the room would only reveal the silhouette of our embrace. The shadows moved in a slow rhythm, our hearts were pounding out of our chests. Thoughts of the wrongs we committed only made us all the more excited. I didn't have the mind to think about anything else other than making her happy right now. Every noise she made was precious, sexy, maddening. And the longer she moved her hips around, the more I wanted to let go.

I started to realize just how much she dictated the tempo of my hips. It became a subconscious habit like breathing, her sapphire eyes looked up to me. Encroaching over her, I kissed her neck, my tongue giving her just as much praise as my lips. My pelvis grew wetter with each passing minute, light throbs indicated that I needed to slow myself before I got too greedy. I withdrew completely, making her cry out in disappointment. To silence her protests, I sank my canines in her neck. Her own body convulsed slightly with a tingle sent from the back of her neck to the bottom of her spine.

A few seconds passed and I regained control of myself. So I reasserted myself, teasing her with slow deep lunges. Her hips caught the tempo I worked with, but she wanted me to go faster. She didn't have to say anything, I just read the motion of her hips. With shallower pumps, I obliged and rocked forth and back. I looked down to catch a glimpse of just how much she stained the sheets, but she propped a hoof to my chin. She didn't allow me to look as she pulled on my neck. Her tongue met mine before our lips were granted a reunion. Eyes half-lidded, she pushed against my chest.

"Stop." She urged, causing me to let her up. With a painful whimper, she felt me fall out of her with an audible plop. But she was quick in her maneuver, standing on all four as she swished her tail to the side, allowing me to catch a full glimpse of her engorged sex. She looked back and whispered. "Pull my mane."

Fulfilling her wish, I reintroduced myself into her as I grabbed a handful of her indigo curls. As I pulled my hips back, I found myself dealing with a surprise of my own. Her walls collapsed on me, pleading with me to come back in. And with every push forward, she offered little resistance. The sight of her bouncing against me, looking down at her back made me far more driven than ever. I almost went insane, my hips crashing into her more and more. The sounds of squeaks and moans accompanied the loud smacks our bodies made with every impact.

Her voice became more pronounced, more grisly with every grunt. I pulled at her mane, causing her head to fall back. The image alone made me want to devastate her more. My hand let go of her mane, pulling at her chin. Two of my fingers found her mouth, her tongue falling against them as she cried. My legs were suddenly saturated as the mare experienced yet another orgasm. Her body showed some strain as she tried her best to remain standing. The only thing that held her in place was the arm I had draped underneath her chest, snaking to her chin.

I kept thrusting through her descent, making her speak through my vice-like grip of her chin. "Sthill nhoth thdone?"

"Almost." I confessed, feeling a climax of my own building. This time, it was me who was moaning louder. The cold empty feeling I felt for days started to reappear, but it built to something bigger than anything I ever experienced. With each inch, I was feeling myself lose control. "I'm not ready." I moaned. "I'm not ready..."

"Insthide." She called out. "Thjust noth hon my thail."

The muscles in my arm tensed as I felt the final waves of pleasure yank me from my earthly mind. I held onto her as my head fell back, my breath held tight in my chest. The muscles of my abdomen flexed as my last thrust caused me to push her into the bed. When she fell over, I drove in deeper, devastating whatever area I couldn't reach before. Her eyes rolled back as my seed spilled forth, filling her as I finally found the ability to breathe again. The reach of my orgasm caused me to nearly black out. Instead, I leaned into her and instinctively pumped my hips to complete my arrival.

My arms relaxed, her mouth and chin freed from my grasp. Panting herself, she looked back at me slightly angry. "You are just barbaric. I cannot fathom what this was."

Raising myself off of her, I grabbed myself as I made my exit. "Three days of being pent up and a few days more in the hospital will do that."

Before I could fully separate myself, I felt her tail wrap around my leg. Next thing I knew, I was violently dragged back into the bed. Rarity nuzzled against my chest as her tail tightened around my leg. "Well you're going to have to not be so pent up next time. That grip you had on me started to hurt a bit."

"Why didn't you stop me?" I asked.

"Because I guess you could say I was caught up in the moment." She replied, levitating my arms in front of her, caging herself in. "I didn't want you to feel like you needed to cut yourself short."

"Rarity, I'm pretty big and strong." I responded cautiously. "I know I might enjoy it and get a little too handsy, but you need to tell me when to reel it in."

She closed her eyes as she sank into my chest some more. "Are you joking? That was probably the most intimidated I felt during sex.... If anything, that was a new thrill in my life. You've got me questioning some things about my sexuality now."

"Like?" I inquired.

"How humans last significantly longer than stallions. We've been at it for a while and I've had at least five orgasms."

I checked the time on the complementary alarm clock to see that around twenty minutes had came and gone. "Yeah, it's been a good amount of time. If I remember anything Pinkie said about sex and whatnot, I'm surprised you're not sore right now."

"Terribly sore." She responded with a whimper. "I was that way about three orgasms in."

"I thought you only had three." I stated.

"Five." She corrected. "Four of them being when you were doing your beastly thing."

I kissed her on her forehead, just above her horn while she shuddered in response. "Well next time, you let me know how hard you want me to go and I'll do my best to keep to that. But also tell me when to reel it in."

"You need to do what you did to me just now EVERY NIGHT!" She exclaimed passionately. "Oh, and it wouldn't kill you to give my horn a little attention every now and then when you do. It's really stimulating to do that during sex."

"Gotcha." I answered, feeling a sudden wave of fatigue. "I'm spent."

"Be lucky this isn't estrus we're talking about here." She said with a yawn. "You'd be at it all day."

The feeling I had when I was about to doze off earlier had come back in full swing. My eyes were protesting to close like they were union workers on strike. "Huh... You need anything before I pass out?"

"Just stay in this bed and hold me. Meaning we're just friends doesn't give you the right to treat me like some common whore."

"Fair enough."

Meanwhile at the Royal Castle...

Alex and Stanton walked through the halls together, going over a few of the outfits they saw just earlier in the fashion show. The two men were rather amused by what they saw and understood to a partial degree the evolution of equine fashion and tried to draw any comparisons to something they'd see back home. But another thing that they discussed was the idea of how Thanksgiving was going to go.

"Yeah, dad might not buy the whole 'they just broke up' thing." Stanton suggested. "Maybe we should find someone on a dating website to fill the role or some other shit."

"That's what I'm here to discuss." Alex replied. "Princess Celestia had something she was working on and I think we're getting really close to hitting our Monday evening deadline."

"Why Monday evening?" Stanton questioned.

"Because Tuesday is the day where we go over the script. Gotta keep Nondis' stories straight, even if they are broken like shit."

Stanton tapped a finger on his cheek as he thought out loud. "Yeah, now that I think about it, a girl from U.T. Arlington picking him up from Louisiana seems a bit farfetched considering that he's suddenly disappearing every weekend to a place with no phone reception."

"But there's still the matter of making sure 'Bella' plays her part." Alex said with a sigh. "Otherwise, this will get ugly fast."

"True." Stanton said as they came to a stop at the doors leading into the throne room, the guards standing by lowed their spears to deny the two access. "But do you really think Princess Celestia can help?"

"I'm sure dad would love to speak with Nondis' employer face to face." Alex noted. "He's obviously not gonna listen to us anymore."

"Yeah, you can blame your wife for that." Stanton quipped.

"She and mom were always close."

"Too damn close for her to be snitching on us." He added before he turned his attention to the guards. "Hey guys, we need to see the princess."

The guards remained firm with their spears as one of them spoke. "With all due respect, sir, the princess has made it clear that nopony enters this room without any document to give warrant. Even us guards are denied entry, so you're gonna have to wait like the rest of us.

Alex rolled his eyes as he pulled out a scroll with a red wax seal on it, presenting it to the guards. "I think she means this."

The guard who spoke grabbed the scroll, breaking the seal and reading the contents. As they skimmed through the words, they nodded to each other and removed their spears from the doorway. Alex gave the two guards a salute before the two men walked into the throne room.

The doors closed behind them, leaving them in what appeared to be an empty room. The two walked towards the throne slowly, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. When they approached the foot of the throne, Alex called out. "Your highness, it's me."

A voice came from behind the throne, filled with worry. "Alex... I don't think I did this right."

"I'm sure you should examine it." Another voice called out, this time from one of the pillars on the far end of the room. Princess Luna stepped out with a frown, pointing towards the throne. "My sister has cast some odd spell and now she's worried that she's turned into something unsightly."

"You didn't check?" Stanton asked.

"She didn't wish for me to see her." She replied quietly. "I feel that my sister is uneasy with my seeing her in her current state."

"My hooves are gone, I don't know how to move." The voice behind the throne called out.

Alex and Stanton looked towards one another and back to the throne. "Okay, we're coming back there. Just... remain calm." Stanton suggested as they both eased their way behind the throne. Being the first to peek behind the throne, Stanton's jaw fell as his body slumped forward in a state of shock. "GOOD LAWD!"

"What?" Alex asked before he took a peak himself, the sight leaving him just as stunned. "My... goodness..."

"It's bad? Hideous? What does it look like?" Luna questioned from behind the pillar.

Eyes of lavender and long eyelashes, a fair face with smooth cheeks, her lips rounded, her hair long with the colors of blue, purple, green, and pink, these were indeed the traits of the elder princess. But her skin was different, a pale peach tint. Her body vastly dissimilar, no tail, no wings, no horn. In place of hooves were the soft slender hands with lengthy fingers. Rounded toes and long shapely legs took the place of her hind legs. On her body were no markings, no scars, no blemishes. Her chest greatly was pronounced and her derriere was beautifully rounded outwards. Her figure resembled that of an hourglass, the sand heavily in favor of the top portion. The incredibly voluptuous woman looked back to the two men with her fists balled, her wrists bent forward.

There sat the human Princess Celestia, in all of her nude glory.

Stanton took deep breaths as Alex nodded his head ceaselessly. "Oh yeah, dad would LOVE to see her."

Author's Note

Well, it seems to me that I'm back in working order. Guess I should be showing more of it often. This month has been a pretty easy month for me due to how few gigs have come up. But also my frustration from a certain game has made me less inclined to invest my time into it. Still love playing it, but I am just tired of seeing STUNNED across my screen when I'm about to blow a sick ult.

But in terms of the story, I'm quite satisfied with the results. Of course it's been a long time since I've went full-on erotica writing so I need to dust my chops off a bit. Maybe I'll do a bit of research reading and looking into the imagination to see in what areas I need to improve. But I did enjoy writing this chapter.

Now next chapter will be even more enjoyable (as you can tell from the cliffhanger). Now we'll be dealing with the issue of the princess' sudden transformation. Opens the door for more hijinks.

I hope you all stick around for next chapter, I know you'll enjoy what will come of it. And as usual, leave a comment if you have some concerns or whatnot. I've got another chapter to write. And I also have a bronze smurf to play on.

Chapter LXXIII

Alex and Stanton's jaws were still left unhinged, their bodies nearly petrified as their brains registered a series of functional errors. Luna quietly crept from behind the pillar and finally walked towards the throne. When she stood beside the two men, her eyes grew from the shock of the new human sitting before her. The younger princess immediately recognized her sibling from just the hair alone, but the rest of it seemed like she was looking at a complete stranger.

"Tia... you pulled it off?" Luna questioned.

"Yeah she did!" Stanton called out, reaching his hand out to the confused royal, only receiving a painful smack to his arm.

"Calm your shit, dude." Alex commanded before turning his attention to the transformed princess. "Now your majesty, can you wiggle your toes?"

"Wiggle my toes?" She asked, looking back to her posterior. "WHERE IS MY CUTIE MARK!? WHERE IS MY TAIL!?"

"We don't have tails." Alex calmly explained. "And we don't have cutie marks either. So I can understand what you're feeling like right now."

"I'm so confused, terrified, I have no idea what I'm doing!" She said as she looked at her leg. "And how am I supposed to stand like this!?" The transformed princess tried to walk on her knees, falling over as a result and leaving her posterior pointed to the air, giving both Alex and Stanton a graphic view of her completely barren womanhood. The two men tilted their heads, both oohing to themselves. "Can somepony help me, please?"

Snapping himself out of it, Alex took off his shirt and closed his eyes. Draping his shirt over the woman's exposed body, he removed the distraction from view as he talked to the princess. "Your highness, it is as you told me when you first transformed me to a pony..."

Stanton smacked his brother in the stomach. "When the fuck were you a pony?"

"Long story." He said, brushing off his brother and returning his focus to the human. "But it's as you said, the first clean step is often the hardest, the ones to follow is a learning experience. From there, it comes naturally."

"Did you tell her about the part where it took us months to learn how to walk as humans?" Stanton mumbled, causing the princess to look back at them with horror.

"That's because we were undeveloped mentally." He rebutted.

"Didn't your brother take days to relearn how to walk?" Luna added, making her sister feel even more concerned.

"He had to because he had torn tendons and ligaments, plus the whole comatose for a week thing that made the difference." He said with a groan. "Either case does not apply to you, princess."

"Then what's going to be my case?" Celestia asked as the shirt that was draped over her rear end slid off, giving the men another glimpse of herself.

Stanton quietly whispered to himself, placing his hands together as if he was in prayer. "Fifteen minutes... Just give me that much, God. Please."

Following his comment was a quick slap to the back of the head from his older brother. "Should I remind you that Nondis is in trouble over the same shit you're thinking about?" He whispered back.

"If she's a human, would it really matter?" Stanton quietly asked, causing Luna to intervene.

"Perhaps if you were willing to suffer for my sister's sake." She added with a stern frown, just moments before placing a hoof on her chin in inquiry. "Other than that, I think this could prove to be the perfect loophole to the Approval Process law. It mandates the punishments for ponies, not for humans. I don't think the event will even register─"

"Luna, Alex, anyone, HELP ME, please!" Celestia whined, hiding her face as she grew even more embarrassed where the conversation led to.

The older man shook his head and grabbed the shirt, sighing as he closed his eyes again. "Okay... Your highness I've got to do something but I just want you to know that what I'm doing is in your best interest as well as mine."

"Well whatever it is, I'm sure that you are more than virtuous enough to see it through." She said shyly. "I am not aware of how I may look to you humans."

Alex knelt down, calmly opened his eyes, tore the shirt and quietly calmed the princess. "Your highness, by human standards and I say this as honest truth... You are absolutely divine."

"Wife material." Stanton cosigned. "I'd consider it."

The princess took a deep breath as she remained in place. "Okay, Alex. I've given you my trust. Do as you will."

After tearing the shirt down the middle, he surveyed how he was going to dress her. When his eyes met with her womanhood again, he swallowed his spit and closed his eyes. "Oh if my wife caught me like this, my funeral would be next Saturday."

Planting the torn cloth onto her, the princess shrieked lightly and turned back as she propped herself up with her knuckles. "T-t-that felt like m-my─"

Alex cracked one eye open to see if he had any success in his endeavor. "If it's because you feel a little bit of a tingle that kinda feels familiar to a certain part of your true body, then yes. I'm so sorry, I'm trying to avoid that."

Celestia's face reddened deeply, her eyes clenched shut as she gritted her teeth. Luna took notice of her older sister's distress and grew a devilish smile. "Hey. Hey Tia."

"Shut. Up. Luna." She replied with a groan.

While Alex continued to wrap the princess a make-shift loincloth, Luna snickered to herself for a few moments before continuing. "So is this the first touch you felt in over a thousand years?"

"LUNESTE SELINE VALKYRIE!" The princess screamed rather loudly, causing Alex to jump.

The pony princess continued teasing her sister. "What? It's been over a thousand years, and now there's someone touching─"

"I swear by our mother's name, if you don't shut up, I will ship you back to the moon for another millennium." She said as Alex finished up. With a final tug, she winced slightly as he wiped the sweat on his brow.

"Okay... You should be good to go. Now let's get you standing."

The princess turned her body towards him, seeming to understand how to move on all fours. She didn't dare to look at him but she did hold out a balled-up fist for him to grab, almost as if she was still with hooves.

"Now first thing, princess. We don't have to keep our fists balled up. So just try relaxing your... erm... forelegs."

She took a second or two to think about it and placed her fist in his hand, and then relaxed her muscles. The soft fingers of the princess finally unfurled, letting Alex pull her up and guide her onto his arm. When she stood up, her exposed breasts pressed against his arm. And whenever she stumbled on her knees, she quickly found the use in her new fingers by grabbing onto him and dragging his hand into her inner thighs.

"Ah! Sorry!" She called out, clumsily allowing him to get a handful of crotch.

"It's fine, one step at a time." He replied with pursed lips, his mind trying not to dwell on what he just saw moments earlier. He pulled her up from her knees, finally onto her feet. But when she rose to her toes, she lost balance again and drove her elbow into his crotch, causing the man to bow over in pain. "Aaaaahhh! Don't... hit that... spot again."

"What happened?" Luna questioned.

"Hit him in the baby baster." Stanton said with a cringe, bending down in sympathy. "Not a fun place to get hit."

"I am so, SO sorry, Alex." Celestia apologized as she continued to grasp at his arm, her breast heating up his arm with each passing second.

Feeling like he was already getting too much contact with the princess, Alex turned to his younger brother. "Stanton, take off your shirt, please. She needs a top."

A bit reluctant of losing the view of the princess' naked body, he did as he was ordered and begrudgingly handed his shirt over to the princess. He held her hands up in the air as he pulled the shirt over her chest, leaving a partially bare midriff, but her breast completely concealed. "Well at least she's covered, for now."

Luna shrugged at the both of us reacting the way we did. "I'm not sure why the two of you are even acting like this. Ponies don't normally wear clothes."

Celestia, even as a pony herself, soon found herself aligning with the human's plight. Not from the embarrassment of having herself displayed before the two men, but because of the many years she hid her blemishes from the eyes of her subjects. "Luna, I know you are free spirited now that you've returned to this world from a thousand years of isolation, and with it came so much change that made most of what we considered to be beneath us a casual experience for all. But it's best to keep in mind that not everypony's ideals and customs are not reflective of your own."

"This we know, dear sister." Luna replied.

As Celestia was finally stood to her feet, Alex allowed her to let go in order to stand on her own. "Okay, how do you feel now?"

Standing with her knees buckled and arms extended outward, bracing for support, she found the balance to carry herself for a short while before stumbling forward, causing Alex to stand behind her. Grabbing her from underneath her arms, he guided her to stand straight. "Oh... This will take me some time to get used to."

"Well we've got all day tomorrow to work on it. So we don't have to go over everything tonight." She replied, standing a clear inch higher than him.

Celestia looked towards her fallen crown and raised her head. Nothing happened. She looked at the crown and squinted in concentration as she moved her head again, yielding similar results. "It appears that my magic is completely nullified." She said, leading up to moments of silence. She followed up with rapid breathing and panic. "My magic is nullified, I am stuck like this!"

Alex scratched the back of his head as he thought aloud. "Huh, I didn't quite think about that part... Oopsie."

She turned to him nearly on the verge of an emotional breakdown as she flailed her hands at her sides. "Oops!? Alex I need to be able to defend myself! How am I supposed to defend myself in your world without magic!?"

Stanton walked over to pick up the crown and hand it to the princess. "You can pretty much leave that to us. We'll look after you and make sure no one takes advantage of you." Alex promptly looked at his younger brother, causing Stanton to roll his eyes. "No, Alex, I'm not gonna do anything to the princess."

Luna crept up behind him as he said that and used her wing to lightly trace a feather down his back. "That's if you were willing to take the risk of getting us into trouble. We don't mind the idea."

"I DO!" Celestia growled as she reached out for the crown.

Stanton's hand lunged out as the item gave resistance, pulling in towards the princess. He quickly let go of the crown, watching it zip towards the princess' possession. Celestia gawked as the crown landed in her hands, much to the surprise of both men. She looked at the crown, let it fall to the ground, and used her hands to summon the crown back up to her hands, complete with her usual golden aura. She was then relieved to see her magic still take shape. "Oh thank Faust, I'm still with magic here."

"Well that's one crisis averted." Luna replied with a relieving breath of her own. "Now about that wife-material comment you made about my sister." She teased.

Celestia, starting to get used to her new hands' magical properties, called out her sister. "I am not up for any marriage proposal! I have no interest in him! I have no interest in Alex! I have no interest in anypony!"

"No crushes at all... sure." Luna said with a smirk. "It's not like the humans started to bring up the idea of you being married off made you feel all tingly inside."

"I SAID SHUT UP!"

"You'll have to catch me to stop me, sister. Oh and please send me an invitation to your wedding, I'll be sure to give my blessings to the groom."

"That's it, back to the moon!" The woman, suddenly enraged, made her first step forward, but tripping over herself as she felt a ghostly limb telling her to move her foreleg. She fell forward, hitting herself in the face on the way down. The three ran over to help her back up, causing Celestia to hold her nose. "It will be back to the moon for you when I learn how to walk in this body."

"You know you can transform yourself back, right?" Luna deadpanned.

Celestia grimaced as she stared at her sibling. "...I will deal with you when I am done. YOU can go to bed, or better yet, don't you have dreams to be looking after?"

The lunar princess shrieked as she realized that her shift was on. "Oh curses." The night princess teleported from the room, leaving only the three humans to remain. Celestia looked to both Alex and Stanton, shaking her head.

"Younger siblings are the worst."

Alex nodded in response. "Yeah, it happens."

The Next Day...

My eyes cracked open, revealing a brightened room and an even brighter sun beaming in my face. I rubbed my eyes, looked down at my chest to see a somber Rarity resting in my arms. She stirred a little, but the mare didn't show any signs of waking up at the moment. She seemed completely knocked out, poor thing was at the grind all weekend. If anything I'm actually amazed that she would still plan an entire day out with me on top of all of this.

The more I think about it, the more she amazes me.

I just stayed in bed for however long she wanted to take, she deserved the rest. And even though I had a bit of an urge to use the bathroom, I dedicated myself to keeping her comfortable. I just closed my eyes and patiently waited until she finally nudged enough to stir herself from her slumber. She looked around groggily, seeing my arms draped over her still. With a sweet hum, she laid her head against my arm.

"You seem comfortable." I murmured quietly.

"With friends like you, why wouldn't I be?" She responded, nuzzling my arm. "I'm actually surprised you stayed in bed for me."

"I just wanted you to know I was still here when you woke up. You didn't want me to treat you like some common whore, right?" I taunted.

"I think you would've thrown me out the door if that was the case." She replied. "Or at least left the bits on the nightstand and a letter telling me not to tell anypony."

"I think that part is still up for discussion. I'm not too keen on telling everyone about my personal sex life, still kinda uncomfortable about it." Especially given the surrounding circumstances and the following media backlash.

"A true lady doesn't kiss and tell." She said with a yawn. "But we're allowed to allude to the subject. I'll just call you a stallion and everypony will write you out of the equation anyhow."

"I'd much rather not have my name out there in the Canterlot social circles again." I added.

"And it won't come up. I promise." She replied, quietly turning towards me. "I never betray a promise to a friend."

I looked down at our naked bodies, recalling the events of last night. "So... what does this make us anyhow?"

"I thought we discussed this." She answered with a kiss on the lips. "We are merely two good friends who are just working their way through life."

"Nothing else?" I asked.

"Sex doesn't always need some obscure strings on it. Let's just wade out the fun and see where the road takes us."

"Even if it changes our perception of one another?"

"That's just par for the course." She answered. "We knew what we were getting ourselves into and we're perfectly grown enough to handle the consequences."

I brushed a bit of her mane out of her eyes and kissed her on the forehead just before I sat up from the bed. I stretched my arms out and stepped out of bed. "Oh man, I have not felt this good in ages."

"I just figured you needed the night to decompress. But I'm glad to know you're happy."

"You're just saying that cause you had a hand in all of it." I joked. "But honestly... I love that you did that for me."

She shrugged her shoulders, looking at me with all of her disheveled glory. "I think friends are supposed to do that for one another."

I walked towards the bathroom and closed the door. As I approached the toilet to relieve myself, I could hear a giggle from the other room, followed by a shriek and the sound of her jumping up and down. Next was the muffled scream of her yelling in her pillow. I couldn't help but laugh at her as I finished up my toilet run. Flushing the toilet and approaching the mirror, I examined myself for a bit.

Already, I could see a massive smile on my face, looking as if I accomplished every feat mankind ever thought to be unachievable. Curing cancer, solving the riddle to AIDS, ending world hunger, world peace, total denuclearization, ending all of society's problems, all of it, it felt like I did that much even though I didn't. I could've just got through telling my world of he existence of Equestria and they decide to welcome them with open arms, it would't amount to what I was feeling at that moment.

I know she had her victory dance on the bed, it's about time I had mine.

Breakfast went about as well as one could've imagined it to be. At least the hotel was offering a complimentary breakfast in the dining area instead of just some plain old cereal and toast. Instead they had a full bar with fruit and yogurts, some muffins, some eggs done sunny-side up, bagels, biscuits, an assortment of juices, coffee, and of course tea with the various fixings. Even though I got away with drinking coffee yesterday, Rarity wouldn't let me get away with it today.

Well... It was worth the shot.

While we were in the breakfast nook, we reunited with Coco. She seemed just as cheery as ever, but she went on in some rather raunchy detail about the stallion she met with last night. From what she explained, the stallion she met was well-endowed, heavy hoofed, a real shit-talker, and he was pretty well versed in the art of positioning. The only complaint she had was that he never warned her when he was getting close to finishing, so he ended up finishing inside. She then proceeded to explain how much she paid for an extra room to sleep in for the night after that whole fiasco. Lucky for her this isn't the estrus season.

The three of us made our way back to the suite, mainly on clean-up duty. We gathered all of the remnants of the materials lying about on the floor and some of the scattered remnants of the jewels she used on the dresses. But the one thing we failed was to mask the scent of the room we slept in.

It was obvious that some debauchery had taken place the previous night.

Coco wouldn't shut up about it. She instead vouched to ask Rarity about every single detail of our affair last night. As she promised to me earlier, she didn't tell her much other than we had fun with one another. She even dared to ask me about it, but I was keeping my lips sealed, in case she felt like a round two was in order.

We finished our clean-up and damn near left very little for the maids to clean up after. Rarity even went as far as to clean the sheets so that the maids in the hotel wouldn't get too suspicious of what we were doing. I was already being advertised to stay in the hotel as it is, we didn't need anything to go out in the social sphere telling the nation that Rarity and I were messing around. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind telling people that we're involved, but that's only within my personal circle.

And as promised, we finished our chores and started making plans for ice cream.

Meanwhile at the Royal Palace...

Celestia stood in pony form behind a curtain in her room. Both Cadance and Luna were in attendance as they watched Alex and Stanton unpack a book bag filled with clothes. Being uncertain of her humanesque measurements, they just bought whatever size they thought they saw that would match her best at a local Walmart. The two just stood idly by as a golden flash behind the curtain signified that she cast the transformation spell on herself again. The five conversed as Celestia took the moment to practice with her new form.

"So how did you manage to use changeling magic to give yourself a human body?" Cadance questioned.

Celestia, who had become well practiced in how her new body worked, stuck her hand out from behind the curtain. "Changelings are shape shifters, I just thought it would be more appropriate to take a page from their book. But as to the secrets of their sustained capabilities to maintain their forms for an extended period of time, I needed to conduct more research."

Alex handed over a bra from the bag. "Apparently their abilities go a little further than turning into a pony. From what I gathered, they can manifest into the images of someone's nightmares if they wanted to."

"How did you gather that?" Luna inquired.

"Nondis kept talking about one of his nightmares after we ran into some creepy ass shit in the castle ruins back when we got Cheese Sandwich out." He stated.

"Yeah, it was an alicorn with a broken neck and plucked wings. Her fucking head was tilted upside down and everything, it was like some Exorcist shit, scars, gray hair, and all of it." Stanton added with a shudder. "I didn't know what it was but I sure as hell dreamed about it the night of."

Celestia grew silent as she took the bra behind the curtain. "Was there any other things that stood out?"

"I don't think we stayed long enough to find out." Stanton confessed. "We were damn near pissing ourselves while we ran away."

"Intriguing figure." Luna pondered out loud. "I've never seen such a creature in my dreamworld."

"They say that changelings feed off of the emotions of their victims, but the most common one we'd find is that they'd always feed off of love." Cadance said.

"That's what made me curious about their magic." Alex continued. "It seemed they didn't know much about Nondis, but it's like they already knew what he was scared of and made it into a reality. So I started to think of all the ways they could transform themselves. Could they turn into little things like ants, flies, spiders? Could they turn into inanimate objects like rocks or trees?"

"When I got the information from Alex, I realized that their range of shifting would go to extravagant lengths. The possibilities were endless, but they would have to learn how to move like these creatures in order to pass them off so perfectly." Celestia concluded.

"Which is why impersonating a pony is so easy, it's their rooted nature because they're an equine breed as well." Cadance explained.

A few grunts behind the curtain sounded out before a quick sigh from the princess as she shoved out the bra Alex gave to her earlier. "I think this one is far too small, I can't get it to reach."

Stanton looked through the bag himself, rummaging until he could find the largest size they had. "It's fair to say that your chest is way too damn huge for normal." He said as he handed Alex the bra.

"Not that there's too much of a problem with it." Alex said as she snatched the item from his younger brother, glaring at him over his choice of words.

"So there are other females of your species with this particular issue?" She asked as she grabbed the bra.

"Oh yeah." Stanton answered quickly. "And the guys love it. You might be getting a few more eyes on you than usual."

"Not to mention requests for your phone number, you Facebook account, your Instagram, Twitter, all that other shit." Alex further explained.

A quick pause of silence occurred before the princess hummed with dissatisfaction. "I'm not quite sure if this is normal or not, it feels like this is going to fall off."

"Oh... Then maybe you're not as big as I thought you were." Stanton said as he rubbed the back of his neck, already feeling what Alex was going to dish out at him.

The princess passed the bra back out and left her hand out to wait for another candidate. Alex fumbled through the bag and pulled out a rather unappealing, solid-beige bra with a light grimace. "Eugh... Granny floppers."

As she received the new pair, Celestia latched the item into place and palmed each of her breasts, pressing them upward and letting them fall back down as she checked their security. After confirming that the pair was firmly set in place, she tucked herself in and made her final decision. "These will do. Now for the bottom."

Alex dug around the bag to pull out a partially translucent pair of panties, done with the appearance of flowers. Stanton shook his head as he judged his older brother. "You know that's gonna be mismatched as hell."

"I don't think it matters right now. It's not like she's going on a date." He replied, handing the panties over to the princess.

What followed seemed to be a series of grunts and groans followed by a frustrated sigh. "These won't make it past my upper legs."

Stanton looked to his brother with a sarcastic smirk. "And you thought she'd be that small, smart one?"

"I was trying to be modest." Alex replied sheepishly as he grabbed the panties from Celestia.

Stanton shook his head again as he rummaged through the bag and pulled out a matching set of underwear for the bra she wore. Alex rolled his eyes as he handed the item over. The younger brother then made fun of his elder. "Yeah, I'm sure your wife would be happy in knowing this is how you'll treat her in the future."

"To start off with, my wife won't be looking like she's playing bingo at the local retirement home for some thirty years, so fuck you." He replied with a middle finger directed at his younger brother, who laughed in response.

"These will work." Celestia replied shortly after a seamless trial. "Now I'm ready to hit the town."

"Not quite." Alex stated as he stopped her from reappearing from behind the curtain. "You can't just go walking around town with just your panties on. You gotta get dressed."

"Surely there isn't more than this." Celestia said with an exasperated groan.

"A lot more if you wanna look the part." He replied, handing her a pair of black pantyhose. "Those go over your legs and bottom, try putting them on."

Stanton went through the bag again, pulling out a black skirt. After handing them over, the princess quickly applied both of the items to herself. "Okay, is there any more I should wear?"

Alex pulled out an extra large button down shirt and a red sweater. After a while, the princess pouted as she spoke to the two men. "Is your species really so constricted?"

"At this time of year, there's no other choice unless you want to get sick." Stanton replied. "Late November weather means it's getting a bit chilly out so you're gonna have to wear something warm."

The princess then walked out from behind the curtain, catching the attention of her two peers. Alex and Stanton both nodded with approval as she came out. The sweater she wore still accentuated her curvature but hid just enough to leave any onlooker with several inquiries of curiosity. Her skirt didn't fall any shorter than her calves, leaving only her foot and ankles exposed. Her toes were unpainted, yet immaculately attractive while she walked forward. She eyed the humans, moving a bit of her hair out of the way. "So how do I look?"

The two nodded in unison as they answered her simultaneously. "Yes."

Cadance stared at the woman, completely at a loss for words. Luna, who had already seen her sister in her human state, looked puzzled as she examined the outfit. "Are humans truly so prudish?"

"Eh, we've been more uptight in previous generations. A long while back, having your ankles showing like hers would've been considered as sexually suggestive." Alex explained, causing Celestia to blush fiercely.

"I'm sexually suggestive!?" She cried out.

"Not even in the slightest." Stanton answered calmly. "This is more like conservative busty librarian or fiercely attractive school teacher."

Alex unzipped the front compartment of the bag and pulled out three scrunchies and four hair clips. Folding the long locks of hair, he pushed her hair back until it revealed all of her face. With two on each side, he proceeded to grab a hand full of her hair and started working on suppressing the regal locks that flowed to her knees. After a few minutes of effort, he smiled at his work. "Okay, she's good to go."

With her lavender eyes, she looked back at Stanton and asked. "So what do you think? Would I pass as a human?"

"Her hair might look a little wild with all the colors, but we got enough people dying their hair back home. She'll pass." He stated.

"With flying colors." Alex added. "I don't think I've met someone so beautiful."

Celestia chuckled as she tried to hide her blushing. "Mister Alex, you have a wife to consider."

Cadance tapped her hoof as she responded with a strict tone. "And I know you won't react in the same manner of your younger brother, correct?"

"I wouldn't dare cheat on my wife." Alex answered bluntly. "Meaning I have an eye for beauty doesn't mean I have a heart for infidelity. If you need to preach to anyone, it's Stanton."

"What's the fun in being tied down? I like the option of exploring my sexual side without any strings attached." The younger male admitted openly. "At least I can tell a girl that all I'm looking for is fun for a night."

"You're speaking as if you're completely inexperienced with the opposite sex." Luna chided.

"And you're speaking like you have the experience to put me in place." Stanton rebutted, stepping towards the princess of the night. "Don't talk, about it be about it."

"Are you truly opening up the possibility of engaging in a relationship with that of a pony?" Luna teased. "I know your older brother is a fun little tart, but I don't expect you to pass for anything more than a treat, much less a meal."

Stanton gave her a long look as he bent down to whisper to the night princess. "...You're a virgin, aren't you?"

Backing away, Luna giggled as she waved off his suggestion. "Me? That? I'm just... uh... a mare of preferences."

"You have no idea what you want, do you?" He asked quietly. "You're just talking because you have an idea on what gets my attention. You think you're being cute, but the reality is that you're shy about it. You wanna do it, but you know you can't, so you talk all big not realizing how small you really are in the conversation."

Luna looked towards her sister, quietly whispering to her. "Tia..."

"Oh don't mind me, sister." Celestia playfully responded. "I'm just watching you squirm in your own mess."

Luna was taken aback by her sister's decision to let her fight her own battle with the human. She grew flustered and took a step forward. "Well... You wouldn't last a month trying to be my suitor!" She stated to Stanton.

"Nah, I like fucking too much, my dick don't wait for nobody." He replied, getting a gasp from the other two princesses with the exception of Celestia. "I ain't got time for paperwork, I ain't gonna put my life in danger, I sure as hell ain't getting married for it to happen, I ain't putting up with them salty-ass politicians, I ain't gonna have my relationship judged by anyone, and with all due respect I ain't attracted to ponies like that. And I ain't gonna wait no eight months to get my dick wet with some chick I don't even love over some stupid ass contractual obligations."

A loud smack was heard throughout the room, even so loud that a few guards had their ears tilt towards the direction of the room. A deep red mark on the back of Stanton's neck was just result of the thunderclap of an impact his older brother provided. "Mind the fuck who you talkin' to." Alex hissed through a clenched jaw.

Realizing his colorful commentary had gone out of hand, the young male bowed his head as the sting on his neck served as a good reminder. "Sorry, your highness. It's just that I don't see how Nondis can put up with all of it. It makes me angry."

Luna, who was stunned to silence over his rant just blinked in response. Celestia then intervened on her behalf. "I truly understand how frustrating this is. And I know how absurd this all appears to be. But I'm certain that Nondis' admiration for Twilight is indeed genuine. And it's true that his obligations to us are slim to none at this point, but that still doesn't allow me to let these things go on without some method of showing my appreciation for his sacrifice thus far."

Alex bowed as he forced his brother's head down in tandem. "Forgive us for the show of informality, there was a line that should've never been crossed─"

"I've crossed that line first." Celestia confessed, causing her younger sister to look up at her. The two men also looked up to see Celestia raising Stanton's head by the chin. "I too felt the way you did, that my love and admiration should've been without consequence, that my body was free to give to anypony I saw fit. And I did just that, with a stallion who's name in one dimension meant one thing, where in this dimension meant something else. I was accused of high treason because of my willingness to love. So in every way, you have a right to be angry, but only at me because I am the cause for it."

Stanton shook his head as he pushed her hand away. "That ain't the problem! The problem is that he's suffering because of them politicians. I don't know what he said or did to piss them off, but he don't deserve what he's got going on. My big brother shouldn't have to relearn how to walk because of them. Honestly, I feel like he shouldn't even be here... But he is and now that they broke up, I'm feeling like he did all of that for nothing."

Alex interrupted his brother and stepped in front of him. "You remember your first girlfriend in middle school?"

"I don't even wanna talk about that." Stanton said, pushing his brother away.

"But you said you wanted to do whatever it took to keep her with you, right?" Alex questioned.

"Okay, and we always say some shit we look back and realize was dumb as hell."

"Yeah." Alex agreed as he placed an arm around his younger brother's shoulder. "And that day you came home mad because she hit up some dude in high school."

"I got played, how else am I supposed to feel? Like I can dust that shit off and try again?"

Alex nodded with understanding for his brother as he continued. "I want you to think about how you felt at that time, how you were wanting to see to it that the two of you were gonna try and make it work that whole first month."

"That shit was stupid." He responded.

"Yeah it was. But that first one left an impression on you that made you want to change who you were, right?"

"It made me realize that I shouldn't take relationships early in life too seriously."

Alex nodded. "That's also true. But I want you to think about this. Visualize for a second that you had to deal with all the shit Nondis went through in life, the bullying, us picking on him cause he was the fat one of the three, how isolated he felt since gramps died, that night he fought dad and took a gun to his head cause he felt like that was it for him, the day he told dad he was no longer a Christian cause he felt like God left him a long time ago. He drove his car in the gulf on accident, but there had to have been some part of him that said him dying was better for the world."

"You ain't gotta remind me of that shit."

"Now, think if you were given the chance to start over from the top, a whole new world and a bunch of new people to impress, what would you do? Wouldn't you try to live your life differently?"

"I wouldn't put my own life in danger!" Stanton replied angrily.

"Think about it, Statts. He's found a purpose in life. Now that purpose ain't quite something we can be on the same page with, but at least we can try to support him. He does stupid shit, that's gonna happen. But you tell me the last time he had the energy to do all the shit he does now."

The younger sibling shrugged his shoulders in defeat as he thought back on their childhood. "Going to grandma's farm. I remembered how much he loved taking care of the horses there. And he was always wanting to go hunting with gramps whenever the offer came up. Summer vacation there was always his favorite until he started playing video games a little more often. Then grandma got sick and grandpa got worse after she died. The horses died after that too, it made him real sad. I was probably too young to understand what was really going on, but I remember he was sad all the time."

"Then he got real quiet after all of that, remember?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, and the rest is pretty much history."

Alex planted his hands on his brother's shoulders, holding him as he spoke softly. "I know this shit doesn't make a lick of sense and it feels like he's doing it all for nothing, but I'm pretty damn excited that he's finding a reason to keep moving forward, especially if you compare it to who he was way back when."

Stanton shook his head. "I just don't wanna see him get hurt again."

"You know life's gonna hit us with everything at once, you should especially know that playing sports."

The younger brother nodded as he cracked a smile. "Yeah, and coach tells us to get as many yards as possible. But I don't see how any of that matters in this situation."

"What we're doing right now is we're sitting in the red zone, there's nine yards between us and the goal line. Nondis is relying on us to help him get to that place so that the next drive feels a little easier for him. After we get all nine of those yards, it's up to him if he wants to go for two or not. Savvy?"

Stanton lightly punched his brother in the chest with a chuckle. "You know that shit was corny as hell, right?"

"But you know I'm right, don't you?" Alex questioned.

Stanton dismissed his brother and turned to the princess. "Whatever, so what are we doing now?"

Celestia looked at herself in a nearby mirror and turned to various angles, examining her human body and it's curvaceous features. "I'm not quite sure, Alex never specified what was to come next."

The older brother looked at his phone to tell the time. "Well I know we've got a few hours to burn and I don't have to work today, Stanton doesn't have any practice to go to. But you have a lot to learn before we set you up for the big meeting."

"And I trust that this day will be for learning those things?" Luna inquired.

Alex cleared his throat as he took the human princess by her hand. "Your highness, though I really don't have any title worth a damn, I formally welcome you to the municipality of Austin, the land of your captain's birth."

She extended her hand, still partially folded out of her equine habit. "I hereby decree that I do accept this invitation to your lands, may our visit be peaceful and inspiring. To when do we depart?"

"Now."

Later at Canterlot City Park...

After our little clean-up operation at the hotel, Rarity finalized her mailing list for any of the staff that helped with the show, namely those who were unable to stick around for the dinner. After dropping their checks in the mailbox, she and Coco discussed future plans for the next show she'd host and how everything would be laid out. Of course I had no idea on half of the stuff they were talking about, so I just sat idly by while the two mares gossiped and chattered about their next endeavor.

After a little bit of discussion, Coco poked fun at me for what happened the other night before leaving back to the hotel. Meanwhile Rarity damn near yanked my arm out of the socket in dragging me down the street for some ice cream. And as you guessed it, she purred like a playful kitten as she nursed her double scoop of pistachio almond. I only ordered a vanilla single just because the bits for it were a bit pricey. A bit cheap on myself, but there was one thing to consider:

We have to go to a damn spa in the country's capital, either that or the ice cream.

She did tease me over how frugal I was with myself and watched me quickly file down the vanilla scoop. And she didn't want to walk with the ice cream, for fear that it would spill on her if someone were to bump into us. I didn't quite get her reasoning initially, but when she told me that some parts of town are quite heavy with pedestrian traffic, I understood it then.

Oh, and there was the usual paparazzi ponies wanting to ask me more questions to file on top of what I answered from Friday afternoon. This time there was a bonus question pertaining to me and Rarity being in each other's company. I was willing to downplay the situation, but Rarity hammed it up for the media, quoting how much of a gentlecolt I was for helping her with her show and holding my arm with the biggest smile on her face. She even elaborated the time I saved Sweetie Belle and Spike from a swarm of changelings in Ponyville. Basically whatever story she had about me and my heroics, which mostly turned out that I was the one in need of saving, she expanded upon with great exaggeration.

For most of the paparazzi, it was more of the same so they left us alone shortly after.

To be honest, I didn't mind her going out like that to bore them to death. In fact, I was welcoming to the idea of letting her answer all the questions. And if they pointed out to the fact that they were asking me the question, I would point out that they were ignoring one of the element bearers, which carried a significant weight for the ponies in Canterlot. Apparently any disrespect to them would be frowned upon in the court of public opinion, so she used that to her advantage in handling the press.

When we reached the park, it appeared that almost all of them had fanned off somewhere else for a new scoop. But in every situation, she didn't dare say that we were involved with each other. She knew I didn't need the extra drama compounded with everything I experienced recently, so she made no mention of us. I couldn't find any way to thank her enough. But the two of us finally had a chance to exchange when we sat on the bench near the river that traveled through the city.

As we sat, we saw a myriad of things that sparked a conversation between us. From the ponies flying through the air to the fillies running around the bend. It brought up some interesting questions that I would've never asked in any other setting, which actually surprised me.

I didn't know I had these many questions. "So what do you think was your most nerve-wracking moment in your career?"

She politely turned her head to me with a straight face as she responded. "Which one?"

Just her lack of emotion as she said it made me chuckle a bit. "So there's more than one, huh?"

The mare shook her head and rolled her eyes. "You know how there are several ponies who have no means of being able to communicate their commissions correctly. When I give them a product, it's like there are some things that need a few alterations, others that needed a tiny bit of a touch-up, a cut here or a tuck there, and we're all good to go."

"I guess it's a lot better than having to starting over, right?" I asked.

She giggled at the idea and placed a hoof on her forehead. "Oh, that had to be my worst debut right there."

"Was it a bad line?" I asked.

"Remember that commissions thing I talked about? It was because of that." She said with an awkward smile. "It also happened to be my very first fashion exhibition to a major brand name."

"Ouch..." I said with a slight cringe. "I know you dropped them real quick."

"No, I still work with them." She answered to much of my surprise. "After all, they are considered to be my best customers."

"So the ones that pretty much scrapped your entire debut are the ones that turned out to be your best customers?" I inquired. "I'm kinda lost here."

"Well they are the ones who got me back on my hooves and gave me a second crack at it."

"If you don't mind me asking, how did they mess up your debut?" I asked. "I get the whole miscommunication on commissions thing, but I'm curious to know what all happened."

Rarity glanced back to the castle overlooking the city with a forlorn expression. "At one point I was invited to the Grand Galloping Gala, I was so excited that I started working on my dress for the occasion the night I got my ticket. Of course I had a particular goal in mind when I went there, as I'm sure you're familiar with."

"I'm afraid not." I responded truthfully.

"Blueblood?" She deadpanned.

"OH!" Oh yeah, she tried to marry in and found out he's a total douchebag. Got it. "Well that was a bullet dodged."

"I'm sure glad that didn't go as planned." She said with a sigh. I couldn't agree with her more. "But I digress, I finished my dress and then a friend who was also invited presented me with a dress she wanted to wear and asked me if I would patch it up for her."

"So if I'm guessing you correctly, you offered to make a new one?"

"If you saw the dress she gave me, you would not be impressed the slightest bit. It was like a... bland little outfit you'd wear to a public community gathering or something. And her coat color was just not meshing with the dress, it felt like she was trying the red because she wanted to be bold, but it didn't quite work on her."

I paused for a second and started thinking about this friend she talked about. Mismatching colors with a tendency for not being fashionable. In other words, a Plain-Jane trying to be bold in the wrong outfit. And a red ugly dress I remember seeing in an old photo inside of the castle. "...You're talking about Twilight, aren't you?"

"I guess you can figure it out who the others were." She chuckled behind a hoof.

"They were that bad, huh?" I asked quietly.

"Horrible." She answered bluntly. "Pinkie wanted a shade of green that was repulsive in the light and a large white frilly collar over her waist. Applejack wanted a tall red hat the color of Big Mac, jean overalls, and a pair of yellow rainboots. Fluttershy wanted a sun dress akin to something a sick geriatric would wear on her deathbed with a birds nest as a hat."

I shuddered uncontrollably as the imagery ran through my head, making my stomach crawl a bit. "Heuuugh..."

"I haven't even mentioned the fact that Twilight wanted the constellations on her dress, mapped out exactly to the specifics of how you'd see it in the sky, done as a frock more than a ballroom dress. And Rainbow Dash wanted rainbows on rainbows on rainbows... on gold."

If all of that was at my debut, I'd probably have to go hide somewhere until a war broke out in a neighboring country. And then I'd leave to that country anyway. "Yeah... Not a proud moment."

"Far from my finest hour, but the girls managed to get it straightened out with themselves in realizing that they didn't quite have the eye for fashion... Though Fluttershy is the lone exception. She performed wonderfully as a runway model for some time."

I'm sorry but what? "FLUTTERSHY? RUNWAY MODEL? Did Discord put her up to it?"

"This was long before Discord even came into the picture. She did it mainly because I asked her, and then ultimately because she didn't have the courage to say no after a while. She was really timid and wasn't really looking to upset anypony at that point in time."

"I still can't believe she has a younger brother." I added.

"She's not easy to speak to when it comes to him. That's just something she's actually adamant in saying she doesn't want to talk about."

"I'm not sure why not."

"You've met him." She replied with a dull tone. "What was your interaction with him like?"

Thinking back to the time he ate my food and talked about how much he wanted to sex Rainbow Dash didn't make me feel any better about him. "Yeeeaaahhh, I can see her point. I know I'm cringe central but he outcringed me."

Rarity looked at me with a smirk, poking her hoof at my side. "I don't think you're all that bad."

"How about I start stripping my clothes off again?" I joked.

"Dear foal!" She said with a blush and a clasp of my hands, giggling all the while. "No, please. I don't need to laugh like that in public."

"What? I'm just taking off the shoes."

"You can stop that right now, mister." She urged with a dying guffaw. "I am not going to let you embarrass yourself any further."

"I think I've been publicly humiliated enough for the past week, thanks." I answered, looking at the time on my phone.

"Did something happen?" She asked as I looked on my phone. "A message from one of your friends?"

"Nah, just checking the time." I replied as I heard the sound of foals running right past us. The trio of unicorns all played together as they paid us no mind. I looked at Rarity and saw a light smile on her face.

"Those three remind me so much of the CMC's."

"I wonder how those three are doing." I asked quietly to myself.

Rarity grew silent as she took my hand in her magic. "You know, Sweetie Belle was very sad in hearing what happened when you got back. Even Apple Bloom was visibly distraught. Scootaloo just got real quiet like. But out of the three, Sweetie Belle was the one who was really crying over you."

"I guess I should go back to Ponyville then?" I asked somberly.

"I'm sure it would put a huge smile on their faces to see you again. And there's even been a little birdie that told me another filly by the name of Diamond Tiara was doing whatever she could to travel here to see you. Apparently she wanted to cheer you back to health."

"Aw, that's mighty sweet of her."

"You know an older mare by the name of Persimmon Plush, right?"

"I'm afraid not." I confessed.

"Her son was the one that used to work the counter at the inn you stayed at. She just buried him the Saturday you went out to the mountain. She was not happy in finding out you were threatening to join him."

"Ah... I'm sure of that. My condolences to her." I answered quietly.

"Mayor Mare, Mrs. Cake, and Filthy Rich were all leading a community effort to do whatever they could for your brothers if the worst were to happen. Everypony there really wanted to see you pull through again. I think that a visit would pretty much cheer many of the ponies up down there."

I can't say that I wasn't touched by that, I was truly honored. But somewhere inside of me made me feel like I was doing nothing but reopening a wound if I went down there right now. Even though there were many things on my mind when it came to that, I just felt like I wasn't quite ready to face that situation just yet. I needed a little more time, and some time to sort out with my folks, then I can go back to that. "I'll come by there one day, I just need some time to feel out what's gonna happen with my family, you know."

Rarity's ears fell as I mentioned that. The image of my face as I took that phone call and the sound of my voice ended up resonating with her, enough that she leaned against me. "You know if you ever need a home to call─"

"I'm fine." I answered quickly, turning to her with my best smile. "Thanks, but I can take it from here. Gotta face the music eventually. Guess there's no better time than now, since I damn near died. I don't like having to do it, but I do owe pops an explanation."

She and I sat on the bench for a long time, not talking to each other for several minutes as my mind sulked on the upcoming visit I had to make for Thanksgiving. A lot went through my mind on how I was going to convince my dad that I wasn't in need of pushing back into human society, that I was somehow still apart of it. But for now, the beauty of the Canterlot midday sky was enough to distract me from it. Even the clouds resembled shapes I could vaguely trace out with my fingers.

I guess I needed the distraction anyways. I'm on a date, no need to stay depressed.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Later That Evening
The Boardwalk Trail
Austin, Texas...

"Oh. Days. Of. Faust."

Those seemed to be the only four words the princess could utter as Alex and Stanton accompanied her on the boardwalk. The trio stood just at the rail, looking past the river at the sun-stained sky, the river below and glass buildings in the distance reflecting much of it's colors. An assortment of other people walked by them on their own business as Celestia reached her hand out to the city standing across the way.

"So how do you like it, your highness?" Stanton asked proudly. "Of course it ain't like Canterlot with it's castles and shit, but it's home to us."

"This land is positively futuristic!" She said, glancing down at the reflection of herself and the others. "I would've never imagined such a place in my wildest dreams, even after a thousand years would I have never seen such a sight. Manehattan can't even compare with it's buildings. This place is so... reflective!"

"Yeah, glass and steel will do that for you." Alex answered as he peeked at his phone. "For us, it's been kinda interesting to see a few new buildings pop up every now and then."

"Yeah, after a few decades of living here, it starts to get old." Stanton added. "Pretty much why I decided to go to A&M instead of UT."

"You do know that Johnny Football ain't gonna be there to carry you guys anymore, right?" Alex said in mocking his younger brother.

"Fuck off, we can do without him." Stanton replied. "Besides, what have your guys won recently? I don't even remember a single bowl game you guys were in since Mack Brown got sacked. Coach Brown was the only reason I wanted to go to UT, but that Charlie Strong guy ain't my type of dude."

"You know you could've been the hometown hero if you went to UT, right?"

"Like I'm gonna be the hero of anything at a college that's too busy trying to take away five-star recruits from Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi. I was a four-star looking at a bench-warming position here."

"You know damn well you'd burn the running core out of it's cleats if you went there." Alex stated, patting his brother on the back.

"I know, that's why I'm at A&M. Show my talent in the best damn conference in all of college football."

"The SEC is overrated." Alex said with a shrug. "You're better off showing your legs in the Big12 anyways."

"Hanging on to those old bones, eh? Meat's gone, move on to something still living."

Celestia just stared at the reflection of the two men arguing with one another, laughing to herself as she watched the two brothers bicker at each other. Eventually, her giggles grabbed their attention. "What's so funny?" Alex asked.

The princess cleared her throat as she rested her back against the railing. "It's just that I see so much of my sister and I in the two of you. Probably the whole sibling rivalry thing that's probably got me feeling a little nostalgic."

"Sibling rivalries, they never really die." Stanton said as he gave his brother a playful hit on the arm.

"Fucking asshole." Alex called out as he reared his fist to return the favor before a voice called out from behind him.

"Alex!"

The group turned around to see a woman walking up to them with a smile, holding her purse over her shoulder and a phone in hand. She quickly ran over and embraced the older man. "Vanessa, when did you get here!?"

"I got here around ten minutes ago. You told me to meet you on this end of the boardwalk and I had gotten a little behind due to the traffic." She said, giving her husband a peck on the lips. "It's like I haven't seen you in days, how's Nondis doing?"

"He's back on his feet, moving a bit slower, but he's on the up-and-up. Don't tell dad or ma I said that." He replied.

"As long as he's fine. I just can't believe he got hurt like that."

As soon as she finished exchanging her greetings with her husband, she looked to the tall curvaceous woman standing behind Stanton. Her eyes grew as she looked at him with awe. "I didn't know tree climbing was a hobby of yours, Stan."

The younger man groaned with displeasure. "Eugh, that office name again."

"Sorry, I just shorten names out of habit. Workplace things." She said before walking up to the woman. She eyed the quad-colored locks of the amazonian figure and took admiration of her hair's length. "Wow, is all of that yours?"

Celestia, unsure on how to respond to her question just froze in place. "Uhhh..."

Alex quickly intervened, whispering to his wife. "Sweetie, this is Celestia, she's the one I told you about earlier today over the phone." His voice then dropped low enough to where no others could hear. "She's from that other place I told you about."

Vanessa's mouth opened as her eyes expanded, expressing a realization of who she was. "Oh, you!" Quickly, she extended her hand out to the woman, causing some confusion to the princess. "It's an honor to meet you miss Celestia. I'm... not sure which one you are, my husband kinda filled me in on some of the things since Nondis was hospitalized, but he didn't tell me all of what was going on and who was who."

Realizing that her hand was extended to show a formal greeting, Celestia replicated the gesture making minimal contact with Vanessa's hand. "Yes. I am actually the employer of your brother-in-law. He's a wonderful, wonderful stal─" Before she could continue, Alex forcibly cleared his throat, causing Celestia to correct herself. "Wonderful man, well worth his promotion."

"Alex never told me exactly what it is he does for his job. From what Nondis told us, it was something that had to do with security." Vanessa explained.

Celestia nodded as she answered her. "Why yes, security happens to be one of his main assignments. But his purpose takes that a little further than what could be considered as a run-of-the-mill security guard stationed at the outside of some dubious establishment."

Vanessa looked to her husband and frowned a bit. "Is that so? What does he really do then?"

"He does a lot of fighting." Alex explained quietly. "He does a lot of that, pretty good at it, watched him do it one time."

"Yeah, can't stop fighting for whatever reason." Stanton added, flexing his muscles. "Too damn strong, he's pretty damn quick too."

Vanessa looked at the two men and finally turned her attention to the princess. "Now if I'm correct, my husband made a mention to some sort of royalty."

"I hold the title of princess of the realm, but you may call me Celestia."

The younger woman continued to examine the princess. "I have never seen anyone with purple eyes, that is so beautiful. You know, there's only about six-hundred people in the world that has that naturally."

"Well, these were the eyes I was given from birth, so I must be one of the lucky few. But I don't recall them being so rare, I had a student with purple eyes, far deeper shade than my own."

"So is there like a planet full of people with purple eyes? Because that's not considered normal here on Earth." Vanessa said as she started to play with the princess' hair. "And who dyed your hair? I love the color scheme, it goes well with your eyes, not a lot of people can pull this look off."

Celestia looked at her flowing locks streaming down her back to reach her calves. "Oh, this is actually my natural color."

Vanessa stared blankly at the princess, holding some of the multicolored locks in her hands. "...Which one?"

Alex quickly stepped in and grabbed his wife by the shoulders, kissing her on the cheek. "Sweetheart, don't you think you're invading her personal space a tad bit?"

Vanessa then dropped the flowing locks of hair from her possession, stepping back a bit as she realized that she was being overtly invasive. "Oh my God, I am. I am SO sorry. It's just that you're showing me this tall beautiful lady with purple eyes. I'm kinda thinking to myself like... I'm gonna have a problem."

Celestia shook her head as she reassured the young woman. "I can safely say that I have no interest in the pursuit of a mate taken into account." Alex cleared his throat again, causing the princess to reword her statement. "I mean, I don't participate in the debauchery and vileness of domestic malcontent." Stanton rolled his eyes as he cleared his throat, causing the princess to simplify her words. "In other words, I'm not a homewrecker."

Vanessa nodded her head slowly. "Okay. Even though I do appreciate a good vocabulary, it is beyond obvious that you are not from around here. Bless your soul."

"That obvious?" Celestia questioned quietly.

"You speak too proper, you say every syllable and consonant, and your daily vocabulary is too extensive. I'd say you're a tourist from someplace like Virginia Beach or San Francisco."

"Is that bad?"

"Not at all." Vanessa responded. "But it's a little weird to hear that from someone who were to run a club in a rural area of Texas. Doesn't fit with the lone-star diction we have here."

Celestia tilted her head in confusion. "Run a club?"

"Nondis really cooked up an interesting story of how he disappeared."

The princess looked at the two brothers and realized their silence. Recognizing that they were trying minimize the topic, she stepped forward to expand upon the idea. "Would you believe me if I told you that I'm not from this world?"

Vanessa gave her a slow nod as she answered the princess. "That would explain a lot."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Canterlot Comforts Spa

Time passed by us so quickly in the park. I suppose we were so into each other that our conversations ran through hours without so much as a blink from either of us. It was unusual. But at the same time, we had to show some restraint to one another with everything that was going on around us. We were in the public view, so some of the things we wanted to do secretly like hold each other a little bit, snuggle up, maybe a kiss every other minute, we restricted ourselves from these things.

Neither of us were happy about that, but we were content in knowing we had each other's company to look forward to later this evening. And it wasn't like we just met and we're completely trying to put our best foot or hoof forward. We're just treading the waters of our friendship and seeing how it feels to be into each other. And it also helps that we already pushed the sex thing out of the way so that there's no expectations or ulterior motives. We've already crossed the line.

And truthfully, I think it feels better to do it this way. How many times have anyone just went out with someone and did all these things, mounting the anticipation for that one moment where the two of you finally cave to your carnal desires, then you finish and you feel like you don't wanna touch or be next to the person you got through getting nasty with? There's no cuddle because it starts to feel like an obligation, no real aftercare because you got what you wanted out of the deal, and you don't find a reason to keep going because you're just satisfied with what you got. It could've been mind-blowing sex and you look at the person next to you saying 'why are you still here.'

It's even more risky when you consider that person is actually your best friend.

But since we haven't known each other for that long, and we were so turned on by each other, it made us think about a second go. And since the predetermined layout of this engagement was that we're friends who'd mutually benefit from each other's company, it takes away the limitations of having to wine and dine just to get the remote possibility of a green light. With this, light's always green, just say the word and the panties drop.

And yet, even with that seemingly simplistic explanation, there had to have been a lot of trust invested in that person for you to decide that you're willing to be adventurous enough with that individual. The wine and dine comes whenever because it feels like an opportunity to gauge where you two are. And if you get tired of each other, then there's no hard feelings to look elsewhere for a thrill. You also use each other for practice and it tends to be really helpful when you want to learn more about pleasing your interests. And then there's the golden rule we established.

If either of us get into a relationship with someone else, put it on hold until further notice.

She made it very clear that if I were to get with any other pony or person, she'd slam the breaks on what we're doing. And it brought up the interesting question of what if we started to become jealous over the situation. She of course explained that she'd try her best to not be that way, and if she felt overtly so that she would come talk to me about it. Likewise if the instances were reversed and I was the one sitting out in the rain watching her chat it up with some unknown stallion. But then I started to ask what if our jealousy would drive us back to each other.

She never really gave me an answer outside of 'we can talk about it when we get there.'

As far as our spa visit, she and I were separated because of gender reasons and they didn't know how to service me and had made no provisions. So they left me in the lobby while I waited for Rarity to finish up with her treatments. It took a good two-and-a-half hours before she walked out feeling completely refreshed. She asked me how my session went and I told her that I didn't go. The bill was posted and I offered to pay up, but she grew upset that they wouldn't service me and offered to pay her own bill. It went without saying that she was very dissatisfied with their lack of diversity in service, guess she won't be coming back here anytime soon with the way she told off the manager.

I don't think I've ever seen her handle a consumer dispute so angrily.

So we went back to the hotel and ordered our dinner from room service. And from there, we did all the things we couldn't do outside of the room. She nuzzled my chest, resting calmly as she cooed in my lap. My fingers traced her outlines, each vein I saw became a canvas for me to play on, her horn glowed softly while she brushed her hoof against my thigh. Already I could feel myself getting a little riled up again. We kept going until the sound at the door indicated that the room service had arrived. She got out of my lap and walked to the door.

"Who is it?" She called out.

"Uh..." A very distinctive voice sounded through the door as they continued to speak. "I was wondering if the captain was in?"

Rarity cracked open the door, peeking her head through as she prevented the mature unicorn stallion from entering. "I don't recall there being any captain in this room."

Trying to bring his head higher than her, the stallion tried to get a peak into the room. "Sure there is. I just saw him walk in this hotel earlier and I asked the guy at the front desk if he saw him or not. He pointed me to here so here I am."

"I'm not sure what you're here for, so even if he was here at the current moment, I wouldn't give you any kind of access to him even if you paying me to sell him out."

The stallion summoned a leather wallet with a badge decorating the center. He pressed against the door as he spoke. "I'm sure the Equestrian Royal Protection Bureau is more than interested in hearing from him than you, miss Rarity Andalusia Belle."

"Oh shit..." Realizing the seriousness of the situation and the sudden appearance of a higher level officer, I jumped out of my seat and ran to the door. The door swung wide open as I looked down to the brown unicorn stallion with silver steely eyes. "What's the problem officer?"

"Nondis P. Haines of the Equestrian Royal Guard, I understand that this is your day off, but there's been an issue that requires your attention. Surely you've heard something of it if you at least checked in the castle every day."

"Even on a day off?" I asked with a shrug. "It wouldn't be a day off if I did that."

"Well you should know better than to take one without checking in on the well-being of the royal family. Even if it is your day off, it should be the first and foremost assignment you should complete before carrying on with your day. If you checked in this morning, you would've realized that Princess Celestia has gone missing."

My eyes quickly shot back down to the stallion as I hunched over. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Her royal highness has gone missing." The stallion reiterated.

"Are you sure that she didn't just have a walk in the garden or something?" I asked. "And even if she went missing, she's a damn good fighter. If anything, she probably went somewhere for a bit of privacy."

"She is not the one to forego a strict schedule for something like a day out of the castle without any escort."

I tapped my chin and thought to myself. "Now I did hear a few stories of her wandering off without any security detail. Are you sure she didn't do that?"

"That brings up another thing as to why I targeted you specifically." The stallion said as he pulled out a manila envelope. "It was reported at approximately 9:34 this morning, she was seen with another two humans before she disappeared."

Okay, so that means one of my friends or my brothers might have went with her. "Okay, then it's safe to assume that she did go out somewhere with someone I know. If that's the case, then I'm certain she'll be back home without any harm done."

"Mr. Haines, your job is to guard those of the royal family and the boarders of this country. I would take some appreciation of you treating this seriously."

Really, I just told you that she's with someone I know. If anything, she's probably making friends with them without you guys turning her schedule to Hell. But to satisfy you, I'll do my job today. "Fine. I'll send out an APB."

"Come with me then, sir." The stallion asked, not realizing I was already shooting out a text to my friends.

"No need. Give it a few." I said as I pocketed my phone again, causing the stallion to protest in anger.

"Sir, you need to take your job seriously. This is a matter of national security." He stressed.

"And I'm giving you 'matter of national security' speed so just wait." I responded. "I promise you're not gonna get your answer any faster than I can give it to you."

The stallion, still protesting my decision, used his magic to pull against my arm. "Sir, you are deeming yourself incompetent and I should bring you in for a reevaluation of your performance."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because you are not treating this seriously. Our princess has disappeared and you are going about this like you've got no need for urgency."

"And flailing my arms in a panic isn't going to help us either." I responded. "Now let go of my arm so I can finish."

And almost on cue, my phone started to vibrate in my pocket. Using my non-captive hand, I pulled out my phone and saw my older brother calling me. The stallion watched as I tapped my finger on the screen.

"Yo!" I called out.

"Nondis, hey what's with this APB notice you sent out?"

I put the phone of speaker mode and allowed the officer to listen in on the conversation. "Apparently Princess Celestia has been reported as missing. Last she was seen was in the company of two other humans."

"Yeah, she's with me and Stanton." He replied, causing me to turn to the stallion with a 'I told you so' expression.

"Okay, so is she safe? Apparently she left the castle without any notice and this one guy is bagging me on my day off over it. Let me guess, she made a request that nobody know about it, right?"

A few moments of deliberation came up before we received any answer. But instead of Alex answering the call... "♫Caught me!♪" It was Celestia on the other end. "Wait a minute... Is this thing on?"

The officer then spoke out. "Your highness, I am relieved to know that you are well."

An exasperated sigh came from the other end of the line, indicating that this was something familiar to the princess. "Chief Deputy Hard Case... this again?"

"I wouldn't have to be involved if it wasn't for the fact that your newly anointed captain decided to take his job seriously for a change." He answered while glaring back at me. "I don't know why he was your first choice out of the many that should've been placed ahead of him. If anything his field promotion was supposed to be temporary."

Rarity finally broke her silence and spoke in my defense. "I'd like to think that Nondis earned his position with the deeds he's performed throughout the course of his short career, taking into account the expedience he shows in executing those tasks. Wouldn't you agree, your highness?"

"I couldn't agree more, Rarity." The princess cosigned. "Nondis, when was it you discovered that I was missing?"

"Bout five minutes ago?" I answered as I looked to the officer.

"Don't you think five minutes is a short ass time to find some motherfucker gone missing?" Stanton asked in the background.

"Right!" Alex called out. "If anything, you got on that shit real quick. Most APB's would take hours or days, weeks even. Ol' dude needs to chill out."

"What a total hard-ass." A distinctively familiar female voice called out from the background.

My body froze in place as I heard the voice come from the background. It only took a few seconds for me to process who it was and suddenly I felt a bit afraid to ask. "...Vanessa?"

"Hey Nondi! How ya doin!? Is your recovery going well?"

With my sudden fear becoming reality, I grasped at my chest as my heart jumped into my throat. "Alex!?"

He responded with a casual chuckle. "Oh yeah, she's here. We're just riding down the highway now to find us someplace to eat."

Panic ensued from both me and the officer. The officer was more in panic because I was panicking, and I was doing it because of the simple fact that A FUCKING PONY IS ROAMING AROUND FUCKING AUSTIN LIKE THERE'S NOT A SINGLE PROBLEM TO BE HAD. In a fit of hysterics, I raked my fingers down my face and grimaced while I laughed nervously. "Alex, I'm gonna fucking kill you, you know that right!?"

"Eh, whatever! We're just taking in the sights. No need to be so uptight about it." He replied calmly.

"ALEX THIS IS FUCKING SERIOUS! THIS AIN'T FUCKING FUNNY!"

Celestia chuckled on the other end. "I see you and Hard Back are kindred spirits." She joked.

"Hey, Alex, you know what you should do? Facetime." Stanton called out from the back seat.

"Yeah, I wanna see his reaction!" Alex responded.

"Then you need to hand the phone to Stanton so he can do it. You're driving." Vanessa chided.

"Yeah, hey Nondis, give me a sec." Stanton said just before hanging the phone up.

At that point, the officer was looking at me with righteous anger while I couldn't really blame him for it. In fact, he and I seemed to be on a similar page when it came to the princess just waltzing about dimensions without any notice made to me or her security detail. And quite frankly, I was just as livid as he was.

In just a few seconds, a chirping ring sounded on my phone, indicating that they were trying to reach me via facetime. The officer grumbled as I answered the call, Stanton's face taking up much of the screen with my face being shrunk to the lower left corner. "Stanton, you see how pissed I am. Get Alex's happy ass on the line."

Vanessa quickly shot her face in frame as she waved at me. "Hey little-Oh my God, your face! Where did you get that scar!?" She asked, tracing her hand down the right side of her face.

"Came with the package that put me in the ICU." I answered quickly, trying to rush back to the subject. "Now where the hell is your husband?"

"He's driving, I'm not gonna let him get us all killed." She replied, alerting the other two ponies in the room. "You're gonna have to make do with us."

The unicorn stallion quickly grabbed the phone with his magic and screamed at the device. "I NEED TO SEE THE PRINCESS THIS INSTANT!"

Quickly grabbing the phone back, I was greeted with a more-than-shocked Vanessa. "Nondis... Did I just see a talking horse?"

"Oh God." I whispered to myself, covering my face with my hand as I showed nothing but pure frustration over the fact that this asshole grabbed my phone without any kind of warning or discussion. I was also on the verge of punching him in the face with the nearest solid object. "...It's a long story."

"One that will be discussed later." Celestia said in the background. "But for now, I want to see how this 'facetime' thing works for myself. I've seen it in operation once before, I'm curious to know if it works like the last time."

"Yeah, I need to speak with you too." I sternly responded as the screen warped with the change of possession. What I saw next was the highway followed by the princess expressing some concern.

"Oh... I think I might have done something incorrectly."

"Hold on, you might've hit something." Alex answered as he grabbed the phone for a short while, much to the protests of his wife in the back seat. Finally, I was face to face with my older brother, or more like looking up at him from his leg. "Okay, I got it back."

"Alex, I'm gonna fucking kill you, I just want you to know that." I said vehemently.

Suddenly a hand grabbed most of the screen and the view shifted yet again, only to bring me to the face of an unfamiliar woman. She looked at me with a bright smile as she waved her fingers hello, her eyes closed as she did it. My only response to her was blunt. "Okay, who the fuck are you?"

"Greetings, captain." Her eyes opened, showing a familiar lavender shine, her hair showing the four colors of Celestia's mane but in static motion. Her voice was easily identifiable, her demeanor just as obvious. "I trust my new visage is to your liking and approval."

My jaw fell to the ground almost as fast as my phone did. In just a few seconds, I felt myself lose strength in my legs and collapse on the ground. From there, I just stared at my phone, not even into the screen. I just leaned against my arm, completely speechless over what I just saw. Rarity poked her head over the screen and looked at the unfamiliar face staring back at her. "Whoops!" She called out, realizing she exposed herself to another human. "I thought I just heard the voice of the princess."

"You heard right, Rarity." She replied, causing the pony to peek her head back onto the screen.

"Well that's odd, I could've figured that the human on the phone sounded just like the princess. Surely she must be somewhere close by."

"Then maybe you should keep looking at the screen." Celestia answered back, causing Rarity to shriek in response.

While I'm aware that Rarity isn't quite used to how facetime works, she was more than surprised by the sudden surprise. Meanwhile I couldn't even move as I spoke. "She's a human. Celestia's a human... She's a human. Question... what the fuck?"

"Captain, I'm still speaking to you." The princess demanded as Hard Back approached the phone, staring his suddenly-now-a-human superior staring him right in the face. "Oh, hello Hard Back."

Even he was stunned to silence as I crawled over to the phone and picked it up. Looking at her face, I shook my head with disbelief. "...What... the actual... ffffffffffuck?"

"Perhaps my new appearance has answered many of your questions when it comes to my being in your world?" She said with a cheerful tone.

"Oh no, I still have several. Starting with 'when, what, where, why, and how.' I need all of that in a twelve page essay."

The princess chuckled. "You should be happy, Nondis. This should make your situation a lot easier when it comes to your visitation throughout the week."

"Ecstatic." I droned, still in disbelief. "Truly."

"Wow, I never seen such an anticlimactic reaction before." Alex said as he continued driving. "I figured he would've did a little more than that."

"I remember seeing the screen swirl for a bit and a loud thump before I was looking at the ceiling." She replied.

"Wait, he dropped his phone!?" Stanton asked from the back seat, peeking over from the side. "Oh yeah, he's brain fucked!"

I finally found the ability to blink again as I quietly spoke. "Cella, please come home. We have a lot to talk about."

With a warm smile, the princess answered with a sweet tone. "It's probably the first time in a long time you called me by nickname. How about this, I finish up here in a few hours and I return home. From there, you can ask as many questions as you'd like."

"Super." I quietly answered with a soft nod.

"Meantime, I'm going to be roaming around your hometown for a bit. It is truly a beautiful world you live in, I am more than honored to have this experience and I am thankful for your brothers in allowing me to see it like this. I know you would've had objections to this, which is why I never said anything about it. I'm also sure your brothers would've know you'd have some objections to the matter as well, so I instructed Luna and Cadance to keep this classified as top secret. Can't have the whole castle catching on to my new disguise."

"No shit." I deadpanned.

"I'll leave you to your day." She said before pausing for a few seconds. "Yes, and Rarity, I would like you and Hard Back to keep this a secret as well."

"Yes, your highness." The duo droned in unison.

"See you in a bit, Nondis. Ta!"

The call ended with the three of us staring at the phone in silence. I just simply placed it back on the floor as I lazily looked to the officer. "So... what just happened?"

The stallion stood up, dusting himself off as he answered my question. "The princess is on a top-secret mission. You were omitted from the briefing and therefore have no culpability. Carry on with your day, sir."

I gave the stallion a quick salute as he walked out the door. "Same to you, bub. Don't get too drunk."

"Yes... I could go for a strong drink right about now." He said as he disappeared down the hallway, the door closing behind him. Leaving me and Rarity in the room by ourselves again. She stood back up and quietly walked to the service pipe.

"Rarity." I called out softly as she lifted the lid on the pipe.

"Room service, I'd like another two bottles of your strongest wine, please."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Sometime Later
University of Texas Austin Campus...

The sun quietly crept to the horizon, leaving behind only the dusk to trail it. As much as the night sky started to swallow up the remaining light the sun gave off, the tiny glow it gave off was enough to keep the grounds well illuminated, even with the aid of the bright lights that ran along the walkways. The clock tower the university was known for sat in the distance as the four walked along their way.

"My goodness, if only Twilight were here to see this." Celestia mumbled.

"If I can recall much of anything about her, she loves books. Maybe she'll love the price of the books in the school store. Can't wait for that." Alex mumbled.

Vanessa looked at the tower in the distance as it was engulfed by an orange light. "Hey Alex, remember when we worked on our finals for sophomore year?"

"I remember needing you to bail me out because my book got stolen." He said with a groan. "Seriously, go buy the shit online, don't steal it from me."

"Well to be fair, books are hella expensive." She mumbled. "But you were running around campus all day looking for me because we had the same class."

"Yeah, and I didn't have your phone number at the time, just your Facebook account. I had to instant message the shit out of you until you told me to meet you up at the clock tower."

"That day was the main reason why I thought about deleting my Facebook account at first." She confessed with a light chuckle. "But then we studied together and I realized that it was the most fun I had in studying for a stressful ass final exam."

"Yup, I got away with a B because the professor was a total dick."

"He had this thing about me so he gave me an A minus." She said awkwardly. "I know he was hunting through classes to creep around his wife, but thirsty-much."

"Didn't he get fired for that?" Stanton questioned.

"He didn't get fired, he resigned beforehand." Alex explained. "Got caught with his pants down, literally, like just got caught sending dick picks in the bathroom by his wife."

"Oooh..." Stanton cringed. "He's getting divorced."

Alex looked back to the clock tower with a smile on his face. "Yeah. This place was probably the one place Vanessa and I met up whenever we needed each other's help for classes. And then it went from classes to just hanging around each other."

"And in a couple of years, Nondis and Melanie came here too." Vanessa added. "It's too bad that we already sold our books though, they could've used them."

Alex leaned back as he stretched his arms and legs. "Ah, college problems. Sell old books at a sixth of the purchase price to buy new ones at a third of the retail. Losing more money than you gain to stay educated."

"Oh, and don't forget the student loans." Stanton added.

"And the frequent updates to the curriculum, which requires you to buy more books." Vanessa cosigned.

"Don't forget the generation gap bullshit of baby boomers screaming in our ears about how they worked through college to pay their way through the tuition and books." Alex concluded. "No fucking wonder why Nondis is taking the military gig that pays him in gold. He's got enough to pay back Sallie Mae and then start his life with no debt whatsoever."

"Yeah, I envy the dude." Stanton admitted quietly.

"Wait, don't you play sports? You got a full-ride on athletics." Vanessa pointed out.

Stanton sighed with displeasure and annoyance as he replied. "Everyone says that without realizing how fucking cheap the NCAA is. I get a full-ride, my books are paid for, my tuition's waived, my room and board is tossed, but then when the practice is over and most of the food places around campus are either closed or don't accept school store credits, then what? We're left hungry while the suits make bank on our backs. You can't even make any money on the side to help get you the food, or you get punished. It's pretty much why I can't wait long enough before I get eligible for the NFL Draft."

"Your day will come, at least you'll be able to pay off whatever debts you owe when you finish your first year of the league." Vanessa argued.

"That's still another two years from now." He answered quickly. "And it's not a guarantee that I'll even get drafted. Only thing I can do is wait until I get some serious spotlight."

Celestia looked at the trio of humans as they discussed their worldly problems, feeling some level of pity towards their plight. She listened closely to their issues and then looked back to the strife of her captain for further insight. After some moments to reflect, she finally spoke up. "It seems that your world still has some strife to overcome."

"You thought your politicians in parliament were bad, wait till you see our government at work." Alex answered with a scoff. "Arguing to avoid progress in either direction, bullshit evolved."

"Now that's a topic I can join you in." The princess said with a crackle. "And here I was starting to think I was feeling left out."

"AY!"

A voice from somewhere behind the group caused them to turn around, realizing it was two of the students who attended the university. The pair of students ran up and greeted the group. "Stanton, Alex, the hell y'all doing here?" Cliff asked.

"Didn't you graduate a while back, old man?" Rickey asked to Alex. "You're a little too old to be roaming around some kids."

"Ha, it's because I'm older than you. Yeah, whatever. I can walk my old stomping grounds as much as I please." He replied, giving Rickey a fist bump."

Rickey pointed at the young woman standing beside him. "So I take it that this is your wife?"

"Oh yeah, I never introduced you two to Vanessa, have I?"

Cliff shook his head. "Nah, but it's nice to see you guys outside of an emergency situation where Nondis is either in the process of getting himself killed or pretty damn close to it."

"Ha ha! Say it again!" Stanton hollered with agreement.

"Yeah, but you an Aggie, I gotta limit myself with you." Cliff replied. "In speaking of which, why are you guys here?"

"We're giving this young lady over here a little tour." He replied, tossing his thumb back at the woman sitting on a nearby bench.

Rickey and Cliff both eyed the woman for a lengthy amount of time, the first thing their eyes were drawn to was the shapeliness of her figure, the curves of her body that spoke to the desires of their lustrous appetites. Slowly they approached the woman until she stood up, revealing that she was taller than both of them.

"GADDAYUM YOU TALL!" Cliff called out. "You play ball?"

"Hell, I don't mind climbing trees." Rickey whispered as he extended his hand to greet her. "Nice to meet you, ma'am. This is my friend Cliff, I'm Rickey. And we heard you were on a tour of the campus."

The princess finally spoke up with a devious smile. "I remember seeing you. The first time we met was at a weapons demonstration on Sweet Apple Acres."

Both Cliff and Rickey slowly turned around to Stanton with their jaws hung low. The Aggie student snickered as he nodded. "Yeah, she ain't the one you should be trying to smash, bruh."

The two students looked at each other and pointed back to the princess. "How?" They both asked in unison.

Alex dropped his head as he started to tell the story. "Okay, let's go from the top."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Twilight's Castle
Ponyville
***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

Canterlot Canticles Vol. 26... that should be placed in the section with historical dramas. History of Historical Dramas should be placed in references. Clandestine Unicorn Coronations should be placed in the romance section. The Lord of the Rings... maybe I should put this in adventures for now until I develop a section for human literature. Fahrenheit 451... Horror. And Spot of Tea should be placed...

On second thought I'll read that one tonight, I need a good stress reliever with my fruit bowl.

Ever since I came back from Canterlot this morning, I've been keeping my brain busy by reorganizing my library to accommodate the new shipment of books to replace a few more that got lost in Tirek's attack. Took me forever to find some original hardback copies and even a few of the classics that were destroyed. Some are so rare that I had to send out a royal request nationwide to find these books and have them copied into hardback format, especially since paperback seems to be the cheaper way of doing it. Every author wants to have paperback for their books instead of a strong hard case and a old cloth and glue reback.

They don't ever make books the same anymore.

But yeah, my day's been pretty eventful. I got back home, I cleaned the castle, I went through several volumes of Daring Do again, quizzed myself on the events of the lore to keep myself ahead of Rainbow Dash, and reorganized my library. All in all, it seemed to be a pretty eventful day... rather I'm pretending it was.

All this busy work I've been doing was all a distraction from the junk stuffing up every magazine and newspaper headline from here to the Crystal Empire. I'm just sick of it, the image of Cadance standing over Nondis while he's on the ground made my heart sink the first time I saw it. And now that it's become a spectacle raising more questions out of the love for drama instead of critical thought, I'm often asked about the situation like I have some answer for any of it. I don't and I'm so drained of it.

But that wasn't the main thing that had me hiding in my castle for most of the day.

I guess it's more of jealousy than anything else. Right now, I know Nondis is in Canterlot with Rarity, who should be finishing up her post-show activities and getting as much rest before traveling back to town. And if I know anything, she's probably with him right now, doing Celestia knows what with him. She's probably feeding him all those cute little words, those little phrases that make him want to snuggle up.

And knowing him, he's biting for it. And I can see why, she's far prettier than I am. It's like every time I'm next to her, there's almost no competition when it comes to the stallion choosing who'd they take up first. I'm a princess bound by law and duty to keep myself chaste until the protocols are complete and permissions have been met. She's the normal filly who'd entertain the thought of giving them what they want until she breaks their hearts by saying no. She's had that power for a long time.

And it never stopped there. Even before I was a princess, I ended up being not-as-attractive friend of the six of us. Fluttershy had the quiet girl thing about her, compounded by the fact that she's so pretty that she could pass as a model, that made her so irresistible, it was a competition of who could corrupt that image first. Then there's Pinkie, who's always the party girl and everyone knows her, so she's outgoing and easy to talk to. Rainbow Dash was always trying to be the center of attention, but she'd be the first to shut down every stallion that comes her way with anything long-term, she's in it for the fun and most stallions are okay with that. And Applejack had her fair share of the stallions trying to play farm-hoof for her attention, but they usually bow out when she starts working them a little too hard.

And me, I was the niche librarian who kept to herself more often, always had a dragon assistant who could keep up and sometimes put my perfectionist tendencies in check. But I suppose much of that is a bit of my fault because I've always put out a plan for the long-term ideal relationship first. I'm completely OCD and I panic whenever something on my list don't go as planned. A lot of my dates didn't go as planned because I pushed the issue of a perfect date too far, too often. And then there seemed to be someone who liked me because I was that way.

Of course, the Flash Sentry of this world didn't share the romantic ideals that human Flash did. I thought he would like me as well, and I planned around the idea of us entertaining a relationship and even a future marriage. But maybe I did something wrong one day, cause his whole attitude towards me changed. He stopped wanting to be close to me, he stopped telling me jokes every time he passed by on patrol, he even rejected my proposals for a night out. And I was hurt by it, a lot. It was like my best chance and I felt like I blew it because I was being myself.

I hated it.

I hated being alone because I was different. I hated seeing my only consolation, being my brother, getting married off without him telling me that he was doing that. I hated how the world seemed like it was being engulfed by love and I was sitting in some cave watching the love birds fly. While they were singing and dancing, I was holding my ears shut hoping that it would end someday.

But then in what was my most vulnerable moment, Nondis came. He showed me that I wasn't without hope, that I wasn't uninteresting all the time. Granted I knew he was from a different world and the concept of magic was a foreign language to him, but his ways almost reminded me of myself. And I started to realize that I had to slow down my ambitions in order to walk him over. I wanted to prove to myself that I could change my approach, change myself at least that much to where I could be something he'd grown an interest in.

One day, I found out that it could've been possible. It was by accident, a slip of the mind and an obvious show of frustration, I whiffed my tail and he got curious. That first half of the day I was so terrified because I never let anypony or any human see me there. But he did and he wasn't disturbed by it, by my status.

I was so happy that I practically clopped myself to orgasm at least four times that night.

That's when I started to shift. My innocent conversations with him started to have ulterior motives. The thought of him doing these depraved things to me while we simply walked down the street, I wanted to do whatever to get him to take me. It wasn't like he was going to get punished severely for it, he was a protected species and he was staying temporarily, or so I thought at the time. Then came the day of the journal confession and there was something that came up. There was a confession written in, at least I know now who put it in. It was obvious from that point that I didn't have the time to take things slow.

So I panicked.

I brought him back home, I found a way to get him into my room, and I made an opportunity of it, all because I was scared that he'd look somewhere else. And even then, I kissed him like we even had some discussion on his comfort levels when it came to dating a pony. I didn't even ask him if this was something he'd be okay with, I just gambled. And when we separated, I was terrified that he'd leave and never speak to me again.

But the opposite happened. He pretty much met me where I last left off, going even further, pushing me to go even further. And the moment he touched me, I knew then that I wanted him. I had to have him, I was so tired of being closed off throughout my life. I went from wearing chastity rings to not wearing them with a male presence fondling every inch of my body. And somewhere inside me, I went dark, I just said 'to hell with the consequences' and my one desire turned into many, like a seed sprouting many roots, creating a monster with each breath I took.

The monster took over, and I got in trouble because my brother was paying a visit.

From there, I realized that his protections wouldn't matter if I did what we did that day again. My lust grew to fear, the fear that I'd lose this one person who dared to even touch me like I was normal. From the days of my being a student, I was locked away by my mother for fear that I would become this creature lacking self-control and flunking out of my classes. But the longer we were separated, the more I realized that the monster she tried to cage was the very thing I let out on my own. So I did my best to quarantine it, at least before I got him killed by my brother.

For weeks, I suffered in knowing that he was suffering from me. And when the day came for him to leave this place, I broke to say goodbye one final time. I at least wanted him to touch me again, to kiss me, to hold me. I wanted to be treated like I was a normal mare, like I was something worth being attracted to. And in my mind, I was already drawing out my plans to do whatever to visit him in his world as often as possible, just so I could see him again. But again, he went further than me.

He stayed for me.

So for the first time in a long time, I got to feel like a mare. I got the opportunity to feel adventurous. I finally found a chance to be myself with somepony who didn't mind. And the longer we stayed together, the more ambitious I grew. I knew that my brother didn't like it, but I didn't care. He had the fortitude to not tell me that he was getting married, so I showed it back by having a special somepony who I could be a little perverse with. I felt like a total bad girl, separate from my whole 'Princess of Friendship' label. I finally had something naughty worth hiding from my friends, and it was fun.

And yet again, he went further than me.

He fought my brother, and won. He did it while calling out to me, telling me that he loved me. I mean I know I heard him say it before, but that one time made me hurt so much. I started to realize that what I was doing was only hurting him, that he was looking past everything that I was and who I was, just to say that he wanted a shot at me being his wife, that he would support me no matter the cause.

At least until then, I played by the rules of our process. And it was fun for a while until it happened again. Rarity got involved, she started to show him the things she could do that I couldn't. She started playing to my shortcomings, and I felt threatened by it. Even though he said he loved me, I felt so possessive that I needed to stake my claim. Even if she was one of my best friends, I couldn't lose to her. It wasn't because she was my best friend, it was because she was just as I was: a mare. So as a loving mare would, I gave him everything I had to offer.

And there is no doubt in my mind that she'd do just the same.

That one night we shared each other, it was the happiest moment of my life. I got to go to sleep feeling like a grown mare with her stallion. My lifelong fantasy complete, I dreamt a happy dream. And it was the peak of our relationship. But from there, the reality of my situation took my happiness from me. And I ended up taking it out on him, pushing him away from me because I was in pain and unwilling to see things from his perspective.

"This is completely my fault. Had I not..." I whispered to myself, recounting the words he spoke when we were discovered the day after. To me, it was like he rejected everything I gave him, every bit of me that I gave him and he tossed it and tried to wash himself clean of our crime. It made me feel... betrayed.

I couldn't stand being betrayed, finding out that my first time was with someone who changed his mind about the whole thing. The other thoughts came pouring in like viscous lava rolling from the top of a long-dormant volcano. And it made me realize just how easy it is for a stallion to say those things to get what they wanted, only to retract some semblance of those words when the rain came, when the volleys started pouring in. It felt like he ran to leave me to fight on my own, when in reality he was saying that he should've made another choice.

But I was too stubborn to see that. I wanted to see it the way I wanted to see it because I wanted it to be that way, not because it was that way. It wasn't but I made it feel like it. And all it did was get Cadance involved, adding to a narrative that I was mostly contributing to because I was so afraid of losing him. Fast forward to current time and now I've done just that. I'm sitting in my library reorganizing my books to keep my mind off the fact that him and Rarity probably have gotten intimate already.

And I hate it. All I've done was make one large mess of our relationship when we could've worked things out rationally instead of letting the stress of outside influence dictate which direction we should go. And now I'm wondering what he's up to with this plan he's got going on. Cadance and Nondis are at odds with one another because of me, all of this mess in the press is all because I made it public to break up with him, when the truth is that I needed to do it to save him from himself.

Now I'm in need of saving, because being away from him is nothing short of agony.

*knock knock knock knock knock*

I broke out of my train of thought to answer the door. "Yes?"

The door creaked open to reveal a familiar face, a long-time companion gone missing from my life for weeks at a time. Spike walked into the library, holding yet another book. "Uh, hey Twilight." He said rather quietly.

"Hello Spike." I answered plainly. "Haven't seen you in this castle since..."

My discontinued dialog made the young drake more uncomfortable as he looked off and folded his claws into one another, stuffing them between his legs nervously. After a brief period of silence, he finally spoke up again. "So... reorganizing the books again?"

"By genre today. Next weekend will be by reference number." I answered flatly.

"You... need some help?" He asked sheepishly.

"I'm already ninety-nine-point-seven percent done." I glanced back at him through the corner of my eye. "Whatcha got there?"

"Just... theory." He announced as the book in his possession was consumed by my magic, I levitated the item towards me to read the cover.

"It seems you're studying debate. Going over some basic rules of engagement for the politicians?"

The young dragon winced a bit as he corrected me. "I wouldn't say that exactly. It's more for... arguing for your sake."

"I don't need you to argue for me, Spike." I answered sternly. "I'm more than capable of that, you already know this."

Spike grew silent again, not even moving this time. I took the book and tapped my hoof while deciding which section it should be filed under. When I made my decision, he spoke up again. "I really think it should be in the guidance section instead of self-help."

"Anything that can be used to educate yourself can be in the self-help section." I replied.

"But that applies to stuff like cooking and nick-knacks, not so much to a guidance on debate for intermediates."

I took another glance to the young dragon and smirked. "Already picking up the habit." I said as I placed the book in guidance.

"...Twilight?"

"Yes Spike." I answered, turning back to the book shelf.

"...Can I come home?"

I stopped tending to the books, even the titles caught within my magic have dropped to the ground lifelessly as I didn't face the young dragon. But my heart was deeply warmed by his request. "What exactly makes you think you have a home to come back to, Spike?"

I could already hear the young dragon's voice breaking in his throat as he spoke again. "I know I don't deserve one, especially after what I did."

"It was bad, Spike. I for one didn't appreciate it."

"I know. I'll never do it again." He said with an increasingly unstable tone. "I made the mistake of doing something to somepony because of my own greed. I'm sorry."

"Are you sorry because it hurt someone, or are you sorry because it came back to hurt you?" I asked strongly.

"Both." The dragon admitted. I picked up the books lying on the ground and started to place them in their designated sections as he called out to me again. "But I ended up hurting you more! When I found out what he was doing, what he wanted to do to you, I got away as far as possible. I didn't want to see you hurt like that, you don't deserve something like that."

"I'm sure I would've been strong enough to deal with it." I lied.

Sobs started to sound out behind me, at first softly. "For a while now, I've been living out on the streets, no bits or gems to take care of myself. I thought that if I did what I did, I'd stop Nondis from hurting you and Rarity. But it only ended up with me being the one hurting the both of you. And I didn't like seeing it. So I stayed away from you guys, thinking that it was better for me to just stay out there, that maybe I could make a living for myself. And I couldn't."

"The real world is never a nice place, Spike. That's a lesson we all learn eventually." I answered solemnly.

"I know." He replied, swallowing his sobs the best he could. "It was my worst fear, being alone in this world without anyone to guide me to the right place. I know now that I'm far from ready to take the world on right now."

"That's a consequence you're gonna have to face, Spike. We're never ready..." I replied, this time holding back my own tears. "But we have to stand up when we're thrown down."

The dragon finally let his tears flow as he mewled sadly. "I was so alone, so hungry yesterday. The first pony that helped me was Mrs. Velvet last night. She brought me to the house and cooked. She told me to sit at the table and wait for the food to be done, and I asked her why she still helped me in spite of what I did. She never told me anything, I just... I..."

I finally turned around to see my little dragon rubbing his eyes, failing to keep the tears from rolling down his scaly cheeks. I walked up to the young dragon and scooped him in my hooves, holding him tight against my face as he cried uncontrollably. He couldn't stop wailing as I petted him on the top of his head. "Spike, do you know why she cooked for you, why she helped you when no one else would?"

"Why?"

"It's because in spite of what we do wrong, family will always be in your corner to help you back up. Maybe her cooking for you was her answer and you just didn't know it, but we still love you. But it's up to you if you want to throw that back at us or take it for what it is."

His claws gripped tighter around my body, his nose pressing against my chest as he wailed into me. His eyes completely shut as he repeatedly apologized to me. He even collapsed at my hooves as he cried.

"I'm not the only one you should apologize to, Spike. There are plenty of others you should make your rounds at."

The dragon never left my chest as he spoke. "I promise, I'll apologize to everypony!"

"Not just everypony, Spike, everyone."

"I'll do it, whatever it takes. I'm tired of being alone, I'm tired of hurting, I'm tired of knowing I hurt others. I just─"

I leaned down to give my draconian sibling a kiss on the forehead, rubbing the back of his head tenderly as I whispered. "Welcome home, Spike. We missed you."

The dragon continued to sob in my chest, but as I leaned down to hug him back, my heart ached so terribly that I ended up not letting him go. My eyes grew watery while the tears ran down my face, the two of us rocked back and forth, expressing whatever emptiness we had to each other, trying to fill the void that was left behind. And in spite of all of that pain, there was a moment of release, a strong sense of joy that filled within me. I knew he had a lot to do to make up for everything he did, but I'd rather him take the time to straighten himself out than keep walk the crowded streets of Canterlot on his own.

Today was an eventful day.

*bzzz bzzz bzzz*

My eyes shot open as I heard the sound coming from within my saddle bags sitting on the table nearby. I didn't break my contact from Spike as I levitated my phone out of my bag. I looked on the screen as it indicated who was calling me. I quickly gathered myself together before I picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Twilight, thank goodness these things work like they do!"

Completely in shock over who was on the other line, I promptly broke my contact with Spike. "Princess Celestia, I thought this was Alex's number!"

"Apparently I'm calling from his own transmission device. These things are a wonder and I'm more than impressed with their sound quality."

"Tell me about it. It's like keeping in contact with ponies is so much easier." I agreed.

"Indeed." The princess said. "As much as I would like to check in on you, I do have two things I need to ask of you."

Spike, in hearing the princess' voice, he released me to allow me some space to move. "Whatever you need, your highness." I responded.

"Firstly, I need you to clear your schedule for Monday through Friday. That includes any meetings, summits, and/or engagements. I know this is a tall order, but I need for you to keep your days open so you can go on a very important assignment."

Spike and I looked at each other as he shrugged his shoulders, recovering from his crying fit. "Eh, I think I can manage another five days on my own, as long as I can stay here."

I quietly nodded to him as I continued my conversation with the princess. "You can count on me. What's the mission?"

"You and I are going to be on a sort of envoy mission. The location is none other than Austin, Texas. I trust that you will be ready by tomorrow afternoon for your departure."

"Austin, Texas? I don't think that's on the map." Spike mumbled.

"I don't think it is either. Maybe I need to do some research." I replied as I pulled out an encyclopedia from one of the shelves.

"This location isn't in a book Twilight." Celestia stated. "Austin, Texas is the name of the hometown of our esteemed captain."

Both Spike and I jumped as he hollered out in unison. "WHAT!?"

"You and I will be in Nondis' world tomorrow. In fact, I am already here and have gotten a little tour of the college he attended before his sudden appearance in Equestria."

My jaw fell to the ground and then hit the very foundations of this castle while I felt my legs wobble underneath my own weight. The sheer amount of envy I felt at that moment couldn't be measured in words. "YOU WENT TO AN INSTITUTION OF HIGHER LEARNING IN THE HUMAN WORLD!?"

"Yes I did, and I've met with Alex's wife as well. She seems to be in on the loop of what we're trying to accomplish. So for now I need you to get prepared for your visit to the human world tomorrow. Can you do that for me?"

Could I? I would be more than happy to, but first I needed to know something. "Can I visit the library over there?"

"You can visit the library after we finish with everything else. After that, go wild."

"YEEEESSS! Well I know I've been there before but I never went past his living room! THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!" I screamed, prancing in place as I happily chanted to myself. Any kind of negative feelings I had earlier throughout the day had suddenly died off while I danced around the room. Spike just shook his head and smiled at my juvenile reaction. "I'm going to Nondis' world! I'm going to Nondis' world!"

"Now there is another thing." Celestia said, causing me to pause for a moment.

"What else your highness?"

A nervous laughter came from the other end as Celestia muttered on the line. "Can you lower the sun for me? The sun here set on it's own so I thought that I was setting the sun but apparently not because their sun is tremendously heavy and their planet has a rotation of it's own. Our worlds are so vastly different."

I practically gawked at her other favor, feeling a bit incredulous. "Uh, I don't think I can do the sun thing again, I ended up giving Equestria two extra days for that one."

"Just do it like I taught you, and Luna will take care of the rest. And also be sure to get plenty of sleep after so your magic can recuperate. Don't need you having migraines over a little bit of heavy lifting." She said quietly.

Spike blinked widely before putting on a hard hat and ducking under the table. "Don't mind me, I'll be right here in case you drop it or something."

I rolled my eyes with a groan but I couldn't help but smile at the young dragon. "Good to have you home Spike."

The Sun Cryst Resort...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

The hotel room was a bit of a mess while a slightly buzzed Rarity giggled at my inebriated antics. My phone was losing more charge with each passing minute as I had it playing some music in the background. The fashionista clopped her hooves while I bowed before her. She and I tore into the two bottles she sent up, but we weren't as nearly as drunk as we thought we should've been because of the alcohol content. Room service botched our order with someone else down the hall, so we got the cheap stuff.

We still made the best of it. I had ran through a bottle and a quarter on my own while Rarity just kept to her glasses like a proper individual would. But those glasses started to pile up on her, knocking back a bottle of her own. And since unicorns were lucid drinkers, she wasn't too hammered to where she couldn't operate like normal. And I can handle my liquor very well, thanks to many drunken nights at the college. In short, we were too drunk.

But the two of us made out like we were.

I was stumbling over her and she was just laughing every time I did something stupid. But she wasn't so prim and proper herself, dragging me down to sloppily lick my face. I pulled off of her just long enough for the mare to whimper about it, but I joined her once again, this time shoving my tongue down her throat with a slovenly smile. The alcohol had clearly kicked in with us and we weren't too disturbed by who we were in our state, but I can assure that this moment will probably stay between the two of us.

That along with the fact that Rarity popped the button off of my jeans and broke the zipper in trying to tear them off. Straddling me, she wore the most lust-drunk smile on her face. I offered to help with whatever she tried to do, but she used her magic to cuff me in place. She kissed me again, pressing her wine-tainted lips against mine, our mouths still fresh with the taste of fermented berries. Her eyes remained locked on me as she worked her tongue against mine. My hips instinctively thrusted upwards, her posterior falling back on me as she did. The mare forcefully slammed her hips into mine, but soon her eyes shot open with a terrible realization.

She quickly climbed off of me and trotted to the bathroom, leaving me on my own to feel a bit frustrated. I got back up and walked over to the bathroom, knocked on the door, and asked. "You okay in there? You just left me hanging."

The mare shyly squeaked through the door. "I'm fine! I'm just... getting rid of a little issue."

Shortly after her answer, I heard the toilet flush. By then, I understood what she ran in there for. "Oh... that would've been something."

"Tragic, to say the least." She replied. "I couldn't have lived with the embarrassment. I'd sooner bear the shame of a public humiliation than doing that to you."

"I know I shouldn't be asking, but what exactly were you going to do?"

Rarity poked her head out of the bathroom with a scrunchy frown. "Well if you know you shouldn't be asking, then why did you ask?"

"Touché." I still would like to know what ill fate awaited me if you didn't intervene as quickly as you did, just morbidly curious.

"I'm sorry Nondis, but these issues are strictly reserved for ladyship. We will never speak of this again." She quietly whispered. "I'm afraid that took me completely out of the mood."

Yeah, I could see on her face that she's too embarrassed to keep going. And it wouldn't be fair for me to force her to do something because I'm feeling a little anxious. Plus the buzz from our drinks have died off a little so we're not as out of sorts as earlier. It would be better to wait a while before we even try to reset the mood. "Well I can respect that. I'm sure that whatever you were going to throw out wasn't going to be a fetish of mine. I mean to each their own, just not for me."

My phone chirped once, telling me that the battery had gone down to less than ten percent charge. I walked over to cut the music off and put it to rest on a charger. Rarity quietly watched as I did it and watched as I gently put the phone back on the table. She finally spoke up after a little bit of silence. "You know, I had quite a bit of fun dressing your little device there."

"Obviously, but did you have to make it to where it would outdo the GDP of a small developing nation?" I asked. "I gotta keep this damn thing in a vault."

"Do you not like it?" She questioned.

"Of course I do!" I quickly replied. "It's just that this is going to run well over ten million bucks in my world. The most expensive case in my world has to be priced in the upper hundreds-of-thousands. How many diamonds did you put in this?"

"Well over a hundred and twenty."

"Yeah, this might be the most expensive phone in the world now, and I haven't even taken into account the rubies making out the apple brand on the back. My folks are gonna be looking at me like I pulled a heist or some shit."

The mare shook her head with a giggle. "Oh no. I already told you that gem finding is my specialty, my special talent if you will."

"You are a rarity." I joked with a wink.

She promptly responded by throwing a pillow in my face. "And you are a flatterer of the highest order."

"Look who's talking." I replied, throwing the pillow back at her, only for her to catch it in her magic, summoning another two to throw at me. I quickly threw my hands up in surrender. "Hey, hey, hey, hey... hey.... No need for the war."

One of the pillows launched at me, making me duck for cover. Rarity smiled as she used the other two pillows to hover just above my position. "So what terms do you have to present for your surrender?"

"Pistachio almond?" I weakly squeaked.

"Deal!" She said, the pillows dropping harmlessly to the ground and her climbing over the couch I hid behind. "We must seal the armistice with a kiss! It is the only way!"

"For peace." I pushed myself higher and met with the mare's lips, appeasing her violent spirit for the time being. She smiled as she pulled away. She then proceeded to play with my hair while she leaned over the back of the couch.

"So, what do you think now that Princess Celestia's roaming around your world in your own skin?" She quizzed.

"I'm thinking she's batshit crazy, and how weird it is that the sun hasn't gone down yet." I pointed out, looking through the window.

"That is a bit odd, especially considering that this time of the year we're supposed to be in the dark by around an hour and a half ago."

"Right. It looks more like midsummer than late fall." I said while Rarity continued to fashion my hair in various ways.

"Well it could be that Princess Celestia's not able to set the sun from your world." Rarity stated.

"And she ain't gonna need to do it in mine. Sun sets all on it's own." I added.

The fashionista started to weave some braids in my hair as she mumbled in a low voice. "I wonder... I wonder what it's like in your world."

"Well since Celestia's got a spell that can turn ponies to humans, I suppose it would be possible to show you around one day." I answered, causing the mare above me to pull my hair uncomfortably from excitement.

"What a fabulous idea!" She squeed loudly. "You could probably take me later this week! I know I don't have much planned out because this was supposed to be my slow-down week, but I don't mind roughing it in your world for a while!"

I quickly adjusted myself to ease the tension of her pulling my hair out of my scalp. "That would be fun, but there would have to be a lot to consider when we do that."

"I'm sure we can ask all the questions when we get around Celestia again."

"Yeah, but we won't have all day to do it. Your train back to Ponyville is at eleven tomorrow morning, right?" I asked.

"It is." She confirmed, loosening the grip her magic had on my hair.

"So when do you think you'll be up and at it for us to propose the idea? I kinda promised my parents that I'd bring my girlfriend over this go around, would be a little awkward to tell them that she conveniently broke up with me just the past week. It would open the door to a lot of questions I don't feel good about answering."

Rarity carried on with braiding my hair as she tapped her hoof on the couch. "Hmm... I suppose that would be a bit too convenient in their eyes. But what about..." She paused for a moment before continuing with some hesitation. "Why not ask Twilight to go as well?"

Her question had me thinking for a while. Even though bringing her would've been optimal and my story would at least have some sort of consistency, it would open a lot of wounds behind closed doors. And I know it would bring up the topic of my situation with Rarity again. All of that would've made it into a massive distraction that would've caused me to work more on what I needed to say to not make her angry as opposed to keeping the situation congruent with my parents. In simpler terms, I'd be trying to keep her visibly happy while trying to satisfy my parents, I don't know if I can take the stress.

And even if I did bring Twilight, it would mean that I would have to keep Rarity out of the equation just to start off with. So that would put me in the doghouse already with Rarity right now, especially since we're trying to figure each other out. Before I could speak, Rarity offered an answer of her own. "Personally, I'm beginning to think that my being there with Twilight would present a bit of an issue with you and her trying to create some facade of your relationship status."

At least she knows what's up. "Yeah, but I would really like for you to go as well. I want you to see my hometown instead of just pictures of it."

Rarity finished braiding my hair as she giggled at my juvenile appearance. "Well, maybe I can wait until the smoke's gone. Then drag me along as much as you'd like."

"Basically, you're saying come swing by on Friday to pick you up?"

"Oh, I don't know if I'll be working on a commission that day." She replied.

"It's Black Friday." I teased with a singsong voice.

"And then I'll have to keep up with my schedule for that weekend, I'll be hitting the ground running."

"It's a pretty big shopping day. I can take you to the mall and let you pick out some things you'd like to keep as a souvenir." I added.

"And then there's the─" The mare stopped herself short, almost staring blankly at the wall ahead of her. "Shopping... in your world?"

"Yeah, we can go shopping and I can take you to see a movie, then we can pretty much roam around town, take in the sights, go someplace to eat, all that fun stuff. And I promise to have you back at the boutique before it gets too late."

The mare lifted my chin as she looked down towards me. "A date in your world, this Friday, I expect you to take me to ice cream at least once."

"Oh, I know a few places, especially around the college. You'll love it there." I assured with a grin.

"Good form, sir captain." She said with a kiss to my lips. "I will wait with the highest level of expectancy. A new experience in a foreign land is never a subject of disappointment."

"We still need to go to Celestia in the morning to talk about casting the spell on you."

"That's tomorrow. As for now, I believe some celebration is in order."

I proceeded to poke my finger against her muzzle, making fun of her ice cream obsession. "Let me guess, call in room service to get you some ice cream? I swear I'm gonna put you on a restriction like you do to me and coffee."

Suddenly, the three pillows she threatened me with earlier had reentered the picture, all three of them aimed directly for my head as she mumbled. "The armistice is broken, we will have war!"

I quickly grabbed her horn before she could run off, cancelling her magic. She looked at me with a stoic face as I cheerfully whispered in her face. "War's over, I win."

"Check again, darling." She said with an innocent smirk.

I looked above me to see the pillows still dangling over my head, only this time she added all the pillows from the other chairs, the cushions from the couch, and the pillows off of the beds. I looked back at her, realizing my hand was firmly grasped on her horn, but her magic continued to glow through my fingers. I looked back at her, this time seeing a pony with long streaks of purple, blue, and yellow in her mane. Instead of her magic being it's usual light blue, it was a pure white with an even warmer glow than before.

"I-aauh... I... When could you do that?"

"Element bearer, dear. The horn trick doesn't work with me too well." She said with a sinister giggle. "Now... while you have your hand on my horn, I believe it's time we'd discuss some things about my ice cream."

...Yeah, rule number one: DON'T FUCK WITH RARITY'S ICE CREAM.

Author's Note

Well this was a fun chapter to write. Of course this one seems a bit slow but I assure you that the shenanigans of the ponies in the human world will be somewhat entertaining. At last, Alex's plan has come to idealization, or at least parts of it. But this chapter I wanted to expand upon the two individuals in the discussion being Twilight and Nondis.

In speaking of Twilight, I do intend on giving her some more spotlight to explain her side of the story a little more from her perspective. Obviously she knows what she did wrong and admits that her personal desires have gotten in the way of seeing reality. But as far as why she is the way she is, it's more based from the perspective of someone getting into something for the first time with unrealistic expectations.

Now to answer a question some of you may have on the humanization of Princess Celestia. I actually based her off of the rendition by the artist [lvl]. The picture is on Derpibooru and it would be under the number >>1088732 (as per rules of FimFiction, I cannot post links to NSFW art). Here's a safer edit.

Needless to say she's going to have problems with men throughout her stay.

But the next chapter should be pretty interesting in dealing with the preparations for the initial meeting with Nondis' folks.

Again, thank you for sticking with me thus far and being patient. If there are any issues, do respond as that helps me improve and seek out any little mistakes I might have overlooked in writing the chapter (I know one of you will at least, you're always a help).

Until next chapter...

Chapter LXXIV

My eyes opened to the darkened bedroom of the suite, only a solitary beam of light came through the window to cast a ray upon me and the slumbering fashionista. Below me, I could see her chest gently rise and fall with each breath she took. She snored softly with an occasional outburst once and a while. She stirred very little and mumbled often of various things. As I looked at her, I felt a powerful urge to go to the bathroom.

Pulling off the covers off of my naked body, I smoothly climbed out of bed and staggered to the bathroom. Closing the door behind me and flopping my hand around the walls for the light switch, I yawned discreetly to not wake up Rarity. But when I found the light switch, all I could see was a blinding yellow flash before everything settled into focus. So I hovered over the toilet and quietly pissed away the cheap wine that lingered in my system. I stood for a while, waiting for everything to find its way out. After a few shakes for insurance, I flushed the toilet and walked over to the sink to wash my hands.

Suddenly, I felt a light stinging on my right pectoral. When I looked down, I could see the bite marks she left from earlier in the evening. There was also another on the nape of my neck, but it didn't hurt like the one on my chest. Reason for it was that I had followed up on Rarity's suggestion for horn play. I wasn't very apt in the art, but she seemed really into it. She was so into it that I had to stop her from damn near biting my nipple off. But as far as the rest of the night, it belonged to her and her alone.

She took lead for the entire time, only allowing me to move to a suggested position. But most of my time was spent being an audience member for her private show. And she immediately showed me just how kinky she was, from pulling her mane and tail on her own, to riding my face relentlessly while my manhood was confined to my boxers. And don't think she let me touch myself either, when she rode my face she tied my hands with her tail. And she didn't stop until she reached climax, which had me literally swimming in her haunches.

Even as I looked in the mirror, I had quite a bit of residue from our session all on my chin and nose. Realizing that I couldn't stay like this, I did myself the courtesy and washed my face off. It took me an additional two minutes, but I was satisfied in knowing I wouldn't look like I had drunk in some milk and letting it crust all over. I couldn't even imagine Coco seeing me like that in the morning, especially considering she's in the other room.

I wonder what all she heard out of us.

After my visit to the bathroom, my eyes had to get readjusted to the darkness of the bedroom. When I finally got back what poor variance of night vision we humans have, I snuck back in the bed and closed my eyes for sleep to take me again.

"Mnnn... You cleaned yourself off, didn't you?"

...Maybe she's mumbling in her sleep again. I'll just ignore it and get back to sleeping. I at least thought she was mumbling in her sleep, but a light hit to my abdomen let me know she was directly asking me a question. I looked down to see her glaring back at me through her disheveled mane.

"A little." I confessed quietly.

The mare grumbled as she rolled over to directly face me. She wore a bit of a tired scowl. "Ugh, if we didn't have to get up so early, I would be punishing you for that."

"Well if you're angry about it, then be mad at me in the morning." I murmured.

Rarity glanced back at the clock and read out the time. "It's two-nineteen in the morning."

"It's two-nineteen at night. Morning ain't until the sun comes up." I mumbled back.

She just chuckled as slipped me a kiss. "Next time, I'm going to make you suffer."

"Bite me."

The mare smiled back at me. "Yum."

Morning quickly came, the two of us got up out of bed and quickly gathered our things before Rarity walked up to the front desk and handed in her key to the room. Coco lagged behind only by a little bit, but she gave Rarity a quick air peck on the check for a friendly farewell. She had to return to Manehattan for her usual business dealings and stressed that she didn't have time to stick around like than we did. After the guy at the counter looked at me with a sweet smile, wishing me to come back soon and bring a friend, I couldn't help but remember the first time we met and his attitude then. So I gave him a halfhearted assurance that I would return. I've seen the prices of this place, I could exchange the bits in my world and get a weekend at Disney World complete with the express passes. Safe to say that I'm not interested.

We made a run towards the castle, bypassing many checkpoints along the way because of our status. But getting to the princess herself was a totally different endeavor. Not only did we have to work our way around the royal planners, who were hard-asses to begin with, but also the fact that Celestia's so hard to get a hold of if you don't see her roaming around the castle grounds. Add in the fact that the castle was larger than life, and you'd have to take HOURS in order to find her by foot.

So we went to the next best source for getting a hold of her: Luna.

Then Luna got in touch with Celestia, Celestia quickly came by to visit and gave us an answer. "I'm afraid not."

Rarity's heart sank as I tried to argue against the decision. "Why not? I mean I wouldn't mind taking the responsibility for her well-being."

Celestia looked back at the portal she stepped out of and sighed heavily. "That is ultimately a decision I have no power in making."

"But you just walked all over town without consulting me. You even had the security detail wondering where the hell you were. If anything, I think it would be a great idea to get her introduced to my world as well."

The princess looked at me with a quirked eyebrow. "Why Rarity specifically?"

I looked back at her and conjured up the best excuse that came to mind. "Well, we are looking at the possibility of having a new lineup of clothes made for humans. It would be a good opportunity to go over and assess the various clothing styles our world has to offer and see if we can get her to make clothes for the others."

"That is a lie." Celestia bluntly responded, staring at me with a serious expression. "Care to try again?"

This time, I kept my eyes directly on her face as I answered her. "Okay, I promised that I would take her shopping in my world. Black Friday's a huge holiday shopping thing in our world, so I wanted to show her all the things my world had to offer, at least while everything was on sale."

The princess didn't say anything at first, just staring back at me tapping her hoof impatiently. And within a quick draw of breath, she shot yet another unfavorable response. "That is still a decision to which I have no say."

"How isn't it your decision?" I asked politely. "You're the one with the spell."

"Luna also has the spell, Cadance as well, and I have also shared the schematics with Twilight, who will be accompanying you for the majority of the week."

"WHAT!?" I shouted, realizing that she had already planned this so far ahead of any of my suggestions. "When did she get on board with this?"

"Yesterday evening." The princess responded. "I even had her set the sun while I was away. She's more than excited to see your world beyond the confines of your apartment."

Damn, so that means that Celestia is actually telling the truth. If Luna's holding the spell, she wouldn't cast it without Celestia's consent or for her own mischief. Cadance is Cadance so it's best not to even bother. So the only one who would not only have access to the spell, she would have the final say when it comes to one of her friends. That's a 'no' just out of principle. I looked back to see a disheartened Rarity and turned back to the princess with a plea. "Fine, I guess I'll have to put that up with Twilight."

"At least you understand where I am in all of this." She replied. "I'm only doing this out of an obligation to you and your family."

"And it is greatly appreciated." I said with a solemn bow. "I suppose we'll be on our way."

The two of us turned around and walked halfway out of the room before Celestia called on us again. "Oh, and one other thing." She said. "You said that Friday is a shopping day, correct?"

"Yes, your highness."

"Well I will be more than happy to see to that myself. So you can count on me making an appearance."

Damn. That sure as hell cancels any idea of me and Rarity having a date. "Splendid. I suppose I shall see you when we meet up."

"Don't be a stranger now, you hear me?!" She said mimicking the accent of my hometown, causing me to even let my own accent slip through.

"Course not."

While disappointing, our trip to the castle ended with little trouble. The only trouble I may seem to have is the fact that now Celestia is probably looking at the possibility of having an extended visit in my world for the sake of me taking HER out on a night on the town. And if Twilight hears of that, she'll probably tag along for the ride. In short, I might have to hold off on my time with Rarity there. She's already stated that she had plans anyhow, so it wouldn't be any point in trying to drag her away for a night in Canterlot or Ponyville.

In speaking of which, we reached the train station in more than enough time for Rarity to catch her train. She once again discussed with me that I should take one of my own and find myself back in Ponyville sometime soon. And after she said that, she got on her train and chugged on down the mountainside, leaving me to wander around Canterlot for a few more hours to fit some plan of overnight in the mix. I was already out of the hospital, so there wasn't really a need for me to sleep in the castle unless I wanted to take up a bed in the barracks.

Those beds were distributed to one unit per guard, which meant that I couldn't stack up to make myself comfortable. In the guard, there isn't any special amenities for being different other than the physical requirements in order to pass a physical exam. But that even took some legislation and strong push-through on the behalf of Twilight. Not something I can pull off more than once right now, especially since my favor from her is pretty damn strained. So I took it upon myself to do some research and see what places around here were on the cheap end for me to lodge in.

Spoiler alert: even the cheap places are looking to rob you of your bits.

I tried looking in other places, in various quadrants of the city. I even wandered into the lower quarter, only to find a bunch of ponies kicking a mule living in a box. I stepped in for a moment to halt the assault, but the mule then tried to take my coin pouch. And the ponies who tried to beat the mule went after my gun, dropping it on the ground to have one round fire into an adjacent building leaning over in a dilapidated state. The group scattered out of fear of the loud pop that startled them greatly. And with that bit of noise, I seemingly woke up a hornet's nest of attention from various nefarious elements. In short, I realized it was cheaper to take a train back down to Ponyville and mosey over to the apartment I already had my stuff in.

Common sense is sometimes lost in curiosity. Never plan to make that mistake again.

I bought my tickets, waited for another hour or so, answered some more questions from the passing members of the press, closed my eyes and soon found the whistle of the train sounding that it was the final boarding call for Ponyville. Thankfully, I was lucid enough to hear that instead of completely dozing off and missing my ride. So after I gathered what little personal belongings I had on me, I boarded the train and continued my broken nap for another six hours, hooray for tunnel collapses and long reroutes.

I should've probably went through the portal, would've been way shorter that way. Then again, I wonder if Twilight even has my portal open still. That would be pretty awkward to show up to my bathroom and run headfirst into a solid mirror. Not a bet I'm willing to wager on.

But this long-ass train ride made me reconsider my chances.

Finally, with the sun setting over the horizon, I could already see my entire day wasted on some stupid shit caused by a few manticores, some cockatrices, and even a tatzelwurm or two. Regardless, the long trip back here ended with my anticlimactic welcome at the train station, I mean in contrast to the last time I left here. There almost seemed to be a whole parade centered around our small platoon setting out to the mountain. But now that I'm back, it feels like I just got back from a typical business trip.

Many ponies were doing what they knew how to do best, which was being themselves and doing the best job they could. I guess the whole rigmarole from Canterlot had me prepared for a bunch of unwanted attention from the press and the paparazzi. But this place is so quiet in comparison, just being in Canterlot for a week or so has showed me that. I see why this place is a lot more easy going, even considering the massive castle hovering over the town in the north. It's like going from the busy state capital to a small city, or moving from Austin to McKinney. Either way, it was far too late in the evening to make a few rounds for friends. It's better to just quietly make my way into the apartment.

I arrived back at the old place, finding a more mature mare at the front desk staring quietly at a picture sitting on the counter. I know Rarity said something about her, but I just don't know how to even approach her after what happened. Of course it's rude if I just walked on like nothing happened, but it's hard to find words to comfort someone who lost their child, especially one that died under your watch.

That will never change.

"Mrs. Plush?" I quietly squeaked out, causing the mare to look up and see me standing before her.

"Oh yes! You're back from the mountain! How nice it is to see you looking so well." She said, placing a hoof on my cheek as I leaned over to hug her. "I swear if anything happened to you, I would've found no desire to keep going."

"Please don't be like that." I urged as she gave me a light kiss on the cheek.

"No, it's fine." She quietly reassured. "I would've probably sold the place and had it demolished later. No need to keep a lonely little inn open for business when there's no customers to buy in."

I also forgot how quiet this place was when I first checked in. "Yeah, but if I'm stopping you from going forward and you feel like you can't keep the doors open anymore─"

The mare quickly interrupted me as she smiled sadly. "Well that's why you're here, sweetie. You're keeping the place lit and me from going insane."

I leaned my head up towards the ceiling, imagining some heavenly paradise in the sky. "Yeah, he used to say the same thing."

"I know. I kept saying it for years as a joke here at this counter. But now I'm really looking at it like this is my only solace for what I lost."

I looked back down to her with curiosity. "You worked here before?"

"Generations." She answered longingly. "My family's been running the place since it opened. We did whatever we could to keep the ponies coming through those doors. And as time progressed and the town got bigger, they started building new buildings in the central district filled with the latest amenities. We just kinda fell off."

"So if you don't mind me asking this, why haven't you guys relocated to someplace downtown?"

The mare sighed and looked back to the windows leading outside. "The one thing we used to pride ourselves on was the views we had to offer, used to get a good look of the mountains from this very spot, real scenic like when my grandfather was around. And that all changed when them multi-floors started sprouting up when I was coming along. Suddenly, they could get a view of Canterlot and some of Ponyville from downtown. And when my son took over, we were still priding ourselves as much as we could on our view of Mount Canter."

"So what happened?" I questioned.

"I'm sure you saw the main reason why when you rode on the train. It's a pretty big eyesore in the window."

I took a glance back out the window, realizing she was talking about Twilight's castle. "Ah, I guess that mountain view was pretty much a dead thing since the castle was built."

"It just sprouted out of nowhere. And since it came up from a powerful ancient magic, we can't get no kind of zoning suit filed against the place." The mare stopped for a moment and started staring at the picture again. "My ex husband was right, this place should've been sold off years ago when the property value was worth something still."

"Why didn't you sell it then?" I inquired.

"Cause I got attached and my son wanted to do whatever he could to make this place hip for the newer demographic of fillies and colts. But that dream died with that castle came right out of the ground. We've been living in it's shadow since. Morning, noon, evening, from dawn to dusk, that place casts a cold shadow over this poor little inn. So my son tried to market the location off the best he could... You can tell how that went."

"I think he tried his best." I mumbled looking at the mare starting to tear up behind the counter.

"He couldn't bear to part with it, even after I told him that it was better to just let this little inn go. The moment that castle came up, I knew it was over for this place. But he stayed anyway. If anything, it's my fault for not talking him out of it harder. I should've fussed at him, yelled, threw dishes or something, sold it and pulled the rug from under us. At least then I wouldn't be at this counter looking at a picture of my son."

I couldn't feel anything but sadness in seeing the depressed mother cry over her lost child. For a moment, it brought me to see just how painful loss is for those closest to you. That same indescribable grief was going to be something I was about to give to my family. And the thought of it made me more angry at myself for letting my guard down so much. But for the moment, all I could do was watch the poor mare wipe her eyes.

"Augh, my baby's gone." She didn't do much of anything else but plant her hooves over her eyes, trying to hold together whatever dam broke behind them.

I couldn't just say 'thoughts and prayers' on this one. I had to say more than that, I needed to say more than just those simple little words. I had to make something out, especially since some of this was on me to begin with. "Whatever you need, you let me know and I can see if I can make it happen. I can't offer what I want to, because that's something beyond the natural order of things. But I can at least help in whatever way."

The mare quickly grabbed a tissue and dabbed her eyes. "Oh no. I can't ask anything from you. You made my son so happy when you came in. He even thought about turning the place around to accommodate for humans as well. So if anything, I owe you thanks for giving him a new push to keep moving. The one who killed him isn't you, you were a victim as he was. Dealing with the changeling queen herself, I couldn't fault you, not ever."

Though her words of forgiveness brought me some comfort, the pain of my failures continued to hum loudly in my ear. "I'm so sorry. Again, whatever you need─"

"Just stay here as long as you'd like." She quietly sobbed. "My son would've liked that very much."

When I got back to my room, much of it was still as I left it. The cup I drank from was laying on the ground, leading to a sizable stain in the carpet. The sheets on my bed were still crinkled and disturbed from my falling over. My keyboard was slightly tilted out of place from bumping into it. It was almost perfectly preserved, kinda put me in the mindset that I was still on the verge of being abducted. So I took some time to straighten out the bed, put everything in place, and scrub that stain out of the carpet.

I finished about forty minutes later, standing in the quiet room and left with only my thoughts.

My phone suddenly rang, breaking the somber mood I was sinking into. Pulling it out and reading the screen, I grew surprised to see Twilight on the screen. But as it rang, I felt reluctant to answer. Something about the call made me feel a bit uncertain. I didn't know why I felt that way, but it felt like the words 'cuss out' was written all over the display. So I slowly answered the call. "Eeyhello?"

"Nondis. What are you doing right now?"

"Uh... not much." I shrugged my shoulders and scratched my chin.

"Okay. Still in Canterlot?" She asked in almost a monotonic manner.

"Why, what's going on?" I asked.

"Celestia told me you paid her a visit earlier this morning. I think she told you what we were going to do."

"Oh yeah, the thing in my world." I groaned out quietly.

"She just sent me the spell via Spike and told me that I was going to be in need of some clothes. I was wondering if you would go and get me something appropriate to wear."

She's in need of clothes? What, does the spell not provide clothes for her or something? "Okay, sure. What's your size?"

"Well I'm a... a... hmm..." She pondered for a moment over the phone for a few seconds and then popped back on the phone. "You know what, hold on. I'll have Sunset on the other line."

...She knows how to do that already? She's either been practicing or someone else had to show her what to do. Either case, I was resigned to waiting on her to pop back up on the line. Thankfully it didn't take but a good twenty seconds before she came up again.

"Hello? Is everyone here?"

"I'm here." Sunset announced from the other line.

"Okay, we're all here. So what's the deal?" I asked, prompting a brief explanation from Twilight.

"Sunset, I'm going to be visiting Nondis' world. You often offered me a few clothes when Rarity wasn't able to. I need to know my sizes so Nondis can go get me some human clothes."

"You couldn't call up Rarity and ask her for the information?" I didn't know Rarity even had a phone.

"I don't know her number. So I called you up because I know you're probably the best way of me finding out."

I pretty much stayed silent while the two continued to exchange with one another. "Well, I am here at the mall with the girls. Hold on a sec' I'll go get her."

It hardly even took ten seconds before the voice changed to someone completely identifiable. ""♫Ahoy hoy?♪"

"The fuck?" I mumbled over the line. "Is there another Rarity in a parallel universe or some shit?"

Twilight quickly answered my question. "Rarity, I believe I told you about a special someone I was seeing for a while. He's right here on the line."

Apparently, I couldn't appear to be too familiar with this Rarity. So I treated her as if we were complete strangers... No shit, Sherlock. "Hey there."

"Hello to you." Rarity answered in a monotone voice, almost a complete contrast to the bubbliness she'd spoke with moments before. But that tone soon returned to normal as she addressed Twilight again. "Now back to you dear, how's everything been going? I trust that you've been doing well since your last visit to our side of the portal?"

Apparently, this Rarity didn't like me much. She must have a pretty negative impression of me for her to speak to me so callously. But then again, she's probably heard a story or two pertaining to me and what I've done wrong in me and Twilight's relationship. So I'm running uphill with her. Twilight continued to speak to her friend. "Never better. I think the situation is improving drastically."

"Well that heavily depends on whether or not things have been patched up between the two of you. If not, then I can understand your answer." Lady, I am right here.

"That's the thing.... He and I kinda... split." Twilight announced.

"WHAT!?" Sunset hollered from the background. "Seriously? Like the two of you are split unofficially in private or officially in the public view?"

"By legal definition, officially. No longer a suitor." Well I know that part is true but still, I am right here on the line, Twilight.

"Oooh! Well you should come on by and visit! We can have cry time over ice cream, or snuggle up for a movie, or even a girls night out! Just vent it all out if it would make you feel any better." ...I AM RIGHT HERE!

"Wow. I thought the two of you would've stuck it out longer. I'm really at a loss for words here. But is there any reason why you two just made it public?" Sunset asked.

"That's something for later." Twilight answered, seeming like she realized that I was still on the line. "But I need a favor from you, Rarity. I need to know my sizes."

"Ohhh... Well I can text them to you, no need for the ruffian there to know your business." Well that's understandable. She's considerate for her friend. "Especially if he's not man enough to stick around and find out." Thus sings my soul, YOU BITCH!

"I'm not sure why you're letting him know your exact measurements for your stuff anyways. You always told me that you were going to surprise him with that kind of stuff. Do you still trust him enough to go out and find some decent and appropriate intimate apparel?"

"You sure you don't have a female friend you could talk to about this?" Rarity asked condescendingly. "I wouldn't trust my private info with a bitter ex-boyfriend.

"We're not bitter." Twilight clarified. "In all honesty, we were very civil and understanding. In fact, I should've probably timed it better because of the manner in which we did it. But we're still just as friendly to one another."

That last part was a lie.

"Also, Nondis may appear a bit rough in Twilight's stories. But he's really a half-way decent guy if you get to know him. He's a bit aggressive on some topics, but I think you'd like him a bit if you met." Sunset added as she spoke to Rarity. "You might find you'd have some things in common with one another."

Meanwhile in this universe... "Yeah. I think our relationship with one another was more fun than anything. I can't say that we ended bad because we were on the same page. But in either case, can you do it for me, Rarity?"

"I will text it to you." She adamantly replied. "I'm sorry other person, but I don't feel like I can trust you for two reasons. One is that you're a male. The other is that you are an ex."

"Oh I completely understand. You're just looking out for your friend, bless your heart." I said sweetly, of course that 'sweet' had the toxicity of coolant fluid.

"Well I'm glad you understand. Twilight, it will be your say on whether or not you will trust him to get these items or not. Personally I would recommend you'd do it through a female friend, if you happen to know one, but in the event that you don't, I'd recommend keeping things at an estimate."

"Should I call Melanie?" I simply replied in deadpan.

"Nondis, I trust you for just this much... But don't think I'll need any help in getting dressed, I know how it goes."

Great, at least we can move on from the break-up bullshit. "So, Twilight... did you break up with him or did he break up with you?"

Et tu, Sunset? "I'm gonna hang up now, you girls have fun."

*click*

As instructed, I went to my world and bought a few outfits that were classy and very conservative. I also bought a few things that were erring on the side of adventurous but not so much that it would grab any attention. But she would be looking like a Catholic school girl for most of the time there, with maybe one outfit for a night out on the town. I called up Melanie to help me decide on what would look good on her.

I needed a ride and Mel was the one with the car, wins all around.

She was more amazed that Twilight was risking to make an appearance to our world, but she still had her suspicions on how all of this would pan out. When we finished, I brought the clothes back to Twilight and Mel went with her to see how everything fit on her. Spike and I waited outside of Twilight's room as the two girls carried on with their business inside. Then a bright purple flash showed from the cracks of the door when suddenly...

"Goddamn, girl!" I heard Mel scream.

"What?" I asked through the door.

"You'll find out, just wait your horny ass outside." She replied.

I just rolled my eyes and sank to the ground and waited. As I drummed my fingers on my legs, I started humming to myself the lyrics of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' before I inevitably started bobbing my head to the chorus. Spike looked at me with moderate confusion, wondering if I was having a small seizure. "Um, you okay?"

I snapped out of my bobbing and glanced back at the small dragon. "Yeah. Better than last week."

"Obviously." He said, sitting down on the other side of the hall.

The two of us just sat quietly from that point forward. As we did, we could hear the girls giggling and talking inside. Much of their conversation was a muffled amalgamation of words but it sounded as if things were going well. Spike then broke out of his silence to ask. "First time seeing Twilight as a human?"

"Yup." I answered simply, not saying anything else as the mood between the two of us felt more and more awkward.

"...So... You and Twilight are─"

"Don't wanna talk about it." I interrupted.

"Going to your world?" He continued.

"...Yup." I answered. At least it wasn't on THAT subject.

"...So why did you two break up exactly?" And THERE IT IS.

"...Don't wanna talk about it." I replied again.

"...Did it have something to do with you and Rarity?"

"No. Now stop asking, please."

I started to search my pockets for some ear buds to plug in my phone. While I was fiddling around, Spike was still trying to speak. "...Um... About last time."

"You helped bring Count down a few pegs, I saved your life. We're even." I said, knowing that there was a lot more to discuss between us but not really wanting to. I just kept it simple and put my earbuds in.

"But I threatened your life." He continued.

"And I bashed your face into the floor of a moving train. Even." I concluded.

Spike silently watched as I flicked my thumb across the screen of my phone. He didn't speak to me directly from that point on. Instead he gave himself a high-five and slumped over to his side. "Good talk, me."

"Riveting negotiations." I replied dryly as I pulled up the song I had in my head earlier.

The door opened right next to me and I didn't even notice as I started pretending I was playing out the drum beat to the song. Twilight asked quietly. "Is he listening to music?"

"More like having an epileptic seizure." Mel replied, causing Spike to giggle a little.

After the intro, the guitar came in and mellowed out the song as I finally opened my eyes to notice two pairs of legs standing over me. One face I could easily recognize, but the other was completely different. The only thing that could've told me who it was were the eyes and the hair.

Even then, those earbuds fell right out of my ears as I jumped to my feet. "Holy shit."

Twilight stood motionless before me as I sized her up, standing no taller than around five feet, six inches. Lengthy indigo hair with a solitary magenta stripe laid out straight over her shoulders and down her back, her bangs cut just over her eyebrows. Her purple eyes locked on to me as I continued to size up other parts of her body. My eyes glanced down to her chest to notice a sizable bust, apparently she's a D cup at the least.

"Drooling over the chin there, huh?" Mel commented. "Eyes up north."

Not wanting to be rude, I snapped my eyes back up to Twilight's face and cleared my throat. "Hello."

Twilight modeled herself by spinning around, her skirt fluttering loosely at the hem. She smiled weakly as she looked to her feet. "Well... Probably the first time I ever looked like this."

I was left a breath short of speechless, but the sound of her taking it away was a language of it's own. I was amazed by her transformation, almost enamored by it. I wanted to touch her, to see if what was before me was real. Even my hand moved without second thoughts of it until I was just inches away from her. Her deep purple eyes reminded me of the very moment we first met, when I was a scared college student hiding under the sheets of a bed too small for my body. Her lips looked soft and warm, modest in their size. Her nose was on the smaller side, but it was cute to just watch it stay there. Her hands appeared small and slender, her fingers so weak. She didn't have hardly any nails, but they had a natural gloss about them. Her tiny ears, her cute dimples...

"Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo! Will you be coming back to Earth sometime soon?" Mel asked, breaking me out of my thoughts again.

I shook my head and regained focus long enough to catch the last part of her sentence. "What about Earth sometime soon?"

Mel walked up to me and pointed a finger in my chest as she bluntly explained to me. "You need to pay attention to what's going on. I know she's a cute little librarian girl and all she needs is some glasses to pull off the look, but I can assure you that you probably might need to say something good before your mind turns on the dumb."

I continued to swallow whatever spit my glands could produce to wet my rapidly drying throat, a deep warmth grew in my chest as I responded the two women. "Do you... Could you... smile for me?"

Twilight blushed a little as Mel rolled her eyes with disgust. "Okay, the dumb's on."

"Yeah, isn't her skin usually purple?" Spike asked from across the hall. "At least in the other human world with Canterlot High, her skin would be purple."

"This is a whole different kind of magic, Spike." Twilight explained. "Of course now I'm wondering how I'm gonna be able to reverse it."

"Just cast the other half of the spell I sent you."

Hearing Celestia's voice caused me to turn around to see her walking towards us, in her human form. I let my jaw swing freely as the princess and Alex walked up to greet us. Twilight herself was also impressed by her form and walked forward to meet her mentor. But the moment they stood face to face, it was apparent that Celestia was still head and shoulders over Twilight in height. To go even further, she was actually looking down to me, placing her hand on the top of my and measuring herself in comparison.

"This is such a strange perspective, I'm not used to seeing myself look down to meet your eyes."

"And I'm not used to you being human... or your body for that matter." I said as I took in the princess' shapeliness. My face froze in place while my teeth was clinched in looking at the elder princess.

Mel whimpered a complaint as she looked at the two ponies turned humans. "I swear those spells have something in them that makes me lose my confidence as a woman. Can't you two like, you know, lessen the attributes?"

"Yeah, she's like that." Alex said before taking a glance at Twilight. "And as for you, dad will probably be wondering how Nondis managed to find you. Goes without saying he'll be pretty damn impressed. And I see you got the private school girl thing going on. Really attractive, now let's see how you walk."

The indigo-haired girl stepped towards a nearby door and posed against the wall. "I'm sure you'll find my behavior to be quite natural." She said, flicking her wrist with a balled up fist.

"Well she's doing the fist thing, but it's not as obvious as yours Madam Princess." He said to Celestia.

"I don't find it to be a fair comparison. Twilight has been in a human form far too many times for me to keep up. This is more like day two for me while this is...."

"Day twenty-five, speaking to an estimate." Twilight concluded. "Sunset taught me everything in a way that was easier to break down in terms of the whole pony-to-human thing. I know she and I'll do things out of habit but it won't be so blatantly obvious like it would be for Princess Celestia."

"Which pretty much means that you'll be the one teaching me for a change." The elder princess said to the younger.

The giddy Twilight smiled brightly with a formal bow. "Your highness, consider it my highest honor."

While the two ponies went back and forth with one another, a loud shattering noise came from further down the hall accompanied with a male groan and another voice frantically chanting. "Oh shit, oh shit, uh... how much do I have to pay for that?"

The unfamiliar voice caused me, Spike, Twilight, and Mel some alarm. I looked to Alex with a frown. "Who's that?"

Alex grimaced as he looked away from me. "Thaaaat might have been Vanessa, I kinda got dragged into bringing her here."

With more frustration caused from yesterday's stunt, I slammed my hands onto his shoulder and yanked up the collar of his shirt, staring him dead in the face with fiery eyes. "You brought someone else, without any kind of word to me?"

"Celestia already told her about everything. I might as well bring her over to see what we were dealing with so we could all be on the same page. Wasn't this the whole point of what we were doing?"

"Alex, I don't know your wife. I know Mel, I know you and Stanton because we lived our entire lives together, Rickey and Cliff were in some shit and I knew we could keep some mutual understanding of 'do not speak of this, and we won't speak of that' because what we were doing was an outright felony and this was the only way where our hiding the shit would mutually benefit both parties. This shit you pulled could FUCK us."

"Well we're in this position because you fucked yourself instead of telling dad the honest truth at the hospital. When we felt like you were going to die, we had already put our conversation with him on standby. I had to tell my wife what happened as vaguely as possible just to keep her in the know before the worst was to come. I'm making a sacrifice here too, not just you."

To be fair, I couldn't argue his point. So I just let him go and walked down the hall to check on what it was that she accidentally broke. Instead of being something extravagantly expensive, it was just some old vase you could buy from the local thrift store.

Twilight wasn't really a purveyor in artsy possessions, books on the other hand...

Stanton started cleaning up the mess the best he could without a broom for the time being before Spike ran back to get one. Celestia wafted her hand and the shards were instantly lifted from the ground in a golden glow. My neck damn near broke as I watched her use her magic as if she was still in her pony form. Twilight looked on with amazement and extended her hands to find out that she was also capable of doing the same thing. The girl looked at her mentor and sighed with relief. "Well at least I know how I can change back."

"Isn't it wonderful?" Celestia replied. "It's a fail-safe I didn't even know existed when I initially formulated the spell. I thought this was going to be a one-way cast with a secondary pony needed on hoof. But that doesn't seem to apply here."

"But that's not what we experience back at Canterlot High." Twilight stated. "I couldn't even use magic when I first got there. I just ran face-first into a door only to find out that I didn't have a horn to use. But magic does exist in that world and it doesn't in the one we're going to."

"Well that will make us the first magic users to grace their world. But it does come with a warning." Celestia added cautiously. "After my initial visit with Alex and Stanton, I was told that no one uses magic there and it would frighten the others if they were to see it. So consider it wise to adhere to that principal and refrain from using it until it is absolutely necessary."

"If you get into a fight or an altercation, you leave that to us." Stanton cosigned.

Twilight looked back to me with a light chuckle. "Just as long as a certain someone doesn't get himself hurt doing it, then I'm fine to stand by and watch."

"You say that like I'm injury prone." I replied with a dejected sigh.

"Didn't you just get out of a hospital?" Stanton asked as he pointed at me.

"Hey, you try not dying when some random hitman comes around and sinks a large knife in your gut after cutting your tendons and drugging you full of blood thinners and anesthetics."

Vanessa looked at me blankly before she shook her head. "Um, what all did I miss?"

"A long story I don't feel like telling." I replied quietly.

"Long story short, Nondis is missing two feet of intestine, around three pints of the blood in his veins came from me and Stanton, and we had to feed him through a tube for a week."

Twilight quietly looked away from me as Stanton slapped me in the stomach a few times. "At least you're not as bad as you used to be. You're even walking."

"How about I put YOU in a wheelchair for a few weeks." I replied holding up a fist in his face.

Stanton backed away as he placed his hands up. "Nah, I know you can take on creatures bigger than me."

Alex squinted at the both of us and quirked an eyebrow for a few seconds before breaking us off. "Okay guys, we got a town to visit, and a dinner reservation to meet. Let's just settle down so we can get going."

"Sounds like a plan to me." Mel nodded in agreement. "Where we going cause I'm sure seven don't fit in one car."

As our dinner plans were explained, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. When I pulled it out, I noticed that I got a text from dad asking me to call him. I initially wanted to answer the message right away, but I figured it would be better to do it a little later when I'm actually back in town. So the seven of us disembarked to our world, leaving not a single pony to watch us disappear. Of course Vanessa had more than a few questions about Spike, but those would soon be answered by either Twilight or Celestia.

Alex hung back for a while as he looked to the aforementioned high princess. "Your highness, I got a question?"

"Sure, what is it?" She said happily.

"You notice a little something different with Nondis?"

She looked at the man with a small amount of confusion. "I don't recall him being any different than last time. Why?"

Alex shook his head as he stepped one foot into the portal. "Eh, probably a brother thing. Don't worry about it."

Celestia watched as the man disappeared through the portal. Standing silently, she folded her arms and looked to the photo of him and the others standing in front of the portal the day of it's completion.

"So you've noticed it too? And here I thought I was being a little strange."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

The moment we stepped outside of my apartment, Twilight was already glancing around as if she was expecting to be amazed of what she would see. But I could already see some measure of disappointment she had in the view of a few apartment buildings arranged in an imperfect semi circle. Meanwhile Celestia was impressed no matter what she saw, it was her second time being here and she was more interested in the world itself than the place I lived. We settled out in a two car caravan. Vanessa, Stanton, and Alex all rode in one car while Mel, Twilight, Celestia, and I rode in another. We allowed Celestia to ride front seat because of her height, while Twilight and I rode in the back. Again, Twilight was less impressed with the idea of riding in the car while Celestia treated it with an honor.

I wonder what was on Twilight's mind.

We took the Mopac Expressway south, riding past many old buildings, factories, and a few cheap motels along the way. Most of the scenery was something that I grew used to so it didn't do much outside of bore me. Most of everything I could shrug off, and it appeared that Twilight was the same way. Celestia, per usual, was taking in as much as she could, growing a bit impressed with the infrastructure and all of it's flaws. Her face was short of pressed against the glass, looking at all the things that passed. And as we continued our ride south, the view grew all the more urban.

We turned off of the expressway, heading east onto West Cesar Chavez. And the view went from a few buildings spattered from block to block, to larger establishments, and finally into the larger buildings. Stores and other places of interests started to advertise themselves to be more in the city climate as opposed to the traditional open parking lot approach. The buildings became far more contemporary, and Twilight took notice of it.

By then, her eyes started to open more, her interest growing with each moment we grew closer to the downtown area. The buildings got even taller, we started to see less bricks and more glass. The streetlights even looked more modern than anywhere else. The cars grew a lot more shinier and updated. The lights on the buildings grew bigger, bolder, and more flamboyant. The sidewalks became a little more crowded, there was life sprawling around us, and finally Twilight started to smile with glee. Celestia struggled to look through her window to see something interesting, so she turned her head to Melanie's direction and looked through hers. Unfortunately she couldn't lean down enough to catch the top of the massive monsters climbing up to the sky above. The sight of the sunset soaked city caused the young princess to be nearly stunned to silence.

"These buildings are much larger than they looked from across the river." She murmured.

"You've been here before?" Mel asked with surprise in her voice.

"Just yesterday." I answered quickly. "Our whole security sector had a field day with her going missing on us. I would've probably lost my job if she didn't disappear with Alex and Stanton."

"This place is huge." Twilight muttered. "Not at all like the town where Canterlot High's at. I mean I've seen some of the city there, but it wasn't nearly as busy as this. I mean, everything on the way here was pretty impressive, but this is a whole new level."

"Well, welcome to Austin." Mel said as she kept her eyes on the road, following Alex's car. "At least the pretty part of it."

"Now that we're on the route, would it be safe to ask where we're going?" Celestia asked.

"We are on our way to a restaurant downtown. At least from there we can walk around and tour the city night life." She replied. "Now as for which restaurant, I'm not sure."

My phone buzzed in my pocket, indicating that I had a message. Twilight veered over as I pulled up my dad's new message. He appeared to ask if I was ever going to stop ignoring him. I finally texted him back to tell him that I was just getting back in town. At that point, it prompted several more messages, of course they all spoke of me coming back home for Thanksgiving.

Twilight grew a quick smirk as her hand glowed, taking the phone away from me. She pulled up my camera and leaned in against me with a cute smile and captured the moment of me looking down at her. Looking at the picture, she seemed unimpressed with it so she did it again, this time with her wrapping around my arm and with me smiling as well. The young princess then used her magic to restrain my hands as she sent the picture with the caption underneath: 'Bella says hi.'

"There. Now there shouldn't be anymore questions from him." Twilight said with a look of accomplishment.

"If you think that'll keep him quiet, then you're sure as hell in for it." Mel replied with a chuckle.

I even tapped on my leg as I called out my dad's actions. "Phone call in three... two... one..." And just on cue, my dad's name and number came up on the screen.

"He seems quite excited to have you back home." Celestia stated.

"That and angry." I said as I picked up the phone and put it on speaker. "Hello?"

"Well I'll be damned, I guess that's a myth I won't have to trouble myself in busting."

Mel covered her mouth as she tried to suppress her shock over my dad's colorful commentary. I just simply groaned with disgust. "Yes dad, I am seeing someone in real life. Would you like a souvenir from the Twilight Zone?"

"I'm just glad you made it back in. From what you told me, you seemed like you were short of the sweet by and by."

Celestia and Twilight appeared confused by his euphemism for afterlife as I continued on. "Well I ain't meeting gramps just yet. So here it is, here I am."

"Where are you now exactly?"

"Downtown, bout to grab us a little something to eat while we're taking in the sights. Hanging out with friends and folks, caught up with Vanessa and Alex, so we thought of going on a little double date... ish."

"Don't listen to him. We're just hanging out tonight to celebrate our getting back in." Mel announced from the driver's seat. "Alex is treating us to dinner."

"Really now? Care to tell me which restaurant while he has you all on speaker?"

"He didn't tell, said it was going to be a surprise." I answered.

"Well it would've been damn swell if he would've told us somethin' before just going off on his own. I swear your brother doesn't ever let us in on anything, took us three weeks to find out he was getting married."

"Least he didn't hold out until three days before and invite you by letter." Twilight mumbled out sideways.

"Seriously?" Mel asked.

"Seriously, that's how I found out about my brother getting married! He sent me a letter with an invitation through Celestia! He didn't even send the invite, he had her to send it and then use Cadance's full name like I know who it is!"

"The invitations were written in a formal manner, complete names were cordial." The elder princess replied. "Yours would be the same way."

"I'm still mad he did that to me though. Imagine if Luna did that to you." Twilight rebutted, causing Celestia to frown at the idea.

"My sister would love me enough to at least consider an advanced notice the night of a successful engagement proposal, if not that then the morning after." She replied.

"Sounds like you guys having quite a party in there." Dad said on the other end. "Maybe I should phone your brother and ask where you guys are headed to. We could make it more of a family outing."

I already felt a headache coming on with that suggestion. "Hey dad, how about we do that tomorrow or something. I kinda just got back in town and I'm trying to keep things on the easy side for now cause you know, post op fatigue."

"Well if you're dealing with that kind of stuff, then why don't you just come home and rest? Wouldn't that make more sense?"

"I know, but I owe it to Alex to at least catch up on his offer."

"Then what's the problem with me and your mom swinging by?"

The palm of my hand quickly found my forehead as I tried to reason with him. "Dad, I promise we can talk tomorrow."

He paused for a few seconds before speaking again. "...Okay. But I want you to come back home first and check with us so we can see that you're doing well. No running off to that apartment."

And I'm already fiending for some ibuprofen. "I don't know if I can do it tonight, how about tomorrow afternoon? You'll be seeing me and Bella then."

"Nondis..." He called out in a serious tone.

"Dad, please? I just got home, let me just get some proper rest before we do this, okay?"

Even though he was quite hard to nudge, he surprisingly gave in this time. "Okay, son. Tomorrow."

"Thanks. See you then."

I hung up the phone and rubbed my eyes in an attempt to distract myself from the growing headache I received. Mel chuckled to herself as Celestia shook her head. "My, your father is a persistent one."

"You have no idea."

Our time at the restaurant came and went. What I didn't know is that Alex picked up a reservation at a more upclass eatery. Granted, you couldn't wear jeans and shirts, but you weren't required to wear a coat and tie. But when the bill came around for the food, Alex and Vanessa was already realizing that the place wasn't for keeping the money in your wallet safe. But we did manage to pitch in a group effort to pay the expensive bill of over four-hundred dollars.

I'm never ordering a steak there again.

But after an hour and a half of us talking about various things and our respective pasts, we took our leave and wandered around the town. Night life here wasn't quite like places in New Orleans, Atlanta, New York, Dallas, or Houston, but it has a nice array of activities to get into if you want to just hang out with your friends, get intimate with someone you're trying to impress, and even distract annoying family members from hunting you down during the holidays.

Of course with the time of year, Christmas items were already being hung around the place, even as Thanksgiving was just about to roll up to the welcome mat. But carols and bells ringing, mainly from the Salvation Army volunteers, filled the town square with the sounds of the holidays. Twilight told us that she never stuck around Sunset's world for the approaching winter months, so much of this was somewhat familiar but confusing at the same time.

"But seriously, what is all of this?" She asked.

"You ever heard of Hearth's Warming?" I questioned, equating my pony knowledge to this world.

The young princess scoffed with excitement. "Who hasn't? It's the holiday we celebrate to bring gifts to one another and share love and friendship with each and everyone we know. There's also a little something about windigos freezing the world over if we don't celebrate it to keep the warmth of the Hearth's Warming Flame burning brightly. Now of course we give several gifts to one another, but what matters is the spirit of giving and sharing joy to each other."

Alex nodded slowly as he looked around the square. "Yeah, sounds about close to what we got."

"You know, with the exceptions of the threat of an impending doom of ice and starvation, but with added ice and minor traffic accidents." Stanton added comically. "We just simply call it Christmas."

"Yeah, this is what happens when you commercialize a holiday too damn much. They start celebrating it a month early with no intentions to give you that old warmth it had back when you were younger. Yeah I know, nostalgia's talking. Instead it's a buy everything for your friends and family to appease your material desires. For those without the money, then it becomes a holiday of sharing and giving. For those of the less fortunate, it's Thanksgiving round two." I explained.

"With the exception of football being played." Stanton also added. "But the travel away from home is often the hardest part for us. Drag us athletes all around the country for the college wigs to make some big bucks."

"Yeah, this will be Stanton's first year away from the family." I added. "He's got a game on Thursday back at College Station."

"Seriously, twelve days they skipped out on to give us a game, a whole Saturday came and went just to make some money for Thursday, when I could be stuffing my face with the good shit mom makes."

"Well that's the life you chose, Stanton." Alex replied. "The NFL isn't going to be any different."

"Except that I'll be getting paid to miss Thanksgiving. I won't be forced to go to class and worry about semester finals after Thanksgiving. I won't have to come back home and fix a plate of leftovers the day after Thanksgiving."

"Yes you will." I argued.

"You know what, you got a point." Stanton quickly conceded. "I'll probably fly back down here just to heat me up a plate."

"Something tells me that this 'Thanksgiving' is some variation of a family feast." Celestia stated.

"Oh yeah it is." Alex confirmed proudly. "And let me tell you of the great stuffings you'll be getting on Thursday. Macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, collard greens, steamed cabbage, broccoli casserole."

"Cornbread stuffing, oh my God. Honey glazed ham, cream corn, green beans, corn on a cob." Stanton added as he started to drool over the details.

"Deep-fried turkey." I added with a shiver down my spine. "Cranberry sauce, the roasted pineapples mom put on the ham to make it pop off."

"Oh, and who could fucking forget." Mel added with a moan. "The dessert."

"Grandma's red velvet cake." Stanton, Alex, and I said in perfect unison.

"Man I'm so glad mom got the recipe down, it was just three years ago when we were without it for so long." I mourned quietly.

"And the Bible said to 'eat, drink, and be merry.' Can I get an amen?" Stanton called out.

"Amen and amen again." Alex said while raising his right hand to the sky.

"You'll get an 'amen' out of me this time." I said patting my chest with excitement. "I can't go to the house on Wednesday, I'll be fucking pissed to smell all of that being prepped and I can't get any taste of it until the next day."

"Stanton, I'm sorry, but you know I have to come by and visit." Mel said with a smirk. "That cake is gonna have to go with me."

"Just don't eat all the goddamn food and I'll be happy." He replied.

Celestia, who was quiet about the whole conversation woke up when the topic was on the cake. She quietly walked up behind me and whispered. "We are allowed to partake in the festivities, correct?"

"Oh yeah, eat as much as you'd like. Just save some cake for the rest of us."

Twilight looked at her mentor and giggled as she whispered in my other ear. "You know she won't leave any, right?"

"That's an act of war if I heard of one." I replied sternly.

"Well I'll come by on Wednesday to ensure she makes another, just for you to take back to... ahem, share with the others." The elder princess stated.

"She's gonna be hoarding that cake worse than a dragon would with it's gold. Don't be surprised if she has the thing taken back to her kitchen staff for intense analysis just to replicate the recipe." Twilight said with a chuckle.

Celestia pulled my arm as she pleaded with me. "Please let me have this one thing. I will give you a raise of five hundred bits biweekly."

That's a fourth of my monthly pay added on every two weeks, like hell I'm gonna refuse. "I'll argue with mom tomorrow for it. She won't say no."

Twilight just laughed as she tapped me on my shoulder. "You have no idea of the monster you've just unleashed."

"Eh, how bad could it be really?" I asked.

In probably the most provocative voice I've ever heard the elder princess speak, she rubbed her hands together as if they were still hooves. A portion of her hair even turned to flames, threatening to burn her stockings as she muttered. "Releasssse the houndssss."

...I wonder how she feels about buttercream frosting.

Our time out and bout came to an end as the air proceeded to get a little nippy for comfort and the hours growing ever later. Celestia took her leave back to Equestria via Mel's portal. Alex and Vanessa went back to their place while Twilight and I headed back to my apartment. As soon as I got in, I popped on my computer and went on a little web search for some information on current events. I left the door open for Twilight to come on through and make her way into the portal so she could get back to her castle, but oddly enough she never took the invitation.

After around thirty minutes, I placed my websearch on halt and walked into the living room, just to see her sitting at the couch with her phone suspended in her magic. She looked as if she had something on her mind. "Is everything okay?"

Startled, her phone nearly fell to the ground before she wound up catching it in her hands. She looked back at me with embarrassment. "N-no, nothing at all. W-what's up with you?"

"That's what I came in here to ask you. You know the door's open if you ever want to go back to your world."

The princess' eyes veered off to the side as she stood up from her seat. "Oh, well thanks. I guess that's a comfort I can take with me."

I walked over to the dining table and pulled out a chair to sit in as I spoke. "So what's on your mind? You're usually a lot more talkative when it comes to new experiences. Tonight was kinda an unusual exception."

The princess turned away from me as she stuttered. "I-I don't have anything on my mind."

"You know I'd know if you have something on your mind, Twilight." I said as I folded my arms. "Your body language gives it away, no matter what form you're in. You being human just makes it a hundred percent more obvious."

She looked at her phone and sighed dejectedly. "It's... it's nothing."

"Is it about dad?" I asked.

"Well, parts of it." She said quietly.

"What part of it?"

Her eyes glanced back to me, almost mean-like to show some signs of irritation. "...Okay, all of it."

"Is it meeting with him you're nervous about?" I asked.

"That's just a little thing about it. I'm perfectly fine with meeting your father. You've met my parents and saved their lives, I owe it to you to meet yours at the very least."

"I don't think that's what you have in mind." I said as I took a peak at the clock on the wall, reading out 10:25 p.m..

She sat back on the couch and placed her arms between her legs as her head dropped nearly into her own lap. "Nondis... when are you ever going to stop lying?"

"To my folks? Well, that'll take some time given the circumstances." I confessed hesitantly.

"I mean think about it, even what we're doing now, isn't that a bit of a lie too?"

"What do you mean?" I inquired.

"Nondis, you and I are here to pretend we're still in some sort of relationship beyond friendship. I don't have a problem in doing it but..."

"...But what?"

The princess remained silent for a few seconds before she finally looked at me directly. "Haven't you ever considered how hard it is to pretend you're with someone after you told them it's over?"

Her question caused a small knot to grow in my throat, disabling me from speaking out. I wanted to say something on how easy it could be if we didn't let our emotions dictate the situation, but that was the main issue. There was no way we could play it off without that happening. If we were going to pretend to have anything together, then it would inevitably reopen wounds. And many of those wounds were quite fresh. "You know, I never really thought too much of that."

"But don't you think there's something between us that'll show? Your father seems awfully discerning."

"Not by that much." I replied.

"...Nondis, can you come here for a second?"

I stood up from my seat and walked over to her, watching her as she stood up in front of me. "I promise I won't try to drag this out any longer than it needs to be."

Suddenly, I felt her hand clench on to mine, pulling it towards her chest. Her other hand clasped on to it as well to hold me in place. Her purple eyes looked up to me as she spoke softly. "Will you ever be honest with me?"

"Where's this coming from?"

"I just want to know if you'll at least try. Because if we're gonna do this, and we don't have much of a choice, then I need for us to at least be honest with each other. Don't try to make this out to only be a lie."

"I don't understand what you're trying to get me to do."

"I think I should put it like this." Twilight said, getting even closer to me, looking me in the eyes. "If I was a normal girl, no rules, no royal baggage, no other stuff, would you think about being with me again?"

The amount of discomfort I felt as she asked me that question was something I never quite experienced before. I wanted to pull back and say something then, but her grip and her magic prevented me from doing so. She was going to force me to answer the question, no matter how awkward the situation felt for me. And it came with good reason why I felt like this. "I... I can't say whether... I mean it's... I don't know how to answer you right now."

She didn't break her eyes off of mine as she freed one of her hands and poked her finger into my neck. "Oh, is it because of that?" She asked, pointing out a love mark from the previous night.

My silence was more than enough for an answer.

Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Afterwards, she stared directly at the mark her finger outlined. "So... it seems like the two of you had fun."

The mood of the room suddenly grew almost as heavy as my conversations with dad over my personal beliefs. And this time, I couldn't say anything to save my own life. There wasn't any point in trying to tell a lie because the truth was written all over me, and it still stung a little as her finger poked into it ever so slightly. And I couldn't say 'I'm sorry' because it wouldn't mean anything at this point. There was nothing I could say to make this better, only worse.

Twilight loosened her grip on me, stepping back a foot before she said anything else. "I guess it would be hard to pretend you have anything for me if you just finished playing around with someone else."

"She and I aren't anything right now." I replied, stupidly but honestly. "She said we're more of friends."

"For now." She finished. "I know the two of you had a lot of time to spend yesterday. So I already know what happened."

"...So you want me to be more honest with how I'm feeling about this on a personal level."

Twilight smiled weakly when she spoke in a mousy voice. "That's the plan. No hiding." She said as her magic pulled at my collar, revealing a few more marks on my neck. "Wow... she really went to town on you."

"Can we not discuss this?" I asked sheepishly.

"I know you're not feeling regret over this one, are you?" She asked in a very animated manner, going so far as to stepping up towards me. "Cause if you do, then I should be the first to say how much of a jerk you make yourself out to be."

"So if I do it I should feel guilty, and if I regret it I should feel like the scum of the earth? Is there no way to not feel bad?"

"The first one is natural if you know what you did is wrong. The second one is inherently offensive because you're treating it like it's something you should take back. You can't just sneak into a girl's heart and decide that the aftermath wasn't worth it, you can't just sleep with a girl and pretend you can just hit a switch and say that you want to undo the time she gave her trust to you and shared what was most precious to her."

"But haven't you felt some regret over falling in love with Flash?" I asked, causing the princess to stand silent for a few moments. Her eyes wandered to the floor as she stood defeated.

"...I feel the regret of falling in love with you, like the pain I feel wouldn't exist if I didn't try to force myself into the picture."

"Now that's inherently offensive." I replied stoutly. "You just said you regretted falling in love with me. Why?"

"Because I see you now and I'm still feeling no different from the day we first saw each other like that. I'm in love but I feel hurt because you seem like you've moved on so quickly. I feel regret for the things I've said to you that I failed to translate because it led to miscommunication. I mean sure I might have played around with a few topics trying to be coy, but I never considered how you felt about it."

"Miscommunication? Twilight, you dared to not even tell me ANYTHING. That's not miscommunication, that's lying by omission. With miscommunication, you could say anything and something would get lost in translation, at least there was some attempt to communicate with one another. You had someone on the outside step in and dictate the course of our relationship based on THEIR personal beliefs. Why, because you told her one thing and you told me another."

Twilight quickly grabbed my hands again, trying to explain herself. "I know, and I should be more than apologizing for it... That's why I made our break official, because I couldn't stand to see you get hurt over me even when I did something wrong."

"That's what love does, Twilight. You gotta be able to stand in the corner of someone who you know does wrong, but only if you know they will be willing to come correct later on. Sticking around when they'll never change is a mistake. And somewhere inside of me, I felt like you would at least try to talk to me. Now granted, it came a wee bit too late, but I was always in your corner."

Twilight's hand shook in mine while she clenched her eyes shut. "I feel like that 'was' was a way of saying you might not be there anymore."

"Isn't this what you wanted?" I asked. "To kill it all off when the law was repealed, and then we'd go our separate ways? That was the promise you told me to keep."

"But haven't I begged you to run away with me? Haven't I at least communicated that I wanted to stay?"

"Twilight, I couldn't even walk when you told me 'let's be ourselves, like we once were.' Hell the sight of that scroll at my desk made me flatline a second time because I felt like all I threw in for this to work made it to nowhere. I felt like I could literally close my eyes and let the world go, and I know I wasn't the best suitor but I sure did try."

"I know." She whimpered quietly. "That's why I'm not even angry with you for what you did with Rarity, because I know somewhere I've lost you to her... It's not like I didn't see it coming."

I released myself from her hand as I took a step back. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Rarity's a better choice than me. All of my friends are better choices than me at this point, I've heard it all before. I'm too perfect, or I'm too demanding of perfection. I'm not as adventurous or wild enough. I'm too conservative, or I'm too much of a book nerd. I'm too compulsive, I keep everything in place. I'm not nearly as attractive. I'm the student of Princess Celestia herself and my sister-in-law is a princess too, I'm way out of their league socially. And I'm a princess, so it's too risky or dangerous to be with me."

"...So?"

"I'm just listing off all the things that I heard about me throughout the years. I've never been a particularly pretty mare, but the few eyes I've had on me were the ones I could never have because of various reasons. I'm used to being alone so I know─"

"I don't recall ever saying anything like that. So what makes you think that I'm them?" I briefly interrupted, causing the girl to pace around the room tirelessly. Twilight walked back and forth, fumbling with her fingers as she rambled on.

"Because you've been with me. You know how I can get when I want attention, you know how clingy I can be, you know what makes me laugh, what hurts me, what makes me smile again. And you know how hard it is to be with me. You know how easy it is to be with my friends, how much more freedom you get to have with them. My life was always filled with responsibilities, some curriculum of various sorts, and simplistic pleasures so mundane that watching paint dry could be considered as time well spent. Not once have I had anyone like you. But my bad habits got in the way, as usual. So I know that being with me isn't always fun or adventurous, or even fulfilling because I can't do the things the other girls can. And if we were to settle or something, I can't promise to be a good cook but I can always learn. I'm very sufficient in cleaning, and I'm capable of taking time off of my duties and research to tend to home if need be. I can change─"

"Why do you sound like you're trying to beg for a marriage consideration?" I asked, interrupting her once more.

"Maybe I feel a little scared that I might lose you, like this is all I can do now." She whimpered as she shook timidly. "I never felt like this, I never told anypony I felt like this. I don't think I've ever got to see myself being so caught by something like this...." After a long time rambling, she stopped pacing while she took a few breaths to calm herself. "I guess what I'm trying to come clean about right now is that this is pretty much my chance to at least see how it feels to be with you without the limitations, the laws, and the differences of what we are. It also feels like my last chance to show you what I can be."

"But you don't think that I'm perfectly fine with you as you are?" I deadpanned.

"Nondis, I'm wearing a disguise to meet your parents. I'm here to clear up the problems I brought you by being romantically interested in you. How is it that you could be perfectly fine with me and everything I've done?"

"I wouldn't have have stayed if that was the case." I confessed bluntly, sitting on the couch. "I saw a cute girl way back when. I thought it was funny how she was so obsessed with every little thing that was out of place, it was like watching a TV show, a sitcom, about this one girl with OCD and dating problems... And then suddenly this girl threw up on my shirt and I was kinda upset about it."

Twilight dropped her head as she covered her face in embarrassment. "Gee, thanks for that tasteful reminder."

"Yeah, it could've ended there but I saw some similarities with you and another friend of mine. Even though Pinkie had more of that friend in her than I thought, the girl I saw had enough to grab my attention. So I just kinda stuck it out, just to get to know the girl for who she was really. I didn't find out that much other than her brother being some important dude, her sister being a government official, and that she may have saved the world once or twice. Then, she got real mad at me one day over how bad I got hurt fighting some dude in a dark alley. After that, I got curious about her, started asking questions."

"Long to short, that girl isn't with you anymore." Twilight said, trying to cut my story short.

"Yeah, but there was a lot of adventure that came with being with that girl, and it was far better than anything I could've experienced here at home. Yeah, stress was pretty annoying, I got hurt a lot more than you wished, and I said and did things that made you mad. But that's all what we come to expect in relationships... you know with the exception of the whole being forcibly drafted and deployed to missions said to have less than a ten percent survival rate."

Twilight chuckled at the sound of my voice and how I sarcastically articulated the part I didn't expect. She laughed for a short while and looked at me. Then the frown came back on her face as she spoke. "We went through a bit, didn't we? Now here we are pretending we're still together."

"Yup." I confirmed as she sat next to me. "That's what we're doing. I don't have anything to say to make that look any better than it is. But I can at least try to be convincing."

I once again felt the softness of Twilight's hand clench onto mine beside me. She didn't look at me this time but her words were just as direct. "For me, I guess I'm treating all of this like a date. We never really had one of those."

"Meeting my parents, a date?"

"No, you and me in your world, spending time together." She clarified, leaning her shoulder onto mine. "This time, I get to reach your face without having to fly or use magic."

"Or asking me to bend down to meet you halfway." I added.

Her hand gripped mine even tighter when she moved her eyes towards mine. "...I want another chance."

"But you made our relationship officially broken." I stated. "By law, I can't do that for you."

"Here, the laws are different." She said quietly. "We can at least be together here, can't we?"

I looked away from her, trying to carefully word my answer. "They'll come for you. And then I'll get punished for running away with a princess. If I did my studying up on Equestrian Law, that's considered as treason. I'll probably be sent to death for it."

Twilight grew silent for an extraordinary amount of time, almost as if she was quietly pondering over something. Even as we sat there, she wouldn't allow me to talk as she thought to herself. And the moment her mouth opened, I felt something inside me drop to the ground almost like a bag of wet sand. "I think I can take that for you."

My chest grew cold, I looked to see her staring back at me with the purest smile I've ever seen. That made something within me panic right away. "You don't have to do that, I'm not worth it."

"Maybe I was too busy trying to act like I was doing something when I clearly wasn't." She added, burying her head in my chest. "You've done everything up till now, haven't you?"

"Twilight, I don't think this is─"

"Well these next few days, you're gonna see a lot more of me doing what I can for you." She said, dramatically changing the mood of the room. "I'm sorry, but as a mare, there's something within me that can't just let Rarity win. So I will be spending the night here."

"I'm sorry, WHAT!?" I exclaimed loudly.

The girl jumped off of the couch, quickly taking off her shirt and shoes, stripping herself down to her purple-and-white striped thigh-highs, black bra, and pink panties. "We have an early morning, so I think I should be getting ready for bed now. No point in trying to convince me from doing otherwise when you've spent so much time in our world. I believe I can devote a few days of my own here."

I quickly turned my head, desperately trying to avert my eyes from the rapidly stripping Twilight as a bra was thrown between my feet. "Dammit, if you're going to strip, can you at least do it in the room?"

"This is a room, by literal definition." She replied with a coy smirk.

"BED ROOM!" I emphasized as I clenched my eyes shut.

"Okay, no need to be upset." She giggled as she ran a finger down my chest. "I don't really know how to fold human clothes, so if you can do that for me, it would be greatly appreciated."

I kept my eyes closed for a while until I couldn't hear the footsteps of the girl anymore. I finally opened my eyes and looked around to see the mess she made in the room tossing her clothes all over the place. I shook my head and proceeded to pick up after her, starting with the bra at my feet. And just on the table rested a still-warm pair of panties she tossed away carelessly. I grumbled for a bit before I picked them up and looked at them for a second. Somewhere in my mind I had some unusually perverse thoughts, but I manned up and just grabbed them and everything else to take to the washroom. As I finished picking up after the young princess, she stepped out of the room, proudly nude and bearing everything as she spoke.

"Will you be taking the bed, I know this is a last minute question, but I wanted to know."

Before I could catch a good glimpse of her, I turned around and covered my eyes. "Twilight, do you not wear pajamas?"

"No! Ponies don't sleep in clothes, even in Sunset's world I didn't like it. All it does is make me sweaty."

Even though I can sympathize with her, being one who sleeps in nothing but my boxers, I still had some issue with her sleeping on my new mattress completely in the nude. "Can't you just throw on one of my old shirts or something, it'll at least be something like a dress for you."

She rolled her eyes and waved off my suggestion. "So are you sleeping in the bed or not?"

"I'll sleep on the couch tonight. You take the bed and get some sleep."

I heard her moan with displeasure as she stomped her foot. "You are no fun at sleepovers, are you? It's just a little skin, what's the problem?"

If you been in Sunset's world, you would know. "I'm gonna go wash your clothes for tomorrow."

The moment I turned for the door, I felt two arms wrap around my chest. My body grew significantly stiff as I felt all of her features being pressed against my back. She giggled as she hugged me from behind. "Thank you for this opportunity, I'm looking forward to what's in store for tomorrow. Now hop on to it so you can get some rest too." She said before hip bumping me forward. "Giddy up!"

Out of a flash of frustration, I turned back to see a nude Twilight walking back slowly to my room, her hips shifting with each step and her buttocks becoming more pronounced as the distance grew between us. Each inch of her exposed back and derriere made me look far longer than I had wanted to. Earlier, I didn't get a chance to pay attention to her shape, but she was cut in such a way to draw and keep my undivided attention. Her waist was narrow, her chest to waist creating a perfect triangle until the focus from her waist was redistributed to the incredible child-bearing hips she effortlessly swayed. She turned around to catch me glaring at her and smiled again while she gave herself a firm smack on her right cheek, sending some mesmerizing ripples throughout her backside. I hurriedly pointed my head forward and darted straight out the door before she could do anymore to tease me.

When I stepped outside with her dirty clothes, I was already feeling the effects of her little demonstration. My crotch grew tight and the clothes in my possession had a definitive scent that made me want to bury my nose into them. But I shook my head and quickly used her shirt as a makeshift bag to keep it in. Even then, the scent she left in these clothes were enough to feed my imagination far more than it should have.

I was essentially ten seconds of a lack of self-control away from jacking off in the washroom.

After I came back from washing Twilight's clothes, I returned to the apartment to find Twilight sprawled out on my bed, naked to say the least. The sheets were tossed wildly as she slept with her legs splayed and her left arm drooping over the side of the bed. I didn't get any closer than three feet within the doorway, placing her clothes on the computer desk nearby. The darkness of the room didn't allow me to get a glimpse of anything that would've triggered my inner pervert. So I left the clothes, walked out of the room, pulled out a blanket from the coat closet and snuggled up on the couch for the night.

Dawn came, feeling much too familiar to years past. It was the sun of my world beaming through the blinds of my balcony, the white popcorn roof staring above me was a more convincing reminder that I wasn't in any hotel, inn, or castle. The sounds of birds and cars passing through the complex gave me a sense of nostalgia. Looking at the clock on my phone, it read 6:18 in the morning. It almost felt like a school day again, like I was gonna have to get up and bemoan the fact that I had homework to cram on before class started.

I felt like that until two distinctive voices came from down the hall.

"She's still sick?"

"Apparently so. It's been like this every morning and she's been thirsty for the longest."

"Oh, Cadance."

The conversation between the two princesses drew a bit of my curiosity and I snuck off of my couch and crept over to the door of my room, listening to the two speak. "Shining has urged her to return to the Crystal Empire and see her personal doctor, so they will head back north for the time being until the issue resolves itself."

"You know, I went through that and I felt pretty terrible myself throughout the day. But it only lasted so long. I don't see how ponies drink like that if all it does is bring you more pain and suffering."

"But it shouldn't last that long." Celestia argued.

"My brother's been known to drink at night for his... past. But even then, he's also been known to scream at night. Granted, that hasn't been happening so much lately, but it's still an issue. Drinking seems to do nothing but cause pain."

"Well I know that you had a bad experience, Twilight, but that simply isn't the case. I'm starting to think Cadance has come down with a serious stomach bug."

"Maybe I need to take some time away from here to do some research on her condition."

"I think Shining Armor has it taken care of. We should be focusing on our current objective."

So apparently Cadance's health issues have taken a turn for the bad. Not that we're on the greatest of terms, but I don't wish ill of her... you know, other than a good smack to the head for what she said about me, but I wouldn't even take it that far. She can be a bit of a bitch at times but I'm sure something got to her recently that made her like this. Either way, I'm not gonna bring her down anymore than she already is, hoping for the best on that front.

In the mean time between time, I had to jump in the shower and get clean. But being that they were in my room and I was wearing only my boxers, I opted to take the clothes from last night with me. I locked myself in the hallway bathroom, turned on the shower, got to scrubbing and merrily watched the dirt run away. The feeling of a shower being above head level was probably one of the best feelings I've had in a long time. As the steam started to fog the bathroom, I took notice of my morning extension taking place. And the warm water running down my body didn't do anything but get my mind running back to last night.

I could already see in the back of my eyes that girl looking back at me, slapping her ass as she deviously teased me. If she would've went even further to spread them and let me catch a glimpse of her, I would've quietly considered my options and disregard my self control. But the lingering thought remained, I couldn't because of her status. And I didn't want to get shocked again.

I threw my hand to the temperature knob and swapped it to the coldest setting possible. And then the early winter-cooled water came rushing in, covering my entire body to make me quiver and reel back in discomfort. Any morning wood my body had considered was quickly cut to size and my mind was made awake. After a few seconds of the dreadfully cold shower, I ran it back to a comfortable temperature to warm myself. Afterwards, I stepped out and started to dry myself off. Looking down to my little victim, I quietly apologized.

"Sorry, dude. I had to shut you down, got girls in the house and I ain't getting none anytime soon. No open strolls today, maybe next time, little guy."

"I didn't know you had a pet."

The voice through the door startled me so much that I actually shrieked, not to mention the sense of embarrassment I felt as called out to whoever was standing outside. "Who's there!?"

"Celestia. Forgive me if it appears that I was eavesdropping, my ears are still quite sensitive. I heard you talking to a friend perhaps?"

I quickly made up a lie. "I-I was on the phone!"

"Oh. Well forgive my interruption, I'll let you continue your conversation."

"Okay!" Dear fuck that could've gotten real weird. I shook off the mood of awkwardness and threw on my clothes. Unfortunately, I had to settle with the ones I wore before I went to sleep because I didn't want to walk before those two just wearing my boxers. So I got dressed and stepped out of the bathroom to see Celestia still standing beside the hallway door. She wore only a red button-up blouse with a black skirt down to just her knees. Her chest as pronounced as ever... as well as her nipples.

"Nondis, I trust your conversation went well?" She asked completely oblivious to her circumstance.

As much attention she had out of me with those milker mounds, I tried my best to glance away out of respect. "Yes. Now I do have a question to ask. Where is your bra?"

Celestia turned to her back and looked down with a grimace. "Those things kept hooking into my hair, and it makes it a little harder to breathe for me. I wanted to just go without and be comfortable today. After all, I'm not quite sure what purpose they serve exactly."

It keeps men like me from staring too damn much. "You have something to wear over that blouse, correct?"

"I was given a sweater, but I am unsure if I will need it." She replied.

"It's gonna be chilly, and you don't have your fur coating you as usual. You're gonna want to keep warm." I politely warned.

"Must I wear so much? I feel great wearing just what I have on now. I'm not even wearing those annoying things I had to put on my lower extremities."

I looked at her legs and took notice their barren yet silky-smooth appearance. She admittedly has some nice legs, but the weather would not be so forgiving. "Where are your pantyhose?"

"I think something burned a hole or two in them yesterday." Probably her hair from her little episode. "So I threw them out and now you'll be taking me to get some more. I know it may be a bit tedious, but I am relying on you to aid me in this unusual endeavor."

Unusual is putting it mildly. "Okay. I probably should think about getting you some leggings as well. They're kinda like pantyhose, but some girls around the campus think they're a substitute for pants for some odd reason."

"That sounds like a fun idea!" She said cheerfully. "Introducing me to the fashion of youth."

"Oh no, you're not going anywhere wearing just leggings. It may sound fun but it's no fun when a bunch of guys can see what color your panties are." I argued strongly.

"Well guess as they may, I'm not wearing any."

...She's got on a fucking skirt that hems up to her knees with no panties to save her dignity or my life. God, if I could've known better, they had to have been sneaking around my porn folders on my computer because that was always my one fucking weakness in high school. I don't think my blood flow can handle all of this. "Why aren't you wearing panties?"

"Because they felt so constraining. And I understand that it covers up the intimate parts, but I'm not quite used to being hugged so tightly there. I'm sorry, Nondis, but many of your human customs are quite tedious for us ponies."

Dear fuck, I'm gonna bust a nosebleed. "Okay, how about we go get Twilight to help explain everything to you before we head out."

"Twilight said that she will be meeting up with us after she pays a visit to Canterlot to see Shining and Cadance off. At the speed she flies, she should be there in around forty-five minutes. By the time she finishes with her visit, she'll be with Cliff and Rickey."

...Well fuck. "So, you're telling me that she left you here alone?"

"Well you are my captain of the guard, so I will be entrusting you with my well-being as per your job description. I am certain that our time together will be without incident. So please treat me well."

Goddammit.

If it wasn't for the fact that Alex had made plans for a rental car to be provided on my behalf yesterday, I would've been on the receiving end of Mel's ire for letting Celestia leave the apartment dressed the way she did. But I still managed to politely scold her on the issue while enforcing that she should not be so careless with her public appearance. There might be situations that require her to perform various things like walking up stairs or running down the street if something were to happen, and the last thing that needs to happen is for her to fall and everything be shown to the world.

She disagreed with the concept vehemently, but was accepting of the circumstances regardless.

As requested, we went shopping for her new pantyhose and leggings. I couldn't quite buy her any panties because I didn't know her size. I followed it up by going out and getting us something to eat at a local IHOP. She enjoyed the food, but she had quite a few criticisms of the pancakes. I've also learned that she has one hell of an appetite, I swear I ordered just one plate of food for her and she was already in the menu discussing yet another item, and another, and another. So after paying for what could be considered a family of five, we rode to the frat house to meet up with Cliff and Rickey.

Celestia was pretty surprised to find the house branded with Greek letters. There were three guys talking on the front porch until they saw her step out of the car. The towering woman with her voluptuous features had the three students caught in headlights. Celestia waved hello to the men, getting a nod of the head from one and a southern wave in return from the others. On the way inside, I brought the pantyhose and the leggings with me. As we walked through the door, the three men were already climbing up the princess' exposed legs in between her thighs, their imaginations trailing towards sexual intent.

We walked through the main room, headed upstairs, and met up in Cliff's room. There Rickey and Cliff were busy talking shit at one another while the sounds of controllers rattling and clicking ceaselessly filled the room. "I oughta stomp your dumb ass."

"Man, fuck that shit you on. I'm up three. Just let me get this last one. Just let me get this last one. Pump some mean ass shells in your ass. They gonna start calling you big booty buckshot."

"Now I know you been coming in here hopping on the stick while I was in class, but this is my fucking game."

"And I'm whopping your ass in it." Rickey said as something akin to a shotgun sound blasted through the TV speakers. The screen got dark and claimed player two as the victor. "Game! These my sticks!"

"Man, fuck you!" Cliff hollered back slapping his hand against his leg. "One more, bet you ain't gonna beat me in that one."

"I beat you already, ten to six."

"I know you won't when I put five on it."

"Ten."

"Nigga, start this shit over. I'm finna get my Waffle House today."

Realizing the two were just beefing over the new Call of Duty that recently came out, I knocked on the wall and announced our appearance. "Brothers of the home, we have a distinguished guest with us today."

The two looked back and saw Celestia and quickly dropped their controllers and greeted her. "Madam princess, uh, I was not expecting you to be here." Cliff said with a light bow.

"Yeah, your room's a mess." Rickey joked as he squeamishly pulled a pair of dirty boxers off of the floor, causing Cliff to quickly grab it from him.

"I'm sorry if the place is a bit discombobulated, I wasn't expecting company." He said as he balled up his boxers and launched them across the room with a sloppy fadeaway jumpshot. "Kobe!"

The boxers landed squarely in the hamper as the princess applauded the man's accuracy. "Oh, how skilled of you. Perhaps I should give it a try?"

While I couldn't help but wince at the idea, Cliff merely opened up his dresser and tossed over a clean pair of ball-folded socks to her. "Sure, go for it."

While she was finding amusement in the seemingly mundane activity, I brought my attention to Rickey. "So apparently Twilight's gonna be coming through Cliff's mirror any moment now."

"Her too?" He asked curiously. "So what does she look like?"

The first reaction I had was a drop of my shoulders, my head falling back to look at the ceiling, and a sigh being followed with a head shake. "Sir... she's gonna make you mad."

"How mad you talking?"

Almost by a complete coincidence, the mirror in Cliff's closet glowed brightly and showed the younger princess emerging from her world.

"So... how do I look?" She asked.

Cliff and Rickey both turned their heads in pleasurable disgust as she held her miniature journal in her magical grip. Rickey groaned with subdued envy as Cliff dragged his eyes up and down her figure. "I know she's your ex and all... but she can get it."

"Oh yeah, she can get all of it." Rickey agreed strongly.

Meanwhile I was more upset over her current appearance more than I was at Cliff and Rickey. "Twilight, where's your bottom?"

She looked down at herself and realized that she was only half-dressed in comparison to her mentor. Twilight smiled sheepishly as she replied. "Oh, that. Well I kinda forgot to bring that with me. And you also offered me to one of your shirts last night. So I got a little curious when I woke up this morning and decided to see what I could pull off with one of your dress shirts in the closet. So here I am with your old shirt, one of the vests Rarity made for you, and a pair of underwear Mel picked out for me yesterday." She turned to me and lightly lifted her shirt as she revealed the pair of white lacy boyshorts. "So do you think these will catch?"

I quickly snatched the shirt over her new attire and gritted my teeth as I looked up to her. Already I could see the intent on her face when she smiled deviously at me. "You are a little too liberal, don't you think? Between you and Celestia, I'm not sure who's worse."

Celestia started to unzip her skirt as she spoke. "Twilight can borrow my bottom half until we get back to your apartment. Here, I'll─"

"You, wait." I quickly stopped her from doing so as I grabbed both Cliff and Rickey and pushed them out of the room. "You two, out."

"Can we settle this bet real quick?" Cliff suggested. "I'm kinda hungry."

"NOW!" I said shoving the two out of the room, following them myself. After getting them into the hallway, I fell to the ground, leaning back against the door holding my hands over my face. "Ugh... between Twilight trying to fucking tease me to death and Celestia wearing her commando badge, I don't know which is worse."

The two looked at me wildly while Rickey whispered. "Princess Celestia ain't got panties on?"

"She doesn't want them on, apparently." I complained quietly. "They're too constricting, it doesn't feel right, and she's apparently never wore anything of the sort throughout one thousand years of living. I just can't win with her."

Suddenly, the door I used to support my back was opened and I was sent tumbling into the room, looking between Celestia's legs as she looked down at me. Her skirt was partially zipped down but her lack of underwear still remained a prominent issue. "I know I can be a bit frustrating, Nondis. But it's just that I'm still getting used to this being human thing. I'm sorry if I seem a bit stubborn."

"Uh... yeah." I said with my eyes firmly locked on the prize.

"In between time, you walked off with the bag of items were were going to use. Could you give me those please."

With almost a robotic response, I gave her the bag of pantyhose and leggings. "Yeah."

"Just please be patient with me, Captain. I will try to do my best."

"Not a problem at all, ma'am."

When she stepped away, I finally lifted my head off of the ground and promptly threw my arms over my crotch to hide an ongrowing issue. Both Cliff and Rickey shared a muted laugh as I drummed my fingers on my leg. I gave a continuous nod as I pursed my lips.

"You good?" Cliff questioned, trying to suppress his laughter.

"...I should be the bigger man. I should be better than this. I should show a modicum of respect, dignity, reverence for the throne, and most importantly restraint."

Rickey, knowing what I was feeling, started to chuckle louder. "And?"

"...I'm might fuck the shit outta her."

After about a half hour of my dick talking to me, the girls emerged from the room with their adjustments made. Cliff and Rickey were left to finish their wager match while the three of us ran back to the apartment to get Twilight's skirt since the one Celestia offered her was too big. When the two walked out, I could already how disgruntled Celestia was with having to wear the leggings and her skirt. And though I was personally a bit miffed at her complaint, I also had to keep in mind that the only clothing she wore on a daily basis was the golden breastplate, the crown, and her slippers. She didn't have to worry about throwing on a pair of panties, a shirt, some pants, a bra, and to be able to keep all of her hair out of place to do so, and then accommodate for the weather by dressing up even more. To a nudist, it would irk them to no end.

And of course, ponies usually didn't wear clothes.

It took a bit of convincing to get Celestia to wear her underwear again, mainly from Twilight. And with her former student giving her tips and pointers on behavior, it allowed me to relax for a change. Granted, Twilight still teased me with her outfit and how she wore it better than me. I didn't even argue with her over it, I'm more than convinced that she should keep the shirt and everything. The vest was from that first month when I arrived in Equestria, so I couldn't wear that without it feeling loose. At least with her it accentuated her curvature. So I wasn't gonna ask her to return that stuff to me, it's hers now.

A few minutes later, just as I was plotting how to meet up with dad, he called me and told me to come by the house today to check in with him and mom, and the thought of their reactions made me nervous on the way there. Each mile that passed, more and more I started to feel the butterflies churning around in my stomach. They damn near jumped in my throat when I pulled up to the house, causing me to lean against the top of the steering wheel.

"I swear I'm gonna puke." I muttered as I took several breaths to try and calm myself.

Celestia placed her hand on my shoulder and gave me words of encouragement. "I figured you were stronger than that. With all that you've experienced, I think you've gained the strength to see them face to face."

"It just feels like something bad is gonna happen." I replied, tapping my fingers on the wheel.

Twilight chimed in from behind me. "What's worse than you being put in a hospital and nearly dying?"

"Me having to tell them about it." I responded rather quickly. "I'm not sure if I can keep that story straight."

"Why not just tell them the truth?" Celestia questioned.

"Because dad might freak out and mom might not want to bake you a cake." I answered.

Celestia withdrew her hand and pondered the thought. "On second thought, that might be a bit harsh."

"But we're already here, so what do you want to tell them?" Twilight inquired.

I leaned back to my seat and closed my eyes to envision the scenario. "Okay, I said that I was in a hospital somewhere in New Mexico, now I don't have any documents to back this up, but I do have the stitches and scars."

"Including some bruises on your neck." Celestia added.

"Those bruises are from something else." Twilight meekly replied. "But either way, you are going to have to tell them the truth one day. I just don't understand why not now."

"Because I have to ease it on them." I answered while I continued to psych myself up. "I can't just walk in with you two and say 'I'm in the military in an alternate dimension, these two are my employers and this one is my girlfriend.' That's just too much to take in right now, they can't handle something like that. We have to take things slow, give them a chance to adapt. And then we can start talking about the magic and the ponies and stuff."

"I'm sure starting them off with you being an accomplished member of the military would be a great way to open up."

I took a heavy sigh and brought my head back on the steering wheel. "Not for mom, it is. Sure, you can rile up dad with the newfound knowledge that his son can fight, but not my mom. My dad is a religious zealot who only cares about seeing his sons walk the good path, my mom is the one who wants her sons to live a peaceful life away from drama and danger. Me dating a pony will trigger dad and my being a very literal soldier will set mom off. I have to find a balanced ground to keep them satisfied while giving them soft information. If anything, I plan on keeping the military thing in the hat until Thursday when we can all talk at the table."

"So basically you're setting up a negotiation." Celestia stated.

"Exactly. I want to set this up to where we can resolve some of the things we're dealing with that day. Warm them up a bit and it gives me an opportunity to formulate in my mind some method of approach, at least make it easier for me to explain it to them. Now we can't necessarily talk about the specifics like changelings and arimaspi, but we can keep it vague."

"That's awfully hard to do, don't you think?" Twilight questioned.

"Put it this way, it will give both of you time to talk to them and see what they're like in person. Likewise, it will give them the chance to open up a bit to you both. It's better that way."

"Well we'll have a whole two days to devote to setting the table for discussion. I'm with Nondis." Celestia said with a determined tone. "This is your world, these are your kin."

"Everything's up to you. We're following your lead." Twilight stated with a proud smile. "You've done things far bigger than what was expected of you and what you've expected out of yourself. I can safely conclude that you're going to do well."

Feeling the confidence radiate from the two women made me feel a bit of strength to move my head out of the steering wheel and plant my hand on the door. As I opened the door, the alarm softly dinged while I took my first step out of the car. "Okay, let's do it."

Twilight and Celestia followed suit and watched me lead them up the sidewalk, onto the porch, and waited patiently as I rung the doorbell. Next was the silence of the wait before my mother opened up the door to greet me. "Nondis!"

"Hey, ma." I chirped back before she hugged me tightly, rocking back and forth as she did. "Got that Thanksgiving grip grandma used to have, don't you?"

"Oh baby, I'm just happy to have you here with us." She answered sweetly. "Vanessa told us you were in the hospital and I couldn't bear to think that something terrible happened to you."

"Well I'm here, so it couldn't have been all that bad." I lied.

Finally, her attention was brought off of me to the two women standing behind me. "And oh my, who are your two friends?"

Twilight was the first to extend her hand as she spoke. "Hello, Mrs. Haines. I know you and I have never met and I wanted to meet you for so long. I'm Bella, Nondis talks about you so much. He truly loves rambling on about your cooking."

"Oh well it's nice to finally meet you, Bella. My son just raves about you." My mother replied as she returned the gesture with a hug and an air kiss on the cheek. "Now as for this lady here, you're quite tall."

Celestia proudly towered over her and extended her hand with a firm yet welcoming voice. "Mrs. Haines, consider it an honor to finally meet the mother of this wonderful young man. I am Celeste Delanise Valkyrie, his... business associate."

My mother's response to her was a bit gauged this time, just settling for a handshake. "Well Ms..."

"Celestia, you can just call me that." She said, causally dropping her regal name. "I have seen your son at work and I can say he is absolutely wonderful. If he weren't with this young lady over here, I'd be just right there to scoop him up!"

Mom didn't quite like her choice of words. "So you're apparently close with Nondis, then?"

"Just as associates, our relationship is strictly professional."

"Oh, well bless your heart, sweetie. Why don't you three come inside." Though Celestia didn't have the faintest knowledge of southern euphemisms, I knew then and there my mom was already keeping a sketchy eye on her. "Harold, we've got company!"

Again, Celestia spoke up. "Now is Harold your husband perchance?"

"Oh I love him to bits, can be a bit stubborn at times but he keeps the house on a solid foundation and he means well by me." Mom answered as she guided us to the dining room table. "You three go on and have a seat. Now is there anything you'd like?"

"You wouldn't happen to have some chamomile tea with a splice of ginger and milk, would you?" Celestia requested.

My mother looked at her with pursed lips, taping her fingers on the back of my chair as she sighed. "I can go in the kitchen and see if we have anything like that."

Mom walked out of the room and I was already feeling some bad vibes emanating from the kitchen. I quickly turned to Celestia and politely warned her. "I'm sorry, but she's not gonna have any of that. We live on the simple side here, always have. So requests like that kinda come off as a bit... you know."

"Oh." Twilight said as she looked at Celestia's slight signs of disapproval. "Well maybe we can go out and get some tea somewhere if you want."

"Right, there are some really nice places with tea downtown." I added. "Maybe I can take you to one of those places when we get done here. Or maybe I can treat you to some coffee."

"That sounds promising." Celestia replied before my mother called out from the kitchen.

"Sorry, hun! All we got is sweet tea, cola, coffee─"

"Do we have any creamer?" I asked politely.

"Hazelnut or caramel!?"

"Caramel!" I replied, looking at Celestia calmly wait at the table. I couldn't offer much of anything outside of a smile at that point. But I was already feeling bad about how this was going to pan out.

And I never thought I'd say this, but thankfully dad walked in the room. "Well, look who's out of the hospital."

I stood out of my seat and walked up to dad and hugged him. "Hey dad, how's it been?"

"I should be asking you that, son. You got some random scar on your face, looking like you've been in some serious stuff."

"I told you I was attacked by some crazy guy. I just had to fight him off." I vaguely replied.

My dad shook his head with disapproval. "Son, you know you've gotta do better in defending yourself. I'm glad you fought him off though, things like that tend to be the decider between life or death. Frankly I don't think your mother would like having to make funeral arrangements for you again."

"Again?" I asked curiously.

"Son, you went missing for nine months after your car went in the gulf. I'd like to think that would prompt some time for preparation for the worst. But since they didn't find a body, your mother and Mel insisted that they'd find you no matter what."

"I know that much. But still, they made preparations?"

"We already bought you a plot at Texas State Cemetery, nice place, glad we don't have to use it. And your mother was just fighting to tears that we didn't have to go get a headstone."

The conversation made me a bit uncomfortable, so I knew it already made the others feel completely mortified. "Well I'm here and you don't have to use it anytime soon. So would you like to finally meet Bella?" I asked, desperately trying to change the subject.

"Yeah." He said, eyeing Twilight. "So, you're that girl that's making my son disappear for time and a fifth?"

"I'm that girl, yes I am." She replied, standing up to greet him. "It's nice to finally meet you."

"Likewise. I thought my son was playing imaginary friends again like he did when he was younger."

I felt the crushing weight of embarrassment cause me to cringe strongly as I whispered to him. "Dad, not now."

"Oh, no point in denying it, sweetheart!" Mom called out from the kitchen. "You even named her Perdita, saying you'll marry her, and have lots and lots of kids with her! Remember when you tried to get Stanton to marry the two of you!?"

Oh God, she went THERE. "That was a strange time in my life."

"Hey Martha, remember when he got his first crush in fourth grade?"

"Oh goodness yes! He even kept a tiny little journal to write love poems about her. Puppy love is just the sweetest." She said as she walked in the room, several cups of coffee in hand.

"And don't forget his phase with Melanie." Dad added, causing me to drop my head to hide my blushing.

"Again, I'm so surprised that he found Bella before he came back to Melanie. That would've been the wedding right there." Mom added, causing me to groan with discomfort.

Celestia looked to me and grew intrigued. "My, I didn't know you and Melanie were so close."

"Oh they were." Mom answered. "They did everything together, sleepovers, hanging out at the movies, going to parties, touring the mall, for the longest time my husband and I thought those two were dating."

"Don't we still have their prom pictures?" Dad asked.

"Yes! They looked so lovely together. I was already made up in my mind saying those two would just be perfect for each other until sometime after prom."

The two became a bit silent after that as they looked towards me. I couldn't say much either because I knew what all happened in that one week time frame. I just closed my eyes and took appreciation that Mel's dad dared to let some hormone-driven teenage boy into his house to stay for the night. But the strangest thing was that Twilight seemed like she shared the mood with the three of us, almost like she knew. But Celestia broke the silence by asking my dad a question. "So how long has your son and Melanie been knowing each other?"

"Years!" He answered emphatically. "I watched him and her go back and forth in their friendship for well over seven years. So when she heard that Nondis disappeared, she took it real personal."

"Poor thing couldn't stop crying that first day." Mom added.

"You wouldn't stop going to church for daily prayer for months." Dad replied.

Mom sat at the table as she started to nurse her cup of coffee. "Well those days are gone now. And now we get to see our son happy with someone new. Should be a fun experience in getting to know you, Bella."

"I consider it the highest honor to be welcomed in someone's home." Twilight answered humbly. "Though I hate to say that my parents got the first honor of meeting him before I got to meet you."

"Oh we're old-fashioned, sweetheart. A young man meeting the parents of his date should always be the top of the list. No sense in getting interested if you're not gonna get to know her family. It's just courtesy, and I'm glad to know that our son takes that practice to heart." Mom replied, giving me a light pet on the arm.

"Now as for this lady here, who's she?" Dad questioned.

Twilight politely stood up to introduce her mentor to my dad. "Mr. Haines, this is Celestia, she happens to be Nondis' business associate and she's also my godmother."

Touched by Twilight's description, Celestia couldn't help but to stand and praise her former student. "I am so honored every time you say that."

Dad found himself looking up to the shapely woman and grunted as he walked over to me. "Now son, you know you can't have both."

"DAD." I stressed through clenched teeth.

"Come on now, you know I'm just having a bit of fun at your expense." Even though you've been doing that ever since I got here.

Mom's tone changed a bit in hearing Twilight refer her as a godmother. "Well I'm sure that miss Celestia can share a story or two about her lovely godchild here. But I swear we're not going to put her through the fire just yet."

"Well I'm certainly glad to know that you're interested in sharing stories." Celestia said, causing Twilight to blush a little and hide her face. "I have several of my own, though of course none could compare to having an imaginary bride." She said while giving me a wink.

I couldn't do anything but drop my head on the table. "Why are y'all talking about this?"

Twilight walked over and hugged me from behind as she whispered in my ear. "It's okay, you know how bad my mom can get too."

Don't I, really? "I wish I could just poof out of this room."

"Sorry, no magic allowed." She said softly. "But if it makes you feel any better, at least they're not as aggressive as you made them out to be."

"Just wait, it always comes out later." I replied as I raised my head from the table. "Well I'm safe and sound, so I guess that answers your question."

Dad chuckled and smiled while he walked around to intentionally block the doorway. "Now hold on, we still have a lot more to ask about your business."

Celestia quickly intervened with a response. "He's a guard. Most of his duties are often in the realm of security. So he is usually busy dealing with a lot of unsavory elements that come roaming by. I can vouch for him when I say that his job is often safe and nothing outside of the realm of managing safety."

That was nothing short of a huge lie, but I never took any ruler as one for complete honesty, there's no such thing and I'm sure that she even has secrets. Thankfully, she's also in my corner. "Yeah, anything that happens is usually a one in twenty."

Dad's eyes cut directly to Celestia as he asked her. "So where does he work exactly?"

I then intervened. "I told you I work at a club, dad. Why you gotta grill her over something I─"

"Because I know you, son. And you lie often." He answered strictly, turning his attention back to the princess. "So, what's the name of this club?"

"It's a place called Canterlot." She said, name-dropping the actual capital of the realm.

"It's like a play on Camelot, the legend of King Arthur's castle and how in his new youth drew the sword from the stone and became the ruler of men, had this round table where all of his fabled knights sat and discussed finding the holy grail, the affair between his wife and his most trusted knight Lancelot." I explained, yet to no avail of drawing my dad's impatience. Meanwhile the two princesses turned directly to me with interest. "And it's a portmanteau of that and the word canter, which is like something to do with galloping and horses. Therefore it's like a... horse kingdom... theme... thing."

Dad blinked for a moment before he refocused his attention. "Okay, now let's talk about where this club is located."

I once again took the question from Celestia and elaborated on my lie. "It's a club in a rural area. Of course it just got started so you've probably never heard of it. Horseshoes, country music, bunch of farmers looking to have a good time outside of what they do in the day. Some square dancing, some country clubbing, some rock, some hip-hop surprisingly, and blues. Hard-working folks come in from all over to just take a load off."

Twilight then brought us off topic. "Yeah. Now of course we're not from around here, so many of your customs are pretty new to us. We're from another country, maybe you can fill us in on a few of the things Thanksgiving is all about." Though her intentions meant well, it only made our situation a bit harder to mask.

"Well what part of the globe are you from?" Mom asked. "You speak perfect English and you don't have no funny accents."

That was exactly why our situation became even harder to get out of. Twilight laughed nervously as she tried to explain herself. "We're from the northern country. And even though our religious─"

"They're Jehovah's Witnesses." I jumped in to explain before Twilight dug us a deeper hole. "They don't really celebrate holidays as per their religion, but they are willing to extend their arms to join with us this year. This is their first year celebrating so I wanted it to be special. Of course her parents couldn't join us because... devout followers. But Twi-Bella is actually just like me in trying to explore the world, before we make that grand conclusion of where we want to go in terms of faith."

"Funny, I never thought I'd see a Jehovah's Witness partake in a club." Mom said with growing suspicions. "Now y'all aren't the type to be knocking on people's doors asking folks to join your little thing, right?"

Twilight looked around nervously as she answered her question. "Of course not, that wouldn't be considerate of others, now would it?"

"And your parents are?" She asked again.

"My mother can be a bit bullish in greeting others, but I can be certain that she will not take much issue in giving you any privacy." Twilight explained.

Dad sighed in relief. "Oh thank goodness, the last thing we need is our son to be one of those door-to-door salesman of some cult religion." Even though you are a practitioner of that same yet expanded religion, good job pointing out your hypocrisy, dad.

"Now as for me, I don't really have a religion per se. But I am open to practice if it would make you comfortable. I am willing to respect anyone's beliefs without challenging them." Celestia said, trying to be as neutral as possible to the sensitive subject.

"Does that mean you practice Islam?" Dad asked ignorantly.

Celestia calmly answered him. "Islam is not a practice I have ever made an attempt to perform in, but if it is respectful to the host, regardless to the religion, then I can only oblige myself to respect it." That was probably the best non-answer I've ever heard.

Dad replied with a welcome, a strict one. "Well round here, we're church goers. Nondis might be caught up in the world right now and Stanton's got a life of mischief going on, but I can assure you that they'll come around someday. Now if you'd be willing to come on by to pay our little house of worship a visit, we'd be more than accommodating to bring you into the fold. Any little bit to get you on the guiding light, then we can make room."

Huh, this is probably the most democratic thing dad's ever said. Usually he's hardcore christian with a few swearwords to run a small ship, but he's seemingly gotten better at it. Still, I had to be careful. "Well, I know it's still kinda early, but Bella and I were going to have a day out with some friends. And I kinda made a promise that we'd be by sometime within the next half-hour. And that's if the traffic is nice to us."

"No, you sit down." Dad once again broke any chance of me leaving on any high note. He turned to Celestia and asked me in a stern manner. "Now, this attractive young lady here is by the name of Celestia, right?"

Yeah, young. She's well over a thousand some-odd years young. Dad if you knew... "Yes." She answered for me.

"So if I am correct, you were at the hospital when my son was injured, right? Or should I call you Princess?"

...Just how fucking much did you tell them, Vanessa!?

Author's Note

The board is set, the pieces are moving. We have come to it at last. The ruler of a nation, the masters of the house, differences on many proportions. Finally, they come together and settle their doubts. Or do they pick at the scabs of old to reopen wounds?

So Rarity and Nondis have been poking around, it seems like he's been getting more and more excited to spend time with her. But just as that flood of emotions starts to fill the void, the flame that was set aside reignites with a hope of trying to proving itself. Nondis knows she's more than what she's advertising herself to be and he knows there's something within him who will be more than willing to take a chance on that. But he also knows that he just had someone nights prior.

But when the flesh resembles his own, and the new faces with familiar personalities comes around to impress even his most perverse desires, he starts to let his imagination run free and his sexuality starts to take the wheel more often. So frequently, the mind will dream of satiating the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the body. Old habits die hard, or they can be killed quite easily.

That choice is his own, but his destiny is already written.

And on that note, I'll see you next chapter if you'd be willing to stay around. Once again, I thank you for joining with me over the course of these past four years... still processing that part.

Chapter LXXV

Dad stared down the princess who towered a clear six inches over him, she looked back towards him with a proud determination as he asked once more. "So, Princess Celestia, that's what they call you?"

She didn't flinch as she answered with confidence. "Indeed, I am. I trust you were informed of me?"

I couldn't do anything but clench my eyes shut and pray to whatever god was listening. Twilight quietly waited as the tension in the room grew so heavy that walking almost felt like an unbearable task. Dad once again examined the woman and spoke. "...So you were there at the hospital?"

"Correct." She replied.

"That means you know the condition which my son was in. Can you tell me how he ended up in such a state to where he was admitted?"

The princess looked at me and calmly confessed. "He was stabbed, in the abdominal area. The perpetrator used a dagger and he suffered substantial blood loss. As you can see now, we have done everything we could to save him. And as a result, your son is standing here, healthy and just as colorful as he was the day you last saw him."

Dad glanced over to me and sternly ordered. "Nondis, stand up out of that chair." I did as he instructed with hesitation. "Lift up your shirt." He then directed, I also complied with that order.

Mother walked over to get a look at the scar and gasped heavily, covering her mouth with both hands. The wound was mostly sealed with the stitches still embedded within. Most of the skin was healed except for the areas where the stitches moved frequently. My father then looked at me with displeasure and pointed at the scar.

"Son... Don't you think this is a bit much to be doing?"

I quickly argued my case. "Dad, I run security, it's not a safe job. I just caught some crazy guy who tried to kill me and I stopped him from doing any further harm to anyone else."

My mother placed her hand on my scar, deeply saddened by the sight as she pleaded with me. "Baby, what did they do to you?"

After a long while, I finally grew enough courage to look my parents in the eye and tell them upfront the truth. "Mom, Dad, I was in a train, I was already hurting from that guy earlier because he got at me then and I managed to escape before he could kill me. He tracked me down, he got on the train, and he tried to hurt my friends so I just reacted and did what I could to save them. I got him off and I beat him, but then the next thing I saw was a knife in my stomach, so I passed out."

Twilight quickly intervened. "He did what he did to save one of my friends. And I know it probably won't amount to anything if I say that he just did his job. But in the moment where he had to measure someone else's life and his own, he did the unthinkable." Twilight stood beside me, holding my hand as she pleaded with my parents. "If there's anything I can say, it's that he put the life of someone else over his own, and I could never tell him how much we are truly grateful for his sacrifice. So we took him to the hospital, we paid his bills upfront, we made sure he was on the mend in time enough where he could come see you again."

"And I was there during his phone call with you, Mr. Haines." Celestia added, standing by my side as well. "I can understand the concern a parent would have for their child. But I could share with you several stories of how wonderful of a person he is. So we promise throughout this holiday, we will be as honest and truthful with you as possible, with the questions you have about your son."

Both the princesses bowed their heads in a show of humility, Twilight spoke as she did so. "Where we're from, we do this as a sign of respect and reverence. Your son has been more than a help to us, but also to others. We understand that these past months must have been a nightmare for you, but we stood by him and watched over him each step of the way. The character he shows is why I have come to love him so much."

"Are you asking us for our blessing or something?" Dad asked, staring confused at the two.

Twilight blushed lightly as she peeked towards me. "In a way... yes. But only to allow us to stay together. I promise to look after him when he gets a little wild. I'll try to keep him from getting into trouble. And even though he's hardheaded in a fight, I'll do my best to make sure he doesn't get himself in a bad situation. I understand that you may not trust us, that we're some people you don't know, but I do love this man. So please, let me the one to keep him in his right mind, to guide him forward safely." Twilight rose from her bow and looked directly to me, still holding my hand. "You don't have to trust me, but just give me a chance to show you what I can do."

While I felt some of those words were aimed directly at my parents, I knew that those last ones were more aimed towards me. Already, she was trying to plead me to start again with our relationship. But I couldn't give her an answer at the moment, I didn't feel right answering her.

Mom, on the other hand, was keen on the ears and she spoke up to Twilight. "Now listen here, missy. That's my son, you're trying to run off and do God-knows-what with him, gettin' him into trouble with your folks, and doing all this crazy stuff that causes him to get hurt. Now I don't know you enough to be doin' all of that, sweetie."

"I understand." Twilight acknowledged meekly. "And I'm willing to offer whatever time to gain your approval."

My mom looked at me and then back to her with a bit of a smile. "So... You love him, huh?"

"I do. And I would give the world to prove that I'm worthy enough to buy some of his time."

Mom looked over to dad and asked him warmly. "So what do you think, Harold?"

"I'm thinking that 'Perdita' girl grew a bag of skin to wear." He answered with a hefty guffaw. "You done found you that one in ten didn't you, boy?"

Mom clapped her hands together and brought her attention back to Twilight. "Sweetheart, you gotta know one thing about Nondis, he loves his dinner."

Twilight came up from her bow a bit frantic as she grew a bit giddy. "Really!? Thank you so much for the─"

"Now hold your horses." Mom interrupted her. "I wanna know if you've got it in you to satisfy my boy. If you can't keep him happy there, you ain't gonna keep him."

Realizing that was one of her shortcomings, Twilight quickly grew discouraged. "Oh... Then I might have a... teeny-teensy confession."

Mom shrugged in response. "Eh, most girls your age ain't about it nohow. Always trying to play trophy wife or something without doing the work to keep the guy there. If all you got to offer is a cute face, then you're in a heap of trouble. It's no wonder divorce rates are through the clouds nowadays, can't keep a husband fed."

Twilight gulped with genuine fear, glancing back at me. "Um... How interesting."

Mom walked over and placed her hands on Twilight's shoulders as she spoke to her from behind. "I know, I had to teach Vanessa a thing or two before she took off with Alex. And I'm still checking in on her whenever she makes a call for a certain recipe. It's alright sweetie, I got you covered. Starting tomorrow, I'm gonna get you in this kitchen and get you familiar with the basics of southern-home cooking."

"You mean, for the holiday!?" Twilight asked almost petrified from the idea.

"Baby girl, that's how it starts! I know you ain't familiar with the Thanksgiving celebration, but I do know that each mother will be teaching her daughter a little something about the kitchen when she comes of age. She can be working in the world for all her life, but that Thanksgiving cooking is what proves the mark of a matriarch in the family."

Twilight looked at me sheepishly as she replied. "Well, I suppose it would be an interesting learning experience. Maybe I should do some homework on the subject."

Mom shook her head as she escorted Twilight through the room. "Honey, you gotta realize that not all of this comes in a book or on a sheet of paper. Experience is the best teacher."

"I tried telling her that for years." Celestia cosigned with a smirk towards her pupil. "I guess my lessons weren't just from a standpoint of me being a bit old-fashioned."

Mom turned back to the elder princess and cheerfully grabbed at her wrist. "I'm glad you think that way, hun. You can come along too if you haven't been involved in a Thanksgiving dinner yourself."

"Well I haven't, so I'm more than interested in joining with you on your lesson!"

"Celestia... COOKING!?" Twilight said, almost mortified of the idea, meanwhile the elder princess appeared to be a bit offended by the younger's tone.

And to be fair, I've seen far too many staffers and chefs around the castle to where the idea of her cooking becomes anything short of Chernobyl. "Oh please don't touch the cake." I quietly pleaded with crossed fingers.

Celestia looked back at me with a confident grin and a wink. "You better believe I'm set to blow you away."

"Great. then I should be seeing you ladies tomorrow at around five in the evening. Vanessa will be joining us so we should be getting done faster than it would with me being all by myself."

"Will Nondis be joining us as well?" Twilight asked.

Mom laughed loudly as she guided us to the front door. "Heavens no! I can't bring him or the others in. I can barely trust Alex as it is, and Harold's too picky to be left around the food for so long. And I can't trust Nondis and Stanton to not be like their father. Call me sexist, but I believe there's a special thing about us women when it comes to cooking with love."

"I'll remember that the next time I'm at the grill this upcoming summer." Dad replied with a disgruntled tone.

"Just make sure you don't burn the meat this time." Mom said with a sharp tongue. "Other than that, I believe you three have someplace to be?"

Twilight bowed again to mom. "Thank you so much for the opportunity. Again, I can't say it enough."

"Sweetheart, if you love him, you gotta love his gut. Just be here at around five and we can get things going."

Celestia nudged at me as she whispered in my ear. "So, about the cake you offered..."

Oh shit, I'm not gonna lose a raise over forgetting something like that. "Hey ma, can I ask a favor?"

When we left, there was some level of frustration set on my mind over my dad's reaction and his list of questions. The main thing that threw me off guard was the question about Celestia. It took me around five minutes of driving around before I realized that dad was going off of what he heard on the call we had back in the medical ward last week. I myself thought Vanessa spilled the beans on us, but it turned out that he just relied on that memory retention of his. I suppose it's fair to give some mental apology to Vanessa instead of calling her and cussing her out over this. Cause God knows if I would've called her, I would've let loose. And that would've been an awkward moment at the dinner table on Thanksgiving day.

The rest of our day went on as normally as it would with two sapient ponies turned human experiencing a world unlike their own. We spent some time on the riverwalk, had a few other activities to run into, and I was even feeling a bit generous in letting Twilight explore the wonders of the public library. But little did I realize how much trouble I managed to get myself into with her eagerly going from section to section, picking up book after book, and having a debate with the librarian over the order of the books and how they were categorized. That last bit on it's own was a whole forty minutes before I could drag her out of the place for closing.

Naturally, she was saddened at the sudden closure, so I compensated her feelings with a trip to a local ice-cream shop. It was a little hard to find one still open past eight-thirty, but seeing Twilight smile again was worth the trip. And Celestia wasn't too shy about having a bit of sweets herself, although the cake I asked mom about was the main thing that consumed her thoughts.

I knew Twilight told me Celestia was enamored with cake, but this is ridiculous.

So after a day out in the land of Austin, we brought the wagon back around to my place of residence. The two women stepped out of the car and made their way into the apartment. I followed closely behind to cut my eyes over to a car with two individuals sitting in the front seat, their music blasting as the smell of marijuana smoke brushed against my nose, reminding me of the days before my venture to Equestria.

Admittedly, I missed that smell, the taste of the cannabis rolling though my mouth as the heavy smoke filled my lungs and the world suddenly became a much lighter place, not so many worries other than the local police searching the car for buds. Either way, it made me close my eyes and remember the days prior to my crossing the fires of the fraternity's process, even took my mind off of the hazing. Lots of funny jokes and theories went around the car, but I'm sure that those days are something I have to put aside. Besides, Mel didn't like the fact that I smoked weed in the past, one of the problems she had with the fraternity.

Probably a key reason why she didn't want me to join.

Shaking my head, I regained focus to the present. The two women walked up the stairs, with me lagging a bit behind. And with every step upward, I was even treated to small glimpses of the two's underwear. Again, I fell to my old habits of being a bit of a pervert and glimpsed up to see the now-clothed lap of the elder princess. The thoughts of earlier started to creep back in, making me a bit turned to the idea of sinking my hands into every curve of her body. And then reality ensued and I snapped my head back down, knowing that I couldn't afford to lose my balls for getting feelsy.

Twilight and Celestia waited at the door while I unlocked it. And as the warmth of the room started to flood out into the cold open air, Twilight rubbed her arms as she ran in. Celestia, seemingly unfazed by the cold weather, tried to walk in before I lightly tugged against her shirt. "Um, princess... a word?"

Celestia looked back toward her former student before she politely closed the door, stepping back outside with me. "Yes, Nondis. What is it, has my performance been unconvincing or unsatisfactory in any manner?"

I shook my head, waving my hands in denial. "No, not at all. You killed it with dad. I mean personally, I never had the emotional strength you had when it came to dealing with him. Usually we'd end up fighting or fussing, sometimes both. You just walked up to him and made it clear you were the boss."

The princess sighed dejectedly. "I would've hoped that he did have some knowledge of what was going on, but it seems that he was more invested in that one time you spoke with him on the phone. We could've used that opportunity to communicate to one another the issues on both sides."

"Your highness, it's not really that I was trying to hit on. It's..." I thought for a moment before I tried to get on one knee and lower my head before her. "I think I need to bow down for this one."

Before I could assume the position, she grabbed me and pulled me back up to my feet. "And here I was getting comfortable being away from the sight of me getting treated like royalty."

"Celestia, I'm sorry about earlier when you and Twilight were changing clothes. You opened the door, I was kinda leaning against it, and then I fell over and saw... yeah." I meekly confessed.

"Whatever are you talking ab─" The princess gave pause over the situation and realized what I was talking about. Her cheeks quickly reddened as she covered her mouth in embarrassment. "...Oh dear me, you saw that."

Feeling a bit of guilt, I looked away from her. "Yes ma'am. And admittedly it did stir a thought I'm not proud to reveal. But I'm coming to you to say that I failed to operate in maturity of the situation, and that my frustration may have been uncomfortable to you."

The princess couldn't help but chuckle to herself, blushing all the while. "Well, I guess that makes all three of you to see me like that."

"Huh?" I asked with a cocked brow.

"You and your brothers, you all are the only ones to see my shame in this form. Alex and Stanton were the first to see me in my transformed state, and I was completely without any clothing."

...Lucky bastards. "Well that explains me having to go out and buy clothes for Twilight."

The princess cleared her throat before she continued. "But in either case, I now know that those parts of me are somewhat of a distraction to those of the opposite sex. I know that now, and I can safely assume that the purpose of the underwear is to remove that obstruction by any means necessary."

"Actually it's more of a protective barrier for things like sweating and a few other things, hygienic reasons mainly, but yeah it can help leave something to the imagination. But you have to be careful of what you wear, as some of those things will attract just as much attention as you being naked."

"So that goes on here too?" She questioned quietly. "I never took humans for having a dressing fetish. But ponies are no different and you have seen that for yourself. Wearing something to show a lot of yourself ends up attracting a lot of attention."

"Which was why I was so hard on you earlier."

The princess started to walk towards the second floor balcony halfway down the stairs and stared out into the seemingly unimpressive apartment complex. "And humans aren't quite used to nudity around here, are they?"

"We have laws against that, it's called public indecency and public exposure, no genitalia allowed."

"So my not wearing underwear was a violation of that law?" She questioned.

"Not at all, but it gives some people a bad impression when you do that. And it's not like you're going around flipping up your skirt for people to see what you got. I'm just trying to protect you from all the bad looks and some of the perverts... which I kinda slipped back into."

The princess smiled gently before she looked at me with her fist balled up as she was still trying to get used to her human form. "I was told that I was attractive, but I never thought that I would draw your interest."

"It was a moment of weakness, I won't let it happen again." I said quietly.

"Understood." The princess answered plainly before walking down the stairs again. "Now if you excuse I have to get myself ready for tomorrow's cooking lesson with your mother."

"Don't burn the house down." I joked to myself, forgetting that she had sensitive ears.

"Hold on." She paused as I tried to walk past her as if I said nothing. She didn't hesitate to use her magic out in the open, pulling my arm back towards her. "Are you insinuating that I am incapable of cooking?"

Realizing I couldn't get away, I shrugged nervously as I answered the question. "Well I usually see servants and chefs, and stuff like that, but─"

She waltzed right past me, the scent of her royal perfumes and oils wafting my nose as her long ponytail bobbed on and off her back. She leaned down in front of me, pointing to herself and me. "Me. You. Dawn's light. Melanie's kitchen. I'm going to show you just how misguided you are, Mr. Haines."

Ah, so the sass has showed itself, don't think I've seen her this confident in a relaxed setting before. "I suppose you aren't one to back down from a challenge. So maybe I can─"

Before I could say anything else, she grabbed my shirt collar and shook me just once with her superhuman strength... Guess that's a thing that carried over from her pony form too. "You will sit down, and both you and Melanie will allow me to treat you both to breakfast."

"Sure, surprise me." I said with a dismissive roll of my eyes.

The princess released me and placed a finger on my nose, playfully poking it. "I believe your mother said something along the lines of 'the quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach' am I not mistaken?"

For the first time in a long time, I was caught by surprise by the elder princess being flirty towards me. Of course she meant nothing by it, but even the thought of her being so carefree and playful grew to be a sight we guards would consider as extremely rare. Goes without saying I might have one hell of a story to tell the others when I get back. "Uhhh─"

This time, the princess balled her fist as if she was still being a pony, and raised my chin gently to guide my head up to look directly in her purple eyes. "Don't get too caught up in me. You'll wind up with expectations and it'll all end in disappointment."

"No thanks, I personally don't think I'll be able to handle another approval process." I said sheepishly, causing the princess to drop her hand from my chin.

"Are you saying that I'm not worth the challenge?" She questioned with a pout. "Is my desire for company so demanding that it scares you? Do I come with some warning label?"

"It's more that everyone knows they're going to have a specialized process to complete throughout the course of over half a year in order to even entertain the idea of being with you. And then you've been alive for over a millennium─" Celestia looked at me unimpressed by my direct reference to her age. The stare she gave me and her pursed lips immediately made me shut up.

"It's true I am a thousand years young, but that won't make any experience with any stallion so little of a significance or an impression. Maybe they need to open their minds to the idea of taking their chivalry to the next level. Enough of the courtly love, I've had so many 'suitors' in that regard."

"I probably never said this but you'd be surprised of what the guards talk about when you walk by. As dense or scared as these guards are, they sure do dream of the day of swabbing the royal halls, if you know what I mean." I turned back to see Celestia blushing profusely. "Sorry for the colorful comment, I just thought you'd like to know just how much of a fan club you actually have."

She looked to the ground, somewhat disappointed. "That still doesn't change anything. Granted I've had so few that really grabbed my attention, and even fewer where my move was the initial start of things. I think about maybe two or three in my lifetime I've had the conversation find me. But it always felt like the ones I placed in positions beside me were the ones to always find an interest before I did."

To be honest, I never thought Celestia would be so open to talking about her personal life. You'd hear about everything pertaining to some heroic exploits, the ponies she appointed in key positions, the students she took up, or even her preference for foods, but I don't think I've ever heard her willing to talk about herself. Many of us guards saw her as selfless to a fault, and yet... "Have you ever thought about lowering your standards?" I'm boldly asking her THAT question.

The princess shrugged. "My only standard is that you'd keep me happy and approach me when I need the company."

"But have you ever told anyone what exactly makes you happy?" I asked.

"...My sister being back was a large part of the emptiness I felt over the millennium. But as soon as she got back, I just focused on keeping her happy and making sure she was caught up with the times of the present. And then I continued to teach Twilight and tend to my school. And after that, I came to parliament and oversaw some proceedings. When I finish that, I have meetings with press, city officials, military staff─"

"You're veering off topic." I politely intervened. "I know Luna being back makes you happy, but after that what else is there? It seems like you focus so much on appearances and everyone else that you forget about the most important thing to your health: you."

She sighed with a despairing groan, folding her arms. "Cadance told me the same thing so many times."

I guess we can agree on that at least. "So if you heard it before, then why do you keep doing the things that you do?"

The princess smiled lightly before she gave me an answer. "I guess you could say that I'm in no position to receive it. I think that stuff is more of a reward for my efforts rather than an inalienable pleasure. Much of what confines my sister is all on me, so it is my goal to free her from that legal prison. Only then will I open the door for my own selfish desires to be satiated."

"So what about eating cake?" I questioned.

"That is an inalienable right and I will strike down any law that prohibits me from doing just that." She answered sharply.

"You love cake, don't you?"

"If I can't have anything else, I am allowed that one thing to keep me sane."

As we arrived to Mel's apartment, I started to look at Celestia in a totally different light. Instead of seeing her as the dominant alicorn princess that we'd often see her as, I saw her as a person. It was a different view opposed to the high ivory tower the populous seems to place her in while they praise her from the grounds below. She seemed like she wanted to experience more than her normal day-to-day, but she obligated herself to that image until she corrected the mistake she made all those years ago, or rather she wanted to correct the envy of a few old men long gone.

...At times I wonder if violence is the one true solution.

Again, I spent most of my time prior to bed washing clothes. Twilight and Melanie was supposed to go out shopping later ot get something else to wear instead of showing up in the same outfit she wore for the day prior. Also it would kinda help me in not trying to wash the same pair of panties. Unfortunately my time here has caused old habits to pop back up, but then again that was already being bred from the time I showed up to a little party in some random hotel in Canterlot. Rarity helped with the relief of the situation, but Twilight and Celestia for the past few days managed to stir me up far more than what I had anticipated. In short, I'm between just tossing the panties in the washer and using them for a masturbatory aid.

But I knew that I would've lost all sense of control and decency if I opted to do so.

I dropped her clothes in the wash, came back to the apartment, and crashed on the couch thinking of the things that I saw and experienced today. My conversation with my parents was a pretty influential topic, but the sight of a humanized busty Celestia going commando and Twilight slapping her ass just the previous night made me even more anxious for a means of release. And there's no fucking way I'm busting a nut on the couch, guests and friendly little dust bunnies sit here.

But don't believe that shit didn't permeate to my dreams. The moment my eyes closed and my consciousness drifted off, I was already envisioning myself waking up on the couch to the two women holding me down like I was a hostage and tying rope around my arms and legs. I don't think I even begged them to stop, they just kept tying me up, doing things to make me anticipate the one moment I could touch them, or that they would dare to do it to me. Twilight kissed me, showing me just how much of a human she really was. I got so engrossed in the moment where I opened my eyes and suddenly I'm swimming underwater.

My arms were suddenly freed, my eyes darting so quickly around to check my surroundings only to see a pink coral reef beneath me, swimming with life and brimming with exotic fish. Bright jellyfish cruised by me, lightly stinging my hand as they passed. The small jolts of energy persuaded me to swim towards the surface in an attempt to avoid them, but they grew in number and crowded my escape. However, the ones beneath started to lift me to the surface, where the water would turn a crystal clear green, allowing me to see the sun above. My hand reached up to break the edge, transporting me to the very surface where I was allowed to walk and partake of the clear blue sky.

Next, something grabbed my hand from underneath the waves of the sea, dragging me back down to the depths where the coral lied. Squirming and panicking, I fought vainly to get to the surface only to reach the bottom of the sea. My back rested flatly on the softness of the sponge resting on the coral, it too being as pink as the rest. My arms were bound above my head as Celestia's face hovered above mine. The woman smirked before kissing me from the unusual angle. Swimming over me, fish and other marine wildlife conveniently concealed much of her nudity, but my body was far from covered. Giving in to my curious yet lustful desires, I entertained the thought of touching her in the places that were hidden from me.

And then... a loud knock on the door was the first thing to break me from going any further.

I opened my eyes wearily, seeing nothing but the darkness of the room. Looking out to the window, I could see a slight tint of blue in the sky. I fiddled around for my phone for a while until I finally got a hold of the jeweled-encrusted device. The screen blinded me for about two seconds before the time read out as 4:48.

...Who the fuck knocks at somebody's door at 4:50 in the goddamn morning?

I was upset enough to put on the shirt and pants I wore the day prior and opened the door, expecting to cuss out whoever had the balls to kill my sleep, not to mention the dream. But before I could come up with some foul words to use, the familiar face at the door made me reconsider on whether or not this was some sort of emergency. "Mel, what are you doing here so early?"

"Well if I can't get any sleep apparently, neither can you. So c'mon." She said, pulling my arm with the disregard for the fact that I wasn't wearing socks or shoes. So my feet came into contact with the coarse cool concrete, sending one hell of a jolt to my brain to wake up a bit.

"Hey, where we going?" I questioned as I was dragged across the parking lot.

"My apartment. Your princess told me to drag your sorry ass over for breakfast."

The time we arrived to the place, the sky got a smidget bluer, the sun was still backstage before it made it's daily premiere of being our source of misery and some unfortunate person's start to the day. Opening the door, I was already praying to myself. "Oh God, I hope she's not a morning person."

"Be ready for disappointment." Mel said as she opened the door.

"Aw, fuck me." I groaned with disbelief.

"I would but somebody already did that a few days ago." She quipped, looking at my now-fading love marks.

Walking into the apartment, I could already smell the various scents battering against my nostrils. Looking over to the kitchen, Celestia stood with a beach towel over her body, not even wearing a pair of pants to begin with and a lot of cheeks to accent the fact that she was without underwear again. "Good morning! And how is my captain of the guard doing on this lovely day?"

...If she ain't gonna stop doing me like this, I am going to find myself breaking quite a few Equestrian laws. If the walk here with a case of morning wood wasn't enough, this was probably a good way to make that issue persist. "I could be sleeping in for another hour."

"Well I hope you're hungry, because I made you a little something special." She said with a cheerful disposition, not even giving a damn about her ass sticking out from behind that towel. Melanie didn't seem to care too much about her appearance, but she obviously cared enough to dress herself to come over and get me. Don't mind me, I'm just wishing she and Mel had wore similar sizes so she could borrow a few things to keep me from losing too many brain cells to blood loss, cause my other 'brain' is running in overdrive today and reserves are running D R Y.

"What, is it cereal?" Obviously my mind wasn't low enough to fail in coming up with retorts.

The princess levitated her spatula and smiled as she pointed at the table. "How cute that you think I'm so incompetent. I need you to sit at that table for me and wait a few seconds."

"How long have you been up?" I asked.

"Since she dragged me to Equestrian Walmart for fruit and whipped cream ingredients. So it's been basically north of an hour, and she's still not dressed." Mel complained.

"And I thought I had room to complain." I said as I looked down at my still throbbing crotch.

"And here we are!" She announced before setting a plate of flawless golden-brown pancakes dressed in a variety of toppings. "Buttermilk pancakes with homemade whip cream, fresh cherries, and all natural maple syrup fresh from Equestria."

While I was staring at the immaculately-made dish, a familiar noise clattered into the room boasting a familiar voice. "Morning sister."

"Oh, hey Princess Luna..." I replied dully, then I instantly remembered that this was Mel's apartment. "LUNA!?"

"Nondis, neighbors." Melanie warned me quietly.

"Right, sorry." I replied, also forgetting that it's not even five in the morning. "Luna, what are you doing here?"

The blue mare pulled up a chair and sized it up for herself to jump onto as she sat at the table. "You pressed the 'Tia can't cook' button. I had to show up for this."

"Would you like some, Luna?" The humanized princess inquired tenderly.

"Well I'm not here to wander around for fun, though you could cast the spell on me and allow me to experience this world for myself. But you never let me have fun, as usual." Griped the lunar princess.

"You need to look after the kingdom while I'm away. That's why I haven't invited you." The elder sister explained.

"Just call it a summit to negotiate with the humans, the politicians and staff will understand." Luna said, trying to find a reason to join in on the fun of exploring our world.

"Without a full guard escort, Luna? Like they'll let me do that." Celestia replied hypocritically, knowing she's done it just a few days ago,

As a similar plate landed in front of Mel with Luna glaring over like she was going to vulture the plate away from her, she took a fork and sliced into the topmost pancake. "So it looks pretty. The fork sinks real nice into it."

"Pretty ain't what makes it food." I replied, slicing into my own plate and shoving the contents in my mouth to nose dive into the food, just to get it over with. But as the food touched my tongue, I quickly reconsidered the idea of 'getting it over with quickly.' Instead my mind shifted from hurry and eat to slow down and savor it. The initial twang of the bread made me clench my eyes shut and throw my head forward from the overwhelming taste of fall flavors and fruit. The moment the fork left my mouth, it immediately found a second slice caught in it's prongs, and that slice was quickly shoveled into my mouth to join with it's horribly abused predecessor. "Okay... that's good."

"But can you stop yourself at one bite?" Luna snickered as she made fun of both the reactions of Mel and I.

"Okay, now who are you and where's Celestia?" I asked, trying to resist destroying the rest of this plate.

"You should keep eating, Nondis. An empty stomach is no way to start a day." Celestia chided cheerfully.

At that point, all I could do was shake my head and chew, barely even talk for that matter. "I was wrong. I was so wrong."

"Did you notice what she did?" Luna asked, looking into my plate.

"What?"

"Did you happen to have anything to eat yesterday?" She asked once more.

"Well I remember going to IHOP yesterday, had pancakes and a steak omelette." I answered.

"You went to IHOP without me, you and I are going to fight." Melanie fussed before chomping down on her slice, having a similar reaction to mine.

Celestia started to set herself up with a similar plate to give to her younger sibling as she explained herself. "It was a fun experience but there were somethings to be improved upon. I can tell that the batter was filled with premeasured ingredients. So I took the moment to add in what they did not, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, a touch of salt for a bit of balance, pecans, and buttermilk. I also threw in some bananas to help with the inclusion of the cherry topping. and the maple syrup is of the finest quality in all of Equestria."

"It's because she made the syrup herself." Luna further explained. "She's done it for over a thousand years, she went out to the Everfree Forest, drained some of the sap from the trees, and babysat the whole entire process of the boiling, the caramelizing, all of it. Every morning she made pancakes, I'd used to wonder if I would get so caught up in her syrup that I'd get stuck in that for over a thousand years."

"I call it 'Amber' for it's incredible viscosity. It's almost like molasses but with less sugar and it brings more focus on the dish as opposed to drowning it. But I have to warm it up before I use it, otherwise it'll take too long to pour." The elder princess concluded.

"Did you fall in love yet? Don't you just wanna kiss my sister and tell her thank you?" Luna asked mockingly.

Celestia blushed a bit as she hid her smile. "Luna, stop it."

"I might actually have to say grace." I confessed.

"I'm gonna have to say it again. Big momma Celly, this is amazing!" Melanie stated, finally finding something to say instead of drowning in all the flavor.

"I aim to please, I strive to pamper, I long to satisfy." Celestia bragged in a motherly way.

Mel dug her fork in the pancakes again and stuffed an entire half in her mouth and just chewed like she was introduced to food for the first time. "Why aren't you married?" She asked as soon as she found room enough to speak.

"Because stallions are too afraid of us, they swear we're gonna do something like eat them alive and enslave their families or something." Luna joked lightheartedly before taking a more serious tone. "It's our position, as well as the laws placed to suppress us."

"Other than that, you pretty much have a hint on why." Celestia added placing a plate of pancakes before Luna.

Though much of my attention was still on the food, I couldn't help but to impulsively glance back at the humanized princess when she walked by. The only that distracted me was the sharp pain I felt when Mel kicked my leg to get me to stop staring. Wincing a bit, I tried to talk through the discomfort. "Well it's safe to say you'd be married in a good two or three years if you lived in our world. The only marriage law we have is that you can only have one wife."

"Sounds a bit unfair really." Luna replied, digging into her plate. "Isn't love supposed to be without limits and available for everyone? Where's the freedom in that?"

"Well we sure don't have laws preventing us from having sex, as long as you're of a suitable age of course. Wouldn't want any creepers to take advantage of any young and budding minds." Mel added as she dipped her fork into the final pancake on her plate.

"Well that's a good thing." Celestia added. "For our society, estrus season is the time where some stallions unable to attract mates normally resort to filly-fooling. And the ones who were new would so often find themselves in the eyes of some leering pervert. A truly disgusting act, it's a reason why I changed the staff at my school to all mares in recent years."

"Well it's much better than it used to be. Back when we were younger, they used to be far more aggressive." Luna stated. "If they wanted you, just talk with the parents and arrange a marriage. You'll be whisked off in as little as a fortnight. Sister and I were highly sought after when we got our wings to go with our horns."

"Wait, you two weren't always alicorns?" Mel questioned.

Celestia hummed as she tapped the handle of the spatula against her chin, looking up to the ceiling. "Those days were so long ago, even I cannot remember much of them. The days of my young self running around tripping over my long pink mane. I swear I was just so vain back then."

"And you were considered the mean one, playing pranks on everypony just because you could. She rigged the entire castle to torture me and a few of the other servants with booby traps." Luna replied.

Mel choked on her pancake and guzzled down a glass of water before she spoke. "Seriously, that was you, you put all that bullshit in the castle ruins?"

Celestia shyfully smiled and giggled. "I wasn't always the highly-esteemed ruler many portrayed me to be."

"She's a bit of a nuisance, and she went from playing too much to being no fun as we got older. The things we enjoyed when we were foals no longer amused her, we even started to grow distant because her natural talent made her so much of an overappreciated figure in our society. So I went from being the princess of the moon, to the princess of darkness." Luna explained, growing a bit gloomy as she went on.

"The terminologies from those times were never kind to us. They saw me as the Princess of Light, the grower of food, the bringer of the dawn, the mother of life. They called me all of those things, worshiping me as if I was the all-creator Faust herself." Celestia expanded further. "And Luna, they called her many unfair things."

"The Princess of Darkness, the taker of light, the bringer of strife, the mother of death. But all I sought to do was to bring them the beauty of my night, shaping the stars to please foals and grown ponies alike. I couldn't offer the light my sister did, but I wanted to bring something. So I thought that I could show them just how harmless the night was, I wanted to show it to them by giving them the night a little earlier than usual."

Celestia placed the spatula on the counter, frowning painfully as she spoke. "I wanted to offer my sister that one chance to be seen. I truly did, but the cries from the ponies would've grown from everything between scorn to fear. It would've caused chaos, especially since the ponies were already pleading with me to make the days longer. So I listened to them and by doing that, I shortened my sister's night to a total of nine hours. So I pleased the subjects, by subtracting my little sister's gift to the world. It was like that for a few years... until my silence on the matter grew a monster I failed to tame with my own strength."

"So you banished her to the moon?" I summarized.

"I only wanted it to be for a decade or so, that was my wish. But due to the Elements of Harmony, the tool I used to send her away, my wish was amplified by ten, and that was multiplied by ten for being an element wielder, a punishment bestowed upon her by the Tree of Harmony. In short, I was punished for my greed by taking away the opportunity to speak with my sister for over a thousand years. It is something I regret to this very day." Celestia concluded as she walked over to her younger sister. "I couldn't be more happy knowing she's with us again."

"She still doesn't let me have much fun nowadays. Here I am stuck in Equestria while she gets to turn into a human and make you pancakes. What fun is there in being stuck behind a desk filled with paperwork?" Luna griped, looking back at her sister with a petty pout.

"It's only because I love you sister, I have so much trust in you that you'd succeed in where I failed."

"That's code for 'do my chores for me'." I replied. "Don't think I don't know the bullshit code, princess."

"Least somepony's caught on." Luna said with a smirk.

"I would never─"

Luna interrupted Celestia's coy performance. "Coming from the one who integrated a switch to lock me in a small room in the basement, knowing I didn't like how creepy that place looked to me. That place always gave me nightmares."

"You mean the small room with the glory hole?" Melanie questioned.

Both Luna and Celestia looked to each other completely oblivious to what Mel talked about. Luna tilted her head as Celestia stood silently behind her. "What's a gloryhole?"

While I looked completely lost on how the subject came up, Mel slapped both of her hands over her mouth in shock. "Oh my God, you are an innocent little muffin. I just wanna hold you."

Meanwhile in my little world. "That dusty-ass Stonehenge has a gloryhole!?"

With breakfast concluded and my words being one hell of a sidedish to Celestia's pancakes, I crept back to my apartment to find Twilight occupying the shower. For me it was a bit of a surprise, especially considering she was just using whatever I had in the bathroom. Hell, she even had her own shower and the portal to her world was sitting just right beside it. When she finished, she proceeded to walk around the place with naught but a towel on her body. What is up with ponies and their not wanting to wear clothes here? I get it, ponies don't normally wear clothes, but still...

It's like her and Celestia are tag-teaming me over how long I'll keep my sanity.

After about an hour of me being stuck to the couch, watching TV, Twilight finally got dressed in a pair of panties and an old high school t-shirt I had. At least it proved to be a somewhat decent dress to hide herself, though it stopped halfway up her thighs. There's no doubt about what she's doing, she knows this is what gets me riled up, she's been very observant of what turns me on throughout the course of our relationship. And her doing it as a human takes it to a whole new level. And I'm not gonna lie, I wanted to show her just how rough I could be when healthy.

While I was watching T.V., I saw some coverage over a kid being abducted and the parents pleading with law enforcement to find their child. Somewhere inside me, I wished some otherworldly spell was cast to drag that little girl from here to their world, but reality often states that lighting doesn't always strike the same exact place twice. More often, she would be taken by a vengeful parent, or a perverted uncle, some strange man for ransom, or worse. Just looking at the fear in the mother's eyes as she spoke made me realize just how much pain mom was in when I was reported missing. I'm nowhere near as young as this little girl, but I can definitely see just how much it hurts anyone to lose their child.

Even then, my mind flashed back to Mrs. Plush sitting at the front desk of her hotel, staring at the picture of her deceased son. And somewhere in my heart I knew that the poor mother of her missing daughter will feel that same loss. It just happens so often that you can't help but to expect the worst. And I can't just step in and play Superman like I did in Equestria, I don't have the resources or the pull to do it, in this world I'm no different from a stranger walking down the street.

After the summation of the story, the feed quickly transferred to the topic of local sports and former athletes doing things for the community. Apparently Traitorous Snake made an appearance in town to give a donation to a local school for their basketball court, they also made a mention that he suffered a broken foot and will continue to miss more games until sometime next month.

Following the news cycle, Jerry Springer popped up on the screen. Granted, most of the stuff had to be scripted, but it was classic American trash that just kept me entertained for a bit. And of course, the show runs on an insane amount of commercials, most of them talking about workers comp, car accidents, insurance fraud, life alert, home security, an infomercial on the risks of mesothelioma, and a few other product placement commercials that included one obnoxiously unforgettable jingle.

♪8-HUN-DRED-588 2-3-HUNDRED, EMPIIIIRE!♫ I swear they've been running that shit since I was 7.

Following up the drama ladder was none other than Maury. Ah, the classic who's-the-baby's-daddy episode. And then just as the results are about to be read, they cut to commercial, tease you with a spoiler, then talk about the next segment they had recorded, and then the teasing of the conclusion to the segment you were just watching. You have to watch the entire show just to get to THAT, but for now they run the same old commercials again and again. It's no wonder why people are moving on to the internet nowadays. The commercials come to a temporary end and the program runs once more.

"How sure are you he is the baby's father?" The host asks.

Apparently the woman he referred the question to was named 'Brooke' or something. "I swear to you, Maury, that man IS the father of his child!"

And the guy's name is Malcolm. "I ain't even sleep with you like that. F**k on out of here with your s***** a** looking for a n**** to ween on! I ain't the one!" Of course, the obscenities are bleeped out due to FCC regulations.

"Yeah, well we're about to find out." The host declares with the audience applauding him as he picked up the envelope. The camera pans to the man, then the woman, then the host opening up the envelope, then the woman's face again on split screen with the baby backstage. "In the case of one year old Denise, Malcolm... You are NOT the father!"

As per usual, the man jumped out of his seat and started dancing wildly in celebration of his not having to take any responsibility for anyone other than himself, while the woman runs backstage to another room and flails onto the couch crying. It plays out like it normally does, and the man starts marching backstage to rub it in.

"That's a bit cruel, isn't it?" I looked up beside me, seeing Twilight standing there staring at the screen. She took a seat beside me as she spoke. "How does he get to dance around knowing that he could've been the father? But now that he isn't, he's just treating it like she's a fallen enemy at a dance party. So now that he dodges responsibility, he gets to bask in her misery? She's completely unaware of who the father of her child is, it's sad."

"Don't feel too bad for her. This kind of stuff isn't a requirement." I explained coarsely. "Anyone who values their personal life don't go around parading their circumstances for the nation's amusement. These people know what they're getting into, they're in it just for the pomp and circumstance. Half of this stuff will end up being scripted anyways and this was probably recorded either yesterday or sometime last week."

"Is this what humans call entertainment?" She asked.

"For some, of course. For me, it's just a time waster. I don't know what to do with my time other than wait around for Mel to bring you some new clothes to wear."

"You could be teaching me more about your world instead of lounging around. I don't necessarily know everything I should about this place and I can't get that information from anyone else other than you. I need to know about your family. You should be in the room talking to me about this stuff." She complained, folding her arms with frustration.

"You do have a point. But I just can't really take you seriously with what you're wearing. It's a major distraction to see you, a shirt, then outta nowhere, legs." I replied.

"You've seen my legs before, and ponies walk around with four of them. You shouldn't be that fazed by it."

"Not with what you've been doing lately. Don't think I haven't seen you try to catch my eye with what you wear. You tried it yesterday."

Twilight scoffed as she reclined on the sofa, kicking her legs across my lap. "You caught me there, but you still shouldn't be so easy. My legs aren't anything to look at. They're just appendages filled with blood and various bodily tissues for the purpose of mobilizing the body to any general direction."

"That's cute how you tried to be completely anatomical with it." I said with a chuckle. "But for me, or any other human for that matter, legs are an invitation to let my mind wander about your thighs. And your thighs are the main thing that make me wonder... Just how much can I make them sweat?" I said, running a finger up her inner thigh.

Using a hand to push me off, Twilight denied my playful advance. "How about you make my brain sweat instead? I know we're here to somewhat pretend that we're still in a relationship, but that doesn't mean that I'm willing to go overboard."

"Then how about you stop taunting me and get your legs off of my lap before I start taunting you back?" I said, trying to lift her legs off of me.

The indigo-haired woman did as she was advised and sat up straight on the couch. "Okay, so what do I need to know about your mom?"

"She's religious to a fault." I answered. "If you want to get on her good side, you'd be better off not talking about religion at all."

"Yesterday, you said that I was some strange religion, as if I was to be witnessing something." She said while straightening out the shirt she wore.

"You're not actually witnessing anything happening, not in the literal sense. A Jehovah's Witness is some people who go around knocking on people's door asking if you'd like to take a minute to read their pamphlets and speak with them about any stuff pertaining to their religion. They want you to read up on their doctrine by having you read up on some familiar passages in terms of the dominant religion."

"And what's the dominant religion?" She inquired.

"That would be Christianity, and it is not fun to be a follower."

"Why is that?" She asked.

"They teach you a bunch of stuff about how the world was created in seven days, then onto how mankind was punished for our disobedience, then there was a great flood, a man who freed the slaves from an ancient civilization, how they became a nation, a bunch of stories in between, how this one guy was supposed to be born to bear the burden of mankind's sins and die for our sake, only to be revived from death and raised himself into the sky. And something about his return being a violent one where he pulls a sword from his mouth and slaughters everyone who's left after the rapture. A highly paraphrased version of that stuff, but it sums up why that's a questionable religion to follow."

"Sounds like a violent religion to follow." Twilight mumbled.

I then proceeded to quote an excerpt from second chapter of Psalms. "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and for thy possession, the ends of the earth. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces, like a potters vessel. Be wise now therefore, ye kings. Be admonished, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son lest he be angry, and ye perish in the way, though his wrath be kindled but a little."

"Now that's terrifying. And here I thought Faustian teachings were controversial." Twilight stated with a hand over her mouth.

"I know, that's why it's going to be off of your curriculum, consider it a subject to avoid at all costs. And try not to bring it up either because I won't be giving you that crap to study."

"Why, is it in a book or something?" She asked.

"Don't worry about it. Consider it a forbidden practice." I quickly responded.

Twilight didn't say much after that, only staring at the television screen as the next segment of the show started. Apparently there was some woman who held a secret of cheating from her husband and she's scared that the baby isn't his. For a moment, the two of us were distracted by what was shown on the screen before the inevitable cut to commercial. "Yeesh, I never thought human monogamy was so conflicting."

"Most of us are brought up with the mindset of having that one for just us. But when we have that one for so long, it starts to tease the mind the thought of having another on the side." I explained. "In your world it would be considered as herding, which is openly accepted in your society and not so much in mine."

"Herding isn't like that at all." Twilight rebutted passionately. "Herding is when you have emotional attachment to more than one mare or stallion. If you wish to embrace that similar partner with the anticipation of seeing your lives through together as a unit, then it becomes herding. This is just infidelity."

"Is that why you were against my using the 'saving grace' clause?"

Twilight looked at me sternly as she spoke. "I'm more of the mindset of your society, one union for only two. It's what I was brought up in, so it's what I want for myself."

"But you're from Canterlot. Isn't herding a common practice where you're from?"

"You already know I'm a plain pony. I'm not a strong follower of trends."

A knock on the door sounded before I called out to whoever stood in wait. "Who is it?" I hollered.

"Mel, I came with Twilight's clothes."

The princess groaned with childish frustration. "Aww, I was just getting comfortable."

While she was groaning with disapproval, I proceeded to thank fate for bringing Mel around with the goods. If I had to stare at Twilight's exposed legs anymore questioning if she was wearing anything beneath that shirt, my mind would've quickly tried to turn this couch into a love seat, not to mention the mess to follow. I answered the door to see the woman holding the bag in her hand as she looked at Twilight prancing around the place bottomless.

"So you're just gonna let her roam around the place without pants on?"

Oh the irony. "This coming from someone who let Celestia walk around her apartment in nothing but a towel."

"It was too damn early in the morning for me to care." She replied with a shrug. "But this is mess-around hours. Booty calls happen just around this time of day more often than at night."

"Does this look like a booty call?" I asked while Mel looked past me to see Twilight hobbling on one leg trying to get her pants on, inadvertently exposing the pink boy shorts she wore.

"She's wearing nothing but your old shirt and she apparently doesn't have on a bra, Survey says─"

Dear Lord, she's wearing my shirt without a bra.... Between her and Celestia, I swear...

***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

I got dressed and we paid a visit to Melanie's place to pick up Celestia, then we made our way to Nondis' old house again. Mr. and Mrs. Haines greeted us all as soon as we arrived. From the moment we got out of the car, his father was already trying to peel him off of us and drag him off somewhere else. He even went so far as to give him a ride in his car, which was bigger and a little bulkier than the other. And within seconds, Nondis and his father disappeared, making me fear the worst was to come for him.

Apparently, I was so bad that I just stared down the street for an unmeasured amount of time. It was as if the further the car drove down the well-manicured street, the bleaker this new world started to feel. I wasn't quite used to the pressure of trying to impress someone's parents. But before I could feel the world grow darker for me, a warm hand settled on my shoulder. "Oh don't worry your pretty little head off, dearie." I heard Mrs. Haines say soothingly. "They're just off having a bit of guy time, it's been a while since those two had a chance to bond. I think it's better that they do it every once in a while."

Just like that, the color of the world seemed to jump back in their designated lines. I was so relieved to know that this wasn't some depressing moment of watching the train leave the station, with a friend who'd never return. I don't know why I felt like that then, but hearing Nondis talk about him made me feel fear for him. But with that out of the way, my mind was already pointed towards what my tasks were for today. I was already looking into seeing if I was going to have to actually use some magic to clean up the messes Celestia and I were going to make today.

If I should make any correction, it was only me who was making a mess of things.

"Celestia, could you pass me the onions?"

"Why of course, Mrs. Haines."

"And while you're over there, can you cut the celery stalks, I need those for the stuffing."

"Already ahead of you."

"Okay. Bella, how are you and those potatoes?"

As if I had a good answer. Celestia was so skilled at her tasks. It was like everything she did, she knew exactly how to do it. We're not even in our own world, but it was like she knew the kitchen from the back of her hoof. Every bit of direction she was given, she'd snapped to place herself in the best position to complete the job assigned. Meanwhile, I was standing in a pile of shavings with more potatoes unpeeled than completed. And it wasn't like the potatoes were that neat either, they were misshapened from my amateurish hands. I was already feeling like a failure. "Heh, heh... they're coming along... somehow."

Celestia looked over to see me struggling with the assignment and walked over to me. "Now do you see why I tried to enroll you in home economics?" She whispered.

I couldn't do anything but sulk as my reddened cheeks showed through the fingers I tried to hide them under. The clatter of the kitchen came to a brief standstill as Mrs. Haines stepped away from the stove to speak to me. "Is everything okay?"

My mind was already filling with shame and disappointment in my life decisions. The visions of each of my failed ventures within the kitchen started to play out in my head. So often I had Spike take over in that department, but now that I was the one onstage, I couldn't perform up to standard. I was so upset with myself that I wanted to cry. "I'm so sorry I messed up everything. I failed you both today."

Seeing the tears welling in my eyes, Mrs. Haines gave me a quick hug as she spoke. "Sweetheart, is this your first time in a kitchen?"

"It might as well be." I replied with some frustration in my voice.

"We had someone to make her food every now and then. I tried to get her in a home ec course, but she refused it in place of science. She's an incredibly brilliant mind, I assure you. It's just that she might be a bit unnerved at the thought of failing, a trait her parents instilled in her." Celestia answered, also coming to my rescue.

"Oh, well that ain't nothin, hun." Mrs. Haines said with a calm voice. "I can understand how it feels, to think you've done something throughout your life and then think you came up short when something happens. When I was a teenager, I didn't wanna take no home courses because I wanted to prove myself to be better than some girl in a kitchen. So I took up metal work and I worked in that field for a good fifteen years before I retired. My back kept having spasms and I just couldn't keep up with the labor. Do you wanna know what I did after that?" Mrs. Haines asked.

"What did you do?" I questioned.

"I started volunteering at the church, showing up for my sons' school functions, being an active parent in my sons' lives. I couldn't go to work anymore and I felt like I needed to be of use somewhere. So I found a way to make it work. Now a lot of that stuff I did I had to learn, and let me tell you how much time it took me to learn it all. But it helped me discover more ways I can be active for my health, to keep me happy when I sometimes felt like I wasn't worth anything. I always wanted to contribute to something, but now instead of doing it to help put food on the table, I'm doing it to help others, so they can put food on their tables, clothes on their kids backs. Does that make sense?"

Wiping my eyes from the tears, I nodded with acknowledgement.

"Now I know you feel like you ain't about nothing because you feel like you made a mistake somewhere. But we all make that same mistake somewhere down the line. It's up to you whether or not you feel like it's too late to learn a valuable lesson for yourself. If you wanna work on it, then you have to accept the cuts and hurts of it all. You wanna focus on something else, then it's fine as long as you're of use to someone, even if that means you can be of use to yourself."

Feeling a bit more encouraged by her words, I finished wiping my tears and firmed myself for more work. "Okay, maybe I am taking this entire thing a little too harshly."

The older woman took the peeler in my hand and guided my fingers into various places along the handle. "But if you want to improve, then we'll have to work on the little things. Like for example, if you place your thumb on the metal piece here, it'll hold that blade in place. So when you grab the potato and turn it around, you'll start to peel off these long pieces of skin. Now I'm not asking you to give me an endless ribbon, but just take it easy and guide your blade along the potato, let it work for you, not you for it. Okay?"

Taking her kind words and shared wisdom into consideration, I found a new drive within myself to do better at the task I was given, even though I wasn't quite adept to using my hands yet. "You can count on me!"

A few hours have passed since we started, the kitchen started to get a little warmer while the items we prepped started to find their way in the oven. Even though I was working in the kitchen as well, my exposure to the heating elements was severely limited to placing something inside of the oven or turning down the heat on a specific item when instructed to do so. The way everything was lined up made it seem a lot easier than what the books made it out to be. The food didn't come out bland or tasteless like the cookbooks in the library instructed me to do. And even though we were working with raw meat items, Celestia didn't seem phased in the slightest.

I wonder if she's ever had to deal with meat before.

As far as I knew, Celestia was just rolling from one counter to another, hitting one dish after the other. The sight of the two women made me marvel at their efficiency and their attention to detail. But as we came into a bit of a lull of activity, Celestia's production hit a bit of a snag.

"Ow!" She yelped, dropping the knife she held. She stared at her hand as blood quickly started to reveal her fresh injury. "Fingers are quite sensitive."

"You okay, hun?" Mrs. Haines asked.

"Oh, I just just got a little nick, nothing worth mentioning." Celestia replied, holding her hand away from the counter to not get blood on any of the food. "I should probably clean myself up."

"C'mere, I don't want you getting infected with anything." Mrs. Haines said as she walked over to a drawer beside the stove, pulling out a bottle of antiseptic, some band aids, and a few cotton balls. She quickly opened the bottle of alcohol and doused one of the cotton balls in it, reaching out for Celestia's hand. "Now this is gonna sting a little so be prepared."

The moment the saturated cotton ball came into contact with the princess, she didn't even budge one bit. She just stood there while her finger was cleaned of the blood. "It won't bother me none. Pain is a part of the experience with life."

Mrs. Haines chuckled as she started to dry the wound. "Do you know how long it took me to nail that into my husband's head? Took me years to get him to understand that women were just as capable of handling pain, if not more than men."

"Did it really take him so long?" Celestia asked.

"Honey, if I ain't got a story for that one." Mrs. Haines said as she concluded her treatment, wrapping Celestia's finger with a band aid.

"Well we're bound to be here for a while, so I don't see why not." Celestia replied cheerfully, flexing her fingers with her newly bandaged wound.

The next sound in my ears was a moderately loud squeak as a wooden chair was pulled against the floor. I was once again distracted in my duties and looked over to see Mrs. Haines inviting us both to the dinner table. "Pull up a chair, we'll be minute before we're up and at it again."

As I approached, I presented them with my finished assignment. "Okay, I've peeled the potatoes, the onions, the carrots, and put them in the bowl, each in their own section. What do I do next?"

Mrs. Haines looked over to the trash can and saw endless ribbons of brown and orange shavings. Some of them appeared to be ceaseless, others broken by the inconsistencies in texture of the surface, but they were as neat as I could get them to cut. "She's a real perfectionist isn't she?"

Celestia chuckled a little bit, realizing I fell into another one of my habits. "Just a tad bit compulsive, but she's very astute."

As I pulled up a chair to sit in, Mrs. Haines started to tell her story. "Well I'm praying for you, especially dealing with Nondis. That boy's brain is cut from the same as his father. Would you believe me if I told you about how when I first got pregnant, I tried getting Harold to read on how to deal with pregnancy as a man? I gave him so many books to look at and he ain't study not one."

Sounds like when Nondis was getting shipped to basic training. I tried to get him to read up on the material prior to training so he could already know the history of the E.U.P., but he and Pinkie decided it was better to learn it through song instead. And the result was a highly-abridged, sloppily and hastily paraphrased version of the events of it's creation. He wouldn't even go over the flash cards I had saved up for him. "Well that's definitely Nondis-like." I responded under my breath.

"That ain't the half of it sweetheart." Mrs. Haines said as she tossed a hand in the air. "I tried to do whatever it took to get that man ready for the day I fell into labor. He just assumed that if the time came, he'll know what to do. But when that time came and my water broke, he was just as clueless as he was about those books. He didn't read em, so he just took me in the car and drove me to the hospital, speeding through the street, getting stopped by the police, and they were nice enough to get us escorted to the hospital, especially since it was one of the fellas from the neighborhood watch association. But the moment I got out that car..."

"The pain started to hit." Celestia answered.

"Honey, if I wasn't the angriest woman on two legs right then, I could've made a case for it. Harold just took me to the emergency entrance and had me shipped right off to the doctor. From the moment they walked in the room, it was like they knew Harold wasn't ready for any of that. So they started asking him questions on whether or not he was going to leave for the day, or go to work, he told them that he 'wanted to be in the room for the moment I gave birth.' Some of the nurses thought he was being real sweet-like, I knew he was thinking about being in the WAITING ROOM while I was just being in need of an exorcist."

Celestia chuckled lightly as she settled in to hear more of the story. "That sounds like a recipe for disaster."

"You know what I'm saying?" Mrs. Haines said with a laugh of her own. "I mean it was like he in his own little world while I was being rolled off into one of those rooms with the curtains and everything. Then we get up to the room and he's like 'I don't know if I'm supposed to be in here.' And I turn to him with a real stupid look and told him 'You said you'd be there for the moment I gave birth. You better be in this room before I put you in one somewhere down the hall.' And you know what he did?"

"He waited in that room?" I guessed.

"Fourteen hours of his life that was all mine. And I'm thinking I wasn't ever gonna get that kind of attention anymore after that, and he's just nervous watching the doctors coming in and out of the room with all these scissors and clamps and knives and junk. And they're just doing whatever it takes for me to finish as easy as possible. But he's just down there watching like it was a mad science experiment. And lord knows it didn't help since he wanted this to be a 'perfectly natural birth,' which meant that I was gonna have to go without a lot of that good medicine they had for me. So guess what I'm doing?"

"Screaming." Celestia answered with a eye roll and a sigh of amusement.

"I think I came up with a new note to sing, it's called AAAAH!" She sang horrifically.

The three of us broke out into laughter, I had to hold my mouth closed while Celestia shook her head with disbelief. "That is just hysterical!"

"So I'm in the bed still. Fourteen hours and forty minutes later, he's just as clueless as he was when everything started and Harold's just looking from the bottom of the sheets, and I can imagine it's not a kind sight. He's just gawking and covering his face at everything and I'm calling him over to hold my hand. He just tells me 'Martha... you ain't pretty right now.' And I just look at him stupid and say 'How about you come over and hold my hand?' So just then, I get another contraction, painful as all get out, and he just looks at me and says 'I can always get another lunch down here, I can't get no new ears up there.'"

The three of us continued to laugh while I started to feel the pain of my sides aching from all the laughter. "You must be making this up! This is so terrible!" Celestia replied, almost breathlessly.

"I didn't quite win the lottery with him, but he'll do. So after a few more minutes and out pops a head, Harold's covering his eyes like it was all a horror show to him. So one of the nurses moved him out of the way and politely escorted him to my side while the doctors and everyone came in and did their thing. I'm grabbing Harold's arm and he's telling me how much I'm hurting him. I'm just yelling at him telling him how I would never have another kid with him, not ever again."

"Goodness, I can imagine how that went." Celestia said, starting to come down from her boisterous show of exuberance.

"Right?" Mrs. Haines said, trying to come back down herself. "So I was operating in the flesh at point in time and told him to get his head out of his own a-s-s and be a man and take it. Because he was a man, I felt like he could at least take a little bit of what I was getting. Oh no, he had a note of his own to sing. But after a while, everything was finished and Alex was finally brought to the world. My husband just stared at me from a distance and didn't say anything while they were getting him cleaned up and everything. When they finished with it, they finally let me hold him. Alex finally opened his eyes and I saw right then that he was my little boy."

"What about your husband?" Celestia questioned.

"Him? I had to tell the nurse that I was tired of holding him and had Harold to hold him. He said 'That alien ain't nothing like me.' And I, of course, told him to get his a-s-s over here and hold the baby. So he held him for a while, being real quiet for about thirty minutes, just staring at that little bundle of joy. He told me 'This thing is so small.' And I had to tell him 'That thing's gonna grow up real big and make us real proud.' So he just held him and stared at him for another five minutes. And from that moment on, I realized... That man didn't know a darn thing about being a father."

That final statement elicited yet another giggle from the two of us while Celestia took a few breaths to calm herself again. "Well I suppose he learned something from that moment on."

"Oh yeah, with Nondis, he tried to do everything by the book then. But when Stanton came around, he just finally said 'whatever happens' and strapped himself in for the ride. But if I can say one thing to that man's credit, he was there for every darn one of those boys from the moment they popped out."

"Well you can't argue something like that. That kind of dedication and loyalty doesn't come often." Celestia said while wiping her eyes of the tears from laughter.

"Yeah, though I was a bit concerned when he tried to celebrate Stanton coming into the world with a crock pot, some canola oil, and a baseball glove." Celestia couldn't even feign enough dignity to stop herself from showing her more natural side, falling out of her chair before holding herself on the table to support her weight. She rocked back and forth a few seconds before she could move of her own free will. Even though I was experiencing some pain from laughter, I didn't care because it was so funny to imagine a Nondis look-a-like standing at the foot of a hospital bed with an entire catcher's outfit, complete with a crock pot at his feet, a bottle of oil beside the bed, and a few balloons with the words 'Happy Birthday, Sport!' written on them. It took me a minute to recover from that imagery while Mrs. Haines spoke again. "Obviously he grew a sense of humor on the subject."

"I'm sure he did." Celestia said, sniffling from the laughing fit she suffered through.

The mood then shifted from laughter to one of tenderness as Mrs. Haines continued to fawn over her husband. "But still... you couldn't tell me that Harold wouldn't do for me when he's done so much. I love him to bits, and if Nondis is anything like him, you better be ready for one hell of a ride, cause that man might just not stop loving you. And if you find yourself in danger, then expect him to take a bullet for you."

Finally finding a moment to join in the conversation, I asked her a question. "...Do you think he'd be so loyal to where he'd go as far as to fight for others?"

She shrugged as she started to talk more of her son. "I wouldn't put it past him. That's the main reason why I'm so scared that he'd be the type to do something foolish, like go and enlist in the army or something. Ever since he was a teenager, he had an interest in all those military games, shooting up people from half a world away. I couldn't understand what he saw in that stuff really, maybe it was all the stories glorifying violence and death, but I told his butt that college or a job were his only alternatives."

Even though I was told she had a sensitive spot for military work, I proceeded to ask her about it, hinting at his actual job. "What if he did enlist in the military? What would you say then?"

The mood quickly shifted yet again, growing quite a bit more serious. "I'd get him out of it myself. I don't need him finding out about that life. I've seen and heard too many stories of brave young men being sent to a world foreign and too far away to fight a war for the pride of not even a nation, but it's politicians. My father did just that and came back, only to be spat on and called a murderer. It got so bad that he stayed up at night screaming. I never wanted that for any of my boys."

"You don't think Nondis would be strong enough?" I asked, inevitably getting a stern look from Celestia.

"I didn't go through all that pain, all that carrying for nine months, raising them for eighteen years, only to get a flag to hold when they die. Some of them folks don't even get to see their kids when that happens. Not my son, not my baby..." Mrs. Haines quickly stood out of her chair, turning to me with a frown. "That's why when I saw all those scars on him, I had to ask... what his he doing for you to have all of that done to him?"

Just the reaction she gave reinforced Nondis' suspicions. I figured he was over-exaggerating with her, but never would I have assumed that she'd be so disgusted with the thought of him being a guard. Just that fact alone made me realize just how much of a risk he was taking with his personal relationships. I started to feel bad, then terrible for knowing I was the cause of it. I decided to withdraw that subject for the time being until the time was right. "I wish I knew." I lied.

The woman leaned down, grabbing my hands. Hers was significantly rougher than mine, her eyes were filled with a plea for help. She knelt down and stared me in the eye. "Nondis can be a handful, and sometimes a bit dangerous to himself. You need to be able to get him out of whatever he's doing. I know you don't like seeing him hurt, I saw it all over your face just when he left earlier. And I might be a bit biased, I honestly thought Melanie would be the one in this kitchen with me this year, but you somehow got my son running after you like a puppy fresh in love. If you can do that for me, then I ain't got a problem with you."

Even though I knew that Melanie was more of a first for Nondis' heart, it still ached a little to know that this wasn't real. She didn't even know I broke up with her son already. And I probably wouldn't be in any good standing if she knew that. Already, I was having to live my existence as a lie before Nondis' parents, making empty promises and giving words of comfort despite the situation being the contrary. "You have my word." I replied.

I started to realize just how much Nondis was really trying to shoulder. And in the end, I had only one question to ask myself. Just how much did I hurt him by not asking?

How long must we lie about this?

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

Our day was pretty fun and event-filled. It was like the moment I fell into dad's grasp, he dragged me everywhere throughout town with him and the others, those 'others' being Alex and Stanton. First off we went bowling, and dad proceeded to wipe the floor with all three of us as usual. It's like the older he got, the better he was at it. That was always the case when we were younger, but now it's like he managed to find the time to get better. So yeah, a curbstomp served by our dad wasn't the most fun to go through, might as well play for second place.

He then made it up to us by taking us to do laser tag, a field he had no experience in. Meanwhile the rest of us weren't all that great at it either. Real world usage of firearms had little to no effect on how quickly a laser could hit you from some obscured angle off of a mirror. And it wasn't like we weren't trying to nab anyone else either, the top guy named himself 'ch0z3n 1ne' and racked up about fourteen-hundred points. To give some context to the runner up's score, 'Glossy' had up to six-hundred. Dad came in second to last, Alex finished in fifth, I finished in seventh, and Stanton finished in eighth. After that, we hit up a Fuddruckers for dinner and made our way back to the corners of our own lives.

Dad didn't ask much of anything about Twilight until we showed up at the house. Nothing too unusual, just asking if I felt she was really worth giving my life to. He wanted me to be sure that I wasn't making any mistakes concerning my future. I politely told him that she's my girlfriend and that we haven't made any plans to our future just yet. He then brought up the fact that my time to finish school was just around the corner and that I should start thinking about a five-year plan and how to approach my venture into the world of dating. Typical father to son stuff.

But he did have a point. I didn't really have a plan that lead me past five years, I only focused on what I could change in the immediate future, or at least within the next three months. But after that, what else was there? After I finished with a certain law's removal, I didn't have much of a sight for anything past that. I guess it would allow me to start publicly dating Twilight again, or I could already be in it too deep with Rarity to consider it a possibility. I could live my life out as a guard, building the legacy I've started for myself. Or I could come back home to Austin after everything's said and done. I might not have much of a purpose for staying in Equestria after that or I might find it too painful to stay, especially if I screw up with both Rarity and Twilight.

Or I could be dead by then... but that's a grim possibility, one that's too easy to see.

When we stepped out of dad's Ford Expedition, Twilight and Celestia were already in the foyer waiting. The moment we stepped in, the smells of tomorrow already had me anticipating the results. When I asked if there was anything new on the menu, all three of the women looked to one another and kept their lips sealed. Dad asked more on it and Twilight simply told him that he'd have to wait until tomorrow to find out, a response my mom obviously scripted out for her.

At last, the two princesses stepped into the rental and we were on our way back to the apartment. The night was already starting to grow on us and all the energy the two had coming into the day was all but spent in the kitchen. Twilight fell asleep in the back seat while Celestia continued to ask me to ride around town a little more so she could take in some of the sights. Her surprising request had me thrown off for a bit before I inevitably obliged. As we roamed the city streets again, Celestia stared through the window as she asked me a simple question.

"Do you find a future in the E.U.P.?"

Again, the princess had a way of surprising me. "Of course." I replied plainly. "Granted some of the subsidies aren't quite what I was expecting, and the pay is a bit skiddish, I think if I stay in for long enough that my future will start to pay for itself."

Celestia didn't break her eyes from the world outside of the car, keeping her view towards the illuminated skyline of Austin. "But is that all you want in your future?"

Thought the connection to the conversation dad had with me was uncanny, I gave her my honest answer. "To be frank, I haven't quite put together the usual five-year thing. I'm just kinda riding things out for now."

"Then if you were given the chance to leave, to come back to this world, would you?" She asked.

"Didn't I already have that option?" I rebutted.

The princess threatened to turn back towards me before she reconsidered and kept her eyes out to the world beyond the window. "This place, there aren't any changelings to fight, no arimaspi to slay."

"Boring, isn't it?" I replied mockingly.

"The technology this world possesses, the peace it contains, the dangers that don't come with everyday life, why do you insist on living a life of peril instead of one in this serene world?"

"Because this world isn't serene." I replied brutally. As we rode down the highway, I noticed a distinctive lack of traffic from the left side of the interstate. "Look out in front of you, you see the road ahead, right?"

Celestia turned her head to notice the lack of traffic from the oncoming side. "It's a lot less people on one side than the other."

"But does that mean the road is peaceful?" I asked.

"An open road is usually indicative of peace. If you've ever been to Manehattan, the traffic there is dreadful. Carriages and one-way streets, backed up so badly that emergency transports can hardly navigate."

"Well much like pony Manhattan, our world has more of that in even the smaller places." I said just before the flashing lights of some emergency vehicles shone from down the road. As we got closer, it appeared to be a scene of a terrible collision. One car was sitting in the middle of the road while the other was tapered against the concrete median wall. Paramedics were on scene along with police rerouting traffic through the road while the afflicted parties conversed in safety. "Yikes, that's a bad one."

As we quickly passed the site, the traffic on the other side was incredibly chaotic, cars running bumper to bumper while appearing to be at a standstill. Celestia then questioned. "What happened here?"

"Traffic accident. Doesn't appear that anyone was seriously injured, though I could be wrong. Maybe it was just some impatient asshole trying to merge at the wrong time."

She looked at the traffic and saw the complete disorder that just randomly appeared from thin air. "Goodness, this is almost as bad as─"

"Manehattan?" I concluded, receiving a direct look from Celestia. "Yeah, but that traffic accident could've been much worse. Those people could be walking out on pure adrenaline right now, not even knowing what the hell's wrong with them. And then if you weren't wearing a seat belt like we are now, you'd be flying right through this windshield here." I said, thumping the glass above the dashboard.

"Wouldn't that be dangerous?" Celestia asked.

"That's a cute way of saying 'fatal'." I replied, causing the princess to instinctively tug at her seat belt. "Life comes at you fast, any accident can threaten your life just as easily as a changeling attack can, and those are less frequent. Remember, we use these things to get around. There's always a high chance that some person who's not paying attention could get themselves or someone else killed. City street, definitely. Dirt road in the country, someone's livestock. County road in the woods, you don't wanna hit a moose cause you'd be just as banged up. Even the community we live in, just let your kid go chasing a ball in the street with an oncoming car and an inattentive driver."

"I get it." Celestia replied, started to appear somewhat annoyed. "Must you be so negative to your world?"

"I love it here, but I'm not gonna ignore what's real. Don't you love Equestria?"

"Of course I do." She answered.

"Then why even compare the peace of your world to this one? You bring up changelings and arimaspi, but I never knew anything about that stuff till I was shipped out to the E.U.P.. And don't you have a marriage law that punishes you in an unjust manner?"

Celestia remained quiet at that question, seeming to not want to incite any kind of argument.

"Either way, my world isn't perfect. It's got it's own laundry list of bullshit, but it's a big, beautiful place regardless."

The princess folded her arms as she sighed with defeat. "But still... Don't you have a plan?"

"I'm pretty sure I can plot one up when the time comes. But for now, I got other things to worry about."

"So you're staying in the E.U.P.?" She asked.

"Dunno. That's a future I'm not certain of. If I can't be certain of a relationship, then what makes a career path any different? I have to be ready for anything."

"And you don't have a plan for that yet?"

"I'll come up with something, mom." I groaned mockingly.

Celestia grew silent for a few minutes before she unfolded her arms and stared back out the window. "You and Rarity are seeing each other, aren't you?"

The sheer magnitude of the question she asked made me swerve the car a bit as if I had actually hit something on the road, but I quickly recovered and we were back in our lane as I peeked back into the back seat from the rear-view mirror. Twilight was still asleep as I turned my attention off the road to the princess beside me. "Can we not?"

"I just want to know. You were already trying to get her here for Friday, a request that she and you came to ask personally. Does that not account for anything?"

"She and I are just friends." I reiterated.

Her lips didn't even move as I heard the words come through in her voice. "I can easily tell when you are lying." I turned to her and saw her staring directly at me, again her lips didn't move as her voice spoke again. "The two of you have a bit of a benefit system in place."

"That's not your business to know." I said sternly, my hands tensing around the wheel.

"I'm sorry for invading your mind." She said, this time through her own lips. "I've known it since you came to ask. I just wanted you to understand that my rejecting you was my way of saying that I wasn't going to interfere with any of the affairs you may have with Twilight and her friends. If you want to entertain the thought of the two of you sharing a day in this world, then it should be Twilight's responsibility alone to permit you the access."

"I guess that's your way of protecting her. Well that I can understand, but my mind isn't a playground, you know how I feel about that."

"Again, I apologize for overstepping my boundaries. But I do want you to realize that Twilight worked hard to appease your mother today. Would it not be fair to reward her for her efforts? She's already taken her breakup with you quite harshly."

"Then why did she do it? Why didn't the so-called 'Princess of Love' step in and stop that from happening? Why didn't you object to it?"

Celestia glared at me with her lavender eyes, growing unusually cold for their beauty. "Because I know how it feels to have a relationship impeded upon by the decision of outside forces, some of which you could never understand."

"But if you knew Twilight was hurting from it, then shouldn't you have done something?"

"She is grown enough to make her own decisions. I've allowed her that independence. And personally I didn't appreciate Cadance's meddling in your affairs either. If I can recall, Melanie was the one your mother decided for you, but you chose differently. If you knew it would hurt Melanie, then wouldn't you have done something or come up with another conclusion, especially after so many months of not seeing you?"

"How am I supposed to know her heart if she wouldn't let me in? I made the decision to move on from that."

"But you didn't take it very well." She said, causing me to swerve the car a bit before I settled back in place. Instead of staying on the interstate, I took the next exit to head home. We waited at a red light as I started to speak.

"Yeah, I didn't. I was still hurting. But now I've come to the conclusion that I couldn't hate her for that. Even if I poured my heart out for her and got nothing until it was too late, I wouldn't dare bring myself to hate her for what she did." As the light turned green, I made the left turn to the overpass. "And when Twilight broke up with me, it wasn't like I was content with the circumstances. I wanted to hate her for the way she left me like that and my brothers knew it. But something inside me made me not do it. I'd call her out of a few things, I'd have arguments with her, I'd say things to spite her, but I couldn't ever bring myself to hate her. I guess between Twilight and Mel, my heart was more outspoken than my mind. I guess my love was stronger than my own pride."

"And yet you hate Cadance?"

"Annoyed to shit, yeah... hell yeah. But I'm willing to compromise if Twilight wants me to do so. And she wants me to do that, I just can't do it right this instant cause it takes time. I want things to be simple but they aren't. So I have to fight for that to happen. Somewhere in my heart I want to snuggle that purple alicorn on my mattress again, but that can't happen right now."

Celestia grew silent for a few seconds before she spoke. "But what about Rarity?"

"I have to see where my heart is on that one. That's why I'm not going to entertain the idea of us being together right now." I said before mumbling into the steering wheel. "Even if I wanna take this human girl in the back seat and poke fun at her for hours."

Celestia blushed lividly while she slapped my leg. "Mind your tone, captain. That kind of lecherous conduct is not permissible in my presence."

"Sorry, guess I'm letting out too much."

Celestia folded her arms as she muttered into the window. "...And I am not on the menu."

"Who said you were on the menu?" I asked, quirking a eyebrow.

"I just said that I'm not." She pouted.

"Yeah, you aren't."

The princess glared at me again and grinned. "And what is that supposed to mean, Mr. Haines? Am I not a topic of discussion amongst your kind?"

"To be brutally honest, I wouldn't mind breaking Equestrian law for a night with that human body of yours. And let me be clear of how much you were flaunting those assets this morning at breakfast. If I was past me, you would've got some sausage for the morning. But you're not on the menu." I teased.

Celestia gasped with shock and awe over my comment. "You are so utterly crude!" She announced furiously, threatening to slap me.

"Please don't slap the driver, I want all of us to live."

"Well I will slap you when you've finished escorting me." She said, seething through her teeth.

Breathing a sigh of relief for the time being, I went to adjust my rear view mirror to see what was behind me. As I did, I saw Twilight sitting up in the back seat, her eyes lazily looking out the window.

Guess she's awake now.

When I arrived to Mel's apartment, Celestia allowed herself out of the car and quickly ran up the stairs before I could even get a chance to take my foot off of the brake when we parked. Twilight just sat groggily in the back seat while I made a quick ride around the corner towards my apartment. When we got out, the young princess dragged herself up the stairs as I opened the door to the apartment.

She stepped in and started walking towards my room. I just made my way toward the hallway bathroom while she leaned against my doorway, appearing very tired. After I had finished relieving myself, I washed my hands and stepped outside to see Twilight still standing in the doorway.

"Something wrong?" I asked the tired-looking princess.

She didn't move from that spot as she sank onto the ground, sitting in the doorway. "I'm just so tired."

"Thanksgiving dinner prep got you like that?" I asked with a light chuckle.

"Yeah." She said almost lifelessly.

"You need me to get you anything, water, snack?"

She didn't say anything as I walked towards the kitchen. When I opened the fridge, I could see a collection of water bottles and a few sealed bowls of fruit salad. At the bottom of the fridge was a bin filled with bags of pre-prepped salad. Apparently Mel was stocking me up while I was away. I settled for one of the bowls of fruit and a bottle of water, grabbed a fork from the drawer, and made my way back to Twilight. She still didn't move until I tore off the seal and started feeding it to her. She opened her mouth slightly, allowing a small grape to fall past her lips.

"Tell me how it is, too bitter?"

Twilight smirked for a few seconds. "You can tell they tried to make this with quality, but it's just not quite there."

Figures, it would be hard to fool a princess who's exposed to fresh produce daily. "Well that's what happens when you try to please a whole bunch of people. You get a product that isn't quite there."

I offered the bottle of water before she politely pushed it away, whispering to me. "Celestia's really pretty, isn't she?"

I wanted to lie to her and tell her something that would make her feel better, but considering the possibility that she might have overheard our conversation in the car, I decided to be upfront. "She is. By human standards, she'd be an unquestionable level of attraction. Men universally would fawn over her."

"Would you fawn over her as well?" She asked.

"That's something I'm quite sure I'd be unwilling to do. Celestia's the kind of individual you'd look at from a distance. Of course you can say she's more than capable of stirring the imagination, but I consider her to be nothing more than a mutual business partner."

"Even if she had some emotional feelings towards you?"

"That would be impossible. Her heart is probably more bent towards solitary confinement over someone like me. And I don't think my mind would be able to handle that level of emotional baggage." I confessed before I rambled on. "I'm barely able to handle you, and you're a few years shy of me."

"And Rarity?" She inquired.

"She and I are more in the realm of 'friends with benefits' over some emotional attachments."

"How do you know if she's not lying to you?"

"Am I supposed to ask? I know I don't wanna lead anyone on because I know how that feels."

"But what if she wanted to be led along, just to know what it feels like to be infatuated?"

I stopped to think for a moment, my mind running back to the date we shared in Canterlot before she left. All throughout the day she made it clear that it was just to see how it felt between us. But I never considered if that was what she was doing. "...I might have to ask her about it then."

Twilight took the bowl of fruit and sat it down next to her as she grabbed the fork from me. "So... what did you do today?"

"Dad took us bowling. He waxed our asses up and down the lanes for an hour and a half. But after that, we went out for laser tag, he was almost in last place. Then we went out to eat before we came back."

Levitating the fruit bowl and the fork, she poked one of the pieces of fruit and presented it to me for me to eat. "Well, I know now you weren't kidding about your mom not being all-too thrilled about you being in the guard."

"You told her about it?" I asked, almost jumping at the thought.

"No, but I did present a hypothetical scenario, to which she responded to in a negative manner. In short, I'm astounded you're even thinking of staying in the guard."

"Realistically speaking, the guard is my only source of income right now. I'm already trained for it, so I might as well put my training to good use." I stated, calming down a little. "But still, I don't think she needs to know about that right now."

"But you've done so much good. Surely she'd understand that. If she even started to realize the thousands you saved, the hundreds you rescued, she should be swayed to reconsider."

"But who's to say how she'll act when she figures out what the politicians tried to get away with?"

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but only producing a choked gasp. Her eyes wandered off to the bowl of fruit. "I guess she would be upset to know they tried to have her son's body donated to science."

"Oh yeah, that'll do it for real. Let's not even talk about sending me off to a mountain filled with blood-thirsty horrors, or the idea of them sending me to pony Siberia."

"I suppose your concern would have substantial merit." She said, twirling the fork in her possession.

"Yeah. Don't want her knowing I've already had multiple assassination attempts on me. I think I'd rather keep her as comfy as she is now. What we told her about my adventures yesterday is more than enough for now."

She pulled out another grape, munching on it while she pondered out loud. "But isn't there some way to ease them into this?"

"That's the million dollar question. Tomorrow may be all food and football, but somewhere between all of that is an opportunity where they'll recall on a bunch of the conversations we had for the past few days. We need to make sure our stories are straight from here forward."

"But what about... us?"

The pony thing, almost forgot about that. "I think we can avoid that tomorrow. It'll have to be something we'd walk them through. I mean, I got a cute human girl with me and that's all that matters."

"Even though we haven't made any attempt to convey our relationship physically? Personally, I'm not sure how to respond if you were to make an attempt to display human affection."

"What have we been doing for the past few months?" I asked.

"You and I were ourselves. I'm a human now, that means I'm not quite sure on how it would look if I tried to convey some affection to a human as a human. It would be like you trying to do it as a pony."

I shook my head and sighed dismissively. "Just close your eyes and pucker your lips."

"Liikh dhiis?" She asked, contorting her face into a bit of an angry scowl. Her nose was severely crinkled and her eyebrows were too closely brought in as if she was clenching her eyes in a sandstorm. I couldn't help but to laugh at her while she pouted over my reaction. "What's so funny!? I did what you asked!"

"You're overthinking again." I stated, placing my hands over her cheeks. "Look a little more natural, like you're about to wake me up in the morning."

"Okay." She complied, closing her eyes a lot more loosely. "Now what?"

"Stick your lips out a little." I ordered. She did just as I instructed, but leaning herself in forehead first. "Hold up, raise your chin a little. We don't have muzzles, so try to not rush run in or we'll be butting heads."

"I told you this was going to be a problem." She chided.

"It ain't gotta stay one." I replied. "Now do you feel my hands on your cheeks?"

"Yes." She said before snorting out a slight giggle. I couldn't stop myself from joining in as our minds both took a slight detour to the raunchy back road. She cleared her throat and refocused herself. "Okay, enough of that. Let's continue."

Her eyes shot wide open as my lips joined with hers for just a second, and my hands quickly slid off of her face to her shoulders. Though the situation might have appeared quite anticlimactic from an onlooker, somewhere inside me I felt a bit of a tingling rush in my system. I smiled at her as I shrugged my shoulders. "See, not that hard."

Twilight didn't say anything, but she dropped everything in her magical possession. The contents of the bowl were scattered across the floor while she moved a finger to her lips, feeling the warmth of our temporary union. She smiled as she tried to look away, covering her mouth.

"Not bad for your first kiss as a human, huh?"

"I almost had one like this before." She confessed before she grabbed my cheeks in a similar manner. "But we were interrupted before we actually did it. So... it's not that bad."

"What, you wanna try it now?" I asked, readying myself for yet another.

Instead of immediately leaning in, she draped her arms around my neck, almost as she would in her equine form. "I just feel more comfortable doing it this way."

As she leaned in, her forehead collided with mine. The young princess giggled as she leaned her body into mine as well. "I like how you just bopped your head on me when I showed you how to avoid that."

"Maybe I like this kind of stuff." She said, finally bringing her chin forward to have our lips reunite. Her eyes closed for a second before her arms closed in even more around my neck. She pulled herself away, biting her lip as she moaned quietly. "I like this. Too bad I can't go any deeper like we normally do."

I didn't even offer any words for a tutorial. I just pressed my lips into hers, pulled myself back a little and quietly snuck my tongue against hers. My eyes propped open a slight amount, my hands wandering down her waist to the hem of her shirt. Her eyes shot open immediately as her instincts started to kick in. She quickly removed her arms and forced some separation between us, awkwardly laughing.

"Whew! Woah there! I think we got it." She said, fanning herself with both of her hands.

"Yeah!" I said with a quick nod, already feeling my pants getting a bit tight. "Any more of that, and it would've gotten real heated."

"I mean I wouldn't mind it any, but that's not what we're here for." She said, standing to her feet and inadvertently stepping on a piece of pineapple on the floor. "Whoops, I think we should clean this up first."

"Yeah. I'm not too fond of ants."

Shortly after cleaning up the fruit and mopping behind the mess, Twilight gave me whatever laundry I needed to complete before she took the liberty to sleep in my bed again. As I was washing her clothes, I had to once more resist the temptation to use her panties as a masturbatory aid, as just my throwing them in the washing machine gave me a fair indication of where her mind and body was on the subject.

But instead of just shoving the goods in the washer like any normal person would, I was peeking around and seeing if anyone was walking by while the idea started to manifest the temptation of the act. Not only would it have been rather taboo, but it would've been quite kinky to use the panties as a rag. My mind was already still on the kiss we shared and it didn't help that her skin was so damn soft. Just sinking my fingers into her waist made me want to unzip my pants. The idea of her getting so turned on in a human state made me idolize the possibility of whether certain laws would apply to humans that so happen to resemble princesses.

It was like the sight of her being so close to me again, the smell of her perfume mixed in with the slight musk from her fatigue, I wanted to do some pretty morally questionable things to her. And then my mind went to Celestia walking around the kitchen in nothing but a towel. I couldn't help but clasp at my crotch at the idea of making her into a victim. She had to clarify the fact that she wasn't on the menu, so somewhere on the perverted shelf in the closet at the back of my mind was already thinking about if she was quietly insinuating that she was open to the idea.

But when I heard a gasp, I shot my head over to the door to see a middle-aged woman holding her son in her hand, pulling him away as she gave me a disapproving stare. That shocked me right out of my lust real quick. So I just shoved the panties in the washer and came to terms over my sleeping with blue balls tonight. On the bright side, I didn't actually masturbate in an open washroom with my ex-girlfriend's panties.

And somehow, that's supposed to be an accomplishment? My life is a mess.

After dragging my sorry ass from the washroom with Twilight's clothes, I knocked to check if she was sleeping. She wasn't quite there yet, so she answered the door and had me give her everything through a crack due to her being completely naked.

It was going to be another night of my not being able to fap until Twilight was in the shower or something. So with frustration on the mind, I dove to my couch, turned the channel to CSPAN, set the timer to cut the TV off, and bored myself to sleep. The only thing I needed on my mind then was what I had to do for tomorrow.

However, my phone was the first thing to wake me up in the morning.

"Who dahellz callin' me this late?" I mushed through my lips before slapping my hand against the table, feeling for my phone as it vibrated loudly. Feeling around, I finally grabbed hold of the phone and squinted my eyes so I couldn't be blinded by the backlight. "H'lo?"

"Nondis, get up. We need to talk." Shining urged from the other end of the line.

"Dude... I. Am. Sleep." I mumbled slowly.

"You're awake now, so get your ass up." He said, this time even stronger than before.

I shook my head and mashed the hang-up icon and dropped my phone to the ground while I turned over. "I ain't even trying to hear that shit."

I closed my eyes, sleep slowly finding it's way back into my system... that was until the phone rang again. I rolled back over and dropped my arm over the couch to feel for the phone again. And as I read the screen, I couldn't help but to groan out of tired frustration.

"Why is you tryin' to call me now? Go a-fucking-way." I grumbled, hitting the icon again. But before I could drop the phone again, the call came right back. "Fuck it, I'm turning you off right now. If it's that important, leave a message."

I held the side button until the power icon came up and quickly swiped right. The phone gave me a farewell message and it cut off completely. When I finished, my eyes were already trying to shut themselves and I was quickly subdued to the land of dreams, if only for another forty seconds or so.

*bzzzzt bzzzzt bzzzzzzzzzzzzzt*

"I could've sworn I turned off this goddamn phone." I said as I slammed my hand on the table again.

The phone stopped ringing for a moment, this time Discord's voice coming up in place of Siri and talking through the phone's loud speakers. "I think you should be a bit more attentive to the concerns of others. After all, is that not something that could've contributed to the situation with Melanie?"

Though he had a legitimate point, it was still annoying to hear his voice on speaker so early in the morning. "Discord, I've got words with you after I'm done with this bullshit." As soon as I finished my statement, Shining's name quickly came up onscreen. "Hello?" I answered groggily.

"I'm not fucking around, Nondis! We need to talk!" He hollered from the other side of the line.

"Dude, if it's something you're dealing with up there in frozen tundra, then I'm gonna have to stop you because I'm not even in Equestria." I mumbled.

"Where are you now!?"

"In my apartment, here in Austin, sleeping on my couch. Could be dreaming of magic sheep but I'm stuck with some asshole yelling at me when it's 3 a.m.." I snapped back.

"Well I'm glad you've gotten something I can't have today. Maybe you should tell me more about that urban myth of yours." He replied with a sarcastic tone that made me want to hang up on him again.

"Look, let's make this quick. Are we under attack?"

"No."

"Is people dying?"

"No."

"Is there a threat of war?"

"No."

"Okay then, I'm off to bed. Goodnight." I said, swiping at my phone's disconnect icon. But instead of hitting the hang-up icon, I ended up hitting the speaker, making Shining's voice obnoxiously loud. I snapped out of my rest and angrily scanned the screen to see the red icon missing from the queue. Already, I knew the reason for that happening. "...Discord, I need my hang-up icon onscreen, please."

"Again, you should really hear this one out." He replied, making me throw my fist into the air, punching my arms into nothing as I sat up and spoke to Shining again.

"Make it quick Shining. I've got stubborn parents to please when I wake up."

If anything, I could've called Shining's response nothing short of a complete bitch-fit. "You try sitting on a train for five hours, staying in a doctor's office for another twelve, catching up with some imperial paperwork for the majority of a day, going back to the doctor's office for an hour, dealing with your stressed-out wife for another three, and then riding back to get a signal on one of these damn things. I just arrived in Canterlot to talk with you about this. If I have to spend another hour hunting you down in YOUR world to do so, then I won't mind the time."

I couldn't help but to reciprocate the emotions displayed to me through the phone. "Oooookaay. What is the problem?"

"The problem is that our plan ran into a hell of a snag. So we're gonna have to get our shit together and fast. Waiting's not much of an option anymore."

I rolled my eyes as I questioned the prince. "Did Blueblood say that?"

"No. I did." He answered quickly.

"Then don't you think we should be a little more conservative instead of just rushing in? Yes it's me of all people saying that shit, but the argument still stands." I replied.

"Nondis, please work with me."

"How about you chill and tell me what's making you so irrational?" I asked.

The prince sighed before he started his explanation. "I have a lot on my mind. And I know when I get back to the Crystal Empire, Cadance is going to kill me because I left her there alone. I'm already doing good by getting her to go to sleep before I took the train back here. And now I'm here talking to you because I have no fucking clue on what I should do next."

Yeah, he's really in a panic. I don't think I've heard him talk like this since... ever. At least my waking up a little pointed me out to that fact and I inevitably became a little more patient. "Okay, but what's the problem? You're running me in a circle expecting me to find the answer somewhere except where the problem actually is. Can't lead a horse to water if you're busy beating around the bush."

"When we showed up to the doctor's office, we had to undergo a few tests and treatments to get Cadance to recover from her sickness. But then the doctors had us taking the same test over and over and over, almost like they were trying to make sure what they were seeing was happening. So they sent us out, a day goes by and our messenger calls for us to return to the doctor." Shining paused for a moment as he took the time to catch his breath. "They found something in her urine sample, chorionic gonadotropin. Soon as the doctor said that, Cadance passed out immediately."

Something in her urine, that doesn't sound healthy. "What the fuck does that mean? Is it cancerous or something?" I questioned with genuine concern for her health.

Shining quietly whispered through the receiver. "Nondis... Cadie's pregnant."

Author's Note

Yikes, it's been a while. I'm sorry for the extended absence. To be honest, I was just caught up in my annual summer malestrom of gigs and engagements to where I was more invested in practice and hand preservation due to the frequency of the gigs I had to perform in. And traveling between Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana by car was nothing short of taxing. Anything further than that will have to be on a damn plane, at least then I could spend the free time hacking through chapters.

But again, thanks for reading and I will see you all shortly (I'd like to say, but who knows if gigs don't start to pick up again.

Chapter LXXVI

The last time I was up at 3 a.m. over a phone call was the time we found out that gramps had passed away. He was administered to the hospital in the afternoon, so dinner was very uneasy. The conversation at the table was filled with so much silence, visible ellipses were floating above our heads. Not even dad could force a conversation to start up. School, friends, sports, girls, relationships, emotions, none of us wanted to talk about it. And mom especially wasn't going to say a word, she just stared at her plate and cried. Probably the first time we didn't say grace, none of us wanted to open that emotional bag that came with talking to God.

Could you even blame us?

But if we did, would it change anything? What would it have done other than have some random pastor walk up to us later and say that 'It's all in God's Plan.' That would offer little comfort to us, and I would've thought it as an insult, leading me to question more about the God I believed in, questions that would've been borderline blasphemous. A lot of things that I would've been angry about would've boiled over and I would've had to hear it from dad.

The last time I missed a call at three in the morning was Mel trying to get my attention over her ex-boyfriend. But what could I even do about that, especially being that I was in Equestria? I would only be able to offer her words. And if she had stayed the night, I don't know what I would've done in the wake of 3 a.m. other than hastily research ways to dispose of a body. I would've killed him if I had to take Mel in like that.

So not a lot of good came at the precursor hours to sunrise, but this time was vastly different. "Nondis... Cadie's pregnant."

"Are you kidding?"

"No. The doctors had to test and retest everything. That's why we were in the doctor's office for twelve hours. They couldn't believe what they were seeing."

And of course, the natural reaction to getting this information would be of elation. But I had to substantially tone my volume down, it's dead hours of the morning, not even the military wakes up this early, much less some of the other neighbors. "Dude, what the hell are you upset over? You've got a kid, you're proud papa now! Congratulations!"

"This isn't what I wanted." Shining stated on the other line.

I quickly retracted my excitement for concern. "Whoa, dude. You mean you didn't like Cadance having a foal?"

He sighed, muttering to himself repeatedly. "It's not time yet. It's... it's not."

Immediately, the mood soured. My mind was already thinking about the severity of the conversation and how I was going to bring about any possible solutions as tastefully and cautiously as possible. I didn't quite know how to bring this up gently, but I wanted the option to be there for them if it was something they couldn't have. "Have you talked to her about... you know... that option?"

"What option?" He asked.

"Like is the situation where the both of you are not wanting this to happen or something?"

"How could we want this, Nondis?" He asked, I could hear a bit of pain in his voice.

"So again, the two of you haven't discussed the possibility of getting it... you know... cleared out?"

"What do you mean 'cleared out'?" Judging from the tone of his voice, he probably didn't like what I was going to suggest.

"Are you two thinking about any measures to... goddamn I don't feel good having this kind of conversation. But did you and Cadance ever talk about any alternatives to having the baby?"

Almost instantaneously, I was already visualizing Shining pouncing at the screen, seeming as if he was going to grab me through it. "ARE YOU FUCKING OUT OF IT? DID CHRYSALIS GET TO YOU OR SOMETHING!?"

Right then, I knew I had to explain myself. "I'm just asking, it's a thing that's practiced in our world when the circumstances are not ideal or if the situation proves to be too dangerous to the mother. I mean─"

But it didn't change his reaction in the slightest. "Cadance would never murder an innocent foal. She'd never accept it, I couldn't accept it, and you ought to be ashamed of even thinking of the idea!"

"Whoa there, I am so sorry. I'm just so used to hearing about the conversation and knowing that it's a debate topic here in the States. I didn't know that was looked at so negatively over on your end. I should've asked you about the topic first before presenting any possibility of that."

Still a bit upset over my suggestion, but acknowledging the confession of my ignorance to his belief on the topic, he calmed his voice. "It's not like that's a feasible option to begin with. She's four months in."

"FOUR─" I had to cusp my mouth to prevent myself from getting too loud. Not only Twilight was sleeping but the neighbors around me as well. "She's four months? How the hell did no one notice this shit?"

"How didn't you!?" He asked, seemingly trying to place the brunt of ignorance on me.

"Sir, I can't keep up with your wife. She's married to you, not me. I had my own relationship problems to worry about with her diving in them as it was." I bluntly replied. "And the sickness she's been battling?"

"Morning sickness." Shining replied.

"This far in?"

"The doctors already said that is an extremely rare and unlikely case." He answered.

"Did they take an ultrasound?"

"A what?" Shining questioned confusedly.

Oh man, I gotta get Mel to provide some intense medical info to these guys. But they can somehow identify the chemical to be associated with pregnancy. I guess they're overly dependent on magic to where they just bypass certain aspects of medical research. Then again, magic fixed my bones up real good, so who needs titanium screws and all that other shit? "Nevermind. So you're big papa now. Those are some pretty big shoes you got there."

Shining's voice dropped to the ground as he spoke. "...It's going to be a girl."

"Wait, how do you know that?"

"Nondis, there's a seventy-three percent chance that Cadance will give birth to a filly. It's also possible that she might undergo severe postmaternal side effects because of her unique anatomy. If things go bad..."

If it all goes to the worst, then it might end up being something life-threatening, fatal even. I know birth complications are something we still deal with in this world, that should go without saying for Equestria. And I don't recall any alicorns being conceived or conceiving throughout Equestrian history. He has a real reason to be scared. "Shining, nothing's gonna happen to Cadance."

"But what about the baby? Can you say the same for that?"

"Shining, the most you're gonna have to deal with is when she comes of age and you're having to chase away stallions because she's getting curious..." As that thought ran through my head, I remembered the times he made my life a living hell over his sister. I understood that there was a law that we came close to breaking, and we did inevitably end up breaking said law. And then the cruel reality hit me as it started to manifest in my head what his concern was for the foal. "Oh... Oh no..."

"Now you understand, right?"

Again, a conversation at 3 a.m. never lead to a good place. But I didn't want him to just hear the words coming from my mouth. I needed him to have more assurance than that. He needed to see me, that's probably why he was so adamant about looking for me here. "Hold up, I'll call you right back." I said, before I tried to hang up the phone, but the icon was still missing. "Discord, end the call and switch to the face-time call function." The phone quickly popped from one app to the other, almost seamlessly even. Shining's face popped up on the screen, his eyes reddened and his mane a bit disheveled. "Okay, you see me?" I asked the stressed prince.

I could already see the streetlights behind him moving back and forth as he paced. "Nondis, I'm scared. Being a royal is going to be that foal's birthright. And I don't know what they'll do to her if she does something wrong. They're going to be violating my daughter with every fucking inspection." Just at that moment, I could see the same blood-fueled anger he showed against the arimaspi in the mountain. The idea of them periodically sending her to a physician to check on her virtue would be enough to send me into a dark state of mind. I can only imagine how he felt about it.

"Shining, Shining, let's talk." I tried to ease the young prince, offering my words of sympathy. "I know you got a lot on your mind right now, you're not the only one. I got my own issues, but with you... aw man."

I could see him grabbing the back of his head, pulling his mane over his face out of frustration. "Nondis, I'm so scared. I don't know what to do. I've never been a father before, I don't know how to be a good father, and then there's the law─"

"Pony gestation period is like eleven months right?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Humans are born in nine. By our standards, that's not even halfway." I said, thinking out loud to myself.

"What does that matter?"

I turned my attention back to the prince again. "Blueblood made sure we're gonna get this shit done in two months or less. I don't know about you, but I think that those two months can go by real quick."

"But what if we fail? What do I tell Cadance then?" He questioned.

"Dude, if we fail, there's a small possibility we might lose our heads for treason and conspiracy, again, a small one. I don't think it'll be that bad, but knowing some of these politicians, they'd sooner send us to the gallows over that shit. I think it's safe to say that we ain't failing."

"Great, so I'll be killed before I could even see my filly's eyes open for the first time." Shining replied with a bit of sarcasm.

"My point is..." I interrupted. "The point is that we're more than likely going to do what we gotta do and get it done before you even start talking about baby showers and all that other bullshit."

"That's even if we manage to get that far! What if this goes up in flames before we could even make a move─"

"Shining!" I again interrupted him. Both he and Twilight are bad for overthinking the worst-case scenario. "Dude, we got this. For right now, you focus on your wife, go back to her, make sure everything's calm, then when we get back to Canterlot, just be ready to handle business."

The stallion's thought quickly transferred over to the thought of his younger sibling. "I gotta tell Twily..."

"Okay, I'll be sure to tell her in the morning." I assured.

"Oh no, I have to tell her in person. The last time I told her something, I had to send an invite to the wedding for her to get the memo. She wasn't very pleased with me over that."

"Okay, well you break that to her in whatever way you feel like it." I said.

"You just don't tell her anything. She wouldn't like news coming from any other source aside from me. I owe it to her this time."

"Okay, okay. I can see you're feeling a bit better about it."

The stallion sighed heavily, closing his eyes. "I'm still processing it."

I really couldn't imagine how it feels to have the news of something beautiful become overshadowed by something that could potentially be as harrowing as the grim sight of one's own daughter undergoing so much in the future. If I could only visualize how Shining's gonna raise his little girl, especially during a certain time of the year, that might be even harder on her. You could always put her under the same regiment of spells Twilight had done to her, but who's to say that she won't agree to make herself vulnerable for a guy she'd like? She could be disciplined enough to not fall in that same trap, but one can never live the shame of being inspected in such an intimate manner so frequently.

If I was a father having to watch his daughter go to a bunch of doctors and spread her legs every month under rule of law, I'd feel the impulse to commit high treason and ensure that nation undergoes a chaotic downfall. To just imagine anyone touching my kid every month for a marriage law while there could be possible politicians trying to shove their sons in her face would piss me off to no end. It's unfair to see these things when the only thing that's happened thus far is the meandering phrase of 'My wife is pregnant'.

That's a whole lot to process. And I couldn't do anything but offer words of encouragement. "Hey, Shining."

"Yeah?"

There was one little bit of a problem though... "You know, it takes humans on average fourteen months to learn how to walk when we're born." I couldn't quite find anything to say that would fit the occasion.

"That's... a really, REALLY long time."

"It takes an average of eight months to crawl."

The stallion shook his head. "Dear Celestia, that's slow. We usually learn how to walk within the day. Some even fly and use magic by then."

"Goes to show you how long it takes for us to get on the up and up. But after that, it's a lot of learning involved." I finally realized that after a little bit, I started to veer off topic. "...I have no idea where I was going with all of that."

"Heh, obviously." He said with an eye roll.

"Yeah, but... Shining, you're the man." Finally something came to mind, I didn't know if these would be the words he needed to hear or if they even applied to him. But I was going to try to say something good. "I know 'man' is a bit of a weird thing for you ponies, but we usually get called men when we do things like fix our cars, work a nine-to-five, play and watch sports, own a house, lose your virginity, all that other stuff. But I consider a 'man' to be a person who's willing to provide for their family and do whatever it takes to keep their family safe, stand up for what they believe in and be willing to die for it... Not everyone who comes out of basic training are men, not everyone who comes away from college with a diploma are men. But you, you are just that even if you're a bit different. I see myself as a boy right now, I haven't hit the milestones I wanna hit yet. But I see you as the man you are, and I can tell that you're gonna be fine."

"So I take it that a 'man' is some sort of honor in your world?" He asked.

"We tend to take it lightly over on our side of the mirror, but my grandfather had a strict definition of it that he made Alex, Stanton, and I memorize. So yeah, you're the man, Shining. I know stallion is a pony thing, but I just wanted you to know the human connotation of what you really are. And I couldn't be more proud of you, dude."

Shining smiled lightly as he took the compliment. But his smile quickly subsided as he put a hoof to his chin. "Fight for your family, fight for what you believe in, and be willing to put it all on the line. Something tells me you'd be ready for a few foals of your own."

I quickly dismissed his statement. "Pfft, no. I'm still in the business of having fun. What did you say to me when we were at the bar that one time?"

Shining laughed as he remembered our conversation that day, before we boarded the train to defend Canterlot. "Aw yeah, I guess that's your thing now.... Just try not to get my sister involved in your little hunt again."

"I can make no such promise, sir. What we do is our decision when the time comes." Hell, every night I'd go to sleep with ideas.

Shining stopped laughing for a bit, this time giving me a fair warning. "If she ends up in trouble again, or if she get's hurt─"

"Hell, I'll get you to come by my world so we can duke it out on my home turf. Least then you can get the chance to say you beat me at something." I replied.

The young prince nodded. "Sounds like a rematch."

"One-nil, bub. Come even the score."

Shining drew another breath before his eyes wandered back to the train in the background. His tone softened as he spoke. "Well I better be getting on this train. Five hours north ain't gonna travel itself."

"Gotcha. You stay safe, I'll be praying for you and Cadance to pull through." Even if she can be quite annoying at times and there will be moments where I want to strangle her myself. I still wish her well and good health for her growing family.

"Appreciate it." Shining said with a yawn.

"Alright, man. Later."

It took a while for me to get back to sleep after that phone call, up to half an hour. But when I closed my eyes, I found myself having a similar dream to what I had yesterday. Me being caught in Twilight's arms, laying all over me and telling me about the things she wanted to do with me. But even in my dream, it was as if I couldn't even rip off her clothes to see anything. And if I did, something came about to obscure the vision. And yet her voice in my ear had to be the most arousing thing I felt in that entire sequence. I could already envision the exaggerated movements of her tongue, her lips kissing against my cheek, her playful biting of my ear. Even as she whispered sweet nothings in my ear.

Unfortunately for me, those sweet nothings turned into the loud bell-like chirping of my phone's alarm. My eyes popped open as I tried to slam the snooze function on the screen. But after I did, it immediately popped back up, annoying the loving shit out of me. I couldn't help but to sit up and see Discord onscreen literally ringing the bell icon with the volume bar at full blast.

"MotherFUCKER!" I punched out angrily, causing the draconequus to chuckle with demented glee.

"Is something the matter?" I heard Twilight say from down the hallway.

"Nah, just my phone being annoying." I said while reading the time on the screen. Apparently that dream I had lasted all but two and a half hours. But it was a few minutes after six.

"I've never known you for cussing out of your sleep. Did you have a bad dream or something?" She asked.

"More like I was having a good one that could've been even better." I replied groggily.

"Really, like what?"

How do you explain to your ex that you've had a wet dream about them? "Well, it involved you."

"Really, what did I do?" She asked curiously, walking into the room.

"You just... You were just being you, and I liked it." I replied with a slight amount of shame.

Twilight's cheeks reddened a slight amount before she covered her mouth. "Well... You're not the only one who had a few lingering thoughts. Kissing you kinda reminded me of what it was like with you."

"You mean us being an item?"

The young princess played with her fingers as she turned around. "It also made me realize that I was a little curious about being in this form while in a state of arousal. I just had to sneak a journal over here and jot down a few things. The last time I was like that in a human form, I really didn't have the time to write it down or experiment. So, I took some time for research."

What the fuck. "So... if you don't mind me asking─"

Completely flustered, Twilight squeaked as she grabbed my hand to silence me. "Hey! So what else happened with you yesterday?"

Judging from the way she tried to change the subject, she probably carried out those experiments while I was knocked out or away somewhere. Only one way to summarize it. "Am I going to have to change my sheets?"

Twilight covered her face with abject embarrassment. "I might have accidentally discovered that the effects of a human orgasm can lead to involuntary ejaculation followed by intense muscle spasms."

So she's a squirter... I didn't think I could manage my morning responses any worse than in that current moment. "...I guess I'll drop my sheets in the wash then."

"And..." She squeaked for a moment before dropping any desire to speak further.

"And what?" I asked, urging her to continue.

"...You might want to wipe down your TV. And the wall. And─look I had to keep going to see how often they kept happening and to what degree! I'm sorry my research got a little out of hoof."

"When was this!?" I asked.

"You went to the laundromat to wash my clothes. I just assumed that you were going to be a while and I just figured that I'd use the time to answer a few lingering questions. I'm sorry for the mess, really!"

So she got to treat my room like a shooting gallery while I've been holding my nuts like the fucking squirrel from Ice Age. Now I wake up and find out I'm gonna have to clean girl cum off my TV. That's a hell of a way to start my morning: Balls so blue, they've become a museum exhibit. "So you mean to tell me that you didn't try to clean up after yourself?"

"I did, but there's a few things that kinda linger..."

Just the thought of that statement had me both sexually frustrated and angry. "Is that why you're up so early, to make sure that I couldn't find out about this?"

"Actually, I was going to handle a few things back in Equestria before we left. Just a few duties before we finally set out to meet up with your folks again." She replied innocently, completely as if the mess and her actions were a side-thought.

"So I'm gonna have to finish cleaning up the mess and wash the sheets."

"Sorry." She replied sheepishly. "I'll try to show some self-control next time."

Meanwhile I've been wanting to bust a nut for two days in the laundry room. That's fair. "At least you were upfront about it. I'm just gonna have to find something else to do until you get back."

"Oh, I should be back around 1:30 this afternoon. From there, we can make our way to your parents. Celestia would probably be done sooner than me so keep an eye out for her should she come by."

"Okay." That should give me thirty minutes from the time she leaves to get myself situated. Hell, I might as well start going through my browser's bookmarks and see what's new in the 'amateur' tab on PornHub.

After a few minutes, Twilight cast her transformation spell and quickly trotted through the portal, leaving me to my tainted room. I closed the door and immediately popped on the browser to see a picture of Discord laying in a seductive pose wearing a maid outfit licking the handle of a feather duster.

"What the fuck?"

The picture then moved as the creature winked at me. "Oh you missed quite a spectacular water show last night, there was this human female laying on your bed just expressing herself in ways I didn't even think you humans were into."

"Can you please leave? I need my alone time if I can't have my little extra hour of sleep." I pleaded with a scowl on my face.

The draconequus chuckled as he leaned back against the text on the browser as if the word 'Google' was a couch. "Well I know you'd be interested in locating some rather questionable material to satiate your desire for release." As he said that, a page with my recent browsing history came up and he scrolled down to a golden square icon with the letters 'PH' in bold black. "Buuuut there is a bit of a problem that awaits you for the time being."

"What?" I questioned before a knock sounded at my front door. Gritting my teeth, I secretly cursed the creature on my desktop and stormed to answer the door. As soon as I opened it, there stood a middle-aged lady with a pants suit and a black clipboard in her possession. Standing behind her was a man with a peppered head of hair with a stubby beard.

"Good morning."

"Who are you?" I bluntly asked, feeling quite annoyed.

She reached down on her waist to pull a golden badge and politely gave me her name. "My name is Deborah Smalls, behind me is my assistant Gregor Sanduski. We're investigators for the APD. I understand it's early on Thanksgiving morning, but when we tried to get in contact with you in the past you would never show. So since we received a tip that you were in town, we figured we had to pay you a visit."

Any kind of animosity I had over this random lady knocking at my door at six in the morning had all subsided with a multitude of emotions, one that stood out in particular was fear. "Is something wrong, ma'am?"

"Nothing wrong, we just wanted to ask you a few questions pertaining to your friend Melanie Brewer, a few things about her past that you may know, a few other tidbits, and some information about an ongoing investigation. There was a police report filed in the recent month detailing that she was undergoing some form of abuse from a suspect that just posted their bail four days ago."

"Jasper's out!?" I questioned lividly.

"He's on bond and is being monitored. Any other details pertaining to him are to be an undisclosed matter. As for the information I provided to you, it is for your safety that you were debriefed on those details since you were involved with the suspect."

"He and I are not involved in anything mutual." I strongly argued.

The man behind the female investigator finally spoke up. "An altercation where it was noted that you placed him in the hospital is nothing short of involvement. And again, we're sorry to inform you that your Thanksgiving morning has to be interrupted due to an ongoing criminal investigation, especially since he was trying to land assault charges on you."

I shook my head as I tried to defend myself. "But I didn't even start it! He hit first!"

"We believe you." He replied. "The reports we received were all congruent of your account with the exception of the report the suspect made. But we're not here to talk about you right now, we're here to talk about your friend."

"So what about her?" I asked.

"We just wanted to know what you know about her. The reason is classified." The lady replied.

"Am I going to have to testify in court?" I asked.

"That's something to be decided by the prosecutor and the judge." The man answered. "For now, just be ready to hear your name called."

As early as it was, I didn't have the energy to fuss about something like that. Tentatively, I complied with their request. "Would you two like to come inside?"

Already, this seems to be the start of a long-ass day...

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Several Hours Later...
Twilight's Castle
***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

If I could say anything about how I felt telling Nondis what happened last night, it would be sheer embarrassment and complete shame in myself. Had I known the reactions of human arousal would've lead to something so disastrous and messy, I would've exercised some self-control and refrain from experimentation until I obtained a comprehensive testimony from another human's perspective. I probably should've called Melanie first before doing anything. If he cleans that mess up and makes no further mention of it, I might already have a portrait of him in my friendship hall of fame.

...That concept might be a creative way to notate the actions of a good friend, I should incorporate that later.

Either case, I zipped my way back to Equestria to tackle some paperwork and checked my schedule for the next week. Spike, being his helpful self, ensured that I was well kept with my documents. Even though my personal organization skills are adequate enough to not warrant his assistance, his ability to triple check after me is a valuable asset that allows me to remain efficient in my approach.

However, as I was finishing up with some important work, I heard a knock on the door downstairs. I answered to see Ms. Cherilee standing before me. In her hooves contained a permit of placement for a new playground at her school. The documents were already signed by a notary, being none other than Mayor Mare, so my signature was needed to royally approve the spending on the project.

And since this was a thing for the fillies and colts at her school, I wanted to be of help outside of signing off on something. So I left Spike to finish where I had left off, and I volunteered my services to build the new playground. I wasn't anything like Applejack when it came to the hammer and nail, but my keen eye for perfection was great for overseeing the construction and making sure that everything was in it's exact place. Even if it meant that I had the inglorious task of being the one to tell the other workers that the roof of the assembly was a little too far to the left, I wanted this to be perfect for the school. They deserved this for a long time and now the foals have what they've long asked for.

Our work came to fruition and the rest of us headed inside to celebrate a job well done. It wasn't much but a few cupcakes and punch to commend everyone for their hard work, but that moment was disturbed when we heard loud screeching coming from outside. So the rest of us dashed outside thinking something had fallen out of place while one of the students tried to christen their new playground, but what I saw then was something that had me breathless.

Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle, in complete and improbable unison, celebrated their new cutie marks.

The three went marching off into town, proudly displaying their newfound purpose in life as if they graduated from school completely. And of course, the first place they marched to was Sugarcube Corner to tell Pinkie of the news. Word quickly got around town of the three fillies who tried for years to get their marks, finally getting what they've searched for by doing something for someone else, much less for someone who actually held contempt for them. It was a transcendent example of how friendship can reach over to someone who's considered to be an adversary or rival. It was news well-worth sharing.

I quickly bolted to tell Applejack on the farm, who uncharacteristically dropped her chores and galloped to meet her younger sister. As I was flying to the Carousel Boutique, I ran across Rainbow Dash napping on a cloud. As soon as I told her what happened with Scootaloo, it was as if every cloud that was behind her had vaporized as she produced a sonic rainboom to meet her. Rarity poked her head out of her window to briefly complain about the noise before I told her what happened. She dropped everything in her studio and ran for the town square to see her baby sister.

For a good amount of time, we shared our words of wisdom and took pictures of the girls' monumental milestone. And for the longest time, we just sat there reminiscing of all the trouble the three got into and the things they did to get themselves a whole mess of trouble. Some memories were funny, others were a bit rough, but to see it come to this made even me feel like a proud parent.

"You're kidding." Fluttershy said as her jaw hung agape.

Sweetie Belle spoke as if words were quickly becoming an endangered species. "I swear it just happened! It's like there was some bright flash of light and then we were floating and there was this powerful surge of magic in our bodies and then we closed our eyes and it felt incredible and─"

"Whoa there, sugarcube." Applejack said eagerly, wiping away tears of pride. "I know you're up and excited, but we're not gonna keep up with how fast you're going. We're still struggling how fast you've three have grown up now."

Rarity wrapped her foreleg around the overexuberated Sweetie Belle. "It's been a long time coming for the three of you, but I'm just so proud of you. Oh Sweetie Belle, mother and father are going to throw you another cute-ciñera on top of the one Pinkie's throwing."

"Two cute-ciñeras?" Apple Bloom questioned. "Wouldn't one be enough?"

"Knowing dad, he'd spoil me almost like he spoiled Rarity." The young filly replied.

"That's a lot of spoiling." Scootaloo added.

Rainbow Dash snickered as she tapped the young filly's shoulder and whispered in her ear. "If only you knew how spoiled Rarity actually is."

Scootaloo also received a tap on the other shoulder from Rarity as she also whispered in her ear. "If only you knew how clumsy Rainbow Dash actually is."

The orange pegasus filly looked up to see the two looking at each other with a grimace before laughing each other off. Applejack stepped between them and spoke. "Yet in spite of all that, we can still find our faults to be the things that makes us smile. Ah'm sure the three of y'all learned that while you were all together. So don't be surprised if you learn some other things about each other while you're at it. Friendships like the one you three share aren't gonna come smooth, especially if you're working together."

"That's right." I cosigned. "There are going to be times where you all are gonna fight, but you're gonna have to push past that and see the good in one another."

Almost like they weren't paying attention to anything Applejack or I said, the three fillies were staring at their flanks as their new cutie marks showed brightly on their flanks. "I can't believe how many years it took us to get these." Scootaloo announced.

"Felt like getting these things was slower than molasses in a snow storm." Apple Bloom responded.

"It sure felt like it watching you three." The three fillies looked up to see Silver Spoon cleaning her glasses, standing beside a enthusiastic Diamond Tiara. "Frankly, I'm still trying to make sure I don't need to change my prescription, like I need a new pair of lenses."

Diamond Tiara, looking at the three girls who assisted her over the past couple of days let her ears sank as she approached the trio. "Well... I guess blank flanks aren't blank anymore."

"Far from it." Sweetie said as she started to stare at her mark again.

The purple filly continued from there. "And you have every right to be proud of yourself in getting what you've been trying to get for so long. I guess... I guess with the way I've acted for all these years, I've been trying to be something that I thought would make my parents happy. But I've only been making myself and others around me miserable."

"You did snap out at me occasionally too." Silver Spoon mumbled to herself.

"And that's my mistake, right there!" She replied passionately. "It's like you were there with me from the start. And the day I got my cutie mark, you got yours. But you were the one who said that I should have my cute-ciñera a week before yours. And I was so caught up in myself that I never once thanked you for being a good friend. I kept taking advantage of you, and I wrote you off whenever you had good intentions. That wasn't fair."

"All is forgiven, Di. I'm just glad you came out of your shell and saw something more than your mom's image of you." The gray pony answered with a hug.

"And as you three, I can't even begin to apologize to you for all the nasty things I said. I never thought that my years of pestering you would start to hurt you and me. But it did, and I put some things out there that should've been kept quiet. Sweetie, I made fun of you at one point for not being able to use magic right away. Scootaloo, I can't say how sorry I am for teasing you about...you know─"

"Yeah, I can't fly. That's just something I'm gonna have to accept." The young pegasus replied, looking back at her wings. "But if you're willing to keep true to change, then I can find it in my heart to forgive you."

"And Apple Bloom, I watched you lose out on a friend because they got their cutie mark earlier than you did. And I kinda help that along because of how much I was teasing the two of you. I know I'll have to apologize to Twist later, but if I can─"

"Yeesh, you're starting to sound like my sister, always talking on and on and on." Apple Bloom replied, much to her older sister's bemusement. The two young girls hugged each other and shook hooves. "If ya get forgiveness from Scoots, then you get some from me. We're just happy to help you on another path in life."

"Well the two of you can be all buddy-buddy but I'm gonna keep my eye on you, Diamond Tiara." Sweetie Belle announced. "Besides, there's some other ponies and creatures you haven't apologized to yet."

"I know. And I'll get around to them eventually. But if you're talking about the human, I think I might try to make it up to him for saving me."

"How?" Sweetie inquired.

"Well duh, he can be my special somepony! I'm sure daddy doesn't mind if we bring him in the family and he's popular enough to where my mom won't mind. Plus he's big and strong, and he can defend me every time I'm in trouble."

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes as she stepped up against her. "Oh no no no no no. You just got your day in the sun. Nondis knows me a lot better than you. And then on top of it, I never called him a 'hairless ape' to start off with. I'm sure I can get over the teasing thing, but seeing you getting all grabby after just one time of him coming to your rescue when he's been doing it for me all this time, I stand a much better chance than you."

"Hah! You wanna bet!?"

Fluttershy tapped her hoof against the ground quietly before she whispered to me. "Good gracious, they grow up so fast."

"You're telling me." I replied in a whisper before I stepped up to defuse the situation. "Girls, I think he'll make his decision with whomever he feels the most comfortable with. But for now, let's focus on the cute-ciñera Pinkie's gonna throw for you."

"Wait!" Sweetie shouted. "We can't have our cute-ciñera without him! We have to invite Nondis and his friends too!"

"If he ever comes back from Canterlot." Apple Bloom mentioned. "Honestly, Ah think he's been up there so much that he might think about staying there."

"That or he's still going through the hospital to get himself checked every once in a while. I just hope he's okay." Scootaloo said with a bit of sadness.

"Oh he's more than fine darling." Rarity replied. "I even told him to pay you three a visit whenever he comes back down here."

"Well he's back in his world right now to spend time with his family. In speaking of which, what time is it?" I said as I pulled out my phone to check the clock.

Pinkie looked over to the town clock tower as she answered me loudly. "It's going on two in the afternoon!"

"WHAT!?" I shouted hysterically before my screen came up to read five minutes till. "Oh no! I said I would meet back up with him at 1:30! I'm so late!"

Applejack scratched her mane as she questioned me. "Wait, you're meeting up with him... in his world?"

"More like I should've been met up with him!" I responded in a bit of a panic. "I can't let him get in trouble with his parents! That means I've got to cast the spell, find something to wear, clean myself before I do any of that!" I galloped in place before I sat my eyes towards the castle and ran at full speed home to change myself.

Apple Bloom perked her ears as she eagerly called back out to me, galloping beside me, with all the others pretty much following her. "So you get to walk around in Nondis' world!? Is it like anything he said where they have movie theaters in his own living room!? Or huge buildings that touch the sky!? Or maybe even movie theaters in his own living room in a huge building that touches the sky!?"

"He doesn't quite live in a huge building that touches the sky but he does have a TV in his living room, which is sort of like a movie theater." I answered.

As Apple Bloom mesmerized over the information she received, Applejack ran beside me. "So is he gonna talk to his parents about you, is this the first time you'll meet with them?"

"I've already spent time speaking with Mr. and Mrs. Haines. Celestia and I have already gotten a day with Mrs. Haines alone. She doesn't like him being in the guard."

"YOU'VE MET THEM!?" Pinkie screeched erratically.

"But I don't understand." Rainbow said with a confused frown. "I thought they didn't like him dating ponies or talking to ponies, or anything about us ponies."

"That might be the case, but Celestia and I don't appear as ponies in front of them. Probably made things much easier for both parties to deal with for now."

"Forgive me if I heard you correctly, but you AND Princess Celestia visited his world?" Fluttershy questioned.

"She created a spell, one that transforms ponies into humans. I'm not quite sure how they can transform back but I'm sure that Princess Luna and Princess Cadance must also have access to that spell so they can assist in transforming them back whenever they return." Rarity explained.

"You know about the spell?" I questioned the fashionista.

"I only know it because Celestia was said to have gone missing for a time. They contacted Nondis because she was last seen with Alex before her sudden disappearance. We were out celebrating for post-show ice cream when they told him that. He understood that she might have traveled with his older brother, but we soon found out that she actually went to his world on Sunday afternoon. And from there I might have gotten a sneak peek of how the princess would look if she were to assume a human form. I can assure you the first time you get a glimpse, you will be stunned beyond words."

"Ooh! I wanna be a human too!" Pinkie announced as we came up to the castle doors. "Pop a spell on me, I wanna see how I'll look!"

I pushed the doors open, accidentally hitting Spike behind one of them. "Sorry girls, maybe next time! I've got to get to his world like right now."

Spike rubbed his head as he groaned out to me. "Yeah, you also have some visitors waiting upstairs."

"Visitors?" I asked.

"Yeah, Princess Celestia, Mrs. Vanessa, Ms. Melanie─"

"I'm so late!" I cried out, teleporting some clothes into my possession, locking myself in a nearby broom closet as I quickly changed my form. Within thirty seconds, I broke out of the closet standing head and shoulders above the others as they stared at me with shock and intrigue. And almost as if I hadn't missed a beat, I proceeded to run on my two legs like I was no different than the form I took up. "Did they say anything?"

"More like they were curious of if you were coming or not." Spike replied.

As soon as I broke into the portal room, I saw the princess standing in the corner investigating some of the weaponry that they had stashed aside as Vanessa spoke about it. "Holy shit, are these guys fighting a damn war?"

"Apparently we took the opportunity to finish one in twenty minutes." Melanie replied before looking over to me, waving her hand. "Twilight, how's everything been!?"

"Sorry! I gotten so caught up with recent events that I completely forgot how to manage time for two worlds."

"I keep telling you that it's okay to be fashionably late for something like this. It's just Thanksgiving dinner, you're bound to be a mess before anything else." Vanessa stated patiently.

"Especially eating at Mama Haines place." Melanie added. "Besides, Nondis tends to overthink stuff like this. So to speak, it's his first time bringing a girl to dinner, so he's gonna be nervous as all hell."

Vanessa's eye was caught on the sudden entourage of equines that gathered behind the young princess. Her eyes widened as she walked forward. "Holy hell, you guys are colorful. I see a few of you got wings and some of you are even unicorns!"

Rainbow looked to the human form of Celestia and tilted her head. "So who's who again?"

"AND THEY TALK!? THIS SHIT IS SO FUCKING AWESOME!" Vanessa shouted giddily. "Now I KNOW I wasn't just seeing shit the other day!"

Celestia walked towards the others as they instinctively stepped back. As she approached the newly-marked Cutie Mark Crusaders, she knelt down and pointed to their flanks. "I can't even begin to imagine what the three of you are feeling after so many years of searching for those."

Instantly, everypony's jaw dropped while Celestia chuckled.

Rarity smiled as she poked at her younger sister. "Told you, stunned beyond words."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

I wasted very little time in trying to get myself back to the human world. Celestia, Vanessa, and Melanie all followed behind me while Nondis was actively playing on an interactive entertainment system, or what the humans call a 'gaming console' to simplify it a bit more. On the television screen, I could see a grouping of humans wearing some fashionably outlandish clothes, similar to the outfit Nondis wore on Rarity's big debut the past Saturday. Each of them had a different weapon and different attacks.

But what seemed to catch both Celestia and I by surprise was the 'magic' option sitting underneath the 'attack' option. It appeared that he'd press a button and the character on the screen would slash and hack away at the looming beast that stood still periodically before retaliating. But as he chose the magic option, the character stood with it's hand over it's forehead and channeled some swirly white aura around themself. After a small period of time, they threw their hand out and small balls of fire spewed from them until they landed on the creature. A small explosion ensued and a series of numbers popped up before quickly disappearing.

The sight of it drew my interest so I mimicked what I saw on the screen, but with a basic levitation spell. I looked to a pair of shoes on the ground, placed my hand over my forehead, waited a few seconds and threw my hand out to the shoes. Nothing eventful happened, no fireballs, no explosions, no swirling mist, no random numbers popping up. The most that happened was that I threw the shoes into the air a bit before they lifelessly fell to the ground.

I suppose this is why humans have no magic, their understanding of it is more of complete ignorance to it's existence. From a theoretical standpoint, everything about that concept is wrong. You don't just sit idle for seconds and toss your hand out to whatever. But I suppose I'm looking through the standpoint of my casting spells for most of my natural life instead of through the imagination of a species who is unaware or unbelieving of magic's existence. I know Nondis knows of it now, but it is obvious that humans are completely barren of magic.

Perhaps it is the physics of this world, or a lack of certain elements to produce mana particles. Maybe there's a distinct breaking of the Grobule Distribution Method that occurs to disable the use of magic, or even a lack of the Yggdrasil Principle that enables the art of channeling to manifest throughout the body, perhaps a lack of the Laws of Concordia contributes to the weak mana particles of this world that only produce a slight breeze when called upon for higher levels of spells.

Or maybe I'm overthinking something that was made known a long time ago.

Nondis grunted with displeasure as the screen zoomed out to see the creature still moving but his characters hunched over. At last the words 'Game Over' appeared at the center of the screen and he shrugged his shoulders. "Ah, fuck I'm rusty as hell."

"You need to expand your game library, dude." Melanie suggested with a giggle, pressing the green icon at the center of the console.

"I don't think I'd even have the time to play those games if I wanted to." He replied, placing his controller device on the shelf next to the television. He stretched his arms and closed his eyes, grunting as he spoke. "So, you all ready to go?"

"Yeah, let's get the ball rolling. Alex is probably still in the car playing on his phone again waiting on me." Vanessa stated.

"Flappy Bird is a hell of a drug." Melanie replied.

"I don't see how he keeps playing it, all he does is complain about not getting far enough." Vanessa said as she walked out of the room.

Celestia followed behind them without a word spoken, leaving me alone in the room. I secretly cut my eyes around the room, making sure no one else was around before I started putting my human nose to work. But all I could smell was cleaning chemicals and a strong hint of lemons. The television screen was completely mark-free and the bed sheets appeared to be completely devoid of any filth, even with my keen eye for detail. It appeared he cleaned the room and left no evidence of my accident. A sigh of relief came over me as I looked to the television, but something seemed to catch my attention.

...The controller he used wasn't in the spot he originally placed it. It was just a few inches to the left.

"Twilight, are you coming?" Celestia questioned.

I shook myself out of my trance and dismissed the minute detail as him probably bumping into the controller. "Coming!"

The streets of the city were drastically empty today. There were a few cars rolling within it's dotted lines, but most of the pavement had remained dormant, untouched by the wheels of these metal monstrosities. The lights seemed as cold as the air, their colors trying to show but retaining very little purpose at the moment. For times we would wait at an empty intersection for maybe a car or two to roll through. But after that, what else was there but the unusually deserted streets but a windy silence.

It reminded me of the day I walked through Ponyville and Zecora walked into town for the first time. But at least here there wasn't any evil enchantress who did evil dances who'd look in your eyes and put you in evil trances. None of that, but the silence did give me a sense of nostalgia towards those events, back when I was still in the library in the middle of town. At least you could hear the town come alive there. It's a little harder to hear that when your room is so high off the ground and your home is situated to the northern city limits.

I guess all of it reminded me of a simpler time, even though I was not of this world.

But for Nondis, it didn't matter to him. I'm sure he's seen this more than once. If anything else, his life was something similar to the hustle and bustle we saw the night before last. Only with more school, but even that wouldn't stop someone from spending time with their families in the afternoon. I'm sure he and his brothers had their moments going out and about with Mr. and Mrs. Haines. Sometimes, I have to wonder, does he ever take the time at these red lights to reflect on past experiences like I do? If so, then how far back is it? Does he think about me at times?

Selfish question, I should probably pack that one and store it elsewhere.

The light turned green and our journey ended sooner than we knew it. Our two-car caravan stopped at the front yard of the Haines residence. The big vehicle that took Nondis away was sitting dormant in the driveway. Nondis and Alex both stepped out and walked up to the doorway, only to see Stanton walking out of the front door with a plate covered in foil.

Nondis chuckled as he watched his younger brother go the opposite way? "You were serious about taking a plate before the game, weren't you?"

"Oh yeah!" He replied, quickly nodding his head. "If I leave that shit there for your fat-ass to eat, I'd be looking at bones for leftovers."

While the comment did have me reflect on Nondis' prior chubbiness, especially comparing that to him now, he himself dismissively waved off his brother's quip. "If your ass wasn't moving as much as you are now, you'd be no different."

"That's why I play sports, so I don't blow up like a fucking house."

Nondis quickly glanced at me with a nervous look on his face. "Yeah, I get it. Uh... Good luck on your game tonight, give 'em hell, and we'll talk later."

"Sure thing! Like I told mom and dad, I got the call from coach. I'm starting tonight. I'm gonna get my run in today." He replied with a wink and a click of his tongue. "Gotta impress those NFL scouts."

"Hey man, you do you." Alex replied. "We'll have the TV on and everything, we'll treat like it's Primetime Sunday night."

As he took his leave, Nondis and Alex both waved their brother goodbye as he stepped in a car to drive off in. Melanie chuckled quietly as she nudged Nondis. "I see your parents gave away the fundraiser car."

The man shrugged in response. "I wouldn't stay here long enough to use it anyhow. And besides, it's not like I can take that to Equestria."

"I'd think it would be an interesting idea to introduce one for a tech study." Celestia replied.

"Yeah, but it wouldn't fit through a mirror." Alex added.

Melanie tapped her cheek as she took Nondis' hand. "But it wouldn't hurt to get you a little something to travel around with while you're here."

"I guess that'll be an idea for later then." He answered before he opened the door. As soon as he did, an incredible wall of smells, scents, and delicious food assaulted both me and Celestia. I was almost in a combative sense with how greatly I was assaulted. Just the fact that the food was dancing against my nostrils made my stomach roar with anticipation, so audibly that Nondis had to make fun of me. "Damn, I didn't know Arimaspi came in such small packages."

"How about you feed me before I turn into one?" I responded with a blushing scowl.

"Oh yeah, I forgot you eat like you never seen food before." He joked before I stomped my foot in frustration.

"GO TO HELL!" I grunted back.

"Remember there are other people here, Twilight. Remember to share with the class."

"I am being bullied." I cried out, folding my arms with a pout. "Celestia, make him stop."

"I don't think I'd be able to, Twilight. This is just too adorable." The elder princess responded.

"Okay then,how about you don't eat all the cake. Remember to share with the class." I replied, quite possibly standing up to my former mentor for the first time.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't quite hear you over the sound of the monster in your stomach." Celestia answered.

I quickly held my stomach and whimpered in response. "She's not a monster, she's just a hungry little kitten is all."

"Yeah, a kitten the size of a manticore." Nondis added to my dismay.

Why did I fall in love with this jerk again?

The moment we walked into the dining room, there was an assortment of aluminum pans and platters with an astronomical amount of side dishes. Even as Celestia and I assisted in the prepwork yesterday, we did not anticipate a full-on Renaissance-style feast. Celestia gasped when she walked in to see all of food standing before her. I lost all breath for a moment thinking of just how much cooking had to have gone into this. And standing beside the table was the proud mother that welcomed us to the feast.

Melanie rubbed her hands eagerly as she wanted to grab a plate and chow down, but Mr. Haines stopped her from doing so with a light smile. "Now hold on, young lady. You know the deal, I know you're a guest but you've been around here long enough to know how to set the example for our newcomers here."

I snuck my eyes to Nondis, who rolled his eyes and threw his head back while appearing quite nettled. He seemed to mouth the words "Oh, come on." But he adjusted himself and the father started speaking again.

"With every head bowed and every eye closed, let us give thanks for our meal." He ordered, giving Celestia and I a chance to operate in accordance to the head of the house. "Father GOD, we come into your presence today to say thank you. Everything you have done for us to reach another day in this world you gave breath to, for waking us up this morning, for starting us on our way, for giving us peace of mind, for bringing all of us together as we are today, we give you high praise. Father, we owe submission unto you and give ourselves in everything we do. If there is anything within us that is not of you, we beg for you to cleanse us of our iniquities and renew a right spirit in us. Heavenly Father, you are the Creator, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, and when it is all said and done you are the Author and Finisher of our fate. We thank you for the safe travel that allowed us here unharmed, nothing missing, nothing broken, and we pray that we shall depart as the same. We thank you for the earth that you gave, to allow the fruits of the land to grow fat and that we may eat and be filled. Bless the food and the hands that prepared it, may it be a nutrient for our bodies and that we may remain healthy until you see fit to call for us. For these things we give thanks, in your precious son Jesus' name, Amen."

The room broke out with a soft 'amen' from all of the others, meanwhile Celestia and I quietly looked at each other unsure as to how to properly respond. The speech was quite eloquent and reverent for something like this, but considering the amount of food that was laying before us, I suppose it was appropriate. It felt a little odd, but I respect their faith. Nondis on the other hand, didn't seem too phased. Instead, he was reaching for the plates and already made a run for the main dish that sat at the center of the table.

However, his efforts came to a crashing halt as his mother chided him. "Nondis Patricia Haines, you know that you're supposed to serve the guests before you serve yourself."

"That's what I was doing, Ma. I swear." He replied, instead looking for another dish to dress the plate he held.

"Don't talk back to your mother like that." Mr. Haines commanded with a firm tone.

"Yes sir." Nondis answered dejectedly, almost seeming defeated a little.

Meanwhile I was standing by as Celestia glanced over to me and spoke using her telepathy spell. "You seem uneasy, Twilight. Could it be the human customs you just bore witness to?"

I replied in kind. "It was a bit unusual. I don't think I've ever seen anypony do something like that unless it was some sort of ritual or something."

"I can understand your viewpoint, as something like this for me was pretty much like a trip to the olden days of Castle Everfree."

"Really?" I asked.

"Oh yes. Those days were the days before Luna's banishment. So you can imagine that the practice of Faustian Word was quite common, moreso than nowadays while ponies express their freedom to exercise the religion or not. Back then it was more law than anything."

"Did they have a mantra or a long seance like the one we just heard?"

Celestia folded her arms as she watched in silence while Nondis started to move on to a second plate. "There would be a chaplain present to issue a prayer. And all the nobles and aristocrats in attendance would follow the custom. Then the feast was brought out before them and they ate and drank until they were merry. This day hearkens to those times of old."

Hearing the princess talk about the time long before my existence made me well up with excitement, eager but tempered. "I can't believe it, you're sharing such knowledge with me. I'm sure there's no book containing anything you've just told me."

"There are a few. But they don't disclose the actions of the aristocrats and nobles that were present. And to my displeasure, Luna and I would bear witness to many of these great feasts."

"What did they do?" I asked, growing increasingly curious.

Celestia's face grew bitter as she closed her eyes. "The stallions then were a little more... emboldened, to say the least. I was subject to much harassment as they grew more intoxicated and their drunken sons would try to woo me ceaselessly. And if it wasn't that, then the aristocrats would try to case me for a marriage with one of their sons also. It was like their respect for me and my sister waned to nothing. Only a desire for power and a strong plea for the young stallions to have a tryst with me remained."

My eyes widened at the thought of so many stallions trying to eagerly chase after the princess. I suppose it made sense why she never talked about those times, they must have been hard for her. "I'm... I'm sorry for you having to go through that."

"That's why I'm so protective of all of you. Between you, Cadance, and even Luna, I just can't help myself but to feel like an overprotective mother."

"You never really seemed like that to me." I replied.

"That's because I told myself that I would try a different approach with you. I wanted to give you more independence, more control over your own destiny. Though a certain event that caused me to punish you accordingly made me a tiny bit upset, I can't bring myself to ever treat you so strictly like I did with Luna and Cadance."

"But why is that?" I asked.

Celestia opened her eyes and smiled again as she looked at me. "Because I knew that you were something far more special than I could've ever realized. And I refused to keep your true potential caged in like some beast in need of taming. To bring up a comparison, Cadance has the ability to go even further than her political power would ever allow, but I forbade her from doing it, and she stagnated as a result. And with Luna, she broke out of her cage to become something I couldn't control. Blueblood was another example of Luna but not to the magical extremities she displayed but more of walking a thin line between morality and iniquity. There was even one I tried to bring up in an ideal image, and it succeeded until tragedy was wrought." As she mentioned the final part, I noticed her hand drift over her chest, presumably where her human heart was beating.

"So you treated me more like a student of independent study." I concluded.

"More than independent student, as a real mother would in the hopes of seeing their foal grow naturally. And I have to say that it worked out for the best so far."

Celestia's response made me blush over how much praise I received. If I could ever put into words how humbled I was, I would write an entire anthology of my emotions, each and every one.

"Here's you food, ladies." Nondis called out, snapping us both out of our internalized conversation. Celestia took her plate with glee and started to eat the food. I took my plate as he whispered at me again. "For the manticore within."

"How about you feed yourself." I muttered back at him.

He looked back at his mother, who stared at him intently before he sighed and walked back to the table. "I would if I could."

...I guess looking at it from this standpoint, his parents can be a bit strict.

About an hour later and we were still left astounded over how much food was left over. And over the course of that time, we sat at the table to discuss the many things each of us were thankful for. Alex went first and discussed at length his gratefulness of having his family with him every year, as well as his wife for being a supporting pillar in the past few months. Next was Vanessa, who went on about how her father gave her everything in life and how her mother taught her how to properly shape her image in the working world, how to become a more independent woman. She also thanked Alex for giving her some support in her career path and allowing her to go forward on her journey to the top of the corporate ladder.

Next was Mr. Haines, who simply thanked his wife for the food and the love they shared for the decades they've been together. Mrs. Haines walked behind Nondis and gave him a tender hug as she reiterated how thankful she was to see her son again after being missing for a long time. And of course, that little segue threw the torch into Nondis' hands. I noticed that he kept himself reserved as he explained all the things he was thankful for, his life being the way it is, the support network he has around him, the friends he met, the job that pays him, and even looking to me when he said 'a cute girl with the appetite of a sperm whale with a heart capable of letting him in with all of his imperfections.

Without even realizing it, he ended up throwing the conversation over to me. And though I had more than enough to be thankful for, a new home after my old one was destroyed, a group of friends who've been there every step of the way, a mentor who taught me everything from magic to how to be a princess, an assistant who I look to as my little brother, and a magical tree of power that managed to help me and my friends save the world more than once, I decided to keep it simple. I went into detail of how thankful I was over friendship, and how meeting Nondis brought me through a new stage in my life.

Celestia chimed in and added a few things, keeping her description fairly short and simple. Melanie ultimately thanked her dad, even though he moved out of Austin for two years now. She never once spoke ill of her parents, though her mom came up as sparsely as often.

While everyone was having their own little conversation, Mrs. Haines tapped me and Celestia on our shoulders and asked us to follow her. In doing so, we were led to a hallway, up a flight of stairs, down another hall and into a room with peach colored walls and shelves full of unusual figurines. There was a poster on the wall with a human standing in some unusual outfit, wearing a helmet to match as he held a odd-looking firearm. The sunset cascading over what appeared to be some rubble with the words at the bottom "Halo 3 Fall 2007."

"Nondis was heavily invested in his games." Mrs. Haines explained quietly as Celestia went to pick up one of the odd-looking figurines on the nightstand. "I never could quite understand his fanaticism with these things, but he did love them so much. It was almost like there were days where I had to walk upstairs and open the door to let him know dinner was ready."

"What is all of this?" Celestia inquired.

"A bunch of nonsense to me, but to him it's his adolescence." She answered.

I walked over to a box-shaped television with a smaller black box sitting next to it. A few wires all ran from the device to the TV, the black rectangle reading the script on top of it, 'PLAYSTATION 3'. It seemed to have collected some dust, possibly from disuse.

Mrs. Haines walked by me and opened a drawer that was stationed below the boxy television, pulling out a orange hardback binder with Nondis' name written on the front of it. "I wonder if he ever realized how much I came in here when he was missing, to look back in this album and reminisce about how much I missed him.

"I can only imagine." Celestia replied as Mrs. Haines sat on the bed to beckon us to sit on either side of her.

"What's in here?" I questioned as she propped open the binder, showing a few laminated pages of photos of a small hairless creature.

"A long trip down memory lane, sweetie." She answered fondly, pointing to the first photo. "This was him a few days after he was born. I felt like he was just so small back then."

"These are pictures of his infancy?" Celestia asked, genuinely surprised over what she was seeing. I too was surprised at the sight of a human infant being so oddly small in contrast to their adult size. Just looking at the photo made me realize that they were actually smaller than a newborn foal, not by much but it was still incredible to look at.

Mrs. Haines nodded. "He kept me up all night, just never could get rid of that insatiable appetite of his. All he wanted to do was eat and eat and eat and eat until bedtime. Then he'd wake up out of his sleep in the middle of the night asking for more food."

As she turned the page, we got to see more pictures of him in his innocence. Some photos were of him crawling around on the floor, which went on for a few more pages as his size grew more and more. "He seemed to be a chubby little one." Celestia stated.

"Oh he loved eating, so much we had to put him on the green stuff for a long while. He didn't quite like it, but he didn't have much of a choice either. Even weening him took a bit of time, but he was a bit fan of fruit snacks and jello, anything sweet."

"A kindred spirit." Celestia replied with a chuckle.

The next few pages, he was finally standing on his own two feet, but holding on to a toy in one hand and a building block in the other. His face was as bright as ever, his smile so precious. And in more of the pictures were an elderly couple who stood with him and his older brother. Eventually as the pages turned, another baby was introduced in the photos. They kept turning the pages until the three boys were standing on their own. Alex holding up eight fingers, Nondis holding up five, and Stanton barely holding up two. My heart was warmed beyond anything I could describe. The man I fell in love with was sitting in this photo, being as precious as he can be, smiling with his two brothers. He was a tiny bit bigger in size than the other two, but not by that much.

More pages turned and finally we came across a photo of him standing in a stable with the elderly lady, pointing to a much larger equine. And finally, the height started to come in a little to make up for all the weight. He seemed fairly modest in his shape, standing in front of the elderly couple with his brothers. Over time, Mrs. Haines explained to us that the elderly individuals in the photos were actually her parents. The elderly man appeared weathered standing next to his wife, all of them in the stable as the horse remained stationary behind them. But the biggest change that came in the album to this point was a picture taken in the same place a year later.

The elderly woman was missing, and so was the horse.

The elderly man remained, but his body started to look more frail than usual, his skin was paler. Stanton seemed to smile as brightly as usual. Alex was a little more reserved but still shared some of that brightness. But Nondis wasn't too happy about the picture, and it showed in his face that he knew something was missing, so much that he didn't even smile. From that moment, I knew the innocence I saw in all those pictures leading up to this was gone.

It was then we were told that his grandmother had passed away, as well as the horse.

So the pictures started to become a little more tailored to life here in the city as opposed to an even split down the middle between that and rural life. And the more time we spent going through the pages, the more we saw his smile slowly come back. But as that smile came back, there were less times he spent outside of home, and more of them in this room. Eventually, his weight started to slowly pick up again. However, his height just shot him up like a bean sprout. I watched him go from standing well beneath his mother, to standing at her height, and eventually to well over her by a few inches.

And then we came to his prom pictures, which took up a whole entire page. And standing beside him was Melanie, who smiled just as brightly as he did. For once since the pages of his time with his grandmother, I could see that excitement in his eyes, that youthful shine that made him seem even more alive. His black tuxedo and his pink rose matched with Melanie's pink gown. And just looking at them in the picture made me feel a little jealous, like I was being robbed of something. Maybe it was envy instead, but I couldn't help but to see him so happy, even in a picture with his grandfather standing next to him with a softened smile.

By then, we were informed that his grandfather passed the week after that picture was taken, and the pain of his departure showed in every picture from then on. It went from him trying to smile as he was getting over the pain of losing his grandmother to hiding it while he lost his grandfather. Even his graduation photo on the next page was lacking of the shine he once had.

The next page of photos, the pictures started to become more and more scarce. I saw him standing at a boulevard with a large bell tower looming over in the distance. And then there was more of him just doing random things. Just sprinklings of images, which she explained as excerpts from his social media pages. But some of the photos of him with the family didn't even have his father in them until later. And if there was anything he did, he gained a bit of weight throughout his time in college. And it kept going until the most recent years where he tried to go on a diet and lose a few pounds. He did just that, and on the final page of photos, Rickey and Cliff were finally brought into the portfolio.

It was over forty-five minutes of being thrown into his past that made me realize the present was still an ongoing subject. Just the level of immersion I had nearly made me disoriented at the thought of seeing what the chubby college student turned into since he disappeared from this world. And just on cue, he walked into the room.

"Hey, I was wondering where you two went off to." He said.

Mrs. Haines quickly closed the binder and smiled as she spoke. "Oh it's nothing, sweetheart. We're just having a little old girl-talk."

He walked in and quickly grabbed the binder, looking though the first page with a shocked expression on his face. "Mom, seriously!? My baby pictures!?"

"Oh Nondis, you knew this was coming." She replied with a smile.

He quickly turned to us. "What nonsense did she tell you about me?"

"Oh come now, Nondis. There's nothing to be embarrassed over." Celestia answered, taking the binder from him and giving it back to Mrs. Haines. "It's just a little trip down memory lane to fill us in over how cute you were."

He covered his face as he started to blush. "I swear this is worse than the pillow incident."

I couldn't help but giggle at him and tease him a little. "But hey, look on the bright side. At least you got to eat as much as you like, there's still leftovers if you want some."

Celestia joined in on the fun. "Just be sure to leave some for the rest of us."

By then, he realized that his mother disclosed a few of his eating habits and groaned with displeasure. "Okay, well I don't mind eating the red velvet cake all by myself then. You can just do without."

Not something I would've said to my former mentor, even on a good day. Celestia quickly stormed past him and rushed down the hall. "You are not eating all that cake by yourself! I forbid it!"

"Look who's talking, the one who's running down the stairs to eat said cake!? You should just be thankful for what you've already got!"

Celestia hollered back at him. "I'll be even more thankful to stop you from hurting yourself like you usually do!"

"You wanna say that again, your highness!?"

As the two stormed through the house, both Mrs. Haines and I laughed over their bickering through the house. She then turned to me and whispered. "I don't think I've seen my son like this in years. Whatever you're doing for him, you keep that up."

The high admonishment from Mrs. Haines made me grin from ear to ear, my cheeks started to ache from how hard I smiled at her praise. But in spite of that, I felt slightly depressed as reality settled in. As much as I wanted to proudly answer her, I couldn't help but to remember the fact that we're here lying about our relationship status. Somewhere inside, I was hurting terribly at that thought, so I couldn't help but to swallow that pain and lie to her. "Yes ma'am."

She smiled and gave me a passionate hug. "Oh, you make him so happy. Please keep him that way, I know how he gets when something close to him disappears, and it's usually a dark time. But I believe you're more than capable of keeping my baby happy."

Again, I lied. "Yes ma'am.

A few more hours passed by and suddenly we were looking at the television screen. While there were commercials running on and on leading up to the event, the house was filled with immense excitement. Though Nondis and Alex weren't as excited about the event more than the fact that their little brother gets to be in the action. Celestia and I were excited based on the fact that we got to watch human sports for the first time at such a scale.

Granted, there may be eight of us in the same room, but I'm sure there are a lot more than eight of us watching.

Mr. Haines came from within the kitchen with what appeared to be a few bottled beverages. He called out in a hefty voice to the other guys in the room. "Game time, boys! Stanton's first time showing those NFL scouts what he's got, I feel like a proud father waiting to see his son go big."

"Do you think it's a good idea to drink in front of our guests?" Alex asked nervously, glancing over to Celestia.

"Ah, it's fine. It's only a bad idea if I didn't extend the invitation." He replied, turning to Celestia and I. "Ladies, if you drink, beer's cold and we've got 'em right here."

I avidly shook my head in response. "Oh no thank you. I've already had my experience with alcoholic beverages."

"It's not as strong, Bella." Nondis answered as he propped open the box and took out a bottle. "You just got caught in some high-end wine and it went downhill from there."

"And besides, we practice responsible drinking in this house." Mr. Haines added with a stern glance to Nondis. "And there ain't no other drugs involved."

"It was a mistake dad." He replied. "I said I wouldn't do it again."

"Yeah, doing that last time is the reason why you don't have a car now." The older man responded. "We had that thing paid off just four months before that incident."

"I learned my lesson dad, don't get drunk and do a bunch of drugs, or else you drive your car into the gulf and can't get yourself out of a wet paper bag. Next time I'll find myself teleported to a mystical world filled with rainbows and magic unicorns." He announced sarcastically.

"Amen to that, we don't need you going missing for another nine months." His mother replied. "You did good to find yourself in this young lady's arms instead of wandering the side of the interstate asking to get hit by a truck, or abducted, or worse."

Nondis laughed off his mother's imaginary scenario and retorted. "Yeah, the worst being I'll suddenly enlist in the military."

Mr. Haines huffed into his drink as he droaned to his son. "If it wasn't for your mother, I'd probably would've sent you off first train smoking. What's a little deployment to Iraq nowadays? War's over."

"Oh no, my baby boy is not going out there to where that ISIS thing is!" She reprimanded passionately. "Last thing I need to see is some video of them cutting his head off like they did those journalists. Can you believe they put a man on fire while they had him locked in a cage?"

Nondis' eyes expanded as he nearly dropped his drink, whispering into the bottle. "Seriously, what the fuck did I miss?"

Alex walked beside him and whispered. "Yeah, some crazy shit's been hitting the internet, and these guys have been posting it in high def. Each video they post is like the talk of the office for at least two days."

Nondis then took the bottle all the way to the bottom, chugging his drink completely. "Well... that's heavy. So... what happened to the guy Stanton's replacing in the starting lineup?" He asked to try and change the subject.

"Academic probation." Mrs. Haines explained. "Apparently he didn't perform well on one of his core curriculum courses and the coach held him on the account of getting his grades in check."

"I thought they had work around courses for the football players." Nondis replied.

"Dude, this ain't UNC we're talking about." Alex said placing his arm around his shoulder. "Texas A&M is a military founded institution. If anything else, they're all about that discipline."

"A military founded institution?" Celestia questioned. "Doesn't that mean he's a reserve?"

"It's voluntary." Mrs. Haines quickly replied. "My son's not going to the military, he's trying to go pro. And if it doesn't work out for him, he can always be a coach... or an accountant."

"I thought I was the accountant." Alex whimpered playfully.

"You are, and your wife is an accountant with a minor in paralegal." She answered. "Why not have two accountant sons?"

"Because doing other people taxes are fun." Alex replied in deadpan.

"Hey we raised you, now you do our taxes for us. Fair game." Mr. Haines joked lightheartedly.

"Didn't seem to have a problem with that when we were growing up." Nondis stated.

"Yeah, well I don't know anymore with this common core math crap your schools try to use nowadays." Mr. Haines replied.

"And you think we know what that shit is?" Alex blurted out before he winced at his mother's face. "Sorry, ma'am."

"If it wasn't Thanksgiving day, I'd have you wash that beer down with a bar of soap." She chided rather sternly. "But me and the girls worked real hard to make that stuff for you to eat. Don't need you ruining your appetite."

"Wait, which girls helped you?" Alex questioned. "Mel and Vanessa?"

"Oh no, the two young ladies Nondis brought over." She answered, causing Nondis to cough and beat his chest from choking on his drink.

Alex looked to Celestia and then to me with a shocked expression, completely suspended in disbelief. "You're joking, right? The princ─ladies helped you out? Well that's so wonderful of them."

Nondis simply pointed to Celestia with his thumb and nodded rapidly. "Yeah. Oh Yeah."

Apparently they had little to no idea that she could cook. She practically taught Spike everything he knows in the kitchen. But that's really more of an allegation against me for not taking one of my electorate courses seriously when my main focus was on magic studies. But I suppose now's not too late to learn and raise a few eyebrows myself. At least from now on I can start to give Rarity some competition.

The wildness of the men soon subsided as the television blurted out. "COLLEGE FOOTBALL HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO YOU BY ALLSTATE: WHAT'S IN YOUR HANDS? AND IN PART BY OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE: NO RULES, JUST FUN. WE HAVE A THANKSGIVING TREAT FOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL FANS IN THE STATE OF TEXAS THIS BEAUTIFUL THANKSGIVING EVENING, A GOOD OLD GAME OF SMASHMOUTH FOOTBALL HEADED YOUR WAY."

Another announcer commented on the imagery of the players wearing padding as they tossed a ball back and forth to each other. "THAT'S RIGHT. TONIGHT'S GAME IS SET TO BE A GOOD ONE. THE HOUSE THAT JOHNNY BUILT AND THE VISITING LSU TIGERS NOW SET TO KICK OFF AND GET THE BALL ROLLING."

As the camera panned to the middle of the field, Celestia and I were completely astounded by the sheer amount of humans packed that stadium, our jaws fell as the camera zoomed out while the ball was in the air. I quickly walked over to poke Nondis in the arm and whisper in his ear. "Um, how many people are in that place?"

"I guess some one-hundred two thousand." He replied.

"So you mean to tell me that a stadium has well over the population of Ponyville by a factor of twenty, and has twenty percent more than the population of Canterlot, for the sole purpose of watching a single sporting event?"

Celestia then poked at him from the opposite side and whispered at him also. "The Crystal Bowl in the Crystal Empire, the place that held the Equestria Games, serves thirty-five thousand. Surely the biggest event in Equestria, in it's largest stadium to date, should be able to compete with this."

"To be fair, that is the fifth largest sporting venue in the world. The school I go to has the ninth at approximately one-hundred thousand one-hundred nineteen seats."

The two of us just gawked at each other while he giggled to himself.

"Welcome to Texas, ladies. Everything's bigger in Texas."

Hoofball was often considered as a huge sport in Equestria, so it would've made sense that the human variation would have some resemblance of a following. This, however, was something entirely different. This wasn't just a following, it was an entire movement. I know that the human world is so much bigger than what's being shown on the television screen, but it still feels like the world just loves the sport. At least until Nondis told me that soccer was a much bigger sport globally, with around four billion followers.

I can only imagine the size of the stadiums for those games.

As time passed along, we finally saw Stanton in his burgundy and white jersey, complete with a matching helmet. His eyes roamed around the field as he communicated with his fellow teammates. I couldn't quite follow the sport that well because my interest wasn't in sports. I couldn't care less for the Equestrian variant unless someone I knew was involved, much less a human variant and how they played the sport. But it didn't stop me from trying, especially now that Stanton's out there trying to do his best.

He had a bit of a short run at one point, which was met with a few cheers in the house. And then he had a larger one that must've qualified for an extension of his team's possession, which really made them happy. The three men bickered back and forth over which direction he should go. Mrs. Haines didn't care as long as her son was doing well. But there were also lulls where the game seemed to slug forward or go nowhere. A few possessions changed and there was nothing else to really speak on other than a few kicks.

But then came a huge moment, the ball was spiked and handed off to Stanton. He contorted his body and weaved around to make himself free of any interference. And then there was nothing in front of him except the grass he ran on. In seconds, the entire house erupted into a huge uproar as the word 'TOUCHDOWN' scrolled at the bottom of the screen. And there he was, jumping into a few of his teammates to celebrate the score. I was happy for them, and especially for Stanton being able to give his team a score.

However, throughout the continued course of the game, he found the ball and made smaller drives, losing some ground in a few instances, gaining a few on others. Then the halftime period came around to show a few of the other teams playing and their respective crowds. And of course, big stadiums filled with humans were on full display as the highlights rolled on. Then after a few more commercials, to put it lightly, the game was back on.

And it was the first drive of the game by the opposite team, they managed to go for a while until the possession ended with an interception of the ball. And like clockwork, the home team was back on the field. Stanton's number was called and he ran along the side and he suffered a huge hit, complete with a sound that could possibly be equated to the crack of wood smacking against stone. Mrs. Haines grew a bit timid at the sight of the hit, but the men weren't as easily phased. And apparently neither was Stanton, who got back up and ran back to his position. The ball was spiked, and handed off, Stanton ran it again, this time edging towards the side of the field until a defender tackled him, rolling over him as he sealed a possession-saving run.

Then, it was obvious that something had gone wrong as the announcers' tone grew dire.

"A HUGE RUN FOR MR. HAINES FOR A BID TO MOVE THE CHAINS DOWNFIELD." The first announcer called out.

"He's not getting up." The second announcer added. "He seems to be favoring that right knee. Medical staff are coming on the sideline to check on him."

The house quickly grew quiet after that. Mrs. Haines closed her eyes, clasping her hands together. Mr. Haines kept whispering to the television. "Get up, son. Get up." Alex had his hands against the back of his head, both Melanie and Vanessa had their hands covering their mouths.

Nondis shook his head as he murmured. "He's out." He said with a long sigh. "Sprain or not, the medical staff are keeping him from this one."

Then the screen flashed to recap the play, and then we were given multiple angles of the play. And in one particular angle, we saw him stumble along the sideline, the defender jumping onto him from the side as he rolled on top of him. And as he did, his knee bent a bit unusually, also being toppled over the defender and back onto the ground. And from there was where he started holding his knee. The announcer took the time to describe it.

"So it appears that... from that side angle, Matthews ran over and made the defensive play, landed on him, rolled him over... and..."

The second announcer then chimed in. "Oh my. The way that knee bent tells you something went wrong. And as he stars favoring it, the defender gets off of him... and looks back in horror. There he drops to his knees and checks in on Mr. Haines."

"Stanton Haines, a redshirt freshman given the go-ahead from the coach. His first game starting, and it leads to this. Man, you'd sure hate to see it end like that, especially when your team's behind you."

"Bright kid from Austin, just down the road from here. Mom, pop, two brothers who love him very much. And I'm sure they're watching right now, wondering if he's going to be okay."

"They're trying to get him up... And now they signaled for a gurney. He might not make it off on his own tonight, but he's going to put on a brave face for this home crowd, who's watching quietly, waiting, hoping, and praying for the best."

Alex groaned with disgust as he rang his hands through his hair and down his face. "Dammit."

Mr. Haines quickly got off of the couch and picked up his keys off the table. Mrs. Haines called out to him. "Harold."

"I'm going up there to check up on him. If he's going to a hospital, I wanna be there to know what's up. I'll be gone for the rest of the night, so I'll call you when I get up there. If I find out anything, I'll tell you."

"Drive safe, dad." Alex said in a low voice as we all watched him being wheeled off the field. Stanton sat up and gave a thumbs-up to the crowd, who replied with a round of applause. The team then encircled and put their fists in the air, and after a quick break off, they started to play the game, almost as if nothing happened. Mrs. Haines quickly cut the television off and sat on the couch, comforted by Nondis.

"Oh, I hope he's gonna be okay." She whispered.

"He will be, ma. I promise."

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

It's been a whole three hours since that damn game, a game that completely ruined my taste for mom's food, and that stuff was dangerous for me to be around. Instead of watching my brother light up the field, or even talk trash about the fact that his team lost, here we are wondering what the hell is going on with him and his leg.

From the perspective of suffering some ugly injuries myself, I immediately knew once he went down the way he did, there was no getting up. The replay of it made me angry because it started to become more of a spectacle for the televised audience. And I'd know there would be plenty of watchers who would send their 'thoughts and prayers' to him and our family, but not a damn cent towards the massive medical bills headed our way. It's even worse when you're questioning if such simple efforts would even comply with NCAA guidelines.

Poor guy can't even eat because he's working on his game so late, and he's shifting in and out of Equestria to check in on me on top of maintaining his academics, his practice schedules, and his own personal life here. Oh, and don't think the school will lift a single finger to help us. The most they'll do is send some flowers, a few cards from the coaches, and a visit from a few of the other players. But his scholarship, that's gone if it turns out to be anything substantial. If all comes to the worst, he's out for the remainder of the season and might not play until next year. And that's a long time to be waiting for any kind of news pertaining to your future of making the pros.

Fuck, seeing that shit just ruined my entire night, and everything was going so well with the girls.

Celestia simply sat quietly with mom, helping her remain calm and collected. Twilight just kept staring at me, I guess gauging what was on my mind. Alex and Vanessa left to take Melanie home. It was just the four of us in this house now, and I'm sure dad already made it to the hospital.

*BZZZZZZ BZZZZZZ*

The unexpected vibrations of my phone made me jump a little before I reached into my pocket and check the number on the screen. The number seemed to read off as a College Station area code. I had my skepticism but logic dictated that no telemarketers would be calling me at well past eleven at night. So I picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Sup, Nondis. You eat good?"

I could easily recognize the sound of my little brother's voice, so I drew a deep breath. "Dude... what happened?"

"Some bullshit, that's what happened. I'm sure the whole fucking world watched while I was screaming my damn lungs out on that field. Shit was agony."

"They got you squared away, don't they?" I asked.

"Yeah..." I could hear a depressing sigh on the other side of the line. "So do you want the good, the bad, or the ugly first?"

Goddamn, this can't be good. "Okay, what's the good?"

"The good is that I'm on a huge bag of morphine and this saline shit they're pumping in my arm, I can taste that."

If that's the good news, then the bad news must be pretty terrible. "Alrighty then, what's the bad?"

There was a lengthy pause before he started to explain. "So the doctors took an x-ray and a MRI of my leg. Guess what they found?"

"Knee sprain?" I tried to guess the most optimistic answer, knowing reality had much crueler intentions.

"Man, I wish I could say 'yes' to that." He replied somberly. "The doctors reported it's a grade three ACL tear, so you know what that means."

"Season-ending surgery." I answered as my heart sank to my intestines.

"Yeah. And apparently the recovery time for that is a whole nine months, provided the surgery goes well and we have no setbacks of any kind. And even if it all goes well, it'll take another two months for me to recondition my legs and cardio to be in playing shape."

"At least you'll be back in a year, right?" I said, trying to be optimistic.

"And my scholarship won't be. So I'll miss training camp, the first half of the season, I'll be conditioning through the other half and will probably see the sideline sometime by bowl season, where the coach would've already replaced me with someone else. So I'd effectively be gone until the season after next. And then I might not be my usual self either, everyone who has these surgeries have never been the same as they were before, so I'm looking at a future where I'm not even gonna be drafted in the seventh round. I won't even be good enough to warm a bench in Cleveland."

Yeah, I figured something like this would put his mind in a bad place. I don't blame him, I'd be upset if everything I worked so hard to achieve is suddenly at risk of being destroyed because of one injury. "Stanton─"

Finally, his emotions overflowed as he screamed into the receiver. "FUCKING CLEAVELAND, NONDIS! I can't even get on the Browns. My career is fucked right now!"

I can't even begin to know how he feels. I can only attest to my life experiences, and my expectations were already low. He's shooting for the sky and life shoots him back down to earth. I'd be calling life unfair too. "...Well that seems to be the ugly news."

"Yeah. Ugly is putting it nicely." He mumbled.

"Dude, I wish I could say or do something to make you feel better, but I know that's not gonna happen." I said.

"Yeah, it might be a wrap." Stanton replied with a defeated spirit. "If only a second opinion mattered."

"And then you're gonna be in that surgery for quite some time. No doubt you'll be looking forward to the rehab. It's not like this shit can magically disappear."

After that statement, there came a lengthy pause before my brother spoke again. "...Maybe it can." He said almost in a question-like manner. Finally, after a short while, he showed some signs of optimism. "Yeah. Hey Nondis, can you get transferred from one hospital to the other?"

"Yeah, why you ask?"

"I'm gonna transfer myself to the nearest hospital to you. I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but maybe I can get a second opinion."

"Stanton, are you sure that a second opinion is going to matter when the hospital you're at already locked you in for a surgery?"

"Maybe I don't have to get the surgery." He answered.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "If you do that, you're gonna fuck up your leg for good.

This time he replied with a stronger emphasis on his phrasing. "I'm saying that, wink-wink, I can get a second opinion, wink-wink, with some doctors who can almost magically make my problems disappear, nudge-nudge."

I shook my head and initially shot his idea down. "Stanton, doctors don't just make problems disa─" But then his idea finally came through to me as I started to share the same level of optimism and hope. "You wanna talk to my doctors?"

"Yeah."

"Those doctors?" I reiterated.

"Oh yeah."

"...Her doctors." I repeated to verify his request.

"Hell yeah, her doctors. Did you know how fucking bad of a condition you were in?" He asked before taking a moment to lower his volume. "Look, I can't speak too loud cause dad's outside the room talking to the other doctors. But man, you get me in with those guys, and I'll be good to go."

I looked around to see mom still sitting on the couch with Celestia and took a moment to walk upstairs into my old room. "Okay. so you do realize that these doctors are ponies, right?"

"I realize that ponies live on their legs. I live on mine, they've been trained to fix legs, they have magic to expedite the process to a few days or a week. Why the hell not?"

"Because I have no idea how we can pull that off when they're only assigned to Celestia and the other royals. Plus they'd be expensive as hell."

"Yeah, they're Princess Celestia's guys, but can't you kinda pull in a favor?"

"That would be like me trying to get her to write a law pertaining to the human population of Equestria."

"I swear to you, bro, she would say yes if you asked." He adamantly pleaded, insisting that he'd get her doctors to perform the operation.

"Okay, say she says yes. How the hell are we going to get you in fucking Canterlot without the other doctors freaking out about you going missing in the hospital, much less mom and dad?"

"I guess that'll be something we'll have to think about. But I promise that it'll work. Please do this for me, for your little bro. C'mon man."

I scratched my head as I finally caved in to his pleas. "You know what, since I owe you some blood, I guess I can chalk this up to calling it even. Though I'm not sure how the doctors will feel about another human patient."

"Dude, you are the best. I just wanted to pull a Heisman on this whole night and that was it right there. You are a fucking legend."

As much as I appreciated my brother's praise, I had to remain skeptical. "Remember, she's gotta say yes first."

The hour continued to grow late and mom eventually settled down after she got a phone call from dad. Apparently, he didn't tell her the whole situation, but he did inform her that Stanton would require surgery. She knew it was bad from the sound of his voice, but she was at least content with the knowledge of knowing her youngest child could recover. Alex was then notified and he readied himself to make a trip to the hospital in College Station. Meanwhile, I had to take the princesses back to my apartment so that they could go home.

After a long and quiet car ride home, Twilight stepped out of the car and looked at me. "Is everything alright?"

"He's gonna need some surgery." I bluntly replied. "But other than that, he's in high spirits."

"High spirits after an injury like that?" Twilight inquired. "From the looks of it, he didn't even want to stand up. How is that being in high spirits?"

I simply replied. "He's a tough guy, he can take whatever the world throws at him. I only wish I could be that strong to face a bitter reality check and not crumble. Dude's a mental beast."

Twilight, who knew I was lying, didn't argue with me but just walked up to me. "If you need anything, just let me know."

"Thanks." I answered, giving her a quick hug before she walked up the stairs to my apartment, leaving me to escort Celestia to Mel's apartment. I offered to give her a ride to make things quick, but she insisted on walking there. So I had to grab her cake out of the backseat and carry it along the way there. Celestia then questioned me.

"Be honest with me, how bad is your brother's condition?"

I winced as I recounted the pain in his voice, the fact that he was hiding the despair from me until he inevitably exploded. "Well, he might take a while to get back in shape."

"How long is 'a while'?"

"Maybe nine months of rehab, two months of conditioning, a full year of eligibility, and a loss of his scholarship there." I answered somberly. "It might not end his career, but the college only renews the scholarship on a yearly basis. That means he might not even be able to go to classes because of the cost of tuition should they cancel it."

The elder princess closed her eyes and thought aloud. "So, the cruelty of greed consumes this world as well. I can only imagine how it must feel to have so much taken away because of an accident."

"That's the thing about sports, you have to be willing to take the risk to make it big." I said as I looked back to Celestia, not realizing she had stopped walking some time ago. I called back to her. "Cella?"

She folded her arms as she looked at me with a determined expression. "How much do you love your brother?"

I was a bit surprised by her sudden question, but I answered her question regardless. "Well... I'd do anything for him. If I could make this all go away for him, I would."

"And your mother? Do you love her as well as you say you do?"

"Of course." I said with a confused look. "Why are you asking me these questions?"

"Because I've had to spend over three hours of comforting your mother as she saw her youngest son go down with some life-altering injury. Surely she would feel the same if she knew the exact extent of your injuries, and even more so with their various causes. I'm just curious as to how long you have to keep lying to them."

I shook my head as I replied. "I just want to ease things to them slowly."

Celestia then turned her back on me and responded. "Then your brother will have to heal slowly."

"Have you been in my head again?" I questioned feeling a bit irritated.

"I don't need to be in your head to know what I myself want to do." She retorted, giving me a sideways glance. "As far as how much I am willing to do all relies on you."

I groaned with exasperation, tapping my foot as I spoke. "...So you're forcing me to do this then?"

"You disappeared for nine months in this world, no explanation of your whereabouts. You come back and suddenly you've changed in their eyes. You're coming back with more scars, and you have come so close to death so many times. It will only be a matter of time before your parents find out about this. And should they do so incorrectly, they will extradite you to a state of distrust. Love them or not, they may change how much they love you for hiding this."

"But where do I start, have you ever thought about that?" I asked angrily. "You've only known them for a few days now, so what are you going to say to mom when I tell her that you're my commanding officer? What are you going to do when my dad threatens to disown me?"

The multi-colored hair of the princess swayed majestically as she turned around. She marched up to me quickly, staring me down. "And what have you done thus far to prevent that? Feed them more lies, changing up the story until it all starts to make sense? Is this some book you're writing, some exposition you're trying to save for later? Nondis, I have lived several of your lifetimes, I know how this story ends. You keep lying, the lie expands itself until it becomes something you can no longer control, and in an instant the lie explodes over you where you'll have no choice but to tell the truth. So then they ask why you didn't tell them earlier, you'll say because you feared how they'd react. And then they give you the worst possible reaction. And from that point on, you may or may not ever see your parents again. Is that an ending you want to write for yourself. to realize you have no support in the place where it matters most?"

"You only know the experiences of those who have long lived and died before me. But you don't know mine."

"I know you are not going to be able to explain to your parents how Stanton will miraculously recover from this injury within the week, one you said will require up to a year of recovery to get his career back on track." The princess then took her cake from me. "Now reveal to me what lie you will feed them for this one."

"I haven't come up with one yet." I replied honestly.

"Then why even try!?" She questioned emphatically. "Your parents love you. If your father is so stubborn to disown you after this, then maybe he's not as good of a father he makes himself out to be. And I know your mother, she won't accept what you're going to tell her right away, she might even reject you for a little while. But give it some time and I know she will come back with the desire to remain in your life. And as she done for her father in his later days, she will comfort you for the rest of hers."

"How are you so sure?" I asked. "You don't even know them. They aren't ponies, you can't just dictate their behavior off of─"

"And you'd treat Twilight any differently because of what she is? Or you would treat Rarity like that? Anypony you've met, you would see them, me, as 'just ponies', am I mistaken?" Just as she threw my own words back in my face. I realized the pain I may have caused with my statement. Within the instant, I fell to my knees, hitting the asphalt as I tried to save face.

"I-I'm sorry. I should've never thought that, much less say it. I... I just looked at the situation as what I know it is. It's not an indictment of who or what you are. I just... A thousand apologies from the bottom of my heart, your highness."

Celestia's tone softened as she started to use her magic to levitate her cake, reaching down to pick me up off the ground. "Nondis, I know your mind is gone to a million other places. But I need you to focus on what's going on right now." Looking up, I could see a glowing hand stretched just inches away from my face as Celestia smiled. "I can't help you unless you're willing to help yourself. I said that I'd be in your corner, I am here in your world, I am wearing this device that makes my chest feel constrained and underwear that works itself in uncomfortable places, just to stand here with you. There are plenty of times where I have thought differently of you because of what you are, but I have had to look past that to see the 'who' and not the 'what'. I have to do that with every species I meet, whether they are visually repulsive to my eye or as arrogantly snobbish they appear to be."

I took her offer and stood back on my own two feet as she continued.

"But in the end, I want you to understand that though we live differently, in different worlds, there is something between our two species among others that we will always share, and that is a desire for understanding and compassion. Sure there will be bigoted individuals who will seek to let each remain to themselves, but do you see me wanting that of you?"

"No." I whispered.

"Then why do you think that your parents won't be willing to see that after some time? I know your mother would love to come to an understanding, might not like the world for the ever present dangers it possesses, but she will stand by you. And furthermore, I know how a scorned wife can easily change the trajectory of a bitter husband. And your mother... well let's just say she fits the bill spectacularly." She added with a light giggle. "I will say that my lifetime has shown me much. But other than that, are you willing to accept the scary face of your parents for a week or two so that you can see them smile for the rest of your life?"

For the first time in my being here, I felt a strange boost of confidence in myself. It didn't feel like I was going into a battle with some unknown advantage, but rather an assurance that everything will be okay. Maybe it was the way she worded it, or even the fact that I was so scared of the initial reaction that I failed to look past it. Every time I tried to envision myself at that moment, I could only hear the words 'you're no son of mine' over and over again. But Celestia provided me with something different, the wisdom of knowing how it is when the shoe drops, and more importantly, the way it's picked up again.

I know that them not wanting to talk to me for weeks may not feel too great, but neither is the possibility of them not knowing if something unfortunate were to happen to me, something that I wouldn't get the chance to tell them about because I would be long gone from the world. And somewhere inside, I told myself that if I came that close to death, I'd man up and tell them what was going on and what all was happening. I told them just enough to give a passing excuse, but not the entire story.

...It's time I'd change that. "Your highness, can you fix my brother?"

"Only if you're willing to fix yourself." She replied as we started walking again. "My doctors and Melanie dragged you back from the brink, might as well make the best of your second life."

"Third, actually." I corrected her. "My second was being thrown you guys' way. Funny to say, but I literally died in this world and Equestria."

"That is funny." She responded. "I've never known anypony who could say that about themselves. I'll give you credit for your uniqueness and originality, a thousand years but the first time someone like you came along."

"Yeah... So when do I tell them?" I asked.

The princess merely laughed as she tapped her finger against her lips. "I would do what your brothers did to me this past Sunday and say 'now', but I suppose tomorrow would be a much better option."

"I guess I can't really blame you. It's a little past midnight now." I said as we finally reached Mel's apartment door.

"Is it?" She asked, levitating my phone from my pocket to check the time. "Oh gracious, I've got to raise the sun in five hours."

"Hey." I called out before she could knock on the door. She paused and waited. "I... you... You told me what I needed to hear. I thought you might have been a bit bullish from the start, but I needed that. Thank you for being the voice not in my head, I appreciate it."

The princess giggled as she replied. "Oh that little voice can be quite annoying, telling you a bunch of things you want to hear. But what you need to hear comes from the heart."

"Well you've got a lot of it." I said back.

"Do I? Can't say I've noticed, I think I'm pretty weak really." She joked.

"Oh stop being modest, you put me in a crater once. I've seen you blast a changeling through a wall. You raise and set the sun. How is any of that weak?"

The princess propped open the box to inspect the cake within. "Maybe my weakness isn't a visible attribute. It's something I'll probably keep hidden from you."

"Well I don't think you'll have to hide it from me. But then again, I might not be someone who could be deemed as 'trustworthy'."

The princess folded her arms and pursed her lips, seeming unimpressed as she levitated the cake away from my field of vision. "Well I was going to tell you, but nevermind, you're not trustworthy."

"Go get in bed so you can raise the sun for a few hours."

"I will, after a quick helping of this cake." She said cheerfully, knocking on the door.

While I walked down the stairs, I started to mumble under my breath. "I swear if you eat that entire cake tonight, I will question how you haven't gained weight."

"I heard that!" She shouted from the top of the staircase. "Please do mind your tongue, captain!"

"Go to bed!"

Author's Note

It's been a while since I was on the writing scene. Mainly because my entire time has been spent trying to take care of some pit bull puppies our next door neighbor had. Blabbering on IRL issues are set in spoiler so you don't have to read them.

Though the situation has been quite complicated in nature, as the dog who had them is quite unfriendly. Originally, there were nine of them but nature took it's toll as they were left out in the air, during the rain and whatnot. I wasn't able to understand why they didn't take them in to tend to until they gave them away, but the homeowner was rather questionable about that and the young boy they had was far from an ideal overseer (more on that in a bit). So nine dwindled down to four (1 boy 3 girls) and they kept lounging around in our yard, hiding under our cars (we accidentally ran over one of their tails one evening cause they stayed hidden under the car and wouldn't move when they were called.

You can see how that's a bit problematic for us.

So we've been keeping a close eye on them, and an even closer eye on the neighbor's son, who fed the boy dog a Tide pod, who also slept peacefully under our car until we found him Sunday morning. So the neighbors decided to pick up the pace on their trying to get the others adopted. And for that, we now have two baby pit bulls running through our yard chasing off our cats, who we have to search around the neighborhood for. We got two of three of them back, sadly.

So yeah, that's a bit of IRL drama for you of how my time's been. So I haven't been able to take much time off to write or anything because of the sequence of events. But I am forcing myself to find the time now to write instead of letting things go until I forget where I am.

Now as for the story, things have went smoothly up to this point, but now it may seem that Nondis has no other choice but to either come clean now or come clean at a much worse time. As for how they're going to take it, that will be discovered in a few chapters. So stay tuned and I will hopefully get those out within the next two months (or month because I don't like dragging out waiting periods between chapters and December might not offer me the time I need).

But thanks for stopping by to give it a read, those who followed from the start I can only say thank you and I'm sorry if things turned out differently than what was expected. Stories have a strange way of expanding themselves as you write. :twilightblush:

Chapter LXXVIII

"Do you believe in magic?"

Celestia stood against the wall with a smirk on her face as she began to feel a sense of pride. Sunset Shimmer politely drummed her fingers against her legs as she sat patiently next to Twilight. The party of other humans remained idle as my parents tried to come to terms with their youngest son overcoming a career-threatening injury in the matter of fifteen minutes. Stanton continued to do squats while mom tried to motion for him to stop out of fear of aggravating the now nonexistent injury.

"Son, what the hell are you on about? This ain't no time for stupid jokes or gags." Dad stated, still bewildered by the unexpected display that recently occurred.

I rolled my eyes and folded my arms as I leaned against the kitchen counter. "No seriously, do you believe in the concept of things suddenly changing before your very eyes in such a dramatic fashion to where the things you'd see are genuinely transformed into something that you'd never see?"

"You mean like a miracle... Like we seen some damn coming of Christ happen in this very apartment." Dad replied very sarcastically.

"Yeah, well not quite like that, but before your very eyes a 'miracle' has taken place. Surely you as a Christian should look at this with the mindset of 'My son is healed before me' instead."

Dad pointed at Twilight as he spoke. "Boy, I ain't ignorant to what y'all done said. We heard the word 'spell' oh so clearly. And witchcraft ain't of the bible."

I drew a sigh and rocked myself away from the counter top, walking towards him slowly. "But either way, I'd rather take a chance in something that I know can happen because of something I can see. I'd rather have faith in that as opposed to relying on the words of doctors who can only go so far just on good will alone. If I was in the condition that I was in just two weeks ago and came back here for help, do you honestly think you would be talking to me right now?"

Mom finally interjected with her own skepticism, of course she was a lot more frantic. "Son, none of this is normal. I'm not used to this. This ain't some fairy tale where the princess calls on you for help and you just sweep her off her feet to happily ever after."

Dad threw his hands in the air dismissively. "Magic, spells, next you'll be saying horses just casually fall from the sky as pigs fly above."

"Well, according to today's forecast─" I started to joke.

"Nondis, you need to tell us what we just saw cause we're rightfully scared!" Dad emphasized by raising his voice.

"You just said that she's not of us! What is going on!?" Mom asked nervously.

Seeing that the two of them were as open-minded as I made them out to be, I couldn't do much but massage the bridge of my nose. "Of course, this is what we should come to expect out of a good majority of mankind when they're encountered by something not of this world, ill-preparedness and overtly cynical individuals who would even go so far as to be aggressive and violent."

"Don't you deal with that at every summons?" Twilight questioned.

"I'm used to it on you guys' side, even with the overall media bias." I answered, almost seeming as if we were having a casual conversation.

"I'm sorry, what!?" Dad exclaimed, completely confused on the topic of our discussion.

Stanton finally spoke out and patted me on the back. "To put it bluntly, your son may be a national hero in a far away land in a realm where dragons run roughshod and eighteen-foot mountain yetis threaten to crush you to bits."

"In a world where magic reigns supreme, the sun and moon moves on the accord of a chosen few, and one man who dares to overcome all obstacles in his way." Announced Rickey, who was trying his best to imitate a movie preview voice-over.

"That or just try to find someplace to cook a good steak." I replied with a grunt.

Mom and dad went from completely unnerved to simply overwhelmed by confusion. "Um... what's going on exactly?" Mom questioned.

I kissed the back of my teeth and closed my eyes as I said to both of them. "Hey, you guys wanna talk someplace else, it's a bit stuffy in here."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

To say it was easy getting both mom and dad into my bathroom without them thinking that they were gonna die or something crazy would be nothing short of a fun little thought. And don't even get me started on bringing them into a room filled with assault weapons, explosives, and large pointy things I use to detach parts of the body with sub-surgical precision.

So instead of just pushing them through the mirror to have way more questions than I would be comfortable answering for the time being, I decided to blindfold them both and calmly escort them through the apartment while guiding them into the throne room. And as we went through, I had Twilight make the effort to dismiss any maids and guards that were on patrol for the day. I also had a strict no-visitation order established for today due to not giving my parents too much to handle at once.

After we had them settled in place, I pulled Sunset, Celestia, and Twilight aside to inform them that their real forms should be withheld for the time being, at least until I managed to get them comfortable. And given that it would take some time for them to do so, I gave it a day before they could come trotting in full-regalia, in all their miniature equine glory.

It didn't take too long after that for us to show back up in the room to remove the blindfolds from their faces. Mom looked around as if she was going to jump out of her chair just from the change of scenery alone. Dad was looking up at the decorative ceiling of the throne room and marveled at the numerous crystals hanging above him. Mom was the first to ask the obvious question. "Nondis, where are we right now?"

"Well..." I slowly began, knowing that she was going to be hard to deal with if I didn't keep things simplified. "We're... Not quite in my apartment anymore."

"What do you mean?" She questioned again.

Twilight sat at the table in her designated chair. "Well, we're not quite in a place called Austin. But it is where Nondis has been for the past ten months."

Dad continued to stare at the crystals dangling from the ceiling, probably wondering if the were real. "Wherever this place is, it sure ain't like home. I don't even remember any hotels having this kind of get-up."

"The whole place looks like we're in a cave or something." Mom said as she looked to the walls of the room.

Twilight chuckled nervously as she grew a little uncomfortable. "Well, I do admit that it took a lot of getting-used-to, especially since my last home..." She paused for a few seconds, looking up to the ceiling's decorations, reaching up to the crystals above. "...My last home, it was destroyed in an attack made against me. But then this place became my new home, so at least I'm not homeless. It might look a bit much, but it feels like home to me."

Celestia walked up to her former student, giving her a hug as she spoke in turn for her. "And it is a lovely home. I just want you to be happy."

Mom quickly adjusted her comment, almost feeling as if she made some sort of insult. "Well, I didn't mean to demean your place of living. I was just saying that the design was a bit... different. I'm not used to the... um... modern look."

"I'll say. It looks pretty expensive." Dad added. "We'll be sure not to break anything."

"As if we can afford to. That invoice from the hospital ain't gonna pay for itself." Mom stated, folding her arms as she looked around the room again.

"I thought Nondis was gonna take care of that." Stanton quickly said, causing Alex to slap him upside the head.

"Wrong, dumbass. He's helping take care of the bill." Alex corrected our baby brother.

"It ain't like I got the surgery. I can understand the two MRI's, the morphine, the pain pills, the overnight stay, the helicopter ride, and even the meals from the cafeteria. But compare that to the four-hour surgery, the outpatient care, the rehab clinic costs, the prescription costs, and then the tuition for next year. Compared to all of that, I don't think we're paying out that much in comparison."

"Medical costs are a bitch to deal with. And let's not even get into student loans." Melanie added with a exhausted groan.

Twilight shook her head as she glanced back at me. "And you should see Nondis' medical costs. Numbers are through the roof, not even his insurers want to cover him because of how frequently he visits the hospital for specialized treatment."

Quickly, mom shot her attention towards me. "Wait, what all happened to you? Why are you visiting the hospital so much?"

"Just for an occasional checkup." I lied for the time being, earning a bit of a frown from Celestia. "I'll fill you in on the details later."

"Wait..." Dad interrupted. "Now, correct me if I misheard what was said at the apartment. But I could've sworn someone said the words 'national hero' and I remember something about you getting hurt on a train." Dad turned to Stanton as he spoke. "So, he does a little something on the train and now he's a national hero? Care to explain anything you told us?"

Stanton smiled weakly as he started instinctively eased backwards. "Well, I mean I might have over-exaggerated the term. He's more of a role model."

"A role model who happens to work in security?" Mom asked. "In a world where 'Dragons run roughshod and yetis threaten to crush you'? What is this, some sort of magic world where the occult roam free and humans are hunted by a myriad of hellish monsters?"

Alex scratched his neck as he replied. "Well... he might be a bit adventurous. But at least he does what he can to come back home safely."

"Besides... The dragons here ain't all that bad." I added again, keeping in the back of my mind what Spike tried to pull off against me. "They approach, they express their peace, and they leave. They don't go around burning entire towns just for the hell of it."

Celestia groaned quietly as she murmured. "They used to, and some still do."

Everyone turned towards her, including mom and dad, who were completely horrified with her muted response. Dad folded his arms and stared at me, waiting for an explanation. "Well... I know you got something to say to that."

"Well none of the ones I've met did that. It's not like the one I talked to destroyed an entire town."

"Ssssssss... oooohhh..." Twilight groaned as she drummed her fingers against the table.

"What?" Melanie asked the young princess.

"...Spike had an incident one time after his birthday." Twilight replied.

"The entire town?" Mel questioned almost astounded.

"Just... a little... half of it." The princess answered slowly before following up with a quick response. "But no fire was involved, no loss of life, no truly substantial casualties! Just... some property damage."

"So the little bastard that don't go any higher than my thigh did all of that?" I questioned.

Mel turned to me and placed her hand on her neck, referring to the scar on mine. "Well apparently, he's most certainly capable of a lot, isn't he?"

I simply shrugged my shoulders, trying to move forward with the conversation. "Well the package might be small, but I'll keep an eye out next time. Anywho, next question."

"Where is your employer?" Mom questioned passionately. "What are your benefits, what's your pay, we know your insurance isn't worth a hoot so what's the backup medical plan, what exactly is your job!?"

I calmly sat on the table and explained myself. "As far as my benefits are concerned, I get the benefit of being on the books. I work six days, sometimes a full seven, most of it is looking out for a bunch of stuff while standing still, I meet some nice individuals, some not-so-nice individuals, I oversee a few things, I clock out, I head out and enjoy the rest of my day. Pay's decent, good enough for a small apartment because I'm just starting off, the whole list of benefits don't kick in until I'm two years in. And if I had to put up a conversion of what I make on the monthly, I'd say that I'm making a good forty grand a month, split that in half and you get my bi-weekly. And of course, it does happen to deal with a lot of keeping my employer and their associates safe. No mob shit, though."

Dad unfolded his arms and nodded slowly with a light smirk. "Forty a month... not bad, son. So what's the catch?"

"I answer to some other guys every now and then, get hounded on, deal with a lot of pressure publicly, and because of the efficiency to which I perform my tasks, I'm kinda stalked by a few press members. But I do have a private place of dwelling here, I eat two meals a day, snacks in between, lots of green stuff. I have a morning regiment to keep myself in shape everyday and I don't spend because I can, but only when I need to."

My dad rolled his eyes, tossing his hands in the air. "Okay, what's the REAL catch?"

I looked over to mom, who was staring at me just as worried as ever, and sighed. "I might have to do a little bit of fighting every once in a while."

"How often you put your life on the line?" Dad asked.

I looked over to mom, who was already starting to walk back and forth in some mode of disbelief. "...Every deployment."

Mom took the liberty of using one of the chairs surrounding the table and dropped her head in her hands. "Oh my God. Nondis, please tell me that these 'deployments' don't have anything to do with no international affairs."

I looked over to dad, who was hunched over, just as curious over what my answer would be. Already, I could feel the room get smaller as my parents waited for me to say something. And as much as I wanted to lie to keep her happy, Celestia would probably reprimand me for doing so. But as far as going outside of the boarders, that's something I have yet to do. And it would probably make her feel better that I haven't been assigned to anything going outside of the country. Either way, I had to give them an answer. "...No and... maybe."

Mom lunged at me and screamed angrily as Melanie ran over to hold her back. "YOU'RE IN THE GODDAMN MILITARY!?"

As my mother struggled to get past Mel, I dropped my head and peeked over to dad, who whirled his finger around repeatedly. "You might as well just keep coming with it. It's not like you're gonna get grounded now."

"Dad, I swear to you that I don't do anything outside of this country. Not once have I left this place, maybe to another city or two, but who hasn't visited some other cities every once in a while when they get bored of the scenery? It's like going from Austin to Houston or Dallas, or even... uhh... Oklahoma City."

"But in the end, you lied about what you were doing, correct?" He said, almost with that same tone of voice that made me uneasy throughout most of my life.

"Yes sir." I replied quietly, almost as if I was waiting for the first hit to come.

Dad stood up, wearing a stern frown that only a father could produce in the face of sheer disappointment. And growing up to see that often, it made me uneasy after seeing him trying to embrace me since I came back. But it felt like there was more of the same instead of something new. I was gonna have to answer his every question, feeling no taller than the equines of this land. "So, you disappear for nine months, this is where you were at?"

The truth was that I could've been back sometime during month six, but I wasn't nearly as confident to say that. Or rather brave enough to tell him. "I couldn't get back. I didn't know how. I-I just woke up here and, they took care of me."

"So that part where you were walking around and you had to hitch a ride was a lie then. And then you meeting up with this girl was a lie too. Let me guess, the two of you aren't even together?"

"We were!" Twilight said, quickly coming to my defense. "I swear to you sir, Nondis and I were─"

"So you WERE!? Well what about NOW!?"

Twilight realized what she had said and fell silent as she looked at me, apologizing without saying anything. Mom grew even more furious as she questioned her. "So what are YOU to my son!?"

I jumped in to answer quickly, before dad interrupted me. "Don't even talk about anything. We can't trust you, so you might as well shut up and let her talk now, cause she's jumping in here to save you. You might as well let her."

Twilight grew anxious as she tried her best to come to my defense. "Nondis is my friend, one whom I shared a lot of my personal feelings with. For me, he was a lot of my first... anything. Guys in this world are scared to even look at me because..." She hesitated for a few seconds before she closed her eyes and revealed to them the truth. "...Guys don't look at me because I'm a princess. I wear a crown on my head, and it's like most males are just terrified of the thought of being around me because they're afraid that any speculation could lead to them doing something they don't want to do. And I know I've been plainly for most of my life, but even if I wasn't a princess, I should've been able to garner the attention to even draw some sort of interest. But because I wear a crown, because I was a student of Equestria's highest ruler being bred for the throne, I... I just felt so alone in that regard. Sure I have friends every step of the way, but I still felt like I was missing something."

I finally jumped in and added to the explanation. "The moment I woke up, I was staring at some weird world where things didn't make any sense to me. Most of the time I was so confused that I ended up walking into the women's bathroom because I couldn't read the signs. But then I started to come to know what this place was like, and the people in it, and I realized that this place is not as bad as it would seem to the imagination. And of course, she and I started to get to know each other and it was like we were there for whenever something went wrong. For me, it was waking up in a world where I had no chance of living on my own. For her, it was the day after getting a little too invested in a wine bottle." Twilight blushed as I mentioned that night. "But from there, we grew. We started talking, learning, and realizing that we were more alike in certain regards, in spite of our differences. But in the end, I was subject to this world's laws because I was here for so long, I was made a citizen."

Twilight walked over to mom and bowed her head. "I know it may have been cruel, but because he showed me commitment, my older brother saw fit for him to show his dedication for me. And as a result, and also in accordance to our country's laws, he was made to enlist. I know you told me about how you didn't like for any of your sons to be a member of any military. And for that, I give you my humblest apologies. If I can give you anything to compensate for this situation, I will do whatever within my power to see that you are satisfied."

"GET MY SON! OUT! OF! IT!" Mom shouted angrily.

Alex then spoke up on my behalf. "Mom, I don't think that's fair to him. He's pretty happy here."

"WELL I'M NOT! I'M NOT HAPPY WITH HIM HERE! I WANT HIM HOME! Where it's safe. Not in some other place where I don't know whether or not my son is okay or on the verge of dying!" She turned her attention to me. "I carried you for NINE MONTHS! I could've chose to not have you here, but I didn't because I loved the thought of having you!" It was at that point my mother started to cry, tears pouring down her face as her lips trembled with every word. "I had to live FIFTY YEARS of watching my father SUFFER... because his country turned his back on him! I had to watch him SCREAM every night! Each night he wake up to the sound of the orders he had to follow, the faces of the people he done killed! And when he came home, he had to deal with being called a MURDERER because he didn't want to die, just cause he wanted to come back home from that hell. I didn't carry you nine months, bring you up eighteen years, send you off to the world, only to wind up like that! If I'm any mother worth a damn thing, I'd tell your princess to GO TO HELL!" Mom's voice finally broke down as she whispered to Twilight. "You go, but you leave my baby."

Dad shrugged his shoulders and looked over to me. "Welp... that's it. Your mother already made the decision."

The mood throughout the room was somber, quiet as my mother started to weep. The sight of her so disheveled and broken made me feel even smaller than Spike. I didn't think I'd ever see her look so distraught, almost as if she was pleading with the fact that her son was dying. And no doubt, she was probably like this the day I came up missing. So for me, it felt even worse, knowing that it took me so long to get back, only to confirm one of her biggest fears had come true. I wasn't ready to say anything to her, to reject her. I just wanted her to feel better.

It's like the day grandma died, she just cried and cried and I was so lost over everything. My grandma was gone and my mom wouldn't stop crying. So I just hugged her, trying to do what she did for me whenever I had gotten hurt, telling her that it will be okay. I tried to comfort an individual who was inconsolable for a valid reason. But the longer I tried, the more it hurt me, the worse it got for the both of us, and the both of us just started crying.

I hadn't even gotten to the other stuff that would've made her and dad angry. We hadn't even got to that point yet and I'm already feeling like my mother is probably well on her way to leaving me by the wayside. It's almost as if my last hug to her was probably the final one we'd share. And it left a deep pain in my chest that made me sulk. I felt like a helpless child again, but with a painful choice of making her happy or making a promise at the cost of seeing her happy again. It was something I couldn't decide for the time being.

It was a decision I couldn't make right now, and Celestia saw that. "Well if that is to be your decision, then there is nothing to stop you. However, should you remain in your duties, then we will try our best to accommodate for you."

Twilight grew depressed at her mentor's suggestion, offering one of her own. "Can't we decide on this later? I think we should convene at a time where everyone is a little more composed."

"It will be by sunset tomorrow." Celestia replied. "Nondis, you and your family will convene to Canterlot for the night. I give you a day to come to your decision. From there, the future is yours to decide."

Celestia, Twilight, and Sunset departed from the throne room, leaving us with both mom and dad. And while mom had made her case to remove me, everyone else offered very little to say in opposition to it. I couldn't even argue against it because I knew the story. And I know that she's only doing it so that I don't ever come out with a situation like grandpa's.

If only she stopped me three months earlier, I wouldn't already have the nightmares.

After a half-hour of letting mom and dad calm down, Twilight and Celestia left to their own duties. Twilight opted to stay in Ponyville in anticipation of a letter she received in the mail from Shining. She stated to me that she would be here to plan for his and Cadance's arrival, but wished us good luck on our journey. After that, we placed the blind folds back on my parents and had them moved from the castle in Ponyville to Canterlot by means of train. Using the portals in both my and Mel's apartments would've have been much faster, but I couldn't risk mom and dad being convinced or empowered to have me locked away in a crazy house or something while that deadline came and went. I also didn't want them to have any control of being able to leave and tell anyone anything that they saw. Mainly, it was a move of insurance as opposed to convenience.

And I already didn't don't like trains as it is.

But in the hours of travel up the mountain, I had the opportunity to isolate the final cart of the train. I apologize for any riders who wanted a quickie in the back, but I needed this just to give them a break from those blindfolds until we got close to Canterlot. But when we got towards the foot of the mountain, I pointed them towards the city to let them know where they were going. The only thing was from the foot of the mountain, it just looks like a bulge out the side of it casting a large shadow to the ground below.

As we passed through the complex network of tunnels and junctions along the mountainside, we continued to talk about the world we were in. Mom didn't say anything, feeling that her outburst from earlier was more than enough that needed to be said from her. But dad on the other hand was quite engaging on the whole trip, which pretty much surprised me and my brothers.

"So we're riding this train to the top of the mountain?" He asked.

"Not to the top, just about halfway up." I replied, going through my phone's playlist of music. "I don't like trains nowadays."

"Well if you were almost killed on one, then why would you?" Dad replied. "In speaking of which, why are you on a train if you don't like it? Why not get on a plane or drive up there?"

"Technology here is about a full eighty years back, dad." Alex added. "If you want to get anywhere, it's gonna have to be by train."

"They had cars eighty years ago." Dad rebutted. "Why not have them here? The walk to that damn train station was more than travel enough."

"Well unfortunately, they don't have any zeppelins built with certain accommodations." I explained. "If you want to fly, you'd use those or go by air balloon. But I don't have the money for a bigger basket than for two. So it was either taking the train or walking."

"Walking to somewhere halfway up a mountain? Son, what kind of people live here?"

"Simple people with a simpler lifestyle. I think it's fair to say that it leaves the air cleaner." I said as I pulled out a pair of headphones.

"Listening to music to distract from the train noise?" Dad asked.

I looked towards mom, who didn't even look at me once the entire ride. I shook my head and answered his question. "Well, I had more than one bad experience on a train. I just never told everybody what it was."

Vanessa leaned against her husband as she asked me. "Okay, what happened this time?"

"I was on my way to a skirmish up here in Canterlot, the city where we're set to meet up at. It's about halfway up the mountain. So, we got attacked by changelings, right."

"Oh God, not those fuckers again." Stanton moaned with displeasure.

"Yeah, those guys. They decided to hold everyone on the train hostage. I walked in, solved the problem, and then ran into an even bigger one when some of the changelings started the engine at the front of the train, had it on overload and fucked up the brakes. Want a grisly bonus point?"

"What?" Vanessa asked.

"They killed the conductor and jammed his head on the brake lever like a hood ornament."

Everyone jumped in hearing my rather gruesome experience. Alex held his wife as he jolted straight up. "Wait, what now?"

"Yeah, they do some fucked-up shit." Cliff added with a scoff. "Motherfuckers was kidnapping people and shit, taking they kids, it was some bad shit."

"Hey Nondis, you never told us what was in that wagon on the way to that abandoned castle in Everfree." Rickey said, causing me to vomit a bit in my mouth as the memory of what I saw flashed before my eyes.

I slammed my hand on the seat I was on and covered my mouth. "Rick, please. I'm trying to tell one story, don't put me on an even worse one."

Mel and Alex looked at me with concern over my health as I started to cough the uptick of acid out of my throat. I shook my head trying to go back to the day of the Canterlot invasion.

"Okay, now the conductor was dead, they lopped his head off and put it on the brake lever. Fair share of nighmares from that. Either way, I debated on whether or not I should've... politely moved the conductor out of the way so I could use the lever, but then the engine exploded in flames. So doing that was a no go, and I left the conductor to peacefully cremate. Meanwhile, I had everybody run to the back of the train, unhinging each cart as we went along so we could use it like a bumper cart system. It almost didn't work, but we were a good five feet away from seeing just how far down the drop would've been off the side of the mountain cause they blew the bridge out."

"Son, what life have you been living." Dad questioned, looking at me with amazement.

"My job." I replied bluntly.

"That's why you should've never been in the military." Mom mumbled as she looked out the window, speaking for the first time since her outburst.

As we approached the city from a more leveled perspective. I pointed it out to dad, who just gawked in awe over what he was seeing. I just proceeded to plant my earbuds in and drown the noise. Alex pretty much took over from where I would normally talk. "Well, we're here. Canterlot, the crown jewel of the realm of Equestria."

His wife smiled as she pointed upwards. "Wow, there are some large birds up there."

"Okay, now let's get back to the blindfolds." Alex said as he quickly realized that the figures flying above were the furthest thing from birds.

Canterlot almost glowed in the majestic decaying sunlight. Celestia was already putting forth her best work to appease my parents. Before they could be blindfolded, a voice called out from the cart ahead letting us know we would be in the Canterlot Grand Royal Station within five minutes. And as we hit the bridge, I couldn't help but to hold my seat and plant my feet against the floor, clenching my eyes shut until someone would poke me on the shoulder to let me know we had reached the station.

My small post-traumatic stress episode was the last thing mom saw before her eyes were bound closed.

We walked to the castle along a guided and secure network of tunnels and dark alleyways that eventually led to the street just in front of the final checkpoint before entering into the citadel. The guards gave me a salute as we passed through unabashed. I know that they were feeling the fatigue after the walk, but when we got them into their rooms there was very little for them to complain about their accommodations. Both mom and dad remained quiet in their room under my strict request.

I also had a special sealing spell placed on the door where the guards were not allowed to release the spell until sometime around five in the morning. As far as food was concerned, Mel took care of that with some carryout from our world and gave them everything they needed to keep from roaming around.

Meanwhile I was set one of the other guest rooms down the hall. I ultimately praised myself for getting them this far without so much interference and dealing with ponies bumping into them. No press asking annoying questions about my ongoing drama with Cadance. None of that, just a room to three entities: Me. Myself. And some other guy named I.

With the portals being off for a majority of the time, I didn't have the luxury of using my phone's internet whenever I wanted to. So I just stared out into the night sky of Canterlot, looking at the buildings and streets below, well past the battlements of the citadel. As I stared out into the sea of the capital's nightly bustle, I received a knock on the door. "Who is it?" I called out.

"It's me, Melanie." She called through the door. "Can I come in for a bit?"

I walked away from the lovely view of the city, quickly making my way to the door and welcoming the woman into the room. In her hands she held a bag from Whataburger. "Sweet, whatcha get me?" I asked as I greedily opened the sack and started munching on the fries.

"Pattie melt, hope that can hold you over till morning." She said with a smile.

"Sometimes you just know what makes me go, even when I'm not feeling too hot."

Her smile faded as I started to rummage through the food, my hands becoming slightly greasier with each fry I consumed. Mel, sat on my bed and waited quietly for me to say something. But instead of waiting for too long, she took the initiative to speak. "So, you told your mom that you were in the military. I gotta say, you really stepped up on that one."

My mind could only go back to the image of her weeping profusely as she pleaded with me to change my mind, detracting from my appetite a bit. "Yeah, I guess that's a thing now."

"Yup." She answered quickly, letting a long drawn-out silence follow her answer. Instead of enjoying my food, I opted to wolf it down to satiate my hunger quickly. The woman then crossed her legs as she patted her fingers against the bed. "Well, any part inside of you know what the answer is?"

"For tomorrow?" I questioned.

"Yeah. I mean I know it's still your decision to make, but..."

"Mom might not like it either way." I replied. "If I go, then I'd be hounded for even putting myself in that situation. But if I stay... Yeah, let's just say her being pissed won't even be the beginning of it."

"You haven't even told them the pony part of things either." She said as she careened onto her back, placing her hands behind her head. "So when are you going to tell them that?"

"Don't need to." I answered. "I don't wanna tell them and then have to show them because of their being too damn stubborn to take me seriously. All they need to do is wake up in the morning and find out for themselves."

"But wouldn't that make them even harder to negotiate with?" She asked.

"It would, but they wouldn't act too out of sorts if they don't know how to get back home. That's why I blindfolded them for most of the journey here. To give them that literal wake-up call I had when I first found myself in Ponyville, that's all they need to understand where I was coming from."

Mel freed a hand to pull at the back of my shirt. She looked away as she spoke. "You know, I'm not supposed to tell you this. But your mom told me to come here and talk to you."

I rolled my eyes at the idea. "Let me guess, convince me to leave this world and go back home, right?"

"She was pretty desperate in telling me to do whatever it took to get you to change your mind about all of this. She even gave me the green light to... you know."

I scoffed and facepalmed at that idea. "Oh how Christian of her."

Mel started to laugh as she explained further. "Well, that part was more your dad's idea. But the funny thing is that your mom had no reservations. She wants me to drag you back home, be your girlfriend, marry you, and have lots of kids so you can focus your priorities on living a normal and fulfilling life."

"Living life like normal, right?"

"Yeah... Though I do see where she's coming from." She said as she drew a deep breath. "I mean when I first got here, I just looked at Twilight like 'This is what I'm losing to, really?' And it drove me nuts. And after you told me that you didn't want any part of me, I just fell into a fit of depression. Of course my talking shit to Spike for his immaturity managed to bring me up a few notches, but for a while it lingered." Melanie then rolled to her side, pulling me against the bed as she spoke again. "I swear to you that each passing day I saw you and Twilight hugged up, I was losing confidence in myself as a woman because the guy I liked for years just... put me away. I know I did the same to him, so I guess I deserve something for that, but somewhere inside my heart I felt like this was just too cruel. I wanted to cry sometimes because I just felt like I had more to give him, because we were the same. But in the end, I just had to come to terms that being a different species doesn't matter if you wait too long."

I shrugged and thought about my time throughout college, the moments we shared leading up to the night we separated from each other. "Nah, I deserved some of that bullshit you gave me. I was too busy trying to play nice guy. But it feels like... I don't know. I never found myself being a topic of interest for anyone but you, and even that had restrictions. I wanted to be like that, but at the same time I was really trying to get mine and get off. I wanted to be that friend you could talk to, but I also wanted to be that friend who you could trust enough to experiment with. Hell, I remember in high school I just wanted to fuck your brains out... despite my not knowing how to do that exactly."

The woman chortled lightly as she replied. "You were a bit of awkward in high school, but I don't see it that much now. Instead, I just see a man who went out in the forest dueling with giant beasts to save his own skin. You look more like a man... a man I had to cut open and remove two feet of intestine, but you are a man regardless. And I guess me watching you do all of that just makes the teenage girl inside me scream 'fertilize'. I remember one morning I caught you doing handstand push-ups and of course my thing just goes 'Good morning, panties. Can you, like, go somewhere?' For the first time, I was really interested in knowing just how strong you were. Could you pick me up, could you carry me throughout the hall, could you slam me on a bed. Stupid shit like that."

As she was telling me all of this, I could already see her face getting redder by the moment, growing even more embarrassed that she was just telling me how she genuinely felt about me, in every aspect. But her talking about guys she liked to me was nothing new, she'd do it every Saturday night. However, her going on about it made her feel like she was talking to the friend she knew she could trust with all of that saucy baggage as usual. The only difference was that this time, it was me.

"Oh, oh my God, I'm literally telling my best friend that I was..." She covered her face and screamed as she kicked her legs trying to ween out her excitement. "Nondis, please shut me up! I don't wanna talk about this to you!"

Admittedly, I found her squirming around somewhat adorable and I opted to do otherwise. I followed my dad's example and whirled my finger around with a playful smirk. "You might as well just keep coming with it. It's not like you can rewind time and take it all back."

She grabbed a pillow and forcefully stuffed it in my face, trying to silence me. "Shut up! Shit, you don't need to hear this!"

"Mmmm mmm phmmph (Well too bad)." I hummed before I pushed the pillow off my face to speak. "You came clean with me. So guess what, you might as well air it all out if it's gonna make you feel better."

Mel got off of the bed and paced around the room as she calmed herself down. "Ugh, Nondis, I'm so sorry."

"About." I teased.

"FUCK YOU!" She screamed out of frustration.

"Ha! When?" I joked, still being a bit playful.

That I have to admit was probably a huge mistake.

She walked over to me, undid her pants, shoved me into the bed and straddled me all in one singular motion as if it was seamless. Looking up to her, I could see her chest rising and falling as she bit her lip. Her breasts raised and lowered with each breath she took as her pelvis slowly rocked forward against mine. Her hand traveled underneath my shirt, pulling up to reveal my bare chest as she outlined every nook and cranny of my shape. She used her other hand to play with the elastic waistband of her purple boyshorts. She whispered quietly to me.

"Nondis, have I ever told you the significance of my toys?" She began as she leaned in against my ear. "Mandingo is for when I feel like I want to be a size queen. Fernando is when I have class to go to and I got about ten minutes between to head to the bathroom and get one out of the way. Lucy is for when I found a good 'cum-control' video on PornHub, when just simply getting off isn't gonna do it for me. But do you know what they can't do, like a Nondis can?"

"What?" I asked nervously.

"They can't put their hands on my waist when I want them to go deeper. They can't grab my tits when I wanna clasp onto it's arms, I cant lock my legs around them like I can with you, they can't moan like I want them to, they can't look at me when I'm riding you. They can't hold my leg and drill me for dear life, pile drive, look me in my eyes when they're on top of me, sweat on me, breathe on me, cum in me. They aren't the man I fantasize them to be."

"And I am?"

She planted her hand on my chest as she started to let her other hand slip beneath the purple boyshorts she stained. "...I know you're happy here. I know you like playing around with these little pony girls, they're easy to pick up and toss around. But playtime's over, I'm the real deal. I got a lot for you to hold on to, I'm not nearly as light as some of these pony girls, I'm a challenge, and I don't like to lose."

"Mel, I'm just as competitive as the next guy─"

"Then why don't you stop playing around like you don't know what's going on. Stop all of this and just... make me happy. I'm tired of competing, I'm tired of watching you get hurt. The scars are hot, but I don't want you to have too many. Let's just go back to the way things were between us. Let's just be us, just like you wanted it to be."

Before she could kiss me, I turned my head away to give her my cheek. Her eyes remained locked on me as much as her body locked me onto the mattress. And even though the rush of excitement I felt in my loins was substantial enough for me to act on it, I felt something in my mind and heart both coming together to argue against it. The mix of the fruity smell of her perfume clashing against the more intimate musk she gave off was intoxicating, especially since she was hitting on all the points I would've liked.

But even then, it was still Mel. It's still that friend I went through high school with, we shared some of our college experiences with, we talked, shared, argued, cried, and even fought with each other. But we were still the friends we because we shared so much with one another. And I know I had said it already, but me crossing the line would only hurt us in the long-run.

"Mel... I gotta admit, I haven't busted a nut since the start of the week. Twilight sleeping in the nude in my bed, Celestia's curvy ass having some weird vendetta against panties, and you having every intention to mess up these sheets tonight is something I'd love to indulge in. But you and me..." I finished, shaking my head as I tried to ease myself back from our compromising position.

She pulled herself off away from me and stood as her pants started to fall from her waist, revealing the growing stain between her thighs. The smell of it wafting against my nose with every second of my seeing it. I closed my eyes and reached down for her pants, pulling them up for her when I spoke again.

"I respect you too much. I love you for the friend you are, but I can't do this."

As she picked up from where I had left off on her pants, she turned away from me and buttoned her pants. After she finished gathering herself, she sat on the bed beside me, holding her soiled hand against her waist, hiding it from view as she spoke. "...I know. I just thought I should try to convince you."

"By selling yourself off to me?" I questioned.

She grew silent for a few seconds before she could speak again. "I don't want you to stay."

"Cause I keep getting hurt, right?" I asked.

She shook as she started to explain herself. "I know I can't change your mind, but I can't sit here and say nothing like what I feel don't matter. I'm hurting as a woman seeing you with someone else. And as your friend, I can't be anything but happy for you. But it ain't fair that you have to keep doing all of this and getting hurt for someone who wouldn't even stay with you."

"But have you ever thought that maybe I'm not staying because of someone else?" I asked.

"Look, if you stay here for you, then I'm all for it. I'm just saying what I feel like personally. I'm tired of these parliament members treating you like shit. The universe itself treats you like shit. People coming around to try and kill you, it's not fair. I don't wanna have to look at my best friend dying on the table again. I can't do it."

She covered her face and closed her eyes with a painful frown, trying not to cry as she leaned against me. I didn't refuse her, instead welcoming her in with open arms. As I hugged her, I finally fell to realization that I had to tell her one of my reasons for my decision tomorrow.

"Mel... Do you wanna know the worst thing that gave me nightmares here? It's the inability to help someone when they call for it. On the way to saving a few other ponies in Everfree, I walked across a wagon stacked like a slave ship. The smell was unbearable, and inside were ponies of all ages, dead or alive. There were several ponies who were reaching out to me as soon as I opened the tarp. And when they saw me, they cried out as loud as they could, They were all so malnourished that you could swear they were skeletons. They didn't look like ponies anymore, those bright big eyes they have, glossy and lifeless, all of them. I could smell decay, defecation, urine, all of it. One stallion reached out to me with both of his hooves, and just as he strained to do so, he died holding on to that hope. One little filly who was trapped at the bottom just looked at me and didn't even bother, she knew it was done for her."

I then tried my best not to let the vision disturb my stomach too much. I clenched my eyes shut and took deep breaths before I found the ability to continue.

"The sad thing is here I can make a difference for someone, but back home I know I can't. I get thrown in the military here and save lives here on the homefront. I go over there and I'm fighting online battles for internet supremacy, completely ignorant to whatever else is going on. I'm just a number in a sea of numbers, hoping I get my six seconds on Vine, my ten minutes on YouTube, my fifteen minutes of fame."

"But you can live a healthy and normal life." She replied.

"Mel, I can't go back and stay there now. Too much has changed for me, in the very little time I spent here. There's so much to do, so much to see. Anything that's normal and silent starts to bring up demons for me. I know mom's not happy about me being here, but now that I'm seeing a portion of what grandpa was telling me all these years, it's too late for me now. I'm having to deal with the consequence of my decisions and that's something I'm fine with accepting. I've got too much business to finish here, too many promises."

Melanie sighed as she kept hugging me. "I don't like you staying, again that's me. Your parents begged me to try and convince you otherwise, and I failed. And even though I don't like you being here getting hurt, I will support you in every step you take. But now you gotta be the one to tell them everything you told me. And when Momma Haines tells you off for it, I'm gonna stand by you and hold you up."

I turned around and kissed her on the forehead with a comfortable smile. "That's a relationship I'd love to have. Thank you, Melanie."

She giggled lightly as she replied. "Anytime you call me 'Melanie' is when I know you're being for real."

"Cause you're a real friend. You at least tell me you disagree with the shit I'm doing and stop me when I go too far. Even when I was pledging, you were like that. So I can't even argue you."

She stopped hugging me and stood up. "Oh yeah, and sorry for... you know."

"You were doing great actually." I replied. "I just... nah."

She rolled her eyes in defeat as she scoffed. "...Well, maybe next time then."

The Next Day...

The morning sun rose just over the horizon, kissing the eastern side of the mountain. Most of the working world of Canterlot got up by the break of dawn and already started to get their business ready for the daily traffic. Those getting up in expectation of their jobs would go visit the numerous places where they could go grab a bite to eat or a cup of coffee to down along their route. And just as the streets of Canterlot were in a bustle, so were the halls of it's castle.

Guards and maids ran back and forth, making sure that the halls were clean and the closets unoccupied by late-night debaucheries a-la some of the guards who sought a rendezvous with one of the maids or each other. And in the residential hallway, two guards were made to stand in place for an entire night. Groggy-eyed and yawn-plagued, they leaned on their spears to keep themselves awake with the discomfort of their positions.

Suddenly, the door between them opened, causing them to jolt back in place and assume their regular positions. Drastically tired, they tried their best to retain their discipline. Meanwhile, an unfamiliar face to them stepped out the door as he spoke. "Martha, I'm just tired of being cooped up in here like a damn chicken in a slaughter shack."

The elder woman replied. "I just want to know why we're even here. If Nondis just manned up and told them that his family comes first, then we wouldn't even be here."

"Honey, look. That boy ain't got the brains to be thinking about stuff like that. He's still caught up with that damn girl, which they confirmed that they're not even seeing each other for the time being."

"That's what makes it worse!" She replied. "She comes by acting all nice and whatnot like she cares for him, but then we come to find out that she's the reason he's caught up in some military junk he ain't ready to take on or didn't even consent to. 'The laws of this world' my behind."

"Princess this, princess that. I'll believe that girl is as much of a princess as my being Jerry Jones." He quipped before looking over to the guard standing next to the doorway. He looked for a moment, rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things, and then looked to the other side to see another guard of the same stature, just a different color. He looked back and forth between them and stepped back in the room. "Hey Martha, c'mere." He ordered, curling his finger to her.

She did as he instructed and walked up to the doorway. He lightly pushed her outside and had her look both ways to see the two guards standing outside her door. The next thing she noticed was the spears they were clutching on to. "What in God's green earth is this?"

"I'm sayin'. Horses in armor, holding spears. Well ain't that a hoot." He said, walking up to one of them.

"Taking the phrase 'a horse of a different color' a tad bit too literal." She added, joining him while he started to tug at the spear's tip.

He started to poke his finger at the tip, only to find out that it was just as sharp as it looked. The man reeled his hand in quickly. "Goddamn! Honey, those things are sharper than they ought to be."

"And here I was gonna go about how cute the little ponies look in their little getup." She answered. "But I guess they'd take offense to my demeaning them, especially if they're holding spears."

"How do you know it's a pony?" The man questioned.

"I had always wanted a pony when I was a little girl. And dad got me a Shetland when I was nine. Damn thing got hit by a truck when dad tried to catch it from escaping it's pen. I got real devastated, and he offered to get me something bigger. And of course, you remember Whinny."

"That damn horse never liked me." He replied dismissively. "Liked you, your mother, Alex, and Nondis to bits cause he wouldn't stop brushing her, but hated me for some odd reason."

"That's cause you wouldn't stop throwing carrots at the damn thing!" She exclaimed as he waived off her explanation.

"I thought the horse would like carrots." He said, just as he started to take off the helmet of the gray guard, revealing yellow eyes and a silver mane.

The elder woman walked up to the pony and leaned down to look at him. "Your eyes are really unusual, but they are pretty." She started to run her hand in his mane, approaching with caution and moving slowly. She started to run her fingers through his mane, surprised at the clean texture it had. "Your mane is so well-kept. Whoever's grooming you must really love you a lot." She then ran her fingers to his ears, scratching them from behind. The stallion then leaned his head in to receive more of the unusual ministrations. The touch eased him greatly and he started to think of homely thoughts, smiling as he reminisced.

"Ha! Check it out, Martha. You got 'em smiling." The elder man noted, however starting to realize that equines don't usually produce such expressive smiles, especially ones similar to those a human would have. "That's... not normal, is it?"

"Not really, but some are more expressive than others." She answered before turning her attention back to the entranced stallion. "Aww, now doesn't that feel nice, sweetie?"

"It feels so wonderful."

The woman stopped dead in her tracks and reeled back in her hand as the stallion started to look confused towards her. She looked confused towards it as he spoke once more.

"Aww, why'd you stop?"

"Twenty-six... Twenty-seven... Twenty-eight..."

As I continued my morning workout, I tried my best to keep my balance as I propped myself up and down using only my arms. In a handstand stance, I continued to push myself up and down to give myself as much weight to support as a way to enhance my upper body strength and balance.

Needless to say it was painful at times. "Twenty-nine..." And rather hard to do. "Thirt─"

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

The screams from the hallway made me completely lose balance and I fell to the ground well short of a clean thirty. I got back up, holding my sore shoulders and rotating my arms. After stretching myself and putting on a shirt, I shook my head and chuckled.

"Okay, I guess they kinda got the hint now."

Walking down the hall, I could see a gathering of guards and maids standing outside of the room my parents seemingly holed themselves into. Even though some part of me was terrified of how they'd treat any others they'd come across for today, I was more entertained by the extreme lengths they went to 'protect' themselves. Apparently, dad must've taken one of their spears and used it to start poking at a crack in the door. As he used the door as a makeshift phalanx shield, he occasionally thrusted the spear from the door as a means to drive anyone back. From the other side of the door, I could hear him screaming.

"Get back! Back, all of you!"

I just walked up to the door from the other side and waited for him to push that spear out again before pulling at it and throwing it onto the ground. Finally defenseless, he shut the door and braced it with his own back. I simply knocked and answered him. "Okay, game's over. No need to play Roman legionnaire here."

"Nondis!? Is that you!?" He asked from the other side of the door.

"Open the damn door, you're causing a scene." I ordered, to no avail.

"Nondis, the horses talk! And they have weapons! I've got to defend myself!"

"The only ones in need of defending is the guards you're attacking." I replied bluntly. "Now open this door and let's talk it out."

I could hear through the door mom whispering to dad. "Harold, let's just do what he says."

Dad waited for a while before slowly opening up the door, seeing that I was the first thing out to greet him. He leaned his head out and checked the surroundings, seeing the spear on the ground. I reached down to pick it up and hand it back to the guard, who was still missing his helmet. I turned to him and asked. "Where's your helmet?"

"One of the other humans took it. She was scratching my ears and I thought she was doing great for a while until I said something."

No wonder they're freaked. "Come stand next to me, please."

The guard hesitated but followed orders and waited as both mom and dad emerged from the room. Mom smiled awkwardly as she held the guard's helmet in her hands. She crept forward to give him back his protection and quietly whimpered towards him. "I'm sorry for taking this."

The guard looked to me waiting for some mode of confirmation. I nodded and fanned my hand towards her. He walked up to her and smiled kindly as he replied. "It's nothing, ma'am. I'm just sorry for startling you."

Mom gave a singular nod before running back to her husband's side. I walked between the two parties and announced to them both. "Okay, now that we got that mess out of the way, let's all go about our day then, shall we?"

Dad put on a fake smile as he walked up to me, pinching my still-sore shoulder. "Nondis, what the hell is going on?"

"You'll be experiencing that all day, so get used to it." I replied. "You should also consider that any pony you talk to is going to exhibit the same emotional range and mental capabilities that you show as a human. So in short, treat them as you would a stranger walking the street and greeting you."

Dad was about to say something before he stopped himself and opting to put a curled finger of inquiry over his lips. He looked at the guard, who easily replaced his helmet and then found something to say. "How the hell does he grab that without fingers?"

As I walked down the hall, signaling both my parents to follow me, I then started to break down some guidelines to the both of them. "Also a few rules of engagement to go by. First, they can see colors, all of them. Second, they come in different colors, all of them. Third, some can move extra heavy shit. Fourth, some can fly. Fifth, some can use telekinesis and teleport from place to place at will. Sixth, they adhere to code and conduct of cleanliness and hygiene, so don't be afraid to eat the food given to you. Seventh, don't call them horses. Eighth, don't call them mules. Nineth, don't belittle anyone because of their use of pronouns, speech patterns, lifestyle, or occupations, and treat them as you would like to be treated. And tenth, don't ask the princesses about their hair. Got it?"

Mom looked to dad as he mumbled under his breath, pointing to the guard they had their spat with. She quickly shook her head and threw her hands down. "Fine. Just get this over with so we can go back home."

I turned back to mom and calmly replied. "Eleventh, don't rush unless it is an emergency involving danger, loss of limb and/or life. There is no greater risk to self than uncontrolled fervor. And twelfth, there is no better part of valor than discretion, keep your relation to me anonymous for the sake of any peering paparazzi."

Mom barged in front of me with a scowl on her face, yanking at my arm to stop me from moving forward. "And you think the media's gonna stop me from yelling at you, stop you from being my son!?"

I slowly walked into her, grabbing her on the shoulder lightly as I whispered by her ear. "Just as there are those extremists who don't like immigrants back home, they don't like us either so the feeling's mutual. Please do your best to give a good impression so that I don't have to clean up any mess."

"So you're telling us that your little image is more important than us?" She asked fiercely.

I quietly spoke to her again. "Some more information you won't like, but I've had assassins come after me. Twice. Love you, mom, but you gotta learn to shut it down sometimes... for your sake."

Mom kinda froze in place as she tried to wrestle with the fact that I had to semi-threaten her with the reality of having a family member involved in a key position within the country. I suppose it can be one hell of a culture shock, but I still wanted her to realize that her yelling at me wasn't going to make matters go her way any easier. The same went for dad, who's more susceptible to do just that. If he ever tried to have his own fit, I'd have very little choice but to introduce him to a scared-straight scenario.

I'd much rather not, but I'll do it if need be.

***Point of Perspective: Melanie***

This morning, I had woke up to the familiar drone of my PS4's dashboard. The screen continued to show a number of notifications from other players I missed out on for the night, instead opting to have a gaming night to my lonesome. I really didn't want to be bothered with anyone else, I wasn't in the mood. I felt like I needed to close myself off to think and feel through what all just happened with me.

The rejection thing is something I'm used to. But add the whole ten-seconds-away-from-fucking-your-best-friend... yikes.

Again, I really... REAAAALLLLY wanted to just put it all out there. And for the first time since we reconnected, I finally had a chance to do what I've wanted to do since... high school really. It's been there for a while, just personality-wise I liked him. But then he had to go and get summoned to an alternate world for several months and come back with a well-toned body that made him less of a best friend and more of a snack. I know they say absence makes the heart grow fonder, but it didn't say anything about the hormones raging like a stubborn twelve year-old crying over a bad game of Call of Duty.

Last night was probably the first time in my life where something inside me was literally screaming for procreation. Maybe it had something to do with Mrs. Haines telling me that she wanted me to get married to him and have kids by him. It could've been Mr. Haines trying to coach me into going after his son, making him happy by doing all the things a guy likes. Or maybe it was some hidden desire to be a part of that family.

It just felt right to call her 'momma'. Mrs. Haines was there for a lot without Nondis even realizing just how involved she was in my life. She made our graduation so much better than it should've been... at least my dad seemed to think so. He even looks at her like a good friend to me, letting me become something of a goddaughter to her. At least in the later parts in my short life, she was there for much of it. It's wasn't like my real mom was actually good for that.

No. She found better friends at the end of a peace pipe.

But she came around whenever it felt convenient for her. She came around when I felt happy, or when it was a large birthday celebration going on. Dad would try his best to 'normalize' her whenever she came around me. But I found out through the years that her being 'normal' was actually a bribe of two-hundred dollars and a quick meal to eat, a shower to use, some time to do her hair, forego the makeup and wear this really anxious smile. Almost like she couldn't wait till I fucking got done being a damn daughter so she could go back to sucking some other man's cock for her next hit.

I was really numb to it, not truly sure where I wanted to be until the day we celebrated our graduation. And of course, dad invited her to the dinner, hoping that she'd try to behave, to act like a mother should. It was the first time I ever got the chance to look at my family and compare it to Nondis' own. And for the most part, it went well until we started getting our gifts. And of course, mom got antsy again, thinking that she could rush my life along so she can go back to being on the business end of a nightstick.

And then, the bomb dropped, just in time for the entire party to experience the fallout.

She walked up to me, scratching her neck, looking at every gift card I got from my friends and family, and even those from Nondis' family. She walked up to me and said the words I never wanted to hear from her.

"Baby girl, y-your momma's got things to do. I-I, uh, just got a call from a-a business worker. I-I-I gotta go. But I need some money to put in the tank."

She didn't own a car.

"Mellie, baby, please. M-momma's gotta get to work, I can't stay."

I told her that I understood, and that she could leave whenever she needed to.

"Mellie. Baby. C'mon, I need to fill the tank. I-I can't go nowhere."

I told her to ask dad to give her a ride.

"I just need two dollars. Just give me some gas. C'mon Mel."

While she said that, she was trying to hug me and reach for my purse. I don't think I could ever forget the stinging pain in my knuckles from driving it into the side of her face. I almost forgot what she looks like now. I just remember the fact that when we were separated, Momma Haines took over and gave her a grand cuss-out I'm sure Nondis nor I have ever heard. So she got her two dollars, but she was told to never come near me again.

That's the last time I saw my real mom.

From the time we started college, she encouraged me to keep in touch with Nondis, to keep him out of trouble and make sure he didn't do anything wild. He did it anyways, but that still didn't stop me from being the mediator between him and his parents whenever he made some life-altering decisions. When he got kicked out of his house, I kept him around mine so he could recover. When they got his apartment, I was there to spill whatever issues I had with some other person or any asshole I had in my classes.

And as he started to stay in college over the years, he slowly started to drift towards independence in terms of his social ability. We started seeing each other less and less because of his frat hazing him on the daily. And he started to show frustration over my frequently changing romance partners.

Of course, we got into an ugly one and you know the rest.

He comes back into my life being this absurd monster of meat. Everything I wanted in a guy aesthetically, in the body of the guy I was searching for the better part of nine months. It was a dream come true, a dream with the wettest of floors, the endless ceilings. If I had know that was all promised to someone else for a lifetime, someone I couldn't even fight against, I would've just left my dream alone and pretended the man that showed up to the frat house that night was someone else. Maybe it would've been better to deal with the pain of losing him in the gulf, than to watch him kiss on someone who wasn't even a human to begin with.

But then it got so much worse, she suddenly transformed into a human. She could touch him, hug him, kiss him, be with him as one of us. She was much better looking than I could've ever hoped to be on my best days. When I said I had lost confidence as a woman, I really did. And if that wasn't enough, Celestia comes strutting through with all her assets looking like every Instagram model's worst nightmare: Thick natural flawless beauty with no filters and so much hair to pull on.

Somewhere in my mind, I was losing ground on trying to be a good friend, wanting to push towards my own case. If he still had any attraction for humans, then I had a chance. And I wanted that chance, no way in hell I was gonna pass up on the opportunity. Am I entitled to his affection, no. But did I feel like I waited for so long, only for his big engagement to fall short and end so quietly?

Did I hold him in my arms when Twilight left him in a hospital bed to mope about his future?

Did I feel like this Thanksgiving was supposed to be for me and Nondis to share?

Did I feel that sense of dread when Momma Haines broke down after finding out her son was a guard?

Did I want to try my best in making her happy, making myself happy by doing what I wanted to do for the longest time, making him happy by giving him a normal life we could share between us, by offering a future of our own, some kid running around in pampers while I had to worry about whether or not we would be eating delivery or deciding who's cooking for the night? Have I ever fell in love and lust for a man I knew, and would I embarrass myself by crossing the line we established? Did I cry when he rejected me, leaving me to wonder how stupid I was for even trying to give that to him, by trying to force my desire, my want of a future he long rejected a time before?

...yes.

I was in no position to even see his face again. I knew this time there was no 'better luck next time' because I gave it all to him and he still denied it. And if I tried it again, something inside me will hurt too much for me to stop. I'll become desperate, trying to beg and get something out of nothing. Then we'll be talking about a friendship gone south, one that took so long to cultivate.

'My eyes are green cause I eat a lot of vegetables' I keep saying to myself. 'It ain't got nothing to do with your new friend. I don't care, I swear, I'm through with you, you don't mean nothing to me, so go ahead and be with her'

I never thought I would masturbate in angst, but here we are. And instead of Lucy taking me on a wild ride, I just seized for a second before coming back down to earth... several times, trying to mentally fulfill a fantasy that was never meant to be. And of course I'm certain my PS4 caught a virus because of all the porn I pulled up in the browser.

And nothing could ever get me so heated like I was when that man was hard pressed between my thighs last night.

I didn't want to see him, talk to him, or even think about him because it would start to make me feel things I don't want to feel anymore. What makes it all worse is that I told him everything. Now he knows the real me, what I want, what I like the most, and he's probably disgusted that I'd even go so far as to put my fingers down my pants like I was just some horny teenager. He probably doesn't even wanna see me anymore.

And here I go into Equestria, fully dressed, wearing this plastic smile on my face... the same one my mom wore when she got antsy. I walk down the hall, take a left, then a right, and finally I'm in the hallway where Nondis is giving his parents a quick tour of the castle.

The smile he has on his face is so goddamn destructive. "Hey, Mel! Good morning!"

"Morning." I can't even look at him.

Mrs. Haines walks up to me with this nervous smirk as she politely grabs my hand and whispers to me. "Honey, I'm so glad to see you. This place is so bonkers!"

"Let me guess, the ponies talk?" I replied.

She freezes up and gives me a grave look. "So we're not crazy!?" She turns around and screams to her husband. "Harold! She knows we're not crazy! She-she just said it!"

I politely took over from wherever Nondis left off on his explanation. "Nope, the ponies here are very talkative and expressive. I'm actually surprised Twilight's not with you guys."

Mrs. Haines looked at me with confusion wrought throughout her face. "Who's this 'Twilight'?"

I smacked myself in the face with a colorful show of disbelief. "You didn't tell them about her?"

"Not yet, unfortunately." That's code for 'I don't wanna tell them that right now'. "But I do have to survey the grounds to make sure nothing bad happened. If you can keep them entertained on the way to the dining room, that'll be great." And that's code for 'Here, you do it'.

*sigh* "...Okay... Well, let's make our way downstairs for breakfast."

Our tour of the castle was mostly me pointing out a bunch of shit that had nothing to do with cultural enrichment and more of me pointing out which closets were for brooms and mops, which rooms were residential, and which rooms were offices. If it wasn't for the fact that Nondis texted a photo of the floor layout to the other five of us, we'd be getting lost every time we show up to visit. But on a positive note, we knew where all the secret passageways were. It's just that we didn't have any magic to use them. If only this place wasn't so unicorn-centric, though then again it's so that not just any random guy can get access to any room whenever they wanted to.

I'm sure one of those passageways lead to Celestia's bedroom or something.

Mr. Haines didn't seem too thrilled with the fact that they were already missing a few NFL games today, loves himself some Cowboys. But he's been surprisingly patient, considering that Nondis suddenly took off without filling them in on much. And it feels more like he's being the patient one while Momma Haines is the one who's a little more aggressive. Though to be fair, I'd be aggressive too if I had to walk down three flights of stairs just to get to the dining room. At least this can't get any worse.

"Ma'am, I'm just following protocol." A guard calls out from behind us.

"And how often do you offer that same protocol check when Crescent comes by to pick up a book from the Royal Library?"

Oh, oh GOD no. I quickly grabbed both Mr. and Mrs. Haines hands and tried to drag them to the dining room as quick as I could without getting noticed. Even if I myself was the most identifiable of the six humans Equestria's seen thus far because of my feminine shape, I was not going to get caught up this time. Meanwhile, the guard behind us whimpers meekly. "...Not often."

"Exactly. And my being a former hall stooge of this castle has well earned me my rights to purvey in the debauchery of every young and fertile stallion and mare who wishes to let their love roam free!"

Mr. Haines was a turn short of a backwards double take before I dragged him and his wife into the dining room, hiding off like I was a terrorist avoiding a metal detector. But as the doors closed behind us, I could overhear the slight passage of the conversation between the guard and the shameless patron. "Ma'am, I know your daughter and son happen to be royalty, but we do have a changeling watch to observe."

"D'oh, please! Any changeling would be trying to pass me off as a normal mare."

"It's true." A mature male voice cosigned. "She's more likely to out-tryst one of those greedy, soul-sucking, love-ingesting, life-destroying parasites."

"You might as well just give me the higher clearance package, I swear I won't go after any more politicians this time."

"Try not to get into trouble, ma'am. The captain would have my head if you were to cause trouble today." The guard replied.

After a brief period of silence, I started to take a sigh of relief, ultimately feeling much better now that there was some semblance of peace in the world... that was until the doors busted open in such a dramatic fashion as the light gray mare came streaking through with a huge smile on her face, singing my name out loud. "♪Ohhhhh Meeeeelaniiiiieeeeee!♫"

I forgot how there's no running from this lady when she sees you. She just sees you and you're good and in for the ride of the day. "Mrs. Velvet, so lice─I mean─nice to see you." Yeah, if having a case of head lice in front of your classmates wasn't fun enough, you had her to deal with.

She quickly teleported herself from the other side of the room to directly in front of me to shake my hand. "It's been ages dearie. How has life been treating you!?" She asked before turning her attention directly to the other two humans in the room. "And Celestia bless, you brought visitors!"

Mr. and Mrs. Haines looked back to one another as they both muttered in unison. "Celestia bless?"

The mare then extended her hoof to Mrs. Haines as she introduced herself. "I know that the two of you might be new around here, so I'll spare you the song and dance routine. I'm Twilight Velvet, you may call me Velvet, like the rope. And behind me is my most cherished husband Crescent Sparkle."

"Charmed." The blue elder stallion said as he extended his hoof to Mr. Haines.

The two of them didn't quite know how to respond to the casual greeting offered by the ponies and tried to think of a way to show some return of the gesture. Momma Haines went first and lightly leaned down and took the mare's hoof from underneath as she shook it slowly. "It's nice to meet you as well. Are you the Twilight I heard of recently?"

"Actually no─" I started to say before Mrs. Velvet interrupted me.

"Depends, what have you heard?" Mrs. Velvet replied, completely bypassing my answer.

Momma Haines leaned down to speak to the eccentric unicorn. "You seem to know someone by the name of Nondis Haines. What is your relationship with him like?"

The mare didn't miss a beat with her answer. "Him? Oh, he's a great young stallion brimming with ambition, passion, and excitement. Why I haven't seen anyone cause a media firestorm from his words alone through all of my years. He's strong, resourceful, he's got a good head on his shoulders, a bit crafty, and even funny sometimes. Why if I had a choice to be younger, I'd easily give him a day of my time!"

Mrs. Haines quickly became agitated over her response and took some offense to it. "I'm sorry, a day of your time doing what?"

"You know, a day to spend with the likes of a young strapping colt like him who just oozes with confidence." Mrs. Velvet replied with a shiver throughout her body. "The wild-like demeanor he tries to hide is absolutely adorable. It's perfect for me!"

She was not helping Momma Haines calm down by any chance of the imagination. Instead, she was getting even more furious. "I'm not sure if you should be getting so close to him."

The mare scoffed dismissively in her retort. "Oh, but I would be interested in my future son-in-law."

"WHAT!?" Both Mr. and Mrs. Haines pretty much exploded at the mere speaking of those words. Already, I was pulling out my phone trying to text Nondis to hurry his ass up and finish whatever he was doing before this whole situation reached critical mass.

Although it might already be too late, Mrs. Velvet was just spilling his whole private romance details like it was the hottest topic of the week. "Yes! My daughter Violet has been so passionately in love with him, it's been adorable! Why the kids nowadays have started throwing those weird celebrity couple names all around the town. TwiDis, TwiNon, NonLight, just to name a crazy few."

"Oh, and you won't believe the following he's garnered." Crescent added, pouring jet fuel on top of a roaring volcano. "There's a whole fanclub based around him and his friends. But as far as the most desirable one, that he is. It's gotten so bad that older mares on the prowl started investing in ways to possibly buy his time."

Momma Haines paused for a moment, trying to calm herself down before asking the mare. "So you wouldn't happen to be any of those assassins I've been hearing about?"

Velvet broke into laughter as she denied the absurd idea. "Oh, goodness no. The only thing I'm an assassin to is character. Why, whatever drove you to ask such an outrageous question?"

"So you know Nondis, and he happens to be with your daughter?" She questioned.

"Indeed he is, I don't see it going any other way." The mare answered.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Haines looked to each other before the elder woman leaned in to shake Velvet's hoof. "Well it's awfully nice to meet you. I'm Martha, and the angry man you see over there is my husband Harold. We're... the Haines family, Nondis' parents."

If there weren't any stars in Mrs. Velvet's eyes before, there were a galaxy of them now. She enthusiastically shook her hand with ceaseless abandon. "Well I'll be the daughter of Faust! I should've done my song and dance as soon as I meandered into the room! What a BRILLIANT surprise and honor to meet you! We must talk more, there's so much to discuss, things to do, ponies to see, have you ever thought about any more visits to our humble little world?"

Mr. Haines was boiling over as Momma Haines tried her best to play mediator, despite her own anger welling up inside. "Well, it's more of a long discussion we wished to have with an employer of his, especially pertaining to his... line of work."

Velvet quickly jumped in. "Oh yes! A new recruit into the royal guard and already a little after finishing his basic training, he's appointed as Captain of the Royal Guard. Though it didn't come without a recommendation or two."

Crescent poked his chest out proudly. "Ah yes, to relive those days of marching around in my uniform and my thousand nights in a dark hallway, standing to post. I don't even recall all the numerous shenanigans I got into when the princess wasn't looking."

"I can recall ours." Velvet replied with a smirk.

Crescent chuckled deviously as he mumbled to her. "Royal library table, bubble of silence."

"You forgot the invisibility spell to boot."

"Ah, yes. Those were the days where you were so... squeaky. They didn't even know we were right there giving them a show, broad daylight and we're just staining the finish."

"And there I was being the shy one." Velvet replied, giving her husband a kiss on the lips. "If you only knew the monster you created that day."

"I do, we named him Shining Armor."

"AHEM!" Mr. Haines interrupted loudly, finally speaking for the first time. "We're still on the topic of our son being in the military without our knowledge."

The two ponies seemed taken aback, completely caught off guard when they learned the real reason why they were here. Velvet was, again, the main one to speak. "Wait, you didn't know!? I figured Alex or Stanton would've told you something, especially if not Nondis."

Mr, Haines nodded his head slowly. "Yeeaaahh, our boys don't believe in telling us anything nowadays, even Nondis just broke us in on that one yesterday and he's still not telling us much. The first thing that happened was our youngest son comes up with a knee injury and he's out for the year. Two days later, his knee gets fixed and he's running like nothing ever happened. The only explanation he ever tells us is 'magic' which is a stupid explanation. Either way, my wife don't like him being in the military because of some family reasons."

"Oh!" Velvet replied with a sense of dread. "That's, um, not good."

"My father was in the military." Momma Haines began. "And after seeing him come back from the war he fought in, I just can't stand to see any of my sons go down his path. Now as far as we know, this girl by the name of Bella was said to be the princess here along with a lady by the name of Celestia. She said to meet her here so that we can decide on whether or not to keep him in since him and Bella were over and done with."

I politely tapped on her shoulder and whispered quietly. "Uh. Nondis never really clarified the situation, but the girl we called 'Bella' isn't really named 'Bella'."

"Then what was her name?" She asked, growing irritated again.

With a quiet voice, I moused her voice into the room. "...Twilight Sparkle."

Mrs. Haines looked to me with a really indignant frown and gritted through her teeth. "She's one of them, isn't she?"

"Yes, but she's really nice." I said, trying to lessen the damage of the situation. "I mean, she helped heal Stanton, she cooked in the kitchen with you, she considers you a nice person."

"She drafted my son into the military!" Mrs. Haines replied bluntly. "He didn't tell us he was getting married! He won't even tell us the damn truth about his goddamn safety and well-being! He's getting all cozy with some girl that ain't even human! And he's been gone for the better part of an hour and a half! I'm hungry, and there ain't no princess to talk to! So you tell me how the HELL I'M SUPPOSED TO STAY PATIENT!"

Already, this was getting ugly. And it's not like I can just say some magical words to make everything feel better. But in strange form, it was none other than Mr. Haines coming to the rescue, holding his wife back and comforting her. "Sweetie, taking it out on some ponies who aren't even the source of our problem isn't gonna work here."

"I can't make it work, Harold! I don't feel comfortable here! Our son's having nightmares and walking into danger unseen! He's got assassins on him!" She answered back, trying her best to shove him away. "I'm dealing with a son who ain't telling us nothing! And we're supposed to be his parents!"

Velvet eventually stepped in with her own input. "I know things may be more than a little confusing for you both, and for that I am sorry. I just thought he would've told you all of this already. We truly apologize if there's been any discomfort provided on our behalf."

Mrs. Haines was rapid-fire with her response. "No. Thank you. You told me everything I needed to know about my son and now we're making a decision for him. He's obviously not right in the mind, so we're gonna have to intervene on his behalf and say he's done here. Now where's the princess so we can knock this out the way?"

Crescent offered his own argument against her decision. "Ma'am, with all due respect, I think if he wants to remain a guard, shouldn't that be a decision he makes?"

By that point, Mr. Haines put up a rebuttal not even Nondis could argue against. "Last I checked, he was the one to say we make decisions as a family. He said that to me just two days ago when he was talking about Stanton's operation. The boys voted to have him moved for some fancy light show, and now here we are saying that this should be a personal decision when it should be a family one. Now given the magnitude of the scope we're dealing with, it should be within reason to assume that a decision involving marriage, possible loss of life, and a change in address should be discussed."

Velvet offered to speak against the man's conclusion, but Crescent stood in front of her and assumed the role of a negotiator instead, calmly hearing out Mr. Haines. "Alright, now that I can concede to. After all, the unity of our families should not be solely based on the opinions of one but rather of many. I'm sure that is how Processu Approbatio is dictated. And as a former captain of the guard myself, followed by my son holding the position prior to your son attaining it, I can assess the risks your son has undergone and also be able to tell you from experience whether or not this is something you can agree to do or not. My wife wants to join with you all, and our daughter seeks happiness with your son."

Mr. Haines, still expressing some internal anger towards Nondis, he calmly pulled up a chair and sat himself at the table. "Well, I can give it to you that you're a fair man. I can't even argue the logic you've presented. However I am gonna have to be very explicit with you, we in the human world do not date outside of our own species as it is a societal taboo."

"Well that explains a lot." Crescent responded. "A family with a strict upbringing should expect nothing less of their own son. And to say that your son has failed to disclose the numerous deeds he's done for thousands of lives can attest to some of your mounting frustrations. This I am aware of."

"Our frustrations have little to do with what he did for everyone else. We're concerned with what he did behind our backs and without any promptness to it." Mr. Haines replied sternly. "Now me personally, I wanted for a long time to see my son be able to defend himself. So all of this for me is just fine, I was always okay with him being in the military, though that goes against my wife."

"A wife is never wrong." Crescent quipped as he summoned two glasses and a bottle of what seemed to be apple-brand whiskey. He calmly placed the glass before him and poured him up a glass, offering the drink to the man. "Shall we drink to that?"

Possibly for the first time since he came here, Mr. Haines cracked a genuine smile as he raised the glass up to his nose. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." He then tasted the drink for himself, becoming pleased with the taste of apples and the spices of cinnamon and ginger. "This is some really good stuff. Where'd you get it?"

"Special brew imported from a cellar at an old apple farm down in a little town called Ponyville. My daughter has a castle there. Locals are pretty nice and homey, far different from the busy streets of Canterlot."

"So... We get that there are some princesses running around. What really runs this place?" Mr. Haines inquired.

"Money, power, and strength. If you have one of the three, you're well on your way. I'm sure all of those three things are a universal concept."

"That it is." The man agreed with another swig of his drink. "For us it's more of playing the markets, the voters, and then the sports we watch every weekend. Stanton wants to be a professional football player. Alex is an accountant with a minor in litigation."

"Which effectively means Nondis with his amount of sway can change the fate of a nation. Think of the numerous ideologies he could share with us, it would make him a political powerhouse. Wouldn't you agree?"

"It sounds more of a pipe dream to me." Mr. Haines answered.

"You should hear him speak. He's known for getting the country itself in an uproar. I've even heard he roused even the hardened politicians who thrive in the parliament, some of which try to undermine his authority as recently as the past three weeks. The stage is set for him, you know."

"My son? I don't know about you, but Nondis doesn't like to speak out in public very often. He's a shy kid."

"Shy enough to slay a beast three times his size." The stallion replied, summoning a newspaper with the image of Nondis backed against a tree as an arimaspi tried to crush him to death. He then gave it to Mr. Haines. "I do not deny that even the meekest of the guild are capable of overcoming the odds."

"Holy Mary mother of Joseph." The man said, gawking at the image of his son, holding the greatsword against his chest to protect himself. Crescent then provided another headline, showing the triumphant return on the train, carrying huge sacks of gold and other untold riches. He looked back to me and whispered. "Now I know I should be just as mad with you because of you being in on this, but is any of what I'm seeing is true?"

"Yes sir." I replied. "It's even said that he fought off a hundred of those things by himself."

"Yeah, and I had to sleep in one to survive."

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

The entire room looked back to the doorway, I was standing standing in front of both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, in all their regality and ponyness. Behind the both of them was Alex, Stanton, Rickey, and Cliff. Celestia approached dad from the side as she offered a hoof of greeting. "Now is the first time that I may be able to greet you as I am."

Identifying the crown on her head, dad glanced at me and bowed his head out of respect. "The pleasure is all mine, your highness. I just didn't think the whole 'princess' moniker was legitimate."

"I can assure you that our thrones are very much legitimate." Luna added as she bowed her head to dad. "As is the honor we have in hosting the parents of our most esteemed captain. We were informed of your desire to alter the status of his occupation. But there is no negotiating on an empty stomach. Surely we may show our hospitality, much as you have shone it to my sister. Equestria is truly grateful for the accommodations of your world and it's offerings."

"Food would be nice." Mel stated, taking a seat as if she was standing in one spot for well over an hour.

I walked over to speak to her. "So when did Mrs. Velvet get here again?"

"Just. In. Time." Mom grunted as she reached for my ear, pulling me down to her shoulder. "And let me tell you, you have A LOT to explain. Also, what's this about you marrying a pony princess?"

Although I was experiencing some immense pain, I was trying to keep my composure. "So I can safely assume they got wind of everything."

"Everything short of your second life story." She answered with a frown.

"Well good, that means I don't have to explain much."

The negotiations between dad and Crescent carried on for a great deal of time, but what ended up surprising me was how civil dad was for the entire conversation. He was oddly compliant, possibly because of the whiskey Crescent provided had them engage with a common interest. It's obvious that his years in the guard has taught him a great deal of patience, causing him to become a suitable negotiator. And realistically speaking, negotiation wasn't quite my strongest suit, I'm capable of it but not to the degree Crescent has developed.

Plus it's my dad, if I say anything then we'll be arguing for hours on end.

However, mom was beyond livid with me about everything. Apparently, she didn't take too kindly to the fact that I was about to get married. She's also upset that I was fighting so often, traveling to battle against hellish creatures for the sake of retrieving the lost wealth of a nation. If I had to summarize the laundry list of issues she had with me being here, it would be chalked up to the fact that I was getting married to a pony in a foreign world and forced to serve in it's military beforehand. Not that it's an unfair justification for her being mad, I just didn't see why she wouldn't see the benefit of my doing all of this from a humanitarian point of view.

Celestia wasn't spared any words either, as mom really unleashed her frustrations over why such a law remained in existence. And it took a half-hour for her to simmer down to where she could talk in an indoor voice. Again, not that I don't understand her reasoning, I'm just more baffled over her insisting that I be removed without hearing any other argument for me staying here. Even when Mel tries to offer a reason, she's just outright ignoring it.

And then came the family vote. Since I threw that argument of 'we decide things as a family' to get Stanton to relocate to Austin with his injury, they flipped it onto me and decided to hold a referendum. Mom's vote was automatically a 'no' in favor of me just leaving Equestria altogether and 'living my life like a human should'. Dad was okay with me learning how to fight, but not complacent with my adventures and the risks they provided. Alex didn't seem to mind me being in Equestria that often, he just didn't want me to do anything stupid while I'm here. Stanton wasn't too thrilled to see me in the state I was in when I returned from my mission three weeks ago, citing his own nightmares over the situation, but he was accepting of the friends I made while I was here and cited his trust in the network I developed around me.

And because mom didn't like there being a possibility of my vote being the deciding one, she threw in Mel's name to cast her ballot. I already knew her answer, basically a no. And being that Vanessa wasn't here in Equestria to cast her vote on the matter, we were left at a deadlock. And it didn't help that the only thing that kept this conversation going was Mel speaking from her heart. But really, I couldn't blame her. If I had to watch my best friend flat-line and get resuscitated because some assassin had it out for me, then I would've done the same.

Crescent saw that our vote ended in a stalemate and offered that we convene out in the garden for a while so we could take in the beauty and calm ourselves to it's tranquil nature. While the idea was being presented, Celestia had her servants bring in the food. And for the entirety of the meal, I had mom staring me down like I had committed a grave crime against her, as if I was a stranger sitting in a courtroom, looking at the family I hurt.

On a brighter note, at least she was eating the food.

We took our venture to the back end of the castle and made our round towards the gardens when a small squadron of pegasi flew down to give me a report of the activity on the mountain. As I confirmed the situation, mom found herself storming off to the inner gardens. By the time she realized it, she was in the courtyard, standing in front of a golden statue of an incomplete sun. Standing in front of it, she realized that she was in the circle of light within the ring of the statue's shadow. Her eyes stared at the object and she winced with dread over the object.

"Exactly what gods do they worship around here?" She asked herself, looking to the golden object. She looked back to her own shadow and saw herself stretched oblong at it's center, but much smaller than the shadow of the statue. She walked up to the plaque and read the inscription.

"Summer Sun Idol:
The Summer Sun Idol was created in the second year of our highest princess Celeste Delanise Valkyrie. in celebration of the glorious sun that brings us light and warmth throughout the year's round. Created by a group of Everfree's finest metal smiths, the proud icon depicts a triumphant sun overcoming the darkness that was set to eclipse our world. It is a monument dedicated to Her Majesty's defeat of the dark harbinger Nightmare Moon.
DO NOT LEAN AGAINST. TRANSPORT WITH CAUTION."

As she looked at the object, she couldn't help but to touch it out of dire curiosity . Her fingers brushed against the metal and the nail of her index finger tapped against it's surface. But she failed to notice the figure standing behind her as he spoke. "They pull that thing out every Summer Sun Celebration. I swear had to have been dropped at least once."

The woman turned around with a shriek and held her chest as a white stallion approached her.

"You're a new face, who are you?"

The woman stood backwards, completely leaning herself against the statue. When she realized that she backed into the statue, she turned around quickly to see it shake a little, covering her mouth in horror. But before it started to rock unsteadily, the unicorn stallion cast his magic to firmly set the statue in place as he levitated her away from it. He then looked at her and smiled.

"My goodness gracious, if there were any guards out here watching you bump into that, they would ship you under for it. But don't worry your human head off too much. Your secret's safe with me, I've done it once before."

"Who are you?" The woman asked, still backing up a bit.

The stallion chuckled as he replied. "I'm not anyone you should be afraid of. I'm actually a resident of this establishment. Though it would be fair to bring up that I have yet to get a name from you, human."

Feeling estranged from the situation of someone calling her human, she quickly responded. "Martha. I'm just passing by."

The prince chuckled once more and tapped his chin with a hoof. "I see, you have that same silly accent as our dearly esteemed captain. A bit twangy, if I do say so myself."

Martha covered her mouth instinctively before she gave a reply. "I have an accent?"

"Indeed. I can only assume you are from the same place our captain is from."

She sighed deeply as she shook her head. "Ugh, he shouldn't even be here with all of this."

"And here he is. Surely you're fine with him being here as opposed to being of the deceased." The stallion replied, causing her to flinch at his statement. "Am I to assume that you are of some familial relation to Nondis?"

"Who are you?" She questioned strongly, balling up her fists as if she was ready for an encounter. "Who are you and what do you want!?"

The stallion winked at the woman with a smile. "I can assure you, I am no hostile threat. Think of me as a friend to your son. As for who I am, Blueblood. Prince Blueblood Esquire. I'm just a lowly aristocrat given a name, a purpose, and a crown. And no, I will not be asking you to scratch behind my ears... no matter how good it may feel."

The woman winced with uncertainty as she loosened her fists. "Um... okay."

"So I believe you may have some qualms with your son being a member of the guard, correct?" The prince inquired.

"How are you knowing all of this?" She asked in turn.

"Well I do hold a crown to my name. Seeing that I'm very seldom in the room does not make me as uninformed as one would think. But I do know that you're not supposed to be this far in the labyrinth." The prince stated.

Martha then folded her arms as she pouted over her current circumstances. "Oh great, now I'm stuck in some godforsaken maze. It's as if I'm being tortured or something."

The prince walked beside her and placed a hoof on her. "I hope you don't mind me touching you, but I do want to help you and to let you know that if you're feeling uncertain about anything he's doing, I can assure you that his reasoning is as justified as yours.

The woman dug her fingers into her arms as the frustration started to build once more, snapping out just as quickly as she did when she found out about her son being in the guard. "I just don't want my son suffering, aright. I just don't like him being here. I don't like him being too friendly to you ponies, especially when there's a nice girl waiting for him back home. I mean no offense to you, sir, but I just want my son to come home and stay home."

Blueblood nodded slowly with pursed lips. "I can understand how that can be a bit of a situation. He wants to serve, you reject that idea, and now there's an indecision looming. But the question you need to ask yourself is simply this. And I don't mean to come and offend you by any means, whatsoever. But answer this... Are you ready to be a mother to your child?"

"How the hell does that make any damn sense?" Martha barked in retaliation. "I'm here and I'm making a decision because I am his mother!"

"But in retaliation of trying to protect him, you end up stunting him for the long-run. Don't you think it would be wise to allow for a chance for him to sprawl forward and explore the possibilities that are endued to him? I'm sure he understands you mean well, but taking away a once-in-an-impossibility chance to learn more of himself and what he's capable of beyond what could be conceived in the realm of his human existence? Don't you think that some horizons are meant to be explored when you're set to enter the prime of your life?"

"Not when it comes to the price of losing your son!" Martha argued angrily, rivaling the serene nature of the alabaster prince.

The stallion sighed for a moment and quietly spoke. "You know, when I was younger, I wanted a mother like you, one who cared enough to scold me whenever I did something I didn't like. But I never had one to really know of since I was born. My father was always trying his best to send me off to a marriage I didn't want for myself, but had little choice in fulfilling, 'for your success' he would say to me. Of course, I'm vastly older than you."

Martha scoffed with some laughter as she performed a double take to the prince's words. "Ha! You, older than me! That'll be the day."

The prince smiled while whipping his mane back with a sense of pride. "Of course. Four-hundred twelve years counting, and I'm still feisty for the hunt."

She stared blankly, completely speechless at the unicorn prince as he continued on.

"And the one who visited your world to speak with you, our highest princess, the one who that hunk of metal idolizes, she's well over a millennium and looking just as refined as ever."

Again, Martha was left completely flabbergasted, incapable of the simplest forms of speech.

Blueblood continued on. "Long story short, we have seen generations grow and die as the leaves on the tree with each passing season. I've seen battles fought over the pettiest reasons, and some for the best of intentions. I've seen corruption, so foul and disgusting that it begs the question why equinekind continues to persist. And in all my centuries, I have never found myself looking at something standing on two legs capable of changing well over a thousand years of history within the span of a single day, much less being able to change himself for the better. Of course there's a few slip-ups, but that's all apart of climbing that mountain of life. And here's the thing, the mountain you've climbed thus far may not have the same peak your son is trying to reach. But are you so much of a mother to yodel at him from your summit and ask him how he's doing, or will you be the one to cut his ropes while he's on his way?"

Martha stared back at the stallion, stunned by his question and folding her arms as she pondered. The longer she thought of an answer, the more she realized how correct her son was in stating how the ponies of Equestria had just as advanced of a mental facility as any human would. For the first time, she replied to him not as something different, but as a fellow sapient. "I get all that, but I'm just not feeling comfortable with him going out to get hurt. You know he told me how there were assassins coming after him?"

Blueblood groaned as he cosigned with her. "Indeed, he is a popular figure and he's got enemies here in the city. No doubt he's going to be in danger of dying. But isn't there some other means in your world where his end could come as quickly as it would here? After all, he at least came back to you."

Martha turned away from the stallion, feeling herself becoming embarrassed over the fact that this creature much smaller than her was already on the verge of making her cry. Doing her best to control her emotions, she looked towards the sky and remained stoic. "He did that, yeah he did."

"And maybe there are some differences in this world that he felt so afraid to tell you because he knew that you would be hurt. But in spite of all of that, he chose to let you in on it instead of it being some secret he carries to his grave. Might not have told you everything, but he sure wanted to show you this world. Can we agree that it counts for something?"

The woman wiped her eyes and sniffled. "Yeah. But I really don't like him just doing this and..."

"Come, I'll show you the way out." Blueblood pointed her towards an opening in the path, starting to guide her as he walked forward. "You know, there was a mare who watched her son go into danger and come out a broken individual for a while. You may not know her, but you've encountered her just earlier today. Her son was Captain of the Royal Guard, and he was sent to a cruel deployment. It changed him so much that it forever altered his ability to love, and even destroyed any chance of a good night's sleep. And you know what that mare did?"

Martha looked back at the stallion with her guess. "She got angry."

The stallion laughed once more. "That's putting it mildly. She was short of stabbing one of the members of the parliament with his own quill. She even fought like five guards before she was subdued. And the reason she wanted that revenge was because he fabricated the assignment, just because the young captain was in an engagement with a princess."

"What happened to him?" She asked.

"He's well. And he's living life as any individual would, overcoming their trials and putting on their best face for everyone around them. Being strong for everyone, including his wife. He's twenty-five now, married to a princess, holding a crown himself, and still fighting for our nation's safety. In fact, he was the one who trained, sparred, and promoted your son. His younger sister was expected to be your son's fiance, though you've been told."

"I was told he was fighting my son." Martha added.

"That's not a lie either, they didn't quite see eye to eye for a while." Blueblood confirmed. "But if you ask them both how's life been for both of them, they'd pretty much respond the same. They'd say 'We're breathing and everyone we love is still rooting for us.' And there would be no arguments against it because each of them faced certain doom, and came away with life and limb. They're strong, and I'm sure that anyone you knew would say the same. Does it mean that they wouldn't offer a few disclaimers, of course not. Would they have some stories to tell, certainly. Would they be for the feint of heart, not a chance. But would they take the time to try and live a life that was best for those around them, well it depends on how strong they are. Not everyone can come out to try and live their best life after witnessing tragedy and cruelty, but those who do possess such a discipline that so few carry."

Martha took a moment to think more of her father, the man who came back from a war being called a criminal and a murderer. Though she would hear some stories when she grew of age, she started to realize all the many things she still got to experience with her father. In spite of his suffering from the ghosts of demons past, he would do nothing short of satisfying his daughter. She remember the story she told Harold that morning and held herself as her stomach became weak. Her eyes truly welled and reddened before she could catch herself, and the feelings of nostalgia ran ceremoniously through her mind. And that same man would go on to show that side of him with her children. She smiled for a while before she could do nothing but sniffle and sob.

Before she knew it, the stallion beside her pointed towards the exit of the labyrinth. "Not everyone can navigate through life like nothing's wrong, no one truly can. But that doesn't mean that we can choose to parade our pain for others to give us pity, that's not a fun way of living. And I'm sure you don't want to live that way either."

The woman looked to the exit and wiped her eyes for a final time. "So... I guess you'll be joining us on our little tour of this garden?"

"Oh no, I'm afraid not." The prince replied. "I'm in the middle of a few other proceedings. But it was nice to speak with you, surely you would come to visit us more often."

The woman walked herself towards the exit, revealing herself to the human search party. Blueblood lingered behind as she waved her goodbye. But as soon as she disappeared from view, his eyes narrowed and his smile disappeared. The prince stood with his chest out as he walked back the opposite direction.

"I understand that is your mother, Nondis, but she cannot interfere with our plans."

Not long after mom showed back up from her mini journey through the garden labyrinth, she told me of a stallion who helped her out and guided her back to the entrance. We were mostly relieved to see her not covered in leaves, thorns, and twigs, as that would've probably made more of her case to have me leave here.

But that's not what surprised me the most.

She came out with something like a smile on her face as she looked at me. Mom smiling for the first time should've been something worth celebrating on the spot. But we didn't really have time to dwell on it. Instead, we had a lot to discuss with her and dad about my getting engaged to Twilight. And understandably, they were not pleased with my not telling them that we were a separate species. No questions asked, they strongly refused the idea that I'd get into any romantic or sexual relationships with anyone here, noting that it would be counterproductive to a family dynamic if I was unable to have one of my own because of anatomical and biological differences.

Again, I understood their logic. But I also added in my argument for the emotional response and the possibility of attachment that could occur when one starts to become intimately aware of you and wishes to ditch the norm and take a risk for you as much as you would for them. It was a point that they argued down to the ground, but I wasn't gonna let it stop me. I also offered the argument of Twilight's transformation for a counter, but then they brought up the fact that her job would require her to remain her actual self because of the expectations placed on her as opposed to the independence I have of meeting those same expectations.

It was a pretty lengthy debate, and one I couldn't win for the life of me.

But when it came to the topic of my being in the military, the conversation was much more tranquil. Instead of being a deadly sea of fire and flames, it was pretty much a civil discussion where we had some minor disagreements with one another. And again, they presented some solid arguments against my being drafted. And I agreed with them entirely because I still felt that no relationship should have to have a military prerequisite, even if it was with anyone who was higher in the social or political hierarchy.

And of course, that spawned another discussion I had to go in depth with.

"So that's pretty much the law that dictates that." I said, finishing my explanation of what the Approval Process law entailed.

Again, obviously, mom was furious. "What in God's green earth compelled them to make a law like that!?"

I shrugged at her question. "I guess some nobles who were jealous that the head honcho was getting intimate with some other guy they didn't know. You know, that shady crap they pulled back in the dark ages."

"And you're telling us that the this law was in existence for over a thousand years?" Dad inquired.

"Pretty much." I answered. "And because of a few amendments they added to it over the centuries, I was dragged off to basic training for what was considered to be 'in accordance to the limitless possibilities presented that would allow some unfortunate happenstance to occur to the royal in proposition.' So basically, because I was considered to be 'too weak' to protect the princess by default, I was deemed unfit and had to be trained to... well, become fit for the position of 'suitor'. From there, I had to build on accolades from the months starting out to prove my leadership qualities and strengths because of one significant factor."

"Let me guess..." Dad replied. "You get to hold some sort of title if you go through with it."

"If I'm going by the conversation I had in the maze, I'd say you would be a prince." Mom concluded.

Alex, who was still unaware of that specific detail, spoke out. "Wait, you becoming a prince? Nobody ever told us that."

"Well they bring it up when you start your process." I proceeded to explain. "I was aware of it from the moment I was told that the only way we could have a relationship was if I met the three key standards. The first was to become an official citizen of Equestria. The second was that I could undergo military training to improve my leadership and physical skills. And the final one was if I could withstand a waiting period of eight months while having a relationship with the princess, with the family's blessing taken into account, a two-in-one deal there."

Cliff then asked. "So is that the main reason why if you break up, they say you can't get with the princess again?"

"That's a primary reason why they take that into account. And the no sex thing is there because nobles and politicians deemed it necessary for reasons of selfish envy. Basically, they've tried to have their kids and whatnot marry into the royal family, and it has yet to work."

Dad again brought up the question. "But still, why does that law still exist? Surely as smart as these ponies may be, they should be able to follow up on basic trends to society."

"They're selfish, dad. They don't care about society as long as they get paid or they get power. That's all that matters to them." I briefly summarized.

"And you wanna live in this?" He questioned.

I stammered for a bit before coming out with my answer. "Well... if you had a chance to stop it, wouldn't you?"

Dad placed a hand on my shoulder as he politely made an attempt to convince me. "Son, look. I know you feel like you can make a difference for a whole bunch of people, but if something's been standing pat for over a thousand years... you gotta know when to hold or fold out. And they ain't folding, so you might as well bow out there."

I casually removed dad's hand from my shoulder as I spoke. "Dad, listen. I can change this, I can do something to make this stop. I don't care if I have to keep fighting to do it, but I'm not gonna stand by and do nothing." I looked to mom for a moment as I continued. "The number one thing Gramps always told us was to not get into any fights you can't win. The second thing he said was if we did, we'd better fight for something that's right. And let me tell you there been more than one moment where I felt like I was gonna be meeting that man face to face in the afterlife. And each time I get there, I feel like he's turning me away saying 'you're not done.' So what sense does it make for me to sit pat and watch all these other people suffer because of a few politicians' greed and some person's evil?"

Dad shook his head as he replied. "Nondis, you're crazy if you think you can change the world."

"I already did, dad. I'm the first human here in a world of no such thing, that's a change in and of itself. All of us being here is a symbol of that change. Us being able to go to and from this world and ours is an ASTRONOMICAL change, one that transcends the very physics we've come to know and understand! You know how many scientists in our world would kill to see this, to experience what we get to do? Hell, I'm serving under a princess who's ruled for over a thousand years, who can move the sun when she wanted to. I should've been drowned and gone when I couldn't get out from that car in time. But I'm here, we're here! That's the change! I could just simply say 'but God' and the both of you will go nuts, but look around you, see the faces words spill from, and realize that we have become what is said to be unlikely, unscientific, the unreasonable, the theoretically and 'realistically' impossible. Think of those chances, and now think of us being able to rewrite a law."

Dad stared at me for a moment, backing away as my words resonated within him. Something about my words caused him to take in the sight of the world around me and take notice of what was actually real. Mom stared as she backed into a bush, her hands instinctively felt for what she ran into, feeling the leaves scratch and tickle at the tips of her fingers. The smell of the beautiful flowers that neatly littered the grounds. Her eyes looked over to her husband as he looked to the castle, his eyes widening dramatically.

I continued to speak. "Mom, dad, I just want you to know─"

Before I could finish, I felt a rush of wind beside me. Before I could do anything but slightly turn my head, I heard the sound akin to an empty shoe loudly smacking against concrete. And by the time I could see what it was, I could see a stallion lightly bouncing at my side before he came to rest with a sickening gurgle. The stallion's head was misshapened from the impact, an eye protruded from one of his sockets. His limbs twitched for the fraction of a second as the cracked bone splinters acted as weak shrapnel to the grassy cobblestone. A gray horn rolled to the toe of my shoe as the stallion laid motionless, leaving nothing but the sound of a death rattle.

"AAAAH!" My mother shrieked hysterically.

"WHAT THE HELL!" I leaped back from the body, still expressing tremendous shock over the incredibly close call.

"OH MY GOD!" My father yelled before he closed his eyes to look away.

Cliff started to run over but stopped himself as a pool of blood started to grow. Expressing abject horror, he covered his mouth. "Where did this nigga drop from!?"

Stanton covered his mouth, but for a different reason as he gagged at the sight of the body. "Ehhhh, his head, his head─his FUCKING head."

"Ugh, shit." I said, not able to do much for a time but hold the hair of my head back. I know somewhere in the back of my mind I was thinking 'why is this happening now' but the main thing that I was trying to get over was the fact that there was a body that could've landed on me, missing me just by mere inches. After the initial shock wore off, I proceeded to follow protocol. "Everybody remain calm, Alex, can you take mom and dad somewhere else? Stanton, you go with."

As my brothers quickly grabbed our parents and dragged them somewhere else, Cliff walked off to follow them. Rickey look at the body and heaved for a moment as if he was about to vomit. To his credit, he held his constitution long enough to speak and run away. "Well I've seen some shit to know I ain't staying here."

Melanie, who was a little more used to seeing a bit of gore walked beside me as I tried my best to avoid the growing stream of blood running from his body. As I made an attempt to examine the situation, she looked up to see an open window with a curtain hanging out. "Murder, maybe?" She asked.

As I looked to where her eyes met, I trailed from it to the ground he rested on. "That's a hell of a fall. I know that much."

Looking at the stallion, I realized that I had to make some attempt to identify the body. And since I didn't have anything in the way of gloves, I didn't have much of a choice but to do it the old fashioned way. I walked over to one of the smaller trees and wrestled a small but sturdy branch off to use. As I started to poke the stick underneath the face of the dead stallion, Mel complained. "You're gonna touch him with your bare hands?"

"I ain't got gloves to work with, Mel. They don't make latex gloves for humans."

She continued to voice her concern as I tried my best not to touch him. "Still, that shit is unsanitary, and you're running the risk of an infection."

"I ran the risk of getting hurt just for standing in one damn spot, as you can tell." I replied back.

Finally realizing I couldn't get it done with just a stick, I sucked up any bad vibes I had and remembered that I had to cut open an arimaspi to hide for my life. Realizing I had done much worse, I settled to moving his head with my hand to note any distinctive marks on him. "Nondis, I think this is─"

"Wait a minute..." I said, looking to the top of the deformed head I propped up. turning his head, to the other side, I could see there was a noticeable chunk of it's ear missing. Looking at the protruding eye, I could see it's color, it's golden ring. The cutie mark was a first, but the mane color and the coat started to piece it all together for me. "SSSSSsssss-oooooooohhhhhh."

"What?" She asked almost responding in second nature.

"Who's this guy's next-of-kin?" I asked, pointing to him with a bloodied hand.

"Why?" She asked, backing away as she looked at my hand.

"Cause I'm sure they're gonna be a wealthy ass." I said as I realized I didn't have anything to dry my hands off but my own shirt. And knowing I couldn't just leave him there in the open for others to see, I had to make a quick decision and take off my shirt and use it as a towel before draping it over his head and torso.

"I'm not sure if Rarity would appreciate you leaving one of her shirts on a dead body." Chided Melanie.

"You wanna keep looking at this mess?" I asked sarcastically.

"No." She answered in a disgusted deadpan.

I started to reach in my pocket for my phone, pulling up Shining's number. "Is the portal to our world open?"

"I'm sure I left it open." She replied, just before I could get a dial tone.

For a few seconds, I waited until I could hear the young prince's voice on the other end of the line, among a myriad of noises. "Shining Armor." I called out.

In the background, I could hear music as the stallion chuckled to someone else before answering me. "Oh, hey Nondis. Hey, I just broke the news to Twily and her friends. You would not believe her reaction to all of it."

"Again, congrats on the baby. But we need to talk." I stated seriously.

He paused for a moment, realizing my tone was not as friendly or carefree as usual. "Sure, what's up?"

"Well... I'm in the castle courtyard right now. There's a dead stallion at my feet. Cutie mark of a yellow crown and three jewels within, smoke gray coat, formerly unicorn, gray mane. Wanna guess who's face is currently resting on the cobblestone?" I said as I tossed the stick away to the side.

"I don't think I know anypony like that." Said Shining.

"I do. His name is Count DuMoneé."

Author's Note

Hey there, wishing you all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS/HANUKKAH/KWANZAA/HOLIDAY SEASON. Thank you for sticking around and as a way of getting into the holiday spirit, I shall now sing to you the spoilers of my people! OOOOOHHHH!

♫On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:
A close shave with Count DuMoneé!♪

Whoever can come up with the other twelve can comment down below and I will come up with a master post of the best ones I've seen! Here's to a happy new year to all of you!

Chapter LXXIX

About an hour passed since the time of the incident occurred. A small gathering of guards and coroners circled around as the deceased Count DuMoneé lied on the ground, his mangled face hiding under the shirt I draped over it. As some took pictures of the scene, I was left behind to answer the questions. Mel left to help Alex with mom and dad while I stayed back here to clear any possible suspicions. Either way they tried to see it, I was far from the one responsible.

But don't tell that to the hard-nosed investigators that tried to squeeze me for any testimony.

"So you're saying you had nothing to do with this?"

"If I had anything to do with it, would I be calling you guys in?" I replied.

The coroner stood stoic as he replied. "Happens more often than not. Husband kills his wife, hollers throughout the street that someone murdered her, we take him in for questioning, stories don't match over time, later confesses to it, booked, charged, executed."

"And being the fact that he almost fell on me, I'm supposed to be the one who did it?"

"Nopony's saying you did it." He answered. "We're just trying to make sure you had nothing to do with it."

"Look, the last time me and this guy met was when he was in the hall, having some psychotic episode and I was stuck in a wheelchair. If anything, I think he could've jumped."

The coroner looked up to the open window and then back to me. "So you think he might have had a suicidal thought, jumped out the window, and by happenstance land right next to you?"

"You above all others should know that truth is stranger than fiction." I replied as I folded my arms. "And if you don't believe that I had nothing to do with it, then I have about... um..." I stopped for a moment to count out to myself how many people were with me at the time. I proceeded to count on each finger with each name that came to mind. "...Five, six, seve─yeah, seven other witnesses in the castle."

"Each of them being humans, correct?"

As I answered his question, one of the other coroners walked up to him and whispered something in his ear. "Yes sir."

He turned away from me and the other started to ask questions. "Well according to a few guards here, it seemed that the two of you were at odds. You wouldn't happen to know anyone else who would be at odds with him also?"

"Not that I know of."

"It's also been said that he had been taking some medication throughout the years. Apparently he was battling a few things. You wouldn't happen to know where those particular pills are?"

"If there's anything I don't do, I never touch a person's meds. I've had a grandparent who was dealing with PTSD from a war he fought decades ago, so I know better than that."

"And there's no ulterior motive for having him dead?"

"Is that to assume I called a hit or something?" I inquired.

"Well it wouldn't surprise anyone. After all, he forged your name to donate your body to science and seemingly tried to send an element bearer on recommendation to the same dangerous assignment you were sent to. Seems like a pretty solid motive to simply take away something he needed to remain stable. Or perhaps you might have had someone else to remove those pills from his workplace."

"His assistant Single File was the one who informed me that he was undergoing medicinal treatment. And even then, he was asking me if anyone had seen any of those pills."

"Do you remember what medication he was supposed to be taking?" He questioned.

"I don't remember that. I remember that I was attacked by him while I was still in a wheelchair, by Count DuMoneé and not the assistant. The assistant was trying his best to keep his boss restrained."

The first coroner then stepped in to ask more questions. "Okay, let's change the angle here. So you were attacked when you were still on the road to your recovery, correct?"

"That's true, yes."

"And would you happen to remember the exact details of that attack."

"He looked to my human friend, Melanie, the female. I remember him mumbling something about her 'supposing to be dead' or something. All I know is that he was knocked clean out by the assistant shortly after giving us the creeps."

He looked back up the window and tapped a pen on his chin. "So let's go back to today now. Let's say that you're completely innocent. Now, he falls out of a window at the exact moment you walk by. Do you suppose that this could have been another attack made against you?"

"I don't see any weapons on him, so no. The only way it would've made sense was if he was trying to use a spell, which he could easily cast from the height of that window."

"Not legally, he wouldn't." The first coroner said. "I'm sure you're aware of certain magic restriction laws placed on citizens to deter them from independent research of level four offensive spells or higher, right?"

"He wouldn't be able to legally, but he would be capable of it." Another voice chimed in from behind us, we turned around to see Single File standing with a distant glare in his eyes as Shining stood beside him.

"Shining, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"The moment you called, I had to come by and help clear some things up for you, like your name in particular." He stated as he trotted over to the body, partially lifting the shirt and wincing at the sight of his mangled head. "Oooh, any witnesses?"

"Seven... including my parents who were visiting." I stated, causing the young prince to wince once more.

"Oh that's rough. I'd say I'd want to meet them, but I'd have to take care of a few things. So why don't you go on ahead and check with them."

As I looked back to Single File, he was already on his haunches with tears in his eyes, grieving over his deceased boss. The stallion tried to answer any questions the best he could, but would often have to take some time before he could continue. "They seemed pretty close." I noted.

"When a guy gives you a door to walk through and start your life, wouldn't it hurt you to know they're dead?" Shining replied somberly. "I don't like the guy personally, but Single File's life could've been worse than it was before he got picked up. You have to keep these things in mind. Meaning that they weren't the best individual living doesn't mean they haven't made a difference in someone's life."

I groaned with dismay at the prince. "Ugh, you make it seem like you're justifying him."

"Oh no, he can rot in hell for all I care. Just know that even the blackest-hearted individuals from a historical perspective have done something to make someone else's day, in some way, form, or fashion. The road to hell is paved with good intentions as well as the bad, it's like the cobblestone we walk on. Vengeance, disregarding the lives of others to save the lives of those closest to you, casting judgement, or even outweighing one life over the other, these are the things that we don't wanna talk about... but they do happen."

As much as it pains me to say, he's right. If I tried to take one name of a notorious historical figure, there would always be an odd fact attributed to that person's life that would make us wonder 'what if' or 'what made them the way they were'. Vlad the Impaler wanted vengeance on the Muslims for what they did to him when he was young. Hitler was an artist and a gifted orator, but a cruel man to deny the rights of others to say the least. Stalin unfairly judged others in sending them to death camps, but studied as a PRIEST with academic merits when he was young. Or my grandfather, who was forced to live with the shame of killing innocent men, women, and children at the behest of a vengeful commander.

...In all variants of reality, those words were the cruelest truth.

When I had entered into the throne room, I could see mom holding herself, trying her best to cope with what she just saw. Dad sat in a corner with his head resting in his arm, his mind stirring on the very unsettling thought of watching someone die in front of him. Alex tried his best to calm mom, but she didn't want to listen to anything he had to say. The guards who stood at attention beside the doors watched silently as I approached the group of humans.

"Nondis, what happened to your shirt?" Stanton questioned.

"It's hiding a face you don't wanna see." I responded. "It was messy to begin with, so I'll have to change in a bit. I just wanted to check in on you guys before I did."

Celestia turned around to see me standing in her court without one and lightly smiled. "At least your family's courtesy isn't lost on you." She then looked to my parents and spoke. "You both raised such wonderful boys."

Mom didn't pay her any mind as she walked up to me and snagged me by the arm towards the throne. As she did, she pointed towards her and instructed me. "You walk up to her and tell her that you're not doing this anymore!"

I sighed as I struggled forward. "Mom, come on. It's fine, you don't have to do this."

She frowned before she pushed me forward to the princess. "You tell her, cause I've already said it once, I've said it twice, I've said it a million times that I don't want you to be here."

The doors opened to the hall outside, with the visitation of a party of ponies. Cadance and Twilight stepped forward first before the others started filing in. Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity all stepped forward with smiles on their faces as they seemed eager to introduce themselves. Cadance and Twilight became the first two to bow out of respect to Princess Celestia, who welcomed the two. "I see the two of you have made your return from Ponyville. Did something happen to where your visit was cut short?"

"Shining Armor just had some conversation with Nondis and he pretty much shut down everything. He wouldn't tell us exactly what." Cadance replied before she looked to the two other humans present. "And I see we have visitors today."

Twilight stepped before my dad, trying to see if anything was wrong with him. "Mr. Haines, is something the matter?"

My father looked up to see the purple pony princess staring back at him with a hoof extended to him. He scoffed as he instantly recognized the voice. "Holy hell, you are definitely one of them."

Twilight appeared confused as she started to retract her hoof. "Oh... I guess he told you everything."

Dad looked to me with a scowl. "No, my son didn't really tell us jack shit. I had to find out by your mother that you were getting hitched without our knowledge."

Twilight frowned as she took a step back. "Mom told you!? What did she tell you?"

"Oh, just that our son was getting married to some pony knowing how we'd felt about that." He answered as he stood up. "And then he tells us about how his getting involved with you triggers some bullshit excuse of a law that forces him to do a bunch of things without his consent. And to top it all off, he supposedly has assassination attempts against him. Then to top it all off, some pony fell out of a window and smacked his head against the pavement almost hitting my son. Now, with all that being said, how do you think I feel, little miss princess?"

Rainbow brazenly hollered out. "Oh for Celestia's sake, another assassination attempt!?"

Something about Rainbow's wording made mom even more irrational as she urged Celestia to accept my resignation. "You hear that? That's the sound of my son being repeatedly attacked for just merely existing here! Now get him OUT!"

I turned around to Rainbow and corrected her. "Rainbow, I highly doubt it was anything like that."

Applejack then spoke up. "Sugarcube, let's think this one through. If somepony landed short of getting you, then don't ya think that they could've been aimin' fer ya?"

Rarity walked up to me quickly as she noted my lack of clothing. "And whatever happened to your wearing a shirt, dear? In the months we've known you, you've always made it clear that you go around clothed. This is probably the first time I've seen you go public without a top."

Fluttershy then murmured to the others. "Perhaps the shirt was damaged in the attack?"

Pinkie looked at my hands and gasped as she noticed the slight amount of red. She quickly galloped towards me, holding my hand up to her face. "...Non-non... what happened?"

"Well since we're talking assassins..." Dad started off. "I guess one of them decided to kamikaze his way into hurting our son! He missed, barely."

Rainbow looked at my dad with some level of confusion. "Um... what's a kamikaze?"

Stanton promptly answered her question. "Suicide pilot, nose dive to target, disregard life."

Rainbow remained bewildered as she crossed her eyes. "That's just dumb, who throws away their life just to have a chance at killing someone?"

"Anyone who joins the military!" Mom screamed before turning her attention back to Celestia. "Now do us the courtesy and remove my son from your branch of service so that he may come home and never come back to this place again!"

"WHAT!?" The other ponies, including Cadance, exclaimed. Twilight didn't seem phased by it as much, knowing that this was something she made abundantly clear just yesterday.

Rarity became the brave soul to argue against my mother's wishes. "With all due respect, Mrs. Haines, but why do you wish for him to be removed? He's doing such a magnificent job!"

Cadance, surprisingly, also came to my defense. "Mr. Haines, Mrs. Haines, if I can attest to your son's accolades─"

"HIS ACCOLADES!? HE SHOULDN'T EVEN BE HERE!" Mom screamed again, allowing for her anger to boil over like it did yesterday in Twilight's throne room. "My son should be at home, safe from all hurt, harm, and danger!"

While my mom continued her rant, Celestia found herself lacking ever bit of patience for her. "With all due respect, Mrs. Haines, if you can give us a moment." She first cast a bubble of silence over her and then turned to me, asking quietly. "Now as to this 'assassination attempt', what happened Nondis?"

"I told you, guy just landed right next to me."

Twilight teleported over to me as she inspected my body for any cuts and bruises. "Well you seem to be safe, that's always a good thing."

Cadance then questioned me. "So... now begins the investigation as to the individual, the motive, and─"

"The coroners right now think that someone might have intentionally sabotaged Count DuMoneé's meds." I interrupted. "That's why I don't see this as an assassination attempt. Something else had to have happened."

Cadance shook her head and waved her hooves out in disbelif. "Hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me get this straight... Coroners are investigating Count DuMoneé? So are you telling me he's DEAD???

"I mean he's sitting in the courtyard, got my shirt draped over him and everything."

Celestia and Twilight both gasped from the shock of the news as Celestia questioned me. "Are you sure, are you sure that is who it was?"

"When I was on my way to Canterlot for my summons after Twilight's birthday, I got into a scuffle with Spike. I might have lost a bit of self control and bit off a portion of Count's ear. That being said, how could I not identify the one feature of him that I myself inflicted?"

"Wow." Twilight said, covering her mouth with her wings. "Count DuMoneé is dead."

Alex, overhearing the last bit of conversation, interjected himself. "Wait, that fucker's dead!?"

"Who's dead again?" Rickey questioned.

"Count DuMoneé." Melanie answered. "Nondis ID'd him shortly after you guys left."

"Holy hell." Stanton smirked as he spoke. "Bastard smacked the ground like a damn sack of potatoes."

"Ding dong, the witch is dead." Cliff said to himself.

"Which old witch?" Stanton called back.

"That son of a bitch." Mel stated proudly.

"And he'll be lying in state by Wednesday afternoon." Cadance added.

Dad walked up to mom and questioned in place of her. "Okay, what's going on now?"

"Well, dad..." Alex began. "The one who wanted your son to go to dangerous missions so he could die was the one that landed on the ground. So yeah, he's dead, so I guess Nondis is safer now than he was this morning."

"But in all seriousness, what is this?" He asked, tapping his finger against the surface of the barrier produced by Celestia. "I know my wife is still yelling at you, but I can't hear a thing."

"Bubble of silence spell." I answered, looking nervously at mom as I was unsure if she knew whether or not we could hear her tirade. "I'm sure she can hear us, but... we can't hear her." And just like that, mom went completely apeshit as she bashed her fists against the barrier. Apparently she didn't know that we couldn't hear her until just then, which made me even more nervous that she'd have to pull that bubble down eventually.

Dad looked at the barrier and cringed out of fear, not wanting to see the complete animal mom can become when she gets angry enough. He walked up to me and whispered in my ear. "How long does this last?"

"Caster's discretion." I replied.

He looked back to mom, who was still slamming her fists against the barrier. "I'm gonna have to ask that you get her to calm down before you take her out of that thing."

"I already know." I answered, walking past him and apologizing to mom. "Mom, I know this seems a little out of place, but they had some important questions and I had some important information to disclose to my superiors. Even if this was supposed to be an 'assassination attempt' in theory, I can assure you that it probably wasn't. The coroners will look into it and we'll get a summation of what's going on. So we're sorry that we had to kinda put you in the timeout bubble, but we really need you to calm down. Last thing you wanna hear, I know. But if you're willing to calmly negotiate with us right now, then we can let you out of here. Okay?"

Mom huffed and puffed as her hair grew wild and disheveled over her face. She seemed to take a few deep breaths and clear her face of the strands of hair. Pulling her hair back, she tried to make herself look presentable before she gave me a thumbs up. I looked to Celestia as she deactivated the spell. Finally, mom was freed of her audible prison and spoke calmly. "Nondis..."

She looked around the throne room, seeing the decor and all the stained glass windows depicting the different events of Equestria's history. But shortly after that, her attention was brought back to me as I responded. "Yes?"

Mom then spoke in a low, dire tone while she straightened herself out some more. "This is not up for discussion. Your future is not here." She said as the ponies all lowered their ears out of sadness. "You might have made a few friends, warmed a few hearts, and made some other people happy, but it's time to go back to the real world."

I found myself facepalming at her words. Before I knew it, I was looking at my chest. "You know, mom, losing two feet of intestine and having to relearn how to walk feels kind of real to me. Being scared for my life feels kind of real. Breaking my collarbone and having it reset, breaking my arm, dealing with a perforated lung because of some broken ribs, the concussions, getting stabbed, or even getting punched in the face was very real. All the friends I made, the things I did, all of it is real."

Mom stopped herself before she could lose her mind again, taking a few deep breaths before she finally spoke to me quietly. "Home is not here, sweetie. None of this is home, it's tomfoolery. Now I know you had fun here, but it's time to grow up and do something to contribute to society. Our society."

Just hearing her say it made me shake my head. "But I'm not grown enough to make my own decisions?"

Dad sighed as he did what a loving husband could do for his family. "Son, your mother is worried sick. She doesn't like any of this and I can't abide by it either. I think it's time, now that everyone's here, to say goodbye."

Mom lunged forward to grab my arm. "And you ain't staying her another minute─" But her attempt fell short as I backed away from her, folding my arms to where she couldn't just grab it. She tried to grab at me again, only to watch me step back again. For a few seconds she paused before closing her eyes to me, asking. "Us or them?"

Somewhere inside of my mind, I was already playing out the worst case scenarios through and through. Each one of them pretty much yielding the same result as what I was gonna get out of her. And because of that, my chest started to ache and my heart sank into the pit of my stomach. My breath grew short as I spoke. "Mom, it ain't even gotta be like─"

Mom asked once more, this time with force behind her voice. "THEM or US."

"...So you're making me choose?" I asked quietly.

Alex then interrupted with an emotional plea, standing between me and her. "Mom, c'mon. Don't be like that, he just needs to get some─"

Mom then replied. "That lady said he had a day, well it's been a day. So... Home or them? I will not ask again."

Before I could even draw breath for anything, Pinkie pushed against me with a light smile. "Nons... I think you should go."

Applejack, who appeared mortified that I was left with such a drastic choice walked up to me with a somber expression. "Ah guess y'all weren't kiddin' around with that one. But, if family calls fer ya..."

Rarity nuzzled against me as she lamented on the thought of this being my final farewell. "Oh, I am going to miss making clothes for you. I had the cutest thing set aside for you to wear next week."

Before anyone else could talk, I walked up to mom with a pained expression on my face, my voice trembling with both rage and sadness. Her eyes widened as I spoke to her. "Mom... I think... I think you held on to grandpa long enough."

*SMACK*

The hit I got from mom was so potent that it basically knocked me off balance and sent me stumbling the opposite way. The flash of stars and lights made the world around me seem a tad darker than what it actually was for a second or two before my eyes regained their focus. When I looked back, I could see mom seething at me. The guards at the doors quickly lowered their spears as if they were ready to charge in and diffuse the situation, but I motioned them to remain in place. Mom stared back at me as I spoke again.

"What happened to gramps wasn't fair for him. He made a decision because he feared death, because his own commander threatened to put a bullet in his head. So instead of dying then and there, not experiencing you, he chose to live with those demons and be with you. Now I ain't too spiritual nowadays, but I don't think God would've let me experience this just for me to leave it. If there was a personification of a higher call, it couldn't be any more obvious than this. So yeah, I'm here, but I can always come by to visit─"

"Mmm-mmm..." Mom hummed, shaking her head and backing away from where she stood. Alex and Stanton both looked on with dismay as she talked. "No son of mine would throw their life away, throw away such promise. You're doing it for a bunch of ANIMALS!"

"LAST I CHECKED, WE'RE JUST AS ANIMAL AS THE ONES WE LOOK AT!" I screamed back, feeling even more depressed as my words began to flow. "Yeah, we can be smarter, we're so sophisticated that we developed technology that would've been our wildest dreams thirty years ago! But we eat, we sleep, we shit, we breed, we breathe all the same! But now that something else is talking back to you with just as much sense as another man, you want to label that as an ANIMAL, failing to realize that we have as much right to be in a zoo with the rest of them! There's more life out in the great beyond of space, and if they ever came to visit, they'd see us just as animal as the dogs you feed. So what if they are, we are no different!"

Mom turned away from me, screaming at dad. "Harold, I wanna go home!"

Melanie walked beside her and tried to reason with her. "Mrs. Haines, Nondis is just─"

My mother, finally losing her nerve, snapped back at Mel as she pointed to me with some of the most destructive words I've heard uttered towards my existence. "Nondis died when he drove his car off that bridge... My son died when he couldn't get out that car. That's where my Nondis is, cause that man over there ain't him!"

I wasn't exactly sure what I felt at that moment. The only thing I know was that I was standing there, feeling something. I don't think I even went through any motions as dad walked up to me with a final plea. "Son, you gotta think of your─" It was just like the moment when I saw the dagger in my stomach, just feeling, resigning, accepting things as they are, nothing was going to change what happened, and if it hurts, then I'd hurt. If I die, I die. People die when they are killed, there's no response to counter that. If it was an act of metaphorical filicide, then there's no other option but to play it in full.

With a strange smile on my face, I looked to dad and said. "Go on home, Mr. Haines. Thank you for visiting fair Equestria."

Hours passed since the events of today transpired. I stayed to myself for most of the time, I didn't come by the dining hall for dinner like the other members of staff. I didn't stick around to speak with the girls. If there was one thing I did, it was just sit in my room and spin my phone around on the table. It wasn't like I had service since all the portals were shut down, and if I didn't have service here then no one did.

I pretty much decided that it would be best for me to become the same way for a while, unplugged from everyone for a moment just to review my thoughts. Not much in the way of concerns because there was nothing to be concerned about now. The worst came, saw, and conquered. The only thing I could do was sit in my room.

Funny, that's all I did when I first came to this world.

The moment the ponies left my room that first day was the moment where I had to come to terms with my not being at home anymore. I spent all night trying to pray to a God I didn't believe in to get me back home quickly. But instead of going out to learn more about the world I was in for my survival, I just holed myself in, trying to delude myself into thinking this was all just a dream. Like how the hell did I even get here to begin with, this ain't the world I'm used to, this wasn't the physics I understood.

Where's my phone, I want to surf YouTube to distract me. Where's my computer, I wanna go on the internet and shitpost about games and anime. Where's my XBox, I wanna shoot people in the face and hear them rage like a twelve year old getting their system taken away for bad grades. What's on TV, I wanna watch something awesome. What's on the news, I don't care. What's up with this bed, it's so small I have to drape my legs over the edge to fit. Why is my blanket so small, I wanna cover my head as I sleep so I can pretend I'm back home.

Ten months ago, those were my thoughts. As for today... Google; search 'living without parents.'

Somewhere inside me, it felt like my parents were dead to me. And the only thing I wanted them to do was to understand what was happening with me and realize the purpose I found in living for the time being. I didn't mind them not completely accepting it, but they had to acknowledge that I was starting to find myself in who I was with it. Instead, my mother feels resigned to say that I died when I fell into the gulf. Dad is too busy trying to please her in her angered state to even care about how I felt.

That was probably the gut punch of it all. Dad didn't even get nearly as angry with my being momentarily engaged to Twilight as mom was. Dad didn't mind that I found myself in the military because he's been wanting me to fend for myself all throughout my life, even going so far as to getting into a fight with me back in high school senior year. But mom was never really the one I pegged that would have the meltdown, it was always dad. Although I should've expected it to be that way since mom was always very emotional about us. But if you place your faith in assumptions, this is what you get.

I'm sure my brothers are trying to call me and let me in on what's going on, but I didn't need to know right now. I just wanted peace and quiet, I just wanted some time alone so I could reconvene. That's really want I wanted to have for myself. It might not be what I actually need, but it felt better than taking the bitter medicine of the current reality. Just let me stay in my escape, I just wanna rot for a while.

*knock knock knock knock knock*

It didn't matter who was at the door today, I wasn't in the mood to answer for anyone. I just wanted to be left alone, so I didn't even answer, hoping to put some doubt in their head as to whether or not I'm in the room. Whoever it was could just go away.

*knock knock knock knock knock knock knock*

Again, I didn't answer. I didn't even move. But that didn't even stop them.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

Whoever it was, I had to admit they were very persistent and strong, but it only served to annoy me. In either case, I wouldn't answer them. But that didn't deter them.

*BANG... BANG... BANG...*

Okay, now they're just being ridiculous. I rolled my eyes as I plugged my ears closed with my fingers, tuning out the noise. But it didn't work out well for me as the next thing that came up was far louder than any loudspeaker at my door.

"YOU ARE IN THERE, AND YOU ARE NOT ANSWERING! THEREFORE OUT OF CONCERN FOR YOU WELL-BEING, I WILL NOW FORCE MYSELF INTO THE ROOM! DO NOT ATTEMPT TO IMPEDE!"

As if her voice wasn't impeding enough. Cadance then proceeded to teleport herself into the room and took a deep breath as she looked at me, still plugging my ears.

"I SEE THAT YOU ARE DOING WELL AND NOT IN ANY MORTAL DANGER! HOWEVER I SEE THAT YOU ARE AUDIBLY IMPAIRED FOR THE TIME BEING! SO FROM NOW ON I SHALL SPEAK TO YOU AT A VOLUME APPROPRIATE FOR YOUR SELF-INFLICTED DYSFUNCTION! I SHALL NOW QUESTION YOU AS TO THE STATE OF YOUR PERSONAL AFFAIRS!"

I unplugged my ears as my room stopped rumbling for long enough to let me reply. "I'm not deaf, though you're making a case of why I should be."

The pink princess gave me a smirk as she stood victoriously. "Well I guess you wouldn't have to deal with stuff like that if you were willing to answer your door. Twilight and the others have been standing outside wondering if you were okay for the past two hours."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because they're worried for you! You don't think that us being here was by accident, did you? Shining told Twilight that you called him over some important matters in Canterlot, so she suggested that we drop everything we were doing and come to check in on you! Isn't that good enough?"

I rolled my eyes and dismissed her statement. "However nice her intentions were, it doesn't even matter anymore. I'm dead to my parents, so it's pretty obvious that I shouldn't care what they think anymore."

Cadance sat on her haunches, perfectly imitating her stance on the matter; steadfast. "Are you listening to me!? We are worried for you, and last I checked you're only dead to one of your parents."

"Yeah, I'm dead to the one that gave birth to me. She's sitting in her fucking house wishing I did actually die instead of telling her the truth! How am I supposed to feel!?"

The princess took a deep breath as she walked over to the door, unlocking it and allowing for the others to enter. Twilight walked in alongside her mother, her father, and her brother. Behind them, they closed the door and allowed Cadance to speak once more. "I know it's not fair to you. And I know that you sitting here with this dead expression on your face doesn't do much in the way of trying to improve your mood. I understand you want to be alone, but that's not gonna cut it anymore."

Twilight then added. "Nondis, the things you've done here could never be undervalued. Who you are and what you mean to us is something that could never be undersold like some cheap gift. And the fact that you even went against your mom to say you'd stay was more indicative of who you are as a person... even if we are, and I quote, a bunch of animals."

I felt a tinge of pain as that word caused me to cringe. "Twilight, none of you are like that! Even if my world is different, I don't see you like that. I stopped seeing that the moment I woke up to a bunch of you talking to me, telling me that everything was going to be alright. But now I feel like that's just what we as a species will look at you all like. And that's not fair to any of you."

Velvet then spoke up as she trotted over to my side. "Sweetheart, I get what you're trying to do, but that apology isn't yours to make. And I know that if I say anything demeaning of your kin, then I would be no better than the accusation she made of us."

"And besides, we knew that she wasn't on board with the idea of you being with Twilight just from the reaction of your friend Melanie. When we came around, the first thing she resorted to was hiding herself." Crescent explained. "And it's true, it wasn't really fair to you that you were forced to marriage plans upon finding interest in our daughter."

"The fact that you even brought them here when you didn't have to was just a testament to how much you were willing to make good on your honesty to your parents instead of hiding things like you normally would." Twilight suggested. "I know I showed up to your world just to get to know who your parents were. But in the end, I didn't even bother to pay that much attention to everything you said of them."

"No that's my fault." I replied. "I placed on you the expectation that we had to appease my dad more than my mom. But I just didn't want her to know my lifestyle in the guard. But from the moment she found out, I knew that this whole trip was gonna be a mess. That's my bad."

Shining then sat on the bed as he spoke. "I know you made some mention of your grandfather being a military guy, I even pegged you down for being a legacy brat like me. But if I had known you were going to have some hell to answer to with your mom, then I could've came around sooner. It's just too bad that my being here was because of my trying to clean up some other mess. Now THAT wasn't fair to you, what happened as a result wasn't fair to you, nothing about today was."

Velvet then spoke up again. "If you ask me personally, I think your mother made a mistake in choosing to be angry. That wasn't her decision to make whether or not you do anything to make YOU happy. I know she said she wanted you to grow up, but she didn't see just how much you did! We keep telling her all the things you've done for others, how selfless you are, the diligence you show in your duties, the ability in your completing a job! You're working with your own place, a cute girl to talk to every once and a while, and you even have a few others in a higher circle backing you up each step of the way!"

Cadance added. "You might not have know much about this until recently, but Alex came to me and Celestia about trying to get Twilight over to your world without it being too much trouble for you. Celestia bypassed a lot of duties and had me fill in for a bunch of them just so she could meet that deadline. That's why I was at the party piss-drunk and angry because I was busy being away from my husband when we were supposed to have a day together. If only I knew the other reasons why my body didn't agree with what I was doing, then I wouldn't have been so venomous."

"If anything, that just makes it appear that I was in the wrong there." I answered. "Had I know you were lugging some extra baggage for the upcoming journey, then I would've been more reserved."

Cadance lightly chuckled before frowning. "Let's be honest, my interrogating Chrysalis didn't help in the way of my confidence. The entire time, she just taunted me over Shining Armor and everything about that wedding. So instead of letting my husband take care of that like I should have, I ended up being tainted."

I wanted to smile for her happiness, even despite the many times she pissed me off or got in the way of my relationship with Twilight. But the events of today weighted too heavily in my mind, so much that I lost the capability to do so. "I can only hope that you are going to love your foal as unconditionally as you love your husband. And if they do something wrong, try not to scold them too much."

Cadance paused for a moment and looked towards her own body. "If anything, today's experience taught me what not to do as a mom. I can't use my magic to make things go away for you, I could but that wouldn't teach anything. So I can only hope for the best when it comes to your family, because even if we don't agree on many things, I won't wish for a mother to disown her own son."

"Thanks. And I hope that thing growing in your belly grows up to be big and strong." I replied, sitting back on the bed to stare at the time on my phone, still seeing no bars of reception.

Shining veered over and gave me a light nudge with his hoof. "Hey, I know we're kinda crazy, but how about it?"

"How about what?" I asked.

Velvet finished his suggestion, cutting in where he left off. "Of course we could never replace your mom and dad, but we can treat you just as family as we do with Spike. If your mom is done raising you, which she shouldn't be, I wouldn't mind to take a crack at it! Now note that we're NOT replacing anypony, just stepping in. After all, there's no such thing as growing up without parental guidance. Of course the visitations start to get scarce, you hardly ever hear much from them but around once or twice a month, and then they start having families of their own." She said, looking to Cadance proudly. "Before you know it, they'll be just as worried about things like who's looking to take care of the baby, the cost of daycare."

"Food, clothes for the cold because of their weak immune systems, clean linens, environments to be raised in, putting away a few paychecks for the old college fund, the whole nine yards. I know Shining and Cadance are royalty starting their own family, but there's no better advice than to talk to the ones who's done it all for well over twenty years." Crescent said as he ruffled his son's mane.

Twilight followed Shining's example and sat on the bed next to me, leaning in against me. "I know this feels out of place and really sudden, but we didn't want you to feel like you didn't have an emotional support network. The last thing we need to see is you going back to being stuck in a room for well over a week. You came so far from where you were when you first came here."

"Especially that one time he was stuck in a bathroom." Shining joked.

Twilight cracked up at the distant memory, but quickly corrected herself after using her wing to slap her brother's back. "You came a long way, Nondis, even I can say that. And we might not be together now, but you came up pretty well as a suitor. Just don't go breaking hearts and you got my stamp of approval."

"And try not to get into too much trouble." Cadance advised sternly. "Cause if you do, I'll come and hunt you down myself."

"I'll keep him reigned in, sweetie." Shining said with another nudge to my side.

"And if you need any advice on anything guard related, you know you can come to me or Shining. Don't be afraid to know what you're not supposed to technically know, just as long as it's not illegal." Crescent stated.

The five ponies, each of them with brightened faces, reminded me so much of the moment when I first came here. I remembered that first day, my hiding underneath my sheets to not look at their faces as the spoke. Just the one encounter with Twilight's magic made me fear genuinely for my life, as if I was going to be dragged to some torture chamber for someone's sick amusement. But instead of that, they assured me my safety and promised to look after me, to provide something if I needed it. This was almost an instant replay of that moment, only I knew who they were and what they could do this time.

And for the first time in well over a few hours, I could put on a simple smile and feel comfort in knowing that the worst is indeed over. From now on was the beginning to healing instead of worry and regret. It felt wonderful to know that, and even though my mother practically disowned me, there were a few nuggets I could take from this experience. For the first time, my dad felt proud that I could fight. It might be a small sample size and the emotions are still smoldering, but somewhere inside I felt that they would subside to understanding. I had hope for the future now, and the five ponies in my room did enough to ensure that.

Perhaps I had a sixth to talk to after for her words of encouragement. "Thank you. Thank you all."

I looked at the doors of Celestia's personal chamber, tracing out the image of her sun sigil. My hand froze for a few seconds before I tapped my fist against the thick wood of her door. For moments, I heard nothing, wanting to assume that she didn't quite hear me the first time around. So I tapped the door a second time, this time a little bit louder. Still no response.

I suppose that the lack of guards being in the hall should've given it away that she wasn't in her room, so I turned around and committed myself to visit later tonight or sometime tomorrow. But instead of leaving right away, I ended up catching Celestia turning into the hall with a few guards following her for security. She appeared surprised to see me out of my sulk before she turned around to the guards, as well as a coroner and a state official, dismissing them for the time being.

She walked up to me before she used her magic to unlock her door and give herself entrance to her room. Without a word, she used her magic on my arm to pull me inside after her. The high princess then closed the door and spoke. "Captain, is everything in order?"

I ended up shrugging. "I guess we'll see in a few days, hopefully mom doesn't let it linger for too long."

She placed a slight interest in the side of my face, seeing a slight bruise from where my mom slapped me. "I would've never guessed that your mother would be so passionately opposed to your being here. It's a concern of mine to see you remain in spite of your family's wishes."

"They'll get used to it." I noted, walking over to a nearby mirror to see the damage for the first time, a large red mark outlining the palm of her hand and fingers. "Yup, momma can still slap the hell out of me."

"The guards behind you treated it as if you were attacked." She noted.

"I saw, I called them off before they could do anything."

"Had I been unassuming of the circumstances, I would've intervened in a similar manner." She replied.

"I think you would've jumped right in, I've seen how you fight." I said with a chortle.

The princess weakly laughed in response. "I don't... I don't think you have."

"Well if that's the case, then I don't want to find out cause you can be terrifying."

She pulled me down to her eye level by my shirt's collar and looked at my face. "My gracious, she left an ugly impression on you."

"I'm used to it from my dad's end of the deal. We actually got into a fist fight when I was younger." I explained. "So this is light stuff.

"But I've never seen you thrown off balance by something so simple of an attack."

"If it's momma, then you might as well call it a war crime." I joked, feeling the side of my face. "But that's not why I came here."

Her lavender eyes glanced back at me as her horn ignited with her magic. The golden glow illuminated the space around her as she whispered. "You are comfortable with me removing my regalia, are you not?"

I was initially thrown off by her suggestion before I answered her. "Uh... sure, go wild."

The princess then removed her slippers, as well as her crown. Her eyes looked back at me before she removed her chest piece, but quickly glanced away. "I know this may seem strange to request, but can you turn around for a moment."

"Okay. Do you." I quickly grew a bit flushed as I turned around with my eyes closed. As I had my eyes closed, I could hear nothing but the sound of a large metal object softly clang against her hoof as she placed it carefully on a rest of some sort. The next thing I heard was the familiar hum of a magic spell being cast. And then for a few minutes at a time, I could hear nothing but the sound of zippers and cloth shifting. And then at last, silence.

However, she caught me by surprise as a pair of soft arms draped around my neck and down to my chest, holding me close as she pressed herself against me in what could've been the best hug I've ever felt. The princess didn't say anything for a while as she tightened her grip a little, breathing against the back of my neck and shoulders as she whispered. "You deserve so much more than this."

My eyes opened as I looked to my side, seeing her saddened visage partially hidden by the plentiful, colorful locks of her hair. The transformed princess continued to hold me.

"I still do not understand why you chose to be here with us instead of going back home. You're free to do as you choose, there's no attachment here for you to think about. You could've made your family happy, but you stayed. Why?"

I simply answered. "Why not?"

The princess looked at me, wondering why I was content with the choice I made, but still smiled. "...Thank you for choosing us. You didn't have to, but you did."

"I did what I did because you all gave me a second chance to reimage myself. You all took care of me when I needed it. You didn't need to build me a way home, and yet you built one for me, and two others for my friends. You didn't have to do all of that, but you did it anyhow. That's my way of showing thanks for all that you guys do for us, not so much as just me anymore."

Celestia loosened her grip on me, separating me from the comforting warmth she produced. "I suppose that your mother will find the time to rediscover her love for you. But until then, we're more than happy to show you the affection you deserve."

"As much as I appreciate the sentiment, I also appreciate you for being a friend. You gave me the courage to do all of this, to face the worst of my fear and smile back. If it wasn't for you doing everything you did, I'd be lying to my parents about everything still. But here you are, pushing me to do right and being honest. I know it hurts now but you said it yourself, give it some time and it will pass. You've lived long enough for me to put my trust in you."

She walked over to her night dresser and pulled out a small jeweled necklace with her royal sigil resting on a pendant's surface. She held it up to me and placed it around my neck as she spoke. "I'm sure you're wondering what this little trinket is and the purpose it serves. It's actually a key, it will allow you to traverse the hidden passages of the castle for ease of access to certain rooms. I was to give this to you upon officially naming you as captain, but other matters ensued. So, here you are and here's your key."

I placed my hand on the pendant as it shimmered with a slight glow, the caramel jewel at it's center gave off a dim orange light. "So what else does it unlock?"

"I promised you a raise, didn't I?" She said as she rubbed her arms.

"This is it?" I questioned. "Not that I'm ungrateful by any measure of the word, but this seems a bit small." I said as I held up the item, the pendant being just the size of the nail of my pinky finger.

"Well I would give you one like mine, but I'm sure it wouldn't fit you." She replied, walking over to her nightstand.

"Well how wouldn't it fit?" I asked, before realizing she was holding up her golden chest piece. With the large object in tow, she walked up to me and adorned it on my neck, holding on to it initially. The shape of it was already awkward to feel against my chest, reaching as far down as my belly button. The very tip of the item had even poked me just inside of it. But the moment her hands left the item, I felt a crushing weight drag me down to my knees as the choker appeared to have weighed at least fifty pounds. I hunched forward to prevent myself from allowing the tapered tip at the bottom to sink into my abdomen. The pressure it put on my neck was very much unhealthy and I tried my best to maneuver out from within it's grasp before strong-arming it into my hands. I looked up to the giggling princess with amazement. "Lady, how do you wear this shit!?"

She reached down with a single finger, taking it at it's thinnest point, lifting it up completely effortlessly as she smiled. "I guess there's also a strength factor to take into account." She then placed it on herself and frowned at the discomfort it provided to her also. "The bottom usually contours to my chest so finely, in this form it just pokes me a little in the midsection."

I looked to her chest and factored in the size of her breasts. "Yeah, that ain't a good feeling when you're lacking the insulation to allow for that to simply be a minor inconvenience."

"By whatever do you mean?" She asked, completely ignorant to my reasoning.

"Your chest is rather plentiful in resources, trying not to sound crude here."

She looked at the chest piece and slightly pressed down on it with her fingers, noticing the recoil her breasts had against the heavy chunk of gold. "I suppose it would be that way, your brothers have told me that I was quite gifted in the qualities desired for a mate."

"It also helps that you have the strength to tilt the sun at will and can put me in craters, still wondering how I didn't die from that." I added, standing to my feet and stretching my neck.

"Well my choker has the same capability of that small pendant I gave you in terms of unlocking the paths hidden within the castle."

"But don't you just simply cast a spell to do that, you know with Canterlot being so unicorn-centric?" I questioned further.

"I do that most of the time, but who's to say that I'm knocked unconscious, there has to be a way to ensure my safe passage if I'm unaware of things."

I scoffed at the mere notion of her being knocked out of commission. "That's pretty absurd. Don't you think you're strong enough to take a hit or two?"

"Chrysalis caught me off guard once." She replied softly. "It was the day of the wedding, and she had absorbed much of Shining's love and magic. Before I knew it, I had my own crown knocked off my head. And a magic blast to the horn is disorienting, no matter how powerful you are. It's a good lesson to always be prepared, never downplay your opponent... not like I have."

The answer she gave to me had pretty much rendered me silent on the topic. I simply remained silent on it and looked back to the trinket I was given. "So... This small a thing is now the key to unlocking all of Canterlot Castle."

"It may be a small thing, but potent. It gives you access to every room in the castle. But I suppose it can be used for other miscellaneous purposes... like coming to talk to a friend if you ever need to." When I looked back to her, I had noticed the clothes on the floor and her wearing her chest piece like normal. The princess stood without her crown and slippers, but she was still no different than the royal pony she looked to be daily. "And if you'd like, maybe I could offer some advice on anything you might be going through. I might have countless stories to tell, and I may babble on at times, but if you're willing to come around and listen to an old mare waste away a few minutes of her life, then don't be a stranger."

"Oh, thanks!" I walked over and knelt down to give the princess a hug, which incidentally caught her by surprise. She squeaked with uncertainty before I quickly pulled away. "Oh, sorry... should've asked first."

She placed a hoof on her shoulder and looked at me with a tender grin. "It's alright, the reason I transformed is because I figured it would've been more comfortable for you to hug me in that form as opposed to something smaller being an inconvenience."

I shook my head as I rolled my eyes. "You do realize the form you're in now is where I feel the most comfortable, right?"

She lost her smile for a moment as she guessed on why I felt the way I did. "Is it because of my shape in human form? Is it too tall, or is it the... you know, the extra baggage?"

"Well, do you remember what I said in the car Wednesday night?" I asked.

She glanced down to the ground for a second before returning a devious smirk. "Oh right, I forgot I was supposed to smack you for that."

"Please... don't." I begged, remembering the weight of her chest piece and how she easily picked it up with just one finger. "I don't think I'll live."

She placed back on a more innocent smile instead of the one that seemed to come with a pair of devil horns. "Then I suppose you should understand that I don't appreciate the lust."

"Understood twelve times over." I replied, getting on my feet and walking towards the door before she stopped me one final time.

"Oh, and captain, one more thing."

"Yes, your highness?" I answered formally, earning a disapproving deadpan. "Oh, right. Cella."

"...Celly, actually." She began. "Melanie called me Celly once. I kinda like for you to address me when we're just on our own, no need for the formalities when we're having a heart to heart."

I stared blankly for a moment then shrugged. "Okay, Celly it is."

"You should come by more often. A captain usually gives a debriefing every once in a while. And if you're going to be in the swing of things again, then maybe you should keep that in mind. And don't be afraid to talk to me about anything. Oh, and you should feel free to explore the castle a little more, your station is due to change in the coming weeks since you're not a suitor anymore, and I don't want you relying on a map to not get lost. There's also the matter of your image to look into, appearances is key and hygiene is of the upmost priority. And if you need to eat anything, then there is a special chef assigned to monitor your diet. If you get sick, then you should visit the royal infirmary ward instead of the local hospital. And one last bit of advice when you're traversing the secret passages throughout the castle, NEVER go inside of Luna's room, even when invited."

That's a lot of things to be classified under the phrase 'one more thing'. "I'll keep that in mind."

Realistically speaking, I won't remember half of that shit when I walk down the hall.

The Next Day...

As I woke up to the sound of some pretty raucous laughter in the halls, I instinctively reached for my phone to check the time. Realizing that it was a few minutes past eight, I jumped out of bed and chided myself for oversleeping. I took a quick rinse in the shower, scrubbing the parts that mattered most, dried off, threw on some clothes, and ran out the room to make a beeline for the briefing room. As soon as I entered, the other officers snarked and gaggled at my lack of punctuality. One of the higher-ups reprimanded me on my inability to report on time to the meeting.

The meeting pretty much pertained to the security for Count DuMoneé's in-state memorial. They apparently wanted a strict security model in the case of some individuals who were with unsavory motives decided to attend. It was the request of the senators, oddly enough, the supposed son decided that he didn't care about the security detail, just wanting for the funeral to be over and done with.

I wonder what the hell he did to make his son so pissed off, speaks a lot to his character.

After that bunch of talk, they then highlighted the details of his escort towards the plot he was supposed to be laid in. This seemed to be the only thing the son was firm on. Instead of accepting the offer of having him rest within the catacombs of long-serviced parliament members beside some of his most respected peers, an honor reserved for those who gave more than ten years to service the laws of the country, he made the request that he'd be buried beside his long-departed wife at a small cemetery mausoleum. First question that came to my mind was 'How the hell did this dude find a WIFE?'

The question quickly dropped of out my mind as other things came up in the discussion like who was on the permitted guest list, another thing the son had no interest in writing, and again some members of the parliament did. To me it seemed like the family's involvement was so minimum that it felt like someone else really pulled the strings on whatever was decided to happen. There wasn't much talk about anything else of significant importance, just the details of that and some other mundane patrol things that essentially added up to standing in a hallway for six hours.

I have to admit, being a guard stationed in Ponyville seems so exciting compared to being one here.

Just another day outside of having to fight off changelings, a feud with Shining Armor or some of the politicians, and Celestia being sick, it's just us going through the motions of standing in one spot for six hours, reporting, then going on an inspection of the grounds. From there, you finish your hours, clock out, and fall back into the civilian life. I mean it's what most of them preferred, and I can understand not wanting to be out there on the front line of some great unknown somewhere. But considering how fast-paced my last two months have been, it just feels like a completely different thing.

But that's the life of a suitor. Having to deal with the in's and out's of being romantically invested in someone of a higher social status, getting that opportunity came with some truly unfair disadvantages. Though my being able to human my way through them have been somewhat interesting. Of course it's not a fun thing to know your life is on the line, but it adds a bit of that adrenaline factor which makes each success feel so rewarding, so fulfilling, and you can't help but to wonder about the next assignment and how dangerous it could be to you. You feel uncertain of whether or not you live through your next assignment and it scares you, but when you have friends to help you along the way, it starts to become something you'd look forward to.

Today, no one came by, and that's to be expected. Cliff, Rickey, Stanton, and Mel all had semester finals to power through, they'd at least be locked up until Thursday evening. Plus the whole situation with mom and dad might have caused some awkwardness among the others. The portals were closed, so I don't think I'd get any word from them until I decided to pay them a visit.

But I did have someone pay me a visit today.

After some mandatory inspections of the grounds and a little bit of ordering some others around, I took my lunch break to the downtown district. It wasn't a huge lunch, just a steamed carrot dog from one of the street vendors. I took my quick meal and wandered towards a nearby newsstand. Looking at the magazine covers, most of them had the image of Count DuMoneé on the front as a memorial to the deceased senator. Another had Rarity's face with the headline, reading 'This Year's Fashion Belongs to the Element of Generosity Herself' with a sub headline on the side reading 'It's Coming; Five Ways You Can Tap Into the Human Market.'

Naturally, my eyes ventured towards the tabloid magazines to see what strange gossip was being spread about me and Cadance this time. But nothing showed up in that vein. Instead, it was Cadance and Shining Armor's wedding photo shopped behind a crib with a black oval inside of it. The headline read 'Baby on Board; Royal Family Expecting First Foal.' The sub headlines were a bunch of garbage titles like 'Princess Twilight's Next Suitor; Who is it?' and 'Captain's Friend Explains Conditions to Human/Pony Relationships; Is Sex on the Table?'

But what seemed to be an empty space dedicated to one magazine in particular seemed to have grabbed my interest the most. I looked over the counter to see a mare engrossed by an article she was reading as I questioned her. "Hey, what used to be in this section that sold out so quick?"

Without looking up, she giggled as she explained the reason for the empty section on the front shelf. "Oh, hottest new bit of human gossip. The captain's parents was rumored to pay him a visit yesterday and a few unnamed sources from within the castle recalled that he was disowned! His own parents DISOWNED him because of, get this, he was a member of the guard! Seriously, how silly is that!?"

I quietly pursed my lips and held my hand out to the pony behind the counter. "Would you happen to be reading that article? Perhaps I can see it for a while?"

"Sorry, sold out!" She said before noticing that I was actually standing there in front of her. She laughed nervously and gulped as she politely handed me the magazine she was reading. "Well I guess you can read up on mine."

I bookmarked where she left off by folding one of the corners and flipped to the front cover. On it was my face in black and white as the title read out in bold letters.

DISOWNED
Family of Captain Nondis Disapproves of Stature: Sought Immediate Removal.

I went back to the bookmarked page and skimmed my way through the first few paragraphs until I came across the meat of the story.

The captain's parents then actively sought out Princess Celestia herself, calling her an [sic] 'animal' as they demanded the discharge of their son. Her Majesty, showing a great deal of patience, declined to give a direct answer to her request and instead passed the authority of the final say to the captain himself, he refused. It was also believed that he said something to draw the ire of his mother, causing her to strike at him so painfully that he seemed to have lost balance. It was also stated that it left a noticeable mark on the left side of his face.

The captain then quietly wished them farewell and left the royal throne room without further statement. Upon the final departure, he was not seen with the other humans as they congregated to another room of the castle, seemingly to a heavily-guarded portal that gave access to the human world.

As far as what the humans truly think of Equestrians as a whole, it is now perceived to be a negative connotation, one the captain argued against so strongly in the face of his family. As of now, all other confirmed witnesses have declined to comment. The captain himself could not be reached for comment on the incident, as it would be best to assume that the personal matter were to be kept private.

I ended up crunching the magazine in my fist, sternly glaring at her. "How many of these have you sold?"

The mare acted sheepish, completely intimidated by my subtle show of anger. "Well... they came in this morning. It was so hot in the first hour that neighboring towns requested copies. So the shipping company cut our daily shipments to redistribute them to places like Cloudsdale and Ponyville. All the stock in Canterlot been sold out for a couple of hours now, it's a hot read and the publishers are having a hard time keeping with the demand while maintaining the delays to ship out the other orders to newsstands across the country."

I seethed at the thought that someone just blew my business out to the public, worst off it was dealing with MY FAMILY. I slammed the magazine on her counter and angrily ordered her. "Listen, lady. I don't care if you don't make another bit at this newsstand, you get another shipment of these damn things, you burn them on site."

The mare shrunk behind her counter, squeaking back to me. "I don't control what's published, I only sell it. There's a headquarters on the corner Spur Boulevard and Bridle Street, they're the ones who push this stuff out."

"Well I'll be sure to voice my complaints with them. Please stop selling this bullshit." I ordered, snatching the magazine and started walking off as she called out to me.

"Hey, I wasn't finished with that." She called out, causing me to stop and look back at her like she had gone crazy. "Oh, okay... I'll just wait until next shipment."

I continued to walk away, looking for a nearby trash can to toss the magazine into. Upon reaching one, I read the title one last time, the word 'DISOWNED' being firmly imprinted in my mind, feeding my anger even more before I slammed the magazine into the waste bin. As it almost fell in, it stuck to the outer lip of the lid. I had to literally punch it in with my fist before it was consumed by the darkness and I allotted myself forward progress.

"Hey, sonny. Hadn't seen yer likeness in a while."

I turned around, looking for a second at a random throng of ponies passing by me before a hoof tapped at me from the side. I looked down to see Granny Smith standing there with a smile, packing a set of saddlebags on her back. "Oh, hey Granny. What's going on, how's your day?"

"Well I hadn't seen ya in almost forever 'n' a while. But I trust somethin' ain't fittin' ya right."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

She glanced over to the trash bin and sighed. "Well fer starters, yer punching that there waste bucket harder than Applejack bucks trees in an estrus period. Darn girl ended up crackin' the trunk of the poor thing. Never forgave herself fer that, especially now with that freaky magic surging through her veins."

"Huh, I thought she would've controlled that by now." I replied.

"Oh no, it seeps out whenever she's working hard through some things. She's ain't a very patient filly. She's stubborn, bull-headed, prone to overdoing things, and overprotective, but that's just Applejack fer ya."

"Sounds about right." I cosigned.

"Yeah... Why don't we find a place to park it fer a while." The elderly mare stood quiet for a little while as she pointed to a bench on the side of the street. Following her, she took her seat and tapped the empty side of the bench. As I was about to sit down, she spoke once more. "She told me a little something about what happened yesterday with yer folks."

"Oh, so you heard about that." I deadpanned. "Well it's not like all of Canterlot's gonna be knowing about it by the end of the day."

"Beg yer pardon?" She inquired.

"That magazine I threw away, it pretty much spilled the beans on everything that happened, albeit poorly paraphrased to bait in some readers."

Granny Smith drew an exasperated sigh while she placed a hoof under her chin. "Boy howdy, I guess that would make fer a good reason to be punching things. Family business should never be out in the open. A magazine putting it out there is just plain disrespectful. That's what's wrong with writers nowadays, they just wanna put all yer stuff out there and get defensive when ya confront 'em about it."

"It's worse in my world, but the issues are still the same."

The elderly mare opened one of her bags and started rummaging through it. "While I'm lookin' fer a little somethin' I'm gonna tell ya a little story about two parents and their kids."

"Sure, I got some time to kill." Even though I saw that my lunch hour was quickly waning by, I remained stationary as she told her story.

"Well there was once an apple farmer and a pear farmer, their properties lied right next door to each other. They had a bit of a feud over sales. So whenever the market opened up fer the day, they'd do their sales and fight with each other over what was better, pears or apples."

"You were that apple farmer, weren't you?" I asked.

"Darn tootin'!" She proudly exclaimed. "Now, back in those days, I still had my charms and could grab any stallion from a herded marriage, I could also buck the bark right off an apple tree with as much as a single hindleg to the trunk. But most importantly, I could sell, sell, sell my apples like I was giving away a free bit with every apple. But the other farmer, Grand Pear, he ain't like me too much cause he could sell just as hard as I could. We ain't really got along, our families. And yet, there was two little fillies who found themselves bein' friends throughout their lives."

Almost feels like a Capulet-Montague situation, only thing that would make it full Romeo and Juliet would be if they were of the opposite sex AND fell in puppy love over each other. "Well it was bound to happen eventually."

"Eeyup." She confirmed. "Those two fillies were none other than my own son and his daughter, Bright Mac and Buttercup. But in honesty, her family-given name was Pear Butter."

"Bright Mac, so that's Big Mac's father?" I asked.

"Oh he fathered all three, that's why I look after 'em so dang hard."

"Wait, how did you find out about them being together?" I questioned.

Granny Smith stopped smiling, her voice growing a bit more grave. "Well, I found 'em hidin' in the apple orchard, just a little short of the Pear property line. The first time I caught 'im, I dragged Bright Mac up by his ear and gave him what fer. But he ain't listen to me nan one bit. The second time I caught him, he scraped up all his bits and held a little wedding on the property line. Grand Pear also caught 'em at the alter. To figure that we'd both find out that our kids were in love at the same time, at a wedding no less." She finished looking through one sack and murmured to her self. "Now hold on, it's in the other one."

"So what happened next?" I asked.

"Well they got married right in front of our faces. So we ain't really like that too much, specially since it was a Pear and an Apple tryin' to get hitched. And the reason Bright Mac did it was so that he and Pear Butter could claim themselves to one another before her father and her moved to Vanhoover. But while her father tried to pull her off... well you can pretty much fill it out from experience."

"She stayed." I concluded quietly. "She didn't want to leave him so she stayed."

"She was given a choice by her own father, either be a Pear or an Apple. She chose to be an Apple, and Grand Pear just left her alone, never talkin' to her again. Didn't even take the time to write for the longest. She was pretty sad about all of it, but I vowed to make her feel just as family as Bright was my own son. And it paid off, three times to be exact."

"Big Mac, Applejack, and Apple Bloom?"

"Why they wouldn't have stopped at them if it wasn't for... unfortunate circumstances."

That doesn't sound good. "So what happened with them?"

The elderly mare pulled out an envelope with a broken pear sticker at the back where it once sealed the contents within. She gave me the aged letter, allowing me to read the words on the old parchment. "Just take a moment fer that, will ya?"

I had to admit as I was reading the letter, I felt awash of melancholy. Each neatly scripted word showed me the pain of a father who knew they made a wrong choice, a man lacking closure to the death of his daughter. It felt like I was on the outside looking in to a scene that could easily replicate itself into my life. And just the thought of that made me feel physically ill.

Granny Smith placed a hoof over my hand as she looked into my eyes with intent. "Sonny, let me let ya in on a little somethin'. I ain't like what Bright Mac did behind my back, so much that I harbored some anger in me fer a while. But when I had a little youngin' tryin' her best to fit in fer the family, I couldn't even refuse. They were in love, and my son was happy. And there ain't nothin' more important to a mother than seeing her son happy. And if yer mother was cut like any other, she'll come 'round to loving you in spite of. So don't you hate on her now, she's gotta adjust to the change."

I wiped my eyes, trying to keep my voice stable while I spoke. "I don't hate her. I-I just... I-I-I thought she'd be the one to understand. I felt like for the longest time my dad was gonna be the one to fuss and scream at me, like he has all throughout my life. I knew she hated me being in the military, but..." My eyes got blurry and watery, my voice trembling and breaking with inconsistency. I had to wipe my face clean with increasing frequency as I felt the elderly mare's hooves wrap around my neck. "I-I never expected her to abandon me."

"She hasn't." Granny whispered sweetly, speaking slowly. "She just doesn't know how to feel 'bout all this here. Why when AJ started to talk about how she was supposed to be some destined savior of Equestria, I argued her down to the dirt over how much I didn't like her running around looking for trouble. I told her that she'd end up just like her ma and pa. But you know what she did, she did just like ya did an' decided fer herself what she wanted to do. And each time she goes on an adventure, I close my eyes and ask her parents to guide her way back to us safe and sound. But I know from a mother's perspective, she ain't gave up on ya yet. If she's fightin' ya to keep ya safe, if she's lashin' out, she cares fer ya. Don't you take nun' she says in her emotional state too seriously, she's gonna come 'round eventually."

"But what if I─"

Before I could finish my question, she quickly interrupted me. "No sir, ya ain't gotta think about that. Just keep on keepin' on long enough fer her to see ya one more time. That or give it a few days, it'll kick in soon enough."

After a brief moment of catharsis, I stood back on my feet and cleaned my face off. "I can't believe I broke down like that."

"I can't believe ya tried to hold that one in. Stuff like that ya need to let out, just let it flow, and then you start to see a little past the pain and a lot more to what you can do for your future, of everyone's future... Pear Butter told me that one." She said before the chimes of the train station's clock tower sounded out from the distance. Granny jumped up as she started to count the bells. "Wait, it's that time already!? Oh, I gotta catch the train back! Don't you skimp out on seein' us in Ponyville, ya hear!?"

While she galloped away, I looked down to realize I was still holding the old letter. "Hey, you forgot something!" I called back to her.

"Just keep it fer now! Drop it off when ya visit!"

While the elderly mare disappeared into the throng of ponies, I could still feel the aging parchment in my hand. I placed the letter back in the envelope with care and placed it in my back pocket for the time being. My eyes closed and I performed an about face to make a sprint toward the castle.

I could already feel the hot breath of my superiors breathing down my neck from here.

As soon as I got back, everything went pretty much as expected. I got reprimanded for being out and about too long and was told that I had to pull an extra hour of overtime to make up for the twenty extra minutes I spent trying to get back here. It may not seem fair, but considering the shitload of other punishments I could've had, this seemed to be on the light end. So I went through my shift, with the additional hour of standing outside of the checkpoint with my sword in tow.

If only I knew how the sword alone would garner so much attention. I had little foals walking up to me asking me if it was too big to use properly. Other citizens just seemed amazed over how uncharacteristically long the blade was by Equestrian standards. I also had a few snarky ponies walk by me asking if I was overcompensating for something, especially mares. And my quick answer to all of them was "Nah, sword's for hacking and slashing. But if you're asking about that... you're gonna have to keep that to the imagination."

Unfortunately, that wasn't the only bit of sexual harassment I had to deal with for the day. In fact, one mare asked me if I was available for an escort service. "I escort precious cargo, ma'am. If you're asking me for something else entirely, then you should probably get to know me in my off-hours first." Someone even went as far as to nuzzle against me. "Ma'am, I know what you're looking for, the scent gives you away." And even a few dared to try and get a little curious of where it was. "Lady, can you please not?"

But on top of all of that came one particular crowd of ponies, not really a crowd because it was more like four or five who did this. These few were the dissenters, the ones who probably read the article in that magazine and outlined one key detail outside of everything else that was written.

"So Princess Celestia's an animal to you humans!?"

"Our princess, lowered to that of a common mule, how distasteful!"

"You're the animal here! All you humans are an inferior, less-intelligent species!"

Some tried to dig deep. "If a human who's unable to move the sun calls the one who can an animal, then who's the lesser beings!? Canterlot doesn't need you here! I'd say go back where you belong, but even your parents don't want you back!"

And one even went to dire extremes. "Can't you see it, you're unwanted here! Your family disowned you! Princess Twilight even left you and Princess Cadance was right! You're useless, a blight on the pages of Equestria's history. Go throw yourself off the battlements, maybe the rocks on the mountainside can clean the name of our country from your filthy mouth! You're worthless, so no one will miss you!"

I didn't even take the time to argue against either of them because if I did, it would've given them the validation of my acknowledging their existence, that their words would have meaning to me. Unfortunately, the best answer to ignorance is all in the namesake, so it wasn't worth it to give them a box to stand on.

That last guy, however, stuck around for a while, well over half an hour. He didn't stop, almost as if he had some bone to pick with me and I somehow wronged him in some fashion. And because of my ignoring him, he proceeded to get even more infuriated, threatening to throw rocks at me. By that time, it was a few minutes away from my being able to leave my shift, so I just chinned up and bore it, at least until he grabbed a minimum of three crates and made some makeshift stairs to stand closer to my face. And when he started screaming at my ear, I checked my phone to see if I was off the clock.

Wouldn't you know it, I was a minute over.

So I turned to the rambunctious stallion and grabbed at his horn before hissing out a firm warning. "Make way for Her Majesty's Royal Guard." By the time I finished my statement, another guard wielding a spear appeared to take my station. He looked at the unruly stallion with a quirked brow as I gave him a quick salute. "He's your problem now, so have at."

The guard looked at me with disbelief. "With all due respect, sir, you let this disrespectful young punk approach you. There is a protocol to establish."

"Well let's just say I wouldn't know my own strength." I replied, glancing back at the heckler. "I won't risk any ill-reputation on the behalf of the princesses' forces."

The guard politely stepped in my place and stood stoic as the heckler hounded on him for defending me. "You would allow that thing to represent OUR princess!? You're nothing but a weak, sniveling─"

In a mechanized motion, the guard turned to the heckler and pointed his spear at his face. "AWAY FROM HER MAJESTY'S ROYAL GUARD!" After his order, he snapped the spear's tip at the cobblestone before the stallions' forelegs, causing him to stumble backwards. From there, the guard marched forward as he smacked the spear's tip repeatedly onto the ground, until the heckler was a clear five feet away from the checkpoint. The stallion marched back to his spot and glanced back at me. "That, sir, is how we drive back unruly personnel."

I felt a bit embarrassed from the fact that a lower ranked guard showed me out publicly, but I just took it as a learning experience. I wasn't used to the aspect of dealing with civilians too often other than saving their lives from changelings. Other than that, and killing larger fiends, the smaller things were pretty much housed in the furthest reaches of my mind's storage. I looked back up to see the heckler walking away without any argument or lingering about.

...Perhaps this was some sort of test?

Meanwhile...

The heckler who screamed at the human guard for a time, turned off into an alleyway devoid of much sunlight. He quickly checked his surroundings before walking up to a wooden box and knocked on it's side. He then turned to the side and spoke to the wall as the wooden box suddenly transformed into a equine-shaped figure. "That human's not as intimidating as the stories make him to be."

"You of all others should know that appearances can be deceiving."

"Oh shut up." The stallion mumbled. "You would've pissed yourself trying to do what I did."

The shadow-shrouded figure groaned in response. "You weren't even there! I saw what he and his kind did."

"You're still a fucking grub. I don't even see how you managed to make it this far. Should've died like the rest of the weak."

"You don't mean that." The hidden figure whimpered.

"Well I DO!" The stallion hissed, producing a forked tongue, his eyes flashing green before returning to their facade. "If it wasn't for our sister getting too cocky, we wouldn't even be in this mess."

"No one really knows how she got killed that quickly. I even took the time to find the answers."

"So probably like what, four seconds before you heaved?"

The figure sighed with discomfort. "Actually, around seven."

"Weakling, that's what you've always been. For a changeling, you do a piss-poor job at changing."

"Pharynx, you know─"

"Pony name, dipshit!" The 'stallion' called out angrily.

"Ugh... Dream Slayer." The shadowed figure moaned as he pointed a holey hoof at the other 'stallion'. "Can't you think of a better pony name than that?"

"Oh, like you got one. Okay grubbie, what name you got coming down the pipe?" Pharynx asked in a condescending manner.

The veiled changeling took a moment to answer. "How about... Sun Dancer?"

"Bleugh!" The changeling was repulsed from the other's suggestion. "Way too pony for me. If I get a name, I'm gonna use one that fits me to a T. Besides, even guards have these soft names like Sword Shine, Sentinel Shield, or even Shining Armor. Where are the ones with the real names?"

"Remember Dream Slayer, when in Canterlot, do as the ponies do."

"Can you shut your feminine drone ass up?" Pharynx replied. "If I was our queen, I would've named you ThorASS."

"Hey!" The other changeling called out, causing the other to look at him in deadpan. "...My butt's not that big, is it?"

"Well if you aren't gonna make use of it to get our queen out of prison, then shut up, Thorax."

Turning in my time card, I left the barracks and entered into the dining hall. From there my attention was turned toward the food I would be eating. No meat this time, unfortunately, but Rarity managed to show me an appreciation for well-seasoned and cooked vegetables. That was not anything I received here, instead being a cold salad with extra carrots and not enough ranch dressing. My side dish was a steamed apple with a cinnamon stick for a core, a bit exotic for me but still pretty delicious. And my drink was a glass of water and another glass of tomato-carrot puree.

No need of slapping myself for not having a V8.

As I was finishing up my dinner, Celestia entered into the dining hall for a quick cup of tea and an escape from her hard-nosed assistants. And it was as if the staff already knew what was going down. Without any word from her, they ran towards the kitchen and came back in with a cup of hot tea and a tray of optional additions. Her face showed no changes of mood as her appreciation was just a simple smile. Her lips touched the tip of the cup, she blew into her tea to cool it off a little before she had her first taste. She looked at me and asked. "Would you like some?"

"I'm fine, thank you." I replied, looking back down to my half-drank glass of not-V8.

She continued to occasionally sip into her tea as she spoke. "So how was the first day, your official first day?"

"Well, it could've been better, could've been worse. Ran into a few hecklers on duty at the checkpoint. I walked through town a bit and ran into some familiar company. And also there's a certain article that came out today highlighting a few things that happened yesterday." I casually replied.

"You mean Count DuMoneé?"

"Oh that's all over the shelves, but it's not selling nearly as much."

The princess shrugged. "Well that's the cost of politics, you can't get the citizens to really buy in until the eve of an election."

"That's also true. But yeah, I was talking about the situation with my parents."

"That got out?" She asked, almost opting to put her tea down for a second. "Who disclosed that?"

"I don't know for certain, I just want the news to stop spreading. Not everyone needs to know my private business." I answered with a frown, staring up to the ceiling.

The princess drew a sigh of exasperation and understanding. "Those are the drawbacks of being a public figure, anonymity is lost to those who are chosen."

"I didn't exactly choose to be a public figure, I was required to be that by law."

"Well if it's any consolation, I am indeed sorry for your troubles." She said before taking another sip of her tea.

"Isn't there some way we can stop these people from shipping this crazy shit out?" I asked, remembering the inflammatory way they described how my parents addressed the princess.

"I'm afraid that these things are well out of our jurisdiction, protection of the press and what-not." She said flatly.

I grabbed the glass of not-V8 and chucked it back while trying my best to bypass the taste. Upon swallowing, I felt a strong shudder surge throughout my body before I planted my head into the table. "My whole week's gonna be straight-up garbage, not even a burning trash-heap, just the outright ridicule of dumpster cold-fusion."

The princess walked over, placing her cup next to mine. "I know things are hard for you, but you've come a mighty long way from where you were when you first arrived. I've watched you grow from being isolated in Twilight's castle to being a social creature who shows a genuine level of compassion. And in your journey, I know that you've found the strength to overcome most any obstacle in your path. This may be an inconvenience on a personal level, but I know that you will be strong."

"Thanks." I said as placed a hoof on my shoulder. She then signaled for another cup of tea to the servant. "Still doesn't give me any ability to stop people from reading this ridiculous crap. Now they're gonna thing that all of us humans are gonna perceive Equestrians to be nothing but a bunch of animals."

"You said it yourself, we're all a bunch of animals, including that of your own species." As the piping hot cup of tea was introduced to her on a similar tray, she placed it down before me and extended her hoof towards it. "And I wouldn't have it any other way."

Realizing it would be considered rude to refuse her, I accepted the offer and tried to grab the cup by the handle, only to burn myself in the process. "Shit, this is hot!"

Upon realizing her error, she apologized for the circumstance. "I'm so terribly sorry, I usually prefer my cups warmed before the tea is poured in. I should have made the exception prior to ordering yours."

I just stared at the cup and proceeded to pick up a small tea spoon to feed myself the beverage. "So, how was your day then? Any politicians annoy you in the parliament?"

She signaled the server away, motioning the same for the others that waited in the room. "It was a somber day, really. The mayor of the city and some members of the city council dropped by to offer their condolences. We went about our day for the most part, but in the final hour was the time they gave pause to remember Count."

"I'm sure you felt uncomfortable about that, didn't you?" I asked.

"Of course, I too had to speak of him."

"Why?" After tasting the tea without it's additions, I realized that drinking the tea plain was not ideal for my preference.

"Because of two things. The first thing would be my social status, if I were to say nothing then it would only allow dissent among the ranks, especially those who were considered to be his closest peers."

I took a bit of the sugar and added it in, then picked out the cinnamon since it was already situated in my mouth from the apple earlier. "Well it must've been fun to suck up to them."

She took a sip from her cup again and sat in the chair next to me. "...The second reason was another reason I'm not too proud to speak of."

"Oh come on. It can't be that bad." I said while using the spoon to feed myself the tea again, this time being a bit more to my liking.

"Two decades and some time ago, he wasn't a politician. He was an educator, a teacher of the intermediate courses of magic theory and application. So he was a former employee of my academy."

I stopped stirring in my tea for a second, knocking the spoon out and splashing some of the hot beverage on my hand as I tried to prevent myself from dropping the spoon onto the ground. After burning myself a little from holding the spade of the spoon and dropping it on the table, I flicked my hand and comforted it for a few seconds. "I'm sorry, but you say what?"

"Yes, he was a teacher in my school, his courses were directed towards those between the ages of nine and fourteen."

"Ugh, I bet he was a pretty shitty teacher." I said, trying to think of someone like him being my middle school teacher.

"On the contrary, Nondis. He was incredible in his approach. If some of the other teachers couldn't unlock what a student had, he was adept in doing what they would deem impossible. A brilliant mind to unlock the unspoken secrets of magic within himself and a more than capable combatant in some of the emergency courses we had in self-defense."

Somewhere inside me, I was already prepping myself for yet another twist to be added to the story. "I suppose you're gonna tell me he was a guard too? Just make this joke a little more cruel, why don't you."

"No, he wasn't." She stated firmly. "He was strictly a magic instructor who prided himself in unicorn teachings. Though it developed in him a sense of superiority, one that made it clear that he viewed other races of ponies as inferior in contrast to that of unicorns."

"So you had to fire him because of that?" I guessed.

"No. He resigned the day after his wife died. From there, he went into isolation for a while."

So a death in the family caused him to retire from being a teacher? I know that grieving sometimes takes a lot out of you to where you need the time off to be able to somewhat function, but never have I heard of someone quitting their job because of something personal like that. Perhaps it was the stress that made him so bitter? I'm not quite sure, but there seems to be a lot more to Count DuMoneé than I would've guessed. Still, I didn't like the guy, so... "How did he get into politics then?"

"I'm not sure, but to say it changed him would give his colleagues too much credit."

"So, safe to say the two of you never really saw eye-to-eye?" I surmised.

"There was barely a time when we did. But the students needed his knowledge and I needed to do what was best for my student's future success."

In other words, she had to make a hard choice. It made me question the circumstances that would've occurred from his departure. "So when he retired, what happened with the students he brought up?"

"They struggled for quite some time. Many of them didn't even finish the tertiary exam to allow them to take the more advanced courses they needed to complete their education. So they either quietly transferred to local schools, retook their exams, or dropped out in realizing there was no hope in continuing."

It sounds a lot like what some people will do in college. Of course there's dropping out because you partied too hard and didn't study enough, then there's dropping out for family reasons, money issues, emotional trauma, health reasons, you name it. But another question came to mind. "Did you try to convince them to stay?"

"We offered slower-paced courses, but some parents argued that it was too remedial. So the students ended up doing one of the three things I mentioned."

"I guess that might have hurt the school in more ways than one." I said, thinking of the potential problems it would show to any superintendent overlooking the school.

"It did for some time. But I changed my approach and started to become a more hooves-on instructor for a few of the most gifted students. From there, the students became encouraged to compete."

"Well if they had a chance to spend a week or two with the Princess of the Sun, I'm sure any one of them would've jumped at the opportunity." Hell, if anyone could have a class taught by the President of the United States, I'm sure some would be willing to sign up for the experience.

"Indeed. Nowadays, the guidelines have gotten stricter. I'm very limited in my power to choose who I'd want to be my personal protégés and all. They had to hold auditions to see who would be worthy or capable of learning to learn from me at a young age. And those windows were at a strict level, no older than the age of ten."

And since Twilight referred to Celestia being a mentor to her, it had to be assumed that she had to undergo the same process. "So... did Twilight have an audition?"

The princess sipped down her tea as she answered the question. "Here's the funny thing about her, she initially failed because of a deficiency she suffered at a young age. For some unicorns, they can't use magic very well when they're born, for the rarest of cases it becomes a second-nature. But then there are those who are unable to use their magic effectively when they grow to a certain age. And being that the auditions were for such a young age group, it was required that they had to have a strong connection to their magic."

Twilight failing at something seemed a bit farfetched for me to comprehend, but it didn't surprise me too much. "So if she failed, how did she become your student?"

"Again, it was initially noted that she failed to show the capability of levitation, much less hatching a dragon's egg. But then a large explosion happened in Cloudsdale that was heard throughout all of Equestria. When she heard that, it scared her so bad that she not only hatched the dragon egg, she turned her parents into potted plants and threw all her judges into the air for quite some time, she even performed an aging spell on the dragon hatchling to where it grew to full-size. Of course that dragon broke through the roof and left a notable hole in one of the castle's adjacent towers, but I knew then she was more than capable of being my student."

That's probably how she got Spike, so metaphorically speaking he's pretty much like her child. That's a weird thing to think about when you consider his emotional range for Rarity. "And so the stories began."

"Indeed. She grew quite a lot from being in my classes. Her magic problem showed itself every blue moon from that point on, but let her get a little excitable and she turns anything into teacups or flip tables five times larger than her little body. Overtime, something within me resonated with her, and it told me that she was destined to succeed where I had failed."

Probably pertaining to her elemental status and being able to purify Luna. I looked at my phone realizing that my time was well spent in the dining hall, around fifty minutes of it. "Well... that was an interesting little story."

"It seems more like a two-for-one there, but it's been fun nonetheless. I hardly have anyone to talk to nowadays." She said as she patted her hooves on the table.

"You, nobody to talk to? But everyone's been wanting to talk to you for the past millennium. I'm sure that's more apparent with the way media has transformed in your world. And just wait until it evolves into the mess ours is back in my world."

She hopped out of her seat and started walking towards the tray of items she failed to touch and placed her empty cup at the center. Her eyes traced the outlines of the cup while she spoke. "There's talking to someone out of a prerequisite, and talking because you genuinely want to learn how to trust. In some ways, you just want to confide in someone who would find a way to counter your state of being and keep you contained."

I tossed my head back and laughed at the idea of her trusting me. "And you think I'm trustworthy enough? Lady, I don't trust myself to make the right decisions in life, what makes you think I'm trustworthy enough to even be able to─"

"I can't trust myself either." She interrupted. "If only you knew the other side of me, you'd probably never want to see me anymore. It would scare you to pieces."

I casually rolled my eyes in response. "Let me guess, you did some things, killed some people, and now it's a blemish on your record? As long as you've been living, it wouldn't surprise me. It would surprise me if you had all these laws and protocols crushing you and not once have you entertained the thought of lashing out. At that point, I'd wonder if you were really self-destructing more than you are now."

The tray shook as the princess started to levitate it, but dropping it before it could get half an inch off the table. "Do you perceive me to be self-destructive?"

"If I can be real for a minute, you do everything for everyone else and jack-shit for yourself. The only thing you do is ask for a cake every now and then. But what else do you do other than that? You're forced to smile for a bunch of people who only care because of your status and not for who you are. I bet Twilight put you on so high of a pedestal sometimes that you wonder if you can really reach down and touch her again."

Celestia thought about her former student and often how she'd get praised for anything she did or even completely idolized. And then she recalled her interactions with her throughout their time in Austin. "She more or less presented herself on equal ground when we were in your world."

"Yeah, because we were in a completely different environment where the two of you are no more common folk than I was. We're all on the same footing there, but when we come back home the rules are different."

Celestia looked up towards me for a second and stared before glancing back at her tray. "I just want to forget the rules for a while and be who I really am without any spectacle or question. It's gotten to the point where the real me has become too offensive for others to see."

"Then be yourself, because I would love to get to see the real you instead. I can't be friends with a figurine, I want to be friends with another being." I knelt down and placed an arm over her shoulder. "And I'm sure you've had long enough to think of who you want to be. So bring that out more often, to hell with everyone else, express yourself. And if they find it offensive, well that's their problem."

The high princess stared back at me with a nervous look as she stood. As soon as I felt her trying to walk back, I quickly retracted my arm and attempted to offer an apology. But she placed a hoof over my mouth and paused for a moment. After a few seconds of silence, she began to laugh. "This is probably the first time I've ever been seen as vertically challenged, but I accept that reality." Her words confused me initially, but I started a nervous laugh of my own. She then held me in place, looking at me with what could be her brightest, most sincere smile. "But I wanted us to be casual this time, so I don't know why I felt so brittle just then. Maybe it's just that I feel a little more comfortable being around you humans."

The doors behind us creaked open, causing Celestia to quickly quench her magic. The high princess watched as her younger sibling came in to notify her. "Sister, it's time."

She looked at her cutie mark for a second before she turned her eyes to me while I stood up, but this time with a mischievous grin. "...Captain, can you do me a quick favor?"

I quickly caught on to her joke. "I don't have a lick of magic to levitate a feather, what makes you think I can move the sun?"

Luna seemed the least amused of the three of us. "Hmm... she could give you the magic and you could do it, but it would be VERY IRRESPONSIBLE OF HER."

The princess sighed as she trotted out the room happily. "Well, can't say I didn't try."

While I began to stretch off my dinner, I walked over to the doorway to see Celestia disappearing amongst the large granite columns of the hallway. "She can be so crazy at times." I said quietly.

Luna nudged by me playfully. "You try living with her when we were younger. Absolute tyranny, would prank me every chance she got."

"So how do you feel about her?" I asked.

The younger princess elicited a small groan. "I just want back the Tia I knew, spirited, kind, carefree, and forever laughing. Something's changed her, and it's so sad to watch her put on a mask to hide it, even around me."

I looked down to Luna. "You think she'll ever stop wearing it?"

She closed her eyes, taking the moment to reflect. "She took it off for you, actually. I wanna say the last time she ever took it off in front of me was when she talked about... I'm probably speaking too much."

"Sombra." I whispered as quietly as possible, causing the night princess to double-take.

"So she told you?" She asked, appearing surprised.

"I know her heart's still hurt from it. But she's trying." I said quietly.

"I think you should talk with her more." She said finally, starting to make her way behind her elder sister. However, she stopped and called back to me. "Oh, and that nice little trinket she gave you, you should probably wander around the passages a bit and─"

I just shook my head. "She already told me not to go into your room, so nice try."

"Well that's no fun."

The Next Day...

I woke up much earlier this go around. For some odd reason, it took too much out of me to get out of bed yesterday, but it seemed like I had all the energy going into today's shift. And to say that it helped with my interaction with others would be the understatement of the week. I was active in engaging with my superiors, and they were just as energetic about the state funeral tomorrow.

But other than that, more and more of the maids started to whisper as I walked by. A few were questioning if I was any kind of supremacist, others were just simply questioning whether or not I would stay in the guard for much longer. But the moment my eyes shifted towards them, I got either one of two reactions. If they looked away, it meant that they were saying something that I didn't want to hear. If they waved back at me, they were probably showing sympathy over the situation I was in.

The guards were a totally different breed, however. Most of the enlisted ones still had some resentment over my sudden promotion, and that same resentment wasn't lost with my fellow officers. One mare in an officer's uniform walked up to me, gave a hesitant salute, and trotted past me while giving me quite a stare-down. And given that many of them had held Celestia to the highest regard, there weren't any shortage of guards who didn't see me as an ideal fit to protect the royal family. But then there were some others who saw it admirable that I stood against my parents to do just that. Their reactions were far more welcoming, greeting me every time I entered the room. And those few who served alongside me at Arimaspi Mountain, they admired my continued dedication to the degree that they started to hail me as an outstanding leader, so much that I was starting to get a little nervous that I would somehow not meet the expectations they set.

And for me, all it took was a select few.

It wasn't my first week on the job exactly, that was plagued by hordes of changelings attacking the city. But it sure felt like my first week on the job with all this pressure on me to meet with expectations, now especially since I was supposed to be an overseer of the security detail in regards to the funeral tomorrow... a funeral to some bastard who tried to forge my signature and donate my body to science. So yeah, I was not taking an easy route to my usual hump day activities.

My day dragged on unceremoniously, I was just pointing guards in various directions trying to establish protocol. Drilling the squad of pallbearers to perfectly sync to one another and call out every step they took. Stairs tended to be the most frustratingly time-consuming drill I've ever had the displeasure to oversee.

I'll summarize it for you. There's the pallbearer squad, and then there's the one chosen to be the squad leader. If they wanted to walk up or down those stairs, squad leader would call out 'ready, step' with each stair they took. Now keep in mind that Canterlot has a shit-ton of stairs, so that's a lot of waiting around for these guys to walk up or down the stairs, and it wouldn't stop until each member of the squad had achieved the minimum two steps away from the stairs before halting, then marching forward... only for them to halt again and march up more stairs. And I haven't even gone into detail over how slow they march into the MASSIVE hall leading up to the royal chapel. And that's just the getting in.

Now, repeat that same process for leaving.

And since this was drills, I had to overlook that plus getting a few other details from the sky-watch to make sure there weren't any dubious elements introduced in various places that could compromise the safety of the procession, the funeral, the recession, and the repass. There was also the band who played an excerpt of Equestria's national anthem and something called the 'Song of Hours' which is essentially a hymn dedicated to those who gave their years of service to the nation's government.

Hypothetically speaking, if Celestia were to have a funeral, it would be the anthem, the hymn, another hymn called 'Ode to Thine, Mine Crowned Queen' and another hymn called 'Go to Thee, Thy Resting Place'. And each song would require the march to become much longer, with a squadron of four additional ponies instead of the usual six because of her size and the fact that she will be dressed in full regalia within a crystal coffin.

I've already seen the coffin, I already weighted how heavy it is, the dress she'd wear, the silk shroud that would cover her mane, the royal crown of the high monarch she'd wear in place of her princess tiara, the wagon her body will be set on when it rides through town, the royal tomb she'll be laid inside of, the four elite service guards who would stand watch over her crystallized corpse for the first six months for public viewing, and finally the spot in the Canterlot Gardens where she will finally be put to rest. As per job description, I'm not allowed to even let the notary sign off on any of those things. Doing so would result in my immediate dishonorable discharge following the conclusion of her funeral.

Basically, the past two days, I've been learning a lot about state and royal funerals, which has been quite a downer.

Finally, my shift came to an end and I was on my way to the dining hall for my dinner. As soon as I arrived in the room, Celestia was already waiting with a cup of tea in her magical grasp. The princess smiled when I stepped in the room, welcoming me with her trademark royal smile. "Good evening, captain. I take it your day went well."

"If you call boring to an unbearable level 'well', then I can vouch for that." I answered. "Seriously, I never knew funerals had to be so fucking hard to coordinate. When my grandfather died, he just had a flag draped over his casket and then a few of my uncles carried him out of the church."

"It's much different when you're dealing with something much bigger than civilian affairs." She quietly noted. "Even if you feel as if it's unnecessary, they are going to do what is considered appropriate for the service of the individual being put to rest."

"If I ever die, can you make sure that my funeral is as simple as possible?" I asked.

"And do you think that for one second the citizens will accept that?" She rebutted.

"If it's my funeral, I think they should."

The sun princess stopped sipping her tea to speak. "Even if you're hailed as a hero for many and a powerful voice for others? I don't think I would be able to accomplish something like that. Your funeral, if anything will be just as, if not more difficult. Of course you can have a private ceremony in the presence of your peers and family after the fact, but considering your status, it's mandatory that you'd be announced for others to see and grieve, as they too would share sadness in your passing. As much as it pains me to deny you your wish of complete intimacy, you are still a public servant with many accolades already endued to your name. I'm sure the line to thank you wouldn't be short enough to give you that wish"

"I'm a public servant who's assigned to privately secure your safety. I'm a body guard, what am I to the thousands of guards before me?"

"A historical figure. The first human being in Equestria assigned to be the first human captain of the royal guard, your funeral is going to bring about more pomp and circumstance than a high school graduation."

"What if I start to smell?" I asked as I sat down.

"There will be provisions to prevent that, much like any other funeral held in private. And besides, I don't think you would mind offending anyone at that point."

Taking a moment to realize the conversation we were having, I started to feel a sense of dread over time. "Oh dear God, I'm sitting here wondering how I'm gonna smell when I die. What existential terror have I unleashed on myself?"

The princess gave out a hearty chuckle. "As if I haven't had that same question for well over a thousand years. I just feel like my absent self is going to do something so outrageous that it will possibly clear the streets themselves."

"Not that you'll mind at that point, right?" I asked jokingly.

The princess quirked an eyebrow and held the cup of tea up to toast to that fact. "Well, it's bound to happen eventually. I'm not immortal."

"A thousand years, and you still don't look a day over twenty eight."

The princess sipped from her cup as her voice popped in my head. "994 years under my actual age." I looked at her with a slanted deadpan as she shrugged off my facial expression. "As if I was going to say that out loud."

I just folded my arms in a pout. "Immortal ass."

"Kiss it." Her voice rang through my head, this time causing me to damn near fall out of my chair from the mere fact that she reacted so... crassly. It was odd and extremely bewildering. But I'm sure she did it just to get a reaction out of me. Her lips tried to stay glued to the side of her cup of tea, but I could see that she was struggling to keep them from spilling any tea she might have tried to drink.

"That is probably the first time I ever thought of you having no filter. It's a fun side of you, I have to admit."

"Then maybe I'll bring about a thought or two when you're around, so at least I'm not the only one letting things simmer in my brain."

"Just try not to do that too often." I answered. "I'm still a little unnerved from that one time with Chrysalis."

"Noted." She said, this time speaking through her mouth as opposed to using her telepathy.

One of the servants walked up to me to present me with a small slip of paper. On it was the meal I was scheduled to eat. To no one's surprise, it was a heaping helping of vegetables and a fruit salad for a side. The servant bowed to the princess before dismissing himself to retrieve my meal. I just took out my fork and started 'drawing' on the piece of paper I was given. "I get that you really wanted me to be in prime conditioning for the job, but why all the dietary restrictions all of a sudden?"

The princess snickered as she replied. "Am I supposed to allow that smorgasbord of a feast from Thursday stay on your person? You had at least three helpings, I'm just doing what needs to be done to keep you from gaining anything unwanted. So it's paramount that you keep in prime shape and be able to remain as healthy as possible to diverge from the possibility of sickness. I refuse to have you bedridden for the next month."

I sighed and shrugged my shoulders in a sarcastic show of disbelief. "Okay MOM, I won't get sick."

The room remained silent for a few more minutes until the food came in. Celestia continued to sip on her tea while I started to fork around in my food. The only way I knew she was ready to say something then was when I heard the sound of her teacup clattering against the small saucer it rested itself on. "Nondis, there's something I want to discuss with you."

"Sure thing." I answered, taking a quick siesta from my dietary plate.

"If you knew that your family would've had reservations about you being in the guard, then why did you allow the process to continue? Just the mention of that circumstance would've annulled your process from the start."

I took a few moments to look back at the moment I was in the throne room of Twilight's castle. I recalled my facial expression when it was announced that Twilight and I were to be engaged shortly after receiving my citizenship papers. I leaned back and voiced my thoughts aloud. "I guess... I wanted to do something I haven't done before. I mean if you looked back at my middle school to high school days, I guess I was romanticizing the idea of being in a relationship. I was also, to warn you explicitly, raging with adolescent hormones that had me really fiending for sex. It didn't matter who, it could've been my best friend, I just wanted the chance to be considered as 'normal' and have a 'normal teenage experience' of being that guy with that girl and promising our future to one another only for graduation to really close the final chapter of our relationship. My older brother Alex was a notorious womanizer and my younger brother Stanton is... well... you can guess."

"Adept at the idea of seducing the opposite sex. And displays his confidence in a somewhat aggressive manner." She concluded.

"Yeah, though his comes as a perk of being an athlete full of testosterone and rage. So girls are immensely attracted to that alpha personality. Alex didn't have that physical edge like Stanton, but he was just as popular because of his charisma. And I aspired to have that for the longest. It's just that I was between those two and never really had anything to differentiate myself other than me trying to advertise myself being a cool dude to chill and play games with, most of my attempts coming out as awkward or cringey. And as such, I failed to garner a lot of positive attention."

"I find it's easier to bring attention to yourself when you just try to be yourself and not overtly obsessed to be the figure you visualize yourself to be." Celestia replied.

"Yeah, that I heard and understand now, but you couldn't tell me that shit even a year ago. And thus brings me back to the situation with Twilight. I found myself a girlfriend for the first time, and I just wanted to meet the expectations so damn much that I didn't care how much I got hurt. As long as I could be that guy for her being that girl, I was more than happy to take the bruising. But I guess I too excited to say no. My parents didn't even come to mind until the first time I saw them again, and that's when I started really think in the back of my mind, would the really accept any of this."

"At least you have an answer now." Celestia said with a softened tone.

"Yup... Disowned and abandoned for choosing to be different, for deciding that I didn't want to have a 'normal human experience'. It's not a fun thing to know."

Celestia walked up to me and pointed at the door with a smile. "Though I'm sure there is someone who would want to talk to you further on this issue."

I looked up to the door, watching as another human appeared from the hall. A mature man with recognizable features, the peppered hair, the grungy beard, the hardened hazel eyes, all of which staring right back at me with an apologetic smile on his face. I looked back to Celestia and saw her just as cheerful. My jaw fell through the floor as I couldn't believe who was standing here, actually STILL here in spite of what happened for what felt like the longest time. With almost a childlike whisper, I called out to the man in the doorway.

"...Dad?"

Author's Note

Hello to all, I trust the year has been off to a great start for you guys because my karma hasn't been that great. In short, adulting continues to be a chore and it continues to eat my expenses (Sorry KH3, maybe next month...).

But in all seriousness, I hope everyone has been doing well and finding themselves on the better end of their luck. And I know some of you are caught in that deep freeze up north, is everything alright with you guys? Are you well? Do you need any amount of napalm to thaw your front door? Please don't lose fingers or limbs, because that's like one of my biggest fears right now for something to happen to my hands (that's my way of living and primary source of income). If you guys ever need some assistance in that frozen hell up there, please feel free to contact anyone you may need to and don't hesitate to voice a concern with your local authorities should something go south.

Cause this... this ain't healthy.

Stay warm, stay safe, stay together. I'll see you all in the next one.

Chapter LXXX

Earlier...

The portal sealed off closed as Celestia stood by the activation lever, staring back at the begrudging human. On her face was a stoic look while the mature man glanced around the room for a while. He took in the sights and shook his head in disbelief. "All of this just feels too much like a damn fever dream. How do you even hide an entire world in a girls closet?"

Celestia sat there, looking back at the portal. "How does one hide their emotions for so many years? The answers are sometimes the most elusive, yet greet you from the moment you wake up each morning."

The man shrugged at her comment. "Whatever that means... Little Melanie said you wanted to talk to me again. I just thought you had us on blacklist or something."

"I'm afraid that I would not be showing the qualities of a leader should I decide to make that decision. Even in war, it is imperative to maintain the lines of communication. It is how we avoid the worst of casualties." Celestia replied.

"Huh, I guess y'all didn't have many wars then." The man retorted.

"Why look for trouble when the citizens call against it? It is only when they are threatened should you ever make such a declaration. And even then, I don't see you going to war with us."

"It could very much happen." He answered quickly. "If you got gold and oil, I wouldn't be surprised to see a few armies walking up on your front porch. And I gotta say this place does makes a nice front porch, ain't gotta deal with nearly as many mosquitoes."

The princess took a more stern tone as she gave a heavy reply. "Then I'm afraid that will be a war your son will be fighting in to defend us."

The man paused for a moment and crossed his arms. He dropped his head with a somber silence before he could speak. "I don't think my son is ready to see the horrors of war. Fighting you ponies and whatnot, that's pretty tame."

"Then I'm sure the stories he'd tell you would prove otherwise."

The man remembered the train ride he took on the way from Ponyville and nodded. "Yeah... I've heard one of 'em. At least what I got from that one is why he doesn't like riding trains."

"Then I'm sure you can understand that war, battle, skirmishes, fighting in general, those things are hard on any participant." She said as she walked towards him.

"That's something I wouldn't know. I never fought in a war, didn't want to, that's why I chose to get a job coming out of high school." Harold revealed.

"You chose not to further your education?"

The man shook his head. "Didn't have the grades for it. I was what you'd call a 'slacker' with a knack for picking up chicks. Got kicked out of the house when I was eighteen, told to go make my own way in life. My parents wanted to push me into the military because I didn't do well in school. When I said no, I got the boot anyways."

"So what did you do?" Celestia asked.

"I was good with cars. Fixing 'em, tweaking, buying parts, selling cars out the lot, you name it. Started at a little 'ol place, got picked up from a tiny fish bowl and thrown to a lake, swam downstream and got into one of those big-name manufacturers. I joined a union, got my benefits, and was working for a respectable dollar in three years time. Those first few months, I went from homeless to a two-room apartment, went from eating Spam and crackers to ordering a pizza on occasion."

"You sound like you had quite the success story." She said with a light chuckle.

"If you could call it that. I had to struggle because I decided that studying was for 'nerds and wimps'. But figures, the first thing I got married to was one of those things. And I had a kid with one of those things... three of 'em. And my first born happen to take so much after her, it's funny to think about it. Stanton took after me, but his mother made sure to keep a level head on him.

"And Nondis?"

"...That boy is a man of his own mold."

Celestia looked up to the man, extending a hoof to him. "And you believe he's too different for you?"

"No, he's that rebellion I had when I was younger, coming to get back at me for my mistakes. I just wanted to push for him to be better and fend for himself."

"Because you had to, right?" Celestia surmised.

The man nodded. "Yeah. But my wife was the one to keep me from doing what my parents did to me."

"That seems to be the better thing to do." The princess stated. "Though I can understand Nondis' feelings at the moment when it comes to her speaking so harshly on him."

The man closed his eyes and thought back on the events of his early years. He could already see the resentment on his face from when he had to spend another day sleeping behind a YMCA in his car. He remembered the days leading up to his first paycheck, how much he had to sacrifice to keep from going hungry, how many times he ran the heater until the battery drained dry. When his eyes opened, he recalled the image of his own son on that newspaper clipping, fighting a beast three times his size, seeing the fear in his eyes.

Harold finished reflecting and spoke. "I think it's my turn to look at things from her perspective." He began, causing Celestia to remain focused in on him. "I didn't like the military being an option for my sons, especially with that whole Iraqi War business. But I didn't want him to keep relying on others to fight his battles for him. I wanted to see him succeed, being a good Christian man who'd raise his children with that same moral principle. But when he decided to go about his own way of doing it, I just said to hell with it and wanted that to be the end of it. But Martha came to me and told me that we should be a little more forgiving. He ups and disappears for several months, making me see exactly where I went wrong as a father, so I prayed to God if he came back alive, that I would be given the strength to change my state of mind."

"...And?" Celestia muttered.

"Well, he woke me up this morning and started me on my way. If he's doing the same for Nondis, in spite of his beliefs, then surely I can pass a test such as this."

"And that test is?" Celestia asked.

"If I can show a father's love."

Present...

"Dad?"

The man chuckled lightly as he walked into the room. "Boy, you look like you seen something scary. Don't tell me I'm what's giving you the spooks."

I quickly turned to Celestia and questioned her. "How did he get here?"

"I summoned him." She replied flatly. "Well, I asked Melanie to invite him over so that we could talk. I wanted to do my part and help a family on the mend. And before you start asking me any more questions or bring about any complaints, I know this is out of my jurisdiction. But I refused to allow for it to end the way that it did, without you saying a proper goodbye."

Seriously, I told him and mom 'Thanks for visiting, come again' and left. How was that not a proper sendoff when I was being as polite and restrained as possible? At the very least, I was ready to lash back out at her with something mean. But I guess that doesn't really matter now, with him actually being here again. So I glanced back to dad, who was standing silently at the end of the table. "Well... welcome back, I suppose."

Dad tried to break the ice with a dry attempt at humor. "So get this, apparently there's a mirror in Mel's closet that somehow lets you enter into an alternate world. I'm like 'Is she hiding her little feelings for you in there too?' Heh heh heh."

Considering Mel trying to seduce me into going home, I was the least bit amused. "You tried to convince her to sleep with me."

Dad dropped his head with a sigh. "Yeah... I just thought she'd be able to remind you of what you are, how you could feel with an actual woman. I mean, you liked her so much─"

"I introduced you to my girlfriend already..." I said before promptly correcting myself. "...Well, ex now. You talked to her, said she was pretty cute, how lucky I was to have her."

Dad lifted his head to speak directly at me, with a slightly firmer tone. "That was before we found out what she really was."

"And that's supposed to change things?" I asked.

"It changes a lot, son. She's one of them, and you're you."

"Yeah, that's true." I bluntly admitted.

He tapped his fingers on the table as he took a moment to convince me otherwise. "But haven't you ever thought about the future? I know there's gonna be a time where you're gonna want to experience the other parts of life, like you know... raising a child."

I sighed to myself and mumbled. "And here we go."

"Son, you can't have that if you're here being intimate with something that ain't standing on two legs and look like you."

"And that's my business. I'm sure Alex and Vanessa would be happy to give you grandkids within the next four years." I replied sarcastically. "Besides, mom said that I died in the gulf over in Galveston. So why not just take that blue pill and live your merry life."

"Because I know something in our life would be missing." He answered strongly. "Now I know what you mean, your mother found her experience frustrating at that final stretch and said some things she never meant to say."

"That doesn't change the fact that she said it, dad." I rebutted.

Dad didn't answer me right away, instead taking a moment to compose himself while he tried to negotiate with me. "Nondis, look at me." He said calmly. "Now you know your mother ain't too keen on you being a soldier of any kind. And I didn't approve of any of this. But I am gonna say that all of this is your choice."

"And I chose to stay here." I replied, almost cutting his sentence short. "Wasn't that my choice?"

Dad sighed and sat down at the end of the table. "I'm not stopping you, Nondis."

"Then what are you here for?" I asked, starting to become defensive and angry. "Why do you wanna be here? To tell me that I made a mistake? To say that you're sorry for things being the way that they are so that you can say 'goodbye' to me one last time? Or is it to convince me to do something different with my personal relationships, that YOU don't approve of? So because you consider it 'ungodly' that I have to turn away from it? You probably think I'm a joke. I'm already sandwiched between 'Pride' and 'Joy' back home. Stanton's the pride of our family, pro-athlete in the making, sure as hell gonna make it to the NFL now that his leg's fixed, but you ain't say thank you for that not once. Your joy, your first-born son Alex is gone off to be happy with his beautiful wife, set to make you some beautiful grandkids you can take care of whenever they gotta go to work on the weekends. But I'm the one you had to drag out of the room, the one you yelled at, the one you thought was never gonna be anything special, the one you kicked out when I said I was done being a 'Christian' cause Christ ain't do shit for me but make it harder to understand life. You didn't even want me to have that apartment, mom convinced you. You screamed at her over the fact that she took money out of your joint account to take care of me."

I didn't exactly know why I jumped out of my chair, but I did. By that point, my emotions were running on an all-time high. I screamed at him, my tears starting to well and fall from my eyes. All he did was stare at me while I went on and on.

"But you never liked that I wanted to become my own person! You never took the time to tell me that you were willing to be patient with me! You only did what you felt was best for my interest without even talking to the one person who you need to talk to! You proved that by trying to get Mel to FUCK ME INTO GOING BACK HOME! You fought me for not standing up for myself, and then argued me down whenever I did! Not ONCE did you ever tell me that I did good! It always had to be mom to tell me that! But guess who's not here, mom. Guess who is, YOOOOUUUU!!! IT'S YOU!!! You always thought of me as a disappointment, that I was fucking crazy, like I had no place in your little neatly-framed world!... Each time I felt like I was on my deathbed, I always dreamed of a world where you took the time to say 'Son, I'm proud of the work you've done' and close my eyes to wait for the end of it all! I've watched innocent lives get snuffed out, the resignation and hopelessness in their eyes and it keeps me up at night, while somewhere in my mind I fear the thought that the two of you are going to be just fine without me! But you know what, MY MOTHER WISHED I WAS DEAD SO WHO FUCKING CARES!? You'd probably feel the same..."

Dad stared up at me as I panted a few more times, trying to catch my breath. But instead of doing that, I was losing strength to stand. The weakness in my legs started to cause my knees to buckle, my eyes clenched shut as my view of the world became drenched in tears. I finally fell to my knees, feeling a depression so weighty that I swore that there was no oxygen in the room. The beautiful world I was sworn in to protect didn't feel like it did when I first arrived, but a harsh mix of grays and despondency. I know I had finished eating my food already. Instead of feeling full, I was left feeling so empty that it made sense to me why my stomach felt it was justified to swallow every bit of what resided in my chest. Nothing I felt could make my heart feel complete, and all I wanted was to give it something to nurture on to get healthy. But my arms were empty, my hands were touching the cold marble tiles on the floor, my tears made miniature puddles beneath my face, something akin to a lake for my sorrows to reside within. My pain became scores of fish swimming in a lake far too small. Something, a lot of it, was missing.

Next, something tugged at my arm, pulling me off the ground with such a force that could've yanked it clean out from the socket. My blurred vision was treated to the world suddenly shrinking again. Instead of my hands touching the cold ground, they were pressed against the warm back of my dad. I looked at him as he embraced me, feeling some surprise as he spoke. "Son, when have I ever said that I was not proud of you?"

At that moment, as soon as he said that, I felt awash with anger... but something else entirely that wasn't. No, it wasn't anger, it was frustration. And as it boiled to a climax, I felt my arms stiffening around my dad. The other soon joined it, and I was buried into my dad's shoulder, unsure as to why I felt the need to cry even more. He rocked from side to side as he held me in place.

"If I ever simply said that I was proud of you, then those words would be a cheap gift, son. Is this what you were feeling for all these years?" I couldn't stabilize myself enough to speak, instead producing incoherent babble. "I'll take that as a 'maybe'. But I never once thought of you as lesser than your brothers. Even when I said the things I didn't mean, I was always hoping you'd find it in you to fight back. Since your grandmother died, your mom and I were scared that you'd just go into the world and let it do whatever to you, that you'd start getting into the wrong things, looking for trouble as a source of validation. I didn't want to see you going out and about, only to get consumed by something that would've hurt you and everyone else, picking up bad habits. I didn't want you to isolate yourself because you'd start thinking of things that ain't good for your happiness. I knew your brothers had something about them that people gravitated towards, and I knew that you struggled to find what it was to make you stand out. That's why me and your mom were so hurt when they pulled your car out the water, cause somewhere in us we felt that we failed."

As a servant was about to reenter the room to check on the commotion, Celestia eyed the door as it started to open. She quickly used her magic to shut it and seal it off so that no others would come in. She then continued to watch as dad spoke.

"And I know Martha's not happy with you enlisting. I know why, we all do. But I know your grandfather would be remiss if he didn't take into the account the lives you saved or changed for the better. He didn't tell you those stories to scare you, he told you those stories so that you wouldn't make the same mistakes. He wanted to impart some wisdom, so that you didn't suffer like he did. You got blood on your hands, but it ain't the wrong blood. You're fighting to defend the lives of others, not to take it from them. And to see you standing here knowing what all you've done and why you do it, I can't ever say that I could ever be disappointed. But instead, you surpassed my expectations and honored me the privilege of calling you my child. Sure I guess Stanton's the pride of the family and Alex is the joy to come, but you're the heart of this family, the spirit of us all. You're the thing that's best exudes the strength and fortitude where we'd end up falling flat. You're the reflection of everything in our name, and you're the main one to make the hard decisions in spite of the stress. You know how many families don't have that?"

After so long, unable to stop myself from clenching my teeth, I pulled away for a second to argue with him. "I'm not any of those things, dad. I'm not strong enough for anything. I even tried to─"

Dad placed his hands on my shoulders as he tried to convince me otherwise. "Nondis, you've been away from home for almost a year now, fighting monsters, saving families when you could, and here you are telling me that with all you've gone through that you don't have the strength to endure hardship. Boy, let me tell you something, had it been me going through what you did, I would've put it down and walked away. And if I went through the pain you had, I would've begged God to take me out. I would've thrown in the towel, son. I've already had my days of hardship and I'm well over fifty, and they don't hold a candle to you. You're a man I could never be, that your brothers couldn't be, and it shows. You've got the heart to make it no matter what, and to simply say that I'm proud of you ain't good enough. You beat me, I lost this one. I'm at the top of the mountain tryin' to tell you where you need to go, but your peak is much higher than mine. You can say my world is little, but don't you EVER say that you don't fit."

Dad grabbed one of the cloths used to wrap the utensils off the table and gave it to me to wipe my eyes. As I was cleaning myself off, I started to realize what it was that I was feeling as soon as he hugged me. It wasn't really anger, or even frustration. It was the sense of closure, the feeling of knowing that my father was not going to condemn me to fire and brimstone like I've been thinking about for months, what I felt he was ready to do for years. Instead, I felt loved. I would've never thought that he'd be the one to stand in for mom on this one, it went against my expectations. I assumed because of religion and past experience that I was gonna go through a tough time with him, but it turns out that he's just being dad. We fought more than once, and one time we even got physical. But in all my years of life, I never felt more secure than I did today. It still hurts to know that mom rejected me, but seeing him here to greet me was probably the greatest thing in my life so far.

"There's always a place in my heart for you, and that was from the moment your eyes opened to the world. You're my son. Now when I get back, I'm gonna have a word with your mother. Martha's a bit emotional, but she prone to thinking things over. I'll keep in touch with you, but you gotta learn how to answer the phone or reject a call, something to let me know you're functioning. Cause a world where any of my boys ain't functioning right is a world of hurt."

"Thanks, dad." I said, wiping my eyes while trying to dry the tears again. "Ugh, I haven't cried like this since I was a kid. What the hell happened to me?"

"Well we didn't go see Lion King this time, so it's not that. Your grandmother's been gone for years, so it ain't that. You were pretty stoic when we had your grandfather's funeral, so it ain't that. Eh, I'm sure you'll figure it out, ya big baby."

I was pretty uncertain at first, not really knowing how I smiled or even laughed at his insult. "Oh shut up! I am not a baby!"

"Does it go 'waah?' Cause I swear you were talking some baby gibberish a moment ago." He said playfully, poking fun at my breakdown.

"Oh man, you are a terrible parent." I muttered back at him.

He laughed off my comment. "Oh yeah, your mom told me that the day she had Alex. So you're not wrong."

Celestia brimmed with satisfaction as she unsealed the door. The servant quickly rushed in, panting wildly as he spoke. "Your majesty... *huff* ...I tried to get to you... *oof* ...as soon as possible. You're twelve minutes late on your duties..."

The solar princess seem unfazed by her lack of punctuality. "It's an extra twelve minutes of daylight, I wouldn't expect anypony to complain."

"You know that I am incapable of doing your end of the work, sister." Luna stated, walking up from behind the servant. "Your assignment is much heavier than mine."

Celestia chirped back at her younger sister. "Then maybe you should rule Equestria for a thousand years."

"I've tried that, and we know how well that went for me." Luna retorted sternly. "Now can you stop gorging on cake long enough to get your duties out the way?"

"Ugh... fine." Celestia said before looking to me and dad. "Would you two gentlemen mind escorting us to fulfill our daily duty? It would honor us if you could watch our work."

Dad looked at me nervously and pursed his lips. "Hey son, ain't that you? You're the bodyguard."

Luna smiled as she agreed with her sister's suggestion. "Oh, but surely one human is not nearly enough to accommodate for the safety of TWO princesses."

"And I'm certain that your father would be incapable of navigating the castle on his own, you got lost on the first day if I recall. It would be better if you were to have him join us this evening." Celestia added.

I shook my head realizing they had valid arguments. "Can't win that one. Well dad, you're coming with us."

"For what!?"

We finally reached the end of the hall, leading to something akin to a chapel. The princesses guided us to an open balcony where they ordered us to watch for the sky. Luna stood by us as she tapped her hoof impatiently. Dad looked to me and whispered under his breath. "Psst, Nondis, what's this all about?"

Celestia, with keen ears flicking back to us, turned back to speak to him. "I'm sure you've noticed the mark on the side of my derriere here."

My dad looked away nervously. "I-I-I'm sure I did."

Luna giggled as she tapped me in the side. "At least I know where you get your bashfulness, captain."

"Far from, ma'am." Dad quickly answered. "I just try not to pay attention to anyone's hind quarters."

I shrugged as I started to explain myself to dad. "Well in this case, it's more than warranted. Sometimes the identity can be surmised by one's mark. Each individual pony here in this world has a unique mark. Under no circumstances are they to be the exact same, even for twins. When your achieve a Mark of Destiny, it's considered to be your special talent."

"Nowadays, the call them Cutie Marks." Celestia added, giving my dad an opportunity to deadpan me.

"...Tramp stamps?" Dad muttered.

"No dad! Way different concept. You can get a tattoo removed, you can't remove a Mark of Destiny, or M.O.D. for short. Their talents are something that can be a positive contribution to society, it's just the manner of how they use that talent." I explained further.

"And who's to say that there aren't any marks to indicate a talent for the not-so-family-friendly occupations?" Dad questioned.

"They do exist after all." Luna confirmed. "There aren't that many in existence, but there are some who resort to wearing dresses to hide some of the more obscene marks, that or cover them with makeup. It happens."

"Tramp stamps." Dad reaffirmed.

I covered my face as I sighed with disbelief. "I can't have an innocent explanation of this with you, can I?"

"Nope." He answered.

"Well either way..." I said trying to push the subject forward. "Those MODS are not sexualized. They're a perfectly normal part of their body that everyone can see daily. Just don't be a douche and hike up anyone's tail or you'll get kicked. Back to the topic, just take a look at Princess Luna's mark."

He did as I instructed and described what he saw. "Okay, a partial moon."

"Now look at Princess Celestia's." I instructed.

Staring back at her, trying to shield his eyes from the stationary setting sun, he made out the vague shape of her mark. "It looks like a sun, almost like those stamps and sigils we see all over the palace."

"Right." I confirmed. "Now tell me what you think her mark means to you."

Dad looked back to Luna, namely at her mane and quickly came up with a solution. "So they're siblings, but one has some affinity for the sun and the other with the moon. It's like the two of them are so different, like night and day."

"Precisely." Celestia said as she stepped forward on the balcony. "It is as you said, the difference between us are as if we were night and day. To simplify things further, I am the day." Celestia's horn illuminated with a bright flash before stabilizing into a much softer golden glow. As her head bowed slowly, as did the sun proceeded to sink below the horizon. And it continued until the very moment where the princess' chin could almost touch the ground, where the sky completely transitioned into total darkness. Our only source of light was the lights from around the city and the castle itself. The sky was pitch black, devoid of any scenery and light.

Dad's jaw fell to the ground as he stared back at Celestia with amazement and reverence. Soon, Luna approached from the side of us. She looked back to me as her horn started to glow a dim white. "And I am the night."

Celestia broke her silence as her sister stepped forward to the edge of the balcony. "Nondis, isn't this the first time you've had the opportunity to watch us perform our birthrights?"

"It is, and it's not a disappointing experience to say the least." I answered. "I wish I was recording this."

Luna hummed softly as she continued to cast her spell. Meanwhile Celestia smirked at us. "Luna has always had a desire to showboat, so I'm guessing she's going to put all of her effort into this night."

"Is that so?" I asked.

Luna smiled and turned to me. "For you, captain, I give you my most beautiful night. Gaze into it and marvel at it's secrets beyond the veil."

Luna's head bowed before us, touching the tiles of the balcony. Slowly it rose to reveal a sparse amount of stars appearing in random order. And as her head rose higher, so did the the crest of the moon from over the horizon. More and more stars started to gradually appear in the sky until what we saw rivaled some distant nebula. Her head rose higher until her neck could no longer afford the ascent. But to compensate, she stood on her hind legs, revealing to us a great full moon, compliment with an astounding amount of stars that by right shouldn't be visible. Her forelegs kicked out as she reached the apex of her rising. From there, the moon was locked into place, and the nebulous clouds subsided into the normalized, but incredibly starry sky. She fell to her hooves again, looking up to take pride in her work.

Dad seemed like he was about to fall off his balance staring into the sky. He danced around in a circle, trying to glimpse at it all. Even I admit that I was doing a bit of a dance myself. But the longer I stared, the more disoriented I got from trying to perceive how many stars were up there. So I actually lost my balance and fell to the ground, earning both the princesses' laughter.

"Luna, I think you might have overdone it." Celestia said pointing at me.

"I was being lenient this time. Can't let him have my absolutely best night so soon. I think a commitment would be in order for that to happen."

Dad gawked back at the two mares and spoke. "So... what part of heaven did you two drop from?"

Luna looked back at me, using her magic to help me get back on my feet. "I see your flattery is very much an inherited trait."

"Well I knew you two could do this, I just never had the time to stop and pay attention." I answered.

"Then would it be fair to say that our performance satisfied you?" Luna worded dubiously, causing dad to snap out of his stare.

"Now wait a minute! My son ain't on the market!"

"Well he's single, so he's for sale." Luna joked. "Besides, I'm sure if we had a say, he'd be accounted for."

"Luna, would you stop messing around?" Celestia chided. "Or would you like for me to send for Stanton also?"

The night princess looked at the sky with a slight blush. "Oh goodness, would you look at the time! I should commence to my duties now! Somewhere around there are young little fillies sleeping and I need to give them good dreams for the morrow! Good evening to all!" She said before breaking into full gallop. The only thing to follow her was the sound of her hooves clattering down the hall. Celestia looked back at dad, seeing he was even more confused.

"Don't worry. Stanton has no intentions of pursuit. But he will find the time to properly mock her for her inexperience."

Dad turned to me and pointed back to where Luna ran to. "Son, what's between you and her?"

"She's a bit of a flirt who wanders into my dreams on occasion. She stops the nightmares from escalating and then taunts me over what I dream about and their hidden meanings... including the... graphically robust ones."

Dad winced at my answer. "Well that's a bit unusual."

"She's incredibly perverted." Celestia stated. "Avoid any semblance of alone time with her should you wish to avoid trouble."

Both dad and I sounded out in unison. "Noted."

The Next Day...

Shortly after our conversations on the balcony, dad was allowed back home and my phone practically blew up. Seemingly out of nowhere, I had around twenty missed texts and five voicemails. After taking the time to go through each of them, I made the decision to turn it in for the evening. Even if the night was still young, I had other things to worry about in the morning, like the state funeral. My dreams were peaceful, my sleep was sound, my eyes were well-rested, and my mind was at ease from the emotional release I experienced earlier. The only thought that woke me up was the fact that I felt I could've apologized to dad for the way I came at him.

Unfortunately, I can't wake him up at five in the morning to let him know that, he'd be just as cranky.

The moment I got up, took my shower, brushed my teeth, washed my face, combed my hair back, and put on some nice clothes befitting for a funeral... all white everything. White dress shirt, white slacks, white dress socks, white dress shoes, and even a white trilby hat with the gray ribbon at the base. Of course, it was an outfit I had to quickly jump from my world to this one in order to get, thanks Walmart for being open 24/7. I had it all planned out, my being dressed to somewhat celebrate the fact that one of my adversaries─who plotted to forge my signature and give my body to science─was the one sitting lying in state... closed casket affair, of course.

Oh yeah, I was about to go in like I was trying to hit the club for an all-white affair. And for a while I stood in the mirror and took the time to revel in my own vanity, if only for that one instant. I felt like I could take this day, finish my duties, and go back to doing the usual guard things shortly after, maybe even talk to a few friends while I'm somewhat free after. I had it all planned out.

Then there was a knock on the door. I checked my phone to see the time was set at approximately 6 a.m. and opened the door. Standing in the way was none other than Princess Celestia, who appeared surprised by my particular choice of attire. "Morning, Captain... I see you've gotten the jump on me."

"Your highness, I dress to impress." I said with a smirk. "Is there anything wrong?"

Celestia didn't smile back at me, instead being a lot more somber. "I see that the color of your outfit would be a tad-bit controversial."

To be fair, that was what I was going for. "I can understand, but it was the only thing I had set up for something like this."

She didn't seem convinced, and for good reason. "I don't think you going through the portals to your world for a quick costume change is something you intentionally did for your particular color scheme. And white is not what I would assume to be a respectable color for any event considering a period of mourning."

"I understand, your highness." I said with a bit of a groan.

"Furthermore, it would look offsetting when the priests and cardinals are wearing their white while you, a commanding officer, were to show up at such an event with the same colors as those over the pulpit. It would not only be controversial, but incredibly offensive."

Woof... guess that throws my idea out the window. I only chose the outfit to be a bit petty for a final farewell, my way of saying I celebrate life, or the fact that I continue to celebrate life while you're probably getting an earful from your maker. But even then, I would have to go back to my world and get another outfit. "Sorry. I didn't know that it was going to be such a taboo thing to do."

Celestia levitated a black suit bag with the Equestrian emblem on it. She unzipped the case and introduced to me a black ceremonial coat with a white broad stripe, similar to the design of the shirt Twilight introduced me to wear the day I brought my parents over to Equestria for the first time. And instead of being a crest embroidered into the stripe, it was a silver shield with Equestria's royal emblem sitting within a coat of arms. The slacks she passed on to me were also a bit thicker, but had the white stripes going down the outside of the legs. With it was a plain black belt that appeared to be relatively thick and sturdy. She also summoned a black and gold straight-bladed cutlass, holding a blade length of 30 inches. All of the items she held in her possession were levitated onto my bed as she spoke sternly.

"I understand that most of your tenure has been without a proper uniform, even your basic training garments were adapted from griffon attire. I have elected to produce you an outfit for your ceremonial dress. I commissioned Rarity to handle the details regarding the appearances, and I also dug up a little bit of research while in your world in regards to an appropriate sword size for ceremonial purposes. Melanie placed the order for the sword, Rarity did the rest."

I looked at the outfit on the bed with some curiosity and started to feel around for the texture. It felt much like how a uniform should feel; rough, rigid, defined, and prominent. And for it being Rarity's line of work, it was definitely lacking any of her usual trademarks and implications. "Oh yeah, this definitely feels like a uniform."

"The shirt you're wearing is fine underneath, but the slacks and shoes will need a change. Proceed to look towards the uniform I provided for you, and report to your position at your designated time."

Looking back at the doorway, I could see Celestia was quick to dismiss herself before I could say anything else. I walked over and closed the door so that I could get myself changed without the prying eyes of the maids trying to take a peek at my goods. After changing my outfit, I walked into the bathroom to see that most of it was pretty slimming. I then moved a bit to get a feel of the material, realizing that it was far more comfortable than what I would've imagined. Nothing was constricting about the outfit and I could do most of what would be required for me to do in any situation, be it mundane or combative. Even if my pants felt a bit uncomfortable on the left side, it only turned out to be a pair of white cotton gloves resting neatly within. I had to give Rarity credit, I didn't think she go so far as to get my hands right, but I supposed that's to be expected by now.

After sizing up my new wardrobe, I soon found it desirable to rock the new look as opposed to my original vengeance get-up. But there was more to this look than what I was giving it currently. My face was clean, but not quite clean-shaven. My hair was a tamed wildness as it was, but the look called for something a tad more conservative. So I went in the complimentary grooming cabinet and nabbed me a razor and a black ribbon used to adjust pony manes.

Around thirty minutes later, I was rocking a slick comeback into a neatly-pulled half-up ponytail, the business from the sides and back just flowed down. My beard was trimmed to give off a rough but clean look. My sideburns were a lot tamer, my brows a little more arched, and my eyes approved of the man staring back at me in the mirror. And in that half-hour, I started to realize that my hanging around Rarity for a month made me quite adept to adjusting my own appearance, it was another thing I had to thank her for.

I walked out of the bathroom, grabbed my phone and slipped it in my pocket. My ceremonial sword was quickly fastened onto my waist and my left hand rested comfortably on it's hilt. Probably the first time where I could call myself the Captain of the Royal Guard and completely look the part while not complaining. And after making sure that I also had a gun on my belt for good measure, I glanced back at the white pair of slacks and shoes on my bed.

I suppose that outfit will be used for something else.

Walking the halls this time was a completely different experience. Instead of just simply looking at me, the maids gasped as I passed by. The guards standing on duty saluted even faster and for even longer until I passed by. The other politicians who roamed the hall even stopped to take in my new appearance, their faces wrought with stubbornness and approval. And by the time I arrived to my post, even my superiors glanced me up and down, gave a solitary nod, then walked off while inspecting the others.

One of them even walked up to me, his chest completely covered in gaudy medals and colorful ribbons with a firm smile. "That's the new standard, captain. I would see nothing less." His magic flashed around my silver emblem and tilted it slightly. "Now that's a guard of her majesty's standard."

"Thank you, sir." I replied with a salute.

He gave one back and he dismissed me so that I could get to my second position in the royal auditorium. Already waiting for the service to start was none other than Princesses Celestia, Luna, and Cadance with princes Blueblood and Shining Armor sitting quietly beside them. Twilight didn't seem to be present and neither were any of the girls.

"Captain Nondis." I looked around for whoever called my name, only to see a distinctively familiar face looking at me as he approached. "I don't believe that you came here to mingle."

For a while, his name escaped me and I could only greet him as formally as possible. "No sir, I'm on assignment."

The stallion sighed and shook his head as he placed a hoof on his chest. "I don't believe you forgot who I am. It's me, Alabaster. We met at the garden party for the celebration of Canterlot's anniversary."

The night when Cadance and I got into it in front of everyone. "Oh right! Honor to meet you again! How's everything on the city board?"

"Well things have changed a bit. Some coalition came up in the recent days, just a group of lobbyists trying to advocate for more public funding for larger private industries to cut away a portion of property on the lower end to build an industrial complex."

"Sounds like a good idea. But what's the catch?" I asked.

"Uprooting residents living in the area who are either grandfathered in or property owners trying to keep their locally-funded businesses afloat. I mean it would be a benefit to clean up that part of the city for once, but I fear to disrupt the filth would only provide an outsourcing to the upper tiers of the city, wealthier clientele who would pay a shiny bit to keep the muck alive and do better in keeping it all hidden. And of course, that's where the real trouble begins."

"Let me guess, increases accessibility to those with the money because what's a walk down the street to get your drug fix."

Alabaster hummed quietly as he looked at the coffin ahead. "I fear it is much worse than that. The only thing that is keeping a lid on the accessibility rate is the reputation of the surrounding area, known formally as Canterrot. As much as I despise the idea of allowing such a place to remain in existence, it is a necessary evil to ward off any curious adventurers in the midst of a midlife crisis. Let that place get completely cleansed, and you're looking at far more organized gangs, politicians getting their hooves in the midst of it all, more dissenters and critics going missing only to end up being found on the mountainside."

I couldn't help but to feel my throat get dry from the thought of that chaos ensuing. "Well that's not fun." I looked back to the coffin at the front and mumbled. "I wonder if he was involved in any of that."

"Probably so." Alabaster answered quietly. "Prostitution there is rampant, and he's been known to be a flirt of the hands-on variety throughout the course of his life."

I glanced back at the stallion. "You seem to know a lot about the guy."

"I only happen to know the catastrophic mess that is his son." He replied brashly. "That is all I know."

"How's he?" I questioned.

"You'll find out when he marches in with the family. From there, you will know how he's doing." He said one last time, giving the coffin a long stare before walking away.

For a moment, I walked up towards the casket and saw the portrait of him smiling behind the dark brown box. At the lip of the handles, I could see a golden square with his mark at the center. I looked back to the portrait, seeing his still-whole face while the ghost of it's ghoulish counterpart started to manifest itself over it in my mind.

"Nondis!" I heard a loud whisper from behind me, startling me as I jumped back to see Shining waving me over.

I clasped at my chest, taking a few breaths before I walked over to speak. "Dude, you damn near spooked the shit out of me."

The young prince chuckled as Blueblood joined with him. "Don't tell me you're getting the creeps." Blueblood said. "If anything you should be happy with your current circumstances. You're out here, he's locked away in there."

"Still can't get his face out my head all the way." I replied, glancing back at the large picture. "Sure that photo up there may have him looking unassuming like a proud upstanding citizen, but I know how he looked when his face hit the ground. The smell of blood is still fresh to me."

"Well then again, you had a lot to distract you in the recent days." Shining spoke up. "Planning for the funeral, your duties to protect the castle and it's inhabitants, the city, your family coming to visit. It's just a lot to think about when something like that happens to be taking an intimate back seat."

I looked away from Count's picture and turned my attention to Blueblood. "So what now? He's out the way."

"It does makes our plans a bit easier. Did you ever talk to anyone who could be able to make a few changes to your fortunes?"

"I'm still working on it. Though I could be a little faster, couldn't I?"

"A little bit of speed wouldn't hurt." Shining answered.

"Patience, Shining. When the funds are right and we are completely clear from any financial obligations. The paper trail mustn't lead towards us. Last thing you want to happen is for there to be a royal scandal."

"So what about Cadance?" I asked. "Should we still be feuding?"

"Of course." Blueblood confirmed. "Your feud will pose the image that the royal family's dynamic is unstable and incapable of producing efficient results in our endeavors. The more the distraction, the easier to work in the shadows."

"I'm wondering if Cadance should be allowed in on our plans now." Shining stated.

"Only when she realizes just how dire the stakes are for the life she holds within herself. I'll have to do a bit of poking and prodding on my end to leak that information." Blueblood replied.

I cringed at the idea of what could happen if any of the politicians would find out that Cadance was pregnant. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"We have to reveal their colors sometime. If I bait them into it, then I can bring the awareness to the front lines. From there, we may be able to bolster our support to a more unified front. It's a risk with an ugly consequence should we fail, but I don't believe failure is much of an option nowadays."

"Shining, are you okay with this?" I questioned the young prince.

"If it happens to move things along where we can increase our chances of removing this law, then I'm all ears."

"It's going to put the life of your unborn foal at risk." I warned.

"When Cadance gives birth, it's going to be made public. Her pregnancy will be made public eventually. It's only a matter of time before this happens on it's own. Might as well fan the flames so we can get this train moving. The sooner, the better."

"Shining, I don't know if I could put my own kid on this one."

"Why not? Rather this than before they start checking to see if she's a virgin at the end of every month when she's twelve."

...Double woof.

Meanwhile...

The halls started to fill with a multitude of faces, some from associates, others from business representatives to offer the family condolences. However, in terms of family members, there was only one stallion standing in the hall weeping openly as he tried to hide his tears behind a pair of sunglasses. The stallion garnered well-wishers while two ponies entered and found their attention towards another part of the hall. A unicorn mare with a peach coat and red hair done in a bun. The other was a lanky unicorn stallion dressed in studs and black leather with a long black mane.

The two walked behind a pillar and then proceeded to speak at a low volume. "Okay. We're in the castle." The stallion said with a low droaning voice. "What's next?"

"Well I suppose the first thing we should do next is infiltrate as one of the guards." The mare whispered cheerfully. "All I need is a profile to assume and we should be as good as right then."

The stallion looked past the mare, focusing in on her posterior. "Well I'm sure you can detect love and lust as well as any other. You tell me where we can start."

"I still don't feel right doing this." The mare whispered.

"C'mon ThorAss. Just use what the queen gave you. You're a passive male anyhow, you're biologically built to take it."

"Pony name, Dream Slayer. We're in their court." The disguised changeling replied, ears peeling back with disapproval.

"Ugh fine, Sun Dancer." Pharynx said begrudgingly. "Now go scout out a guard or something."

"What do you think I'm trying to─" Thorax stopped himself short as he started to use his nose to pick up on a slight hint of musk. "Hold on..." He took another sniff and quickly surmised the direction of the smell. He peeked his head from behind the pillar and saw a stallion standing by a broom closet, trying his best to hike up his hind leg to hide himself. Thorax's tongue slithered out as he confirmed his target. "Bingo."

"Great news. Now go get that ass smashed to size or something." Pharynx said with a chuckle.

The disguised changeling rolled his eyes as he adjusted his feminine appearance slightly. "You'd still be outside without me, remember that."

With an unassuming trot towards the frustrated guard, Sun Dancer could already hear the earth pony guard's rumblings. He appeared to be stood up and was left to try and calm himself. "Goddamn it. I should've known a maid with the name 'Cherry Picker' would be trouble. 'Meet you here at eleven' she said. 'I'm gonna show you a good time' she said. If it wasn't for peer pressure, I wouldn't even be here."

"Um... excuse me." The unassuming mare mewled out to the guard.

The young stallion turned to the mare and stopped himself from answering harshly. He instead, straightened his helmet and put on his best smile. "Yes, m'lady."

Sun Dancer shifted her hind legs, crossing them as she spoke sweetly. "I don't mean to interrupt you, but I was wondering where the nearest bathroom was."

The stallion then leveled his expectations and simply pointed to the other direction further down the hall. "Third door to the right, next to the stained glass mural of Starswirl the Bearded. Can't miss it, his hoof is pointing directly towards it."

The mare giggled at the stallion as he continued to cock up his hind leg to hide himself. "Okay, thank you so much. But now I'm pretty curious why you're standing over here like this."

"It's just nothing." He answered, starting to feel a blush on his cheeks.

She stepped forward to pry further into the matter. "Is your leg hurting?"

"O-oh, well YES, yes! S-sprained my hoof, drilling for hours on end yesterday and now I'm feeling the burn."

The mare blinked seductively as she put a hoof on his chest. "I know what you're hiding." She whispered.

The stallion gulped as he felt himself being backed into the door of the broom closet. "Do you now?" He asked nervously.

The mare bit her lip as she pointed at the door behind him. "What's in there?"

The guard looked at the door's label, reading out loud. "Uh, supplies?"

"Surprise, it is." She squeaked softly, igniting her magic to wrap around the length of the stallion's sex. His eyes rolled back as he drew a sharp breath followed by a throaty moan. Her magic quickly quenched itself and the stallion dropped his hind leg. With gusto, he reached for the knob and turned it, only to find that it was locked the entire time.

"Oh COME ON!" He shouted angrily. "I should've known that damn bitch wasn't gonna let me get any! Fuck her!"

"You said the bathroom was third door to the... left?" Sun Dancer inquired.

"Colt's room." The stallion grabbed the mare and pulled her towards the very place he gave direction to, leaving himself to hang in all of his aroused glory. He pushed the door open and smiled primitively before yanking her inside.

Pharynx shook his head as the disguised Thorax quickly subdued his target into a trap. "Ugh, I don't see what they see in him. He's just a passive drone who's only good for infiltration tactics." As soon as he finished that statement, he saw two unicorn maids walking down the hall. One with a light blue coat and a bright orange mane, the other with a red coat and a blonde mane. He hid himself and waited until the two got closer, overhearing their conversation.

"And you just left him here? Wow, Cherry, you're cruel."

"He was asking for it! He was begging me all week to spend some time with him. And now he's gonna get that big fat NO he's been begging for. If he wanted it so bad, he'd just fuck any other maid around here."

"Are you kidding? He's got like three different reprimands for public indecency. If anything, none of the maids are interested because they've already seen what he's got."

A loud short moan was heard from the bathroom, followed by a long groan of released pleasure. The two maids covered their mouths as the continued speaking.

"Hey Cherry, was that him!?"

"Oh yeah, I recognize his voice. Guess he figured out the door to the supplies closet was locked the entire time and vouched to make a mess in the bathroom."

"Ew, I am not cleaning that this evening!"

"Well you'll get to be the one to make fun of him for it."

"I am telling everypony about this."

The stallion slowly emerged from the bathroom, checking if his helmet was on straight. Pharynx squinted to closely observe the stallion, confirming that it wasn't the guard who was originally standing in the hall earlier. The 'guard' then glanced back at the two mares and walked about his business, but not before being confronted by the two maids.

Cherry started off. "Ew, you're so disgusting. Like, why a public restroom?"

"You're gonna get in so much trouble over this, abandoning your post, soliciting sex from a royal worker, and yet another count of public indecency!"

The stallion carelessly replied. "...Okay."

The two mares stared back with shock, seeing how nonchalant he was. Cherry then spoke. "So you don't care about what I think about you?"

"Honestly, you're just another manipulative bitch who's mad her high-school sweetheart dumped her for someone else in public. So you validate your humiliation tactics by dragging someone along for the ride to laugh with you. You're just as empty as a politician's smile before reelection. My last nut was way better thinking about me than it was thinking about you. It's better a million potential kids get wasted on the floor of a public restroom than somehow find it's way up your chute to become friends with your abandonment issues. But then again, abandonment requires you to belong somewhere at first before being cast aside, so I doubt your daddy ever got involved in your life. But hey, someone's gotta hold your mane whenever you get drunk and start crying in the toilet over how sick you get every weekend."

The two mares and Pharynx standing in the corner gawked wildly as Thorax threw on one more insult for good measure.

"Don't have kids, they'll just get kidnapped into a better standard of living."

"FUCK YOU, YOU ENTITLED PRICK!" The mare shouted before galloping down the hall in tears. The other chased after her, leaving only the two disguised changelings to stay behind.

"Thorax, I'm impressed."

The disguised changeling looked back at the bathroom sadly and said. "She was torturing him. She did it for weeks on end, he's just a young teen trying to start life."

Pharynx groaned with frustration. "Just when I thought you were growing a spine when you said all of that. Boy how I was wrong."

"I didn't bite him, but I did manage to knock him out and feed on him a little. He'll be out for around thirty minutes. But let's try to find another guard to use."

"No, we use that one. He's just another pony, so just run with it and cast the illusion spell on him." Pharynx demanded.

Thorax watched for a few seconds as his brother tried to storm into the bathroom before stopping him short. "Listen, we're in this castle because of what I'm doing. You're not doing much but standing around. If anything, I can be the one to give us the fighting chance to find the queen. So just follow my lead this time, after we find her and start planning for her escape, then you can start calling the shots."

"You're only good for sleeping around, ThorAss."

"Well my butt is getting the job done, so maybe you should just hear me out and work with me until it's all said and done. The last thing you need to do is get the attention of every guard here, or worse, the human's."

"I thought we were sneaking in here today to bypass the human and the security detail."

"Yeah, because of the funeral. Now just follow me, I think I may know where she's being held." Thorax wasted no time after the small argument, trotting down the hall as Pharynx quickly disguised himself as a simple palette swap of the stallion resting in the bathroom. He trailed behind his brother as he complained quietly.

"Oh like you taking advantage of a teenager's hormones is gonna help us find the queen."

Sunset Hills Cemetery
West Canterlot
Three Hours Later...

While the funeral was an hour's length, the processional and recessional added fifteen minutes each until we could meet with the family. The son, an only child from what I was told, was quite upset with the circumstances. Though he didn't seem to approve of my being there so much because of our feud, he did apologize for the situation on Sunday and wished me well in the matters of my family. He also thanked me for being there in his final moments, doing what was within reason and offering what little virtue I could give him. It's unfortunate, that a person like Count could produce a mild-mannered son who was willing to offer their thanks and apologies in his stead. It makes me regret the fact that I ever came to insult him as a means of getting to Count.

And of course, we marched his coffin right to the graveyard a la street parade. There were some viewers, not overwhelmingly so but there was a numerous amount. Some were just curious of how lavish the escort was, there were also a fair share of protesters who threw fruit at the casket while screaming the names of their departed children, friends, neighbors, and lovers going on that Arimaspi Mountain assignment years prior─personally I was on that float. And then there were some sympathizers who made mentions of my presence being unwanted for the funeral. There were even some who tried to tell me off, saying that I was unworthy of being in my current position.

That went on for around an hour until we reached the gates of the cemetery. And of course, the pallbearers were getting anxious, wanting all of this pomp and circumstance to end. Again, I empathized. By the time we reached the private mausoleum, the six pallbearers were already awaiting my command to dismiss. And inside the small chapel were around twenty faces, including royals, family, a city council member, and a few other randoms I couldn't identify.

One of those randoms happened to be a face from the dinner party Rarity held at the Sun Cryst Resort. She wore a black dress with sunglasses, wafting a fan before her face. Quietly, she walked up and greeted me. "Captain Nondis P, Haines, it's been a while."

"And if I can recall, I have a card with your name on it in my wallet." I said, reaching for my wallet only to discover I had left it in the other pair of slacks I planned to wear. "And I am without said wallet. I remember you went by the name Blue."

The mare giggled as she levitated my hand out to meet with hers. "I'm happy to know that my introduction was memorable to you. I do want you to see me more often as opposed to gatherings such as this."

"In speaking of gatherings, why are you here exactly?" I questioned.

"Oh, just putting some long-term issues to rest." She said proudly. "Some adversaries you have watch as they put them down."

My eyes bucked wide open as her statement cut fiercely through the air, providing a complete shift in the atmosphere. "I never took you for being somewhat vindictive."

"Well, I got into business because of my mother. And that bastard being lowered into his grave, he hurt her in ways unimaginable. So it's personal for me. When I figured he was targeting you for much of your young career, I thought you'd feel the same."

I tapped my fingers against my arms upon folding them while I asked. "So what happened between him and your folks?"

"A history I'd much rather not speak on. I'd rather celebrate his death. If I can say anything, he is a scourge to mares. He hurt my mother, terribly. That is all you need to know for now."

Probably explains the sunglasses indoors. She's hurting and expressing the content in seeing him being lowered in his grave. I can understand her pain, just never thought I'd see someone go even further than I would in seeing him getting buried. "...I'm sorry for your pain."

"My pain is joy now." She answered silently.

As they started the ceremony of internment, I watched as the son weeped quietly to himself, standing beside his father with his hoof on the casket. His face wrought with sadness as the priest gave the final rights and read an excerpt from a book called the Faustian Tomes. The mare next to me started to speak again.

"No point in reading for his salvation. He knows where he's headed."

I knew I could have a murder boner for this man at times, but hers was a totally different level. Whatever Count did with her mom, she's dishing it back out in spades, and it's honestly scaring me. I can only hope that I didn't piss anyone off to this degree. "I'm sure your mom is at peace now."

She continued. "Oh, that's not even the worst of it. He's getting buried next to his wife, the one he drove to suicide."

...I'm sorry, WHAT!? "Um, are you sure that isn't some kind of rumor─"

"He had maids in the house, one of them told me everything that happened a few years back. My mom worked the grounds but she never told me anything, why she was so sad all the time. I don't know the reason for it, but he didn't like his wife, and he treated her worse than he did my mother. From the stories I was told, he was cruel and ruthless, doing what he could to appease himself. Then one day, she hung herself from the rafters of his private study. They even said that he refused to attend her funeral, despite her family's call to do so in honor of her. But here he is, getting just deserts."

Holy fuck, I knew death had a way of showing the ugly side of things, but this is a new level I'm not used to. "Well that's some heavy stuff."

"I can even imagine him screaming in that coffin. 'No, don't put me next to her. Anything but that. I'll do anything, how much do you want? I'll give it to you, just not this. Please.' All of that crying and he's getting put right back in the hooves of the mare he forsook to her own death." She then started to breathe unsteadily as she whispered, grabbing at her chest. "Mom.... he's gone. You're free now."

Softly, she sobbed and wiped the tears from her eyes. I patted her on the back and offered her some way I could comfort her. "Do you need anything? If you need an escort to someplace in particular, I can make sure you get there in a timely manner."

"I'm fine." She answered, trying her best to smile. "I'm leaving as soon as it's all done and they put a lid on him."

As she was clearing up her face, I looked back towards the casket, catching two faces staring back at us. The first one I saw was Alabaster, who was standing next to the priest. He threw a rose on the coffin and walked away immediately after. Celestia was the second, but she quickly looked away as if she wanted to avoid being seen staring at us. She stood up, laid her rose, and walked out of the mausoleum. Luna followed behind her. Shining simply looked at the coffin and walked off. Blueblood smirked and left. Anyone else just left the place. The son walked off to a corner as he took the time to mourn the passing of his father. I then approached the coffin, but veering my sights towards a marble plaque adjacent to the stone tomb he was going to be placed in. On the plaque read the name 'Amber Grain' with a picture of a single grain of wheat.

"Captain!" I heard Celestia call loudly from outside.

I took a moment to put my hand on the coffin and sigh softly. "...Upstairs ain't where you're going, bruh. Have fun."

After that, I quickly ran out to meet with the princess. She waited patiently, allowing me to fall into place as she pointed towards the six pallbearers. "I believe their efforts for today were commendable. They acted in accordance to the protocol of their profession and handled a sensitive matter with outstanding decorum. What do you recommend, captain?"

"I say they earned the rest of the day off. My legs are feeling a little bit of it so I know they're probably more tired having to march Senator Count from the morgue to the castle, down the city streets and into his final resting place. At least in our world the transportation is a lot more convenient. So you six have my highest praise." I stood myself at attention and performed an about face. "Squad, attention!" Each of them snapped up, their heads leveling with one another. "Present arms." They saluted the mausoleum. I raised mine quickly with a mental shout.

Go to hell, Count. I'll see you when I see you.

Time flew by after I got back to the castle, finally free from having to march in step from one place to another. Now I could walk from one place to another freely. And it only served to remind me just how vast the city is area-wise. I just wanted to go out to eat today instead of eating straight vegan-style. I caught wind of a pretty interesting bistro on Restaurant Row, and I opted to visit the place. It apparently had a high rating and felt like I was going to treat myself this once.

I was wrong.

The food I got had tiny portions you could throw on a cracker for spread, and the cracker itself would probably be the main dish. The main dish wasn't even the main dish, it was like a tiny sample of a sampler tray. And if you thought the dessert would be a sweet treat to savor and save the meal, then you'd be better off saving your money. Quoting a dissatisfaction with the food, I received a full refund and was sent on my way to another restaurant. Again, same place with a different face. All of the food seemed lifeless here and without color. I just settled for a place nowhere near the row, visiting Gustav Le Grand's place.

Sadly, they caught wind of my dietary restrictions and turned me away out of royal decree from the princess herself. So I vied for something simple, a cup of tea at the next place over. My drink was a welcome-back party into exotic taste. Coco, caramel, cream, and a hint of pumpkin, my tea was positively reminiscent of something you'd get from Starbucks.

Well to be fair, it was also a pony version of Starbucks I went to.

As I sat at the table, sipping down my tea, I went through my phone for some escapism. Thankfully, I still had Twitter on my phone and could keep up with whatever was going on. So I snapped a selfie, making sure that there weren't any ponies in the picture. I looked up at the camera and captured the image of me holding my cup of tea to my lips. To mask the reason for the outfit, I simply wrote on the post "Nothing like a day in cosplay. #ExpressYourself #Mood"

The first reply I got was from Cliff. "Boy u 💇 up" His way of saying I was cut clean today.

The next one was Rickey. "👌👀" His way of saying 'Okay, I see you.'

Mel threw in her comment. "💓 OMG lemmie see the full"

Rickey chirped back. "Lucy getting the extra run 2nite 🔋"

Mel promptly replied. "Lasts longer than u 💀"

I couldn't help but to have a hearty chuckle while Stanton chimed in. "SHOTS FIRED MAN DOWN"

Surprisingly, dad also chimed in with a response of his own. "Looking great, son. I can see the confidence. #Proud"

I typed in a response to him. "U active on Twitter? #Impressed"

Alex then typed in below me. "When you see it..."

I grew a little confused by his post and scrolled back up to the picture. I took a moment to examine it, then felt my heart rate skyrocket as soon as I saw the peeping eye of a blue unicorn mare poking out from behind my seat. As soon as I noticed it, my notifications went off. Mel being the first to reply. "Busted."

Cliff came in after. "Delete this, fam."

I looked back behind my chair to see a cute blue freckly face staring right back at me. "Hello."

I jumped up and reached for my saber before coming back down to earth. "Fuck's sake, you can't just be chilling behind me like that!"

Getting a good eyeful of the screen, she took notice of the image at the top of the post. "Hey, that thing can take pictures?"

"Yeah, and you weren't supposed to be in it." I said with a groan, trying to find the 'Delete Post' option.

"Aww, why not?" She questioned.

"Because my world isn't ready for ponies to make an appearance." I stated as I got a response from an unfamiliar name in the feed by the name of... Goddammit... Twilightlicious.

"Perhaps discretion should be a matter of when and where you take your photos." At the very least she's using a picture of her being human.

Not unlike Shining going full-dork with his profile picture, also going by the name EquestriasFinest. "Yikes, then maybe it's too late for me to change my profile picture?"

Cliff simply replied. "Nigga... 😂"

Shining then replied. "Also there seems to be a lot of girls asking me if I live in the local area."

"SHINING NO!" Stanton replied frantically.

"Forreal finals been killin me I been needed this laugh 😂😂😂" Cliff said. I can only imagine him having the time of his life right now.

"WHO FUCKN GAEV THEM ACCOUNTS? 😠" I angrily typed back, not even minding the typo.

And then I had my answer. "😈 uᴉƃǝq soɐɥɔ ǝɥʇ ʇǝ˥" By someone with the name of DrinkGlassTossMilk.

"Damn, he beat me to it." Mel answered.

"Dizzie, dude, control yourself." Alex wrote.

And right behind me, I could hear Blue Royal squeeing with childish gusto. "Oh my gosh, you can use that thing to take pictures AND communicate with other humans!?"

"You're a far cry different from earlier at the funeral." I noted while locking my phone.

The mare folded her ears back as she sheepishly confessed. "Yeah, sorry you had to see that. It was just an emotional time for me."

"It was an emotional time for a lot of people. You could just be one of the ones in the crowd throwing tomatoes at the guy's casket. Probably would've been more cathartic."

"I mean sure, if you didn't know exactly what all he did. But I had my time to scream and cry over it all, I did most of my outpouring at my mothers' funeral a decade back."

"Again, I'm sorry for your loss." I replied. "But what are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to apologize for my acting out back there." She answered with a nervous smile. "I ended up giving you some baggage that you really weren't supposed to see. But I am happy that you took the time to see if I was doing well and if I needed anything. It speaks volumes about your character."

"Ma'am, with all due respect, I was just doing what any person would do when they see someone going through a tough time. I'm not special."

"First human to be named Captain of the Royal Guard in Equestria?" She replied with a jovial smile. "I'd think that crest on your chest would be pretty telling of how special you really are."

I took another sip of my tea. "You're also here for something else."

Her eyes perked open as she summoned a small pamphlet. "Oh right! I was supposed to give you this the other night!"

I grabbed the leaflet and read the details to myself. "Huh, so your organization is set to have a get together on this Friday evening?"

"And literacy is not a weakness of yours." She joked lightheartedly. "I want you to be our guest of honor. You may not want to come, that's fine. But it would honor me if you would. We have so many opportunities to create for your species in regards to your rights and privileges. And it's also unfair that some medical insurance agencies are taking the high road on you. You're just as alive as the rest of us, only you just happen to put your life on the line a little more often."

"And what would I get out of making an appearance to this meeting?" I inquired.

She placed her hooves on my shoulders as she whispered in my ear. "You could use some assistance in removing Law Processu Approbatio."

I cut my eyes back at her with a low murmur. "What you know about that?"

"I know law requires labor, and that labor can be done through a strong powerful group of lobbyists. With your main roadblock dead and buried, I'd think this would be a great opportunity for us to clean up a lot of mess left behind."

"Who put you on to this?" I asked.

"You did." She answered coyly.

"Excuse me?"

"You did, when you asked me to do just that."

"I don't recall asking you for anything." I stated.

"Well let's just say a good associate of ours put in a good word with you and made it known that you might need some legal and financial help."

"That associate being who?"

"Well you'll have to drop by on Friday to find out." She answered flatly. "We will be expecting you. And the uniform you're wearing will be just fine." She said in a semi-seductive tone before snapping back to her cheerful self, pressing her hoof against my nose. "Boopies!"

As she started to walk away, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I pulled back up Twitter and saw that the conversation quickly progressed. Leading up to Shining's reply to read out. "This is Cadance, tell me more about these girls asking my husband about where he lives."

Well at the very least my day will remain interesting on this post.

Meanwhile in the Canterlot Dungeons...

Hours have passed since the two changelings sank themselves into the depths of the Canterlot castle, effectively working their way from the halls of the castle, through the checkpoints, and into the castle dungeons. Pharynx continued to reap the benefit of Thorax's ability to subdue the guards standing in the way. And one such guard had the keys to the lower levels in his possession. But instead of killing every guard they met, they instead shoved them into closets and kept moving forward.

As Pharynx was busy enjoying himself to a recent victim in the lower levels, Thorax stood guard outside to make sure there were no others coming. The meek changeling remained in his adopted form from the first guard he subdued. Meanwhile, Pharynx changed his form so frequently to every guard they captured and was feeding off another guard who was standing outside the checkpoint. The aggressive changeling snarled with delight as he absorbed the love energy of their subdued victim.

"Are you done?" Thorax questioned.

"Shut it. I haven't fed in weeks." Pharynx snapped back before biting into the stallion's neck.

As one brother proceeded to pump his victim full of changeling venom, the other tapped their hoof impatiently outside. "We don't have time to overindulge. We need to keep moving."

Pharynx finished with the guard, dropping him carelessly while the paralyzed stallion stared into oblivion, unable to move himself while barely being able to breathe. "Why, we know where she's being held. The only thing to do now is get into her cell and break her out."

"And how do you suppose we go about that without having an escape plan?" Thorax questioned.

"We have an army down here. Fifty is more than enough to bust out of here and there's at least a hundred, if not more."

"Should I remind you that the humans wiped out two-hundred of us in a matter of twenty minutes?" Thorax asked before noticing the blood around the other's mouth. He turned away, feeling squeamish at the sight of the disguised guard's muzzle being coated in crimson.

Noticing the elder's discomfort, the younger rolled his eyes and wiped his mouth. "That's not my problem, should've brought the strongest of our soldier drones."

Thorax sighed in response. "Is this about you not being able to leave the hive?"

Pharynx stepped against his brother and scoffed. "And you did? You're the weakest drone out of the whole hive! Explains why you ran and left the queen for dead."

Growing frustrated, the older brother groaned with disbelief. "If I would've died back there, would you still find anything to say that would berate me any more than you already do?"

"A ton of stuff, like how you should've been stronger and been able to fend for yourself better." Pharynx answered nonchalantly.

The older changeling felt a tinge of sadness as he broke his image to levitate a helmet to his younger sibling, a means to help hide the blood on his cheeks. "Sometimes, I wonder if you even care if something happens to me."

"Thorax, look. What I do and say have everything to do with the betterment of the hive. And if I see something out of place, then my job is to mobilize and enforce. If I had to, I'd resort to physical force and work you from the ground up. I do everything to protect the hive and ensure it's future."

"But have you ever thought of what you wanted to protect?" The older brother asked, trying to press the issue of compassion.

"Thorax, we're changelings. We're all we got." The younger brother said, trotting past and moving down the hall.

"But if we do something wrong, then are we not turning against one another? Is that what we really want for our future?" Asked the older, trotting faster to catch up with his brother.

"If it keeps us from making any mistakes that could cost us our hive and queen, then I'm all ears."

"But there's more to us, Pharynx, just like there are more to them." Thorax argued, bringing up the guards they subdued on the way in.

"More to us? Well thanks for the nansy-pansy pep talk." Pharynx said, dismissing his older brother with a tone of disappointment.

"I really do try, Pharynx. I only try my best."

"Then try harder. Being soft does nothing but leave you and everyone around you dead."

Thorax looked back to the day when the remnants of his contingent watched from a safe distance as the human contemplated an impromptu execution of Queen Chrysalis. After rejecting the idea, he among others could hear the changeling queen call the human she summoned a murderer. He could hear the anger in her voice as she remained powerless from an unseen blow to her horn, causing it to break. Already in his mind, he wanted to make amends for that day. "...I wonder if mom will be happy to see us."

"Keep the soft out of it. We're saving the queen, no questions asked." The grumpy changeling scolded.

"But isn't there more inside that makes you want to see her?" Thorax inquired.

"Yeah, it's called loyalty to the queen and hive. Can't go feeling sappy because we're a purebred strain. There are literally thousands of us, what would we look like to all of our enemies if we called her anything but our queen? She's just the head of the hive, no one's special, not even you."

"I just want her to see me like that, you know." Thorax thought aloud.

"Let me guess, the ponies you watched us feed off of were all clinging on to their lives, begging for their parents and kids, and you decide to have a change of heart?"

"It's not that─"

Pharynx interrupted his brother as he held a hoof up to his face with a raging scowl. "Don't be weak, Thorax. I don't mind knocking some mean into your passive pansy ass."

From there, the conversation between the two was brought to a minimum. As Pharynx took lead, Thorax lingered four steps behind. While Pharynx kept marching forward, the older sibling stopped at a particular corridor calling out to him. "...It should be at the end of this hall."

The younger brother backtracked to the hall Thorax pointed to and saw a door at the end of it with several runes and even two horn slots. With satisfaction, the younger said to himself. "Finally, now we can drop these stupid pony forms."

As they started to approach the door, the heard a voice call out from one of the cells to the left. "Psst! Over here!"

Thorax stopped again to identify which cell the voice came from and quickly pounced to the cell where the voice was coming from. Pharynx quickly recognized the voice and leaned against the cell door. "Well well, if it isn't our scouting commander Guto. Guess you found out how bad you fucked up, didn't you?"

"I only did what I did for the hive. We needed to be the strongest to keep the supply rolling." The fallen commander answered.

"You sent us some really bad goods. About ninety-five percent of the ones you sent in were already dead or dying." The changeling prince stated.

"We tried to sustain them as long as possible." Guto replied.

"Don't try to lie to me. You were upset because of that damn ritual to get the human here ended up backfiring, so you took it upon yourself to become the next changeling king. An off-breed, no less."

"And how good have you Purebreds been lately? If I remember the rumors correctly, Pupa's dead, Petiole's dead, you're deemed too hot-headed, and Thorax is too passive to do anything. Who's gonna take after Pupa, the hatchling Ocellus? Queen might as well start over." Guto answered with a chuckle. "Probably better off using a real specimen like me."

"You can tell that to her face, you damn grub. How many of you are there down here." Asked the younger prince.

"Some hundred. I know about fifty of us were tried, thirty of us were judged and executed the following day. They're mostly working from the bottom feeders on up."

"And your second in command?" Pharynx questioned.

"Tried, judged, and taken topside to join the rest of them. Though, Padrig's been getting special treatment. If you want a traitor to the cause, look him up."

The bit of news made the young prince quite visibly upset, even hissing at the idea. "Padrig was always for himself anyhow. He faces the world alone, he'll die alone."

"But what if he decided to help them instead?" Thorax brought up, causing the younger brother to look at the elder with disbelief.

"What did I just say?"

"I'm just saying this could completely change our dynamic with the ponies. Maybe then we can somehow convince them to share their love willingly at least."

Guto scoffed with a chuckle. Pharynx replied. "As if."

"Still dreaming of a world where changelings can point at the stars without a worry or care, huh? Just as weak as ever." The fallen commander commented, making fun of the elder prince.

"What did I just say to you?" Pharynx said to his older brother, bringing his hoof up to vehemently punch his younger sibling in the side

"Hey! Nevermind me, how are we getting the queen out of her cell?" Thorax brought up, wincing from the powerful blow he took.

Guto bashed against the cell door. "Why don't we start with getting the rest of us out. I'm sure a hundred of us can swarm a few guards without them getting to the alarms. And if we want to, we can even take a few hostages to make sure we get out safely."

"There's a guard in the other room they can feed off of. Thorax knocked him out, I literally venom'd him into next week. But other than that, Thorax has been pretty useful for a change."

"How, by shoving their dick up his ass again?" Guto joked.

"Ha ha, very funny." Thorax said, completely unamused.

"As long as he's useful for something." The younger brother joked along.

"PHARYNX!" The older prince called out with indignation.

"Oh shut it and grow a thicker hide." The younger prince ordered to Thorax before turning back to Guto. "So what's the plan?"

Before Thorax could speak, Guto quickly took charge as he laid out a suggestion. "I've been thinking of this one since the queen got in. We break the locks of every cell on this block, wait in our cages until dawn. By then, four of their guards will chain down around three changelings and have them walked up to get their sentence. As they're walking out of the cells, we break out of our cells, ambush them, take their weapons, strip their armor, and drag two of them to the cell where our queen's being held. The door holding her inside has an enchantment spell on it that will need two of their guards to crack open and dispel the runes on the inside. From there, we break her chains, get her out, use the four guards and any others we run into as feed. From there, we become strong enough to fight off a small contingent. Escort the queen out, break out of here, and we're flying off into the sun before the clock hits noon."

A fang-riddled smile appeared on Pharynx's face as he rubbed his hooves together. "My kind of plan."

Now feeling insecure and small, Thorax whimpered to himself as he realized that he couldn't come up with any other plan sooner. "I guess if it works."

"You're just jealous that he came up with a cooler plan than you." Pharynx said to his older brother with a shove.

The berated changeling closed his eyes and wished for the day to end. He then offered the words that no one would speak to him, the words he wanted to hear in order to continue moving forward.

"...Keep trying, Thorax."

Later...

After a lengthy explanation of how the internet works in my world to a more-than-livid Princess Cadance, I then proceeded to tell her about the many dangers of said internet. But being the fact that much of these things were still fresh to her and some of the more complicated topics would go sailing over her head, I explained it in the best way she could understand.

"See, these aren't 'real girls' as much as they are made up. What some people will do is that they will try to take advantage of your naïvety and try to get information from you so they can sometimes steal your identity. Think of them as changelings you can't tangibly hunt down."

Cadance continued to hold her husband hostage as she sat across from me at the dinner table. "Very well then, continue."

"So even if there are a bunch of 'girls' saying that they want you to meet 'hot singles in your area', that's just people trying to junk up your phone so they can take what's yours."

Cadance turned to her husband with a stern expression. "Did you hear that, Shining? They're humans trying to take what is yours."

Shining still appeared confused. "I still don't see why they would. I mean I would if I put out there that I'm a prince of a sovereign nation."

"Yeah, don't put that in your bio." I warned emphatically. "People will either think you're crazy, or they'll start to try and see if you're the real deal."

"The only crazy thing I saw was an egg telling me, and I quote, 'DIE FURFAG YIFF IN HELL YOU UGLY PIECE OF SHIT'. When I replied, they just told me to 'KYS' which I don't know what that is. Is 'kys' is a totally different way of saying kiss or keiss?"

"Let me see your phone for a minute." I asked. Cadance quickly surrendered the device on her husband's behalf and I scrolled down to check his statuses. I saw a bunch of photos of him posing up against the wall, one in bed with a rose in his mouth, and even a selfie where he held his foreleg out like he's holding up the entirety of Canterlot in the frog of his hoof. From what I gathered, some people thought this was some artist page and it had around thirty-some-odd followers. I noticed there were also comments on each of the pictures. The one where he selfied the castle, he had a few comments of 'That's so awesome.' 'I love your work, collab with me sometime.' 'If you start putting your name out, you'd have a thousand followers easy. Keep it up.' 'Your work is so pretty, so lifelike. How do you do it?' 'Your OC is so cute, looking at him doing little things like this brings me life.'

I can already attest to the fact that this was going to be a problem.

I swapped off to the one where he laid in bed with the rose in his mouth, and as such, the comment chain he spoke of appeared as he claimed it. I wandered into his settings and quickly changed his Twitter to a protected status and blocked the majority of followers who seemed really interested in his account, much to mass disappointment. I then sent out follows to only the ones that I deemed trustworthy, that excluded dad for the time being. I handed Cadance back the phone and answered Shining's question. "KYS is a crude abbreviation, it's an insult."

"I don't get it." Shining replied.

"Let's just say for example my disliking Count. If I wrote him a sticky note and put it on his desk to 'KYS', then Sunday would've been a grim way of saying he did just what that sticky note said to do."

Shining then became wide-eyed. "Oh... So KYS is another way of saying 'commit suicide'."

"Literally, Kill Your Self." I concluded. "Guy was a troll trying to get a rise out of you. And seeing your rather naïve web personality, I'd say you got the better of them by not replying any further."

"The human world is a weird place." Shining said.

Cadance eased up on Shining's metaphorical leash and turned to her husband. "Next time, you be careful. I don't want anymore surprises like today."

Shining nodded while acknowledging his wife before turning back to me. "In speaking of surprises, you took a picture and there seemed to be some pretty little mare behind you. What was that all about?"

Cadance went from taking her leash off of Shining to latching it on me. "Now this, I want to know."

"Just a random pony from that Hooves-for-Humans fanclub looking to get an autograph. I didn't really understand why she was sneaking around me until they gave me an invite to their next meeting. Guess they really want me to make an appearance to their little social club and mingle."

The pink princess shook her head and folded her forelegs. "I know they probably mean well for you, but something seems off here. How would one of them know where you were and why would they sneak into your pictures? Furthermore, why were you away from the castle when you could've had tea here?"

"I went to a place whom's selection kinda reminded me a little of home. That's all."

"Homesick, huh?" Shining questioned.

"Not really, I was home for almost a week. I don't think that matters, just wanted something simple on the palette."

Shining tapped his hoof and smirked behind his wife. "Hey honey, in speaking of tea, could you go get some for me?"

Cadance didn't quite oblige her husband's request. "Waiter! My husband would like some tea!"

Shining, forgetting that she was royalty, opted for another command. "Cadie, can you also go get the files off my nightstand? I kinda forgot to do some paperwork."

The pink princess shrugged. "Why not get a maid or someone else to do it? I'm spending my time with you."

"That would be fine, but I don't think I can trust the maids here." I said coming to the young prince's rescue. "They told a half-truth to the newspaper about my parents and now I can't hear the end of the stories telling everyone that my parents disowned me and called Celestia out of her name."

Cadance groaned and rolled her eyes. "Fine, but you two better not do anything stupid. I can't keep my eyes off of either of you without the both of you devolving into a pair of goofballs."

The princess quickly trotted out and one of the servants walked past her with Shining's tea in tow. He placed it down at the table for the young prince's consumption. Shining quickly dismissed him and the other servants in the room before speaking again. "So, what's this meeting all about?" He asked quietly.

"Apparently someone we know blabbed to her about what I was going to ask before I could even bring it up." I confessed.

"So she met up with you today of all days?"

"Actually we met during the afterparty for Rarity's fashion show last weekend, the one before this past one. And she was kinda being coy about the thing now that I look back on it. Perhaps she knew about what I wanted then." I stated.

Shining grabbed his phone off the table and went to my status, taking note of the mare in the back of the picture. "She looks familiar, I think I saw her before."

"You probably did." I answered. "She was at the funeral. From what I could gather, Count did her mom dirty and she was there to make sure he got lidded off before she left."

"I wouldn't even be surprised at this point." Shining said, closing his eyes to think. "He did a lot of bad to ponies who didn't deserve it. And the fact that he did what he did on Twily's birthday, I would've stayed there to make sure he stayed underground, probably would've asked the directors to dig a few more feet for good measure."

"She wants me to meet up with her on Friday evening." I said while giving him the pamphlet I received. "It feels like I'm walking into a trap."

"A sex trap, more likely." Shining mumbled as he noted the time. "This is a branch meeting, she's looking to get you around a few friends so they can chat it up, break the ice, and then the money starts rolling in with the more you're willing to do."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, consider yourself lucky that you're eating healthy. I hope you aren't planning to get your rocks off anytime soon."

"You really think this is what's gonna go down on day one, huh?"

"Better to be prepared with that expectation than not to and be caught by surprise. You need to make sure all your bases are loaded. Because the moment they start talking money, that's when you need to start losing clothes."

"Have you done something like this before?"

"Cadance doesn't know of how I 'talked' my way out of an international conflict during the first month of our engagement. It was a Zebrabian queen offering to ignore Equestrian operations as long as I satisfied her fetish.... She liked sitting on my face for hours while talking to her subjects' pleas, a situation that had my superiors call me 'urine cake'."

...Errugh. "Oooohhh... she didn't... you know?"

"No, the commander we had thought she pissed on me during an orgasm, but he was a dunce who didn't know the difference between urine and female ejaculate. But as a plus, it did teach me how to foreplay my way past Cadance on her more active days of estrus, might as well chalk it to 'basic training'."

I started to laugh at the absurdity of his story. "You have a story for everything, don't you?"

"This life's never uneventful." The young prince declared proudly. "But I found out months after our first honeymoon that she likes marathons. So every year around that time, it feels like I'm going to war."

The two of us laughed for a while, cracking a few other jokes along the way. As we started to taper off, I glanced back at the picture and remembered Blue's comment about what I should wear. "You know, she wanted me to show up in this uniform."

"By the way, that doesn't look half-bad on you. You should really go with that as your image from now on." The prince commended.

"Yeah, but then again, I don't want to wear something special on the daily, otherwise it becomes a mundane look. Don't want to spoil the novelty." I replied before getting back on track. "Anyhow, I wonder if I should prepare any kind of suggestions for negotiation. I'm worried if sex is the only thing on the menu, I'll have little else to offer in any other capacity."

"Well you are asking them for favors, I'd say it's better to be ready to offer what's easier to give away. If that club president's as rich as what we were led to believe, then I'm sure a rout in the sheets will be the least of your contractual obligations. Remember that wealth and power goes hoof-in-hoof, and if that's all she wanted, she'd get it from someone else."

Cadance walked through the doors soon after Shining's comment, ending our discussion on the matter immediately. The pink princess then laid out her husband's paperwork on the dining table and sat down next to him. "These are all matters pertaining to the Crystal Empire." Cadance stated. "We're going to look over them together and make a few amendments so that we can make way for our little addition." She also levitated a few other books in, most of them on the subject of childbirth and childcare. "Also, we'll be giving these a read over the next week, so pay attention."

Shining grimaced and looked at me, non-verbally begging me to bail him out of this one.

"Sorry Shiny, you're the one who put your dick in crazy."

The Next Morning...

The streets were a lot less controlled and traffic moved as freely as ever. The faces of the citizens were a mixed bunch, some varying between blissful smiles and knowing grins to forlorn frowns and modest attempts to hide the stress of private life. After a day of tense political elbow-brushing and jarring accounts pertaining to the body we marched to it's final resting place, normalcy seemed to have returned.

Unfortunately, that's only for the morning.

Meanwhile in the deepest parts of the Canterlot Dungeons, five guards was already well on their way to pick up some prisoners for their due sentencing. Following them were two other guards, who appeared to be steel-eyed and sensitive to the sounds around them, they lagged behind to ensure the safety of the security patrol. The guard leading the party pointed to three cells with the intention of quickly fulfilling his duties. The others did as instructed and opened the cages of the three cells where the changelings were held.

However, the two guards in the back quickly approached and pointed out to the patrol leader that the locks of the cells did not tumble as they normally would. The leader didn't seem to care that much and went about business as usual. The three guards approached the leader with their changeling prisoners standing beside them, all ensnared by their chains. The changelings looked to one another before being forced to keep their eyes down to the ground. As the leader ordered for their blinders to be put on, the second-in-command levitated a scroll of parchment and began to read aloud.

"Prisoner I.D. 59Q6E0, for the crimes of abduction, foalnapping, physical abuse, rape, and second-degree slaughter of more than twelve Equestrian citizens, the judge has issued that your sentencing is to be carried out in the efficiency for the punishment assigned. The jury has found you guilty of all sixty charges, to that effect your punishment will be hanging by the neck until dead. There will be no appeals made in your defense."

The guard rolled up his first piece of parchment and unraveled another one to read.

"Prisoner I.D. 59Q7X3, for the crimes of abduction, foalnapping, physical abuse, sexual abuse, battery, those previous accounts applied to that of seven victims, and the murder of four E.U.P. officers, the judge has issued that your sentencing is to be carried out in the efficiency for the punishment assigned. The jury has found you guilty of all forty-one charges, to that effect your punishment will be hanging by the neck until dead, followed by beheading for the account of the guards slain. There will be no appeals made in your defense."

One of the changelings muttered to himself. "Sheesh, overkill."

"Shut it!" The guard beside him ordered with a hit to the top of his head, forcing the changeling to bow down while the second-in-command put away his scroll and pulled out the final one for reading.

"Prisoner I.D. 52Q9B1, for the crimes of abduction, battery, physical abuse, assault, sexual assault, those previous accounts applied to that of four victims, impersonating a royal official, evading arrest, destruction of property, and operating a locomotive without a proper license, the judge has issued that your sentencing is to be carried out in the efficiency for the punishment assigned. The jury has found you guilty of all twenty-four charges, to that effect your punishment will be a double-life sentence and prison labor upon the relocation to a maximum security prison. There will be an appeal process available to you upon a period of twenty years of good behavior."

"If I'm not mistaken, shouldn't I be hung like the rest?" The third changeling questioned.

"The judge decided this, I'm just reading the parchment." The second-in-command replied.

"Oh..." The changeling took a deep breath as he exclaimed. "Phooey!"

Without warning, every cell door broke open and changelings stormed out in droves. The seven guards looked on in horror as they suddenly found themselves surrounded by a horde of changelings. The patrol leader looked back to the two guards who warned him in horror. "I probably should've listened to you there."

One of the guards chuckled as he nodded his head down. "You fuckers are always overconfident, sloppy, corrupt, and completely incompetent."

The other steel-eyed guard simply looked away. "If this is the state of your guard considering who's over your royal division, I probably gave him too much credit."

"What?" The patrol leader questioned as the other guards stared back at the two.

Before their very eyes, the two rear-most guards dropped their disguises and hissed at the five, forked tongues in full lashing. Thorax and Pharynx had a small group of changelings secure the end of the hall as they stepped closer towards the patrol, who found themselves backing into the throng of changelings. Guto stepped out of the shadows and pulled the second-in-command's helmet off of his head.

"Prisoner Y-O-U, for the crime of being Equestrian scum and a unicorn, the judge has issued that your sentencing is to be carried out in the efficiency for the punishment assigned. Has the jury reached the verdict?"

"GUILTY!" The entire hall rang out with changeling voices as they closed further in on the unlucky party.

"Well that settles it." Pharynx decreed. "Your punishment will be to feed our queen until she deems herself satisfied. And if you know what's good for you, you'd probably put your shitty pony magic to some good use and let her out for a lighter sentence."

The second-in-command snarled back. "We will never betray Princess Celestia. You lot will be thrown off the mountain to get intimate with the stones below, at least then you'd have another queen to worship: DEATH!" Shortly after the guard's rant, Thorax's horn ignited and the pony who opposed soon found himself changing his tone of voice, his eyes glowing green as he spoke again. "For the good of the hive, for my queen will I serve."

Thorax looked to one of the other unicorn guards and cast the same spell on him. And the two guards walked towards the end of the hall where Chrysalis' door lied. Almost with complete obedience, the two slotted their horns to the locks and activated their spell. The runes of the door shone white before cracking open. And without further incident, the queen was revealed before them. While the two hypnotized guards marched eagerly to free the queen, the other changelings looked at Thorax with amazement and surprise.

Guto chuckled to himself. "So that's your special little stunt. Here I was thinking you were just a passive brood of some sort."

The changeling prince rolled his eyes. "Not everything has to be done with violence, guys."

"But manipulation is a must."

The entire throng of changelings looked back as the now-freed queen stretched her limbs, finally free from the chains that held her down for the better part of a month. The entire hall bowed with the exception of the three remaining guards in captivity. The three readied themselves to the best of their abilities, fighting off five changelings before being bitten by Pharynx, Guto, and another. And as quickly as they mounted their comeback, they fell to the ground only able to speak for a little while longer before the massive amounts of venom wrecked havoc on their nervous system.

Thorax walked up to the queen with a meek smile. "It's nice to see you're doing okay. I honestly expected them to treat you worse than this."

The queen glanced at the young changeling prince and scoffed. "Nothing's more agonizing than to hear Cadance talk while I'm the one weak and without magic."

Thorax glanced at her horn. "At least your horn's okay. Is there anything else you nee─"

"Pharynx, tell me what you have planned for getting us out of here!" The queen abruptly demanded, slicing through Thorax's question.

"Well I say we fight our way out. We got the numbers to throw at them so you can escape."

"We could initially disguise ourselves as guards and infiltrate their ranks. As soon as we get topside, we secure a route through the castle and disguise ourselves as guards." Guto added. "The only problem is getting through the checkpoints without causing any suspicion."

Though the queen looked at the changeling commander with ire, she did not lash at him when he responded. Instead, she turned her attention to the two hypnotized guards standing beside her as if they were her personal escort. With a quick about-face, she bore her fangs and hissed loudly. The two guards rose into the air as their bodies glowed brightly in a lime-green aura. A pinkish-white stream of concentrated love was then siphoned into the back of her throat. For moments she stood until the two stallions snapped out of their trance, realizing what was happening to them. But it was too late as they felt the energy from their bodies drown out completely and the aura around them dimmed to almost nothing. The two unicorns fell limp and even withered into prunes while the queen shut her mouth with a satisfied hiss. "Ah... sweet love. Humble revenge."

The two newly-created corpses were tossed aside while the queen's body was wrapped in green flames. The brightness of the transformation flashed brightly throughout the halls with a tremendous energy. The ripples from the raw power from her display blew out every candle light and torch in the hall, leaving only a pair of glowing green eyes standing high above the others... much higher than usual.

Thorax illuminated his horn and grew fearsome of the face that stared back at him. Meanwhile, the others simply displayed shock and awe of her new appearance. And when she spoke, her voice became distinctive to the face she wore. "Not bad, if I say so myself. I could easily pass as one of them."

Pharynx smirked as he replied. "I see what you're going for, but you're missing a few scars. A small one down the cheek on the right, other all the way down to the left, a cut on the neck at his throat."

The queen seamlessly adjusted, the scars popping up as if they were a missing texture in a buggy game. The queen smiled coldly as she spoke to the three other guards, now wearing the captain's face.

"Now... about these really annoying checkpoints."

Author's Note

The past month and some change has been incredibly taxing so I do apologize for the late post. But I am hopefully getting back on track with the next chapter or so. I do hope that all is well with you all and I shall see you next chapter.

At least my last month, much like Count, is dead and buried.

Chapter LXXXI

Yesterday Outside The Haines Residence...

As the aging Martha said her goodbyes to her two sons, her husband saw them to their cars. Stanton checked the time on his phone and made a beeline for his car. His grin reached from ear to ear looking at his inbox. By the time he started the car, he was already with his other hand on the gear shift. Backing out quickly, he garnered a reaction from his older brother.

"Another one calling you up?"

The young athlete pumped his fist. "Man Alex, lemmie tell ya, I've been FIENDING to get my hands on this one."

The older brother walked up to the driver-side window and watched as his younger sibling pulled out his phone and open his Instagram app. From there, he went back to his inbox and pulled up the profile of an incredibly beautiful and shapely Asian woman. One picture she took had her displayed in a modest pajama shirt with a not-so-modest pair of boyshorts. She sat in front of a mirror, holding the phone over her shoulder for the enticing back-shot, displaying the curvaceous backside she had been gifted. The older brother ooh'd and nodded.

"Medical science major, freshman student straight from South Korea. Real big name thrown out to the football team, everybody's tried to nail her."

"And you got the green light?" Alex concluded.

"Who knew that a miraculous recovery from a torn ACL manages to get her attention. But she saw me walking first thing on Monday, been shooting messages back and forth with her since."

The older brother grew a bit skeptical. "Uh, you sure she's interested in you and not looking to research you for a science project?"

"Wait a tick." He said, going into his text message inbox and pulling up a message thread. Scrolling up, he located a picture of her sitting in front of a mirror with her hand over her bountiful chest, still wearing a black bra.

Alex was then convinced. "Oh yeah, she's throwing it out there. Either that's one hell of an invite or some convincing bait-and-switch tactics she's got going on."

The young athlete put his phone away, placing his hands back on the steering wheel. "Oh definitely going to take that invite. She asked me to come to her dorm today during visitation. And I think I got about another three hours before the end of that and the following room check."

"Well you better get on the road then." Alex said, backing away from the car.

"Yup! See ya the next time Nondis gets in trouble."

"Drive safe!" Alex said as his baby brother zoomed into the street and disappeared down the block.

Harold held his head, rubbing his temples. "That damn boy ain't gonna never stop playing with these girls emotions, is he?"

"Eh, let him be himself. I'd rather him be him than some weirdo taking his place." Alex replied with a sigh.

"Yeah." The dad droaned.

Martha called to her husband and oldest son from the front porch. "If you'd rather have your brother than some weirdo, then try getting my other son back so I can at least know what it feels like to be a whole family again."

Harold cringed with disgust. "Martha, you'd best stop that right now. Nondis ain't a normal kid, he never was. Doesn't mean you gotta backbite on him."

"I don't care, I want my baby back. I ain't okay with strangers taking the place of my son."

"Martha get in that house." The father ordered sternly to his wife.

Alex folded his arms, appearing uncomfortable. "Sheesh, she's still like this?"

"Been like that since we left that place. She kept saying Nondis was dead to her, but she just didn't want to see what he had turned into. I know it's a bit difficult seeing him the way that he is now, but I still want him to do well."

"The way that he is now?" Alex asked, confused on what his father meant.

The middle-aged man explained himself. "I mean with his line of work. He went from being locked in his room to adventuring the world, playing monster slayers on his XBox to slaying monsters for real. He's living an imaginary life, but it's real. Even those scars don't make a lick of sense."

Alex quietly thought to himself for a moment before finally speaking. "...Do you think he feels different?"

"Considering the weight loss, oh yeah." The father replied.

"I don't mean that, I mean the way he feels to interact with." Alex specified.

"He's a lot more cautious." Harold answered.

"Hardly that, he'll be the first idiot to jump his ass into danger. Can't wait to see what trouble he gets into next time." Alex mumbled. "But aside from that, you don't feel anything when you're around him?"

The middle-aged man replied. "Well I don't think I should feel any different. Whether he's fat or trimmed up, straight, gay, or what have you, He's still my boy, just like you and Stanton. I may have been hard on him and I may have my bouts, but I just wanted him to feel like he's one of the family, that he doesn't need to pull away so hard."

Alex smiled and leaned against his car. "I guess it's easy to have that mindset. But I swear Nondis is like a whole different state of being. It feels like whenever we're around him, he starts to have this warm glow about him. And instead of being a little nonchalant like he was way back when, he's really open to the idea of everything. I swear his eyes start getting brighter when he talks about us, almost has this weird glow about it. Even the other day when he was hurt by mom's words, I saw it then."

Harold stretched his arms and popped his neck while he spoke. "Yeah, I guess you'd notice that kind of stuff since you've been sneaking around that place long enough to watch him grow into what he is. I guess that's just the charisma."

"Yeah, he did have an entire city chanting his name at one point. I'm just glad he's doing well. I just wish mom would understand how hard he works to keep everyone safe. But the only thing she sees is the word 'military' and proceeds to go insane."

"You know what that's about." Harold said just before Alex's phone vibrated, receiving a text message from his own wife.

"Whoops, gotta go. Got my own 'princess' to rescue and whatnot."

"Hey, gotta do what a husband's gotta do." Harold suggested. "Now get on out of here before Vanessa chews you out again."

"Copy that." The eldest son said, getting into his car.

The father walked back into the house, hearing the noise of the engine turning over in the driveway before listening for it's eventual fading drone. The aging man went to his den and sat on the couch, pulling up the list of channels on his TV. He landed on ESPN, hoping to catch some of the sports highlights from the young NBA season, hoping his Rockets came to win the game against the tough Memphis Grizzlies. The man watched as his team started to blow out the defensive-minded team with a cheerful smile. As the game came to a commercial break, he saw an ad for Zales jewelers. Immediately, one thing popped up in his mind.

"Hey honey, you know where you stuck that old pocket watch your dad had cooped up in a drawer!?"

Present Day...

The changelings all watched as their queen took on the form of the human captain, walking up towards the three subdued guards with a toothy grin. The three guards started to tremble while the human reached out with a hand to softly place under their chin. "You all look so much like helpless foals." She said as she mocked them. "You poor twings, if only I could do anything to make you feel better and pwotwet you fwom those big bwad changewings."

In a snapping motion, the human fingers soon found agency against the windpipe of the guard she held. The guard gagged and flailed, weakly in a panic as the human's hand squeezed tighter against his windpipe. She then pulled her victim high up into the air as she stood on her feet. The stallion looked around while he was helpless to do anything but struggle. Her thumb mashed into his trachea while she expressed glee with her newfound strength and abilities.

"Had I known this was the freedom the humans had, I would've found myself a much better idea of replacing that tall bastard from the start. So little effort to take a life, but so much more satisfying to have such fine control." While the guard continued to flail around but with a much weaker effort, the queen giggled derisively. "Oh, do you want me to let you down? Okay then."

With a lot more effort, she cocked her arm back and shoved the guard's head into the stone brick floor of the dungeon hall. The guard then fell unconscious before she picked him up again, removed his helmet, and guffawed triumphantly. The unresponsive guard slouched while she stared at him. Seeking to enjoy herself some more, she proceeded to bash his head into the wall repeatedly as the two other guards looked on with horror. Their comrade was brutally being eviscerated of his brain while blood started to smear the walls. The crimson beneath her feet started to pool into the cracks of the bricks while the pink chunky features were either glued to the wall or dropping to the ground.

One of the other guards gagged as a cruel pop sounded with the final blow, indicating that the victim's skull had been completely compromised. The human-skinned queen dropped the virtually headless guard and turned her attention to the other two. She started to walk towards them before the sound of Thorax trying to suppress sickness distracted her. She looked over to him and frowned with disapproval while the changeling struggled to keep a strong constitution.

"What are you heaving for, grub!?"

Thorax tried to answer as reservedly as possible in an attempt to not vomit. "Shouldn't we be going now?"

The human frowned as she kicked the dead guard away from her. "Do you think they would show any weakness towards us while they execute our kind? Do you find it fair that they throw our lot over the battlements and watch them crash against the rocks below? And you think this is too much to give them?"

Thorax turned away as he argued his point. "I'm just saying we're already making a mess of things as it is. Maybe we should hurry along before they send in more patrols and we have an entire army trying to mow us down."

While Pharynx didn't share his brother's disgust, he did sympathize with his sense of urgency. "I know it's fun to play with our food, but he does have a point. We do need to get out of here before they start sending in shift management. At least we can go through the checkpoints as long as you keep up that disguise. Meanwhile we'll all go as the guards who came in."

The human rolled her eyes with a scoff. "Fine. We'll stop with the show. Just take the remaining two and feed on them before we head out. And when you do, keep in mind our code."

"Feed no more than your fellow changeling." The entire hall rang out in unison.

The queen looked at the disgraced commander and warned sternly. "As for you, you will wait until the others are done and kill them off. You've fed on the ponies too much for far too long."

Guto grimaced as he begrudgingly accepted her orders. "For the good of the hive, for my queen... I serve."

I woke up to the sound of my cellphone alarm going off, letting me know it was time to start getting ready for my daily routine. I brushed my teeth, washed my face, cleaned every orifice, and threw on some clothes for me to wear. I did the same thing as last time with my hair and ran right out the door. Breakfast was a little different this go around, they served me oatmeal with apple slices on the side. Princess Celestia seemed like she had little time to speak today, quickly walking in to grab her morning tea and walking out. Then again, seeing her walk around the place with an aid by her side even when she came into the dining hall was a dead giveaway that she had a hellish schedule.

Luna on the other hand came in a little groggy, but she remained true to herself. So instead of talking to Celestia for my meal, it was her younger sister who would make fun of my diet. "I suppose you'll be eating carrots and hay soon enough."

"I feel like that's my next step too. Only thing is we humans don't digest hay well enough for it to be effective to our diet. After all, we're not an inherently grazing species."

"And we ponies are?" She questioned with a quirked brow.

"Your fast food is literally comprised of hay." I replied with a deadpan.

"And you eat it as well." Luna stated.

"I don't eat hay stuff, my 'hay' fries are actually potatoes." I answered. "But seeing how Thanksgiving dinner was pretty much heavy on meats and starches, I guess she wanted to make sure I had a week of cleansing to regulate my intake."

"Well at least you only have to do it once a year." Luna replied.

"That's where you're wrong." I corrected. "There's also Christmas Day and Fourth of July."

Luna appeared confused after I spoke. "What's so special about the fourth of the month of July? Is it like an international eating day?"

"No. It's the day my country celebrates it's independence from another country called Great Britain. See, our country was once a colony comprised of thirteen states. And what had happened was that Britain just got out of a war with France and some of the native inhabitants over a land dispute. So as a result of the war, Britain decided to lean heavier taxes on the colonies, which made it hard to live on any income they would've had. So they drafted the Constitution and a Bill of Rights, and presented themselves to be a sovereign nation. Britain really wanted their taxes, our country said 'no', the King of Britain ordered troops to squash any resistance, a militia was formed, and thus started the war for independence."

"That sounds like a critical affair that could lead to some pretty ugly conflicts in the future. Any country vying for it's own independence is usually mired in some internal conflict, some extreme, others not so much." Luna said as she stirred her tea. "So how did it end?"

"Success, with France's help of course."

Luna tapped her spoon on the rim of her cup lightly before taking a drink of her beverage. "This 'France' country seems to really be at odds with Britain."

"Ooh, for centuries even." I answered with a groan. "I'm sorry, that's a whole other story I'm just not gonna get into. But to draw back to the topic at hand, the document proclaiming independence was said to have been declared two days earlier, but congress passed the final draft on the fourth. From there, I guess it kinda stuck. Nowadays, we celebrate it with fireworks, barbecue, beer, and a day out on the beach for some."

Luna groaned with displeasure. "And you're going to be going to your world for that particular event?"

"Why, you wanna come with?" I asked.

"If I'm even able to move." Luna replied. "For some odd reason, diplomats from other countries really like to ramp up negotiations for that time of the year."

"Oh yeah, and I also remembered the whole 'estrus' thing that you ponies got going on around that time."

"Precisely!" Luna exclaimed. "And it's not like those quenching spells do anything for me. I tried them this past season, and all it did was delay the worst side effects for an entire month, even tripling my cycle. And that in turn makes it harder to focus on my dream-walking duties. I even have to wander into some young stallions' dreams and quietly give a nudge in the direction of enticing some arousal."

"And we're discussing this and why?" I inquired quietly.

The lunar princess blushed brightly as she realized what all she confessed to me. "Oh... I suppose that is a topic that would stir some controversy."

"Yeah. It would do that." I said before she slammed her teacup on the table with excitement.

"Then you must do what you must to assist us in removing that awful law, post haste!"

"Let me guess..." I began. "You want me to stick around so you can use me as your relief boy?"

Luna grinned as she hid behind her teacup again. "I wouldn't put it as crudely as that. Think of it as you being my escort on a wonderful night out."

...Uh oh. "Was that an invitation to a date?"

"Well it isn't an invitation as long as the Approval Process Law still exists." Luna said with a playful scoff. "Tis a shame that you had eyes for Twilight. I would've done much more to keep you around. I personally think she gave in too easily."

"I have a feeling your sister will kill me if we even try to do something like that." I stated while getting up from my seat. "I guess that's a good reason why she tells me not to find my way into your personal chambers."

The princess of the night then rolled her eyes and muttered in a low voice. "She's such a prude. No wonder why her room smells like estrus once every week."

Damn, put your own sister out in front street like that? "Oh boy, I think that's my cue."

Luna didn't care whether or not I was gathering my stuff and leaving the room, she still continued to speak. "Seriously, I at least know how to relieve myself. She'll just sit in her own musk and try to coat it with all the perfume on her nightstand. I'm starting to think she's fantasizing about the moment she can sink her fangs into some unsuspecting stallion... or even a human. It wouldn't surprise me if she found an opportunity to get a round in with Alex since they meet up so often."

And then I found myself busy plugging my ears shut while leaving the room on Luna's note. "I can't hear you. ♫La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.♪"

Meanwhile in the Lower Halls of the Castle...

The sound of armor rattling though the halls as a small party of guards marched forward. In their possession were three changeling prisoners, quietly following the directions of their captors. As they arrived at the final checkpoint, the watch unit glanced over the side and opened the check-in logbook. As one of the watchers stepped out of their office to inspect the prisoners, he snickered as he shoved one of the prisoners over.

"At last, more of you lot are getting the good-old yanking. Long overdue, I'll say."

The other guards giggled in their office as they sat securely in place, pointing to the three prisoners and jeering them on. Meanwhile the disguised party shifted their eyes towards the office with a subtle grimace. The party leader then spoke out. "Yes, they'll get what's due for them. So let's get a move-on."

The inspector snickered as he remained in place, still pointing at the guard. "Well as much as we all know these bastards deserve a good hang, protocol established by Princess Cadance denies us the right to overlook an exit without the proper clearance process."

The leader looked motionless as he replied in turn. "Alright. Let's hurry it up so we can get these boys to the judge."

While the disguised guards tried to keep a cool face, one could easily imagine the beads of sweat starting to form underneath their armor. The inspector proceeded with his list of coded dialog. "It is a beautiful day outside."

"It is. Though it's better to have an umbrella." The squad leader replied.

The watch guard nodded quietly as he continued. "Surely a hawk can see much."

"But a sparrow sees the value of humility." The disguised changeling replied, matching each response correctly.

The watch guard then rolled his eyes and moaned under his breath. "Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake..."

"Clap your hooves and do a little shake." Said a distinctive voice, causing some of the other guards to snap up from their slouching state. Almost on cue, the captain of the guard approached the checkpoint appearing impatient. "Seriously, if you're going to keep these guys from doing what needs to be done, you might as well tell the changelings to kill themselves."

The watch guard salute to the human. "Sir, I was just following protocol."

"These guys are on their way to administer justice to these criminals and you're sitting here chanting out kids rhymes. Tell me what I'm supposed to do with myself."

The guard grew nervous as his performance was brought into question by his human superior. "I-I-I swear it-it was j-just─"

The captain turned his attention to the security detail and pointed them down the hall. "Let's get a move-on boys, justice doesn't dispense itself."

As the group quickly marched past the final checkpoint into the castle halls, the captain looked at the group of watchers and shook his head. "Watch, fall in here!" The group of stallions did as they were instructed and stood in a single row devoid of any imperfections. The human still appeared displeased. "You boys are awfully slacking, ain't ya?"

"Sorry, sir. We'll do better to maintain the proud image of the E.U.P.'s standard." The squad leader declared as the others saluted in response.

"And I mean really, nursery rhymes? Those are your passwords?" The human questioned. "In my world, passwords are a lot more complex than the crap you pull. As far as I'm aware of, those same passwords have been in place for over three years now, the nursery rhyme being a recent add-on."

"I'm sorry, sir. These were the protocols mandated by both Princess Cadance and Princess Twilight Sparkle."

The captain turned his back to the squad, shaking his head with more disapproval. "You boys are beyond slacking, I should punish you by applying demerits to your reports."

All the guards present in line lowered their heads in disgrace while the squad leader saluted again. "Sir, our performance was sub-par and we shall do everything to correct ourselves and fulfill our assignments to the best of our abilities. There are no excuses for our sloppiness."

"Half-right, face!" Each of the stallions heeded the captain's instructions, not saying a word as they knew what was next. "Front-leaning rest position, move!" Immediately, the squad dropped to the ground and awaited further orders. The human then paced back and forth as he spoke. "Sloppiness. That's the one thing I don't appreciate seeing when I walk by. To think all of you boys are in charge of our prison security makes me sick. Our nation deserves better conduct than that you've just previously displayed. So for that, I want two-hundred from each one of you. I will watch you, and you will go on my say. DOWN!" The bodies of the ponies quickly fell until they hovered just mere inches from the ground. "UP!"

Snapping back up to their resting position, they called out in unison. "ONE!"

The captain continued to call out his commands as he kept an eye for the door behind the distracted squad. Quietly, the small army of changelings snuck through the door and gathered behind the small squad. And as time progressed, the guards started to feel weak from their physical exertion. The sweat fell from their brows and stung in their eyes, making their vision slightly more impaired while the only thing they could think about was how bad their forelegs were aching. And while the numbers climbed, so did the time the human required for the squad to strain themselves on their downswing, all while bidding for his time.

The squad of stallions eventually started breaking down as they looked to their stern captain and awaited more orders. "DOWN!" The human instructed while he paced back and forth again, seeing the state of the fatigued watchers. "You know, I would've figured you guys would've had a lot more humility in you, a whole lot more. To even say that makes me feel even more disappointed in you. Sloppy, sorry, corrupt, that's what I see out of guards like you every single day, a lack of discipline. It's things like that, the hubris you have, that will end up costing you your life."

He then lowered himself into the ear of the squad leader and whispered.

"Long. Overdue."

As soon as he removed himself, he flicked his wrist and every changeling standing immediately behind the squad pounced on the weakened squad, biting on them and injecting copious amounts of venom into their bodies. Neither one of them could do anything, even as one reached out for the office door to the alarm across the window, but that wish soon subsided as did his own ability to resist. The captain looked back towards the halls ahead leading the changeling horde to freedom.

"This is such a fun face to wear. I should do it more often." The disguised changeling queen then turned back to her drones with an evil grin and ordered in a sing-song voice. "Don't forget to hide the bodies, leave no trace of our escape, and eliminate any onlookers."

The disguised captain started walking forward as Guto questioned her from behind. "Where are you going now?"

"Me? Nowhere special." The queen answered quietly. "I'm just going to pay my impostor an intimate visit."

Thirty Minutes Later...

Walking towards my room, I had my phone in hand. Shortly after my morning briefing, I had gotten a notification that my battery was low. And instead of charging my phone while I was asleep, I was just so tired that I flopped out on my bed and got comfortable. I didn't even think to charge up while I was getting through my morning routine, it would've given me a little more than twenty-percent. But I didn't think to do either of those things, so I needed to snag my charger from the nightstand and hoped I wasn't stationed outside somewhere without a power outlet within viewing distance. To prevent my phone from dying, I turned on my powersaver options and closed every app Discord pulled up when I was sleeping in hopes that my battery wouldn't bleed out.

You'd think for the Lord of Chaos should be able to somehow juice a phone while he's messing around on it, especially if he's using it while inside the phone, wandering onto the internet to find out more information about my world out of sheer curiosity, and giving himself and a certain pair of pony siblings their own social media accounts.

~~I know he'll come across this and talk shit about it later.~~ I wonder if there's still cum on my face.

Putting my thoughts on the draconequus aside, I opened the door to my room and turned a corner to find an unusual and uncanny surprise. Apparently I was already in my room, going through my drawers and completely ignoring the charger on the top of the nightstand. For a split second, the other me continued to rummage through my stuff before seeing me standing here in the doorway. And like a deer in headlights, he stared back frozen in place while I blinked silently. The other me slowly stood up straight before I could make the first move. I pointed at the other me and asked.

"Who are you?" "Who are you?"

The two of us had the same exact posture and pointed to one another, our voices having the same pitch fluctuations, it was like I was talking into a mirror, into a mic, with a speaker throwing my own voice back at me. I raised my right arm, as did he with his left. My legs shuffled for a second to put my left forward, he matched with his own right. So I quietly thought to myself what maneuvers this other me might not know and resorted to the one thing I felt was my most awkward trait: dancing.

The first dance I did was the one I saw in a Vine, something called the 'lip gloss' dance. As per usual, I still came off as stiff and so did the other me. And then I tried to do a janky-ass two-step, much to little surprise with the false me matching my every move. So I stopped and thought of a quick maneuver I could use to throw off my impostor. I held my arms out in front of me, watching the other do the same. And in one quick move, I dabbed.

The other me matched me mirror-wise. But what I knew was that consecutive attempts of the maneuver would inevitably leave one exposed to a sudden body blow to the solar plexus. My gamble was to pull off a few of these in rapid succession, arm in face and over the eyes to ensure my impostor would be vulnerable to my attack. So I slowly raised my arms again and timed inside myself when I would unleash the flurry.

Ready... set... DAB!

The two of us matched for a second before I noticed the other me taking the opportunity to change his approach and I stopped... only to find a Glock being pointed back in my face. That was the moment I had finally taken into consideration that this person who was wearing my face had a completely different mind with my ideas locked down like it was scripture. From there on, I had to play it careful because I knew there would be no do-overs if I fucked up. Things were a little more real this go around.

"You know, this is probably the second time I've pointed a gun pointed at my own head." I said slowly raising my hands in the air.

"I'm sure of it. Maybe you should seek counseling for this kind of stuff." Fake me replied.

I looked at him with a nervous shrug. "No doubt about it, I've been a wreck."

The impostor held the gun towards my head, walking up to me slowly as he spoke. "You know what you also need to do? Take a break today, just stay in here for a bit. An hour or two, maybe a day, a week... you know, however long it takes for decomposition to set in."

While I couldn't help but to feel my heart pounding in my chest and my hand become unsteady, I tried to think of any way I could get myself out of the current circumstances, by any means. "You know, I'm not sure if you know how those things work."

With a confident step forward, the gun barrel honed directly towards my head to indicate the doppelganger was ready to put me in an early grave. "Finger on trigger, squeeze to sleep?"

I took a quick breath, realizing that whoever was impersonating me was somewhat knowledgeable of human weaponry. But before I felt myself resign to a complete panic, I took another look at the gun. As I looked closer, I felt a bit of relief in my situation. I then remembered a crucial detail about the gun. It was, of course, the one I hid under my pillow every night. However, I was not an avid fan of sleeping with a fully loaded firearm in my pillow. The first round I installed was also a blank round to give a warning shot to any intruders. It would at least startle them enough to back off and notify any guards around the area to come investigate the sound. Of course that would be the only round that was chambered, anything else would be self-defense. And the clip I would keep on the nightstand taped to the inside of the lamp shade.

And looking at the gun, I knew then that the clip was still where it was because it was pointed at me with only that blank round in the chamber for ammunition. So I tried to play my hand. "Hey quick question, you know to use that, right?"

"I'm sure you'll find out, won't you?"

I'm certain that I will. "Well yeah, you just turned the safety off, but you didn't chamber any rounds. See, what you do is pull the slide on the top back and you load it up and then you pull the trigger and you got a quick kill."

"Is that so?" The impostor questioned, lowering the weapon to look at it for a second before following what little instructions I offered. And like clockwork, the slide was pulled back and the blank was completely removed from the equation, leaving them with an empty gun and giving me a stronger chance to take advantage of the situation. And as they pulled the trigger, the slide fell back to indicate the gun was completely empty and in need of a reload.

I ran forward and made the attempt to tackle the doppelganger. As I grabbed on to them and shoved them onto the bed, I started to quickly drive my fist into whatever I could get in contact with. The fake me held up his arms to defend himself from the blows I was giving him. Using one free hand, he tried to fight back with a punch to my shoulder, but I connected with one solid lick to the chest. Using his other hand, he locked my arm in place while he tried to knee me in my lower abdomen, all attempts coming up in failure. I used my free arm to try and fight for the gun, but the other me came out with a headbutt to back me off.

Afterwards, he used the empty pistol to wedge a blow to the side of my neck, causing me to stumble back, knocking the lamp over from the nightstand and send it tumbling to the floor. And as the light fixture shattered, the shade rolled until the heaviest side was laid onto the ground, revealing the 9-round clip within. The fake me shrieked triumphantly as he reached out for the clip.

Right then, my body registered an unusual response and I felt myself hauling ass towards the door. Yanking the door open, I could already hear the sound of the fake me fumbling with the gun and the clip, all while chasing after me. I quickly booked right and made a quick turn left down one of the other halls, hoping I could shake them off. But they were hot on my trail by a good fifteen feet, even loading the gun successfully before I looked down to the pendent around my neck, which was now glowing.

As soon as I smacked against the wall, a secret passageway was introduced to me, giving me an avenue of escape. But as I was slipping through, I heard the familiar pops of the Glock behind me, the crack of a bullet smacking against the solid quartz columns beside me. I felt something graze into my upper left arm, followed by a slight stinging sensation. I lunged forward and dove into the secret passageway. Running forward, I glanced back to see the bricks reformulate into a wall. From there I could hear the banging against the wall, followed by a shot to try and pierce the solid stone bricks. To my fortune, nothing came through as I was left clenching my chest for air.

Running for your life has a strange way of pulling energy from places you didn't have and leaving you with a lot of false vitality. I checked myself to see if I had gotten hit anywhere. I only saw the one on my left arm and it didn't hit any bone, but it was a deep gash that took a small chunk of my bicep.

That's gonna hurt like hell when the adrenaline wears off.

I leaned against the wall as I overheard the voices from outside. "Captain, what's going on?"

"An impostor has taken my image for his on and tried to take my life in the process!" Fake me replied. "If you run into the fake me, your orders are to kill on sight!"

"Sir, yes sir!"

Right then and there, my arm was starting to feel the pain throb through it, leaving me wincing in discomfort. I stayed a little longer, trying to nurse my wound as I heard the fake me speak again. This time, it was much softer than the command he just gave out. "Pharynx, I want you to patrol these halls. And if you find him, you capture him. Be sure to do it before these other guards catch wind of his location. I want him alive... preferably."

"And if he refuses to come quietly?"

"I don't care if you have to resort to chewing him up and regurgitating him later, I want the human I summoned. Having the human work for us would mean the other humans would work for us also, if they valued his freedom and his life."

Another voice chimed out to the fake me. "Hey, I don't mean to assert so much, sir, but don't you think we're getting way off track here? I thought we were supposed to be escaping."

"We ARE, and we're taking what's rightfully ours! And we summoned him, so he is ours to utilize at will!"

Guess that answers my question of what the hell's going on. I pulled out my phone and looked to my battery, seeing I had no chance of making any phone calls without it dying on me. I had to send a text message to anyone who'd read it. So I sent out a quick message to Shining Armor.

Meanwhile...

Within the highly-secluded room hosting the multiple portals leading to the human world, one of the passages started to give off a soft glow before a hand reached through the mirror's surface. The portal broke forth a mature human male, who stumbled forward with his eyes closed trying to get a feel for the ground he was stepping on. The man appeared slightly disoriented as the rest of his body transitioned through. For a second, he was left holding his head before he could focus again.

"Ugh, how the hell do these kids keep doing this without getting sick?"

Reaching into his pockets, he pulled out two items. The first thing he pulled out was his phone, the second being a golden antique pocket watch. Pressing the button at the top, he noted the time on the device and confirmed that it was in sync with the clock on his phone. He then put the antique away and ran his fingers across his phone's screen to pull up a photo of the castle map.

"Alright, now if I wanted to visit the soldier's quarters, I'd have to go to the barracks."

Also in the Meantime...

The sound of a padlock being slammed shut against chains was among the many noises coming from the doors leading towards the barracks. Behind the sealed doors were the sounds of several guards trapped inside trying to batter their way out. The disguised guards standing outside the doors snickered as one other disguised guard donning more armor than the others.

"That should cover our escape." A disguised Guto announced. "The moment we go flying, they won't have the numbers to drop us out of the sky. No reinforcements, no extra problems for us."

"But what about the humans?" Thorax asked, still donning the first disguised he used to get in the prison from the day prior.

Guto scoffed. "That's the last thing I wanna hear about."

"You may not want to hear about it, but that doesn't change the fact that the problem's still there. You might as well be asking for the worst to happen." Thorax argued.

Guto rolled his eyes dismissively. "Oh I forgot you got occupied with the cleanup, so you didn't really get a chance to get the info on that. Apparently the Queen's got something in mind for him. She's gone to tie up some loose ends."

"What's that supposed to mean exactly?" Thorax questioned.

"That means we'll be the ones with our own human regiment. And if those other humans want to see their fellow human alive, they'll do exactly what she tells them to."

"And what if the ponies want to help with getting him back? You don't just expect the humans to go along with mom's demands."

Guto froze in place, scowling away from the other changeling. "Well... aren't you the cutest thing since baby unicorns."

Thorax grew confused and tiled his head at the former commander's words. "What?"

Without warning, Guto lunged at the young changeling prince and landed a decisive blow to Thorax's head, causing him to fall over and cower into a defensive posture. Before the changeling prince could plead for his health, Guto started landing blows with each word he spoke. "Don't. You. Ever. Come. With. That. Weak. Ass. Mommy. Dearest. Bullshit!" The unfortunate changeling was so badly battered that he even dropped his disguise after the second hit, revealing his true self as the other blows fell all over his body. The other changelings in the vicinity laughed and cheered as the former commander called out to them. "No moment of weakness! We are the changeling hive and we are to be feared! Any weakness will be seen as an exploit. And there will be no room for exploits, especially from a weak, mewling, pureblood such as this trash. The hive deserves better, and we will perform that way!"

Each disguised guard cheered happily as an unsuspecting duo of guards walked past, thinking the event was simply a small squad cheering their leader on for beating a changeling into submission. They shrugged it off and walked past without suspecting much of anything.

Meanwhile, a mildly wounded Thorax laid on the ground for a while longer as Guto stood over him, holding his head as he whispered in his ear. "You can't fuck me into being nice to you. If I wanted that, I could just fuck you right now like the passive drone you are. But considering what plans I have in mind, I'll just use you to tease myself and wait until we get back home. At least your little sister Ocellus could make me a happy king."

As soon as those words left Guto's maw, Thorax found the strength to stand up on his own, pushing through his injuries to stare back at the changeling with a deep-seeded hatred for him. Glancing downward, Thorax could see the changeling commander smiling greedily, not even trying to hide the growing length between his hind legs.

"Yeah, that's right. That's the mean I wanna see on your face for the rest of the day. And when we get back home, I'm gonna enjoy putting the mean in your baby sister, I'm gonna breed her, and we're gonna have a hive of our own, and it's gonna be filled with warriors ready to properly cut Equestria down to size. And then I'll finish off where your precious 'queen' couldn't while you get to be my little worker drone. And if I'm merciful, I may even let you watch... or clean me off."

"When this is all over..." Thorax began with a violent hiss. "I'm gonna make sure you fail at everything you do. I will stop you."

The disguised Guto levitated a spear against the prince's neck and drove it's tip slightly against his trachea. As he held the changeling prince in submission, he hopped on his back as if to mock him, and even allow his motted stallionhood to flex against the changeling's stomach. "Too bad you won't, as weak as you are. But I'm glad you're one of us again."

Trying not to look back, Thorax tried not to compromise his health or his pride by giving the former commander the attention he throbbed over. "I'll never be a monster like you, Guto."

The former commander bit his lip and smiled. "It's a shame really. All of Pupa's good mating features happens to be dropped on to her older brother, now that I'm looking at it. Pity, I so would've loved to see her walk away one last time. Guess you'll have to do for now. So go on ahead, model for me."

With the spear against his throat gone, Thorax bucked Guto off of him, put back up his disguise and trotted down the hall angry at the fallen commander and his taunts. The onlooking group of 'guards' stared as the disgraced commander stared at the prince's departure with suppressed desire and turgid ambitions. Guto turned away from his bullying victim and towards his party.

"Stick with me, boys, and I promise you'll have more than a failing queen for your future. The hive will be reborn, and it will be a hive filled with ambition, with strength, and it will be more powerful than any Equestrian force. The hive can do better, and I promise it will be better."

"SIR!" The squad called out unanimously, saluting the changeling commander.

Guto cleared his throat as he looked back to see Thorax completely out of view. "Can't stop what's already in progress."

An hour went by since I was trapped here in the secret passageways of the castle. Even as I have tried to surface out, there have been several guards told to keep a lookout for an injured doppelganger of me. And judging from the mumblings, it appears that very few are looking to keep me alive for very long.

The thing about guards and citizens in Canterlot is that they have a truly deep disdain for changelings. And it's well-understood why when you think about what all has happened to them in the past five years or so. Between two invasions and well-over two hundred missing family members, friends, acquaintances, fellow citizens, most would celebrate a changeling body being paraded up and down the streets. And what I saw that one other morning over a week ago clearly indicated that their hatred for changelings will lead to the nonchalance of aftercare.

Translation: If I'm seen, I will be killed on spot.

Of course, they'll come to realize that they didn't kill a changeling shortly after and will face some regret and intense reprimand should it occur, but I don't want to put my family in a position where mom would feel more than justified to call them animals. Hell, at that point it would make perfect sense to me if Alex and Stanton were to suddenly change their outlook on Equestria in general. It would leave a lot of emotional scars and political dissonance between our respective worlds.

But for right now, my main concern is to find some way to keep myself alive and ignore the intense throbbing pain in my left arm. My phone's battery bit the dust just recently and it doesn't seem to be anything left I could do to send out any messages pertaining to my well-being. I couldn't do much but to wait beside the hidden access point by the doors to the royal throne room.

If I can also add, I have ran into a shit ton of spiders throughout my being stuck in these really small passageways, I've got more cobwebs than hair at this point and I've probably got a few entire nests hiding somewhere on my scalp. And some of the most nightmarish shit I had to deal with was the fact that there were so many small ones crawling all over my legs and arms. Try not to be human and don't scream while all of that happens because I'm pretty damn sure humans scream at that shit. Hell, I'm just trying to avoid the small fuckers from getting in the wound in my arm.

Guess I'm gonna have to call in a favor with Princess Luna tonight and have her monitor my dreams for a while.

*knock knock knock knock*

The sound of the knocking had me feel somewhat elated, but also cautious because of the conversation the other 'me' had earlier. As far as I'm aware, they know I'm in here. So I had to knock back to indicate that I was still inside, not daring to speak until I heard someone's voice I distinctively recognized.

And to my fortune, it was exactly who I called out for. "Hey, are you still in there?" Shining questioned through the wall.

"Did you come alone?" I asked.

"Are we ever alone with these phones, really?"

That was probably the best answer I would've never assumed him saying. I raised the pendant up to the facade and allowed it to move a few bricks where I could see Shining standing across from me. "Sorry if it looks like I'm just staking out, the last orders the fake me issued out was that I was to be killed on sight. But they did have a little conversation with someone else and made a specified order that I'd be captured before anyone else could see me."

"That's a bit counter-intuitive." Shining replied, looking dumbfounded.

"It isn't when you consider that there's only one of them walking amongst the guards. And neither of them would even know if I was here or not unless they have access to a phone."

"Some changelings can read minds and replicate the memories and actions of others. Doesn't mean they can get in on short-term information."

"That or any classified intel."

Shining smirked as he asked me a question for insurance. "Real quick, I need to verify one thing. Who are you meeting up with tomorrow?"

I also realized what this could mean for me in terms of authenticating myself. So I gave out a specific yet vague answer. "That picture on Twitter should answer that question for you."

The young prince nodded with approval. "Smart man. You know that we could be eavesdropped on so you avoid any names, leaving everything to code or first-hoof knowledge."

"In speaking of eavesdropping, I did hear the word 'escaping' the moment I barely escaped. That pretty much tells me that whoever's wearing my face was probably locked in the dungeons below." I added.

"That's not good. There's almost a hundred changelings stashed in the dungeons from all those previous operations, possibly more. If all of them escaped, then they could be trying to weaken our security." Shining elaborated.

"No doubt about it if one of them's wearing my face giving out orders. Probably gave a few patrols the day off. How's the halls looking like?" I asked.

"Oddly light." He answered. "Anyone could get in or out of the castle if they wanted to."

"Great, we're gonna have to clean up behind all of this bullshit."

"Are you injured in any way?"

"Yeah, I got shot in the arm. Oh I forgot to mention that the other me has a gun and knows how to use it a little."

"That's not good." Shining said with an eye-roll. "So there's a changeling walking around here with a gun. How'd they get it?"

"I just walked into my room to find them going through my shit. I don't know what all they were looking for, but they got the main difference maker in the argument. They knew exactly where to hit me, all my weak spots, how to jab, knee certain areas, whoever or whatever it is taking my place is doing a very passable job in being a human. It took days for Celestia to even come to terms with wearing a pair of panties each time she went out in my world, it's shouldn't take some random changeling fifteen seconds to learn how to use a gun."

"And it took me a week to learn how to use one, and that doesn't account for training to aim properly. If they hit you, then they must have had some access to your memories at one point."

"Access to my memories? But who the hell would..." My face soured as I could feel my stomach climb up my throat. "...Ooohhhh sssshit!" I groaned worriedly.

"What?" Shining asked.

"The very last thing to have any access to my mind or had any capability to control it was, guess who?"

"Chrysalis... Fuck! We're in trouble." Shining replied, knowing exactly what chaos could ensue if she were to maintain my image. "What if someone from your world pays a visit and she's the first thing they see?"

"Oh please don't put that shit in my head right now." I said, almost ripping the pendant off of my neck and holding it to the wall. As the bricks subsided, I stepped out and dusted myself off, caring less for the potential spiders nests in my hair. "Where to?"

"I think the first thing we have to do is clear your name. As long as you have that pendant, it should be easy to negotiate with the others into believing us. It's enchanted with Celestia's magic, so hold it in the air and your leverage is pretty substantial. Also the wound on your arm would be pretty telling that you aren't in some disguise. Those kind of wounds, if agitated, won't allow for a changeling to keep their appearances."

"Yeah, but what if we don't have enough forces here in the halls to handle over a hundred changelings?" I inquired.

"You have some of the weapons from the Mt. Arimaspi assignment stashed at the barracks in the officers' quarters. They were recovered after you got in on the train, along with all the treasure you guys collected. We should probably go there to start with a fighting chance."

"And if the changelings are all disguised as guards?"

"Business as usual. Remember, Chrysalis is wearing your face so turnabout is fair play here. If anyone comes up from behind with the intention of getting the drop on us, I can take care of them. You just keep making your way to the barracks and get those weapons for the both of us."

"Sounds like a plan."

As the groups of disguised changelings wandered about the halls to imitate the sight of a busy barracks corridor, the changeling queen maintained her image as the captain of the royal guard, giving out various orders with the confidence of her assured victory. Guto stood beside her as if he was nothing short of a proud underling serving his master.

"How long before the process finishes?" The faux captain asked to the former commander.

"The second layer of runes will be done any minute now. From there, we should easily be able to feed on the love of every mare and stallion in these barracks. We'll be so powerful that no mere pony will be able to stop us." Guto proclaimed.

"At least we'll be getting to see what a human with unbridled power will look like. Had I known it would've been this easy, I would've swapped his place sooner. I would've even had a chance to drink on the love of that mangy purple pony princess and use her power for my own!" The changeling queen then gave out a long sigh of victory. "Hindsight is cruel, but evolution is far more beautiful."

"Are you going to be summoning more humans?" Guto questioned.

"Have you seen what six of them can do to an entire changeling army? I will summon at least ten! And then when we get the one we summoned first, we'll use him to lead my new slave guard forward. And with their power, we will crush Equestria under our hooves for the rest of time itself!"

"What about using the other five they have, wasn't that originally apart of your plan?"

The changeling queen wiped her nails against her chest, checking if they were clean. "The choice will be minimal for them. If they value the life of the humans we possess, they'll join us for their sake. And if not, then they will be forced to do battle with the one they will seek to save. The human resistance will falter from the moment they see his face."

Guto turned around, initially to hide his scowl of disapproval, but soon found surprise overriding his senses. "Well you might want to look alive, here comes one of the humans now."

Chrysalis quickly turned back to see a more mature human approaching her. "My, well aren't you a new face." She said to herself before something in her mind clicked, causing her to realize who the oncoming human was. She cleared her throat and quickly adjusted herself to greet the older man.

"Nondis! Ugh, thank goodness I finally got around to you. This place is so goddamn huge."

Chrysalis maintained the persona of the very captain she appropriated her shape from. "Well dad, it's been a while."

Harold scoffed jokingly as he replied. "I wouldn't call two days 'a while', but it's good to see you son."

"So what brings you here?" The fake Nondis questioned. "Didn't think you'd be running back over here so soon after your last visit."

"Well I just wanted to pay you a visit. Is there something wrong with seeing you again or is it you were in the middle of something?"

The disguised changeling queen walked up to the human, placing an arm around his shoulders. "Nah, nothing's more important than looking out for family. Besides, we're almost done here so I think I could spare some time to talk to you."

Harold looked at the busy hall and the lock on the door as some runes were being drawn on the doorway and walls leading to the inside of the barracks. "Are you sure, cause it looks like you guys are in the middle of conjuring up something."

"It's just a security feature, dad. We've had a little bit of an incident today dealing with some doppelgangers. So we gathered them all in there and locked the door. Now we're putting some runes down to keep them from casting a bunch of spells to escape."

The middle-aged man appeared to be initially uncomfortable with the idea of his son perpetrating spells and magic, but held his peace. "I suppose you gotta do what works."

"Oh yeah. Especially dealing with a bunch of impostors and criminals." Chrysalis replied.

Harold started to reach in his pocket to pull out his phone. As he checked the time, he saw he had two unanswered phone call from his wife. The man kissed his teeth and blew from the side of his mouth knowing his wife didn't like to be ignored when she called him. He politely replied with a text message to let her know he was with their son. "Yeah, I just missed a few calls from your mom."

"A call?" The changeling queen questioned herself before snapping back into her character. "Oh really, what was she trying to say?"

Harold glanced back at him appearing a little puzzled over his reaction, not so much that there was one but rather the nature of it. He knew things between the two were frayed right now and thought it surprising to see him act so casually. "Huh, I guess you must've made up in your mind to forgive her."

The changeling queen inwardly jumped at the idea of the character she played having such a personal issue. Being completely unknowing of the situation, she tried to sidestep the issue and keep her cool. "Yeah, forgive and forget, right? I mean some things were said, but it's all right."

The man nodded to himself quietly. But before he could say anything else, he looked down to the queen's waist and saw the gun in her pants under the waistband. "I've never known you for carrying a weapon so openly."

"Well we are in the middle of an operation. So it's better to make sure to be safe than sorry, or you know in my case, better safe than dead, right?" The fake captain joked with a chortle.

The middle-aged man seemed far from amused. "Now son, life and death ain't no laughing matter, especially when it comes to you."

The queen scoffed in the captain's tone. "After a while, when you start to expect the worst, it's better to live each day laughing. I mean, I can't just stay depressed forever. I know that granddad didn't try to stay sad either, even when he struggled with his issues. So you know, I decided to live my life and live it to the fullest. Even if things don't go as planned, at least I have my life to hold on to. And that's what matters most, right?"

Harold felt his phone vibrate in his pocket as soon as his 'son' stopped speaking. He pulled out his phone and pulled up the text he just got. And it wasn't from his wife.

The older man quietly thought to himself as he then stared at the gun hidden in the other's waistband. "So... Any reason why your phone don't work?"

The changeling's eyes snapped open before they felt around their pockets for show. After realizing the item that she sought out was in the real captain's possession, she weaved a quick lie. "Oh, yeah I kinda lost it in the fight this morning. Fake me had tossed it out before I could call for help."

At that point, Harold's lines of questions started to form in his head, similar to how he would ask his real son. "And you didn't think to find your charger after you had gotten your gun?"

"I was in hot pursuit. I couldn't let him get away."

One of the 'guards', namely Guto, stepped up to intervene. "Captain, the runes are complete. We need your permission to activate the spell."

Harold didn't allow the subject change to hinder him from his line of questioning. "And if you were attacked, then why didn't you defend yourself?"

"I did!" The changeling queen answered before losing her patience with the human. "Dad, look, I got some business to take care of real quick, so give me a minute and I'll be right back to you."

"I mean why write me off now? I'm asking you a question."

"Dad, I have a job to do."

The middle-aged man nodded slowly with a light chuckle. "Oh, so now that we're talking about your phone, you wanna get to work. But in all honesty you could've told me to hold off for a while and wait somewhere or escorted me someplace instead of telling me that whatever you were doing initially was unimportant."

"I said 'I thought I could spare some time.' I didn't promise to take the time away for you."

"And I quote: 'Nothing's more important than looking out for family.' That's what you told me, right?"

"Dad, can you just wait for one second?"

Harold then muttered under his breath. "Yeah, now that I thought about it, you would've cuss me out from the moment I show up if something was going on."

"You're about to make me cuss you out now."

The middle-aged man, finally confirming the suspicions that bloomed from the text message, realized the situation he was in. "...Alright, son. I'm gonna go walk down this hall and I'm gonna let you do your thing, okay?" As soon as he turned around, he could see two of the guards standing in his way. He tried to quickly excuse himself past them, but they quickly pointed the tips of their spears at him to deny him passage. The man shook his head. "Damn... I goofed it."

"Dad, there's nothing wrong. I just don't want that doppelganger to get to you. This is for your safety, I'm sure you understand. " The changeling queen replied, trying to soften her tone.

Harold closed his eyes as he came to terms with his mistake. "That 'doppelganger' is my son."

"And I'm not?" The queen questioned, feigning heartbreak.

"Cut the bullshit. You got me in your trap, might as well come clean now that I'm all yours."

For the moment, there was a lingering silence in the hallway before a faint giggle could be heard from the fake captain's lips. Chrysalis giggle soon evolved into laughter, and then into a maniacal crackle. The 'guards' remained stoic while the queen pointed at the human mockingly. "Gracious me, you are one tough cookie. To think you'd crack me out so quick. Well I'll be damned."

"Well to be fair, you didn't cuss nearly enough to be my son." Harold stated. "Got his defensiveness to a T, but not nearly the hardware."

The changeling queen smiled proudly. "I have the only piece of hardware that matters."

The man asked in deadpan. "Yeah, but do you know how to use it?"

The changeling queen reached to her waistband and pulled out the gun, pointing it towards the ageing human. "I'm sure your son knows the answer to that. Maybe I can show you too."

Harold grimaced upon seeing the barrel pointed towards his head. "Damn... Do you have to wear my son's face when you kill me?"

Chrysalis smiled as replied in the captain's voice. "You knew this was long overdue."

Moving through the halls towards the barracks, we quickly jogged towards the hall leading up to the barracks. Before we could leave to come this way, Shining took a small detour to notify Princess Celestia of what was taking place. Without any hesitation on her part, she gathered what forces she could on the castle grounds and sent them to follow me.

As we started to make our way over, one guard came up and notified us of a sizable assembly of changelings trying to keep the barracks locked away. He also warned us that the would probably be dressed as guards. We turned into the hall and I could see another human standing at the end of the hall. As we had gotten closer, I could see a small encirclement of spears being pointed towards them.

"Hey!" I called out, causing the human to turn around and bear an all-too familiar face. Shining's eyes expanded as he and I realized who it was standing there. "Dad?"

*PLECK*

The loud crack of gunfire sounded loudly through the halls of the castle, echoing against the quartz pillars. Before me, I could see my father wincing in terrible pain as he fell to the ground. With him falling down, I could see the other 'me' smiling as he held the smoking gun. Looking to me, he then pointed the gun at me while giving me a stern warning. "If you know what's good, you'll come quietly."

Meanwhile, I could hear the cries of my own father as he held his shoulder, bleeding onto the red strip of rug beneath him. "Fuck.... Shit.... Deuhhhhgh.... Ahhahahhhh,,,"

For the seconds I watched him on the ground holding his shoulder trying to minimize his blood loss, I started to birth an unreal desire for carnage. Somewhere inside me I wanted to see that fake smile of my mirror image contorted to a grimace of unbearable and very imaginable pain. Revenge was very rarely a deep-rooted desire for me, but in this case I wanted to make the exception.

The impostor appeared not even displeased, but slightly inconvenienced. "Huh, still alive? Must've not aimed it right."

"Yeah, you don't know shit on using a gun!" Dad called out in pain.

Shining completely disappeared from my side, teleporting beside the fake-me and used his magic to tear the weapon from their possession and galloped to the lock nearby. He then emptied the entire clip on the lock and broke chains off of the handles, yanking the barrack doors wide open. Looking within, Shining could see the occupants completely incapacitated from a series of runes placed throughout the walls. He looked back to see two 'unicorn guards' on either side of the hall still enraptured in their incantations. Thinking quickly, he threw the empty gun at one of the before leaping to the other, sending his hoof squarely upside their jaw.

The other me ran to try and continue the incantation before the magic flow through the runes could be completely quenched, but gained no ability to do so after dad reached out to grab them by the ankle. The impostor fell and looked back to my dad before kicking him in his wounded shoulder. As he got back to his feet, I ran right up to kick them across the face.

Right then, the disguise fell and Queen Chrysalis was writhed with pain before using her magic to send a blast in my direction. The hit I took sent me flying back five feet before I came to a stop. She tried to quickly grab the gun with her magic this time, only to realize it was completely empty. With frustration, she slammed the weapon to the ground and ordered her lackeys to subdue us.

The runes fell dormant and the occupants of the barracks started to feel some life within them. Upon noticing the changeling queen standing in the hall, they took to the armory and came out scantily armored, yet armed to the teeth. Realizing their queen was in grave danger, the disguised guards dropped their appearances and the small army of changelings stood beside her to show their menacing nature, hissing with forked tongues and snapping jaws. But before any of the armed guards could make a move, Chrysalis took one of her own, levitating me, Shining Armor, and my dad before them with a scowl.

"If you value the lives of these three, you would move not one inch!" She cried out at the top of her lungs, speaking so loudly and forcefully that a second voice pushed through to match her speech fluctuations.

However, a much more powerful variation of that same method shook the halls behind us.

"PERHAPS IT IS YOU WHO ARE THE HOSTAGES IN THIS SITUATION!"

Turning around, we could see both Princesses Luna and Celestia standing with a much more armored force than the ones we rescued. Luna being the one to clear her throat after her attempt to shatter every window in the city, held a blue spear with an enchanted silver blade shaped similarly to that of a six-inch dagger. Celestia donned no armament, instead illuminating her horn with powerful magics.

Shining and I rubbed our ears from Luna's verbal assault as dad shared one other small complaint. "Son, please tell me you have group health care."

"Humans are covered by default due to the 'protected species' tag." Shining answered quickly. "Your son, not so much."

"It's amazing that healthcare for a guard could be less than half of that of some random living organism." I added.

The changeling queen, now annoyed by her current circumstances, shouted back to the three of us. "SILENCE!"

Shining quipped at her. "Funny, I don't remember you being the quiet type."

"And I don't remember you lasting longer than thirty seconds." Chrysalis shot back.

While the joke was amusing, I didn't take the time to laugh while dad was staring back between the two. Shining continued to taunt the changeling queen. "Well it's not like you didn't ask for it. After all, wasn't the whole purpose of that little fiasco was to drain my love and take me away to serve as designated breeding stock? Weren't you the one to wear Cadance's face while trying to goad me into getting you pregnant?"

"Unlike your poor excuse of a wife, I'm not willing to give birth to failure. But who knows if anything she produces will be strong enough to be born."

That was probably the first time in a long time since I saw Shining unleash hell in one look. "Oh I am so ecstatic that humans have a weapon for your kind. Just one word and you changelings will be dead before you could say 'Hiroshima'."

Dad slowly glanced back at me. "Son?"

"I might have told them a story about the second World War." I quickly explained.

Shining continued his threats. "Yeah, and if we find you, you're all going to die. Each and every. Last. One of you will be ashes."

Chrysalis continued to goad the young prince. "You bragging on the strengths of another species? Now I know for certain your foal's as good as stillborn. But I'll have to come back and see, won't I?"

"You know, nowadays I'm wondering why I didn't just lop your head off when I had it last." I seethed back towards her.

"Because you're the weak one of your species." She answered dismissively. "Everything about you oozes with futility, even the moment you were summoned showed how weak you were. We asked for the most dangerous being─"

"You want dangerous? Let me tell you something, there is nothing more dangerous than a human with restraint. Do you know why, it's because we know our breaking points." I looked back to dad, seeing his injured shoulder. "And I've gotta say you've hit every last one of them for me. So congratulations, you're on my eat-shit-list."

"We'll see how you feel about me when I'm finished with you." Chrysalis then screamed out once more to the top of her voice. "PHARYNX, NOW!"

Looking around, I could see nothing significant that warned me of any danger. But the moment a small cloud of dust landed on my arms, I looked up to see a different colored changeling staring at me from the ceiling before green flames warped around his body, expanding into a substantial fireball before falling to the ground with a huge resounding crash. The flames subsided, revealing a large black and purple wasp-like creature standing a clear thirty feet tall, reaching as high as the the lights hanging from the ceiling. With a roar, it sent many of the guards within the barracks falling to their backs.

The three of us were vastly surprised, Shining being the first of us to speak. "Well that's different."

"This somehow doesn't surprise me on ability more than it does in appearance." I said.

"I'm still stuck on WHAT IN THE HELL IS THAT!?" Dad screamed.

The monster charged at us with fangs brandished and an eye out for me alone. Knocking the other two aside, it swooped me from Chrysalis' magical grasp and dangled me from the collar of my shirt. As I looked down, I could see my feet swaying while everyone else was at least two stories below me. The changeling queen then flew up to meet me with a degrading smile. "Having that said, you will be coming with me, my new human slave."

"Sorry, chromosome numbers don't add up so I can't be your breeder boy." I growled at her.

"Oh please, if you think that's a concern, then you're sorely mistaken. Besides, who's to say I can't make the numbers match?" She yanked me by my hair and whispered in my face. "I will make you replace every last one of my changelings with your stock, and you will give that to me ten-fold."

...That's a problem.

Without warning, I felt myself being dragged aside while the large creature that had me in their teeth dodged a sizable magic blast. I looked over to see Celestia barreling towards us. Chrysalis spoke to me once more. "I'll get back to you, but first I have some royal business to dispose of."

Losing no calm or collection, the changeling queen turned to the side and launched a huge blast of her own, leaving Celestia to counter with yet another. The two opposing rulers clashed magics, their encounter sending sparks flying below as the skirmish commenced. Changelings emboldened by their queen gained the strength to fight as if there were two or three of them manifested in the body of one. Even the selected guards chosen by Celestia herself had experienced much trouble in batting away the blows each changeling doled out. Down below, dad had taken a sword and started randomly swinging out wildly with his unaffected arm. Shining stood by him, offering protection from the ones that tried to come close.

Luna, however, had no problems bashing changelings from her path. She used her magic to bat them away as they approached, and any that came from behind were greeted with a spear swiping at them. Almost in a methodical manner, she slowly waded the halls until she could find herself directly beneath me. The princess stared back up at me and quickly calculated her approach. Coming to the conclusion of how she'd get me out of this creature's jaws safely, she encased herself in shadow, allowing herself to be consumed by it until she had transformed completely.

Donning a blue steel helmet, sharpened fangs, a taller figure to match the height of her sister, a much longer mane and tail, and eyes like that of a feline, the princess stood in stance as if to wait for the right moment to pounce. And the moment she found her desired opening, the iris of her eyes went from their narrowed state to a much wider one. Dust trailed the princess as she sprang high into the air. From there, all I could see was the world spinning in several directions before being brought safely to the ground.

The creature that once held me captive started to make its way towards us. Luna then stood in front of me, casting a shield of black. Her eyes locked on to that of the creatures as it came down on us. With hardly any effort, she blocked the wasp-like monster and charged up her magic, producing a blue aura engrossed in electrical energy. And in a single blast, she cast the monster out of it's form and back into it's normal changeling state. I took a glance to where the changeling was flung to and back towards the princess of the night. She had quickly phased back to normal as she spoke. "Perhaps I should make the payment of that favor a knightly visit to my chambers then?"

"Your sister would kill me." I said, glancing back up to the two opposing rulers dueling up high in the air. "Though I would probably have to take that into consideration with the next favor I'm gonna ask you for."

Luna smiled. "Get you to your father?"

"If it ain't too much trouble." I replied.

"Behind me then." She said, summoning her spear and tossing it to me. "Oh, and try not to get hurt this time."

Looking at the wound in my arm, I shook my head. "A little too late for that, aren't we, princess?"

Batting a few more changelings out of the way, she chuckled at me. "What are we going to do with you?"

Just as we were about to start moving forward, another changeling came straight at me. I swiped the spear at it, but missed on the account of this changeling's agility. "You're not going anywhere alive, human!" Guto called out in his recovery.

"Guto, hey, I'd love to chat but I kinda got some things to do." I said, trying to fend off a few other changelings.

"Hold him down so I can mow him down!" He ordered as the few changelings tried to encircle me. While they all pounced at me, he leapt in to join the fray. But as he was just a hoof away, one of the guards came from behind me to deliver a solid hoof to the commander's face. As he was removed from the picture, I was left with another three changelings to deal with.

Guto, upon being knocked to the ground, heard a distinctively familiar voice call out to him. "Whoops, sorry. I think I might've gotten the wrong guy."

The disgraced commander shouted back. "THORAX! YOU WOULD BETRAY THE HIVE!?"

"My hive, the hive I love and deeply care for, there's no going against that. That hive isn't even the one that's here. Your hive, the one you envision yourself in creating, that's a hive of traitors who only mean harm. And I'm going to protect the hive I love, even if it means weeding you all out." The disguised changeling prince announced proudly.

"If only Pharynx could hear you squeal like the little bitch you are."

"If only he knew what you were planning to do with Ocellus."

"It's for a better hive, so why bother about it? The hive deserves a much brighter future."

"And it isn't the one you're trying to build."

Guto, reacting with anger, charged at the changeling prince with a spear he picked up off the ground. Thorax narrowly avoided the spear's tip and blocked the blow while fending against the disgraced commander's strength. Guto growled back. "Truthfully, I don't think Pharynx would miss you very much."

Thorax pushed back with all of his strength, still struggling against the stronger warrior. "Honestly, the queen was going to drain you dry anyhow. So you were going to be as weak as any other worker drone. But now that I'm on the subject of your apprehension, I think I've got a way to deal with you."

"Oh go ahead, you passive brat, make my day!"

The changeling prince offered no words or any further negotiation. Instead, Thorax simply smiled.

"Damn demons of hell, stay the fuck away from me!"

While dad was doing what he could to fend off any changelings from getting closer, Shining was a lot more preoccupied with actually fighting the changelings. Due to the sheer disadvantage of their position, he was often fighting off at least five at once instead of the two or three that tried to get in dad's face. However, even his feigned attempts to show competency with a sword bled through and more changelings simply gathered around him with jested pointing and hidden laughter.

Finally coming to terms with the fact that he was exposed for being untrained, dad backed himself into the wall, panting from the workout he gave himself and wincing from the aggravated injury. "Um... Mr. Pony!?" He called out to Shining. "Need some help here!"

As he took out two of his own, another four came to encircle him along with the remaining three. "Yeah, some help would be pretty awesome to have on my end too." He replied before weaving a spell to cast an expanding bubble around himself to merely push the ones around him back. He jumped back to the middle-aged man's side. "Probably a bad time to ask, but have you ever fought with a sword?"

"Son, lemmie tell you something, in our world we have guns for that reason."

"If only we can get to the armory, then you can gun it up as much as you'd like."

"Wait, you guys have guns?" Harold asked with surprise.

"Not quite us, but Nondis has a few." Shining replied.

"Is this a bad time!?" I interjected while running towards the two as Luna effortlessly blew a good ten aside. I walked over to dad, trying to inspect his shoulder. Meanwhile, dad had questions to ask me.

"Son, what's this about guns?"

"Long story, tell it later. Right now we need to work ourselves to the armory so we can put this shit to a quick shut-the-fuck-up."

"Convinced that's your son?" Shining asked.

Still uncertain, he goes back to ask me. "And where the hell's your phone?"

"Battery ran out, dead in my pocket."

"What is it with you and forgetting to charge your goddamn phone whenever I'm trying to call you?"

"Are we really doing this right now? Like seriously, can you not for just ten goddamn minutes?"

"Yeah, that's him." Dad confirmed to Shining.

Luna then used her magic on every changeling between us and the doors to the barracks, parting the creatures as if she were Moses parting the Red Sea. While dad was more impressed than anything, I had to grab him by the arm and drag him along with Shining and I. Once we were back behind friendly lines, Luna slammed the ones she had grabbed in her magic to the ground, knocking them all unconscious.

We walked towards the closet that read the word 'Armory' on the door. I went to open the door as dad asked me again. "Son, what is it about guns and you bringing them to foreign worlds?"

I walked into the closet and saw a wooden crate with several items I took with me on the Mt. Arimaspi assignment. I quickly grabbed what I could for the time being with whatever ammo I could hold. "I consider it a necessity of security. If I have to go against another magical creature or god knows one that's like twenty-to-thirty feet tall in some uncharted forest, I would like to know if I can keep myself alive long enough to bury you and mom."

"Okay, now that I can respect." He said just seconds before I pulled out a shotgun, an assault rifle, and a claymore. "WELL DAMN SON! ARE YOU SLAYING DRAGONS OR FIGHTING WORLD WAR THREE!?"

"Whatever it takes to survive. I'm sure you'll agree."

"Nondis, this shit is crazy." Dad said while shaking his head in disbelief as I had him hold the shotgun.

"That's yours, aim at the black ones with the blue eyes, preferably not wearing armor."

"And what are you going to use?" He asked.

"A temporary lack of self-restraint."

The changeling queen and the sunshine princess continued to collide horns and beams for the better part of the hallway skirmish. Chrysalis and Celestia paid the battle below them no mind until there was the distinct sound of a firearm unleashing hell on an unsuspecting changeling. Distracted, Chrysalis glanced down to see me walking with a weapon in tow and snarled as she illuminated her magic. But before she could have the mind to cast anything, Celestia knocked her down with one good blast to the side, causing the changeling ruler to fall to the ground, staggering to get back on her own legs.

"Interesting, I didn't think you'd be so complacent to allow one measly distraction to get in the way of your conquest." The changeling queen turned around with a venomous scowl to the princess, watching as the other flew next to her. "Awfully weak-minded of you, Chrysalis. I expected more from this."

Coming back to reality, Pharynx stood back up to see the changeling queen at a disadvantage and transformed himself to the wasp-like being he took up minutes earlier. Standing over his queen, he swiped his stinger at the two princesses, causing the two to leap back. Chrysalis took advantage of their withdrawal and sent a powerful blast of magic towards one of the walls, blowing a hole completely through to the outside."

Celestia and Luna shielded their eyes from the dust as the changeling queen announced her retort. "I didn't think you'd be so complacent to allow one measly distraction to get in the way of your justice! Awfully weak-minded of you, Celestia! I expected more after all this time!" Celestia scowled while the changeling ruler flew to the opening and gave a departing statement. "No matter. I'll be back to get my revenge, and believe me when I say you won't even see it coming!"

The two royal sisters opted to give chase to the evil queen, but were foiled as the wasp-like creature bought her some time to escape. Pharynx snapped his jaws at the two princesses. Thorax, seeing the opportunity to maintain his disguise for the duration of his own escape, quietly withdrew himself from the front line of action and retreated while feigning an injury. Guto, who battled with the changeling prince, was caught with his wings broken and all four of his legs pinned through their holes by a spear deeply embedded into the floor. The changelings all saw what was happening and flocked to the hole for a desperate escape. Pharynx, seeing the princesses ready to fight him, gave out one final roar to knock back every guard and changeling caught in it's way.

Celestia, however, stood tall, taking a deep breath of her own. Anchoring her own hooves into the ground, she unleashed a bloodcurdling scream that successfully broke every window in the hall, every light fixture that hung in the air, and even the monster was thrown back as a result from the high princess's verbal squall. It was so prominent that it gained a second and third overtone. The sound was far too reminiscent of the ones I heard in my nightmares, which instinctively caused me to clutch my weapon a little harder. As the multitude filed through the hole, a large magenta barrier appeared to block the remaining majority inside. Shining walked forward with his horn glowing brightly as he asked proudly.

"And just where do you think you're going?" He said with a triumphantly smug expression.

Hours passed as the clean-up operation commenced. The casualties were not overwhelmingly substantial, but almost every guard from the third descent onward to the security check-in were killed. When we went to inspect the alarms, they were found to be covered in copious amounts of thick changeling goo. Those that were fed on were drained so badly that they were either dying when we found them or deceased long before. In total, we lost around fifty guards outside of the skirmish.

The battle itself was no more than seven killed, sixteen injured, one missing. Myself and dad were included in the count as "light casualties" but I felt that the articles would come out later that this failure would be all on me and that I would be held accountable for every death that occurred.

In my mind, I could already see the paperwork lined up at my desk to send apology letters to the families of the fallen.

But as a consolation prize, we did manage to withhold a total of sixty-two changelings, not including the fifteen that were killed. Guto was also apprehended once more, but this time cursing out some 'Thorax' character. Each of them were gathered and tied up to prevent them from escaping by any of their normal means, that also included chaining their forelegs together, sealing their horns, and binding their wings. I had given the direct power by Celestia herself to deal with them as I saw fit, so I had them placed in the courtyard and allowed them to wait until I had returned from the medical ward.

Dad's shoulder was promptly repaired after a quick phone call was made to Twilight. She quickly flew over and used the same healing spell she and Sunset used on Stanton. She also used it on my arm, despite my calling it a waste of magic. Admittedly, I was glad that she did it anyway instead of following my dumb suggestion of letting it heal on it's own, knowing I still had some work to do.

After another phone call to Alex and Stanton to let them know what all had happened, they took away from their schedules and dropped by to check in on dad. They were also extremely pissed off at me for not being able to protect him like I should've. They understood the reason why I couldn't get to him immediately, but still presented the argument that I should've been more careful and consider every viable option of contacting them before going to sleep at night. In other words, make sure I charge my phone more often. But their frustration towards me held not a single inch towards their hatred for the changelings. So for the first time in Equestria's history, under Celestia's direct supervision, I was to hold my first execution.

And for the first time ever, it would be by firing squad.

Shining adamantly volunteered his services and stood by the three of us as the changelings were lined up against the walls of the keep. In groups of four, they were marched up to the wall, offered their final words, and fired upon. And if any were left alive, they would be put down by means of a single shot by pistol to the head.

Eventually, the grounds went from smelling like a rosy garden with slight hint of vanilla to the air having a tinge of fresh copper. The cobblestones of the courtyard ran a deep crimson, the likes no guard would have ever professed to seeing. And as time went along, bullet holes started to wear heavily on the walls. And in half an hour, the bodies started to pile up far faster than the sanitation squads could manage. It went from stretchers, to dollies, to wagons. And even the wagons couldn't move quick enough to remove the growing hill of corpses by the time they finished their run to the outer walls.

An hour passed by and we were already getting tired of the sound of gunfire ringing in our ears. But at last, we were on our final two changelings. Guto had the esteemed honor of being in that number, standing beside just one of his own kind. When they looked over, they saw the mountain of corpses and grew solemn. Since we were a little tired of having recoil wear into our shoulders, I took it upon myself to give the two a more personalized execution.

"Do you have any last words?" I asked the changeling beside the commander.

No answer.

I pointed the gun to his head, pulled the trigger, and the changeling fell quietly. I then walked over to Guto and asked the same question. "Do you have any last words, commander?"

"Just a question." He said as I started to put the gun to his head. "Have you ever thought about what it was like to watch your own die so slowly, what's it like to hear them cry out in pain over how much they were starving?"

"Your starvation is not an excuse to take the lives of innocent people." I replied sternly.

"But we feed on love, and love comes from creatures such as ponies. Surely you humans would know nothing of that."

I took a moment to pull the gun away from his head as I conversed with him one final time. "If you ever took the opportunity to see my face from earlier today, the moment where your queen shot at my father with this gun I'm holding..." I then pointed towards the two other humans standing downrange. "My two brothers over there who just found out that their father was hurt, then I'm sure you'd think it was because of vengeance. But where would that vengeance come from, if not for the love we share collectively for our own father? Do you expect us to be here because we simply hate changelings? No, they're here because they mainly want to make sure I'm still breathing. If I knew nothing of love, then riddle me on why I'm still here."

Guto ignored my explanation, veering back towards his original subject. "And yet we starve, because we're born to suffer. Our hive is dying because of you, the very act of you, your very existence gives us pestilence. The act of bringing you here was far too damaging."

"Then why bring me? You could've left me for dead in my world. I would've drowned in the gulf, never to bother a single soul. But the irony of it is that if you changelings hadn't saved my life there, I wouldn't be here. And if you would've taken me in instead of leaving me in a forest to venture into, then would it not be so different? Would you have not earned my gratitude and my loyalty, my service and sacrifice?"

Guto initially said nothing after that and I proceeded to point the gun back at his head. The moment he felt the barrel against his skull, he stirred to speak one last time. "Chrysalis is leading us to our deaths for her own gains. I only wanted to guide our hive towards a stronger future. Tell me, how would you feel if a mother discarded you the way she has to us?" He then looked directly at me. "Would you, a son, feel no differently than I?"

I took a deep breath and answered his question. "Not a damn bit."

A single clap of thunder, a moment of recoil to send my forearm lunging upwards, a smoking gun and a moment of understanding. Guto laid dead on the cobblestones beneath my feet, his blood staining my shoes. I looked upwards towards Celestia, who remained unfazed from the collection of dead sitting on her front doorstep. The three others watched as I walked away from the fallen changeling commander one last time. And somewhere in my mind, I soon realized a grave fact.

For a larger vision of peace, Count DuMoneé was right, I should've killed Chrysalis that day.

The Next Day...

After getting fixed up and receiving a righteous scolding from Alex and Stanton, dad was given the thumbs-up to leave. Dad didn't say much to me after leaving the med ward, just only wishing that my day would go better. Alex and Stanton were still angry with me, but understood how difficult it would've been to deal with another version of me walking the halls with a gun in tow. Still didn't stop Alex from giving me a firm brotherly slap upside the head.

But we were all happy that things didn't end off worse than what it was. By all accounts, had Chrysalis known how to use a gun properly, I would've had to see my own dad off to the morgue. Or worse, I would be dead in my room and he'd be dead in the halls. They would've lost the both of us and mom would be a complete wreck. She'd have every justification to despise this place, and it wouldn't even come close to being a peaceful ending. Probably a good time to say 'Thank God for bad aim.'

I finished my day on a high note, it being the fact that my father and I were alive and well.

Waking up in the morning, I knew my day was going to be hell to push through because of all the letters and media appearances I would have to make. Cleaning up my own mistakes is hard enough, but cleaning up after a me that was really the changeling queen trying to sabotage security was beyond my mental capability. Even my breakfast was littered with journalists with sun-level access passes crowding around the table expecting me to answer every damn question.

"What does this mean for the future of the castle security?"

"With the changeling queen freed, what are you going to do about their next attack?"

"Now that we know that changelings can claim human identities, what do you do to distinguish yourself and you fellow beings?"

"What were you doing at the time when the guards were being placed on force leave for the day?"

"Do you think this incident would ever jeopardize your future of maintaining this position?"

"Will you plan to meet with the families of the victims?"

"What is the status of your father?"

"Will you train your father to defend himself in the eventual case that this were to occur once more?"

"Would you be willing to induct more humans into the E.U.P.?"

"Do you think the addition of more humans into the guard would have a substantial effect on palace security?"

Out of all the questions, there appeared to be one that even remotely resembled an attack on my performance. Under most circumstances it would be a lot more frequent, but the one asking me about my employment seemed to be the only one that ever turned towards that direction. And it honestly surprised me.

Shining walked into the room and announced loudly. "Time's up! Pencils down! Everybody out! Thank you for your questions, please exit the room in an orderly manner! Do not linger for more questions outside in the halls!" As the room started to empty, I was finally left to eat my oatmeal and fruit in peace. Shining sat down with a newspaper in his telekinetic grasp. He levitated the article beside me. "Not too rough today, were they?"

"Surprisingly." I answered with a scoff. "I was seriously waiting for a whole bunch of questions asking me why I should keep my job."

"You don't ever take a visit downtown in the early morning hours, do you?" Shining questioned.

"Why would I? The only reason I would is to sneak off and buy some pastries, but that's been nerfed by the royal decree Celestia placed to keep me locked on my diet."

"Nerfed?" Shining tilted his head and quirked an eyebrow.

"Oh right, I forgot you guys don't play video games. Maybe my way of saying it was confusing to you."

The young prince laughed. "Oh no, far from it actually. I just haven't heard that word since my time in high school. Nerfs, buffs, dice rolls, long days after classes of playing Ogres and Oubliettes."

"Ha! Nerd!" I joked.

"Nothing wrong with a few role-playing games." Shining replied defensively, blushing a slight amount.

I shook my head and gave him a light tap on the back. "Dude, we have the same thing in our world. It's called Dungeons and Dragons."

Shining perked up as his tail practically wagged like a dog. "Oh please tell me you have a set!"

"Not really, I don't play it. But I do play video games with that same stuff. There's this one game called World of Warcraft, if I can teach you how to use a computer, you'd be locked at the desk for weeks. Cadance would have to pry you away with the strength of Celestia."

"That fun, huh?"

"The raids are a brutal mess if you don't prepare yourself beforehand. You'd just end up getting party-wiped. But I'm sure you'd pick up on it pretty quickly. As for me, I'm pretty much a level 87 night-elf rouge."

"And I'm the nerd!?" Shining answered back. "If you told anyone about this in high school, you'd be wearing your lunch for the afternoon."

"Not in my world. Almost everyone plays games nowadays, just some games more than others. I pretty much left my WoW account on the shelf since Call of Duty came out. Not an RPG, it's a first-person shooter where you meet up with other guys from around the world, talk shit, and shoot at each other for the highest score."

Shining pulled out his phone and pulled out a pink feather to browse his screen. He went on his browser to look up more information about some of the things I said. "'WoW' account, okay that's an abbreviation. 'Call of Duty' is an online... Wow, your world is so interesting in it's media and entertainment sectors."

I looked towards the newspaper sitting right beside the prince. "In speaking of media, what's with the newspaper."

"Oh yeah!" He yelped, jumping back from our little geek session. "This was an article I picked up while I was on a morning sprint. If you had read this before the whole media scrum, you'd understand why the questions were the way they were."

He handed the newspaper to me, showing me the front page picture. Amazingly, it was the image of me walking away from the body of Guto, with the mountain of corpses clear as day on the left side. "How the hell did they get this vantage point?"

"Royal photographer." Shining replied. "He pretty much gets whatever shot he wants within the discretion of the princess."

I went on to read the headline and it's accompanying article.

JUSTICE IS DONE; Captain Nondis Ends Long Civil Dispute

After a brief skirmish in the halls of Canterlot Castle, Captain Nondis cleans up what was considered to be a long and dragging process between the citizens and the military court system. As many of the ones who were captured were all stragglers from the invasions of Ponyville and Canterlot, several lawmakers and politicians argued that the court's system for dishing out punishment for war crimes far exceeded the time it would have taken to convict and punish civil crimes.

The result was a long and arduous process that ended with a strict limitation of how many changelings could be dealt with at a single time for fear of a plague to taint the air of Canterlot. Politicians felt uneasy as the infrequency of the sentencings led to some pressure from district leaders. However tourist corporations, local business owners, and health experts argued against the practice of such executions, stating that there would be a prominence of decay that would taint the air with numerous diseases. But politicians cited the need of expedience to prevent any overpopulation of the dungeons from occurring. Added to that, the changeling queen being placed among them had brought about fears of an upheaval, fears that were very much justified.

On the matter of Queen Chrysalis' escape, Princess Celestia had this to say:

"As I have come to admit this failure on my behalf, I recognize the service of those guards who have done admirably in questioning the motive of their unofficial leaves. Their dedication to service warrants high merits as they have shown a desire to protect the country outside of an expected pay. With that being said, I take full responsibility for the situation and not overseeing the process as I should have done. This will be subject to change."

The change was sweeping, as the captain himself alongside fellow humans Alex and Stanton, and prince Shining Armor, took the task of dealing with the remaining changelings that failed to escape. Among them was also the changeling commander Guto, the ringleader of the previous invasions and abductions cases. It was said that the method of execution was so efficient that the teams of sanitation workers had experienced tremendous difficulty in keeping with the captain's demands. Within the hour, all were confirmed deceased.

A guard had this to say on the matter:

"I don't think I've ever seen such an efficiency in death. The fact that only four could completely run through a small army so quickly was terrifying to behold. It was a method unlike any other. Even when considering hanging and beheading for options, there's the labor involved that consumes much of the time allocated, the replacing of ropes too worn to use, the resharpening and replenishing of blades. As of now, there are only the holes in the walls that need painting over."

Holes caused by human weaponry indicate the ruthless efficiency of such devices. And in turn the humans operated with such speed to disallow any indications of a prolonged process. Squads were lined against the wall, fired upon, and moved out in what many witnesses claimed to be "an assembly line so flawless that the grim reaper would seek other opportunities of employment upon seeing it." And as a result, many victims who have lost family members to the invasions and abductions can sleep with ease in knowing the ones responsible have been brought to justice.

The captain then ordered the bodies to be gathered on the lower mountainside to be burned for sanitation purposes.

"See what I mean?" Shining said with a perky grin. "The article was practically praising you."

"And somehow I'm supposed to feel better about what all happened yesterday now that the newspapers are giving me a thumbs up?" I asked in retaliation. "My dad got hurt because he couldn't tell friend from foe and Chrysalis is back at large."

"That's true, but Celestia and Luna were the ones in pursuit, not you. So they take the blame for letting things transpire as they did."

"And I'm blameless?"

"Not entirely, but wouldn't you rather not have to face that P.R. nightmare? If anything, Celestia's doing you a huge favor here." Shining replied.

"But─" I tried to argue, but was quickly shut down as the young prince cut me off.

"Just trust me on this one, you'd rather get that free pass." He then teleported the newspaper from out of my sight and changed the subject. "Now, about your meeting with that girl this evening, what are you going to do."

I kinda looked at the stallion with some confusion. "You seem awfully gun-ho about this."

"The sooner we get this done, the sooner Cadance can sleep at night without talking me to death about her worries, the more I can sleep at night without that thought keeping me awake."

I looked at my phone and saw the hour was still young. "Shining, I told you man, I don't feel too comfy with the thought of sleeping around to get a favor or two pulled."

"Try not to think about the ulterior motive, just put in your mind that this is a prelude to a hot and heavy date. She's been looking to nab you for a while, right?"

"Yeah, but─"

Again, he interrupted me. "And she's the one to ask YOU out. This is more of chance slapping you in the face, she wants to do these things for you, to you, and prove herself to be competition for Twily. It's a triple threat cocktail in a sealed shatterproof vial and you couldn't possibly mess this one up."

I took another moment to consider the circumstances and another unpleasant thought came to mind. "What if this girl was really more of the mouthpiece for the actual woman-err... mare? Like what do I do then?"

"Keep your head, feed your head, make her head swim."

"What if it's actually a guy?"

Shining paused for a second before putting a hoof to his chin. "...Give him head?"

"NO SIR." I stated prominently and emphatically.

Shining chuckled at my response. "It's a joke, I'm just pulling your leg."

An entire day of letters, press meetings, and security check-ups later, I finally reached the end of my shift. The minute I punched out, I was already wearing my uniform from the funeral. Sitting on the floor hidden partially under the bed was the pamphlet I was given by Blue Royal. Using that information and making sure my phone was completely charged to max, I walked out the castle and wandered the crowded streets alone.

Repeatedly, I would check the street numbers and combed the grid to see if I had reached the right location. As soon as I came to the particular street, I noticed a few things started to jolt some familiar imagery. And the answer to where I was didn't pop up in my head until I had finally ended up on the front doorstep of the address they provided. In bold, gold-gilded letters I could see the name 'The Sun Cryst'.

Funny how the only thing I attest to this place is the fashion show Rarity had the week and some change prior, that among some other lusty things that happened. As soon as I walked up to the front desk, the attendant walked from behind the counter and said to me. "Welcome, sir captain. We've been expecting you. Your reservations have already been made and you will be taking the elevator to the top floor. From there, you will be showed to where you'll need to go next."

As soon as I walked into the elevator, I located which button showed the top floor and pressed it. The doors closed and I was pretty much sitting pretty for a minute until the elevator came to a complete stop. As soon as the doors opened, I saw a lavender mare with purple bangs, sporting a solitary aqua streak on each her mane and tail. She whispered as she walked past me. "Interesting..."

I walked past the mare before being completely brought to a halt against my own will before being dragged back almost in reverse. The doors to the elevator closed and the buttons were all dark with the emergency brake somehow active. The mare held me in place while she walked up to me. I smiled politely and questioned her. "Can I help you, ma'am?"

"So you're a suitor to that one princess, aren't you?"

It didn't take a genius to connect the dots. "Ex suitor, actually." I answered. "She dumped me a while back."

"I see, it must be awfully hard to know you were in the company of someone with talent and power, only to be brushed aside later down the line. I can relate."

"Well it's nice to find a kindred spirit." I lied, trying to get myself out of this elevator. "Yeah, but I'm kinda in the middle of something. I'm looking for someone I'm supposed to be meeting with here."

"No princesses of any sort?" She questioned.

"No ma'am. I'm looking for Hooves-for-Humans."

The mare looked up at me with a blush and a giggle. "Whoops! I thought you were trying to get through a quick romantic rendezvous with your *ahem* former significant other. My mistake." She gave the panel a single kick and all the lights and buttons operated as normally as they once did. "But you did say Hooves-for-Humans, right? They're on the top floor."

"...Yes they are and so am I." I replied slowly.

The mare snickered while rolling her eyes. "Oh right, I didn't consider that non-magical beings were unaware of this little parlor trick some hotels use to allocate exclusive access to certain places. Give me a second..." Her horn illuminated with the same color as the aqua stripe in her mane and unleashed a small beam towards the elevator panel. All the buttons lit up at once and showed me a final button that was hidden well under every other button on the list. She pressed the button and gave me a quick smile. "It's pretty much why I count the floors of every building I walk into."

I nodded slowly with a wide smile on my face, trying to hide just how weirded out I was. "Yeah, how did you know that?"

"In my line of work, you come to know a lot about secrets and stuff."

"So who are you again?" I asked, getting more and more suspicious.

"Me, oh I'm a classmate of Twilight Sparkle's. We both studied magic and I was hoping to catch up with her on a few things. Haven't really seen her since we last encountered a long while back."

The elevator bell rung, indicating we had reached our intended stop. The doors opened to a hallway entirely of gold leaf and pearly accents. I gazed around with awe while the mare in the elevator levitated me into the hall and called out to me.

"But yeah, it's been nice talking with you, and meeting you too. But I kinda have to go, maybe next time?" She said while breaking her grasp on my body.

Even for me, she's a bit weird. "Suuurrreee. Always wondered how Twilight's life was like before moving to Ponyville."

She and I waved back towards each other until the doors closed. Meanwhile inside the elevator, the mare sighed with relief. "Close one. Too bad I can't use him for a bargaining chip, guess the proud purple Princess of Friendship isn't all she's cracked up to be, leaving a suitor for the buzzards. She's probably got the ego of an Ursa Major to drop someone like that guy, or probably got freaked out by him having the incompatible components. Too bad really, seems pretty nice. Guess I'll do him a favor and bring her back down to ground level."

The pony then summoned a scroll with an eager smirk on her face.

"It's only a matter of time now."

Walking the iridescent pearl floors, I could see a single set of doors standing at the end of the hall. I knocked on the doors and waited a few seconds before knocking again, to which yielded no response. I checked the pamphlet and looked back to the door with a quirked brow and a huff of frustration. I was already trying to mentally talk myself out of this before I could do something stupid. And leading that crusade was my already-matured impatience from the ordeals of the day. I started to walk back towards the elevator, convincing myself that this was the fruitful beginnings of an irreparable mistake.

The doors of the elevator opened and I was greeted by a familiar face. "Going somewhere?" Blue Royal questioned with at least seven bottles of wine.

"I thought I was coming to a meet-up, not a bar." I answered.

She glanced at all the wine she carried and smirked. "Oh this, no this is for the casual drinkers."

Of what, the Catholic church? "Um... can I say how confused I am right now?"

She giggled, pointing one of the bottles at me. "Oh let me guess, no one told you of the elevator trick?"

"Well the mare that I met before you. Purple hair, purple coat, I swear she's got more purple than Twilight."

She tapped her chin with her hoof, thinking aloud. "Hmm... I think she walked off the elevator when I called for it."

"Yeah, she got me right. So I take it that was one of the mares who were supposed to tell me where to go?"

"No idea who she was." Blue said with a shrug. "But I'm glad you're here! Hey, can you help me carry some of these in?"

"Sure thing." I offered to grab two of the ones she levitated.

She corralled all seven of the bottles he held in her magical grasp and smiled brightly. "Oh no, I have another twelve in the elevator I need you to heave for me."

TWELVE!? "That's a lot of wine. Just how many people are in this get together?"

"You'll find out soon enough." She rebutted while levitating the crate into my hands, leaving me to carry all the drinks with a sense of insecurity of my tolerance for alcohol.

And I'm a frat boy questioning if this is some shit I can deal with.

She took the bottles out of my possession as she pulled out a black card, similar to the one Rarity had when she had her show, but the difference was in the runes. There were at least two magic circles on the lock and the card emitted three, allowing the door to swing wide open. Blue then turned to me with a hoof against her lips. "Now don't make too much noise, I'll come back for you in a little bit."

The door slammed shut behind her, leaving me to stand in the hall contemplating why the hell I was doing this. And to my misfortune, she didn't have me wait too long. After some cheers and clattering of bottles, she announced to the attendants.

"Now ladies, I know the drinks are a great way to open up to the other guests, but let's try to practice some civility. You wouldn't want to embarrass yourself before the big surprise. Though I'm sure none of you are even going to be able to down an entire bottle by the time I'm done with my introduction." She paused for a second as the others shushed each other. "Now... Ladies... Today is a special day, one that all of you will remember. And I promise you the ones who decided not to come will be so upset that they didn't come to THIS meeting. So ladies, fillies, girls... let me open this door for you."

I quickly unmounted my ear from over the door just before the hardwood, gold-leaf-covered door opened up to give me access. No one was standing in the way to greet me, just an assortment of silk drapes and marble columns guiding me past the facade and towards the inside of the suite.

I could already hear Blue calling out to me as I grew too nervous to come from behind this wall. "Don't be shy. Come on over, we don't bite too hard."

I could already feel my feet getting heavier with each step I took out of the shadows. And as soon as I stepped through, I could already hear a roar of thunderous cheers hammer my ears. My eyes expanded from not just the incredibly expensive decor in the suite, but also the crowd of at least forty mares of different age ranges. If I could say anything to accurately depict the demographic, it would be a mix of 'Real Housewives' getting drunk alongside the entire cast of 'Sex In The City' and 'Golden Girls'.

One mare emphatically shouted out to Blue. "Honey, you shouldn't have even said anything about the biting, That hunk of human is something I'd like to dig my dentures into."

Dentures!?

Another one yelled loudly. "Ooh, I'd break my hip trying to show him how we'd do some down-home lovin' back in my days!"

A slightly younger mare walked up beside me and smiled. "Oh, you are so tall. Mr. Tree, tell me how I get to climb you."

You know that feeling of discomfort you get when some random cougar gets in your personal space for a groping. Now imagine that hand being a hard hoof planted on your left ass cheek. "Mmph. Hot DAMN I always wanted to do that! So soft, yet firm."

Finally a much younger mare swooped over to whisper in my ear. "So now that you're on the market, care to share some human anatomy with us?"

The first elderly mare hollered at the young pegasus. "Missy, you're much too young. He'd probably be seeing jail time with you."

I mumbled to myself, admittedly taking preference with the pegasus in my ear. "Twenty-one is more like jailbait to you, lady."

Catching wind of my age, the mare standing next to me gasped. "Oh GRACIOUS, he's young! Twenty-one!"

I glanced over to Blue, who was just standing by with a glass of wine plastered to her lips while she tried not to laugh. I quickly mouthed the words to her. "HELP. ME."

The entire room erupted with laughter while the gathering of mares started filing their glasses. The first mare that spoke said something else to follow. "Sonny, we're just having a little fun at your expense."

"After all, most of us older ones are happily married, or miserably chained to earth anyhow." The mare standing next to me gave me a wink.

"We're just glad you're here." The pegasus mare said hovering behind me, planting her hooves on my shoulders. "It's too often we see you in the papers, but never do we actually get to be so UCAP."

"So what now?" I questioned.

"Up close and personal. It's so hard to get around you cause you're so famous and junk. Then there's the whole living up to beat out the princess' level of intimacy and all that baggage."

Finally, Blue spoke up. "Basically, we're all just a bunch of kooky girls who wanna see your kind happy and satisfied with Equestrian accommodations. It wouldn't be fair if you were unhappy with being here."

"Yeah, sorry if we made you feel a bit uncomfortable at first, we were honestly hamming it up just to see how you'd respond." The second mare called out.

Blue Royal suddenly teleported in front of me and levitated my hand to her hoof. "Welcome to Hooves-For-Humans."

Over the past two hours, there was no shortage of wine, which encouraged some of the wild behavior from earlier. But to my fortunes, they weren't as aggressive as they played themselves out to be. Just a cheek pinch here, a squeeze there, a few swooners, and even a kiss on the cheek from some of the older ones. But every now and then between the drinks, I was allowed to share human culture with them and discussed a few other things that would've been hot press material for those looking to get a glimpse into the human world.

After a long night of wine, fun, and a few shots of sexual harassment, the guests started to thin out until there was just Blue Royal remaining in the room. She had another bottle stashed away in the suite's fridge that she revealed to me. Offering a glass to me, she popped the cork off and happily danced.

"No thanks, I'm kinda wined out." I lied.

"Well Mr. Haines, I don't remember having seen you with more than that one glass you kept swirling around all night."

Realizing I was caught in my lie, I gave in to her offer. "Fine, but only one more. I have to walk back to the castle."

"Not in the deal, sir." She said, practically giving me the entire bottle, letting the mouth of it rest against my lips. "I don't do late-night business sober. If we're gonna deal, we're gonna vibe off each other first."

I politely took the bottle off my lips and poured me a glassful of wine. As I was pouring, she walked over to the table at the center of the room and took inventory of how many bottles were empty. Upon discovering one of them was still three-fourths full, she hummed with glee as she yanked the bottle back and took a huge swig. My jaw fell to the floor as I watched the mare casually held the bottle like it was her jogging water. "How many glasses have you had, lady?" I asked, completely astounded.

"The same as you, one." She answered. "What you do, I follow. That's the name of the game, right? You do something and I do something in return. You eat, I eat. You drink, I drink. You fight stubborn corporate lobbyist, I provide you with an army of your own."

In other words, I'm really following her if I want all of this to transpire. So with a deep breath, I gulped my glass and quickly swigged down two gulps of wine from the bottle.

"Yeah, now we're talking!" She praised enthusiastically. "Besides, you're twenty-one, you're at that party it up age. I mean I apologize if you don't drink too much as it is."

"Nah, I think I can take a bottle." I said, almost forgetting that alcohol content was substantially higher here than in my home country.

Blue giggled as she took another swig. "So now that we're here and my checkbook's out on the table, what are you trying to get out of me?"

I followed suit on her drinking habit. "Well, I think I'd like to consider a deal of sorts. How much would it cost per lobbyist?"

"Varies." She replied. "The question should be 'who's the highest bidder?' If it isn't you, then you're only wasting your time."

"Better question, how much can you afford?" I questioned, starting to remove the filter off of my thoughts.

"Better question, how much are you willing to give me?" She responded.

Right then, I felt myself getting nervous again, despite the buzz starting to wear on my mind. "Oh... you mean like flowers, a date, or sex?"

"Well not to be so forward..." She walked up to me, using her magic to unbutton the top of my uniform. "I just want you to take this off, that's all I want for now."

Remembering what Shining was preaching to me for the past two days, I took his advice and obliged in her request. The top of my uniform came off and I politely laid it on the couch. "Well, top's off. Your move."

The mare growled under her breath. "I'm not that easy, boy. I've got a few more years on you so I know where to slow down."

"Okay, I'll hang back." Not that I had a problem of doing that to start with.

The mare then sat on the couch, using my uniform as a cushion. "I think you should drink a little more, you seem too stiff for me to vibe off of you."

I took another two gulps and grew satisfied with how much alcohol I consumed for the night. "Bottle's almost half-empty."

"Down it."

I looked at her like she had gone completely insane. "All of it?" I asked.

"Save the last swig." She ordered.

Reluctantly, I did as she ordered, trying my best to at least remain standing after tossing the bottle back. My head was already feeling the numb by the time I was left with just one small gulp to take down. She then motioned for me to sit next to her on the floor. Already feeling myself completely degraded to damn-near nothing, I knelt by her as she levitated the bottle over my mouth.

She swirled the bottle, getting a feel for how much was left. Humming with satisfaction, she placed the bottle to the side and hung over my face. "I like you. You may be a bit nervous to start off but as soon as the flow starts going, you're down for anything."

"So what's next?" I questioned.

A smirk curled on the mare's lips. "Oh nothing serious... But I do have a few things I want you to do for me, captain."

"And what's that?" I slurred.

She placed her hoof on my lips, growing even closer to my face. "I can buy you lobbyists, that's easy. But I want more than what you're thinking right now."

"Okay." I answered numbly.

"It's not too much. Just a little bit of your loyalty. The foundation's been really growing for the past few months, you know with you and your other compatriots being heroes and all."

"That's it?"

She finally leaned in to bite my bottom lip. "A tiny bit of it, yes. Just make a few more appearances and our numbers will grow. But that's not all."

"Exclusive dating rights?" I droned before she let go of my lip.

"A few weekend appearances by my side, and also an entire week for rental."

"Isn't that offer only applicable to lower-ranked guards?" I questioned.

"It also requires guards to be in the service for over four years to qualify. Basically, I want you to break a few rules for me."

"Princess Celestia would have my head." I replied lethargically.

"Would she if she really knew what you were doing this for? Would she truly admonish a guard of your stature, your pedigree, with your track record and without facing some public backlash? See here's the thing about royals, when it comes to playing favors, they love to keep their name out of the dirt. So if someone close to them or under their puppet strings, like you are now, did something morally questionable, they'd cover it up to keep their names clean. And if you were caught with something, they'd simply disavow you and leave you to the world unknown."

"Hmmm... seems like you had someone close to you in that category."

"Of course, but it was well deserved." She confessed. "But what if what you were doing was going to benefit them in such a way where they'd have no other option but to accept it?"

"All of that seems like a gray area, pretty dangerous stuff."

"But you're used to danger, right?"

"Yeah." I answered, dropping my head before it was tilted back up by Blue's foreleg.

"And you'd play the risk to grant them the freedom they desire. Or am I mistaken?"

"No, you're right." I admitted, my mind still lingering back to Twilight.

Before she did anything else, she summoned a large manila envelope. She plopped the item in my lap as she spoke. "So with that said, I'll be sending you home with some mail. Don't open that up until you get in your room and no one's around. From that point on, you'll meet me at the designated place on the designated day. And from there, I'll tell you what you'll be getting in return."

"So what do I get now?" I asked completely letting myself go to the alcohol drowning out most of my senses.

The mare looked over me with an endearing smile, leaning over to whisper in my ear. "Your gift will be a special one. And you'll be getting it in the mail tomorrow. Just think of me when you open it up."

From that moment on, everything started to swirl and mix in ways I didn't think possible. All I could remember from there on was a mix of lights, blues, greens, reds, yellows, and finally black. There was no telling what happened with me or what was going on. The only thing I knew was the fact that all the wine I ingested came back with a vengeance.

A ruthless one...

The Next Morning...

From the moment I opened my eyes, I felt nothing but a crushing pain in my head. My stomach felt like it was contorted into a series of knots that disallowed me any form of comfort or security in my constitution. I rolled over, only to fall off the bed and smack my nose against the hard marble tile of the castle floor. I glanced around to see that I was indeed in my own room, but I had no clue on how I even got here, or what even happened past the hour I was leaned against the couch at that really lavish penthouse suite. If anything, that place almost resembled a fever dream. I felt around for my phone on the nightstand above me, not really desiring to get on my feet out of fear of needing to vomit. After my hand found the rectangular shape it sought after, I yanked my arm down and read the time on the lock screen.

11:38 A.M., well past my report time and breakfast. "Oh shit... well at least it's a Saturday."

For a moment, I had to debate with myself on whether or not I was going to get off this cold floor and back into the warm bed above me. And sadly, I was beginning to think the floor was going to win. Hell it's not like I wanted to get up anyways, so why do it for a bed, much less a Saturday morning. And it felt typical.

It felt like any Saturday after a day of getting ready for the party, going to said party, and passing out drunk on some frat's front lawn. It could've been like the one time that I went to a party after mid-terms and woke up in someone's bathtub, my neck was four ways of fucked for the rest of the week. Or even the one time we hosted a party and I somehow woke up on the roof with the school mascot's head on. I struck out with a girl earlier that evening, apparently hurt about Mel not talking to me anymore and I acted like a total diva, hamming it up worse than Rarity does when she gets a bad review.

Either way, it was a familiar sensation that had me feel a bit nostalgic.

I was at least basking in that feeling until the sound of knocking at my door managed to give me an even bigger headache. The door opened and Shining walked in. "Well it's been time for you to get moving. Wake up!" He said, dumping a bucket of cold water on me. Just the impact and drastic temperature change all over my body made me seize up, shocking me awake.

"Ah! Shit, Shining, man, c'mon! I'm kinda in the middle of recovery here!"

The stallion proceeded to give no fucks. "You either stay down there and I give you an ice bucket of water to see if you get up any faster, or you get up and sober up. Royalty doesn't take many days off, and unlike them there's no replacement who can fill in for you."

I tried to get up off the floor as quickly as I could when I saw that second bucket. "I'm up, I'm up! Shit!"

"Yeah, no time for bed and breakfast! Shouldn't have got drunk last night!"

"The bitch wouldn't negotiate without me drinking. I think she made me drink an entire bottle of wine."

"What did the bottle look like?" He asked.

I held my head as I tried to remember the shape and contents. I could at least remember that the alcohol content was far higher than what I would've expected from a single bottle of wine. "Black bottle, cherry flavored."

"Ooh, Cherry Jubilee's black cherry rum. Strong stuff, and you had an ENTIRE BOTTLE!?"

"That's all she bought. And she didn't even take four swigs of the damn thing." I added.

"Yeah, you danced a little too much then. Either way, can't have you laying around like Prince Blueblood. You gotta move." The prince suggested before mumbling to himself. "Shit, a whole damn bottle."

"Your wife drunk four bottles." I argued. "If anything, I can say Cadance had thirty percent more of a buzz than I did."

Shining gave himself a second to do the math on his own and quietly agreed with me. "Oh yeah, that is a bit of boozing. But that doesn't change the fact that you should be up and running."

I stumbled towards the bathroom, starting to feel the accumulation of last night's endeavors wearing on my bladder. "Yeah, just give me a second, I gotta pop the cork and let the wine run."

Shining shook his head. "Yeah, just don't take too long in there."

As soon as I closed the door behind me, I ran to the toilet and desperately unzipped my pants. As I was reveling in the release of all that built-up tension, I looked on my chest to see I was only wearing an undershirt. I also remembered myself wearing my uniform to the gathering, the ENTIRE uniform. And apparently, I didn't wake up with it on. I didn't wake up. With. It. On. Me.

Rarity's gonna kill me.

"FUCK! I left my damn jacket at the hotel!"

I flushed the toilet and rinsed off my hands before running to the door.

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I stepped out to see myself standing in a makeshift lookout post. On the floor was a littered mess of maps and papers. Even as my foot landed, I ended up kicking over an empty can of what appeared to be applesauce. Looking ahead to where my bed should be, it was instead a table with an assortment of weapons on it like swords, spears, bows, arrows, crossbows, bolts, and a small red book of what I could assume to be combat spells, judging from the crossed swords on the spine.

Walking forward, I saw two guards staring out the window, not donning their usual armor. Instead of wearing the clunky metal material, they wore dull gray, thick cotton jackets with the Equestrian flag on the sleeve of the right foreleg. One of them turned around as they heard the can rattle as it clanged against the wall.

"Shining?" I called out.

"INTRUDER!" He screamed, using his magic to blast at me. I narrowly dodged the first blow, only to be caught with a substantially stronger one. I attempted to get up before I felt auras clasp around my ankles and wrists. Looking back up, I could see the pair of guards walking up to me. One still donned a helmet as the other, obviously Shining Armor, grabbed at my shirt. "Who are you!? What are you!? Who sent you!?"

Completely confused, I started to answer his question as clearly and effectively as possible. "Nondis P. Haines, the asshole you tried to choke to death for getting intimate with your sister. Also a member of the royal guard, graduate of tenth infantry division, delta company, c'mon you know me."

"Getting intimate?" Another distinctively familiar voice echoed. The other guard walked beside me, taking off their helmet.

What I saw the moment that helmet came off completely blew my mind. The other guard was indeed Twilight Sparkle, but the face she had was a lot more battle-worn. She had a hideous burn scar that covered half of her face, one of her eyes even appeared to be glossed over, indicating she was blinded in that eye. Her mane was trimmed a lot shorter, sporting a bob. She was also missing her wings and her horn was a little shorter. In fact, she was at least three inches shorter than usual. And through the one she could use to see me, she glared at me with an icy complexion.

"Not one stallion has touched me, not even my own father sees me as beautiful. You are sorely mistaken to think that I would even be afforded the luxury of being intimate with anypony."

I tried to question her. "Twilight, what happened, what's going on? And what happened to your wings?"

She quickly summoned a sword from the table and held the blade longways against my throat as she shouted. "Silence, monkey!"

Shining continued to hold me down as he slowly levitated the book of spells. "You won't be going anywhere until you answer our questions."

...I don't know what world I stumbled into, but I'd sure like to find my way out of it.

Author's Note

Yeesh. The past few months have been very unkind to me in terms of free time available. I went from having a rehearsal every week to two of them every week, to one every weekday with the exception of Fridays, where I'd have to travel and gig.

Just now I'm getting back into the flow of things. I'm just dead tired and I'm trying to find the energy to keep things up. I'm sorry there hasn't been much for the past two-ish months. But the next few weeks should be a little better, considering that my schedule will lighten up tremendously. When all is said, I am glad that all of you have stuck around, even if the numbers may have diminished over time. I am grateful, and I will hope to see you again for the next chapter.

The next chapter's going to be a little fun for me, I just jotted down around 5k words on it already.

Chapter LXXXII

Disclaimer:

This chapter will have some ooc moments with some 'edgy' dialog and/or characters.

"You won't be going anywhere until you answer our questions."

I don't think I have ever envisioned myself being held down by Shining while Twilight's holding a sword to my neck. The guardian siblings proved to be so much of a tandem that I was far too easily overwhelmed by their abilities. One thing I've noticed was that Twilight's way of fighting seemed a lot more forward than what I'm used to. Normally, she'd teleport behind or use her magic to launch a distraction before shoving me aside. But instead of doing any of that, she was just as formidable being a front-up combatant.

And even her body showed the part. Her legs were more muscular, her body was smaller and slender. The one eye she could still use was keen to locate any weakness on my body. Meanwhile Shining appeared to be much more of his standard self. Even if his mane was cut shorter, he maintained that tactical edge. However, there was much sadness in his eyes, far more than what I had grown accustomed to seeing.

Still in a compromising position, I lowered my voice and spoke slowly. "Okay. Whatever you want to know, you can ask me."

The duo looked towards one another before Shining deferred the line of questioning to Twilight. "Where are you from?"

"A world not like yours. But I was summoned here by monsters and rescued by ponies. From there, I dedicated myself to service to show gratitude."

The two appeared unconvinced, Twilight continued her interrogation. "So if I were to say that I trusted this information, who would vouch for you here?"

"No one. And if you feel like my life isn't worth keeping, then it's only understandable."

Shining then added. "And you don't care if we take your life?"

"My life was dedicated to show gratitude for the ponies that took me in. If I can't serve Equestria the only way I know how, if I can't even find my way home, then it's only meaningless."

Twilight started to inch the blade against my neck. "And since when have you ever gotten intimate with me? I don't even know you."

I began to think out loud. "Yeah, I suppose that wouldn't happen if this is some other dimension. Regardless of me, what are we looking out for, captain?"

The two glanced back at one another again, shrugging before the blade was removed from my neck. "Who's the captain?" Shining asked.

"Isn't it you?" I asked.

The young stallion lightly chuckled. "Ha, I wish. I'm Staff Sergeant Shining Armor."

Twilight, didn't bother assisting me as the bindings on my limbs had become undone. "I'm Corporal Twilight Sparkle."

"And I'm from a completely different Equestria." I stated, wringing at my wrists. "In mine, Shining Armor was the Captain of the Royal Guard before he got promoted to Brigadier General."

The stallion smiled a bit. "Well, some high praise there, I must have done something right to shoot up the ranks like that."

"You were also married to Princess Cadance."

Again, there was confusion on the siblings faces. "Who's Princess Cadance?" Twilight asked.

With each time they looked at me like I was weird, it only confirmed to me that I was in some alternate timeline or parallel universe where something had gone wrong or differently. The only way I'd know exactly what was going on was to work my way to the answers. "Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. She and Shining Armor got married to each other─"

"Princess Mi Amore Cadenza is dead." Shining said flatly, causing me to freeze in place, grasping at my chest. "The prized pupil of Princess Celestia, her adopted niece, was killed when King Sombra returned along with the Crystal Empire. When she was sent to claim her birthright, she was ambushed by his forces and she was made an example of his cruelty."

"They sent back her head along with a declaration of war." Twilight added quietly.

I didn't even want to get up from where I was sitting, I was even trying to barter with my brain over how much alcohol was still lingering in my system. Hell, the thought of Cadance even being dead to start off with was something along the lines of absurdity to me. "Cadance is... dead?"

"It was one of the events that started the Crystal War."

"You guys had a war?" I asked, still recovering from the news I just received.

"There's only been the Crystal War. We're still fighting King Sombra and his forces. And before you ask, Canterlot is the front line."

Well that's some shit. "So what's the front like now? I see the uniforms have changed up a bit from the whole chunky metal armor I usually see."

"That armor is only for Princess Celestia's forces, her personal battalion." Twilight quickly explained. "We are the draftees, the home-front guards, we protect the citizens of Equestria, provide assistance during evacuations, and assist from the rear lines by whatever means necessary."

I looked over to Twilight. "How long have you been in service?"

"It's been seventeen months I've been on the reserve. But it's only been a month since Sombra's forces started their attacks on the city."

"How are the girls?" I asked.

"What girls?" She replied.

"Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack? Those girls, they're your friends." The long awkward silence she gave me was more than an answer. "You don't know who I'm talking about, do you?"

"The only ponies I know are my mom, my dad, and my brother."

I felt sad for the rugged young mare, almost wanting to hug her. But I also kept in mind that if I were to violate her personal space, it would more than likely result in a sword embedded in my neck. "I'm sorry. I just thought that since you were Princess Celestia's student that you..."

I stopped myself short of completing my sentence, letting the silence choke me out. But the room didn't stay quiet for very long, as Twilight replied to me in a somber fury. "Me, a student of Celestia!? If I wasn't any kind of trained, I would've drove my sword down your stupid throat! My even trying to be Celestia's student is the main reason why my face is the way it is now!"

"I-I'm sorry─"

She continued to chastise me for my words. "Do you want to hear a story of young little Twily? Little stupid Twily tried to be a student thinking she could help the princess raise the sun. But whoops, she had a huge issue with her magic deformity. And as a result, she tried to crack that egg open with all her might to fail the first time. But then she came back encouraged that she had the power to give it a second go. Oh, and keep up with this little piece of the plot; little Twily had bangs. So she tried her best to ace the second time around, thinking if she used all her magic in one go to pry that egg open, she'd be set. But she didn't have control of her magic and it ran hot on her horn. So guess what happened with little Twily, her magic burned her mane and some of her coat, she nearly cooked one of her eyes, and she was deemed too unstable to practice. Dream over, reality ensues. And her father keeps saying things to make her feel better, while paying thousands in medical bills to keep his daughter from not being able to live a normal life. Years of counseling and endless bullying later, I join the guard. The war starts. And that's all she wrote."

Shining walked up to his younger sister, only to get swatted away as she walked to the window. "Since then, Twilight's been adamant on defending the home front, to protect mom and dad."

"In my eyes, that's all who matters. I don't have time to waste the tears I have left in my one good eye. So I don't depend on others, I don't ask for the attention of others. I only depend on my family and myself." Twilight interjected one final time before going back on watch.

Even if I wanted to hug her more than ever, I still maintained a safe distance from her as I spoke. "I can understand where you're coming from. When I was younger, I got bullied too. And if I didn't feel like talking to anyone, I just stayed locked up in my room. My dad would yell at me to join the family, but I didn't want to associate myself with a bunch of people who would easily be considered as normal." I then took a step towards the young mare, still maintaining a safe draw. "But the Twilight in my world, the you in my world, was different."

"Do I look like I give a shit about what your Twily did for you in your world? I'm my own Twilight Violet Sparkle, so you can shove it."

I continued. "In the Equestria I'm from, you passed your test on the first try. You cracked that dragon egg open and got something like a little brother in Spike. You became a student of the highest marks in everything except for home ec, which you used Spike to pass because you wanted to learn more spells. You made some acquaintances in school, moved away to Ponyville to continue your studies, gained five other friends, saved the world countless times. That dragon you hatched, he helped Princess Cadance and Shining Armor put away King Sombra. And that one event showed Celestia how ready you were to go higher. You finished one of Starswirl's spells and all those events earned you a princess' crown. You gained a little crush on a crystal guard."

"Oh, and I'm sure everything was just peachy for her." Twilight replied sarcastically. "Spare me."

"It wasn't easy, Twilight. You, the other you, she fought a magic-stealing centaur and lost her home in the battle. She had to deal with greedy politicians trying to get one over on her. And then she found me, which created a shitton of problems for her, because she and I started to click in ways we didn't even think possible. Shining and I had a feud, and you didn't care because the only thing you wanted me to do was to stand by you because no one else would. You and I decided to break the rules one day, and we just did what lovers do. And we got in trouble for it, I was sent to fight some arimaspi, and you were worried if I came back dead, the politicians had it set up where you'd dissect me... Yeah, it gets a little weird."

"You went from talking about her to talking about me again." The young mare said, finally turning away from her watch to stare me down.

"Because I know what's inside you, Twilight. Yeah reality is a bitch, but that doesn't mean we can't change our course for the better. Even now, you don't want to say it, but you couldn't bear to see a single day without your BBBFF." Twilight's expression widened, her eyes opening wider while I spoke. "And yeah, it's a little weird to read a book and kiss a cantaloupe like you're kissing the main character of your favorite novel. But that's you." Her face started to flush red as she started to walk towards me. "And even though you worry about the smallest detail of the smallest detail of the smallest detail of things, you only want to make sure everything's perfect when the truth of the matter is that you don't have to be. You're not one to practice perfection with your looks, so don't try to be that way with everything else in your life."

Twilight once again grabbed the sword and planted the blade against the back of my neck, forcing me to lean down to her. The mare quietly whispered at me. "Who. Are. You?"

"Your... ex-fiance."

"Ex?" She whimpered.

"You broke off with me because the politicians were doing everything in their power to cut me off from you, even assigning me to deadly deployments that labeled my chances of survival less than ten percent. And it's because of you why I continue to fight, you took me into your heart, and your home, gave me a place to lay my head when I didn't know how to get back to my own world. You even showed me how it felt to have my first girlfriend, my first time. And I know you wanna lop my head off right now for talking too damn much, but I still see the beauty inside of you."

"Even past these scars?" She questioned, easing her weight on the blade.

"If anyone asked me if I had the opportunity to show you how I feel, I wouldn't let them see me living without you."

The grip on the blade tightened once more. "Sweet, but doesn't answer my question."

I reached out for her, nearly touching her face, I turned back to Shining. "Uh, do I have your blessing to touch your sister, not like in a sexual way, but in an affectionate one?"

Shining stormed out of the room. "Oh, don't mind me, I'm just going to be on watch. But you two do what you do, just don't hurt her or I will come to kill you."

"Noted." I replied, finally placing my hand on her face. While there was not much in the way of fur, her mane was a tad coarse, rough from a lack of upkeep. The muscles of her neck tightened as I felt her tense against me. Her eyes glared meanly as I got on my knees to further embrace her features. She didn't seem to mind my getting closer to her, but she did show signs of blushing. She tried her best to keep her eyes locked on me, but after some time of staring back at her, she glanced away. I placed my forehead against her horn, causing her to gasp with surprise. Holding her like this, my hands on her cheeks, the only difference I felt was that of a scar.

But everything else still felt the same, even if her physique was a bit smaller. The mare shook unsteadily.

"Are you scared?" I asked her.

"Terrified." She replied shakily. "I don't even know you. And you make me feel so... different."

"I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable."

She shook her head. "Please don't stop making me feel this."

Before anything else could transpire, Shining broke the door wide open and hollered. "Sombra's forces incoming! We need to get to the battlements!"

Twilight woke out of her trance and felt a tinge of sadness roam throughout her chest as I broke away. Shining stared at us for a second before urging his sister to move. She stood silently, unmovable while she whimpered. "You're not meant to be here." Shining and I quietly stared at her while she started to back away from me. "Everything you said, everything you told me, I saw it."

Shining glanced back to me. "What did you do?"

"Nothing outside of putting my head against hers."

Twilight started to cry painfully, letting the tears run freely from her eyes. "Why do you have to exist, only to show me what I can't have?"

I wouldn't be able to answer her question as the next thing we felt was the sensation of something large crashing into the castle. While I stumbled to keep my balance, I walked over to the window to see a volley of flaming pots of oil along with fiery arrows crashing into the ground below. As each cauldron landed, the flammable tar dispersed far and wide, catching many a building ablaze. And as the skyline of the city started to burn, I felt my knees grow weak out of fear and horror.

Shining pulled at me. "Hey! You said you're a guard, right?" I nodded in rapid succession. "Okay then, let's get moving!"

As soon as the three of us ran out of the room, a large boulder crashed into the castle, cutting us off from one of the access points to the throne room. We ran around to see the damage it had done, almost entirely destroying the hallway. The only thing that seemed to be safe was the internal walls facing away from the windows. I looked back to check the hall behind us, already seeing that the way around would take significantly longer. I then felt on my neck the pendant Celestia gave me and held it up to see if it held any power. It did, more than what I thought it would. I quickly took it off of my neck and held it to a nearby wall. And as intended back home, the devices triggered and the wall collapsed open to allow us a direct passage to where we needed to go. "Shining, Twilight, with me!"

The two gawked while I pushed through the webs and assortment of bugs blocking the way. The stallion questioned me. "How did you... When was this..."

Twilight finished off her brother's thoughts. "How did you know about this and where to go?"

I continued to hold the pendent up in my hand, pushing through the small passageway towards the throne room. "Princess Celestia gave this to me so that I could quickly gain access to protect and escort her. Kinda came with my promotion."

"What did you get promoted to?" Twilight asked.

"Your brother Shining promoted me to Captain of the Guard."

The white stallion replied flabbergasted. "I DID WHAT!?"

"Long story, will explain later."

Finally reaching our exit, I held the pendent up to the wall, watching as the bricks fell out of place to reveal the hallway adjacent to the royal throne room. The three of us looked as the chaos of guards scrambling around to gather their weapons. Those who were coming in were holding wounded guards on their backs. Others were bloodied and leaning against the walls. Shining glanced back to me. "So now what, captain?"

"Me!?" I exclaimed.

"Well you sure as hell didn't convince me that you were lying about anything you just said. So I'm respecting the rank! What's your orders!?"

While the feeling of giving Shining and Twilight orders felt completely foreign to me, I continued to act my part. "Get inside that throne room, secure the princess, lead her to safety! Anyone gets in our way, you are ordered to kill on sight! All opposition are to be treated as hostiles! If hostiles are present within the throne room, you are cleared to engage! MOVE!"

The three of us barreled towards the doors, bashing the huge doors open.

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I was running at a full sprint when I saw how the world changed at the snap of one's fingers. I looked behind me to see an empty hallway with an assortment of gooey webs hanging from the ceiling. and looking back forward, my eyes just then started to process the grim truth of where I was. I was inside the throne room, but much of it was changed.

Green gooey webs hung from the ceiling with several cocoons hanging high above. Within them, I saw the vague faces of several guards. Some of the pods were even stuck on the walls, holding several unmasked guards and maids. There were so many faces that I had recognized passing throughout the castle, even faces I didn't truly like. Even Count DuMonee was a mainstay in one of these pods, he even appeared to be suffering in his attempts to escape. I couldn't see Twilight here, but I did see Shining Armor.

He was very weak, the brightness of his cocoon indicating that he was very close to expiring. There was a blank expression on his face, almost as if he had completely given up on all hope. The stallion's eyes wandered to me before trailing back to despair. He had already resigned to meet his end, and there would be no saving him... even if I tried. Operation QueenSave had shown me that.

And even with all of this, that was not the most harrowing thing I've seen to date.

When I had seen it with my own eyes, I grew terrified. Initially, I could say nothing. Walking closer to the throne, I saw a cocoon, the brightest there ever was. As I approached, I saw the high princess resting within. But she was not as I would normally see her. She was in such a dismal state, the flesh oozing off of her bones. Her face had the same expression as Shining Armor's but hers seemed eternal; moreso, it was. Her mane turned completely gray, her eyes glossed over, the bones in her neck and chest exposed, her jaw unhinged as she stared into the nothingness beyond.

Celestia is dead, long live the queen.

"And what little roach has decided to climb into my kitchen?"

The voice echoed throughout the room. My eyes zoomed around the room, trying to source out what individual was speaking. My answer soon revealed itself as a changeling with a smaller green mane emerged from one of the cocoon racks in the ceiling. Her legs and head was contorted in such a way where it could be easily misconstrued as broken. She leapt from the ceiling and landed in the center of the room. Her head was still turned upside down when she landed, causing me to shudder and stumble at the unnatural motions. Turning her head upright, she proceeded to walk towards me.

"You are obviously no pony. Now tell me what you are and I may decide on whether or not you will be of use to me."

I looked back to the dead princess and sighed complacently, knowing that I had to lie myself to see freedom. "I suppose I am a wandering roach, trying to find it's way back home. In the meantime, I could be of use if I'm allowed to return."

The changeling appeared unconvinced. "And what use would a monkey creature be to us?"

I glanced around and sighed desperately. "I could help you find more of the ponies."

"AS IF!" The changeling cackled. "YOU help US hunt down the remaining ponies of Equestria!? You'd be useless!"

"How would I be useless in finding ponies?" I questioned.

"Because her royal majesty Queen Chrysalis has already massed her forces into the Everfree Forest, to hunt down the last of the pony tribes! And judging from the army she amassed for the task, she's probably well on her way to dispatching Chieftess Zecora!"

I wanted to drop the act and quickly find my way to the Everfree Forest. I at least wanted to try and find her, but that choice would offer little towards my desire to remain upright. Instead, I had to swallow all of my desires to adhere to my survival instincts. "But I may know exactly where she is located."

"So do we!" She replied proudly. "We know where they are, their strengths, weaknesses, their defenses, and we even have infiltrators to give us the exact location. There's no arguing how useless you are to us. For all I know, judging from the way you walked up to my seat is a clear indication that your allegiance was more to those ponies than anything else."

"You're mistaken." I lied.

"Then prove how little you care for them." She ordered. Tilting her head, she used her green magic to yank one of the ponies from a cocoon and laid them before my feet. She even managed to pull out Shining Armor and stand over him with a disgustingly cruel grin. "Now, feed on this creature. If you care not for them, you would hold no hesitation to find a means to butcher this pathetic lump of flesh."

I felt sickened. I was already on the verge of vomiting when I saw how Celestia was treated. And even the mere idea of her remains being a beanbag chair for this changeling made me vehemently angry. Several changelings started to crawl from the dark cracks and crevices within the room. Suddenly, there were at least two dozen of them. And I was without weapons or technology to hold any advantage. So I attempted to do what I could to play out my lie. "Not a problem, my species is known to eat equine meat in some parts of the world."

"Then please indulge." The leading changeling snickered.

"However, we tend to cook our meat." I explained, hoping to buy some time to not have to give a live performance of me eating a pony, let alone Shining Armor. "And there is apparently no trace of fire for ages."

The changeling groaned. Displeased, she gave instruction to her lackeys. "Find me some firewood, build me a pyre so that I may see this pony cook!"

While she was giving out her orders, I looked back to the despondent Shining. His eyes once again trailed back to me while his mouth opened and closed repeatedly, almost as if he was trying his best to say something. I placed my hand on him, noticing his breathing was barely substantial enough to constitute as living. His eyes then wandered back to the throne, his hoof extended weakly towards the fallen ruler laying in state.

"L...o...n...g....... l...i...v...e......." His breath then trailed off with one final attempt of speech. "T...w...i...... f...a..i...l...e...d...."

His hoof fell to the ground completely limp. his pupils dilated widely to indicate the little light he saw ceased to exist. My eyes started to water as I watched the stallion finally fade from this hideous reality to the sweet call of the beyond. It was too much for me, I quietly leaned my head against the stallion and wished him peace with tears rolling down my face.

The changeling leader took notice. "As I should've known."

The other changelings came in with the requested firewood and bowed their heads towards the changeling leader. "We have what you requested."

"I suppose I will have to see to this feast myself. In the meantime, I see a fresh helping of love within this creature!"

The changelings all around me hissed, forked tongues greedily flailing as they circled around me. One didn't hesitate to jump on me while my back was turned towards them. I jumped back up to my feet and fought it off quickly before I was inevitably swarmed by the rest of them. In the midst of the chaos, I could hear a voice speak. "Vice Queen Pupa, what shall we do with this one!?"

"Case him! FEED!"

As I was trying to move my arms, I realized that my limbs were being suspended in some extremely thick goop. And the more that I struggled, the less strength I had in my arms and legs. So they quickly crawled over me, spitting on me and wrapping around my body until the world around me turned an algae green, the fluid they surrounded me inside of quickly seeped into my mouth, oozing into my lungs. I felt like I was drowning, the intake of fluid hurting as I was forced to breathe it all in search of oxygen. The panic my mind registered was enough for me to flail in pandemonium, hoping to claw my way out of this quickly-forming cocoon.

But I failed to do so in time. I lost all energy to resist, and inevitably lost all consciousness.

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Regaining my sense of awareness, I woke up in what appeared to be a prison cell. The dark, damp cell was only illuminated by torchlight, but only by an ungracious amount as the torch was sitting down the hallway. I placed my hands flat on the ground to push myself back on my feet, only to be tugged back down to my knees. I tried to reach back to feel what was on my ankles, but my other arm was tugged as a result, causing me to completely fall over to my side. My hands grasped at their wrists, just then noticing large iron bands cuffed around them and chained to the ground. The chains locking me in place were held in a large metal hook on a heavy metal slab. And it too was anchored in place.

No way I'm moving.

I leaned to my side, hoping to alleviate some of the discomfort of being placed in a device that was clearly meant for equine containment. To add to my misery, I also discovered a foul smell too pungent to ignore. Though I was unsatisfied with my current circumstances, I came to understand my lack of a choice would only allow me to endure the suffering... that and finally take a moment to think about what was happening.

I walked out of the bathroom into a war-torn Canterlot. Shining and Twilight were guard reserves. Twilight failed her magic exams and burned herself as a result of one of them. She couldn't live a normal life outside of bullying and constant medical care, so she joined ranks to prove to herself to be anything but powerless.

Changing venues, I'm suddenly in a changeling infested Canterlot where there are no guards left to defend Celestia. She's dead on her throne, Shining dies in my arms, losing all hope and thinking I would eat him. He resigned to that fate without a second thought, just eager for death to take him out of his suffering. I'm then captured.

And now I'm here. If the first world's villain was Evil King Sombra, the second being Queen Chrysalis, then who's world would this be?

While I was thinking, the sound of armor clattering and rattling gave me an indication that there was company soon approaching. It would appear that my answer would not have to wait long before being answered.

I continued to lie on the ground, facing the iron bars that only served as a second layer of confinement.

Two ponies, one unicorn and the other a pegasus with a fitted assortment of tools and a torch, approached the doors of the cell. The unicorn was the first to speak, her voice appearing to be snobbish. "Ugh, what in the moon's name is that ugly thing?"

The second voice was completely distinctive, beyond recognizable. "A creature that was located in the forest. I was ordered to bring it here and inspect it further."

I called out to the pegasus guard, practically filled with hope. "Fluttershy! Fluttershy, how did you get here... and what happened to you?"

The mare's wings unfurled, revealing a pair of midnight blue bat wings reminiscent of those worn by Princess Luna's midnight guards. But instead of shying away from me, she seemed to anticipate conflict and readied herself for a fight. "I don't remember giving you my name to speak so casually, monster! How did you know who I am!?"

I was then reminded that this was another alternate world, one that Princess Luna seemed to have controlled. At least I was feeling a little more comfortable in the mind than what these chains would allow physically. "Oh yeah, that..."

What I saw next, put me on edge as the yellow pegasus pulled out a barbed whip. The very item she held in her possession appeared to be too cruel of a tool to use on any creature to simply tame them. Instead, it more resembled a weapon. With a single flick, she let the whip crack through the iron bars, the tip barely grazing the very tip of my nose. "Who sent you, creature!?"

I grew disheartened again, confirming that this was not the Fluttershy I knew. "You sweet thing, what happened to you?"

The unicorn replied quickly. "Should Trixie unlock the cell?"

"No. It's better to keep my distance, I don't know what this creature is capable of." Fluttershy replied. "And for the moon's sake, can you please stop with the third-person bullshit?"

The unicorn grumbled back, rolling her eyes. "The sooner you stop cursing at everypony, maybe Trixie will consider it."

"Fuck off." Probably the most jarring reply I've ever seen Fluttershy give. After the brief exchange, she turned her attention back to me. "Creature, state what you are and your reason for being here?"

"And what if I'm afraid to tell you─" She wouldn't even give me any time to finish my sentence before the whip cracked against the ground before my nose. After a moment, I finished my retort. "...Because you wouldn't understand and then proceed to beat me senseless."

Fluttershy smiled with a hauntingly icy shimmer in her eyes. She replied in what could be considered her normal voice. "Oh my, a poor creature who doesn't know any better is scared of being hit. Why whatever should I do to make you feel better, Mr. Monkey Creature? Should I pet you, and feed you, and give you love?" He mood suddenly shifted as she unleashed a maniacal cackle. "What do you take me for, a sappy fuck who can't do anything but hide behind her mane and tucking her tail between her hind legs?"

"That's all you ever did when we first started off." Trixie muttered.

"Four yeas ago, Trixie. And you were still calling yourself 'Great and Powerful' while every stallion practically had given you many great and powerful facials since then. You're more of a traveling performer than your dad."

Yeouch.

The light blue unicorn mare kissed her teeth and walked away from the hyper-aggressive pegasus. "Whatever, Trixie doesn't have to take this from you. Just get your rocks off beating helpless creatures like you always do."

"Better orgasms than you'll ever have, bitch." She said, returning to her administrative abuse of power. "Now, where was I? Oh yes, teaching dumb creatures their place."

"You are nothing like the Fluttershy I know." I said with a measure of disappointment.

The whip cracked against the floor once more, hitting the cobbled floor of the cell, splashing dirt and dust in my face. "Oh, and what were you expecting from me? Hugs, kisses, or maybe even some flowers."

"At this point, I don't know why I even bother." I replied, starting to become irritated from the awkward position I was forced into. "just tell me who's ruling the joint."

"Who else, the Empress of the Night, Nightmare Moon."

...Damn, so it is Luna. "Empress, what happened to Princess Celestia?"

"Oh her?" Fluttershy asked as she feigned her niceness for a split second before reactivating her usual cruelty. "Well she only got what was right and fair. Since she banished Nightmare Moon to the moon for a thousand years, it was only right for her to be banished in turn. If you're hoping to have an audience with her, then maybe it's better to wait for the sunrise." She gave me a smug smirk. "Oh and spoiler alert; that won't be for another thousand years."

Well it's admittedly a better fate than the last world, doesn't make it any better of a situation to leave me in. But at least I could somewhat bear the idea of Luna being in charge. However, this version of Fluttershy isn't one I'd like to be around. I opted to probe for more information. "Okay, so if Celestia's banished, what about the Elements of Harmony?"

The whip she held didn't crack as it plopped in front of my face. "The Elements of Harmony? Why I thought those were forbidden to be discussed. What does a mangy creature like you know about that?"

"I know Celestia used them to banish Nightmare Moon for a thousand years. And I do know that there are six ponies who are capable of using it's magic."

The pegasi started to giggle, holding and hugging herself with a grim sense of satisfaction. "Oh, you just brought back sooooo many good memories."

"Memories?" I asked.

The mare swiveled her head back down towards the hall, calling for the blue unicorn that accompanied her earlier. "Trixie, keys, now!"

"Trixie says go fuck yourself!"

"Fluttershy says she's gonna put you in one of these cells for insubordination of the Empress' personal tamer." She replied, now giving me more information about herself. "NOW GIVE ME MY KEYS!"

The unicorn came into view, grumbling and mocking Fluttershy's voice. Begrudgingly, she tossed her the keys. "You're lucky you have rank."

"You're welcome." She said before opening the cell door and tossing the hilt of the whip on top of my neck. As she approached, the corners of her mouth tilted upwards slowly, the flickering torchlight causing her features to distort greatly. "So you wanna know about my favorite little toy?"

At that point, I was already becoming convinced on why Discord was so passive when it came to her. "By toy, you mean a pony you broke?"

"A devoted follower of Celestia's teachings and lessons. We had completely erased many of her students over the course of the four years Nightmare Moon has been in rule. Oh I can remember the names of each one I tortured. Minuette, Twinkleshine, Lemon Hearts, Moondancer, Starbright, Wishing May, Sunburst, Sunset Shimmer to name a few."

...Oh... no...

My chest was already feeling pain as I heard the list of names. Somewhere in my mind, I decided to prepare for the worst. "What of Celestia's niece?"

"The first to be taken care of." She answered bluntly before putting the hilt of her whip against my cheek. "But then, there was this one little bitch who thought she could cause a little bit of a insurrection to have the elements gathered, so she snuck inside the palace to try and take the elements from under the Empress' nose. But little did she know that Nightmare Moon was prepared for every eventuality. So as a result, she was given to me to be dealt with." The mare then moaned quietly as she pressed her lips on the hilt of her whip. "Now that I think about it, I tortured her in this very room."

"So what happened to her?" I asked, starting to feel my skin crawl a fair bit.

"You should ask her for yourself. She's right behind you." She said happily, almost as if she was speaking like the Fluttershy I had grown to know. She tossed her torch on the ground beside me and turned me around to where I was facing the wall, where a decaying corpse sat, suspended from her forelegs. The coat was far too deteriorated for me to identify it's color, the skin was peeling off in places as maggots crawled from the eye sockets. Lumps of flesh and meat hung rotten from the bones. The smell I talked about earlier was certainly from this.

But the mane, her mane... "Who... was this?" I asked, distraught and welling with grief.

The pony laughed as she pointed to the corpse hung on the wall. "Oh, she wouldn't stop talking about how good will prevail over evil. So, I showed her what little her goody-two-horseshoe self could do. After all, if 'righteousness can beat anything', then maybe it had a chance of escaping, right?"

My heart collapsed as quickly as my body did. My stomach tried to climb out of my throat, my eyes grew from misty to oceanic, the sickness in my chest consumed my entire body, leaving me with visions of the past as the mare talked.

"She went on and on about how the light would be preserved, no matter how she suffered."

I remembered the day I woke up to see her lying next to me in the morning.

"She started calling out for her brother with each hit she took in the first five minutes!"

I remembered the time her brother told her about what I had to deal with in the bathroom when I first came around, the look on her face as she laughed at my expense. Even as I initially thought it to be a bit rude, I took no issue in seeing her smile so widely.

"You should've seen her piss herself when one of my lashes smacked her neck!"

The night after our argument in the throne room, I found myself toeing that bold red line with her. I remembered blowing into her neck, her forelegs coiling around my neck. When I kissed her there, she almost mounted me with a long-abandoned fury. She loved being tickled there, kissed there, worshiped there.

"She kept screaming for justice, it was so annoying! So stupid! So aggravating!"

I remembered the day she pleaded with Shining, begging him not to kill me when he found us about to break our boundaries with one another. She was passionate in her attempt to save my life, so effective in the way she spoke that her brother complied out of his love for her.

"And the more I beat her, the more she resisted for a while! I hated that bitch so much!"

I remembered the moment she walked me into the place where her old library was. I remember stepping on the broken glass, navigating the wreckage before coming up on some old books, long burned and exposed to the elements. And in spite of the pain of knowing this was her home once before, she still smiled at the many memories she had there.

"But then, I started to realize how much I loved watching her suffer for so long! She just took every hit I gave her and kept begging me to look inside myself! She made me SICK! But the things I did after beating her..."

I remembered the time I watched her cry when I professed my feelings for her as I was sparring with Shining Armor, the look of timid embarrassment and overwhelming joy while she wiped her eyes, trying to stop the joyful tears.

"I never thought to use the hilt of a whip to satisfy my pent-up needs until the first month on the job. But after having her wear my patience thin, her continuing to resisting me, knowing that she'd eventually break, IT WAS FUCKING PARADISE!"

Even if this wasn't the real world I was used to, the feeling of her scarred face rings fresh on my hands. The warmth of her head touching against mine while she wondered if I was serious about my feelings.

"THE DAY SHE DIED IN FRONT OF ME, I COULDN'T EVEN STOP CUMMING! IT WAS THE MOST FREEDOM I'VE EVER HAD TO EXPERIENCE IN MY LIFE! I PERSONALLY BOWED ON MY FACE, KISSING NIGHTMARE MOON'S HOOVES, THANKING HER FOR SUCH A LIBERATION! NO LONGER WOULD I BE KNOWN AS THE TINY LITTLE PONY SCARED TO DO MUCH OF ANYTHING! I COULD TAKE THE WORLD AND NOTHING COULD STOP ME!"

A maniacal cackle filled reverberated throughout the cell while the yellow pegasus jerked and flailed irrationally, her wings extended in full with a pulsing desire. Her face was twisted into madness and her eyes were as devoid of life, much like the corpse that hung on the wall. Her haunting laugh, her broken hysteria carried on for quite some time as the image before me sank in. And then, she finally stopped to recover her breath, fixing a lock of her mane that fell over her eyes during her laughing fit. While the pegasus mare panted, caressing her whip against the nape of her neck, I started to control my despair and realize that the Twilight hanging lifeless against the wall was not the Twilight I was going to possibly return to. I placed in my mind the reality I wanted to return to and focused in on that. I continued to phase out the yellow pegasus walking past me, looking up to the wall in lustful derangement.

"Twilight Sparkle, you may have not been the one to break me in, but you were the one to break my passiveness. It's too bad you've been rotting for a month. Otherwise, I'd kiss you." She then took a gander at my exposed back. "I wonder if you'll give me the same experience."

Even if there was the distinct finalization that my fate would be set here in this cruel hell of a dimension, there was very little I could do but mentally reject the idea that this existence was real. And if it was, Twilight is dead, everyone I knew and love was probably either dead or conformed to some twisted evil variation of themself. But if there was one thing I had faith in right then and there, it was that it didn't matter what I'd saw as long as I got to feel nothing but the thread of hope that this world was not the one I'd be confined to. In short, nothing else matters. "You know what, okay. Go for it."

The yellow pegasus looked down at me with a deadpanned expression. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah, go for it. I mean you're gonna beat me anyways despite what I say. Knowing you, you're probably going to keep going even if I swear my allegiance to your overlord. It won't change anything, you'll just treat me like I'm some toy and forget about me when you find the newest thing to put under a quick stress test."

The mare laughed out of disbelief. "And you won't care if I hit you? You're fucking nuts!"

I clenched my jaw, waiting for the painful beating, that initial strike. "Oh I know it's gonna hurt, but it still won't change anything no matter how hard I try. I'm chained to the ground with my ass in the air, so what good is me trying to resist going to do other than cause more harm to my wrists? So just do your thing so I can suffer in silence when you leave."

*CRACK*

My spine arched as the searing pain across my back, my fists clenched tightly while I tried to instinctively reach back to block any other hits. But remembering the chain on them, I lowered my head and shuddered while the pain stung for the longest time. Even the cold breeze I felt in my back indicated that I was struck so badly that my back gained a long wound where the whip once sliced at my flesh. Clenching my eyes shut, I awaited the next terrible blow.

But it never came.

"...It's no fun." Fluttershy groaned quietly, sounding quite displeased. "You're no fun. It's different when you're whipping away at some random animal, at least then you get to see the fear in their eyes as they're beaten. Or the retaliation some of them have when you strike them one too many times. Even when I started doing ponies, they'd all question me why I'm so cruel or so mean. I even get an occasional cuss-out like them telling me to go fuck myself and I get to tell them how often I do while they'll never get to watch. There's even the few preachy types I break in a day or two, they make me feel so good when I sink my whip in their hides!"

The pegasus mare, in a single motion, neatly wrapped the entire whip around her neck before she spat at the wound on my back.

"But you, to give up so easily, to admit defeat so early... you're not even worth my time. And I thought too highly of you. The moment you mentioned the Elements of Harmony, I said to myself how much fun this was going to be since I figured you had the same kind of fight that bitch had over there. It's no fun when you don't fight back."

From there, the only sounds I could hear was the hooves of Twilight's murderer disappearing from my proximity, carrying her whip and torch in tow. The iron bars of the prison were sealed once more as the pair of guards started conversing down the hallway. "Not satisfied with your new project, Fluttershy?" Trixie questioned.

"No point in trying, he already broke himself. Pathetic creature." Fluttershy spat harshly.

The other mare gasped at the other's response. "Wow, Trixie would not have guessed you'd be so out of the mood."

"How about I whip you to put me back in one?" Fluttershy asked.

The unicorn quickly declined the offer, their voices fading as they left the hall altogether. "Trixie will pass, though I heard rumors of a pony showing up with a dragon upstairs."

"A dragon? That sounds like a challenge."

"Fire proof, lava proof, piercing-resistant scales, oh you'll have your work cut out for you."

Even if I couldn't stand the smell, or bear the pain I was in, I still placed my head in my hands and comforted myself by thinking of the wonderful times we spent together. Just the thought of her facing such a lonely death made me realize how much I wanted to protect her, to love her, to hold her, to do anything to be able to make her happy, to set her free. That was probably the first moment I ever cried out of both sadness and frustration, seeking to do better by her and for her. And I seethed on the thought of having to degrade myself to the worst of nightmares and towing the riskiest of red lines.

Mental fatigue took it's toll on me, sending me to a most uncomfortable sleep.

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*BROOOAAAAM*

A powerful shaking on the ground I slept on had jolted me awake. I jumped up to my feet when I had realized that the earthquake was anything but normal. Instead, it was the sound of a monster's footsteps. While I was hidden in the depths of what appeared to be the Everfree Forest, I could look up to see a crimson sky filled with smoke. Immediately, my mind told me that this was probably the result of a forest fire, which in that case would yield deadly results for me staying around. And I could even see the fires approaching from the side of me.

That was until I had realized that 'fire' was moving a little too quickly.

The curtain of fiery light ran as widely as I could fathom, but the huge wedge of energy stopped just a yard short before dissipating into a small sliver of light, flickering out of existence before revealing it's path of destruction. In a place where trees damn-near choked all light from the sun, I could see the sky as if I was standing at the treeline leading to an open meadow. Stepping beyond the hiding grace of the trees that remained, I felt completely powerless upon seeing a scar so deeply gashed into the land. And behind that scar, there stood a creature of titanic proportions.

It's hair was as white as the untainted snow, matching the beard on it's demonic red face. On it's head was a pair of horns larger than two stories each. The rest of it's upper body was black with the exception of it's huge red arms. The black of it's body then tapered off to a smoke gray taurian lower half. It's fetlocks was completely silver to match the band around it's neck and the ring in it's nose. And seeing this creature had already told me more than what I needed to know about this world.

Point blank: everyone's probably resorted to living underground if they weren't already dead and gone.

It's black eyes, bright gold pupils, dialed in on me and the satanic creature bore all of his humongous teeth. It's voice boomed far louder than any arimaspi. "And what little insect do we have crawling from my rocks?"

I nodded once before turning around to run, only to have another curtain of energy slice the land behind me. Even the wind from the blast cooled the whipping wound on my back. I glanced around slowly, to see that a valley similar to the one I was short of falling into earlier had formed a mere yard behind me. I was practically left standing on a single island, not a single tree hiding me any longer. And for the first time in a while, I shook with genuine fear, far too afraid to die. I fell to my knees and started praying up to God. "Father, in your son's name Jesus Christ, I humbly come before you as meek and unworthy as I am. I come before you today to beg you for the forgiveness of my transgressions. I asked that in seeking your face that I would─"

The creature took steps the size of city blocks making it's way over to me before I could even take my next breath. The creature then leaned down and stared at me with it's unholy eyes. "How amusing, it seems this creature is even capable of offering prayers to a deity, much less practicing a religion." It placed a claw directly under my jaw, producing so much strength in so little motion that my jaw and head were locked into forced silence. And the worst part of it was the creature was actually exercising tremendous restraint as to not pop my head off. "You are vastly different. But now that I have your undivided attention, tell me what you are, little roach."

The creature pulled it's claw from under my chin and I answered, stumbling to the ground. "...Human. I am a human."

The centaur put a hand to his own chin, running his fingers through his gargantuan beard. "Human? Human..." His face suddenly brightened as an imaginary light bulb popped over his head. "Ah yes! Humans! Why I haven't seen one since the days of old. They even threatened to cast me into the abyss along with six others. I believe it was Starswirl and his company that had accidentally summoned one of your ilk."

The fact that he knew about humans at all intrigued me as much as it sent unrelenting terror flowing through my veins. "But humans don't exist in this world."

"Oh no, they don't, not anymore. I crushed that being with the back of my hand... I don't remember the name it told me, pity. It will be as forgettable as you will be."

"W-w-what are y-you?" I stuttered.

The centaur started to summon a tiny ball of light between it's horns. "I am the one who cannot be conquered by mere ponies. In fact, I cannot be conquered at all. For these ponies, I am GOD. But you will have the honor of calling me LORD TIREK."

No way... The guy who destroyed Twilight's home... This thing... Monster... She fought THIS THING!?!?

The tiny ball about the size of a marble soon expanded to consume that of an entire house. The magic it used shone as brightly as a miniature sun. And with a grin, Tirek announced to me with his booming voice. "Now you shall entertain me! Flee for your life!" He didn't have to tell me twice while I ran like hell to hide in the forest, his voice still punching through the greenery. "Run human! You don't want to die, do you!?"

Busting a full sprint out of my arsenal, fueled by adrenaline, I tried my best to make my way to whatever cave or hole I could find. But the large curtain of energy came crashing into the world around me, striking up rock, mud, and trees alike like a child digging around in a garden. My heart raced to keep myself from losing any speed. The air at my wounded back ran cold while hot streaks of magical energy carved valleys and mountains all over what was once the Everfree Forest. One blast had even landed a few yards short of where I was running towards, sending a large rock barreling towards me.

I then shielded my face, expecting the worst.

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But instead of facing my end, I ended up finding my arms covered in lemon-flavored custard. I looked at my arms, expecting them to be broken and my life to come to an end, only to find that an empty pie tray was at my feet. I stood up, only to lose my footing upon finding out the ground below me was a glass pathway covered in soapy water. I landed face first into the walkway, getting a good mouthful of soap, making me writhe with disgust of the bitter taste in my mouth. I stuck my tongue out of my mouth, hoping to scrub the taste off of my tongue.

While I did just that, I could see in the distance a pair of alicorns being rain around in a circle. Behind them was none other than Discord on a unicycle, giggling at their misfortune while their horns and faces had been lathered in paint. I tried to reach for them, to call their names, only to fall to the ground once more.

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Instead of my face being lathered in soap, it was covered with dirt and dust. I pulled up from my messy fall and saw an entire field where trees once stood. And I was in the midst of a world where the air was far from clean. The smoggy air made it almost difficult to breathe. I couldn't even take three breaths without coughing and covering my nose.

I heard the sound of a work whistle blaring in the distance, indicating to the citizens of a small industrial town over the hill to appear from their houses. Foals and their parents alike appeared dismal and despondent, marching out slowly to the sounds of their day being brought to a halt for a commercial to play over the town loudspeakers.

"What's the matter citizens? Are you tired of breathing in smog? Does your kids get sick while they're at school? Hard to breathe at work? Well fear no longer! Introducing the 'EASY BREATHER 200X AIR FILTRATION SYSTEM!' It clears smog right out from your homes and leaves you with a crisp clean breathing experience! It's so effective that it will clear your room in minutes! Use it in your bathroom, your living room, your dining room, air out the kitchen, air out the garage, air out your den for those social gatherings or whenever you want guests over! But don't wait up on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity folks! Supplies are limited to the first one-hundred buyers! BUT THAT'S NOT ALL, leave to your local store within the next thirty minutes and get a once-in-a-lifetime bargain of buy one get one half-price! That's right, you could be going home with two of these wonders and will never have to worry about bad air again! Get yours today while supplies last! GET THEM NOW!"

In an instant, I could see a stampede of ponies filling the streets to be the first in line for the item advertised over the town loudspeakers. Also in the midst of the chaos came a quick rush of disclaimers spoken too quickly to immediately understand.

"We at the Flim Flam Corporation are not responsible for warranty, repair, replacement, damage, or malfunction of any products and will be absolved of any risk of harm or injury to occur. Parts are not to be sold without a FFC warrant, all violators are subject to prosecution in a court of law. All warranties are void upon purchase, no refunds."

While the chaos ensued in the streets, mares and stallions shoving and hitting each other to be the first in line, I let my eyes lead me towards one of the billboards hanging high above. It was a pair of yellow unicorns with peppermint-candy manes holding their hooves to an unimpressive machine that just looked like a regular desk fan with a few colorful buttons added for 'functionality'. My eyes then located a much smaller sign at the end of the road leading towards the town.

"This is Ponyville?" I asked myself. Instead of the whimsical little town I had gotten used to seeing, this place looks like south-side Detroit, minus the skyscrapers looming in the distance. I started coughing again, my eyes watering from the dust in the air. I closed my eyes and started covering my face over with my shirt.

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But now the hustle and bustle of the town had gone dead silent. And instead of the distant cries of people trying to get in a line for a product that was predetermined to not meet advertised expectations, it was only the wind howling against my ears. The wound on my back stung as I quickly pulled myself from my shirt and reached for my back, only to realize there was nothing around me.

There was literally. Nothing. Here.

No signs of life, no single trace of beings scouring the place, not an ounce of green, or blue, or red, or even the sun. There was nothing, not even the mountains stood as prominently as they once did. The sky was a drab beige and brown, consumed by the dust that threatened to remain evermore. This Equestria was a wasteland.

There were no victors, no villains to stake their claim, it's was a world that once was.

Two worlds I stepped into like I was walking through a door, two worlds I slept into, two worlds where all I did was cover my face and were suddenly transformed. It would be easy to believe that I could walk through another door and find my way home, but there was no door to welcome me. I could try to sleep it off, but who's to say that something wouldn't come and snatch me up like a dust storm or a tornado. And it wasn't like I could just close my eyes, count to ten, and the world suddenly change back to what it once was. I didn't have any clue on what to do. So I just sat still, waiting and hoping that things would suddenly change.

But after what felt like an eternity, I sure as hell didn't show up anywhere else. The wind was still howling in my ear, the scar on my back still burned, and the sight of Shining's death, Twilight's scar still rang fresh in my mind. Even the taste of soap had persisted on my tongue. Nothing had changed anything I had experienced already.

"Do you wish to leave this place?"

I looked around, trying to see who was talking to me, I found no one. I promptly put my head back down.

"This is not the place you call home, is it?"

I ignored the statement, writing it off as my mind playing games on me.

"Do you know why you are here?"

"Because I somehow pissed off God?" I muttered under my breath.

The voice then chimed back. "Not quite. But it is a reason beyond your understanding."

I got back on my feet, frustrated that nothing had changed around me. So I screamed into the windy wasteland. "THEN STOP FUCKING AROUND AND TELL ME WHAT I NEED TO KNOW! PLEASE! OH PRETTY-FUCKING PLEASE! I REALLY DON'T WANNA BE HERE ANYMORE!"

Suddenly, a light appeared in the far distance, a flash of white before fading into nothing. The voice called out to me again. "That flash you saw, that plays a significant part on why you are here now. This, every vein of opportunity, is what you needed to see for yourself."

"But why? Why make me suffer!?" I asked loudly.

The voice softly replied. "I am sorry that the words you visited were not to your liking, but that was the intention of the one who willed it. And now you will understand why you went on this journey with her."

"With who!?" I asked.

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A flash of light appeared directly in front of me, blinding me so intensely that I had to cover my face to hide from it. But in that instant, the wind stopped. And instead of a wasteland, I was standing in a dark cave, looking back at an opening to see nothing but a strange ethereal glow from beyond the exit. I turned around to see a white tree with six jewels embedded in it's branches. My eyes widened at the magnificently incredible sight. Five of the six jewels shone with a faint glow, while the one at the center had illuminated the entire cave on it's own. Initially, my eyes couldn't handle the light until they had time to adjust to the brightness of the room. But that was when I saw it.

A magenta jewel sitting at the center of the tree resembled the most prominent star on Twilight's cutie mark, it was the same star that I saw on the stained-glass artwork of Twilight in Canterlot, it was the jewel that sat above her head when she fought off creatures beyond her normal capabilities.

The voice spoke again. "Had you not noticed that she was the main one you kept seeing?"

"Yeah, for only two worlds." I replied bluntly. "I wouldn't quite call that an epiphany."

"But how much of her has been placed inside of you?" The voice asked. "Just how much do you think she gave to you to see you well?"

I was going to say not much initially, but I had to reconsider my answer once I started thinking back to the days we started talking to each other. The tree pulsed with an intense light, focusing in on the star embedded in the tree. I could see in one of the facets an image of Twilight hunched over me, crying and screaming while her horn glowed a corrupted black and green aura. Purple streams slithered from her eyes as she looked at the very unsettling visage of myself, staring at the ceiling lifeless while my body was cut into an unholy mess, my jaw slightly ajar. She hollered to me at the top of her lungs as her horn kissed my forehead. "It's not over, you can still come back! Please don't leave us! You have so much to see, so much to live for! Live for me, please, just this once! I know it feels good to leave me here, but don't! I promise I will never hurt you again! Please Nondis, I'm so sorry!" Next was the sound of the EKG monitor flat-lining to her horror. Her wings dropped as she slumped off of my body, lying motionless while Mel walked over her and motioned for the other doctors to get my body moving to another room. The doctors and Mel took me, fading out of sight while Twilight's hoof reached out in vain.

But even after that, much had remained unclear to me. "I still don't understand any of this."

The voice finally gained a visible form. The image of Twilight showed before me, wearing only a smile as she extended a hoof towards me. "What is within you is the very essence of the friendship she cultivated with you as well as her own. Only now it has started to breathe it's own life inside of you."

"What are you saying, I'm pregnant or something?" I questioned, still very much confused.

"In a way, yes." She replied. "But it isn't just her magic that breathes inside of you. There is also the magic of others long offered, some as recent as the past day. Others forced upon you by various means. However, inside of you stirs a potential... one that others closest to you have observed. And it has changed you. You may remember the times when you were still recovering from the bouts of nosebleeds. It actually started then, but now there are things that have changed within you as a result."

"How?" I asked. "What about me has changed?"

"You are stronger than you know. You have grown faster, as you have experienced in this ordeal. You have even gotten taller. Though they are marginal changes, they lead to something larger for you."

"So what are you trying to say?" I questioned.

"What I am trying to say is that you have an ability not known to your species dwelling inside your mind, your body, and your spirit. It is dormant, but you can choose when to awaken this power."

"So what, I get some magic mcguffin or some random deus ex machina now?" I replied sarcastically.

"Perhaps it should be better to ask you this, how often have you needed to go to a doctor?"

I started to count off the top of my head all the doctor visits I had taken, and it started to wander into the double digits before I just started laughing at myself. "You're fucking serious?"

"As real as the wounds you've suffered through. But you are not the only human with magic imbued in your system. Any operation that required a substantial amount to drastically alter the condition of one's own body, those effects may linger for months or even years. But in your case, it has been given to you in overabundance. In other words, the magic you took on to repair your body is now substantial enough to maintain it's own cycle. Even now, it works to speed your recovery, increase your tolerance to certain things, and even enhance some of your senses at times."

I wanted to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming, but I still had a searing scar on my back that served plentiful as proof. "So... I can use magic now is what you're saying?"

"Not quite. It's a lot of borrowed magic within you, mainly that of an element bearer's. But you have to realize that this isn't a pass for you to just jump into a magic kindergarden course and learn how to levitate pencils at your disposal. You must learn this magic on your own before you can start casting it. There will be others to help you along the way, but only you can identify with your own magic flow."

As I was listening to her speak, I started to hold my hand out and point at a small object on the ground. Closing my eyes, I tried to focus on that object to pick it up. But my efforts gained no ground.

"It will take some time getting used to it, but do not worry if you aren't able to tap into it immediately. And it is also important that you do not overexert yourself in your attempt to cast anything, you will risk self-harm."

Right when she said that, my mind trailed back to the world where Twilight explained how she had gotten the massive scar on her face. She did mention something about her magic overheating and causing her mane to catch fire. So I quickly understood what she meant by that. "Okay, so control is key."

The phantom image of Twilight stopped smiling, this time giving me a stern frown. "And a word of precaution. All magic is not good magic. There are many things that should never be pursued. And this power may only prove to feed on your own greed, causing you to become corrupt. So know that if you are to ever step out of line, magic is not always merciful." She turned around to the tree and tapped her hoof on the magenta star at it's center. "If I am called to stop you, then you will be erased from this world and the others. So don't lose control, please. It would only make her sad."

Before she could disappear into the tree, I called out to her. "Just to clear things up, I'm only here because of Twilight's magic, right?"

"That and the bond of friendship between the two of you." She corrected quickly. "Or rather, a more potent magic that the two of you share."

"And what's that!?" I asked while the phantom mare completely evaporated.

Once again having no form, her voice echoed throughout my mind. "Maybe it is better to open the door behind you and discover the answer to that on your own."

The tree finally stopped glowing as brightly, leaving only a glowing doorway behind me. Upon looking at it, there was no handle or knob for me to grab on to. I placed my hand on the flawless white wood, my fingers almost glued at where a knob should be. And as I pulled back, a bright light filled my eyes.

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I stood in the doorway and looked out of the bathroom nervously. Looking down at my feet, I saw the familiar sight of clean marble floors instead of a dirty floor filled with maps and papers. I almost expected to kick a can as I walked out, but I heard nothing but a single voice to the left of me.

"Get a move on! Saturday or Monday, doesn't matter. You gotta get back on the grind."

I saw Shining Armor standing next to my bed, still holding another bucket of ice water. I quickly walked over to him and grabbed the bucket and dumped it over my own head to make sure I was feeling the cold harsh reality of my being here again. I then grabbed my phone off the nightstand and checked the time. 11:39 A.M. "You mean to tell me I went through hell and high water for one fucking minute?"

Shining, appearing confused, tapped me and whispered. "Do you... need a day off?" I said nothing as I nodded my head. The young prince... let me say that again for my own sanity... the young prince Shining Armor grabbed his buckets and started to walk out of the room but not before summoning a business card to my nightstand. "That's the office of my personal shrink, drop by anytime."

"Will do." I mumbled before making a subconscious decision to book a trip to Ponyville.

Twilight's Castle
Ponyville
One Hour Later...

I had to take some time to process everything that had happened. When I had gotten a good look at myself, I saw a few cuts on my arms, but nothing substantial other than the mark on my back which stung at even the slightest adjustment. I opted to wear a black long-sleeve shirt to hide any evidence of my previous situation. By the time I had finished doing everything I needed to do and spend most of that hour trying to pick up random small items using nothing but this supposed magic circulating in my system, I walked over to the portal room and slipped through to Mel's apartment. She was there, ultimately getting ready to browse the web with her secret friend sitting on the pillow awaiting a battery change. Naturally, this prompted some awkward laughter and a snide remark or two before I informed her I was in between the exchange from Canterlot and Ponyville. From there she tagged along with me to my apartment and we slipped through to our desired location.

The first thing she wanted to talk about since I ran by her apartment was what all happened on Thursday with dad, being she had gotten word from talking with Stanton. I told her that Chrysalis had escaped and tried to take my place in everything except for learning how to aim a gun at a moving target.

Again, very appreciative about that.

When we finished that subject, Alex called me on my phone to check in. I answered the phone quickly, having a question in mind while his name popped up in my head and on my screen. "Yo!"

"Nondis, what's up?" My brother asked boisterously on the other end.

"I'm fine, How about you?" I asked.

He gave an exasperated sigh as if he was fresh on his lunch break. "I'm good. Dad wanted to know if you were busy tomorrow."

"I'm more surprised he didn't call me for that."

"Same here. Guess he got the hint on how busy and hectic your life can be." He said before gulping something down.

"That still doesn't sound like him." I answered with a light chuckle.

"I know, right? You sure on whether you picked up the right 'dad' or some random changeling?"

I groaned out of feigned misery. "That's dad, he probably sniffed out Chrysalis before she could do anything with him. Probably why she was trying to kill him."

"Still can't get over that one." He replied. "When he told us that, I was about five minutes away from finding the sniper rifle you had."

Personally, I think I would've went looking for it on my own. But she had already been long gone by the time we found it. Either way, she's not getting nearly as light of a welcome if she pops up again. "Yeah, but what's dad trying to do?" I asked, quickly trying to change the subject, considering the events from the past two days.

"I dunno. I think he's trying to have a Sunday dinner someplace."

In other words, dad's asking me to break out of my palate famine and into the world of a beautiful Texan-style beefy renaissance. "Oh cool. Sign me up, I'm all vegan'd out anyhow."

"You're on a diet?" He asked.

"Let's just say the princess made it mandatory, and i'm not down with cutting beef out of my diet just yet." I replied. "Besides, I'm tired of eating nothing but oatmeal and drinking vegetable juice."

"Great. I'll give him a call and tell him you gave the thumbs up."

While it almost appeared as if he was going to hang up, I quickly spoke up. "Hey, one more question."

"Yeah me and dad were just talking abo─oh wait." To my surprise, he was actually shifting the subject matter before I interrupted him. "Oh yeah, yeah! Sure thing."

In silence, I let my mind linger on the words that were spoken to me in my trans-dimensional journey. Finally, I found the courage to bring about the question I wanted to ask since his name showed up on my screen. "Do you think I've changed in any way?"

He then stated the obvious. "Um, you lost a fuckton of weight."

"Not like that. I mean do I look different, subtracting all the scars and other bullshit?" I specified.

"Well... not by much. I think you might've gotten a little taller. But that's just the mythical college growth spurt."

"Okay, maybe I should ask it this way." I said, trying to elaborate further towards what I wanted to discuss with him. "Have you noticed anything about me that might have been out of the ordinary?"

"Dude, there's hardly anything ordinary about you nowadays. But if you're speaking from that standpoint of doing what you do and all that other jazz, then not really."

"So nothing that causes alarm?" I inquired.

Alex froze for a second and then shifted his tone to a more serious one. "What's wrong with you Nondis, now I'm worried."

I walked over by the portal and sat next to it while I spoke. "I might have gone on a little trip earlier today. And long-story short, I might be a bit shaken on some stuff, but at the same time I might have a little more than what I bargained for."

"Did something happen to you? Did you get diagnosed with something?" He asked, growing even more concerned.

"No! Well... maybe... yeah. Yeah, but it isn't really... uh... bad, per se. But I think because of this little trip, I might have found out something about myself."

Mel, who was completely invested into our conversation, grabbed my phone from me and placed Alex on speaker as she asked the question for him. "What trip? What trip did you take that has you thinking all of this?"

I tried to grab back my phone, only to find Mel resisting by putting my phone inside her bra. I groaned, knowing I wasn't even going to reach there for it. "If I explained it to either of you, you wouldn't understand because... it's hard to explain."

"What's so hard to explain?" Alex asked over the phone.

"I dunno. I don't even know how the hell this happened. I'm confused by it and I'm the one who lived the experience! Even now I'm trying to piece this shit together so that neither one of you will think I've gone batshit insane. And even if you say that you won't think I'm insane, you'll still think I'm insane." I pleaded, trying not to go too much into detail over what all I've experienced.

Melanie, who already didn't like me withholding information, threatened to hold my phone hostage. "You better start explaining or my right tit is going to be the only place your phone stays from now on."

"Wait, what?" Alex asked, understandably bewildered. "What the hell did I miss again?"

I slowly shook my head, trying to find a way to explain the situation. "Okay, have either of you two been someplace where you swear you experienced days of time, only to look at your clock and see that hardly any time had gone by?"

"Mrs. Pearson's trigonometry class?" Mel replied, referencing a high school teacher we had back in eleventh grade, notorious for having such a boring voice to effectively put an entire class to sleep.

"Oh, you had her too, I forgot." Alex said with a deadpan tone. "We used to call her class sleep hall because we had her first thing in the morning."

At least I found something akin to an ice-breaker. "Okay, now imagine you're in her class, you take your test, you go through an entire chapter of material, you take another test, and then you get assigned homework. Now after all of that, you look at the clock on the wall only to notice that one minute had gone by."

The young woman giggled. "Oh yeah, that sounds like Mrs. Pearson's class."

"Great." I said, getting ready to change up the scenario. "Now imagine all of what I just said being replaced by alternate timelines of what would happen if the so-called 'Villain of the Week' took over the world. I'll put it in this order. Say the first thing that happens is that Stalin popped out of his grave and the Soviet Union reassembled to declare war on the United States, then there would be the timeline where Hitler won the war and the U.S. was turned into a Nazi state where they actively hunted down resistance factions, then let's say the Confederacy won the Civil War, then the War of 1812 intensified into a conflict where Britain had submitted every possible avenue of destruction to recolonize the country, then a world where Discord succeeded George Washington for the presidency, then a timeline where the citizens were unsatisfied with the taxes Britain issued out on the colonies but remained complacent in the situation, and finally a world where World War III had already finished with mutually assured destruction being realized."

Mel shuddered at the thought of only one of the potential realities I mentioned. "Ew, I couldn't imagine looking in my history book to see Discord being the second president of the country. Talk about the entire country going to pot before it even gets started to become something."

"Yeah, now imagine getting to see all of that in what could be considered as 'one minute'. Insane, right?"

"Hey, you said it, not us." Alex replied.

"Well it was insane, even... scary." I said, my mind flashing back to the sight of Twilight's corpse and the smell of her decomposing body. Just lingering on the thought alone made me nearly throw up. I instinctively activated my gag reflex and slapped my mouth shut to prevent myself from spilling more details than what Mel was willing to see.

My attempt to save face didn't go unnoticed. "Nondis, you okay?" Mel asked walking up to me, about to put her hand on my back.

I waved my hand, humming through my fingers as I swallowed whatever had managed to find it's way up. "I'm fine. Changing subject." I quickly answered. "Either way, when I had gotten to the end, I was sent to this weird-looking cave with a magical talking tree inside of it. And from there, it told me that some things about me have changed... permanently."

"Like what?" Alex questioned, sounding worried.

Mel wasn't so eager to move forward with my answer just yet. "Hold on a second, a magical talking tree? You went on a journey and it somehow ended with a tree? A magic tree? That also spoke to you?"

Alex also took the moment to realize how farfetched that concept sounded. "I'm not gonna lie, I swear you were taking drugs. But I didn't want to say anything because you asked us not to."

I shrugged in response. "I get it. Moving on, I might have a few questions to bring up to a certain magical authoritative figure. I swear even the smallest thing I experienced felt too real. Hell, it was."

Mel grabbed at my arm, trying to pull me to my feet. "Okay, come on up here. Let's evaluate what happened."

I kindly fought back while giving her a brief warning. "Mel, I'm still a bit nauseous. Can we please chill out with that?"

"Well, what's causing you to be nauseous?" Alex questioned over the phone. "Did you eat something bad, something ain't work right with you, thoughts on Thursday?"

"Don't wanna talk about it. I'll puke if I do." I expressed rapidly, trying my best not to mentally bring up the gruesome details of my ordeal.

Mel quickly ran across the portal and grabbed a garbage pail from my bathroom and placed it in front of me. She knelt down beside me. "It's going to be okay, Nondis. I promise you're going to be fine, just as soon as we find out what's wrong with you."

Meaning well, she gave me a light brush on the back, aggravating the incredibly fresh whip mark across my back. I arched my back away from her hand, my fists clenched shut while my fingernails dug into the palms of my hands. My arms seized up while I let out a pained groan. "MMMmmmph─Please don't touch me there!" I yelped, trying to rock the reactivated sting away.

Rightfully concerned, Mel jumped back up and noticed the intense discomfort I experienced. Bypassing my consent, she yanked up my shirt from behind and saw the open wound on my back. "Nondis, what the hell!"

"What?" Alex asked, becoming all the more worried for my sake.

"WHO DID THIS TO YOU!?" She questioned angrily.

Meanwhile, I petitioned with both her and myself. "Please don't make me say it. Please don't make me say it. Please don't make me say it. Please don't make me─" My mind already knew the answer to that, and it brought back up some unwanted memories, causing me to reach for the pail and drop my head inside as I unleashed hell, just as much if not more than what I had gone through. The memories of the others and their tragic fates made me a little more invested in cleaning my stomach on top of recovering from a massive hangover. It was way too much than what I was able to process all at once.

Mel, adamant in seeing my condition, stood me up and pleaded me to get to someplace more comfortable so that I could be treated. She looked down at the phone still buried in her bra and spoke to Alex. "Alexander, your brother is sick. I think you need to take the rest of the day off. He's not looking good."

"It's just a hangover, I can manage." I offered, but to no avail in convincing the woman that I didn't need immediate medical attention.

It was already too late to convince Alex of anything, he had already hung up. Meanwhile, Mel was trying to walk me out of the room. I insisted to her that I could walk on my own, and stressed that she didn't need to help me. I even showed her I was capable of walking on my own power.

But I wasn't quite prepared for what happened next.

Voices from down the hall amplified until the doors of the room swung open. Twilight smiled as she and Spike had entered the room, at least she did until she saw me stumbling towards the door. She asked quietly. "Nondis, I wasn't expecting you here. How are you today?"

Memories of my seeing her chained to the wall, long dead and decayed, stormed throughout my mind as I expressed my gratitude and relief in the only way I felt I could truly express it. "You're alive... Praise God."

I had lost all feeling in my legs, the world swirled around me until it had turned a lifeless gray, and finally a dark black as I collapsed to the ground without any bearing or sense of self. Mel screamed my name as she hung over my unconscious body. Twilight, seeing me pass out galloped at my side as Spike ran beside her.

Coming through the doorway was another purple pony, a lighter shade as she took notice of the dysfunction taking place. "Yikes! What happened here!?"

Twilight tapped against my chest, hoping that I'd respond in some manner. "Nondis, you okay!?"

Mel didn't waste time on giving orders to act on. "Twilight, let's get him to your bed. And lay him on his side."

Two Hours Later...

My eyes slowly crept open to discover myself being in a comfortable bed. Just from the fact that my feet weren't dangling over the bottom edge indicated that I was definitely on my mattress, which also meant I was in Twilight's room. I was also robbed of all feeling in my right arm as my body was resting completely on it. I turned over onto my back, forgetting I had gotten whipped earlier in the day. And thanks to that quick jolt of pain, I jumped up to my backside and looked around to see a small bowl to my left filled with bloodied towels and antiseptic. I reached for my back, quickly discovering I had no shirt on and feeling a few bandage pads on my back to conceal the wound.

Alex walked in from the hallway, holding an iPad as he apparently came straight from his job. He was on the phone with his wife before his attention was brought to me. "Honey, I gotta call you back. I'll get these numbers worked out while I'm here."

Still waiting for the blood to flow in my arm, I had to wait before moving my fingers. "Alex, what are you doing here?"

"Mel said you weren't doing too great. When I got in, all I saw was her patching up this really deep gash in your back. Now of course, you're gonna have to explain why you have that gash in your back and how you ended up being so sick."

Almost like clockwork, Mel came in from behind him with a vaguely unfamiliar face poking through the door. The unnamed mare walked beside her and held an assortment of medical supplies. "Well you're up and at it again." Mel said with a quiet frown.

I felt my fingers tingle as the blood flow started running through them properly, allowing me to move them more. But my mind was more focused on the look on her face. "Did I do something wrong?"

Mel angrily replied. "Um, hello? You keep getting hurt and I don't know what the hell happened to you! You're telling me stories about what all you saw and how it affected you, but you keep not giving us specifics! And I'm stressed out of my mind because my best friend who I love is constantly getting hurt with no rhyme or reason for it all!"

"Ditto." Alex cosigned. "The only thing I heard that was substantial was the words 'magic talking tree' and you hurling your guts out. And as soon as I get here, the first thing I hear about you is that you looked at Twilight while giving spiritual acknowledgement while advertising she was alive. That, I know for certain, ain't you unless you're completely desperate. Since when have you prayed?"

"The only thing I want to know is what all happened to you, because that gash on your back isn't the only thing you had on you, you had smaller lacerations on your arms, mainly the bottom of your forearms. I just saw these tiny cuts but you had some rocks and gravel inside like it was shrapnel." Mel then explained.

I took a second to think of what could've happened that would've caused wounds like that to occur. I looked at my arms and turned them over to see the aforementioned cuts, mended to and stitched completely shut. "I don't get it. I don't think I was any explosion..." By the time the word 'explosion' came out of my mouth, my mind flashed back to the massive curtain of energy completely carving away at the earth, demolishing parts of the Everfree Forest. "Ooooh okay, it's coming back."

"Good, cause we need to know details!" Mel demanded strongly. "I can't keep helping you if you don't tell us anything."

The unnamed pony stood beside my brother, making a comment of his height. "Wow, I never really got to say this the first time, but you humans are really tall." Alex glanced back at her, almost with abject disapproval. The mare meekly stepped back and turned the conversation back to me. "Righty-o then. So what all did you do? I remember seeing you last night in the elevator at the Sun Cryst, and I remember some lady stepping on the elevator with a whole lot of wine. I think it was for that Hooves-for-Humans gathering you were trying to find."

By then, I started to recognize the mare from last night. "Better question, who are you again?"

The mare chuckled nervously as she rubbed her forelegs together. "I remember telling you that Twilight and I were friends way back when. Yeah... that was pretty much a little filly's tale I told to get by."

I rolled my eyes, now realizing that I wasn't the one holding back stories. "Okay, so who are you and what are you doing here now?" I asked, starting to assume myself back into guard-mode.

"I know this may seem a bit devious, but I should probably start from the beginning." She said before taking a deep breath. "See there was once this village I was─"

"Nutshell, lady. Keep it there." I urged.

"Geez, captain hard-ass." The mare scrunched up as she muttered to herself before concluding. "In short, I was over a village to the far northeast of here. Twilight and her friends came around and messed that up for me. So I pretty much ran around her and her friends, just to plan out my revenge."

"Revenge?" Mel questioned.

"If you were doing something that had Twilight and her friends in go-mode, no doubt you probably did something VERY ILLEGAL." I spoke gravely.

"I did." She confessed quietly. "But I'm willing to make amends for my mistakes, to atone for my actions. And as a result, I'm willing to put myself aside and do what's better for everyone else around me, what's better for Equestria. Let's just say I've learned what the world would turn into if she and her friends destinies were altered. The world becomes this gray dusty mess."

There was a brief period of silence before I jumped on my feet, rushing to her with probably the most angry scowl on my face since I came close to ending Chrysalis. "SO THAT WAS YOU!? YOU DID ALL THAT SHIT!?"

The mare apologized once more. "I'm sorry! I didn't know what the problem was all about until Twilight showed me for herself what she was experiencing."

I continued to lash out at her, surprising Mel and Alex with my sudden aggression. I didn't even pay attention to who was even opening the doors behind her. "OOOH BITCH, I WANNA KILL YOU! GIVE ME ONE GOOD FUCKING REASON WHY I SHOULDN'T END YOU FOR BEING AN X-CLASS THREAT!"

"Stand down, Nondis." Twilight ordered, coming into the room. She walked beside the lavender unicorn. "I know Starlight did some things today that could've hurt us, but─"

"Oh I'm so sorry, sweetheart! I'm not listening to you! Bitch gotta go! She made my day hell on earth!"

Twilight then stepped in front of her, sprawling out her wings in defense of the lavender unicorn. "Well let me tell you about my day! How about you go through some strange place, one after another, after another, to stop someone from altering a specific event that defines your own destiny and that of your friends!"

I stepped up to her, arguing back. "Well let me tell you something funny I found out in my day of somehow jumping between timelines like I'm Dr. Who."

Twilight stepped back for a second. "Wait, timeline jumping?"

"Yes, Twilight! And each one had a different story to tell. One universe, you failed your entrance exam, TWICE! You fucked up your face the second go around because you somehow burned your mane and half your face, so you became a guardian reserve, just in time for a war to break out."

Twilight then whispered to herself. "King Sombra, the Crystal War."

"Oh, and let me tell you about another fucked-up timeline where there are changelings everywhere! Meanwhile the heir apparent proceeds to use Princess Celestia as a bean bag chair, she's literally in decaying pieces and Shining Armor dies in my arms before I get wrapped like a fucking burrito in a changeling cocoon!"

"Chrysalis' take over of Equestria." She muttered, before whispering to me. "Nightmare Moon's world?"

I stopped being angry long enough to see the shock on her face. Meanwhile, she started to see the sadness in mine as I knelt down to hold her face, shaking my head in silence before I could speak. "You chained on the wall in some dark dungeon... rotting. Ba-b-baby, I-I can't see you like that again, okay? My heart can't take it."

The mare backed away in shock. "Whoa, whoa, wait, I'm dead there?"

"Yeah... and Fluttershy had turned cruel, truly cruel... If you wondering about the cut on my back, I can say she's very accurate with a whip. And you would've said the same in that timeline, she killed you there and left you to rot inside the cell I was in."

Twilight sat on her haunches with disbelief. "You've experienced everything I've went through."

I stopped her from saying anything else. "Oh and another question, how the ACTUAL FUCK do you fight an eighty-foot centaur, AND WIN!? I know you said Tirek had destroyed your home and shit, but HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT FIGHTING SATAN HIMSELF!? He held my entire jaw shut with just the very tip of his fingernail like I was some sort of insect. I found God trying to not get killed by that guy because he was having a FIELD DAY in the Everfree Forest!" I turned to Mel, holding up my arms. "Wanna know how I got these scars, because I thought when his blast came short of atomizing my entire existence, he blew some rocks my way and I thought I was going to take the high road to the great by-and-by. That's why just the moment before that, I had gotten on my knees and prayed to God that I'd at least get a once-over before dropping me off in hell."

"Are you serious about the height thing, or were you just over-exaggerating?" Alex questioned.

"Bro, I will never complain about fighting an arimaspi again." I said before turning to Twilight, pointing at the mare behind her. "And you need to make up your mind on if you're gonna fight me to defend her. Because if you are, then I'm not even going to touch her with a ten-foot pole, no matter how pissed off I am right now."

Twilight simply smiled back at me with a warm kindness as she stuck up for the unicorn. "I know she did a lot of messing up, and trust me I can quickly say how bent I was on trying to exact revenge at one point. But in the end, it only resulted in wasted energy and depleted magic. And I tried talking to her for so long that I thought I was going to be caught in some infinite loop of trying to save the destiny of me and my friends. But I realized that if talking couldn't get her to realize what she was doing was wrong, then I had to ultimately take her with me to see for herself how bad things had gotten."

The pony then spoke out for herself. "And I know what I did was bad now. I can admit that my being selfish over something in the past had a hoof in how I wanted my vision to be for the future. I just wanted everypony to be equal, no less talented or skilled than the other. And yes, I wanted to hide the fact that I would end up being more powerful than everyone else because I felt good having that power. But it doesn't give you everything you need."

Twilight continued to defend the mare. "Starlight Glimmer may not be perfect, but I did manage to catch her before she followed a path she couldn't recover from, much like how I have to stop you from making the decision to be vengeful right now. After all, haven't I stood between you and a certain someone who nearly put you to sleep?"

"What happened with us is different, Twilight." I argued.

"And what's happening now shouldn't be any different from then." She rebutted.

"Except that I had to suffer because I'm magically bound to you. Like it or not, that's just it. I don't fucking get it worth a damn, but that's apparently the bullshit excuse I was given." I retorted, unmoved from my position.

The princess stood for a second before flying to meet me at eye-level. "Look at me, Nondis. I know how much these things can hurt, and it hurts too much to fight through it, but I do. And if you're bound to me like you say you are, then you'll acknowledge that I would want her to learn a different way of living. She's my responsibility and my student, and destiny dictates that for us right now because we made our choice to be different. If it wasn't meant to be, then wouldn't you think that I would've been forced to make that ultimatum on my own?"

"She's your student?" I asked blankly.

"From today on, yes, just like you and Spike are my responsibilities. I don't mind taking a student for friendship's sake, it's in my title."

Starlight cleared her throat. "Well egos and aggression aside, I'm honored to be a student to the Princess of Friendship." She looked to me and then said. "And for you, I'm sorry that you got involved in this, and judging from what you described to her, I'd like to think you pretty much saw all the really gritty stuff I'm sure she didn't get to see. But I wonder how you managed to get sucked into all those worlds."

"My magic's bound to Twilight's for some odd reason." I answered openly. "At least that's what the talking magic tree told me."

The young mare then appeared bewildered. "Talking... magic tree???"

"It had Twilight's cutie mark on it." I answered.

"THE TREE OF HARMONY SPOKE TO YOU!?!?" Twilight exclaimed, almost shouting the ears off of everyone in the room.

Mel then grabbed me and turned me to her with a question of her own. "Now I don't mean to interrupt you two lovebirds, but I could've sworn the words 'your magic' came falling out of your mouth."

"You remember all those medical operations I had to go through in order to stay alive? Well apparently I had a lot more than that one time to repair a whole bunch of shit, and I was told the magic endowed to me for medicinal purposes had lingered enough in my system to where it started to cycle itself and sustain for even longer. The more I got hurt, the more I got treatment, the more magic was added to the equation, the more the magic cycles around."

Alex laughed as he felt the explanation to be too absurd to be believed. "So what you're saying is that this 'magic' inside you, like a car, had a starter ignition switch. Now all of a sudden, it's on and you've got a charge going like you're a battery hooked into a circuit with an alternator?"

"I probably couldn't even put it any better than that." I shrugged. "I also got an ominous warning saying if I got out of pocket, I might just get my ass banished to the moon or some shit."

Twilight picked up a blank scroll and a quill, throwing it to her dragon assistant. Spike wasted no time jotting down notes as he recalled all the details I spoke of. "Human undergoes extensive magic treatments for health reasons, resulting in latent mana residue. Bound by Twilight's magic to Twilight. Human absorbs magic and body recycles mana content for further use... information plausible. Human capable of casting ability... information unknown. Human capable of channeling... information unknown. Human capable of self-sustaining cycle... information unknown."

Both Starlight and Twilight stood on either side of me with curiosity and excitement in their eyes. Starlight was the first to throw out some ideas. "I think this falls under Mage Meadowbrook's Conservation Theory."

"It couldn't be. This is more like Starswirl's Law of Tertiary Mana Manifestation." Twilight replied, holding my arm out to her.

"Or maybe even a derivative of Silver's Law of Transference." Starlight said with a lot more enthusiasm, holding my other arm to herself. "Do you think he can conduct a channeling of two magic circuits individually or simultaneously before passing each one through to the other party?"

I just stared blankly at the unicorn like she was speaking some foreign language I had never heard of. "Uhhhhhh─"

"What if he absorbs it?" Spike questioned.

"Uh, what if he explodes?" Mel asked. "None of this sounds safe."

Alex was seemingly the only one that really spoke what I was thinking. "What if he's not willing to find out?"

Twilight didn't pay my brother any mind as she giddily hovered above my eye level, holding my arm still. "Nondis, if what you say is true, then this is REVOLUTIONARY! It could mean that humankind could learn the spells and trades of unicorn magic, or maybe even earth pony magic at a minimum! You're pretty much dying to find out what you've got going on, right!? C'mon, what's a few experiments over the next four hours?"

"Four hours?" I asked squeamishly.

"Be lucky she didn't dedicate an entire day to you, otherwise you'll be going through everything between electric shocks to pies in the face." Spike muttered, waving his quill around as he spoke.

"WHAT A BRILLIANT IDEA, SPIKE!" Twilight cheered, not even giving me a chance to speak up. "We'll spend all day tomorrow just to get him acclimated to his magic! We'll even order in some food while we observe!"

"Does that include pizza or takeout?" Starlight questioned.

Twilight looked back at me with some strange steely devotion, eager to get the proverbial whip cracking. "BOTH."

"I'm. So. In." Starlight replied, prancing in place. "This will be the perfect first test for me as your student!"

Mel finally got her foot in the discussion. "Hold on for a minute." She started to warn the other two. "Now if you're gonna start doing all of that mess, maybe it would be best to have a HUMAN medical supervisor to give you advice on how far you should go. If Nondis gets hurt, I'm probably going to put him on restriction from visiting pony-world for a while, his job be damned."

"Deal!" The two unicorns shouted in unison.

I finally yelled at all the girls in the room, namely at Twilight. "Excuse me, girls. You remember that lab-rat designation I was scared of having when I first got here? Well don't call it a comeback because it's always been there!"

Twilight flew over and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "I promise nothing bad will happen. If anything, I'm more afraid that this will alter you in a negative way. So just consider me anxious to see what this is all about for you. I mean it is exciting because of scientific discovery, but another part of me is wanting to know if your body can handle something like this. I remember when you first got interested in magic. Now I really do want to see you answer all those questions you had for yourself, at least get to understand what it is we're dealing with."

"I get it, but a lot's changed since we started going out." I muttered.

"Well at least my focus isn't on getting you hot and bothered this time." The princess giggled as she whispered in my ear before speaking out loud again. "This is for science, for real this time."

"You said that the first time we got in trouble, 'for science'." I recalled.

"Well you can't say my theory wasn't right. We kept going."

"Yeah, and you were pretty much the reason why I stayed as long as I did when I finally had a choice to go back home." I said, also having flashbacks to the first world where I saw the other iteration of Twilight and remembering that emotional punch to the gut I had when I saw another Twilight hanging dead on the wall. "I want to be able to protect you. For real, this time."

"And you will." She said tenderly, placing a hoof to my cheek while looking into my eyes. "So let's get started."

Over the course of four hours, my arms and legs were strapped to a variety of neurotransmitters, completely unable to comprehend whatever the hell was going on. They even gave me some weird crystal globe and gave it to Mel. While she held on to it, the two observed the item with the anticipation that nothing would change it's appearance. They then gave it to Alex, expecting much of the same. But an interesting thing happened as he held it, it clouded up a very minuscule amount which indicated that there was some 'residual radiation' caused by a spell cast on him. He then elaborated on the one time Celestia turned him into a pony.

Practically everyone in the room was stunned to silence at this revelation.

Twilight then noticed the item around my neck and asked me to set aside the pendant Celestia gave me. Twilight didn't levitate the crystal globe like she would with anything else, rather holding it for herself. And as she held it in her hoof, it appeared to be a storm brewing inside of the ball, consuming it until the ball colored itself an opaque gray and started to glow to the same color of her magical aura. Starlight did the same, the result was no different save the color of the glow.

At last, I was given the orb to hold. I held it out in front of me for a few seconds, seeing nothing coming up differently than Mel's result. But as those few seconds went along, the ball started to cloud up, becoming the very image of a thunderstorm. I grew interested in the development and swirled it around to see if the imagery would change, to no avail. It took half a minute, but I watched as the orb slowly began to solidify it's color to a solid gray. My eyes expanded as the orb started to glow white before quickly becoming clear.

I stared at the orb, wondering if that was all it would read for me. Thinking that something had gone wrong, I gave it to Twilight to fix the issue, where it glowed just perfectly for her. She then gave it back to me, and the same process occurred. Unfortunately, I would not know the color of my magic, that would probably be something I'd have to figure out. I asked them if my magic color had anything to do with my personality, but they answered no. To my disappointment, that was all for that particular stage of the initial experiments.

Other experiments included me holding my finger to each Starlight's and Twilight's horn. She sent a signal through to Starlight, who then sent one to Twilight. While I wasn't aware of what that was for, she explained to me that I was doing it to see how conductive my body was when it came to magic. Mel brought up the fact that human bodies are capable of conducting electrical currents, which in turn negated the whole purpose of that experiment being nothing more than a moot point. In short, it was twenty minutes of wasted time.

Next up was a test of the effects a buffing spell would have on the human body and how long a spell would last in terms of it's effectiveness. Alex also offered himself to be a subject, resulting in him being a controlled variable since magic─despite very small traces from Celestia's experiment─was virtually non-existent in his system. Mel denied in wanting any part of taking a step on some hastily-gathered clouds and offered only to take notes. Twilight, being the sole caster I could trust, hit us with a cloud walking spell slated for ten seconds of use. Alex's buff wore off after four seconds, indicating that the lack of magic circulation caused him to not hold the spell for as long. Meanwhile mine lasted for just as long as she prescribed it to be. The result concluded that buffs would last longer on a human exposed to what Mel called 'cycled magic radiation' in comparison to what she simply called 'magic exposure'.

Another tidbit of information, I was actually just as tall as Alex barefooted, which means I'm close to being the tallest member of the family. Mel also pulled up some bone work from when I had gotten back from the arimaspi mission, information she kept to herself in secret. Meanwhile Twilight took a trip to the Ponyville Hospital to gather some X-rays from when I had gotten admitted initially from the mugging I received by Caramel. Though damages were vastly different, they showed a slight yet substantial difference. The image of my first hospital visit reflected my bone structure prior to six months of stay, showing normal signs save a broken nose. The other image highlighted some key changes such as the bones becoming thicker and longer. Mel calculated the difference in bone mass to be around seven percent. She also accredited those adaptations to being further accelerated by my change in diet and how much magic got put into me during those repair operations.

Even if growth spurts can occur in college, it is unlikely to occur with a four-to-five inch difference with such a disparity of density between a few months of time. As far as Mel was concerned, my extended stay here has allowed these changes to alter my physiology in various ways. From what we could gather in the four hours, all I know is that I've got magic in my system, I've gotten as tall as Alex if not taller, my bones are a little stronger, and some parts of me might have changed in the way they work.

The time wound down to the final hour and Mel had discussed her finals schedule with Twilight, citing why her appearances have grown so scarce as of recent memory. Alex made it known that we were going to have lunch with dad after he finished attending his church service in the early afternoon, which put a damper on Starlight's spirits.

As I was saying my goodbyes for the day, I gave Starlight a stern warning, telling her that if she did anything like that ever again, I wouldn't hesitate to have her arrested on magic abuse and assault charges. Spike and I just looked at each other and walked away. I hopped back to my world and came back to Mel's apartment and made my way back to her room, where her little friend was still left out on the bed.

I laughed at her one last time before she threatened to shove it down my gullet to give me a taste of her pent-up frustration. I kindly rejected the offer and vouched for a leave, where she practically shoved me through the portal back to Canterlot. And as soon as I got back, I started to sit on my bed before I suddenly remembered the exact reason why I ran out of the bathroom to begin with.

After all that bullshit, and I haven't even got my uniform jacket back... or so I thought.

Turns out there was a box sitting on the foot of my bed with a small unopened note on top. I went to open the letter, reading it aloud to myself. "Thinking of you while I had it. I hope you think of me next time you wear it." I popped open the box to see my uniform jacket neatly folded in a plastic sealed bag with another note sitting on top of it. "P.S.: Wear this as is the next time we meet, you will know where." When I grabbed the sealed bag, another note was sitting at the bottom of the box. "P.P.S.: Don't wash it." It read with a pair of lips imprinted at the bottom of the note.

I popped open the bag and sniffed my uniform to make sure nothing strange had happened, and sure enough there was a distinctive musky scent coating the jacket. I held the coat with an awkward disgust while reducing my contact with it to as much as a finger before laying it out in front of the window, hoping to get some fresh air running across it to negate the smell.

That second, I took into account of how quick she was to get me drunk and realized that moment she bit my lip, that was her way of saying she wanted nothing more than to ride me till she falls off. I moved the box off my bed and saw an unopened manila envelope, addressed to me with the same handwriting as the other notes. "Okay, you are something else, Blue Royal." I muttered while my mind screamed 'Crazy stalker bitch' in bold letters. Satiating my curiosity, I hopped in my bed, ran my fingers past the seal of the envelope and rummaged through the items inside.

Gazing through the contents of the documents, there was a picture of an older unicorn stallion with a cobalt blue coat and a bronze-colored mane. On the pages of text, I read a list of accusations noting some serious offenses that could easily land him in a prison cell. Among those charges were the following: Money laundering, insider trading, perjury, racketeering on the behalf of a pharmaceutical company, engagement in a prostitution ring, overseeing an illegal gladiatorial operation, and apparently some false testaments he made under oath in a court case from a year prior.

"Pretty serious allegations."

My heart jumped as I instinctively reached for the gun under my pillow. I looked up to see Blueblood standing at the side of my bed before I had to take a sigh of relief. "Dude, don't do that. You almost got yourself killed."

"Must I be a victim of some errant weapon discharge as opposed to being smothered in a sea of mares? I think it would be better if I went out by means of the latter."

I glanced back at the envelope and questioned the prince. "Wait, how did you know about the─"

He levitated the envelope and held each individual page up in the air. "Glue, my naïve human. I used glue to reseal the envelope and laid it out underneath the box that was delivered to you earlier today. I also grabbed the envelope from the back of your pants as you came stumbling through the door in the pre-dawn hours of the morning. Never thought I'd see a human completely inebriated at three in the morning hoping to not pass out before he got in his bed. It amazes me that you managed to walk back here without finding some battlement to jump off of."

"Why would I jump off a wall?" I asked.

"I don't know, maybe it would have something to do with the painful rejection your mother had given you over the course of the week. Who's to say that you're not emotionally damaged from that little endeavor?"

I stared at the prince with a stoic expression, more from my desire to throw a shoe at him. "I think my say on that is a resounding NO. So sad to disappoint."

The prince chuckled with retort. "Not at all. I'm more pleased that you managed to find the fortitude to not do that while drunk. Usually alcohol is a prominent contribution to the whole suicide process. But I did smell some interesting musk-perfume combination on you, I take it that you got lucky."

"Even if I did, I'm not one to share stories." I replied.

"That's too bad. I'm still curious of the exploits you and Princess Troublemaker got enraptured with. Is she a moaner, a screamer, or one of those who gives you nothing while─"

"Not up for discussion, Prince Blueballs." I replied, remaining quiet on my personal experiences.

The prince childishly pouted as he collapsed the papers together. "How unfortunate. And here I thought we were building a friendship, you and I."

"With all due respect, I can't trust you any further than I can throw you."

The prince then shrugged with indifference. "Of course, who would trust a politician?"

"Blind partisan voters." I replied.

"I wasn't voted into royalty, remember?" Blueblood said as he gave me back the envelope. "I earned my marks. Of course I chose a life of being Celestia's student. Though those points aside, I am who I am because I like to play dirty. If you want something done, you're going to have to wear a blemish."

"We already talked about this. I said I was on board." I reiterated.

"Just a friendly disclaimer to present before you start your way, that was all I was doing." Blueblood stated. "After all, your reputation will take a hit someplace. Even your personal relationships will be affected─"

"I got my warnings already, from all sides. I'm ready to move on."

Blueblood then tapped his hoof against the envelope. "In that case, you understand that what she's asking you to do is to carry out an unlawful arrest, no warrants, no search, just off the hunch of some pieces of paper. You're going to do this and it will be a demerit to your record... unless..."

"Unless we meet up and she gives me more information." I answered.

Blueblood went digging through the box and saw the uniform jacket sealed away in a plastic bag. As soon as he opened it, his eyes bucked wide open and his head cocked back. "Oh yeah, and please feel free to dry-clean this before some mares get an idea of what you're doing out in public."

"Wish I could, but I got a note telling me to do otherwise."

The prince smirked as he sat on his haunches, his tail almost wagging while he buried his nose into the uniform. "You know what she wants, right?"

"And I know I'm not gonna like it."

"Haven't Shining told you the importance of servitude in negotiations? You don't have to like it right now, you'll like it once you get started because it's just in our nature. The only thing is that you let it pass, only when the ends have been achieved is where you tally up your losses, so don't go around regretting anything." Blueblood said before he stopped sniffing the bagged uniform. "You'll only end up with nothing if you don't dedicate yourself. You don't gamble and pull out of the tournament when the cards get rough. You finish what you've started, to whatever end."

I stared back at the blond-maned prince. "What if I lose the very thing I fought for?"

"Then you will have gained everything that you stood for and more." Blueblood quoted. "Prince High Charity once claimed that statement." And then his voice became dismally serious. "And after reading up on that piece of parchment Shining brought back from the mountain, I know why he felt that way."

While Blueblood walked over to me, I noticed that his sniffing fit had caused him to become somewhat aroused. "Uh... dude, your thing is─"

He whispered in a low voice, ignoring his own decency. "Celestia's mouth is bound shut from the fear of enduring the hell she took upon after the law was passed. Her punishment was far too cruel to put into words. While she may say nothing, I know she intends to hide this from Luna, even to her grave. And I know you're doing something you don't like and something that Celestia would wholefully disagree with, but trust me when I say that you are the closest to a reincarnation of Prince High Charity as we can get. And on that note, you are the only ray of hope she has in over half a millennium."

The prince walked away, still displaying a modicum of his arousal as he stopped before the door.

"So while Princess Troublemaker is the object of your affection, I need you to do this for all of us, for Celestia. Give her the freedom she once knew prior to her sister's banishment, the freedom she deserves."

"...It's not just for her." I added quietly. "I don't know if Shining's told you this, but he has a daughter he's fighting for now, a family with Cadance."

The prince nodded with acknowledgement. "I am aware. One of my wives informed me of that two days ago. I am doing my part to aid them in the legalities. If there's any amendment made to include the young one into that process, then I will fight to strike it down." He said before muttering to himself. "If Count DuMoneé lived to know of this, I'm sure he would've passed the inspection himself."

I did a double take and stared back at the stallion. "I'm sorry, what?"

The prince frowned deeply as he whispered quietly. "These stories go deeper than you're ready to know, boy. Try growing up a little before you start digging."

The stallion then teleported out of sight, surprising me with the fact that he was capable of performing that spell. Meanwhile, I'm left in the silence of my room thinking to myself out loud.

"Exactly what did he mean by that last statement?"

Author's Note

Sorry guys. I know I said I would be done with this one in a few weeks. And in all honesty, I was pretty much sitting on 19k words when I had a bit of a schedule overload. The reason for it, I had to travel to my sisters' graduation (twins btw). I didn't anticipate how much money I needed to make the flight and accommodate for the food and stay. Go figure, I ended up OVERSAVING and left to a vacation with more money than I would end up spending.

But the vacation was much needed, I got to leave to the place of my birth and talk to family members I haven't seen or talked with in three years. The change of scenery was healthy, the sights were nice, and I felt rejuvenated when I came back... only to end up as busy and overbooked as I was before I left. So it took a while before I could jot down those final details.

Oh yeah, I'm sure the question on mind for many of you:
"Magic? Are you shitting me?"

To be fair, I tried to allude to his interest in magic very early on with the intent to bring him to that very subject with the anticipation of being a user on his own. And as I started to dwell on the idea, I also realized that the physics of one world was different in many ways to the other, and it would ultimately cause the human body to adapt to those changes.

I also had to research a few topics (that I was not too fond of reading for a while) regarding the human body and its adaptability to certain things. I.E.: If a bone is broken so many times in succession or a hair is pulled so often, the cells will stop multiplying and repairing the part in question. There's also the matter of a disease introduced to a indigenous tribe, it would negatively affect the individuals until sometime down the line where the next generation would grow an immunity towards it (still not a good thing to see people succumb to illness though).

So what would happen if a certain active drug completely foreign to the human body lingers for a while with repeated introductions? Side effects start to occur that will affect the body's anatomy and/or physiology, sometimes even creating mutations in the subject's genetic code.

Now if that comes to be, what would happen if you were exposed to those things in such low quantities on a daily basis? Add in the fact that someone undergoes this medicinal treatment so often to repair bones and tissue, it starts to cycle through the human system in two ways; either it harms you biologically or it mutates into an adapted trait.

I took on the possibility of both and came out with the implementations of healing magic to a human body, and it came to be more of an adapted trait (cooking meat overtime to render the purpose of one's appendix as obsolete) as opposed to a biological danger (much like succumbing to radioactive fallout or exposure). However, magic will have a similar half-life cycle to that of radiation unless absorbed or disenchanted.

TL;DR: Overexposure to pony world physics and magic causes side-effects.

...Okay, nerd mode deactivated. See you all next chapter and thanks for sticking around.

Chapter LXXXIII

WARNING:

Nightmare fuel ahead. Those who wish to avoid can press {ctrl+f} and type in {FUCK NO} should you wish to bypass it. Those who wish to see the pretty pony, just simply {ctrl+left click} and enjoy a good night's sleep.

I had a really intense nightmare. It was like I was running in that forest from Tirek, knowing that I would be a dead man should I stop running. The entire dream felt like an intense merry-go-round where the only thing I could do was hide in whatever tree I could find. It scared me to no end of just how real it felt to me, even my arms started to ache from the intense scars I was given trying to protect my own face from whatever shrapnel threatened to mar my head into a tattered napkin. And when I found a tree suitable enough for me to hide behind, I started to hear the sick cackle of a demented Fluttershy echoing though the landscape. And as I looked above me, all I could see was the terrifying sight of Twilight's decaying corpse smiling down at me, the maggots and centipedes reaching from the eye sockets, as if they were waving hello at me.

I jumped out of that tree and hit the ground running, screaming for my life and whatever god could save me for the time being. There was no answers but the sound of the cackling pegasus mare. Before I knew it, there was a dismal sight of Twilight's belonging to various dimensions, all of them crucified on trees and smiling at me with completely empty eyes. The laugh intensified with each second I ran, my stomach churned as I went along, seeing the wall of Twilights becoming even more gruesome. Some of them hung with forelegs extended and with their hindquarters completely severed, intestines hanging with complete abandon. Instead of stepping on dirt, I was stepping in piles of bile and gore, the smell of it being similar to that of expired life and pus. Some were without skin also. There was even one with it's entire face completely removed from the front of it's skull. And next to it was one where her face was completely degloved from her head. I closed my eyes and held my ears shut, trying to hide myself from the nightmare surrounding me. But the voices intensified, telling me these three words.

It's too late.

With each step, I heard yet another cruel voice whisper over my shoulder.

You should've been earlier.

Maybe you need to work on your time.

It's too late.

A student is never late for his lesson.

Surely you should've known.

It's too late.

This is how it has to be now.

'Sorry' can't save me now.

It's too late.

You deserve everything you get.

There's no way out... but one.

Down.

You should've been there for me.

You never wanted to love me.

But it's too late to apologize for tardiness.

For your first lesson...

The first and final lesson...

Never. Be. Late. Again.

I was stopped dead in my tracks by the feeling of my face impacting the putrid smell and sensation of decomposing flesh and sludge. Looking ahead of me, I could see an entire wall of Twilights smiling at me while pointing behind me.

And in one single flash, I was brought to the final horror of my hell...

In all the dreams...

In all the nightmares...

In every ounce of sleep I've lost...

Every terror...

Every moment...

Every sense of existential dread...

Not once...

No never...

Not once have I ever...

Ever...

Wanted to declare these words...

Oh...

So...

Vividly...

FUCK NO!

Fighting off the sleep paralysis, I jumped out of my nightmare, surrounded by darkness. Somewhere in the inner recesses of my mind, I could already anticipate the room being filled to the brim with those very same faces greeting me. A tingly shock ran from the back of my head down my neck and through my shoulders as I stood in the darkness. I clenched my eyes shut and reached over for the lamp and wished the nightmare away from my sight...

And with my eyes cracking open and me standing in my bed, I threw my fists into stance, only to see nothing sitting before me. There was nothing around me, nothing beside me, nothing behind me. I reached down to my phone to see what time it was and realized it was only three in the morning. I didn't even want to go back to sleep, knowing damn well that nightmare face was waiting for me as soon as I closed my eyes.

That shit can go fuck itself with a long holy dick and disappear into the ether.

I even removed the lampshade from the lamp to brighten up the room, walked over to the light switch by the door and flipped that on just to satiate my mental desire for safety. Even looking to the bathroom, I saw the door ajar with the darkness hidden within. I felt as if a hoof would crawl out and pull it open, so I ran up to it and slammed it shut with a quiet prayer.

"In the name of the father, the son, and the holy ghost, you can politely go kiss my ass."

*knock knock knock*

I turned around quickly and watched everything small in my room move over a few inches. Already I could feel the fear swelling in my gut, urging me to fight whatever unseen poltergeist threatened to give me a bad time. I called out to the door with a heavy chest voice far louder than appropriate for the time of night.

"WHO IS IT!?"

A voice called at me from behind the door. "Tis I, Luna."

I walked over to the door and swung it wide open, only to see her face standing in the open darkness. I instinctively snatched her by the back of her neck and guided her into the well-lit room from the ominously dark hallway. I slammed the door behind her and asked a tad bit more calmly. "Whatever nightmare that one was, you better not give me that one again." I sternly ordered.

The princess levitated my hand from behind her neck and spoke. "I didn't give that one to you. You created it on your own. I never thought I would see such a dream terror where even my voice could not reach. Something has been introduced to your mind that was far from what you're mentally capable of handling. Perhaps it was a dealing through the course of the day that had managed to disturb your mind's balance."

"No shit." I shook my head, not even trying to close my eyes for a moment out of fear of that face being planted at the back of my eyelids.

Luna's eyes shifted around quickly, trying to understand a strange feeling she had picked up on as soon as she entered. "There is an unusual aura in this room. It brings me... unease."

"Good, because I swear the only thing I saw when you knocked was the sight of everything small moving around like a goddamn poltergeist flick." I said while I looked around my room. "Maybe you can take care of that too?"

Luna wanted to giggle at my frantic state, but refrained as she closed her eyes and illuminated her horn. She stood motionless, only taking deep breaths as she tried to sense the source of the unusual aura. Her eyes shot open as she stared back at me. "...Nondis, are you aware of some latent magic emanating from the core of your being?"

"I might have recently found that I have a bit of a circulation, yeah. Why?" I answered.

The princess' mouth fell agape, she quickly walked up to me and placed a hoof on my abdomen. "Well that circulation isn't stable, it's reminiscent of a foal trying to fight it's way out of danger. And right now, what you've got may have caused the various items in the room to shift." She looked in my eyes with amazement. "It means levitation is possible."

"Well I'm happy to know my magic isn't some shit from The Exorcist. But that still doesn't get that image out of my head. I'm gonna stay up for a while until I can wear myself out."

Luna took her eyes off of me an looked around the room to notice how bright I had the lights going. For a second, I could see some forlorn expression on her face. She levitated the lampshade back onto the lamp, changing the lighting of the room drastically. The night princess then walked over to the light switch by the door and casually flicked it off. I stammered for a bit until she turned to me with a simple smile. "Do you trust me?"

I looked around the room, immediately developing that childlike instinct of seeking my bed. "What are you doing?"

She walked next to the lamp and sat herself down, patting on the pillows. "Come. We must find you rest."

"I am not going to sleep with that thing waiting for me." I adamantly argued.

"Yes, you are." Luna replied. "Because you and I will be facing that thing together. And if you don't, then the repercussions of seeing that in the dream realm will drastically affect your relationships here in the waking world."

"...It's not about that." I whispered quietly.

The princess then used her magic to guide me towards the bed. "I know. What you saw is what your mind reproduces and intensifies. I cannot control what you see in the daylight hours, but I can control what your mind sees in the dreaming world. But to maintain that control is something you will have to do for yourself, and it begins by facing off against what it is that haunts you."

I stared at her and then the bed, still reluctant. "I don't know if I can handle another nightmare like that."

"Lay down." She instructed, levitating my body into the bed and laying the sheets over me. "I swear to you, you will be at peace soon enough. Now rest unto your dreams."

And with as much choice as I had in my enlistment, I was shifted back to sleep. Luna stood over me, watching my eyes close.

My dream started off from the moment I was running with my eyes closed, just mere seconds before I ran into the wall of Twilights pointing behind me. And as it happened earlier, was stopped by that very same hell an was brought to the face that brought terror to me, but looking at me at eye level. She gotten closer and closer until I could literally read the words 'never tardy' at the back of her eye sockets. I accidentally backed into the walls of pointing Twilights, causing each of them to move their forelegs out the way, only to lock back around me and hold me in place. I squirmed and writhed in an attempt to escape, but my efforts proved fruitless.

That was until I noticed that all that remained was the two hooves holding me by my waist. I looked back to see the Twilight I'm used to seeing with an innocent smile on her face. She let me go and stared back at me.

"Even at your worst times, you've still got me."

She walked past me, looking at the nightmare inducing version of herself and snickered.

"So is this what you've been seeing me as for the past few hours? I guess I can see why you'd be terrified to see me."

Luna then walked up from behind the apparition and stared back at the younger princess. "You managed to get here sooner than I expected."

"You were the one who told me Nondis was having nightmares about me. So I decided to jump in and see what the hubbub was all about." Twilight replied. "After all, my nightmares was about him to start off with. I just thought that I should be here for him in some way."

I looked between the two princesses and folded my arms. "Is this what we're really reducing my nightmares down to, a casual Sunday breakfast?"

Twilight snickered and gave me a friendly nudge. "I guess we could hit up an Ihop over in your world. Pancakes does sound nice right about now."

The phantom Twilight appeared confused for a few seconds before unleashing an angry roar to restore the dreamscape into the hellish nightmare it once was. But even as the real Twilight stepped forward, she started laughing as she looked at the creature's eyes. "Never tardy? Wow, was I late for another letter being sent to Princess Celestia? Goodness, it's been YEARS since that was a concern of mine!"

The phantom screamed at me instead of heeding anything else around me. "YOU WERE TOO LATE IN SAVING ME!"

"Yeah, and in some other dimension, I was too late saving him." Twilight replied, standing in front of me. "But you don't see that following me around." She then turned to me. "Because you were the first thing I woke up to in the morning."

I started to feel a little more at ease as Luna then interjected. "And wouldn't you get this, he apparently was so spooked that he turned on every light in the room!"

Twilight giggled endlessly. "You know, his mother always said he was scared of the dark when he was younger."

"I suppose that explains much to his state of mind." Luna replied.

The phantom grew even more angry, lunging at me with decaying hooves outstretched. But Twilight illuminated her horn and a small bubble popped up around the two of us. The creature bashed against the shield, snarling and threatening to break through until Twilight pointed behind her with a smile on her face, almost in exact fashion the wall of phantoms did with me. "Oh, and in speaking of his state of mind, you might wanna consider the state of your well-being."

The creature turned around to see Luna with a dark blue shadow growing from her mane. It almost appeared like a state of mitosis, the figure forming from the shadow reimagined itself as the featureless form of the night princess. The shadow stood patiently waiting before Luna pointed at the phantom. "Tantibus, sic 'em."

And the shadow lunged to the phantom, devouring the entire image whole before the horrible dreamscape was devoured in response to the phantom's defeat. And instead of seeing the mass of bodies, all I could see was the sight of the ruined Everfree Forest with the more prominent footsteps of Tirek approaching from behind. Luna turned around with shock. Twilight immediately took action, flying up to the creature and giving one of it's huge horns a small tap before the towering centaur was popped like a balloon and disappeared into a cloud of dust. And from the dust appeared a much smaller, older, and frail-looking centaur with small nubs for horns. The shadow Luna cast started to take action before Twilight stopped it dead in it's tracks by walking up to the centaur and simply blowing him away like a clump of dust in half of a breath. She looked at me with a snicker as the sky started to clear up.

"Wow, your dream was really a two-parter." Twilight said, still smiling at me.

Luna had completely disappeared from the dream altogether as I started to look around. I turned back to Twilight. "Hey, where did Luna go? And what was that thing she used?"

"That thing she summoned is called the Tantibus, it's a creature that feed and thrives off of every nightmare consumed. It resides within her, giving reinforcement to her some of her more darker abilities. But at least the only face you'll be seeing is plain-old mine for the time being." She briefly explained.

"Hopefully the not-scary version of you." I replied.

The young princess jumped up an wrapped her hooves around the back of my neck and giggled. "Hey... Nondis, wanna do something in our dreams we can't do in real life?"

"And what's that?" I asked.

Before I could get an answer to that question, the light of the sun had found it's way into my eyes. And I was brought out of my sleep, greeted by Princess Luna standing over my bedside. The princess chuckled as she whispered in my ear. "Good morning."

i cracked my eyes open and rubbed the sleep out of them before checking the time on my phone. I then brought my attention back to her. "Morning, your highness. Was that you who woke me out of my dream?"

The mare proceeded to put on an innocent face. "Well... I might have thought that any longer of a rest would've allowed you to oversleep. So I just did you a favor and sent a bit of a wake-up jolt through you. Nothing too special."

I groaned a little bit. "Ugh, and just when things were getting good too."

The princess looked down at the bed and lightly bit her lip. "Obviously it was getting too good for me to ignore."

I looked down to see that I had my usual morning 'salute', so I instinctively turned the other way, shoving my arm between my legs. "Well I'm awake, so I guess I'll be getting ready to take my shower. You should probably head out before your sister gets suspicious."

I laid in my bed, hoping that she would dismiss herself. But then again, that would've been far too easy for me to deal with considering my luck. Instead, she jumped on the bed, anchoring her left foreleg shy of one side of my body and the right one likewise. The princess then leaned into my ear and whispered. "You thought you could get away from visiting me, didn't you?"

"With all due respect, your highness, I don't want no trouble."

Her voice grew tickled while every bit of her breath warmed my right ear. "It isn't trouble if no pony knows about it."

Before I could even look back at her with shock and awe, she plopped her body on top of mine and nuzzled her way towards my face. Her muzzle remained just inches away from my lips while she slowly inched closer.

And then... "So this is what I'm missing out on?" ...Celestia's voice rang through the room.

I jumped up and waved my hands, trying to flag down the elder princess who stood at the foot of my bed. "Your highness, if I can explain the situation." My words didn't seem to have much of an effect on the rationally angry sibling.

Luna leapt back up and draped her foreleg around my chest and shoulder, hiding behind me with a devious smile. "Sister, you don't mind if I have a brief conversation with our esteemed captain, do you?"

The elder princess was far from amused. "Luneste Saline Valkyrie, you remove yourself from that human at once, young lady!"

"Oh don't try to sound like mom. You had your little romance, now it's my turn." The younger sibling demanded, clenching onto me harder.

"There appears to be a misunderstanding, your highness. So if you don't mind, I'll just... yeah." I said sheepishly before trying to duck down out of Luna's grasp, but then shuddering as I realized that I couldn't move. My limbs wouldn't even move themselves as I was left feeling like a cadaver.

The blue mare lightly whispered in my ear. "Sleep paralysis is a bit of a nuisance, it almost feels like certain doom is lurking around the corner and you're completely helpless to do anything."

Celestia didn't seem to mince any bit of her warning as she started charging her horn with powerful magics. I shifted my eyes over to the side of me, unable to move any part of my body aside from that. The solar princess finally made her threat a very serious one. "Little sister, you have until the count of three before I knock some sense into you again."

Luna continued to speak quietly to me, ignoring her sister's warning. "It's all too common that fear happens to be the first thing you feel because of the hallucinations. Or maybe the threat you think is there, isn't actually there."

"One." Celestia started as a growing humming noise indicated to me that whatever spell she was charging up was probably going to hurt real bad.

Luna, again, paid her no mind. "But the truth is that there could very much be the threat of an immanent doom lurking over your body. Perhaps it is the cold hooves of death seeking to confiscate what is not-yet his to claim."

"TWO!" She emphasized, her magic now growing into what appeared to be a bite-sized sun radiating the heat one would experience on a mid-July afternoon in Houston.

Once more, Luna ignored her sister. "Now I know what you're thinking. What does that have to do with what you're experiencing right now? And the answer to that may not surprise you too much. But..."

"THREE!" Celestia shouted, whipping her horn in a circular motion as if she was going to unleash all of that charged energy at us.

Luna's horn illuminated this time and she concluded her statement. "I do believe you were to pay my chambers a fond visit."

And as soon as Celestia unleashed her magic, Luna used hers to teleport the both of us into her bedroom. I soon found the ability to move on my own. The lunar princess broke out in raucous laughter as I turned to her, more than a bit disturbed. "Lady, are you fucking crazy!?"

Luna sat on her bed as her laughter started to die down. "Look, in case you haven't noticed already, Tia and I have a history of pulling pranks on one another. It may seem high-stakes on the surface, but I guarantee you that it's all in good healthy fun."

"How is endangering my life 'fun' in any capacity?" I deadpanned.

"Endanger, YOU?" Luna snickered. "I already told you that she connects with you in a way she doesn't with me. Now why would she try to vaporize somepony she deems as a valuable asset to her machine?"

"Well gee, I guess it wouldn't be the fact that you're loitering over me like some thirsty traveler in an endless desert asking me for water." I replied.

The princess used her magic to levitate me towards her bed, seeming all-too devious. "I'm not like Tia, you know that. And I don't mind taunting and teasing you at any given opportunity. And even if I make a joke at your expense, I don't intend for anything to be considered as hurtful."

"And I'm sure she knows that too. If anything, she's probably made it known to me that I wasn't even supposed to be in here." I notated while looking around her room.

Luna stood on her bed, placing her forelegs over my shoulders. "That's because she's overprotective, she wants everything for me to be as it is for her. But I'm a lot more free in my pursuit for desire."

I tried to back away, but the only thing I was feeling was her hooves locking me in place. I guess that super strength thing runs in the family. "Why do you insist that I should get in trouble with your sister?"

The mare placed her head against mine, still pinning me in place. "In all honesty, why should it matter what she thinks? Let's be realistic for a moment, if you had an option to find yourself with her or I, who would you be more interested in?"

"See, that's a pretty interesting question..." Realizing my only way out of her grip was to drop down, I nervously laughed and collapsed out from under her and rolled towards the door. My face was still flushed from the fact that she was probably a mere inch from putting my lips on lockdown. I backed into the door and my hand found the handle. But as soon as I jiggled the knob, I heard the sounds of chains rattling behind me. I turned around and saw the entire door coated in chains with a huge sigil at the center. The princess quickly flew over to me and pinned either hoof around my head with a smile. "...You're not giving me a choice on the matter, are you?" I squeaked in response.

"I cleared your nightmares, I gave you a weapon, I offered my assistance. By all rights, I should have you offer me fealty unabated. But I have enough of that from my own guards." She said before closing the distance on me again. "So instead, I have one humble request."

"Let me guess, you want a date or something?" I asked sheepishly.

The princess' eyes shined brightly with excitement as her own dramatized visions of the future came flashing before her eyes. The only words she murmured at that point were all the things she envisioned. "Day by the lake, time in a book, sitting on the beach, home-cooked meal... wait, can he really cook for me? What would he look like in an apron?... A long deployment from home and I get to see him off? My first long-distance love letter? Romances of being separated by the seas and only a pen and parchment to reciprocate our affections, absence does makes the heart grow fonder. Watching me reconstruct the night every evening, why yes that would be fun. I could search the sky for new stars to name after him."

Almost from absolutely nowhere, Celestia teleported in and saw Luna pinning me to the wall, mumbling a variety of things. Celestia peered over her shoulder and asked me. "Okay, what did you say to her?"

I craned my neck so I could maintain eye contact with the elder sibling. "Well she said she had one request, I sarcastically offered a night out, and this is where the conversation picks up."

Celestia deadpanned with a half-smirk. "You didn't say the D-A-T-E-word, did you?"

"I might have." I replied, earning a facehoof from the high princess.

Luna continued to ramble on. "Diplomatic dinners, him standing over me while I'm at the negotiating table, telling me I did a wonderful job, hugging me when I have a long day, holding me when I'm in brooding mode, a proposal in the snow, my new dress! WEEEEEEDDING BEEEEELLLLLLS!" The lunar princess cleared her throat and looked off to the side. "Maybe we should start off slow, like getting to know each other."

Lady, you were just trying to pin me to the bed, HOW THE FUCK IS THAT SLOW!? "...Yeah, I hate to burst your bubble, but─"

She completely ignored me, placing a hoof to my lips. "No. We must be vigilant!" She finally let me off the door and shyly played with her forelegs. "So... your world or mine?" She asked, making a face that even I would deem too cute to turn down.

Unfortunately, I had to turn her ambitions aside with no real willpower at the moment. Luckily, Celestia walked between us and offered the younger princess a reality check. "Luna, he's not dating you."

The younger princess' face then turned sour. "Oh typical Celestia, always trying to woo away potential suitors for yourself!"

The elder princess blushed profusely and stomped her hoof in the ground. "Excuse me!? He and I already had that conversation and I made it perfectly clear that we were NEVER going to be an item! And he might not say it like I will, but neither will the two of you!"

Luna brushed her sister aside and looked at me with puppy-dog eyes. "You wouldn't turn me down, would you?"

I groaned as I turned away, not wanting to look at her face. "Look, I don't know if you've noticed, but I do have a bit of a relationship issue with a few others at the moment. My plate is full right now and... I just don't think I can make the space large enough for you as quickly as you'd hope it to be. So... it's really me more than anything."

Luna promptly replied. "Well if Blueblood can actively participate in the herding practice, then why shouldn't I?"

Celestia grew completely baffled that her own sister even presented herself in such a manner. I was just as surprised at her suggestion, but my view remained the same. "Nah. Someone like you, Luna, you deserve exclusivity. It'll be like what Cadance gets out of Shining Armor."

The princess' ears fell back and her head dipped a bit from hearing my answer. "Oh... So it's really just me and you?"

I went a little further to explain. "I don't think that would be permissible. Remember a certain law in place disables me from getting any sort of intimate with any royal after my severance with Twilight was made official. And even then, Twilight and I share a bit of an unusual bond that allows us to do certain things that very few others can. And then there's someone else I'm kinda talking to, just feeling things over. I wouldn't be able to give you the exclusivity you deserve."

Luna became saddened for a moment, but then took a deep breath and smiled at me. "So... you wouldn't happen to mind a few more nightmares for weeks on end then?"

I felt myself become more dispirited as I thought about how I was going to deal with all of that without any assistance, knowing my sleep was going to be awfully shitty for a month. "I'm sorry. I deserve every nightmare you send my way. But I didn't want to make you upset because of my being around other mares right now. And I know you have aspirations of being in a relationship─"

"Her first relationship." Celestia quipped under her breath.

I gawked at the night princess and took a step back. "Wait a minute, YOUR FIRST RELATIONSHIP AND YOU WERE OFFERING TO BE A PART OF A HERDING PRACTICE!?"

Luna became embarrassed from her older sister exposing her lack of experience in being with anyone of the opposite sex. The blushing mare ran up to her sister with a confrontational stance. "Celestia, why do you continue to see to it that every last attempt I make end in awkward failure!?"

"Because I assess who is good for you and who is not. Nondis is not a fit for you because of his free-mannered commitment to relationships."

At that point, I felt insulted a bit. "Wait, did you just politely call me a whore?"

"Who's to say that I cannot change that about him, sister?" Luna pleaded. "I can teach him the art of being stable."

Celestia shook her head. "You were going to teach him the art of premarital coitus, something that has already been offered to him en masse. And even should you engage in something with him, his parents would clearly disapprove."

"As if it matters, Tia! He's already decided to make Equestria his home, and as such he lives by our rules! Surely if he was worried about that, then he would have left and made himself available to the female human, Melanie!"

Yup, that's a good time to take my leave. "Well you two have fun. I'm gonna go through nexus and get back over to Ponyville. I've got a long day ahead of me."

Celestia quickly got sidetracked from her argument with Luna and turned her attention to me. "Excuse me, I haven't given you the daily itinerary for your shift. Shining already covered for you yesterday, so now you must make that up today."

"Well, your highness." I started to explain. "Last night I had a nightmare and as soon as I woke up, I found a bunch of stuff moving around my room like some unicorn filly was flexing their magic skills around. And wouldn't you guess it, it actually came from me being stressed out. So I'm paying Twilight a visit so I can learn how to not be a walking poltergeist."

Celestia stammered for a second before Luna simply stated. "Nondis has a magic current that's unstable and uncontrolled. He wants to learn how to control it."

Celestia looked at me with confusion and twitching left eye. In a single blink, her horn lit up and we were teleported elsewhere.

Meanwhile in the Library of Twilight's Castle...

Starlight Glimmer and Twilight had started going through all the various measuring instruments they had and explaining their purpose to Melanie, who was taking notes as they went along. Spike assisted her, despite her being somewhat cautious towards him. The group of four continued about their list before a flash of light appeared at the center of the room. As soon as the light subsided, Starlight's jaw dropped as soon as she saw who just ported herself into the room so casually.

Celestia walked up to her and pointed back at me with a nervous snicker. "So Twilight... new assignment."

"Good morning, princess!" The young alicorn said with a polite bow. Starlight looked at her mentor and quickly realized that she too needed to be bowing down. However, Twilight's bow wasn't nearly as formal as her pupil's. "So what's the assignment you have lined up for me?"

"Nondis may have a magic current that causes him to move items without his consent. As of now, it is uncontrolled."

Twilight just simply stared back at me. "You're already levitating things!? Well... then again, you were doing that a while back. I remember an instance of that happening while we were in your apartment in your world."

I scratched my head and asked. "What, when did that happen?"

Mel looked at her and spoke. "Ditto for me. I didn't see that one."

"Well Nondis was doing something, I think he was playing his games. And I noticed that the controller he used at the time had gradually moved over a few inches from where he last put it." Twilight explained.

"How are you sure that he didn't just place it there to begin with?" Melanie questioned.

"If Twilight sees anything out of place from where it once was, she'll be the one to move it back." Spike added. "She's obsessively compulsive. She could be reading a book and she'll hear if something moves out of place."

Mel looked to Twilight with a quirked brow. "I didn't know you had it that bad."

"So is that why your library happens to be so organized?" Starlight questioned her mentor.

Twilight ignored everyone else and focused on me. "So you moved some stuff on accident? What exactly were you doing when you moved all of it?"

I closed my eyes and tried to rebuild the events leading up to that point. I remember that I woke up out of a pretty bad nightmare and that I was ghastly afraid of seeing what I saw there come to appear directly in front of me. "Princess Luna knocked on the door after I woke up from my nightmare. I guess I was so on edge that I ended up causing what my mind perceived to be a supernatural event."

Luna confirmed my account. "I felt the aura as soon as I walked in the room. It was ominous to say the least, but I guess that's to be expected when magic is cast out of fear or any negative emotion in general."

The purple mare stared to think back to the nightmare she helped me overcome. "Never tardy... Those were the words at the back of my eye sockets, right?"

Melanie quickly became disturbed and started backing away as she questioned what was going on. "Uh, if I could get clued in on what the fuck you guys are talking about because it doesn't exactly sound Sunday-friendly?"

I quickly explained. "The events from yesterday left a lasting impression on me, and as a result I had some pretty fucked-up nightmares. I'm sure you had some after operating on me."

"Boy did I." Mel agreed.

Luna held me in place with her magic as she calmly gave spoke. "Nondis, do you trust me?"

I glanced back at her. "Why does it sound like you're about to do some shit I won't like?"

"Because you won't." She confessed. "But I need to trigger those events to get us off to a good start."

Mel quickly objected. "Wait, you're going to give him a nightmare based on a thing he experienced earlier in the day, right now when his mental state isn't in the best shape? No thank you."

Starlight then argued against Mel. "It might not be socially ideal, but if it could lead to him being able to learn how to ultimately control his latent abilities, then he should be all ears."

"'Socially ideal' aren't the words I'm hitting on. It's the psychologically ideal thing, it's going to be a health issue if he keeps going through all of this shit. It's bad enough that mental issues runs deep in his family, it would be damaging if he were to get hit by something his mind isn't completely able to process."

I felt a sickening churn in my stomach and closed my eyes to the last set of nightmares I had before the most recent batch. I started to think about the time I was on on the train. Or how we were running in the forest from a changeling disguised as an eldritch abomination. So I swallowed my fear as best as I could and clenched my fists. "Twilight... point behind me."

"What!?" Twilight shouted. "Are you seriously recreating the events of your nightmare─"

"To conquer my fears, I must grow to face them." I argued.

Luna's voice called out from behind me. "The effectiveness of a nightmare is only reached when given the initial revelation of that apex horror element. In this case, you already know what you'll be looking at when you turn around so the effectiveness isn't nearly as strong as you think it will be."

"If I see it in real life, then it will horrify me to no end." I answered.

"It will not." Luna argued. "There is no realm like the dreamscape, where all futility is realized because you are incapable of running away from what is being contained within your own mind. The waking world gives you the opportunity to fight back where the dreamscape does not."

I drew a sigh, knowing damn well I wasn't gonna like what was gonna come out of my own mouth. "Okay then, fuck me up real good. Give me a real scare. Just make sure to clean up after yourself later tonight."

Luna covered her mouth with uncertainty as she thought to herself. "...Are you sure?"

I opened my eyes and saw Twilight pointing at me, completely terrified and even backing away with her magic at the ready. I turned around and pretty much saw a face that could only scream one particular line.

Y̷̧̜͗o̴̫̐u̸͈̭̽͆r̴̙̮̀ ̷̙̞͘m̷͕̌ǒ̶̞̟̀t̸͕̩̀̄h̵̡̼̒e̴̡̒r̸̲͙̐̅ ̴̤̪͘s̷͉̑̕ù̷̙̬c̴͓̅k̷̹̀ş̶̢̿ ̷͕͈̋̒l̴͉̘̕ȏ̴̗l̶̼̔̈́l̶̳͌i̵̞̣͂́p̷̘̰͊ǫ̷̜́p̷̫̀̋s̴͓̊ ̵̮͈͆͌i̷͓͌n̸̻͚̕ ̸͇̟̎̾h̸̞̎͐e̷͕̗̽l̷͕̽̿l̷̛̜̯̎!̵̞͗

I jumped back out of sheer horror of seeing THAT face again. The last time I ended up seeing that face was while I was playing a game of Scary Maze in middle school. And then it popped up in every other youtube video that tried to clickbait you to watching until the end where THAT face greeted you with that demented smile looking to take your soul through that computer screen and onward for a ride into hell itself.

I fucking HATED seeing that face.

Smaller items around the room like papers and quills all shifted back as soon as I took a step back and tried to shield my own face. But that apparently wasn't the only thing that moved. Books fell off the shelves and were lightly tossed forward as soon as my arms covered my own face. Twilight and Mel both hid behind another bookshelf, Spike had passed out completely, while Starlight shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't get it."

Mel screamed from behind cover. "SINCE WHEN THE HELL COULD YOU DO THAT!?"

"Better question, where the hell did you get that face from?" I said, still shielding myself from seeing that face that haunted me since middle-school.

Luna cleared her throat as she shifted herself back to normal. "Well in the midst of my numerous walks into his mind, I came across that one while he was still undergoing his situation with Chrysalis. I got a little curious and poked around to see what that was all about and found that this was something that resided in the darker recesses of your mind since the start of your adolescence. So I drew from that... Sorry if it brought up bad memories."

I smiled nervously as I peaked past my arms and saw Luna was back to normal. I took a deep breath and whispered politely. "I do remember saying 'fuck me up' instead of 'put me in an abandoned mental asylum with my inner-demons'. Thanks for that."

Luna nodded. "Well as apologetic as I am for unveiling that to you all, I do feel a sense of accomplishment. You managed to recount the effectiveness of your being terrified and how it affects your unstable magic cycle."

Celestia mere stood slack-jawed for a moment before speaking. "So... Twilight, I guess you'll be having a new student today."

Starlight walked beside me, trying to give me a friendly nudge. "Welcome to homeroom, fellow classmate." Instead of reciprocating her friendliness, I still showed disdain for her even dragging Twilight and I through that hell of yesterday. So I still frowned at her instead of smiling back. She immediately understood that I still wasn't too happy with her at the moment. "Oh... right, personal space."

Celestia raised a brow at the lavender unicorn and pointed to her while asking Twilight. "I see you made a new friend."

Twilight finally climbed from over the top of the bookshelf she hid behind and glided on down to ground level as she spoke. "Well, that's not only a new friend of mine, she's going to be my newest friendship student. I'm hoping to pass the virtues of friendship on to her so that she can learn how to make better decisions and have them be to the benefit of Equestria and everyone around her."

Starlight Glimmer bowed her head clumsily before the high princess. "Your highness! Honored to meet you, ma'am!"

"Likewise." Celestia said before turning to me. "Now I am uncertain as to what may have occurred between the two of you, but I do not want you to end up feuding like you once were with Spike. And for the sake of others as well as yourself, you will be relocated to Ponyville for the next three days so that you can safely be observed and learn to control your magic."

Twilight approached her former mentor. "If I may interject, why not your school? I don't think I have enough research material at the fundamental level for him to study. Most of my books are advanced theory, incantations, and equations."

"Magic kindergarten, Twilight."

Twilight quietly shuddered at the thought of being in that class again. "Eeuuughhhh, oh Faust no."

Celestia continued. "He would be placed in magic kindergarten, with a bunch of young foals. Even if it were to be ideal to start him there, it would be a bit of a stain to his social status. Not to mention the maturity level of his peers would greatly differ from that of his own. And being an instructor myself, I can attest to the cruelty some foals will enact should they discover that the Captain of the Royal Guard frequents their class."

Luna then added. "Also it would publicly reveal that he is learning magic, while a quiet revelation could be a significant tactical advantage should the situation calls for his intervention in that manner. So it would be imperative that he works his way up quickly and discreetly."

Starlight added on another question. "So if he's starting from the very beginning of magic theory and composition, would it be possible that I teach him how to formulate..."

From that point on, I completely zoned out of what Starlight was rambling on about and walked over to Mel, who was still hiding behind the bookshelf. "You okay?"

Melanie grabbed my arm and whimpered quietly. "Have you seen what a human head looks like on a pony body, especially with that bitch off the Exorcist? I'm sitting here worried about your mental state while I should be fucking worried about mine."

"I could have you sleep over and you get to have your dreams monitored for any disturbances." I suggested.

"If you can pull that one off for me, then okay." She replied, finally revealing herself from behind the bookshelf. "Can I ask how you're going to be able to learn how to use magic in three days though? That's a pretty steep learning curve, ain't it?"

"Realistically speaking, I think they're just trying to get me to learn how to control my cycles before I start going all poltergeist-like. If that happens, then I don't think I'll ever be able to go home again."

Mel then suggested in a sarcastic tone. "Then maybe don't get scared of anything and you'll be fine."

"Easier said than done when life itself can throw some scary shit your way." I replied.

I then felt a hoof suddenly tap me on my shoulder, causing me to jump a little bit. And as a direct result, two more books fell off of the shelf while I turned around to see Celestia standing behind me. "I'm sorry to distract you from this conversation, but I need you to come back to the one at the center of the room."

I gave a silent nod and both Mel and I walked back to the table at the middle of the library. Twilight then spoke. "Alright, so in case you missed out on a few details, Starlight Glimmer will be your primary basics instructor, since she's learning her advanced and expert mechanics from me, she will be teaching you your beginners and intermediates."

I looked down to her with disapproval before seeing Celestia staring back at me through the corner of my eye, directing that same glare I gave to Starlight towards me. I then played off my dissatisfaction and sat myself at the table. "Okay... so what's our first lesson?"

Luna walked behind me and gently placed her hooves on my shoulders. "I may not know what transpired for you to dislike her so much. But I do know that forgiveness is a process best taken slow. When you felt wronged by someone, it can be hard to forgive. And you know just as much as I do about how it feels to enact on the desire for revenge. But when I tell you that seeking that is sometimes the demise of those who aspire to dole vengeance or self-described 'justice', take my word for it. I know all sides of the coin, I know how it feels to be redeemed from a dark path, a thousand years of being locked in the moon will do that for you."

Twilight levitated a quill in front of me. "What we're telling you is true. Don't let your personal desire for revenge damage your perspective. I could've lost all my friends had I made a choice to keep fighting, but I chose to negotiate instead. You have to make that same decision on your own."

Starlight, who still seemed tense over my demeanor, smiled nervously while I closed my eyes and conceded. "Okay... So what's my first lesson, chief?"

Starlight's ears perked up a bit before she pointed a hoof out before her, pointing towards the feathery quill. "Well the first thing we always started off with when we're foals is seeing if we can do our letters and numbers without using our mouths."

Mel and I looked completely blank-faced. The young woman beside me merely picked up the quill and signed her name on paper as neatly and elegantly as she could, also being completely effortless in her attempt. I muttered to myself. "How the hell do you write with your mouth?"

The unicorn mare cleared her throat and levitated the quill away from Melanie and struck a line on the paper. She then laid it out before me. "Okay, now just make a line using your magic. Cycle the energy within your body into your horn and─"

"Uh..." I interrupted, politely pointing to my own head.

The mare blushed with embarrassment as soon as she realized that she wasn't talking to a unicorn at the moment. Her eyes wandered around the room as she tried to think of another way to equate the unicorn experience to that of a human one, to which she was quickly failing.

Twilight rubbed her chin before thinking back to the recent time she spent in my world being a human. An idea quickly came to mind. "Hey Nondis, try to channel some of that energy into your fingers."

I did as I was instructed to do, resulting in nothing more than a motionless feather and me looking like I had dealt with a bad case of constipation. Mel turned to the two princesses and pointed back at me. "So do you really think he can learn magic in three days?"

"Controlling a cycle, that should be a pretty easy thing. But levitation and the other things to come with it, well..." Celestia started to think to herself.

"No." Luna abruptly answered. "Not going to happen."

Mel folded her arms and asked. "Will this training have any side effects on him?"

"To be realistic, if he doesn't learn how to channel his cycle correctly, trying to overexert the release of magic... the results can be quite harmful because going so far will cause a temperature build-up."

I managed to overhear that one detail and thought about the initial world I walked into, how half of Twilight's face was burned away. I stopped myself and just stared at the feather, uncertain as to whether or not I wanted to continue. Starlight noticed my hesitation. "Is something wrong?"

I folded my arms into my lap and rested my chin on the table. With a simple sigh, I ended up moving the quill farther leagues father than my magic could. I just let myself sink while my hand was tightly clasped between my thighs. "I just don't wanna burn my hand to a crisp from doing this so haphazardly. What if I force myself too much and burn my hand off?"

Twilight and Starlight both knew all too well what I was alluding to. The duo looked between one another and frowned with concern. Starlight then grabbed the quill from in front of me and pulled another book from the shelf. As soon as I read the title 'Your Magic and You; Baby Steps to a Unicorn's Natural Development', I felt myself sink even further into my seat. Meanwhile, Starlight smiled awkwardly and placed the baby book in front of me.

"Okay... first lesson is to breathe in slowly."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Austin, Texas
5 Hours Later...

Most of my time in the library was spent on various breathing and meditation exercises. Even if I was afraid of overexerting myself and causing some damage, I really didn't understand why they didn't think about nudging me along further when they felt that I 'should be falling into the very next stage pretty soon' instead of holding my breath for thirty seconds at a time or nodding off to sleep out of boredom.

So far, having magic wasn't nearly as much as I cracked it up to be.

So for a good five hours, I was stuck on being close to 'falling into the very next stage' and doing very little else other than an occasional bathroom break. And to my displeasure, I wasn't given an opportunity to eat anything other than my own words. But that was going to change in the Golden Coral dad drove us to. And from the moment we found our table, I planted my drink next to my seat and wandered towards the buffet.

Of fucking course the first section I had to hit up was the meat. One whiff of that steak had me on the verge of drooling in public. Stanton went about his own way, while Alex followed behind me as he stared over to see what I was getting. "Careful, you don't want Princess Celestia to keep you on dietary lockdown." He joked.

I rolled my eyes at my older brother. "Look, my entire week has been nothing short of a weight-watchers program. And the killer thing is that I'm already walking more than five miles cumulatively, I drink well over a gallon of water daily, and my menu was practically horse-based. It's bad enough I couldn't get any of the leftovers, it's even worse knowing I can't ask mom for more because she won't speak to me. But seriously, I worked off all that food. I'm should be in the clear now."

"Whatever you say, man." Alex shrugged. "Just don't come sneaking over here knowing you can't have meat for a while."

"What is it those feminists on campus spout out at every protest? 'My body, my choice,' something along those lines?"

Alex chuckled lightly. "Nondis, c'mon."

"No really, she has it where I can't even walk into a cafe and place an order by royal decree. I have to eat out of the Royal Cafeteria to avoid 'cheating my diet'. How much fun is that?"

"It could be worse." Alex said as he pointed to the steak and announced to the chef behind the glass. "Medium-well, please."

The chef sliced the large steak he had on the grill and checked the meat before putting the slice on his plate. I then handed him mine and proudly requested. "Medium-rare, please."

Alex looked at my arm as I rolled my sleeve up to avoid my arm from getting too warm from the steam below. I grabbed my piece of meat and he pointed out my lack of scars. "The scars from yesterday healed up real quick."

"Thanks to Twilight's magic." I replied.

"Actually, it was the other pony girl who did that for you." He corrected.

"Oh yeah, Starlight."

"Right, so that's her name..." He said, trailing off as he saw a fresh batch of mashed potatoes being laid out. "Oh, gotta get me some of that."

I walked behind him, waiting patiently as he horded over the serving spoon, piling potatoes as high as he could get away with. "Yeah, wouldn't you believe she had me doing breathing exercises today? That's pretty much all of what I've been doing for five hours."

Alex chuckled. "Ha, you pregnant or something?"

"I made that same joke." I said before sliding beside him to talk even quieter. "Apparently that magic circulating in my system has caused some other side-effects."

Alex looked around to make sure we weren't being looked at throughout the course of our conversation. "What kind of side effects?"

"Apparently if I get spooked a bit, I'll end up causing a bit of a stir. Not too much of one, just a few napkins and sets of silverware."

My older brother looked at me. "Floating?"

"Not quite, but they move without me touching them." I said while looking back to see if dad was still at his seat.

"You think he'll be open to you having magic pulses every time you get upset?" Alex questioned, also looking at dad.

"I'll tell him when I have things under control. For now, I was instructed to keep taking deep breaths."

"Why?" He inquired.

"Because something about control and balance keeping my magic in check."

As we started to turn away from the buffet selection and make our way back to the table, Alex asked me one last question. "So... how long is it until you start throwing out fireballs and thunderbolts?"

I scoffed at his joke and walked sat down at the table. As soon as we sat down, dad got up to go grab grabbed his plate. I looked at my food and smirked. "That was probably the first question I had when I first got to Equestria. So the answer is no."

"Well a man can dream, I suppose." Alex grabbed his fork and said a quick prayer before eating.

Stanton finally got back from the buffet line and sat down beside me. Immediately, his first question off the bat was... "So I heard you got magic now, is that real?"

"Scare me and you'll swear you'll be needing mom's prayer group on speed dial." I replied.

He said a quick prayer and then went into more questions. "So what's it like?"

"I don't feel it, it's probably the main reason why they have me doing nothing but breathing exercises right now." I replied, cutting off a piece of steak to shove in my mouth. As soon as my tongue came in contact with the juicy slice of beef, I ended up writhing from the pleasure of the wonderful taste in my mouth.

However, what I didn't notice was that all our food at the table had started defying gravity for a quick second. Alex had to tap me on the shoulder quickly. "Ix-nay on the gic-ma!"

My eyes popped open to see the plates at the table starting to rise half an inch off it's surface and I quickly caught myself in order to drop everything. "Oh shit... Sorry guys, work in progress."

Both my brothers stared wildly at me before Stanton slammed his fork down. "Dude, how fucking long have you had that shit?"

"Well I just found out that I had it yesterday. But from what I was told, my having it could've been as long as I was stuck in Equestria because of a series of things."

"Let me guess, being stuck in Narnia gave you magic powers over time." Stanton said sarcastically.

"From all the medical spells too." I replied. "Remember I had surgeries to my collar bone, my skull twice, my ribs, left arm, right arm, my left ankle, and my entire intestinal tract. And then I'm getting spells placed on me left and right."

"So what you're saying is that all the medical spells gave you magic too. If that's the case, being that I had a torn ACL repaired by magic, shouldn't I be able to do that shit you just did?" He asked.

Alex then butted in. "That's a good question, but not quite. Though to be realistic, each one of us, including dad, may have magic still lingering in their system. Dad had a surgery to remove a bullet from his right shoulder. You had your torn ACL, and I was turned into a pony once."

"I think it takes being in a magical world for more than six months before your body eventually develops how to maintain these weird magic cycles, plus all the magic getting sent through and into your body." I concluded.

Alex stared at his plate and shook his head. "I still can't believe this is real. You just ate a piece of steak and the whole damn table was about to enter the space program."

Stanton continued to eat as he spoke. "Well maybe it's not based on your being scared, probably more on how active you are with your emotions."

As I was just about to take a bite of my food, an idea had clicked into my brain and I started to wave my fork around like I was a wizard in a Harry Potter movie. "So if you guys are saying that my magic is based on my emotions, then is it possible that I can use my emotions to control my cycles too?"

"Not a question for us to answer." Alex pointed out. "We're not magicians like you are."

By that point, dad had finally came back to the table and sat down with his plate of fried chicken and cheese spinach. Instead of carrying on with the conversation like we were, I decided to change the subject to a topic dad would be more open to discussing. "So... how was the sermon today at church?"

Dad was about to start praying before he froze from modest shock. "You wanna know about how service was?"

"I mean I haven't gone there in over four years. Might as well ask if everything's the same."

He said his quick prayer as I was speaking and started to take his first bite of food before speaking. "Yeah, well not much has changed around there. Trevor's still there. But the shocker you'll find out about is that Jadice came around too."

"Jadice?" I questioned.

"You know... Mel's... yeah." He answered quietly, still trying to keep the conversation intimate.

Both Alex and Stanton were just as interested in that bit of news as I was. "So what happened this time?" I asked.

"She came in looking to turn her life around, praise God. She just got admitted into a rehabilitation clinic two weeks ago and now she's trying to assimilate herself back into the world of God's word."

I wasn't still too spiritual or anything like my dad, so most of his expressiveness seemed a bit off-putting to me. "At least she's on her way back to the light." I said.

"Trevor's been keeping a close eye on her. But where I kinda fell off from his boat was when he said he wanted to get the family back together in the future. And of course, that includes Mel."

"Yikes." Stanton said with a cringe, Alex merely sucked the air through his teeth and exhaled.

"That's a hard one to pull off..." I said with disbelief.

"Yeah." Dad shrugged quietly before he suddenly changed the subject. "So... I hear you got magic now."

My eyes shot up from my plate to him while Alex grabbed my arm from across the table. "Deep breaths, deep breaths. Woosah." He directed to me. I continued to try and keep my breathing regulated while I then looked to Alex. "Now before you go assuming something, I didn't say anything."

"Of course not." Dad confirmed quickly. "Mel told me though, over the phone last night."

I just rolled my eyes and facepalmed out of frustration. "She wasn't supposed to tell you that."

"I mean you didn't tell her that, so she thought it was okay to relay the info." He said almost in a sad tone. "Though I swore you would stop hiding things from me, son. That's frustrating."

"Sorry, dad. I just didn't want you to know until I had it under control." I explained apologetically. "I wanted to have the basics down pat before I came to you with it."

Dad sighed and continued eating. "You know, your mother's gonna freak when she hears about that one."

"Please don't bother her with it." I pleaded in earnest. "She already prefers to think I'm dead."

Dad replied quietly. "Yeah, but holding back secrets ain't gonna help you none either. I'm in the camp of her needing to realize that you're doing what you feel is best for you. And if you feel like changing lives are what makes you want to wake up in the morning, despite who or what you're saving, then it should be fine by her because it is YOUR choice."

"Dad, you heard what she said to me." I responded.

He stopped eating his food to look me in my eyes. "Nondis, your mother still loves you and prefers you to be home. If she completely disowned you, then she wouldn't want anything from you, much less see you again."

"I know that. It's just... words still hurt though. And me having this thing I'm trying to get under control ain't gonna make her any less hostile. You said it yourself, mom's gonna freak."

Dad then folded his arms and muttered in a low voice. "So how about that time you told me that you were done with church, being a Christian? You didn't hold back that time, where's the bravado when it comes to her? If you felt more honest with me about that, then you should be willing to accept your mother in knowing what's happening with you. Now I don't wanna say that the decision is final, but she's gonna know about it by the end of the night."

Hearing him say it that way reminded me of how stern he was when it came to overruling my decisions. And to be fair, he wasn't wrong in wanting my mother to know all the ways her son's changed physically. If she was actually a bad mother who deserved not to see me, then it could be justified. But it isn't, and I don't feel as if it would be fair to either of us to be so secretive.

Dad pulled out his phone and started pulling up a text message. It was a chatlog between him and mom.

"She might not like what you'll tell her, but she'll be glad to hear from you."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Canterlot Castle...

After a lengthy day of undergoing several exercises to control my newfound magic, I was then given permission to retire for the evening. When I had arrived back to my room, I saw that the bed I woke up in just this morning had been completely replaced with a larger custom model at the center of the room. To my surprise, I laid in it and only found my feet dangling over the end as opposed to everything past my knees. But the room also had a smell reminiscent of a fresh coat of paint being provided. I looked over to where the headboard would normally be and saw that a section of wall behind it was actually whiter than every other wall in the room. I lightly pressed my hand against it to see how fresh it was, feeling a light stickiness. I checked my finger to see nothing on it, indicating that the paint was dry.

On the pillow next to me, there was a letter from Celestia folded in half.

I do apologize for the bed and wall. In my bout with Luna, I allowed my emotions to get the better of me and accidentally vaporized your bed. I figured that Luna would've put up a protective barrier instead of disappearing like that. I also managed to scorch some of the wall and floor. By the time you are reading this letter, it should be three days since then. The wall and bed have been repaired and I have redecorated your room with a new coat of paint. I also commissioned that your bed be made a bit bigger than mine, though I do apologize for the mattress being smaller than the frame, as it is difficult to commission one in such short notice. So you'll have to use my mattress for the time being. Please do not worry for me and my comfort, I have made arrangements already.

With apologies,
Celestia.

P.S.: If you ever lay a hand on Luna, be certain that your vaporized bed should also serve as a warning.

I looked back towards the unfinished wall and saw a line of paper sitting on the floor, complete with a tray and an open bucket of paint. While I walked towards the items, I heard the door creak behind me and a small yelp.

"Ah! Nondis, what are you doing here?"

I turned my head towards the bathroom to see Celestia walking out without her regalia on, probably for the first time since I've been here. I was tad surprised to see the princess so barren that I mistook her for being completely naked, that was until I also realized that ponies don't normally wear clothes. While I looked at her, she looked down to her own chest and realized what was revealed to me. At the center of her chest was a T-shaped scar, seemingly burned into her skin. Her eyes expanded as she saw me staring at it, and with an unforeseen expedition, she turned away to speak again.

"I thought I reassigned you to Ponyville for the next three days! Why are you here!?"

I glanced back to the letter on the bed. "Yeah, I didn't know I was supposed to be gone for three days, just reassigned to someplace else for the daytime shift."

Celestia's ears, interestingly enough, started to turn a light shade of red. She didn't even want to turn back to me while she talked. "Yes, you were supposed to be gone! I was supposed to work on this while you were away learning magic! Why are you here now!?"

"I just wanted to go to bed." I explained. "If I'm stationed here, then shouldn't I report back everyday?"

The high princess grew even more flustered. "Why are you still here then? You should be gone!"

I then realized that my presence was likely unwanted due to her desire to hide the scar on her chest. If anything, she's probably expecting me to ask about it before she'd get angry enough to scare me off. But I turned my attention back to the paint bucket and asked her that instead, changing the subject to something more relevant. "Well, I don't think I should be leaving you in a room full of paint fumes. Also, I think you might want to take back your mattress if you need something to sleep on."

The princess stamped her foreleg with frustration. "Not the point, Nondis! You're supposed to be gone while I took this time to make amends for my mistakes."

I walked over to the paint and saw that the pan still had a wet roller and a fresh batch of paint sitting inside of it. I looked back to the high princess. "Were you really trying to do this on your own?"

"Did you not read my letter?" She questioned indignantly. "I would like to assume that you did considering that you know that the bed is currently outfitted with my mattress!"

"But why your mattress?" I questioned.

"Because it's the largest mattress in Equestria that I know can accommodate a human!"

"Okay, but why in here now?"

"I needed someplace to rest while I worked!"

"So you're trying to pull an all-nighter painting the walls and essentially replacing my bed with your bed because you needed a place to rest, despite the intention you have of doing otherwise?

She finally turned back around to me and stormed up to stare me down, growling in a low voice. "If I ever hear you speak again tonight, I will reassign you to the moon for a good ten years, and trust me when I say there will be no escape."

I looked down at my shirt and realized this was still Rarity's merchandise I was wearing. So I quietly took off the shirt and made my way towards the bathroom with it. While I was in there, I also realized that the pants I wore were her merchandise as well. So I dropped them in my hamper by the shower and dug through to see if I had anything from my world. Seemingly everything I had was all made by Rarity, so I decided to put on a towel over my boxers and walk out of the bathroom.

As soon as I walked out, she squeaked with bemusement. "What are you doing?"

"Well I'm painting the walls, so I didn't want to get my clothes dirty." I answered, still feeling a bit nervous over my lack of clothing.

"Oh no you aren't." Celestia rebutted.

I grabbed the paint roller and started getting to work despite her desire to probably kick me out of the window. But instead of arguing me down, she simply summoned a paint brush from the bucket and started painting the wall beside me, moving like she was trying to quickly outwork me. After a few strokes, she found herself moving no faster than I could. In fact, one of her strokes equated to a third of mine. The only thing I did was crack a smile and extended my arm upwards until the roller reached as high as her and Luna standing on top of one another.

The frustrated princess then walked right into me, causing her flank to bump against my hip. "Move!" She urged through clenched teeth. I tried to pretend that she wasn't there, so much so that I started to crack up to myself. She looked at my face with a scowl and then walked behind me. While I initially paid her no mind, I felt the cool sensation of wet paint being splotched on my back. I looked back to see the princess smiling instead, trying to pose an innocent front while she moved to the other side of me in an attempt to block me out of progressing.

I chuckled and took the roller and the can of paint, trying to hurry towards the other side without falling on the slippery paper beneath my bare feet. I got over to the other side and started painting again, only to find that familiar sensation of her panting my back starting to bring some mischievous habits out of me. She once again blocked me out and I had quickly moved back to the other side. Celestia galloped to meet me back over, and I would run back to the other side until I stumbled with the can of paint in tow.

Thankfully, I managed to save the floor, but my entire chest and some of my chin was covered in white paint. The princess giggled endlessly while I started to laugh at myself while calling out the princess. "You know what, you can be a bit of an annoying asshole."

She triumphantly trotted up to me and continued panting on my back, mouthing the letters she finished painting on me. "R.... K.... There. I hereby royally decree you under the new name of 'Jerk'." And for good measure, she dipped her left foreleg into the pan of paint and lightly stamped her hoof at the end of an exclamation point.

"Screw your decree. If this is my room, then I'm the dictator of these lands." I said, getting back up on my own two feet. While I faced her royal jest-ness, she broke out in full-chested laughter. I looked down and saw her carve a smiley face out of the paint. While my hands were covered in paint, I reached out to her and grabbed her foreleg before she could finish. I then picked her up and threw her onto the bed before running back to the other side of the room. She followed up by using her magic to hold my legs in place, giggling as she gloated.

"Meaning you took a loss doesn't allow you to be sore about it."

"Says a poor winner." I grumbled back, flicking some of the paint from my hands at her. The princess froze as soon as a glob had managed to land on her muzzle. She jumped out of her bed and grabbed the paintbrush and dipped it into the bucket, drowning the entire tool itself before taking aim at me and flicking enough paint to coat an entire desk. I raised my arms to shield my eyes in just enough time to avoid my face from being completely bombarded by paint.

"Poor winners are still winners." She replied cheerfully. "Meanwhile sore losers will always be what they are."

I shook my head before I took the towel off of my waist to clean my face off. "Your sister wasn't kidding around when she said you were a prankster."

"World champion for well over a thousand years. Care to go another round of defeat, Nondis?"

"I much rather go and wash my face." I said, still cleaning my face off.

"Good. Maybe you'll actually leave me here to work in peace." She said, still reveling in her win.

"Nah, leaving you here is like leaving a kid fresh out of daycare with brushes and acrylic paint in your den. You're bound to leave a mess."

The princess grabbed the towel and walked towards the bathroom. She tossed the one I stained aside and sent me a damp clean one. "If I leave a mess, then it's you I'm leaving behind."

"Sorry princess, but I'm sworn to follow you everywhere you go." I said, finally getting my face clean of most of the paint.

The princess sighed while she stared at me. "In speaking of a mess, your magic cycle hasn't gotten any better. What in Equestria have they been teaching you all day?"

I pointed to her and said. "Do me a favor and take a deep breath."

She rolled her eyes in deadpan. "Ohhhhkay, they didn't teach you much of anything aside from preschool unicorn methods of controlling your magic output."

"Nope, just breathing exercises since I mentioned the concern of my hands spontaneously combusting."

The princess facehoofed. "They didn't even teach you anything beneficial."

"To be fair, Twilight was pretty hands-off. I thought Starlight would've taught me something, but she only got engrossed in a few other books while telling me that I was doing badly and that I should start from the beginning."

The princess then seemed dismayed. "You learned literally nothing. And it shows because you're emitting passively instead of possessing your energy and maintaining your emotions."

"Wanna know the most magic I did today? I went out for dinner with my family in Austin and I sank my canines into some human food, I ended up salivating so hard that I accidentally levitated my brother's plates."

"Dinner, you say?" She inquired.

"I didn't have a real heavy meal, just some long-awaited meat and potatoes."

"What am I going to do with you?" The princess gave me her version of the stink-eye before falling back to the subject at hand. "No matter, you said that you levitated your brothers plates. So what exactly was on your mind to allow your emotions to run so vividly?"

I rubbed the sides of my jaw while I spoke. "Well I mean it might have been the overall fondness of meat. I mean I haven't had anything non-vegan since I got back to Equestria so my palate had been pretty pure. My sense of taste had just gotten a bit overloaded and I enjoyed the taste of it so much that I was damn-near paralyzed."

The princess smiled lightly. "Describing it makes me venture back to the first night I sank my teeth into your mother's red velvet cake. It wasn't nearly as tamed as the sweets they make here in the castle. Chefs call it a nutritional implementation, I call it a culinary violation. But your mother put so much love and being into it that I essentially cried over it disappearing."

I snickered a small amount, imagining her holding a funeral for the cake by burying the plate and giving it a memorial plaque. "Well, it felt like that. And the next thing you know, Alex is telling me to knock it off."

"Did it stop?" She inquired. "Did the shock of it happening stop it or did you make it stop?"

I took a moment to think about what I did exactly to get it to stop, which wasn't much. "I guess it was more of me seeing that the plates were floating off of the table, so I just panicked."

The princess paused for a moment and looked over at the smaller paint brush she used to launch paint at my face. In silence, I watched as she quietly quirked an eyebrow and nodded. Her horn glowed as she levitated the brush to me. She shook it lightly, urging me to hold on to it. I did as she instructed and she turned me towards the wall. "Nondis, how would you like to help me paint tonight?"

"You mean what I was already trying to do." I unexpressively reminded her.

She turned my body towards the wall and pushed me forward until I was a good two feet away from touching the wall. "I want you to paint that wall right there."

"With this tiny little brush? Why not the roller?"

"Do as I say, please." She insisted, urging me to put my hand on the paint-covered handle.

Enveloped in magic, she motioned my right hand to clasp on and stroke slowly up and down. Behind me I could hear the sound of a magic spell being cast, I turned around for a second, only for her magic to tilt my head back forward. I still followed her instructions of painting the wall, but she then gave me another unusual request.

"Now I want you to close your eyes and step backwards." I did as she ordered and I could hear the tiny droplets of paint impacting the paper on the floor. I hesitated for a moment. "Don't stop stroking." Again, I followed her instruction. She sat quietly for seconds at a time before I felt what appeared to be a soft hand guide up my right arm. I assumed she was in her human form, guiding her thumb from my wrist to my shoulder and finally to the back of my head. After that, she then lightly dragged her finger down my back and stopped at where my stomach would've been.

"Hey now, I'm still a little ticklish." I confessed calmly.

The princess hummed sweetly. "I see that. Now... imagine your most intimate memories that made you smile, the emotions you felt in those times." She opened the palm of her hand and placed it against my back and pressed inward slightly. "I want you to let those things become the nutrients your emotions digest on."

"Finding my happy place." I added quietly.

"Precisely." She confirmed with her hand slowly sliding up my back. "Now feed that upwards, let your mind become empty to everything but that." While I felt myself becoming a bit more lose, she stopped her hand at the back of my head. She then removed all but her index finger, very lightly gliding it to my wrist and finally to my fingers. Her hand curled around mine and her finger continued forward to trace the outline of the tendon in my wrist. She guided herself back around from the front of my shoulder, to the pit of my stomach, back up to my fingers again. While she did these things, I could not deny that I was starting to become aware of the potential state she was in. "Clear your mind of impure thoughts." She chided softly. "And convene on the times which made you happy, what made you feel so light."

"I feel pretty light." I replied.

"Good. Keep feeling that." She whispered. "Now the places I outlined on your body, I want you to channel your sense of touch to the places I outlined. You won't feel it right away, but it will come."

I didn't feel much initially except that my arm was still holding on to a brush. But what I did feel was the sudden embrace I felt when I first had magic engulf my hand. The memories of that day immediately came flooding back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As she held my hand in the air, I noticed a magenta glow that surrounded the area that was being manipulated by her. Not only was it bright and sparkly, but it was also warm, like a flame. I reached over to touch the glow around my arm, but as my fingers got close, I felt the area around it warming up quickly. Initially, I perceived it to have the similar effects that fire would normally have against human skin, so I removed my freed hand as quickly as possible. As I allowed my left arm to flail around lifelessly, I looked to the purple winged unicorn and saw that her horn was the exact same color.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My arm, it felt warmer. I began to feel a bit nervous from the unusual warmth I felt coursing through my arm, tingling in my fingers, and sending shivers down my spine. Instinctively, my fingers loosened their grip and I was left holding to the brush by only my thumb and index finger. Celestia walked beside me and whispered quietly. "Let it go, but keep stroking."

I followed her instructions, expecting to hear a wet thud as my fingers completely relinquished the grip of the brush. Instead of feeling the brush in my arm, I ended up feeling myself tugging on something like a rope. My arm continued to move in a wave-like manner, in anticipation that the brush was still there.

"Press your hand forward with every stroke upwards. Then pull your hand back with every stroke down."

I never stopped heeding her instructions, instead feeling more relaxed to abide by the directions that I would've normally felt to be pointless. But the warmth in my arms never receded, it persisted. And before I knew it, I heard the one sound that would've shocked me to my core.

*sssssk..... sssssk..... sssssk..... sssssk.....*

"Open your eyes, Nondis."

My eyes didn't so much as flutter open, rather catapulting open instead. My arm continued to move like it always did, but nothing was in my hand. But that wasn't the thing that made me nearly jump out of my skin with excitement.

The brush I held was now moving on it's own, impacting the wall on every stroke up, separating with every stroke down.

I wanted to jump up and down, I wanted to scream with excitement and tell everyone what I was doing right then and there, but Celestia kept my arm steady. She politely patted me on the back with her left hand, still guiding my right arm with hers. "Don't lose focus. Look at the canvas on the wall, the potential you seek to manifest into being."

My arm continued to move as it was guided, but my arm felt even warmer. Although there was no glow to it, I felt the same warmth I would when magic clasped around my arm the very first day I came to, the very first time I saw Twilight's face. I was so happy, overflowing with joy that I started to feel my knees get weak. For the first time in my life, in mankind's existence, I truly broke the boundaries of physics and used magic of my own accord.

The rest of the night, I stayed up trying to firmly grasp at my new power.

I never took the time to sleep, not once I even thought about it. I just stayed up painting, moving the brush up and down, round and around, criss-cross, circles, squares, triangles, random geometric shapes. I even signed my own name on the wall before inevitably painting over that. In the course of me spending thirty minutes getting paint thrown at me by a prankster princess, I learned more about magic and how I can use it than a total of twelve hours sitting in a meditative stance with the two unicorns who could alter the laws of time itself.

I get it that magic for them is as second nature as breathing, but I learned nothing with Starlight.

Eventually, Celestia stared out my window and raised the sun while I still wore my cheek muscles out from smiling all night. The best smile I could do for the time being was keeping my jaw open a bit. My right arm had gotten so sore that I stopped using it for anything and swapped to my left. My shoulders were so sore that I thought someone had tried to hang me from the ceiling by my arms, but I was happy nonetheless.

I couldn't levitate two things at once just yet, it had to be one thing or another. So far my focus was only able to hone in on just the one thing, not really able to multitask on other things. But I didn't stop trying to move different things. The heaviest thing I could move was a half-empty can of paint. I'm nowhere near being able to stop ponies dead in their tracks like most unicorns can, but I can at least hold a paint roller for longer than ten minutes before needing to reset.

Before I knew it, the halls outside were busy, Celestia had poof'd herself to her own bathroom to get ready for the day and I spent one final minute of staring at the completed room before jumping in the shower myself. While I was inside the bathroom, I took the time to levitate my soap onto my hand. I lathered the soap in my own hands with a rag, but I used the rag to 'paint' my body clean. For the time being, I had to relate my levitation experiences to my painting a wall because that's all I know.

So I got cleaned up, wandered through the portal to Mel's apartment, five minute jog down the way, ended up in my apartment, and finally back into Twilight's castle. But by then, the exhaustion brought from my lack of sleep started to set in. So I wandered to the room I used to sleep in and opened the door.

Starlight was apparently sleeping in that room.

So I just walked over to the throne room and laid out on the table, and closed my eyes for a bit.

I don't know how long it was, but I was suddenly woken up by a few voices all around me. Familiar voices rang around me while I was lightly stirred from my slumber. My eyes remained closed, but I could gradually tell the difference over time as they went on.

"Goodness. He's in here sleeping?"

"I think I'm going to need a thorough explanation, Twilight."

"I didn't even know he was here."

"Kinda hard to miss all the snoring."

"That's pretty funny comin' from you, Rainbow Dash."

"Awesome ponies. Don't. Snore!"

"I believe Scootaloo would quickly refute that."

"Poor Nonny, he's all tuckered out."

"Shouldn't we wake 'im up to get 'im to an actual bed?"

"Why, he looks pretty peaceful to me."

"Pinkie, not everypony wants to watch him sleep."

"He's cuter when you rub a feather on his nose, he turns over and wears the cutest face." That had to have been Twilight.

"He even smiles in his sleep when he has a good dream." That was Rarity.

"His snorts are pretty cute too." Definitely Pinkie.

"He hums pretty adorably when he turns." That was probably Fluttershy.

"It's pretty amazing that he has his awesome moments, but he acts like a foal when he sleeps." Rainbow Dash. So that meant the final voice was...

"Y'all SERIOUSLY need help." Applejack.

My eyes finally cracked open to see the chandelier hovering overhead. I went to rub my eyes, but the painful jolt in my shoulders did more than give me a good waking up. I grunted as I stretched my legs out. "Nngghsshit... My shoulders are still fucked."

Pinkie jumped on top of the table and smiled brightly mere inches away from my face, personal space was public space for her, something I had to almost get acclimated to again. "Good morning, Non-Non!"

"Pinkie, give 'im some room to breathe the morning air first before ya start jumpin' around." Applejack said, politely pulling her off the table.

The pink earth pony gave a sad pout as she was dragged off by her tail and Twilight was the next face to greet me, at a much more casual distance. "When did you get here?"

I reached in my pocket and pulled out my phone, reading the time. Apparently I was sleep for five hours before I got up. "I got here at around the six-o-clock hour. Starlight was in the room I was originally in, so I just said 'fuck it' and found someplace off the floor. I thought I was gonna rest my eyes for a bit, but apparently my body had other plans."

Rarity walked up and saw the bags under my eyes. "Gracious, darling. You look as if you've been up all night."

"I was up all night. There was a bit of an accident yesterday morning and there was some damage caused, so I stayed up to paint the room. Managed to see Celestia raise the sun, took my shower, bolted for here, took a power nap apparently, and now I'm here for my next set of instructions."

"Instructions?" Rainbow questioned. "What operation do they have you running?"

I finally got around to sitting up, stretching my arms while bearing with the sore shoulders. "Nothing much, I'm just reassigned here for the next two days."

Applejack rubbed her chin with curiosity. "Huh, do ya think it has somethin' to do with Starlight bein' here?" She asked to the others.

Twilight promptly gave her an answer. "It's for something completely different. And though Starlight is involved in some manner, I don't think it is because he's looking over to make sure she does nothing wrong."

Rarity looked around for a second and then shrugged. "So in speaking of which, where is Ms. Hostile Takeover?"

"Did she even leave her room?" Fluttershy questioned.

"Oooooor maybe she's just using the cover of being reformed as a means of going through Twilight's personal stash of magic books and powerful enchantment spells just to find some way to concoct a third sinister plan that could result in the destruction of all of Equestria and the total subjugation of it's subjects where she rules with an iron hoof!?" Pinkie guessed wildly, causing the others to stare back at her. "Eh, or maybe she's just sitting in Twilight's library going through some books." She added, completely brushing off her first guess.

Twilight pulled me up and aided me in standing on my own two feet, despite my not needing the assistance. "Well I suppose she could be going through a few spells, looking to fuse some together."

"Isn't that dangerous?" I asked.

"If she doesn't know what she's doing." She answered calmly before letting the thought circulate around her mind for a bit.

I glanced over to Applejack while she started to count down. "Three... Two... one..."

Twilight immediately sprang up and started trotting towards the direction of her library at a bit of a frantic pace. "Though it doesn't hurt to check in and see if she's there, which she is. And maybe stop her from fusing two dangerous spells together, which she's done before!"

Our entire entourage followed the purple princess closely as she briskly walked to the doors of the library, shoving them open with her magic. At the center of the room was Starlight Glimmer going through at least five books, Spike sitting beside her as she used him to jot down a few details. The lavender unicorn looked up and greeted her mentor. "Twilight, good morning!"

Spike chuckled and pointed at the purple princess while whispering towards Starlight. "See, I told you she'd lose her composure for you not reporting in."

"Noted." She confirmed with a nod before bringing her sights to me standing in the back of the throng of ponies. "Nondis! How's my fellow friendship intern doing?"

Spike scratched his head. "Friendship what-now?"

Rarity looked at me. "Intern?"

Twilight went on to explain further. "Nondis was stationed here for three days to learn a few things. I managed to put him under Starlight's wing. So for right now, he and Starlight are like classmates for the next two days. Yesterday we had him going through preliminaries."

"Pre-preliminaries." Starlight corrected. "If he's been here in Equestria for a while, it would be better to ease him into some of the changes his body is going through."

"Only one problem, though." I added, walking up to the table Starlight sat at. "Breathing exercises can only do so much. And by 'so much', I mean nothing at all really."

"What do you mean? Your cycles were unsteady and you had no direction of where to channel anything. It's not up to me to find where you can channel whatever little magic you've got." Starlight argued.

"Yeah, I get that you don't know jack for shit about human anatomy. But you could still try for a more hooves-on approach instead of sitting me in a corner while you read books."

Starlight scoffed then argued. "Well as much as you're trying to study on the pre-preliminaries of magic, I have to study some of the more complex material that requires more attention to detail. I'm sorry if I appear too busy to teach you how to do something as simple as write your name."

Twilight anxiously jumped in and stood between the two of us. "Ohohohokay, let's down the tension and up the learning experience a bit."

Rainbow tapped on the princess' shoulder and emphatically asked. "So let's get this straight, Nondis is here for MAGIC TRAINING!?"

Twilight laughed nervously as she lightly elaborated on the situation. "It's really more of him trying to get something under control. It's nothing too outlandish. Just small stuff."

Rarity cooed with interest. "Ooh! I can already tell this is going to be a fun experience! I can't wait to look at the expression on his face if he learns how to levitate something!"

Applejack gave me a light nudge. "Well congrats on yer new abilities, Nondis! Yer startin' to become more of an Equestrian with each passin' day!"

Starlight didn't see it as much of being a huge moment, instead pulling the children's book off the shelf and laying it on the table for me to read on again. "Well dilly for you. But we have more pre-preliminaries to work on."

I glanced at the book on the table and then asked. "So, what are the preliminaries consisting of exactly?"

"For starters, controlled levitation." She stated matter-of-factly. "That requires a controlled circuit, and with you not having anything controlled emotionally or metaphysically, it doesn't make sense to─"

I raised my arm, trailing my left hand across my arm and up to the back of my neck. With my eyes closed, I imagined the very first moment I learned how to use magic and the happiness it brought me. In my mind, I already drowned out Starlight and brought my eyes to focus on the children's book on the table. I waved my hand over it and sent it flying off the table.

Everyone, especially Starlight, was given a substantial dose of shut-the-fuck-up while the book continued to slide on the floor from me tossing it away. I looked at a random book on a nearby shelf and focused my mind to grab one of them. Very carefully and slowly, I sent the book from the shelf to the table. Afterwards, I flicked the cover open to the page labeled under 'Table of Contents'. Following my demonstration, I planted both of my hands on the table and stared back at Starlight.

"Lesson two... where do we start?"

The first three hours of my regiment was far from the quiet boredom of watching Starlight enhance her own learning opportunities while I get stuck on square zero. Twilight lauded my desire and ambition for magic, earning almost her full attention. Starlight, however, was given some material to go over while Twilight decided to make her instruction with me a lot more personal, especially since I told her that Celestia had taught me where to direct my magic to and how I could use it.

Being a former student, she realized that Celestia's method was better than the method she herself proposed and apologized.

But other than a lot more hands-hooves on learning, I had to focus out a lot more activity in the backdrop. And since Twilight's primary benchmark for me that day was to increase the strength of my levitation, she specified a layout of exercises for me to use. Some of them involved gradual weight addition by means of me holding a book steady and adding more books on top of it that I then had to balance. But the challenge came up when I had dropped any of the books stacked on top, because if I dropped one, then I would have to slide the remaining books off the pile onto the floor, where I was forced to telekinetically pick them up one by one to stack back on top of the first. Now add in Pinkie pouncing around, Applejack and Rainbow Dash trying to break my concentration with an assortment of things that tickled me, and Fluttershy introducing me to a new eight-legged friend she made, you can pretty much surmise how that went.

Never have I dismayed holding only three books so fucking much.

But the added distraction was a great way to hone my focus, it was almost like a distracted driving course but with breaking the laws of physics. I'm basically driving a big rig over Sir Issac Newton's grave and putting it in reverse to drive over his gravestone, over and over again. And while I'm learning how to 'drive' with the radio blasting and the people in the back seat yelling over random stuff with someone in the passenger seat spilling their drink on me, I managed to keep the wheel steady after a while. And in the three hours that passed, I was able to levitate more than three books at once.

I began to feel a lot more confident in my abilities, being able to shift objects halfway across the room and it was all thanks to Twilight providing me with some much-needed drilling. She did make a mention that her learning magic was so difficult for her, although when she asked Starlight for her opinion, she just called it as easy as walking forward. She also went on about how easy it was for her to cast spells at a young age, a far cry from how Twilight told the story of how she fought to even lift up one book at her unmarked age, even struggling to turn pages in a book.

"Are you serious, the Princess of Friendship couldn't even lift a page in a book?" I asked astounded.

"Magic was something I discovered for myself." She started to demonstrate with some of the text in the book, transforming the letters into simple lines and making out a small figure of herself at the bottom of the page. "I was never born with a natural knack for it, I had to work hard and study."

"I guess that's why you are the way you are now." I muttered.

The figure began to walk towards the other page but stared at the dark crevice of the page bindings, appearing afraid. "I always watched everypony else around me pick up books, quills, and even filled saddlebags at my age. I couldn't do either, so I guess I can say that I related to the moment you had yesterday."

"Then how come you didn't go back on your plan and teach me instead of pawning me off to Starlight yesterday?" I asked.

Starlight shrugged as she mumbled to herself. "Again, not my fault you don't know the basics of magic."

Twilight followed up her pupil's comment with a harsh glare. "I wanted to see if she was capable of sharing the knowledge of her own experience and applying that to being a mentor to someone else. But I guess that's still something we can work on."

"At least that wasn't a test." Starlight added, completely ignorant to what Twilight was saying for the time being.

"Actually, that WAS a test, the first one you received and the first one you failed." The purple princess quickly snatched the book out from in front of her and walked over to me. "But there will be other lessons to learn in the future. So as punishment, you're required to write your full name in cursive... five hundred times."

Starlight appeared to not really care too much for her punishment. "Well I guess I better get started."

"No magic." Twilight added sharply.

"WHAT!?" The unicorn exclaimed loudly.

"No magic, earth-pony style. You know what that means. And it better stay neat and legible throughout the entire time you're writing. Each page will be submitted to me upon completion, so that will be around a good seventy-five to a hundred times per page. Any mess-ups or inconsistencies and you'll have to start over from the beginning,"

"But that's not fair! I didn't come here to be treated like a child!"

I placed my hand on Twilight and urged her to move aside, levitating the children's book she threw in front of me before her. "Okay, so let's just say you're done being a student of Twilight's. That means you fall completely out of her jurisdiction and into mine. So instead of having to tediously write your name a few hundred times while your jaw cramps up, you'll be completely out of commission sitting in a jail cell underneath Canterlot Castle, in a room complete with runes to disenchant every last bit of your magical abilities." I walked up to her and planted my hand at the top of her horn, causing her to blush from anger and embarrassment. "And believe me when I say I've disabled unicorns before, cracked their horn and everything. Also, judging from the fact that you dropped in the Canterlot Archives without consent to utilize a forbidden spell with the intention to cause emotional and bodily harm to a princess of Equestria, forever altering this nation's future and jeopardizing the citizens' safety, that's a good five-hundred years under a merciful concurrent sentence."

She stammered while she tried to ignite her horn, realizing that my hand had quenched all ability to do much of anything. "T-th-that's not fair!"

I politely smiled. "You'll get out in two hundred on good behavior, but death doesn't count towards good behavior either. So the question you ask yourself shouldn't be 'Is he really doing this?' but rather 'Who's my next of kin?' Because if you don't make the decision to accept the sanctuary Twilight has offered you, I don't mind dying with the thought of your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandniece or nephew walking away with your bones to bury you somewhere else. And please do remember that Twilight was the one to stop me from putting a bullet in that billboard-of-a-forehead of yours. Capeesh?"

The unicorn appeared genuinely confused, but unafraid as I held her horn from unleashing any magic. She stared me down until I clamped my fist around her horn and proceeded to yank her onto the table and gave her a cruel glare. I ran my tongue across my canines and whispered a few inches away from her muzzle.

"I'm gonna say it like this now. Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?"

Completely in shock over the fact that I just picked her up by her horn and damn-near slammed her on a table, the look she gave me completely changed to a much more subdued one. "Noted."

I kept my hand on her horn while I spoke in a significantly less hostile manner. "Now, do as Twilight says and get your work done. 'Kay?"

"Okay." She answered as I pulled my hand off of her horn.

I turned back to Twilight and pointed at the pointy unicorn figure at the bottom of the page. "Digression aside, you may continue."

The purple princess shook her head and carried on with her story. "Well, while others were trying to learn how to grow potted plants, I was still sitting in my room huffing and puffing over how to apply my magic correctly in a manner that wouldn't result in my horn exploding. And just like you, my cycle was completely uncontrolled. It took something loud to scare me into using magic for the first time, and I didn't even have control over the power that was welled up inside of me to begin with."

"So what happened?" I asked.

"Well there was a sonic rainboom that caused a small earthquake from the aftershock. I got scared and something inside of me just clicked on, and the next thing I knew, I was turning my parents into potted plants. I accidentally performed an aging spell on Spike as soon as I hatched him out of his egg and he got as big as fifty feet. I was completely out of control, zapping everything in the room while floating in the air. And I was more terrified than I ever was, that was until Celestia came in and calmed me down."

I can now see how that other Twilight I saw managed to burn half of her face off. If she was harnessing that much power, she could've easily overexerted herself and caused permanent harm. "So that was your entrance exam? Safe to say you passed then."

"More than that." She said, pointing at the book. The little figure at the bottom of the page was prancing triumphantly around the much larger alicorn princess. "That was the day I got my cutie mark, and it was immediately after Celestia told me that I would be her personal student."

"You looked pretty happy." I pointed out, watching the little filly jump around endlessly.

"Ecstatic. I came home and told my brother what I just did and he hugged me to pieces. Both mom and dad were so proud, not because of my getting in, but because of how far I had to go. In the moment I felt like I failed, I was looking at a huge hill to climb. But destiny brought me another path." The tiny miniature on the page walked over to the dark valley of the spinal binding before jumping into the darkness. The figure leaped onto the next page, looking back at the page she just left and walked forward. "Even if it feels like you're running into the dark, don't be afraid to take that next leap forward."

I noticed that more of the words started to form lines, drawing out a miniature human. The figure placed a stubby arm under it's chin before walking into the binding, disappearing from our view. The words that were consumed to create the figures had suddenly reappeared on the page as if nothing had happened. Twilight smiled at me while she closed the book. "You think I could really learn all this stuff like you did?" I asked.

"That's up to you. My magic didn't come from talent as much as it did from hard work."

I looked at my own hand, still trying to come to terms that I'm using it to move objects not even near me. In my mind, I imagined all the spells that were cast on me and however many things I could change with a single thought. It made me a bit timid, but I was still excited. After that, I started to walk towards the door, making my way to the portal for a visit to the human world.

But before I could close the door behind me, Twilight tugged at my jeans. "Nondis, a moment." She announced softly, dragging me out into the hallway, closing the door behind her with a sigh. "...I understand that you and Starlight are still a bit on edge, and that's okay. I'm still wondering about her myself. But I do feel like I have to say something with what you just did with her in there."

"Let me guess, you─" She yanked me down and quietly snuck me a long kiss on the lips, rousing within me feelings I hadn't had in a good amount of time. Before I could get reinvested with interest and desire, she parted herself and whispered silently to me.

"Thank you for practicing restraint. I know you wanted to deal the damage you usually do, but you eased up at the end. I know she has to learn how to stay in her place, and you kinda pushed it in a way I was really afraid to. I guess what I'm trying to say is... thanks for being my rough side today."

The familiar sensation of her absence on my lips made me quite fond for more, but she kept a distance to ensure that nothing else would be done. I could only respect her decision as I made my reply. "Well sometimes you have to be hard on a hard-headed person. Speaking from experience here."

"I see that." She said, stifling a chuckle while opening the library door.

Before she left, I called out to her. "Maybe we can do a private lesson in Canterlot? It'll be just the two of us."

Twilight smiled sadly as she played with her forelegs. "I'm sorry. Rules are rules, can't afford to get you in more trouble. For now, just dream of me. At least we'll be true to each other there."

"Can't dream about you if you keep me up at night." I replied.

The princess walked through the door and poked her head through the opening before looking at me one last time. "...That's all for today. See you tomorrow."

The door closed shut before I could even respond. I stood there for a few seconds before coming to terms that nothing would change the situation. So I started to make my way to my world, hoping to find something else to do since I was effectively dismissed.

...I should show Cliff and Rickey what I've learned so that they don't get surprised when they come back here.

The Next Morning
Canterlot Castle...

I got back to Canterlot and made a decision to politely return Celestia's mattress. She adamantly rejected the idea and suggested that I'd go back over to Mel's place for the time being. I denied the idea out of concern for her comfort and privacy, especially since she wasn't particularly shy to me about the use of her toys. However, she didn't like the idea of me being on a marble floor while she got to sleep comfortably on her bed. She even offered her bed while she roomed in with Luna, which I warned against due to some of the loyalist guards lurking around the castle. Finally, I just simply offered to head back to the apartment in my world and drop by whenever Mel was awake.

When I had crossed over, Melanie had actually gotten upset that I rejected the idea of being her guest for the night. But in the end she understood why I chose to run back to my apartment instead of staying stationary for the night. She even made it clear that me being around was going to make her sleep a lot more sporadic. Can't say I don't feel where she's coming from, having Twilight in human form in my house for a week didn't do me any favors.

Today made me want her just as bad as I did then, even in pony form.

Of course, I went to sleep, and I did dream about us again. I visualized every avenue of exploration except the one I wanted to have the most. As many dreams do, they twist and turn things until the final minute when your mind knows it's time to get up. By then, you have the thing you want cornered and you get to the fun part. And just when the pants come down, that's when the alarm next to your bed tells you to fucking kill yourself while laughing.

At least that's what I felt waking up this morning.

I took a jog to Mel's apartment and made my way into the portal. I walked sluggishly, already expecting my breakfast to be a lot more vegan-oriented than the past two days. While I walked into the cafeteria, I managed to catch Cadance arguing with Celestia.

"Please, we have to find some way to force a vote!" Cadance strongly pleaded.

Celestia appeared completely stoic. "A vote that would only strengthen the parameters of it's punishment and who it would punish alongside you and the others."

Blueblood and Shining both sat quietly between the two at the table, observing while they sipped their tea. Cadance continued to make a scene. "Auntie, I cannot wait for them to linger this onward. It's been well over a hundred and fifty years since the last vote. Twelve generations have came and went, their power should've waned by this point!"

Celestia remained unmoved. "And in spite of that, you insist to perceive that they have evolved from their usual parlor tricks? Need I remind you what they have done to every wife Blueblood has tried to marry in?"

Blueblood clenched his jaw slightly while cutting his eyes to the high princess. Cadance insisted further. "That's exactly why─"

"Or should I make this a little more personal while recounting the trials and tribulations of your own dear husband?" Celestia added, pointing to Shining Armor. "Needless to say how they schemed against Nondis up until Twilight declared their engagement void."

Blueblood, who chose to play a more neutral role, interjected into the conversation. "To be fair, Cadance, the captain's name hasn't been uttered since the break-up. The only exception was when he took the changelings to the wall and sent them to the way beyond, and the things I heard was mostly complimentary."

Shining took a single glance at Blueblood, completely emotionless while he calmly argued. "That's all good and well, but I do have to stand by my wife when we say that we don't wish for our foal to become involved."

Cadance snapped her head back at her husband and screeched loudly. "THIS IS YOU FUCKING CHILD, SHINING!? CAN'T YOU BE A LITTLE MORE ASSERTIVE!?"

Shining calmly reacted. "Cadance, screaming isn't going to help in negotiations. We have to remain calm and present our case, even if we were to face some manner of disagreement." He started to sip on his tea.

"So what I'm getting is that you don't care if we have this foal, that you want to be free of it?" She hysterically concluded, causing Shining to nearly cough back up any tea he drank.

The young prince politely ran a napkin across the underside of his muzzle and continued speaking. "Cadance, maybe it's better if you let me negotiate."

"I thought we were going to do this together, honey!" Shining said nothing while his wife continued to seethe at his demeanor, his lack of aggression. She took one look at him and rolled her eyes. "Fine! You can negotiate with her. Just don't fucking talk to me today." The pink princess slammed her fork on the table and threw her napkin at her husband, storming away from the table. She muttered as she walked out of the room. "Negotiate like you don't give a damn about our daughter, which is what we're likely to have anyways." She then turned back to the table, yelling at her husband. "THE FUCKING LAW TARGETS US MARES MORE THAN YOU STALLIONS! DO YOU KNOW WHY! BECAUSE THEY DEMAND THE POWER TO REPRESS US, TO ABUSE US!"

On that note, Cadance trotted out of the room, bumping past me on the way out. I looked at the gathering at the table a bit dumbfounded. "Did I miss something?"

"Cadance wants to force the issue today in the parliament." Shining answered, taking a deep breath while removing the napkin off of his face. "I just wanted to see if we could work something out for her sake."

Blueblood, taking a more reasonable approach, rejected the idea. "As much as I would love to do just that, vote the law out of existence and just be done with it, it won't happen as the parliament is currently constructed. There are too many votes that will swing to a conservative consensus. If it's not broke to them, then why fix it?"

Celestia closed her eyes in agreement. "That's been the argument for well over seven hundred years. If it didn't affect the parliament directly, then why bother voting for something that doesn't affect how much money you make when it actually affects the power you wield?"

"No point in arguing in favor of it right now." Blueblood concluded calmly.

Shining, who appeared moderate in Cadance's argument, conceded quietly. "As if I'd even be able to complete any sort of argument like that in the parliament. I'm nowhere near the political orator Blueblood is."

Looking at the two princes' faces, I could tell that they had schemed together at some point before this meeting. The both of them seemed awfully complacent in contrast to how I've seen and heard from them in private. They were putting up a stone-faced front, knowing what we had going on behind the curtain depended on moving without Celestia's consent. So I had to file in from a neutral standpoint. "After all, if one group has the power, the don't you think it would be unwise to cede the same power you had over the royals for over a millennium? The only way that happens is if their lives were threatened by the idea of civil unrest. At that point, the money doesn't even matter that much because they'll be looking to stay alive more than staying by their ideals."

"Do you truly think so?" Celestia inquired.

"I believe we have generations of history books to retell those accounts in my world. Among sapient beings, all should be the same."

Celestia hummed before she asked another question. "And what do you do with the ones that don't change their mind, should they be threatened with violence? What would you do if the ones who resist are the ones who can instantly end the poverty of those who seek to get involved on your side?"

"Bribery?" I specified.

"In the end, there would be no answer for those things. If you so choose to fight a good fight, then it is only expected to come as a loss. And if you chose to be militant, then you either die as a martyr or live with the memory of being seen as a despot. You can only flex your power for so long before others will seek to erase you from the equation altogether."

Even though I wanted to reply a counterargument so badly, I knew it would be better to say nothing. If I wanted to play neutral, then I had to cooperate. "Catch twenty-two. No point in playing if you can't win. Playing a dealer with a marked deck doesn't ensure confidence. It would be better to wait things out then."

Celestia finally broke her stoic composure and frowned. "I see..."

At last, she rose from her seat and walked past me with sadness on her face. She looked to me and said. "To lose you to a conflict such as this would be a sad thing. I pray you limit your involvement with us in public, captain."

She walked out the room, leaving just the three of us inside to take a collective exhale. Shining was the first to speak. "I'm gonna have to make that up to Cadie somehow."

"You did well, Shining. Not many have the balls to feign neutrality to your wife like you just did."

"Only because I know what we have planned." Shining replied.

"I can't believe her outlook is so negative." I stated.

"A thousand years of emotional solitude will do that." Blueblood replied. "But harboring the pain of that initial trial is what keeps her there."

I quietly reflected to the time I caught her walking out of my bathroom, seeing a t-shaped scar on her chest. It ultimately explained why she didn't ever really go anywhere without her regalia. "It explains a lot."

Blueblood glanced over at me and asked. "Explains what?"

"Well, I don't know if you noticed, but don't you guys think how unusual it is to see her always in her regalia? She's even wearing it in her bedroom. I'm damn-near convinced she sleeps with it on."

"She does." Shining verified. "When I escorted her on high-level diplomatic assignments, she always sleeps with that stuff on."

Blueblood countered our argument. "One problem with your theory, Luna wears her regalia all the time."

I offered a quick retort. "However, I know that Luna bathes without it. Celestia, I've never seen her bathe so I can't tell you anything."

Shining gave me a stern look. "You watched Princess Luna bathe?"

I quickly tried to defend myself. "More like I was thrown in their tub while Luna harassed me to no end. She harassed me again on Sunday morning, I'm starting to think she has an interest."

"Don't you think it's a bit pretentious to assume she likes you that way?" Blueblood asked.

I looked around the room to see no one walking in or standing at guard. I walked towards the two and leaned in to whisper. "She almost kissed me on Sunday."

Shining started to take a moment to think. "Actually, I do remember her bringing up something like a visit to her room to you back when we were fighting those changelings in the hallway."

Holy hell, he caught that? "So you see what I mean?"

"I see trouble if you get in too close." Shining said with a scoff. "If you think me choking you out over Twily was bad, then─"

"Celestia already vaporized my bed Sunday morning because Luna found herself being flirty while pinning me to the bed. She called it a payment for clearing out a nightmare from the prior night. She even gave me a personal wake-up call and threatened to give me more nightmares for not taking her on a date."

Shining tapped his chin before his eyes suddenly expanded. "Wait, isn't that illegal?"

"You mean her trying to get at me, yeah that's illegal in more ways than one." I answered, finally taking a seat at the table.

Blueblood gave off a smug smile while sipping his tea. "I suppose that I dubbed the 'Princess Troublemaker' moniker to the wrong princess then. Awfully amusing how she insists to claim what she can't have."

"I think she knows it, but she's more interested in seeing what she can get away with for now." Shining said before eating the cream danish on his plate. He took a single bite and stared at the confection completely doleful. "Ugh... why do they do this to us?"

I guess Celestia wasn't the only one to make her complaint of the royal chefs known. "That bad, huh?"

Blueblood stared at the plate that was set aside for me, still sitting dormant on the table with a silver lid concealing the platter. He lifted the lid to see a few sticks of apples and oatmeal. "Do they ever give you anything worth absconding?"

"Well if you call the joys of healthy eating for a long and successful life worth stealing, then sure." I answered as dryly as ever. "I might have had cardboard better tasting than the oatmeal they give me."

The three of us sighed as Shining muttered to me. "Hey, when can we drop by your world and eat human food?"

"Human food can be quite unhealthy where I'm from. Probably why she's still got me on this diet." I answered.

Blueblood's eyes glazed brightly as he started to gleefully tap on the table. "Obscenely unhealthy means unquestionably abundant with flavor."

"I would love to eat some real food here at the castle, but the head chef Zesty Gourmand just insists on focusing on 'nutritional additives and subtleties of flavor.' I mean why even try if you're on her staff?" Shining said dejectedly.

I ran my tongue over a spoon of oatmeal and grimaced. "Guh, taste like I'm being spoon-fed cum."

The entire room busted out with laughter while Blueblood sat back in his chair. "Well at least your palate will be prepared for what is to come in a few days."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well if you're cleaning up after your own mess, you might as well get accustomed to the taste. Trust me, you'll be doing a lot of that since she put in a request to have you locked in for a week." Shining stated. "Looks like you'll be in for the funk for a while."

"I almost wonder if you'll make it out." The blond prince said, drinking the last of his tea. "Every underground investigation is going to take you down that route."

I looked at both the smirking princes and grew concerned. "What's happening to me again?"

Blueblood chuckled as he spoke. "Nondis... in a few days time, she's going to ask you to go to a special little place we hold at the bottom of our wastebaskets."

"Or in the case of old me trying to keep myself from going insane over Cadance's forced abstinence clauses, a specially little place I used to hold close to my penis. Prostitution all around, fight clubs abound, and many pretty exotic zebras to give you a good grind for your gems."

"Great place for a good show. Can't catch a ticket like that on the common streets."

"Gotta pay your way in. Bleed your way out."

Just hearing the two go back and forth about the topic had a memory run through my head. I distinctly remember the time I was in the medical ward still trying to relearn how to walk. And the word came rolling off of my tongue, posing the danger I was soon to face here in our own streets. "...If it's Canterrot you guys are going on about, I got only one request."

"And what's that?" Blueblood questioned.

"Well since an alias wouldn't really make sense being that I'm such an identifiable face, you'd have to turn me into a pony."

"Wait, is that even possible?" Shining questioned.

Although I decided to keep my newfound magic abilities under wraps for the time being, I still traced my mind back to the conversation Twilight and I had on Saturday about lingering effects. I then started to formulate a plan and a series of alibis. "There is a spell that allows it to happen. If Celestia did it to Alex for a short time, I'm sure I can handle the transformation a lot better. You sister offered to do it to me when she was drunk. I think I'm more than Equestrian enough to pass off as a good little plant in the slum-down parts of the city, who happens to have a changeling supplier of human weapons, stolen straight from the cache of the captain of the guard. How's that sound?"

"Can you keep that story consistent?" Blueblood asked.

"I've been keeping stories to my parents for years. As of now, only they can snuff me out." I replied.

Shining grew intensely interested as he started to visualize for himself everything that would take place. "That sounds like a good time. Know where the formula of that spell is located?"

For the time being, I knew of only one place that could possibly have it. But just in case, it was better to be thorough instead of throwing my eggs in one basket. Thankfully, I had just the tool at my disposal. "Oh yeah, and I might have an idea of where she keeps it. All I need to do is commence a security check tomorrow at noon for the entire castle, pop in Celestia's room, drop Shining the goods on his phone, pop out, run back to barracks, report, slide out the back door, rearrange a few blocks in the back alleyway, and we're green."

"I like how you think, recruit." Shining said with a smirk. "But I think we're gonna need something more in order to get into Celestia's room."

Blueblood nodded slowly. "And I have just. The. Thing."

"What?" Shining asked.

The blond prince smiled at the young husband. "What's your opinion of changeling intruders?"

Author's Note

Ugh. Just when you think you've got it together, more bullshit happens. Sorry for being late yet AGAIN. Unfortunately for me, there were several parts of this chapter that had to be rewritten because my laptop decided to be a douchebag and crash on me numerous times. I think it was something to do with the recent updates prior to the one they installed just late last month. But other than that, I've had many a situation where I end up losing 1500 words or something like that because of the crashes.

And when I say crashes, I mean blue screens and glitchouts with audio staggers.

So yeah, been a fun and busy two months. And because of it, I think I had to take a hiatus from writing on top of not getting too frustrated to where I wanted to just throw my laptop into the street and let whatever run over it.

So... yeah, I wanted to give the readers a heads-up for the nightmare fuel so that the readers who didn't respond well to that stuff didn't have to see it. So thankfully that's not something that they can run into to make their evening uncomfortable. But for those that stuck, how the hell did you do it?

These infrequent releases are almost as bad as Berserk releases, I think the manga updates faster than I do at this rate. Guess I'll be trying to navigate my crashes and look for an update in hardware before it's all over. However, this is what I've got to work with.

See you lot in the next chapter, hopefully. I'm pretty tired.

Chapter LXXXIV

The day of my final magic instruction was filled with some pretty intense levitation drills to get me used to casting without having to point at my body and mentally prep myself on where my magic's being channeled to and how. The most important thing I had to do was practice reflex casting, just like anyone would work on their reflexes to be able to defend themselves. It wasn't like a boxer before a main-event situation, just learning to halt certain things and be able to control the things I summon to myself. And to my advantage, we started off with those squishy stress balls Mel brought from a local health store.

If we would've started with books, I would've knocked myself into a coma.

I was given a rack of balls of two different colors, five of which to be thrown at me by someone else. Five others were for me to levitate on my own. The ones I had to call up were blue, the ones thrown at me were green. And for four hours straight, I was essentially playing dodgeball with the pronounced exception that I was instructed not to move. And whichever ones hit me represented something dangerous thrown my way. So if I got hit, I was considered dead.

And they didn't spare me any mercy, pelting me with every opportunity I had. Twilight wasn't intending to show me any kind of leniency, opting to drill me as hard as her brother did in basic training. I originally thought that I could somehow formulate a field that could catch every ball that came my way, but that was as effective as my wanting to teleport from here to the local bakery. So I had a lot of balls thrown at my face because of my own arrogance.

I had magic, but I didn't have it that good.

So for the first two hours, there was a lot of me hitting myself in the face and on the side of my head trying to catch these balls that came my way. The next hour was me learning only how to defend myself from the onslaught of balls hitting me in the face. And the final hour was a culmination of both of those things plus trying to maintain a consistent focus. And even though that last hour was hell on earth, I started to form a pattern after being battered by balls for so long.

It wasn't perfect for the time being, but progress was being made before the lunch hour. Unfortunately for me, my lunch was heavily surveyed under royal instruction. So I was made to eat a dry cucumber sandwich with no condiments with a side of unsalted nuts. All courtesy of the gourmet head chef of Canterlot Castle. Instead of eating all of it, I just picked at it and sent Mel a friendly text to grab me a southwest salad from the nearby Chipoltle. When my food got here, I had another magic flash due to an overload of my taste buds. It wasn't as bad as the initial one, but it was enough to knock my cup of tea off the table.

That was a mess I was sentenced to clean up.

Bypassing the royal supplements, I was thrown back into training. But instead of going back to where I had left off, I was thrusted into a make-shift masterclass of what all I've learned in the past few days. I was given a set of instructions, levitate and balance the books around me, stop any damage from coming my way, and also levitate objects to myself at full velocity while enduring a bunch of screaming and other things proving to be a huge distraction.

That was the fucking worst masterclass I've ever taken. I swear on all creation that was the hardest thing to pull off. She said it would teach me how to be versatile at everyday tasks and prove competence in my multitasking. She also made the guarantee that if I were to make this a morning regiment aside from running my usual miles, I could get to the point where levitation would be as easy as breathing in and out. Five hours after starting the second half of my regiment, my cycles began to stabilize a lot more and I discovered yet another interesting surprise.

White would end up being my magic's color.

White warm flames would flicker on and off of my hand and whatever object I held would still engulfed by an invisible aura. But I did manage to be able to struggle very little while moving an assortment of light objects. Heavier things like ponies were a definite no, but my claymore was a solid yes. The only catch was swinging it safely because my control over magic wasn't as precise as I would need it to be in order to wield one in that style safely. For the time being, it was better to stick to my hands in combat.

My magic regiment was completed for the day and also for the week. At last, I was given the green-light to return back to Canterlot. And when I had arrived, the movers had already brought in a new mattress to sit on top of my new bed. The walls were dry enough to touch and the floors were clean enough to eat off of.

After a long but pretty eventful day, I laid my head to sleep as I formulated the plan I had set out to execute tomorrow.

The Next Day...

I woke up this morning with a drive and passion for the sense of adventure I'd only get to experience on any other day of the week besides today. If this were some seventies flick, it would be the metaphorical raiding the sorority house down the block for some girl's panties. Thankfully, my reason for raiding has an ulterior motive that could be beneficial to both the raider and the raided. Though I understand that this is violating her privacy and I don't really have a way to apologize for it, I can only focus on the ends to justify my means.

And those means required me to do some dirty work.

So I quickly got up and worked my way to the kitchen, eating my increasingly taste-deprived breakfast and making my way towards the barracks. Shining was already there in the hallway, looking at several guards who appeared to be out-of-order when it came to their uniform. There were a few who quickly adjusted themselves before approaching, but there were also others who didn't really pay it no mind. They were the ones who got stopped and inspected for a moment before entering the barracks.

And then there was this one guy who endearingly came from a late night out on the town. I say the word endearingly with a sarcastic tone, as his uniform was so out of sorts that he gathered the attention of every guard walking down the hall. And as much as I pitied the hangover he was probably suffering through, I was more into licking my chops for a good screaming session to come along.

Going back to my time in basic training, I could clearly remember being absolutely destroyed by every drill instructor in a thirty yard radius. It was during my first week of training, and it was after I put in a request to change companies. I wanted Charlie Company, hoping to have Rainbow Dash as a drill instructor. Instead of getting my wish fulfilled, I learned the hard way that trying to pick and choose in BT was mocked and frowned upon. Simply put, Shining and six other drill instructors rammed my ears with verbal insults and a cacophony of orders I could not coherently follow. It was like a squadron of demons was given the directive to blow my eardrums into submission while I was doomed to play a game of Simon-Says with no correct answers.

And as vividly my memories were of that moment, I can only imagine the thoughts running through this guard's brain as he gets bombarded by at least five of his superiors, including Shining and myself. His muscles tensed, his eyes bucked wide open, and the only thing he was able to do was repeatedly scream the words 'Yes sir!' ad nauseam. As we were all taking our turn to destroy his ear drums, Shining gave me a tap while he passed right behind me, finding himself a new place to scream from. From the corner of his eye, he directed me to a pillar in the back of the hall. I got through yelling at him for a second and walked away.

I stayed hidden behind a pillar until Shining came walking back to greet me again. More sergeants took over from where the two of us left off and we were left with that little distraction while we quickly ran by our plan. Shining had pulled out his phone and started listing off some of the details.

"Okay, quick review. Blueblood's got our special little actor en route to the princess' bedroom. All he's gotta do is play his part and get out. I'm sure Blue's taking him through the secret passageways. So he should be moving through pretty easily without getting detected until the time is right." He said, looking at the time on his phone.

"From there, we put the castle on lockdown while I inspect the rooms. Shining, you'll keep the princess held up for as long as you can." I added.

"She's usually pretty quick to verify her identity, so I can only give you a total of two minutes from the time she's warned and the time she shows up at her own door."

"Right, meanwhile I'll be sending you the pictures of the scrolls I find. Anything that looks like a magic spell of some sort I can sort through, and when I find the right one, I'll cue you in on it and cancel the search saying that there was no one here. Anypony who made the initial call will be pulled aside for an interview to make it appear that the false alarm is being addressed, and we can continue on from there."

"Sounds solid." Shining said with a nod.

As the matters started to dissipate further down the hall, our window of distraction had come to a close. The two of us split off, going our separate ways. I looked at my phone and went to barracks for my assigned position for the day. From there, I waited until the first sign of trouble.

Unfortunately, standing guard in the middle of a hallway wasn't as awesome as the military promos make them out to be.

A few hours passed before the assigned time where the alert was to take place. Even the captain of the guard wasn't immune to being subject to standing post in a hallway growing bored out of their mind. But then again, my boredom didn't completely come from being uninterested in the mundane scenery of ponies walking by. I had a task to pull off, and that task was to lock these halls down so I could pay a visit to the safe hidden in Celestia's room.

"Fifty-five. Fifty-four. Fifty-three. Fifty-two."

I was already counting down the seconds till the final moment where I was supposed to have someone run up to me urgently with notification that a changeling had been spotted. And with each second I counted off in my head, I grew even more antsy.

"Thirty. Twenty-nine. Twenty-eight. Twenty-seven. Twenty-six."

I had to be quick and precise. I can only hope my memory doesn't fail me on where I saw that safe. She even explicitly told me where she had that damn thing, so I couldn't afford to be stumbling around. And lord knows what would happen if I were caught in the act by Celestia herself. Not really a consequence I'm looking forward to.

"Five. Four. Three. Two..."

It's go time.

I looked around my surroundings to see which direction a guard would be coming from or at least expecting an alarm. I was more than ready to move. But the only thing I could come to expect for now was the usual hallway chatter among the servants and maids.

"Negative thirteen. Negative fourteen. Negative fifteen."

Impatient wasn't even describing what I felt while I was sitting here in this one spot like a damn statue in the state capital building. I pulled out my phone and checked the time, seeing that the minute had passed completely.

"Negative one minute, thirty. Negative one minute, thirty-one."

And the frustration completely started to mount as time passed. One minute went to two, two to five, five to ten. I had began to lose all hope that things would go underway. And I felt genuine disappointment until...

"CHANGELING SPOTTED! WE HAVE A CHANGELING ON CASTLE GROUNDS!"

Eleven minutes, forty-one seconds late, but I'll take what we can get. I sprung into action, issuing orders to the guards around the halls. "FIND THAT CHANGELING, I DON'T CARE IF IT'S THE LAST THING YOU DO BEFORE YOUR LUNCH BREAK OR ON IT! LOCK THIS CASTLE DOWN, SECURE THE PRINCESSES. GATHER ALL STAFF INTO ROOMS AND HAVE THEM INSPECTED! NO ONE LEAVES THESE GROUNDS UNTIL I KNOW FOR CERTAIN EVERY ROOM, NOOK, AND CRANNY HAS BEEN CHECKED!"

Almost with a mechanical response, all the guards saluted and dispersed into gathering every maid, servant, politician, tourist, appointed visitor, and even royal into rooms where we could verify their identity. It took all but fifteen minutes to clear the halls of the entire castle grounds, leaving only armor-plated guards keeping a close eye on every window and door leading to the outside. Every pegasi guard flew outside and surrounded the perimeter, ensuring that there were no escapees, especially considering the events of recent times.

And it was because of those recent events, I was working with the advantage of having every single guard taking their role seriously. Of course I had to verify my own identity, but it didn't take me long at all to do just that, as no random intruder impersonating me would have access to the secret passageways like I would.

As per my role in the security check, I would go by each room and check with the guards within them, ensuring that the changeling was either apprehended or the room was clear. And for the rooms that had no one in them, I issued guards to inspect them with a quick search procedure, involving a specially-trained unicorn to scan the room for unusual magic fields commonly found in magical or enchanted disguises.

I quickly bypassed most of my strife by assigning the other guards all the rooms of lower importance. Meanwhile, I was given the exclusive task of inspecting the princesses' quarters. But the only caveat was that I was allowed only two minutes within the room, as to appease many laws regarding espionage against the higher command. There's also a privacy law in place that was implemented by Princess Celestia a decade back to prevent some perverted guards getting a little too invested in her wares, opting to find items of her former use and using it as an aid to what was to be called 'lecherous and immoral practices of a most private affair'.

It also explains why ALL of her laundry staff happens to be elderly mares.

By the time I got to her room, I gave a nod to two of the other guards accompanying me. They were there to make sure I didn't violate my time inside and move to the next room without carrying any contraband.

The entire setup was almost like a breaching method, I get the nod and I move in. Celestia's door is sat on a slight tilt, allowing it to close itself. One of the guards, instead of allowing it to close completely, they hold the door open with a hoof. But either of the two were strictly forbidden from viewing the room─again, the privacy law in effect─while the individual entrusted with her personal security was allowed to inspect the area.

Admittedly, the restraints are quite extensive to the process of security, but I understood her reasoning.

I quickly beamed in on the bookshelf sitting in front of her bed. For a few seconds, I had to quickly ponder the events of when I was shown that safe. The first thing that came to mind was her unleashing a misty hell upon me sneezing like she did with that cold. Then a painful jolt running up my arm when she enchanted my finger. Then it was her pointing out a book on the shelf. I skimmed through the books, pulling at whichever ones seemed the most familiar to me. The first place I remembered was that I looked in the section of M's. Something with mixes.

Then I suddenly remembered upon looking at it. A book titled 'Mega-Mixtures and Plentiful Potions' that stood a bit further into the shelf. I pulled on it and promptly received my secret reward. I ran over to the small square safe and removed the pendant from off of my neck, putting it at the tip of my finger before placing it inside. The mechanisms clicked quietly and
the safe was opened. I craned my head down to get a good look inside...

...nothing.

I felt my heart drop as I felt my opportunity quickly ticking away. I turned back around to see if what I was looking for was hidden somewhere else in the room, but only to be greeted by a pair of aquamarine eyes staring back at me. I couldn't help but feel my heart rate skyrocket. Meanwhile, Luna was tapping her hoof against the floor with a most unenthusiastic expression.

I had been caught red-handed.

"And what little thing did you think you were going to find in there?" She asked quietly.

"I'm on a search for changelings." I replied, trying to keep to my lie.

Luna shrugged her shoulders, almost carelessly as she looked to walk to the balcony. "Well then. I suppose you won't be needing this then." She said, summoning a scroll by her side."

"Hey what is that?" I asked very quietly, trying not to alert the other guards outside of the room.

She gave me a smirk and turned her back on me. "Well it sure isn't a changeling. So I suggest you get to wrapping up your search, captain. You have forty seconds."

I tried to quickly approach her, but she turned around, swiping the scroll out of my reach. "What's on the scroll?"

"Nothing that would help you. Unless you were looking to use it for some odd reason. Perhaps for something quite nefarious. You're not quite as stealthy as the changeling that was in here earlier."

...Oh shit. "What happened with the changeling?"

"I exterminated him. Though I'm sure you will do better to be more thorough with your bombastic displays the next time you decide to put on a show for the viewing audience." She glanced back over to the ledge, now dangling the scroll over the railing to the city streets below. "So for now, I suppose this scroll can join the changeling down below."

Dammit. I could've used that changeling. Fuck. Twenty seconds left. "Give me the scroll." I kindly requested through clenched teeth, trying to smile. "Please?"

"Contraband, remember?" She answered smugly before slowly walking up to me, circling me with a Cheshire grin. "Though I'm sure you can find it in your world later this evening at around 7."

"Where?" I asked, pressed for time. Ten seconds left.

"Where we once shared breakfast." She said with a suppressed giggle. "Though you should move to inspect my quarters for more information."

"Why?" I asked, not even paying attention.

I could hear the door swing a bit wider as a voice called out to me. "Captain! Time's up!"

"Clear!" I was forced to yell, staring at the night princess. She cheerfully motioned her hooves to her room with a boastful smirk before teleporting away. I couldn't help but grumble as I walked out of the room empty-handed. As soon as I walked out, the door was closed behind me and we started to set up for the next room. Before I could get a nod to go in, the door opened and Princess Luna called to me.

"Captain, there's no changeling in here. But you may check if I am truly myself inside of here. Enter."

As per usual, I was given my two minutes to inspect. She waited quietly while I started to look around the room for the scroll. I started to look on her shelf, only to find it barren. Then I looked at her nightstand, only to find a picture of her gathered around a bunch of foals in what appeared to be Halloween costumes. The princess remained quiet until started to look under her bed.

"What you are looking for is not in here."

Out of frustration, I paid the princess no mind before I noticed something round and cylindrical. Hoping that it was just the thing I was looking for, I reached out and pulled it into the open, only to gawk at what I was holding. I was holding what appeared to be a blue vibrator... a HUMAN-shaped phallus with rotating beads at the center of the shaft, complete with a dolphin-shaped clitoral stimulant. "...Lucy?" I mouthed to myself, thinking of Mel's sex toy in her apartment.

The princess giggled as she levitated the item away from my possession. "I am sure you would be willing to understand that mares have specific needs that require intense attention to detail."

"Where's the scroll?" I asked.

"One minute into your check and you've only found the key to my morning ritual." Instinctively, I had started wiping my hand against my shirt. She giggled while she waved the dildo in my face like a magic wand. "Now tell me why a newly-anointed magic user is inquiring about a transformation spell beyond his casting capabilities."

Ain't no questioning it's the real Luna, I could tell that from the jump. Fifty seconds. "Well let's just say that I had a growing curiosity of being a pony."

"And who is going to supervise you and your proactive approach to casting a spell you are clearly not ready to utilize on your own self, or have any awareness to the side-effects of said spell?"

Thirty-five seconds. "Twilight." I lied.

"And exactly why would you need that spell in Ponyville?" She asked.

"Because I didn't want Twilight trying to transform me without having a proper equation in place."

"And who told you of the spell?"

"Alex. Alex said he was a pony, so I wanted to try my hand at it."

Luna smirked as her horn flared with magic. "I see. So what if I was to tell you that I already know the spell, and that I could cast it on you this instant? But you would have to take the place of this little device here, and I would report you as the changeling. So when I go to interrogate you, I'd have my way with you... trapped in my dungeon... closed off from all others... my little... toy..." The night princess whispered with a smirk before yanking me down and quietly mouthing in my ear each and every syllable. "Just. Kidding."

The princess backed off of me completely as she left me absolutely flustered, once again inattentive to my time limit.

"Captain, time's up."

The princess waved her 'magic wand' almost innocently while she walked over to the shared bathroom she and her sister owned before looking back to me with another winning smirk. "Now if you excuse me, I do have to freshen up. Have a good day captain, we shall speak later."

I walked out of the room, the guards beside me stared for a moment and carried on with their search.

...Meanwhile, Luna entered into the bathroom and placed the toy on the counter before eyeing the massive swimming-pool sized bathtub. She illuminated her horn, using her magic to lift an object submerged under the surface. A changeling soaked in royal perfumes and scents was left coughing and gagging for much-needed air before being flung to the ground. The changeling weakly writhed while Luna's hoof narrowly missed his head. She sternly questioned the creature.

"Now back to where we were. How did you find access to my sister's room?"

Later in the Back Castle Checkpoint...

"Dammit!"

Shining cringed as Blueblood's voice announced himself far more than they would've liked. The blond prince then corrected his volume and paced back and forth. The younger prince folded his hooves as he questioned me. "So you couldn't get the spell because Luna had it?"

"Yup." I answered in a monotoned show of frustration.

"And the only way you can get it is by going to your world with her and negotiating for it?" Blueblood then asked.

"That is the bullshittery I face." I replied, checking if the views around the alleyway we stood in were clear of views. "She wants me to go to my world and talk with her to get the scroll."

Shining groaned quietly while he spoke. "And we can't move forward with your training if you can't transform."

"The thing is that she was trying to play like she was going to transform me then and there, only to have me reported as the changeling so she could have me to herself during interrogations."

Blueblood shook his head. "I've clearly mistaken the trouble-making princess here. I suppose you have little choice but to entertain her."

"So long as you don't cross the bold red line." Shining added bluntly. "Otherwise, Celestia might actually have you outright beheaded."

"No thanks." I said quickly, waving my arms across one another. "Heard stories of forbidden experiments that pretty much confirm a head will live up to thirty seconds after the blow is made. That's a moment of existence I don't want to have."

"It won't be a choice if Luna has her way." Shining muttered. "This is rough."

I was left scratching my head, trying not to grow anxious. "Damn, I didn't think I'd have a tutorial course that would actually give me a permanent 'Game Over' if I did it wrong. What is this, Dark Souls?"

Shining took a deep breath and sighed. "I said this is what happens when you're dealing with this kind of shit, and it will go this far sometimes. Now's a good time to learn, because if you can't do this, you can't go a day in Canterrot."

"As much as I don't like the situation for it being so high-stakes, I'm going to have to confer with Shining." Blueblood confessed walking up to the wall of the battlements surrounding the castle grounds. "You're literally playing the worst game of poker, and everything is for keeps. Play it safe and you lose the scroll, play it wrong and you lose your head, play it right and you're practically the owner of the biggest balls in all of Equestria. You have a chance to prove your mettle. I suggest you take advantage of the situation and come out as a victor, because if you master this... then there's nothing more I could possibly advise in terms of negotiations."

I walked back to the wall with a quiet nod. "I'll keep that in mind."

Blueblood closed his eyes as his horn started to glow. "I am the mare who arranges the blocks." Upon the small incantation, the bricks of the wall started to rearrange themselves to make way for a portal to the hidden chambers beneath the mountain. The prince looked back to me and whispered. "You will do well to remember those words, you'll need them to enter after you've obtained the scroll."

Blueblood walked inside while Shining started to trail behind him. "Since you don't have magic, I think that pendant should work as a good alternative. Best of luck to you."

The younger prince disappeared into the wall and the bricks realigned themselves. I was left with only my thoughts on how I was going to find a way to win at this negotiation. But I still had time to prepare myself for anything that could happen on my end.

I just hoped that Celestia's clairvoyance wasn't omnidimensional.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Later that Evening...

After a few more hours and an unsatisfying dinner, I made my way through the portal into Mel's apartment. I walked right past her as she was busy having a fit over getting shot by someone crouching in a corner with a machine gun. She had on headphones so she couldn't even hear me over the sound of her own voice chewing out her team over game chat.

"GUYS, HE'S IN A FUCKING CORNER TWIDDLING WITH HIS DICK, RUBBING OUT HIS CLIT! FUCK YOU! MOOOOVE! MORE THAN TEN FEET! YOU FFFFFUUUCKING PRIIICK!!! CAN ANYONE USE A FUCKING ROCKET LAUNCHER AND SHOVE THEIR GODDAMN KNIFE UP HIS RECTUM! OH DON'T MIND ME, I'M JUST FUCKING RESPAWNING!"

She's having fun, it's better not to disturb her.

I walked out of her room and moseyed over to the kitchen table, expecting to see Luna sitting there with the scroll sitting next to her. But I only got a small sticky note from Mel telling me that Luna had gone to my apartment instead. I was completely flabbergasted on how she could manage to walk around my world without a care in the world to her own appearance. But then I remembered that she and Celestia had access to a transformation spell that could turn them human. And then my mind immediately ran back to the first thought of how she could walk around my world without a care in the world to her own appearance. Mel's clothes didn't fit Celestia worth a damn because of how well-endowed she was. Hell, her clothes couldn't even fit Twilight because she was a lot curvier than Mel.

God help me if I find her in my apartment wearing only a fucking towel.

I took a quick jog across the lot and reached my own apartment. I opened the door and there she was, in pony form, sitting on my couch, eating out of a red snack bowl some popcorn. I also smelled a lot of burnt popcorn coming from the kitchen. She seemed completely disinterested in my presence as she lounged out on the couch, holding the remote like she practically lived there but haven't paid rent for like two months, leaving me to pay each time. The funny thing is that I almost felt like telling her to go get a job.

She glanced up to see me standing there and she went back to her regularly scheduled programming. "Hey." She said completely bored.

I walked into the kitchen and noticed that all but two bags of popcorn remained in what was once an unopened box of twelve. I looked back at the princess. "How long have you been here?"

Luna lazily replied. "I was here for two hours. And apparently, your viewing apparatus is not nearly as lively as that of Melanie's. I only get black and white dots dancing on the screen."

I looked inside the trash can and saw a ton of burnt bags of popcorn completely stinking up the apartment. I looked around and felt somewhat amazed that there was no smoke. "How do you burn this much popcorn!?"

The princess said with a light chuckle. "Well I thought that all I had to do was press one button to tell me how much of it I wanted. But then I ended up finding out that a bunch of settings were too high, some were too low, some were not what I needed to press. It took me my tenth try to find that the button I needed to press was simply called 'popcorn'. So I did that, and I turned on the viewing apparatus, and I've been like this for twelve minutes."

I rolled my eyes as I tied the garbage bag shut. I promptly walked over to the TV and turned on the cable box, and almost instantly, I saw Luna go from being completely drained of interest to being a giddy child as the picture came clear. It was on a movie called The Avengers. It was on a scene where the Hulk was chasing a woman through an airship before getting knocked through a ventilation shaft.

"The human world is such a magnificent place, to be entertained at a moments notice, to be fed by the touch of a button, to see an entire world's knowledge in the frog of your hoof. Equestria has much to learn from you."

Seeing her face of wonder while a fight scene took place between the green monster and a human wielding an enchanted hammer didn't distract me too much from what all I was wanting to ask her. "How did you get into my apartment?"

"The door was unlocked." She answered quickly, trying to keep herself invested in the movie. "Surely you were aware that your unit is so easily accessible to others."

"Did you transform yourself to walk from Mel's house to get here?"

"Didn't need to. Stealth spell." She replied, starting to really get invested in the action taking place on the screen.

I grimaced at the possibility of her just wandering around the parking lot while using that spell, only for her to get hit by a car. "Don't you know walking around here is dangerous if you don't know what to look out for?"

"I'm not hurt right now, so it shouldn't matter." Luna replied, shoving more popcorn into her mouth.

I walked in front of her, blocking her view of the TV. She tried to look around me while I continued to chide her. "Luna, this is not a game. If something were to happen to you while you were here, there could be dire consequences that could lead to a lot of trouble for Equestria."

"Shouldn't it be the other way around seeing how I am the one that is harmed?" She questioned, trying to use her magic to levitate the TV from around me to where she could see the screen unobstructed.

I turned around and cut off the screen. "I'm not playing with you─"

"Then why are you even here?" The princess pouted, she then placed the bowl of popcorn on the table, got off of the couch and began to walk away.

"Because you told me to meet you here." I replied strongly, trying to impede her path back outside. "That still doesn't excuse the fact that what you're doing is very dangerous. As captain of the guard, I can't allow you to keep acting out like that."

She rolled her eyes. "Is my title all that matters to you?"

"In regards to your safety and the peace of our two words, who have yet to meet or negotiate in any official capacity, yes." I answered honestly, trying to emphasize the importance of my argument.

The high princess then grew angry. "Well if it is as dangerous as you make it, then I suppose I should be on my way. Now escort me back to the portal so that I may return to our world."

Realizing I essentially had the princess in my apartment, unable to leave without my say, I started to exercise the power I held in this negotiation. "Okay, but under one condition."

"No scroll." She answered sharply. "And you may think that you have the advantage of my being in your world, but that doesn't make it any less of a loss for you. I can still make my way through you and back to the portal. From there, I will return to my chambers while you remain empty-handed."

Nope, I guess I wasn't gonna win that argument either. "Okay. Fine. You win. What do you want for the scroll?"

"Why do you want it so much?" Luna questioned. "Surely there is no modest intention in your attempt to alter your visage."

I didn't want to tell her the real reason why, I felt it would jeopardize the plan Blueblood, Shining, and I had thrown together. So I tried to fabricate a lie. "I told you, Twilight wanted to see how my magic would perform if I were in an equine state. Nothing more. She didn't have the spell to do that, so I thought that I would be able to get it for her."

"And you thought you would simply obtain it through the nefarious method of invading my sister's room to crack her safe and retrieve the scroll instead of asking Celestia directly for something of that nature, knowing she would consent to it openly? If anything, Twilight would've inquired about that spell and requested the scroll on her own. And then there's the matter of Spike being able to send and receive that information as quickly as you would provide any information to your brothers."

Just about every avenue my lie could've taken, she had covered every single base. So instead of being able to piece together a narrative, I was left in a mess of a lie that ousted me faster than a moth to flame. "Your highness─"

"And the changeling in her room, triggering a castle security shutdown protocol so conveniently that you could obtain the chance to enter my sister's room. It's too easy to tie this stuff together. You can't beat somepony who's already masterminded the takeover of an entire realm twice."

She was far too good a mind to fool, that I found out the hard way. The only thing I could do was sell the lie I buried myself in for the sake of consistency. "Look, Twilight doesn't know─"

"That you had a changeling on release to roam the royal quarters?" She concluded flawlessly. "That's too thorough for the likes of you. You are a great tactician with your human weaponry, but not the mind who could plot something so desperate. And even then, it wasn't even you who gave the clearance to release the changeling. The clearance was done under a royal seal."

At that point, my entire body froze in place.

"In other words... You have been working with Blueblood on something, haven't you?"

Busted. "...Where's the scroll?"

Realizing her victory, she walked up to me and stood before me out of defiance. "Why should I give him the scroll? You tell me the reason why, and I will consider it."

Sighing in defeat, I walked away from the door and sat on the couch. I could only stare at the bowl of popcorn on the table sitting in front of me. "I wanted to do some things that would help make it easier to remove Processu Approbatio. I can't do it as a human, I'm too easy to identify. If I were a pony, things would go differently."

"And you would think that Blueblood would know how to properly cast the spell where there would be no side-effects?" She asked.

"Someone could've, he knows someone capable of doing it."

"Shining Armor." She guessed correctly.

I didn't say anything else, knowing that our plan was now out in the open.

The princess walked up to the couch and sat beside me. A smile showed on her face, not one of her usual smugness or playfulness. She looked at the bowl on the table. "It's admirable that you'd go out of your way to help us still, even as Twilight freed you from any connection to us royals."

"Trust me, I've tried to play that hand for so long." I muttered. "It's as if my trying to feud with Cadance in the public eye is eating away at my personal relationship with Twilight. And though she doesn't completely understand it, I have to make sure that Cadance doesn't know what we're doing either."

"And why is that?" She inquired.

"Because if we were to get caught, it could mean the end of our careers. Possibly the end of our lives."

The Princess of the Night sat quietly for a moment before speaking again. "Why did it not show that you would be this way sooner?"

"Why what now?" I asked, slightly confused.

Luna scoffed as she basically knocked over the bowl of popcorn out of frustration. "Why are you the way you are? You couldn't have broadcast your nobility sometime sooner? Surely these things would've made it simpler for me to process. But instead, you end up being the castaway of some other."

Although I was upset at the mess made in my apartment, I felt like it was more of a minor inconvenience in comparison to what I was dealing with for all this time. "Maybe it was my time getting in trouble, that's when I started to realize that I had to do something about this. Cadance told me about the situation, and I felt like I had to help because I owed it to Twilight."

A scowl formed on the princess' face before she turned back to me. "You want the scroll, correct?"

"Please, Luna." I begged. "I can't move forward without this."

The princess closed her eyes and groaned. "...Fine." My eyes bucked wide open as I heard her say that one word, but it didn't come without a cost. "But under one special condition."

I knew it was too good to be true. After all, she had a reason for bringing me here other than to tell me that she knew what was going on. "Okay. You want me to take you out tonight?"

She looked at me, almost shocked before denying my guess. "As nice as that would be, my request is a little more complex than that."

"Okay. Then what would you like for me to do?"

For a moment, the room had gotten completely quiet. The only thing I could hear was the sound of the air system kicking on, filling my apartment with some warmth to oppose the chilly December air. The princess never looked at me as she started to struggle with her words. Barely able to formulate speech, she started to walk to my side. She leaned in on my ear and she seemingly hissed something at me.

"I want.... you to... ──s me."

I looked back at her, seeing her face grow redder and redder with each passing second. As I stared, she became more and more flustered, non-verbally demanding that I'd say something. Which I did, and that response was... "Huh?"

"Please spare me from having to repeat myself." She pleaded before realizing the blank expression on my face was more than enough evidence that I didn't hear what she said. So she leaned back into my ear and whispered. "I want you to... you know... End of the story, 'and they lived happily ever after'. That... thing."

"...I don't even know you that well to marry you." I replied, troubling the princess enough to where she just blatantly said it out loud.

"Oh for mother's sake. KISS ME."

I gave a slow nod. "Ohhh......." Before pulling a double take. "Wai-what?"

Luna screamed as her cheeks almost turned crimson, the tips of her ears following suit. She started to explain herself. "Okay, maybe I should start from the beginning. The reason I wanted a kiss is because I know we can't date, I know you have feelings for somepony else, and I know that the more that I hear about your romance with somepony else, I'm going to get really envious. And trust me when I say that sometimes my envy can feed my mood throughout the course of a day."

I stopped for a moment to think on myself, seeing how familiar her scenario felt to me. "Luna, being in a relationship isn't all the hype. Take it from me, I was a hopeless romantic who was trying to get my first girlfriend for several years. Once you get in one, you start dealing with a bunch of issues─"

She then interrupted me to explain herself further. "Have you ever had to deal with your brothers telling you about their romance life throughout the years? Have you ever felt resentment that they were getting all the attention because they were who they were?"

"Several years!" I exclaimed. "I had to deal with hearing all the rumors going around about Alex! He always seemed to have those relationships that looked so successful, typical storybook romances. And then there's Stanton, who gets the benefit of being an athlete on the school football team! If the cheerleaders aren't interested in him, then I bet it's the really popular chick or some really hot girl in the woodwind section of the band, or the color guard, or the flute section, or the percussion pit... or even some other girl who go to the rival school that met him through Twitter and Instagram. And me, I'm stuck trying to get Mel to see me as more than a friend!"

"You and her!? Seriously!?" The princess asked, genuinely surprised that we had some tense history together.

"Yeah, and try being the guy she goes to for advice on what to do every time she has a bad break or a shitty boyfriend. Stuck in friendzone, left on the top shelf like I'm supposed to stay there my entire life because you depend on me to be an emotional fallback. All of that, I know how it feels to be the one who doesn't get any, dying of thirst while everyone around me is drowning in the ocean."

Luna appeared excited until she started to realize that I was no longer in that situation. She became frustrated again. "But you're not like that anymore. You have... You had your chance, you even kissed in front of the camera!"

"Like I said, relationships aren't even all that special when you jump into them."

"But I bet your first kiss is!" She replied appearing surly.

I glanced back to her and asked. "Why is your focus so damn heavily on kissi─" I wanted to finish that question until I saw her face completely red, her eyes trailing to anything but me. It took a while for the math to add up, her gestures to suddenly register in my brain before I had mentally come to the final conclusion. "...Oh... OH... Seriously?"

The princess turned away, clenching her eyes shut as she spoke. "Do you know how embarrassing it is to know you're well over a thousand years old, COMPLETELY KISSLESS!?" Luna cried out in embarrassment. "I could never tell anypony that! I would die of shame! I would be ridiculed! I could never amount to Celestia, and she'd be the one with all the clandestine romances that I'd only dream of while reading books! I tried to act the part, I tried to research everything there is on kissing and what comes after, but I could never really practice it because I was always seen as the princess of darkness, or Nightmare Moon, Princess Celestia's sister, or even worse..."

"A royal." Just all the same grievances Twilight had as soon as she got labeled as Celestia's personal student.

The princess walked over to the window, staring out into my world for the first time. As I walked next to her, I could see the cars passing by on the road leading to the nearby intersection. She sighed before sitting herself to stare at the reflection of herself in the glass. "I'd hear so much about Celestia's exploits, or what few she had. I'd hear of Cadance's for most of my time returning from being trapped on the moon for a thousand years. And then I hear about Twilight's almost every time I wake up in the morning to read a newspaper. But not once have I ever had the chance to look at my own self and say what I have to remember, or who even remembers me in such a manner."

I gently placed my hand on her back, lightly brushing the back of her wings. "Don't you think you're putting too much pressure on yourself? It'll come one day."

"But I'm tired of waiting, tired of hearing about everyone else's romance. So I thought if I had my first kiss, maybe I'd stop thinking about it so much."

I knelt down beside her, trying to get her to look at me. She refused to do so, even as I talked to her. "Luna, you are very pretty and fun to be around. You're also pretty chill when you want to be. You might not get to experience the daily mundane struggles of serfdom, but someone will give you that chance if you just wait on it."

Luna's tone hardened a bit, almost lashing back out at me. "Nondis, I brought you here for one reason, and that reason alone was for me to know what it's like to finally have something. It's not something I'm trying to keep for myself, I just want to be able to say that I've had the privilege of knowing what it feels like. I just felt like between Twilight and my sister, you've been easy to... well... bond."

"And you think we're going to have that bond over something like a kiss?"

"It'll be my first!" She said, finally looking to me. "It won't be anything but a bond formed of it."

"Luna, I can't do this with you─"

"In Equestria, you can't!" She interrupted once more. "But here, in a world without those laws, a world of infinite possibilities, you can. That's why I chose to be here, because I'm free here. I'm free from my sister's name, free from the law, free from the judging eyes, and free from myself. And you still want to help in spite of everything you've gone through, how do I not reward that?"

"Not that I don't appreciate your offering..." Already, I could feel where this was headed. I had to prepare myself mentally for what was going to be something special for her. But in the same breath, I also weighted the possibility of this leading into a future development that would make things more difficult. And even if I had a mission to complete, I still had to make sure that things were going to be okay for her... for the both of us. "Luna... If I do this, I cannot promise you nor will I promise you that something will develop between us. The bond we share for this moment will only be for this moment, I can't give you any longer than that. Are you sure you're okay with this?"

Looking at the princess, I could see her heartbeat throbbing in her neck. As she stared at me, she started to tear up. "I'm fine... I know I'll probably fantasize about it later, but the parameters are acceptable. It'll just be a bittersweet memory, but one I can hold on to."

Commit.

That was the only word that rang through my mind for the time being. It was against my desire to add to the long list of drama I had, especially with Luna. But even in consideration of that, I had to find the strength to push through and commit to the situation. Even if I was uncomfortable for a moment, I had to set it aside. This was nothing more than a test, a way to break past what I felt was morally questionable. And even if there was no serious issues to come about it, this was the only way I could prove to myself that I could move ahead.

So I made the decision to commit, and run along as far as I could possibly get away with. "You do realize that we are about to do something that could get us in trouble. So I need you to promise me that we will not go any further than what I'm willing to give you."

Luna's wings began to unfurl, her breathing growing more erratic as she stayed motionless. She didn't even give me an answer before making a lunge at me with her head bowed down. I quickly jerked back to avoid her horn giving me any injury, politely navigating her away from poking my eye out. She looked up to me to see the brief panicked expression on my face before she started to fall into a nervous wreck. "I'm s-s-so sorry! I-I-I thought t-that I just─"

"Slow down." I calmly advised, seeing her inexperience goes for more ways than one. I politely placed my hand beneath her muzzle and ordered her. "Don't rush in. Lean with your head up."

The princess started to appear more discouraged than ever. "How disgraceful it is for me to be instructed on how to initiate a kiss."

Honestly, I was surprised. In any case with the way she was teasing me, I could easily assume that she wanted nothing more than to break a thousand year dry spell. But each of the times she was playing with me, she was always trying to ease her way in. But in each of those instances, I was either with my back on the bed or my butt on the floor. It all seemed so natural. But now, especially since I knew her secret, she was nervous. Everything that I'm used to seeing out of her had practically vanished, leaving behind a metaphorical sheltered young girl who doesn't know much about intimate encounters.

Then again, she did say that everything she studied were from books. So she doesn't know what kissing feels like. And I had to be the one to train her on that. I can't just simplify things, explain them in a way that would be easier to understand... I had to show her.

So I leaned in to lightly press my lips against hers. The princess shrieked as our lips met, her eyes wide open while I stopped guiding her muzzle. She became statuesque, letting me just remain in place for a while before I withdrew myself. Her eyes remained open with shock, her heartbeat showing more in her neck while she swallowed the nervousness down her throat.

"There. Now do you think you can do that?"

The princess pressed a hoof to her lips, repeatedly feeling for the absent texture of mine. She squeaked softly. "Your lips, they're so soft."

"Yours are quite full." I replied.

"What does it mean to have my lips full?" She asked.

I proceeded to compliment her even more. "It means that they are pleasing to the feel and the eye. You have wonderful lips."

The princess stopped being a statue for the time being and started showing the excitement I saw just moments earlier when I had first turned on the TV. "My lips are wonderful, does that mean that my lips are good to kiss?"

"They are."

Luna leaned in, kissing me head on, surprising me with her reply. This time she pressed even harder, almost trying to stamp her lips onto my face. I pulled away for a moment and placed a finger on her muzzle, halting her progress. "Is something wrong?"

"Try not to push so hard. Just let it linger for a while, let it develop naturally. When you kiss someone, you're not fighting for position as much as you are embracing the moment."

Luna then replied. "But I read that some wars are won by the clashing of lips, that if I were to assert my dominance that I would feel irresistible."

I feel like some context was probably overlooked in her logic. "Luna, when you fight for position, it's not so much as literally showing your strength. It's more like..." I reminded myself that it would be better to show her as opposed to telling her.

So instead of explaining it, I went in and kissed her once more. Instead of just leaning in to give her a long peck on the lips, I decided to let my natural motions dictate the flow. Her eyes bucked open a second time while her lips were more naturally separated from each other. I took the opportunity to then explore the princess for a little while, my tongue grazing against hers. My head tilted just a bit, hers moving the opposite way. I opened my eyes to catch a glimpse of her, finding that she was looking at me the entire time. I stopped for a second to see what was wrong, but she gave a single pant before succumbing to her natural instincts.

Her hooves began to wander, her wings started to encircle me, her lips welcoming mine. Her tongue found itself going on the offense, her eyes sealed themselves away from view while she drove her tongue in for mine. I replied in kind, seeking hers. She giggled for a second before we lost ourselves in each other for that moment. My hands encircled her, my fingers running up her back and onto her wings. She unleashed a breathy moan, seeking more of me as her magic quickly illuminated the bottom of my shirt to pull over my head. I raised my arms to accommodate her, and my hands started to wander around her body, eventually reaching to the base of her tail. She drew a sharp intake of air, indicating her arousal before forcing my head into the crook of her neck. Her hoof held me in the back of my shoulder, urging me to go further. Her magic also gave me instruction to ease my fingers inside of her.

Upon feeling the moistness against my fingers, I was suddenly jolted back into reality. It was then where I discovered that what we were doing was doing a lot more than toeing the line. I quickly withdrew myself from her, panting as I felt myself throbbing with desire. The shock of it all had reached the both of us, but it did nothing but excite the princess even more. I had to urge myself to calm down, to not let my arousal completely dictate my next course of action. The princess bit her lip as the tips of her wings started to reach back to her royal posterior. Her eyes locked onto me as she leaned back, letting her wings reveal to me the moist pink flesh of her most treasured item. As her wings exposed herself, I could see a trail of her essence run from within, only to land on the carpet beneath her. Her eyes glared at me with a beautiful aquamarine luminescence, her muzzle pointed downward while she stared.

"Claim your princess."

The intense state of arousal combined with the pungent musk she provided urged me to lunge forward. I clasped at the front of my jeans, knowing that I could not give her what I wanted to provide at the time. But I offered her my fingers as well as my condolences for my disobedience. As the first two I offered began to sink within her, she fell onto her back and reached her hooves around my body, clinging me into her. Her hips rocked with each push I offered. Her mind seemingly a muddled mess of jumbled words and incoherent pleas, she grew more and more impatient, demanding that I'd give her more.

Before I knew it, she was crying out in pain, almost like a whimpering dog begging for her next meal. Finally fed up with the frustration of my not providing her what she wanted for the time being, she made the attempt to use her magic to remove my pants. Quickly catching her, I placed my hand on her horn and let my stained fingers run the length of her horn. If the princess hadn't reached a new state of arousal before, she reached it here. I then craned in to kiss the base of her horn, causing her to cross her eyes in ecstasy.

But it wasn't enough.

Despite my distracting foreplay, she still had the mental fortitude to govern her magic in a second attempt to free my ever-growing ego. I whispered to her, coming up with an idea. "Where's your toy?"

As soon as I finished the question, the item popped right up beside her. I grabbed the toy and pushed it onto her, teasing her quivering entrance with it. The princess motioned her hips towards it, knowing what she wanted and pleading for it. Her eyes continued locking on to me while she didn't dare to stop herself. But even as I saw her enjoying herself, I started to feel the same dissatisfaction of not getting enough of what I wanted. I didn't just desire more, I craved for a release, and I wanted to get it any way I could.

Then a cruel idea came to mind.

I took the toy away from her, watching as she mewled with sadness that her precious toy was being taken away from her. But I would not deny her for long. Instead, I walked to the couch and sat down, holding the toy against my crotch, right on top of my completely turgid length. I adjusted myself accordingly, making sure I was somewhat comfortable in my jeans. Luna then got up and quickly walked over to me. I patted my lap, commanding her as if she was a dog.

That moment, I watched as the very sister to Princess Celestia herself climb herself to me, straddling over me. Ensuring that I was properly aligned, she gave me all of her countenance as the royal princess to the throne found herself a new seat to grace herself upon. I held myself steady while she sank down upon me, her hips meeting with mine, my hands feeling all of her upon landing.

She rose for a second seemingly to adjust herself, but her magic reactivated to hold my simulated length steadily in place while she freed my hands. The night princess sank once more and rose again, placing a foreleg on my shoulder while she started to work in a slow rhythm. Satisfied with my offering, she kissed me for a while before she increased her tempo. My legs began to anchor my lower half, allowing me to meet her halfway on her descent and retreat with her ascent.

My hands began to explore the many parts of her body as we synchronized our movements. The sweet coos of her voice made me feel a feverish desire to make her squeal even more. My only true desire was that I wished that I were truly inside of her. And when I closed my eyes, I imagined myself plunging inside her. Judging from the resistance I had with each withdrawal, I knew she was vice-like. Each time she sank, I could only imagine how warm she was, how inviting her touch was to me. I wanted to feel the presence of royalty surrounding me, milking me dry of every possible descendant I aimed to instill within her womb.

Her eyes clenched shut as her pace suddenly grew erratic. The princess seized for a few seconds, her joints locking up and her wings unfurling to engulf the entire length of my couch, stretching a couple of feet out on each end. I thrust myself forward, coming close to a release before she allowed the toy to fall out of her with an audible pop. As the toy freed itself from her, she also freed much of her own built-up tension all over my lap, gracing me with an abundance of her royal fragrance.

As for me, I was given the much more disappointing reward of a ruined orgasm, a small helping of my own seed spilling down my leg, trapped in my own jeans as opposed to experiencing the heavenly ascent of impossibly siring a royal heir, no matter the legitimacy.

As quickly as the session came to a boil, it ended as such.

Luna, descending back down from her much-sought-after climax, sat in my lap and kissed me tenderly, asserting no dominance and expressing only gratitude. Her royal highness laid on my chest, panting and reclaiming lost oxygen. Meanwhile I was sitting with the discomfort of having my jeans completely covered in female ejaculate on the outside, while my pants were slowly filling with my own cum on the inside. My pants weren't a party at this rate, more like a Sunday morning hangover after a win over at Texas Memorial. The princess would lie on my chest, kissing me tenderly for a few minutes before she came to a sudden realization.

This would probably be the only time I would ever hear her curse. "Shit! The scroll!"

I looked at her wearily, still feeling pretty awkward with the cocktail in my pants. "What?"

The princess stared at me, giggled for a moment before blushing bashfully. "I know I said that I would give you the scroll, but... it was really here the entire time."

"Really, where?" I asked.

The princess got up, knocking the toy out of my lap onto the floor while she stared in between my legs. "Well... it might be a bit... damaged."

I quickly got off of the couch and pulled one of the cushions back to reveal a soaking wet scroll lodged between the two cushions. I gently recovered the scroll, unfurling it to read some stained lettering and smudged ink. The words were barely legible now while a quarter of the equation was covered in Essence de Luna. Needless to say the musk that filled the room was twice as strong on the parchment, the same went for my sofa and my pants.

Luna smiled nervously as she muttered to herself. "At least this was memorable."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

After we finished, I tried to suggest the idea of cleaning myself up before I would escort her back to Canterlot. However, the maliciously deviant princess walked out before I could even turn around to head to my room. So I had to chase her down for a quick second before she finally threw on a cloaking spell. After that, I was pretty much walking around the parking lot smelling like sweat and shame. Mel was enjoying the comfort of her own shower when we arrived, so she didn't get a chance to catch anything that might've smelled funny.

Crossing back over to Canterlot, Luna teleported herself away to avoid being seen with me. Meanwhile, I was left with the indignity of needing to immediately report to Shining and Blueblood. I'm sure it had to have been a full day for those two to be waiting in one spot, and I'm sure questions have been asked. And judging from the higher rate of guard activity in the halls, it seemed that those questions were asked by a certain pink-pastel princess. Even the guards nearby had informed me that the search efforts to locate Shining was orchestrated by his wife. I vowed to assist in any way I could before quickly setting off.

Now while Mel didn't catch a hint of what debauchery was lingering on me, many of the guards and maids did.

As I walked, I could hear a few murmurs of maids asking who had gotten to me, who was the lucky one to spend an evening 'testing the new ride', or even a rumor that I had snuck out in disguise to visit the red-light district for some stress relief. The musings from the guards were a lot more terrifying. They had already seen many instances of Celestia visiting my room after-hours, how Celestia had ordered her old bed to be moved into my room. I've even heard the rumors going around that I had started trying to get too close to the princess, leaving only possibilities of scandalous behavior.

Then there were the rumors around Princess Luna. A few guards didn't miss the few occasions how she would openly approach me unlike she would with any other guard. How they heard the morning shenanigans involving her and Princess Celestia fighting over me inside my room. They even noted how she even once gloated about the possibility of spending time with me in front of my father before getting threatened to be relegated to my younger brother.

In case you haven't noticed, castle guards are hyper-observant to gossip, worse than the maids.

Everything around me sounded like a whisper as I walked past the checkpoints, even more rumors stirred since I was going out with such a strong smell. The guards at the gates started to observe my every move upon my exit, so I couldn't immediately head to the back alley. I had to buy some time by turning a corner and navigating my way around through the other side, where there was little to no guard presence save the ones high up on the battlements. And even they couldn't see me from where I was walking.

Finally, I reached the entrance and started to mumbled the words to myself. The bricks shook with each time I murmured the password, but they didn't move without a magical force being applied. I started to reach down for my pendant and quickly realized that it wasn't on my neck. I had actually forgotten it back in my apartment, probably yanked off with the shirt I had hastily threw back on trying not to chase after Luna in the cold December air. I cursed at myself, knowing that I had to go back and get that so that I could keep my access to the various passageways throughout the castle.

But then I had another idea. I looked back at my training from the past few days and remembered that I was effectively a magic user now. It didn't take me a second thought to hold my hand out and start chanting.

"I am the mare who arranges the blocks."

The soft white glow around my hand started to also touch one of the bricks, spreading to the many others that revealed the passageway to the lower caverns. I looked at my first instance of magical manipulation for the sole purpose of access, smiling with the thought that I could soon come up with other ways to use my newfound power.

As I entered into the hidden passage, I started to think back to an old video I watched regarding the theme song of Tetris and changed only the word 'man' for 'mare' and realized how funny the reference was. "♫I am the mare who arranges the blocks that descends u-pon me from. Up. A-bove. They come down, and I spin them around 'till they fit in the ground like. Hand. In. Glove.♪"

When I entered into the main chamber, I saw Blueblood quietly lounging about on the ground with a book levitated two feet away from his face. The stallion looked completely relaxed, his forelegs folded into his chest. Meanwhile Shining looked stressed beyond reasoning. He was staring at a chess board groaning to the other prince, his mane a bit out of order. "Best of seventy-five?"

"Shining, thirty-seven times is enough."

"I was close last time!" Shining argued.

"My sadism has limits, Armor-boy. I'm not Chrysalis." Blueblood replied, unmoved from the book he was reading.

The young prince had already reset the board and announced his move. "I'm going white this time. I just moved my pawn from E2 to E4."

The blond princess motionlessly called back. "Left knight to F6."

"Pawn from A2 to A4."

"Left knight to E4. Pawn's gone."

Blueblood looked bored out of his mind while Shining just moved his other pawn forward. "Pawn to A5."

"Left knight to C5." The prince stopped reading his book to peek up at Shining. "I know you're just now learning, but can you not send your pieces to their doom so quickly?"

I decided to interject on the young prince's behalf. "Left white knight to C3?" I called out.

The two jumped up, Blueblood slamming the book shut before standing back on all fours. Shining moved the piece before walking up to greet me. "Nondis, took you long enou─" But as the two stallions got closer, they started to immediately catch the stench I wore. The young prince covered his muzzle. "SWEET FAUST!"

Meanwhile, Blueblood didn't seem phased by it that much, instead starting to become aroused. "THAT'S a smell. Must say it's quite enviable."

I grimaced as I pulled the damaged scroll out of my pocket, handing it to the two princes. "Here's what you're looking for?"

Shining backed away two steps, trying not to get too close to the intense musk I was giving off. "I'm not touching that. Cadance has a very keen sense of smell. If that touches me, you'll need to start planning my funeral."

Blueblood chuckled as he took the scroll, unfurling it to read the contents. As he did, he caught another whiff of the scent. "So do you have a story to explain the overabundance of mare stench?"

I sighed for a moment and gritted my teeth before whispering. "Princess Luna."

Shining damn near jumped back, even his tail raised like a cat out of the shock. "YOU DIDN'T!" He shouted while the blond prince placed a hoof over his mouth with the anticipation of shock.

"Yeeeahh and no. She had a toy, I had a crotch to hold it against. Can't get busted for drilling if the drill ain't yours." I explained quietly, still trying to process what had just happened.

The prince planted his hooves together and pointed them at me. "So you've effectively bedded, but not entirely, Princess Luna?"

"In my world, on my apartment couch to be exact." I confessed before smelling myself again. "Definitely will be cleaning the upholstery this weekend."

Shining sat down as he rubbed his hooves together with a shrug. "I'd ask you how it felt, but since you said it wasn't your drill that did the digging... it would be kinda pointless."

"How do you feel?" Blueblood inquired like a giddy schoolchild. Shining even lined up beside him, almost with the same wonder in his eyes. "You've got the opportunity no other guard in history has ever had. I trust it was something worth seeing."

For some odd reason I imagined that one scene from the movie Grease, where the guys were talking up on the bleachers singing the words 'Tell me more, tell me more.' But it wasn't exactly a summer night worth writing about. "...It was fucking beautiful, I'll say it. But have you ever busted a nut and still somehow have a case of blue balls?"

The two stallions cringed at the thought. Shining bit his foreleg while tensing his hindlegs, generally compressing his entire body. "Oooh that's bad."

I unleashed a guttural groan, remembering the very moment she gave me the look that damn near took me in. "Shining, I wanted to say to myself that Celestia's clairvoyance was limited to just one dimension and run with it."

"You should've braved your theory, captain."

The three of us damn-near broke our necks looking back to the source of the voice, seeing a pair of aquamarine eyes glowing in the darkness of the shadows. The Princess of the Night then emerged from another hall with a most stern expression on her face.

"LUNA!?" Both Shining and I squawked out.

Blueblood stood slackjawed, surprised that she knew of our being here. "How did you─!?"

Princess Luna interrupted his question with another scroll embedded with a royal seal and tossed it beneath his hooves. "Changeling prisoner released on royal waivers? A human looking for a pony transformation spell? Surely you didn't think that I wouldn't add up the lies."

Both of the princes looked to one another before Blueblood felt his heart-rate increase. "So what now then?"

Still wearing that deathly glare she entered the room with, she continued to speak. "I'm sure my sister will come up with some means to appropriately punish the three of you for your insubordination." She said before softening her tone. "But I believe I would suffer a punishment for my actions towards our beloved captain over there."

"I'm sure." The blond prince responded, starting to take a sigh of relief.

"Just see that it does not happen again, Blueblood." The princess warned.

"Acknowledged."

The princess then narrowed her eyes towards the younger prince and pointed at him. "And as for you, Shining Armor, I am deeply disappointed that you would stoop to such behaviors, again." She said before adjusting her tone once more. "Do find the time to apologize to Cadance for your absence today, she has been deeply concerned with your lack of availability this evening and lack of communication. Even the guards have involved themselves to see that your whereabouts are known."

Already knowing how his wife was going to be, he immediately quoted his method of apology. "Bring her chocolate and wine. Got it."

Luna then turned to me, narrowing her eyes as she pointed to the ground beneath her, her voice suddenly growing darker. "As for you captain, come hither."

I could only assume that she was understandably upset over the conversation she had walked in on. Willing to accept my punishment, I slowly approached the princess. She pointed down again, commanding me to kneel before her. When I did, I was suddenly reintroduced to her lips. She didn't waste any time in intensifying the affair with her tongue before I stopped being shocked long enough to separate myself from her. "I thought you said we were done with that!"

The princess wore a smirk. "One more for the journey. Think of me when you dream tonight, I'll be sure to make up for your... *ahem* disappointing finale." She said, extending her wing towards my crotch for a short while. allowing her feathers to linger, she withdrew and started to go about her way. "Goodnight, captain."

Shining, still maintaining a considerable distance away from me, nodded slowly to match every word he spoke. "She is vicious."

Overhearing the young prince's statement, Luna turned back around to speak with me one last time. "Oh, and captain..." She said with a purely lighthearted tone. "Please do mind the airspace every time you feel you should enter into here. You'll never know when you'll be paying a visit. If I'm overhead and you don't mind your airspace, I may forget our little deal and hold you to another."

I closed my eyes and facepalmed. "Okay. But if you do that, your sister will forget to let me live."

"You'll live." She answered dismissively before disappearing into the shadows.

Blueblood took another sniff at me and looked back to the dark hall she vanished into and basked. "She is quite voracious."

"She is going to get me killed." I stressed.

The Next Day...

Luna never paid me that midnight visit in my dream. Instead, I was awoken to the sight of the sun beaming on my face once more. My breakfast was just as plainly as it was yesterday. Celestia seemingly didn't have any knowledge of what all took place yesterday nor did she have any suspicions, as she would've been the one to wake me up instead. I didn't even see Luna today, usually she'd be coming in from her night shift when I'm eating breakfast. I didn't even see Shining this morning, hear wind of Cadance either. From what one of the chefs told me, Blueblood paid a visit to a local eatery for his breakfast.

Guess he got tired of the new head chef blanching everything. Subtle flavors, my ass.

Jumping back into my usual schedule, I was reintroduced into monotony. Today seemed especially boring for a while, almost making me feel like being on intimate terms with a princess and getting thrown to parts unknown for deployment was a good thing for my sanity. Even being assigned in Ponyville, no day is the same. Here, it's like there's a strict schedule to follow up until the lunch hour. Then whatever command issues me from there on is what I'm locked in for until around six. Then I head to the cafeteria, eat my next blanched meal, go back to my room and finish my day.

But instead of spending my lunch hour reluctantly inserting wet cardboard in my mouth, I took Blueblood's example and ventured off the castle grounds. However, it seemed that little ordinance Celestia had out on me for dietary purposes had not expired. So I had to give some foal a few bits to go get me a few carrot dogs from one of the few street vendors. After that, I gave them a few bits for snacks and went about my way.

As I was about to stuff my face with one of those greasy, juicy carrot dogs, I saw a golden carriage make it's way down the street. Immediately, I placed the dogs behind me and saluted the passing carriage. A small crowd gathered as the pegasi-guided chariot wheeled up the avenue, carrying none other than Princess Celestia and Prince Blueblood. Her guards didn't even bat an eye, but the princess sure did.

She ordered the chariot to a stop. Blueblood glanced over to see my standing in place, giving the passing princess the mandatory salute. As she stepped off her chariot, the guards removed their reigns and escorted her through the crowd to see me. Blueblood walked closely behind her while she smiled kindly in her approach. "Good afternoon, captain. I suppose you were in search of some new scenery for your lunch break?"

I rolled with her assumption. "Yes ma'am. Sometimes I don't wanna just be stuck inside and not take in the fresh air, you know."

The princess continued smiling as her horn lit a golden glow. "Well, if you wanted fresher air, you could've made your way to the castle gardens. There is so much beauty there for you to enjoy and our grounds are further shielded from any impurities that may linger from the city."

I then replied. "That's true, but then the air starts to get a little too fresh. And then it's not as lively as it is outside of the keep."

The Princess of the Sun continued smiling while she spoke. "I see. So I take it that's your only reason for venturing out on a relatively short break?"

"Yes, your highness." I answered with a bow.

While I bowed, I felt something drip onto the back of my neck. I almost pulled a muscle over how fast I popped back up, only to find the carrot dogs I was hiding lingering over my head. The princess didn't even skip a beat as the items lingered in her possession. "And it wouldn't also happen to be for dietary intentions?"

I couldn't help but to inwardly frown while I lowered my head again. "Not at all, your highness."

The princess looked to the guards accompanying her and gave them both the greasy food items, to which they responded with stoic enthusiasm. Celestia shook her head. "Though I must say your enthusiasm for feeding your fellow guards is quite admirable, I feel that you should moderate your charitable donations more often."

As I saw the two pegasi munching on my ill-gotten goods, I could hear a sad clown singing for an opera in the back of my head. It felt like a tragedy had taken place. "Noted, your majesty."

Blueblood snickered behind her, trying his best not to make his amusement audible. She turned away from me, still wearing a smile on her face. "After all, my captain should not be eating all this stuff anyways. Your diet should be a lot friendlier to your purpose. I want you to remain in your best shape if you are to serve me. Can't have you getting lethargic and sick. Your holiday feast is still threatening you, so I must ensure that your intake is as healthy as possible."

"Right." I answered.

The princess opened one eye and glanced at me, almost with a false sulking expression. "And Melanie did inform me that you spent this past Sunday with your father and brothers for lunch at a buffet."

I felt myself wanting to curl into a ball as soon as I heard that. Damn, Mel, you gotta rat me out like that? "It was a family gathering." I replied.

"And a gathering you didn't make me aware of. So I'm afraid your diet will have to last even longer."

My jaw dropped as I started to fall on my knees, begging her. "Oh please, you gotta ease up on me. I can't deal with whoever's cooking in the kitchen nowadays. At first things tasted pretty good, but then it all started tasting like nothing. Please don't do me like that!"

The princess quirked an eyebrow before turning completely around to face me. "Are you begging me to change your menu?"

I nodded repeatedly, clasping my hands together. "Yes! Please, I can't stand the food anymore. I don't even eat fruit that's sweet. The closest I get to stuff like that are granny smith apples."

Celestia took a deep breath before responding. "Oh gracious... So I'm not the only one."

"Come again?" My eyes popped back up, looking at the seemingly-relieved princess.

The princess giggled. "I was just about to make the same comment. The food at the castle has gotten a bit dreadful! I know I said something about it earlier, but now I know that I'm not the only one getting tired of it!"

"Well to be frank, Blueblood did pardon himself to one of the other restaurants this morning." I added.

She looked back at the blond prince, sighed again and ordered me to rise to my feet. "Well I am happy to know that you have grievance with the direction of the culinary staff. I suppose I should be able to send a written review of her performance and allow her to resign."

"Resign?" I asked, questioning her word choice.

"It would be better to send a message that she left the kitchen under her own volition as opposed to my terminating her position outright." She said before grumbling to herself. "She even refused to bake me a cake last night, citing high sugar intake and various health concerns."

My stomach rumbled loudly, causing the princess' eyes to bulge. And just as I was about to look at my own stomach, I could hear the bell tower chiming in the distance, indicating my time had been up. One of the guards whispered to the high princess. "Your highness, we should be moving."

Blueblood once more tried to stifle a laugh while Celestia addressed me for the last time today. "I suppose you should probably keep your lunch locale limited to the palace only. Time is already scarce for you and I assure you that your selections are to improve from tomorrow on. But please do enjoy the rest of your day."

The princess walked away, leaving Blueblood behind to joke at my expense. "You'd be better off finding scraps in the back alley. Maybe after your shift is done, you can feast on the brick and mortar." I felt a bit taken aback by his statement as he seemingly meant it with some play of malice, but quickly realized he was talking about the secret passageway. The prince then added. "I'm more surprised that you're even the Captain of the Royal Guard still, thought you would've keeled over a month ago. Sad really."

I see he was also trying to play at some animosity being present. So I had to send that same vibe out for others to see. "Why don't you go suck a dick!"

The princess' eyes looked back at me, but not with the warmness I saw earlier. Instead it was cold and full of intent. She might not have said anything through her mouth, but she did portray it through her abilities. "No captain of mine shall use such an uncouth vernacular in my presence, especially directed to your leaders!"

Yeah, my word choice might not have been the best there. I lowered my head in apology. "Forgive me for my incompetence, your highness."

Blueblood gave me quite the bastard smile, touting his superiority over me as he trotted away. "Try not to starve to death, captain."

As convincing as his performance was, I still felt like his words were extremely personal to me.

Later that Evening...

I entered through the enchanted portal into the hidden chambers. When I arrived, I could see Shining holding a bag of ice on his head while Cadance stood over him. She looked over to me with surprise. Shining just groaned while he tried to adjust himself to a more comfortable position.

Cadance questioned me. "What are you doing here?"

"I didn't know you were having a meeting. Sorry, I'll just see myself out."

The princess didn't let me leave so casually and held me in place. "That isn't an answer. Why are you even here if you're not going to do anything to help us?"

I shrugged. "Lady, I am tired and hungry. Not in the mood."

Shining mumbled. "That won't stop her. Trust me, it just brought me more pain."

Cadance turned back to her husband. "So I'm hurting you because I'm wanting to keep you in my sights for today?"

"You are kinda extra clingy." I answered.

The princess turned to me and bellowed back. "HOW ABOUT YOU STAY OUT OF MY MARRIAGE!?"

"Like you stayed out of my relationship? Yeah, that's the rich hypocrisy I've been wanting to hear for so long."

The princess turned to her husband and shouted. "Shining, say something. Do something. Be a fucking husband for thirty damn seconds!"

Shining continued to rub his head. "Can't you two just keep it down?"

"See, even your husband's tired of your mouth moving." I replied harshly. "You should learn to take a hint and get off of his back before you end up pushing him away."

"Fuck you, I will. This is MY marriage─"

"Didn't Chrysalis marry him first?" I asked, going for as low of a blow as possible.

It was a decision I soon regretted.

With a loud shriek, the princess shot a blast from her horn into my stomach, sending me across the room until I hit the wall behind me. My head hit a row of books as I felt the wind completely evacuate from within my lungs. I tried to regain my bearings, but stumbled as the pink pony princess stormed out of the cavern. As soon as we heard the sounds of the bricks adjusting in the distance, I knew she had left for good.

I weakly replied to the young prince. "Sorry I had to do your wife like that."

"Oh no, you got what you asked for." Shining replied, trying to chuckle before grabbing at his head again. "Augh, I couldn't get her to leave me for five seconds. You did better than I could."

"Why is she so possessive today?" I asked. "And what caused your head to hurt so bad?"

"I was gone for most of the afternoon yesterday, remember?" He answered. "She's always like that when I don't tell her where I am for a while, it's been like that since the wedding. And moreso like that since she got pregnant. Now as for my head, Cadance spent half the day screaming about what I didn't say to Celestia the morning we had that meeting with her. So she decided to build that underneath yesterday's whole debacle and now I have two days worth of migraines."

"Well you're lucky I know what buttons to press to get her to storm off." I said, struggling to get back on my feet.

"Careful." He advised. "Press one too many and you might hit your self-destruct sequence."

"As long as you don't say what I say, it'll be fine."

"No shit. My saying that Chrysalis being the first to meet me at the alter is practically my begging for a divorce."

Blueblood appeared from one of the other halls, seemingly a bit frustrated. "Alright, Cadance is just storming outside of the alleyway entrance. What did you say to her, Nondis?"

"I said that Chrysalis married Shining first." I confessed, still trying to regain my breath from the massive hit I took to the solar plexus.

The blond prince grimaced. "You pressed THAT button? You must have a death wish."

"You kinda pressed one of mine earlier today too." I added, folding my arms. "How are you gonna hit me that low out in public and then laugh in my face when I get in trouble over it?"

Blueblood closed his eyes as he explained himself. "I only did what I had to do to sell the image that us royals were at odds with you still. To throw a retort of your caliber out in the open, in front of Celestia no less, was a pretty ballsy call."

"I went with my mind's first response, and got called out for it too. As soon as I got back to the castle, Celestia chewed me out over it and I was given a day to scrub every toilet on castle grounds."

Shining hummed before he spoke. "That reminds me of the time she busted me for trying to make you fail your final physical exam. I'm not too keen of cleaning up behind tourists."

I can only wonder how bad it will be. Guards aren't exactly a cut-and-clean group with maids around. "That's fun and all to think about, but I think we should get to talking before the bricks start moving again. I doubt Cadance knows what's going on right now."

"Noted." Blueblood performed an about face while he started to run down my next assignment. "With everything going on and seeing a desire to ensure your involvement is as limited as possible, Luna has elected to join us in our dealings."

And just as soon as he finished talking, Luna approached from the hall behind him. She gave me one look before continuing. "As some of you may already figured out, Cadance is slow on moving. So when she tries to throw together a plan, it doesn't usually work very well or come off as sophisticated due to her being distracted."

"And don't get me wrong, but I think her emotions play a lot on her intentions." I stated, speaking my honest mind. "If she's only moving based on emotions, then there's little room for consistency. Hell, the last time she called a meeting like this was when Twilight got in trouble over me."

"Still owe you for that." Shining groaned through his headache.

Luna continued. "And considering that you will be using the spell for the purpose of espionage, it would be better to have a caster who has practiced the spell on a number of occasions. And it would also help in clearing out some issues with the royal paperwork. Some warrants on higher officials are going to need a high clearance level to execute, and my status meets the quota. Hence I shall cast my lots with the likes of you all."

"Well welcome to the family." I said. "I guess we can pull off more stunts now."

Blueblood nodded. "Indeed. With Luna's signature, we can begin to pull some things together for a larger operation, if need be. After all, I have no power of warrant over those in service, only those incarcerated. Shining has no power over the constables outside of the Canterlot Precinct other than that of the Crystal Empire, and his military power only goes as high as his rank will allow it. "

"But since my power is second only to Celestia in very few circumstances, I can provide you the resources to ensure a safe and secure criminal apprehension or closure of operations." Luna concluded.

In other words, we have the master key to every precinct in the country. "Sounds promising, should I find something worth pursuing."

Shining stopped bemoaning his aching head to throw in his own opinion. "Well if you wanna start looking, then I suggest you get out to your meeting place with your VIP. Might not want to pass on that lead while it's still up for grabs."

I scrunched for a second before pulling out my phone and checking the date, realizing that Friday had come a lot sooner than I had expected. "Oh shit! I gotta go!"

Shining pointed to his left. "That way. Don't want you getting blasted against the racks by Cadance again. Her mood swings are about as extensive as the history of this nation."

"Thanks a bunch!" I called out, running out the direction I was pointed.

As I disappeared through the hallway, Blueblood leaned against one of the bookshelves with a sigh. "Too bad, I so wanted to give this spell a spin. It would've been funny to see the human stumble about in our anatomy for a change."

Luna snorted trying to hold back a laugh. "If it's anything like Alex's fumbling around, then it should've been most amusing."

Shining glanced back to the alleyway exit and grew dismayed. "I suppose I'll go soothe the raging beast. If I don't, she'll make tomorrow's headache even worse."

Luna's eyes expanded as she summoned a small pendant with a brightly glowing jewel from within her black chest plate. "Right! In speaking of headaches, I was suppose to give this back to Nondis. It would've been a pain to get back in this place without it."

Blueblood winced at the item and rubbed his chin. "Hmm... Isn't that the pendant he was supposed to be using in order to get in here?"

The princess confirmed Blueblood's concern. "I forgot to give this back to him. I snatched it off of the ground after we had finished up from our little negotiation."

Shining's ears perked up as he asked. "Wait, so if that was with you since yesterday... How the hell did he get in here then?"

While Blueblood and Shining stared at each other, the lunar princess smiled. "I suppose our captain is a fast learner."

One Hour Later...

I ran back to my room and threw on my captain's uniform, and darted out the front checkpoint. It took me a good thirty minutes to get back to the Sun Cryst Resort. I was not very energetic after that sprint, so I wasn't exactly looking for anything other than oxygen to fill my lungs. After a fifteen minute rest period, I jumped back into action and walked inside of the resort to the front desk.

The pony at the front desk immediately recognized me from the week prior and greeted me. "Greetings, sir. How may I be of service to you tonight?"

"Hey, is there a Blue Royal holding a reservation here?"

The pony behind the counter shook their head. "I'm afraid not, sir. There was one last week and they seem to have another reservation set up for next week in the presidential suite on the top floor."

I stomped my foot in a brief fit of irritation. "Okay, sorry for the interruption."

"No problem, come back to reserve a room soon, sir!"

"Okay." I lied, knowing how expensive it was to even get a room on the second floor.

I walked out of the lobby, feeling a sense of dread creeping up my spine. When I got outside, I couldn't help but lean against the glass window, thinking over a few things like where else she could be, what other venues would she be likely to visit, or even how many other places I could go to find her. And considering the multitude of places and establishments in Canterlot alone, I could only assume that any guess had to have been as good as trying to predict where one particular drop of rain would land in the midst of a hurricane.

All of a sudden, I felt something bulky bump into my leg. I looked down to see a really burly stallion with a scar over his right cheek staring back up at me. "Hey! Watch where you're going!"

Usually in an instance like this, my mind immediately thought of the worst case scenario for this encounter. At that point, I started to become somewhat confrontational. "Excuse me? I think you need to watch who you're trying to gyp out of their money! It might be Friday, but my check's a direct deposit."

The stallion, unlike many other thieves, became defensive. "Me, steal from you!? You must be out of your Faust-damned mind! You just need to watch where you're going! Ain't no need of starting trouble!"

"I'm stationary! I'm not even moving, how are you accusing me of starting shit!?" I asked as I was becoming increasingly irritated.

The stallion smirked and cocked an eyebrow. "So... trying to be a smart-ass, huh? Listen you lanky bastard, I don't care what you are. You're starting trouble on these streets, you're gonna get laid out on these streets."

As soon as he finished his sentence, another two stallions of a similar build appeared from behind a corner. Even behind me I could hear the hoofsteps of three other stallions. I turned around to see three unicorns, scarred and patched up almost like a group of pirates. One unicorn's horn lit up and produced a projection of a dagger. Another lit up to produce a baseball bat. The third created a tiny loaded crossbow.

The stallion that bumped into me earlier started speaking again. "Those guys ain't about no drama. They'll wipe you out and won't leave a trace of evidence back. You'll be dead in these streets."

I looked back to the hotel and shook my head. "You guys do realize we're on a public street, in front of a high-class hotel. There are witness all around you."

"That so?" The stallion looked around and smiled back at me. "Then tell me why nopony seems to even know we're here?"

I looked around the street, seeing the many ponies passing by, not even batting an eye at what was going on. I even peered into the lobby, seeing the attendant looking blankly towards my direction, as if they were bored out of their mind. There was even a pony that walked right past me as I reached my hand out to them, only to find that it phased completely through the unknowing mare. Something swelled in my hand as I reached for my gun. My eyes shifted between both the earth-pony brutes and unicorns. The weapon I reached for was completely gone, rendering me defenseless.

I backed into the window even more, realizing that I had no training to go against this kind of magic. I never studied any unicorns that were capable of projecting weapons as opposed to simply shooting magic beams at me. Holding weapons was a different task as I could easily counter the weapon altogether. But instead of being a tangible blade I could parry, it was metaphysical objects that could possibly solidify at the whim of it's caster. It was nether a magic I was exposed to, nor was it a practice I had ever heard of before.

If anything, this was checkmate.

The burly stallion and his minions encircled me, chuckling as their leader bragged about their victory. "Goes to show you that a snot-nosed recruit made a captain solely on connections to royals don't have a prayer in the real world. You're good for talking up a storm, stirring a crowd, but nowhere near as good as putting your mouth where the money is."

Probably for the first time since Arimaspi Mountain, I felt the fear that consumed me while my back was against a tree. "What do want from me?" I asked.

"Your life. Human parts would catch a ballsy bounty at the southern market exchange. Few hundred thousand just for your hand."

Other voices chimed out around me. "I heard he's pretty lucky dodging all that death. I bet his feet's worth a fortune!"

"The anatomical community would love to pick at his brains. His head would go for an easy two million."

One of the unicorns smirked as he got closer with his dagger. "Hey guys, he's got a bit of a cycle going. A human with a magic reservoir, oh that's gotta be primetime bits."

The stallion leading the pack laughed with a raspy quality, jumping at me and placing his hoof on the glass window beside me. "...Alright, we made our point, boys."

I stood paralyzed for a second while the six stallions started to back away and discard their weapons. I looked at them with timid confusion. "Wa-a-wha-what's g-going on?"

"Just a little evaluation." At last, there was one voice I could seemingly recognize coming from within the hotel. Almost like she just got through with a casual stroll, Blue Royal appeared from out of the lobby with her horn glowing the same color as her green eyes. "I hired these guys to show you some of the potential dangers of getting in too deep at the wrong side of town."

The leading stallion gave another raspy chuckle. "Told ya the runt ain't got the goods to make it past one round."

One of the unicorns appeared to be disappointed, pulling out a small sack of bits. "And this is the guy who wiped over a hundred arimaspi? Sheesh, those things are some serious pushovers to be twenty-feet tall."

"I heard you did away with Gunther. Too bad he got sent to his death over you."

"Gunther?" I questioned.

Blue Royal quietly answered. "I'm sure you have recollection of the griffon assassin that was sent to you by Count DuMoneé, right?"

How could I forget, left one hell of a lasting impression. So long-lasting that I'm shitting at least five hours earlier than usual. "COUNT SENT THAT BASTARD TO ME!?" I answered angrily.

One of the other unicorns started to lament over the dead griffon. "Ah yeah, I remember he turned that one guy into a breathing puppet, the fucking dipshit didn't even know his brother was already a corpse looking at him. I'm surprised he didn't question why he wasn't talking."

...We're in some really bad company.

The head of the group shrugged nonchalantly. "He'll be missed. But more money for the rest of us." The group started laughing, completely ignorant to the fact that I was standing right beside them, all of them except the leader who nudged my leg. "But what the hell. Maybe the next time we meet up, Captain Entitled, we'll be on a contract for your head. Best remember that before getting too friendly."

The unicorn who approached me with the dagger earlier walked beside me. "After all, in our world, there are no such things as friends, unlike the troupe of ponies surrounding your ex-girlfriend. We only have... drinking partners."

"What happens if you get contracted to kill one of those so-called 'drinking partners'?" I asked, growing morbidly curious despite my unease.

"Then it's whatever. He or she who drinks last, drinks best. Just business, got a job, get paid, no complaints."

The stallions seemed completely blunt to the thought of taking a life or two. I never once considered myself a personality who doesn't weigh those kinds of things, especially when it came to humans and ponies. If anything, my disdain for changelings all came from a quick decision to defend myself or die not doing so, and it's similar for the arimaspi. Only my reoccurring experiences with those species drove me to not have a second thought fighting them. But with those guys, it was like they abandoned whatever humanity they had left, cheapening the worth of a living soul and exchanging that value for monetary gains.

Even the griffon I fought against, he didn't seem to care how many lives he put in danger going after me. I was just a target while everyone else was just 'in the way'. It was so unusual to feel so small, even as I tower over every pony in this world. But in the scope of things, I knew I had a lot to pick up on it quickly or I'd end up finding myself being a lot smaller than I'd rather be.

And Blue Royal was eager to show me that. "So how's my favorite human doing, other than your encounter with the welcoming committee?" She asked with quite possibly the brightest smile that could best define the word 'contradiction'.

As soon as the magic of her horn dissipated, I could see ponies across the street glancing over at me standing here. Some even waved at me, eagerly awaiting me to wave back. The attendant at the counter even saw me standing before the entrance and looked for a while, noticing the mare talking to me.

"What was that spell?" I asked.

The mare didn't even skip a beat with her energy. "Just a little areal distortion spell, no one can see us or hear us as long as we're in the field." She answered, grabbing my hand to place against hers. "And in speaking of spells, you seemed to have gotten a hold of a few."

...Honestly, how much trouble did I just walk into?

We walked further into town, settling in at the park downtown. It started to be fewer foals and many more adults looking to either have some casual fun or possibly romanticize the night. One thing that was for certain, there were a lot of couples strolling through the park this evening. I think there was one couple standing by the fountain, the stallion fumbling around with his saddlebags while looking at the mare nervously.

Meantime, I was getting the usual treatment from the press ponies hiding in the bushes nearby. But a simple wave forward with a smile, Blue Royal lured out the paparazzi and gave them a small bribe of bits to leave us be. She then took a second to notice my rumbling stomach and walked off to a nearby food kiosk. I brought my curious eyes back to the couple by the fountain. Instead of looking like he was about to drop something out of clumsiness, he looked somber as a ring was held in his hoof. Sadly, the mare with him closed the box and shook her head. The depressed stallion put the ring away back into his saddlebags, while the mare smiled as best as she could while turning him down. She gave him a kiss on the cheek before walking away for the night.

I got up and started walking towards the poor guy, but realizing it was a familiar face. "Single File?"

The stallion chuckled lightly with his reply. "Heh, I didn't think I would see you here."

I knelt by him and placed my arm around him. "You good, buddy?"

"Yeah... Just some hopeless romantic nonsense. Nothing to worry about."

"I saw you a bit earlier. You did pretty good to overcome your jitters enough to pop the big one on her."

The young stallion sighed. "If you call that disaster of a proposal 'good' then I want to see what's bad to you."

"She's turning down a really great prospect. You got a career ahead of you, a solid income, a place to live, and someone who's doing their best to commit to the cause."

"She just said that she wasn't ready." He answered, looking towards the mare holding a shopping bag full of scarves and gifts. "I guess she didn't think I would commit to her so earnestly. I should've given her more space."

I kept my eye on her as she wandered around a tree, looking at a much bulkier stallion. The stallion quirked an eyebrow before smiling and taking her by the foreleg, escorting her down the street. I kissed my teeth with moderate disgust. "Maybe she's the wrong one to be holding on to." I said pointing at the couple for Single File to see.

I felt nothing but empathy for the poor guy as his world came crashing down. I watched him whisper her name for one second, and the screaming it the next, only for her to speed up her walk with her more aesthetically pleasing choice for an escort. "Figures... I always said she was too well-pampered. I mean she never really asked me for... you know... attention."

I rubbed the stallions head, disheveling his mane a little. "Ah, fuck that bitch. You been said she had problems going steady with you. Do you know how many girls there are here in town you can talk to?"

"None that's spent over three years dealing with me." He replied.

"And guess what, your hours are more flexible so you can dedicate more of your time with that one. And if she has a complaint about you going to your job, then that's not the one to be holding on to. It's about where she wants to be, not where she is, and the place she should want to be is with you. That lady, she ain't about you and she's gonna miss out."

The stallion took a deep breath before starting to make his way away from the fountain. "I get it... I just need some time to be alone, think things through."

"Drop by the castle if you ever need to talk!" I called out as he walked along the path leading out of the park.

The stallion dragged on slowly, as if he was chanting a dirge to his happiness. Before I could say anything else about it, the scent of carrot dogs graced my nostrils. I looked beside me to see the young blue unicorn mare holding one for me to have. She was apparently watching me talk with Single File. "You're far too kind."

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

She shrugged as she spoke. "I guess it's not often you see a random stranger walking up to another random stranger giving love advice. He seemed pretty down, what happened?"

"Some material chick with no common sense or decency walking away from a good life." I replied before looking to her. "Hey, do you know of─"

"All my contacts are off limits for your request." She announced harshly. "And I don't do stallions either, so nice try trying to play wingpony."

"A guy can try." I said before munching down on the carrot dog.

She sat at the lip of the fountain, pulling out a small manila envelope that was sealed by button-and-thread. When she opened it, she immediately changed to a business-mindset as opposed to the casual care-free approach she had for most of the evening. "Now let's debrief you on your target. The bastard you're going after is going to give you a lot of headway in your objective. But he doesn't go out and about on any given day, it has to be a special event taking place or he's running low on his usual energy.

Flicking my hands in the fountain for a quick rinse after realizing I had no napkins to use, I questioned her motive for me going after him. "So what is it about this guy you don't like? Can't say it's just because of mutual interests."

"More so than you know. He's the guy that helped with some of the red tape operations endangering your life and the life of an element bearer. You could say he did a lot of the behind-the-scenes work."

"I thought Count DuMoneé did all of that by himself." I said, wiping my hands against my pants.

"Count DuMoneé did signed on it, orchestrated the plot, but did not go about this plan on his own. He had assistance in convincing the brass of the guards to turn a blind eye to the names on the paper."

"And this guy has influence and how?" I inquired.

"One of the guards in the higher chain of command happens to be his cousin."

Typical good-old-boys networking. "So shouldn't I bring up an investigation on this particular officer instead?"

"That's fine, if you want to encounter one of those same thugs you saw earlier."

I looked down to my waist and saw the gun still concealed in my waistband. "Fair enough, don't want to fight anymore assassins."

"Smart choice." She said, giving me the envelope filled with pictures.

Apparently they were images of him wearing shades and a wig, attending what appeared to be a gladiatorial arena, all taken from far behind him in what appeared to be the upper rafters. With him was a young effeminate stallion and seemingly his twin sister And the more I sifted through the pictures, the more explicit they became. My eyes had become the size of dinner plates as I saw him biting his lip, burying himself inside the stallion while the twin sister had her legs splayed before her brother, letting him clean the mess the politician left inside of her.

I flipped over to the next picture and saw him pitched over the stallion's body, the sister coiling the politician's mane around her hoof as she held him to the ground to kiss her hooves. I could also see in the background the grizzly image of a dead stallion laying on the floor of the arena with a knife in his head, while another blood-stained stallion victoriously stood by the corpse.

I know I heard some things about this dark underworld, but I didn't really think it to be as bad as advertised. "Holy hell, this guy's a total pervert." I said, trying not to show any kind of shock.

"I can assure you, Count held him close in his back pocket. If you want to go after the next biggest threat to your attempt to clean house, this is it."

I went back to the first photo, seeing the politician smiling while he wrapped his hoof around the young stallion. The mare was walking at least a good three feet away from the two. "I wonder if Count was as nasty as this guy here."

Blue wouldn't say anything for several seconds before whispering to herself. "Putrid filth."

I could see on her face the absolute hatred and contempt she had for the deceased politician. I was more amazed that I had found someone who legitimately hated him more than I ever could have. But seeing the unfamiliar scowl she wore made me see that it was time for a much-needed subject change. "So uh... that spell from earlier. How did you learn that one?"

The mare didn't even budge, remaining quiet for a while before she shook herself out of her trance, jumping back to the present. "I'm sorry, I zoned out for a second. What did you ask me?"

"I was asking you about that spell."

"What spell?" She asked obliviously.

"The spell from earlier, how did you learn it?"

"Oh." She replied despondently. She took a while to answer before finally speaking again. "Well, it's something I picked up from a former teacher."

"Pretty scary stuff. I didn't know you could control who's aware of what's going on in front of them." I said, thinking about how there could've been no witnesses to my potentially getting murdered.

"You'd have to have a level seven caster's license to be legal to pull that one off. And even then, you'd better have that license renewed every year."

"Level seven... caster?" I questioned.

The mare hummed unimpressed. "I see. Guards are typically trained to deal with threats levels one through four."

"They tell us to leave level fives to the specialists or those with the power to combat those kinds of threats." I answered.

"You do realize that to hold your position, you're required to use or counter against level five magic or higher."

I wouldn't suppose human weaponry counts as a counter until recently. "I guess, I mean I haven't gone against threats of that caliber."

"Queen Chrysalis is labeled as a level eight."

Well that just shut me up real quick. "...Huh?"

The blue mare shook her head. "Maybe you should consider some training before getting too deep into this."

I suppose that would be for the better. At least then I should be able to fare a little better than I did earlier this evening. "Who do you recommend?"

The mare paused for a moment, tapping her hoof against her chin until she came up with an idea. "Ah! I just so happen to have a friend who could help you in learning some of the basics of high-level magic combat."

I grew excited before realizing that this was a league I just happen to walk into recently. So I tempered my own expectations and that of hers. "Well to be honest, I am an non-magic species dealing with magical creatures on the daily."

"With a weak but loadable magic repertoire. Basic levitation can only get you so far, so you're gonna have to grind for your goods. And when it comes to pulling things out of beginners, I can't even begin to compare myself to him."

So she's putting me with a guy who can push me to a higher level, or at least high enough to where I can properly defend myself without the use of a gun. Fair enough, my gun should be a trump card in all honesty as opposed to being my go-to in this case. "So you know the guy?"

"Childhood friends. He works with the city council. Most of his afternoons are free, so you should be able to jump on board with some training sessions. What time are you usually off?"

"Six in the evening." I answered.

"Monday through Thursday should be a lock, Friday to Sunday are no-go's. I'm sure he'd be more than happy to open his study up to you. Pay him a visit tomorrow morning at eleven, I'll tell him to expect you."

"But shouldn't I be going after this guy?" I asked, holding the pictures of the politician.

"Self-defense first, pursuit second." She answered sternly, summoning up a card with a golden seal of Canterlot's emblem on the background. I read the name at the top of the card.

...And I couldn't help but laugh. "Alabaster Charm... I actually met this guy at a gathering for the Canterlot City Centennial."

"The one where you and Princess Cadance fell at odds with one another." She added.

I did do anything but sigh at that. "Yeah, that mess. But the address at the bottom is his mailing address right?"

"Indeed it is, at his estate."

"Okay. Well I'll take my off day and pay him a friendly social visit."

1190 Overlook Boulevard
High Class Row, Uptown Canterlot
Later that Night...

The blue mare walked in from her meeting with the human guard with a smile on her face. As she walked through the door, she was dancing happily with his picture in tow, an image of him taken during the party from the week prior. She swirled around, almost lost in her own rhythm before stopping to place the photo back on the wall she grabbed it from. As she safely placed the picture frame back on the wall, she gave the human in the picture a quick kiss before scurrying up the stairs.

With every three stairs was a photo of a fond memory. One was spent with another stallion who worked with her on her business ventures. Another was of her standing next to a member of the city council. The next one was her getting a cameo shot with Princess Celestia in the background. Then a picture she took at the Grand Galloping Gala, an improvised selfie with Blueblood being covered in cake and icing with her snickering at the forefront.

But the higher she went, the quicker her smile went away.

A picture of her standing next to the same member of the city council, but her face noticeably saddened. A picture of her leaning against her new office door, saddened. Her cutting a ribbon at her new headquarters, saddened.

Her pace started to speed up when she got to the top of the stairs, bypassing a few more photos.

A picture of her standing next to her fellow graduates from her high school, smiling so brightly in her cap and gown. A picture of her posing next to her loving aunt. A picture of her sitting happily with her friends.

Her eyes clenched shut as she walked past her bathroom.

A partially-torn family photo. A picture of her standing next to an older colt. A photo of her mother, plainly and subdued, yet outlined with beautiful flowers. A picture of her older brother standing next to her held by their loving mother, as plainly as she was but wearing the warmest of smiles.

She threw the door to her bedroom open, shutting it closed as she entered. She looked around her room, seeing the many torn pictures marked with lipstick and marker. Cuts from broken glass, scissors, and dinner knives designed many of the pictures around her room. Damaged frames appeared to be a frequent haphazard when it came to walking around. The only frame that seemed unscathed was one holding an old newspaper article with a headline reading as such.

SUICIDE!

Multi-Million Dollar Heiress Found Deceased In Home

With a lifeless dive, the young mare flopped into her bed face first. While her face was buried in her pillows, she immediately recounted the one question the human had asked of her.

"That spell from earlier, how did you learn it?"

Unknown Manor
Canterlot Heights
Four Years Ago...

In a closed off study room of a vastly large manor, a blue mare's jaw was held shut as she felt her body being repeatedly shoved forward. Her face planted on the ground as her flanks were raised high into the air. Her eyes, filled with both grief and questioning, stared ceaselessly forward as her world was rocked back and forth. The sound of flesh clashing against flesh filled the room, a pair of hindlegs stumbling to keep balance as hers were forced in place. Her tail pulled upon forcefully to disallow her from falling to the ground as the wooden floors creaked beneath her.

Arrhythmic gasps from above fell to her ears as his breath warmed the nape of her neck. Airy grunts with every thrust forward, he reached as deep as he could before the impending arrival of his apex. Without a second thought, he impelled every inch within her, shuddering as his moment came. He didn't moan. Just shook. Her head still lied on the ground, waiting for the moment he freed himself of her. While she waited, she could feel the foreign warmth fill her in places she never knew herself having. And as she felt him withdraw again, he gave one final push to solidify his claim.

The wood stopped creaking from the shifting of their weight long enough for the distant mare to hear the sounds of his unwanted gift dripping from within her onto the old hardwood floor. The soft pitter-patter of off-white trickling down her haunches and collecting into a growing puddle. The stallion, quietly satisfied with his time, dismounted her and released her from her bindings. She collapsed to the ground with a lumbering thud as the stallion circled around to see her face. Only seeing his hooves, she watched as her world started to blur with tears welling in her own eyes. The shame that overwhelmed her, the confusion, the dismay that introduced her to a voice that growled at her venomously.

"Pity... to see such beauty... squandered on you..."

Upon leaving, his horn stopped glowing and he unceremoniously exited the room, leaving her to mourn the loss of her innocence. The aura fell from around her and the birds sitting upon the window sill flew off while she stumbled forward, falling out of grief. She tried to question herself, but her pleas fell short to sobs.

It was from his words and his actions, she learned to never trust a stallion, not ever again.

Present day...

Blue Royal's eyes swelled with the same tears she felt herself give way to as the disgusting memory came back to remind her of the purpose for her motivation. She wiped her eyes, rested her head on her pillow once more. After a moment of reflection, she closed her eyes to hearken back to the memories that would often comfort her the most. Her hoof clasped at the pillows and sheets, covering her head with much of her bedding, hoping to soothe herself to slumber. With an infant-like mewl, she called out to her dreams.

"Mom... I need your help..."

Author's Note

Well, at least this past month was a lot more friendly. I still had rehearsals and junk, but I had a little more free time and drive to write this go around.

As for next chapter... Well, I'll be seeing you guys pretty sooner than usual. Thanks for reading thus far. Sorry if I don't seem to have much to say this time. But I do wish to see all of you next time, if you'd still prefer it.

Thank you for the five years of memories and comments, it's been fun writing for you guys, despite my not being the best at it.

Chapter LXXXV

1190 Overlook Boulevard
High Class Row, Uptown Canterlot
The Next Morning...

The young lady snored with complete abandon as her mouth hung agape, drool falling from the side of her lips. The mare's eyes were almost glued shut as motionless as she was. Her foreleg slung over the side of the bed while the covers jumbled over her posterior. As opposed to the saddened pony she was the night prior, she was very serene in her current state. The only thing that seemed to break that spell was the sound of the alarm next to her bed.

With a rhythmic blaring pulse, the high pitched buzz attacked her dreams and caused her to jump up out of her bed. Her first words to the day were an annoyed groan. "I'm awake!" Though despite her cry, she was far from her declared state of being. She shifted for a second and soon found herself tumbling to the ground, meeting with the carpet beneath. Her eyes parted slowly as the crust on her eyes lengthened the simple process. She promptly wiped her eyes and deactivated her alarm.

The sound of the alarm ceased to be, giving her a moment of silence while she snuck back into the comfort of her bed. But her silence soon found a usurper. The door bell rang brightly through her condo, adding to her agitation. The mare screamed in anguish as she threw the covers off of her and made her way out of her room. As she walked down the stairs, she summoned a brush and a moistened face rag to clean the sleep off of her face. When she arrived at the door, she yanked it open to greet a smiling face at her doorstep.

"Good morning!" The stallion declared so cheerfully.

The mare gave him a deathly glare with a single equine snort. "Alabaster, do you know what time it is?"

"7:31 in the morning, as per usual?" He answered with an unchanged cheerful demeanor.

"Good. Now tell me what day of the week it is."

"Saturday, of course." He answered.

The mare became more incensed that his smile seemed to be the only thing from stopping her from having a peaceful morning, almost as if he was mocking her. "Well if it is 7:31 on a Saturday morning, don't you think common sense would tell you to find another route to jog on that DOESN'T INVOLVE VISITING ME EVERY DAMN MORNING!?"

The stallion walked up to the mare and hugged her. "Of course not! It tells me to stop you from crawling back under your covers every time your alarm goes off after you have a night of drinking. Your businesses don't run themselves."

"Again. SATURDAY." She stressed.

"Good habits are an indicator of a healthy lifestyle."

The mare begrudgingly hugged the stallion back. "Don't you have some city work to be tending to? The city runs twenty-four hours a day."

"Again, Saturday." He replied, mocking her earlier statement. "And I got a message from my head butler that you wanted to inform me of something."

The mare yawned. "Did I... Oh yeah. The Captain of the Royal Guard will be paying you a visit this morning."

The stallion's smile weakened for a moment. "Oh my, is it something serious?"

"No, just magic related. I'm not good at the whole teaching thing as much as I am at the doing."

"And you pointed him towards me." The stallion muttered placing a hoof at his forehead.

"Because you're my go-to guy." Blue added with a forced smile.

The white stallion grimaced. "Me teaching a human magic, you're doing the most to me here."

"Pretty please?" She asked with her best imitation of puppy dog eyes.

The stallion rolled his eyes with a stifled chuckle. "Okay, you get this one out of me."

"I knew you couldn't resist the opportunity." The mare replied with a smirk.

"As if there ever was one." The stallion replied with a forlorn sigh. "I'll notify Handy Dandy immediately upon my return."

"I also told him you wanted your weekends free. So he'll probably try to work a schedule around that."

"My girl!" He replied with a grateful nudge. "You know me too well."

"We've known each other for years. What do you expect?"

"You to know that I'm coming to make sure you're up bright and early every morning." The stallion replied with a sinister smile directed to his best friend.

She did not reciprocate the show of affection. "That there, that needs to stop."

"Of all the pieces of real estate you own, you can never come to own my habits."

"Alabastard, get the hell off my lawn." She said as her next door neighbor walked out their front door. The mare passed by to grab the newspaper at the front of the house neatly wrapped in plastic. The mare looked back up to see the two ponies at the front porch and waved good morning.

"You know you have some nice neighbors. You should greet them more often."

The mare scoffed. "What are you, my─"

"Uncle. I'm more like your uncle." The stallion quickly replied. "But try to keep yourself out of too much trouble."

The mare shrugged nonchalantly. "If I ever did get in trouble, you'd know where to find me."

"Of course."

The stallion started up his pace and started trotting down the road, leaving the tired Blue Royal to lean against the door frame. She shook her head and yawned. The next door neighbor then called out to her. "Honey, you look tired."

"You have no idea, lady."

"Perhaps a cup of coffee will set you off then?" The mare offered.

"No thank you. But good morning to you." Blue replied, promptly walking back in her condo and shutting the front door.

She walked up the stairs and stared at the portrait of her standing next to the human. The little bit of energy she had within her swelled a bit before something popped up in her mind. An audible bell went off in her head as her eyes bucked open for a second, causing her to gallop up the stairs into her bedroom. She stared at the picture of the plainly-looking mare surrounded by roses and smiled her usual smile. But this time, her eyes were brimming with innocence and youth as she stared at the picture.

"Good morning, mom. Thanks for the good dreams again."

Meanwhile at Canterlot Castle...

As I stared at the stalks of celery and the helping of bland oatmeal, I felt my stomach rumble. Celestia looked at her newspaper and read up on the headlines. Shining was accompanied by Cadance, who pretty much stared daggers at me the entire time. Luna sipped her tea, glancing at me on occasion before going back to her beverage. Blueblood was nowhere to be seen, but all seven of his wives made a rare appearance.

All of them bore witness to my defiance against the chef. My stomach rumbled on and off, again and again. But instead of eating the food placed in front of me, I just guzzled down three glasses of water. Whenever a server asked me if my food was satisfactory, I told them that the chef needed to add a certain ingredient or two, they would then inform her of my complaint, and she would send them out with a small note letting me know that my food was meant to be subtle in taste and sensitive in texture.

I didn't think I would have to resort to a hunger strike to get my point across.

Celestia slammed the newspaper on the table and chided me. "Captain, you hunger. Eat your food."

Shining continued to sit quietly while his wife spoke. "You know, there are guards on deployment who'd wish they could get the treatment you're getting right now. I'll even go as far as to say that they deserve more than you, but here you are taking their privileges away from them, acting like a spoiled filly."

I grabbed my spoon and lightly dipped it in the oatmeal to gather a small amount. I stared at it for a few seconds before I held my breath and ate the mess on my spoon. As soon as the underwhelming taste of oat and hot water laced my tongue, I pushed the bowl away. "I don't understand. The food here used to be so wonderful, so full of flavor and memories. Now it's just prison gruel."

One of Blueblood's wives snickered as she muttered to the others. "And here I thought Blueblood was the one who was strict about his food."

I placed the spoon next to the bowl. "Celestia, is there any way I can get a meat dish sometime between now and this afternoon?"

"Not likely if you waste your food like this." She answered coldly. "Now please eat something, I cannot have you starving yourself."

I went back to staring at my food again, this time with the intention to motivate myself to eat. I never really had to do this in my life, considering mom's cooking. And even when I was younger, my eating veggies was always a problem until my dad threatened to beat my ass. And all of that was an easier process as opposed to this.

Not wanting to drag things along, I shoveled a large wad of unseasoned oatmeal into my mouth and soldiered through it. After I was done, I went through the celery stalks, got up from my seat and made my way out. Celestia stopped me before I walked out of the room. "Where are you going now?"

"I have an appointment with an acquaintance downtown. I'm headed over that way."

"For what purpose?" Celestia asked.

"Learning more about myself. I can assure you none of it is food-related, if that was your concern."

Cadance muttered under her breath. "It's about time you got counseling for your attitude."

I looked over to the princess who made the comment and took a deep breath, turned my head forward, and walked away. When I closed the door, I could hear Celestia immediately turn her attention to her niece. "I do not know what has come between the two of you, but I want it to end. I do not need my captain to harbor personal hostilities towards us. That goes to Blueblood as well."

"Well it's not my fault he decides to act like a child!"

On that note, I started to briskly walk down the hall to make my way to the exit. The last thing I needed to hear was Cadance's mouth dragging me with every chance she gets. Even if I'm trying to be adversarial to her for the sake of a performance, it was starting to become hard to cope with her legitimately disliking me with every passing day. So when I stepped outside of the castle grounds, I left all of my frustrations at the checkpoint, took a few breaths, and marched forward with a smile knowing that I was in for some new developments in my life.

After all, I didn't need the bad juju to throw off my magic lessons today.

I spent most of my time walking around, asking for directions to Canterlot Heights. But what had surprised me is that the name 'Canterlot Heights' didn't just come about because of some snob wanting to live in exclusive luxury. It was named as such because it was at an elevation higher than most of Canterlot's buildings. The streets themselves were at a higher altitude.

I should probably explain.

Canterlot isn't just a city on the side of the mountain. It was founded because of the rich trove of jewels and gems hidden within the mountain, much of it still being mined out today. And as easily as those mines tunnel about the mountain, Canterlot is as much as those mines and the low-mid section of Mt. Faust itself. So to shorten the explanation, Canterlot actually goes around and through the mountain. And on the side where only the eyes of Celestia can see from the edge of her balcony, there was this unspoken part of the city. And it was the hidden jewel of the elite.

Top floors of the city's highest buildings, exclusive spas where one would expect to meet royals, the grocery comprised of the freshest ingredients set at the most exorbitant prices, all of that was just the gold set on display at the local jeweler. The real stuff that's locked behind a safe, or equivalently what would be clenched behind the greedy fingers of a self-absorbed billionaire, this is the world they want you to see from magazine pictures, the life that many impressionable bodies will seek to have for themselves. This is the fantasy that gives breath to ambition, to greed, to violence.

This is a place that took damn near three hours to get access to, for what was considered to be an hour's length running.

Each time I came across a checkpoint before a certain passage or tunnel, I had to explain who I was sent by and who I was being sent to. Even by guard standards, security was far more strict. They even had a toll you had to pay to access the exit of the final tunnel that lead to the exclusive suburb. And it took more time for me to walk down the street, across massive yards of grass with almost a small castle plotted to each estate.

Many of them were of a Victorian style, complete with gated entrances and massive walls too high to climb and too thorny to even get close to. The greenery that the walls were enshrouded with was all a ruse for the thorns and prickly things underneath, a natural barrier to deter any trespassers from entering. And if a house was surrounded by a metal fence, be aware that there were electrical currents running along them.

These houses alone had better security systems than the royal palace itself, and that was depressing.

After half an hour of walking down a long and winding road, I came across a brick-walled barrier with a black iron gate. At the left column of the entrance was a small speaker with a red button underneath. I looked to the numbers lining the right-side column, finally matching the address on the card I was given. I pressed the button, producing a low-pitch buzz. I released it and waited until a voice started to announce themselves through the speaker.

"Hmmyes, hello. To whom may I be addressing?" Asked what I assumed to be a butler with an accent similar to the one used by Rarity.

"Captain Nondis P. Haines of the Royal Guard. I was asked to pay a visit to sir Alabaster Charm." I answered loudly.

"Hmmyes, I suppose that you would be coming with a warrant, good sire?"

"No sir, just a friendly visit." I declared.

"With all due respect, sire, it is unlawful to present one's self to a stated residence without any warrant for search or seizure. I'm sure you can understand my position to disallow your presence on the grounds, hmmyes?"

Admittedly, today had me feeling like I was completely inadequate at my job. There's so much security here that it would make any dictator blush with arousal. "I was told that I was to be expected. A young lady by the name of Blue Royal said that I could come around this time."

The voice didn't reply. But instead of an announced confirmation of my statement, I was then greeted with another method. The iron gates of the entrance creaked and groaned while they slowly swung wide to allow passage into the verdant walkway. Thick oak trees lined each side with bark, branches and a canopy of leaves. Even if it was growing out of season, the greenery remained present.

As soon as the iron gate came to a halt, the voice sounded through the loudspeaker. "Please do approach the porch, good sire."

I walked carefully, not daring to venture off the path that was provided. It was a good ten minutes before I was greeted with the sights of a large Victorian stone manor, complete with dark wooden accents and black iron trimmings. My eyes were glued to the front porch, seeing the majesty that was this mansion, complete with several chimneys and stained-glass windows. When I finally reached the porch after about sixty seconds of walking, I was greeted by a middle-aged light gray stallion with a stiff upper lip and a chin held high.

"I trust you are the dependable aid to the owner of this residence." I said, greeting the stallion.

"Hmmyes, I am the help. I was given instruction to offer no quarter to you unless there was a mention of the lady's name. Please do come in."

When he opened the door, I was greeted by the inviting scent of pumpkin spice and vanilla. It smelled so enticing that I swore there was a pie waiting for me at the end of my journey. The estate was well-warmed and ventilated as opposed to the slightly chilly air outside. I felt the home-like presence embrace me as the lighting provided a warm glow to much of the decor. My feet creating soft thuds with every step I took on the hardwood floor. Crystal decorations hung from the ceiling as the lights were hidden well behind them. The massive foyer that could easily serve as a miniature dance hall, provided a grand winding staircase that broke in two parts midways, circling back to the front wall.

While the smell of pumpkin pie waltzed around my nose, I complimented the estate. "This place is quite an eye-opener. I trust you are well-taken care of." I said, then looking to the butler, who's face remained unchanged from his earlier presentation.

"Hmmyes, my wages are indeed... acceptable."

He must be trying to be modest. "I didn't really mean that, but I suppose you should be pretty happy with your pay."

"My happiness is only due to his satisfaction. It must be that he is satisfied with his accommodations and nothing more." He declared before opening a door to a room with a small chair sitting next to a grandfather clock and across the way from an old piano. The butler pointed at the chair and announced. "Please do wait here, good sire. The master shall be with you shortly."

The butler left the room, leaving me to linger about on my own. I didn't really find a desire to sit and wait, no matter how much my legs were burning. I just wanted to explore the place. Much of it made me feel like I was in a old-age romantic setting. And even though I was so used to life in the castle, I wasn't quite used to higher living. This was my true first experience of this kind of society as opposed to the more political variation of it.

I was wandering about the room for a few minutes until I came across the portrait of a brown unicorn mare with curly brown and beige hair, brown eyes, dark brown spots, and a subdued expression. I spoke to myself. "She doesn't seem to like portraits too much."

"Do not confuse her muted smile for dissatisfaction." A voice chimed out from behind me, causing me to turn around quickly, greeting the face of a familiar white unicorn with a peach and yellow mane. "I assure you, she is quite warm here."

"Good to know." I answered before walking up to the unicorn, bowing out of respect. "It's been a while. I know we haven't spoken the last time we saw each other, but I remember seeing you at the mausoleum we buried the late senator Count DuMoneé in."

The stallion laughed. "Ah yes, a true leech to everything, he was. Good to see him where he belongs."

"I trust you and he were not the best of company." I inquired.

"His was a blight on my friend's life. He deserved what he went through, though I'm sure you'll agree." He said with an extended hoof.

"Yeah, he was a bit of an asshole. A lot of asshole, actually." I said unapologetically.

The stallion smiled and held another hoof to the hallway. "Would you like to tour my humble little castle? I know it is not near the marvel of Her Royal Majesty's own dwelling."

"I'm a simple guy, I'm just marveled by the front gate." I replied, taking up Alabaster's invitation.

"There is no need to be modest." He said kindly.

"No seriously, the castle has a garden, a huge wall surrounding it, huge halls and whatnot, but it's too confined in those stone walls. Here, I actually get to enjoy the warm sound of an old-fashioned hardwood floor." As I said that, I ran across a spot that squeaked rather loudly as I walked across. "Ooh, creaky too."

We managed to walk back through the foyer and towards the other side, introducing me to a tall room reaching as high as the top of the rafters. Each of the four walls were line with nothing but books. It looked almost like a small library was built into this room. "This estate is quite old. It's been passed down for generations until the former owner was discovered in one of the studies. Namely this one here."

"Discovered... Like they died in there?" I asked.

"Indeed. Suicide by hanging." The stallion confessed, completely nonchalant.

At that moment, every bit of warmth I felt when entering this place had quickly evaporated. I was then left with a sense of dread, one that caused me to have an untimely shiver down my spine. "You say what now?"

Seeing the growing horror on my face, the stallion decided to play to the chills I was having. "It was said in the reports that she had levitated herself and merely applied the rope around her neck before subjugating herself to strangulation. They say that if you listen well enough, you can still hear the rafters creaking from the sound of her rope weighing heavily on them."

I smiled nervously, not wanting to take any more steps inside. "Well that's not creepy─"

"She was found with her hind legs dangling from above, her eyes lifeless while looking down below at the door, waiting for the next visitor to greet her absent face as she swayed. Her only words of greeting were the sounds of the rafters creaking from the rope hanging off of them."

Almost with miraculous timing, I heard something wooden creak from above. Even if it was just the house settling after years of being in place, I was unnerved just enough to where I wanted to change the subject by any means. "...I'm here to learn some magic." I blurted out.

The stallion chuckled as he walked beside me, pushing me along. "Well aren't you in a peculiar place, step inside!"

I was guided to a large wooden work desk sitting in front of a massive stained-glass window. My eyes wandered about the room as my morbid curiosity got the better of me. "Hey, that story about that one lady killing herself isn't true, is it?"

He answered me with a smirk while he sat at the desk. "Oh quite. In fact, three of your steps through the door and she would've kicked you in the face."

Another shiver crawled up my spine, almost grabbing at the back of my head. "Is there a better room we could do this in?"

The stallion shrugged. "Afraid not. All the magic books I use are in here."

"Well I'm sure I can help you carry a few. How many do you need?" I asked, starting to reach my hand out to whatever book I could grab.

"This entire wall." He answered, causing my arm to drop, knowing damn well I couldn't even begin to carry that many books on my own. "Lots of tomes and forbidden arts galore. There's even some instructionals and theoreticals here that could do the trick to unlocking a special brand of magic. If anything, you as a non-magical being seeking to learn more about it would greatly benefit from the information there is within these four walls."

"Yeah. But does it have to be in a room where someone died? It kinda feels like bad karma."

"Ah, she wouldn't mind us here. I heard she was quite friendly and forgiving to everypony." Alabaster announced lightly.

"But doesn't it distract from the fact that she killed herself in this room?" I asked.

Alabaster leaned back in his chair, looking up to the ceiling and started to express his thoughts. "Ponies of high society or certain social circles will do these kinds of things. Sometimes it's out of spite for an adulterous spouse, a bout with depression, a love for money so deep that they couldn't fathom the idea of losing it, or even the sadness of never being loved. Sometimes it can even be a move of desperation, for when the walls start to close in around them."

"I don't know, the idea of it is still disturbing." I rebutted, still feeling uncertain.

He looked at me for a second and then quirked a eyebrow. "I forgot to take into account that you were present for the moment Count DuMoneé took his own life."

"He almost fell on top of me." I quietly recalled.

"So was there a look of despair on his face? Do you know?"

I was completely thrown off by the question he asked. Not very many would ask me what a dying person's face looked like, much less someone who took their own life. It was a pretty dark question to be asking. "I uh..."

The stallion shook his head. "Sorry, just... It was personal between him and I. I had watched one of my military friends go on assignment, only to come back in pieces because of a deployment he and his colleagues signed off on. It's one of the main reasons why there were so many holding the rotten tomatoes in the crowd, waiting for him to pass by."

Something in me wanted to know the real reason why he asked that particular question in the manner he asked it. It was so out of left field that I didn't even think it was still in the ballpark. And it wasn't like his face was pretty to begin with after hitting the ground like that. Instead of inquiring about it, I elected to quietly distract myself from it. "I see that Count left a lot of pain in his wake."

"Well he surely deserved his fate. I know that he's far from the resting place he so desired. His son requested that he be buried right next to his wife."

"Seems pretty peaceful to me." I said, feeling unimpressed.

"It was a forced marriage. He hated his wife."

Well that's new. "Ah, explains a lot there." I said, thinking more about words Blue Royal muttered during the funeral. And the longer I thought about it, the more it started to make sense of what she was saying. I was also brought back to the moment at the funeral when I was introduced to a young, tear-stricken stallion. "You know, I saw his son the day of the funeral. I think he was the only one crying over that casket."

"He loved his father, also loved his mother. So he set aside a plan to have him buried with his mother so that he could talk to both of them at the same time."

I stared at Alabaster blankly before saying. "Dead ponies can't hear."

"But our spirits can listen." He promptly replied. "It makes you think on what the old lady would say if she saw us in here right now. She'd probably tell us to play nice right about now."

The rafters creaked once more, I was too scared to stay on this subject. "Okay, morbid shit aside, where do we start?"

Five Hours Later...

If I ever had a complaint about magic training with Twilight, I could simply write those off as minor grievances. The training with Alabaster was MUCH more demanding. It was so demanding that I started having intense migraines, sore arms, burning hands, and shortness of breath. Yet I couldn't deny the effectiveness of his training.

He was very proficient as an instructor. With each levitation spell I was ordered to cast, I was given a certain set of instructions to guide my magic flow in various ways. He noted that it would teach me magical dexterity and agility. It also gave me more of a chance to be able to redirect some of the more hazardous items out of my way like knives, daggers, rocks, sticks, and other smaller projectiles. Now I couldn't quite cast a shield like Shining or Twilight, but I was learning the stepping stones to doing so.

That book exercise Twilight had me doing where I ended up being able to carry six books at once, he had me manipulating double that amount to start off. And if I couldn't get off the ground running, his butler would pelt spoons and forks at me to get me to stop each of those while carrying the six books I could only carry for the time being. Goes without saying I had my fair share of cutlery digging into my arms and chest before I eventually learned to manipulate more than six items. And whatever cutlery I caught, that item was then replaced by a book. Also, because of that little caveat, I ended up dropping all of the books I held a few times over.

Then there was the punishment of having to learn how to pick up that seventh book on top of having more insults pelted at me like I was getting yelled at by my dad over some bad grades. And there was no kind words of encouragement, it was just a straightforward 'do it again' while I was getting books thrown at me instead. And if I managed to levitate more books than what I was comfortable with at the time, the process would repeat itself. That was a total of three hours of getting books thrown at me until I somehow found myself at the center of seventeen floating books.

And none of those books were being manipulated outside of my influence.

That part of training initially felt crude to me, almost like I was being made a mockery of. And I wasn't too happy to be around the house any longer than that until he told me at the end of that exercise a tidbit of information. Apparently magic is a stressful transition of power that can weigh on your physical state quite heavily when not properly applied. If I had any chance to improve, I had to quickly adapt to the load given. It was like lifting weights, but on a smaller and more metaphorical scale. But unlike my actual muscles that needed time and patience to develop, magic was based more on my mental fortitude, reflexes, and endurance. It's entirely on the ability to process things quickly and reacting to those things in a more timely manner.

One wrong move or one moment of distraction can be crucial to life or death. So I had to be thrown into a situation that required me to adjust to many variables quickly while chipping away at any mental barriers that prevented me from pushing myself forward. It was the primary reason why he told me to start off with double the number of books I was capable of handling all at once, establishing a goal and throwing me into the line of fire. It also helps that those books were hardback covers, so pain was also a dominant motivator. So after that round of dodgeball, I was introduced into a new segment I didn't think I would run into so early on.

The next segment was called 'Counter'.

The method required two steps. The first step was to use your magic to stop any incoming projectiles, clearing your view of any obstruction, keeping your eyes on your assailant, and reading for their next move. My having combat experience made much of that part an easier walk-through. However, the next phase was a more challenging one called 'Counter' or being able to redirect your magic into a specified point before allowing the energy dispersed in that area to gain enough potential to knock back an assailant.

To clarify, Counter is different from another method known in unicorn combat as 'Casting'. In casting, it's exactly what you'd imagine it being. You're channeling an optimal amount of magic to send the same power your counter has, but using more of it to send a ray of energy at your opponent. Often times, it will only be a minute or two before either unicorn wears themselves empty of their magic fighting like this, because it is dispelling more magic than what is being replenished in your cycle. And as such, counter is used more often in self-defense as it requires close-quarter-combat conditions to be met. Meanwhile casting requires more accuracy and prediction based on it's projectile state.

There's also another method by the name of 'Calling', which is something Twilight practices on the regular. Using this kind of magic requires a lot of energy that can leave you drained, a lot of focus that can leave you wide open, and some harmful risks should a spell be cast incorrectly. For calling spells, you're required to learn equations and incantations, basically a bunch of stuff with most of it being way out of my league for the current time. There are simplified incantations, though they are not always as powerful or effective. Some unicorns can use this skill easily, quickly, and effectively without any repercussions. Others will sometimes experience symptoms like migraines, burnout, fatigue, dehydration, and even various degrees of burns. Explains a lot about what I saw in that first parallel universe.

As for how I learned all of this, I was forced to read some of the books that were thrown my way as well.

So when I had finished, my brain was throbbing from the intense workout it was given for the day. Unfortunately for me, it would be my legs to experience the throbbing next considering the fact that I was going to be traveling from one quadrant of the mountain to the other. The only pluses I walked away with was my parting with a pair of new skills and having the comfort of knowing that the checkpoints aren't nearly as brutal on the way out as they were on the way in.

When I got close to the castle grounds, I saw a small gathering of guards stationed at the front gate. Upon my arrival, the group saluted and dispersed before one of them came galloping towards me. "Captain, you didn't report your whereabouts."

I was already tired from the day, so my mood wasn't quite the brightest to be dealing with micromanagement issues. "My head hurts, what's going on?"

The guard then gave me a greeting salute. "Well sir, after seeing reports of your disappearance from the city, we were issued orders for a search."

"Let me guess, another summons?" I asked.

"Not exactly one for the parliament. Princess Celestia has placed the entire city on lockdown for you."

"For what!?" I asked completely incredulous.

"She said it was something that pertains to a personal matter, one she wishes to address with you effective immediately."

Big gulp.

She sent the whole guard, not just one or two squads, not even a fucking battalion, the entire royal guard on a manhunt. The fact that she did all of that just to sit me down for a one-on-one gives me terrors. The only thing that could go through my mind was the possibility of her finding out about what happened between me and Luna. And honestly, that was more than reason enough to damn near come close to razing the city to bring little old me back to her again.

I quietly glanced around before whispering to the guard. "Did she ever specify her reasoning?"

"No sir."

I started to fake like I was going to go the opposite direction. "Well in that case, I guess I can run a few more errands before I get back in─"

Almost in miraculous unison, a pair of pegasi guards dove down and hit the ground with a power-stance before the other guard informed me worriedly. "I'm afraid she noted that your return to the castle took priority over anything else. You have to answer her, no further permissions to be granted or privileges allowed."

I grimaced with a bit of fear. "So... Royal decree?"

"Royal decree." He simply replied.

Me and my painful everything was quickly escorted back to the grounds, inside of the castle, and shown the way to the dining hall. The door opened to show a silently sitting Celestia seemingly serene with her cup of tea. She didn't wear a smile, she didn't wear any emotion on her face at all, which did nothing but make me not want to enter inside. The guards nodded as they pointed into the dining hall, non-verbally telling me to get inside.

If I got chewed out yesterday, then this had to be her signing my death certificate or something.

The door closed behind me, leaving me in the dead silent room. Naturally the room has a lot of ambiance coming from the halls around it, but I wasn't even offered that bit of luxury. There was no reason to call this unsettling silence comfort. And what made it worse was the fact that Celestia didn't even acknowledge when I walked in. She just stayed in her chair, sipping her tea, probably thinking about what she's going to do to me. I looked back at the door just out of curiosity, only to find a set of golden runes surrounding the doors.

At that point, there was no trying to avoid the subject. I could only walk up to the only seat left at the table, sending my heart rate into the triple digits. And even as I sat in my seat, the only thing that happened was Celestia sitting with her tea, her eyes closed as she quietly enjoyed her cup. But upon her next sip, she used her hooves instead of her magic, an unusual development for her. I looked around awkwardly, waiting for her to say something, But the only sound I heard next was her sighing with enjoyment.

I gave a single nod and a nervous chuckle before I started to speak. Yet I couldn't even get a word out before Celestia broke the silence. "Chamomile and honey, good for the soul and throat. I do enjoy tea, don't you?"

I waited a few seconds before speaking. "Well, I'm more of an... uncultured peasant when it comes to tea. I do like sweet tea, tea mixed with lemonade, of course some green tea is okay."

"Have you had chamomile tea?" She asked gently.

"I can't say that I have." I confessed.

The high princess stood from her seat and walked over to a nearby tray, pouring me a cup before returning to me. She quietly walked beside me, placed the cup before me, and returned to her seat. I stared at the tea and felt my nerves screaming at me to not drink this tea. The princess noticed my insecurity and spoke. "They say that a different cup will give each tea a different flavor. If you look at the bottom, you will see something special." I looked inside to see a thin wooden ring around the half-way mark. "I know this may be interesting to know about me, but I find that some porcelain is too corrupt for the taste. Years, sometimes generations of being passed down, and you end up tasting the experience of others as opposed to that of your own."

"So why not a brand new cup?" I asked.

"If it's too new, then you would taste the manufacturers work as opposed to the beverage. Personally I recommend the cups to be boiled five times before I am able to enjoy them, it brings about a certain purity to the taste. But then there was this one place I visited on a venture for diplomatic relations. When I went there to visit, they served us tea in these wooden cups. Funny thing is the guards that accompanied me felt like there was sacrilege afoot, as if I was being insulted, so I had my accompanying guard to taste it for me. But he didn't appreciate the flavor, more testing for poison. But when I smelled the steam, it started to feel nostalgic. Visions of my mother, my running through the halls with Luna, my avoiding my magic lessons with Starswirl to play in the forest, all of those things came back to me."

"All of that over the smell?" I asked.

"When you taste your tea, you're not so much using your tongue as you are your sense of smell." She answered before continuing. "So when I placed my lips on the cup and took my first sip, I found myself wanting to see my sister again, looking at the moon in the sky, praying that I'd be able to hold her again. The dignitaries asked why I had started to cry, but I didn't tell them the longing I had at that moment, just telling them that the tea was wonderful."

"All of this over a wooden cup?" I asked.

"Well long ago, far before the time you were born, cups were much harder to come by. Many of them were made of potters clay, but far too delicate to break or muddy to be used. But since Luna and I were frequent to many attempts of courting by nobles, we would be offered many cups to drink from. I am sure you can assess the reason."

"Drugging or poison." I concluded.

"Exactly. So our mother devised a plan to prevent us from drinking after others. She designated two cups for me and my sister, made of wood to never shatter if they were to drop, enchanted to notify us if something was added, and strong enough to be used as weapons for our own defense."

"Those politicians must've been a different kind of thirsty to be going after you two being so young." I said with disgust.

"That was the practice at the time. For colts, if one could labor at a young age, then one was considered to be ready. For fillies, some were arranged to be married the month before their first estrus. Luna and I were subject to no difference." She replied before pointing to my cup. "Hurry and drink, your tea is getting cold."

I looked inside the cup and took a sip, smacking my tongue against the roof of my mouth to help me understand the flavor. "I don't really taste the difference."

"It's an acquired taste, but an appreciated one. I for one love the homely taste of alder with my chamomile." She said with a polite tone. "But smell the tea before drinking this time."

This time, I did as she instructed. I smelled the light scented aroma and slowly sipped on the tea, starting to appreciate the taste as it warmly embraced me on the way down. I started to feel a little more relaxed, letting the world around me becoming less significant. Before I knew it I had started sipping in silence, the room being just as calm and serene as ever. And in very little time, my cup was empty. "Yeah, that really hit me in a good place. I like it."

"More?" She questioned.

"Please." I answered.

She got up and paused for a moment, looking back at her own cup before filling a new one up. She looked to me and kindly asked. "Can you finish this cup for me, I feel the cup might be a tad too corrupt."

I started giggling, realizing that some of Twilight's traits was a prime reflection of her teacher's habits. I shrugged and took the cup. "If it's so corrupt, then why did you drink out of it?" I asked, taking a sip of the cooled tea. That's when I realized something had come up in the tea that shouldn't have been there. I halted my drinking and spat back in the cup, feeling something metallic fall into my mouth. I looked down and saw something at the bottom of the cup.

It was the pendant she gave me.

The calm I once felt had subsided to terror while I tried to play off the situation. "Oh, I've been looking for this for a while now!" I said, digging the pendant out with a tea spoon. "I can't believe I left it inside of a dumb place like a drinking cup."

The princess sat across from me, slowly as she spoke. "Of course you didn't leave it there. I found it in Luna's room."

The pendant fell to the table as my spoon fell with a clatter inside of the tea cup. My eyes locked onto the small piece of enchanted jewelry. "Really, because I could've sworn I didn't go to Luna's room outside of an inspection that two other guards were present for."

"Ah yes, the guards..." The high princess then summoned a small folder with papers neatly clipped together. The princess smiled with a gentle demeanor. "I should also notify you that there were a few reports on your personal hygiene a few noted being as being indicative of 'some involvement of lecherous activity'. And this was on your way out of the castle."

In other words, I was musky, and not in the usual way. "I'm sorry if something was amiss. I had a close encounter with a girl over in my world. I realized I had something to check in on really quickly so I didn't really give myself a chance to clean up."

She slid the reports across the table for me to read on. "It's set on the very day I had problems locating Luna, she was scheduled to raise the moon that night at around 5:57 in the evening. I had to raise the moon instead at approximately 6:17 because she was nowhere to be seen. You were seen entering the portal room at 5:15 and leaving at exactly 6:41. From there you were reported at the checkpoint at the time of 6:48."

I stared at the written complaints and shook my head in disbelief. "This is an insane amount of detail."

"And that's not all." She continued. "Luna was reported entering the portal room at around 3:26 in the afternoon. She was not seen by any of the guards or maids since. I saw her in the bath and reprimanded her for not being able to fulfill her duties on time, which she wrote me off as being anal-retentive. That was 6:43 in the evening, just two minutes after your return."

I leaned back in my chair staring at the reports before one of the pages started to cinder. I immediately tossed the papers onto the ground to avoid being burned. I looked up to see Celestia calmly staring at me, but with one significant detail...

The lock of her mane running up the side of her neck had gone from it's usual four colors into a literal flame. "So... I am going to ask you discreetly. Did you. Touch. My sister?"

Right then, it was as if the moment that nearly drove me to insanity started to haunt the back of my mind. I wasn't just terrified, I was about an inch away from literally shitting myself. "Um... what do you mean by touch, exactly?"

Another lock of her mane started to combust as she slowly answered. "Touch. Verb. To come so close to an object or being as to be or come into contact with it. Id est: Did you touch my sister in any inappropriate manner that would result in your wearing her scent as a cologne signifying your conquest?"

Out of habit, I started to formulate a story to explain myself. "Your highness─"

In a single blink, she disappeared from in front of me to directly beside me, holding a hoof firmly against the bottom of my jaw, rendering me unable to speak. She turned my head to face her as she quietly took off her chest plate, openly revealing the scar I caught a glimpse of. "Before you start, I should inform you of something. And I don't want you to disclose this to anypony, anyhuman, anycreature, anyone. Do I have your commitment to that?"

"Mmhmmm." I confirmed, nervously swallowing the heart trying to jump from out of my throat.

"Now then, dear friend..." She said, gently caressing my chin. "The scar on my chest was a brand, a crudely forged iron T to mark me a traitor to Equestria. The reason being: I simply gave my all to a stallion whom I was to never see again. You know this story, don't you?"

I nodded to the best of my ability.

"Very good. And on top of branding me the way they did, they tortured me... slowly. I was destroyed beyond what was deemed appropriate because the envy of several nobles seeking to be my suitor. Some even wished for me to die, seeking to go even further than what was needed or warranted. But many argued that if I was executed, there would be no one strong enough to raise the sun and moon, a feat that originally took six unicorns to perform once before losing their powers for at least a week. So they spared me, but elected to subjugate me to the hell I went through, the cruelty of ponies was shown to me all for a month, the sadness and loss that followed me for more than a hundred lifetimes. Do you know what it is like to suffer that pain for that long?"

I shook my head to the best of my capability.

"I surely didn't think you would. But I know my sister won't find out about what happened to me, neither will I tell her. And most importantly, neither will I allow for her to experience that pain. Because if it ever comes to pass, I will know who to look to as the one responsible. I will know who to come after. And most importantly, I WILL KNOW what to do. With. YOU."

She removed her hoof from my jaw, using her magic to slowly pull me towards her as she spoke in a low rumbling voice.

"Now I am giving you a fair confession. If you lie to me, I will give you not a single breath for air as I eviscerate you. And this is not me speaking from a royal's perspective. I speak for my own desire, my own indignation, for my family." As she asked me for the final time, her eyes started to cinder and turn a dark shade of crimson brown while her irises transitioned from the normal violet she had to a more menacing gold. Her teeth even sharpened to fangs. The magic that held me faded from gold to red. "Did. You. Touch. Luna?"

I felt my knees give way, her magic being the only thing to keep me standing in place. There was no possible way I could lie, judging from the approach she took, it was obvious that she knew everything that happened. So I closed my eyes and silently confessed. "I did."

"What did you do to her." She questioned vehemently.

"I kissed her." I replied, not daring to look the princess in the eye. "Then she kissed me, and we made out."

"Was that all?" She asked, seething.

"No." I answered, unable to say anything but the truth. "She... wanted me to claim her."

"Did you?" She turned my head to her face, forcing my eyelids open as she stared back at me with those sun-burnt eyes.

"I could not, even if I felt that I wanted to in the moment. I knew the trouble she would face, the problems that would come up. I just couldn't put you two through that." I finished confessing. "But if you don't believe me, if you don't have a single word to say to me after all of this, then I can understand your not wanting to see me in your presence, or even in your service. I am sorry."

The princess glared at me for a while longer before the flaming visage cascaded away to her more normalized appearance. The red aura that engulfed my body then turned to gold again, setting me gently onto the ground. Finally after a moment of silence, she spoke with her eyes closed. "I think you missed a few details, more specifically how you promised Luna that what you two did was going to be a one-time affair."

My jaw fell agape. "Uh, are you reading my mind again?"

Shaking her head, she replied softly. "No. Luna told me what happened between the two of you when I discovered the pendant in her possession."

Wait... SHE TOLD ON ME FROM THE JUMP!? "Oh, so you knew?"

"Just earlier today when I went around in her room. I thought I would find her there resting, but I saw the pendant on her nightstand and the rest is academic." She then cracked open one eye to glint at me. "However, she made me promise that I wouldn't hurt you if she told me the truth."

"So it wouldn't have mattered if I told the truth or not then." I stated meekly. "You already knew the story so it didn't matter what I said."

"Oh it mattered quite a large amount." She corrected. "If you would've lied on my sisters word, I would've forgone on the promise I made her and banished you to the moon for a good hundred years."

Well that's so reassuring. "Well it's a good thing I fessed up."

That tiny glint of her evolved into a full stare. "But that doesn't change the fact that I am quite upset with the both of you. It appears that your rivalry with us nobles is only directed to key individuals as opposed to the overall conglomerate. I can take relief in that as opposed to what I started to assume just yesterday. At least our relations are not entirely severed."

"I'm sorry if it ever appeared that way." I said with a bow.

"But now that we've come to an understanding..." She said, placing the pendant on my neck with a stoic expression. "I don't want you getting too close to Luna. She's just as off-limits as I am. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"

"Yes, your highness." I answered with a salute.

The princess smile for a second... "Good." ...Before erupting into a scowl again. "Now get out of my face and do something constructive with your time, captain. I don't need you harming my sister's reputation like you could've already."

"Noted." I acknowledged.

Out of nowhere, the ambiance of the room returned. My eyes bucked open as it was damn-near identical to what happened with Blue Royal yesterday evening. It seemed as if Celestia was using the same spell. The more interesting thing was that I didn't even see her horn ignite once except to pick me up or move around cups of tea.

I knew she was powerful, but I didn't think you could cast spells without any visible auras.

So I stepped outside of the room and took a sigh of relief, leaning my back against the door while clasping at my chest, thanking God that I didn't have to meet with him today. I looked at my phone and checked the time, seeing it was almost time to set the sun.

I mumbled to myself. "Hey wait a minute, wasn't I supposed to be eating dinner at this hour?"

The Next Day...

My morning was unusually quiet today. The birds that I'd often hear outside had completely gotten silent. The sun didn't quite beam in my eyes like it usually did. When I got up to look out the window, I saw a small group of pegasi wearing blue vests shifting several clouds over in the sky. Even sitting at the window sill, I could feel the cool air permeating the glass into the room.

Surely enough, it was the first sign that winter was soon approaching.

I ran about my morning rituals and headed straight to the dining hall. When I stepped inside, I saw Blueblood sitting with a disinterested stare into nothing while playing with his food, Shining sticking his tongue out with disgust at the oatmeal sitting before him, and Luna holding a small bag of apples freshly imported from Ponyville. No Cadance or Celestia making any appearances today.

I walked in and sat at my seat. "Morning, y'all." I said, putting on my thickest Texan accent. "Getting kinda chilly now, ain't it?"

Shining pushed the bowl of oatmeal away from him. "Ugh, they're supposed to be getting ready for the crop of snow clouds to come in tomorrow. It's gonna get cool today, just enough for the snow to stick."

Last I checked, that was more than 'cool' in the human sense of temperature. "Yikes. Guess it's time for me to start looking for some coats again. Guess I'll run by the store tomorrow and nab me a few that'll fit me pretty well."

Luna smirked. "So you humans don't like the cold too much, do you?"

"I forget that you lot are always wrapped up in something. I guess it wouldn't surprise me that you'd think about putting on even more clothes than you'd need." Blueblood added.

"That's the thing, humans don't have fur." I reiterated while smacking my arm.

"Do you want some?" Luna joked, igniting her horn with a lively blue glow.

"Not right now." I answered as a server provided me with a small tray of breakfast items. My meal consisted of a glass of milk, a bowl of oatmeal, and a small cup of whey powder. "Ugh... this again."

Shining groaned as well. "Tell me about it. Cadance gets the advantage of using the Crystal Empire's cooking staff for whenever she wants something."

Figures since she's the pregnant ruler of a satellite state. "I wish we could all hire our own chefs."

"As much as I would enjoy that, I would have to argue against the proposition. It's too financially straining on the royal budget. The riches would deplete slowly, but a slow bleeding only leads to a slow death." Blueblood replied. "But you know what's more cost effective?"

"What?" I asked.

"Ordering food from your world and eating it here." Shining answered. "I want some food that'll have me on a weight-watchers program for a week."

"Careful. You'll end up on the same bullshit I'm on." I warned, pointing my spoon at the young prince. "One day of Thanksgiving dinner and I'm now wondering if meat is going to be an absent part of my diet for the next three months."

Luna smirked while she muttered with a sarcastic tone. "It's not like Celestia is partial to breaking her own regiment to stuff a slice of cake in her mouth with every given opportunity."

I dipped my spoon into the oatmeal, seeing how watery today's batch was. "So is there any plans for today other than us having to suffer with this really shitty chef until the next possible business day?"

Luna's horn once again glowed with a bright blue aura while she spoke. "Well I heard you complain about the dropping temperatures. So I wanted to see if I could rectify that by giving you some fur."

"I'm not your guinea pig, Luna." I said pretty quickly, not realizing what she was alluding to.

"Last I checked, you were the one trying to negotiate for this spell. Now that it's there for you to implement, you want to hold off on it?" She said, pointing back to me.

By then, I was made aware of her intention. "Oh... wait, today?"

Blueblood started to grow a devilish smile. "Ooh goody, that means we'll get to have a bit of fun at your expense."

Shining also started to show his enthusiasm. "I know this is going to be a fun day."

Luna then turned to the two stallions and cut their smiles short. "But to make this a fair exchange of humor, both of you will be transformed into humans, a complete exercise in walking in each others shoes."

I promptly fired back at the two royal princes. "Ha, a fair game for all."

Blueblood turned his attention to Luna. "So I'll take it that you will be participating in this exercise as well?"

"It would not be to the preference of Nondis. When ponies are transformed into humans, clothes aren't exactly an automatic provision. And I'm sure his pony self would still find attraction in my anatomical redirection. And equine arousal is a lot harder to conceal."

She wasn't lying, Celestia and Twilight transforming gave me the opportunity to see the two of their assets transition to more favorable attributes. I even caught a glimpse of what they both had offered in their human state and it made me into a horndog damn-near busting a nut in my apartment complex's shared laundromat. "Fair enough. So when do we start?"

"Upon your acquiring some clothes for our two princes to temporarily appropriate."

About an hour after breakfast, I made my way to the portal room. But instead of making my way into Mel's apartment, I went into the one that directed me to Cliff's closet in the frathouse. When I arrived, I asked him if he had two pairs of anything to spare. He promptly asked why and I explained to him that there were two other candidates for pony-to-human transformation. And as giddy as Shining was about the affair, Cliff found himself trying to find Rickey to join in on the fun.

The situation worked out for the better. Cliff was more on the five-foot nine end of things, but wore his clothes baggy. Rickey was closer to six feet, but wore his clothes a little more fitted. My old clothes would've either fell off from being too big, and my newer clothes would've been too long for them to wear. And to add the cherry on top, they ordered two pizzas to take over for our enjoyment.

We got back over and Luna was already grabbing the clothes for the two. Rickey and Cliff both sat in silence as they watched the midnight princess ignite her horn to weave the spell. In what was a successful casting, she simultaneously transformed the two princes into a pair of stark naked humans. The two were dormant for all of two seconds before cracking their eyes open to see their hooves being nothing more than balled-up fists. Luna turned around an instructed us to clothe the two princes, to which we obliged. We had them both lean against the wall as a means to not let them fall over. By then, we came to a more defined conclusion of how the two stacked up to us.

Shining Armor was six-foot even. His hair was a conglomeration of three different shades of blue, flowing locks reaching down to the bottom of his shoulders and the top of his back. His chin and upper lip was barren, giving him a more clean look. His eyes were a deep blue. He had wide broad shoulders, well-toned arms, an impressively shaped physique with large hands. And as far as Rickey's outfit being on him, he didn't like how confined his clothes were. If I had to grade him to what he'd look like in my unbiased eyes, it would be certain that Cadance would have severe marital issues. He's almost as anime as you'd can get in real life, and that goes a mighty long way in the eyes of several college girls.

Blueblood was five-foot ten. His hair was a true light blond, locks flowing down to his pectorals. He had a small mustache with limited stubble, giving him a slightly rugged look. His shoulders were not too impressive and neither were his arms, he seemed to have a more average build with a small amount of muscle definition. His eyes were as blue as the sky. He preferred a different outfit as opposed to the baggy-looking urban apparel he donned. Grading him, he'd be that guy you'd see at a distinguished ivy league institution with an expensive Rolex on his wrist, holding a golf-club in one hand and a visor in the other. He'd probably have some material chick shooting for his wallet in less than five seconds.

Luna then turned to me with her horn glowing. She warned me quietly. "Now to warn you, you're going to feel a slight tingling sensation and you're going to be a bit disoriented as soon as you open your eyes again."

I clenched my eyes and my jaw, already kissing my hands goodbye for the time being. Especially my right hand, gonna miss jacking off with that one. For a second, it almost felt like I was facing a death sentence. "Okay, I'm ready."

I heard a loud zap as everything on my person suddenly started aching and burning, my joints growing tighter with the passing seconds, my chest condensed to where it was hard for me to breathe. My body felt like it couldn't get enough air, so I passed out.

***Point of Perspective: Equus Nondis***

My eyes slowly opened to the world around me. I was left with a pretty unusual headache, completely dazed for a while as Luna stood over my body. I looked to her and saw her tilting her head, biting her lip, and tapping her chin with a hoof. The princess hummed with satisfaction. Voices behind me started to speak out.

"Damn, that spell is legit freaky." I head Rickey say.

"Nope, that can't be me." Cliff cosigned with a scoff. "I love being able to slap some dumbass motherfucker with the same hand I bust a nut with."

"How about using a phone?" Rickey replied.

I reached for my head, only seeing a hoof attached to my arm... which was now a leg... attached to my chest... without any opposable thumbs to go with my fingers... or the not-having-fingers thing. Lot to process there. What I also had to process was how warm it was now, how the world look so significantly LARGER. And when I tried to stand up, I placed my arms on the ground and tried to use them as leverage. But the only result I had was completely falling to the ground like I had done something completely wrong.

Luna chuckled as she held a hoof out for me to grab a hold of. I tried to grab at her, only realizing the ghost of my human self couldn't grab things like I wanted to or what I was so used to doing.

Also... Note to self: Arms are now legs.

"So are you going to just sit there and look like a timid foal or are you going to grab onto me?" Luna whispered, still extending her hoof towards me.

For a moment, I had to reconfigure how I was going to operate since I was in an equine state. I glanced over to Shining and Blueblood, noticing their hands were still balled up like fists and their wrists curled in. It gave me a great indication of how I could translate the movement from one form to the other. So I imagined my hand being in a fist, curling my wrist and reaching out.

Grabbing the princess even felt different. Our forelegs were warm to the touch, and Luna's strength was more than enough to yank me to all fours. But as soon as she let go of my foreleg, I felt my balance completely give way to the hoof I had yet to put on the ground, my body swaying uncontrollably back and forth. The lunar princess stepped beside me, leaning her body against mine. The insane amount of warmth I felt would've been enough to make me start sweating if I was human, but it didn't. For a few seconds, I started to slowly stabilize myself and stand on my own. The princess leaned off of me as I looked to her to thank her... and that's when I noticed it.

The smell she gave off was more than enticing. The eyes she looked at me with were set higher than mine, In fact, she was actually taller than me by at least six inches. The smell she gave off was amazing. Her hooves were almost my size, but a tiny bit larger. Her wings could totally engulf me if she wanted to. That scent she had, the musk, I had to have her. Why do I feel a breeze?

And then... the laughs started to ensue.

Behind me, I could hear Cliff and Rickey destroying their sides with how badly they were in rapture with laughter. In front of me, I could see both Blueblood and Shining slide to the ground while laughing uncontrollably. Even Princess Luna had to try and stifle her own laugh before she could speak. I looked to everyone in the room and asked. "What's wrong? What's so funny?"

Luna used her wing and pointed to the growing issue. "Perhaps it is a situation that many young colts acquire once they reach a certain age. I suppose it's time we had... the talk."

I looked down, not really able to see what was the issue until I had to look in between my forelegs. And just as I stared at the issue, it stared right back at me. There I was completely exposed and open for business. I tried to hide myself, chanting to the strange looking phallus. "Okay, nice to meet you too. Now go the fuck away─" In a instinctive reflex, I accidentally made the engorged stallionhood slap against my belly. Something right then registered a massive shipment of dopamine to my brain, causing my eyes to roll a bit. "♪Oo-ooo-ooh-ooh Okay, that feels good─OKAY WAIT A MINUTE!" I sharply turned my head to the transformed stallions, begging them to help me. "Guys, GUYS! Please tell me how to stop this before it gets worse!"

Shining took a break from laughing as looked to his partner in crime and asked. "Should we tell him or nah?

Blueblood's face turned red as he wheezed so hard that it sounded like a car engine turning over. By that point, Cliff and Rickey completely abandoned all decorum and just fell to the ground holding themselves. "I can't breathe." The prince said while wheezing. "Pain... laughing..."

"Wait is he gonna bust a nut?" Cliff asked.

"Almost!" Shining shrieked before succumbing to laughter again.

Luna whispered in my ear as she leaned in closer to me. "You know, you're at the point where you might as well release yourself so you can progress about your day."

I stared at the princess while growling at her. "Lady, this is you. This is all your fault. If you didn't come smelling like you do, I wouldn't be in this mess."

The princess blushed with a stifled giggle. "Just the smell? Really? That's all it takes for you?"

"Apparently equine scent is a lot stronger to you equines than it is for us humans." I reiterated, flinching yet again from the sensation of my uncontrolled arousal slapping against my belly. "All that aside, can we PLEASE work on a solution that doesn't require a cleanup?"

Luna pointed her feathers at my muzzle, looking at me with one eye closed. "So you say this is because of me?"

"All of it." I answered out of frustration.

She retracted her wing and stepped in closer, using her magic to lift my chin to look up to her. "So you are confessing that I am the cause of your lust, that my merely being present is what drives you? You acknowledge that you want it to stop, but are refusing the only solution that is deemed plausible. Are you really in need of such assistance over something so trivial?" She leaned in, nearly inching her lips towards mine. "Something so... natural."

Another throb sent my equine staff bulging against my belly, and it also sent me into a frenzy fueled out of desperation. "Okay, fine! Just help me get rid of this thing!"

Cliff slapped the floor while laughing. "Oh my God, he's really gon' get off?"

"Ain't no other way!" Shining called out.

I quietly whispered to Luna. "Is there any way we can make this not a show for the others to laugh at?"

The princess smiled evilly as she blew on my hyper-sensitive ears. "But I thought 'what we had was a one-time thing' was your whole selling point."

Rickey stopped laughing for a moment to notice what the princess had actually said. "Hey, uh, did anyone else hear that?"

I groaned and sulked in defeat. "One more for the road?"

Luna horn started to ignite as she forced me down on my haunches, allowing me to reveal myself to her. The princess bit her lip while she watched me throb in mid-air. Seemingly, the smell she gave off had gotten even stronger, making me even more uncontrolled to my sexual urge. My hind legs twitched with anticipation as my shaft hung far from me. My cheeks flushed red as she stared me in my eyes. "Now what did I tell you the last time when we were like this?"

"The last time we what?" I tried to ask innocently.

She inched even closer, pressing her muzzle against mine, our lips just an inch away from each other. "I sat with my wings, displaying a very precious item to you. Do you not recall the order I gave?"

How could I, the smell she had then was incredible then, it would've been ground zero for me at this current moment. But just the thought of her in that position, her eyes looking at me with such greed, I couldn't help myself as I grew the more turgid. "Claim your princess."

"Now what do you have to say in retaliation?" She whispered.

"Your knight comes." I said as even the slightest breeze made me want to engorge.

The princess looked down and whispered once more. "After that performance, you were dissatisfied. I said that I would make amends..." Her foreleg bumped against me, causing me to throb with the added gift of dripping want. Her eyes expanded as she hummed. "So eager to your reward."

Her wings journeyed forth, one prominent feather tickled against the base of my shaft, slowly inching up and down while she sat on the ground before me. Her jaw fell slightly agape as she watched me completely give in to her. My eyes looked at her with longing while her feathers brushed against me. My breaths grew heavier while her eyes started to trail back to me.

"Shameless. To advertise yourself in front of a viewing audience. I'm starting to believe you have a innate desire to exhibit your wares. So juvenile, so immature, so indecent..." She wrapped a foreleg around the back of my neck. "So... primitive... beastly... organic... chaotic..."

A sharp moan was all I could get out, signifying how close I was. She stopped smiling and grew more lustfully focused. I leaned my pelvis towards her, letting her feel more of me. As she felt my cue, she swiped her feather loosely at the bottom of my length, tickling me all the way to the engorged flare. And there I sat for a second before it became too much for me to withstand. It was over, I was too far over the edge, I was going to come down regardless of what my desires or personal feelings were. It was only a matter of time.

"Arrive, my knight." And then it hit me. Just as her lips enclosed on mine, I moaned into her mouth, shaking and shuddering with wanton release. "That's right. Ride it out for me." She whispered, using her magic to usher the next few spurts from within me. As far as I could see beside her, I could already see a long line of seed cast from me to the ground next to her. I felt myself lose more and more of the little balance I had and topple over into a small dribbling puddle of my own offering.

For several seconds, I felt like there were an innumerable amount of stars in my eyes, my world significantly more sparkly than usual. My breaths grew short before I was given a chance to return to normalcy. Panting up to the princess, I felt more embarrassed. "Ugh... I know this shit was beyond humiliating, but I needed to break that one out so bad."

The princess sat down beside me, patting me on the back. "Who's a good little colt?"

"Lady... Stop. I can't take it no more. That one was beyond explanation."

The room was deathly silent. I looked around with a reddened face, knowing that they all just watched me ride six white horses on the way back. Even Cliff and Rickey had to sit themselves in Indian style with their arms crossed over their laps. Rickey was the first to say something. "I gotta admit, I'm not into the whole pony thing... But goddamn that was something."

Cliff nodded as he pulled out his phone. "Lemmie check on what Sunset's got going on later this evening."

I looked over to see Shining and Blueblood imitating the other two men in their posture. Shining shrugged with pursed lips. "You know, now I'm just upset." Shining said. "Cadance is pregnant, so all of that shit is like off the menu for me."

"My wives won't even give me the time of day." Blueblood replied, shaking his head. "I think I married the wrong one... times seven."

"Yeah... I'm gonna have to ask what I walked in on."

My head turned to the direction of the voice, seeing Melanie standing next to her portal. By then my face completely turned red. "Mel! How long have you been here!?"

"Since 'primitive, beastly, organic, and chaotic'. And by the way, you're a pony now?" She asked, aware of who I was by my voice.

I immediately got up and tried to cover myself, not realizing that I had a puddle of cum still dripping off my coat. I sighed with disbelief and disgust. "Oh... I've gotta wash that out, don't I?"

Mel scratched her head. "Uh, shower's open but you're gonna need some help cleaning up."

I tried to walk over to her, only falling flat on my face into a puddle of my own mess. Almost everyone in the room turned their head either in disgust or embarrassment. Luna quickly grabbed me off of the ground and gave me a quick walking lesson. "Left foreleg forward, right hindleg up." I did as she instructed. "Now right hindleg down, right foreleg forward." By that point, I felt like I was learning a really difficult dance step that required four legs to do.

Mel quickly called out to me. "Just crawl!"

Almost like instant magic, I was completely walking on my own. I looked back at an astounded Princess Luna before I was politely guided through Mel's portal. As I seeped through, Shining looked at the mess that was left behind. "We should probably clean this up before he gets back. Don't want him falling in it again."

"Not it." The three other men called out in unison.

Luna just shook her head and summoned a towel and started wiping the floor. Shining sighed as he offered to help the princess with the clean-up effort. "Thank's Princess Luna."

The night princess scoffed as she replied. "I'm not cleaning up after him. I'm cleaning up the mess I made dealing with him." She then threw Cliff and Rickey some more towels she summoned. "You two, you will clean."

Cliff waved his hands frantically. "Look, I ain't a fan of cleaning up horse nut. Did it before, not trying to do it again."

Rickey looked at the dreaded man with genuine interest. "Since when did you ever had to clean up horse cum?"

"...Long story."

After about thirty minutes of trying to figure out how a shower works with hooves, I elected to just sit in the shower and let Mel bathe me like a dog. It worked out pretty well, considering that she openly volunteered herself to the task. But knowing my stubborn ass, I decided to take matter into my own hands... hooves. I was thinking on the parameters of my being in pony world might have me adjust to life around me a bit faster. But it didn't do anything but overcomplicate the situation even further. So I conceded the fact that I had no fucking clue on what I was doing, swallowed my pride, and accepted my loss.

As soon as I finished, I actually took a moment to stand in front of the portal, since it was effectively through a mirror anyways. My appearance was completely similar in some regards to my human form. I had a build similar but not exact to Shining Armor, a square muzzle, a long mane tied back like a ponytail. My coat was a creamy color, my eyes were green. However, my mane and tail were a totally different color from what they would usually be. Instead of having brown hair like I normally do, I had a crimson red mane. I was also a unicorn, which could prove to be convenient. I had a cutie mark of a red-and-white target circle, complete with a single arrow lodged in the bullseye. My hooves had a more subdued crimson color to them, accenting both my mane and tail.

I also noticed certain things about the world around me, and not just the obvious fact that the world seemed a lot bigger than usual. I could hear whoever was coming up the stairs from all the way in the back of the apartment if I really tried to listen. My ears could flick at even the slightest sudden breeze, which annoyed me a bit. And if I was annoyed, my tail would sooner show it than my face, flicking once before settling back in place. I also tried the puppy-dog look Rarity gave to me whenever she wanted me to do something with her that required physical labor combined with travel. I even shot the look at Mel.

Finally, a weapon to surpass metal gear... or at least get Mel to do whatever I wanted for the time being.

Since I didn't need clothes, I just walked right through to Equestria again. And when I walked through, I could see Shining Armor and Blueblood engorging themselves on several slices of pizza. They didn't even seem to care over the fact that the pizzas were meat-lovers. In their minds, it smelled good, it tasted good, and it made the duo quite happy. Cliff and Rickey were busy chowing down as well, seeming completely relaxed that they didn't visit to a sudden invasion or deployment preparation.

Luna waited by the door, keeping many curious guards at bay. Mel followed closely behind me when we arrived and also helped herself to a slice of pizza. Glancing around, I walked over to the pizza box and stared at Mel, giving a taste of my newfound weapon. It worked in my favor as I was given a slice to hold in my mouth.

However, I found out that holding things in my mouth wouldn't always be a great idea when I was trying to eat that very same thing. And instead of trying to hold on to it with my mouth, I opted to use my hooves. But that was too difficult, it just wasn't as stable as it would be holding it with four fingers and an opposable thumb.

The two transformed princes took notice. "Hey Nondis, you know you have a horn. Why not use that one sometime instead of fumbling with the other?" Blueblood called out.

Cliff and Rickey giggled as Shining added. "Eh, it'll be a while before he learns how to use that thing. It might even take him years."

"Or days." Mel rebutted while pointing to me. "I do know he has something inside of him."

It did give me a good opportunity to practice on how to utilize my recent training sessions to more of an approximation instead of relying on a substitution method. So I started to chant to myself. "Magic is the extension of one's own mind. Focus is the cause to achieve manipulation..."

While Blueblood shrugged off my mumbling, Shining was at least listening to the words I was saying. He then tapped his fellow royal and pointed back at me.

"To use it's power, one must learn to channel their inner peace. Channel those things that make you tranquil and concentrate on your desired goal. Observe the object you seek, borrow from the well of the harmony within." I sat on my haunches, pointing to my horn and outlining an imaginary current going from my mind to my stomach. "Drink from that well and know your ambition." I then traced my hoof to my heart. "From your ambition, find the summit of your reach." I traced back to my horn and my eyes closed. My head lowered and I started to visualize the moment I first started using magic. "Reach for your desire and achieve your newfound reality."

Almost stunned to silence, the two princes stared in amazement as the slice of pizza was levitated before my face in a white aura. My eyes opened and I was happily clopping my hooves together.

"Baby steps, giant leaps." I said with a proud bite of my slice of pizza.

Blueblood shook himself out of his amazement to put on a stoic face. "Well I see that you've managed to learn how to manipulate one tiny little object. However, there are many other applications to be achieved─"

"Counter, casting, calling, yeah I'm learning that too." I replied.

Shining seemed genuinely impressed by my limited knowledge. He crawled over to me with interest, quietly yelping in pain as he did so. He stopped about midway before he just gave up. "Okay, can you just make your way over here instead?"

I snickered before walking over as quickly as I could, still losing my balance in certain places. I extended a hoof, thinking I could help him up, but he only ended up pulling me down to where he was. The two of us looked at each other and laughed at the hilarity of being each other's species for the time. "Okay, I may have gotten some of the magic basics down, but I can't do the other pony stuff."

"My legs are killing me. I can't walk like you guys can. The thing with the hands, the clothes, the world feeling a lot colder without my fur, it's just too much."

I tried my best to instead use my magic to give the transformed stallion a helping hand up. Though I struggled to do it, it helped that he tried a bit on his end as well. Finally on his own two feet, I began to coach him forward. "Well if you wanna learn how to walk like a human, you've got one hell of a coach in someone who's had to learn how to walk twice in his life."

"Yeah. As soon as Luna started explaining how to walk to you, I just felt like you were going to have problems. It's a good thing I had you training on your hands and knees in basic training." Shining joked.

I also gave him a bit of a dig. "Yeah, not too great having to do that without knee pads, huh? Try doing that on gravel, I had blisters for weeks behind that."

"No kidding. I'm doing that on a marble floor." He said, giving some thought to what he just experienced. "Sorry about that."

"We're both a cavalcade of fuck-ups. But when we work together, we leave some big damage." I spurted back before getting back to the main topic. "Now, first step─no pun intended─is to literally pick up your right foot and plant that one ahead of you." As he did as I instructed, I did my best to hold him with my magic. I walked over to his right side and pointed at the round bulge at the back of his foot. "You want to land your foot on that part there."

After he did that, he almost fell off balance as he used his arms to maintain equilibrium. "Okay, well that's unusual. It's just awkward feeling. And then it's hard to keep the other foot in place."

I looked down to see his left foot completely flat on the ground. I pointed it out to him and explained further. "Try to not keep the heel of your foot on the ground when you step forward. When you do that, you're anchoring yourself to that leg and you'll never move the way you want to."

"So how do I do that?" Shining asked.

"That same part I told you to land on with your right foot, you take that same part off of your left. What you're doing now is you're pivoting your toes to propel yourself forward. Now lay that right foot flat and see where that takes you."

He placed his foot on the ground flat, leaving him with his left foot touching the ground by only his toes. He looked down as he felt the momentum change legs. "Okay, now what?"

"You do the same with your left foot. But when you step out, let your knee bend naturally, don't try to overbend or lock it stiff. Now when you step forward with your left foot, your right foot becomes your pivot and your left foot is carrying the momentum."

Shining did as I advised and found himself two steps forward of where he was standing. He started to giggle as he wiggled his toes, taking amusement in the smaller appendages moving independently. "So now what?"

"Do it again. Over and over. Heel-toe all the way."

Shining stepped forward of his own accord without my assistance. And he did so once again, and again, and again, until he started getting used to the sensation of his feet propelling him forward. He smiled and laughed while I looked on like a proud parent. But he had one last question before I could officially send him off walking into the sunset. "So uh... how do you stop again?"

"Anchor the foot you use to take your next step forward. Then let your other foot meet with that one beside it. From that point on, you've officially taken your first steps as a man." I concluded, allowing him to take those final steps before coming to a stand still.

The young prince marveled at his achievement. "YES!" He shouted, pulling off a janky fist pump but elbowing himself in the solar plexus. From that moment, he keeled over and landed on his knees again. "Oh... okay... So that doesn't feel too great."

"Try getting stabbed there." I replied.

A few more hours had gone by with very little trouble. I had started getting accustomed to my equine body while Shining was getting the hang of being a human. Blueblood was a bit slow to come along, but even he started to pick it up better. While the three of us were exchanging tips and pointers, Luna was studying the two princes with the intent of absorbing information. Mel even sat by with her laptop, jotting down notes and taking interest in the conversations Shining and I had about our experience.

Before we knew it, it was time for dinner. One of the guards approached the door and informed Luna that our food, as well as Celestia herself, was awaiting us in the dining hall. We all looked around at each other, wondering what we would do. Luna didn't even shy away from the idea of changing us back to normal. But Shining, Blueblood, and I were all tired of eating the stuff that chef puts out.

I took a moment to figure something out and asked Mel if there was any place around the campus that had some good food. It didn't have to be a four-star restaurant, just a simple place that had some of the most delicious food, food so good that you'd wish you could stay fat for a day and just pig out. It also had to have a vegan option in case the two were not exactly open to the thought of eating meat.

But then came a surprise. Blueblood and Shining agreed without a second thought to the prospect of eating like a human for the evening. I tried to stress to Blueblood that the food choice could be a pretty messy affair, he then stated that he wanted to try meat for several months but couldn't out of the peer pressure of his wives. He also stressed the suggestion that we'd dive into the deep end of human dining. I tried to warn Shining not telling Cadance anything would only result in a massive headache. He didn't care, stating that she'd have him for the rest of his life and that this opportunity was possibly a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

Luna, to her own chagrin, elected not to join us out of the obligation to her royal duties. However, she did transform me back to my human self while providing me with a copy of the scroll, thankfully not stained in surprise bodily fluids. She did tell me to give the scroll a good going over before I went about my way, just to make sure that the details she had written down were easy enough for me to understand. After all, it was a spell I was going to have to use later on.

With everything concluded, we settled on a visit to Moonshine.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Mel rode in on her own while all the guys rode together. She made her way from her apartment while we made our way out from the frat house. The ride from the frat to the downtown business district was pretty amusing. To see both of their faces while looking at the town was nothing short of watching two preteen boys go from acting like nothing was cool to them to acting like they were five. Even riding in the back seat of Rickey's malibu was so much of an experience. From the heater getting cut on, the revving of the engine, the sight of the world gliding right by them, even the multitude of cars passing right by them, it was so great having to watch them both point through the windows what they saw.

But when we finally hit downtown, their eyes grew huge and their chatter became like two kids talking about an awesome amusement park they're walking into for the first time. Tall buildings everywhere, humans of several colors, creeds, shapes, and sizes wearing colorful coats, sweaters, jackets, shirts, scarves, and the like. Christmas lights adorning every tree with propped up snowmen lining some of the business.

It was Christmas time celebration at it's finest.

When we pulled up, we started to make our reservations. But to our surprise, Mel called in ahead of time to set up a table for eight. And since it was called in, we didn't have to wait for very long before getting shown a table. Shining looked around to see some people operating on their phones, others with friends taking pictures, and a bunch of families out having a good time. On the speakers was some typical Christmas music to celebrate the festivities. Mel showed up a few minutes after, and both my brothers made an appearance another ten minutes after.

The six of us humans took the time to watch our two transplants glance over the menu. They didn't seem to have a clue on where to start, so we all ordered ribs to keep things casual. But you couldn't tell these two that they couldn't drink. They were going to get a bottle of wine whether I had the money for it or not, which I thankfully did. Stanton, in the meantime, ordered a shitton of food. And even if you wagered he wouldn't be able to eat it, you'd might as well pay his tab.

The food arrived hot and fresh from the grill, the waiters politely provided us with several napkins and the many sides we ordered collectively. Shining pointed at the rib and asked Stanton sitting next to him. "Hey, what's this made from?"

"Pig." Stanton answered without hesitation.

Both the humanized ponies stared at their plates with uncertainty while Alex pointed at their plates. "Hey, if you don't feel comfortable, you can order something else. They do have a salad line."

I smiled when Shining replied. "I'm not gonna chicken out now. I'm here as a human, I might as well eat like one."

Shining grew hesitant to eat, opting to use his fork to politely hold the meat in place as he grabbed a knife to use. Stanton nudged him. "Nah man, we don't do that pussy shit for man food. Here, do what I do."

Stanton grabbed the rib and held it in front of his mouth. Shining and Blueblood did the same. From there, Stanton a huge bite of the rib and pulled the meat right off the bone. Blueblood just stopped short of it while Shining lightly bit to taste the food. But the moment that taste hit his taste buds, his eyes shut and his head shook from the influx of flavor. The young prince then took a healthy bite and moaned with appeasement. Nudging Blueblood, he waved the partially exposed bone, grunting for him to join in. Blueblood followed suit and ooh'd happily before the conversation between them suddenly turned into a display of cavemen discovering the modern age implementation of herbs and spices, followed by rapid communal nodding.

While the princes had their first experience with pigging out, we started having our own little discussion. Mel asked me. "So how's the lessons coming along?"

"Great." I began. "I've been going over some of the basics and I think I've got some of those down pat."

Alex then asked. "So, what's the deal with these two? How'd you come to the conclusion of bringing these guys here?"

"Chef at the castle was being a bit of a knob. Or as what mom would like to call it 'a woman with no want for a man's heart.' Have you ever had flavorless oatmeal?"

Stanton shuddered. "Oh, that bad then."

"Oh you have no idea." Shining cosigned. "The dungeon mess hall got better cooking staff than us."

Blueblood then added. "That's actually true. I went down there and ran about for some behind the scenes action, and apparently their food, no matter the messy gruel of a paste they create, it tastes... better."

"Not as good as those ribs, huh?" Cliff said with a snicker.

"Hell no!" Shining replied before finishing his second rib.

Alex continued on his question. "So you brought them here to escape the royal chef for dinner? That's the only reason you brought them here?"

"Well let's just say I know how it feels to walk on fours today." I answered, getting a subtle nod from my older brother.

"You too, huh? So what was it like for you?"

Right then, Rickey, Cliff, and Mel started laughing. Blueblood hid his face from trying not to laugh. Shining almost dropped his third rib trying not to laugh. The entire table just looked at me while I answered. "It was... it was interesting."

My face started to show red while everyone at the table started giggling. Rickey whispered under his breath before the entire table lost their collective shit. "Boner."

I shook my head and groaned. "Okay, guys. It's over, it's in the past."

Alex sighed with disbelief. "Huh... you too? I guess that's a theme for these transformations."

I couldn't help but to tilt my head. "Wait, it happened to you too?"

Alex covered his face with his palm as he spoke. "I don't know what it is about smells to ponies, but there's just this thing they give off that just makes you wanna think bad thoughts."

"So who transformed you?" I asked.

"Celestia. Who transformed you?"

"Luna." I replied. "How did your situation come up?"

"Well..." Alex started off slowly. "Celestia was teaching me how to walk. And then I noticed how freakishly tall she was from my perspective, like she could completely stand over me like a mother standing up for her kid. And then she started to guide me into walking. And as we were moving along, I caught a hint of whatever it was."

"And it made you go nuts?" I asked.

"Dude." Alex stopped before taking a drink from his beer. "I was not happy having cold water poured on me like that after."

"Wait, she poured cold water on you?" I asked, completely astounded.

"Yeah. I mean she was blushing pretty hard over the situation but we resolved it and pretty much agreed to never talk about it again."

I looked to Blueblood and Shining with disappointment. "That would've been nice, to at least be a bro about it."

"So what happened with you and your situation?" Alex inquired.

Mel jumped in. "Better question, what's between you and Luna?"

Rickey stopped laughing and started joining in on the topic. "Yeah. From what you guys were talking about, it's like the two of you got some history."

Stanton stopped eating. "Wait, what?"

"Yo, I'm not gonna lie forreal, but y'all two had some shit goin' on like y'all been seein' each other on the low." Cliff stated. "Cause what I saw earlier today, she got you bad. Like, she ain't even with you, but she know the things to get you right."

"But it's not like that." I answered. "She just did me a favor and not let me suffer."

"Well it's not like Celestia had the entire guard on post looking for you yesterday." Shining added with a smirk. "And when I mean the entire guard, I mean whatever member of the E.U.P. in the city limits got an advanced notice to look for you. I haven't seen a hunt so widespread since the disappearance of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna."

"Wait, that happened?" I asked.

"I was away in the Crystal Empire at the time. Gotta say that was some convenient timing. The strange thing about it is that it was the only day where you saw both the day and night hogging the sky all at once."

"Nevermind that shit. So what's the deal between you and Luna?" Mel questioned, leaning over her plate.

"Nothing's between us romantically, I swear."

"So y'all just buddy-buddy but on the freak side of shit." Cliff said.

"No." I emphasized. "In fact, Celestia had a long conversation with me about that since she found my breakaway pendant in Luna's room."

"Y'all ain't have that conversation today." Cliff pointed out.

Shining continued to disregard his side dishes while holding his fifth rib. "Being that the hunt ended sometime yesterday evening, I can assume that she spoke with you around that time. What exactly did she talk with you over?"

"Because Luna told her what happened on Thursday."

"You mean when she came here to your world?" Blueblood asked.

"Then what exactly happened between the two of you that ended with THAT result?" Alex questioned.

"It was some stuff for a scroll containing a transformation spell. It was stashed in Celestia's room, but Luna had took it before I could. The negotiations went through and I managed to coerce her into giving me the scroll on the account of a trade." I turned to Mel. "In speaking of which, I think she has your 'Lucy'."

The others looked at me like it was the dildo that I traded with her. Meanwhile Melanie pursed her lips while looking to the ceiling. "Lucy is with me."

"Blue vibrator, rotating beads at the center of the shaft, dolphin clit stimulator?" I specified.

"Lucy is purple. I did manage to buy her and Rainbow one off of Amazon." She replied shamelessly.

The two princes dropped their food, completely astounded of what they heard. I was more perplexed. "You bought Rainbow Dash and PRINCESS FUCKING LUNA a vibrator? Why?"

The woman shrugged. "Well Rainbow had always asked me for one, so I just gave her one. What I didn't know would happen is that she'd tell Princess Luna about it at the royal spa. So Luna came rolling through my mirror requesting that I'd get her one. Two days later, I give her the goods, she tosses out the manual and everything else, and walks away a happy princess." She then leaned back in her chair as she asked. "Now how do YOU know she has a toy?"

"Changeling inspection on Thursday. I had to check the rooms and ended up finding it under her bed. Though now that I think about it, I should actually be thanking you." I then turned my attention to Alex. "That toy Mel bought her saved my ass from having to do the dirty work myself."

"Can't get busted for drilling if the drill ain't yours." Shining started to think aloud. "Still get busted anyhow, but at least you're not going to trial for actually breaking the law. Good loophole."

"Think she'll say anything about what happened earlier this morning?" Blueblood questioned quietly.

"I hope like hell getting feather teased ain't a prerequisite." I replied.

Alex's jaw fell and he started downing his beer quickly before shifting his eyes somewhere where he couldn't see me. "Damn, you lucky bastard. When it happens to me, I can't even get the time of day."

Stanton looked around the table at the rest of us. "Okay, so the next time one of them wants to transform a human into a pony, can you tell them that I'd want next?"

"Not a chance." I replied sternly.

"Aw, c'mon! You got the spell, right? You ain't fuck the princess for nothing. And you got magic, hit me up!"

Both Blueblood and Shining shifted their eyes towards me. "You have magic?" Both of them asked in perfect unison.

I rolled my eyes as I explained to my younger brother. "The spell she gave me was a simplified spell for me to use whenever I needed to use it. And then I can only use it every eighteen hours before I'm able to cast the return spell. And to be honest, I don't even know why she even gave me the damn spell like I'm gonna cast it."

"Probably to turn one of them back." Mel suggested while pointing to Blueblood and Shining. "Should be a good way to up your magic game."

"Mel, this is a calling spell. I use this once and I'm gonna be dog-shit tired for the rest of the evening."

"Well don't use it now, we got a whole evening to explore the human world. Why shorten the visit?" Shining said as he started back on his food.

"I'm sure having a good time being around this place full of shiny towers and culinary discoveries. I might be a bit cold dealing with the lack of fur, but I can bear with for much longer." Blueblood added while he also started to slowly catch up to Shining's rib count.

Stanton, however, had already done away with his food and looked to the side of baked beans sitting neglected to Shining's side. "Hey, if you ain't gonna eat that─"

Before Stanton could reach his hand over the bowl of beans, I pointed the bowl to the other side of Shining. The entire table stared as the white aura that surrounded the bowl was also wrapped around my finger. As soon as I finished, Shining looked at me, impressed with my progress. "So when did you start finding out about your magic?"

"A week ago." Alex replied. "He started to unknowingly lift the plates off of our table when we ate with dad. Luckily he wasn't around to see it."

"Cool, so your magic is white now?" Mel asked. "I thought it didn't have a color."

"Bad magic circulation means no stability. You can lift some stuff, but it's not gonna hold without reapplication." I promptly responded. "Magic is all in the mind, know your limits and slowly push past them."

"Fast learner." Shining said, finishing off his final rib and going to the bowl of beans. "Twily must be teaching you a bit."

"I guess my seeing it for several months had me conditioned to want to practice it in my spare time. Naturally, I'm a human so I couldn't do anything. But as far as my influences, Celestia started me off on how to levitate, Twilight got me to where I could be more ambidextrous with it, and I'm also seeing a mentor over at the back end for self-defense."

"The back end of Canterlot?" Blueblood inquired as he started on his fifth rib. "Who's got you going out that way? There's checkpoints so strict that I can't even pay a visit to one of my in-laws without my first wife being present."

"I had a referral." I answered.

"Well whoever has you working on self-defense is going to have a hard time." Shining said with a smirk. "Offensive magic ain't exactly a cakewalk to learn."

Blueblood looked at his hand and flicked his fingers like I did, finding little to no result. "Hmm, it's different trying to use magic as a human, I'm so used to my horn being here."

"Celestia got that down in the first hour of day one." Alex recalled. "I think she just shifted her output to her hand and she got it just fine."

"She still can't get the concept of panties though." Mel muttered, grabbing every human male's attention in a ten foot radius. "I get it's feels liberating to go free and all, but it's just... you know. And I get she's got the goods to flaunt and don't even know all too much how good she's got it for now but ignoring the back problems she's going to have later."

Blueblood appeared confused. "You're still taking about Celestia, right?"

"Have you seen her naked?" Stanton began. "I'm talking about prime real estate, like she'll make you wanna see her with some of that baby fat after that first pregnancy. I'm telling you if she has kids, it's over cause she will never stop having them."

"And she cooks too." Mel added, trying to quickly stave off the subject of her ascetic features. "She's pretty much got everything a guy could ask for."

"Minus a hair-trigger temper." Blueblood refuted.

"She's ultra-protective. She wanted to almost castrate me the moment I suggested to Cadance that we could experiment with some ways to get around my not enacting my clause. I suggested a few things, she went to Celestia for advice, and I'm getting grilled for two hours straight about how I should be a more respectable suitor, and I quote, 'who's not attached to lecherous deeds and immoral tendencies'." The young prince testified. "Though she does consider Cadance as a niece, so there's that."

"Oh she is a prude about the whole sex thing." The older prince confirmed. "I thought I'd be funny and tell her to find a suitor to tame her for a good twenty years... Did not end well, I swear the summer sun was at record temperatures for a good decade behind that. I'm just glad she didn't completely unleash on me."

"Flames for hair, crimson and gold eyes?" I asked.

"The low growl she has and how softly she speaks. Every T she enunciates sounds like the crack of a whip." Shining said with a small shudder.

"Or worse, and I've only seen this once. When she sits you down for tea." Blueblood finished, adding to the trifecta of shudders the three of us shared.

Mel appeared completely unimpressed, appearing to judge the three of us harshly as she spoke. "All three of you decided to be assholes for that to happen. And Miss Celly isn't a prude, she's just conservative. She doesn't like it when conversations are heavily implied to be sexual, or even an open conversation about the details. She basically likes patient guys who are more into intimacy and love with very little focus on sex."

"We call those prudes, Mel. No matter how you splice it, it's still prudish." Rickey replied brashly.

"And you're what I would call an 'asshole'." Mel replied.

"I'm an asshole who's realistic."

After leaving the restaurant, we made our way across the river for a stroll down the boardwalk. Both of our visiting princes appeared quite satisfied with their food and needed some walking off, so we decided it would be better to enjoy the view of the downtown metropolis. They managed to catch a great view of the skyline as the night consumed the sky. The lights of the buildings gave the place a lively look, exciting both of the transplants.

The rest of us just took in the sight what four of us had been calling home for years. It didn't impress us too much because we were here watching some of the distant skyscrapers come up slowly while growing up. Rickey, who was from San Antonio, stared out across the river and thought about home. Cliff was more-or-less used to it, but still marveled with appreciation while citing comparisons to his home in New Orleans.

But Shining's description was a lot more vivid. His family, being residents of Canterlot and more than acquainted with everything it had to offer, was complacent with the big-city vibes the place had, offering many activities and attractions for young foals to do. But the way it was built, there was no real way to enjoy the view of the city skyline, as it was always on the side of a mountain.

He was right. You can look from Ponyville and see the city off in the distance, but not close enough to casually enjoy the view. And riding on the train, you manage to catch glimpses before the next boulder or tunnel blocked your view. You could look at it from across the causeway, but you'd really be seeing the outer wall surrounding the city. In order to get a really good view, you'd have to fly out a certain distance and look at the city from the southeast. And even then, the architecture was mostly enclosed, offering very few openings for lights to display the brilliance places like Austin would show. We might not have a fancy gateway bridge and all the LED-driven skylights like Dallas has, but it's still a pretty sight once the sun goes down.

I often compare my return to this place to somewhere quiet like Ponyville. I know it's not much to look at and the night life there only consists of a comedy club, a movie theater, a few eateries, and even fewer bars, but the air is much cleaner and it's a lot quieter for anyone wanting a good night's sleep.

The two of us continued our hometown exchange, that was until Cliff had answered his phone. As soon as he picked it up, I could hear someone yelling at him from the other line. They said something to him, his eyes jumped open, and right then he grabbed me to tell that we had a situation. That pretty much ended our day out in the city, we rushed back to the frat house and we were greeted by at least twelve guys standing on the front lawn, all frat members.

We walked inside and saw at least three other of our frat brothers holding a rake, a broom, and a makeshift lasso out of a heavy-duty extension cord. All three of them were trying to come up with a plan on how they were going to find a way to capture something. Cliff walked up to the three and asked. "Bruh, what the hell is going on?"

"I think someone pranked the shit out of you man." Terrance stated holding the rake.

"Yo, who did you piss off in the AKA's?" Rodney asked, holding the broom.

Both Cliff and Rickey looked at each other, appearing confused. "We don't even talk to them. What makes you say we did something to them?"

"Ain't their whole color scheme pink and green?" Hunter questioned, slinging the improvised lasso over his shoulder.

"Yeah, what about it?" Cliff replied.

"Somebody left a small horse in your room and spray-painted it pink."

Cliff, Rickey, Shining, Blueblood, and I all looked back at each other, realizing that someone had come through Cliff's portal. There was an unsaid 'Oh shit!' between the five of us while Terrance mumbled. "I still wanna say that thing just talked to me, that or it's got some speakers hidden in those wings they put on it."

"That thing had something pointy on top of it's head, so we ain't really trying to get too close to that." Rodney said, causing all five of us to immediately jump into action.

All five of us scurried up the stairs, while Hunter and Terrance closely followed behind us. I looked back and asked. "Did anyone call animal control?"

"They said they'll be here in like ten minutes, but ten minutes had pretty much already came and went." Hunter said. "Also, the door is locked so it can't get it's way out."

"Who locked the door?" Cliff asked angrily.

"I thought that some horses were smart enough to get out of their stalls, so I just improvised and locked the door until animal control arrived." Terrence explained.

I looked at Rickey and sighed. Immediately catching my hint, he threw both of his arms around the two younger students and ushered them to the stairs. "Boys, tell me everything you know while we think of a way to get this situation rectified. So start from the beginning."

We waited until the three completely fell out of view before I banged my head against the wall, cursing at myself for somehow letting this happen. But then I looked back at Shining and facepalmed while I spoke. "Dude, come get your wife."

Shining then knocked on the door, receiving no response initially. This time, he knocked again while addressing her. "Cadie, you in there?"

Instantly she replied. "Oh well how nice it is to hear from you after I send a search for you throughout the castle!"

Shining rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Cadance, why? Why go this far?"

"Because my husband decided to not talk with me during dinner like you promised we would! I'm tired of doing this by myself, going through it all by myself, and having to be scared all by myself!"

"Cadance, unlock the door." I called though to her.

"No!" She answered defiantly. "You need to calm the rest of your little groupies down so that my husband and I can talk in peace!"

"How about you open this door before the people that aren't my 'groupies' come by to scoop you up and lock you away in a world you have no fucking clue how to escape from. Can you do that instead?"

"Who are you issuing orders to!?" The princess shouted back to me. "I'm a princess, that makes me your superior."

"And you're in my world, about to find yourself in a world of trouble, ignoring the captain trying to guide you to safety. I think that's about as fair game as anything else!"

Completely blowing me off, she directed her commentary back to her husband. "Shining, you need to poof yourself in here and talk to me. Now."

Shining looked at his hands and tried to explain himself. "Cadie, it's not that easy─"

"NOW!"

I decided I had enough of being patient. I slapped my hand on the door knob, using my magic to unlock the door and stormed my way into the room. The pink pony princess stood angrily while I entered into the room with Shining following closely behind. I was going to say something, but Shining stopped me from saying anything further. He slowly walked up to her. "Cadance, can we go back over to our end of things? I think you really caused a bit of commotion over here."

The princess scoffed angrily, not even noticing her husband's appearance. "So I'm in the wrong then?"

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

The young prince walked up to her, finally getting her attention. She went through her initial shock rather quickly before finding herself somewhat disgusted. Shining tried to pull his wife's hoof as a means to guide her, but she retracted herself fiercely and backed away from him. I stepped in and picked up the pink pony and walked towards the portal. She writhed and wriggled intensely, making it very difficult for me to move her without dropping her. She started to ignite her horn before we found ourselves back in Equestria.

She started to angrily lash out me as I placed her down, even allowing her magic to get a bit rowdy. Thankfully, my newfound experience with a counter spell gave me enough protection to wart off a blast that could've sent me to a nearby wall. The princess gawked while her husband walked in to see her being confrontational. He quickly ran in front of his wife to further explain himself. "Cadance, it's still me, and I think you're in the wrong for not asking anypony else what was going on."

"Luna told me where you went!" She screamed vehemently.

"I thought you sent a search for me." Shining recalled.

"Only after I sent the order twenty minutes before! Now I don't see you all day, you run off to another world to avoid being here with me! Is it really that bad, do I really irk your nerves that much!?"

Shining could barely get a word in before he could give a reply. "Sometimes yes, but─"

"So I'm annoying you?" She jumped in, growing all the more aggressive.

"Cadance─"

"So I guess my voice is irritating now! Apparently my husband isn't so loving anymore!"

"That's not what I was trying to─"

"You know what, I've seen you around him too much!" Cadance said, pointing her hoof to me angrily. "I think you're starting to pick up where he left off with your sister, which is fucking amazing!"

I proceeded to pretend I didn't get caught under a shady tree while Shining argued with his wife. "How about you take one goddamn second to listen to a voice not belonging to Mi Amore Cadenza! Just one second."

"One." She answered defiantly. "Now you listen to me for a change!"

As much as I wanted to intervene for his sake, I decided that it was better for them to talk things through. But even Shining started to grow vocal towards his wife. "I didn't had much of a damn choice, you give me fucking headaches every single fucking time you get like this! Just shut up for a fucking while, okay!?"

"Shut up!?" She said, starting to ignite her horn again. I quickly stepped in between the two and placed my hand where I was ready to deflect whatever dared to come Shining's way. She angrily took a step towards me. "Stay out of our business, Nondis."

"How about you chill for a minute." I began. "Shining and Blueblood wanted some food, we had a little experiment today, here's the result, and now your husband is back home. I know you're pissed, but give him a second to set himself straight before you start blasting the entire room away."

She didn't back down as she growled at me. "Move out. Of. My way."

"My job is to protect the members of the royal family from any aggressor. And you're looking mighty aggressive right now." I stated sternly. "Now deactivate your magic and raise your head before we have an issue. Are we clear, your highness?"

The standoff between the two of us lasted for a few seconds before Cadance started to tear up. Her eyes watered while her magic continued to swirl around her horn. My hands started to get warm as she called out to her husband behind me. "So you really don't give a damn about the foal I'm carrying, do you? Our child, our first unborn, and you're hiding away like a coward!"

Blueblood and Cliff walked through to see the situation unfolding before them. The two remained motionless, uncertain of what to think for the time being. Shining started to look to Blueblood for a second while replying to his wife. "Cadance, do you have any idea what I feel when you accuse me of being like that?"

"That's exactly what you act like!" She shouted with her voice breaking. "I try to get your help fighting for our foal, you walk away. I try to talk to you for comfort, you're not there. I try to even be your wife for a few minutes, but it's like my not giving you the instant gratification you always wanted makes you feel so distant to me. Chrysalis is out there again, she could come for us or worse, and you still don't think about anything other than what you want to put into your stomach." The pink princess dispersed her spell in the form of a small areal blast. Her forelegs shook as she started to break down. "My heart hurts, everything hurts, I'm trying to protect what little I've shared with you but you just keep shoving me away."

"Cadance..." Shining started, but failed to find much of anything to say for the time being.

Meanwhile, his wife had much to say. "I get it. A lot of the pain you experienced in your career is because of me. If I hadn't pushed you so far, maybe I would've had something even better with you. If I wasn't so hard on you, then maybe I would have more of you now. I'll be the first to admit that us being together was hell because I was watching you suffer! I tried to be strong for the both of us. Even when I knew you were devastated because of her..." Cadance started to let the tears flow more freely as her voice completely destabilized, her legs giving way as she laid on the ground. "I wasn't first, and it hurts me... I was never the first for you at anything... I couldn't even hold the idea that you were my first because it was never true... It's as if everything we have, something comes along to sabotage what little moments we share. And I hate it."

I backed off, allowing Shining to see his wife. He appeared almost mortified as she continued to speak.

"Yeah, I'm vindictive for what happened at our wedding, because I know I wasn't the first to meet you at that alter. I hurt so bad thinking about who you tried to save and what regret you had for her... I hate not being able to comfort you without being angry for that. I hate suffering in silence because I want to make you happy. I didn't want this foal... but I tried my best to pretend that I wanted it because I wanted to be the first to give you a family. I didn't want to take that away from you. But now that I have it, I'm so scared. I'm terrified, Shining Armor. I don't know what's in store for us anymore, I don't like not being able to fight like I want to because I'm managing stress for two... Three now."

The princess seemed shaken enough to allow her husband to walk up to her. Cadance shivered as her husband wrapped his human arms around her. She lightly shoved herself away as she held him off.

"I don't want to see you like this... I don't want to be touched by anything other than you, the real you, the you I know and love so much."

I watched as Shining sat in vain, trying his best to approach his wife. After a while, I couldn't bear seeing the distance between them and pulled out the transformation spell scroll from my pocket. I started going over the carefully simplified details a few times before I reached my hand out to the young prince trying to comfort his wife.

Disregarding my warnings about calling spells, I gave it my best shot. My hand started glowing white, a similar aura surrounded Shining's entire body. I closed my eyes and imagined the form I wanted him to take, the method of channeling I needed to perform before I was able to send my magic forth. And when my eyes opened, my arm grew drastically heavy as the spell started to manifest. Instead of my hand alone, it was my entire right arm that glowed. My weight shifted forward, greatly favoring the arm that sent the magic forward. A sudden rush of fatigue started to cause me to fall over, but I kept my focus as best as I could on Shining.

A solid white flash appeared, knocking me on my backside while Shining faded into an orb of light. I glanced up while shielding my eyes to see the orb dissipate into a pony with a two-toned blue mane and a blue shield on his flank. Shining looked back to me completely astounded. I looked down to see that my arm had completely fallen asleep for a short while before I had the sudden rush of blood filling it, a sensation almost like ants running through my veins. Before too long, I had slowly received the ability to use my fingers again.

I gave him a quick thumbs up before pointing to his wife, urging him to speak with her. She continued to sob as the husband she knew finally embraced her. She just sat in his hooves, nuzzling him while she wept. Blueblood walked over to me and tapped me on my shoulder. "So... The animal patrol thing was called off. What now?"

I looked at the couple and folded my arms. "We'll come to that bridge when we get back to it. Right now, let's leave them alone for a moment. I think they have some talking to do."

The blond prince agreed. "Fair enough."

The Next Day...

After we allowed the two to air their grievances, we finally had to address the situation back at the frat house. I simply told the house that it was a prank I orchestrated to give Cliff a quick scare. I had to make up a pretty lengthy story about animatronics and having someone to record the voice. I also notified them that it was more for a YouTube video than anything else. In terms of footage, I simply claimed that the camera had ran out of battery during the time it was supposed to record. I then feigned anger and made my apologies to the house. My punishment was twenty-four hours of community service and a fine of five-hundred bucks.

Unfortunately, it didn't quite shake off Hunter or Terrance, they knew exactly what they saw.

Getting back to Cadance, I had to give her a good talking to and report the situation to Celestia, who then issued a small punishment consisting of a week on desk duty. Shining was given a stern warning to not disappear without Cadance's knowledge. Blueblood didn't get much other than an earful from his seven wives. I wasn't even called out for anything, Celestia was still pretty upset with me dealing with Luna and opted not to address me in any way.

But when that last bit of discussion went through, I got in my bed and passed out on the mattress, completely stone tired and didn't open my eyes until nine hours later. The sun had a subdued glow about it while it crept through the window. My room was much colder than usual, I looked over to see that I had left the window ajar from yesterday, allowing the snowy breeze to flow in.

I practically walked around in my comforter until I had gotten dressed and made my way through to the dining hall. When I walked in, I was greeted by the familiar scent of flapjacks and fruit, a far cry from what the morning consisted of for the past week. When I sat down, I was already eagerly drumming my fingers against the table before a silver plate was bestowed upon me. When I took off the lid, however, I was sent back into melancholy while I saw the cup of water with a bowl of unseasoned oatmeal.

Celestia then informed me that I would be escorting her to the parliament chambers today, serving as a bailiff. I asked why I had been assigned the low-end job, she simply argued that I would stay out of trouble this way. Luna was then given an assignment to tend to the dungeons below. Shining was pretty much sentenced to be his wife's escort for the day, not a punishment he would have minded in any capacity.

After breakfast, we made our way straight to the chamber of the parliament. And for several hours I was pretty much standing on my own two feet doing absolutely nothing but hearing a bunch of old snowbirds talk about issues specific for various locations across Equestria. Nothing really grabbed at my attention for most of the time.

That was until I heard the word 'summons.'

Instead of my being the topic of discussion like usual, it was actually Princess Cadance who was called in. And as instructed, Shining accompanied his wife to the summons. So the two entered into the room, Blueblood read off the list of proceedings, and the whole bullshit process began like it normally would.

"Princess Cadance, do you know why you have been summoned here today?" One of the politicians asked from the left side of the room.

"No sir, I do not." She replied as graciously as she tried to be.

"Well it has come to our attention that you have been calling for various searches as of recent. And in those searches, there was a significant amount of disturbance levied to our proud guard. Do you wish to take the moment to refute these claims?"

"No sir." She responded quietly. "They are as they are written. I summoned the guards to locate my husband, who I felt had gone missing for many hours in the day."

"Missing as in how?" The politician questioned.

"Unreported. I grew fearful for his state of being."

"And you allowed yourself to abuse those executive privileges to appease your state of mind? Are you or are you not aware of the possible ramifications involved with abusing the call to search? Your actions could cause the breakdown of several security measures used to keep the palace grounds a safe and secure place. You assessed these risks when you made the decision to frequent the use of search parties, did you not?"

"Yes I did. And I do apologize. I shall take measures to ensure that these events do not continue."

Another politician from the center of the room stood as he made his own address. "Your highness, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. It is also noted that you caused a disturbance in the human world upon your visit." The politician then turned to me. "Captain, if I may inquire for the parliament, how significant was the disturbance for your kind?"

"Minor." I replied. "Equines are not known for sapience in my world, so it surprised another two humans when they heard her talk. I simply dismissed their assertions for reasons that my species would sooner find logical as opposed to bringing about more unwanted attention. The incident in question was an isolated one with controlled parameters that requires little maintenance to regulate. The situation is under control."

"Do you believe the situation would become anything more significant over the course of time?" They asked.

"Unless they were to find the access points leading to Equestria, then no. On that notice, the particular access point involved in the incident is being deactivated for several days until the situation stabilizes back into normalcy. No true cause for concern."

The politician returned his attention to the princess in question. "Your highness, Mi Amore Cadenza, I trust you will take the sensitive nature of these engagements more into consideration from here on forth."

"I shall." The princess confirmed quietly.

As the second politician sat himself, a third approached the center of the floor with a folder in tow. As he started to organize his materials, I felt his face to appear somewhat familiar to me. The stallion finished gathering his paperwork and started to address to Cadance. "Your excellency, your beautiful highness, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, it is a fortune to see you in good health."

Thrown off by his unusual approach, the princess maintained a motionless expression. "Thank you for your complements." As she said that, Shining started eyeing the politician while he continued.

"And of course..." He brought his attention to the multitude of ponies in the room. "Before I am to begin with any of my statements and proposals, I wish to start off a different way as opposed to my more partisan colleagues. I wish not to attack your character, but rather I wish to congratulate you. For many of you have either known or not, I shall reiterate my congratulations." He then bowed before Cadance with a humble smile. "Your majesty, I wish to congratulate you and wish you well on your new family. May your unborn foal come to be a healthy and successful heir."

Gasps around the room sounded as applause started to fill the room. Cadance, who was once stoic, had completely become shaken with his praise. Even looking from behind, I could tell she was uncomfortable. "...Thank you. Your praise is appreciated."

The politician then continued with a warm smile on his face. "For the very first time in recorded Equestrian history, we are to be anointed with a true bloodline heir to the throne. And as such, they will carry with them the hopes and dreams of Equestria's future. And I honestly believe that is the best for the future of this country, to have a true-blooded Equestrian hold the reigns of power."

He took a very quick glance over to me as he said his statement, possibly to tell me in a not-so-subtle way that I was not welcome.

He then proceeded. "I fervently believe that such a future is to be protected by all means necessary. And I do want what is best for our country to remain at the forefront of this proposal. Our beautiful world is in need of it's ruler, and if something were to happen to our chain of command, they would be the ideal choice to lead Equestria and her citizens to a truly prosperous future." He then glanced at me again. "But there will be others who will try to usurp those visions. I understand that not everypony is open to the idea of change quite soon, but I do believe that a gradual change is good for the country as opposed to a more radical one."

Shining looked at his wife, seeing how irregular her breathing had become as she stood there. He quickly went to her side as he called out. "Can you please make your case?"

The stallion nodded sagely before passing Blueblood his folder. "And for such an event, I do have a protection plan in place. It is to our benefit that we enact this protection plan as soon as possible. I can only assume that we are now months away from the birth of Equestria's first true heir. And what better time to plan for our little one's protection than now?"

Blueblood started to quietly read the contents of the folder as he asked. "This appears to be an amendment."

"Of course, this is for the future of our country. We only want what is best for the ponies of this proud nation. And what else would they deserve than to have an heir who is looked after in every way, shape, and form? Equestria deserves an heir that is perfect for her."

Blueblood continued to read through the pages until he came across something that he had to read through again. The room had grown ghostly quiet while the prince viewed the documents for a second and third time. With pages still left to read, he closed the folder and slammed it on the table.

"I am going to have to ask you... what is this atrocity you seek to implement?" Blueblood questioned, showing a very rare instance of unbridled anger. "And do not lie."

The politician smiled as brightly as he did the entire time. "Why it is a measure of security for our future, a protection plan for our upcoming heir to the throne."

Blueblood pursed his lips and muttered to the young prince comforting his wife. "Shining, I want you to read this aloud. Page ten, second paragraph."

Cadance, already feeling terrified had clung onto her husband's foreleg, almost not wanting him to do what Blueblood had ordered. The young husband quietly whispered to his wife before walking towards the angered stallion. Shining started to read off some of the things he saw. "In this new accordance there are to be more protections implemented against the violation of code thirteen, section eight, subsection six. To further protect..."

Shining stopped reading out loud to go back to what he had just read. The face he had pretty much gave it away to everyone in the room. The young prince then shouted out slowly.

"Inspections of virtue!" He then slammed the folder onto the desk, crumpling some of the pages within. "Selections of doctors via private council!" He followed up with tossing the folder back at the politician's smiling face. "And if I'm reading this shit correctly, the penalties for a violation are EVEN STRICTER than what's already in place!"

The politician looked on with the same smile, but his intention completely revealed. Suddenly, the smile he wore had become menacing. "I told you, this is for our country's future. I thought that you would understand, surely you would see the benefit of having your daughter secured for her future, protected from any usurpers who might have the ambition to lustfully engage with her."

"You are having my daughter looked at by some random stallions with Faust knows what intentions!"

Cadance immediately collapsed. Shining ran over to his wife as he stared back to the smiling politician. "They'll be screened and will have several years of field practice. I don't see the problem, it's just a gynecological check-up set to every Tuesday."

"STARTING FROM THE YEAR LEADING TO HER FIRST ESTRUS!?"

I watched silently, trying to show very little emotion as Cadance started to clutch at herself, whimpering while she leaned on her husband. But instead of Shining yelling at the politician, it was Blueblood himself who broke character. "This proposal is completely inequine! How dare you envision something so primordial!"

"Some modern problems require a more dated approach to curb." He said, giving me a side eye again. "Instead of suitors looking to pop in and make themselves available at the first advantage of some royal looking to bypass a few loopholes, this will instead certify that all future means of attracting a suitor are specifically quarantined to what is already established. Of course, this will eliminate any future suitors from being naturalized and make it mandatory that they'd be Equestrian-born and Equestrian-bred." He then scoffed and gave me a polite bow. "My apologies captain, some of these guidelines were drafted by the late Count DuMoneé. It's only out of respect that we added this clause. Nothing against you as you have performed remarkably. Do keep up the good work."

By that point, the smile on his face was not only etched into my memory, but very much recalled to a certain set of photos I was shown just Friday night. Taking a number from Cadance, I attempted to wear an adamant expression while speaking. "None taken." I lied. "I do appreciate your praise."

Without warning, I heard the entire room rattle with the sound of one voice screaming across to the politician. I looked to the source, a very angry Princess Cadance almost lunging out of her husband's hooves. "YOU BASTARD! YOUR BILL WILL FAIL THE MOMENT IT'S VOTED ON! I SWEAR IT! AND WHEN IT'S DONE I'LL─"

The older stallion chuckled loudly, weakening after a few seconds before his smile broke into a full-on demonic grin. "Ohh you royals. The vote was already cast just last night. We held an emergency meeting for funding of certain auxiliaries. Princess Celestia was present for the affair but this just so happened to get mixed into the budget for the next six months." He looked back to the high princess with a smug sneer. "Oops. I suppose one of my colleagues should've read the bill in full so there would be an understanding. But what's done is done, everything is funded under a unanimous vote." He then looked back to Blueblood. "Helps to read the fine print within a two-hundred page document." He then walked off the floor and back towards his seat before looking to Celestia one final time. "The royal family will have seven days to sign, lest the security of Equestria herself be compromised. I do believe guards don't work unless they're paid. And even if they do... it's only a matter of time."

He then looked to me with that same smile he started off with, dripping with poison as he spoke.

"I pray this does not come to affect you, dear captain. Your performance is worth every bit spent."

The room was silent, looking around I could see several crestfallen faces throughout the room. The majority of the politicians seemed completely shocked at what was revealed to them. And for many, their hooves were completely tied because they knew what was at stake. Some politicians even gathered their belongings, files, and proposals, and walked out of the room.

Shining spent several minutes holding his wife, Cadance shaking violently while Blueblood clenched his eyes away from the scene. Celestia looked down sadly while she called to the room. "Parliament shall now call for a two hour recess." She walked out of the room, collecting the massive financing bill placed before her. I quickly followed after her into the hallway.

I followed her silently, the sounds of her golden slippers echoing through the great marble halls. I followed her into a small office filled with several papers, likely to be signed by Cadance later on. The elder princess walked up to the mahogany desk and slammed the massive pile of papers on, screaming simultaneously.

"DAMN!"

Her voice blared so loudly that it shattered the window leading into the room, causing the cold air to blow inside. She held her head down as she sat on her haunches, staring at the paperwork. She gave me a brief look and turned back to her paperwork.

"Captain, you are dismissed for the day."

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. Pretty busy lately. Get back to you guys soon... hopefully.

Chapter LXXXVI

Over 1000 Years Ago...

Have I ever told you good morning, little one?
Have you ever opened your eyes, my little sun?
There's a world out there, waiting to greet you with a smile, it'll be a while.
But when you're ready, come on out and say hello.

Opening her eyes, a young princess could see that there was hardly anything around her that resembled a light source other than the runes that lined the walls, floor, and ceiling, Even her bed was covered in runes as her legs were held in place by thick heavy chains. She turned over, causing the huge heavy chains to rattle while she muttered quietly. "It's that song again."

"Same dream?" An elderly stallion's voice called out from an adjacent room.

"It's been almost a month since it started." She replied.

The stallion next door started to complain as he shuddered. "Argh! It's so cold up here! Sure they couldn't put us underground where it's nice and drippy with the stale air, at least it'll be warm with all the torches. Instead they have us locked away in a tower overlooking the entirety of the Everfree Forest. Don't they know that the winds blow differently here? It's a lot less forgiving."

Celestia laid there, rubbing her forelegs against one another. "Hasn't it been two months?" She questioned.

Starswirl turned his head to a section on the floor that was marred by crudely scratched tally marks. Seeing how many rows of tally he circled, he came to the conclusion of how long he's been in captivity. "Two months, six days. For you, it'll be eight days on those months."

Celestia started to gripe as she groaned. "Ugh, you would think that they would at least find some way to keep us warm. Considering our status to Equestria, it would only make sense that they would provide these provisions for us."

"Wasn't the whole point of this was to treat us like we were common criminals?" Starswirl asked. "I don't think warmth and healthy nourishment would be a concern of theirs. We're criminals remember?"

"For what exactly!?" The young princess cried out. "I was just sharing my affection with the one I love! Is that so inherently wrong?"

"For a princess who's deemed to be the ruler of an entire nation, who is also perceived to be fornicating with an adversary, then I suppose that would be a pretty scandalous affair."

"But he's not like that!" She argued.

"You're lecturing to the walls again, try something that actually gives a retort."

"You just gave me one!"

"I'm just another brick in the wall, always listening when you're least expected. Try the ones that put you in here."

Celestia gritted her teeth and got out of her bed. "You know they won't give me a voice. They didn't give me one when they made me sign a bill I had no writ in composing."

"And who's bright idea was it to cross the mirror after I told them that it was too dangerous for our dimensions to intersect any longer? Does it happen to be anypony you know?"

Celestia remained silent.

"My thought's precisely." Starswirl replied. "If you stayed, then that meant that their Celestia would have to come here. And it's not like you could've subbed yourself for Luna. One continuity cannot exist─"

"While another is present. I know." Celestia argued. "But Sombra is banished to the shadow in this world."

"This world is the key words you're looking up here. OUR WORLD already has Celestia, Luna, and Sombra, just like theirs. It just so happens that you're the only one here now. I know that it's a lonely road to look forward to and your being near him made you find joy again, but I'm afraid that your joy will have to be set aside for the better of others."

"Must I sacrifice everything?" Celestia called out angrily. "What about my emotional well-being? Everypony is allowed theirs except for me, now I'm sitting here in a cell not knowing when they'll do whatever it is they have in store for me! Their universe may be cruel looking, but it is the most beautiful cruelty I've ever experienced! I get to see my sister again, I'm able to experience love, I can be myself and be happy! Does that not matter to you!?"

"Keep shouting, maybe even the stones will hear you." Starswirl replied sadly before looking out the window to see a small gathering of guards with a larger gathering of nobles. His eyes looked up to the sky to see the moon-less night brighten up to the predawn glow of twilight. "The sun's rising. And the lot are gathering outside."

Celestia right then felt her stomach churn as she started to recede herself against the wall. The large chains that clamped around all of her forelegs rattled on while the sounds of hoofsteps started to get louder and louder. The door leading into the tower swung wide open. Two guards ran in and stood by as a heavy-set gray unicorn stallion donning a green and crimson blazer looked over to the heavy wooden door that housed the princess. He pointed to the door while giving a glare to Starswirl. As the two guards approached the door, they used their magic to disenchant the runes surrounding the locks, allowing themselves inside before the noblepony walked in to read from a scroll he summoned by his side.

"Celeste Delanise Valkyrie, formerly known as Celestia, you have been charged with the crime of high treason and in violation of Law Processu Approbatio. These violations pertain to the intimate exchange with an adversary of our kingdom, endangering our lands with your reckless actions, and the desecration of several tapestries of the noble class. Your powers have been stripped as to judge you as a commoner, and your punishment shall be carried out in such. You will be seen as a criminal guilty of all crimes against your fellow commoners as well as the nobility. Hence your punishment shall be... public atonement."

Celestia already felt herself shaking in the shackles that locked her in place. But as soon as the guards came by to remove them, she started to feel the urge to run. However, the two guards were careful in their removing of her chains, using a salted cloth to wrap around her horn and forelegs. She stammered as she quietly pleaded to the guards. "Please don't let them do this. Please don't let them touch me. I'm your princess, you can't do this to me. I swear to you that you will be greatly rewarded."

The noblepony walked up to her, holding her chin up with a hoof as he leaned in closely to her. "No amount of bribery will save you. Now face your punishment with dignity, please. You'll have to go back to being a princess eventually."

As she walked by, she could see the stony face of the noble creep into a smile. She noticed his eyes had stared intensely at her tail. Her voice was then filled with panic as she lunged toward the powerless unicorn wizard. "Starswirl, help me please! I don't want to go through this! Please, you must do something, anything!"

The unicorn glanced back at the noble, who smiled as he gave another order. "Carry her by her legs. She's resisting."

The princess was then flipped upside down, while both guards held each of her legs in their magic. Her eyes expanded as she felt the noblepony breathing behind her. He walked up behind her and whispered in her ear.

"Today, you shall have us feel like kings."

Present Day...

The dinner table was the quietest it's ever been. The day was spent, and so was the emotions of several royals in attendance. It was as if almost every royal family member was summoned to the table. Even Twilight rode the train in from Ponyville to attend out of a letter's request. Luna sat by her sister, gritting her teeth with displeasure. Twilight appeared crestfallen as her mentor kept her head down, unable to see her eyes. Cadance sat at the far end of the table, rocking quietly as she looked down to her meal. On the other far end opposing her was Shining Armor, who couldn't even buy a word with his wife. Blueblood sat with a bottle of wine, sipping slowly from a crystal goblet. Each of his seven wives sat looking around, not daring to speak a single vowel or consonant.

When I walked in, no one even minded my entry, or the fact that I had brought my friends and brothers with me. The only welcome I was given was the sound of a clock ticking along the back wall. The servants didn't even utter a single word while they placed the food on the table. But Cliff did manage to make a quiet yet obvious observation. "Well at least Shining and Cadance aren't fighting."

The blue-haired prince looked up to see his wife, who turned herself away at his glance.

"Okay, maybe they're just at that stage." Rickey pointed out.

Stanton then tried to cheer up the room. "Hey, so you guys wanna hear a funny story?"

"Read the room, dude." Alex said, nudging our baby brother. He walked up to the table and placed his palms flat against the surface. "Okay. Nondis called us and told us what happened today. Is there anything we can do to help?"

Dead silence.

Stanton walked over to the table, trying his best to break the ice. "Hey, I just wanna say thanks for the healing spells and stuff. My coach just looks at me crazy every time I walk out to the practice field. He still can't believe I'm up and going."

Not a solitary sound.

Mel then approached Celestia from the side. "Big Momma Celly, is everything okay with you? I know this place in town I can get some really tasty treats for you, the cakes there are to die for."

Nothing came from it, not even the mention of her one vice had changed so much as the direction of her eyes.

Rickey walked up to Shining, giving him a friendly elbow nudge. "So, how was the BBQ yesterday? You ran through that plate pretty hard."

The blue-maned prince took a peek towards his wife, still not wanting to look at him.

Alex tried again. "I know you guys aren't happy, but you could at least tell us what we can do to help."

"There's no point." A voice whispered softly, coming from Celestia's direction. Everyone turned their heads to watch as she spoke. "There's nothing we can do here. If I abstain from signing the bill, payroll for many jobs will fall through and no one will be receiving their compensation."

"So abstain from signing the bill and get another one drafted without this crap in the middle." Alex suggested. "What's a short government shutdown compared to the rights of future foals?"

"It's not that easy." I started to explain. "Many politicians have the local newspapers of their respective districts and provinces bought out. You want them to tell the truth, but the only truth that matters is the kind you can hold in your bank account. It's been like that for years now, and it won't change."

Mel looked at me and folded her arms. "But didn't you decide to fight all of that? You gave up the chance of going home and living a normal life to fight this battle."

"I just said it wasn't that easy, never said it was impossible." I corrected her. "Impossible is walking on a torn ACL like nothing's wrong for the rest of your life. This isn't impossible."

"But it's hella fucking difficult, ain't it?" Mel growled back. "If you're gonna waste your time on a bunch of people who just called it quits a long time ago, then why even try?!"

"One's despair is not inclusive to others." I replied, looking back at Blueblood. "Fighting is always an option. And sometimes even the most violent options are a better solution than simply conceding."

Mel scoffed at my statement. "So you're saying you'd start a revolution for a bunch of people who gave up hope a long time ago?"

"I dunno, maybe we need to pretend we're in eighteenth century France and fuck some shit up for us to get their attention. Might not have a guillotine out in front, but we got enough of everything else to prove a point."

"Context, Robespierre." Alex rebutted, challenging my statement. "Do you not remember who was the oppressed at the time and who was the oppressor? It wouldn't nearly equate to the hypotheticals you're trying to draw up."

"That's not the point, Alex." I answered back. "I'm just saying that it's time to stop pretending we're still on the high road. They're going after kids now, gloves are off."

"And what are you going to do, Nondis?" Mel asked, walking up to me with an angry stride. "Get yourself in a hospital again? Lose more blood and intestines? What's this master plan you got, I wanna hear it so I can know whether or not I need to cry in an office over having to worry about keeping you alive again."

"You're a soldier, not a politician." Alex added. "This is one line of work you can't do, it's just too difficult to try and circumvent red tape and move against pre-established powers."

I started peeling back my fingers, counting off the names off the top of my head. "George Washington, Napoleon Bonaparte, Ulysses S. Grant, Dwight Eisenhower, even the monster Adolf FUCKING Hitler, those guys could lead men. It didn't matter how or where."

"And you're delusional enough to believe that you could take that same role? This isn't some book where you're some Gary Stu hoping to break the history books by doing the unachievable. Yeah sure you might have gotten a few radio listeners riled up with your 'I believe that we will win' speech, but that doesn't apply in a field you have no experience in─"

"Belief is universal, Mel. How often do we believe in some man that could walk on water and raise the dead? Some guy who found enlightenment and sat under a tree until he died? Some guy coming off the mountain with words carved in stone spoken by some flaming bush? Or even if you choose not to believe in something, that is a belief in and of itself."

"You're right, Nondis!" She yelled mockingly. "Belief is something we can all agree that exists! And it's like you said, choosing to not believe in something or someone is a belief too! But believing in you now... it's too much." She looked at the ponies sitting around the table. "So tell me what you all believe in. Can you tell me what miracle you want him to pull out of his ass this time? Can you tell me why the fucker I love so damn much is fighting for you while I get to stand here and watch!?"

Everyone looked to her and stared. I just closed my eyes, knowing what she would say next.

"Yeah, I said it. A human is in love with another human, oh how controversial. I love my best friend who's been there for me, even when I wasn't the best to him. I used to see a table of ponies with power, now I see a group of people using him for their own agenda." And then she looked to Twilight. "And now I see a girl who barely has a clue of knowing what to do, who made the right decision, who opened a door for another good decision to come out of it." Finally, her attention was brought to me. "And you still haven't made the right decision... Nondis, it's over. You're fighting for nothing when it's all said and done. It's time to come home."

Shining stood up as he tried his best to defend me. "Nondis is doing more than you know for us! I understand you're upset because this seems like a losing battle, but we're not done yet!"

"Shining Armor..." Cadance began quietly as she stood slowly. "Sit down. You have no right to claim about what's being done when you've done nothing to help me or even talk to me about any of this. I've been trying to grab your attention for the longest time and I can't even seem to get you to look at me when he's around. Now look at where we are."

Blueblood intervened. "I don't think you give your husband enough credit, Cadance. Shining has practiced his due diligence when it comes to doing what he can for your family."

"Well I'm convinced that he's more willing to see himself with somepony else. Maybe I should take a page from Twilight's book and leave him be." Cadance said, her voice still raspy from the painful anguish she displayed in the parliament chamber. She looked to her husband, who stared back with sadness in his eyes. "Just tell me that my wanting to be with you is too much and I'll love you enough to let you go, let you be free."

"You don't mean that." Shining replied.

"Don't I, don't I really?"

"No. You don't." I replied while interjecting. "And you'd be a stupid-ass bitch if you actually went through with it. Shining loves you and that baby to bits and the only thing you want to do is fight the one in your corner. Sure, destroy your family before it even starts. And don't mind your husband who actually rode a train to Canterlot the night he found out to call me out of my sleep at three in the morning just to tell me how much he wanted this but how scared he was over what these assholes would do to the both of you, what would happen to the both of you health-wise. Tell me how much you love your husband enough to drop him off at the next bus stop and leave him there while you go on about life."

Alex then added. "And it wouldn't be fair to compare your marriage to Twilight's dating Nondis. Nondis ain't married to her, she can let him go and he can do whatever he likes because there's nothing between them to tie them together. If my wife dropped me, then that would be a good twenty grand her father spent on the wedding, another five on her dress, the vows we made, the years we spent, and the love we shared, wasted. You have a kid, and you're talking about giving it up. I'm still kinda new to this whole marriage shit, not even a year in, but I do remember something saying 'for better or for worse'. Well how about that worse part of it?"

"But that ain't even it, chief." Cliff added. "I was told some stuff about what happened way back when while we weren't even in the picture, still walking across the stage in high school. Hell, we see windows of it on the way in. I heard that you fought a changeling queen over him and pushed back an invading army over this man. How you just gonna drop that? If I gotta go through all of that and this just to be in love, I'm either gonna make that shit count or I'm just not in love with you. Plain and simple. His ass still here, looking just as dumbstruck the first time he saw you. That's love, gave up all the pussy he could've had just to kick back with you for the rest of his life. I dunno, that's some ungrateful shit and I can't deal."

"Cadance." Twilight asked in a low voice. "Would you really give up on my brother?"

"Twilight." The pink princess called out before she could find anything else to say.

"We were trapped in the caves together, I remember you saying outright. 'We must escape before it's too late, find a way to save the day. Hope I'll be lying if I say I don't fear that I may lose him to one who wants to use him, not care to love and cherish him each day. For I also love the groom, all my thoughts he does consume.' You even took some of those words and wrote them into your vows. You cried at the thought of not being able to save him. Is this what you think of him now, even after a few mistakes?"

Cadance found the weight of her words coming back to her as she started to look back at her husband. "Shining..."

I then added. "I never told anyone too much of this, but that day Twilight took on her new student, I was thrown into several potential realities this world could've experienced. That journey alone guided me to my use of magic, but I'll be damned if I didn't have a harrowing experience along the way. I met Shining twice in that journey. The first one was him fighting alongside his sister, in a war against King Sombra and the invading Crystal Empire. The second is the one I think you'd find the most interesting, it was a world where Chrysalis played her cards right, Luna was again banished to the moon because of her still being corrupt. And Celestia was nothing but a pile of decaying flesh and bones floating in a cocoon sat on her throne. And Chrysalis' next in line had control over the city, doing what she desired to whomever."

I took a short glance to Shining and then back to Cadance as I continued my story.

"I was caught in a world I didn't recognize and I tried to play my way out. So they tested me since I said that I ate meat. They threw Shining in my lap and expected me to eat him. Do you know what kind of condition your husband was in? I'm going to tell you so that you can understand the weight of your words. He was malnourished, weak, you could see the ribs through his skin, his coat missing fur in places, his eyes as cloudy as any blind man. 'Long live Equestria, Twily I failed...' Those were his FINAL words before he gave his last breath in my arms."

Shining swallowed a heavy thought as he took a deep breath. Meanwhile Cadance started backing up, mortified of what I told her.

"Yeah, that same grief you have right now in thinking about the worst to come, I experienced tenfold the next world after. Couldn't sleep for two nights thinking about it. But let's get back to the now. Chrysalis is out there and she obviously gives two shits for Shining Armor, but she'll swipe him up just to dangle him in front of you. Now can you imagine what you'd feel like if he was taken from you? Whether it'd be back then or even now. That's what he puts on the line each and every time he talks about you and your kid. And it's hard to be patient when they got your flesh and blood in the mix, your loved ones at the gallows. I couldn't imagine you just moving him to the side, while in some other parallel world he's long departed knowing no other pain can come to him."

Twilight looked at her sister in law and started to weave a magic spell, illustrating an alternate reality. "There's another world out there where you didn't reach the surface in time. And in this world, Shining's gone to be a victim while you're stuck in the darkness of the caves, alone and dying. I don't think this Cadance would hesitate to trade places with you."

The facade showed the replica of the pink mare, grieving terribly as she abandoned all hope. Her eyes were shut to the world as Shining caught a glimpse of the face of his grieving wife. She unleashed a tragic wail while holding herself for comfort, writhing as she called her husband's name. Everyone in the room was shaken to their core in seeing it, feeling sympathy for the mare in a world not to be manifested in any other way than a simple vision. Cadance immediately identified the grief with the very sorrow she felt just earlier. She turned her head away, refusing to see anymore.

Twilight dismissed the painful vision and started to speak. "I know you're angry with what's going on right now. But if my brother's trying to do his best, then maybe you should look to give him a second chance."

The pink princess leapt to the air and unfurled her wings to quickly glide to her husband across the room. She tackled him with every ounce of her weight and held him closely before taking another breath. Her hooves almost crushed him while her wings cocooned him in her grasp. She kissed him once before breaking down in tears. She whispered to him. "Honey, I'm sorry."

Shining took every bit of the weight his wife placed on him and hugged her back. "Sweetie, I know it's rough. But I had to do some things to try to make things right. I just didn't want you involved."

Alex shook his head at Twilight. "Did you have to scar the poor lady?"

"Tough love." She answered, folding her forelegs. "But that still doesn't solve our current predicament."

Luna grimaced as she watched the young married couple embrace. "I do not think it is ideal that we sign on those papers, sister."

I turned back to the two high rulers and replied. "Sign it. Shit will be dead in two months." The princesses stared at me with shock as I confirmed my words. "For the kindom suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. I guarantee by one way or another, that law dies in two months. Even if I must play the role of Judas to any politician, I will with a smile on my face."

"Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?" Stanton quoted from the bible.

"Damn straight. They ain't no saint of mine." I said with the politicians in mind.

Blueblood shrugged with a light sigh. "So, does this mean our whole operation is decompartmentalized?"

Both Shining and I stared at the prince with a blank expression. "What the fuck you just say?" I asked.

"Can you translate that to a language we know please?" Alex requested.

"Are we all united on this front?" Blueblood reiterated. "No more selected few, no more clandestine meetings in the catacombs below? We're all the way live?"

Twilight and Alex both looked at the blond prince. "What operation?" Twilight asked.

"I think I'll need a yes or no before we discuss anything further." Blueblood said with a smug smile.

"But it does involve dragging down a few politicians, might not be your cup of tea." Shining added.

Twilight laughed as she proudly accepted the invitation. "Would I really be my mother's foal if I didn't take you on that offer? You'd be nuts to think I wouldn't take down something evil for the sake of my potential nephew or niece."

Cadance stopped hugging her husband for a moment and looked at him with a tearful smile. "So is this what you've been hiding from me?"

The young prince scratched his head as he replied. "Well I thought if you got involved, it would be pretty dangerous for the two of you. Originally we wanted to keep as many names out of it as possible. I just thought if I could do something for this, it would be better to do it behind the scenes."

The princess sniffled as she embraced her husband yet again. "Next time, say something. Don't leave me in the dark on things, I get scared easily."

Shining smirked at his wife. "Funny, I thought you were the adventurous one and I was the emotional wreck."

"I'm still a mare, Shining. There are some things you can't ignore, like hormones, mood swings, pregnancy. I don't feel like being the strong one all the time. Maybe I want to be the crybaby who can't stop crying at every wedding I go to."

"That's not what I do, Cadie." The blue-maned prince argued.

"I thought it was you dispensing 'liquid pride'." Twilight jumped in, causing Cadance to giggle lightly.

"It's a totally different thing!" He stressed.

Blueblood walked up to me and stood beside me as he spoke. "And as assumed, the Princess of Love joins the fray with little alternatives. I didn't think it would come under these circumstances, but it works."

"You anticipated this?" I questioned.

"Not the means to it all, no. The ends, however, it was only a matter of time where she'd grow desperate to go along with any hope that might present itself. She'd have to come around sooner or later."

I shrugged my shoulders. "At least I don't have to pretend that I hate her anymore, outside of public appearances."

Luna looked up to her elder sister, wearing a relieved smile on her face. "At least we can all come together and find a solution to our problem. There is hope abound, dear sister."

Celestia almost seemed to ignore her sister's words as she stepped forward. While everyone else in the room seemed pretty optimistic in comparison to the mood from earlier, she seemed completely blank-faced as she approached me. She then asked. "Captain, are you saying that through your will and power you are willing to break this darkness above us?"

I smiled with a bow and answered. "I promised you two months, and you know I'm good for any time I give you, sometimes I even get it done days or weeks earlier than my deadlines."

"Would you really do something like that?" She asked.

"It's beyond me now. I have to do what's right. It's in my job description to protect any royal from hurt or harm."

The princess stood silent for a few seconds before raising her head up to face me with a saddened face. I didn't think she would look at me with such an expression, especially since it was rare for her to show her more tender emotions to anyone outside of a flash of anger. With a trembling voice she spoke.

"Then by royal decree, I hereby release you from my guard."

I don't think anyone else heard what she just said. I don't think anyone was paying attention to what was going on. The only thing they seemed to be enraptured about was the possibilities of getting everything done in two months or so like I said I would. But for me, it was almost like the world around me started to fade out into some unknown darkness, the sounds swelling out as if I was submerged into the ocean while the others were screaming and chanting. Instead of feeling jubilation like the others, I felt something I hadn't felt in a very long time.

I felt completely, unquestionably, and utterly lost.

Celestia looked away from me as she performed her about-face, not wanting to see how I was going to react to her words. I called for her, requesting clarification. "...I'm s-sorry. I-I-I must not have... heard something."

She continued to look away from me, although replying. "You're relieved. You're free from your mantle. You now live as an ordinary human."

I tried to walk around her to face her, but she started to use her magic to hold my feet in place just before I could get a glimpse of her face. She refused to look at me as she continued on.

"Your work is greatly appreciated, and the pedigree of efficiency you have shown in completing your assignments have been more than stellar and ranks among the highest of any guard I put in this position. But it is unwise for me to allow you to remain should you wish to operate on a more vindictive assignment, unsanctioned by an individual in chief standing. You're disregarding the chain of command and violating many codes in doing so. To which, as your commanding officer, I have to be stern in saying that I will not tolerate these actions as long as your serve under me as it reflects poorly on the guard. Furthermore, it presents the ground that there is some insurgency being housed in my guard. And I wouldn't doubt for a second you'd rouse others to join you in your cause, as you are a very influential speaker who will bring about discourse and conflict. It is a difficult decision, one I will surely regret, but it is a just one." She barely turned her head where I could finally see the whites of her eyes. "I will not have you play this role, I cannot let you do this. So I have to set you free."

"THAT'S BULLSHIT!"

Everyone in the room stopped with whatever they talked about and looked at me with a confused stare. They ended up seeing me scowling back at the princess. Even Luna appeared defensive of her sister until I started to call her out over what she just said to me.

"So because I want to do what is right for all of us, I get tossed!? How in the fuck is that fair!?"

The air of the room, once filled with optimism and jubilation for a brief moment, was reinstated with the tense silence outside of a few select others speaking up on my behalf. Shining was the first to come to my defense. "You're seriously not relieving him, are you?"

Celestia remained quiet, not even turning to face the young prince.

Luna watched her sister's face remained emotionless, cold, and dejected. The night princess then walked up to her elder sibling and questioned her. "Are you serious? This is the conclusion you came to, to abandon hope when it shines brightest? Is this your idea of another one of your cruel pranks?"

"I do what I must... even if it is to set aside my own joy for the sake of peace."

Mel almost snatched my hand as she started to walk to the door. "Well you heard the lady, you're fired. No reason in staying to help someone who doesn't want to help themselves."

But before she could open the door, she felt resistance. She looked down to see a blue aura encircling the arm she used to drag me along. Luna hollered at her sister while she held Melanie from leaving. "Do you honestly think this was unsanctioned!? Do you believe that I went through what I went through to have you say this!? Have you grown weak over the past millennium, just allowing others to trample over you for the sake of 'peace', is that what you believe!?"

"I did not ask to be rescued." Celestia replied.

"You're right, you're not the one who needs saving! This isn't about you, Tia! It's about the little one that's sitting in Cadence's womb!"

"AS IF I'M NOT AWARE OF THAT!" She shouted, rattling the entire dining hall. Causing a few of the glasses and plates on the table to crack.

Shining stepped forward and stood in front of Luna, not with anger on his face, but something else. He looked to his wife and back to her with an understanding frown. "I know you don't like talking about it, but I know what you feel."

Celestia hissed back at the blue-maned unicorn. "You don't know a damn thing about me! So don't come to me like you're so personal to me, Shining Armor!"

"It was a loss too fine for words." Celestia's eyes jumped to where Blueblood was standing. "A loss that hurt you so deeply that you'd refuse to speak on it."

"It's beyond what you went through, it's what you also didn't go through." Shining added, causing Celestia to slowly back away. "So you'd rather distance us to not know what it is that keeps you up at night. You kept it to yourself, to hide it all from us so that we'd never commit the same mistakes, so that history doesn't repeat itself."

"You'd even go so far as to hide it from Luna, your own sister, out of fear that she'd relapse to her nightmare state." I added. "Is that why you hide under your regalia?"

Shining then added. "It's beyond that."

The princess looked around her and saw the many eyes looking back at her as she started to ignite her horn. Her eyes clenched shut as she shouted throughout the room with a loud voice, more than capable of finishing off the dining items she cracked from earlier. "ENOUGH!" Seeing the mess she left behind, she spoke with a trembling voice. "I'm sorry. But I need some time alone."

In a bright flash, she disappeared. The rest of everyone in the room tried to absorb what just happened, everyone with the exception of the two princes. Mel once again found freedom in her arm as I found freedom in my own. Alex just shook his head. "Okay, so can we run that back?"

"As far as I know, she's upset, Nondis got fired, and I think we should be on our way home." Mel added.

"Nondis is far from relieved of his duties." Luna interjected. "She wouldn't hold that decree to paper, so it's just as suggestive as her past throughout the course of my banishment. Furthermore, she can't relieve him on the grounds of him moving without consent as long as my consent stands as equal to hers as she often implies."

"So... rain check on that pink slip then?" Rickey questioned.

"What exactly did she say to you?" Alex asked me.

"Basically that I was acting without going through the chain of command and possibly starting a revolution." I quickly summarized.

"That's nonsense." Cadance replied. "You and Shining were working together, it couldn't be on the grounds of bypassing the chain of command when you're quite literally taking up orders from your superior officer. I can understand if it was through Blueblood alone, being that he had his military power stripped a while back, but still."

"It wouldn't have mattered. The moment Luna joined with us, that gave us all the rank and file to authorize every move we made while keeping a proxy for separation. It was perfect." The blond prince said.

"Adding Cadie and Twily would only let them in on the loop of what was going on and why we had to act the way we did." Shining added while pointing to me. "The only reason I was being passive on Nondis was because we ordered him to keep the appearance that there was a divide between him and us, posing as an independent but vengeful third party. And if Cadance wasn't involved, we could better keep the illusion of the divide."

"Vengeful as in how?" Twilight inquired.

"On the account that we broke up under bitter pretenses that Cadance was too involved in our relationship." I answered. "The argument we had at the Canterlot Centennial Celebration came from an authentic place because I was frustrated with Cadance talking shit while she was drunk. Blueblood decided it was better to run with it so we could plan quietly while appearing to not be in cahoots with one another."

"So you pretended that you hated Cadance?" Twilight asked, starting to realize why I would never apologize to her or go along with any written apology for the public's sake.

"Still waiting on my Oscar though." I replied with a wink to the young princess.

"But Celestia just let him go." Mel intervened, stressing on an earlier topic, pointing to Luna. "You're saying the order falls under a suggestion." She then pointed to Shining. "And you said something that pissed her off."

Stanton rubbed the side of his head. "Yeah, I'm gonna be the one to say that our plays ain't making any sense to the broadcast. So does anyone care to explain what the hell is going on?"

Blueblood and Shining looked to one another before glancing at me. "Nondis, do you remember that scroll and diary you help me nab from Arimaspi Mountain?" Shining questioned.

"I remember you cutting an Arimaspi in half and leaving it to slowly die shortly after." I replied, causing others in the room to wince at that image.

Blueblood then looked to Melanie. "And do you remember the conversation we had over that 'terrifyingly long list' that was that scroll?"

"I remember seeing all the names, yeah." She replied. "I also remember Shining Armor saying that there was a journal, classified as top secret."

"You wouldn't disclose any top-secret items that would be deemed sensitive, would you Shining?" Twilight mocked.

"I was just calling it top secret for the time being because I needed some time to digest what was written down." The young prince replied before summoning a small modern-looking journal. "I managed to jot down word-for-word of Starswirl's account of what had happened to Celestia, threw up a few times while doing so."

He then tossed the journal to me. Out of pure reflex out of the weekend's training, I caught it with my magic and flipped to the first page. "That bad, huh?"

Blueblood then answered. "Her attempt to fire you was more of her not wanting what happened to a certain immortalized prince happening to you."

"You mean that Prince Fair Charity guy?" Melanie clarified.

"For someone who really wants to be done with us, you sure do keep up with the details." Blueblood stated with a light chuckle. "Color me impressed."

Mel walked over to view the journal from over my shoulder. "So... how bad is it?"

I took a deep breath as I started to prep myself to read everything aloud. "We're all about to find out."

Courtyard of Everfree Castle
Over 1000 Years Ago...
~Hour Zero~

The guards who escorted the disgraced princess out from within her castle marched out with her in tow, flipped upside down to minimize her resistance. She wriggled and wormed in an attempt to free herself, but failed to do so before she was dropped to the ground in front of the group of some twenty nobles, each staring with eyes wide open and some with impatient tapping of their hooves.

Celestia shook off her pain and stood back up, angrily glaring back at the noble that trailed behind her. She had already made up in her mind that she'd kick him into the next town should he attempt to do anything unsavory. However, her time lingering on that bit of revenge would have to wait as the guards beside her shoved her head towards the ground. One of her eyes had been introduced to the dust and gravel of the cobblestone walkways, allowing only her other eye to see much of what was going on.

Her ears, on the other hand, were just fine. "Celeste Delanise Valkyrie, you are hereby introduced to the grounds of these yards for the total and complete confession for the crimes you have done against the country. As such, you shall recant your sin and cleanse yourself of iniquity. From there we shall purge every immoral thought from your body, every unsanctioned action from your person. Then you shall confess your wrongs before the parliament and display the renewed mark of your innocence, only then shall your power be restored."

It was at that moment the noble who approached her within the tower walked beside her and whispered. "This is it now. You stand before the very brink of hell. You will endure a terrible pain should you wish to not abide by us and maintain your dignity. Give us what we want and nothing terrible shall come to you. This is your choice, choose to serve us forevermore... or suffer the wrath of every noble your family has spurned."

Celestia kept a watchful eye on the fat noble before he brought a hoof to her mane, sniffing it as he brought it against his nose. He started to chuckle as he whispered to her again.

"The smell of being no different from the common concubine."

Incensed at his insult, she collapsed to her belly to disallow him from moving any further, her tail especially lodged between her haunches. He grimaced as he circled around her, stopping himself as she stood directly behind her. But to his arrogance, he felt a strong kick sending him into the wall of the tower behind him. Her face peeking back past her mane as she looked on with pride. She stood back up and spoke to the others. "Do you still wish to try your luck with me? I tend not to be very quiet."

The stallion she kicked back rose back to his hooves, wiping some blood out from his mouth as he angrily marched on the condemned princess. "I told you to move quietly, I gave you every opportunity to fall back in the good graces of the kingdom. But you are nothing more than a traitor."

He gave the reader a displeased nod. The reader closed the scroll and announced to the crowd. "The accused has chosen not to recant. As such, she shall be made to confess her sins through the means of purification. The guidelines of the punishments outlined by the newly written law shall be adhered to."

Cries from every direction shouted down the princess while the guards who was assigned to carry her came from behind her with heavy chains to lock her hindlegs down. She tried to fight them off as they wrestled in restless fashion to subdue her. But with her power drained and sealed away, she could only fight off three before a few other nobles started to join in and hold her down. Even if she typically had the strength to fend off dozens of stallions, her bindings only allowed her the three at once. But it was at least a dozen who piled on her, restraining her as her chains were locked to her legs. Bindings were put in place to stop her from resisting. The princess screamed as she was forced back on all fours to be escorted towards the side of the tower.

Through her one unclouded eye, she started to see the dread that was to ensue. A wooden table with an assortment of cruel tools lying in wait, one noble ran up to the table to pick up a cold iron brand and placed it in the blazing torch cage next to the table. A rack was brought out with a set of weights. The noblepony she kicked approached the table to pick up a cruel looking rake and shouted to her.

"To start off, I want to say just how beautiful your wings are! I do wish to preen them today!"

Modern Time...

I closed the book and closed my eyes. "This is a tough read, isn't it?"

Shining answered back. "It doesn't get any better from here. You might as well keep reading."

Everyone in the room looked at me as I took a deep breath before opening back up to where I left off.

The princess was thrown against the wall, her forelegs suspended by the rack they sat aside for her. Her hindlegs were extended beneath her as one of her wings were forcibly pulled from behind her. Despite her strength to deny two from pulling it out from behind her, it couldn't stop the pain of the nobles from applying the rake to her back. The princess gave out a pained grunt before her grip loosened. The princess tried her best not to give them any response, but seeing the next aristocrat pull out a cruelly-shaped three-headed whip with sharp steel leaves at the end of each lash filled her with a cold tremble.

So much was happening all at once that one of the guards had to step in and instruct that there be order before the process could commence. Finally quelling the excitement of several blood-thirsty nobles, the torture then commenced. Her legs felt the strain of being pulled in to different directions that were deemed anatomically unsafe. Her eyes watered as she wailed for them to stop pulling at her. But the only thing that happened was them pulling at the chains even more before it eventually came to a halt.

The princess whimpered as the intense pain started to pull at her joints. The guard then explained to some of the nobles that the rack she laid on was specially modified for her sister should she return with the intent of being vengeful. Furthermore, the rack had separate mechanisms to pull at each leg to maximize the slow torture. They were also discouraged from doing too much as it would render her unconscious, completely unable to elicit a confession.

But already being in pain, Celestia took heed of the guards' words and tried her best to let herself fall out of consciousness. Her dropped, but quickly came back up as the sudden jolt of pain from her falling forward caused her to shriek and jump back into place. Her jaw quivered as she panted rapidly. Her forelegs were stretched beyond her head, making any movement seem like complete agony. And the only thing she could do for many minutes was to hope that she'd fade off.

Her wish would eventually come true, but not before a loud pop came from one of her forelegs, it's joints separating from her shoulders. As soon as it popped, her body slumped forward on one side. She produced a blood-curdling scream that put many other torture victims to shame. The birds of the forest were so startled that it created a black cloud as they flew from their nests and trees into the air, flying away from the forest altogether. The stress of the pain made her scream herself to exhaustion, rendering her fatigued from the torture.

At last, she got what she wanted, she could finally rest... for the time being.

~Hour Two~

She awoke to the sight of several nobles remaining to watch her suffer. And as her eyes slowly opened, so did her brain's registry to pain. Instead of just one foreleg dealing with a dislocation, it was the other that showed it as well. She lanked forward, seeing a curtain of gray covering her eye. The dust from her other eye had ceased to be a concern as her shoulders were in a much worse state. She nudged her head lightly to see what the grayness was that covered her face. But as she moved her head, she felt a natural weight shift about on her head. That one nudge caused her to shriek briefly before some of the gray infiltrated her drying mouth. She soon realized that the gray covering her eyes was actually her own mane.

She remained hung on the wall, her mane and tail devoid of any color as she continued to experience the intense pain of her dislocated forelegs. The parishioners of the parliament stirred as they started to see her move. The guard beside her looked at another, signaling to them to release the chains. The princess unceremoniously fell forward, landing on her forelegs and jaw, causing her to shriek in pain once more. A more guttural groan was produced as she lied there on the ground, bemoaning the pain she experienced.

Her wings were completely unfurled, trying to take the place of her forelegs' ability to suspend her weight. One of the guards started to tug at her wing, preventing it from raising her up. Her eyes looked forward to see the guard overseeing the affair tower before her. She began to plead with him. "Why do you do these things to me? Have I not been a fair ruler? Have I not treated you well? Please, tell me what I did wrong to you!"

The guard didn't say a word to her, just only looking down as the other guards started to stretch her wings out. The noble she kicked earlier had been waiting patiently behind her, holding the cruel-looking thorny rake. He walked up to one of her wings and cried out. "A traitor doesn't have the freedom to fly! You will never see the skies again!" He then leaned in against her ear as he muttered. "You'll be my little caged bird, sing for me."

The rake was slammed onto the base of her wing, closer towards her back. The rusty spikes that served as thorns dug into her flesh, causing her to shriek. With a mighty pull, yanking the rake across the top of her wing, he separated many feathers and fur from her wing. The skin from her coverts grew bloodied while she screamed yet again. The sound the object produced was a sickening combination of popping and ripping fine leather. He flicked the instrument and several small feathers came gliding down, covered in a mix of fur, blood, and clumps of skin. She tried to move her forelegs to escape her pain, but the discomfort of her injuries only provided more torment to her experience.

Again and again, he sank the toothy device into her. And again, she bellowed like a horn as they raked her wings clean. On the ground, more and more feathers started to pile. Shortly after giving their attention to the front end of her wings, they finally drew their sights to the much longer feathers that gave her flight. With complete abandon, the noble started to chuckle as he grabbed bundles upon bundles of her feathers, leaving nothing but a bloodied stump to serve as her wing. The condemned princess had long started crying tears of misery. But seeing the wings her mother once called beautiful being desecrated so cruelly made her wish for death more than anything. Her eyes started to fade with the light that once graced them.

The stress was once again too much, and she faded out from reality again.

~Hour Five~

She felt herself almost about to drown. Her mind was brought back from the brink into reality again. But instead of seeing guard, it was a quartet of nobles and aristocrats dumping water over her face. She escaped the affair by falling over from the table she was laid upon, only to be reminded of the pain her wings and forelegs suffered. The mare coughed up a painful groan, somewhat waterlogged from their attempt to wake her from her unconscious state. On the table where she was once lain, there was an assortment of items such as needles, smelling salts, and even a small leaflet of spells used to drag anyone out of an insentient state.

Though she knew little of these items, she was aware of the fact that they were less than willing to allow her the privilege of slipping out again. No longer could she rely on the warm embrace of her senses being drowned out from the pain and stress she endured. They wanted to make sure that they got their satisfaction without the wait. The guard stood by from the foot of the tower as the nobles gathered around her, forcing her over to her back. Her forelegs splayed out, painfully leaving her chest wide open.

The princess closed her eyes, trying to slip out before they could do anything. But one of them brought about some of the smelling salt and introduced it to her muzzle. The sharp signals her brain sent out had suddenly intensified everything about her painful experience, including the fear of what was to come next as they started to hold her hindlegs down to the ground. Two others looked behind them from her right and broke away as if they were simply doors providing entry to an even greater humiliation.

Celestia sat helpless, her gray mane completely disheveled and concealing her left eye. She laid whimpering from the day they took from her, offering nothing but their wrath over her desire to love someone who was not them. She inwardly felt rage at the subjects she once ruled over, even her eyes started to seek out the guard that shunned her cries for help, casting her to the ground instead.

But the crowd around her started to tighten up with the exception of where the two of them parted by, allowing the one noble who antagonized her from the crack of dawn to appear. His horn was glowing, slowly introducing a blazing white-hot iron T to glow beside him. The princess eyed the tool with dread, unable to hide her fear any longer. Her terror was so great that she started to feel herself black out from the thought of what they'd do next. But again, the smelling salt was introduced to her nose, giving her too much of a taste of reality. She felt everything, including the fear causing her to forget about many other things of herself.

Some of the gathered crowd started to laugh as they pointed to her tail. The noble looked back down to see a puddle of urine slowly grow around her. He shook his head and muttered towards her. "Look at you. Look at what you've become, a filthy wench incapable of managing simple bodily functions. Is this that same lack of control you felt when you allowed yourself to be a bargaining chip to compromise our kingdom? Surely it isn't so."

Finally deciding that she had enough, she cried out as best as she could to the noble. "Please... no more... no more of this."

The noble put a hoof to his ear, leaning in as he mocked her. "I'm sorry, I don't think my hearing's survived much of your singing today. The birds obviously buggered off because of your... docile tones."

She once again pleaded. "I confess... I confess to my wrongs... Please... Please just stop."

He leaned in and whispered. "I told you you'd have us feel like kings today. I gave you the option to submit willingly. But you took my kindness, and kicked it against the wall. You took my mercy for granted and embarrassed me. And then you drag out my day. But here's the problem I have... I want you lively and awake when I take you. The others might not care too much about your being aware, but I want you to look me in my eyes as you give me the reparations I deserve. My loyalty to your family, and I only ask for your hoof in marriage. I ask only for your attention, but you barter it off like some cheap trade at the local tavern. You think you're special because of your pedigree, but we've all seen what you have. You're no different from the others."

He introduced the white hot poker to her, slowly closing the distance between it and her sternum.

"So now I want you awake. No need for being quiet now, you said that you weren't very quiet so I took that as a sign of enthusiasm. So let's not be so quiet, keep singing to me like you have been all day. I want nothing more than to hear your beautiful voice scream for me! If I can't have your first for that, then this shall serve as a suitable replacement!"

The sound of the brand landing against her chest was that of a high pitched whistle combined with a quiet bubbling and loud hiss. And just as he desired, he heard her scream once more with energy. Her throat had gone raspy from the terrible damage it suffered from her reactions to her torment. But it quickly died down, offering nothing but a dying sob. He forced himself onto her more, pressing the poker against her chest even harder until the flesh around it grew blackened. The smell of burnt blood and smoldering hair permeated the area. The eyes surrounding her watched in silence as she arched her back from the pain, trying to escape the pain as best as she could. But the multitude of stallions holding her in place only allowed her to move so much.

Finally, the iron was removed from her chest, leaving a smoldering black T.

Almost as if he was in his own orgasmic bliss, he threw the branding iron aside and marveled at the pathetically twitching princess. He panted to himself quietly, seeing the princess writhe. Finally, he couldn't take much of it longer and ran to the two stallions holding her hindlegs down. "MOVE!" He called out, starting to gather himself with anticipation and find his time to invade her. He pried apart her hindlegs and peeled away her tail to make way for his entrance. However, he was stopped.

The guard wore a stern face as he anchored a spear between him and the princess. The noble screamed back at the stallion before the guard pointed back at the princess, rather back to her posterior. Their eyes looked down and the heavy-set unicorn was surprised by what he saw.

Blood.

Instead of a pool of urine, it was a pool of thick blood that ran as a river from within her. She jolted arrhythmically, unaware of what was happening with her. But she knew that the guard stepping in was an indication that her torture would come to an abrupt end. But that wasn't enough for the unicorn noble. He argued vehemently over his unfinished business. "Move out of my way! I want to inspect this for myself!"

The pool of blood then grew to a substantial amount, causing the others to back away. The princess' haunches then started to stain with blood also, the coat of her flanks began to absorb it as paint to a blank white canvas. The guard remained adamant. "There is no need to continue. What was sought to be done has been achieved."

"But I'm not finished!"

Another guard stepped in to aim the spear directly at the noble's neck as the guard reinforced his statement. "You. Are." He strongly emphasized. "Not only has she confessed, but she has been cleansed of any iniquity of the affair. She is purified of any unsanctioned circumstance. She has suffered the weight of her crimes to the fullest extent of the law. Justice is done. As potent as it was, your service is no longer needed."

"But─"

The guard then pointed at the large pool of blood and urine flowing slowly from it's source. "Do you fancy a tryst with something like that? It's filthy. Condemning the damned is one thing, what you seek to do now is another. The brand was the final punishment I allowed. All the extracurricular activity in between was all unsanctioned, but I allowed it because I felt it would help achieve the desired result. If you're so angry, then maybe you should've taken what you could like everypony else."

The nobles, completely satisfied with the punishment they gave, started to thin out as they proceeded to go about their day. Meanwhile the only stallion who was denied that opportunity had watched as the guard gave his orders.

"Alright, let's get her back to her cell. Call the servants for water and bread."

The stallion who stood motionless as the princess was carted off to the inside of the tower could only watch. Meanwhile the quartet of guards quietly marched the princess back up the stairs. As the moved, the princess started to sing through her pain, the words her mother sang to her, but adding her own.

The world is cruel.
The world is ugly.
And there are times and there are ponies when the world is not.
And at it's cruelest, it's still the only world we've got.
The world I've got...
The world that's not...

The finally arrived at the chamber atop the tower. Starswirl looked on with horror as he shouted to the four guards. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, YOU FIENDS!? SHE IS A PRINCESS OF EQUESTRIA! AND YOU STOOD BY AND DONE NOTHING!?"

"We follow our orders, wizard. Maybe you should do the same. You wouldn't be in here, helpless to do anything."

The guards guided her back to the room of seals, closed the door, and locked her away. Meanwhile, the princess lied helpless in her bed, chained up out of anticipation of her healing ability. But her heart grieved for what had happened to her and what all she had lost.

With a soft, broken, raspy whisper, she sang to her self one last time. The song her mother sang to her once before... but changed to what she then realized had happened to her.

Have I ever told you good morning, little one?
Have you ever opened your eyes, my little sun?
There's a world out there, filled with hate, but you won't wait.
Though I'm not ready, it's time to say... goodbye.

Present Day...

If it hadn't been from the crying of some, the room would be stone quiet. The mood was far graver than it was when we first entered. Cadance was beyond mortified, clutching her belly for dear life as she heard me read the words out loud to the room. Luna stirred with fury, parts of her mane and tail already starting to transform freely, her eyes had begun to turn and her coat started to blacken. Blueblood's wives comforted each other while he himself was reintroduced to the anger he showed earlier in the parliament chamber. Twilight couldn't stomach what was being read about her mentor and had to find someplace to help her cope with the sickness.

But it wasn't just the ponies that felt disgusted.

Melanie sobbed quietly, hugging herself as she couldn't think of going through such pain for anyone or anything. Cliff had to pace back and forth to walk off his anger. Rickey and Stanton sat motionless, staring at the walls while they couldn't fathom what they just heard. Alex had walked out of the room from the moment I started off reading about they had done to her while she fell unconscious.

I, on the other hand... was bloodthirsty. "And they all lived happily ever after." I said closing the book slowly with my hands trembling. Without much thought, I just chucked the book at a wall and kicked over a chair. I wanted to do nothing but shove my sword at that bastard's brains and show it right back to him when I pull out. I then started to shout at the ceiling. "HEY GOD, DEITY OF THIS WORLD, WANNA EXPLAIN WHY THE FUCK THESE GUYS GET TO WALK AROUND!?"

Ironically, it was Luna who seemed to be the voice of reason out of all of us. Though her appearance may not have showed it, she was a lot calmer than the rest of us. "They wouldn't be now. They're long dead. If this happened a thousand years ago, then it's right to assume that they have long since faced their eternal judgement."

"Eternal judgement or not..." Mel jumped in. "This shit is wrong! Celestia lost a fucking child over this bullshit. I can't... I can't even." The woman sniffled as she wiped her eyes as best as she could.

Alex cracked open the door and asked. "Okay, so everyone else is talking. Safe to say that everything's all done? I'm not trying to hear that shit. I didn't come here for a graphic reading of Passion of the Christ."

"We're all done here." Stanton called out to our brother.

Shining sat quietly as he looked at Cadance, trying to make sure she was okay. She nuzzled him and spoke quietly to the room. "What was read in here, we can't show to the world just yet."

"Why not!?" One of Blueblood's wives called out, namely Gleaming Star. "The world needs to know what happened so that we can truly remove this law once and for all! We say nothing and we'll be in the same situation possibly fifteen or twenty years from now!"

Luna quickly answered. "Claiming something that was written well over a thousand years ago detailing an account of what happened to my sister will only bring about either sympathizers or conspiracy theorists on both sides. It came in an unmarked book that had to be rewritten. It may also alert some groups that could work in the shadows to keep certain laws alive."

"Last thing you'd wanna do is give them a heads-up that we're in the know and can provide evidence. Knowing that, the'd already have several counter measures against us." Shining cosigned. "Moving quietly from here on is our only answer."

I looked to Luna and asked. "Okay, one last thing before I leave out of this room and go looking for a certain somepony. Am I fired or not?"

"Again, a suggestion in my eyes, not an order. No paperwork to back the proceedings, no point in adhering to them." Luna repeated. "Though I do have to inquire as to why you are adamant in seeing my sister."

I closed my eyes and thought quietly about the moments I had with her in the past week. From the time I walked into my room and saw her trying to cover her chest to the time she sat me in this very room to strongly warn me against laying hands on Luna. All of those things only added fuel to my ambition.

"I think it's time she'd know that we understood what was going on."

It took me a good five minutes just to walk from the dining hall to the private quarters of the high princess. But that wasn't really what kept me from knocking on the door. Instead, it was me sitting in the hallway pacing back and forth to make sure I didn't say anything stupid or irresponsible. I was carefully planning my approach to her, knowing that if I had said something out of context, it would only result in my getting terminated for real.

And I had two things to do here: Have her reconsider her thoughts, and possibly join us in our quest.

I could not show sympathy, no matter how much I wanted to. I had to come from a place of understanding and know that if she felt uncomfortable, I had to find a way to press without pushing her the wrong way and her closing me off for good. So it took me a good thirty minutes before I could clear my throat and bring my fist to the door.

I gave three knocks, and then I waited. No answer. I knocked another three times after a while, only to receive dead silence in return. I carried on for a third time, and the answer was pretty much the same. I placed my hand on the door to knock a fourth time, but my answer came a lot differently. My arm received a painful jolt of electricity before I was able to let my knuckle touch the extravagantly gilded wood. I quickly pulled back, holding my hand while suppressing any profanity that was about to jump from my lips.

Obviously knocking was out of the equation. It was time to talk. "...Cella... you there?" I asked as informal as I could be.

No response. It was still obvious that she was still inside, just unwilling to answer.

I stood against the doorway, and sat myself down without touching the door. "...I'm gonna try to convince my mom to make you another cake. Just to say thanks for everything you've done for me."

Nothing.

"Do you have a flavor you'd like? Maybe a run-it-back of the red velvet cake you had for Thanksgiving?"

Not a word.

"...You know. My world has a holiday that happens to fall on the exact same days of Hearth's Warming. In fact, it has a few. You have Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day... which isn't as violent as it sounds." I finished off with a chuckle, trying to be lighthearted.

Still nothing.

"But from what I was told about Hearth's Warming, it's pretty interesting that there's some similarities shared between it and a holiday our family happens to celebrate. Granted the purposes are a lot different..." I thought about telling her the religious purpose of it, but instead opted to tell her about the common practices. "We have stories of a fat jolly man called Santa Claus who could magically work his way down chimneys and break into people's houses while they're sleeping and leave the kids gifts if they were good, and coal if they were bad." I started to laugh at the sarcastic way I had described it. "Can you imagine some three-hundred pound guy walking into your house to give you a toy you've been wanting for a good three months or longer?"

Silence.

I stood up on my feet and took a deep breath. "You know... I thought I could come talk to you, just like you did with me when my mom practically dropped me from gift list. But if you don't want to talk, then I can do hugs. Hugs are nice too." I then looked at the door with a grimace. "I know your magic is all over this door, and you taught me that magic is an extension of one's self or will. So if I can just share what I have with even that little of you, then I'm fine with that."

I placed my arm against the door, managing to get a substantial shock from the initial touch. My arm had started to ache all over when I gritted my teeth. And it was more than what I was willing to put up with, but I had to press myself to do more for her, to show my dedication... no matter how many Darwin Awards I'd win for being stupid.

I truly hate my sense of dedication sometimes.

I used my other arm this time, getting the same treatment. At that point I was sitting with two seared arms and enough pain to render morphine useless. At this point there was only one way to get through, and that was to... ugh... do what some would call 'full retard' and place my head on the door. But first, I had to check something. "Okay... My arms are shot from touching the door, I doubt they'll do anything but explode like microwaved hot dogs on the next go. So... I going to place my head on the door." I placed my aching arms on either side of the doorway, ready to anchor myself in a way where I could get myself out if it got a little too dangerous. "Okay, on the count of three... One─"

The door instantly cracked open and I was left staring at a crestfallen princess, she wouldn't look at me as she stood there. But her voice was far from it's tranquil and pleasing timbre. "Is pain some sort of a joke to you? You realize that placing your head on this door could've killed you, right?"

I didn't give her much in eye contact as I spoke. "Yeah, let's just say that I'm not the kind of guy who takes getting fired too softly. A man's gotta make a decent living, for me it was my purpose in life."

"Why?" She questioned. "What purpose in life would cause you to abandon your health so easily?"

"A lot of things. Friends, family, brothers in arms, and even love." I answered. "What good is it to take love and not give it?"

"Even if it hurts you so terribly?" She asked, starting to show some frustration.

"Yeah, love don't exactly want us either. But why abandon that pursuit when it's possible to win in the end? I would even go so far as to say that it's 'likely' in the end as opposed to the word 'possible'. For me, love has to be proven."

"So you'd die for love?"

"I'd rather die for what's right than live for myself." I replied, opening the door a little more for her to see me. She seemed a bit upset that I had started to barge in on her, but I had to in order for her to not cut me off so easily. I walked over to her bed and sat down. "My grandfather raised me on that, telling me the story of how he had to fight a war in a land that wasn't his own for a government ideology that was programmed within him to defend. And at the time it was just black and white to him. The ones with slanted eyes were the bad guys, anyone else wasn't. Go in, shoot up everything, push ahead, rinse and repeat."

"How does this have anything to do with you?" She questioned, keeping the door open.

"You'll know in a bit." I said, continuing on where I left off. "My grandfather was a man brought up from a rural town, who believed that Jesus was Lord and America was God's gift to the world. 'If it hadn't been for us, everyone would still be kissing Hitler's ass.' That was something my grandmother claimed he said before the war. And he believed that until the very first day reality hit him like a freight train. For months he was stationed in that land they called hell. Venomous snakes nailed to trees and spikes dug in for his fellow soldiers to fall into. Nightly raids that caused him to have very little sleep. The sounds of grenades and bullets flying by his head. Calling in airstrikes that burned the flesh of any man, enemy and ally alike. He told me a story about having to see that once, he wept as he told it. But there was never a story that made him break down like the one he told me the next day."

Celestia looked at the hallway outside and finally started to close the door, but leaving it cracked.

I carried on. "It was a small rural village in Northern Vietnam. The commander made a choice to 'liberate' that town from the Viet Kong, the opposing forces my grandfather fought against on their turf. And of course, to show off, the men who wanted to pose by the flagpole in town decided to try and take their flag down and put the American flag up. It didn't go so hot, the flagpole was rigged with a grenade. The moment they tugged for it, it came down and exploded, sending a signal to the opposing forces in the village. So it went from a simple 'liberation' to something far worse. They fought their battle, lost twelve of their men while keeping the village. The commander was furious, so he ordered all the villagers to be rounded up in the town square and lined up. And on command, they were to fire their weapons, killing everyone in the line."

"Even the young ones?" Celestia questioned.

"Women and children. No prisoners, no survivors. That first row they had was nothing but preteen boys and moms. My grandfather had a dissenting voice in saying that what they were doing was wrong, but the commander only wanted vengeance. To him, everyone was an enemy, even the young boys who'd hide grenades in their clothes and hugged soldiers, in the very fruit they offered. But there was no way of telling, he wanted to make sure. My grandfather was steadfast on not wanting to do it, but the commander pointed a gun at his head and threatened that he'd chose either to be left there to die or die in line like the rest. He made a choice to live, and the rest is history."

The princess remained quiet for a while before speaking. "It followed him."

"Like a ghost, each of them." I concluded as I started to think more about him. "I don't know if he called out what I was from that point on, but he knew that I was going to get myself into trouble in some way. So he stopped me from being like he was way back when, preparing me to make the decisions he couldn't." I started to laugh lightly. "So here I am in some other land, fighting battles I have no business in fighting because I feel like I can make that one choice he couldn't. And I'm ignoring everything in my mind that tells me to run away because if I did, I'd be no different from him─"

"And that wouldn't be what your grandfather wanted." Celestia said, finishing my sentence.

I started to get up, only to have something glue my pants down to the bed. I looked back up to the princess, who's horn was glowing, creeping her hindleg up to quietly close the door. A soft click was all I heard in that moment as she walked over to me with a frown on her face. Her eyes glanced to me for a second before she closed them and sat beside me. While she sat down, she summoned a golden brush from one of her drawers and dropped it in my lap.

"I'm sure you notice how much hair I have in my mane and tail." She said with a calmer voice. "This is your punishment for sitting on my bed without my permission."

"That's a punishment?" I asked.

"I'm sure your arms will be very tired after brushing my hair for a while." She said before looking at the light burn marks on my hands. "You're just so reckless, aren't you? Putting so much of yourself in service of others, I feel as if that's been an issue long before your being in the guard."

"To be honest, I got in my fair share of curbstomps trying to defend someone's reputation. Never did end well."

I looked over to see Celestia just gazing into the air with a distant smile on her face. It was surprising to see her smiling so warmly, especially with the added context of what I had just recently read out. But her smile didn't exactly exude strength, or a sense of overcoming an obstacle. She moved her eyes towards me and took a few seconds before looking down at her chest plate and speaking. "You're so much like him, it's terrifying."

She levitated a book off of her private shelf and opened it up to the front page with a sepia portrait of a pegasus stallion wearing a crown on his head. At the bottom was the nameplate of the immortalized figure. 'His Royal Majesty Prince Fair Charity, Captain of the Royal Guard.' He wore a determined expression, with one wing spreading out and a cape that flicked out over that wing. His mane was something akin to a viking, his long locks producing two large braids back into a singular ponytail. His tail was braided but of moderate length. He looked as if he could easily conquer an entire nation with just his eyes alone.

"Handsome, isn't he?"

I looked back up to see Celestia wearing what could be the largest blush I've could've seen her wear. She placed her hoof over the crystal at the center of her chest plate as she thought more of him.

"You know, meaning that I am not seen with someone doesn't mean that I haven't had aspirations for romance throughout my life. I've experienced love more than once. Sombra wasn't the only one, though his hurt me the most because of what happened after. Of course there's the pretty standard crowd of courtly affairs, but then there is a very elusive club of stallions I've crushed on in return. Of all an entire army of a thousand that vowed their love to me, I can say there was but three that I truly saw myself willing to embrace."

She temporarily placed the book aside and reintroduced the brush to me, non-verbally urging me to get started with her mane. On that note, I grabbed a lock of her astral mane and started brushing away as she suggested. As I started, she went through the book highlighting the immortalized prince.

"I'm going to share with you a story of one of those romances... and my subsequent desire for revenge."

Royal Throne Room
Canterlot Castle
512 Years Ago...
+++Point of Perspective: Princess Celestia+++

Life in Equestria was so vastly different. But the more things around us change, the more certain things seemed to be preserved in time. I could easily say that my time being on top had hardened me to many things pertaining to the daily struggles of my citizens. But how could I dare to close my heart to them, to the ones that look up to me, who's lights are so bright yet so easily extinguished?

There's no way to do more for them, not without my being involved, not without my citizens practicing an undesired plea for charity. The economy would greatly suffer. And for many of the wealthy landowners who provide plots of land to use for farmers, offering protection for the denizens who elect to raise families in their steads. Giving them rights to find the means of work to live on, to provide for their families. How much more could I be involved, even the lords and nobles who serve under me are all offering their wealth to me. And I ensure the prosperity and happiness of many sects, be it the church, the merchants, the guards, and my citizens. In my years, I have kept a fair balance to preserve the health of this nation.

...And yet, my subjects suffer.

Years upon years of serving in petty conflicts, succumbing to cruel winters, and economic turmoil, my guards have started to dwindle, leaving me with very little option than to replenish the numbers with a method many citizens had originally felt was much fairer than most other alternatives.

Taxes are an unavoidable cost of running a country. Should you wish to keep it afloat, you must pay others to manage those situations and mitigate the potential losses to ensue. And as such, many citizens who were born on a land owned by nobles were obligated to pay their taxes for their protection and lands. If you tended to the land, a small percentage of the crops you raised was free for you to own. But with increasing demands for food and some nobles not willing to downsize their lives of luxury, that combined with cruel winters and infighting, it led to most of the food going to the nobles and the guards that served for them. That means there was very little for them to sell or trade. And as such, it left little to no gains from their hard work. Taxes would be due, and their inability to pay caused many to serve a life of terror in the dungeons, that or sent to labor within the deadly gem caves of Canterlot.

So when it was suggested to the families of farmers that their sons could be conscripted into the guard instead of their families being sent to work in the caves, it offered many of them solace. It was a way to work off their debts for a lifetime and the lands then became more impregnable with able-bodied colts trained to take on any force that endangered their lords and families. Serve for twenty years, which for many was long enough to acquire families of their own.

But there were significant drawbacks.

The plan in itself was only designated to the parents of the conscripted, so if one was to serve and complete their tenure, they'd fall back into their life of serfdom. And if you couldn't pay, the process repeats itself as long as sons were had. If you had nothing but daughters, then the dungeons would be the only option.

Some of the noble families who have a long history of service or affiliation with the guard had their sons conscripted to higher positions on top of obtaining higher education, leading to officers appointed by privilege. And some indecent officers had easily dismissed the young trainees to more dangerous assignments and perilous situations. This was especially true for corrupt nobles and aristocrats who also served in the parliament. Those that did would raise their taxes to an inconceivable amount and would force the sons away to serve for their lands while sometimes courting their sisters for a much more explicit purpose, and that only added fuel to the fire should some turn to become maids to the manor.

If their only son died as a result of incompetent leadership or tragic misfortune, the family would be given their helmets before being sent away. If the time was deemed too insignificant, then the family were to be sent to the caves to work. And over the past half century, the lower-class citizens realized their options all had bad written all over it. There was no staying past twenty years as it would then have them encroach on an officer's position, and the nobles refused to allow any longer years of conscription past that upon the law's authoring. Many didn't even live past five years of service, being sent to their deaths or rendered unable to serve.

However, there was one young farmhoof who proved himself to be too much for any opponent.

Fair Charity, who was then named Fair Share, was a young teenage conscript who simply outmaneuvered his opponents on the fields of battle. He was gifted with endurance that he even gave a few earth ponies their money's worth, and he was incredibly bright-minded. And when he approached his tenth year of service, one spoiled noble gave him an order to infiltrate a neighboring country's military camp, a textbook suicide mission. But thanks to his mental and physical abilities, he came out as a conqueror, while compromising several siege engines they seemingly developed for use against us. He grew to be the champion of the citizens from that point on, unable to truly be denied of his gift no matter what the nobles proclaimed.

His reputation would only grow as a battle ensued between the country who declared war on us as a result of our sending a spy to sabotage their weapons. Some of the more affluent nobles called for me to send him to the gallows for causing the war, but I knew there was little to no means to stop them from invading. So I denied their request while appeasing them by placing him as the spearhead of the front line, to which they already scoffed at because they felt he would die early on.

And to my amusement, he lived to speak of his experience. And he didn't just survive, he lead the front line on a counteroffensive that pommeled the enemy back into their camps to regroup for their next attack. The next day was more of the same. And the day after proved to be an embarrassment for the opposing forces. It intrigued me greatly, so I took to the field myself and saw him with my own eyes. Before the final charge of the enemy, I ignored my guards in lieu to see his combat abilities first and foremost. I even threw myself into the conflict for a morale boost, but he wouldn't even let me stand a single inch beside him, staying in front of me with each step I took. And anypony who dared to get close were so effortlessly cut down that I would only blink to see them fall before him like wheat in the months of harvest. His long mane was braided to minimize it's interference with his fighting, but he refused to cut it, citing that his mother called his mane the fairest thing about him. He also made a few jokes at the expense of his privileged superiors, citing that their inability to fight on the front line made them as suitable as expecting mothers themselves.

I couldn't deny myself, I was awfully curious about him from that moment on.

After that day, some of the nobles warmed up to him and called him a brilliant tactician and a strong protector. And when the others who were truly corrupt couldn't deny me, they begrudgingly fell back as I announced him to my personal guardian core, an elite group of four more mature stallions willing and able to lay their lives on the line for my safety.

He declined the offer, requesting instead that he'd be made an officer.

Shrieks of disapproval sounded from those officers who only gained their position out of privilege, but I was more amused by the hypothetical scenario of my appointing him to a position of power. And he had many of the traits that I preferred in my guards; Noble, fierce, intelligent, and honest. When I asked him of why he wanted the position, he proudly spoke.

"I want to be able to not only do what I am doing for my own family, but I want to be able to protect everypony in this kingdom. It's not fair that so many has to suffer because some greedy stallions want to abuse the system and use their power for their own gains! I loathe a future where my son has to fight a war because of our being forced to serve an unjust lord. Forgive me for being ambitious, but I want to change the world for the better."

Everything he spoke was far too similar of how I felt at the time. I couldn't deny his request, even if it meant that the nobles and aristocrats, who paid for their sons to sit in those seats they weren't even qualified to fill, threw a fit. So I went above them and decided in my mind that my answering to them would be worth it for just this once.

That day, I announced the first ever Captain of the Royal Guard.

~5 Years Later~

Time had passed since he avowed himself to my service, now being an officer of the guard. The many corrupted generals who inherited their position made many calls to disallow him to serve so close to me, quoting that the Royal Arms would service me just fine. However, he made the argument that the four who stood in those positions had started to show their age in many aspects of their lives, citing pain and impaired sight. And it wasn't as if I myself was ignorant to it, it was why I ultimately had to make a change for their sake as it was extremely difficult to replace them, not to mention they were just as stubborn to death as they were to retirement.

But what they didn't know was that I was paying close attention to Fair Share, even having some interest in him.

So when it was told to me that he had been gravely injured by a dragon found in the gem mines, I took it personally and ignored my guards once more for a more serious encounter. The pain I wanted to inflict was something great, so great that I knew others would only find themselves in my way by trying to protect me. And I was not going to risk their lives out of my showing indignation.

So when I had arrived to face off against the creature, he seemed extremely passive to me. I readied myself for a fight while he laid there in his cavern peacefully. As I was about to strike, he turned to me and spoke. "So you are the ruler of this realm?"

I took my halberd and announced loudly to him. "Yes. I am Princess Celestia, high ruler of this kingdom and owner of these caves to which you illegally appropriated."

"You're here to reclaim your caves?"

Feeling as if he wouldn't live to tell anything to any other, I instead told him the truth of my visit. "No. I have come to fight in place of my grievously injured Captain of the Royal Guard, who received his injuries on the part of battling with you."

"You fight for him?" He asked. "And not for the wealth of your caves?"

"I fight to redeem his honor, and to claim your life should he expire."

"Ah... vengeance." The dragon grumbled slowly before turning away from me again. "You ponies are all the same."

"Turn and meet your end, coward!" I screamed at him.

But he didn't turn around to ignore me, as I soon found out. He simply grabbed a large half eaten ruby and sat it down before me with a quiet grunt. He then turned to gem around to reveal the decaying corpse of what appeared to be a young filly stuck to it like glue. The smell it produced was truly grotesque as he spat back at me. "The funny thing is that your captain gave me these caves to run amok in."

I tried my best to brave the odor as I raised my halberd to him. "He would do no such thing, you monster."

"Who is the monster?" He then asked. "Am I the monster for simply feeding on these gems in between my naps, or are you the monster who would liberate a place to cause great pain to your own citizens? And all for what, vengeance of one who merely asked to be injured, to appear as if he fought me when all we did was strike a deal?"

My halberd inched lower as I started to become confused over what was told to me. "What?"

The dragon then explained. "Now initially we did fight, but he got the better of me by causing these crystals to fall on my head at every turn. Even now I have splitting headaches from what your captain inflicted upon me. So instead of taking my life, he gave me these caves to rummage through. He even gave me permission to destroy all the rails that hindered my advance. He even told me to destroy the ones I simply saw. And why, because he said that there were many who die here, enslaved to repay the debt to their corrupted lords. Those who died here would simply rot here, never to be recovered or shown the respect of a proper burial."

"He said these things?" I asked, starting to believe in his story.

"I did not believe him until just yesterday. The ruby you see before you was a delicious one, but I bit into it a bit too much without looking at what was on it. And now I can't get the taste of rotten pony flesh out of my mouth, no matter how hard I try to breathe my flames."

I walked up to the gem, observing the putrid corpse glued to it. "...I thought they were supposed to reclaim the dead. I had ordered them to do what they could to reclaim them." I eventually started to feel my anger focus from the dragon, instead directing it towards the nobles who felt it necessary to dismiss these issues as items of non-importance. I turned away from the small corpse. "Poor little one, to see your life so short and given no respect for your labor."

The dragon then asked. "So is your business still with me?"

I couldn't deny that his story was truth. It matched with Fair Share's personality all too well. So I took my weapon and left the caves condemned, citing the dragon being a threat far too critical to resume operations. Once I finished with that affair, I turned my attention to ensuring that my personal doctors and mages tended to my beloved captain. And as he was finished with his healing, I started to question him on the matter.

His response. "I didn't want it to get out that I let him have the caves. If it did, then I would be sent to kill him, and countless others will be sent to clean up after him. I cannot allow my fellow citizens to remain enslaved in some cavern where they die inglorious deaths. I want no part in keeping that system alive. If this opportunity came, then it is for a much higher purpose."

"And to what purpose, what would you seek?" I questioned him.

He smiled at me, still bearing through the pain as he spoke. "If they can't go to the caves to work, then they can serve in the guard. Even fathers who have no foal suitable of purpose may join to defend his kingdom. But not without knowing their own power."

I questioned him once more. "What power do you see them having?"

"Knowledge." He answered promptly. "I want to do something different with the system. Instead of having to send others to fight to their deaths while thinking that there was no purpose to their lives other than to bring glory to their lords, I seek to educate them in their service. They will learn to build, to read, to write, and to lead. I want to restructure everything where pointless bloodied skirmishes between nobles and aristocrats aren't waged on the whims of a petty squabble between cousins over a common maid or some romance of convenience. We shouldn't be sent out to die because two lords want to play chess with our lives. We're not as replaceable as wooden pawns, we take years to grow."

"And how would you do this?" I inquired, wanting to see more of what he had in mind.

"I would work until I can buy my own land. Then I would set up a camp there to train incoming guards in a myriad of things, like how to read, how to write, how to spell their own names, how to fight for what is right, and how practice restraint. I know that bloodshed isn't the answer to it all, but if I can just teach a few, then they can teach their children, and their children's children. Generations will pass until the powers of these corrupted nobles become all but void."

I started to laugh at him for how well thought-out his plan was, it almost seemed as if his leadership was beyond the battlefield. He was a bright mind who knew how to lead others, who had a passion for informing others of their power and changing the world around him. He was kind, ambitious, strong, and attractive. Too kind a soul to be a general, too tactical to be anything other than that. For a second, I envisioned a crown on his head and saw him standing by my side... just like him. At that moment, I had started to see shades of Sombra on him. And the only thing I could think about was how I wanted to keep him to myself without having him suffer through so much controversy.

I couldn't give him anything he wanted, he wouldn't be able to earn the money to buy the land sufficient enough to open a camp. It would take generations to accumulate that much wealth, and by then he would be lost to me. I felt saddened at that realization and something came from my mouth out of instinct. "You'd be a much better prince than you would be a farmer."

"I'm no prince. I'm far too dirty and uncouth to be something so heralded." He replied humbly with a chuckle.

The only problem was that he felt I was bluffing. But when it came to him, anything in my mind was possible. I wanted to see his dream come to life, and I wanted to give it all to him just to show me he could do it. I wanted to see his ambitions bear fruit, fruit I could see becoming an even brighter future for my kingdom in the centuries to come. He was the hope my citizens needed to have, and I couldn't let them suffer any longer. So I bypassed many clerics and nobles when I made my proclamation just seven days later. I ordered that he'd come to own two-hundred acres of land, become in possession of the entire royal treasury, and a crown to be worn on his head.

Fair Share, from that day on, I dubbed him Prince Fair Charity.

~10 Years Later~

I couldn't even begin to describe my peace of mind in seeing him serve beside me as my own prince. The first year kept him busy when it came to several other power struggles aimed for him, expectedly by nobles holding power in the parliament. Though it turned out that my giving him authority over much throughout the kingdom payed off in dividends.

But my decision to do so came at an ironic cost.

The eighth year of his rule, we both paid a visit to a lord who was assumed to be withholding surplus taxes he inflicted upon his own province. When we arrived in the village leading to the villa, we weren't greeted by throngs of citizens wishing us well or even misled denizens who believed we were there to collect more taxes on their income. Instead it was the smell that greeted us. The sick was laying among the side of the streets, dying. Some of the dead was already rotting, being carried over into mulch. The living were too afraid to step out in fear of being a victim to some speeding carriage. And those that weren't stood at stalls filled with rotting produce, some growing mold.

But when we reached the gates of the villa, it was as if we were moved from a war-struck village to an oasis of beautiful flowers and elegant fountains trimmed with silver and pearl. When we arrived, it was the maids that greeted us outside. When we had entered the manor, it was the servants who guided us. But when it came to the time of introductions, the noble gave two clops of his hooves before the quite villa became that of a spectacle devoid of a music number.

He had three maids serve us the entire time, and they turned out to be the best looking three in our presence. Fair Charity saw one that caught his eye, claiming her to be a sister of a fallen friend. He demanded to see her disrobe, which made the noble a little antsy, and it also made me a little livid as well as jealous. But it made her completely unravel. The moment she took off her dress, we saw cruel markings and lacerations across her body. She hid her face until Fair Charity called her by the name her brother had given her. By then, she had started crying, falling to the ground as she knew her dead brother had somehow sent for her.

And the looks on our faces had grown to pure hatred. Fair Charity spoke in my place, proclaiming her family's name cleared of debt and bought her freedom. As he did that, he also decreed that his withheld funds for the past ten years would be repaid with interest to the crown. It was also announced that his family's house was placed under restriction until further notice, which reverted the tax rate of his citizens to a more normalized state and made the demand that the stores of his home be emptied but for a week's worth of food for himself. Of all the goods that was reclaimed from his stores, it would then be rationed evenly among the villagers.

From there, we left the village with the girl riding next to us.

I couldn't help but feel saddened for her, sympathetic to her plight. How couldn't I, I knew what had happened to me in days long gone. So I opened the doors of my castle and offered her a place to stay until she could recover. In the months leading up from then, she was almost mute. But we would walk by one another each day until she could tell me how she felt.

Lazuli Spring was her name, Lapis was what her brother called her.

I fed her, gave her what I could, and then Fair Charity would sometimes take her to his camp to talk about her brother, to give her closure to her departed brother's story. It was only after a day was when she was brought back, telling me more stories about her brother's adventures along side Fair Charity. I had also started to share a few stories about Fair Charity myself, among other heroes I had gotten to know throughout my life. We continued to share stories for a while, exchanging thoughts, revealing hidden truths. We essentially became the best of friends.

But in the months that followed, her health began to blossom, her mane and coat had healed completely, and she soon found herself to being the envy of every stallion in Canterlot. But her eyes had only gone for one stallion in particular...

...And his eyes were on her as well.

Fair Charity, in taking care of her and teaching her how to read and write, started to fall madly in love with her. And it took almost a year for the two to declare themselves to one another. But while I had worn a mask around them, I started to hurt inside. Seeing them happy had made me terribly ill with envy and grief-stricken with melancholy. The world around me had gotten darker, the light I looked for had started to fade in front of my very eyes. And I was given nothing but heartbreak while their love flourished.

I felt like an outsider... that is until one cold, cloudy day.

The weeks leading up to their wedding, Lapis had shared with him one of the stories I had told her. When she wasn't talking at first, I had started to tell her a story of everything I had went through in times past, all the torture I endured, the things they did to me because I decided to fall in love. I didn't tell her everything that happened, but I told her enough to encourage her to open up to me more.

But for Fair Charity, it opened up a fresh wound that I wouldn't have the time to heal. Eventually, we walked into my room and he sat on the bed quietly, looking at me as I walked in whatever mundane direction I chose to wander. But I didn't care about the reason for being there, I wanted to have my moment with him.

I know, selfish of me, but I wanted that much.

It was perfect. I knew because of the law that confined us both, he had started to feel the recurring urges of lust, urges that would have to remain fiery until the night of his marriage. And if there was one distinctive trait that had to have been an overarching negative, it was his own libido. In the years leading to his rule, Fair Share would have his way with whatever mare offered herself, which his ascension had given him the option to bed many at once. And of course that bit of envy danced about in the back of my mind as I crowned him. It meant that he had ten years of pent-up energy and he was closing in on the day he could finally fall back into old habits. But there was one caveat.

The law didn't forbid any royals within the country from fornicating with one another, a blinding loophole that too few would ever come to know. Equestrian blood, Equestrian crown, Equestrian heir. By those unwritten rules, we were free to do as we pleased. But I was never one to make such a move on my own, I always waited for him to make the first one.

And he did.

I don't think there was a moment in well over several hundred lifetimes where I sat on my bed, panting as heavily as I did when his forelegs wrapped around me. I felt his body hunch over mine and his breath grazing my neck from behind me. And there I was, quietly moving my tail aside as I started to wait for the command to present myself to him. But instead of that, he urged me to take off my regalia, citing his desire to place aside our crowns for just a moment where we could feel like everyone else.

I should've known from the minute he held me down that I wasn't going to get the moment I cultivated for fifteen years.

He screamed at me, demanding why we all had to suffer, why I had to suffer for something like this, something that felt so natural. I couldn't give him an answer out of fear that if he did ask, I would be easily persuaded to tell him everything. But what I didn't know was the fact that one of my scrolls was hanging out of one of his saddle bags. Sitting on top of it was an old book with a swirling cutie mark surrounded by several stars.

If I had any lustful expectations before that moment, they were all quashed with the sound of his voice. "WHY!?"

I had little to say to him.

But he had more to say to me. "Why, why would you go through all of this and not tell anypony!? Why did you suffer in silence for so long!? Why, Celestia!? Why didn't you tell me?"

I calmly replied, trying my best to not cry. "I just thought you didn't need to know."

"That I didn't─" He hopped off of me and pointed to the book, screaming all the while. "I shouldn't have to go looking for this for me to know something about you! I thought you trusted me with your life, your kingdom, but obviously that's still a runabout way of saying that you don't trust me all too much."

"I do trust you." I tried to argue calmly. "I just didn't want you to pity me over something like this."

"Ten years, ten years I've been restricted from what's natural because of the opinions and envy of some long-deceased regime. But obviously that's just holding a candle to whoever lost something because of their own lust. Or worse, what you've lost as a result of their meddling!"

"I just said I didn't want you to pity me." I angrily replied. "What happened to me was a long time ago and I've completely let go of that."

"Have you honestly?" He asked, giving me no room to breathe. "Have you even thought about what it feels like to love someone and fear that a relationship with them is out of the question because of some unorthodox law that kept me from even showing a morsel of that to you!?"

I felt an unusual sensation running through my chest. It was incredibly bittersweet, to know that I was loved for some time, but overlooked for someone else because of a law they knew they couldn't break, fearing that either of us would get in trouble. In short, he was even protecting me from himself. I looked back at him as he just angrily stared at me.

"Ever since I served in your guard, I was told to never grow close to you. I was told that a commoner like me would find their entire family at the gallows for anything as small as a chuckle from you. But if I had known about this from the start, I would've been able to change everything much sooner!"

As much as my heart was beating, I still couldn't bear the thought of revealing my emotions to him so openly. So I put on a brave face and tried my best to play off my feelings. "Please stop. You of all ponies should know there are some things that never change. Your dream was something I wanted to see for myself fulfilled. Compared to you, my dream means nothing."

"And you honestly believe that in your heart?" He asked while pressing the issue. "Please tell me now, I want to know the Celestia I eagerly stepped in to defend, the princess I swore my life to, my best friend of fifteen years! Please tell me you're still the princess I used to love!"

Another tinge of bittersweet emotions twanged at my heart. What I felt earlier had intensified, so much that I had no other choice but to turn away from him and run to a nearby corner. The pride inside of me refused to allow him to see me cry, and I was damned if I let him see me wallowing in some ancient despair. "Used to love? So now you don't?"

"I swore myself to another, one whom I am to marry in the coming week, that I may have to put off for next month because I am not returning to Canterlot until I am ready to siege the city with a force so mighty that it levels the mountain. I am right there when it comes to fighting for you. Do you understand!?"

"Then why the hell are you even here!?" I screamed into the corner I stood, trying to hide the tears running off of my cheeks. "You don't love me, so leave me be and just be with your wife!"

I felt a hoof fall on my shoulders, followed by his head nuzzling against the side of my body. "Celeste, do you know why I do the things that I do? Because if I didn't, I would never do my mother justice. Her final words to me were to make a change in someone's life and that it would be for the better. The world is cruel and ugly, but there are times and ponies when the world isn't. And at it's worst, it's still the only one we know, foul and fair."

I couldn't even stand, I just fell to the ground and kept my head in the corner, refusing to let him see my tear-stained face. But he guided my head into his, leaning against me with his forehead, parts of his mane covering my foreleg as I tried to wipe my own tears. Instead, he wiped them for me while he spoke.

"There was a song my mother used to sing when she had gotten sick, she sang it to me when she was on her death bed. And now I think you need to hear the message behind it."

"Please, stop." I urged before he started to make me even more emotional.

Someday, when we are wiser,
When the world's older,
When we have learned,
I pray someday we may yet live,
to live and let live.

Someday life will be fairer,
Need will be rarer,
Greed will not pay,
Faust speed this bright millennium, on it's way,
Let it come someday

It was the first time in centuries anyone had seen me give up all of my pride and become vulnerable before them. I couldn't bear the thought that he was seeing me so distraught. And it had come in the most brutal way possible, from the one that I let get away. I was so mad at myself then because I could've had him for myself, and I would've told him sooner what happened to me. I was already ready to give myself to him, to become a mare of his own claim. But this had to be the one thing I was the most embarrassed by.

I sat there for a while as he stroked my mane, cleaned my cheeks, stood by me in spite of my own pride willing me to shove him away. But he stayed for me, and it made me even sadder that I would never have my love for him reciprocated. Even the scar on my chest was revealed to him, and he nuzzled it, showing love and affection unto it.

And even after several minutes of my being with him, I learned nothing. "I don't need you to feel sorry for me." I said, trying to feign a pout.

"And yet you cry from that pain."

Admittedly, he was right. "It is long passed. I have healed my wounds!"

"Save the one that haunt you most."

"That is my failure, to provide protection for those closest to me." I whispered, thinking of what all I've lost over the past five centuries and then some. But seeing him laying against me had provided me with something other than a bittersweet sense of defeat. It filled me with quiet blossom, a budding flower called hope. "And you are closer to me than any other."

"Then let me find justice for you. Let 'someday' be tomorrow." He said, standing to his hooves.

I tried to follow beside him, pleading with him. "Not for my sake, please. Not this path."

He stopped and placed his hooves on my cheek, holding my head still as he spoke to me. "If I die on this path, then I will regret nothing. It is for me as much as it is for you. I want you to see your someday come. And if not in this life for me, then the next... and the ones to follow."

"Charles."

"Celeste. I swear to you that I will give you the freedom you deserve. It's what I owe you in place of the love I cannot give you."

I started to scoff, sniffling as I moved his forelegs away from me. "Then why even try?"

Someday, when we are wiser
When the world's older
when things have changed.
Someday these dreams will all be real.
Still then, we'll
wish upon the moon.
Change will come, one day,
someday...

Without warning, he closed the distance between us, letting his lips touch mine for only a second. I stared, almost lost into him. We started to part, as he sang one last word.

Soon.

Before he could leave the room, I locked the doors for a short while, just long enough to confess to him. "I shall dream of you. Even the little moment that we had, just the tiniest things, I will linger on for nights. And I may lose myself to the passion that will ensue, thinking about your return. But you better come back to me, somehow."

"I shall return, and with a legion far stronger than might itself. And I shall wage a skirmish in the name of justice against those who continue to hold over you. And when I win, you shall be free."

I unlocked the door, allowing him to leave me behind. He waved his goodbye and I stood in my room, quietly fantasizing about the second my lips felt his, of how I would've allowed him to linger on for much longer.

...But the years taught me to never want for myself. And life has a cruel way of showing that to me. Five days later, an envoy was accompanied by a servant who held an exquisite jar... And what was pulled from it was the cruelly torn remains of my hopes and dreams. It took but three seconds to process what was in the jar before me. And it took an hour for them to separate my grieving self from his severed head, to be passed on to his soon-to-have-been wife. The next day, she cast herself from the battlements of Canterlot onto the mountainside.

Life was far too much for me in those days.

~15 Years Later~

I was never used to having anypony so close to me unlike those two were. It was as if I had a family again, but one that I could go the extra length for. Their deaths caused me to resign myself to the melancholy of my own immortality, or rather the lack of mortality I possibly have. There are ways for a being such as myself to die, but the process is strenuous. I found that out a few centuries ago. But even then, my life could not be so easily taken.

Believe me, I've tried.

The following fifteen years of my sole rule had become quiet. There was no pomp and circumstance. Many in those days had claimed that I had never once smiled. Those who died would die, and those who lived would only go on to greet death at their door. Every guard I saw who declared their fealty to me, I couldn't get close to because I knew it was here-today-gone-tomorrow for them. So why did it matter to me when and how they died? I didn't care for it anymore, I cried my tears and dreamed my dreams of being at the wedding that was to never come. Those rivers, the reservoir of my emotions had dried up in the months following their passing. Now, it was just me in a world of dying dreams.

The citizens, however, weren't happy in the slightest bit. Their champion being long gone and with the dragon answering a call from the Dragon Lord of the east, the operation of the gem caverns resumed. Nobles who realized the dangers of educating their citizens had placed multiple measures against their citizens from attending the military camp Fair Charity had installed. Instead, it was remade into a retention center for those who failed to pay their taxes. There they would be tortured or worked to death. And any of the remnants who were learning at the camp were suddenly reassigned to the caves, where they worked until they dropped dead from exhaustion. That only left behind the uneducated, the easily manipulated, the corruptible.

As for the instructors picked by Fair Charity, they were given a new purpose to educate the young noble lords and aristocrats that wanted to boost their family's name. But what was there to boost for them, other than seeking glory by marching hundreds more towards their deaths? It was almost as if Fair Charity's era of guardianship had completely eroded into nothing but the sands of time.

Back then, the guard had so much pride, so many young stallions who could fight, smarter tactics, higher morale, and the citizens who joined were made aware of their power. It was possibly the strongest military force Equestria birthed since the inception of the Wonderbolts. But very few could hold the mantle of being Captain of the Royal Guard, a position many aristocrats thought they could buy their way into. There was no one to replace him in my eyes, no one who I would allow to get close to me. So the position remained vacant for some time. And it didn't phase me that I didn't have anypony there. The guard could be disorganized, I was just that vacant to the world.

Those years truly felt as if I was going through the motions, sign this, go here, wave at the dying citizens, wander my garden, stare at my sister from afar, raise the sun, raise the moon, lay down with my head on the pillow while thinking about what I could've done differently to keep him here with me, come to terms that fate had no desire to see me happy, tire myself to sleep, wake up, eat, and the process repeats itself.

But then came one day when I had arrived to another training camp, but this one was established by the parliament, a crude leap downward from the grand vision Fair Charity once had. The place was almost a cruel parody of what he wanted to do, what he wanted to provide for Equestria. It was abhorrently disgusting, to see the very few new faces shoved into the ground like they were third-class citizens. Walking by one of the barracks, I could even see one younger unicorn colt being forced upon by his superior, of noble blood of course.

I didn't say anything, but I did find myself watching with a close eye. When he finished, he was shoved aside and mocked for being too poor to reproduce, citing that it was better for him to serve the guard in this manner. Abuses like these were common, and it was often accepted in many social circles of the higher tiers of wealth. As long as they couldn't sire any illegitimate foals, then it was acceptable.

I watched the poor colt pick himself up and redress himself back in his training armor, crying as he did but moving without a single whimper. He walked away, leaving a small trail of the stallion's seed behind before walking back to the barracks. I quietly trailed him, looking for the very same barracks he left to. When I had arrived, they were giving a lecture to the younger recruits on how to hold a spear. When the young one arrived after cleaning himself, he was openly chastised for being late, and was subject to twenty lashes on his back before he could continue.

When I was finally announced to the class, the young colts all watched me walk by with a scowl on my face, they cowered in fear that I would show the same hospitality provided to them by their blue-blood superiors. The noble brats, however, they did their usual kissing up and praising me in every conceivable way. But the one I kept my eyes on was the one they had mistreated since I arrived.

I glanced back to the practice dummies they had and saw many thrust holes in them before turning my attention back to the young colt. They also noticed my attention had been brought to him and felt as if that he was looking back at me. So the one that sodomized him came forward again, standing in front of me holding a spear in his hooves, claiming that he would destroy him if he ever showed disrespect to me ever again.

But I saw it in his eyes, he just wanted to inflict whatever cruelty he had in mind, and he didn't care who would be his next victim. He was hungry for blood, eagerly wanting to drive his spear into that boy, more so than he already impaled him earlier. But the young colt, he was just doing what he had to do to make it to the next day. He more than followed his orders, they just picked on him because they could. I then intervened, citing that there needed to be training taking place. So I asked them to run a few drills.

I could tell that fifteen years made a monumental difference in the training methods applied. In the years following his death, Fair Charity made sure that each spear hit a vital spot, to make sure that it was clean and efficient. But now it was like watching them fling spears into straw dolls like novices. And some of the recruits there were teens. There was no uniformity, no discipline, just shove the pointed end into the thing you're looking at.

For the first time in years... centuries... my entire life, I started to feel... curious.

I wasn't satisfied with the effort that was displayed in front of me. So I called out three colts, one of them being the one I looked at for some time. I had lined up two dummies in front to be used as I ordered the other two to make their charge into their dummies. One hit where a vital would be, the other hit where a wing would've been.

Before the young colt I singled out could make his run, I halted him and openly corrected his posture. "Your spear is too far forward, you've maximized your reach but have no follow through. If parried, you'll lose your weapon, and that's your life. Instead of holding it out so far, bring it in closer to your body. So when you run, you don't lose control of where your spear is thrusting into." As I instructed the colt, I also guided him with my hooves, nudging his spear into a proper position. "The tip should be centered to your eye, not leaning out or diagonal, this will teach you controlled accuracy."

The teenage noble grimaced at my closeness with the boy and feigned his praise with a smile. "Your majesty, you impart much wisdom to us today. I ask that you would relax yourself as opposed to teaching somepony slow to learning. He's mentally retarded, incapable of being used on the fields of battle."

My curiosity started to grow.

I looked to the young colt and saw him about to run for the dummy again, quietly awaiting my orders. So I gave him one. "About face." He turned around and faced his peers. I followed suit and turned around myself before giving my next order. "Right face." He was immediately facing the teenage colt who threw himself on him earlier. I then called out. "Ready your mark!"

I heard a grunt from behind me, no doubt the teenage blue blood. He screamed at the colt. "Hey, watch it, you're pointing that thing at─"

I'm sure by then he found out when he looked down that there was magic holding his hooves in place. There was no running for him.

"Hey... Hey this isn't funny!" He screamed out, trying his best to break out of the magic that sealed his position. "Stop it, I'm not the stupid dummy!"

"CHARGE!" I ordered loudly.

A youthful roar erupted as I heard the teenage stallion screaming for his life. But in an instant, I heard both of their voices falling silent while the others started to scream for assistance. I turned around and looked at the colt's face. And right then, my curiosity was satiated.

The young boy had peered over the dead stallion, with a disconnected smile on his face, completely aware of what he did and how much he hurt the one that hurt him. I could already see how elated he was, his method of mourning was simply shoving the spear in and out of his body, returning the favor for the earlier offense. He didn't stop either, he had to be bashed against the head by the friends of the fallen blue blood. The other higher ranks grabbed him and escorted him away to be detained until trial had commenced for the young boy. But for me, it was like watching a young foal experience the greatest satisfaction in his young life.

...I started to get curious again. But now for a different purpose.

~1 Month Later~

I never did understand why there was so much fanfare for a public execution. It felt like the one thing that made sense to me was that there would be some members of both families in attendance, each trying to vouch for why the condemned should either live or die. But for the masses, it was something interesting because of the case being presented. Here was a young colt sentenced to hang, accused of killing a member of a noble family, the first-born heir to the lord of a nearby province no less.

The crowd was jeering, but not just for the execution to take place. They were jeering because they felt that justice was already done. But as predictable as it usually is, the family of the noble paid off the witnesses to say that he was murdered in cold blood. For many, it was an easy way to gain themselves twenty bits for their troubles, especially since it was true.

The boy did commit murder, that's no question. But the motive for the killing had only one witness who would not come forth, me. But I didn't come forth for a reason, I didn't need to do so for the time being, especially when all I have to do is halt the execution and pardon his crime. After all, I did have a hoof in the death of that noble brat. But my reasoning was to lure out the family of the deceased, namely the father.

Years ago, he paid off two guards in Fair Charity's escort, who were already close friends of another member in parliament, and had them direct large beasts to intercept their unit and obliterate the accompanying regiment. It came with resounding success.

Miraculous fortune that I would help take the life of his heir.

But now that his family was here, I could see the bastard who plotted the demise of Fair Charity with my own eyes. Yes... I lusted for blood. All of it. I wanted to see my hooves stained with crimson instead of the mundane and uncomfortable golden slippers I wear.

I wanted to finish what he could not.

So when the noble stepped forward, claiming vengeance in the name of his dead son, he pointed to the executioner and signaled for the rope to drop. But unfortunately for him, the rope had been cut. As predicted, I halted the execution myself, feigning that I would take his life instead.

I remember how I felt when I had walked forward with my halberd in my possession. I was... genuinely curious, but nervous. I had never committed a public execution before, so this would be my first in that regard.

"Surely seeing a body struggle to breathe isn't the grand vengeance you seek, is it?" I asked him.

The stallion gawked at me as he saw me holding the halberd in my possession, it's blade lodged in the wood where the rope once swayed. The young colt breathing heavily with relief as his life would continue for a while longer. "Your majesty, he is a murderer! I cannot allow him to live!"

"But surely you'd rather a more fitting spectacle. A bloodless death for a bloodied one doesn't seem very just. If your son's blood was spilled, then why simply give him the common criminal treatment? I would like to think that you'd be more enthusiastic about my willingness to rent my blade for a more fitting method? Perhaps you would prefer that a criminal's head be on display for the others to know their place?"

It was a method pulled straight from the grave of the stallion I loved. I'd walk him into a more comfortable position, I'd point him towards the bed, he'd get excited, I'd undress him for the big moment, and I'd drive the dagger where it hurts him most. And just like me, he fell for it. His criticism soon fell to excitement as he made a request. "Why your majesty, why haven't you presented this idea earlier!? I would've easily allowed the executioner to lop off his head! The message that would send would be substantial! If you would, would you allow me the honors of seeing to his end myself?"

I placed the halberd on the stage, and invited him to pick it up. As he walked around, he quickly discovered it's weight was not ideal for his physical capabilities. I took moment to magically lock his hind legs in place. And with resounding success, the stallion didn't even notice his being unable to move from that spot. The short little exhibition of him wearing himself out trying to grab my halberd made him too weak to resist. He started to laugh nervously as the citizens proceeded to boo him over his inability to pick up my weapon. He then conceded defeat.

"Well... I suppose that this is a matter that only you can rectify, your highness."

I nodded slowly. "Indeed, I wouldn't have expected you to get this thing to budge in the beginning. After all, I did configure it's weight to crush armor and bone alike. It's much easier to use in battle as opposed to the traditional sword or spear. Though the blade is beautiful, would you like to see the details up close?" I inched the blade of the ax head towards his face, showing the runes that lined the outside edges before the blade's narrowing.

The stallion nervously chuckled yet again. "I see. It's a very beautiful blade. It is only a shame that it's majesty is soon to be tainted by the blood of a murderer."

Most befitting words I've heard in years. "I agree. It is shameful that I would use it in such a manner." I said before hiking the blade underneath his chin. The stallion froze, just then realizing that he couldn't move from where I had him locked to. "You're so right, it's nothing short of a disgrace."

I watched as the stallion squirmed in my magic, his neck brushing against the sharpened enchanted blade. His eyes darting every direction for salvation while I leaned in closer. He began to plead with me. "Your majesty, the blade is on my throat."

"I know. But you want to know something else? There's always this look a pony has when they've done something terrible to someone and just moments later, they get their comeuppance. It goes without saying your son had that same look of desperation on his face when he died. It's almost funny, you're wearing that same exact face. So is there any reason why you'd wear that face right now?" I quietly whispered to him the proverbial nail in his coffin. "I suppose it wouldn't have anything to do with the ambush you set up for Fair Charity, now is it?"

Before he could reply, I sliced into his trachea, disabling him from speaking loudly. Instead, I heard the blood gargling from his throat, combined with his frantic breathing through the new hole he had to breathe through. It was interesting seeing him hiss so panicked-like. And my blade was firmly lodged in his windpipe, disallowing him some much desired air.

"But in order to save your own life, you'd be more than willing to do whatever it takes to satisfy me, wouldn't you?"

I knew that with each nod he made at that moment to confirm my question, he suffered not only pain but also risked drowning himself if he moved too erratically.

"So you'd give me anything I ask for? Anything I'd want out of you? Even your first-born son, you'd give me those to make me happy right now, correct?"

He nodded a bit faster, confirming my statement.

I leaned in to whisper in his ear. "I want my lover back. Can you get that for me, can you get my beloved Fair Charity back for me?"

A small gargle was all he gave me.

"Then why do I even bother?"

I tapped my hoof against the pole of blade and then pushed. As simple as that movement was, I watched as his head tumbled to the ground with as little noise as a whisper. Instead of hearing the crowd, who was stunned to silence, I heard the sound of his wife screaming as I took his head from his shoulders. I grew... quiet with the feeling of knowing my vengeance had been complete.

But then it was replaced with emptiness, I asked myself saying 'surely this wasn't all there was' before I felt a gush of blood stain my face and chest, it's warmth splattering around me, pooling around my hooves. The headless body still stood because I still used my magic to hold it there. But when I had looked down, I saw the eyes of the noble frantically glancing around, rapidly blinking before looking up to see me. He couldn't move much on his face, but the despair in his eyes was more than enough to verify what I had felt.

I just laughed. Louder and louder until I had nothing else to send out but tears of satisfaction. To think that vengeance would be so empty, yet so full of warmth. I never thought that taking someone's life would be so terrifying but liberating. It almost made everything that happened to me seem to be a minor consequence. But all I had to do was set aside my own morals and just dive in. It was taboo, it was so frowned against, it was so wrong... and yet I couldn't feel any more right. He deserved death, so I gave it to him. How much more just could that possibly be?

Luna... I'm beginning to believe you were on to something when you came for me that day.

"Ponies of Equestria, my humble citizens!" I said with the largest blood-stained smile on my face, experiencing damn near orgasmic bliss. "Thine princess has arrived."

The wife trembled as she held her son, covering his eyes as she tried to stifle her wailing. The crowd didn't know what to say, it just appeared that their princess had gone from not smiling for well over a decade to suddenly smiling with blood all over her. But I didn't care, I was riding the high that was my first kill in the name of vengeance.

So I finally explained myself. "My humble citizens, your princess hears your cries! Your calls for justice in a land ruled and owned by greedy lords and selfish aristocrats! Nobles who seek to take advantage of you by leaving you in squalor, forcing themselves upon you when you are at your weakest. Taking from you when you have very little and leaving you with nothing, then requesting that you give them more in exchange for your suffering! I know your plight too well! I've once known a stallion who suffered these things, and rose above them to challenge the ones who oppressed him. And this one who I've claimed is the MURDERER of Prince Fair Charity!"

The crowd started to erupt with bitter anger towards the dead stallion, who's head I picked up and tossed to the raging crowd. As his head rolled on the ground, they began to cheer openly, to the dismay of his family.

I pointed out in the crowd, the first one being his wife. "Her." Then his brother. "Him." And his sister. "Her." His nephew. "Him." His uncle. "Him." And finally his young son. "Him. Those are the ones who carry his blood, do with them what you will, citizens! Make this your declaration against those who live lavishly off of your backs!"

As the crowd started to go after the ones I pointed out, the brother of the dead noble called against me. "Madness, you insinuate madness!"

Those were the last words I heard him say before the crowd swallowed him whole, wielding an assortment of tools and blades. As I watched their entire family being slaughtered, I started to sing to myself with a large smile on my face. Slowly as I watched their heads become raised on sharpened pikes.

Hear me, my fellow ponies,
How much transgression will you allow?
One day, our patience will finally break
Why not make
Someday come right now!?

Current Day...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

My arms were already sore enough from dealing with Celestia's magic, but having to brush her mane and tail made my shoulders ache like I had been lifting weights at the gym for a good two hours. The only difference was that I was brushing her mane and tail all night long while she told me her story. Even now, the hour of daylight approaches. I came in here hoping that I could somehow convince the princess to join us...

Now I had a feeling that she had already considered it.

"So what happened then?" I asked.

"Well, we pretty much had a bit of a civil war. I was leading the forces of the citizens while the parliament lead the forces known to be the Equestrian Coalition. Houses became divided, brothers warred against one another, and many stallions lost their lives... especially when I myself was their opponent."

"So is that why there was the great shortage of stallions here in Equestria?" I asked.

"Precisely. The families who were losing brothers and sons left and right started to take preference to having girls, as there were several codes forbidding mares from entering the battlefield. It was a war that took fourteen years to draw to a stalemate."

"Running out of resources?" I questioned.

"No. Running out of stallions. Nobles who assigned themselves to fight, the ones who actually found it within themselves to meet me on the fields of battle, they too suffered great losses. And there were too few of them to keep going. It had gotten so bad that young colts as early as twelve were forced to marry and sire foals before being sent off to train. And it was needless to say that they had envisioned glory for themselves. So they found their way to the front lines..."

"Only to get themselves killed." I concluded.

"In my name, no less." She replied somberly. "Mares did not view me favorably in those times, seeing that I had taken away from them so much more than what they were willing to give, all for my own vengeance, for my own campaign to free myself. So when the guard almost collapsed in on itself, I had to make a dire choice, we all did. So we stopped for the sake of peace, to keep our kingdom strong... relatively speaking."

"But how do you do that when mare's aren't allowed in the guard and with the stallion shortage?" I asked. "Wouldn't that make Equestria easy to conquer?"

"We simply allowed mares in the guard following the Great Armistice Treaty of 532 C.D.V.. From then on, the guard camps had finally started to implement the very method Fair Chairty had insisted upon from the beginning. Taxes had become significantly less. And there was an emergency breeding clause that had to be implemented, it was mandatory that each colt would assign themselves no less than five mares to breed, that lasted for a decade."

I have to admit, that would've been a favorable time to be a guy still living in this world. "So you lost the war on the account of a stalemate. So they kept Processu Approbatio in spite of all of that?"

"There were more pressing issues to address, such as the continuation of family lines, allocation of goods, tool making. The country had to put a lot of focus on rebuilding itself. I had to set it aside until things were back on track. Even now, the shortages of stallions for some mares are a recurring issue. It's just in our code to breed more fillies than it is to breed colts now."

I pulled out my phone, seeing that the battery had been close to dying. It was well past five in the morning. And being that my shift was slated for a few hours from now, there was no way I'd get any rest today. "So long story short, you tried to war your way through, it didn't work as planned."

"Which is why I try not to resort to violence or talks of revolution. I know the cost of it all too well. And that's why I felt that I had to release you, because I feared you would've walked the path Fair Charity once did. And knowing my luck, that means that I would lose you somehow."

"And you didn't want that to happen?"

"Well I've gone through most of my life losing as opposed to gaining. I've lost friends, family, lovers, students, guards, anything you could possibly imagine. At this point, I just don't want to risk it because there's been so much cultivated from all of this."

"And you don't think you're strong enough to keep going after it all goes away." I guessed.

Celestia looked at the sky and realized it was time to bring the sun back into the sky. She walked towards her balcony and waited for the moon to fall before she did her usual handiwork. The moon slowly crept out of the sky as Celestia stared out to the kingdom she ruled. "Everything my light embraces, it's all my responsibility, but at times I would trade it all just to be able to have what I couldn't. A huge royal family to embrace me, a beautiful best friend to remember, a great figure to train my guards and a leader to lead in tough times, a husband to hold me, my being a mother, my sister standing by me for a thousand years, my own mother guiding me every step of the way."

"But think of what you have now." I argued.

"I do." She promptly replied. "I have an appointed troublesome nephew, an appointed niece who will have her own family, a good guard watching over her, a really great student who turned out to be an even better friend and a much better leader than I ever would be. I found my successors, I found my friends, and I even have my sister back. But can't I have everything, both past and present?"

"You can't have everything. Hell, I want my grandparents back. I want the simple life of living happily, but I can't do that because I am who I am because of their not being here. And I know what a world of what-if's look like if even the tiniest thing changes. If all the bad has to go away, then so would the good."

"So are you saying that you'd prefer to suffer?" She asked.

I walked up to her and took a moment to breathe as I thought of what to say next. But instead of saying anything first, I just acted and placed my forehead against the princess' own. She grew completely surprised and even a bit annoyed with my sudden intrusion of her personal space. But doing that gave me something to say. "...Can I borrow some of your energy? I kinda need the hardheadedness you got for the next few weeks. Things are gonna get pretty hard for me."

The princess seemed flustered at the idea of my calling her hardheaded. "And what exactly are you insinuating!? Are you saying that I don't listen!?"

"I'm saying I need your toughness, Celly. I can't go through what you did, but you do inspire me to keep at it no matter how hard it may be. Yeah, I might feel like I want to watch the world burn for a while or that I wouldn't care if it did, but even finding some way of coming back to who you are from all of that, even your most... curious moments. You still found a way to come back and hit hard on everything you do and know." I then smiled in her face. "What I'm trying to say is that I need all of what you've got. The temperance, the tranquil anger, the bouts of apathy, the well of empathy, all that. Your energy is what's gonna keep me going."

The princess grimaced for a second before using her magic to lift my head away from hers. "Motivate yourself, try starting there."

"I'd rather your energy." I answered back. "Thousand years of 'I've made it through' would be a great testimony to live by. I fucking love it, you're way more hardcore than me."

Celestia walked towards her room, starting to put back on her regalia, covering her scars. She looked to the jewel in her chest plate before asking. "How much do you know about me?"

"Not enough to know you." I replied.

"Good." She said before turning back to me, almost with a sad look on her face. "It's better to be that way than to be close."

"So you think bad things will happen if we get close?" I asked. "I thought you wanted us to be friends."

The princess giggled at my statement. "Oh, well lets keep our friendship... Nondie."

I had a genuine buck-back moment, questioning whether or not she had actually given me a nickname. I turned around and started pointing my thumbs behind me before she walked up to me, tilting her head at me curiously.

"Yes, you. I'm calling you that whenever it's just us two."

I shook my head quickly before speaking. "Now to clarify, you said that you were off the menu, right?"

"Oh no, I want no part in that. I have my reasons and you know them well. Besides who needs romances, that love stuff is for the birds." She answered with a warm smile.

I started to smile back at her before the pain in my shoulders distracted me. I grunted at the aching sensation before turning around to leave the room. "Well, I'm gonna leave you to your morning rituals. Maybe sometime later, you'll join with us for breakfast. Maybe even talk to us if you feel like it, take your time."

The alabaster princess held the door open as I was about to leave. "What about you, you should be able to get in a small nap before your shift starts."

"I usually wake up at around this time. I go on my morning runs before I hop in the shower and see you guys."

She hummed quietly. "Well be sure to wrap up, Nondis. It's cold out today, there's ice on the roads so be careful."

"Sure thing, Celly..." I said before I paused for a moment and asked back. "Hey uh, Celly rolls off my tongue a little better. Is that okay with you."

"As long as it doesn't come with the 'Big Momma' tag that Melanie often uses, it would be awkward coming from you."

"Got it. Well... good morning to you."

As the door closed behind me, Celestia turned around to see that the moon had completely vanished from the sky. Her eyes lingered downward as she whispered to herself.

"...In this life or the next... You really meant that, didn't you?"

A few hours later, I slowly trudged my way into the dining hall, feeling every bit of fatigue from my not sleeping in. Blueblood and Cadance were the first to notice. Shining had started talking with his sister, who was still enveloped with thoughts of yesterday. Blueblood's wives were all conversing with one another when I had walked in. To my surprise, all my human friends and family were sitting at the table. It seemed as if they had slept overnight instead of going back home.

Mel pointed out my appearance. "Holy hell, you look like a damn zombie."

"The horde has arrived, don't mind me." I called back out tiredly.

Alex shook his head with disbelief. "What the hell were you doing all night, packing your bags?"

"Writing your letters of farewell?" Stanton added.

"Couldn't sleep after the story?" Mel asked. "I still had to process a lot of that before I had a few nightmares of my own. Too bad Luna couldn't come and rescue me on that one like she does with you."

"I had my own demons to fight against. I apologize if my performance was lacking." Luna replied with a yawn. "I just thought about Tia all night."

"We all were." Cadance said quietly.

"And what about you guys?" I asked the group of humans. "Don't you all have other things to do as opposed to spending a night over here?"

"We really started talking about you for a while." Rickey announced.

"I don't know how you're gonna do it, man. A thousand years and ol' girl still trying to bury her demons like that. That's gon' be some hard-ass change." Cliff said with a shrug while scratching between his dreads with a rat-tail comb.

"Needless to say she's not gonna talk about it." Shining interjected. "I can't imagine she would."

"Do you blame her?" Twilight asked, still seeming overwhelmed. "Stuff like this is a personal pain, I don't even know if we should've opened that book to begin with. And that's coming from me.

I looked around to see not a single servant in the room. I still smelled food being cooked, but I didn't hear any voices at all coming from the kitchen next door. Vanity Fair, however, scoffed over her growing hunger. "Well either way, we can't do much of anything on an empty stomach. Blueblood, won't you call for something?"

The blond mane prince looked at me. "So, any ideas from the human world you might want to share with the class? The last suggestion was a treat and then some."

"I'm already having relapses." Shining added a second before the sound of his stomach growling sounded throughout the room. "That place you guys took us to, they wouldn't happen to deliver, would they?"

"Not at this time of the morning." Stanton answered. "Maybe we can head over to waffle house?"

"I feel an All-Star platter in my spirit!" Cliff announced while shaking his right hand in the air. "♪Yeee-Loooord♪!

"Ah, hashbrowns." I moaned greedily.

"♪Texas toast!♪" Cliff started to preach. "♪Scrambled eeeeeggs!♪"

"With cheese on top!" Stanton said before he jumped out of his seat! "That's a breakthrough right there!"

"No." Melanie interrupted. "...Big Momma Celly's pancakes."

Cliff started dancing as soon as she said it, stopping himself before he really started to make a fool of himself. "Okay, now we ain't havin' church in here!"

Shining rubbed his chin as he watched our reactions. "You know, I heard she was a good cook, but I never had Celestia's pancakes before."

Cadance groaned while rolling her eyes. "Shining, if you never had them, then you should ask her to oblige you just once."

"Mana from heaven." Blueblood mumbled.

While everyone in the room had already shifted their thoughts to food, Twilight's was still on her former mentor. "...I wonder how she's doing."

Everyone had grown incredibly quiet, the entire room shifted to the silence that once filled it less than twenty-four hours ago. I looked around and saw the smiles that briefly showed on their faces wiped clean away. I started to announce. "Well, she's fine. She's pretty damn strong, I give her that."

Twilight then turned to me. "And what about you? Last I remember Luna saying, her firing you was supposedly a 'suggestion', are you sure that wasn't a full-fledged decree? What if she already took the time to write your walking papers? You get kicked out the guard, and then what's your plan for the future? Do you just go back to your world?" Shining tried to reach out for his sister before she asked me quietly. "Do I ever see you again?"

"Always with the dramatics."

Everyone in the room looked towards the door, seeing Celestia coming from the kitchen with at least ten plates stacked with pancakes. Her mane shimmered brighter than I've ever seen it, her smile as warm as it ever was, her eyes brimming with life as she walked by everyone, laying plates in front of them.

"Wow... you're practically glowing this morning." Cadance said to the high princess.

"If my mane and tail looks good, then you have your Captain to thank." She said pointing a free hoof to me. "He stayed up all night just brushing away at me. I never figured him to be a good royal groomer, but here we are!"

"You... grooming Celestia?" Twilight questioned with a quirked eyebrow.

"It was punishment for sitting on her bed without permission." I said, rubbing my still aching shoulders.

"Sitting on her bed?" Shining asked.

"I was telling him a little story of a prince I once knew and his ambitions for the future. And thanks to him brushing me for so long, I just kinda rambled on for a while. I haven't have a conversation like that in ages, it felt really good to wear some ears down every once in a while, thought I urged him to sleep in for a bit before reporting in."

"As you can tell, nothing's changed. I'm still a guard..." I said before a thought came to mind about Fair Charity. "...You know I forgot to ask, who succeeded him after that."

"After who?" Celestia inquired.

"Fair Charity, I mean."

The white alicorn sighed as she started to think aloud. "Well, some years after the conflict, I installed that one little colt that I saved. He went on to be a great guard, finishing off where Fair Charity didn't get a chance to in educating the masses."

"What happened with him?" Shining asked. "Not often I get to hear about the unwritten histories of the guard."

The princess smirked as she looked to the sky. "Well, I do know he became quite the herder... and a bit of a troublemaker at that. But he did go on to delve into the areas of the citizenry I couldn't hope to reach. You should know him... He's often the most antagonistic of us."

I flinched for half a second before placing my hands on my waist and slowly turning to a certain alabaster stallion. "Really?"

"As I said, I prefer not getting my hooves dirty."

Cadance blinked, completely caught off guard by what was revealed to everyone in the room. "Well either way, there's still a lot we need to discuss."

Luna approached her sister from behind. "Tia... why didn't you say anything to me?"

Celestia appeared to become saddened, not looking her sibling in the eye. "I just didn't want you to stay angry with everypony. I didn't want you to commit the same mistakes I did. I know you, you're just like me when I was younger, liberal, free-minded, open to exploring new avenues, and willing to love without consequence. But I also know what you felt then, a sense of self-liberation. But I went about it the wrong way, and it threatened the entire kingdom. I didn't want you knowing because I felt you would've torn the city apart trying to prove a point. And I know that Nightmare Moon was still fresh on your psyche, I couldn't risk you knowing."

"But you lied to me, Tia." Luna explained. "You told me nothing when you already gave your trust to me. You said that we would never hold anything from each other since I returned. And now you hold one of the biggest secrets of your life from me, what happened with you since my disappearance. I can't say that I'm very happy in knowing what happened... none of us are."

Celestia looked around and saw all of us looking back at her. Her ears folded back as she turned to the ground, scraping her hoof against the ground shyly. "So... all of you know?"

Twilight held back her tears as she whispered to her former mentor. "Celestia..."

The high princess smiled as she quietly held at her chest. She looked at her student for a moment before noticing me behind her. She stared at me for a while before she found herself losing balance for the fraction of a second. She looked at the golden chest plate and frowned. She lowered her head as her horn ignited, her golden aura surrounding the sides of the most prominent piece of her regalia. Removing it as if it was a heavy burden, she laid the heavy chunk of metal down to her hooves and turned her head, letting her mane reveal the T-shaped scar on her chest.

Everyone in the room gasped as she whispered among herself. "In this life or the next... You promised me that."

With determination, she stepped on the top of her chestplate, overcoming the insecurity and fears she once hid behind. With newfound confidence she stood proudly. With gusto she announced to the room.

"I am signing the bill they gave us. Equestria cannot afford a day off from our guard while they watch us bicker over red tape politics. As for what ensues after that, my faith shall remained unmoved. Someday will come. We are older, we've learned, and we are wiser in doing so. We do not have our armies, nor will we need them. This shall be a quiet affair, and none will know of it until the time comes."

She looked to her niece and announced.

"Mi Amore Cadenza, be the mother I could not."

She glanced to her appointed nephew.

"Blueblood, you keep your quiet edge as you once have."

She brought her attention to her former student.

"Twilight, you know your purpose in regards to our country's future, continue to serve it well."

And finally she looked to me.

"You have two months. Keep it quiet, get it done."

Author's Note

Okay, this one was a long one to trudge through. But to be honest, I was actually sitting on this one particular plot progression for a while. I just never got to the point where I could release it because there was no proper context as to why it had to be introduced until now.

So yeah, this is pretty much the excavation chapter on Celestia, which is why it happens to be a bit longer than most others. I wanted to address the issues of her past and explain why she felt the need to be so conservative. I'm only hoping that I gave an adequate amount of foreshadowing leading up to this reveal, as it did take me 2 years to finally script out past the Notepad phase. But of course, I wanted this bit of information to be saved up until it was needed. But I hope that it provides some character reasoning towards why Celestia is the way that she is when it came to certain things.

But alas, feeling more confident in herself around her friends and royal family, she can confide in their abilities to carry on as if nothing happened while shedding the weight she carried for the thousand years her sister had been banished.

Cadance and Shining had been stirring on some issues since the night of her finding out about her pregnancy. As the situation unfolded in the previous chapter, one would expect it to come to a boiling over where she would dream of the hypothetical of ending her marriage for his sake, taking the cue from her sister-in-law. However, dealing with the literal hypotheticals, it had to be Twilight that coerced her to reconsider, especially since she was exposed to the other realities Equestria had to offer when her friends had their destinies altered.

But Nondis, as explained in this chapter, had to be the one to sit Celestia down and reason with her on why she felt like she had to push aside the idea of his angry rhetoric at the beginning of the chapter. He also explains his own drive as to why he makes certain decisions and how he often frustrates himself with his own drive.

Other than what I've told you, I pray that the chapter was somewhat revealing and I do apologize if the chapter itself is a bit lengthy, I just didn't want to break things off on such a sour note, especially since this chapter in particular was rather dark, even for my own tastes. But I am going to have another chapter similar to this format in the future... pertaining to someone else.

But I hope you all stick with me on the remainder of this journey.
Happy Holidays. I hope we all make it into the new year together.

Chapter LXXXVII

Although the day started off with a bit of a reprieve on the culinary end of things, that still didn't change the fact that I had to report to barracks later on. In fact, my sudden dismissal by Princess Celestia had drawn some concern from several of my superiors not named 'Prince/Princess Insert-Name-Here'. I guess some of the generals were a bit miffed that I was given a special permission to leave my guard duties so early, especially when I was given the task to personally escort Celestia that day.

Ironic thing is that I did just that... all day and night.

I got a little bit of a tanning over it, but they didn't hold me for long. So I left there and made my way over to the barracks for the daily routine of standing in one spot while tiredly giving orders to others. And when I finished my usual tasks, I reported back to barracks and clocked myself out for the day. I strongly considered paying a visit to the back end of the mountain, but that didn't seem ideal considering how mentally tired I was. Coffee and tea can only do so much on a forty-eight hour crawl.

But before I retired for the day, I decided to pay a visit to Celestia. She seemed in high spirits as she started to highlight a few points about her day. Of course the parliament session went about as expected, the bill was signed and the few senators who advocated for that little tidbit within the bill celebrated their victory. Thankfully, Shining or Cadance wasn't there to watch them rub it in, but Blueblood played out his part in showing immense anger over the bill being subbed in without any evaluations.

Though Celestia may have previously felt nearly indifferent to things like this, this one did hit her in a place where she could no longer sit quietly. She did manage to provide a good ten minute rant on how inequine and selfish those politicians were in celebrating their win. But after those ten minutes were up, she came back to the dining hall to speak with me alone. From there she happily discussed the possibility of what she would do as soon as the law was abolished.

She suggested that dating would be something she'd keep on the back burner in the times when she felt like she deserved more intimate company, but highlighted the fact that she would probably be very slow on getting the fun-ball rolling. Apparently, she felt that she had to learn how to trust again, and obviously she didn't know who exactly to start off with. But other than us talking over that subject for a good two hours, we just said our goodbyes and I was well on my way to my room.

Or so I thought.

Twilight ran into me while I was in the halls, urging me to tell her more about what all we discussed during our all-nighter. She seemed very curious about her former mentor's emotional state, citing that it was unusual for her to be happy in spite of all that she suffered. Unfortunately, I couldn't appease her curiosity so easily, as it was something personal she shared with me. I told her if there was anything she wanted to know, all she had to do was ask. It staved her off for as long as I could finally get inside of my room, lock my door, and shut my eyes for some much-needed shuteye.

Wednesday morning came around and the breakfast was back to the usual dietary affair. Celestia tipped her cup at me to say good morning, though she was just as delightful as she was yesterday. It was almost as if the energy she had just yesterday morning when she walked in was still radiating all over her. When I said good morning, she asked me how I slept and what I would be scheduled for. Not really her typical thing to do, but I suppose I'm thinking on small things like that too deeply.

My day wasn't really planned out to be long, but it was going to be that way due to the fact that I was assigning myself magic lessons this afternoon. I just got a grasp on the basics, I couldn't just be satisfied with just that otherwise I wouldn't be able to protect myself whenever I go out into the seedy parts of the city. And I definitely needed to be able to handle more than one transformation in a day. I needed to be able to pull off at least three, one for going pony, another to turn back, and one in the back pocket just in case.

My day dragged on for a bit until it was time to head over to the backside of the mountain.

"CONCENTRATE HARDER!"

And then my day came to a grinding halt.

The only thing I managed to get after the headache of dealing with all those checkpoints again was the mental strain of trying to sustain my magic for longer periods of time. But today's exercise was a bit different. Instead of lifting up books and the like, I was lifting his servant with my levitation. Needless to say that my levitation training did nothing but terrify me due to the solitary fact that this guy was going to be in pain if I dropped him.

And believe me when I say that he was a lot more animated than ever. Poor guy went from as cool as the other side of the pillow when I met him, to being as frantic as a terrified schizophreniac. And I couldn't blame him, would you trust your well-being in the hands of a brand new nurse fresh in training school? You'd sooner die than let them dig around in your arm looking for a vein to plug into with those thick butterfly needles. Ouch.

Either way, my control of levitation needed some serious work. Instead of sitting right-side-up, Handy was floating head-first above the ground. My magic flickered on and off around him as I tried to keep him afloat. But my keeping him above the ground could only last so long at this rate. I was looking at around five seconds starting off, and now after two hours of strenuous practice, I managed to get to a fair minute and thirty.

Supposedly, the purpose of this exercise is to practice sustained magic use on larger objects instead of playing around with books. Alabaster said that I should start off with using a pony first, and then start to work on levitating myself in my spare time to get a feel of what it feels like to hold a human's weight. He also encouraged me to fail as many times as it takes to get it right, but my only problem with that is if I fall like this guy is going to in the next ten seconds, I'm going to be in some serious pain.

Handy looked at me with sweat growing all over his face, the aura around my hand started to flicker, indicating that my time had run out. And with the last of my strength, I tried flipping him over. It didn't work out too well, so instead of landing on his head, he landed on his side, still somewhat upside down. I managed to rotate him a bit too much, causing him to stand up, holding his left side, wincing in pain.

Alabaster stood beside me and clopped his hooves. "Good job. That's a farcry from the two to five seconds you tried to pass off as viable."

"Is there any way I can NOT drop the guy I'm subjecting to torture?" I questioned, panting from the strain I had been relieved of, starting to rub my head a bit.

"Not levitating me would be a start, hmmyes." Handy replied with anguish.

"But he is getting there, you have to admit. I never seen one drive themselves so far to learn the basics, but you're practically working your way up to an intermediate lesson or two. We might have to change our regiment tomorrow to give you more of a fighter's edge."

"So it's safe to say that tomorrow's training will be more combat-centered?" I asked.

"As much as you'd like me to say yes, that would be a no." He said, subverting my expectations. "Instead you will be learning some intermediate skills like magic equations and theory. I know, boring stuff, but you'd be surprised how the boring stuff translates into even greater abilities that can astound many onlookers." That I could see. I can see what he's talking about, and I know that there's a staggering difference. A good example of learning boring stuff to make something awesome can be explained using two prime characters for examples.

Cliff and I do music, I do it as a hobby, he does it as a profession. But there's something about Cliff that takes him to the next level when it comes to his field. Unlike me, he can differentiate pitches, so he has a natural ear for knowing where he is and where he wants to go when he sings. If I ever accompany him, he may keep it simplistic, but if he plays behind himself, he can go several places before coming back home to where the music began. And I understand a little bit of what he does. Just don't ask him to read sheet music, he can't stand going by the chart unless it pays him to do so.

He and I in our first semester took Music Theory I, an elective for a guy like me and a prerequisite for him. We both learned the basic scales, the difference between major and minor, took ear training and the like. I can play this stuff back when I look at it, but I can't improvise on what I learn as easily. But Cliff also took Music Theory II, Music Theory III, Music Theory IV, so on and so forth. And the end result is him being able to write out these complex melodies and harmonies that almost don't make sense, that break the basic rules of the theory behind them, and it sounds pleasing to the ear.

Another two examples I could better explain given the current topic: Twilight and Starlight.

Starlight is a gifted unicorn who dabbles in the arcane, researched enough to be able to try certain spells, and grew curious enough to start mixing things together to come up with bombastic results. However, her research was limited due to her lack of access to certain texts and also being one who learned on her own. So it takes her some time to put together something different. Twilight on the other hand is a well-learned and well-practiced unicorn who achieved her status through hard work and dedication to her craft. She has a tendency to stick to the script at times, but she's very proficient in learning on the fly, figuring out the alterations to those equations as she goes along. But don't confuse her willingness to stay on the safe side as what she normally does, as she's very eager to test her knowledge and go beyond the boundaries of what's known to be the standard. And as a result of her going beyond the book, seeking experiences from life, she learns a myriad of ways to save others.

I can't exactly compare myself to Starlight, but I can compare Cliff to Twilight.

Twilight and Cliff are both examples of individuals who learn the boring stuff to make things look and sound amazing. Starlight dug a small tunnel, looking to go deeper in. Meanwhile I'm just scratching the surface. I might not get to the point where I'm able to go on grand adventures and save an entire nation from some ancient evil that's been housed away for a thousand years with my friends. But if the most I can do is help absolve some political evil that's been festering for a thousand years, then I'm all for it.

What the hell, I need the training anyways. "Sounds good to me."

The Next Day...

I woke up in the morning and ran through with my usual early-riser routine. Get up, take a jog, shower, eat, report to barracks, stand on guard. And when it finally came time to clock out, I started gathering my mind to get ready for the next bit of training.

Unfortunately for me, the checkpoints were shut down today.

Apparently, there was some dispute among some of the residents that a guard was, and I quote, 'violating the sanctity of their quiet living and bringing about a questionable presence.' It was basically the neighborhood association putting their hoof down on frequent visitations of those of the lower class, much less a simple guard trying to learn some magic. And I can understand their logic... somewhat.

So I decided an alternate lesson was in order. Instead of paying a visit to someplace I was CLEARLY unwelcome, I dropped the appointment and made my way through the portals to Twilight's castle. When I arrived, I could already see Starlight working through her lessons with her, explaining a lot of advanced equations and spells with her and how they could be combined to create a variety of status buffs.

I popped in the room and watched quietly as Twilight went about her lesson-giving. "So instead of the simple teleportation of the physical state, one can actually transcend that and allow a mental presence to coexist within another's mind. This gives the caster the ability to see even what is considered to be, what many would call, lost truths or the final testimonials of a victim to ill happenstance."

"So what you're saying is that as long as the mind is in fairly good condition, you can recount the very last moments of somepony's life?" Starlight questioned inquisitively.

"More than, you can even delve into the subconscious thoughts of an individual leading up to the moment where they finally expire."

"Twilight, I don't know if you know this, but this completely revolutionizes the practices of forensics and law enforcement. I'll even say that it could even acquit many innocents wrongfully convicted." Starlight said, praising her mentor.

"But it all comes at a cost, using this spell can possibly alter the psyche of the caster for a substantial amount of time if they aren't strong enough in mind, it may even cause post-traumatic stress. And even if they are strong enough, the question remains if the one using the spell is unbiased and honest. There are plenty of judges that have been bought over for many cases involving issues in the infamous 'Canterrot' district, and they will do whatever it takes to keep their vices." Twilight concluded.

"Greed and corruption. That's the hallmark of those high in power..." Starlight said before trailing off to silence.

Twilight walked up to the unicorn and placed a hoof on her back. "That does not apply to you anymore. You're making the change for the better, and you will show yourself to be higher than that."

"I don't know how I'll even face them again, especially after all that I've done."

"The first step on the road to recovery is confession, acknowledging the problem and where it went wrong. You've already done much better than many would ever try to. It isn't easy looking in the mirror to see your flaws, but you have to face the truth eventually. Sooner or later, you'll have the strength to one day return, and then you'll judge for yourself how you can take the next step."

I understand that Twilight was also rehabilitating her, but it still felt more like a therapy session towards the end as opposed to a magic lesson. I suppose that is the reason why Twilight took her on as a student. I decided to not interfere.

But it seemed that my presence couldn't be ignored by the two for very long. "Nondis, you're here." Twilight said cheerfully.

"Yup, back on the front porch where it all went down. How's it been?"

Twilight walked up to me, hugging me as I knelt down to embrace her. "I've been thinking a lot about you since I had my talk with Celestia. And apparently, she's been talking a lot about you also."

Interesting. "Really, so what's she been saying?"

"That you have serious violation of personal space issues."

Sounds about right. "Well you're closer to her than I am, so you can send her my apologies."

"No can do." She replied. "She wants to hear the apology from you in person, you should probably stop by and talk about it to her."

"Was she really upset?" I questioned.

"More of flustered and confused. She thinks you're trying to get at her."

"Never once said that I had any intention of that." I replied, slowly scratching my neck. "Buuut okay. I guess I'll clarify the issue that I didn't even know that existed."

Next, she dragged me by my ear as she angrily questioned me. "Next up for business, what is going on between you and Luna?"

"Nothing other than a one-off for a trade deal that happened a few days ago. We didn't do anything and we aren't anything to each other."

She muttered in a low voice, low enough where Starlight couldn't clearly make out what was being said to me. "Oh, well I'm more surprised that you didn't consider walking around the castle with her scent as 'anything' because that is a HUGE thing."

"Luna threatened to not give me a thing if I didn't give her a thing, she really insisted that I gave her that thing. So I did a thing, to get a thing, and now I'm able to do the thing that makes me into a something."

Twilight stared at me blank-faced. "What are you talking about."

"Well would you rather me show you or would you rather me make an example?" I questioned.

"Well whatever it was, I sure hope that thing was worth it." She said as she pushed off of me, understandably upset.

"Example it is." I called out, reaching my arm for the princess.

Starlight quickly teleported over to me and tried to grab my hand, but not before I had completed the spell. The lavender unicorn angrily scowled at me with her horn searing with magic, as her mentor was then covered in smoke. "What did you do!? Do you know what you've just done!?"

Twilight coughed for a second, waving off the smoke to reveal a hand clearing away the smoke from her eyes. She gagged as she spoke. "Nondis *cough* what the hell is wrong with you!?"

"It ain't easy looking in the mirror to see your flaws, but you have to face the truth eventually." I quoted to her as she slowly started to see that she had hands instead of hooves. She also had a significant height advantage over her pupil while she stared at her own hands.

"Tell me you didn't." She said.

"And that's the thing that I picked up on while I was away."

Twilight tried to hide her enthusiasm as she made the attempt to chastise me. "And you could've spent more time learning other things or doing for the community as opposed to learning this spell."

"Two spells, actually." I corrected her. "I learned the spell that turns you into a human, and then I learned the one that turns you back. Problem is that I can't use the spell more than once in a twelve hour period. My calling abilities aren't quite up to where I can change you back so quickly."

"Calling, did you say calling?" Twilight asked, finally unable to hide her excitement.

"Transformation spells? You're practicing transformation spells when you couldn't even pick up a tiny children's book just over a week ago?" Starlight inquired with shock.

"The spells were modified for me to use on myself whenever I needed to go incognito for a few investigations into some matters that required a more measured approach."

"A measured approach?" Twilight asked, starting to giggle at the thought, crossing her arms. "Since when did you ever consider a 'measured approach' an option?"

"Considering that I'm going to be doing some investigative work on a few key individuals, I quickly learned that my ass could be outmaneuvered at any given moment. My life would be at risk in the middle of a well-lit street and no one would even notice until the guys have long-since disappeared and I would be well-past dead. So I've pretty much dedicated myself to an accelerated course whenever I get off shift."

My explanation put a dead halt to Twilight's giggling, even stifling her excitement and exchanging it with genuine concern for my well-being. Starlight looked at me and asked. "So how bad is it? Can you tell us what happened?"

"I was on my way to a meeting when I was approached by a group of mercenaries, all of them unarmed unicorns. But you couldn't tell me they were unarmed after they formed weapons out of their own magic, the auras themselves. And then they used a spacial disruption spell to prevent others from seeing what they were going to do to me. Even when I reached for my gun, they used the spell to make it as if it wasn't even on me. If they can do that with physical weapons, then that's their way of saying that I couldn't even get close to getting started with my investigations. I would either have to commence an open-book investigation, which takes months to clear the red tape, or an under-the-table operation that requires me to learn combat magic for my own defense. You pretty much know what direction I'm prone to taking."

Starlight sat on her haunches and started thinking aloud. "Altering the properties of manipulation and applying it to create a weapon from absolutely nothing. No... that can't be it."

"Spacial disruption." Twilight began to ponder. "That's an awfully high level spell to be used without formal magic training, it would even be considered to be impossible to cast without knowing what you're doing. Most guards are only capable of level four or lower." She then looked at me with quite possibly the most bitter scowl I've ever seen her give me. "Nondis, you better not be digging your nose into places you have no business in being."

"I've gotta do what I've gotta do." I simply answered.

Twilight seemed to forget that in her changed mode, she was completely naked. So my eyes were lingering towards certain parts of her exposed body as she quickly walked over to chide me. "Absolutely not! What requires you to involve yourself with the underground? Nothing, that's what! Even for you that's a boneheaded move that could get you killed... or worse!"

"What's worse than getting killed, last I checked that's as bad as one can get it." I said, still distracted by various features of her human body.

Twilight still wasn't quite aware of herself while she spoke. "Enslaved is one, maimed for body parts for exotic collectors is another, live the rest of your days as a talking head in a jar is probably one you'd like to avoid."

I shook my head as I subconsciously bit my lip. "Twilight, it is not that bad." I said, getting closer to her.

She looked down for a brief moment to see where my eyes had wandered to other than her face, finally realizing her nude state. She planted her hand over my eyes as she spoke. "You think these things are fake, but they're real. Magic is a very dangerous area of expertise, one that required countless sacrifices of lives to master. You don't think the status buffs we put on ourselves didn't come at a cost of one's life or well-being, then you'd be better off stopping yourself before you become a danger to others or yourself."

I couldn't see much past her hand, but I could see her eyes through a small opening her fingers gave to my right eye. The only thing I could see was her head tilted at me. "I know that focus is a primary objective I'm trying to achieve right now that will allow me to further my use of the transformation spell, and my ability to cast magic in combat. But I'm doing pretty well right now, the only thing I came here for was a few hints and pointers for learning how to hone my focus where I can better control my levitation abilities."

"Don't you have a professor for that already?" Starlight questioned behind me. "I mean you learned all of this stuff without Twilight's help, and you know she's going to be a lot slower with you than whoever you have drilling you. So why break rank and come here?"

"Because a certain neighborhood association took my visitation as a threat to their peaceful habitat." I replied.

"And what homeowner's association would bar you from dropping by for some magic lessons?" Starlight questioned.

"One involving at least four checkpoints, a long ass journey around the the mountain, to a neighborhood filled with villas the size of miniature castles."

"THE BACK END!?" Twilight screeched. "Nondis. I haven't even been able to go there! CELESTIA isn't even allowed over there without visitation rights and a reservation placed three months in advance! How are you even able to get past one checkpoint, much less four!?"

"And how did you meet this pony, they live on the back end of the mountain. That should be where all the wealthiest ponies of Equestria reside. Who over on that end would even think to give you the time of day?" Starlight questioned.

"I managed to get by on the word of saying that I was sent by a client, can't disclose the name right now. But they referred me to a resident. And it also happens that I met the guy at a party, more specifically the Canterlot Centennial."

"Again, I'm questioning how'd you even managed to get the time of day." Starlight said, hanging her head in disbelief.

Twilight sighed before opening her fingers a little for me to see her face, just her face, a little better. "So it's pretty obvious you're deep in it now. But what do you want me to teach you? I can't do much for you if you've already taken an instructor."

"I'm simply asking you to show me everything you know." I replied, grabbing her hand. "Preferably in this form, so that it can translate a little better to me and what little I can do right now."

Twilight pulled her hand away from me and covered her exposed breasts with her forearm. "I can't do anything for you. And I'm not gonna entertain you while I'm sitting here naked."

"No funny business, I promise." I pleaded.

Twilight shoved her face up towards mine, angrily pointing at me with a free hand. "You know, you could just go to Luna and she'll teach you what you want to know."

"Luna is too much of a distraction."

"And I'm not. You can't seem to keep your eyes above shoulder-level with me in this form."

"Twilight, don't be like this."

The humanized princess scowled at me but not without thumping me on the forehead. "...Who else are you sleeping with?"

"No one." I answered.

"Who else are you planning to sleep with, other than Rarity?"

"The client I can't name." I answered, earning me yet another thump on my forehead.

Twilight's eyes narrowed. "So it's a she, really?"

"She also happens to be really fucking rich, and she's providing me with several other things to get me the leg up on what I'm trying to accomplish. In short, my foot's in the door."

"And you're losing me, quickly." She said, readying her middle finger for yet another thump.

"Okay, whatever you want from me, you got it."

Twilight tightened her thumb over her middle finger, preventing her from letting it batter against my forehead again. "...I want three things."

"Whatever you want."

"I want to meet your new teacher."

"I could probably arrange something, no promises."

"At his house." Twilight urged. "If he's involved with you, then I should be able to see where your magic development takes place and how he does it."

"That's even harder for me to arrange." I responded, reminding her of the situation with the checkpoints.

Meantime, the transformed princess took the liberty of taking advantage of my negotiable mood and offered to play a little hardball, but not in the way I least expected for the time being. "You will meet my demands, Mr. Haines... or else I'll share with the world your most intimate secrets."

I paused for a moment, realizing that would probably get a ton of media attention here in this world. I glared back at the princess and muttered. "You wouldn't dare."

Twilight looked past me, to her student. "Starlight, how interested are you on the topic of human endurance in the bedroom?"

The mare's mane and tail damn-near stood up like a frightened cat as she whispered back. "Seriously, you two did the thing!?"

She then looked at me with a proud smirk. "Oh yes, tell her Nondis. Tell her about the night you had to lay back and let me do all the work."

"My shoulder was fucked up, you know I couldn't give it to you like that." I replied defensively, before suddenly realizing I had given myself away. I cursed at myself and admitted defeat. "...I'll see what I can do, little miss blackmail."

"Lastly..." She leaned in to whisper in my ear. "I want you to tell me everything you did with Luna."

"...In detail?"

She licked the canines of her teeth, exaggerating her lips and tongue on each word. "Every. Last. Bit."

I whispered back at her. "You must have a lot of stock in 'sexual tension' because you're getting me to buy into it."

"I'm just curious as to how you managed to get to where you start smelling like some other mare aside from me, much less like Princess Luna. Because no one won't go around offending the maids in the halls like that unless they really got in the grove of things."

"...So is this your way of saying 'I'll have what she's having?' Interesting way of putting it."

She then gave me what could've been the most fiendish smug-face she could ever put on. "Well you want a thing, and I can do a thing for you, but I really want this thing because all I could think about was you and me doing some things together."

"Just like we used to?"

"I can't just let Luna outdo me here. I'm the only princess you're allowed to dream about. She can walk around your dreams as much as she likes, but I'm the one you wake up to. Got it?"

"Just as possessive as ever."

"You like being my toy. Always have."

"Careful, princess. This toy bites."

"I see your tongue isn't as busy as I envisioned it would be."

"My bed or MY bed?"

"AHEM!"

The two of us turned around to see Starlight blushing, standing quietly as she gritted her teeth, looking in any other direction that didn't have us two debating with each other in close quarters.

"I supposed today's lesson is dismissed." Starlight announced before crossing her hind legs.

Twilight blushed profusely as she realized her student was watching her teacher essentially catch a case of sexual withdrawal. Even when I looked down, I could see the hand she once tried to cover herself with was planted against my chest, tugging lightly at my shirt. She was looking to get a good grasp of my shirt before dragging me off to wherever she wanted to go. She didn't seem to stop as she addressed her student, only tightening her grasp. "Right. We'll carry on with your next application tomorrow."

"Yeah... I'm gonna... go read a book or something."

Twilight didn't even say anything after that, just waving at her student as she left the room out of one doorway before pointing to the other that was closest to the portal room. "So..."

"My place?"

Twilight finally grabs a fistful of my shirt and pulls me close to her, almost close enough where I could feel her breathing. "Don't think our argument is over."

"I get it, but you still want my tongue to go to work, don't you?"

"You distract me enough, maybe I'll forget what we were arguing about."

"Hey, you said it, not me."

Meanwhile...

Starlight Glimmer paced back and forth with a blush on her face as she took deep breaths. As she walked herself in circles, Spike came walking down the halls with a bunch of scrolls in tow. He tilted his head to where he could see the mare pacing outside of the throne room.

"So did Twilight postpone your lesson for today?"

Starlight replied. "Yeah, on the account that she caught the vapors. She's just going to take a breather."

Spike shrugged as he answered the mare. "Figures, she's always panicking over small things. At times it gets so bad where it practically causes her to explode."

Starlight groaned as she started to think more about what she just saw. "So Spike, quick question about her and Nondis."

"Oh, them." The young drake replied with a deadpan.

"Yeah, is she always so... aggressive with him?"

Spike rolled his eyes. "You mean how she just locks herself in the room with him for hours at a time─"

The mare squeaked as she crossed her hind legs. "Hours!?" She squealed through clenched teeth.

"Oh yeah, it was pretty bad when he first announced his decision to stay. It was awkward watching the two of them do nothing but make out in the halls whenever she had the chance. She was always pouncing on him, almost eating his face off."

"HOLY FUCK." Starlight said closing her eyes. "Okay, new question─"

"Erotica is on the top shelf of the far right in the library, right next to the 'fantasy' section. I'll also get the deodorizer from the bathroom as well as a few towels so you can clean up after."

Starlight's cheeks were shot red as she glanced at the young dragon. "How often do you─"

"Twilight's a nympho, it's been like this since she got her chastity rings put on. If I didn't do all of this, can you imagine the smell her room would have?"

Starlight's eyes expanded as she whispered to herself. "Oh Faust, my teacher's a freak."

"With a dragon's greed."

We made our way into the portal room before Twilight slammed the door shut with her magic. I stared right at her, absorbing all of her human features before she could turn around and censor herself. But it didn't stop her from getting any closer to me, pulling me in with her magic. It seemed that she took my request to teach me the humanized method of levitation to heart, letting only a single finger dictate my entire body's direction. We couldn't even get to the portal, instead she laid herself on a table and curled a finger at me, summoning me to come for her.

It wasn't like I had much of a choice, she demanded it. I was more surprised that she could control her magic so well. While I was using my entire hand, sometimes my entire arm for controlling someone else's body, she only had one finger cranking me in like a torque ratchet, yanking me several steps in with each curl.

As soon as I was in front of her, the next thing she did was point to the ground. My knees buckled and my legs sank to the floor. I was sitting directly in front of her, her human body sitting on the table with her thighs partially separated but another hand hiding the issue she wanted me to address.

By the time I finally had free reign of myself again, I climbed over her and cupped my hand over her tender breasts, running my fingers against her stiffened nipples. A small moan came from the princess as she saw her world flash before her eyes. I didn't stop at trying to get her off, not yet. I wanted to make her want that moment, badly. So I teased her with her breasts in my hand and my tongue flicking off the tip of her hardened peaks. The soft mounds she apparently perceived to have no sexual value had suddenly become a highlight in our discussion.

Her body writhed while she giggled through a bit lip. Her eyes clenched shut as her head fell back. Her chest fell and rose as a rolling wave in slow rhythm. Her hands were quickly finding themselves busy, strumming through my hair and rubbing against my back. I could even feel her hand try to guide my head down towards her intended purpose, but I resisted and instead shoved my way up to her lips.

From there, we finished off from the moment we were in my hallway, sitting on the floor as we rediscovered the lust we had for one another. And it was beyond satisfying, to feel her human lips collapse onto mine, for my hands to register the sensation of smooth flesh. I had even started to work my pants off as I let my free hand unburden myself from my belt and jeans. The metal figures clacked quietly as they fell primitively to the ground with a soft thud against the denim.

It was so beyond me, the thrill of having the quick rush of sexual frustration being built up through means of an argument. I always felt it was so different as opposed to a long wind-up following a tiresome day filled with dealing with a bunch of people you don't like. Instead it was like the person who got on your nerves decided to have a little competition with you on how long you can last. And since this was a human girl in my arms, I had a lot more to put on the line.

It's what I waited for my entire life.

There was no panties to mask the dampness between her thighs, it was more apparent since I was brushing against her with my own lust. She glanced down to see myself brushing against the tip of her hidden pearl. I reached down and placed inside of her two of my fingers, stimulating the base of her pearl from underneath. Using my thumb, I circled around until I found what started to harden against it. I finally found what I had been looking for and gently pressed my thumb against it, pushing upwards to reveal the small nub that was the source of her frustration.

I wanted to do nothing more than plunge myself in, but I instead teased her with the idea of it, trying to coax her into wanting it. I rubbed myself against her, tapping her exposed self against my much larger sex. All the while pinching one of her nipples slightly. The young princess seemed lost within her transformed body, doing whatever she could to get to her high point. But I knew better than to immediately give her what she wanted.

And she despised that I knew how she was. It didn't matter if she was a woman or a mare, I knew how easily she would try to avert continuation when she finished. It was why she was always so methodically slow in toying with me when we first started our steamy relationship. Sex was almost a drug to her, something that gave her a whole new feeling of being in the clouds. That's why she had to control the dosage, she had to be the one to dictate the pace because she wanted the both of us to feel good.

Today was one of the days where she just wanted it for herself.

It wasn't unusual to see her try to grind herself into me, planting seeds of want in my system for the next time she sought to cultivate her desires. She would normally stop herself short of reaching her climax, but that all changed from the night we finally broke ranks and committed the royal taboo. That night we had our argument in the throne room, she didn't stop with her first, or her second, or her third, her forth, fifth, sixth, or seventh. She kept going, teasing me with the thought of being inside of her, teasing herself with the potential of having me for herself again.

Even if she was half my size, she dictated the tempo of our engagements. She called the shots, I just laid there and was content. But now that the ball was more on my court, I had total control. And it was more than exhilarating for me. The thought of it alone was enough to find myself prodding at her entrance with vested interest. And this time, there were no chastity rings to stop me from going any further. It all waited on her say-so.

I pressed the tip within, withdrawing immediately to provide her with enough motivation to meet with me halfway. She didn't want anything else more than my presence at that moment. She was absolutely drunk with lust, completely caught up with her human body sending her brain an incredible amount of signals. But I mistimed my entrance at one point, falling just above the desired entrance and slipping over her exposed pearl. At that moment, I could see the lights brighten up in her eyes.

Both of her hands started to glow as she mimicked grabbing on to a pair of handlebars. She adjusted herself and parted her legs further as she pulled her hands in, directing my waist into her. She would not give me time to readjust myself to give her what she wanted, but she was thoroughly directing me to break ranks again. Within seconds, she finally stopped to let me get aligned before she shoved her hips into mine with complete abandon.

That first moment I sank into her, I felt myself hunch over with awe over how angelic she felt to me. I surrendered a moan from deep within my chest. The woman beneath me clenched her teeth, giggling through them while her toes curled behind me. She tilted her head just enough for me to see the longing in her face. Her legs clenched around me, crossing her ankles across my backside. Her fingers dug into my back, her nails dragging down with each and every inch. My arms anchored themselves to either side of her while she looked at me with shock written across her face. "Did we just seriously do this again?"

"Wanna keep going?" I asked with one deep thrust.

Twilight winced as she didn't show any intention of her wanting to stop, her magic still active on my hips. "Holy hell, you humans are so sensitive."

"You think so?" I replied, giving her another.

The princess gasped as she threw a hand on my shoulder. "You're such a bully, what has gotten into you?"

"Hmm, I remember you distinctively saying 'Tell her about the night you had to lay back and let me do all the work'."

"I was just teasing!" Twilight said before I started to asset myself further inside of her.

"You know you were talking real pretty up until you realized you weren't an alicorn anymore."

"And I'm still remembering a certain argument you're supposed to make me forget. So what does that say about you?"

I didn't say anything, I just proceeded to continue driving myself within her, reaching as far as I could until I couldn't go any further. As she looked down, she noticed my length slowly becoming enveloped with her juices, getting creamier and creamier with each pump. She grew interested until a surge of pleasure had broke her concentration. Her magic broke off and I was once again given free reign over my own body.

For her, it was the worst thing that could happen given the fact that I was more motivated to get her to become nothing more than a babbling mess. For me, it was justice. I started increasing the pace of my thrusts, completely free from her control. I wanted her to forget her own name. And I vied to do just that with every push.

It seemed that she wasn't too lost to her human urges, still finding some way to rebound from the surprising jolt of pleasure that sent shivers up her spine. The young princess wasn't set on letting me have the claim of doing everything this time. She refused to relinquish that crown to me, instead she wanted to show me that she could still do something in spite of her unfamiliarity of the human sex drive.

But with each attempt she made to supplant me for dominance, I found new ways to break her. I would suck her nipples, I'd pinch them and kiss against the nape of her neck. Whenever she felt like she had a grasp on my hips again, I changed the position, placing her leg over my shoulder while leaning into her. Each little change made her unaware of what I was going to do next. But I saved one trick for last.

I pulled her off the table, laying her on the floor, pulling her voluptuous derriere upwards to me while I crouched over her. Next, I grabbed a handful of her hair and tugged against her while I entered once more. Each thrust was made where gravity would take over, while I had to put the effort in pulling out. Manhood pulsing through her depths, my knees braced as I broke into her repeatedly. Her stifled moans were my fuel to keep going. But soon, they got louder, more primitive, unapologetically noisy before I could feel her grip me tightly, constricting herself in waves.

Her eyes couldn't see anything I was doing to her, the only thing she could do was enjoy the experience as I did. But the difference was that I could see her arching her back the more I delved deep inside. Twilight lost balance in one of her arms, causing her to readjust to keep herself up. It was a beautiful display of her being unable to take control, a perfect victory to my cause.

But it came at a cost. In the process of my getting too far into conquering her, I ended up losing track of my own self. Before I knew it I was hunched over her with my knee on the ground, driving insatiably within for my impending release. Twilight had managed to successfully milk me into submission. A few more pushes was all it took before I couldn't even bring myself to withdraw. Instead, I forced myself over her, roughly driving myself against the entrance of her womb. With each drive, I unleashed several helpings of my own fruit, her arms finally gave in and she flopped to the ground. I slowly crawled off of her, seeing the mess I made on the way out, satisfied with my work. Sweating and milked for every last ounce, I flipped her over and then gave her what she wanted from the start.

Twilight's chest rose and fell as the sweat all over her body cooled her from the heat she suffered through. Her eyes was mostly locked to the ceiling before I pulled her up closer to me. "Hey Twily, look at me."

She obliged for a second to see me run my tongue against her throbbing clit, still feeling the residue from her previous orgasm quickly feeding into her next. Her eyes locked onto mine while I made every intention to give her the experience that no other had. The princess shuddered as she grabbed the back of my head, pushing me into her, riding out her final waves of orgasm before falling limp. The only thing I felt define me for the time being was the feeling of my hair being curled and tangled between her slender fingers, calmly massaging the back of my head. A few seconds after, she recovered enough to speak. "Holy fuck... yes."

"That's a new one I never heard you say." I muttered, my lips still buried against her reddened folds.

She tilted her head up to where she could barely see me past her own breasts. "I never came that hard in my life. Not even with the first time we did it."

I lapped my tongue against her one last time before I rose from between her thighs. "So, who did all the work this time?" I asked, covered completely in sweat.

"Fuck you." She squeaked, still trying to work past her dying orgasm.

I sat up, wiping my face as I still had the taste of sex in my mouth. "So you don't wanna talk about this one, huh?"

"Can you just lay down next to me and be quiet for a good ten minutes?" She asked.

"I can do that." I replied as I started to lay down, when I suddenly noticed that the door was still wide open, with Starlight and Spike sitting there.

Both of them staring with their jaws slacked open.

"Shit!" I immediately reached for my pants to cover myself. "Sorry about that, probably should've closed the door all the way..."

Twilight got up and quickly hid her face as soon as she saw Spike. "I am so sorry, I swore the door was closed!"

Spike walked up to the door and picked up a small chunk of wood. He then looked to the door frame and noticed the issue. "Apparently something must've broke the door open." He replied sarcastically, shifting his eyes to a certain lavender unicorn.

Starlight rubbed her forelegs as she timidly looked away. "Yeah... I just heard Twilight screaming, and I had to check in on her. As soon as Spike said that he heard an unusual noise, I just kinda sprang into action. So I bust the door in, only to find you two... going at it."

Twilight quickly grabbed my boxers and hid her face. "Oh God, how much did you see?"

"Humans mounting one another like ravaging animals, sweat falling off his head while he has you tied up. Pretty damn kinky for my tastes. I don't think I've ever seen that position before."

Spike nodded slowly. "Yeah, I had to pretty much jot that one down."

"Spike, I am SO sorry." Twilight replied sheepishly, still hiding in my boxers.

Starlight turned her attention to me, tilting her head as she eyed the jeans crumpled up against my crotch. "Hmm... so what does the human sexual organ look like? Must be pretty potent to do something like that to a mare─"

Twilight slammed her hand against the ground as she threw my boxers back in my face. "MAGIC LESSONS! LET'S GET STARTED!"

She quickly grabbed my hand and the two of us teleported out of the room, leaving only Starlight and Spike alone.

"Hey, Spike."

"Yeah." The drake replied.

"How much of that did you jot down?"

"Just that last bit."

"...Now which shelf was the erotica section again?"

After finding out how easily Twilight can teleport herself between DIMENSIONS and cycling between laughter and nervous embarrassment, we settled down and started working on a few other methods I could use to transpose many other methods of levitation to the human method. Control was a subject that was greatly exaggerated on.

Figures that would be the one thing we'd do after losing just that with one another.

As far as I was concerned, I was more or less ready to take my magic up a notch. But as I started to hype myself up for my next lessons, Twilight seemed concerned with the story I told her earlier. I wasn't really looking at it from her standpoint, but if I had to guess, she was already looking at what I needed to do to play catch-up quickly.

She also realized that her involvement with me in the matter was practically non-existent, and would remain that way until I am done. So a lot had been running through her mind ever since we finished. The one thing she stressed on was that she'd schedule a meet-up with my other mentor to view my method of training. I didn't really understand her insistence on it, but I was willing to oblige as long as we could find a neutral zone to work with.

I had to make my way back to Mel's apartment to get back to Canterlot. As soon as I arrived, I ran out to drop a line in the Alabaster's office mailbox. I had notified him that I would be paying a visit to the Canterlot School for Gifted Unicorns for a few days to, quote-unquote, research the facility for investigative purposes. I also heavily implied that he show up to drop a few knowledge bombs on me while I was visiting.

The truth was that Twilight had pulled a few strings with her alum status and also had me send in a request to 'reserve and isolate' one of the lecture halls for the evening after school. And being that it was Celestia's school, it was more than likely to be approved because of their status to one another. Also, I'm sure that Celestia wouldn't mind me training after-hours in her own facility, especially since she was the one to give me the jump start on magic.

Though all of that stuff was likely to be a go, it wouldn't mean anything unless we conveyed that to Celestia.

Twilight had written a formal letter of request, citing her desire to use Lecture Hall C in Tower A for tomorrow evening. And since I was already back on my way to the dining hall this evening to see what the cook had stirred up for me, I decided to approach her with the letter then.

Just like clockwork, she arrived at approximately 5:59 while leaving her assistant and all her day's paperwork at the door. And seeing the massive stacks of scrolls and files her assistant levitated, I could only imagine how much of a headache she would have in seeing one more piece of paper during dinner. But I had to make sure that this was given to her before she sat down, so I gave her a casual greeting just as any guard would do. "Good evening, your highness. How was your day today?"

She gave a truly frustrated groan. "Meetings tomorrow morning for my 8, 9, 10:30, and 11. Meetings in the afternoon at my 12, 1, 2:30, and 4, so no lunch for me. Parliament appearance at 5 in the evening to hear more about how badly we need a eight percent tax hike on parties and festive gatherings nationwide."

"Let me guess, they say there's too many parties?" I joked.

"It appears to me that it's really more of a bunch of old stallions who can't handle their own bodily functions, much less a drink, complaining about 'those noisy kids' and how they want things to be quieter." She replied before mumbling to me under her breath. "Seriously, I'm leagues older than they are and I just can't think on anything but going to a morgue instead of attending one of their gatherings."

"Oh no, don't let it be like that." I answered with a chuckle.

"You can ask my assistant, I was cramming up on the material for all these meetings before I have to go to them tomorrow. I know I don't want to appear to be a disinterested ruler, but there are times where I feel like after a thousand years that I would be better off sitting on a beach instead. At least I can make the excuse of having sand in my eyes to not have to look at another piece of parchment."

I sighed with misfortune as I pulled out the sealed letter Twilight asked me to give to her. "Ssssss-oooh... tragic."

She looked at the letter and sighed quietly. "So what's this one all about?"

"It's a letter from Twilight." I said, causing the princess' demeanor to change slightly.

"Hmm, I haven't had a letter from her in ages. Must be a request."

"It is." I answered while she opened the letter and read the contents.

The princess started to giggle as she looked at me. "So, here after all that rigmarole, you're going to my school for magic lessons. That's some irony I haven't seen before."

"You'd think you'd see something similar after a thousand years." I said with a shrug.

"But involving a non-magical being trying to learn how to operate on unicorn magic theory, do I even need to say more?"

"Touché." I muttered.

She reviewed the letter again and questioned me. "So, do you know the significance of her request?"

"Not really. I haven't seen the campus so I wouldn't know anything about it."

"Tower A, Lecture Hall C. I think it would be better for Twilight to tell you the significance of that place. It's not a moment I'm going to spoil for you."

"But if you did spoil it for me, what hint would you give?" I asked.

"Nothing, because I want her to share that moment with you." She replied with a smug grin. "Now when you finish, come back and tell me the significance of that place, then I will tell it to you from my perspective."

I do remember many months ago about how Twilight told me that she felt like her former mentor was a bit of a tease, I probably took it a completely different way thinking on the sexual side of things, now I understand that what she meant was that Celestia was more of a troll than anything. Go figure.

"Now I won't be there to unlock the doors for you, but I will send for a pony to give you a brief tour of the place before you get settled in for your lessons. So keep your eyes open for her when you arrive."

"Won't that be Twilight?" I asked.

"Not likely, that would bring too much attention to the two of you. Just one of you is enough to get the students rambling. But I believe the one I intend to send for is my best choice for keeping things under wraps for the time being. Don't need them to go mouthing off that you went over there to take a magic lesson. Though I'm sure she'll find some way to participate."

The servers finally entered into the room with a quiet nod to the princess, offering the two of us a menu. He also informed us of the status of the other royals. Shining and Cadance had went to the Crystal Empire for the day, Blueblood and his wives went into town again, and Luna was visiting the human world again... probably to watch TV and burn some more popcorn. Twilight was an automatic scratch being in Ponyville, so it was just me and her tonight.

Upon a quick glance at my menu, I saw a lot of plant-based options that would still be overseen by none other than the royal head chef Zesty Gourmand. You can already imagine my excitement, or rather my lack thereof. Celestia glanced down to her menu and sighed with apparent frustration. She summoned the chef immediately. And within a minute, the head chef came walking through the doors, a slender elderly gray unicorn mare with masculine facial features walked in with a proud stride before bowing to the princess. "Your highness, I take that you have a special request for me today."

The princess didn't even seem to show any bit of annoyance as she gently smiled at the chef. "Zesty, I am so glad you're well. And yes, I do happen to have a special request for you. You should be more than willing to allow a few more chefs some creative input in the meal options for this evening, correct?"

The mare lowered her head further, in what appears to be a show of apology. "Your highness, I cannot allow their input. Many of the staff are too heavy-hoofed with the preparation processes to be allowed the freedoms of less oversight. But I can assure you that the quality of your meals shall be most exceptional. I shall ensure that the tastes of your meal is subtle and that it awakens the tongue with a hit of sensation, with the intention that it does not overwhelm the senses."

Showing a lot more patience than I would, the princess calmly replied. "I can understand your desire for the simple palate, but I shall insist that there be a tad bit more spices invested into the meal tonight."

The mare started to ponder, placing a hoof on her chin before responding. "I suppose I could increase the grains by a small amount."

I then blurted out to her. "Lady, she means for you to season the food, not just simply dipping it in hot water and calling it an artistic experience."

She took exception to my interruption. "I do believe your level of expertise is something akin to that of a babbling foal fresh from the womb. Please consider your profession before you provide your input."

Though Celestia raised a hoof to politely infer that I stop, I kept going. "Look, it sucks, that's just the bottom line. You don't do enough to make a diet enjoyable, you force your tastes on everyone else thinking that you're setting the standard, but you're ignoring the common theme of the phrase 'the customer is always right' here. In case you haven't noticed, you don't need to ration the spices like we're in some old-age famine period. The art of food is visual, but where's the variance, the life it represents, the smells?"

The chef then levitated the menu from where I was seated and strongly declared. "Well if you have a problem with the dishes I provide, then you may dine elsewhere."

I looked at the princess and politely offered my apology. "Your highness, I'm sorry. But it appears that I'm gonna have to head across the portal for dinner tonight."

Celestia sighed as she watched the chef walk into the kitchen with my menu. She stopped me before I could even look to the doors to leave. She walked from her chair and whispered to me. "I know the food is terrible, but you didn't have to insult her like that."

"I'm sorry, it seemed to me that she was more beating around the bush than anything. 'Increasing the grains' is another way of saying that she won't change the formula by even a small percent. That was her way of saying 'I'll take your advice and shove it'. And she's obviously aware that every chef in that kitchen can grill her under, that's why she won't let anyone else provide input. She didn't care about your tastes, she cares about what she think is right, even if it's wrong to many others."

"But that's still no way to talk to her."

"I admit I was a bit heavy-handed, but I'm from the south, and we eat good cooking. You can cook your ass off, I was honestly tempted to say that both of us could just walk in that kitchen and do it ourselves."

Celestia once again stressed her point. "Again, I understand your logic. But I still need you to walk in there and apologize to Zesty Gourmand before anything else."

It wasn't like I was going to have much of a choice in that regard. She still called the shots and I did act out of term. It was only right, even if I still believed that she was going to end up being rebellious to Celestia's advice. But to keep the peace of the castle, I had to clock out on my pride and do as she asked me to.

When I was released, I walked into the kitchen and saw a group of chefs staring at one another. The tension in the air was pretty thick for them, and considering that I just pissed off their boss, who was to say that they wouldn't feel the wrath of their scorned head of staff. I suppose I should've also taken that into consideration. "You, what are you doing in my kitchen!?" Zesty shouted as I raised a hand for acknowledgement.

"I just want to bury a hatchet here." I replied quietly and calmly. "And I know things are pretty tense right now, but I think it would be better if I came correct instead of coming for personal gripes. So I want to say that I'm sorry for my earlier outburst. You wouldn't be here if you didn't know what you were doing, and obviously you do. So yeah... I just came to apologize."

The mare rolled her eyes. "Well if that's all then, get out of my kitchen."

As I turned around to do as she instructed, I saw Celestia walking in. She didn't seem to drop a beat off of her elegant demeanor as she spoke to the chef. "Zesty, why don't you and your staff take a night off?"

The mare looked back with surprise written across her face, trying to make sense of what was going on. "Your highness─"

"The captain will apologize for his transgression by now realizing how difficult it is to prepare a four-course meal for himself. As for me, I will satisfy my own hunger with a visit to one of the downtown bistros. I've been summoned last minute for a meeting, so I am afraid that I will have to send you all home early."

The other chefs didn't seem to have a problem with that idea, quickly ditching their hats and hairnets. Zesty seemed completely lost on the idea of her having a night off. But she acknowledged that command and dismissed herself as the last chef in the kitchen for the night.

As soon as the doors closed, I heard the fridge open in the back part of the room. As she pulled out an onion and a tomato, Celestia walked over to a nearby counter with a smile on her face. She looked back, levitating a knife for me to grab. "You honestly didn't think I was going to leave you in this kitchen unsupervised."

"I take it you're just getting all the things I need to prep for myself?" I questioned.

"Not entirely, you're prepping for two tonight." She replied while pulling out two plates.

"Two?"

"Well who else am I going to talk to for dinner? I don't have anypony else since my sister seems to be visiting your world, and with everypony else gone, I'm going to be by myself. My getting summoned was merely an excuse to get Zesty out of the kitchen."

"And since I'm the only one who's here, I'm gonna help you cook?"

Celestia smiled as she tossed me a potato. "Well your mother's culinary talents has to go somewhere, poor thing doesn't have a daughter to help take the heat."

I started peeling the skin off of the potato while I spoke. "I think that part goes to Alex. He's always the one who's helping mom around the holidays. Though I think both he and Vanessa are gonna do Christmas this year."

"You said that it falls on the same day as Hearth's Warming, correct?"

"You sure do keep up with small details." I replied.

"Only with the things I'm either interested in or that I have to pretend to be interested in."

"A princess PRETENDING to enjoy something, say it isn't so." I said sarcastically.

"Better question, do I pretend that I like cooking in my spare time?"

"All I can say is that you'd be one hell of a mother if you were a human woman. Four kids, because let's be honest, you in human form is just trouble for a man wanting to settle down. Though I can see you having husband who loves you for what you are and every part of you, it'll just so happen to get to where he'll forget to control himself around you. I can even see you guys having a pet dog."

Celestia looked down at the food she prepped, cutting the onions as she thought more on the idea of motherhood. "...You know, I could've been a mother."

I stopped peeling to think about the part of her past I ended up reading on. Immediately, my heart sank for her. "I know. I just wish you could find happiness and find that someone who'd give you another shot."

"I know I brought up dating once before, but I already said that love stuff is for the birds." She replied.

"Yeah, but don't you fly too?"

She glanced back at her wings, letting them shuffle a little bit before bringing her attention back to her prep work. "Peccavi."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Peccavi. It's another way of admitting fault or culpability, a synonym of the old and worn interjection 'touché'."

I slowly nodded. "Huh, that's a new one."

"It's quite old, actually. But if you say so."

As I finished peeling the skin off the potato, I started to think to myself, not even realizing that I was speaking out loud. "Lady, you are interesting."

"Interesting as in how?" She asked, causing me to jump a little bit. She started to giggle as she spoke. "You also said that out loud."

I started to just think off the top of my head. "Well, you have access to a whole vocabulary of words that are so rarely used and would often be searched for linguistic research purposes."

"A product of my age, I suppose." She answered, pulling out a pan and a small bottle of olive oil.

"I'm trying not to focus so much on that. It's not fun pointing out the obvious."

"What do you mean OBVIOUS?" She questioned emphatically. "I'll have you know that I don't look a day over thirty-two."

"Oh no, I never said that." I said before a cruel joke came to my lips. "I wouldn't dare mention the possible years, stacked on top of decades, resting on top of centuries added on to that millennium."

Celestia didn't like my joke too much. "I think the moon is a nice place, you should pay a visit sometime."

I shook my head rapidly while laughing. "Oh no thanks. Not an ounce of air in that vacuum. I'd die in two minutes or less."

"Luna lived a thousand years up there, you should be fine." She said as the magic around her horn stirred to a bright-golden color.

"Not everyone is damn-near immortal like the two of you. And we actually sent humans to the moon a few times before. But they had on thick protective suits that kept them safe from things like the deep vacuum of space, the infrared radiation, even shielding for their eyes against the brightness of the sun."

Celestia stared at me for a few seconds. "...So you said two minutes, right? I can have you back in sixty seconds."

"No, quit playing!" I said, backing away quickly as she seemed to like the idea of sending me up into space.

"I'll even go with you!" She said while giggling, using her magic to scoot me even closer to her.

"My eyes will boil out." I warned her.

"Not quite boil..." She simply replied by shoving me to the counter with the half-way cut onion. Immediately being right next to the fresh vegetable caused my eyes to water significantly. "See, more than enough water in them to keep it going."

...She is such a troll.

The pungent odor caused me to close my eyes as I turned my head away, even sniffling my nose before sneezing. "Ugh, so this is the moon you banished me to?"

"I had thoughts of throwing you on the real one, but since I'm a merciful ruler, I've elected to let you live." She said as she stood next to me, cutting up a few bell peppers. "Maybe next time, you'll refrain from joking about my age."

"Well noted." I said, coughing and sneezing past the powerful scent the onion. "We need to run this under some water."

"Just cut it already, you big baby."

"To hell with that, where's my milk, mom!?" I joked before realizing I might have crossed a line.

To my surprise, she was laughing at me as she pointed to the fridge. "You're old enough to get your own. Don't go asking me for some, I don't have any to give right now."

After I finished cutting the onion, she started throwing the bell peppers in the pan and started pulling out some spices from the spice rack. She carefully observed the bottle before sighing with disbelief. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"Judging from the expiration date, they had to have purchased this about a month ago."

"And?"

"A month would warrant the purchase of a whole new bottle considering how many mouths they feed on a daily basis. This looks as if it's barely been opened."

"That bad, huh?" I said, walking over to to the spice cabinet for myself. As soon as I saw with my own eyes how full the bottles were on the spice rack, I broke out laughing. "Holy shit, no wonder my food tasted like boiled water!"

"She's been monopolizing the spices! Apparently a bottle of garlic powder is supposed to last an entire year!"

"Nah, considering how many mouths they feed on the daily, that shit is supposed to be gone within the week."

Celestia looked at me and started giggling and holding a hoof over her lips. "I'm sorry, but she's fired! I have an entire weekly budget gone unspent while spices sit around and build a shelf life faster than I can build a relationship under a ten year multiplier."

I couldn't help but to crouch down, holding my stomach from how hard I started to laugh at both the situation and her joke. It was the very first time she ever made me go all-out laughing. "Wait... W-wait,─"

"I'd probably find a marriage and kids in these spices the way she's letting this stuff grow old. But I suppose she was just waiting eighteen years before getting introduced. I suppose I'm nothing short of crib robbing today."

"Holy fuck!" I couldn't even support my own weight, I had to sit on the ground, writhing with laughter. The sensation was positively astral. I was essentially having an outer-body experience where I couldn't even control my body for a few seconds. But when I came to, I was more astounded that she actually went that far. "Holy hell, Celly!"

Meanwhile, she wiped away a tear. "Gracious, I don't think I've had an out like that that in centuries."

"Said the spices in the cupboard." I said, trying to recover. "Holy hell, I did not know you were that raw."

The princess took a few deep breaths to try and recompose. "It's not everyday where I can find someone who wouldn't think less of me for a bit of dark humor. I feel comforted in knowing I have someone who will laugh with me. I can hardly joke around with anyone."

I got back on my own two feet and stood up to watch the pan full of peppers sizzling. "Honestly, ponies just need to put their barriers down a moment and just laugh instead of being so caught up in shock and awe."

"Right! I can't even tell Twilight a joke without her thinking genuine concern. This morning, I tossed out a joke saying that I felt you were coming on to me, she took it like a genuine concern. Poor girl, I could never get her to laugh at anything I say without explaining that it was a joke."

"Yeah, she came to me earlier today saying that." I confirmed. "I was confused as hell because I always thought we were just being friendly to one another. I mean if I did come off like that, then sorry, but I don't think I was putting any effort to that."

Celestia went to the fridge to pull out some cheese while she spoke. "I think the problem with you is that you're so easy to talk to at times, so much that you don't do anything but just spill and spill until you're good and dry. What makes it worse is that you follow up with doing these really incredible things to help, even disregarding your own safety. It's almost what you'd read in a romance novel, typical and cliché, but endearing. Things like that are dangerous to mares, we see it as a weakness to be able to vent so openly to guys like you, especially if you're involved with others. Secrets get out, rumors spread, relationships are damaged, the whole nine."

"And with your status, you find yourself being so guarded with your words." I added.

"That and the image I produce. I hate being a princess at times, I can never be truly happy unless I find a good cake to bite into."

"You should try a chocolate ice-cream cake then, the best of both worlds." I suggested.

"Oh no, don't do that to me. I'll never leave this kitchen."

"You'll have to eventually."

She glanced at me with a smirk and leaned against the counter. "Is that a challenge?"

"Well there's sleeping, bathing, meetings you got tomorrow, raising the sun."

She stared at me for a second before mouthing the word she was going to use. "Pec─"

"Peccavi." I said, beating her to the punch. "I'm gonna take that one from you."

Before I knew it, there was a plate of food lifted in front of my face, surrounded by her magic. I had to double take as I glanced over to her, realizing that she had cooked our meals the entire time we were talking. I couldn't believe that she had completed my meal so discreetly. She politely pointed at the plate she gave me. "Perhaps you should take this also. An empty stomach won't help you learn."

I took a fork and tasted the food for myself, becoming pleasantly delighted in the wonderful sensation of my taste buds waking up for the first time today. I could feel the tang of the cheese complimenting the sweetness of the peppers, the onions popping out just enough kick to accent the feeling of... rice? "What is this?"

"Stuffed peppers, a bit rich on dairy but it is a fairly decent take on dietary foods if you can moderate how much richness you implement to the dish."

"You do everything." I said, still wolfing down my food.

"I don't act, but I always wanted to try out. Ever since the invention of motion pictures, I wanted to see myself on the big screen. But time and schedule was something that could never agree for me. For now that just sits on the list of things I won't get a chance to have, like having a family or a tragedy-free relationship. Who knows if I'll ever start dating in this modern age of instant gratification."

"I think a few guards would be willing to put up with it." I announced, causing the princess to chuckle at the thought.

"They'd put up with me just to say that they're dating me. I'd be some sort of claim if that were to happen, I'd much rather somepony I can learn to trust with my past."

I stopped eating and looked back up at her, staring with dead silence.

The princess stared back, realizing what she just said and cleared her throat. "Oh, I did share that with you, didn't I?"

"Feeling curious?" I asked. "If you are, please don't cut my head off."

An unimpressed smirk showed on her face, she even pointed at it to further illustrate that she wasn't amused with my joke. "Keep talking, this might be your last supper."

I chuckled. "So violent."

She started eating from her plate as well, tasting her own work but not enjoying it as much as I did, she was quite used to her own cooking. "...Love stuff is for the birds, yet I'm the one with the wings here."

"Time to fly from the coop, a swan living among chickens."

"Hence why I'm off the menu."

"For many, but there are some willing to give it a shot."

"No thanks. Romance is mush stifling those who strive."

...Those are some familiar words. "I'll live a lush life in some small dive. And there I'll be, while I rot with the rest of those whose lives are lonely too."

Celestia hummed with inquisition. "That's new. Where did that one come from?"

"An old jazz record sung by a lady called Nancy Wilson. My grandparents used to slow dance to her record every Saturday night... Then my grandfather decided to cry to it every Saturday night since she died. His favorite one was 'Someone to Watch Over Me' sometime after."

"You miss your grandfather, don't you?" She asked.

"It's not too often, but I wake up with memories of him and what we did when I was kids. It puts me in a bright mood."

"I'm like that with my mother, sometimes with Luna." She said, picking on her plate. "I get up in the morning with the anticipation of spending time with her, getting angry with her, fussing, fighting, pulling pranks on her, getting fed up with her... If there's anything I tell anyone, no amount of wealth or length of life can ever rob you of the desire to be with someone after they've gone. Even when they aren't, you just can't imagine waking up to their not being among you."

"It's always a scary thought to know that when you get married to that special someone, you know it won't be forever. So you just make the best of each moment. For me it feels like the moment we argue─"

"Everything goes wrong and tragedy ensues."

I didn't quite keep track of how long we sat looking at each other quietly, but I know it had to have been a while. Our food had started to grow cold while we were just looking. She averted her eyes and I did the same, realizing that time had marched on while we were just quiet with one another, as if something had clicked.

"It's getting late. I should go back to cramming the parchment."

"The food was wonderful."

"Thank you."

I pulled out my phone and looked at the time. "Damn, we've been in here for almost two hours. I know the staff has got to be worried about you."

"And I've got to get some sleep. Busy day tomorrow."

"Well you have a good one." I replied.

She stopped herself for a moment and thought to herself before finally speaking again. "When you report in for your training tomorrow, you tell me what you've learned about that room."

"Sure."

She walked out the room and left her unfinished plate on the counter. I merely chugged mine down, regardless of how congealed it may have been, threw hers away, washed the dishes, and cut the lights out along the way. When I went back to my room, I laid on my bed, staring at the ceiling for a while before turning over to my side with quiet thoughts swimming through my head about the day.

"...I really hope this ain't what I think this is."

Meanwhile in Celestia's Room...

The princess laid on her bed, reviewing several papers and tossing the ones she felt done with to the floor below. Frustrations mounting, she simply allowed the mess around her bed grow and grow until the papers almost became as useful as a bedside rug. Her tired eyes hung low as she yawned, stretching her forelegs out before her eyes snapped open. Almost out of instinct, she yanked her forelegs back in, feeling some remnant of pain from the hell she once endured. There was no physical pain that affected her, but the mental stigma remained.

The high ruler shook off her past and realized that her working so tiredly caused her mind to wander, drifting to places she'd prefer locked away. Celestia rose from her bed, wading through the paper rug she made herself and stared at the mirror. She still wore her regalia, but the mental scars showed all over her. The princess stared back at herself while she braved the thought of taking off her chest plate again. As she did, the demon of her past started whispering into her ear the many selfish desires she longed for, harping the vengeance she failed to claim, and the very idea of violence came to the forefront of her mind while she recounted the sight of politicians celebrating their victories before her.

But one thought put a quiet end to the dark thoughts that plagued her mind.

She would not admit it, nor would she dare to entertain the possibility of it being true, but she felt like what was once lost to her had found it's way back in her life. Just the thoughts of her laughing so freely, the image of the satisfaction she gave to him, the fondness that grew over the few days she allowed him to get closer to her, to know her in a way where few others would even receive the privilege, it warmed her heart and soothed her mind. The way he carefully fumbled his way through her mane, giving close attention to every inch of her hair, the small things he did like scratching her ears, rubbing her side. He may not have intended to stir emotions through his actions, but they did intensify as her stories got progressively sadder. As he listened, she felt his compassion and care. Absence of those things made her grow fond of the moment she had, the conversations that ensued. But she knew it was impossible to ever come closer to him, they were too different, and he was far too busy intimately.

However, she was not unknown to desire busyness. And that's what she truly hated about herself.

She looked to the balcony and started wandering to the outside, feeling the cold winter breeze lash against her. The high princess held herself, shivering as she gazed from over her balcony to see the city lights below. Her eyes closed so she could focus her body on conditioning to the weather.

She initially felt a warmth against her head she thought was her magic manifesting itself on a stray thought. So she placed a hoof to her horn in hopes that whatever magic that lost control, she'd quench. But she thought more about what had just taken place in the kitchen, the moment his head leaned on hers, and the warmth began to grow. Soon, her body felt that same warmth, radiating to the cold air around her. She appeared almost as if she was breathing out of every ounce of her, visible vapors snaked from her body as she became completely impervious to the cold. She walked to the edge of the balcony and spread her wings wide. She took a step towards the railing of her balcony, leaping over it to embrace free-fall.

As she fell, her body twisted gracefully and her eyes closed to the world, imagining what had caused her the greatest feeling for that moment. Upon realizing it, she allowed her wings to take the wind and move her to wherever she so desired. Her eyes remained closed as she navigated the tall towers, the standing spires of the city she called home for several centuries. With ease she navigated each and every building, weaving her way through her city, every last turn and dive to avoid each arch, buttress, rotunda, and bell tower until she closed her wings to embrace free-fall once more. Diving in backwards and head-first, she fell past the outer battlements and down past the strengthened and enchanted stone that served as the city's foundation.

She counted to herself quietly. "Seven, six, five, four, three, two..." Only then did her eyes open as her wings spread back open to catch the wind, in just enough time to snap from terminal velocity to a much more controlled glide, gently circling around a singular white stone. Upon landing, she stumbled forward to control her momentum, at last bringing herself to a creeping walk.

She looked up high to see a few clouds moving shy of the mountain, glancing at the city above them. Her eyes trailed back down to the beautifully decorated white stone at her hooves. Her horn started to glow a pale white before an image was projected before her. The white stone glowed dimly, and before her very eyes, she saw the faces of two friends she hadn't embraced in centuries. Each of them wearing a soft smile as Celestia sat between them. To the right of her sat a beautiful mare with a long flowing mane, her coat showing signs of past scars well hidden beneath pristine fur. To the left of her was a proud pegasus stallion with a thick braid traveling down his neck and past his chest, dangling just inches from the ground. Each of their eyes did not blink, nor did their heads move to acknowledge the presence of the Princess between them, they stood as dolls while Celestia sat quietly, grabbing at the scar her chest plate would so often hide.

"Please tell me I'm wrong when I say this..."

The Next Day...

My room was oddly warm this morning. There was no shaking how unusually warm it was, considering that the windows leading to the outside were a bit thin as a repercussion to the artistic choice of stained glass. I could see through the prismatic panes the snow falling to the ground. It was oddly beautiful to see the different hues of snow falling past my window, but it was still incredibly warm in here.

When I walked out into the hall, I felt a noticeable drop of temperature. Even in the dining hall, the heat had some trouble circulating around the room. Of course, the ponies of the castle didn't mind it too much because of their coats of fur, but my not having that made me more aware of the difference. And it wasn't like I was going to be able to walk around in this mess without a single care like the ponies could. I had to reinforce my winter wardrobe today before doing anything else.

I noticed that the dining hall was incredibly barren today. Luna hadn't showed up, Shining and Cadance were still away, Blueblood was probably in town again, Twilight's in Ponyville, and Celestia was being dragged around all creation today, so it was safe to say I had the hall to myself. It was a pretty boring experience, and the chef didn't even bother to cook me anything because of what I said last night. Instead, I was offered a few fruits from some of the other underlings who understood my frustration from last night and appreciated my attempt to do right by the head chef. So either way, my breakfast was a lot more flavorful from past days.

It's sad that nature was proven as the better cook.

I paid a brief visit to my world, grabbed a few coats and sweaters from the outlet store, and got back on the grind. Lunch was no different, just fruits and veggies over the reaction of a scorned head chef who didn't want to serve me anything. But when the late afternoon came, I was finally released from lookout duty and given my dismissal for the day.

Interestingly, when I asked for directions to the Canterlot School for Gifted Unicorns, I was greeted with excitement and pointed towards the outside edge of the inner ring, just where the middle-class citizens and high class citizens intersected. But some others pointed towards the area where the castle was closest to the mountain. Eventually, I was told that the campus of the school had actually spanned the distance between the inner ring and the castle in a singular strip. What I also didn't know is how much of the city's skyline was influenced by the school. It was actually quite interesting to see more of the grand spires that helped give the city it's image. And it was also made out of the same exact material as the castle itself, instead of the imitation brand goods they used on the other buildings in the city.

When I arrived, I could see foals and ponies, all of varying ages, mostly girls, and mostly smiling, walking to various parts of the campus. It almost reminded me of the first day I came to UT-Austin, freshman orientation day. Classes were still in session, but there were many who had gotten out for the day, especially the younger ones. But the teenage mares going into the young adult ages were still toting their books around, that or sitting on benches discussing their various courses and how difficult their tests were.

It was insane to know that an ecosystem like this existed without my knowing it for so long.

But if there wasn't a sudden avalanche of interest that rolled my way as soon as a group of teenage mares pointed out my existence, I would've gone mostly unnoticed. Before I knew it, I was being swarmed by mares of different ages. Many of the younger ones wanted to express their admiration and show me their science experiments, truly wholesome. The preteens, from what I gathered, had kept asking me questions about my relationship with Twilight, arguments with Cadance, how I felt about certain royal family members, just outright gossip but nothing too out of pocket.

The older ones... yeah, the were trying to keep it cool while heavily implying sexual favors or short-term relationships, even prom requests for the upcoming Hearth's Warming Eve Extravaganza. I even received a few herding requests from groups of friends what wanted to see what a human could do to a mare, while stating that it was for 'research purposes'.

I quickly found my way into the administration building as soon as I asked, at least they were hospitable in that sense.

When I walked through the door, there stood a cream-colored mare with dark purple sweater and thick-framed glasses reading a book, almost invested completely in the story. I swear she was so immersion in that story that she had almost ignored who or what just walked in... or so she made me think. She placed the book down and said with a friendly smile. "Good afternoon, Captain! I was told you'd be visiting the campus today."

I shrugged as I glanced back outside to see the windows fogged up from all the mares pressing themselves against the glass. "If I hadn't come here first, I'm sure someone else would've been trying to show me a tour of the more secluded parts of it."

The mare looked past me and scoffed. "I swear the mares around here act like estrus is a year-round affair. I mean I get that outside of reading books and waiting for off-campus permits, there's not much else to do to relieve stress or entertain ourselves, especially during puberty. But at least act like a civilized student outside of, you know, the actual estrus period. I'd feel sorry for being raised around that kind of environment where focused study happens to add to the tension, but I only feel sorry for the boys on campus who fall victim to overherding."

"Overherding?" I inquired.

"When your herd gets to around ten or more, you overherd. It's not always fun being in a herd, much less one that has several girls going for the one guy's attention. Many guys who find themselves doing it wind up burning themselves out trying to satisfy everypony and end up losing all desire to mate for a while. I heard one guy got herded so hard that he dropped out and ran north. Had a herd of seventeen girls just trying to see how much he can take, supposedly for science. From what I recall, he never left his room without wearing a cape or coat of some sort since then."

"If I recall, don't wearing clothes make it worse?" I asked.

"And here you are walking around with ample amounts of it." She replied with a slight giggle. "I still don't get how you humans just walk around with all that stuff on. You have to be burning up!"

"You're wearing a sweater yourself." I pointed out. "That cold?"

"No, not yet. It's just a sweater my late mother owned. It's a bit itchy, but I don't leave home without it. It's pretty lucky actually."

Talking a closer look, I could see a few strands of wool plucked out into the open and even a few holes in the material. ...Does she even wash that thing? "Oh, well that's nice that you'd hold on to your mother's sweater like that, how long ago did she pass?"

"Four years back after the changeling invasion, I had grown into this sweater. I hoof-wash it every day, if that's something you wanted to know."

Answered my question, so I'm satisfied. "Well I didn't ask, but that's good. So if you don't mind, who is this young mare giving me a proper tour of the campus?"

She extended a hoof with a kind grin, almost bowing as she did. "Moondancer, but please don't call me Moony. I got harassed by boys calling me that every estrus period for years... And don't ask."

"I won't ask about what makes you uncomfortable. You do well enough in spite of it."

"Thank you."

Along the tour of the campus, Moondancer questioned me if I'd mind about her telling me some personal experiences with some of the various locations I was shown. One such instance was the open courtyard that lead to the main administration building. And from within there, you can find a few portals that lead to various access points into the castle or the mines below.

For her, the courtyard was where she once tried to throw a surprise bash for a friend of hers, only for that friend not to come. She went more into detail of how she became reclusive, not wanting to talk with anyone until they came back to throw a similar party for her instead. She didn't tell me the names of anyone involved until she finished.

That was pretty much how I found out how reclusive Twilight actually once was, denying all engagements and meetups if it interrupted her work flow and study habits. She even showed me an old photo of the six of them all gathered at a table outside of a cafe, with Twilight being the only one appearing grumpy, her head too far buried in a book to take in the fun around her.

My first reaction... "Wow, she was so short then."

"Yeah, she wasn't exactly the towering figure she is now. For the longest, she was shorter than all of us until the final year we had with her."

I even brought up a striking resemblance that took place in the photo. "I see your mane was also done the same way as hers."

"That was a thing we had between us six. We'd drag Twilight along at the behest of Princess Celestia to get her to socialize. So to promote our unity with one another, we decided to have three different manestyles between us, two per choice. Of course, Twilight saw nothing wrong with her mane and elected not to change it, so I changed mine to hers and we've been rocking the look since we were tiny little foals."

"That long ago? How did you put up with Twilight being so cold for so long?" I asked.

"Well, have you heard of the phrase 'birds of a feather flock together?' Well I was just as quiet as Twilight was, even more so in certain situations. Both of us were book nerds who just loved studying, so I guess you can say we were closer to each other than anypony else. We all tried our best to be friends with her, knowing if we didn't she was going to be even lonelier, especially since her brother went off to be a guard. Trust me, you haven't seen silent Twilight unless you've seen her in those days. She wouldn't talk to anypony other than Celestia at that point. Me personally, I just felt like I had done very little to help, I started feeling more and more worthless to anyone."

"I'm sorry to hear that happened with you as well. Did it ever improve?" I questioned.

"Well, she inevitably started shadowing us with her nose in a book, just going through the motions of not wanting to be disturbed by anyone else, so we just called our little outings 'study gatherings'. And you wouldn't believe how often she got engaged with those little meetups. But after a while, she gradually opened up a little, greeting us by name and giving us study tips when we felt frustrated with our studies. I felt we got closer then, like we were true-to-goodness friends."

"Seems like she had a solid group of friends prior to moving to Ponyville." I stated.

"We were getting there, but then something happened with her family, and she just stopped talking to us for a while until she came back from visiting home. And that's where she started to invest herself more in books and magic studies. Her schedule got so packed that we were worried that she didn't have any time left for us. Half her classes were so advanced that we could barely sneak in lunch with her, much less having a few classes with her like usual. I was taking intermediate courses so I didn't see her or the others that often either, but my schedule was a little more lax. She started to disappear from us, we started to miss her, me especially. And then Lyra dropped out for anxiety of her parents finding out about a girl she liked, so we never saw her again and I started feeling even worse. My friends saw that I was feeling terrible for my not being able to stay close to Twilight. So the four of us had a meeting, They decided we should have a party and that I should be the one to throw it since I was closest to her out of anyone. That's when I threw together the plans for that party, to get her to see that we were there for her."

"And you being the one who put up with Twilight the most, going so far as to change your mane up and everything, got upset when she didn't come around." I concluded.

"Yeah, I was hurt pretty bad, and I didn't get a word from her since then until recently in the summer. I felt like she went on with a whole different group of friends, I felt abandoned because she didn't even say goodbye, it was so sudden. So I decided to study up, keep myself busy to the point where I didn't have to see anyone else. Now I'm studying until I can get as good as she is with my magic, still going for my masters even now."

"I thought you worked here." I said before I started thinking about the book I saw her reading at the front desk.

"I do." She verified. "I'm an R.A. for the Fair Share Memorial Dormitory, as well as a masters student. Though I don't live in the dorm, I do have a shift to help pay for my classes."

Figures Celestia would name a dorm after the guy who in part influenced her to build her own school. "Oh, well that clears up a lot. But how do you have a key to the facility we're headed to?"

"I was given one today. I got a letter from the head of administration saying that I should report to the front desk, wait for a special guest and show him around campus."

When we arrived at the designated building, she opened the door to see a white stallion sitting against the wall. He held a few folders in his possession, all of them with the city's official seal on them. He waved at me eagerly. "Ah, so there you are."

Moondancer, who didn't exactly know the stallion, was surprised to see a city official waiting inside. "Oh, I didn't know we were getting a municipal visit."

"Not on official hours, anyhow. But I did notice that the door was left open." Alabaster replied before directing his attention back to me. "I had gotten your letter this morning, letting me know this was where you were going to set up today's appointment. I trust you've had enough practice between now and our last session. I'm sorry if we couldn't touch on the topic I wanted to do, but what did you brush up on since we last convened?"

"Lots of control exercises, but nothing too out there." I replied as we started making our way down the hall towards the stairs.

Moondancer seemed interested in our conversation. "Control exercises? Control, like magic control?"

Alabaster took a quick glance at the mare and hummed to himself. "It's not quite magic control─"

The mare then replied. "You do realize that our head of administration happens to be Princess Celestia herself, right?"

The stallion became a bit guarded at her statement. "I'm just saying that it's better not to assume anything as opposed to perceiving things to be as they are."

Moondancer then replied. "She has me opening up a room for an unsanctioned magic lesson, I can safely say were all in this together, especially since I have a friend who'll soon join us."

The stallion turned to me and whispered as we came to the top of the stairs, entering the third floor. "This friend, do you know who it is?"

"Probably Twilight."

"The Princess!?" He exclaimed.

"Not just the princess."

The three of us turned around quickly, almost getting our guards up as the other voice startled us. Starlight came walking from around the corner, almost like she was hiding in the shadows. Alabaster didn't flare up his magic when he saw her, but he had his horn at the ready. Moondancer was already ready to sent a bunch of magic bolts at her direction. Meanwhile I sighed and stepped forward, hoping the other two unicorns lower their guard. "Alabaster, Moondancer, meet Starlight Glimmer. She's Twilight's newest pupil."

"Pupil?" Alabaster questioned. "She sent her pupil to follow up on an appointment."

The next thing that startled us was the sound of one of the the doors behind us unlocking. Twilight and Spike came walking through one of the doors, the young dragon munching down a carrot dog while Twilight spoke up. "I'm here also, and I've been looking forward to meeting with the one who's been giving Nondis his hints and tips while he's stationed here."

Alabaster walked up to the princess and then bowed his head. "Your majesty, I shall consider this the highest honor to meet you in person."

"Alabaster Charm, Canterlot City Council member representing District 4, I am grateful for the time you set aside to help us today." Twilight said, shaking his hoof then turning her attention to her old friend. "Moondancer, I didn't know you'd be here today!"

"I thought I was the only one opening up!" The mare's magic quenched itself as the cream-colored mare embraced her old friend. "I'm so happy you came back to visit. The lecture you gave out on friendship and it's relativity on magic almost two weeks ago was absolutely wonderful. It was a brilliant thesis with so much research and thought put into the mix. Very impressive."

The purple princess shrugged off her work. "I was just telling the same old speech I usually give every go around."

"EVERY. Go around." Starlight emphasized with an eye roll.

Twilight looked at me and finally asked. "So, where are you in your lessons right now?"

I scratched my chin as I quietly requested. "Well, since there's multiple magic users in the room today, I guess I can try my hand at some combat. Maybe the collective experience will help me learn everything a little quicker."

"Combat magic... shooting for the moon today, aren't you?" Starlight replied.

"If I miss, I land amongst the stars." I rebutted. "I'd learn quicker if I was getting it beat into me like so many other of my lessons."

"Beat into you?" Starlight questioned.

Alabaster cleared his throat to clarify on my reply. "Well, we considered that there was very little time before he would eventually find himself in the thick of things, so he came by to see if I would be willing to get him on the fast track of learning magic. I agreed under the pretenses that he'd accept a more dated approach, which was to apply intense training regiments that required hastened reflexes and forced adaptation."

Starlight nodded with pursed lips. "Well if you put it that way, it makes plenty of sense. That's how I taught myself how to use magic."

Moondancer quickly showed her dissent. "But learning like that doesn't teach you the finer aspects of magic, it doesn't teach you the risks of certain castings and callings, the numerous incantations that could provide harm for self if they aren't applied correctly."

Alabaster then replied. "To counter your argument, it can be said that not very many unicorns have or had the opportunity to be selected at a prestigious magic institution. For many, levitation and casting a few bolts is as good as they can get. And to make another point, the training method I've researched had been written by a former instructor here at the school."

"What professor?" Moondancer inquired. "What professor had clearance for this institution that would apply such a barbaric approach?"

The stallion crossed his forelegs and shifted his eyes to the side. "Well, that's the part you lot aren't going to like. Though to clarify, the method is strictly for jump-starting a unicorn's development, especially for those seeing clearance for the mandatory intermediate courses that this school has to offer. Those who could not would be forced into remedial courses... also infamously known to be─"

"Magic kindergarten." Twilight finished. "That's a punishment for those who are forced to start from the beginning of magic aptitude and application, usually allowed for applicants who elect to take two years of remedial courses before reapplying for entry."

My eyes were widened at the thought of my getting accepted into a college while having to take two years of zero-cred courses. And for this situation, that's just to APPLY. "Two more years on top of a demanding curriculum, that's harsh."

Starlight closed her eyes and whispered to herself. "...Is that what you had to go through to get in?" It seemed I was the only one who caught her saying that.

Meanwhile, Moondancer wasn't satisfied with the incomplete answer Alabaster gave. "So you still haven't given me a name of a single accredited instructor to this institution."

The stallion took a deep breath and finally revealed the name of the aforementioned instructor. "The instructor's name at the time was Count Penance."

"Count Penance?" Moondancer repeated. "My homeroom teacher back in our introductory courses Count Penance!? No way! He was as gentle as any teacher could be! How could he be the one to implement such cruel methods to promote magic advancement?"

Spike looked at me silently for a moment before looking towards Twilight, who seemed just as excited as Moondancer. The purple princess started to speak highly of him. "Oh my gosh! I haven't seen him since he retired way back when, and it was so sudden. We were still fillies at the time, I wonder what happened to him."

The young drake sighed heavily as he tapped against Twilight's side. "Shouldn't we get back to what we came here for?"

Alabaster was quick to side in with Spike. "Agreed. Now let's get into this room and get started with your lesson, Nondis."

Twilight still chattered with Moondancer until Spike tapped the side of both of the former classmates. From there, he pointed to a corner where they could speak. Starlight originally sought to follow her mentor, but the young drake pointed her towards the room, requesting that she'd watch over me for a bit.

When we entered into the room, seeing a relatively small lecture hall capable of sitting around thirty viewers, I walked to the front of the chalkboard and giggled to myself. "Oh man, I haven't seen one of these since I was a kid. We used to be a mess drawing on this thing"

"Do your schools not have blackboards when you came around?" Starlight asked.

"Used to, but I stopped seeing them in middle school. Nowadays, we have whiteboards that use dry erase markers. It's a lot easier to clean up after."

The stallion called out to me. "Nondis, time to work."

I broke off my trip down memory lane to see Alabaster standing at a readied stance, his horn lowered slightly. Starlight promptly stood out of the way before getting involved. I took a few quick breaths before I put myself into a widened stance, bracing for whatever came my way.

"Good. Now since we're going to be doing magic combat today, I'm going to be throwing a few bolts your way. You're going to have to counter them aside and come back with an attack of your own. There will be no close quarter involvement, as any magic user will prioritize distance to promote better reaction time between spells."

"Why not close quarters?" I asked.

"Because there are a variety of deflection spells, area-of-effect stuns, incantation circles, defense spheres, and recoil blasts that can cause you harm." Starlight added. "There is a way to fight in close quarters to your opponent, but it's not often fun to be in. When dealing with magic, you usually need space to operate. Let them close the distance, and that could mean something sharp getting ran through you."

"Well it's a good thing humans nowadays specialize in range." I replied.

"Just keep your eyes on your opponent." Alabaster warned sternly. "Any distraction will open you up for a painful follow-up."

I didn't even get a chance to reply or confirm his command. Instead there was a bolt of orange energy directed at me. But because I was already in stance, I could counter his attack fairly quickly. After casting the bolt aside, I reached out with my hand and tossed a bit of my own magic at him, causing him to counter my own blast in return. The stallion nodded with approval.

"Good. But you can react to my attack much faster than that."

Starlight stepped beside me, placing a hoof on my side, urging me to move for a bit. "Can I show him what you mean?"

"Sure, no better example than visualized instruction."

Starlight stood in front of me, just a few feet away as she readied herself. Alabaster did the same and cast a bolt at her. She didn't even seem to notice that something was coming at her, just simply turning her head away from the blast. Almost in a natural motion, she dropped her head back forward and sent a blast of teal magic barreling at the stallion, who's eyes grew before he leaped to his right, avoiding the blast and countering off a secondary blast coming from Starlight while in mid-air. The stallion slid as he regained his balance and stood back up to acknowledge the mare before him.

"A pupil deserving of her opportunity."

"Oh, you should've seen me and Twilight go at it when we were enemies. Now THAT was a fight." She replied before looking back at me. "Now do you see why distance is important? Because without it, there is no reacting to what I just did."

The stallion then added. "Not only that, but she also left me wide open for another blow. Countering with aggression can be dangerous for those who don't have control over their magic usage, but those who do can counter-cast almost relentlessly. It's why distance is so important in dueling. She could've sent me into a wall with one more blow, but she held back."

Starlight nodded at the stallion before stepping aside to let me try again. She didn't leave my side, however, giving me an additional tip before I readied myself. "Okay, now this time when you counter, try to redirect the energy you ward off back towards your opponent. This might be a bit of an advanced technique, but it's not too terribly difficult to learn. Even using a fraction of that energy will mitigate how much magic you use in your own casting."

The moment I readied myself, he cast another bolt at me. I batted it away and tried to sling it back at him, to virtually no success. He casually stepped out of the way, almost as if he had avoided a kid running past him in an empty hallway. I initially felt proud because I felt like there was hardly anything I did to put out that much magic. "Holy hell, that felt like I was throwing back a dodge ball."

"A good analogy, but not quite the execution you should go for." Alabaster replied. "A counter-cast like that is easily avoided because of your exaggerated movement. I don't know if that's because of your anatomy being so different or if you brought it away from your body so much that I had time to recover from my own casting."

Starlight walked in front of me, facing me as she motioned with her head the exact movements she made in countering him. "Exaggerating your movements only alerts your opponents to what move you're making. I know it's magic and all, but you still have to treat this like a fight. Haymakers are powerful, but have large openings in using them. Feints and jabs are small hits that don't do much, but they throw your opponent off once you throw in a medium hit every so often."

I started to look down at my own hand. "Yeah, it's all about timing. If I can't throw up a good feint, I can't be anything but predictable. If I try going all-out, I'm gonna wear myself out. If I can't jab, then I can't hit you with anything."

"Precisely." Starlight confirmed cheerfully, moving out of my way to let me get ready for another blast. "Now minimize your movements when you counter, make it as simple as a jab."

I immediately snapped up to being ready again, getting another magic bolt sent my way. This time, I minimized my arm slinging away from my body and slapped it back at him. Instead of casually side-stepping the blast, he strafed out of the way. He sent another blast to me, allowing me to counter it back with various methods of redirecting the energy until he started to grow fatigued from casting so often without rest. The stallion shook his head and muttered to himself. "Ugh, you'll have to forgive me, I'm not much of a magic user myself. I guess you could call me something of a glass cannon."

Starlight, acknowledging his need to take a breather, stepped up to the plate and continued off from where he left off. She stood in his place and continued to cast bolts at me, critiquing every last attempt I made to counter off her attacks. "Your arm leaves me with too much time to recover, try shortening your movements some more." Again, she sent another bolt at me, telling me what I did wrong. "Use less of your arm."

And again.

"Keep control, you're losing your accuracy."

And again.

"Minimize your arm, I keep telling you this."

And again. But instead of using my forearm so much, I thought about using more of my wrist.

"That's a lot better, but mind your control of it. You're casting into the seats."

And it started to improve over the hour. It almost seemed like she could go on for hours, but the reality of it was that she was just as tired as Alabaster after his few attempts. Over that course of time, Twilight, Moondancer, and Spike just watched us silently from the top of the classroom, sitting in the back row of seats overlooking the floor.

Starlight turned to her mentor. "Well wouldn't you guess it, he's getting better."

Alabaster, who had more than enough time to renew his energy, vouched to step in for her. "Well, I guess I can toss out a few more. I'm usually better the second time around."

Twilight then teleported from the top of the classroom to standing in front of me, holding a hoof to Alabaster's chest. She gave me a stern look as she spoke to her exhausted pupil. "Why don't you take a break, let me handle this one."

"Sure thing." Starlight agreed as she started to take her seat in the front row. As she sat down, Moondancer stood right beside her and observed carefully with her horn illuminated.

Alabaster took notice of the cream-colored unicorn and questioned her. "I take it you're going to be helping her in this exercise?"

"No. I'm actually helping him." She answered with her horn shimmering with magic, pointing to me.

While I was taking notice of Moondancer's statement, Twilight yelled at me. "NONDIS!"

"Right!" I snapped back to my eyes being on her, readying myself for another blast.

She gave one quick look to my arm and said to me. "You should reconsider, a moment to get yourself back in shape."

Even though my arm tingled a bit from the magic that surged through it for the past hour, I had a lot more aching in my shoulder from flailing around earlier. However, since I knew I could relegate my movements to counter in my wrist, I felt confident that I could keep going. "Nah, let's keep at it. I wanna get better as quickly as possible."

The princess stressed to me one more time. "You need to rest before we continue."

"Twilight, I got it. Let's keep─"

Without warning or any movement indicating she was casting, without even so much as her horn glowing, she sent a magic blast barreling my way. I braved myself forward and took the blow, trying to counter what she gave me. I felt confident in knowing that I was able to redirect that magic right back to her.

I. Was. Wrong.

One singular blast and I was sent sliding across the floor as if I had taken the brunt of the attack head-on, or at least I thought so until she spoke. "If you hadn't tried to counter that, you'd be in a lot more pain."

She started walking up to me, closing the distance between me and her. I jumped back on my feet as quick as I could until I saw that she wasn't even in front of me anymore. The only thing that alerted me to her presence was the sound of a bolt of magic being discharged from her horn. I had to pivot quickly to catch it, batting it away before I was hit with yet another blast to follow up on the first. My entire arm stung to numbness as I flew through the air, only to be caught by some unseen force field that gently floated me towards the ground again.

I looked over to Moondancer, about to thank her until... "Keep your eyes on your opponent!"

The sound of Twilight's voice boomed at me while I was recovering. While I raised my right arm to ready myself, I was reintroduced to the static feeling of pins poking and prodding throughout my arm. I couldn't defend myself properly with my right arm, so I deferred to my left, hoping to meet with some success.

She sent another bolt at me, expecting me to dodge it. I did as such, leaping to my left to avoid the blast. But as soon as I was cleared from that, I felt something stun my entire left arm. Looking over, I could see Twilight to the left of me, holding my arm before teleporting away. When I landed back on the ground, being unable to brace myself for the fall, I felt a hoof in my back as her voice whispered in my ear. "You're dead."

I grimaced, still feeling the imaginary pins poking at both of my arms. "Nobody told me there would be teleportation involved."

"Well in the world out there, there will be. And you are obviously not ready to face a world like that." She harshly declared while keeping her hoof pinned to my back. "I wanted to give you a rest so that I could show you what you would go up against, at least a fraction of it. You can't just keep acting like you can keep getting back up after each hardship you run into. You know this for yourself, an assassin came for you while you were on assignment. You flat-lined, you were lost to me for a while. Don't you know that VERY FEW get the medicinal treatment and attention you had? You would be sleeping in your grave right now... No, you would be sitting on a display table for every student in this facility to study. Your family wouldn't even have the luxury of bringing the body back, and you wouldn't have a say because it wouldn't be your body anymore."

"Don't you think I know that?" I argued back. "Why do you think I'm learning how to use magic now?"

"You're using it to protect yourself. How noble of you to be able to learn how to fend for yourself, again. How great it is to seek power for your own gain. But what do you get when you have all the power you desire to have, what else is there, what will drive you forward?"

"Protecting the ones I care about, what else is there!?" I quickly answered.

"And how long will it be before you lose sight of that? How much longer are you going to pretend everything is easy, that all you need to do is just stick it through and it just comes to you?"

"You don't have to preach to me how hard it is to live. You know exactly why I'm doing this." I said as I struggled to push myself up, falling to the ground again.

"But what are you learning magic for? It's clear you can do without, you can be able to do whatever you want, you've proven that you can overcome the odds and do it alone. So why magic? Why do you insist to learn something that is so dangerous when you already have the solution?"

"Because I want to win, for all of us." I replied, turning my head to look at her as best as I could.

"Then what are you willing to lose?"

"Everything! You know that!" I said, starting to get frustrated with the combination of her keeping me pinned down and constantly questioning me.

"Then you can lose your friends and it won't be a problem then? Your home, you'd lose that? You'd lose everything for this power, for the potential to walk away with it all?"

"Everyone deserves to be free."

"But not at the cost of your life." She replied quietly. "I'd sooner lose my magic, my very purpose in life, to keep what I have now. Do you know why?"

"Twilight, you're contradicting yourself." I said, pointing to her statement.

She flipped me over using her magic to get a good look at my face while she spoke. "Because I've done it once before! I had to make that choice once and I made it knowing what it would cost me." She sat down next to me, her eyes appearing saddened as her horn started to softly illuminate. "At one point, I was given the power of three alicorn princesses, while possessing my own. I was arguably the most powerful being in existence, capable of raising both the sun and the moon, and I was able to take on a creature who held all of Equestria's magic at his disposal. We went blow for blow, destroying land forms for the fate of the world itself. I had it all and I was more than capable to keep going. It was the only time where I used spontaneous hatred to persecute, violence to seek vengeance."

She started to clasp at her own foreleg, looking past me with shame. "So what else happened?" I asked.

"...It would be better if I showed you." She responded, tapping her horn against my head, between my eyes.

The world around me suddenly shifted as I was suddenly transported to the center of Ponyville. The sky above was reddened with a thick plume of smoke. Surrounding my feet were the scorching ashes of papers and burned rock. Looking ahead I could see an open valley where houses once stood. Some ponies looking at where their homes once were fell to their knees while grieving the loss of their shelters, others sobbing over valued possessions. Each of their eyes as glossy as a victim long dead. Foals crying while they scavenged their homes for anything to remember, any of the toys they once played with, or even their own parents.

I got up and turned around to assess the damage further, seeing more houses scarred in the path of the gullet I stood in. But in seconds, I was greeted with the final destination of that blast. A destroyed building that appeared to be made through a tree, several burning books and papers raining from above as a single owl flapped it's wings to free itself from the carnage. And from where the owl fled was a singular pony, reaching out with a hoof to bid farewell to the bird.

Twilight stopped reaching out, trying her best to choke back tears. But the one thing she couldn't hide was the pure anger she felt over seeing her own home devastated in such a manner, while watching others suffer around her. Her eyes sharpened ahead, the feathers of her wings even appeared as blades as she extended them. Her horn quickly burned with a sparking magenta hue.

I reached out, hoping that she wouldn't explode from the sound of her magic cycling up. Her eyes were vastly different from the ones I was used to seeing, even when she was angry with me. They were cold, focused, and hungry for blood. In the instant she disappeared, I was taken with her to an empty field. She came flying in from above, her magic showing four different colors as electricity surrounded the air around her. And with a snap of her head at the large adversary she faced, the fifty-foot tall centaur that terrified me with his strength, he was pushed back with a beam the size of a tunnel boring machine.

As I stood in place, I could see the vivid colors above me congregating into one focused beam, all producing a light so bright that I thought that I would be blinded by it. I looked back to see an unspeakable expression on Twilight's face. I could see the veins in her neck, her forehead, and her chest. Her mane moved as freely as Celestia's. But her teeth bared, showing canines just seconds before her attack followed up with a second wind. The beam that once bashed away at Tirek's own defenses, the one that already dwarfed Twilight like a moon, had grown considerably. Her eyes initially had tears, but quickly evaporated from the heat all the magic produced.

The beam she sent forward had even driven the centaur several yards out, an entire football field's length before it pushed through him hit a mountain behind him. He dusted himself off as the mushroom cloud in the distance rose high into the air. The explosion had produced the same amount of yield as a tactical usage nuclear warhead, all of the deadly blast surrounded by a rainbow of beautiful colors. As she landed on the ground, I looked down to see myself in an even larger trench, one larger than the one that ran through the town. I glanced back, only to see a huge crater appear from nowhere.

A blast was sent from the centaur into the air, hitting what appeared to be a small purple speck from my distance. The next second was a deadly blast of colorful lightning stunning the face of the centaur, blinding him for a few seconds before he could pick her up and send her flying into a mountain. He lept after her, driving his horns ahead, and smashing her tiny frame into the mountain from one side, and out the other. She replied by teleporting above and sending something akin to a spirit bomb into his back. She sent another beam for good measure to bury him in the ground, but he responded to his burial by cutting the soil and rock beneath her, tossing away her and a land mass the size of a small island. She flew out, blood flowing freely from her nose and mouth while she blasted several stalagmites he erected to impede her forward progress. Nothing seemed to stop her, she was hellbent on putting him away, so much that she reproduced the same beam she started off with. He answered in kind with a ray of his own. And as the two clashed in the center, sound had ceased to exist for the fraction of a second of their contact before producing a cataclysmic kaboom, rumbling and even unearthing a few mountains in the surrounding area.

What remained as a large pile of rubble for the centaur before he climbed out, facing a tired and bloodied Twilight running on magic, hatred, and adrenaline. Even when she walked, the ground broke around her hooves. The centaur smirked before snapping his fingers to stop her from walking forward.

"How about a trade, Princess Twilight." His voice boomed over the sound of the rocks settling back into place, moreover the sounds of several landslides in the distance. But to her, there was no louder sound than the voices of her friends screaming from inside of the bubbles he summoned. "Their release, for ALL THE ALICORN MAGIC IN EQUESTRIA!" Their screams then turned to pleas, each of them begging her to keep fighting, not to concede. The purple princess stared on with grief and horror as the magnificent display of strength she gave was nothing more than a light show for him. He happily egged her on. "What's it going to be... Princess?"

While her friends continued to try to persuade her that their lives weren't worth the astronomical cost, Twilight stared in silence, not truly knowing what to decide. And her lack of an answer infuriated the impatient centaur.

"ENOUGH!" He shouted to everyone in the bubbles. "I want an answer, AND I WANT IT NOW!"

She looked on for a while longer before pondering with herself, looking to her heart for the answer. And eventually she was given one. "...I will give you my magic, in exchange for my friends."

The centaur graciously complied with his offer. "As you wish." Lowering the bubbles from as high as a hundred feet in the air to about three before dropping them, every last one of them with the exception of Discord.

"ALL of my friends." She emphasized with a stern look to the final bubble.

"After the way he's betrayed you, you still call him a 'friend'?" The centaur questioned.

"Release him!" She shouted.

"If that's what you want..." He said, dropping the final bubble a lot harsher than the others. The draconequus looked over to the yellow pegasus, mouthing an apology. She looked away, visibly upset while Tirek started to receive his payment for his end of the bargain. With a sickly grumble and a demonic smile, he said to her. "Your turn."

His mouth opened and I could hear Twilight screaming in terrible pain, unlike any other. She produced a dismal bloodcurdling scream as the last of her magic was siphoned from her body. I finally felt compelled to move on my own, running after her before she suddenly reappeared before me, stopping me from moving forward any more. She placed a hoof on my chest and kindly reassured me. "I'm fine now. What you are seeing now is the past."

As the vision dissipated, I now saw myself standing directly in front of the chalkboard. I looked at the chalk-drawn image of Twilight sitting in front of me as the actual pony herself held me off with her horn finally fizzling out. But instead of a normal magenta glow, it was a crackle enveloped with black lightening. I tried to shake off my shock, taking a step back. "That happened to you?"

She smiled as she answered. "Yeah, pulled a 'you' there. Did all that fighting, come away with a few injuries, five broken ribs, punctured lung, skull fracture, cracked horn, and internal bleeding. I couldn't move for a week after the adrenaline wore off, collapsed in my new castle shortly after singing and taking pictures."

"I don't understand." I replied. "You were whopping his ass and he didn't have answer the first for you, you could've kept fighting."

"I chose my friends over my own power, because they were my power. It may not be like that in your world, but here there isn't anything more powerful than friendship. I know, sounds corny to you, but it's undeniable truth. Even when Tirek had won it all, he had all the power of Equestria in his hands, we still came together and defeated him because of the bond we share and the power we have as a collective. We had the elements to give us a boost, that's also true, but there's no better strength than unity and oneness. Harmony is what drives us, what gives life to magic, not ambition and the desire to overcome the odds. Without harmony, magic is just some dangerous flame to be played with. In your case, it is a gun without a safety mechanism."

While the vision of Twilight's fight with Tirek had completely showed me how insignificant my accomplishments were in comparison, I was more amazed of the fact that she was still standing here after everything she just told me. She had a lethal cocktail of injuries that should've killed her. Even judging from the hit she took getting thrown onto that mountain, I was surprised that she didn't immediately die from blunt force trauma. But seeing her that angry was probably the main thing that took me out of it the most. "You were so... powerful."

"And even if I fought on, I wouldn't have been able to save my friends. If I chose to do that, I would've lost anyhow. The adrenaline would wear out sometime, and he would've devoured my magic without hesitation. Then we would live in a world ruled by Tirek, which wouldn't exactly be a very peaceful world."

"You don't have to remind me." I said, thinking back to the centaur giant planting a huge claw under my chin while acknowledging exactly what species I was. But I did gain some insight to Twilight's reason for questioning me so vehemently. She wanted to see where my head was at while I was learning magic, whether I would be in pursuit of power or if I would be willing to put that aside for a greater cause. Admittedly, much of that part still eludes me as to how something like friendship can surpass raw output. But if it was coming from Twilight of all ponies, then it had to really be something.

Twilight took another look at my arms and sighed. "I guess that'll be all for today."

I tried to vouch for more time. "You know, we could just take a thirty minute break and I'll be good to go again."

"Have you looked at your arms lately?" She questioned.

I looked down to see nothing wrong. "I don't see anything wrong with them."

Moondancer cosigned with Twilight as she got out of her seat. "You're using them to cast your magic, countering and casting for hours on end is dangerous without any form of rest. If you keep going, you'll burn yourself out. And if you don't think anything's wrong, just put your hand on any one of these desks."

I shrugged as I flexed my hands, but I did as she told me. I placed one finger on the top of a desk, only for the wood to start smoldering under my touch. I gawked as I saw a small trail of smoke coming from where my finger met with the wood. I quickly pulled off to see an ashen crater where my finger once stood. I grabbed at my hand, not really feeling the same temperature my arms apparently gave off. "What the hell..."

"Yeah. It's better not to try and pull a me." Twilight warned. "I tried to force my magic out when I was younger, doing my best to pass my entrance exam. And just like you, I was startled into my magic."

I looked at the mare with disbelief before questioning her. "So you almost burned yourself?" I concluded, my mind recounting the world where Shining and Twilight fought as grunts against a great evil.

She appeared genuinely impressed with my knowledge. "I guess I don't have to go into detail."

I took a glance around the room and asked her. "So... I take it this is the place you had your exam?"

The purple princess giggled. "What gave it away?"

"Well, Celestia did mention that this place was of some importance, noting that she didn't want to spoil it for me until you clued me in to the purpose of this specific room."

"Then you understand that I wanted to train you in the very place it all began for me." Twilight said while flying up to me. "I wanted to show you the key of mastering control over your magic. Your mind is a medium where all things are centered, emotions, memories, thoughts, your ambitions, hopes, dreams, even the way you move. But that alone doesn't make a good spell." She then placed a hoof to my chest, directly over my heart. "Control all of that with this. Be ready to factor this into every equation you look at, every spell you weave. Don't be so hasty to sacrifice everything for ideals, embrace what's around you and draw from that well instead of what's going on up there. This is how you master magic, put everything on this and let your bonds guide you to the right path."

Twilight moved her hoof from my chest as she fluttered to the ground.

"Now, your homework for today is to get some rest. When you wake up, start practicing your magic circulation without using any magic. Deep breaths, meditate, find your harmony, speak among yourself and know what gives you peace. From there, we will continue."

After a pretty eye-opening experience in my magic lessons, we departed the campus and went about our separate ways. Moondancer took off from the dorm and headed out to her place. Alabaster departed for his own home as well. Twilight and I walked to the train station and I saw her off before going back to the castle.

When I had gotten back, I could see a disgruntled Zesty Gourmand walking the opposite way. I offered to speak, but she didn't reply to me at all. In her possession was a small book and a cooking apron draped over her back. She walked with her head held high and her nose even higher, not even bothering to speak to anyone. I stopped for a moment to watch what she did next, seeing as she approached the checkpoint into the city. She handed them a black badge and walked through the gates.

I never did see her again.

As soon as I approached the dining hall, I could already smell the difference. In fact, the entire castle was brimming with life as the halls leading to the general cafeteria was jam packed with ponies lining up for a plate. The ponies were all chattering so lively about the food that I started to become curious as to what the fuss was all about. I walked in and glanced around the cafeteria, seeing a myriad of mares and stallions all conversing with one another so happily. I could even see a group of mares joking and pointing at a few of the guards that walked by. Guards who just got off shift had nudged with one another, pointing at maids who caught their eyes. It was possibly the most animated I've seen the grounds be in a while outside of social gatherings.

I crept up to the line, seeing what was being offered. And when my eyes met with the choices, I was more than pleased to participate in the waiting game. Grilled veggies, sauteed mushrooms, fresh salads with a garden variety of toppings, a myriad of dressings, cheesy spinach, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes with gravy, any side you'd love with a meat dish. I peered over the counter and spoke with the worker behind the glass. "Excuse me, what's the occasion?"

"Well there's been a change in the head, hun." She replied sweetly. "I know that most everypony in here has been dog tired of Zesty Gourmand dictating the menu across the board."

I looked down and whispered to the lady. "You think you could do me a favor?"

The mare laughed and pointed past me. "Sorry, sweetie. I know you're the captain, but you'll have to wait in back like the rest."

"Ah figures." I said, snapping my fingers and stomping a foot out of feigned frustration.

I walked out of the cafeteria and joined the others in the back of the line, hoping to get a bit of conversation with the others as I waited around. But many were too busy talking about me being in line to actually talk to me directly. Though I didn't initially catch why. If anything, I was told that Celestia was going to have a very busy day and that everyone else's dinner plans had revolved around visiting the city proper for some good eating. So I honestly expected to be here instead of the exclusive dining hall that I was so used to frequenting.

The next thing I felt was a hoof on my side, tapping me. I turned around to see that it was a white mare with black hair and glasses holding a stack of papers. "Excuse me sir."

I stepped back to allow her to take my spot in line. "Oh, you must be her assistant, go on ahead. I know you've been ripping and running all day."

"Not what I'm here for completely." She announced. "Actually, the princess is expecting you in the dining hall. You should attend to her majesty at once."

The other guards and maids just watched silently as I was pointed in the direction of the more exclusive dining hall. I shrugged and moved on to the designated room and entered to see the high princess sitting in her chair, holding her menu while a chef stood next to her. The chef had a yellow coat and turquoise mane, looking at the princess with attentive burgundy eyes. Upon entering, the princess hailed me down. "Ah, Nondis, come on in!"

The mare looked at me and blushed for a second while looking at me nervously, fidgeting with her hooves. I walked up to the table as Celestia magically guided me to stand in front of the nervous mare.

"Nondis, this is Lemon Hearts, she is our interim chef for the week. Usually I'd have her in charge of the more formal affairs, state dinners, those sorts of things. But with the dismissal of Zesty earlier today, I allowed for her to personally serve us tonight. The others will not be joining us again, so it's just us birds."

"I see." I replied, extending a hand to the mare subconsciously. But a thought came up and I had to retract my invitation to place my hand on the table, just to see if anything was different from earlier. Not much had changed on the table, so I could safely say that any contact was permissible. I reintroduced my hand to the mare. "Sorry about that, long day at work, didn't want your first impression of me to be that much of a lasting one."

The mare nodded as she took my hand with both hooves. "Uh, no problem. Lemon Hearts, I'll be your chef for the evening."

"Well if my run-in with the crowd around the mess earlier was any indication, then I'm most certainly going to enjoy your food tonight."

The mare giggled bashfully. "Oh thank you. You're so much taller than I imagined you to be."

Celestia then spoke up. "Did you know that Lemon Hearts here was a classmate to Twilight Sparkle? Of course she was originally in her small circle of associated classmates."

I thought about the picture that Moondancer had shown me... "Oh shit, I forgot!" I cried out to myself, realizing that I still had it. I took it out to look at it and there she was sitting dead center. "Hey, I know this is sudden as hell, but when you see Moondancer again, can you drop this by her. I forgot to give this back."

"Oh, must've been a busy day to be visiting Moondancer at the school." She replied.

"Yeah, I pretty much got curious after my shift and decided to tour around the place that Twilight talked about so often. I wanted to see the campus for myself."

"Well we're humbled that you would pay our old Alma Mater a visit." The mare said while summoning a menu. "Here you go, I will be with you two shortly."

Celestia hummed delightfully as she watched the mare disappear into the kitchen. "It's wonderful to see my students being proactive in so many different ways. It's not often you would see them stick by me in so many different arenas."

"One of them being a employee, the other a student at your school." I stated.

"You forgot the one that rules right beside me as a princess." She added.

"Of course, I couldn't forget your prized pupil, now could I?"

"I wouldn't expect you to." She said, placing the menu down. "So how was your day?"

"Well..." I began. "I learned about friendship being a potent characteristic of magic."

The princess clopped her hooves eagerly. "Ah, I see you lessons have come with a lot of weight today. I do hope you took away something from it."

I chuckled at the princess while I looked at my arms. "Yeah, I learned that using a lot of magic in one setting can cause your fingers to burn through wood."

"Well that's not healthy." Celestia pointed out. "You must've been training really hard."

"Yeah, got my ass torn out the frame by Twilight. I didn't even think she'd beat-rush me in a magic lesson."

The princess giggled at my expense. "Well you were challenged by a princess of Equestria, so that's par for the course. Fighting wise, she's the weaker of us. She's strong for the average unicorn as she once was, no mistake about it. But when it comes to a true contest of power, in singles, she can't beat anypony other than her brother."

"Oh no. Poor Shining." I muttered.

"Well let's be legitimate, going against Cadance, Twilight has probably won five out of the seventeen times the two sparred. And again, it's mainly because Cadance was her foalsitter, so she knows Twilight's tendencies in combat because they treated hide-go-seek like it was some fight to the death."

"Oh gosh, I bet the house was a mess." I said with a chortle.

"No, but when it came to combat training, Cadance taught Twilight everything she knew. They even turned it into a game where whoever won got to spend more time with Shining Armor for the day."

"Twilight really seems to love her brother." I said, thinking about how close the two actually are.

"Well they've also been competing since they were foals. The Sparkle family household promoted a competition between the two for weekly rights with the score coming up as Shining being the long-term victor for a while."

"You must've been around the family so much." I said.

"Well when your captain of the guard happens to be Crescent, and your head of Royal Librarian staff happens to be Velvet, you tend to see them a lot. It was interesting watching them grow from being teenage foals who knew nothing of castle decorum, to blatantly disregarding those rules as young adults, growing mature while raising a family, retiring to focusing on their development, and then watching the kids grow up to be even more involved. It's almost like they were as family as anyone."

Just the thought that she actually got to watch two generations of Sparkles grow is far too much for me to even process on my own. She must feel like such a grandparent. "Is that why you were so attentive when it came to Shining marrying Cadance?"

"Well his father was an incredibly active, fertile fellow, I deemed his son too rich of a breed on that end. I could only assume that he was going to be as adventurous with Cadance as his father was with Velvet. So I had little choice but to keep my eye on him."

"Much like how you have to keep your eye on me." I joked.

She didn't speak for a while as she just looked at me. Without much of warning, she broke apart from our conversation to bring up another topic. "...Last night."

"What about─" Before I could finish my question, my brain immediately flashed back to the moment we stood in the kitchen talking for almost two whole hours. And as we stared at each other, something had just clicked and we quickly departed from one another. "Oh... right."

The princess slid her menu to the side and whispered in a low voice. "I want to talk about it."

"Just friends?" I said, jumping to conclusions.

"Let me finish, please." She urged, standing up from her chair, pacing back and forth. She started to move around the room quietly for a minute before finally expanding on her thoughts. "You know, last night was wonderful, and I did enjoy myself. It's not often I'd get the experience of a home dinner date... Not saying it was a date per se, but it was... different... for me. It was a first for me. For a thousand years, I don't think I've had anyone who wouldn't joke with me so casually, even laughing at my most crude moments instead of reacting with horrified shock. I got to feel natural with you, and that's so wonderful to think about."

I damn near bit my tongue as I sat there, thinking for a moment about what was on my mind as I went to sleep last night. "But the aspect of it scares you because of my tendencies."

"Not even that." She clarified. "It's the fact that I'm rediscovering that feeling after centuries of not being able to open up so casually. And you said it yourself, love is for the birds and I happen to have wings of my own. So..."

"So, what?" I inquired, being held on suspense.

The mare shook her head and scoffed. "I know I should start looking for who makes me happy, especially since you're working to put me back on the market in two months. But what I do know is that I'm not quite ready for the world of dating as far as the modern logistics of it, I feel it's much too fast for me. And of course, I can't ask that of you since you belong to someone else..."

She looked away as soon as she said that. Meanwhile I was sitting there, thinking to myself how I could quietly come to a more peaceful resolution. "Is that what makes you happy, the thought of possibly finding someone to fill that gap? I mean you don't need to do that."

The high princess closed her eyes and whispered to herself. "Just get it over with, Celeste." She then looked at me and walked towards me. "I am in need of trust. And really... you should deem it to be unfair after my nearly shoving you away so callously, but..." The princess froze as she tried to think more on her hooves, coming to a way to say what was on her mind, fumbling her thoughts while she expressed herself. "As you know, I have a history."

I glanced around and whispered back to her. "I thought that you said that you were off the menu."

"I am." The princess instantly replied, trying to still vent her thoughts. "I don't need new wounds where the old ones haven't scarred yet. But I do need to be able to confide in somepony, someone. We aren't going to be a thing... ever, but I want to be able to talk with you more. I find myself wanting to talk to you, even trying to ignore that fact is annoying. But last night had me where all I could do was think about you and the night we talked until morning. I haven't did anything like that in a long time. But I haven't painted a room for somepony before, given up my bed for someone, changed my menu, shared my bath, being looked after so emphatically, altered my appearance so drastically, caused someone so much grief out of my being unable to deal with the customs of certain clothing options, see a whole new world with you. Gracious, when you were waking up with Luna in your bed, I don't think I could've been more incensed." The princess took a deep breath before she could continue. "Just the thought of you doing so much in the little time I've seen you, the way you move, the way you speak to me so informally just makes me so happy that I could want this for myself everyday. You have these moments when you taste my food, you clench your eyes shut and lurch your head forward just to catch your own tongue... it warms me. Even the little greetings you give me in the mornings now carry much more weight than I thought it would. It's so nice to have such a friend that I can have many a long-winded conversation with. But..."

"It hurts." I concluded, not wanting to concede to the reality of the situation.

"Just a little." She said, grabbing at her chest plate. "It's not quite at that point, I haven't grown to trust you to that extent where I can't bear to see you anywhere else other than by me. It wouldn't be fair if I felt like that to you. But... I'm willing to learn how to trust in you."

By that point, I had to stress to her why I was not the choice to lean in on so heavily. I didn't want her to have expectations, only to come up empty. It's just too much of that around me. Even if I did enjoy our talks and would keep doing it for hours, I wouldn't feel right placing her in that zone where others wouldn't be satisfied with, while be right there just happily feeling miserable at every advancement I made. Pinkie and Mel are hard enough as it is to do that to, but not her, please not her too. "But how do you even trust someone who's so involved with others? Lady, I'm practically selling myself off to see you free, prostituting even, just for the slim chance that I can get my relationship back, and that's not even a promise I can make. Why do you want to trust me when there's several guards who'd sacrifice their lives for you?"

The princess closed her eyes and sat herself down in front of me. "Because you told me all of that. It's not everyday you have someone tell me exactly what they're involved with. I'm not asking for you to be some clandestine lover to appease hundreds of years of my not having the intimate affection... But I am asking you to dote on me, just a little. I can't give you anything physical nor will I entertain the thought, but just having that bit of emotional support, the close friendship, that's all I need."

A long time ago, I had researched a common trait in old play writing, something from an English class my freshman year. I believe the term was called courtly love. It was where the knight in the courts of a noblewoman would fawn over her but would do so under the pretenses that their actions would be unpaid in the long run, unrequited love with no means of payoff. I initially thought the practice as completely unnecessary, why fall for someone so damn hard knowing they were locked up in a marriage? There were even cases of it being shown to those of noble blood who were also unmarried, but because the knight was considered a low-born citizen, a close relationship could never be. Again, why even try to realize emotional investment in someone you can't even touch, it hurts to be standing on the outside looking in.

And then a year later, I ran into Melanie. I fell right in that same pattern, doing for her without much of a thank you. I stayed up with her when she wasn't feeling too great about a breakup, talking on the phone for hours. I reached out to get her to come to my side, but she rejected me each time. Now it's on the other foot, she's arguing that I should go home and just be normal with her. She helped save my life, but I couldn't feel the way she felt about me because my emotions were dedicated to someone else. To this day in the back recesses of my mind, I continue to ask that question.

Now I had to ask it to Celestia, in the most direct way possible. "You say you want that close of a friendship, knowing it will hurt sometime later. Is that what you think you need, or is it something you want?"

The princess looked up to me, her horn glowing brightly with her magic. "No, that is what I need... My want is something entirely different now."

"So what─" I wouldn't even get the chance to ask, a powerful force shoves me forward, leaning down to the princess who seized at my jaw with her hooves, pulling me in to a most surprising gift.

My eyes were shocked wide open while hers were lost, halfway closed. I looked down to see if what I was experiencing was real, and sure enough, it was her lips colliding with mine. She didn't move, just embraced the moment for what it was, fleeting as it may have been to the millennium of sunsets she cast. She wouldn't take it further, exercising her own brand of discipline as she held herself. But I could tell in the two seconds our lips melded, she was very skilled in the art of sharing her lips with another. And as the sunrise brought light to the horizon, so did our parting bring light to separate our briefly connected shadows.

Her royal majesty broke a smile closely against my face. "My want brings about bad omens, so I'll stick to my needs." My entire body was frozen in place as she walked away, going back to her seat and picking back up her menu. The princess giggled while touching her lips. "Though I won't lie, I want to be quite the entrée. But we need to maintain distance. So I am willing to share a courtly appreciation for one another. That is all I desire, this will satisfy me."

I nervously shook before standing on my own two feet, looking at my own shoes before feeling my face flush red. The momentum of the fact that the highest being in this land, my employer no less, just took the initiative and opened herself up to me. This wasn't anything like Luna, who eagerly expressed her desire for a physical encounter. When it came to her, I had a certain line I designated myself never to cross. We just allowed one thing to turn into another, and it just came short of that bold red line. Celestia on the other hand, had a giant red wall between me and her just a few days ago, now I'm sitting right where I've always been while the wall crumbles before me, her lips pressed into mine. If the line I had established with her happened to be the Walls of Jericho itself, they tumbled into dust tonight.

I didn't say anything as I sat down in my chair, only picked up my menu and waited quietly for the chef to come by and ask us for our orders. I know a simple kiss shouldn't petrify me at this point, but the weight of who it was done with had broken me.

My collapse hadn't gone completely unnoticed. Celestia, who probably savored the fleeting moment as a triumph over her own self, started to realize what she had done. Her confidence waned, celebration ceased while her eyes shifted in any other direction to avoid looking at me. The sun princess then buried her face into her menu, her ears reddening with each second while she quietly whispered to me. "...I'm sorry that I acted on impulse that once. I can assure you that it will never happen again."

I nodded slowly and silently, not knowing exactly what to say or where to begin.

Meanwhile, standing in the kitchen was a small group of chefs awaiting their instructions from Lemon Hearts. She stood by the doorway, quietly petrified over what she had just witnessed through the cracked door. A hoof firmly planted over her mouth as she stared at her former mentor nervously fiddling with her menu while the human sat motionless in his chair.

"Princess..."

The Next Morning...

I woke up with the ever constant taste of mint and ginger on my lips, an inexplicable yet pleasurable reminder of my sudden clash with the Princess of the Sun. I felt like my entire day was going to be off to an awkward start. My room was so chilly that I had to wrap myself in a blanket until I could get dressed. I even took an alternate route on my jog, took a bath instead of my usual quick-timed shower, and wore my hair in a clean ponytail instead of letting the locks flow. When I arrived, Celestia, Luna, Blueblood, and Shining all sat at the table. The three who didn't get the chance to enjoy the food yesterday were more than compelled to demand seconds of their meals.

When I walked in, Luna greeted me with her usual flirtatious banter. Shining and Blueblood cracked jokes at my expense, quietly implying the moment I was turned to a stallion and had no idea of how to control my own body. The moment lingered amongst the three while Celestia remained ignorant to the story. I just felt more embarrassed and awkward for her not knowing it while everyone else chuckled at me.

Celestia, on the other hand, was very quiet. Instead of being her usual chatty self to many of the guards and maids, she was quiet, even to those out in the halls, who murmured of her unusual silence today. She tried to get a quick peek at me, but quickly averted her eyes as soon as she noticed I was looking at her the entire time.

The head chef stepped into the room and grabbed a few empty plates before quietly handing me a menu. When I sat down, I started going through my potential options, each of them far more preferential to the gruel Zesty Gourmand had put out on a daily basis. But I wouldn't get a moment's rest from the chef, who insisted that there was something wrong with my menu. She offered to change it out, to give me a corrected one, even though I denied that there was anything wrong with it.

She didn't give up either, she instead grabbed a menu of teas and coffees and placed it in front of me. Personally, I was in love with coffee, so I took her up on that offer. The only caveat was that I was, for some odd reason, advised to enter the kitchen and pick out the specific roast I desired. I looked down at the bottom of the menu to see a yellow post-it with a small note.

I started to get curious as to why I was given the sudden invitation to go to the kitchen, but I noticed that she was very insistent that I follow up on her request. And considering that she was the head chef cooking the amazing food, I didn't want to upset her in any way. Learned my lesson the hard way on not upsetting the castle chef, especially when there are so many dietary restrictions levied against me city-wide. So I obliged and excused myself to make my coffee selection.

As soon as I entered the kitchen, I took notice that there were hardly any chefs around. It was just her and her alone. She continued to work on her dishes, doing the work of the usual staffing of a combined ten ponies, as she took notice of my being in the room. "Good morning, captain."

"Top of the morning to you, ma'am." I said with a heavily exaggerated southern twang before reverting to my normal manner of speaking. "Hey, what's the deal?"

"Well, I was calling you in here to talk about a few things, but first I should ask you about the food last night. Did you enjoy it?"

"A whole lot." I replied, kissing my fingers to imitate an explosion of flavor. "Magnificent."

"None of the food was too salty, too spicy, too greasy, too bitter, too sweet, nothing?" She asked.

"Food was great. Thank you so much for cooking." I complimented, placing my hands together with a bow.

She glanced around before going to the door and peeking out to see her mentor quietly sitting in place, staring at her cup of morning tea. "You know, it's highly unusual to see the princess just stare at her tea. She's so specific that it's almost hard to please her accurately. I mean wouldn't that be the case after a thousand years of tasting everything?"

"Yeah, she's kinda quiet this morning." I noted. "I'm apparently not the only one who noticed."

"So you see it too?" She asked.

"How can't I? She's usually talking about what they got her doing for the day. Instead, she's just staring at her cup of tea like she did something wrong." While I was speaking that sentence, I felt a tinge of guilt shadowing over me.

"...Something she did wrong, or something she did to make you feel uneasy." The mare said, looking at me.

"What are you on about?" I asked, growing suspicious.

"Oh you know what I'm on about." She stressed, pointing to her lips. "The big smooch, you got lip-bombed by not just anypony, but the friggin' highest princess in all the land."

I looked back through the door and quickly turned to the mare. "Okay, who told you that stupid lie?" I asked, trying to deny it.

"Not told, I saw the whole thing. From her pulling you down to the stupid look on your face ever since you sat back down. You said nothing to her after that and she just started breaking down over time. Now she doesn't speak to anypony because you didn't even give her a single response. How cruel!"

Thankfully, there were no other chefs in the room, otherwise the rumors would spread like radioactive byproducts at Chernobyl. That's the last thing I needed to deal with right now. "How cruel, I told her that I wasn't able to give her that─"

"I know you did, but it's not about that." She interrupted, stepping up to me with a criticizing glare. "You got hit by the pitch, told to go to first base, and you're not even moving from home plate. You can't just freeze her out like that. Even if you don't like her─she honestly deserves some attention─you have to make things not awkward for her. She put herself out there and you left her on stage not knowing what to do. You have to address this immediately."

"But─" She wouldn't even give me a chance to reply.

"Either you make good with her or I'll have to stand I have to exercise my pride as a mare." She opened the cabinet full of the different blends of coffee and pulled out one small glass jar of whole coffee beans. "In other words, for the amorously dense, I'll make sure that not a single mare in Equestria cooks for you."

I shook my head as I grumbled in response. "I'm not dense, I'm just overwhelmed."

"So I take it that I should grab my menu back then?" She answered, shaking the jar of coffee beans.

Yeah, even if I could just simply jump back to my world and eat, I didn't feel like spending any money today. And there was no need to go into detail about the amount of drama that would stir up from my getting blacklisted from several commercial establishments. So I conceded to her 'death' threats and complied. "You really like twisting my arm. Fine, I'll go out there and break the ice a bit. It's won't be like last night when she shattered an entire glacier, so don't expect nothing grandiose."

"Good." She said while opening the door, whispering to me before she kicked me out the kitchen. "Now you go and get my favorite princess talking like she's used to."

"Yes ma'am." I said, pointing to the glass jar she was holding. "Now what blend are you holding now?"

"Arabica, freshly imported from Zebrabwe."

"I'll try that then."

I left the kitchen and walked over to my seat, grabbed my menu and looked towards next available seat closest to the high princess. I was still a bit nervous on how she was feeling and what she would even say to me at this point. So I took a gulp of air and marched quietly to where Cadance would normally be seated. Celestia glanced at me before turning her attention back to her no-longer steaming tea.

"You seem pretty quiet today." I said to her, trying to pretend as if nothing had shocked me yesterday. "So did they throw you in the gauntlet today too?"

She didn't reply openly like she's used to, just humming an empty confirmation.

"So what kind of tea are you drinking this morning?" I asked.

She didn't give me an answer.

I gave an exasperated sigh and whispered to her. "Mint and ginger tea, I might order that this morning."

Initially, she froze and placed a hoof over her muzzle while her cheeks warmed with color. But she snapped out of it and tapped me on the shoulder, leaning into my ear. "You know that combination is for sore throat and headaches, right?" She said to me with a damaged voice and smiled, tapping on her throat.

I nodded with acknowledgement as she continued to stare at her own cup of cooled tea. She obviously couldn't talk from the sound of the raspiness in her voice. Even earlier, she obviously tried her best to speak normally but had to reign me in just for me to hear her. I couldn't make her talk on that, so I had an idea. Instead of saying something in front of the others while she couldn't respond clearly, I simplified my thoughts to a notepad app on my phone. I tapped away at my screen for a minute or two before showing it to her.

"I tasted that when you kissed me yesterday. You're pretty good at kissing, so good that I had to give myself time to process that. I'm sorry about saying nothing last night, I just didn't know how to respond to it. But now that I had some time to simmer on it, I can say that it was wrong of me to just leave you out in the cold like I did. To make up for it, I'll see if I have some time to brush your mane again."

Celestia's eyes widened while looking at the message, she tapped the center of her chest as she read the message I gave her. She gave me back the phone and illuminated her horn. She didn't manipulate anything, but I could hear her voice as clear as day. "...Nine tonight, I'll be in the bath. You can brush my mane clean, preen my feathers, and I'll tell you about my busy little day."

I picked at my screen and gave her another message to read. "So you aren't mad from my not saying anything yesterday?"

She shook her head. "The only thing I'm mad about is that you're just now complimenting me on my kissing. Granted it was two years since I last locked lips with anyone, but small things like that I do worry about. Though I don't have a right to be upset in any capacity, I forced myself on you. So I should really be the one to apologize. You told me what you couldn't do while I jumped on impulse. You deserve better from your princess.

"I'm just happy you're expressing yourself. Everyone has been wanting you to do that for a while now." I texted back.

"Well, I'll just start off small by keeping that circle between you and me." She said as she finally started to guzzle down her tea.

"Fair enough." I replied back.

She looked at me while anchoring her head against her hoof. "My throat hurts like hell itself, it hurts to swallow. Maybe I'll have you look after me today in place of your shift. I can't believe I fell ill twice this decade, let alone this year."

"Well just as long as you don't sneeze on me like last time. I had my mouth open and I tasted alicorn snot for a whole hour."

The princess stifled a laugh, though winced at the pain while grabbing at her throat. The others looked at her as she struggled to laugh through the pain. Most of them just stared at me while I explained to them. "She's got a sore throat today, coming down with a bug again! So she'll clear her schedule and resume operations tomorrow!" I loudly announced, trying to throw a hint to any assistants waiting outside. The others hummed and oh'd with understanding. The princess tapped my shoulder while smiling at me.

"Hurts to laugh too. Please don't humor me so much today."

Author's Note

Well it's been some time since I last put out a chapter, unfortunately life tends to give me a pretty rough hand while I'm doing these. One such example is while I was typing, my screen flickers and then there's this one random bar at the bottom of my screen... Then it grows to two, to three, to five, and then my screen flickers and jumps until all of a sudden, it doesn't stop flickering and jumping. Still doing it as I'm typing this. What's worse, I can't see the top of my screen.

If you were to maximize your windows and try to change a tab or click to exit a program, you would be having trouble trying to see it because the top half of my screen is jumping like a barefooted tourist on hot sand. If it wasn't for the fact that I have my laptop hooked in via an HDMI cable, you probably wouldn't hear back from me any sooner. But yeah, need a new screen, tried replacing the wires and making sure the connections are all valid. It ain't the mother board because it would still register that same problem on the TV I'm using. But here we are, back again.

Celestia might be a little interested in a few things and theories, but as of now she's... curious. One can imagine what would be the case if a certain younger sibling were to find out. And it sure seems Twilight and Nondis got into a bit of trouble again, but what else do you expect out of some casual bedroom banter with a certain someone you've been separated from while still meeting with them on the frequent tip? It's not like the stress of dealing with several outside problems and influences start to mount some frustrations, frustrations that also stem from pent up engagements with one's legally proclaimed ex.

Nah, it's not like there's anything else to worry about... oh wait.

Chapter LXXXVIII

Life tends to go a lot faster when you're in a rush to do almost everything at once. Whether you're juggling two jobs to try to make ends meet, cramming like hell to send in that online assignment that's due in the next hour, picking up your kids from school and going grocery shopping, or even hanging out with your friends at that one place you all love going. It's as if time flies right by you and you're left wondering where it all went. But taking care of someone who fell ill, that can drag your day a bit.

Wanna know what helps speed that up? How about looking after the most important individual who also happens to run an entire country.

The first half of my day was spent running in and out of her room, telling any of Celestia's assistants that came by for an appointment to go talk to the one in charge for the day. As for who that was, that's a pretty funny thing to talk about. Since many of her daily appointments and meetings were cancelled so abruptly for the sake of her personal health, she had to delegate someone to take the brunt of her duties. Both Cadance and Twilight were away for the day, so that originally left Luna to pick up the slack. But there was a tiny bit of a problem with that, it was the fact that Luna had pulled an all-nighter and was too tired to do anything but drift off to sleep doing whatever she was doing. Blueblood just outright rejected the assignment and ventured north to Manehattan for whatever reason he refused to discuss.

So for the first time... Shining Armor had the royal throne to himself.

And since he was large and in charge, he took the opportunity to challenge the parliament on their ideas when it came to military spending. He made the proposal to improve crossbow technology and enhancing the standard issue armor to ward off projectiles instead of having them sit on trying to keep the budget cut short. He also strongly advocated a backpay system in the eventual case that guards were to not receive payment in the case of a funding shutdown, registering those particular shifts as standard hourly pay with added overtime. Another thing he brought to the table was a ten percent raise across the board for the guard as many would complain that their work wasn't being rewarded enough, while some even had to take up a second job just to make ends meet.

And then there was the big proposal, a protection plan for guards who have been in terrible circumstances that had caused any damage to their psyche. All counseling and medications would be paid for upon the registration of a diagnosis. He went further to tell his story of how he was given the special privilege to attend counseling on the pretenses that he was engaged to royalty, meanwhile citing how his fellow guards only got a hospital checkup prior to being released without any followup or monitoring, a move that proved to further enhance the chance of any possible suicide attempts. In short, Shining was on the ball for his guys, and when he got out, the entire guard roared with applause as soon as he left the parliament chamber.

Celestia had a visualization sphere on standby in case she needed to check up on anything, but she was thoroughly impressed with his agenda. I was more surprised that this stuff wasn't already implemented into the guard, considering that military work would prove to be a great contributor to stress and depression. But either way, she gave the young prince a nod of approval while discussing it with me. "If only you and Twilight didn't separate, I'd be looking forward to the proposals you'd be putting in place as a fellow royal."

I humbly dismissed her praise. "I'm no one to be called a prince, just keep me in the box with all the other recruits."

The mare groaned, stressing through her damaged voice. "Now now, you know why I can't keep you there."

"Is it because I'm different?" I said, trying to play off her intended response.

The princess rolled over in her bed, facing me instead of the sphere. "I think you sell yourself short on what you're capable of."

"Honestly, shouldn't that be a practice of mine, especially considering all of the achievements of you royals?" I asked. "I've seen what Twilight had to fight, what Cadance had to fight, what Shining Armor went through, what Blueblood does, what you and Luna have to do. I don't have a place here."

The mare reached out with a hoof, placing it on my chin to turn my head to her. "You have one, just give it some time and keep going where you're going."

I scoffed at the idea. "I'm no Fair Charity."

"Oh no you aren't." Giggled the princess. "In contrast, he was a lot more active in his nightly wanderings into the maids quarters."

"So is that why you have no problems with me goofing around?" I asked.

"If there was anything I could've done to ease the situation for any suitors, it was the saving grace clause I advocated for sometime before Fair Charity's death. The only problem is that it didn't see much use outside of Shining Armor, and even he was limited on his use because of Cadance's desire to keep him for herself."

"Any reason why she's like that?" I asked. "You'd think the princess of love would be into the herding thing like Blueblood is."

"Actually, it's because of a very specific reason. With a given title comes a specified promotion of that title over time." She said, no longer lying down in her bed, but sitting up to look at me directly. "I am the princess of the day itself, because I am the princess of the sun. Luna is the princess of the night because she is the princess of the moon. Blueblood is the prince of order, because he is the prince of justice."

"Now that I think about it, he is a bit avaricious to be considered to be the prince of order." I muttered under my breath.

"His greed is rewarded in consequence, always has been and will be. In seeking a bride to share a bed, he gained everything but what he originally sought to obtain. That's how it is for him." She added before continuing. "Shining is the prince of valor, because he is the prince of courage. And Twilight is the princess of friendship, because she is the princess of magic. Magic is amplified through friendship and thus gives her the power you see she possesses. Now having all of what I've told you, where does that leave Cadance?"

"The princess of love." I answered.

Celestia nodded. "Now what amplifies that love?"

"I guess relationships."

The princess then shook her head. "Not quite the whole answer. To know love, it has to begin somewhere. What is the first instance of love you experience in your young years of development, the nurturing you receive, the protection that is offered?"

I lightly knocked my palm against my forehead for ignoring such an obvious answer. "Duh, family."

Celestia got out of her bed as she started to walk towards her vault. "I'm sure you remember that Cadance was Twilight's foalsitter at one point. But I should also tell you that I was not the only one who watched the Sparkle family grow from a quiet librarian and a rowdy guard."

"You aren't?" I questioned.

"Cadance had her eye on them also. She also spoke with Velvet many a times when they were much younger. The two would have conversations spanning hours about their favorite romance novels and who deserved to be with who, expressing anger over who was killed off, and ranting about who didn't deserve to have a happy ending. Then the two grew into three when Crescent showed up."

"Let me guess, there was some romance drama between the three of them?" I asked.

"Hardly." She answered bluntly, opening the safe to pull out a small sepia photo of the three sitting at a table together. Velvet and Cadance both had an open book in front of them, happily chatting away while Crescent tried to balance a book on his horn out of boredom. "If anything, Cadance was slow to embrace others because of her past. In her ascension, she grew to lose everyone she loved, so she distanced herself for well over a century. But she did find that the love these two would share eventually became far more compelling than anything she'd read in some novel. It was much different than what she was used to seeing."

She then handed me another photo, this one of young Twilight and Cadance sitting at a similar table, with Shining doing the same balancing act on his horn. The only difference was that she was looking at him with a slight grin. But I couldn't help but to bring up one glaring discrepancy. "It looks like Cadance is a teenager here, just like she was in the other photo."

"Cadance refused to age out of her early teens, in part by her stubbornness to keep everyone at a distance. She wanted no one to get close to her. But when Velvet became friends with her, she started to see the value in letting the years go by. She rediscovered a different aspect of love that she once lost, knowing how to start over."

"That's a pretty important lesson." I noted. "But how did she and Shining ever considered getting together, wouldn't it be awkward to date the son of your best friend after growing up with them?"

"Velvet offered her the opportunity for her to get to know Shining. So she opened the door by simply making her a foalsitter for Twilight. She figured the familiarity would cause them to grow closer. They did, almost getting into a young adolescent relationship of him being the colt and her being the filly next door. But in the years to pass, she only got to know the love of the family that she watched grow from a mare she spent lunch reading books with. And in time, she wanted that for herself. She even wanted to grow with him, trying to match his every step. And so her desires manifested itself, she grew up to a few inches shy of Luna, dwarfing poor Shining in high school."

"High school?" I asked a bit confused. "Didn't she live for centuries?"

"Just one and some time." She corrected me. "As I said, she wanted to match his every step. Had some hiccups along the way like some stallions trying to play themselves as a suitor. But none of them ever had a chance, she knew what she wanted and she went with her safest bet."

"So how about Shining, wasn't he forced into conscription?"

The princess handed me yet another photo, this one of a baby Shining Armor being held in his father's hooves, Crescent still donned a guard uniform with several medals decorating him. "Not entirely. Shining wanted to be a guard. He just didn't know that his being so close to Cadance was going to make it harder for him. But he stuck it through, and he was placed on the fast-track due to his being a suitor."

I handed her back the pictures while I spoke. "Honestly, I don't even know how to think of any of this. There's so much between the royals and the Sparkle family. Is there some more historical reference that guides you guys together?"

"No. Just a diligent captain who did what he could to defend his country and a humble little librarian who longed for adventure outside of the boring life of sorting books. I could tell you more about them, probably for next time. My voice is starting to sore again."

I covered my face with my hand, shaking my head. "Then why didn't you do what you did at breakfast?"

"Because I wanted to talk to you." She replied. "I feel more natural speaking to you as opposed to doing that all the time. Besides, it takes a lot of mental concentration to convey my thoughts to you remotely."

She walked back to the safe and placed the photos inside before closing it. I pointed to the bed while I removed the sheets for her to get under. "Well I tell you what, since you're so mentally drained, how about you get some shuteye? Don't want you pushing yourself too much."

The princess took a quick breath, conceding any argument to do otherwise. "I guess. What's your schedule today?"

"Well, today is usually my short day, but I guess my superiors will call it time and a half if I stick around to take care of you."

"I suppose it will be a lot more fun than sitting in a hallway watching the shadows stretch over the hours." She said, getting back into the bed.

"Yeah, even when you go to sleep, I'll find some ways to entertain myself. I'll get too bored if I start counting ponies walking down the halls. Maybe I'll just play on my phone for a while."

The white alicorn hummed as she turned herself over and closed her eyes. "Just remember to stay in or around the room until I am finished. Can't lose sight of me if I'm nearby."

"Well I don't have a choice."

It didn't take long to see her body stop shifting around, trying to get in a comfortable position. But it also didn't take me long to realize how breezy her room was with the balcony being wide open. I was just glad that the wind wasn't blowing into the room. Still, I couldn't believe she could sleep like this, how the hell does any one pony deal with a draft this bad?

I walked over to the balcony and looked at the curtains to cover the doorway. From what I could tell, there was a rope that allowed the drapes to cascade down to cover the opening. There also seemed to be weights at the bottom to disallow wind from blowing them open. So I adjusted the curtains, closing off the balcony to give the princess a chance to warm herself up instead of suffering in silence like she usually would.

But when I turned around, I was greeted with something quite different.

I could see the princess' face resting peacefully, a single foreleg draped off the side of her bed while her lips separated just slightly. Her chest rose and fell slowly while her eyeslids were just shy of closing all the way. Even her mane had gone from it's usual hues of blue, green, teal, and lavender into different shades of the sunset spectrum. Beautiful glows of the dying sun anointed her mane and tail, rich orange streaks fading into red, red to pink, pink to purple. As her mane shimmered, it almost appeared as stars trying to shine their way through like they would at that moment of the twilight hour.

If I could be honest for a moment, I would say that I had never seen anything so incredibly beautiful. Even as a few strands of her mane started to drift over her face, I was more than compelled to send them back to join with the rest, just so I could quietly enjoy the beautiful ruler in all her majesty. I wasn't quite sure if anyone had seen her like this, but the honor and privilege belonged to me now. I wanted to horde this for myself.

What would it be like to wake up to this every morning, to see her greet you like this, smiling?

I would have problems coming to terms with the fact that this was all for me.

...It could be yours.

She adjusted herself, shifting her weight a bit to where she felt more comfortable, a heartwarming smile appeared on her lips as she nudged forward. She whispered to the dream she had, softly calling out. "My darling."

I froze in place, my heart skipping a few beats while she resumed her rest. I had to take a few steps back because I was so enraptured by that beauty, so much that I would've forgotten that I was supposed to be guarding her instead of being a creep and watching her sleep. I figured that I would punch myself in the chest to focus up, snap out of the trance and actually do my job instead of hearing the lyrics to Every Breath You Take in my head. And it wasn't like I could take a picture, despite the fact that it would last longer. She's asleep for fuck's sake.

...And I had other ends to tie up, too many now. The fuck am I doing?

I shouldn't be fawning over her, I shouldn't be looking at her like I got a chance to be with her, or even like I might have the remote possibility of entertaining a relationship with a thousand year-old demigod. I shouldn't even entertain these thoughts at all when I consider the fact that I have two other girls trying to keep me and another two who's just in it for the sex. I haven't even began to take into consideration the other two that I denied and placed in my 'friend' corner. My whole love life is a mess because I tried too hard to make others happy. And when I try to assert myself, I only break hearts while racking up a kill count. Hell, I just had Twilight holding my head between her thighs two days ago. Sooner or later, I'm gonna be buried in some other girl's haunches in exchange for a political favor.

This is my life now. Can't say that I didn't get what I've been begging for way back when in high school. I just didn't want it to be so damn difficult. Back then I felt like the vagina was the best part of the girl, that everything else is just too much to deal with. The drama, the baggage, the emotional draw, the attachment, all of it felt so unnecessary and I believed it would be better if we just reverted to being like animals and mating for survival, no additional strings needed.

I never want to go back to thinking like that.

Hours passed as I just sat in the bathroom, quietly going through my phone's internet browser. I pulled up a youtube video on... everything really. I just started going through the trending section, finding some stuff I liked, stuff I didn't, a few gaming videos of people raging out and tossing their controllers at the TV. Much of it I had a sensible chuckle, but there were a few moments I had to laugh and repeat a certain part. And then I started going through Vines, losing myself in twenty minute compilations of people trying to make the most of six seconds.

Honestly, I was distracting myself from life.

It was a fun little venture back into the world of humans, seeing everything that we did to make ourselves laugh and feel good. It was cute, funny, crude, and even awesome to see those moments. It made me think of the times I had in high school, the ones that were actually good. Like the one year I spent in Upward Bound, while we were staying in the dorms, some classmates had a stupid idea of putting some tube socks inside of another tube sock, grabbing the lids off of our hampers and swinging at each other like we were gladiators, fighting for the glory of having the last box of honey buns. I can imagine we would've recorded shit like that.

But the world changed, there was no way of seeing all of what was going to happen to me. I went from being a dumb adolescent boy with nothing but sex, food, and games on my mind, to being a guard for a princess, fighting a myriad of magical creatures, learning magic myself, and advocating for the rights of a select few against the machine of several fossilized politicians seeking to further their own agendas.

And then there's the romance part.

"There you are."

I glanced back up, seeing the sun princess standing before me in all of her usual glory, her mane showing as it does whenever she's awake. It appeared from the sound of her voice that she was back to normal. "And I'm still amazed over how quick you alicorns can heal."

The mare sighed as she placed her chestplate on the counter across the room. "You'd think that time heals all wounds, and then you see this ugly scar from a thousand years ago."

"I told you it's a sign of your triumph. You keep downplaying it as a moment of weakness when in fact it was your strength to endure and not capitulate to the desires of a bunch of pasty horndogs."

"They got what they wanted anyways." She replied sadly, looking back at herself in the mirror. "It's sad to know that my count with consent in mind is only one, while the actuality is that many more have known me just as deeply."

"You weren't even awake, so it doesn't count." I replied quickly before pulling myself back on that comment, thinking a little more on what the possible implications were on that statement. Worst came to mind and I started to feel incredibly stupid for even blurting that out. "I'm─"

"You're fine." She said so casually. "I'm just glad I have someone I can begin to trust. Having friends like you eases my memories of that day."

I started to say something in response to that before another blunt thought came to my lips. "At least that ugly bastard who claimed he loved you didn't get what he wanted."

Suddenly, I heard the sound of the waters of the bathing pool shift. I turned around to see Celestia sinking herself in while having a towel over her head. "That I can say is the only victory I can take away. Though the cost of it..."

I quickly tried to change the subject, not wanting her mind to linger too long on it. "Hey, so how about that mane brushing I promised?"

The princess summoned a brush from her magic and levitated it towards me. "Well since you know what to do this time, I guess you can get through it a little quicker."

I had a moment to look to the ceiling while taking a sigh of appreciation. "I'm sorry to put you in that kind of mood so soon after your sleep. So let's talk about something else."

"Like what?" She asked as I started to sit myself behind her, grabbing a long lock of her ethereal mane.

"Your dreams." I answered as I got started with brushing her hair. "I was closing off your balcony to stop a draft from getting you even more sick, and you said something about a 'darling'."

The princess chuckled as she rolled her eyes. "Oh that, it's just some random dream full of mush."

"What kind of mush?" I asked.

"None that pertains to you." She replied.

"Was it of a lover?" I questioned. "Good King Sombra, Prince Fair Charity, some other guy I might not know about?"

"If I say that it was you, would you leave me alone?"

I gave an audible chuckle. "Now you know that ain't real because I would've had to stop brushing your mane to ask you why I'm even worth dreaming about, not that I'm even anything to write home about at all."

"And why do you think that?" Celestia inquired.

"Well..." I began, starting to go down a laundry list of what I felt were my personal flaws. "I help others to a fault, I jump into fights, I do a lot of ass-kissing and white-knighting, I'm awkward, I can't dance very well, I'm shortsighted on my future because I don't know where I wanna be in five years, I'm financially unstable, sometimes I rush into sex, I don't like delayed gratification too much because I can be impatient too often, I get into trouble with women, I like to lie on the spot about small stuff, I fawn over beauty too easily, I sometimes talk to myself, I like eating too much, I lose track of time too easily, I fantasize about some things I run into over the course of a day and find myself trying to relieve the tension, I like doing that relieving process a whole fucking lot, and sometimes I regret my decisions."

The princess hummed at the idea as she raised her head to look at me directly. "...You're not any kind of fun, add that one to the list."

"How so?" I asked.

"Because you just told me everything bad about you without giving me the chance to be able to discover that for myself. What's the fun in trying to poke and prod into your psyche when you're such an open book!?"

"Again, why am I even a topic worth reading on?" I emphasized once more.

The princess readjusted herself back into comfort as she gave her response. "Because you're worth more than the dusty and garish cover you try to hide behind. So you gave me the synopsis for the first five chapters."

"I don't know how bad advertising is helping me sell you on that idea." I said with a groan.

"Because bad publicity is good publicity." She answered, levitating a luffa above her body, getting ready to clean herself. She started off by tending to her hooves. "Anything that brings up the topic is sure to bring up intrigue. So instead of the question being 'just how good or bad can it be', it ends up being 'so is it really that bad'. Now you have the intrigue of a small niche audience who are looking to either be amused with the terrible quality or if they'll be disgusted enough to spread the word."

You know, I honestly forgot there are internet reviewers who sit through the worst movies just to tear it apart for their audience. So her explanation shouldn't be much of a surprise. "I guess that counts for something."

"But instead of dissecting the bad, I'm going to investigate the good that I do keep hearing about." She said she finished one foreleg, moving to the other. "Now to ask, do you have any experience with pegasi wings?"

"I've helped Twilight preen a few times... But the experience wasn't exactly wholesome." I confessed.

The princess blushed as I continued to brush through her mane. "Oh, then you must be really good at that."

"She says it's my fingers, the finer attention to detail that they offer as they reach down into places most teeth can't."

The princess took a deep breath. "Okay, then don't preen me today. I really don't want too much to happen all at once. Just you brushing my mane is giving me a beautiful sensation of nostalgia."

"Let me guess, your parents?" I asked.

Celestia hummed happily. "My mother always said that I had her coat, while Luna had her mane. Not exactly her mane color, but more of it shimmer and glow."

"Do you dream of your mother every now and then?" I asked.

"Sometimes. I feel so peaceful when she visits me in my dreams, though it's sad that I can no longer remember her voice."

"Time does that a lot." I agreed. "I can't even remember the distinct sound of my grandmother's voice, I was too young to recall it accurately."

The princess started to gush on about her. "Oh Nondis, you should've seen her. She was almost as tall as I am now. But her coat was so pristine that it almost appeared blinding when the sun shone on her. Her mane was so beautiful, it flowed like water, even felt so much like it. I can easily remember the sunset blend of colors she always had in her mane, it's colors would change so effortlessly, orange to red, red to pink, pink to purple."

I stopped brushing her mane and thought about the image still freshly planted in my memory. I started to mutter to myself. "It looked even better on you."

The princess quickly turned around, almost yanking her mane out of my hands as she stared at me with shock.

I suppose I had forgotten about her sensitive hearing. "What I mean was..." I started, seeing the princess somewhat taken aback from my comment. "I should... I guess I caught a glimpse of something while you were sleeping. Your mane and tail changes when you're asleep."

She started grabbing at her mane with her own hooves, looking at it. "It does?"

"You had those exact colors in your mane when you were sleeping. It looked beautiful on you..."

The princess closed her eyes as she held her mane to her face, covering her mouth with her hoof while her mane was still embraced by it. "Did it really do that? I mean I know it changes, but I only thought it happened when I got angry or when I was suffering."

"I know, a bit creepy to watch you sleep." I said, coughing and standing up for an attempt of a quick withdrawal. "Yeah, I'm just gonna give you some distance while you─"

Before I could even step in any other direction, I felt my feet become glued to the ground. While I stressed to my legs to overcome whatever ensnared them, I heard Celestia walking out of her bathing pool and slowly approach me. She circled around to glare at me with eyes filled with incredible disbelief. "My mane changed to those colors? Did they truly do that or did you see something else?"

Instead of being able to answer her quickly, I felt some strange gravitational force yank me down to my knees, becoming face to face with the high princess. I was already feeling nervous as she approached me. "I'm sorry if I invaded your privacy by any chance, but I just happened to see it. I can understand if that's something you didn't want to get out."

The next thing I felt was the warm sensation of magic touching my forehead. The princess' horn tapped against my forehead just once before it started glowing a pale white. She whispered to me. "Forgive me for doing this. I need to see it for myself."

As her eyes started to glow the same color of her magic, I started to become frightened over the abnormal sight. "I'm sorry. If you wanna purge my memory, please make sure it's just for however long I've been awake for today. As long as I don't end up reverting back a few years, I should be fine with─"

Her eyes stopped glowing as her spells fell dormant. I was even able to move myself, being free to back away from her. But she collapsed her hooves around me before I got the chance to regain my balance. The princess glanced up to me giggling, with an unusual collection of tears in her eyes. "I'm so sorry. I just didn't believe you... But... Now I don't know whether to cry or smile."

Admittedly, I was relieved that she didn't proceed to bleach my mind after taking a gander at my thoughts and memories. For the strangest reason, I felt like she was so secretive that she didn't want anyone to know about her sleeping habits, anyone would be embarrassed have that revealed to themselves. But it seemed like that was the least of her concerns. "I can give you some time to think it over. Maybe you can have a good ugly cry like you've been holding in for so many years."

I started to suddenly feel a little bit of resistance again. Instead of being a magic spell, it was like her hooves had immense strength. She hugged me even tighter, her body shaking a bit while she buried her face into my chest. "Don't ask me to do that, we'll be here for a long time."

"We'll?" I questioned.

The princess nuzzled into my chest. I was already starting to feel the warm droplets filter through my shirt as she held me even closer. "Yes, we as in us. You got me like this, now take responsibility and be the soft thing I cry into."

"Okay... If that's what you want."

She didn't even take a breath before breaking down, stammering over any words that would've came from her mouth and falling into a sequence of sobs. Each time she breathed, I felt her horn prod into my chin before she unleashed a longing wail into my chest.

Looking at her weep, I couldn't possibly imagine the agonizing pain she had to deal with in the course of a thousand years. It seemed like she was a lost child who was told that she couldn't see her parents again. I wasn't even going to think about the torture she endured up to this point, all the lives that were lost or drastically altered because of her. I can only guess at the guilt and shame she feels, the humiliation she endured over centuries of fighting and losing. A being so powerful to move the sun itself and maintain the order of an entire nation for a millennium, forced to hide her feelings and desires for, what was told to her to be, the greater good... I can bet this feels absolutely cathartic.

Lord knows losing my grandfather taught me to hug whoever I could reach out to, for as long as possible, because it feels better to let it all out. I don't think I ever thought about letting go because it was so raw for me. I was probably a mess, my tears pooling against my cousin's shirt, his into mine. It's a bittersweet feeling to know that love, to have lost a pillar in your life and still find something to support you in that moment. I've lost pillars, but Celestia has lost cities in comparison. So to hug her just as tightly as she did to me, it did everything for her.

I have not heard such a painful moan, nor will I ever forget the tears that fell into my shirt, the warmth and moisture of her breath, each shriek, each moment her hoof dragged against my back, every last breath, or the names she called out in pain.

The names... There were so many names.

Hours have passed on and I was waiting on my shirt to dry. While my shirt sat on the very same post where her golden chest plate sat, I laid in the bed as Celestia wrapped me in her wings, her forelegs curled around my chest. We were quiet, not ever finding the words to speak. I just remained that way because I didn't want to disturb her. She was at peace, as serene as a young foal who was comforted after a time of sadness. Her eyes were reddened from the many tears she shed. But her muzzle wore a smile, a wonderful smile that signaled the parting of clouds after an intense thunderstorm. The damage had been done, calamity had struck, but this was the time to rebuild for her. I didn't dare move. I wouldn't want to deprive her of that peace.

But eventually, it did have to come to an end.

*knock knock knock*

I said nothing as Celestia called out past my ear. "Who calls?"

"Your majesty, I was just about to inform you that dinner will be done momentarily if you were feeling any better. Maybe I could arrange a visitation for room service."

Celestia sighed as she looked over me, calling back out to the door. "I will attend shortly. Please give me some time to make myself presentable."

"But your majesty, you're feeling ill and I think─"

"I said that I will attend." She said once more. "If I can attend the meal when I feel even worse than now, then I should be able to now that I'm feeling my best."

"Are you sure you don't want me to arrange a server to drop by the room with your meal?"

"Lemon Drops, I am certain. I desire the company of my fellow royals. I wish not to be parted from the additional time I will spend with my sister as well. Please see to it that my chair is waiting for me."

"At once, your highness." The chef confirmed before trotting down the hall.

The high princess rose over me and stretched herself out before looking down to speak with me. "I can't believe you stayed with me this entire time. I would've thought you had some sort of escape plan in mind."

"Well you were the one to say that you needed me to take responsibility, so I did just what you asked." I said, starting to sit up.

The princess hugged me from behind, letting her hooves sink into my bare skin. "You humans are so incredibly soft for not having hair."

"If you think this is soft, then you should've tried hugging me when I first got here. I was chubby then, so I had more than enough 'soft' to go around."

"You were a bit pudgy." She said, poking at my stomach. "Now I can trace your features, your real features that used to hide under all of that. It's wonderful, honestly."

"Yeah, I got a few female associates that would easily say the same in my world."

"The difference is that they don't get to experience it like I do." She said, burying her muzzle into my neck. "If only they know what you've been through, what you suffered to get here. I can say with pride that I am a witness to what you have become."

I chuckled to myself. "You know, you keep doing this and I might not know the difference between a courting affair and a physical one." I said, glancing back at her while placing a hand on her cheek.

"Courtly love is hard when you don't have a husband. It just thins the line enough to make one simple touch the breaking point between the two."

"Like how we're situated now?" I asked as the princess sniffed my hair.

"We even smell the same." She added. "But this I'll allow. We can be this close without crossing the line."

"So what's the line?" I asked.

"Should I define that now, I don't have a problem with that either. Just so long as I don't do it again."

"You mean last night." I concluded.

"And there goes my chance." Celestia announced, nuzzling my cheek. "Just to think that everything was right for it too. I guess I'll have to settle for something like this then."

"Whatever happened to your 'needs not wants' policy?"

"Still in effect, unless you want me to dip into my 'wants' a bit."

"Can't say that I'm not interested in how good of a kisser you are." I admitted. "But I know that will cause more trouble for the both of us."

Celestia then cradled both of her forelegs over my shoulder, yanking me down to her bed as she smiled. "Then I guess I'll have to define that line again."

"Moving the goalposts, you mean?" I joked.

She leaned into me, getting as close as I could feel the heat radiating off of her lips before she used one of her wings to mask some separation between us. Instead of our kissing one another, she had the both of us kissing the feathers of her wing. Beyond the pristine white feathers, I could see her eyes cutting towards me with malice in mind. "That's the line I'll define for us. If I ever need you to show me that level of affection, you'll kiss either my hoof or my wing, whichever I extend first."

"Now that's just mean." I muttered through her feathers.

"Not necessarily, it's how they used to show fealty to me back in the olden days. Now it's more bowing and distance maintaining. Being that you're assigned to my personal protection, you shall show this level of fealty to me while we are in public."

"How about in private?" I asked.

"We'll address that when the time comes." She said, rising off of her bed and stepping towards her regalia stand. She quickly placed on all of her royal jewelry before tossing me my shirt. "Now you are going to have to leave with this on, it would be too much of a controversy to have you walking around the halls without that."

"It's cold out there anyways. I'll gladly put it on."

The Next Day...

After leaving the bedroom, I quietly escorted the princess to dinner. Even as we shared a considerable distance between one another, I was already getting the vibe that she wanted to close in a bit. When we sat down for dinner, I sat in my usual seat while she sat in hers. Cadance had returned from the Crystal Empire to claim her seat for tonight, something that Celestia saw as unfortunate. And as dinner went along, Cadance started to inquire about the elder princess' physical state, noticing the side effects of crying for an extended period of time. She simply explained that she had a moment in the bath and decided to get it all out there.

It was no secret that I was looking after he while she was sick, but we did manage to keep quiet the moments we shared.

When it came time for bed, I had to escort the princess to her bedroom again. She didn't like the fact that I was acting so distant to sell the idea that everything between us was just the traditional guard and princess tandem others are so used to doing. Instead of walking inside her bedroom like she would with anyone else, she turned around and kept her door open, looking at me while I stood in the doorway. She wouldn't leave me without her saying goodnight, talking about how great her day was. But I did have to remind her that I was supposed to be parting by this point, as most guards would've been dismissed by now. She acknowledged my reasoning and closed the door with a final goodnight.

After I finished with that, I reported to the barracks to log in my hours. But that didn't matter to my bull-headed and prideful superiors, who stated that my hours were going to be logged towards the day I was prematurely dismissed from shift earlier this week. It didn't matter if I stayed by the princess for a total of fourteen hours today, or the fact that I actually stayed with her another nine the night she dismissed me early. To me, it was more of the superiors not wanting a fresh recruit like me logging serious time and getting compensated for the hours, just to spite my current rank. I understand they felt more qualified to take my job, but this is getting annoying.

No matter what world you're in, that part of life never changes.

When I went to sleep, I remember having this dream. I had a dream where I was first swimming in an ocean while watching the sun set beyond the waters. The sun never moved from halfway, producing beautiful shades of red, orange, and yellow. Looking back in the opposite direction I could see shades of pink, purple, and dark blue. I submerged my head under the water's surface, seeing clearly the beauty of the ocean below and the foamy bubbles that rolled in from the shore. The next thing I remember was being yanked down to the sandy floor below, warmly being held by two hooves that crossed over my shoulders. I looked back to see a beautiful mare holding me.

She leaned against me, holding me closer to her and burying her head in the crook of my neck. From there we stayed, looking into a drastically changing sky. Her mane reflected those wondrous colors, my body warmed as we embraced. She did not speak, but nuzzled me while we looked to the horizon.

I never wanted it to end.

When I woke up with that memory fresh on my mind, I was more compelled to run. I had practically skipped putting on my clothes to walk outside of my room up until I felt a cool blast of air remind me of the time of year we were in. I closed the door and took notice of the incredible warmth I had experienced in this place. It was like Friday morning all over again. But I couldn't enjoy it for very long, I had to get back to my regiment.

After throwing on some protection from the winter air, I ran outside and went about my jog to the outer battlements. I jogged happily until I had gotten back to the castle checkpoint, where Celestia had flew past me. She casually wished me a good morning, prior to my getting past the inspection. It seemed like she was well on her way to a morning flight around the city.

I got back in, took my shower and found myself sitting in my usual spot for breakfast. It appeared that Cadance had returned from the trip up north with some interesting news. The reason for her trip was to see her personal doctor for a checkup. Everything seemed normal to the doctors up till there was one pronounced issue, the foal's development had quickly jumped ahead, setting it on a path of being fully developed and born about two months earlier than the usual gestation period.

As anyone can imagine, both Cadance and Shining were on edge about the situation. Two first-time expecting parents coming to terms with the fact that their baby ending up being premature will startle just about anyone. I don't blame them for being concerned. But it does put a whip to my brain, giving me more drive to put aside any other leisure activities for this particular Sunday. I had to get on the ball with my magic, and I had to get back running today.

But it wasn't going to be by conventional means.

***Point of Perspective: Equus Nondis***

Right after breakfast, I took to one of the secret passageways that led to a random street out in town. Transformed myself before I walked out and placed my clothes in a corner to be left undisturbed. When I walked outside, I could barely feel the cold that would nip me in the worst way as a human. Instead of hoping that a strong mountain breeze doesn't come bashing against my face, I was quite comfortable in trotting around the city.

The experience was peaceful, incredible even. As my usual self, I would have to deal with paparazzi trying to ask me questions about my personal life or relationships, just so they can get some scoop to sell to whatever magazine would print the story, which was all of them. I didn't have to deal with that, or the feeling of being pointed out as the only thing standing on two legs in a twenty block radius. I was completely anonymous, the usual regular that could roam the crowded streets alone in yesterday's outfit and cologne.

Oh I will not be ashamed. What they don't know won't matter.

I started to make a turn towards where I thought the city library was located, but ended up turning into a coffee shop instead. I initially thought I could pull out my phone until I had realized that I left it inside of my pants in the secret passageway. My reasoning for it was that I had to make sure that I had no absolutely no clues of who I actually was, and a phone would've been a dead giveaway. But the bad news was that my map of Canterlot was on that phone. In other words, I was quite literally walking the city blind.

I tried a series of turns that I felt would inevitably get me back on track, but instead I managed to get myself walking into the gates of an old public school building. It seemed like the campus was closed off, so I wouldn't be able to ask around for any information that way. I tried asking around for directions, but ponies took one gander at my cutie mark before deciding I was bad news. I looked back at my own mark and saw nothing particularly ominous about my mark, shrugged, and kept asking around for directions.

But that's when I walked into a pretty empty looking neighborhood. It seemed like there had to have been a lot of activity around here judging from how worn the cobblestones were. There was the dying scents of a thousand odors, some reminiscent of death. I turned a corner to see an empty fountain sitting at the center of the quiet development. The houses and shacks around it seemed a bit ran down. It was apparent that I was in the low-class area of the city.

I wanted to look past the buildings to see exactly how far I wandered off from the castle, but I couldn't see anything past the copious amounts of gray towels and linens that lined the streets from above. I continued to look around the place, hoping to find some clue on where I could go. But after a minute, I happened to approach an empty fruit stand. It seemed to be still wet with a variety of fluids... including blood.

"Well... time to get the fuck out of here."

While I walked away, I could see a pony lurched over in an alleyway, just sitting there. I called out to him quietly, trying not to grab any attention to myself. I got a little closer and thought they couldn't hear me, tapping them on the shoulder. But I quickly found that the very pony I tried to talk to was missing something very important... a head.

I jumped back and shifted my eyes towards every corner like a paranoid criminal. My eyes rapidly darted back and forth before I caught a glimpse of a hairy lump way further down the alley. When I made out the shape, I could definitely confirm that I had found what the victim was missing. My heart was pounding while I tried to keep my cool. Though the sounds of crows cawing overhead wasn't exactly a warm and friendly reminder.

"Yeah. We're gonna fucking go." I murmured to myself as I turned around to make my way back to the fountain.

I started to levitate a few empty boxes to some of the more structurally-sound shacks and try to climb my way out. As I looked around, I saw no one walking around at all. So I felt safe in knowing that I would be able to find my escape on the top of these roofs. I climbed on top of the box I used, making sure as to not be heard by anyone, and then made my way on top of the first shack. I made my way across a second and third, reaching another building that only had a single story. I looked around once more to see if anyone was coming or had seen me, no one appeared to. So I started carefully making my way up the rooftop.

That was probably the worst moment my sense of security could falter.

Without warning I felt a powerful tug against my left hindleg, dragging me down like a ragdoll, pulling me off of the house and directly hitting the cobblestones of the courtyard below. The pain I felt in my side made me writhe with agony, all four of my legs tried to regain stance, before that same leg was pulled in towards one of the shacks I quietly crept across. There was a pony with an eyepatch and scars all over his right side tugging me along. The earth pony tossed my leg aside while flipping me over to my back and smashed his legs into the cobblestone on either side of me.

"Fuck ya doin', draggan ya sorry arse 'round the top of my home. I ou'ta fuckin' stuff you for jumping my shack!" The pony had a thick accent similar to an Australian.

I looked down to the stallion, seeing he was already halfway at mast. I IMMEDIATELY tried backing away. "Hey, I don't want any trouble. I'm just trying to mind my own and get back home."

He grabbed my leg again, dragging me closer to him. "Tryin' to get 'ome, up that way? Oh I can tell your lot ain't from 'round these brushes." He whispered. "If there ain't one thing ya do, it's break the curtain."

"Break the curtain?" I questioned back.

He crouched over me, pointing to the sheets and towels that hid the sky. "You ever heard of a pegasus flyin' up high round here in the good ol' Rotty? 'Course ya haven't, you'd be fuckin wing meat for the feeding. You don't go where the regs be singin' all high praises for some thousand-year cunt who ain't did a damn thing for ya but shake her fanny. Can't even root the slag, might as well stop advertising."

'Rotty', calling the princess one of the most profane insults you could ever say like it's a casual greeting, and obviously the 'curtain' is supposed to keep any onlookers from above out of being able to see down here. Not to mention the headless corpse just out in the shadows. "...I'm in Canterrot, aren't I?"

"Fucksakes, ya ain't never been 'round here." He said, shaking his head. "Who else but the fuckin' turds up in high skies call this place 'Canterrot?' Down here it's the Canty, the CanCan, Rotty, Rottsburg, or the official municipal name, the Corrotto District."

Well that's a good lesson to take in while I'm here, never call this place Canterrot. Now if only I can find my way out. "Corrotto District, huh? Honestly I'm from a whole other town away from here. Small little village out in the middle of the plains called Austin."

The stallion still stood over me, for some odd reason in a perpetual state of being at half-mast. I was still trying to back myself out from underneath him. He quickly adjusted to keep me there. "Well you accent has enough drain on it, I'm sold. But what brings you here? Don't tell me ya got lost and made a few wrong turns like that dipshit in the alley over there."

So... do I break cover and start fighting now or later. "What happened with him, just curious?"

"Came 'round in the crook of night. Saw some shit out on display and thought he could break his clackers moseying outta here. Promptly got stuffed, fucked, and kicked around like a good game of kickball."

"When you say stuffed─"

"Done in. Good warm corpse, he was. But if there's one thing he should've know 'bout us before goin' in, we don't like talkers too good. He's a talker, so we made him one of us, good for a doori and a kickaround."

...This guy fucked a dead person. Processing... processing failed. "Well I ain't no talking-ass bitch. So you can sort me out of that bargain bin. I'm good to come back sometime soon, this place looks a little dead for me to hear the things I hear about."

"Well ya ain't got nothin' to contribute, then you're just fucking spiders. Could set you up where you could make a friend with that guy over there."

By this point, I'm thinking of some ways to keep my head on my shoulders. Thankfully, I was notorious for spinning up stories with my parents, so I had no qualms with telling lies to strangers. "Well honestly, I was coming around because I had managed to travel with a changeling."

"We got plenty of changelings 'round these parts. Go try the brothel down 6th Street."

"Not quite like that, though." I got up on my hooves and quickly grabbed the stallion by the shoulders, draping over like we were friends... still trying to hold my vomit in. "See, with that mess that was caused by the changelings trying to escape, one of them managed to sneak their way into a portal leading to, get this, the human world."

The stallion looked at me with genuine curiosity. "You gotta be hanging a shit."

I continued to play buddy with the guy, not trying to think about the fact that he's at half-mast with every last ounce of remnants of some dead guy's shit and possibly some other guy's sloppy seconds all over himself. "Look, my guy managed to get in league with that guy, and now I can get my hooves on some human tech. Might be a little unicorn centric, but I heard you snap a feather off a pegasus and it works just fine."

"Human tech, eh?" He questioned, getting in closer with me. His breath reeked with alcohol and rotten food. "So they got some of them sword snappers I've been reading the papers on? You know, a good crack of thunder and the tips of some guard's sword gone in an instant. Gotta have me one of those."

He wants a gun, not gonna happen. "I heard my guy's working on it. Apparently you have to get licensed to own one over on that end. And then you gotta wait some time, then there's the whole background check bullshit, and then they give it to you. But it sure as hell ain't cheap over on that end, it's kinda pricey for those who ain't got a run-in with some serious bits. I wanna say it runs around a good thousand bits for a small peashooter."

He muttered under his breath, moving directly in front of me. "Now I may not look it, but I definitely can... acquire the funds to pull off a deal. Just how long can I be on the waiting list for?"

"A month." I lied. "Sale ain't final until both sides sees and counts the goods. If you ain't got the bits, then you bust."

"Oh I'm good for it, mate." He answered insistently. "Round here in the Rotty, we have a saying. If you ain't got bits or bollies, you'll get blood. If I ain't got a bit or a single bolly with your name on it, then I got a rare treat to sell you in exchange. A zebra unicorn, best of both worlds in magic. Fluent in both tribal conjuring and unicorn theory, a bit sickly but she's a beaut in bed."

The more I talk to this guy, the more I feel like vomiting in his face. Then again, he might be into that too. "What's her value?"

"Tried to sell her before, but she's been sickly ever since the first deal started getting made. She's always been sickly. Even in her current health, she's a good eight thousand. She'd be a solid fifty had she'd been healthy."

At this point, I wondered if I was convincing enough to play my way out of this courtyard. "Eight thousand, huh. Might be able to get you a little something that could dent a sword or two. But it'll be a month."

"Are you kiddin'?" The stallion asked elated. "I just 'bout spoofed myself thinkin' bout it. How normal is it you see six two-leggers walk up to an army of four hundred changelings and stuff a good half of 'em? If those things was what they were using, then I'll trade you the bitch for it."

Honestly, there was no possibility that I would even see this guy after two weeks, much less in a month. He has no name to call me by or reference me to. The only thing I needed to do was stay out of sight after this month and I can walk my human ass anywhere with the paparazzi chasing me, just as long as I don't have to deal with this sick-ass motherfucker again. "Sounds green to me. I'll keep you updated when the deal pulls through. I know my way around after the first go of getting in, so I'll look for you."

The stallion chuckled loudly, giving me a shove. "You old bastard, I could kiss you! How about a good ol' sample of the girl down in the shack, she'll keep you warm for an hour or two."

"As much as I'd like the invitation..." Like hell I did. "...I'll have to keep on my dealings. I still got a little bit of a market out on the main street. A clean facade to sell the city on to not look nearly as suspect."

"Well you're in the wrong market, mate." He said, hugging me while giving me a kiss on the cheek. "If I ain't tellin' you the truth, then I'm tellin' you off. Stick around here, you'll make ten times as much over your shitty day market."

Don't vomit... don't vomit. "Well, I'll be sure to keep that into consideration. Now, how the fuck to get back to main."

"Take the alleyway with the droggo over there, make a left turn at the severed head, keep straight until the curtain clears." He instructed before walking ahead. "Now don't go talking off to anypony what you see here, sure hate to stuff you in the worst way."

"Noted." I said as we started to walk up to the decapitated body.

He stopped just behind it and shoving it over. "Hey, mate." He called out. I didn't dare look at what he was about to do. "He's got a hole up front if you're feelin' it. I'll just be taking what's back here."

"Nah, I like mine kicking and screaming." I can't believe I just said that. "You go ahead." Or that.

"Suit yourself." He said before resuming with his act. "Hard and stiff, ain't ya? Just like pounding a vice grip."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

Nope. Nope. And a third time for good measure, nope.

As soon as I found the main street of Canterlot, I found myself a nice dark alleyway and proceeded to rid myself of today's breakfast. Immediately after that, I ran back towards the direction of the street where I could recognize the landmarks to indicate I was close to the secret passageway back into the castle. Upon entering, I transformed myself, threw on my clothes, and ran straight into the castle.

I didn't even stop to say hello to any of the guards that saluted me, I just beelined for the portal to Mel's place and continued my barfing over her toilet. Mel, who was in the living room watching TV, had to come check on who was waltzing into her house sick. She quickly discovered it was me and placed a hand on my back. "Let me guess, the cook was terrible again?"

"No..." I said between gags. "Not... Oh God."

"You okay bud?"

"That bastard was fucking the body..." I replied before gagging on my emptied stomach trying to pump out anything else.

Mel stared at me before becoming wide-eyed. "Oh you saw some shit for real. What happened?"

I shook my head, still retching at the thought of his suggestion. "He said 'There's a hole up front, if you're feeling it'."

"If you're feeling what?" She inquired.

"Mel, the poor guy had no damn head, there's a hole in the neck." I explained, collapsing to lean against the wall. "He wanted to spitroast the guy!"

Mel cringed at the though and became thoroughly disgusted. "Oh God! That's some Jeffrey Dahmer shit, the fuck did you run into!?"

"Wrong turn at Corrotto Boulevard." I replied, holding my hand over my mouth. "He was gonna try to fuck me before fucking the corpse, which he fucked last night."

Mel gagged at my explanation, pushing my legs out of the way in case she needed to offer her own prayer to the porcelain alter. "Oh God. Please stop."

Another voice chimed in from the hallway. "So what's going on in here with you two?" Princess Luna asked casually walking by.

"Made a wrong turn at the Corrotto District." I answered, taking several deep breaths to manage my own disgust.

The princess sighed heavily and sat down. "Ugh, so that's two dreams I'll be scrubbing tonight."

"Just one." Mel corrected her. "His. He somehow found his way there."

The princess scoffed either way. "My main concern is why did you visit Canterrot without any reference guide or anything? Did you even go disguised?"

"I went there as a pony, then got disgusted as the same guy tried to offer me a trade deal."

"What was the trade deal." Luna asked.

"A unicorn-zebra hybrid, possibly for an AR-15. Apparently, she's a sex slave who's good on magic, but I ain't buying."

Luna groaned with her own variety of disgust. "Of course. I'm more surprised that Blueblood visits that place more than twice a month."

"TWICE A MONTH!?" Both Mel and I screamed.

"Shining went around five times to that place, still sensitive over some of the stuff they do. Twilight fell on the outskirts of it with her friends and immediately turned back after a group of riled stallions tried to talk them into drinks. I had a guard sneak in on reconnaissance, he never came out. Celestia flies over it every evening, but even she can't see what's below. It's said that it looks like a lively night market from above, but I can only imagine the filth that goes on below."

My mind jumped straight to the pictures inside that manila envelope. The final image of the disguised politician kissing the hooves of a mare, with a dead corpse in the background. And then the sight from today flashed before my eyes once more. "I don't need to." I said before standing up. "Hey Mel, what church do you know holds afternoon services?"

"After what you saw, I don't blame you for trying to find Jesus." She said with a cough, trying to suppress her own gag reflex. "To answer your question, I think there's the one your parents go to."

"Mel, I'm not going for a scene, alright. If I go there, I'll get pointed out immediately."

Melanie sat next to the toilet, managing to hold down her lunch. "After your disappearance, that would be any church you go to. Just be ready to testify on spot."

"With a lie, on the alter?"

Mel cleared her throat as she lightly kicked me with her foot. "I thought you didn't care too much about church after you left high school. Now you're worried about lying at the alter?"

"I know some pastors can do it, but I don't think I can. Gramps would haunt my dreams if I did that."

"Look Nondis, you're about to swan dive into hell itself as soon as you get back. You might as well go for some spiritual reinforcement. Not only that, but it will be a good way for you to talk with your mom again."

"You think that's such a good idea?" I questioned. "Especially now with my being able to use magic?"

"Simple, don't use magic in church." Mel replied, standing to her feet. "But if you're going to get involved with the ugly scene of the world, then it would be better to have that potential last moment with your folks. Being honest here, what you just described has some seriously ominous vibes. Better to be sure."

"And who's to say that mom won't be willing to accept me?"

Mel smirked. "Mama Haines can't pull that one off in church."

A good forty minutes passed as we rode out to the place of worship my parents attended on the weekly. It was already a pretty big church so they had a few services throughout the week. This Sunday happened to be one where they threw together a Christmas program for the afternoon. We came in just as the church's praise team started singing classics such as 'O Holy Night' and 'Oh Come Let Us Adore Him', the slow variations per usual.

I never did like the music here, it was always slow and lifeless. I sometimes wondered why we couldn't be Catholic instead.

As soon as we entered, I could see the orange and red lighting providing the ambiance for the congregation while the singers raised their hands to the sky, singing their hearts to the black ceiling. It was a moment like that I remembered why I thought stuff like this was so superficial. You keep singing to the reason of 'bringing blessings to the most high' while scratchy pitches and sheet music on the stage wouldn't exactly please anyone. The colors are a nice touch, if it was a pop concert. The screen behind them giving us the words to sing along is helpful, but not for anyone sitting next to someone who's either tone-deaf or has no rhythm. But not so long ago, I used to be one of the bunch.

I was the one in the middle sections, raising my hands to the sky with tears running down my face, singing along with the praise team like my voice was so pleasing to the ears of God. I made the spontaneous decision after my grandfather's death to be as Christian as possible. And I was even separating myself from my family then because I didn't want them to see me being vulnerable to the atmosphere. But I was just as 'spiritually hungry' as the rest of the crowd. I kept asking God to make my life different, to make me more of something to be desired, to give me the vision of beauty and splendor I felt my grandparents was experiencing.

Time passed before I started to see the routine I did was for nothing.

Months passed and my eyes slowly opened to the fact that everyone around me was still just as empty as before. Nothing changed for them, they didn't get rich, they didn't happily declare their freedom from whatever plagued them. They just came in with MORE problems. And I didn't get a single thing I asked for. Make my life different, I went to college and got ignored by most others. Make me more of something to be desired, I gained forty pounds and my arms jiggled as I threw them into the air. Give me the vision of beauty and splendor I felt my grandparents was experiencing, I just felt myself being emotionally challenged and emotionally drained.

After so long, a year and some change, I started wading towards the back wall, closer and closer to where the doors were. But what good was it in being close to the door when you could just walk out of it? How much time was I going to waste being drained of my tears for no logical reason? Why should I keep pushing for things I would never get no matter how hard I prayed for it? So I left the church, and my parents didn't agree to why I made the decision. However, my sophomore year felt like I had much more freedom. I moved out of the expensive dorms and lived in an apartment not too far from school. I got a car to get myself on and off campus, and got me anywhere I wanted to. My Sundays were for me now, and I enjoyed every hour being able to shitpost on internet forums, jacking off to porn, watching movies on TV, and shooting people online.

The strange thing is that even when I had the time to do all of that, I eventually went back to feeling miserable shortly after. I just stayed in that rut for years, until a fraternity saw fit to recruit me. I signed on, paid my dues, suffered humiliation to get the opportunity to feel like I'm finally living the normal life of a basic college male, but lost my best friend in the process because of an argument. Went from feeling like trash to feeling like total shit right after this time of the year last year. So I tried to push myself further in taking drugs to feeling faded like the others.

The rest, as some would say, is pretty academic.

You wanna know what the funny thing is? Everything up to this point, everything I prayed for had came right back to me in the strangest ways. I live in a world with talking equines, that's a hell of a life change. I weigh LESS than I did in high school, I have more attachments than a suspension bridge, my love live has had more twists and turns than a soap opera, and I have more friends in my corner than a collection of pictures in a scrapbook. As far as the splendor I felt my grandparents possessed, they're dead in the ground. I don't even remember the moment my brain was running on a collection of memories, counting down the seconds before calling it a life and shutting down, but that's clearly not the splendor I want for myself for the time being. That day will come in the future.

And here I am again, back where all my prayers were sent from. I didn't have a desire to recant any sins or something of that sort, not here to find my way back to Christ, not trying to raise my hands in the air to wave them like I just don't care. I just came to readjust mentally.

As for my time with God... we'll have that conversation later.

Mel and I sat through about two hours of the yearly 'Christ was born in a manger, conceived to this world of sin, so that he would die for us, while we may yet live'. It's not really anything different other than the fact that even Mel had her own demons sitting on the front row with my parents. It appeared that her mom made the ever-so elusive public appearance, but she didn't seem so forced to do so.

Instead, she looked considerably cleaner, like she took a lot of time to mask the imperfections of her face, the imperfections caused by the gradual wear drugs has on the body. She looked passable instead of half-assed like she would whenever she was paid to show up for Mel's birthday or her graduation. Instead of looking like she could go back into the relapse, she tried her best to function like an average person. But that didn't stop Mel from pulling my arm when the service ended.

Along the way, we ran into a few old friends she knew in high school. I ran into a few other 'acquaintances' she had during the time. Each of them offering well-wishes and asking what she was doing with life. It seemed that they had come back to town for the holidays. But both of our attendance records in church wasn't exactly stellar, more like us leaving a piece of metal outside for months, watching the rust form.

If I was the believer that I once was way back when, I'd ask you 'Wanna know how God works?'

"Melanise!" Her mother called out from the other side of the lobby.

Yeah, interesting how that works. Mel tried to quickly dismiss the conversation so she could leave, but it seemed her father had found us even sooner than she could say goodbye to the group of people from our past. Her dad quickly tried to explain to her. "Melanie, I know what you're feeling right now─"

"Dad, why is she even here!?" Mel questioned, appearing very frustrated with her dad.

Meanwhile, my own parents appeared right beside him. Dad patted the man on his back. "Well Jason, I guess you can take this here. We'll be having a quick chat with our son."

I saw mom standing behind him, looking at me with a quiet judging expression. Dad didn't even pay her any mind while he hugged me. "Hey dad." I said, returning the gesture.

"Son, what are you doing here?" He asked.

As we broke apart, I started to keep my reason simplified. "I know what you're thinking. But I didn't really come for all of that. I didn't come to recant some sin or reconnect to the church for whatever reason. I just wanted to... reconfigure a bit."

Dad looked around before talking in a low volume, easily reading through my words. "You must've ran into something that got you worked up recently."

"Literally hours ago." I admitted.

"Hard stuff on the job?"

"Do you even have to ask?

Mom walked up beside dad and looked at me, still trying to figure me out in some way. "Who are you and where is my real son?"

"Hi mom." I replied with a dry tone.

Dad looked towards the Brewer family, seeing Melanie urging her father to talk with her someplace else. "Well since your friend seems busy, I guess we can go talk in the car. Care to walk with us there?"

"Sure." I answered.

We walked out the front doors and entered into the parking lot. When we got by the car, dad unlocked the doors, turned the engine over, and turned the heater on. Mom sat in the front seat while I sat behind dad. "Close the door." He urged. I complied and he went on ahead. "So... that bad?"

"It's pretty grisly." I answered, thinking about what I saw earlier.

"Well that's what you get for sticking your nose in business you ain't got stock in." Mom said angrily. "So when are you coming home for good?"

"Martha..." Dad called out, slamming his bible on the dashboard. "You damn-well know you've been crying over this boy, you know you've been missing him, now stop it!"

Mom huffed a breath of air through her lips while shaking her head. "I just want him to come home and not be tainted by all this pony business." She said pointing back at me.

"You were the one that told me that I should accept his choices in life, no matter how I felt personally. Now you deal with the same." He commanded with a low growl. His tone softened once he got back to me. "Is it dangerous?"

"To safely put it, I'm not a human while I'm doing it."

"So you're one of them now!?" Mom shouted, turning around in her seat, earning yet another rebuke from dad.

"I have to be. I can't just walk in and not be identified on the spot. I have to be anonymous so that if things go south, I can just leave and move on. So yeah, I'm a pony during the assignment."

"And you came here to tell us because what you saw today had you on edge." Dad concluded. "What exactly did you see that─"

"Don't ask, I won't say it." I replied strongly, holding the back of his chair.

Dad nodded. "So in turn of that, you're also here to let us know what you're getting involved with so that we can be aware of what could possibly happen to you."

I then moved my hand from the back of dad's chair to mom's shoulder. "Mom, I know you're not happy about what's going on with me─"

"And I should be?" She asked, smacking her hands together. "Nondis, you're practicing magic. Humans don't practice any kind of witchcraft around here, not sane ones."

I stared for a moment before dad raised a hand to interject. "Now I did have to let your mother in on your changes. I told you this was going to happen. Personally, I thought it was funny how my fork started floating off of the table that one day we had dinner over at the Golden Corral."

"Dad..." I wanted to speak against it, but he did warn me about it anyhow. He explicitly said that she was going to know by the end of the night whether I made the decision to call her. And instead of calling her, I was painting the walls with my newfound ability. So I couldn't be mad at him for taking the initiative. "...Okay, that's fair."

"So how's that coming along?" Dad asked.

I looked ahead to see a few quarters sitting in the cup holder and opted to use one of them as an example. I levitated the quarter from there to the top of the dashboard. Mom sat there startled as the quarter moved without any physical presence moving it. The white aura faded from around the quarter as my hand stopped glowing. "I can do loose change, silverware, plates, books, cans of paint, and even ponies for a short amount of time. Also, I can shoot magic lasers, redirect those, and turn myself into a pony."

Dad turned between me and the quarter that was lifted to the top of the dashboard. "Gotta admit, that's some shit that impresses me son. Can you use it in a fight?"

"Remember the 'magic lasers' part? Apparently you can be strong enough to blast an entire mountain to dust. I can't do it, but just take my word for it."

Mom just buried her face in the palm of her hands while dad turned forward, trying to see if anyone was coming close to the car. "Well son, I have to admit that I'm not comfortable with these recent developments, especially the getting involved with the more dangerous missions, but if you're happy..."

Mom started to speak again. "How about we do something as parents and come to the consensus that you need to come back home."

"Mom, I'm sorry. I can't." I said, thinking once more of the guy who could've killed me earlier. Honestly, that was beyond enough to make me consider a lot of choices.

"All it takes is for you to tell us to drive you home. The room is ready for you, we'll knock on the door, we'll respect your privacy, whatever it is. If you really love us enough to come clean with this today, then you should be able to love us enough to realize that you've gone too deep."

"I know."

"Then are you going to buckle your seat belt and let us drive you home?" She asked, looking at me through the rearview mirror. "I really want my baby boy back home safe."

Truthfully, it could be the end of all of this. I wouldn't have to go back to that place haunting my dreams, the possibility of getting lopped down to size and humiliated post-mortem. I shouldn't have that thought crawling up my neck like a venemous tarantula. I shouldn't wait for the bite to paralyze me. I should just say yes and let the story end here. I should just let the demons of my decisions haunt me like they did gramps. He might've had some heart problems, many bad dreams, and a serious case of PTSD, but he made the best of it and produced a beautiful family with his high school sweetheart. I think Mel and I would be a great pair of misfits, hoping the world doesn't take what we carefully created too soon. Maybe I won't die in some car accident or some other unfortunate tragedy. We'd live a normal life and live happily ever after... question mark.

Or I could think of the amazing strength of an abuse victim who still kept smiling for everyone around her. Perhaps I'm forgetting the one who lost everything to her name in one fell swoop. Maybe even the one that took a chance on me, foregoing massive losses in what could've been more commissions for her business, throwing it all in the red to make me clothes for free. I guess I should forget about the girl who financially vouched for my purpose. I guess I could ignore the one who cleanses me of my worst nightmares and offers me some semblance of mental stability. Or the one who dared to hope after endlessly getting a bad hand from fate, who also chose to fly instead of staying quietly perched, terrified behind her heavy golden cage.

To hell with the former guard, forever getting the blind eye from justice. The guard who went through hell and back for his wife could simply just go back there, and stay there. Maybe the princess who had her worst fears realized will see the fruits of her foal undergoing many inspections by a corrupted cabinet of medical officials. Who's to stop them from trying to mask their crimes when that foal becomes of age, while possibly being underage? Maybe grandpa will find my cowardice relatable and comes to forgive me for it while I fill Mel or whatever woman full of kids. Or maybe even God would turn his back on me if I did that.

What place is there for me in heaven after that? None.

"Mom... I love you. You don't have to love me back for my saying this─"

"You honestly believe I don't love you?" She asked.

My hand started to glow as I thought about many things, the magic in my arms starting to get a little out of control. "Mom, I know I'm not human anymore."

"And I know no matter what I say to you, you want to be able to make good to your promise to your grandfather."

I looked up to her though the mirror to see she had started wearing her mascara down her cheeks. My mother had me pinned to the truth and she started to open the glove box for some tissues.

"Nondis. Son. I hate that you made the decision to follow after him. All he wanted out of you was not to go where he went. But even he knew that you'd be here eventually, no matter how hard we tried to fight it. We tried to stop a generational curse dead in it's tracks. Now look at us, who would've even thought that I would've had to be the one to fight against you on this?"

My mother tried her best to keep it together, but she was struggling to keep her emotions subdued. Meanwhile my dad had placed his elbow on the door, leaning his head against his hand. "I wanted you to defend yourself, I never saw you going this far. To think that my intuition about you getting into trouble was spot-on."

My mom then unfolded the sun blinder to look at the mirror, going back to clean her face. "Nondis, I don't want you fighting anymore. I don't think I can handle losing you a second time. And I'd like to think Mel wouldn't like doing that a third or fourth."

Dad turned off the air, feeling a bit warm from the air hitting his face. He turned back to me as best as he could over his left shoulder, speaking from his heart. "Son... You're in a place only God could've put you in. If it was his will for you to be taken, then it would've been someone else summoned to that world. And yeah, He works in mysterious ways, but it worked for your good. We prayed to have you back, so he sent you someplace where you could live. I don't think what I'm saying will ever be condoned by any member in this church or by the pastor himself, but His works and His will shall see you through your circumstances."

Mom just finished wiping her eyes and cheeks clean before pulling out her purse. "Nondis, you might think this is some religious talk nonsense, but I couldn't come to argue that what you prayed for way back when had come to pass. And I know somewhere in your mind you entertained the thought of quitting. But I truly believe your grandfather guided you on every decision you made. If not, then would you really be alive right now?"

For some odd reason, I closed my eyes to recall the moment where I thought I could see his face, looking back down to me as he stayed the hand of an arimaspi from crushing my bones. I swore I heard his voice telling me to get up and move. If anything, I would've been so lost to shock that the creature would've shook off the pain and finished me then. I would've been another statistic if it had not been for him watching over me. Who's to even say that he could've helped bring me back from the brink?

"Your grandfather would want you to keep fighting, especially for what's right." Mom concluded. "We don't like watching you go, but sometimes we have to operate on faith and prayer. That's something your grandmother always preached to me when I was younger."

"And you have your trials and tests, the fact that you didn't say 'Let's go home' is a testament to how far you've come." Dad said, clearing his throat. It appears that he was chocking up himself. "And I said once before, so I'll say it again. I am so honored to call you my son."

There it is...

If I could count the seconds it took for me to register all of that from my parents, it would've taken me several lifetimes for some creatures. If I could recall the reaction, I think I raised my head to the ceiling and took a deep breath, trying my best to keep my face clean. It worked, but the sides of my head were not so dry after. My tears were nothing short of perpetually kinetic. I had to clench my eyes shut to stop them from welling too badly. I buried my eyes into my arm, wiping my face before I felt a warm presence hug me from the front seat.

It was mom.

My mom held me, gently rocking from side to side before she could speak again. "My boy's all grown up and strong now. I can't help but to be scared for you, because I'm your mother. And momma don't like it when her baby boy gets hurt. But I understand that you are grown. And as much as I wanna hold and hug you tight, I have to learn how to let you fly."

We separated, but she was starting to giggle over the fact that my face had reddened as much as my eyes did. My face, I tried my damnedest to keep my cheeks dry, was overran with free-flowing emotions. My dad was the next to hug me. "You just make sure you fight hard enough to come back to us, you hear?"

"Yes sir." I weakly replied, trying my best to speak through my unstable voice.

"Come back to the church if you feel ready. But if you don't, then come by the house and I'll whip you up something nice. Your brothers miss having you around for our Sunday dinners." My mother said with a voice that seemed so warm and soothing to my soul. I couldn't help but to latch on to the both of them at the same time. Even if what I had seen earlier had destroyed my mind, the warmth and presence of my family made it better. I had another reason to keep fighting, but this time I had more of a reason to stay alive.

I came for a recharge, I was rejuvenated instead.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

The Next Day...

After arriving at the apartment where Mel stayed, she walked through the doors to see Princess Luna quietly engaged on the PS4, running through the campaign of Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare. But it didn't take very long after our arrival before Celestia came marching through the portal, taking her younger sister by the ear and forcing her across to raise the moon.

Mel and I both laughed for a while, while she cited that she needed the laugh more than ever due to her situation with her parents. She made the decision to not run away from the problem, but rather confront it. Instead of denying herself the visit, she took some time to get her mother in a car and aptly scream at her for twenty or more minutes about how much of a failure she was for being a mother. She then opened the suggestion of trying to work things through, but offering the trade of not being bothered by both her and Mr. Brewer for a few days to simmer on the thought.

She sought her own inner peace.

Meantime, I had a lot of my own to dwell on. And instead of thinking so much on it, I just lived it. I walked back through and enjoyed my chewing out by the princess for getting lost in the Corrotto district. Celestia didn't like the fact that I had snuck over there without her notice or anyone's guidance, so she offered to keep a closer eye on me by placing me under courtyard restriction for two days, meaning I couldn't leave past the checkpoint exiting the keep.

I went to bed, suffering the expected nightmares before being rescued by Princess Luna again. And I was awakened by a knock on my door, the knocker being none other than Princess Celestia herself. She understood that I was going to miss my usual route, but instead offered me the chance to take a jog around the castle grounds to get more acclimated to the surroundings.

The interesting thing was that she elected to join me instead of watching me from the vantage of her balcony. We jogged around, and she herself logged my hour with her as additional guardianship, basically overtime with the princess. After we finished, I showered and got back to the dining hall to see her going through her paperwork again. Cadance was looking over some of the proposed bills her husband drafted, while Blueblood ruthlessly pointed out any flaws and potential loopholes that could be exploited.

I was given a good amount of books, all graciously supplied by Celestia herself from her own school, for me to study with instead of wandering about like yesterday. She also added a number of city maps to have me study so that I would know my way around instead of running into any red zones. And since Celestia was in a mood to keep me around, she had me escort her to every meeting she had for the day.

Admittedly, this day was pretty uneventful other than the fact that I had broke tremendous ground with my magic studies ever since I came back from visiting my parents. And I had gotten a nice sparring partner in Celestia, who proceeded to mercilessly decimate my every attempt to defend myself. And every failure resulted in my having to adjust to some weird magic combination she used in combat. She could teleport while firing a bolt of magic at me, and even read every move I made to counter. She went on further to teach me the feints used in magic combat. I also learned that she too has a spacial distortion spell in her repertoire, otherwise my sparing sessions with her would be the topic of discussion for a lot of the guards and press.

In the later evening hours, I was so tired that I walked in the room, star-dived my bed, and passed out from exhaustion.

Later...

The darkness of the room was interrupted with the sight of a light breaking past the door. A soft and slow creak sounded as the door was slowly opened. The human who occupied the room was still in the same position he passed out in. As he snored with complete abandon with a slight trail of droll down his chin, an alicorn loomed over his sleeping form. He snorted once, surprising the alicorn before he carried on with his slumber. The figured stood over him, her mane and tail glowing softly in the darkness.

Celestia watched as he had no regard for himself, but felt the temperature of the room to be a bit cool. She knew that the human would easily perceive this to be colder than what would be preferred. So instead of allowing him to sleep completely undisturbed, she levitated him off of the bed and removed some of the covers underneath him. While he shifted, she allowed her magic to accommodate his movements while leaving his state of slumber intact. Next, she placed him on the mattress and laid the sheets over him, keeping him warm instead of allowing him to catch a cold.

Her horn gave off a warm heat along with it's glow. She sat in place with her eyes fixated on him, not saying a single word as she pondered whether to leave him be or to impart her usual motherly habits onto him. She knew doing too much would probably seem unusual to him, but her desire was to touch him. She convinced herself that her reasoning was to check his temperature. So she freed herself from her golden slipper and placed a hoof to his forehead, feeling his warmth. She smiled in secret, rubbing her hoof to his face as she leaned in closer to him.

Her heart started to throb while she was a mere two inches away from nuzzling him.

"He is quite peaceful when he sleeps, isn't he?"

The princess shot up from over him and instead of directing her magic to warming the room, she readied it for a more serious measure. She turned around to see a slinking mass hiding in the shadows. Her magic intensified until the figure pulled out a cloth and wiped his face, revealing himself to be none other than Discord. The princess grew disgusted at his presence and quickly reverted back to a more conservative demeanor. "And lo, for I see a flamboyant serpent who seeks to stir malcontent."

"Malcontent, or just reveling in the midst of it?" He quipped back.

"Why are you even here?" She asked coldly.

The draconequus snickered as he slithered in the air, wrapping himself around the princess' body. "Well I'm usually around whenever there's a phone or another piece of human technology nearby. Ever since I started jumping in on the internet, I've been through many human networks and forums, some filled with senseless fun... others with quite horrific hidings."

The princess' horn seared to a scalding flame while her eyes turned from their usual lavender to gold and crimson. "Then why were you not there to aid him earlier in his venture into town." She asked with a fierce but low growl.

"First, let's do a bit of a climate adjustment." The unique creature felt the heat radiating off of her mane and tail, teleporting off of her body and standing next to her with a firefighter uniform on, holding a hose aimed for the princess. He flicked the nozzle, shooting out flames that ended up dousing the princess in water. The princess was far from amused as he put a towel on her to dry her off, only for her to end up more drenched in water. "There. Now to answer your question, I was not even aware of where he went exactly. He took one of the secret passageways out into the middle of the city, from there he left his clothes, transformed himself into a pony, and left."

"Transformed?" The princess questioned, levitating the wet towel off of her. Her mind was left with the riddle until she reminded herself of the spell she once cast on Alex. "He knows the spell?" She asked herself.

"Last I remember, it was Luna who gave him the spell." The draconequus replied as he summoned the original copy of the spell, along with a hazmat suit to cover himself with and a pair of salad tongs to grab the parchment with. "Though I should inform you of the fact that it did come with a generous helping of your sister's scent. Apparently she commenced the act with Nondis and forgot to remove it from the couch, hence why he and this is covered in such a strong, unforgiving odor."

The elder princess grew disgusted, and knocked the parchment away, then promptly shook her hoof with discomfort. "Get that thing out of my face."

The creature then cast the parchment and his hazmat suit into the void before poking fun at the older sister. "O woe for thee, for thine own blood has claimed herself what was to be the desire of thine heart."

"Shut. Up." The princess ordered as her mane and tail started to turn into living flames.

"But I suppose that no other stallion has ever come so close to claiming both you and her. I guess it's a good thing that her desires are but only skin-deep. Perhaps your desires are no different."

The sound of metal scraping against his neck was all it took to get him to stop talking. He looked on with surprise as the mare before him had completely transformed into a fearsome creature in her own right. Her mane and tail completely engulfed by fire while she held a fearsome halberd in her possession. She hissed silently, being careful as not to wake the sleeping human. "I know it won't kill you, but I will take great pleasure in seeing your head roll."

The draconequus didn't fear the enraged princess, but was in awe of her instead. "So this is what you've been hiding for a thousand years, your rage and hatred?"

The blade scraped against the side of his neck as she corrected him. "You're a good four-hundred years off on your guess."

Discord shrugged off her threat, slicing his own neck through the blade and reconnecting it as soon as it passed through. "Save your violence for the ones that actually call for it. Maybe unleashing that side of you would do more than to have a certain law or two removed." The creature then slithered over to the side of the human, pointing at the sweat beading over him. "After all, you wouldn't want to cook your new special somepony in his sleep, would you?"

The princess quickly gasped. "No." That reason was more than enough for her to quickly calm herself. She dismissed her weapon and watched in horror as he laid in his bed sweating profusely. The human stirred, tossing the covers off of himself before rolling over and falling back into rest. She stood away from him, looking at her own hooves in terror while she questioned herself. "...Have I... Again?"

The creature sat quietly as he chided her. "Again, I don't know what he got into when he was away. All I know is that he came back sickly and very disgusted over what he experienced. Safe to say that he was traumatized by what he saw."

The princess closed her eyes as she sank to the ground. "I did it again. How could I?"

The draconequus looked at her through one opened eye and muttered to her. "Maybe you could use that same energy in protecting him yourself. You're more than capable. If your sister can harness Nightmare Moon to come to his rescue, then surely you should do the same. Now THAT would be a good way of making up for this... minor misstep on your part."

The creature disappeared into thin air with a snap of his fingers, the human stirred once more as a result. The man started to sit up from his bed while Celestia quickly teleported herself outside into the winter air, staring from the stained glass window at the human walking through the room, making his way into the bathroom to relieve himself, and trudge back to the bed, taking off more of his clothes before jumping back in.

Celestia closed her eyes as she flew off, speeding back to her own balcony to raise the sun.

Later That Morning...

I woke up to my room being unusually warm. Then again, it was hotter than this when I woke up to use the bathroom. It almost felt like a sauna had been installed in my room, but it was better than being in the shivering cold that was the outside. Even more so, I don't remember putting myself under a blanket to cap off my night, or being in the position I woke into. If there was a midnight visitor, they are looking out for me in a good way.

But seriously, I thought my door was locked.

I took the time to go on my morning jog, sans the visitation this go around. When I finished, I hopped in the shower and got ready to take on the day. When I arrived to the dining hall, I saw the usual parties doing what they usually do on a weekday morning. The head chef had been cheerfully creating dishes and providing me with ideas on how to spice up my diet.

However, there was one significant difference in today. Celestia was nowhere to be seen this morning. Apparently she had hopped in, grabbed something à la carte, and bounced before anyone could get a word in. Even Luna was left clueless on the whims of her own sister. Even as I went to work standing guard outside of the throne room today, there was no sign of her. Usually there would be a line of ponies trying to get a meeting or discussion with the princess on whatever matter. Today, there was no line, no call for attention as she approached. Even as I asked around, no one seemed to know what happened with her.

I decided to take my job a little more serious.

I quickly called a search party for the princess, urging for anyone to report to me their findings. Since it was uncharacteristic of her to dismiss herself without any notice to anyone, I had to assume something had gone wrong. I even called my brothers and asked if they had seen her anywhere. They confirmed on their end that she was nowhere to be seen or heard from. Parliament had to be taken over by Blueblood because she was a no-show. I went and asked all of her assistants to see if they knew anything. Apparently only one of them was given the instruction to cancel her entire day with the exception of controlling the sun.

Since this was a called search, I was allowed the authority to frequently leave my post for the sake of concluding the search to whatever end. So I looked through every avenue in the castle, even knocking on her door to see if she had been here. No desired results came up, and I was forced to commence to searching other places throughout the grounds. But I felt that she had to have stayed here, just hiding somewhere. I went back to my room during lunch break to see about going to the outside parts of the castle grounds and even the inner-perimeter walls of the city. So I went to get dressed in preparation for that.

Never did I think that my search would end in my room.

The princess sat quietly, holding onto a pillow while she stared at the wall. I didn't think she even noticed my coming in. So when I tapped her on the shoulder, she quickly turned around and grabbed at me in an attempt to slam me into the floor. She would've shattered my back if she hadn't seen my face immediately. She quickly let me go and trotted away towards the other side of the room, again to avoid looking at me.

"Leave me be." She said softly, not wanting to look in my direction.

Instead of going for my coat, I decided to go for her. That time she was very much on-guard, throwing a pillow at me if she heard me walking in her direction. I managed to ward off the pillow with my magic and stood beside her. "Your highness, the world is looking for you."

"My day is cancelled, my schedule is clear, I have no visitors and neither shall I see any. Leave me be." She stressed.

"Cella, what's wrong?" I asked while walking to speak with her.

"Leave me alone, Nondis." She begged, teleporting herself to the other side of the room. "I can't see you today."

I started to go after her, but instead decided to sit on my bed. "Is it something I did─"

"Stop with it." She demanded. "I merely made the decision to be alone today. I need to be alone."

"For what exactly? Is it a personal issue?" I questioned. "I mean I would think that you'd be in your room if it was a personal issue. You being in my room feels more like you want to talk to me."

"I came in here to hide from you!" She replied, flaring out her wings in frustration. She spent a few seconds to calm herself as a part of her mane had turned yellow. "I almost hurt you today."

I laid out on my bed as I asked her. "How did you do that, by not telling me good morning?"

The princess folded her wings back to her sides and quietly explained herself. "For the past few days or so, after I told you my past, I felt partial to you. So I thought that maybe I could do some small things to make you feel more comfortable here, just things that I know would make a difference for you."

"Like painting my wall and replacing the bed you burned with your old mattress and whatnot?" I asked.

"No, not that." She argued. "I owed those things to you because of what I did. I acted out in anger and caused you an inconvenience. So I had to make that up to you."

"Then what are you talking about?" I asked casually.

"I know you felt the warmth almost every morning you woke." She started to confess. "So I thought that I could pop in every once in a while and warm your room to make you more comfortable. This morning I saw you just laid out without any sheets or covers and it was cold, I knew it was cold to me so it had to be worse for you."

So that's why my room was so warm in comparison to the hallway. "Well, I have to say that I didn't see that coming. I just thought there was always some timed heater installed in here. But the way I woke up this morning might have showed me that I might have been showed some favor to by someone. I never suspected it would be you, but I do appreciate it."

"No! I almost cooked you this morning!" She said, lowering her head. "I was angry with Discord, we had an altercation, and I let my rage get the better of me. I didn't want to unleash that in front of you, nor did I want to see that demon again. But it came out, and I almost caused you grievous harm."

I got off of the bed and started walking towards her, leaning beside her as I started to find a way to ease her nerves. "Celly, I was a little warm this morning."

"You were sweating!" She argued.

"So what's a little night sweat? It happens to humans all the time. Heat flashes, so what? If I ain't covered in first-degree burns, then why are you making a fuss of it?"

"You don't know my history with that side of me!"

I quietly replied to her statement. "I can guess you probably turned into that thing when you were fighting that war. But you don't have to let one bad moment hurt your day. I'm still here."

The princess snapped back at me. "I will not see you again. Not now or ever. I refuse to allow my desire of becoming close to you jinx you into getting hurt... or worse."

I don't recall thinking too much about what I was going to say to her, just acting on impulse. So I knelt down to her, turned her head towards me and butted my forehead against hers, avoiding her horn all the while speaking. "Hey, get over here." I replied with a more serious tone. "You and I both got hard heads, neither of us learn from past mistakes too well on the first try. I need you to stay that way cause your head feels a little soft right now. I know what you've been through, not all of it but just enough. I need you to stay strong with me, no falling out on me now."

"But I─" She started before I interrupted her.

"But nothing. Your intent was kindhearted. I had assassins try and take me out, people who didn't like me trying to set me up for the okeydoke. You just tried to keep me warm for the morning and Discord pulled a few of your feathers the wrong way. You think that hurts me any, hell no. What hurts me is the fact that you would quarantine yourself because of one bad experience that resurfaced for a minute or two." I leaned in closer, not trying to kiss her but to drive my point home with my head. "You are the ruler of a nation, you are Celeste Delanise Valkyrie, Princess of the Day and Sun. You are FUCKING. STRONG. And I am your biggest fan. Now keep me ringside so I can see how you fight this to the end. Got it?"

The mare pushed back angrily, trying to emphasize her rank. "And just who do you think you are to utter my full name!?"

"I'm your friend in the blue corner, I even be your coach if you need it. But under no circumstances will I be considered as anything less than what you need. And if I need to step out of my role in command to kick you in your ass to make sure you stay in line, bet I fucking will."

"You'd dare talk to me like this?" She questioned.

I separated myself from her, pulling her chin up and patting her on her chest plate. "No different than anyone else I want to see succeed. So keep your head up, stick that chest out, scar and all. You want them to see it, let them see your wounds and how fucking strong you've been till now. Broken wings, you fly on those. Broken leg, you run on that. You die, just walk it off and bring hell right along with you. Whatever you do, you make me proud to be your friend, confidant, courtly lover, whatever the hell you see me as. But you keep marching like that bad thing ain't shit to all the good you bring."

The princess hopped up and allowed her wings to give her flight as she poked a hoof into my chest. "You listen here, Nondis. I don't care how weak I may feel, you do not under any circumstances disrespect me like you have today." She followed up with her battering her head against mine, of course with hers hurting a little more. I winced from the aching her tough skull had brought against mine. But she held me in place as she whispered her following response. "But under no circumstance do you not stay as my friend. Now YOU toughen up, a real hard head wouldn't flinch at the slightest impact."

I tried not to acknowledge the headache I had, powering through it. "Good, cause I ain't feel shit."

"That's my captain of the royal guard." She said with a prideful smile. "Keep me in check while I keep you in line. Power me through and I give you strength. Push me forward and I'll cover your back."

"I like this friend thing we got going. Just don't be so quick to drop it based on past experiences though." I said while the princess backed off and gave me a playful hit on my shoulder.

"Oh no, you're a far cry different from any I've ever met. Might have to be careful around you." She said before walking up to the door to rejoin the ranks of society.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"Because if I court you for too long, I may have expectations."

"Might not want those." I warned. "I'm just a bundle of disappointment."

"And I'm a barrel of bad omens." She replied. "I think we might cancel each other out."

"The real question is do you really wanna find that out?" I asked sarcastically.

Her magic enveloped the entirety of the handle as she turned back to look at me. "I'll let you run around for a bit, have your fun, break as many hearts as you'd like, make as many broken promises as you can afford. But when I call for you after you get your stuff done in the next two months..." She turned around and hid her face as her voice sounded through my head. "You belong. To. Me."

...Oh no.

Oh shit.

And here we go.

"Um... your highness..." I began sheepishly. "D-did you really mean─"

She opened the door, walked out the room, and closed the door behind her. The room was silent to me for the longest collection of seconds before her voice boomed in my head. "Mine and mine alone, Nondie my dear."

...I think I might have found something to fear more than Canterrot itself.

Author's Note

Well, it seems someone might be a tiny bit feisty. Now of course, this chapter is a tad bit slow, but for a good reason. I know that time skips aren't always a fan-favorite, but I want to at least implement a few. So I decided to expand on what was accomplished throughout the course of the day as opposed to just bringing something out of the blue.

So... how's all of you. I hope you're all healthy and safe. Do any of you have any interesting stories of how something of yours might have changed in response to the madness that's out there? I know I was looking forward to my first gig in Texas. It was at least going to be intermingling with the Spring Break crowd, that was going to be so much fun for me. Now the sports are gone, the casinos are closed, and all my gigs are canned. So you can only imagine how I'm feeling being stuck in my room for an ample amount of days.

Would you believe me if I told you that the next chapter would require a bit of reading back? This one may be a little smaller than the past two, but I hope it's something to go over for the time being. I promise to put the next one out as soon as I'm done with it.

Spread the word, don't spread the germs. Stay safe. You already know what to do.

Chapter XC

My brain was numb, my hands were unsteadily holding the phone as I stared at the picture of the mare standing behind me in my post. I did manage to get some answers I was looking for, but I didn't think that it would come to this unpredictable revelation. I had to find myself a place to sit because of one primary factor.

She wanted to exchange sexual favors with me.

Some part of me was sickened at the thought of being involved with the possible daughter of Count DuMoneé. Another part was laughing at the irony of being liked by the daughter of the man who wanted to see you dead. But since his daughter was over the whole 'Hooves for Humans' organization, I suppose he would've been highly disgusted at the fact that I was simply existing for his daughter to fawn over.

But why would he be angry? He obviously didn't give a damn about her if he did what we think he did to her. And it wouldn't surprise me if his animosity towards me was more personally driven than anything. It explains a lot about the way he tried to get me out of his life, he probably got tired of his daughter championing this strange creature who had so much to share, so many possible conversations to start off with, who got a better running start than many ponies who have worked their entire lives to get where they are.

It's a classic case of cognitive dissonance.

That was all the information I needed to hear for today, more than I was ready to hear, less of what I intended. I concluded our questioning and left him in the apartment to mull on the thoughts of that mare still finding the time to smile after what happened to her. I'm sure he would go back into looking up a myriad of subjects about this world before wearing himself down for sleep. All we had to do was ensure that there was no more coffee for him to consume.

Mel and I simmered on what we were told today on the way back to her apartment. I needed to get back to Canterlot, so I had to go to her place. When we showed up to the door, she stopped fiddling through her keys, took a deep breath, and dropped her head. "Hey, Nondis."

"Yeah?" I softly answered.

The woman closed her eyes as she spoke. "I'm sorry for spazzing out at you earlier. I let my personal feelings get in the way of what we were trying to do. I should've controlled myself a little better."

"You're fine." I responded, nudging her with my elbow. "I know where you're coming from."

She looked at me for a moment, sizing me up before starting to unlock the door again. "Yeah. So what now, Romeo?"

As much as I wanted to take a moment to slow down and just allow all of this to sink in, I couldn't take a break on something like this. The only time I'd ever dedicate myself to something like that is when I'm about to close my eyes to sleep tonight. For now, pushing was my best option. "I guess I'll keep at it until the job is done. Even if she is who I think she is, then I have to keep in mind that she's not like him."

When the door opened, I started to make my way towards her room. She stopped in the living room, looked off to the corner and then called for me. "Hey, Nondis. Can you come here for a bit?"

I looked back to observe her body language. Her arms were loosely hanging as she pointed to her couch. I recognized her posture as her being casual, I wouldn't have to worry about any attempts of her being amorous. "Sure."

When I got closer, she grabbed my hands and guided me towards the couch. In the corner, I could see something covered in a thick purple comforter. She glanced over at it before playing with her fingers. "Well... it's been a while since you've been riding around on your own. And I know running around Canterlot is a different kind of get-around with how big it is. I know you're used to walking everyday and you run a lot in the mornings to keep in shape, but I don't think you should just keep walking when you've got to be someplace in a hurry... or when you're chasing down someone important."

I shrugged my shoulders. "Mel, I can turn into a pony... that still sounds weird when I say it. But I can manage the struggle just fine."

She walked away from the den and moseyed into the kitchen, opening one of the drawers before pulling out a small oddly-shaped key. She dangled it beside her. "Well you can manage the struggle, but we wanted you to be able to move around faster."

She tossed the key to me, I barely managed to catch it. She pointed to the corner with the purple comforter. I turned around and started to walk towards the sheets that hid something large underneath. I began to chuckle. "Aw, so you got me a scooter?"

"Not quite." She replied.

She started to clap her knuckles together, watching me as I started to pull the sheets off. As soon as I peeled the sheets back, I saw a set of black handle bars with silver grips a little further out. My eyes bulged as I threw the sheet off, revealing a black motorcycle with purple trims. I could see out of the corner of my eye her jumping up and down with excitement, clapping her hands as I stood in place, completely slack-jawed. I was completely nervous as I was about to touch it. "Mel... What the fuck is this?"

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!" She ran up behind me, throwing her arms around my body as she rocked from side to side. "A Christmas gift from us over here in the human world to you over in Equestria. We went on a website to see which would be the best model to get you. We were actually talking about this for three weeks since you didn't like taking the train, mainly due to past traumatic experiences. So we wanted to let you have a little taste of home for you to ride around on... well, a taste of Italy in this case."

I bent down to look more in detail at everything that made up the bike. I couldn't help but to gasp at everything I was looking at. "What is this and how much did it run you?"

"Well, if we look at the tag still on it..." She said a giggle, pulling out a laminated price tag on the side of the seat. "It says it's an Aprilia RSV4 R APRC ABS... whatever all of that shit means. It's a 2013 model, we got it a while back, but we tried to hide it from you up until now. Even had a little bit of help in getting it up the stairs... illegal help to simply put it."

I paused my excitement for a second as I questioned her. "What do you mean illegal help?"

"Well, Princess Luna helped us get this up the stairs using her magic. Alex and Cliff gladly provided the manpower to keep things moving while Luna helped with the weight reduction. We actually got this up here yesterday, had it hiding in a U-Haul truck for a few days until we could surprise you with it. But you had some other things to do other than worry about Christmas."

As much as I wanted to be angry about the fact that Luna just blatantly risked revealing herself out in public, I was more thrown off by her statement after that. "Wait, what?"

She pointed down at my pants with a giggle. "You might wanna check the date on your phone."

I pulled out my phone and quickly read the date below the time. December 26th. "SHIT, I MISSED CHRISTMAS!?" I screamed, almost yanking my hair back with how rough I planted my hand on my head.

She grabbed my hand off of my head, grabbed the key off the floor from my dropping it, and curled my fingers around it for me. "You were pretty busy, I can understand if you got a little distracted because of all the hoopla. We all wanted to surprise you yesterday, but you just up and left so quick that you didn't even give me a chance to slow you down. I just figured that you were going through a lot with all of this and I just put it off until the next time."

Even though I was upset with myself over my missing a family holiday, I was still perplexed over what was being given to me. "But how did you even get this?"

"We all threw in a little something. I think Rick was a second shy of buying the damn thing outright. But since we wanted this to be a gift for you from all of us, we decided on something that you could probably use. The bike was your parent's idea, don't ask me why this thing in particular and not something a little safer. They wanted you to have something to ride around on if the train still gave you the shits."

I almost felt like pouring my heart out to her as I held the key to this black beast in my hands. "Why are all of you so awesome to me?"

"Because you're an awesome person doing awesome things for others, we just decided that it would be better for you to have something that matched you. You live a wild life, it's only fair that you get all the perks of doing so."

It was the first time when my hands touched the cold rubber grips, the fresh smell of a brand new vehicle and a slight hint of gasoline. I wanted to sit on it, but I decided against it due to spacial restrictions. However, I still couldn't shake the fact that I missed Christmas. "A damn motorcycle for my Christmas present, and I open it a day late."

"That's just your life, it's pretty fast. Maybe this will at least help you slow down a bit." She said with a playful shrug.

I looked at the monster and raised a finger. "Just one question. How the fuck do you ride this?"

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Canterlot Castle
Three Hours Later...

After looking up a series of instructional videos on motorcycle safety and the basics of how to operate the beats that I was both excited and terrified to ride, I proceeded to take my new gift across the portal and stash it away in the armory at the barracks. I also had to submit a request to restrict access to the vehicle to my higher-ups. One of them decided to be a smart-ass and sit on it while telling me that nothing appeared to be restricted about this device. In fact, they were genuinely interested in seeing what the thing could do. It had two wheels and I was keeping it locked away, so it piqued their curiosity.

I then explained to them that this was a device meant for humans to use. It was also a dangerous one to use without any kind of training behind motorized vehicles. I also made the glaringly obvious point that operating a train engine or an airship was not a license to touch it. But since they wanted to see what it does and how dangerous it could possibly be, I decided to cave in and show them a demonstration in the morning after breakfast.

Basically, they would be sitting in while I took this thing off the castle grounds and tried to keep it in first gear around the streets. Oh won't it be fun to publicly embarrass myself or at least get a good scare out of the superiors who think that this thing shouldn't be a concern for the guards in the barracks.

I also made my report to the others, but admittedly coming short of naming any possibilities as it wouldn't be conducive to add any details that would be misleading or unproven. In other words, I withheld the information of Blue Royal being a possible relative to Count DuMoneé. If I can't produce any evidence of it being the truth, then I can't bring that up for the time being.

But still, it lines up so damn easily.

Celestia discovered that I had missed out on the festivities of yesterday and the day before. She became upset with that and decided to set aside some time to take me over to her room to have a miniature celebration. I emphasized the warning my superiors had given me in regards to her, but in typical fashion she elected to ignore it. She was determined to share with me the pleasantries of Hearth's Warming, even if it was a day late.

"Come on. Hurry along."

"You know you dragging me around the place makes it look even more suspicious."

The princess opened her door and pushed me in with her horn tapping against my lower back. "As if I'm going to let you work yourself through the holiday without any semblance of well-wishing. How fair would that be if you were made to work through a family holiday with no compensation?"

"I got a Christmas gift already. Really, I'm fine." I said politely, still getting nudged inside of the room.

"And not a single Hearth's Warming gift to your name? Let's address that." She said, closing the door. "I swear do you even know what Hearth's Warming is all about?"

I tried to summarize it quickly. "All races come together to love the Wendigos away."

The princess giggled at my fairly dry answer. "Sure, if you want to be a spoil sport. Now, wait there." She instructed.

She walked over to a section of her room where there appeared to be a large rug sitting in front of a few fresh logs. She lowered her head, allowing her horn to spark for a moment before the logs quickly caught fire. She looked around the room, removing every light source other than the one given off by the fireplace. Her eyes glanced over to me as she sat herself on her haunches. She used a single wing to invite me over to her side while patting her hoof on the rug.

"You should be more comfortable here."

I rolled my eyes and gave in. "Okay. But something tells me you're trying to set a mood."

"Mind you we're only courting. This is one such method of practice." She replied, waiting patiently as I sat myself down. As soon as I landed, she started to make room for herself as well as leaning against me. I watched her tilt her head back to look at me with her lavender eyes. "Are you comfortable?"

"I think the question should be if you're comfortable?" I replied,

"Hmm... I could use a little more of your arms, If you don't mind, would you alleviate that issue for me?"

I wrapped my arms around her, covering her back with my chest. I could feel her wings shuffle underneath me while she leaned down to a lengthy pillow. As our heads rested, she adjusted herself further to fit the form of my thighs rubbing against her haunches. The princess softly cooed. "You okay with this, Cella?"

"More than." She answered with an endearing tone. "I've grown quite fond of this feeling, but this one seems to be much better than the last time we did this."

"Why?" I asked.

She snuggled herself into me some more, trying to diminish her size. "Because I'm not the one trying to hold on to such a big beast like you. You get to hold on to me this time."

"I don't know. You turn into a human and I'm pretty short in comparison." I answered with a chuckle.

The princess hummed. "But I don't want to feel like I have to be big and powerful all the time. I like having the chance to feel vulnerable... to a degree."

"You like the size difference between us right now?" I asked.

"Like it?" She scoffed. "Love it, I live for it. Every crush I had, no matter how few they may be, I have never had one who has made me feel physically small."

"Not even Sombra?"

"He was always a few inches shorter." She replied before she started to rub my arms with her hooves. "But he made me feel small in other ways."

My mind had quickly veered off into a questionable direction. "I won't ask."

Her hindlegs fluttered as she wiggled. "Well if you won't ask, I'll tell you instead." She said with a giggle. "With him, I felt like he had possession over me, as if I had the fleeting rights of a young mare. He made me feel small in that regard."

"And Fair Charity?"

"He made me feel small in the course of his passing." She answered in a melancholic tone. "Like the hope I had was gone because of his absence."

I shook my head, thinking of those other two figures. "Well I only got a physical height advantage, compared to those guys I'm nothing."

"Oh no, you are wonderful for me right now." She responded, guiding my hand towards her chest with a foreleg, using my hand to cover her scar. "You make me feel small in many ways I never imagined. I wouldn't have ever found the courage to remove my regalia with anyone else. You make me feel more natural, instead of feeling like the princess of a nation, you have me feel like a mare who's in need of a good talking to. When you hold me like this, when I see the world you're from, it makes me feel like I have so much to learn and many more things to look forward to in my future. I almost can't imagine going back to the status quo after finding myself being ensnared by your arms."

"I wouldn't quite say ensnared." I said, trying to make an example by holding my hand against her throat. "If I 'ensnared' you, it would be something like this."

The princess used her magic to grasp at my hand, gliding it up her neck to stop at her jaw. "Now this here, this is the one thing I'm sure many would be scared to do."

"Just hold you, you mean?"

She lifted her head to look at me once more. "I don't trust a lot of those around me, not with me being like this."

"Is it self-restraint?" I questioned.

"Theirs." She replied. "It's quite easy for a stallion to be turned on by something like this. With you, it feels more like what I want it to be. Sometimes I just want the sensation of being held in certain places, sometimes in specific ways."

I shifted myself while moving a lock of her mane from around her ear. "Yeah, sex and intimacy can be synonymous in many cases, but you don't find yourself calling for that. You like the closeness between two beings."

The princess chuckled with a scoff. "Finally, someone gets it."

"What makes you say it like that?" I asked on the verge of laughing.

"Suitors, politicians, nobles, hard-pressed guards who swore their service to me for the marginal fraction of a possibility of winning me over. How many of those have tried to whisper nothings into my ear saying how they would help me usher in a bright and prosperous future for Equestria? All I can say is that there were more than enough looking to cozy up and find themselves looking for an opening to take me. Sometimes, their imagination can lead to much more sinister or sadistic ideas."

"How did you respond to them?" I questioned.

"Ask your older brother." She replied with a smirk. "I'm sure he'll tell you it was a chilling experience."

I do remember Alex telling me that she dumped cold water on him to control his newfound sense of arousal while in equine form. "Oh... yeah he told me about that."

"Well in case you have ideas, you know what to expect." She warned with a smile.

I looked over to the fireplace and smiled. "Well at least I'll already be in a good spot. The fireplace is pretty warm."

She promptly went back to snuggling against me, pointing to the fireplace I mentioned. "Hey, look at the fire."

I stared at the flames dancing, sending a number of smoldering embers up through the chimney. The ash that once was the wood started to settle beneath the fire itself. But I saw nothing different. "Okay. So what am I looking for?"

"Just watch the fire." She instructed.

I did as she asked and watched closely as the flames that danced started to form flickering shapes. The shapes flickered slowly until they started to act almost like a roll of film, allowing the figures and shapes to become animated. The shapes then started to define themselves as small figurines of ponies who all bowed before a sizable throne, with a single pegasus stallion who had a swirling mane and a brilliant set of armor on. "Who is that?"

"That is my father, King Primordial. He was a strict stallion, judging many fairly yet cruelly according to their transgressions. He did not like the segregation of the pony races, nor did he like the many crimes that came after the great unification of the lands. He was seen as a stern pony, unwavering in his convictions and blind to emotions. One could say that he would look as if he were to be stone. Steadfast and strong-minded, he was a fitting pillar for the young nation that stretched as far out as Everfree could reach."

Slowly, another figure flickered onto the scene, one that started to appear from behind the throne. It was a stunning unicorn mare with an ever-flowing mane. She poked her head from over the side of the throne, her hooves covered her muzzle while she giggled. "And who is this one?"

"My mother, Queen Gaia Valkyrie. She was a kind soul who was a great scholar. She would research the many ways magic was utilized in all of the races and offered advice on how to optimize them. It was said that she was a lively ruler who swore to warm the heart of the cold king. Her family's lands were to the north, taking the entirety of Mount Faust and the adjacent lands to the west of it, basically known to be the Crystal Empire today. But as of this time you're seeing, she was a young princess who was eager to make her feelings known. This is yet another Hearth's Warming story my mother loved to tell."

The princess smiled as I simply responded. "I take that it's one very few know of?"

"You could say that." She said, wrapping her forelegs around my arms, holding herself closer to me. "But she fawned over the king, hoping to make him see her as the beautiful mare she was. She desired to spend the rest of her life with him." The mare then poked a hoof from one side, tapping the king over his right shoulder. He immediately look to his left to see her giggling. He didn't seem impressed with her joke while she was positively exuberant. He turned his head back forward, not even acknowledging her. The mare pursed her lips, pouting over his lack of a response.

"It obviously worked out because the two of you were born."

Celestia tapped her hoof on my arm. "At least let me get to that first." She said while reaching another hoof for my other hand, locking my arms around her body. As she did so, the figures grew to the size of a large doll. The two walked beside one another with her constantly trying to get his attention. Meanwhile he kept his head straight and his eyes locked to the world in front of him. "Now to continue from where I left off, the king had a fear of falling in love, saying that whomever he would love would be exposed to grave danger, leaving him to tend to the kingdom alone. But what he did not see coming was the extent of danger she placed herself through to stay at his side no matter what happened. So he tried to push her away. For months, he was annoyed at the mare, seeing that she was far too meddling for his tastes. But as a year passed of them together, she started to become worried that he would never see her as more than a nuisance."

"I can imagine anyone being discouraged after something like that."

The ponies continued to walk along, the unicorn slowing her pace until she had completely faded away with sadness on her face. "She left him to rule alone for a while. He initially enjoyed the quiet that came after, but started to miss her company. Little did he know, she had left so much of an impression, that he began to quietly enjoy her antics. And yet... he desired to stay himself away from her out of his fear of loving her. So he waited and waited and waited for weeks, hoping that she would come by and fill his courts with her voice. But she never came back. So he left, he ventured far west, as far west as one could possibly reach. It was rumored that he walked for three days and three nights, through the cold and frozen snow to reach the driest, furthest reaches of the land. To the very ends of Equestria he wandered to, he reached out to the setting sun, screaming out that he wanted her to return to him. He screamed with every last ounce of his being. For hours, he stood by the unsetting sun, refusing to call for it's departure until he could find her again. Finally given up hope, he wept in fear of him not ever seeing her again."

The pegasus king unfurled his wings, crying out to the world, pleading even. "That isn't how it ends though."

As it seemed like he gave up all hope, breaking down into his hooves. The unicorn reappeared behind him with a warm smile and tears of happiness on her face. "Not in the slightest. He poured his heart out, screaming into that sun that he wanted it to rewind the hours he spent without her, pleading that he'd give everything to have her back in his life. And yet... with a tap of his shoulder, she appeared behind him. He saw her and became frightened with joy, but quickly tried to hide this newfound happiness with the usual stoic exterior. But she read right through him this time. She also revealed that she simply became his shadow, following him everywhere he went, even as he searched for her. He tried to hide his passion-fueled words, but she heard every last one."

"Guess it's a bit too late to hide it then."

"The two returned to the kingdom to rule together as two, promising to uphold the land as a pair, never one over the other. And so, on the day of Hearth's Warming, they exchanged their vows and united their families as one, giving each other the gift of... well... each other. They would go on to be married to one another, and raised two young unicorns fillies until it was their time to surrender the kingdom. But another problem arose."

"Well that doesn't sound too promising." I said.

The figures then grew to the size of actual ponies. The pegasus stallion being taller than Shining Armor, laid in a bed adjacent to his wife. The husband held his youngest daughter with his hooves. The wife hugged her eldest daughter, both of the parents trying to comfort the crying unicorn siblings. "With the declining health of the King and Queen, many suitors lined the halls to try and convince them that their sons would be ideal for the two unicorns to marry. Each would come with their own desire, their own ambitions for power. Seeing this, the two decided that their power would not be succeeded to two unicorns... but to two higher beings that had proven their strength. And with their waning strength, they combined their magic and bestowed it upon two unicorn sisters, their own daughters. When the two left their parents' bedside, they were then pronounced as high rulers of the kingdom, forever to hold power over the land until a new successor was chosen."

The two figures mustered whatever strength they had left, standing side by side to one another until the queen's horn began to glow white. The kings wings started to glow the same until they were removed from their own bodies, leaving the two as incredibly frail and unquestionably terminal. Instead, the two young teenagers were anointed with the new gift of some additional height, and a pair of wings for each. The powers bestowed upon them had left their bodies, transferring to
their beloved offspring. After that, the king collapsed and withered into dust, much to the horror and sadness of the others. But the queen soon found herself so enamored with grief that she fell to collect the dust of her husband, only to turn to ash herself.

I grew confused over the development. "Forgive me for asking this, but how exactly did they pass?"

The princesses held each other, weeping over the pile of ashes. As the two held each other, Celestia started to wipe a few tears from her eyes. "It was simply the weight of their powers being far too great on their bodies. They could no longer live with such power. But given our gifts of controlling the sun and moon, we could, so we did just that for as long as I could remember. That was well over eleven hundred years ago."

"I know that must weigh on you." I said, starting to rub her ears.

The princess grew warm to my touch. "Not as much as it used to. You have to remember that I had a lot more to cry about."

"I wish you could somehow raise a family of your own. Maybe that will truly make you happy. I know it won't remove the stigma of the past, but I feel like the therapy of passing on what you know and have to offer would be great for you."

The princess flipped herself around as the figures made of the flames quickly flashed out of existence, leaving only the flickering fireplace behind. She looked at me with a purely innocent smile. "Hmm, I guess I could do with eight foals."

I reeled back as I damn near chocked on my own spit. "That's a bit much, don't you think?"

"If I have a husband, I expect him to love me that much." She said with her cheeks reddening over time, her hooves clopping together as she looked away from me with embarrassment. "Or maybe he would be bored of me after so long."

As much as I wanted to comfort her with something she wanted to hear, I decided to give her the truth. "I think you'll keep it interesting for the first ten years. But marriage gets old over time, it never not gets old. You can ask anyone, they'll get tired of each other but can't live a day without them, just like you said with Luna. But in the end, some will look at it and either decide that it's just not for them after all or they'll get comfortable enough to say that it was worth it in the end. I don't really know, it's all about perspective and homestead."

"And what about you?" She asked, starting to become worried.

"I looked at my family for an example. My grandparents were high school sweethearts for life, things were much different then. My parents met at a diner, my mom was working to help pay for her tuition while my dad was in for a lunch break. But it's different today. We all can get to know each other from distance, but some of us don't know how to deal with people in person. I was honestly worried that I might fall into that kind of cycle, but I'm starting to see that I might not be in that loop. I kinda have dreams of having a family of my own someday. Might not be ready for it with the world being the way it is now, but that's a chance many have took and it worked out all the same." As soon as I looked up, I could see Celestia staring at me with a love-drunken expression. "Now to be fair, I ain't trying to have kids right now. Maybe later."

She blinked, tilting her head while she leaned hers into mine. "I know. But in the time when you would be ready, how many would you see yourself wanting?"

"I guess two or three is fine." I admitted.

She giggled at the idea. "So I want eight, you want two. Any reason why you'd want so few?"

"For the reason of having more opportunities to engage in extracurricular activities, if you know what I mean. I feel like eight would take away from that. One's already hard enough to deal with."

Celestia moved in closer, wrapping her forelegs around my shoulders. "So you think that having eight would stop me from entertaining the idea of going for nine or ten more? You have to remember that your world is full of distractions. Mine is a lot more secluded, so it wouldn't be unusual to have something akin to a middle ground between us."

I joked at the princess. "You seem like you want kids right now at this point."

The princess chuckled. "No, but you do give me a good reason to invest in that idea."

I started to mock the princess. "Careful, your fangs are showing."

The princess' eyes grew as she pushed herself away from me, immediately running for a mirror. I was a bit surprised that she had left me here while she seemed almost ghostly pale. For a moment, she stared in the mirror and inspected her teeth, trying to make sure that she hadn't turned into anything. She frantically checked her body, making sure that nothing appeared out of place.

I got up and walked up to her. "Cella, what's wrong?"

"You said my fangs were showing!" She said worriedly, still trying to smile in the mirror to inspect her teeth.

I shook my head. "I didn't mean it like that. I meant that your aggression was showing a bit."

"WAS IT!?" She questioned.

"Sensual. Aggression." I replied slowly, reaching down to hug her and hold her in place. "Sorry if I scared you, though I don't quite understand how I did it."

The princess finally realized that my words were more directed to her as a means of flirtation instead of my pointing out a specific flaw. Her eyes showed the sadness within her heart, realizing that the mood she had taken the time to carefully cultivate was broken by her own actions. She tried to swallow her emotions again. "I... I'm so sorry."

"Head up, chest out." I reminded her, placing my hand under her chin to raise it. "Keep at it."

She looked at the mirror, staring back at herself as I held her. She looked down to the hand on her chin, staring for a while as her horn started to glow. The next thing I felt was her pushing my head down to stand at level with hers. She leaned into mine, quietly showing her appreciation for what I was doing. "Two different creatures we are, and here I am wanting to give my heart to this tall lanky thing that keeps grabbing my chin."

"You gotta keep your head up." I said warmly. "I know it's hard looking at yourself at times, especially if your past wasn't exactly great. But you got a support system in me. So each time I do this, you make sure to look ahead. You got your father's pride and your mother's looks. Don't waste those things on sadness."

She turned herself to me and placed her hoof on my cheek, tilting my head towards hers. And just as quickly as she did that, her lips found mine for the second time. I wasn't as surprised as the first time, but I still had my initial reservations. Instead of allowing it to be as one-sided as the first, I made for a counter-attack against her and danced over the line we established between ourselves. She separated herself briefly before bringing me into her sole focus. Her eyes attentively remained on me as her lips remained honest to mine. My eyes quietly watched her hoof wander onto my chest, seeming as if she was ready to pull me in.

But instead of being dragged in, I was being pushed away. She didn't shove me off, just drawing some separation between us before speaking. "You know, you have a lot that's missing in this."

"What am I missing?" I questioned.

"Hmmm... Tongue." She replied before partaking in me yet another time.

The princess didn't even allow me a chance to breathe before taking the charge. Her hooves started to nervously twitch, working their way down my arms and sides. I offered to restrict myself, but her magic had guided my hands to her sides, feeling the warmth underneath where her wings folded. There was no rush to what we were doing, no acknowledging the legal boundary we were walking past. The fire crackled while she and I took turns on who's lips we were enjoying, who's tongue was invited to where. It was just us, finally having the moment we wanted since our being on the rug. Her hooves draped over my shoulders while she eagerly licked the tip of my nose before continuing. My hands began to wander about, rubbing her sides and back before they ventured upward towards her cheeks. My thumb cradled against the curves of her jaw, my fingers spanning the length of her face while our tongues circled one another. The princess reached in one last time, bringing our lips together before separating in a final chirp.

The princess moaned quietly under her breath. "I need to stop."

"Why?" I asked.

"You know why." She replied, using a little more strength to push herself away from me. "I've already moved the goalposts for tonight. I don't think there would be much of one left if we kept going."

"I guess that's an indication that we're doing something right." I rebutted.

The princess bit her lips, glancing off to the side. "I thank you for showing restraint, not trying to further the issue right now. And I know that our exchange has left you with more to be desired, as I feel the same way. I think the both of us are quietly trying to negotiate with ourselves on if we would be willing to see how far we can take this tonight, but we already know what's at stake."

I already had beaten her to the punch on what she was trying to ask. "Next Thursday evening is when we bring in the new year. I'd like to spend some time with you then."

Celestia was even quicker to a location. "Your world, in Austin. I want to experience it from your point of view."

"Sounds like a date to me." I said. "You sure Equestria will be fine without you that night?"

She scoffed back at me. "Come on, it's been a thousand years of the same fanfare and fireworks, I've been to each town at least ten times now, each visit as lonely as the last. I want this to be something we experience together, even if it seems to be old to you."

"You'll be a human again." I jokingly warned.

"That's fine." She answered non-chalantly.

"You'll have to wear underwear again."

The princess wasn't as care-free on that one. "I mean... I've done it before."

"It will be a bit crowded."

That was when she decided to voice her opinion. "I want to be out on the boardwalk. I want to watch as the city celebrates from across the river."

I sighed and shook my head. "That's what I was talking about. The fireworks will be over the river, no doubt the boardwalk will be crowded with onlookers, no matter how noisy it gets."

"Done." The princess said, clopping her hooves together. "Gracious me, I can't believe I'm going on a date for the first time in over a thousand years. I don't know what I'm going to do or wear."

"Something warm." I advised. "No point in trying to look sexy while catching a cold. Don't need you getting sick twice in a week."

The princess glanced over at me and started walking towards her bathroom. "I'm going to take a bath. You should be able to find your way out."

"Aw, no goodnight?" I teased.

"Goodnight, captain." She said, disappearing into the bathroom.

I guess she was for real about me leaving out of here.

Meanwhile, the princess strolled over to the pool-sized tub, stepping inside to sink inside of the perfumed waters. Her eyes wandered slowly while her mind was more fixated on what she had just experienced. Her hoof found the places on her neck where the human had grabbed her, touched her, teased her. As soon as her hoof had wandered to the bottom of her jaw, her horn began to spark uncontrollably. The princess' eyes halfway closed as she allowed herself to be consumed by the idea of her being held the way she was, the memory of every moment he spent touching her. She started to shiver, shaking while the taste of the humans lips lingered on her, the feeling of his fingers being embedded in every indent her body had to offer. The thoughts alone were far too much for her.

The princess started breathing irregularly, her eyes rolling back as her head tilted back. Her magic then simulated the five fingers he possessed, grabbing her by the chin and lifting her head up from both sides. She could feel the sensation, the idea of his thumbs pressing against her throat lightly as she imagined him looking at her from above. The alabaster princess quickly found herself lost in the idea of his warmth surrounding her. Her hips rocked back and forth as she unleashed a stifled moan from her chest, suppressed by her own throat, her wings shot forth as the climax she suffered through had rendered her incapable of maintaining balance. She sank into the water, submerging herself until her final wave was ridden out. Slowly, her head reappeared above the surface as her mane swirled around her head. She breathed heavily as she started to relax from her sudden influx of lust. She pressed her hoof between her haunches, feeling herself throb from the afterglow of her sudden orgasm. Her eyes looked to the door as she thought to herself.

"Ugh... Damn you, I want you so much."

The Next Day...

I don't think I've ever had a proper moment to celebrate a kiss. Not once in my life have I had that opportunity. The first time I kissed Twilight, I got choked out by her brother. The second time I did it, I was mulling the choice of either staying put or going home. The first time I kissed Rarity was when I got slapped by Twilight, the second time was when I was in the middle of a shaky situation romantically. The first time with Pinkie, we were interrupted by the sudden arrival of Cheese. Luna was one I couldn't truly count on because I had to report to someone immediately after, while roaming the halls smelling like sweat and shame.

Honestly, Celestia is the first one where our first contact left me with a lot to think about. And her second left me with a lot to look forward to. It feels easy to put this one to chance, possibly to give it a serious go like I did with Twilight. And the funny thing is that I'm sure to have SEVERAL assassins at my neck if that were to happen. It would be damn near scripture to expect someone coming for my life if I were to suddenly threaten the image of Equestria's most beloved princess. A human with a previous history of another princess deciding to try his hand at wooing the highest ruler in all of the land. And It would be the first time where I truly did not give a fuck about it.

I wonder if Luna has been seeing my dreams as of late. I'm sure she's seen her sister in a number of them.

Morning came and I went through my usual rituals. Breakfast was pretty quiet today, it appeared that Luna elected not to attend this morning. Celestia had a measure of concern, but her focus for most of her conversations with the others was on me. She wasn't so much talking about me, but rather allowed me to be a distraction to many of her conversations. I could already see her having a countdown timer in her head over the week. And it wouldn't surprise me to see that she made sure that my Thursday would go uninterrupted by work.

But after that, I had to report to the barracks for what my superiors had labeled as an 'asset evaluation'.

The moment I wheeled the black beast out of the barracks, a significant number of guards watched as I continued to go over video after video to learn how to run the monster I guided to the courtyard. Ultimately, I decided to give my go-overs the Single File treatment, absorbing as much as I could to prepare myself. After an hour of looking through the manual and seeing the do's and do-not's, it was time for me to gain some experience while simultaneously explaining to these guys why this damn thing ain't for general use. I had to treat it like a weapons exhibition.

"So the purpose of this thing is to move on it's own, transporting you from one place to the other? What's the distance?" One guard questioned.

"I guess around 160 miles. Can't really tell you how far it is between here and the nearest town, never measured it. But I suppose it should get me there fairly quickly."

"Ponyville is the closest and can be upwards to 45 miles." My superior announced. "The train at maximum speed and optimal travel conditions clocks out at around two hours."

I then questioned the bullish superior. "So what is the time to walk from Ponyville to Canterlot, or vice versa?"

"That should be around six to ten hours of travel."

"Road conditions?" I questioned further.

"The tunnels used by pedestrian traffic should be a lot safer than that of the train traffic because of the concerns of travelers and merchants. It's safe to say that the roads are fairly smooth all the way down the mountain. The incline angle is no more than fifteen degrees."

I started doing some commuter calculations and how long it would take to cover the distance from what one could call home-to-work commute. In short it would be the same distance between Austin and New Braunfels. And that while traveling at the speed limit would be no shorter than around... "That's forty-five minutes to an hour then."

The entire crowd gasped and started murmuring to themselves as one guard stepped out to question me. "Sir, are you saying that this thing can move twice as fast as a train moving at top regulated speed for the accommodated traveling conditions?"

I could probably clock it in thirty minutes once I get the hang of it. "It will definitely be twice as fast as a train."

The crowd ooh'd and awe'd as I started to position myself on the motorcycle. The superior walked beside me, watching me and my every move, even as I put the key in to start the ignition process. He almost loomed over my shoulder while trying to figure out how to ride a monster that was almost as tall as he was. Meanwhile I proceeded to follow the instructions to the very last detail of how to turn over the engine, which was admittedly a bit tedious in comparison to a car. But when it turned over...

*VROOOOOOOOOOoooooommmmmm*

The entire guard started to ready up like they were about to fight a monster, but thankfully withheld any spear throwing. The superior who caught himself trying to get all close and personal was the first one to fall back into the crowd. When I started moving, I kept myself at the recommended gear. I had to put myself in the best position to learn how to navigate the controls smoothly. Keeping my feet off of the ground, I rode around in a wide circle slowly. inching past a few onlookers with no sense of danger.

They also got used to the sound of the black monster purring like a cougar. Though the slow travel didn't seem to impress my superior all that much. "You say that this thing could go as fast as a moving train, yet all I see is a filly's merry-go-round." The others chuckled at his joke before he continued. "So why is this so dangerous to us exactly?"

I realized that I was at least able to ride around in first. So I swapped it to second gear. By then, I started to feel the speed jump a bit to outpace any stallion trying to trot alongside me, namely my superior. While my speed started to increase, he started noticing that merely trotting alongside me was no longer an option, having to gallop next to me to keep up until the speed was too much for him to keep up with.

On my end of things, I started to see just how much fun it was to ride on a motorcycle. I've rode bikes before, trikes, bikes through the neighborhood, motorized dirt bikes when our cousins came down for a family reunion in Wimberley, broke my left wrist trying to pop a wheelie, stuff like that from years ago. You'd think that I'd have a bad experience with stuff like this, but that was because I was doing something that even my cousins were telling me not to do if I didn't know what I was doing. I was ten when it happened, grandma wouldn't let me touch another bike at her house for a while because of it. So I did have some experiences, but never anything like this, and this was mine to use.

It wasn't even that long before I was headed for the checkpoint, bypassing security before kicking things into third gear. I took a casual ride through the streets of Canterlot, watching as the buildings swept by. Of course, I did my best to stay on the main road where all the carriage traffic was heavily based on. In the sum of maybe fifteen minutes, I reached the outside wall, past the bridge and started heading down the mountain.

I finally kicked it into fourth, letting the wind really brush past me. It felt absolutely liberating to know that I was finally free of having to take a train to leave the town whenever I needed to make a trip to Ponyville. Then again, I always had that option, but this was from a whole new perspective. By this point, I was just simply clocking the time it took to leave the city limits of Canterlot and enter Ponyville.

The road conditions were as advertised, it wasn't as smooth as a city street or the interstate, but it was a relatively smooth ride down the mountain and through the countryside, sans a few bumps and knocks that almost made me fall off and become even slow to start back up again. But once I got it going again, I started getting comfortable with my new ride. And in typical fashion for newer experiences, that comfort soon turned to excitement and ambition. I finally found the freedom of speed, the freedom of not having to worry about running a few red lights or slowing down for some ticket-happy state troopers sitting behind a bush. The freedom of breezing through the countryside was mine to enjoy. Even if I was ground-bound, I had the same freedom of a pegasus pony looking to put their wings to the test.

The world looked a tad darker through my tinted visor, but I could see everything just fine. Everything in the distance moved so slowly compared to the trees and leaves that were closer to the road. If I wasn't also nervous about my first ride through, I would've been having my eyes closed, letting the air hit me while I rode on.

It didn't take much time at all to get past the welcome sign. I was looking at the speedometer to see how fast I was rolling, a solid cruising speed of around 65 mph. After that, I started to perform the several methods of taking myself back down to a more comfortable driving speed in the low thirties. As I weaved through the streets, I noticed that I had to barter with the pedestrian traffic a lot more, which meant that I had to slow things down again to school zone traveling speed. That was without a doubt the main issue I had to adjust to the most.

Since Canterlot was more of a hub than Ponyville, the streets were better optimized for vehicular travel. Granted, the cobblestone in Canterlot was a lot more worn down and flatter, almost functioning like pieces of concrete. Here the cobblestones were more like rocks in the road. It wasn't really like off-road driving, but it still felt like I was out in the country riding this bike on a gravel road leading up to a cow farm.

In spite of that, I timed my arrival to approximately fifty-two minutes.

The first place I thought I should hit up was Rarity's boutique since I was in town for no apparent reason. Besides, I needed to commission her for a uniform jacket I could wear while riding this thing. After riding through town on the purring beast, I finally stopped short of Rarity's mailbox. When I rang the doorbell, I could already hear a pair of squabbling siblings.

"Sweetie Belle, answer the door!"

"Why don't you answer it!? It's always for you anyways!"

"I'm busy with my summer collection right now, just be a dear and answer the door!"

"Rarity, it's winter, your summer collection can wait!"

"And what exactly are you doing that's equally as important as what I'm doing now!?"

The younger sister groaned out loudly. "Ugh, fine! But they're gonna come for you and I'm just gonna have to go back to my room again! Each and every time it's been like this for the past three weeks!"

"Stop bitching and answer the door!"

"Fine!" The door cracked open as Sweetie started mocking her older sibling. "Stop bitching and answer the door. Stupid Rarity."

"Sibling growing pains, huh?" I said quietly, she didn't even seem to pay attention to the fact that it was me standing here. "I feel you."

"They're the worst─" She began before she finally turned her head to see me standing in the doorway. As soon as she recognized me, her whole complexion changed. She immediately held her hooves to her face and started fanning her eyes to stop the tears from falling. "Oh my gosh! You're... you're─"

"Hey, Sweetie Belle, growing up with siblings huh? Tell me about it." Instantly I heard a glomp as her forelegs wrapped around the one leg she could hold. As I looked down, I started to notice the purple shield on her flanks with a music note at the center. "Oh my gosh, is that what I think that is?" I quickly picked her up and hugged her back. "Come here! Congratulations, you've got your cutie mark! I'm so fucking proud of you! Sorry for the language, but... wow!"

While I was stressing the appearance of her mark, she was focused on one thing that seemed to have bothered her for quite some time. "You're alive. You're alive and here again..." Her chin quivered as she looked at me. She then swapped her attitude and gave me a light punch in the chest. "Why haven't you come by sooner to let us see that you were okay!? We were worried sick! I'm tired of hearing about you from Rarity! I don't wanna have to hear another update about you from somepony else!"

"Fair enough." I replied. I then looked over to see the motorcycle being crowded around by several other ponies passing by. "Give me a sec." I started to put her down to tend to the crowd. Before one of them could put their hooves on it, I snatched the key and wheeled it to the front door. "I'm sure your sister doesn't mind me leaving this in here for the time being. I don't want ponies to start messing around with it."

Her eyes lit up as she started to become just as curious as the other ponies in the area. "What is it?"

"It's a motorcycle." I answered. "It's basically a bicycle with a motor on it. I use it to get around."

The young filly watched as I wheeled it into the foyer. "Wow, it's pretty menacing looking. If Rarity saw that, I'm sure she'd throw together something around the whole scheme of the thing."

I laughed lightly as I replied to her. "Yeah, Actually that's another reason why I came here."

"Yeah, of course, I'll call her down." The young filly bobbed her head as she trotted to the stairs and hollered with a loud voice. "Rarity, get your ass down here!"

The look on my face was pure shock and amusement over how this little girl just blatantly cussed out her older sister in front of a potential client. If there was no other way to get her sister to immediately drop what she was doing and get down here, it had to have been just that. Rarity almost stampeded down the stairs, furious with her little sister as she shouted back at her. "Sweetie Andalusia Belle, where do you get the nerve to use such vulgar language!? How dare you do this to me again!"

She's done this before? "If you'd answer me the first time I call for you, then maybe I wouldn't have to!"

The fashionista glanced over to me, blushing slightly before pointing at the stairs. "To your room, young lady! And don't come out until you've thought about what you've done!"

"Whatever." She said, trotting back up the stairs with a proud smile on her face.

Rarity shook her head as she apologized to me. "I'm sorry, darling. Ever since she got her cutie mark, she's been really trying to push the envelope. I can't believe she did that. I don't know where she's even learning that kind of language."

I pointed to her and quietly whispered her own words. "Stop bitching and answer the door."

The mare then coughed and rubbed the back of her head, subtly turning her head away. "I suppose I've been having to enforce a few things more frequently."

"You think?"

After an hour of posing next to my new toy and her getting my measurements, she started to draft an outfit that would match the requirements I explained. Of course, I had to set aside some funds to her to work with instead of letting her try to do this for free. But after that, she told me that she would drop off my jacket as soon as she'd finish it and have it under same-day transport.

I quickly got back on the road, riding back to Canterlot within the hour. The travel was as smooth as before up until it was time to make the way back up the higher part of the mountain path. That part I had to take a little slower, but it still timed to around forty-eight minutes. The only reason it was faster than my initial approach time in Ponyville is because I was more confident in my riding. As rode through the streets, I had a number of pegasi guards fly in from behind me, almost like they were racing me. When I had gotten back, the crowd had thinned out a bit, but my superior was still waiting with the same face I left him with. When the beast fell to silence, I pulled my key out and started walking it towards the barracks. And as soon as the other pegasi that chased me down had started talking about how challenging it was to keep up, he started to see the weight of my warning.

Safe to say he ordered that the bike was to be issued an authorized-personnel-only classification, an APO for short.

When I had arrived back in the castle halls, I had seen another envelope sitting in the crack of my door. I walked in the room, opened up and saw the profile of another potential interest that would aid me in my efforts to remove the royal marriage law. And to my surprise, it was none other than a picture of Single File with a folder filled with every transaction he was involved in when it came to Count. After reading through the material and how he was limiting himself to castle appearances over the past two days, she issued the request to meet up at the Canterlot Arena.

After dinner, I quickly made my way to the location. From there, I had seen that the gates leading into the venue was closed. I checked the details of the folder I was given and confirmed that this was the location I was given. I started to try to find a way in before I was levitated and phased through the iron gates. Standing behind the admissions box, I recognized the face of the blue unicorn walking towards me with a pretty bright smile on her face. "You know, you never got back with me about that contact from last Wednesday."

While she walked to me, I spent a lot of time observing her every move, her every feature, trying to discern exactly how it was possible that she was even remotely related to that dead bastard. She caught me staring, tilting her head out of curiosity. But I finally snapped to and answered her. "Sorry, had a lot of things to get around. You know, clandestine meetups in a food joint, emergency escape plans, assassins, witness protection programs, all sorts of stuff."

"Did you learn anything new?" She asked.

"Not really anything substantial outside of a few things." I lied. "This place is pretty big for just two of us."

She started to make her way through one of the doors, phasing through it like she was a ghost, when in reality it was a spell she was using. "That's exactly why I chose it. Here we'll have a lot of space to talk about things without being heard. Follow me."

She phased me through the door as well, entering into what appeared to be a fairly exclusive hallway leading towards several locker rooms and even the press box that overlooks the venue. As soon as we entered into the press box, I could see the blinding lights shining out to the field of clouds below. In contrast, the press box was just as dark as the majority of the unpopulated mountainside. It's only light came from the outside, and since there was so much light out there, it was going to be hard for any flyovers to see inside of here. From our perspective, just as long as we weren't in the beams, nothing could be seen outside the multiple silhouettes of pen holders, desk wedges and the microphone to the PA system.

I looked around while she closed and locked the door behind us. Her eyes remained fixed on me as she continued our conversation. "It seems like you might have picked up on a few things from Wednesday. What did you learn?"

"Your guy wanted to call a hit on the guy you ran a profile on just earlier today." I answered, sitting myself on one of the pillows stationed at a desk. "It seems that he knows a few things, bits of actionable intel."

"Does he happen to be the one I sent you the information on?"

"Exactly that guy." I confirmed.

The mare hopped on a desk, casually walking around as she spoke. "So it goes without saying that you should probably look into getting a hold of that particular contact then. If you remember his face, he was the one you spoke to in the park recently. I think you were trying to cheer him up over something."

"A bad breakup." I recalled. "And yeah, I've already spoken with him. That is why we have him isolated to the castle only." I lied once more.

"Do you have him isolated and secured properly?" She asked.

"No one's getting to him. He's pretty much locked up in that bastard's office for the time being. Sleeps there, eats there, I wouldn't be surprised if he shits there."

The mare didn't seem too thrilled to be on the subject of the office. "I suggest you get as much valuable information out of him as possible. He may be of use to you."

"Again, I already did." I answered as she stopped in front of me, placing a hoof under my chin.

"You know... I don't think he's really in Canterlot anymore." She whispered, rubbing my cheek. "If I remember my sources correctly, he wandered off to the train station with the Captain of the Royal Guard. The last place the two were seen together was going into a old run-down motel sitting adjacent to Ponyville Castle. Maybe you have more information as to why he would last be seen in Ponyville before suddenly reappearing in Canterlot."

Her logic was spot on, there was no denying it. However, the royals and I had already rehearsed a story to stick to. Stay with the specifics, and we're just as good as ever. "Actually, my sources have come from the checkpoints around the castle. Since I found out about that situation on Wednesday night, I had him placed on a watch list. My guards reported him leaving from Ponyville at around 6:46 pm. He was then seen at the Canterlot station entrance at approximately 8:51, reported through the checkpoint at 9:14, and entered into the office at 9:29. From there, he stayed in the castle per my instruction to remain safe. He's not allowed to leave the castle or it would compromise his own safety."

She gave me a single nod, tapping me at the top of my head like a child. "Good boy, I see you've been trying to stay on top of it all."

"I've been doing my best to keep him alive. May not like the fact that he tried to forge my signature at the request of some shady-ass bastard, but I am more than willing to compromise on a few things."

She sat on her haunches, grabbing at my head with both of her hooves. "And just how shady do you think he is?"

"Shady enough to try and put me out there for dissection. I know he paid a hit on me to make the voices go away in his head. But instead it only got worse since he wasn't able to pay for his meds."

The mare's horn began to glow softly as she brought my head against her chest, rubbing my head gently while nuzzling me. "So tell me what else you've been told."

"I was told that he has some pretty fucked-up vices dealing with Canterrot."

The mare continued to caress my head. "Ooh, that's some pretty spicy intel. It would do a lot of damage to his reputation if that was to be revealed."

I knew that I wasn't really in a good position to bring up the possibility of her family relations with my head being buried in her chest, so I kept it a shade vague. "I also know that he has a pretty flamboyant son I've met at the funeral. But that's not the only thing I found out."

"What else was it?" She whispered soothingly into my ear.

"I heard he had a relative he didn't treat too well. A girl who came to him one day."

Almost like clockwork, the mare stopped rubbing my head. Her tone had changed slightly as well. "I'm sure she was given justice in knowing that he died the way he did."

"They do say that death is the highest form of justice. To take the life of one in consequence to another is pretty substantial in it's own right. But I do have to ask, is it really justice for the one who's dealing with the scars of that moment?"

She began to slowly separate herself from me. "I think that it works just fine."

I then decided to hit her where I knew she couldn't avoid it. "Single File told me of his vices, how he would desecrate the girls he came across, hurting them in ways unimaginable. I also heard that when he finished, he had a certain glow about him that appeared to be ethereal. But the one girl, the girl he met with that one day, he came back from meeting with her and it was said that his face had the most brilliant glow about it. Safe to say that it was a girl he either wanted from the jump or hated from the start. My take, possibly both with the added familial tie being the cherry on top."

The mare quickly backed off of me, hopping off the table with disgust. I couldn't get a good look of her face in the darkness aside from the piercing glow in her eyes. It was obvious that I was hitting every last button she didn't want me to press. She stared at a nearby desk for a moment before blasting a nearby pillow seat to smithereens. "I knew that monster hated her, but never that much."

Finally in a position that was a lot less awkward for me to deal with, I finally decided to break the code to her. "Who is this 'her' you're talking about?"

The mare threw another bolt towards an adjacent pillow, leaving nothing but a pile of smoldering ash in her wake. She was furious, her eyes appeared incredibly tundra-like as she vented her anger. "My best friend. She committed suicide after that! She lived believing her father would come to love her after not seeing her for so long, and then he betrays her. She died no longer wanting to hold on to hope."

I grabbed her hooves and calmly spoke with her. "I don't think she's dead. I think now, she's as strong as ever."

The mare looked at the hands that grasped at her hooves. And when she looked to my face, she finally realized exactly what I meant. She quickly withdrew from me and ignited her horn. "I don't know who you think I am, you don't know me!"

"Was it wrong for me to try and know you, Blue?" I questioned, revealing my palms to her with my hands held up high. "I don't have any animosity towards you. Instead, I just wanted to know the truth. Who was this wonderful heiress that offered the world to me to try and make things right? And what could I give her to make her happy? Where could I possibly begin? These are the things I started to ask myself."

"And the answer was to go behind my back and investigate me!?" She angrily replied. "How do I even trust you if you won't even take me for what I can offer to you? You should just be happy with what you've got and take what you can get. You pushed your luck on this one."

"I'm not investigating you." I replied.

"Bullshit!" She snarled.

"Single File told me it was you who came into contact with Count. It was you who looked so bright and hopeful, only to have your expectations destroyed by someone trying to silence their own inner demons by appeasing their own selfish desires. I'm in no position to try and claim to be your savior because what happened has already happened, but I can say that I will keep what is said between us here and now in this room and nowhere else."

Her horn began to buzz with a powerful magic, almost as if she was ready to put a quick end to our conversation. "I'm not his daughter! He even said it to me! So why are you even acting like this is another one of your crusades, like you can come and sweep me out of whatever mess I'm in? Oh I bet that you like to imagine that you can change the world for the better with something as simple as a dream, maybe a little hard work, a bit of effort, and a touch of wishful thinking. Maybe you can save every mare who's gone through it all, but that's not what reality says now is it!?" Her magic started to become unstable, fizzling in and out of focus while she spoke. "You want to know the truth about me, fine. I have to pretend that I'm strong enough to survive, when really all of this takes a toll on me. I HATE my magic because of where it came from. I HATE the fact that my knowledge all stems from the source of the one that wronged me, that wronged my mother, the one and same monster who ruined our family forever, along with many others!"

"Blue..." It was starting to become apparent that she was showing herself, the mask she wore for all this time had taken some damage, enough to where essential pieces were falling off.

Her magic started to intensify once more, she started to force herself to keep up her display, when in truth it was failing. "You don't know me. You don't know anything about what I went through, what WE went through. What we endured was hell unlike any other. My mother saw the monster he had become early on, it's only recently that I've come to realize that her suicide was to save us, not just for her to escape from him. She gave us everything, and left him with nothing. She knew he would target me if that were to happen, she knew what he would do to me, for years I wondered why she suddenly started grabbing on to us a little tighter, holding us a lot more, sleeping alongside us for that one night before she died, the entire time she knew."

Her magic began to waver again, this time tapering off while she lost the strength to stand. Her hoof tapped against her chest while she tried to suppress her sadness. Not a tear yet, but there was a lot she had to express.

"She knew that he would attack me just as easily because he NEVER wanted me! I had to live my earliest years never knowing why my mother gave him the gift of me, and he never took it! I was never supposed to be here, I was supposed to be the offspring of some poor maid, but she loved my mother enough to give her what he left behind in her. She offered that and I was created, she wanted the gift of a daughter to appease her son's wish for a sister and he refused to do that. For the longest time she hid me to protect me. When she finally told him, he tried everything to make sure that I wasn't going to exist! Before I was even BORN I was a target. And in the years after, I tried to be the best daughter I could be, I learned quickly, I drew pictures of her and daddy being together, I screamed for 'dad' when I came home from school wanting to hug him each time I saw him. Can you imagine now having to go to bed with those memories, when each time you get in bed you see his legs locking you in a cage while he rapes you?" Finally, for the very brief second, her tears began to manifest as her voice broke. "Can you imagine having been brought up to love and honor your family, only to see your father going to town on top of you? Could you possibly love and honor that?"

She cleared her throat, sniffling and shaking her head to drive her tears off. She strengthened her resolve as her magic completely faded away.

"I wouldn't expect you to. Your parents loved you enough to fight for your withdrawal. My mother loved me enough to leave me behind with my aunt instead of with him because he would've done everything in his power to show his power over me. He would've toyed with me, teaching me how to never trust, how to abandon love, how to stop seeking hopes and dreams... the very damn thing he did to me after so long, after I foolishly wanted to try and be his daughter again. For years I could never see my brother until he came into his inheritance. For the past six years I had to take therapy, to help me move past this and not go through with killing myself, that was enough to give me the ability to walk forward. That's the truth."

The mare, appearing frustrated, angrily wiped her eyes as she started to walk up to me.

"That is what it truly means to be the castaway offspring of a monster. This is what it's like to be a daughter to the monster you know as Count DuMoneé, to have to hide that shame for the rest of your days. That is my life..." She didn't even stop walking forward, burying her head into me. "...And I loathe every breath of it. That's the truth."

My worlds, wherever and whichever, were brought to a halt. Feeling her buried into my abdomen, she lazily reached a hoof up. I simply hugged her back, bending down to do so. I stayed holding her for a while, hoping that she'd feel some comfort in this one moment, at least giving her what I felt to be a father's love to his own daughter. Even if she was older than me, she deserved that of someone, anyone. I won't even call myself being able to give that to her, but I sure as hell would try my best.

"I'm not gonna cry." She whispered softly, her voice trembling as she spoke. "I am stronger than that. I'll cry the very few tears I have when I get to bed tonight. If I start crying now, I'm going to go to sleep. I came here for a meeting, not to be a baby in your arms and fall asleep at some random desk."

"I understand, though I think indulging yourself every now and then is fine at times." I started to quietly soothe the mare, much to her chagrin.

"Not now. But I appreciate what you're trying to provide." She said, pulling herself away from my arms. She took a few deep breaths and turned her attention to the subject she needed to devote her time towards. Those few breaths was all it took for her to realign. "This is like the second time you've seen me like that, going from one mood to the other. I'm sorry if that inconsistency has vexed you to any degree."

"Nah, you're fine." I replied. "I'm just giving you the information Single File gave to me. And I think he's willing to change his life around. True enough he's done some terrible things that will be answered to later on, but using him as an ally would be useful."

The mare cleared her throat as she looked away from me. "Well as much as I don't like him for working with my father..." She stopped herself for a second, almost in shock that she actually admitted it so easily. But she carried on, knowing that the secret was revealed to me already. "His testimony could be useful in nabbing some other parties who associated with them in the past. It's fair to say that he also offered some other sensitive information."

"Like how you shared a joint account with your father. Single File made it clear that he was given a writ of consent to make any withdrawals. But he also revealed that he wasn't the one to pay the griffon assassin that came after me. He does happen to have his suspects."

The mare took yet another deep breath and turned completely away from me. "...Guilty as charged."

"Why?" I asked calmly, despite the anger that started to turn in circles within my mind. "You hated your father for what he did to you, then why would you help him?"

The mare held a hoof out, still not looking to me. "It was to punish him more than it was to help him. I didn't want to give him the chance of having a fall-back should things fail. If he would've paid out in installments, then your coming out alive would leave him with half of his savings, way more than enough to live till the next paycheck. I had to make sure that there was no possible way for him to rebound from that. He didn't deserve an easy way out for doing everything he did to you." Her ears fell back as she glanced at me. "I know what I did was put you at an even greater risk than anything else, but I had to stop him. Who's to say he wouldn't come back with another plan after seeing you live. And with that much money left, he would've hired someone to put you to rest while you were in the midst of your recovery. They would've succeeded and your body would be nothing more than research. I know you're angry for that, but I had to take that chance on you, believing you were going to pull through."

I quietly asked her. "So you have no ill-will towards me, no kind of resentment or lingering doubts about my being alive. I only ask because you showed me those other assassins a while back. How do I know I can trust you?"

The mare turned around, pleading with me. "Because I want you to succeed where I cannot. I don't know politics outside of money, I don't know fighters worth a damn. I only know magic because I had to learn it to be able to defend myself from my father. And if I had any hatred towards you, then why would I even think of helping you like I am now?"

"Then what's your motivation for helping me?" I asked.

"I want to undo my father's legacy, I want to make him a footnote in the pages of Equestria's history, a forgotten political voice with no face. That's why we urged for my father to be buried next to the mare he hated so much instead of the national cemetery where prestigious nobles and politicians have left their mark. If there was ever a justice, it would be to lay my father's bones next to the mare he forsook, the one he ran from for all these years, so he could see her face in both life and death. That part is done, but the policies he's left behind continues to fester among the ranks of like-minded politicians." She summoned a manila envelope, pulling out a photo of Cadance and Shining Armor dancing at their wedding. "And I'm sure you'd agree, for their sake."

I proceeded to take a step back and look around the room, expecting some confirmation to come from somewhere. After a moment, I asked her another question. "So there is no other motive? No other purpose than to limit your father's influence?"

"It's more than that. I know I'm asking you to do a lot just to simply be able to rip up a piece of paper, but it's only to be thorough. And I know you're angry with me for paying the assassin and coming back to ask you to trust me, you have every right to be cynical. But I want nothing else than to stop more of those monsters like my father from being at large. I can help you put away your resistance, you can help me put away his inner circle, expose them for the dirty frauds they are."

"And what about me?" I asked, folding my arms.

The mare extended a hoof to me, offering a shake. "I won't force you into anything with me that you'd feel uncomfortable. After all, I'm sure you'd have some second thoughts about getting physical with the daughter of your worst enemy."

I stared back at the hoof she held out, thinking for a second before I met with her halfway. "My worst enemy is dead for the time being. As long as he stays that way, we're just fine." I stopped shaking her hoof, pointing at her. "Oh yeah, no more assassins."

"No promises on that, but I only seek to hire lobbyists from here on." She said. "My word doesn't mean much to you considering the stains on my family name, so consider my loyalty as a suitable replacement."

"Fair." I replied as I started to look out the window to the cloud field down below. "So since I've managed to get the jump on you for this one, what else do we discuss?"

She smiled as she replied. "Maybe... a visit on next Friday. I'm thinking you can come by my place earlier in the evening and we'll discuss our next move there."

"Your place, huh? Anything I should wear while I'm there?"

"...Your guard uniform? I would really like to see you in that again."

I shrugged my shoulders at her suggestion. "Basically, you want me to wear your scent again?"

She looked away from me, blushing. "It's okay to wash it. I'm sure you wouldn't want to smell like week-old estrus in the presence of the maids."

Not so much in contrast to Celestia getting a complaint about it. "Yeah, I kinda learned my lesson about that one."

The Next Day...

After our discussion, Blue and I parted ways and I wandered back to the realm of royalty. As I arrived, I could see a begrudging Celestia being shadowed by a guard. She appeared to be quite annoyed about the idea of having another guard being in charge of her evening escort. But there was no complaint from her, not a mumbling word as she marched on with her eyes closed. The princess had several guards along the way wishing her a good night's rest, none of which she answered to. When the maids did so, her words appeared to be kinder towards them. When she passed by me, she kept her eyes closed.

I then offered to see if her treatment of the others would be congruent to me. "Good night, Princess."

The guard behind her saluted me while she turned her head back to the young stallion. She then turned to me with a pretty cold gaze. A hoof came down and she then proceeded to tear into me. "I am beginning to feel that you have some vein of disrespect in your system. Since when do you ever salute me in my appearances, captain?" I started to answer her, but she had found herself just inches away from me, hollering at me. "Never is when! If I ever catch you not saluting me when I pass by again, I will have to personally reeducate you on the proper decorum!" She used her magic to drag me down, her muzzle was practically touching my nose as she warned me. "I am not Blueblood, you will not show me such blatant disrespect! Do I make myself clear!?"

While the others mumbled towards one another, she gave me an atypical staredown almost like she was ready to fight me at the drop of a coin. I wasn't quite sure as to why she was being so nasty towards me, so I held composure and saluted. "Yes, your highness."

She then marched onwards, not even bothering to look at me a second more. But her voice started to echo through my head again. "Trying to keep the so-called rift convincing is hard when you have a date planned for later in the week."

That was pretty much her way of saying goodnight. I think she did that for my superiors. Either way, I scurried off to my room and laid down for the day.

The next morning was the usual cold affair. When I arrived for breakfast, I showed up in enough time to watch as Princess Luna seemed to have left in a bit of a grumpy mood. She also seemed to have some bags under her eyes, indicating that she had very little rest overnight. Meanwhile her older sister was a complete opposite juxtaposition of her. Celestia sipped on her tea with the most refreshed smile any morning person could offer. As I walked up to the table, it was as if her eyes had motioned for me to sit where her sister once sat. I didn't really take her on that offer as it would've added a lot of conversation about the issue.

As soon as the chef came up to me with a menu, she had already picked out my blend of coffee for the morning. It also came complete with a sticky note.

The princess seems to be in high spirits lately.
Try to keep her smiling today.
She loves bright smiles.
☺

Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me that she's trying to push us to be together.

Today was my usual off-day, leaving me with the choice of either going back to my world for a bit or resting up here. Possibly traveling to places unknown. I instead opted for more magic lessons. And since I had an entire day of getting beat up like a ballistics dummy, it only served to purpose my improvement.

Shining, on the other hoof, had other plans for me.

The Crystal Empire
5 Hours Later...

HO. LEE. FUCK. IT IS COLD AS BALLS HERE!

That's about the first impression I gained when I stepped off the train and into the station. When I walked outside, I could easily tell that my coat wouldn't be enough to keep me warm. But what completely amazed me was the fact that the other ponies wandering about was completely unbothered by the low temperatures. Never mind the fact that their bodies had a very crystalline shimmer about them, it was the fact that it seemed like they were completely adapted for the cruelly cold climate.

The train ride itself was a very long one, despite the fact that it was a high-speed private line they used to move us from Canterlot to here. Even the platform was located in a different place, it was located to the back end of the castle. From what was explained to me, it was for the purpose of aiding in the escape of the royal family in times of crisis. To their advantage, it worked from a strategic standpoint. Ain't no army with a competent commander is gonna brave this for more than a month. If they tried to hold a siege, they would probably either die of hypothermia or severe dehydration along with contesting against the thin air of the mountains. And judging from what I saw for miles, that's a lot of permafrost and tundra to be marching through.

Only Napoleon and Hitler would do something that stupid.

When I wandered through the town square, I had several questioning eyes on me while I quietly observed the happy citizens of the city. Many vendors had set up shop, trying to get me to buy whatever souvenir was lying in plain sight. But to their misfortune, I wouldn't be able to properly give them the time of day. Instead, I made my way towards the largest standing tower in all of the land, the highest architectural structure to be considered as a place of living in the world, the castle of the Crystal Empire. If I could compare it's height to anything, it would be the size of the Fifth and West.

As I approached the main entrance, my eyes were drawn towards a spinning heart shaped of crystal. My mind became drawn to the idea of investigating the strange phenomenon. But as I got closer, Shining called me over to one of the entrances to the castle. When I walked inside, I saw the multitude of stairs spiraling upwards. Even if I was physically fit to make the trek upwards, I was not really looking forward to the idea of having to climb up the equivalent of forty floors to reach the top. Thankfully, Shining had me stand on a circular seal as two crystal ponies approached each side of the platform. As soon as the crystalline guards stood in place, they inserted two green crystals into either side of the seal. Without warning, the floor rattled before we were being lifted up slowly to the upper levels. I was relieved that the place had some semblance of an elevator, but I was not reassured any comfort by the glaring lack of guardrails. One wrong move and I could easily plummet to my death.

Not a fun thought to keep as you're going multiple stories upwards.

The floor rattled to a stop. As I looked upwards, I could still see a few floors up. It seemed to have very few floors above this, but the distance between each floor was astronomical, logistically speaking. It almost appeared that the equivalent of three stories was the separation space between floors. And that was more than enough to possibly discourage any invader from trying to run for the stairs as an alternative.

While we walked, Shining started to discuss with me all the security features of the castle. "And below the throne room is a labyrinth where the stairs can take you, had you walked up those. It's meant to confuse and disorient any invaders who don't have the proper disenchantment crystals. The way we came in is the true entrance, the other three ways are a feed-way into the labyrinth."

I feel sorry for those who just recently get assigned here. "What do you do about the new guys?" I asked.

"Only the guards who have been loyal for a minimum of five years are allowed to serve in the castle. By then, they would've learned the entire layout of the castle for the rare instance that an intruder is called to be present. In short, no pony is going to come after us if they don't have any idea of where to go. The only one who could successfully pull off an infiltration is long gone, and that's King Sombra."

...Well that's a familiar name. "This King Sombra─"

"He's not the one you've been told about. That's another from an alternate universe. This King Sombra was the bad one."

My mind went back to that first alternate timeline, where I was trying to guide Twilight and Shining to the throne room. It was probably against that King Sombra and his forces. And I also remembered that he was controlling the Crystal Empire in that timeline. Best to ask what happened for my sanity. "So what did he do and what happened to him."

Shining opted to keep his story short. "A long time ago, a young pony born of darkness was found out in the wastes. He was brought in as a mistaken orphan. But when he got older, he realized the purpose and the truth of his existence. The truth was that he was a creature called an umbrum, his purpose was to set his kind free to the world by taking away the crystal heart."

I thought back to what I saw in the entrance plaza. "That spinning rock at the center?"

"That." He confirmed. "He then abducted the heart but was quickly confronted by Princess Amore. She pleaded with him to reconsider his choice, but he made his choice by turning the princess into brittle pillar of black salt. Immediately after, he shattered the princess into pieces and assumed the throne. There, he enslaved the Crystal Empire and the ponies within it. For years his reign would go uncontested, that was until Princesses Celestia and Luna were brought in to dispel him. They succeeded, but it came at a cost of the entire empire being lost to the world for over a thousand years."

I don't know why it's always a thousand years with these things. Seems like a lot of shit had to go wrong for a pair of siblings who were just then put into power. "How did that happen?"

A familiar voice chimed in as Celestia made an unexpected appearance right beside me. "King Sombra cast a spell upon himself that tied his fate with the crystal empire, a bond of forbidden magic that deprived the ponies here over a thousand years of history. Many of them have had to adapt to the sudden change in technology and magic. But they have remained resilient in spite of discovering that they have woken to a world a thousand years in the future."

I pointed at the princess and questioned her. "Um... How did you─"

She winked at me as she answered. "You never know, I could be hiding in your very shadow. Meaning that I am affluent to light does not disqualify me from knowing dark magic as well."

I remained statuesque while the princess passed by me. Meanwhile Shining shuddered at the thought of her words. He waited until she had walked further down the hall before nudging me and whispering. "That right there, that is why I was terrified of her during my engagement with Cadie. She knew about everything if I was in town."

For me, it seemed to be another one of her mother's traits coming out for me to see. "Yeah, I see what you mean."

Without fail, we heard her voice booming in our heads. "How about you two come join us in the throne room instead of standing like a pair of scared puppies."

The both of us looked at each other before jogging down the hall to catch up with her.

Shortly after our arrival into the throne room, Celestia wasted no time in setting me up for magic practice. While I wanted to explore the place a little more, she was more interested in making sure I had the basics of magic combat beaten into me. If anything, she was taking the same approach that Alabaster had, but further intensifying it with her own natural abilities. And for some parts of it, it almost felt like life or death.

Cadance and Shining watched as they grew entertained with my progress. It wasn't so much for how far along I came, but rather how much or little I was getting thrown across the room. It didn't seem like much of an issue to throw me around, but Celestia made sure that I wasn't placed in any dire straights. If I looked like I was about to give way, she'd call for a break to let my magic recharge. If I was putting out too much to do one maneuver, she'd stop the whole lesson and stress the importance of finding the time to withdraw for the sake of energy conservation.

Our training session had a lot of damage incurred. But Cadance's magic allowed the castle to be rebuilt however many times. Since her specialty was crystal magic, it was nothing for her to allow the throne room to become a warzone. When we finished each set, the room would reset and the walls would be repaired. It was amazing just how easily she could cause crystals to form from seemingly nowhere.

Even if Celestia didn't appear tired, Shining offered to step in for a more offensive-based session. Up to then, my sessions were primarily defense-orientated. Instead of having to work on counters, predictions, and dodging, I was allowed to dish out some hurt.

Or so I thought.

If there was anything I could say about Shining before today, it was that his abilities were there but I wasn't really seeing what got him the job. I mean he was strong, and he had some ways of terrifying me with his killing instincts at certain moments. Today, I learned that Shining is more of the tank of the group. Whatever I threw at him, not a fucking inch of him moved. His magic was barely even activated as I sent bolts barreling his way. He merely used the tip of his horn, just that much magic, to throw up a shield the size of his entire body. And when my magic hit that, it either bounced off to a wall or completely broke apart like rain to the stones that lined the streets below.

He didn't even have to counter anything I was doing. He just took whatever hit and taunted me for not being strong enough. And when I tried to throw my best attack at him, that shield started to form into a spherical shape surrounding his entire body. He simply stood like a statue before dusting off his shoulders and flicking his mane back. As he pointed to his cutie mark, his eyebrows jumped a few times. All while he was taunting me, I was blasting him with almost everything I could muster, at least before I felt my hands getting hot.

Cadance summoned up crystals made of ice from the floor before she and Celestia announced that our training session had come to an end. I placed my hands on the pillars of ice, watching them steam through some of the surface. It took no time for my hands to leave an imprint.

Dinner was handled by the personal chefs of Cadance's choosing. And though the food was good, it still didn't have that same punch Lemon Drops gave it back in Canterlot. After that finally came our accommodations. Since the rails frost over real bad at night this time of year, I would have to wait until morning before we're allowed to go back. So we had an overnight stay in the palace.

To my fortunes, room service was readily available to me at any given moment. They had a bell on every night stand of every guest room, and they had a system. Ring once for warmth, twice for food, thrice for bedside, continuous for medical emergency. So all I had to do was walk out into the hall ring that bell twice for a quick midnight snack.

But just as I was about to ring my bell, a curious princess stopped by. "Can't sleep?"

Celestia appeared in her usual regalia, possibly to hide her scars from the other maids and guards. She yawned once as I answered her. "I just wanted a little something from the kitchen. I know I don't know my way around, so I can't really leave the hall."

She smirked as she replied. "Give it a week, you'll get used to the layout. Would you like for me to escort you to the kitchen? I was feeling a bit peckish myself."

"Let me guess, they have cake." I said with a deadpan look.

"Ice cream cake."

"Ooh, I think I shall partake." I said with curiosity driving my every step beside her.

The princess easily guided me through the halls and down a few flights to reach the kitchen, located on the same level as the rotunda, the throne room, and the main balcony access. Our venture towards the kitchen yielded success in our pursuit of midnight sweets and we celebrated by sharing some out on the main balcony. Celestia threw her head back as she took her first bite. "Oh, now THIS is good."

"Gotta admit, Sugarcube Corner might have some competition with this one." I stated, taking another bite of mine.

The princess and I stared out into the quiet city, seeing nothing but the stars above, the mountains ahead, and the crystal-lit city streets below. Looking outward, the layout of the streets resembled that of a large snowflake. The homes were dimly lit, indicating that many of the residents had taken themselves to sleep with not even one prowling the streets. Obviously this place had zero nightlife, so it wouldn't really be all too attractive to travelers looking to prowl around for a chance to prey on some local girls. But the strange thing was that the city was almost the size of Ponyville, and that place has more of a nightlife there than here. I guess I could chalk it to the conservative mindset of the citizens, a thousand years and some new streetlights wouldn't exactly instill confidence in the dark.

The mare hummed as she looked out. "I can only imagine my aunt Amore standing here, gazing out into this and proudly saying that this would be the crown jewel of Canterlot." She then started to mimic the mare's voice as best as she could. "It's so much more beautiful to look out at the mountains as opposed to seeing a bunch of trees everywhere. Everfree Castle is just an obelisk in the woods. Perfect for your straight-faced father."

"I take it she and your father didn't get along?" I asked.

"They did after a few years. She was always protective of her beloved cousin. She poked fun at him each time they met."

"And what about you and Luna?"

"Loved us as her own. She formally crowned us as the high princesses of Equestria moments after our parent's passing. Needless to say our coronation was a very sad one."

I glanced over to her and asked quietly. "So, is Cadance your actual niece or is that a title you gave her for being in the royal family?"

"Well, she is a descendant of the royal family of the Crystal Empire. She's not just a filly I picked up like Blueblood. She's actually from the youngest sister of the family who left a while back. She eloped to marry the stallion she loved, despite her mother's wish not to do so. The family line continued all the way down to Cadance." The princess cleared her throat as she looked away. "So she's really more of my great grandniece... with about forty of those 'greats' thrown in."

Yeah I'm sure I wouldn't like to say that out loud either. "Well you did good in finding her."

"It was only fate that brought us together. I know that side wasn't really keen to their heritage, especially since their main keepsake had been lost to the ice for so long. And it wouldn't really matter anyhow. There were few who knew of this place way back when. Only family and famed wizards would recount of this place's splendor."

My mind wandered to the bottom of the castle, what rested at the ground level of it. "So what exactly is the crystal heart and where did it come from?"

The mare sighed. "There are many tales that my mother told me of this place, but I am ashamed to not know that one. As I've once told Twilight, my knowledge of this place is limited. I only found out more as time went along, as well as the reemergence of the city. I found more of my heritage, much of which will remain undiscovered and the little that I know will be lost to time as I pass on eventually."

I walked over to her and questioned her, almost perplexed. "But why would you keep that hidden? I'm sure the world would love to know what or where you'd come from."

The mare glanced to the sky. "Let's just say that my mother's vein runs deep into the creation of this world. If that was to be discovered, then I'd never be able to know true happiness. My sister and Cadance would suffer the same. Better to let legends die to the way of myths."

It appears there was a lot more than the weight of a nation on her shoulders. "Okay, I'll buy into that one." I said before I felt a chilly breeze nearly permeate my skin and bash against my very bones. "Hoo, it's cold."

The princess didn't waste any time in trying to comfort me. She levitated me towards her, wrapping my arms around her chest and allowing me to embrace her entire body. Her wings fell loose to warm my arms. Her eyes remained fixated on the world beyond the balcony. "Is that better for you?"

I couldn't argue any reason why it wouldn't. Her body gave off a comforting heat, almost like she was radiating the air around the two of us. Her wings almost felt like a warm blanket keeping the bitter cold wind at bay. The sweet smell of her scent made me want to embrace her even more. "This is fine. I like where we are now." I stared out at the scenery in front of us. "Hell of a view."

The princess nuzzled her head into my chest, looking up at me. She whispered. "Come. You know what I want."

I cleared her brow of her mane, kissing her above her horn. The princess seemed to squirm with glee for just a second before falling limp against me. Her hooves started to pet my arms. As my legs crossed under her, she melted in the embrace and quietly rocked from side to side. I could tell she was at peace with this moment, more than willing to drift off to sleep like this. But I had a few thoughts that disturbed this moment for me. I enjoyed it, really I did, but I had one individual in mind who wouldn't want this. Of course, she's a jealous one and understandably so.

Celestia noticed the vibes that seeped into her, reaching a hoof back to rub the back of my head. "What is wrong, my dear?"

Even the endearing names she called me had felt bitter with my thoughts, despite her voice asking it to me in the loveliest motherly timbre. "It's nothing." I initially lied.

Her hoof pushed my head forward, leaning me beside her, our cheeks rubbing against one another as she nuzzled me again. "Come now, you know I've been honest with you. Be the same for me."

While the wonderful scents of the princess' perfume and the softness of her hoof pressed lightly towards my cheek, I couldn't help but to feel concerned. I began to tell her what was on my mind for the moment. "Do you ever feel like you do something that feels right, you know it's right, but it still feels like it's wrong in some places?"

The mare looked out to the mountains. "I have... once."

"Can you tell me about it?" I asked.

Celestia's eyes remained locked towards the mountains as she asked me in return. "So you want me to tell you about it so that I can somehow give you a blueprint for how to deal with it yourself?"

"If that's okay with you." I said with a quiet whimper.

Her wings started to rub against me, each feather tickling me as they brushed past. "There was this one fellow I drew interest in. I know that he had a lot going on in his life and he had more going on in his mind. I also know that he had a wonderful sense of humor. And when we kissed for the first time, I was so elated that I felt like the burdens of my job had suddenly paled in comparison to the emotions I felt with him."

"The good King Sombra?" I guessed.

"Nope." She whispered.

"Fair Charity?" I guessed again.

"You." She answered quietly. "I know that each time I've kissed you, I felt the bond between Twilight and I weaken in some places. The more time we spend like this, the more it feels right... but it also feels wrong."

In other words, we've been quietly dealing with the same issue. "So what goes through your mind then?"

She looked down to the wings she used to cover my body. "I think about the times we share as student and mentor. I think about the times she came to me for advice on her studies, dealing with her brother's deployment, even asking for comfort when her brother was dealing with the aftermath of that deployment and her mother found herself imprisoned for a short time. I remember each letter she wrote me when I sent her off to Ponyville. I remember how it felt to watch her grow into the princess we all wished her to be. I could easily remember the look on her face when you made the decision to stay, as if it meant the world to her that you did. Most of all, I remember the night she came to me to announce her intention to separate from you, how hard she cried over that moment. I think of her each day when I find myself wanting to see you again."

And suddenly my conflict seemed like a damn joke in contrast to the long-built years of trust established between these two. It wasn't any easier for me, but still... "That's a pretty harsh reality to be living in."

"Now, what do you feel? What goes through your mind when you think of the both of us?" She asked.

I started to simplify my answer by saying whatever came to my mind. Even if I had to ramble on and on, I needed to just air things out. "I mean... I've been with her. I know it hasn't been nearly as long as you, but I feel like I know her in a different way than you. I know what some of her emotional triggers are, I know that she hates certain things, I still don't understand some of her irrational fears of quesadillas and ladybugs, but I know that she's a jealous girl. I also understand that her life wasn't filled with the most promising romances, and I've been in her shoes for much of my life in that regard. But I also know that it will hurt her to know that she is losing out to her friends. She'll go to whatever length to compensate or compete with someone who has moved on me. I guess my main thing is that I don't want her to keep trying to compete, because I know that shit doesn't do anything for anyone but hurt their confidence and self-esteem in the foreseeable future."

The princess then asked. "Have you talked with her about that?"

I shook my head. "I know I should, but I feel like she's going to try even harder to win. I mean I understand love can be a bit of a competition at times, but I don't want this to turn into a race where she burns herself out over me. All that does is ruin every relationship that follows after ours. I don't want that to happen."

"And I don't want you to burn out on trying to keep everypony happy." The princess said before highlighting her own experiences. "Let me tell you something, there's nothing worse than trying to feed a wish, you lose a lot of food that way. That means that you end up putting a lot into the uncertain future of others that you don't put in enough time to do what is best for you. I know it's rich coming from somepony like me, but at least I'm sharing the lesson that was recently taught to me. It's fine to want the best for others, but what they do along the way for their future is THEIR decision, not yours. And I know Twilight, she can be clingy to a fault. If you don't believe me, then ask Shining Armor."

I started to look up to the sky, marveling at the beautiful night sky with streaks of magenta and pink. "I guess the truth ain't ever easy."

"No it's not." She replied. "You have to make that decision. If you can't do that much, then how can anyone trust you to lead, much less my trusting in you." She placed a hoof under my chin. "Eyes forward, chin up, keep your head tough. You've made more crucial life-changing decisions on a whim, this is no different. You don't believe me when I say this, but you're paving the road I'm walking on. Where you go, I'll follow."

I turned to her and questioned the princess. "How far will you follow me?"

"As far as reason will allow." She answered truthfully, not holding back any punches. "I'm not going to say that I will chase you to the ends of the Equestria, I won't stop the sky for you, I won't break the bank to rescue you, I know that I won't die alongside you, I can't promise you forever because you won't live that long, I know that I may not give you anything physical right now and you'll have to bear with that for a time, I refuse to entertain the idea of sharing you with somepony else but I won't stop you from making whatever decision in regards to that, I won't stick around if you hurt me in any way. Having that said, if you guide me in the right direction, you treat me well, you give me adoration and praise every once and a while, as long as you respect me... I will summarily become the very shadow to your being, I will be nothing less than your support, I will settle for nothing less than what you will allow me to have. I think that's a fair trade."

"More than." I said with a chuckle. "Gotta admit, I don't think I've ever heard a confession as realistic as yours. It's like you have a contract in your head, you already came with what you want in this, and you won't settle for anything less."

"In life, you get what you negotiate for, not what you deserve." She replied with a smirk. "Twilight deserves happiness, but I know that she made the decision to leave you behind in spite of your efforts. As I see things from my father's point of view, she conceded you to the world. From that moment on, your decisions were and are no longer subject to answering for. That's the cruel truth, but only you can make the decision on if you move forward or not."

The princess rose to her hooves, removing her wings from around me and standing as her regal self.

"If you choose to remain, I will understand and will no longer pursue you. If you choose to move on, then I do expect you to be mine when this is all over."

"Only yours?" I asked.

The princess giggled for a second. "I'm more into the traditional relationship. All this herding mess just makes no sense to me."

"I know what you mean. I can't be second to any other guy, so I wouldn't subject any mare to that." I responded with a light smile. "...I'll talk to her. I'll let her know that I may be looking into other options."

Celestia's smile quickly faded to a more serious expression. She lowered her head, giving me a much better view of her eyes. "Now a word of warning. She is my former student and my friend, almost my surrogate daughter at this point. I seek no animosity between us. If you do tell her about this, be as honest as possible. If you lie to her, you will be lying to me, and I do not like conspirators. You will speak with her first, then I will speak to her after. Be absolutely certain with your decision, have I made myself clear?"

I walked by her and knocked on the wall of the balcony access. "Crystal. You both deserve that much of me."

She walked from the balcony and levitated my head down to her, giving me a quick peck on the lips before pointing down the hall. "Alright. Now let's get to bed. We have a long day of travel tomorrow."

"Yes ma'am."

As the pair walked down the hall, past the massive crystal pillars that lined the walls, Cadance grasped at her chest as she stared at the couple bug-eyed. While they disappeared down the hall, the princess looked to the other side of the hall where her husband shook his head, holding his forehead with a hoof. The two gathered together as they started to share their thoughts to one another.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Cadance whispered. "Those two, hitting it off?"

"Twily is gonna hate this." Shining muttered with disbelief.

"Hate is putting it nicely, Shining Armor. We're talking utterly devastated past the point of a damaged emotional psyche. What I want to know is who started this mess."

"Who else?" Shining replied. "Nondis is only doing what he needs to do to keep her happy. We tried to stress that to him for the sake of the assignment. But I didn't expect for Celestia to become a player at the cost of possibly compromising this whole thing."

"If the press finds out about this, we are done for and our daughter will be getting touched by every shady doctor from here to Canterrot."

"But here's the problem, Celestia is genuinely happy. You said that she gave off an unusually pink aura when looking at her. You know her better than I do, so you knew that there was something that had her prancing around the place. I just can't believe it's... THEM. I was honestly betting on her starting an affair with Alex first."

"Right! I mean the two were just bouncing ideas off of each other when they were trying to come up with the human transformation spell. Everything they did together, they just clicked and it went. This is beyond unexpected."

The prince closed his eyes, sitting on his haunches. "Oh, poor Twily. Losing out to your homeroom teacher."

"How are we going to tell her?"

"I thought they planned on doing that themselves." Shining replied. "And as much as I'm gonna want to break that man's legs, I'm gonna have to suffer in silence while Twilight takes an afternoon to drown this one in ice cream."

Cadance rolled her eyes as she held her belly. "...But there's no denying it, she's truly happy with him right now."

Author's Note

Hello to all, it's been a minute. Sorry for the not talking for a while, kinda fell into a bit of a funk. It's kinda hard not to have your mind on life when you have a hole in your ceiling the size of a 10'x12' tarp, health insurance that bleeds me dry every month, and a bit of a COVID scare. I took a last minute gig hoping to make back some of the money I lost on health insurance payments and ended up in the middle of an outbreak. Yeah, got the test results yesterday to come back negative, so there's that.

Other than that, I've been starting to game with some friends online hoping to distract myself with some much-needed laughs and some vented frustrations. But it's easy for me to say that I am happy that things are looking up for me emotionally. Now enough of the personal bullshit.

Now in terms of what's to come for next chapter, well.... it's already finished. But I still need to go through and see if there's anything that needs to be changed or edited. It will start a new arc, some that many of you have been waiting for. Granted it will be a pretty long one I'll have to condense, but I won't be releasing that until at least five days from now. As for why, I know these chapters are pretty long (no shit) and some readers will need some time to read through this and process it before moving on to what comes next, which by any indication in this chapter is a hell of a step, a controversial one no less.

I'm at least warning (and possibly spoiling) you now, it might get a little edgy at times, a lot of frustrating, and quite possibly some sad.

If you're willing to keep on this journey, I will appreciate you for sticking around. If you're willing to put it down for now, I understand. But I only ask that you gamble what you can. Thank you for being here this far.

And thank you to those who gave me a chance up to this point. I know this journey started off a lot brighter, but I can only try my best to reward you along the way. Let me know your praises, thoughts, gripes, and especially complaints in the comments below.

Chapter XCI

After last night's talk with Celestia, I hopped back in the pony-sized guest bed and settled for the fetal position for most of the night. When I woke up, the room was noticeably warmer and I was soon greeted by a familiar guard with a blue mane. Flash and I chatted about my adventures since our last meeting at Canterlot. He also told me more of his quiet desire to meet with Moondancer, citing that he heard a lot of good things about her personality from a former classmate who recently moved into the city.

We got to the throne room, seeing a white and lavender table set up for us. Shining and Cadance sat next to each other while Celestia sat on the other side, having me sit by her for what she explained to be purely protocol. And I saw her reasoning for it, Flash had actually sat himself beside Cadance while Shining armor sat even closer to the outside. It almost felt like Celestia was assuming the role of a dignitary while high level talks was about to ensue. And after a while of sitting there hearing both princesses discussing the welfare of their respective domains, I started to feel vastly out of place.

Shining quickly noticed my discomfort and rose from his seat with a bow to Celestia. "It appears that Nondis is a bit uncomfortable right now. Maybe I should take him to tour the city."

I started to move but Celestia quickly flagged me back down. "I'm sure he's only uncomfortable because we've excluded him from the conversation." She said, glancing over to me. "I think he has more to talk about in terms of the subjects. He does pose himself to be quite the champion of the citizenry."

All of this still felt completely weird to me. I mean I've had some touch of this conversation before in a dark room with no one higher than Princess Luna. But Celestia being present kinda made me feel like discussing my brand of politics was still a touchy subject, even if we agreed on some things. But I could see Shining trying to insist on his point. "Well, I'm sure he'd be a lot more interested in the citizens here. I'd like to think his mind is swimming with questions about the locals."

Cadance then agreed. "Yes. Nondis should be able to see the sights of the town, maybe even take a gander at Spike's statue."

Shining quickly praised his wife for the idea. "Great idea, sweetie! Nondis should gain a bit of inspiration over seeing it. Perhaps we should hurry things along."

"But─" Celestia started to intervene before Cadance eagerily cheered her aunt towards the idea.

"Aw, come on! When was the last time you and I ever had a girls' day out? I know it wasn't this decade!"

"It was quite literally this past summer." Celestia deadpanned. "You just got back from visiting Shining after estr─"

Cadance quickly interrupted, motioning to her husband to move quickly. "I know a good mud treatment at the spa is a great way to let the stress of the past month. You deserve something good for yourself." She then addressed her husband. "Shining, please take Nondis out for a tour of our lovely city-state. He should be more than happy to meet some of his admirers from the empire. You can even take Flash along with you! It'll be just like the good old times."

Shining looked over at me, who was recounting the moment I had discovered a wagon full of dying and malnourished ponies. I tried to shake my memory of it, reaching some level of success. Flash quickly spoke to our defense. "Um, those times weren't really... good."

Cadance remained bullish on her approach. "Flash, would you please escort the boys out into town? Thank you. Dismissed."

At that point, there was no arguing against her orders. They were sealed and he had to follow them. "This way, fellas."

While I was practically being pushed out of the door by both the stallions by either side, I looked back to see Celestia cracking a suspenseful glare at her niece, who smiled and waved so eagerly. And for the second before the doors closed, I could see Celestia place a hoof on Cadance shoulder. As we walked along, I could feel the floor rumble some while Shining wiped his brow dripping of nervous sweat. "Phew, thank Faust those doors and walls are sound proof."

I turned to the young prince and questioned him. "Okay, what's the deal?"

"Boys day out, Nondis. Boys day out."

My time in the Crystal Empire was filled with a lot of walking. Sometime later, I was dragged through town and given a tour of the sights. Everything from the Crystal Library, to the Crystal Boutique, the Crystal Souvenir Workshop, the Crystal Bowl™, and finally the Crystal Plaza where there was a statue of Spike made of, you guessed it, crystal. When we finished with our tour there, I was standing still with my arms folded, staring at the side of the large depiction of the young drake holding the crystal heart.

"So that little fuck has a damn statue, like a legit statue?" I asked quietly while a crowd of ponies passed us by.

Flash quickly replied to me, almost to stop me from saying anything that might offend someone. "Spike was the one to find the crystal heart and delivered it to Princess Cadance. From there the entire city, and very much the entirety of Equestria was saved from the clutches of King Sombra's diabolical reign."

As more citizens passed by, they overheard the explanation Flash had offered and proceeded to chime in with their own thoughts. "That's why he's the hero of the Crystal Empire!"

A mare called out to us from further down the square. "He's also an inspiration to us all."

"He's saved our hides more than once after all." A stallion answered as he pushed what seemed to be a cart full of crystallized corn.

"He used his dragon breath to melt an entire cloud of ice, stopping it from plummeting into a crowd of thousands!" An elderly mare called out, popping out from one of the houses through an open window.

A small family walked by as the mother chimed in also. "He's my future son-in-law!" She said as she patted her daughter on the head.

"He's my future special somepony!" The little filly announced, almost love-stricken.

I gave the young prince a nudge as I whispered out the side of my mouth. "He almost assassinated me."

"Probably better to not throw that one out for everyone to hear." Shining muttered. "I thought you two made up after all of that."

"Work. In. Progress." I emphasized heavily.

While the crowd continued to sing the praises of the young dragon. Shining walked us over towards the castle again. As we made our way through the entrance, Flash was given a command to stand guard by the heart while Shining and I entered into the crystal elevator. But I noticed that there was a distinctive lack of accompaniment with this elevator. Just yesterday, I saw two guards standing by with two crystals to place into the slots. But instead, it was Shining Armor himself who placed the crystals in their assigned areas, allowing the elevator to ride all the way to the very top of the tower.

When we reached the top floor, we could see the entire city and the lands beyond it's boundaries. I could even see a clear and distinctive line where the snow of the wild tundra and the virgin snow of the city had embraced. It was astounding, I would've enjoyed the view a lot better if it wasn't for the fact that there was a distinct lack of guard rails around the topmost rotunda. It was a sharp drop leading to the other spires of the castle below. I settled with standing in place for the time being.

Shining boldly walked towards the edge and looked out to his empire. "Can you believe that all of this was hidden for a thousand years?"

"No kidding." I replied, looking towards the top of the spire we were in, trying my best not to get too interested in the view.

Shining giggled as he pointed out the drop. "Aw, c'mon Nondis. Don't tell me you're afraid of heights with all those glass towers your hometown has.

"Difference is that I can go to the top floors and not feel like I'm looking at my own death. That's what guard rails are for." I pointed out. "Remember, I live in a city that sits on the riverbed with rolling hills. You lived off the side of a mountain for most of your life."

Shining nodded in agreement. "Guess you'd better get used to mountain life if you're gonna be assigned to Canterlot, because ain't nothing like that high altitude life, you know what I'm mean?"

I continued to stand at the center of the elevator. "Yeah, for now I'm just gonna enjoy the safety of solid ground."

The stallion continued to look out in the distance, staring in silence for a while before he spoke again. "...What do you think of Twily?"

I looked over at the prince overseeing his own lands. "She's a great girl." I replied. "I mean anyone who dares to get close enough to her would easily be in for the best thing ever. I guess looking back at it, we did kinda sprint for second base, but we did enjoy each other's company outside of that."

The stallion didn't look at me as he asked me another question. "So would you be willing to give her another shot?"

I folded my arms as I sat quietly, thinking of everything that I had went through, everything I had seen and felt over the past eleven months, getting closer to a full year now. "Well... that's the thing."

"What is?" Shining asked.

"Well when we had a real big spat one day, she made me promise that we'd break up after my fight against the parliament was done. It was the night before my brothers first came to Equestria. We just had possibly the best time with each other without going so far as to breaking the taboo a second time. When we finished, we had a long heart-to-heart."

"You don't know if she was serious about it, do you?" The stallion inquired.

"She sounded serious." I stated. "I never wanted to consider her as less than anything but serious at that moment. She was really trying to make sure she had my undivided attention. She said that she wanted to see if she could go on without me, if my separating from her would give me the freedom of pursuing my own happiness. And in turn, she'd try her best to open herself up to expressing her own emotional freedom with other guys. I mean that was her choice, but..."

"She doesn't really reflect that." Shining concluded correctly.

"Yeah. It feels like right now whatever someone else does to me, she has to show some way where she can compete. I don't know if it's her way of trying to prove a point to herself or trying to show me that she can at least stand on level with whoever I deal with."

Shining finally turned to me, giving me a stern glare. "Do you think that she'd ever be able to compete with anyone you're dealing with right now?"

This time, I tried to not give off any signs that I was dealing with a certain potential interest. "Well, I know my client is pretty enthusiastic about spending time with me, but I don't see her as competition." I answered.

The stallion turned his entire body towards me, walking over from the ledge. "So what do you think of Princess Luna? It seems that the two of you would find it easy to jump into some trouble."

I scoffed at the prince. "Seriously? She and I agreed that what we did was a one-time thing."

"So far, I'm counting twice that you've been looked at by her in some way." Shining said, twice rubbing his hoof against the crystal floor. "So there's nothing developing between the two of you?"

"Nope." I answered.

"Does Twilight know about any of that?"

"She does. I told her what happened and why. Hell, you know what happened and why."

Shining scratched his mane as he spoke. "Yeah, I guess Blueblood and I did prep you for that one. So that's understandable, at least you're being transparent about that."

"I just don't want that to be something I hold back from her, she at least deserves to know what I'm doing and how I'm doing things. That's what's going on."

"So you're really being honest with her right now?" Shining said before sighing heavily. "I know it took a long time for you to tell your family about your being in the service. I can understand your wanting to be secretive, but you did come out with the truth eventually. I can respect that." He quickly teleported around behind me. The moment I turned around, I saw his magic stirring around his horn, as if he was ready to send something painful my way. "But don't you dare lie to me, Nondis. I don't want to hurt you for lying to me or my sister. So if you ever make any kind of decision to hurt my family in any way, be it simply emotional or going so far as physically, I will personally deliver your head to your brothers as a message. Just like you want to protect your brothers, I want to protect my sister. And I know you won't dare hurt her in any way."

I started to ready my own magic for defense. "I have no intention of doing so."

Shining stood proud and tall as he removed the crystals from off of the elevator platform, locking us up here for as long as he desired. This time, he asked with a grim smirk on his face. "So... what's between you and Celestia?"

I started to argue against his accusation but he quickly interrupted me with a quote.

"I think I remember this being said. 'If you choose to remain, I will understand and will no longer pursue you. If you choose to move on, then I do expect you to be mine when this is all over'. Those being her words."

My heart jumped as I couldn't do anything but stand with my jaw agape, displaying my guilt as easily as the sun shined light over the crystal city. The stallion readied himself for the first move.

"So while we have our long-awaited rematch, I do intend to pound the truth out of you eventually."

Meanwhile At The Imperial Spa...

The sound of a peaceful droaning hum accompanied by a mellow sitar sounded in the background while a group of six masseuses tended to the two royals. Cadance sighed with relaxation as her head was suspended over the back of the crystal mud tub she was using. As she laid there, one mare tended to her mane, another massaged her face, the final one poured in more mud for the princess to enjoy.

Meanwhile Celestia sat in her tub not as relaxed as her adoring niece. Her mane was being brushed but she did not enjoy it as much, her face was being massaged just as well as her niece, but she didn't feel nearly as good receiving it. As more of the mud was placed in her bath, she couldn't help but to feel concerned over the specialized treatment that she was receiving. Her own sigh was a completely different brand than that of the one produced by the pink alicorn princess.

"Whatever is the matter?" Cadance asked as she peeked through one eye at her aunt. "You usually love this kind of stuff."

Celestia turned her head towards the other alicorn. "I should be the one asking you that question. The only time you ever do this kind of stuff is if you need to talk to me. So I'm assuming that you either have something you might want me to know or you have some grievances that need airing out."

"The only grievances is that I'm finding the dumbest combination of foods to try out lately. One second, I'm eating pickles, the other I'm eating chocolate, the very next minute after that I'm just dipping the pickles in the chocolate."

Celestia was wrecked with disgust, cringing at the thought of the two foods combined. "Yuck, and you actually like that!?"

"No! But the weird thing is that I can't stop myself from eating more of it. I've had so many cravings like that lately. Late at night I'd summon the maids for some gelato and soy sauce, the middle of the day I'm snacking on apple slices dipped in wasabi, evenings come and I'm eating pineapples with cheese!"

"You need to get that checked out." Celestia muttered as she turned away.

"Right. And don't get me started with Shining Armor."

The princess rolled her eyes. "What happened THIS time, Cadance?"

The princess groaned as she started to explain her problems. "You ever had mood swings? I mean damn-near bipolar mood swings that verge on the line of psychotic. One second I just can't be without my husband, like I don't ever want him to maintain a distance more than two feet away from me, much less leave me in the room by myself. And then the next I'm about to find a way to throw him off the balcony because he says something that's stupid to me but logical in context, or he just leaves the room and I'm like 'Fine, go leave, I'll find another husband to love me like I deserve."

Celestia turned back to her niece. "And then you go back to feeling like you want him there."

"RIGHT! If he ever disappears from my sight for more than five minutes, I'm immediately searching for him like I don't have any fucking clue on what space even is." The princess snapped out, pounding her hooves into the mud. She found herself splashing one of the workers in the face with mud. "Oh, sorry about that."

"It's okay princess. Let it all out." The spa mare said with a smile.

Meanwhile Celestia chuckled at the thought. "If only I could ever know what that feels like. I have terrible luck with colts."

"Well of course it sucks to have a romantic interest─name redacted─who only ended up sealing himself in a capsule filled with dark magic as the only way of saving two parallel dimensions. You told me that much."

The alabaster princess looked at her mud and popped one growing bubble as she spoke. "Well I just know that love's not for me. If anything, it's just a pointless distraction from my work."

Cadance gave her aunt a side eye and clopped her hooves to get the attention of everyone in the room. "Alright everypony, ten minutes." The staff all walked out as the music continued to play in the background. Cadance quickly turned around and pointed to the two blindfolded crystal stallions standing in the back of the room. "You too, boys. Ten minutes for girl time." The two left the sitar in the room as they exited, leaving only Cadance and Celestia to speak with one another. "Okay, so you have a bit of a glow on you."

The other mare turned away. "Cadance, stop it."

"I'm just asking who is it that's got you feeling giddy like a school filly? I haven't seen you like this since you started talking about Sombra, the good one and not the bad one."

Celestia started to rise from her bath as she replied. "He is the bad one now, both of them are. I just wish that I didn't have to watch him suffer like that."

"But now you have someone who you're looking at, right?" Cadance insisted.

"Cadenza. No."

The pink princess tilted her head up a bit to look at the back of her aunt's head. "Let's see if I can quote this correctly. 'Gotta admit, I don't think I've ever heard a confession as realistic as yours. It's like you have a contract in your head, you already came with what you want in this, and you won't settle for anything less'. Does that happen to resonate with you in any way?"

The elder princess would not show the younger her face, clearly displaying a sense of shock that she would know the details of the conversation she had the previous night. "I... don't recall that ever being said to─"

"Seriously, why him???" Cadance questioned emphatically. "I can understand a stallion that's like middle-aged, in his forties, already well-established, possibly divorced or widowed, maybe even so caught up in his job that he's got a bachelor tag still hanging around his neck. I can even see you maybe talking with Alex, going the route of danger and forbidden taboo, with him quietly admitting to you that he seeks to open up some personal dialog with you. But you and him, I just can't see it? It's like watching the two of you butt heads at one another like a pair of mountain goats, it doesn't make any sense."

"I think we should end this conversation." Celestia announced sternly.

"Auntie, it's girl time."

"It's not girl time when I'm being criticized for my personal decisions that affect who I associate myself with and how I associate myself with them. Just leave it at speculation and end it there, please."

Cadance didn't want to upset her aunt, but she had to insist on her personal feelings as well as an external situation that would stem from the development. "I just want to know... How are you going to tell Twilight that you're taking something that used to be hers?"

Celestia quickly snapped at her niece. "He belongs to NO. ONE. He is his own possession, not some suitor with a collar tag and a leash. I don't own him, I don't seek to. So leave it at that, Mi Amore Cadenza."

The young princess sighed heavily, admitting defeat. "...I'm just happy that you're doing something that makes YOU happy for a change. I always tried to stress that to you for decades. It just takes some trips down bad memory lane to show you that you deserve something good for once."

"And we leave it at that." Celestia replied, sinking down into the mud bath.

"...Do you think he'll tell her the truth?"

Celestia closed her eyes as her mind wandered back to the moment they embraced each other the previous night. "I pray that he does."

"...So what did he do to win you over?"

"Cadance."

"Did he give you a stern talking to or did he just confess to you his feelings or something? Was it something that he did the night you stormed off after that meeting where you tried to fire him?"

"Where is my masseuse?" The princess questioned angrily.

"Have you ever like wanted to kiss him, are the two of you dating, how far along are you?"

"We. Are. Courting. It is a courtly love." The elder princess said to satisfy her curious niece. "We do not engage in anything physical other than him kissing my hoof from time to time as a show of respect. That is all, I don't need him going any further than that. Now that I've answered your questions, can we get back to the massage? My mud is starting to crust over."

Cadance quickly changed her tone, planting her hooves on the edge of the tub, patting along with excitement. She at least wanted to pretend to be happy for her aunt, despite it being with someone she felt was still questionable to her. "I know you wanna talk about him."

"No I don't. I want my mud to flow instead of crust over me if that's okay."

The niece then amplified her gestures. "I know you want to tell somepony you trust. And you don't trust anypony with your romantic pursuits more than me."

"Cadance..."

"You love the idea of sharing with your favorite niece the exploits of your potential romances, even every stallion who courted you with an unrequited love. Tales of guards in armor swearing their undying fealty and loyalty to your cause in days long past, including one Fair Charity."

The princess rolled her eyes once more before surrendering. "He feels like a reincarnation of Fair Charity, but he isn't."

"So that makes him different from the other in what way?"

The elder princess glared at the younger. "Cadance, you've got enough out of me."

"Auntie, c'mon!"

"Ugh. I kissed him once or twice, that is it. Does that satisfy you?" The princess begrudgingly confessed to her niece.

The younger princess audibly gasped, holding her hooves to her muzzle as she froze in place. "You didn't."

"It was the night before I appeared sick for breakfast. You weren't there."

Again, Cadance had to play to her excitement. "So you actually did─"

"I told you of my exploits. Now let us continue with spa day."

Though she was unsatisfied with the details, she knew that her aunt wasn't so easy to part with that information when it came to anything. For the moment, this was all she could afford to milk out of her. Cadance clopped her hooves loudly and repeatedly before the other eight ponies that dismissed themselves entered into the room and joined the two princesses once more. They carried on their duties and the princesses sat quietly as the the elder princess started to think to herself.

"I wonder what he's doing right now. Knowing him he always gets into trouble."

Meanwhile Cadance sulked in her tub. "Faust help us... Try not to be too harsh on him, Shining."

Meanwhile Atop the Crystal Castle...

Our sparring session had gone on for about a good fifteen minutes, both of us were out of breath and very much depleted of magic. After casting off so damn much of it, Shining's horn had glowed with a residual heat while my arm started to feel like a thousand ants had crawled through my veins. Even as I rested, my hands started to heat the cold crystal they rested on. The place was still intact, but our conditioning was shot.

That wasn't the only thing that our bodies were tired of, we were wrestling for a while. It only took a close call of my rolling towards the edge for everything to come to a halt. Shining dropped his assault and then went further to stop me from accidentally going over the edge. When he pushed me over to safety is how the two of us managed to stay laying down where we are now. Sweating, panting, and very much out of magic, the two of us sat silent for a few minutes to recouperate.

And then Shining snickered at me. "I had to save your skin. That's a win for me."

"As if you won that." I answered back.

"If I hadn't used whatever little magic I had left to save you, I could've sent you over the edge. You might've had a few broken bones."

"A few?" I questioned as the prince sarcastically smiled at me. "More like hundreds as I tried to put on my best impression of Count DuMoneé."

"I think you would've nailed it." Shining joked.

"No thanks." I chuckled back. "I like my brains not being in my nose."

While the two of us shared a quick laugh before falling back onto our backs, Shining slowly started prodding into the details of my situation with Celestia. "So... Is she anything like Luna?"

"Far from it." I replied. "Luna was more interested in physical things. Celestia is a lot more conservative, I don't blame her for not trusting any guy she sees."

"Quite literally day and night, huh?" Shining said with another chuckle.

"Yup. Luna's an inexperienced kisser."

"And Celestia?"

"Well... that's something I'm gonna keep to myself."

"Aw, c'mon. You gotta tell me something." Shining insisted.

"Shining..." I started as I looked over to him before sighing and looking away. I also left my sentence purposefully unfinished.

"Whoa, bad or good?" The young prince asked eagerly. "If you leave it like that, you know something that no other living being can tell the world. You gotta share it."

"No, not this time. I can't tell you anything."

"I can guess?" Shining said as he sat up.

"You can try. I won't confirm anything."

The stallion then proceeded to grill me. "So she's good."

"Possibly, that's to be determined." She was really good at kissing, willing to teach me a thing or two.

"She does tongue."

"Possibly, that's to be determined." She demanded that I'd give her that.

"Safe to say she's aggressive with all that pent-up frustration."

"Possibly, that's to be determined." She takes her time, and she likes to be held. Can't say that she pressed me down and ordered that I give that to her. But she has her moments when she wants to engage.

"She likes to be touched."

"Possibly, that's to be determined." You don't even have to kiss her for her to want that. She doesn't shy away from the idea of being embraced. She loves to sit down for hours and talk, she likes spending the time to cultivate a mood more than a cheap massage to get her rolling.

"She's shy about her sexual desires."

"And you already know the answer I'm going to give you." Possibly, that's to be determined... Really, I mean it this time.

The stallion rolled his eyes as he threw his hooves into the air out of frustration. "Really!? C'mon, you know something and you're holding out."

"What else can I say? I'm not about to break her trust by telling you what makes her tick."

Shining lowered his voice as he muttered towards me. "Dude, I've been with an alicorn princess who hadn't experienced the touch of a stallion for well over a century. If anything, Celestia is probably ten-times worse than Luna out of the sole fact that she doesn't like to discuss sex."

"Considering her life story, do you really expect her to." I asked, reminding him of a certain detail he overlooked prior to saying that statement.

The young prince appeared crestfallen and remorseful for a second. "Oh... yeah that would be a pretty touchy topic."

"You think?" I replied while softly knocking myself against the forehead with my palm.

A wave of awkward silence ensued for a while before we would speak again. Shining's tone dropped to concern this time. "Hey Nondis, are you and Twily really through with each other? Do you know if her promise was really genuine?"

I closed my eyes, allowing the thoughts in my mind to quickly roll of my tongue. "I think Twilight would sooner lose me as a lover as opposed to losing a friend. That's just it. I love her all the same and I'm willing to protect her because she's got my heart. But I can't imagine her wanting to stick with me after all of this. She's very possessive of me, and I don't want her to feel like she has to compete with any more of her friends. I'm sure that hurts her in some way and it damages the bond between them. So not only would I take her first in almost everything, I'd be putting her last when all is said and done."

"Yeah, that's not a very fair thing to do." Shining walked beside me and offered a hoof to help me up. "I've made my fair share of runs at mares prior to my marriage because I felt the law was unjust and unfair to my own desires and freedoms. In fact, the moment that fake Cadance signed the papers the days leading to the wedding, I was more than thrilled to finally be able to make love to her, not realizing I was involving myself with a changeling queen."

I placed my hand on another place on the ground, seeing how it sizzled against the thin layer of ice. Shining backed away as I started to get myself up. "You know, I haven't─"

"To preemptively answer your question, Chrysalis knew what the hell she was doing in bed. Not too proud to admit that our one time was better than the first few with my inexperienced wife." The prince confessed quietly. "But all of that stuff aside, I knew Cadance didn't want to compete and I was unfair with her because I made a vow to be her fiance. True, I still had my urges and I was justified in protesting the idea of forced abstinence. But I made sure that when it was all over, she'd be the only one, no matter how much of an island I was on." Shining playfully knocked at my side. "You know, Cadie wasn't my first girlfriend either, I had a few middle school interests that I felt like I could have a better chance with, because of the whole princess thing. But when she showed up again in high school, she showed me she wanted me and no one else."

I turned to the blue-maned prince. "Shining... I'm sorry that I couldn't make good on my promise to you about Twilight."

The young prince looked up to the top of the crystal rotunda, staring at the ancient designs of snowflakes ingrained into the ceiling. "The moment Twily set you free is the moment she gave that opportunity up. I'm not gonna go on a tirade and tell you that you should consider my sister instead, I'll leave that to my mom. I wanted you to fight for her as much as you did when you fought against me the first time. You did just that, and technically died for thirty-two seconds. You kept your word, you carried her until you couldn't physically walk. Your life was on it's ends and you were the one who said that you could keep going. I personally think she realized that you were too damn much for her right then."

I know that he was giving me his blessing and offering some mode of closure. But I had to ask him again to be sure, I wanted to make sure that there were truly no hard feelings between us. "You're okay with me doing this?"

"Nondis, I'm upset that I won't get to call you family. That doesn't mean that I won't get to call you a friend. That's a pretty good trade when all is said and done."

The prince gave me a favorable smile, his mane whipping from the cold winds of the higher altitude. I could only imagine him giving me a thumbs up if he was human. In all, I felt comfortable. "Thank you... Shining Armor."

Shining slung a hoof at the air while rolling his eyes. "Don't thank me. Thank my sister for saving you from me the first time around. For now, just tell her the truth and I'll be content with wherever you go in life, as long as it's the right path."

I gave a nod of acknowledgement. "Fair."

The prince then summoned the two crystals used to move the elevator and stepped onto the platform. While he started to place the crystals in their designated slots, he quietly tapped his hoof until the elevator got moving. As soon as my head was slowly submerged past the floor, he turned to me with a smirk. "...So how do you go about dating Celestia?"

I groaned while facepalming. "Give it a rest, will you?"

Ponyville Castle
Six Hours Later...

After the royals all reunited, we had a quick lunch outing in the town square and made our way back to the train station. Cadance joined us for this trip, citing that she had some things to clear up with some of the provisional hires she made to update her guard's combat tactics. Cadance then explained that she originally wanted me to visit to give some insight on how the crystal guard could improve their tactics with some input by another species who also happens to be more technologically advanced. But in finding out about our relationship, they decided to intervene and make sure that we weren't on drugs or something.

Celestia was apparently the most miffed of us, quietly citing to me that she didn't want to reveal any of our status to anyone else other than who we needed to inform of it. And that particular detail left me with one additional trip needed to the bottom of the mountain. I rode my motorcycle to cover the distance instead of worrying about being on the train again. True enough, I could just waltz through the portals again and be there in five minutes, but I needed to get the hang of the purring beast I was gifted. And like hell I was gonna stay on the train to catch a ride further south.

If anything, my patience on train rides for the past two days have worn to a bloody nub.

When I arrived to the foot of the castle, I could feel the cold looming shadow of the large structure dwarf the rays of what appeared to be the later stage of the setting sun. Snow still blanked much of the town, so my black bike would've sure stood out for any onlookers to satiate some feline-like curiosity. When I knocked, Spike was the first to answer the door wearing a white apron with a Rarity caricature superimposed on a red heart on the front. The dragon made way as I wheeled the black machine into the lobby, making sure it didn't fall on him.

While I didn't really have any favorable feelings towards him, I couldn't shake the fact that he has a statue in some snowy town far north of here. I wasn't quite jealous, but I did feel like I did a few things more than serve as an errand boy to save a kingdom. And unless all of those other stories I've heard were true, I don't really consider my catalog of achievements any smaller than his.

...Okay I admit it, I'm a little salty about it.

Spike then pointed me out in the direction of the kitchen. Twilight looked to be a bit of a mess, batter and a myriad of decorative ingredients had served as the new additions to her manestyle. A cook book sat alone on an island countertop, shielded from the gooey chaos splashed around the room. The princess then noticed my presence and warmly invited me into the room. "Nondis! Just the taste-tester I've been looking for."

I glanced over to see what Spike was doing next, but apparently he only left his tail in the door momentarily before it disappeared with every last impression of his 'Brave and Glorious' scaly ass. On the floor, I found a hastily-written note telling me how Twilight is trying to learn how to bake chocolate chip cookies. He also pointed out that she caused two batter explosions trying to get used to the electric mixer she borrowed from Pinkie Pie.

I looked around the room to find me a 'safe' puddle to dip my finger into. After I located one on the counter next to me, I took a taste for myself... and promptly regretted eating what felt like raw unsweetened pancake batter. "Hey Twilight. I see you're picking up a little something new."

Twilight smiled as she announced proudly. "You know it. The holidays for me offers a little more free-time than any other time of the year. So now I get to experiment on a few things I haven't gotten the chance to do much of. Like cooking for example, I know you missed your Hearth's Warming feast back on your world, so I decided to try my hoof at something simple to make up for it."

"You know you really don't have to do this." I said as I started to look at the list of ingredients. But as soon as I read the measurements out to myself, I had to close the book for a second to check the author. And wouldn't you know it, it was none other than Zesty Gourmand who authored the damn thing. "Everywhere I go, you haunt me with your terrible cooking." I muttered to myself while tossing the book away.

I pulled out my phone and googled a simple recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Twilight then noticed the book she was reading out of was sitting at the top of the trash can. "Hey, who tossed my book away?"

"Burn that shit, it won't teach you anything." I emphasized, using my magic to shove it further in. "For now, we will be consulting the oracle for cooking advice."

"What oracle?" She asked. I promptly shook my phone with a smirk before she nodded slowly. "Ohhhhh, okay."

As soon as I started reading out the ingredients to her and how much of what to use, she quickly found the kitchen starting to smell like a proper bakery instead of a mediocre breakfast bar. Thankfully, that allowed me to enjoy the place a little more. And as soon as the baking tray went into the oven, Twilight was already staring at the window through the oven doors as if the cookies would suddenly be made in thirty seconds.

The young princess chuckled at her reflection on the oven door, seeing how much of a mess she was. "Wow, I look like I fought a swamp monster."

"Knowing you, that wouldn't be too far-fetched." I replied with a chuckle before looking back at the time on my phone. The sun had already set by then. "...So. How's things with you?"

She started to use her magic to clean herself off. "Well, things have been going. How about you, what about your things? Been staying out of trouble?"

"I guess you could say it finds me as agreeable company." I replied. "I haven't moseyed on down in Canterrot in a few days."

She gave me a cautious look. "A few days, Canterrot?"

"Well to be fair, I only stumbled onto it once." I added.

Twilight shook her head. "You know, the girls and I almost wandered in that part of town one night. Pinkie wanted to go there saying that it looked like a fun night festival, Rarity wanted to tour the sights a little more, Rainbow heard rumors of the place and thought of it as a fun adventure to see if it all held weight, but that changed quickly after Applejack and I dragged them by their tails to someplace else."

I folded my arms and smirked. "Yeah, you would've gotten the full blow of it. I'm just lucky to get the daytime sights of what goes on down there. Needless to say it ain't exactly something I slept comfortably to."

Twilight stopped staring at the cookies, becoming a bit impatient with watching them. So she devoted more of her personal attention towards me to kill time. "You know, the girls ask a lot about you. Ever since you woke up from your coma, it's like we don't ever see you around here other than when you show up to the castle for something."

"Really, I just spoke to Rarity and Sweetie Belle two days ago." I said.

"Well that's Rarity, how about Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, or Fluttershy? They may not be on your list of romances, but they miss you all the same."

I folded my arms as I thought more on what she said. "Yeah, you have a point. At this rate, I've seen Starlight more in the past thirty days than any of the girls. I might have to find some time to do that."

"If you got time to be wandering around Canterlot to find the bad side of town on accident, then I'm sure you can find the time to come to us and give us a day with you. We miss having you here in little old easy-going Ponyville."

"Yeah, now that you've mentioned it, I've seen my hometown more than Ponyville in the past thirty days. I think I should set aside some time to keep things grounded. After all, what better way to recharge than to go back to humble beginnings, jump back into the nostalgia train for a bit?"

"Simpler times, like that one day you were stuck in the bathroom over at the Hayburger Inn and Shining had to bail you out."

"Yeah, back in the days when I used to think you were setting something on fire each time you used your magic." I joked. "Or how about that time we had that party and you got drunk?"

Twilight groaned but eventually that gave way to laughter. "Yeah, I'm not doing depressed drinking ever again."

Both of us took a moment to laugh at our embarrassing past mistakes and acknowledge how stupid we may have acted or looked to one another. And when it all came to rest, I finally saw the opportunity to open up some dialog about what we were going to do from this moment forward. My throat had dried by that point, but I had more than enough spit to suffice.

But she caught me off guard with a jittery cheer as the bell timer went off. "Cookies are done!"

It was like watching a child wait at the table while their grandmother slowly pulls out the fresh batch of cookies from the oven. But instead of the child waiting at the table, it was the child who almost wanted to just throw caution to the wind and shove as many cookies from the tray into their mouth. As soon as she placed them on the counter, I could see her wagging her tail with excitement. It was admittedly cute how she waddled in place, waiting for our creations to cool off. I took the time to finally say what I wanted to. "So Twilight, have you ever thought about that promise you made me keep?"

The young princess paid no mind as she wiggled in place. "Yuh-huh."

I tried to get her attention once more. "The one where you asked me to break up with you when all of this was said and done."

The princess glanced back at me, stopping in place. "Oh... that one. I honestly forgot about that."

I rolled my eyes. "How could you forget it? You stop us in the middle of sex to point that out to me."

The princess grumbled back. "Is it really sex if all I'm doing is crushing your penis between my haunches?"

Never really did point this out, but Twilight talking about sex outside of her being turned on is pretty awkward. Cute, but awkward. "Intercrural sex is still sex."

"You were the one having the fun out of the both of us that time."

"Besides the point!" I interjected, trying to get back on topic. "Either way, this is what I'm saying. I've been thinking about that and of course, how things didn't quite go as expected with that."

Twilight sat on her haunches and started thinking out loud. "Yeah, I suppose it would be a bit different since I was the one who annulled our engagement publicly. I mean there was a lot going on and I also had a long conversation with Alex, and I guess we ultimately pointed out what could've gone wrong if things kept going the way they were."

"Hold up─" I quickly interjected, holding up a finger to silence her. "Are you saying my brother talked with you on that?"

Twilight shrugged slowly and nervously, slowing down her speech as well. "Well, I guess we had a conversation while I was... well... emotionally compromised. And he might have said that you would be better off a free man for the foreseeable future. So I thought that it would've been a great idea to put our relationship in the fridge for later. But I guess that's where we see if things come to a spoil." Twilight turned back to the cookies and took a good whiff of our creations. "I'd like to think that we're just like these cookies. Give it some time away to become what we need them to be, then enjoy it later. I know I'm not the best looking girlfriend, but I am appreciative that I get a once over with you." She levitated one of the cookies and took a quick bite, realizing her cookies were incredibly crunchy. "Yeah, right now we're kinda crunchy, but there's room to improve."

I paused for a moment and asked her once more. "So... what are you REALLY looking for in this?"

The mare crunched down on the cookies and shrugged. "Honestly, I broke up with you publicly because I wanted to come back for you later. A reward for giving me and the others our freedom, that's what I wanted to do."

I slowly felt myself wanting to turn away from her, realizing that I had since made a decision with my future with her. "Do you think there's a chance of us finding happiness with others or do you think that it wouldn't be as rewarding?"

I could already feel Twilight's eyes piercing my back with a familiar sadness. "Well if you had any intention to be with somepony, then there's a chance that you'd open up to the idea of it." And then her tone changed to one of forced optimism. "I mean I know that Rarity is interested, but she's a fleeting romance type. She likes the thrill of here-today-gone-tomorrow, I guess you can try and give her something stable but I don't know if it will keep going for some years. Months maybe, but to me personally she could easily be done playing with you after a while." She then went on to Pinkie. "I guess Pinkie Pie would be open to the idea, but you'd have to bunk one in with Cheese Sandwich. Maybe he'd give the two of you some alone time and you can grow things from there. You won't get that personal attention with her, so it wouldn't be the same."

"...Someone who lived for a thousand years?" I muttered.

Then again, it wasn't forced optimism, it was her arguing why she would be the better choice of them all. "Luna, I don't know if Celestia would even give you her blessing on that. In fact, I know that Celestia would adamantly deny it because she's just that protective of her sister. I'm sure if she knows what happened between the two of you, it wouldn't come as a surprise what she'd say and how she says it. I think she'd throw you on the busiest assignment just to keep you occupied. It only makes sense that you two wouldn't be able to keep a consistent flow because of sibling squabbles."

I sighed heavily as I muttered. "And it feels like you just can't win."

Twilight continued to keep her mask on for as long as she could. "Well you see me in here, I'm working on how I can compete. You see me trying to improve on what I can offer. And I don't think there's any better way of doing that than to make sure you're there every step of the way." She used her magic to tug at my arm, trying to pull me towards her. "So how about it, you and me being a work in progress, it'll be just like old times... well, with an added benefit sometime down the road."

I couldn't help but to feel anger with myself and shame for looking away. I knew what I needed to tell her and I couldn't just lie to her or withhold the truth, that's just as bad. So I finally gave her my eyes and quietly knelt down to her. "Twilight Sparkle... There comes a point where I can easily tell you warm lies that make you feel good inside, giving you the moment you're trying to create. But that isn't what a true friend would do, is it?"

Twilight clenched her eyes shut for a while, taking a few deep breaths before she looked back to me smiling. "Nope, you'd have to be a pretty bad friend to lie to someone's face."

It seemed that she started to grasp at what was happening. "And I'm a pretty shitty one at best." I added while watching her place a hoof to her own chest. "...There's this one girl I'm talking to. She's nervous about the whole love thing. But in recent days, we've started to see the value in the time we spend with one another. She's a good cook, well-learned, and... I want to try and see where this goes."

"And I suppose that it's some mare you've met in Canterlot?" She said sadly, still wearing her smile. "Somepony that you've been acquainted with for some time."

"Yes." I confirmed quietly as Twilight turned away from me.

"A mutual friend of ours."

"...Yes."

Her voice became shaky. "Somepony you've spent all night talking to... somepony who hasn't had love in so long, almost a thousand years worth of sadness... Somepony I know there's no winning against."

"Twilight─"

She turned me around using her magic and teleported behind me, I could hear her wings flapping behind as her hooves pressed into my back. "Oh no, mister. You better not disappoint that one. You need to hurry along and get back to dealing with that before you start breeding mistrust. You've been around for too long, she's probably not amused with you running along without her being there. Now skedaddle."

I tried to turn around to look at her before she dropped a paper napkin filled with cookies in my hand. I tried to speak again, but her fake laugh had already told the story of how she felt at the moment. She tried her best to smile, staying as happy as she could while her eyes clenched closed while she guided me to the front room.

"I couldn't be more proud of you! You've manage to open the heart of the high princess herself! I can't even begin to formulate the words it takes to say how happy I am for the two of you! At least I know that 'joke' she told me about you flirting with her wasn't completely unfounded! You two should have a wonderful life together, even if you won't reach a hundred years with her! I'm sure she'd be happy to take what she can get! Besides, it won't be long before the two of you can finally come out! And... and... I'm sure..." She quickly cleared her throat as she continued. "I'm sure she'll give you a much slower relationship, one that the two of you can truly savor! And you'll get to eat the food she makes every morning, you'll get to see the wonderful smile she shows to nopony else everyday, and she'll get to tell you stories by the fire every night, just like she did with me so many years ago! It'll be wonderful for you, so don't worry about little old me, I'm just a librarian in comparison to her! She's the everything in this world, the literal light that shines every morning of every day, so don't disappoint her!"

"Twilight─" I tried to jump in.

She casually escorted me out of the castle along with my bike. "You protect her no matter what, she needs that kind of emotional support in spit of anything that happens. Just be sure to tell her that you love her when the time is right. Don't play with her heart, she doesn't like to play games. She's a lot more dedicated to the long-run, so if you feel like you need to relieve yourself..." She finally snapped as she started to wipe her eyes, the fake smile on her face completely broken into several fragments as her lips quivered. "We'll keep in touch... I can do that much for you... If that's the only thing I can do for you, then fine. I can be your friend in that way."

"You don't mean that." I replied angrily, feeling a bit disappointed that she was just letting herself try to bargain off something of herself. "Twilight, you're much more than that to me, God knows it."

The purple mare quickly turned around, hiding her face from me as she hollered back to me. "Maybe my cookies will be a bit better the next time you visit. Maybe they won't be as salty or crumbly. Maybe one of these days I'll get it right."

Twilight continued to use her magic to hold me off, giving me a devastated farewell.

"I should've gone by my own heart and kept you instead of trusting fate to bring us back together. Maybe I should've been selfish that time."

"Twilight, I still love you!"

"I know that! But... it's not the same." She walked forward into her castle, closing the doors behind her as her ears folded back and her head dropped while she slowly staggered on. "I hate the love we share. All it does... is hurt."

With a low-pitch creaking followed by a booming thud, the castle doors closed and I was left on the outside looking in.

Canterlot Castle
Forty Minutes Later...

I had a lot on my mind during the course of my ride back. There was a lot of what-if's playing out in my head. What if I made the decision to come back here with the intention to tell Celestia that I was going to reject her and go back to Twilight instead? What if I was going to put my worst foot down and try to play the fences, who would I gain in the end and who would I lose by doing that? What if my assumptions of me and Twilight having this on-again-off-again relationship were a misunderstanding or were they a valid concern? What would happen if I just decided that neither would be someone I'd pursue and find an easy way out like Twilight was hinting at? Would Twilight be happy with my trying to play the fence with her, what if she welcomed that idea? What if Celestia somehow agreed to share me with the younger princess?

A lot of hypothetical thoughts, but only one became the reality I lived in. And when I entered into the castle, I had to face that decision head-on with the potential scorn of my older brother to follow. Maybe he wouldn't be the only one, maybe he wouldn't care. Maybe I was thinking too much on them and not enough of the high princess I sought out. Upon entering the living quarters, I was greeted by a quiet Celestia standing in front of her door, nervously breathing while staring a hole at the wall ahead of her, almost as if she was playing the role of a royal guard herself.

"Your highness." I called out to grab her attention.

She turned around and walked into her room, escorting me inside and closing the door behind us. "Did you talk to her?"

"...Yup."

She could already see it on my face how conflicted I was at that moment. The uncertainty of my decision weighed on my face heavily, causing her to inquire about her former student's status. "Is she─"

"She's hurting... And I am too." I quietly confessed, sitting on the floor in front of the flickering flames of her fireplace.

The mare placed a hoof on my right shoulder, crossing behind me as she nuzzled my left cheek. It wasn't as much of a show of affection, but rather a sharing of dismay. "Then I am hurting as well. Twilight is my most faithful student, my best friend, a daughter-like figure I've spent many years in raising to fulfill her aspirations. It's only fair that we hurt in this. But I do thank you for telling her the truth."

I then started to explain what really weighed on me. "She wanted to separate to give me the freedom to move quietly. She wanted us to find our way back together when all was said and done."

Celestia, in hearing that, backed away from me and sat next to me, just outside of her hoof's reach. For a moment, she fell quiet, only staring at the fireplace. "I know this is a conflicting time for you. Do you need me to give you the space to process this?"

I turned to her for some advice on that. "You've dealt with a lot of grief for a thousand years. How long do you think I'll need?"

"Something like this, a few days is fine. I know that I will need them when I visit her tomorrow. It would not be right if I didn't tell her that this was my proposal to you. And I'll also need to give her words of encouragement."

"Don't you think that's salting the wound a bit?" I asked.

The princess sighed, rubbing her hoof against her side. "Salt in the wound was a viable practice in place of medicines and magic a long time ago. But yes, it is. And I intend for that injury to heal, even if the treatment hurts terribly now. I can tell you from experience of both having a bad situation get worse and then become better over time, and having salt thrown on my back to heal the lashes I've endured. I want nothing more than to offer her the peace of knowing that she is still loved by you greatly. But I also want her to know that I'm more willing to choose her happiness than I would mine or yours."

"That last part, ouch." I muttered.

"More willing doesn't mean unwilling. But you do realize that she is my friend of so many years as you have been my courtly interest for a week."

"Yeah I know, pecking order." I said, openly acknowledging and accepting her reasoning.

"As long as you understand. But when I finish, I'll get back to you." She said as she walked over to the door.

"At least you're being upfront about it. Can't really fault that." I said, getting up and walking beside her.

The princess gave me a somber smile, but not displaying any signs of excitement. She opened the door for me to leave, pointing her hoof out the door. "Thank you. Now get in touch with your political contacts. Idle minds are Discord's workshops."

"Yes ma'am."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

The Next Day...

It was pretty much the same routine on my weekday schedule. Wake up, jog, breakfast, stand in one spot, and clock out. From there, I was given the opportunity to schedule a magic lesson with Alabaster. As per the order made by the neighborhood association of the back end of the mountain, I had to relocate our sessions to Canterlot's School for Gifted Unicorns. I had to go under the guise of being a pony touring the establishment before transforming back to train. However, that was already proving to be a task in and of itself due to the massive amount of magic power I had to use just to transform both ways in such a short period of time.

Essentially, it was a stress test to see how much mental strain I could put on myself before I was incapable of holding a spell by my lonesome. Add to that a series of counter and casting exercises and I had myself a full diet of low mid-tier magic lessons. It seemed all too well that my practice was going so smoothly.

But that was only because I was pushing myself to set aside my emotions, especially dealing with Twilight. I had to further enhance my focus by putting my all into each attack, counter, and spell I wagered my energy on. And it came to a resounding success. I apparently impressed him with my focus, seemingly able to multitask with much more consistency as opposed to my more recent sessions. Fair enough, I could also contribute that bit of improvement to Celestia's personal instruction.

After my session, I came back to the castle with the intention of eating my dinner, only to get a phone call from Alex. He stressed that I needed to talk with him as soon as possible. And he didn't mean over the phone. He meant to have me come by in person and update him on what was going on.

When I had crossed over, I was greeted by Alex sitting in my living room like he had been chilling there for a few hours. Stanton wasn't here, he had gone to Memphis with his team to finish the season, hopefully with a win against West Virginia. He had his cell phone in one hand and a small bowl of popcorn in the other. He was also watching the James Bond films on Cinemax, taking amusement in the way every goon was easily dispatched. As I hopped on the couch, I promptly asked him. "So which one is this one?"

"Die Another Day." Alex answered.

"Oh, the one with Hallie Berry?"

"Yup." He said as he watched the movie.

While we sat and watched, I checked the time on my phone. "You know, I was gonna head to the dining hall and catch me a bite before I came here."

Alex shrugged off my statement. "Man, fuck that shit. We got a whole supreme pizza from Dominoes set to come in any second now."

"They got rid of the old head chef and replaced her with someone much younger." I replied.

"Yeah, but you can always eat Equestrian cuisine whenever. You don't get a chance to munch down on a good pizza every now and then."

As soon as he finished his statement, there was a knock on the door. Alex quickly got up and answered the door. As soon as he did, he had the largest smile sat on his face as he paid the deliveryman and sat the steaming hot box on the table in front of us. He walked over to the kitchen and announced to me. "I brought Bud and Corona, call it."

"Tall boys?" I asked.

"Do you even have to ask?"

"Shit, I'm on board." I answered as my brother brought one to my attention. I cracked it open and took a good gulp of some old American lager, savoring the prickly yet slightly bitter taste of a cold beer. "Oh America, how I miss you at times."

"Lot more lax than Equestria right now, huh?"

"It can be." I said as I popped open the box and pulled me a slice of pizza out. As soon as the bottom crust fell to the top of my tongue, the top of my mouth welcoming the many toppings dressed on the top of the layer of mozzarella cheese, I was feeling more than just fine. "Oh yeah, I haven't had that in months."

Alex sat down next to me, grabbing a bottle of Corona and hitching back a slice of pizza. "Mel told us you finally got around to your Christmas present. Like it?"

"How could I not? I think the only one who'd probably throw a fit over the idea would be grandma. And she's dead, God rest her soul."

My brother scoffed. "Yeah... She'd be throwing a fit."

"Almost as much as mom did when she realized I was in the guard." I said, taking another bite of pizza.

"Yeah, though that could've been worse if dad had been his old self. You know, your disappearance made him a whole hell of a sad man. I don't think I've seen dad break down so bad, he just wanted a second chance to prove his love to you. He prayed and got what he wanted. That's probably why he didn't go off on you like you thought he would."

"Mel probably saw that from a distance and told him what happened to me." I mumbled before taking another sip of my beer. "God knows I didn't see it."

"And neither did I until a certain point." Alex, being the pizza lover he was, had started going into the box for his second slice. "Yeah, life's funny. Sometimes you'd say something and fate has a way of throwing it back in your face to see if you're gonna do good by your word. Doesn't always happen, but you better count your blessings for when it does."

"I'll keep that in mind." I simply replied before finding my beer can empty.

"You know..." Alex began. "I think Twilight had that same opportunity."

"Yeah, I heard you talked her into breaking up with me on the official tip." I replied as I walked to my fridge to see the beers lined up on the top row. "Hasn't exactly been uplifting, but it proved somewhat helpful."

"Yeah, I might have had a few other thoughts at the time."

"Like what?" I asked, sitting back down on the couch.

"Big brother thoughts." He answered quietly. "I watched her fight with her friends over how she was treating you the day before you came to. Twilight pretty much didn't even care about seeing you off the day you left, but since you found yourself damn near dying, she was starting to champion being around you. I know it wasn't really my place, but I had to tell her the truth about what I felt and what I believed was the best course of action."

"That wasn't the only thing on your mind, was it?" I asked, pointing a beer at him.

"Honestly, I was in my bag. I felt like at that moment Mel was the deserved winner of the 'Take Nondis Home' sweepstakes. She loves you, always have, even when she told me about why she separated from you before you disappeared."

"But isn't that the same thing that Twilight did?" I argued.

"The difference is that while Mel told me why she had to separate from you and how long she planned on doing so, not even Twilight's friends knew the reason why she didn't visit you. To me, it felt like it came from a dark place. Might not have been her true intention, but the optics weren't really all that great for her." Alex then polished off his first bottle of beer before speaking again. "There's also the fact that the two of you were pretty unsteady. Too many distractions, too much political and celebrity stigma, plus the whole forced marriage angle, just a lot of things that shouldn't go into a first-time relationship. You guys weren't ready and there was a lot of unnecessary stress feeding into you two. So that's why I did what I did. It wasn't to sabotage anyone, I just felt that you two needed to be apart from each other."

"And you wanted me to get close to Mel as a result." I stated, popping open my new can of beer. "Kinda suspect to me."

"Mel had given Twilight the reigns, I knew that. But recent developments and your being free from Twilight is what made her reconsider that stance."

"That's putting it mildly." I replied. "When mom told her to convince me to come back home, Mel didn't even hold back in trying to get me to sleep with her."

"And of course, you rejected her." Alex replied. "Well, can't say that the opportunity didn't come around. You said no, and that's final."

I paused for a moment, looking to my older brother. "Opportunity for what?"

"Dude, mom and dad were screaming their praises of Mel to the heavens for years. They've been her personal cheer squad. And for the longest, Stanton and I were right there holding her name up in the stands. She may not have given you the green light until you got back, but you could've been less of a horny-ass dunce and let her play things out."

"Alex, she was never going to give me that chance." I argued. "Even when she wanted to, she said no. I leave for nine months to another world, come back, and now she wants me to herself... long after I opened up the opportunity to do so. But I had a fiancée, had to prove loyalty to that."

"I know, I get it, I had to prove loyalty to my fiancée for a year before we could finally walk to the alter. But the difference is that we had a normal relationship, one that grew for years before I could man up and ask her father for his blessing to unionize. You just got choked out by her older brother over a one-off deal, separated for a month, and then thrown into a marriage process less than a month after you two reunite. That's a lot for a normal relationship, and I haven't even gotten into the political bullshit that came with it."

I sighed not because I agreed with him, but because I couldn't even come with a lie to convince myself otherwise. The way we came together was complete chaos. And I tried my best to wear that chaotic outfit with my best foot forward. "...Yeah, we could've started things a lot slower."

"Honestly, if anything, the two of you should've started things anonymously. If the two of you rejected that mess to begin with and get started on removing that bullshit law, You'd be a lot better off. I mean you wouldn't have been conscripted as a guard, but that option would have always been there, and I believe you would've enlisted either way. You wouldn't be Captain of the Guard, but you'd be a rising star in the ranks. Just the mere fact that you being the first human guard in Equestria would gain you a modest celebrity interest. I think your path would stay this way no matter what you try."

The irony is that Celestia and I have already started off on the quiet tip. And it won't be all sex and teasing on day one. Perhaps this time I should heed his suggestion and keep my current development under wraps until the rain clears. Yeah, that's the better thing to do for both of our sakes. It may seem cruel to move on when Twilight was looking forward to pushing ahead with our future, but I'd rather keep our friendship instead of letting unstable emotions and raw sexual energy drive us into a nasty mess. This also means that I can't get caught up with my dick in my hand hoping to find an easy way to get off, dragging Twilight to the front of my mind in doing so.

"In speaking of paths, Twilight gave me an interesting phone call last night."

I damn near dropped my beer. "Really, what for?"

"She says you broke off completely from her. She's pretty devastated."

I stared into the darkness of the can, seemingly digging for words. "Yup. Guess that's why you called me here, huh?"

"I just thought you needed some reinforcement. It's a hard decision to make when you break up with your first girlfriend of over six months. Feels like you've put together something great, only for it to go wrong. But I'm sure you don't need to hear any words of encouragement from me, you're a strong man. You got it."

"That's coming from the heart?" I asked.

"More like the soul." He replied. "You're my brother, and you ain't less than a man in my standard. You got strength upstairs, courage in the mid-level, just keep the beast downstairs caged when you need to and you'll be fine."

"Those almost sound like words of encouragement." I joked.

"Nope, just stating the obvious." He answered before picking up a third slice of pizza as soon as I started reaching for the box for my second. "So I'm guessing it's Luna that's got you all locked up now."

I chuckled as I shook my head. "Can't say. All I know is that it's better that I started this one anonymously."

Alex scoffed, dropping his shoulders in disappointment. "Well played."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

I got back shortly after our dinner together and saw a quiet Celestia standing in the hallway, quietly brooding to herself. She observed her surroundings and came cross my walking towards her. She closed her eyes, dropping her head as she turned around and walked in a different direction. I couldn't even call out to her as quickly as she paced herself through the hall. She wouldn't even turn back to let me see her face. I see her talk with Twilight was obviously hurting her.

I sighed and moved on with my evening. I took a candid visit to the Canterlot streets, getting a better view of the glitz and glam of the Canterlot night life. I remained quiet in my travel, venturing further south until I had once again found myself on the very edge of the unsavory parts of the city. Of course, there was the main avenue reaching as far as the junction at the front gate. But just across the street, I could easily look up and see the multitude of cloths decorating the sky. It was what the locals called The Curtain. And if you reached that far, you either weren't paying attention or you knew exactly what you were going for.

The difference of the street was drastically different as well. On one side of the street, there was the rough cobblestone road, wasn't exactly the cleanest but it was orderly to an extent, minus the tossed away remnants of old food, garbage, and half-filled wine bottles you could easily bet was filled with urine. But on the other side, the sidewalk was cleaner, almost like it was frequently attended to in spots. The alleyways weren't as dark as the others, no need for them to be since all the debauchery was really more in-your-face than anything.

A massive roar came from further within, almost like it was a stadium nearby. And no doubt it was with the way some of the Canterlot homeless and refuse came crawling out like roaches to crowd the alleyway with their stinking unkempt selves. I could hear the murmurs form around me as others passed. It appeared to be a spectacle taking place tonight.

Somewhere in Canterrot...

Many excited onlookers gathered to a rather large old temple built to be an alter to the Equestrian god Faust. The large marvelous statues that once decorated the halls were broken and filed down to betting tables and payout desks. The gigantic rotunda that once shielded the inside from the elements was seemingly blown off, making way for the curtain to take it's place. And at the center of the enormous venue was a large gaping hole that had no railings or protections to stop the onlookers from falling in. Some even sat along the edges, risking life and limb for a good seat to see the action below.

But the bulk of the crowd was sitting in a hollowed-out, extravagantly illuminated cavern below, surrounding a massive ovular arena, a good ten thousand ponies cheered ceaselessly and passionately as a multitude of stallions and mares wearing decorative masks and disguises sat in the much higher-seated exclusive press boxes. Some of them had engaged in their secretive sessions of debauchery, mares on mares, stallions on stallions, siblings on siblings, even participating in even the most taboo and illegal of fetishes. One could even say that the sin taking place would even cause Caligula himslf to blush with embarrassment and envy.

Down below on the floor of the arena was two well-built unicorn stallions, one red, the other green, both sporting black manes with contemporary pompadours. They stood next on one another, wearing shades while facing opposite directions of the crowd. The two then moved in unison, pointing to the sky as they announced themselves to the crowd with incredibly flawless synergy.

"FIIILLLIIIEES ANNNNND GENTLECOLTS, MARES AND STALLIONS OF ALL AGES!" The green stallion boisterously announced before his counterpart proceeded him.

"HE'S SCOTCH AND I'M BOTCH, AND WELCOME TO CANTERLOT COLOSSEUM. *Ahem* THE REAL COLOSSEUM─"

"─WHERE YOU'LL GET TO SEE NONE OF THAT FAMILY-FRIENDLY FRU-FRU FLIGHT ROUTINE─"

"─BULLSHIT AND SEE SOME REEEEAL ACTION!"

"TONIGHT'S BOUTS ARE SURE TO PLEASE YOU, TEASE YOU, AND FOR SOME OF YOU DEMENTED ONES, GET YOUR ROCKS OFF!"

"THAT'S RIGHT YOU FILTHY SONS OF BITCHES! AND ALL BITCHES IN THE AUDIENCE, NO DISCRIMINATION FROM US. WE DIDN'T FORGET ABOUT YOU, WE KNOW WHAT YOU CAME HERE FOR!"

"♫INCESSANT VIOLENCE♪!" The two sung together loudly in harmony.

The two continued as fireworks sparked behind the two, sending the crowd into a raucous fury. The two continued to interchange dialog while finishing each other off. "THE STRONGEST STALLIONS LINED UP TO TAKE EACH OTHER ON FOR THE GLORY OF BEING THE STRONGEST SEED ON THE MOUNTAIN!"

"THAT'S RIGHT, ONE OF YOU LUCKY LADIES WILL GET YOUR CHANCE TO BID ON THE BASTARD WHO TAKES IT ALL HOME!"

"WANT KIDS?"

"HE'LL FUCK YOUR SOUL RIGHT OUT OF YOUR WOMB─"

"─FOR AS LONG AS YOU WANT HIM─"

"─OR AS LONG AS YOU KEEP HIM ALIVE─"

"─NO CONSENT REQUIRED!"

"LADIES, I KNOW YOU LOVE THEM DRUGS, HOW BOUT EM!?"

Under most circumstances, you would normally hear a bunch of boos and jeers directed at the red stallion, but it seemed like every other mare was jumping up and down with a smile on their life-worn faces. Then again, they were here for just that anyhow, and whatever money they had left to bet with to possibly earn more, they did with the intent on going on a massive binge later. But it wasn't just the mares who made their voices known.

"AND FELLAS, WE WON'T FORGET ABOUT YOU AND YOUR SENSITIVE NEEDS! WE GOT EVERYTHING YOU'D WANT AND THEN SOME!"

"WE'RE TALKING ABOUT A FINE LINEUP OF PRISTINE BITCHES YOU WON'T FIND OUT ON THE STREETS! ONLY FOR THE EXCLUSIVE VIP BADGE HOLDERS, YOU CAN HAVE YOUR CHOICE MARE, STALLION─"

"─HOW ABOUT BOTH─"

"─HOW ABOUT A BASTARD WITH BOTH ON 'EM?"

"THAT'S RIGHT YOU KINKY SOULS, WE GOT EM ON THE TRIBUTE WALL! YOU KNOW WHERE TO FIND THEM!"

"LEAVE THEM A TIP, MAYBE A LITTLE MORE─"

"─A LASTING IMPRESSION─"

"─OR BID THEM OUT IN OUR EXCLUSIVE AUCTION SHORTLY AFTER THE CARNAGE, OVER AT THE ATRIUM!"

A voice then cried out from someone in the front row, loudly screaming at the two in the center of the arena. "BOO, I WANT SOME ACTION, FUCK ALL THESE ADVERTISEMENTS!"

"WELL YOU KNOW WHAT'S COMING NEXT, FOLKS!"

"I HOPE THOSE SEATS ARE COMFORTABLE!"

"FRONT ROW SEAT HOLDERS, IF YOU AREN'T WET WITH EXCITEMENT OR AROUSAL, YOU'RE GONNA BE WET WITH BLOOD!"

"I HOPE YOU BROUGHT TOWELS, FOLKS!"

"THESE BOUTS ARE ABOUT TO BE SOME OF THE MOST GRUESOME THIS SIDE OF THE ARIMASPI MOUNTAIN!"

"OH, AND FOR YOU HIGH ROLLERS IN HERE, WE DIDN'T FORGET ABOUT YOU!"

"THAT'S RIGHT! TONIGHT IS CHAMPIONS NIGHT─"

"─WHERE YOUR MOST PRIZED FIGHTER FIGHTS FOR THEIR LIFE AND DEALS THE FINISHING BLOW FOR THE GRAND PRIZE!"

"TONIGHT'S GRAND PRIZE IS A COLD HARD STACK OF CASH! TEN MILLION BITS ON THE LINE!"

"AND THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY TO GET IT: BRUTALIZE YOUR OPPONENT─"

"─BRUTALLY AND UTTERLY─"

"─VICIOUSLY─"

"─WITHOUT MERCY─"

"─UNTIL THEY VOMIT BLOOD!"

"ONLY THE MOST VICIOUS FIGHTERS─"

"─THE SAVAGES STILL STANDING HERE AT THE END─"

"─WILL CLAIM THE FAME AND GLLLLORY!"

"THE REST WILL BE LEFT FOR THE GORY, WHERE WE SATIATE YOUR BLOODLUST AND FEED THE WEEKLY BEAST BEFORE YOUR VERY EYES!"

"EVERYTHING YOU COULD HOPE FOR, YOUR DREAMS AND DESIRES WILL ALL COME TRUE WITH US, RIGHT HERE─"

"AT THE CORROTTO CUUUUUP!"

Sounds like a hell of a time. Honestly, just the roaring excitement and the unrelenting throng of homeless bringing about what little possessions they had for bargaining and waging, it was enough to drag me in. I wanted to see what this was all about myself. But I was still walking on two legs, there would be no way I'd get in there and see for myself what this place was all about until I changed over.

Everything in my mind was screaming that this was a bad idea.

But I knew that I would have to come back here eventually, no questions asked. I had to steel myself for what was to come for later. I had to do what needed to be done, for the sake of my mission. Celestia was just gonna have to punish me again, maybe I could even put the blame on her for ignoring me. Then again, she'd probably send me through every wall in the city for doing that.

To hell with it, time to change it up.

Meanwhile At Canterlot Castle...

Celestia stood quietly in the confines of her own chamber, staring at the mare in the looking glass. She stared at herself, looking back at her past and motivating herself on how she can change her present and future for the better. She cheered herself on, even looking past the demon she hid within herself. But it didn't come without strife, as she could see the rug laid before her fireplace in the background. Quietly, an image appeared to her, a remnant of the past.

As her younger self stared into the flames, she looked down towards an early adolescent Twilight. Her eyes remained fixated on her book until she could remain fixated no longer. The young fillies' eyes grew heavier by the minute, causing her to nod off in an attempt to keep her eyes open. But inevitability soon reigned supreme and the young Twilight Sparkle started to snore softly. The regal mare chuckled to herself as she levitated the young unicorn into her bed for the time being. The princess, laying her to rest, kissed the filly's forehead and whispered to her student before catching a stray tear rolling down her cheek. She cleared her throat and quickly walked for the door, summoning a guard to take the young filly to her dorm where she could rest properly.

The mare sighed at the memory looking back at her and held her chest. "You've grown so much, more than I ever have."

She heard a knock at her door, distracting her for a moment. She then approached the door with a quiet gaze to the armored pony standing before her. The guard saluted and made his report. "Your highness, the castle is secure."

"Very good then." She replied quietly. "You are dismissed."

"Your highness, there is something I should inform to you as well─"

"It is fine, you are dismissed." She said, walking away before the guard called out to her.

"The captain. He's not here. We've got records of his departure from the grounds shortly after the dining hours but just an hour or two before the barracks initiated the light's-out curfew."

"I'm sure he made his way to Ponyville." She answered dismissively.

"Train station have no record of his appearance. But he's been sighted to the south... towards that area."

Celestia stopped in her tracks to turn her head at the guard. "The Corrotto District?"

"Yes, your highness." He replied. "He's been sighted to be alone."

The princess galloped for the balcony, hollering back to her guard just as her wings flew open and she readied herself to dive into her usual midnight flight. "Send no one for him. I will deal with him myself."

"As you wish, your highness."

I took a lot of time waiting in silence, standing amongst a dark corner before I could find some other alleyway outside of the curtain to hide in. As soon as the traffic waned, I went about my way to a secluded place to start gathering my wits and constitution. When I finally got my thoughts together, I started to place my stuff down. Removing every bit of evidence of my human self and relegating it all to being an arsenal for my magic to call upon. As I was taking off my shirt, I could hear a set of hooves getting closer to me. I briskly turned around to see a pair of lavender eyes looking at me from the darkness, they glowed brightly in contrast to the darkness. But the mane was a dead giveaway.

"Ah, fuck. You scared the shit out of me."

The mare remained hidden as she sternly spoke to me. "You are not going in there."

I rolled my eyes and lowered my head. "I'm sorry. But if it's to carry on with my mission, if it's for the sake of setting you free─"

"I'm saying this for the sake of your existence." She warned, walking closer to me until her face was showing in the dim lantern light of the back alley. "And if you valued your right mind, you would not come back here."

"I know I shouldn't, but I have to." I insistently rebutted.

"And you think you'll get out of there alive on your own?"

"I believe that what I've learned thus far has gotten me to where I can defend myself to some degree."

The princess scoffed. "You're naïve to believe that."

"Then I'm naïve for trying to save you." I replied while pointing at myself.

"Yes, you are." She said as she came into the light some more.

"So I should just give up on that then?"

"No." She quickly responded by putting a hoof on my arm.

"Then what in the hell you want me to do, lady? What do you want to do?"

The mare began to whisper in a low voice. "I want you to stay alive for as long as you can for me. I don't believe that I will be as traumatically devastated as some others you may know. I will be hurt, yes, but you already know who will be inseparable from your casket."

I took a deep breath, knowing exactly who she was talking about. "I know that. But it's a risk I'm willing to take."

The princess used her magic to slowly pull my collar down to where I was face to face with her. She continued to whisper at a low volume. "Listen to me, don't you put your life in danger on a slim chance. You cannot afford to compromise your health, we have a date the day after tomorrow in case you forgot."

"Well I'll be extra careful not to piss anyone off. I'm just going as a bystander." I answered quietly, looking around to see if anyone was eavesdropping on us.

"Not as an anonymous one. You know who pursues you in that form." She argued.

"I can still hide, just let me get a mask and a cloak and I'm good. There are very few that know what I look like as a pony. And you are as much an exception as the others. Now get out of here before someone comes by and sees us."

The princess didn't even seem to budge at my warning. "You speak as if I don't have my own disguise."

I paused for a moment to watch the princess summon what appeared to be a golden amulet with something that appeared to be an acorn grafted at the bottom along with a lightning-shaped twig attached to it. At the bottom was a single jade bead dangling from the bottom of the acorn shape. She then dangled the item before my face. "What are you getting at?" I questioned her.

Almost in a tone of submission, she started to lean herself against the wall, blocking my only way out of the narrow alleyway. "You don't know your way around my city like I do. I fly over it almost every night. I walk the crowded streets alone on others, completely unbeknownst to any random pony passing by me. And I have knowledge of every street, every corner, every alley, every venue, every owner of a certain turf, every. Last. Crime. Canterrot is not a place where you can just simply gaze around like a tourist, you MUST have purpose for your being there or you WILL end up dead."

I grew nervous as she continued to hold me hostage. "You sound like you're about to do something dangerous."

"The very idea of courting with you is dangerous, you should know that I measure my risks accordingly before taking them. And since you're so adamant in going, I will accompany you... just this once." I wanted to argue with her against that idea, but a hoof against my lips ended that thought rather quickly. "Now I won't foalsit you all night, so you better keep your eyes forward and let me do the talking. I will let you know when you can ask questions, so do not ask them out of term. Do not stare, do not stray, do not stagger, do not barter. I would surely hate to see you talking on someone's display case while being only eight to ten pounds for the rest of your miserable existence." She said before she put a hoof under my chin. "Have I made myself clear?"

While I could feel the metal of her slippers being ice cold against my jaw, I couldn't shake the growing heat that stirred beneath them. She was very serious about that last part, which meant that I had to comply quietly. "Crystal."

"Alright... now show me what you look like on all fours."

Ten Minutes Later
***Point of Perspective: Equus Nondis***

I managed to transform without Celestia, or rather with her holding her eyes shut and covering them with her wings. She wanted the novelty of seeing me at the same time I see her in her transformed state. I thought of it as something minor, but apparently she wanted that moment bad enough so I let her have it. As soon as I finished, I trotted right past her, she then instructed me to stand guard at the corner where we turned into our dead end. Eventually, she trotted next to me, feeling her way down the alley until she felt my standing next to her. Her eyes were closed as she counted out.

"Alright, we show ourselves on three. One. Two. Three..." We looked at each other taking notice of our respective forms. As far as her appearance was concerned, I admit that I felt my heart skip a beat in seeing her. It was strange seeing her at my height, if not a little shorter. She sported a cream-colored coat, a golden blonde mane with a blue streak running through her hair over her left ear. At the end of her mane and tail were braids, sectioned and tied off with purple scrunchies. Purple amethyst earrings dangled off her ears, matching with her scrunchies. But she couldn't change the one thing that drew me in the most, the lavender eyes she used to look right through me. What was most glaring was probably the absence of a horn on her head, but she kept her wings.

"Holy hell." I whispered to myself.

She turned to her back end and shook her tail playfully. "So what do you think?" Even her voice was different. She had a lot less of her usual mid-range alto and a lot more of a squeaky soprano, falling just shy of Pinkie's range. "The cutie mark might not be ideal, but nopony ever seems to catch it." I glanced back to see her mark, a yellow sun with a purple masquerade mask over it. If anything, no one would really understand it unless she explained it to them personally. "Heeelloooo? Equestria to Nondie, come in?"

I shook myself out of my trance, I finally found something to say. "Huh... well that's..."

"You don't like it?" She asked before placing a hoof to my chin again, turning my head various ways to get an in-depth look at my features. "You seem to be quite handsome in this form. And a unicorn to boot, you lucked out and got a whole different breed in contrast to Alex. He was an earth pony."

As my view was constantly changing from her moving my head so much, I started to comment on her appearance. "Pegasi, huh? Gotta admit it's an interesting choice to go by. What if an emergency came up and you didn't have your magic to save you?"

"Well tonight is different." She said, using one of her wings to prop my chin up this time. She leaned into me with a smirk. "You're here now. So you better do your job well, Captain. I'd hate to write you up for incompetence."

"Big pressure on me." I said dismissively. "Alright. You know the way, so lead."

She retracted her wing and sternly pointed beside her. "Walk beside me. I don't need you getting curious. I can keep a closer eye on you this way."

"To make sure I don't veer off?" I questioned.

She paused for a second and continued. "Yeah, no veering off. Now stay close and come with me."

As we walked, I could easily see the difference in the sky as it transitioned from the clear open night Luna graced us with, to a spattering of torn rags, to clouds of cloths, finally into the absolute covering of the curtain above. Thought it didn't look as abysmal at night in contrast to the day. Instead, it just partially reflected the orange glow of all the candle and torchlight. While we walked, a stallion whistled at Celestia, hollering at her. "Hey sweet cheeks, looking for a real stallion to perform for your boyfriend there?"

I wanted to look back at him and say something, but I could feel Celestia's words drilling into my brain a little louder. I simply ignored it and we walked on.

However, our guest was not so willing to listen to silence. He trotted up beside me, bumping me out of the way while inching closely to her, so close that she had to bump into a nearby vendor booth to stop him from sticking his muzzle against hers. "Hey, ditch this loser and we can talk, okay?"

Celestia gave the stallion a pretty smile while simply replying. "I don't think I'll ever fuck a limp-dick beta like you. Go for the brothel down on fifth, they've got some girls who'll do anything."

"But I want you." He argued passionately, placing his hoof on the back of her head, trying to pull her in.

She promptly headbutted him, causing him to fall over with a broken nose and very little equilibrium to stand on all fours. "Sorry, don't do soft-headed stallions. Toughen up first."

The pegasi princess marched on, using her right wing to drag me along. While the guy tried to climb back to his hooves, he ended up ramming his head into the nearby vendor stall, causing more pain and misfortune to himself before falling to the ground. Honestly I wanted to laugh, but I just cleared my throat and walked alongside the princess while keeping my eyes forward.

Unfortunately for me the closer we got in, the harder it was to keep my eyes fixated on what was ahead of me. Between merchants selling a variety of items, to even a fairly good looking mare walking by me with a musk so strong that it incited me to turn my head towards her. As she walked, she pried her way between Celestia and I, batting her tail against my muzzle. She gave me a seductive stare, winking at me before shifting her tail to the side for a quick glance. Unfortunately for me, my equine senses were easily overpowering my constitution.

And Celestia was easy to notice it, painfully shoving a hoof into my side. "You're fine to do that when I'm not around. But as long as you're with me, you keep focused."

"Fair enough." I groaned through the pain and kept walking. As we got closer to what appeared to be the town square, there was a series of vendors shouting out to the crowd.

"Fresh legs! Fresh legs, get renewed, rejuvenated, or reconstituted! Get your fresh legs today!"

"Tired of living life the straight and narrow!? We've got the change you're looking for!"

"Do you find your sexual impulses bothersome!? Well we'll get you set for life, no more late-night urges"

"Not enough bits for the trade!? Family struggling to make ends meet!? Come get appraised for a price today!"

"Fresh meat! Get your fresh meat here! Fresh off the cutting room floor!" That was the one that got my attention.

I found myself quietly gliding over to the stall that sold the meat and the griffon behind it. At the rack was a whole slab of ribs and some cut choices of steak. I sat in place with my mouth hung wide open, looking at the chops of meat before me. I looked at the selection and pointed at the smaller slices of meat on the significantly smaller bones. "Excuse me, but what are these here?"

"Chops of lamb, rabbit breast, duck, goat, chicken legs."

I nodded before pointing at the larger cuts hanging from above. "This stuff up here?"

"Ribeye, T-bone, pork ribs."

My inner-Texan quickly came to roost, I started asking more in-depth questions. "Got any country-style ribs and sirloins?"

The griffon at the stall nodded slowly. "Ah, a connoisseur. Rare amongst ponies that you would know of such fine cuts."

At that moment, I whispered the two words that any meat lover would orgasm at the thought of. "Wagyu beef."

The griffon didn't seem to understand what I was saying to him. "Uh, what's that?"

I started to explain, watching his talons dig into the wood of his stand as I did. "Imagine a cut of beef so high in marble content that it's literally in every other strain of muscle fiber. Where meat would appear red with this tiny line of marble on the outside, this luxury-end cut of beef has marble on the inside, so much that the meat appears to be snowed on. Fat content so rich that when you cook it, it falls apart in your mouth, melting until your tongue finishes where your teeth and beak won't even have much of a job. We're talking about beef. Flavored. Butter."

The griffon held his talons out, screaming at me. "Enough! Mercy! I'm supposed to be the one advertising, I shouldn't be here wanting to eat my own wares! I'm already impressed at your knowledge, you've even taught me something new about meat. So what's your name?"

I froze in place, just now coming to terms that I haven't even given my pony form a name to go by. "My name?"

The griffon smiled, pointing at me with pride. "I can't go without knowing the name of a prideful and knowledgeable connoisseur of meat. You must impart more of your wisdom, I must know a name to your legend."

I quickly thought of anything that would associate myself with the cutie mark on my flank. I took one glance back and saw the arrow planted in the bullseye of a target and quickly threw together a pony name for myself. "Sniper Shot. My friends call me Snipes, Sniper is fine."

"Sniper shot, possibly a hunter of these fine cuts of meat?" He questioned.

"Uhhh, yeah." To be fair, I have gone hunting on more than one occasion. And the last thing I hunted was an Arimaspi, so his assumption wasn't too outlandishly inaccurate, albeit erroneous. "Yeah, you could say that."

The griffon had a chuckle before turning around to leave his station. "Well if you excuse me, your story of fabled snowy beef has gotten me a bit peckish. I'll just see myself to someplace else."

As our conversation concluded, I started to set my eyes to one of the other stalls... immediately regretting my decision.

"Fresh legs, come get your fresh legs here!" I could easily imagine that statement being applied to a vendor at Six Flags. I can see myself walking up with a pretty chunk of change and a growling stomach, hoping to get my hands on a juicy turkey leg and a cold drink before roaming around the park. But that image was quickly supplanted by a more grisly one. Instead of carnival treats, there were several legs hanging on a rack. Multiple colors of legs remained dangling, some dripping of blood as they swayed in the wind like the meat that sat on sale in open market. "Forelegs, hindlegs, any leg will do! Special sale on changeling legs, will transform immediately when assimilated!" I could even see one amputee, his left hindleg wrapped in gauze, shopping for a replacement to be cut where his former leg ended. I quickly turned away to find myself looking at another stall.

"We've got the change you've desired, come and make a difference in your life today!" The female seller seemed cheerfully suggesting some drastic change in one's life, but in reality it was a impromptu medical station she would use to offer sex changes. Some who wanted the liberties of being free from the responsibilities of childbirth and the stigma of that process would walk away with a stallion's set. Many colts who were not happy with themselves could finally get the change they've been fighting for, despite the opinions of society. And there were the more exotic ones who sought to get the best of both worlds strictly for the pleasure of it, they would walk away with both. Granted, this and the meat stand were more normalized to me, but what I saw next was the complete opposite.

"Set yourselves free from those annoying impulses, become an ascended being! Focus on your life's work and live without distractions now!" This seemed to be a cult more affiliated to the desire of living without genitalia. But looking at the deeper connotations of his practice, it could easily assumed that the stallion was quite literally chopping off ponies' goods before selling it to the sex changer. But even then, it made me wonder what goes through someone's mind that they'd want to rid themselves of their more intimate experiences, as well as a body part vital to one's preservation of lineage. Just thinking about having my dick cut off gives me BME Pain Olympics flashbacks.... Next stall please.

"I see a mighty fine horn on you, good sir! You could become quite wealthy if it's of the best quality!" Much like the last guy, this seemed to be running in benefit of one of the other stalls. This one especially is one that seems to be in the business of collecting body parts and redistributing them to the various markets. Though this one seems to be collecting from living clients. My best bet is that they don't pay you what you're worth and sell you on your next drug binge. After all, what pony seeking wages for their family would give a part of themselves that could be used to accomplish those tasks efficiently and safely? This place is really only for the drug abusers who've ran out of houses to rob or worse... gambling addictions. I could even see someone trying to pay a ransom for a family member doing this as well, but that's even less likely. After all, there's got to be a better way to deal with that.

"AAAAAAANNND WE HAVE A WINNER! THE POWER COUPLE ON THEIR FIRST DATE, NIMBUS AND TERRA!"

From there, I could hear a cavalcade of boos rain in from around the square. The ones who made their bets had thrown their receipts for their wagers on the ground and stomped them until their anger was satiated. Multiple calls for a rematch were heard around the place while another angry voice screamed into my ear. "Where have you been!?" Celestia asked angrily.

I pointed over to the meat shack and started to explain myself before she cut into me with some choice words.

"I don't wanna hear a word from you! I said stay by me, you wandered off to someplace because it sells meat. What if it was your meat they were trying to sell!?"

Honestly, that part didn't quite cross my mind. Who was to say that the griffon wouldn't take his sweet time trying to see what a human would taste like or even take me out back and butcher me like a lamb led to slaughter. It honestly felt like a trip to market for me, it honestly felt that mundane because of what I'm used to doing in the supermarket. If anything, had I just wandered over that without having any kind of knowledge of meat, I would've been either chased off or dragged to the back for dinner.

She used her wing to push me forward. "Now let's get a move-on! We don't need to stay here for an obscene amount of time."

"Wait." I called out, looking over at the place where throngs of disappointed bettors filed out crying over how broke they were. My eyes narrowed to see a familiar face draped in a cloak glancing around before walking in. Was that who I thought it was? Only one way to know. "Hey, can we check this place out first?"

Celestia gave the place one disapproving glance before pushing at me to go further on. "Let's. Go."

I then turned around to face her. "Look, I might have seen a potential contact. If anything, I need to get into that arena."

"That's not an arena, that's a church." She angrily replied.

"A church where they propagate death and destruction for one's amusement, well let us prey."

The next thing I felt was her teeth dragging my ear to the ground as she warned me angrily. "You have no idea what you're trying to get yourself into."

"You said that I had to come for a purpose, well I found quite a few." I replied, wincing in pain.

"You are not safe here, Nondis." She whispered.

"The name is Sniper Shot, your highness." I grumbled back.

"My name is Golden Feather, and you will do well to remember that."

After the tense display, I quietly pleaded with her to let me enter the arena. "Okay, Goldy. I might have seen a politician walk into here. And that someone might have been associated with Count DuMoneé. If I can get close enough to figure out what's going on, we can get our shit rolling tomorrow. The sooner we run into some vital information, the better we can respond to their next move. Now I know you may not like that idea, but it's the only major lead we've got that's still on the inside circle."

The disguised princess whispered as she let my ear free. "I know you want to hurry and get this done, but I cannot let you do this without you knowing of the potential dangers that this may entail. That assassin knows what you look like, and he will probably have a fairly good seat. I suggest you follow me for some window browsing for a disguise on top of your compromised disguise. Is that a fair assessment?"

I closed my eyes and bemoaned the idea of not being able to follow that hooded figure. But I did understand her reasoning more than anything, that Australian-sounding bastard did have a place of residence here. "...Okay, so what do you have in mind."

"Again, just follow me." She turned back to emphasize her final world. "CLOSELY."

After a slight detour to a lesser merchant towards the outside of the district, we got back in the thick of things and made our way into the temple-turned battle arena. It didn't take very long to see her react with disgust over what we saw. Of course the outside was a bit unassuming, but the interior was a lot more lively. It was almost like walking into a modern club. The place was quite literally decked out with neon lights and blue overheads. On the walls were magically-created holograms displaying the action down below. An albino earth pony stallion with blue eyes and a spiky blond mane carrying a pretty large sword on his back stood silently while his partner, a pink mare with a cute dress waved at the crowd eagerly. The walls with the betting numbers were glowing in magenta lights, the numbers changing with every bet placed. Another crowd started throwing their bets to the mares at the counter. Loud electronic rock music was playing in the speakers all around us, feeding the hype that was this arena. Maids in skimpy outfits, stallions getting drunk off of their ass, ponies dancing without a care in the world, and gladiatorial cage matches taking place in a grungy arena filled with thousands of rowdy fans.

It was awesome.

Celestia, who was staring at a broken statue of the deity that was once the purpose for this place even existing, did not appreciate what she was seeing. She whispered to herself. "If only you could see what has become of this beautiful monument. I'm sorry to have failed you."

I approached the disguised princess, becoming curious. "Something wrong?"

She gave a disheartened sigh. "Six hundred years ago, this place was one of the crowning jewels of Canterlot. This place was where royals were sanctioned. When you walked these aisles, you were seen with respect and admiration. A few royals were blessed and coronated here, Fair Charity, Blueblood, Mi Amore Cadenza to name a few."

"What happened?" I asked.

"A skirmish took place between us royals and fairly powerful senator who grew corrupted in his dealings. He tried to take advantage of a young Cadance, which reverberated with us quite soundly. The senator lost that battle... utterly." She walked further into the crowd, guiding me alongside her as she did until we came up to a massive opening in the floor, leading to the top of the enormous arena. As I could hear the combined cheers of over ten thousand voices, she pointed at the center of the arena. "That is where he lost his life. Vaporized into nothing but ash at the power of my fury."

"Holy hell." I whispered to myself, thinking back to the moment she blasted a changeling brute into ash.

"I've tried to lead efforts to repairing the temple, but the ground proved unsteady. So they condemned it. Eventually, the malcontent moved in, crime lords, gangs, organized underground movements started turning this place into an attraction for the bloodthirsty, the morbidly curious, and the politically corrupted. It didn't take long for some notable aristocrats and senators to draft legislation to funnel money into this place, becoming a black market for every politician to satisfy their fetish outside the eyes of the citizens who voted them in, not to mention their comparatively wholesome families. If anything, the extreme crimes of violence are nothing more than a curtain for what truly takes place behind the closed doors of the VIP lounge."

"Sounds pretty dark." I muttered.

"There are foals here too."

"In the audience?" I asked.

"No..." She answered quietly before pointing to me. "And visitors who are curious are often the first ones that find themselves fighting in that pit for their survival. So word for the wise, don't find yourself fighting in that ring."

Her answer just unnerved me. It broke all the immersion I had for this place. If anything, all of this fanfare being a distraction while the worst is going on, while underhanded deals are being made and the lives of innocent citizens are being toyed with, it's too cruel and hideous to ignore. No matter how much neon you dress it in, the feeling of the music pulsing through your chest, the excitement, the only thing that goes on here is something far worse than death itself.

The 'Rotty' sure has earned it's name.

"Follow me." She ordered. "You want to see where your contact might've headed, I'm going to show you."

As we went along, I found myself going down some stairs into a red hallway. Moving on, there was a wall of ponies, their forelegs and head protruding outward, their bodies were buried within. An effeminate colt looked at me with a smile before his pupils dilated, his chin shot to the air. He looked at me and stared with his mouth agape. Suddenly, he started to pant heavily while he bobbed up and down. His eyes locked on to me, his voice trying it's best to keep my attention. I grew uncomfortable and turned away, trying my best not to look at him. When we passed by him, he moaned loudly. "Join the VIP, daddy! I want you so bad!"

For the many onlookers, it was the majesty of watching the ones trapped in the wall getting whatever done to them on the other side without having to see what's really going on. I'm sure the facial expressions they display were more than enticing for the crowd. And I'm sure there's a fair share of stallions looking on with growing interest. For the most part, it's a hell of a way to advertise. But the stallion trying to get my eye wasn't exactly my draw.

We got to the end of the hall, splitting off into a T-shaped junction. On the left, I could see a hall with more stalls for placing bets, a few bathrooms, some condom dispensers, and even cleaning stations for some unexplained reason. On the right was pretty much the same except there was a portion of the hall that was guarded by two huge stallions, both of them capable of putting Big Mac to shame. I can only assume where they were standing was the VIP room, leading to the wall where the ponies lined up would be getting the business end of their esteemed hosts. Celestia guided us in that direction, giving me a better look at the red wooden doors completely decked out in solid gold trim. The two bouncers stared at us when we walked by, obviously taking a mental note that we were some new faces.

We left he hallway and found ourselves in the corridor leading to the arena. Around the entire place was a series of trusses holding up the floor of the former temple. Suspended from the top of the dome was a platform with four stallions using their magic to display the action on the ground floor. And just as we entered the lower bowl, the princess sat herself quietly while closing her eyes. I sat beside her, taking the available seat. "I take it that it's gonna get messy?" I asked.

"Messy is putting it mildly." She replied with a scowl on her lips. "If you find yourself being psychologically mortified at the sight of death, then closing your eyes is the best option. I can only assume that you've seen enough death to push through it."

I looked at the screen above, seeing a group of twelve masked ponies armed with spiked bats and chains stepping out to the floor. I shook my head. "Too late to think about that now. My eyes have to be open and ready to observe anything."

"See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. That's how you stay alive, remember that." She advised as the color casters started to speak over the arena.

Scotch threw his hoof into the air, proudly announcing to the crowd. "Ladies and Gentlecolts─"

Botch started to fake himself crying, babbling his speech. "─We're sowwry!"

"We apologize for absence of tonight's planned action!"

"I want my bwiddie!"

"It appears that the opponent for our guys on the ground floor has a bad case of the shakes!"

"You all know the drill, so everyone can get their fill! Sing it with us! He's a─"

Before the word could even come out, the two just put their hooves to their ears already expecting the crowd to finish his sentence. And that they did, in earnest numbers.

"♫PUUUUUUU-SSSSSSSY!♪"

Jeers and angry complaints started to rain from all over. But it appeared that the two announcers were very accustomed to the chaos. Without skipping a single beat, Scotch carried on. "We humbly apologize for that experience. And we know that you came for some much sought-after bloodshed."

"AND THAT'S WHY WE PULLED A FEW STRINGS WITH THE BOYS BELOW!"

"SO WE INTERRUPT YOUR SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING TO BRING YOU A SPECIAL EVENT!"

"SO NOW THESE TWELVE SONS OF BITCHES WILL BE ON A PLAY DATE WITH A RECENT ACQUISITION BY THE BESTIARY GUILD!"

"AND YOU LUCKY MEMBERS OF THE AUDIENCE WILL BE GETTING A SNEAK PREVIEW OF NEXT WEEK'S BEAST OF THE WEEK!"

"TONIGHT'S YOUR LUCKY NIGHT!"

"SO NOW WE BRING YOU THE SPECIAL TREAT, ONE YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!"

"THE ONE YOU DIDN'T ASK FOR!"

"THE ONE YOU'D NEVER THOUGHT OF!"

"KILL THE LIGHTS!"

On command, the operators did as told and the lights around the entire arena shut off. leaving the entire dome in pitch black darkness with the exception of the lone blue light shining from the hole above. Without warning, a large gate opened up at the center of the ring, slowly cranking out a large beast to rise to the arena. Music started playing over the sound system as the announcers shouted to the crowd slowly.

"LADIES."

"BOYS."

"TONIGHT'S EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEEK!"

"STRAIGHT FROM THE BOWELS OF HELL!"

"NAME STILL IN PATENT, BUT THIS BEAST COMES FROM THE RAILS OF THE SOUTH!"

"VENTURING NORTH FOR RICHES UNTOLD!"

"A BEAST OF LEGEND, SAID TO CRUSH ANYTHING THAT STANDS AGAINST IT!"

"AND IT'S RIGHT HERE FOR YOUR PERSONAL AMUSEMENT!"

"LET'S GIVE A WARM CORROTTO WELCOME FOR..."

The two seemingly stopped their routine to speak to one another, their whispers slightly overheard in the sound system before they came to a conclusion of for the name. Then they shouted in unison. "CYYYYYYCLOOOOOOPSSSSS!!!"

The Arena Floor

The lights slowly dimmed back in as the machinations of the ring came to a squeaky grinding halt. Everyone in the audience was captivated by this mass of fur just sitting in the middle of the ring. Everyone was questioning what they were seeing until one of the goons shouted to the announcer angrily. "Hey, what gives!? I thought we were promised a grudge match tonight! We wanted to get back at those two bastards that whopped our ass last week! What about them?"

Scotch quickly cut his mic off and started to speak to the group leader. "They were scheduled for a match earlier tonight. They advanced to the semi's later tonight. You're out of the bracket as of last week. You know what comes next. Three minutes and you're out."

"What if that thing starts killing my boys!? Minions ain't easy to replace, ya know!"

"Three. Minutes." Scotch repeated with some acidity in his tone, stepping up to the stallion with a scowl on his face. "Unless we have a problem. It's either me or that thing. Pick your poison."

The group leader spat in the face of the announcer and started walking off. Almost in a blink, the other announcer jumped in front and turned him around before he could even get a word in. Botch turned around to put away a bloodied dagger. The group leader grew confused before he realized that his throat had been sliced open. "I told you the next time you pull some shit like that, you were gonna get it. Now look what you got."

"I guess fate gave you the better option." Scotch looked on at the pony, wiping the fresh loogie off of his face with a handkerchief. "You can sit there and watch."

Botch called out to the others. "You other bastards won't get the same treatment, so I suggest you fuckers go out there and give these ponies a show. Live for three minutes and you can do whatever the hell you wanna do."

Scotch turned back on his mic, Botch following suit. "THE FIGHTERS ARE READY!"

"THE BEAST IS READY TO WRECK HAVOC!"

"THE SURPRISE EXHIBITION BEGINS..."

"NOOOOOWWW!!!"

The Arena Grandstands

Most of us watched as the group of eleven started charging wildly at the beast while their leader looked on what I assumed to be frustration that his match had turned from what was assumed to be a fair bout into a massive disadvantage. Celestia and I watched quietly as the crowd cheered for the monster to satisfy the carnage many of the onlookers sought. It was a moment of cognitive dissonance for me. I wanted to at least act like I was having a ball, but a lot of the things I've heard and seen put a hold on that. So I looked on quietly, staring at the large beast getting wailed on like a punching bag.

Little did I know what would come next.

A low and powerful growl started to shake the walls of the arena, causing many in attendance to marvel in silence over the sound they heard. Bits of gravel and dust came raining down from the ceiling as the entire complex, both above ground and below, grew no louder than a mouse squeaking. It was the calm before the storm. I stood to my hooves, in utter silence and delirium. While the others may not have know what was at the center of the ring, I knew. And the many terrible memories I had in trying to survive that hell came right back to me in all of it's gruesome detail.

The creature moved for the first time, raising it's massive claw high into the air, it's palm reaching back as the massive obsidian-colored claws shimmered in the lights of the arena. And then it fell, the sudden realization for the group had hit them harder than that one palm came crashing down. It was like watching a bug, a spider, getting obliterated by a house shoe. When it's palm raised back up, the victim was left as a pasty red and pink mess, some of their mane was lost in the clump of twisted meat, their life so easily snuffed out like a candle to a storm. The horror before them was real, just as real as it was for me.

The creature stood, a scarred and worn Arimaspi who looked just about done with everything.

The creature's lone eye darted towards it's next victim, it's large teeth brandishing like lengthy guillotine blades, the claws moved for the next kill. Blood and fur, that all that remained of the next one. And the other three after that, who fell to pieces as the sharp claws tore through them all in one single fell swoop. Limbs and heads had very little of a body to belong to after that strike. The front row behind those three were splattered in blood, as well as another five rows behind them. Those who craved the bloodshed cheered wildly as the others grew disgusted of the mess they found themselves in. Fair to say that some in those last three rows didn't anticipate the shower.

Without a shred of mercy, the creature lunged for his next target, trampling over another mispositioned victim. And easily did his teeth find it's mark. The remaining four didn't even dare to look at the clock above, they had to keep their eyes open for the threat before them. And the motionless leader continued to watch as his minions fell in rapid succession. The creature slowly turned to one of the other four, who split themselves in various directions to flee the beast. But their attempts failed, and it was all for one reason: they were standing in the ring.

None of them were trained to handle this kind of thing, not like we guards are. Every last one of them had a tombstone to their end, a cross by their name. Three more fell in seconds, while the last active member backed himself into a corner, crying out to the audience as he urinated himself. But his screams were snuffed out by the crowd, nothing could save him anymore. The creature reared it's claw back for the final kill, the poor bastard just closed his eyes, shivering.

A buzzer sounded throughout the arena, the clock on the screen reading out the time. 2:03 minutes remaining. That time blinked as the eleven lives who dared to challenge the beast were all drowned out by the crowd's raucous cheering. The two announcers walked over to the group leader, poking at him to see if he had become paralyzed with fear. The two shrugged as they pressed a button, causing a black collar on the creature's neck to glow green with a sickly glow akin to a changeling's transformation. It seemed to have been filled with a tranquilizer, one powerful enough to sedate the large creature where he stood. And as such, the Arimaspi was hauled off by a beast-tamers crew, who dragged him to the center of the ring and stomped on the ground to signal for the elevator's descent.

And just like that, it was over. The announcers called the match. "LADIES AND GENTS... WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?"

"MERCILESS BLOOD, BROKEN BONES, SHATTERED LIVES, WE REMEMBER THOSE WHO OFFER THEIR SERVICE." Both Scotch and Botch took off their shades and placed them on their chest, their voices becoming somber. "A moment of silence for the fallen competitors this round."

The crowd couldn't care less.

Botch then interrupted the moment at the last second, pointing at the immobilized leader. "Hey, what's with this guy!?"

"LADIES AND GENTS, IT APPEARS THAT THIS PONY IS IMMOBILIZED WITH FEAR, SO MUCH THAT HE HAS DIED WHILE STANDING STILL!"

"WHAT A BITCH!"

"YOU KNOW WHAT THAT SOUNDS LIKE EVERYONE!"

"YOU KNOW THE SONG FOLKS, SING ALONG! HE'S A─"

"♫PUUUUU-SSSSSYYYYYY! PUUUU-SSSSSYYYYYY!♪"

While Scotch continued to conduct the crowd as if he was leading a choir, Botch started to play as if he was crying again. "LIKE MUSIC TO MY EARS, BEAUTIFUL SWEET MUSIC! BRINGS TEARS TO MY EYES!"

Both announcers then put back on their shades as they continued with their broadcast. "UNFORTUNATELY WE DON'T HAVE ALL NIGHT TO SERENADE YOU TO SWEET DREAMS, BOTCH! WE'VE GOT CARNAGE TO COLOR COMMENTATE!"

"THAT'S RIGHT, BITCHES! SHOW'S ONLY GETTING STARTED!"

"BUT COME BY THIS FRIDAY FOR A MEGA-SHOWDOWN OF BEASTS, WHERE YOU'LL GET TO SEE THE TRUE DEBUT OF CYCLOPS─"

"Name in pending. BUT YOU'LL GET TO SEE THE TWO BEASTS OF THE WEEK COLLIDE AND FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT TO THE TITLE OF OUR BEAST OF THE WEEK!"

"NOW BACK... TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING!"

To say that moment caused me a bit of mental distress was a crucial understatement. If anything, I had to walk out and take a breather because of my seeing that creature so close to home. In my mind, the sight of that last guy resonated within me so vibrantly. I was in that same situation before, looking at a creature that size while backed into a wall. Terror was all I could feel aside from the quiet sense of resignation. If anything, my alternate fate played out flawlessly before my very eyes. That could've been me, should've been me, and it was up until I had lucked out and pointed a sword into it's palm. If it was any other weapon of a shorter length or lesser effectiveness, I wouldn't be here to watch this happen.

My mind swelled with memories of having to survive in that environment. My hooves itched, I ticked, I started looking every way to make sure I was going to keep myself alive. Visions of the trees, the forest, they clouded my eyes. The neon lights and sounds of the crowd were drowned out, replaced by the sight of tall verdant trees, thick stumps, scarce rays of the sun reaching the forest floor, the howls of those beasts hunting me down... or worse. I can see Tirek chasing me through the forest, with nails so thick that just the tips of them were enough to snap my neck with any slight adjustment. The breaking of the trees behind me as I ran. I had to survive all of that. I was trying to survive here in this place. I was trying to survive. Survive. Survive, I have to survive. Failure means death, death means no more anything, I need to do anything in my power to survive, I cannot fail, failure means death, death means no more anything, I need to do anything in my power to survive, I cannot fail, failure means death...

"How are you feeling?"

Those were the words that broke me out of my trauma for just a moment. The world of burning trees suddenly subsided. The neon, the elated crowd cheering throughout the arena, the lavender eyes looking at me with concern for my well-being. But even then, my memories still ran on loop in my head, ceaselessly. They ran without pause, seamless, back to the beginning again.

"You saw that thing. You know how I feel. How does it feel to have to kill so many of those things by yourself because you want to protect the others, only to find out that the only thing you can do at the worst possible moment is protect yourself, even worse... pray? Lady I had my fucking back against the wall and I was gonna be as pasty red as the rest of those guys─HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO FEEL, HUH!?" The disguised princess jumped back, but she slowly didn't back away like any other would've. No, she understood exactly what I was feeling. As far as myself was concerned, I had a sudden jolt of anger when I screamed at her, as if I had just snapped something loose. I wanted to go harder, but I had to practice control. Steady now, short steps, deep breaths... "I didn't know those guys but I could've done something if I wasn't like this! I don't know what their walks of life were like, but the visions... the fucking... the shits... watching THAT again, it's real fucking shitty, you know?"

For some odd reason while saying that, I started to laugh, trying to lighten the load myself when in truth it only comes across as deranged. It was interesting to know that I had an episode like that.

"This place gives me the creeps." Again, laughing lost-like. "You know... I watched a guy fuck a headless corpse, in broad daylight down the road from here... How the fuck did I even get here? Ha. I-I... I can't even begin to understand... Heard some excitement, got a little curious, saw a familiar face, Followed the white rabbit down into the mystic den, took the fucking red pill and now I'm here getting looks from guys who want nothing more than to either die or stuff my cock down their throats. Life is so... oh..." I placed my hooves over my face, laughing for a moment before I felt something other than the estranged sense of trying to bargain with myself. "...Gramps..."

I lost myself.

I was curled up against the wall, holding myself as my eyes clenched. My laughs turned to sobs, the pain, the hell playing out at random, over the slightest sight of something, something so powerful enough to trigger such an emotional response. I stayed holding myself, feeling like that was the best kind of comfort that I could offer myself. My mind was a mess, I knew I had to keep moving forward but I was so terrified of what was waiting ahead. I was so scared.

Celestia wrapped her forelegs around me, whispering in my ear. "Lets go home."

Canterlot Alleyway
Sometime Later...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

I never really had a moment like that before. It was confusing, painful, and I was trying to bargain with myself. But in another vein of things, I've started to understand what my grandfather had to fight to keep a steady life. No doubt, I was more insightful on his conflict, but there was no way I could understand the pain of being a murderer on the level of killing kids.

But I understood why he did it, moreso now than before.

Live to die another day, or die this day and never see tomorrow, never see home again, never see the face of your beloved girl or your kids. I wouldn't want that existence, not that I have that much going for me at this current time anyhow. But the terror of being a victim and dying in this foreign land, watching these horrible things happening to your squadmates and possibly meeting that same end.

Granted, there were kids who walked up to solders holding grenades, grieving widows strapping themselves to bombs and seeking refuge from the enemy soldiers, it's a gray world with many different shades, there is no black or white. Each side could call for vengeance, and that's exactly what happened.

My venture into the nest of sin had shown many dark shades, but who's to say that there isn't a lighter one to each activity, each personality, each vendor? I had a casual conversation with a meat vendor like it was another day at the deli, but meat is morally frowned upon in this society. What about those who have lost their legs to tragedy, who's to say that vendor wasn't their last hope for a return to normalcy? Sometimes we're not happy with the way we're born, and yeah life can give some of us a leg up while others don't get that chance because of how they're born, go ask a girl in China how their parents had to make that choice. Who's to say that there are some who's sexuality interrupts their daily life, nymphomaniacs and porn addicts, maybe those who don't really see a purpose in sex or revolted at the idea of it? What if someone had to free a family member from bondage, or even look to donate themselves to better the lives of others?

What about those grays, the ones we don't see or find hard to reason with ourselves in seeing?

The arena, however, had very little light for as many lights and flashy props lined the ceiling and walls. There was a dark underworld with very few controlling the attention and fates of many. For all I know, that spectacle could be a distraction while some guy blows his load over a dude's face. Ponies are dying while some of the most obscure pieces of legislation are drafted right in that room.

That is the foreign land, filled with many dangers seen and unseen, packed to the brim with access routes that I have no knowledge of, rife with guerrilla tactics and sabotage, monsters prowling the woven red grass, the neon jungle whose concrete trees blot out the sun, that is my new deployment whether I like it or not.

But it wouldn't be tonight.

When we arrived back in the alley where tonight's venture started for the two of us, I had already started looking around for any onlookers who might spy on us. Celestia brought up the rear, but she didn't say a word to me until I was sitting in the corner. "Are you okay?"

"No. But I'm better." I said before I looked to her. She kept the pendant on her chest, looking back to see if there were any followers.

Her eyes narrowed while she stood at attention. "You go first. You should hurry, there might be followers closing in."

I wasted no time in following her orders, using my magic to transform myself back into what I normally was. After that, I popped open a barrel to reveal my clothes and weapons. As I started to dress myself, I heard the princess' hooves shift to a widened stance. "Halt! Who goes there!?"

While I started to put on my pants, I felt unrelenting resistance before I could completely cover myself. I looked down to see an aquamarine glow freezing my pants in place. I turned my head around to see an apparition fade into a silhouette of a unicorn mare. The voice giggled at me, cooing all the while. "Well well, is that an undressed human I spy with my little eye?"

"State your name!" Celestia called out.

The mare emerged from the shadows, her face was revealed in the dim alleyway lighting. It was Blue Royal who teased at the disguised princess. "Aww, and you're with another mare, I see. That's unfortunate. I honestly think you could do better."

"Excuse you?" The disguised princess barked back.

And just like your common pair of stray cats fighting in the street, tails puffed, slow movements, venomous hisses, and claws at the ready, they stared each other down. "Well I mean you don't look that bad for a wash-out. But that blue streak, what even is that? I guess you could get the attention of some random homeless guy but you're passable for a hussy."

That moment was like watching your dumb friend strike a match and throw it next to an open gas can. "...What?" Every consonant of that word appeared to be dripping with molten lead.

Blue stepped forward, not minding any confrontation with the mare before her. "Yeah, prostitution in Canterlot is illegal outside of it's designated jurisdictions, i.e. go cross the street and make your money there."

The princess quickly clarified her reason for being here. "Oh that's funny, cause my escort job is actually a whole different affair. See honey, I kill ponies, and I was asked to show him the ropes of the underground. So maybe it would be better to back off before you become an example of my newest masterpiece."

The mare took another step, leaving only a few inches between them. "Gotta admit, you have some serious magic affinity to be able to see through my cloaking spell. But I don't go easy on street-dwellers."

Celestia leaned in, leaving less than an inch between them. "Well I'm not easy... Bitch."

Yeah, time to intervene.

"Ladies! Ladies..." I said, jumping between them, trying to pry them away from one another while taking the moment to put back on my pants. "Okay, I see there's a lot of... debate. How about this, Blue and I will talk for a little while and then I'll─"

A gust of wind was the only thing that seemed to have made me jump violently. Looking over, I saw that the disguised princess was gone, I looked up to see her hovering above the alley. "Whatever! I'm done here, I did what I came here to do, I got paid, and now. I. Am. Out."

While the yellow pegasus flew off, Blue called up to her as she departed. "Don't forget to write, preferably after you bathe."

I quickly pointed my finger at the blue unicorn. "Lady, what the hell was that all about?"

The blue unicorn sighed while giving me an apologetic look. "I know it was a bit toxic, but I had some information I wanted to tell you, and boy is it confidential. I was gonna try and get you tomorrow, but seeing that you took a visit to our humble little mess heap, I guess it's fair to present that information today."

Well that's convenient, perhaps a bit too convenient that she'd pop up from nowhere. "Question, how did you even guess that I was here?"

The mare leaned against the wall, shrugging. "I dunno, maybe the sound of your voice?"

I stared at her dumbfounded, half-and-half between impressed and jarred. "Uh─"

"To clarify, we the members of Hooves For Humans have made it a study to identify your voice. Strange, yes. Stalker-ish, a tiiiiiiny bit. Useful, definitely. Even if you've managed to kill countless beasts and changelings, you still have a habit of getting hurt. So we try to keep an eye out for you in the city while making sure that you don't sound too distressed."

Well that's nice... in a stalker yandere kind of way.

I looked around, thinking of the possibility that there might be any other onlookers. "So... my voice grabbed your attention? How?"

She walked up to me and placed a hoof on my abdomen. "Well to be fair, it's awfully hard not to hear a pony having a complete nervous breakdown in the hallway not too far from the VIP room. Granted, those happen every other day, but when I heard your voice and saw the mare who was comforting you, I just had to find out if my intuition was spot on. And yes, it was on the money."

I looked away, embarrassed for her seeing that side of me. "Sorry you had to see that."

She quickly hugged me the best way she could. "We've all had our bad some days, and many of us had them because of the monster formerly known as my father. But if we work together, we can change it all for the better. Even my being violated by my father wasn't nearly as bad as the trauma he forced you to endure."

"I guess between us two, we have a lot of baggage." I muttered before kneeling down to hug her back.

"Yeah, it's pretty bad. But I think we can make it work." She said before changing her tune. "The senator we're trying to get more info on was at the arena."

"I know, I saw him walk in." I replied.

She gave me a smirk and a wink. "And there you go finding yourself in the right place at the right time. You must be pretty lucky."

"I'll say blessed, I haven't died yet despite how many times I could've." I answered to her, but also telling that to myself. "So... what do you have for me?"

"Whispers of a conglomerate in the senate. A network of legislators who pretty much help keep the place running. It appears that my father was a voice in that circle." The mare explained.

"And no way you can get in?" I questioned.

"Not even if I tried. They know what my father did to me, they're suspicious of my motives, so they'll keep me as a paying member of the VIP but nothing more than that. To even get on the board, you have to play dirty just like them."

"And I take it that they don't like his son, either?" I asked.

She looked away, appearing disheartened with her answer. "...They do, but..."

"They don't treat him right?" I concluded.

"It's not so much of how they treat him, but it's how he treats himself." The mare clarified.

For a brief moment I felt hesitant to speak on her family, but I also informed myself that any information on the final account holder would be beneficial. "I don't mean to be an asshole, but I heard a few swirling rumors of your brother's sexuality."

The mare rolled her eyes and scoffed angrily. "And that's what they like about him. He's the friendliest to them, doting on them, playing whatever role they want him to, it doesn't matter how disgusting it is. They tell him to bark, he'll whimper and yelp the whole night away. They say the word 'open', he gets this lost look in his eyes while his tongue is covered in drool, he just sits there, waiting for whatever they give him. He says it's for a good cause, but as far as I'm concerned it's only for himself. He loves the attention, he loves to be humiliated even more." Blue shuddered at the thought of her brother being the topic of interest. "Sorry, it's just not that great talking about my brother being bent over the table for a bunch of old perverted politicians."

At least that definitely confirms what the others have said, even from a family point of view. "I'm sorry to delve on it for so long, but I kinda need to probe, if that's okay with─"

"Ask away, I'm not here to judge you for wanting to know my brother's interests." She replied, apparently frustrated but accepting the circumstances.

"Was your brother in a wall at some point tonight?" I inquired, thinking about the stallion who eyeballed me in the hallway.

"No. He didn't show." She answered with a disgusted look, apparently aware of who I was talking about.

"So there's no way he can get in that circle either?"

"Oh no, he's in it. But only as a toy." Blue briefly explained.

"When did he get in?"

She went on to explain things further. "A week after my father did what he did to me. He did it as a sign of protest because he knew our father had treated him better, by a slim margin of course. The only reason why he had preference to him was because he could continue the family line. But my brother went against that idea by making himself a mare to all the other members. The others were so impressed by his spite that they let him on in, all for a price of satisfying their every perverted need in front of our father. And he showed that he was good for anything, worst off was the fact that he was skilled at it. My father despised that, hated him because of that, because he knew that his line would stop at the one whom all his socialite friends would call their own little cum dumpster. My brother made our father suffer quietly with that shame, and his never finding the opportunity to see me again pissed him off even more."

That just confirmed some information I got from Single File. "He wanted to see you again?"

"I knew what he wanted, so I hid off to a place he wouldn't expect. And I promptly sold the house off for a listing price of one thousand bits to my best friend." She quickly perked up and pointed at me while adding in an additional fact.- "Listing price was eight million, by the way."

I felt myself hawk back at the thought of blowing eight million on a house, but more on the idea that she sold it for not even a fraction of the listing price. If I had known anything about it, anyone really, someone would be in an eight-million bit estate on the back end of the mountain, living rent free in the neighborhood association's minds. "Isn't there laws against that?"

"Laws protecting the realtor, not the neighborhood watch. But since I own the company that holds the realty rights to the estate, I can put it on market for whoever's interested at the price that I set it at."

It must be hella incredible to have your cake and eat it too. "And you made sure your best friend was the first to know."

"Of course they knew, they were in the office while I signed the deed over."

"And your brother had no objections?" I asked.

"Not a one."

I wouldn't be surprised if he even thought of the idea. Just the concept of leaving the rapist politician homeless and socially embarrassed among his peers was probably sweet justice. Her brother may be an interesting find, I wonder if I got a chance to talk to him directly, would I find myself with a foot in the door to this inner-circle. And if I could, what exactly would I find there. As far as I can say, she's the only link between me and that inner circle. In other words, she may know something that I'm interested in. "So, this insider group, what exactly do they do that's keeping Processu Approbatio in place?"

"The law as it is defined to the public is a penal law for being involved with the princesses. It is also a way for the senators to gain power through the means of quietly phasing out the royal family. In short, it turns the rulers who do many things to protect their citizens to mere figureheads. Slowly, they add addendum after addendum to the law to strip individual freedoms away from the royals. And when they finish, the title would only be a ceremonial remnant while the parliament runs the country."

Hence the new bill they added to the national expenditure. At least that is starting to make more sense to me in an underhanded and cruel way. "So it's a quiet revolution, a power creep. I guess that mile they took a thousand years back started to turn into an empire."

"And while some are generations into it, others are indoctrinated into the idea of creating their own power because of what was created way back when. That arena is a shining example of how far their influence has come to affect the minds of the citizens. You can tell them anything as long as you have power to your name. And you can imagine how easy it is for the not-so-fortunate dregs of Canterlot to find a justification to upend the old ways of the country, or rather to displace the ones they feel do not represent their issues as easily."

I walked my mind back to something Celestia said about the temple. The primary complaint was that the floor was said to be too unstable to build on top of. That had to have gone to the parliament as a vote, and obviously struck down. But what if there was someone who brought about a secret ballot to re-purpose the property into something different, say an arena, while blaming the royals for the degradation of properties around the place due to a lack of action? It would be easy to manipulate the voters when one party is said to not get things done while the other marathon these developments with their names on the bill. It makes them look good and the opposition look bad. "I see, they're sabotaging the votes, in tandem with the favoritism towards the parliament members."

"You got it. So instead of being a chapel to bring salvation to the downtrodden and celebrate the installation of new rulers, it's a monument to the purpose of a new order. They give the citizens what they want to see, what they didn't know they wanted to see, feeding them things like drugs, sex, money, and the simulation of power by giving them the ability to decide another's fate."

It's almost like watching what a Roman emperor does to gain favor with the people, more bread and gladiatorial games. "In short, it's their no-royals-allowed secret club."

The mare gave me a glance before looking down the alley. "What are you doing this Friday night?"

"Recovering from a hangover, maybe." I said, scratching the back of my head.

She turned back to me, walking towards me with a smirk. "Well I'll need you to sober up and head by the bank. Make a withdrawal first, then come by later in the evening at around ten. You're getting into that VIP lounge."

"How?" I asked, throwing my arms out in front of me completely dumbfounded. "And how much is it even to get in, a thousand per month, two, three thousand?"

"Five hundred thousand a year." She said, almost as if that amount had very little consequence to her.

For me on the other hand... "What!? Lady, I don't even have that kind of funds!" I don't even see a hundred thousand with the way my pay goes out. I'm barely scraping at forty thousand right now.

"You do." She said with a wink. "Plus plenty of playground funds to mess around with."

I swear if I look at my bank account tomorrow and see that I had an overnight installation of that much money, I'm going to lose my shit. "What's these 'playground funds' for?"

"Cutting deals. Now from there, you should be able to hire a merc to serve as your champion, possibly one of the ones that I've informally introduced you to. If you want to hire a merc, head to Blacklight Hall. From there, you hire the guys who'll do your dirty work without getting yourself killed. And remember to always hire a merc when you drop by, the other members like to wager on blood and the mercs will openly oblige for a good amount of money. Some of them will even see the arena, hence the term 'playground funds' come to mind."

Translation: I'm betting someone's life while I'm in the boys' club. That's more than a world to take in. "I'm in it pretty deep, aren't I?"

The mare shrugged. "Just finding your way into Canterrot is crossing the line. There is no going back now."

Sometime Later...

When we finished, she put back on her concealment cloak and disappeared into the shadows as if I had never seen her. I then gathered my bearings and headed back westward towards the castle. And of course, the checkpoints are awfully strict at night unless you have some authorization, which funnily some politicians don't have a late-night pass through here. And with all honesty, even with my being captain of the guard, my access was limited since a changeling took my form and started dishing out orders. It's a good precaution but it still annoyed me a bit.

To my fortune, they had gotten word from above the rank and file that I was to be allowed in without a check. I just simply waltzed through the front door and looked up at the castle towers, thinking to myself how a parliament filled with old, wrinkly buzzards would even come close to the majesty of some eternally-young-looking faces of the royals who had infinitely MORE years of experience than any of them in ruling the land. Other than Shining and Twilight, I couldn't see how they'd supersede the others so easily.

The halls had a much different look at night. Instead of the hustling and bustling of guards, maids, aides, and politicians, it was a quiet and dark place filled with dimly-lit passages per request of the residential workers. The halls containing the princesses' residential chambers were on total lockdown, no one could leave or come in except the ones who lived there. And the other halls where the maids and workers would rest had very few rumblings at this time. All guards who were stationed but off shift were under lights-out protocol at the barracks. And the guest residence hall, where I stayed, was nothing short of a shadow demon's paradise.

There wasn't anything there, but the darkness beyond a certain point had sent a shiver down the back of my head throughout my spine. This sense of uneasiness made me instinctively walk a little faster towards my room. When I finally got to the door, I had unusual thoughts of seeing that last guy in the arena calling out to me. I could see him reaching his hoof out from those shadows, but joined with the others from missions and failures past, the wagon... Faces of the deceased looking over my shoulder wondering what I would do next. My head quickly shifted to the end of the hall where I could see a familiar nightmare walking closer to me.

I dropped my keys, fumbling with them trying to frantically find the one I was looking for. I cursed at myself, urging my hands to tighten up before the demon got closer. I could see the upside down smile staring at me on it's inverted head through the darkness, it's mouth coated with pitch black blood. The faint roar of an Arimaspi came from down the hall. The feeling of a changeling holding me down as they whispered into my ear. Looking above me, I could already see the corpse of Twilight hanging over me, the words 'NEVER TARDY' inscribed into her empty eye sockets.

Finally finding the key I looked for, I started chanting to myself. "None of it's real. It's just your imagination. Open the door."

But it wasn't that easy. My mind raced with the thoughts of my going through the door, finding another alternate timeline filled with whatever horrors sat in place. I can imagine it all, the various ends, the multiple tragedies taking place, the creatures that would hunt me down.

OPEN THE DOOR!!!

My mind screamed to me, pushing me to move forward. I leaned against my door, letting the momentum of the door swinging open circulate into my slamming the closed upon my entry into an even darker room. The only thing I saw was the one lamp on, sitting next to my bed. But an unexpected face sat on the edge of the bed, looking at me quietly with a concerned look. "Princess?"

Celestia, in her original form, stood from her bed and walked up to me. "I heard that you recently reported in."

A rush of relief came over my body, the goosebumps that once plagued my skin had subsided. My legs finally gave way to let me rest. On my knees, I felt more secure than I ever have tonight. The princess hugged me, quietly rubbing her cheek against mine. "Have you been up this entire time? What about the sun?"

"Honestly, I've been anxious since I left, been thinking about what would happen since I had left you alone there." She answered.

I tried to lighten the mood for myself, offering a sarcastic retort. "You show a lot of concern for someone who 'wouldn't be hurting that much if I died.' Kinda contradictory."

She broke away from our embrace and found her comfort to be satisfactory enough to give me a level-headed response. "You're my captain of the guard, my chosen champion, and why should I not have concern?"

"Fair enough."

The mare didn't smile, but she exhibited joy in speaking with me. However, that joy came with a side dose of reality as she observed my current mental state. "I talked with Luna for a dream scrub, she's agreed to oblige if you would take the time to thank her personally in the morning. I'm sure she has much more to say after."

"One can bet." I replied quietly.

"Are you okay?" She questioned with a sweet motherly timbre.

I closed my eyes and saw her afterimage, focusing on that made me feel a lot more secure. It was a wonderfully warm feeling, like the moment of us sitting in front of the fireplace. "I'm better. Thanks for asking."

She seemed to have drawn from that moment as well, reciprocating the same warmth that I embraced. "You know, I can't stop thinking about Thursday... well, tomorrow officially since it's past two in the morning."

"Yup, late nights, early mornings." I said, opening my eyes to look at the time on my phone, reading out 2:44 in the morning.

The princess walked past me, taking her leave. "Try to sleep in a little, tomorrow's a busy day."

Before she could leave, I called out to her. "Tia."

The princess froze, glancing at me with shimmering lavender eyes. "Yes?"

I looked away for a moment, trying to recount what I had done earlier tonight, the embarrassing display I had given her and how I snapped at her. "About earlier, I kinda yelled at you and─"

"Make it up to me later." She whispered with a gentle smile. "I might not have had fun roaming around that particular district, but I did like a few things... like how I got to hold on to you when you were hurting. Not that I take any pleasure from your being in pain, I just appreciate the vulnerability. You really do have some trust in me."

At that moment, I felt like she had done her best to return the favor for what I did when we were in her room a few days ago. It was strange, but it was also nice to know that she was the one there to give me some encouragement. Honestly, she might have gotten significant points with me on that. "Thank you... for being there."

The princess glanced at me, stopping herself from moving towards me again. Instead, she turned around and waved at me before opening the door. "Well, I have an early early morning. I'd best be off."

...I really don't wanna say it, it's too soon and I don't even know if it's real. But I suppose if I get a chance to see her again, then suffering through the nightmares might be worth it. I have to take my time though. "Goodnight, princess."

No doubt, she's trying to pace herself as well. "Goodnight, captain."

The door clicked closed after she softly closed it upon her leave. I was left in a dark room, only illuminated by one softly glowing lamp. Thoughts of her had initially dominated my mind, but other things had started to creep their way in. For starters, I could never look at the parliament or the ponies in this castle the same way.

They say if you give greed an inch, it'll take a mile. Well they started off with the mile, and the entire country is what they'll take next. It wasn't just a marriage law I was fighting, it was an ever-expanding loophole with black-hole like properties. It was the wrath of a thousand nobles and aristocrats, the manifestation of the greed born from a plethora of senators and representatives. It is in essence the attempted abolishment of a long-standing structure proven to be stable for a chance to create something new. It is a division that could ultimately thrust the country into a violent conflict. Another civil war, it wouldn't be unlikely.

The blood of millions over the past millennium, and here is where history may repeat itself. If Celestia was the first to lead what is now in my eyes a rightful crusade against the parliament, then it should go without saying that they would be the ones to finish it using Shining and Cadance's offspring as a compass. It's as they say, it's the birth of a one true Equestrian heir. If power is shifted to them at an impressionable age, then they would be used as a tool to reformat the system to their desire. They'd lose all their inherited power by the age of twenty, being nothing more than a pony cosplaying as royalty.

An interpolitical struggle with Princess Cadance possibly giving birth to the end of the stability of this entire nation's future.

And I might have just thrown my hat into the arena. "It's getting real now."

Author's Note

So who's not six-feet under, sound off? I'm glad to be strolling around in this plagued world without having experienced it (yet). And I do sincerely hope that many of you are in the same camp as I am. I had a few associates and friends who managed to battle the dread and came out a bit different, albeit a little changed here or there. Wish gigs were still a thing, definitely need the money.

Meantime, I've finished the next chapter. Will be going through that one a little more before dropping it. But let's talk about the present. Yeah, it finally happened. He may feel like he might have made a mistake or several, but that personal issue didn't seem to nearly amount to the juggernaut that was his mental stability. I tried to allude throughout the story that he may have built up some issues, between fighting with himself, dealing with some unsettling nightmares, the experiences that left lasting impressions on him, et cetera. It just took one specific trigger to finally snap him over the rail. It happened already once before, but now it's a little more hard stuck.

As you can tell, I might have had a little too much fun writing this underworld of Canterlot. To be honest, I was always intrigued by the one location in the MLP movie, Klugetown.

Just the thought of being in a place like that and seeing the girls interact with that kind of atmosphere, where their own body parts could be appraised for monetary gain, that kind of place seemed so wild being put in juxtaposition to Canterlot. Even the two locations are built similarly.

And then I thought about the idea where there could be something akin to that kind of gritty, unpolished, atmosphere being hidden under a kind of blanket, out of the world's view. It reminded me of something, a game I played when I was twelve and also managed to see revamped as of recent.

Without even realizing it, this world started to come to my mind OFTEN, many wild ideas running to the front of the line as I had this place drafted so long ago, about seven months before I went back in and took some inspiration from FF7's infamous Wall Market. Add a little bit of dirt, some unsavory elements, politicians looking to hide their vices, a few bouts of political red tape, and of course I got this miniature Klugetown sitting like a genital wart on the body of Canterlot itself. And unlike most of the city, it would be the one section that still had lights burning past 1 in the morning.

No doubt they know of the place, but it's so often seen as taboo to the waking society. And in typical fashion, you'd get a lot of what you don't see in the day trade. You have this tiny little sector that accommodates to the morbidly curious, those sadistic tendencies, the unmentioned elements of society that many would rather keep silent about. And in terms of why it hasn't been shut down as quickly could only be contributed to the one reason why it would even exist: A rich guy and a politician looking to scratch that itch in a place where the sun doesn't shine. And with the market being there, you will have customers who will try to fuel it with their patronage.

As far as the interactions between Nondis and Celestia, it may seem a bit out of character for Celestia to speak so vulgarly. But in this chaotic environment, she's well-practiced in the art of blending right in with the regulars. I didn't want her to feel like she had to try hard to blend in, even when not wanting to, but rather that she's even used to doing it with the exception of a few red lines she set aside for herself. And as someone who's used to going undercover in many instances of travel (MLP Comic 65), she guides the newcomer on how to not get himself killed. And as a previous chapter already showed, Nondis is very aware of the consequences should he fail to do so.

Now on to the controversy that is the breakup. I know that there have been many calls to reunite the two in the future, but after doing some thinking, it would've not been as ideal, not without starting over first. But usually starting over is a way of drifting apart because of how close or how much you know of each other in spite of hitting that reset button. In terms of what the future may hold in store for the both of them, only time would tell if they would ever find some way to talk this through or if it is truly a mutual severance. In far too many cases, it would be a severance and sometimes quite bitter.

The cold reality is this: She dumped him in a hospital bed while he couldn't even move much of his body, let alone walk. Much of her intention has gone unexplained to him up to the moment he decides to revise his status with her. And in turn, he realizes that something like this may happen again. Compare that to someone who just outright tells you what the deal is instead of hiding those details.

Ask yourself: I had at least a month (or however long) off from someone and another person tells me what we're doing from the start. They seem to have a lot of their stuff together aside from some trauma they want to actively work through. Do I move on to that or do I work on the fifty percent chance that what I dedicate towards is all for naught?

Again, if you feel like this is the end for you, I do appreciate you coming this far. You didn't have to, but you have my heart and gratitude in doing so. If you're sticking around to see how this ends, I promise that I will attempt to do my best to reward you. Having that said, I will be hiding in a bunker for the next week. I pray I can make the payoff worth the risk.

Chapter XCII

There hasn't been much for me to say other than the fact that my dream was a lot more pleasant than usual. Of course, sunsets, the princess being involved, and us holding together. But there was something different about this dream. Celestia seemed to be a lot more embracing of me. It felt like I was being loved on way harder than I would've anticipated. It felt like I was just on the receiving end of a thousand years of her not having this moment for herself. Not that I was complaining, she was a very welcome sight in contrast to the many things that plagued my mind on the way to my room. This was much better than what I would've had if I had did something like going back to my world and trying to suppress those memories for the sake of trying to be a normal human.

Dawn came and with it, my dream ended seemingly with an unusual decay. The world around me began to shift and not for the better. It was quickly running into nightmare territory and there were very little in the way of brakes to stop it. The only saving grace was the fact that I heard my phone alarm ease me out of my slumber. I looked at the time and saw that it was well past the usual hour for my morning run. In fact, it was well past the hour of my morning run... four hours even.

That alarm was supposed to let me know when I was supposed to reposition in my first shift.

I jumped out of bed, cursing myself out as I frantically threw on some clothes and quick-cleaned myself before heading out into the halls. When I walked out of the room, I could see Luna standing right by the door. "Good morning, princess."

Before I could take off, I felt my feet being glued to the floor while the princess stepped in front of me to give me a good look of her face. "Morning."

She didn't quite look up to her usual splendor. Instead, there were bags under her eyes and she had what seemed to be the most foul scowl on her face. She was not happy to see me, that I could tell. "Yikes, you look like you had a rough night."

She opened the door and invited me back into the room. "There's cleaning up after you, and then there's cleaning up after every other first-time visitor to that Faust-forsaken Canterrot, and then there's the little fillies and foals who have their usual anxiety overloads."

"Sounds like a lot of work." I mumbled.

The princess sarcastically chuckled. "Oh no, all the other stuff I can deal with just fine. You... you are beyond saving. You may have noticed that I had to put an extra dose of my sister in your dreams to make you feel a little better."

"I know that shouldn't take too much." I joked, trying to at least put the princess in a better mood. But that only seemed to worsen her disposition. I quickly smacked myself upside the head and bowed in apology. "That was probably stupid and ignorant. I'm sorry."

"Come." She said, walking into the room and dragging me along for the ride. As soon as I was inside, she closed the doors and shuttered all the windows to allow as little light into the room. When she finished with those preparations, her horn started to glow. There was a tiny glowing star sat in the middle of the room, just a white dwarf floating quietly before the both of us. The princess pointed to the orb and started to explain what I was supposed to be looking at. "You see this tiny white orb, that's the light that gives you the dreams you have. It's strong, defiant, and it is very powerful. But as all things against the race of time, these things will diminish when strained for too long. Now let's throw in a few of your concerns..."

Almost instantly, the feel of the room began to change. The darkness around us started to produce small little shadow-like creatures. The shadows looked towards the glow and hissed while they leapt for it. The glowing white orb then expelled a small barrier to protect itself. With hardly any problems, the creatures were repelled entirely like they were running into a wall. "Well, that's not so bad." I muttered.

The princess quirked a brow as she looked at me, and then pointed towards the orb. "Now a few of your anxieties..." More smaller shadows started leaping after the orb, trying to rush the glowing star. There was a noticeable delay between the creatures attacking the orb and it's defenses becoming strong enough to defy their advance. "The troubles of your heart..." Some larger creatures started to gather and appear as apparitions with long blades as arms. They were a lot more in body and they definitely looked formidable. They along with the tiny little shadows swarmed the star. The star continued to hold against the attack, but it was straining to hold the shield while trying to send forth a counterblast to defend itself. Luna stared at me, whispering with an ice-cold tone. "And finally, your trauma."

The blast from the star came eventually, but seemingly left the shield significantly weaker. But what came in place along with the group of shadows were full-fledged demon-like creatures flying around with cruel bloodied grins on their faces, swiping at the shield and dragging bits and pieces of it's light away from it. It was like watching someone take a hammer and use it against shatter-resistant glass. And as one can predict, the multitude of demons that gathered around quickly started tearing the light away from the poor star. And with more light the star lost, the smaller the shield became until it was nothing between the shadows and demons except thin air. The creatures, covered in blood, started to shift their faces to the ones I saw die. One even saw us standing in the corner and flew for me. When I started to shield my eyes, there was a familiar voice whispering over my shoulder. I looked over to see a face I haven't seen in a while, the face of a hotel attendant who's body was laid before me as I was paralyzed in a wagon. His voice came through, as clear as day.

"Why couldn't you save me?"

The shadow flew off, joining the others as they seemed to throw a victory parade in the room, showing off the blackened star as a sign of their conquest. The shadows and demons cheered as the tiny star quickly transformed into my face, my eyes completely wiped of all life and light, consumed by only the desire to see it all end as quickly as it began. The congregation of shadows continued their parade, with my head being toted along like a losing king in some ancient conflict. They and the demons started to quickly dissipate into nothing shortly after their victory march. Only the dim light of the princess' horn remained.

"Hooooleeey fuuuuck." The only two words I could speak for the time being after that display.

"I had to wade my way through all of that and find you. Once I did, I took form of my sister and stayed looking after you while fighting off the darkness around you. Doing all of that for one person in particular is not easy when you have the weight of an entire country's psyche on your shoulders. Now couple that with lowering the moon and you have the double-overtime shift that I've put in. Now I have to pull several overtimes worth of dream jumping to make up for taking care of you."

That moment, it was like the tiny little joke I made earlier had come to haunt me in the worst way. It made me feel even more like shit. "I'm so sorry to put you through this."

The princess sighed as she reintroduced the sunlight to my room. "No. My sister is the one that should be apologizing. She doesn't know how hard my job is already. I sometimes mess with you to either give me a reprieve or to simply have fun. You've went and turned fun into a whole lot of work for the past few nights. And I'm afraid that this next week or two you'll have to do without me."

It was as if the display had repeated over and over in my head, it was obvious that I was predestined to suffer some rough nights if she were to leave me to deal with these issues on my own. "I'm gonna have a lot of nightmares, aren't I?"

"As long as you talk about it to someone instead of repressing them like you'd usually would, it's doable." The princess warned.

"I guess I'm gonna have to talk with my parents a little more then." I mumbled, mainly to myself as I started to weigh the weeks ahead without Luna's dream intervention.

The princess stepped in front of the door. "That helps to a degree, but you need another kind of support, professional support."

Anyone with a brain could conclude that she meant for me to start receiving therapy. And honestly, I've never really been to a therapist before. So a lot was already swimming through my mind. I can only imagine having to juggle work, home, home back home, friends, family, relationships, and the ever-increasing dangers of my secret assignment. Adding therapy to the mix already told me that my plate was spilling over. "...Oh boy."

"I know your schedule is a bit wonky during the day, but every guard who has went through a high-risk deployment gets a three months free of mandatory counseling, just enough to decide if in the future you'd like to pursue a healthier mind instead of making a hasty decision that would often be irreversible." Luna informed.

"When was that implemented?" I asked.

"A while back, but it was only a month because of the senators not wanting to invest in the health of our guards. Shining just sent in the final draft of the revised bill and a surprising majority voted in favor of it. It's been a law for three days now."

A possible side effect to him being in charge when Celestia caught the bug. If anything, he works fast to implement change for the guard. Wonder why he hasn't done this for the marriage law. "For a guy married into power, he sure does use it well."

"I think he saw what happened to him and the others he served with and felt it would benefit you and the others."

No doubt, it takes a survivor to speak out against the bullshit system they're given. And sometimes it takes just a little negotiation to get the parliament to understand that their response to the matter would have long-standing consequences with their voters. Better to swallow that bitter pill and keep your seat. "Well tell him I said good looking out."

Luna summoned a card clipped to a folded pamphlet. I took a quick glance at the pamphlet to see the face of the doctor that would be giving me my advice. Typical appearance of glasses, a million dollar smile, and a green check mark next to the box with the word 'In.' The promo was as cheesy as a simple statement. 'Come on by, the doctor is in.' There was an 'out' box but that's gone untouched for promo reasons. "They're in office 336. Two floors below the parliament's office wing. I'd take a lunch break over there instead of roaming about the city. Fair?"

If anything, this entire thing felt a little overwhelming to me. "How do I know if I can trust them?"

Luna closed her eyes as she answered my question. "They submit their reports to me and my sister. We usually keep tabs on which guards have already left a tumultuous deployment and which can be sent to a new one or who would stay home. Of course our department heads have a more in-depth look at that in terms of the others, but you are a matter most personal to us because of your unique status. We can't allow for our only residential human to lose himself in our care."

Honestly, it was hard to gauge her with her closing her eyes off to me. But in terms of mental health, this is a step forward. I can't just dodge the issue. "...Right."

Luna peeked through one eye, glancing at me. "Especially if he has my sister's attention."

In some way, I grew defensive against the lunar princess' accusation. Probably an internalized self-defense mechanism. "I don't have her attent─"

"You've had it for a month and some time now. You just never knew it." Luna quickly clarified, finally exposing some truth about her sister. "Just try not to do anything stupid, like hurting her in some way." She said dismissively, albeit a firm warning.

"Fair enough, I'd hate to see what a week's worth of nightmares would look like if you were the one calling the shots." I muttered.

"I do appreciate you for understanding that Tia is very delicate on matters of the heart. She's not easy to open, so you have a rare opportunity of making her truly want happiness for herself instead of being complacent in seeing others happy." Luna added, turning around to face the door.

"Again, thanks for all your hard work."

The younger high royal smiled. "Now go, I have an all-day nap to enjoy before I energize myself."

"Are you seriously sleeping all day?" I questioned almost finding humor in the thought.

"Well not without a bit of stimulus." She said, poking a wing out to my chest and dragging her primaries down my abdomen and stopping right at the bottom of my belt. "Care to join me?"

I quickly rushed past her and out the door, avoiding anything that might get me killed. "I'm gonna go."

Breakfast wasn't really an option with how late I overslept. Instead, I had to settle for a banana and keep things moving for the first part of the day. And being that my shift started later than usual, it meant that I had to move my clock-out time to an hour later than my usual 4 p.m. release. I would also have to clock in some evening hours on Saturday to get things straightened out. But for the time being, I was placed under a mandatory counseling block for mental health.

When I arrived at the office, I saw a series of posters on the wall, the first few being rather light, easily seen to be a cheap message that you'd occasionally see in every other office. Each of the posters had an image with some words on them, some in orange, others in green. 'A bad day doesn't stop you from achieving, it stops you from failing. Get up, soldier.' 'Guards don't quit, neither does love. Let's march together.' 'You don't have to put up with misconduct, but you can put an end to it. March as one.' 'It feels good to say you can do it later, but never when it's too late. Forward march.' 'Life has many directions, staying put isn't one of them. Keep moving forward.'

And in almost an instant, one poster had quickly grabbed my attention. 'Home is a place of rest, not your next battlefront. Let's care together.'

Others were just as gripping, some with some pretty realistic messages. 'Losing a friend or loved one isn't easy. Talking about it isn't easy either. I've got your six."

Drugs... 'Twelve steps isn't the first move you make, it's the turning away. About face.'

Anger... 'You want to hunt them down, but the better choice is to follow your own path. Revenge isn't the way.' 'Life isn't like the promos that got you here, but you don't have to settle. Create your own story.' 'It may seem unreasonable, but you don't have to have a reason to put up with it. Let's talk.'

And then there's one pretty grim message on a poster with a pony sitting at a table with a glass filled with alcohol, in the background was a noose hanging in the shadows. 'This isn't the way it has to be, your peace isn't through the knot. It's never too late to talk to someone.'

Of course, most of these seemed themed around the guard and the various things we encounter on the daily. But one poster in general really seemed to reach at me a little too well.

'For many it's just a dark hallway, for you it's your past trying to confront you. But we can face that darkness together.'

The only thing that seemed to be missing is a hashtag, something like #StrengthInNumbers. Shame they don't have internet here, that would've been a really great promo.

As time progressed, the doctor finally walked out of his office to check the lobby to see that I was the only one sitting in a chair. He seemed genuinely surprised that I'd even have the time of day, but he was very professional in guiding me to his office. There wasn't any fanatic behavior, no pomp and circumstance, no parades of any sort, just a quiet walk down the hall into his room, a pen pointed at the couch across a rather comfortable-looking chair. And as soon as I sat down, he asked me about how I've managed to get to this point.

I started telling my story from the beginning, from the beginnings of my being locked to a world I didn't even know was real, to a princess I never knew I could love, to a rivalry I never imagined having or winning, to even the struggles and hardships I never thought would effect me to this point. I was made to generalize everything, he didn't want me breaking things down just yet. He wanted to know what and who he was dealing with. But as soon as I finished, we had a good place to start.

"And that's pretty much how I've gotten here."

The psychologist, Doctor Schoen (shāin), had a pin tapping along to the smooth jazz he had running on the record player, the wax disc continued to play mellow tones of upright bass with the slight tone of tenor sax and piano. The stallion nodded. "So you say that the assignment to the mountains in the south has disturbed you, alongside your ongoing conflict with the changelings?"

"Yup." I answered, looking to the white tile ceiling.

He started scribbling down his notes and asked me a follow up question simultaneously. "And, if I'm not mistaken, something about several alternate worlds that showed you the falls of various versions of Equestria?"

"I kinda just explained that." I replied, somewhat annoyed that he had to go into that mess again.

"But what are you doing right now to ease yourself on all of these matters?" He asked, trying to pick at my brain again. Even though it was secretly annoying, I also realized that it was his job.

"Can't really say I'm doing that. I'm just doing whatever my superiors tell me."

The doctor hummed, scribbling down some more notes before picking at me again. "And doing what your superiors tell you, it has lead you to a bit of mental distress?"

"I mean it's not them personally, just the job." I answered straightly.

The doctor pointed his pen at me. "You know, there isn't a lot of guards who are willing to come to me and talk about their job. So what is it exactly that made you come here today?"

"A royal recommendation. They said I get three months free." I replied with a shrug.

Doctor Schoen closed his folder and clicked his pen, clipping it against the folder as he spoke. "But it doesn't just take three months to reach a breakthrough in one's mental health. You are aware that some traumatic things have years of recovery, if not months."

"From personal experience, doc, I know it takes a lifetime if it's rough enough."

The doctor, looking at the clock, quirked his eyebrows and pulled back out his pen, he then proceeded to open the folder and go back to jotting things down. It took him a second before speaking. "Personal experience?"

"My grandfather was a soldier in a war way back when. He never mentally recovered from it. Turns out he just tried his best to hide his problems until they started manifesting in his sleep."

I could hear the scribbling noise over the phonograph clearly, it was almost deafening. "Do you find your problems manifesting in the same manner?"

My mind wandered back to the nightmare I had shortly after that day of hell I went through experiencing the various iterations of Equestria. "I do, sometimes."

"But not like your grandfather's?"

"No."

The doctor jotted down a few more notes. "Do you feel like if you had a moment to speak with him, what would you say to him?"

"I would ask for his advice. I'd see if he had anything to say that could help me in all of this."

My answer pointed out a lot to Schoen. He proceeded to ask about our current relationship with one another. "And how is the relationship between the two of you?"

"Well, it was great." I answered quietly.

"Was?" The doctor pointed at the word rather acutely.

"He's deceased, has been for what seems to be going on to five or six years." I explained.

The doctor tsk'd at himself. "Ah, tragic loss. Sorry to hear that."

"I'm actually unsure of what I can say to him now. It feels like back then he was trying to warn me against doing something like this, but here I am doing it anyways. I bet he would've had more than a few choice words."

The doctor pulled the pen aside, offering a few words of his own opinion. "We always seem to think of the worst that could be said when it comes to the dearly departed, that what they'll say to us could be a scathing rebuttal or a good scolding. But the truth is that we will never know their response, it is only in the mind where we can contemplate a potential response. So is it really fair to assume what they would say when they are not the ones to say it for themselves?"

I paused for a moment, seeing the world from the new light that he provided. "A lot to think on for that question."

The pen clicked, the folder was put away once more, and the doctor hopped off of his couch. "What I'm trying to say is that it is better to not focus on that. Their words have been spoken and signed, there is no more to add to the book of their life. It is better to continue on your own path and make the decisions that would be healthy for those around you as well as yourself."

"That's okay and all, but what about my assignments? I'm sure they wouldn't care about that." I rebutted.

As I started getting on my own two feet, he propped open the door for me. "Well that's what you can talk to me about if you don't have anyone else to speak with. A healthy outlook in life requires a venting place. I know we went a good ten minutes over time, but we've gotten to a pretty wonderful stopping place. Next week, we'll talk more about your recent assignments. As for now, think more on what I've given you. And if you ever need to push a time, drop a line and we'll go at our earliest convenience."

"Thanks doc."

"Right then. Now if there are any others out there, send them my way if you will."

I left the comfort of the office and found myself in the waiting lobby filled with the numerous posters of encouragement. I looked over to my left to see a singular young stallion tapping his hooves against the chairs on either side of him. He glanced back at me, seeming incredibly surprised. "Captain?"

"Humbreeze?" I said before my face turned to a smile. "Holy shit, I thought you were a goner!"

The stallion looked down at the sizable scar running the length down his neck and torso. He instinctively placed a hoof over the scar and chuckled to himself. "Yeah, a week or two in ICU did me some good. How about you, I heard you had to learn how to walk again after all the damage that happened. There were rumors that it got so bad that you actually had to have some of your spine reattached."

I shook my head at the insane rumor that had gone around. "Nothing that severe, lost a ton of my own blood to transfusions and dialysis, a few feet of intestines, a little bit of my sanity, but I'm good to go."

The young guard sagely nodded. "So what brings you here to this part of the castle?"

I kept mum on my individual struggles for the time being. "I'd rather not say right now. How about you if you don't mind me asking?"

The stallion cheered at himself. "Final day of counseling. I can finally put the saga of avenging my sister to rest. It's finally over, at least I can wear a decent-sized helmet again."

I started chuckling to myself. "I figured as much. When I picked it up, I saw the cutie mark on the inside of the crown and realized what was going on. Just glad you're getting the closure you deserve."

The stallion looked quietly to the side. "Yeah, guess you're beginning your own journey to recovery. I can only wish you the best."

"Thanks." I answered, about to leave the room.

"Hey..." He called out, stopping me for a moment to say something. "Thank you for helping my sister get justice. The last of the coalition that sent my sister to her grave is sitting in his own. A lot of families look up to you for doing what you did. Our company owes you a lot."

Even though it was tremendous praise to be given, I couldn't honestly take full credit for any of it. I still had help from the others. "I just did my job, if it ain't safe for me, then I ain't gonna send a bunch of guys to die in my place."

The young stallion seemed a little enthusiastic for his next proposal. "Well if you ever want some guys to hang around with, the barracks is always looking forward to a guys night with you. Maybe you could hang with us regulars and tell us a few stories some evening. A lot of us are pretty excited to have you by. We all look up to you, you know."

Honestly, I know I'm as introverted as all hell, but I never really shook off the idea of hanging around some pub and knock back a cold one with the guys that just got done serving beside me. I may not have much in stories from what I believe, but to everyone else I seem to have quite the adventure. No doubt that they'd look forward to having me by to share a few stories about my deployments, possibly a few about my time with the princess.

Of course, that part of my life will remain top-secret. "Sure. I'll take you on that offer."

After my shift, I wandered into town and thought I should take the time to take care of the invoice Rarity left me when I last visited her boutique. It didn't come as a surprise that I had to get on the motorcycle to get to the bank in time before the doors closed. Thankfully, I caught them just as they were gonna start locking things away. And as soon as the staff saw me walking in, they sent a teller to the counter to deal the final transaction of the day. The mare who approached the counter had a cheerful smile, typical of a teller here to do that for a notable client.

"Good evening, Captain Nondis." She said warmly.

I leaned against the counter, casually explaining to her. "Hey there. Sorry I couldn't come in as early as you'd prefer. I'm here to make a withdrawal real quick."

"That's fine, sir. Would you care to give me the passcode to your account to authenticate your transaction?"

You'd think that the way she just told me to confirm my account was something a teller would do back home, but they do it a bit differently. They have a log book with every client's name in it, they go by last-name index. Each letter has it's own book, each book has it's own section. The print was large for the teller to easily distinguish in spite of not carrying reading glasses of any sort. The pages were enchanted to where she had to cast a spell to see the words on them, while to me it would look like a book full of blank pages. She'd find my name and request my passcode, I offer her my passcard with my confirmation code on it, same spell and method is used for the books. After that, they confirm I'm the account holder and that's that. "It's still kinda weird how you guys use books to do this."

"Well there's no better method than simply archiving the information. I'm sure your world's methods are significantly advanced to ours." She answered back.

"Just imagine a typewriter hooked into a calculator that also acts as an encyclopedia grafted into a projection spell." I briefly explained.

She left to check her index and pulled up a book with the letter H inscribed on the cover. "I can only imagine that would take up my entire workspace, I'd barely have room to move."

As she activated the spell to search the pages for my name, I continued to elaborate on my world's method of financial storage. "Nah, just a little bit of your desk. Just type a few letters of my last name, and I'd be a lot easier to find."

"Amazing..." She said while collecting my card and reading the code to herself. She gave me a quick nod and handed the blank card back over to me. "Okay, all your information checks through. How much are you withdrawing today, sir?"

"Six-hundred bits."

"Would you like that in rubies, sapphires, emeralds, diamonds, or just bits?"

"Rubies are fine."

The green unicorn mare took another gander at the book, confirming the amount I took out as well as what remained on my account. "Okay, that withdrawal will leave you with approximately 1,014,349 bits."

I paused, nearly losing my balance as I practically turned my neck so quickly that I could've given myself whiplash. "I-I-I'm sorry, c-ca-can you-can you... you know, check if that's the right account?"

The mare cheerfully popped her register open, which was basically an entire filing cabinet with sectioned areas dedicated to each denominated jewel. "I checked three times already, your code matches next to your name on our record. It seems that there was an anonymous deposit transferred to your account in the form of a charitable donation at approximately 8:35 yesterday morning. The amount that was added was approximately one million bits. Congratulations sir, you're now officially a millionaire."

"Hetaaa you hwaahuh?" I stammered, completely feeling like this was a massive error in my favor. But then I realized that on last night, Blue said that I would need something akin to what she called 'playground funds' to play around with. To me, it felt like I was getting myself into a very lethal game of cat and mouse. "Lady, how much of a playground am I supposed to be playing with?" I muttered to myself before I faced the teller to take my sack of rubies. "Uh, well I guess if it's not an error in my favor, thanks... I guess."

"All transfers are official and are verified upon the initiation of the transaction. All verification protocols have been met, your account stands at exactly 1,014,349 bits." She quoted once more.

"And how much was my account prior to that?" I questioned, still harboring some disbelief.

"Exactly 14,939 bits. Do you need for me to read the current balance to you again?"

This lady legit dropped a cool million to me like it was nothing. Her damn father wanted me dead for less than a fourth of that. She literally gave me one million gold coins, each one 99.98% pure and solid. "It's fine, thank you."

"There are some investment firms and also some stock options you can look into if you wish, sir."

I quickly declined the offer. "Maybe later, I need some time to process this."

"Very well. Please come again, sir."

I walked right out of the front door, already doing the trans-dimensional math in my head. Each bit was one ounce by itself, or at least close to it. I pulled out my phone and checked the stock market value for gold, reading that it was cited at approximately $1195.75 at the closing bell of the this past Friday. That meant that if I traded in half of the playground money, I would be sitting at exactly...

Two million shy of six-hundred million. I'm fucking rich!

I started dancing. Spirit fingers, jazz hands, air guitar solo, full-blown dougie, I was just in absolute bliss on the thought that I had more than enough to call myself a billionaire. But then again, I still had to do a job. Maybe I could pull off both, keep a good chunk worth at least a hundred million, work on the rest. That meant that I could have a fall-back plan if things go south for me and Equestria finally becomes a place to avoid like the plague. If nothing works over here, I can still head back with a consolation prize worth a hundred million or more.

Seems like a plan to me.

"Ya sure are having yerself a ball, aren't ya?"

I looked around for a moment as the very distinctive voice and accent grabbed my attention. Didn't take me long to notice the beige stetson beneath me. Though her appearance out the blue had confused me. "Applejack, when did you get here?"

She seemed to have a serious expression on her face. It was almost like she had caught me red-handed digging around in the apple bushels looking for a quick snack. The farm pony tilted her head upwards to me, allowing me to see the stern glare her jade-colored eyes. "Ah got here when Ah got here, came looking for ya. And ya already know what for."

I took a few seconds to come to a quick guess. "Twilight?"

Applejack turned around, as if she was going to walk off. "Sugarcube, ya need to come back down to Ponyville and talk with us."

"Is something wrong?" I asked worriedly, already thinking about the last time I saw the purple princess and the dark mood she was in.

"Not with us, but with Twilight. She told us you called it quits and got yer eyes on a pretty mare who's way outta yer league." She answered, her body language almost appearing as if she was about to warn me not to avoid the subject. And given her inhuman strength, I wouldn't put it past her to make a point of it.

"So is this an intervention of sorts?" I asked, starting to get a bit nervous of if she knew exactly who I was dealing with.

"Ah suggest ya take the quickest route to Ponyville. Ah ain't gonna push it through your world, I'll just get Starlight to teleport me back over."

Guess that answers the question of how she got here. "I guess."

Twilight's Castle
Ponyville
Fifteen Minutes Later...

I rushed through my world and got back to my apartment, using the mirror there to get back to the crystalline castle south of my station. When I stepped through, I could see that the room that was once filled with weapons had been cleaned up. It was almost a scary difference to see that she had cleaned up the place, and an even scarier one to see that all my weapons had gone. All that remained was a crumpled-up note on the door telling me what happened.

Dear Nondis,
I'm sorry to bring a bit of a freight to you, but I had to ship the items you left here over to Canterlot. Starlight had gotten a little curious and could've shot Spike. She's not exactly a disciplined student, so it would be better to keep her out of your stash.

Be careful,
Twilight Sparkle

P.S.: I can't bring myself to hate you, even when I'm trying my best. I still really really love you, we will always be friends.

I can only assume that she had the others help her ship the goods over after she told them what happened. And if that's the case, then I know I'm going to have a lot of disagreements coming my way over this. Though I decided that it was time for me to ignore the nervousness and push forward with this meeting.

As soon as I entered the throne room, I could see six mares sitting around the table, five of them in their seats. Starlight stood quietly as the others watched quietly as I entered. Applejack sat at the table, tapping her hoof against the tabletop as she had her hat set on her chair. Looking around, I confirmed that Twilight was the only one who was not present. "Okay, so what's the situation?" I asked.

Fluttershy began the conversation with her usual easy-going tone. "Nondis, even though you're free to do whatever you choose since Twilight and you broke up officially, and we're not trying to push anything─"

Applejack wasn't nearly as easy-going. "Why if Ah ain't a girl of morals, Ah'd show you a proper beatdown. How in Tartarus are ya gonna leave Twilight like that!? Even if she was being a dumbapple when she broke things off, she never gave up on ya!"

Rarity called out her friend. "Applejack, I don't think it's fair to harshly criticize his decisions when he's allowed the freedom to do so!"

"It is Non-Non's decision. I can't really blame him for it because I understand that he may want the freedom of having what he likes." Pinkie cosigned.

Rainbow hopped off of her seat, hovering in the air and getting a more-direct method of eye-to-eye contact. "Okay then, let's ask this. Is sex the only thing you care about?"

"As if that's the only thing that matters, are you serious? Sex is fun but what happens before and after is just as important. I mean it's nice but I don't need it." I simply answered.

Applejack interjected once more. "Then why did ya leave a poor pretty mare like Twilight by her lonesome? She never wanted to break things off with you but she felt like it would give you the room to do what you needed to. And yer way of showing thanks is just dashing her hopes of a future with ya?"

"Nondis..." Rainbow said, eyeing the farm pony as a way to coax her into silence. It seems she wasn't quite done with asking me any questions. "I'm going to ask you this and I want you to give me a real answer. Have you ever felt like you've made a mistake when you walked away?"

I have to admit it's not fun getting grilled on something like this by your ex's gaggle of friends, but it's nice to know that they genuinely care for her emotional well-being enough to even have this meeting. "There's a lot of me that does. I said all these things and I tried my best to hold true to all of that, but even then there are times where I have to accept that better to start over or start fresh. And I apologize if it hurts her, Lord knows I tried telling her that she was worth more than she gave herself credit for. I want to say that I gave it my best, but I admit I could've done better for her sake."

"Next question. Do you feel like you've been honest with her about how you feel?" The rainbow-maned mare inquired.

"I don't think I've tried to lie to her about that."

"Are you two still friends at the end of the day?"

"We're giving each other some space to adjust, but I'd love to stay being her friend, even if our history would make that a bit hard in some areas. I can at least stay by her side when she needs me there. But if she wants to be alone, I'll honor that too."

If anything, the girls were probably seeing where I stood since I made the decision. And with every answer I gave, it would help cultivate their opinion on the matter. Rainbow didn't seem to need much in convincing, and the others were pretty much already satisfied with the circumstances. "Welp, that's it for the meeting. We can all go home now." Rainbow said, floating back to her seat.

But not everyone was satisfied. "Now just wait a darn second!" Applejack being the usual candidate.

"Applejack, they've made their decision. Twilight already said that she was going to support him in his future. I think it's best to leave it there." Fluttershy said calmly.

But the farm mare didn't give up on her pursuit. She jumped on the table and stepped up to me. "Who are you so twitterpated over that you'd break Twilight's heart?"

Before I could answer, Rarity yanked at the mare's tail, pulling her back to her seat as she chided her. "Applejack! You should know that Twilight made it very clear that she didn't want us to know who it is until the time was right!" At least this confirmed that Twilight didn't tell them who I was getting involved with but rather that I was getting involved with someone else in general.

"And I'm saying that she don't need to just tuck her tail between her legs and take that loss. If any of us deserves happiness, it's her." She passionately argued for the sake of her friend. "She's already a princess, she ain't gonna have another chance to find anything like this. Ah don't think she should just give up on the only out she's got!"

"She's stronger than you give her credit for." Pinkie added, speaking for the first time while she tapped her hooves against her own forelegs. "Twilight will bounce back, give it a while and she'll go back to being the nerdy, book-hoarding, obsessively-compulsive, magically gifted, and wonderful friend we all know her for being. So she had a boyfriend and lost him, better to have loved and lost than to not have it at all."

Fluttershy then brought the meeting to a conclusion. "And if there's anything that Twilight needs, I'm sure she'll come to us if she needs it that badly. Not to put anyone down, but we are her best friends and we've been through much worse than this. I'm even sure that we will go through something far worse in the future, so we should all be strong for her sake and be her support." After addressing Applejack, she looked to me instead. "Nondis, I know your visit is a bit sudden, but for right now you can't be seen by her, it'll just open wounds. I'm sure you'll understand."

In reality, she had a point. Me seeing her so soon after a breakup would only make things awkward and sad. I'm sure she didn't want to see me right now. And even if she did, I'm sure she'd try to plead her case. And I don't want to see her trying to settle for just anything. She deserves the best, she's a good girl. "Right. Then I should be on my way then."

As the others started to rise from their seats, Rarity called out to me before I could leave. "But do come by and visit us a little more, darling. Seeing you about but not around doesn't do well for a lady's confidence."

"I'll do my best." I called out before I could hear the sounds of hooves galloping across the floor. Almost as a blur, Applejack slid right by me and faced me, blocking my way out of the room.

She seemed unwilling to give up so easily, but also trying to plead with me in Twilight's place. "...Now Ah'm not usually about change too much, Ah like things being steady. Ah just thought that you and Twilight were gonna be a constant, Ah was at least rooting for ya to be just that for her. Girl's just sensitive about her self-worth, ya know."

I took a deep breath, thinking about the very first night I had the opportunity to comfort her, all those months ago. "I've taken that into consideration." I looked over to the yellow pegasus and smiled. "But Fluttershy's got a point. Twi can do bad all by herself, she's unbelievably strong. I can't even hold a candle to her. She's way out of my league."

"But if you're not gonna be there by her side, then who would?" Applejack questioned one last time.

"Whoever she allows. Her and the other royal family members won't be caged in for too long. I assure you that."

I finally left the room, but not without another set of hooves galloping after me. I could tell from the lightness of her gallop, even the cotton-candy scent that it was none other than the residential party planner extraordinaire. "Nonny." She called out as we walked.

"Let me guess, I'm a jerk, right?" I said with a defeated sigh.

"You're one for assuming what I was going to say." She replied. "Do you really know if what you're getting into is gonna work?"

"Well, I told her all of my bad traits before we even started. Now the only thing she wants to do is prove to me what all my good traits are. It's weird." I answered.

"But you're honest with her?" She asked.

"Yeah, she's brutally honest with me."

As we approached the portal room, Pinkie started walking backwards and throwing out some questions. "Does she know about Twilight?"

"Yeah."

"Does she work with you?"

"You could say that."

"Royalty?" She questioned as I opened the door to the portal room.

"I dunno." I lied.

Even in my lie, Pinkie could easily see through me as she leaned against the doorway. "Yup, no winning against that. Try not to make another girl cry like you did to me."

"Sure thing." I answered.

Just as I was about to close the door behind me, Pinkie held the door open and continued talking. "And Twilight, and Melanie, and Rarity, and Sweetie Belle─"

"Hey now, I don't do underage." I stressed almost instantly.

The pink mare giggled and snorted. "Oh Nonnums, she crushes on you as hard as any impressionable filly does. Diamond Tiara's already trying to spread rumors of you marrying her in the future on her birthday."

"And I'm marrying Princess Celestia after I slay a huge monster and we'll live happily ever after. What kind of a fool takes me for being a sicko going for some kid?" I sarcastically replied.

The mare sighed. "Some aspiring young filly who's hoping against hope. There's a lot of those around." She stepped in the doorway, giving me a quick hug. "Just try to take care of yourself, and stay out of the bad places in the city."

A little too late to acknowledge that request. "No promises, but I'll try my best."

The pink party pony separated from me, giving me a smile. "Visit me when you get the chance. I'll bake you something nice."

"Thanks."

As soon as I turned around, I could already hear the feint sound of balloons deflating. I glanced back for a moment to see her crossing a foreleg over the other as she stood. "Oh, and I may be a little lonely at the shop. You should try to avoid visiting me when I'm alone."

"What happened to Cheese?" I asked, surprised that he'd somehow disappeared again.

"He's gone for another one of his long-distance trips. I suggest you come by when the Cakes are over there."

"Okay..." I answered as the door started to creak closer to being closed completely before stopping. The sounds of balloons deflating was a little louder now.

The mare nervously laughed, trying to poke fun at herself. "I mean it, Nons. You show up and nopony's not there, I might get a little too grabby."

"I get it already." I replied, walking over to the portal. But with each step, I could hear the sounds of balloons deflating until all the air had seemingly gone from them. I looked through the mirror surface, glancing back across the emptied room to see Pinkie's head still poking through the door, her mane as curly as a straightening river. Her eyes seemed to have gained the tiniest instance of bags under them as she muttered over to me in a voice that was almost as timid as Fluttershy's.

"...You're pretty terrible at this."

She finally closed the door, leaving me to stand in the middle of an empty room. I looked across to the portal, seeing the image of myself staring right back. I closed my eyes and thought a little more about what could've been had I made the decision to stand pat. Unfortunately for me, I didn't really see it getting any better. I could hear the faint sound of hooves clopping from across the door, along with Spike's voice trying to negotiate with Twilight over some festivities scheduled to take place tomorrow night.

I whispered to the now-absent pony. "Tell me something new."

Canterlot Castle...

When I returned, I managed to catch the closing minutes of the allocated dinnertime for the castle. Unfortunately all the royals had concluded their meals and I was left to pay an infrequent visit to the castle cafeteria, usually sanctioned for staff and workers but the food choices were a little more restricted. It wasn't meant to be a fine-dining experience, it was just something to feed you. Though you could tell that the other lower chefs were really over the food. Either way, I was fine with it.

After I finished, I started roaming through the halls, seeing the darkness through the many stained-glass windows. I could also see a series of events as I walked, some chronicling the history of the country and the many individual achievements. Granted, they weren't as grand as the ones in the throne room depicting the enormous achievements that saved Equestria from certain doom. It was small stuff, the birth of Canterlot, the first sunset over the city, the birth of a few cities, a few famous wonderbolts, and even one window that seemed to have been unfinished.

Standing before that one was two ponies, a female unicorn guard donning an unusual set of silver armor to indicate her officer rank, and Celestia herself. The two conversed as the smaller unicorn mare looked at the window angrily, but popped right back into smiling as soon as she was addressed directly by the princess. Celestia on the other hand was pointing to the window as her mouth went at seemingly a million miles an hour. I couldn't quite make what she was saying from the distance I was walking from, but I wasn't really that interested.

However, her talking didn't distract her from getting a glimpse of me walking by. "Captain." She called out sternly, knowing that I couldn't ignore her addressing me directly.

As she approached me, I bowed before her. "Your highness."

She had a seriousness in her tone as she spoke. "Walk with me for a moment, if you will." While I knew she was putting on a show, it appeared convincing to the guard standing next to her. "Solemn Oath, you're dismissed for the evening."

The mare appeared quiet in taking her request, but she gave me a quick look-over, giving me quite the foul vibe as she walked right through me. I suppose she didn't like me very much. As soon as she disappeared down the hall, the princess and I proceeded to walk in the direction of her chambers. "Sorry I couldn't make dinner. Applejack wanted me to get back to Ponyville and explain myself about the breakup. They don't seem to know much other than that." I quietly informed her.

Celestia hummed to herself before replying to me. "Then it seems that Twilight has faithfully followed my instructions, much to her dismay."

"What were your orders to her?" I asked.

"Just a small gag order. Can't have her telling the details to the others when I know they're as chatty as a group of schoolgirls." Celestia whispered.

As we walked, I tried to peek over to see what was being done to the uncompleted window. "Fair enough. I know it's hard for Pinkie to keep a secret if it's juicy enough. And Rarity is too easy to blur out names while giving out the details. It's easy for her to talk about everypony else but herself─"

"No further statement needed." Celestia interrupted, stopping me from going into detail. She looked to the window and kept speaking. "Either way, the guard has readied themselves for the big bash tomorrow. Your superiors insisted that you'd serve your time on duty by overlooking the security of the town event. But I told them that I would be giving you the day off to make up for your being on staff during Hearth's Warming. I also informed them that you missed a pivotal family holiday for your service and allowed you to observe this one back home in your world."

"Pretty huge favor you pulled for me." I said with a light chuckle.

"That it is, but the thing that falls on me now is the situation we're in. As it is, I am to give a speech on tomorrow detailing the occurrences of the past year and how we'll move on as a country."

Already, I could see where this was going in terms of our availability. "Sounds pretty... typical."

"Boring is right. I despise having to make the same speech every year while changing up a few words. At this point I already have the template memorized."

"So I guess that's a rain check on tomorrow?" I asked, trying to confirm our status.

"Clear skies ahead, you mean." She emphatically corrected. "I just told you why I'm not going to put up with another worn-welcomed festival. I've decided to appoint Luna to make the speech, especially since this is a night celebration."

I sighed a breath of relief. "That's a fair assessment. You sure there won't be any problems?"

She groaned quietly as she looked to me. "There will be plenty. The guards will be looking for me while I go missing. And I'm sure my missing presence will disallow you from getting your day off."

"Then we'll have to cancel." I summarized.

"Wrong again." She corrected. "I shall have Blueblood chat with the pompous big-wigs while I carry on with some 'much-needed rest.' I will simply say that I am tiresome and I won't be bothered for the rest of the night. That's all it takes."

I just shrugged after her explanation. "Then why the whole pomp and circumstance about our status?"

Before I knew it, she altered her route to her room, instead going for the portal room I left from recently. "It's so you'll be aware of what your superiors will be trying to do. So for tonight, I suggest you sleep in your world to allow yourself to not be bothered. I will feign exhaustion in the early evening to allow my infiltration of the portal room. But this is where I will have a hard time with my plan, the crossing over."

"You don't want Mel to see you." I concluded, this time correctly.

The princess started to explain her reasoning. "I'm sure that she and your friends will be eager to spend time with us if we are found. So it would be better to find some way to distract her while I make my way through."

"Why not use Cliff's portal?" I questioned.

"I'm sure you remember what happened with Cadance and her unannounced visit."

"Point taken." I said as I knocked on the side of my head to indicate my stupidity. "So I'll distract Mel and you sneak through. You wait outside the apartment and I drop by, pick you up, take you shopping for some clothes, then we commence to our operation. I'll probably get Spike to send you a letter on when you can slip on by."

"Not a peep to the others." Celestia advised.

"My lips are sealed, your highness."

She opened the door, allowing me to take my leave back to the human world. She looked around and turned up the volume for any possible eavesdroppers to hear. "We mustn't fail, captain. Diplomacy is at stake, so I am counting on you to make this work."

"You have my word." I gave her a wink as I saluted her.

She winked back before walking away. "Very well then. Dismissed."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

After I crossed over, I started to draft my plans on how I was gonna work through any potential sleep issues I could have. Since Luna was going to leave me to work that one through on my own, it was probably better if I did some research on it instead of forcing myself to sleep through the night. And even if it was pretty late night to go anywhere to find much of anything that would help me sleep, I had to take a chance on whatever I could find.

Luckily, I ran into a solution that didn't require me to go anywhere at all.

Research and studies have found that a more favorable solution to any sleep issues would be to listen to music. Of course I couldn't just throw on AC/DC's Thunderstruck and awesome my way to sleep. I had to limit what I was putting in my brain as I drift off to a waiting morning. I did some reading up and suggestions were popping up all over the place. Some recommended classical music that sounded soothing and calm to the ear, lots of choices there but I'm not to good on the names of them. There were a few song options, but research said that music without words would work better for my purpose.

So I stayed up and did some more research, looking for a few bits of music that could keep me calm and ease me into the morning. Unfortunately for me, some relatively topical tracks that I wanted to listen to were only so long. And I wasn't really too fond of the constant dynamic changes found in classical music that would keep my mind subconsciously consistent. And I couldn't just rely on a YouTube playlist to stay on topic, especially when there are people who add whatever crap to the list just to troll. So I settled for something that was a bit unusual.

I typed in the search bar sleeping music and found a bevy of results. From the looping ambiance of a rain forest to the droning sounds of ethereal synths looping a few simple chord progressions. And to my pleasant surprise they went from anything between three hours to eleven hours long. As long as I didn't sit in silence in the dark, allowing my thoughts to run rampant on the encroaching darkness, I was satisfied.

If something like this was proven to help people with schizophrenia, I should be more than good.

I played two videos at once. One was an eleven hour loop of rain forest sounds, giving me a lot of white noise to help me nod off. The music I selected had a running time of eight hours, more than enough to get me to wake back up to it. It also helped that I turned the rain forest sounds a tad beneath the music so that it could blend a bit better. And leaving one of the videos on full screen provided me with a good scene to appreciate. From there on, it was time to turn the lights out and drift.

My mind was already stayed on the idea of going on this date with Celestia, the music and the ambiance only reinforced the abstract concept to my mind. My eyes closed to see her holding me again. There was a few times the dream threatened to turn for the worse, but I had more than enough experience to let some things trigger my mind into waking up to the threat of danger, my time in Arimaspi Mountain made that possible. But I didn't have any moments like that too frequently, perhaps once or twice before the soothing noise brought me back to sleep.

Next thing I noticed, it was morning and the videos were still going. I looked at the time bar at the bottom, seeing that a total of six hours and forty minutes had gone by. I placed all the videos on pause, reset to the beginning, and pinned the tabs so that I wouldn't accidentally close them for the next time around. My experiment worked in spades this time.

I hopped in the shower, took a nice relaxing time to cleanse myself, came out and started going through the channels on my television. Not much was on that I was truly interested in, so my mind kinda wandered to the mare I was supposed to meet today. "I wonder what I'm gonna do until she gets here." I muttered to myself, sitting in boredom.

My phone suddenly rang, almost like fate itself had provided an answer. I pulled up the screen to see it was Melanie giving me a ring. So I quickly answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Nondis, whatcha doing?" She asked, seeming just as bored as I was.

"Nothing in particular."

"Okay, okay..." The woman on the other end repeated, I could imagine her nodding on that. "So what's your work schedule for today, do you know?"

She was probably seeing if I had anything planned for New Years Eve. And of course, I did. "Got an escort mission later this evening. As far as my morning up till I guess five-ish, I'm open."

"Laaaaame!" Mel moaned out of disapproval

"What?" I asked, chuckling.

"An escort mission on New Years Eve, it's bad enough you worked through Christmas. What the hell do you have to escort later this evening?"

"V.I.P's in the royal family." I stated.

"Ugh, I ain't gonna find any ways to have fun with you at this rate." In the background, I could already tell she was in bed by the way her arm smacked her pillow as well as the creaking of her mattress.

"As I said, my schedule is open for noon." I restated.

"But I want you for midnight, everyone wants you for midnight."

"Sorry, club rules." I answered with a shrug.

"Ugh, fine. So what do you wanna do?"

Honestly, I wasn't really planning for anything earlier in the day other than finding something to do that would distract Mel. I guess I couldn't complain since the answer practically fell right into my lap. Anything that would cause us to drain some time away from the apartment complex is a good thing. "Dunno, kinda out of ideas. What's out in the movies right now?"

The woman on the other line kissed her teeth. "Seriously, you've gotta leave pony world for at least another week." Mel groaned. "I'm good for a trip at Dave & Busters, we could all meet up there. I know Vanessa and Alex ain't working today, Stanton ain't plugging some random chick right now, so he's free. Cliff is begging to get away from his family. Rickey is probably tired of seeing his folks over in San Antonio and he just got back in today to hang with us tonight."

Great, I don't even have to plan anything other than booking a reservation at a restaurant for later this evening. I still had a thousand dollars stashed here in the room. Guess I could run up an agenda of shopping, dinner, and other miscellaneous expenditures after a fifty dollar hit at Dave and Busters. Hell, I'm rich now. "Okay, sounds fun to me."

"Great, so let me call the others and get a time."

"Sweet. Thanks a bunch."

"You sure we can't get you to stay past five?" She asked one more time.

"Rules are rules."

Again, she kissed her teeth. "Whatever."

Later That Afternoon...

After a few hours of laying out at the house and getting my clothes ready for the day, the time drew close for me to head over to Mel's and drive out to where we agreed to meet with the others. But before I headed out that way, I had to type up a letter and seal it to get back to Celestia through Spike's enchanted flames. The only thing that was hard was trying to catch him while he was away from Twilight. She wasn't exactly cooped up in her room for the day so I had to listen in and gauge when she was walking down the hall or not. And since Spike was often heard humming or singing down the halls during his errands, I had the opportunity to catch him before I left. As soon as I made it clear that it was a confidential matter for the princess, he went from begrudging to begrudgingly agreeing.

After I got that out of the way, Mel and I finally met up and we zipped on out to the Dave and Busters off the expressway. And when we got there, the party started to grow and we started to get a little more liberal with our orders. All of us seemed to go from celebrating one another to simply celebrating Stanton's win over West Virginia in their bowl game. It really turned into an impromptu celebration, and the guest of honor was more than eager to tell his story.

"So he came at me, and I just juked the shit out of him, fucking took his cleats right off his feet and watched the man slip and bust his ass trying to tackle me. But I just keep chugging, right. All of a sudden, I look back, not a single guy from West Virginia hunting me down within five yards. So I put the jets on, and I hop my stupid ass into the endzone."

"Ah yeah, that. Didn't you drop the ball a few inches before the goal line?" Alex joked, causing Stanton to hold his hands over his head.

"Look, I got a little overzealous in my run, I thought I had it and I just celebrated a bit too early."

"Coach Sumlin had to probably scream you to the bench over that one." Alex added.

"Again, a mental mistake I didn't make the rest of the day."

"Almost cost your team a game though."

Stanton scoffed at the idea of losing to the opposing team. "Dude, it's a school in the Big 12, no one in that conference plays defense worth a damn."

"Yeah...." Mel groaned out slowly in agreement, not wanting to truly admit it.

Stanton then proceeded to rub some salt in everyone's Texas Longhorn wounds. "Oh yeah, how bout them Longhorns? Didn't they lose out in Houston? I think it was the Razorbacks that clobbered you guys thirty-one to seven."

Almost every one at the table, even some on-listeners groaned in disgusted embarrassment. I wasn't as dark as dismal as everyone else, trying to draw some optimism from the situation. "Look, Charlie Strong just got hired to be the coach, it's his first season, I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Says the asshat who hasn't watched a single game outside Bedlam." Rickey grumbled.

"I mean, you had some quality wins against... uh..." I quickly pulled out my phone and looked up the school's record.... Yeah, not too enthralling. The team ended their season with a six and seven record. Almost every team that had a rank at any point in the season walked away with a win against this team. The only glaring exception was a team ranked number twenty-fourth in the nation. At that point I went from convincing everyone around me not to panic to trying to convince myself that the university I spent four of the past five years at wasn't complete trash. "Iowa State, Oklahoma State on their field, West Virginia, Texas Tech─"

Mel placed a hand on my shoulder and shook her head sympathetic to my disbelief. "Nondis, you know no one loses to Tech."

"Texas State loses to Tech." I replied, still in denial.

"Nondis, my guy, do you listen to yourself sometimes?" Cliff questioned in deadpan.

After realizing my hastily put together point was getting nowhere, I conceded the argument. "Yeah, you're right. I'm just trying to feed some optimism."

Stanton wasn't exactly a stickler for any optimism he had for Texas, especially since Charlie Strong outright rejected him to pursue a five-star recruit from Idaho. That same guy also took a scholarship at Alabama just the day before Coach Strong came back to us. Stanton didn't like that too much and took up a scholarship at College Station upon the first offer made by Coach Sumlin. Honestly, he wanted to be a Longhorn, but college recruiters don't like to look at hometown heroes too much. And Stanton worked that chip on his shoulder to the next level, aspiring to be an NFL athlete.

So yeah, he had some choice words about the new coach. "Don't. The guy ain't a fit for UT. Sure he does great with Louisville, but that's a team out east. He don't know how to use corn-bred, chicken hungry, country boys moving tractor tires on the farm. It's a whole different breed out here. Over there you got hard knocks boys coming from the city who ain't had nothing, basically a bunch of Cinderellas looking for the glass slipper to fit them. Out west you got a shitload of cosmopolitan boys trying to play like they can make it in the big leagues when all they're good for is soccer. This is Texas, we're talking about home grown boys who don't quit till the whistle blows."

"Uh, ain't soccer the world-dominant sport right now?" Alex interjected.

Stanton didn't care about the global view of things, just focusing on the sport he spent much of his life playing. "The world ain't paving my way to the NFL. They don't give a fuck about you. Only one who'll look out for you is you."

I started to think about how I had the same outlook on the world once upon a time. Without even thinking, I just started talking. "Yeah, I used to believe that. Until I realized that caring for you don't just mean that they want to see you succeed, there are a lot of people that want to see you fail. And that in turn gives them the ability to care for your failure. They've become so invested that the only thing they do is find what ways you've done wrong."

I didn't get a chance to finish my thought before Cliff joked at my demeanor. "Uh oh, deep-thought Nondis is in town."

The whole table grew quiet as I did. I lost track of what I was saying and couldn't find any way to continue. Alex poked fun at me and joked. "Whatcha see this time?"

I shook my head. "Don't worry about it."

"You sure?" Mel asked me.

"We're here to give it a listen if you'd like." Rickey cosigned.

I shook my head and flagged everyone down. "Nah, I've done my spilling to the shrink."

"You've got a counselor?" Alex inquired.

"Oh boy, you're going through it." Stanton added.

"I'm only doing it because it would be better for me in the future. Better to be proactive."

Mel gave me a light nudge as she spoke. "Well it's good that you're trying to take care of yourself."

"All bullshit aside, you know you can still call on us when you need to." Alex said trying to offer his support.

"Thanks, Alex. But I'm trying to do this one as much as I can on my own. It's actually pretty damn dangerous."

"Bad part of town again?" Mel asked.

"You know it." I flatly answered.

"Isn't that where you found the guy fucking a headless corpse?" She asked, causing the entire table to stare at me with disbelief.

"THE FUCK!?" Yelped Stanton.

Again, I didn't really stop and think about what I was gonna say, instead just letting it all pour out... everything. "Yeah, I see a counselor for that, the assassination attempts, the mission on the mountain, the getting poisoned, nearly abducted..." And I kept going until my mind had gone to an awfully dark place. "...the bodies on the wagon, the train nearly falling off the side of the mountain, the nightmares, the alternate worlds, the corpses of everyone I know, a room full of dying ponies whispering their last words, the head on the brake lever on the train, the guard bleeding out in my arms."

"Nondis!" I snapped out as soon as Alex snapped his fingers in my ear from across the table. I quickly grew attentive of where I was at, and Alex slowly reminded me of that. "Home. You're home now."

I quickly shook my head, mentally slapping myself back into shape. I nervously laughed as I tried to play off the small episode. "Right. Sorry. Probably better to leave that on the other side, am I right?"

"Yeah. Can't take it with you everywhere, bud." Alex said, not quite smiling but trying his best to offer some comforting emotion on his face.

I then tried to quickly change the subject. "So enough about me, how about you? You and your wife talking about starting a family pretty soon, right?"

Alex realized that I was trying to readjust the mood and thankfully complied. However, it didn't throw out the unease that everyone felt as they watched me quietly chastise myself. It was small talk, but I figured it was a subject that everyone would enjoy hearing about. "Yeah, but we want to make sure we're secure in a new house before we expand. Two bedroom flat ain't gonna do for a family of three if mom and dad wants to come over for an extended stay to see the grandkids."

"You know, they could rent out a room." Stanton suggested as he gave me a few concerned glances.

"And we could also have more kids along the way. So we want to prepare for that inevitable part of our lives." Alex said, trying to pretend that the subject never happened.

"But aren't you supposed to have the kid first and then talk about moving to a bigger nest?"

I just looked at the card I got for my dine-and-play package. I found myself spinning it, drained of my prior happiness as that particular minor outburst had me mentally replaying the moment I broke down in the hallway. I couldn't help but get upset with myself.

The next thing I felt was a hand cup over my wrist. I looked over to see Mel holding me. "Hey, you good?"

Again, I shook myself out of it, trying to put back on my happy face. "Yeah. Stuff on my mind aside, tonight's actually got me pretty excited."

"Don't you work tonight?" She asked.

"Yeah. Escort detail. But it's not all that bad."

"I bet he's got to escort Twilight and company." Rickey folded his arms and pointed at me.

"I wouldn't bet against that." I said quietly.

"Yeah, but you've been working nonstop. Can't you take a break sometime?" Said Alex who was more than worried that something had gone wrong with me.

"It's military work, they don't give you the first holiday off." I answered.

"Seriously?" Stanton facepalmed and shook his head while I shrugged.

"No excuses, no exceptions."

Later That Evening...

Outside of the one part where I just phased out and spilled some stuff I didn't want to, I started to look forward to the silence of being at home. But the others had different plans, opting to go out for ice cream and spending time at the frat house. While the others continued to fraternize with the members, I was quietly watching and hoping that I'd keep my mouth shut.

Mel wasn't too thrilled either, I think she was upset with herself for saying anything about what I saw, safe to say that she didn't know what I would also be needing a counselor for. What I spilled was just the surface stuff, not really wanting to give them the whole story of what my life was over there. If I did, they'd probably abduct me in my sleep and break every portal to the other world to keep me here. And Mel knew that was the only way to keep me safe.

Unfortunately, all my struggles came with fighting the good fight, and I wasn't done yet.

The car ride home was quiet, neither of us wanting to say anything to each other. The only thing she did was bump some Bruno Mars and watched the traffic go by. I liked the music, it was catchy, popping, had that retro feel to it, lots of energy. If I could take that one back with me, that would be a whole other party Pinkie wouldn't be ready for.

I wonder what her plans were for tonight.

We stopped outside her section, Mel just waved at me, telling me that she'd see me later and instructing me to call her if I feel down on anything. When she left, I was already feeling a bit socially drained. As I was riding along, I just thought about taking a quick nap to reset. And the thought quickly became a favorable one. So I got to my place, opening the door, and started taking off my shoes before I noticed Celestia walking from the back where my room was, in all her human glory. I gave her a look and smirked. "You seem to be getting your way around pretty well."

"Helps that this isn't the first time I was here." She replied.

I looked at my phone, seeing we were a full thirty minutes earlier than what I had planned. Though I had to change clothes as the reservation I made was to a more upscale eatery, I took a moment to quickly swap my attire for something a little more conservative. Took me around ten minutes to shed one look for the other, and Celestia was already wearing a pretty sundress, though a tad unprepared for the weather. Guess shopping for those essentials are in order. "So you ready?"

"That and waiting."

The entire time we walked outside, Celestia was already shivering. When we got into the first store, our main objective was to find as much stuff to wear under and over her dress as possible. We found some leggings, but she didn't like the idea of having to restrict herself so much, especially in certain areas where she felt necessary to have a quicker access to. I found a sweater jacket for her to wear over her top, but she complained that it was not really to her liking. I picked out a faux fur coat, she gave me a nervous expression before I explained to her that it wasn't real fur.

While we were about to head to the checkout, her eyes caught a pretty conservative lavender dress that matched with her eyes. She picked that one up and she had me wait outside the changing room for a little bit before she popped out wearing it. She spun around looking at her side view, taking pride in what she saw for being her first time shopping her own human attire. She looked at me with a smile and asked. "So how does this look?"

One quick gander told me a lot about her. The first was the fact that this completely conservative dress that would pass any soccer mom's modesty stress test had suddenly failed to hide every asset she flaunted. Her chest was quite plentiful and it made the dress a bit more provocative. Going down to her rear, it was a curvy shape until it showcased the abundance of her seat. It was so much that the length of the dress down her leg was inherently shortened by a few inches. A few more glances had told me a lot more about her as well. For starters, there was no obvious panty line, which either meant that she was wearing a thong, or that there was absolutely nothing holding her back. Another thing was that I could very much see the excitement she displayed on her chest, quite literally. She was lacking a bra, and that couldn't be any more obvious with how perky she was. Safe to say that she simply ignored the option of underwear today. Honestly, I started to forget the option of keeping myself tamed in public.

Yeah, I bought the dress while she wore it, the faux fur coat also.

Riding out to the restaurant, my mind swam with thoughts of taking her clothes off. My lips were moistened with my thoughts of slowly peeling off that dress and cupping one of her breasts in my hand, suckling on her as she giggled with her mothering-bathed voice. Just the thought of her sitting right next to me had me imagining what it would feel like running my hands up her legs and in between her warm, soft thighs. I could already feel the dampness of my fingertips reaching within her. What would she say if I peeled back her dress to reach for that, would she open her legs and let me, would she initially clench from the unexpected motion and grab my wrist while guiding me to where she wanted to be touched.

"TURN RIGHT, THEN YOUR DESTINATION IS ON THE LEFT."

My GPS broke me out of my lust-induced trance, giving me very little time to adjust. I ended up missing the turn and had to double back to make it, which gave me a lot more room to compose myself before I got out of this car. Couldn't go walking around with my camping gear out. Celestia, who was paying close attention to me had started to giggle uncontrollably. When we got to the parking lot, I payed the valet to park the car and I escorted Celestia into the restaurant. I verified our reservation and we were seated instantly.

A few of the other diners─men to be more specific─followed the princess with inquiring eyes. They trailed her every move, every step, appreciating much of the view as she passed. When the waiter pulled her chair, the other guys in the place averted their gaze back to their own tables. Some had a lot of scorn following up their recovery. Celestia wasn't oblivious to notice it. "Their eyes are all over me."

"You're a very attractive woman, it wouldn't be any different than in your world." I said with a flirty smile.

The princess blushed as she used her coat to cover herself a little more. "More like it's a lot more blatant than it is in my world. Stallions would sooner look at the ground than to look me in the eye. I wouldn't be surprised if the only thing they truly appreciated were my legs."

"They are some nice legs, credence to that." I muttered.

Celestia rolled her eyes. "As much gawking as they'd do, I'd be more open to the thought of them actually asking."

I gave a small chuckle. "Realistically speaking, how many of them would you say yes to?"

"Do you want me to count on one hoof." She asked, balling up her fist and pointing it at me, an instinctual byproduct of the anatomical transfer.

"Hand is fine." I reminded her, flaunting my fingers.

She then pointed a single index finger upwards. "One..." The princess gazed at me for a moment. "But only because of your dedication."

"My dedication? I didn't really beg for this, you know."

"That's the point, I like my suitors patient." She whispered.

"I suppose." Without warning, I saw the princess wince over something that seemed to be irking her. "What's wrong?"

Celestia looked at her feet beneath the table and grumbled over to me. "Can I take these infernal shoes off?"

"Be my guest." I confirmed, allowing her to remove her high heels from off of her feet. The princess expressed her relief.

"Thank you, I can't stand you humans' obsession to subjugate yourselves."

"But you wear slippers all the time." I pointed out.

"And none of them comes with heels." She replied.

"Fair enough. Heels aren't really as easy to walk in as most women make them out to be."

The princess gave me an amused smirk, almost like she wanted to poke fun at me. "And how would you know that exactly?"

"Word of mouth... and personal experience."

The woman blinked at me, somewhat baffled at my response. "Personal experience? Is there something I should know about you?"

"Just know it was for a frat thing." I said, pulling out my phone to pull up the picture of one of the initiation activities, namely the one that had us all standing in a semi-circle as if we were all going to prom.

"Oh, goodness!" The princess looked around trying to keep her laughter contained, though much of it just delightfully squeaked and squirmed. "This is incredible! I can see Cliff and Rickey in this one!"

"Yeah, we had to play dress-up in order to get in." I said as she continued to cackle.

"Thank goodness that you didn't have to do that to get into the guard." She said through her laughter.

"No, I don't think I could take Shining making me crawl around like a pony, much less in a dress."

Her laughing ceased, replaced with a slightly more serious tone. "I remember. But you didn't have to deal with that you know."

"Well, I had a lot to motivate me, even if I felt like quitting." I admitted.

"You're better for sticking around."

"Yeah, honestly I didn't really see all of this coming when I first hopped off the train to the training barracks out in Dodge Junction."

Celestia blushed as she thought about the way she first saw me. "I'm sure I didn't see this coming when I saw you curled up in a bed that first day you came to."

I looked at my own picture, seeing how much I used to weigh. "A lot's changed."

"That it has."

As the waiters came to collect our menus, we announced what our choices were and they started going through the rounds of food that the chefs prepared for us. While the experience was new to me personally, Celestia took pleasure in seeing the human variant of it. The food was incredible and we had a good time discussing it. It was also Celestia's first time indulging in top-quality meat, an experience she said she'd have to become acquired with outside of it's wonderful taste.

Our plates laid empty on the table as we talked more. "So if you don't mind me asking, what exactly made you decide that I was the one you wanted to court on the low?"

The princess clasped her hands together as she spoke. "Hmm.... I fell in love with you from the first moment I saw you and I wanted nothing to do but hold you close to me. Though I wished to keep you at a distance out of concern that I would grow somewhat attached to you, you still found a way to become even closer to me, standing by my side as my loyal guard. Would that answer suffice?"

I could immediately tell that she was just pulling my leg. "It would bring up the question of why you didn't take me in personally if you were interested from the jump."

She started again. "Well how about this one then.... After the loss of my dearest friend Fair Charity, I secretly wished for his spirit to move on in peace and find happiness with his wife in the afterlife. But due to her means of meeting her end, they were denied that happiness and he long lingered in the ether to find the opportunity to come back to me in some form or another. And then he found you, you were born, and you were brought to me by destiny to finish his work. Is that better?"

That one sounded like a fairy tale, if I ever heard of one. "Well that one seems to be a little more believable."

"And it's still wrong, because this is the reason.... My seeing you woo my personal student to absolute submission made me curious to see if you would enrapture me in the same way. And thus far, I can see many things that would cause for me to imagine the idea of a future with you. I could simply call it that bewitching aspect of your personality. That one seems like a fair reason, doesn't it?"

Of course she'd try to play as if she calculated her way into something like that, though it's not saying she's incapable. "Out of the three choices I can't see you being that hollow."

"And yet it is among those three choices. Choice A, B, or C, which do you think is the true reason why I have gravitated to you?

I proceeded to think aloud. "Choice A seems to be a bit difficult to understand because of your attitude towards me in the beginning, distant and nonchalant. Choice C, again, seems like the most hollow explanation of why you would compromise the happiness of your former student to substantiate your own. Choice B seems like the only logical answer, as fantastical as it seems."

"So that's your final answer?"

I folded my arms and answered her confidently. "The final answer is D: None of the above."

The princess looked at me with a quirked eyebrow. "And you came to that conclusion how?"

"Because it was for the same reason why I even considered it. It was the nights we spent talking all night long. For hours on end we just kept going like we had to share more and more of ourselves. And as of the moment, we're kinda vulnerable to each other. Granted, you have more vulnerabilities that I won't know about until much later, while you see each of mine become unveiled right before your very eyes."

"That answer is based on more recent times, isn't it?"

"You tell me, I'm the one guessing at your emotions."

She gave me a confirming smile. "Hmm... Significant, but wrong."

My jaw dropped and my arms unraveled as I swore I had the right answer. "Then what's the right answer?"

A triumphant grin appeared on her as she folded her arms, drumming her fingers against them. "Well since you've got it wrong, I suppose a punishment game is in order. That game is to simply discover why I am willing to invest my time with you."

I quickly facepalmed at the idea of her so-called punishment. "That's a cruel game to play for someone who doesn't like mind games."

"Doesn't mean that I don't play them every now and then, especially during occasions such as this."

"You don't want to crack that easily, huh?" I replied in a deadpan tone.

"Actually, there's truth to all of the answers I provided. But it's up to you to pick out which details ends up piecing the final reason together."

Something told me that she's bluffing me on that. If anything the very reason why we're even 'courting' is because we had that long talk in the kitchen as we made dinner. It was an impromptu dinner date and we started figuring out some things we liked about each other. But for now, I'll just play along. "Sounds fun."

The princess winked at me. "Don't be in too much of a rush to find out. I still want us to discover more about each other, even if you've ruined some of the good part for me."

"If you think bad qualities are fun, then you must be some sort of masochist." I joked while Celestia cut her eyes narrowly to the side, mumbling.

"Hmm, I do have a high pain threshold when it gets good."

Luckily for me, I caught some idea of what she said. "What was that?"

"What was what?" She asked, trying to play innocent.

"What did you just say?" I asked again, leaning in towards the princess.

"I said nothing." She rebutted, crossing her legs and looking the other way.

I started giggling as I poked fun at the blushing ruler. "You said a thing. You probably meant it in a naughty way."

"Please don't take what I say out of context." She urged, pushing back against me.

"Okay, so let's assess what I think I know." I said, leaning back towards my chair. "You aren't a pretty pampered princess, history tells me that much. I do know that you don't like being pampered too much. And you don't like being placed on a pedestal in every avenue of your life. Maybe you could tell me more of what you like so we can draft a plan for our next get-together?"

The princess stopped smiling, almost looking forlorn as she replied. "Our next get-together, I'm afraid that will be some months off from now. If I can dedicate clearing a day of my schedule and make sure that you can at least clean a slate for three months from now, I'd be more than willing to oblige."

I was stunned to silence, finding it hard to see myself waiting that long for a date. "Three months is a long time to wait."

She then tried to inject some optimism into the situation. "Most of your shift will be around me anyhow, so we really wouldn't be absent from one another. It's just that we'll be doing a lot of our talking behind the scenes, more preferably the nightly escort to my personal chambers."

"You think the guys above my pay grade would allow that?"

"Of course they won't, they've already sent a guard or two to fulfill that job in your place to make sure things stay strictly unbiased and professional." She stated.

I started looking at the time to check on when it was a good time to start heading out. Thankfully we had a lot of time before the final hour of the year. "Even then, you would think that they would allow the captain of your guard to actually do his job."

"You mean that they would allow my personal selection of preference to have unrestricted nightly access to the highest ruler in all of the land? Doesn't that compromise your whole facade of not liking the royals in some way?"

I pointed at her, reminding her of what we were currently doing. "You know, what we're doing now compromises that to a significant degree."

"And who is here to witness it?" She asked with a coy look.

"Solid point." I nodded back. The princess uncrossed her legs, looking down into her empty glass. I grabbed the bottle of wine at the center of the table and started pouring for her. She proceeded to slowly sip down her wine as an amusing thought came to my mind. "You know, Shining thought you would've liked my brother instead of me."

"Alex, why?" Celestia questioned, looking perplexed at the idea of dating my older brother.

"Well, Cadance always said that the two of you would be an ideal power couple if it weren't for two key factors, him being human and him being married."

She emphatically shot down the idea. "I have nothing against Alex, but he's not my type. We work well together, that's a positive. We do a lot of compromising, that's another positive. He's a married man, that's just the death flag on all of it. And then there's no possible way I'd really find myself being emotionally drawn to him because I just see him as a consummate professional."

"That word has two meanings, you know." I joked.

"You're thinking of the verb, I'm saying the adjective." She said while slightly kicking against my leg, as a way to tell me to keep my thoughts clean. "Besides, he may have the intellect, but I'm not sure of his will. He's dedicated to you and your happiness, but I can't shake the feeling that if he had a personal preference, he would sooner see you stay here and never return to Equestria. He's just that protective of you."

After my outburst earlier in the day, it would probably be his next step if things went a little too far for his liking. "I wouldn't be surprised if he had that thought run around his brain for a bit."

"Stanton is a lost cause for me." The princess swirled the wine in her glass and thought more about me and my brothers. She even started expanding on the topic by evaluating my younger brother, which was a bit surprising to me.

"More on my brothers?"

"He is! I mean the moment he tried to intimidate Luna with the idea of her unsullied virtue had told me everything. He's fearless, but I do not see it coming from any other place than hubris. I also don't see him as being the patient type. He likes the gratification of the moment, doing and living for the now as opposed to seeing what's to come for the future."

In all reality, an I any different? I was just drooling over her thighs on the way here. "I mean, I haven't really drawn up a five-year plan myself."

"He's also cocky, he's very physical, and he's more invested in his tally count, so to speak." She added.

Now that's more on the nose. "Yeah, he is a bit of a man-whore. But am I any different?"

"You sure don't subscribe to the idea of indulging yourself as often as I would've figured you to do. I'm not exactly sure on what you do as a bachelor nor do I seem to care of it, but your time with Twilight has shown me that much."

Just that moment made me feel somewhat bittersweet. "Yeah, I'm sure it did."

Noticing my mood, she quickly changed the subject with another story. "You know, Fair Charity was incredibly upset when he discovered that his royal status restricted his sexual encounters. It was like watching a banker lose all the money in his account. If there's anyone that takes after that stallion in that context, it would be Stanton."

"Well that's surprising. Thought honestly that he'd find some girl who would inevitably whip him into shape. It's either that or the wrong one comes around and damages his ability to trust in any partners." I stated, thinking of Stanton and his particular circumstance.

"But that's not what you want to see." She said, her voice now growing more solemn. "Losing trust, the ability to love, all of that is so painful to watch."

"I guess you'd know from experience." I said, thinking of her story about the eccentric prince.

She whispered at me, placing her glass on the table. "Not just me... Cadance too."

"Seriously?" I almost felt myself wanting to stand up at the sudden revelation. She started to tell of that story, keeping it much more brief this time.

"She had an interest before Shining. She wanted that bright innocent image of happily ever after, but he wanted power and wealth. So he tried to do what he could to manipulate her into succumbing to his demands. Poor girl had to watch as mare after mare left his bedroom, all as a consequence of her saying no to him for something. The tragic thing was that she was fine with it, until I had to personally intervene and nullify her approval process. So I denied him, he thought he could convince her to run away from it all, she said no again, and he tried to force his resolution to her. Blueblood and I caught him before anything could go any further." For the fraction of a second, I could see the glass she place down start to emit steam. That meant she was angry thinking about it. "Long story short, there's a hole in some old cathedral that's been turned into a gladiatorial arena."

I pursed my lips, my eyes darting around as I bobbed my head slowly. "Wow, I guess that explains Cadance's Spartan-like nature in having a monogamous relationship with Shining. Or just her attitude on relationships in general."

Celestia quickly grabbed the glass filled with the steaming wine and tossed the contents into the back of her throat, trying to not draw the attention of an oncoming waiter. "It was horrible, watching the poor girl whisper to us at his every infraction and say 'It's okay, he's just relieving himself.' It was one of the worst cases of Stockholm Syndrome I've ever seen. I've watched her lose her color each day of those long, grueling thirteen months."

I then filled her glass with some cold wine again. "Surprised you didn't stop it sooner."

"She wouldn't let me, saying that she could change him. But I'm sure you've caught on to one of her bad habits from working with her. She doesn't really plan for a follow-through or aftermath. A beautiful heart who lives in the abstract present, never really looking at the future implications... until recently."

"You mean the baby." I answered.

She shook her head. "No, try Cadance almost losing Shining to a suicide attempt. That's what it took for her to start looking at the future and it's consequences."

It does explain a lot about her, especially her lack of a plan coordinated when she tried to enlist for my help. "She's done a pretty good job if that's how far she's come. Still could use some work though."

"Wonderful even." Celestia said as she sipped on a much cooler beverage. The waiter moved past us and started to tend to another one of his tables. "Now all that remains is Luna to finally integrate herself into modern society."

"I thought she had already done that." I said, feeling a bit confused.

"My sister is still awkward to public appearances. We're working with her on that. Tonight should be a good way for her to do that while being in the comfort of her own arena."

It seemed that she had observed a flaw for every royal in the line. I started to get a little curious as to what else she would say. "What do you think Twilight's main thing was?"

"Making friends outside of her comfort zone. And that was a risk and a half, she didn't even talk that frequently to the students she was in class with. They just dragged her along."

"So I've been told. But she came a long way too."

The princess eyed me, appearing distressed. "You miss her, don't you?"

I started looking at the fact that I started veering onto the topic of Twilight ever since she mentioned her name. I had to mentally correct myself. "I want to focus on what's in front of me right now." I said, trying to enforce that to myself. "And I think what's in front of me is the idea of heading out to the boardwalk."

Celestia gave me a pretty serious look before cracking a light smile. "Way to dance around the question. Guess you know a thing or two about keeping the girl happy."

"Hey, I thought I was supposed to be the one introducing you to twenty-first century dating."

"Making the girl smile, I'd like to think that's a universal rule."

The waiter left one table after checking in on their meals and approached us with a receipt. He presented it to us on a small silver tray. "Your bill, sir."

I peeked at the price, seeing that our dinner had set me back almost three-hundred dollars. Not that I minded the price that much, I knew what I was getting into. I laid three-hundred and fifty dollars on the ticket and closed my wallet, my mind was already set for the night on the boardwalk.

"Keep the change."

After our night out, we made our way towards the river, crossing the bridge and reaching the parking lot access for the boardwalk. Looking at the time, I saw that we had a whole hour and a half before the clock struck twelve. But we made it to the boardwalk and finally got around to seeing a view of the city skyline in the distance. A good amount of others who had similar intentions as we did strolled down the boardwalk, waiting for that moment the year can finally be put to rest. The princess stepped out to the balcony before I called out to her.

"This way." I urged, trying to get her a better view of the skyline instead of having to fight with the trees.

A young couple bumped into the princess and apologized as they went about their way. She came over and looked back at the passing traffic. "My goodness, didn't expect the crowd to brave all of this cold." She said while rubbing her hands together.

"Please, if you think a bunch of people aren't gonna go out and watch the sky as the year turns, you're insane."

The princess shuddered as the winter air bit off some of her personal comfort. "But as cold as it is out here, it sure is lively out tonight."

I walked up to her, adjusting her coat to where it covered more of her shoulders. I then grabbed her hands and blew onto them, warming them a good amount while I rubbed them. She looked at me with embarrassment as I spoke. "People wanna bring in the new year. A lot are hoping to put this year behind them. A lot of bad things happened for some, a lot of good memories being left behind for others. But everyone wants to see what comes next, it's that anticipation of possibly changing themselves or even looking forward to improving on what they're dealing with."

"That's everywhere then. Equestria's no different." She said through shivering teeth.

I decided to get in closer, doing my best to offer my own body heat to keep her warm. "How many nights like this have you had like that?"

"Pretty sure they number well beyond a thousand." She said, her jaw stabilizing as a sign of her getting more comfortable.

"Huh, and here I am stuck at twenty one." I answered, starting to feel a bit of the cold myself.

She noticed that I was starting to feel the effects of the cold as well, and wrapped some of her coat over me to warm the both of us. Her head leaned into mine as we both looked on to the skyline. Suddenly, a curious question came to her. "...When is your birthday? You know, you've been in Equestria for almost a year now, you were found in January, and not once has there been any rumblings or sayings of a celebration for your birthday. So when is it?"

"January 4th." I replied.

The princess' eyes widened as she realized how quick it was approaching. "Oh wow. That's coming up pretty soon."

"It's the week before I had that party at Galveston." I said, my mind going back to that night.

"What was so special about this party you went to anyways?"

I grimaced as I realized I didn't really want to admit what I did out loud. "Did some drugs, tried to high-away my depression, got into a fight with some friends, drove my car into the gulf. Next day, woke up in a bed in the middle of a town full of technicolor equines."

"That's... an adventure." She said, thinking quietly about what I confessed to her.

"Won't make that mistake again." I mumbled to her. "I've got a little more in the tank than I did almost a year ago. I guess you keeping me company does that for me."

The princess' arm bumped against mine. I could lightly feel the goosebumps on her skin from the cold. As our arms brushed together, I could feel our thumbs knocking against one another. The princess moved her hand closer to mine, still operating on her equine method of hoof holding. I chuckled before I opened my hand, letting her experience the warmth of my fingers interlocking with hers. She squeaked for a second, looking down to see our hands warming each other in such a foreign manner to her. But as I looked up to her, I could see that she had immense comfort in what we were doing.

The side of the coat I was in suddenly slipped off of my shoulders, exposing me to the cold. I had to grab it before it fell off of her as well. But when I reached over to save our main source of warmth...

"Nondis!"

Someone with a seemingly upset voice screamed my name. I looked around, trying to identify who it was that tried to get my attention. "Did someone call my name?" I asked the princess.

"I believe they did." She said, trying to look around for who called me.

Without warning, I felt a sharp jolt in my side, almost as if someone had dug their elbow into the side of my ribs. "Augh! Hey, what the hell!?"

Next thing I knew, I was staring right at Mel, who scowled at me with a scathing tone. "Nondis, you jerk! You said you were on escort! What the hell are you doing here!?"

"Well, I am on escort." I said, pointing to the princess.

Mel immediately shoved me out of the picture as she gave Celestia a friendly embrace. "Big Momma Celly, so is he supposed to be your escort today?"

Celestia, who was caught off guard by her sudden appearance, tried to cook up an excuse. "Well yes, I asked him to show me this world's version of a New Year's celebration to see what we could do to enhance our own experience in Equestria."

While I was busy nursing the rib she dug her elbow into, an unfamiliar woman called out to Mel. "Hey Melanie, is that the guy you were on about?"

She broke off of Celestia to give me another ribbing, thankfully not as hard as the first one. "Yup, he's the residential asshole who can't seem to keep a story together!"

I looked to see a group of three other girls, each of them wearing denim jeans and a number on their black shirts, obviously indicating the year turning over. A chubby dark-skinned girl with a puffy fro pulled to the back walked up to me and tilted her head as she observed me. "Wow, you really tried it. You know you ain't no good."

"Yeah you could say that, but he's really a loveable asshole who can't seem to stay out of trouble." Mel added, trying to mitigate the damage she already did to my ribs.

"He's cute." Said another girl who walked up to me. She had straight blonde hair and green eyes, folding one arm to her chest to prop up the other as she pointed at all of my features. She then placed a hand on my chest, rubbing my pecks as she cooed. "Oh, he's a snack."

Celestia was very much displeased with the blonde girl feeling her way around me. Mel wasn't exactly comfortable with the idea either, getting in between the both of us and politely guiding Miss Fondlesworth away from my body. "Yeah, but he's apparently on escort."

"You know, he could be escorting all of us." The blonde girl joked, pissing Celestia off even more that I had to inch closer to the princess in an attempt to ease her wrath.

The final girl, with light brown skin and curly hair ran over and grabbed my arm, in extension pulling me away from Celestia again. "Yeah! We could totally use an escort tonight, lots of drunk, perverted tourists and weirdos prowling the streets! Let's take him with us! We can totally watch the fireworks together!"

The high princess didn't like the idea that her night was being impeded by a random group of girls trying to abscond with her date. But in an instant, her demeanor changed as soon as her arm was grabbed by the girl with the pulled-back fro. "Fuck that, let's take the WNBA chick!"

Celestia, obviously bewildered, didn't know what to say to the girl pulling her arm. "Um, I'm sorry but─"

The blonde girl ran over and took a quick look at the princess, trying to get a quick look at her eyes in the light. As she did she found herself pleasantly surprised. "Oh my gosh, your eyes are so fucking pretty! I love how natural your contacts look! I really want some, you know where I can get them?"

"Oh, those." The princess hummed, unsure of what to say.

Mel looked over to the princess and quickly broke the girls away from her to give the foreign princess some personal space. "Right, I haven't introduced you guys. Nondis, Celestia, these are my friends Kayla, Staci, and Breonna. Kayla majors in accounting, Staci majors in political science, and Breonna majors in counseling."

"Nice to meet the two of you." Staci, the blonde girl, called out as she quickly reached out to shake my hand, probably for a little longer that I was comfortable with.

"Likewise." I said nervously, trying to retract my hand without being rude.

"Yo, Mel!" Another voice shouted from behind me. I turned around, watching as Cliff, Rickey, Rodney, and Terrance came jogging from the shore.

"Oh gosh, it's the losers from Delta Phi." Said Breonna, the girl with the fro puff, loud enough so that the approaching group of guys could hear.

Cliff eyed the girl who made the comment and offered his hand to show off our fraternity's handshake. "Hey hey, Nondis. How you doin' bruh!?"

The two of us exchanged the handshake in perfect execution, displeasing Breonna. "You know, living well, peace and prosperity, all that."

"Shit man, I thought you said you were on patrol." Rickey said as he did the same.

Cliff looked over to see the four streaks of color in Celestia's hair, quickly identifying her. "Bruh, he is on patrol." He hunched over Rickey's shoulder while nodding his head to the direction of the disguised royal, speaking in pig latin. "Incesspray overyay erethay. (Princess over there)."

Rickey jumped at that revelation and couldn't quite control himself completely. "Oh shit! Princ─I mean─Miss Celestia, how's it been!?"

"It's... well, I guess." She said, completely dispirited that our date had fallen apart so quickly.

Breonna, not too kind on trying to look at us frat boys, vied for a quicker separation of the two groups. "Perfect! We'll take miss WNBA and you can take your friend."

While I pulled out my phone to check the time, another hand quickly swiped my phone away from me and started tapping away at the screen. The culprit was none other than Staci. "What are you doing with my phone?" I asked, not trying to cuss the bitch out for stealing that from me, knowing we aren't close enough to play around like that.

"This shit is so damn pretty, where'd you get this case?" She asked, turning her back to me.

"It was made by a friend." I said, trying to grab it back.

She kept moving the exact opposite way, walking off to keep herself outside of my arm's reach. "Shit, you gotta hook me up. This jewel shit is just so real looking." If I had told her that it was real jewels, I'd never see that phone again.

I again tried to grab my phone. "Hey um, ladies, me and Celestia were gonna go downtown─"

"You can go downtown later! We've got to get to know this lady." Breonna said as she eyed Celestia, who was quickly starting to become irritable and uncomfortable, yet feigning a patient disposition.

"Um, my phone?" I said to the girl a little more forceful as she finished pecking at the screen.

"Riiiight." She said trying to play cute. She gave me back my phone and whispered to me. "I'm under StaciCutie, call me."

"Okay, I guess we're doing this now." I said as I went to my phone-book options. I also looked in my recent calls list to see that she had called her phone before giving it back to me. Yeah, I blocked her number as soon as it came up on the list.

Rickey walked over and placed his hand on my shoulder. "Come on, Nondis. Mel's got her covered. Now if she was going with a group of strangers, then we'd have a problem."

"They are a group of strangers." I replied slowly and angrily.

"A group of strangers armed with bear mace and tasers. They got it." Rickey said, trying to reinforce the idea of her being in good hands.

"Guys─" I said, looking back to see Celestia glancing over to me as she was dragged further along the boardwalk. The all-girl group slowly drifted apart from us guys, leaving us to spend time amongst ourselves.

Cliff jumped in and offered an idea for the others to agree to. "Hey, you said you were going downtown. There a few bars with some live bands we could go to."

As the other guys started to toss out some ideas, I had quietly resigned to the idea that our date had come to a premature end. I wanted to run back over and take the princess as quickly as I could and get as far away as possible, but it would easily compromise our status to the others. I had to play it off. So I pretended to be onboard. "...Sure."

After all, what's a three-month wait for the next date with the princess?... Fuck my life.

Meanwhile...
***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

My dorm friends had always been around with me through some of my worst times and my best. These three were really the closest things I had outside of Nondis. We stayed together for a time, sharing the same four-room-two-bath unit. It wasn't until senior year when I finally dropped the idea of being locked to the dorm life. Granted, my neighbors weren't so Christian as they are now, so I could do a little more in terms of fun. If I had to take some time to off blow some steam so-to-speak, it was a lot easier to not get a noise complaint. If I wanted to blast my games or some movies on my speakers, it was with group participation in mind.

Living in an apartment did have it's perks, such as not having to worry about the same guy you slept with being distracted by your roommate wearing nothing but a t-shirt and panties. And if you had to deal with the monthly issue, there was always plenty of bananas and chocolate on hand, instead of griping about someone going through your four-ounce tub of Häagen-Dazs because they simply felt like it. There was no sharing the bathroom with your roommates, no finding out your pads disappeared because your roomies had obligated themselves to taking a few because they thought they had a heavy flow, no more having to kill some time someplace else because of a guy visiting a friend, no more cupping my mouth shut every time I had to pull out my phone to blow off some stress.

We aren't as close as me and Nondis, but I did miss the hell out of these girls.

We had a lot of girl conversations together, a lot of personal issues worked through together, and a lot of secrets we share with one another. Nothing ever left the dorm between the four of us, outside of someone getting drunk. And we kept that bond for a few years. But when I left, they made me promise that I'd spend at least once a month to have a girls day with them. Lately, I wasn't good on that promise because of my being busy with helping Nondis. So we decided to take the evening off to scout the boardwalk for some newly-minted singles to entertain ourselves with for the night. I wasn't really on board because I wanted to nab Nondis for myself, but I can see that there was a few things that went differently.

To start off, I wasn't expecting Celestia to be here. And I also wasn't expecting them to be so chummy. It seems like the two had become good friends in their struggles. I assumed initially that it was because of a long conversation that they had while Nondis seemingly tried to save his own job. Turns out that he did just that and then got a new friend in the process. I can only hope that those two weren't exploring any options to be anything other than princess and guard.

Just the thought of that alone would suck for me.

The girls were having fun with the humanized princess, namely gawking and obsessing over the lady's height. Breonna was especially digging the idea of climbing that tree. "So you don't play any sports?"

"No." She replied shyly.

"And you're that tall for real?" Kayla asked.

"Yyyes?" She answered, seeming unsure on what else to say after that.

"Wow, I bet men are scared to even approach you, huh?" Breonna practically interrogated the lady with how strong she was coming on. That's a given because Breonna is bi, more leaning towards girls.

"Why do you say that?" The princess asked, probably not used to this kind of conversation. No pampered princess would be.

"Well a girl of your height and build, I mean you're not muscular, but you look like you could throw a ball into a hoop. And you know what they say about girl ball players." Again, Breonna was trying her hand, not realizing what she was dealing with.

"I'm afraid not." She predictably answered.

"Seriously, you haven't?" Staci questioned, staring at the lady as if she came from a different culture.

I decided to stop the parade they were forcing her to ride on and gave her the context to that metaphor. I tapped her shoulder and leaned into her ear. "They're saying that you're a lesbian."

"Uph, NO!" The princess reeled back in disgust, separating herself from the others and staying by my side from that point on. Breonna wasn't very happy about the princess vehemently rejecting her.

"So you're saying that you'd totally bang a guy?" Kayla asked instead, driving the subject matter to a not-safe-for-work direction.

"Um... well..."

I jumped in, speaking up for the poor lady, safe to say she was overwhelmed with the openness of our conversation about our sex lives. She wasn't a very fond practitioner of that subject, so it was only right for me to get that across before we drove the princess away from us. Last thing I want to do is be accountable for a royal getting lost on my watch. "I don't think she's all too comfortable talking about her sex life girls. She's not exactly as open as we are on the first day. She just met all of you, ease up, girls."

The other three sighed and continued to walk forward. Celestia glanced over. "Thank you."

"No problem. I told you I've got you covered." I replied.

"Um, who are you talking to?" Staci asked, looking at me strangely.

"Celestia." I answered.

"She didn't say anything." Breonna said.

I grumbled with a slight bit of irritation and started to explain to them that I wasn't hearing things. "Come on─"

Little did I know, I actually was hearing things. And it was only me that heard them. The princess seemingly used her magic to tilt my head down, giving me a better look at her left hand hiding behind her back. One of her fingers were glowing with a dim golden light. "You hear me in your head. Better to not directly respond."

I had a defeated, dumbfounded look on my face, completely shattered at the thought that she was speaking to me telepathically. Instead of having a one-sided conversation, I drew back to have a better one-on-one with her majesty. "So... what brings you here tonight? I thought you and Nondis were supposed to be running club business." I said, coding over what I was really trying to say in case anyone overheard me.

"It's as I said, we're scoping the place to see what we can change up." Thankfully, she went right along with it.

"I mean you said that, but aren't you supposed to be looking over something across the way?"

"I've allowed myself the time to do this."

I glanced over and stressed this one question. "And none of your security detail are worried about what you're doing?"

"Shouldn't be. I'm just recovering peacefully in my room from another sudden illness." Said the princess with a wink.

"And none of them are concerned for your health enough to knock on the door?"

"There is power in a simple do-not-disturb ordinance." She said with a shrug.

"But why sneak out when you could just simply say that you're going to another place to visit?" I asked as soon as we hung back a little more, ensuring a good ten feet between us and the other three.

"Because they're expecting me to make the same speech I've made for the past forty years saying how each new year is a marked occasion designating change. Everything about these large city events just makes me want to hide in my room and do what I can to avoid it. Can you imagine seeing the same faces grow older while you remain the same, talking about the same drivel and gossip each and every time you meet?"

High school reunions? Then again, I'd hate to go to a high school reunion every single year. So I at least understood that much of where she was coming from. "Okay, so it's fair to say that you wanted a change of scenery this time. But isn't it fair to say that your people are depending on you to be there?"

Her majesty sighed somberly. "I don't know about you, but I think a thousand-plus years is long enough."

I stopped in place, taking a moment to think before jogging back up to her side. "But who will replace you? You raise the sun."

"I've already groomed a replacement." She said proudly.

"...SERIOUSLY!?" I said a little louder, causing the others to look back.

"I'd like to think I have. Honestly, I want a more peaceful life for myself. Granted, I still like doing crazy things, but I don't have time to do those. It's just me cooped up in the castle, sitting on a throne that reminds me of my thousand years of solitary rule. There's no fun in power when pain has taken so much of a toll on you." The princess' head dropped, almost as if she's resigned to the idea of passing the baton. "I'm ready to move on."

"Celestia..." I stood quietly, looking at the princess walk up. She stopped and then turned to me with a large grin on her face.

"As if I would ever have something like that weighing on my mind right now. I'm still the ruler of the realm, and I will continue to do my job no matter how difficult it may be. Still, doesn't hurt for a girl to have a day off every once in a while."

I was left clutching my chest, but not out of relief. Something told me that there was some truth to what she just said then. I'm certain that she just had to play off of wearing a mask for so long in her life that when it slips off, she tries to lie about it.

I wonder if Nondis had ever experienced any moments like that with her.

I mean if anything, he's around her more often than anyone else outside of her sister. I don't really know if they do share a lot of time together or if they just meet up every day for breakfast and dinner. But with the way they treated each other before I came by was something different, it wasn't something you'd see in a professional relationship. And I wondered, with how she acted around us and how she was pretty pissed off when Staci was getting flirty with Nondis, does she have some growing attachment to him? Or was it just my imagination?

I wanted to know. "I have a question?"

"What's that?"

I didn't want to imply that the two were together, so I looked to gain some context to how she saw him in the professional sense. It would give me a good place to start. "What do you think of Nondis? You know, as a guard?"

She crossed her arms, gazing up to the sky, drumming her fingers against her arms as she started to speak more on him. "Well, he's quite headstrong, though he's a bit careless at times. I never considered him to grow into what he is now, I don't think he'll subscribe to the idea of failure. He's a good guard, a damn good one. If you consider that a guard is to protect and watch over a certain individual, he's done that for many others on many different occasions. Happy to say that he's even done me some good in his escapades."

I closely observed her body language, that was something she wasn't inherently good at when transferring the motions over to being a human. In short, her poker face was lacking, she had a winning hand and only stupid gamblers would dare to say that they had something better. Damn it all, she does have something going on with him. "I see. Well at least he's doing good."

"Do you think we'll ever meet back up with him tonight?" And that question sealed the deal, she was strung. Just how bad, I don't know exactly.

"Well that depends." I pulled out my phone and saw that we had a little over an hour before midnight. As we went along, I started to wonder if they would ever find some looking to take the bait. Not only that, but I could tell that Celestia wasn't exactly comfortable with wearing those heels. "Hey girls, where we headed to now?"

"Just further down the river. And then we're gonna go watch the ball drop from the Star Bar." Breonna answered. "Good drinks, good baristas─"

"Including that one guy behind the counter who's been trying to hook up with you." Kayla finished off as she chuckled at the dark-skinned woman, earning some ire from the aforementioned woman also. "So what was with that guy from earlier? He's built pretty nice." She asked me directly.

Staci tapped her chin while puckering her lips. "Total snack. I dropped my number in his phone as soon as he unlocked it. Had to play keep-away for a second before I gave it back to him. But... I also have his number."

Breonna gasped and slapped Staci's arm. "Shut up, you did not just do that, Staci."

"I totally did. And you know if he calls me, it's on. I'm gonna break him as soon as I get him."

"Girl, you play too much." Kayla said with a laugh.

Celestia tapped me on my shoulder and leaned over. "I don't think they're your friends." I know she probably said that more because of Staci.

"Oh, those three are always playing around like that. I just tell them to not get involved with my man."

My response drew some curiosity from the princess, she then pointed out the obvious. "But don't you have an interest in Nondis?"

As much as I wanted to assert that fact, there was no way I was competing with the kind of girls he's been having. One girl can fly and teleport at will, another makes his entire wardrobe with real jewels, and this time it might be with someone who could move the fucking sun at her leisure. I might have done a bit of surgery to save his life, but he doesn't love me enough where he considers that a benefit. So I tried to lie, mainly to myself over what I wanted to do. "Why should I when he's rejected me so many times? A girl can only take so much hurt before they decide to move on. And I wasn't winning with Twilight and Rarity dominating his attention. I gave him a choice to come back home, come back to me. He didn't and I accepted that."

She knew I was lying to myself. "Is that what you truly want?"

"No, but it's his decision." I confessed quietly, looking to my phone to see we had another ten minutes before the eleventh hour. "My New Year's resolution, I'm gonna put Nondis away and look for some other guy to fawn over. Maybe he'll be happy with Twilight again or something. Meanwhile I'm gonna find some guy to get close to who'll respect my rules and boundaries."

Her mood changed, instead of being warm to her thoughts, she seemed remorseful. It was as if she had a guilt of acknowledging her feelings while knowing what it would mean if she went through with them. Twilight's name popped up and suddenly she's looking to the ground. "It's a good decision." It seems like she was also coming to grips with cruel reality.

Then again, we both were in some way. "Yeah."

The princess distracted herself again, her mind focused on her newest pursuit. "So... do you think the boys will catch up?"

I thought about it and remembered what Rickey said his plans were for the evening, he mentioned them to all of us just earlier this afternoon before leaving the restaurant. "Apparently not, they're probably going to a bar downtown to bring in the new year."

"And Nondis is going with them?" She asked.

"Oh trust me, frat boys always drag their own into whatever bullshittery they're gonna get into. It's better to assume that he'll be in need of another day off tomorrow. Just be sure to log that to a paid sick leave."

The princess didn't seem to like that idea. She started to contemplate on a thought, her eyes slowly wandering as she remained silent for a few minutes. Her hand went up as soon as something came to mind. "Um... when we get there, can I borrow your phone?"

Borrowing my phone to keep in touch maybe? She was probably planning some way to reunite with him. Yeah, I can definitely say that those two are more than just friends right now. They are probably talking but trying their best to keep things under wraps. Most like the reason why he claims this to be an escort assignment. But at least Celestia's a pretty conservative lady, I wouldn't expect to see anything happen tonight between them with how much of a prude she can be. She'll probably hug him at most, so at least there's that.

"Um, sure thing."

Fifty minutes later....
***Point Of Perspective: NONDIS***

Our night was quickly coming to the crux of the event. I didn't get a chance to even check in on Mel and see if Celestia was comfortable. Though I was having some fun watching the guys, namely Rodney, strike out at every turn. Both Rickey and Cliff weren't really in the trying mood, offering to sit back and watch as bystanders. Even if Rickey's eyes locks on to appreciate the female form of some passing girls, he wasn't going to shoot his shots. Cliff had Sunset in mind so he was more than anxious to spend time with her. Seems he's opening up to the idea of dating her, but only under the guise of her human form, the crutch of his argument.

If she's human, then there's nothing to feel guilty about.

I wasn't exactly in the same boat, but Celestia's physique made it hard for me not to imagine the things I'd do to her. I have to confess the fact that her body would make any primitive-minded man consider starting a war over her. Just the thought of some random dude trying to grab her and do whatever would make my blood boil.

It had me thinking about a lot. What if they went drinking and some guy managed to sneak up behind and try to roofie her drink? What would happen if she fell victim to something like that? There aren't any enchanted cups of any sort that would tell her what was done. Even if there were cups available, she wouldn't know what to look out for. And who's to say that those other girls, namely that Staci chick wouldn't try to 'get her home' while secretly dropping her off at some other person's place to have some fun.

If Canterrot was her territory, then Austin sure as hell was mine.

As many other things started to ramp up for the countdown, Rodney and Terrance were trying their best to close a deal for midnight. Though they'd have a better shot of it if they weren't so fucking drunk already. "Trust me, boys! The girls down here are just beautiful tonight. Solid eight's all around." Stated a drunken Rodney.

"Are you kidding? This place has nothing that looks better than a six." Cliff responded, his mind already shaping Sunset as the prototype of his preference.

Rickey was probably the first one to notice that I wasn't completely sold on the idea of Celestia being safe with those other girls. He came by and nudged me out of a trance. "You good?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I replied while I pulled out my phone, seeing the time crossing over to 11:42. "You think Celestia is gonna be okay by herself dealing with Mel's entourage?"

Rickey, who actually had more exposure to that particular clique, ensured me of her status. "Nondis, she's fine. Those four don't leave a bar without anyone. At least one of them gotta be the designated driver. So at least one of them is sober."

I placed my phone on the table we sat at and started rubbing my head, getting frustrated that our date had ended just before we could share that leap into the new year together. I'm sure she would've kissed me again, but those lips were to go to war for. "I guess, but it would be better if I was the one protecting her since, you know, it's my job to do so."

My phone started rumbling on the table, shifting over a bit as the screen lit the surface of the table. Both Cliff and Rickey looked down and watched as I picked up the phone. "Who's calling you?" Rickey questioned.

"Mel." I said as I swiped to accept the call. "Hello?"

Though it was Mel's number that pulled up, another voice answered me instead. "Nondis, it's me."

My eyes popped open as I stood up from the table. "Celestia? You're borrowing her phone? Where's Mel?"

"She's inside. I'm outside of a place called the Star Bar. Where are you exactly?"

Star Bar, that's not far from where I was. "Star Bar, I thought you were on the boardwalk."

"The girls convinced me to come along for a night of drinks. I told them that I'd have one drink and that would be it for me."

At least she's smart enough to not overindulge in an unfamiliar body. Humans aren't as situationally aware when inebriated as unicorns often are. And there was no guarantee that trait would carry over. "So you're on the corner of Sixth and Nueces."

The princess sounded unsure, giving herself a moment to read the signs around her. "I... guess. But where are you?"

"I'm here at The Grove, same street but just a couple blocks down." I announced.

The princess sighed into the receiver, indicating that she was probably mashing the phone against her face. "Honestly, I'm having a lot of fun but... I don't really trust Melanie friends, one of them is trying to hit on me and I'm not comfortable with that kind of encounter. Call me old-fashioned, but─"

"Yeah, I know." She wasn't into the idea of being with a girl. "Do you need me to come by?"

"If you don't mind. I'm pretty lost on my own and I really don't want to find myself being pressured into a drinking situation. I can hold liquor just fine, but I don't want to entertain the idea of being 'one of the girls' just to fit in. There's also a lot of open conversations about a few things I'm not fond of discussing openly."

I looked over to see Rodney trying to hit on a girl again, but getting tripped by one of her friends who quickly dragged her away. Funny bit, the girl he was trying to talk to was open to hanging out for the night. I shook my head. "You and me both."

"So where do we meet?" Celestia asked.

"I'll come by and swing you on down to this place called RIO. That's where the party's at, really."

The princess chuckled. "Sounds like a plan."

"Just wait outside, you'll know when you see me."

I hung up the phone and started making my way to the front door. Cliff and Rickey saw me moving quickly and jumped up in kind to check on me. "Yo, is something wrong?" Cliff inquired.

"Guys, Celestia's a bit concerned over the others drinking themselves to a mess, so I'm gonna head over to the Star Bar and get her."

Both of the men winced at me, baffled in hearing of their location. "Seriously, they're over there?" Cliff said, turning his head to the direction I was about to head into.

"I mean the bands they usually get there are good, but that's like douchebag central on weekends and holidays." Rickey said as he scratched his head.

His response was all I needed to hear. "Guys, I have to go. That's the V.I.P. we're talking about. And that's my ass if she doesn't leave here in one piece."

"Sure thing." Rickey called out just as I had started fighting my way over to the Star Bar.

The two watched as I started to disappear into the crowded streets, speaking amongst each other. "You don't believe Mel's just smashing 'em back like that with Celestia around, do you?"

"No, she wouldn't." Rickey argued, closing his eyes. "I don't see her doing that."

"How do you know?"

The man pointed to himself. "Hello, ex-boyfriend of five months. She don't like doing heavy social drinking, she's a private heavy drinker if anything else."

The two looked over towards where I disappeared off to. "So you think we should kinda touch basis with them?"

"Hey, I know it's guys night, but friends look after friends." Rickey said before glancing back at the bar. "Besides, Terrance and Rod got each other's back. The Star Bar isn't that far from here, so we can head over, check in, and be back right after the ball drop, if not before."

Cliff adjusted his dreads and took a deep breath. "Shit, I hope the girls are doing good."

The crowd downtown was pretty thick, having to push and worm my way through many strangers and students alike. I kept my eyes peeled for the place Celestia told me about. It took me close to eight minutes cutting and weaving my way through the walking traffic. But once I saw the sign, I saw beneath it a reserved Celestia looking somewhat listless with her arms folded. There were a few people who passed by her to ask if she was okay, she smiled and dismissed them before returning to her sulk.

I approached her, lightly panting. "You look like you're having fun."

As quick as she heard my voice, she reached out to me, dragging me out into the street. "Hold on to me." She stopped for a moment, realizing she had no idea where to go in the sea of humans. She looked at me bashfully, asking me in a soft voice. "I'm not to good with directions if I'm not flying. So... could you take me to where you said you were going to?"

"Okay." I confirmed, getting a firmer hold of her hand as I served as her temporary bulldozer. While she followed me, I pressed our way forward to Sixth. I glanced back to see if Celestia was doing alright. And yet, she was the exact opposite of what she was when I showed up to the food joint. She was smiling, laughing, looking at the world through her own eyes, but attached to me while doing so. While it was possible that she enjoyed her time, there was one particular reason why she wanted to be here, and it was to escape with me. This was nothing different than what she was already doing, I was probably condoning it, which really made her happy. She was so happy, that she started upping her speed and pushing through the crowd just as I did, still holding my hand while we went further on.

Cliff and Rickey got to the eatery bar a bit later than I did, only catching us as we disappeared into the crowd. "Goddamn, something really might've happened the way he's taking off with her." Rickey said.

"Probably got caught up with some royal business, I hope she's alright." Cliff added.

"Could be, let's check in on the other girls to make sure they ain't down with something." The two walked into the bar and saw the group of girls sitting at a table. Rickey was the first to speak up. "Hey guys!"

Breonna was less than pleased to see the two frat members. "Ugh, how the fuck are these niggas over here findin' us?"

Rickey ignored the rude girl and turned to his ex. "Mel, you okay?"

"Yeah, why?" She inquired, surprised to see the two suddenly showing up.

"Well I guess Celestia was concerned about you and the others doing something." He explained.

Mel shrugged. "We're fine over here. Celestia said she had to borrow my phone for a moment. Originally I was gonna call Nondis while we were at the boardwalk and tell him where we were if he needed to see her, but she suggested that we waited until we came here instead. I warned her that the crowd was gonna be a bit thick and rowdy down here, and she said she was fine with it. But yeah, she should be back any moment now."

"Negative. Nondis dragged her away someplace." Cliff intervened. "Those two bolted when we got here."

"Wait, seriously!?" Asked Breonna. "She just up and left with Melanie's phone!"

"Yeah, she's gone." Rickey confirmed.

"Where would Nondis drag her off to!?" Urged Mel, who stood from the table rather quickly.

"I I think I have an idea. Probably to RIO. We could still catch them, I mean they are some tall asses so it wouldn't be that hard to point them out, especially Celestia. Her hair is a dead giveaway." Rickey pointed at the front door.

Melanie started moving towards the door, peeking out where the two were. But in the sea of humans, the princess hair was harder to spot than anticipated. Cliff walked beside her. "Better question is why are those two running off like that?"

"Weren't you guys with him?" Mel questioned.

"Yeah, Celestia said that she was concerned that you'd go all-out on drinking. So he made his way down here to pick her up."

The woman saw an empty chair and stood on it to better spot the two. "The girls are drinking, yeah. But I'm the designated driver. I'm not tossing shit back tonight until I get home."

"Something smells suspect." Cliff murmured as Rickey caught up.

"No kidding, those two just bolt off and not say anything else? Gotta be something going on. Why are those two so joined at the hip?" Replied a worried Rickey.

It took a while, but Mel finally spotted the princess hair further down the road. They appeared to be headed closer to the "You said they're running to RIO?"

"Yeah." Rickey confirmed.

Mel quietly whispered to the two men. "...I think we should follow them. I think we should see what those two are up to."

It took us only five minutes to get down here, barely getting past security with five minutes before midnight. The traffic around the bar was astoundingly dense, and it wouldn't take much to figure out that getting a drink for a toast was out of the question. Thankfully, we had our fair share of wine during dinner, so there was no need to try and get to the bar, even if there were at least three of them.

RIO was a pretty metropolitan place, a contemporary building with a few floors to make space. The first floor was pretty dense, many of the people looking to warm up or take a few drinks before heading back out into the frosty streets for the massive celebration. The second floor was where you had a lot of the pool tables and stuff like that, pretty noisy place with all the balls clattering and drunks yelling about the new year. The sound bounced everywhere, making it way harder to hear what was going on across from you.

So we took it another step higher, opting for the third floor. That place opened up from the usual bar and stage setup to a patio outside complete with a small stretch swimming pool. There was a decent crowd out here, but it wasn't as huge as the one on the first floor. The DJ was bumping the crowd up to hype levels, many parishioners were already gathered around a few gas-lit fires as Celestia and I stood on the very outside edge of the patio, observing the Austin skyline all around us.

The funny thing was that I wanted to give her the best view of the skyline from the river, but here we were just a block away from the new skyscraper they put up, surrounded by many others. It was the first time I've ever seen the skyline from the within the city streets. Celestia looked around, probably comparing it to the many nights she had in Canterlot. But she was happy, smiling brightly while she clasped onto my arm.

"It's awfully lively here." She said, excited and giggling.

"Livelier than Canterlot?" I asked.

The princess tugged on me, almost bouncing even. "Leagues and miles ahead. It's pandemonium here."

As I looked out to the skyline, I started to think to myself aloud. "I can't believe Mel was on the boardwalk tonight."

"I can't believe that Staci girl just tried to make a move on you." Celestia pointed out.

"You mad?" I joked, earning a shove from the princess.

"Yes! This was supposed to be OUR date! Not some random get-together featuring Melanie and her friends. Those girls can be quite fun and all, but I wasn't okay with them asking me about my romance and preferences. It isn't something I'd like to reveal to some random strangers, you know."

I was empathetic to her reasoning, understanding that the princess who had hid much of her history wouldn't be willing to dispel a thousand years worth of stories to a bunch of people she wouldn't even see again, even if the memories of it would only be disposable to them. It was her life, and many of those details she wouldn't tell her own sister until recently. I leaned back against the balcony, laughing at myself. "What made it worse was that the guys from the frat were running around too. I guess everyone and their dog wanted to see the fireworks."

"And I don't think there's much time left before midnight. We won't be able to make it back there before then. Guess we'll be stuck here for now."

I glanced over to her and looked off to my home city. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" She said, hunching over the balcony alongside me.

"Well wasn't this just supposed to be a night for just the two of us? I know I'm not too thrilled at the thought of everything getting thrown around just before the clock strikes twelve. If that was the case for me, then I can only imagine what you were feeling."

"And you think that I didn't have fun? Nondis, for the first time in a thousand years, I got to run away from being a princess and looked at the world from the standpoint of some anonymous girl. I mean I have a disguise for that, but never have I been simply called Celestia so much in one night! No bowing down, no guards trying to tell me how rude the others are for addressing me so casually, no brown-nosed politics, no silly speeches, no more being alone. If this was the mess-up to end our date, I wouldn't have it any other way."

"I mean..." Before I could say anything else, I could hear the DJ announcing to the crowd that there was only one minute left for the final countdown. "It's too late to regret anything now."

"You're right. Time marches ever onward while we get left behind, waving to his unending parade."

I pulled out my phone and started looking at my calendar. "I guess I'm gonna have to hope against hope that we can set up something three months from now."

Without warning, my entire phone started to glow with a dim golden aura. The princess' hand illuminated as she levitated my phone from out of my hand and onto a nearby table. She then grabbed my hand and smiled. "I'll take what I can get."

The princess used her other hand to tilt my head towards her, allowing me to look up to her. Her arms draped around my shoulders as she leaned in closer. "Seriously, here?"

The princess whispered to me. "I like the idea of an unforgettable moment. Why not dare to do something here that I know I can't get away with back home?" Meanwhile in the background, I could hear the crowd on the patio shouting the countdown, as the colorful numbers appeared on a large bright LED screen.

"TEN!"

The princess leaned her head against mine, laughing at herself. "I cannot believe we're about to do this here."

"NINE!"

"Neither can I." I replied, my heart beating a bit faster as I thought more about us being in public.

"EIGHT! SEVEN! SIX!"

"Here's to more unforgettable memories."

"FIVE! FOUR! THREE!"

"Happy New Year, your highness." I whispered jokingly.

"TWO!"

"Happy New Year, captain." At long last, the princess finally closed the distance between us.

"ONE!"

...And our lips touched, greeting one another after so many hours of anticipating. The world seemed drowned out to us as we embraced each other. Her forearms crossed to lock me in further as she and I kissed. While the crowds of the entire city, beneath us, above us, and around us celebrated the new year of potential new beginnings, we embraced our own. I could faintly hear the sounds of fireworks in the distance, the many bright lights flashing in the air. As the wind itself started to smell of burnt powder, we continued to embrace as if nothing around us had even mattered.

And it didn't matter what form she took, her lips were just as enticing as ever.

***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!"

A world around us was celebrating a whole new year being born into our lives, many of us getting to experience that high of being around their friends and sharing that moment together. But there was little else for me to see other than my best friend, whom I had feelings for, locking lips with another woman. Deep in my chest was this unquenchable pain, something I thought was a heart attack. But it wasn't that so much as my heart being attacked by the defeat of seeing him kiss someone else. Him and Twilight, I could understand because they've been together for so many months, it had to build up to something.

But princess prude? The lady who didn't like talking about sex and would very seldom talk about love and romance was right in the running. In fact, she fucking WON, she won over me. I gave him my everything, saving his life, and this is the thanks I get.

...The thanks I deserve. If I was any stupider, I would say that I didn't have this coming. But the truth is that I did this to him for so many years, hoping that he'd eventually change into something I wanted him to be. I wanted him to have more confidence in himself, more patience for others, and to genuinely care about my feelings instead of waiting for that one moment where I'd give in and open my legs. But silly me didn't take his feelings at face value, kept putting off what I thought were disingenuous proposals. Then he disappears for nine months, comes back as everything I'd want and then some, but keeps me on the sideline. I even threw myself at him, and he just pushed me off.

Maybe it was time that I started being a little more honest with myself. Nondis and I were never going to be together. And as hard as I didn't want to confess that to myself, even after literally doing so, I had to embrace the truth and start pursuing happiness elsewhere.

Still, it hurts to see. "Escort mission, huh?"

The three of us had stood motionless, watching the two just going at it. No one else really cared what the two were doing, it was admittedly picturesque. The fireworks from the inner-city flew high into the air, the extravaganza going off as the two continued to have their Hollywood moment. Rickey turned to Cliff and I, asking the same question he asked himself. "Yo, ain't she like the head honcho?"

Cliff had a whole different inquiry. "Real question, don't she got a thousand years on that nigga?"

I, on the other hand, couldn't do anything but laugh at myself, covering my face so that I couldn't see the absurdity taking place before my very eyes. "I can't win..."

Rickey saw me hunching over, grasping at my chest. "Mel, you alright?"

"...I just..." As soon as I started talking, I just as quickly trailed off. Watching the two of them finally separate before going for each other again. There was no mistake about it, they had something that was beyond my understanding. Or maybe it was just the two of them deciding to try something different. But there were so many questions left for me to answer, and those answers were nowhere to be seen.

Rickey kept calling out for me, placing his hand on my shoulder. "Hey, Mel─"

"I'm fine." I said, instinctively shoving his hand off of me. "I should really get back with the girls. Besides, nights like this aren't exactly for the sober. Better if I just call an Uber."

"You headed out?" Cliff asked me as I started headed over to the bathrooms.

"I can't just leave the girls behind wondering what the hell happened."

"What about your phone─" Rickey started before I interrupted him.

"Fuck the damn thing, okay!?" I snapped back, realizing that I had just gone off on the guy. I immediately felt even more regret as I reached out. "Rick... Look─"

"Yeah, I get it." He replied, looking at me with sympathy. "It's tough. We're gonna go back to the bar. If you need us to walk you back, we'll be waiting downstairs. Take your time."

"Okay, I'll be down in a bit."

I wandered into the bathroom, staring at the mirror to see the image of myself, my eyes watering as I tried my best to smile. I closed my eyes, doing everything I could to imagine myself being happy and wishing the best for them. But it only made me realize a soul-crushing truth. It was too much to take without having a moment to process it. So I found whatever stall that wasn't covered in unmentionables and sat there for at least ten minutes. At least I didn't have a problem with the one-ply toilet paper, I was gonna be crying for a while.

"This fucking sucks."

Two Hours Later...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

After our time downtown, the crowd slowly but gradually started to settle down and taper off. What was a night of dancing, shouting, fun, and being embraced by this goddess of a woman had all but come to an end. We got back to the car, walking back half of the way until we found a nice bicycle chariot to ride on. From there, we just watched as the city grew a little smaller with each minute. When we got in the car, I turned on the heater and watched as she took off her coat, offering me a better view of her bra-less mounds. She leaned over to give me yet another kiss before I started the car, almost as if she did the same to jump my imagination.

The ride home wasn't slow in any regards, despite the departing traffic. But it was still slow to my mind, I was visualizing much of what I had in mind earlier, my hand between her thighs, her dress becoming undone. But this time I had the desire to toss her on my couch, cock her legs back, and watch as she whimpered and squeaked to me as I gave her what she had been missing out on for those thousand years. I was certain that she was overdue, and probably just as pent up that any touch would probably awaken some sort of breeding demon. Just the thought of her writhing while holding herself open to receive me made me push the limits of my engine, traveling north of sixty in a forty-five zone.

Luckily, the cops weren't around to pass judgement.

When we pulled up to the apartment, I had to slow myself down mentally and politely guide the princess into my apartment to finish off the night. She had no complaints, even going so far as to entering the place before I did, tossing her overcoat to the couch and walking down the hallway... slowly.

She looked back at me, almost with a fiendish grin before slithering into my room. Her eyes seemed to tell me that I could follow her. Her magic did more than that, dragging me along the way to my own bed. She crawled in after me, snuggling against me and kissing me. As we laid there, she unzipped her dress, allowing her succulent body to breathe for the first time tonight. Although she had unzipped her dress, she left it on to hide much of what I wanted to explore. And it was beyond tempting for me. I started to ask myself exactly what else she could do to entice me even more... And then she just laid there with me for several minutes, not doing anything but enjoying the warmth.

Worst case of blue balls in my life.

It never occurred to me that she was a pony at that moment. But I was reminded of it when she felt very comfortable with just laying against me in the semi-nude. The experience was a massive tease, but it was also wholesome. I wasn't really fond of my boys downstairs getting to the ride of a lifetime, getting up to the peak of the coaster before the big drop, and see that the chains getting them there had gotten stuck. So now there's a happy princess in my arms, two guys stuck on a roller coaster, and a once-proud warrior being brought to his knees, his resolve weakening with every passing second.

Night came for those three and they were still stuck in the park, while I was easily distracted by another one of the princess' wild stories of her past. Censorship wasn't overtly dominant, but the context remained as clear as day. "And so I walk in and I look around to see Fair Share slumped over three mares, completely messy and just as cheerful as ever. As soon as I call for attention, he steps on one of their leg, another's tail, and falls over the third, waking all three of them up to see me standing there quietly."

"Oh no!" I called out, feeling a bit awkward that my flaccid self was just inches away from her heated thighs, but thanking the heavens that I was still wearing pants.

"Yes, they were quite mortified to find themselves being caught in their indecency, so they all just darted right past me, leaving only Fair Share in the room."

"And what did he say?"

The princess chuckled. "He asked if I enjoyed the show."

"Oh God no. Please tell me you went easy on him." I said, facepalming as I imagined the situation from an onlooker's point of view.

"I did, after I made him clean the castle the entire day by himself."

I started to laugh a little. "Oh wow. Were you jealous?"

"I was not jealous." She lied, glancing at me with a feigned scowl. "Okay, I was very jealous, but still." She said before breaking into a laugh herself. "But I did have a laugh after that because he didn't even offer a good morning. He just asked if I enjoyed the show, which grew funnier to me after a while because of how blatant it was."

"You two must've had a real good time together." I mumbled.

Her arms grabbed hold of mine, holding my hand under hers. "I had a good time tonight."

"But I'm nowhere near that guy." I said, weaving her fingers in between my own.

She held our interlocked hands up to her face, breathing deeply. "Nope, you're a different breed, both figuratively and very literally. My fun with you is more of the taboo kind. With you it's like I know I shouldn't, I know the consequences if this gets out, and I know that we've pushed things a tad too far at times for my speed... But so far, I've been pretty fine with this. I mean, we've had a dinner date without even knowing it, a midnight rendezvous in a different town, a night out in the bad part of town where things kinda went poorly, a─"

"A date in a world unlike your own?" I finished.

"Right! It's like we've done this four times already. And all I can think about is my next free block when I know I'm not going to be as constrained with royal work. It's a shame that my next official opening is around three months from now. It's almost terrible that I won't get to celebrate your birthday with you."

I shrugged back at the unfortunate circumstance. "Eh, it happens. Work is important, gotta make your paper." I said before trying to translate that to a way that seemed relevant to her. "Well in your case, you'd have to keep peace in the nation."

She held our woven hands into her chest, allowing my fingers to become entrenched in the warmth of her bosom. "I really want to do this with you again."

I started to take my other hand, combing my fingers through her hair. "No kidding. You're smart, funny, witty, and you're beautiful."

She playfully scoffed at my statement. "You're probably just saying that because I'm in my human form."

"Well if you don't believe me, transform back and see how I feel." I said, teasing her on her thoughts.

She got up from the bed, looked down at me as she held the unzipped dress against her body. She stared for a second before her hand started to glow and her entire body was enveloped in a pure white light. I closed my eyes for one second, seeing the redness of my eyelids until it all went dark again. I opened my eyes to see the princess' glowing mane moving flawlessly. Her eyes locked on to me as she dropped the dress from her chest, revealing the T-shaped scar. She noticed that my eyes didn't venture nearly as much as they did while in her human form. In seeing it, she bashfully stepped aside me and sat on the bed. "I'm probably a little less attractive to you since I don't share some of your species' desired features. That much is undeniable."

I sat up on the bed, trying to comfort her. "As if that matters to me at this point. I like you for who you are, not so much of what you are."

She looked over to me and levitated my hand to her hoof, seeing how the intimacy of our limbs wasn't as close as her human form had offered. It quietly saddened her. "...There's a lot that's different between us."

"Had that conversation before." I said, starting to confirm every potential argument she had for me.

"And I may have some things that may possibly disgust you." She said, nervously laughing.

"And that one."

"And there might be a bit of an age difference." She pointed out, rolling her eyes and circling her hoof.

"Yeah, that one too."

She grabbed my hands in her magic and looked into my eyes, appearing to plead with me. "And I might not give you everything you'd want immediately."

"WE had this conversation before."

"And I know that I'm still learning how to trust you, there's a lot to be desired when it comes to that."

"That's another." I nodded.

"And I would even have some things about me that may surprise you in terms of my preferences."

I couldn't help but to quirk an eyebrow. "A conversation I'm looking forward to having."

"What we are doing could jeopardize your work in getting that law removed."

"An issue I'm not worried about." I replied dismissively.

She let me go, shuddering in her voice. "I'm old fashioned."

"And I'm here to update you on a few things. That's what you asked me to do."

The princess closed her eyes, turning her head away from me. "...I'm a very jealous lady."

"And you like attention, so I've been warned." I shrugged.

The sun princess leaned back in the bed, letting her mane rest over her belly as she spoke. "I haven't had something like this in a thousand years. So you'll have to forgive me if at times I may want to speed things up for my own selfish desires. I mean, I haven't had much of anything with my consent in mind since that time." Her eyes opened at last, a hoof reached to the ceiling as she continued to vocalize her thoughts. "And I don't know if I can truly say that I'm willing to put both of our lives at risk for my own wants."

I maintained some distance between us, not trying to show any aggression with my next statement. "Aren't there loopholes to this kind of stuff? I mean I'm not trying to push anything."

"Several, but I haven't tried to do much with them. Even when I did, that was taken from me the moment─"

I quickly interrupted her, realizing she was probably going to bring up Fair Charity again. "Another negative about me. I'm not too great on talking about past relationships."

The princess smiled warmly. "That's fair." She then gave me a playful nudge. "Look at you being so forward with your thoughts to a princess."

"You wanted me to treat you no different than I would anyone else, so here we are."

The princess was about to offer a retort before she stopped herself, her jaw agape as she couldn't formulate her thought cleanly. Instead, she sat quietly for a few minutes until she suddenly jumped up and stood in front of me as I sat and stared at her. Her cheeks were a unusual shade of red, her ears matching the same rosiness, but on her face was a very determined expression that exuded a willingness to make an embarrassing request. "...Preen me."

Honestly, I was taken by surprise. I didn't expect her one request to be something so trivial. It was admittedly endearing. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Preen me." She said, this time with a lot of shakiness in her voice as she turned around to give me her back. "Now just to warn you, I haven't let anypony other than myself touch my wings, even the slightest comment about them and I'm already at a net negative with you. You've pretty much found out why. So I can expect you to exercise some moderation on speaking about this."

While the princess had her back turned to me, she waited impatiently, almost like she had second thoughts about her request. I started to rub her shoulders, offering to ease her concerns a bit. "I understand."

"This is my way of seeing if I can truly grow to trust you. But if I don't feel comfortable, I want you to stop. I know I tried to ask you this before and ultimately rescinded the offer thanks to a second thought, but now... let's just say that I'm open to trying this."

"You're putting a lot of trust in me to do this."

The princess quickly looked back at me and hissed with trepidation. "You should probably start before I start having second thoughts again."

I initially pulled my hands away her body, but reached out to her in an attempt to ease her feelings. As my hands grew closer to the base of her wings, I felt a trembling throughout the princess' body. And the closer I got, the more violent the tremors became. "You're shaking." I notified her.

"I'm not exactly steady in mind right now." Her voice was completely choked up, almost as if she wanted to cry out in fear. I removed my hands from her back and whispered in a soothing voice.

"Can you stretch your wing for me?"

Already hesitant, she made the attempt to warn me of her condition. But she braved the attempt regardless, letting her wings extend as she started to reveal that many of her secondaries were fluffed and cracked. "I know it's not perfect. I've never been good with it after what happened to me. I've only dared to do my primaries, my secondaries hurt so much when I try to do them. It's just so many bad memories that still haunt me."

My time dealing with alicorn wings had taught me a few things about feathers and flight. While for birds, preening is to keep the wings waterproof. But for pegasi it's to keep the wings groomed for speed and maneuverability. The primaries were the most prominent feathers that you'd see on the outside of the wings. Power in flight could be attributed to the primaries and the magic stored within them, while the secondaries were to provide stability in flight as well as maximizing wing control. Many ponies go around often not tending to their secondaries as much as their primaries. And those who do can almost let their feathers function as makeshift hands in some cases because of the control.

Her wings weren't terrible, just not very-well maintained. It was a bit jarring to see the ruler of the kingdom in all her glory, as well as the imperfections that you'd never see if they hadn't pointed it out to you. "Yeah, but you'll never fly as fast as you'd like if you only do your primaries." The princess retracted her wing slightly, as if her second thoughts had ran through her mind. But I gave her another shoulder rub to loosen her disposition. "Deep breaths. Slow." The trembling in her body was sated for a while as I stealthily ran my fingers under her wing, politely guiding her to extend them. As if she was caught in a trance, the slightest movement of my fingers against her wings had her instinctively seek them. At last with her wing outstretched, I proceeded to brush my hand against the rough feathers clumped around the areas she needed the most attention. "Sit tight, just tell me when it hurts."

Slowly, I began to rub her wings, not to pluck the feathers out right away, but to massage them loose. And being that many of the feathers within the clusters were either dead or old, they found their way to my floor easily. For the ones that were a little more stubborn, I had to give them more attention and care. When she grew tense with my touching them, I massaged her wingpits, urging her to keep her wing straight.

The princess quietly said to me. "You've been taught well."

"You okay?"

"It feels good." She said, starting to tremor a little more.

"Still shaking a little?"

"Still nervous." She replied.

"You're safe with me, you know." I whispered into her ear.

"Am I really?" She quipped, looking back to me.

"Look around. You're in my world."

"That only makes me more vulnerable." She answered.

"And yet the worst has happened to you all on home soil." I bluntly retorted, causing the princess to grow uncertain again.

"That is a very profound argument." She said before my hand brushed against an unusually rough patch on her wing, just under her tertials, the area I hit had something embedded there, and Celestia more than felt it. She winced, jumping forward to get away from my hand.

"Did I hit something?"

"No─I mean yes─I mean..." The princess tried to settle herself down, leaning back to where I could get a hold of her body. She tried to distract herself with what felt good instead of the instance of something feeling bad. "You warned me about the fingers. I just didn't believe you when you said it had a certain effect."

I continued to lightly brush my hand against the area, feeling an unusual jagged shape caught between her body and the base of her wing. I thought to massage it out, but realized that would probably drive it in deeper. So instead, I settled for something a little unorthodox. I closed my eyes and allowed my magic to flow into my hands, getting a better mental image of whatever the mass was clumped to her body. She watched quietly as I gently felt her skin to see what I was trying to remove. It took me a while, but my magic had told me that whatever it was, it was something sharp.

I moved my other hand to the area, pressing the base of my palm against the back of her wing. My other hand started to confirm the shape I was removing. I continued to concentrate, putting all of my energy into removing the mass. At last I had a complete definition of what I was removing. I held out my hand, balled it into a fist, and concentrated on the shape that I felt until it started to dig into the skin of my hand. I slowly opened it to reveal a sizable piece of cast iron shrapnel. The item was bloodied slightly, but thankfully not fully embedded into her skin. I levitated the iron chunk onto my computer desk and patted her wing one last time. This time it felt significantly smoother and softer. My hard work was paying dividends.

"I'm done with this one. Can you give me the other?"

She placed her wing to herself, feeling the new sense of emptiness against her side. She ruffled that wing a bit before she unfurled the other. I immediately started on the other, looking for any similar pieces of shrapnel. This time, there were three smaller pieces that were lodged in place, neither of them fully grafted into the skin. She waited patiently until I had removed all three of the foreign items from her wing. After that, I went straight to work on her secondaries.

And that's when it all changed for her.

What used to be a painful endeavor for her was suddenly transformed. Her body stopped shaking so much, her breaths deepened, her body started to fall limp against me. Her hooves wandered among her own forelegs. She started to shift, her weight settling down as she rocked from side to side. Her eyes popped open as I reached for her wingpits again. Without nearly as much effort, she stretched her wing for me to continue. Some parts where I touched, she would giggle. Some places I ran my hand across, she leaned her head into me. And for the parts of her feathers I brushed my fingers in between, it made her squirm.

"You know, I can't seem to stay still with you doing this." She announced.

I continued my work, finally finishing off to allow her to take appreciation of my work. The princess not once demanded that I stop, nor did I try to give her any reason to. Though what I didn't expect was her magic guiding my hands to feel the smoothness of her newly-preened wings. My fingers were again introduced to her sides, as both of her wings opened slightly to let me in. Her eyes locked on to me, but with a much different component driving the purpose of their gaze. Her mouth stayed agape, her hoof reaching back to feel my abdomen. Her magic flared again, guiding my once busy hand to her chin, pulling her up to see my face. She rocked her body back and forth twice before something snapped her back to realize what was going on. Her magic stopped and she seemingly anchored herself in place, not moving a single inch as she kept her face forward.

"Is something the matter?" I asked.

She glanced down at herself before closing her eyes in embarrassment. She shyly spoke to me. "...Please don't be upset with me."

She was slow to move, not wanting to rise from where she sat, but did so with a bashful whimper. She quietly stood aside, using her mane to mask much of her face. I looked to where she sat, seeing a small puddle of white fluid. I realized what made her so apologetic and offered to comfort her. "It's natural. I understand."

"This is not a natural feeling for me, Nondis." She yelped, becoming antsy and looking around for a method of escape. She looked at the bathroom and grimaced. "I'm gonna have to leave like right now."

The musk she gave off was undeniable. If any stallion were to catch any hint of it, she would not be able to live it down. Just her walking around with that scent would do more than cause controversy, it could stir an investigation. And I had my experiences with mares, it's better to let them get it out of the way instead of keeping it pent up. The longer the lust stays, the stronger the musk becomes.

But Celestia was far too embarrassed to directly address the issue of her own body at this point. She had a reputation for being the patron saint of modesty, and I'm sure that she never embraced the idea of allowing some modicum of self-relief to take place. Poor thing suffered centuries of letting it build and taper off.

I made a decision, I wasn't going to let her go home like that. So I altered the rules of doting, and would give her the kisses she so often desired, but not to her hooves or wings. I grabbed the princess and picked her up, cradling her in my arms. "Not with you being a mess."

The princess, surprised that anyone had dared to lift her off the ground, watched as the world around her seem even smaller. She peeked over my shoulder, looking to my bathroom door. "I suppose I can borrow your bathroom."

I threw her to the bed, watching as she bounced off and on the mattress. Her ears and cheeks were a deep red, the princess pulled her tail between her legs in an attempt to hide her arousal. "I have something else in mind."

"Do I need to get a bucket of cold water for you?" She asked, indignant and humiliated.

I placed my thumb on her lip before caressing my hand under her chin, as she instructed me to do while in the midst of her passionate embrace. "Nothing for me. What I'm gonna do is strictly for you and you alone."

The princess started to sit herself up. "But I─"

"I only ask that you have a little more trust in me." I said, getting closer to her and lowering my voice.

The princess started to scoot herself away from me, but finding it hard while trying to hold her tail over her belly. "Look, we've already moved the goalposts more than once."

As her back started to press against the wall, I got a little closer. "Field's still being measured out to code. So let me make this easy on you. You know you deserve it. It's been a thousand years."

She looked away, her eyes lowered. "I want to, but I don't think we should."

I swept a lock of her ethereal mane from over her eyes and lightly cradled her cheek. "It's your decision. We can stop it here, plenty of room to turn back."

The princess' eyes raised to me. Her face then became something that no other living being has seen. Her eyes showed innocence, but determination. It was a sign of her trust, reluctant yet optimistic, it was as if she was experiencing her first time all over again. With a little more confidence, she lifted her head and whispered. "...What will you have me do?"

"Lay down." I said, adjusting her and pulling her towards the edge of the bed. Her eyes widened as I almost dragged her hindquarters off of the bed.

She looked and watched as my head started to set between her haunches, making her feel uncertain of what I was doing. "W-wwaaait, what are you doing!?"

"Pleasing you." I simply replied, placing a hand on one of her hind legs.

She accepted the answer, but not so much of my mouth getting dangerously close to her tail, more specifically the area she tried to hide underneath it. "Um, that's very unsanitary. And I don't think it would be a good idea." She pleaded, starting to shudder.

"If you ever feel uncomfortable, just tell me to stop." I reminded her.

"That's not the point." She said, using her magic to lift my head out from in between her legs. "...I've never... this is..."

I looked up, seeing her stare at me as if she was afraid. It was at that moment I realized that this wasn't just a first time for her getting a release in some centuries, but also a milestone for something that was never given to her. "Wait... Seriously?"

She nodded, chewing her lips. I, in my initial excitement, shrugged off her worry and started to dive back down, only for the princess to call to me. "Please don't."

I stopped for a second, then resumed after a slight mental adjustment. Even if I wanted to be the first to pop her cherry in that field, I still had her feelings to consider. Since she wasn't foreign to the idea, it was better to assure her. "I'll go slow, since this is a new experience for you. You may feel a bit uncomfortable to start, but under no circumstance will it be painful." With that warning, I proceeded to inch closer to the area that dampened her tail. Her magic grasped at her tail, keeping herself tucked and hidden away. I questioned her. "May I move your tail?"

"...Please don't look at it." She squeaked, still feeling embarrassed of what she was experiencing.

Even if I felt it was a bit silly, I settled on a small compromise to ease her thoughts. "Tell you what, you look at me. And I'll keep my eyes on yours as long as they're open."

"Wait, you're gonna look at me from down there?" The princess covered her mouth with a wing in disbelief.

As much as I wanted to take in the sight of unwrapping this extremely rare gift, I closed my eyes and allowed my nose to guide me instead. My hands wandered to her belly, rubbing against her gently as I felt a mass of hair being displaced from in between my fingers, I assumed it was her tail. Picking up from where she allowed me to go further, I gently drew her tail down, hearing a slight noise. The light sound of her tail peeling back to reveal her most treasured secret enticed me to imagine more of what it looked like.

She leaned back and quietly accepted my ministrations. Her mane became her sole comfort for the first moments, embarrassed that someone would arouse her in such a way. In her mind it felt like the world was ending, surely there was no sane being who would accept doing such a thing for another's gratification. And it shamed her for being the recipient of such a salacious form of doting. Her heart started to beat faster as my tongue brushed against the outside of her lower lips. She squirmed from the foreign sensation, the warm and wet organ tending to her sensitive and underappreciated sex.

It wouldn't take long before she started to feel the pressure grabbing a foundation, building a humble dwelling place to start. Her silence was once her answer to my activities, but that too subsided into soft chirps, sweet moans to indicate that she was starting to embrace the experience. Her eyes closed to the world, thinking of only the attention she never thought she'd receive. Her longing body loosened, her back started to shift, the tension soon found residence next to the pleasure that proceeded to expand itself.

Her hoof began to hover around my head, I cracked my eyes open to see it staying inches above me. I chuckled and broke away to speak. "You can go on ahead. Grab my head and tell me where you want me to go."

I closed my eyes and continued my work. This time, her hoof joined me in my venture, caressing the back of my head. Her soft chirps had evolved into breathy gasps, cries of pleasure. The mare denied herself the usual habit of withholding her own desire, instead accepting the attention she was deprived of. My tongue bathed in her warmth, cleansing her of the similar iniquity she threatened to leave more of on my floor. I drove my head deeper, foregoing on breath for just a brief moment. Then was where her hoof drove the point home as she shuffled her body closer to me. "Right there. Yes."

"Mmhmm." I called out, acknowledging her request.

She squirmed all the while, realizing that she wanted more of me. For her, the tension and pressure had started building outward, sprawling forth from a small little hamlet to a gorgeous residence. But much to the demands of it's residents, there was an outcry for more. At a substantially faster rate than what she was ready for, her libido laid claim to many more lands that occupied her brain. No longer did she adhere to protocols or laws, those things were relegated to mere afterthoughts. The only thing her body desired was the inevitable release.

"Ohhh... ah. Wait..."

My tongue found a particular rough patch, confirming what I wanted to find for the time being. "Mmph. (Here.)" I quickly refocused my attention to pleasing that particular part of her sex. My tongue ventured back outward, circling around the swollen mound. Her back curved, her wings expanded to provide leverage as she started to look down to what I was doing. At last, our eyes made contact with one another, and her face was revealed to me. I could clearly see the rapture in her eyes, the lustful cries accompanied by a smile, her tongue leaving a bit of a mess as she devolved into deviancy. Her hips started grinding into my face, her hoof applied more pressure as I became her toy. Her ears and face were heating up, sweat starting to bead on her brow, her grinding becoming more purposeful with each pivot. The princess gritted her teeth, the purpose of her release drawing ever closer to accomplishment.

I smirked, though finding it hard to breathe. Her face brought me much of what I considered to be the satisfaction of a job well done. It was the perfect juxtaposition to who she was, caring, wise, conservative, regal, and motherly. The image of her majesty stood as a shadow beside the craved figure seen before me. The cares she had were left to the wayside, the wisdom she often exerted was replaced with the nonsensical babbling of a woman lost in lust. That conservative nature only served to be a farce, a mask to hide the true carnal fiend she caged within. There was nothing majestic about this, it was lowly and depraved, and she loved every second of it. The only motherly quality I could discern from her was the idea of her being the producer of my offspring. The massive leap from one side to the other was astronomically astounding, she gave me a glimpse into the world of her desires, most primitive and messy...

And I couldn't have been more aroused.

My fingers offered her a treat, an unexpected visitor to the land of the long-unclaimed. Her eyes broke wide open while the biggest smile appeared on her face. The excited princess arched her back as she started to quiver around my digits. "Ooh wait, you did not just use those..." What followed was a single gasp, followed by a pause of air. The mare's eyes rolled back and her horn started to spark wildly. In what was quite a paradigm shift, her hindlegs closed around my head, locking me into place while her hips rose from my bed. Her forelegs hugged me as she compressed all of her being onto my face, offering little air for me to take in. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'm cu..."

In the midst of her apology, she experienced the climax of several lifetimes. A gate thought to have been sealed for centuries had suddenly been knocked down, breaking a dam to unleash an entire reservoir of her emotions and desires. They pooled around me, dripping off of my chin and coating my mouth. The mare wouldn't stop until every ounce of her experience had subsided. And while I felt my life was in danger, I couldn't help but to grasp at the throbbing warrior standing in wait. My other hand slip underneath my unbuckled belt and softly caress the aching length as it protested against it's confinement.

Loosening herself from me, the princess jittered and shuddered at every after-pulse. She smiled, almost lost in thought while her mind had finally regained it's bearings. She rose up from her soul-shattering experience and took observation of the one who made it possible for her. I looked up to her, seeing that her horn had a bit of a mess of it's own.

"Whoa there, and here I was wondering if I was drowning or not. Guess that's another mess I need to clean up after." I joked, confessing that her climax had nearly drowned me.

The princess giggled as she felt her horn, realizing that there was a faintly glowing substance akin to sweat forming within it's swirling impression. "Please don't look at me, I just..." She covered her face with a foreleg.

"I understand. Let me get that for you." I said, climbing up to kiss and lightly lick against her horn. The princess quickly planted her hoof into my chest before I could do anything else.

"OOH SWEETHEART! OFF!" She stressed, staring at me as if I had done something wrong. But she was actually more surprised that she was getting a triple dose of things typical Equestrian mares had liked. The princess panted and gasped while she held me at a distance. "We keep going and this bed is gonna end up broken!"

My eyes widened at her warning, I started to laugh from the absurdity of her threat. "Oh no, not the cheap bed I just tossed three hundred bucks to." I replied sarcastically.

The high princess sagged back into my bed, her forelegs resting peacefully against her belly. "We are done here, captain. I don't know if I can keep this up."

If what I saw earlier was real, then it would be me who wouldn't be able to keep up. I started to wipe off my mouth. "Well it's something to look forward to next time. I mean if there is a next time─"

"As if there won't be!?" She shouted excitedly. "You blow my mind by giving me something totally new and then throw in those fingers like you're trying to seal the deal. You decided to casually break my thousand year drought and expect me to say no, oh you are in SOOOOO MUCH trouble the next time we meet up."

I started cracking up laughing, realizing that I might have unleashed a monster from it's cage. "Well I'm happy to be of your amusement."

She sat herself up, using her magic to drag my head up to her eye level. "Boy, look at me when I say this. Don't you tease me like that again." She said, giving my cheek a lick before booping a hoof into my nose. "And not a word to ANYONE."

"Copy that." I answered, slipping my hand from out of my pants.

Unfortunately, that didn't go unnoticed by the princess. "Now... About that shower."

Thirty Minutes Later...
***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

My night had come to a somber end, and a far from sober one at that. I threw out my designated driver tab and swapped it out for some pain-killing whiskey. After we left RIO, I got back to the girls, who were pissed that I missed the countdown with them. I still had a farce to put on, so I just smiled and pretended that nothing was wrong. I got a few drinks in my system, not too much to where I'd get a DUI but damn near close.

Thank the heavens the bar had a breathalyzer on the wall by the door.

Once I got back home, I cracked open a bottle of Crown Royal Apple and went to town. I was hoping that I'd at least put back enough liquor to fall asleep, but that wasn't the case. I just stayed awake at my table, even the drinking slowed down because I knew that I had to get closure on those two.

I realized it as soon as I saw them hunched together at the boardwalk, something was up. He said he had to go to an escort assignment, that he was excited for it, and he purposely locked us out on the details because he didn't want us to know he was getting familiar with the princess who moves the damn sun everyday. And what made matters worse was that she had my phone. But I didn't have any worries, she had to get back to her world and my portal was the shortest way of doing so. The door was gonna stay unlocked until she comes knocking.

It only took me an hour and a half of waiting, but yeah.

I walked over to the door, holding my head from the growing headache I had. "Who is it?" I called out.

"Celestia, I came to give you your phone."

I opened the door to let her in. "Portals open, you know where to find it." I said, pretending to smile.

"Thank you, Melanie." She replied, looking at me with her human eyes.

As soon as the closed behind us, I jumped right to the question. "How long have you two been dating?"

The princess stopped in place, unsure of how to answer that. She tried to fake her way out of the conversation. "Wait, who am I supposed to be─"

But I wasn't having any of it. "You and Nondis, the two of you kissed earlier tonight." I pointed out.

Again, she went for the denial. "I don't know what you're even─"

And again, I shot her attempt down. "Cliff and Rickey saw it too. It was on the rooftop of RIO. So it's time to fess up."

The princess took a deep breath and started to explain herself. "Nondis and I are not dating. We're just getting to know each other."

"As friends?" I asked sarcastically. "I don't think friends shove their tongues down each other's throats. So how are you two getting to know each other exactly?"

I was already indicating that I had little patience for bullshit, and she was quickly catching on. "I don't know if my feelings are real, but I feel like we could be close.

"And how close do you two have to be right now?"

"I know that part isn't something I can tell you right now. I'm sorry."

She started to walk off, but I hastily chased after her to cut her off before she could reach the mirror. "You're getting him in a world of trouble. You do realize that if they find out about the two of you, he's going to get his shit rocked. And I don't think life has been very fair to him as it is."

"Life is never fair." She replied calmly. "And he does deserve better. I just wanted to offer what I could."

I groaned as I pointed a finger at the princess. "So tell me something, does Twilight even know about the two of you?"

"Nondis told her, I told her afterwards. All three of us have talked about it."

"And she's okay with this? I don't find it easy to believe that she'd just up and give Nondis away."

Celestia closed her eyes as she was faced with the guilt of her having this relationship. Her eyes lowered to avoid mine. "We all talked with one another. Twilight didn't offer a fight to keep him, she just told me that she wished me the best."

"Your own student wished you the best, over the guy who she was in love with? Oh I'm sure that doesn't hurt her in any way! So you get lonely and desperate enough to say 'Fuck her feelings, I'm gonna play the rebound and get what I want from him!"

The princess appeared defeated, but not willing to allow me to give her a piece of my mind. "I understand your concern, I truly do, Melanie. But please note that I am not of you, I am not some random individual you can easily speak down on. I admit that you have merit in chastising me, but I will not allow you to make this a recurring practice of yours. So if you could, please readjust your tone the next time we speak."

I crossed my arms and gave her a firm warning of my own. "That's fine. But I know Nondis is undergoing counseling right now. If he ever gets into some shit that turns him into something other than the friend I know, I'm coming for you and you will answer to me. That I guarantee."

The princess confirmed with a single nod. "So that we agree on, we protect Nondis."

"No. YOU protect him, I'm done." I said angrily, still bitter over him choosing to be with her.

The princess shook her head, her hands starting to glow. "No, you're not. You're upset, and that too will pass."

"You don't know me." I replied as she transformed into her pony self.

Now being much shorter than her human form, she looked up to me with a sad frown. "I've lived for over a thousand years. It isn't that I know you as a person, but I do know how this all ends. So I'm going to tell you the constant in this conversation we're having, and it does come from personal experience also. In the end, you will learn to love him regardless of what happens. So you better love him while he's able to breathe, flaws and all. Don't be like me and stay crying over a vase."

I initially had very little care for her analogy. "Why the hell would I fucking cry over a vase?"

But something ominous started to show as she stared at me. Her eyes appeared empty while she spoke in a monotone, chilling voice. "Because your friend's head is in it."

She disappeared through the portal, still giving me those same stone-cold eyes. It was really unsettling to see the bright personality the princess being replaced by a grim, nighmare-inducing face. I wanted to ask her anything else, but I was scared that she'd pop right back up and watch me sleep with that face. I grew so unnerved that I couldn't help but stare at the mirror for minutes upon minutes. If I had been drunk for the night, then that face was all it took for me to sober up.

To summarize the end of my night, I turned the mirror towards the wall and slept with my lights on.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Celestia traversed the halls, finding a passageway that lead to her room. As soon as she arrived to the portion of the wall that was just around her bedroom, she started to quietly think about what she had told Melanie. The moment played out in her head, hearing the faint cries of her younger self as she clutched the vase in her tear-stained hooves. The memory was shaken from her, as did the princess shake her head to rapidly reset herself to the present.

She called on her magic, allowing the bricks of the wall to set aside an opening to her bedroom. But to her surprise, her younger sister laid comfortably in her bed, staring back at the opening. "Did you have fun, sister?"

Taken by surprise, Celestia jumped and held her chest. "Luna, what are you doing here?"

The night princess hopped off her sibling's bed. "I could ask the same for you. Weren't you supposed to be in here getting better from your sickness, or were you too busy sneaking off to the human world for some time alone with the captain?"

"I am not entertaining you tonight, sister." The older sibling said, using her magic to push her towards the joint bathroom they shared, urging her to return to her room.

The princess of the night continued to harass her older sister. "You look awfully giddy. Did he show you a good time?"

"Quiet you." She said, almost shoving her into the tub.

Luna didn't skip a beat in being the annoying little sister, suggestively lifting her brows. "Sister─"

The high princess groaned, shoving her towards the door that lead to the night princess' room. "Fine, you were right."

"About?" Luna, hoping that her sister would completely disclose what she knows of.

"Him." Celestia grumbled.

"Him doing wha─"

Celestia had enough of her little sister, throwing the doors open to her bedroom and shoving her through. "I will banish you to the moon again if you don't leave me alone." The princesses stared at each other before the older sibling could close the door completely. The sun princess whispered to her younger sister a confession, a brief summary of her experience. "It was quite nice."

The doors closed, leaving Luna to proudly lean back in the tub. "It's about time you found something good for once."

Author's Note

I've been on a writing marathon as of late, I'm sure you've noticed. This chapter has been done for at least a whole two-to-three weeks. And in the time, I had a decision bouncing around in my head. I was either going to break past a certain point and save something for later, or I could just keep going with the usual two-day flow I've been trying to do for a while now. And of course I measured the drawbacks, being the flow of the story vs the length of the chapter.

Having that said... I am so sorry for this Bataan Death March of a chapter.

I promise the next chapter will have less than this. And also... You know exactly where we're going back to.

Chapter XCIII

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

"You decided to casually break my thousand year drought and expect me to say no, oh you are in SOOOOO MUCH trouble the next time we meet up."

Those words were the primary thing that fueled me to this at almost three in the morning. It wasn't anything other than her that made me lose my composure. There was no denying it anymore. The smell of her musk was still fresh in my mind, the unusually tangy presence still reminiscent on my taste buds, the princess' essence on my clothes, and the mess on my bedsheets. That look she had in her eyes, staring down at me like she was greedily wanting to hold me hostage between her legs. The threat of her breaking my bed, the sounds of her whimpers, the sensation of her lips on mine, all those wonderful things proved too deadly of a concoction to ignore my arousal.

My hand furiously motioned up and down my shaft, my eyes closed to imagine her face again as I visualized her soft lips rubbing against my length, tenderly coating me with kisses from below. The warmth and moisture of her breath grazing me with every pass, her hair flowing between my fingers as she worshiped all that I was. It was far too much for me.

In the darkness of my room, illuminated by only my computer screen, my chest rose and fell as my trembling breaths became the accompaniment to the music I was supposed to be sleeping to. Surge after surge of pleasure pulsed from my brain, through my core, and into my loins, building and building until I couldn't hold back anymore. My head tilted back, my eyelids playing back the image of the princess panting impatiently for her own climax. My mouth fell open, my eyes broke wide, and my opposing hand cradled a fond hold of my pulsing loins from beneath.

I didn't have to look down to see what was going on, I knew how much was unleashed from the warmth flowing down my fingers, coating both of my hands as my pelvis jolted into them. Tight grunts and sporadic thrusts, along with the tightening grip my left hand had beneath the pulsing assembly had coaxed several spurts to jubilantly parade themselves onto my stomach and chest. Several spurts came and went, as did my eventful climax. I couldn't help but squirm and jolt for a few seconds after, clasping onto myself until I had truly finished.

"Celestia, fuck." I said, calling the name of the one who motivated that little bout of madness. I finally looked down to see the glistening mess on my chest, that bridged from finger to finger, and my even more-stained sheets. I lifted my hand up to see the ample amount of seed I had spilled. I looked over to the side of my bed, realizing what I didn't have to help me clean up the crime scene. "Aw shit, I didn't bring a tissue? Fuck me."

I glanced all over and saw nothing that I could use to clean myself for the time being. And considering that my bathroom and hamper were on the other side of the room, I decided I wasn't going to be dripping cum all over the floor. I took inventory in my defeat and conceded to the disgusting act of rubbing my stomach and wiping the semen over my sheets before running to the shower.

When I got to the bathroom, and turned on the shower, I saw a few clumps of white feathers and fur lining my drain. The clumps were very slightly bloodied. I didn't say anything as I cleaned my drain and got to cleaning my own self off. When I finished, I went to grab my comb... only to find a few stray hairs of the green and pink variety. I cleaned that off as well before tending to my own hair. When I finished with that, I walked back into the room and stared at the mess on my bed, caused by the both of us with her being the major contribution. I pulled my sheets off and threw them to the hamper, accepting that I wouldn't get to that until morning.

At last, I laid in bed listening to the music that played on my computer. While my eyes closed off the world, my brain had a lingering thought. It made me realize that I wasn't going to have these comforts when I returned back, especially after needing to meet with Blue Royal. First I had to head to the bank, then meet with her, then make my return to the infamous Corrotto District. Heavens know I'm gonna need some music after that.

"Goddamn, tomorrow's gonna be a long night."

***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

My fingers pattered against my thighs. Throughout the night, I couldn't stop thinking about Celestia's warning. It wasn't until she made the face when I took it seriously. I seriously didn't know why anyone would be crying over something as stupid and mundane as a vase. And it's even more ridiculous thinking that someone's head could fit in one, a box perhaps. But the fact that a friend of hers had gone out that way still scarring her to this day was pretty next-level for me. I mean, you consider all the really terrible shit that happened to her personally, and she halfway laughs at the mention of it.

But someone else's head in a vase, did she break the thing to find him inside of it, was it a really large and wide vase, what did he look like? Worse question, was the same face he had replaying on her mind and she managed to replicate it? An even more terrible question, whatever happened to the guy Nondis caught fucking a headless corpse...

...Worse case scenario, what if Nondis got killed, and THEY fucked his headless corpse, and then sent it to me in a box?

I hopped out the bed and walked into my fully-lit hallway, no fucking rooms in this apartment are dark for shit tonight. I stumbled into the kitchen, grabbed me a bottle of Jack, and sat there with that grim thought on my mind. Hell, if they were going to sell his body to science after forging his signature, what the hell wouldn't they do!?

I then proceeded to toss the remaining fifth down my throat. "This is gonna be a long week."

***Point of Perspective: Princess Celestia***

My room smelled of lavender and vanilla, also gunpowder from the long-used fireworks from the town square. I can only imagine the streets out there in the city smelling the same way. Canterlot was already long-dormant when I came around, the citizens would normally dismiss the night by the hour after the event. It was usually cut and dry like that, gather, speech, count it down, celebrate, and then off to bed. And even if it was a short bonanza after the clock struck midnight, it was nothing short of exhilarating for Luna, who longed for ponies to adore her nightly gifts. But even the hour after that, she was right back to work.

Of course seeing it from the perspective I have of home, my night in the human world was by far much more incredible than anything I had ever had the pleasure of participating in. The flashing lights of the city, the throngs of people littering the streets with drunken babble and celebratory exuberance, the fact that I could kiss someone and not have a single question of my status, it was beyond my expectations. Even the fireworks was far more bombastic than the celebrations here. And when it was all over, more than half of them stayed behind to party the night away. I never imagined being up dancing past 1 a.m., or even the post-celebration activities.

Tonight was far different than any of the others, and with quite the culmination to our festivities. The human I once saw as a lost creature had found his way into my mind, and surprisingly underneath my tail. Just the sight of him being there, beneath me and so happily tending to the desires I once hid from my own self, it only makes me feel the more greedy. My heart still questioned this though, and it would probably do that for a while. Either way, Nondis has my attention and then some.

As I laid in my bed, I could only think about his humor, his eagerness to assist me in my life-long strife, his tough-guy facade with quite the squishy interior, the brashness he has, the boldness he shows... the sight of him doting me in that manner. Even as my wings shuffled, free of the piercing pain I've silently suffered for over a thousand years, all I could think of was him.

Between him, Fair Charity, and the good King Sombra, I never imagined myself being so enraptured by another's presence. But it would be a while before I was able to feel that same feeling again, to have another night of my lips being sullied and my mind warped into being the selfish mare I secretly long to be.

Tomorrow, I had to visit Twilight to meet with her newest pupil, the days after were just endless appointments and meetings. My books were overflowing with dates, several gatherings with the same politically-charged crowd, the same stuck-up high-class gala's and the more similar private charity dinners. And of course, my nightly escort getting swapped out every night.

If only he'd show up every night, the things I'd imagine...

Unfortunately I couldn't imagine them for long, much of myself was sore from his... unusual method of giving attention. Though I will admit that his attention is greatly desired from this night forward. I know I shouldn't request for more, and I won't. That still doesn't stop my desiring it.

My next day off is in three months, grandmother help me. "This is going to be a long three months."

***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

After a night of overlooking some of the festivities in town, I couldn't wait for the hour after the fireworks. It was an estimated hour, but usually it's timed to exactly fifty-four minutes twelve seconds after the last fizzling rocket sang it's last tune, that was when the clean-up of the town starts. All the trash in the streets were collected and disposed of, ensuring that the morning came without a hint of the night's activities. And since Ponyville was a quiet town with almost no night life, that meant that the second the final firework died out, all of the viewing audience would make their way home with their families.

It was nothing like Canterlot, where the party would keep going until an hour after everything was said and done. And in terms of the ponies looking to get a little more out of their celebration, there weren't any clubs or large criminal underworlds filled with illegal activities to keep our law enforcement on high alert. Nope, just watch the fireworks and go home. Even the adults here just go home, though there are some who look around and ask where the crowd's going and why there wasn't anything going on. They were mainly tourists and visitors from other cities.

Once everything was done with the cleanup, Mayor Mare and I could finally go back home and preside over the town come dawn. Even if it was the end of her night, wasn't so much for me. I stayed up a little longer going over my master schedule for the year. Anything red was national holidays, blue was annual celebrations and events, green were booked engagements, yellow were days I had to go out on diplomatic missions, orange were the days I get commissioned for a speech at an institution, and purple were my days off. Friendship missions weren't ever on the schedule, but I did have a black marker for those days to reschedule something. This year had already taken up more of my purple days than any other, which meant that I had every other weekend off instead of every weekend.

After all of that was done, I could finally go over my list another two times to make sure that the dates were correct with what I had jotted down in my yearly advanced planning agenda. Once I finished with that, I brushed my teeth twice for a brighter princess-like smile, kissed a photo of my family, checked in on Spike, make sure Starlight was indoors, and picked out a bit of reading material to feed my dreams on. And yet, much of this still felt empty to me.

I had successfully did everything on my list, I quadruple checked every last box. But there was still a presence I wished was here, to share this moment with me. And without him, it felt like my night was incomplete. Granted, it was a month and some time since we officially broke things off, but it never truly felt like it was set in stone...

...Until three days ago.

That day, my entire world was rocked from what was revealed to me. The one I called my special somepony had elected to look in the direction of my former teacher, the one and very same that I looked up to, whom I aspired to be like since my foalhood, the mother I had away from home. And as for my confidence as a girl, well that was clearly damaged. What makes it worse is that Celestia asked me to keep their affair a secret until the time was right for them.

What could I do, I couldn't say no to her. She gave me everything I had in life, the road to my being a princess was all because she took the time to see my potential, when all she had to do was keep walking while I continued to turn everyone on the campus into potted plants. Or when I messed up and missed my deadline trying to make up a friendship problem to write about, she could've dismissed me then and there, no matter what way my friends begged her. Who's to say that my test in the Crystal Empire could've had stricter guidelines that I would've failed to meet. All of it was because she had belief in me.

What do you say to someone who gave you all of that?

If anything, I'm excited for her. I really do want to see her happy and make sure she has the best of everything going forward. After all that she went through, what do I look like trying to get in the way of her happiness? I really want her to embrace a few selfish indulgences every once in a while other than her usual slice of cake.

But as for him, it's more bitter than what I'd want it to be. Yes, I did break up with him in public, yes I didn't really explain my motives to him, yes I was a bit crude to him afterwards with the perceived hatred he had for Cadance, and I also admit that I might have stared at my phone on several occasions looking at Flash Sentry's number from Sunset's world.

But I didn't call him, because I felt like I knew I had something here already and wanted to move forward in my life. A nice little crush on some guy in another world seemed like a great idea at first, and then I started to see that the distance was too much for me to accept. I tried the Flash Sentry here, thinking I'd get similar results, but he knows the law and wanted anything else other than me. We haven't even talked since he rejected me, which hurt a lot.

And then there's Nondis. This guy who came from another world, eager to do what he could to get back, making friends and giving me warm words of comfort, my poor little heart fluttered once he gave the slightest hint of interest. And what did I do, I took a massive swan dive off a cliff and landed amongst the waters of uncertainty. I thought I could swim just fine, but I ended up nearly drowning. A lot of things happened and then some decisions were made too quickly. And as such, that was the end of us. It hurt me a lot worse than what I thought I would feel. I just assumed that eventually I'll grow to be angry with him and hope he fails at every turn of his future relationships.

A lesser mare would've found it easy to practice that same hatred.

But I couldn't hate him no matter how hard I tried. Truth is that I was still madly in love with him, even if he told me that my feelings were nothing to him, I would still find myself loving him more than hating him. I can't find the capacity to hate for such a simple reason, Chrysalis and Tirek earned my hatred for what they've done to me, my friends, my family, my country and home. Hating him over a breakup is just petty. And my love is far stronger than my pride.

I got out of my bed, walked the empty halls of the castle to finally stop within the walls surrounding the portal to his world. I stared at the reflection of myself for several minutes, for some odd reason hoping that I'd see him jump across to accidentally greet me. It's what I've been doing for the past few nights. I just wanted the feeling of seeing him again. Maybe I could talk to him some more. Maybe I could still talk with him like we were friends, just with a little added caveat of being the first he shared a bed with.

I missed him so much... and it's sad to say that I would be dedicating myself to trying to move forward.

My very first, and I'm having to put it all behind me. "This is going to be very long year."

Daybreak...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

The first sun of the new year brought about many cases of unprepared people dealing with the repercussions of their debauchery last night. While I was still a bit sober, I had to deal with the aches in my neck from Celestia's legs giving me a hell of a bear hug. My drain was still dealing with the aftermath of her hair, my work desk had clumps of fur and jagged metal bits on it, and my laundry still had the musk on it from last night. So my morning had to take a detour to the laundromat before I could head back across the portal.

With that out of the way, I threw on some clothes and made my way to Mel's apartment. When I knocked, she just let me in and pointed towards the mirror without so much of a good-morning. But then again, she didn't look like she was in the talking mood. It was obvious that she had a problem sleeping last night, and the current state of her hygiene wasn't the best. She just pushed me to the portal and expected me to deal with my day.

When I reported for breakfast, I saw a group of royals muttering amongst themselves. Everyone was in attendance, including Twilight. I instinctively backed away until a magenta glow appeared on my arm, dragging me inside. Without fail, I was seated next to the young princess and given a cheerful smile. "Morning, our favorite human resident!"

"I'm the only human resident here." I muttered.

"Then that only proves my hypothesis correct! Because you are the only human here and also fall in favor of others, you are by default the winner of that contest!" The mare finished with a giggle before tossing a menu before me.

I glanced over to Shining, who had a hoof covering his face with embarrassment. Cadance shook her head. "Trying too hard, Twilight."

Celestia observed from the head of the table, a far distance from where the young purple princess and I sat. She sat with her eyes closed, casually drinking her tea from the cup that levitated in front of her. Blueblood, who was completely unaware of the dynamics taking place, had a metaphorical question mark floating above his head. I saw another sticky note on my menu, asking me to go to the kitchen. I asked to be excused for a moment to make a personal request to the chef, and approached the mare in the kitchen. She happily hummed as she levitated several blends of coffee. "Good morning, captain!"

"You rang?" I asked.

"Just checking in on how my favorite teacher is doing. Usually I don't have any kind of curiosities that are overtly prominent, but I couldn't help but to notice that Celestia ordered white tea this morning."

I looked at the mare with indifference. "Celestia drinking tea, somebody call the press."

"White. Tea." She stressed, placing all the different coffee selections on the counter top beside her. "Celestia's morning blends all vary according to how she's feeling for the day, what happened last night, and even her physical well-being. She drinks black tea for the days she has a rough schedule to push through, green tea in anticipation of a diplomatic visit, chamomile for the nights she feels worried about something, and peppermint for long speaking engagements. White tea is the one tea she NEVER DRINKS."

"Maybe she wanted to try something new." I answered in deadpan.

"I should probably clarify things. For her, white tea means that she had a good-night's sleep, a wonderful night before, and that she has absolutely no worries for the day ahead. It's quite literally her mind on a blank slate."

I quirked an eyebrow. "I think you read a little too much into her drinking habits."

"The meal she ordered? Cream cheese strudel with cream topping and a side of milk. It's a breakfast as white as her coat! That means that she's literally floating on the clouds! What did you do?"

"Didn't she say that she was feeling a little ill yesterday?" I asked.

"Feeling ill without a single request for food? Not once has she ever not ordered anything from the kitchen the day of a rare illness. So to me it means that she wasn't even here."

I looked around, seeing no one else in the kitchen. An interesting yet favorable circumstance. "What makes you think that?"

The mare shot at me a grin, one that said 'I know what you're up to'. "It was also reported that the captain was placed under leave for the day as well. Not many others would see the correlation of the two, but since the day I saw your lips touch hers, I knew it was some shenanigans. In conclusion, you and the princess went on a date in your world."

I folded my arms, astounded that she was so observant. "You know, I could have you reported for insubordination and inciting controversy."

"And I could have you reported for courting a royal whilst on the suitor exemption list. Perhaps it would be easier for both of us to keep our mouths shut then?"

I smiled at the yellow mare, conceding my stoic act. "At least we have an understanding."

"So you two had a date. How did it end for you?"

"If I told you, would I get a good cup of coffee?" I asked back.

Lemon Drops turned around, opened the counter to slide a container of spice to the left. I heard a soft creaking noise as a black jar surfaced from the counter beside her. She levitated the jar up while shifting her eyes over between me and the jar. "Black. Ivory. The most expensive and rarest Arabica coffee you could ever find off the market. Usually reserved for Princess Celestia's most strenuous schedules that involve international travel in the wee hours of the morning. Not one soul has ever drank this coffee other than the two sisters themselves."

"Holy fuck." I mumbled to myself. "Where'd you find that!?"

"Trust me, you don't want to know." She said as she walked over to grab a bean grinder. "You'll only have the privilege of one cup, however."

"How much does it run a pound?" I asked.

"Eighteen hundred bits."

I wiped my forehead and stared at the black jar. "You're just teasing me with that, aren't you?"

"No other chance like it." She said, almost singing it.

"Fireworks, Austin city skyline, we shared a lovely kiss at the stroke of midnight. That's all you get out of me."

The beans then fell into the grounder and it was turned on before my eyes. "Did she enjoy it?"

"She has her preferences." I added. "I did treat her to dinner beforehand."

"Ever the consummate gentlecolt." She said as the grounder came to a halt. "You know, she walked in and recommended that I give you a cup of this."

"What did she tell you?" I questioned.

"Hmm... she said that you had a very interesting way of bringing attention to yourself. And she said that you were very attentive to her throughout the night."

"I'm more surprised that she even trusts you with that secret."

"She knows I'll never betray her." The mare said as she spread the grounded beans on a thin filter. "I made it known to her that I witnessed the two of you. Threatened to erase my memories until I told her that I would plug in a few words of encouragement. To you, of course."

"I guess you win no matter what way the winds blows." I said before I caught a hint of the legendary dark roast. "Ooooh, that's good java."

"One cup, captain. That was your reward. Now get back in there and fraternize with the upper echelons like you're so used to doing."

As the mare continued to tend to my coffee, I exited the kitchen and found my seat beside Twilight, who was smiling hard at me. I continued to go through my menu while the young princess whispered. "So you see anything you like?"

"I... well... I guess I could do with a cream cheese strudel."

"Excellent choice! I'll get the same."

Shining finally broke his silence and addressed his younger sister. "Twily, I was wondering what you had on your schedule for today, surely you'd like to talk about it."

While Twilight started to go on about her schedule, I looked down to check my phone and see if I had any messages. I had gotten one from Rickey. [So I heard u and Celestia are dating.] I had another two from Cliff, who said something similar while also sending a picture of the two of us kissing in front of the fireworks. [Movin up in the world, ain't ya?]

"So how about you, Nondis?"

Twilight's voice made me jump as she seemingly leaned in closer to get a glimpse of my phone. I quickly swapped to the home screen and locked my phone before answering her question. "What about me again?"

Twilight appeared to pout as she levitated my phone away from out of my hand. I tried to grab it back, but she kept it far from my reach as she went through my screen lock. "You're so distracted! What in Equestria's got you so antsy!?"

"Nothing, just give me back─"

"Ooh, text message from Cliff." She announced to the room. "Something about you moving up in the world."

I quickly stood from my seat to try and grab my phone before Shining personally yelled at his younger sister. "Twilight!" The young mare flinched, started at the sound of her brother's voice. "Stop playing around, give him back his phone."

The purple princess stared at the screen, looking at Cliff's name before setting it on the table before me. "Sorry, fell into my old habits of playing with you. Guess I should really take it easy for a bit, huh?"

Cadance, who couldn't stand to see the young royal acting out this way stood up from the table. "Twilight, a word outside if you will."

The young princess laughed off Cadance's suggestion. "Oh come on, like you don't do it to Shining every once in a while."

It wasn't just me that noticed how off Twilight seemed to be this morning. It was almost everyone at the table. Most of us knew the reason why. And she was almost dismissive of everyone because of my being here. As soon as my cup of coffee came from the kitchen, I rose from my seat and opted to take it on the go. "Hey uh, your majesties... I'm gonna take a visit to the barracks real quick."

Almost like clockwork, when I started to walk away, I found myself teleported back to Twilight's side. I looked over to her as she timidly looked into the table, her horn still glowing. "...Maybe I've been wanting to talk to you about a few things. Could you hear me out?"

The young royal stood from her chair and teleported us to the confines of my room. I looked around and asked her. "So is this about what's going on right now?"

The princess appeared to be in a much quieter mood, her smile disappearing instantly. "So is this what we're doing?"

I groaned as I rolled my eyes. "Are we really doing this again?"

"I'm not trying to antagonize you. I'm just..." She started before taking a moment to consider her words. "...It's not that I'm attached to you, but I just don't know how or where to go. You were pretty much the first thing I had officially, and the distance isn't quite something I can ignore because you're always like five minutes away. But I want to talk about something before we start."

There I decided to not be so skeptical, it appeared that she wanted to legitimately discuss things as adults. My being cautious wasn't warranted. I dropped my mental guards and decided to speak on level ground. "Shoot."

And her first question was... "Did you and Celestia kiss?"

I almost tripped over nothing, stumbling forward as I recovered from the impact of the question. "Really? That's what you dragged─"

But she was quick to address the wildness of her inquiry. "Melanie talked to me about it. She said that she followed you last night and saw the two of you together. I just wanted to know why you had to lie to her and the others."

As much as I didn't want to admit it, it probably hurt them that I did hold that back. Really, I've could've done it better by simply telling them that I had a date outright. They would've at least known from the moment they saw us that we were dating, and being respectful of that by not getting in the way. But I did that to honor a request, her request. "Celestia wanted our being together to be a private thing. It was supposedly for insurance, so that way whenever they came to visit, they wouldn't just blurt it out on accident."

The purple princess folded her forelegs. "Life was already hard for you when you were my suitor. Celestia is a whole other world of trouble, are you willing to accept that you might draw the ire of many loyalists and traditionalists alike? It's a lot of international political pressure that comes with this also."

Another thing I've yet to consider, the possible global repercussions if this were to get out. I was dealing with a world leader, and it wouldn't be surprising in the least if the other leaders had questions and criticisms. But that's only if it were to get out in our own country. Then again, controversy at home is a lot more stressful and traumatizing than abroad. I'm already fighting on three different fronts. "If I wasn't already knee deep in shit, I'd consider that warning. But you already know what I'm caught up in."

Twilight walked beside me and parked herself. "Even if you remove the Approval Process Law, how do you even go about proving to the entire world that you're fit to be the second-hoof to the throne? Or are you just willing to face that head-on as well?"

Again, something I haven't considered until recently. As if being in the running for a royal title with Twilight wasn't hard enough, a marriage to the high princess would mean that she would have an increase in her status, effectively putting her above even the parliament. It would also put me in that same bracket. A queen once glued to the thousand year label of princess gaining absolute power, and beside her would be the king who would often be seen as a usurper. Just the weight of being a ruler of a nation already seemed insurmountable to me, perhaps she considered that in advance. "That all depends on her."

Twilight looked up to me, turning her entire body towards me to gain my full attention. "...You do realize she's going to keep your relationship a secret for much longer than a few months, right?"

"How so?" I asked.

"She's cryptic at times, never letting on anyone to what her intentions are. She may be doing the same with you."

"I think most of the time, she's been brutally honest about where I stand in the pecking order. She's got me on a holding list for three months." I stated, while remembering that I still had a steaming cup of coffee sitting on a small saucer in my hand. I took a brief sip, my mouth jumping at the absolute quality and depth of this roast. "Oh this coffee..."

"You should probably save it for your strudel." Twilight joked before moving back to the topic at hand. "But are you really open to having a relationship you'd have to hide, like some thief in the night?"

While her question had considerable weight, I still didn't feel nervous about answering it. "I've gone on hiding a lot about myself to others, you could say I'm an expert at hiding away my life."

The mare closed her eyes. "If you're an expert, then Celestia must be a master at it. I guess that makes you two a lot more compatible for each other than you and I."

I watched as the princess sighed in defeat. I started scratching behind her ears, making her smile a little. "I don't like making comparisons. Each experience has significant value that can't be appraised. So don't think yourself to be any less than anyone else."

The mare warmly leaned against my hand for as long as my fingers flexed behind her ears and through her mane. After embracing the sensation, she used her magic to stop my hand for long enough to confess something. The smile faded from her lips and she started to appear timid. "I've been thinking about this for a while, and I've been pretty much wondering if you would be okay with it." She looked up to me, this time with reluctant bravery. "I'm going to try and discuss something with someone I had considered distant for a while. His name is Flash Sentry."

I lurched back as I started thinking. "Flash Sentry? But I thought he─"

"Not the one you know..." She corrected quickly. Her forelegs started to circle around each other, rubbing one another as she nervously looked away. "He's in Sunset's world, her ex-boyfriend to be precise."

Again, I was more surprised that she had even hid this from me. It felt like she was trying to at least put it behind her for a while. But at the end, it just lingered for a bit. I knew how she felt, I did the same with Mel for a while throughout my first months here. Though I couldn't help but to feel that she was forcing herself to move on. I was critical of her choice. "You think you'll be fine doing that?"

"That's why I came to ask you." She said through a dispirited sigh.

"You're happy with it, then I ain't fighting you." I replied.

"But that doesn't mean that you're okay with it." She pointed out.

"You don't need my permission to look for happiness. That's your own right. As far as I'm concerned, you could fall in love with a girl and I wouldn't make a big fuss about it." I said, but having some reservations about her forcing herself to move to another relationship.

"I've actually had his number in my phone for a while now." She said, almost shaking.

"Give him a call, see where his mind is." I replied.

The mare clenched her jaw shut for a moment, sitting in silence until she found the courage to speak. "...Can I trust you to be my guide if things go wrong?"

I slowly turned to her, seeing that she had her eyes focused on me. They were filled with what appeared to be worry, but also optimism. In fact, it wasn't either of those things. She sat there quietly, not looking for anything like a speech. She wanted trust, and she wanted it between us again. She wanted to move forward but don't know how, and she's relying on me to give her support.

I placed the coffee on my nightstand for a moment as I clasped my hands together. "Just to be clear, I'm not gonna hold your hoof the entire time. I know that sounds real douchey, but I can't be there like you'd want Cadance to be. Some things you gotta do and learn on your own."

"I know, you have your own relationship issues to worry about." She said. "But if you'll be there for me, I won't hesitate in being there for you."

The conversation we had warmed my heart. Even if it was still bitter at times to look at her, I knew she wasn't harboring anger or resentment. It amazed me that she had actually rationalized that thought with so little time to do so. I don't know if she's just naturally fickle or if her love is just that powerful. Either way, I had to play my part in warning her. "Whatever you do, don't rush it."

The young princess laughed nervously. "Yeah, can't really imagine what would happen if I screwed this up."

"Worse case scenario, you start over." I shrugged.

The mare looked at me before jumping at me to give me a hug. "Thanks for letting me be an adult about this. I know earlier was a bit odd but I just didn't know how to approach you, so I tried a little bit of everything that I was used to doing with you to grab your attention, break the ice so to speak."

"Just talk to me, Twilight. No need for all of that." I said, wafting a hand at the air.

"Ugh, thank Celestia..." She said briefly before looking at me. The mare cleared her throat and held herself shyly. "Okay, maybe not thank her for that. But thank you."

I levitated the small saucer along with my coffee back to my hand. "No problem, now let's get back to breakfast."

"Sounds good to me. I'm starving."

Later That Day...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Nondis***

My day went as it typically would. After the breakfast with all the royals, who discussed their plans for the year, I headed off to the barracks to receive my latest assignments. Today was a bit different. Instead of doing a bunch of standing around waiting for nothing, I did a bunch of sitting around filling out paperwork. Needless to say that I was pleased with the change in pace, but not so much with the massive pile of papers that required my signature. So I decided to take the day to learn how to sign my name in magic like I would with my own hand. Most of the attempts were successful, so I didn't have to deal with a massive cramp in my right hand. Hooray me.

After my shift was done, it was off to the bank to make a withdrawal. I opted to take out a quarter of what was deposited from the other day and happily took myself to the designated meeting place for me to converse with Blue Royal. From there we had carefully discussed our plans for the night.

Tonight, I was to set out to the Corrotto District again. My two supplementary objectives were to hire a henchman or champion I could use for any future purposes. The next one was to speak with the teller at the front desk of the underground arena about who I could talk to in order to validate my membership. From there, it would be her who does all the talking.

Tonight was to get myself situated in place to collect on the smaller pieces in the overarching design. If I could land myself a good foundation, I could start playing around with the money to delve a little deeper. But unlike her aspirations, I thought of some possible ways I could make this easier on my finances. After all, wealthy clients tend to be the cheapest bastards you'd ever meet. So if I wanted to fit in, I had to make my money last.

I headed over to the guild she recommended me to, looking at the sign next to the front door. "Warning, guild prices are not set to standard. Each client has the right to refuse or accept the offered payment. Remember: Pay them with how much you'd spend on your own daughter's wedding or funeral." A pretty vague explanation but one that spoke volumes of how much these guys' running rates were. And it appeared that they set a price as soon as they hear the first offer. It's designed with the guild members benefit in mind. So if you wanna get robbed blind, invite one of these guys to offer a surprise funeral to the adversary of your choice.

Since the going rate of funerals in my world was around six to ten thousand, I felt that was better to set the price there. Equestrian funerals ran at an average five thousand bits, so it should be easy to pay them up to double of that. I settled for a mid-ground in no-mans land, seven thousand.

"Are you paying me to visit your mother's grave?"

It went as well as anyone would expect.

"So you want me to send flowers to your lady?"

Each one of my offers had landed in shit with these guys.

"I'm good with balloons, maybe I can be the clown for your kid's birthday party."

Apparently the guild had many trades. You want some plumbing done, some grass cut, a house painted, some interior decorating, maybe even a chef for the family cookout, you could find all of that here except the very thing you're hiring them for. I even raised the price to ten thousand as a sweetener.

"I'll tongue punch your prostate for that much."

"So you're looking to solve a termite issue, well I've got the goods to sell you."

"I can play two songs on my world-famous bagpipes. Which one you wanna hear first?"

After thirty minutes of this shit, I was about to pull my own mane to shreds. If it wasn't for the fact that I was a pony, I honestly would've considered burning the entire district down in thermonuclear glory. Don't care how I had to do it, it just seemed like an amusing idea for the frustration I had to go through. If I had to keep coming back here to hire the same guy, who might not even be around consistently, I would probably make that a reality. I walked out the guild with all of my finances intact, I wasn't going to waste a single dime on this shitty ass place. Fuck em. If they don't want a job, they can all burn in hell.

"I could fight, go all day. If it is service you require, den come my way."

Just as I was about to find something to kick, I ended up seeing a tall hooded figure standing before me in a small alleyway, crimson eyes narrowly glaring back at me. Her features could compare to that of Cadance, albeit a good amount shorter. The accent she spoke with was similar to Zecora's, her tone was much darker as if she had descended from the war-torn parts of the Congo. I looked down to see her legs, shades of periwinkle with gray stripes. She was a zebra. "What is your name?"

She extended a hoof to her own chest, her sleeve fell down a bit, allowing me to see the many cuts and scars on her foreleg. "Kalimba. Kalimba Mavembe."

She said it so quickly that I hadn't had a chance to process it. "Ka-what now?"

"Kalimba Mavembe. You would do well to learn it. A zebra's name given is not to be mocked, but to be respected."

I took a moment to phonetically break down what she repeated a little slower. "Ka. Leem. Ba? Is that right?"

"Ka-leem-ba, Mah-vehm-beh." She finally said, slow enough to allow me to process it.

"Kalimba Maveh-Mavet-Mavemba... uh..." Her hoof lowered slowly as she appeared angrily staring at me. Meanwhile, I tried to continue with phonetically dissecting her surname, eventually getting it right after a few more attempts. "Mah. Vehm. Beh, Mavembe. Alright."

She gave a single nod, the features of her face softened, but not by much. Smiles were the furthest thing from her repertoire apparently. "Many dwellers not care to know my name, you gain favor with me. At least now I know you're not de same, your problems I will oversee."

I gave a sigh and dropped my head, finally finding a small victory after such a frustrating trial. "Great, how much?"

"How much are you willing to pay?"

"Apparently ten thousand is too little for anyone to do anything." I replied.

She started to turn away, seemingly with some uncertainty about the offer. "My owner has sought to barter me, for very cheap price. Go to him with your offer, I'm sure it will suffice."

Owner? She's considering herself as property? I tried to keep with the vernacular, no matter how personally disturbed the idea made me. "To rent or to own?"

"Own." She bluntly responded, with every ounce of her thick accent coating every consonant of the word.

The thought of buying her freedom had felt off to me, the very idea of BUYING HER was offsetting. I broke character, thinking about how anyone would even think of me if they knew about this. "Oookay, um. Not really used to the whole buying─" I mumbled to myself before snapping back to the present circumstances. I mouthed the word 'commit' to myself, stressing that I'd had to do what I could to keep up my appearance. "Okay. I buy your freedom and then what?"

She removed her hood, giving me a better look at her face. Her ears were a bit sharper than what would normally be seen on a pony or zebra, her eyes were narrow, her face scarred in places but not detracting from her native beauty. She tilted her head a quarter away from me, still her crimson eyes locking to me. "We do as you want, we do as you like. Whether it is combat, or using me for de night."

"Fair." I muttered begrudgingly before pointing out a rather unusual detail about her anatomy. "I see you have a horn. Unusual for one of your ilk."

"My fadda was a unicorn, my mudda bore these stripes. I was born to de world, bearing both deir birthrights. As far as I remember, when my mudda was well..." She paused, almost like she was correcting herself for speaking out of term. "I am sorry, tis a story you'd rather me not tell."

I started walking away from the guild hall entrance, motioning her to walk with me. "I like stories."

Her hardened expression softened more, on her face was a tinge of sadness. "When I was younger, it was us three. A most unusual family. My fadda was mocked and often judged, a zebra marriage was what his family had begrudged. So he and my mudda ran, with me in tow. Everywhere we went, it was seen as a freak show. We settled a district down and lived quietly, until dere was one day my mudda ceased to be."

Another lost parent, that seems to be a cruel running gag for this place. "Sorry for your loss."

"I was younger, ten years of age. My fadda saw comfort in illegal trade. Over time my life was sold from me, just for him to live happily. Eventually my freedom was found to be over, just so he could get another hit of de Blue Joker."

Ah, that explains it. To quickly go over this, there's a potent drug being sold around the way called Blue Joker.

In basic training, we had to learn how to deal with an assortment of issues dealing with the citizenry. If there was ever an absence of municipal law enforcement, we would be the ones to step in. As far as I could remember, we had training to restrain some abusers of certain drugs and substances. Blue Joker was among the top of the list.

As the name implies, the main active ingredient was poison joke, grounded into a fine powder that glowed very faintly. Among a few other things that gave it the properties of addiction and effectiveness was a few household chemicals as well as a key component that could only be sold to chemists, scientists, professors, schools, and morticians. There was no obtaining that final ingredient without an industrial license or getting past a long waiting list. Those that found themselves on that list were also automatically registered in the criminal database for any possible indictments in the future.

The drug itself had effects that could compare strikingly to crystal meth. On first contact, it's said to be so much of a rush that you'd feel invincible. You could run faster, jump higher, pain was irrelevant to you. You could lose a limb and not even bat an eye because of how potent it was. And since it was so strong of a rush, some guards with severe depression would seek the stuff to feel infinitely better. I even heard rumors that it was used in the field of a fierce battle. But as time goes along, your body gains a tolerance to null the effects. So you'd take more to reach that same high. And the more you take, the more likely the dosages causes permanent harm to the body, even inflicting strokes, cardiovascular complications, and inevitably death.

In a shorter statement, he got glued to the hard stuff. "Some pretty nasty shit."

She continued her story. "I was traded from house to house, abused and used. And den I finally landed here all beaten and bruised. My owner sought to sell me again, but fate saw otherwise. My mudda's disease I inherited, to him and others an unpleasant surprise. My value dropped and I was seen as a tool, from dere I was purposed to make one's loins drool."

As disgusted as I was in hearing it, I had to keep on a stoic face. "Sad story."

"Tis a common trade down here, pain and misery. Tis not something an outsider like you would normally see."

Of course, she could tell I was an outsider. Guess that isn't much of a surprise to anyone around here. I looked around, seeing the main street exit. "Have you ever wanted to leave?"

"I cannot, my owner forbids it."

I began to boil internally, thinking about how her life had been stolen from her because of her father's selfish actions. I never wanted to kill a guy I never met before, but that story made me consider it a just practice. Bloodthirsty intentions aside, I looked to the mare and asked. "Say I buy you off, what would you like to do then?"

"Dere is no other place I can go. I've been here for so long, tis now my only home. Dere is no hope for me out there, it would be better to die. I will soon know my mudda's peace the moment I close my eyes."

I shook my head. "Fate's gotta have more in store for you."

The mare stopped in place, her face as stone-like as ever. "Dere is a mark both races share, both pony and zebra are made aware. De mark of destiny dat shows on one's flank, but in my tragic case..." In the open, she briefly moved her cloak to allow me to see her body. Among her rear were stripes, marks, bruises in the shape of hoof prints, but the one thing that should've been there was completely absent from the grown mare.

"Yours is blank." I pointed out, finishing her rhyme.

Again, her face showed an instance of sadness. "My mudda once dreamed that I'd be a magic user. To see de halls of Celestia's Schools for Gifted Unicorns." In her speaking, the rhyming was non-apparent. Zecora had once shown me that whenever it happens, she was being serious with the topic and wanted to stress the importance of the information she conveyed. In this case, she was expressing her heart to whomever would listen to her story, possibly looking for hope. "She dreamed dat I would be de first to master both zebra magic as well as unicorn. Her dream became my inspiration, until my fadda saw dat his dream was more important. He wanted to embrace my mudda as often as he could, it's why he succumbed to de curse of de Blue Joker."

She hid herself once again, placing the hood over her head as well. I continued to question the mare. "So, can you use magic?"

"As well as one should, no. I can hold small objects though. Forks and spoons, a knife or two. Dose are the limits of what I can do."

As more information was revealed to me, I thought back to the Sunday morning I wandered over here. I remembered how threatened I felt seeing Prod Clod standing over me as if he was about to take me like a woman. I shuddered at the thought of how he offered the neck of a headless corpse to me as a masturbatory aid. And then I recalled the initial deal we made for a weapon, he offered the trade of a zebra unicorn who was 'magically gifted' and 'a beaut in bed'. The only thing I managed to see him get right about her was the fact that she may be a bit sickly. In other words, he tried to sell me on a bad deal while walking away with a loaded rifle. Who's to say if I give him what he's looking for, he won't turn the barrel against me and fire?

Needless to say, this might be the very same unicorn zebra he was trying to pawn off. "I might have ran into your owner a few times."

"Den you know what he is like."

"No warning needed. Any way I can flip the script on him?" I had already started formulating a plan in my head on how I was going to meet this guy. No doubt he was going to try to reintroduce something sharp and pointy to my guts before introducing his dick to my innards. That mean that I had to work the courage of possibly killing him in his own home should it be necessary. Letting him live after I piss him off would be a terrible idea. No doubt did I learn that lesson from Chrysalis. The safest approach is the one that allows for me to continue my mission unimpeded. And since he worked with the politician I was investigating, I needed to pick off the big boy before working to the smaller one that pulled a fast one on me. It would put the bastard on high alert, but he should know that living here comes with a risk of being murdered.

I really hate how I'm having to justify what I am about to do.

"I learned much of his fighting style, but our spars are one-sided. He rapes me when I lose, his moves leave me often misguided. If only I could win, I would retake my pride. And shove a dirty spoon right into his eye."

To her, however, she had all the justification in the world. At least that might ease my conscience a bit, rather an accessory to his death than the sole cause, nothing that leaves my hoof prints to the body. Yeah, I was gonna have to see how much weight her magic could carry. "I might have something better for you then."

She gave me a stern warning. "Many that offer to take him on, dey do not live to ever see dawn."

I nodded furiously, thinking about the unfortunate soul that he violated long after their death. "Well he barked up the right tree then. Let's go close a deal and then get my money back."

The mare quirked a brow, glancing over to me as I walked past her. "You are an outsider, are you sure you can do dis?"

"Yeah. Besides, I've got a special delivery for him he wants me to bring over."

The two of us took some time to go over the plan. Unlike many other situations where my confrontations would normally be non-lethal, this one had a certainty that one of us was going to stop breathing tonight. As I started to feel a bit squeamish, my mind continued to rationalize the cold fact that I wasn't out to kill a human. It also rationalized the fact that changelings do speak and have emotions as us humans and as ponies would, but I had very little problem in killing them after a while. I merely had to transition the mindset from one species to the other. Not fucking once had I ever dreamed of trying to rationalize murder or assisted homicide. But it was either them now, or me later on.

As far as the plan was concerned, I was going to lend him an unloaded assault rifle. And in the midst of his excitement, I was going to try to get the two of them isolated, and she would get the honors to finishing him off. If she wasn't able to, then I could at least weaken him to where she could land the final blow. In any case, I had to avoid killing him directly. In terms of trust, we had a common adversary and I was paying her to do a job. If she ever tried to flip on me, I would have very little choice but to neutralize her myself. And I'm sure she had no issues in trying to kill me should the same happen to her. At least we were mutual on that front, but she wasn't likely to try anything. Not until she knew her freedom was assured.

Probably might drive up the price if I let her go, but I did promise her freedom.

We approached the front door of the single room shack established in a rundown alleyway. The place looked familiar to me, it was the very same place I tried to use to cross the rooftops my first time being here. As I waited quietly, the zebracorn knocked on the door with a distinctive pattern. The door swung open and the burly stallion hollered at the mare. "Ya bloody fuckin' cunt, where the hell were ya!?"

"I was looking for clients to─" She couldn't even finish her rhyming scheme as she was knocked to the ground, his hoof connecting with her cheekbone. He turned to see me standing beside her and grumbled.

"Fuck you lookin' at?" It took him a moment before he finally recognized me. "Oh wait, I remember you."

"I remember you too. I came to cut a deal." I replied, trying my best not to shoot him on sight.

He seemed disinterested in any bargains that I might have had, instead being much more interested in looking around the place for something to knock me out cold with. "Look here, I ain't workin' with no yellow-fanny fuckwad who's too busy suckling on his mum's funbags!"

I pulled out the small sack and reminded him. "Bits or bollies, remember? I've got a good ten thousand in here for the girl."

He glared over to the mare he knocked down, watching as she wiped her bloodied nose. "She's not for sale."

"Last I checked, you valued her at around eight thousand. Now I'm paying you two thousand more on top of it."

"GET YOUR SORRY ARSE UP AND FUCK OFF!" The stallion shouted at the mare before getting back to me. "Not. For. Sale."

I rolled my eyes, not even surprised that he would be unwilling to do business with me in a civil manner. I sat and faked a chuckle at the stallion, earning more of his ire. "You know, I actually came across a little something from one of my changeling connects, an intercept from Ponyville."

The stallion walked up to me, towering over me as if he was trying to assert his physical presence. "I said, fuck. Off."

I raised my hooves in the air as I summoned a cloth-wrapped gift to my side. I looked over to it and pretended to appear disappointed. "Well, I guess if you don't want to play with your new toy, I could find someone else to play with."

He looked at the levitating cloth, grimacing as he tried to snatch it. I kept it from his reach as I smiled back at him. He watched as I slightly unveiled the item, revealing the foreign tool to his eyes. His mood quickly changed as soon as he saw the complex shape. "What is it?" He questioned.

"The humans call it an 'assault rifle'. It's capable of killing even an Arimaspi dead where it stands. So much for your beast of the week, eh?"

The stallion's tone softened, he almost appeared like a kid trying to grasp at a new action figure. "Oi, can I... can I touch it?"

I glanced back at the weapon with a half smirk. "We run this trade, and she's all yours. Just like we agreed on."

The stallion wrung a foreleg around my shoulders, whispering in my ear. "So you're telling me that I run away with this─"

I patted him on the chest like the consummate salesman I pretended to be. "Plus the money for the girl. That's ten thousand bits in rubies, plus a weapon sold to you that no other pony has. You could easily sell that for tens of millions on the market for it's exclusivity alone." I then whispered back into his ear. "We're talking all the tech junkies looking to sell you their daughters. You could run a whole brothel with as many bitches as you'd want. And then, if you don't want to sell it, you at least have a nice weapon to blow away any guard that tries to stop you. You could even say it could drop a royal or two for the record books."

He emphatically batted his hoof into my back shoving me forward as he guided me to his humble little shithole. The stallion laughed heartily as he shouted to the world. "Now we're talkin'! So much for the fucking spiders, we're running the city! Ah you lovable doaf, get your arse in here! I got a drink and a zebra with your name on it."

As I walked through the door, I noticed that the inside had looked much bigger than it did on the outside. In fact, it appeared that he hollowed out the two buildings adjacent to it and added them to his property. And it wasn't as if anyone would argue with him, they'd probably end up just as dead as the first guy I saw. As I was guided to the table, I saw Kalimba with a cleaned face bringing a glass at a time with her flickering, unstable red magic. Her eyes clenched shut as she tried her best to concentrate on the glasses she set up for the two of us. Meanwhile, he hummed happily, watching as I unveiled the weapon and all of it's features to him. He marveled at the item, appreciating the modern American craftsmanship.

And as the happy snake-oil salesman I am, I proudly introduced him the product he's getting for remainder of his short-lived existence. "This here is a Smith & Wesson M&P 15. The top of the rail is where you'd normally see something like the sights on your crossbow, but you can alter it for whatever midrange purpose you may need it for. If you need to take out a target from two hundred yards away, this baby can work their skulls like a pinball machine before popping out the other end."

"What does it do for guard armor?" He asked.

"Helmets are practically helping your cause. One shot from this can opener and you've got shards of shrapnel and bone matter heading into the brain. Bullet, brain matter, and bony goodness popping out the back like a piñata. Only drawbacks, it sounds like fireworks when you use it, and it's got a kick when it fires. So it's going to be noisy, and you're gonna want to keep a steady foreleg."

"Consider it a New Year's celebration." He said clopping his hooves together. "Bitch, get me and the boy a round of the good stuff, and not that German Shepard piss you keep serving." She was about to do as he instructed before he called back out to her. "But first, come here for a moment."

She angrily stepped forward as he started to motion to her to sit beside him. As she did, he ripped the hood off and held her head and tilted it from side to side. She started to mumble out the side of her mouth in her native tongue. "Nenda ubakaji uume wa waya uliovunjika. (Go rape a barbed wire dildo.)"

"Ah shut it with that jungle speak." He rudely replied before getting back to me, "She's a beaut, ain't she? Twenty years and her coat as silky as the spa. Mane and tail needs work. But the best thing about her is when you start getting rough, she starts to roll her eyes back." He laughed as she moved her head away in disgust. "Though she has a bit of a problem with respecting her owners. You might have to keep her sorry arse in check. Her disease is pretty nasty too, said to weaken the immune system until a certain age. Real fickle to temperatures, doesn't like the cold too much. So if you dump some water on her and keep her outside a day or two when she does wrong, she'll come around. And if that don't work, you could always beat it into her."

I wanted to load that damn rifle and watch his brains do everything I just described to him. But I had to keep level-headed. I chuckled at his advice. "Yeah, gotta keep a girl in her place."

The stallion cleared his throat as he pushed the mare away from him, less forcibly this time. "Mnah, pack your shit and fuck off, will ya?" That was one instruction she happily obliged after she served our drinks. The two of us sat at the table staring at each other while he rubbed his hoof on the weapon. "So... how did you know about the goods? No pony wouldn't come to know as much information about an unknown weapon such as you."

"I also have a pretty good knowledge on meats. I'm more of an omnivore myself. And your zebra girl, delicious."

The stallion hummed. "I see. So it's goodbye for good. Shame, Would've loved to give her a good last shagging."

"You know, you could go in there and ask."

"Nah, she ain't my property anymore. I could care less what comes of her. That sweet jungle arse is all yours for the taming."

Already as she predicted, I saw he was passive-aggressively trying to force the issue of having his way with her a final time. She and I discussed at length what I would do if he decided to get rough with her, which was simply put to one word: nothing. Everything from there on would be her jurisdiction. It was all planned, all I had to do was give him the green light. "With all due respect, my guy, I just told you that you could give it a go. Besides, once it's gone, there's no getting it back."

"Ah, she's yours now. You should be the first one to claim it."

And in the event that he tries to deny himself, I would provoke him with the idea of a good time. "But I'm letting you give it a final farewell, you should take it while you're at half mast. I'll give you a good show when you two are done."

The stallion chuckled. "You sayin' you've got me beat?"

"I'm sayin that you won't last as long as I would, you won't get her to go as wild as I will, and you won't dump a bigger batch than I will."

Just as she said, he became more interested in the idea of a friendly competition. "Is that a contest?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'll call it a scrimmage. Why compete at something where I win every time?"

The stallion rose from the table and stumbled off to the bedroom. "Oh, you ain't known her for a whole damn day. My prick's known her for years and you think you can get her off better than I can? Oh you don't fucking know!"

I sat at the table, silently waiting a few seconds as he wandered into the back and bashed her door down. I quietly walked into the kitchen, opening a drawer to grab something and meandered towards the room they were in. As I approached, I could see him viciously hunched over her body. She appeared listless as he grunted away, his hips shoving into hers like he was trying to break her legs. Her horn lightly flickered as she took every thrust. She waited quietly for her moment.

As she laid quietly, she looked to me for a moment. A frown appeared on her face as the stallion above her worked his heart and soul into giving her his best farewell performance. He glanced over to see me standing there and looked back down to the mare he was raping. "I told that fucking prick he won't beat me. Yeah, I'm the alpha here. Yeah! If I can't have you, I'm gonna ruin you right in front of 'im! Ya gonna be a dead fucking cat he gets to lick! Tell 'em he ain't like me! He can't give you a shag like me!"

She willingly obliged to give him his moment. "No one like you."

"What's my name? WHAT'S MY NAME!!?" He screamed out, getting lost in his approaching climax. But he wasn't even aware of what she was doing, the fact that she was actually putting her all into keeping her magic somewhat stable. While he continued to sink himself in and out of her with reckless abandon, he didn't give any notice to the short-barreled Luger inching closer to the back of his head. For the few minutes he rammed, she tried her damnedest to quietly aim the gun for his head. The weapon shook unsteadily as she firmed her resolve. He firmed his position and pressed his hoof into her neck as he finally reached his apex, his length throbbed as he filled her. "FUC-KING HEELLL─"

*PLECK*

As he arched his back from his climax, the final moment he experienced was the sensation of not just his loins unloading into the mare beneath him, but also the blood from his brain draining down his neck. He hissed with a dying whimper before he finally slouched on top of her. She quickly moved his dying body off of her and rose from the bed, covered in blood spatter and a small amount of his very literal afterthoughts. The smoking barrel proved as additional evidence to the bullet's thunderous exit. The mare panted heavily as she stared at the locked-up stallion dying on the floor, with one eye partially ejected from his skull.

The injury didn't seem to phase her much, but she looked down to see much of his seed still spilling from his loins. She slowly levitated the gun to meet with his face and pulled the trigger, only for there to be no followup to the previous display of fireworks. She slowly pulled the trigger a third and a fourth time, hoping that something would come out to add to her excitement. Upon realizing that I had only loaded one bullet in the revolver, she allowed me to take the gun from her. And in it's place, I levitated a spoon before her. She looked back at me as I whispered. "Glad you got your pride back. Thought you'd love this."

She took the spoon, her eyes staying locked on him as she held the spoon in her teeth. I walked off and left the two to their business, collecting my wares and reacquiring my finances along the way. As I did so, I could hear the grunts of the mare getting louder and gradually become mixed with a few sobs. But what I also heard was the sickening sound of a spoon being dug into his skull ad nauseam. I could hear her crying out in her native tongue. "Hiyo ni sawa! Bisha kuzimu! Kutana na babu zako kwa aibu! (That's right! Burn in hell! Meet your ancestors in shame!)"

I then took the time to pour another drink, waiting for the mare to finish her business. "Take your time!"

† PROD CLOD Came and went. †

After some time, the streets started to fill with spectators to the upcoming event. After a brief moment of vulnerability in the shower, Kalimba walked out with a lot less blood on her. I could tell she was far from being at peace with herself, but she was at least physically exhausted from excavating her former master's brain from his skull using a rusted spoon. After I took inventory of what I needed to put back away, we carried on and made our way to the arena.

As soon as we arrived, there was a huge crowd lining up at the front desk to get their tickets to the first spectacle of the new year. Judging from the crowd that seemed to be more of a fire hazard, this seemed to be a huge event where everyone and their dog had to see who would be crowned the new Beast of the Week. You couldn't miss the hottest ticket in town. Even among the castle, where a simple mention of this place was forbidden, whispers could be heard about who had their money on what. And there was promotional posters thrown up all over the district. It was like watching pay-per-view boxing.

Security seemed a lot more strict this go around, kicking out anyone who seemed to be a little too vanilla for their liking. Even my walking up was questioned until I had told him that I was looking to purchase my way into the VIP lounge. From there, I bypassed every security check they had for everyone else.

"Tis busier than usual, never have I seen dis place so full." Kalimba pointed out, looking around as we walked.

"Well I'd like to assume that there usually isn't so much of a sneak peek going into these. But since one of the matches from Tuesday night got botched, they had to entertain the crowd somehow. So they gave them a quick glimpse of 'Cyclops' and the crowd went wild."

"You were here on Tuesday?" She asked.

"I came with a guide. But I know my way out at least."

"Dere is never a way out." The mare rebutted. "Dere is only a way in, a way around, and a way to die. My former owner told me dis."

"Well he's not telling you that now, is he?"

She levitated a small object in front of me, mostly rinsed off with the exception of some pink chunky matter left on it. "Removing dis took quite some time. A reminder of my blowing his mind."

"Sheesh, put that away, will you?" I said before we approached the counter.

As we finally queued up to the desk, a mare blowing bubblegum continued to fix her mane as she seemed not to care who was in front of her. She took a glance at me and kissed her teeth. "Hol' up." She resumed her usual display of vanity.

I see she's very a relatable character to my generation... that or just plain rude. "Excuse me."

"I said hol' up, wha'chu mean!? You can excuse yo ass somewhere else." Her voice was like a suburban girl in the whitest part of Fort Worth trying to act black. It was honestly cringe-worthy.

"I'm a paying customer, your mane can wait." I urged.

The mare poked her lips out, catching an attitude as she rolled her neck along with her eyes. "I ain't givin' you no seats, we over capacity tonight."

As I looked over, I watched as the teller next to her got to the person who was behind us in line. They grabed their tickets and got a pleasant 'enjoy the show' before she started tending to the next customer. They ordered a ticket and promptly walked off with another one, followed by another 'please enjoy the show'. I smacked my hoof on the counter while shouting at the bitch behind it. "Over capacity, my ass. You either get me my ticket or I'm getting your fucking manager."

"Boy boo! Nobody gives a fuck about yo fugly-ass date! Broke-ass ho!"

I promptly sat my entire sack of rubies on the counter, worth well over two-hundred thousand bits. The mare quickly flinched, placing a hoof on her chest as I stared at her like she was stupidest thing I could possibly insult in public. "I'm here to pay my first installment of the VIP entrance fee." At this point, every vein and tendon in my neck popped out as I stressed every consonant of the next word. "Please." The mare put her mirror and brush away, walking away from the counter. Her tone quickly shifted back to her actual bratty self.

"Follow me sir, this way if you'd please."

Sometime later, we were guided down the halls and into the area where the sex display was pretty much setting up. They were already getting it roped off for the participants to make their usual lust-crazed faces to tease the lesser-wealth. As we walked, our guide─the rude lady from the front counter─politely pointed us to the satin-red, gold trimmed double doors. Security gave me a once over before they were already breaking a hoof out to stop me. Both of them appeared to be wearing ear pieces for communication.

"You're not getting in without a referral." The one on the left stated.

"Give us a name of reference and we'll consider letting you in." The right one finished.

Kalimba shook her head. "And all for naught, tis a shame. I suppose communication is to blame."

The left bouncer looked to the guide. "Is his finances adequate."

"Yes sir, his payment is legitimate." She said, sounding so proper in comparison to the display she had put on at the front desk.

"Referral?" The right bouncer asked again.

I closed my eyes, unsure as to what to call her. She never even gave me a name to identify her as. And I wasn't too aware if they had identified her by anything other than her birth name. "Blue."

They both looked at each other before shaking their heads. "Are you telling us the color of the sky?" The left bouncer asked in deadpan.

"That's not a referral." The right bouncer said.

As I started to show my frustration, a stallion walked right by me, holding up a badge. He quickly cleared the two as they cracked open the door for the stallion to enter inside. The figure turned to me with a smirk. "Oh gracious, it appears that the help is looking to make an appearance. Absolutely filthy."

The door started to close as the bouncers questioned us again. "Sorry, no ref, no entry, no exceptions."

Before the door could close completely, a hoof stuck out to prop the door open. The bouncers looked back to see a blue mare staring right through the crack, her head poking out. "Did my guy come in yet?" She looked up to see me and Kalimba standing quietly. "Oh! Okay boys, let them on in. They're with me."

"Ms. Royal, you are authorizing this party entrance into the lounge?"

The mare rolled her eyes. "I, Blue Royal, grant permission to the party seeking entrance."

"Very well then." The bouncers said in unison.

The blue mare cleared her throat. "Sniper, did you seriously forget my name?"

I rolled my eyes. "I said Blue. They thought I was talking about a color."

The affluent mare stepped out from inside, grabbing my hoof to drag me along. "Southpaw, Starboard, this is a good friend of mine who helps me in my personal business. Do well to remember his face because he's our newest member."

The two nodded as they acknowledged my passage, but held a hoof out to stop Kalimba from advancing. I stepped in quickly to vouch. "Hey guys, she's my champion, let her on in."

The zebra looked at me with some confusion. But didn't refuse my explanation as she walked inside with the both of us. Upon entering, I saw a much different scene than what was going on upstairs in the lobby. The atmosphere was a lot quieter, but just as lecherous. Mare servers walked around with bound tails that were tied into a bun or even a decorative bow, allowing basically anyone to see their goods. Stallions who served were almost as feminine as the mares, even they kept to their falsetto to make themselves sound appealing and submissive. Each one of the servants had plugs, needless to say where. Some stallions had on iron chastity cages locked under key and enchantment. A few were geldings, a mare had on a choker that said 'snap me for service'.

One effeminate servant kindly stopped us as he rubbed a hoof on my chest. "Excuse me sir, but it is mandatory for all patrons to disrobe any cloaks and capes at the door. Masks are provided at one's request."

"It's a security measure." Blue added. "Can't have fakes coming in getting a free run at things."

I looked over to see Kalimba already dropping her cloak to the floor, giving me a much better look at her body up close in a better light. Her slender neck was wrapped in golden coils, similar to how Zecora would dress herself. She had four to dress her neck, three to brace her right foreleg, two small hoop earrings on each ear, and a single ring around her horn. The red eyes she used to look around the room had practically locked on to me. She then called me out for staring. "Keep your wits, shine your eyes. One never knows when a problem may arise."

She warned me to keep my guard up. "Copy."

I received a nudge as the stallion walked even closer to me. "So how may we serve you tonight, sir? The drinks are at the bar. Refreshments are over on the table. Special service items are available if you clop your hooves thrice. Clop twice for for standard service. Once for dismissal." He continued to close the distance and blew into my neck. "Four times for me."

Without warning, I felt my entire foreleg getting yanked towards the bar. I looked to see that it was Blue trying to get me to join her. As soon as she sat down, a stallion leaned to her hooves and started to hold his tongue out. A mare positioned herself behind her and started running her hoof down the base of her tail. The affluent mare addressed the two. "Not right now. Thank you."

The two bowed before rotating over to where I was about to sit. I looked down nervously while I sat, feeling very uncomfortable about the experience. I almost compressed myself away from the two as I hunched into my stool. A stallion at the bar turned around to see me sitting there, placing a hoof on his flawless cheeks. "Oh you again, I knew there was something special about you from the moment I first saw you."

My eyes darted between him, the two at the bottom of my chair waiting like cats on the prowl, and the affluent mare I was here with. She giggled as she saw how visibly disturbed I was. "Sniper, this is Crème de la Crème, he is our bartender. He likes long walks in the park, long walks on the leash, and he is also the manager of the staff."

"You're the manager?" I questioned.

The stallion bowed. "We only strive for truly exceptional service and unfaltering servitude. As what I have been told, this is your first time gracing our establishment from behind the veil. We bid you welcome, Sniper Shot."

Upon a closer look, I realized that this same stallion was the one I saw staring at me on Tuesday as he was getting 'serviced' from behind. He at that time seemed partially focused to me, but lost in his lust. However, he seemed a lot more focused on me tonight than anything else, probably because he wasn't distracted by anything in particular. He pulled my ear down and whispered into it, very lightly pushing his words through.

"It'll be a pleasure servicing you, captain.''

I quickly ignited my horn, flinching back as I was about to do something drastic. The mare next to me laughed hysterically as she slapped her hoof against the bar. She lightly shoved against me. "C'mon! You've got to let it down eventually. Can't just sit there thinking that this place is for the anonymous. You wanna play ball, you gotta join the club."

I snapped back at the mare, pissed off as hell. "That is not what we agreed on!"

Blue shrugged as she casually dismissed my anger. "Sorry, I thought you knew what you were getting into. Perhaps I should explain it a little more. See, outside of those doors, we're the personas that we choose to be. Out there, I'm 'Blueberry Twist' a quiet girl looking for mischief and adventure, but in here I'm Blue Royal. Out there, you're Sniper Shot, long-range arms extraordinaire and distributor of pirated human goods. But in here, you're who you are. And you have to be because you've got to close the deal being who you are. Of course you don't have to completely shed your skin, just enough for them to know who they're dealing with."

The bartender then added. "She's right you know. You can't close on some info on your adversaries without playing a little bit of cat and mouse. You already have the position to throw your weight around, you should be proud of that."

Behind me, the zebra stared at me with eyes widened. "An unfamiliar face, I knew you to be. But de truth about you, I truly did not see. I never once thought, in my life so hard, dat I would meet de human, de captain of de royal guard."

I grimaced as my cover was blown. Blue placed a hoof on my horn to quench the magic I conjured. "It was bound to happen eventually. Better to come clean now than to be discovered later."

"You told them?" I asked vehemently. "You told them about me?"

"They aren't gonna just let anyone in, even if they have the finances to pay the initial fees. It is an exclusive club, after all. Your status and profile needs to match the standard. You hold a prominent position in the guard, often being close to the royals. That's a highly desirable position that no one else in here has. And with your current feud with some of the members of the royal family, that's a bonus."

Even frustrated that I was ousted so unceremoniously, I had to admit that her reasoning had some merit. If I was just some regular guy walking in with a fat paycheck, it would make sense if I didn't get put in place. Anyone with that kind of money could just refer this to their socially elite friends and this room would be packed from wall to wall, no matter how spacious it was. And Blueblood did have me commit to the idea that I was feuding with the royals, so it wasn't like any of that fell in vain.

Still, I wasn't comfortable with having to work with my name out in the open. If something were to go wrong, they'd know exactly who'd to hit and how. It's a good thing that Kalimba took care of Prod, otherwise he'd be coming for my throat with the first offer. The only thing I could do now was remember the lessons Blueblood gave to me in high-class socialization and negotiation.

My only problem here is commitment. "Okay. Say I'd be willing to play this little game. What am I in for?"

"Well there's a saying around here." The bartender began. "If you can't pay in bits or gems, then you pay in blood."

"The only catch is since everyone here has a lot of the other two. So it's very often that the third thing happens to be the least disposable, the highest risk, and the most invaluable." Blue added. "In layman's terms, your friend might have her life taken if the wager calls for it."

I looked back to her as the zebra immediately responded. "Tis a common thing when you live down here. I am not afraid and my conscience is clear. Whatever you have in store for me, I am willing to face whatever it may be."

Though she's already resigned to her fate, I couldn't quite carry the weight of her death on my shoulders. "Is there any other way?"

"Their blood or yours." The bartender replied.

"And before you start thinking about throwing your own life away, remember that you have a bigger picture to look at." Blue stressed. "Better her life than yours, there isn't as much of a power vacuum if she dies. You know what's at risk for you."

See, that commitment thing, I told you it was a huge problem. I for sure don't want her blood on my hands, even if they are hooves for the moment. But even then, I had a mission to complete. I swallowed my sense of righteousness for a moment and tried to fit the role I was given. "Okay, Kalimba. Gonna have to tell you not to go down without a good fight. Try to stay alive for as much as you can."

The zebracorn nodded. "I take one on de chin. But I only seek to win."

"Fair enough." Blue replied as she levitated a drink to my side. "Welcome to the club. You're one of us now."

As I was about to take my first guilt-filled sip... because I was gonna toss back every drink I got for tonight, another member walked up to the bar and made his order. "Crème, a glass of your finest, please." He said with a twangy voice.

"Coming right up, hun."

The stallion who sat himself beside me batted me on the back as he boisterously laughed. "Well well, I see that we finally meet with our newest member!" He looked behind me to see the zebracorn and winked. "And such a rare treat he's brought. Quite the customization for a zebra. I thought you lot were purists."

"It would surprise you for me to say, I was actually born dis way." The mare didn't even crack so much of the tiniest grin at his joke,

"Ah, you don't seem too thrilled! Chin up, you're in the best of what this country has in store! If you're not convinced, then you should stop by my press box for a... better explanation."

The mare scoffed as she looked away. "Much appreciated, I do not accept your advance. Dere are more servers here who would offer you de chance."

The stallion hid his tongue among his cheeks as he shifted his attention to the two ponies at the bottom of my chair. "Hey boy, your help is looking a little lacking. How about you put them to work?"

They both looked at him, almost cowering as they reluctantly inched closer. I grimaced as I clenched one of my eyes shut. "Okay... you two do what you do."

Without any further question or comment, they proceeded to kiss my hooves, praising my hindlegs as they nuzzled my limbs as if they were cats. I couldn't help but shudder as the strange display made me even more uncomfortable. But they wore the smiles of gratitude, probably because they didn't want to service the boisterous stallion. He let out an unusual laugh. "Gyaa hahahaaa! That's how these dregs are supposed to serve, boy! I know you humans are used to the superiority with all your weapons and technology! So consider this as an official Equestrian welcome!"

"I... guess..." I hissed, still cringing at the thought of these two sniffing and licking my hooves.

The stallion clopped his hooves four times, and the server that greeted me earlier appeared before him with a smile the size of the boisterous stallion's presence. "How may I serve you, sir?"

"My hooves if you will! Heavens knows what kind of stuff these druggies and drunks left in these halls. I had to walk all the way here tonight!"

"That's most unfortunate sir. I'll get to that right away." The male server bent down as he waited like a dog.

The older stallion pointed a hoof out to the young servant. "Clean."

Again without question, the servant licked his hoof, caressing it against his face as he was working on something phallic. He kissed and suckled on ever inch of his hoof before the other one was presented. I looked over to see the older stallion getting quite aroused from the attention he received. It wouldn't take long before the young stallion found his head peeking between the other's growing length. I turned away and looked towards the two at my hooves while they worked, this time with increased urgency as they realized that I was unsatisfied with their efforts. One of them looked to me, silently pleading that I'd show some form of approval.

Thankfully, Blue came to our rescue. "So captain, it will be a while before the others get here. Would you like to give these two some personal attention in your press box?"

If it would make them stop. "Yes please, I'm looking forward to seeing the other aminities."

The older stallion who had his own display disapproved. "Bah, humbug! You're suppose to let them have it out here and then really give it to them later! Where's the sense of showmanship!?"

I hopped out of the chair and quickly ran to the other side of the room, leading to a hallway that labeled itself as the press box suite access. The two ponies allowed themselves through as I called for Kalimba to join me. Blue Royal also walked beside me as we left the two stallions to their session. The older one shrugged his shoulders.

"Bah, I guess he didn't care to compete! Sad, really!"

We walked into the room, cutting on the lights to see a spacious area with a few pillow seats and some tables for any observers. The two servers awaited their next set of orders, which were to get me as many drinks as I needed to drown my discomfort away. Blue, who was already an avid drinker, encouraged my decision.

As I sat down, I couldn't help but to feel the ghostly sensation of the two rubbing against my hind legs. I whimpered at the thought. "Uh, please tell me I do not have to do that again."

"Even if you don't like it, you'll have to get used to it sometime." Blue said with a shrug.

"You're used to it?" I asked.

The mare bit her lip. "I actually prefer girls to tend to my hooves. But in terms of giving me what I really want after that... I've been waiting around."

"For what?" I asked.

The mare giggled. "Possibly for you to drop that form and be a little more of yourself."

I groaned in response. "Look, I don't really feel that comfortable showing my face here. Last I checked, you told me that this was just fine for whenever we had to come to this place. I'm already not too comfortable with the whole sexual deviancy vibe here."

"Well like it or not, dey do grow wary, of dose who do not embrace deir sanctuary. Take it from me, I have been around. And have seen many unwilling's blood spilled on dese grounds. Deady bodies everywhere I saw, all those who broke dis club's indulgence law." Kalimba sternly warned. "Shine your eyes, play your role. For it is not you who is in control."

Those chilling words of wisdom came from the mouth of one who has not only experienced the hell that goes on here, but also one who has been living in it for years. If anything, she knows her way around and how to keep herself alive. I had to take her advice to heart if I wanted to be seen as a mutual to the others. Strange, Blueblood did warn me that there was no going back. Perhaps his knowledge of this place was more from experience. That begs the question, how did he lose his military power? "So... where do I start?"

"You start by doing something with those two servers that are on their way with our drinks." Blue answered just as there was a knock on the door. She opened it to see the two servants obediently holding bottles of wine. She ushered them in and pointed to me. "The gentlecolt right there wishes for your services once again."

And just like earlier, they bowed themselves at my hooves, waiting for their next order. I cringed as I started to question the two. "Isn't there any other client looking to embarrass you like this?"

"Just the one at the bar." The male servant answered. "But take if from me when I say that he's... ugh, too eager to share more than his bodily fluids."

"When we walked in, sir Gilded Fortune already had that other guy strapped against his belly for a ride." The female added.

I looked at the other two mares with confusion. "Belly rides?"

Kalimba was more than willing to explain. "A belly ride is a position of sort. where de taker hangs underneath de giver for support. To show an example, I grab you like dis..." She placed a hoof on my shoulder and slid her skinny frame between my forelegs, her hips resting against mine as she locked her hind legs around my body. Blue pulled at my tail, prompting me to stand. And just on cue, all her legs clenched around my body as she humped against me, looking me dead in the eye. "And I swing back and forth until your release. But of course I should add that still, you could keep walking like this for a show of your intimate skill."

"An exhibitionist's wet dream, along with walks on the leash." Blue cosigned. "It's a favorite for some during the estrus season."

I couldn't help but to stare in silence as the zebra continued to look me in the eye, all while thinking 'holy fuck that's some next level shit.' She started loosening her grip and removing herself from underneath me, her golden hoops clattered as she adjusted herself. The pair of servants still sitting in place awaiting my next order crawled up to me and asked. "Would you like to try that again?" The mare asked. "You seemed quite entertained at the idea."

"And very much turned on." The stallion said, trying to nuzzle himself between my haunches. "Ooh, love your smell sir. It's has a very unique musk."

I jumped forward and pivoted myself to where I didn't have a stallion trying to don African sunglasses. It was already embarrassing enough knowing that I couldn't control myself completely with this kind of stuff in this form, I didn't need an eager stallion, an eager BOY, trying to compete in seeing who could get me to bust my first nut on the night. Blue giggled as she offered me a glass of wine. "You look thirsty, or at least wanting to distance yourself a bit from all of this. Drinking helps."

I quickly snagged the glass from the affluent heiress and guzzled the glass until it was empty. I looked at her as she started to get closer. "You know, I think personal space is an issue here."

She smiled as she planted the mouth of the half-empty bottle against my lips. Giggling all the while, she dragged the bottle across my mouth repeatedly. "You already know what I'm gonna ask you to do, you've been through this with me once before. Now drink up you silly goose. We got a whole night to talk about the important stuff."

Kalimba watched from the other side of the room, being a bystander for the time being. "I hope dat you set aside some time where more sleep could be drawn. Tis highly certain dat you will not wake up at dawn."

I started to worry, that was until I remembered a little fact about unicorns drinking alcohol. They were lucid drinkers, which means that their minds are very much intact when they get more than a few shots in their system. They could effectively down a whole bottle of the strongest stuff and not even bat an eye. And since I had a horn sitting on the top of my forehead, I welcomed the high possibility that I was not exempt from that trait. I took up her offer. "Well I'm just happy that I won't have to worry too much about this stuff."

"Oh it's gonna hurt in the morning." Blue cheerfully announced. "Especially this stuff. This kind of wine can knock a unicorn out if they're not careful. Rich in content, flavor, and very effective against the other species."

Her explanation is probably the reason why Kalimba was sitting there just watching. The zebracorn had no vested interest in drinking, just keeping her eyes locked on whatever I was doing. I took a quick swig of the bottle, tasting how fruity the wine was while also taking note of how fairly innocent its taste appeared to be. It honestly felt like I was drinking sparkling grape juice. But the aftertaste was the main thing that revealed just how potent it was. There was a bit of a burn going down, and there was an undeniable buzz that tickled my senses. I stared into the bottle, observing how much was left. "So how much do one of these bottles cost? The boys would love this shit back home."

I caught a glimpse of Blue popping the cork off of the other bottle, just guzzling the wine to the head. It was almost like watching her drink water with how unphased she was. Before I knew it, the bottle was empty and she cheered loudly. "YEAH! THAT'S IT!"

I was starting to believe she had a real drinking problem. "Is there a tab we should be looking out for?"

"You serious?" The rich girl asked, tilting her head at me. "We pay a yearly subscription fee with a whopping total of five-hundred grand, it's more than paid for."

I started to notice that her horn had started glowing, indicating that she was either conjuring up a spell or levitating something towards her. I tapped her horn to quench it. "Hey, do you really think it's wise to do magic while drunk?"

The mare snickered, placing a hoof on my chest as she pushed against me. "Do you think it's wise to not get anymore drinks? How about we send these two out for another round." She suggested, looking to the two servants.

I continued to sip away at the bottle, at least trying to moderate my intake. "Sure. I guess I'm treating you tonight." I looked over to Kalimba. "Kali, I can call you that, right?"

"You may call me Kalimba Mavembe." She promptly answered.

I suppose she wasn't comfortable with having a nickname. Hell, it was probably the first time anyone has actually called her by her actual name instead of some derogatory slur. "Then I apologize, Kalimba. Would you like anything?"

The mare stood there, stonefaced. "No. I do not."

"Trying to stay focused?" I asked.

"I do not take drinks from places I cannot trust. To stay attentive for your sake certainly is a must. But by all means, do feel free to partake. Just know dat I won't be de one in pain when I awake."

Blue clicked her tongue at the zebra and nuzzled up against me. "Spoil sport. Don't worry, I'll be here to give you a good time."

As the two servants left the room, I finally asserted myself in asking the unicorn for more information. "So they know who I am. I'm supposed to keep playing around like I enjoy this. And I had to hire a champion for some odd reason. Care to explain any of this to me?"

"Straight to the point with you, huh?" Blue seemed a bit disappointed that I wasn't exactly in the same state of intoxication as her. But she didn't mind answering my questions. "Okay, so I'll start from the beginning. They're going to give you an initiation, mainly to see if you know how to hire competent help. Since you have such a portfolio on your day job, they're anticipating that you might do two things with this. Either you hit this one out of the park, or you fail to navigate your way through the guild and go with another option by hiring some random off the street."

...Dammit. "Well they got something right."

Kalimba spoke up for herself. "I assure you I am quite skilled, I do not find pleasure in de idea of getting killed."

I then questioned the zebra. "I know your old owner was working with some of the politicians. What was his status?"

"He was never part of de guild's work. But a good reputation for being a merc. De guild never took him after a infamous duel, where he beat a member so heartless and cruel. Dey had to do whatever it took to not let him die, and now de victim lives, but with just one eye."

"How did that happen?" I asked.

"He took a fork and quickly plucked it right out, then broke his jaw, pried it open, and stuck it back into his mouth."

Really glad he's not alive now. "So he's the one who trained you?" Blue questioned, appearing disgusted with the story.

"I would not completely call it all it training, per se. More like fighting him and some other goons off of me everyday. But dose days have now gone by, ah. Today I was de one to watch him die. For de first time in years I never felt so free. Even if I do not smile, I am still quite happy." She said with what could be the coldest scowl on her face.

The both of us glanced back at each other as the two servants entered into the room with another four bottles. Blue didn't hesitate to pop the cork off of another and start guzzling it like a runner after a long workout. As the two reentered the room, I continued to question the drunken mare. "Okay, so they're gonna see if she can fight. What else?"

"If she loses by a substantial margin, they can either kill her or humiliate her. They probably won't kill her considering the rare mix that she is, so they'll settle with humiliating her and keeping her for their own personal pursuits. Though I've heard the ones they do that to are usually begging for death by the end of it all."

"Something that they'd be more than happy to oblige." I concluded, taking another sip from the slowly emptying bottle. "Now if I win, what's the deal?"

"You're not winning." Blue just flat-out denied me the idea of a victory, possibly looking from the perspective of knowing what they're going to do. "Some hire mercs with notable profiles, a la the bastard we both mutually despise, may his soul burn in hell. Others will hire the guild to do their bidding, that's what I did when you ran into the group of thugs that threatened you outside of the hotel. But those who prove their loyalty are often treated with the same amenities whenever they show up to the arena, free drinks, full service, you name it. And they'll do whatever it takes to keep their standing. It doesn't matter how dirty anyone plays, it's fair game to them. So if the only thing you hired was a pick-up from the street, you might as well get ready to say goodbye to them in the next hour."

"This isn't every day, is it?" I asked

"Only for inductees and settling some minor disputes." She replied.

As Blue had finished up her explanation, a familiar boisterous voice came galloping down the hall before damn near breaking the door down to shout at me. "OUR NEWEST COMPATRIOT! IT IS TIME FOR YOUR INTRODUCTION!"

I looked down to see the stallion that greeted me at the door earlier, his face covered in the stallion's seed as he hung from the harness the larger stallion had on. The poor servant seemed completely broken as he looked on in a lifeless daze. The boisterous stallion continued to rock his hips back and forth as he waited for my answer.

"Oh don't mind the boy, he's absolutely ecstatic! Hasn't stopped culminating since the ride began! So how's your servants been doing?"

"Bringing me all the wine I can handle." I said, pointing towards the bottles resting on the table. "Say, is there any food around here, I'm pretty high on a good steak right about now."

The loud stallion blinked in silence for what was the first time tonight. "Wow. I earnestly forgot your species happens to indulge in that kind of... socialization. I suppose we can make provisions for your future visits."

Realizing I had such an easy way of keeping up with the members of the club, I decided to play to my strength. For a brief second, I matched the stallion's boisterous nature with my own rant, patting myself on the stomach. "Well why the hell can't it be tonight? I'm a growing boy, gotta have my meat! Little bit of porkchops, steak, chicken, lamb, goat, buffalo, deer, just give it to me! Arimaspi meat, a bit gamey but what's a little honey and citrus can't fix?"

Pretty much everyone in the room stared blankly at me as I went on my brief meat-lover diatribe. The stallion took notice as he nodded. "Okay, well I guess we'll head into the foyer─"

I continued to play to my strength, finally hitting him where I knew it would make him uncomfortable. "Hmm, haven't had pony yet. But I have had some horse meat before, it was one time, bit greasy, but it was still pretty good."

"The others are waiting, boy. You should stop stalling." The stallion said before walking out of the room.

Both of the servants looked up to me, horrified beyond words as I smiled at the two of them. "I wonder how the two of you taste. Maybe I should find out if the two of you stick around." Both of them didn't even say a word as they left dust ghosts behind them. As there were only the three of us in the room, I shifted my eyes between the two and sighed. "Okay, my best Hannibal Lecter impression aside, let's get this over with."

The two took a collective breath upon realizing that I had exaggerated some details of my performance and we all walked out of the room. Kalimba nodded with approval. "Dat was a good show, ah."

"You think I'm playing about the steak thing."

When I entered into the lounge lobby, there was a select thirteen other members who all had various positions of prominence. A few were in charge of the education bureau, magic research, and medical board of directors. Another five were politicians and city council members of various locations around Equestria, namely Fillydelphia, Manehattan, Las Pegasus, and Dodge Junction. The mayor of Las Pegasus was a frequent participant, while the boisterous one─Gilded Fortune─was based out in Dodge Junction.

And of course, you have five others who are solely based here. The ones I didn't know about were mainly heirs of fortune and politicians. Two of them I vaguely remembered seeing in a summons, each of them sitting next to Count DuMoneé. There was also the guy I was brought here to take down, the one who finalized that passage, bringing the royals together in unity against Processu Approbatio. The one I was referring to was the very shyster himself.

Enter Damper Trot. Unicorn stallion, gray coat, dyed jet-black mane, all business outside and inside the box.

Of course the others that consisted the denizens of the city also included Blue. But there were a few more that wasn't here to welcome me to the group. Those among the numbers were Blue's brother, their deceased father, one member who apparently worked out in Vahoover, and some guy they didn't exactly note by name, just calling him 'The Doctor'.

Shortly after their introductions, they called out Kalimba and stood her at the center of the room. They then announced who was going to challenge her. It would be the champion of the boastful stallion that first met me at the bar. Of course they were a unicorn, of course they were in top shape, of course they were a hire from the guild...

And of course, Kalimba was getting tossed around.

The zebra stood slowly, wiping her mouth as she regained her bearings. Standing in front of her was a stallion who was light on his hooves and even quicker to the draw with his magic. There was almost no stopping him with the way he moved. And the one thing that proved to be Kalimba's weakness was her inability to get in close. The magic he used was simple, shooting out a few bolts of energy for her to dodge and surprise her with a hit from behind. It was a basic magic dueling combo I learned, but not one she knew of.

She, of course, would show potential in her recoveries, her attempts to close the distance, and her speed wasn't anything to scoff at either. It was just hard to keep up with a teleporting pony who shot magic bolts at you. And even when she did close the distance, he would get out of her grapples simply by teleporting himself. In terms of her physical prowess, she could at least deal with some of the mid-weights. But in a no-holds-barred contest such as this, magic was her glaring disadvantage.

But each time she was beaten, she got right back up and reset herself. Even if she was hurting, she could still take few more hits. And her resilience earned her the tiniest respect from her demeaning, verbally-abusive opponent. However, respect and moral points don't win fights. After the equivalent of seven rounds of a physical bout, the guild member simply let loose and brushed her aside.

Kalimba tried to stand again, but Gilded Fortune halted the match. Just as he did, he walked up to the zebra and stared her down with a growing smile. "You would serve me well, missy. I would love to have you as my... hmm, personal maid." He leaned into the panting mare and sniffed her neck. "You're a hard worker, and a die-hard fighter at that. I wonder what else you would be skilled at. He then brushed a hoof against her cheek, taking measure of all her scars and bruises. "If I gave you time to heal, you would be such a prospect. Surely a life as this is not your calling. So come with me and we'll see about giving you a better life."

Kalimba outright rejected the stallion's offer, turning her head away from him. All could see her heartbeat pulsing through her neck as she panted angrily. The stallion who challenged her laughed as he mocked her. "Poor thing, has a horn but don't know how to use it." The guild worker then pulled one of his eyelids down while giving the mare a wicked grin from ear to ear. "A cheap brood should sell it for something better. How about a nice bed to sell yourself in? You could call it a business investment."

Before Kalimba could take the opportunity to jump at the stallion who mocked her, Gilded restrained her and briefly spoke on her defense. "Now there, you probably never had a teacher. Not that we care about your life story, but it does serve as a nice decoration." He snickered as he used his magic to pull against her horn, yanking her head down. "And an even better hold."

I couldn't help but to grow infuriated for her, my horn started to run warm. I called out to the zebra. "So you don't know magic at all, do you? I guess we'll have to work on that."

"No, not at all. She's not your problem to be concerned for." Gilded announced proudly, holding the mare by her horn still. "Since I'm the winner here, she's mine to hold on to. Guess that means you're back at the drawing board, captain."

Thinking on my toes, I grimaced as I had that single word flash in my mind: Commit. A series of plans started to unfold in my head as I tried to put together something to get back my 'ownership' of Kalimba, and with the most effective means of doing so. If I didn't, she'd be anything but free. And there was little else I could do other than go back to that guild and try winning her back with some other guy I'd have to pay an obscene amount of money to. I wasn't too thrilled at trying to break the bank, especially considering that I just blew twenty thousand to get in here.

But something told me to take a chance on a quick risk. Since guild members were more eager to go to the highest dollar in a place where honor don't mean shit, it was better to assume that he would probably double-cross Gilded without a second thought. Just as long as the money was good, I had a chance. And since rich folks are cheap, it was better to think that he would fit the bill. So I brought my attention to the winning fighter and called out for him. "Yo, Rocky. Quick question. How much this guy pay you for tonight?"

The guild member carelessly waved me off. "Bah, more than you paid this cheap whore. I just got paid five grand for a walk in the park." He bragged.

Perfect.

If there was anything I figured out from being in this club, all means of underhanded perversion was on the table. If there was anything that could be done, a simple flipping the chess board is considered a legal move. If they're all about the money here, then anything is up for grabs. And since he was possibly talked down for a cheap price, paid his money up front, and then came here, he would be happy to earn a sizable tip on top of his wage. "Double that." I replied. I whipped out the sack I carried, containing the rest of my playground money for the night. The stallion's eye popped open to peek at the rubies that spilled out. "Ten thousand in bollies for winning my bitch back." I had to keep a straight face, trying not to cringe at the fact that those words had come out of my mouth.

Both the guild worker and Gilded stared at me as if I had broken something expensive. The crowd around the room had gone quiet until Gilded started laughing. "Heh... GYAA-HAAHAAAHAAGH! Now that's a way to turn the tables! Favor ain't always fair. Well played! I see your reputation of impromptu scheming is well-founded! But I would have to ask, are you willing to damage such a fine specimen even further?"

I cracked a smile back at him as I threw his own words at him. "She's not your problem to be concerned for. Since I'll be the winner here, she's mine to hold on to. So you sit tight and watch your newly-acquired champ get tossed around a bit." I redirected my attention back to the guild member. "So how about it, Rocky? Wanna earn a little extra pocket change under the table?"

"You're the boss!" The stallion didn't even pause for one second, teleporting the zebra from Gilded's side to right in front of him where he could land a few more blows. It didn't even take a good thirty seconds before she was left incapacitated from every blow he inflicted. And for good measure, he blasted her with a bolt of magic to numb her senses. As she tried to stagger back up, the guild stallion laughed again. "Uh-oh, looks like she can't get up again. You know what that means."

Gilded continued to laugh as he shrugged his shoulders. "You know, boy, I could easily raise the price to return the favor."

I shook my head. "But even you know she's not worth that much." I said, taking Kalimba's advice and playing my role.

Gilded Fortune boisterously agreed. "I already wasted five grand on that bastard, but here you are buying up two champions for the night. I'd much rather my money go to something with a little more bite in them. Seven rounds won't be my stopping point. She's all yours."

The guild member smiled as he wormed his way in front of me, holding his hoof out. "Now I know you know the rules, payments are usually up front. So don't be a stranger holding on to a stuffed pocketbook, give to the needy already."

While the stallion was smiling all the while, I could tell he was probably willing to make quick work of me if I refused. He was already in range to do whatever he wanted to me, and I wasn't too confident in fighting in equine form. And after all, a deal was a deal. I sorted out the gems for him and allowed him to count out what I set aside. The stallion, confirming the amount I gave him, smiled and put the money away in a white sack. "Goes without saying we're all happy here?"

"It's a pleasure, boss." He answered with a toothy grin. Kalimba, after taking a few minutes to recover, stood on her own legs and angrily stared at the stallion. The stallion raised his hooves in the air. "Hey, miss. We're in the business together. You do your stuff, I do mine, we walk out of here just fine."

The defeated mare walked out of the room, venturing back into the hall with the press box suites. Blue shrugged at the mare's silent departure. "You win some, you lose some. I guess she really doesn't like losing. But your record is one and one. Good job on the quick thinking, not many would think of bartering a champion from underneath someone. Usually, we'd see them come back with another hire on some other night." She walked up to me, placing a hoof against my back. "You might be cut out for this kind of work after all."

"You were the one who said they don't play fair. I did what I had to do and matched." I answered.

Another member laughed in a condescending manner. "Well I must say you are quite smitten. What other explanation would there be for you to give up that much money for a temp-hire?"

"Temp hire?" I questioned. "Wait, so you don't keep the guys you use?"

"Not all the time." Blue interjected. "We just hire a new one to keep things fresh. Now of course we may have that preference to one or another, but it doesn't mean that they're readily available to you. They could be serving someone else, just another trade of the business. But you know that already."

"Okay then..." I said as I started thinking to myself.

A clopping noise sounded beside me. I turned to see the politician Damper Trot nodding his head with approval. "Ah, and yet another time you've done it again, overcome the odds and turn the board to your favor. You're quite the lucky one, captain." He extended a hoof to shake. "Now to formally introduce myself, I am Damper Trot, senator of the eighth prefecture of Canterlot. It's good to see you here with us."

Again, I played my role. "Much better than sitting my ass around trying to appease every one of the princess' demands. You ask me, she's a bit lazy for someone who's looking over an entire kingdom."

"I see that you are also in an equine form. Who cast this spell upon you?"

"I have a specialist I see, try to keep their names private so they don't get pursued."

The politician half chuckled, glancing to the boisterous member of the club. "You'll have to forgive him, he's often a little more reserved. He's also seen as the most conservative of us, a safe player if you will. I trust you'll be the same."

I mean if you call being conservative fucking another guy while walking around like a casual stroll though the supermarket, then sure I guess. "So far, eating meat seems to be a really big taboo around here, even though there's some guy selling the stuff down at the plaza." I replied, going back to my usual trump card.

The politician started to circle around me, questioning my motives. "Yes, but that's what you're used to. My only question is what are you willing to do while you're here among our ranks? Surely you wouldn't have any motivation to bring any of us down."

"Not like I'd be able to." I answered, confessing to the idea that something like that would be far out of my reach, especially considering the scale of the operation that's taking place here. "I'm sure there's a lot of protections on this place. It's pretty swanky for a literal hole-in-the-wall. Of course, that would be the floor in this case."

The stallion stopped circling me, leaning into the side of my face as he appeared to be on his guard. "Question, why are you here?"

Once again, I played out the role I was given. This time, I took into consideration what was said to me earlier in the week and played on the idea of being an asshole who was still bitter about the whole break up with Twilight. Since that was going to be my persona, I had to play to that. So I did what I'd normally do, I put together a string of half-truths and complete lies to sell myself to the very adversary I would soon put away. "Simply put, I'm tired of the bullshit. See back in my world, we don't have a princess trying to run shit in the country, trying to dictate my entire diet day by day, trying to tell me where to stand and who to take down."

"So you're your own maker, huh?" Damper replied, leaning away from me a little. "Don't think you would've gotten very far without their assistance."

"Look, I'm not denying the fact that the perks are okay. I'm just fed up with the shit they do. Meeting after meeting, bitching and bitching about the small issues they have to solve. In my world, it's completely different. We have a freely elected leader put in place to do their job, and removed every four to eight years. Different ideologies, principles, policies, administrations, all that jazz. But here, it's a whole family running the show, even if they are appointed to the family instead of being born into it."

The stallion retracted himself from my personal space, sitting as he started to become interested in the story I began to weave. "An interesting bit of insight. Share with me more of your home country's politics."

"Well you have conservatives, and you have liberals. Every now and then, the leadership may swap between the two." I casually explained, still gaining some curiosity from the politician.

"How does a government stay stabilized with so much upheaval?"

Realizing I had him where I wanted, I decided to play more into his views. "We have a multitude of guidelines that keep the operations skintight. And of course, there are two other branches in the government that checks the power of that executive leadership. If the executive power does something that isn't right, the legislative powers can hear out a case, possibly indict the executive in charge."

And just as I figured, his ears perked right up. "Fascinating."

I continued to play to his views and proceeded to offer some insight on a system he'd be interested in rigging in his favor. "Also, the legislative powers have the ability to evaluate a choice of judge for the judicial powers. The executive in charge bring a nomination to the legislative powers, the legislature then reviews the pick, and then they can choose to either reject or appoint the judicial pick. The judicial pick can also review if any executive decisions are by any chance legal according to a bill of rights. If it violates something in that clause, the judicial powers can strike down that executive decision."

The stallion proceeded to rub his chin. "Hmm. And how is it that those legislators are brought into power?"

"By means of public elections, of course. I believe the same happens here, though the terms may vary. Representatives serve a term of two years, senators serve for six. Unlimited terms of course."

"And an executive power serves for eight?" He inquired.

"Four, but they are allowed only a second term. After that, no more."

He nodded as his ears started to anxiously twitch. "So what you're telling me is that the legislature has the power to review and overturn decisions made by the executive in charge?"

"Same thing that happens here. If a bill is vetoed, it can be overridden and made into a law with a two-thirds vote of the combined numbers of the representation and senators."

"A two term ruler who rules for less than a decade, a stabilized government in spite of those changes, and it maintains our current method of representation in the parliament?" The politician started to smile thinking of the various things those of his association could do with the imaginary wealth of powers I presented to him. "Oh, quite the gift to be able to live with such freedoms."

At that point, I decided to arouse his sense of corruption. "Wanna know a kinky secret about the election process? Apparently the majority vote of the public count can come close between each candidate, but because of how many representatives may preside over a state or province ultimately decides the fate of the country. Let's put a recent election into perspective, one I lived to see. This guy, Al Gore, a liberal, wins the popular vote. But because the local and state elections who gets into the electoral college─you know, the combination of House and Senate─they convene to establish the electoral vote that cements the leadership for the next four to eight years."

Damper appeared to be like a kid, leaning in and waiting anxiously for more of the story to be told. "Sounds auspicious... yet curious. How does that story of yours end?"

"Because the electoral college leaned conservative in numbers, the conservative executive was chosen in spite of the popular vote. So instead of Al Gore taking the seat, it ends up being George Bush, the conservative."

I could already see him panting with anticipation. "Hmm, I bet there must be a lot of voter fraud and suppression in place."

"There could be some gerrymandering. But what the people don't know can't hurt you."

It was almost as if I watched him revel in the biggest braingasm anyone could experience. The politician almost appeared metaphorically climatic by the thought of redrawing a few districts in his favor. I could already tell he was cooking up the legal books, just imagining the reach of corruption his association could have if neither the royals or the incumbent could orchestrate a response. The stallion quickly grew more accepting of me and my ideas. "You and I are going to talk more about this system on a later date. I would feel quite invested in the idea of having a leader elected to rule this country as opposed to a thousand-year monarch."

"First three words of the preamble: We the People." I added as the cherry on top.

The stallion took out his pocket watch, his eyebrows raising for a moment as he saw the time. "Oh we must talk more later. Definitely later, the main event is coming up in a few minutes. But yes, we shall converse more and discuss some possible ideas you may have in inspiration of a new political system."

He walked off as I politely called out to him. "Enjoy the show!"

Blue, who was standing on the other side of the room, watching in silence as I had my conversation with the once-critical politician. She approached me and muttered in a low voice. "I see you've already made a friend."

"I didn't tell him the other half of those checks and balances." I replied with a wink.

"Idealistic minds often dream first, then evaluate later. Just leave him to his politically promiscuous thoughts for now." She suggested as she levitated another bottle of that wine my way.

I accepted her offer and took a quick swig. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

The Next Morning...

After that little talk, it was finally time for the grand event. Bets were wagered and the crowd out in the lower bowl was absolutely electric. Music pulsed throughout the speakers of the place, dancing ponies hopped up on drugs started to find whatever they could use as a pole and started going to work. The mix of blues, purples and reds had almost made me feel like I was going through another drug trip. The details from the remainder of the night had started to gradually go between my recalling very specific details to not even knowing what's in front of my face.

What I did recall was a few moments of absolute confusion, followed by intense arousal.

It pretty much started when we got back in the press box. Kalimba was sitting quietly, watching the action taking place below. The two servants that accompanied us all night had joined us. Blue had gone from throwing empty bottles around to carefully nursing another. But as I sat around, watching the two creatures going at it on the arena floor, I was too busy laughing at the fact that there was a literal bear-bee hybrid monster fighting an arimaspi. Half the arena was red, the other half was blue, the colors in between were melding together.

"Hey, drink this." I heard Blue say to me.

I did as she asked and I took a sip from her bottle of wine. She laughed and I laughed right with her. Eventually, she started toying with me again. She placed her hoof on my lips, pressing against my muzzle as she pushed me around the room. The only time I managed to stop was when Kalimba grabbed hold of me to stop my stumbling around the room. I took another look at her and asked her. "Hey, what was that thing you showed me earlier? That belly shit, yeah that."

She still seemed pretty stern, but holding me closer to her as Blue inched closer to me. Another one of the servants, the girl, smiled as she started to nuzzle against my neck. Blue's hoof dragged down my chest. And Kalimba's warmth behind me made me feel the combined warmth of three mares getting closer to me. The smell in the air was undeniable to me, it was absolute heaven to my mind.

Needless to say that super strong wine kicked in something fierce.

The rest of the night was pretty spotty. I remember the sight of the two mares in front of me giggling, staring at me while I was sat in a chair. Kalimba at one point was rising and falling in front of me, her eyes intensely locked on me. The lights started to swirl around. Blue and the server were kissing each other as I was left throbbing between them. The male servant joined in and became Blue's play toy, kissing her hooves with the adoration one would give to a princess. Blue shoving her tongue into mine. I could hear cheers and applause around me as I felt my hips jolt forward, unleashing copious amounts of my seed onto the window from across the room. We drank some more, we laughed, we did everything. Nothing was forbidden, the sights and colors, the sensations and smells, the cries and moans, it felt great to me for the time.

And then it all went black.

The next thing I felt was the uncomfortable sensation of a wooden box spring applying some unwanted pressure against my, head, hips, and shoulders. My hooves felt numb, my dick felt sore, my head was aching like someone took a Louisville slugger upside it. The world appeared to be a dim blur as my body started to regain some semblance of normal function. The room was incredibly cold, so much that the first thing that scared me out of my unconscious state was a puff of vapor from my own muzzle, thinking it was smoke.

I slowly rose from the bed, discovering the familiar trait of a stomach ache motivating me to hurry my ass into the bathroom to give the gods of the porcelain alter an offering. And my deposit there was substantial. I remained hunched over the side of the toilet for at least another fifteen minutes making sure that I had gotten it all out of my system. After that, I heard hoofsteps approaching.

Looking around the bathroom I was in, I saw there was no curtain for the shower, the tub had a massive chunk missing from the side, and a single window that beamed in the tiniest bit of light. Of course it's hard to call it a window when it's really a rectangular hole cut into the wall and outfitted with some rusty, decorative steel bars. The winter air flowed freely through it, making the place feel like a fridge. The walls were a medium-spring green with yellow bits of old wallpaper torn from the top boarder up against the ceiling. The place had a single light bulb hanging from the center of the ceiling, and it seemed to be operated by a thin rope hanging from a broken ball chain, probably what used to be a much longer attachment.

It finally dawned on me that this bathroom had no semblance of a door, no curtains, no anything as Kalimba emerged from the hallway to walk into the bathroom. She walked into the broken tub, staring at the old shower fixture. She appeared not to be moving for a moment until I realized that she was actually trying to concentrate, straining to use what little of her unicorn magic to turn the water on. I watched quietly, seeing the mare initially shiver as the water hit her. She picked up a bar of soap and started quickly rubbing away at the dirt from yesterday.

I got up on all fours, still a bit queasy and discombobulated, but very much functional on a rudimentary level. "Where am I?" I asked.

The mare continued to scrub herself with her hooves. "You are where I brought you last night. But it is good to see dat you are somewhat alright."

I took a quick sniff at myself and was quickly repulsed at the musk I gave off. "Holy hell, did I sleep in shit last night?"

The mare hopped out the shower and walked over to me. "You should make yourself clean, scrub every place dat is in between. Move quickly before de water runs out. Den a bad smell will be today's bout."

I glanced over at the shower, and obediently complied with her suggestion. But when I got in, I realized that the water was bone-chilling cold. It was more than enough to sober me up a little. "Holy balls, it's cold!" I shouted.

"What do you expect from living in dis hell? Did you think dat dis is some grand hotel!? Listen to me, ah, clean yourself. At least make yourself look de part of wealth."

As I shivered, I basically started using that bar of soap like a cheese grater against my body. While my jaw danced and jumped uncontrollably, I quickly got myself cleaned up a good amount before the water stopped pouring. I looked at the nozzle and turned it up further, only to get nothing in return. I turned it back off and hollered to the zebracorn. "Kalimba, the water cut off!"

"Den come in here and get something to eat, refuel before you set out to de street."

I walked out and found myself in a familiar place. At the table was the same shitty decor from what I saw last night when Prod was discussing with me my purchase of the zebra. We were back in his place, with no trace of the stallion to be seen. She sat quietly, blowing on a bowl that had a single boiled carrot in it. I looked at her as she carefully lifted her bowl, sipping away at the broth. In doing so, I noticed her eyes continued to shift to her surroundings. I sat down and proceeded to taste the broth for myself, only becoming disappointed as I realized that it was nothing but boiled water. I then worked down the carrot instead, forgoing on the soup's 'broth'. As I nibbled on the cooked carrot, I could see the mare looking back at me.

"Dis is what I've made for myself every morning. Though I do not find dat for you is not all too adoring."

"It's... good." I lied.

The mare scoffed. "I am no cook. I was never trained in anything but to fight my way out of an ambush."

"You're missing out on a lot then." I joked, but earning no kind of applause. "I guess I should ask what happened last night."

"Time and fortune each long gone, for many things happened before dawn. While you and your friend had a drunken night, I had watched Cyclops win de big fight. After de night's event had gone, we all continued to party on. You stumbled to me and I prevented a fall, from there I was tossed into your sexual brawl. I thought it would sate your hunger to assist in your release, but all my actions only helped to drive your lust's increase. So I allowed you de opportunity, start your night off with me."

My eyes bucked as I spat the carrot out from my mouth. "Wait, you and I..."

She placed her bowl down, her eyes piercing into my soul. "Yes."

I grimaced as I placed my hooves over my face in shame. "Ahhh-dammit. I'm sorry for─"

"You were not made aware of dat particular wine. In most places, it's presence is considered a crime." She explained. "It was laced with Drakeseed spore extract, making de drink quite the aphrodisiac. It could be said dat your friend had plans for you, and de drinks she shared was a way to see things through."

"So you're saying she drugged me just to get with me?" I questioned, though admittedly not surprised at the idea since she's done it before.

"More like she did so in earnest to save you. When sober, you still seem too reluctant to follow things through. But we now know in your drunken undertaking, you can offer a session of some long mating."

I cleared my throat as she seemingly pointed out my secret humanistic trait. "Uh... just try not to talk to anyone about it."

"I cannot pretend dat your secret is safe with me. I am sure some info about you would sell for a pretty penny."

I groaned as I started to find a way to keep her quiet on my anatomical advantages. "Hey lady, look. I really don't need for that to get out─"

Without the slightest hint or emotion on her face, she quickly held a hoof up to interrupt me. "Dere is no need for you to be so tense. T'was merely a joke made at your expense."

I dropped my head, half relieved that it was a joke and half concerned that her face didn't even move. "Okay."

The mare stood up from the table, collecting our dishes. "Perhaps one day you shall see, how good of a joker I could be. But as for now I know you are in hurt. I shall give you a bit of something to help you stay alert."

While I sat at the table waiting for her to go through the creaky cabinets, I quietly spoke to her. "I don't mean to be the one to ask you the typical morning-after question, but what are you going to do now?"

"If you are worried about my carrying your seed, I assure you dat dere is no need."

"That's not what I meant." I sighed. "Uh, what I was trying to say is that you're free now. You don't have to answer to anyone. So what do you intend on doing now that you're not going to be someone's daily plaything?"

She paused for a moment, almost like she had never once thought about what she'd do after Prod's death, much less after she managed to kill him herself. "I... do not know." She somberly answered, not caring for any sense of rhyming for the moment. "A lot of mornings I have woke to see him over me. And if I did not comfort him, I would be beaten. I did ask him if I could learn magic someday, but he would only spend de money on himself and his drinks. De very same wine you drank last night was his favorite, and he wouldn't care as for who or what he mated with."

So that's why she had first crack at me, she knew how to deal with Prod when he had the same stuff in his system. "I suppose... But you don't have a plan?"

"I suppose I could just simply follow you, dat is the only thing I know how to do."

I looked around the shoddy home, seeing very little that could at least be repaired to standard code. I remembered the simple carrot she boiled for breakfast, the cold shower in the freezing open air, the box spring I woke up on, and I shook my head. There was no way she could survive like this, not without someone being this oppressive to her. And if she offered to follow me around, then I had a simpler way of making this morally questionable situation turn into something a little more mutual. "So... ever thought of moving out?"

"Dere is no place for me to go. Dere is no other life dat I would know. My very image would make me a joke, especially for de more common folk."

I don't blame her for feeling that way. Even the asshole that kicked her around last night was making fun of the fact that she was a zebra-unicorn hybrid, tossing around the fact that her magic couldn't save her. And I'm sure that there are ponies outside of the Rotty who would be just as cruel, she even said it herself. Tack on the fact that she's a grown mare with a blank flank, and you'd even have some of the neighborhood foals trying to get in on the fun.

She had to live somewhere isolated, a place where the visitation is scarce outside of the main path. And I had just the location in mind. "...You're not staying here. This isn't a place for you."

"Well it is de only place I know, where my skills could fairly dictate where I'd go." She adamantly replied, offering me a strange white powder. "Dis is for your stomach and head. Take it so you may feel better instead."

I held my breath as I ingested the powder, following up with a glass of water. The horribly bitter taste lingered on my tongue for a while. "There's a place I know south of here. There's also a zebra shaman I talk to on occasion. You could live with her until I call you up for the next time. I assume that a place like that would be closer to home for you."

The mare scoffed. "Dere is no zebra in these lands. You can only find dem past de Eastern Sands. Past de savanna and de Jaded Shades, will you find de villages hidden in de glades. All of dat is across de Celestial Sea, where my ancestahs were once considered to be."

I cleared my throat as I started to explain to her the one way that would grab her undivided attention. "Her name is Zecora, she is a zebra too. And she rhymes in phrases just like you often do. She's good with potions and all the works, the Everfree Forest is where she lurks. To throw in a sweetener that's quite the classic, she's also acquainted with the Princess of Magic." The mare turned to me with her eyes slightly widened. "So to say that the potential is there for you, to have an opportunity that's offered to very, very few."

The mare quietly sat at the table, staring at me with her eyes narrowed. "I know dat you say dese things to make me feel hope. But do not take my rhyming and habit for a cruel joke."

I summoned my phone and pulled out a picture we took at Twilight's birthday party. I showed her the screen and replied. "If you think I'm joking, this is at Princess Twilight's birthday party. And since she's also my ex, I might be able to pull a few strings with her."

She continued to stare at me, but this time with a softer expression. "What do I pay you to gain your favor? Dere's always a hunch, some hidden waiver."

"Stay as my champ but improve your skills." I replied. "If I own you like you say I do, then let's say that this is my way of training you." I paused for a moment and snickered. "Huh, didn't mean for that to come out as a rhyme. But you've packed most of your shit already, might as well hop on the train and get acquainted with your new life. You may even pick up a few ideas on where you'd like to stay in the future."

The mare closed her eyes, placing her hoof on the rings that adorned her neck. After a moment of reflection, she confirmed her decision. "My mudda once told me dat I would one day master both zebra and unicorn magic. A disease took her life before she could see dat happen. If it is what my owner desires of me, den dat is what shall come to be."

"Great. So now I can ask you one thing."

"And what is dat?" She asked.

I peeked at the time, seeing that it was well past noon. "What's the shortest way to the castle from here?"

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

After I managed to quietly infiltrate the castle and transform myself back into my human form, I had finally come across the familiar sights of guards roaming the halls. My briefly quiet return had gone mostly unnoticed until one guard finally caught me trying to get to the barracks to clock in. But unfortunately, it was to my disadvantage that I was being called in to have a personal meeting with the upper brass.

So instead of walking into the barracks and clocking in for my eight plus overtime, I was sent back into the castle to convene with the Royal Joint Chiefs. As soon as I entered, they all looked at me with glares most disapproving. But it didn't seem to compare to the fact that Celestia was speaking with them as soon as I entered.

...Yeah, that's a no-go. You can possibly tell what happened next.

The meeting was held to a recess and I was ordered to wait in a small office filled with paperwork stacked to the ceiling. I was already looking at the mass of files and started grimacing at the thought of having to sign on all of it. But since I wasn't given any order to touch them, I just stood in the quiet room for around ten minutes until the door flew open to bring up two ponies, my superior officer and Princess Celestia herself.

The superior officer didn't hold back as soon as he stepped through the door. "CAPTAIN! WHY ARE YOU LATE TO A JOINT CHIEFS SUMMIT? IT IS THE VERY FIRST ONE OF THE YEAR AND YOU ARE ALREADY DISPLAYING YOUR VAST INCOMPETENCE!"

I tried to be submissive on the matter. "I'm sorry sir, there is no excuse."

"NO EXCUSE IS RIGHT! THE FACT THAT YOU ELECTED TO EVEN SHOW UP THIS LATE IS NOTHING SHORT OF INCOMPREHENSIBLE! YOU DON'T HAVE A CLUE AS TO WHAT WAS ALREADY BRIEFED UPON AND IT PERTAINED TO NATIONAL SECURITY!"

Celestia stepped forward and spoke out. "If I may, General."

"Your highness." He began, his tone already taking a significant drop from what he gave me. "I cannot abide by your decision to keep him in his position if he is to not take this position seriously. He's an enlisted who was promoted to an officer's position far too quickly."

The princess did not back down. "General, if I may. Please leave this one to me."

"Your highness, I'm not going to let you waste your energy." The general argued.

"It is fine." She calmly replied. "Return to the meeting hall at once. When I return, we shall reconvene."

The general saluted the princess, who in turn saluted back. He quickly left the room, but not without giving me an icy stare in the midst of his exit. I stood quietly as the door closed behind him. Celestia angrily paced back and forth as she calmly called out to me.

"I want you to listen to me, captain. You're on very, VERY thin ice."

"I have no excu─"

"I said listen to me, captain. Not speak." She ordered quietly as her horn started to glow. As she was taking a deep breath, I heard her voice in my head speak to me. "I am going to yell at you, so you better tune out the words I'm screaming and listen to me closely."

I felt the entire room rattle with her inhale, almost as if the space around me had already started to spell out the wrath I was set to endure. The windows flew open and the papers that were so neatly stacked up started to flutter. The princess had her eyes closed as she drew a long breath. And when she stopped, the papers stopped moving, the rumbling ceased, and her eyes opened slowly to pin me down with her coarse lavender gaze. As soon as her jaw drop, I plugged my ears, readying myself for the hell to follow. And on cue, her Royal Canterlot Voice rang loudly through the castle halls.

"HOW DARE YOU SHOW SUCH CARELESSNESS TO MY MEETINGS! I INSTRUCTED YOU YESTERDAY MORNING THAT I WOULD HOLD THIS MEETING TODAY AND YOU IGNORED ME OUT OF SPITE! YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO RESPECT FOR MY AUTHORITY, IS THAT WHAT YOU ARE SAYING TO ME!?"

As I held my ears closed, a much calmer tone rang through my head. "So you've been in Canterrot again? Nod for yes, shake for no." I nodded to the princess as she continued to scream the paint off the walls.

"IF I WERE ANY SORT OF TYRANT, I WOULD'VE HAD YOU EXECUTED FOR YOUR BLATANT DISREGARD FOR MY ORDERS! IF THIS IS THE LEVEL OF RESPECT YOU CONTINUE TO SHOW ME, I WILL NOT HESITATE TO FIND ANOTHER WHO WILL SERVE IN THE POSITION YOU CURRENTLY HOLD! I WILL HAVE YOU REPLACED SHOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME AGAIN! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!?"

Again, she presented to me a vastly different tone. "I completely understand what you are trying to do under the table here, but you cannot afford to lose your position out of some negligence. What you did today has you on some troubling foundation. I don't wish to see you forcibly reassigned for my sake. Now say 'Yes, your highness' so that you don't sound completely defiant."

"Yes, your highness!" I hollered out, my voice completely dwarfed by the princess' vocal caps lock.

"FURTHERMORE, WHEN YOU SAY THAT YOU ARE GOING TO ASSIGN YOURSELF A CERTAIN SHIFT, I EXPECT YOU TO CARRY THROUGH WITH WHAT YOU OFFERED TO YOUR SUPERIORS! THIS KIND OF DISHONESTY AND MALCONTENT IS NOT PERMITTED IN ANY WAY IN MY GUARD! I WILL NOT HAVE YOU DISRESPECT ME, MY OFFICERS, OR MY GUARDIAN CORE IN ANY MANNER FROM THIS DAY ONWARD! WHEN ORDERS ARE OFFERED TO YOU, YOU OBEY THEM AND ADHERE TO THE GUIDELINES THAT ARE SET, HAVE I MADE MYSELF CLEAR!?"

"Yes, your highness!" I called out.

"Remember, if you are doing this, your position is key to maintaining the momentum. The general was more than ready to have you replaced this morning, I had to talk him down citing your field performance and your current capabilities. I do not believe that will save you so easily a second time. So please keep those things in mind when you are out for a night of working in the shadows." She urged as she continued her loud tirade.

"AND SINCE YOU'VE MADE THE DECISION TO COME IN SO FASHIONABLY LATE TODAY, I'VE TAKEN THE LIBERTY OF DOCKING YOUR HOURLY PAY FOR THIS TRANSGRESSION OVER THE NEXT TWO SHIFTS! NOT ONLY WILL YOU BE WORKING OVERTIME TODAY AND MONDAY, BUT YOUR PAY WILL BE REDUCED BY A QUARTER OF YOUR USUAL EARNINGS! YOUR OVERTIME WILL BE UNPAID! AND YOU WILL BE PLACED UNDER MANDATORY POST ROTATION UNTIL YOU HAVE SERVED YOUR PUNISHMENT!"

"Sorry, those were the terms to keep your job alive. I can only give you so many slaps on the wrist. So think of this as an incentive to feed the ruse of your despising us royals. As far as making this up to you later, I'll find something. Just try not to be so overtly distasteful. You still have an image to maintain. Just try to be careful next time." She then yanked me down to her eye level as she continued to scream in my face.

"IF YOU DON'T LIKE YOUR JOB, THEN THERE ARE MORE THAN PLENTY OF OTHER CANDIDATES LOOKING TO TAKE YOUR SPOT! NOW YOU EITHER STRAIGHTEN OUT YOUR ACT OR I STRAIGHTEN IT FOR YOU! HAVE I MADE MYSELF CLEAR!"

"Yes, your highness!"

She gave me a quick peck on the lips along with another mental note. "Sorry for yelling at you so loud. Had to sell them the act of my being angry with you. Now let's get moving, we have a meeting to finish."

"NOW IF YOU'RE DONE ACTING LIKE THE ENTITLED MISTAKE YOU ARE, THEN GET THE HELL OUT OF MY FACE! NOOWWWW!!!"

As soon as the doors swung open, I felt her magic shove me out the door. She walked out the room and briskly walked back to the throne room. As I quietly followed behind her, I could see a bunch of guards and maids all whispering to one another as they all stared at me. The display she seemed to have put on had done more than work, convincing the others that I was sitting in quite possibly the hottest seat in the nation. The princess continued her angry parade while I looked the shamed captain I was slated to be. She offered me one final mental note before we headed back to the meeting.

"So, what do you want for dinner?"

Author's Note

Well this was a fairly difficult chapter to write. Not only did I try to simulate a thicker Congolese accent (possibly failing in every aspect of doing that), but the rhyming was so dominant because of the zebra lore of the series only gave us the idea that they did a lot of rhyming. Also I apologize to anyone who legitimately speaks the language I poorly translated (Swahili).

But as of now, we seem to be chugging along lately. Though to be honest, I will probably knock out the next three chapters and try to take a siesta. It's funny though, I managed to reach my yearly output and it's not even September. Though eight chapters a year isn't really a good pace.

Also, if anyone wanted to know what Kalimba would look like.

I wonder what artist would have commissions open for the holiday season.

Chapter XCIV

Rumors of my epic rear-ending at the hooves of the high princess got around the castle like an untamed inferno devouring a rain forest in drought. It was without question the very topic of the day when it came to the guard. Our briefing and introduction of new security measures didn't matter as much as the princess giving my eardrums a Friday night halftime solo. The whole castle heard every word of her rant, and that included the senators, enlisted, and officers who ultimately didn't like me. Even the maids found it easy to paraphrase.

What they didn't know or see was the fact that Celestia was quietly condoning my actions, rooting me on and trying her best to seem impartial in my treatment. In fact, she seemed more excited of the fact that she was doing something that was considered against the rules. If there was anyone that Blueblood's whole 'Princess Troublemaker' moniker could go to, Celestia was the very one who deserved it the most.

No one would suspect their highly-praised princess to be such a provocateur.

My getting publicly humiliated didn't stave away any other guards looking to get some insight on what happened and my opinions. After all, as far as they're concerned, I was the most casual of the officers around the royal family. And since I still had that exclusivity, it was certain that I was going to find some time to vent on my extended shift of touring the castle grounds.

Of course, playing my role still applied on the outside of the Canterlot underworld. And since Celestia's whole gambit was to 'give me more ammunition', it was my job to fire away. Guards who ultimately found my life interesting, particularly those I came out with and the younger recruits, gathered around me and we all broke silence together.

After all, it's what the guards normally do when I'm not around.

I was outside of the castle garden entry, around four other guards wanted to ask me about the epic tearing down and how I felt about the whole situation. I fed them what they wanted me to, and it drew them in like moths around a bug zapper. Two fresh recruits and two of my peers, Private Fairweather, Private Snowblind, Private First Class Iron Sight, and Private First Class Blackout, all five of us conversed with one another over the matter.

"And then she dragged me to the meeting where we continued our debriefing."

Iron Sight chuckled. "Wow, how'd you manage to get past the princess' Royal Canterlot Voice? Don't that usually cause permanent hearing loss at point-blank range?"

I shrugged at his inquiry. "Just plug your ears. Meaning that you're getting a good talking to doesn't also entitle you to lose your hearing. Just do what you gotta do to make sure you live to hear more orders some other day."

Blackout smirked. "You've always been causing trouble for the royals. I remember when Shining Armor was trying to get you to quit basic training."

"How is it that you get to keep your job?" Fairweather questioned.

Of course, even if I had appearances to keep, I couldn't give a new guy some terrible advice. "It's not about keeping the job, it's about doing what's necessary to protect the citizens. There's a lot of those guys who do mean well and are good people, I just do what I can to protect them. Yeah sure, I'm supposed to look after the well-being of the royal family, but they want to protect the citizens too. Meaning that I've got bad blood with them on a personal level doesn't mean I can't do my job. Fucking assholes, the lot of them, but you do what you need to do to protect the ponies that make up this nation."

"It also helps that you has some insane technology that can cut down anyone that stands in your way." Snowblind added.

"Yeah, but they're not toys. That's why I don't let anyone from here tote them around." I replied.

"Yeah, so what about that weird bike you have stashed in the barracks?" Blackout asked. "That looks like something someone can learn how to use."

"That's true, but even I had my fuck-ups trying to ride one of those things when I was younger. I got cocky and tried to pull a wheelie, broke my left wrist. Haven't dared to touch another one until recently. But yeah, it's better to start slow before you end up crashing into something and dying."

The four guards all gulped at the idea of somehow meeting their end on the motorcycle. "That's a scary thought." Fairweather mumbled.

"That's why I ordered that no one else touches it but me." I explained. "Can't have your blood on my hands for an incident that could've been avoided."

"Yeah that would've been a fun report to write. 'Moron gets himself killed for running into a wall.' That would've been a hell of a headline." Iron Sight laughed for a moment before he suddenly stopped and caught sight of someone walking towards us. "Oh fuck, guys. We gotta straighten up."

I looked over to see a mare donning silver armor and a scowl the size of Dallas. I remembered seeing her a few days ago, seeming like she didn't have much love for me. But I looked over to see the other guards trying their best to stay stationary. I also pretended to be inspecting the four as she started to get closer to us.

When she came up to us, she stopped and stared at the two new recruits. She also looked at the other two and clicked her tongue. "Sloppy."

I continued to operate like I was giving the small squad a once-over. But it was soon made known to me that her insult wasn't directed towards them. She stared me down as she repeated the insult, along with a few others.

"Sloppy. Senile. Corrupt."

Well at least she had two of them down. "Hey, I'm not exactly old, you know. I'm only going to be twenty-two in a few days."

The mare stood by her insult. "And you have the competence of a old coot who's past his prime. I don't think I've ever seen such a flash-in-the-pan career like yours. You don't even deserve the honor of being an officer in this guard."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, if this is about the meeting earlier today, I made my apology in front of everyone, I accepted the pay cut, and I'm working the unpaid overtime today. So chill a bit and keep it civil."

"Civility, much like the princess' words, are wasted on you." She scowled at me and quickly turned her attention to the other four guards. "And you four are just as sloppy as this 'captain' here. I am your commanding officer and none of you have even so much called for attention, much less a salute of the rank!"

The four guys started to sweat bullets as the mare started to chew them down. But I simply shook my head as I calmly called out to the four. "Squad, fall-in." The four quickly lined up, each a foreleg apart. I quickly drilled them on a few commands. "Squad, attention." Each of their hooves snapped as they stood proudly in place. "Dress right, dress." Three of the stallions aligned themselves to the stallion to the far right of the formation. "As you were." The three who put their forelegs up for measurement snapped back to attention. I walked in front of the four. "It appears that our officer here feels that her presence has been disrespected. So let's correct that so she shuts the fuck up and keep moving. Present arms!" Each of the stallions gave the mare a salute, who felt even more disrespected with my quip.

The mare hollered out to the four. "And you can stay like that for a whole twenty minutes, until you learn to show some proper respect to your commanding officer!"

I pulled out a golden pocket watch, namely the one my dad passed on to me, and counted down her punishment for her. "One, two, twenty! Time's up. ORDER ARMS!"

The mare turned to me, almost as if she had more than words to give me. "Excuse you, I am an officer! You dare to walk over my authori─"

I quickly put a stop to that. "Present. Arms." She froze in place for a moment before I leaned down to get in her face. "Are you malfunctioning, Lieutenant? Pre. Sent. Arms." The mare slowly lifted her hoof and stood motionless as I called her out in front of the four stallions. "See now, I don't like being an asshole. I don't, not to any of the guys in the guard because we all try our best to follow our orders and make it back home safe and sound. But the one thing I will not tolerate is a blatant show of disrespect in my guard. Missus here wants us to respect the rank, but will disrespect me in spite of my holding a higher position than her. Now, do any of you think that is fair?"

"SIR, NO SIR!" The four called out.

I walked around the mare slowly, leaning into her ears with each pass. "That's right. That would be like if I tried to issue a command over Princess Celestia herself, not gonna happen. And even if I was reprimanded for my miscues and inactions, so long as I hold my rank, I will not tolerate such blatant disrespect. Even if we can be civil with one another, the rank still stands. You can choose to not like me, and I can choose to not like you, but as long as we serve together, we will work together." I stopped circling around her and leaned in enough to where the bridge of my nose ticked with the closeness of our faces. "And as long as I am captain, you will obey my command or I will have you shot dead. Do you understand me, or do I need to personally fix your malfunction in front of these four recruits by putting a bullet in your ass?"

I could see the veins in her neck popping out as she started to seethe with anger over the display she was put on. "Sir, yes sir." She mumbled, unenthusiastic about her circumstances.

I pursed my lips for a second, nodded, tilted my head, and peeled one of her ears open. I then proceeded to go to work on her. "DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!?"

"YES SIR!" She called out as we went back and forth.

"ARE YOU DEAF, LIEUTENANT!?"

"NO SIR!"

"ARE YOU MAD, ARE YOU ANGRY!?"

"NO SIR!"

"DO YOU WANT TO MAKE A FOOL OF ME!?"

"NO SIR!"

"I GOT YELLED AT TODAY, DO YOU THINK THAT'S FUNNY!?"

"NO SIR!"

"YOU TIRED OF ME YELLING AT YOU!?"

"NO SIR!"

"YOU LIKE ME DRILLING YOUR ASS LIKE THIS!?"

"YES SIR!"

"ARE YOU A MASOCHIST!?"

"NO SIR!"

"WRONG FUCKING ANSWER! YOU ARE A MASOCHIST TODAY! YOU WILL SIT THERE, I WILL SCREAM, AND YOU WILL FUCKING LOVE IT! DO YOU LOVE IT!?"

"YES SIR!"

"TELL ME YOU FUCKING LOVE IT!"

"I LOVE IT SIR!"

"YOU'RE NOT SCREAMING! I NEED YOU SCREAMING!"

"YES SIR!"

"I LOVE SCREAMING! YOU'RE NOT SCREAMING LOUD ENOUGH FOR ME! LOUDER!"

"YES SIR!"

"LOOOUUUDEEERRR!!"

"YES SIR!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"YES SIR!"

I ran in front of her, pointing at my ears. "I CAN'T HEAR YOU! I'M STILL DEAF! LOUDER!"

"YES SIR!"

"HELP ME OUT, LIEUTENANT! SCREAM!"

"YES SIR!"

I then pointed to myself. "YOU LOVE MY RANK!?"

"YES SIR!"

"YOU LOVE MY RANK!?"

"YES SIR!"

"DO YOU FUCKING LOVE MY RANK!?"

"YES SIR!"

"YOU'LL DO AS I SAY!?"

"YES SIR!"

"SIT YOUR ASS THERE FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES IN PRESENT ARMS!"

"YES SIR!"

"DON'T YOU FUCKING MOVE!"

"YES SIR!"

"WHEN YOU FINISH, YOU WILL TELL ME YOU LOVE EVERY FUCKING SECOND OF IT!"

"YES SIR!"

After releasing a lot of pent-up energy and anger at the massive shouting session, as well as enduring a bit of damage to my voice, I turned to the others with a significantly raspier voice. "Now you four were in the position of attention, right?"

"Yes sir!" The four guards called out.

I took a moment to cough out a frog or two before continuing. "Good. Fall out."

Ponyville Castle...
***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

I stared at the name on my phone's screen, trying to gain some confidence and enthusiasm over calling the number under Flash's name. I waited for a moment before I made the decision, to make sure that I had my speech together on how I was going to ask him this question. Besides me was a trash bin filled with crumpled up notes, all of which covered in ink scribbles from where my frustration had urged me to toss it away. Each of those notes had different variations of how I was going to converse with him. And of course, with each approach, I found some flaw in my logic that made me either come off as weird or needy. And with each disposal came a criticism, too formal, too flirty, too many innuendos, too many words, too many syllables in some of the words, too simple, too desperate, too romantic, too much of anything.

The only thing I could do was sit at my desk and groan over how I took an entire day to not even come up with a reasonable approach. If it wasn't for the fact that I had something to do today, I wouldn't have even assigned this a deadline. Then it would've never gotten done cause I'm too busy thinking in circles. So I sat at this table in the middle of the throne room and concluded with something that I'd never thought I'd do.

I, Twilight Sparkle, am going to wing it.

No books, no obsessive note taking, no compulsive throwaways, no more excuses. I set a deadline and it had to be met. And if I had to go with the most uncomfortable approach that I have at my disposal, then I was going to have to just make do with whatever I say. I had five minutes, forty-eight seconds, and my conversation would have to be less than that for me to stay on schedule.

So I closed my eyes, swiped the number on the screen, and started the call.

While the dial tone rang out in dissonant sequences, I was already feeling a tremendous amount of guilt over what I was doing and how I was doing it. Somewhere in my mind was screaming at me to hang up the phone and try again when I had my mind right. I mean, why not? He was taking forever to pick up the phone, might as well just leave him be and try this again sometime later.

"Hello?"

My eyes jumped open, my magic sparked as I nearly knocked over every chair around the table. I took a few breaths before I answered nervously. "Heh heh, hey Flash?"

"Who is this?" He asked, probably confused as to who was talking to him so weirdly and casual.

"Well... It's... I..." I couldn't even say my name. I was already screwing up. I decided to hang up the phone. "Sorry, wrong number!"

"Wait, Twilight!?" Before I could even send a feather to the call end icon, the human on the other end correctly guessed at who I was. "Twilight, is this you?"

I was mortified, already knowing that I made a huge mistake, I couldn't afford to keep the call going for long. "Flash... how do you know who this is?"

"You have a distinctively dynamic voice that ranges from monotone, to sarcastic, to dorky."

Great... now he thinks I a dork. "Well, I guess that's me then. Heh heh heh. Yeah..." I'm so terrible at this. "So...."

"So how's it been ruling the world over there?"

"Ruling the world?" I asked. "Oh no, I could never rule a country on my own. It's hard enough being responsible for a town. And I even have the mayor working with me on that."

"Well it's nice to have a support network."

"Yeah... You know it's funny, I mean we're talking, you're doing human things like playing guitar, doings shows, enjoying the life of a bridge student."

"Yup, and you're out there fighting mystical beasts, magic creatures, and saving the world. You're doing all of that and I'm so ordinary."

"No, I mean you're special too."

"You mean short yellow bus special? I mean I still run into walls when I see you. Guess that makes me a little bit of the dork here."

I shook my head, as if he was actually able to see all of what I was doing. "Not at all." I answered as I summoned my calendar. "Soooooo..."

"Soooo, what's up?" He asked.

"I'm taking a gander at my calendar, seeing a few free blocks for two weeks from now. I know it's crazy, but at least there's something to do together, right?"

"I, uh... I guess..."

Something about his answer felt like he was unsure. "Something wrong? I mean I could set a better day. How about next month on the fourteenth? I'm pretty wide open that day, the whole day even."

From the other side, I could hear a dispirited sigh. And it already foretold of bad news. "...Twilight... can we, like, reason for a bit?"

I started to slump in my chair, bracing for the bad news. "Sure."

"Aren't you kinda already in something serious?" He asked.

"I mean, not anymore. I've been kinda roaming around, being my own being for a month or two."

"Really? Both Rarity and Sunset told me that you were in a really deep relationship with this guy, almost like the two of you were gonna get locked up."

"Locked up?" I inquired.

"I mean the two of you possibly getting married."

"Oh yeah, that... ended a month ago." I answered quietly, not really trying to admit that it ended for me just a few days ago. "I've been pretty much on my own."

"Well, I guess that's... something."

"Yeah." I was already regretting the fact that this call was still going. "So, any plans for the fourteenth of next month then?"

"...I can't."

"Then some other day, maybe?"

I can tell that he was sitting himself down somewhere. "Twilight... It's hard to keep something that's distant. You know?"

"Yeah... It's really hard to try and change someone's mind when you're not even there to talk with them in person."

"It's not just that." He continued. "...Did you know that there's another you running around?"

"Oh yeah, the other Twilight Sparkle in your world. We've met once, kinda on accident and I was terrified that the world was gonna start crashing all around us. But yeah, she's... she's there." While the situation was more than familiar, I couldn't bring myself to say anything to him as I felt a cold piercing sensation in my chest.

"Yeah... It's not like I haven't thought about it. I've even stayed up at night thinking about what would've happened if I had followed you through that portal the day you left us again. We almost kissed each other... I really did want to spend time with you, but... it's just the distance and... a little bit of something else."

"...Is it my being different from you?" I asked.

"Kinda... sorta... a lot of it."

"I see..." I should've hung up the moment he called my name.

"It's not exactly because of what you are, I mean that contributes. But who am I to you? I'm just a strange creature that walks on two legs and don't have magic. I'm not special. I'm just a human... who also happened to have dated a horse girl at one point, but the thing about then is that I didn't know and I wasn't thinking about it then. But after some recent stuff that happened, it made me realized that I wasn't ready for any of that, no matter how often it happens in school. For you, I'm just too different."

"Do you wanna know the truth about me?" My mind was screaming at me to hang up the phone, and yet I was still going. "Flash, I've been dating a human boy the entire time. We got into something a little serious, some things were said and done between us two, and I had to break it off a month ago. As of now, he's still here doing his thing. But we're not together."

"A human guy?"

"Yeah, he was a human."

"That's crazy. I thought humans didn't exist where you lived."

"But he lives in a world similar to yours, no magic, uses phones and internet, his world is why I'm talking to you on a phone to begin with. His best friend gave it to me as a gift on my birthday. I could send you a picture of him if you're curious." Twilight, shut up.

"Sorry. Not interested."

See, he's angry now. Just hang up and pretend this call never happened. "Yeah... so it's not like I'm not willing to accept you for what you are. I at least know what to look out for─"

"Twilight..." He was livid, his voice didn't show it, but I could tell from the awkward pause in his response. He was already trying to find the words to say, the ones that would put me away for good. "You were close to marrying the guy, and he was a human too. That meant that he had to be something insanely special to even get that chance. I probably don't even compare to him."

"I mean he has his faults." Shut. Up. Twilight.

"But you know what he also had that I didn't? He had time, all the time in the world. And you chose to spend that time with him. You could've had time to reach out to me somehow, the portal to my world is in your place. And you only came through when there was some weird magic emergency. That's not really enough to close the distance. It can't work with you showing up every blue moon."

"But it can now!" Just hang up the phone and stop this before you make it worse. Flash, please hang up on me, or something.

"It won't." He somberly replied. "I'm not sitting by some portal to an alternate dimension when I can start fresh with the you that's here. I mean, you've already made that decision with me."

And there it is, the reason why Twily should've hung up before it had even got to this point. "Flash... I'm sorry."

"Life happens, Twilight. But I'm not waiting mine out for you to show up so little, and especially while you had someone to talk sweet to, another human no less."

"Flash, I was drunk." SHUT UP!

"Twilight... I'm sorry. But we're not doing this. It's nice to know you called me. I've got your number. Maybe I'll hit you up some other time, as friends."

Twilight Sparkle, thy name is IDIOT. "...I... sure."

"Well I gotta go. Boys are trying to have a quick rehearsal before tonight's show. Sure wish you could've come."

"Good luck tonight."

"Bye."

I couldn't even say goodbye before hearing the three tones that notified me of the call ending. Good going, doofus. You talked too much and now you get nothing.

I stayed in the throne room, looking at the time that was spent on the call. Twenty minutes.

I quickly went through my contacts and immediately jumped to the one that I wanted to see, the name of the man I really wanted to see right now. As soon as the ringer came in, I was already trying to formulate some apology for something that he wouldn't even know about. The only disadvantage was that he answered me even quicker than Flash did. "Yo."

I need to put this damn thing down. "Nondis, what are you doing right now?"

I could hear him pressing his phone closely against himself, whispering into the receiver. "I'm sneaking away from my shift to answer my phone because you called. Why?"

Again, I couldn't work up enough discipline to dismiss the call. "...I need to talk to you. Where are you right now?"

"I'm on shift, so just tell me what it is real quick and I'll call you back later."

"Can you just come see me later? I really want to talk." I don't know how to shut up sometimes.

"...Twi, I might have an idea on what you're trying to do. It's not gonna happen."

"Nondis, please talk to me. I need you right now"

"Twilight, I gotta go. Just call me later, don't try to pop in unannounced."

And still, I insisted on speaking. "I wanna talk to you, I've made a terrible mistake."

Thankfully before I could get any worse, he ended the call. "Superior's coming. I've gotta go. Bye."

The same three tones sounded on my phone, his name grayed out as the time showed on the call, less than a minute. It took him less than that long to call me out on what I wanted to do with him. It somewhat made me angry that he could see through me like that, but I understood why he had to turn me down. I was the one who didn't want to accept it. I laid my head on the table, closing my eyes and mourning over my inability to stop when needed to.

"...Me and my dumb mouth."

A knock sounded in the distance, very much from my front door. Realizing I had little to no time to pity myself, I stood from the table and made my way to the castle foyer. The knock sounded yet again, I slightly increased my pace, opening the door to reveal Zecora standing at my front porch.

"Twilight Sparkle, it has been long since we talked. Would you care to join me for a brisk walk?"

At least the open air would distract me for a while longer. I called up to the other floors above. "Spike! I'm going for a walk, keep an eye on Starlight for me!"

"No magic experiments, got it!" My number one assistant replied.

"It's not magic, it's magic science!" Starlight rebutted as I walked out the castle, closing the door behind me.

The zebra smiled gently. "I trust that your new mentorship has gone well. But you seemed disturbed emotionally, that I can tell."

We started to stroll along slowly. "It's nothing to worry about, just me and my big dumb mouth sometimes."

"Is there ever a moment where we don't think that for ourselves? Instances where our minds plan a certain thing, but our mouth rebels. It is only natural to have that be, it's part of the growing process, you see."

I shuffled my wings, thinking about the awkwardness I've inflicted myself. "Sometimes I just don't wanna look back at my own mistakes. I just want to keep moving forward."

"But those same truths is from were we often learn. How will we gain the wisdom we all seek to earn? You are still young, Twilight Sparkle, there is no running from that. A brief derail is the best way to find ourselves back on track."

"So you're saying that I should be more open to messing up?" I asked the zebra shaman.

"It is fine to step back and see the flaws of your own approach. That way when there are others, you know in what ways to coach. I've had many mistakes in my youth, that I can admit. So trust me when I say in seeking a partner, for now, you should quit."

"WHAT!?" I shouted at Zecora.

"By diving back in, you learn very little. From there every future relationship grows the more brittle."

"How is that fair!?" I asked, thinking about how Nondis managed to jump from me and right into a relationship with Celestia. "So I have to step back and look at myself, while he gets to do whatever to whomever!?"

"Twilight Sparkle, I've thought it would be clear, what do you think he did when he first got here? Months away from his home in a unknown world, it offered the time for his mind to become unfurled. The decisions he made, he's learning from too. So it's only natural that the same should happen to you."

"Don't know if you remember, Zecora, but there's a certain law that essentially bans ponies from even getting interested in me. So remind me how that's fair to me." I argued back to her.

"No matter the status we hold in life, we are all prone to some manner of strife. But I assure you that these moments will also pass. For there is nothing in this world that forever lasts."

I squinted upwards to the sky. "Celestia's sun."

She then countered my argument. "Will become someone else's burden. Even after a thousand years, her fate is also certain. There comes a time where one's power will wane, and the future will be decided by those who will remain. So in the event that the balance becomes unsteady, it will be you and your friends who will stand at the ready. But I digress, where were we? I believe we were talking about why you were so unhappy."

While we were walking, I couldn't help but notice that Zecora had already gathered a small bag of herbs and flowers. Sometimes when we talk like this, I don't even notice that she goes shopping for her supplies. She just makes it all seem so natural. Still, I couldn't shake the fact that she was telling me to put my pursuit of a personal relationship to the side. "So what do I do then? Where do I start?"

"You begin from what's already in your heart." She answered, rhyming off of my question. "You already have an outlet, she's in your castle now. But when she makes the jump to advance, there is where you'll decide what and how."

I looked at the clock tower overlooking some of the town, as I looked forward, I noticed that we were getting closer to Fluttershy's cottage. Her house was down the path, taking the fork to the right. But taking the left lead us straight into the Everfree Forest. While the shade started to overcome the sun's light, I continued to walk with the zebra along her journey, instinctively looking out for her safety. "Thanks for the advice. I hope you don't mind the company for a short while. I kinda need it."

"Twilight Sparkle, it is always a pleasure. To walk home with you is always a treasure."

I took another look at the contents of her bag, seeing a few unusual ingredients for her potions. "I see you're also brewing up a little something different."

"Actually, I am doing an ancient brew, it is a remedy from home, so nothing too new."

As we approached the outside of her treehouse, I looked around the place and saw no immediate threats. "Well, I guess you're safe and sound for now."

The zebra reached a hoof around my shoulder and spoke quietly. "Actually, I may have another concern. You see, my situation this morning had took quite the turn."

I grew to be more cautious after she made her statement. "Any danger to you?"

"I do not think so, but it is most unusual. When I first saw it, I felt like I was quite delusional."

"Perhaps a run in with some poison joke?" I asked.

"Oh no, I have that remedy set aside. But it is an issue from you I cannot hide."

"A grievance?" I inquired. "Did I do something wrong.

"Come inside and see." She answered while opening the door slowly. "And you will soon know what I mean."

I did as she instructed, entering the hut.

When I walked in, I saw another zebra laying on her bed. She seemed to be resting peacefully, not paying any mind to who just walked in or anything going around her. Zecora walked beside her and gently rubbed her head. "This poor thing came to me earlier today. As soon as she laid down, she started slumbering away. She's quite a beautiful one, but deeply scarred. Something tells me her life had been exceptionally hard." She wasn't lying, as she moved, I started to see a myriad of scars and bruises all over her body. Zecora took the sheets from her and quietly urged her to move. "Amka, kijana. Tunayo mgeni. (Wake up, young one. We have a guest.)"

The mare rose from the bed, with her head bowed to the wall. As she got up slowly, I started to see many lashes and scars all over her back. Bruises dressed her sides and some parts of her chin. Her body was so slender that I started to see the ribs under her skin, though not by much. But what surprised me more was what she revealed to me as soon as she turned around. On the center of her forehead was a horn adorned by a single gold ring. As she yawned and stretched, it was made apparent that her coat was a different shade of gray. It was a strange periwinkle color, her stripes a lighter shade of gray than that of Zecora's. Her eyes fluttered open, revealing the shades of crimson red.

Her eyes locked on to me, breaking wide open as she started to stumble back in disbelief. As I reached out to her, I watched her retract herself even more towards the wall. "Come now, there is nothing to fear. We are the only three that are here."

"She's a... unicorn?" I pointed out, questioning her unusual blend of features.

"That is not all." Zecora warned, walking up to the mare, pointing out her flank.

"No cutie mark either? How old is she?" I questioned. Apparently my inquiry had upset the mare as she retracted herself even more.

The mare looked away from the both of us and hid her face, using her tail to hide the side that exposed her flank. "I should have never come here. Everywhere I go, I am always de queer." Her accent was a lot heavier than Zecora's, her voice even deeper.

I backed away, offering her the space to grow some comfort. I then asked nervously. "So, what brings you over to this neck of the woods? Heh heh heh." She looked at me, not even so much cracking a smile. "Okay, that was a pretty bad joke. I'm sorry."

"De alleys of Corrotto, from where I was sent. On behalf of my owner, whom I represent. He seeks to free me, but keep me trained, he said to call on him, from dere he would explain."

Zecora frowned at the idea of her representing herself as property. "Who is it that claims ownership of you. Such disrespect, I'd run him through."

It didn't take me any time to connect the dots. I pulled out my phone and quickly called up the man responsible. After a few rings, he picked up the phone in a whisper. "Okay, what's wrong now?"

I placed him on speaker so that Zecora could also hear what he had to say. "There is a zebra here that says you own her."

"Oh, right. That... I'll pay you guys a visit after my shift."

I started to chide back at him. "Your shift doesn't even last this long, you should be off by now!"

"I've got an overtime today. I'll ride by there tonight and I'll explain everything about it. For now, just take good care of her until I get there. Warm bath, good meal, soft bed, that kind of stuff."

Zecora also joined in, with some very apparent anger in her voice. "Nondis, I hope you you have a good reason for this. As you can tell from my tone, I am quite pissed."

"You sound like it. I'll come by with a more in-depth explanation. Anything else, Kalimba can tell you more." He said before turning his attention to the unusual zebra. "Kalimba, you there?"

"I am." She replied.

"These two will take care of you and get you started on what you need to know. I'll slide by there tonight and all of us will hash it out from there. I'll even bring Cliff on by so he can whoop my ass for everyone else there. Deal?"

"Even if what you say is true, I am going to have some strong words for you." Zecora added vehemently.

"Yeah I know. Save 'em for when I get there. Nondis out."

Canterlot Castle,
Later That Night...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

After asserting myself a little more than I wanted to, dealing with a raspy voice for a few hours, one ten-hour shift and a couple cups of tea later, I finally managed to get my free time back, albeit much later than what I would've liked it to be. Instead of getting off at my usual 4 p.m. slot, I had finally gotten free for dinner at 9... long after the mess hall closed shop.

The royal dining hall wasn't any different, when I walked it, there was no one there. Servants, cooks, maids, they were all around the other parts of the castle. I peeked into the kitchen and saw no one inside, not a soul to man the stoves. I contemplated a quick sandwich, but found that the fridge in the kitchen was under lock and key. But then I shortly discovered that everything in the kitchen was under lock and key, I guess it was to ensure that there wasn't any assassin to try and taint the food with poison. It's a fair trade to say the least, but I was still without a meal for the evening.

I walked out of the kitchen and started to make my way back out of the dining hall, but an awfully-frowned princess barreled into the room. Before I could exit, she was already dragging me by my shirt back into the kitchen. I wasn't any more fortunate in an escape as she shut the doors to the kitchen behind us, locking them shut. As soon as she turned around, she continued to frown at me. "You know, this wouldn't be happening if you had showed tot he meeting on time."

I folded my arms as I looked around the kitchen. "Yeah, kinda weird with it being this quiet around the halls. It's like 9 at night is a call for lights out around here."

The princess walked towards me slowly. "It's to give my guards the best rest that they could possibly have for an early shift. Those on dawn detail awake at 4 and be ready for their shifts at 5."

"Well thank goodness I'm not much of an early-morning person. My 5 a.m. is not the prettiest presentation." I joked.

"You wake up at six anyhow. I'd think you'd have no problems waking a few hours earlier." She added, using her magic to drag me down to her eye level. "You will get the pleasure of seeing me rise my sun, especially if I assign you to my morning wake-up detail."

"Is that what you're gonna have me do tomorrow?" I asked.

"The day after."

"Yikes, that's a way to celebrate my birthday."

She kissed me on the cheek, still wearing that frown on her face. "I want you to wake up on time. Can you do that?"

I sighed as I pulled out my phone. "I can try. Just let me set my alarm for that and I'll be good to go."

"4 a.m.. Not a minute later. I want you by my room at 4:55, you'll start your shift at 5 with me. You'll do your twelve-hour, be finished at 5 p.m., and we'll have a small get together for you at dinner. From there, the night is all yours to do what you will."

I found it pretty interesting that she had planned out my entire birthday schedule. "Gotta admit, you plan my day better than I do."

"You're talking to the one who taught Twilight how to manage her schedule. You better believe I'm good at what I do." She replied, cracking a smile.

As she made her way to the fridge, she summoned a master key to unlock everything in the kitchen. And just like it would on some other day, the kitchen was open for business. I leaned against the counter, awaiting my next set of instructions. "So, what's on the menu?"

"I'm thinking of something light. Your birthday is coming up and I don't want you to have to put too much on your body before then. I'm thinking of a veggie cacciatore, onions, peppers, herbs, olives, mushrooms, topped with a pinch of Parmesan cheese, cooked in olive oil and red wine... for a bit of a twist."

"In my world, they usually have chicken as the main ingredient." I stated.

"And they also use white wine for something like this. But as you can tell, I'm not like other ponies." She said proudly, reaching in the cabinet for the seasonings she was going to use. She levitated a few vegetables to me. "Cut these for me so that I can get your stuff ready."

I did as she instructed, but not before heading over to the sink to rinse down the vegetables. "Don't mind me asking, but what had you frowned up when you came in?"

"I had a complaint about you, something about earlier today."

"Oh that." I said with a groan. "I had to break down a first lieutenant today because she thought she could insult me in front of the regulars."

"Your voice does sound a bit worn." She pointed out. "Solemn Oath's voice was just as scratchy as well. She was quite angry with you."

"I don't think she likes me very much." I replied. "Especially now."

"She's a hardcore loyalist, what else is there to say?" The princess stated. "Most loyalists are the ones that try too hard to put me on a pedestal. And they try to overachieve in what they do to gain favor with me, it's almost an obsession."

"At least you know they're on your side." I said with a shrug.

"But when one gains too much favor with me, the others are far too willing to break them down for the sake of taking their place. When one goes down, another tries to fit the bill. And don't even get me started for when there's an outsider like you being so close to me. They start to feign their superiority by flaunting their years of service and seniority. Never fails."

"Yeah, that's kinda what happened earlier today." I admitted.

"It's good that you did what you did. But I do want you to dial it back, just a smidget next time. But if she ever steps out again, you let me know."

"Sure thing." I said as I placed the vegetables on the counter. I walked over to the knife rack to grab me one to cut the ingredients, but Celestia stopped me before I'd get started.

"I want you to use your magic for this one. Let me see how well you control your cuts without your hands."

"Didn't think this would turn into a magic lesson." I mumbled playfully, obeying her suggestion. While I started to prep the ingredients with my magic, I mimicked the motion of my holding the knife and cutting the food. Celestia giggled at my approach. "What's wrong now?"

She walked behind me, holding my wrist still in her magic as she instructed me. "Less motion, more finesse. Use more of your fingers instead of your wrists."

Immediately, I noticed that the knife was much harder to control without the aid of my trying to imitate the motions alongside the action I was trying to achieve. "You know, this was much easier when I had control of my wrist."

"And just like every young student at my school, I have to tell them that it's all in the mental more than the physical. If you have to strain yourself physically, then the task is either very demanding or you're using your body's movement as a crutch. I can go on and on with how many fillies and colts I had to instruct to stop rolling their necks, arching their backs, planting their hooves in wide stance to be able to lift something like a flower pot."

"But this is how you taught me, remember?" I pointed out to the princess. "The paintbrush?"

"That was to get you started." She replied, still holding my wrist still. "You're past that stage now, especially if you can transform yourself into a pony and back. Now try to limit your movements, focus your flow and achieve the task that's been given to you."

"Okay." I answered, slowly trying to grasp the lesson she was giving to me.

"The reason why I'm having you do this is to make your intention appear a little more vague. You're easily countered when they know what you're trying to do. Telegraphing your moves can be as detrimental in a magic duel as it would be in a close-quarter combat situation."

"Is that how you managed to beat me at every turn?" I asked.

"I do give you some obvious openings, but only to see if you would take it at every chance. You often do." She said with a light nudge against my back. "Now cut those quickly, I don't want my pan to heat up too much waiting on you."

While she walked away, I noticed that the magic she used to hold my wrist still was still locked on me. She continued to levitate a number of spices from the cabinet, grabbing a number of items as she effortlessly glided around the kitchen. Meanwhile I had to learn how to control my cuts quickly using only my fingers.

After I finished with the prep work, Celestia took what I gave her and started to work her culinary magic on the unassuming items. But it wouldn't take long for what she threw in the pan to become something that piqued my stomach's interest. While we waited for the food to get done, she sat herself down.

I then asked the princess a simple, curious question. "You'd think that a pony who has to lord over an entire country have so little time for themselves. But I gotta know, how did you start getting into cooking?"

"Well, I did hang around the kitchen a lot when I was younger. It was quite often that I'd got a taste of the chefs' cooking before my family did. If anything, I was almost an advanced taste tester. And when I expressed a desire to learn, I just stood by and watched closely. Really, it was something I learned to do before I was thrust into power. And the chefs were very accommodating with their knowledge. Every now and then, I would be given an opportunity to stand by a chef or two, pick up a few tips, and apply them for later."

"A jack of all trades is what you are." I said with a chuckle.

"I'd rather be that than the Plain Jane my sister is." She joked. "I was never into just simply barking out orders, fighting, and moving the sun twice a day."

"If only you knew the irony of that last third of your statement."

The princess grinned as she got up, leaped on my back and hugged me from behind. The sudden weight shift made me lose balance a bit, but I stabilized as she spoke. "I'm also good at taking down creatures larger than me too. But..."

"Can't play Superwoman forever." I concluded, earning some confusion from the princess. I explained to her the reference. "A superwoman is basically a woman capable of extraordinary feats like flying faster than a speeding bullet, being more powerful than a train, leaping tall skyscrapers in a single hop. You just want to feel like you have something close to normal in your life."

The mare shifted her weight, draping off of my chest and shoulders like she were my cape. "Well I know this one Average Joe looking to make a Superman of himself. Perhaps I should teach him how to fly sometime."

"I don't have wings, as you can tell. So that's not gonna happen."

She clenched her hind legs around my sides as best as she could, climbing over my back as if she were climbing the mountain, finally getting her head to level with mine. She used her magic to turn my head to hers. "You know, my wings have felt amazing these past two days. If I would've tried to do that with you a week ago, then I would've not been too certain."

"I'm just glad you can trust me enough to preen you." I replied.

She blushed lightly as she looked off to the side, a thought came across her mind. Possibly our bout of extracurricular activity. Her ears soon turned red to match the color of the sauce in her dish. She didn't let that get out from between her lips as she used my cheek as a plug. The princess then nuzzled me. "Can you get me to the stove?"

I smirked as I obeyed her request. "Eeeehhh, this is your captain speaking. Welcome aboard the Nondis Express, we ask that you please keep all hands, legs, hooves, wings, as well as personal belongings on the ride at all times. We will be making a descent to the stove very shortly. As we come in for landing, we want to ask that you please keep your tray table up and place you seat in the upright position to better assure your safety. If you have any questions or concerns, a flight attendant will be there to assist you. We want to also emphasize that this is a non-smoking flight, so please do not smoke in the cabin. Thank you for flying with us, we hope to you see you again on Nondis Express."

The princess barked out a laugh as I walked over to the stove, carrying her on my back as smoothly as I could. She glanced over at the stove and turned the fire off under the pan. She called out to me. "It appears that we have a light fog issue ahead on the landing strip. Please sit tight while we try to get a hold of control to better navigate you to the ground safely."

"You catch on quick." Seeing that she wanted another pass or two, around the spacious I obliged. She giggled as I carried her around for a pass, meanwhile grabbing a plate and some silverware for my food. As soon as we came up to the stove again, she started to dress the plate almost as if a five-star chef would present their dish.

She picked up a fork and levitated the food to my mouth. I blew on the food for a moment to not burn my mouth. As soon as most of the steam subsided, I took a bite of her tangy, savory dish. The princess leaned forward to see my face a little better. While I chewed, I expressed my pleasure over her food. "So what do you think? That'll do it for you?" She asked.

"It's wonderful." I answered, not really paying attention to the fact that I leaned in for a kiss. The princess didn't move, but appeared surprised that I had actually moved in on her. She remained motionless while I pecked her on the lips to praise her for the meal.

She whispered in my ear. "Did you just move the goal post?"

I smirked as I looked off. "Kinda, sorta."

She used her wings to turn my cheek, leaning my head into hers. Her lips parted against mine, her tongue lightly dancing against mine while she pressed more of her weight against me. For a brief moment, I could feel her retract her weight, only to press it against me. That was the moment she quickly broke off, licking her lips and biting them. "I'm getting off this ride before it gets exciting."

"You're welcome to stay." I added.

"Don't tempt me, boy. I still owe you for what you did. And it's three months on back-order."

"Can't wait." I said, giving the princess another peck on the lips.

The princess climbed off of my back, but using her magic to pull me away from the food and towards her face, kissing me as we separated. "Now eat up. You can at least get some rest tomorrow to get ready for your big day."

"The way we're acting, my birthday gift might come in early." I joked.

"Don't you play with me." She warned, moving herself away from me and walking towards the door. "Eat your food now."

I rolled my eyes playfully at her. "Yes, mom."

The Next Morning...

After spending some time in the kitchen and locking everything back up. I briefly took a trip to Celestia's doorstep and slid the key under the door. Finished with that little errand, I made a brief phone call to Twilight, asking if she still wanted me to come by to explain things. She merely noted that the Everfree Forest was far too dangerous at night for me to wander about looking for Zecora's hut. She also offered to explain my absence to the zebra shaman come morning, at least alleviating the amount of blow-back I'd be getting from her.

So I settled on just going to bed, at least to recover from the strenuous day.

When I woke up, I was more than thankful for the heat in my room. I looked at my phone, seeing the time, 7:35. I hopped up, jumped in the shower, ran straight to the dining hall, had me a good breakfast, headed back in the room to make a few phone calls. I checked in with Twilight to see how Zecora and Kalimba were doing. As soon as I verified their status, I asked for a quick meeting with the two of them in Ponyville.

After confirming that, I got on the phone with both Cliff and Rickey, seeing if they would come by to at least get some insight on what I was doing. It was better for me to let them know what was going on instead of finding out the hard way. Not only would it offer them some ability to question me about this whole situation, but also allow me to quietly explain to them what's going on with me and Celestia. They agreed, but under the condition that I'd find some time to cross back over tomorrow, possibly birthday related.

I crossed over and waited in my apartment so that I could get over to Ponyville. A few minutes later, both Cliff and Rickey showed up and we made our way to Twilight's Castle. As soon as we sat down in the throne room, the only thing we waited for at the moment was Zecora.

Twilight showed up with a small tray of cookies, which the guys were more than willing to partake in. "Here you go, boys. Straight from the oven just for you."

"Thank you much." Cliff said as he started chomping on a few cookies on his own. "They a bit crunchy but it's all good."

Rickey had no problems either way. "You just picky man. I bet your mama had to cut the crust off your sandwiches too."

"No, I'm just not a texture eater. People who like that shit eat a bunch of razor blades in their cereal bowl every morning."

I also took a bite, noticing that the cookies were incredibly sweet. "Hey Twilight, do you use white sugar or brown sugar for the cookies?"

"I just grabbed whatever sugar I found on the aisle. The recipe in the book didn't quite specify what kind of sugar I'd use." She replied, confirming that she drew her recipe from the book I tossed away.

For a quick moment, I had my baking experiences with Pinkie Pie and the Cakes come to the front of my mind. "If you use brown sugar, they'll come out a little softer. Something about the composition of the two sugars starts changing the texture, that's just some other stuff Pinkie told me when I was rooming at Sugarcube Corner."

Twilight rubbed her chin. "Hmm, maybe if I could look into the various chemical compositions that make up the sugar and research the differences in their effects, I may find a perfect mix of ingredients to make my cookies a little lest harder to chew."

As the two of us were having that conversation, I noticed that Rickey was paying close attention to our interactions. He took another cookie and commented on our friendliness towards one another. "You two seem pretty chill for a bunch of exes."

Right then I knew exactly what conversation he was queuing up. Twilight didn't see it that much. "Well, it's... It's fine, really. I mean I'm still hurt, but I know that I still have a lot to work on."

Rickey didn't mince any words, jumping right into it. "So... like the two of you broke up. And now he's talking to someone else, possibly someone he really shouldn't be talking to."

The princess shifted her eyes. "I don't know what you're talking about." She followed up her comment by laughing skittishly.

Rickey wasn't fooled. "I mean your ex here is chopping it up with your math teacher."

Twilight tried to hide her shock, but her jaw fell far enough to break her ruse. "What are you talking about?"

Cliff then joined in. "So we might've caught her getting REALLY acquainted with Nondis."

"I get the point already." Twilight finally stopped trying to hide her disappointment. She sat at the table, grabbing a cookie for herself to sweeten her now soured mood. "The only thing I can say is that it never leaves this room."

The two of them looked at one another before going back to the princess. "So you know about it?" Rickey questioned.

"How can I not? Nondis was the first to tell me." She stated with a grumble. "I don't really like talking about this, can we go on to something a little more important?"

Rickey continued. "I mean, I just wanted to know how you felt about it."

"Nondis is courting Celestia, conversation done." Twilight firmly stated.

"And you didn't get a chance to talk to her about it?" Rickey continued to grill the purple alicorn.

"Rickey, chill. All three of us already talked about it. No need for an interrogation today." I jumped in, trying to understand why Rickey was so aggressive.

"I mean I'm just asking for a friend." He explained. "She said she wasn't gonna talk about it anymore and she said she was done with you."

"You mean Mel?" I asked.

"Hey, she's just upset about the way she found out. Like you could've been a little more upfront with her."

Twilight then added. "Celestia doesn't want anypony talking about it. So can we please acknowledge her request and not talk about it?"

Rickey threw his hands in the air. "Hey, I'm just making sure you were aware, unlike the three of us who found out when the clock struck twelve on New Year's."

"Three!?" Twilight asked.

"Mel was there too." Cliff said to stop Rickey from escalating the conversation any further. "And she was a little upset when we saw it. I mean it is what it is, she wanna keep shit locked up so Nondis ain't gotta catch no heat."

"What I want to know is why the both of you would keep it from us though." Rickey interjected.

"It was to stop us from talking about it when we got here." I explained briefly. "Say if someone was overhearing this conversation from the outside, then what would happen? Not even to me, but to her? I'm sure it would be absolutely apocalyptic for her to deal with that."

Rickey stood up from his seat, raising his voice. "Then don't you think that's because of what you're doing here? You're the one fueling the problem in all of this. If you just took yourself out of the equation sooner, she wouldn't be in this mess."

"So you're speaking for Mel now?" I asked.

"Someone has to, you obviously don't give a damn that she gave up a year of her life trying to make sure you're still in the world of the living."

"Rickey, I know you have a soft spot for Mel."

"My guy, if I wasn't in love with her, I'd smack the shit out of you for the way you make her feel sometimes. All this extra shit, you ain't gotta do that. Imma say this, and we gonna squash it. If you would've came clean to us about it earlier that day, to hell with the princess and her theories, we'd be a lot better off. But she's hurting right now because you didn't trust us enough to come clean. You know we got your back, bro. We ain't out to hurt nobody. Just keep it real, say you two were talking, you need it to stay wrapped up, we won't say shit, we move on. But now you gotta have this same talk with your brothers because I'm sure Mel's gonna tell them too, as well as your folks."

Rickey took a moment to breathe as Cliff then added. "I mean we ain't tryin' to rain on nobody's parade. But you could've kept it a hundred with us. We're upset because you didn't. We're disappointed that you still flaked on us, but we understand. You ain't gotta do all that, I swear. Just come to us, we got you. Now... we still brothers in this, so let's grill it and eat."

I stood from my seat walking up to Rickey. "Rick, I'm sorry to put you and Mel through that. I just wanted to make sure Celestia was fine with it all before I told anyone else. I know that it was a bit slimy, but I gotta respect her boundaries too. Not trying to stir no shit, man. Just trying to keep people happy, still learning how to juggle that between two worlds. You have a right to be upset with me. Having that said, I hope we're good."

"I'm pissed, but it's all love bro." Rickey replied, giving me a handshake and a brotherly hug. "Just try not to do stupid shit anymore."

I laughed as I shook my head. "...Yeah, about that."

Without warning, there was a knock on the doors of the throne room. Twilight perked up and walked to answer, seeing Spike standing next to Zecora. Twilight praised her assistant. "Thank you for bringing her here on short notice, Spike."

"No problem." The dragon said as he eyed another figure standing off to the side somewhere.

Zecora turned to the side and commanded in her native tongue. "Ndani. Haraka. (Inside. Quick.)" The zebra shaman entered into the room, accompanied by a cloaked figure. As soon as the doors closed behind them, the cloak came off to reveal it was Kalimba standing as mysterious as she often would. The shaman turned her attention to me and growled. "Now that you are here today, I have more than a few questions directed your way."

Cliff and Rickey didn't seem as surprised as I would've took them to be, especially seeing a unicorn-zebra hybrid standing before them. The mare walked up to me, examining my height as she got closer. Realizing how short she was compared to me, she tilted her head. "Seeing you in pony form makes you seem so small, in comparison to what you really are, I see you are quite tall. Tis much different den seeing you in dose stories, to hear of such endeavors and tales of glory."

"Oh, so she's seen you in pony form." Cliff started, while Rickey snickered behind me. "Did you have any problems like the last time?"

Rickey started snickering a little louder, trying his best to suppress it. "It gets everywhere."

Cliff bent over trying to not to crack up, but failed after a short while. Kalimba, despite my wishing she didn't, fed their laughing fits with a jab at my expense. "Dere is no need for you to be hostile. Dey are merely pointing out dat you are quite fertile."

I swear Rickey just bent over and stopped breathing. Cliff simply fell to the ground and pounded his fist at the floor as he continued to laugh. He looked up and me and screamed into another fit of laughter. He crawled over to Rickey and lightly nudged him. The two looked at each other while Cliff whimpered breathlessly. "Milk."

The two shared a high five before Cliff rolled over and Rickey found himself caught between panting and cackling. While the two continued to go on and on, I finally told them the truth about the mysterious zebra standing in the room with us. "You know, she used to be a slave."

Cliff and Rickey soon found the ability to sober up as they heard what I said. Cliff especially did not find my commentary to be very funny. "Nondis, my guy, you did not just go there."

I just pursed my lips and stood there with a hapless shrug.

Cliff, who was laughing earlier, wasn't doing so much of it now. "Alright man, I know what you just said was a joke. But I─"

"That wasn't a joke." I clarified before Cliff could say anything else. "A guy who'd fuck headless corpses in broad daylight owned her, and he would abuse her every day. Cold water shower in the open air, a measly boiled carrot for breakfast and dinner, sell her off for prostitution at night, sleeping on a box, verbal abuse, just name something that could be done and I assure you that bastard did it."

Zecora, in hearing the home environment she came from, softened her tone but still showed resentment to me. "But she claims you to be her owner now. Why would you indulge in a thing so foul?

I then explained to the zebra shaman. "She's my partner in crime. She's also my guide to the alleyways of the Corrotto District. We struck a deal, she and I, on the grounds that she'd fulfill one of her aspirations. And on the side end of things, I'd make sure she'd get payment to help sustain her new living habits. She's homegrown in Canterlot, but we can't let her stay there in those conditions."

"That's so tragic." Twilight mumbled softly. "Kalimba, we'll do our best to make sure you get the attention and warmth you deserve. Do you need anything right now?"

The slender zebra rolled her eyes. "With all due respect to your highness so pretty, I am in no dire need for your pity. Mine is a common tale in de Rot, especially dose unfortunate to live in Canterlot."

Twilight argued in defense of her hometown. "Well I can assure you that most of Canterlot isn't as dismal and dreary as the blight that is the section known as Canterrot."

"Many cruel lies and prying eyes mocked my family, my parents of differing species being de reason especially."

"I'm not saying your life wasn't hard. I'm just saying that not everypony is as harsh and corrupt as you make it."

Kalimba looked away from the princess. "Do you know how many would come to dat place? The sight of dose crowds would put a shock on your face. All walks of life, they often dwell there, to unload deir worries and strife, to lay their sins bare. While you do not think dey do dose things, you merely believe a lie. For dere are many curious visitors who wandered in what ways a pony could die."

"But that is not the life you will live from this day on." Zecora chimed in. "Those days of living in fear and misery are long gone. Ponyville is where you will stay, and there won't be a single pony who would take that away." She turned her attention to me. "That would also mean that you would have to find some other way, to have another guide to help you through that dismay."

Kalimba quickly argued against Zecora's suggestion. "But fighting is all I know how to do. Forgive me for saying, but dat decision is not up to you."

Zecora didn't take too kindly to being overruled on that matter. "You are young and naïve, that most certainly is true. It does not matter what all you have been through. To live a life mired in hurt, shame, and defeat, that is not some desirable treat."

The other zebra quickly ran beside me. She grabbed at my arm and adamantly defied the zebra shaman. "I owe dis one my life and pride. If death awaits me, den it will be by his side."

Twilight didn't like that idea too much, teleporting between the two of us and spacing us apart. "I understand that you may want to follow him around, but trust me when I say that he's no good."

"My intentions are not for romance's sake. Tis merely a choice I have decided to make. He has helped me see my wishes through, so it is him whom I owe my life to."

While I had to admit that her way of displaying gratitude was pretty atypical, I was appreciative of her support. Meanwhile Cliff and Rickey were looking at each other as if to imply some criticism of the circumstance. I verified her position in my own defense. "Guys, it's what she said. She wanted to learn magic and whatnot as a nod to her departed mother, I offered the ideal situation. I merely suggested that she'd learn what she could from both Zecora and Twilight. Nothing else is going on."

And then Kalimba unwittingly added in an unfavorable detail. "I would learn to use magic not just for his sake, as dere are often times where my life would be at stake."

Everyone in the room practically stared holes into my chest. I offered to say something as an addendum, but Twilight zipped my lips shut with a spell and calmly walked beside the young zebra. "Oh don't mind him, he wasn't interrupting. Please continue."

"Tis merely a custom in that part of town, where one's own champion would hold de crown. Dose who fight and win for deir owner's accord, would receive a most exceptional reward. And as one continues to clear de hurdle, gains their owner a chance to join de Inner Circle."

I quickly unzipped my lips and jumped into the conversation. "Wait a minute, you're telling me that you know how to get into the Inner Circle outside of pulling favors and kissing ass?"

"I thought dat you already knew. I guess I assumed too much of you." The mare said, sharing her moderate disappointment. "But if you desire dat to be, den a way in is what you will see."

Twilight shouted her disapproval. "ABSOLUTELY NOT! You are not betting anyone's life on some underground fight club just so you can gain a leg-up on your investigation!"

Zecora was rightfully angry with the two of us, so much that she forgot to rhyme. "That is unacceptable! You cannot wager a life on some mere chance! And you two are not going to participate in that club any longer. Kalimba, we are leaving!"

Twilight displayed her frustration with me. "I told you once already not to get involved with this kind of stuff! Now here you are making it even worse! It's like I broke up with you to save your skin, only for you to find your way into a wood chipper! It was almost as if our magic lesson didn't show you enough of what you'd be going against! But here you are doing Nondis things, playing Nondis games, and winning Nondis prizes!"

Rickey shrugged. "I can't help but to think you're using Nondis' name as a substitution for the word 'stupid'."

"That's the whole point!" Twilight replied, groaning with disbelief. "What do I even do with you!? Does Celestia know what you're up to, or is she just as clueless as we all were about fifteen minutes ago?"

"I'll take 'clueless' for five hundred." Cliff sarcastically answered.

Zecora continued to pull against the young zebra. "Come! This is not your place any longer!"

Kalimba argued with the shaman. "It is my decision to serve him, you cannot make that for me!"

"It is my decision to teach you what you desire. It is your decision to decide whether you want that or not!" Zecora said, offering the ultimatum as a deterrent for her to make the choice that would allow her to learn what she sought after.

Twilight angrily shouted towards me. "And you want me to teach her magic, only for a chance to throw her life away? I have a student that I'm teaching now, and you want me to add someone that could die within the next month to the list? I know I can be a bit reckless at times, but you're just irresponsible! I'm not going to teach her anything if that's what you're trying to do! As much as you run in and get yourself hurt all the time, I think you'd be better off teaching her yourself!"

Zecora added. "If your life is your owner's to decide, perhaps there is a home that he would provide!"

"Den why do I even bother to come here, ah!? All of dis was a waste of my time!"

The shaman shook her head. "You are beyond lost, little one. I cannot teach those who cannot find the way for themselves. I wish you the best, good day."

And just like that, Zecora walked out of the room and disappeared into the town. Twilight wasn't any better, she just glared at me. "I know I'm terrible for some things, but I can't begin to understand why you do the things you do. I'm disappointed in the choices you've made, Nondis. Maybe one day I'll understand, but not now."

I looked at the fuming Kalimba and back to Twilight. "Twilight please─"

"That worked when you were kissing on me once upon a time, that chapter's closed now. You're on your own with this."

As Twilight stormed out of the room, Kalimba was left feeling disappointed with the results of our meeting. She appeared dispirited. "I suppose I should've known that not much would ever change. I should've stayed home."

"Back in that place, are you kidding me!?" Cliff questioned. "How the hell are you supposed to live in some place that ain't got no food, no beds, no hot water, nothing?"

"She could stay at your place, but she'd have to be a human." Rickey suggested.

"That's not what I'm trying to do here." I replied, sitting down while rubbing the bridge of my nose. "I promised her that I could get someone to teach her magic, both zebra and unicorn. I thought this was my best option, it was all lined up for me right here. Both Twilight and Zecora are close, this was our best shot."

"It seems to me that you thought you could've relied on the both of them just going along with it while keeping a few details under the table. I hate to say it, but that's kinda on you." Rickey stated. "It's just like I told you, you gotta learn to trust in people, even when you don't want to. You knew they would've said no, but you didn't discuss this with them sooner."

"Rickey, today's Sunday. We met Friday night. Yesterday morning I told her to leave, and I couldn't do or say much yesterday because I was running a double shift. When they called me about this, I said we'd have a meeting. Called Twilight last night as soon as I finished dinner saying that I was gonna try to have this meeting today. I couldn't have been any more upfront outside of getting my ass dug into a second time yesterday."

Rickey then changed his approach. "Oh, well that's pretty good of you to at least make it known this quick then, I should commend you for that. But you still held out on the whole fight club thing."

"Bruh, I'm just saying that you should put her in our world like you did with ol' dude." Cliff suggested.

"It's not that easy, guys." I stressed once more. "Single File was a special case because of how quick he adapted, plus the guy's life was in danger and he needed to be preserved for the investigation. I left him there because there's nothing that could happen outside of human error, the assassins can't reach him, and the bastard did his homework on what not to do and say."

"And you're saying she can't?" Rickey questioned.

"Not as quick as Single File. She doesn't have a bounty on her head, she can guide me through the roughest part of town easily, and she knows only two things from what she's told me: fighting and prostitution." I lowered my voice as I made another argument why she couldn't be left to our world. "I've seen what happens when you leave a princess in an apartment, I lost a whole box of popcorn because she did it by trial and error. I still need a new microwave that doesn't smell like burnt popcorn."

"Twilight did that?" Cliff asked.

"Luna." I corrected. "And she was stuck staring at a channel with a popcorn signal for four hours."

Both Cliff and Rickey took a quick glance at the zebra standing by the door and then huddled around me as we all whispered. "Okay, I get it. You don't want a noise complaint and I'm sure you don't want to have to replace the stove. Not only that, but I'm pretty certain she wouldn't get the whole clothes thing, so that's an indecent exposure charge waiting to happen." Rickey said.

Cliff then added. "And we kept Single File over at our place, he already don't like wearing anything outside of boxer briefs while walking around."

"And Celestia doesn't like wearing underwear worth a damn." I stated. "She didn't wear any on Thursday night." The two of them looked at me slowly, getting ideas in their mind. "Nothing happened anyways. Back to the topic, we can't leave her there."

"Then where are you going to leave her?" Cliff questioned. "You can't just take her back to Canterlot, she's gonna end right back up in the same shit you got her out of."

"She could stay here in the castle." Rickey suggested. "But... that would probably rely on you being able to coax Twilight into letting her stay here."

While I started to think of where to place her, I started to think about the places I stayed at throughout my tenure here in Equestria. Sugarcube Corner was already going to bring more attention to her than anywhere else. Rarity wouldn't mind it, but she's got a younger sister who is easily impressionable. But one place came to mind, my apartment, the one I stopped favoring since Counter Bell's death.... I wonder how his old lady's hanging in, I should check in with that. "I have an idea."

"You got a place?" Asked Cliff.

"You know that motel that's in the castle's shadow, the one I stayed at for a while until I got sent off to Arimaspi Mountain?"

"Yeah." Rickey answered

"Warm water, a bed, rent isn't too terrible."

Cliff then brought up a good question. "Yeah, but she's here. How you gonna get her from here to Canterlot when you need to?"

"Train station, just pop in with a cheap prepaid phone for her to use, lock my number in, and we good to go."

"Yeah but you promised her magic lessons." Rickey reminded me. "So you gonna try to pull in a favor with your new friend?"

I folded my arms, thinking to myself on Celestia's schedule. I instinctively shook my head as I started to stew the fact that we wouldn't be able to have another date for the next three months. And then it would be hard to get Alabaster to dedicate his time to two different students while running city council, it would be even harder to catch him while he's home because of that damn neighborhood watch cracking down on my visits. Blue's already pulling favors for me so that's out of my realm of negotiations.

That only left me with one desperate option.

Thirty Minutes Later...

I sent both Cliff and Rickey to grab me a cheap phone and a stylus from a nearby Family Dollar. Afterwards, they had to activate it and call me to give me the number. Once they finished with that, they dropped it off in the throne room and left me with an upset and considerably disappointed Kalimba, who was too upset to pay attention to what I was doing with a brown paper bag.

When I tried to get her to move, she would angrily express how it would've been better if she was left in Canterlot. I then used that disappointment and offered her a return by the next available train. However, I also stated that I needed to run a quick errand before we'd move along. So I played on that false expectation and proceeded to drag her along to the motel in the castle's shadow.

When we arrived, I saw a mature mare staring at a portrait of herself, smiling next to her son who was wearing a graduation gown. She sat at the front desk, sniffling as she went about her quiet job. As per usual, there were no additional customers so the lobby was empty. Just us walking was more than enough to startle her, but she seemed warm to our walking in. "Captain Nondis, it's been a good while."

"How ya hanging in, ma'am?"

The mare stepped from behind her desk, greeting me with a hug. "It's been quiet, lot of time to reflect on some things. It's just me hanging on to the idea that I should've got little ol' Counter more of a push to leave Ponyville."

"I told you it's not your fault." I replied, hugging the mare back. "It was a changeling that did that to him, he was a victim to a criminal who was punished for what they did."

"So I've heard." She said with a weak smile. "A headline from up north came around to say that you cleaned the dungeons a good amount. I can find some peace in knowing the ones who did those things were brought to justice. But it still doesn't bring me back my son."

"Yeah, life is pretty unfair sometimes." I whispered.

She peeled off of me, giving me a tap against my chest. "I told you that you'll have to be the closest thing to a son now, so I do have a question about what happened some time back with your folks."

"We've reconciled." I simply answered.

"That's good to hear. I would've surely hate to feel some sort of disdain for the one to give birth to you, especially for disowning you like that. I know I'm not familiar your family's dynamics, but as a mother who's lost her own I couldn't help but to be furious in hearing about that."

"It's all good. But there is some good news, I brought you a tenant."

She looked past me to see the hooded mare quietly standing behind me. The mare walked up to her and removed her hood. She observed the mare as Kalimba nervously turned her away from her. "Oh, such a beautifully unique thing you are. I can tell your parents must've loved each other so much to give birth to such a masterpiece." She also noticed some of the bruises and scars on her face and neck. "But you've been through a lot in your short life, so much. You're much too beautiful and young to have such a hard upbringing. You haven't been dealt a fair play, you poor thing."

"She's good people." I suggested to the young zebra mare. "I promise you're in good hooves while you're here."

The zebra quietly replied. "I thought I was going back home."

The older mare continued to compliment the younger. "Ah, a voice drenched in rich molasses. And such cold hooves. That tells me you have a warm heart, and a sweet loving embrace to whoever makes you smile. But very protective over what she loves and cares for. Oh, my son would've been so wonderful with you."

Kalimba backed away, quietly responding. "I am not worth your praise."

The older mare realized how sensitive the younger was to the idea of being adorned so much by a normal pony. She promptly withdrew and turned her attention to me. "No you'll have to be careful with this one. She's not foreign to love, but it has been some time."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean she's very receptive of kindness. And I can tell that she's been robbed of that at a young age. If you're not going to give her that kind of attention, I suggest limiting your distance."

"I'm just getting her out of a toxic environment. That's all." I replied, trying to put away any ideas of some development taking place.

The older mare sighed while directing her comment to Kalimba. "Oh you poor thing. But don't worry, this place can be a home unlike any other. I may not know you today, but I can take some time to learn. You can even consider me as a distant aunt, if you'd like."

"I'm gonna have her set up in my old room, is that alright with you?" I asked the manager.

"I'd prefer if I had both of my adoptive offspring under one roof, but a tenant for a tenant is fine. I'll keep the water nice and warm for you, if you ever find it upon yourself to return for a night or two."

I looked around the place, seeing a few moderate upgrades to the lighting. "I guess business is doing pretty well."

"Oh there's never a day where we're not in the red. But there's been a bittersweet occurrence with the passing of my son. The Equestrian Government offered me a consolatory stimulus with his being a victim to the recent changeling invasions. But it still hurts me to know he's not around to see it. He always wanted to make this place look a little livelier."

Kalimba quietly followed me as I walked down the hall, taking notice of the vastly improved lighting to make the place look a little more modernized. It appeared that there was some renovation taking place while I was away. It also appeared that the doors have been swapped out for some more sturdier designs. Even the locks were all different, many of them requiring one of those enchanted key cards to gain access. However, my door remained unchanged, the lock still requiring a simple metal key.

I unlocked the door and held it open to flick the lights on. "Here's your new place." I said pointing to the room I used to stay in. The mare walked in slowly, looking around at the mediocre decor. "The bed's okay, not anything special. Hot water still runs. You just have to keep up with your payments and that's it."

"What about food?" She asked.

"Carry out or delivery, I guess. I already paid you ten grand for Friday night. Rent's only eleven-hundred, food can be six hundred, at least for me because I'm a pretty big guy compared to you ponies. A hundred for a month in a train pass for unlimited travel to wherever in the country, leaves you with a good two hundred in whatever you want to add to the room. That's a budget of two thousand a month, should cover you for five starting now."

The mare glanced around a moment before coming to a quiet conclusion. "Five months is a lot of time to establish myself. Dat's only if I was a normal pony."

"I pay you the same for each time I call you up. Sounds like a fair deal?" I questioned, closing the door behind us.

"Unfair to you. Another two nights and I'd be established for a year." She stated.

"Good. At least you'd have a little something to fall back on." She walked up to the MOTIF I had sitting in the corner, she marveled at the strange instrument. I walked over to turn it on and started playing around with the keys. Upon realizing that it was some sort of piano, she backed away a little overwhelmed. "Oh yeah, I might wanna have this shipped up north, it'll be kinda fun to have this stashed in the room when I'm bored."

I started to unplug the instrument and the amp it was hooked into. As I did that, she placed her hoof on the bed, feeling how soft it was compared to what she was used to. A frown showed on her face. "...I cannot accept this."

I finished unplugging my setup and turned to her. "Why not?"

"It does not feel right to be used, even if de offer make me feel a bit enthused. You have done so much for me as is, I am not used to all of this."

I shrugged at her comment. "Well, you better get used to living like a normal pony because that's what you are. You're not beneath me or anyone else."

"I cannot accept this." She murmured, seemingly to convince herself that what she said was true.

I rolled my eyes and walked across the room, thinking of some way to improve her disposition. The only way I could think of was to make her feel excited about something, anything about the current situation taking place. I looked around the room, noticing that there wasn't much to draw from. That was until I had come up with a solution, I saw a ball-point pen resting on the night stand by the bed.

"Hey, toss me that pen over there by you." She looked over, grabbed the pen with her teeth, and started walking over as if to drop it in my hand. "I said toss, not give it." I repeated, hoping that she would oblige. Seemingly a bit miffed that I was so anal about the set of instructions I gave her, she flung the pin at me with the intent of throwing it at my face. But before it could reach it's mark, it stopped dead in mid-air, surrounded by a white aura. She looked down to see my hand glowing the same color. I glanced down to my glowing hand and muttered in a low voice to the zebracorn. "I think I'd have your word in saying that this never leaves the room."

The mare backed away in awe, but also perplexed over what I was showing her. "But... you are... how did you─"

"You didn't think I had someone else turn me into a pony, did you?" The pen I held in my grasp started to spin above my palm. I started to make some observations about her magic. "I may not know all of what you're seeking, but I do know that your flow is unfocused. You're using a lot of your mind but not much else when you try to levitate things. It took me the better part of a month to get a hang of this stuff, especially being a creature who originally didn't have magic."

The mare stared at the pen that swirled endlessly above my glowing hand. Her eyes widened as she saw my smirking at her. She started to turn away, not wanting to fully display how giddy she was in the moment. "Do not say it, please do not."

I sat on the bed next to her, and leaned back to rest as I held the pin physically this time, twirling it between my fingers. "It's just a suggestion. I can teach you what I know, and you can branch out from there. It's basic unicorn stuff, nothing that will completely turn a fight in your favor, but it's a good place to start. You up for it?"

"You set me free, pay me, give me a home, and offer to teach me magic on your own?" The mare questioned, still trying to hide her excitement. "Why do I feel like there is a marriage proposal to come next?"

"Now that I can tell was a joke." I said, glancing over to see the mare trying to hide her face. But I could tell from corner of her cheeks that she was more than happy with what I offered, even if she didn't want to show it. The mare caught me looking at her and slightly turned her head to the other direction where I couldn't see it. "And that I can tell was a smile." I pointed out.

"I do not smile." She replied sternly, still trying to hide her feelings.

"But you will be learning magic very soon. May not have been what I was looking to give you, but it's something."

After a moment of trying to suppress her emotions, she finally looked at me with her trademark stone expression. "What do I owe you in return?"

"I mean it is a job, you just come in when I call you." I said, leaning back up to pull out the brown paper bag from earlier. I pulled out the phone and stylus and placed them on the nightstand where she could see it. She stared at it for a moment, seeing a black reflective rectangle. I pulled out my phone and called the number. Without question, the phone began to vibrate and jingle. The mare gasped as the item before her glowed brightly, showing my name and number on the screen. "This is a device from my world, a cell phone. It ain't fancy, but you can use it to talk to me while we're miles apart. I can call you from Canterlot, have you come off the train, and drop by the usual place."

"The old shack?" She questioned while still uncertain of what to do with the human gift she was given.

"It's a place to meet, that's all I can say about it." I noted, confessing that I didn't know much of the area outside of getting into the arena and finding my way back to that shack.

The mare hummed quietly and looked at the vibrating phone that jingled away on the nightstand. She saw the prompts, the green and red circles to either take the call or reject it. She tried to press the green button with her hooves, but found it difficult to operate without the finer touch of a finger. I picked up the stylus and pressed it against the screen, showing her what to use when trying to use the phone. She grabbed it with her teeth and plucked at the green icon, accepting the call. She looked as the phone's screen changed. As the speaker phone option became available, I pressed it for her and spoke into my phone.

"So what's it gonna be?" Her new phone echoed my question back to her.

She didn't even try to hide her excitement over what was being shown to her. But she did take a moment to take a breath, clear her throat, and speak as if she had an appearance to keep up. "...We have a deal."

I hung up my phone and the call ended for her. I tapped her against the horn with a smirk on my face. "Great. So let's get you started with a few basics I can still digest."

The mare nodded. "Yes. Let's."

After another three hours of getting her used to controlling her magic a little better, she soon found that levitating items wasn't as hard as she made it out to be for herself. I explained to her that she was using too much of her mind instead of using the many other aspects of her circulation. And in due time, she started to gain more of a perspective of how to manipulate an item with not so much concentration being required. After our lengthy lesson on the basics, I assigned her a quick challenge of levitating four books in a stack and seeing how long she can go without dropping them to teach her sustained control. I followed that up with another lesson on how to use her phone to answer calls.

When we finished, I grabbed my music equipment and started setting off to the portal for a quick crossover back into Canterlot. While I had to make a few trips to and from the motel, it started to feel like a quick workout lugging that sixty-pound instrument up the hill to the castle lobby, coming back down, bringing a sixty-pound amplifier up the hill, run back down, and getting a twenty-pound keyboard stand up the hill. When I finished with that, I had to get that stuff up, a combined weight of 143 pounds up the stairs, down the hall, and into the portal room, to be dragged out of my apartment, through the other portal, and into my room.

Even for an in-shape guy, this was WORK.

After all of that lugging to the portal room, I looked at the items, pondering if I was wanting to continue doing this. But I came to the conclusion that I had to finish it since I already got this far. So I started to move my stuff from one side to the other, starting with the stand, then the speaker. When I finally got to the instrument, Twilight walked into the room. "You look busy." She said dryly.

"Just a little." I replied, wiping some sweat off my brow.

She stayed at the door, propping it open with her own body as she spoke. "You know, I really don't think this is a good investment you're making. There are other ways to do this."

"Let me guess, by doing everything by the book?" I questioned tiredly. "So we try to place nice and fair, I keep pretending I hate you guys, and we let the courts settle it. But what happens when the judge, jury, and executioner happens to be the very same one who writes the laws?"

"There are systems in place to prevent that, you know."

"And how has that helped Cadance and Shining recently?" I replied.

Twilight shook her head. "I get it, they're having a foal sooner than expected and you want to get it done before that comes to fruition. But isn't there a better way than trying to get into this so-called Inner Circle?"

"You mean the players that run the business of keeping you royals suppressed? So you have a better way of dealing with that?"

The purple pony groaned. "I don't want you getting hurt. And I certainly don't want you risking someone else's life for this."

"She's the one who advises me on how to stay alive myself. I drop her, I don't have a guide. Next thing that happens is that I'm on the chopping block. What else for me other than that?"

"You know that I'll do what I can to protect you, but I won't do it for someone who won't even protect themselves." She said firmly.

"And I haven't stopped learning combat magic yet, so that's a moot point."

"And what about her!? Kalimba shouldn't be there!"

"She's my guide for this. You can ask her yourself, she thinks the deal is unfair for me because I'm apparently doing too much for her."

"That's because she doesn't know any better! You're taking advantage of that!"

"So you're insulting her intelligence now?" I asked. Twilight backed away quietly as I continued. "As much as I don't want to have to walk this route, here we are. Am I sane, hell no, not anymore, not since they stuffed me on a train and told me to go fight arimaspi, just for the chance that they'd dissect my corpse when I die! I had to learn how to walk again. I had to keep fighting changelings. And now that I've made a promise to you and others, I have to get myself a little dirty to clean up some bullshit that should've been repealed some two-hundred years ago, at the very least, fifty! You know what you went through, what your brother went through, what Celestia went through, you know damn-well what your niece or nephew faces! Why are you fighting me, I'M ON YOUR SIDE!?"

Twilight stared at me, shocked that I snapped at her again. She shied away from me as I tried to call back to her, remorseful for my sudden jolt of anger.

"I'm not right anymore. A lot of things has happened, and I know that I shouldn't take it out on you. I'm sorry." I looked back to see the princess, staring at me worriedly, reaching a hoof out. "Don't worry about me. I've got a doctor's appointment on Wednesday for the next three months on the house. I'm talking things through. I'll be alright."

The mare questioned me. "Does Celestia know about what you're doing?"

"Know about it? She kept me employed because she knew how much it benefits our plans. Both she and Luna advised that I'd have a counselor throughout all of this. Safe to say she's aware, and that she want's me to stay as close to being rational as I can possibly be."

Twilight eased her hoof back down slowly, not wanting to address the issue any further. She walked out of the room, but not before popping her head through the door one last time. "I know you're trying your hardest. You're walking a road that I can't walk. I just have to learn that some things require a little more than magic and friendship. Some things require money, some things require hurting ponies, I'm just not capable of it."

"So you understand?" I asked.

"No. I don't. My role is different from yours. You work in the shadows, I work in light. I may dabble with a few things, but I have friends who are more capable than I am on certain topics. They are my strength, so I use them."

"Am I any different than you?"

Twilight looked away. "No. No you're not."

I walked back over to the keyboard and started carefully lugging it through the portal as I heard Twilight say one last thing.

"Please stay safe... for me."

The Next Day...

After transferring my items over to my room, I barely had the will to even leave for dinner. When I finished with that, I was given a quick reminder about my shift and instructed to a lights-out protocol for 9. I obeyed my assigned regiment, more or less by a good fifteen minutes. I placed a YouTube video on my phone, had it set for an eight hour track, plugged it into the charger, and let the music run uninterrupted. After that, it was time for some sleep.

The first hour or so took a while, all I could do was toss and turn, lay with my eyes open, thinking about what I was going tot do over the next month or so. It was a lot of things that ran through my mind, many of them had me up past 11 at night. It wasn't until well after midnight where my sleepiness finally took over.

It wasn't a very sound sleep.

My dream was chaotic. I felt like I was running down a hallway, and there was an axe murderer trying to stalk me down. And the more I ran, the closer he got to me. Each time I turned a corner, I started to break away from him. But when those hallways got long, it was only a matter of time before I could feel his breath on my shoulders. One time I had gotten tired of it and swiped back at him. Wrong thing to do.

He sliced off my arms and they just ran off without me. The murder then turned into a creepy smiling face with decaying skin. The halls turned red, with the buried faces of the dead all moaning and crying out. I turned around to run, only to find my leg had been taken from underneath me, cut clean off. The zombie-like murder pounced on me, twitching his head until it turned upside down, it's eyes disappeared, and he hollered at me with the voice of a thousand damned souls.

W̘͖͆ͨ̉ͦ̃ͅẖ͉̳͓͎̝̀̏e͗̌̂̋ř̦͎̫͎̯̗͖̒e̬͍̮'̖̭̆s̠̜ͯ ̯̗ͧ͐͗ͧͪ͋m͉̟͖̘̫̫̣ͦ̓̚y͓̭̟̗͛͋͒͛̾ ͕̞͉̯ͪ̊ͩ̌̌g̤͓̞̯͌̎ͪͨ͑́̅u͚̺̼ͥṉ͚͙ͅͅ,͉̭̦̻̲̦͌̍ ÿ͖̫̗̟́a̹͚̗ͅͅ ̭̠͙͕̫̯͓̎d͔̀͒à͔̙͇̩̮̾̑ͣ̑̂ͅf̦͉̭̺̤̀̂̄̄t͎̥̯̬͔ ̺̖͍̪͐ͨ͋c͎̅u̺͙̻͉ͪ̓n̹̲͔͖͚ͥ͒t̹̬̓̃̈̐̑̏!̘͇̞̼̬ͩ̍̊͗̓̉̍?͎̯̥͛̓̀

He then turned me over and started shoving himself over me, repeatedly. His body crouched over me, his broken neck turning his head right side up where it should've been upside down, he continued to laugh as his body humped against mine. I started to try and squirm myself away, but found that he had somehow attached my arms to his body. And in rapid succession, they summoned sharp axes and hacked away at my back while he went to town on me. I tried to scream for help, but one of the hands covered my mouth before I could even get a breath out. He laughed erratically, raping me until I heard a bell tingling.

The dream subsided, my eyes locked open, and yet... my body couldn't move. I felt like it was a dream, like whatever it was had gotten to me, this was the end result. But I knew I was awake, or at least I thought I was. That was definitely my cell phone alarm telling me to get up.

My limbs were frozen stiff, my eyes were locked forward, my arms non-complaint. A shadowy figure wandered right through my door, easing itself on in, faceless. It appeared to glide over to me, staring at me as it haunted my bedside. I swore it leaned over to whisper something, but I couldn't hear a thing other than the alarm ringing in my ears. My mind quickly filled with fear, and with every ounce of my being, I drew myself into my instincts to fight. And at long last, my arms moved, swiping at the shadow.

But nothing was there.

It was just the darkness in my room, slightly illuminated by the phone's screen brightly displaying my alarm. I glanced at the time, seeing it was three minutes after the assigned time for it's notification. I groaned as the fatigue from my lack of sleep drove me to put my head back into my pillow, pressing the snooze option.

Five minutes later, I had the same alarm ringing into my ear. I then ordered for it to be dismissed instead. I laid my head back down. Next, there was a knock on my door. "Who is it?" I tiredly called out. The knocking continued, even as I called out to them a second time. "What do you want!?" The knocking got even louder, growing ever more persistent. I couldn't help but to hop out of my bed with every ambition to stab whoever the fuck was bashing my damn door in this early in the morning. I yanked the door open, already in a mood to kill the maid at my door. "The fuck you want?" I hissed.

The mare calmly notified me of the time. "Good morning, sir. I was told that you would be on the wake-up detail and was hence instructed to wake you for your shift. It's currently 4:15, and I have been given orders to stand by until you leave the room."

"You guys are fucking Nazis." I whispered into a yawn. "I'll be with you in a bit." I said, closing the door.

The knocking started once again and I immediately swung the door open to the mare smiling back at me. "I was also given special instruction to be as persistent with you. So I am to knock until you open the door. Princess' orders."

"You wanna fucking die, lady?" I grumbled as I threatened to close the door on her again.

But instead of letting me go peacefully, she knocked on the door even as I didn't even close it. I abandoned the idea of even stopping her, just getting back to my bed to sit down. But without warning, my sheets were removed and my pillows were confiscated by the mare. She simply smiled at me while torturing me. "I am used to all manner of treatment. So it is fine to assume that I am being unfair to you. It is only to force your attention."

You know, it wasn't even the fact that she was knocking on my door, it wasn't even the idea that she was walking in my room, taking my pillows, yanking my sheets, but it was her doing it with the brightest fucking Hollywood smile on her face like the sun was shining outside. I genuinely wanted to commit cold-blooded murder and leave her body hanging outside my window as a warning with that damn smile she had on her fucking face. But instead, I opted for a shower.

She knocked on my door for that too.

There was no peace, I had to get drilled in the most detestable way I could possibly imagine. The only thing I could hear for the next thirty minutes was her knocking on some various wooden surfaces. When I got out the room, she wished me a good day while I wished she'd burn in hell.

As soon as I got to my post, there was three other guards standing quietly by the door. One of them greeted me with the same energy that bitch of a maid had. "Morning, Captain. It's soon to be a beautiful day."

I groaned openly, about to find something to choke myself. "Oh God, I forgot you bastards are morning people."

"But don't you wake up pretty early yourself, sir?" He said with a glowing smile.

"I get up, I run, I wash my ass, and then I'm barely even fucking functioning before breakfast. If I ain't got coffee in me, you're fucking better off dying to my morning breath." I hissed back at the guard, who's smiled made me want to punch him in the face.

"Well I suppose it is an hour or two before your usual time. But I trust you will grow to like it eventually."

In what fucking dimension? "What time you go to bed?"

"I fell asleep at exactly 9 last night. I wake up at 3:30, I shower, I have a cup of tea, and I'm good to go." He stated proudly with his preppy-sounding voice.

"Morning people, I swear." I rolled my eyes.

"You know, tea has a higher caffeine content than your regular cup of coffee." He said, his fucking cheeks having the strength of the Greek God Atlas to hold that fucking smile up.

"What time are we supposed to be waking the princess?" I asked with a yawn.

"Well, those duties are usually assigned to me and another maid. I thought you would know that since you've been around us before."

I grumbled and leaned my head against the wall, giving my eyes a moment to close. "That was once. I snuck away from a group of drunken Wonderbolts hoping to keep my pants on."

"Well it will soon be time." He said.

I mumbled to myself. "Can I please go back to sleep?"

I started to hear the sounds of hooves clopping against the marble floors. I propped one eye open to see that same smiling bitch walking up to me, nudging me against my leg incessantly. "Captain, it's time."

"Ugh, get the fuck away from me." I grumbled.

The mare handed me a silver bell on a red velvet pillow. "Knock gently. Enter into the room, and then ring this bell twice in slow intervals."

"I could've gave her a phone, she'd be up already without all of this shit." I said as I cracked the door open, seeing the slumbering princess. While I walked into the room, I could see the entire early morning cheer squad standing at the door.

"Do not worry for us, we are just merely checking in to see if the princess will awaken." The mare replied.

"Bunch of fucking buzzards is what you guys are." I muttered before I unceremoniously grabbed the bell and shook it repeatedly. The maids and stallions in the hall all gasped at my lack of following their protocol. "Yeah, you know who it is, wakey wakey, eggs and bakie."

The mare's eyes popped open, her mane that was slightly pinkish had suddenly faded into it's usual four colors. She glanced up to see me standing by her bed. "Captain?"

"Morning, your highness." I said flatly, earning a facehoof from one of the guards at the doorway.

The princess yawned. "Okay, I know you are not a morning personality."

"No shit." I replied, glaring back at the maid, who was covering her mouth over the fact that I cussed in front of the princess.

Celestia took a look at me, and closed her still-tired eyes. "Guards, maids, you all are dismissed." The others cringed as they looked at me and dispersed like a group of grade-school children who got caught doing something they had no business doing. Meanwhile, she tabbed me and groggily called me out. "Not you, captain. You stay right where you are."

I sighed in defeat as I stopped making my move to the door. "Always gotta make me look like I'm getting in trouble."

She parted the curtains to her balcony. Down below was a view of the city, barely a light to grace the skyline. The streets were cold and empty, showing a barren town devoid of life in the dark morning hour. She peered to the eastern horizon and sat herself to her haunches, her head raised high. "Come." She ordered as she patted an area next to her. "Stand right here." I yawned as I obeyed her command. I looked over the balcony to see a nerve-jolting drop to the courtyards below. But the next thing I felt was her magic shift my head towards the east. "Now, sit and watch."

The princess stamped her hoof onto the floor, her horn proceeded to glow with a rich golden hue. Her head lowered as she reached deep within her to call upon the celestial body hiding beyond the eastern horizon. Her head then slowly raised, causing the very sky above to turn a beautiful golden orange. The shadows beyond our reach stretched to unimaginable lengths as the incandescent body crept into view. The clouds themselves turned silver as the dawn of the new day unveiled itself before me. The princess opened her eyes to take pride in the very sight of her work.

But even then, I could tell that something was different than many of the other sunrises I've witnessed. The sun wasn't as high as it usually would be. It appeared much lower, allowing much of the western sky to appear pink in comparison. I pointed it out to her. "It looks like it's stuck."

The princess placed a hoof over her muzzle as she turned to me. "Oh dear, she seems a little shy to having company to see her this early on. Would you care to say hello to her?"

I stared back at the princess, a bit skeptical about her suggestion. "The sun's a female?"

"And she is timid at this time of year. She doesn't get to shine as often so she feels a bit discouraged. So if you say hello, maybe she'll speak back."

I looked at the princess with a deadpan expression before turning to the sun and giving a sarcastic greeting. "Good morning, missus sun. There's a lovely day waiting for your face."

The sun jumped up above just slightly. The princess giggled. "Aww, she's excited to see you. Maybe you could sing a song to make her dance above the horizon."

"What kind of song?" I asked flatly, trying to go along with the princess' joke.

"Something delightful, she's a pretty vain thing. Maybe if you sing about what she could bring, she'll appreciate it."

I pursed my lips for a moment, admitting to how ridiculous this all was for me. But to amuse the princess, I decided to continue playing along. I started humming the first song that came to mind before I started finally singing the lyrics out loud where I was most comfortable.

"♪Sun is shinin' in the sky, there ain't a cloud in sight.
It's stop rainin', everybody's in the play
And don't you know, it's a beautiful new day, hey hey.♫

The princess smiled and clopped her hooves together. "Ooh! That's one I haven't heard before! Keep going!" I sighed and went along with her ruse.

"♪Runnin' down the avenue. See how the sun shines brightly in the city
On the streets where once was pity
Mr. Blue Sky is living here today, hey hey.
*clap clap clap clap*
Mr. Blue Sky, please tell us why, you had to hide away for so long?
Where did we go wrong?♫"

The princess expressed some shock as the sun seemingly jumped a little more over the horizon, but bouncing up and down for a split second. "Oh my, she really wants to meet this Mr. Blue Sky. Okay, she's ready to come out now." The princess started to lift her head some more before something interrupted her. She hummed as if she was acknowledging a question and then turned to me with a nervous smile. "Um, could you reach your hand to her and close your eyes?"

I appeared confused before the alabaster princess. "Why?"

She clasped my hands between her hooves as she whispered in a low voice. "She wants to meet you."

"What do you mean 'meet me'?" I asked.

The princess giggled "Just reach out and focus. It's like a basic levitation spell, but a little bit different."

I shook my head, just thinking of how ridiculous all of this was again. I closed my eyes and stretched my hand out. "Okay."

She started to adjust my hand for me while my arm remained stretched to the sun. "You might want to turn your hand over, palm facing upward."

I cracked an eye open, glaring at the princess while she had the biggest snicker held between her hooves. "You're not gonna have me do what I think you're gonna do, are you?" I asked worriedly.

As I had my hand stretched out to the sun, I started to notice a vague sensation. My fingers started to tingle with my magic running significantly warmer. I started to feel a sense of wonder, pure childish awe as my hand began to heat up. "Do you feel it?" The princess asked.

The sensation started to spread from my hand to my entire body. It felt like my legs, my arms, my very core tingled with this unknown excitable source. "I feel warm, my hand feels pretty hot though."

Celestia backed away from me slowly, her horn still glowing. "Okay. She's gonna give you quite the greeting in three... two... one..."

Her horn's magic fell dormant. I looked at the horizon as the sun started to hold still. But after a second, it started to sink back down the horizon just slightly. As it did, my entire arm just felt crushed downward. And it went from my arm, to my entire body being dragged to the ground. Just my staying there with my magic outreached made me feel the overwhelming gravitational force that sun had stored within it. It was so great that I could barely move, barely breathe, barely even speak. "FUCKING HELL, LADY!"

The princess giggled eagerly as she stood there watching me take on the weight of her sun. "She's a bit conscious about her weight. Please try be nice about it."

I grunted and fell flat to the ground, my hand still outstretched as the only thing I could do was pretend I was a pancake in the face of this thing. "HI.... HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU?... LADY YOU ARE FUCKING STRONG..."

Celestia finished laughing, realizing that I wasn't exactly sun-raising material. Her horn started back glowing it's usual aura and all the weight was lifted from me as she took back over her daily errand. "Okay, you two. Enough playtime. Now we get back to work."

I stood up, finally embracing the freedom my body once had. My hand still ran warm as my fingers tingled. I held my still-heated hand in front of me. "You do that, every single fucking day!?"

The princess smirked as she finished placing the sun into the air, locking it in place to carry out it's daily rotation. "At least you know how much of a snooze she is now. You two have a lot in common."

"I guess." I said while flicking my hand back and forth to shake off the residual heat.

While I did so, I noticed my hand becoming warmer, it's usual magic glow activating without my consent. I licked my left hand and quenched the magic manually, but not before an unknown voice, akin to that of a much more mature woman rang in my ears.

"S I N G ~ T O ~ M E ~ A G A I N ~ S O M E T I M E."

I froze for a moment, thinking about whether or not that was something I had heard clearly. But upon a second thought, I simply deduced that it was the princess complementing me on my voice. I nudged the princess. "Nice try, you."

"What?" Celestia questioned, acting innocent.

"You used the telepathy thing again."

She looked to me with initial surprise, but then looked back to the sun. "That wasn't me. My magic isn't on you."

"You're the only one that can talk in my head." I pointed out.

She levitated my hand up to reach for the sun once more. "Not just me. Call out to her again."

"You expect me to believe that this isn't you." I said as I walked beside her, getting a much better view of her horn.

The high princess smirked at my disbelief and walked before the rising sun, seating herself at the middle of it's light. Her horn faintly glowed while she lowered her head. "Happy Birthday, Captain." She quenched her magic and stood quietly. "That was me just then." She said just before a second voice boomed in my ears, the same unfamiliar voice from before.

"H A P P Y ~ B I R T H D A Y ~ N O N D I S.
T R E A T ~ M Y ~ C H I L D ~ W E L L."

The magic around my hand glowed as it pulled my hand towards the sun, almost as if there was a warm pair of hooves clasping around it. I looked directly into the sun's crepuscular rays reaching across the horizon. And it was appeared to me, a larger than life mare smiling from the distance as she donned an ever-flowing mane the colors of the sunrise. Her towering eye were a beautiful sky blue. Her forelegs retracted from mine as she then ran her hoof through the princess' mane. And as suddenly as she appeared, she faded into the glowing horizon. I stood stunned to silence for a long time, not even able to move until a few minutes later when Celestia walked me back into her bedroom. She stood patiently, waiting for me to say something.

The only thing that came to my mind. "...I'm awake now."

The mare giggled. "She really likes your voice."

I slowly turned to her, still in a state of shock. "Can we not talk about the fact that the sun SPOKE?"

"I told you she's shy." Celestia repeated.

I felt nearly numb, completely dumbfounded for a proper reaction. It was far too much for my mind to contemplate. So much in fact that I was already looking for a morning glass of vodka, whiskey, bourbon, whatever could take the edge off of me. "Can I get an Irish coffee this morning. I need a drink."

"Wait." She said, planting a hoof against my lips. She hovered into the air and gave me a quick peck on the lips. "Now that's what I need waking up."

"I'll take that as a 'yes' then." I said optimistically.

The princess laughed. "You'll take that as a sweet 'no' instead. Now let's get moving."

Author's Note

Hi... It's been a while. A very trying time for all of us, huh? A lot has happened since the release of the previous chapter. And a metric fuckton went down on my end. Allow me to explain.

I had this chapter ready to be released sometime mid September. Unfortunately, my laptop had no future plans and decided that the weekend before an important event was the perfect time to permanently retire. Motherboard's gone. I've been trying to find a replacement with the specific CPU slot assigned to it, but I couldn't find one. So my only hope was to get another laptop that matched the model of the one I previously had. That was a success, and it was ordered to drop by that following Tuesday.

Sally paid us a visit instead.

So instead of a laptop in the mail, I got a cat-2 hurricane moving at 2 mph (3.2 Km per hour) over us. We got the western eye wall, snapping trees left and right until numerous powerlines had been destroyed. So we had no power for four days. Here was two of the issues the workers had to deal with on our block.

This tree fell on a powerline, severing it and pulling several poles down the street to the point of near collapse.

And then there was this beauty. A street down from were I live and a neighbor's tree fell on the line itself. The line didn't snap, but something had to give. So yeah, this was danging above one of our streets.

Four days later, we get power again. But I'm still waiting for a laptop. That didn't come in until a week after it's scheduled drop-off. So I hop on, look on the device and see something I wasn't pleased with, CPU was way worse than the one I originally had. And there's no slot to upgrade or replace it, it's soldered into the motherboard. So I can't do music worth a damn until I get another laptop, or perhaps get my motherboard replaced. But the hurricane left us in a bad spot, I spent most of my money recovering from Sally. Then Delta threatened to pay us a visit, cancelling a good-paying engagement that would've paid for said motherboard. She veered off elsewhere, but the gig was still canceled. Pain.

I finally got around to finishing the chapter to follow this one, I was about to start my edits, but then life got in the way again. Next was some home stuff. Bills had to be paid because my uncle got into a drinking binge. I had to hunker down for most of October. And a few low-paying gigs came through the pipe. I was pretty set, we were doing okay and I was getting back into the writing groove. Damn near finished the chapter to follow the one I just finished instead of going back to edit this one.

Zeta had other plans.

She went from murdering New Orleans, passing over Gulfport, and giving us the northeast quadrant. Didn't stop there. We got our asses handed to by the eastern eye wall of that storm as it passed west of us, tip-toed five miles above us, and went on to hit more of the country. I had to put some more money out to get us through another blackout, which was thankfully only 24 hours this time. Problem was this time, we lost a bit of our groceries.

Of course, there was no national emergency for us in either case, so any damages we had as a result got worse with no foreseeable compensation to alleviate the pain. I had to fight depression for most of this month because of a lot of other things that happened in the home. There's a hole in my living room the size of half of the room itself, my roof needs fixing, my uncle's a drunk in denial who'll drink the day away instead of addressing the problems around us, and the bills are piling up because his unemployment went to catering to people who don't pay him (he's a cook). I'm doing my best to keep in my brain the fact that if something happens to me, we're all done for. Honestly, it's the only thing that's kept me going, that and keeping my mother alive and well by making sure that COVID-19 has no place in our home. This year has been a terrible struggle, and I don't know whether or not something else may happen that might have me thinking that I won't be able to make it to next month.

So there it is, that's my absence in a nutshell: Depression.

I'm trying. I'm trying to keep fighting. I'll keep writing this story, it's my only escape from all of this. If anything else, my venting about this does make me feel a little better. I'm sorry I had to lay this all out, but I can't keep always keep it in. I'll admit that I had a problem with my mental health over the past few months, there was one day were I couldn't even leave my room, constantly telling myself to keep fighting the monster lurking over my shoulder.

Again, sorry for the laundry. And thanks for stopping by.

Next chapter will be released in a week, maybe even a few days. I've tried spacing them out in two-week intervals to get you guys a chance to read up. But I feel like I've sat on these a bit too long. It's time I stop letting my depression hinder my confidence.

Chapter XCV

Sugarcube Corner,
Ponyville...

The doors of the bakery were unlatched and opened for the earliest customers throughout the town. The many school ponies of varying age groups all carried with them their bits for the various choices that were offered. Some of the younger ones, namely those who attended the elementary school, joined with their parents and grabbed a sweet treat before heading off to school. The ones who were closer to middle school were a lot more varied, opting for strudels and danishes. The high school ponies were a lot more open with their options, going for full meals. Though that group was more liberal with their options, it was considered a smaller client base compared to their younger counterparts.

And thanks to those youngsters, the pink party pony often had her hooves full. "Two cream cheese danishes, three sunrise bagels, and a protein smoothie, coming right up!"

The day at Sugarcube Corner was always a bit busy on school days, but Monday was where the ponies looked for something a little sweeter to start off their week. And the Cake family were more than happy to oblige their customers. Cup and Carrot both worked hard in the kitchen, but with a warm smile to all their customers despite the hectic demand. For the two of them and their pink server, it was just another week.

Though today had an unexpected surprise.

An express mail carrier came rushing in, barreling towards the front counter before crashing into Pinkie Pie, who stressed her limbs to a comical degree in ensuring all the orders she carried didn't go spat to the floor. The clumsy gray mare with a blonde mane shook off the impact and quickly dug into her bag.

Pinkie sighed in relief over saving all her orders and address the mare. "Late for work again, Derpy?"

"Not today!" The mare replied with a smile, holding a letter in her mouth. She glanced down and saw that the address was for someplace else. The cross-eyed mare blushed as she started digging for another letter.

With her head being buried in her burlap sack, Pinkie darted around the room faster than a flash of lightening, delivering her orders to everyone who waited for them. In less than a second, the pink pony zipped back in place and replied to the mare. "Well you sure came busting in here like you were late for something. Possibly excited about your usual order?"

"I'll take this one to go today. Lots more letters to ship out to your other friends." She said before her head stopped bobbling. "Aha! Found it!"

As soon as the mare pulled her head out the bag, Pinkie was waiting with a brown bag in her muzzle. "I thought you'd like that to be carry out today. Usual tab?"

"Yes please." The mare answered. The two ponies traded items and the mail carrier gathered herself before flying out the front door. "You all have a good day now!"

"See you later, Derpy! Don't forget our mail in the laundromat again!"

"I won't this time!"

The pink pony picked up the letter and immediately saw the red wax seal, indicating that it was a royal letter. She quickly took it into the kitchen and showed it to her two employers. "Royal letter in from Canterlot."

"Goodness, express mail." Carrot said a bit antsy. "Another cake for some undisclosed reason?"

"Possibly a return on the formulaic commission we were issued to duplicate from the last delivery?" Cup muttered. "That red velvet recipe was awfully hard to crack. Still is."

Pinkie already opened the letter as the two started speculating on the topic. "Nope. Just an express delivery for a birthday cake." The two sighed in relief while Pinkie continued to read off the instructions. "Vanilla flavored, lemon cream frosting, twenty-two candles, Vivaldi script, enough to feed a party of thirty, and an inscription that says Happy Birthday, Nondis." The pink mare tilted her head. "Huh, that's funny. I don't remember Nondis telling me his birthday, maybe they're just celebrating it because they don't know what day it is."

Cup and Carrot had already started setting up a schedule to start baking the cake. "Well I suppose we can do that, that's not too terribly demanding for something that's to be done down the line." Carrot said.

The pink mare dropped the letter with a look of sad disbelief. Cup questioned the mare. "Pinkie, what's the matter?"

"Non-Non's birthday is... today."

The two looked at each other in dead silence for a moment and then back to the mare. "Well... what time did it say we should be pushing this order to?" Carrot questioned.

Cup picked up the letter and shrieked. "Sweet marzipan! It said we should have it shipped to Canterlot station by three this afternoon! This is a royal order!"

Pinkie's eyes began to well with tears. "Nonny didn't tell me..." She quickly sucked up her tears and her sadness was quickly replaced by frustration. "THAT JERK! How can you just keep living life without letting anypony know about your birthday!? Everypony's supposed to celebrate your birthday!" The pink pony quickly galloped to the kitchen's exit as she asked the other two. "Mr. and Mrs. Cake, can you handle that order for me? I gotta go tell the others!"

All that remained of the party pony was a pink cloud of dust as she left the bakery. Both the bakers looked at one another. "We're already down a pony!" Carrot shouted.

Cup stressfully replied. "No time to worry about it! We need to get baking!"

Later at Sweet Apple Acres...

A cold and snowy morning on the farm had very little action going on in the fields. Big Mac just patrolled the trees, making sure that none of the product had gotten impacted from the extreme weather. Apple Bloom had already set out for school, leaving just Granny Smith to bundle up by the fireplace and Applejack to check in on the livestock. The latter pony had finished checking in on her sleeping chickens as they warmed themselves for the winter.

"AAAPPPLLLEEEJAAAAAAAAACCCCKKKKK!"

The pink pony's voice rattled the very wood of the barn, leaving the chickens panicked and disoriented, attacking anything they deemed responsible. And since Applejack was the closest one, they decided to direct their egg-laden assault on her. Applejack ran from the barn, her mane and face covered in egg yolk.

She didn't have to run for long before she saw Pinkie zipping up to her with an open letter. "What in tarnation are ya on about this time, Pinkie?"

The pink mare slapped the letter to the farm pony's mane and shouted. "It's Non's birthday! It's today!"

Applejack stared in deadpan before wiping herself off. "Yer tellin' me that Ah had to get egged in the face till the cows came home 'cause ya cryin' over somepony's birthday?"

"But it's Nonny's birthday! Nopony's like Non-Non!"

"Girl Ah swear you're better off learning about this stuff in a straight jacket." She replied, still wiping the egg off of her face. "It's just his birthday. We can celebrate it whenever he comes back to town."

"They're celebrating it today, though!" Pinkie stressed. "We shouldn't miss it!"

The farm pony grumbled at her pink friend. "Land sakes. Fine! Ah guess Ah can gon'head plan my day a little different. Ain't much to do 'round here with all this snow covering this here orchard."

A loud crashing noise followed by a remorseful wail sounded from the direction of the barn. The two mares bolted for the source of the sound, only to discover it was Derpy trying to deliver some mail. Her head was covered in egg and snow as she appeared from a pile of snow outside the barn's entrance. She gleefully pulled out a similar letter addressed to Applejack. "Special delivery to Applejack!"

The farm pony looked at Pinkie and asked the clumsy mail carrier. "Is it similar to this here letter Pinkie shoved in my mane?"

The mailmare blushed as she saw the pink pony standing beside her. "Huh... guess you beat me here."

"That she did." Applejack answered.

Derpy wiped out her mane, only to find that the eggs in her mane had frozen because of all the snow. "...Best two of three?"

Later at the Carousel Boutique...

Pinkie rang the door bell of the local fashionista, hoping to gain an audience with her busy friend. As the Westminster Chimes sounded off in a light tinkling tone, the posh mare called out throughout the house. "I'm coming." Pinkie and Applejack waited in silence as the mare came down the stairs, answering the door. "Applejack, Pinkie Pie, what can I do for you two ladies on this lovely snowbound day?"

"Nondis is apparently having a birthday party over in Canterlot. Ya good to come with us if ya ain't too busy with all yer fru-fru dresses." Applejack answered.

"I'm sorry, I seemed to have misheard you." Rarity said, cleaning out her ears. "Did you say that you were celebrating a birthday?"

"Nondie's birthday is today." Pinkie added.

The mare gawked and sat herself down. She shook her head and laughed in denial. "Darling, come now. If what you say is indeed true, then that would me that I would have to stop whatever I'm doing, grab my fainting couch from the other room, mourn the fact that I wasn't able to grab a gift in time, then leave this place in a frantic dash for the downtown marketplace to find something to quickly put together for a gift. It takes half a day at least to come up with an outfit for him to wear."

The two earth ponies looked at each other, unimpressed. Pinkie then spoke. "Should we give you some time to get that done?"

Rarity's ears folded back as she realized that her friends weren't joking. "Oh... so this isn't some cruel prank Rainbow Dash had you two pull on me to see how I would react?"

"Ah could help ya with that there couch." Applejack suggested.

Rarity quietly turned around, used her magic to slide a couch from the other room, straightened her mane, clopped her hooves together and counted down herself. "Venting in five, four, three, two..."

Applejack closed the door with an unmoved face. She closed her eyes and clopped her hooves together. "Take one, scene infinity.... and.... action."

"WHAAA-HAAAA-HAA-HAAA-HYYYY!?"

Without warning, the sound of a pony yelping in pain sounded from behind them. They looked over to see Derpy hanging upside down in a tree, her mane covered in twigs and dead leaves along with the frozen eggs. "I take it you might've told her already." She said despite the massive amount of overdramatic wailing taking place inside of the boutique.

"Eeyup." Applejack answered plainly in the fashion of her brother.

"Okay... best three of five?"

Later at Fluttershy's Cottage...

Rarity went a different direction than her friends, darting into the town market instead of accompanying the two earth ponies to pay a visit to Fluttershy. But what they didn't know was that Fluttershy was already gathered what winter birds she could find that would be willing to join her for a quick choir rehearsal.

As the two mares approached from the distance, Fluttershy continued to conduct the impromptu rehearsal. "Okay everyone, let try to run this from the top one last time and we can call it a morning. And-a-one, and-a-two, and-a-one-two-three."

"♫Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to you.
From good friends and true, from old friends and new.
Happy birthday, happy birthday─♪"

"FLUTTERSHYYYYYYY!" Pinkie called out from the other side of the bridge.

The birds that once congregate on the tree limbs had scattered wide in hearing the objectively sharp voice interrupting their rehearsal. Even the shy mare was stirred to where she had to hide in her own house. With the door cracked, she peeked through to see Pinkie and Applejack trotting up.

Fluttershy then walked out of her cottage, confident in seeing her friends. "Applejack, Pinkie. What are you doing here?"

The duo approached the mare as Applejack did the talking. "Well we just came in to ask if you had gotten the word yet."

"Nondis' birthday?" Fluttershy asked. "Discord told me about it last night."

"And he didn't bother to come out and tell us, but he can tell you, huh?" Pinkie asked feeling a bit bitter.

"Unfortunately, he's also told me who he's seeing right now. But out of respect for Twilight, I can't say who it is."

Applejack was the next to feel a bit slighted. "That so? Sure would've been nice to have a good friend let us in on who he was dumping poor lil' Twilight for. Anyways, what's been up with ya?"

"I was having a nice rehearsal with the Snowbird Choir, a last run-through before we headed up north for the party. But Pinkie shouted loudly and scared most of them off."

The pink mare took a deep breath and shouted. "SORRY MR. AND MRS. BIRDS!"

"Pinkie!" Fluttershy exclaimed at a significantly lower but sharper tone. "Quietly."

The pink mare adjusted herself. "Sorry Mr. and Mrs. Birds." She whispered.

Applejack still lingered on the thoughts of the draconequus. "So what's that lousy misbred varmit up to now?"

From seemingly nowhere, the eldritch creature's voice sounded out. "Well I've never." Applejack's had started to grow arms and unseat itself from the farm pony's head. The hat proceeded to flip itself upside down, reach inside and pull out a wild Discord as if he was a rabbit during a magic act. "I suppose it's fine to call me a 'misbred varmit', but I'll have you know that I am one-hundred percent the breed that ponies like you wish to be."

"No and thank-you." Applejack said as she snatched her Stetson away from the tall creature. "So how 'bout you come clean on what Nondis is doin."

"But I thought that you, Applejack, would be the one to respect the boundaries of all your friends." The draconequus replied with a mocking tone. "Surely you wouldn't want to betray Twilight's trust, now would you?"

The country mare grumbled and ground her teeth at the creature teasing her over her principles. She simply pouted as Pinkie greeted the creature. "So, any inter-dimensional rifts you've been tearing apart as of late?"

"Pinkie, even if breaking the boundaries of time and space are a practice of mine, I don't break those boundaries too often, just only when I'm rummaging through the internet."

"The what now?" Pinkie asked.

"Trust me, you're not ready for that kind of chaos." Discord warned cautiously before continuing. "But I can tell you that he is currently on patrol in the castle. Probably looking at the sun."

At that moment, Derpy found herself crashing into yet another tree branch, scaring off the birds that started to gather themselves once more. The mare angrily cursed at herself. "Ugh! Stupid wings! They always lock up on me in winter!"

"Rough flying today, Ms. Hooves?" Fluttershy asked the cross-eyed mare.

"You know I could help you with your issue." Discord called out.

"No thanks. Last time you tried that, I saw shadow demons for a week." Derpy said to the creature as she dusted herself off. "Got an important letter for you today, Fluttershy."

"Nondis' birthday?" Applejack called out.

The mare angrily threw her burlap sack to the ground. "Aw come on!"

"Well it would be three of five, but Fluttershy here already knew of it." The farm pony replied.

"That still makes my one to your two." Derpy announced. "I delivered one to Rainbow Dash earlier before getting to Pinkie Pie."

"I thought we were counting from after you first got to me." Pinkie said.

"Well in that case, it would be two even." She said as she pulled out a final letter. "Though I don't think my wings are gonna let me do much today. I flew through a dense cloud on the way to Sugarcube corner, haven't been right for me since. So it makes no sense in trying to fly through the Everfree forest to give this one up."

"A letter to Zecora?" Fluttershy asked.

"Frankly she's a nice pony, but her place kinda gives me the creeps. I'm just gonna head back to the office and warm up now."

"I could heat up your wings for you." Discord said, much to the chagrin of Fluttershy.

"And what would you be doing?" The timid yellow mare asked, being unusually firm and cold to the creature that was her self-proclaimed boyfriend.

"Just a small little jest, Fluttershy dear."

Later in the Everfree Forest
Zecora's Hut...

As the trio of ponies walked through the cold forest, they held on to the letter and started to speculate on what they would do and say when they got to Canterlot. For the three, it was between visiting a few of the places in town, seeing some old friends and connections, or just stopping by the market and buying a few things before setting back out. Applejack didn't have much of an idea in terms of gifts, but she at least felt that he would appreciate something simple. Fluttershy pondered on the thought of at lest offering something that was modest. Pinkie had much grander ideas swimming through her head instead.

The three continued to bounce ideas around until they got to Zecora's hut. When they arrived, they gave her the letter and extended the welcome to the zebra shaman. Her answer, however, surprised the trio of ponies.

"Absolutely not!"

The three mares watched, shocked that the invitation they gave to her was quickly ripped to shreds in front of their eyes. Pinkie felt confused for the mare. "Did something happen?"

"The two must've got into it, Ah guess." Applejack said, quirking an eyebrow.

"Zecora isn't usually this angry, girls." Fluttershy, especially being the closest thing to a next door neighbor to her, pointed that out about the zebra. She would be the first to directly confront her. "Zecora, did something happen between you two?"

The zebra did not rhyme while expressing her anger. "There is no possible way to excuse him for what he is doing! You cannot tell me that he is any less of a monster than Chrysalis for what he has done!"

"Whoa there, steady up now." Applejack said, trying to get the mare to calm down. "Now slow it down, and tell me what he did to make ya angry."

Zecora didn't waste any time, dragging the three ponies along the way. "Come, I will tell you along the way."

Later at Twilight's Castle...

Twilight and Spike went down a checklist of items and games she suggested they'd play at the party. As she did so, Rainbow Dash continued to hold a frown on her face while Rarity tried on an outfit for her to wear to the party. The rainbow-maned mare groaned with displeasure as she chided her friend. Starlight took amusement in seeing the two bicker on.

"Look, I'm not gonna be the one to say it, but I don't think we need to do all of this for him."

"Well we're going to be in the presence of royalty, darling. It's often best to go overdressed." Rarity argued.

"Rarity, Twilight is royalty. We see the princesses so often that we can walk through a checkpoint without anypony stopping us. Shining Armor even hangs out with us when we're around Cadance. We even got to attend their baby shower, an event that every loyalist from Las Pegasus to Manehattan's been dying to attend. We're always in the presence of royalty. Daily."

"She's right, you know." Twilight cosigned with her friend. "Besides, it's not like we're attending a gala. It's just a small birthday bash that won't even be an hour long. It won't be anything like mine."

"Yours was held in a castle, darling." Rarity rebutted.

"I live in a castle that has six thrones for all of my friends and a smaller one for Spike." The purple princess stated. "If you haven't already considered yourself to be in the inner circle of the royal loop already, I don't know what to tell you."

"Right, so let's just take this silly dress off so I can not feel weighed down by pointy pins and heavy material. I wanna feel my wings spread out." Rainbow Dash said as she started to remove the dress in front of the fashionista.

Rarity grumbled. "Always a thorn in my side, Rainbow Dash. I swear. Could I just get you to work with me for one single test run?"

The door to the throne room opened to a group of ponies. Accompanying them was the zebra shaman herself. Twilight broke her attention from the bickering duo and vested her interest into the entourage that walked in. "Girls! I'm glad you came. So is everything ready?"

Zecora stormed forward. "Twilight Sparkle, tell them it is true. Tell them of the sin that Nondis has committed to."

Twilight was taken by surprise as the three other mares just sat quietly, Applejack more visibly upset than the others. Rarity was more flabbergasted than anyone for the time being. "Wa-what? What's going on here?"

"Tell them of the girl he sent our way, and then tell of what he planned to do with her, what she said yesterday!"

Twilight looked around the room, seeing that everyone's eyes were on her. She took a deep breath and explained to them what was revealed to her and Zecora they previous day. "Okay. I guess I should probably start this off with saying─"

Zecora interrupted the princess. "I know you have a softness for him, Twilight. But you cannot continue to move on as if what we've witnessed was in any way right."

"Just tell the truth, Twilight." Applejack said quietly. "We need to know what's goin' on."

The mare continued to explain. "As I was about to say, this might be a controversial thing you're going to hear about. Even when I heard of it, I couldn't help but to be angry at him. But after some time, I thought about who he was and what his motives would be in doing what he did."

Starlight rose from her seat. "Oh, so he did a thing."

"What's this thing he did?" Rainbow asked to the purple unicorn. "What are we supposed to be outraged over?"

The princess closed her eyes as she came out with the news. "Nondis... might have an ownership of somepony."

The room fell deathly silent as the mares in the room tried to process what she had told them. For moments, they all looked to one another, trying to come up with some explanation for what was going on. After failing to find anything that could explain what was being done, Rainbow Dash stood on her throne. "Okay. So before we go to Canterlot and give this guy a few birthday licks, what exactly is taking place here?"

Twilight quickly replied trying to look past the statement that's put the most impact to everyone in the room. "That's what I don't truly know. The mare isn't even denying it, nor is she against it in any way. In fact, she's adamant in serving Nondis for some reason."

"It could be a celebrity factor involved." Rarity suggested, sitting in her chair to discuss the matter. "Nondis is well-known through the city and perhaps she's trying to keep up with an appearance."

"Maybe this mare is his current special somepony." Rainbow Dash noted. "Maybe that's why Nondis told Twilight to keep a lid on the relationship."

"That's not what's going on either." Twilight corrected the pegasus. "She's ensured to Zecora and I that there was no intimate relationship going on between them. She said that yesterday."

"But his reason for using her is for a bloodsport. An illegal underground tournament of some sort." The zebra shaman explained. "She described that to us against his will. And seeing the scars on her body, I'd say the proof is quite real."

"But she also said something about trying to set her free." Twilight added. "Maybe that's the reason why she's so stern in her position to serving him."

Pinkie rolled her eyes and sighed heavily. "Oh boy, here we go again."

"What's wrong, Pinkie?" Fluttershy asked the party pony.

The pink mare climbed on top of the table and started pacing back and forth, explaining her theory. "He's doing it again, trying to play superhero when he doesn't even know how to defend himself. The first time he did it for me and got Caramel arrested, but he got put in the hospital because he couldn't throw a lick. Next he gets into a fight with Shining Armor to try and prove himself, broken arm. Saves Spike and Sweetie Belle, broken arm and shoulder. Saves Diamond Tiara and a few other ponies, broken ribs and a concussion. Saves Cheese from the changelings, gets abducted and we have to save him."

"Tries to save everypony from getting slaughtered on Arimaspi Mountain, nearly dies. Twice." Rainbow tacked on. "Gotta admit, there is a bit of a pattern here."

Starlight scoffs at the two mares trading comparisons. "And he tries to do some secret assignment, only for him to get caught in a bathroom and nearly gutted on the bathroom floor by some thugs from Canterrot. Yeah, I think there's an obvious correlation."

"Wait, what happened!?" Rarity screeched, slamming her hooves on the round table.

Starlight continued. "Nondis took combat magic lessons specifically, and now he's getting into the gritty parts of Canterrot for some dubious reason. Now here he is, possibly trapped in a world where they'll be looking to sell his body parts for profit. But hey, at least he manages to promise some girl her freedom... by putting her in death matches and himself in grave danger. The better question is where are these matches even taking place at exactly?"

Applejack shakes her head with tucked lips. "Ah don't see no place like Canterlot havin' all of that goin' round."

"And where even is this Canterrot place?" Fluttershy asked. "It sounds like some hidden town inside of the mountain itself."

Rarity rubbed her chin, thinking to herself. "I only heard rumors of the place. All I know is that it's somewhere all of my fashion connections tell me to avoid."

"I heard there's a bunch of druggies out that way." Rainbow said.

"I only know there is an underground market." Said Zecora. "So it wouldn't surprise me if there was some illegal sports scene alongside it."

Pinkie chimed in with her own thoughts. "Mr. and Mrs. Cake has it on their blacklist. All I know is that we don't do deliveries out that way, and we deliver to wherever, Equestria!"

"Aw, horeseapples. Ah bet it ain't more dangerous than the Flame Geyser Swamp." Applejack said proudly.

"It's more dangerous than that." Twilight said urgently, turning to the farm pony slowly. "Shining told me that it's a place where the misfits and economically disadvantaged citizens of Equestria go to try and strike it up on illegal trades. There's even an underground arena there."

"It's the one place that sells griffons meat out in the open market." Starlight added. "And they say that you can change yourself overnight to make your wishes come true. But as far as I know, it's all a lie. It's just another way of luring you into the nightmare that is Canterrot."

"Worst off, it hides in plain sight, the slums around it are infested with rampant crime, and there's not a politician looking to even come close to touching the place." Twilight concluded strongly. "City council members have repeatedly tried cleaning that place, but to no avail. They say that the kids who get caught in Canterrot, they're sold to the highest bidder, abused, and then meet with horrible fates. There's an urban legend of a teenage foal walking in, only to get caught by some dark magic abuser. They never walked back out, only being an enchanted head forced to live out an eternity without a single day of rest. Their body was possibly sold off for parts."

Every pony in the room shivered with chills down their spine. Spike started to look around the room nervously. "Wait, what does that mean for dragons?"

"It doesn't mean anything for you if you don't get involved." She warned her young assistant.

Zecora shook off her jitters as she spoke. "The mare, she hailed from a place called Corrotto─"

"District Six." Twilight interjected quietly. "The Corrotto District, crime rate at a whopping sixty-eight percent, conviction rate of three percent, homicide per capita is one in every four-hundred, putting Canterlot at the highest rate of unresolved murders in the nation, worse than Manehattan, Las Pegasus, and Fillydelphia combined. There are no witnesses who come forward willingly. And from what Shining verified, the highest use of illegal substances in the nation takes place there, also the highest number of drug-related deaths and overdoses."

"Just one wrong turn in Canterlot, and the sky suddenly becomes covered in rags and towels. Some even say that there are souls who bind themselves to those rags, trying to bring the place down. But it's never happened yet." Starlight also added.

Fluttershy shuddered with a sense of unease slowly crawling up her neck. "Why is it that a place as nice as Canterlot has to have a place like that?"

Applejack frowned as she thought of what Zecora had said. "And yer tellin' us that girl came from there? Talk about a barn you can't call home. What happened after y'all met her?"

"She was trying to remain by his side, even putting aside her own pride. I offered her a life of knowledge and magic, but she chose to return to that life instead, so tragic."

Pinkie waved her hoof in a circle as she spoke. "But of course, Non-Non does his Non-Non things. Pretty sure she's not even in Canterlot right now."

"Where else would she go?" Fluttershy asked.

Twilight closed her eyes, trying to imagine where he would place her. She summoned her phone and started to go down the list of numbers in her phone. She saw the name of her ex, her old crush, followed by the missed call from Melanie. She immediately chose the human girl for reference. "Guess we'll find out if he brought someone else over to his world."

The phone produced a dialing tone for a little while, up until a familiar voice popped through the receiver. "Hello?"

"Melanie, it's me. Twilight." She said, putting the phone on speaker.

"Yeah, I have you locked in already. What's goin' on?"

"I was wondering if you've talked to Nondis yesterday. I know that the two of you are pretty close." Twilight said, only getting a dismayed groan from the woman.

"Nondis and I haven't talked since New Years day. You should probably probably ask his new girlfriend how he's doing. They couldn't stop locking lips when fireworks went off." The room watched Twilight as she instinctively grabbed at her chest. Melanie continued on. "Speaking of which, how long has these two been at it? I figured you'd know something since the two of you are so close."

Twilight quickly swapped the phone off of speaker and swept it up to her face. "Melanie, I'm in a meeting with the girls."

The woman appeared to get even louder. "Oh really? Hey girls! Nondis is tongue-wrestling with Celestia! How do you all feel now!?"

"You're not on speaker anymore." Twilight said angrily. "Can we please go back to what I called you about?"

The woman promptly replied. "Sure. I don't know what the fuck he's doing. I don't fucking care. He lied to me saying he was on an escort assignment, fucking find out he's on a date with the fucking de-facto queen of Equestria. And she's all like 'Where is he? Where's Nondis? Will I ever get to see him again? I need to borrow your phone so I can get my lips wet.' Fuck him."

Twilight grimaced as she ended the conversation. "Sorry for disturbing you. I've gotta go now."

"I know it's his birthday, but let him know that I want to punch him in his shit-eating face the next time I see him. Later!"

The call ended, Twilight just stood in place, indignation building in her mind before she took a quick breathing exercise to calm herself down. Spike took note of her disposition. "Twilight, you okay?"

"I'm fine Spike. I'm just a little more encouraged to go to Canterlot right now."

Zecora patted the alicorn on her shoulder. "I know you are filled with an anger that ever whirls, but we must get back to the topic about this Kalimba girl."

"You're right." Twilight said with a frown. "Cliff and Rickey were here yesterday, maybe I can talk to them instead."

She found Rickey's name and dialed the number. It didn't take too long before he would answer the call. "¿Hola?"

"Rickey, it's me, Twilight." She said, turning her phone back to speaker.

"Yeah, I see you. ¿Qué tal?"

While Twilight grew a bit confused about what he had just said at the end, Pinkie quickly picked up where she left off in the greeting. "¡Estamos bien, gracias! ¿Y tú? (We're good, thanks! And you?)"

Rickey immediately recognized the pink mare's voice. "¿Pinkie, hablo Español? (Pinkie, you speak Spanish?)"

"Hablo Español, perro muy poquito. (I speak Spanish, but a little.)" The party mare replied.

"You roll your r's too? You got it then." He said before going back to the purple mare. "So what's up, Twilight?"

The mare stopped staring at her pink friend for a moment to get back into the conversation at hand. "So that girl Nondis introduced you to yesterday. Do you know where he might have took her in your world?"

"The zebra girl? Oh she's not here. She's over at his old makeshift apartment. You know the run-down motel in the castle's shadow he used to room at? Yeah, he left her there. She has a phone, but I don't know the number."

"Do you know if she's there for the time being?" Twilight inquired.

"From what I know, he's got her over there to stay. She's been pretty happy with it so far, from what he's told me. Hard to tell though, she never smiles."

"Okay, that's all we wanted to know. Thanks."

"No prob. Tell Nondis we gotta do the usual birthday shit for him, so he needs to bring his ass over the frat house so he can collect."

"I'll relay that to him." The purple princess said before ending the call. "So she's at the motel he was living at."

Zecora firmly instructed to the group. "Then perhaps we should pay her a visit. Let us not waste another minute."

Five Minutes Later...

The entourage of mares gathered in the hall of the moderately updated motel. As they came across the door, they noticed that all the other doors were different to the one the human previously frequented. The group remained silent as Twilight knocked on the door. They waited for a moment before the door slowly cracked open. They could see the steel latch clasping at the hook on the door, denying them entrance while offering the occupant a window to speak through.

"Who are you?" She questioned, hiding behind the door.

Applejack answered. "Ain't nothin' to be afraid of. We're just checkin' in on ya."

"Why have you come?" She asked, still hiding behind the door.

Pinkie approached, trying to peek inside to see who was speaking. "Heeelloooooo? Anypony home?"

"Go away." The door shut after her blunt rebuttal. Pinkie appeared saddened in getting outright denied an audience. Twilight knocked on the door another time, earning a response from behind the door. "Go away! No visitors today!"

Twilight finally spoke out. "Kalimba, it's me."

"Who are you!? I do not simply open doors for strangers! I do not answer to 'It's me' when I am given no name. You have to leave. Go!"

Rarity muttered under her breath. "My, isn't she inviting."

"As inviting as a cactus in drought." Rainbow cosigned.

"Girls, remember that she's probably had a hard life. She might not be as open to us." Fluttershy noted.

"Then she will answer to me." Zecora said proudly. The zebra knocked on the door.

"GO! AWAY!"

"I am sure you are most comfortable in your cave. But you are in the presence of royalty, so behave." Zecora replied to the young zebra hiding in the room.

"Why in Equestria should I answer to you? Go away, I have more training to do!"

"And yet you know nothing, you have no reference! We offered you knowledge at the cost of your criminal severance! You denied us in saying that you wanted to stay loyal! Now you show high disrespect to that which is royal! Let us in so that we may talk, or at least join us for a simple walk!"

"All we want to do is hear you out." Twilight added. "Trust me, I know Canterlot isn't the safest place─"

"Quiet." Zecora said, putting a quick end to her statement. "Kalimba Mavembe, tell us why you are here. Though I may sound strict, your story is what we wish to hear. I know you feel like you need to devote your time to your new friend, and you've confessed that you'd follow him to even a desolate end. But your own account is what we wish to know, after that much, away we finally go."

The mare remained silent, Kalimba gave pause for the idea before cracking the door open again, the latch still attached to the steel hook. "And I will not be judged?"

"Kalimba, you're very pretty. If anyone tries to judge you for your looks or what you are, it won't be any of us here." Twilight reassured the mare. "The only thing we want to do for you is just let you know that we're here if you need help. Sure we may not agree with your lifestyle, but we promise not to impede on that." She took a moment to glance over to Applejack. "And I mean it."

Applejack took her hat off. "Not a word."

The mare finally peeked through the crack, her crimson eyes taking note of the eight mares standing in the hallway. "Dere are far too many of you to fit in dis room."

"You could always come out." Twilight suggested.

"...Inside." Kalimba closed the door for a second, removing the latch and opening the door to invite the party of mares inside. As they all stepped inside, each of them found a spot to sit themselves, whether it was on a bed, a chair, or even the floor. The door closed behind Zecora, who entered last. Kalimba appeared from the corner, wearing a cloak and hood as she hid her face. "None of you will judge what I am?"

"Not a word on your appearance." Twilight reassured.

The mare continued to hide her face. "You promise to not be like de others?

"If we were like anypony else, we wouldn't have stained glass murals of us in Canterlot." Rainbow said, bragging of how different they were. "I know, a bit much. But we're not like anypony else who's gonna make fun of you for any silly reason."

"Stop hiding, girl." Zecora urged the young zebra mare. "Reveal yourself."

She slowly turned to reveal her face. As her head started to straighten up, her horn made itself apparent, a crimson red glow started to manifest itself slightly, pulling the hood off of her head. The room quietly gasped as she shyly looked away.

"A zebra... unicorn?" Rarity questioned.

"Oh my, I can see why you would be concerned." Fluttershy said as she slowly walked up to meet with the mare. "I'm not too keen on strangers myself. But I can tell that we share some things alike."

"Wow, you are rare!" Starlight called out loudly. "Your parents must've really loved each other. Nondis might've had to pay a fortune for you."

"Starlight!" Twilight vehemently called out, scolding her student.

The mare looked away once more. "I am worth little. I am sickly and useless outside of fighting and comfort."

"Um... when you mean comfort, do you mean a little bit of... an escort of sorts?" Rarity inquired.

"My body has been sold and used for sex, if dat is what you wish to know."

"Gracious, darling!" Rarity said with an embarrassed blush. "I didn't mean to go quite that far."

Rainbow then suggested. "So you're pretty good at fighting. Why not be a guard? You'd be killer in a set of armor."

"You also have a face for modeling." Fluttershy added. "I'd think you'd be great walking a runway."

"She would be an exotic beauty to create a few dresses for." Rarity said, summoning a notepad and a pencil. "My mind is already swimming with ideas."

While the girls started to rave on about what the young zebra could do, Kalimba started to slowly withdraw herself. Fluttershy quickly noticed the mare's legs motioning backwards. "Okay, girls. Maybe we should ease up and let her breathe a little."

The mare stopped falling back as Zecora took more observations of her. "Hmm... I do not see what exactly makes you sick. You did not describe it to me. Tell me child, what ails you?"

Kalimba continued to cover much of her body. "It is a disease my mudda carried. When she got sick, it usually took a long time for her to recover. But one time was far too much for her, I lost her when I was ten."

Applejack was the first to look away. "Ah... that's familiar. Ah can't say our pain is any similar, but Ah lost my ma and pa when I was a youngin. Tried to trek across the Flame Geyser Swamp, a Chimera got the better of 'em. Only thing they could identify was this here hat, belonged to my pa." Applejack quietly placed her head in the hat for a moment. "Our family was never the same."

Kalimba didn't exactly share the sympathy. She went on to tell her story. "Your tragedy ended dat day. I know it must have taken months to adjust, but it did not end for me after my mudda's passing. My fadda found his solace in a nasty thing. So he traded me for a chance of being happy. I know not what happened to him, I was simply passed around in Corrotto until some four years ago. Prod Clod was de one to own me in dat time. He tried to sell me for a high bid, but found dat I was not worth selling anymore. Too used, too familiar, too untrained, not young enough. So I was made to fetch him clients, he would teach me nothing. And I remained dere for years on end."

Rarity covered her muzzle, trying to hold back tears. "Oh you poor thing. Ten years old and you're forced though all that."

Zecora looked down as she started to understand the young mare. "Hmm... I now know why I see so much of a child in you. It's because growing up soon became the only thing you knew. Too soon denied a mothers love and touch, too cruel a father to leave you for a temporary emotional crutch."

Pinkie sighed. "And... then comes Nonny. He comes running in to save the day, doing things that you only dream of, giving you a new life for the cost of his own."

"You speak as if you have some experience with him." Kalimba said. Everyone in the room hummed in acknowledgement.

Pinkie then continued. "Don't try to fall for that guy, he's just bad news."

"Personal experience, I presume?" Kalimba questioned the pink mare.

"Look, I tried it. Rarity tried it. Twilight had it but let it go. Winning move is not to even play. I only feel sorry for the poor lady who's got him all googly-eyed now."

Kalimba sagely nodded at the pink pony. "I shall take your advisement into consideration."

Zecora quietly walked beside the zebra and questioned her. "So now that we know how hard your life as become, tell us why a road of violence has become the beat of your drum."

Kalimba turned directly to the zebra, giving her a fierce scowl. "I am still not well with you. You vilified de very one who has dared to ask me for my help, de same who offered me dese things around me. For years now, I have had to shower in cold water, water dat often ran out after his use. I was given a mere twenty bits a month, an allowance was what he called it. He got to dine with his rich cockroaches, I had to compete with de very literal roaches in our cupboard. I slept on crates, he slept on a king size mattress. He would wake me to please him, clean him off with my mouth, sometimes cleaning after de worst possible things I dare not to even acknowledge."

"This guy seems like an awful lowlife!" Rarity affirmed, trying to rile up her friends to action. "Something should be done about him."

"Dere is no need! I took his life!" Kalimba confessed excitedly as she turned back to Zecora. "De captain who you vowed your anger to, he helped me to gain my freedom from him. It was all I needed, and yet he still chose to do more for me than anypony has ever done. My life was turned from dat misery to dis life of luxury. Warm water? A soft mattress? I went from twenty bits a month to ten-thousand every night I am used. De rent here is eleven hundred. I was told my budget was two-thousand a month for dat, food, and whatever else I had desired." The mare then levitated a book from her nightstand with very little strain, moving the book around the room. "My magic, a far leap better than what it was two days ago, because he took it upon himself to try to meet de expectations he gave me, and offered his own knowledge to impart to me. So tell me why should I not give my life for something like dis? He needs my help, ah. So I cannot imagine being unable to return de favor he has shown to me when it is I who owes him too much."

Zecora was silent, unable to reply to the young zebracorn. Twilight approached the mare and somberly hugged her. "We're sorry. We were too focused on what you told us you were doing, never giving you the chance to explain why you were doing it. The only thing we wanted to do was to get you out of that life, to start fresh."

Kalimba softened her expression towards the princess. "Even you said you would not teach me, out of fear dat de knowledge you give me would be lost soon after. I may not wish for death, but I am comfortable in knowing dat it will come. So while I can accept your apology, I cannot accept the reaction you gave to him."

"My reaction with him came from my knowing him and being with him. I was disappointed that he did this, that he would go so far... but then I remembered what the both of us know and what drives him to fight now, more than ever."

The zebracorn walked over to her night stand, putting the book back and opening the top drawer, staring at the dormant phone. "I wondered what it would be to live a normal life, to live my mudda's dream. But I find dat dis simple life in a small room is all I truly need. I may not smile, but I am happy."

Pinkie quickly interjected. "And that's where you're wrong." The room looked at the pink pony as she approached the zebra, placing a hoof on her cheek. "Wanting better isn't a bad thing. It's okay if you want to sleep in a warm, fuzzy king-size bed, dining in with some of the highest members of society. It's wonderful to have ambitions for more, you deserve it. In the future you're going to want better, you're gonna want to leave this place after a while and look for a house with two or three rooms, a walk-in closet, a stand-in shower and a jacuzzi. You're gonna want a husband who looks past the scars and your history and accept you for who you are deep down. And all of this around you, the change that you have in your life, I know you want to smile with appreciation. It's okay to smile, even past the hurt. It's okay to laugh, giggle, and hug ponies, just as it is to cry and scream."

"It ain't always gonna be like this, ya know." Applejack added, also walking up to the mare. "When it's all over, yer gonna put it all back together, not because it's the only thing you know, because you want to know more for yerself. Ya get to start learnin' things, doin' things, and then ya start teaching it to others."

Twilight walked to join with her three friends. "Life wasn't fair to you. But if there's anything we can do to make it a little better, tell us. We'll do our part in trying to give you that, if that's what you want."

The zebra shaman looked on as the group of heroes placed their best hoof forward. The young mare looked to the side, not wanting to openly display her emotions, but even she couldn't deny the tears attempting to well in her eyes. She took a few deep breaths, trying not to cry. Zecora approached the mare and whispered to her. "Even I have known my time in captivity, to unwillingly serve what I had treasured most. That is why I was so hard on you, on him. Because I knew how it felt to be helpless, even if for a short while. I will never know your pain, it is your life. But perhaps we could know one another." Zecora slowly approached the mare with her hooves outstretched to her, embracing her. "Come child. It is alright."

The young mare felt herself rocking from side to side, Zecora continued to hold her as she started to softly sing a song in her native language.

♪Maua mazuri yapendeza
Maua mazuri yapendeza
Ukiyatazama yanameremeta♫
(Beautiful flowers look so pretty
Beautiful flowers look so pretty
When you look at them they shimmer)

The young mare felt herself being soothed, becoming more at ease with the embrace she shared. The tears she tried to hold back eventually found their way to her cheeks. Her breaths became staggered and her balance weakened while Zecora sang to her.

♪Hakuna limoja lisilo pendeza
Ukiyatazama, yanameremeta
Hakuna limoja lisilo pendeza♫
(There are none that are not pretty
When you look at them they shimmer
There are none that are not pretty.)

The mare faltered, still being rocked as she quietly fell against the shaman's body. Her tears flowed down her cheeks, onto the forelegs of the mare who held her. Twilight and the others watched quietly as the two embraced like a mother holding her lost child. Her cloak fell completely from her body, revealing the many scars and marks that featured her striped periwinkle body. The zebracorn gritted her teeth while she tried to hold herself back again, but inevitably failed. Mournful cries left her lips as Zecora held her.

The elder zebra continued to hold Kalimba, singing to her until she would feel better.

Canterlot Royal Castle
Several Hours Later...

After I finally got off of work, I couldn't help but to feel relieved that my twelve-hour shift had subsided. Even if it was just 4:30 in the afternoon, the only thing I wanted to do was sleep. So I meandered to my room and laid on my bed, rested my eyes for a moment and quietly dozed off. My mind had already subscribed to the idea of sleeping, so it was no surprise that I was feeling very groggy when there was a knock on my door.

I was already so out of it, I had to wipe the drool from off of my face before opening the door. "What's up?"

The guard saluted me with an apology. "I'm sorry to have disturbed you, sir. But the princess has requested your presence in the dining hall."

Oh right, the shindig Celestia said she was throwing me. I never forgot about it, but I wasn't really in a partying mood.

I straightened myself up, made myself a little more presentable for the occasion, and stepped out into the hall. While I walked, I still heard a few whispers about what happened with me on Saturday. It seemed that many of the maids had assumed that I was on my way out the door. A few of the guards waited till I passed by until they finally expressed their eagerness for my being relieved. Others greeted me sheepishly before making a few comments about my track record.

I didn't sit around to listen to any of the commentary, I just walked until I found my way to the royal dining hall. I had also noticed that the guards posted out in front of the doors were guards that I had served with on the Arimaspi Mountain assignment. They opened the doors for me, allowing me inside. As I stepped in, I noticed that the entire room was empty. The doors quickly closed behind me, sealing me inside. I looked around, checking if there was anyone hiding under the table, nothing. But I did see a singular dinner plate, covered by a silver lid. I uncovered the lid to see a letter sitting on the plate. I read the note aloud.

"There's never a moment of dullness with you. As such, with this is what we've decided to do. So while you expected us to surprise you in here, this place is not big enough to note such a monumental year. For your first clue, this place is outside. A special location where many legends will hide."

The doors unsealed themselves, leaving me with free passage through the castle once more. As I walked into the halls, I noticed that the halls had become a lot quieter, almost as if the place was completely abandoned. I went back to the note and looked at the clue that was given, thinking hard about what place would hide heroes and be outside. The only thing I could think about was possibly a heroes exhibit, possibly something with statues. I know that there are plenty of heroes decorating the windows of this castle, but I don't recall any of these being more for the outside. So I went with my second option, possibly the royal garden. A place where heroes hide... statues of heroes maybe... The labyrinth has statues of some villains and heroes. Perhaps that's what this was hinting to.

I ran outside, encountering very few guards along the way. I made my way into the labyrinth and came across a few statues, looking for anything like the note that was presented to me. I kept looking until I was brought to a statue of Celestia raising the sun. At the foot of the statue was another plate with a silver lid. I popped it open to see yet another note.

"Outside of Everfree is where you were found. The road to greatness was yours to be bound. Winding and turning through many a twist, until it was a princess' lips you've managed to kiss. It's certain your next clue will feel like an unwanted chore, for it is a place to ready for the call of war."

This one was a no-brainer. Where the hell else would a guard get suited up for an attack other than the barracks? But she was right about something; I sure as hell didn't want to go back there after twelve hours of guard duty. I stumbled along the path and made my way out of the labyrinth and took a left turn to the barracks. From there, I had to search the various rooms until I went to the equipment room. When I got inside, I noticed the tuppaware bins I once stored in the portal room of Twilight's castle. Silver lid on plate, same setup. I read my next clue.

"Not many would brave the crucible of training. As you remember, you were one of the few remaining. And even in the face of danger, you were always quite the quick-witted ranger. The next place is where you once had a show, a most rousing speech in the face of your foe."

I thought of the one place I did have a speech in front of someone that may have been my enemy. And then I thought of Count DuMoneé, especially a speech I gave on how humans could be Equestria's most vital allies. So I moseyed on over to the parliament chamber, saw my next clue at the presenter's podium.

"They thought with such moxie that they could take you out. And yet you are here, proving them wrong without a doubt. Your greatest fight will occur in this den, for this is the place where your war truly began. The next place is where I spoke of my past, there will you find a clue, the second to last."

Her bedroom. I made an instant beeline for the residential halls, seeing a different setup this time. The letter was set in the crack of door, complete with a wax seal instead of the usual simple plate and lid. The outside was addressed to me with the words 'Read Quietly' in bold letters. I broke the wax seal and edged open the letter.

"I couldn't help but to think it through, what all I have said and done for you. And even when I had a second thought, it was nothing but happiness you have brought. This note breaks the pattern, that I do know. But it is you that makes my emotions flow. Memories of my tarnished past still remain, but you still show me your compassion all the same. I should stop before I write something I'll regret, then the cursed pattern resumes to leave me distraught and upset. Your final clue on this castle tour, leads you to the place where many said how you've matured."

It took a little more thinking, this one. I heard a lot about how I've changed from various places, but since this was a search localized to the castle, the only thing I could hone in on was the portal room. If anything that was the best place for me to assume because a lot of people who saw me back home had said how much I've changed my appearance, I lost weight, I dress better, I toned up, grew a few inches, all that stuff. The same set up for last time, but it was notched into the very edge of the mirror's borders. I broke the wax seal and proceeded to read this letter silently.

"Twist and turns were never part of the plan. But here we are right back to were you began. I hope this will continue to be a choice you won't regret, as you are the most wonderful man I have ever met. There is no telling you how much I wish for you to see, that by our side is where fate has brought you to be. Though the option still remains for you to decide when to go, it will be a very sad day and a tough moment to swallow. But your world is beautiful, so lively, so bright. Your lips still ring on mine from New Year's night. Though this journey doesn't involve just me, it involves the friends you've made, and most importantly, you family. How brave were you to tell them of your path, even when you risked facing your mother's wrath. But she loves you still, that we all do. So we finally say this. Happy Birthday to you. Your search soon ends with your final clue shown. Come to the hall, where you will see my throne."

Not much of a clue, just telling me where I'm going.

Along my way to the throne room, I started to realize how she had the notes set up and how the scenery all coincided with the particular milestones she highlighted. The idea that I went from being found outside of a forest because of a changeling summoning spell gone wrong, to being here in the presence of royalty and guarding these pristine halls, it humbled me tremendously. It warmed my heart to know that she was paying close attention to me the entire way. I finally approached the doors leading to the throne room. There were no guards around, no maids, no one. As I shrugged off my isolation, I opened the large wooden doors to the sight of the throne room.

SURPRIIIIIIIISE!!!

My eyes bulged as everyone in the room shouted at me, startling me even as I was mentally prepared for it. Twilight and her friends had all come from Ponyville while Shining, Flash, and Cadance were coming in from the Crystal Empire. Blueblood, his wives, Luna, and Celestia were all standing by, applauding my entrance.

But it wasn't just the ponies.

Alex and Stanton cheered as they threw their hands up at me. Mom and dad had their hands on each side of the banner, celebrating my age. Cliff and Rickey both wore their letterman jackets while holding mine while shouting my name. Vanessa watched with her hands clasped together, excited to see my initial reaction. I looked up to see birds flying overhead, all twittering and chirping until they sat themselves on the rafters and sang a singular note. Fluttershy flew up and announced to the crowd throughout the room. "Okay everypony! That's our cue. One. Two. Sing!"

And on cue, everyone in the room sang with rejoicing, almost as if a large miniature musical number.

♪Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday, what a great day, Happy Birthday to you.
From good friends and true. From old friends and new.
Happy Birthday dear Nondiiiiiissss...♪

Fluttershy cut them off and shouted loudly. "In parts, everyone!" Without fail, everyone seemed to have burst into a giant choir as they sang the final line.

♪Happy birthday toooo yoooooouuuuu!♪

"♪Annnd many mooooooooreeee.♪" Pinkie crept in as she slowly pulled out a blue cannon beside me with the largest grin on her face. She jumped up and pressed the button the back of the cannon, unleashing a blast of air and confetti directly on to me. The sound of balloons squeaking and party blowers honking sounded with it's ignition. While I was covered in a manner of shimmering particles, everyone cheered loudly while I couldn't help but laugh.

"I dead-ass forgot you had that thing." I said to Pinkie.

She hopped up on her cannon and gave me a hug, but not without whispering in my ear. "How about you tell us when your birthday is next time. Parties take planning, you know."

"Noted." I replied.

A Few Hours Later...

The party had gone on for some time until everyone had finally started to thin out. Our time in the throne room was filled with a lot of games, conversation, and a few other questions inquiring about my current status. For being a year older, most other people would probably say that life's been good and pretty much uneventful aside from a few times you went to the bar or had a good laugh with friends. My case was a lot different, I had a lot of looking at myself from a year ago.

If I went back a year, I'd be the chubby, depressed, awkward guy that I once was. I wouldn't know how to handle pressure, I wouldn't know how to fight, I wouldn't even know how to do anything other than browse on the internet and hope that I'd too have a story of normalcy to share on some image board on the fringe of the dark web. Maybe I'd be enthusiastic about my chances to find an anime I'd really like this season. I guess I'd probably reject every phone call I got from my brothers out of spite, and I'd still call Melanie in hopes that she'd not directly send me to voicemail. Just a year ago, I was trying my hardest to fit in where I didn't know how, not because I was in the wrong place, but because of my being socially inept.

Being here, I didn't have internet, I didn't have a phone to play games on, I didn't have a PS4 to game the day away, I didn't have anything like that. All I had was a group of six girls to guide me through my stay in a world where nothing was familiar to me. I had to learn how to socialize, I had more than enough time to do so. And in the end, I was made better for it. I didn't have the luxury of driving everywhere, I walked. I didn't have huge meals with meat falling off the side of my plate, I had vegan alternatives. I didn't have a lot of things that fed my old lifestyle, and now I feel better about my own image. It feels nice to look down and actually see my toes cleanly. And I had friends who would talk with me whenever they saw me.

I learned a lot about myself being here, I learned a lot about what I'm willing to accept from others. I've learned patience, humility, and gratitude. I've also learned how to put my foot in someone's ass when they don't do right. I've even learned how to make others happy while trying to gauge what makes me happy. This one year taught me more life lessons than the four years I've spent at college.

Now that I think about that, I want a fucking refund.

Celestia dragged me along to help with the cleanup, but not before taking me to watch her set the sun. Much like she did earlier this morning, she requested that I reached out to the sun one more time. She watched as the sun bade us farewell for the day. It slowly hovered just above the horizon, but not before requesting another song out of me.

"♫Mr. Blue, you get it right. But soon comes Mr. Night,
Creeping over, now his hand is on your shoulder.
Nevermind, I remember you this, I'll remember you this day.
Mr. Blue Sky, please tell us why you had hide away for so long? Where did we go wrong?
Hey there Mr. Blue, we're so pleased to be with you. Look around, see what you do. Everyone just smiles at you.♪"

The princess smiled as the sun finally sank beyond the western horizon. Once she was finished with her work, she turned to me and asked. "Was that another part of the song you sang earlier this morning?"

"Yup. Third verse. I sang the first verse earlier."

"Then what's the second." The princess questioned.

"Meh, it's pretty short. Doesn't matter." I replied with a shrug.

The princess nudged me in retaliation of my not telling her. "You are just irritating sometimes."

"How irritating am I? Well I guess you'll have to figure that out yourself."

The princess smiled as the moon started to make it's way into the sky. She walked back into the warmth of her own bedroom. I followed closely behind her, watching as she removed every bit of her regalia. "Well today was a fun one. I can assume that you'll be heading off to your world now."

"Yeah, the boys at the frat ain't done with me yet." I answered.

She closed the curtains leading to the outside balcony, leaving us isolated in the room. She turned away from me with a smirk, pointed at her cheek, and proudly bragged. "Well, aren't you going to give me something? A thank you, maybe?"

I approached her from behind, sinking my arms around her as I hugged her. She quietly giggled as she sat herself down. I gave her a quick peck on the cheek for her work. "I had fun today."

She smirked as she summoned the letters she wrote for the scavenger hunt. "So you didn't have a problem with these?"

"Evidently not, the first one was probably the hardest one of all of them. But I guess you had to keep it easy for everyone to not be waiting around."

"That was my intention." She admitted.

She took a glance at the grandfather clock sitting across from her bed. "It's getting late, you should be moving."

I tilted her head to me, giving her a quick peck on the lips before letting her go. "I'll try to not get too drunk this time."

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight, captain."

"Goodnight, your highness."

I quietly stepped out of the room, closing the door behind me and leaned against the wooden frame. I looked up to the ceiling, extending my hand upwards as I remembered the hot tingling sensation running up my arm. The halls remained mostly empty with the exception of a few passing guards on patrol on the far end. After a few more lingering thoughts of the princess, knowing she made her way to the bath, I wandered off through the halls and made my way to the portal room. As I came around, I took notice that Cliff's portal was on today. I thought it was supposed to be closed for a good few weeks... And it has been a good few weeks.

Oh yeah, time's been gunning it recently.

I walked over to turn on Mel's portal so I could pass through. But as soon as I walked through, I felt like I had bumped into a wall. I fell back, seeing that the portal's surface was moving, indicating that I had crossed over. I quickly got back up and placed my hand through it, definitely feeling a wall. I pulled out my phone and called Mel to see if something had gone wrong or if someone had come through. She didn't answer her phone. I called again, same response. I shot her a text message, no reply. I slipped my hand through, feeling around for the borders of her mirror. While I did, I felt something swat at my hand.

What the hell is going on?

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Delta Phi Fraternity Residence...

When I arrived, the other half of the party finally kicked off. Of course, the first thing they had to get out of the way was my twenty-two licks. Basically grab my left ankle, cup my balls, and take my college lashing like a bro. Finish that, take two shots, and scream at the top of my lungs like I did something. The frat house wasn't exactly lively this time of year, but for those who were out of state students, they pretty much used the house as a place to crash until the semester started back up. Then once those coed apartments start opening back up, they disappear like ghosts until the next party or meeting.

I sat on the couch, my ass still burning from the birthday bashing I received, but it was a lot more bearable in contrast to what I've been through. I leaned back and watched the two guys on the couch go back and forth with their game, both of them were playing NBA 2K. Cliff played as the San Antonio Spurs, one of our honorary members, Hermes, played as the Houston Rockets.

While Rickey and I watched them both go back and forth scoring on each other, Hermes was smugly calling out what Cliff would do next. "Don't post up. Don't post up. Don't try to stop me from driving. You're gonna get me on the line."

"Bruh, what is you talkin' bout? I'm finna' pick yo ass clean." Cliff replied.

And just on cue, a whistle blows. A yellow indicator over the scoreboard displayed a shooting foul. "Ah, so you running a charity now?"

Cliff wasn't pleased. "Man, they keep giving this nigga Harden free throws for days! Even in 2K the refs suck ass!"

I laughed at the two as number thirteen for Hermes' team queued up at the free throw line. "I just go with the better statistical team." Hermes announced. "If I see this team has a higher rate of free-throw attempts for the season, then it's better to force the foul."

"Bruh, you know you ain't been here a whole two weeks and you sittin' here talkin' like you know the game." Cliff said as he started to mash the buttons for crowd interference. Both free throws went in effortlessly. As soon as Cliff's team grabbed the ball, the whistle blew soon after, indicating the end of the game. The final score: 84-80 Rockets.

Rickey held his hand out. "You know what time it is. Sticks please."

"This some bullshit." Cliff pouted.

"Sticks please!" Rickey emphasized, finally getting the controller in his hands. "Yeah, you know house rules. Loser coughs up the sticks."

"Who you got?" Cliff asked.

"You already know my team. Let's go Thunder!" Rickey announced, picking the Oklahoma City Thunder for his team.

Cliff made fun of his choice. "Bruh, half that team is in injury reserve."

"Doesn't mean shit when injuries are off." Rickey replied.

Hermes glanced over at me and pointed over at Rickey. "He don't know what he's in for."

I shook my head, amazed at how casual this pony-turned-human has adapted to the human world. "So, how's your experience been here in the world of Austin, Texas?"

"It's great!" He said brightly. "This is nothing like the college I went to. So many courses, so much technology, not much magic but there's a lot of food. You guys have an entire franchise cornerstone dedicated to selling liquor every twenty blocks. And then I went to this one place for New Years called Handlebar, live music, awesome drinks, and when I come back here, there's a game already waiting on my system of choice. If I had to make an observation, this place is way better than Canterlot."

"How so?" Cliff asked.

"I mean you guys get around. And with the density being so high, everything's so close to each other. If I want food, I go one place, turn the corner and here I am back at the frat house. It's amazing."

I laughed as I gave him a warning. "Yeah, but you can't keep eating that stuff. Just cause the food is awesome doesn't mean you can go pig out everyday."

"I never knew how good meat can taste. That's a new thing for me, I love steak, I love ribs! I love it, it's awesome!"

"Same thing Shining and Blueblood said." Rickey pointed out. "We took them to a rib joint, them damn ribs turned to bones so goddamn quick. Fucking royalty, they didn't even care."

"No kidding. I could be as big as a castle. I know I saw some pretty particularly large humans wobbling about."

"Heh, man said wobble." Cliff joked to himself.

"Well as long as you know." I warned once more.

Hermes continued to play his team, running a play for one of his players to catch and shoot an open three-point shot. The shot clanked out and Rickey's team ran the other way. "So how's the investigation over in Canterlot? I know the last time we talked, you said something about that one mare I couldn't keep my mind off of."

"Blue Royal? Oh yeah, definitely Count's daughter." I confirmed.

"Wait, what's goin' on?" Cliff questioned. "That ugly ass, piss-on-my-new-J's lookin' ass, crushed-concrete-face-havin' ass, straight-up-sleeping-in-the-crypt dead ass nigga? He's got a kid!?"

"Two." I said, holding up the same number of fingers.

Cliff writhed with disgust. "EEEUuugh! Who the fuck loved that enough to have two kids. I swear he had to fuck some dusty-ass bitch off the corner and not pay his child support when he found out."

"Nope." I shook my head. "And I don't think I've told you that story. So here's all the shit as I know it. He was married, had two kids, wife committed suicide for some reason, both got shipped out separate ways that same day they found her body, some years passed, she came back wanting to reconnect, he raped her─"

Rickey paused the game and placed the controller to his side. "Hold up, you said he raped his daughter?"

"Yup. His own blood."'

Rickey shook his head with disgust and unpaused the game. "Man, I see why you have a counselor now. You deal with some fucked-up shit."

"All in a day's work." I replied grimly. "But yeah, she convened with the brother, they kept him on a joint account to measure out how much money he got. Oh yeah, I forgot to add this. The wife was a billionaire heiress, she locked him out of the will, the kids got everything. So he was actually a broke bum mooching off his kids' finances outside of what he was stealing from the royal budget, basically pocketing some funds that were for a few other things, what politicians here do. Now get this, he called the hit with some merc, the daughter caught wind of what he was doing, how much he was going to pay, and how he was going to break up the payment plan. She didn't like that, so she made the withdrawal from the joint account, that playground fund he had, paid the assassin the whole two hundred thousand plus out of that account. The brother bought a ten-thousand dollar bottle of wine to clean that bitch out. He had nothing until next payday."

"So he basically killed himself for being broke." Cliff concluded.

"Let me finish." I said, correcting him. "He was broke till next pay, but Alex brought up some shit against him in a summons while I was in my coma. So that put him under investigation, and it froze his checks. Now here's where it gets interesting, he had no money, but he also needed a certain fundage for a health issue. Rickey, you remember how he came to us and started attacking me in the wheelchair?"

"Yeah?"

"Hey Hermes, you said he was taking what meds?"

"Thiothixene."

"I looked that up. He was a fucking Schit."

Both of the men looked at me as Cliff sought to confirm what I had said. "You mean ol' dude was a Schizophreniac?"

"Affirmative." I said. "He didn't take his meds since then. He ran out. So he holed himself inside of his office for a while until he just snapped. Now, if I'm a believer of divine justice, I'd have to say that his wife, the one that killed herself, paid him more than a few visits. And from what I got from the daughter when he was getting buried next to her, he HATED being with her. So my guess is that he killed himself trying to run from that demon haunting his ass everywhere he went. Now my other guess, way back when, he got caught doing some shit his wife couldn't answer for. And I bet it had something to do with the inner-circle."

This time, it was Hermes who paused the game and looked at me. "Okay, now you have my undivided attention. How do you know about the inner circle?"

"Let's just say I've managed to pay my way into an exclusive underground club." I said, pulling out my cell phone. I pulled up a picture of the place and showed it to everyone.

"The arena? In Canterrot?" Hermes asked, surprised that I had gotten that far.

"The one that's quickly becoming a hot tourist destination among the low-income locals and gambling addicts? Yeah, that place. Quite the lively neon world you guys got down there, kinda has that Las Vegas nightclub aesthetic going on."

"How the hell did you get in!?" He asked.

"The daughter, she's apparently the creator of the social advocacy group Hooves-For-Humans. She gave me my starting funds, my playground money, and even my other installment fees. We're looking at around a million bits."

"A million bits!?" Hermes shouted, standing to his feet.

"So, a million of those gold doubloons, ain't they like solid gold?" Rickey asked.

I brushed aside the money talk and went back to the topic at hand. "Payments methods aside, I'm a VIP member now."

Hermes walked up to me and questioned me. "So you're working with Count's daughter?"

"It might also help that she has the hots for me and spite for her father. You tell me how that combination works out."

While the transformed stallion thought more on that topic, Rickey paid more attention to the fact that the girl had taken a liking to me. He raised his hand as if he were in a class. "So quick question, does Celestia know about this girl?" Both Cliff and I looked at him with disbelief. "What?" He asked.

I pointed out to him. "Not exactly alone here."

He took a quick glance to Hermes and slapped himself on the forehead. "Ah, fuck."

"Wait, what's going on with Princess Celestia?" Hermes asked curiously.

I quickly salvaged the situation by giving him the half-truth about my motive. "The princess gave me a green light to commence to a secret operation to find the interest groups and politicians looking to usurp the powers in place. As you know, you were deemed what we call in the business 'high-value cargo'. If the cargo gets damaged or destroyed, the mission is compromised. You already know what you know about Count, and apparently you also know something about the inner circle, especially if a member called for a hit on your head."

"Right, that's pretty much why I'm here." Hermes affirmed, accepting my answer as law.

"Yeah that's right. Though the guy they were using is dead now, his former slave got the better of him." I added.

"So you had to legit get him out the way, huh?" Cliff said.

"Rather solve that problem now than see it become one later on. Stupid people try to make peace when the option was never on the table. Better to play it safe."

Hermes walked towards the couch he originally sat on, and he calmly asked me a question. "If you don't mind me asking, how is it you're gonna do this? It's not easy to break into the ranks of the inner circle."

"Win enough fights and I'm in." I said with a shrug.

"That's not all to it."

I froze for a moment, appearing a bit confused. "Wait, what do you mean?"

He sat himself down as he started to explain his reasoning. "The inner circle isn't just some place you can pay your way into, or simply win enough fights to get included. I'm sure you were painfully made aware of the massive drawback to your plan as soon as you signed up. Well imagine that but times ten. You wanna be a member, you've got to do five things, not just one or two. Of course you pay your way in, but they don't just take anyone. They take those with a certain position of power that could be beneficial to their cause. Then they see if they're able to make good hires consistently for their respective coalition, so that's where the winning part comes into play. Your name is out there for everyone to know, so there's no hiding. You know those three, but not the other two."

"So what's the other two then?" Rickey inquired.

"It's simple, sell your life and prove you are one for the cause. If you can't do either, then you're better off just chatting it up with the other VIP members like the truly unimportant pawn you are."

I couldn't help but to notice how cold his tone had gotten, it was almost as if he was speaking from the experience he had with Count. Rather, the experience he had himself being there while being seen as unimportant. "What do you mean by 'sell your life'?"

"No secrets. They know everything about you, who you deal with, your desires, your fetishes, your finances, your family, your weaknesses, and even your past. There's no possible way for you to fit in because you have zero past in Equestria. What's a year of your being there in contrast to someone's fifty in the business while serving as a senator? You're already an outsider to the general public, so it's a no-brainer that you'd be kept outside the loop."

He basically explained to me why this was starting to look like a dire situation, my being clued in to the inner circle's dealings only meant that I was gonna have to find some way to supercede that. And if that's the fourth milestone to be crossed... "What's the last thing then?"

"Simply put, betray the royals. You have to show commitment to the cause, no playing the fence. You are either like everyone else, or you can find the will to put a blade in anyone closest to you. They don't accept token offerings either, if I were you and had to put anything on the line, your best offering..." He clasped his hands together, weaving his fingers between one another and covering his mouth. He gave me a cruel stare. "...would be miss Melanie."

NOPE.

Every last one of us in that room rose up with disgust and anger. Cliff shook his head. "Hell naw."

"Not gonna happen." Rickey strongly said, pointing to him.

Hermes remained calm and collected as he continued on. "Well there's a code to follow. Bits, gems, or blood. If you have more than enough wealth, then part ways with something close to you. Can't seal the deal, might as well go home."

I looked at how calm he was and inquired about something that bugged me since he started explaining more about the inner circle. "Answer this real quick, have you in any way achieved this status? Have you fulfilled the requirements to be considered a member?"

"Like hell I would." He answered angrily. "I'm not selling my family for something as silly as the idea of a coup, they don't even have a plan of government outside of the Parliament ruling over everything. That creates a power vacuum that no one pony could fill. Even the royal family has multiple members standing with Princess Celestia. Imagine if they had that power, then there would be a race to the top to see who would hold all the power. It's a flawed idea with catastrophic implications. Our representation is fine as it is, there's no need to destabilize the government."

At least I know where he stands on this. "So here's the bottom line, none of my friends and family are dying."

His response would be one stemmed from frustration. "Then find some other way of doing things. But I guarantee you that every attempt will end in failure. They know what they're doing, they're lawmakers. Can't break the law if you're rewriting them every ten seconds."

I sat myself back down and hunched over while folding my arms over my lap. "Okay. So what can I do?"

He himself started thinking of a plan, while also admitting the drawbacks to it. "The next best thing is to capture one of them, I guess. But you can't capture them if they've got security around for every aspect of their lives. Their days are already monitored in parliament, so a disappearance would be too substantial to ignore."

"And you can't drop some guy in to replace them?" Cliff questioned.

Hermes looked up to the ceiling. "They'd have to replace them in the inner circle as well. If whoever's replacing them doesn't have enough intimate knowledge of their life, they'll be killed. That's the whole reason why everyone's life is so easily exposed. If you aren't who you say you are, you're an intruder looking to get some information, information that could compromise their whole operation. Best to assume they'll defend that with their lives."

"Or in this case, however many lives they can throw at you." I replied.

"You understand that." He said as he came to the conclusion of there being no plan set in stone for us to execute. "So, what's your plan now? The only thing I can see you doing is abducting him yourself and illegally obtaining a testimony for the sake of the investigation. Doing that means your intel is void for action, you'd be right back at square one with everyone looking to see your head on a plate."

Admittedly, I had a grand but highly corrupt idea come to mind, but realized that I had killed off the potential chance of that happening with all those executions. "Fuck... if only we had some changeling insurrection or invasion to mask his disappearance. He'd be as good as gone."

"And you can't fake his death. They'll immediately know you're in on it." He tossed back.

"Yeah, that's tough." Rickey mumured.

"Too bad you can't seep into his brain or something and get the information you want." I suggested.

Hermes groaned. "That wouldn't work either, you'd have to have a testimony that's been authorized with a warrant. And believe me when I say the municipal forces at work will be against you."

I quickly replied to that statement. "I know someone in city council. They could be interested in cleaning up the place."

"That's good, but how does that help? Some guy on the city council, not even the mayor, what's that to the powers that be?"

"You're right." I said, admitting defeat in that regard. But I still had another potential ace in the hole. "Blue's brother, she says he's in the inner circle."

The transformed stallion drew a deep breath. "I know he's in there on the account that they enjoyed how he showed his dedication. Imagine if your son was a member of the inner circle like you, and you'd be force to talk a whole business transaction, while your son is making the guy across from you jackhammer his cock down his throat."

While Cliff and Rickey were astounded and unnerved by the revelation, I wasn't as surprised. "I've heard a story or two like that."

"Yeah, but the thing is who he tried to do it to first."

That one probably surprised me a little more. "Good ol' dad?"

"With the college try." He confirmed.

"How'd that go?"

"As well as you'd expect." He deadpanned.

I chuckled lightly, mainly out of astonishment. "Hasn't see his daughter in years, rapes her. Hasn't seen his son in years, the son comes out as gay in the worst way possible. Yeah, this family has a hell of a best-seller on it's hands."

Hermes also added. "Either way, each day the son announced his visits, Count wouldn't go on those nights."

I continued to piece the details together. "And if he isn't there, that gave Blue the space to sign herself in on the debauchery."

"Guarantees that they never meet." Hermes verified.

"Me thinks the brother did it out of love for his sister." I pointed out.

"It's a double K.O.. He didn't like seeing his son being gay, he wanted to see his daughter to repeat his offense. The inner circle would've loved to see that one unfold. Just imagine if the kids came around, and then he shows up..."

"The son would've tried to take on what daddy gave to his poor little girl." I concluded quietly. "Yeah, I see why she has drinking problems."

"Bruh, you could write a whole fucking novel off of this shit." Cliff said in disbelief.

I unfolded my arms and started tapping against my chin. "So... if I can talk to the brother─"

"He wants no business unless you're willing to play with him. Better to leave that one alone." Hermes warned.

"I bet I can put in a good word with his sister, see if she can get him to do me a favor?" I suggested.

"Not without payment." Hermes stated.

I grimaced and looked over to him. "How much?"

The transformed stallion grew mum for a moment before cringing at the thought. "He considers semen as an alternative for blood."

All of us in the room shuddered at the thought. "Uuugh that's a tough one." I said, compressing my arms into my chest.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

The Next Day...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Nondis***

As per usual, my shift was pretty quiet. Of course while I had ran my patrols, there were a few others who murmured about my Saturday morning cuss-out by the princess. Rumors began to spread that I had gotten rebellious against the royal family because of that event and hedged their bets to see when I would get myself fired. But when I addressed them directly, it was all have-a-good-day-sir from them.

And as soon as my shift ended, I head over to my room to see a manila envelope sitting on the floor in my room. I opened it to see another notification from Blue. She apparently wanted me to come by tonight, at least to get familiar with the whole process of living the life of a VIP member. Thankfully, I had another twenty-thousand bits in gems to use, so getting a hire wouldn't be too hectic. I called up Kalimba and let her know I'd be needing her tonight. She didn't answer at first.

On my way out the door, I got a phone call back from Kalimba. She told me that she would try to be able to make the trip despite her feeling ill. She said she was running a high fever and was pretty much bedridden the entire day. She also apologized deeply for getting sick. I told her to take the night off, she refused and announced the time she'd try to be here. I again stated that she needed rest, she ignored me and reiterated her time of arrival. From there she hung up.

I couldn't help but kick something in frustration, she was already putting her life in danger working with me, there was no need to do the same for her health. I should've at least asked her how she was feeling before bringing up the offer. Now I know she's not going to be in fighting form.

Either way, what's done is done.

Just after two days of being a human, I was back to being a pony again. After a few moments of gathering my thoughts and getting ready for the mess to come, I settled out for the train station. As soon as I arrived, I saw Kalimba stumbling off the train, shivering all the while. I ran over to her and questioned the mare. "What the hell, why are you here?"

"I had to make it. Do not worry, I've had worse."

"You are going to kill yourself if you keep going like this. You need to rest." I strongly urged.

"I am strong. Do not take my condition into consideration."

I angrily grabbed one of her forelegs and draped it over my body. "Come on, we've got to get you to someplace warm."

"De worst is already over for me. Just let me work."

"Working for me is not a permission to work yourself to death." I replied.

She continued to ignore me, pushing herself onward. "We must go."

"To a doctor." I recommended.

She shook her head. "My fatigue is not what you have in mind. My fever has already been sweated out. Dis is more from my magic training earlier today."

I was almost at a loss for words. "You trained today, with a fever!?"

"I want to show you what all I've learned. I could be of more help to you." She said, pushing off of me and walking on her own wobbly legs. "Besides, I have done much worse under far more intense conditions. Do not confuse my mental drain for weakness."

She didn't bother to wait on me, hobbling off to the station's exit.

We made our way to the arena, reaching the VIP entrance. As soon as we approached, I could see Blue standing outside, leaning against the wall, her face turned away from me. She appeared upset about something. I walked over to her, quietly tapping her on the shoulder. She leapt forward, twisting herself around to see that I was standing there. Instead of being in upset about something, she appeared to be in a cold sweat.

"You okay there?" I asked her.

The mare quickly grabbed my foreleg and dragged me further down the hall. "Let's go be the general audience today." She said quickly, still latching on to me.

I stopped dead in my tracks and looked around. "Wait, what's going on?"

She looked past me to see Kalimba following up behind me. "You brought her here again!? What is wrong with you!?"

"Yeah, I tried to get her to rest up today, but she refused to listen to me." I explained, earning a retort from the zebra.

"I am not a burden to be concerned. So your cause for worry is nothing short of unearned."

Blue shuddered as the doors to the VIP lounge started to open. Almost in a whinny, she grabbed both of our forelegs and dragged us further down the hall. "I'm sorry, I should've never asked you to come by tonight. You need to go to general seating and enjoy the show."

We turned the corner to see a well-dressed stallion standing in the center of the hall, his back turned to us. He sported a maroon and gold suit, complete with a miniature top hat fashioned to his left side, all of which didn't quite fit with his forest green fur. Blue's hooves came to a screeching halt before she used her magic to guide us back onward through the hall we had just turned from. But as soon as we did, the same stallion stood in the center of the hall, his back turned towards us. The three of us turned back around to see the same stallion standing down the hall. I looked to the hall we turned into, seeing him standing there still, I turned to see further down the hall we would've went without turning, there he stood. I looked back and saw him standing there, but summoning a maroon and gold rod, matching his outfit. He slammed the rod into the ground, producing a loud ringing noise that decayed off slowly.

The rod spun and twirled in his possession, his head raised up high as his ears turned to the three of us. He tilted his head slowly in pattern to his slightly swaying body, motioning from side to side. He inevitably came to a halt after a while, the rod stopped twirling as if he was leading a parade down the street, suddenly raising up slowly as he was raising it to the ceiling above. I did so much as taking a breath to speak, but he quickly pointed that rod to me. "Shh.... listen." He sat on his haunches and raised both of his forelegs up, his hooves increasing their distance from the ground as a sudden crescendo of the crowd out in the bowl started to wash through the halls. He held his hooves up in the air for a while before he started to hug himself and wriggle slowly. "Oh yes, give praise my lowly common filth, you who continue to resist the coil of her nurturing embrace. Experience the fruits that have been bestowed upon you. Are you not entertained?"

The stallion flamboyantly tilted his head back and glanced over to me with the most appeased smile on his face.

"Are you not entertained?"

I turned to Blue and whispered to her. "Okay, who's this guy?"

"This guy is over here." He whispered into my ear. I turned to see him standing next to me, pressing his muzzle into my neck. He laughed with some twisted croak in his voice. "And he is engaged with this unique musk." He said, sniffing my neck before releasing a pleasured shudder. "I must say, I'm quite turned to you, captain."

I motioned myself to turn away from the stallion, but found that all four of my hooves were locked to the ground. I looked down to see my hooves attached to some bright orange glow, keeping me stationary to the ground. I looked up to see the stallion standing in front of me, holding his cane to my chin. The stallion's face showed some pale peach-colored swirls reaching all the way down his neck. As he got closer, he used his magic to hold my head still as he licked my muzzle. After all of that, he dropped me and strutted away proudly. As he turned back to look at me, he held his forelegs out and spun in a circle.

"Welcome to my Sanctum of Sacrilege, I am Umbra Sanctus. And you are the residential human, but in disguise. Please, tell me why you find yourself so eager to hide your true face."

I whispered over to Blue. "I thought my name and identity wasn't supposed to leave from behind those doors."

The stallion chuckled, suddenly appearing next to Blue Royal without so much as a prompt or hint of magic. He tilted her head upwards, kissing the mare against her neck. "Oh well she can very much tell you. I change the rules to whatever I see fit. And since you have graced my humble little hole in the wall, I couldn't help but to greet you myself. But it seems our patron here has had some other plans aside from my seeing you tonight." He bit into the distressed mare's neck and turned his sampling ways towards Kalimba. "And I must say that you brought about some interesting company. Kalimba my dear, how is our good friend Prod doing?"

Even as I looked over at the zebra, I could tell that she was just as unnerved as Blue was. She just tried to show less of it. "I am afraid dat he did not play his cards well. I am now under new ownership, as you can tell."

He sniffed the mare's mane and hummed. "Ah, I smell his blood on you. And I also smell the scent of our human here. Tell me, has he claimed you like Prod would've?"

"I would be willing to say, but it goes against my owner's way." She replied.

He placed a hoof on the mare's cheek, turning her head. "And still as sickly as ever, even now you are suffering some affliction of sort. I wonder what value you try to hold yourself to now. You're still just a broken toy, a misfit of sorts. You would be better off serving on my walls. Could you imagine the faces of those who'd see you, a unicorn zebra mix showing her best culminating expressions, broken like the common nymph you truly are. I wonder if he's ever seen you truly enjoy yourself like you would when you were brought in to service your high-paying clients. But then again, I suppose Prod would've happily reaped the benefits of your transactions. It's a shame, you figured your value was much higher and opted to have him removed, only to come to the realization that there's no place for you in this world. You're just a sick little blank-flank who has no real value to society. You should've been proud to admit that your position in this world is but one thing: Face-to-floor, ass-raised, tail-to-back, open for business."

She didn't reply to him on that end. That was already more than telling. She was adamant that her situation wasn't as severe as I made it out to be, she argues me up and down the street. He says something about it, even mocking her on the matter, the entire time with a twisted smile on his face... dead silence.

I had already made up in my mind I wasn't going to like this guy very much. But since I had no real pull in this situation, I continued to play the role I was assigned. His attention was brought right back to me, unfortunately coming with his very hooves-on approach. "Now back to you. I believe a demonstration of your particular set of skills are in order. I take it you're of the... growing garden variety. You obviously don't like telling, so I guess we'll have to see what you're made of."

I grimaced as I thought about what he would've wanted me to do, especially as handsy as he's been with me. And I was already feeling more than sick with him trying to push so hard at me. I wasn't in any way gay. I don't have a problem with people who like it, it's just not my comfort zone of knowing another man's touch. But remembering Kalimba's warning from last time, and seeing how this guy is apparently the one running the show, I didn't have a choice if I wanted this to come to my desired end. I just needed some reinforcement to help me alleviate the situation. "I can get a drink first, right? I'm a lot better when I have a bit of a buzz." Perhaps that spicy wine from the last time would get me over the hump, both figuratively and very literally.

The stallion laughed, waving his hoof in front of his face. "Of course not." He said with that sinister smile. "You, sober. I want you to show me exactly what you're capable of, especially if Kalimba of all ponies is keeping it secret. Besides, we hold no secrets in my little club, so I expect to see just how intimate you can really be."

I couldn't help but to feel an immense building of butterflies in my stomach as he pointed me in the direction of the VIP lounge. "Can I choose my victim of choice?"

"Of course... this time. But if I am pleased with your display, do not be surprised if my participation becomes sudden."

Of fucking course he would try to throw himself in.

I winced as I looked to Kalimba and muttered. "I guess I'll be taking this exotic piece of work over here."

Blue stepped aside, looking away as Kalimba stepped forward without an ounce of shame to her name. "I suppose we will have to share our story with de world."

"Of course." I was already hating where this night was taking me.

As soon as we walked in, the patrons who were just as easily investing themselves in the many servants that lined themselves for their enjoyment, Umbra boisterously twirled his cane and marched into the room as if he was the drum major to a homecoming parade. From tossing the cane into the air and catching it after spinning himself around, to directing us to the position of where we had to go, he coordinated himself with the flair and flame of a lively performer.

"Come along, new guy! We've got a show to put on!" Both Kalimba and I approached the center of the room and stood there as he simply danced and pirouetted around where we stood. He stopped and pointed to the bartender and shouted to him. "Crème, hold the bar! We've got a show of our lovely new patron, he's going to demonstrate to us how good he can stick it to his guest." He twirled around to the line of servants. "You lot, stay right there, I need all eyes on our esteemed captain! Surely if he can grab the attention of a princess, he must have a performance worth remembering!"

Blue Royal quietly entered the room, turning to the bartender. Crème shrugged his shoulders as he shook his head at the mare. "Sorry sweetie, boss just closed out the bar."

"You got the stuff?" She asked quietly, but not without the astute Umbra slamming his cane into the ground, producing a loud ringing sound.

The two turned to see the flamboyant stallion standing with a smile on his face, head tilted with a hoof pointed to the two. "Blue... come here."

While Kalimba and I were getting set up, I watched as Blue slowly walked towards the jester-like owner and turn her eyes away from his gleaming countenance. He leaned into her ear and whispered something, only for her to collapse to the ground shortly after. She shook violently, tears welling up in her eyes as he turned around with that same smile on his face. A masked pony broke from the crowd and walked beside her, picking her up off the ground before hugging her.

Umbra quickly put an end to that. "Don't worry about her, she's fine. Blue, stand and come sit by me."

While I started to get angry with the stallion, Kalimba grabbed my head and immediately plunged her lips into mine. She broke off for a second, breathing into my ear. "Dat is not a game you wish to play. Continue with your role and look only my way." As Kalimba started to work herself towards my arousal, I was guided to touch her on her neck. I glanced over to the flamboyant owner who watched with Blue metaphorically chained to his side. Again, my head was turned around to the mare before me. She reached her hooves up and grabbed me, pulling me into her. She didn't smile, wearing a neutral face as she whispered to me once more. "If you want to stop his harassment for her sake, den it is a good show you should make."

That wasn't a warning, that was a request. I could at least tell she felt some concern over Blue's mental state, just as I did. When we showed up, she was already a lot less stable than usual. Something about this guy seemed to have gotten her so unbelievably discomforted. Goes without saying that she's in a bad spot, standing next to the very guy who whispered something in her ear and making her collapse on the spot. Every little thing that's off his agenda, he calls it out, and then puts them in restriction in front of everyone. Everything about him screams dangerous, from how flippant he is to how he smiles all the time. He even talked about Kalimba's past and condition like he was enjoying her discomfort. Hell, he's probably enjoying mine more than I'd like.

I'm gonna have to kill this guy.

As I reached my full state of arousal, I tried my best block out the crowd that watched us. Kalimba laid on her back, waiting patiently for me to actively partake in her body. I looked down to see the numerous scars all over her body, watching as her hindlegs splayed in submission of letting me take her. Her magic encircled my stallionhood and guided me towards her entrance. I closed my eyes to the numerous scars and focused on what I was doing, the ring of magic around my length, and the warmth between me.

With her guidance, I was set on my path to an unusual and uncomfortable climax. I admit that she felt wonderful to me, she was as embracing as any other. She took a deep breath and rocked her body into mine. I slowly thrust my hips into hers, trying to savor the moment we shared at least. And even in my state of forced arousal, I was invested in the work she put into keeping me an active participant. Her eyes would glance down and back up to me. She grabbed my head with her hooves, pulling me into her chest as my entire length sank into her. She elicited a few soft moans of approval. With each moment of withdrawal, I could feel the cold air convincing myself to stay enveloped. A few times, I ended up throbbing while reaching the end of her depths, with just an inch or two to spare.

As I breathed against her chest, her body began to give a musk. And since my current form was a very different beast in terms of my sense of smell, it started to overpower the logistics of my current situation. I sped up, but pushing myself even further in. The very few inches that were neglected prior were getting their fair share of her warmth. I allowed my equine instincts guide me on my next course of action. I nuzzled into the nape of her neck, kissing her skinny features, every scar, every dip, every ring on her neck.

Against me, I could tell she was starting to loosen up. Her body also started to become less and less stiff. Her whispers started turning into chirps. Her hooves went from grabbing at my cheeks to holding my back down, forcing me in closer with her. Even her sex, which gripped at me so harshly at the start, became more receptive to me, moistening and inviting me with every push, grasping at every pull. My head broke away from her neck, taking a better look at the mare's face. She appeared almost lost in the moment, she was obviously enjoying the difference in attention I gave her. Her forelegs traveled upwards, reaching for the atlas of my spine, she shoved me down into her, guiding me to kiss her neck even more. I heeded her suggestion, but also provided one of my own. My lips laid a few lingering impressions along the base of her jaw, trailing up to her ears. I stopped my rhythm momentarily to kiss her, giving her the undivided attention of my lips.

The sudden embrace made her shudder. I lightly bit into her neck, just below where her rings sat. That seemed to have set something off in her, she grabbed at me with all of her strength and flipped me over. From there she vied for control. She let out a grunt in doing so, raising herself to her hindlegs to stand on. She then grabbed one of my hindlegs for an anchor. As soon as she got settled, she dipped and shifted forwards, rocking back and forth as if she was the stallion and I was the mare.

I was genuinely surprised, moreso impressed with her technique. She became quite the aggressor to my endowment, panting and groaning as she worked. But I could feel her strength waning the longer she stood. Her eyes stopped locking on to me, rolling to the back of her head as she gritted her teeth. She took one final shove before I felt her clench against my length tightly. Her moistened depths pulsed, attempting to milk me of the fruitful appetizer I leaked into her.

She let me go and rolled over, savoring her orgasm. I stood to my hooves and walked over her. She looked up to me in her post-climax stupor and smirked a little. "I almost forgot, you are not done."

"Glad you remembered." I muttered to her, "As you already know, I'm built different. I can go for a while."

She faced forward and whispered. "Den stop with your chit-chat, ah, come claim dis rat." She said, using her magic to lift her tail out of the way for me to see the moistened mess that she made of herself.

I aligned myself and sank into her once more. "Far from a rat. I'd said I'd eat you alive." I replied, smacking her on her flanks.

The mare moaned quietly as I took my position above her and started shifting into her at a moderate rhythm. She raised her rear upwards, allowing me to lay claim to her depth a little better. As I continued, I used my magic to pull at her mane, raising her head high enough to where I could lean over and kiss her. We played with each others tongues for a moment before she winced in pain. I paused my motions for a moment as she described the instance of her discomfort. "A little sore from de first go. Keep at it."

While we went at it, I glanced up to see the flamboyant owner sitting on his haunches, but with only one foreleg to support himself. The other subtly rubbed himself, stroking in an upward motion before sinking back down. At the very least he was enjoying our show, giving Blue a more-than-needed reprieve from his bullying. She watched me in the midst of my performance, but shyly glanced to her side to see the stallion pleasuring himself slowly.

At least, he spoke out to halt our performance. "Alright, enough you two. I think I had my fair share of foreplay." He looked to the crowd and called out. "Bastard, come here." The same stallion who wore the mask from before approached him and sat before him. "I believe it's time for us to show what we're made of. So... shall we show them up?"

"Of course, sir." He replied. The masked stallion walked with Umbra to the center of the floor as both Kalimba and I started to walk off.

"Ah, wait!" He called out loudly, pointing his cane to the both of us. "Kalimba, that was quite the lively show you gave to us tonight. I'm sure Prod would've never pulled anything like it out of you. A round of applause for you." He rested the cane in his magic as he clopped his hooves together. "Everypony, a round for Kalimba and her spirited performance."

Almost as if a bright red sign had glowed above his head, the entire room gave their applause to the zebracorn, who quietly sauntered off. I followed in her hoofsteps, but found that same rod blocking my path, pointing to me.

"Now you..." He pointed his hoof to me and slowly turned his foreleg over to his left. As soon as it ran perpendicular to his chest, he pointed down and tilted his head. "Here."

"Wait, what!?" I said, still exposed for everyone in the room to see.

He straightened his head and hugged himself, letting his arousal and enjoyment show down below. "Surely I warned you. I said that if your performance was admirable or moving enough, I would intervene. I've made senseless merriment with everyone in this room. I'm quite proud of my capability to show my endless affection and joy to the world."

The stallion in the mask walked up to me and guided me over to the spot he pointed to. I sat myself in defiance. "But you said that I could choose my victim!"

"And I said it would be for then, well 'now' was then. And this... is now. So come along, I would hate to be rejected in front of my great and charitable patrons. You should be grateful that I allowed you here without setting you up for your demise." His smile suddenly turned into an even wider Cheshire-like grin. "Though... it's not that I have a problem with your not having a free will. You'd surely make merriment with me then."

The stallion by me whispered in my ear. "It's better if you go along with it. Keep yourself alive."

I turned around to see the green eyes staring at me from behind the mask before he pushed me over to where Umbra stood. As soon as I stopped stumbling, the maniacal jester giggled pressed his body into mine. As he started to sit himself, teasing his length, I glanced back to see the other masked stallion already at my tail, smelling my scent and admiring it for himself. I started to feel the pressure of my disgust rising from within my stomach as Umbra tilted my head to him, getting as close to where our muzzles touched. "I hope all those kisses you gave to Kalimba also go to me."

Blue glanced away from me, deeply saddened as she felt guilty for calling me here. She clenched her eyes shut, mouthing out repeatedly. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

How the hell did I get myself into this?

Without warning, there was a loud banging at the door. It appeared that it was highly urgent for someone to start bashing at the door like they were. The flamboyant owner wore a smile the entire night. But the moment he had to be pulled from the very narrow inch of kissing me was the moment I saw his face slowly devolve into a scowl. The entire room experienced a paradigm shift as his face changed. In a simultaneous blink, the stallion warped from where I stood to the door. Umbra angrily flung the doors open and growled in a low voice. "What?"

If there was ever a way to terrify anyone, it would be that exact pronunciation of the word 'What'.

The security guard at the door whispered at the owner. Umbra took a deep breath and turned to me. "I guess we'll be continuing our time later, captain."

I turned away from him, thinking to myself how grateful I was that this wasn't going any further. But he warped in front of me, lifted my chin, and stole one from me anyways. It was angry, disgusting, and also filled with tongue. He shoved me off and went back to his smiling ways for a moment.

"Something to remember me by, dear husband." He warped away once more, turned to one of the bouncers by the door, and muttered to him. "That one, he never leaves this place. I'm not finished with him."

They both nodded with acknowledgement before he disappeared into the hall. As soon as the doors closed, Crème went back to wiping his glasses and announced to the room. "Bar's back open, everypony. If you want to take some of that edge off, you can come to me or one of our esteemed servers, we will be glad to service you in any way you see fit."

Blue sighed exasperatedly. "A bottle, just the whole fucking bottle."

The masked figure approached from behind me, placing a hoof on my back slowly. "You okay?"

I spat and gagged while trying to wipe my tongue on the bottom of my hooves, rather tasting the dirt than that son of a bitch again. "No. I can't. I'm done."

He whispered quietly to me. "I think we should talk."

"Get away from me!" I commanded, quickly getting up to my hooves and galloping for one of the press boxes. As I ran, I was also pursued. I ran inside and slammed the door, only for it to be met with a magic aura stopping it from closing. I quickly summoned a gun and held it up to the stallion who quietly and slowly entered the room. The stallion closed the door behind him, removing his mask.

"Nondis... we need to talk."

The mask dropped to the floor and the stallion raised his hooves up slowly. His head raised as his horn used a simple illumination spell to lighten the dark room, giving me a better view of his face. Upon seeing it, I became confused and hesitant. He appeared remorseful upon seeing my distraught face as I questioned him. "...Alabaster?" He deactivated the illumination spell and simply cut on the lights.

"All I want to do is talk."

"Why are you here?" I asked, still distressed from what happened to me earlier.

"I'm here because I belong." He replied quietly. "I do what I must for her sake."

"For her sake?" I questioned.

A knock came at the door. The two of us jumped while I continued to hold the gun to the stallion. I motioned the barrel over to the door twice, urging him to answer it. The stallion picked up the mask he dropped and reapplied it to his face. Once he finished with that, he answered the door and found Blue standing at the entrance, wiping her eyes as the bottle she nurtured was cradled in her magic. Her face was a tearful mess of mascara and eye liner. She walked into the room silently, closing the door behind her and using her magic to seal it closed. From there, she walked over to me slowly, to give me a hug. She continued to repeat into my chest. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

The mask came off again, and Alabaster stood quietly against the door, ensuring that no others would try to eavesdrop. He continued from there. "As I said, I do what I do for Blue's sake. I made a vow to protect her from whatever comes her way."

"Why?" I asked.

He placed the mask on a nearby table. "You do what you have to, to protect the ones you love. You protect your brothers, I protect my little sister. That's all."

I glanced down to the mare who continued to get eyeliner in my chest. "You mean your 'little sister' as in your best friend─"

"No." She whispered, rising off of my chest and standing next to the unmasked stallion. She wiped her eyes as he comforted her. "Alabaster Charm is my older brother."

"And a member of the Inner Circle." He finished quietly. "I work closely with Umbra, whom you can tell is the bastard that calls the shots around here. I do as he says, my sister stays safe."

I angrily questioned the pair. "How is your sister safe here!? How exactly is she safe!?"

Alabaster promptly answered me. "She's safe because she's here with me. Whatever he wishes to do to her, I do in her place. She's in my line of sight, she lives away from me, I keep her tabbed in on our dealings and encounters so that she can better guard herself. Even while this place is as dangerous as it is, she is much safer in here than out there where they can do whatever and however to her."

"And because my brother happens to be in the Inner Circle, he can vouch for my protection." Blue added.

"But because of that, Umbra actively seeks to harass her with every chance he gets." Alabaster continued. "Whether it's to bring up history of our father, or worse... He threatens her cooperation with his shitty little games."

I felt another shiver crawl up my spine as the very taste of his tongue still haunted mine. "You went along with his stupid fucking game, and you didn't even give a heads-up to either of us if he was coming or not. Why the fuck should I trust you now?"

Alabaster's ears folded back as he lowered his head. "I'm not asking you to, nor should I. But even he surprised me with this move, he told us that he wouldn't come around tonight, saying that he had more important things to do. I wanted to come tonight to at least explain things to you─"

"At a cost, right!?" I replied, pointing at him. "If it wasn't him, then it would've been you!"

"No! Not to you! Others, of course─"

"And me?" I angrily pointed to myself.

He dropped his head even further. "...I admit that I might have had my thoughts. It's true, It would've been nice to keep training you, then we'd develop an acquaintanceship, possibly a friendship. I'd help you become powerful in magic, you'd help me and my sister undo my father's legacy, as well as the legacy of those he worked closest with."

"So both of you admit that you tried to use me?"

Blue stepped up for her brother. "You knew this was what we were doing! I told you that when you asked me back at the Cloud Colosseum! Both my brother and I idolized you because of how you overcame the odds, even overcoming all of what my father set up against you! For the first time in years, we had confidence that things would finally change!"

Alabaster continued, closely standing next to his younger sibling. "We tried offering our support to you in every way possible. When I saw you at the City Centennial Celebration, I admit I was a bit flustered but I was also looking to give you every advantage the parliament would've tried to deny you. Everything our father spearheaded, we tried our best to nullify in some way. Even if it was a risk, we had to keep faith that you'd reach the same results regardless of the circumstance. We're truly sorry that it wound up being in a way that brought terrible harm to you. That's why we couldn't just sit by and let the parliament and the supremacists in the military deny you your benefits without some sort of fall-back."

I then argued in turn. "My best friend was the one who saved my life. No matter how much money you gave, it would've never saved me like she did. So don't go taking credit for her hard work, throwing your money at me. Not that I don't appreciate it, but that credit isn't yours to take."

Alabaster appeared crushed, backing away slowly as he spoke. "I know this wasn't how I wanted this to be. I thought it would've at least ended with me appreciating you from a distance, standing idly by. But when he gives me an order, I'm obligated to follow. I know now that this isn't a choice you'd willingly embrace, and I have to apologize for that being forced on you."

While he said that, all I could think of was the masked pony whispering into my ear as he pushed me forward. "You said it would be better to go along with it."

"To protect you! I didn't say that just to get something I'd want, I did it because I needed you to know that you'd have to put your own personal preferences aside. Being here is a cursed privilege, but you get things done being here. I hate saying that, but I look over to my sister and see how my father hasn't touched her once since I joined this place, I see how the worst hasn't come to her since I moved her away. Yes, my lifestyle... this part of me... it is who I am, but I will not force that on someone without knowing if they'd willingly be open to it or not."

"And you did just that to me. You could've stayed behind and watched, but you actively participated." I angrily called out.

Alabaster didn't refute my allegations. Instead, he turned away from me in shame. "...I know. And that's why I can accept you never forgiving me."

"Good... now leave me alone." I replied harshly.

He quietly whispered in response. "I can't."

"I SAID LEAVE!"

He quickly turned around, pointing to me. "Not without getting you out of here. I need to get you out, I can't leave you here. I'll take the brunt of letting you go as my payment to you." While I continued to brandish my weapon, he maintained a safe distance from me while speaking quietly enough where any possible eavesdroppers couldn't hear. "There's a secret passageway that leads to the abandoned mines, if you follow the red crystal walls, you'll meet with a junction of three other tunnels. Take the sapphire one, keep going left, you'll end up on the surface by South Canterlot High School. From there, you can travel the main road back to the castle."

"How do I know it's not an ambush?" I asked, being a bit cynical.

"My brother would never set you up like that." I glanced over to her, watching as she lowered her head. "Please. I know you're hurting and confused right now because of what happened, but we want to help you. Let us do something, please. If you want, we'll never involve ourselves with you again."

Another door.

Those words were yet another door, one of many I could've taken to leave everything behind. If I was anywhere near sane, I would've just simply left it at that, asked for the way out, and simply go back home. That would've been the sane response, but it would've also been the most naïve. To say that I could've went home and lived my life happily is nothing short of a display of hubris. Not only would I go home damaged psychologically, physically, and spiritually, but I'd be leaving a lot of things behind, a lot of doors open that no one else could hope to shut without consequence. What would I be other than a true murderer?

I don't mean that from the traditional sense of someone who has calculated the options and took the physical step to take the physical life from another physical being. I would be the person who calculated the options and took the physical step to take the many lives─physically, mentally, and spiritually─of other physical beings, the theft of many futures and dreams. I'd murder the two standing before me, the ones I promised to help, the unborn that hasn't drew breath yet, the ones who had long gone. My speeches to many would become the testament to my character, an abundance of lies with no real substance. And that would be yet another form of suicide, a self-inflicted murder. And I'm sure my grandfather would shake his head at the sight of me if I were to do that. Everyone back home who supported me up to now would question why I would even go this far and give up, as if to assassinate the logic of my staying here for so long.

Like hell I was going to waste almost a year of my being here for nothing.

"...Okay... I can't trust you, and I can't forgive you in any capacity for the foreseeable future. But my mission is bigger than me, it's bigger than what I want." I lowered my weapon and weighted before them my reasoning, even if I felt like I was watching millions of ants crawling all over my skin, just outright disgusted. "There's a little foal who's to be born to Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadance, they just passed some legislation to inspect their filly before the start of their first estrus. And if this place is anything to go by, the stories I've been told are true, then there is nothing that would stop them from possibly compromising that little girl's life and emotional future. Kalimba has showed me that much, that her life being altered at a young age could destroy her perception of what's normal and not. I know and heard of many others who have had that happen to them, who even died with that weight on them. Frankly, I'd rather we put ourselves in that path than the young ones of the immediate future."

The two siblings looked at one another, Blue quietly spoke from her slow withdrawal. "So you'll work with us?"

I looked over to Alabaster, who appeared to stand close to his sister. He seemed a little more hopeful. "If your father's only legacy is Law Processu Approbatio, then that's as far as I'd go. I won't do a damn thing more."

The stallion lightly smiled, looking away from me while speaking. "That's more than fair."

Blue trotted over to me and hugged me out of appreciation, alleviating a heavy sigh from her chest. She followed up with a kiss on my cheek. "I'll go get Kalimba."

While she galloped for the door, Alabaster placed on his mask and sat on the opposite side of the room. He started to shuffle his hooves while he looked away from me, but not without tossing a few uncertain glances my way. "...Soooo..."

"You being gay isn't anything special. I've seen a lot of that in high school."

The stallion finally faced me, also expressing much relief in hearing my opinion. "Oh thank goodness, I thought you would've been like everypony else if you found out."

I simply shook my head. "With all due respect, I don't move that way. I'll respect what you are as long as you respect what I am not."

While I know this conversation wouldn't be as civil with Umbra, I could tell that Alabaster was more than accommodating to my request. He walked over to the window and lifted the blinds to see the arena below. "That's fair."

I turned away from the stallion, one question still weighing on my mind. With the passage of an awkward minute, I was more drawn to asking it rather than staying silent. "...Why me?"

He giggled to himself, glancing over to me and back to the arena floor. "Better if you don't ask." He said, tapping against his chest. "I'm sure you'd rather not think about what's been roaming through my mind when I think of our training sessions. I do a lot of fantasizing about our size differences."

I shuddered once more and compressed myself to my seat. "That's fair."

Author's Note

Oh boy, life just keeps slinging at us, doesn't it?

The month of November was nothing short of contentious. As far as how I'm holding up, it's been a pretty ugly ride. Good news: I paid off the bills. I got the gigs to do just that and maybe a little more. But of course it's 2020, there's no such thing as good without bad. There's no such thing as hope within despair. There is no relief from the hell that is this year.

On Wednesday, November 18th, we got a phone call from the hospital telling us that my grandfather had suffered a serious stroke. At first, I was optimistic that he would find a way to recover... that was until the next morning. He fell into a coma and was unresponsive. My drunken uncle went on a binge, using the money he'd earn throughout the day and got back home with more beers than dollars earned. He refused to process any of this, so I had to man up and lock down my finances for the month. So I went on a gig binge, taking as many as four in one day to make some good money to pay the bills that Saturday.

That same day, my grandfather passed at 11:07 p.m..

In terms of the funeral, it took a while to get things processed. My uncle was the sole inheritor of his life insurance policy, but... he's serving a life sentence. My uncle in hearing that continued to destroy his liver with yet another destructive binge. And to this day, the family has yet to see a single dollar of what he earned go into this house. My aunt who moved from Denver is just as much of a deadbeat as he is. Her daughter, however, is trying her best to adjust to the move. That leaves me and my mother to shoulder the funeral arrangements, something our family could've coordinated together, but they're too busy being drawn to their vices.

I'm already on the thought that my aunt just came down to collect on the money. She's living with us, refused to live in with my grandfather when he was still alive and kicking, refused to squat the house he lived in, and now won't even think about going there to hold the fort. Because of her negligence, the house I'm now set to inherit has been broken into twice now. They stole a TV and a central heating unit, broke four windows, and left me with no other choice but to board the windows. I can't even get something good without some terrible floating around it.

I know I said I hate it here at least once, I know I said I would try and keep fighting, but it feels like it's just my mom and I are doing all the work. Hell, we ARE doing all the work. My little cousin is trying her best to contribute to the funeral tomorrow. It's sad to see her having to walk into this at 19 years old. I want her to escape this place. At least she has hope for a better future, more than I do at this point.

So yeah. That's my update.

Chapter XCVI

As far as I was concerned about tonight, there was no continuing on. A lot of what had just happened had me unprepared in every sense of the word. There was no trying to salvage the night for the sake of conversing with a few connections for the sake of my investigation, not when I was clearly being threatened. So without question, I elected to return home until I could get my mind warped around the fact that I may be crossing several lines of no return.

After I had calmed down for a bit, Blue came back with Kalimba standing beside her. The young zebra didn't shy away from me after what happened. In fact, she actually seemed to be a little docile, clingy even. She didn't seem to like our current circumstances any better than I did, and was more than happy to accommodate with my selfish request of a tactical withdrawal. Hell, I'm sure with him knowing her, she'd be ecstatic to sneak out the back door. Alabaster kept himself distanced from me for a while until he notified some of the servers that he'd be retiring for the night, using the secret access as an exit.

He called it 'Protocol Eight'. Blue called it 'Get me the fuck out of here.'

We made our way through the club, reaching the end of the hall where the the press boxes were situated. As soon as we came to the exit, I couldn't help but to stare at the fact that it was just the janitor's closet. But they had a different system that rivaled that of the royals' underground hideout. All they had to do was move the mop to a certain spot, tilt the mop bucket over, tap the broom against the wall three times, reset the mop bucket against the wall, and pull the lever that was used to wring the mop out into the bucket. After that confusing and cumbersome ritual, the door was closed and a seal appeared on the door's center. The door was opened once more, revealing something other than a maintenance closet.

A dark cavern with numerous crystals and gems lined the walls of the ancient hallway that lead to the abandoned mines below the city. The air wasn't nearly as magical as the appearance would heavily imply. From there, the four of us settled onward.

Both Alabaster and Blue took lead while Kalimba carefully looked around every corner to see if we were being followed. And when she confirmed that there were no eavesdroppers, she galloped back to my side before matching my every step. The mare quietly got closer and closer until she lightly brushed her flank against mine. I glanced over to see her stoic face bat an eye to me before focusing on the paths ahead.

When my eyes realigned with the direction I headed towards, I saw Alabaster taking a peek at me, bashfully looking away as soon as he saw me looking back. Of course he pretended he wasn't looking at me, but even his sister gave him a nudge to tell him to pay attention to what was ahead.

I closed my eyes and finally broke the long and awkward silence taking place throughout the group. "So... I'm curious as to know how the two of you initially found out about me."

Blue rolled her eyes as she pointed at her older brother to take point. "Do you really have to ask that right now?"

"I mean, I would like to know why I'm walking in a party of four where all three others seemed to have some interest of sorts. I'm nothing special."

The blue mare quietly murmured to herself as her ears reddened, she was obviously flustered. "...There might've been a picture of you walking around with shorts on."

"Ah, that one." I almost forgot about that little fiasco. "It didn't occur to me that Rarity had initially made me some shorts that were a tad bit too short for my liking. Apparently you ponies have a clothing fetish. My walking around with shorts showing my trimming thighs would do a lot of that for much older women of my species trying to get me to clean their pool before they pick up their kids from school and their husband of twenty years gets off of work."

"That's a fairly specific scenario." Blue replied.

"Happens to be a porn fantasy for many middle-aged women. Always wanting to be the first to teach a young strapping male how to use his... *ahem* equipment."

Kalimba brushed against me once more. "Hmm, you seem to know enough about what you are doing, dat much was brought to all of our viewing."

"Also got his attention too." Blue added, causing me to separate myself from Kalimba instinctively.

"What's with that Umbra guy?" I asked, shuddering at the thought that my tongue dared to move enough to pronounce his name. "I can tell he's bad news with how he talks to everyone, but what exactly is his damage?"

"His damage?" Alabaster looked back at me, unsure as to how to answer my question.

"His whole deal, how he approaches things, the one quirk that makes him dangerous." I simplified.

The group fell silent, almost as if all three of them started contemplating on the things that made him such a threat. It was telling when even Kalimba starts to slow her pace. She instantly shifted her head to see if anyone was following us. She whispered in a cautious voice. "Dere is a reason why dey call him 'Doctor'. And it's not from some degree he earned."

Ah, so that's the infamous doctor I've heard that the others didn't like talking about. I can see why now. "Is it because he directs everyone on what to do and where to go?"

Kalimba then replied. "Dere is a reason why all de names of de VIP members are instantly disclosed upon entry."

"If someone does something wrong. He knows exactly who to seek out. Then he'll call his meeting, and that's when the madness begins." Alabaster explained.

"Like what?" I asked.

"So I'll say this as a warning so you don't have to find out the hard way. If he ever challenges you to a duel, his champion against yours, you will resign before the match even begins." Blue replied with an icy tone. "You won't win. Bottom line."

"How so?" I asked. "His champion's that powerful?"

"They don't call him 'The Doctor' for nothing. His very existence is what you guys in the guard would classify as a Level 9 threat."

I stopped walking for a second, processing what was said. I even took a moment to think about Chrysalis, she was supposedly a Level 8 threat, one who successfully brought Celestia herself down to her knees at a certain point. I was dealing with a being that could summon creatures from various dimensions, take the shape of anyone and anything, blasting a hole in anyone's chest, has an army of over tens of thousands of minions at her disposal with countless others lying in wait, commands memory-altering spells, and she has mind-control magic as a fall-back option. All of those things nearly won her the seat of the Canterlot Throne.

How the hell is this guy any more dangerous than THAT!? "I know he's bad news, but I seriously doubt he's that high of a threat. If he was, Twilight would know about it and take care of it personally. It may be far-fetched to think that she could do it, but I've seen her do some pretty ballsy shit."

"You remember Prod, correct?" Kalimba asked.

"So what, he's dead." I replied with a shrug. "I even did you the honor of offing that asshole yourself."

"Do you remember the assassin that was sent to kill you?" Blue questioned.

"He's dead too." I replied dismissively.

"How about my father?" Alabaster inquired.

I started looking at the three with unease. "...Okay, I'm starting to see a trend. What's with all the dead guys?"

Alabaster continued to look out for what was ahead as he explained. "Remember when I told you that it would be easier if you just went along with what he wanted to do? Well that wasn't just to save your life. I'm sure your family would be horrified if they saw what he would do to you for outright refusing him in front of the others. Even tonight, you saw how he tormented Blue."

The young unicorn clutched onto herself, shivering at the thought of his lips being inches away from her ear. "He plants memories of the deceased into your brain. The only thing you're even able to do is allow for them to consume your thoughts after so long. He plays literal mind games with you, feeding on those who hurt you the most, who caused you immense grief, and he does it for laughs. That kiss he gave you earlier, that wasn't just him looking for some way of getting a taste of what you're capable of. That's how he initializes his curse on you, it's a distraction. And the catalyst for the spell is simply the DNA of whomever he wishes to know about."

"So he's like a voodoo shaman?" I asked.

"A dark zebra enchantment dat is often considered taboo. In usual circumstances it comes in de form of a sickly brew. However he keeps many of de required items in his mouth, just for when it is time for him to bring de curse about. And as much as I wish dat it was untrue, de same method has found it's way onto you." Kalimba answered.

I instinctively placed my fingers on my lips, wiping them and then smelling if there was anything unusual scent. "Why a kiss?"

Meanwhile in the Streets of Canterlot...

A small troop of guards numbering at least forty had gathered around one of the entrances of the Corrotto District, namely the main street that lead from the gates of South Canterlot High School. The guards stood silently, as proud as they would in the presence of their two officers. A mare donning silver armor walked to the forefront and announced to the group. "Stand fast! We will not show any faltering!"

The princess who led the group gazed across at an angry crowd that started to plug the entrance with wooden boards for shields and an assortment of swords─some blades being intentionally damaged that they'd resembled serrated edges, bats, boards, pipes, and molotov cocktails. The denizens of the city's underworld rallied in defense of their exotic outlet. Even a few guild members stood on the sidelines, ready to strike at a moment's notice. They shouted a number of obscenities at the princess while smacking their weapons on their improvised shields.

While one group appeared to be as disorderly and chaotic as a horde of barbarians, the other group stood motionless and disciplined. The lieutenant stood by her princess, standing with her spear aimed forward to defend her princess. The other party had no such figure to defend their leader as he walked to the forefront of the barely organized formation. He walked forward, twirling his cane as he bobbed his head back and forth, humming a merry tune, smiling nonchalantly while he got even closer. The mare thrusted her spear shy of the stallion's neck as she commanded him violently. "Make way or you will be forced to answer to pain!"

The stallion smiled in response, looking down to the spearhead and then back to the mare before him. One of the bandits called out from behind him. "Hey boys, check it out! When did the guard start putting eye candy on the field!?"

"Bitch don't know what she's doing! Put her in a brothel!"

"Hey, I got a shaft she can hold!" The crowd started to laugh while the armored mare grew incensed with their taunts. Without fail, she stood forward and challenged the crowd behind the flamboyant stallion.

"How about I shove this down your throat!?" She hollered.

"I got something warm to shove down your throat!" Another voice rang out before wave of laughter ensued on one side.

"Plenty to swallow too!" Umbra replied happily, with absolutely no regard to the blade pointed at his neck. The crowd let out a celebratory 'AAYYYY!' before the mare started to closed the distance between her spearhead and his neck, the point of it's blade starting to dig against his skin.

"I will cut you where you stand!" The mare hissed through her teeth.

The stallion smiled as he tilted his head. "Oh come now, it's just a little fun with the boys."

"Well playtime is over." Celestia announced, standing behind her guard. "Now tell your 'boys' to stand down before I make them stand down."

"Ah, stern as ever, princess." Umbra said with a shrug, taking a step back to remove his neck from the spear against it. "Though I will have to say that this one you have here is just as dry-humored as you are. Do you not have friends?"

The armored lieutenant reintroduced the spear to his neck. "Her private relationships are of no importance or any availability to you. Back off."

The stallion rolled his eyes. "Ugh, always with you loyalist lapdogs. Can you at least show some semblance of a smile when one's thrown at you?"

Celestia then walked forward, advancing no further than the length of the lieutenant's spear and announced to the crowd loudly. "We have reason to believe that you have harbored a dangerous beast within this quadrant of the city, an Arimaspi to be more precise! And as these creatures are deadly and a threat to the populace, I am hereby placing this district under restriction until a method of disposal has been achieved! So you are to stand by and allow us passage to deal with the corresponding threat accordingly! I order you to return to your homes until we have finished our duties!"

The opposing crowd booed loudly, calling the princess an assortment of names. Umbra raised his hoof to silence the residential bandits. The stallion started to pivot back and forth, tugging against his blazer as he spoke. "I'm sure your majesty has been made aware that a municipal report has to be filed from within the district and passed by the district's city council representative to produce a warrant of seizure given our special jurisdiction. Furthermore, in producing this warrant, you are also agreeing to maintaining the health and safety of the citizens within this district. Without a warrant of those specific parameters, then in accordance of Code 231 Section 3F, the citizenry are allowed to manifest a militia for the protection of our homestead against unlawful and unwarranted search, seizure, and blockade. Therefore, we request that you procure this warrant, signed and sealed by our district's representative."

Celestia didn't mince her words. "As I warned you and your so-called militia, I will either conduct a peaceful search, or we will conduct this search by any means necessary. And if that is by force, then I will have no qualms in doing so." She then summoned a sealed scroll and surrendered it to the stallion before her using only her magic.

He broke the wax seal and started reading the warrant to himself. After a few seconds of silence, he nodded slowly and smiled. "I have to admit, I never took you as one who would try to bend the rules!" He replied loudly for his entourage to hear. "According to the signature, it says here that the warrant is for a seizure of an illegal asset proven to be a danger to the residency. However there are three things wrong with your injunction. The first is that it has to be a PROVEN threat to the residential area, the residents of our esteemed capital has apprehended into submission the beast of your inquiry. The second is that this warrant comes with a notary seal but no seal from this district appears on here, so this warrant is moot." He then ripped the scroll into pieces before the princess' eyes. The crowd of bandits cheered in celebration before Umbra silenced them once more to finish. "And lastly, don't you think it's a bit odd that you would choose this night above all others to interfere? Perhaps as if you have some vested interest in what takes place here."

The princess remained stoic, replying to the smirking stallion. "I'm sure you must know that all of my citizens are my vested interest. They couldn't be anything less."

The crowd that once cried out cheers were jeering out boos to the princess' reasoning. Umbra took notice of that and made it his advantage. "Hey boys, has Celestia ever graced our loving community with her presence in the past five years with her sweet words of care and wisdom?"

"NO!" The crowd shouted loudly.

Umbra turned to the crowd and directly spoke to them. "Has she ever thought of providing stimulus to our communities and increasing the property value of our estates?" The same answer was shouted with emphasis. "Has she ever advocated for our plumbing, our lighting, or our schools?" The answer remained, but even louder than the previous. "Look ahead, see that school? That's the school that we low-enders call our own. Do you notice how rusty it's gates have gotten, how the cracks have started to reveal the rebar within the concrete, how the brown tinges flaws the image of it's cream colored facade? How often has money gone the higher classes as opposed to the three districts sitting on the outside? Do you all notice how low our walls are? Where are OUR protections? Invested to the mid-tiers, the high-tiers, the keep of the castle? And we get a measly trickle-down, an impotent amount to the grandeur that is the rest of the city. Tell me, is that fair to you!?"

"HELL NO!" By that point, the crowd started to evolve into a complete roar, many of the unruly defenders getting energized for a bloody fight.

Celestia tried to negotiate with the citizens. "Hear me, Citizens of Corrotto!"

The stallion tilted his head towards the princess, almost as if he was laughing. "Oh don't worry about them, they're just ready for a little entertainment is all. You should really try and come back later when things aren't so... charged."

The princess started to declare her statement when a small stone was pelted at her. Using her magic to deflect the blow, she noticed that others started to join in. The lieutenant raised a shield to protect the princess before another magic bolt came barreling at it. In an instant, the shield she provided was shattered like fragmented glass. For the instant they were open, she jumped before the princess, taking a few sizable stones to her person. The armor did a lot to protect her, but her size wasn't enough to guard the princess from a stray blow. The entire guard platoon rushed in to circle around their princess, some standing on top of one another to protect her.

The one that hit her had boasted on his aim. He shouted triumphantly. "Hear that, you stuck up bitch!"

Without blinking, she dismissed her guard aside. Many of them refused out of their loyalty. She requested that they moved out of the way so she could seek out the one who bragged on their accuracy. Within an instant, it appeared that the entire front line was moved aside, every guard pushed out of the way, including the lieutenant who strove to protect her. The princess stepped forward and singled out the one who hit her, teleporting directly in front of him. Caught by surprise, the stallion started to back away, but found his hooves locked in place. A soft breeze of wind blew past him and he froze in place. The princess parted her opposition as if she were moving foals from out of harms way. As she walked back to her front line, the stallion fell over, his head rolling after her some feet before pivoting to a stop."

Umbra shrugged his shoulders. "Well to be fair, he hit you first. So that's fair game. I take it that will be all for your most unusual visit."

In her Royal Canterlot Voice, she called out to the opposing force. "LISTEN WELL, ALL OF YOU! If I receive any word that this creature brings harm to anyone outside of this jurisdiction, be they resident, visitor, tourist, whatever, I will sack this place." Celestia violently warned with her victim's head being placed before her. "This one has played a terrible game, and the law is laid where any who brings harm to me, my sister, any royal family member, may face execution. I have tried to be fair, I have asked for your cooperation, and I have tried to remain civil. That is done now that I have been struck. So you all will comply, those who resist will answer to force."

Umbra dismissively denied her order. "Oh please, nopony's scared of a little scrum. It's just another Tuesday night for these guys." He then crept a cheesy grin of malevolence to the princess. "So why don't you shack up with your secret suitor and keep your nose out of our business, deal?"

Many of the guards' eyes bulged at the thought of the princess being appealed to. Each one of them, including Solemn Oath, turned to the princess. The high royal didn't even seem to budge. Umbra pressured her further.

"I know who he is, and I just saw him earlier today. Fairly good kisser, I'm sure you know from personal experience."

Meanwhile in the abandoned Canterlot Gem Mines...

"You may not believe it, but he did the same to my father." Alabaster further explained. "My father was staunch against homosexuality, he even believed it was something that could be legally outlawed. But of course the old man had some serious dark marks in his past that allowed for some blackmailing to take place. A politician who did what he could to cover his past, dust his tracks, even change his name, who could hire anyone to take the fall or do the deed on the taxpayers' bits, but had a family history involving the mysterious suicide of his wife and a few stories of some maids he slept around with, rumors of his doings as a professor... all of it lined up perfectly for Umbra. He vowed to protect my father's secrets, preserving his career. But it was all for the low price of absolute loyalty, that and a simple kiss."

Blue then added. "That kiss tells him everything he wants to know about you. He can even find where your loved ones are buried. And that's where the games begin. Just from that one kiss, he knows you, everyone around you, where you're from, who's closest to you, all of it."

...That might mean trouble. "Does that include relationships?"

"All. Things." Alabaster warned.

Oh no...

That means everything between me and Celestia is out there.

"To be fair, I believe dere is some drawback to his trick. It is merely a shot in de dark, but if I'm right, it could be a weak point we can hit." Kalimba suggested, getting all three of our attention.

While much of my mind was focused on the possibility of him knowing about my secret relationship with a certain princess, I was open to her suggestion. "So what do you think we should do next?"

Kalimba shrugged. "We make our next move. Continue on as normal, make de moves he'll likely predict, den reconvene for a change in plans. From dere, we continue to play around de idea of what he knows and subvert his expectations. Dat is about de best I can think of for now."

The two siblings glanced to one another and then back to me. "Well she's gotten farther than we would've suggested." Blue replied.

"A tactical thinker... Nondis, how did you find her?" Alabaster questioned.

"Back alley, couldn't get a member from the guild, she offered her services. Rest is history." I said glancing to the zebracorn. "I honestly didn't take her for the thinker she is, more of the fighter I saw her as."

"You should've known dat when I told you how to rile Prod into taking our bait." She said with a quiet hum, brushing her flank against mine again. "Living on dese streets teaches you to think on your hooves. One wrong move or answer, and you die."

Blue glanced forward, quickly taking lead. "The junction should be just ahead. We should get moving." I also noticed that her way of speaking was faster and had a harsher tone.

Alabaster didn't even get close to his sister, just glanced at me and rolled his eyes. As we continued on, he quietly murmured. "You know, she's always been the personality that likes attention."

"You think so?" I asked.

Without warning, I was teleported up front. I looked over to see Blue brushing her flank against mine, but also coiling her tail around mine as we walked. "You should remember who the client is here. Now try to keep your eyes peeled." She said while undercutting my chin with her muzzle. The mare turned back to see a disapproving Kalimba and shrugged. "Sorry, mind if I take this one since you had him all night?"

"You make it as if I have something to be jealous for." The zebracorn responded begrudgingly. "He's all yours."

"Great." Blue replied.

"Besides, we already gave you a show." The zebra replied with a proud strut.

...I think I hear the sound of two cats hissing in a back alley.

Streets of Canterlot
Five Minutes Later...

"What do you mean 'withdraw'!?" The regiment all stood quietly as they appeared as confused and perplexed as their lieutenant. Solemn Oath continued to hold her spear outward to the stallion's neck as she questioned the decision of her princess. "Your highness, he tore apart a search warrant. We should be pursuing this as an act of self-incrimination. All we have to do is search the area and─"

"I shouldn't have to say it again. Withdraw." The princess sternly ordered without so much of a muscle moving on her face.

The guards started to look among themselves and quietly think to themselves of the threat Umbra posed to the princess. Solemn Oath continued to plead with her princess. "Your highness, I know he is bluffing. We can make our move to clean Canterlot here and now! All you have to do is give us the order and we'll do it."

"I gave you an order already." Celestia replied, turning her back on the belligerent crowd. "The warrant was unsatisfactory to commence to a search, so we are to withdraw for now."

"Your highness, please─"

"My orders are final." Celestia stressed once more, walking away from the front line.

As she walked, the rowdy crowd all cheered and mocked the princess with laughs and several explicit jokes indicting her of an adulterous relationship. The princess held her tongue, already looking at the scene around her. As the crowd started to thin down a bit, Umbra walked over to her, almost ghosting past her lieutenant. "I promise, as long as he plays by the rules, nothing bad happens. But if he tries a move, you'll know what to expect."

Celestia's eyes narrowed for a brief moment, she simply closed them and disallowed anyone to see the anger welling within them. "I have no such suitor. Every stallion who comes near me knows the consequence." She turned back with a fake smile, pretending to laugh at herself. "After all, who would even try to settle for an old hag like myself?"

Solemn tried to swing her spear at the stallion, who easily blocked it with his cane. "Miss guard lady, I mean the princess no harm. Just keep that in mind. I want nothing more than to see her safe and sound. She is the ruler of our nation anyhow." He turned to the princess one more time and bowed his head with a smirk. "Your highness, thank you for your understanding. Do come again, but as a patron this time."

Without so much of a flash of magic, he suddenly stood at the end of the alleyway leading to Canterrot. The stallion waved and walked off with his army of brutes. The guards stood quietly as the princess allowed them to depart. The only thing that seemed to remain as evidence of the encounter was the body laying in the alleyway, the blood trailing from the dirtied path, and the head of the one stallion who brought bodily harm to the princess. The princess took a gander at the eyes of her victim, acknowledging that he was long gone. She muttered to herself. "It came out again."

The lieutenant approached from the side, looking down to the departed victim. "Your highness should've allowed me to dispose of such an insolence. At least your captain should've been here to take the brunt of the blows aimed for you. His not being here is nothing short of dishonorable."

"Solemn Oath, he is my captain because he is efficient at his work. Our differences aside, I do not cast away his strengths. If his shift ends at a certain time and he leaves for his home world, then it is what it is." The princess replied.

"All I'm saying is that he should take his role seriously. Standing by for a moment's notice is the hallmark of the job."

"I know you're upset you didn't get the position. But you are still as valuable to me as any other." Celestia argued quietly. "And as such, I cannot allow the weight of something like this to fall upon you. Taking the life of a citizen is not something that is taken lightly. I am more saddened that it had to end like this. But I am relieved in seeing that there is only one body to clean after. Cold to think about, I know... But I do not want a war in our streets."

The princess flagged down two of her guards and pointed to the body left behind. The princess walked back to the small platoon and started issuing more of her orders. Solemn glanced back to the alleyway and whispered to herself.

"A suitor, for Princess Celestia? There's no way..."

Meanwhile...

In a nearby alleyway next to the school, a dim flash of light quickly sliced down the middle of a brick wall. The bricks started to quietly flush into the wall and pull themselves aside to reveal a doorway. Upon revealing itself, the four of us were left looking at a darkened corridor behind us. The four of us stepped out and took notice of the border wall surrounding the school. I especially noticed that we were just a few yards away from the main street that lead us back into the more normal parts of civilization, but the only thing that blocked our path was the sight of several boxes clogging up the alley. Alabaster walked up to the boxes and informed me of their intent.

"Don't be too alarmed about the cargo. It's a facade. It's mainly to keep them from looking over here while we make our way out. They don't know it's just an illusion, but we do."

"How does it work?" I asked.

"It's a series of enchantments, akin to a doorway being hidden in a tree's trunk. Even though there are some real boxes chocking up the access, the fake ones are lined up in the middle to make it appear that this is a no-access area. Just far ahead leads to another backway intersection." Blue added as she walked beside me. "You remember that one alleyway you and your hussy friend got caught meeting up at?"

I rolled my eyes at the fact that she had just called Celestia a hussy. "Let me guess, that's just out here?"

"You'd think the straightaway was a dead end, but those boxes are where we take observation of who roams around and when we'd be clear to pass. So in short, I watched the two of you walk back there and stuck around to see you transform from your pony form to your human self."

So that's how she was able to catch us so easily. I guess that's to the advantage of those avoiding a raid. Alabaster took point again, walking into the facade of boxes. As he did, their appearance faded enough to let us see him pass through. But he quickly popped back out and halted us from following him. "Wait. It seems Princess Celestia is paying an unexpected visit to the area. There's a number of guards, forty at least."

"So it is a raid." Blue muttered. "That explains why Umbra was so quick to respond the way he did."

"We'll have to take another way out." Alabaster suggested.

"Dere is another way through de back, I presume." Kalimba said with a low tone.

I walked into the facade of boxes, looking to experience the method for myself. When I was swallowed up by the row of 'boxes' I realized that I could see the other side as clear as day. I poked my head out a little further, breaking past the facade for a moment to look up at the facade. While one side appeared to be ghostly when you enter it, the side facing the street appeared a lot more solid, as if I was a ghost phasing through a wall. I hid my head again, not looking to scare any potential onlookers. While I went back into hiding, I saw a few guards appear as if they were running in the direction of our alleyway. They briefly searched the area before reporting back to the princess. As they did so, Celestia dismissed them.

Alabaster maintained some distance as he approached me. "We're gonna have to find another way out."

I didn't feel that way, if anything I could easily walk away from this while walking the main road. All I had to do was just show my face to Celestia and she'd vouch for me immediately. The only catch was that I had to get Kalimba back to Ponyville safely as soon as the sun came up. I already knew a place, I already had the funds to make it happen, and all the cards lined up in my favor if something bad were to happen as a result. "Actually, I might head out this way."

Blue appeared incredulous. "Are you nuts!? They'll interrogate you the moment you step out there."

"I can talk my way through those guys. Just stick with me and we can play it off cool."

The two siblings disagreed. "In case you forgot, I'm a member of the City Council, she's a billionaire landowner with a lot of businesses looking to her for patronage. We get caught, all of that gets compromised."

I couldn't really argue against that. It would be fair to assume that any one of those guards, much less the princess, could identify either of them at first glance. But as far as Kalimba and I are concerned, that wouldn't be as risky of a maneuver. I accepted their excuse. "Well in that case, I guess we can part ways here. You two head back home on the back end, Kalimba and I will be off getting a room someplace."

Blue didn't appear too thrilled at my suggestion. Kalimba on the other hoof was much more open to the idea. "A room for de two of us, I should probably take it as business per usual."

"Fine. But I'll speak with my brother a little more often before the next time we meet." She walked up to me and whispered in my ear. "Just remember, you two had your fun while I had to watch tonight. I'm expecting a little more attention next time."

Alabaster shrugged. "Told you."

Blue and her brother started heading the opposite way while Kalimba and I started to make our way through the facade. Our exit was unnoticed by the many guards who seemed to be speaking among themselves. As we moved along, I started to mentally formulate a plan on how I was going to get Kalimba back home safely, at least flipping the script on where she stayed at for the time being.

While we walked, a number of guards were too busy talking about rumors to notice that we had walked right past them. It seemed to be an easy breeze, at least before a familiar voice hailed out to us. "Halt!" Kalimba glanced over to me while I remained compliant. "Remove your hoods and state your business!"

We both removed our hoods and turned around slowly to face the mare who called at us. I couldn't help but to laugh to myself as it was Solemn Oath trying to question us. Without skipping a beat, I started weaving together a story while lightening my voice. "Oh! I am so sorry. Are we of any trouble to you, ma'am?"

The mare glanced up at the clock tower in the distance, noting the time. "It's an hour past midnight. Most citizens are very much asleep at this hour. State your business."

I smiled as I continued on with my story. "I'm so sorry, I'm actually new around here. This young lady said that she knew the way around and opted to help me find my way to someplace called the Sun Cryst Resort. Unfortunately, our evening was spent going in circles trying to avoid a measure of unsavory elements trying to rob us blind. If you could help us get to where we're looking for, we will actively pursue our destination."

The lieutenant didn't seem as open to that idea, taking a closer look to Kalimba. "A unicorn zebra, I don't remember those being a thing. Are you sure that you two weren't lingering round for body modifications? Those are illegal here."

I then pleaded with the mare. "Please ma'am. I swear we've seen the same school at least six times already in the past four hours."

And just like clockwork, Celestia walked up to see the two of us pretending to be confused on our whereabouts. The high princess glanced over to me and asked me. "Where do you visit from, if I may ask?"

"Zebrabwe." Kalimba replied. "While his family is an outsider looking into our culture, dey are originally from Fillydelphia. I am here with him to celebrate our one-year anniversary. But dis one here, he do not listen, Ah! I told him to talk to a guide, he refused and said dat he remembered de map. So we wandered here for four hours trying to find where we had mailed our reservations."

Celestia gave me a once over, but then smiled. "Well I'm sorry to hear that. Perhaps it would be better to take this main street to reach the place you desire. It's not located in the lower parts of the city, you're looking to be among the inside tier."

"Oh well, thank you. Thank you so much, your excellency!" I said, bowing down.

As I did so, I felt something brushing against my horn. I looked up to see Celestia glaring down at me as her horn tapped against mine. I heard a voice in my head. "Let's see what all have you told him." I then realized that she was looking through my memories for something. As she did so, her appearance softened. A look of sadness came on her face as her voice came up again. "I see now... I was wrong to distrust you..." She backed away and announced to her lieutenant. "What they speak is truth. I have seen it. Let them be."

The two of us walked away, thanking the princess for her assistance. But her voice still boomed through my head as I was walking away.

"...You mustn't return to this place."

Sun Cryst Resort
Room 0742
Two Hours Later...

After a little less than an hour getting to the luxury hotel, we started to gather our ideas and come up with a measure for our next move. I thought to myself of ways on how we could get back to our relative bases without being figured out too easily. Kalimba didn't really mind the idea of being temporarily displaced from the place I provided to her, at least for a while. I also gave her the stipend I promised for her visit and started getting myself ready for bed.

She spent a good minute in the bath, possibly to soak away the day. Meanwhile I was trying to find some way to digest the ill-favored encounter, all while trying to manage the mess that was my psyche. It went without saying that I wasn't really going to sleep peacefully tonight. So I set my alarm for the dawn hour, gathering the little amount of funds I needed for her train ticket... and also mine.

It would be safer if I rode along to make sure nothing went wrong.

I laid myself in my bed, waiting for Kalimba to relieve the bathroom. She never did. I knocked on the door, seeing if she would answer. I had noticed that she had left the door unlocked, so I walked in to see her convulsing, her head almost sinking beneath the water. I quickly rushed over to check in on her, but as soon as I called out her name, she stopped.

It was like looking right back in the past for me. My grandfather had a few of these episodes coming out of his sleep. His eyes would roll back, he'd sometimes scream, he'd even try to move but to no success. It scared me when it first happened, I didn't know whether or not it was a nightmare, a seizure, or what. But I knew that when he came to, he never knew what happened to him.

Similarly, Kalimba came back and saw me standing over her. She clenched her eyes shut and grabbed my foreleg and started shaking. "...I'm sorry. I'm sorry you had to see dat." Her face remained firm.

"I know you're still battling a fever, take it easy."

"It is not de fever. Tis my mudda's disease." She slowly opened her eyes, taking several deep breaths as her body stabilized. "It happens not often, striking suddenly."

I grabbed a few towels and pulled her from the tub. She leaned against me, trying not to pressure herself to moving too much. "I'm gonna get you to bed, alright?"

She looked around the room and nodded.

As soon as we got to the bed, she laid there quietly until I had finished with my shower. When I came out, she was sitting up on her own power, taking all awareness of the room. A feeling of unease fell on her as she spoke to me. "My earliest signs was when I was much younger. My mudda explained to my faddah dat what was occurring was merely hereditary. So he'd have to hold me as I slept, to put me at ease. My mudda would do de same, but she would cry, saying how sorry she was for letting me have dis curse. Sometimes when I sleep, I still hear her voice, telling me... 'I'm sorry, rose yangu ndogo (my little rose). I'm going to give you de best you deserve.' After so many years of hearing it, I would sometimes cry."

"What about nowadays?" I asked.

She looked at her hooves. "Nowadays, they just keep me going. De day I don't hear dose words is de day I truly know death has come."

I sat on the bed adjacent to hers. "So what about now? I know you've been with Prod for at least three years and you're no older than I am."

"I have learned to deal with it."

"You're strong." I noted. "Stronger than me."

She looked around the room and gave a light smile. "Not once had I ever thought of my being in a luxury hotel. I heard stories from Prod of how he dined with de rich clients, eating de finest foods and drinking de most storied wines. But you even give me dat experience, no matter how short of a night it is."

"Think nothing of it. I just know the security of this place took an upturn in recent months." I replied, thinking back to an incident involving a stolen dress.

She flopped back in her bed, placing one of her pillows over her face as she screamed. Her muffled cry initially startled me until she removed the pillow from her face, staring at the ceiling. Her eyes tilted to me as she spoke. "I know I should not ask much of you. I know dat you have your preferences, but I want to ask it."

I chuckled as she almost seemed childish with the way she acted just then. "Let me guess, you want me to sleep with you tonight."

She once again covered her face. "Ah, I swear I am not asking you for anything more. Just a moment of rest, but to feel like I once did."

"You mean when you were younger."

She sat up and tossed a pillow at me. "Do not say it out loud, mjinga (idiot)! I am already trying not to let my emotions get in de way of our work."

I scoffed at her statement. "Lady, if you talk to some mares in Ponyville, namely Twilight's friends, you'd know I'm nothing but trouble."

"Pinkie Pie said as much." She confirmed, causing me to glance back at her. "So would you be willing or not?"

I groaned as I gave her another warning. "It's better not to expect anything from me."

She glanced over at me for a second before hopping out of her bed, moving the pillows from her bed to mine, pushing me down, and laying next to me. She levitated my hoof around her as she settled in the sheets. "I guess I have to just simply do it instead of asking."

"You make a lot of demands for someone who's used to not having much." I noted.

She snuggled into her pillows. "No more talk. We sleep, Ah."

I shook my head, cut the light out, and leaned into the mare, whispering. "Your dad's pretty fucked in the head for leaving someone like you to the wolves."

"I became stronger dat way." She replied.

From there, we had a brief conversation in the darkness of the room, the dim lights of the streets below glowing outside of our room. "What do you do when all this is over?"

"You tell me."

"...I'd think you'd be a great guard."

"What would I find in de guard dat I cannot find here?"

"Opportunities to live an honest life, chance to meet a few others who actually like you for who you are, maybe even find that someone who sparks you, settle down, makes some babies, sit on the porch till your hair turns gray. Maybe share dentures in a glass."

"If I live dat long."

"Stick with me, you will."

She flipped herself around, allowing her crimson eyes to shimmer against the pale light beaming in from the moon above. A moment like that was all it took for her to appear like a child. She grimaced. "I do not like liars."

"Then don't look at me." I simply replied, closing my eyes.

She nuzzled into me. "Some liars feel good."

"...I have a girl I'm seeing, you know."

"Do you think I care? How many marriages have I violated for merely existing?"

"Lady, you're trouble." I mumbled.

"You silly boy, you have no idea." She said as she buried her muzzle into my chest, taking a deep breath. "I've broken five marriages before my thirteenth birthday."

That made me open my eyes, glaring down at the zebracorn. "Thirteenth?"

The mare levitated my hoof to the back of her head, queuing me to rub her. "I told you dat I was sold off at a young age."

"I'm sorry." I muttered.

She smiled. "Do not apologize for my life. You've done enough."

As I petted her, I felt her body loosen against mine. It appears that she was already starting to drift off. So I remained quiet, letting her close her eyes and experience the peace of knowing a good night's rest, no matter how short it would be. She finally tapered off, drifting to sleep, leaving me in the dark room as the only conscious person. I leaned in and closed my eyes, experiencing a moment of peace after many wandering thoughts of the mare I held. Before I fell off myself, I heard the young mare whisper in her sleep.

"Mama, i kupatikana mtu (Mom, I found someone.)"

The Next Day...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

The both of us woke up at the sound of my alarm. I had an instinctual response to hearing it, put my hand out grab the phone, slide my finger down the screen and place my alarm on snooze. I realized why that wasn't as effective after the first few attempts, I was still in pony form. So the first thing that greeted me on waking up was a fairly scratched screen with quite the crack on it. I used my magic from that point on to operate my phone.

Yeah, it was time for me to upgrade.

After we got up, the first thing we did was throw on our cloaks and made a beeline for the station. We got on the first train smoking, the 5:30 Green Line, running from Canterlot straight to Dodge Junction, Ponyville being it's first stop. While the sun was still slowly pattering above the snowy horizon, I had very little comfort in the scenery. Couldn't say the same for Kalimba, she appeared quite serene. As soon as she grabbed the window seat, she proudly took in the freedom of leaving Canterlot of her own volition. As the rails clattered, she started tracing the distant mountains with her hoof in the condensation that gathered on the glass. She looked over to me after she finished, and did the unthinkable.

She smiled.

While I wasn't as calm as her, she took the opportunity to try and offer me comfort instead. She urged me to sit beside her, patting the cushion next to me. I followed her suggestion, sat on down, and she laid me onto her haunches, rubbing my head softly as I did to her.

From there, we talked about what happened earlier with my phone, my plan for getting a new one, and even what I would do with my old one. I couldn't just throw it out anymore, it had at least a good ten-thousand dollars worth of jewels on the back of it. We also talked more on her past, namely the one point she brought up before drifting off to sleep. She felt comfortable enough to tell me a few of her stories on what happened to her on that first day of her being pawned off for drug money. She wasn't afraid of telling me how it made her feel at the time, or how badly she was beaten.

Before we knew it, one chapter of her life had taken the entire trip of our ride to town. We stepped off the train and got her settled over in Twilight's Castle. From there, I told her to keep her company for the week, at least until Friday evening. getting that knocked out of the way, I slipped through to my world, transformed back, called an Uber, got myself to a nearby Apple store, and browsed some of the phones and tablets. I came across a pretty sleek-looking device. I pulled out my phone, noticing the massive crack and several scratch marks on the screen from earlier this morning.

I walked up to a dealer, seeing first if they offered repairs. They did, but I had to set in a reservation for hardware support, then submit the device, then get an estimated time of labor, including the shipping of parts, which easily took two days to a week depending on the traffic. And since they had a new device that was high in demand, they stopped ordering parts for older phones. So I'd be left with a scratched up device for a good while. And then they gave me the estimate for a repair...

In short, my old phone was the iPhone 5, now I have an iPhone 6 Plus.

It didn't take me long to figure it out, most of everything was pretty standard, except the fact that I could put my thumb over my home button and it registered my thumbprint to unlock the screen. This phone was a lot faster, smoother, and even had a bigger screen. Sporting a 5.5 inch display, holding 128 gigs of memory, I was set to transfer everything from my old phone to the new. Once I got that out of the way, I got myself a safety case to reduce any chance of damage as well as a screen protector. All of that for the low price of $812.84.

...I had to be the sucker on that one.

I headed back out to the frat house, going through Cliff's portal and made my way into the royal dining hall. It appeared that Celestia was by herself. As soon as I walked in, I was greeted with a sad frown, almost as if she was concerned. I greeted her for the first time today. "Morning, Princess."

She didn't immediately return the greeting. "What exactly are you doing there?"

"Doing where?" I asked.

"You went to Canterrot by yourself the first time, you planned on doing it again but I had to intervene the second time, now you're traveling with some mare on another visit. And apparently you've gotten yourself mixed in with the wrong kind of trouble, trouble that has compromised the both of us. What are you doing over there?"

I couldn't blame her for being straight forward, this was a legitimate concern. She deserved an explanation considering the circumstances. "I'm looking some ponies up. And I seem to have gotten a pretty big lead on who I can track down."

Celestia rose from her seat, walking up to me. "I should be able to understand that you've gone there to make good on your investigation. But I didn't intend on you going so far down that back alley. What is your status there?"

I didn't hesitate to tell her of my situation. "Long story short, I'm in with the VIP network."

The princess shook her head. "Mother damn it, you work fast."

"I have help and connections."

"Where did you get the money?" She asked.

"One of those connections, who's also sending a few lobbyists our way to turn the tide of an impending vote. You said I had two months, well I'm already a month in."

Celestia looked around and checked for any eavesdroppers. After confirming that there were no listeners, she finally broke out the main question. "So being that you're in the VIP network, they must've done their research on you as well. Apparently someone informed their head of our relationship. Who do you think that could've been?"

"From what my sources gathered, that guy is named Umbra Sanctus, interesting name. He apparently did some delving around in magic, zebra magic to be exact. And unfortunately for me, he didn't like playing fair. He has some sort of zebra concoction he mixes in his mouth so when he kisses you, he knows everything about you."

"You... kissed him?" She asked, stepping back with some obvious disgust.

"Absolutely not. My contacts didn't make me aware that this asshole was gonna drop by, so he paid me an unexpected visit with the intent that he'd discover why I was made a suitor. I refused his initial proposal, deciding to use my safety escort. It went well, until it didn't..."

The princess questioned me on the matter. "What went wrong?"

"He wanted in on the act. He broke us two apart, got one of his goons to play enforcer, and forced his tongue down my throat."

The princess showed her disgust. "Eww... That's not good."

"It wasn't until later when I was told what he was doing. The kiss is a method of distraction, the brew is how he finds out everything about you, and I guess that's how he knows everything about everyone there. I know the names of everyone there, but not their histories. The Inner Circle knows everything, from names of family members, friends, loved ones, to what you do, what you have planned, and even where your family is buried. He obviously knows everything about me, including why I'm there."

The princess placed a hoof to her chin. "That's even worse. Now he knows what we're about and how to place us in a bind. I tried to lead the effort of having that arimaspi removed from the city, but they keep changing the requirements with every visit. Even I paid a visit myself with the intent of at least gathering some information on their capture operation. But of course with him knowing the legal side of things, not to mention our status. All he has to do is spread the rumor, and that's exactly what he did last night."

"We're working against time then. I need to shorten this to two weeks." I muttered to myself.

"Rushing the matter won't help." Celestia warned. "If you dive into something like this, there is a very good chance that you will either fail or die."

"I have some means of getting what I want." I rebutted. "I also happen to have a connect in the Inner Circle who can get us the ear of the City Council. We can operate quickly as long as the intel is actionable. What he knows cannot be confirmed with hard evidence. We can dispute it as rumor, and that's that. All we have to do is pull off a chance play, we leak the rumor from one of those checkout-aisle tabloids before he can play that card for his benefit."

"Are you crazy?" She asked worriedly.

"I mean think about it, that gets out, we play the denial. We can keep some separation for the time being up until it's time for that vote to come through. You said it yourself, we have three months before our next date, you gave me two months to fool around almost a month after our agreement to conclude our investigation. All we have to do is play the hand for him to play it against him."

"And how do you imagine we pull that off?" She questioned.

"I hate to do this, but we're gonna have to actively lie about our relationships. That means I'm gonna have to play the celebrity card and get a relationship with someone I can easily trust."

"You do realize that you would be playing with someone's emotions."

"Not unless I can explain that to them. I'm sure I can find someone who can fit the bill, who wouldn't mind going along with it, and who'd be willing to perform some impromptu PDA for the cameras."

"You realize you're going to have to hurt someone dearly over this."

"Cella, I warned you. I can be a terrible asshole, but only if I need to be."

"Who would you even consider?" She asked vehemently. "Neither of us know anyone that could do that. It would have to be someone we BOTH can trust."

"...I'm gonna have to ship this girl a whole rose garden for an apology."

Carousel Boutique
Ponyville
One Hour Later...

After my breakfast, I was given the green light to take a leave for Ponyville before the appointment with my therapist. I simply marched into the barracks, grabbed my bike, got on, and rode the streets of Canterlot another time. After a good fifty minutes of steady travel, I landed over in Ponyville to meet with the one Celestia and I saw as our only feasible option for our publicity stunt.

"You want what!?"

Rarity was more upset with the idea, especially since I was doing this to distract from another relationship in pending. I was at least thoroughly honest with her on many details except for the very specific catalyst that made it an important issue. "Rarity, I know this sounds crazy, but I'm in a bind. And I'm gonna need to play this angle to pull it off."

"And cause some controversy with my friends while I'm at it?" The mare added angrily.

I continued to plead with the seamstress, planting my hands together. "It's for two months, tops. After that, you can throw a drink at my face and be done with it, never talk to me again. Call me out for being the worst guy ever, tell the world I'm the biggest douchebag. Hell, it would be warranted for what I'm asking you to do. You don't have to say yes, but I would like for you to."

The mare leaned against her door frame, crossing her forelegs as she spoke. "Exactly why are you asking me to do this, who are you trying to hide from the world?"

"Rarity, I need you to tell me you'll do it before I can tell you."

The mare rolled her eyes, adjusting the curls of her mane. "Faust damn you Nondis, you know I'm your best bet. That's why you came to me first, because you knew I would do it, you knew I could be trusted with the role, and you knew I would do it because it was for you and only you, because of my feelings for you. Now since you're going to take advantage of me, tell me who it is you're trying to hide."

I could feel the scathing ire coming from the mare's eyes. She was staring me down something fierce. I initially wondered if she would do anything to spite the fact that I was doing this to her. I couldn't blame her for it either, she has every right to be upset. But I whispered to myself the very words I was instructed to heed. "Someone we both can trust..." I took a deep breath and pointed to the inside of the boutique. "Let's get inside."

The mare stepped out of the way, allowing me into her home. While I was walking in, she guided me into the kitchen. She pulled out a chair and sat herself, pointing to another chair for me to sit in. While I parked myself, she continued to show her displeasure of the matter. "So who is it?"

I then reluctantly informed her of the reason of importance. "...Celestia and I are talking."

The mare started to laugh sarcastically. "Oh as if the two of you are actually mutually interested in one another. That's a publicity stunt all by itself, darling. It doesn't check out. She knows Twilight loves you and she wouldn't get in the way of that, she'd also cite her age which would automatically eliminate you from contention, and you're her Captain of the Royal Guard. That would be violating the professional relationship the two of you are supposed to have."

I rebutted her points by bringing up a simple fact. "If that's all the case, then why is it that Twilight hasn't told you and the others who I was seeing?"

"Why that's simply because she was trying... to protect..." Just watching her face as she started to piece it together, it was like seeing her emotions change in slow motion. "NO!"

"Yeah. Twilight agreed to keep us secret."

"BUT THE TWO OF YOU ARE ILLEGAL! YOU CAN'T BE A SUITOR AFTER FAILING TO BE A SUITOR TO ANOTHER ROYAL! THAT GETS OUT AND YOU'RE BANISHED FOR LIFE!"

"Walls have ears, you know." I motioned my hands, trying to get her to lower her volume. "Someone may be on to us, and they already started the rumor among the guards just last night. She and I have made an agreement that after we eliminated the Approval Process Law, I would be her next suitor, or at least her introductory course for dating in the current century. Cella herself suggested we'd start dating, but at the caveat of us being upfront with Twilight during the whole process. And because of that issue you highlighted, she wants to make sure that we kept our secret from anyone to prevent something like this from happening."

"And because of your work in Canterrot, someone now knows of it." She concluded. "How did that happen?"

"Some bastard in the deep circuit went magic diving in my mind and found it out, namely the guy running the whole operation." I replied. "He knows about me, where I'm from, how I get home, who I'm related to, I assume all of everything up to that night.

"That means Kalimba is in danger too." Rarity added. "So now Celestia is at risk of being found out for breaking the marriage law."

"Yeah. I proposed that since the rumor was already out there among the staff, we would leak it to the public, counter that with a fake relationship, and play it safe with one another. She approved of it, but wanted me to do this with someone we both could trust. Since she could trust you─along with Twilight and the others─to save the country a number of times, we felt that you were our absolute best wager."

The mare dropped her head. "A wager?"

"It's absolutely dogshit, I know. I promise you I'll make it up to you somehow. Just tell me what you want and I'll get it done."

She didn't raise her head, just squeaking through a response."...Anything?"

"Yes, anything. Jewel hunting, pack mule for another few months, shopping on my dime, you name it."

Rarity raised her head partially and looked at me with a pout. "...And you will not refuse me?"

"Not a fucking chance in hell."

She glanced to the side and hopped off her seat. "I want to travel, darling."

"Where?" I asked.

"Your world." She replied rather quickly.

I started thinking aloud to myself. "My hometown, that's pretty easy to pull off─"

"Wait!" She interrupted, plugging a hoof against my lips. She used her magic to drag me down by my collar, just a few inches shy of her own face. "I remember you telling me that there was a Manehattan equivalent in your world."

Dread. Dread was the only thing that ran though my mind. Not at the fact that she was making such a demand, but the fact that I knew it was going to be an expensive trip. Plane tickets, taxi fare, overpriced amenities, much less a possible hotel, and then dinner, all of that in a city I only hear of from other students and see on TV. Austin was already big, Dallas is more than huge. New York City, the concrete jungle, I'd probably get lost at a moment's notice, much less Rarity getting lost wandering about. And then to start, there's teaching her how to be a human, walk like one, eat like one, all of the above. "Oh, Rarity."

The mare was finally playing hardball with me, something she'd usually save for some of her more stubborn clients. Today was my day to be on the receiving end of that side of the fashionista. She eased in, whispering at me. "Make those arrangements for me and we can do with the faking it."

To be real, I left myself wide open for this. I told her that I'd do anything, and she's looking for me to deliver. The only thing I could do was acknowledge my word. "...That's a tough draw, but I guess I can pull it off."

"And I want to be there for a week."

Yup, murder. "Oh my God."

Rarity began to explain herself. "I know a city as large as that one would easily be considered as one of the fashion capitals of the world. Just the idea of being in a place like that drives me wild with ideas. I just want to digest the world of human fashion and couture, that and see how it signs against the backdrop of your world's civilization. I can already see the bright lights now, and I can more than understand the idea of you treating me to a luxury hotel, a fine dining experience, and a night out to experience the culture of your world's theater." I was already running my fingers through my scalp, wondering which hairs would turn gray first. "You wanted this, dear. Now you'll make my heartbreak as memorable for me as it will be for you."

Oh yeah, that price tag is looking like a solid $20,000 without question. I'm gonna have to yank some playground funds and trade them in for cash. At least I won't have to worry too much about first-class tickets on the plane. But seriously, Celestia was way easier to impress than she is at this point. "Okay, New York City it is."

The mare finally smiled, giving me a quick peck on the lips before leaving her hoof to linger on my chin upon walking off. "I'll have to talk with Twilight on this as well. Once we're done with that, I can put some time into giving us some matching costumes for our walk in Canterlot tomorrow."

Already? I'm impressed she willing to hit the ground running, but the timing of it would be off if we just dove in for it. "Can't we wait for the leak to come in first? That was kinda the whole gambit."

"Fine." She said, her mind already fast-forwarding to the trip. "Oh a day in the big city, OF HUMANS NO LESS!"

I immediately pulled out my phone, going to Google for more information. "I'll start looking up reservations and prices."

Rarity took notice of the black device in my hand, looking vastly different from the white one I usually used. "Darling, what is that?"

"This, it's my new phone." I explained.

"What happened to the one I decorated?" She asked, appearing disappointed.

"I mean I still have it, but..." I pulled it out of my pocket and showed it to her. She quickly deduced the issue at the first glance.

"Oh, there's a gaping crack."

"Yeah. I discovered that this morning." I said, cursing myself out internally.

She took a glance at the screen and applied her magic to it. Within a few seconds, she managed to restore the screen to it's former glory. The multitude of scratches in the quartz screen was all but erased, the crack completely undone. She then eyed my new phone and held out her hoof. "Alright, give it here."

"Give what here?"

"Don't test me, you." She quickly snatched the phone from my hand and started looking at it, summoning a box of small jewels. "If we're doing this, it's on my terms. That means I want a device that matches this one, I suppose I'll have the first crack at my skills in human attire today. I'll design my own dresses and gowns with my human form. I heard that you once turned Twilight into a human, so I'll be needing you to do that for me today so I can get my measurements."

"You're doing all of that today?" I questioned her, she completely ignored me as she went on with her desired schedule.

"After we do all of that, you will schedule lunch with me everyday at 12:30, just to get some of the paparazzi buzzing. Well share a brief moment of PDA for the hidden cameras. And then we'll plan an evening at the park to really steam up the tabloids. The headlines will read 'NONITY!' Or perhaps 'RARINON!' Maybe even... hmm... Raridis, Captain Fashion, celebrity pairings always have these unusual mash-up names, I guess I'll let them decide that. But imagine the sight, 'Equestria's Newest Power Couple!' A rising Captain of the Royal Guard who can do away with criminals in the blink of an eye, a fashion new-blood who designed the hottest attire of the season, the perfect relationship between model and designer. Why I could easily say it would be all I've ever dreamed of outside of my business thriving!" Rarity spun around as she raised her hooves in the air, declaring to the air of the boutique. "LOOK OUT WORLD, RARITY ANDALUSIA BELLE AND NONDIS HAINES ARE YOUR NEWEST. CELEBRITY. HOT TOPIC!"

I shook my head. "I really don't know who'll kill me first at this rate, your friends or those goons in Corrotto."

"Applejack's got first dibs, darling." Rarity replied plainly.

Yeah I figured as much.

After a while, Rarity finally settled down enough to let me do what she wanted me to have done for well over a month. I finally transformed her into a human. Once more, I gave her a fair warning of what the side effects were and how her body would initially respond to the transformation. She didn't care too much, citing that she'd learn as much as she could in the very little time I had available to me before my appointment. The spell worked without any unforeseen consequences aside from the fact that she was absolutely staunch naked. The moment she looked down at herself, she noticed her unusual features. She also noticed that I had intentionally turned away from her. She tried to do whatever it took to get me to look her way, but I refused.

Unfortunately, I had to give in sometime. And that time came when she had another one of her melodramatic spats. "Ugh, I'm hideous! Just admit it, I'm an absolute sham!" She initially took my trying to avert my eyes as her being unsightly.

"Rarity, for the third time already, you're not ugly." I answered, trying to keep my head turned away, but rapidly becoming frustrated at her trying to get me to do otherwise.

"Then look at me." I sighed in submission, turned around and saw the young seamstress in all of her pale-skinned glory.

I tried my best not to let my eyes wander to her exposed breasts or her tightly-tucked cleft. I didn't take in the fact that she actually had a black mole seated on the bottom right side of her left breast. I didn't look at the fact that her nipples were a perky pair packed on the peak of a pair of C-cups. I didn't entertain the idea of running my fingers down the shapes on her neck. I didn't want to wrap my hand around it and run my thumb across her thin but supple lips. The thought of running my hands across her thighs, the vivid imagination of watching her stand there helplessly, slowly revealing the drooling traces her arousal while I did whatever I could to her, teaching the many methods of human procreation, none of that came to mind. Not once did I instinctively adjusted the front of my pants with the bottom of my palm, acting like I was scratching the itch of my inner right thigh. I did none of those things, I'm a gentleman.

As if.

And much like a lady, Rarity would never call out such things, even if she saw them. "...Oh my. I see I am not as unappealing as I once imagined."

Then again, even ladies entertain the idea of being humbled by a strong man looking to put them in their place. Rarity was that kind of lady, she never shied away from the idea of letting a male lead her. In fact, she welcomed it. Usually most of her stature would pose to be the dominant, they own everything, they're economically independent, mentally strong, educated, and filled with ambition. But she liked being tossed around, a rag doll cast to the sheets. She enjoys both dominance and submission. But her dominance comes in the form of instruction, the instruction of how to make her melt. If you did what she told you, the night would last for a while. If not, then of course you'd leave unsatisfied.

"Come here."

I could tell with that tone, she had more than thoughts of commencing with that first mating lesson. But I instead offered her an arm to grab while she learned how to balance herself on both of her feet. Thankfully, that lesson was the only one I had to teach her at that time. Any other distractions and I would've had to borrow her shower for a moment. After several minutes of trying to balance herself, I gave her a few tips and hints on how to walk, how to grab things, how to use her magic in that form, as well as how to put on some of the human attire that she had set aside for Melanie, namely a white corset-like dress that Mel didn't like because of the exposed cut revealing her cleavage. Rarity wore it for herself for the time being.

Honestly, this was Mel's loss.

With many of the bodily distractions set aside, I finally had the opportunity to measure out her appearance. And I'd had to admit, she had a lot of qualities that would've been great in a girlfriend. Cute face, pretty smile, natural beauty, an intriguing trait that on many would prove to be unhealthy that works in her favor, and her hands were small but very elegant. Her body is a perfect hourglass, top and bottom equally symmetrical with enough mid to pass as a child bearer. Even as she moved a few curls out of the way using the back of her knuckles, there was that beauty that separated her from the pack. She would be the perfect image of an independent woman, an entrepreneur of her own brand.

Now thinking about it, she would be the perfect Manhattanite.

The mare continued to work out her measurements as she cultivated her image. She even grabbed a white hat accented with black trim, lace, and peacock feathers. I was honestly stunned silent with the outfit she originally intended for Mel to wear. But in reality, Mel couldn't have worn this, not with the same confidence Rarity has. I mean she could put it on and look nice, but I'll be damned if Rarity didn't wear that shit with the same passion she had in making it. That would be comparing a lunch box to a four-star meal. I love Mel to death, but this dress as of now wouldn't be her finest hour.

I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. I pulled it out and noticed that one of my notifications had gone off. It was my schedule reminding me of my appointment. I had to pack my opinions and the like away, hop on my bike, and ride back north to Canterlot. I told the fashionista that I would drop by later to change her back. She agreed, but she still wanted me to bring her back a phone like my new one.

I'm probably being a little too liberal with my distribution of human technology.

Canterlot Castle...

Around an hour later and I was in my doctor's office on time for our usual discussion. The timer started and I started going through how I was feeling for the past week. I started to explain to him some of the mechanisms I've implemented in my resting periods to keep myself from having those nightly attacks. And the doctor praised me for finding some means of comfort outside of relying on Princess Luna's talents.

But still, there was the other thing that managed to unnerve me.

"I'm facing some confusion, doc."

The doctor, who usually leaned back in his recliner, stopped jotting notes and leaned forward. He sat himself upwards. "So what is it that you're facing that could be the cause of your confusion."

I continued to lean back on the chaise that was provided, albeit with my legs dangling over the end. "Well, I know that there's this thing I do, namely a girl I like to talk to, but for the longest time, I've been trying to keep it distant. And the thing is that I know she isn't the only one that likes me like this."

The doctor started jotting things down again. "So you're dealing with a personal struggle, is that it?"

"To an extent." I answered.

He scribbled a few more notes. "Do you know in what way this girl likes you?"

"Well, we've been trying to spend time together, but a lot of things get in the way of it. It's like the both of us are pretty busy with our schedules. There's hardly any time for us. If I'm not busy, then she's swamped. If she's not busy, then I'm on assignment. And the worst thing of it all is that I have more than one who looks at me like I've made a drastic change in their lives."

"Alright then." Doctor Schoen nodded slowly, again jotting more things down. "So, do the two of you work closely together?"

I took a deep breath as I confessed to him. "We do, but I feel like it's veering off the course of professionalism that we're supposed to be maintaining. She has her laundry list of things to do, I have mine. But it's like we've been getting closer and closer over the past month. Now I can't stop thinking about her, even if it hurts the others I know are invested in me emotionally."

"So you are aware of these other girls who are emotionally invested in you?"

"Yes." I replied, causing him to jot our conversation down.

"How often do you speak to them?"

"Whenever I see them, which is every other day for some, a few days apart for others."

He made a note of my response. "Does your former fiancée knows of your emotional developments for these other girls?"

"She knows of some, not others." I replied.

"And do you intend on informing her of these engagements?"

"I'm not sure."

He quickly jotted that bit of the conversation down. "Have any of these relationships of yours yielded in any physical interactions?"

"Yes." I confessed.

He hummed in confirmation. "And what all have you done with them?"

"I've slept with one of them."

He temporarily stopped jotting things down to ask me the question directly. "And by 'slept with' do you mean that you engaged in any form of intercourse with them?"

"Yes."

He jotted down some more notes. "Is your former fiancée attached to you in any way?"

"To an extent, yeah." I answered.

"So she is also one of these emotionally-invested beings that you speak of?"

I took a deep breath, admitting to myself how cold my series of replies were in hindsight. "Yeah, I know. I'm an asshole."

As per usual, more notes were taken of our interaction. "Are the two of you seeing each other?"

"No. We're just friends for the time being."

"But she is still invested in you emotionally in a way where she desires your company exclusively?"

"She can be like that sometimes." I answered.

"Have you checked in with her on how she's doing?"

"I do sometimes. We keep in touch."

He took a break from the notes and folded his forelegs. "Do you feel like the relationship the two of you once had could be reignited in any way?"

"Can't. It's illegal." I bluntly retorted.

"Barring the legal ramifications, if this were a completely free decision, would you entertain the idea of reconnecting with her, in a way to reciprocate the exclusive desire of her company?"

"You kinda lost me, doc." I knew what he was asking, I was more surprised of the fact that he asked me that so quickly. I wanted to make sure that he didn't have any double meaning behind it.

"Would you consider being with her again?"

I stretched my hands to the ceiling. "That's... that's a tough call."

"Do you not have feelings for her still?" I feel he was genuinely curious at this point.

"I mean it's still there, just not as strong as it once was." I stated.

"Was there anything in particular that had might have led you to that decision?"

"The marriage law." That was my best answer.

"Is that the only reason?"

"Back then, yes. As of now, no."

After a brief hiatus from taking notes, he got back into the groove of his work. "So what event caused you to reconsider your options and choose this path instead?"

"A quiet little dinner date. I came in late one evening for dinner and found the kitchen was closed. She offered to make me a meal, and I agreed to it."

"And that's what changed your mind?" He asked.

"It's a big factor because of how long we stayed up talking."

"And this is your current interest, correct?"

"Yup."

He quickly took note of my answer. "How did the two of you meet?"

"She's been there from day one. Waking up in Equestria for the first time, I saw her face right then."

Another hum of confirmation. "So with all that being said, is your current interest knowledgeable of the other girls you may have had contact with?"

"Not all of them, no."

He placed his notes aside for his next question. "So the two of you are sexually active?"

"We are, but not completely. As far as sex is concerned, I was mainly on the giving end."

He wanted me to specify my answer. "Giving as in what exactly?"

I sat myself up, already thinking of our encounter on New Years. In the back of my mind, the memory of her looking down to me from above, that smile on her face, those eyes, the sensation of her hoof pressing against the back of my head, the warmth of her haunches while anchoring my head in place. The very memory stirred many lingering ideas of how our next encounter would be like in the coming months. And it also awoke a sense of arousal. That was the primary reason why I had to sit up before I spoke. "Oral."

"So you had oral sex with this girl?" He questioned.

The whispers of her enjoyment plagued the inner recesses of my mind. My fingers remembered her warm embrace. "Yes."

"Is this the one you say you've engaged in intercourse with?"

More thoughts of lust entered into my brain. Namely another three encounters. Starlight showing me just how adept she was in the art of pleasing the opposing sex. The feel of my delving deeper in Twilight while in human form. The broken memory of my first overnight in Corrotto, the sight of two mares tending to my equine libido. Even Princess Luna's bid for my temporary relief came to mind. "No."

"So you did engaged in an unrequited oral exchange with this girl, but you did not achieve penile intercourse with the girl you're primarily speaking to?"

If my own imagination was fueling the burning wildfire that was my arousal, his choice of words for the line of questioning was doing wonders to counter that. "Correct."

"When was the last time you had intercourse?" He asked.

I closed my eyes, remembering how Kalimba flipped the roles with me by proxy. Even her demonstration of a belly ride was burned into my growing list of ideas. "Last night."

"This was with one of the other girls?"

Honestly if I was anything of the brute Stanton is, I'd probably call her up for another demonstration. Then again, my thoughts of lust and recounting of past sexual experiences are what's driving me to such ideas. "Yes."

"How often do you and this other girl talk?"

"Perhaps twice a week." Though if I spend more time in Ponyville, it could easily be more. Not to mention the possibility of getting caught up with Rarity. Plus Pinkie's pretty lonely with Cheese setting out to do his usual party planning thing, and she already threw the hint out there for me to come on by.... Yeah, I have way too many options with my oversexualized brain as of the moment. I need to find a way to dial it back to a simmer.

"Do you assume that this particular tertiary party as an outlet?"

"I don't know what you're asking." The way he worded it initially went over my head, especially with all the sex running through it.

"Do you see this other girl as a pursuit of pleasure for when you are unsatisfied?"

"Yes." I openly confessed.

"Is it because of the nature of both your job and the job of your primary interest that causes you to seek satisfaction in a third party?"

"Yes." Again, I confessed.

"How heavily does that weigh on your relationship?" He asked.

I leaned forward, a means to remove some of the pressure off of the tense soldier down below. "I mean, I'm happy with her. We just don't have time to knock it down, and I kinda want that too. She says it's better if we stay distant, but I feel like we do enough of that, we're gonna drift apart anyhow."

"So is she trying to maintain a professional relationship with you?"

"Yes." I answered.

"But she also desires a personal relationship?"

"Yes."

The notes came back up, and he started scribbling away, jotting down that entire exchange while glancing over at the clock. "And how often does she advocate for your being together?"

I had to admit, that was an unusual question. But I answered him regardless. "Everyday, when we talk during breakfast, dinner, whenever."

"Does she know of this third party and you sleeping together?"

"No." I replied.

"Are you going to reveal to her this information?"

I did think about the question he asked. And in doing so, I remembered a key detail Celestia told me that I should take advantage of while I was working. In fact, she made it perfectly clear that I could get my work-around sessions out of the way before she came back around to solidify her place. And I'm sure any mare or woman would prefer not to hear about the sexual exploits of their interest, much less from the interest in question. I'm pretty certain Cella wouldn't like to hear me talking about who all I've entertained during our trial period. "...No."

The doctor placed his notes aside for good this time, removing his glasses, and sat up in his seat. "Do you feel that what you are doing now is breeding mistrust for the near future?"

"It can." But for Celestia, it won't.

The doctor seemed clued in to whom I was referring to, standing to his hooves and started to do his usual assessment of our conversation while adding in some of his advice. "It can, and it also does. If you are not honest with her, I believe you've started to sabotage the relationship you two are cultivating. Even if the relationship you two have is considered taboo in the close association you share, it's without question that you will cause irreparable damage to your reputation, as well as hers." He seemed stern with his message, calmly telling me to change my ways. He glanced to the clock on the wall and walked over to the door, holding it closed for a short moment. "Our time has run out for this week, but I want to take another minute to remind you of the possible dangers you place yourself in by doing what you are doing. I want you to know that if you need to talk about these issues, you can come to me and I will set aside the time. But don't place yourself in danger of losing all that you've worked hard to achieve. If what you're telling me is true, then I can only recommend that the two of you separate until further notice."

"I'll keep that in mind, doc."

As I was shown the exit, I walked out to the lobby leading to his office. While no one seemed they were coming in, I took advantage of my moment alone to perform a fist pump at myself. The first phase of my plan had worked out smoothly. He didn't ask the questions of who, and neither was I going to give him the answer. All of what I had set up was for him to jot down everything for the evaluation to be sent onward to the deciding parties.

After getting myself to lower the mast down yonder, I settled outwards to the hallway. I walked over to the office that was often used to house many of the files that would be sent to the princesses. Upon my entrance, I saw Princess Celestia going through a few of the items with a quiet frown on her face. I quietly closed the door behind me. She didn't even glance up, almost knowing who I was as soon as I walked in. "So how'd the session go?"

"I clued him in." I whispered.

The princess sighed, placing the paperwork on the table. "No names, correct?"

"Of course. I kept the harder details in without compromising any identities."

The princess stood from her seat, walked up to me, and sat herself before me. "My hooves will be off of this report. That means one of your superiors will gain knowledge of this."

"And when they start bringing that up, I'll be out to lunch with the mediary, gaining all the tabloid press in the world." I said confidently.

The princess appeared nervous, unsure if what we were doing was a good idea. "This is such a risk. All eyes will be on us."

I leaned against the door, folding my arms. "In my world, there are people who get looked at just for the color of their skin. Too dark, they assume you've stolen something. So of course, all eyes of the staff are on them, following them around the store, play like they're checking inventory when in reality they're just prejudging a person's actions based on stereotypes. But they never really look at the ones who swap the bar codes for everything in the self-checkout line, never the elderly who seem feeble. And they're the main ones who are experienced enough to know how to cheat the system. They steal with a smile on their face, greeting everyone with handshakes, walking away paying for less than half of what they walk away with. In short, we'll use that red herring to swap a few things so we can leave with nothing less than what we want."

Celestia took a second to consider what I've said. She had herself a light chuckle. "You have a criminal's mind. I have to watch you."

I leaned down to the princess, smiling all the while. "Careful, princess. Stare at the light too much and you'll go blind."

"I raise the sun." She paid the equal amount of my sarcasm back to me.

"Not the only thing you raise up in the mornings." I teased.

The princess took my double meaning and used her magic to pull me in closer to her face. "You're so perverted."

"Says the one who threatened to break my bed." I replied with an eye roll.

"You are asking for trouble." Her muzzle brushed against my nose.

"Says the one who wanted a relationship with the troublemaker of the century." I noted quietly with a fiendish grin and a playful shrug.

The princess glanced down to my lips, then looked back into my eyes. "You have ten seconds to leave before I shove you into a wall."

"And destroy me?" I leaned in, trying to sneak a kiss.

"On a molecular level." She replied, slipping a wing in between us. Instead of my kissing her, I ended up kissing the feathers of her wing. I took what she gave me and kissed each one of her primaries, causing her to giggle fondly and bite her lips. She slipped her wing out of the way, letting our faces becoming mere milometers apart. Her cheeks and ears flushed red while her wings began to spread on their own accord.

"Sounds like a good time to be had. But I'll take that on the three-month back-order." I whispered, giving her a quick peck on the lips. I reached in my back pocket and pulled out my old phone, introducing it to her. "Take this."

She appeared confused at what I offered as I was about to make my way out of the room. "But this is your phone."

"Was my phone, now it's how you'll keep in contact with me. I downloaded an app called Instagram. Your account is private, you're already friends with me, and you can use the wifi to keep yourself connected. However, don't friend anyone who you don't know in person, don't go starting trouble, and don't lose sight of the battery level."

She levitated the device in front of her, already somewhat savvy to how it works. She quickly bypassed the lock screen and was greeted with a photo of me posing up in my ceremonial uniform. "How will you be able to stay in touch with me if you don't have a phone?"

"I upgraded." I said as I pulled out my new phone and waved it to her.

She looked at the device, namely the back and immediately expressed her disposition. She appeared to be little upset. "Huh..."

"What?" I asked.

"The back." She said, quirking an eyebrow.

I flipped it around to see the new exterior Rarity threw together. The Apple logo was coated in expensive fire ruby fragments. The exterior was coated in a gradient of diamonds, top being the purest natural blue and the bottom being the purest natural green. Written across the back was a scripted 'HERS' outlined in gold with pink diamonds filling in the letters. Not my original idea, but Rarity was insistent that she'd leave her mark on it. Knowing her, she'd probably used the most expensive items for the dress up, valuing my device from the $800 price tag up to a monstrous $250,000. My old phone wasn't no slouch to quality either, it was probably sitting in a range between $80,000 to $175,000.

Still, the phone has 'Property of Rarity Andalusia Belle' metaphorically written all over it. And she wanted the world to know that she had me for however long this stunt was going to take. "Right, that."

Celestia levitated the phone from my hand into my side pocket, her lavender eyes glowed slightly as she spoke. "Don't get too lost in your fake relationship where you forget about the real one with me."

"That's a deal." I confirmed.

Almost immediately, she started going through the device, possibly through my pictures because that what she liked to do the most. It was almost as if the paperwork she had set aside was given a temporary back seat. "Now go along. I've got work to do."

I chuckled at her motions, seeing her skim through the phone I gave her. She almost appeared to be like a young teenage girl getting her first real phone. I muttered under my breath, just to see if she was even paying any attention to me. "I'll be sure to do a lot of practicing for you."

She stopped going through her phone and glanced over at me. In the blink of an eye, she disappeared from in front of me. The next thing I noticed was that I had suddenly been knocked down and pressed against the wall. The high princess emphatically pressed her lips against mine, reintroducing her tongue to my own, and panting greedily upon our separation. Right there, that look in her eyes, it was the same monster that paid me a visit when I was in between her legs. Her hoof traveled up my shirt, feeling against the core of my abdomen. A greedy lust-driven smile appeared on her lips as she whispered down my throat. "I'll be looking forward to what you've learned."

...You know, I have to keep in mind that she's been practicing restraint for a thousand years, all of that while brewing up to be the horniest being in existence. And my breaking that dam probably destroyed any prior practice of said restraint. And seeing her look at me like this was terrifying, but also exciting and promising.

In three months, I'm going to need an orthopedic.

The Next Day
Office 138 (Colonel Crackdown's Office)
Canterlot Royal Barracks...

The morning was waning as the sun started to crest towards it's highest point. The barracks were mostly silent with the exception of a few drills being done outside. No guards stayed in barracks throughout the day unless they were either assigned a desk job, or they were assigned a security post at the front desk. But for many, they saw it as the one place their commanding officers could go about their day without needing to yell at anyone for the slightest show of incompetence. After all, most weren't really interested in micromanaging.

This especially included Colonel Crackdown, who's personality happened to be the exact opposite of what his name would heavily imply. He was a mellow individual with very little desire for cracking down on anything other than paperwork, and even that was done mainly so he could kick back in his chair and take a nap. Not much paperwork had been sent directly to him other than a few documents, some workplace grievances, some reports of misconduct, and psychological evaluations of guards who went through counseling.

*Knock Knock Knock Knock*

The colonel look at the clock above the door and read the time to himself. He knew it was the usual hour for more of the psych evaluations to drop on his desk. "Come in."

And on cue, a young mare sporting a pair of glasses, a white coat, and a dark gray mane, and a red scrunchy at the base of her tail entered into the office. "Morning, Colonel."

He looked at what appeared to be another twenty folders of documents and groaned with disgust. "Ugh, more paperwork?"

"Just more of the recent psych evals." She replied with a cheerful smile. "Gotta make sure the guards are in top shape before sending them off to the lines."

"Drop 'em in the bin." He ordered, starting to open one of his drawers for a highlighter and a quill.

"Coffee, sir?" She asked, trying to offer the colonel some method of motivation.

"Just bring me the damn pot." He requested.

The mare walked out of the office while quickly noting his request. "I'll make it a double espresso."

As soon as the door closed, he glanced over to the pile of folders he had to carefully read through. His ear flicked, listening to the platoon outside in their drills, they all suddenly burst out in laughter. The stallion clenched his jaw in frustration. "I hate desk work."

*Knock Knock*

He wouldn't bat an eye towards the door as he picked up the first folder off the top of the pile. "Bring it on in."

Another mare entered the office, this one sporting a Wonderbolts ceremonial uniform. Her raspy voice called out to the stallion anchored behind his desk. "Top of it to ya, Colonel."

He looked up to acknowledge the mare's presence and went back to work. "Captain Spitfire, I take it you're visiting for the results of your promotion evaluation."

"That and the other thing." She said.

He looked at his in-bin and shrugged. "Well on both items, that would be a 'wait and see'."

The mare closed the door behind her, sitting in one of his chairs. "So nothing since I applied for Dash to get filed in?"

"You know how this stuff goes, Spits." He answered in a monotone manner.

"You can't possibly say that there isn't any hope that she isn't getting on my squad. That Arimaspi Mountain deployment was a deal-sealer, if her various achievements in saving Equestria wasn't already considered."

The colonel agreed with her sentiment. "She's shown a lot of moxie, and of course loyalty to our country. I want her to get in as much as you do. But that can't happen as long as the higher ups don't approve it. And if you think my stack of paperwork ain't big enough, then head into one of their offices."

She glanced over, seeing that his pile paled in comparison to the many applications she had to go through for Wonderbolt candidates. She didn't seem too impressed by his relatively lean load. "You know with the uptick in activity, namely national threats, it would be ideal to up our numbers. I can't keep sending in recruits who'll try to win on style points, only just to get their wings broken or worse."

"I know, preaching to the choir. Take it to the higher-ups."

She stood from her seat and walked over to the pile of folders. She took a peak at some of the names on each tab. One name quickly stood out to her. "Huh, didn't know the rookie would be getting a psych eval."

"Rookie?" He questioned, not certain of whom she was addressing.

"Captain Nondis may have that rank cause of Shining's field promotion, but I still see him as the snot-nosed kid walking fresh on the line." She clarified, picking up the folder and dropping it on his desk.

That very same folder that just landed on his desk was the very thing that grabbed his attention. He quickly snatched the file and popped it open to the first page, almost as if he was looking for the next big scoop in entertainment. "The captain, that knucklehead got a file? Hell, it's about time."

As soon as he looked at the first page, the two ponies saw a black wax seal with the royal emblem on it. "Looks like a royal seal alright, seems to be a deferment." Spitfire pointed out.

"Well what the princess doesn't see, I look at in her place." He said, running through the file with vested interest.

"I see. Guess you wouldn't mind if I took a peek over and see what the rookie's been up to then." She said, leering over the desk, at least until his foreleg fell over the documents.

"That's not your paygrade. Stick to your game-day flyovers." He said.

Spitfire rolled her eyes and started slowly pacing around the office. "Gotta admit, I'm pretty curious on if the captain would actually say anything that could be outlined."

"Of course, the humans are always so damn perfect in the princess' eyes. I'm surprised she hadn't made a suitor of one of them like Princess Twilight did." He said as he skimmed through the first few pages towards the middle of the report.

While he was reading up, the Wonderbolt thought about what the young captain said to her in the midst of her own advances towards him. "Probably got beat to the punch. I know Princess Twilight was pretty possessive of him once he beat Shining Armor."

The colonel stopped talking, reading a passage a little more in depth. While he continued to skim through a few statements, he noticed a few that quickly grabbed his attention. He quickly grabbed his highlighter and started striking statements that appeared to alarm him. Once he was finished, he started reading the details around them. He then highlighted many more answers and questions that were brought up. "...Spits."

"What's up?" She asked.

The colonel glanced over to her and slid the open folder across the table. "Read this out loud, just so I know that I'm not going crazy."

"I thought this was supposed to be above my paygrade." She mockingly replied, all while snagging the folder to read off what he had highlighted. "Ongoing relationship with close associate, converses with her every breakfast and dinner, engaged in oral sex... sounds like a good time to me. Glad to know the rook's a cheerful giver."

The colonel brought up an important fact to consider in the context of what was reported. "The captain is issued orders to attend the dinner in the Royal Dining Hall."

"Yeah, and he's still the ex-suitor to Princess Twilight. Wouldn't be surprised if those two are just hitting it off in secret."

"Look at it again." He said.

She read up on the following details and then started to sit herself down, looking at the following pages for some confirmation of the colonel's suspicions. "Huh, says that Princess Twilight knows that he's seeing the other mare in question... That don't sound right, not Little-Miss-Possessive."

"The only ones who see the captain that frequently in those allotted time slots are royals. And Princess Luna is usually on the move at that time."

"Princess Cadance is married." Spitfire also pointed out. She narrowed down the choices in her head as she started to list off the mares who would normally be seen in that room. She started going down the list of Blueblood's wives, remembering that they weren't too interested in the human in any way that could be considered an attraction. She was left with one choice, the only one that would matter. "...So what's that about you being surprised that Princess Celestia hasn't already found a suitor?"

"That ain't the only thing. Look a little more." He said again, trying to nail the point home.

"Says here that he has another party whom he had sex with. Lucky bitch. And here he was talking to me like he was Mr. Modest while he's out there dipping flavors." Spitfire replied, continuing to read the statements that were highlighted.

"Seems to me that he might've entertained the princess a bit too much on his semi-nightly escorts to her quarters." Crackdown added. "I know that rumors started to circulate on yesterday morning about the princess being reported to have a secret suitor, someone who was seen lurking about the Corrotto District. But this really couldn't be him, could it?"

"This says he engaged in oral sex, are you sure that's THE Princess Celestia he did this to?" Spitfire questioned.

"Close associate, professional relationship turned personal, schedule that intervenes with their time together? The breakfast and dinner times is the main catalyst for what I'm thinking here. The captain is mandated to attend the dinner in the Royal Dining Hall every evening for security. And then I have to keep in mind that he─"

"I know I remember him having to take care of the princess while she was sick once. She sneezed on him that one time and she took him into her private quarters to make an apology. He was in and out of the room that day." Spitfire added. "But that was when he was still assigned under Little-Miss-Possessive."

"That's not the only time she's been under the weather this year." Colonel commented. "Usually her being ill takes place every few decades, her immune system is legendary for fending off diseases. But have you known the princess to ever be sick twice in a year, let alone three separate incidents?"

"I know she was sick on the eve of the New Year." Spitfire noted.

"A day she also assigned Captain Nondis a day off for a 'family holiday' that happened to fall on that same day. And it appeared that she was reportedly sick for twice in the previous month. One was with a sore throat so severe that she was unable to speak. The other was reported to be a bout of weakness, she said she was so tired that she couldn't even move from her bed. And Luna was very adamant that we did not disturb her or offer to check in on her. Remember the chaos that caused for us on New Year's Eve?"

"I remember that clunky and awkward speech Princess Luna gave. Should've just asked for a copy of the one Celestia usually made."

The two took a moment to think about what to do next. For the colonel, he felt that he had to act fast if what he believed was true, especially with the rumor circulating around the castle. "I'm gonna have the call that son of a bitch in."

Spitfire questioned the colonel one last time, making sure that he was certain of his suspicions before going out to commence a summons. "Are you sure the Princess may be romantically engaged with the captain? It could all be a coincidence."

"We called for his head after that joint meeting he tuned in late for, remember that? She was the first one to say that we should keep him locked in his position. That isn't a coincidence, that's taking one for the team."

The mare from earlier knocked on the door, entered the room, and placed a small cup on his desk. "Sir, your double espresso."

Crackdown took a sip and started sending out his orders. "Thank you. Now get me Captain Nondis. I want him in here before he can even think about enjoying his lunch break."

"Sir, he's already headed out into town. Checkpoint Alpha confirmed his departure." Raven answered.

Crackdown and Spitfire both looked at Raven. While she was assigned to send paperwork from the desk of the royal office directly to the barracks, she was seen as a dependable presence for the princess. At least once in the week, she would be by Princess Celestia's side, taking notes and making sure that she kept to her schedule. Spitfire took advantage of the opportunity. "Hey, have you been hearing rumors of the princess having a secret suitor lately?"

Raven shook her head. "I wouldn't know of any suitors that Princess Celestia would openly accept. I do know that she talks a lot about the humans and their world. She even suggested a few infrastructure changes that would revolutionize Canterlot as we know it. But as far as romance is concerned..." She paused for a second to think back on her time with her. "...Well in all honesty, I always wanted to see how she'd be with Captain Nondis or his older brother. I hear that Mr. Alex is particularly frequent with his ideas and exchanges with her, but I also hear that he's married."

Spitfire inquired the mare further. "Does she ever take a moment to dismiss you when the captain comes around?"

"I mean she does that with every guard she has a few choice words for."

"Okay, so there's nothing to you that stands out for those two in particular?" Crackdown questioned.

The mare started thinking off the top of her head. "...Actually, now that you mention it. I know he was assigned to her quarters for an early-morning wake-up patrol on Monday. He didn't like the early hours too much, but he was singled out for his rudeness. The other guards on that patrol for the morning were dismissed. And he was the only one there when I came to escort her to the dining hall."

"She assigned him to that patrol, not me." Crackdown quickly closed the folder.

"Holy hell, it's like watching the stars align." Spitfire whispered to herself.

Crackdown glanced between the two mares and ordered the two. "For now, the information you provided stays in this room. If he's in town, you get him back here before the end of the hour. This is a mandatory performance evaluation, and I will not take no for an answer. Raven, if you find anyone else that may have some similar experiences, you refer them to me. I know this isn't your field, but your cooperation is very much appreciated."

"I do what I can for Equestria and her majesty." She said, acknowledging his orders before leaving.

"Spits, can you send First Lieutenant Solemn Oath to my office? She's one of the first ones who dispelled the rumors going about. I need to know what she may know and how it was brought to her attention. I'll reread her status report and see if there's any changes in her story."

"Ah, there's the old Crackdown I remember."

Canterlot Row Teahouse
Meanwhile...

It was never a doubt in my mind that my plan would start to stir results. I'm sure by now the rumors would intensify, and with the block of evidence I so charitably distributed, it should grab the attention of one of the higher-ups. At least by doing this, I knew I could counter the possible play of Umbra throwing our business to the streets. I'm sure he wouldn't expect any of that to already be in circulation, at least not to the level that it should be reaching right about now. With that confidence, I took a stroll into town to meet with Rarity for our part of the plan to fall into play.

But something was off today. As I walked, I had gotten some looks from those I passed by. And very seldom am I stared down so often without a single word to greet me. It was very off-putting. Even when I had an occasional stroll through the streets, it wasn't without at least one single tabloid trying to get some information out of me. And they were a huge buyer of any comments I would've had about the royal family, or even some stuff about my world.

That was the strange part. Even when I sat down at the table, I couldn't help but to think to myself over what could've happened between yesterday and today. Perhaps the rumor had gotten much further than I had anticipated, maybe he even played the card that I offered to sabotage in his place. But still, that would easily drive many outlets to question me about it, asking if it was true or something that could be discredited.

Rarity soon approached the table, wearing her outing shades and an elegant hat to hide her face. On her back was a set of pink frilly saddlebags. She took notice of my demeanor. "My dear, you look distracted."

I continued to survey the area, seeing not a solitary head hiding in the bushes or at the tables nearby. "I'm a little curious. Usually there'd be everyone in the press trying to run up to me with every question in the book."

She removed the saddlebags and placed them on the table, a few magazines started to spill from within. "In speaking of questions, have you read the tabloids recently?"

Looking down, I could see my face littering a good amount of the headlines. "No, why?"

"Perhaps you need to take a gander at these then. All of this came out this morning." She urged, flipping the bags upside down to empty the contents all over the table.

I started to spread some of them out evenly, as if I was looking at a hand of cards. I started reading the headlines, the subtexts, and where the articles could be found. The first one had a picture of my profile, some of it covered in shadow. "Reprimanded: Captain Publicly Chastised by Princess. Is the honeymoon over for his adventurous escapades? Page 14." Another had my face after the changeling executions. "Good Boy Gone Bad: Captain Nondis More Frequently Called Out By Superiors. How hot is his seat? Page 31." The next one had a picture of Princess Celestia turning back to chastise me, namely it was the moment when I had snapped back at Blueblood for something he said. "Crumbling in Chaos: Captain Seen Harassing Princess. Page 21." I shook my head as I sat the three magazines aside. "This is all nuts."

"That's not even the worst of it." Rarity said, bringing up the ones that painted me in a darker perspective.

The picture was one of me approaching the doctor's office, looking somewhat distressed. "Captain Seeking Mental Therapy: Rapidly Deteriorating. Page 24." The next one was me taking a book off of a shelf during my visit to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. "Delusional: Captain Seen Reading Magic Books. Page 19." Next was a picture of me in the downtown park, sitting next to Single File. In atypical fashion, they blurred out the face of the young unicorn while keeping mine highlighted. "A True Threat: Non-magical being studying magic theory. Is there a hostile takeover in the works?" Another picture seemed to have me standing guard at a funeral, staring down at the casket of Count DuMoneé. A sneering smile seemed superimposed on my face. "Captain Coup: Speaks of System That Could Disenfranchise The Royal Family. Is Equestria safe? Page 35."

"That last one I don't believe." Rarity vehemently stated as I started to open that magazine to the suggested page.

"Captain Nondis spoke of a political ideology that could undermine the efforts of retaining the already dwindling royal influence and replace it with a three-branch system that highly favors legislators─the fuck. Many pundits believe such a system would create political instability, social unrest, and a system that limits the voting powers of the public─who the fuck wrote this bullshit, this is so out of context. The captain also advocates for the unlimited reelection of many controversial political mavericks, a system where the late Senator Count DuMoneé could keep his seat for a lifetime, or as long as he could redraw the districts."

Rarity pointed out the obvious. "In the means of getting the attention of the press, it seems somepony has already beaten you to the punch."

Goddammit. So that's why I'm being stared down to hell and back. This is more than just a play to make a measly dig at Celestia's expense, it's a complete attempt to assassinate my character in the idea to discredit me further in the eyes of my peers in the guard. This whole thing is designed to destroy any chance I may have to defend myself by attacking me from every possible angle. Not only that, it's to keep me isolated from the press by painting me as some criminal mastermind looking to close in on the royal family. The worst thing that comes from this is the fact that I'm supposed to be playing as if I don't like the royals. This gives too much of a red herring that many outlets would point to as some sort of motive. He's not trying to play the blackmail card like I thought. Instead, he played my own hand against me.

I'm in trouble.

I looked around and stuck my hand under my coat, summoning a black box. I slid it across the table and told Rarity what it was. "You said you wanted the same device as mine? I got you one. It's the newest model and it's under warranty. You studied the manual I gave you?"

"There's a lot of confusing language in it, but I got by with what I know."

"It's easier than it looks. Just make sure you keep this little tool on you." I said, introducing a stylus to her. "Don't be like me and wake up trying to use hooves to navigate a home screen.

"Hooves?" She questioned.

"Look, it was a long night." I simply explained.

Rarity quickly set herself up on her new phone and went straight for the camera. She took notice of how she could use it as a mirror, also pointing out the much improved quality the device had in contrast to my older phone. While she went rummaging through her custom settings, a voice called out from across the street. "Captain!"

Honestly, that was the first time anyone called out to me today. "Blue?" Even more surprising, the recognizable unicorn heiress trotted towards me, not wearing the usual smile indicating that she was thoroughly happy to see me wandering about. It seems that there is still some mode of nervousness about how our last interaction went.

"Captain, it's good to see you!" She glanced over to see the fashionista sitting across from me. The corners of her mouth shaped to a false smile. "And miss Rarity, how's the spot you've purchased?"

"A bit shaky at the front, but I suppose I'll take care of that when I start to expand a little more." Rarity replied.

"That's great!" She quickly dropped her facade and grabbed at my arm with her magic. "So... could you kindly let me borrow the captain for a moment? I need a few words with him, we'll be right back."

In seeing the sudden neediness of the mare, Rarity grew confused. "I... um..."

Looking around, I tried to keep up the appearance of the two of us being a couple. Allowing Blue to rip me away would compromise that to a significant degree. "Actually, Rarity and I were just having lunch together."

The heiress looked to the table, noticing the magazines strewn all over. "So you've read the headlines, huh? Not exactly what you were expecting?"

She levitated the one with the most damning allegations, easily capable of confirming multiple rumors that may be circulating around. "Yeah, these people are complete idiots if they believe all of this."

"But when multiple headlines come out about you, then there has to be some truth in it, right?" She said, waving the magazine around.

"It's all a bunch of lies, that's what it is." Rarity replied, seeming upset at the sudden media barrage aimed at me.

She slid the magazine back to the table while picking up another with yet another allegation against me. "I mean, the magic-book-reading thing is what you do. And anyone worth their salt in the field can tell you're as potent as any other unicorn."

"Dearie, there's no possible way that Nondis can use magic." Said Rarity, who tried to make the defense of my being naturally incapable to using magic as a means to deny the rumors, despite being one of the first ones to know of my advancement.

Blue, however, perceived the fashionista as incompetent to the situation. "Ms. Rarity, I would like for you to be excused."

Again, with good intentions, Rarity raised from her seat and walked by my side, grabbing my other arm with her magic as she leaned against me. "And while I do have appreciation for your business, Ms. Royal, I do have my special somepony to consider."

The look on Blue's face told me everything at that moment. She was about done with me, everything from the other night with Kalimba serving as an example to my sexual endurance, up to the way Kalimba joked about her upstaging her in that field, her growing jealousy on the matter, combined with Rarity looking to take the public press' attention, all of it was bringing her to a boil. One mare cut her eyes towards the other, Rarity smiled as she nuzzled me. I tried to quietly diffuse the tension. "Ladies, can we not be like this out here, in public?"

Blue was wasting no time with me. She was vehement, and it showed in the way she turned around. "Then I suppose our conversation has finished then."

Growing frustrated myself, I wanted her to understand that this wasn't anything against her and our partnership. "No, it hasn't. Just take a moment to listen to me."

Rarity stopped nuzzling me for a moment and asked me in an aggravated manner. "Alright, what are you two on about?"

"Goodbye, captain." She said, starting to storm off.

"Blue, wait." She stopped for a moment, just long enough to hear my response. "Rarity's in on it."

"In on what, darling?" The seamstress questioned.

Blue was not convinced. "She's not in on anything. I'm going to take my leave now."

At that point, Rarity suddenly confirmed some evidence of what I was talking about. "Oh, do you mean that zebra mare you have staying in Ponyville?"

The heiress looked back for a moment as I pleaded with her. "Blue, let's just talk here."

The mare started walking off again. "I will contact you later."

Before she could get too far away, I reached my hand out and grasped at one of her hind legs. She looked down to see a white aura tugging against her leg, all being traced back to the glowing hand I reached out with. "Blue... please."

Seeing how far I was about to compromise my secret, she turned around and quickly dispelled the hold I had on her. Marching up to me, she angrily chided me for being reckless. "You're a bold one to be using that in public."

I pointed back to Rarity. "She knows of my magic training, she knows of Kalimba, she knows what I'm doing as an extension to all of this."

Rarity rolled her eyes. "Oh, you mean that little stint. Why didn't you say that from the start?"

Blue narrowly glared at me before trotting over to Rarity. "And? I'm supposed to trust you?"

I vouched for the seamstress' presence in our talks. "She's my friend, and she's helped me along the way throughout all of this, she makes my clothes, she cooks me food sometimes, I even stayed with her for a little while. She got me connected with some of the high-class members of society. Without her, we would've never met. She's on our side."

She aimed her attention back to me momentarily, giving me a firm warning. "None of that matters, she's going to get hurt messing around with us."

"If you two are talking about your stint in Corrotto, I was let in on it by Kalimba. All of the girls were." Rarity quietly chimed in to verify her knowledge.

The real estate mogul approached the up-and-coming seamstress, thinking of her connection to the wealth and influential members of Canterlot society. She was already seen as a national hero to quite a few, but Blue had her suspicions of how she really thought of any of this. Oddly enough, she decided to question her on a topic that was more personal to her own experience. "What is your opinion of Count DuMoneé?"

In many high-class social circles, Count was often seen as a gray topic of discussion. Even in death, they would refuse to speak on him loudly or publicly, especially of his track record. Anyone who would be seen talking ill of him felt that their status could be compromised. It wasn't because of his political stance, but rather the favors and association they had with him in life. Each of them had at least one encounter with the deceased senator. So anything as much as a peep about how they didn't like the guy, it could be countered with some of their competitors or adversaries making mention of a past interaction. In honesty, that fact alone made me curious as to just how deep the rabbit hole goes with that asshole.

As far as Rarity was concerned, she took a deep breath and loudly called him out. "That arrogant, manipulative, sadistic son of a bitch, tainting my poor little Spikey-wikey into trying to murder Nondis in his sleep! I hope his hell is the most unpleasant experience his soul will have to endure!" ...She had no prior attachments to anchor her down, she even made her ire known to him in person, in front of several witnesses. Not only that, but her affection towards me and her friendship with Spike was a pressing motive to her response.

And Blue took an outstanding observation of that. "...I like your answer." She replied with a growing smirk.

"Look, we all have a hate boner for that asshole. What else is new?" I said with a dismissive shrug.

Rarity sat back at the table, pulling one of the magazines up to read the contents. "So since we're talking Corrotto business, I take it that the recent rush of media railing has something to do with it."

"Yes. More than." Blue confirmed, taking a seat at the table along with us.

"That's not a good thing. So let's look at what might have caused this." Rarity suggested.

I already had an answer. "That son of a bitch Umb─"

Blue jumped up and stretched herself across the table, planting a hoof against my mouth to stop me from speaking. "Not. Here." She replied, having that same stressful terror in her eyes as she did when Umbra was harassing her. "Look, there's a golden rule to being in the club. And that's to never say his name in the open street. No matter who you are, he'll find you, and he'll make you wish you were never born."

I waited for her hoof to raise from my lips before speaking. "What happened to the last guy who did?"

She slouched back into her chair, starting to shudder as she glanced to me with those same eyes. "...Just don't. Please."

I shook my head, pulled out my phone, and began to type his name in a notepad app. "Well you said we can't speak his name, what about writing it?"

She continued to plead with me. "Even then. Don't."

I looked around and I grabbed Rarity's phone, texted myself her number, sent the message back to her and instructed Rarity to read the screen to herself silently. "Well what he can't control or knows about won't set his alarm off."

"I see now." Rarity nodded, acknowledging that the name had been noted for future reference. "So what's the plan?"

"Ms. Rarity, I truly don't feel comfortable getting you involved in this." Blue tried to warn her before a sudden voice caused all three of us to startle.

"HALT!"

I looked to the street, seeing a trio of guards marching up. One guard approached me directly. Just their immediate appearance had me clutching at my chest, thinking about Blue's warning. I took a quick breath and addressed the trio. "Hey boys, what's the deal from the castle?"

The guard who approached then notified me of their purpose for being here. "Captain Nondis, you are to report to Colonel Crackdown's office effective immediately."

"Can I ask what for?"

"Matters pertaining to your current status. You're being investigated."

While the three of us were looking at one another, Blue clenched her eyes, already imagining what consequences could be in store for me. Rarity had asked herself quietly. "What in Equestria is this?"

I held my hands in the air, showing no weapons and submitting myself to avoid confrontation. "What am I being investigated for?"

"Classified." The guard announced.

The other two mares stared in dead silence as I started walking off. I briefly turned to them and informed them of my next course of action. "Rarity, I'll shoot you a text later. For now, you two can talk about it while I take a little walk to the barracks. Don't worry about me too much, I'll be fine."

As I walked off, Blue was already sulking on the situation, shivering and whimpering to herself. "...Not again. He's gonna make us watch that again. I don't want to see that again."

Rarity grew concerned and questioned the mare. "Darling... what did he make you see?"

"...Please don't ask."

Colonel Crackdown's Office
Canterlot Royal Barracks
Thirty Mintues Later...

My escort only consisted of two other guards, who quietly marched me directly to the office of the Colonel. As soon as I arrived outside of this door, I could see a certain mare donning silver armor. Her head slowly turned to me before she smirked and chuckled to herself. As soon as the other two escorts were dismissed, she took the liberty to speak her peace.

"Another performance evaluation? It's almost as if you don't want the job."

Honestly, I don't even know why she's so abrasive with me in particular. Even most of the guys who felt my job could've went to someone else isn't even this ugly in the attitude department. I shook my head at her. "Another time you're sitting here railing me? It's almost as if you're mad that you weren't given the job."

The mare extended her neck, poking her head out to me in a condescending manner, squinting her eyes all the while. "You keep this up, the princess will have a captain who will actually be there when it's truly needed."

As she did that, I couldn't help but to notice a purple mark hiding under the side plating of her helmet. It appeared quite sizable, too big to indicate a measure of kinky foreplay. A training accident, perhaps. "What happened to your neck?"

She withdrew from how close she was getting to me. Turning herself around, she denied me any further views of her bruise. "I was protecting the princess last night from a group of thugs. They threw rocks at her. If you were on your job, maybe you'd know what it's like to stand in the line of duty when it really matters."

...Sometimes she really tests my patience. "Any of them hit her?"

She wouldn't let me see her face as she slowly confessed her answer. "One."

I wagged my finger at her. "Then you ain't doing your job right."

The mare appeared highly offended that I had disqualified her efforts. "I had a magic shield─"

I then proceeded to explain to her what should've been done in any exercise. "No excuses, First Lieutenant Oath. If you were on your job, maybe the princess wouldn't have gotten hit when it really matters. Hostile crowd, phalanx formation around the princess at all times. If you can't follow basic protocol, then don't start talking like you know how to do my job and get the fuck out of my face." That latter part was more of my anger taking hold.

"You don't know what it's like to operate in the moment." She launched back.

"Yeah, sure." I sarcastically replied, thinking of the few skirmishes I've managed to survive.

Before our volume could get any higher between us, the colonel's voice boomed from behind the door. "Captain! In my office, NOW!"

As I opened the door, I could hear her whisper next to me. "Sounds like unemployment's just around the corner."

"You're obsessed, lady." I said before closing the door on her.

Upon entering, I notice that there was not a seat to be offered. The only thing that seemed to stand between the door and the colonel was his desk and the rug laying on the floor. The only think I could do was approach quietly and await any questions he may have about my evaluation.

While I stood there, a lot started to wander through my mind. Everything starting from the conversation I had with Rarity and Blue in town, to even the mare outside of the room, waiting for her next chance to gloat about my current circumstance. And since she was the freshest thing on my mind, I couldn't help but to let my anger come to a soft boil while waiting for the colonel to say something. For a while he stared back at me, seeing how tall I was and how quiet I had become since entering. He opened a drawer on his desk and pulled out a small vial of special blue ink alongside a black quill. He also laid out a sheet of parchment with a series of open boxes to put down notes. He glanced over to the right side of his desk, slid a manila folder in front of him next to the report he was filing.

"Alright, let's get this over with." He said, flipping the folder open. "I read your recent psych eval. Apparently you have some problems that need some intervention. I don't know about you, but I don't take too fondly that you're sitting around here keeping tally of who all you're getting involved with. That's not the conduct we approve of in our establishment, and it sure as hell isn't one of an officer of your stature."

I wanted to breath a sigh of relief, it was only about what I wanted this to be. Though I admit that even this was a bit much in the grand scheme of things. One wrong answer and my plan could backfire into a garage filled with kerosene vapors. I had to play safe. "With all due respect, sir. This issue is why I've talked to the counselor about it. I'm trying to get myself to a more stable place."

He dipped his quill into the ink and talked a little more. "The reason for your original request of submission was because of any psychological problems you had dealing with your deployments. Any personal problems like this are an example of what we call auxiliary issues. We're trying to keep you on your job."

For something like this, it's not even considered a topic worth discussion. I've seen many mares and stallions─guards of course─get a few run-ins with the hospitality staff in the castle. Even sometimes catch a quiet couple or two chatting it up while on watch. As long as it isn't sexual harassment, the higher-ups don't give two shits who you're fucking. Of course that changes in the officer's bracket, where I stand currently towards the bottom. Even then, the prestige that came with this job in particular is something the higher officers don't want being tarnished in any way. But even then, I'm seeing help. That only means one thing, he's taking the bait. "Well sir, then I don't see how this is worth calling me to your office over."

Colonel stressed his point. "It's what you're doing, it's the scandal that could ensue, it's the idea of this getting out that could hurt the image of the princess' decisions, thus a reflection on her judgement to keep you in this position."

"Well even then, my talking to the doctor on it is my first step to resolving the issue." I answered, feigning oblivion to what he's suggesting.

"Admirable choice, but I can't help but to observe the language that was used and what was said on the matter."

I feigned confusion. "Sir, I request that you clarify your accusation."

He quickly sifted through the documents that were in the folder, lifting up a single page of findings before explaining himself. "It says here that you said that you had gotten into a personal relationship with someone you stated to also have a professional relationship with."

He bit. "To be fair, I started in that situation with my being a suitor. My job was to protect the princess, I was dating one of them at the time. As you can recall, the two of us have separated in November."

"It also noted that your ex, Princess Twilight herself, had approved of the relationship." And just like that, he's hooked in like a bass.

"She does." I confessed.

He started jotting notes of his on, the colonel. Before I could ad any further detail, he went on to question me all while writing down my answers. "This individual you seem to have mixed relations with is also someone you talk to during the breakfast and dinner hours. I should note that you are stationed in the royal dining hall during those hours."

In the nature of a snagged fish, he began to pull at my line. "That I am."

He then pulled out another folder, this one being brown with the crinkles down the sides. He seemed to pull out something that looked like a medical report. "And apparently this started over a dinner date. I also highlighted the fact that the ones you came to recognize first were the princesses. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadance and Princess Twilight. You were a suitor to Princess Twilight, broke off from her, and now you're involved with another one of the first individuals you've met."

At that point, it was time to start pulling the line in. "Sir, are you insinuating that I am seeing another royal? That seems to be the clues you're giving me."

The colonel started to speak in a quiet voice, standing from his desk as he gave me a strong warning. "Son, don't nopony around here get as much access to the princess as you often do. You take her to her quarters every other night, you stay by her side when she falls ill, the only creature to have done that twice in their LIFETIME, and she has exclusive access to your world. If I can see the writing on the wall, I'm gonna call it like it is. You cited that you two had crazy schedules, the princess' schedule is hectic. You were often left alone with her for disciplinary measures, frequently called out by her, frequently escorting her, and most frequently engaging in a back-to-back sequence with her. And from other reports I've called in, they all say the same thing."

I couldn't act in any way that would've been disrespectful, but I couldn't help but to stifle a chuckle or two. "So are you saying that I could be dating a princess?"

"Not saying, knowing." He correctly deduced. "Having that said, it also says that you've engaged in oral sex with her. It also notes that you had another mare you've slept with in the past forty-eight hours. To me, that sounds like you're acting on the Saving Grace Clause implemented to allow a suitor any extramarital engagements to alleviate their frustrations."

"Yeah, that's a thing." I easily confirmed. "But from what I've gathered, they don't like to actively allow that privilege."

The quill carried on and on with it's notations. The colonel walked in front of me, even standing on his desk to get a better chance of looking me in my eye while he spoke. "So... with all of that being said and done, I'm going to order that you cease and desist this relationship effective immediately, or face a summons that will immediately terminate your employment."

One final scrape on the paper behind him indicated the final scribble of his signature. With the ink still wet, he showed me the parchment he wrote out. Looking at it, I then realized that what he signed was a misconduct report, something given to those who were accused of sexual harassment. And given that he quietly issued this to me was pretty much his way of saying that I could quietly put an end to it before it gets worse. He seems to be trying to protect the image of the guard by doing this, but he's really trying to cover me by offering it to me without a word to the higher-ups.

I took the paper and read it to myself as he whispers. "You want my honest opinion, you're quite possibly the most powerful guard we've had in the ranks since the first captain himself. Though even he got took out when shit got too big for him to deal with. Son, you are bright. You have a future. The words and the way you speak, you could lead a whole country to war even if your only weapon was a paper clip. But I can't let you waste this. Believe me, kid. A lot of us dream of having a princess to come home to. But this is the trouble you don't want. You'd sooner spend a night in Canterrot than get caught fucking around with a royal AFTER getting placed on the restriction list. But it don't have to be this way, just sign that, I'll relocate you to wherever you want. I'd rather keep you where you are, than to have that knucklehead outside taking your place."

I looked at the parchment another time, feeling genuinely disappointed in myself to an extent. Here's the corporal trying to do whatever he could to salvage my career, and I'm gonna have to lie to his face. But it's too late to think on that level of morality. I know what I'm fighting, I know what I'm against, and I fear disappointing the princess more than I do disappointing him. I continued to commit to my act. "You know, I can't really agree to do this because of the fact that the princess you think I'm dating has no interest in me."

The stallion levitated the brown folder up to my chin. "These accounts beg to differ."

I took the folder and quickly glanced through some of the documents. "What accounts?"

"Unnamed guards who have seen you two together on frequent occasion."

"And I take it that Solemn Oath happened to be one of these accounts." The folder was indeed filled with a few anonymous reports, but there weren't that many to initiate an investigation, basically three guards who might have seen me get in trouble and get pulled aside. But all that meant is that I should be a little more careful about how I interact with Celestia and how frequently I do so. Unfortunately that part would be a bit hard if wasn't for the fact that Celestia was so damn insatiable behind closed doors, not to mention how often I'm isolated per her own instruction.

"I ask you again, captain. Cease and desist."

I glanced over to the table and pointed at the manila folder sitting next to the ink vial. "Could I possibly read the eval for myself?"

He levitated it to me. "It's your eval, I can't refuse."

I immediately went to the parts that he had highlighted and nodded in confirmation at my own statements. And just as I rehearsed with myself throughout the course of the past twenty-four hours, I weaved my net of lies to discredit the findings. "Oh, okay. I see why you would think that. But allow me to clarify a misunderstanding. I have a device called a cell phone that can be used to communicate with anyone of my choosing at any time I so wish. So if I wanted to call one of my friends to talk with them, I can. If I can shoot a text to someone, almost like I'm sending a letter in the mail to someone, I can. They could respond to me in less than a minute, sometimes within seconds. And if I wanted to shoot anyone a text during a certain time of day, I can."

While colonel was savvy to the statements I gave, he was also made aware of the potency of human technology. He even watched from within the barracks my demonstration on the motorcycle. And the barebones of my phone's capabilities have been documented to the media. In short, anything I say can be taken at face value as long as it involves human technology. "So you're saying that you don't talk to the princess?"

I then proceeded to lie in his face apologetically, but not really. "With all due respect, she's like a thousand years old. I don't even see myself going down on something that ancient. We're talking about dust, cobwebs, mummies, and booby traps. That is a certified negative from me. Second, my girlfriend and I have been talking about spending time together for months, but because she's often so busy with her growing business in Ponyville, we can't connect like we want to. Today was the first time in a while where we could actually meet up in person and enjoy each other's company, but this whole process just put a nix on that."

Even though my phone argument had merit, he didn't believe that I was actually out on a lunch date. "I'm sure it has."

Once more, I played to my strengths, weaving more webs to entangle my future self. "Also, I'm a known womanizer. My brothers and I have been notorious for womanizing throughout our lives. I'm learning slowly how to drop out of it since the options are actually there this time. My being Twilight's suitor had me locked away with so many restrictions, so many rules and guidelines, I couldn't even activate my Saving Grace Clause because both Princess Celestia and Princess Cadance had intervened in our relationship so frequently. It just so happens that Cadance was more of the enforcer than Princess Celestia was."

Another lie buried in a truth pie. "I see."

"Look, in my world, we date who we wanna date. We don't have marriage laws that prevent us from dating who we love. We don't have guidelines on who we can fuck, as long as they're above a certain age. We don't have laws telling us we have to love a certain kind of way. We live in a society that's free of that. Our founding principles are the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. None of this extra marriage bullshit would fly in our country, so it was already hard enough to get me to even agree to that bullshit of a marriage law. And having gone through that shit once before, I'm not doing it again. I don't care how cute Twilight can be at times, I'd rather fuck her friends than go through all that bullshit again. I nearly lost my fucking legs from all of that shit, I'm not down to wasting another year of my life trying to feel sorry for someone in that royal position. Loving a royal is way too much trouble, I tried it, and I walked away with the message loud and clear: It's not worth it."

The way I worded my reasoning had come from a mix of experience and a tad bit of observed douchebaggery... mainly from my old self. As long as I can continue to play my feigned role of disliking the royals while working with them in the shadows, it works. Me putting my love life of the princess out there was originally meant to counter Umbra possibly starting the rumor to get me to do whatever he wanted. It didn't work the way I wanted, and now I had to play damage control much faster than anticipated. "Well then. You're verifying that you're actually dating..."

And now I pull him out of the water. "Rarity, I'm dating Rarity. The reason Twilight approved was because Rarity and I had liked each other for a time. The reason why I wanted this to be a quiet affair was because I didn't want it to be a distraction from her work."

At that moment, he seemed uncertain and confused. Crackdown was anticipating that I'd just confess to my secret relationship with the high princess, but my curve ball caught him swinging. "But I thought it was you and Princess Celestia. All the clues lined up for that, the busy schedule, the period you could talk to one another, the first ones you met─"

I also pointed out what I said in the report, something he failed to highlight completely. "I said that she was there from day one. Rarity was there on day one, not the first one I've met, but she was there from the first day I woke up to being in this world. She made my clothes from the second week on out. The first outfit she made was a tunic and a pair of pants that didn't take my anatomy into consideration. I walked around Ponyville naked that one day. The next outfit she made was a tux, Twilight threw up on it after she had gotten drunk. I served as her model, her errand boy, and we grew as friends from that moment on. Rarity made dinner for me that day too, she rewarded me on a job well done. We started exchanging ideas on what I could wear, how it could express who I was. We grew from that."

As I continued on and on, I drew him from the water and up into the air, dangling right above my net. "Hmm... But those accounts─"

I placed both folders onto the table. "Every girl I do something nice for, it always turned into something like that. I was nice enough to console Twilight after losing out on Flash Sentry, she wanted me then. I stood up for Pinkie Pie against her ex-boyfriend, she wanted me then. A mare I helped get out of a troublesome situation recently, she jumped on top of me that night. Hell, I save my best friend from a shitty abusive relationship, Melanie... For years it was me wanting her while she had no interest, and now it's her wanting me while I have no interest. That's just the game, man. As far as what the other guards are seeing, I'm just doing my job while trying to keep the princess awake and alive."

"And you didn't tell Ms. Rarity that you got involved with this other mare?" He pointed out.

"We started talking about it during lunch, but then you guys came along. You may not believe me, but I can call her up and see if you'd like to talk to her right now." I replied, pulling out my phone. I dialed up Rarity's number and placed it on speaker.

In the matter of seconds, she answer. "Hello, dear?"

"Hey, sweetheart, how's the tea?"

The mare replied on the other end. "Cold. I have not partaken since you've left me in the Square. I'm beginning to feel neglected. What's going on over there?"

"It's me and the colonel having a quick chit-chat. Are you heading to the station anytime soon? I can try to walk you back if it's okay for you."

"Nondis darling, I wanted time and tea. Now all I have is tea, but no time or you to go with it." She angrily replied.

"Sorry, business stuff." I explained.

The mare sighed on the other side of the line. "I guess we'll try again some other time."

"I'll be there to escort you to the station shortly. Might even give you an express ride over there." I suggested, offering her a motorcycle ride.

Even if she was upset, she wasn't going to refuse the idea. "...Fine. I'll see you when I see you."

"Alright then. Bye."

Three beeps indicated the end of the call. And just like that, he was convinced of my relationship status. "Well I sure hate that I interrupted your date."

I pretended to shrug it off, relieved that he took what I gave him. "Sir, shit happens. I know the game and how it goes, that's life. But to clarify, no I'm not dating Princess Celestia. She warm to my older brother anyhow. Only reason why she won't go for him is because he's already married." Another bit of the status quo to go around. That should seal the deal with all of the superiors. And a submitted report would actually take some of the heat off of me, at least until they decide to investigate the other rumors circulating the tabloids.

The colonel extended a hoof for me to shake. "Captain, I believe an apology is in order."

I gave him his hoof shake and picked him up off of the table, sitting him to the floor. "Nah. Tell you what, Saturday, I'll bring around a few beers from my world. We'll sit around and talk about our differences in structure, military, family, knock back a few cold ones, maybe even explain a little something about the weapons I use."

The colonel was left speechless for a moment, staring at me after I had removed the foundation from under his hooves. He stared and blinked at me for a few seconds before shaking himself out of it. "Look, just try to stay out of trouble, captain."

"That's not the problem sir. It's the trouble that finds me." I replied jokingly to lighten the mood.

With everything that was said, he closed the folders and resumed his usual load of paperwork. He summoned a pair of reading glasses and motioned for my dismissal. "Alright, get back to work." I saluted him, he saluted back, I left the room.

Exiting the room, I could see Solemn Oath salute towards the passing party of Princess Celestia and an entourage of city council members. Along with them was a muted Alabaster, who only shifted his eyes to acknowledge my presence. But once he saw me and looked back off, he went back to casually laughing with the crowd. I was impressed by his inability to miss a single beat of the conversation. The princess glanced over to me and saw me coming out of the room. I gave a quick salute to the princess, who appeared stern to me. "Captain, I see you are present and accounted for."

"Not a moment late, your highness." I said, faking a lack of enthusiasm.

She looked at my wardrobe and clicked her tongue. "Your daily wardrobe inconsistencies do not allow you to look the part of the position I've assigned you. What happened to the uniform I commissioned for you?"

"Your highness, I was informed that uniform was a CDU." Ceremonial dress uniform.

"Then perhaps armor would be more suitable to your purpose." The other guests covered their muzzles as they watched the princess express her dissatisfaction. Alabaster just quietly watched as the princess continued to chide me. "So I will commission for a suit of armor for you to wear around the castle. I cannot allow you to not appear the part of a distinguished member of my military."

"Yes, your highness." I said quietly.

The princess stared at me a little while longer before taking two steps towards me. "I expect more enthusiasm, captain."

"I could not be more honored, your highness." I said a little louder.

My phone dinged like a glass, telling me that I was sent a message on Instragram. I maintained my discipline to not pay it any mind. The princess' voice popped in my head. "You should read that one when you are alone. Hang in there."

She stepped away from me and went back to chatting with her party. The group slowly faded down the hall, seemingly talking about some security measures for an upcoming ball taking place the next week. I wonder what the hell they got piped in for next week anyways.

"I guess you've been warned." Declared little miss annoying.

I turned to her and knelt down. "You know, I heard a few mumblings on Celestia having a suitor, I just never thought that I'd be the first accusation. Funny thing is, he's actually a pony." I pointed out, further fanning the flames of mystery.

The mare narrowed her eyes as she pointed a hoof at me. "...I've seen the rumors of you studying magic books, learning our source material. I've got my eye on you."

"Keep your eyes on the princess, maybe she won't find another rock barreling her way. Just try doing that much, please." I replied.

"At least I was present and accounted for in that situation. What does that make you?" She asked mokingly.

"The final solution. Now get the fuck out of my way, I've got a train to catch."

I walked off, leaving the condescending mare behind. As I left the barracks, I pulled out my phone and immediately scrolled to my inbox. The princess left me a message on my DM, one that particularly her brand of teasing me.

God knows the can of worms I've opened with this one. She looked as if she was trying her best to entice me. The look in her eye was subtle, but the blush on her face was telling. That mare knew what she was doing in taking this picture, she probably had thoughts of me taking another dive on her as she took this picture. If yesterday's wall-pressing was any indication, I was going to need to schedule that orthopedic appointment a few months in advance.

On that note, I walked my bike outside, started the engine, kicked up dirt and hauled ass out of the checkpoint.

I scooped up Rarity and dropped her off at the train station, only to find that my timing was a bit off. As a result of my departure from the barracks, we both arrived at the platform to see the train smoking and chugging along to Ponyville. Rarity didn't like the idea of having to wait another two hours for the next train, so I offered to give her a ride there myself. She looked at me and assumed that I was crazy to be offering her a ride on the purring monster we rode in on. She also made a quiet glance at me, telling me that I should keep the ride as smooth as possible.

I looked back at the cobblestone street and shook my head, not a chance.

She and I rode off, jolting off at the entrance of the station. As she hollered at our sudden acceleration, she grasped at my coat, holding on to whatever pocket she could latch herself into. I did my best to pay her little mind outside of keeping her onboard, that and making sure that I didn't run into anyone or anything. After leaving the main entrance to the city, the road soon became a bit smoother. The dirt path was just fine for me to kick in the fourth gear.

As for her reaction, Rarity was screaming and hollering throughout the first few minutes until she saw the world closest to us wiping by her, all while the scenery of the distance remained almost stationary. But the shriveled weeds and dying grass that lined the path had been but a blur to us. For a time, she was silent, just watching as the world zip by. We looked over and saw the train coming to a complete stop on one of the rail lines leading to the lower mountainside. Along with the train was a troop of worker ponies, hauling rocks from within the tunnel it was about to pass through. She taped me on my side, yelling into my ear in an attempt to ensure she was heard. "That's the train that just left!"

"Yeah, that would've took you two hours on a good day anyhow." I loudly replied over the engine.

As we continued, we ran into a tunnel filled with enchanted crystals lighting the way of the path. Each side was closed off until a certain point where white-painted stone columns started to grant us a peak to the outside world. So while one side was revealing brilliant crystals hidden within the rocks on the mountainside, the other gave us a view of what it was like to be so far up. The guided rails were welded steel to ensure any travelers would not stumble and meet with an unwanted demise.

Seeing the wrought rods in between appear as a hazy blur, she gazed out to take in the sight of a few pegasi flying far overhead, swooping down to dare themselves against the mountain, an entourage of thrill-seeking fliers gambling their lives for the rush of adrenaline of narrowly avoiding death and injury. As the air opened above us, the painted stone archway revealed the clear winter sky. The world below was a beautiful sight, snow decorated the cities off in the distance while the world around them was just just a little less brown. Even the paths on the mountain was spared from the snow and ice. And in the distance, I could see Cloudsdale hovering high into the air, pumping out white fluffy clouds in it's wake. The clouds above almost resembled that of what was sitting on the ground. The mare behind me giggled with glee, tapping my sides like an excited child. "Nondis! Look over there!"

"Yeah, I see it. It's pretty strange to me." I said.

"Howcome?" She asked.

"Well in my world, we don't control the weather, remember?" I replied. "If it snows, everyone's getting it."

The mare shook her head. "Well it can't be everywhere at once!, a snowstorm covering an entire continent doesn't seem likely!"

"Yeah, but here it looks like each town is it's own little snow globe. We don't get that over in our world."

"Maybe you haven't taken the step back to see what it looks like from a distance." Rarity replied.

"Still doesn't change anything. A snowstorm in my world would blanket Canterlot, Ponyville, Everfree, Cloudsdale, and possibly make it's way to Manehattan if the wind's pushing it right." I rebutted.

The mare scoffed. "Well I don't believe you."

"Well you'll find out eventually." I answered back to her disbelief.

Riding along, we reached the base of the mountain far quicker than the train normally would. Along our straight shot to Ponyville, Rarity bundled in a little closer to me. Her hooves wrapped around my waist as much as she could as she held on to me, especially since I was pushing a good sixty on the relatively smooth path. But the closer to town we got, the rougher the road started to become, the more I had to slow down.

And because the road was particularly rough there, we were experiencing a few more bumps. For a while, Rarity didn't complain about it. In fact, she didn't seem to react to it much. But as the road got closer to home, she started clenching her hooves around me. I glanced back to see her leaning into me, but she was nudging slightly forward. Her haunches were bouncing against the vibrating seat, her hips rocking back and forth. When she noticed I was paying attention, her ears turned a shade of red before she gave me a playful glance.

That moment on, she held very little reservations of how she moved herself in public outside of ourselves coming to a standstill. And to her purpose, the roads in Ponyville were pretty uneven. Some bumps managed to entice her a bit, while others caused her to bite her lip at the thought of finally getting home. Knowing her, she'd probably calculate the extra hour
she now had at home instead of riding on the train. She knows we have a moment to ourselves as soon as the ride stops at her boutique.

And she jumped at it.

Keys slid out the ignition, my collar was dragged in, Rarity slammed the front door, she jumped in my arms like a cat, pinned me down with her lips, quickly undid my pants, laid me out onto the floor, and invested the time we had in reconnecting. Of course, her version of reconnecting was more of her showing me just how much she missed me.

I won't even lie, I missed her too. I missed being able to slap her on her cutie marks, watching her gasp in reaction to it and ride me even harder, I missed when she told me to coil her mane around my forearm and make her self-destruct. I missed the interaction she had with me as soon as I started pleasing her horn. She probably missed me for some other things as well, I bet she hadn't had the company of a stallion since we last explored one another. I'm sure the idea of my being in another relationship was motivation to her. I know she was very competitive with Pinkie and Twilight when it came to me, but she was another vixen today.

We were cold from the ride in, the boutique was cold from the air being off, no one was home to start and watch a fire, and she left a creamy white stain on my upholstery. We didn't waste any time on the foreplay, we were already heated. To her, our ride here was more than enough to turn her on. Just the idea of her grinding on my seat had given rise to my already-charged sex drive. It was just us walking in and making a mess right there on the checkered tile of the foyer.

The best thing about Rarity is that she communicates to me what gives her the best outcome for the situation. With the others, I'm usually left guessing. Sometimes I may be a bit much on some things, and my partner may not say if it hurts too much or if they want something a little more tame. Starlight is all about coddling you and taking charge, she'd probably preferred it if you just keep quiet. Kalimba likes dominating, she calls the shots, she makes things up on the go, but she also likes tenderness in between. Luna likes to see what she can get away with, that's it for her. Celestia, I'm sure she has a lot she wants to show me about herself. But from what I know with these past few days, I beginning to think she likes the unavailability of the moment, the wait, the anticipation, the mounting frustration of being so close and yet so far. Twilight, she's willing to explore, but she's new, just as I am. The only difference between me and her is solely on Rarity.

Each of our sessions are a learning experience. Today's was matching the rhythm of the rider. If her hips dropped, I raise mine. If she retracted, then I ease off. If I fall out, we realign and slow the tempo. And once we have a good consistency, we get back up to speed. When she rocks her hips forward, it means she's recovering. If she stops, she's calming herself down. And if she leans in against my chest, she's close to the breaking point. If she says this... "Don't stop." Then I've gotten the tempo right, don't get excited and try to rush her to the moment, she wants that same speed. Even if I felt close, keep that pace.

...I also learned when she hops off of me in a panic, she'll embed both hindlegs into my stomach. That part wasn't fun.

Rarity rushed to the door as I caught glimpse of her younger sister walking away from the window. At that point, I was enacting the same fight-or-flight measure to hide my goods from the view of the young filly. That was a whole moment of understanding just why Rarity was using my torso as a rug. Even though I was still wearing my clothes, the rush almost had me fumbling over my belt loop.

Rarity at least made sure I was good to go before opening the door. "Oh, um... Sweetie Belle, what a pleasant surprise."

The young filly trotted inside, explaining her sudden appearance to her older sister. "Dad dropped me off, he says that I should spend some time with you today because of my anestrus ending. He says something about you teaching me about my newfound sense of smell." While she sniffed around, the young filly recoiled from a certain scent. "And now I know why the whole hygiene thing is so important."

"Oh fuck me." The seamstress whispered to herself before fixing her mane back into some resemblance of her daily appearance. "Nondis, I'm afraid we'll have to get your measurements some other day. It seems that Sweetie and I need to have a bit of girl time."

I appeared conflicted, more confused over the language the young filly spoke. "Anestrus? What the hell is that? Heard of estrus, but not that."

Rarity was about to speak before Sweetie Belle shoved her over with seemingly the strength of a linebacker. The young filly spoke proudly as she slowly walked towards me. "Anestrus is the period where a young foal is inactive to the reproductive features they're to soon grow into. The end of that cycle is where one discovers some of the features of their body either grow uncontrollably, or ache and itch constantly, namely for me, it's my─."

Rarity teleported next to her sister, covering her mouth with a hoof as she frantically staved me away. "Nondis, you should take a leave on that note."

I looked down to see the young filly opening her mouth to bite the foreleg of her older sister. "Gotcha."

While the two started to fight and argue over I guess their disapproval of one another, I quickly gathered my shit and popped back on my bike, hit the road, and didn't look back. With the way Sweetie acted, there was no doubt in my mind she was watching. But I wasn't gonna ask about it. And like hell I was gonna stick around for that fight to end. I sure as hell didn't want to find out if anyone else had watched us.

Especially her dad, I hope he didn't see us going at it.

Later That Evening...

After I got back to Canterlot, I regained my focus on my assignments. My shift went on as per usual, if not a little later to make up for lost time. I immediately went to dinner, hear from the others how their day went, and went about my own way. I went to my room, laid out, started thinking about my day. I got a few more messages from Celestia, and we had a brief exchange with one another. I'll admit, this was probably the easiest option to speak with her since we could easily express ourselves without any evidence to the common pony's knowledge.

We went on for another hour, just tossing messages between one another. And of course, I started thinking about her again. Eventually our conversations started veering off into other subjects, our past, our relationships, even a hint of our own desires. She inevitably started dwelling on the past, quietly tossing in some of the things that her first had done to mold her into who she was. That included a few other topics.

I gave her a warning that we should probably turn it over before the chat got a little too robust. She quietly agreed, stating that she needed to take another bath after our conversation. I asked her what she needed a bath for, she answered that she would soil her sheets if she went to bed as she was. I asked her what was the reason, she simply replied that she was thinking about me.

I didn't get to finish my session earlier, that reason alone was more than enough to let my imagination drive me.

One hand stayed on my phone, the other wandered beneath my boxers. I could feel myself entangled and confined, and I was determined to alleviate that. I replied that I was thinking of her as well, she said that I was probably up to no good. I admitted that I was a bit rowdy. And then she asked me what I was doing at the moment. I played coy and told her that I was just thinking about her. She correctly called me out for being nasty. I didn't apologize for it. There was a momentary pause before her next response.

On that note, she never replied to me after that. I knew what she went to do, and that only pushed me even further. Before I knew it, I had her name on my lips, my hips tensed, I sat up and watched as my rapidly moving hand was covered in the pent-up delivery that was supposed to be a deposit. One spurt in particular dressed my chest in seed, the others coated my fingers and the back of my hand. I had to stifle my moans, ensuring that any guard out on patrol couldn't hear me.

After that, I grabbed a tissue off the night stand, cleaned my mess, took a quick shower, and carried off into bed.

The Next Day...

The next morning was a bit different. Celestia had a busy schedule today, so she got her breakfast on the go as opposed to sitting in. Shining and Blueblood on the other hand were present and accounted for. Shining was having a bit of fun on his phone, apparently discovering the sector of human entertainment and our own brand of stupidity exhibited for the world's viewing pleasure.

The young prince found much amusement in the newfound vein of comedy. I only shook my head realizing he was well on his way to embarking on the perilous sea known as the internet. There was no saving him, I can only assume it'll take him a matter of days before he finds the porn.... No... hours.

Fair winds and following seas, my friend.

Blueblood wasn't as distracted, and questioned me on my recent trips to the place often known as Canterrot. "So what's the status of your underground run?" He asked.

"Met the guy in charge. He gave me an unwanted hug, and now he's expecting me to show up later tonight." I replied begrudgingly.

Thankfully Shining wasn't too distracted by what was on the screen. "Celestia tried to work her way into Corrotto on Tuesday. Had a warrant and everything set up."

"You know how that goes, Shining. They change the rules just before a warrant is signed, it's like they stay a step ahead." Blueblood stated, taking a sip of his morning coffee.

I shrugged at the two princes. "I don't see why you guys don't just bust in the place and clean house."

Blueblood then explained. "Most of the mercs there would easily give you a field day. I'm sure you wouldn't want to play cards in a game where they hold the deck."

"You got me." I replied confidently.

Shining offered his own rebuttal. "And you're our most vital piece in all of this. Worst happens to you, we're done here. Worst happens to them, they're expendable. Can't put you in that kind of bind, your brothers would raise hell with us."

"Apparently one of them hit Celestia with a rock." Blueblood mentioned, appearing upset at that bit of news.

"Oh, I've read that incident report." I replied. "The guy who did it got knocked off. First Lieutenant Solemn Oath made that very clear to me, also saying that if I took my job seriously, I would've been there."

Blueblood chuckled. "Ah, the infamous ice queen. Always loyal to the crown, Celestia in particular is her favorite. Many a young stallion called their shots in trying to tame her, but none would ever get the chance of capturing her. She apparently has a disdain for males, never allowing the opportunity to rise for one to claim the fame of being the tamer of her frosty disposition. She's a strict one, not often loved by her subordinates and equals. She does her job well, it's just that she's so abrasive towards command that they forgo on giving her promotions."

Shining sighed dismissively. "I made the jump from Captain to Brigadier General, she lost all of her shit until she realized that she could have the position I gave you. But when I gave it to you in a battlefield promotion, she went─to borrow an adjective you humans use─absolutely nuclear."

"Good use." I commended the stallion for his understanding of human lingo. "But yeah, she had her pom-poms out, cheering over the idea that I could lose my job."

"Oh that's typical. She feels almost every stallion above her short-cut the ranks while she worked twenty years and couldn't get past second lieutenant for five of them." Shining also explained.

"Has anyone ever explained to her that it requires the approval of your peers to get a promotion after a bare minimum of two years?" I asked.

Blueblood made fun of my ironic inquiry. "Well, Mr. Kettle, I do believe Ms. Pot simply doesn't give a damn."

The three of us shared a brief laugh before the doors flung open to reveal a human woman marching over to me. I turned around and grew pleasantly surprised in seeing the sudden visitor. "Mel? Hey, haven't seen you in a few da─"

Without warning, she grabbed my collarbone and started pulling in the opposite direction, her nails dug into my shoulders while she seethed. "Get your ass over here."

The brief sting of her nails digging in caused me to duck down and break her arm off of me. I backed up and pointed to her, giving her a mild warning. "Hey, now you wait a minute. You're my friend and all, but don't come out the blue and snatch my shoulder like that. That's not what we're gonna do after not talking for a few days."

She shuddered and grabbed my shoulder again. Her voice trembled as she made her point awfully clear. "There is a fucking coffin in my den. And it smells putrid."

I was initially perplexed, but looking into her eyes had told me she was not fucking around. Mel was genuinely terrified, and she looked like she had seen a ghost. I looked to the other princes and saw that they didn't take her statement lightly. I looked down to see her hand shaking on my shoulder. Her breathing was heavy, almost as if she had ran here. The sweat on her forehead was a dead giveaway of her physical stress.

I called to the two princes. "...Guys, let's go."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

We crossed over to our world through Mel's portal. And as soon as we crossed, it hit us. The pungent smell of decay, the obnoxious miasma of flesh well past it's expiration date. To all three of us, that smell was very familiar. To Mel, it was a red flag. We quickly walked into the hallway, citing the increase in the strength of the smell. As soon as we reached the den, that's were we saw a brown wooden casket blocking the front door. At the bottom of the casket was a speaker, beneath it was a small white envelope.

"Ugh, putrid's about right." Shining pointed out.

"Mel, when did this show up?" I asked the terrified woman.

"I woke up to my mirror facing the other fucking way, I go in the bathroom thinking I might have a sewage problem, then I step into hallway, only to find the smell got even STRONGER. Now here's the fucking thing sitting in my den, and I'm supposed to not grab your attention?"

Shining and Blueblood didn't even bother covering their muzzles, meanwhile Mel and I were trying to filter out the smell as best as we could to prevent the nausea from overwhelming us. "Who the fuck is in there?" I asked.

"It's a basic wooden finish. Could be anyone." Blueblood pointed out.

"This ain't what we doing today." I replied, walking over to the casket, completely pinching my nose shut.

Shining levitated the envelope, ripping it open to reveal a card hiding in a plastic wrapper. "There's a card inside."

Mel proceeded to beg the two stallions. "Shining, Blueblood, this thing is obviously pony sized. So can you please ship this thing back to wherever it came from?"

I looked at the card, seeing that the front and back were completely blank. I didn't bother touching it, instead using my magic to handle the item. "At least whoever brought the card was hygienic enough to wrap this in plastic." Opening the card, I saw the words Happy Birthday circled numerous times. On the outside trimmings were hand-drawn hearts and arrows. I started reading the card aloud. "Happy Birthday to our most esteemed escape artist. I know you've been feeling a little upset with the news lately, so I gave you a surprise gift for good cheer. I give this to you with all of my being, I offer it to you with you running through my mind. The affection I have for you can only be described as eternal. With love and kisses in mind, Ummie."

Suddenly the speaker at the bottom of the casket started to slowly rev up some music, almost as if we were listening to a record from the roaring twenties. Mel looked around the room and back at us slowly. "What the fuck is going on?" After she asked that very question, there was a barbershop quartet singing in a very rich timber that was greatly distorted by the audio quality.

♪Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to you.
From good friends and true.
To old friends and new.
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to♫─

*KRACK*

The lid of the coffin busted wide open, the body inside was pistoned up to appear that the corpse inside was sitting up as if they were about to turn their head to me and climb out. All of us screamed in bone-chilling horror.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

"JESUS FUCKING..." I was petrified. Mel grabbed me and hid behind my back.

"Holy shit!" Shining jumped back placing a hoof to his muzzle.

Blueblood stared wide-eyed at the corpse, giving a slow nod. "Well that's a new one."

Shining sat on his haunches, placing both hooves against his lips. "This is not okay."

On the chest of the corpse was a sign, on it was written one word in sloppy red paint: YOU.

As much as we didn't like looking at the decaying pony corpse, it was there for all of us to see. But the main thing that truly sent shivers down my spine, the primary reason my stomach turned like a pinwheel, was the shape of the incisions of it's head. The broken horn, the rusted staples that once held the damaged cranium together, the pieces of flesh that fell from it's maggot-infested face, the rotten sludge that dripped from it's eye sockets, the misshapen jawline, the wilting mane, it's face reconfigured in my mind. And it was often that he would smile at me, waiting in anticipation for the moment I'd fail.

I ran to the nearest sink and puked out the breakfast I just ate. Meanwhile Blueblood examined the body and covered his muzzle. "That's Count."

Mel quickly ran to the bedroom, crying as she hid away from the scene. "Oh my God, please God, please get it the fuck out of here!"

After I had finished, I couldn't help but to slink down against the counter, sliding down to the floor. As I was sitting in that room, the pungent smell was permanently etched into my brain. The sight of his rotting face smiling back at me, like he had paid an old friend a visit from the depths of hell, it was a unearthly reminder of my fate. There was nowhere to run, no place I can retire to and experience peace. Even if I had stopped now, who's to stop them from hunting me down? Who cares if I have a doctor to vent to? Who cares if I resort to belief as a way to alleviate my problems? It didn't even matter if I came back home or not.

In fact, this was a testament to tell me that there was no leaving it all behind. They know where I live, they know where Mel lives, they know about the frat house, where Kalimba stays, where all my hideaways are. And if I tried to leave, who's to say that they won't target them next? The door is closed, permanently. I had to accept it. "Nowhere is safe."

Mel screamed from the comfort of her own bedroom, which was now a nightmare to stay in because of the smell and what she just saw. "I don't know who the fuck you pissed off Nondis, but this shit does not happen in MY home!"

The young prince didn't waste any time, he got on the phone and called Alex. "Hello?"

"Shining Armor here. Emergency meeting. Now."

Author's Note

Rough start...

Chapter XCVII

1184 Years Ago...

In the castle of Everfree, there was a quiet peace that covered the land. The ponies who lived in it's walls had greeted one another with praises to the sun. The denizens all smiled and waved to one another, their foals running off with one another through the pristine streets of the city. They all laughed as they ran past the many courtyards, including the one that sat below the grand tower of the castle. Down below, many who passed by would look up and wave to it's occupants. They would call out. "Hail to the King! Hail to the Queen! Hail to the Royal Sisters!"

From high above, the fair queen stood on the balcony of her daughters' room. Queen Gaia looked on, waving to the subjects that passed by to greet her. Her long ethereal mane flowed brilliantly against the light of the sun. She patiently waved to each citizen that hailed her, at least until one voice had parted her attention from the crowd of commoners below. "Mother mother!"

The mare turned around to see the young unicorn princess standing beside her. "Yes, Celeste?"

"I wanna wear your crown today!" The young filly replied, jumping energetically. She eagerly awaited her mother's answer.

The mare giggled as she looked to the top of her head. "I'm not sure if you'd want to wear that old, dingy thing."

"But it so nice and shiny! I want to wear it just like you do!" The princess stated, jumping up with her hooves outstretched, trying to reach up for her towering mother's head.

Queen Gaia guided her young daughter from off of the balcony and into the room. "But I've already commissioned a crown for you, don't you like it?"

"It's nowhere near as pretty as yours!" She responded, walking past a number of silk curtains before they entered into a pink bedroom. Sitting behind them was a large golden sigil, a replication of the young filly's cutie mark. The young filly looked beside her and watched as her mother walked before her, kneeling down to speak with her.

"Celeste, your crown is the one I made to celebrate the gift of your beautiful eyes. Do you not like it?" The mother asked with concern.

"But I want to wear yours!" The young daughter answered emphatically, pleading with her mother. "I want to look as regal as you do! Pleeeasseee?"

The mare rolled her eyes in surrender. "Alright, just this once." The mare watched as her daughter clopped her hooves together with excitement. She ignited her white magic, removing the crown from off of her head and onto her daughters. "Careful, it's heavy."

The young filly felt the weight of her head shift slightly as the tiara was planted onto her head. Her eyes looked up to see the loose-fitting crown tilt over one side of her face before completely covering both of her eyes. The queen laughed with amusement. She tried her best to straighten the crown out for her before it fell down another time. Gaia did all she could to keep the crown from slipping, but to no avail.

"It's too big." Young Celeste pouted.

"Just like how you complain that you want wings." Noted the queen with a stifled giggle.

The filly answered her mother. "I want wings and I want them to be as big as yours!"

"Yes, I know." Gaia acknowledged.

"And I want my mane to move like yours!"

The young princess was embraced in a hug, almost ensnared by her mother's lengthy foreleg. The mare kissed her daughter on the forehead. "Celeste, all those things will come in time. For now, just wear what you've been given."

The princess still pleaded with her mother. "Can't you just make me a smaller replica of this one?"

Gaia, losing all ability to argue with her beloved child, thought of a compromise, a promise for her young daughter. She took the crown off the young filly's head and sat it to the center of the nightstand. "Tell you what, I'll leave this here for the morning, just this once. I'll let you look on it a little more, and then I have to take it back because I have some important business to attend to."

The young filly's lavender eyes were filled with such wonder and joy, so much that it almost brightened the room. The queen had to glance outside to see if the sun hadn't gotten too bright from her daughter's excitement. "Thank you so much, mother!"

The queen looked on outside, seeing the light of the sky dimming a tiny bit before evening back out to it's usual level. She glanced back to her daughter, seeing the smile on her adorable face. In her mind, she was already looking at the future of her daughter, but more importantly her waning control over the very object that she would often assist in raising. It amazed her that her daughter had so much control over the sun without even realizing it. But she embraced the tender moment, opting not to focus too much of her own fate.

She broke from her daughter and sat her in front of the mirror. "You know, when you get old enough, I may just give it to you."

"Really!?" Young Celeste inquired.

The mare pointed her to the mirror, guiding her hooves to the sides of the crown as if to pick it up. She pointed to the looking glass ahead. "Take a look in the mirror. This crown has a magical enchantment that can show you a glimpse of your future self. From this day on, when you hold that crown, I want you to see the future that's lies ahead for you."

She glanced to see herself in the mirror. But instead of the young unicorn filly with pink hair, she saw a filly of her same image glaring back at her. The princess that looked back at her had a mane with not just one color, but four. From her back sprouted wings of pearl white, complete with beautiful feathers.

"Wow. It's so pretty." The young filly said, not noticing how her mother was actually enchanting the mirror in front of her.

Gaia then whispered to her daughter, almost as if she was holding back tears. "Celestia, you will be such a beautiful princess. Oh how I wish I could see the wings you'll have, the mane you'll grow, the splendor you'll share with the world." The young filly held on to the crown, staring at it. The image in the mirror did the same in her young ascended state.

"Mother, do you think my wings will be as pretty as yours?"

"You, my dear, will be your own beauty."

1001 Years Ago...

The days have gone silent since the princess was reintroduced to the throne a day after her punishment had taken place. In place of her sister's bed was a grand chest filled with offerings and gifts from other dignitaries, many who knew nothing of what had taken place days prior. But that chest had long replaced her younger sister's bed well over a century ago.

The pain on her body, however, was still fresh.

Celestia whimpered with every move she made, trying to not say anything about what had taken place. How could she announce to the world that she was repeatedly abused, taken advantage of, and made a relief post for some dishonest aristocrats looking to boast about their experience with each time they pass by her? To the world outside, it would make the country appear weak. Equestrian citizens would lose their morale, or even seek to overthrow the system altogether. Blood and pain caused by the betrayal, she had her mother's country to protect.

The dying words of her mother were spent asking a promise to be made, one that the princess found herself questioning at every moment an ache surged through her body, at any point something reminded her of the humiliation she suffered at the hooves of those same loyalist advocates. Wounds that have yet to heal, scars repeatedly disturbed, all of the beauty she was told to have by the one she gave herself to willingly, stripped by the many who envied her decisions. All who swore to protect her did nothing but watch, all who pledged fealty to her did everything but help her, and those who pined for her did wrong by her. The complements her mother spared, they were a lie to her now. But one statement of hers remained true since she was passed the crown she always loved watching her mother wear.

It's weight was too much.

She sat quietly in front of the mirror, her mark eclipsed by her lifeless mane. Her wings were concealed by a crimson dress, her body hidden by a decorative cloak adorned in brilliant gold trim. The crown that sat on the nightstand remained there for the duration of her punishment. It was too much for her to wear her mother's keepsake, especially in the state she was in. Much of her ugly scars were highly visible, especially the mark that was crusted over her chest, the T that branded her as a traitor. Her eyes remained on her face, she dared not to touch the crown. She refused to see what the future had in store for her, she did not want to see that manifest. After all, what good could come from this?

A servant mare entered into the room, smiling brightly towards the victimized matriarch. "Your highness, you looks so beautiful today!"

Celestia looked at her through the mirror, staring as the mare quietly approached from behind her. The mare slowly embraced the royal.

"Princess, why don't you put on your crown? You'll look so regal with it on!"

The abused mare winced at the pain of being touched, as much of her body was still tender from pain and screaming that took place. Even the joints that were completely reconstituted, they remembered quite vividly the stress that was put on them. "It's dingy." Celestia replied, pulling herself away from the mare's touch.

The mare continued to smile brightly. "I'll assign a polisher to clean it for you, your highness!"

"It still doesn't change anything. It's too heavy for me to wear." She muttered, seeing the poor mare staring at her from across the looking glass.

"Oh that little thing, come now. We still have to keep you pretty." The mare said jubilantly, reaching over to anoint the princess with the undesired heirloom. She stepped in front of the mirror, smiling in the princess' face while she praised her. "You've always been incredibly beautiful!"

Celestia shuddered, partially filled with anger but mainly riddled with anxiety. "Do you not see me as I am?"

The mare continued to ignore the princess' words and ushered the matriarch through to door. "Come along, your highness! The Duke of Trottingham wishes to speak with you! We must move with haste!"

The princess remained seated in defiance, not wanting to see another aristocrat. "Leave me be."

The servant mare politely pulled at Celestia's foreleg, causing her cloak to fall off. Upon discovering the princess' cloak was incorrectly worn, she saw the many bloodied patches and sharp metallic spikes in the appendages that was once the pride and joy of the once-free-spirited matriarch. She quickly addressed the issue by placing her hooves on her shoulders, pulling down the dress, and picking at a metal scrap embedded in her flesh. "Princess, we mustn't allow you to wander with your wings being so dirty! Let me clean them for you!"

The princess' mind snapped back to the moment that unforgivable rake pulled at her wings, stripping them unceremoniously of their feathers. She snarled back at the servant. "GET AWAY FROM ME!" The servant leapt back in reply, almost terrified of her superior. Celestia shuddered, reaching down to grab her cloak, placing back on her dress, and covering her back. Her eyes started to brim with tears as she painfully pleaded. "Leave. Me."

As much as she didn't want to, she saw the image of herself wearing her mother's crown. But there was no luxurious flowing mane for it to rest upon, not that day. Her eyes was reddened from crying the night away. Her face appeared pale and drained of life, she looked older. She saw the blood stains on the back of her cloak and dress, her face contorted to show the hideous pain she endured. To even her own self, she was unrecognizable. And at that moment, all she could think about was the words her mother spoke when she was small. 'You, my dear, will be your own beauty.'

But this was her own nightmare. Celestia stifled her weeping, trying to apologize to a mother who could never speak to her again. She apologized for failing to protect her younger sister, for showing weakness, for being taken advantage of, for being reduced to such an existence. Not even the cheerful servant could offer words of encouragement.

Instead, she took her leave. "I'll give you some time to be alone, your highness."

Much later in the day, the streets continued to be relatively quiet. Many of the citizens were uncertain of what to think of their future, especially with the announcement of the Trottingham duke's proposed legislation to raise taxes on the farmers. It was already bad enough that the winter months were closing in, but knowing that their monthly tithes had gone up made many working stallions consider a possible move. And with the incensed protests coming from the residents outside, the parliament nonchalantly passed the charter to raise taxes that would only benefit the already powerful.

The curses and cries of the citizens reached up high, straight towards the balcony of the sole princess. Celestia walked in with bitter sadness and disappointment. As much as she tried to fight the proceedings, her voice was still weakened by the previous day's tribulations. The citizens knew of her attempts on their behalf, but were deeply angered that their once-proud ruler didn't raise her voice enough on this day.

Walking behind the sullen princess was her highly-optimistic servant. She didn't care too much into the politics, only doing what she was instructed to do, and that was to placate the princess by complementing her appearance. "Your highness, the day was a rousing success! You are the image of perfection!"

Little did the servant know, Celestia was growing more disgusted with the mare. She felt that the servant was more mocking her than doing what she could to boost her confidence. The matriarch glanced in the mirror, seeing her bleak self. In anger of seeing her mother's crown grace the head of a now-ugly being, she flung the crown at the mirror and walked towards her balcony. Upon impact, the mirror shattered into several fragments, leaving the sound of the princess crushing the shards under her hooves in the midst of her advance.

The servant quietly cleaned up behind the disturbed matriarch, glancing over at the tiara she threw aside. "Princess, if I may, the polisher will come in and clean your crown again. Since it's not to your satisfaction, I'll ensure that it is as shiny as possible."

The princess didn't care as she started to perform her daily duties of changing the sky. "Do what you will. Just leave me be."

Celestia closed her eyes, lowering her head, and ignited her horn to lower the setting sun. In doing so, she was reintroduced to it's immense weight. The mare struggled quietly, lowering the sun beneath the horizon. But when it came to the moon, she struggled quite audibly. The pain throughout her body, coupled with the emotional weight of what she was raising, gave her trouble breathing. Her forelegs buckled, her joints still aching, the princess raised her sister's moon into the sky. And once the moon was in place, Celestia's strength faltered. The princess painfully stumbled, and finally sat on her haunches.

For months, she had to look to the moon, with the shadow of her sister planted on it's surface. And in those nights, there would never be a star to shine beside her. It wasn't out of a self-imposed decree, but rather her not knowing how to place them up there like her sister could. Luna was always proud of her night, so much that she withheld the secret to placing the stars. And with her banishment, the stars remained dormant and the sky pitch black. There was only the moon, the shadow of her sister, and nothing else.

"I love when you raise the moon, your highness! Your skies are always so beautiful, both day and night!" The servant replied, woefully ignorant of how her statement made the princess feel.

Celestia tearfully looked to the moon. "My sister sits on that moon. If only she were here, we would have stars tonight."

The servant, again, spoke to her own logic. "Your highness, you did what you could for the good of the kingdom! History will be singing your praises for generations to come! You saved Equestria from malice! You should be proud of what you've done!"

The sole princess grew indignant of her servant, quietly recalling her younger sibling. "All Luna wanted was for the world to love her night. All she asked for was an extra hour. The ponies of this land didn't care for the work she put into her night, she wanted it to be beautiful to behold, for everyone to gaze at the falling stars, her gift to the world, shunned. I had to say no for the sake of the serfs, to keep our crops from wilting. And now here I am, praised for taking the glory from her."

Once more, the servant offered optimism to a pony who could reasonably find none. "She went mad, your highness! Surely your scars still ache from the bout you had with her! Your highness should hold your head up high, you have saved this realm!"

"All of this, for what?" Celestia argued, slowly turning to the servant. Her joints still pained from the punishment she endured the day prior.

The mare announced to her superior proudly. "You prevented a thousand years of endless night! You became the ruler you were meant to be, Equestria's true queen!"

It was that moment that it all started to make sense. Celestia saw the personality that she harbored, how it was so familiar to her. It was the same front that many aristocrats and senators posed in months past. How often would she hear those same words of praise, 'Equestria's one and only ruler'. How easily they went from decrees of loyalty to crown and country, to being barbarous towards her. Their one moment of showing their true loyalty was exposed when they had muttered musings of their time of claiming her unconscious body. How easy was it for them to decree their loyalty when the very princess they praised one month was seen as a traitor, then violated as such, only to flip their masks and run back to that loyalist persona.

As long as the princess held her image of being an unsullied symbol of purity, she could be praised. But let her step into her own personal decisions, she could be demonized, exercised, and stripped of her hope and individuality. Once that was done, she could assume her role as easily as she once did. And there was no punishing her handlers, no justice for the unborn life she lost. This mare was much like the others. And she couldn't live to be watched by them, to be invaded once more, repeatedly, until rendered mentally invalid, a puppet on strings.

The princess stood, looking past the balcony. "Tell me... Would you give your all to a nation that has betrayed you?"

"Your highness, I..." While the mare wanted to say something to ask why she was given such a question. But she took the moment to reflect within herself and answered. "I feel that the future of our kingdom is to be held in regard more than my measly little life. If one has to be punished for the sake of the many, then it's okay. I'd even give my life to serve Equestria, to serve you."

The princess raised her head to the moon. "Very well then..." The maid watched silently as the princess walked forward, glancing over the balcony's edge to the passing citizens below. While the evening crowd thinned, she raised her head to the moon another time. Words silently parted from her lips. "Sister, let's fly together."

The maid quickly lunged to the princess, but not before she flipped herself past the railing. Gravity took over, sending the mournful royal to the stones below. She closed her eyes, imagining how the pain she experienced would end. The servant screamed at the sight of the plummeting mare. But her own shriek was drowned by the several that were raised from the street as the princess' head crashed into the cobblestone road. A sickly smack sounded throughout the courtyard, the citizens screamed in horror at the sight of their princess' body bouncing off the ground and coming to rest. Many mares who witnessed the event sobbed profusely, stallions quickly looked up to see a solitary maid overlooking the balcony rail. They pointed to her, shouting. "Guards, guards!"

Meanwhile, the maid looked from up high as the princess' head was inverted from the acutely broken neck she suffered. Her eyes rolled back, bleeding from the impact, her jaw unhinged, her breathing erratic. Blood began to flow in the cracks and between the stones of the road. The maid shuddered, walking backwards until she rested against the broken glass of the princess' mirror.

The doors swung open, revealing a trio of well-armored guards, staring at the scene that took place.

The Next Day...

The halls of the parliament were filled with yelling. All the shouting was directed towards the center of the room, where a young mare was stripped of her pride. She stood before the unruly gathering, bound in chains as the world around her screamed for justice.

In return, she plead her innocence. "I assure you, I've done nothing! Please let me go! I'm innocent! She fell from the balcony, I swear!"

A hush started to grow in the room as the doors leading from the inner halls of the castle opened slowly. The one who approached through the door was none other than the princess herself. The crowd waited quietly for the princess to be guided into the room on a sedan chair, guided by four earth pony guards. Her neck was still recovering, but she couldn't move her head very much. The sedan was brought to a rest at the center of the room, ten feet in front of the accused servant. The judge spoke to the princess. "Your highness, if you are able, please point out the last one who was with you that fateful night."

Celestia wasn't even given the opportunity to point her hoof before the accused servant shouted to her. "Princess, please! Explain to them what happened!"

The royal raised her hoof slowly, pointing at the young mare with a lifeless glare. The judge then questioned her. "Have you anything else to say on the matter, your highness?"

A wheezing sound came from the princess' lips, notating the damage her trachea took in the fall. Her voice was of no service to her, so she instead whispered as best as she could. "...No."

The servant's pupils dilated at the thought of her being condemned by her superior. She strongly pleaded with her in front of the court. "Your highness, I didn't push you! Please tell them the truth! Help me, please!"

The judge had already decided he had heard enough. "The princess has spoken. You are hereby charged with high treason. The punishment is death."

The chains rattled and shook while the young mare screamed for her life. "Princess! Please!"

"Sentencing is to be carried out immediately." The judged then banged his gavel.

The princess was carried out of the court on her sedan, watched carefully by four more pegasi guards flying in the air. The four earth ponies who carried her marched quietly as they moved her to have the best view of the execution. Meanwhile, two guards trotted out with a black wagon in tow. On the back of the wagon was a crude iron cage. From within, the condemned was seen and berated on her journey from the parliament chamber to the gallows. There sat a small wooden stage, a wooden stock with an inward curvature at the top to guide the executioner's blade. The pony in charge of the act stood to it's side, his axe at rest to his side while a younger pony took a small grindstone and slowly prepared the blade.

The audience threw an assortment of rotten fruits and potatoes at the condemned servant, who wept openly in pleading for her life. "Tell them! Somepony please tell them I did nothing to you! Princess!"

The princess said nothing, watching silently atop her sedan. As the world was moved against her, the pleading mare cried her voice out in an attempt to make herself heard over the crowd. The quiet princess stared, face unmoving as the executioner brandished his newly-sharpened blade. A cleric approached from the side, holding a scroll in his possession as he began announcing to the crowd the official decree that was written.

"Hear ye, hear ye! The condemned by the name of Pretty Pence has been found guilty for the crimes of high treason and for the assassination attempt made on the life of our fair Princess Celestia! For these offenses, she shall be executed on this day, the Fifteenth of November in the year 5 C.D.V. by the method of beheading!" The mare was brought to the block, stood up and made to face the crowd, namely the princess sitting in the distance. "Any last words for the condemned?"

Being her own representation in the face of adversity, she made her final case to the citizenry. "I didn't do anything! I've done nothing! All I did was serve for the good of the realm! The princess fell from the balcony in a daze! She spoke of the moon─"

"Gag her." The cleric ordered, assuming the mare was simply constituting herself to the act of every condemned being; The act of trying to preserve herself in spite of her guilt.

She pleaded louder to the princess across the way, ducking her head from the rag they were trying to silence her with. The executioner then pulled out a potato sack to hood the mare while she fought for her life. "CELESTIA! HELP ME! MY GODDESS, MY ALMIGHTY MOTHER, PLEASE SPARE ME! CELESTIA!"

As she was being gagged and hooded, the princess was propped upwards to make her decision. She raised her left hoof to interrupt the process. All stood in silence as the princess summoned one of her guards to send forward a message to the executioner. She whispered her message, all while ordering her sedan to be closer to the stage. As she was on approach, her mouthpiece announced her request over the crowd. "Her royal majesty has ordered that we'd remove her gag and hood. She wishes to hear the words she has to say."

The disgraced servant whimpered, feeling that her words had finally gone through. She quietly spoke her request. "Your highness, please, you know my heart. I beseech you, spare my life, so that I may serve you for all time. My queen."

The princess stared back with a stoic expression. She lowered her left hoof, indicating her interruption. Instead, she raised her right hoof to signal for the continuation. In a swift motion, her right hoof stamped the floor of her sedan, confirming that the execution was still set to take place, and also to confirm that the mare's time would come to an end in the following seconds. The disgraced servant fell limp as the hoof came down, realizing that her life was indeed to meet it's end. In spite of her innocence, she was betrayed. And the servant made her final thoughts known throughout their hoisting her to the chopping block.

Her eyes remained fixated on the stoic royal, making her displeasure and anger widely known. "CELESTIA! I DID NOTHING BUT SERVE YOU! AND YOU WOULD BETRAY ME!? WHY!? WHY AM I TO BE CONDEMNED!? I DID EVERYTHING FOR YOU, MY LIFE WAS TO SERVE YOU! THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME!?" The princess' right hoof came down another time, signalling to the others her resolution. The condemned servant snarled her final words as the blade was raised slowly. "HOW DARE YOU BETRAY ME! I GAVE ALL OF MYSELF TO BE IN SERVICE OF YOU! YOU CURSE ME!? I CURSE YOU!!! I DAMN YOU, CELESTE DELANISE VALKYRIE!!! I CALL FROM BEYOND MY GRAVE TO LET JUSTICE BE DONE UPON YOU!!! I SPIT ON YOUR NAME, YOU TRAITOR!!! HELL WELCO─"

In opposite fashion to it's being raised, the blade of the axe swiftly sank through the mare's neck. Her voice still rang through the remnants of her vocal cords. What used to be a young voice brimming with life and vengeance was now a raspy howl of finality. Her lungs emptied of their air, her body limp. The head of the mare rolled a foot from her disconnected body, her eyes still glancing around at the world that betrayed her.

But before her world could go dark, she saw the pair of slender white forelegs approach her. The very last thing she mare saw before she passed on was the princess leaning in to whisper her final words to her in her face.

"In death, now do you know me and my strife."

Canterlot Castle
Present Day...

The once-defaced royal walked along the hall, smiling as she spoke with some of the local representatives of a neighboring district. Along her way, she waved hello to every maid that walked her halls, many of which she addressed by name. Passing by and addressing them, they politely greeted her back with genuine smiles. The princess flexed the feathers of her wings, feeling the freedom from the pain that once infested them in centuries past. Her tiara proudly sat atop her head as many paid little heed to it's condition, but rather the one wearing it.

It was a representation, an exact summation of the times changing from generations past to the present. And she appreciated the change. Granted there were many loyalists abound to her name and title instead of the individual. While she was fine with it in these days, they weren't as draconian as they once were in those much older days. Though she was comfortable with them displaying their loyalty, she kept them at a distance.

While memories of her shadowed past played through her head, she started to foster the mentality of looking towards the future. And it was thanks to a certain hard-headed individual who offered himself and his life to her, of course in the manner where her heart was truly vested. While she longed for that freedom, a long-lost feeling of deviancy festered in her mind. Curious intentions and even youthful urges awakened in the eleven-time centenarian princess. Some even causing her to shift her walk slightly, turn a certain way when talking, drifting often from the conversations at hoof. Though her age didn't show, her perpetually repressed freedom-loving personality displayed cracks in her usual regal persona. And in turn, she found her patience thinned to the point where she'd anticipated the coming of the night, where she could finally message the one man her mind's playlist set on repeat.

She was so distracted on him that she had failed to notice the guard calling out to her up until he tapped her side. "Princess?"

She didn't even break a bead of nervous sweat in trying to reply, she could at least hide that much. "Yes, what is it?"

The guard then informed her of the situation. "The humans are said to be congregating in the dining hall. From what they cite, there's been a breach."

The mare quietly contemplated using the opportunity to speak with her human captain, but mentally recited the reasoning for their appearance of separation in the public sphere. She nodded and played her alternative. "I'll have Blueblood and Luna look into it. My schedule is awfully tight today, I'm afraid."

The guard didn't bow out there either. "Also, your excellency, Prince Blueblood and Prince Shining Armor has recovered the exhumed remains of the late senator Count DuMoneé."

That part grabbed the attention of everyone in the group. "Exhumed?" Celestia questioned the guard.

The guard then finished his explanation. "The body was apparently cited in their world, specifically the living quarters of the human female."

The gathering quietly looked to one another, trying to understand what had taken place. Celestia, on the other hoof, had immediately resorted to the idea of there being some foul play involved. There was no way to dodge the idea, it was definitely something that had grasped at her attention, and probably wouldn't stop doing so until she intervened. And since she valued the relations with the humans so dearly, it became her single priority at the time. "Raven, clear my schedule."

"Yes, your highness." The young servant complied by tossing her scroll aside.

The princess briskly trotted down the halls towards the dining hall, from outside she could already hear the conversation taking place. There was a lot of shouting while some ponies stood around outside, questioning if something had gone horribly wrong. Her assistant Raven took up the task of dispersing the growing crowd. She saw seven humans sitting around the room along with Prince Shining Armor and Prince Blueblood, all of the nine were left frantically searching for answers. From there, she entered the room and paid attention to the conversation taking place.

"What I want to know is how the fuck the damn thing got there in the first place!" Rickey said loudly.

"Nondis, you're over security and shit. How the fuck does this happen, dude!?" Alex asked emphatically.

I crossed my arms, pacing back and forth. "That's my question. Every detail and shift change requires for the relieving squad to be present before the active squad is relieved, hence the name. How the fuck do they dig up a body, clear the checkpoints, getting past at least seven patrol units, sneak it into the castle without anyone smelling it, and then getting into Mel's place? I thought her portal was broken, or blocked by something."

Melanie quickly replied. "I had it turned to my wall! Who the fuck even walked in my apartment and had it turned around to begin with?"

"Whoever did it, they had it done while you were sleeping. That I don't like." Rickey stated.

"Nondis, full disclosure, who the hell are you dealing with?" Alex questioned, pointing towards me.

"Didn't you say you were working in Corrotto?" Hermes, the pony-turned-human, inquired.

Shining Armor tapped his hoof against his chin. "I don't find it likely that anyone in Corrotto would be able to bypass all those security measures."

Blueblood didn't look at the security so much as he did the overarching possibility of our already-corrupted structure. "That's not the problem, it's not about them getting past the assigned posts. It's more about who reassigned the times in the first place."

"Are you saying that someone may have undercut my prescribed security assignments?" I asked.

Hermes then added. "More like overruled. There's still the matter of the officer who signed on the list of ponies for the Arimaspi assignment. And if you still remember what all we discussed back on Monday, you'd recall that Count was a member of the Inner Circle."

"Which means the guy who signed the orders could've possibly changed that order on the spot." Alex summarized.

Hermes continued to supplement the conversation with more plausible motives. "There are a lot of ponies of power looking to get a ticket into the players club. Military officers of the highest rank have a better chance of making the cut."

While he wasn't wrong, it only made me curious of how they could've gotten in contact with one of those guys without a direct link. But then I remembered that Count wasn't the only senator in the parliament who was also a member of the Inner Circle.

Alex asked me another question. "Okay, I want to know this, just how close in are you with these guys?"

"It's an investigation. I have to be close to get anything of value." I replied.

"But these guys know about who you are." Cliff stated.

"Wait, they do!?" Melanie screeched.

"It's a prerequisite, they know who you are upon joining. As for the purpose of your joining, many members couldn't care less." Hermes explained.

"Except for those in this so-called Inner Circle, right?" Alex asked.

"That's about right." I answered.

Stanton walked over to the other side of the table, using some of the silverware and cutlery to demonstrate his point. "Okay, I'm no genius, but I think we all seen the movie Godfather, right? Ol dude wakes up in his king-size bed, blood's at his feet, pulls the covers, horse head. That was some mob shit. This kinda seems like some mob shit. Who'd you piss off?"

Melanie was completely on board with my younger brother's inquiry. "You had to piss someone off. Who the fuck is this Ummie bitch? She mentioned something about her eternal love and you being an escape artist. So what the fuck is this bitch's deal? She sounds like some crazy-ass hoe looking to ride your dick while keeping your family members hostage in a warehouse somewhere."

"Ummie? Who's this Ummie?" Alex asked.

"Is she another one of your contacts?" Cliff asked also.

I rolled my eyes and shuddered to myself in thinking about it. "...Yes. Yes. HE. Is."

"Fucker's a guy?" Rickey asked, seeming incredulous over the situation.

Cliff shook his head. "Yeah, that's kinda sus. Hey Hermes, know anything about an 'Ummie'?"

The human transplant folded his arms, trying to cross reference himself. "Ummie, Ummie... I've got a lot of names in my head, none of them being that."

My mind went back to the note that was signed. I began to place my wager in seeing if anything on it might bring an idea to his head. I summoned the note that was left on the casket, and handed it over to the transformed stallion. Mel grimaced in disgust. "Are you seriously touching that thing?"

"How good are you in identifying signatures?" I questioned Hermes.

"Adequate." He replied, using his own magic to hold the item. "It's magic script, but each unicorn has their own little flair. However, this one seems to be awfully ambiguous."

I grumbled to myself. "Figures, apparently I can't even say his name out loud. Supposed to be some shitty code telling me I can't do that or write it down."

While Hermes tilted his head at my statement, Melanie was more frustrated than anything else. "Fuck is his name, Lord Voldemort? We playing Harry Potter now?"

"...The doctor..." There was a icy cold realization that showed in the transformed pony's eyes. He quickly grabbed my shoulder and asked me. "You didn't run into The Doctor, did you?"

I threw my hands into the air. "Who the fuck is 'The Doctor'? I keep hearing about him, but for some odd reason all I know is that nobody in the club wants to even mention him."

"The Doctor is the one who runs the place." He quietly replied.

"...Oh. That guy." I placed my hand on my forehead and mentally called myself stupid for not putting it together.

"You've seen him. So did he do the thing?" He asked quickly.

"You talking about the zebra brew that's forever in his mouth? I've gotten word about it from a few sources."

Hermes sat himself down at new revelation. "So that's how he knows about everything. He kissed me once and I even found a letter in my mailbox one day, telling me a bunch of instructions to relay to Count."

"Slow down for a sec, so this guy knows everything about you... from a kiss?" Stanton questioned.

Hermes shook his head and covered his mouth. "I don't wanna talk about it."

Mel turned to me and slapped my shoulder angrily. "WHAT THE FUCK, NONDIS!"

"I didn't want shit! The bastard literally teleported in front of me and dived in. As you can tell, consent isn't the first consideration on this fucker's mind." I angrily explained.

"You have a gun!" She pointed out.

"And he has goonies around him to nullify that. That's why I took up magic defense training." I rebutted.

"So much for that then! Can't you just blast him away?" She replied.

"It's not that easy." Hermes began to explain. "The one thing that The Doctor is explicitly renowned for is his knowledge of the dark arts and forbidden magic. Taboos are a wet dream to him. If anything, he specializes in giving his victims an end that rivals even hell itself."

"So you're fucking with this guy now?" Alex was, to say the least, very displeased. In his mind, there was only one option to go with. "Nondis, this... You're done, okay? You're done, no more investigations. No more snooping around. It can't be helped. The end. Curtains. Roll credits. Leave this shit rotting like Pripyat after Chernobyl."

"It's not that easy!" Hermes interjected. "The Doctor knows about every one of us now! Here's everything he knows from the moment his lips hit yours. He knows where you live, where you work, how you sleep, your parents, any friends Nondis might've come into contact with, loved ones especially. Even my hiding out in the frat house is a moot point now. Nondis isn't the only one compromised here. The only advantage this brings is that they've literally fast-tracked his way through the door to the Inner Circle. Other than that, there's no going back."

As if the room wasn't already heavy with tension, the weight of uncertainty made the gravity that much stronger to fight against. Blueblood took a deep breath and added more to the flame. "Well that explains the negative headlines rolling around the press."

"What headlines?" Celestia asked, finally speaking for the first time since her appearance.

"Half of it is my magic training, the other half is bullshit." I dismissively replied.

"But why, why would they do all of this for him?" Mel asked.

"To make him see that there's no running away." Hermes answered.

"Or better yet, I do as they say and nothing bad happens... as long as I play nice." I went even further.

"How'd you get that answer." Blueblood inquired.

"Both of Count's kids discussed that with me." I announced.

Hermes seemed surprised with my answer. "So you've met the son finally?"

"Fun fact, I've been meeting with him. Didn't know who he was until late Tuesday night. We first met at the party where Cadance and I had our blowing up. After that, he threw me on the fast track to learn intermediate magic spells. Another fun fact, apparently Count was apparently a magic professor before he went into politics."

"That I can verify." Hermes nodded in confirmation. "Count has been an extremely gifted magic user, it's just that I hardly ever see it outside of Canterrot. Honestly, assassinating you was something he didn't want to do directly because he figured you were easy to get out of the way."

All I could think of at that moment was the image of his corpse being propped up to stare at me, with the way his lips rotted, almost smiling at me from beyond the grave. "My, how the mighty have fallen."

While the others were still catching up to what was discussed on Monday, Rickey was already moving ahead. "Quick question, where did he teach?"

Hermes shook his head again. "That I don't know. I only know he was a magic teacher from some ramblings over in the V.I.P. Lounge. As for where, that's just another mystery waiting to be solved."

"Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns." The high princess announced, causing the room to turn towards her. "More specifically, the remedial development sector of School of Magic."

"That's your school, ain't it?" Alex questioned.

"No question of it. It's in the name." The princess confirmed.

"So... Count was a teacher, quit for some odd reason." Shining summarized.

Celestia corrected the young prince. "He resigned after the passing of his wife. He sent his resignation saying that he needed time to process the loss. I allowed him that opportunity. But in the end, he became a politician, abusing his power for his own benefit."

Cliff started going off on the history that we've collected. "Okay, so here's what we know on that story so far. He was a teacher, wife killed herself, he threw his teaching career away, became a politician, apparently got mad at his son for being gay, sexually abused his daughter─"

"He has a daughter!?" Alex exclaimed.

That's where I continued to expand on the history of the family. "Son started showing up to the lounge, got instant access to the I.C. because of how he initiated himself. Daddy didn't like it, stop coming on days his son shows up. Daughter comes in as a mode of insurance for the son to keep her safe from dad. Dad takes it out on other mares. Dad's also a schizo. Tries to assassinate me. Gets caught undersigning some military orders, tried for it, his wages are frozen as a result. Also lost his savings paying the griffon assassin. Can't pay for his meds. Can't pay for his membership in Corrotto. Son and daughter cleans the joint account he used. Dad goes apeshit, jumps out of a window, kills himself."

"And gives us a postmortem greeting in my apartment this morning. My fucking place smells like the dead." Melanie concluded on a grim note.

I placed a thumb over my chin, thinking aloud. "And I can't leave her there tonight because I don't know to what extent the security protocols might have been changed. Only solution is to do her like I did Kalimba, who I've already displaced elsewhere. So Mel's gotta stay in Ponyville for the time being."

She vehemently disagreed. "I'm not staying here! I'm a fucking target!"

Shining intervened. "You're a target until they can't identify you. And honestly, we can make that happen in the next five minutes."

"How!?" She asked, before looking at Hermes and getting an idea of what was to take place. "Oh no! No no no! You can go fuck yourself with that!"

"Too late, Mel. I've gotta keep you safe and as unsuspecting as possible. Mr. Doctor won't know what you look like as long as I keep you there and out of the usual hiding spots." I explained, trying to get her to understand that her situation was extremely limited in options. "As for Cliff and Rickey, same shit applies. They know how to hit you two up, so now I'll be displacing you two to the same location, same manner."

Rickey then asked. "What does that mean exactly?"

"It means you should be packing your PS4, your games, and maybe your hygiene products. No need for more than one outfit, so clothes is out of the running. I suggest you start doing that now."

Hermes shrugged, already in a compromising situation. "Well I know this puts me in a pretty sticky situation."

"I brought you over to protect you from any fucks trying to pull the same shit they did this morning, only with your body being in the casket. I have to relocate you as well."

"Where to?" He asked.

"I'll rent you an apartment at our complex. You'll stay low, keep the doors locked, you'll stay alive." I suggested.

"But you have to turn us into ponies?" Mel was adamantly against the idea of being transformed.

I glanced over to Celestia. "I won't know what you three will look like in pony form. And I'll prefer to keep it that way."

She immediately caught the hint. "I'll do the honors of transforming you all, but you will have to not bring attention to yourselves in any significant way. I'll notify Twilight of the situation so you three can have a smooth transition."

"How long is this shit going to last for?" Cliff asked.

Calculating Mel's discomfort and disdain, I gave myself a stricter time limit. "Give me a month from now to survey the situation from the inside. After that, you're back home."

Cliff chuckled as he looked down at his crotch. "Bruh, please tell me I ain't gon' have to find out some way to yank my shit with some goddamn hooves."

"Sorry man, spell runs on a lottery chance. You could be a unicorn, could be a pegasus. Only a 33% chance you don't get those options." I stated.

"What if something happens to us?" Rickey asked.

"Then you've got six super-powered heroines who'll find you in less time than I would." I replied assuredly.

"We didn't sign up for this." Mel argued once more.

I shuddered and clenched my eyes shut, trying to purge the memory from my brain. "I didn't sign up to be kissed by a guy, but here we are."

Cliff faked a cough and pointed towards the door. "I'mma just go pack my shit."

Two Hours Later...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Melanise***

Oh. My. God.

From the moment Celestia zapped us with some of her magic, I felt hot all over and then dizzy. From there I passed out. When I opened my eyes, I found that the world was much larger than what I was used to. I had to pick myself up, only to find that my arms were replaced with legs. I looked down to see two pink hooves in place of my hands. Looking further down, I saw that my chest was covered in fur of the same color. A lock of red hair fell over my face, I batted it away only to find it attached to my head. I looked up to the portal, seeing a pink pony with aqua eyes staring right back at me.

Those three words were the only thing I could say as soon as I saw myself. I admit that I was significantly cuter than I had any business being. My honest expectations were that I was going to see myself as some horse-looking amalgamation with no chance of appearing like I was warm-spirited. But here I was, probably good enough to get Nondis' attention. I saw the freckles on my face, the curly hair that coiled just over one of my eyes, my tiny little snoot, my small figure and was somewhat pleased with myself.

But then the reality hit me once I had gave myself a good look. I would've looked great as a unicorn, being able to still mimic the use of hands through some magic, after all that would've been a lot easier. Or maybe I could find myself exploring new horizons, taking to the sky and being able to express my newfound freedom with a set of wings on my back. It would've been pretty exciting to learn how to fly... but neither of those were the gifts I was given.

I was a plainly little equine in a world of magical talking ponies, a horse of a different color but that was it for me.

Meanwhile I look at Rickey, he's big, stocky, a nice shade of orange with this wild spiky dirty blond mane with mint green highlights. He was was looking at himself, spinning around in circles and falling down over the fact that he had wings protruding from his back. And Cliff, he was built the same exact way. Of course his coat was drastically different. He had a brown coat with a head full of dreadlocks, a few of them being a light shade of lavender. He struggled a lot to get on his hooves, but he also had a pair of wings on his back.

It was already bad enough that I felt like this transition was unfair to me just on the circumstances alone, but now I felt even more envious of the fact that they had a whole new aspect of living to discover. Nondis has a damn horn to use magic, but of course I get the shitty end of the gift lottery. I guess I have to adapt to life with hooves for hands.

Oh I was not happy about any of this shit now.

A while later, we get put on the train and told to lay low. They ship us out on a low traffic route, giving us the opportunity to have a car to ourselves. And in that car, we had come up with an assortment of ideas. All of it revolving around the concept of our new living arrangement. And once of those main topics was the issue of our names. We weren't very good with pony names off the rip, but we understood that they were usually an adjective, a noun, or even both. For a maximum method of authenticity, we went with the latter option of the three.

Of course, I still wasn't too thrilled about any of this.

Rickey started to quiz me on how we would address one another. "One more time. When you call my name, my name is?"

"Strapping Lad." I said with the most painful eye roll.

Secretly, he enjoyed the name he gave himself because he knew I would have to call him that for a month. He then pointed to Cliff. "And his name?"

"Cocoa Shea." I replied, while watching Cliff fiddle with his newfound wings, which really made me feel upset.

"And your name?"

"Dumb Bitch." I pouted as I leaned against the window.

"Aw, come on." Rickey cheered, trying to get me in a better mood.

Again, my being no different than being a basic human was already a driving point for my displeasure. "Why the fuck can't we use our initials!? MAB, CDS, RMS?

"Cause we'd go around sounding like a list of health problems. Now what's your name?" Cliff replied.

I was still a bit prickly over the spell's lottery giving me nothing while I had to look at both of these asshats with wings. "I don't see why I have to do this."

Rickey then propositioned me with a smile. "Do you want another decomposing body at your doorstep?"

I finally got over myself to an extent and answered his question. "...Cherry Balm."

"There you go." Rickey said in a condescending manner, as if he was praising a child.

I groaned loudly, throwing my hooves to the air. "I hate this! All of this, I fucking hate it!"

Rickey tried to assure me some positivity. "Mel─I mean Cherry Balm, it's not that bad."

"It's not just that, you asshole. Look at the both of you!" I tried to point out calmly.

Rickey didn't immediately get what I was point out. "What about us? I'm orange, he's brown, and you're pink."

"Do I really have to point out how one of these things is not like the other?" I tried to hint at the incredulous stallion.

Each of them just looked down between their legs. "We're boys." Cliff concluded.

"Wings, asshole. Both of you have WINGS." I angrily explained to them, finally pointing out why I was so aggressive.

The two stallions looked to one another like they were surprised to see it, but then shrugged at each other as Cliff replied to me. "Hey, we pulled a lucky draw."

I continued to complain. "I can't even get a horn for courtesy! I'm ground-bound as fuck, I can't stand my body, and for some odd fucking reason I feel like I want to open my travel bag and give Lucy a quick tour of the new place. I don't even have hands to make my shit work. How do I control Lucy with these fucking meat clubs?"

Rickey looked down at his forelegs. "Yeah, I gotta admit that my before-bed experience is gonna be a bit interesting."

"Oh please, you'll just be taking the phrase 'beating your meat' a bit more literally. What am I to do?" I answered back.

Rickey felt a smirk come across his muzzle. "There is a plus to your not being a human anymore."

"And what's that, asshole?" I asked.

"Aunt Flow ain't gonna harass you this month." He playfully joked.

I was seething with anger as soon as he said that. I immediately went for my travel bag and rummaged through the contents for what I was going to shove down his throat. "I'm gonna find Lucy right now, maybe she'll like spending time in some other hole than mine."

And he just kept going anyhow. "Just think about it. No more cramps, no more insane cravings, no more back pain, no more leaks, your bedroom won't look like a Russian gulag after you finish your jamming session."

Finally finding what I sought after, I pulled out the device and lunged at him with it. "Open wide."

"Hey hey hey hey!" Cliff jumped in between the both of us, pointing his hoof to Rickey first. "You, that was funny, but no." He then pointed his hoof to me. "You, what you about to do is funny, but no. Now can we stop fussing for ten minutes and get our shit together before this train comes to a stop? We need to be able to fit the part of our appearance. We got the lingo down, we got the bodies to match. Now all we need to do is lay low for a month, chill out for a bit, let Nondis do his shit, and we good to go. Let's try to look at this like an extended vacation instead of us hiding for our lives in a world where anyone around us could be coming for our throats. Got it?"

I still wanted to shove my dildo down his trachea, but I was willing to be civil for a while. "Fine." I harshly called out.

"Okay." He replied like he had nothing else to say.

Cliff took to his seat. "Alright then. Now we ain't got long before this train hits the station. So get in your brains how you're going to address yourselves and how we'll address one another."

"We also gotta look at some jobs to take on while we're there. Meaning we're there for a month don't mean we ain't gotta look suspicious. Us not doing shit is gonna look pretty bad. And all of us can't possibly work at the same damn place, it'll really look strange then." Rickey suggested.

I took a gander at the two stallions, noticing how awkward they sat themselves in their seats, trying to appear as human as they'd usually do. "How about we learn how to walk without falling first." I pointed out.

"How the fuck do you fuck up crawling." Rickey asked, getting a salty look from the stallion sitting next to him.

"Okay, well since you're soooo good at knowing your new body, how about you hover in the air for around five minutes." I argued.

Rickey leaned against the window as if he was trying to be a French model. "Lady, none of us have an extra set of limbs we can control for practice. How the fuck are we using our wings for anything."

Cliff, meanwhile, proceeded to try and tuck his wings back in against his sides. "Facts. These bitches stayed up since I got on the train." After successfully pulling them back in place, they sprung back out in the matter of a second.

"And I'm sure the other ponies your wings slapped into are as understanding as anyone." I stated.

Cliff set aside his own frustration while trying to be the voice of reason. "Look, that'll come in time. Let's just get ourselves into these apartments, we can deal with ourselves there."

As the train whistle sounded to give us notice that the train station was just around the corner, Rickey saw the platform slowly come to view. He also glanced back at me and noticed the object still out for his consumption. "Um... You wanna put that away?"

I admittedly snapped back at him in a rude manner. "I wanna make you gag all over it. Anything to shut you the fuck up."

He quietly whispered under his breath, joking like we were still together. "...Sit on my face?"

I quickly shut him down faster than the train could come to a complete stop. "We're not doing this again, Rick."

Ponyville Inn
Later That Evening...

After we arrived and met up with the land lady, Cliff, Rickey, and I started to practice on getting used to our new bodies. While the wings took a good while to get down for those two, I started to feel more and more isolated as time went by. The reason for it being that way was the idea of those two having an interaction with one another. Even in the midst of their learning, they were still having fun with one another. While they were falling over, crashing into walls, face-planting into the floor, and find ways to use their wings, they made fun of each other's appearances.

"You a ugly-ass boy, you know that?" Cliff would say.

"Shut your dumbass up, you look like you wear Jujubes in your head." And just like that, both Rickey and Cliff would be at each other's throat.

"I know you ain't talking with your extra-crispy, sun-burnt smellin' ass, who-burnt-my-peach-cobbler-on-Thanksgiving lookin' ass."

"Boy, your hair look like it's deciding whether to file a divorce from you scalp. Your hair's Facebook status is set on 'It's Complicated'."

"Your shit look like orange-juice-flavored toothpaste, your brown-Listerine-bottle built head-ass. You look like you got your hair pulled by El Chapo in bed last night. You look like a bargain brand basketball endorsed by the YMCA."

"Bruh, you look like a bargain brand Rick James. I bet them dreads were sponsored by grape-flavored Kool-Aid. Do they come with a free Grammy, or does it just come with a warranty saying 'Cocaine sold separately, batteries not included'."

"Bitch you look like the sultan of spray-tan. They use Tang tie-dye to get you your color. I bet you asked for a treatment and the attendant just looked at a picture of Donald Trump. Now you done came out all wrong, lookin' like you escaped your minimum wage job over at Charlie's Chocolate Factory, your Oompa Loompa short-bus lookin' ass."

The two went on for moments at a time, but they would try their best not to laugh at one another's roasts. It was made inherently funnier when they were trying to keep a straight face the entire time. It was like watching two best friends just rail on each other and see who could out-do the other. Even then, I didn't really feel connected on that level with those two.

Especially Rickey.

I was always trying to keep a distance from him ever since we broke off. I honestly thought he tossed my number away after I dumped him for Jasper. Little did I know his keeping it would be the answer for my prayers, in an unimaginable way. But since then, I was loosely associated with him, only being that way because he helped me find Nondis. And I kinda owed it to him for not giving up on the search.

But ever since he came back into my life, Nondis I mean, Rick has been trying to slowly reintroduce himself into my contacts. Just small comments, maybe a word or two on Nondis, or even a heads-up on his condition was what we started off with. But months in, I started losing ground in my attempts to be with the guy I spent nine months of my life looking for, even when they told us to quit. And it didn't go unnoticed. Each time, Rick tried to be there for me. Even when I was abused by Jasper, Rick was the first one to get in contact with me.

He was always like that. In fact, I want to say we had something good for a while. But when I noticed he still had habits of looking at girls, I felt like he was busy trying to find an out. And yeah, I wasn't always the best girlfriend either, I didn't give him sex as often as I led him to believe. Most of our relationship was spent on a search party, so my mind was heavy on finding Nondis, and not so much on what I had at the time. I would've felt bad about it, but then he got drunk and woke up in some other girls bed. I guess he got tired of waiting on me, I mean I saw the signs when he was peeking out other girls that would walk by.

It's really the reason why I don't truly talk to him anymore, at least on a personal level. I keep my distance, I try to push him back to the line he long-since crossed, reinforce my fort, and stare from the top of that bitch like he was trying to invade. And yet, he's still knocking on the front door like I'm supposed to answer.

No doubt in my mind with all that's happened today, he will be trying to do the same damn thing again. He'll try to get closer to me, and then he'll do what he thinks will make me feel better... No, he'll do exactly everything I told him to do to make me feel better. And then I'll let my guard down, and he'll feel like he can get in a little closer. And when that happens, I'll probably fall for it. Sex is something I haven't had since I opened my legs for Jasper, Nondis wouldn't give me that, so I'm sure he'll just try to make me feel better by giving me that outlet. Our situation is already sexually charged as it is. He made the jokes, I already pulled out the toy, the scent of him working hard had corrupted most facets of my brain, my new body was already trying to write checks I wasn't wanting to cash, and my mind was relaying back to the moment Luna had to be a bit of a whore to get Nondis to simmer down after his first transformation.

Oh God, the throbbing he did after a load that large...

I quickly locked myself in my room. I didn't talk to either of the two or watch them joke at their own expense. I gathered my things, went to my room, closed the door, and screamed into my pillow over all of this. All of these new senses were overloading my brain, and I couldn't adjust for anything. Everything was warmer, I could walk in the snow without a fucking problem. I'm sure the air system was at a subtle temperature, but it's very warm to me.

I looked in my travel bags, trying to pull out my cell phone, only for it to constantly slip out of my hooves. I tried to compromise with myself, opting to hash one out with the new body. I picked up Lucy, propped her up on the bed, and found enough of a grip to turn her on... but her batteries were dead. And of course, I forgot to pack those. All my other shit was left in the apartment. So I had to stare back at a dead dildo for thirty minutes, wondering if this warmth would ever subside.

It only got worse.

I spent another half hour on a rousing round of screaming into my pillow again. And the only thing I could think of was to find a way to get this done because that's all I wanted. All I wanted at that time was to be used. It didn't help that I felt myself being emotionally vulnerable to the idea of approaching Nondis in this form. Hell, I'd probably have an infinitely better chance to get him to look at me like I'm NOT his best friend. I'm sure he'd probably get to know me, do some grand favor for me, and I'd be right there in the line to get a moment or two of being held in his arms. I can imagine what a man that size would do to a small little poodle like me, I'd be tossed around the place easily, pinned down, probably overwhelmed with his size, his chest could be the size of my body. I know his hands would be large to me in this form, they were already kinda sizable to me as a human. I'm sure his arms would cage me in, a huge beast just panting and priming away at me.

...Okay, this heat got real bad, real quick.

I couldn't even stay still, everything just throbbed. Deep inside of me was this literal itch that I wanted scratched, the temperature of the room soared to an unbearable warmth, the back of my legs felt like I had sprung a leak, and even my tail brushing against it was too much of a tease. The only word that seemed to repeat in my mind ad nauseam was the word 'mate'. I found myself sitting on my bed, rolling my hips against the sheets. It felt good, but it wasn't enough. I glanced over at my dead vibrator and compromised. I propped it on the bed, trying to sit on it, but it kept falling over. I couldn't use my hooves to help me, they were too cumbersome. No matter what I tried, nothing worked. I just had to suffer.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

The frustration was real. The fact that someone was knocking on my door had pissed me off far more than what I would normally had in terms of a reaction. I called out to the door. "Who is it!?"

"Hey, it's me. Strapping Lad. Is Cherry Balm in?" Richard, I fucking swear.

I shouted to the door. "GO THE FUCK AWAY!"

"I was knocking to let you know that Mrs. Land Lady finished up on dinner. You're free to eat with us if you want."

"I'll be there when I get there!" I hollered back.

And of course, he didn't leave. "Cherry Balm... I need to talk to you for a moment."

"Rick, go away."

"Mel, just..." He stopped himself short before he knocked on the door again, continuously until I got fed up and stormed to the door.

I hissed at him through the crack. "What the fuck do you want right now, can you please just not be a fucking dickweed and kindly take your ass someplace else?"

"Melanie, I just wanted to..." He paused for a second, sniffing the air around me. In the matter of seconds, he glanced back at himself and stepped back, trying to cover himself. "Um... sorry. I'll... yeah."

In the seconds it took for him to process all of that, it took me an even shorter time to do the same with him. His new body had a shameless way of displaying his honesty, and it was far more apparent than him wearing some gray sweatpants. I was in an absolute trance when I saw what his body had packing. And in my pony mind, that was justification enough.

Rick tried to dip out, but I chomped down on his outstretched wing before he could. He winced painfully as I guided him into the room. I pushed him inside, watching him stumbled all the way to the bed. I slammed the door shut behind me and panted in the strong musk he gave off.

It was far easier than trying to explain it. We just wanted it.

I propped myself against the bed, waiting. He got up and obliged. He hopped on top of me, leaning in against my ear. While I waited, I could feel him prodding at my legs, humping himself at anything that came into contact with his newfound endowment. He groaned in pleasure of being teased, in reality he was just missing the mark. I adjusted myself, giving him a better chance to find where I was. He got much closer, hitting against my openings. I tried to reach back to help him, not realizing I only had hooves to work with. So I pushed him off, and I flipped myself around. My legs were pushed aside as he found me a lot better than before.

The moment he took the plunge, I felt a high-voltage-like spark numb my legs. I couldn't even breathe over how amazing it felt. He just started and it was almost as if I was already finished. In fact, I really was. My sheets were already starting to soak in what I had left behind, I watched as my world blacked and then filled with stars before I was brought back to reality. The itch I had still remained, but the aches were being massaged away with every push. I felt more of him than I ever thought I would, but the surprise that grew more enticing to me was the very tip of his length getting almost twice the size of the rest of his manhood. I didn't question it too much, I was too busy trying to instinctively milk him for every drop he was going to leave within me.

I looked back at his face, he appeared strained. But not out of pain, he was very much enjoying the fact that he was pressing himself deep within my body. For the first time ever, I think I heard him moan. He grew so invested that he started using his thrusts to push me further onto the bed. When I got in enough, he fell out from within me with an audible plop, only for him to anchor down on the bed and go in again. He kept his eyes closed as he grunted away.

However, just as quick as I reached my climax, he soon found his. And the signs of it were so pronounced. As a human, you can't always tell when he's about to go. Sometimes you have to get a sense of the individual because they don't always tell you when it happens, sometimes it just do. But he gave all the signs I didn't know existed. His tip flared wide, almost with the intention to certify his seed the chance of fertilizing me. He was far more filling than I could've ever imagined, it was amazing that I could even accommodate for the girth. This throbbing within me was another experience entirely, it was like I was waiting. Everything about us in that moment just simply... fit.

Then it came. The warmth that was given to me at that moment started to flood the inside of my body, it was brimming with life. The itch I had further within, it was drowned out by what he had given. I was complete, I felt complete. He still flushed himself inside of me with a few subsequent thrusts, but gradually waned when it was all done. The snug fit he once was had started to dwindle, he was softening up on me. I looked up to see him still closing his eyes.

Right then, I felt a terrible sadness. The one moment I actually enjoyed about this whole pony body experience, it was like he was trying to avoid looking at the truth. So I just kicked him off of me. He looked at me like he wasn't sure of what he did wrong. I just turned over in the bed and wrapped myself in a blanket, not ever wanting to see his face again. He muttered my name. "Melanie─"

"Just go." That's all I had wanted to say to him. At least that's what I thought for the time being. I didn't want to see him, I don't need him lying to me again. I don't need to go to him with this ever again, I'll just suffer through it. Every fucking time, I do this shit and now I'm left with nothing again. So all I did was just cement the idea of my leaving him to the wolves.

He reached out to touch me, whispering to me. "Mel, please just─"

"Leave. Me. Alone."

He didn't argue any further. I waited quietly for him to leave the room. He walked over to the door, opened it, probably looked back at me, and then closed the door on his way out. As soon as I heard the latch of the lock click, I stopped suppressing my tears. All I could do was just let myself flow... on all ends.

I hate it here.

Later at the Corrotto District...
***Point Of Perspective: Equus Nondis***

Kalimba and I quietly made our way into the VIP lounge. Upon entering, we were greeted by Umbra amusing himself by making three servant do whatever he desired at the time. One such thing was to dance on their forelegs while trying not to get hit with small knives that were flicked his way. The other two watched in dead silence while they appeared incredibly tense. One young mare was particularly unnerved by the whole process. She tried to stop one of her hooves from shaking by crossing her foreleg over it.

He flicked another knife at the dancing stallion's direction before turning to me with a wide grin. "Ah, there's my little escape artist."

Over at the bar, I could see Blue hunched over the counter. Off on the other side of the room, Alabaster was applauding the performance from behind his mask. Kalimba looked at me before I started speaking. "You know, I didn't think you'd find a way to fuck me. But here we are, you get to sit there and smile while I'm looking around every corner after having to deal with you."

"Oh that's par for the course, my dear captain." The eccentric stallion replied. "See, it's much easier to be feared than loved. If you'll fear me, you do just as I say. If you love me, you'll do just enough to satisfy me. You could say you'll go the extra mile if you loved me, but let's be real... you wouldn't want to do what I'd really want you to do."

"So what, keep my mouth shut and we're good?" I asked.

He flicked a knife at the dancing pony. Next came an agonizing scream. The pony fell from his dance and started tending to the knife embedded in his hind leg. Umbra swiveled his seat to me while he spoke. "My dear captain, I'm not pleased by something so simple. If it were that easy, then this would just simply be some speak-easy locale with members running in and out on a time limit. You'd be a lot better off if it was that way. I'm not easy, you know."

"Then what is it you want?" I asked angrily.

He glanced over, looking at the pony who writhed in pain. "What I want is silence at this point, but we can't always get what we want, when we want it. If that was the case, then you'd have to act out on your own. But... you know all about that reality, don't you?"

I watched as he removed the knife from the stallion's leg, levitating his body by the injured leg. I had to stop everything within myself from helping the poor victim. "I know enough, but I know alternatives."

Umbra nodded in agreement. "Ah, alternatives! I like the way you think! So, if I had an alternative to stop the noise in my life, do you think I wouldn't explore that option? Let me tell you something, dear... I would not hesitate to try. So now I have to ask, what do you think would be the most logical approach to this situation right here? He's obviously injured, he's crying out in pain, and he's obviously wanting this to stop. What do I do to stop him from yelling out in pain?"

"Of course, you give him medical attention." I plainly answered.

Umbra pointed to me, walking up to me with a playful smirk. "That is the right answer. However, we believe in alternatives! So let's get creative for a second. He's hurting, what's a way to deal with it?"

I went with the next safest option. "...Gagging him, to cut off his sound."

He whispered in my ear, lightly trailing his hoof from the back of my head down my spine. "Tell me what else?"

I clenched my teeth as I went into the more morally reprehensible options. "Knock him unconscious."

He leaned into my neck, whispering to me. "You know... when a body dies, it can still moan. Not all the air escapes the lungs when you pass on, it's just happens to be that your diaphragm is in a relaxed state. You could always exhale a little more than what you'd normally process. But as long as the vocal cords are intact, the noise will continue." He started to lean in closer to me as continued to whisper. "So yes, the dead can and will make noise. The body isn't exactly motionless in death. And just like when you try and get a good night's sleep, the body will adjust until decomposition subsides. Now... what's the alternative you can present to me that avoids any and all noise?"

I turned my head away for a moment, trying not to get kissed a second time. I started pacing back and forth, not even realizing how everyone stopped and stared at me. "I suppose a bubble of silence?"

"That's one." Umbra confirmed. "Give me another."

"Spacial distortion spell."

"Ah, good one." He said with a chuckle. "Now let's see if you know a third."

"Sending them to an alternate dimension, or teleporting them to somewhere else."

The stallion suddenly appeared before me, without a single hint of teleportation. "That... is a damn good one."

I walked in the other direction, trying not to get in close to him. "So I take it you have ideas of just zapping him off to someplace else?"

He pointed to me with a cheesing grin. "Exactly! So instead of using him in my exclusive service, since he doesn't look the part of my pristine working staff, I suppose I could use him in other ways. So having that said, you need not to worry." In a split second, the stallion was teleported elsewhere. He then turned to me. "There, see? Out of sight, out of mind! No worries."

After that exchange, I finally got around to asking him the question I took the time to come here to ask. "So with all that shit aside, I have a grievance with something."

"Oh, you mean the housewarming gift." He replied with a chuckle. "Yeah, I just thought you could use the company."

"Wrong address." I firmly complained.

"Right address." He replied. "See, your friend came and got you, was probably upset that her place smelled a bit funny, and I'm sure my gift gave both of you quite the startle."

I looked over to the bar, seeing how Blue was quietly shuddering in her seat. I'm sure she or her brother wasn't aware of the fact that their father paid us a visit. After all, we did place a gag order on all the guards who were involved with the relocation of his remains. Still, I had to keep some measure of composure. I'm sure killing him would only make matters worse. "Yeah, it was real funny up until it wasn't. And that stopped being funny from the moment we caught whiff of the smell."

He slithered his forelegs around my neck, trying to seduce me. "You know, I do so miss Count DuMoneé. I bet if the both of you had gotten to know one another in a sense, you'd find that you and he were pretty similar in terms of your ambitions. Of course it's for a different cause, but you two were very much alike. You don't even realize it."

"In what way were we ANYTHING alike?" I questioned the eccentric stallion.

"I guess I can start with the fact that you both avoid me like the plague." He began. "You both use Single File as your accomplice. The two of you have a deep secret that would unravel your careers just as easily as they came into fruition. Both of you had no business indulging in specific lusts. Now of course, his was a little more niche. Yours... is a lot more controversial."

"I don't have a daughter to rape." I stated.

"No. But you do have three royal princesses you've sullied with that human body of yours." He started to nibble on my ear. "Quite the collection, I've grown more interested in you since I found that out. Each day goes by and I'm wondering what exactly has you pulling the tabs on almost all four of the alicorn tetrarchy. The four pillars of power, and you've accosted all of them while plundering all but one. I'm sure without Shining Armor in place, Princess Cadance would be no less of a victim than the others you've put your hands on. Just think on it, a foreign entity shows up and applies his tongue to awaken the dormant nethers of Princess Celestia herself, his hands to appease and soothe the lustful wrath of Princess Luna, and asserting himself to lay seed within the one and only Princess Twilight. Twice."

The room grew ghastly silent with his throwing my business in the air. Even the servants gawked at me with complete shock over my sexual history. He then went even further.

"But that's not all. You've gotten close to achieving the task with another element bearer, specifically the Element of Laughter herself. Oh, and I do believe that the Element of Generosity has contributed a lot to your method. She taught you everything you know." He turned around and pointed to the bar. "That one there, she's laid her tongue on you in fruitful unison with your champion, Kalimba. And of course... I haven't excluded the one you don't want to talk about, the one who you secretly chased after for a good seven years at least, your human female friend."

I tried to argue against him. "She's not interested in me."

"Oh to lie to me, when I know it all, so bold!" He cried out, pointing his cane to my face. "After all, I'm sure she took it hard once it was revealed to her that you and Celestia were secretly dating."

Even one of the servants gasped audibly. Everyone in the room stared at me, including both Blue and Alabaster.

The stallion giggled for a moment and shrugged. "I'm sure you're wondering how I came across all of this. And I'm sure you'd be worried that I would stop you from doing whatever you're trying to do while you're here. But here's the thing, this is far too fun to pass up. I couldn't just put all your laundry out for the masses, that would put too quick of an end to our little affair. Got to save some juice for the club to enjoy."

While I was trying my best not to assassinate this guy on spot, I knew that my doing so would probably give free license to release all of that information as a postmortem checkmate. That much information would probably unseat the entire royal family, possibly putting them in more danger. For the sake of my job, I had to play along. "So what games are you trying to play?"

The stallion smiled as he took his cane, spinning it as he pirouetted in place. "I'm interested in seeing how far you'll go to make ends meet. You'll obviously be here to see things through, but you may find it a bit harder to pull off. Some ways would be even easier, considering your closeness to the royal family. But I'm going to throw in a bit of my prescribed madness to wage a bet."

I looked over to Kalimba, who was uncharacteristically wide-eyed. She seemed absolutely terrified. I turned back over to him. "Whatever it is, you leave my family and friends out of it."

"Well that wouldn't be fair, it's just upping the stakes when I feel you've gotten complacent. So you'll have to deal with it from now on." He stopped himself, staring at me. My eyes remained locked on him as I felt more of an incentive to take his life. He slowly walked up to me and mumbled in my face. "Maybe if you weren't so quick to run from me, I wouldn't resort to these kinds of things to have you come back to me. Savvy?"

I had to catch myself from scowling holes into his body, imagining how many bullets I was wanting to put into his skull. He teleported next to me and gave me a cheshire grin.

"So. We're gonna have you play a little game for me for the next month. The terms and conditions may change up whenever I feel that you need a spike in difficulty. All you have to do is defeat the one enemy that stands in the way of your investigation. As for who it is, well that would be spoiling it a little too early. But I am a fair loser. If you're the last one standing, then you win. And in turn, I'll give you all the information you need, unfiltered, unredacted, unrestricted, unlimited access. So if you want the information of any Inner Circle member, it's all yours."

Everyone in the room looked to one another, those like Damper Trot and Alabaster simply glanced among themselves. I started to analyze the terms he provided, but questioned him of what he didn't say out loud. "And if I were to lose?"

"You'll know when you've lost." He simply replied. "After all, death is always a consequence of failure. Now of course, I will not be laying a hoof on you outside of when I desire the interaction. A month is all I ask for a bit of fun. And if you manage to win, you get to know every bit of information you'd need to unseat Law Processu Approbatio. It will be everything you'd need to allow for your clandestine relationship to become a little less restricted."

"How is the idea of my dying brings any enjoyment to you?" I asked him.

"Because... I am me." He said, before pointing his cane to everyone around the room. "And all of you know the rules. No cheating, no helping, and absolutely no hints." I remained cautious as the stallion pointed to me with his cane. "So how about it, your participation in my little game for my participation in your investigation. I'm sure it's a deal to die for."

I looked back to Kalimba, who was fearfully quiet. I turned to Umbra and gave him a warning. "My family, my friends, are not involved in this. You keep this between you and me."

The stallion chuckled, flipping his cane. "I'm afraid the terms and conditions I had set were already accepted from the moment you walked through the door tonight. You don't have a choice in how the contract's negotiated when I know all that I do about you. You either agree to my terms, or I purge your hopes and dreams from the moment you walk out the door. I'm sure Celestia wouldn't mind your being a banished eunuch for the rest of your days. And I'm certain that she'd enjoy a second helping of what was done to her in the olden days."

I wanted to watch him suffer, I wanted him to be slowly peeled alive like a blood and pus-filled orange. I wanted nothing more than to see him endure that agony, to see that final frame of despair frozen on his face with his last breath. I was sure the nightmares to follow would prove to be wet dreams for me. But considering who all was going to be under the same microscope, I had no other choice but to play his game... for my sake as well as theirs. Honestly, death would be an easier process as opposed to being a dick-less man. At the very least, I had no idea what the others look like or exactly where they are throughout the day. I'm just glad I anticipated this in the event of my situation being compromised again. I didn't plan everything I did just to fail.

I'm going to have to apologize to the others, I won't be seeing or talking to them for a while. "...So, what's first?"

The Next Day...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

As soon as I got back in, I knew that the septic dispute was getting lined up to hit the back of the fan. The only method I could think of to counter any of Umbra's moves was to start off in the department of securing the portals. But it couldn't just end there, I had to also secure the hall leading into my room, the halls leading to the portal room, the main entrance to the castle, and finally my bedroom. There was no chance of me sparing any expense to getting this done. I had to make moves today, and I was going to see if our security issue was going to be as inconsistent as it was when they casually marched a coffin into Mel's apartment. And if that's the way they're going to sneak in and out of my world, they're going to find it much harder to do so without being noticed.

So today, I was working overtime.

I crossed back over to my world, took a trip to Home Depot, investigated a few measures in home security. I essentially went wireless, especially being that I wasn't exactly tool savvy. It also allowed me to quietly install everything without having to drill and put holes in places I couldn't afford to. Plus I didn't have the tools to drill holes in granite and marble columns while being up at least 15-20 feet in the air, which was about the height of the ceiling. So wireless was my best option, especially considering the mobility factor.

I picked out everything between motion sensors, infrared security cameras, HD cameras with night vision, motion sensitive cameras, and advanced security panels for modifications. I managed to get a few sensor bars for things like doors, windows, closets, and even the portals themselves. If anything breaks the beams, I will be notified of the change. If there was one shred of movement, I'd have a camera ready to grab footage. If there was one change of security detail that I didn't authorize, then I'll look out to see who left their post and where. After I had graciously walked myself to the checkout, the cashier started looking at me funny like I didn't know what all I was getting. And that price tag had even brought over a manager or two to oversee the purchase.

Here's the shake down. Motion sensors, $1,300. IR CCTV cameras, $6,500. Motion sensitive cameras, $5,500. 4K resolution night vision cameras, $10,800. Advanced home security panel with sensory pads, $1,600. The grand total plus tax: $28,268.97. The look on their faces when I paid it all from my debit card: Fucking. Priceless.

There are some things money can't buy. For everything else there a Wal-Mart Visa Card.

I got back to Canterlot and started mapping out the castle and how I was going to place what and where. That phase took me a good two hours to do before I was able to get started with my installations. I had Shining and Blueblood give me the best possible spots for a device to record from. And with their help in terms of the installation, it took us a good five hours to drastically upgrade the security from the equivalent of a 17th Century method to a awe-striking power dive to the 21st Century. It took me another hour to get everything locked in where I could view every camera from my phone. It took yet another hour on top of that to test everything around the castle grounds, including alarms.

When it was all finished, I was good and sweaty. After a ninety minute shopping trip, two hours of scouting, five of installation, another two for testing and routing, I wiped my brow from the near eleven hours of taking my job seriously, and called it a day. The three of us retired to the dining hall, admiring our work.

MOTION DETECTED: DINING HALL

Shining and Blueblood shook their heads with amazement. "Holy fuck, this is all so wild to me." Shining announced.

I took out my phone and pointed to the corner at the end of the room, citing where the motion camera was stationed. "Yeah, as soon as we walk in, that son of a bitch right there starts recording."

"I can't help but to wonder if this will ever fall back on us in some cruel way." Blueblood inqured.

"Nobody here knows how to use a phone except for Shining and Celestia. They wouldn't be able to work the system to where they can go on the footage and zoom in on someone's face if need be. Safe to say we're good on that front."

Both Cadance and Celestia walked in through the door to the same chime we heard upon entering.

MOTION DETECTED: DINING HALL

Cadance looked around, wondering where the voice originated from. "Who's goes there!?" She called out in an authoritative tone.

"That would be the sound of the new security system Nondis installed." Shining explained. "Just finished putting it together today."

I pulled up the ongoing security footage of the dining hall on my phone and showed it to the two royals. "Smile. You two are on TV."

While they looked down at the screen, the could see all three of us looking down at the phone. Cadance's head propped up to see from where we were being observed. Celestia gazed around until she noticed the small white camera hanging high up in the ceiling. She waved her hoof at the object, seeing herself wave in the feed. Cadance chuckled in awe. "You know, I can't help but to ponder the frightening headway we'd make if you'd put this same energy into your job daily."

"I'm an American, I work in bursts." I joked at my own expense. "If I go this hard everyday, then there'd be nothing that would surprise you anymore."

Celestia agreed with my sentiment. "Actually I'm all for it in this case. If the spontaneity of his approach can throw us off, then imagine what it does to those who are unfamiliar with his world's technology and his tactics. You could completely reinvent the way we do security."

"It'll be useful, I know that." Blueblood added enthusiastically. "Something on this scale isn't exactly doable with even all of the magic spheres in existence."

Shining stretched his forelegs. "You know, I'm wondering if there's any way we could install a similar system over in the Crystal Empire."

"I ain't doing this shit again." I said, shaking my head in denial. "This was eleven hours of work in a place I'm familiar with in terms of the floor-plan. Doing this in another castle, without any floor plans, in the cold tundra, at least a good five-hundred feet up, nah."

"We're on the side of a mountain several thousand feet up, I think you'll be fine up north." Cadance joined in with her husband.

"Cadance, I'm from a place that shuts down with the slightest mention of snow falling from the sky. You're talking about a lonely skyscraper with many open-air accesses in the pony equivalent of the North Pole. No." I reiterated strongly.

Celestia glanced down at the phone I gave her, tabbing over to the Instagram message feed. She looked down and saw that there were no new messages from me. She appeared moderately disappointed, but understood that the events from yesterday morning, compounded with my investigation and today's installations had consumed much of my attention. She made no visible attempt to bring attention to herself, but the way she approached me indicated that she wanted to know what exactly was on my mind.

Meanwhile Cadance was too busy swapping her attention from the phone's screen to the camera that pointed in our direction. "There appears to be a delay."

"The feed is always going to have some latency." I addressed to her. "It's transmitting data from the camera, to the server, and then over to my phone. It's still a second or two off, but I can see the entirety of the castle grounds. I haven't set up the monitors to do that yet."

"You mean you'll be using a selection of guards to oversee each area?" Cadance questioned.

"Not really." Celestia explained. "It's more of a rectangular viewing device that can be used to watch the various cameras. And I'm not exactly sure how many you have in terms of cameras. I just know that you will be needing a few of those screens to highlight a few problematic areas." She then turned to me. "Did I get that right?"

"Stellar." I praised the princess for her accuracy. "I actually installed a number of sensors and security feeds. I think we're using about 20 different servers for the castle grounds. The entire place is under my supervision, with the notable exception of the bedrooms."

Celestia ears flushed slightly red. "Oh my, that would've been embarrassing."

I summoned a copy of the castle blueprints, but with red dots indicating the locations the cameras, green for the sensors, and orange for the control panels. The princess was shocked and amazed over the immense number of dots she counted to herself. "...320. You have 320 of these cameras all over the castle, are you kidding me?"

"And I can look at each one on my phone." I pointed out. "Having that said, you might want to keep that in your safe, don't want to compromise this operation by having a bunch of prodding minds looking to thin the numbers. Might want to take me up on that."

She rolled the map up and teleported it away. "You have my upmost diligence, captain."

"Thank you."

As I glanced down at my phone, I noticed a message had come in on Instagram. She wanted to know how my day had went and if I needed anything special. I said no, just needed to keep my head clean. She also informed me that Luna would be available for a dream watch tonight.

Might be a good idea, if I can finally manage to fall asleep after yesterday's dose of nightmare fuel.

Meanwhile in Ponyville...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Melanise***

Today was a mix of emotions. A lot of my moments were trying to cope with what I allowed to happen yesterday, my having to wake up being different, and even trying to live my life as such. All this morning, I was waiting for the boys to finish with their breakfast before I even showed up. When I finished with that, I just kinda kept my distance. I didn't want to trigger a conversation with Rickey, all of it's too raw for me to handle. And I didn't want to trigger one with Cliff, because he would eventually get me to explain why I've been so distant. And knowing him, he'd probably make an argument with Rickey and get him to apologize, which is something I don't need right now. Instead of keeping my feet dry─hooves in this case─I wandered into town and actively started looking for opportunities of employment.

If I didn't want to be around, I needed to keep myself busy both mentally and physically.

So I took up signings around town. There were a lot of opportunities. I filed an application for this place called Quills & Couches, another place called Lilly's Floral, and even a place called Stand-In Sales. There was only one itty-bitty, teeny-weeny, tiny-winey, small problem with all of those listings.

All of them put me on the spot from the moment I walked up asking for the job. The first place, Quills & Couches, they wanted me to try and convince an old indecisive mare to buy a couch. Sounds easy, right? Oh no, she was barely walking faster than a sloth, she could never keep her eyes open, she decided to pick between two couches that were the EXACT SAME DAMN MODEL, same color, same material, same everything. It took her an hour and a half to pick one, and then paid for her purchase in bits... ONE BY ONE, SLOWLY. If. You. Could. Ever. Put. Into. Words. Hoooooow. Sllooooooow. Shheeeee. Waaaaassss, then you'd understand how hard it was to keep my hair on my head. I got relieved because I wasn't smiling enough, and they valued smiling workers putting up with absolute bullshit over employee mental health. I lost a good third of my brain cells and half of my life span dealing with that old lady.

Lilly's Floral, that was an unfortunate circumstance. The entire experience could be chalked up to the idea that I wasn't really in a bright and cheerful mood to sell flowers to begin with, especially after the last job. What happened with me there wasn't just the smile, it was more of my lack of floral knowledge. I didn't know the names of the roses and flowers on sale. I too readily called them everything but their known name. And I might've pissed off the manager when I picked out the wrong flowers to sell. She dropped me at that moment, didn't even last thirty minutes.

Stand-In Sales was pretty much a advertising firm that hired you on your looks and tried to get you to model for the product. And since it was the products I was modeling, I figured I had the minimum to pull off. No, not exactly. I couldn't hold lipstick up to my lips, I couldn't pull apart a quesadilla slowly without it looking like a crime scene, I sneezed at the perfume they put on me, my smile wasn't bright enough, and I couldn't walk down a catwalk without tripping over myself. That was a good three hours wasted, and I got no compensation for that.

As soon as they escorted me out, I found myself even more pissed off. I let myself bubble over and I found a good cart to kick over. An elderly voice called out to me angrily. "What in tarnation! Missy, ya done kicked over mah product!"

"I'm sorry! 'KAY!?" I shouted back, fed up with my experience.

The mare looked at me and squinted her eyes. She marched in front of me and pointed over to the cart I kicked over. "Well if yer any bit of sorry, how bout you clean up yer mess and march this here to mah farm!?"

I grumbled, pulling my hooves over my eyelids. "Lady, I can't do shit else unpaid, alright!?"

The entire town square just stopped and stared at me. One lady looked over to me after covering her son's ears. The green elderly mare quirked an eyebrow and tilted her head. "Potty-mouth, huh?"

I stopped for a moment, looking at the scene I had caused. There was a young kid crying in their stroller, a concerned mother marching with her son, covering his ears along the way, many onlookers looked down on me for my actions, and there was apples strewn all over the place. I took that moment of clarity and took a deep breath. "...Okay. I am sorry. It's been a long day, and I'm just getting here, trying to adapt."

The green elderly mare lowered her tone, but still remained stern with me. "Missy, ain't a day without some hard or work in it, that just life. Meanin' yer day ain't the easiest to start don't mean ya make it harder fer somepony else. All ya do is make yerself look bad, while makin' others feel bad."

"Yeah. I know." I replied somberly.

"Well if ya know it, then why'd ya do it? Why take it out on poor little ol' me and mah apples? They've had a rough goin' out already." She motioned me to help her, I complied. She pointed to one she picked up. "Ya see this one, she ain't had the easiest life, threats of fruit bats, parasprites, thieves, a few rough storms, and even bit of a bruisin, and she's hopin' to get picked on one day. She ain't the belle of the ball, but she looks her best. But now she's gotta go back home to the family after a day of showing her stuff, not once getting looked at."

I shook my head and continued to pick up the scattered apples. "You really do give those things a personality." I sarcastically pointed out.

"Missy, just hush up and listen. There's a lesson in this here story." The elderly mare replied. "Now, say she takes all that home with her, and she gives it all back to everyone around her. Now her pretty red coat turns brown from all the ugly, and the sale she could've made while at home, it ain't a sale no more because she done ruined the whole farm with it. That's what it means to have a rotten apple spoil a bushel. Now do ya think ya can sell that, or do ya think the pretty one who keeps it movin' can sell herself a little better?"

I just sighed, knowing she was right. "I guess the pretty one sells."

"Ya darn tootin'! She's gonna sell 'cause she puts her best forward and her worst behind her. Now, what are you gonna do? Are ya gonna rot all over, or are ya just gonna pick 'em up and strut yer stuff?"

Listening to her story managed to speed up my work, I straightened the cart and finished off my cleanup with a sincere apology. "I guess I'll clean up a little. I'm sorry about the mess."

The mare pulled out a small little sack of coins. "Now that's a bit better. Now how bout you lug that on over to mah farm so Ah can trade yer troubles for this here purse."

I nodded, positioning myself at the front of the cart. "I guess it's better than nothing."

Throughout my trip, I thought I would start to bemoan the idea of being forced to carry a huge load around town. But to my surprise, I was actually completely fine with it. Had to admit the road was a bit bumpy at parts and made it a little tricky to get around, but it was still just a matter of my walking forward. The elderly mare and I talked along the way, telling me of her past and how she got to help her family stake their claim on Ponyville. She seemed positive and upbeat for someone who was telling me that she wasn't really up for dragging the cart around, apparently her hips had gone sour over the years and she's trying to adjust to her declining health.

Still, the idea of her toting this damn thing around had showed me just how strong this lady was in her old age.

After all of her stories, we soon found ourselves at a bright red barn. The sun was sinking well past the horizon when we got there. The elderly mare stopped me dead in my tracks, unhooked the harness, and took inventory of her product. She pulled back out the purse and started doing some math.

"Alright, now let's see. Taking into account damages to product an' vehicle, a little bit of snapback, also a potty-mouth penalty─that's just the old swear jar, that puts ya down to around... ninety-eight bits."

She handed me the moderately deflated purse. I looked inside, quietly unimpressed but outwardly appreciative. "Thank you, ma'am. I just wish I could've ran into you sooner."

"Yeah, maybe yer disposition would've been a bit better dealin' with us instead of them fancy hirin' places."

I snickered for a moment, putting the purse inside of one of my bags. "Yeah. I just don't see how I was gonna be able to put up with that for a month straight."

"A month, huh? Is that all yer workin' fer?" The lady questioned me.

"Yes ma'am. I'm here while they clean out my old place. It'll be a month before I can go back."

She looked around and asked me quietly. "Ya got a coop to house yer hens?" I blanked out at her question, trying to put together what she was asking me. She then clarified herself. "Ya got a bed to lay in?"

"Oh! Okay, yeah. Sorry, I'm what you would call a city girl. But I do stay in an apartment." I replied.

"What's yer rent lookin' like?" She asked.

"Twelve-hundred."

"Awful lot fer a transplant. Could jus shack the barn fer five."

I started smiling and held a hoof to my chest, seeing just how nice this lady really was. And I also felt a bit of pain realizing that I was railing into her just a little while back. "Ma'am, that's too much."

"But yer still gonna need a job, right?"

I closed my eyes and tried to not become any bit of emotional. "Yes, I do."

"Well how bout this, ya show up bright an' early 'fore the rooster calls it, you can help mah granddaughter and her new striped friend work the south orchard. Nice crop of ghost apples comin' in this time of year, an' we're tryin' to keep up with the demand. This here farm is ran by mostly us gals, but don't be afraid to call my grandson Big Mac fer a task that might require a little force of will. 'Course Ah'd ask that there'd be no funny business with the stallion."

I giggled, wiping the tears that threatened to eclipse my eyes. "Yes ma'am."

Behind me, I could hear some sets of hooves clopping towards our direction. My ear instinctively flicked back to catch them before the got even closer. They also caught the voice of a boisterous mare. "Hoo-wee! Now that was a long day of gettin' at it!" Her voice was very familiar to me.

I turned around, seeing none other than Applejack coming in with a cart filled with apples. Standing next to her was a zebra with a horn. She looked to me with uncertainty. The elderly lady spoke with the orange mare. "Applejack, Kalimba, looks like y'all might get another set of hooves on tomorrow's pickin's. This here is... uh... never quite got yer name."

"Cherry. Cherry Balm." I quickly replied, extending a hoof out to shake.

As soon as she returned the favor, I felt the entire world jolt violently up and down while she shook my hoof repeatedly. "Well Ah'll be haughtier than a prized hog at the state fair, welcome aboard the Apple Family Orchard! We take pride in our work, this farm here was built on the backs of the good ponies who made their trek here. Well over a hundred moons of tradition, family, and moral values are all seeded on these grounds."

The elderly mare tapped the younger mare. "Applejack, don't talk the poor girl's ear off. Ah already told her that stuff on the way in." She didn't tell me that stuff on the way in, more like trying to spare me from Applejack's history lesson.

"Well why didn't ya say so, Granny Smith? Ah would've kept it to a name." She replied before addressing me. "Mah name's Applejack. This here is a temp worker like you, her name's Kalimba. She's comin' from Canterlot, gettin' away from a pretty bad place. So she's moved to Ponyville fer the time bein'. Ah hope all of us can be as good of workers as we can be friends."

While my hoof still pulsed from her greeting, I nodded. "I'm looking forward to that."

The Next Day...

Instead of using the one that's on my phone, I had used a more traditional alarm clock that had the bells and the mallet between them on the wind-up. I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock dinging in my ears. I reset the alarm and took my shower, gathered my thoughts, and ran out the door before the sun could start to really turn the sky a lighter shade of blue. All throughout my journey, I found a select few ponies gathering their goods for the impending day. It appeared so dormant in contrast to the usual morning rush on campus, but then again this was a Sunday.

When I arrived to the farm, I saw Granny Smith rocking in her chair on the front porch. Standing beside her was a young filly and Applejack. The zebra named Kalimba was coming from the direction of the barn, she didn't seem nearly as tired as I was. But I know I was a lot more alert in contrast to the young filly who yawned and stretched her hooves. Strangely enough, I didn't see any stallions present.

We all gathered in front of the house and waited for Granny Smith to say something. But on closer inspection, she was completely dozed out. Applejack tapped her to wake her, causing the elder to shake awake. "Huh-who-wha... Oh." She immediately noticed me then. "Well lookit here, don't ya look purty in the mornin' twilight. Nice to see ya came to work."

"I'm just here to earn my keep, ma'am." I quietly replied, still a bit tired.

Applejack looked over to see Granny Smith starting to doze off again, taking the opportunity to speak for her grandmother. "Alright now, we're gonna be workin' against the clock. Ghost apples don't take to the sunlight too well, ya gotta pick 'em quick before the sun really gets to the high arc of the day. These are some special enchanted apples made of ice, and when ya turn 'em into jam, they sell fer a good profit. The sooner we get these apples picked, the more we turn to jam, the more a profit we draw in, the more y'all get paid. So let's get a move on and get pickin'!"

The last word Applejack yelled grabbed Granny from her sleep. "Pickin' who!? Oh..." She turned to her granddaughter. "Ah take it ya done took the words right from my mouth again, huh?" Applejack just smiled back. "Oh well, off to it then. Apple Bloom and Ah'll be waitin' on ya."

The young filly tiredly laid down. "Just tell us when y'all bring in the stuff fer us to make the jam."

As we were walking to collect our baskets, I quietly asked the zebra about the stallion that was rumored to be on the farm. "Whatever happened to the stallion we're supposed to stay away from?"

"I take it dat he is on his rest day." She replied in an awfully thick African accent.

"But I thought Granny Smith told us to get him if the task gets a little too rough for us."

Applejack quickly intervened. "Granny Smith ain't mean nothin' bout it. Ah'm plenty strong for the job, if not a fortune stronger then he'll ever be. Just tell me what ya need and Ah'll get it done."

Kalimba nodded as she confirmed the farm girl's boast. "She is an element bearer, by fate she was given a great strength. So great dat few stallions possess what she has. It takes at least six of dem to compare to her, ah."

In other words, if you tried to fight her on sight, she'd knock you into next week. If there was no other testament to that, then I at least had the handshake from yesterday to serve as evidence. Guess I'm in good hooves as long as I stay working here.

As soon as we got to our assigned spot, the sun started to rise. Applejack jumped at the first dormant tree she saw and kicked it. Immediately, a bunch of thuds sounded on the ground around her. I got in closer to see what had fell since I couldn't actually see what dropped from the branches above. Looking down, I saw what appeared to be a glassy apple. I picked it up, noticing how cold it was to the touch. I quickly placed it into the basket and collected some others. Applejack started to explain the phenomenon.

"Ghost apples are rare apples that grow on the trees here. When ya turn em into jam, they produce this white and blue jelly that's super sweet to the tongue. And it's a great way to dress yer biscuits for breakfast. Sometimes it's used fer fillin' in some sweet pastries and doughnuts. Pair it with some cream cheese in a danish, an' ya got a rich and creamy danish that's great for a bitter cup of black coffee."

"A blue-collar worker's delight." I summarized.

"Blue collar?" Applejack questioned, appearing confused.

I then realized she had no idea what that meant. "What I mean to say is that it's for hard-working ponies who do a lot of physical labor. Usually indicated by a type of shirt."

Kalimba appeared confused, but Applejack quickly caught on. "Oh. So I guess that's what you humans call it."

"Yeah that's it." I said blindly, not exactly processing what she had just put out in the open. I jumped at the mare's accusation. "Wait a minute, I'm not a─"

Applejack snickered as she finished cleaning up the apples she knocked out of the tree. "Even if Twilight ain't told us what Celestia had relayed to her, I would've easily figured it out."

I was left flabbergasted, at a loss for words. "How so!?" I questioned.

"Fer starters, ya walk's a little janky, almost unnatural really." Applejack pointed out.

Kalimba went on to confirm. "De captain was dat exact same way when I first met him. He eventually learned how to be a natural at it."

Applejack continued her explanation. "Second, everypony knows who Granny Smith is. Her face is on advertisements across all of Equestria. Our apples are a national product, so her face is the first thing you'd see on the label."

Strange how I didn't notice that one.

"And thirdly, de terms 'blue collar' and 'white collar' have been explained to me as terms to describe de kind of jobs a human assumes, namely based on the clothing dey wear. No pony would know dat kind of information aside from those who are close to de humans." Kalimba concluded.

I mumbled to myself. "Shit."

"That's five bits." Applejack interjected. "Swear jar policy."

Shit. At least I can't get docked for what I think. "Crap. Well, guess I'm screwed." I said while dropping my head.

"Not really." Kalimba said as she picked many apples from a tree using her magic. "You are in a good position. Not only is Applejack as strong as she is, I am also a gifted fighter. So you are in a good place."

"Still though, ya gotta do a little better in your walkin' and street smarts before ya pass yerself as a pony." Applejack suggested politely. "Ah know yer new to it, and the new body ain't easy to figure. Just keep up the effort and you'll be a natural before ya even know it. Now come on over to this here tree." I nodded before walking over to another tree she pointed out. She quickly turned me around and started stretching my hind legs out. "Now what ya wanna do is not kick on this thick part right here, you'll sprain yer leg somethin' fierce. But hit up here on this part, and try not to put too much umph into it. Yer an earth pony, so it'll be good to measure out how much strength ya put out."

Knowing me, I took one glance at the tree and cocked my legs back, and launched them at full force. The next thing I felt was an entire branch fall on my back. I looked back and saw that it wasn't just the branch, but the entire tree that came crashing down on me. I was stunned to silence, unsure of what to even do at that point.

Applejack just giggled. "Earth pony strength, you'll get used to it."

Bun-n-Barrel Sports Bar, Canterlot
Later That Day...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

After a pretty restful day, I took the invitation that was graciously given to me by a few of the barrack dwellers. We immediately sortied out to the local sports bar, at least where we could hear the radio that was previewing the primetime event of the week. It was like tuning in to Pay-Per-View Wrestling, only without the televised broadcast, the social media reaction, or the slim chance of catching some nudity. But when you get asked to a bar night with the boys, it's your duty to build bonds with your subordinates. It's no different from showing leadership on the field, you have to show that you're with them on and off the shift, it breeds morale faster than German cockroaches.

The place was bustling with guards, some with armor just coming from their shift, many without it who ended theirs a few hours before. The servants at the bar were mainly female, many could easily be considered as eye-candy for some young stud looking for a story to tell in the morning. But they gave out insults as easily as they did complements. Oh, and don't be that guy thinking you could cop a feel on one as she walks by, those hindlegs are just as deadly as any weapon issued.

The radio was cranked to max volume.

As the crowd started to settle down, I noticed some guards still wearing their armor started to remove their helmets. It was like they were preparing for the national anthem. And just on cue, the announcement sounded through the radio speakers that they would paused for the singing of the national anthem. I could hear the entire bar take a collective breath, a heavy one before the storm of mixed notes and tone-deaf melodies blow the windows clean off the place.

♪Faust save our gracious Queen,
Long live nobility,
Long reign shall she!
Ever victorious,
Proud, true, and glorious,
Her sun reign over us,
Faust save the Queen!♪

In a show of raucous patriotism, they all banged their cups together in a marvelous toast. It was like watching a bunch of drunks finishing the Star Spangled Banner after watching their prized American fighter take the title of the heavyweight championship in boxing.

One of the bartenders pushed a pint over to my direction. In doing so, she waved in a flirtatious manner. While I thanked her with a nod, another guard came up beside me and leaned on me where I sat. "Hey captain, I know you got an anthem from your home country, don't you!?"

I shook my head, just burying my lips in the malty beer I was provided.

Without warning, the cup was tapped away from my face and I was being bombarded by at least four others all cheering me to share my own country's anthem. I tried to play it down. "Guys, it's nothing special. I hear that shit almost every time we do something sports related. We're good."

A male bartender slammed down another pint in front of me and called me out in a deep raspy voice. "Aw, come on then! Regale the lads with a song of lore then! Or maybe a song of patriotism from your homeland!" The entire bar shouted in agreement over that later suggestion. I rolled my eyes and obliged. Before I even took a breath, I heard the radio being turned down all the way so that they could hear me sing. I got nervous immediately, but was further encouraged by the guards standing behind me. I closed my eyes, beginning to think of the words, hoping that I wouldn't mess them up. I then hummed myself a comfortable key. Everyone behind me droned that same key, almost like I had an accompaniment.

Oh say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

I then jumped the octave, which caught many off guard.

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there
Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

The bar was silent after that. Many onlookers quietly just stared at me, nodding with approval. I felt something tap against my arm, realizing it was a mug from the bartender. He raised his hoof and shouted to the bar. "Now ain't that the most damn patriotic thing we've heard? Your's sound like a land filled with pride!"

"More like a land overflowing with food, beer, and freedom." I said proudly, also with some sarcasm added. The crowd didn't seem to care too much about that, they were cheering me on for the song. The bartender raised a pint of his own and proudly called out to the crowd.

"A cheer for our captain, he serves away from his home for a land not his own!"

"CHEERS!"

We all downed our mugs and let out a rowdy roar as the radio was cut back up to full volume, just in enough time for the undercard to start playing out. While that fight was going on, there was a few maids standing in front of a chalkboard taking up bets. The bits started flying right out of their pockets and the numbers started getting tallied for the main event. Over in the corner next to the chalkboard, I saw a group of four mares, still wearing their armor as they quietly nursed their mugs. While I glanced over, Humbreeze tapped me on the side. "What's the matter, captain? I thought you'd enjoy this."

"Oh yeah, I'm having fun. I'm just noticing the four guards over there. They aren't like the others" I pointed out.

Humbreeze chuckled. "Oh yeah, them. They're in here every other Sunday. Three of them are pretty wild if you wanna take a shot. But you might wanna not pull the short straw out of that bunch."

"Why not?" I asked.

"You might end up getting shut down by the ice queen herself." He warned grimly.

The bartender tapped me as well and nudged his head over in their direction. "Hey, it's better to wait until the ice queen leaves that pack. Then you gotta work your way through two more for the one you want. I heard the three others are a wild time."

"So what's the deal with this ice queen?" I asked.

The two gawked at me, as well as a few others when I asked that question. "Are you serious, you don't know about the Infamous Ice Queen of Canterlot?" Humbreeze asked.

"I heard she's been on the crawl up the ranks." Another guard whispered from behind me. "Twenty years and she can't even make captain."

Well that's a familiar story. "Oh... You mean Solemn Oath." I replied.

The bartender's eye bucked wide as he slid a mug before my mouth. "Hey now, you never know what kind of things will happen if you name-drop that one."

"So you do know about her?" Humbreeze confirmed. "Well then you already know the deal. Avoid her, go in with at least two of your best guys, take the one you want, let the others get their fill, all three of you go home happy."

I looked over to the bartender. "So what happens when you get caught by you-know-who?"

"You ever had beer and salted peanuts in your mane?"

"That's it?" I questioned, seeming pretty unimpressed with the consequences.

"Oh, but that ain't even the catch. Those other three will be looking to stall for time until the ice queen gets back." The bartender stated.

"They're really well-coordinated." Humbreeze cosigned. "Everything they do, they do together until you and two others can crack their code and get them separated. Other than that, the three are a challenge to get through to."

Another voice chimed in from beside me. "They play hard to get, but you crack one, you'll be in for a hell of a time while the other two try to intercept."

"They're already selective." Another mumbled.

"Financially secure, been in the guard for a while." Another whispered.

"Loads of disposable income. If you get serious, she'll spoil you rotten." The bartender muttered.

"And I take it that the objective is to get lucky on the first night, come back a second time to prove your wits, and see if it develops?" I asked.

"Well that's the rules to their game. But of course, there's the caveat." Humbreeze said with a defeated droan.

"Nobody's got picked up more than once." I concluded. Everyone around me nodded twice in affirmation. I shrugged my shoulders and tapped my mug for a refill. "Yeah, I got too much on my plate to be playing games like that. Sorry guys."

The group groaned in defeat. In my denial, I gained the attention of the four mares sitting at the table, including a deadly scowl from the usual candidate. I looked away and faced myself completely towards the bar. While the others kept their eyes on her. One of the boys whispered in a panic. "Oh shit, code frigid."

The bartender bobbed his head. "Let me get this one, boys."

The group of guards completely cleared out as she walked up to the bar, sitting directly next to me. I proceeded to mind my own business as she made her order. "Bartender, I want something hard and bitter."

"The usual?" He questioned.

"Nah, I want it to be a real drink. Just get me a whisky with dishwater."

I didn't even front like I wasn't watching past my shoulder every now and then. The bartender quickly grabbed a glass and poured her a glass. She eyed another maid who was wiping off a nearby table and levitated her cleaning rag from her. As soon as the bartender turned around with her drink, she grabbed the drink and cleaned the bar top underneath her. Following that, she glanced over to me and started cleaning under where my drink sat, I quickly moved my mug before her rag could tip it over. On the way of cleaning my area, I took notice of her orange magic grabbing at the bottom of my mug, seeming to be an attempt to get me to yank it hard enough that it would waste all over me if she let go. I simply held my pose while she finished up.

After all of that, she placed her glass down and wrung the towel from the dirty water into the drink. The bartender was more disgusted at her choice, but she smiled at him with a smug expression. "Oh no, I won't be drinking this, it isn't mine." She slid the drink over to me and stared. "You drink it."

I shook my head. "Shame. Waste of a good whisky." I then poured the drink onto the counter and grabbed a clean rag to clean my own mess.

She didn't like my reply very much. "So what, you're too high and mighty that you don't take a free drink?"

Her magic still clinched to the bottom of my mug. I left it to float while I ordered another. "My grandfather always told me to never take a witch's brew."

The bar gasped while I quickly placed my hand over the top of the mug before she could throw beer into my face. Instead, I had my hand covered in what would've been a really good beer. Meanwhile, she showed her animosity towards me again. "Excuse you, what did you call me?"

"I merely called the drink a witch's brew. As for the personal connotation it has against you, I guess you'll be taking words from my mouth. So it doesn't matter what I say."

She didn't miss the opportunity to try and throw my new drink at me. I didn't let her hit me with it, parrying it off to hit another unfortunate customer on the side of me. "You really don't know who you're dealing with."

"Frankly, I don't give a damn." I answered, flicking my beer-covered hand onto the counter. "I'm just here to be mellow and chill. We got a good vibe going on tonight, there's a fight on prime-time, the beer's nice and rich, and I'm on my buzz. Let's just try to have a good time."

She didn't take my suggestion to mind. Instead, she found the opportunity to grab a bottle of bourbon and splash some on my head. "You don't deserve a good time! You get everything given to you while most of us are working our entire lives to get where we are! All you did was play nice for the young naïve princess. You took advantage of her, rose to power, and stayed there while you have no business holding it any longer. You don't go out of your way to protect the princess in all hours of the day and night. I go through it all, I face off against the goons of Canterrot protecting the princess while you get to sleep in your bed at night! Tell me why you deserve a good time!"

My patience had completely worn thin. I slicked my hair back with all the bourbon that sat in it and turned to the envious mare. "Okay. Apparently my being here is pissing you off. I am merely here to enjoy the company of some coworkers. And you continue to assault me like I'm your cheap date who decided to split the check after you ordered the expensive steak and lobster meal."

The mare knocked my mug away from me, standing on her stool. "You don't deserve to serve a princess you're at odds with! So do the guard a favor and resign!"

Humbreeze quickly jumped in to my defense. "Hey! Now I know you may be angry about your rank, but he doesn't deserve the treatment you're giving him!"

Another guard behind me stood by him and shouted. "Yeah, show some respect!"

"He actually saved our lives! He could've sent us to fight those arimaspi on the first day, he instead threw himself out there to save us! What do you know about him deserving anything!?" Humbreeze emphatically questioned.

"Our captain stood up for us, who cares what happens after his breakup with the princess? He's on our side!"

She glanced back at the young Humbreeze and hopped off of her stool. "Oh yeah, so you'll talk back to your commanding officer?"

I threw my arm between the two. "We're out of uniform, we don't need to adhere to protocol. But there is a code of conduct that you've breached that's proving to be an embarrassment to the E.U.P.. Maybe you should lay off the drinks and take it home."

She took the bottle of bourbon from earlier and outright splashed it in my face. "Don't you DARE tell me what I can and cannot do, you undeserving monkey!"

The bar was deathly silent with the exception of a few tables and chairs being moved out of the way. The bartender glanced up to me, offering me a damp rag to wipe my face with. "You okay, sir?"

I looked over to see how everything was being moved around. Instead of the room being filled with a celebratory mood, it was cleared to reveal a wide circle with a magical seal on the floor. I glanced over to the board, seeing that the previous wagers had been erased, replaced with Solemn's name and my own. I couldn't help but to giggle at that. "Okay now, let's not do this. My buzz is what's keeping me in the good. Bartender, another drink?"

He quickly set me up with another pint, but I couldn't enjoy it because of her tipping it over the counter to spill into my lap. She glanced over to me with a dismissive shrug. "Oops, looks like you got in the way of my drink."

Yup, buzz is gone.

I stood up and pointed my thumb back at the magic circle on the ground. "Hey bartender, what's that for?"

"Primetime entertainment. We got another thirty minutes before the main event. I'm just making the space for you two to... talk things through."

I stretched my arms to the ceiling. "Okay. See what I'm not about to do is fight a mare."

Solemn took offense to my statement and hissed her words through her teeth. "Excuse me?"

"I'm not throwing hands with you. I don't want to do that. I just want to enjoy my evening and go home. It's been a rough week, I had to deal with a lot. So I'm not gonna vent my aggression towards you like that. I just want to enjoy my night, get a little tipsy, go home, and fall asleep for the first time in two whole days hoping the nightmares don't catch up."

She didn't seem to like my trying to diffuse the situation, revving up her aggression. She pushed Humbreeze using her magic and then aimed her magic towards me. "Nightmares? Sleep? Look at you! You're so pathetic, you don't know how to be a guard and deal with your problems outright, so you have to rely on drinking! You definitely don't deserve to serve the princess! So why don't you do the country a favor! Resign! Resign, and I don't bother you anymore."

Humbreeze stepped in the way one last time. "He's not resigning!"

"Maybe you should resign too." She harshly replied to the young stallion. "Obviously your whole drive for being in the guard is done. Your sister's not coming back to life if you stay in."

That was when I had enough.

I quickly wrapped my fingers around her horn, quenching every bit of her magic. "Yeah. You, you can get the fuck out with your bullshit. I'm tired of you looking down on everyone, thinking that it's cute. Just because you didn't get the promotion you wanted doesn't entitle you to treat everyone else as lesser than. So now I'm going to ask that you step your ass in that circle for some mandatory attitude correction." I then pointed to everyone in the room. "And I'm going to humbly ask that what you all are going to see stays inside of these four walls."

She started to playfully giggle. "Aw, are you finally taking something seriously?"

"Look bitch, no one likes you. No one likes a dry-pussy having-ass bitch. So how about you go experience the world, let others have their fun. Stop getting in the way. You don't help anyone. You're doing a disservice to the princess, if anything."

That appeared to be where she had enough of me. Her horn warmed up enough to get me to remove my hands. She quickly teleported over to the circle. She rubbed her head shortly after performing the feat, sparking her horn for an attack. "So what was all of that talk about you not fighting a mare?"

"Mares are ladies of sophistication and worth. Bitches ain't shit but hoes and thots. I'll teach a bitch before I touch a mare."

She didn't waste any time, not even letting me step into the circle all the way before she sent a magic blast my way. I quickly dodged her attack. She snickered as she revved her horn for another attack. "You won't get the chance to touch me."

"You know. You're completely right. I won't need to." I replied.

Solemn sent another blast of magic barreling at me, only to find that it hit the ground at my feet. She looked up to see me still standing in place. She sent another blast at me, same result. She sent three more, all reaching to about the same, all ending up hitting the same place. She snarled and charged herself for a larger attack before she found herself being knocked off balance. She looked back to see a small wooden tray next to her. When she tried to get back up, that same tray smacked her in the face, causing her to stumble back down. I just stood there with my arms folded.

"Are you done?"

She rubbed her forehead, wincing from the blow she took. She quickly got back on her hooves and charged at me, that was until her tail was suspended into the air, her entire body along with it. She glanced up to see a white aura grasping at her tail. Quickly, she was dragged over to where I was standing before the wooden serving tray from earlier was sent into her stomach. She lost track of her breath, collapsing to the ground. She glanced up at me, angrily calling me out. "You see!? You can't do anything on your own, you had someone else do magic for your dirty work!"

I shook my head and picked her up by her tail again, using the same method. She glanced up at the white aura around her tail. I pulled my right hand from under my arm, revealing to the room that it was glowing the same color as the aura around her tail. She gawked at me, much like everyone else in the room did. "My dirty work required me to learn about magic, it's mechanisms, it's flow patterns, it's cycles, it's limitations, and implementations. It's another course of action I must take for for my own self-defense. I'm also learning about the subtleties of using small motions for even larger actions. Up." I motioned my index and middle fingers to move her up to the ceiling, she was raised as such. "Down." I flicked them to the ground, causing her to fall harshly to the floor. The impact was great enough to cause her to lose her breath for a moment.

Everyone stared in silence while the radio played in the background. She cringed from the pain she endured and tried to gather herself. From there, she weakly wiggled her way to her hooves. I promptly replied by swiping two of my fingers to the side, using the wooden tray to sweep her hooves from under her. She fell over to her side.

"You talk about dedication, taking my job seriously. Well, I'm bout tired of taking you seriously. Close your mouth and learn to be humble for once in your conceited life, maybe you'll start getting what you want. If you stop judging things by what you see initially, maybe you'll assess your opposition a little better. Maybe if you stop pretending to be loyal and develop a personality, the princess wouldn't mind having you around a little more often. All of what you do is self-destructive. Stop trying to climb over people and shitting on them along the way. If you climb as a unit, you help others up the cliff so you don't fall as hard should you slip."

She slowly stood to her hooves again, only to get swept back down again. She vehemently screamed out at me. "Ugh, stop being a coward and fight me!"

"I told what I was going to do." I said calmly before pointing to the three other mares she sat with. "You three, names and ranks!"

"Gleaming Brass, rank Sargeant First Class, sir."

"Cobalt Blue, rank First Sergeant, sir."

"Dress Right, rank Master Sargeant, sir."

"So you three are NCO's. Good." I pointed down to the mare who was laid out on the floor. "Your orders are to escort First Lieutenant Solemn Oath to her to her quarters, she is done for the night. Tomorrow, she will be placed under administrative review."

A soft 'ooh' washed over parts of the bar. The defeated mare screamed at me a final time before being toted out by her friends. "You might know a little bit of magic, but nothing compares to the experience of being a guard for twenty years! You don't know anything!"

She continued to ramble on before she completely disappeared from the view of every patron in the bar. When she left, there was a loud cheer that roared throughout the place. I grabbed everyone's attention for a quick moment. "Okay, everyone listen up! The magic thing, y'all didn't see that, I don't know it. So are we good on that?"

"Yes sir!" Everyone hollered out.

"Okay then! Next round's on me!" I called out.

Before they could really break into a wild applause, the bartender slammed a mug on the counter. "You don't get to pay for shit tonight! It's on the house!"

The entire bar turned into a frenzy, everyone I walked by gave me a pat on whatever part of my body they could reach. When I got back to the counter, Humbreeze nudged me on my side. "Hey, I'm gonna have my report on Crackdown's desk tomorrow at first light. You got my back, I got yours."

Another voice called out. "I'll send in my witness report at dawn."

"I'll have mine in before breakfast." Yet another announced.

"She really thought she could do all of that and get away with it."

I shook my head and mumbled over to the bartender. "Hey man, sorry for the disturbance."

"I only saw a correction, sir. Ain't no asshole gonna disrespect my product like that and smile about it." He then slid me a mug, frothing at the top and drooling down the sides. "Now go and get your buzz back."

I gave the bartender a thumbs up before I pulled out my phone. I initially looked at the rather enticing beverage, thinking to take a picture of it. But instead, I realized that it would be better if I had notified Celestia of what had happened. I quickly pulled up my Instagram app and messaged her.

Author's Note

Well here's something I'd thought I'd never get around to doing. Bombs away.

Chapter XCVIII

As the sun hovered in the sky, a council of officers gathered in the royal throne room. In doing so, we all stood to the side of the throne while Celestia assumed her rightful place. She appeared quite strict in her demeanor, understandably so. Meanwhile, Solemn Oath stood before her. She remained at the position of attention, not saying a single word to her purpose. Crackdown sat a pile of folders, each containing a thorough report pertaining to last night's engagement at the bar. While he went through the files, she waited quietly for their argument and verdict.

I knew my position wasn't exactly favorable in the eyes of the other officers, but they still couldn't argue the many reports that came in defense of me. In spite of that, it was better if I let the others do the talking, lest I get called out for being the participant of yet another conflict with my fellow officers.

Crackdown closed the last folder and set it down as he announced to the court, or rather the gathering of officers. "Sixteen, sixteen different accounts from witnesses all claim that you initiated a conflict with Captain Nondis. I can't even defend you because I saw the animosity between the two of you first-hoof. And in the instance I witnessed, you were the aggressor in the debate."

The mare waited while another officer stepped to her defense. "I know that the two aren't always eye-to-eye on things, but it was probably a drunken misunderstanding. I can't see how the captain is faultless in any of this. She was probably provoked."

Crackdown doubled on his findings. "Every account thus far has her registered as not only the provocateur, but the aggressor and the the unruly one."

"Aren't some of those accounts from those who might have taken up the Arimaspi Mountain Deployment?" A third officer questioned.

The second officer pleaded with the princess directly. "Your highness, I don't think it is wise to be so stern to Solemn Oath, just look at her usually stellar record."

"Her record is only supported by her longevity in the guard." Shining argued. "If Captain Nondis was caught with another violation, you would be eager to have him demoted to the bottom of the enlisted ranks."

"So says the one he's bested in combat." A fourth officer called out.

Celestia looked over to the accused officer. "Do you have anything to say in your defense?"

She quickly jumped at the opportunity to plead her case. "Your highness, I was shameful in my drunken stupor. To say that my actions were less than objectionable would be a grievous mistruth. I will admit that my actions have harmed your flawless court on this day. I am willing to accept my consequence."

Crackdown continued to interrogate the mare. "So you are willing to admit that you actively threw a bottle of bourbon at the captain?"

"It was a decision impaired by my alcoholic consumption. I should've had less."

"But you threw a whole bottle of bourbon at the captain?"

"To her defense, it was only the beverage." I finally spoke out, at least offering to tone down the implied language presented in the report. "No bottle was harmed in the dousing of my head."

Celestia clarified the situation for herself. "So she threw the contents of a bottle at you. Is that the correct sequence?"

"Yes, your highness." I replied. "She was drinking with her friends."

Crackdown then questioned me directly. "But she did approach the bar to, and I quote, order a glass of whiskey with dishwater?"

"Yes sir." I replied.

"And what did the bartender serve to her?" He asked.

"A clean glass of whiskey."

"In one of these reports, it was said that she grabbed a dirtied rag from one of the maids and wrung the fluids from it into the beverage before sliding it over for you to consume?"

"And what did you do with the beverage?" Crackdown asked.

"I poured it over the counter and cleaned the mess I made." I answered.

One of the other officers scoffed at my rebuttal. "Oh, and I take it you're an absolutely innocent victim who did absolutely everything right?"

Celestia pointed out one of the reports she had read on her own time. "In accordance to this report, the captain could be found saying 'I'm on my buzz, let's try to have a good time.' Was this in any way aggressive towards you?"

Solemn Oath sprung to her own defense. "No. But he did begin to call me a myriad of names."

"After you proceeded to splash the bourbon on him, as well as after you went on a tirade of how he didn't deserve 'a good time'. Are these the things you've said?"

Solemn couldn't lie, she quietly admitted her fault. "Yes, I did."

Celestia then questioned me directly. "Captain, what was the exact moment that prompted you to take action against Solemn Oath?"

I shook my head, still getting a bit upset over what I had to recall. "It was a comment directed towards a young enlisted, mainly in regards to his deceased sibling."

Celestia was very much displeased. She slowly turned to Solemn. "I take it that part might be a bit untrue."

Crackdown immediately pulled out one of the reports. "Private First Class Humbreeze Highwind, his sister perished in the prior Arimaspi Mountain Deployment led by Prince Shining Armor."

Not even the other officers dared to defend her after that. Shining very briefly let his anger flare. Celestia held a hoof out him. "The situation is not about what she said to anyone else. This is strictly on the matter of the confrontation that took place last night." She lowered her hoof and turned to the mare defending herself. "As upsetting as that is to hear, I am willing to offer you a judgement based solely on that."

Crackdown concluded with one final question. "Solemn Oath, are you aware that unicorns are often cognitive while partaking in alcoholic consumption?"

"...Yes." She painfully confessed, realizing that she could no longer use her state of sobriety as a defense.

"So you were completely aware of the actions you've performed?" Celestia questioned for the last time.

"I was also angry, your highness."

"Why?" Shining asked.

She broke from being at attention, sharply attacking Shining Armor. "Because he shouldn't have been placed in a position he wasn't qualified for. There are many lower officers and high-ranked enlisted who could've served the role. But he got assigned there on the technicality that he was a suitor at the time!"

While many officers held the same belief, they were mum on the matter while the princess was present. Celestia closed her eyes in thought. "Solemn Oath, as I have told you time and time again, Captain Nondis' qualifications have gone beyond the process of his being a suitor. I gave him the position based solely on his performance. He has performed to standard in many instances. While he may be an immature piece of work with a lot of decorum to learn, his effectiveness is unmatched in this kingdom. We have differences, but I have long come to accept that the kingdom─and it's citizens─is what comes first."

The mare begrudgingly fell silent. "Your highness, I am sorry."

"I am not." Celestia replied, opening her eyes to the one standing before her. "I am, instead, disappointed. Your actions are most unbecoming for an officer of this court. As such, your next evaluation for a promotion shall take place in approximately thirty-six months. Your emphasis in that time will be to gain the fellowship of your fellow enlisted."

Solemn clenched her eyes shut as she bowed her head, knowing well what the princess had meant in her words.

And just in case it wasn't made clear to anyone else... "Solemn Oath, you are hereby demoted to the rank of Sargeant Major. If you wish to appeal your demotion, I will be expecting a ten-thousand word argument, along with a file denoting the completion of a task with a high level classification, you will have that at my desk come later on. If there are no further objections, dismissed."

Celestia dismissed us on those words, leaving Solemn Oath to stand in place and have her silver armor stripped from her body. She was immediately sent to the barracks to wear the standard issue gilded gold armor. I was ultimately split on what I watched. Yeah, she was a total bitch to me and I kinda reveled in the fact that she got what she deserved. But another part of me ached, twenty years of climbing out of the crab bucket, only to get thrown back in, it's gotta hurt.

Celestia yanked on my shirt as she tilted her head at me. "I'm not done with you. You know you were to not use your magic in public."

"I'm sorry, I had to put a stop to it because she was blasting me. It's not like when I was going against Prince Shining Armor. I was prepared then, I wasn't expecting a fight last night."

Celestia sighed dejectedly. "You know she's going to hold that against you out of spite."

"Yeah." I admitted. "I also know that you left it open for her to get her rank back."

"I figured you could use the extra help on your journey to Corrotto. Maybe she'll prove to be of some use, and her staying busy in that line of work will keep her under surveillance."

"It could, but that's only if she's willing to work with me."

Celestia smirked. "Now I'll actually get to see where she really stands. If she's willing to put aside her pride, she just might start to play nice."

"And if she doesn't?" I asked.

"Then she's got thirty-six months to shed her Ice-Queen reputation."

Sometime later, I managed to go through some security footage, which Celestia managed to pawn off to some of the others as essential work, all while somehow omitting the information about the cameras and sensors. Wouldn't you know it, some others had their complaints about my being stashed away in my room. And that was fine by me, as long as Celestia backed my methods. It's not like I have a damn camera set up in her bathroom or bedroom.

I feel she would either find that problematic or provocative.

Went through at least twelve hours of footage to see if anything had been amiss. So far nothing that stood out with the exception that I might have found a few spots the younger guards and maids would use as a secret rendezvous, and boy did I catch enough footage to make a small amateur porn flick.

What I also caught was the footage of Solemn Oath taking that long walk of shame through the barracks after having her officer uniform confiscated. She appeared despondent, just going through the motions. All the pride she once had in standing up to me, that was long gone. Instead, there was a mare in her late thirties standing in the enlisted armory, getting refitted for her golden armor. Once that was finished, she put on her armor and quietly walked out of the room. Along her walk, she found a small corner in the castle garden that would be hidden by normal means. And there was where she started breaking down.

I can only imagine. You try so hard to climb the ranks, only to have some new guy leapfrog you in less than a week. Then you antagonize said guy, he gets you demoted. I know under most circumstances, it takes two years to get a promotion, it takes even longer to gain the trust of your subordinates. But she's obviously gained the trust of quite a few to get where she was, or she was probably just working the ladder. Most of her friends from the bar were non-commanding officers, so it'd make sense that she'd get the officer's position if all three of them vouched for her promotion. Yeah, they have to be real friends to pull something like that.

I wonder how she managed to gain the whole ice-queen rep.

About six hours of having footage digested, I had gotten real tired of looking at my phone. I decided it was time for me to check in on the quartet of friends, just to see if they were being supportive in any way. They had to be, I mean they dragged her out the bar without so much of a mumbling word.

It didn't take me long to track them down. I managed to get over to the Halls of History, a stained window museum in the shape of a lengthy hallway leading to the castle's chapel. The four stood in front of window depicting the defeat of Nightmare Moon by the hooves of Princess Celestia. The other three seemed to be quite invested in their friend, while Solemn weighed the heaviness of her heart.

"It's okay, Solemn." Gleaming Brass assured the downtrodden mare. "We'll vouch for you when the time comes."

"Yeah. You took on the system and got this far ahead of the curve! Keep fighting!" Cobalt Blue pleaded.

"You're a great guard, and a great leader. You don't always have to appeal to the masses, just do your job and make sure the others perform to standard. You'll be back in no time." Dress Right proudly stated.

As I was quietly approaching, pretending as if I was about to pass right by them. The three glanced over to see me approaching. All three fell silent, watching me as I walked past. As I passed, I found the stares of three protective mares ensuring that I'd continue on without a single word spoken.

Unfortunately, I wasn't one to listen to their logic. "Evening, ladies."

The group of four saluted me, they refused to speak in return.

I addressed the other three to start off. "Ladies, I want to commend you on your cooperation from last night. Even though you didn't have to, you helped your friends stay out of trouble. That's a damn good trait to have as a member of the guard, you look out for your own. And on my end, I apologize for any of the violence that may have been portrayed to you. I did not want to have a physical encounter, so I tried my best to avert it. It wasn't successful, and I could've showed a little more restraint. That was my mistake."

They didn't buy what I was trying to sell them. They were still rallied around their friend. So I offered some direct words to Solemn instead.

"As for you, it's been kinda rough. I'm not going to pretend what was said and done didn't upset me to a significant degree, because it did. But I can't ignore that you're upset with that happened today."

Solemn jumped at the opportunity to defend herself. "I'm not some weak mare who cries whenever something doesn't go my way! So with all due respect, just leave it alone!"

I closed my eyes and went for a more direct approach. "Okay. I'll concede that. But I don't want you to have to wait three years for the chance of a promotion you might not ever get. So... I may have a compromise in store."

The other three built a wall between me and Solemn, coming to her defense. "Sir, Sargeant Major Solemn Oath has expressed her desire to be left alone. She is unable to perform the function you are requesting of her for the time being." Cobalt Blue expressed lividly.

"Please sir, reconsider the timing." Gleaming Brass suggested.

"Failure to comply will result in our sending in an unjustified harassment report. It would be wise to end this conversation immediately." Dress Right said firmly.

As figured, all three were rolling pretty hard for Solemn, probably with the expectation that I'd mock her demotion. It's a fair assessment, as many who didn't like her had adamantly sought to make a joke at her expense. God knows she's probably been dealing with it from the upper brass all day.

"I'll take my leave, but not without a final word in." I said in the midst of an about face. "Sargeant Major Solemn Oath, Celestia made it apparently clear that you can get your rank back whenever you so choose. Got a lot of writing to do, and a bit of work. I'm only here to relay that info to you. It's up to you whether or not you'll take this opportunity to renew your reputation, or if you would rather grind the ranks for another three years. Either is fine, no pressure."

I started walking away, slowly to start off in seeing if she would say anything at all. But instead of her speaking, it was Cobalt who called out to me. "Wait!" I turned around to see the mare trotting over to me. "You said she could get her rank back. How soon are you talking?"

"A month." I replied.

"That's impossible. You're asking her to find some top-secret assignment and complete a ten-thousand word apology in the matter of a month? That's unreasonable." She argued.

"It's funny that I find it believable that your friend can do it, while you cannot." I said with confidence. "If she's a guard true to her loyalty, she'll find a way."

"You're bluffing!" Dress Right loudly projected, pointing a hoof at me.

I just shrugged my shoulders. "Maybe, maybe I'm just inept and don't know what I'm talking about. Maybe I have steel wool in my ears or some shit, possibly took the princess' ruling out of context. But hey, I'd rather take a chance out of a wild hare's ass than live in the monotony of the motions." I glanced over to Solemn before walking off. "It's something to consider."

Solemn appeared upset with my offer, galloping from behind the line of her friends and darted over to confront me before I left. I couldn't help but to roll my eyes. "Your magic, where did it come from and what's it for?"

I walked past her saying only three words. "Classified. Top secret."

The Next Day...

After a long and arduous session of sitting through more cams, I decided to take a lunch break. On my way out, I saw that the guards were running a few drill just outside of the checkpoint. Seeing as many of them were dressed up in mail armor instead of the usual gold hinted me on the idea that they were just newly graduated. Memories of my time of being called rook and newbie, regardless of how that was only a good six months ago, played through my brain. I was already looking at the shenanigans we were going to run into, a few pranks on some of the other guards, stuff you'd usually see on videos about the military barracks after boot camp. Funnily enough, those were much simpler times... relatively speaking.

My jog down memory lane was briefly interrupted by my phone vibrating. I pulled it out to see that Rarity had left me a voice message. She seemed to have trouble texting, so she sends me voice messages as a way to mitigate that. "Darling, I know you're a bit busy with your work and all, but I was wondering if you would be willing to have a moment with me later on. I know we didn't finish our last fitting session and I wanted to show you the new wares you've commissioned. Get with me soon. Mwah, toodles!"

I shot her a message filled with demon emojis, also telling her I was on my way down. It didn't take her very long to respond.

"You are such a devil, dear. But no funny stuff today, I'm afraid. Sweetie's staying upstairs this afternoon and I have my mother coming by to visit later on. Perhaps I could ticket you with a more desirable circumstance. Perhaps you could meet with me in your apartment within say... thirty minutes?" She came back a few seconds later with another message. "Your apartment in your world, I mean. I'm sure I would love to be able to scream one out... that is, if you could make me."

I sent her a voice reply back to show my enthusiasm. "Say less. I'll be there in five." On that note, I turned right on around and started marching the opposite direction of where I was originally headed. If my lunch break was going to be spent on some much-needed stress relief, I'm not saying no.

But along the way, I had a certain mare posted against the wall, waiting for me to walk by. I didn't stop as she started marching up to my side. "Brief me."

Somewhere in my mind, I was internally saying 'The nerve you have just walking up to me like you're entitled for shit.' But I remembered that Celestia had this set up as a way for us to cooperate. Still, her attitude wasn't much to show for an adjustment. "Why?" I asked.

"You said I'd get my position back if I write the essay and work an assignment. You're working a classified assignment. Brief me."

I shook my head in disbelief. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but I don't have a briefing to give you." I stated with a firm tone.

"And why not!?"

"Because I came to you yesterday, didn't take the offer then. You let your friends do all the talking, and they almost talked me out of relaying that information to you. So I guess your friends do have a point, and it's that I should disassociate myself from you for the time being, until you can coordinate your thoughts and come up with your own solution."

The mare trotted a little faster, running in front of me and moving backwards as she faced me. "Well my solution is for you to fix what you've broken. I worked hard for my position, twenty years of blood, sweat, and tears. I'll be damned if you take it away and dangle it in my face like some cheap prostitute."

"Hey, you said it, not me." I quietly joked to myself.

"So you're going to brief me on this assignment, so that I can play my part, we can resolve this, and I can get my position back." She said before she backed herself into a door.

I politely moved her out of the way. "You're too clumsy to use." She quickly wormed her way behind me before the door could close to the portal room.

MOTION DETECTED: PORTAL ROOM

"What in Equestria was that?" The annoying mare questioned.

"Classified, top secret." I replied before activating the portal to Mel's apartment.

PORTAL 2

The mare looked around, trying to understand what was going on. "So is the room talking now? Is this part of your world's technology?"

"Classified, top secret." I said before slipping through the portal.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

While I walked into the apartment, I could still smell the odor that was left from the unwanted birthday gift Umbra sent my way. What used to be a place filled with my best friend's ramblings and laughter was reduced to an eerily quiet apartment unit.

"So you're just going to ignore me!?"

"Ah!" I jumped in hearing the voice behind me, using my magic to quickly summon a Glock 45. I turned around and pointed my weapon at the source, almost about to find Solemn's head in the cross hairs. "Jesus fucking Christ! I could've ended you there. The fuck you doing here!?"

She didn't seem to care that she had just voluntarily committed to a breach. "Well I'm getting intel. Guess you'll have to brief me now."

I removed the clip and unchambered the round that was lying in wait. While the bullet landed on the carpet, I quickly reloaded it into the supply clip to not waste ammo. "You do realize I could've killed you in cold blood because you crossed over, right? Like it hasn't occurred to you that no one else aside from me would hear it? You'd simply disappear from Equestria and I can say that you got hit by a car and died as a result? Animal care would have to come pick you up, tote you right on out of here, and your family would never get the body back. You realize that could've been it for you?"

"Well I'm not dead. So guess you'll have to brief me now that I'm here." She said before getting distracted by the decor and lights. "This place is different, it's tall."

"Of course it's different, you're in the human world."

The mare's eyes widened as she continued to look around. "No. Way. I'm in the land of humans?"

"Yes. Welcome. Now get out." I urged, trying to push her back through the portal. She spun out of my grasp and started running towards the master bathroom. She immediately noticed the bed and bathroom.

"This bed is way bigger than Celestia's! Do you have a permit for this!?"

I angrily reached out to her. "This isn't my apartment!"

"So you have a portal set up in someone else's living quarters?" She questioned as if I was in the wrong. "A direct route to the bedroom, no less." She glanced around the place and noticed some feminine articles of clothing sitting in a hamper, namely a previously worn skirt and some panties. "A female's room? You're absolutely pathetic and perverted."

"My best friend lives here."

"And does she know about your coming through her portal and watching her sleep at night?" She joked.

"She requested the portal to be moved here since my run-in with an assassin who nearly took my life. She was my medic. Now get the fuck out before you get hit by a car traveling at twelve-hundred feet per second."

She thoroughly disregarded my warning, running into the hallway. As soon as she opened the door, the smell had begun to register to her senses. "Ugh! What died in here!?"

I then used my magic and pressed her against a wall, reaching up to my eye level. "You are in violation of a breach law in place to protect Equestrians from harm and danger. What the hell is the malfunction in your goddamn brain that you can't seem to process the simple order of 'Go back to your world?' Do I have to say it in Spanish?"

She glanced around, seeing the disturbed living room and some crime scene tape. "So this is the top secret thing you're trying to do, huh? Disposing life in your best friend's apartment?"

"It wasn't a business until about five minutes ago." I said, holding the gun up to her chin. "I pull this trigger, it will take approximately .5 seconds before your brain ceases to function. Your career, your life, your thoughts, all of that will end. I am giving you a FINAL. Warning. Go back. Do not explore, do not get distracted, do not speak of anything here or what we've discussed. Failure to comply will result in your immediate termination. Have. I. Made. Myself. Clear?"

Her horn started to softly glow, indicating that she was about to use her magic. I responded by loading the gun and chambering the round I relieved from earlier.

"Magic cast requires one second or more to manifest for temporary damage. This is an instant, permanent sleeping spell with a side of your brains painting the wall. Try me."

We stared at each other before she inevitably disabled her magic and conceded. "Fine. Your world, your rules."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

As soon as we crossed over, I had her stay in the room for a brief discussion. She seemed unwilling to listen outside of the fact that she was forced to do so.

"Your actions today was absolutely unacceptable, and I know you just got reprimanded. The fact that you not only breached the portal, but also refused to initially comply with my orders has already gotten you on the shit list. I can't even tell Celestia that I would be willing to work with you because you don't seem to follow simple fucking orders. I give you an order, you follow it, bottom fucking line. You disobeyed me off the rip, and I actively tested you to see if you would catch the hint. The manner of your approach is so blatant, you couldn't even pass as an informant. You still act on your own selfish agenda, disobeying a command. You disregarded your own safety by trying to resort to violence as a negotiating point when you're already outclassed. You know what you are right now, you're dead."

She appeared angry, but as my explanation went along, her expressions softened to remorse.

"You're not even dead-dead. No, you're a trophy for some asshole to plug his dick into while you bleed out, and then he sends your head to your mother as a warning. Don't worry about the rest of you, they'll still be using that as leverage while they stuff you in any way they see fit, wherever they can fit in. That's why I have to see a fucking therapist now! You have no fucking idea on what you're doing or how your actions hurt others who depend on you. THAT is why Celestia demoted you so harshly."

She muttered in a low voice. "Sorry." She said, halfway meaning it.

"No. You're only sorry cause it cost you your rank." I replied as I made my way back over to the portal. "You have fun trying to play nice for the next three years for the off chance you'd retire as a goddamn officer. I really fucking hope you appreciate your own decisions. I hope the sex was great, cause you really fucked yourself. You fucked with the wrong one, now you bear that shit to term like a goddamn teen mom who got ran-up on by the whole football team. And guess what, no one ain't gonna be there for you because you refuse to learn some fucking responsibility or even a modicum of restraint. Every one of your so-called friends will be in your corner, up until you bitch enough and they see you as a negative influence, in turn leaving you alone. You'll forever be clamping on 'what could've been' while they move on to what's to come. People call you ice queen, no one calls you approachable, you keep to a script instead of actively trying to be a better person, and you think you'll get your position back in three years!? Hell no! You're wasting your time! The safest bet for you now is to accept where you are and retire. I'm at least fifteen years younger than you and I can tell you need to fucking grow up! FUCKING PATHETIC!"

That moment, I could glimpse past her and see a few heads poking in from the door, all paying witness to how I chewed out the demoted guard. Solemn seemed shrunken, her ears folded back, her head hung low, and her tail coiled around her body. She didn't look at me directly like she did on Sunday, she instead averted her eyes from my presence. Meanwhile, I was huffing over the rant I had just finished. I pulled out my phone to look at the time, seeing I was already beyond thirty minutes distracted. I gritted my teeth and clicked my tongue at the mare.

"A waste of my goddamn time." I disappeared through the portal, leaving behind Solemn Oath.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

When I crossed back over, the smell of the long-removed corpse had made me even more infuriated. I stormed through the apartment, walked out the door, and sprinted off my anger to get over to my apartment. When I arrived, I opened the door and started looking around to see if anything had changed since I was last here. Once I verified nothing had been done, I carried on to my bedroom to find Rarity sitting patiently on my bed. As soon as I came in the room, she knew there was something off about me. I didn't even try to bother her with it, only going over to my phone and placing it on airplane mode. I sat down in my computer chair and opened a tab to search for methods of stress relief.

Rarity quietly tapped me on the shoulder. "Darling, what's the matter?"

"It's nothing." I replied flatly, not trying to involve her in the situation.

She walked over to my side, looking up to me. "Oh come on now, you know I don't like you moping around."

I just shook my head, running my hands through my hair. "It's... it's just stuff on the job."

Rarity turned me away from my monitor, mainly towards her so she could put her forehead on mine. "Dear, the job is always hard. I don't expect there to be an easy day for you. But I don't want you to let that get you down. Now tell me what's been getting to you."

I took a deep breath and started to explain my situation. "It's a subordinate. She doesn't know her limits."

"She?" Rarity questioned curiously, tilting her head.

"Oh no, we hate each other's guts. That's for certain." I replied.

Rarity seemed surprised that the cause for my attitude was because of a mare being unpleasant towards me. "Oh. Why?"

"She's mad about her getting demoted." I briefly explained.

"Why did she get demoted?" She inquired.

"She started an altercation with me at a bar on Sunday night."

Rarity groaned with displeasure. "Well that's on her then, should've known not to take it too far with you. It's completely her own fault."

"Yeah, I know. But the catch is that Celestia is willing to give her back the rank she lost if she worked with me on the assignment."

Rarity appeared skeptical of my response. "You mean your Canterrot assignment?"

"Yeah."

Rarity groaned with uncertainty. "Do you think she'll last?"

"She'll last an hour, or for however long they'll keep her alive." I answered to my best estimation.

"That's rough."

I sighed as I stood up from the chair. "She doesn't listen. She just kept telling me to brief her while I was trying to tell her to hold off. Everything that came out of her mouth was pretty much the same shit. Rank this, rank that, I want my rank back. Just nonstop for a good twenty minutes and some change. She even followed me through the goddamn portal, all to get me to brief her. Any potential for blackmail, she was looking for it just so she could get briefed. That's why I wasn't here in the time I wanted to be."

"So you say that she followed you through, to here in this world?" Rarity asked, appearing flabbergasted.

"I mean just rummaging through Mel's apartment like she was gonna find the big scoop on me. I had to literally hold a gun to her head to get her to leave. I shouldn't have to threaten her life to make her leave some place she had no business being." I then plopped myself on my bed, taking the moment to finally relax.

Rarity approached me from the side. "You sound like you had a rough going."

"This was just a little over half an hour ago."

"Look at me." Rarity demanded, using her magic to tilt my head over to her. "You're angry, frustrated, and stressed. Tell me what you want right now."

"I just want to not be an asshole. I'm just tired of running rampant and getting shit thrown in my face. That's what I really want."

Rarity kissed me on my forehead, nuzzling me with a smile. "Do you want lunch? I could make you a quick little something from what you have here."

"My kitchen's kinda tall for you." I informed her.

Rarity snickered as she planted her nose against mine. "It doesn't have to be if you turn me into a human, you know."

"I don't know, Rarity." I said as I started to sit up. "You ponies can be a bit clumsy when you transform."

The seamstress didn't seem to take any offense to my remark, but she did actively refute my statement. "Remember, darling. You gave me a whole day to practice."

"Yeah, but I didn't give you hints and tips on how to work the stuff in the kitchen."

"Well, turn me into a human and I'll get started." She answered, completely undeterred.

"You're going to be naked." I warned her.

"That's pretty much the going rate, darling. Ponies don't usually wear clothes, so it shouldn't be a bother. Now I can understand the caution if there were others present, like your brothers and friends. But since it's only you, I don't mind being a distraction."

"You being a human might trigger a few things in me." I warned as I raised my hand.

"I guess you'll be having to deal with all of that pent-up aggression with poor little-old, vulnerable me." She replied as she casually extended her hooves to me. With a brief flutter of her hooves, she hummed at me to cast the spell.

I closed my eyes and summoned my magic to transform her from a pony into a human. Once again, I was greeted with her fair skin and supple features. She rose from the floor and stood up on her own, amazingly. Everything was almost perfect in the way she stood up to reveal her features, all but her extending a balled-up hand to me. I kindly walked to her and unfurled her hand and wrist. In doing so, I began to feel just how easily my fingers sank into the palm of her hands, how soft her fingers were to my touch. Her hands were moist and slender, very tantalizing. Her eyes were shimmering while they locked on me. She placed her opened hand to my cheek, feeling the cold that filled them. "You know, you're right. You are a distraction."

She turned herself around, backing into me with a devilish smirk. She looked back at me, knowingly throwing her hips back into mine. She took her free hand and pulled against the back of my inner thigh. "Well you can follow this distraction to the kitchen and tell me what I need to use and how. Maybe you could use the down time between tasks to teach me a thing or two on more... sensitive subjects."

My hand trailed downward, sliding onto her stomach and further down to stop short of reaching between her thighs. "Like how you standing naked in my room isn't already a dangerous proposition?"

Rarity bit her lip, collapsing against me just slightly enough to avoid my fingers from reaching inward. It was as if she took the knowledge from our previous interactions and countered my approach. "So..." Her hand started to glow, popping off my belt and unzipping the pants she designed for me. The hand she used to grab me had wandered upward, sneaking under my boxers to give them the space to slowly fall from my hips. The cold touch she had sent shivers up my abdomen as she finally reached the prize she sought. "Stuff like this is dangerous?"

I planted my hand at the center of her back, bending her over while I guided myself inside of her. She let out an airy but silent gasp. Looking down, I watched with primal enjoyment in seeing myself sink within her body. "Yeah. I think I know what I want."

"Well you better get it then." She playfully mewled.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

My lunch break was a little longer than I would've normally took. But I chalked it to being an emergency development. Of course the only emergency was that I was too busy teaching Rarity about how to stay standing while I was giving my impromptu lesson on the subject of human procreation. She seemed a bit uncertain of the curriculum, but in time she became quite pleased with the results of today's lesson. It was the first time I actually took a lead in showing her what I'd like instead of her being the guide.

My human interest was already long established out of instinct, but drastically reawakened by the contact we shared. It was a good way to teach her how to use her fingers in such sensitive ways. The grasp of her hand wasn't strong enough to assert any form of dominance over me, but her fingers were sublime in other ways. The virgin softness of her palms served to the purpose of many release. The difference in our temperatures was more than obvious, it was a perfect dichotomy of my raging warmth in conflict with her mellow, cool touch. The sounds of her lips parting with my own, the taste of her tongue against mine, the feel of her tiny frame being lifted by my rough hands had imprinted many wonderful memories, memories I figure will go unforgotten.

I realized also that I have a particular switch. The sight of her posterior grinding against me was a welcome one, but the idea that she had in using her thighs to keep my hunger sated for as long as possible was a welcoming enterprise. It was always the sensation of being just close enough to get my fill of her, to feel the damp warmth of her sunken place, but far enough to where she couldn't satiate her own desire entirely. It was so enticing that I had to take it slow, pacing myself for a better chance of climbing past my original index, a point I never knew could be reached.

I had to be careful of this, treat it as a reward for a long day of hard work.

When I got back to the castle, I was completely refreshed and energized. It was almost as if the argument from earlier hadn't even took place. The only thing my mind was on was the idea of what I would do later this evening. But even then, my mind began to wander over to the cool touch of her hands. It was a feeling that no video would be able to replicate, not even my imagination was spared from being spoiled by that moment.

My day was pretty much me looking through my phone at security footage. Again, nothing of interest took place. So I finally reached the dinner hour and had my conversation with the other royals about my day. I even had to go into detail about the situation that occurred earlier with Solemn, but I decided to be merciful on the matter and not pursue any punishment for her crossing over, citing that my lecture may have been enough for the time being. I did warn them that if she were to come for me again, I would actively pursue a report of demerit.

At last, the hour was approaching for my usual leave from the castle to the train station. Instead of following up on the schedule, I took a moment to think about myself and the situation I was in. I had my phone already on Kalimba's message thread. I had initially thought about calling her, but I felt that it would've been easier to text the message instead. Why waste time doing that when I could just relay the message to her and have her not prepare for a venture tonight. So I went ahead and messaged her that she would not have to come to Canterlot tonight.

I would not be visiting Corrotto until Friday.

It wasn't just my being mentally drained, it was more of me needing to evaluate my circumstances a little better and come up with a series of plans to counter any scenarios that Umbra would send my way. If his rules were any indication of what I would be facing, I had to be more prepared for danger. If anything, I had to be a little more cautious. The security cams and sensors were just the tip of the iceberg. Now I had to put together a contingency plan if something were to happen, like another portal breach.

I started planning out potential locations where my parents could go to vacation for a week. Places like Cancun, Kingston, even locations like Miami and Los Angeles were running through my mind. Flying there would be the best bet in terms of speed, but a cruise seemed to be a little easier to keep them preoccupied, and it keeps them from canceling their vacation at a moment's notice. As long as I moved quickly, I could get them boarded safely and ship them out without any further conflicts. Since I had no approximation of an address for my brothers, they're in the clear.

*BZZZZZ-BZZZZZT BZZZZZ-BZZZZZT*

My phone had started going off. I looked down to see it was Kalimba giving me a call. I promptly answered her. "Hello?"

"Yes, I am contacting you to let you know dat I am here in Canterlot."

I immediately jumped up. "What!? What do you mean you're already here!?"

"I thought dat you had a schedule to keep. So I tried to come a little bit earlier den usual."

I gave an exasperated sigh, jumping from my seat and grabbing a weapon and my keys. "That's nice and all, but I didn't tell you to come up here. Usually I tell you if I'm gonna need you to get on the train. How long have you been here?"

"I was here for at least an hour. I am over in de old shack."

I groaned loudly as I set my room's alarm for stay, hoping to get a much louder alarm should anyone find their way inside. "Kalimba, I know you mean well, but I'm not coming over there tonight."

"Ah, you silly boy, why do you not tell me? If it was earlier, den here I would not be! What is wrong dat you would hide, is it a deep fear dat you have inside?"

"It's nothing about that. I just need the time to recuperate from my day, it's been long, I had to cuss somebody out, and I didn't want to have to carry that into tonight."

"To me, it sounds like you are on de run. Do not tell me dat you are like dis till de rising of de sun."

I tried to expand on my thoughts a little to help her understand where I was coming from. "Kalimba, look. My family and friends is in this now. I gotta be twice as careful than I usually am because I know they've breached the portal once before, and that was to hit up my best friend. I can't let that happen again. I had to already swap their locations to keep them from being victims of something else they'd try to throw together. And it's not like I can just write a damn letter to these people and tell them that their son or daughter died for this, these are human lives I'm solely responsible for. If anything happens to them, I will never be able to return to Equestria. Period."

"And why is dat?" She asked.

"Because a body disappearing under my watch? That's a whole manslaughter charge, I will be locked away for years in my world. And it's not like I can just cover up the fact that these people disappeared from their lives. I'm already playing a huge fucking risk by doing what I've done already. Any more than that, I can't do it." I had to take a moment to stand against the wall, taking in the idea of possibly burying my friends if all goes wrong. "Kalimba, I know you haven't had friends in your life, nor have you had a family keep you and love you for a good amount of time. But I want you to know what's at risk for me. Imagine if we had known each other for years and you'd suddenly have to bury me. How would that make you feel?"

Kalimba came up with what could've been the worst answer. "I knew Prod for years. Dat did not change de fact dat I took his life."

I then changed my approach. "Okay, look at it like this. If you had the chance to protect your mother and keep her alive, would you have made the same decisions as I am making today?"

"I know dat you look out for your friends. Dey are nice ponies. But I also know dey cannot stay longer den dey need to. You must understand, if you do not move now, he moves regardless of you."

I frustratingly paced in circles. "Kalimba, he can't know everything about me, not off of one kiss. He can guess what I'm doing next, but he can't possibly guess what the fuck I did last night. He's not acting like it. If anything, my friends would already be in it deep if he could read my mind right now. That's why I arranged everything the way I did so that I could have virtually no association with them. I don't know where they are and what they're doing, or even what they look like. I don't want to know for the eventual case this fucker pulls a fast one on me and tries to get me again. You heard his rules, he's gonna change shit up if he feels I'm comfortable with where I am. I don't want that. I want him to know that I'm very uncomfortable."

Kalimba paused for a moment and answered me. "So you are showing your discomfort by not attending tonight?"

"I have to play it slow now. The chips are all-in. I can't play my bluff like I want to, not with his deck. I've got to be careful. If I walk in like nothing's wrong, he's gonna play off of that. I need to show how genuinely afraid I am. I get time to work off of that. So whatever move he makes next, it has to involve my friends." I further explained. "At the very least, I know he will actively seek you out. That's why I had you move to someplace else and not tell me where."

Another pause occurred between us, at least until Kalimba spoke again. "Den I must leave here and see you. De last train has already left by now. I cannot leave until dawn. I will need a place to sleep tonight."

Already thinking off the top of my head, I knew I couldn't go back to the same hotel we went to last night. I had to leave no discernible patterns. "...We'll come up with a place. I've got the money for it. You get out of there, and make sure you aren't followed."

"Dat is easier said than done, I shall inform you on what my status has become." She replied.

"Bun-N-Barrel. Meet me inside the bar. From there, we'll work on our potential pursuers."

***Point Of Perspective:Equus Nondis***

Before I met up with her, I decided to take a venture and check out some mid-grade hotels. Once I found a good spot that was open with a well-lit foyer, I walked in to make my reservation. They told me that they had a room available on the fifth floor, I took that and told them that I would be ready to come by in thirty minutes, but I also made a quick request to check the room. When I got in, I took the chance to send Kalimba a message, telling her how to leave the bar and what alley to take to what street. She would leave at the next opportunity her phone buzzed.

I got to the outside of the bar, sent the text, and set up my position as a fake homeless pony. I kept my head low, my eyes pointed towards the door she walked out of, and watched carefully as a pair of stallions watched from the outside doorstep. She continued on as if she was completely oblivious to what was taking place. Her followers took the bait and waited until she reached the alleyway I was in. That was when they left their positions and shadowed her from a considerable distance. when she walked past me, I checked on if she would turn to the right or left. The left was where we needed to go, the right was a distraction. She moved to the right, prompting the two stallions to hang back and wait for a bit before advancing.

They peaked their heads from around the corner, seeing Kalimba move to yet another alleyway, this one being a dead end. When they noticed which alley she went into, they almost sprang at the opportunity to close her escape. That was when I made my move, tracking the both of them until they finally confronted her. She turned around, feigning her surprise as the two stallions walked up to her with giggles. "Well well, look what we have here."

"Poor lady doesn't seem to know where she's headed."

Kalimba played the role of victim, backing herself away from the two. "I am sorry, I am only looking for my way home."

The stallions didn't stop their approach. "You say you wanna go home? But the night's too young."

The other reached his foreleg around her shoulder. "You know, we don't like to see such a pretty young lady such as yourself out in this dry air. You look thirsty."

I noticed that one of them, being a unicorn, used their magic to pull out a bottle of water, assuredly laced with a sleeping agent. "I know a night out can be taxing, but sometimes your best course of action is to stay hydrated."

Kalimba quietly watched me approach them from behind. She then replied. "I suppose I could use a drink."

The stallion continued to hold the bottle in his possession, unscrewing the cap and introducing the liquid to her lips. "Drink up, I know you're pretty tired."

She took a mouthful and quickly pulled one of the guys into a forceful kiss. I was caught off guard by her impromptu tactic, as was he. He unwittingly swallowed to stop himself from suffocating. The other guy didn't appreciate her quick-witted maneuver, offering to strike her in the back of the head with a hoof. But instead of landing the blow, he found himself stopped by my magic. He immediately turned around and saw me running at him with a hoof cocked back and launched into the side of his head. One blow was all it took to bring him to a bumbling mess. Kalimba spat the remnants of the drink from her mouth and wiped her lips clean.

The other guy was still coughing for a bit, I guess some went down the wrong pipe. Kalimba nodded back at me and walked onward. I started to follow her until I heard a sound. I turned back to see the stallion grasping at his throat, his eyes rolling to the back of his head, his body convulsing as he reached out for me to help him. I then realized it wasn't just some water going down his windpipe. In seconds, he was left violently twitching as his ears ran red on the inside. After a little more than ten seconds, he stopped. Unmoved, unresponsive, unaccounted for.

I ran back to tag down Kalimba, she appeared to be in a much better state than the other guy. She proudly spat out more of the contents that was inside of her mouth. "De one I kissed, what of him?"

"Dead. You knew?" I asked.

"I am familiar with de method." She replied.

"Are you okay, do I need to take you to a doctor?" I asked her cautiously.

She shook her head. "Cyanide is not fatal if you take in small dosages infrequently. A sip would leave you alive, but you would be very sick. I took enough in my mouth only to deal him a death sentence."

"Gotta wash your mouth out." I noted.

"Prod always complained dat I was a spitter instead of a swallow." She joked at her own expense.

"For good reason." I noted.

She walked beside me, her flank rubbing against mine. "Swallowing is only reserved for special clients."

My eyebrows jumped as she used her magic to push me along. "And what special clients are we talking about?"

She smirked as she dragged me along. "Silly boys who help save my life. It's a start."

We quickly got back to the hotel. When we got in the room, the first place she went to was the bathroom to rinse her mouth out. I pulled out my phone to check the time, only a few minutes before midnight. I noticed that I had a message from Alex, telling me that he had found me some night vision goggles at a flea market out in Round Rock. Before I could answer him, Kalimba had politely levitated my phone from my possession, pushed me onto the bed, and made me coddle her closely.

She didn't seem to have any reason for desiring this, no stress or worry. But she was asking all the same for me to pet her head again. And yet again, a wash of calm came over her. She was quiet, docile, and relatively small. Kalimba snickered, the first time I actually heard her laugh. "You laughing, that's a new trick."

Kalimba peeked back at me. "Dere is a lot of tricks you do not know. I am more surprised with your being a suitor dat you were shown very little."

"You know, being a suitor doesn't necessarily mean that I'm some sort of sex god." I answered with a dismissive scoff. "Hell, you know it's illegal for them to have sex outside of marriage. So what's my being good at it gonna do for them?

"Hmm... Dis is apparently de same one who has illegally mated with de young princess." She replied. "And to know dat your tongue has even known de taste of Celestia herself. Any word of dat little detail gets out, and mares will be tripping you to sit on your face like a commode."

"That treatment ain't available to everybody." I muttered.

"Den who would you offer it to?" She asked.

"A gentleman never kiss and tell." I replied with a smirk.

Kalimba's horn started glowing again, she quickly turned herself around and faced me. Remembering what happened earlier, I instinctively backed away. She was initially surprised at my reaction, but smiled in realizing why I did it. "I washed my mouth out from earlier, remember?"

I looked off to the side. "Okay... I should─"

She interrupted me, placing a hoof on my muzzle. "You should not worry too much about dis. I am not in any desire to attach myself to you."

I looked back to her. "So, what do you call this? Me and you being here, what we're doing right now, like what is this?"

She inched herself closer. "It is simply my wanting to finish off what we started."

"When did we start this?" I asked.

The zebracorn tapped me on my muzzle. "Ah, you silly boy. I am finishing what I wanted to have and what you did not get to have. I have been taught to never leave an engagement unresolved."

I looked to her with disbelief. "You know, after being a sex slave for however many years, I would think that you would grow to hate it, especially with all you've done."

Kalimba looked off again, frowning as she spoke. "I got tired of being treated like a rat. Dey would toy with me like I was a lab subject. Never a question of how did I feel, just 'do dis and make me feel good'. Play my role, and no one gets hurt. If I was good, I was lucky to get tossed away for de night. If I failed..."

"They would hurt you." I concluded.

She shook her head. "...Dey would also take it out on somepony else."

I quietly separated myself from her. "What all did they do?"

"Many bad things, I don't want to get into it." She didn't like the idea of breaking off from me, throwing her head into my chest. "Some days I just want to feel closeness." Kalimba said as she wrapped her forelegs around me. "Being in dat world, it's always cold and distant. But I still remember de days when my mudda was alive, how warm my fuddah was when he held me. It was as I told you, how he did it when I was younger."

"But didn't your father sell you off?" I reminded her.

"Yes. And I still know dat he is to blame for my strife. Even now, I cannot bring myself to try and seek what has happened to him. I only assume dat he is dead." She breathed heavily into my chest, taking in my scent. "But it's a different feeling from hating all stallions for what you feel has been so many, what all they have done to you. Many mares I have shared an experience with are like dat, who have had broken homes, fuddahs who touch dem in de darkness of de night, some even raping dem. Others had bruddahs, cousins, uncles, teachers, even doctors who laid hooves on deir bodies. And yet, for all de evil he is responsible for, my fuddah never once had his hoof wander in lust over me."

"You accept that?" I questioned her.

"I know it is a low bar. But I cannot deny de comfort of knowing I was sooner sold off, den being a victim of my own fuddah."

"I can't help but to think, it doesn't make sense to me." I replied.

"If you had a fuddah who loved you, held you, and comforted you, come back later to betray all dat he has given to you by seeing you as a tool for his own desire, den what love is dere in dat?"

"He sold you for drugs." I reiterated. "I can't see how that's any better."

"It isn't, not in any way. But I still feel dat he would never had gone down dat path if my muddah had never passed away." She confessed. "He was depressed, he missed my muddah, and I cannot say dat he did not try at first. He just fell into a dark place. And I just happened to fall with him."

I couldn't help but to inwardly shake my head. "Kalimba, a father selling you for drugs isn't love. Love is finding a way to overcome those impulses."

"You do not know how an addiction can change a pony, how dey can have a different personality."

"I do." I replied, muttering quietly. "...I was heavy into drugs after a fight with my best friend." She pulled away, looking to me with genuine shock. "I smoked, none of the hard stuff, but I could easily get back into it. I did a bit of shrooms, some ecstasy, acid, anti-depressants for curtailing thoughts of suicide, yeah... I might even had masturbated more than necessary to distract myself. And with the way I was acting, I could've fallen to way worse. Hell, at one point, I actually took some of that shit all at once while trying to preemptively celebrate my birthday. The result, I drove my car off a bridge and damn near killed myself. If fate didn't pull some miracle out for me, I would've just simply died instead of being summoned to this world. So yeah, I know how it changes you."

She then questioned me. "Were you really addicted to all of that?"

"I was addicted to being a part of the crowd, trying to pose as this awesome dude who was down for it all. I was bullied for being too quiet coming up, I was the awkward guy who stood with his back to the wall at the party, I had dreams of being one of the sexual powerhouses my brothers were. I was addicted to not being myself, trying to be someone else. And I was willing to try anything."

She placed a hoof on my chin, questioning me. "So who do you think you are now?"

"It's not what I think, it's what I know. And I know I'm still finding myself."

"You know, I believe you are trying your best to be de best you." She hugged me once more, this time with the slight hint of a smile on his lips. "And dat is why I like your warmth. It is only too bad dat I cannot enjoy it for long. You have a much better prize waiting for you."

"I'm still amazed you can still find warmth in this world." I responded.

"With all you have given me, how can I not?" She said, inching closer before turning her head away. "If you could, just for tonight, become something you are not?"

"What's that?"

She tightened her hug, rubbing her head against my chest. I could feel her breath heat my abdomen. "My warmth."

It was a side of her I wasn't exactly used to seeing. While I was permissive for the most part, the distant and often reserved zebracorn had become clingy, needy, and very emphatic about our junction. She was assertive, not unlike what she would normally show in her attitude, but more so in her level of affection. It seemed that she was quietly keeping this side of her personality to herself. Even her nuzzling me was unusually close. It wasn't until she climbed on top of me was when she started to do a little more speaking.

That night, I think we had deepened our friendship, but with the added benefit of knowing each other in depth.

The Next Day...

We both woke up in enough time to try and catch the first train. As soon as I opened my eyes, I saw the sight of Kaimba tiredly fluttering her eyes to me. Her hoof was almost fixed to my chest while she yawned. She glanced over to the clock and noticed the time. She hummed only once and got up from the bed, making her way to the bathroom. Meanwhile I had looked down and saw the disturbed sheets, wondering about the mess we made all over them.

Last night was an as much of an adventure into the zebracorn's sexuality as it was her identity. The night was essentially hers, I didn't refuse to give her the illusion of being cared for. Of course, she also understood that the both of us had to hold our development to that point. But it still didn't stop her from taking advantage of every avenue of affection she milked me for. It was a pleasant mix of tender care and carnal bliss. But as all fleeting experiences, they end at the first light of the next day. And as such, she moved to the showers in anticipation of cleaning herself off.

She wasn't one to hold a shower, I've noticed. Even with the luxury of hot water, she didn't waste time in getting ready for the world to see her. She came out with a towel on her head, as quiet and reserved as usual. When I passed, she gave me a single passing glance before going to the nightstand. I jumped in the shower, did what I had to do to get clean, walked out to Kalimba wearing all of her jewelry. I dried myself off and threw the towel over to the night stand. While I walked over to a mirror to see if any part of my appearance was lacking, I saw her out of my peripherals picking up the towel I had tossed aside. She took a quick sniff and looked to it, and then up to me staring back at her.

She tossed the towel behind her as if she was completely innocent of what she did, but I laughed it off anyway.

Our entire walk to the train station was pretty quiet. I think it was the first time she and I legitimately had an after-morning walk. Of course when I mean legitimately, I mean there was no awkward situation to breed some level of discomfort with what we did. There was no my being piss-drunk and having no recollection like the first time, no having to get forced into giving a show on the second. It was just us, completely consensual and to the point. We knew our boundaries and respected them, no strings, just a good time.

I don't think she was very used to the whole idea of seeing her escort the morning after. Hell, I think the only one she's seen the morning after is Prod, and that was before and after he abused her. It even showed in the way she walked, she was clueless on how to initiate a conversation, how to look me in the eye, she didn't even tell me good morning yet. When we got to the train station, she silently stood by, watching me place an order for her ticket. But to our misfortune, the trains were out this morning.

The manager quoted that there was a scheduled maintenance of the truss bridge leading out of the city. They had to make sure that everything was up to code while the new one was under construction. Since it was the one that we nearly took a tumble off of during the second Canterlot changeling invasion, they'll be using steel instead of wood. Though they made sure that the inspection took place every two weeks, I still wasn't a fan of riding that train. In short, there's a maintenance delay with about two hours of down time. All trains coming and going were postponed, that or redirected to Ponyville.

So Kalimba was stranded for a bit. And since my current appearance didn't really allow for me to pull a human favor, I elected to wait things out. I hid off somewhere, sending Shining a text to let him know that I was still away on my late night assignment. He notified me that he would speak with the other officers and have my tardy appearance on castle grounds excused. Once that was finished, I took the zebracorn with me and opted to find some breakfast.

We arrived at a local eatery over on the west end. We jumped at the opportunity to take advantage of low traffic and seated ourselves. Kalimba was nervous over her appearance, namely for her absence of a cutie mark. But I assured her that we wouldn't run into any trouble. Of course, I should've known better than to treat her to a nice breakfast on this end of town, especially where there were a number of comfortably well-off members of society living. The moment we got our food, some teenage mares thought it was a good idea to walk up to our table and announce to the restaurant staff that we were stealing food.

Then when a manager showed up to the table, one of the mares pointed to Kalimba, accusing her of being violent and threatening to sue if she didn't have her meal paid for by the zebra. I calmly informed the manager that I was treating her to a meal. So of course the mares tried to plant the idea that it's somehow my fault that they were assaulted. The other patrons of the establishment said nothing in our defense, so I simply made mention to the manager that I could have the establishment shut down and reviewed for discriminatory practices, citing code and regulations involving the matter.

Long story short, the manager asked the teenage mares to leave the establishment while we continued with our meal.

I left the money on the table, and the two of us left. Even throughout all of that, Kalimba didn't say anything to me or to anyone. Looking at the nearby street clock, we summarized there was still another hour and fifteen minutes before we could head back to the station. I took Kalimba to a nearby boutique, the very same one Rarity opened up recently. We walked in to a mare named Sassy Saddles offering a clearance sale on the princess dress, a line that was modeled by Twilight herself. I declined the offer and pointed to Kalimba.

She tapped her hoof against her chin until an idea came to her mind. She introduced a loose-fitting tropical dress to contrast against Kalimba's shade of gray. It looked nice on her, but the zebracorn had a more subtle taste. She opted for a dark maroon cloak to hide her barren flanks. While I would've liked for her to be in that dress, I had to admit her choice was the more economically friendly one.

We walked a little while, finding ourselves into the Citadel District. From there, she strangely navigated the streets rather well. I suggested one place, she dragged me along for another. She stopped at a nearby playground, one that was filed with young foals running over to their caretakers and parents. Looking at her, I saw the sad nostalgia written all over her face. She stopped watching the young foals and wandered off to another street. I followed after her to see a residential street filled with a number of lofts, many of them bearing family crests. She stopped at one unit, looking at the wooden plaque hanging above the door.

"Figures." That was the first word she said to me today. "De dead cannot claim a home for his own when dere is no other to claim it."

"Home sweet home?" I questioned.

"Bittersweet." She replied, walking off again. "My fuddah and mudda stayed dere, as did I."

As we walked, I glanced around to see the places that had many decorative plaques and numbers wrought next to the doors. The many townhouse units appeared to be especially well-crafted Gothic architecture. "You guys were living the life."

"It was all because of my fuddah. His family was wealthy, but disowned him for choosing my mudda. He still had some wealth when he finally broke from them. He stood for us, and my mudda and I watched from behind him. He used to be so tall. But dat all changed."

"With the death of your mom." I concluded.

"That's pretty much it. De last time I saw dis place was when I was walking with my fuddah. We were... walking to de transaction point."

"Where you were sold?" I questioned.

"My fuddah's face was so bright when he saw de stuff dey gave him. Didn't even care dat his daughter was being dragged away, screaming his name. It didn't take long to find myself in Corrotto. And dat's the end of my happy little life."

"I wouldn't call it the end." I rebutted. "You're still working to make your mother's dream for you come true."

She looked over to me. "Do you not know how to not make me feel things I don't want? I do not wish to feel sadness over what I cannot have."

"You know, I thought this was supposed to be a business partnership." I brought about.

The mare hummed, brushing herself against me. "It is. Dat is why I asked for what happened last night, to know what I am missing out on. But I am fine with being associates."

"Yeah." I replied quietly. I wanted to offer my friendship to her, but remembered how it was being in that same predicament years ago. "...I guess we can keep in touch if you need a favor."

Kalimba froze in place, her eyes widening to a significant degree. When I looked forward to see what she was staring at, all I could feel was the world getting a lot pricklier and greener than usual. After being thrown into a nearby bush, Kalimba jumped in after me and peeked through the branches. I looked up to see a contorted scowl on her face, a look of a murderer planning her next kill.

"Yo, what the hell─"

"Quiet." She ordered, still looking at the street ahead.

I did as she requested and peeked through the bushes to see a unicorn stallion, an older guy with a silver mane and a coat the shade of a subtle cornflower blue. As he walked, he appeared to be looking around frantically. I could only guess that he was probably looking for a store while holding a sizable sack of what appeared to be rubies. It didn't take him too long to find what he was looking for, darting off to the direction of a store with a large diamond ring billboard hanging above the door. He galloped inside, figuratively leaving behind a cloud of dust.

While he disappeared into the store, Kalimba poked her head from within the bushes and scowled. "Another way fate chooses to punish me."

"Who is that guy?" I asked, my own mane full of leaves.

"It is none of your concern." She replied, stepping out of the bushes.

I shadowed her movements, trying to speak with her. "Okay, I wanna say that you might be blowing this out of proportion and I might be wrong for saying it."

"Den don't say anything." She warned, getting closer to the window of the store. She pretended to window shop, hiding behind the mannequins on display. Being that I had no identifiable presence, I was afforded the risk of looking at the window like an unsuspecting window shopper. Looking on the mannequins, I could see an assortment of jewelry, many of which were quite expensive looking. I, who still appeared as unsuspecting, walked into the store and proceeded to browse the selection while keeping an ear tilted towards the front counter.

"What do you mean you've sold out!?" The blue unicorn cried out in grief. "I thought the next shipment was supposed to come in this morning!"

The lady at the counter answered with a soft-spoken voice. "I'm so sorry sir, our shipments on certain items have been postponed due to the incoming freight for the Grand Galloping Gala this Saturday. If you want the requested item in the catalog, I can check with our overseer of inventory in the back."

"Please do!" He answered fanatically.

As he sat at the counter, he seemed to be completely unraveling at the seams. Biting his hoof, glancing around, trotting in place, all of it seemed like he was trying to get something in like his life was depending on it. The mare came back and addressed the panicked stallion. "So we do have one of the items still on display, but it's not the color you requested."

"What color is it?" He asked.

"It's sapphire blue."

"Blue!?" He shrieked, sweat beading off his brow. "Well, blue is closer to green than red, I suppose."

The mare tried to comfort the stallion. "I understand that you're stressed at the home, sir. But we can't afford to have one of our best customers running himself sick. We do appreciate your business, and we will continue to send some brochures over your way on our exclusive club membership sales. So the next time it comes in, just bring in your brochure, and we'll mark it down for half-off."

The stallion groaned as he asked. "So when will that shipment be in?"

"Unfortunately, it will be in by next Wednesday."

"A WEEK!?" He shrieked even louder, almost on the verge of fainting.

"The Grand Galloping Gala is the marquee event here in the city, it'll be filled with the most exclusive of ponies in high society. I'm sorry sir, but our catalog is changing temporarily for that demographic. Perhaps I could interest you in some Gala sales."

The stallion appeared defeated, slinking his head forward. "No thanks, I'll just take the bracelet."

The mare walked from behind the counter, over to one of the mannequins and opened the display case. She grabbed one of the jewels on display and walked back to the counter. "We'll have this shined for you in the next fifteen minutes, sir. Going price of the floor model is forty percent off."

"That's fine." He replied, sunken to a murmur.

The mare walked past me and questioned me. "How may I help you today, sir?"

I walked over to the counter and saw the price tag for some of the items there. Looking down at the sticker price, I was already on the verge of running out of the store. "Oh, I'm just browsing for a future investment."

Her tone completely changed for me, seeing how I wasn't going to immediately purchase something. Her tone went from customer friendly to passive-aggressively condescending. "Well then, I take it you're looking for a more economically feasible price range."

"Sure." I replied.

She lead me over to a corner of the store, each of the jewels looking somewhat flawed in their brilliance. "So I also take it you're looking for a ring?"

"Not exactly, just something small and reasonable." I replied.

Her tone got even more acidic. "I understand sir, everypony goes through hard times." She then guided me to one small section of the store with a series of jewelry without a gem to be seen. Looking at the prices, I was already seeing more of a welcoming sight, but not for the product they had on display. All it was were some friendship bracelets. "This one represents companionship, for that not-so-special somepony in your circle." She took a glance at my appearance and clicked her tongue. "Or perhaps we should look into the unrequited category. Maybe something for self?"

I walked off and made my way back to the main counter, next to the sulking stallion. I then pointed to a bracelet in the display case, one without a price tag. It had a beautiful curling pattern of white gold and a mix of both yellow and orange diamonds. "That one, I'm looking to invest into my future wife, so I'm already setting my sights on that one."

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Sir, this is for exclusive membership holders, not window shoppers. And it's on sale for a very limited amount of time. Plus, I don't think you'd be able to afford it. Now if you could please browse elsewhere, you're making my other customers depressed."

I shrugged my shoulders and walked out the store without question. I stepped out to see Kalimba hiding in another bush, she appeared vehemently angry with what I did. She waved me over and urged me to hide. "What are you doing?"

"Just getting a good look at the guy. Yellow eyes, counter clockwise swirl pattern on his horn, his mane isn't as silver as it looks, there's a bit of pepper in it. Seems awfully determined to get a certain bracelet in a certain color. He's bought one off of the front display, but he's not too thrilled about it. Seems particularly wealthy with his membership at this place."

She glanced over to me, not immediately wanting to say anything about the information I presented. Her eyes remained locked on the front entrance. It only took a minute before the stallion walked out with a bag and a depressing frown on his face. Kalimba's eyes remained locked on him. "And dere he goes, living like nothing ever happened."

I had my initial suspicions, but I didn't think on it too much. I instead observed the time, we were another fifteen minutes before the maintenance delay would expire. "Well, I guess that's all we need to see for now. Let's get back to the station. By the time we get back, we'll be getting you on the first train smoking."

Kalimba didn't appear to be interested in my logic, more transfixed on the stallion she saw. "I am more curious now. Do not wait for me." She then stepped out of the bushes and shadowed the stallion from a considerable distance.

I quickly followed her. "Hey, Kalimba. Wait a minute."

Our trail stopped at a rather expensive looking estate, all of it looking quite gothic in it's appearance. Walls of ivy and white stone brick surrounded the property. In front of it was an elderly mare with an azure colored coat and a crossed expression, standing beside her was a young cream-colored blonde-maned filly who was dressed to the nines. As he approached, he appeared squeamish and undesired to speak. Kalimba and I hid across the street. I poked myself on out, looking as if I was going to see what properties were for sale. In the meantime, my ears were tilted to the stallion in question.

The blue unicorn approached the two figures and whimpered. "Hey there, sweetheart."

The elderly mare called him out for his timing. "Gracious, Somber Spiral! You keep us up any longer and little Galleria will be graduating from high school."

The tiny filly pranced in place as she waited for the stallion to place the bags down. When he looked at her, he couldn't help but to glance away. He weakly muttered to her. "Gala, I know how much you wanted the green jade bracelet, and I promised you I would get it."

The little filly reached for the bag repeatedly, up until he placed the bag to the ground. She dove inside, rummaging through the bag until she came to a mahogany-colored case. She opened the case and was immediately displeased with what she saw. "Blue!? You got me blue!?"

The elderly mare shouted at the stallion. "Oh for Faust sake! How could you fail to follow a simple request YET AGAIN! My granddaughter wanted a green bracelet, the last time you gave her a red one, now you give her a blue!"

He bent down to the young filly, placing a hoof on her cheek in apology. "I'm sorry, sweetie. They didn't have anymore greens. All I could find you was the blue one. The other ponies got them all already. Just think of it as a collection. You can have a red one, a blue one, and later on a green one with all your dresses. Maybe even a yellow one to go with your pretty sun dress for your school's Filly Formal."

"But I wanted the green one!" The young filly began to cry.

"Come now." He offered to comfort the young one. "You know how much daddy loves you, if he could buy the whole world for you, he will. Just give it a week, and I'll get you your green one."

"BUT THE FILLY FORMAL IS ON FRIDAY!!!" She cried even more.

The elderly mare picked up the young foal and scowled at the stallion, raining scorn on him. "I am ashamed to have even raised you. You're always a mistake, one after another! Everything about you has been always coming up short! It took you a second wife before your life finally got back on track! You're as useless as ever!" After the scathing bashing of her own son, she continued to comfort her granddaughter. "There there, dear. Let grandma give you a new dress to go with your little bracelet."

"But I wanted the green dress, grandmama." The filly sniffled.

"And the green dress is what you'll get." She said, sweetly booping the young filly on the nose. "Now after that, we can go for some ice cream and your favorite toy shop."

The stallion looked over to the house and bit his hoof in a panic. "Mother please, this week's budget─"

"This is your daughter, is she not? You promised the world to her, now act like a father for once and let the girl get what she wants!"

The duo walked into a carriage drawn by a bulky, yet well dressed teenage colt. The cart then pulled off, leaving a saddened stallion behind. He started to sulk in another direction, namely back into the town square. I finished my feigned house hunting adventure, walking back to Kalimba with the information I gathered. "Okay, he's pretty stressed out by his family. Seems to be a financially stressed guy with a glutton for a daughter and a grandmother who's completely permissive of spoiling the girl. He's probably on his way to downtown, maybe in it for a hard drink."

"Or maybe habits are harder to afford now dat he has some real responsibility. Either way, it's all his own fault." She growled, walking off to shadow the stallion once more.

I held a hoof to her chest. "Hey now, I think we're done here. Train's at the station and you need to get home. It's time to let go of this. You see he's got what was coming to him, he's not happy. Just leave it be."

Kalimba looked at the hoof on her chest and quickly flicked it away. "You do not know how much I am hating de fact dat he is still alive!"

"Lady..." I began, trying to break it down as best as I could. "Your dad's not gonna suffer any more than he already is. I bet he's a damn drink away from pulling the trigger, he's obviously depressed about his life. And it's pretty obvious to me that he's trying to make up for what he did wrong by overcompensating. He knows what he did was wrong, and he's still trying to find within himself where and how he can make that up. But the truth is that he never will, because he can't."

"Dat is exactly why he doesn't need to exist." She replied, pushing past me to shadow the stallion even further.

While I was chasing after Kalimba, she was actively pursuing the stallion as if she was hunting her prey. I could tell somewhere in her mind she had made up with herself over if she would kill him. In fact, I was pretty certain that she was content with the idea of his being dead that she resigned herself. But since she discovered that her father was in good health, she's been vengeful.

It's scary to think that one could hate their own father like this. But then again, I shouldn't be surprised.

"Kalimba, listen to me." I urged, stepping in front of her. "You said it yourself last night, you couldn't bear to look for your father for an update, and you're sitting here hunting him down like a thief at market. I know you hate this man, and I completely agree with the idea that he should be dead and gone for the shit he pulled. But you also said it, if he wasn't on the drugs back then, you would be here, living life on the fringe of high society. He would be spoiling you instead of that kid, you would be just as bratty, and you'd be even happier knowing how much your father loves you. But none of those things happened. He's not dead either, that's also unfair to you. But you can't intercede fate. What's happening with him is his karma, let him experience that."

She walked through me as if I was a ghost. "You don't understand."

I caught up to her, trying to stop her from walking any further. "Then help me understand. I want to help you, as your friend. So I've gotta stop you before you do something you might regret."

Kalimba stopped dead in her tracks, clenching her eyes shut as her jaw trembled. She mumbled in an unsteady voice. "Nondis... my fuddah gave me love. Den he gave me away. Do you not know how confused I am? Do you not know how I feel in seeing him? I am angry. I cannot excuse de fact dat he lives on a straight line while my youth ended de day another stallion put his hooves on me. I screamed for him dat entire night while dat stallion was on top of me. De emotions I feel in seeing him walk after I assumed de worst for him, I held on to dat to cope with my life." She took a deep breath, trying not to let the tears roll on her cheeks. "I only want to know why. Dat is all I ever asked myself, all I ever wanted to say to him in my mind. I felt like my not having an answer was for de best. But now dat I see him, I want to know it. Dat is why..." Her voice finally broke, she strained as best as she could to keep her tears back, shuddering and gritting through her pain. "Dat is why it hurts so fucking much."

I looked over to where the stallion had walked over to, seeing that he had walked into a florist building. He appeared mum on his entry. I glanced back to Kalimba, who was already wiping her eyes, trying to fight her sadness. I sighed and walked her over to a nearby hedge and whispered to her.

"Listen to me. I can't promise you'll get the answer you want to hear or the one that will make you feel within your right to take his life. And I don't know if I can convince you to walk away from this. But I am warning you that you could end this now. You can simply claim him as dead to you while he lives this unfulfilled vein of existence, you could ask him the ultimate question yourself, or you could bypass all of that and be happy with putting a bullet to his brain like you did with Prod. However, each decision comes with the consequence of other things being given to you the way you may not expect them to, or even the way you'd wish for them to be. The decision is yours."

She wiped her freshly brimmed tears, trying in vain to hold more from coming. But before she decided, the stallion approached from the florist with a sizeable bouquet of sunflowers and daisies. He looked back to his saddlebags and nodded to himself. The stallion walked off once more as we remained hidden. Kalimba remained silent as he passed by us, watching the sadness on his face. She didn't holler out for him while she had the chance, she didn't jump out in front of him in a violent manner, she just waited for him to pass.

When he was a considerable distance off, she rose from within the bushes and whispered. "Nondis... I wish to follow my fuddah one last time. Den I will make a decision."

"Are you sure?" I asked. "You may not like what you hear."

She cleared her throat, sniffled, and firmed her resolve. "Yes. I am certain."

Once more, we trailed the stallion through town. Along the way, we started to notice that the towers and taller buildings gradually tapered off. The buildings around grew quieter, shorter, more subtle in their appearance. We had gradually gone uphill, reaching the city cemetery. The stallion walked through it's gates, as did we some moments after. He continued along his walk, passing many a plots of the resting dead before coming to a beautiful snowflake obsidian headstone. His journey had come to an end, he sat himself down, pulled out a rag, a spray bottle, and levitated the dying flowers from the decorative urn at the top of the stone. With care, he cleaned and polished the stone he sat before. After his work, he leaned down and kissed the stone upon the name.

Mbira Nyamaropa

The flowers were laid in the urn, anointing the black and white stone with a splash of bright colors. He began to speak with the deceased. "Good morning, my dear." Silence ensued. He leaned back against the stone and smiled to the heavens. "How long has it been for us, eleven years now?" Again, silence. "I know. You're not talking to me because of what happened. And you have every right to ignore me. Almost makes me wonder why I'm even doing this when you've been gone for eleven years. But of course, I can't bring myself to stop."

Kalimba and I watched in silence, our ears turned to him speaking with the grave stone.

"So... how's little Kalimba doing up there with you?" More silence. "I can understand why she'd be angry with me. I can understand why the both of you would hate me. I do. I just wish I wasn't so weak to become like that. I don't even remember how I fell into it. I just felt like I needed you here with me again. I just started wandering, hoping I could see your smiling face again. But then again, I told you that story a thousand times over."

He pulled out a single flower, a singular orange rose. He kissed it and laid it at the center of the plaque.

"I am so sorry. SO sorry, my dearest filly." He placed his head against the stone, closing his eyes. "What I would do to turn back time. If I could make things right with you, I would. I would buy the sun and moon to have you both back at my side, at least to make things right. I know I was a terrible father the first time, I walked into weakness thinking I could find a cheap shot at being a family in my mind. Some days I wonder if it killed me, could I stay in that moment. But that's life, I guess. We all have to learn to look at our past and face it."

He rose from the grave and looked skyward. "One day, we'll meet again. And I will face my retribution, for both of your sake. Same time next week. I love you both."

I looked over, seeing Kalimba had completely left me behind. While the stallion started to walk off, she approached the grave site. She picked up the solitary rose and stared at it for a moment. While she did, she stared at the name on the tombstone. Her eyes quickly watered as she buckled over, hugging the representation of her mother. I walked from behind, patting a hoof to her back while she struggled with the pain she was feeling. She took the lonesome orange rose and trotted to the path her father walked.

He glanced back to see the zebra mare approaching from behind and moved aside. But instead of walking past him like he expected her to, she turned around and stood in his way. She cast the rose at his hooves and growled at him. He appeared confused. "Ma'am, I'm sorry to be in your way, but this rose was for my deceased daughter. Could you please put it back?"

A mix of emotions had boiled within her, she didn't even take the time to process any of them, just only asking the one question. "Why?"

The stallion blindly replied. "Because it's for my daughter." He picked up the rose and started walking slowly to the grave. "Some ponies nowadays, where's the respect?"

He got back and placed the rose at the center of the stone, where he had first laid it. He bowed his head out of reverence, meanwhile she called the name of who the flower was designated to. "Kalimba Mavembe, de name of de filly who you've sold. Tell me why you sold her."

The stallion looked back to her. "Who are you?" She started to slowly approach him, almost seeming as if she was about to pummel him into the grave her mother slept in. He stepped back, tripping over the decorative headstone. As he lied on the ground, he raised his hooves to defend himself from an oncoming blow. "Please! Leave me alone! I've done nothing to you!"

"LOOK AT ME!" She screamed to the top of her lungs, her voice echoing through the cemetery. He whimpered from behind his forelegs, quietly watching as she stood over him. She levitated the orange rose and placed it against her head, As the flower sat on her head, her tears proceeded to flow freely. "Why... why did you send me away?"

Right at that moment, he moved as if he had seen a ghost. He froze completely, incapable of breathing, reacting, even thinking. She punched him in his stomach to get him to breathe. As he coughed, he denied her with disbelief. "N-no. No, you're dead. Y-yo-you can't be alive."

"You know I thought de same thing when I saw you." She replied angrily. "And den I started to think, how did you get to be so happy while I had to live through hell!? You gave me love, and then gave me away. You gave me a home, and you gave dat away! You helped to give me life, AND YOU TOOK DAT AWAY FROM ME! WHY!? WHYYYYYY!?"

The stallion rose to his hooves, offering to hug his long-lost daughter, but she rejected his advances, stepping back to hug her mother's grave. He reached out for her, uncertain of what to say to her. He looked back and saw me standing in the distance. I just stood quietly, watching as the two raised questions to one another. Kalimba unceremoniously wept over her mother's grave, after not being able to see it for years. The stallion bowed his head and hollered to the young mare. "I'm sorry! Kalimba, I am so sorry! Please, please find a way to forgive me!"

She shook her head, still weeping.

"Whatever you want! It's yours. My wealth, my givings, everything I own. Name it, please! Don't leave my life again!" He bargained, walking closer to the grave stone.

*Crack*

The two looked to the headstone, noticing it was still intact. But upon further inspection, the name plate at the bottom had cracked down the center. Kalimba quickly moved from the damaged stone, only to see a larger crack in the dirt form where she rose from. Without warning, she felt the ground beneath her give way. Her father reached in for her, also crumbling into the grave.

"HEY!" I quickly ran over to the grave that caved in. Looking down, I couldn't see much of anything. I instead used my horn as a light. "Hey! You guys good?"

Kalimba coughed as she fanned away the dust and dirt from her eyes. Her father did the same, but not without shining a light back at me to show me he was okay. "Ugh, I'm gonna feel that later. Yes, I don't think we've broken anything! This damn mountain's a crumbling mess!"

"Kalimba, you good?" I asked to her.

She looked up to me, feeling her horn. "Nothing missing or broken." She started to stand on her hooves before yelping out in pain. "Sprained, yes! Broken, no!"

"Quick, we need to find a splint for Kalimba's leg!" Somber Spiral hollered back up to me.

The mare angrily climbed to all fours, straining through the pain. "Oh no. You do not get to sell me off, den come back to care for me ten years too late."

"Sheesh, as bull headed as your mother, I see. I miss that about Mbira." He replied to his daughter.

"Shut up!" She hollered. "Nondis, get me out of here!"

"Nondis!?" The other stallion called out, much to my chagrin. "Ain't that the captain's name?"

"Kali. Name thing. You're fucking that up for me." I stated with frustration.

"Captain Nondis? You know my daughter!?" He replied.

"Name guys, name. Sniper. Shot."

"Well Sniper Shot your ass down here and get us out!" Kalimba angrily replied.

"Where the hell are we?" Somber Spiral questioned, using his magic to illuminate the hole a little better. In looking around, his jaw fell and he started to become increasingly silent. Kalimba was busy trying to find something to use to get themselves out. I started to try and levitate Somber out before he called back out to me. "Hey, I think you may want to come and look at this."

"What's so special about down there that requires me to not find a way out for you guys, all while putting myself in the same situation?"

"Some of these coffins are open." He replied.

Thinking on my toes, I summoned a long rope and tied it to a nearby grave stone, apologizing in the process, and rappelled down the hole. Once I landed, I summoned a weapon with a flashlight attachment. I pointed my flashlight around and saw a series of caskets opened. I covered my nose and looked into them, seeing signs of their use, but no bodies taking the space.

Kalimba quietly observed as the two of us searched the open caskets. Some were filled with the decaying remains of their inhabitants, others were completely emptied outside of some shreds of rotting flesh. My constitutions had already been challenged by many things, but Somber's was not acquainted with our current practice. He'd vomit before he got the chance to apologize to the rotting inhabitants. Kalimba lit her own horn, looking for anything else that might be out of place.

Looking further, we realized that this place was a rather large cave with a lot of the above plots being just deep enough to not cave through. Kalimba glanced over at one casket in particular. On it's shell was the cutie mark of her departed mother. The father and daughter looked to one another, fearing the worst. Meanwhile I had clenched my jaw shut with uncertainty. "Ugh, there's always a bad omen with disturbing the dead. But Count DuMoneé was way fucking worse."

Somber groaned with disgust. "Ugh, you're telling me. He blackmailed members of my campaign staff."

"Campaign staff?" I questioned.

He gave me a respectful nod. "Perhaps we've not formally met. I'm Senator Somber Spiral, I'm a member of the Equestrian Egalitarian Party. You probably don't get the chance to see who's all in the parliament during your summons. Well I'm one of the guys on the other side of the room who an opposite to the Neo-Traditionalist party."

"What's the difference?" I asked.

"We've been lobbied to commence the efforts of removing archaic laws that have no relevance to today's society, laws that hinder the rights and privileges of all citizens regardless of social class."

Kalimba grunted as she walked beside us. "If I could make a suggestion, can we not talk about dat and talk about where we are?"

I looked down to the coffin that laid closed before us. "Or... maybe we need to make a decision on this one before I call this shit in."

"A decision like what?" Kalimba asked.

"...Your mother."

The two ponies looked towards one another, closing their eyes with a heavy heart. "All of what I've witnessed to today has put me at unease. Captain, if you would please assure us that my wife, her mother, our family is uncompromised."

I frowned in the face and muttered to myself. "You know, I've watched foals die. I think those nightmares are a lot worse than the shit I'm about to get from today."

I used my magic to dust off the coffin from the dirt, slowly opened the casket and nervously peeked inside while holding my breath. All that was inside were the skeletal remains of a pony. I drew a deep sigh and closed the casket. "Forgive me, ma'am. Have a good rest."

"Mbira?" Somber questioned.

"She's at rest." I quietly replied.

The two gave a terrified sigh of relief. Kalimba just cried as she shook her head. "Who would do such cruel things?"

I pursued my lips and answered her question. "The Doctor is in."

Forty Minutes Later...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

Within the hour, the location was swarming with guards, all of whom were tasked with taking the information of the missing bodies. Shining and Blueblood joined me and Somber Spiral. Somber had been questioned by the two on the spot about what all he knew. Once we verified his information, the four of us proceeded to look into the case of the missing bodies. Kalimba was never questioned, I had her moved off site for the time being. Once everything had come to a conclusion, we had tallied a total of seventeen ponies unaccounted for, including two foals.

The four of us stayed behind to talk about it. "Count DuMoneé's surprise, part deaux?" Blueblood questioned.

"Maybe, but you guys aren't related to the bodies we called in as missing." Shining stated, holding a clip board with the list of the victims. "The last time was an adversary of Nondis, found in the human world as a cruel mob gag."

"There was a body found in your world?" Somber inquired.

"Count's." I replied. "And remember, you don't say a peep about this until this situation is thoroughly compartmentalized and dissected."

"Not a word from me, captain." He replied with a salute. "I'm just glad my wife is resting where she belongs."

"I thought you were married to Soiree Serenade." Blueblood interjected.

"First, ain't a serenade to be found for that one. I come home to a headache between her and my mother. If it wasn't for my little girl Gala, our marriage would just be another financial juncture. And second, Mbira is my first wife, the one I legitimately fell in love with."

"How did she pass?" Shining questioned.

"Fell ill and never came out of it. She was always anemic, so I had to take extra care of her after she gave birth. For a while she appeared to be on the up, but then she caught a terrible case of pneumonia. Took her from us at the age of thirty-six."

"Sorry to hear that." Blueblood responded while looking to the coffin of the aforementioned mare. "So you say that the ground just caved in when you were standing here?"

"That's pretty much what happened. I was suddenly reunited with my eldest daughter after ten years of separation, we both gathered at the headstone when the ground fell through."

"Well, we're glad to hear that you've reunited." Shining said with a hopeful tone.

"Well, enough of my marriages. How's your wife, sir prince?" Somber asked Shining.

"She's well, the baby's coming along a little quicker than expected, but she's developing a healthy form. The doctors think she'll be a pegasus like her mother. The wings give it away in the ultrasound. She was originally scheduled for June, but we think she'll come around April at this rate."

"A nine month gestation, it's unheard of." Blueblood noted.

"Actually, nine months is about right." I replied, getting all of their attention. "For us humans, it is nine months. You ponies, it's like eleven. It may be unusual for you, but that's the going rate for us. We hear nine months, that's what we expect."

"In speaking of humans, how's the others?" Shining asked me.

"I don't know. I don't want to know. The less I know, the better. Old dude is already changing the game up, two assassins came for me and Kali last night."

"Kali, my Kalimba?" Somber asked worriedly.

I glanced around, seeing no eavesdroppers. "With all due respect sir, your daughter can fuck up a guy's life. I mean she'll end his fucking bloodline. I trust her with my life." I then pointed to Shining. "Really good guard material, she'll jump the ranks real quick. Street smart, resourceful, tactically equipped, and physically unsuspecting. She says she's sick, but I've watched her move through the flu like she had nothing wrong with her. Damn good candidate for a specialist position."

"Didn't you say you found her in Canterrot?" Blueblood questioned, causing Somber to shriek.

"Some guy named Prod owned her like a slave. I helped her take care of that. Since then, we've been working together."

"Uh, can we not keep my daughter in harm's way?" Somber pleaded shyly.

I turned my head to the older stallion. "Do you really wanna go that route, sir?" I sternly asked him, reminding him of what he did. "I can at least find a few offenses that not only can be proven with hard evidence, but also personal testimony that could put you away for a long time, especially in the eyes of a jury of your peers. You forget, I was here for the whole argument before the grave collapsed. It's not with disrespect that I say this, but you both metaphorically and very literally don't have a ground to stand on in that regard. I'm sorry, but it's far too late for you to be a concerned father. Doesn't mean that you can't be, but you forfeited that right. And now it's a privilege you will have to work with Kalimba to earn. That being said, don't come at me with that request again."

The stallion fell mute shortly after that.

"So here's the deal. The guy we're dubbing as The Doctor, or more infamously through his nickname Ummie, he and I now have a running wager. I live for the next month, all information is ours to use. That means crackdowns in every sector. This is why I made changes to the security detail. Any other changes would break my pattern, and compromise our operation. I have a feeling that these crackdowns would sooner involve him, especially now that there are multiple bodies being reported as missing. We know what they do down there in Rotty, we saw the stunt they pulled in my world, so there's probable cause for an investigation."

"Getting a warrant there is damn near impossible. How the hell do you run that without causing a ruckus like Celestia did on last Friday?" Blueblood asked.

"Better question, is Padrig still in lock-up?"

Both princes looked to one another in silence, not exactly unaware of what I may have in mind. "Definitely." Shining answered.

I started to asses our overarching situation and started to feel some good about it, in spite of the mess I was in. "The others are still hidden, I've still got a feed to the castle, there's an investigation on missing bodies in pending, and we have multiple agents at our disposal. Gentlemen, I think it's time we make our next move."

"Where to start?" Shining questioned.

I turned my head over to my right. "I think we start with our newest friend with some shady history here."

Somber looked around, noticing that all three of us had looked at him. "M-me?" He pointed to himself nervously.

I pointed at him directly. "You're an active member of the parliament, I can use you to draft up a sneaky addition to a bill or two, a la an amendment to Processu Approbatio, hidden in the February budget bill that's due by mid this month."

"Eugh, that law?" Somber gagged.

"I like this guy already." Blueblood quipped.

"You're gonna need a lot more lobbyists." Somber replied. "And not to mention the budget for said lobbyists."

"I've got Friday to settle that. I can even make the move tomorrow. Ensure the paying party is happy, and we're good on the lobbyists. All I have to do is... yeah... that." I said, giving both princes a side-eye glance.

"Make a certain someone's daughter smile." Shining guessed correctly.

I gave him a nod in reply. "I learn from the best."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

The Next Day...

After our cleanup, we made our way back to the castle, Kalimba was safe in Ponyville, and I was back in my room locking down a potential mode of approach. Albeit the fact that we had to make a move, there was still a small problem that needed to be addressed to move forward. Only one question burned throughout my mind as I laid in my bed, staring at the ceiling.

Where do we begin?

The moving of the bodies was something else entirely, that investigation would take a least a least two days before we can start digging into the gritty stuff, there's still the requirements for search warrants and the like. But what we needed to do was hit fast and come with something that would at least offer some space to maneuver. I had the pieces in place, but no definite knowledge of how or where to move them. The only thing that came to my mind going into my next round of nightmares was the possibility of speaking with Hermes. At least there I could get a start.

As one would predict after a day in the graveyard, nightmares and recollections of bad memories tormented my dreams, not even Luna could fight them off for me. My psyche had already been damaged because of Umbra's prank, all of that other stuff just compounded it. And much like I had the time to stare into the darkness before dawn, I had the time to call in Hermes for a brief conversation.

After a quick phone call, I phased over to my home world. We met up inside of Mel's apartment, where I'd let him into the awfully cold apartment unit. He walked in, noting the low temperature. "Holy Faust, where's the heat when you need it?"

I simply made the reference to what happened and explained what I was doing. "Well with Count paying us an unexpected surprise, I had to air out the unit so that Mel wouldn't have too many complaints over the smell. I've had the slide door open to her back patio for a while to get some fresh air flowing in. I also cut off the heat to save Mel some money on her rent. They'll ding you pretty hard for high energy use."

"Seems like a fair assessment." He replied, looking over to the side of the room where the gag coffin was laid. Hermes walked over to the area and started glancing at some minor details. "Hmm, I take it this is where they had him."

"Yeah." I confirmed, but pausing before saying anything else. I quietly watched as Hermes bent down and picked up a few strands of hair. "Yeah, that's his mane color alright."

"Ew, you're seriously picking that up?" I questioned somewhat disgusted.

He shrugged as he did so. "I can still wash my hands after this, you know. It's not as if I'm toting around his corpse. Get me a sandwich bag or something."

"You wanna put it in a sandwich bag?" I asked as I made good on his request.

"Trust me." He said as he took the small item I forked over to him. "You wouldn't call me over here if you didn't have any intent to make your next move. I also believe you don't have a clue as to where to start on next."

"That's the thing. I wouldn't know where to begin." I confessed. "It's one thing planning for a fight, it's another to plan for a political skirmish. I'm not exactly savvy to the jargon they use in stuff like this."

"Well the beauty of it is that you can be taught or guided through it, it's not like you're trying to be some pro athlete walking in from a regular 9-to-5 desk job. Anyone can become a politician, not everyone can be a professional athlete. You have the charisma already to have a massive following, you just don't have the moral compass." Hermes said as he handed me the bag.

"What do you mean I don't have the moral compass?" I asked.

"I mean that you don't have the cold nature of putting on a warm smile for the masses while trying to shake an old lady for her life savings." He replied in a deadpan voice.

I pointed to him and nodded. "You know, you have a point. Canterrot's one thing to deal with, I can at least lean back on the fact that I do enjoy the taste of meat. I can't just clean out anyone's bank account. It would be different if it was a gift."

"But have you ever tried to negotiate the amount for that gift? Have you ever pushed for more than what would be needed to cover the costs? What about making a profit off of that?"

"I take it you're going into Count's usual patterns on the campaign trail?"

"That's not his usual pattern. It's everyone's method, the proven method." He answered with a shrug. "Scare the elderly into believing the other side is some radical anarchist movement, show passion for the young voters and lie about their future, pretend to relate to the common workers of the varying demographics. Things like that can get you donations of a smaller size, but it's the perpetual draw of fear that gives you the ability to keep draining from that disposable income of the elderly. If you sell yourself to a suitable donor, 'grease a few palms' is how you humans would say it, you get larger investment groups to sow into your campaign, all while those billionaire investors are certified of their benefits. Rinse and repeat that whole process, and you just bought yourself a seat in the parliament."

I chuckled to myself, thinking of where exactly I was in that whole process. "Wow, I guess I'm pretty close to making the gig then."

"Far from it. Your character is too clean." He replied a little more bluntly. "Where's the corruption, where's the fighting dirty, where's the bootlicking, what corp are you selling yourself to, how many lobbyists and lawyers are in your corner?"

I shook my head, admitting defeat. "Yeah, I don't find myself being that kind of guy. Pulling speeches out of my ass is hard enough. I have enough nightmares with all the bullshit I've done the past two weeks."

"Well you've got the right hoof of Count DuMoneé himself. All you need is his temporary pet and you've got the same pull to make the next move."

I pocketed the bag with the few strands of hair and sat on Mel's couch. "So what are you suggesting?"

He lingered over into the kitchen, rummaging through the cabinets until he pulled out a can of ground coffee beans. "What I'm suggesting is that you finish off what your brother had started in his representation of you."

"You mean when I was out cold from the Arimaspi assignment?" I questioned. "I know I had a summons and Alex filled in for me."

"That investigation into Count was never concluded, so his case remains in pending. As a result, all income from his day job remain frozen until he clears." He answered, opening the fridge to pull out a jug of milk, only to find out that it had expired a few days ago. "So in the course of that, the officer responsible for signing off on the name list was never punished either. That means that guy and the other guy causing the security breaches could be bought off by someone who's a member of that little social club in Canterrot, the one you're currently in."

"Creamer's in the back of the cupboard." I informed him before carrying on with my thoughts. "So in short, the investigation was never finished, Count never got paid, I guess he couldn't pay his dues, and a coordinated effort from both Alabaster and Umbra locked him down from there. Umbra doesn't get paid, but Alabaster gets the opportunity to watch his father slowly die from mental deterioration."

"You're a brave one to be name-dropping." Hermes muttered under his breath. "So yeah, bring that investigation back to the forefront."

As he started to prep his coffee, Hermes reached over to preemptively grab some sugar. "What's the hair for?" I questioned him.

"DNA evaluation." He replied. "I want you to get Blue Royal tested for a match with the hair I just provided. If you can prove her bloodline, that would make things a lot easier for you."

"How so?"

"Because you won't be investigating Count DuMoneé himself. You'll be investigating his estate." He answered, grabbing a mug from the dish rack near the sink. He quickly poured himself a cup of coffee and applied his creamer and sugar. "His estate is the thing that will remain in pending. Since there is a final source of income to his name that needs to be closed out, concluding the investigation can posthumously pay into his accounts, a mode of probate if you will. That means all debts in his name, all investigations in pending, all accounts, all assets, all financial transactions that were previously locked can be unlocked if you can successfully point the investigation to the Count. And of course, you will with my help. You will need the testimonies of at least two who were present for some of those transactions. I will get on the preemptive and solidify my account of his doings."

"So who else does that leave?" I asked.

"Who other than his temporary pet?" He replied as he stirred his mug and took a sip of his coffee. "Eugh, this creamer is terrible. Who even uses powder for creamer?" His complaints, however, didn't stop him from drinking his coffee. "Of course, you may want to take advantage of your collection of informants. Spike happens to be a solid ringer, I'm sure his disclosure of those files spurred the investigation in the first place. Speak with him, he's the one who made the transfer between the two. He could point him out for you."

"Goddamn, that little bastard is actually of some use to me." I grimaced while shaking my head.

"If I recall some rumors, I do believe you're a fond coffee drinker. Care for a cup?"

"No thanks, I had a cup of Black Ivory once. I can't go back to Folgers anymore."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

After our meeting, Hermes went back into his hiding place and I crossed back over to Equestria. The first thing I did was head to the armory, grab my bike, and took a quick trip down to Ponyville. Upon arriving I quickly made my way through to the castle. By the time I arrived, it was around nine in the morning. I walked into Twilight's castle and started my search for Spike.

I started in places where I felt he would probably be, the kitchen starting off. Even if Twilight held to a strict schedule, there was always the off chance Spike would be in there making a lunch for Twilight to take on the go. He wasn't there. Next, I took a visit to the library, hoping that he would be inside helping Twilight and Starlight with some lessons. Instead, it appeared to be empty aside from the portal Sunset uses. The portal was on, but I didn't think it would be appropriate if I had just took a sneak peek, though I was increasingly curious of what I would find over there. I tried the portal room, to see if Twilight had ever changed anything up since my last visit, so far nothing. I locked up the castle on my way out. Perhaps they went to town.

I wandered out of the castle and found myself riding over to the town square. I checked in with Mayor Mare, seeing if Twilight had come by the Town Hall, no luck there. I revved the engine up again to check in on how things were going over at Sugarcube Corner. I walked in to see Mr. and Mrs. Cake steady at work. It seemed they were filling out a number of orders for a large event taking place tomorrow night in Canterlot, no sign of Pinkie though. I rode out to check another location, Rarity's boutique. She was nowhere to be seen, the doors were closed, the lights were out, nobody was home. I made my way on out to Sweet Apple Acres, not really seeing anyone except Granny Smith sitting on her front porch. I asked her if she had seen Applejack and the others, she said that they had gone out to Canterlot for a day out.

That means I just wasted gas riding around town. Awesome.

I drove straight back to Ponyville and bee-lined for the train station. By the time I got there, I checked in with the front desk and asked if the train from Ponyville had come in. No dice, I legitimately beat the train riding to Ponyville, riding around town, and back to Canterlot. I guess that two hour venture got a little delayed. But on cue, the train whistle sounded in the distance, the conductor and his crew assessed the condition of the train, and proceeded to unload the passengers in an orderly fashion.

And just like that, the seven ponies plus Spike had walked out into the terminal with smiling faces and giggly chatter. I couldn't help but to watch the group interact with one another. It was natural to watch them toss back and forth a few comments about some things, a few digs at one another, and even a joke at someone's expense while the others laughed. It was fun to see, but it had me feeling left out.

The past week was nothing but work and more shit to pile on to my growing stash of nightmares. I even missed a counseling appointment dealing with Kalimba and the discovery of her father. Even this past week's method of approach required me to be a bit isolated. And I couldn't help but to remember the times with my own group of friends, my brothers, how we'd talk shit to each other and how we'd laugh at what we did in the past. Being locked in a room looking at cameras did take me away from that life.

But they looked happy without me jumping in. It was almost as if everything about me had interrupted their dynamic with one another. I couldn't bear to inject myself in a place that seemed so natural without my presence. Then again, I had to get Spike to work with me on this. So there was little else for me to do but accept that I was going to be in their business, just to rip their friend away for a moment.

I waited outside of the terminal, trying to look as normal as I could possibly be. But that wasn't a very easy thing to do considering my height, that and the rumors being spread about me. The stares and murmuring had gotten the group of mares' attention. Of course, and always the first one to do it, Pinkie noticed me standing idly by.

"NONNIE!" She screamed with an overtone so piercing that I swear dogs would start howling. I wasn't even half a second reacting to her voice before I found myself damn near about to fall over from the weight of the mare crashing into my chest. Instead, I was pressed into a wall while Pinkie giggled jubilantly. "I am SOOOOOO glad you're here! Did you know we were coming here today? I bet you knew we were coming here today? I bet you missed seeing me, didn't you!? Of course you did, you miss me screaming for you at a pitch so high that dogs would start howling."

Honestly, this bit of interaction was so warming to me. I couldn't help but to hug back. "Hey Pinkie, how's the baked goods?"

"Ugh, busy! Mr. and Mrs. Cake had a catering engagement for the Filly Formal tomorrow night. I was heading up here to check on the space of the place they'll be renting out so I can tell them where to put their stall."

"I'm glad it's going pretty good on you guys' end." I answered with a smile.

Pinkie stopped smiling for a second and clenched her eyes shut. "Oh Non-Non, you're hiding again."

I chuckled to myself. "What do you mean? I'm out here."

Pinkie repeated herself, nuzzling the side of my face. "You're hiding a lot. There's a lot of pain in your smile."

I took a deep breath, not really in a mood to be emotional. "I'm good. You don't need to worry too bad about me. Just a little busy is all, got a lot of security stuff to do throughout the day."

The others followed up and each of them surrounded me with a group hug. "Nondis, it's so good to see you again." Fluttershy said softly.

Rainbow Dash quickly pointed at my face. "Whoa. I know you got work and all, but have you checked yourself in a mirror lately?"

"What's wrong with my face? I think I look fine." I appeared confused, pulling out my phone to look at my face.

Applejack walked up to me and muttered. "Sugarcube, Ah think ya need a mirror."

As soon as my front camera pulled up on screen, I started seeing the look on my face. Immediately I took notice of what they were seeing. As soon as I stopped smiling, I saw exactly what they were looking at. My eyes had a cold glow, a sharpness I never saw in myself. The whites had essentially glowed in contrast to the darkness on my face. My corneas had almost gotten darker in comparison. The slightly darkened circles around my eyes showed a lack of rest. My jaw was tense, without even knowing it, I was actually biting on my tongue. I wasn't exactly clean-shaved, but the stubble was enough to add to the appearance. It was like I was looking at someone who had more than a long day, who could use a stiff drink. And it was only morning.

I laughed at myself. "Wow, I look like shit."

The others didn't laugh with me, just staring at me for a moment. The only one who didn't was Rarity, and she looked away from me. Starlight even walked up to me and said in a somber tone. "Hey, you wanna talk about it?"

I shook my head. "Nah, don't worry too much. I didn't really sleep too well. Just a rough night in dreamland."

Twilight was the next to speak. "Um, if you're not too busy, we could always go get something for you to eat. Did you eat breakfast?"

"I kinda skipped out on that." I confessed. "I actually went to my world for a bit to speak with someone, came back and rode to Ponyville. I heard you guys had taken off on the train, and I came here to beat you to the punch."

Rainbow Dash continued to stare at my face. "You look like life's been beating you."

I smirked in return. "Well sometimes you have to smile back, let em know you're not down for good. Right?"

Rarity walked up to me and scowled at me. "So... you're not sleeping, you're skipping meals, and you're not talking to anypony about anything. Where are your friends?"

"I honestly don't know where they are right now." I answered.

"And you don't want to know." Applejack concluded.

"In all honesty, I just know that they're safe." I looked skyward. "I pray that they are."

Twilight levitated my hand to her cheek. "You say you didn't sleep well, have you been to your therapist?"

I chuckled lightly. "I... I kinda got busy with a little investigation yesterday that I forgot about it. But I should be alri─"

Rarity didn't take my answer as lightly as I tried to play it off to be. "So you're not even seeing your counselor? Nondis, you're locking everypony out, you've isolated yourself from your friends, you're trying to internalize all of this, you're not eating, you're not sleeping. You. Are. Not. Well."

"Nonnie, you're gonna die if you keep going like this." Pinkie added. "Please tell us what's wrong, talk to somepony. Clue us in sometime."

"We shouldn't have to go and ask Kalimba how yer holdin' up." Applejack said firmly. "We only know that yer friends got sent to where they got sent, not so much of why ya sent them there. They're worried about you too, sugar cube. Ya can't keep everypony out when all we're tryin' to do is make sure you're good and walkin'. Now speak up sometime."

"I know the rumors about you are bad, but we all know the real you." Fluttershy argued. "And you know us, you can trust us with whatever you're feeling."

The next thing I felt was a slap on the back of the head, I glanced back to see Rainbow hovering behind me. "You need to stop going at it all by yourself. You've got friends, use us, at least try to tell us what stupid idea you've got turning in those gears of yours. I already told you this, stop going in alone for our sake. Where's your faith in us?"

"I know I'm new here, but I know you're in a dangerous place. Just tell us where you are right now. Please. Don't internalize this. You will only lose more sleep, starve yourself, and work yourself to death. Just keep us in the loop." Starlight said as she glanced around, casting a bubble of silence over our gathering. "Now. Tell us what's got you feeling like you can't take care of yourself."

I watched as the group of ponies, including the small dragon, gathered around me and waited for me to speak. I started to think on what I would say to them, but before I could, a memory of yesterday had flashed before my eyes. Starlight backed herself away as she noticed that I had instinctively covered my mouth. Looking at them, I couldn't help but to remember the sight of the wagon from months ago, the dying ponies reaching out to me, then the empty coffins filled with nothing but the acute stench of decay and death. My stomach churned at the thought of opening the casket of Kalimba's mother, apologizing to the skeletal remains that hid within. Count's decaying face flashed before my eyes.

I quickly bent over, trying to keep it in. But my stomach had already started pushing against my diaphragm. I lurched over and succumbed to my body's response. "Huraaaak!" Nothing much but acid was all I could give. The others watched silently, waiting for me to finish unloading what I had tried to keep to myself for the past day. By the time I had emptied myself, I was staring back at the puddle on the ground, thinking to myself what all had occurred. "...A new investigation opened up yesterday. Or should I say it started on Friday."

"Something that's so bad that you had to puke out your guts?" Rainbow questioned.

I shook my head in honest disbelief. "There are eighteen bodies in the Canterlot Cemetery that have gone missing or have been unofficially reported as displaced, including two young foals. I say unofficially because we haven't gotten word from the master of the mausoleum."

The group gasped, Rarity being the first to respond verbally. "That's absolutely horrid!"

Rainbow swooped down to help me up. "Easy there, big guy. So you can confirm that the bodies are missing for now, right?"

"One of them turned up." I muttered to the rainbow maned mare. "We found it in Mel's apartment, in my world."

"WHAT!?" Twilight screamed. "A body from Canterlot Cemetery was found in YOUR WORLD!?"

"Yeah... Count's."

"You mean that awful, tried to get you and Rainbow killed, tried to manipulate my poor little Spikey-Wikey, the one who sabotaged Twilight's birthday party, THAT one in the same Count DuMoneé?" Rarity questioned loudly.

"Reconfigured skull, glued horn, and all the gimmicks." I replied. "That was targeted to both me and her, a way of saying that they knew how to get around. That's why I had to relocate everyone, why I'm still airing out her apartment, it was why I had to personally check the coffins of every deceased person in the western sector of the cemetery. So forgive me if I skip a meal or two while the rotting smell is still fresh to my brain. Forgive me if I haven't had the time to purge my brain of the guilt I have for digging in people's resting place. Forgive me for missing my therapist appointment because I have to verify a few facts with the managers of the mortuary and the mausoleum. I'm sorry for trying to quarantine all this shit to me, myself, and I, because I know that my friends are soft targets. Forgive me for trying not throw up in front of you, in spite of what I've experienced."

The group of mares lowered their heads in silence while Spike cringed. "Yeah, I don't think I'd be eating anything after all of that."

After a moment of reflection, I refocused myself and steeled my resolve. "So with that said, I am currently investigating the matter of security, more specifically if the castle is compromised by a mole from the association down in Rotty. To do that, I will need to re-instigate the case of Count's little effort to get Rainbow's name on the list to Arimaspi Mountain. If I can close that out, I can find whoever is the drafter of the list and see if they connect to the recent breach of the portal."

"Aren't you the one in charge of the security on castle grounds?" Rainbow questioned. "Shouldn't those breaches be on you then?"

"I've made the schedule known to everyone, even my superiors. The problem is that someone higher up on the ladder went in after me and changed the schedule of certain security details without my consent or knowledge. And because it came from higher up, I can't do a damn thing about it."

"Okay, that's a pretty serious issue." Rainbow replied.

"Exactly. So I'm gonna need the account of someone who worked with Count during that time frame." I stated as I looked to Spike. "Which means... Spike, as much as I can't believe I'm saying this... I need you on my team."

The other ponies parted way for the young dragon to stand alone before me. "Say what now?"

"I need you to help me close this investigation. Single File is already on board." I stated, standing back up to my feet. "If you can help me with this, my friends can be safe, your friends can be safe, the princesses stays safe."

Twilight stood between me and the young drake. "Nondis, I know you're going through a rough time. But if you do something to get Spike involved in this underground mess─"

"This is completely legal work. I have no intent to involve him in anything that is remotely dangerous to his person. All this is is a summons against the parliament. All paperwork and testimonies, no Canterrot business. That's a promise." I assured the purple princess.

Spike looked back at Twilight and grimaced. "Do I really have to do this again?"

"Spike." Rarity walked beside the young drake and spoke sternly. "Now I know you and Nondis aren't exactly on the greatest of terms."

"Especially since you and him are dating." He mumbled with an eye roll.

"That may be, but you still have a lot of work to make up for here." She responded, putting a hoof to his shoulder. "You see he's not at his best, you've just seen a fraction of what he's going through. I think you can say he's suffered enough. So can you please help him this once? For me, dear?"

Spike looked over to see Rarity giving him a set of puppy-dog eyes. And just like that, he broke. He looked to me with a sigh of defeat. "I'm only doing this because Rarity asked me to."

I had to admit if Rarity wasn't here, this would've been a lot harder to do. Thank God she was, or I would've had to beg the little bastard. Still, I hope what he can give to me will help me enough to where I can track down who did the signings. I still have to show my appreciation, in spite of him not really wanting to do it. I knelt down and gave him my best smile. "Thanks. I appreciate it."

The dragon started walking off as he brushed me aside. "Yeesh, stop smiling already. You look like you've got a body hiding in your closet."

I rose to my feet again, pointing down the street. "Before we can get started with you, we need to take a quick trip to the City Hall, there's a member of the City Council I'll need to get a hold of. We're pressed for time today, so we'll need to be there within the next five minutes."

Rainbow Dash scoffed at me. "See that right there, that's an unreasonable time to be at that place if you're not flying. Walking speed is at least half an hour from here. You're not making it there in five minutes on hoof, especially on foot."

I hopped onto my bike and started the ignition, which startled most of everypony, even causing Starlight to drop her bubble of silence spell. Spike looked back to see what I was sitting on. "It takes me under an hour to get to Ponyville, same coming back. This trip is five minutes or less on Main Street. And we're sitting here on Main already."

Rarity levitated the young dragon behind me and winked at him. "Spike, please do consider holding on. It's going to be quite fast."

Rainbow quickly shadowed the fashionista, whispering back at her. "Okay, how fast are we talking?"

I revved the gas and flicked the kick stand. We started to move at a slow speed. Meanwhile Rarity smirked as she looked at the nearest street clock. "And they're gone in five, four, three, two."

I popped the clutch, pulling the front end upwards and kept a solid surge of speed. Spike hollered as he held on for dear life to my sides. We rode at least a full block on a wheelie before I snapped it back down and sped down the open middle lane of the street. Ponies who stood idly by watched as I took another run down the main street of the city, mostly unimpeded. The group of mares just stared in silence while Rarity smirked with the pride of being a previous rider.

Rainbow Dash groaned in frustration. "Seriously, why do the humans always have the coolest shit?"

Our ride came to a smooth stop directly in front of the steps of the Canterlot City Hall. Spike still had his claws dug into my sides while I pulled out my phone and went to my timer app. I stopped the timer and held it up for the dragon to see. He looked at the screen with disbelief. The time I had logged in was actually two minutes, forty-seven seconds going at around fifty miles an hour.

"Five minutes includes us walking through the door, talking to the clerk, and meeting with our guy. Let's get a move on."

Spike slowly removed the claws embedded into my sides. I looked on myself, checking if I had any injuries from his clutching on to me. So far, not a scratch. We walked in, met with the secretary, waited for Alabaster to come visit us at the front desk, and played games on my phone until he showed up. From there we had a quick walk down the hall and had a nice discussion about our plans.

"So you're reopening the case against Count DuMoneé? Isn't he dead?" Alabaster questioned me.

"I'm not pursuing the case against him, I'm pursuing it against his estate. Suing him is about as useful as milking blood from a stone."

"Didn't you say you were doing this because of a security breach at the castle?" Spike jumped in.

"That's the main part of it." I replied.

"That's all good and whatnot, but who's going to represent the estate?" Alabaster questioned. "I can only give you so much help in this."

I rubbed my chin and glanced over to the stallion. "Well... maybe we can discuss this in a more suitable environment. Perhaps the walls are a bit thin here."

"The walls here are solid through and through. Though there are rumored members of the Canterlot elite hiding in places such as these." He replied with a similar rub to his chin. "I suppose an office would be a better option."

"Yours?" I asked.

"Indeed." He replied.

Spike watched as the two of us continued on our walk. The young drake stopped and stared for a second before catching back up with us. While we walked, I started to point things out, just to keep up an unsuspecting conversation. "You know, this place has some really nice architecture. I wonder who the contractor is."

"This place was designed maybe around seventy years ago by a group of stone masons. They took great pride in their work. I want to say that their construction firm is currently based out in Manehattan. Still a marvelous work." He replied.

"Now, what I want to know is who built that brilliant castle of a house you've got on the back end. That place is amazing." I said as we started to approach his office door.

"I believe it was an estate that was built shortly after the merger of Royal Estates Realty and Mountainside Realty Suitors was finalized. After that, my mother moved right on in. It's been our family's home since." He said, opening the door and guiding us inward.

When we stepped inside, Spike noticed the pictures on the walls of the stallion standing next to a number of key members of the Canterlot infrastructure, including a photo of him standing next to a towering Princess Celestia. Spike pointed at the picture of him with the princess. "It's amazing how short she makes everypony seem."

"Yeah, that's always a trait of hers." Alabaster said as he closed the door behind him. He walked over to his desk and took out a small family photo, of course with the image of his father scratched out with ink. "Our family was awfully happy."

"Happy, or miserable on the account of your dad?" I questioned.

"My father, he can rot in hell for all I care." He answered vehemently. "My mother was a beautiful being. My father always complained that she was too homely and plain-looking. He took it out on us almost every day."

"Your dad must be a pretty insecure pony." Spike said with a chuckle.

"Not insecure. Ugly is more like it. He liked everything to go his way. And if it didn't, he'd go to hell and back to make it play out that way." Alabaster replied to the young dragon. "I guess the good thing about all of this is that he stays in hell this time."

"Was your dad really that bad to you?" Spike asked.

Alabaster gritted his teeth in thought. He reached in his drawer to pull out a set of darts. He levitated one of them up to eye level before he took aim for a pin cushion board hanging on the wall behind the young dragon. He flicked a dart using his magic, landing a solid shot at a picture hanging at the center. Spike turned around and jumped at the sight of Count's picture having a sole dart sticking out of his eye socket. "Yeah, he was the same monster you know of, if not worse."

I then took the time to formally introduce the two to one another. "Spike, I would like you to meet Alabaster Charm, member of the City Council, Canterlot Elitist, heir to a fortune, and the son of Count DuMoneé himself."

Spike sheepishly waved to the young stallion. "Uh... hi."

"Alabaster, this is Spike. You've seen him with us when we were doing the magic lesson over at Celestia's school. He's Princess Twilight's number one assistant, Rarity's number two assistant behind her own sister, and briefly the number three to Count's line of legal debauchery." After the brief introduction, I handed the sandwich bag I got from earlier to the young heir. "And this is a sample of your father's DNA."

"The last thing I need is a reminder of him. Why do you bring this to me?" The stallion asked furiously.

"Because I need legal proof. I know you're busy and you can prove your weight. But I'm gonna need some paperwork to back me up on this."

Alabaster sharply replied. "So you're intending to get my sister to represent the estate? Is that what you're cluing me in on?"

"Blue's the best possible choice to represent the estate tomorrow. I need your seal of approval to verify the results. You getting tested would be a bonus." I stated.

"And you'd out my sister as his daughter?" He replied. "You know how Blue feels about our father."

"And I'm sure she would be more than happy to see him get brought down a peg, even if it was posthumously. If anything, you'd be open for the same idea." I rebutted quickly. "This helps me weed out whoever he worked with in the E.U.P. ranks."

"If you wanted that information, you'd look right beside you." Alabaster stated as he kicked his hind legs up on his desk, aiming another dart for his father's eyes. "But I don't think that's the only thing you'd want in all of this."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Alabaster glanced back at me with curiosity. "What, no one's told you of it?"

"No, what do you mean?" I asked.

The stallion chuckled as he landed another solid blow for his father's eyes. "Well if no one told you what could happen if you do that, then maybe I can pull up some political history. I do know that Damper Trot was the ringleader in that new bit of fiscal legislation that was stuffed in the pages between the numerous topics that needed a funding boost before the deadline, something that pertains to Princess Cadance and her unborn foal."

"You're not mistaken. Go on." I said, intrigued by his statement.

"My father authored a bill like that in the case that something like that would happen."

"That seems to be an awful lot of recent history to know about your father's dealings." I said, leaning back against the wall.

He leaned over the desk and quietly switched to a more effeminate tone. "Honey, you've seem to have forgotten my association." The stallion bucked his eyes wide before he shook his head and cleared his throat. "Sorry. As I was saying, please keep THAT in mind."

...Well okay then. I looked over to Spike and questioned him. "Hey, what do you know about Count's night life?"

"I been to Canterrot once." He replied quietly. "We went to some arena while he wanted to talk about getting someone to alter the list of the deployment. That's where he met up with Major General Hard Hoof."

"Major General? Oh that is a good measure above my pay grade." I stated with a curious tone. " So you said he only brought you there once?"

"That means he was trying to find some new help." Alabaster added. "One guy being there for most of his dealings, you know how the club works. Find a good replacement, test the waters. If he's useful, keep him and the other guy until it benefits you to remove them. If not, find a way to get him removed from the picture."

"So you're saying that he was quietly trying to replace Single File with me?" Spike asked the young council member.

"That, and possibly erase his history if need be. All he had to do is make a visit to some ponies, say the word, make a payment, and Single File gets thrown off the side of the mountain for flying lessons. No wings, I'm sure you know how that works out."

"Clean house, eliminate anyone who knows his dealings in Canterrot. Dead can't talk or testify against you." I replied before turning to Spike. "It's a good thing you bailed when you did, even better that you went back to Twilight and the others. Single File is currently in witness protection, there was an active assassin looking to kill him off. I myself damn near got gutted in a Ponyville bathroom for that information."

"You mean these guys are coming after me?" The young dragon questioned, starting to fear for his well being.

"You're what we call in the business a hard target." Alabaster explained. "You're too high of a figure because of your association with Princess Twilight. Always in view, always protected."

"Meanwhile I'm a hard target, but had an assassin come for my ass more than once." I said with a disparaging groan. "It's funny how that works out."

Alabaster pointed over to me. "In speaking of assassins, let's get back to you. To get back on subject, you suing my father's estate would mean that you could enact a few crucial loopholes in the recent expenditure bill signed last month. This means you could open that investigation against the estate, have them further evaluate any documents and policies he sought to implement, bills he authored or co-authored, and even some articles of law that could've been passed with his name on the footnotes."

The world at that moment seemed to have slowed down around me. I could've sworn some imaginary record player had scratched in my ears as I listened to his explanation. My eyes expanded as I turned to the young heir to fortune. "So wait a minute, you're telling me that if I sue you guys, the bullshit they snuck in the spending bill actually gets repealed?"

"Not repealed yet, but it will be suspended. And it will remain inactive until the ruling is passed down, much like his final paycheck being deposited into the estate. Translation: You sue my family tomorrow, that bill goes out the window."

At least for the first time in days, I had a genuine moment where I couldn't help but to smile, I slammed my hands on his desk and asked him. "Deadass, you serious!?"

The stallion chuckled. "You might want to give me a little more space, captain. You know how I am." As I did as he suggested, he went on with his explanation. "Again, you do that, that bill gets suspended. Now since my sister and I are the ones over the estate, we have even more information about the transaction with the assassin that was sent to kill you on your Arimaspi Mountain deployment. This means that if you brought out that charge, with evidence─which we will easily provide, you will not only have that bill unwritten, you will have every last one of his financial transactions for the last six months of his life under review. By default, that voids every bill, spending measure, and amendment with his name to it under Equestrian Code 342 § 86B."

Spike started drumming his claws against his cheek as he thought aloud. "Equestrian Code 342... subsection 86... paragraph B... Oh, you mean the corruption clause implemented in the year 798 C.D.V.."

I craned my head over to the dragon. "Say what now?"

"Twilight took a legal course as one of her electives in her second to last year at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. I used to hold the flashcards for her, and she'd triple quiz herself for weeks leading to the final exams."

My jaw dropped as I grumbled to the young drake. "You mean Twilight's been holding that information inside of her for the longest time without even telling me?"

"Kinda hard to remember with your own life on the line while the fate of Equestria rests squarely on your shoulders for the umpteenth time." The dragon snapped back. "I didn't even remember it until he said it."

Alabaster then explained. "It's an old law, but you can tell that many lawmakers would rather you not use that to your advantage. If everyone knew about it, then you could even argue that your deployment would've been nullified the moment it was introduced. You know the reason why, it's standing right next to you."

Even Spike had to facepalm himself. I just shook my head. "Holy fuck these laws are all over the place."

"And that's why I work in City Council instead of a courtroom or the Parliament." Alabaster said with a smirk. "Now of course, this information doesn't usually come free."

"Name your favor." I said quietly. "This is actually huge for us, I can't let this go unpaid."

The stallion scooted towards his desk. "Well, I'll have to tell you when we meet tomorrow night. And I'm sure my sister will have some words with you on what she would want as well if she's going to represent the estate. Again, it'll be for tomorrow. Young dragons shouldn't find himself in a grown person's business."

Oh boy... Something tells me that tomorrow is going to be one of those experiences I would rather not talk about.

The Next Day...

While my sleep wasn't the best, I had to admit that this week had ran past me at lighting speed. Here we were on Friday morning, my mind was relatively clear on my sense of direction, and I forced myself to eat something instead of going a whole two days without food like I just did earlier. The chef made sure that I was filled with enough broth to keep me energized and enough fluids to keep me hydrated. After that, I headed back over to my world and gathered the smell of Mel's apartment. I left the screen door open again to continue airing out the place until I could successfully smell more air freshener than death. Crossing back over, I made a visit to my mailbox, seeing the lab results sitting in the envelopes. I went over those documents to verify the results and made my way to the parliament chamber.

From there, I waited until the floor was open for me to plead my case. Shining Armor, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Prince Blueblood were all present and accounted for. Spike was also present for my presentation. The only one we were waiting on was the representative of the estate, who should've be coming in within the next few minutes. I made sure that all my paperwork was in order and stood by while the session carried on.

Finally, it was my turn.

"The next order of business, a report of grievance summons has been made by Captain Nondis of the Royal Guard against the parliament." Blueblood glanced at me and scoffed. "He states that there was no conclusion of the case against him and the late Senator Count DuMoneé. We hereby open the floor at this time for the presentation of the summons."

Blueblood walked off from the center podium, standing by the presiding princesses. I cleared my throat and enunciated myself to the crowd. "Good morning." Some members of the parliament returned my greeting while others did not. "As you have been made aware, I bring to you a grievance. Sometime in November, I had a case that was brought to my representation, they stood in my defense as there was a summons made against me for my actions during the deployment. I am also aware that there was a subsequent investigation made against late-senator Count DuMoneé. Though the investigation against me has been concluded, I could not help but to notice that the investigation against the then-plaintiff had gone unresolved."

In typical fashion, a representative from the right side of the court loudly rebutted my claim. "Your highness, if I may interject, the conclusion of that case has been resolved and brought to a close. There is no case to be brought against the late senator."

"With all due respect, senator, I have evidence to the contrary of your claim." I replied, turning to the opposing senator. "To continue with my prior statements, I have to inquire as to the finalization of this case. I wish to know when a conclusion was made, what verdict was reached, and what punishment was administered."

Another representative stood up against my case, citing another baseless claim. "Captain, you're chasing a ghost. There are no investigations being made into Senator Count DuMoneé, as he is currently deceased. There is no need to pursue this any further."

Another representative stood in line with his compatriot. "Motion to decline summons on the merit of a non-existent defendant! All in favor, say aye!"

"Vote deferred!" Celestia called out. "Case has not yet been proposed by the plaintiff."

I looked back and nodded in neutral appreciation. "Thank you, your honor." I turned back to the crowd, namely the dissenters who remained standing. "To further explain my purpose, I will need to elaborate further on the findings of an independent investigation. Records show that the bank statements have remained unchanged from the date of November 12th to as recent as yesterday afternoon. The banking account with his direct deposit policy installed was also a joint account with his offspring. Furthermore, that account had shown substantial amounts of withdrawals, as well as the drought of incoming statements."

Another representative stood up and called out. "Captain, I should also explain to you that in the instance of an investigation, all assets and income are to be frozen to thoroughly investigate the dealings of the defendant. This means that all sources of income are withheld until further notice."

One of the prior hecklers chuckled as he hurled a light insult my way. "It appears the captain is legally inept in matters of political proceedings. Perhaps it would be better to enroll him in a civics course." Half the room erupted with a similar response.

I feigned a chuckle of my own. "I see you guys have a sense of humor, at least you're a lot better than Count in that regard." I said before continuing on. "Furthermore, I shall point out to the parliament that the instance of 'further notice' is to apply to the ongoing investigation. However, in the instance that the inquiry reaches a conclusion, all assets are thawed and green-lit for continued use. Assets such as the final paycheck for his employment, have not been thawed. And as such, I believe that the matter should be pursued until the conclusion has been made and the matter closed out indefinitely."

"So you are filing a counter-suit against the defendant for the matter of what exactly?" Finally done with letting his lackeys speak, Damper Trot spoke out in a seemingly neutral tone.

"The matter of the changing of the list, the list of guards that was entrusted to me for the deployment. I am bringing this case against the defendant." The heckler from earlier who tried to push a vote stood up once more, but I quickly interrupted him. "More specifically, since the defendant is not able to speak for himself on this matter, I will bring my case against the estate of the departed Senator Count DuMoneé."

Murmurs and whispers filled the chamber, many on the left side had spoke among one another, a few even tapping each other and pointing to me as if they were watching and waiting for me to pull something else out of my bag of tricks. The silent Damper Trot outwardly acknowledged my request, while inwardly filled with disdain. Another lackey of his hollered out to me. "The estate? Who here represents the estate? His son, his son is dealing with a grieving period and has advised that all matters be deferred to his family lawyer."

That was certainly a lie. I started opening the envelopes filled with the test results, pulling out Alabaster's results. "Then allow me to certify the individuals representing this estate. I currently hold in my hand the birth certificate and DNA confirmation of the son of Count DuMoneé."

"Again, he's not available for comment. You're wasting our time!" The same heckler shouted out.

Admittedly, I was drawing for time here. I needed Blue to be present for me to present the case. And I wasn't going to start asking or answering questions until she was here to represent her father's name. So I continued to eat away at the clock. "The son had expressed his desire to represent the estate, but admitted that his unavailability had placed a moratorium on that endeavor. However, he did send me a more suitable representative for his case." I slowly tinkered with the document, sliding a letter opener between the lips of the envelope.

Same heckler, same swansong. "Here he goes, wasting our time with this! I've seen more entertaining filibusters!"

"I am being cautious as to not damage the sensitive documents contained in this envelope, sir." I lied, slowly slicing the envelope open. I looked over at my phone, tapping the home button to glance at the time. I looked over to see the door opening, Blue had walked into the room wearing a gold visitation pass, also escorted by a pair of guards. I glanced up to see Damper's reaction. It wasn't total disbelief, but he was genuinely surprised that she would be here. I opened the document and raised it slowly into the air. "This, this is a birth certificate and a DNA confirmation of the second offspring of Count DuMoneé."

"OBJECTION!" The usual candidate shouted loudly. "No official records have showed the existence of an heir aside from his only son!"

I also opened up another envelope. "This is further evidence to my claim of a second heir to the family, namely a copy of the finalized will and testament from the family estate, a mare by the name of Amber Grain Royal who was the former wife of Count DuMoneé prior to her death."

Looking up, I could see the highly vocal opposition slowly sit themselves down aside from their primary cheerleader. Meanwhile on the other side of the chamber, there were some giggles and nods made in my direction. I glanced back at the presiding royals, Blueblood appeared unimpressed but was secretly cheering me on.

I started reading off the will. "It says here that beneficiaries of her departure would be her two children named here. One being the confirmed son of the estate, who is unavailable for today."

"Name the son! What is his name!?" The loud heckling senator shouted before being tapped by Damper to sit himself down.

I looked back at the mare who represented her father, she gave me the nod. "The name of the son is Alabaster Charm, a member of the Canterlot City Council. The name of the second heir to the family estate, Blue Royal, CEO and owner of Royal Estates Realty LLC. She will be representing the estate in this case."

The mare walked to the center of the room, in an unusual show, proudly bearing the name of her father on her shoulders. Members on one side were completely flabbergasted, the other side was more in disbelief than anything. Blue spoke out to the chamber. "I am Blue Royal, owner and corporate executive officer of Royal Estates Realty, and second born daughter to the late Senator Count DuMoneé. I alone shall represent the estate of my father."

The cheerleader couldn't help himself and stood right back up. "That's preposterous! How can you represent the estate when he never had a daughter!?"

That was when Damper had enough of his subordinate and personally corrected him. "Yes, that is his daughter." Damper finally stood up and bowed his head to acknowledge the mare. "Ms. Blue Royal, I am pleased to see that you are doing well in spite of the passing of your beloved father some months ago. How are you holding up?"

Blue gave the stallion a bitter glare, possibly out of the disgust of implying that she loved him at any point. "I believe there is some money missing in my account. I am here to close that up, along with this investigation." She turned to me and spoke. "Sir Captain, I understand that you have an issue with my father. But I am here to argue that there is no further need for concern. I will defend my father's innocence." Looking at her, I could tell she wanted to vomit at the thought of that.

I decided it would be better to get this out of the way for her sake, at least for today. "Ma'am, I insist that I'd also pursue another troubling transaction that has occurred in your family's estate. There is verifiable testimony and eye-witness account of your father leaving for Griffonstone to hire an assassin in hopes to eliminate a political adversary. This now calls for a total evaluation of your father's transactions for the six months prior to your father's passing. So I request that all protocols are adhered to in the name of the courts, that all will be known, justice will be done, and we will know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. As per the Equestrian Oath of Honor, you will abide by these rules in defending the estate you represent."

Blue nodded her head. "This I swear upon the name of Count Penance DuMoneé, the client whom I represent."

I then turned to the crowd, enunciating to the group of senators and representatives. "With that being said, I'm going to ask that the Parliament adhere to Equestrian Code 342, § 86B."

Some of the lawmakers on one side gawked at me, a few even smiling. Meanwhile many in Damper's camp did not share the same enthusiasm. That was especially to the usual vocal cheerleader of the day. "Equestrian Code 342? That clause is absolutely archaic! What makes you think that anypony still─"

"Law Processu Approbatio is still valid, even after it's initial signing less than a millennium ago. Code 342 was written in 798 C.D.V., which only makes this a little over two hundred years old. My home country's lived for a quarter of the lifetime of the ProApp." I said, directing my eyes to the aforementioned stallion. "If we live by one law, we live by all of them, don't pick and choose which ones to ignore."

Damper nodded with a modest show of him being somewhat impressed. But looking at him gave me an icy cold sensation in my gut. It was because of what he knew about me, and just how easily my own words could come around and cut my own throat if he willed it. I showed no animosity to him for the time being, my focus was on the estate and working the loopholes I was presented with. He, on the other hand, dragged his fellow senator down and spoke up once more. "You will have to forgive him, captain. He's new to the legal process, a fiery intern if anything. In the case of your pursuit of your personal justice, I will have to bring up the fact that you would be willing to undo every expenditure that will be due to your fellow guards on the upcoming week, am I correct?"

I clenched my teeth, following on the very same playbook that Hermes had provided. I looked to Blueblood and then pointed my proverbial sword to the royal family. "I believe that the coffers of the royal family should be more than enough to accommodate the financial needs of the entirety of the E.U.P. budget. If I'm not mistaken, the mountain hosts a number of jewel mines all accredited to the estate of the royal family. This means that we are sitting upon trillions of bits in payouts, enough to sustain the guard for up to three fiscal years."

Blueblood angrily shouted out in response to my statement. "That's absolutely preposterous! The royal family cannot maintain that kind of payout."

Celestia clenched her eyes shut and her horn lit up. "I would rather not have to take that risk. The royal treasury is essentially our country's gold standard. I can negotiate one payment of that, a second would start to put our economy at risk. Keep that in mind." Her voice then began to boom in my head. "You've done your research, I didn't even think to implement that one."

I proudly said to the princess. "One payment for our country's protection, I believe it's worth the gold you're spending. Our guards deserve to get paid for what they do, the sacrifices they make. If you can do it, that will ensure Equestria's future for generations to come."

"Two weeks." Princess Luna stressed firmly. "That is all you have."

I looked over to some of the other members of the parliament. "That means your next spending bill will have to be in by next week, cause that last one is likely to be voided."

"And it will be thoroughly reviewed!" Blueblood interjected. "No more sneaking in fine print between pages."

Damper shrugged his shoulders and conceded defeat for the time being. "That is a fair call. It would be immodest to hold our citizens hostage with a simple misjudgement by one pony in particular. We will work on both sides to come up with a comprehensive spending plan that everyone can benefit from, especially our prestigious guards. It is only a shame that we'd be forced to these measures, but it is for the citizens."

Celestia then spoke loudly. "Very well. The previous spending bill will be suspended until the conclusion of this case, which then will determine if the spending bill shall be nullified or upheld. From there, we shall proceed. I now call the parliament to a recess for lunch." The gavel banged against the counter, the room started to fill with muttering, and I was walking out of the door with a smile on my face the size of Texas.

It's a small win, but we gotta start from somewhere.

Author's Note

Well I know you guys are more than surprised by today's little bombing run. I don't think anyone had anticipated going through 87,071 words of reading. I can only apologize for the individuals who don't exactly have the time to go through it all, and I can understand completely.

This year sucked. I know it sure as hell did for me, and I'm certain you guys had a hell of a run. We went from the possible start of World War III, losing Kobe Bryant, to being thrown in the midst of a pandemic, enduring an economic collapse the likes of the Great Depression, many instances of political division within our own families (if you live in the States), losing our jobs and employment opportunities, losing our loved ones, losing friends along the way, being unable to interact with one another the way we want to, even showing the compassion of hugging one another carries a risk.

Don't get me started about the weather. Australian readers had wildfires off the coasts of their beaches. Some states had snow storms blocking them in their own garages. Earthquakes have stirred our homes. Hurricanes have thrown everything at us. Tornadoes literally picking up our homes and throwing them down the street like we asked for a change of address.

For some, it's not so much of the natural storm, it can be the emotional ones, the ones within our minds. Being separated have made many who are used to the social interaction uncomfortable with their new own home. Some of us lost jobs, in turn losing income.

Many readers overseas may have heard, but we here in the states had a stimulus of $1200 just once this year and our government only thinks we're worth half of that in a second run. A lot of us have made decisions to forgo one bill for the other or rent, in spite of our income not catching up to those things. In many cases around this country, people have been forced to work in hazardous conditions, with reduced wages and hours due to strict mandates. Hospitals are flooded out with patients because our leaders failed to act on time, that or they outright ignored health concerns for the illusion of saving the economy. To this day, many of us have suffered financial bleeding, all while medical costs continue to drain our accounts. And for some, there is no such thing as sick pay.

Then there are the ones who gave what they could and saw that there was no future in themselves. I know I've had a few thoughts like this, some of you have too. Others have ultimately decided that this year was it for them. Suicide has taken it's fair share of victims this year, a lot of them undergoing stress and anxiety over what would come next. A lot of people are scared for their future.

There are marches down the streets for various calls against injustice. For Poland, there's the abortion issue. For Hong Kong, there's still the issue of the people fighting against an oppressive regime. For Saudi Arabia and Iran, it's women's rights. For Israel, it's the rights for the Palestinian people. For Nigeria, the right for a free government and the right to not live in an authoritarian police state. For some, the preservation of a checkered past. For others, the vision of a brighter future. For some groups, they bring attention to civil rights disputes and a lack of liberties that have been ongoing for decades, if not centuries. For others, they seek to preserve the ideals of decades long gone. For all of us, these issues will be there moving forward into next year.

The past two months have begun to grow hope in a lot of people. There's a vaccine out for both strains of the plague. There's some countries who have resolved their violent conflicts with one another. There is even new management set to be installed in some countries looking for change, or notably a return to normalcy. I'm sure there's a good amount of people who are on the outside of this country looking in with a sigh of relief, as well as a watchful eye on our government's affairs. And with that, we also see the new year is upon us. The sun is rising soon, the midnight hour has past, the twilight before the dawn is long overdue.

We can make it, it's not long now.

My family has been struggling with a lot this year, we have been through everything imaginable aside from a loss of our residence. But I assure you that your prayers and well-wishes have been heard. To that, I say thank you.

I know my Christmas ain't exactly cheerful, we ain't got a tree this year, just an urn with my grandfather in it. But that doesn't mean that I can't make myself happy in other ways. In this case, it happens to be dropping all three chapters I had in stock. Hadn't even started the next one yet. This one is actually the one I finished just yesterday. I was originally going to drop the first chapter of this little bombing run last Friday and then drop these two today, but I decided it would've been better in a three-for-one deal. So yeah, we're all caught up to one another... at least until I start typing again.

Hello for now.

Of course, I don't think I can drop another one on you guys in a week, so I guess that makes my quota for the year. 12 chapters in 12 months. All I can say is that we've been going for a while now. Thanks for joining the journey with me again, and thank you for the emotional support. I've read the comments, the inbox, and even the concerns, I'm as much of a fan of the story as you all are. I'm frustrated at some of it, I'm mad at what happens, but I'm satisfied with the results. Truly, I do appreciate every last one of you, including the ones who'll keep asking me when I'll finish.

Can't answer that. Classified: Top Secret. If I end up talking, I'll end up spoiling.

But I do appreciate you for still reading anyhow. See you next year. Try not to catch the Rona. Stay safe, layer up (or stay cool if you're south of the equator). Love your family if you can, but from a distance. And let's keep fighting.

Chapter XCIX

AUTHOR'S WARNING:

Some content elaborated in this chapter is to contain incestuous and homosexual content, the area notated will be marked with a custom breaker.

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Copy and paste the breaker contained in theREDbrackets and [CTRL+F] to search for the breaker you pasted in the search prompt. This will be to avoid any unwanted content from your read. Thank you for your continued viewership and enjoy you reading experience.

Sweet Apple Acres...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Melanie***

Kick the trunk. Collect the ice apples. Put them in the cart. Repeat process until full. Then when the cart is full, move cart to the family home for processing. Take empty cart back into the orchard. Repeat the process until time has concluded. That's usually my schedule for the day whenever I'm working. Does it seem boring as all hell, yeah it can be. Does talking with the girls about our relationship issues and thoughts help us move a little faster, that is a sure bet.

Kalimba had a lot to say over the past day. Apparently she met up with her deadbeat father, he seemed like he was trying to get a second chance at being in her life after abandoning her when she was twelve. I don't blame her for her being angry about it, I can't imagine how it would feel to lose your mom and then your dad just up and tosses you to the wolves. In fact, I resonated with her on that. I watched my mom be a sparse figure in my life, all while she hung around for the idea of getting paid by my dad to be there. Hell, thinking about all the things he could've done for himself with that money, he gave it to her. He helped feed her addictions, and I was left wondering how the hell I was supposed to respect a lady I'd hardly even see in my later stages of life.

And of course, my dad tries to get me to embrace my mom's efforts to get cleaned up after years of substance abuse. How do I even forgive someone of not being my mother for all the moments I needed her to be there? I don't need her to just show up for my birthday party, my graduation party, or every seldom weekend vacation. There's a lot of times where my dad actually paid her first before something, she didn't show up because she was too busy trying to touch the sky, hugging against the wall, bending her ass over to pull her cheeks apart for every motherfucker with a five dollar bill in his hand. Where was she in my first serious breakup? Why wasn't she there to tell me how pretty my makeup was, or how my shorts were too short. I had my dad fight with me over shit my mom was supposed to be bitching about. I shouldn't have my dad throw a tantrum for me looking good in a mini skirt with a black thong on during my period.

It was as if the moment I got my first period, she was there to tell me what I needed to buy and do. But nothing after that really, she didn't stick around to tell me anything. She didn't warn me of the cramps, clue me in on the back pain, say that chocolate would be a godsend. She didn't tell me how to walk in heels, help me pick out my first dress for the 8th grade dance, the freshmen-sophomore dance. Senior prom night was supposed to be her moment to get me dressed, make sure I looked good, cry in the mirror as she saw how beautiful I was, she didn't plead with Nondis on when I should be getting back home. Dad did everything for me.

It's not that my mother was a druggie. It was the fact that my dad was there when shit got bad, and when it was all good. He was there for every step of the way for me. The fact that her dad wasn't man enough, even woman enough to make sure she had a roof over her head, showed her love and compassion, didn't let himself get distracted by bullshit, walked every step with her and for her, that's what pisses me off. But she says he's trying to pay that off with some other little girl he has.

Maybe he is a good dad in some respect, but I can never see it after the stories she told us about her past.

Today, Kalimba didn't have all that much to say about it, but she did talk more about Nondis and what he had said to her. Applejack jumped in with her opinions of him.

"Here's the thing." She began while kicking an apple tree. "Ah know that Nondis is pretty busy an' all, but Ah'm startin' to get mighty worried for him."

"Don't tell me you fell for the romance trap, did you?" I joked, earning a rapid rejection from the farm girl.

"With all due respect, that ain't a deal Ah'm buyin' into." She said as she kicked up an ice apple like it was a soccer ball. "Nondis is a peculiar fella' with a drive to do right, but he sometimes go about it the wrong way. My friends see a lot in him, but I don't see a cause for attraction. He's more like a good cousin ya see every other time, not as close as a brother, not as distant as a stranger. But in any case, I'm just not drawn to many stallions. He's no exception either."

"Maybe you're looking for something you can tame?" I questioned the mare as I watched her effortlessly kick a few apples up and into a nearby cart.

"That sounds a bit fun. But it's already trouble enough to deal with a hardheaded, loose-minded, slumberin'-on friend who thinks she can outfly time itself. Now if only all of that came in a fella 'round here."

I quickly spoke on the first guy I thought of at the time. "Stanton's pretty loose-minded with girls. He's also hardheaded when it comes to a lot of things. He prides himself on his athletic ability, he sure as hell can run faster than Nondis, and he's got the ego to match."

"His younger brother?" Applejack said with a groan. "Are we really talkin' bout that?"

"He doesn't really believe he can be tied down. Stanton is the kind of guy who would workout, take power naps, wake up and eat something, go to practice, come back, call a girl on his phone, meet up with her, ram her to death, and tell her to find the front door while he goes to sleep. He the quintessential douchebag, but with a heart of gold though."

"Ah, doesn't sound very convincing to me." Kalimba said with a hint of disgust.

"Yeah, guys like him are only good for those one-night flings." I replied as I kicked another tree for it's apples. "I don't know, I'm just more interested in something more substantial. I really thought Nondis would've been it since we had the whole best-friends-since-high-school thing. I felt like him returning was my chance to at least make things right for myself. Guess I was wrong."

"So what is it about him that ya like so darn much?" Applejack asked.

"The longevity, I guess it was the familiarity. I could come to him when I had issues in my other relationships, he was my emotional support, and I really wanted to keep him focused on me for a while. Between him and my dad, they're the only two guys who make me feel good when I need to, and they both give me a good talking to when I step out of line. I kinda like that stuff."

Kalimba appeared disgruntled as she spoke. "I always hear dis, but for me it is a cruel tease of fate. Dey often say dat a faddah's love is de blueprint for a daughter's mate.

"Yeah, that's probably why I try to approach every relationship with the long-term goal of marriage. I know I hate bragging about my privileges in front of others, but I can't help but to smile when I think of the memories my dad made for me... as long as they're not with my mom."

"At least you had your parents." Kalimba replied as she plucked a few apples from a nearby tree.

"My mom was a drug addict." I quickly replied. "She wasn't in any part of my life except for when my dad offered her money to be there. How do you love a mom who's only there for her next fix? So I don't even count her."

"Dat pain I understand. Well at least your muddah did not gain possession of you."

"No kidding." I agreed. "All she had to do was sue for custody and child support, the system would've let her win at the time anyhow. I'd probably be slinging in some alleyway downtown like her."

Kalimba's tone then softened. "If my muddah was like yours, my faddah could have been just like yours."

Applejack didn't really say anything to add to the conversation, but I could tell she was pretty distant about what we were talking about. I then asked her. "So what about you? What's with your folks?"

"Ma and Pa passed away when I was young." She quietly answered, making the cold winter air feel heavy with melancholy. Even her words were a little more straight forward. "I was far too young to know much of 'em. But I was a crying mess when they left us. Poor little Applebloom was a foal not even a year old, so she don't know nothing about them, unlike me and Big Mac. Granny Smith took us in, giving us the last little bit of love she had. In a way, we all healed each other. That's our family dynamic for you. I know my situation ain't bad like Kalimba's, or as shaky as yours, but y'all still have a pa to call on when you're ready." The farmer stopped for a moment and glanced at the sky. "I gotta admit, I'm mighty jealous of you two."

After that, it was odd how the three of us just continued working like nothing had been said. I worked significantly slower than usual with the heavy thoughts permeating my brain. The next thing I knew, Applejack threw a snowball at my head and went back to her usual country twang with a side of her homegrown smile.

"Alright, enough of the lingering on. Let's get back up to speed."

Sometime after our harvest, we hauled in the last of the ghost apples we could harvest without the sun doing too much damage to them. As soon as we showed up to the family home, Granny Smith gave us our stipend for the week of work we just finished. After that, she dismissed us for the day, citing our job was over until Monday morning. Their work continued on throughout the day and weekend. but both Applejack and her little sister had the night weekend off for their getting ready for an upcoming event in Canterlot.

Since Kalimba had her own plans of doing god-knows-what, she took herself to the Everfree Forest. So that left me without much of anyone to talk to outside of maybe a casual run-in or two with one of the locals. And I had to admit, this place is pretty chill for the most part. I can see how Nondis had a lot of time to shed a bunch of weight, both mentally and physically. The locals here speak to you, they have the small-town mentality of getting to know one another and trying to build up their community. They also invest heavily in local businesses, purchase home-made products, and attend all social functions as an easy way of getting to know your neighbors. It's a bit different from Austin, there aren't as many assholes looking to break you down, though there can be some.

Along my travel, I made a pit stop at the local bakery. Looking around, I could see that the owners─a husband and wife pairing─loading up a wagon full of treats and cakes for what I could assume to be a large event taking place somewhere. They seemed to be going down the checklist, all while loading the goods onto the wagon. Pinkie Pie, who also worked there, had her hooves full juggling orders and taking care of a set of twins on her back. She didn't seem to skip a beat with those two crawling up through her mane to the top of her head. I was really impressed with how she multitasked her job along with babysitting. It's almost as if she had a mind made for being a good mom. I wouldn't be surprised if she treated them like they were her own kids.

At least I don't think they're her kids.

I sat at a table, waiting patiently in line for myself to get served. The line was pretty clogged, at least long enough to have me standing outside while I waited. As I did, I felt the area around me getting darker, I danced around myself seeing what it was until I looked up to see a fluffy white cloud floating directly above my head. I grumbled, realizing that this was actually a prank. "Okay, you can stop throwing shade on me now."

Of course, it was Cliff hopping from off the cloud with a chuckle. "I swear you are the only one around here who gets that joke."

"It was funny the first time." I said with a light smirk. "But you can't tell the same joke twice to the same audience."

"I know." He replied as he kicked the cloud out of existence. He hovered above me, flapping the wings chance granted him with in his transformation. He seemed to be getting the hang of his newfound mobility. "So, what's the tea on Kali? Heard she was working with you and I thought she may have some juice on a certain someone we know."

"Mr. Asshole reintroduced her to her dad. She's not too happy about it." I replied.

"Oh word? So is she mad about him trying to get them to reconnect, or is it something else?"

"She's mad he's alive. She's also mad that her dad is trying to be a dad now after all this time." I replied.

"Slimy. That nigga know he wrong for it." He said as he hovered to the ground. "You can't just do what you did all them years ago and think it's all cool when y'all get mixed up a decade later. I'm legit surprised she ain't fade his ass on sight."

"Who knows, maybe she already did and won't talk about it."

"He deserves it." He said as he plopped himself next to me. "So, quick question while we on the subject of who deserves what."

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "Please not this again. I don't wanna talk about that."

"He's been asking about you, Cherry. I mean he's been trying to get in touch, leaving letters, being the first one to dinner and the last one to leave the table when miss landlady come by with the food. He's been trying to reach out."

"Has he gotten a hold of me yet?" I asked.

"Nah, you wake up too early to catch then, and then you go to sleep too damn early for him to meet up with during the evening. So it's hard to keep in touch." Cliff stated.

"So it must be pretty obvious that I don't want to get reached out to. He knows what he did." I muttered angrily, not just with him but with myself in particular.

The brown pegasus sighed. "I don't know, Cherry. Been hard to watch him like this. He's been crushing real hard over the past week."

"And it's probably another booty call he's looking for." I responded. "I'm not too interested in guys with one-track minds."

He placed his hoof on my shoulder, bringing me in closer to whisper to me. "M... You gotta hear my boy out. He's been working pretty hard, but I ain't never see him like this. Over the week, it's been downhill. First he was excited about flying, but then he just stayed walking the entire time like he ain't got wings. He started slowing down, he don't talk as much as he used to, he spaces out a lot, he's just... I think you got him in his feelings."

"Yeah. I was in mine when I started feeling good in the moment. But it's just like you guys are, after the ride is over, you come back down to Earth, you realize the mistake you made. I'm just not for it anymore, and he's not either. It's just like me and Mr. Asshole. He dropped me off, I had to learn to move on. He's better off doing the same."

Cliff walked in front of me, placing his hooves on both of my shoulders. "M, we ain't gonna ignore the fact that you still hurt over N getting hooked up with Miss Manager. You gotta be able to see where R's coming from. Hell, you in the same damn river trying to swim upstream. It ain't gon' work if you don't realize you ain't the fish to be doing that. You just gonna find yourself in a situation that ain't healthy for you."

"I said I was done with this." I replied quietly. "Please drop it."

Again, Cliff sighed and shrugged. "Can I at least pass him a message?"

"Tell him I said not to bother me again. He knows what he did."

"Man, you girls are difficult." He said before hopping up into the air and taking off in the other direction.

As our conversation came to a close, Pinkie walked out with the twins on her head and looked up to the sky. "Sheesh, boys are pretty dense when it comes to us girls, aren't they?"

"It's like they can't catch the hint." I said in response to the pink mare.

"I know, right?" Pinkie cosigned. "They're always ignoring the small stuff and look at everything big that isn't the problem. So then they come back later like they don't know what happened when they don't even pay attention to the fact that even the smallest gestures in our most sensitive moments can make a huge difference. It hurts to see that they don't know any better because they should know by how they treat us. They say they're being attentive, but they're overlooking the small details that make the big situation feel right."

"Seriously! It's not rocket science! You know what you did, you didn't even bother to explain yourself to begin with, and then you leave like it's fine for you to give me the space to cry. There was a chance in the moment, and you messed that up for me. You didn't apologize, you didn't comfort me at all, you didn't even try and figure out what you did."

"Walk out and think that 'maybe it was something I did' but never say it until the crying stops. They don't get that we sometimes hurt when we aren't getting chased down. Our imaginations tend to run a little wild at times, so we might need the extra security to keep us safe. But if you can't get that, then you'll never get it when or how it matters most. Then it only starts to feel like a huge mistake."

I threw my hooves into the air with a long-suppressed sense of relief. "Oh my God, you get it!"

"Cherry, we're both girls, just like how we're both pink." Pinkie said with a warm smile. "We're also the reject clan of captain douchebag."

"The asshole of assholes." I cosigned. "How's he doing anyways?"

"He's a mess." Pinkie answered.

"He's always a mess, I'm not surprised." I said with a scoff.

Pinkie looked down for a moment. "...He's not eating, he's not sleeping, he's not going to talk with his counselor, and his investigation got a little rough. I wouldn't be surprised if he got himself killed going on like this."

I stopped to let her explanation weigh heavily on my mind. Eventually, I started to feel a bit saddened, but also deeply worried. "You're worried he might get himself killed. I'm worried that he might try to kill himself again."

Pinkie nearly broke her neck looking at me. "Wait, what?"

"Yeah, he's done it before." I explained quietly. "His grandfather died, I rejected him after prom, he got into a fight with his dad and accidentally punched his mom... he was probably three seconds from pulling the trigger on himself. I wouldn't even be surprised that he might've tried it a second time with how he drove his car into the gulf. There's no way that he wasn't aware of how mixing all those drugs would've reacted in his body. I think there's something inside of him that he really wanted dead. Maybe it was that lingering darkness inside of him, the idea that there was nothing for him to live for. I guess he wanted to drown that out somehow, but nearly ended up drowning himself in his own car."

Pinkie's mane seemed to deflate a bit as she looked to me with expanded eyes, filled with immense worry. "Why would he do something like that to himself?"

I looked away from the mare and closed my eyes to think more of what happened when we had our argument, the last time we talked before he disappeared. "He and I got into it. He was still trying to be like his brothers, but trying to do it in some other way. He thought if he could be this party animal frat boy, he'd get his shot at being seen as normal. I didn't like how he was doing himself, he did a lot of what he would never do, things people told him to do, he became completely dependent on the idea of being that kind of guy to get my attention. I wasn't for it and I told him why. He then let the cat out of the bag, I didn't sleep with him or give him the privilege of being with me after five years of trying, and apparently I was a 'dumb-ass bitch' for doing that. So I stopped talking to him, erased him from my life from that point on, at least I thought I did."

Her mane didn't inflate back to normal just yet, but she started to lightly smile. "You know, I do remember him talking about how he felt like he was in a one-sided relationship. Something about how he didn't want to be the emotional rebound anymore." Pinkie added. "I gotta admit, he's really good for that."

"What did you tell him when he told you that?" I asked. "Do you remember?"

"I told him that he was probably being too immature for what you were looking for, that he didn't quite age the way you wanted him to mentally. I also said that you were probably scared to lose him." Pinkie looked over to see the twins sitting next to their parents. "I bet that's what you were thinking when you thought you could cut him loose."

"Fuck sake, you know me." I said with a half-laugh, half startled expression. "That's why I feel some type of way with all of this romance stuff going on around him. But I guess that's just me being entitled. I was the first one out of anyone to get chased down, I just didn't close the deal. Silly me."

"You're not the only one." Pinkie said with a sigh. "I made a choice of my own. I wanted to try and keep up with Cheese, but I also wanted him to be there for me. Granted, it would've been more than emotional support I was looking for, but I can understand him not being open to that kind of living. Can't have your cake and eat it too, you either let it get stale or you eat it until there's nothing left. I could've made the decision to only be with him, and I think we would've been great... until he left back to your world." Pinkie's mane deflated a little more while she spoke. "He wouldn't even think of staying for me, even when I begged him not to go. He was already saying his goodbyes to Rarity, no hope there. Twilight won out, she kept him here... and they're not even together anymore."

I hugged the pink party mare. "Captain Asshole at his finest, huh?"

"Just so dense you could use his brain for reinforced concrete."

I really couldn't help but to laugh hysterically at her description for Nondis. I had to take a moment to catch my breath. "Yeah, but we both love him, even if he won't love us back."

"We both screwed that up for ourselves. It's best for us to know that he's really happy with where he's going. That's pretty much why I'm so scared for the guy. He doesn't look happy, he looks..."

"Like he's holding on to his last thread." I finished.

"Yeah..." She said sadly. "I want him to come back home, to us, just be the happy little hobbit hiding away in his room. Not the guy who has to hide everyone else."

"I miss the nights when I had bad breakups, and we'd watch movies together over ice cream. He and his chubby five-foot-nine self giggling over stupid YouTube videos."

Pinkie wiped her eyes as her mane started to slowly inflate back to normal. "Yeah, simpler times."

I nodded my head repeatedly. "So... got any lemon petit fours?"

"I'll go see if I have some made." Pinkie said as she was about to head back into the bakery. But she stopped herself and walked back up to me. "Uh... I kinda got sidetracked on what I wanted to say earlier."

"Why, what's up?" I asked.

Pinkie tilted her head and smiled. "Well... I guess you could say that not all guys are completely dense. Sometimes they know what they did wrong and they try to acknowledge it. Sometimes it's better to have closure and know that you tried your best, and it didn't work out. Other times, it's better to drop it altogether. The question is if it's really better to drop it knowing that they'll get hurt from it, or keep it going knowing you'll probably hurt for a while? As long as it's not abusive and they're really trying to be there for you, I think it's worth a look."

"You think so?" I asked.

"Yeah." She replied. "I had a bad relationship where somepony wasn't very nice to me."

"Ditto." I said, thinking about Jasper.

"I'll go check if I can draw up your order real quick."

"Thanks." I said, watching the pink mare walk into the bakery.

The bell rung to announce her entrance, she walked past the numerous clients still waiting in front of the register for their order to get taken. She maneuvered past the line and spoke to all the queued customers. "I'm going to check on a few orders, I'll be right with you as soon as I check in back! Thank you for your patience and being a loyal customer of Sugarcube Corner, where we hope your day continues to be sweet!" Pinkie then went through the door and saw a stallion wearing a white chef hat. He appeared to be rushing from one side of the kitchen to the other. While he was working, Pinkie cleared her throat to get his attention. "So..."

"More orders?" He asked frantically.

"Actually, something else." She said with a cheerful smile. "I told her to keep her options open. Doesn't mean you go running out there at the first chance. Try again later, like this evening."

The stallion pumped his hoof in celebration. "YES! Thank you! Thank you so much, Pinkie! I swear I owe it to you!"

The pink mare pronked across the kitchen to help him with some of the prep. "Two things. You're helping me close tonight, and I'll take one smile, please."

"DEAL!" Rickey shouted excitedly.

Canterlot Castle
Later That Evening...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

Sometime after our call for recess, I had walked into the main hall leading to the foyer. It was hard to not notice how busy the staff were with preparations for both tonight and tomorrow. Looking around, I saw that much of the place was converted into a pseudo ballroom. I could look at the doors leading in, seeing how there was a table set up to the side, I guess for ticket admissions.

Of course I knew what this was all for, it's the junior edition of the Grand Galloping Gala taking place tomorrow. Only difference is that this one was catered exclusively to keep the young children of the tomorrow night's attendees satisfied with not being able to get the right to participate in the more exclusive venue. Usually they are sons and daughters of the politicians, some cases are adopted foals, the others remaining are the high-achievers in Celestia's school. If your kid got in through that, it means your kid's probably got a future at someplace bright. Though from what I heard from others around the castle, their parents are typically cosseting or projecting their child's achievements as a result of their raising them. In short, there are going to be at least five groups of kids here; spoiled, sheltered, introverted, anxious, or passive. Thankfully, I won't be around to check out the festivities or seeing how the parents get to use their kids to gain political favors.

After that bit of distraction, I got back to the chamber and we started the preliminaries of our case. I had to present the idea of potential witnesses and testimonies being presented. Blue had to establish a counter argument of how my accusations were simply based on speculation rooted from my disdain for Count. In either case, the parliament were left with no other choice but to reopen the investigation, that very same one they blatantly chose to table in passing their spending measure from last month.

Of course, that means Shining and Cadance's baby had a window of relief until this case was concluded. Even if this was a cut and dry case with lots of evidence stacked up against the defense, it was in our best interest to drag this out for as long as I could. And since the time frame for that was two weeks, I intended for that to be the prescribed ten business days. And Blue didn't make the schedule easy either, citing a very small amount of days where she would be available to represent her father's estate. The spacing she offered allowed more time for deliberations, and she wasn't going to fight that hard to win the case. My only concern comes from how they're gonna try to rig this measure to where it's nothing but the same bullshit as before.

Here's to hoping that doesn't happen a second time.

Shortly after dinner, which was scheduled an hour earlier for the cooks to accommodate the catering prep for tomorrow night's event, I ate a very light meal to not disrupt my stomach. A moment later, I could finally start planning my meetup with Blue and the others in Corrotto. But in a rare rebuke, I was strictly advised not to attend tonight for the sake of paying on some overdue debts. And I knew exactly who I was going to be paying.

Instead of traveling the way of Corrotto, I started moving on out to the place Blue had instructed me to go to. She wanted me to meet with her in one of the parks over in the Fringe District. Once I got to being there, I found myself sitting in a familiar place. I looked around, noting the gas lit lamps illuminating the outer boundaries of the children's park. But looking into the quiet play castle, I felt some eerie sensation run down my spine. The sight of the one barely illuminated swing idling back and forth against the wind was giving me the vibe of a horror movie. The faint but haunting squeaks added much to the atmosphere that started to develop within my mind.

"It's wonderful to know that the kids have such a good place to play." A voice spoke out from next to me. I looked over quickly, startled but also relieved to see Blue standing by me. "Think of how many after-school memories are made in a place like this."

I looked around and thought more about the creepy aspect of it. "Yeah, it's also a good place for predators to choose who they're kidnapping."

She walked forward and shrugged her shoulders. "That's everywhere you go. It's not just isolated to a place like this. I'd rather think of this place as somewhere we can feel vulnerable, free, open to discuss what's on our minds and hearts."

"You're more of an optimist than I am." I muttered.

"Someone's gotta be, you're too dark and moody for your own good. You should take a moment to swing with me." She said as she parked herself on the barely illuminated swing.

"I wonder if you realize I'm a little too big for that." I said with a smirk.

She promptly returned my smile. "I wonder if you realize you could change that."

I glanced around, noticing hardly anyone around the dim streets. I looked at a few other adjacent buildings, seeing not a soul staring through their windows. I realized with even as open as this place was, no one was here. I took a deep breath and transformed myself.

***Point of Perspective: Equus Nondis***

After that, she lightly illuminated her horn, showing another swing beside her. She patted the seat, beckoning me to join her. I did just that. "You know, from this point of view, I can see what you mean. It's a little bit more nostalgic."

"Isn't it?" She said warmly, swinging herself back and forth. "When I was younger, I didn't have to worry about picking up my mother's corporation. I didn't have to think about my father doing bad things to me. Hell, he wasn't even remotely interested in my being his daughter in the first place. Who cares about stuff like that when you've gotta hide from the pony who's 'it' in a game of tag. To hell with the investors, I don't want my big brother finding me in a tree somewhere."

"Probably a little too big for that tree now, huh?" I joked.

She glanced over to see a proud standing mother oak sitting close to one of the walls surrounding the park. "Oh no, she's much bigger than me still."

As she swung, she started to gain enough air to where she could jump off. As soon as she was high enough, she leaped off the seat and yelped in joy as she took to the air. When she landed, she looked back at me silently. I started to laugh over how awkward she appeared on her landing. "Maybe your body is saying you're a little too big for stuff like that."

"Maybe it is." She sheepishly stammered as she stood herself up straight. "But I miss being a free spirit. It's just so much weighing me down nowadays. So what I'll sometimes do is that I'll come here to lighten my mood. Whether you believe it or not, my mom and brother would always take me here after school. When we finished, we went straight home."

"Good memories to have." I said as I started swinging myself.

She walked over to the side of the swing set, a frown appearing on her face. "You know, the last time I came here as a foal, it was with my brother. Then our aunt and uncle came to find us, they took us out for ice cream... and then told us that we would never get to see mom again. I was really young, so I didn't react to that as hard as I did when I found out that my brother and I were getting separated. Both of them were the siblings to my mom, so my uncle took him in while my aunt took me. He went to Vanhoover, I went to Fillydelphia. He was sent to an all-boys school, I was sent to an all-girls institution. When I graduated, I wrote a letter to my brother and came back here to this park to meet with him. From there, we were happy, and we went home."

"So this place is like a homecoming of sorts." I said, slowing down my momentum.

"Not entirely." She said. "It's more of a precursor."

"For what?" I asked.

"For where I'm going to next." She said with a brightening smile. "Where we're going to next."

"Your place?" I questioned.

"...Used to be."

A little while later, I found myself going through the four checkpoints that lead to the back side of the mountain. What used to be an arduous few hours of travel inward had been dropped to an absurd forty minutes from where we stood in that park. Along the way, there was no one jumping in the way, trying to double check my credentials. Instead, it was smooth sailing. As soon as Blue lifted her hoof, the gates just swung open. Even while I came through, there were no objections. It was as easy as how the guard treated Celestia. If you seeing her walking down the road, get the hell out of the way.

Once more, I went through the richest of the richest neighborhoods, but with hardly an interruption. And then we were brought back to the front gates of the large villa. She didn't even bother ringing the front gate, she just used a red card, one similar to the ones they use in the Sun Cryst Resort. Again, the gates swung wide open and we were given access to the grounds. She pulled out a key, unlocked the door, and we were inside, just that quick.

The place was lit up like a warm welcoming home, the large lobby appearing eager to usher us within. A familiar pony approached from one of the side rooms and bowed his head out of respect. "Ah yes, the ever so beautiful Ms. Blue Sapphire Royal. I bid you welcome to the home."

The mare walked up to the servant and hugged him with an air kiss to each cheek. "Handy Dandy, it's been so long! I haven't seen you since my last visit. How's the missus?"

"She is well, my dear. I only hope that you are doing the same." He said before glancing to me. "And I see you have finally broken out of your shell and started pursuing a suitor! Much excitement to be had, hmmmyes?"

The mare extended her hoof to me. "I know the two of you have already met. But I suppose a reintroduction to his current form would benefit you. This is Captain Nondis, of course in a simpler form to bypass the security."

"Ah, the one who almost dropped me in one of his magic lessons with the young master, very good." The stallion started smiling earnestly as he approached me. "From suitor to a princess to one for our young heiress. I can certify that she will be in good hooves."

"Handy was actually a really good help to me since I came back from graduation. He was with my brother for the longest time, and came with him when my Alabaster came back home to the estate. From there, he's been a good caregiver to both my brother and I. He's almost like a dad to us, rather the one we never had." She said, proudly doting on the elder butler.

"You flatter me much, mistress." Handy replied with a bow. "Shall I inform your brother of your presence?"

"You may." She said as she escorted me towards the stairs. "I'll be in the usual place."

"Very good then." He said before turning to me. "Good sir, might I request a fruit bowl to start the evening with?"

While many would be surprised of why they would suggest something like that immediately, I'm more surprised he's accommodating for the occasion so openly. "Just a small bowl. Stomach's been a bit rowdy the past few days."

"A fruit salad with almonds and raspberry balsamic vinaigrette dressing, compliment with a nice red wine and an optional side of sweet crème. That shall be on it's way to you." That's not a small bowl, that's more like a fucking buffet. "Are there any fruits the mistress requires?"

"Strawberries and water is fine. Hold the chocolate, everypony who's worth their goods know that the whole chocolate boosting the drive thing is a load of misinformation." She turned to me and winked. "Chocolate makes you feel too good, you don't want to feel like you don't need to hold up to obligations."

"Is that really true?" I asked.

"It's more of a psychological thing." She said while running behind me to push me onward. "Let's get moving, we have a pretty long night."

"Do you think it's in your best interest to let Alabaster, your own brother, know that we're going to be making the house a little noisy?" I asked.

"Just warning you now, he'll be joining us." She said without skipping a beat.

...I might not like where this is headed.

A little bit later, I was sitting inside of an awfully large master bedroom. All over the walls were photos of a plainly brown unicorn mare with gray hair doing various things. The photos themselves actually were mostly in sepia tint. The mare was standing with a few stallions while holding a large check in one photo, standing in front of a masonry in another with yet another check, then stood before an empty plot of land with her her apparently angry husband. Neither of them smiled. Another showed up of that same plot of land, but with the semblance of a home being built in the background. Large wooden frames started to make out the shape of the front of the home. The next photo was of her standing beside her completed estate, again without a smile beside her angry husband. Her husband appeared to be a fair-looking guy with quite the Napoleon complex.

Count must've really hated her guts.

The photos then went to black and white with the improvements of camera technology. There were photos of her being seated, her husband standing behind her with a nonchalant appearance. The mare then stood behind the chair while the husband sat, this time with a visibly angry disposition, I could assume from the fact that her hooves were so close to him on the chair. The next one was of him standing with the maids of the home, nowhere near as angry, completely relaxed as he stood at the top of the stairs being surrounded by them. Next was a photo of him holding a book with Starswirl's mark on the cover, looking very distinguished.

And then the family photos started popping in. A photo sat of him holding his son, a baby Alabaster looking up to his father with curiosity. Count appeared pleased with his son, but refusing to smile. The mare, however, was a different process. She smiled warmly and looked down to her child, loving on him with every chance she got. The family photo appeared to be a contrasting disaster, the baby was situated between the two, the mare as close to her son, while the father as far away from the two as he could be in frame. The boy started to grow, standing on his own. He began to smile towards his mother and father. But I started to notice that he held his son much closer to him, breaking the symmetry between them. In fact there was a photo of him being stood to his father's right, while the mare was stationed to Count's distant left. The stallion started to hold his son closer to him, smiling. The mother began to not smile as much, glancing over to her son.

Then the pictures began to hide a more tragic story. The mare began to wear more makeup. The son stopped smiling, appearing anxious. The mare smiled, but I could tell that it was more forced than anything. Pictures of her and the maids started appearing frequently. And there was also a maid she appeared to have a close friendship with, who she took a personal photo with in a rose garden. After that one picture, I saw the pattern of more makeup being placed on the brown mare. A young Alabaster started to grow more attached to his mother, almost clutching to her like he was afraid.

The maids disappeared, the wife's belly grew big once more. Count was nowhere to be seen in any photo with her in her pregnancy. But there was one photo where the makeup looked extremely caked on, and her son had hugged on to her with his best smile. He seemed to be trying to cheer her up, and he didn't look any older than possibly four years. The mare almost appeared to be holding back tears her picture. The next one was of her holding her healthy newborn filly. She appeared quite proud of her daughter, holding her with a fond smile.

And just as Alabaster grew to his own size, Blue came to hers. The photos started looking grainy, but colorful. They appeared to show the mare and her daughter playing in a similar rose garden, but with a standing absence of her maid friend. I began to notice there were a lot less of Count in the photos. Alabaster and Blue loved on their mother in every one of them. And then came the largest frame on the wall facing the foot of the bed. This one wasn't a photo, but a painting. It was rich with vivid colors and contrasting tones, subtle shades and a vast perspective, a true work of art. The family of four was finally united, the father stood behind the chair where the two foals sat, the mother standing beside him with a warm glow. The father, however, stood with a cold indifference. A stern father, a loving mother, and two bright children who loved their home and family.

The rest to me was an unspoken history.

After my brief tour into their family history, Blue walked beside me and started to speak. "My mother would've loved you as her own, you know? She may have been a cruel face in the industry, but she was a devoted mother who loved openly."

"A stark contrast to your dad?" I asked.

She looked up to her father and shuddered while backing away. But she then bucked up to the image of her father while nuzzling me. "You have no idea how great it is for you to be here, for me."

"I'm just here on a visit." I replied. "I can't believe you and your brother have this huge castle to yourselves."

She frowned and stepped away from me. "Actually,.. I don't live here."

"Wait, seriously?" I asked, completely astounded. "Why'd you leave this place?"

She appeared saddened as she turned towards the bed. "...My father raped me in the downstairs warming room. My mother hung herself from the rafters of the main study." She walked towards the bed and ran her hooves over the sheets and smiled. "But this bed, this was where my brother and I shared our last night with our mom, hugging and holding us in her hooves... all while our father banged on the door violently."

"Why did you want to come back to see him after all of that?" I questioned the mare.

"I figured he didn't like our mom. I thought that he had been hostile to her and only her. And of course, I was too young to know what was really happening. I was only four when all of this happened. Maybe my brother saw more of it because of how my father looked at me back then. I should've been more attentive to the fact that he kept shoving me away, telling my mom that I wasn't his daughter. He always said I was much too pretty to be her child."

"From what I gathered in the pictures, he appeared possessive of your brother. I may be wrong, though." I said with a groan of uncertainty.

"Oh no, you're absolutely spot on." She replied energetically. "He wanted a son and he was content with having that. He wanted an heir he could mold and shape to his desire. And again, I was just the leftovers of his tryst with one of the maids."

...I don't want to know how that came up, it's probably something involving a turkey baster and a sworn secret entry. "I don't wanna ask."

She giggled to herself sadly. "I was probably shot out of a turkey baster. I wouldn't be surprised."

Me thinking about it was an example of dark humor. Her saying it was more of a depressing reality, one I couldn't laugh at. I felt pity for her, knowing that her existence was made possible through a wish and a nefarious method. Probably explains the lack of maids in the later pictures. I wanted to say something to cheer her up, but I really had nothing to say to that.

A knock on the door sounded, I stood idly by as she walked over to greet the butler. She walked from the door with a silver tray with two silver platters covered in lids. She placed the tray onto the bed and levitated me a platter. I opened the lid to see it was a whole bowl of salad with a cup of red dressing to the side. Along with it was a silver bowl with a spoon sticking out, filled with whipped cream. Next I heard a cork pop from a bottle. I looked over to see Blue pouring some wine in a glass. She levitated it to me with a smile. "I guess you can see why I'm a bit of a drunk at times."

"You can have the bottle if you want." I suggested to her, hoping it would make her feel better.

She shook her head. "No, I have water for a reason." I started to take a sip of my wine before she spoke again. "Drink slow. Don't get too invested in the alcohol."

She opened her lid to a bowl of plump, fresh strawberries. She bit herself one and was pleased in the taste. I stuck my fork into my salad and looked down at the contents, seeing a lot of fruit and spinach. I took a bite of the food and felt nothing pulling me to stop on it. Instead, I was more interested in eating it. I found myself taking fork after fork of the salad while she watched me quietly.

"Sheesh, it's almost as if you were starved today."

"The job had me eating a lot less." I said, keeping my tribulations confined to that one sentence. I continued to stuff my face full of fruit and vegetables until the bowl sat empty with the remnants of leaves and dressing. I was pleased with the meal, appreciative that my stomach wasn't negotiating with me. "That was good. I could do that more often."

She smiled as she took a sip of water. "I'm glad. At least I know you'll be good for tonight."

I glanced over to her and questioned her on her choice. "I'm curious though, you could've had something more than just strawberries. Why just that?"

"Because strawberries boost the libido, and has antioxidants that give you more of an energetic boost. I'm drinking water to make sure that I am well lubricated."

I snickered to myself. "I guess you've done your research."

"You know, fruit helps guys with the taste of their seed and promotes better sperm production, in turn making you much more fertile. The almonds in your salad increases drive and potency of your orgasm."

I stopped snickering as I looked down to myself. "Well... that's new."

"I did say that we were in for a long night." She replied as another knock came to the door.

She looked at me and instructed me to sit on the bed. While she opened the door, I felt my stomach grow nervous in seeing her brother walk into the room. "So, I take it that the party hadn't gotten started without me?" He sat to the opposite side of the room where I sat. He looked over to me nervously. "Apparently not."

I slowly glanced back at Blue. "Uhhh..."

She quickly addressed my concern. "Okay. Now... I know what you're thinking right now. And I know that you're not exactly comfortable with anything involving the same sex."

"Can I ask why he's here?" I questioned the mare. "Isn't this a little awkward?"

She slowly slid over to my side and spoke softly. "Nondis, do you remember when I said that my brother would be joining us tonight?" I immediately opened my mouth for a retort, but she quickly jumped up to argue her point. "I know, I know! You're not that open to the idea of being with a guy! And I'm not telling you that's what you have to do!"

Alabaster stayed on his side of the room, speaking softly. "If I may... I know that you're not agreeable to this, I can understand why with what happened recently. And I will stay true to the idea that I will not force you to do anything you're not comfortable with. What you do with us tonight is completely your decision, not ours. And I don't want you to feel revolted at the idea of being forced into anything with me. All that does it just hurt me and you, me especially because I'll feel terrible about it. So I'm fine with just watching."

"Dude, it's your sister." I explained.

I watched his ears turn red at that moment as he quietly whispered to me. "Well... I might know her a little more than that."

"Say what!?" I shouted, standing up.

"Hey, we all know who we're dealing with." He replied quickly to save face. "That bastard has all sorts of sick fetishes running through his mind. And sometimes we just have to roll with the punches to make sure that nothing bad happens. It's not that I want to see her..."

"You want to see me." I slowly concluded.

The stallion looked in the direction of the door as he nervously rubbed his foreleg. "...It was always you. Just the fact that you stepped into my office yesterday was driving me mad. That's why I had to clear my throat, that side of me I keep hidden from the public eye, it lunged out a bit. I had to reign it in, because I knew you were uncomfortable with it. So... when I said that I wanted to get some compensation for it, I went with my best option, one that didn't involve you being uncomfortable."

"I'm kinda uncomfortable with what's going on now." I confessed. "I'm supposed to play tap out with your sister while you watch?"

"If anything, this is more of a practice condition for any possible future occurrences." Blue explained. "You-know-who is going to want a show the next time you get in. And again, we have to play to his rules or bad things happen. And sometimes we do it for information, we do it to negotiate. Sometimes we do it to achieve proximity. But as long as we play along, nothing else bad happens."

"Do you remember the pictures Blue showed you of Damper and his little fun session?" Alabaster questioned.

My mind went back to the night at the downtown park. Images of the young effeminate stallion getting plowed into ran across my mind. "Yeah, the twins, right?"

Alabaster's ears ran red once more. "...Twins... not exactly." He started to fashion his mane back into a bun and smiled shyly with much more falsetto in his voice. "I'm quite shy to admit that you were witnessing my work."

My jaw dropped as I realized that it was him who was getting dug into by Damper. I immediately held my hoof over my mouth and shook my head. "No."

The stallion still spoke in his falsetto, almost as if it was natural for him to do so. "I guess we do pass off as twins if we paint ourselves well enough."

I looked over and saw Blue, covering her muzzle as she looked off. "I... had to take the photos."

I sat down on the bed, stunned to damn-near complete silence. The truth had to run a few laps through my brain for me to process what the hell was going on. "...You two─"

"We didn't go that far!" Blue shouted. "We had a rule, no further than the red line. We weren't going to do anything more than that to each other for the sake of our getting the information you needed. We swore that nothing else would come of it, it was for business, and we wanted to put an end to not just our father's legacy, but also the troubles you've suffered because of him and those who think like him. I can assure you that there's nothing more to it than us doing what we needed to do."

"For my sake?" I questioned, still astounded.

"I guess more than our sake." Alabaster stated. "We know of Princess Cadance's unborn child, and we know why the royals and you have placed aside your qualms to that end. What they're doing is wrong."

"Guys, what the both of you were doing was wrong." I replied.

"On MANY levels." Blue agreed. "But that's the world we live in. We can't get it done playing safe. All avenues have to be covered, and if we have to sacrifice a bit of ourselves to get you what you need, fine."

"There is no way you two did all of this for me, I didn't even know you! I did nothing for you! Why would you go that far for me? There's no reason!" I said, still trying to process all of this.

The two ponies looked towards one another before Alabaster spoke. "Because you gave us hope."

"How the fuck did I give you two hope to do some crazy shit like that? How is my being here any hope for you?" I asked.

"You gave us the hope to overcome our father, to do what we could not. We couldn't touch him because we were trying to protect ourselves so much. We couldn't intervene because we were so defensive. And when we got the newspaper that showed you getting cornered by that big beast, we felt like we had lost. We were essentially your biggest fans, and seeing you like that was... terrible for us. I'm sure the royals had expressed that same sentiment to you." Blue explained, trying to get closer to me.

"But seeing you still survive in spite of our father's best attempt to send you to your grave, it made us see that we still had a chance to make a difference. So we grew bold, we broke out of our shell and actively played our roles. And now here we are, with you to thank." Alabaster concluded.

"I still don't get any of this." I replied while shaking my head. "How does this any make sense, how do you justify doing this?"

"Because we know what it's like to be subjugated and abused." Blue explained.

"Because we know what it's like to watch others suffer because of the actions of a select few." Alabaster explained.

"And we're willing to go to whatever end to change things."

"Even if we question ourselves. My sister is looking to end his legacy, and that will be achieved. I have a different purpose for what I'm doing. And I know that I can't play it safe to undo the system that gave my father such power. It doesn't make sense to you, I know. But my sister and I have had to do things like that to keep our standing in that realm. And if we intend to keep you safe, we'll have to gradually warm you up to the idea of committing to the role."

"It doesn't matter that they know what you're doing or who you are, that's your business. But keeping it that way still requires you to play by His rules. If you don't, he'll start to torture you in ways that will make you wish for death. Trust me, the things he whispers in my ear to put me in line terrifies me with nightmares. And I want to save you from this getting any worse. You can't be comfortable anymore, and you can't just run away."

"So if it's possible..." Alabaster pleaded as he rose from his seat, inching closer with every step. "Please, I want you to be open to the idea of playing along. I won't force anything on you tonight, but I want you to know that it's okay. If you can't trust me, then I ask that you at least try it a step at a time. I know I'm telling you to be something that you're not... But please, give us a chance to find an opening, let the walls down a bit, just see us. Please."

"For all of our sakes." Blue finished as she nuzzled. "We can't let him win."

My eyes closed to the two ponies in the room, allowing myself to look inward. There were many places that screamed an objection to what was being proposed to me. Even by my own moral convictions, I had much of myself standing in my own way, from openly acknowledging that I had to place myself aside. From the moment I walked in that venue, it was obvious to me that I had to engage in lecherous activities that made me very uncomfortable, to see things that I didn't want to give direct attention towards. It actually started from the moment I took a wrong turn down the alleyway. I was met with a choice then, a truly disgusting one I would never accept at that. This one was far more tamer, at least I could control how uncomfortable I was willing to allow myself to be.

At least I'm in a position where I have some control.

◄------------------------------------------------------------------------------------►

There wasn't a chance in hell that I would ever consider myself as homosexual. The thought of my even embracing something like that wasn't anything I was fond of. And of course, I'd hear of some of my classmates getting drunk enough to have an experience or two of that caliber, maybe a dare, or even something they've harbored some level of curiosity they've stashed away in secret from the world. It's a fair assessment that gave root to the famous idiom 'giving the old college try'. It made sense in that aspect, to be open minded enough to walk the experience for yourself and possibly discover whether or not this was something you felt was missing in your life, or if it's something you'd probably stash away in some obscure corner of your brain to be deleted somewhere down the line. For some, it could be a moment of validation, a hidden impulse they longed for while trying to hide their desires from their religious or politically puritanical parents.

The college try, this situation was no different. As far as I'm aware, I've had a drunken moment of being involved with more than one pony at a time. But even that experience was so obscure that I could only make out bits and pieces of it. Outside of that, there was no one opportunity that I had with another partner, much less them being male.

To say I was nervous was an understatement.

Blue laid on my chest, adorning my neck with her lips. Her horn glowed before my eyes while she massaged the most sensitive parts of my nethers in hopes to incite a desirable reaction. It wasn't until she saddled herself onto my stomach and held her hooves down to mine. She leaned in to give me a sultry kiss before leaning in to whisper in my ear. "Keep your eyes on me."

The moment for me, while having plenty of experience in the company of a mare or woman, I couldn't have been more of a virgin in the mind. It felt like it was my first time all over again, minus the immense pain of having a fractured right shoulder and left arm. That being said, there was nothing that distracted me from the pleasure of having myself being toyed with by the blue mare. The freckles I barely paid attention to in the daylight hours had been more visible to me with her being so close. Her eyes were much softer than what I had previously anticipated.

Her hoof wandered, slowly trailing down her chest and between her haunches as she lifted herself slightly to reach further down. With a bite of her lip, she started to shift her hips against her seeking hoof. Her magic continued to work on me while her breaths warmed the air between us. Soft moans escaped from her lips while I was being tantalized by her actions. The mare's scent began to brush against my nose, the musk driving my equine mind to attain the primal desire that slowly began to devour every bit of my thought process.

She rose and fell against her hoof slowly, advertising her body a foot away from my muzzle. Her head fell back, eyes rolling while she had me pinned between her hind legs. Her tongue slid from between her lips, moistening them while she whispered. "Okay, a few things. You do as I say while keeping three rules in mind. First, no touching yourself, that includes your hooves, your magic, even the little boys trick you stallions are known for. Second, no thinking, that means you can't try to focus on what's happening right now, just enjoy the experience. And third, no cumming until I tell you to, you will tell me out loud when you're close. And if you don't, thinking you can sneak one past me, I'll know."

Her magic pulsed a bit brighter for the fraction of a second, causing her grip to tighten on me. I instinctively throbbed against her telekinetic grasp. The slight roughness of her approach had surprised me, actually arousing me in kind. "What happens if I go too early?"

"Then it won't stop until you apologize. You'll be in post-stimulate hell." She said, leaning onto my ear while roughly tugging against the base of my length, slowly working her way up to the tip. "Every second will be suffering, there will be no breaks, there will be no begging for me to stop, and there won't be a moment you'll wish for me to stop. I'll keep milking you, you'll hate it and love it, and then you'll agonize from the overload. I'll feel like you're being tickled, but it won't stay that way after the second or third orgasm." Her magic ring quickly slid down my equine features, causing me to thrust back up into it. The methodical delivery of her intent was something I was never accustomed to from any prior experience.

I admit, it was pretty wild to know such torture existed. But I had to keep myself controlled, no matter how nervous or excited I felt. "Okay, so you're the dom."

"You learn quick, that's cute to me." She said softly. "Now, close your eyes."

I did as she ordered while she inched her muzzle closer to mine. Her lips planted against mine for a second time, but her tongue became a second unexpected guest to my senses. There grew a gap of separation between us, one that our tongues bridged between. She pulled off with a hearty grunt and pant. I giggled at her, not being able to see the probable smile on her face. "You're trying to keep yourself calm, aren't you?"

She went back to my ears to whisper, the sensation of her stroking me slowed considerably to a maliciously labored pace. "I forget that you never really remembered how the other night went when you first came by."

"I remember pieces of it." I confessed.

"Well, my magic allows me to be a little more... immersive with your memories." She stated, nibbling against the tip of my ear. "So I'll start from the moment we realized you were a little excited. You were pretty turned on with all of that wine in your system. Kalimba, the maid, and I were pretty amazed to how you were just touching it like you didn't know how to get it back down. I saw how you were sitting there like a young teenage colt, rubbing yourself. You were so cute. The maid and I just got in closer to see if you were going to burst at any moment. Usually takes around thirty seconds before a stallion bursts with that much of the wine in them. But you were different, you were really different."

"How so?" I asked while she continued to tease me.

She giggled and cupped my ear to her lips. "You still kept going. So we started to place a wager on how long it would take before you'd succumb to the build-up. We restarted the timer, gave you another thirty seconds, and saw that you were still stroking away. The maid actually started touching herself when she watched you. I was pretty impressed myself. So do you wanna know what I did next?"

"Yeah." I grunted, feeling a desire to pump my hips into her magic.

The next thing I heard was the wetness of her lips parting before she spoke. "I positioned myself in front of you, stuck out my tongue, and waited. And I started helping you, my hoof worked just as hard as yours did, and then I on what you were doing. I said to myself that you were timing yourself, working it slow to keep yourself going. So I thought that my being there would've sped things up. I was really trying to sabotage your little effort, but for some odd reason, you just wouldn't go. Now, can you tell me how I felt watching you do that to me?"

"Mad?" I guessed.

"Oh no." She replied as she started to slowly grind herself against my chest. "I was excited. Really excited. I wanted to see what ways I could sabotage you. So..." The sensation of a pair of lips began to kiss against my shaft. I started to open my eyes, but she tapped me on my nose to correct me. "The maid and I started kissing and licking you. Up and down, we shared the idea of seeing how far you'd go before blowing all over our faces. For a moment, we thought we had you. You looked at us for a second before rolling your eyes. You whispered to us to keep going. And since we had a front row seat to every last moment you throbbed, we caught every second of your eyes being focused on us. You even put your hoof against my head and showed me where you liked it. And then you came back down."

As she told me the story, I imagined that I felt the wetness of her tongue continuing to show admiration to my features. The sensation of a pair of lips digging themselves against the side of me made me shudder with delight. "Oh... yes. Every inch." The pace picked up slightly, placing me in a position to nearly lose myself. Before I knew it, all the sensations that began to amplify around me had stopped, leaving me cold and unfulfilled.

The mare giggled in my ear. "That feel good?"

"Yes. You are really good at this." I said with a chuckle before stifling a moan.

The tickling pressure that built in my loins began to subside, allowing me to come back down to ground level. Blue continued to tell her story from where she left off. "We were pretty shocked that you didn't go off there. I was more amazed than anything... and turned on. But Kalimba called us out, saying that we didn't know what we were doing. So she took the leading role, and she used her tongue to bathe every bit of you."

I was reintroduced to the warmth of her magic working against me, giving me the sensation of Kalimba's tongue dancing around to crown me, tickling and dressing me down in her warm embrace. There was a slight pause before I could find myself being taken in whole, from top to bottom. Slowly.

"She wasn't into the foreplay for long. She went straight for it. She climbed on top of you, lined you up, and sat until you bottomed out." Blue said while nibbling on my ear some more.

"What else did she do?" I asked in a strained voice, trying to hold back as much as I could.

I began to recall the sensation of her moving against me, almost as if it was too real for the imagination. In and out, my hips began to sway and circulate. My eyes launched open to see Blue staring at me with a seductive glare. The sensation around my enveloped sex came to a cold and sudden pause. She continued to grind against my chest while she questioned me. "You close?"

"Yeah. Really close." I said longingly.

"Okay. I'll give you a moment to breathe." She said, nuzzling into my neck. She glanced back to see just how close I was go giving in. "Oh wow, you were really about to go out there. Where's all that stamina gone?"

"You're really good at what you do." I whispered with a chuckle.

"Deep breaths, breathe slow." She urged, placing a hoof on my chest. "Loosen your legs, try not to contract your muscles too much. Don't compress anything. Just ride it back down." She also took the chance to stop herself from grinding on me as well, remaining stationary to give my senses the chance to calm down in spite of the closeness of the scent she produced from her own sex. She gave me at least thirty seconds before I was able to continue. "Okay, you ready?"

"Yeah." I responded.

"Close your eyes." She ordered. I then obliged as my journey continued. "Now, while the maid wasn't inexperienced, she was in awe of how Kalimba took command of the situation. The three of us watched while you snapped back into it and saw her grinding on you. She started off really slow, hoping that she could convince you to get off to her. Poor thing was so confident that she felt like you were about to blow. So she sped up, feeling you get a little more stiff inside of her. But, you placed your hooves on her, driving your hips into hers."

Her magic reactivated, my mind simulated the event while her magic gave me a more realistic recollection. "Did she go crazy?" I asked, pleading for my imagination's sake.

Blue kissed my ears, dragging her tongue against my cheek. "She went nuts. She loved every inch of you inside of her. So much that she sped up even faster and faster until she couldn't stop herself from her own little orgasm. You should've seen the look on her face, she was lost in pleasure. She kept cussing at you, smiling and dumping her hips down on you with each pulse of her ride down. The way she dropped her head to look at you, the way she gazed into your eyes, I knew then she was addicted to you, like she wanted you for herself. She even went so far as to hug you all while trying to ride her way down. But she didn't exactly stop there, she started clutching onto you while she went back into riding on top of you."

The sensation around me had gotten a lot more intense, more fevered, as if she was actively riding on me at that moment. I began to pump my hips into her, giving her the same attention she gave to me. "Yeah. Take it. Take it." I growled, clenching my teeth. I began to speak praises to her out loud, thinking of her. "Good girl. Good girl, yeah. That's it."

My mind began to recall the image of her from earlier in the week, the sight of her face while greedily shifting herself on and off of me, I could recall the concentration she had wrought to her face while seeking her third climax that night, her grunts, the accent that dripped with rich ebony dialect from the Congo. I could imagine her words speaking to me. 'You silly boy, look at you and your greed. You want all of it, don't you?' I nodded my head at the imaginary figure. "I want it."

Blue smiled, sucking on my neck. "You may not remember it, but you were egging her on. You did it so much that she angrily dropped her weight on you until you started throbbing again. She felt exactly what you were about to do right there and jumped off. And in that moment, me, her, and the maid watched as you started to go off. It started off pretty slow, like you were drizzling down and hugging every vein. But then you held your breath and threw your head back, and right then you blew a load across the room. We really all had to clap at that one. It was the best orgasm we ever watched you have, possibly the best one that you'll never remember. Shame."

The pressure mounted once more, but the sensation didn't stop. Blue shifted on top of me as she realized that I was about reach my breaking point. She watched as I struggled to hold myself back. I'm sure she watched me with pity, feeling somewhat guilty that I was holding myself back.

The mare kissed me on my lips. "Okay now. You want to finish?"

"Yes." I said as I instinctively reached my hoof down.

But at the moment I felt there was no return, I found my hoof grabbing at a head that bobbed fervently up and down. Blue rose from off of me with a smile while she watched me arch my back and concede to my climax. I let out a slow croak that broke into a guttural moan. My hips spasmodically launched forward with every pulse of my delivery. I glanced down to see the head I was holding.

Alabaster moaned himself as he pumped me dry, his magic pressing into the very tip of my shaft as his tongue collected every drop I unleashed on his face and mouth. I was in orgasmic shock while he worked every direction my hoof pointed him to. Lapping his tongue religiously, every ounce of seed I spilled was brought to his taste and swallowed as if he was a thirsty wanderer of a desert seeing water for the first time. I didn't want to admit it, but the look he gave me as he hummed, gagged, and swallowed down every inch of my turgid stature was the most feminine experience I had ever watched. The level of submission he gave me was vastly different, attentive to every vein, every crevice, every pulse, and every drop.

I stayed there with panting breaths, shaking from the fact and realization that he was my source of pleasure in that moment. I was astounded, unwilling to confess to myself whether I wanted to be angry about it, disgusted at myself, or even surprised that it still felt pleasurable. I was awash with both shame and guilt. But I was surprisingly tame about it, nothing to argue it now.

What's done is done.

►------------------------------------------------------------------------------------◄

Alabaster smiled as he glanced over to his sister. "You think he liked it?" He asked while summoning a towel for his face.

The mare giggled. "I think he may want a moment to decide."

The effeminate stallion wiped his face. "I think you should do the talking for a while. It was your story that got him all riled up like that. Maybe you can talk to him a lot better than I'd get through to him at the moment."

The mare kissed me on my cheek, questioning me. "So? How did you like it?" I couldn't help but to cover my face, not wanting to openly admit to what had happened. The mare rubbed my chest softly as she nuzzled me. I'm sure she noticed how red the tips of my ears were. "You know, it's okay to talk about it. The last thing you want to do is repress it into your mind. That's not healthy, you know. So whenever you feel ready, just tell me what you think." I grabbed a pillow with my magic and flopped it over my face so that I couldn't be seen. Blue whined out at my response. "Aw, don't be embarrassed. Please? How about this, you don't have to go into detail. Just a yes or no, did it feel good?"

I didn't want to answer her.

Alabaster sighed, sounding a bit depressed. "I went too far, didn't I?"

"...I..." My thoughts were slow to formulate into verbal form. "I feel like... I..."

Blue hugged me tightly, being as nurturing as she could in the moment. "I'm sorry. I really thought you were into it, so I tried to make it a little easier for you. I just wanted you to see him at that moment because I thought you needed to see the truth eventually. I didn't want you to have to experience a lie like that and then find out way later on, that's not healthy either."

Alabaster dropped his head and turned himself away from me. "I probably should've waited longer before doing this. I'm such an idiot."

His sister quickly corrected him. "You're not the idiot here, I'm the one who suggested it."

"But I agreed to it." I replied, pulling the pillow off of my face. I slowly sat back up to see the two ponies sitting in the room with me. "I can't even lie and say that I'm not feeling some type of way. I... I..." I clenched my eyes shut to the both of them and slowly worded my confession. "I felt good... in the moment. And I admit that this was a little better... a lot better than when... you know... he tried to do that when he did. Just being kissed by another dude out the blue wasn't really a good starting point, you know. But... I... I guess there was some part of me that didn't mind the lie. I knew what was going on, it felt too realistic to be a spell after a while. I just... I went with it because it felt good. And..."

"It scares you." Blue finished.

"Yeah, it does. Really, like I can't tell this to anyone. Everything is racing. I don't know─"

Alabaster then spoke up. "Then don't tell them until you feel that you are ready to do so. Or don't, keep it to your grave if that's what makes you feel comfortable about it." He still maintained his distance as he spoke. "Nondis, I know this experience is new, and it's conflicting because that's not who or what you really are. But in the moment, it did feel good, I mean it's good enough to where you unloaded on my face, at least. But even if this isn't who you are and what makes you happy, it helps you get the job done if you want something. I have to tell you from my standpoint that it isn't great to have to do those kinds of things with a bunch of old geezers looking for some exotic thrill. And it wasn't completely exciting to see how my dad hated me while I had one of his coworkers in whatever hole they were occupying at the time. But what I did know was that if I made that same offer to my dad, he'd be disgusted at the sight of seeing his own coveted son open his mouth and be a cum slut willing to satisfy his darkest desires, all for the sake of draining that attention away from his daughter. And if I had to keep her safe around me, I had to fulfill that in the moment. Think about it, I was willing to fuck my own dad to stop him from raping my sister again. That's why he hated the times I came around, because he knew Blue was somewhere right behind me."

"What Alabaster is trying to say is this." Blue said as she hugged me gently. "Even if this isn't what you like, try to focus on the moment. Is it good or bad? If it's good, try to at least enjoy it and be open to it. You may even like it, but you don't have to stay there if you don't want to, it's not some lifetime change you're subscribing to here. But if you know it's bad, try to avoid it. Don't do anything that you can't properly recover from. Getting sucked off by a guy feels like a girl sometimes, maybe even better because of the anatomical knowledge. I know getting eaten by a girl feels like a guy, or sometimes better because they know how everything works. And I'm sure Alabaster is gonna say that you won't get it better than him."

"Bitch, I am the best at what I do." The stallion replied proudly. "I suck dick better than you."

"Not exactly a bragging right you want in the living room display case." Blue deadpanned before returning her attention to me. "But yeah, tonight was to get you to open your mind to things like this. I didn't want this to be a traumatizing moment, so we eased you into it, at least to experience it once. The rest of the night can be with me, if you want."

I remained mum for a while, not wanting to offend but also not wanting to heavily acknowledge that I had some weird part in the back of my brain that actually embraced the experience. Again, it wasn't really something I was fond of morally, but I was at least a little more willing to go along with things. It's nothing like when Umbra forced his tongue down my throat. It was literally them holding my hand throughout the process. And even if I was uncomfortable, they tried their best to make it comfortable enough for me to process. Credit to where credit is due, I'm still processing the fact that another male sucked me off, but it wasn't like I had a bad time.

Now I can't just sit there and watch him go to work on me for a whole night, but I can grow to accept the experience for what it is. This isn't a lifestyle change as much as it is a life-changing event, at least I don't think so. It's a college try, it's an attempt to let myself explore, and it's not something that I have to explain to anyone unless I decide for it to be. I'll always love rearranging a girls insides, the feeling of feminine curves against my fingertips, the warmth and moist embrace of a woman or mare. But I feel that I'll honestly be open for a pit stop across the street for the time being.

If anything, my dick obviously can't tell the difference.

I turned away from the two siblings and threw the pillow over my face, still embarrassed that I was going to say this out loud. "...Look, I'm not used to that. But I did feel good in the moment. Maybe if we take it SLOW... I might be open to a little more later on."

Blue turned my head over and moved the pillow out of the way. Alabaster quietly sat himself on the bed, but at least giving me a few feet of separation. The two siblings smiled softly. "We'll do what we can to keep you happy. Try to remember this is a controlled environment where you have the final say."

"And of course, this all stays between the three of us." Alabaster said with a wink. "So asking for a friend, could I... do what I did earlier? You can keep your eyes closed and pretend it's my sister. I really wanna see your reactions this time because my sister's tail was in the way of everything."

"Slow, Alabaster!" Blue chided her brother. "We just got him on the ship and you're already trying to rock him overboard!" She then turned to me and pushed me onto the bed. "Besides, it's my turn for once."

"Well then, I got next." He said with a smirk, wagging his tail eagerly.

I looked up to the mare and asked her a bit worriedly. "Uh, you two seem to be really into the whole taking turns with me like it's a normal thing for you two to do."

"Maybe I should get this out the way so you won't have to ask about it later." Alabaster said as he brought himself to watch his sister go back into using her magic. "We're used to it by now, especially dealing with those crusty politicians. You remember Damper Trot, he and my dad were close but he loved every opportunity to piss him off by force-feeding me a healthy helping of himself. I have to play pretend around him, call him daddy, clean him off, kiss his cock after I'm done, things like that."

"And what does that have to do with the both of you?" I asked.

"Damper wanted the both of us at the same time, mainly as a bragging right for our ex-father. I thought if I went along with it, I'd get in where my brother was. Turns out you-know-who didn't like that deal too much, but he loved the show regardless." Blue explained while she started brushing her hoof against my chest.

Alabaster continued after his sister. "He likes the control, Blue being in the same place as me would remove some of my dedication to keeping her protected, dulls the blade. So he kept me in the bind, threatened me with my sister being humiliated around the lounge, and threatened her with some time alone with my dad. I'm sure you know how that ends."

I turn to Blue and questioned her. "So what does he threaten you with now?"

"Burying me alive with him." She replied quietly, causing her to stop her motions while being lost in thought. "It's one thing to see his slimy face again, but it's another being thrown in a hole and buried with him. And the worst part of it is that he's capable of surprising us in the way we'd least expect it."

I knew exactly what she meant. Hell, I could relate. "He's pretty known for throwing in monkey wrenches, isn't he?"

Blue buried her head in my chest as she hummed lightly. "At least while you're around, I don't have to worry too much about the big bad guy hurting me, right? Just the thought of you overpowering my father's influence and causing him to damage his own standing puts me at ease. All because I know each time you're with me, he's not gonna be smiling at the fact that you're still walking around."

"Hell, I'm sure he'd be ready to kill you himself if he saw how Blue's all over you now. He'd probably even go so far to tell you to get away from the very daughter he refused to claim for many years until recent." Alabaster said with a chuckle.

Blue turned back to the large family painting and directed her eyes towards the unhappy smoke gray stallion depicted. "Hey dad, I'm about to ride the human after he learned MAGIC from YOUR SON while reading YOUR NOTES!" The mare flipped her mane and stared down at me intently. "You know, just that fact alone is making me pretty excited. I'm all for a fun time tonight."

While I had some questions about her particular brand of daddy-issues, I wasn't going to deny a good time entirely, especially since I felt the same way in my mind. In fact, let's do some math. I just watched as his son─the one he's been trying to closet─worship my dick like a newly-wed woman. Now his daughter is about to ride me with the intent to shove it in his smug face. I don't think my therapist could guide me to anymore of a breakthrough moment. Maybe I'm crazy off the revenge high, but why should I care? He's dead, the spending incentives he's drafted is set to die in two weeks, and I'm getting serviced by both of his kids in bed.

All that's missing is a law removal and a ticker parade. I've won.

◄------------------------------------------------------------------------------------►

Ten minutes later...

It didn't take long for the two siblings to get me back up to speed. It mainly started with the sensations of my getting teased while having my eyes closed. But what was different this time was that I was given the option to open them, that and how Blue took a more hooves-off approach to start off. What started off as simplistic fantasies filling my mind was quickly subverted by the familiar sensations of a pair of lips slowly suckling against my endowment. This time, I knew what was going in. I didn't have to open my eyes to see who it was.

If anything, the sounds of him gasping for air before diving in that gave it away.

An explicative sharply lept from my lips as Alabaster took all of me within his maw. As my eyes remained closed to the world around me, the sound of his efforts had started to take an unexpected effect on me. Instead of Blue whispering in my ears what madness took place in my drunken state, it was the distinct noises that began to feed my lust.

There was something about the sounds that reached my ear, the gargled breaths between withdrawal and submission, the sloppy kisses that periodically proceeded sessions of intense worship, the air that escaped the pockets of his cheeks as he sank himself down upon me, the wet thuds of him beating his tongue with every turgid inch exposed before him, and then the sudden silence after he consumed my endowment, remaining religiously tethered to the devotion of showing his patience and endurance, and then the following retreat to allow a labored gasp of air.

I slowly opened my eyes, seeing the stallion before me as he gazed up to me with a disheveled countainence, his cheeks lathered in his own work. He appeared lost in his ministry, his eyes glazed over with a desire to watch me culminate solely from his efforts. He continued to keep his eyes on me, seeking my every reaction from the motions he made from that event forward.

Now that he had my undivided attention, he lolled out his tongue and hugged the under of my length, his head slithering from side to side while his lips sang the soothing motions that made me throb in the unexpected anticipation of the moment. My legs started to whittle under his administration, my pelvis instinctively tugging away at him as he started to see that his effort was not far from being rewarded. He kissed the tip of my flaring head, smiling while his heated breath became the precursor to his encore of his earlier actions.

The lips he spoke with, the tongue that delegated the order of a city, was submitted onto me with unyielding fervor. Strands of his saliva began to bridge between my loins and his chin. His head bobbed while his magic started to twist against me at the base. While his tongue dressed the underneath in one motion, his magic lightly massaged in the other. I felt myself becoming close, even reaching a hoof to his head to stop him from being too anxious. As I held him back, he continued to stimulate me with his magic, submitting his tongue to me. "Cum." In almost a drunken motion, he batted my hoof away and sank his throat onto me another time, his eyes briefly watering with his sudden invasion.

Before I could break, another ring of magic encircled his horn and quenched his magic in a sweeping motion. At the same time, his younger sister pulled against the back of his mane while watching me throb in anticipation for the climax I was to be denied. I breathed heavily, trying not to compress my loins too much. My chest rose and fell slowly as Blue addressed her brother in a mocking tone. "Now there you go, trying to have all the fun while I only get to watch. Haven't we discussed the fact that we're sharing the experience?"

"Sorry, I got caught in my mode again." He replied in a coy feminine manner.

She glanced down at her brother and looked away in an embarrassed blush. "Sheesh, you're already about to go and you didn't even touch yourself."

"I really enjoy what I do, you know. It's the eyes rolling back and his hoof grabbing my head that does it for me. Reactions are like my biggest turn-on." He admitted. "You should've let me keep going, he was almost there." He then directed his commentary to me while he battered his spit-worn face with my shaft. "Having fun up there?"

"More than I'm willing to admit." I said honestly, also blushing at the thought of openly confessing it.

"Aw, he's shy." Blue said with a giggle before glancing down at my swollen member, finally brought back to a calm. "And this one's not so angry anymore. You left him a mess."

"Didn't you want him lubed up for you?" He asked.

"You look like you were lubing him up for yourself at this rate."

Alabaster moaned as he found himself grabbing a pillow to sit on. "Trust me, it took everything in my power to keep things slow."

"You call all of what you did slow?" I asked incredulously.

I began to notice that the stallion started to rock himself in a subtle sweeping motion. "Honestly, I'm kinda close. You going would've meant me falling right behind you."

Blue looked at her brother and shook her head. "You are an insatiable cumslut."

"Wreck my ass to wreck your family, my pride and joy." Alabaster joked before feeling a strong tug within himself. "Dammit, I'm there."

Noting her brother was soon to reach his climax, she left him to ride himself over. Meanwhile, she took the opportunity to clean up some of her brother's mess with a smile on her face. Tilting her head to slowly clean me off of the excess, she gave me a brief explanation for why she was cleaning after her brother. "Sorry, he sometimes forget that his situation requires the extra insurance. But obviously with my being a girl... not so much."

As her tongue started to clear off the excess of her brother's work, she started to send her hoof downward to warm herself for what she wanted to do next. In her efforts to stimulate herself, she grew more anxious in her efforts. She quickly suckled and nestled much of what was left on me, her eyes fixated to her prize. She wasn't as audibly alluring as her brother, but what she lacked in her attention to detail, she was more than willing to provide in other areas.

But there was something else that grabbed my attention.

Not wanting to be left out of the picture immediately, Alabaster sought to finish himself at the idea of pleasing me. Instead of leaving his sister to clean up after him alone, he eagerly joined the effort to prepare me for her part of the show. She looked over, moderately annoyed that he was looking for more attention. He glanced back at his sister, smiling as if he had met his mark. Without question, the two began to quarrel in the manner of who would outperform the other.

The two looked up to me, each trading extremities of their own side. As he went down, she climbed upwards. Her eyes would break periodically to observe her brother, who was performing admirably. She continued to try and holder her own, not by competing against him directly but instead working in tandem with his movements. Before long, the two unionized their motions, locking in rhythm as they both bathed their tongues against me. A head on either side, I grabbed and caressed the both as the moved like twins, sadistically glancing up at me to see the moment where I'd lose control.

It didn't take long for that to result in my heightened state of arousal being reintroduced to my loins. My throbs were a little more subtle this time, but the indication was no different. However, the act itself was too much for Alabaster. He stopped for a moment and found himself pressing down against the pillow he rode on. His head lowered for a moment, his teeth clenched before he unleashed a cry of release. The moment he threw his head back, I knew he had given up on holding back, that or he had been trying to build to that moment. In the midst of his release, he faltered and simply kissed against me, taking in my scent.

Blue wasn't exactly turned by the prospect of her brother, but the act of his climax. It seemed that the idea of sex was completely organic to her, as it was for me in the moment. While I wasn't too far from where he was, Blue had already decided it was time to claim her prize for being the sole holdout among all three of us. Straddling me, she aligned herself to take me inside of her and slowly settled down with a gasp. Looking down, I watched as the inches I was given had been sheathed within her body.

►------------------------------------------------------------------------------------◄

While my flare pushed through her, she opened her mouth to let out a slow groan. She was careful on her initial descents, giving herself the chance to get used to my size. She leaned over and whispered in my ear. "Okay, now I know you're pretty close. But I'm not gonna stop. I'm gonna keep going, don't hold back when you feel it."

She wasn't joking. In fact, she was taking everything slow. I thought she was trying to adjust, but it was really her preferred speed. It wasn't the speed of someone looking to get it over with quickly, or even the idea of trying to quench a brief spike of arousal. The way her hips rose and fell, the clenching warmth around me, the subtle movements and the occasional hard grind against me, it was as if she had time.

She wanted to assert herself, to dictate the pace, pressure me for the big moment. I'm sure she had it on her mind for months. No doubt, it felt a lot different from any others she took in throughout her life, she treated it like it was hers. It was hers, just for tonight. And she didn't stop for me to let her know that I was close. Instead, she slightly increased her speed. And when I instinctively reached to move her, she didn't allow me to alter her course. She had a set destination, and she wanted to reach that place, my opinions be damned.

I began to pulse with anticipation, but was soon overwhelmed by the warmth that surrounded me. I planted my hooves against her hips and thrust upwards, sending stream after stream of my offspring well within her womb. My eyes closed to the world while I cherished the momentary embrace. Tremors shook my body as jolts of pleasure drove me to empty myself in powerful but shallow thrusts. As I grunted with the satisfaction of reaching my end, I was left panting on the bed.

And yet, it didn't end.

She forced her hips down harder, pressing against me an unknown trigger to cause a strong trembling sensation to erupt from my loins. My eyes gazed down to see her rising and falling, all while a thick helping of my seed lathered and lubricated our union even further. With each withdrawal, I witnessed our act becoming a creamy mess. I began to tap against her, she giggled and gazed down at me. "Not yet. I wanna feel every last minute of this." She continued to squeeze against me, milking me for every last bit of what I had left within her.

She adjusted herself for a second, giving me a moment of reprieve before she suddenly burst into action. I began to writhe in a mix of pleasure and stress, pushing against her as she slammed her hips against me. In doing so, she ensured that I wouldn't find myself softening within her.

Her continued efforts proved potent. As she carried on, she also got progressively louder, her grunts became full fledged cries, lecherous screams, and wild laughing fits. Looking up to her as she pinned me down, a unusual glare showed in her eyes as she forced her tongue down my throat. Without my knowing, I felt myself building to a second climax to follow. And in seconds, I released within her again. My forelegs shook as she rode on ceaselessly. She started to speak to me as she continued to milk me for what I had. "You're probably wondering why I'm so happy right now. It's because I finally get a taste of what I've been begging for. Too often I have to hide my voice so that my father doesn't hear me. For the longest time, I felt like I've been caged in between his legs, ever since that day..."

While my post orgasm mind had already manifested, I began to realize that my time here had taken a bit of a downward turn. By that point, I was trying to actively nudge myself from underneath her, but she kept me pinned to the bed with her magic. The post-orgasm stimulation I began to experience was still somewhat pleasurable, but I started to feel an aching sensation throughout my loins. I looked down to see what was going on, and noticed that there was a glow of her magic taking place there as well. I glanced back up to see a wild smile creeping up on her face.

"I never once felt like any part of my life was in my control since that day. But now, this moment... I love it! I fucking love it! I love being in control!" She then leaned down and spoke to me, forehead to forehead while her body clashed with mine. "I bet my daddy never thought that I'd fuck his worst enemy. And here you are... BREEDING ME!"

Any and all good sensations I felt had stopped from that moment on. But for her, it only gotten her more excited. I started to see that her efforts to keep things moving was really more of her trying to reach her own benefit. She grabbed the back of my head, grinding her body against me, grunting and screaming loudly past my ear.

"You want my help? You want every lobbyist money can buy? I just want want one fucking thing!"

Sinking down, she planted herself firmly against me, shuddering at her own orgasm. Her magic turned my head to where she could firmly lock her lips with mine in that moment. Her eyes clutched onto the sight of me looking back in horror. Meanwhile her awfully frightening display softened and was replaced with a much softer smile.

"I just want a family to love."

The sudden swap between personalities left me speechless, far more than the sight of her brother actively pleasing me. I watched as she flopped down onto my chest and took a moment to breathe. Her hips still jolted, grinding slowly on me as she rode her descent and whispered in my ears.

"...Sorry. I got a little lost in the moment there."

"And you're telling me I need to slow down." Alabaster called out from the foot of the bed. "I know you have a strong dominatrix streak, but can you at least ease him into it next time? That was far too sudden and way too scary for anyone to adjust to that quick."

Immediately, she went from riding me to hugging on me and lightly patting my chest. "Sorry. I am so sorry, babe. I kinda fell into my mode there. I should've warned you a little more of how I am in bed."

Alabaster chuckled from where he was. "Nondis, on behalf of my idiot sister, I'm sorry you've had to stick your dick in crazy."

"I am not crazy!" She replied, jolting up to confront her brother. "I'm just overstimulated by circumstance. And it just so happens that I'm really happy to see him spending some quality time with us."

"More like you're happy that you don't have to compete with Kalimba for a change." He replied with a snicker, standing up.

She gave a sigh of acceptance and lightly rubbed my chest. "Well... that too."

I finally had enough bravery in my system to question her on what just happened. "Um... I have questions." I said, raising my newly freed hoof.

Blue's ears started turning red as she slid off of me, our separation causing a soft plop to sound between us. "I'm sure you do. I'm sorry."

"First, what was that all about?" I questioned.

Alabaster answered for her. "She's still trying to mentally cope with the fact that our father did what he did to her. That's why I call her crazy. Also her in an orgasmic state is genuinely terrifying. It's significantly worse during estrus."

"Second..." I pointed a hoof at the mare. "You said 'breed', was that something you meant or was that some crazy shit in the moment type of deal?"

She covered her mouth and her ears folded back in shame. "So... I... might have had a fantasy or two about getting knocked up. So I usually... let them finish... inside." Before I could say anything in response, she quickly spoke out again. "But don't worry about that too much, me getting pregnant is out of the question in terms of my job! I can't run a whole company and have a foal out of wedlock! That looks bad to investors!"

"Third, you said you wanted a family..." I started to sit myself up, still a bit sore from her activity. "...Is that legit?"

"It's just some crazy shit I said in the moment. Please don't take it any further. I just scream things when I feel good enough, alright. The spell I used on myself when we were going at it was a contraceptive." She climbed off of the bed and looked at me with a frown. "Besides... I can't have foals to begin with."

I saw the sadness on her face as I started to feel pity for her. "Oh, I'm sorry to hear tha─"

"I'm far from infertile." She quickly corrected. "It's... It's my personal reason. I just can't do it. I'd rather wait a decade or two, then adopt some young orphan looking for a home. At least then I'll know... I'll know we're happy."

I looked over at Alabaster and saw the same frown on his face. By that point, I realized what had been revealed to me. "You're gay." I said to the stallion before turning to his sister. "And you're not having kids at all. You both are ending your father's bloodline."

"That's what we've decided." Alabaster said in a low voice as his sister took off to the bathroom to clean herself off. "I'm gay because that's who I am and who I'd rather be. It's just hard to find a lover who'll accept that choice openly, all while trying to keep our relationship a secret from society. She's living the fantasy of conceiving every time she does this. I don't expect you to understand why, but I can only say that we know who's blood courses through our veins. So yeah... that's it. We said we were ending his legacy, we mean it." He glanced over to the large family portrait hung on the wall, namely to the image of his father. "Tonight was our big 'Fuck-you' to him."

The bath water started to run in the bathroom and then I started to hear some semblance of sobbing. My heart dropped as I started to identify her crying. "...She really does want a family, doesn't she?"

"She wants the one she couldn't have." He said as he summoned a towel and tossed it to me. "We don't do midnight evictions here. There's a shower down the hall, first door to the left. When you finish, leave the towel in the hamper. There's a robe waiting for you on the back door, it's comfy. You're welcome to sleep in this bed if you'd like. Checkpoints are closed anyways, so you'll be stuck here for tonight. Handy takes care of any and all late-night snack requests, so don't be shy to give him a ring."

"What about you?" I asked.

"I'll take the shower after Blue is done. Other than that, that's the night for all of us."

Meanwhile in Ponyville...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Melanie***

I can't sleep.

It's not because of some nightmare about what happened last week, I usually try to wake myself out of that before it gets really serious. Instead it was like my mind was wandering on a bunch of stuff. I wasn't even aware of how long I was up for, it took me looking at my alarm clock to realize that it was only 12:43. Maybe it was because I had the day off, or probably because I'm so used to staying up a little longer. Our day ended earlier than normal, that's a good reason why I haven't found myself being super tired to where I'd just pass out. No, my day was pretty tame.

As nice as the ponies are here, there's jack shit to do after 9. Usually there's a few places open like the train station, or even the hayburger, possibly the Sugarcube Corner take out for any wandering pedestrians looking to satisfy their nightly sweet tooth at an absurd mark-down. But outside of stuff like that, there's nothing around here. There's no bars to get a buzz in your system, there's hardly any liquor on sale past 6, there's no club to dance your troubles away because there's a celebration almost every two or three weeks. There's no late night lounge to sit at and listen to some music, and the only place that was open past that time was the local town library and that's to check in a book past 10. And being curious, I went to see what that place looked like, it looked like an explosion wiped it off the map.

By 11, everything's locked down, ponies are sleeping, front desk of the hotel is ring-in only. Nothing to do past that time but read books, think about your life, let your imagination run wild, masturbate, go to sleep. And that's it. It's a really boring place when the sun's not out. It makes me pretty sad that I have to adjust to the quiet life of no random booty calls, no games to play on my TV, no TV either while I'm on the subject, and no late-night text messages over anything. It's really boring. I guess this would be a great place for an introvert like Nondis. I know it sucks for someone like Cliff and Rickey.

As his name came up, I started to hear his voice pop up in the hallway. I looked down at my hooves, lightly tapping them together as I contemplated what I wanted to talk with him about when the sun came up. I knew he had to be tired from the work, maybe even exhausted from his job and trying to hunt me down. I can only assume that he was probably outside of my room, thinking about how he was gonna knock and leave me another stupid letter under my door.

However, a female voice replying to him had instantly grabbed my attention.

I hopped out of the bed, cracked my door open, and peeked outside to see who it was he was talking to. To my surprise, it was Kalimba chatting it up with him. As he appeared lost in the conversation, he didn't even notice that I was actually looking at him, probably didn't care since he had another girl in the immediate proximity.

I shook my head and closed my door, realizing that there was no use in talking to him about what was on my mind. He probably had late-night plans since he was talking with her at this hour. I mean, who the fuck in this town is talking with anyone at this hour for anything outside of the possibility of sex? I'm willing to bet that ponies here don't even think about having sex after midnight. And he's here with Kalimba, possibly looking to get himself an exotic experience. Hell, we're all ponies so it's not like the human thing doesn't fucking matter to him at this rate. I hopped back in my bed, laying my head on the pillow and forcing my eyes shut so that I could brute-force my way into the sun-up.

The duo of voices got closer to my door, I waited for them to pass before I could allow myself to scream into my pillow for the night. And just as I predicted, they passed right by my door and walked down the hall. I felt like my intentions to at least level with Rickey was completely trashed. I couldn't even blame Kalimba for it, she's probably going to be a victim to his smash-and-dash strategy. But knowing her, she probably wouldn't care too hard about it. She can go ahead and have her fun, she's had a hard week too, she deserves it.

*knock knock knock knock*

The sudden knocking at my door had startled me as I was lost in my thoughts and I remained motion-locked to my bed. I think I even held my breath to not give an indication that I was even in here. But a second knock came at the door along with a voice. "You silly girl, why try to hide? I saw you peeking out from inside!"

Sometimes I forget what she usually does at around this time, she the closest of all of us to Nondis and works as his late night subordinate. It's no surprise that she's awfully keen on what goes on around her. Since there was no hiding from her, I decided to open the door and speak with her. "Kali, what are you doing here?" I said, trying to pretend I was sleepy.

Kalimba wasn't fooled. "Come now, you are not asleep. I can see in your eyes dere are some thoughts you keep."

I shrugged her accusation off. "I'm trying to sleep. I really am."

"But something keeps you awake?" She asked, lowing her head to look at me with a critical glance. "You should remember dat we do talk when we see each other. So come and talk, do not lie to yourself and stay up until dawn thinking you cannot make a change in your brain."

"It's late, I should be sleeping." I replied to the zebra, who looked me up and down before slowly and emphatically kissing her teeth.

"We are coming in. Move your pum out de way." She said as she used her magic to hold the door open. While I had some objections, she pushed me back towards the bed while dragging in Rickey behind her. He even seemed unwilling to participate in her attempt. As he resisted, she chided him also. "Stop being such a wuss, come here and say what you mean, you stupid boy."

"I said I'll talk to her in the morning." He replied as he tried to escape her magical grasp.

Meanwhile, she had a firm grasp of his wings as he pulled him into the room and shut the door behind him. "It is well after midnight, you are in de morning hours now. So talk and be honest, do not hide like some silly little girl trying to hide her grades."

"Kalimba, what is going on?" I questioned before she pointed a hoof at me.

"And you, silly girl, sit and listen. No talking, Ah."

I shook my head as I plopped myself on the bed. Meanwhile, he sat back against the wall, trying to formulate what he wanted to say. "...Mel. I know that what happened last week wasn't fair."

As I started to draw air to speak, Kalimba held a hoof out at me. "Do not talk, listen. I will slap him if he says something stupid, so do not worry."

"Slap me, are you serious, lady?" He mumbled before her hoof raised to him. He flinched in anticipation of a hit that only wound up but never followed through. Kalimba nudged her head in my direction, urging him to speak. "I'm sorry. I let my senses get over me and I just followed on them. And even though I felt like I just... I was... I was kinda in the zone of it and I think you saw me in my feelings at that moment. I kinda wanted to tell you what was going on in my mind, but I could never get a hold of you. That's all."

Kalimba reared her hoof against the stallion. "So you blame her for it, you are stupid, you know!?" She then turned to me and pointed at me. "And you know he's right. You made it your purpose to avoid speaking with him. You have made a note of every letter dat came from him and said dat he wronged you. You are not a victim here, I know dat de both of you are wrong. He is wrong for not talking with you, he is wrong for jumping on you like some colt in estrus season, and he is wrong for not confronting you sooner. But you are wrong for denying him de opportunity to explain himself, you are wrong for feeling like you made a mistake when you could've talked to him about it, and you are wrong for assuming dat whomever he talks to outside of you is an opportunity to get himself laid. He has told me what occurred in de past, and he acknowledges his wrong for dat. But de way he obsesses over you is nothing short of something he desperately yearns for! He may joke around like a dumb idiot, a stupid, immature, waste of space, but he is still trying his hardest to protect you, to do what makes you happy, in spite of how he feels."

Rickey cosigned her statements. "Yeah, what all she said."

She immediately cocked her hoof back to smack him, but instead threw a magazine at his head. "IDJIOT! SHUT UP!" While he fell back from the unexpected impact of having a bunch of paper thrown in his face, I couldn't help but to snicker. She quickly addressed me in retaliation by taking the same magazine and knocking me on the top of the head with it. "Oh you shut up! You do not get to laugh when you open your legs to an idiot like him. It took two of you to you to mess dis up, and it will take two of you to fix it. If you don't want to fix it, fine. But do not complain about somepony not giving you de attention when you had it and dey decided to move on with deir life! I cannot believe you would shut away some idiot who fell in love with you."

I waved my hooves and shook my head in denial. "Oh no, he doesn't love me for shit."

"But how do you know that!?" He hollered back at me.

I tilted my head at the stallion and angrily called him out. "Rick, if you loved me, how the fuck would I even know? You'd probably get with some other girl while you were here."

"Have you seen the other girls around here?" He questioned emphatically. "These bitches are crazy! They're either adrenaline junkies, they're homely and looking to start a family off the rip, they're just absolutely psychotic, or they're just downright bossy like Kalimba." Kalimba promptly threw the same magazine she bopped me with in his face.

"And I'm not? I'm fucking crazy too, I do a bunch of shit for a guy who doesn't even love me back, somehow expecting a different result. I love thrill rides, I might not like the crazy shit Nondis gets himself into and how it's a threat to our lives, but going along with him on that trip to Everfree was fun, in spite of the changelings. I might not be trying to start a family, but I am looking to at least be serious in my relationship. If you're scared of commitment, then I'm not for you! And if I had magic, I'd probably throw a magazine in your face for the hell of it! So how the fuck am I anything different than what you see out here?"

"You're the perfect mix of it, though." He responded as he tossed the magazine aside. I quietly watched as he explained himself. "Yeah, you're batshit insane, I knew that from when you started looking for Nondis for nine months straight. Then there's the moment when you said you were okay after you agreed to go back with Jasper, I knew you were going to murder that man in cold blood for what he did to you. I wanted to stop you, that's why I grabbed you when I did, so that you wouldn't just throw your life away. If I had the chance to, I would've done the same shit Nondis did! And the way you saved his life after seeing him come in all cut up and bloody, that was fucking crazy. And you like being chill too, you like sitting at home while cussing people out who live half a country away for sitting in a corner the whole game. You're pushy and you like to make all the big decisions. You assume shit's wrong when nothing's wrong. And then when there is something wrong, you're not afraid to tell me. I like the way you sometimes get a little obsessive about keeping things monotonous, even if it is a bit possessive. I might be an idiot who did something stupid in the past that you can never forgive or forget, but I really want to be the bigger fool for believing there's a second chance in us. Does that means shit will work? Hell no, but I'm not gonna lie and say that I wasn't secretly rooting against you and Nondis because I wanted you for myself. I'm not gonna lie and say that I'm not selfish at times. I'm not gonna lie and say that I may not have moments that I'll look other ways, and then look back at you. I need work too, and I can't work on me alone. I need you to boss me around sometimes to keep me on track, give me a good whack on the head as a reminder. And I know I'm not that organized on speeches, but I'm working on it. I just want to take the risk of us being us. And if you don't want that, I can live with that. I'll just go back to wishing you well and secretly hoping it comes out the other way around. Yeah, I'm an asshole and that line of thinking is fucking terrible, but I can't not love you, and I can't not want you for myself. It's pretty fucked how I'm hooked on you."

I stayed seated on the bed, looking at him in silence as he sat himself down. His eyes remained honed in on me, his lips tight after the massive, yet disjointed, confession he gave. I couldn't help but to point out a few things about what he said. "Okay, first off. Why do you want every relationship I get into to fail? That means if I got into a relationship with you, we'd fail too. I don't get your logic in wishing for something that stupid and mean. I mean, it's one thing if you were my worst enemy, that would be like your big fuck-you to me alongside wishing my dad had cancer."

I then started to laugh as I realized that what I had just said out loud was no different than what I had been doing with Nondis for the longest time.

"Oh God, I'm no better. Hell, I remember the first time I met Twilight. I actively tried to enforce to her that I was the first girl in his life and that she should back off. Their entire relationship was something I hated because it was different and it wasn't me. But after getting to know her, I guess I found myself trying to be nice and we eventually grew to be acquaintances. Then they break up and I'm sitting here pushing Nondis in his wheelchair like I've won something... And fell apart after I saw who he went to next. I actually tried sleeping with him to get him to go back home to Austin that first Saturday his parents was brought over, but that went about as well as you'd think."

A growing sickness started in my stomach and forced itself into my chest. I don't even think I realized I was really depressed in that moment of confessing my truth. I couldn't even look anyone in the eye past that point because I was so ashamed.

"I keep making mistakes, the same ones. Open my legs, hope for the best, see if they stay. I put so little value on myself sometimes that I feel like I'm in the right for feeling the way that I do. I sometimes forget that I'm vulnerable, thinking that I can do something and won't regret it later. I try to stay strong, but then I need someone to be my emotional pillar for when I fuck up... every single time I fuck up. And for the longest time, I knew Nondis as the pillar I needed. But now he's taken by someone I can't even compete with in any capacity."

I tried my best to look at Rickey without that shame causing me to get physically sick.

"Rick. I can't even blame you anymore, I'm doing the same shit for a different man. I'm making the same mistakes for the off-chance that I'd win, knowing that I can't. And I'm afraid of doing this because I'll feel like I'm settling for second place. That's not a knock on you, it's just a glaring example of how I'm not any good for anyone like this."

A bright flash grabbed my attention. I glanced up to see him holding his phone in his wings. He then flipped the screen and showed the picture he took of me. "Have you ever heard of there being a prize in plain sight? Try looking in a mirror sometime."

"That's not me." I answered. "That's just a picture of a pony."

He put his phone aside and walked up to me, placing his hooves on my cheeks as he looked at me. "And she's you, this is your experience. And as cute as you look on that picture, I look at that like I would kill to make that cutie smile. I ain't gonna die for it now because I gotta make it into something I wanna die for later, it's an investment. I want to invest my time into you, I've known you for three years, been with you for one, we broke off for another, and that year of seeing you getting abused and ignored ain't sit with me, you know you're worth more than that. And I wanna show that to you, so let me invest in you, so I can make our lives a little richer." Once again, the magazine came down on his head. "Hey, what did I say this time?"

Kalimba twirled the magazine in her magical grasp. "What you said was fine, but you need to back away. Give her de space to make a decision."

He did as he was told and let go of my cheeks, but I started to feel strange about him not touching me after that. Some part of me still felt him, the warmth of his hooves against me. I couldn't help but to feel saddened that the warmth was no longer available. I cleared my throat and turned away. "So you got it for me that bad?"

Kalimba seemed as if she was ready to give me another whack upside the head, but was stopped before she could follow through. "Now it ain't that bad." He playfully denied, earning a bop to the nose from Kalimba. "But I can't see myself going past this month without trying. We have the time."

I pursed my lips and exhaled. "...I'm gonna need some time to think it over."

Rickey sighed heavily and smiled lightly as he replied to me. "I'm glad we can talk."

"I never rescinded the order for you to leave my room. I'm gonna need you to follow up on that." I answered.

He looked over to check the time. "So... breakfast maybe?"

I hopped out of my bed and started pushing him out of my room myself. "You know, you did good by addressing the reason why I was mad in the first place, but I never told you that you could walk your happy ass back over here like you're expecting a fucking parade. Out."

"Is that a yes?" He asked.

"No. I said I will think about it. Don't push me." I replied as I shoved him out of my room and through the hallway. "Speaking of which, what's your room number?"

"Three doors down from yours." He replied as I dragged him through the hall, stopping me before I could go any further than where we had gone. Turns out I was already at his room. I then waited for him to open his door to shove him inside.

I shoved him over to his bed and promptly walked out before speaking again. "We'll talk it over during lunch. No funny shit, no flirting." I announced. "Now beat your meat like you usually do and get some sleep already."

I closed the door and walked back over to my room. Kalimba stood outside of my room with a smirk on her face. "You know you are wrong for doing him like dat."

"He's my ex, not yours, you don't understand our thing." I replied as I started to close the door behind me, but not before addressing the zebra one final time. "...Thanks."

Kalimba rolled her eyes back at me as she closed my door. "You humans are odd."

The DuMoneé Estate Villa
Later That Morning...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Nondis***

My eyes slowly fluttered open to see the sight of the room being bathed in the light of the sun. Ahead of me was the family portrait that remained there for some time. The room was not completely silent, but filled with the sound of Blue snoring quite loudly. I looked over to see her completely sprawled out wildly, including a hoof that reached over over my chest to hold me in place. Her head was partially buried in her pillow as a pool of drool formed on them from her slightly ajar mouth.

She seemed an entire league happier than what she was going to bed last night.

I was more surprised to tilt forward and see that Alabaster had taken a nearby loveseat. I looked down at myself, seeing the white bathrobe that had warmed me throughout the course of the night. I got out of the bed and walked into the bathroom to relieve myself. Upon entering, I noticed that there was an assortment of perfumes, colognes, and shampoos available for use. The master bath was quite expansive, taking the space of a large bedroom even. Within it held a walk-in shower capable of holding two occupants, a tub capable of holding the same, and a private commode space outfitted with a bidet. I took the moment to alleviate some overnight build-up and took to the sink to gather my appearance. While I did that, I started to hear the others in the bedroom stir.

Next I heard a voice elevate in volume, indicating something had happened. I quickly rushed out to see the servant Handy standing at the door. He urged to the two siblings to stay inside. "Sir, madame, please stay within the room. I assure you this is a matter that will soon be attended to."

Alabaster appeared more attentive than his sister, who seemed a lot more cranky than anything else. "Is there something wrong?" I asked the elderly butler.

"Captain, I need you to accompany me post-haste." He leaned in and whispered. "This is a sensitive matter I wish not to disturb the master and the mistress with. Please come and address the matter."

"Sensitive as in how?" I asked.

As I looked back, Alabaster seemed ready to charge out the room with me, but the butler continued to stress his request. "Sir, please remain in the room until the situation is addressed. This is a security breach and I cannot compromise your safety and well-being."

I glanced back to the two. "Alright, both of you hang back for a second while I see what's going on. I'll come get you after."

I walked out into the hall and watched as the servant slowly closed the door behind me. After that, he started to address me with a low voice. "I'm so terribly sorry to interrupt you this morning. But it seems there is a troubling matter that I wish to have you oversee."

"You said there's been a security breach. How the hell is there a security breach with four checkpoints of private security? This doesn't make sense to me. And weren't the checkpoints closed last night?"

"They close at eleven every night. No one can get in unless they have special permissions, in short you'd have to be a resident to get in. No others."

I shook my head as we walked towards the main stairs. "So you're telling me that it was someone who lived here on this side of the mountain that has that same permit? Who the hell would come in here with a permission like that?"

The butler brought out a cloth and placed at against his muzzle as he slowly turned to the issue. "...The late lord of the manor."

I started smelling the smell again. Not just the smell of something foul, but of decayed flesh. I turned and angrily cursed. "Fuck me if that isn't─"

My mind was petrified. Again, he was there. Count's body had been strung up on a rafter at the center of the foyer, facing the top of the stairs were we walked from. hung from his neck, he swayed lifelessly as the moans and creaks of the support structure above contrasted against the once peaceful silence of the manor. I covered my nose and looked over to the hallway where Alabaster and Blue started to leave the room. I pointed them out to Handy, who quickly galloped over and addressed the two. "Please, I ask that the both of you remain in the room until the issue is resolved!"

"Handy, what is going on?" I heard him ask as the sounds of the rope creaking started to drown out his voice. "You're not yourself this morning. Something must be wrong."

As I walked towards the center, I heard Blue's voice faintly address the butler. "Please tell us if something's wrong."

The butler tried to explain to them the importance of heeding his advice, a conversation my mind had tuned out while my eyes were locked to the decomposed stallion hanging from the ceiling. I walked down the stairs to see if there was anything else that could have showed evidence of a break in. Upon a brief search of the lower level, I confirmed that there was no sign of forced entry or even a trace of hoofprints that were coming from any of the windows outside. I walked to the front door and inspected the locks to see if there was anything that might give me evidence of it being tampered.

"Join me."

My entire body froze, almost as if someone had ran a block of ice down my spine. The whisper brought a shiver throughout my entire body as I quickly turned around to see if anyone was close to me. The only thing that seemed to remain was the sight of Count's body hanging above, still creaking and swaying. I looked back down and chalked that instance to my growing sense of paranoia. I closed my eyes and refocused myself to my job. "He's dead. His skin is bound to fall off his bones any day now. This is just some more of Umbra's bullshit, he's done this before." My eyes opened and I took a deep breath. And I went back to work, looking up at how I was going to get started.

...The entire body was turned my way.

The sounds of my own heartbeat drowned out any other sound aside from the creaking of the rope that held him in place. I quickly covered my mouth to hide a shriek of terror from leaving my lips and alerting the others. I quickly walked backwards, running my tail into the door. Hyperventilating into the hooves that tightly sealed my lips together, I tried and failed to mentally process what was taking place. I turned every way, bumping into a lot of things as I quickly walked along the walls and reached the stairs. Walking upwards, I found myself staring at his back instead of his face. Once I got to the top of the stairs, I started feeling my way to the hall I came from.

"You can't escape it. It'll come."

The chime of a grandfather clock startled me as I looked down to the floor below and back up, again seeing the body looking my way. At that point, I didn't care what I bumped into, I rain into the hallway and stood outside of the master bedroom. My hooves, my entire body trembled with fear as I tried to think of what I would do next. Rational thought had become a backseat process in contrast to looking for sanctuary inside of the bedroom. I knocked against the door repeatedly, still staring back down the hall, a walk that started seeming shorter and shorter to my mind. I kept my eyes on that opening, just banging at the door until someone offered to open it.

The door swung open to Alabaster, who appeared mortified over my frantic beating of the door. And he became even more concerned with how I pushed through him to get into the room, spin myself to the back of the door, and barricade it closed with my own body. I was short of breath while I slumped to the ground. "Christ almighty..."

The three other ponies in the room watched me as I sat in panic. Handy then walked over to me. "Sir, is it resolved?"

I leaned over and held a hoof over my mouth, trying not to scream or vomit. I just shook my head while shivering.

"Sir, please. I wish for you to have it resolved in some manner, I am in no way capable of addressing that outside of calling for security. You're the guard here."

"I can guard doors, a life, even a princess or a few." I turned to the servant. "That out there, not even with God as my witness can I do that... Not again."

"Again?" Alabaster questioned. "What did you do the last time?"

*knock... knock... knock...*

My entire body seized as I quickly summoned a shotgun. I took a sharp intake of air and hollered out to the knocking from behind the door. I pressed my back against he door and held my weapon tightly against my chest. "YOU HAVE TEN SECONDS TO RESPOND BEFORE I BLOW YOUR FUCKING ROTTING BRAINS TO THE WALL! YOU HEAR ME!?"

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

I didn't even skip a second of my cadence while transforming back into a human, giving me a lot more weight to throw against the door and more height to use to my advantage. The three ponies stared at me, mortified over the strained fearful expression on my face.

"NOW I'M FROM TEXAS! WE DON'T REALLY DO COUNTIN' LIKE WE S'POSED TO! SO YOU GOT TEN SECONDS, MOTHERFUCKER!!! TEN! NINE! EIGHT!" I pumped a shell into the shotgun and loaded the chamber. "THREE! TWO! ONE─"

"Nondis! It's me, Shining!"

I quickly opened the door and looked down to see the young prince standing at the door. "Holy shit! Say something sooner, you fucking asshole. I was seconds away from making your unborn kid an orphan."

"Prince Shining Armor?" Alabaster questioned as he walked beside me. "Sir prince, what are you doing here?"

Shining cocked the round out of my shotgun and explained his appearance. "Discord dropped a call to my phone, telling me that you needed an emergency drop-in. Considering what I saw on the way in, I'd see why you're so alert."

"Shining, these fuckers, I can't stand it!" I announced loudly, throwing my arms to the air. "I fucking increased security at the castle for this same goddamn reason!"

"I know." Shining said with a sympathetic sigh. "Just sit down and relax. We got this covered."

"Shining, he fucking looked at me!" I replied, still shaken about what happened earlier. "Shining, I fucking watched him die, I watched his head hit the pavement, I had to fucking scoop his brains to reassemble his face so I could I.D. the FUCKING BASTARD! Why him!? Why me!? WHAT DID I DO IN HIS LIFE OTHER THAN LIVE!?" I again slumped down to the floor. "Why this, why can't we just let the dead and gone stay that way?"

The group of ponies watched as I tilted my head back against the wide open door. Alabaster started walking into the hallway, quietly turning to the direction of the stairs. "Handy... Is my father out there?" He asked angrily.

Blue's face quickly went from being afraid of my reaction to being completely petrified as soon as Handy gave his answer. "I am so sorry, sir. He is waiting in the foyer."

The mare started to panic as she collapsed to the ground, growing short on being able to breathe. Alabaster quickly ran to his sister to comfort her. Shining then told them the truth. "It's not the only time. A prankster who left his name as 'Ummie' signed a letter to Nondis last Friday morning. They left him in a pop-up gag coffin in an apartment located in Nondis' home world. This is our second time seeing him out like this, much less smelling him."

Alabaster clamped down on his sister, holding her as she squirmed in a panic. As she whimpered and shrieked, I turned away from the two as they had the chance to mentally digest what was going on. Meanwhile, I looked towards the curtains on the master bedroom window and snatched them down with my magic. In seconds of watching the two adjust to the pain and humiliation of having their father's body exposed after his death, I went from being unable to do much of anything but act in violence, to snapping back into action. I grabbed the curtain and walked out of the room.

As soon as I walked out to the staircase, I used my magic to throw the curtain over Count's body and wrap him to where I couldn't see his face anymore. After that, I casted a simple magic bolt to cut the rope and slowly levitate the body down to the floor. From there, I quietly reloaded my shotgun and aimed it at him to make sure there was no other surprises. I called up to the young prince. "Shining! What's the ETA for pickup?"

"I broke protocol getting through to here! So it'll be another twenty minutes after the permits follow through for anypony else!"

I covered my nose with my hand and shouted back. "Make it five if you can!"

Thirty Minutes Later...

The start of our Saturday had already been off to a rough start, for me it was watching over the body and having to adjust to the smell of death, enough to where it couldn't immediately turn my stomach inside out. I found myself humming a lot to keep it all down, at least to distract my mind with something else other than the smell. When the other guards got in, they quickly went to work on investigating the scene. While I and others had already identified the body, they sought to have a family member identify it for security purposes. Handy had to relocate Blue to another room on the east wing of the home, at least until she had calmed down. That left Alabaster to step up to the plate.

All processes were completed, and he made a request for the body to be cremated instead of reburied. The coroner filled out his request and had it sent for processing. From there, the small crew of guards did their thing while I walked off to another part of the house where the scent of pumpkin spice wasn't corrupt with the odor of rotten flesh. Alabaster paced back and forth outside of the room where Handy and Blue had been inside of for the past half hour.

As soon as I arrived, I had to ask. "How is she?"

"She's not taking it well." He announced with a grim tone. "We had the idea of burying him next to our mother, just so his spirit could suffer with the idea of being next to her. Turns out he hated her so much that he magically got up and walked over here to make a complaint. Typical of him to leave her alone."

My mind started to go back to last night, as I was looking at the pictures of the family's progression. There was a firm theme throughout his photos with the exception of a few. "I know this is a sensitive topic, but why did he hate her so much?"

"He hated my mother because she wasn't pretty, because she wasn't what he wanted."

"That's it?" I asked, seeing the explanation as rather shallow.

He went further in his explanation. "Their marriage was one of convenience. My uncle told me that he and my mom were arranged when he was twelve. Apparently my grandmother on my father's side was left with all the decision making after her husband passed away. The business started to belly-up after his death, and then on the verge of complete financial ruin after that."

"So your mom and dad were married to save his family's business? Why wouldn't he be happy with something like that? He gets to keep his company and he walks away richer." I stated.

"My grandmother was never kind to the idea of letting their lifelong investment go to waste. So she tried to marry my father off while her health had worsened. She felt if she died before establishing him the position, their hard work would die with them, leaving the family disgraced and bankrupt. She had fought through lymphoma, he wanted to be free to do what he pleased."

"Kinda rough to be losing both your parents at twelve." I thought aloud.

"My grandmother was said to be physically abusive to him when he disobeyed." He then added.

"Oh... well I guess that explains his abusive tendencies then." I noted. "Still doesn't explain why he had to take that out on you and your sister."

"There's never a reason." Alabaster continued with his explanation. "To hurry along the business transaction, he was also signed off to be adopted into my mother's family. She was already twenty at the time, but she was never seen as a fair catch for many stallions, few approached her for anything outside of money."

...Well that's an age gap. "So, your dad got married to a grown adult, for the sake of saving his family business."

"He got adopted into her family at that age. He got married to her three years later." He explained, still not making the circumstances look any better than they were. "The reason it was so soon was because my grandmother's health had began to fail. So she made it her final wish to see her son being married in the effort to save their business. But instead of that happening, my mother presented the idea of merging the businesses to create a monopoly on real estate and construction."

"And with a kind smile and a good heart, she had your grandmother sign her life's work over to her." I concluded.

"Hence why she forced the marriage. She knew that if it would come out that way, it would've saved their construction business. And so, my father was married off at fifteen, his fidelity forcefully sowed into a mare he too saw as ugly." Alabaster took out his father's pocket watch to glance at a picture of him in his younger days. "She tried to make the best of it for him, doing whatever she could to make him happy while ignoring the choice of forcing him to comply to his oath. She let him do whatever he wanted."

"I can imagine that didn't look too good to investors." I added.

"It didn't. She had to inevitably make the choice of letting him do what he wanted in public view, soothing the ire of investors by forcing him to play his role as her husband, or compromise in keeping things quarantined to their private life behind closed doors. So she made the decision to do just that, keeping him happy to keep him around. She built for him a grand playhouse, a place to fraternize with all the private maids he could while keeping him confined to home." He then looked up to the rafters of the hallway we stood in. "This is the playhouse she made for him. She let him live the wild, loose life he wanted, and she could live the semblance of the life she wanted to a degree. She could never say she was alone, she just wanted the company of another."

"I can imagine that your mom wasn't too thrilled to be pushed away the entire time." I stated.

"You're not wrong there." He said with a smirk. "Mom watched as the years went by, she watched him grow into an adult, but started to force herself into the picture more and more, ultimately to remind him that he was married. He didn't like that too much and cut her a deal. If he gave her what she wanted, she'd leave him alone. And they consummated their marriage eight years after their union... guess what else they got out of the deal?"

"You." I answered.

"The maids started to dwindle after seeing how my mother was neglected after that. They knew she was with foal, and he still sought after them like a rabid sex-crazed colt. So more of them resigned after a while, the house grew emptier, and sometime after that, I was born. From what my uncle told me, he started spending less time with mares and more time studying magic. He then started attending advanced courses for a degree in magic studies. Then he came home to flirt with some mares, take me around the castle to woo some of the younger maids, had his fun with them, and immediately went to raising me away from my mom."

"And she wanted to be in the picture." I summarized.

"She knew what my father was doing, and she didn't like it. So they fought for years over that, and the maid numbers continued to drop as I got older. At a certain point, I started to see mom get hurt more and more, and I slowly began to identify the source of her hurt. So I stuck up for mom more, and he backed off of me some more as mom and I started to bond. But she quietly came up with another compromise in her mind to where she could have someone of her own to bond with, to at least not have as much friction with my father. From there, you can already guess where that's heading."

"Blue came into the picture."

"He never accepted Blue as his daughter because of the way she came to be. In fact, as soon as he pieced it all together, he fired every maid from the home, leaving just the four of us in what was once considered his personal playhouse. And so it became a family estate."

I looked back to the direction where I had walked from. "Well that's a lot to adjust to, I'm sure. So this was pretty much the Playboy Mansion converted to a family villa. Make me wonder about the other rooms in this house, what stories they hold."

"Very few wholesome memories, I can tell you that." He said as he sat himself in front of the door. "To this day, I still don't know what it was that made my mother snap and see him as a monster. All I knew was that I came home to her being her usual self, to being highly protective of both of us. We went to school the next day, and we never saw home again."

"Because your mom committed suicide." I answered. "Blue told me that you both went to a park to play after school in the Fringe District. But instead of seeing your parents, you saw your aunt and uncle. The rest is history."

"Blue could never stop crying when they told her she and I were going to be separated for a while. My uncle told me it was to keep us safe, to give my father as little of a chance to use us for our inheritance."

I looked back over to the room Blue was being held inside of. "Poor girl doesn't deserve any of this."

Alabaster's eyes narrowed as he started to get lost in thought. "The only thing she did was draw breath in our mother's hooves." He stamped his hoof into the ground, loudly cracking a floorboard beneath him. "Damn you, Umbra. Blue did nothing for this."

"It wasn't for her. It was for me." I explained.

"It was for all of us." He replied. "I helped you escape, Blue tried to hide you away from him, and you're just merely his appetizer of the month. I have no place to blame you." He looked at me with a stern scowl on his face. "You are more than welcome to this estate. Anything you desire, it is yours. Information of my father's past, his crimes, his account records, his history, I give it to you willingly as my apology for this."

"You guys gave me more than enough already─"

"No... we didn't." He said as he summoned a scroll with a blue ribbon set on the middle. "This here is your ticket. Up to code, signed with my own signature. A permit for search and seizure of District 3. I suggest you take this and have either Princess Celestia or Princess Luna sign on it. From there, start your flush on Sunday evening, that's when the newer shipment of illegal goods start coming through. And for bonus points, Umbra will be nowhere around there to hype up his entourage. Hit them quick and hard from all sides."

I started to look at the scroll before Alabaster used his magic to shove it into my shirt. "Don't you let ANYPONY other than you or a high princess see that. They see that with you, we're both are going to be strung up in the town square, more likely upside down without our heads and cutie marks. And we will both live our existence as mere soccer balls for him and his goonies to kick around. Have I made myself clear?" He whispered.

I stuffed it in the inside pocket of my coat and nodded. "Crystal."

Canterlot Royal Castle...

After our assessment of the scene was complete, I escorted Blue back to her place of residence. She didn't say anything to me, only walking closely against me for comfort. When we arrived, she turned around and looked up to me with sadness. I simply turned around, not having anything to say to her outside of 'Have a good day'. And I couldn't even say that with a clear conscience.

So I returned to the security of the castle, noting that the halls were quite busy with many maintenance crews and planners pointing a number of decorations to other places. Banners held high to the top of the pillars above were festive and lively, a stark contrast to the morbid discovery of my morning. Windows colored with stained glass depicted moments of national saviors were the backdrop to the journey to my room. Beasts so great and deadly that could turn the world upside down being bested by a purple mare and her five friends, a swarm of invaders batted away by aura born from the love of a guard and his princess, a young dragon standing with his hand stretched to hold a heaert banishing the sprawling shadows to the ether.

And yet, the only thing that hangs as a testament to my works is the corpse of my enemy staring back at me.

Even as I shut the door to my room, plugging my phone into a charger, my mind paused and replayed the moment I turned around to find Count staring at me from high above. The silence of my room was the symphony of the precursor, the opening movement of the rope that creaked in defiance of the opening measures of rest. No defined time signature, the measure seemed endless, until the chiming of the grandfather clock ushered in the next movement, the marked measure where the tempo accelerates until the darkness of the mind swallows the backdrop, leaving the body to swing with the face smiling back at me as if he was dancing majestically on that rope. 'Join me.' He would say, swaying to the silence, almost asking me to embrace the absence of the mortal coil.

My brain was overloaded on paranoia and unease. The scroll that remained on my person started to feel cold in contrast to the shirt I wore. I quietly reached inside to beg the moment of discovering what was written on it. Not as a curiosity, but as a distraction, the possible glimmer of hope being bound in that blue ribbon.

But even the sounds of those walking outside caused me to instinctively hide the letter. I lowered my head, relieved.

A knock came to my door, I straightened my appearance the best I could on such short notice and answered to see a guard standing at attention with another scroll in tow. He looked up to me and saluted as he expected me to take the scroll from him. I cleared my voice and ordered firmly. "Report."

"Captain, these are orders from the higher ups in the office. They want you to oversee, in close spectacle, the security for tonight's event." He said without skipping a beat. "You are to report on castle grounds security measures in the area and act in surveillance to maintain the safety of the princess."

I stealthily levitated my phone to my back pocket. "Sir, with all due respect, tell my higher-ups that I've already monitored the grounds and will continue to do so while in the comfort of my own quarters."

"But sir, that would not be ideal as it isn't anywhere as efficient as─"

I pulled out my phone and immediately started looking at random checkpoints to sustain my argument. "There are five guards at main checkpoint, there are seven in garden, there are thirty-six in the main hall, two at the door of the ballroom, there are three officers and one non-commanding officer at post in the barracks, those four being Colonel Crackdown, First Lieutenant High Tail, Colonel Quest, and Sergeant Major Solemn Oath. Precious Cargo is stationed in royal antechamber to the ballroom discussing matters with other guards in present. Precious Load is located to northeast tower on overlook duty. Pristine Baggage is en route to his quarters. Pristine Salvage is reporting to main checkpoint right now. And Precious Carrier is quarantined to her chambers for sensitivity."

The guard's jaw dropped as I informed him of exactly where everyone was stationed in the castle.

"Tell my higher-ups that I'm doing what they're asking me to do in spades, and I am not to be disturbed until the conclusion of these matters have been decided by the attending princess herself."

"But sir, Princess Twilight is set to attend with her friends." He stated, trying to urge me to reconsider.

"Precious Treaty will be observed and well-cared-for. Now are there any other concerns?" I asked sternly.

"I'll inform command." He replied with a bow.

"Very good. Carry on." I said before closing my door and looking back behind me, still feeling a cold chill crawl down my spine. I looked around my room and started looking for any place I could use to hide a scroll until the time I could summon for it. In the midst of my thought process, I began to pop open my message feed, seeing that Rarity had sent me another voice message.

"Hello, darling. I know tonight's going to be a bit of a stretch for the both of us as you have your own duties to attend to. But I have a simple request. Would you be a dear and become my escort for the Gala tonight?"

As much as I would love the distraction, I had to think about my duties and how I had just told command that my method was superior than just standing pat in a room full of ponies that felt either way about me. I had to be on lookout for anything that was here. Not to mention the scroll Alabaster gave me is supposed to be of some importance, so I had that to look after as well.

"Sorry, Rarity. I'm on surveillance tonight, so I can't get around to you guys." I replied in a voice text and sent it over to her. I placed my phone back on the charger and got back to monitoring the halls. Once I got started, I noticed a group of pony musicians gathering in the hall, cooks getting their final deliveries for the evening, and servers getting their last sequence or regular orders before prepping for the main event.

If my day can be just as boring and eventless as last Saturday throughout, I'll barely even let this morning distract me.

Time crawled throughout the day, instances of paranoia flared up when I went off to do other things like use the bathroom and reach under my bed for anything of use. As long as there wasn't a screen or two in front of me, I realized there was very little to worry about. The castle was outfitted with thermal motion sensors and high-definition infrared cameras. A good portion of the features were locked on standby because I didn't want to deal with the constant notifications telling me that something was moving in a room or hall that would be frequented by guards or guests.

But the portal room was something I had set a particular way. The alarm was set to stay-mode, arming every bit of the place for the event that anyone would come through or try to sneak over without my explicit permission would be welcomed with a blaring alarm sure to alert the guards in the vicinity. And if anything so much as moved in there, alarm goes off.

Sure enough, the guests started to pour in and the staff got busy. Kitchen was booming with chefs cooking up their meals, maids and butlers were graciously escorting guests to the main hall, checkpoint was thoroughly secured with the guests queued up for entry, tickets were checked and verified, Celestia was secure in her lovely new dress, and Twilight appeared with her friends ready to have a good time. But also along with them were some unexpected guests. It's typical to see Twilight with Spike, but I never thought I would be seeing Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo here as well. In a shocking turn of events, Fluttershy was accompanied by a green pony with sunset orange dreadlocks. Discord came with a... blob... I guess. Pinkie came with her eldest sister, I haven't seen Maud in a while.

Also in faces I weren't expecting to see, Alabaster made an appearance to the gala, as well as Kalimba's father. But he seemed to be accompanied by a pompous mare holding a pair of spectacles to her face and a black frilly fan. In time, yet another unexpected guest also appeared in the room. Blue, who wore a gripping cream colored dress, weaved her way through the crowd to reach her brother's side. The both of them appeared to remain upbeat in their interactions with the other guests. Blue was even smiling, doing her best to keep a brave front. Alabaster probably had ample experience in performing under personal stress because he looked completely unaffected.

I can only wonder what they spoke about.

Gala Ballroom...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Melaine***

Today, I wasn't really expecting anything outside of a simple lunch with Rick. Turns out that the princess had other plans for us. By noon, a letter had dropped in my P.O. Box with three golden tickets in the mail. So I did what the letter instructed me to do, grab myself a dress before the boutique closed down, get the guys fitted up, and ride the train to Canterlot. From there, we had to make our way to the castle, show our tickets, and get into the big dance.

As soon as the three of us arrived, I knew we were outclassed. I wore a simple yellow spaghetti gown, the guys just wore standard tuxedo tops. And here's everyone in the place wearing decorative pieces, cufflinks, frilly dresses, and even small elegant headdresses. My mane was a basic do-over to at least look presentable in public, theirs look like they spent half the day with a sculptor trying to replicate famous artistic pieces from a good three centuries back.

Guess we didn't get the memo of how dolled up we were supposed to be.

Cliff stood back as a blue mare wearing a cream-colored dress walked by us. "Oh shit, I didn't know we were invited to the damn rich people ball."

"I don't think any of us were." Rickey said under his breath.

"At least you two look passable. I'm far too basic for this shit!" I said as I glanced around, looking for a bathroom to use. "Fuck, I need an emergency operation, my kitchen's full of fast food and I'm supposed to look like a four star restaurant."

"Hey, some people like fast food." Cliff snickered as he joked at my expense.

"Funny." I grumbled back at him. "Now where's the nearest bathroom? I need to get this shit looking like a three star at least."

Rickey walked up to me and tried his best to reassure me of my appearance. "Mel─" He then got nudged by Cliff to remind him of our names. He promptly adjusted. "Cherry, come on. Not everyone's got their mane looking like the Eiffel Tower, look over to Princess Celestia, she's done nothing with her mane."

"You're comparing a low-born one-star fast food joint to a five-star bistro in the middle of Dubai. And do you see that fucking dress!? Her cutie marks all over that shit, she's got the gold accessories, and then the slippers and tiara to boot. And look at that rose sash, I'm a whole cheap meal looking for a welfare case right now, I can't do this. My hair requires an emergency operation, stat."

As I stormed off, I could hear Rickey call back to me. "Hey, try not to overdo it!"

I didn't pay him any mind while I walked out of the room and questioned a nearby guard for directions to the nearest bathroom. He pointed down the hall and I quickly found myself in one standing in front of a large mirror. As I leaned in, I subconsciously started scoping out a lot of flaws in my appearance. The main one was my mane, it was far too simplistic. I had to at least try to do a little something with it, but hooves made it a lot harder than I wanted it to be. I began to get frustrated and began to look at myself in defeat.

Even as a pony, I couldn't even stack up to her.

A mare walked into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her, breathing heavily as she shivered. She quickly noticed that I was in there with her and immediately perked up to form. "Oh, hi there. I didn't see you standing around."

I looked at myself in the mirror and still felt dismay over my appearance. "I guess I'm not the only one struggling with myself."

The mare walked up to me and kept up her facade as she glanced over my mane. "Let me guess, guy you like is here and you wanna make a good impression?"

I glanced back at her. "More like I just wanna make a good impression. I hate being an earth pony sometimes."

"Why? Unicorns have some of the worst hair to deal with. Split ends, magic can singe your mane and cause it to dry out if you overcast a spell, and then it's just so high maintenance." Without my even asking, she started digging into my mane. She began to swirl and adjust my mane with two of her own hair prongs. She smiled and hummed to herself as I watched her slowly change my appearance for the better. "Now the most style-able mane I've always seen belongs to pegasi. Their manes stay in the wind, so it's strong, it grows really long, it's got volume, and it's extremely malleable. You earth ponies got the best of both worlds, if you ask me. It's much better to be able to get angry and not have wild strands making you look like a distraught puppy."

While she nursed my mane to standard, I asked her about her unusual entrance. "You seem like you're going through a bit, the way you came in was like you ran into someone you didn't wanna see. So is everything okay for you?"

"My stress is from a private issue. No sense in boring you with that when we've got a gala to attend. Gotta keep that smile bright and cheery for the masses."

"But isn't it painful to try and hide away like that?" I asked.

"Aren't you the one trying to hide away in a bathroom to get your mane done instead of fraternising with the populous?" She questioned back at me. "At least your issue can be turned around, inside out, and set in place to look pretty enough for whoever you're trying to please."

"I know it's not healthy for you to lock yourself in here like you're terrified of something. Maybe you need a bubble buddy to keep you up for tonight." I suggested.

"I kinda already have that." She said as she did the finishing touches of my mane. "My big brother's pretty good at protecting me."

"Won't he be distracted by a lot tonight? I mean you can look around and see a lot of influence around here."

"...It's hard when someone gets his attention. He's pretty important to a lot of the operations around here. It'll be easy for me to wander off and not have anyone I can trust to look after me. And don't let anyone tell you that money can buy you happiness." She warned as she finished. "There, all set." I looked up to see the mare clear herself away from my head. I looked up to see my mane pulled back. I turned around to see what she had done. But upon a better look, I started to see my mane done in a small rose before being pinned together with a single pin decorated with white flowers. The rest of my mane cascaded down my back. She looked at her own mane and another idea popped up in her brain. "Oh, one more thing!"

Immediately, she grabbed a white hair clip from within her mane and used it to clip one side of my mane back while the other side curled slightly over my right eye and back down to my side. I looked at myself in the mirror and saw the stylish mare staring back at me. She looked beautiful, as did the mare who started adjusting her own mane in the process. She soon finished with her own reconfigurations. In seconds, we looked like a pair of discolored twins, our manes fashioned to the opposite sides. She had freckles of her own, just like me.

"I guess we'll have to deal with this for tonight." She said quietly.

"You're amazing." I said with earnest praise. "How do I even begin to thank you?"

"Just go out there and be beautiful." She said as she summoned a pouch filled with her make up. "Yours will hold up a lot better than mine."

I looked at the mare and smiled. "What's your name?"

"Nopony important." She replied. "I just did a thing out of good will."

I smirked and stood beside her. "I think if we go out together, we would be the best not-twins out there. So how about it, we can go out and make the night better for each other. I have two other friends with me, at least one of them can keep you company while we're out having fun. At least then you won't have to worry about losing sight of your brother."

She appeared uncertain of my request. "Hmm, you do have a point." But she then turned to me and grabbed my hooves. "Okay, if the three of you can introduce yourselves to my brother, I think I can live with the idea of being paired up for the evening."

"As long as we get your brother's blessing? That's fair." I replied. "My name's Cherry, Cherry Balm."

She smiled as she moved a thin strand of her mane out of her eye. "Blue. Blue Royal."

"That's such a pretty name."

"My mother gave it to me." She replied as she started to look behind her. Her eyes bulged for a second before she quickly walked to the door, waiting for me to join her. "Let's try to get a move-on. I'm sure the others are wondering about you."

"Sure thing."

When we walked out of the bathroom, I couldn't help but notice a few heads turn our way. The mare walked beside me, looking all around her while she kept up with my pace. It was almost as if others who were standing pat, those like the guards, had kept more of an interest in me. It was a stark contrast to how I walked in, where everyone around didn't even pay any mind to how I looked, like I wasn't worth the glance. But now I felt confident about myself, like I could really get the attention of anyone who's in the room.

And of course, the boys took notice of my sudden change in appearance. "Yo!" Cliff announced with a hoof to the head.

Meanwhile Rick was stuck in stare. "Holy Christ."

I looked down at myself, tilting my dress and giving them a twirl. "Can't do much about the dress, but I feel a lot better."

"You look a lot better." Rickey said as he became lost in my appearance, but in a split second his attention was grabbed by the one who walked up behind me. "Who's the twin?"

"This is Blue, she helped me with my hair in the bathroom." I said, scooching over and formally introducing her to the two. "Blue, these are my friends Cliff and Rickey. Shea doesn't seem to be locked down to anyone, so he's also a great option to bubble with tonight."

Cliff bowed with a polite nod. "Nice to meet you, ma'am."

"Charmed to meet you as well." She returned the gesture.

Rick was still lost in my appearance before he finally caught on to what I said. "Me─I uh... Cherry, um... what do you mean by bubble?"

"Right, so hear me out." I started to explain. "Somepony she doesn't like is hunting around for her. So you're gonna need to be Mr. Right for the evening." I said, tapping Cliff on the chest.

Blue raised a hoof to interrupt. "Um, I propose that we meet with my brother before we continue."

"You're running from your bro?" Cliff asked.

"No, her brother's busy with all the usual dinner party things." I quickly clarified.

"So what does your brother do where he's too busy for you?" Rickey questioned.

"He's a member of city council." She said with an eye roll.

Cliff immediately caught on and nodded in agreement. "Oh, okay. I guess something like that could be an on-the-job kind of deal, keep up with appearances, take pictures, network, all that good stuff. So yeah, let's see if we can link up with him and talk."

The two started walking forward to the ballroom. Meanwhile, Rick tugged on my dress and whispered over to me. "Hey, Cherry, can we talk?"

"Okay, what's wrong?" I asked him, seeing that he was already skeptical of what we were doing.

"Why are we going to talk with her brother and for what reason do we need to do that?"

"I told you already, some guy around here is lurking like a shark. It's making her feel uncomfortable. If we tell her brother what we plan on doing and how she's going about the rest of the night, maybe it'll make her time here a little better. Plus she fixed my hair, so this is my favor back."

Seeing how we were falling behind, we both got off to a trot to keep up. "I don't wanna tell you how to repay a favor, but something about this screams to me that we shouldn't get involved."

I turned to him and stressed my reasoning. "If you saw her face when she hid in that bathroom, you'd do it too. Hell, you'd be even quicker to jump in if I was in that position."

He glanced ahead, seeing the two presenting their tickets to the security. "Still..."

I tapped him on his head lightly. "Girl's intuition, something's wrong at the bar, you get involved so that the creep doesn't do some shit to hurt her. Doesn't matter the scene, same rules apply. C'mon, just play along with me for once."

Rick sighed in resignation. "You're lucky I like you."

"Then like me enough to trust me." I replied back as I pulled out our tickets for the security.

They checked our tickets and made way for our entry into the grandiose-looking ballroom. Walking in from the antechamber, we were overwhelmed with the sight of what I could bravely consider high society. There were pristine ice sculptures of ballerina ponies extending their hooves out to the viewer while servants in the back poured a ladle of punch into the head, watching the drink flow through the carefully cut ridges and come out from the bottom to a spout made of ice. Cooks were waiting on another table, offering tiny morsels to the guests. The musicians at the corner were playing their classical pieces to the tune of a few waltzes.

While we entered, we saw Cliff being led to an off-white stallion with a honey and cantaloupe orange mane wearing a white tux with black accents. On his chest was a blue sigil with a stamp with the shadow of Canterlot's skyline being the backdrop. He turned his head to see the blue mare approach him.

"Ah, Blue! I've been looking everywhere for you. Last I looked, you just ran out of the room. Is everything alright?"

"I'm much better now." She replied before pointing to the three of us. "Alabaster, I would like for you to meet these three ponies tonight. Cherry Balm, Strapping Lad, and Cocoa Shea. They're going to be my association for the evening."

The stallion looked at all three of us with uncertainty, starting off with Cliff. "Hmm... I see that you have a flier's build. Very well then." He swapped his attention to Rick. "Hmm... I see that you don't fly too often, and I noticed that the two of you are wearing the same outfit. This must be your first Gala. I take it you were given a special invitation."

Rickey tried his best to keep himself suppressed. "Yes, I was invited. Thank you. It's a pleasure to meet with you after a conversation with your lovely sister, she's so kind."

"That she is." He replied as he turned his attention to me, levitating my hoof to him. "Though I can't help that my sister has changed her manestyle to match yours. Must I ask, where did you two meet?"

"We... met in the washroom." I replied nervously. "I saw that she was worried for something, and I wanted to do what I could to help her get comfortable. She looked pretty terrified, I looked a hot mess, so we've offered to trade favors."

The stallion's approach seemed to subtly change as I explained myself. "A kindhearted mare you are, to observe someone else's troubles and step in. It's truly admirable." He then kissed my hoof with a bow. "My lady, you have my gratitude for caring to my sister's well-being."

I laughed lightly as I took a quick glance to Rick, who was not happy with what was going on. "It's no problem. You're quite the enchanter yourself."

"Well, milady, Charm is my second name." He said, glancing down to his button. Looking down, I read the words 'Alabaster Charm, City Council Representative of District 3'. He let go of my hoof and questioned me. "Now is there anything I can do for you, a payment for taking my sister along with you and your friends today?"

Blue stepped in. "You should let me repay them personally. I don't think it's fair to pawn off your own sister."

Alabaster chuckled at her statement. "I wouldn't dare dream it, you're the one with the goods after all."

As the conversation went on, I noticed that Rick's eyes had expanded and he quickly tapped Cliff on the shoulder. Cliff took a glance at the two and his eyes did the same. Before I knew it, Blue was directing her conversation to me. "I am looking forward to spending time with you and your friends this evening. Or as you say it, bubbling together?"

"Yes. Total bubble buddies for tonight." I said while her brother smiled at me.

"I am in debt to you, miss Cherry." He bowed to me and offered me a business card. "If you ever need a favor, I'm happy to oblige one."

"You're so sweet." I replied as Blue quickly trotted over to grab Rick and walk him over to the punch bowl. "And they're off to the races, guess I better catch up."

"Don't fall behind. Blue's like the wind at these kind of gatherings. Don't be afraid to reach out if need be."

As I caught up with the others, Cliff had hung back a bit to tap on me. "Yo, we need to talk."

"About what?" I asked.

As we approached the bowl, I noticed that she was looking a lot better while Rickey was appearing really nervous. Cliff pointed to Blue. "So you notice anything familiar with that mare?"

"What about her?"

He started speaking in a low voice. "Nothing at all, not even on Twitter?"

"Why would she be on Twitter, she's a pony. Ponies don't have phones... except Twilight and Shining." I argued.

"No, but you know who does have a Twitter account? Nondis."

"Okay, and?" I asked.

"She's on his Twitter feed." He replied as he watched the two interact with one another.

I shook my head in denial. "How the hell is she on his feed? He doesn't post ponies on his timeline except that one..." In time, my mind began to piece together what he was talking about. I started to think back to the one Twitter post where Alex posted the comment 'when you see it.' This time I saw it, and I was close to shitting bricks. "No fucking way."

"So what Rickey was telling me, we might've ran into both the son and the daughter. Your take?"

I glanced back to see the pony named Alabaster speaking with another member of high society. In doing so, I watched with caution over the two's interaction. The both came closer with Blue being the main one speaking. "So I know that I'm pretty much an outlier to you guys, but I want you all to know that I'm willing to go for whatever you want to do tonight."

Much like a soldier watching a grenade land on the ground before them, Cliff dived on top to take the shrapnel. "Actually, we could make tonight a double date."

The blue mare blushed. "A date?"

Rickey joined in. "Yeah. Cherry is supposed to be my date for the evening. We're gonna try to make the best out of this night, she got a little nervous about the others here and how she looked. That's why she ran to the bathroom so quick. Sorry to get you mixed up in all of this."

"No, that's fine!" She said, adjusting her mane from over her eyes. "I'm completely open to the idea of dating for the night. But, why a third wheel?" She glanced over to Cliff.

"I got a ticket too, but we didn't have a fourth. So I just thought to tag around until things got advanced between the other two."

The mare paused for a moment, turned to me with a snicker, and quickly ran up to me. "Well if this is a double date..." She then grabbed my foreleg and playfully nuzzled me. "Then she's my date."

"What!?" Both the guys yelped out.

"Sorry, guys. I'll take my chances with the strong earth pony girl. It's not that you both aren't strong enough, she's just stronger than you." She announced playfully.

Rick stammered through his words as he pleaded for her to reconsider. "H-Hey, um. I kinda wanted to talk to my─"

"A real special somepony knows how to wait his turn." She said with a giggle. "Sorry, guys. Rule of the Gala states that we ask for one dance before coughing up."

"Is that really a rule?" I asked.

"No, but it is a courtesy in this society." She quickly yanked me along for the ride, escorting me to the outside patio. "Later, boys!"

Rickey stood with his jaw agape, Cliff shook his head. "That's seriously his daughter... That son of a bitch who wound up in Cherry's apartment, that's his daughter."

Rickey rubbed his head with a feather from wing. "Did my date seriously just get cancelled?"

Cliff shook his head and patted Rick on the back. "Hey, if shit worked out for Nondis and his girl on New Year's, it'll probably work out for you."

"I hope so." He replied with a dejected sigh. "Maybe you're right. I'm probably just overthinking."

"Overthinking is a characteristic of hesitation." The two turned around to see the off-white stallion approaching between the two of them, reaching his hooves out to both of their shoulders. "It's also a preceding habit of procrastination and a show of insecurity. Maybe she'll get to respect you a little more if you start to trust your gut more often. The first step of commitment is to decide with prejudice."

"I bet you're a real ladies guy." Rickey said with a fake smirk, his mind on how flirty he was with his date.

"I can be confident in my approach, just as long as I don't come off as chauvinistic." He replied casually with a nudge towards Cliff. "You guys are looking quite lost here. Can't just sit around and look at the walls, mingle a bit, make a few connections, network and gain some association. That's the true purpose of the Gala."

"Kinda looks like a high-class ball to me." Rickey replied.

"You think it's like that until you realize that it's more for corporate purposes. My sister attends these a lot more than I do sometimes. I'm more susceptible to leaving early because these kinds of gatherings are only good for touching basis with a few donors for my next campaign. I won't be up for reelection till three years from now."

"Well we're from Ponyville, I don't think we have much of a need to do anything like that. We're just happy to be here." Cliff replied.

He then pointed across the room and aimed his hoof at a particular group of ponies. "Look over there." He suggested. "Now that yellow one, she's an element bearer. Shy, timid, and very much the recluse she is, there's no stopping her from engaging with some of the animal conservationists groups present." He pointed another direction. "See that one? She's as out of place as you can possibly get, even brought her younger sister along. But she's eager to talk about her concerns for agriculture and her views of conserving the practice of hard work over mass industrialization. Also an element bearer." He then pointed to another pony. "Military aspirations to gradually climb the ranks, element bearer." And then another. "Aspirations to expand her business into an aesthetic powerhouse, element bearer." And yet another. "Booking her engagements with some of her clients up to five years in advance, element bearer." And finally to one of the princesses. "Need I say more?"

"Okay, we get it." Stated Rickey with a slightly annoyed tone. "Mingle with the crowd."

"Even if you don't belong, find someplace where you can play the part." He hunched us both in closer as he said in a lower voice. "Between us three, it'll help you be a lot less obvious to your being new around here. Everyone is watching you."

The both of us slowly turned our head to the stallion.

Alabaster smirked as he broke off from the both of us and trotted off. "Enjoy the double-date, boys."

Meanwhile...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

My night continued to be quiet, often filled with the whirring of the fans from the monitoring system. And of course with my growing sense of paranoia, every light was burning brightly in the room to give my mind a better sense of security. I had some comforting music playing on a bluetooth speaker, running in background while I went between the monitors and my phone. My feed was locked to the main ballroom, seeing how everyone was doing and what all was going on.

From what I was gathering, I saw that some of the guests were having an issue with the green blob Discord had brought in. I was primarily focused on what would develop with that slime creature as opposed to the other auxiliaries like the halls and corridors leading around the castle. Thankfully, I had a means to communicate with the guards on ground level. I was given a crystal orb, similar to the one Shining would often carry. As soon as I got a hold of someone, I told them to give me a sitrep. The orders were to allow the development to proceed, as issued directly from Celestia herself.

That honestly didn't sit well with me.

I immediately pulled up Instagram and shot her a brief message asking her about the situation. She never answered, as she was too busy tending to the ball. But that didn't stop her from sitting back with a nonchalant look on her face, watching the mess get even messier. However, this ball was also filled with a lot of politicians who she wasn't exactly aligned with. And knowing her, she's probably having a fit of 'curiosity' in seeing how all of this pans out.

Still, a job is a job. And I had to intervene in some manner. I couldn't just let this happen without my getting involved, the other officers would throw a fit if I didn't show some dissent to the issue. I started to gather my things and measure out my approach on how I was going to combat this issue, especially since gunfire wouldn't be advisable for the situation. I looked around one last time, noting what's in place and not. I even took a moment to hide the scroll Alabaster had given me earlier today. After that, it was time for me to make my move.

MOTION DETECTED: PORTAL ROOM

I immediately froze in place, as the notification went off again, this one from a second motion detector.

MOTION DETECTED: PORTAL ROOM

I snapped my phone up to my face, quickly swapping the feed of the ballroom to the portal room instead. I saw nothing in the night-vision feed. I swapped over to thermal feed to make sure that there was nothing in there. But as soon as the imagery flipped over, I saw three signatures congregating around the portal, all ponies. One of them whirled their foreleg to notify the others that they found the portal they wanted to go through. And judging from the angle, they had chosen the one that went directly to Mel's apartment.

It didn't take a second thought to convince me that a gun would be unwarranted. I quickly summoned one and hid it in my waist belt. From there I got off to a sprinting start, blasting through the empty halls that were once lightly filled with security. I kept my phone on that feed as the three started to pull something along their way. The signature of that other was much cooler, but it indicated that it was pony-shaped.

PORTAL 2

I was already fuming at the thought that they were doing this shit again. I was already thinking of ways to approach the three and dispatching at least two of them before subjugating the third for interrogation. And it didn't take me long to get to the portal room either, it was still a relatively short distance away from my room. When I got inside, I busted the door open and pointed my gun at the area around the activated portal.

Using my phone, I tried to aim as best as I could at one of the intruders who appeared to look back at me. Since they were invisible, it was hard for me to get a clear view of what I had my sights on and who. I fired a shot in the direction of the goon before calling out in an authoritative voice. "Who's there!?"

My voice echoed in the silent room, the three figures on my feed started to slowly step away from the portal. One of them appeared to pull out a knife while I kept my gun aimed at the area. "That's it!" I called out loudly to the intruders. "You have two seconds before I blow your fucking head off, and I mean that!"

"Such bad manners. What ever happened to hospitality?"

My eyes expanded in hearing the familiar voice, not to mention it's proximity. I turned around with my gun aimed at where the voice came from, only to have the gun disappear from my hand and reintroduced to the side of my head. The hammer pulled back, clicking in my ear to notify me that my situation had quickly grown dire. Without fail, the face revealed itself before me with a Cheshire grin. He waved his hoof at me while tilting his head in a playful manner. Umbra licked his lips as he spoke.

"Captain Nondis in the flesh... your real flesh, that is. Oh how I've missed your presence this week."

Author's Note

Holy hell... It's been a while since I've been on the release schedule. Sorry it's been so long guys. I've had to dedicate a lot of time to the homestead. Problems kept coming up and I had to keep working to keep up with everything. So instead of releasing this one at the end of January or early Febuary, I ended up releasing this one in May.

Yikes, I'm behind schedule.

But the good news is that this month is the first month in well over a year where I've been booked solid, including Sundays. I'm trying to at least make sure I'm able to pay the bills, then my taxes, then get another fridge since it's dying on us, learn music for five different groups, recording for some others, and get my laptop fixed.

Oh yeah, I managed to buy a new laptop in January, needed to have the hard drive and the motherboard replaced at the end of April. Joy. And I was just getting the hang of Windows 10.

So yeah, between everything at once breaking and my trying to make good on my schedule with everyone, I ended up putting the writing of this on the backburner. Yeah, life sucks. But I'm glad to be able to find some time in between calamities to try and get this one done.

Expect the next chapter in three weeks or less. It'll be a long one.

Chapter C

My head was swimming with improbable escape scenarios, many of which drastic and fantasy-like. Teleportation, a magic I have not even studied nor attempted, came to mind. Some crazy martial art turnaround with a gun against my head, I'd be dead before a muscle in my arm could twitch in response to my brain sending the signal. Ducking out of the way, I'd be dead on the way down. Even slowly moving carried the risk of alerting anyone or causing them to react with often fatal consequences.

All of that was useless. The only thing that I could do within reason was to try and negotiate my way out of the situation.

"Well, it looks as if I've managed the situation to a most favorable outcome." He replied with a snicker. "Or as you humans would put it, I've got the drop on you." He added with a playful wink.

I remained calm and collected, as to not make any sudden movements or trigger some surge of emotion. "I see that you've brought friends."

The stallion spun around in a circle while smiling at the air around him, as carefree to the gun being pressed against my skull. "They're such good company. I can't imagine my life without them. Surely you'd love to see their usefulness in action."

"No thanks. I'd much rather be able to simply see them." I replied in a monotone manner.

"But what good would that be for me?" He replied. "I'm sure that you'd find some way to locate them later and have them arrested."

Without turning my head, I tried to peek to the side of me. "Who's body you're stuffing in my friend's apartment this time?"

The stallion appeared playfully saddened, dramatically placing a hoof over his forehead. "Oh no, it appears that my surprise has been spoiled! Oh what tragedies have fallen upon me to lose my one advantage?"

"Cut the bullshit short, what do you want from me?" I asked.

The stallion began to tug at my hair, slowly pulling me to a kneel. "Well that would depend on the situation. I'm sure you'd know for starters that I don't like being ignored. And then you know I don't like being deprived of a good thing. Not having you around makes me feel like I'm being neglected, and then I can't have fun with you. What's the point of having you go through all of this when I can't even be there to enjoy it?"

"Look, I'm not comfortable with the dead as it is. Can you just let me deal with that bit of psychological damage?" I replied.

"Tsk, tsk, captain. You know I can't have fun with simple things." He said with a fake frown. "I like pizzazz, shock value, the initial moment where your face shows the second your fight-or-flight response is triggered. Now I don't want you to feel hopeless yet, there's still some fun to be had."

"So damaging my reputation with a bunch of lies and rumors wasn't enough? Destroying my peace of mind with grim reminders from beyond the grave? Giving me what could potentially be years of psychological damage is just lightweight to you?"

"It's a wonder how Count drives you up a wall." He said with a dismissive tone. "He's dead. So it shouldn't bother you. Just think of him as your victory flag, swaying in the wind."

"Of course I forget who I'm talking to." I mumbled under my breath.

He loosened the grip of my hair, but pushed my head forward. "You know, it wouldn't have to be this way if you'd just stayed behind like I wanted you to."

"Sorry, but I don't swing that way." I said firmly.

The stallion smirked as he dragged a hoof up to my chin. "Tell you what, I'll leave you alone for tonight on the part of one little favor."

"What?"

"I want a kiss." He whimpered in a mockingly pouty tone. "I miss you so much and you haven't seen me in a week. I was so worried about you. I was almost in a fit of rage not knowing where my precious monster-size boyfriend might have wandered off to."

I closed my eyes and muttered to myself. "You'd be better off shooting me."

"Is that your final answer?" The stallion smiled while he got in closer.

I turned my head away from him, nudging my forehead against the barrel of the gun. "You got me, if you wanted me to die, then this is the best outcome for you. I'm not in your business anymore. So do it. Pull the trigger. No one will even notice until sometime late tomorrow morning."

"...Ugh... Fine. Your wish..." The stallion squarely levitated the weapon to the front of my head. I clenched my eyes shut, expecting my world to come to a brief and unceremonious end. "...Is mine to deny." He quickly said as he tossed the weapon aside, causing it to misfire into a wall. The sound of it's report made me flinch hard, only for my head to be held in his hooves while he inched closer. "Do you honestly think my intention is to kill you now? Why whatever gave you that idea? I told you that the game would be decided when you face off against your worst adversary. I'm not the worst you've faced, in fact I'm quite smitten with the idea of toying with you. Maybe you'll show me how you have three princesses risking it all for a night with you. And judging from Kalimba's reaction, I must say that you are something I must taste for myself."

I backed away from him, only to find a force pulling me down and keeping me locked to my knees. "As I said, I don't swing that way."

He then whispered in my face. "All I want is a kiss. Just give that to me and I'll be on my way. We can start slow, if you want. Even with my being this close, I feel the tension building between us." I then tucked in my lips, which started to quietly anger the stallion. He forced my head to turn to him. "What are you hiding from me? My lips aren't good enough for you?" I tightened my mouth all the more, making sure that I couldn't be violated a second time. "Seriously, I'm beginning to think that you don't want me to be your friend. Is it because of how my kissing you the last time has you so wound up? Or is it that you've secretly discovered a new fetish that you don't want anyone to know? I can keep secrets, you know."

I turned my head and quickly thought to press my face into the ground. However, my protest didn't go as planned as he held me by my hair again. He yanked back, assuring me the pain sufficient enough to grunt.

"You must think that I'm foolish, that you're so smart. I know you're hiding things from me." He said, showing the frustration in his tone.

"And kissing me is how you find out." I replied, earning a snicker from the stallion.

It took about two seconds before the sudden shift in the room changed drastically. My head was released, but instead of Umbra trying to smile, he was visibly angry. So much in fact that it was the first time I genuinely felt a threatening chill coming from his gaze. He didn't speak, just leaning in to plant himself against me. I denied him by grabbing at his horn and summoning the gun he tossed away back into my hand. His mouth, instead of being filled with the taste of my tongue, was introduced to the taste of steel.

Taking my advantage, I angrily stood up and shot back my own deathly gaze. "You gon' have enough of fucking with me." I pulled the trigger, firing a shot into his skull and watched as the body flopped to the ground. I turned around and started to bring my attention to the invisible intruders. I pulled out my phone and went back to hunting.

"Ooh, so close."

I turned around, hearing Umbra's voice again. I looked down to see the body I shot at, only for my eyes to expand in horror over what I was looking at. Instead of Umbra laying there, it was an unidentified body. The room started to stink profusely with the scent of death. I looked back down at my hand, realizing that it wasn't covered in blood, but rotten flesh and decomposed juices. My stomach climbed up to my throat at the sight and I quickly hunched over to keep myself contained with my other hand.

A hoof patted me on my side. "There, there. There's no point in screaming over it. It's just there." Umbra leaned into my ear, whispering. "Though I wonder about what his family would think of you doing this, an act of sacrilege so brutal that you'd go so far as to shove your hand in a corpse and show them what for. How delectably uncouth. Just imagine how the taste of their mouth would've been if you kissed them."

I couldn't hold back at that thought. I immediately vomited on the floor, heaving as the smell lingered heavily on my right hand. I clenched my eyes, trying not to look at what I had done.

Umbra smiled as he walked beside me. "You know, all of this could've been avoided if you had only come by to see me. But now begs the question, who exactly would you be seeing from here on?"

"You're a fucking psychopath!" I screamed in between heaves.

"Aw, sweetie." He said with a mockingly motherly voice. "I'm not so eager to be called bad names. Besides, I'm just another lost soul looking for salvation. Isn't that what we all strive for, acceptance? I swear you call everyone you don't agree with everything but a Child of Faust. I guess you and Count have that in common."

"Shut up!" I screamed, aiming my gun at his direction, only to jump up at the sight of Count's decaying face next to me. I fell back, crawling away from the body that stared at me. My hair was tugged back, my legs locked in place, and I was rendered motionless as Umbra dusted himself off and tapped me on my forehead with his horn.

"Now the next phase of the game begins. New rules, of course. This one's a bit more interesting. Since I can't just let you recall this little event to the others to prompt some investigation, you'll learn to not be so eager to put my name to your lips. From now on, you'll fear me as the others. Just the mere thought of exposing my name will bring you to your knees. But do be careful, push too much and you'll be having the headache of a lifetime. Try not to black out too much, or I might have to come and pick you up, just like your friend."

As the spell subsided, the image of Umbra's face faded from the manipulated flesh, slowly revealing Count's rotting face
being mere inches away from mine. The nightmarish smile etching further into every corner of my brain while the other body I shot stood up, it's entire body was assimilated by Umbra as he looked back at me, smiling before he walked away. The stress of the event was too much for my brain to handle, and my mind began to slowly shut down. My limbs had suddenly gotten weaker, leaving me vulnerable to the world as my vision grew blacker by the second. Umbra walked out the room, offering the last bit of light from the hallway before leaving me in total darkness.

"Do think of me, but not of my name. Sweet dreams."

Later At The Gala...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Melanie***

While I didn't have a problem with getting dragged off by Miss Blue, I didn't really find our time together being all too fun. Of course, it's not because of her, she's a complete character to be around. But getting chased by a green slime monster wasn't exactly on my itinerary for the night. We spent a good twenty minutes under a table just to save ourselves from getting covered in some unknown green sludge. And considering that thing's corporeal being was an unknown ectoplasm of juices and oobleck, I wasn't really interested in having my newly-done mane a questionable mess. Plus this dress wasn't cheap.

It took the guys walking by the area for me to even get brave enough to stop hiding. And wouldn't you know it, they were just as clean as we were. So as soon as we reconveined, we started discussing what happened with that thing from our own perspectives. Rickey was the first to start embellishing his story.

"So then this green gak monster shows up and starts trashing the whole place! Both me and Cocoa are looking at each other like what the hell are we gonna do, we're just a bunch of bums standing around looking stupid. So we dipped out like we were running from the plague. I mean damn, you expect to have a good night with the socialites, then it turns into some children's nightmare, eating all the shiny things within a ten yard radius."

Blue then jumped in with her own view. "You both sound like you've had a good time. Cherry and I actually hid under a table to make sure we couldn't get hit up by that wandering pile of ooze. Once we noticed it went for the shiny stuff, we looked at what we were wearing, saw a few shiny trinkets, and quickly hid under the table hoping it wouldn't see us. Thankfully, it didn't. It was like a weird nightmare."

"I'm glad things started to cool off now. I can't believe the princess invited a whole monster into the dance." I said, glancing back at the ballroom, which appeared to be a lot less populated.

"I heard that thing was a plus-one for the Chaos Deity." Blue added.

I looked at the mare and grew curious. "Chaos deity?"

She then explained. "The draconequus seen walking around, apparently attached to one of the element bearers. The eldritch abomination who actually went up against the element bearers, and even the princesses some thousand years ago. His name is Discord."

"Oh yeah, that guy!" Rickey interjected.

Blue Royal went on to explain her experiences. "Yeah, he's a real pain. One time, he turned all of the streets in Canterlot into liquid soap, then replaced all the guardrails for the paths leading into the city with balloons. We even saw him holding the actual guardrails on strings like they were balloons. I even watched him let go of one of the strings, and the guardrails just floated off in the wind!"

"That's some really trippy stuff." Cliff snickered.

"Ugh! I couldn't walk for a week without checking the ground!" She said out of frustration.

Rickey glanced up at me and cleared his throat. "So─"

Blue quickly jumped in without him even getting a decent word in. "So now that all of the that madness is over, we can continue with our arrangement! So what do you wanna do?" She asked me.

"Well..." I looked over to Rick, who had started to resign himself to the idea that he wouldn't get to spend time with me tonight. I saw the disappointment all over his face as he slowly put his hoof down after reaching out to me. It appeared the he was really eager to reconnect, and I did assure him that tonight was a good excuse to test the waters, at least see where his energy was for me. I started to take my word into consideration, grabbing the mare's hooves and lightly clasping them together with a smile. "It's not that I don't appreciate the quality time so far tonight─"

"Party ponies!" An unknown voice called out from behind me. I couldn't even look back all the way without a random dark green stallion pop up between us with a burgundy top hat on. He shook us with his entry and casually spoke to us as if we were long-standing friends. "Wild animals of sorts, beasts of the evening! How's it all going for you tonight!?"

Rickey looked at me and his mood quietly turned sour. "Uh, who's he?"

The stallion broke between us and walked to the center of our group, proudly injecting his presence into our faces. "Oh, now where are my manners? I can't believe I just showed up unknown to most of you. See, I'm the party, and I've just walked in!" He said while holding his hooves to the air, seeking to be the center of attention. But he turned to one pony in particular and smiled brightly as he inched closer to her. "Oh, and Blue, you look so delectable this evening, an absolute morsel in my cornucopia of sweet indulgences! How's the evening been for you, my dear?"

While she was stationary, I could glance down and see that her hind legs were shaking, and her tail was coiled up around one of them. She appeared genuinely terrified, wanting to take a step back. But she found his invasiveness being too much of a weight to overcome. "It's been well." She answered shakily, looking in any other direction where he wasn't.

He placed a hoof on her cheek, trying to get a better look into her eyes. "Oh no, are you okay!? You're usually in such high spirits whenever I peep you out. It's sad to see you're so despondent."

I chimed in on her visual discomfort. "Blue, who is this guy?"

"Oh I'm absolutely no one important..." He said dismissively for one second, just before taking a pivot in his approach and walking up to me with piqued interest. "In speaking of morsels, I believe this delectable pomegranate is quite the palette swap for you, Blue. I must know her name, she's quite beautiful."

"H-her name?" She stammered.

He raised my foreleg and looked back at the mare. "Yes. Her name." He then kissed it with a smile. "Such a pretty little rosebud."

Blue quickly called out to him as he started to slowly kiss up my foreleg. "Um... Her name is Persimmon Plush. She's a friend of mine from Fillydelphia."

Cliff, Rickey, and I all looked at one another as the mare instantaneously made up a name for me. The unknown stallion looked at me. "Persimmon Plush, is that right?"

I quickly jumped on board with Blue's story. "Yes! My friends call me Plushie! Honor to meet you, sir... Um, I didn't quite get your name."

He inched even closer. "That you did not. But it's only fair, as I did not get yours from your own lips. Lips so soft, so tasteful. I bet the flavor must be out of this world."

My heartrate started to increase, not from the swooning words he issued, but from the fact that this guy wouldn't even give me his name, and he's already trying to swing for the fences. I took an instinctive step back. "Wow, you're friendly." I said with a fake chuckle.

He slid in even closer, smiling as he bent me back in his embrace. "I'm quite more than that, madam. I'm smitten by your charms. Tell me, Persimmon Plush from Fillydelphia, what part do you hail from?"

"Um, sir." Rickey finally called out, very angrily. "With all due respect, that is my girlfriend you're getting cozy with."

"My, you're a jealous one." He said dismissively with a laugh. "I was merely being friendly with the lady. Surely you wouldn't mind if I buttered her up, just a smidge."

He quickly walked up and nudged his wing between the two of us. "Actually, I kinda do mind."

Seeing that the situation had quickly gotten confrontational, the stallion released me from his grasp and stepped back. "Well if that's the case, then I guess I'll settle for the more subtle flavor of despondency as opposed to the vibrant scent of pomegranate passion."

"Now I do mind that there." Cliff said as he stepped in front of Blue with a wing outstretched. "She's my date for tonight."

"Ah, but of course." The stallion didn't even seem to give a single fuck over how he was approaching us. If anything, he seemed to act with the intent that there was nothing he couldn't do, he could have whatever he wanted, and there would be no consequences. He walked up to Cliff and spun around him to quickly grab at Blue. "You do know why they call it dating, right? It's because you can always come back on a later date if it's available. And as of now, I'm accommodating this one for the night. So to you... perhaps later then?" Cliff seemed as if he was about to rear one back and give him a face full of physical complaints. But the stallion chuckled and threw his hooves into the air along with all his abandoned cares. "Ah, we're all having fun here! It's a good time!"

"A good time, indeed." A familiar stallion called out beside us. Blue quickly trotted away from the stallion and walked towards the direction of her brother. Behind him was where she hid as he confronted the careless stallion.

"Well if it isn't my good friend Alabaster Charm. I've always wondered why you never took the extra step to become a member of the parliament, but that's all bygones. Tell me, how's the low-level politicking?" He called out to the off-white stallion.

"It's well. Actually, I was about to take my leave until an associate came by and started talking my ear off about that Smooze character. Made an awful mess of things in the ballroom, even the princesses got caught up in it. I'm just lucky to have left there before it could get really messy." He replied as his sister clung to his side.

The unknown stallion chuckled and rubbed the back of his head, almost as if he was truly being chummy with the guy. "Well, I'm afraid that I've might've found myself in a tough crowd." He glanced over to Rickey with the simplest smile on his face. "Usually my jokes are to die for in the usual soiree. But apparently I showed myself into a conversation hoping to make some friends, and it seems like they're awfully consolidated."

Alabaster placed a hoof on his sister, holding her in place as he walked forward. "I've often told you about how off-putting you come across when you unexpectedly mingle with some strangers. Now come on, can't be nudging our muzzles in the affairs of youthful romances. Maybe I can introduce you to a more welcoming crowd." The protective brother placed a hoof over the unknown stallion's shoulder and gave him a smile in return. "No use speaking to dead fish in a briny pond, let's get you in a more lively body of water."

The unknown stallion sighed with disappointment. "Shame, and I was so looking forward to making new friends tonight. I am quite concerned that I'll be left alone when it's all over with."

Alabaster pointed towards the ballroom, where the remaining ponies had started to dance. "Bah, this place is dead anyways. Most of the characters got chased off by the slime cretin. Sad to know the party's over so soon, but there's a really good bar I can take you to."

The unknown stallion politely removed Alabaster's hoof from around him and spoke. "Well I guess I'll be following you then. Blue, I'll be seeing you sometime later on." He said to her before looking at me. "As for you... I wanna call you Little Miss Cherry. Cherry and Blueberry, how whimsical. I... will be seeing you in the future hopefully." He said as he summoned a small black business card. "My card, you should keep it on you."

Blue stepped in and levitated the card away from me and towards her. "She's shy to stallions." She said in my defense.

He glanced at Blue, then over to Rickey before he briefly turned his attention to me for his farewell. "If you say so. Next time, my dear."

The two stallions departed, gradually disappearing behind a few other bushes. Eventually, there was no hint or sign of the two being anywhere around here. The three of us had a collective sigh of relief, but Blue collapsed and started hyperventilating. Her eyes watered as she clasped at her chest, whimpering in terror.

"Whoa, you okay!?" Rickey questioned, genuinely worried over her sudden panic attack.

In looking at her face, I quickly identified she had the same energy of horror in her eyes. I offered to hug the mare. "Was that guy the reason you were like this earlier?"

She immediately jumped up and announced loudly to the three of us. "I'm sorry, I'm gonna go home now!"

Before she could burst off in a gallop, I managed to barely snag her tail in my teeth before shouting back to her. "Hey, wait!"

The mare pushed back at me, even using her magic to force my jaw open to release her. "I'm sorry, Cherry! I shouldn't get you involved with me, I'm too dangerous for a pretty mare like you! You should enjoy the rest of your night! I'm so sorry, to all of you! Goodbye!"

"Hey wait!" Rickey called out just a second before she teleported out of our existence. And since she teleported to somewhere we didn't know, there wasn't any point in pursuing her. The only thing we could to was recount the experience. "Ugh, that guy was a fucking creep to the max degree."

"I was one smart-ass comment from fucking his ass up to the max degree." Cliff said as he raised his hoof.

"Hey, it's a good thing you didn't. You saw how ol dude dropped in and cleared that shit up with the quickness? Bro, he might be on some mob-type shit. We don't know who we fucking with." Rickey said calmly, but still showing some concern.

All I could do was shudder at how close he was to me. "Shit... That guy's a fucking weirdo. I can't stand him."

Cliff remained on edge as he spoke in a lower voice. "I'm more upset that creeps like that get past the goddamn security check. Like how does someone like that get clearance? Slime monsters, pedo-in-speedos-lookin'-ass niggas as far as the eye can see, what the fuck does Nondis got for security around here?"

"She made up a whole ass name for me on the spot, only for him to call me the right one anyhow." I pointed out. "I'm not down with that."

Rickey looked into the sky, falling into resignation. "Yeah, our so-called date is over."

I couldn't agree more. "No shit. Let's just go home."

Sometime Later...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

"Who are you?"

That was pretty much the first question that popped up in my mind.

There was the sound of a large spotlight being shuttered on above me, sounding almost like a locker door being slammed shut. I found myself sitting in an illuminated space with absolutely no one to talk to but a shady figure sitting across from me in a white stiff wooden chair. The space around us was pitch black and devoid of any shape to define where we were sitting. It was just me standing in front of a pony with a black hood on. I called out to the figure, who continued to rock themselves forward. I walked closer, seeing that the figure had seamlessly turned away from me as if they were sitting on a rotating display.

Some part of me ordered that I'd turn around, and I wanted to. But the space prevented me from seeing anything else but that same space. It was like the scene I looked at was everywhere I turned my head, like I was wearing that scene against my face as a pair of glasses. Even tilting my head to the side altered the space, tilting along with me. I closed my eyes, seeing the same scene before me. I opened my eyes, the same scene remained. It was maddening.

The space hissed with a cruel static, a high pitch resonance so disorienting that I nearly lost my balance and fell to the ground. In fact, I did just that... only to find myself looking at the same scene with the floor against my back. My head facing the sky, I was right back to where I started: I was standing in this empty space and looking at the hooded figure in front of me. I could step back again, but only for a few steps before a wall stopped me. The wall was just as black as the surrounding emptiness. I turned around to see that the chair was empty.

Shivers crawled from the center of my spine, sending signals to all the goosebumps on my skin, raising the hair on my arms and legs. The chair stopped rotating to face me, as empty as it was. I looked beside me and saw the same scene. I turned around, the same scene. Look up, the same scene. Down, nothing different but the disorienting perspective. I could feel myself move, change my perspective, all these things... and yet nothing had changed what was in front of my eyes. But what did change was the sounds of subtle whispers in my ear.

"Such a creature."
"Such a mistake"
"Such a nuisance."
"A waste."
"I trusted you."
"Was I good, papa?"
"A beautiful lie."
"Would you, a son, feel no differently than I?"
"YOU INSOLENT MONKEY!"

All of those words were soon replaced with the faint ringing of tinnitus. The chair remained empty, but it's back glitched to the opposite way. In the glitch, the figure reappeared, crawling with it's head scraping against the ground, leaving a trail of blood and brains in it's wake. Far quicker than I could react, the creature stood in front of me, silent.

The world glitched one more time, showing the pony standing upside down in the air, it's face was the same as the corpse of Count DuMoneé, smiling with pieces of his brain dripping from his skull as he stared at me, the nightmarish jumpscare etching into my brain as the decayed hooves reached for my face and pulled me in for a kiss I could not escape from.

"W̷͕͆h̷̙͛o̴̐͜ ̴̼̃a̶͙̔m̴̫͌ ̶̭͌Ȉ̷̬?̶̨̆"

The unforgiving disgust I felt as it parted from me with _____ face.

Wait, what was his name again?

"Captain? Captain!"

Captain... No, that's me. That's not his name...

"What in Equestria is that smell?"

The dead body... Count! He's on top of me!

"Must've soiled himself. Captain! Wake up!"

*SMACK*

The impact of a hoof against my face brought me to. The black world I was lost in had quickly been replaced with that of the portal room I was left within. The only discernable difference was the amount of light within the room. The place was a little brighter, the doors were wide open, and there was more than one voice in my ear, but all of them not talking at the same time. This was a much clearer world than the one I just left.

Perhaps it was just a dream.

I sat up. "Captain, report." A voice called out to me urgently.

"Report... Ugh, what the hell is that smell─" The unforgettable smell of a rotting corpse sitting on top of me, all with that same rotten smile. I shot up and grabbed at anything on me that could be used as a weapon. I had a knife on me, loudly calling out in my disoriented state. "WHO ARE YOU!? NAME AND RANK, NOW!"

"Sir, it's me." A young voice chimed out in response. I blinked a few times rubbing my eyes with my right hand, smelling the juices of a decaying corpse on my hand, so pungent that I quickly threw my own hand away.

"Goddamn that son of a bitch─" The name, it escaped me once more. But along with my slight effort to remember it came a piercing pain in the side of my head, almost like someone had dug a fork into my temporal lobe. All I could do was lean in the direction where the pain had dug into, pulling at the imaginary tool to remove itself.

"Sir!" Humbreeze called out worriedly.

The pain stopped, leaving me with both relief and the awareness of it's existence. "I'm fine. Just a little under the weather." I tried to pass off.

One of the other officers who had been present had cleared his throat, causing Humbreeze to explain himself. "Sir, we received orders to assist in the cleanup."

"Cleanup of what?" I said, still recovering from the unusual episode.

"The Gala, sir." He replied.

I rubbed the sides of my head, trying to massage away the migraine. "Yeah that's right, the Gala was tonight. How's the princess?"

The officer then responded. "The princesses are fine. There was an incident involving Discord and his guest, but it was resolved by one of the element bearers. It's a good thing she was there, this would've stayed ugly if it wasn't for her."

Throughout the course of my recovery, I began to remember what it was that had me leave the room from the start. "The slime creature, I was on my way to intervene. Another issue got in the way."

The officer scoffed at my answer. "Sounds to me like an excuse on top of your willful neglect of your directive, what issue could've stopped you tonight?"

"An intruder─" I began to explain before the sharp pain returned in full force. The only thing I could do was grab at the side of my head and fall back against the marble floors. The pain was so acute that I had contorted and bashed my head with my own fist to stop the pain. It subsided for just enough where I could barely speak. "Bodies..."

The officer appeared bewildered by my display and stepped back as the pain started to intensify. "Sir?" Humbreeze called out once more, concerned for my health.

The pain was so unbearable that even bashing my head against the ground was preferable. In fact, it was a relief from that pain with every moment I made impact. After the second one, I felt the world become loose and absent. I spoke a final word before all pain stopped. "...Count..."

"SIR!" Humbreeze was the last voice I heard before the world melted away from me.

Several Minutes Later...

The next thing that woke me was a splash of water on my face. For that brief instance, I felt like I was drowning in something. I flailed my arms out, trying to swim for whatever surface I could.

"Clear out, give him some space!" Another voice called out.

When I realized that I was on dry land, I finally had the bravery to take in a gasp of air. The world had grown more and more solid to me as the seconds passed by. A blue set of legs stood before me, one hoof reaching to my chin as the face came down to speak to me. "Captain, what happened?" Luna questioned.

For a brief second I was relieved to see her, but then the pain from my earlier situation had reminded me of how hurt I was. I rubbed my face, wiping the water from over my eyes. "Where am I? Why do I feel wet?"

The officer announced to me. "You're in the royal bath. The princess ordered you here to awaken you, as well as neutralize the smell all over you."

"Yeah, the smell." I said, realizing that my hand was quite pleasant to the nose. But while the smell had subsided, it still didn't erase the memory of the sensation of decaying juices running between my fingers, how slimy it was, how foul the stench was. I slapped my hand over my mouth, dry heaving to my side, causing other guards present to call out to the others.

"Woah! Stand back!"

The officer spoke behind me. "Your highness, I don't think he's well. He can't even speak."

Celestia then spoke from behind me. "Solemn Oath, I will have you investigate the portal room. Do not enter into the portals under any circumstances. There you will await my further orders."

"Yes, your highness." She replied before galloping off.

Luna bent down to me, touching her horn against the side of my head. "His mind is consumed by nightmares. His psyche has been damaged. Something is triggering a sort of pain, I'll need some time to investigate it. I'm sure whatever had occurred to reduce him to this state, it had to have happened as recently as today."

There was a slight linger of silence before Celestia announced in a low voice. "Leave us."

The officer began to plead with her. "Your highness, he is mentally unstable. I do not believe his is capable to be left alone with you."

"I gave you an order." She replied sternly.

The officer said nothing else to protest her decision. "At once, your highness."

There was the patter of hooves, and then the following closing of the door leading into the royal bedroom. After that was the sound of the outside door leading to the hallway. Luna waited before helping me up to my seat. "Sister, this doesn't bode well."

"I know." She said, trotting over to my side, looking at me. "Nondis, what is your phone's code?"

I blinked wildly for a moment, thinking about the phone I had given to her. I was about to say that the phone I gave her was unlocked, but then I noticed she was holding my new phone. I gave myself a confirming nod before answering. "1041993... My birthday."

Luna looked to her sister, appearing confused as to why she would be sifting through my phone. "Sister, what are you doing?"

"Nondis, how do I get access to the footage going into the portal room?" She then questioned.

"Portal room feeds are PortRo1, PortRo2, PortRo3." I replied.

She pulled up the screen to get to the security feeds, namely the ones she requested. "At least it works just fine." She said as she saw Solemn Oath trotting into the room. "How do I go back to find out what happened?"

Luna grabbed me a small flask filled with cold water. She also applied a sack of ice to the side of my head. "Check the server. It's in my room. Feed goes straight to my computer, then comes out to a TV monitor."

"Can you stand?" Luna questioned. I then got off my rear and stumbled to my feet. "Are you strong enough to walk?"

"Just don't offer me food, or anything caramel filled, I won't hunch over again." I warned.

"Then let's get a move on." Celestia said, leaving the bathroom quicker than both Luna and I could keep up.

Along the walk to my room, other guards who witnessed my being toted away had stared at me throughout the halls. Some even thinking about checking in on me themselves, but quickly nixed that idea when they saw Celestia trotting before us. It was as if they took a moment to look at me, see how I was doing, then glancing at the princess before deciding to get the hell out of her way. I can imagine she wasn't too happy with what happened.

The journey was pretty much maids and guards scattering out of our way while Celestia's disposition sent a memo
to everyone to dismiss themselves. When we arrived at my room, Celestia was still pressed on getting to the root of everything. Meanwhile, Luna showed a little more concerned with my current health. "Are you okay?"

"I'm trying not to pass out." I said as I was about to unlock my door.

"Do you need some medicine?" She asked.

I shook my head. "Let's just get this over with." The door opened to my room, it was just as I left it. No signs of a forced entry, no disturbed blankets, no shifted pillows, everything was right as rain. So I went to my computer setup and started pulling up the footage. "Setup's a bit different here, got six monitors looking over key areas."

Luna took notice of the many feeds of the castle grounds, seeing a multitude of task groups tackling a number of chores and assignments. She was more than impressed. "Seems like you have quite the omnipresent eye on the castle."

Celestia was far more blunt. "PortRo, what is that exactly?"

"Portal Room. I just abbreviated it to fit the top of the feed." I said, pulling up the feed for that particular room. As I pulled up the three cameras for that room, she saw that Solemn Oath was surveying the area, looking into the scene. She was also covering her muzzle with a napkin.

"Solemn Oath seems to be as puzzled with the circumstances." Luna added.

"How do I go back?" Celestia questioned.

"Let me get situated here..." I said, pulling out the chair sitting in front of my workstation. I sat myself and started pointing out things like the feed names and abbreviations in the corner of the screen. "Ugh, feels like I've been dumped in a baptism pool. Alright, so I'm gonna use my mouse here. Double click on the feed that says PortRo1, it's set on thermal imaging. Right click, drag to playback, and now we see what happened here."

Celestia didn't skip a beat. "How far back does it go?"

"Up to thirty days, sometimes ninety." I answered, still rubbing the side of my head. "What time is it?"

"It's 11:32 at night." Luna replied.

"Okay, so we're gonna go back to when the room gets a little brighter." I said, going to the tab for the hour and day. Since I was going back only a few hours, I scrolled back to the time I figured I was set to enter into the room. It didn't take me too long before I came across some footage that looked like the scenario I had walked into.

Luna was uncertain of what she was looking at. "What are those red and orange blobs?"

"Those are elevated heat signatures, meaning that these guys are the intruders."

Celestia pointed at the much bigger one that walked through the door. "So that large one is yours."

"Exactly." I said as I swapped to a different feed with a different mode. This one gave a more open view of the room.

"Why is this one all green?" Luna inquired.

"Night vision. I get to capture faces even in pitch-black conditions."

"That's you." Celestia pointed out once more. "You're armed... and firing a shot."

I started holding the side of my head a little more as the pain slightly intensified. "Okay, then I'm right where I want to be."

While the footage played, the face of my assailant came into view. The sight of the him walking up to me had started to intensify my headache, I had to look away to find some relief. I then felt a hoof on my shoulder as Celestia questioned me. "Who is that?"

"Canterrot welcoming committee." I answered, still not looking at the footage.

"I think I've seen him before." She added.

"Then that's exactly who you're looking at." I said, taking a step away from the computer. As the playback continued on, Luna started to grow upset with what she was seeing.

"Looks to me like somepony is aching for some punishment, the way they're treating you."

Celestia also pointed out what she saw. "It looks like he's trying to kiss you there. But you're rejecting him."

"Keep watching, at least I'll know that I'm not the crazy one." I said, nursing the ice pack against my head.

"Why did he change up his appearance so quickly?" Luna asked.

"Keep watching..." I said while my head started to slightly feel better.

While the footage continued to play, it showed the events that transpired. It especially highlighted the main issue at stake. Celestia covered her muzzle with vehement disapproval. "Equestria's sake."

It didn't take long for Luna to take note of a glaring observation. "That's Count's body!"

Celestia turned to me, angrily asking me. "And he kept you like this, for how long?"

Finally feeling back to the part, I walked back to the station and went through the footage some more. "I don't know. I'm gonna fast forward until something in the feed changes."

The room remained completely empty for around thirty minutes, I was still knocked out cold. But after that, I noticed that the body had twitched like it was moving...

No. It was moving.

The body contorted and flexed until it began to stand on all fours, checking itself before the flesh started to morph and change gradually. What was once rotten flesh had been replaced with vibrant moving limbs and a sleek coat of forest green. The figure popped it's neck before running a hoof through it's changing mane. In seconds, there was the perpetrator once more, standing over me with a smile. Twirling his rod, he danced around me and tapped on my forehead. After that little victory dance, he summoned his usual outfit and left to the halls outside. From there, I was left laying on the cold floor.

With that confirmation, I closed my eyes and looked to the ceiling. "God help us..."

"It appears he assimilated the body and walked away." Luna said, pointing out the obvious.

"Is there a feed going into the halls?" Celestia questioned.

"Several." I responded as I flicked through several other feeds. He continued on his merry little way, completely unimpeded, taking a free tour of the castle while dancing through the halls in Count's body. His sudden appearance in restricted spaces prompted Celestia to bring up a long-unanswered question.

"Why are the halls empty?"

"You tell me, I ordered security to be tight around the entire castle, not just one area." I answered, venting some of my frustration.

While going through his dance, he turned to a familiar hallway and stared at a certain door. "The halls leading into your living quarters, he's gone there."

"What the fuck, is he in here now?" I looked around the room and instinctively summoned a weapon. But my worried were quickly resolved as he stopped twirling his rod and tilted his ear to the large ruby affixed to the top of it. He gave the door one look before shrugging and trotting about his way. "Okay, seems like his lackey gave him the juice on what happened and now he's gone back to the direction of the main hall."

I flipped through the footage and quickly discovered that he had wandered to the outside pavilion. Celestia pointed out where he was. "He's back in the courtyard there."

I swapped the feed to that area, seeing him speaking with Blue and a few other guests. "Harassing one of the guests."

"Harassing Blue." I responded, finding it completely depraved that he was speaking with her while assuming the body of her deceased and quite juicy father. My stomach turned at the thought of it, but was soon subsided with another piercing migraine. I started to focus my attention to anything else other than that. "Thankfully that other earth pony girl stepped in."

"Indeed..." Celestia answered gravely.

I then watched the feed to it's continuation. "Alabaster shows up, our culprit politely walks away with Alabaster. They leave the grounds while Blue gets the fuck out of dodge. Poor girl."

Celestia quickly came to her own conclusion, mainly out of anger. "It seems to me that Alabaster looks to be in league with this monster."

"Far from it." I replied, walking over to my bed and grabbing one of the pillows. As soon as I came back, I showed them the scroll that was given to me earlier in the morning. "I hid this just before I walked out. Poor place to hide something like this, but it worked out in our favor."

Luna took the document and broke the wax seal placed upon it, removed the blue ribbon that sealed the edges, and then unfurled it to read it's contents. Going through it silently, she nudged at her sibling to read along. The elder princess' eyes grew as Luna spoke. "A warrant for an investigation in District 3."

Celestia's jaw fell slightly agape. "Nondis, this lets us investigate Canterrot. How did you get this?"

"Alabaster signed it. Apparently, that's his district." I stated.

"Signed by a notary, council member in correspondence to the district with special permissions issued, Nondis this is monumental!" Luna added. "It's no wonder why you were targeted with such tactics."

"We hit them up tomorrow, no questions asked." I replied.

"Such short notice?" Luna asked, appearing concerned for the timing.

"Bodies have gone missing, eighteen of them from the graveyard reported on Wednesday. There is an arimaspi is sitting on this mountain. Guards are being shuffled without our correspondence. And there's an illegal operation of an underground stadium that doesn't adhere to several construction bylaws. There's a lot to put in that final blank before you sign on it."

"Start with the Arimaspi. I don't want that thing being in my streets when something goes wrong." Celestia bluntly ordered.

Luna nodded in agreement. "An inquiry like that would allow for us to investigate some of the networks they've been using. We'll capitalize on that while I try to understand who's been giving the orders to change around the castle security, allowing these intruders to run rampant on the castle grounds."

"With just me, they'll know that my attention will be plastered on only one thing, what happened with me at the Gala tonight." Celestia suggested. "Safe to assume that our security over you will have to take a more personal approach."

"Better to not take that chance. There still has to be some separation between us." I warned.

"A night in your world isn't exactly safe either." Luna advised urgently. "After what happened, there is a strong need to monitor your brain activity and see if there are any other interferences that could possibly alter your personality. I still remember what happened the last time."

"I remember it, even my having gone through all of it." I replied, taking the ice off of my head periodically. "But I have a theory. Maybe they can alter my mind if they know where I'm rested for the night, making me a vulnerable target. So if I decide where and how I'll sleep the night, they can't get to me and I can keep my brainwaves safe from any weird changes. It'll keep them guessing. And thankfully there are motels out the ass in Austin, I could go with my first option and it'll be even safer than second guessing myself. The only caveat is that I'll need to work myself to sleep somehow."

Luna glanced at me, giving me a fair warning. "Are you sure? My influence won't be able to reach you to aid you in your sleep either. Your dreams could prove to be problematic for your psyche."

"It's only for a few nights. I'll keep myself wary." I answered confidently, placing the sack of ice back on my head.

The two mares watched while I started to gather a few of my things, mainly some clothes to take over and my phone charger. When I finished, the princesses had beaten me out of the room. They seemed more eager to get their preparations underway while I was about to take the night away to my world. Celestia walked off first, meanwhile Luna looked back at her sister for a second before talking with me one final time. "Just make sure you stay safe."

"I'll call in an Uber and get a ride someplace. You guys can work on whatever you need to get done. We'll reconvene in the morning. I won't be partaking in breakfast, for obvious reasons."

"Eat something, or at least try." Luna glanced to see her sister had completely disappeared. "I must go. Try to have a good night."

Luna galloped away, leaving me to walk back towards the portal room with my overnight bag full of clothes and other things. Along the way, I started to think more on what had just happened and the interesting response Celestia had in regards to me. It seemed that she was notably distant, almost completely despondent over everything. Maybe it was her way of trying to keep her emotions in check while trying to thoroughly analyze her approach to everything. And with us being in view of many onlookers throughout the castle, I can tell that she was trying to hide any inkling of affection. But even when we were separated from plain view, she seemed distant to me.

...Is she angry with me?

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Motel 6 Central South of University of Texas
Austin, Texas
The Next Day...

My night was filled with a lot of distractions, purposefully implemented to keep myself comforted by the idea that I was in my own world again. All I had to do was plug my phone into the outlet against the wall, put my TV on something like Boomerang, let the childhood nostalgia ease me right off to sleep. At first it was working, up until two rowdy patrons next door took the opportunity to mash each other's brains out as loudly as they could get away with. It was admittedly humorous, but a hell of a distraction. Later as I was initially nodding off, I was watching an episode of Teen Titans. There was a fight going on against Robin and Slade. Apparently the others couldn't see who he was fighting, while Robin was getting his soul snatched from his jaw repeatedly. I found it to be a pretty relatable episode, considering what had happened to me earlier. So instead of nodding off to sleep immediately, I watched to see how the hero overcame his struggles.

Eventually, the others were made aware of what Robin was fighting, and how it was beating him. It was getting to him so bad that it almost killed him, prompting one of the other heroes to rip the floor open and reach him quickly. Meanwhile in the basement, the two had continue squaring off. Slade had the hero on the ground, weak and battered.

"Slade... Stop." He said wearily and wounded, hunched over from the pain that was inflicted on him.

He was kicked towards a nearby steel beam as the villain marched towards him. "No, Robin. I won't stop. Not now, not ever. I am the thing that keeps you up at night, the evil that haunts every dark corner of your mind. I will never rest, and neither will you."

"My friends say you're not real." The hero was picked up.

"Oh, I'm very real." And then pushed into the steel beam behind him. "Could you have gotten all those bruises from someone that wasn't there?" The lights above flickered, hiding the villain until they flickered out. "You can't even touch me."

"All these... bruises... but you don't have a scratch!"

As the scene played out, it was at that moment where the hero started to realize his advantage. All he had to do was remember how he wasn't be seen by any of the others, more importantly how he disappeared in the light. The clue came back to him in the words of his ghastly adversary.

"Every dark corner... You're only in my mind. Only in the dark... My friends are right, you aren't real!"

"I'm real enough to finish you!" Slade shouted as he started charging at the wounded hero.

Beside the hero was a light switch that he turned on, letting the room become illuminated in bright lights. And before him, the villain disappeared without a trace. "Light's out, Slade."

In watching that episode, I subconsciously turned on the lights in the room, offering some illumination for my mind to be set at ease. But it still didn't shake the discomfort of yesterday's events. Even in the light of a well-lit room, Count's rotten smile was there to greet me just before breakfast, and sometime after dinner. Evil and cruelty, they don't rest when the lights are on. They're just out in the open for you to see even better. I turned the TV guide to something a lot more juvenile. So I ended up nodding off to the sounds of Dora the Explorer and Blues Clues.

Nightmares were recurring, often leaving me to stare off to the side of my bed. Somewhere in the back of my mind I had begun to wonder if there was something that followed me into this hotel room. The lights were on, and for some odd reason, I felt that I would see a pair of hooves walk up to the side of the bed, turning to me, waiting for the perfect time to pop their head under the sheets to give me a good spook. But instead it was just like the episode of Teen Titans, it was all in my head. I didn't fully taper off until sometime around 5 in the morning.

By then, my body was totally exhausted, and a deep sleep followed.

The hotel phone rang about two hours later, giving me a wake-up call to let me know that it was morning. I had hung up and started to get myself back into routine. My limbs were already heavy enough with the lack of sleep, and then I was already a day behind on food. I made the decision to force myself to eat something.

Since breakfast wasn't one of the options for my morning, I settled on a trip to the local vending machine. I had gotten me a pair of doughnut sticks and nursed those down with my morning coffee. After that, I went back to my phone and started checking social media for the legitimate first time since I was using my old phone.

To my surprise, Celestia made an Instagram post.

From what I was seeing, it appeared that she had a lot going through her mind since last night. Her post was quietly violent, and more so an example of her personal vendetta. I can only imagine just how violent her imagination must've been seeing that footage from last night. She even stormed off without saying a word to me. I mean she still seemed cold, but this was probably the only thing running through her mind. Maybe I should send her a text.

Before I could, my phone began to ring. It was dad calling me from what sounded like from within the garage. "Hello?"

"Hey son. Haven't heard from you in a while." He reminded me.

"I know dad. What's going on?"

He sighed on the other end. "Nothing today, damn alternator's done died on me this morning. I started the car to warm it up, go in to check with your mom, come back out to find the car's dead. Tried starting the ignition, battery's dry on juice, charge that sucker up, went out like a light before we could get out the driveway real good."

"Aw man. Sounds like a bad time." I said, acknowledging his frustration.

"Well, I was gonna make a round to a pull-a-part, grab me one and seat the new one on here." He said as he seemed to have dug through one of his tool boxes.

"Sounds like fun."

"Aw yeah, loads of it." He replied sarcastically.

"Well at least you're tech savvy, no need to pay for the extra three hundred to get it replaced." I mentioned to him, seeing the optimism in the situation.

If there's anything about dad, he took great pride in his mechanical skills. "You know it. Called up to a place, got one sitting around for fifty-five."

I chuckled to myself, thinking of something my grandfather would say whenever he stubbornly ran into a problem that could be fixed on his own. "Well there's your Sunday morning, in the book of Equations 4:16. Save, but not spend."

"Ah, your grandpa's words still ringin' on ya." He said with a hearty laugh.

"Yup." I said, looking at the analog alarm clock on the nightstand. "I'm actually back home right now. Well, it's more of a Motel 6, but I'm in town."

Dad seemed to be perplexed by my current circumstances. "Son, why you at a motel?"

"Well, stuff. I'll fill you in on it later." I answered him.

There was a lengthy pause on the other line as I heard the clanging of tools in the background. After a few more seconds of the silence, he then said to me. "I'm gonna go drop your ma off at church, I'll be riding out to that pull-a-part off of 35. After that, I can scoop you up and we can work on this truck together. Sounds okay?"

I felt myself beginning to yawn. "Not gonna lie, I need the distraction."

"Alright, I'll be over in forty minutes. Text me your location and I'll scoop you."

Sometime later, I checked out of my room and rode around with dad. From there, we made a quick trip to a nearby Huddle House for breakfast. There, he talked a lot about what was going on with mom and the others. Apparently I missed a lot since New Years Day. Stanton had gotten accused of sexual misconduct, only for him to pull up a bunch of evidence to the contrary of the statement. The incident is being investigated by the school, but it looks like Stanton will be looking at a transfer. Turns out the girl he was with didn't like the idea of being a once-over and put his career in peril out of spite. So he's set to make a transfer to either UT Austin or Houston.

Of course Stanton never told us anything about it, but he's been battling that situation since sometime after Christmas.

Alex and Vanessa have looked into moving from McKinney, citing that they wanted to be closer to someplace that would look the part of their future investments. They wanted something within their means and they looked to have something that had a view. I suggested West Lake Hills, but dad laughed at me and asked me if I knew how expensive the homes out there were. I did a quick google search to find that one of the listings was set at five million. My eyes grew as I saw the images associated with the listing. Four bedroom, four bath, large kitchen space, backyard patio complete with a swimming pool, a hot tub, and a private tennis court. Of course sitting on almost three acres of land.

I quickly pulled up my bank account information and saw that I had more than enough for the down payment and the first year of the mortgage. I quickly got on the phone and left the seller a message saying that I was interested in purchasing the property. Dad looked at me as if I had gone mad, but I hung up with a sizeable grin on my face, exuding confidence that I would be able to close the sale by the end of Wednesday afternoon. All I had to do was show that I had the assets to acquire the property. Meanwhile, I was looking at using it as an emergency hideaway, something preferable where everyone can stay together.

In all fairness I may be psychologically damaged, but I am a wealthy ass man now. And that I do have Blue to thank.

I didn't eat much for breakfast outside of some waffles, but I was satisfied enough to keep my day going. Finishing that up, we headed back to the house and started looking at the SUV dad would usually drive around. When we arrived, the tools were already set up in the garage and we got to work.

I wasn't too savvy with car parts, so it took us a while to remove a few parts on the account of him showing me what was where. As we were working, I noticed that he seemed to have a certain peace of mind in the moment. Even if some parts of him were hurting due to age or long-standing labor, he was a smiling soul.

"Now, you see that bolt I'm shining my light at?" He asked from underneath the front end.

"I think I do." I said as I saw the glimpse of his LED flashlight.

"That's the bolt you wanna loosen up there." He said, pointing his finger at the same spot he referred to.

"Alright." I responded, applying the ratchet to the bolt holding the belt tight against the alternator, or at least what he told me was the alternator. He then told me which bolts to loosen, and I watched as the part began to slowly jiggle loose. Before I knew it, I could reach my hand inside and pull the alternator right out.

Dad rolled from underneath the car on a dolly and stood up, staring at the alternator I pulled out. It was covered in oil. "Damn, guess the alternator ain't the only thing I need to get done. Seems like I'll need a new ring job on the engine."

"So what does that mean?" I asked.

"Well you know how your heart beats, and there are these tiny valves that close and open as the blood keeps flowing? They're not quite doing the same thing, but it is controlling where the blood is flowing. Your oil is your car's life source, the blood of the beast if you will. And without those valves, the distribution ain't right. You loose oil, you have to get it changed frequently, you have to keep buying oil and filling your engine because it's leaking everywhere. And in turn, the engine in motion is spreading that loose oil to other places around the engine, including your alternator, which is attached to the side of the engine. Over time, your alternator becomes clogged with oil and it can't keep a charge. Hence why you have to address everything at once, or as close in proximity with the quickness. If not─"

"Gotta keep coming back to replace the alternator." I concluded.

"That's right." He confirmed as he handed me the one he grabbed from the pull-a-part place. "You know, it's been some years I've always wanted to do something like this with my sons. Alex was always busy with school and work. And of course I can't risk anything on Stanton getting hurt. You never seemed to be into this kind of stuff, so I just kept to my own."

"You know, you're our dad. You could've just made us do it." I pointed out.

"Ah, but would any of you wanted to do it if I made you?" He questioned back.

I gave it a quick thought and nodded in acknowledgement. "I guess not."

"See, that's what I'm talking about. You three are caught up in life, I hardly even talk to you. And out of the three of my sons, you're the hardest to get a hold of too."

I started to place the replacement part into place, but not without fumbling over a few things. "Yeah. I've got my mind on a lot of things, pending investigations, lots of criminal elements, some legal stuff on the side, some trauma I'm trying to work out."

Seeing how I was struggling with the part, dad stepped in and pointed out to me where and how I needed to put the alternator back inside. While I continued to turn and tinker with the part, dad placed an arm over my shoulder. "Care to talk about it?"

I stopped messing with the part, letting him take over while I spoke. "So of course, guard things in the magic world is a bit real to me now. I mean that as in I'm caught in some really dicey things. It's the main reason why I can afford a house in West Lake Hills."

Dad stopped moving and turned to me with concern. "How dicey are we talking?"

I sheepishly looked away before briefly explaining the situation. "I had to temporarily relocate Mel and the others. They're ponies now."

"That's not good, son." He said, shaking his head to indicate his disappointment.

"Nope. If you think that's bad, then tell me how Count's body got shipped into Mel's apartment."

Dad damn near dropped his ratchet into the motor, catching it before it could get lost in all the wires and tubing. "Jesus Christ!"

"You know that one pony that killed himself that day you visited? It was his body." I further explained.

Dad popped out from under the hood and gawked at me with disbelief. "Son, are you in the mob or something?"

"Not quite. Just doing some underground work to keep the surface clean. Plus the lady I'm seeing now is pretty worried about everyone finding out about us. So add that to the layer of things I have to do."

He placed the ratchet off to the side and questioned me. "Can we go back to the body thing? I'm still trying to process what the hell's going on here."

"I'll get you in on that one later." I said, not really wanting to discuss what happened as it would bring last night to the front of my mind. Doing that would only bring up the retelling of what I ate for breakfast. "As of now, I'm doing a bunch of things to keep my name in the clear and her name clean."

"Her?" He inquired. "Who are you seeing right now?"

"Well, you remember that really tall lady I brought over?"

"You mean head princess?" He correctly guessed.

"We're seeing each other now." I simply answered.

Dad started thinking about Celestia and how she presented herself in human form. He began to nod repeatedly while he thought aloud. "Her as a human... Son, I don't know if you'll live being caught between those thighs. I mean literally barking up the wrong tree."

"They are to die for." I said, trailing off to the moment when she rode in the car with me to the restaurant on our date. I couldn't help but smile.

Dad leaned back on the wall as we spoke. "So you two are dating now, what's the big deal about it?"

"Well for starters, she's my superior. And then on top of it, we're technically not supposed to be seeing each other because of some severance clauses involved in my previous engagement with Princess Twilight."

He dropped his head and then revealed his palm in a show of doubt. "So what, you're not allowed to get a girlfriend after that?"

"Oh I'm allowed to date, just anyone outside of the royal family is all." I explained. "We got around to talking to each other, I think it might've started with her during the time I was here with them. I mean I did manage to catch a few glimpses here and there of a few things... And she came around to the idea a little later on when we began to talk more."

Dad cleared his throat, raising a finger. "So I'm keeping all of this under wraps from your mom?"

"If you don't mind." I answered back.

Dad sighed and stopped leaning on the wall. "Nondis, back in my day, we'd do shit like this just to air out grievances. It's fine if you wanna talk about certain things and you feel frustrated about them. It's how we stay healthy. Now of course you can trust me, but I'm gonna have to let your mom in on some things as we go along. It's just our role as parents to intervene and help when we can, and talk to you when we cannot." He pointed to the vehicle we worked on. "Look under that hood again, you're not reaching for anything, I'm just gonna tell you something."

I shrugged my shoulders as I followed his instructions. "Oh boy, metaphor inbound."

He stood by me as he pointed to various wires and pipes that ran throughout the engine. "Now look, you see the inside of this truck. Everything's a complete mix of operations under there. To the untrained eye, yours, it's a bunch of chaos. You'd be lucky to pull apart something and put it back correctly on the first two tries. But there's a manual that tells you how to work all of this, how to put what to where, what piece to connect and how, even the things you should look out for. Now of course, what you learn to deal with is how to replace a part when it's worn and how to give yourself more mileage, all while minimizing how much you spend. And then you listen to the signs of if something sounds out of place, God knows you don't wanna wait until something breaks before you have no other choice but to get it done professionally. Then it's gonna cost ya."

"Like the alternator?" I said, pointing to the still-loose part.

He then continued to dirty his hands, working soundly as the pieces were being placed back together before my very eyes. "This alternator I'm putting in has some mileage, brand new would run me a good three-hundred dollars. Labor would usually run another two-fifty to five, depending on the weather and time of year. And then there's shipping of the part, which takes even more time away from you and your being able to get around. So now you're set back two weeks and well over a thousand dollars because you let the problem sit too long, and that's because you need a new battery on top of everything. So now you got all of that, but what about your girlfriend's birthday, or your much-needed getaway to the Bahamas? Maybe not that house in West Lake Hills, but it's taking away from something. None of that fun exists anymore because you chose to let something go bad instead of fixing it right away."

He then issued me the wrench and handed me a clamp-shaped plate, indicating that it was my turn to work. "Now I'm starting to feel like a mechanic in all of this." I said, looking to my blackened hands.

"You are. Those people, I'm gonna call 'em people because they love and hurt just like us, they let the issue sit for far too long. Now there's something really nasty under the hood and they brought the issue to you to fix, right?"

"Yeah." I said as I screwed in the bolts, securing the plate in place.

"So now you're waiting for something to come in and change how you're gonna fix that issue, right?" He asked.

"Yup." I muttered.

"And I take it that something came around, but it also came with a bunch of setbacks, not to mention a lot of stress on the personal front that keeps you distracted from your work."

"Oh yeah." I strongly confirmed.

Dad laid back on his dolly and went under the truck again. "So, have you consulted the manual yet?" He enunciated from under the vehicle. "And no, I don't mean the manual for this truck."

"You mean the bible?" I guessed.

He popped back from underneath, grabbing my attention. "No son. I mean have you looked at yourself and wondered what's wrong? Can't go around operating machinery without looking at what makes the engine run."

"Huh... Damn. I never thought of it like that."

He continued while sliding back under the truck. "Even the mechanic himself can have a few parts that ain't working right. And of course, those parts are much harder to come by. Sometimes we lose the ability to process what we know and try to face our issues without the tools required to do the job. It's like if I tried to do anything on here without a ratchet, the right size bits, breaker bar, or torque wrench. For you, it's your mind. And your mind is a beautiful tool that can get lost in the flow. If you don't keep that, you get stuck and you never move anywhere. Sometimes it takes a helping hand to remind you were you last placed it, before you completely lose it."

I began to chuckle at how his metaphor came together, not because it was something unusual or that it didn't make sense to me. It made perfect sense, it was just what I needed to hear about myself. I was probably a second from losing my mind last night, maybe even my life. But it took others around me to remind me of where my mind needed to be for me to keep going. "Okay dad."

He seemed to tap at the lower part of the engine, requesting that I tighten that bolt on the tensioner so the belt can snap back into place. As I did as he instructed, he had more words for me. "Son, I can't say I like what you're doing. But I can say that I'm gonna try to be in your corner for as long as you'll need me."

I looked down and waited for further instructions. "Hey dad."

"Yeah?"

"Just a question out of curiosity. If a helping hand doesn't remind you where you last placed it, then what?"

Dad chuckled. "Ya ever tried bonking it?"

"Bonking it?" I asked, earning a not-so-light tap of a heavy wrench against my lower leg. "OW!"

While I hopped around, my dad slid from under the car and shook me playfully. "What's on your mind now?"

"That shit fucking hurt, dad! Stop playing!"

He pointed to me with the tool of his mischief. "Yeah, but you ain't thinking about what got ya messed up now, do ya?"

"No." I said, rubbing my leg. "No I'm not. I'm more focused on what hurts now."

"That's what lets us know we're still alive, but more importantly what's not in working order." He said, tapping the side of his head. "That sends the signal to your brain saying 'Hey, that ain't healthy'. Every now and then, it's required to keep us honest. If it ain't hurting you physically to where it ain't killed you, then save it for later. And of course I'm old school, but I ain't stupid. Talking about it to someone is important too, don't let that bottle up inside. Life is a balancing act that requires all it's intricate systems to function correctly. You have to know when to talk to others, but also know in the moments where you absolutely need to, keep your head straight up and push. It's gonna be hard stuff, but you'll make it through. You might have less energy to come home with, but you'll be ready for the next time it comes up. And if that lady has any interest in you, she'd be right there to talk you through every step you take, because she'll want you to succeed."

It took a while before the radiator was placed back on and the truck was ready to crank up. All we needed to do was throw a charge on the battery and see if it would hold. While we waited for that, I turned to dad and asked one more question. "Hey dad, if you can go back to prevent something, what would it be?"

"There's a lot of moments I would like to have back. But right now, this moment here of being with my son, fixing the truck, listening while he's sitting here talking about his problems, that just feels great for me. It lets me know I did something right." He said as he closed the hood. "There are a lot of fathers out there who never get a second chance, a lot of mothers too. Remember, there aren't a lot of you's to go around either. So don't ever feel like you're in it by yourself or that you've made a mistake. All things happen for a reason, even if it seems to not make sense."

"What if it never made sense to begin with?" I asked with last night in mind.

"Well, that's the moment where you're tested to find out why it makes sense. There's a motive to everything, simple or not."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

After we cranked the truck, we celebrated in finding out that it ran like a dream. But of course, we had to keep the battery running for at least forty-five minutes to see if the charge kept. So we took it for a test ride over to West Lake Hills to see the listing that I had looked at in person. Turns out it was a gated community where security was already a bitching ass about who got in and what for. So we were turned around and dad decided to drive me back to the apartment complex. From there, we said our goodbyes and I crossed back over through Mel's apartment.

As soon as I stepped through, Solemn Oath's voice was the first thing to greet me. "I guess you're done creeping around."

She appeared as coarse as ever to me. "Solemn Oath, you're just as welcoming as ever."

"And I'm tired of having to clean up after your failures." She replied.

I pointed back at her. "Wait, isn't it me who's the commanding officer in this situation?"

"I can still talk to you like an adult. I've still a decade over you." She replied as she marched towards me. "Obviously something happened last night, and I was ordered to stand guard here until you returned. Now why would the princess give such a personal order?"

"There were intruders in the castle last night, taking advantage of the chaos Discord had brought in." I stated, brushing her off. "This room was a vested interest of theirs."

"But isn't it your duty to ensure that all the posts in the castle are to be staffed?" She questioned.

"Hard to do that when someone keeps tossing my orders away like a cheap receptionist." I replied angrily, walking out of the room. As I exited, Solemn held the door open for herself and levitated a stack of papers in front of my face. "What's this?"

"My ten-thousand word apology." She answered as she walked beside me. "My jaw was sore all week because I took the time to manually write it."

"Sorry for your loss." I answered dismissively.

Even that didn't seem to get her away from me. It wasn't that I intended to be disrespectful, it's just that I know she was disingenuous with her approach. All she want is her rank back, that's all she cares for. And in seconds, I'm sure she'll tell me everything she found out about me over the past night. "Okay, so there's been some weird rumors going around. Some guys are saying that the late senator Count DuMoneé's body was found in his family's estate yesterday morning. And given that place is on the back end, it takes a special level of permissions to send guards over that way. It had to be personally requested by a resident."

And there it is. No fucks to give about me, but she'll jump on the first train steaming to get her way. "Your point?"

"Your name's on the report. Crackdown's been investigating another similar report for the Canterlot Cemetery, you're name's on that one. And then there's one report that's been locked off to a certain list of officers, Crackdown included. And when I peeked the file, your name was on the top."

I shook my head as I managed to reach the hall where my room was. "You're working hard for that briefing, huh? You do realize I could just simply have you arrested for meddling in classified information."

She still didn't stop as I reached for my door knob. "One problem with your theory, I've already been briefed last night after you left."

I scoffed with denial as I opened the door. "Under whose authority?"

She promptly opened the door wider for me as she walked in my room. "Who else's?" She said proudly, standing firm to give a salute. I looked ahead and saw Celestia standing as regal and prominent as ever.

"Your highness." To keep up with appearances, I snapped a salute of my own.

In keeping up with her own, the princess still appeared just as visually imposing as ever. "Captain, you look like you're in better shape."

"Sorry for the extended stay, I had some personal things to sort out." I explained.

"How was your sleep?" She asked in a monotone manner.

"I've honestly had worse. Two people next door were pounding a baby into existence, a good distraction to remind me where the hell I was." I replied, earning a blush from the two mares in the room. Solemn Oath glared at me with absolute disapproval, while Celestia glanced off, took a deep breath and cleared her throat. I could tell she almost broke character.

Solemn, however, was repulsed by my answer and interjected at a moments notice. "Your highness, I've come to report that the premises around the portals are secure."

Snapping back into form, the princess cleared her throat another time and addressed the guard. "Thank you, Solemn Oath."

I started to walk towards the computer area to check on security footage, all while trying to kindly nudge Solemn out of the picture. "Thanks for the favor. I think we can take it from here─"

"Not so fast." She said as she used her magic to turn me around. She walked closer to me and glanced back to her trusted guard. "Captain, she's being placed under your division for tonight. The two of you will investigate the dealings in District 3."

Before I could argue anything, Solemn already came with her on suggestions for the assignment. It was almost as if she was intentionally undercutting me. "Your majesty, might I recommend an elite squad of magic users for this assignment?"

I then spoke out to inquire about the situation. "Can I ask a question, princess? You said that she was under my division, does that mean─"

"Yes, the both of you will be working together on tonight's raid." She answered without pause.

"We'll work together to achieve the best possible result!" Solemn interjected again, directing her eyes to me while trafficking that faux enthusiasm to the princess.

I looked at the princess with a sense of pessimistic dread. "You sure about this?"

"Captain Nondis, I can't let you keep handling these situations on your own. Given your current mental health developments, I have it on good authority to offer you more reinforcement. You will not do this on your own like I know you're prone to doing." Now that was her real response, I knew she wasn't playing to character. She's genuinely assigning her to be my security.

I still didn't agree with it. "I just don't want anyone to get hurt." I said to briefly make up an excuse.

It appeared that my excuse was something of a trigger for the experience guardmare. She snapped back at me in the most aggressive way without displaying her rage. "With all due respect, my skill in combat is comparable to many other officers above me. If it is my well-being you are concerned for, then I would recommend that you'd place your worries on other aspects of our assignment."

Celestia was agile in defending her as well. "She is a very capable warrior, and one of my most elite guards in terms of her situational combat prowess. You will have a second-in-command who will be more than capable of defending herself in close quarters."

I knew then there was no winning. She was set in place, and this was her big assignment to get the bigger assignment. It seems that she'll get what she's been bitching for throughout the past week. My only move is to accept it and assess in what ways she can be useful. "Downrange?"

"She has astute marksmanship. Perhaps a crossbow given would be the ideal choice for her." Celestia advised.

I glanced down to the mare and back to the princess. "As long as she doesn't aim it at me."

"Don't give me a reason." She mumbled.

While Celestia pretended that she didn't hear that, I couldn't show the same diligence. But I did carry on with that tiny comment at the forefront of my mind. "So what's the plan?"

The high princess opened her wings and explained her intent. "You will be investigating the rouge arimaspi presence in the Corrotto District. You will slay the creature and return with any tamers for further questioning."

Again, to undercut me, Solemn Oath verbally accepted her orders. "Eliminate the arimaspi threat. Your highness, your order is law."

"Hold up a minute, can I interject?" I said, trying to negotiate with the princess. "Now before we go in and neutralize a bunch of goons and then come back with a trophy for our troubles, I'd like to share some intel from my previous arimaspi encounters."

"Combat intel, I take it?" Solemn questioned emphatically.

"Yes and no." I responded before giving my full attention to who I intended to give it to. "To keep it short, they are very sapient creatures, meaning that they can communicate with one another as well as being able to understand us when we speak. They have their own language, they speak ours. I highly advise that we'd consider a measure of negotiation with the beast itself."

Solemn snickered at my suggestion, appearing that the mere idea of it was beneath her. "A floundering furry cyclops clumsy enough to get itself captured by a bunch of thugs? Why would we question such an unintelligent creature?"

Right then, I decided to give that mare the attention she's been so adamantly begging for. "You know, in some of my spare time during the start of high school, I was blinded by the allure of warfare and war stories. So I picked up a few books and started reading on some of that stuff, one book I checked out was something by some guy, I forgot the author but he was some famous Chinese military general. But one of his quotes stuck with me, and it said 'So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak'. If we can fight off a bunch of the little guys and talk with the big guy, then maybe he can provide some information we need without having to go through the stringent and defiant middle man.”

She countered my argument with her own logic. "I want you to think about this for a moment. A creature who was beaten by a bunch of ponies is the big guy you're trying to avoid? The order was to eliminate the threat, not bring it in for a game of twenty questions."

I then asked her the question that I knew wouldn't be so easy to answer. "So you would rather risk more lives in killing a cornered creature? That's about as smart as swing a stick at a manticore protecting it's cubs."

She didn't seem to care about that, rather going for the seemingly simplistic answer. "It's subdued already, all we have to do is put it out of its misery."

I took my attention away from the unmoved guardmare and placed it back on the princess. "Your highness, I'm making the recommendation to possibly negotiate with the creature. From there, we can assess if a negotiation can take place. If so, there will be no threat to neutralize. If not, then what must be done will be done. I feel this is the safest way we can minimize our losses."

Celestia seemed very critical of the idea I was putting out there. "Are you sure? I don't want a creature that big wreaking havoc in my streets."

I placed a hand on my chest. "I'll take full responsibility."

"For damages and casualties?" She asked.

"Certainly." I answered confidently.

Solemn rolled her eyes at me. "You know, you just put your rank and your career on the line."

I walked towards my bed, grabbing at a set of keys out of the night stand drawer. "Lady, I've thrown my life out as bait. My career was put in jeopardy when some politicians decided to vote me into the meat grinder because I was getting friendly with a princess. I've lost my peace of mind, I can't fucking sleep, and I see the faces of dead people. I'm supposed to be scared of what society thinks at this point? Fuck that, I'm doing a job to not have to write letters to family and loved ones over how their whoever-the-fuck, whatever-the-fuck didn't come home because they're sitting in cold storage. Now, are there any other questions you would like to ask, any colorful bullshit commentary you'd like to add to the broadcast?"

Solemn Oath was dead silent.

Celestia sighed as she started to leave the room. "Very well then. Captain, I expect you to report to the barracks for your final briefing at 1600 hours."

"I'll be there." I responded just before she left the room.

Solemn blew a raspberry and chuckled at me. "Seriously, how is it that you expect to talk to an arimaspi?"

I swung the keys in her face on a single finger. "I have a reputation you'll soon find out about."

A little bit after, I walked towards the barracks and started gathering my resources. Solemn Oath accompanied me along the walk, questioning me about a few details of how we were going to execute our plan. She also made some suggestions on the matter of our approach, which I couldn't see being practical for the situation. By the time I had denied her idea, we had came up to the very storage room I used to keep all my weapons inside of. I pulled out a black card and placed it against the door knob like a hotel key. Silver runes appeared over the door and the tumblers of the lock had clicked until the door was opened.

The mare looked at me with cynicism. "So why do you have an entire room locked under a special level three magic restriction field?"

As we walked into the storage, I cut on the lights to reveal the number of firearms stashed all over the room. "It's so that stupid ponies looking to pull a stunt doesn't get themselves or anyone else killed. Last thing I want to do is write a damn letter describing to the family how their loved one decided to stick their eye into the barrel of a shotgun and wound up with half of their head missing."

"Point taken." She said just a second before I handed her a weapon. She looked at it and grew confused over what I was giving her. "What's this thing?"

"It's a crossbow."

She levitated the item and quickly inspected the weapon. "This is not a crossbow, this is an alien battle axe."

"With a mounted 10x adjustable zoom scope?" I questioned.

"This thing is a telescoped crossbow?"

"Hey if you don't wanna use it, I'll take it." I said with a shrug.

Solemn telekinetically pulled back on the item, inspecting it further. "No thanks. I'll look at this as a field study of it's capabilities."

"You got a hundred yards of precision range, you can go for longer if you simply don't give a damn about what you're hitting."

She placed it towards her eyes, lining her sights to one of the walls. "Well say the castle is under siege, we need a volley of arrows to put down our adversaries. What's the maximum range of this thing?"

"Five hundred yards." I said while taking an AR-15.

The mare audibly gasped at the number I threw out. "The most common longbow can travel as far as three hundred, some even reaching as four. This thing can reach for five!?"

"If you wanted a volley of those, then yeah." I repeated before showing her the notch in the bristle ring at the front of it. "Arrow goes in though there, use this crank to draw, pull that trigger there to fire." I handed her the crank lever to use for reloading.

She shook her head and placed it standing up next to her. Seeing that the weapon itself was well over half her height, she started to voice her concerns. "You'd think that something like this would be practical, but in dealing with close quarter combat, this is the least practical tool to be using."

"Then what do you suggest?" I asked.

"Do you have anything that's a little more covert?"

I looked over to some of the other handheld firearms I had available, along with the many silences I had for them. I glanced back to the mare and imagined her response to the recoil. I also took into consideration the possibility of her missing the shot. A similar situation played out in my mind with Kalimba. The only difference was that I gave Kalimba the opportunity to kill at point-blank range with one bullet, while Solemn had to be more precise and needed more than a fire-and-forget opportunity. If she's an expert in precision, then it could be that the sudden recoil could cause her to inadvertently fire another shot in the midst of that recoil, hitting anything but her intended target. And then there's the potential bullet ricochet that could hit anything and carry that same lethality.

It was far too dangerous of a risk, so I denied her request. "That's the only thing I'm trusting you with."

"Why?" She asked, seeming offended.

"You know why." I replied to her.

She stormed up to me and tried to make her argument. "As much as I may despise you in the professional sense, I'm not so untrustworthy to loose a bolt into your back."

"Yeah, you'd much rather for me to face you head on before pulling the trigger." I sarcastically suggested.

"You know, Celestia placed the weight of your life on my shoulders. I don't know why she would direct me to do such a thing, especially somepony she deems as irresponsible and reckless. She doesn't even like you enough to place any value on your life other than the fact that your species' technology is efficient at killing."

"Look, you want something covert? That's the quietest thing I have, that's also the quietest crossbow you'll ever use, and the most accurate one you'll ever touch. If you're worried about close range, use your magic." I replied as I grabbed a quiver of bolts for the crossbow.

"They have lackeys that can disable magic." She rebutted.

"Then use the stock as a bludgeoning tool. You got options, think outside the box." I answered as I gave her the quiver of bolts. "These arrows are reusable, they're aluminum. There are twenty inside of that quill, so I expect every last one to find it's way back in there."

"What if I lose them." She asked.

"One bit each."

The mare shrugged nonchalantly. "That's cheap."

"Sure, let's go with that." One bit weighs around a gram, one gram of gold is around $55-60, depending on how the markets are running. Just one of those arrows is around $32. So a bit is already replacing the cost of one and covering part of a second. Of course to ponies, one bit is a sale on tomatoes. Those are some really expensive tomatoes.

As she finished glancing at the weapon I gave her, she started to grow interest in the one I had slung around my shoulder. "So what are you using?"

"Something that's loud as hell." I answered.

She almost stared back at me crosseyed. "Why would you give me something so quiet while you get something so loud?"

I pulled out a loaded magazine and started explaining to her my reason why. "Because that weapon there gives you a lot more time to make rational decisions. I can't just give you an automatic firearm and expect you to not get tripped up by the recoil. You'll misfire and hit me or another one of your fellow guards. And that's a letter I'll happily designate you to write."

She stared at the brassy bullets that filled the magazine I held. "So I have to deal with the consequences of my actions while you get to go all willy-nilly?"

"Put it this way. You'll know what you hit, you'll know if you can change the outcome, and there's a such thing as making up for a miss."

"What about you?" She asked.

"I don't get do-overs. I pull the trigger, that's it." I said, placing a few more magazines on my belt before looking at a few sidearms for close quarters.

"What about that whole 'needing time to make rational decisions' thing?"

"The difference between you and me is that I've trained for that already. You have not." I said while loading my sidearm. "Now start setting up outside, I'll need a little more time to pick things out."

"You'll get enough of putting me down." She mumbled as she walked out of the room. The door closed behind her, leaving me inside of the room to myself.

I started to think to myself aloud. "I wonder if I should hold on to that damn thing before she actually shoots me."

"She won't." A female voice called out from behind me, prompting me to chamber a round and turn around with the intention to stave off the voice with intimidation. Instead, Celestia nudged the barrel away from her using her magic and walked towards me. "My, what violence."

I released a held breath and lowered my weapon. "Lady, you already know the deal. Don't sneak up on me like that."

"I should've made my presence a little more clear then." She said as she gracefully unloaded the magazine and removed the chambered round, politely nudging it back into the magazine. "How are you?"

"Still seeing dead people." I replied with a fake chuckle.

She presented the firearm back to me, barrel facing downward and unloaded. She then levitated the magazine to me. "I know it's a lot going on. But I want you to know that I'll do what I can to keep you safe."

I shook my head at the mare. "Why did you even brief her? You know we're at a conflict."

"Because I feel that the two of you misunderstand each other. Solemn Oath think's you're irresponsible and thoughtless. You think she's a nag and socially immature."

"She is socially immature. Didn't she say that you fed her the idea that I was somehow irresponsible?"

Celestia pulled me down to get me to her eye level. "But you know why I had to do that."

"Yeah, I do. She still takes your word as law though." I muttered.

"That's a good point, you don't deserve that kind of vitriol raining down on you."

I took another deep breath "All of this is making me so mentally fatigued."

"If only I could get you a few vacation days. But there's too much at stake." She said, nuzzling me.

"Yup." I said, kneeling down to hug her. "Have you ever thought about running away from here?"

"Hundreds of times." She said quietly.

"How many times have you actually tried?" I asked.

"Twice. The first time you know of, the second was when I threw myself out of a tower to end my life. I only ended up with a broken neck instead."

"When was this?" I questioned the princess.

"After what all happened to me. I mean it was only recently when you took away the remnants of that from under my wings."

"Oh, that." I honestly couldn't blame her for diving into a depression that bad after something like that. So much was robbed from her in those moments, I'm sure she'd been justified with burning the entire country to the ground and starting over. "Yeah, I can see why you would fall into that kind of despair."

She held my head and deeply looked into my eyes. "My despair is in the idea of knowing that I can't protect you without becoming what I wish not to be."

I lightly snickered and whispered to her. "Something about resorting to extreme violence and a golden halberd being your weapon of choice?"

The mare lightly blushed. "You saw that?"

"There is nothing wrong in fighting to the teeth for what you believe in. As long as it isn't crazy, I'm on board."

She leaned her head against mine. "Then you'll agree with why I made her your bodyguard on this evening."

"I still don't know why you chose her specifically."

"I just told you why." She reminded me.

"Okay, okay, I get it." I submitted.

"I couldn't help but think about you last night. All I thought about was the fact that they had gotten to you. Somewhere in my mind, I knew I should've invited you to the Gala as a guest instead of working. I would've been able to protect you." Celestia sulked as she continued to blame herself.

I proceeded to think about the very little good that came out of it. "It was for a good reason. I did my job, I caught who was sneaking in, and now we know how."

"I still don't know what that bastard's name is. But if you ever encounter him, my sole order for you is to run. This kind of thing is outside of your jurisdiction. I won't have you endangered any longer than you need to be."

"I gotta see him again anyways, so that's a moot point." I said before I started to feel a sudden surge of pain on the side of my head. I winced at the discomfort as Celestia quickly jumped at the opportunity to check in on me.

"You okay?"

The pain subsided, still leaving a lasting impression as it did last night. I started rubbing the side of my head and quickly thought of a name to use for the time being. "...Slade. I'm coding that bastard's name to Slade. If we pursue the individual named Slade, I keep my head clear and we keep any eavesdroppers from knowing who exactly we're targeting."

Celestia still appeared concerned but she was at least relieved to know that I wasn't suffering an episode as bad as the one from last night. "...It'll make it hard to identify him in court."

"There's another free from his circle who knows his name. As far as who they are, you'll have to ask one of the upcoming social elites. They're a mutual of ours." I said as the pain started to gather once more for a brief period. But once I mentally started slotting in the name 'Slade', the pain started to slowly wilt away.

"I see... So this Slade, avoid confrontation with him today." Celestia warned me.

"Trust me, I don't intend to." As soon as I gathered the last bit of supplies for my journey, I gave the side of my head one last massage. "I think I'm ready."

Celestia gave me a peck on the lips. and whispered. "Be safe."

"No promises." I said as I walked out.

As I started to leave the room, the princess teleported off to the outside. While I walked the halls of the barracks, she made her way through the garden and back into the castle. She leaned against the wall, holding a hoof against her chest, prompting a few guards to question if she was feeling well. She waved them off and continued walking towards the direction of the portal room.

She then mumbled to herself. "And now we move to more pressing matters."

Twilight's Castle
Ponyville
***Point of Perspective: Equus Melanie***

Ever since we got back from the Gala last night, the three of us have tried our best to keep a low profile. We at least thought to try and keep to ourselves today as much as we could. Even breakfast with the landlady was awfully quiet instead of being the usual back and forth between the four of us and our respective jobs. But our silence brought in a pretty sad caveat to the meal, she started going on about her deceased son. Apparently he was the victim of a changeling attack, and they found his body stuffed in a wagon. Pretty cruel way to lose a child, even if he was our age. So the day was already to a grim start.

Cliff and Rickey started playing cloud charades, molding the cloud into whatever shape they could while the other had to guess what was what. I merely watched as the two tried to lighten up the day with some much-needed humor. Eventually, it started to work because neither one of them could sculpt anything that resembled what the hell their answer was. Before long, I joined them and started guessing on what they were making.

Not that we didn't have our phones, it was hard for us to use them. So without that, video games, and social media, we had to do something to keep ourselves from going insane. And so we tried to come up with more things to do and talk about to keep our day from being boring. Each of us told stories about our respective jobs.

Cliff worked up in cloud detail. His job was to fly around the place and bust the clouds that were just idling by, And with that, he'd also survey some of the snow clouds they kept rolling in. So he had stories about how ponies would have the newbies on the squad learn about the difference between a snow cloud and a thunder cloud, which meant a hooves-on demonstration. He and about five others had to kick a cloud and see which one of them had the thunder cloud. Cliff came out lucky, but the pony to his right wasn't as fortunate. The moment his hoof smacked against the cloud, he was almost glued to the damn thing while being electrocuted. Cliff also explained that pegasi had a buff against weather-inflicted damage, so electrocution from a thunder cloud wasn't an issue as much as it was a slapstick gag.

Rickey was shacked up in the kitchen of Sugarcube Corner, where he was usually in charge of maintenance and cleanup. But on occasion, he was slated to do some baking if the demand had gotten too much for the skeleton crew. Being it was a business owned by a married couple with twin foals to look after, a lot could get out of hand real quick. So it helps to have someone like Pinkie who can damn near break time and space to get shit done. And even if that wasn't enough, Rick can jump in and keep the flow moving.

I then started explaining to them what my job was like, how it felt working on the farm day in and out. But before I could really get into the meat of my stories with both Applejack and Kalimba, we got a message from Twilight to come by the castle as soon as we could.

Naturally, we were cautious about the request and moved quickly to answer their request. But that didn't stop me from continuing my story along the way. I told them of the many strange ways Applejack could convince a tree to drop it's apples. "And then I get around to it and I see how there's this one tree that's really thick. Applejack tells me that I have to ask the tree 'nicely' to get the apples off of it."

"How does that work?" Cliff asked.

I rolled my eyes as I had to explain it without appearing like I was crazy or something. "Well there's this sweet spot that she lovingly calls it the funny-stump of the tree. You're supposed to 'tickle' it and then the apples fall off."

"And by tickle, you mean kick?" Rick questioned.

"No, I mean she just rubs her hoof in that one spot and the apples just fall right off of the tree. Even Kali calls that shit weird."

Rick chuckled as we knocked on the door. "This whole world is full of weird stuff."

"Ours too." Cliff added.

"But not to this degree." I said as the door opened to a young purple princess and her dragon assistant standing in the way. "Hey there, Twilight." I said as I walked into the lobby. As I glanced around, I immediately noticed the white tall alicorn princess standing off to the side. "Oh, Big Momma Celly! What a surprise!"

The others walked in just before the doors closed behind them. Celestia started to welcome us with the usual pleasantries. "I am pleased to see that you three have started to adapt quite splendidly. Is everything well in your current form?"

"Yeah, there's the whole initial mating thing that goes haywire when you first get on board, but after that it's pretty smooth sailing." Cliff answered, glancing at every other direction aside from the two of us standing next to him.

"You're one to talk, you got good a flying." Rickey shot back.

"I didn't let my personal feelings get in the way of learning new shit. That's all." He replied, pointing back at the brown stallion.

"Yeah, I didn't know earth ponies have this crazy innate super-strength." I said while clopping my hooves together.

"You kick trees hard enough to where apples fall out of them, I'm not surprised that happens to be your quirk." Rickey pointed out.

"Yeah, all I know is that these hooves ain't just for walking." I said as I looked back at my hind legs.

Spike was dismissed as both of the princess escorted the three of us onward. "I trust that all of you are blending in with the populace just fine?" Celestia inquired.

I was the first to answer her. "My first day was pretty rough. It took an old lady snapping some sense into me for me to get over myself. Ever since then, I've been pretty okay with adapting."

"It took a business week for me to get in the groove." Rickey followed up.

"I had my face hit the dirt a few dozen times before I could learn to control myself in mid-air." Cliff joked as Twilight opened the door to her throne room.

"I remember those days." The purple princess regaled. "I was still figuring out how to keep my wings down so I could sleep. It took me a week or two until I could get my mind to figure out how to relax them."

Upon walking into the throne room, Celestia walked to the table, pulling out a crystal orb. "Now I'm sure that you all have wondered why I've called you here. I am actually here to make note of two things, and to mainly apologize on both. I do remember sending you three tickets to our nation's most esteemed event, the Grand Galloping Gala. Now onto the matters of the first grievance."

"The slime monster?" I questioned.

"Ugh, Smooze." Twilight said with apparent disdain.

Celestia went on to explain. "Well while I did send Discord an invite, I did not think he would implement the new plus-one rule I introduced this time around. It was really for the young Cutie Mark Crusaders to enjoy the festivities. Luna put in a good word for those three and vouched that they should come this time. Of course, that went about as any sane-minded pony could predict."

"Well to be fair, we all managed to avoid that thing pretty easily. I hid under a table with a friend before it wandered back into the ballroom." I responded with a shrug.

"And we were nowhere near that thing either. So it was pretty fair game." Cliff added.

Rickey chuckled as he thought more on it. "It also helped that we got the most basic suits for that thing, we looked like total bums compared to anyone else."

Celestia showed some remorse for our briefly-explained circumstance. "I suppose that's a third thing I should apologize for. I should've made it clear that this was a formal event."

"No worries, all's well ends well." Cliff replied as he took a seat in one of the marked thrones.

I followed his example and borrowed Pinkie's throne. "Hey, I have a question. Is Nondis still in charge of security?"

"That he is." Confirmed Celestia. "He's currently undergoing a large-scale crackdown operation as we speak. However on last night, I failed to send him an invitation on the request that he'd not meet with any of you. So instead, I had him on floor-level reconnaissance. But being how he is, he decided to take things a tad bit further last Saturday in anticipation of the next few weeks. There were some changes made in the castle security."

"Less guards?" I questioned in a bit of an exaggerated manner. "I mean really, there are some big-league creeps walking around that place like they own it. I was pretty surprised that he'd let that one pop through."

"Well that falls under some similar issues that were encountered during the last time you all were in your world. I saw the files and format of his recommended security shifts. All of it was supposed to be, in his words, air-tight." Answered the high princess.

"So someone above him shifted the patrols?" Twilight asked seeming shocked over the development.

"Afraid so. There was also a breach into the portal room last night that he rushed to investigate." Confirmed the princess.

"So he didn't know about the slime creature making a mess at the ball?" Cliff inquired.

The princess corrected him. "He did. And it's all because of your world's technology. I never would've figured that he'd have eyes all over the castle like that. A moments notice and even a single movement, it doesn't have to be in a well-lit room to see who's walking into where."

Rick was quick to pick up on what could've been done. "Security cameras? He installed security cameras?"

"All over the castle. It's almost terrifying in a sense. Everything in past and present, it's almost as if he's omnipotent in some ways."

Hearing that only made Rickey more upset. "So all those security cameras and he couldn't make a beeline for the courtyard?"

I called out to him. "Rick... I'm sure that there's a good reason. She even said it herself, there was a breach in the portal room. Since that's closest to him, he should've taken a look at that first. I mean that's the more important thing right there. We can't have no ponies walking through our shit unannounced. That's not cool."

"Yeah, but we can't just have some random creepers showing up on castle grounds talking like they can do whatever to you." He argued back. "I'm still heated about that shit. If I was strapped, he would've got plugged."

I still tried to keep him calm, offering a light outlook on the event. "It's just one bad guy─"

"Even you said it. The way Blue looked wasn't right, it was like he was stalking her or some shit." Rickey pointed out.

"Yeah." My mind immediately went back to the moment he showed up, the look on her face as she felt his hoof on her shoulder. "I know checking in on the portal room takes a short while. I'm just as curious as to why Nondis never came down and checked the ground level."

"Fluttershy took care of the issue with Discord and his friend, who I swear he brought over just to ruin our night. It's all because he couldn't handle Fluttershy bringing another friend of hers to the Gala and not him. I swear he's just so possessive sometimes, it makes me sick!" Twilight explained with an angry scowl.

Kettle, meet pot. "Yeah, I guess I could see why that whole situation resolved itself."

Celestia steered us back on topic. "Now onto the matter of this individual who you say might have irked you. Would you care to explain the situation a little more?"

Cliff was quick to jump in with his perspective. "Yeah, so there's this guy. He walks up from outta nowhere, and he steps in between both Blue and Mel. Then he starts talking like he's the popular guy, I mean THE guy. He could've been the lamest thing I came close to fighting. He tried moving on Mel, Rickey stepped in. He backed off and then tried to scoop up ol' girl. Then I stepped in like I was tryin' to be protective, 'cause she and I were supposed to play like we were dating. But this whole asshole walks up to me and says 'No, WE'RE dating. You can get her next time'. And I'm like ready to punch this guy out, and then her older brother comes by and walks him away."

The princess then sought to confirm our account. "Okay, so this happened sometime after the incident with Smooze subsides, correct?"

"He tried handing me a card like he was gonna come back and date me, but Blue took the card and ran off." I added.

"This Blue, who are you referring to?" She asked.

"I guess it's Count DuMoneé's daughter. I know from the conversations we had with Nondis before we transformed over, she looked like she did in his tweet. So yeah, I wanna say it was her."

"Yeah, we kinda almost blew ourselves there." Rickey mumbled.

"And did this individual have a name?" Twilight questioned, finding interest into the situation.

"Nope." I bluntly replied.

Rickey followed up. "It wasn't that he didn't have one, it's more like he refused to give us one. But he still had the nerve to show up like we were supposed to be all friendly with the guy. Seriously, he was a few seconds from shoving his tongue down your throat."

A shudder ran down the princess' spine. Twilight looked up to her disgusted superior. "You okay?"

Celestia continued on, dismissing her junior's question. "As for the second reason I have come to apologize to you... we need to talk."

"Oh no." The three of us all looked at each other and realized that this was going to be far from good.

"Wait, nothing happened to Nondis, right?" The purple princess once more interjected.

"Twilight, I need you to sit here as well. This is officially my briefing to you."

The young princess took her own seat. "An assignment?"

"Of a classified variety." She finally answered her before using her magic to illuminate the sphere for all of us to look into. "All of you, what you are about to witness is to remain within the confines of this room."

Cliff sighed and leaned back in his seat. "Let's keep it real, does that guy have anything to do with us?"

Celestia grew hesitant to answer, but still provided one. "...Yes."

"Then do you know who he is?" I inquired as the picture on the sphere came into focus.

"I saw him on the Tuesday before last. I wanted to search his compound over matters dealing with an arimaspi being used in an underground combat arena."

"An arimaspi, that big thing that nearly killed Nondis on his mountain assignment?" Rickey asked while leaning into the table.

"There's one currently hidden in the city of Canterlot itself. Hence the reason for Nondis' crackdown operation today."

"Oh that's not fun." Rickey grumbled.

"So about this guy, why didn't you arrest him on spot?" Cliff questioned her.

"I needed a warrant. I didn't have one up to code, I tried to use one that didn't have the special permissions granted because I wanted the arimaspi situation taken care of quickly. In the midst of our encounter, he also brought about a reason to why I shouldn't carry through with that search personally."

"And that is?" Twilight quizzed.

"He knows of me... and what I am to Nondis."

All of us in the room had collectively tensed up as we realized that this was beyond troublesome. But in the eyes of us three transplants, we started to put it all together. "...No." Rickey whispered.

Cliff started to realize who he was about to get physical with. "So THAT motherfucker is actually─"

"The son of a bitch who left the fucking body in my apartment!" I hollered, standing to my hooves.

"He knows about Nondis, and then about you and him, and he learned that shit through I guess kissing him." Rickey explained.

I couldn't help but to feel relieved that I didn't actually fall victim to his trap. "Ugh, no fucking wonder why he wanted to lock lips with me so damn bad! He was trying to get the jump on me!"

"Hell naw! I'm plugging his ass on sight, on site! For real!" Cliff said as his wings sharply sprang from his back.

"He was the one who breached the portal room last night." Celestia finally stated, immediately grabbing Twilight's full attention.

"Princess, what must I do?" She questioned her superior.

"I am not done." Celestia said as she used more of her magic on the orb. From within it showed a glossy refraction of the pony of interest walking from within the castle halls to the outside pavilion where we gathered. "As far as I know of, especially in some human vernacular, I believe Nondis has already tried his luck in the field of excommunicating him from this plane of existence."

Cliff shook his head. "Oh no. You about to say some shit we ain't gonna like."

"Afraid so." Said the high princess.

The glossy picture that was once showing the pony approaching us had then cut away to the familiar room where I would go to get back to my apartment. And of course, Nondis walked through the door with a weapon in tow. "What are you showing us?" Asked Twilight.

Celestia proceeded to break down what it was we were watching. "This is the portal room from last night. This is the moment of the encounter. Since Discord is often familiar with your world's technology, I had him edit the footage together. Discord owed me that favor as punishment for his extracurricular activities. This is what we could show you, at least what you would be willing to stomach."

"What we could stomach?" Rickey tilted his head in confusion and concern.

Twilight wasn't exactly pleased with the idea of not knowing the whole story, and pressed her royal superior. "Princess, if I may, why not show us the rest of the footage?"

Without as much of a hint of emotion on her face, she showed a strong dislike for the idea. "Because I do not like having to watch it. Seeing what was done to Nondis in that moment sickens me. I've watched that moment twice, and many more times did it play through my head, so much that I intentionally forwent sleep for briefing a body guard to his services." The princess used her magic to forward the footage to the point where Nondis was being held against his will. "Again, this is the moment of the encounter."

"That's the guy!" I pointed out.

While there was no sound, there was the obvious show of a struggle taking place. But it wasn't without a sign of good fortune for Nondis. He quickly grabbed the gun and shoved it into that creep's mouth. And in a second or two, the creep's head was launched back and his body slumped to the ground. "Son of a bitch." Rickey mumbled. "He actually went against the guy."

"Ha! Got his ass!" Cliff said with a proud laugh.

But as I was watching that moment play out, an icy chill came down my spine as I realized that the same guy we watched get blasted in the mouth had paid us an unexpected and unwelcome visit. The hairs on my body started to raise and tickle while Celestia met Cliff's optimism with a chilling rebuttal. "So you'd think."

The body that laid stretched out on the floor remained motionless for the most part. Meanwhile, that same creep walked up to his side and started antagonizing him. Nondis appeared initially disgusted, even throwing up over something before taking back up his gun to shoot the creep. But something happened that stopped him dead in his tracks. something about his face had briefly changed to where Nondis had jumped back out of what appeared to be fear.

That icy chill I felt, it was running deep in my core now. "Oh wait... Oh wait. No, no, t-th-that's not right." Rickey stammered as the assailant pressed Nondis into place and lit his horn against his head. It appeared that Nondis was struggling to escape, almost trying to break his arms to loose himself from the attacker's magic grip.

Celestia turned her head with a grimace and spoke. "The footage is going to skip ahead now."

The scene quickly transitioned, the figure that stood over our best friend was completely hunched over him, motionless like a statue. Meanwhile, our very own was sprawled against the ground with a look of horror carved upon his resting face. He was unconscious, but his eyes weren't completely closed. My heart couldn't take seeing that. "Nondis!" I called out, trying to instinctively come to his rescue. But when it was a hoof that reached out to him instead of a hand, I was reminded of the fact that I was completely useless at this point.

"Oh my God, what did he do to him?" Rick asked with shock.

Cliff's eyes expanded as he pointed his hoof to the pony lurching over our best friend. "Bruh... that's a corpse. The way that shit's laying on top of him, that's gotta be a fucking corpse."

"How do you know?" Twilight asked.

Cliff stood on the seat he sat in and pointed at a mucky spot on the back of the guy's head. "Dude, it's brain is exposed right there!"

"No." Rickey answered in initial disbelief, but then started to recognize some key factors that contributed to some things that he could easily identify.

Being that I had started to see the signs and symptoms of what was unusual and very identifiable to me, I mentally pointed out a few things that grabbed my attention. The horn was broken, almost like it was smashed or impacted in some way. The skull appeared to have had a glue job, and then the main thing that was the selling point was the mark on the corpse's flank. I shrieked with my hooves pressed against my muzzle. "That's... that's the same one. That's Count's body."

Celestia nodded in confirmation. "As motionless as you would think... But then you realize that this threat is much worse than you thought it would be."

The camera didn't record anything different than that static image for a few seconds before some movement started to occur within the room. "Nondis must be coming to." I said, trying to convince myself that what I was seeing wasn't some scene out of Satan's playbook.

But that's exactly what it started to turn into. "Celestia..." Twilight's eyes widened as she tapped her superior's side. "The body's moving."

"Watch." Celestia replied.

And just like a hideous horror scene, the body herked and jerked until the forelegs were moving the corpse away from crouching over the unconscious human. The head rattled until it snapped violently to the side as if the neck broke. One foreleg went into the air, reaching out to the ceiling before the mass of rotten flesh had started to liven. The hairs that were so devoid of color and life had started to revitalize. The hoof turned in an unstable motion at first, but then started to smoothen out. As did the head slowly tilt back into place.

RIckey immediately got up from his chair and hid behind it. "This is fucked!"

"My God is real, but that ain't." Cliff called out, trying to deny the existence of this hellish scene.

"Oh my God." I could only stifle what screams I wanted to unleash.

Twilight was terrified, speechless.

While the body started to change before our eyes, we saw the dead body of Count DuMoneé reanimate itself in the form of our adversary. And appearing as if he was laughing, he danced out the room like he was merrily prancing about with smile on his face.

"YO, HE'S FUCKING WALKING!" Rickey screamed in terror.

I shuddered as I began to subconsciously look behind myself, checking if the chills down my spine didn't indicate some nightmarish ghoul standing behind me or something. "So that's Ummie." I whispered, remember the letter that was signed to Nondis.

Rickey started searching every nook and cranny around the throne room, just as freaked out as I was. "Nuh-uh. That's not it. That is not it. That! That there! THAT SHIT! NOT IT! FUCK THAT SHIT!"

"And he's walking down the hallway like he just stepped out the casket for Sunday morning worship! Nah!" Cliff said as he started pacing back and forth, laughing out of denial.

Celestia then drove the point home. "Mind you who's body he's assumed."

At that moment, I started playing the situation back in my head from last night. The moment he walked up to us, he was just then coming from the direction of the portal room. Which meant that he was dancing, hopping around, walking about, and hugging both me and Blue like he was Hugh Hefner. But in truth... "Oh my God!"

Ricky was the one to verbalize what we had realized. "Yo, if that's Count's body..."

That was his body. And Blue and I were getting a warm juicy hug from the corpse we thought would be sent six feet under a month and some change ago. And I'm sure she didn't know it at that moment─and it should remain unknown to her─her dad was paying us a visit from beyond the grave.

And he almost kissed me.

Cliff finally broke and started to frantically walk to the door, only to be stopped by Celestia pulling at his tail. "Oh no. Fuck this. We are going home! Where the fuck are our portals!?"

"We can't go back." I replied, realizing that he had access to where we lived.

"The fuck we can't!" Cliff argued vehemently. "Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, New Orleans, Oklahoma City! All of those sons of bitches ain't got nan portal to here! Hell, we don't even gotta leave town, just go any place we want and not be where we are! I came to help a friend, I did not come to fight Satan! Shit!"

Twilight wasted no time, snapping out of her horrorific trance. "What must I do?"

Celestia then calmly explained. "The figure as seen will be under a classified name. Nondis used the name Slade, to potentially ease the effects a spell that was cast on him. To this moment, he's still fighting along side us."

"Fight, you expect him to fight this!?" Rickey questioned appearing very upset.

"I don't expect him to do that, no." She replied before turning to Twilight. "Which is why I must ask you to do this."

Again, no hesitation, even in the face of what she just witnessed. "He's torturing my friends, I don't have an answer other than 'yes'. For everything he's done for me, I owe him this much."

"Hold up." Much like how he normally came to my defense when something happened to me, Rick was quick to turn his tongue to the high princess. "Why aren't you doing it?"

Twilight then came to her defense. "She doesn't have the Elements of Harmony behind her anymore. This is now element-bearer jurisdiction, my friends and I are the ones who'll deal with this."

"Fighting the undead?" Rickey tried to reason with the young mare.

Twilight grabbed at the sphere and started going over the footage once more. "He's not undead, he's possessing the bodies of the dead and using them as vessels. I've done some research on it since my becoming royalty. It's corrupted alicorn magic, though not as exclusive as the name would imply. There are others who have used this kind of magic before. The aura looks like a corrupted green and purple glow with black lightening. And it's been seldom used by any unicorns other than King Sombra and myself."

"You're an alicorn, though." He rebutted.

"I wasn't always one, I was a unicorn starting off, remember? I learned corrupted alicorn magic from watching Celestia use it herself during a briefing for the Crystal Empire's reemergence." Twilight answered as she continued to replay the footage for more information. "There were a few corrupted magic amplifiers roaming about, and we've managed to subdue mostly all of them. But I have to wonder, how did Slade get a hold of that magic and what's his endgame?"

Celestia then added. "I know that with Count in the numbers, there are a total of eighteen bodies still unaccounted for. That means he can be in at least eighteen places at once. Better to assume more."

My head dropped as I started to envision the hell Nondis was going through. At that point, any bouts with PTSD and paranoia is justified. In fact, it would be understandable if he ate a bullet on his own to escape it all. While I could find myself being concerned and worried for my own saftey, I just can't get the image of his face at that moment out of my head.

Meanwhile, Cliff was rightfully seeing the situation from his own perspective. "See, that does not convince me I'm safe."

Twilight finally finished reviewing the footage, holding her head to the crystal orb. "Nondis, you never really told us what you were fighting. Now I know what it is, why you've been looking so sick. You can't sleep or eat knowing that this is what you're up against."

"Truth be told, he never knew what he was fighting either. All of this is just as new to me as it is to all of us." Celestia stated as she tried to keep her anger to herself. "Twilight, I hate to ask this when I've taken so much from you."

And just as the outstanding example of her title, Twilight made no provision for bitterness towards her superior. "Your happiness is as good as my own, Celestia. After all you've done for me in my life, Nondis is like a drop in an ocean of good. And I haven't let our separation become the end of our friendship. After all, he's on our side. Losing him is losing not just our friend, it's our hope for the future of the royal family and anypony else around us. We can't let that happen. You leave this to me."

"Uh, what about us?" Rickey asked as he raised a hoof. "Do we even know if that guy is going to come back for us or not?"

Twilight jumped in to answer. "I'm sure if he wanted to, he would've sent others to find you already. But you three are under MY protection. Nothing will happen to you as long as you stay with me and my friends. Keep living quietly for the next few weeks, you'll easily be overlooked if you act normal."

I then questioned Twilight directly. "So that creepy-ass motherfucker isn't─"

Celestia raised a hoof to interrupt. "You are safe right now. If you suspect anything, notify us immediately."

While the answer didn't exactly install confidence, I still felt there was some merit to their dedication. It's unlikely that they would just flake out now since our best friend was going through the torture chamber for their sake. But still, my mind was more focused on him than it was on myself. So I had to stress to her how I personally felt. "Miss Princess, I hope your bodyguard is good. Nondis may need it."

The high ruler remained adamant. "I have confidence in who I've assigned. He will be fine, you have my word. Now go, try not to converse too openly in public. The others will keep an eye over you."

As we were dismissed, the three of us had walked the halls being a lot quieter than we were on the way in. Rickey was praying in Spanish while Cliff was reciting the entire 23rd Chapter of the book of Psalms. I was quietly pondering if Nondis had started going back into religion as a coping mechanism. I was just quiet. My own little world was a quiet place that knew only the calm before the storm of nightmares.

Rickey, who had finished praying, glanced around as we came into the castle foyer. "This is fucked up."

"Bruh, I ain't with this." Cliff cosigned.

The worst came to mind. Say if Nondis was being tortured to the point where he started to hallucinate and become even worse than his grandfather, what then? Would his mind be able to adapt to normal life ever again? Would it be better to take him back home when his mind's all messed up beyond all repair? It would be worse than leaving him here because no one back home would understand what he went through, and they would probably stuff him full of drugs and sedatives. At the very best, he'd be in a mental health center to fight the paranoia he couldn't properly convey to his counselors. And then at worst, who's to say he doesn't have an episode where he becomes a harm to those around him? Police wouldn't understand that and they'd probably just put him down. Then he's dead for good, all memories and fun times with him, the last of his dwindling sanity lost to both of our worlds with the sound of a gunshot.

But nothing compared to the thought of when he finds himself in a corner, when his only answer to it all was to simply blow himself away. We'd not only lose him here, we'd have the emotional distress of knowing that there's some perverted psychopath sweeping up bodies for his own use. And I can't put anything against the idea of that bastard having a whole parade in Nondis' body. Then that face I saw contorts to a smile, his neck breaking and his arms twitching violently, forever haunting me in my dreams... and in reality itself. I can only imagine the days of sleeping in my apartment, only to have him standing over my bed with that broken smile, looking down at me as I dream about it. Then there's waking up from the nightmare to face that same image with my eyes wide open...

That's some real nightmare fuel.

South Canterlot High School Grounds
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

Preparations to make our move have gone smoothly for the past hour and some change. Though we were losing sunlight, it was to our benefit that we didn't just go in while the sun was still giving a fairly decent glow. As far as I could remember, things don't start moving around until around the time the street light patrol start going through town lighting things up. And it wouldn't be any better to rush in when there's nothing going on or no one out and about to question. And on the flip side of things, it allowed me to carefully consider my options while they got settled in place. Plus the added bonus for the wait was that it would appear that it would be just business as usual, guards going about their daily patrols albeit in a slightly larger number, but nothing that screams to the bad guys that a crackdown was coming.

It was almost perfect. But not all things can simply convey a concise order to some as the process moves closer to completion. In short, Solemn Oath wasn't exactly keen to the idea of looking beyond the basic approach of numbers over everything. I think she was more in the camp of stuffing a square in a circular hole, find a way to make it work through brute force.

And for a half-hour, she complained about it. "Captain, I don't understand this! Why not go ahead with our full numbers? Let them see the power of the very land they hide within the cracks of."

As passionate as she was to show these guys the power of the guard, I was looking in the opposite direction. "Listen, is it easier to get roaches to come out when you're storming around to crush them, or when you start cooking bacon while lacing their access ways with boric acid?"

The mare appeared disgusted. "Ugh, can we not talk about such disgusting things?"

"Lady, you have no idea what you're getting into." I said while shaking my head. "My point is that if you walk up to them with an army, they're going to be looking at it as a war. So why fight that way when you can stage your attack in a manner that would garner the attention of as little forces as possible? My lone appearance would be noteworthy enough for a countermeasure, but not nearly enough to start a skirmish on one end of the district. I have everyone set up in squads for a reason."

"The last time we came here, we had forty-to-fifty guards. The princess placed over a hundred guards at your disposal for today. And you weaken that by dividing all of them into small groups and stripping them of their armor! A group of twelve unarmored guards isn't going to get anything done here, especially if they can disable magic."

"That's why Princess Celestia wasn't too picky with who I had on this assignment. Everyone's got a role here."

I looked over at that alleyway and my mind went to the movie 300. All I could think about was how the Spartans held their position at the tiny pass of Thermopylae. Driving that many forces into a funnel never worked out historically. It would be even more catastrophic with ponies hiding in the buildings as well, we'd be walking into certain chaos. I'm sure it's a contributing factor as to why Celestia didn't directly send her guard to file in there that night, aside for the other reason of her being blackmailed.

I waited a little longer while Solemn continued her argument. "And right now we're wasting precious time waiting for everypony to get in these incredibly strange positions you got them in."

More of the regular denizens started slowly trickling in through the alley, I nodded my head in observation. "Good, let them think that our time is being wasted. It's better to let the sun fight your enemies than you fight against the sun." I replied, borrowing from an old quote.

"There are rags everywhere above that place. What good is the sun going to be?" Unfortunately that quote went completely over her head. She still thought I was being literal.

I couldn't help but sigh at her. "I'm beginning to think you only got your position because of longevity and combat skills. I know you can think harder than that."

"I am thinking. Walking into Canterrot with just twelve guards is the recipe for certain disaster." She rebutted angrily. "I don't know how I can defend you when you put yourself in these dangerous situations that don't do anything but keep you wide open for an attack."

A ethereal-sounding ringing eminated from one of Solemn's saddlebags. She reached within and pulled out a crystal orb and levitated it towards me. Looking into it, I was greeted with the face of a guard. "Sir, all of our squads are in position."

"Hold until my signal. It will sound like popcorn in the distance."

The mare questioned me. "Popcorn?"

"In the distance." I stressed as I grabbed the orb and placed it back into her saddlebags. "Now let's move."

Grabbing my weapons and other items, I signaled to ten other guards to follow a bit behind me as I approached the alleyway. In doing so, they moved with the intent as to not stand out. I had my squad look the part of some stragglers seeking to have a good time. And it worked for the most part, it's just that I was the lone stand-out for everyone to see.

Some of the other regular dwellers froze in place as soon as they saw me walk by. I merely waved at them and smiled along the way, treating it as a normal stroll through the market. Now I could play like I'm naïve to them, but to the actual runners of the various operations not so much. They love taking in suckers like that and robbing them blind. Can't let myself get into a situation where they think I'm vulnerable or it will start violent and make my day even harder. And I wasn't too excited with the idea of getting dirty before I got into the district square.

As we walked, the path got darker and darker, almost as if the sun was blotted out by the curtain above. I didn't spare the moment to look up and take in the scenery, but Solemn did. Her mouth was left agape, her eyes wandering as she showed her inexperience with this part of town. And on that note, the usual run-of-the-mill grunts sought to take advantage of her wandering eyes. I had to snap my fingers at her to get her to focus, and being that I was more than double her height, I didn't have any trouble breaking her line of sight.

While the two of us came to a halt, the three grunts slowly approached us. Solemn started to walk towards them in a confrontational manner, but I held my hand against her chest and muttered over to her. "You stay quiet, let me do the talking." While the three got closer, I began my attempt at negotiation. "Hey boyos! What's on the menu tonight?"

As expected, the three didn't welcome me with open hooves. "A not-so protected species walking into the bad part of town? I'd say you'd have a death wish." The leader of the trio answered.

I tried to appear dismissive, at least explaining the purpose as to why I'm here. "No, not a death wish. I just wanted some meat to cook when I get home. I'm gonna make me a steak today."

The two unicorns to his side started to warm up their magic for a skirmish while their leader called me out. "To hell with what you want. Your kind isn't welcome here. So if you don't want something bad to happen, maybe you should just take your friend there and get lost."

I looked over to Solemn and saw how she was starting to reach for her weapon. But I quickly grabbed her and held her up for the three, almost as if I was picking up a fairly large cat. "You know, she's a bit of an offering for you guys."

"A what!?" She said as her hooves dangled off of the ground. She glanced down and quickly covered herself to prevent the others from catching a glimpse of what her body had to offer.

"See? Ain't she a cutie?" I asked the three with a cheerful smile.

The trio of goons observed with one of the lackeys shrugging off her physique. "She looks a bit ancient to me."

"Grrchrrt!? (Ancient!?)" At that point, I was glad I was holding her. If I wasn't she was definitely going to be starting some long-winded diatribe with some physical altercations in the mix.

I wouldn't say it out loud at this point in time, but holding her out like a pet wasn't exactly in my workout regiment. Most ponies are a bit lighter, but she's got an unusual amount of mass on her, possibly a testament to her physique. My arms started to show signs of fatigue from holding her up. "You know what they say sometimes, a fine wine requires some age. But with age comes wisdom, and wisdom stemming from years of... let's just say experience." While I was trying my best to keep up the façade, I was strongly considering the consequences of putting Solemn down. Her looking back at me like she was going to drive a spear in my eye socket was the main selling point.

The third lackey spoke out. "Well years of experience tells us that we can just simply kill you, take the girl, make a few sales, and we'll be rolling in bollies by the night's end with a old hag getting her back blown out in the back alley."

Finally feeling the burn in my arms, I hauled her into my chest and whispered in her ear. "Gonna get a little rough, just work with me." I warned her just before I sniffed her mane and inched my face beside hers. "She's a good scent, but a feisty one. A real kicker, you might need me to keep her in check. You see, she has this really short temper that just screams 'castration' if you let her go about without the proper correction."

More hoofsteps from behind indicated that there were more ponies coming through, but I could hear some come to a complete stop. I knew then that two more goons approached us from behind. The situation had just become untenable. The leading goon stepped up his threats as he used his magic to summon a dagger. "We're not stupid. We know you both are here for something. Now spill it or things get violent."

"Not up for talking or sharing, huh?" I said calmly, placing Solemn down to the ground. I then folded my arms and waited quietly for a little while. I glanced to both of my sides and behind me, we were wedged in from both sides. I started to speak to the head goon, but this time from my recognizing him from the time Celestia knocked his head loose. "That's pretty strange considering that you lot like to rub up on unsuspecting girls walking through here. I thought I could at least share in the fun before I go get me a nice cut of meat and be on my way. Shame."

"Another move, and I'll blast you!" One called out from behind me.

I raised my hands in plain sight, slowly to show that I'm wasn't being a threat. "Alright, okay, I get it, sheesh." I glanced around and smirked to myself, snapping my fingers as I directed one word back to the assailant. "Freeze."

Without warning, the goons by his sized had been blasted and knocked clean out. One guy behind me lunged with the intent to kill, only to be killed himself by wooden bolt getting injected into the back of his neck. The other had his throat crushed by an earth pony guard. The leader screamed as he tried to send a dagger my way. "You son of a─" But was quickly cut off by the sound of a bolt flying through his skull, embedding itself most of the way through up to the fletching. The pony slumped over and hissed as his life expired.

Solemn glanced down to the crossbow she held and was genuinely impressed with it's performance. "Wow, this thing is quiet and strong." She then refocused her attention to me, visibly flustered over how she was picked up like a small child. "Now back to you, mister! I don't care what our mission is here, I will NOT be objectified!"

"Sorry, had to sell the performance." I replied. "Bartering and negotiation is part of the façade. Sometimes you have to keep moving on that, but the key is not truly committing to it. The less resources you spend early on, the better off you are for later if you need to pull out all the stops. Now grab that arrow out of his skull and let's keep moving."

She didn't hesitate to yank the stallions head in her attempt to grab the arrow with her magic. After a few shakes and a second or two of watching him slide off, he plopped back to the ground as she collected the bloody bolt. She walked over the body and whispered. "You get what you deserve."

This time, I had the undercover guards move in ahead of us, roaming about like they were parishioners. Solemn continued to operate outside of that directive and stay by my side the entire time we ventured through the streets of Corrotto. It wasn't before long when we finally reached the main fountain where the market started to set up it's wares. But when they saw me, the first thing they did was commence to the cleanup. Stalls had been folded up with a single kick, wares swept off like they were wiped clean, and the owners stood by their spots with absolutely nothing for sale.

One guy called out to me vehemently. "HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?"

"NO HUMANS ALLOWED!" Another one hollered as he used his aura to replicate the blade of a broadsword.

Solemn took notice of the many goons as they started to form weapons in a similar manner. "Their magic!"

I held my hand out to her and advised her to stay back, I walked ahead with my hands up to show that I wasn't a harm. "Hey guys, I heard there was a griffon selling some really good cuts of meat. I'm here to buy some off of him."

The griffon in question moved from in front of his stall, growling with his talons scraping against the rock. "We've got nothing to sell you."

I slowly reached underneath my shirt to hide my magic use, summoning a heavy bag of jewels. I pulled it out and patted the sack. "Fifteen thousand worth in bollies. Fire rubies. Sounds like a one-sided offer." Neither of them budged at the offer. "Aw, come on, guys! I just want some meat! I get fucking tired of eating a bunch of green shit, I just want something I can sink my teeth into. Or maybe you guys got some ribs?"

"I've got nothing to trade you." The griffon replied in an antagonistic manner.

I walked up to him kneeling down to him. "Nothing? Nothing at all?"

The griffon glanced back at some of the others and nodded. "You want meat, we've got some in that old church over there."

I saw that he was pointing to the arena instead of his stall. I knew that he wanted to lure me into a trap, and I willingly took the bait. "Maybe you'd walk me over?"

"The bitch stays here." He growled, leering over to Solemn Oath.

"Fine by me." I said with a shrug before we carried on. As a few others grunts offered to close in on the mare with perverted intentions, I turned back to issue a warning. "Oh, and uh... She's a biter. Might wanna keep it to yourselves if you value your meat."

While the two of us slowly walked into the temple, we were shrouded in shadows. Not a light was on to guide me to where I stepped, not a single glimmer to offer me insurance. There was only the dim light from the concealed sunset outside, so it was almost as good as pitch black further inside. The griffon who walked beside me had gradually slowed to a stop, leaving me to walk ahead on my own. "Just keep walking straight, there's a counter over there that sells it."

I stopped walking and turned back around to see the griffon waiting quietly, looking at me with the expectation of my screams echoing from my fall into the abyss. I began to walk towards him instead. "Let's cut the bullshit, alright?" I said as I pulled out a road flare and popped one to light the room. The griffon began to raise a talon in anticipation of a brawl. "Now, I know there's a hole leading to the underground arena where you have your usual festivities every Tuesday and Friday night. But I also know that there's an arimaspi as the Beast of the Week. So let me let you in on a little deal. This place is about to get real sanctified, or as we say in my home country... 'democratic', in less than five minutes. If you work with me, those fifteen thousand will be used to fund your way out into a new life. You'll sell your meat in another town. And then as a reward, I'll even slip in a slide of Wagyu beef."

"Wagyu beef?" He asked somewhat confused, feeling like he heard those words once before.

I cleared my throat and spoke with a bit of falsetto, remenescent of my pony voice. "The meat that melts in your mouth like butter."

His eyes bucked wide open as he pointed to me. "...You."

I tossed the flare to a nearby corner as I walked in closer to continue negotiating with the butcher, summoning another bag of jewels. "Now, say yes and promise to keep your mouth closed about our deal, and maybe you can walk out of here with another extra ten thousand. That's a total of twenty-five thousand, all for you bub."

"Show me the goods." The griffon tilted his head, glancing down at the sack I opened before him. His eyes radiated along with the shiny red rubies that glistened from within the mundane brown sack. Along with them, I showed another sack of blue sapphires. The griffon bit onto his own claws as he started to ponder the deal.

"I know the code you guys live by. Bits, bollies, or blood. I know you make only so much on meat sales. So how about it? Maybe I can even hook you up with a restaurant here that actually serves meat to certain customers, perhaps even a spot on the royal kitchen staff." I knelt down and whispered to him with glancing eyes, disclosing a very exclusive secret. "I know two guys in the castle who would love to get another slab of pork ribs in their bellies, and they'll pay a pretty penny to keep you around."

The griffon swiped at the sacks, but not before I could yank them from his reach. "I don't want no one coming after me."

Seems to me he was far beyond sold. "Hey man, what can I say? I like you, I like your passion for meat. It's hard to find a kindred spirit when it comes to those kinds of things in this world."

While he was sold on the initial prospect, there was nothing that could stop him from ratting me out afterwards. But if there was anything that was genuine, it was the timing of his stomach telling him he was hungry for something. A bit of drool fell from his beak. "You want my silence, I want the beef." I whipped out my phone and started looking up a quick search for Wagyu beef. A listing came up, a whole New York striploin was on sale for a thousand dollars. While my eyes flinched at the price, I carried on with the purchase. The griffon stared at me as I confirmed the order. "Wait, what are you doing?"

I put my phone away as I informed him of the order. "It'll be an import that'll take about two or three days, but consider it on import."

"What kind of cut?" He asked, wiping his beak.

"Whole boneless striploin." I answered.

He excitedly extended his claw for a handshake. "You've got a deal."

While I wasn't as enthusiastic about shaking his drooled-on claw, I was more in the line of thinking of last night where I had much worse on my hands instead. After the deal was struck, I gave him his reward and secretly wiped my hand off on the seat of my pants. "So quick question before democracy ensues. Where are they hiding the creature?"

The griffon gave me an honest answer. "That I don't know. I'm not a member of the Hunter's Guild."

"Know someone who is out there?" I asked, pointing back to the outside.

He took a moment to ponder on who he knew. "There's one who watches the outside path from the main street across the high school."

...Well that's a big oof, "He's currently having a permanent marriage to the ground, their relationship is pretty mind-blowing, can't keep his brain off of her. Anyone else?"

"Damn. Bit of a perv, but he was a good pal. Shitty customer though." He said as he started to think on any others that might be of interest. "The one who sits outside with a bunch of legs to sell. He's gotten all kinds from the arena after-market. He calls it a mutual dependency."

"What's his name?"

"Hobble Good."

Hobble, huh? What an appropriate name. "Okay, that's a good starting point." I pointed him to the direction of the side exit and gave him some advice. "Wait around in your home for now. Then as we leave, start making your way to the Sun Cryst Resort. From there, I'll send for you."

The griffon smirked as he flew off. "A day in the good life? Don't even get me started!"

Satisfied that I didn't have to immediately resort to violence against the only guy who sells meat in the city, I turned my attention back to the courtyard outside. As soon as I walked outside, I heard someone screaming in pain, I looked over to the source to see Solemn firmly planting her hoof into some poor guy's neck. "Sounds like she's out here is having a little too much fun." I muttered to myself.

He continued to scream at her. "GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME, YOU BITCH!"

I slowed down as I noticed a few ponies started to gather, namely the locals beginning to outnumber us by a fair amount. I called out to the crowd politely. "Hobble Good! Who's name is Hobble Good!"

The apprehended stallion continued to scream obscenities. "Why that no-good, greedy griffon bi─"

I moved Solemn out of the way, all while she argued against me. "This creep started circling around me saying how he liked my legs so much, so I decided to give him a taste of what he's been gawking at."

Well that isn't a sign lit up in bright neon lights telling me who he was. "I take it you're the one they call Hobble Good?" I questioned the stallion.

I moved his mane out of the way to reveal a large fresh bruise on his face the size of a horseshoe, that coupled with a bloodied nose. He hatefully screamed out to me as I crouched over him. "I'll have all of you hobbling at the end of the day, longshanks!"

I looked around me and saw that the crowd started to become antagonistic and quickly summarized that we needed to come down hard on the square at that moment. I swiftly answered back. "Okay then, you first."

I pulled out my sidearm and unloaded three shots into his right hindleg. He started to scream over the pain. "AAAAAAHHHH! SONOVA... SHIT!"

The crowd stopped muttering and being angry for a moment, trying to come to grips with what they heard, with what startled them enough to stop dead in their tracks. I then motioned to Solemn. "Get this one inside that church." While the guards that entered in as undercover patrons started to circle around us, they unveiled spears and crossbows to the hostile audience. Before she could load Hobble onto her back, I politely pulled at her tail to grab her attention. "Don't walk directly ahead in the dark. It's not all that well-lit so you might want to watch your step."

She instantly pivoted and stared me down for my method of getting her attention. "You don't have to pull my tail, you chauvinistic bastard!"

"I'm just saving your life. Now get your ass moving." I warned as I popped off a few more rounds into the air to further get the signal out to the others who might not have gotten the memo.

The crowd who looked on appeared unsure of what to do next, but there were a few brave onlookers who thought to make a run at us. Some of the ones who did had been stopped by a spear or bolt from a crossbow. The others who survived that initial response initiated close quarters with the guards. I quickly started picking off which ones were more of a danger to my guards, hoping to put them down before they could inflict lethal harm. One who was especially fueled on adrenaline had shoved down one guard, kicked another, and ran at me directly with a knife formed from their magic. I extended my hand and steered him off course with my own magic, and followed up with two shots into his head. I kept my weapon aimed for him until he finally slung over and lied motionless.

The rest of the rowdy crowd started to rally and make their attempt of a charge, but not before the streets from the outside started flooding with guards in all directions. The crowd looked behind them to see that they had been completely surrounded. Taking advantage of the chaos, I took a moment to reload and swap for a more definitive answer for anyone else looking to make a run for us. I fired a few more at the dead grunt, trying not to fire more bullets into the air than I need to.

Upon grabbing the crowds attention with the sounds of my AR-15, I loudly called out to them. "I already know each and every one of you hate my ass! No love lost here! I'm placing each one of you under arrest! Do not resist, do not try anything stupid! Anyone with a lit horn, as much as a goddamn spark, and I will have that son of a bitch shot the fuck off for no extra cost! And if you don't believe me..." I reached behind my back and summoned the fractured remnants of Chrysalis' horn Alex shot off of her months back. I then proudly showed it off for the whole crowd to see. "You can ask this bitch! You can ask every goddamn changeling that tried to flee their happy little asses from out of here! You all read the headlines, I'll make it effortless! Don't fucking test me or you will go home an earth pony today! And anyone looking for a fight, you'll be going home in a box! Now you have two choices, either you stay peaceful and get processed quietly, or you can fuck around and find out! Choose the game you wanna play!"

Even from the guards, there was silence.

I slowly backed up with my weapon in tow, watching with a careful eye as I walked back into the former church.

After I got back into the arena foyer, both Solemn and I took the opportunity to interrogate the black market vendor for any information. While it took him a good amount of time to crack, namely for trying to buy time for his friends in the guild to come by and show us guards a good time, he did eventually tell us where we could find the arimaspi. But that wasn't the only good thing we had going for us. The Beast Tamers Guild, the association he worked under, had come in to provide some reinforcements. But as soon as they saw the courtyard swarming with over a hundred guards, they reconsidered their options and retreated.

It was just as Alabaster said, a well-coordinated approach with knowledge of the square and an ideal time to strike on the day of Corrotto's weakest market flow, this place comes down to it's knees and then some. With that warrant in tow, there's almost nothing that can stop us from legally shutting the place down. With an asset like that and witnesses at my disposal, it's becoming easier to surmise a solution to our political problem.

I just hope I don't see Him again. My head hurts thinking about it.

Together, Solemn and I walked the halls that I had grown accustomed to navigating. But this time there was a vast difference in the atmosphere. What used to be halls bathed in orange, cyan, and magenta neon lights, there was only the red light from the flare I held up to see our way through. The sounds of crowds cheering and jeering at the arena floor was completely silenced, replaced with the sound of a dull breeze flowing through the place. Even our own steps had become much too loud for my liking, I began to prefer the sounds of debauchery taking place as opposed to our silent passage. Traveling through these halls in the darkness began to trigger unsavory memories of my recent struggles, I started to grip at my weapon even tighter, ready to mow down the first thing that dared to get close.

"Ugh, this place looks so primordial." Solemn complained as we walked, startling me a bit as she reminded me that I wasn't alone.

The grip on my weapon loosened. My mind was once again anchored in the present. "You should see it at night, it's kinda pretty." I mumbled, looking around at the monochrome fixtures.

"How would you know that?" The mare questioned.

I glanced over to her and immediately fed her an incomplete truth. "I have my sources on the inside. That's why I know the streets, the escape routes, the entrances, every capillary that feeds from the main arteries of Canterlot. If corruption is the monster of this district, then this place is the lungs and heart of the beast."

"How so?" She asked.

"Every Tuesday and Friday night, all of Canterlot's refuse come here to watch a good show of goons, gangs, thieves, and mercenaries try their hooves at getting even, getting fame, or just simply getting paid to put on a show. It's sanctioned murder."

The mare visibly showed her disgust. "That's disgusting."

"Oh, and that's not even the half of it." I said as we came to a familiar area. I looked to the walls where there were a few wide openings to allow a pony's head to squeeze through. "See this wall, it's built where ponies inside of that room can peep outside where the passing crowd can get a good look of their best 'Oh' face... all while getting vaginally and anally decimated."

She stepped back and shuddered with abhorrence. "Ew!"

"That's what real objectification looks like, princess." I said as I moved on from the area, taking a left as the guy instructed me to, not even glancing to the right where I would normally enter the VIP Lounge.

"Well it's not something I'm going to get used to." She said with a pompous disposition.

I briefly thought of Kalimba as we walked, how she was pretty much the exact opposite of what Solemn portrayed herself to be. While Kalimba was a lot more liberal in using her body to get what she wanted or to further her means to a desired end, Solemn was stern and proud of her independence. She was far more prudish than the zebracorn, but it came from an experience of what I would like to call privileged oppression. Where in her life she had to deal with an assortment of stallions getting the nod above her, but I can understand why that came to be because of her tactical shortcomings. Meanwhile Kalimba had used her trauma and disadvantages as a means to adapt to her surroundings. She had a standard for herself, but she's able to put that aside to fulfill the role of a femme-fatale when she needs to do so or to preserve her own self. No question their upbringings were vastly different, and it showed in how they saw the world around them. Kalimba is cynical and quick-witted, she's open to ideas and she doesn't mind an inconvenience. Solemn is blunt and forward-seeing, she's prone to seeing things only in black and white, following her beliefs to mixed results.

While she's physically gifted in combat, everything else in her view is flawed. I turned to her and offered her some words of advice. "Life has a strange way of turning your expectations into fanatical delusions. I suggest you don't judge anyone unless they truly should be judged."

She completely ignored me, stepping on an empty glass vial. Looking down at the ground, she saw a mix of small wastes. Food wrappers, unfinished cigarettes, chewed-up bubblegum, broken beer bottles, and even white packets of products that were advertised to temporarily stop fertilization. Scribblings on the wall spoke of names of who had visited, who was interested in a good time, and even lethal threats to various persons. Even the words 'Dethrone the Royalist Pigs' was etched in spray paint. "Eugh, what else goes on down here?"

I gave her a quick rundown of things. "Drugs, prostitution, enslavement, possibly necrophilia."

The mare scoffed and started scratching her hoof against the message depicted against the royal family, attempting to smudge the message out of existence. "Princess Celestia should just burn this place down. Let judgement be done."

"They already hate her here. No need to fuel that aggression just yet." I said while walking forward.

"So what?" She asked before realizing that the hall was getting significantly darker as I moved away from her. She galloped to catch up to me and continued her argument. "What good does letting this all exist do for the city!?"

I looked to the ceiling and started making an argument in favor of understanding, not so much in support. "Tourism. It's the only place that's up past midnight, and it goes for a while. The market outside is usually thriving with drunks, druggies, sluts, and criminals. If you're not one of those then you're either one of two things, a customer or a victim. Spoiler alert: Victims don't make it to sunup."

The mare looked to me with disbelief. "You know so much, so what does that make you?"

Again, I lied to her. "It's as I posed on earlier, I'm a wandering customer looking for some good prices on meat, and my pony on the inside makes those purchases for me."

"I still don't see how it is that this blight on the city can continue to exist." Solemn persisted.

"Well all those tourism dollars go to the many political pundits that keep the laissez-faire jurisdiction active."

The mare stopped and tugged at my shirt, halting my progress as she questioned me. "Laissez-faire?"

I then began to explain. "It's French for 'Hands off'. In my world, it means that the business conduct their own oversight. No government intervention or regulations, just let the market be the market and ride things out. Of course it leads to a lot of corruption at the top and a bunch of misery at the bottom. And just like home, the corporations and representatives here that have their hooves in the drug money use it to fund some of their other large-scale investments, even political campaigns. Meanwhile, the low-level distributors do it to make a living for their families, barely scraping by and feuding with anyone on their turf. They're taught that the world doesn't want them, that there is no other way to live. So they do dangerous things to keep the money flowing, so they can continue to provide for those that depend on them. Then there are other ponies who get involved exclusively to keep their loved ones safe. But as all good intentions pave the streets of hell, the bad intentions are the brick and mortar for the standing skyline. The endless freeway filled with hopes and dreams of better, while those who stay on the top floor look and laugh at the traffic. They'll stand at the top of their towers pissing down to the streets below, and have all those aspiring dreamers stop to open their mouths to catch the rain."

The mare appeared saddened at my explanation. "That's a terrible world to live in."

"That's life." I rebutted. "Not everyone can sing in the community musical number when the party comes to town. Some people have real issues that can't be remedied with a song selection, or a hug, or a lasting bond of friendship. When it gets tough, you have to find something, sometimes working slave labor and wages for the money, other times working in illegal stuff to get a good dollar under the table. And guess what, money is what makes the world go round, not you, your dreams, your efforts, or your beliefs. And even if there's a way to unite and advocate for better, best believe there are those at the top who already bought off the judge and jury. Our worlds aren't that different from one another in that regard, corruption still rests at the top."

"Well we serve a merciful princess, that's something to be happy for. And she's on top of everything." Solemn replied optimistically.

"Brief detour. Follow me for a sec." I started walking to a doorway leading into the arena bowl. "I know you unicorns got a flashlight function, so why don't you give it a good glance." She did as I instructed, using her horn to brightly illuminate the entire area we stood in and a bit of the arena floor. Where her head turned, she saw everything, from used needles to blood splatter. Her jaw fell agape as I spoke. "Look around you, do you think any prince or princess matters down here? The church above used to be the go-to chapel to anoint new royal family members their crowns. Have you not paid attention to the walls I just pointed out to you, the walls you tried scribbling out those messages on?"

Her eyes began to fill with sadness, and then with anger and confusion. "Well this is the life they chose to have! If they want to live differently, they can and should! I shouldn't have to feel sorry about this because this is their choice! I still can't fathom why anypony would choose to live in a world where they can't live happily."

I then quenched her horn and held the flare up so she could see my face as I knelt down to her. "And for many in this district, this place is the answer to the very same thing you just pointed out."

"How is there happiness in this, in any of this?" Solemn said, still feeling upset.

I stood up and walked her back to our intended path. "It's the thrill, the neon lights that shine so bright, the throbbing bass in the music, the flashing colors, the drugs to fuel the escape, the sex with no strings, the act of breaking every social taboo with as little confrontation, the ambition to be your true self instead of hiding in society, the grim and morbid curiosity that settles in almost every suburban youth's mind to see a dead body, it's literally the purpose. You can live your best life here, as dangerously as you could ever mentally conceive if you know what you want and how to get it. The deal is that you don't get caught when you leave. And trust me, there are more than a few of those in the castle itself who find leisure here."

"But why... this?" She asked as she stepped on a partially torn picture of a masked red stallion posed with their hoof spreading their hindquarters to reveal all of themselves to the viewer.

"Because there's a market for what it has to offer, and society forbids many from exploring it. A lot of what happens here is morally wrong, some others is just from society's view. And when there's a market that caters to everyone, then that's exactly who's looking to live their dreams. That's the happiness they get, the guaranteed satisfaction."

She continued to state her opposition as we moved forward. "This isn't the Canterlot I grew up knowing. This is some alternate world, this isn't who or what we are. Canterrot is just some bastardized portamento of the word 'rotten' with our beautiful city. This isn't our city, this isn't us."

I shook my head as I replied to her. "I know that the world is explicitly black and white to you, but there's many shades of gray that make up the finer definitions of the world we love and live in. And you have to look at what those shades are in order to better understand people. That's what makes us better at what we do, learning how and when to deal with something or someone. It doesn't always work running up the middle, showing all of our numbers in the early running, letting an untold number of vital elements escape from you, or trying to live a certain way to appease a certain person or group. Sometimes you have to think for yourself and not the image of what you believe in." I explained. "Quick example. You see caught a scrawny little colt who just stole a loaf of bread, what do you say to yourself?"

"He stole a loaf of bread, so he should return it and I let him go." She answered plainly, speaking her first mind.

"So he does that, you let him go, and he goes back home. Now he dies the next day from starvation. What do you say then? He's too young to work and his parents have tried to make ends meet. But since they live here, all services are scarce. And now the mom and dad are angry because a guard stopped their child from eating. So then you go back to that message on the wall 'Dethrone the Royalist Pigs'. What now?"

Solemn groaned in frustration. "That's a pretty unrealistic scenario. There are plenty of options to feed your foals if you're not making enough income."

I couldn't help but sigh in response. "My point is that there's another way to handle the immediate circumstance. You see the kid is scrawny for a reason. Is he unhealthy, malnourished, high metabolism? He could've went for the money, but he chose bread. He's hungry. So why not buy the bread from the seller and give it to the kid?"

"But what if he has the intention of doing that repeatedly just because he knows he can get away with it?"

"Well that's another way of proving my point, at least I know you can be a skeptic in something. But you still have to exercise a bit of humanity in some cases. Bottom line is that the kid is hungry, buy him the bread, talk to him and get him to understand that what he did shouldn't be done again, inform him of the consequences the next time it happens, and then both sides come away with an understanding. That's what should happen."

As we turned into a hallway, I took notice of the iron gate being raised high enough to allow certain creature sizes into the hall. "So you tell me something. What understanding is there in all of this?"

"The ponies here are looking to run from their problems, and are going about it the wrong way." I answered thinking about Kalimba's father. "But there are some who do realize their mistakes, and will seek to atone for it."

"And the sanctioned murder?"

That had me to think about my first time running into the town square, namely when I met Prod. "There's no excuse for that, the necrophilia, or even some of the shit they sell here. It's the ones at the top that provide the market and the space it utilizes. Without it, the traffic below simply passes through rather than stop by. You have to learn to open your eyes to all the gray, not just the two ends of the spectrum for one end of the column."

She scoffed at my statement. "Trust me, I know there's corruption at the top. How do you think you got your position over every other qualified pony who's served for over fifteen years or more?"

Admittedly, that is a valid point. Just being a suitor does land you that privilege, superseding years of hard work and prestige from others. But she still showed me that her line of thinking is still predicated on her own selfish mantra. I couldn't help but to chuckle at her. "Sometimes I'd wish you'd have that same energy in the on-field decisions you make."

We came up to a hulking gate where claw marks of various sizes decorated the brick frame. The mare questioned me as we inspected the entrance. "I take it we've reached the end of our search?"

"This is the door Hobble mentioned. Guess we should knock politely." I joked, thinking of a way to break inside. Meanwhile, Solemn confidently approached the side of the door to illuminate a black iron-wrought panel.

"Stand back." She warned as her horn started to glow a silver color. Orange glyphs started to show on the door as her magic continued to work against the mechanisms. "Every door like this has a lock, not a magical one but one that comes with a special trap if it's just simply broken into. It's sometimes used to do away with fools looking to rush in."

The mare slowly worked against the tumblers of the lock, each glyph turning blue to confirm the correct combination. After a few more seconds, the door clacked and started groaning, the massive gate began to rise slowly, the chains that rattled stressed against the mighty weight of the wooden door. The door jerked down an inch before stopping with a loud clatter. The mare looked up and inspected the doorway.

Meanwhile, I was being optimistically cautious. "I'm gonna assume that sound means we're good to go."

"Not yet." She warned before a loud clack sounded along with a few other chains rattling in the distance. She then nodded. "Now we're all set."

I threw the road flare to the side of the gate, illuminating our way out. I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight to see what may have stopped moving. My flashlight revealed a groove in the ground just an inch deep, I looked over one side and immediately saw a large bladed pendulum resting against the wall. I drew a heavy breath as I walked forward. "Interesting lock."

But upon that same breath, I quickly realized that breathing in through the nose was probably the worst idea I had. There was a putrid odor flowing malignantly through the air. "Urf... It smells worse than you did last night." Solemn said as she glanced back at me.

While the smell was completely unpleasant, I found myself not as disgusted as I figured myself to be. It wasn't that I had completely adapted to the smell, but rather it was a sign that my mind started to shape that process. I still held a cloth to my nose as a means to nullify the scent to a degree. "Yup, that's the smell alright. Been acquainted with that for a week or so. Hell, longer."

Moving along, we ran across a multitude of cages, many varying in their size. Along the way was an abundance of puddles of blood. If anything, this place looked less like a containment center and more of an unrefrigerated slaughterhouse, smelled as such too. And with the passing moments, the reality began to manifest before our very eyes. "Are all these creatures dead?" Solemn questioned.

I tapped the bars of one of the cages, seeing if anything moved from within. Nothing. "Looks to be. But the arimaspi was set to be the undisputed winner for this week." I said as I came across a trio of dead cockatrices. One had a head missing, the other had it's eyes gouged out, and the third was missing it's feet. "Guess the hunter guild is selling the body parts for potion brewing."

"This isn't just illegal, it's cruel. This is an entire organ-harvesting ring. This manticore is missing it's tail." She added as she came across a much larger cage housing the deceased lion-like creature.

I walked across an even larger beast, something that looked like a mix of a panda bear with wings. In fashion, it's back was scarred and ripped at brutally, it's backside ripped to shreds. "Bugbear missing it's wings and stinger."

She came across a large creature missing it's entire bottom half, she quickly identified what it was by the number of heads it still had attached. "There's a hydra in here, but it's been completely bisected. I've never seen a hydra completely killed off like this, and these things are extremely hard to kill."

And of course, working my way through the larger cages, I came across the familiar sight of a singular eye gazing into the abyss, the creature with what used to be horns as large as it's head. It's nose ripped from the golden piercings being forcibly stripped from it, the mane cut at to grab more of it's jewelry, the creature rested peacefully. "...I think I found what we're looking for."

She approached the cage slowly, cautiously approaching as if the creature had instilled within her an irrational fear. "So it's blind?"

I shifted my light to see if the pupils in the eye would dilate, no changes. "Nope. It's dead."

"How can you tell?" She whispered, easing forward like she was expecting it to pop up and surprise us.

I looked over to the mare. "You never saw an arimaspi in real life before?"

"No, just been told stories." She shyly whispered. "I know that Shining Armor went out to face them with forty guards, and only he and another came out to tell the tale. There were two others, but they committed suicide. These creatures are rumored to be the death of any guard that faces them. They even killed the legendary warrior prince Fair Charity. No way I'm going near that thing."

I shined my light at a different angle once more, discovering yet another grim trademark of this place. "Well this sucker is supposed to be much larger. All I see is a head with no body attached."

The mare sighed with relief, but pulled at me to urge at our departure. "Well that settles it, mission accomplished. We're good to leave now."

I walked around the cage and saw something that caught my eyes. Outside of the imagery of maggots digging into the flesh of the wound, I caught a glimpse of something that was fairly unusual. "Wait..."

"What now!?" She squeaked as I approached the back end, seeing that the cage was left open.

"I'm gonna get a closer look." I answered as I walked inside.

I held my phone with one hand and used my magic to graze through the wound, also picking out something that was small and shiny. "Are you kidding me? That thing is dead, and looks to have been that way for at least a while! No need for the autopsy."

I tried my best to ignore the wriggling maggots and investigated further. "Judging from the wound, this isn't a clean cut. The flesh here looks torn, there are several uneven lacerations. The muscle fibers look like it's been ripped at." Upon a closer look, I started to notice that some of the hairs had been singed like something hot came into contact with them. Along with that, some of the flesh at the neck appeared to be impacted with something that caused an extreme amount of muscle damage. "And half of the neck looks to have suffered from some incendiary device. The fur on this side of the neck looks charred, as does the skin."

My eyes narrowed as I started removing small metallic bits from the creatures neck. Much of it appeared to be shrapnel, a lot of it seemed to be from the gold it wore, but also from some other metal. I picked and pulled until I noticed that there was something lodged against the side of the vertebrae. I froze in place as I noticed how bunched up it was against the bone. "What?" Solemn asked, seeing the expression on my face. I quickly got in closer and pulled at the tiny metallic object, finding out that it was indeed made of brass, cylindrical, and crushed in as if it was launched at a blinding rate of speed. I looked back down at the bits of metal I extracted, finding a few more of those same items, three of them. I held one up to Solemn. "What's that tiny thing?"

"A bullet from a military-grade assault rifle. This thing was shot at." I said as I noticed how relatively fresh the brass was.

A chilling breeze ran through the room, causing the mare to shiver. "So are you done playing in forensics? This place really smells and I don't want to be in here to catch too much of the stench."

I wasn't exactly done, I had started to notice that much of the bits of metal were crude and brittle, almost like the coating of a grenade. "Shrapnel... metal fragmentation... Oh no."

Solemn stopped for a moment before she called out to me again. "Captain... CAPTAIN!"

"What!?" I answered her back, becoming annoyed.

She glanced at the wooden frame of another fairly large cage, one that was completely empty. On the side sat an advertisement. "I think you should look at this poster."

I stepped out of the cage and did as she suggested. Looking on the ad, I saw that it was supposed to be a big fight taking place, much like how they advertised the main event of the arimaspi fighting that bugbear the night I entered the VIP Lounge. "Okay... what is this silhouette supposed to be?"

As I held the light up to the poster, she started to state her hypothesis. "It's not a pony, that's for certain. The wings are too sharp, and it has claws for it's forelegs. It looks like a griffon, judging from the perspective."

Looking at it further, it seemed that there was the identifying traits of a griffon in that silhouette. But still, there was one thing on my mind. "A griffon? What kind of griffon would get anything remotely close to human weaponry, much less how? That's what was used to kill that arimaspi."

"Apparently the match was slated for last night." She said, pointing at the date.

"That's an unusual day." I muttered to myself, knowing that there was an event on Friday as well.

Our conversation was then cut short as we started hearing sounds of some chatter coming from the opposite direction the hall. A familiar voice started to send chills up my spine. I motioned for her to hide behind one of the cages while I broke back into survival habits and hid behind the severed arimaspi head. I clutched my phone against my chest, hiding the bright light until the duo had passed through. The two walked in from the side of the gallery we were initially walking towards, I kept my mouth sealed as I tried to breathe as lightly against the smell of rotten meat.

"Sir, I can assure you that you won't be disappointed with your purchase."

"Well I better not be. I did a lot of research to get this thing to work. I can't have a minor miscalculation throwing off my efforts." It was Him.

"The spinal chord was intact when we last looked."

"I could care less about that right now. I'm starting to hear mumblings of topside, tell me what's going on."

"Apparently some guards raided the square today."

"Guards?" He didn't sound pleased.

"If my eavesdroppers are right, we're looking at a hundred or more led by the captain himself."

"Hmm... and where is he?" My heart began to pulse loudly in my ears as I held my breath, slowly navigating in the directions of the shifting shadow.

"They said he walked into the lobby of the arena when they saw him last, had one of those weapons you gave to ol' Gazzy."

"Well... looks like I'll have to have a conversation with him if I run into him then. A loooong conversation." The two had left the gallery and walked in the direction opposite of where we came in from. I wanted until

At that moment, I turned to Solemn, who emerged from the side of the large cage, and whispered. "I think we should call it in. The longer we stay here, the more we put ourselves in danger."

"For once, I agree with you." She whispered back.

Author's Note

So it's been almost three weeks on the dot, and now I'm working on the next chapter. My schedule in May was thankfully busy. I could focus more on preparation. And as an added plus, I've gotten my laptop repaired. The motherboard had some water damage, but it's still functioning. However, it's only a matter of time before something else happens and I'll need to get it replaced. But at least I have a 2TB hardrive installed. I'll look into getting a SSD of that size later on.

But I was given a little more time to work this chapter on down, as well as some stuff for the next few. I've already got drafts for the next four chapters completed. So I'm starting to get back on track. Next 2-3 weeks I'll release the next chapter, no bullshit, no distractions, no rampant schedule will stop me from meeting that deadline.

I'll see you guys next go around. Thanks for reading up to this point.

Chapter CI

Getting into the underground compound where they stored the remnants of the beasts they used to headline a weekly show was vastly easier than trying to get out of it, especially when it's ringleader takes a tour through the halls discussing what kind of conversations he would like to have with you. It's the psychological hurdles that came with the events of the past two days that make it even more taxing. But instead of going the same way we came, we filed out from the direction they came from instead. And with the way the tunnels were networked, I had some comfort in knowing that we never ran into that bastard in the condition we were in right then.

It wasn't that we were injured, it's just that we were very unprepared for that engagement.

Upon getting back to the group, we noticed that they had already started rounding up the wagons to ship over to the castle dungeons. When we concluded our evaluations, our eyes turned only to the castle. Upon entering, both Solemn and I agreed to take a much-needed shower before paying the princess any visit for a debriefing.

But to our surprise, she was already waiting for me in my room. I glanced down to Solemn, who appeared a bit perplexed in seeing her here in the room. And upon walking in, Celestia noticed the smell that came from the both of us. I immediately hopped in the shower and quickly cleaned myself off before coming out in nothing but a bathrobe. Solemn took her turn and came out as her unarmored self. From there, we ended up going through our debrief.

"So you're telling me that the arimaspi you sought was already dead when you arrived?"

Solemn bowed before her as she answered. "Yes, your highness."

I then added as I kept myself separated for a while until I could rummage through my closet to grab a pair of pants. "As much as I would like to say that this makes things easier, I can tell you that this only complicates matters."

"How so, captain?" Celestia asked.

"Well we know that where we found the damn thing, there were other dead creatures that seemed to be used for some sort of harvesting operation. I know it's a little weird to think about, but they could be using the place as a cover for possibly far more sinister implementations."

"You mean more possible developments that align with your previous findings?" She questioned me, quirking a brow.

I glanced over to the mare, who was looking between the two of us with some confusion. I temporarily placed our conversation on halt. "Before I go on, I would like to know exactly how far into briefing Solemn Oath have you gotten."

Solemn turned to me, angrily defending herself. "Are we seriously on this right now!? I've gotten briefed on this assignment!"

Celestia then corrected her. "Solemn Oath, to your defense I did assign you to be an addendum to the captain's operation on today. I did tell you that there was a pending investigation regarding to missing bodies. But I cannot in good faith place charge in you with the more sensitive nuances of this assignment."

The mare appeared deeply disappointed with the words that were said, Solemn's ears fell back. "Has my service to you been so unsatisfactory, your highness?"

I further drove my point. "Now in her defense, she knows what I said when I inspected the arimaspi's remains. But I want to know if there will be certain limitations to our current discussion for reasons of sensitive intel."

Solemn quickly jumped in. "Your highness, my loyalty is to you. I would loathe such a world where your trust in me is so limited."

Celestia didn't spare a moment as she came to her decision. "Solemn, I wish you to wait outside in the hall for a moment. I will summon you when our more sensitive matters have been discussed."

The guardsmare glanced back to me and sighed in defeat. "...Your highness, your word is law."

She walked out the room and closed the door behind her, appearing sullen over the fact that she was still being left out on the more exclusive details. I shook my head as soon as the door clicked closed. "Bless her heart, she's trying."

"Nondis." Celestia sternly called to me.

"I didn't mean it that way. I'm merely pointing out that she's doing her best to get her rank back." I stated with a shrug.

Celestia sat herself on the bed, holding the bag filled with my soiled clothes. "I know she longs to serve, and she has been a truly great guard. If it wasn't for Shining's sudden promotion of you and your previous engagement to Twilight, she would hold the position you currently have."

I hummed to myself for a moment in thought. I then vocalized my opinion. "That's concerning."

"And why is that?" She asked.

I expounded further. "In short, she quick to engage, blunt to matters on sensitivity, and very headstrong. I fanned out our forces into squads instead of running a sizeable company into a narrow hallway, she wondered why I did that instead of seeing the consequence of packing so many guys into one entrance as opposed to assigning them to different possible escape routes. In terms of playing a set role to stealthily defuse a situation, she's hard-stuck to her own personal principles. Granted, a role I asked her to play was indeed demeaning, but I had no intention to see her harmed in any way. She shows no trust to me, she's sometimes impatient, and she's only doing this to get her rank back. So I question her overall loyalty should things come out in any way that doesn't suit her viewpoint."

Celestia thought of a retort, but then paused to consider my logic. "That's a damning observation."

"It's the truth."

The high princess tossed the bag over to the side of the door, standing from the mattress that was once hers. "Then our use for her can only be limited to surface operations. That's not what I want."

I then informed her of my alternative. "I do already have an existing accomplice for my underground work. She's currently stationed in Ponyville because her place of living here was unsuitable for good health and hygiene."

Celestia nodded. "Does she have a name?"

"Kalimba Mavemnbe, currently under Zecora's instruction, along with learning a few things from Twilight on the side."

She walked beside me, coming to the conclusion of whom exactly I was referring to. "...The zebra hybrid I saw you walking with that night of the raid?"

"Yeah."

The princess face then turned to a disapproving frown. "The one who spoke of your so-called one year anniversary?"

"Pretty much." I confessed, wincing at the idea that she held on to that one particular statement.

She didn't linger on that thought for too long, instead looking to her qualifications. "What are her skills?"

"Where Solemn falls short on everything I've discussed, Kalimba knocks it out of the park every time. She's not as skilled of a fighter, but she is savvy. Quick to think on her hooves, street smart, knows the area like her own hoof, knows who to talk to, how to talk to them, and where to complete a transaction. Of course most of those skills came from her doing a lot of her previous owner's dealing for him, possibly out of his disinterest to want to be involved in anything that isn't paying him a certain amount of money."

Celestia took the moment to talk about the other connections I had. "And your other accomplice in the courtroom, what of her?"

"She's magically gifted but suffers from some endurance in that field, offers a lot of momentum to our purpose, monetary subsidies and political lobbying efforts have been funded through her almost exclusively. Though her primary reason for doing it is to undo the damage her father had done. Same goes for her brother, a city council rep of the very district we walked into this evening."

The princess gave me a sagely nod, appearing impressed with my work thus far. "An interesting network of friends you've accumulated. I see Blueblood's wisdom of inner-city dealing wasn't lost on you."

"I can only hope that's not a bad thing."

"It can be when you are caught." She warned.

My mind flashed back to the moment where I heard Him talking about how he would give me a good talking to. Last thing I needed was to get a dressing down right there in that room. "So I see." I said as I took a deep breath, thanking my lucky stars that I didn't have to face him there.

The princess walked in front of me, pulling my head down to her eye level. "You look tired."

"I feel tired, mentally."

The princess saw the look in my eyes and felt pity. "It's almost time for you to take a vacation, isn't it?"

"Didn't I have one already, with you and Twilight meeting my parents as the selling point?"

The princess lightly chuckled. "That's not a vacation, that's a cause of stress. I mean a real vacation, possibly a week of no interference from work, maybe after this month is done."

"It won't include you, unfortunately." I said, feeling a bit sullen.

"Don't remind me." She leaned into me, brushing her forehead against mine. "...Are you okay?"

"I'm dealing with it." I answered.

Her hoof lightly cradled against my cheek, she looked at me with a motherly intent. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

I glanced over to the bed, wishing for a moment where I could just be held. But there was still an individual waiting out in the hall. "As much as I would like for this to be the time and place, I'm afraid not."

"As such." She mumbled with a depressed tone, finally separating herself from me. "Well we know that we can at least use Solemn for your surface operations. I know she's hard to learn, but she'll come around to you once she sees your effort as genuine."

"That's not what I'm worried about." I said with a groan.

"Then what is it?"

I began to think of a worst-case scenario that could possibly occur. "I'm afraid that she's envious to a fault, the last thing I need is a Judas selling me out with a smile."

The high princess scoffed at me. "I know I've studied some of your world's religious lore, but wasn't Jesus betrayed with a kiss?"

I immediately rolled my eyes. "Dear lord, put that book down."

Meanwhile, the princess appeared a bit enthusiastic about her nailing the reference. "I have other religious tomes I'm looking up, the Quran, the Vedas, the Buddhist Teachings, Roman and Greek Mythology, they're offer such interesting ideas on the different forms of a human higher power. There are some radical ideals as well, but it's knowledge all the same."

"Knowledge that humans have gone to war believing." I argued before snapping myself back on track. "I think we should let Solemn back in before she starts to brood over our conversation."

Celestia seemed disappointed that she couldn't even have a conversation about my world's theological ideals, but she understood what was at stake. So she gave a begrudging answer to my suggestion. "Do what you must."

While I was feeling sorry for the fact that I broke off a fun conversation, I mentally made a note to pick that subject up for later. And by the time I had opened the door, the demeanor between the both of us had snapped back from a bit flirty to stern and professional. "Solemn Oath, come on in."

As the mare walked in, Celestia then informed her of her status. "The captain here has discussed with me some ideas of how you can be of use."

"Does that mean that I'll be briefed in full, your highness?" The mare questioned optimistically.

"Not yet. But in due time."

I went a little further with Celestia's answer. "We still have to see how you perform under duress. It's not everyday we can just exclusively rely on violence to get the results we want. Sometimes it is, but not always."

Solemn looked at me, appearing upset that I openly reprimanded her in front of the princess. But she didn't let that distract her for too long. "Your highness, whatever you desire, it shall be done."

Celestia stopped herself short of her initial response, walking beside the guardsmare she trusted. "Anything I want?"

"Whatever you desire, your highness." Solemn answered passionately.

The princess closed her eyes and then opened her wings. "Then I want you two to be friends."

"Uh, what?" I said, tilting my head in confusion.

The mare looked between me and the princess, stammering through her words. "Y-y-your highness, I-I'm afraid th-that I don't understand the vagueness of your request─"

She cut through Solemn's reply to speak at me as well. "Captain, that order is extended to you also."

"But why?" I asked.

"Because I know that in time, the hostility between the two of you will subside if there is plenty of opportunity for the both of you to interact. I can't have her guarding over your life while looking for an opening to let you fail. And you cannot justify any of her failings without accounting for your own in communicating with her. Once the two of you work together more often, you will gain trust with one another and operate with a much better synergy. If this is to succeed, then this is how it will be done."

Solemn was borderline objecting to the idea. "Your highness, with all due respect─"

But Celestia didn't let her get an answer in. "I'll notify your officer that your jurisdiction will be changed immediately. From now on, you answer directly to me and the captain exclusively. That is a royal decree."

Solemn glared at me with a fierce blush, most certainly against the idea but complying with the order. "...Your word is law."

"Very good." Celestia said, stopping herself short of clopping her hooves together in celebration. "Now back to the topic, what exactly did you find out about that arimaspi?"

Using the topic as a distraction, Solemn answered the princess question before I could. "It was killed using human weaponry."

The princess appeared shocked for a second, turning to me awfully quickly to verify the news. "Nondis, is this true?"

I confirmed her account. "I found shrapnel and bullets in it's neck. Something blasted that thing's head off, a bomb or a similar device."

Celestia took a deep breath and entranced herself in thought. "This is troubling."

"We also found this." Solemn added, summoning a pamphlet used to advertise the occasion.

The high princess read the ad, looking at what was proposed. "A flier for the event... apparently scheduled for yesterday evening after the Gala."

"Solemn says the shadow looks to be a griffon. But I don't recall there being a griffon here on post. Usually those guys are sent out towards the borders of Griffonstone." I answered.

"But a griffon can't use human weapons... can they?" Solemn asked.

I grimly replied to her. "I wouldn't put it past anyone learning our world's technology. After all, you learned how to use a tactical crossbow today."

"Yeah, and those arrows are still intact after an impact like that. That's pretty scary to think about."

I folded my arms in thought. "So now begs the question, how did they get a hold of some human weapons? Nothing in the inventory at the barracks was missing or out of place when I went there earlier. I'll circle back to it if I find out anything new. I'll see what I can find in the footage."

Celestia then made it a primary point of focus to find out what's been going on with my weapons and this event. "Captain, those weapons are ghastly dangerous to us. We cannot afford for those to get into circulation, or our guards will be going back home in body bags by the droves."

"I'll be extra careful in looking into the matter." I assured her.

The mare whispered to herself as she teleported out of the room. "Please do."

Twilight's Castle
Ponyville
The Next Day...
***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

As I walked circles around the table in the friendship throne room, my mind couldn't isolate what I saw from Celestia just yesterday. If anything, I had nightmares behind it. I couldn't think about anything but the idea that this stallion was walking around in the bodies of the deceased. Granted, I faced off against a lot in my life, evil unicorns, transmogrified alicorns, power hungry centaurs, and even demi-god eldritch abominations capable of changing the fabric of reality in a snap of his tendrils. But I couldn't exactly know where to begin with this one. Do we go to the Tree of Harmony and borrow the Elements from them again, would our rainbow transformations suffice, maybe my magic is good enough to do it? I don't know the extent of his power, but I know the extent to how horrified Nondis must've been to encounter that.

But in any case involving a situation that Celestia calls me to do, I'd be better off with the safety net of my friends behind me. Not only are they my source of power, but they are my drive to succeed. Without them, I would never be in this position. And I'm sure Nondis would appreciate seeing their faces as we take on this monster together.

The door swung open, both Starlight and Spike guided the five other mares through as they galloped in from their respective jobs. Pinkie had just the tiniest hint of vanilla in her coat from baking. Fluttershy had a bit of a wild-animal smell. Rainbow Dash still had static electricity from cloud busting. Rarity wore her red sewing glasses. And Applejack had a few twigs in her tail.

As they took their seats, I proceeded to address them. "Girls, I know it's sudden, but I'm glad you're all here today."

Rainbow already knew the drill. "Just cut to the chase already, meetings like this are only about one thing."

"Another grand epic adventure?" Applejack sneered over to Rarity.

Predictably, she didn't like the idea of getting in the rough of things again, though she was never unwilling. "Ugh, dear. I cannot do another one of these this month. I love being with you all and I love you all to pieces, but I'm starting to feel that Equestria's been in more trouble in a year of our being element bearers than it ever has in the thousand before our being born."

Applejack snickered as she got the result she desired from the fashionista. "We knew this coming in, Rarity. Ain't no gettin' off this here train now."

Rarity argued in return. "Applejack, do you want to know the last time we had a threat to Equestria that nearly changed our entire world as we know it?"

"Well it can't be that short of a time ago." The farmer replied.

"LAST MONTH!" Rarity screamed as she jumped on the table to stare down the orange mare.

Applejack rolled her eyes at the mare. "And who was that?"

Pinkie bounced up and down in her seat. "Ooh! Ooh! I know this one! Queen Chrysalis! No wait, Starlight Glimmer!"

Starlight smiled nervously before hiding behind her mane. I patted the young mare on her back as I both reassured her and addressed the others. "That's in the past now, girls. And I know that we're pretty tired of life-changing events that could alter our world or bring grievous harm to our families and friends, but we're here because we chose to protect them and this world we love. Today, tomorrow, next week, or even the next ten years might not be any different. But it's our duty to deal with those threats, especially those that are considered to be unnatural or beyond the limitations or our nation's security forces."

"Which seems to be about all of them nowadays." Spike sarcastically added.

Fluttershy jumped in quietly. "And put it this way, it hasn't just been us doing all the work this time."

Applejack sat back in her throne to casually recline herself. "Ah have ta admit it, them humans have been a sort of help with those changeling invasions. We barely had to lift a hoof at the last two situations with them."

Rarity hopped off the table as she also pointed out another detail. "And the guards' morale have taken a steady rise in morale since Nondis was made Captain of the Royal Guard."

"Still..." Pinkie interjected, bringing a bit of reality to the forefront. "He's been shouldering a lot since then. I know he might've just got in almost half a year back, but it feels like he's losing a fight with himself. I'm awfully worried."

Rainbow Dash tried to brush off her concerns, trying to be optimistic. "Nondis will be fine! He's a tough guy with a bunch of cool stuff at his disposal. Is he gonna have a hard time with a few things, yeah. But I think in time he'll come out on top."

Fluttershy also added some words of caution to contrast with her earlier praise. "I don't know, they say that the guard has some really troubling issues with mental health."

"If Caramel wasn't already an example of that." Applejack mumbled.

Rarity quickly dismissed the stallion of topic. "Caramel was just a criminal, darling. He deserves every minute of his sentence for what he did to Pinkie."

"Can't blame a girl for trying." The pink mare said with a dismissive shrug. "But I don't want Non-Non to be the same way."

On that note, I pulled out a memory sphere and sat it on the table to bring up the matter of today's discussion. "In speaking of which, a situation has come to the princess' attention."

Everyone in the room started to mumble and mutter, Starlight raised a hoof to bring up a question. "What happened exactly?"

"Nondis was attacked last night. He's relatively fine in terms of his physical health, nothing like any serious cuts, bruises, scars, broken bones, that kind of stuff. But─"

Before I could finish, Rarity interrupted with a rant of her own. "Let me guess, another attack on his character? I swear those politicians are no better than ghouls with the way they demean those who they don't agree with."

I quickly corrected her. "It wasn't anything like that either. But it's taking a tremendous toll on his mind. As you saw on Thursday, he's struggling with a lot of what he sees on the job, especially with his elected assignment."

"Well if it's not that healthy for him, he should stop." Everyone in the room turned to Pinkie as she leaned forward on the table, nervously shifting her hooves on the surface. "I'm just saying. Nonny shouldn't be here throwing himself into stuff he can't get out of, much less something that's going to end up damaging him more than he needs. He doesn't really owe anypony anything, so what does it matter if he quits? I think he should try something else if this is what it leads to. I mean we all heard what Fluttershy said, we can't just let this keep going."

Rainbow groaned as she offered her reply. "But we all know Nondis. So we can safely nix that idea."

Pinkie slammed her hooves into the table, causing a loud echo throughout the room. "THAT'S NOT WHAT WE SHOULD BE DOING!"

Fluttershy reached out to the pink mare. "Pinkie─"

"NONDIS IS HURTING! WE ARE HIS FRIENDS! WE NEED TO STEP IN AND TELL HIM TO STOP IF WE KNOW HE'S HURTING HIMSELF! WE CAN'T WAIT UNTIL IT'S TOO LATE TO DO ANYTHING AND THEN HE COMES UP BEING ALL MEAN AND BROKEN!"

I couldn't ignore the fact that I agreed with her on the inside. I felt that after he was done with me, he should've just been done with the guard and went about his way. But that wasn't what happened, he went for a much more valued prize. And I couldn't help but to support them in any way. It was the only reason why I was doing this, the only reason I came to his defense. "That's not our decision to make, Pinkie!" I replied, choking back any desire to do what she had suggested. "He already made his decision. But that doesn't mean that we won't be helping him. Especially now."

The pink mare, usually jovial by nature, turned to me with narrowed eyes and angrily questioned me. "Do you even care, Twilight?"

"More than you know." I said as I turned away from her, I elected to not start an argument and focused on the briefing. "Nondis was the victim of a psychological attack and suffered a mental breakdown as a result. He was concussed and found passed out in the portal room. Something has him becoming increasingly paranoid, and it's safe to say that his growing sense of paranoia was justified on Saturday night while we were at the Gala. As such, the princess asked for our help to personally involve ourselves in the matter of limiting his confrontation with the pony responsible for those attacks."

"Umbra Sanctus."

Everyone in the room was unsure of what was said. But Rarity had said it. Spike spoke out to the seamstress. "Uhhhh, what was that again?"

She calmly explained herself. "Nondis told me of the name of this pony in question. Though he was warned against saying the name out loud, even writing it was to be condemned, he gave me the name. It is Umbra Sanctus."

"Lady, are you nuts!?" Starlight blurted out, almost ready to pounce the mare down.

Rainbow snickered as she pointed fun at the fashionable mare. "Ahead of the curve, huh? What's been so different where the two of you have been exchanging information like that?"

Rarity explained herself. "I took some time to test out this theory of mine. So I started saying the name in the comfort of my own home. Nothing happened all throughout the week I've said his name. Though I did run into another one of Nondis' associates on the assignment. She too was superstitious about the name, much like Starlight is now, I suppose it would only be problematic for those in Canterlot, but not in the comfort of a private discussion. If anything occurs from today, it will be because of my saying the name."

Now that I had a real name to commit to memory, I carried on with the briefing. "Nondis gave the princess a different name, a name he coded for us to use in any general discussion. He used the name 'Slade' to describe this pony of interest."

"Slade, that's an interesting name choice. Kinda awesome if you ask me." Said Rainbow Dash.

"What's not cool, Rainbow Dash, is how this Slade attacked Nondis." I said as I was about to illuminate the sphere. However, I had remembered who it was that helped Celestia put this sphere together. I glanced over to the one pony that could bring about an even better vantage point. "But first, I want to ask Fluttershy a favor."

Everyone turned their heads to the quiet yellow pegasus. "Me?"

"Yes. I need you to summon Discord for me. Out of all of us, you have the best chance to bring him here so we can talk with him, at least you can summon him without all of us needing the elements to do it."

Rainbow rolled her eyes in disgust. "Oh boy, as if we need to see his ugly face around here after that whole stunt he pulled."

The shy caretaker then replied in a dainty voice. "We had our conversation, he's made a very strong apology."

"You had better give him a good talking to." Rainbow said as she narrowed her eyes to the mare.

Fluttershy then grew an unappeased frown. "I gave him a Zephyr Breeze conversation."

Rainbow cringed as she leaned back in her seat. "Ooooh... Is he even going to come by when you call his name?"

She wasted no time to command the chaotic being. She drew a deep breath, as quiet as mouse before calling his name, "DISCORD!" The room shook with her voice echoing throughout. Each of us jumped from her sudden volume increase.

A flash of light later and the draconequus was perked up and ready to submit to the tiny yellow mare. "Yes, Fluttershy dear."

As all of us were shocked, Rainbow was the least so. "Wow. You know for all the years I've known you, I think that part of you is the one thing that still scares me."

Fluttershy pointed to me as she sternly informed the creature of her intent. "Twilight here wants to ask you a few questions about something."

"It's about Saturday night." I clarified.

The eldritch creature stood in place as he glanced down to the mare that summoned him. "Oh, well I suppose we did have a conversation as to if I needed to make an extended apology to you all for my behavior on that evening. I even went through the trouble of drafting a rehearsed speech."

As Discord pulled out a large scroll as thick as a roll of toilet paper, I quickly stopped him from getting into that for the moment. "I'm afraid our conversation is set to put that off for another day. What we want to talk to you about is Nondis."

At the mention of his name, the creature perked up as if he was about to tell some rather interesting details about his weekly ventures. "Oh. Well what do want to know? Perhaps a fairly interesting ordeal involving one of Celestia's personal guards? Maybe a brief conversation about his steamy little stint on last Tuesday night? Or perhaps a juicy encounter of taboos and testing the waters on Friday evening?"

I interrupted him to holler out what I wanted to know, at least before he started to get on my nerves. "Nondis on Saturday night, Discord! Celestia told me that you had information about what happened to Nondis on Saturday night."

The creature looked off towards the sphere that sat on the table. "Oh... that."

"Yes. That. What do you know about the situation that's occurred?"

Discord walked onto the table, picking up the sphere that sat before me. "Well that's pretty bold of you to question me on something you already have access to, Twilight. Isn't it true that Celestia gave you this memory sphere with that imagery already in it?"

"Put together by you apparently. But I want to know what happened in full." I demanded.

The creature hissed as he saw the yellow mare standing from across the table. "Well personally, Twilight, I don't think it's of Fluttershy's best interest to know what happened to Nondis. After all, you know how she typically responds to things of that nature."

Fluttershy calmly coerced the creature to follow my instructions. "Discord, I'm asking you to show us what you know."

The creature grew hesitant. "Fluttershy, I don't think that's a good idea. You may have some trouble sleeping tonight."

"Then that's a risk I'm willing to take." The yellow mare stood firm.

"Fluttershy, please." The creature begged, trying not to bring any form of harm and trauma to her.

The mare's voice softened more as she spoke to the creature. "I understand you're trying to protect me Discord. But our friend is in danger, and he needs our help. So can you help us understand what hurt our friend?"

Discord looked at the sphere and closed his eyes as he reached down and petted the yellow mare. "I pray that Luna gives you all good dreams tonight."

"Is it really that bad?" Starlight asked.

"I wouldn't say it's bad, that's just my being subjective..." He sat the sphere at the center of the table as the imagery from his memories started to take shape in the form of a screen displaying above the table. The screen started off with the image of an apartment room with a coffin sitting at the front of it. "It's much worse."

"How much of 'much worse' is it?" Spike questioned.

Discord gave him a direct reply. "Nothing you should be watching. But for starters, let's go back to a little something I managed to get a glimpse of on the Friday before last. It was the week following his birthday, and this was the gift that was given to him in his friend's apartment."

The memory started playing back out, but instead of it being quiet like I've often seen it through the sphere, there was the vivid sound of everything that took place. Discord extended his hand to the sphere as he displayed the memory of Nondis from the perspective of a top-down view. Nondis looked at a letter and read it to himself. "Happy Birthday to our most esteemed escape artist. I know you've been feeling a little upset with the news lately, so I gave you a surprise gift for good cheer. I give this to you with all of my being, I offer it to you with you running through my mind. The affection I have for you can only be described as eternal. With love and kisses in mind, Ummie."

As I watched that scene, that nickname had become a blatant disclosure to me since Rarity explained it to us. But instead of my mind being drawn on that for an extended time, there was a song playing on what appeared to be an old record player. But as the song went along, it gradually slowed down around halfway.

♪Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to you.
From good friends and true.
To old friends and new.
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to♫─

The lid of the casket flew open and a body was propped up to glance at the group present in the room. The four that was as startled as we were in watching it was Nondis, Melanie, Blueblood and my brother. I clenched my chest as the sudden jump scared a few surplus beats into my heart. While all of us were started from the second-hoof experience, we were more empathetic to the ones who were there to experience it.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Melanie screamed and quickly grabbed Nondis' shoulders as she hid behind him.

"JESUS FUCKING..." Nondis himself was petrified, clasping his mouth with his hand to choke back anymore screams.

"Holy shit!" Shining jumped back placing a hoof to his muzzle.

Blueblood stared wide-eyed at the corpse, giving a slow nod. "Well that's a new one."

As the scene faded out, I could hear Melanie starting to sob and cry in the background before the scene began to transition. Discord began to explain. "Now of course, this was the reason why Nondis saw fit to move his friends here to Ponyville, so that either of them couldn't be targeted for this again. And before you ask, the body was very real."

Most of us had become pale from watching that. Fluttershy was already reduced to tears. "That's absolutely terrifying!"

"That's just disgusting." Rarity said as she held a handkerchief up to her muzzle.

Applejack hid her head in her hat. "That ain't right!"

"No wonder he hasn't been eating." I whispered to myself as the scene went from that to him walking in a hallway. "Is there anything else?"

"Well I suppose we are on the subject of Saturday night. But I think we should first go back to Saturday morning. This is where it really began to pick up steam."

This vision was from a new perspective. It was Nondis himself, but it appeared to not be from his usual height. As he moved, we saw that he was speaking with a servant, and he was talking at eye level. It wasn't until we saw a hoof come up and reveal to us that he was a pony instead.

"So you're telling me that it was someone who lived here on this side of the mountain that has that same permit? Who the hell would come in here with a permission like that?" It was his voice, but lighter.

The butler walking next to him brought out a cloth and placed at against his muzzle as he slowly turned to the issue. "...The late lord of the manor."

Nondis started to gag over the foul stench, he covered his muzzle as he turned to the issue at hoof. "Fuck me if that isn't─"

The body was revealed in plain daylight. It was Count DuMoneé's body that was swinging from the rafters of a luxurious manor. It almost looked as if the body was staring down at the two of them. A lady's voice called out from the distance. "Is everything alright?"

Nondis flagged the source down and the servant quickly galloped off to tend to the mare in question. "Please, I ask that the both of you remain in the room until the issue is resolved!"

"Handy, what is going on?" A male voice called out this time. "You're not yourself this morning. Something must be wrong."

The mare once again spoke out. "Please tell us if something's wrong."

The butler walked away to explain to them the importance of heeding his advice, a conversation that was obviously tuned out by Nondis. Meanwhile, his eyes were locked to the decomposed stallion hanging from the ceiling. He slowly walked down the stairs to see if there was anything else that could have showed evidence of a break in. A brief search showed that there was no sign of forced entry. But then a voice whispered in his ear.

"Join me."

Nondis froze completely. Much like it did for him, that whisper brought an uncomfortable chill. He then turned around to see if anyone was behind. The only thing that seemed to remain in his eyes was the sight of Count's body hanging above, still creaking and swaying. He then closed his eyes and convinced himself that he was making it up in his mind. "He's dead. His skin is bound to fall off his bones any day now. This is just some more of Umbra's bullshit, he's done this before." His eyes opened and he took a deep breath before going back to work, looking up at how he was going to get started.

Then true horror sat in as the body, which was facing the stairs, was turned to him. And it gazed to him.

All we could hear was the trembling sound of his voice trying it's best not to let out a scream. It was the sound of him having a panic attack, the shortness in his breath, the way he staggered as he walked up the stairs, the moments he clenched against his chest to ensure that his heart wasn't giving out on him. Then came the chime of a grandfather clock in the distance.

"You can't escape it. It'll come."

The whisper echoed in his ear with the intimacy of a nail being slowly dragged against a chalkboard. Then the body was suddenly turned his way when he was halfway up the stairs, all of it was far too great for his mind to handle. The only thing on his mind at that moment was one word: Run.

As soon as the door slammed behind him, introducing him to safety, the scene faded from view.

Discord frowned as he glanced to Fluttershy, who was hiding underneath the table. The poor thing was shivering as she mewled out in terror. "This is far too much!"

"Way too far is what it is." Even Applejack wasn't against the idea of hiding in her hat, but Rainbow Dash was piled up behind her, using that same hat for cover.

Pinkie didn't even do much, she was watching with all eyes on the view. Even if she was scared, she wasn't going to not see what he had gone through. In fact, I'm sure she was looking at it as justification. And I don't blame her. "What sick mind would keep doing things like this?"

"That would be the very culprit from Saturday night." I answered somberly.

Rainbow pointed out after the scene had gotten darker. "It looked like the same body."

Discord continued. "It was. The body was that of the late Senator Count DuMoneé. This encounter had taken place in the family estate where Nondis had... *ahem* engaged in business negotiations."

"Non-Non's not just being tortured..." Pinkie began to seethe with anger.

"He's being systematically targeted." Rarity proceeded to do the same.

Discord walked over to Fluttershy, petting her head as he comforted her as much as he could. "And of course, this brings me back to the situation I had edited for Celestia. But I'm sure you all want to see what you're up against. So I again apologize to all of you for what you are about to see of your friend. Oh... and this one is a little more graphic, in all aspects."

The scene was from the perspective of a top-down view from one corner of the room. While it was dark, everything else was various shades of green. And there was sound this time, captured seemingly from that of his own phone.

"Tsk, tsk, captain. You know I can't have fun with simple things." Umbra said with a mocking frown. "I like pizzazz, shock value, the initial moment where your face shows the second your fight-or-flight response is triggered. Now I don't want you to feel hopeless yet, there's still some fun to be had."

"So damaging my reputation with a bunch of lies and rumors wasn't enough? Destroying my peace of mind with grim reminders from beyond the grave? Giving me what could potentially be years of psychological damage is just lightweight to you?"

"It's a wonder how Count drives you up a wall." The culprit said with a dismissive tone. "He's dead. So it shouldn't bother you. Just think of him as your victory flag, swaying in the wind."

"Of course I forget who I'm talking to." Nondis mumbled under his breath.

He loosened the grip of his hair, but pushed Nondis' head forward. "You know, it wouldn't have to be this way if you just did stayed behind like I wanted you to."

"Sorry, but I don't swing that way." The human said firmly.

The stallion smirked as he dragged a hoof up to his chin. "Tell you what, I'll leave you alone for tonight on the part of one little favor."

"What?"

"I want a kiss." He whimpered in a pouty tone. "I miss you so much and you haven't seen me in a week. I was so worried about you. I was almost in a fit of rage not knowing where my precious monster-size boyfriend might have wandered off to."

Nondis closed his eyes and muttered. "You'd be better off shooting me."

"Is that your final answer?" The stallion smiled while he got in closer.

The human turned his head away from him, nudging his forehead against the barrel of the gun. "You got me, if you wanted me to die, then this is the best outcome for you. I'm not in your business anymore. So do it. Pull the trigger. No one will even notice until sometime late tomorrow morning. They'll even think it's suicide, it's perfect for you. JUST FUCKING PULL THE TRIGGER!"

"...Ugh... Fine. Your wish..." The stallion squarely levitated the weapon to the front of the human's forehead. He clenched his eyes shut, expecting the world to come to a brief end. "...Is mine to deny." He quickly said as he tossed the weapon aside, causing it to misfire into a wall. The sound of it's firing made the human flinch, only for his head to be held in his hooves while he inched closer. "Do you honestly think my intention is to kill you now? Why whatever gave you that idea? I told you that the game would be decided when you face off against your worst adversary. I'm not the worst you've faced, in fact I'm quite smitten with the idea of toying with you. You're so reactive, so passionate, so desperate and delectable. Maybe you'll show me how you have three princesses risking it all for a night with you. And judging from Kalimba's reaction, I must say that you are something I must taste for myself."

Nondis backed away from the assailant, only to find a force pulling him down and keeping the him locked in place. "As I said, I don't swing that way."

He then whispered in his face. "All I want is a kiss. Just give that to me and I'll be on my way. We can start slow, if you want. Even with my being this close, I feel the tension building between us." Nondis then tucked in his lips, which started to quietly anger the stallion. He forced his head to turn to him. "What are you hiding from me? My lips aren't good enough for you?" The human tightened his lips all the more, making sure that he couldn't be violated. "Seriously, I'm beginning to think that you don't want me to be your friend. Is it because of how my kissing you the last time has you so wound up? Or is it that you've secretly discovered a new fetish that you don't want anyone to know? I can keep secrets, you know."

He turned his head away once more and quickly thought to press his face into the ground. But it didn't go as planned as Umbra held the human by his hair again. He yanked back, assuring the pain sufficient enough to force his mouth to change.

"You must think that I'm foolish, that you're so smart. I know you're hiding things from me." He said, showing the frustration in his tone.

"And kissing me is how you find out." He replied, earning a snicker from the stallion.

The human's head was released, but instead of Umbra smiling, he was visibly angry. He abruptly tried leaning in to plant himself against the human. Nondis denied him by grabbing at his horn and summoning to his hand the gun Umbra tossed away. It was instead Umbra's mouth that was forced open, introduced to the gun.

The human angrily stood up and said to the pony. "You gon' have enough of fucking with me." The gun fired, sending a shot into his skull and the assailant's body flopped to the ground. Nondis turned around and started to pull out my phone, staring at the screen.

"Ooh, so close."

The human turned around in hearing Umbra's voice again. He glanced to see the body he shot at, only for his eyes to expand in horror over what he saw. Instead of Umbra laying there, it was an unidentified body. Nondis looked back down at his hand, realizing that it wasn't covered in blood, but rotten flesh and decomposed juices. He quickly hunched over to keep himself from vomiting.

A hoof then patted him on the side. "There, there. There's no point in screaming over it. It's just there." Umbra whispered into the human's ear. "Though I wonder about what his family would think of you doing this, an act of sacrilege so brutal that you'd go so far as to shove your hand in a corpse and show them what for. How delectably uncouth. Just imagine how the taste of their mouth would've been if you kissed them."

The human immediately vomited on the floor at the thought.

Umbra smiled as he walked beside his victim. "You know, all of this could've been avoided if you had only come by to see me. But now begs the question, who exactly would you be seeing from here on?"

"You're a fucking psychopath!" He screamed in between heaves.

"Aw, sweetie." Umbra said with a mockingly loving voice. "I'm not so eager to be called bad names. Besides, I'm just another lost soul looking for salvation. Isn't that what we all strive for, acceptance? I swear you call everyone you don't agree with everything but a Child of Faust. I guess you and Count have that in common."

"Shut up!" He screamed, aiming the gun at his assailant's direction, only to jump up at the sight of Count's decaying face instead. The human fell back, crawling away from the body that stared back. His hair was tugged back once more, his legs locked in place, rendered motionless as Umbra dusted himself off and tapped him on the forehead with his illuminated horn.

"Now the next phase of the game begins. New rules, of course. This one's a bit more interesting. Since I can't just let you recall this little event to the others to prompt some investigation, you'll learn to not be so eager to put my name to your lips. From now on, you'll fear me as the others. Just the mere thought of exposing my name will bring you to your knees. But do be careful, push too much and you'll be having the headache of a lifetime. Try not to black out too much, or I might have to come and pick you up, just like your friend."

A bright flash briefly illuminated the room, followed by a unsettling scream from the human. There was a brief pause between the screams as the spell subsided. But as the image of Umbra's face faded to slowly revealing Count's rotting body
being mere inches away from him, he let loose a blood-chilling yell. The other body that was shot stood up, it's entire body was assimilated by Umbra as he looked back at his victim, smiling to the screams as he walked away. The stress of the event became too much for the human to handle, and his mind gradually shut down to the world. Umbra walked out the room, offering the last bit of light from the hallway before leaving the distressed human in total darkness.

"Do think of me, but not of my name. Sweet dreams."

Before the scene could conclude in total silence, Fluttershy pinned her ears down, mashing her hooves against them to prevent herself from hearing the screaming. She cried out to the draconequus with all her might. "STOP IT! Stop it! I don't want to see anymore!"

The image shattered like glass as Discord snatched the orb from the table and popped it like an inflated balloon. He immediately walked over to the trembling mare's side and held her closely, petting her as he tried to soothe her. While Fluttershy began to sob, the others couldn't bring themselves to talk on what they saw. Many were deeply saddened and highly enraged. Spike hid behind starlight with his claws over his ears, not wanting to hear that sound again. Starlight had her eyes closed, trying not to see the torture that took place.

I instinctively clenched my jaw shut, shaking indignantly. "So this is what Celestia saw."

Rainbow Dash peeked from behind Applejack. "There's no way..."

"That's what he's fightin'?" The farm pony questioned as she placed her hat on the table.

"No. That's what WE'RE fighting." Pinkie called out, who seemed to be the only one who watched everything that happened without flinching. "Nondis can't fight that on his own, so we have to do it for him."

Rarity immediately started using her magic to tie her mane back. "Fighting is merely subjective, darling. That's only what we're going to be SENDING TO THE ETHER!"

Applejack, who wasn't entirely against the idea, had showed some hesitation, even trying to make light of her own unease by joking with the fashionista. "Ah thought y'all were plum tired of grand adventures, Rarity."

To which Rarity replied. "This is not an adventure, Applejack! This is a national emergency!"

I took a few deep breaths to calm myself, at least to reign myself in emotionally. "Celestia classified this individual as a level ten threat, codename Slade. We have orders to discover what his plans are, and stop him from continuing these terrible acts. He's also a potential threat to the nation, as there are currently eighteen reported bodies missing in Canterlot's graveyard. However, meaning that there are eighteen reported, it's safer to assume that there are many more that could be at his disposal. He's a denizen of Canterrot, which means he's up to no good by default."

"We all heard him, Twilight. He's doing this just for laughs. It's one thing to prank somepony for a giggle here or there, but doing permanent harm to somepony's mental health is as terrible as you can get. He's not just a monster, he's psychotic and deranged. There's no reforming that." Pinkie added.

"Might I also add a few bits of information?" Discord chimed in, still holding a slowly recovering Fluttershy. "He owns an underground fighting arena, that alone claims at least fifteen victims per night in it's operation. We could be looking at another fifteen bodies with every night he operates, giving him more to work with."

"And this has been going on for how long!?" Rainbow inquired.

Applejack also came to a realization. "Didn't Kalimba say she was fightin' for Nondis?"

Rarity tapped her hoof on the table as she anxiously stated. "And judging from the way she speaks about him, she's probably protecting him from that very fate."

Applejack slammed a hoof on the table with another idea on her mind. "I'm willin' ta bet she might not even know anythin' about this."

"Then we have to tell her!" Rainbow shouted fanatically.

"We have to warn everypony!" Starlight loudly suggested.

As everyone started to get into an uproar, Fluttershy had wiped her eyes and nuzzled Discord for comforting her. She then placed a hoof against his chest to inform him that she was okay. She took on a sharp intake of air and shouted over everyone in the room. "GIRLS!" The others stopped and watched as Fluttershy continued to rub her eyes. "Girls, this is a top secret assignment. Celestia has ordered us to deal with this quietly, likely to not start a panic. I say we should just keep this to ourselves for now."

Spike tapped me as he spoke out. "Twilight, ponies' loved ones are being dug from their graves by this monster. We might be looking at an even higher threat than a level ten situation."

I couldn't agree more. "I'm willing to bet that as well. So we'll do as what we element bearers have to do. For our friends, our families, and for Equestria's sake."

"Ah can't imagine a poor soul havin' to look at himself walkin' round like a parading puppet. Lotta that ain't just cruel, it ain't natural, and it ain't right." Applejack, who was recovering from the idea of dealing with the deceased had grown more determined. "...I ain't exactly without loved ones lost here. But I can't imagine Applebloom getting looked at by some creep using my parents as a cheap suit. I can't let that happen, it don't sit well with me."

Understanding the seriousness in Applejack's voice, Rainbow Dash felt more compelled to join her. "So Twilight, who's sorry ass are we going to be blasting rainbow friendship lasers into this time?"

Before I could say anything, Rarity stared me down and firmly demanded. "Be sure to say his name, dear. If not ever again, then this once. Let's try to not show fear of what we're going to abolish."

"You girls are crazy." Starlight mumbled as she and Spike stood by.

I glanced back at my pupil and proudly ordered them. "Girls, our target is none other than the deranged Umbra Sanctus."

Sparkle Residence
Canterlot
Two Hours Later...

After my meeting with the girls, Spike and I had set out to Canterlot for a meeting with somepony I thought who could help me in trying to at least get through to those underground connections. If I had to, I would even go to Blueblood for the information, just as long as I could meet the strict prerequisites that would warrant the use of the elements.

As much as I wanted to outright use them for the purpose of vengeance, that's not what they were for. In fact, if we were to use them in such an unwarranted manner, we'd probably lose our connection to them soon after. And then Equestria would really be vulnerable from that moment on until new bearers are found. And that could take decades, even centuries to do.

But before I went about this search, there was only one thing I needed to do. I needed to inform my family. I needed them to be aware of what I was going to be doing and for possibly how long. If something were to happen to me, it's only responsible to let them in on what I did last. I do it before every world-saving mission and national assignment. The only times I didn't was dealing with Starlight and Chrysalis, but that was only because they caught me off guard. Those encounters were right then and there, as opposed to the run-in with both Tirek and Discord.

But this one was one I had felt the most unnerved about in a while.

As soon as I knocked on the door, my mind was already swimming with thoughts of what all Discord revealed to us earlier. I wasn't entirely sure of how I would get it done. Even finding who I needed to talk to was going to be hard. And then there was the matter of leaving Spike behind. Though my visit here could easily solve that.

The door opened and my mother greeted me with a huge smile. "Your majesty, what a surprise!"

My father shouted from the back room as my mother hugged me tightly. "Well, a visit by the princess! I should feel honored."

I couldn't help but become embarrassed as some of the neighbors passing up and down the street stared and watched. "Mom, dad, we've talked about greeting me like this."

"They also greet Shining Armor the same way." Spike added.

Mom patted me on my head. "Now Violet, you know we only do it because we're so proud of what the two of you had become. If I wasn't as old as I am now, I'd be begging your father to roll the dice and see what we could come up with on the third try!"

My eyes grew and I started to feel even more embarrassed over what she said. "EWWW! MOM!"

Dad then chimed in as he walked in from the dining room. "Now honey, she has a point. You know how Twilight loves to be my special little girl. A third little one would take too much attention from her."

"Dad, seriously." I said with a groan.

Then mom announced to me, also announcing it to the world. "Well if you want to stop us from making you an older sibling, I suggest you come inside."

I quickly trotted indoors with my wings covering my face, Spike followed close behind. "Ugh, why are you both the way you are?"

My dad hugged me as he inquired about how things were going. "So how's the others? I'm sure we get to hear what you all do come the next time you lot save the world again. But how about now since things seem to be a bit slow?"

"Yes, tell us what's going on behind the scenes." Mom added.

"In terms of the girls, they're doing just fine. Not much else to speak on other than Rarity's business picking up steam here in town. At least that's some good news." I said as mom also hugged Spike.

"And how's my little dragon drop doing?"

"Not off plotting betrayals today, are we?" Dad added with a chuckle.

"Nah, that's was pretty much a one-time thing. That's not happening again." The young drake replied.

Dad gave my assistant a pat on the back as he spoke. "Well it's a good thing that Count guy isn't around to be a bad influence anymore. I was getting worried that you would turn into a greedy beast who got in with the wrong political crowd. I can't say I'd be willing to embrace that chapter of your life."

I initially felt comfortable with the conversation, considering the topic. "Yeah. I'd never try to wish ill on anypony, but if I'm being personal about it, it's good that he's..." But then the image of Count's body being hunched over Nondis came to mind. I froze for a moment, getting more entangled in my own thoughts. "He's... he's─"

"Just say it dear, it's not a swear word. Dead, dead, dead." Mom victoriously called out.

"Six feet under." Dad added.

"Going up and yonder." Mom said with a sing-song voice.

"Rather the opposite way." My dad mumbled with a slight chuckle.

I didn't quite feel comfortable with calling his living status, considering what I knew. "Yeah, he's... deceased."

Mom jumped in jubilantly as she pulled out a white envelope. I already knew exactly where she was going with this. "That's the spirit! But I'll tell you what I'm more excited for."

I immediately face-hoofed. "Mom, seriously─"

"Midnight rendezvous in Prance! Ah, I can imagine it now. The two of you getting your great escape and eloping to where Equestrian Laws can no longer dictate your romantic passions, your youthful urges, your insatiable appetite for the intimate encounter. Possibly some scientific experimentation where the two of you start immediately talking about foals together."

I screamed at her, feeling my ears getting hot. "ARE WE SERIOUSLY DOING THIS RIGHT NOW!?"

"Violet, we're all adults here." Dad said with a snicker.

"Ahem!" Spike cleared his throat and raised his claw.

Mom couldn't care any less about the subject. "Spike is smart enough to know what happens between two consenting adults, and he's very intelligent. Why I'm sure he's already experienced what I believe are the first traits of dragon puberty. Judging from your reaction, it seems you two haven't had the great 'sit-down' yet. It's okay to tell him what goes on, so when he gets older─"

I had to immediately interrupt with the news, the bit of news I knew they would be sad to hear. "Mom, dad, this 'Great-Escape' plan you have isn't going to work. Nondis and I broke up."

She continued on like nothing was wrong. "Well we know you two broke up officially in the eyes of the public, but you can't fool us. We know the two of you still have feelings for one another."

I raised a hoof to grab their attention. As I did, I felt somewhat upset, so much that I didn't bother to look them in the face as I told them the truth. "...Nondis isn't interested anymore."

Mom and dad both froze, mom especially didn't want to believe it. "I'm sorry dear, but that sounded less like you trying to deny us our dreams for you and more of the literal bits and pieces of your heart trickling to the ground."

Spike, who wasn't completely aware of my relationship status, then spoke out to me. "Ouch. Seriously? Is that why I had to make you double chocolate chip cookies that one day you were depressed?"

Both my parents freaked out. "DOUBLE CHOCOLATE CHIP!?"

Dad immediately perked up and stuck his chest out like he was upset. "Twilight Violet Sparkle, you tell me what he said to you. You know you're my dearest little girl, and I'll do anything to defend your honor."

Again, I told them the truth. "Dad, it's not because of him, it's because of me. I was possessive and I tried to go at it a certain way. I thought it would've kept things interesting between us, but we just... I guess we drifted after I got in trouble for what we did."

Mom pouted after the news started settling in her mind. "Ugh, that damn law again. I swear watching Shining deal with that was hard enough."

Spike then questioned me. "Wait, did he really just break up with you after the two of you go all the way?"

I felt my cheeks run hot as I turned to my assistant and spoke in a soft voice. "Spike, adult conversation."

He then proceeded to shrug and put my business out in front of my parents."Okay then. It's not like I don't already give you certain books with certain masturbation-worthy content involved in later chapters for you to build up that one particular moment."

This time, I full-on yelled at him. "ADULT CONVERSATION!"

Dad chuckled and nudged at mom. "See, I told you she picked up your sexual appetite."

Mom giggled behind a hoof. "And she also picked up your sense for danger too, Mr. We-can't-get-caught-if-we-use-an-invisibility-spell-and-a-bubble-of-silence-on-the-main-table-of-the-royal-library. Those were your words, you know."

He then growled as he snared mom in a hug. "And that was your scheme. You loved it so much, you named our son after it."

"I loved it so much, I had no other choice but to give us a son." She replied with a snicker. "That plan was so good that I had to wear that pregnancy like a badge of honor."

I groaned with despair over their crude discussion. "MOM! DAD! PLEASE!"

Dad whispered a little lower to her. "I wonder if she knows that she came after a quickie in the bathroom sink during a family vacation."

Mom couldn't help but to suppress a laugh. "Best speed-run ever."

At that point, I was over the conversation. "CAN YOU TWO BE QUIET ABOUT THAT, PLEASE!?"

Dad finally stopped teasing at my expense and reigned it in. "Now Velvet, I think she's upset. Maybe we should tone it down a bit."

After the bit of laughter, mom finally started to sober on the thought of my relationship status. "Okay. So... the two of you are completely done with one another. But who did he get involved with that could be any better than our darling little girl?"

I shook my head, trying to get on to the topic of why I actually came here. "Does it matter? I just came here to tell you both what I'm going to be doing for the next few days."

The two glanced at each other as mom muttered to herself. "Oh no."

Dad, as accepting as he was to my deeds and accomplishments, was always nervous about when I went out and did world-saving missions. It's within reason that he would be nervous about it every time it happens. He started off with a sigh. "That's what you always do whenever you're about to do something dangerous that could lead to yet another parade held in honor of the heroics of you and your friends."

Mom didn't pay it as much mind as dad did, she always had confidence in my magic, especially since she discovered that I was an element bearer. "So who's the big nasty threat trying to assume the total domination of all of Equestria this time?"

While I wanted to simply tell them what I was doing, it would probably come with a lot of disagreement. So instead, I brought up the subject in an inquiry. "Mom, dad, what do you know about Canterrot?"

The whole house was deadly quiet after my question. It seemed like the moment froze in time up until mom sat herself down, tapping her foreleg on the table nervously. "Oh.... oh dear."

"Oh dear, indeed." Dad said with a dejected sigh.

Mom whispered to dad with concern. "It seems we might finally have to have 'The Talk' with her."

"I thought I already talked with her about that place." Dad said as he walked over to a nearby bookshelf.

Mom then said. "I just told her a few stories back then, just a few scary foal tales about how there's some bad ponies working for the headless horse."

While the two were stuck in their deliberations, I had to grab their attention once more. "Uh, hello?"

Mom politely gave me her disapproval. "Twilight, sweetie, I don't know if there's a good reason for you to know about that place other than you wanting to go there yourself."

Dad was far less restrictive about his thoughts. "Which I can safely say that I'm not willing to allow. Many of your troubles up to this point didn't involve the stuff you'd see there. Why whatever makes you curious to that den of criminals?"

Mom then brought up an argument against going there. "You know that ponies there will do whatever to you, and it won't matter who or what you are."

"And you are a pretty little flower that could be maimed by those evil ponies there. I don't trust it." Dad said harshly, taking a more serious tone.

Spike glanced at the both of them and then to me. "Isn't that the place we were told to never go to or talk about when we were younger?"

"I know I still tell you that. But yes." I confirmed.

Dad shook his head as he spoke. "Look, Violet, it's not that we can't trust you, or even that we don't have faith in your abilities... It's just that it's a place that doesn't fit royalty. And you wear a crown now. And of course if I was anywhere near my prime, I'd have to advise you as a guard to never go there."

The mention of his past experiences in the guard, I grew to the idea of asking him more questions about what he knew about the place personally. "Dad, you were captain of the guard way back when. So I know you have to have some stories."

He looked off to the side, showing me that he did know something about it. Possibly knowing more than he lead on. "I... It's... That's not for me to disclose."

"Please dad, I need to know." I begged him.

He then begged to me in turn. "And I need for you to not go there. Ever. If I ever say anything, it's that Canterrot is the tiny sovereign nation hiding within Equestria's borders. The mere sight of you would be a call for violence. And I know they will do anything and everything to you, regardless of the title you hold or the crown you wear."

Mom gently suggested me to reconsider. "Violet, please forget that place and focus on your world-saving mission."

"Mom. I'm sorry, but that is what I'm here for." I informed her, earning a worried sigh from the both of them.

Dad made his opinion strongly known. "Violet, you are to never set hoof there. And that is my final word as your father."

Seeing how he didn't want to make any contribution to my task, I quickly ran through my list of alternatives. "Then maybe I can ask Shining for help?"

Mom immediately jumed up and questioned me. "Do you not remember what all your brother suffered through? Are you so obsessed with this that you'd willingly risk his sanity for this?"

"There's no place for you there. Just stay in the light." Dad urged once more.

"Spike, close your ears." I ordered, the young dragon doing as he's told. I then walked up to dad and questioned him quietly. "Dad, do you know anypony with the name Umbra?"

He immediately turned away. "No, I don't recall."

As I looked at him, I could tell he knew something about what I was asking for. But he was so adamant in not telling me that he wouldn't even look at me. The strained expression of guilt started to show on his face. I turned to mom and asked her to side with me on the matter. "Please, get him to talk to me."

Even she rejected me, looking away from me as well with a softened smile of regret. "Violet, we love you. But we're going to ask you to leave."

I couldn't believe it, my own parents were either complicit or they were too scared to do anything about it. It made me more upset to see them so resigned to secrecy. "Seriously?"

She continued. "It's not for our protection, sweetheart. It's for yours. We can't risk you getting hurt prying into something that isn't any of your business. So please just leave this one to the investigative forces at work."

Spike, seeing how futile my requests became, took his claws off his ears and finally spoke out a harrowing detail that was supposed to remain undisclosed. "...Count's not dead."

This time, dad's eyes lifted to stare at the two of us. "What?"

Shocked that he would go so far as to tell them classified information, I called him out on it. "Spike, what are you doing!?"

"Count isn't dead. Not anymore." He lied, ultimately to get their attention.

Dad walked towards us, whispering. "What are you saying, son?"

Mom wasn't as slow as he was, she quickly grabbed the envelope with the tickets inside and levitated them to me. She then tried to push me out of the room. "Violet, you need to take these tickets, and take Spike with you. Get out of here while you still can."

By then, I started to see why Spike was more upfront with them. It was because they were afraid. They know they don't have the power to stop anything from happening to them. But it would probably be worse if the underground forces had somehow got a hold of either me or my brother. It was the fear of us being targeted by those forces.

So I followed Spike's example and talked about what I discovered. "We know what Umbra does, we know what he's in charge of. But it's bigger than me now. It's much bigger. And only me and my friends can put an end to it."

Mom became a little more frantic as she forced the issue of us taking those tickets and running away. "I can assure you, sweetheart, Prance is really nice this time of year."

I threw the tickets to the floor and walked over to my dad, who was staring at the glass case that housed the many commemorative plaques of our family's achievements. He stared at the reflection of himself in the mirror behind them. "Please, dad. I know it shouldn't matter to you, but you were a guard. I know the brotherhood you guys share for those that come before you, as well as those who succeed after you. And right now, one of those successors are struggling with a lot right now."

The first question he asked. "Is your brother involved?" It was colder than I anticipated.

"No. He's got nothing to do with this. It's Nondis, he's been working hard to help us. And now his work lead him to that part of town, to that particular name."

He shook his head with disbelief. "Those humans are crazier than I thought. Reckless creatures."

I then added. "All of them aren't involved, it's him exclusively. He's been trying to do this on his own in secret, even learning magic along the way to help defend himself. But all the magic in Equestria doesn't protect him from what Umbra's been doing to him psychologically. If I don't step in now, it'll be far too late."

Dad quickly cut in. "It's far too late if he's involved. You can't say that it's not too late when he's already there.... How long has he been there?"

"I believe he made his first contact in December, from what Princess Luna has told me."

Dad scoffed at my answer. "But he's already gotten that much attention, what is he doing?"

"From what we've gathered, he's been involved with some of those who work closely with Umbra. It's just that in recent developments where Umbra─"

My dad quickly cut me off, using magic to hold my lips shut. "I'm going to have to ask you to stop saying that name in this house."

I understood his rational fear and acknowledged his request. "Fine. Slade is what Nondis started calling him."

Spike then added. "Slade is using Count to make his rounds. So far as we know, he even used Count to scare Nondis and the other humans in the human world."

Even mom stopped trying to force those tickets down my throat long enough to gawk at the details that was unveiled to her. "The human world!?"

Dad chimed in with his own thoughts. "A magical being in a world with no magic, that's not good in any way. Has this been brought to Princess Celestia's attention?"

I answered his question."Not only that, but the other humans have been with us for a week, living their lives as ponies of course."

"So... What does any of that have to do with you getting involved?" Mom asked.

"Nondis is fighting for our freedom. And this guy is the main thing standing in the way. Celestia is assigning me to help Nondis, but not directly. If I can get a guide who knows the streets, I can at least start looking into what Slade's whole operation looks like."

Mom was still hesitant to the idea of letting me take the assignment. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. I just can't see you going to such an unsafe place with your being royalty. What if something happens to Celestia and Luna again? You're already the defacto successor to the both of them, I can't see you putting yourself in that kind of danger."

"Your mother has a point. But then you would also get Spike involved. Heavens know they'll be looking to sell him off to the highest bidder if they get a hold of him. A place like that is no place for your little assistant." He said, trying to come up with an argument as to why I had to stay out.

Again, I argued in opposition to their concerns. "But I have to do this. What else am I supposed to do, stand by and watch? I can easily grab a disguise, wear a wig, hide my cutie mark, and change my coat color."

Mom went to grab those tickets again, trying to give them to me. "Sweetie, there's no amount of makeup that will change who you are. If something happens to you, regardless of how you look, we can't bear it."

Mom and I looked over at dad, who was still looking at the display case. He gazed down at the award that was given to him after his time of service. His sights then changed over to the photo of him standing in his uniform for the final day of his service, surrounded by mom, my brother and I. He remained silent as he gazed through the glass that enclosed all these artifacts of the past. "Dad?" I called out.

His horn illuminated a yellow aura. His eyes closed for a second as he started to slick his mane back. The appearance of my father started to change before my very eyes as Spike also made a comment to his subtle, but jarring transformation. "Whoa, what happened to his face?"

Mom, knowing what he was doing, whispered out to him. "Crescent, no. You're done with that now!"

He opened his eyes, gazing at himself in the mirror. He turned around to look at me with a different set of eyes than the ones I saw when I was growing up. The pair I saw was far more focused, a lot more intense, without hesitance and conflict. It was like looking at a whole new pony who happened to have the same coat color as my father. He tied his mane into a pony tail, and muttered to me. "When are you going out?" Even his voice seemed icier than usual.

I was still a bit staggered in seeing him like that. "I guess whenever the next big thing comes up. But I don't know when that happens."

"Every Tuesday and Friday." He answered plainly.

I had to admit, I didn't think he was that knowledgeable of what I needed to find out. Instead, he seemed to be more of a help to me than a hinderance to my progress. "How do you know that?"

He responded in a low and booming tone. "Violet, did you forget that easily? I used to be captain too, I was even a higher ranking officer by the time you were born. Retired a fairly high rank. But this is something that I haven't dealt with in some years."

"So you'll help me?" I asked him.

"Hmm..." He glanced at the clock and started putting together his plan. "Today, we'll be spending some time going over your wardrobe and other things we can use to alter your appearance. And then we'll take a tour of the place so you'd know where to go and what to do. Tomorrow is the day where you'll act."

Mom, who was still in the camp of not letting me go, strongly expressed her dissatisfaction. "Crescent, you better have a brain up there. You know our daughter is a princess of this nation."

"If our daughter is going there on assignment issued by Princess Celestia herself, I'm not going to let her walk in unprepared and unassisted." My dad said as he reached a hoof around me and held me close. "That's my baby girl, let me take this one like you did for Shining."

Mom was thoroughly against the idea, but she eventually threw her hooves up to the air and resigned with a stern glare to my father. "Gracious, you two better get back home safely. Spike and I will be expecting you for dinner."

As the both of us turned around, I started to feel more secure in what I was doing. I hugged my dad and thanked him. "Words aren't enough to say how much I owe you for this."

He grimly replied. "Don't thank anypony for cursing you with misfortune and bad sleep."

A few hours passed by since dad and I left home. We ended up going to a few thrift stores to see what all I could buy for a disguise. But thanks to my notoriety, I couldn't exactly pretend it was for incognito reasons. Instead, I had to come up with the excuse of picking out clothes I'd like to wear and then giving them to Rarity to see if she could give the outfit a retouch or even a redo. Thankfully, that excuse was enough to pass off my appearance as insuspicious. From there I went to a makeup shop. I know it appeared a bit odd that I'd buy up to so many containers of temporary coat dye, but then I offered the excuse of Pinkie Pie holding a special party where the attendees wore stripes and splotches in solidarity for those who felt their looks were too atypical to blend in with society. That too passed as an acceptable excuse. After that, I went to a store that specialized in eyewear, and even a hair care shop, to get some colored contact lenses and wigs. My excuse for that was the same reason I gave for the coat dye. No questions asked, no suspicions raised, I walked out with everything I needed.

After that, we went into an alleyway facing towards the entrance of Canterrot. From there, we applied our coat colorings, our cutie mark disguises, our clothes, our contacts, everything we could to physically change our appearance to where we couldn't be recognized. As soon as we finished, I found even my dad completely indistinguishable from what he'd normally look like. Even I looked like a totally different pony under his guidance. I was amazed at how well my dad managed to disguise us.

The moment arrived, we were staring at the slum-down entrance from across the street. There was no special street marker or avenue plaque to tell us where we were going. It was intentionally inconspicuous. And anyone who made a wrong turn could easily get lost there, possibly to never be seen or heard from again.

But even looking at it, there seemed to be very little going on. "Well this is pretty dull."

"We're on the outside looking in." He announced, trying to disguise his voice to be a little deeper. "Now a quick review. What's your name?"

I added more falsetto to my voice to follow his example. "Gleaming Star."

"What's your occupation?" He asked, going through the number of rehearsed answers that I had to study throughout the evening.

"Janitorial staff at the public library." I added.

Our quiz continued. "Hobbies?"

"Bowling and crochet."

"What made you want to come here?"

"I got tired of my life as a boring janitor and I'm tired of having to clean up behind ponies." I answered, trying to be as sassy as I could be. I took inspiration from some of the girls in Nondis' home town.

"Does it make you so angry that you could watch a pony get beat up real good?" He asked the question as if what he asked wasn't disturbing enough.

And again, I had to answer in kind. "So much I'd wish they choke."

"Very good." He said quietly as we started walking across the street.

"All of this is just so unlike me." I whispered in my normal voice.

He glanced back at me and tapped his throat, indicating that I needed to keep up the façade. "That's the point. Can't let your real self show here. If you do, they'll know where to come find you."

"You're right." I replied, considering the circumstances of Saturday night.

He paused in the middle of the road, questioning me with a glance. "If a stallion comes up to you and asks you for a good time, how do you reply?"

I glanced to him and shuddered at the thought of what my answer was. "Say that my master has me on restriction, so no clients tonight."

"Good. Now if a mare does the same?"

My answer was vastly different, but the level of discomfort remained the same. "Flirt right back and get distracted by something specific. Say that you'll be right back, but don't return."

He nodded. "Now, golden rule for tonight."

"Don't speak unless given permission to speak." That answer was more for my protection. I wouldn't know what to say or how to say it here. But dad seemed to have an idea of how to negotiate.

He turned back forward and sighed. "Good. Now, another thing, if anyone starts to follow you, clear your throat and cough convincingly. It's a signal to many that you're being followed by a guard undercover. And ponies like that don't usually make it to morning unscathed. So they would be likely to stop following you then."

"I'm surprised that you don't write a book on this stuff." I muttered.

"Books are knowledge but can be inseparable from fiction. Unwritten knowledge is where the power truly lies. Now let's get moving." He said as he walked forward. "Stay behind me, but stay close. Keep your eyes on the back of my head and nothing else." I did as he instructed as we made our way into the unkempt alley.

Walking through the alleyway, I could see through my peripherals a lot of the downtrodden ponies laying lazily about the way. Some rubbed themselves and giggled, a few were sleeping, some were even climbing the walls and hanging from the rafters like they were bats. Others were posted up as if they were waiting on something to come by.

As soon as I walked past, one walked up to me from the side and instantly got feelsy, rubbing his hooves down my back and to my posterior. "Hey baby, looking for a good time?"

I immediately turned around to remove my rear end from his field of play. "Sorry. My master said I'm unavailable tonight." My falsetto almost broke from the sheer amount of panic I experienced in that moment.

He was insistent, closing in as he started to try and plant me against a wall. "C'mon cutie, your master don't have to know you had a little bit of fun. Just tell him you were caught in traffic or something."

As his hoof went to hold my chin up to look at his face, a yellow aura flicked his hoof away and then quickly turned into a dagger. "Go wander off somewhere." Dad looked at us with his eyes narrowed, the metaphysical blade brushing up against the neck of my molester.

The stallion shrugged his shoulders and eased away from the blade at his neck, which started to shave down his coat to his skin. "Hey dude, just let us have a bit of fun. We got some bollies for the cover charge. You know we're good for it."

He didn't back down, even going so far as to falsify my condition. "She has a nasty disease and can't be bought until she recovers."

The stallion immediately jumped back away from me. "Yikes, is it the burns? No thanks, not having that episode again."

The unknown stallion wandered back to his corner of the alley, while I could see a look of uncertainty on dad's face. "What's wrong?"

"Has the currency changed around here? Maybe a different name for something." He started to ask himself before shaking off his concerns and walking ahead. "Nevermind, let's move."

I caught up to him and quietly questioned him. "What do they mean by the burns?"

"Gonorrhea." He bluntly answered.

I gagged at the idea. "Ew, why did you say I have that?"

"Because a lot of stallions here don't want to give an operatic performance in the bathroom. Now be quiet, We're going to see an old acquaintance of mine in the guild."

"There's a guild?" I asked.

He quickly silenced me as he made a right turn down. "Remember, golden rule applies."

I said nothing else as we came up to a place that seemed ran down on the outside. But as soon as the doors opened, I caught a glimpse of something that was a complete contrast to the outside exterior. Dad walked up to the door and pulled it open to reveal a grand hall filled with stairs, crystal chandeliers, gold trim, and tables galore. It looked like a giant bar with the way servers were walking up to the tables.

Surprisingly, there were creatures from all walks of life here. There were a number of changelings sitting at a table, all of them wearing a special badge to the left of their chest. There was one table that had a half-dozen diamond dogs all inspecting the jewels they had in their possession. There was a pair of zebra stallions trying to drink one another under the table. A quartet of griffons all played poker with one another, with one slamming their cards down triumphantly, leading to the others to disgruntledly push over their stacked pile of bits for him to collect. A group of Saddle Arabians took turns throwing knives into a target against the wall. Nocturnal ponies, a rare breed of pegasi who's wings resembled that of bats, hung upside down from their tails in the rafters above. There was even a dragon with black scales telling stories with a boisterous laugh to those who wished to listen. A group of unicorn mares practiced their combat magic with one another. Earth pony stallions hoof wrestled in front of loud crowds cheering them on, of course also betting wagers for the winner of the match. Pegasi were playing a game of kickball in the air, with one unfortunate table being the unwilling victim of a stray ball knocking over their drinks.

The place was so full of life.

Dad and I sat down to a table, remaining quiet while a server walked up to us and sat a drink down without us even needing to say anything. Dad didn't hesitate about taking a sip. He just guzzled the frothy beer down and waited. I, not trying to stand out too much, followed suit and drank mine, albeit much slower than he did.

One of the nocturnal ponies unfurled their tail from one of the beams and nose-dived for our table. As soon as she landed, she had eyes on my dad. She questioned him with an upbeat tone. "Hey there Mr. Cutie. You seem to be a bit lonely tonight."

"Can't say my company's been much of thrilling these days." He replied carelessly. I had to immediately suppress any instinct to defend mom at that point.

She looked at me with a smirk, feeling as if she was easily superior to me. Her hoof wandered into his lap as he looked stone-faced. "Looks like you could use an escort then."

My dad didn't even seem to break a sweat dealing with her. "No escort, but business seems pretty low today."

"That's because a good number of guild underlings got swept up in the big crackdown yesterday evening." She said.

As I was more amazed with all the life that was overflowing in this place, this wasn't even the full number of ponies who actually work here. Dad also took notice. "I see. So it's an all-hooves-on-deck day."

She glared at me with a sadistic smirk as she wiggled her way behind my dad, rubbing him down as she spoke. "Most us regulars are swept up to do all the ground work now. It's a fucking shame, really. My guy could at least prove himself a good seat for when I want to take the edge off of a few deals."

"It is a pretty tempting thought." Dad replied, giving the mare a sideways glance at her.

I tried to hold back my anger, especially since she was feeling up my dad. I wanted to jump out of the seat and send her into a nearby wall with the way she kept looking at me like I was supposed to compete. She noticed my visible disproval, and milked it by letting her hooves wander down my dad's sides. "You look married."

"I look one thing, but I may be looking for something else." He said in a flirty tone, almost causing me to erupt with several foul-mouthed objections in mom's place.

She giggled as she glanced over to me, leaning into my father's ear. "What'cha got your eyes on?"

He levitated a sack of jewels onto the table, all sapphires as he spoke. "I'm looking for some information. There's a old friend who usually rummage through here, a bit of a pervert, stocky fellow."

"Hmm... Not exactly specific." She said in an amorous tone.

Dad cleared his throat and imitated an unusual accent. "Pretty much speaks loike this, tall vowels, has an accent that drags around like he does. I'm pretty sure he has a hoof in the slave market."

The mare quickly erupted into laughter. "Ha! Now if that ain't the old bastard, then I don't know what is. What's it to ya?"

Dad seemed to match the same energy the mare gave him. "He might be interested in a job, one that pays... considerably."

Once she figured out that the task dad had wasn't hers to have, she started to withdraw herself from him completely. "Ah, tragedies are commonplace, aren't they?"

"What makes you say that?" He said with a tone, almost questioning why the mare stopped all the physical attention she was giving him.

"Two things. First, Prod's been kicked out of the guild at least two years ago."

...Prod?

"And second?" He asked.

The mare shrugged and sat at the table next to me. "His slave got him good. Poor bastard was found in a ditch with half his brains excavated."

While I trying to hold back my feelings with the mare sitting next to me, I was internally disgusted with the details she put out there. Dad didn't seem too thrilled to hear the news either. "Ah, well that's no good."

She kicked her hind legs out on the table as she leaned herself in my direction. "You're telling me. I'm still hung over the fact that bitch he kept bending over the post had finally got the better of him. One of the other guys even told me how that slave of his was found in the VIP lounge of the arena, a champion of some guy walking in with new money. Piss-poor choice, if you ask me." It was obvious that she was talking about Kalimba.

"Slave must be as good as dead then too." He said with a dry tone.

The mare giggled and started slapping me in the back. "Actually that bitch got her ass whooped from here to Manehattan and back. Turns out that new-money guy is quite a sheisty fellow. The rules was that she'd get handed off to the winner, he ended up buying over our guy Speedy right then and told him to kick her ass so he could have her back. My guess is that he probably fucked her brains out for the money he paid her." She then turned to me like I was supposed to take part in the conversation. "And get this, she's a zebra hybrid too with quite some legs on her. Should've stayed in the prostitution ring, but she's only going to get herself killed, not to mention that target on her back because of how she did Prod. Seems a downright shame."

"Shame?" Dad inquired.

"Seems an awful waste. Such a nice plump frame. What's her name, doesn't matter. She'll be dead before the month is done. Should've been happy with what she had, at least she could've lived longer." She again turned her commentary to me. "It's almost like dumb bitches don't know their place in life until they get it beaten into them. But again, stupid bitches like her has a target on her head, not even knowing full-well the fact that he was actually protecting her."

"Why the target?" He asked.

"She's knows all of Prod's closer contacts, all his business tactics, all his schemes, most of his moves, but with none of the skills to boot. She's weak, will probably talk if she's tortured for long enough. It never takes much to break a slave, they're already broken to begin with."

"And no one knows where she is?" He asked. I continued to hold my peace.

"If you're trying to get your information from her, you might want to see if you can reach her new handler. But he's pretty sheisty, so be careful." She warned.

Dad gave her words some thought and shoved the sack of jewels her way again. "This was a good talk. Maybe we'll meet again?"

The mare smiled as she stood up from her chair, walking up to my father and giving him a slow kiss on the cheek. "I don't know, maybe we'll think it over a drink or two."

"Tomorrow perhaps, at least the scene won't look like a cemetery." He answered with a smirk of his own.

"Consider it a date." She waved her hoof at him before taking to the air and giving his head a hug and a soft peck on the muzzle. "Later, babe."

She flew back into the rafters to join her friend. Dad walked away from the table, I followed closely behind feeling even more angry over what she did. As soon as we walked outside, I felt more compelled to call my dad out for how he had disrespected mom with that encounter. "What was that all about?"

"Golden rule is still active, save it until we get to our next place."

It only took a good fifteen minutes before we reached our next destination. When we arrived, I was internally revolted by the appearance of the place. It looked like an old run-down shack that had a tin door. There wasn't lock the first for security, not even so much as a latch to hold the door closed. Instead it was just a dark place with a tin roof and no heating. It was so cold in there that anypony could sit food anywhere around here and they won't have to worry about it for a few days.

As soon as dad closed the door behind us, he went on to rummage through the place, seeing if anything new pops up. It's almost like he's been in here before, at least more than once. Meanwhile, I had to let my emotions simmer from earlier. That mare had done more to make me angry than any other pony, especially with how friendly she was to my dad. And what made it worse for me was that he didn't even bother to force the issue of his marriage into the equation. He just went along with it.

For moments, I was silent. And I stayed that way until it finally boiled over in my thoughts. "This is all crazy!"

Dad shushed me the moment I got loud. "Volume. You should mind that before you get us both caught."

While I decreased my volume, I did not decrease my level of anger. "I'm sorry, I just don't find it all too thrilling to watch my dad flirt with somepony other than my mom. Then she had the nerve to look at me like I was supposed to be competing with her for you. The only thing she was pointing out to me was the fact that she didn't give a damn about our family and what we are, she's out to ruin what we are just for the fun of it!"

"I have no interest in her. I was just trying to play the scene." He casually explained as if he didn't care. "If you want to make it through this place as quietly as possible, best you'd do the same."

"Can you imagine what it would be like if some stallion walked up to me and started getting feelsy with me? I mean you just held a knife to somepony's throat for just that much! How am I supposed to feel when it happens to you!?" I had to catch myself before I got any louder and just outright changed the subject so that I didn't have to linger on it too much longer. "Anyways, what is this place?"

"Seems like an abandoned home." Dad answered.

"More like a condemed home. This place is abysmal." I pointed out, still trying to distract myself from earlier.

He poked his hoof into an opening that was meant to resemble a window, with a lovely view of a brick wall and some scrap of moonlight trickling in from above. "Prod talked about fixing this place up. Guess he thought the booze was worth it more than having insulated walls."

As time progressed, I started to find more topics to discuss with him. Namely, the thing that drew my curiosity was the fact that he knew Kalimba's enslaver. I had to know what his relation was to a pony so cruel. "How could you be friends with someone like Prod? You know he works in the slave market, you know he's an abuser, you know he's a pervert, you know he's a cold-blooded murderer. He's a criminal."

"That wasn't always the case, but I wasn't blind to the signs either." Dad began to explain. "A long time ago, we were guards on an assignment to here, but he got into the drugs real heavy and never came out of that mindset. He got dishonorably discharged for drug possession. I tried getting him out, but he wanted to stay on the drugs. He liked that more than he did living a normal life. He had a good upbringing, parents who cared maybe a little too much, a social structure built for him exclusively to succeed. But he wanted to live a wild life, this was his out. We grew apart over time and he fell to this place, while I fell in love with your mother. We're not friends, the furthest thing from it actually. But we did have a moment where it felt like we were business partners in regards to darker... intentions."

The more dad talked about his past, the more I grew curious as to what may have happened. But there was one detail that grabbed my attention at that moment. What darker intentions did he have? "Such as?"

He glanced around and checked if anyone was in the square outside before he started speaking. "You remember that politician that signed off on your brother's deployment? The one that gave him the years of PTSD?"

"He retired sometime after Shining came back, didn't he?" I concluded.

"He did retire. I remember that." He said, sitting down and folding his forelegs.

"...So what about him?"

He took a deep breath, looking up to the ceiling as he spoke. "It's interesting that your mother did what she did to bring attention to the fact that Shining was as much of a victim as the others were. But where she failed was that she approached him in a public space in front of countless others. She was arrested for being a disturbance. My son was being hammered in the papers while fighting off suicide in a hospital bed, my wife was locked up for a few days, and you were so depressed that you started to struggle in your studies. So wouldn't it make sense to address the cause of your family's downward spiral?"

I know that the room was cold, but for some reason it felt like that place got significantly colder as dad spoke onward.

"Wouldn't anyone notice that one of the most controversial senators, known for making headlines with his decisions and propositions, had suddenly retired quietly without any other controversy to follow, with no headlines about his doings and financial pursuits? Isn't that a bit unusual? Surely an off-brand comment about a former colleague should've followed. Perhaps he could've thrown somepony under the rails, maybe expose a few adversaries and their dealings. Anything to cover his own tracks and deflect from what he was doing. He liked the grandstanding, and yet there was nothing to be heard from him after his retirement.... I know it would've made for good headlines, but sometimes you realize that the only thing to do is to not let them win in the end."

Now I know why it felt ten times colder in that room. "Whoa, don't tell me you... killed him."

"Oh no, I didn't kill him. But I did have five minutes with him. And in those five minutes, I did what your mother dreamed of doing to him when she got locked up in the dungeons for a few days." He confessed quietly, I could see one of his hind legs twitch as he carried on. "It's hard thinking about how he almost walked away from it all, having the night of his life and getting to go back home to his family like nothing happened. And then having watched him vote down every spending measure to aid in the mental health of every guard out there because he wanted to line his pockets. And then having done all of that while condemning my son to a lifetime of nightmares because of who he fell in love with, damaging MY family while HIS gets an all-expense-paid vacation and a free ride."

I could tell from the furrowing of his brow that he had a deep-seeded hatred for that politician. It was the first time I ever saw my dad have genuine hatred for anyone. "Dad."

He stopped for a moment, collecting himself before he continued on with a calmer tone. "No. I did not kill him, I merely made him wish that the night was over. Those five minutes were the most conflicted I ever experienced as both a pony and a parent. I knew it was wrong, I did it anyway. I knew that it wasn't legal, but it was still justice in some way to me. I knew that I couldn't take him away from his family, but I knew that every other family out there couldn't get their loved ones back either. Nothing could change the end result, no matter how bloodied he was. So I took five minutes to give him what I felt was necessary, much less than what I had the initial intention of doing. And I left it at that. It took my entire pension to make it happen, but I realized it was a waste after it was all said and done."

He stopped showing flashes of his anger and looked out the window, checking for any others who could be in the area. But while he was doing that, I just wanted to hug my father. I wanted to comfort him for the pain he had hidden inside for so long. But I knew that this paint on me could easily wear off on him. I had to maintain a distance. "So what happened to him?"

"I don't know. You'd have to ask Prod." He said with a dismissive tone.

"Well we can't ask him now." I said quietly.

"I suppose not." He said with a dejected sigh. "Damn, if only I knew where this slave girl was."

This time, it was my turn to check outside. I saw just a group of stallions walk completely past before I started to speak. I then told him the truth. "The slave girl, I know who she is."

He turned to me with a curious expression. "How do you know?"

"Because Nondis helped her kill Prod." I answered.

He couldn't do much outside of shake his head. "Ugh... a mess, this is."

I then argued him over why he shouldn't be upset. "She was being abused! I can't say that Nondis did the right thing by being an accessory to murder, but... can I blame him for wanting to help her?"

"I suppose not. Prod wasn't an upstanding citizen in any regard. I'm willing to bet he probably got into more perverse things as time went along. I mean he was already looking at fourteen year old girls for slaves. It's fitting that one of them managed to grow up and end his life. But hearing that she's weak and has a target on her back doesn't really help matters." Then again, I guess my dad wasn't all too upset with the circumstances, I guess the better way I could've put it was how inconvenienced he was for the moment.

But I had to convince him that the circumstances couldn't be any more convenient for us. "She's not as weak as you think."

"How so?" He asked.

"Zecora has been training her. Nondis also trained her a little too." I answered.

He hummed as if he started to show some optimism. "That's good news. But if she's helping him, then how did Nondis get into this mess to begin with?"

"I think it's because of that VIP Lounge. I think he goes there every time he comes here."

He instantly became bewildered at the idea of Nondis getting so deep in the network. "Wait, you mean he's been fraternizing with those individuals, in that space, where the head honcho runs the show?"

"I advised him against it, but he was supposed to have some sort of in-house help." I informed him.

He still couldn't believe it, especially how close Nondis was to Umbra. "He's living in the lion's den, and now it's chewing at his leg. It's only a matter of time before they finally close in on him and finish the job."

The way my dad described it made me anxious. I was already apprehensive of what could happen to him, and what I saw from Discord hadn't made it any better. If anything, I was more in a rush to get to the bottom of this. "Can't we look into what they're doing today?"

"You heard what that lady said, there was a raid yesterday. If anything, tomorrow night's activities might be a bit more muted. We're more likely to run into a simple showing more than we would anything else."

"Or maybe the ringleader would probably throw an even bigger show in defiance?" I suggested, thinking about how Umbra causally strolled through the halls of the castle with absolutely no care in the world.

"That's too brazen. There's no way we'd see that happen unless he was making an example of someone." Knowing that Nondis had done a raid just last night, I wouldn't be surprised if that's what's going to happen.

For now, the place that supposed to be forbidden is nothing but a quiet shell of it's corrupted moniker. "So what do we do now?"

Dad closed his eyes, thinking of a plan of what to do next. It never took him too long to come up with a conclusion. "Tonight is just a tour and a run-through on decorum. I suggest you'd treat tomorrow as such."

"So we're done for today?" I asked him, almost ready to breathe a sigh of relief.

"A lot of information I sought out is out of the cards. We'll have to rely on that former zebra slave you know if we want to get anywhere." He announced.

"Well I guess we can go then." I finally had that aforementioned sigh and started making my way to the tin door. But as my hoof reached out for the knob, I heard a terribly painful scream coming from outside. Dad pushed me out of the way and cracked the door open as he peeked outside. I wanted to peek my head through, but his magic quickly grabbed at my horn, directing me to stay out of sight.

"Stay behind me. Be quiet." He whispered as four ponies came into view.

One of them limped forward, yelping as he did so to escape three other pursuers. The three that hunted him down simply galloped ahead of him, cutting him off at every turn. The victim started to scream as the third punched him in some bandages wrapped around his hind leg. He instantly fell over and started holding his wound. "Boss, please, I didn't rat you out! I just told him what he was looking for! It was to get him out of our hooves as quick as possible!"

The leader of the group dismissively answered the stallion as he summoned a dagger and aimed it for the stallion's neck. "And I'm to trust a bastard on a crummy leg who sang when the human got involved?"

"Please! I promise the next time I'll─" What followed his interrupted plea was the sound of him yelling out, then gurgling, hissing... then finally silence. My dad held me back with a much stronger force, preventing me from seeing what was being done. As he looked on, he watched as the blade continued to saw through the pony's neck. In enough time, his head was mostly separated from his still body, hanging by a mere shred of muscle and skin. The next second was spent with them simply ripping the rest off before they continued with their conversation.

The boss spoke in a low voice as his victim's life faded from his eyes. "The next time won't involve you. That's the words from the big wig himself. We have an operation to keep and you put us out there. Can't have loose lips on bum legs. You understand this business, should've kept your head down."

The other two snickered and mocked the decapitated stallion. "Poor little ol' Hobble done got himself done in."

One of the stallions looked in the direction of the shack, dad getting out of view in enough time to not look suspicious. They completely missed us both hiding within. "If Prod was here, he'd probably give him a good rut on the way out."

"Invitation's still out there." The other lackey suggested.

"No way, he's probably gonna shit himself in a few seconds. Just cut off his good legs and sell 'em to the new vendor." The boss of the two lackeys gave the order, and they followed it within the second of his saying it. "Shame, could've been getting a new leg had he not talked. Now he's gotta lose all of 'em."

As I sat inside, all I could hear was the grunting of the stallions, along with the grizzly sounds of a blade slowly separating flesh and muscle, cutting through every tendon without reservation. Not soon after was the popping sounds of the joints being cruelly ripped from their sockets. I could only close my eyes, trying to mentally drown out the sounds of the cruelty taking place outside. I was unable to do it successfully, as it became the only thing I could concentrate on in the silence. I held a hoof to my muzzle, trying not to make a sound as I started to cry to myself. Dad quietly petted me, trying to comfort me as best as he could in the current circumstances.

They finally finished with their victim, lobbing the legs off in a potato sack like it was a sport. "So boss, what do we do with the nugget?" One of them asked.

The boss still toted the head as he spoke. "He's getting put out on the arena entrance, gonna be nice and cozy up there while he rots. A message to those who dares to ever make a fool of the big wig."

"I'm surprise they won't feed him to the timberwolf pit." One of the lackeys said with a lackluster

"C'mon, you know policy. Starve them good so they'll put on a show." The other lackey answered as their voices started to disappear into the distance.

"Yeah, you're right." As they left, the body of their victim soon dragged behind them.

As soon as their voices disappeared totally, as did their presence, dad finally stepped in the doorway, poking his head out to survey the area. As he did that, he spoke back to me in a low voice. "This is the side of the city I never wanted you to see, this is the side I saw when I was given that assignment years ago. From then on, I knew the two of you could never come here. But... it seems that fate had other plans." The door opened wider, dad used his magic to usher me along, keeping my head aimed for the back of his own. "Golden rule is in effect, keep your eyes on the back of my head, don't look anywhere else, please."

Walking outside, I tried my best to do just that. But as we walked to our exit, I heard him groan in displeasure. I only assumed that he was upset over what had taken place, that wasn't the reason. Instead of it being a realization of the unwanted circumstance, I found myself stepping in puddles along the way... puddles of the blood of the victim. While our hooves splashed through the crimson reminder of a life gone too soon, I became squemish.

Honestly, death was never new to me and the girls. In many instances of a powerful villain destroying countless homes during a fight, or even an invading army of changelings taking the lives of innocent ponies, the tragedy of life lost was always the result. Support beams falling on an misfortunate mother, a fairly sizeable chunk of rubble falling onto a foal below, or even a mother getting ripped away from her foals, never to be seen again, that's what I was used to. Always the after, never the during.

This, this was my audibly witnessing a murder taking place, and the evidence being stained all over my hooves. As soon as we cleared the fresh stream of blood, I couldn't erase the distinguishable smell of copper tainting my memories. I clenched my eyes shut, holding onto my dad's tail for a guide. "I want to go home." I whispered with sadness.

"We both do." He somberly answered.

The Next Evening...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Nondis***

My shift throughout the day was pretty quiet for the most part. So when I got to the train station to meet with Kalimba, I was already preparing myself for the change of pace. As soon as she showed up, she seemed as if she was trying to contain her excitement, but she was far more bouncy than she usually was.

I started taking note of her condition after that night she showed up with a fever. As time progressed, she started to appear better with each and every meeting. Motions she'd normally refrain from, she started taking risks and performing them. Even with the way she talked to me, it appeared that she was getting more comfortable, exhibiting her independence more often, speaking out for herself when she wanted certain things. On the way in and out of our usual meetings, there was always a root or sage she strongly requested for Zecora's use. I suppose by looking at her on tonight, those items went towards boosting her immune system and providing some much-needed energy where she originally had little of.

Of course, she still had reservations on certain things. But expressing herself and her unique identity became her new norm. It was liberating to see that she had gotten this far. I liked it. "You seem pretty energetic today."

"Tis de first time I get to see you in almost a week. I should be more conservative or I may grow some attachment, so to speak." She said with a quiet smirk.

I muttered back to her. "Love train already left the station, currently located elsewhere."

"You don't need to drag it across my face." She rolled her eyes in response to my statement.

"I'm only doing this because shit got weird after this past weekend. I'm just trying to make sure all my bases are covered." I replied as we walked along.

"Of course you had to have known what he would do, you failed to visit him for some time." She pointed out as we made our way quickly to the alley. "It happened before, or did you forget?"

"Didn't think he'd bring it to my front door like I ordered it." I scoffed. "Like literally packaged it like a cruel birthday gift."

"But you should've already known." She said as we were about to make a run into the alley leading into Corrotto's streets.

I shrugged and shook my head. "Guess there's no running, is there?"

"Not a chance of it." A voice answered from above us. In a dazzling display, the mare who spoke out had swooped in from above and landed herself on all fours, slowly rising and spreading her wings before us. After her entrance, she quickly trotted up to me and ran a wing under my chin. She gave me a sultry smile as she stepped between me and Kalimba. "You're the one who wanted to venture into this beast from the start." She said while tilting her head playfully.

"You again?" I asked, blinking like I was confused, more surprised than anything.

The mare giggled as she inched closer. "I don't know why you're calling me out like I actually know you. But you should keep your volume down. Even the stones have ears you know."

Glancing past her head, I could see a certain zebracorn lowing her head with red magic searing through her horn. Her eyes slanted as she almost seemed ready to pounce at any given moment. But before she could unleash hell on the disguised princess, I had to step in. "Hey Kalimba, I'm gonna go take a leak. Be right back."

I began to wander off, turning into another alleyway that seemed fairly empty before finding myself pursued by both the disguised princess, and the disgruntled zebra from a considerable distance. Celestia landed right behind me, pointing a wing to the back of my head while she spoke. "You know, things like this is how you get yourself killed."

"What are you doing here?" I asked, turning around to face her.

The mare sat herself before me, folding her hooves. "I just wanted to keep an eye on you from a distance. Also there was a pair of ponies who followed you two for a whole five blocks from the train station."

I glanced back to the alleyway, seeing just Kalimba keeping a sharp eye on the two of us during our exchange. But hearing that there were others following me did put me on high alert. "Thanks for the notification, guess you were looking at me from a distance."

"Can you blame me? I haven't seen much of you all day." She said as she started to lower her voice, closing the distance between us. "Also, you okay?"

"I'm fine, just nerves and whatnot."

The princess wanted to step in even closer, but felt the ominous aura coming from Kalimba down the alleyway. She glanced back to see the zebra, still standing at the ready to blast her magic towards the both of us. She backed away and gave me yet another warning. "Remember that you are not to engage with this Slade directly. I know he'll probably see Sunday's operation as an offense, but try to be as negotiable as possible until further notice."

"Fair enough, but I can't promise that."

Celestia voiced her vexation through an eyeroll and a barely-audible groan. "Try not to get hurt tonight. Please?"

"I usually don't." I replied just a second before she leapt into the air to clear the buildings surrounding us and leaving out of the area for the night.

While I took a moment to appreciate her taking the opportunity to check in on me in person, Kalimba approached quickly and scowled at me. I finally snapped out of my thoughts and noticed the angry mare in front of me. "So who was she!?" She hollered, causing me to jump.

"Jesus, you scared the shit out of me!"

She got in closer, leaning in as she questioned me further. "I shall ask again. Who was she?"

While I could trust her to know who it was that actually visited us, I couldn't trust anyone around here to not listen in on what I was saying. So I kept my explanation as simple as possible. "A lady who gave me my first tour of the place. That's all."

"Abeg, she gave you a tour?! It is good to know dat I am so replaceable in your mind. And here I thought I was giving you all dat you need outside of your usual life, but now I see dat you cannot be asked to keep your eyes open for any potential threats, too easily distracted by some mare looking to give you some cheap pum-pum behind a dumpster!"

"Really, were going in that direction?" I asked with a laugh.

"Why don't you tell me who she is and what she is to you, instead of lying to me, Ah?"

I glanced around and then whispered quietly in her ear. "That's my girlfriend in a disguise."

Her tone immediately readjusted as she quieted herself down. "...Dat was her, de one you promised your future to?"

"The one and the same." I confirmed.

Kalimba still remained on the quiet end of a response. "Well. I suppose it was within her right to service you in an alleyway."

"Really?" I said, imagining the scenario of myself being dragged into a shady alley while the princess glared up at me from between my legs, giving me the royal treatment. Admittedly, the idea started to gain some unwanted traction in certain parts of my body.

Kalimba took notice. "Since you look like you could use a bit of service right now─"

"Focus, asshole." I slapped myself, trying to detract from what sexual fantasies started to take root in my brain. Thankfully no one knew who I was in pony form, so I could get away with walking off a half chub. Hell, some ponies here would consider it a normal occurrence. I marched right out of the alley with my dignity shown to the world, albeit for a short period of time. Though I had no intentions of taking a casual stroll as much as I was at a brisk trot. Kalimba ran up to catch up with me while I started glancing around.

"What is wrong?" She asked, noting how I was checking behind myself with every turn I made.

"You know my friend from earlier in the alley, she gave me a heads up. We may have some devoted followers on our trail, so we'll head over to the usual meeting place and try to shake them off."

Hear ears twitched at my response, she started to frequently check behind herself as well. "How many?"

"Two."

"Dat is an easy number." She said, scraping her hoof against the cobblestone.

In the moment, I started to think about if we were dealing with either some run-of-the-mill grunts or some trained assassins. Either way, I wanted to make sure that we could win that fight before resorting to more abbreviated methods. "I never got to ask you this, but how's your training been?"

"A lot of times when I have dealt with Prod, his techniques were used on me mainly to take what he wanted. But in being in so many subjugation holds, I have learned to use dem when I need to. De only problem is dat I did not have de strength to pull it off, he never kept me healthy because he wanted to keep me weak. Little food, little water, cold showers in de exposed air, all of it kept me sick with my illness. But it has gotten better in de past few weeks. Dere is also some magic I have learned to make use of. I even know some spells now. But if dere is anything I cannot stand about my training, it is Zecora constantly finding ways to put me on my backside. Over and over, I fall, she tells me to get up and do it again, and den she knocks me down to repeat dat whole process."

"So Zecora's teaching you how to fight?" I asked her, genuinely impressed with the news.

"She is teaching me to adapt what I know into what she is giving me. She also has me doing a lot more stretching to keep myself loose and limber for when I need the flexibility. Most of my physical training comes from where I work during de day, so I come back here stronger each time, much more healthier as well. I'm starting to develop quite de technique."

As soon as we approached our usual meeting place, I looked around the square to see a plethora of ponies conversing amongst one another. None of them looked as if they were trailing us for any reason. But to be sure, I had to put us in a situation where they would have to be either bold or stupid enough to fall for. Either way, we were going to get an answer. As soon as I opened the door, we started scoping the place and identifying a plan of confrontation. "That's good. Maybe we can put that new technique of yours to a test."

The moment she entered, Kalimba made an observation that only she could identify. "De air smells too fresh in here. Somepony may have entered recently."

I couldn't really smell the difference, especially since I wasn't the one who lived here for years. "Air still seems to be pretty stale to me. Are you sure it isn't Prod's disappearance that's freshening up the place?"

She then approached an area where there appeared to be an impression in the dust on the floor. She noticed yet another impression sitting by the door. "Ponies sat inside of here." She then lowered her muzzle to make out any scents. "Nopony around here wears dis essence. And I don't wear anything remotely close to de smell of vanilla.

"So you're saying someone's in here?" I asked, looking around the room.

The mare sniffed the other imprint. "Dis one smells like a distinguished gentlecolt. Seems whoever came in here was very well-to-do, at least."

I went over to the window and gave a peek outside. And just as I figured, two ponies, a yellow stallion and a green mare, both unicorns, started walking towards where we were. "Looks like they're getting closer. Let's keep it dark and let them walk in."

Each of us took a dark corner and waited silently as the hoofsteps approached even closer. The door slowly swung open as our two pursuers cautiously glanced around to survey the room.

The mare looked back at her accompanying stallion and spoke. "I know we saw them go in here."

"Perhaps. Are you sure that was her?" The stallion inquired.

"Certain of it." She confirmed.

They closed the door behind them, their horns starting to illuminate the room. "It's too quiet. An ambush."

As they looked around, the light began to reveal more of the hidden corners of the room. Unfortunately for us, the mare caught glimpse of Kalimba's tail. "That way!"

The stallion called out in an authoritative voice. "Halt!"

I quickly summoned a magic blast and casted it directly for the stallion, knocking down the main threat of the duo. As soon as he started to recover from the blast, I spoke out to him while Kalimba revved up her own magic against the mare. "No. You halt."

"Kill them?" Kalimba questioned frantically, ready to sent anyone a face-full of her magic.

"Not yet." I called out, as I started to approach the stallion. He glanced up to me before trying to kick me off of my balance. I leapt back and quickly summoned a gun, aiming directly for the stallion's head."

"Wait!" The green mare called out, stretching out a hoof towards us.

"Move and I'll shoot!" I commanded, not wanting to waste any time.

The stallion squinted his eyes at me and backed away, appearing incredulous. "...Nondis???"

When he said my name, my mind immediately went into the mode of ensuring that he had no chance survival. If he knew my name, then it's a probability that he was hired by Slade himself. My aim only stiffened, the trigger just that much closer to being squeezed in my magic. "You have till the count of three before I blow your brains out."

The mare, thinking on her hooves, used her magic to lift the barrel of my weapon to the ceiling to save her partner. She called out with a voice of desperation. "Nondis, wait."

That was a voice I didn't think I'd hear in a place like this.

My eyes opened to see the color of the aura surrounding the barrel of my gun. Looking at her face, I could see some familiar features within her eyes. Even if everything was different about her physically, I could still tell who she was. "...Twilight?"

Kalimba did away with her magic and leaned back against the wall. "As if de night cannot get any more eventful."

I started to pull my gun away. "Okay, you're here. Then who's this?"

The stallion gave me a friendly salute as he took a sigh of relief. "Well I'm just an aspiring in-law, don't mind me."

My jaw fell to the ground as soon as he ditched the fake voice for a quick moment. I chuckled not because it was funny, but because of how close of a call that was. "Holy fuck, dude! I was about to air your ass out entirely. Oh let me put this away." I said before dismissing the firearm into my emergency stash.

The stallion chuckled back, rubbing the back of his head. "It's a good thing you didn't. My wife is quite the crybaby."

"Jesus fucking Christ, man. What are you guys doing here?" I asked, still relived that I didn't put Twilight's dad into an early grave.

Twilight, without giving her father a chance to say anything, quickly jumped in with a defensive statement. "I'm just learning the place, that's all."

I started to walk up to the disguised princess, taking an observation of her disguise. "You don't just learn about the bad part of town with your dad. You're here for something specific. Why else would you be here in that getup?"

"Well would you believe me if I told you that it's a classified matter?" She said, trying to keep me at a distance.

"No. Because my assignment is declassified to you." I replied, walking around the mare, trying to get a better look at her disguise.

She danced around to keep me from getting any looks at her from behind. "My reason is different from yours."

While I thought it was strangely suspicious that she was trying to hide whatever was behind her from me, I stopped pursing the matter for the moment. "Then would you care to explain why you're here in the shitty part of town full of druggies, rapists, murders, and misfits?"

Twilight refused to look me in the eye as she answered me. "I'm here because I chose to be."

"Incorrect. You're here because of me." I replied, thinking that she was here to try to bail me out of a particularly hairy situation.

"I need for you to not be so self-centered. I'm not here for you." She snapped back at me.

"Twilight." I droned in deadpan.

"I'm only here because..." As she was trying to answer the question, I walked up to her, trying to get an honest answer out of her without offering much of an avenue to look anywhere else, only to see me in her vision. She glanced off once more. "Don't get so close to me. You're not even my boyfriend anymore."

I held her chin with my magic, asking her quietly. "Why are you here?"

"Not for you." She said, sitting on her haunches.

"You're not here for me, then what are you here for?" I questioned.

"I wanted to learn, nothing else."

"If you wanted to learn, you'd have your head in a book." I replied.

The princess started to blush. "You of all ponies know I'm not all about that."

"But it's what you do at this time of night. You read books to help you sleep, to help you wake up, to help you burn shit in the kitchen, to help you save the world, and even to help you masturbate." I pointed out quietly, trying not to make the last bit as audible as the rest.

Twilight used her magic to separate herself from me. "Can we not talk about that right now?"

"My point is you're not here to learn anything if there isn't a book involved. So why are you here?"

She trotted back to her father's side as she explained her logic. "Maybe I'm here to learn about what's not written in books. After all, you of all ponies should know that I'm all for notating the seldom-archived truths of the world. Boundaries of discovery─"

"In a place where you said your head would be taken and kept alive for some black magic sorcerer to keep as a decoration." I bluntly pointed out.

"So?"

I tilted my head as I brushed off her illogical response. It was not only atypical of her, but it was also apparent that she was still lying. "I do recall disclosing that there were bodies missing to you and the others. Are you sure you're not investigating that behind my back?"

Her eyes rolled back, indicating that I had touched on a reason why she decided to infiltrate this part of town. "You know what, fine. I am here for you. But I'm not here to help you."

"Why does that sound like a half-truth?" I asked, knowing that there was something else to her motive.

Her dad had finally finished with watching our exchanges and interceded on his daughter's behalf. "Nondis, please work with us here. All we want is information from your zebra friend."

I quirked an eyebrow at the middle-aged stallion. "What kind?"

"Vital contact information." He stated as he walked towards her.

Kalimba, uncertain of who he was and why he was here, was cautious over the speed of his approach. "Who are you trying to reach?"

Seeing her body language, Crescent slowed to a halt and gave her some space to assess him while he explained his reason. "I want to know about possible guild members who would be serviceable for her." He then pointed to his daughter.

Meanwhile, I was a bit surprised by their request. "Why though? Starlight is a good magic user, and she knows a bit about this place."

Twilight shook her head. "She doesn't have a lot of physical stamina at the moment. Magical stamina means nothing if you can't properly fight somepony off of you. And then I'm also trying to reform her. I can't risk any chance of a relapse occurring. Exposing her to this place may trigger some dormant hostilities, and I frankly don't want to have another magic duel to the death with her again."

I took a moment to consider some options, especially with some possibilities of how I was going to find anyone that would be able to accommodate Twilight during her venture into the moral equivalent of the Mariana Trench. But the primary frustration of the thought came from my memory of the first time I entered the guild hall looking for an assistant of my own. I thankfully lucked out with Kalimba, but who's to say that she wouldn't find her own satisfaction elsewhere? Even then, it will be hard to find anyone I know that I could trust like her, and it would probably be that much harder finding the same for a princess undercover.

Still, I didn't feel comfortable knowing that she's right here in the thick of it. "How about you let me decide that for you, and you two can go back home?"

Twilight promptly interjected. "Nondis, the situation is beyond just you. So please stop being stubborn and let me do what I'm supposed to."

I argued back at her. "I know it's beyond me. It's not fucking rocket science. But why in the hell should any of this involve you? Don't you know how dangerous this place is? You told me yourself that this place is bad news, that I should avoid it. But here you are breaking your own principle. Like what are you going to do if something happens, and you or your dad get hurt? I almost killed the guy as soon as he said my name, what makes you think anyone else will hesitate like that around here?"

Twilight stepped up to me, using her magic to encircle the entirety of my muzzle while she yanked me in to speak. "Your friends ran into Him. Yeah, Him." She waited for me to process it before she carried on. "Saturday night at the Gala, after you passed out. They ran into him, and he almost got away with Melanie."

My body had become numb, horror was the only sensation that ruled much of my senses. The world seemed to fade out while I was trapped in my own thoughts.

It was too soon, I planned out everything to where he couldn't possibly run into them, and he still did. What did I do wrong? I made every precaution that he doesn't know shit, even if he were to sneak another one of his memory search maneuvers. I crossed every t, dotted every i, made sure that none of my recent memories don't intersect with anything they do or where they are specifically. Now everything's in the air. Does he know what they look like? If not, did he identify their voice? Did he plant a tracker of some sort on them? Do I need to relocate them? Should I confront him about it? Where do I go from here?

Kalimba noticed that I was completely lost to my own thoughts, tapping me on my shoulder. "Are you okay?" I briefly brought myself back out and replied to her.

"Kalimba, tell them everything they need to know. And be quick, because we have a meeting with Slade in thirty minutes."

Several Minutes Later...

After some time of our run-in with the Sparkle family, Kalimba and I set out to the colosseum. Along our walk there, I had grown distracted by lingering thoughts of what Twilight informed me. It was hard to shake off, especially since I was going to see the guy responsible for all this grief in the first place. Kalimba seemed to not want to disturb my thoughts, but rather she seemed caught up in a few of her own. Perhaps she had a lot of things on her mind since finding out who exactly Prod was in his early stages. I can only imagine that she had more resentment than questions, but the latter category started building itself comparatively to the former.

When we arrived, neither of us said much as we were about to enter.

But a certain someone had plenty to say at the moment. "Well, look who came to greet me at the door."

While walking past him, I couldn't help but to lash out at the thought of him endangering my friends. "We all know why we're here."

The stallion appeared confused, oblivious to what I had implied. "Do we now? Because I don't recall there being a specific reason I've led you on to coming here yet."

"And yet you welcome me so openly?" I asked, still angry.

The stallion wrapped a foreleg around the back of my neck and guided me inside of the lounge. "Oh come on, my affections for you haven't changed. I know what I want from you and I'm just a little more determined to get just that. I'm sure you're just as motivated to do the same in one specific arena of your life."

Already, I knew this was going to be a rough night. So I came to the idea of nullifying my anger and frustration with a few drinks. "Barkeep, I would like a bottle of your finest─"

He quickly placed a hoof over my muzzle and called out to him. "Crème, close the bar." Upon that notice, the bottles behind him were shuttered away. The eccentric mastermind twirled around and bowed to me. "Sorry, but I want you sober when you talk to me."

I then tried to debate with him to open the bar. "You know, they say that alcohol is the ultimate truth serum."

He giggled as he strutted over to me. "Oh I know, but that's way too easy for the both of us. Your getting drunk would be a good way to milk information out of you, and give you some reassurance that what you'll be giving me is completely absolved of any responsibility and mental retention. It's no fun when the cards are all on the table facing up."

"Isn't that the whole draw to being in the Inner Circle?" I asked.

The stallion smiled as he stood mere inches away from me, tapping me on my lips. "Well that's how it works, but you're not a member. So that's why I have to make this fun for myself, because there's so much that I don't know, that you do know. You're sitting on a whole world of information, information that would be completely invaluable to me should I decided to take my operations to new heights. Or perhaps... new frontiers."

I narrowed my eyes to the stallion and lividly warned him. "I don't know your endgame, but I know that you're fucking with the wrong idea there."

"Am I? I'm just an aspiring... how do you lot say it, businessman. I just want to take the opportunity to spread over to new horizons and discover a new means of entertainment, perhaps even a whole festive event dedicated to the idea."

"How so, by making a human your new beast of the week!?" I questioned loudly, angrily backing away from him.

As I was walking away, I felt something tug against my hooves, preventing me from moving at all. I looked down to see an orange aura clasping me down to the floor. Meanwhile, the eccentric ringleader waltzed over to me and leaned on my back. "Well... I could make a highlight of it, but no. I have a more interesting draw in the works. And I believe it will be you who'll help me get that very draw." He hopped on my back and whispered in my ear. "Visualize it. I believe in your world it's called 'Primetime'. The most dangerous creature to have ever seen life, bided in a bout against you and your friends, a fight for supremacy. Or even better, one of my most cherished creatures in a bid against those that claim to be the powers of this very nation. Can you imagine the action of six humans against the greatest chimera to have ever been birthed, or the six champions of harmony against the greatest adversary they'll ever have to face, an adversary so foul that it's guaranteed to leave them a lasting impression."

I made pronounced attempts to get him off of my back. even using my magic to topple him overboard. "And what about you?"

My attempts failed with him wrapping his hooves around the back of my neck, hanging off to my side as he whispered in my ear. "I'll be happy to stand by and watch that show go on from the comfort of my exclusive box seats."

"Now what if someone has a word to say to you about it?" I asked, thinking of Celestia.

Trying to get in closer to my face, he pulled himself up to meet with my face. "My dear not-human, it's not if someone has a word to say to me, but when. You know who will come running to your beck and call, just like she's always been in the eyes of your superiors. And if she does have a few words for me, then I will entertain them. It does not matter the audience, I will always provide a good show for those who attend."

Magic began to sear out of my horn, sparking violently as I took aim for his own forehead. "For a guy who wants to keep this place running, you sure are playing a dangerous game."

The stallion appeared displeased with my threatening nature and climbed off of me with a pout. "Life is boring if you live safely. If you live dangerously, you'll be certain to run into something that will excite you. And then you'll find that you can't have enough of it." He dusted himself off as he continued. "You also like to live dangerously, especially with that stunt you pulled on Sunday."

"I wasn't investigating you. I was investigating the Beast Tamers Guild." I specified.

He snickered and tilted his head at me. "Was it over an Arimaspi?"

"Yes." I answered bluntly.

He walked past me, but not leaving my side before leaning over and telling me. "I know who gave you the warrant."

"No warrant. Just a hunch." I lied.

He scoffed at my answer, knowing my obvious bluff. "I might have been born on a day like this, but I wasn't born last night. You don't conduct a mass unlawful seizure without a warrant."

I then tried to substantiate my bluff. "You must not know what country I'm from then. We've killed off world leaders and suppressed native populations just for political ideology and profits alone. You think I wouldn't pull that same play here when there's so much money to be made?"

And then he finally called me out. "I do know that you make speeches like that when you bluff on your actual position. So you might as well come clean on if he gave you the warrant. Because I know, and I'll already have something in mind for him."

"Don't you think digging up his father is enough?" I questioned, starting to get upset again.

"Digging up a corpse or two is hardly a consequence, more like a field trip to the candy store for me. But I do have a much better idea in mind... as you'll soon see."

Kalimba, hanging back from the exchange, finally walked beside me as he moseyed off to the other side of the room. With two clops of his hooves, he summoned the maids to bring in a brightly painted wheel with a giant sign at the top that said 'Wheel of Torture'. Along with the wheel were two ponies dragged along in ropes. They were none other than Alabaster and Blue. Blue oddly seemed the more relaxed of the two, while Alabaster had a more intense look on his face. Oddly enough, he was the only one of the two unicorns wearing a magic restraint.

The psychotic ringleader pirouetted before the pair before announcing to everyone in the room. "Everypony gather 'round, we have a show tonight! And of course our two stars will be none other than our residential sibling pair!" The stallion then pointed his cane at me. "See, I thought about punishing you for what you did, but then I had to remember that with what I did on the previous night, it's more fair-game than punishment-worthy. So I'm leaving you off the hook... for now. But, it comes under a strict condition." While he danced lightly, tapping his hooves like he was a line dancer, he disappeared and reappeared right beside me, placing the jewel of the cane against my neck. "It's just a microscopic condition, a bit of fine print, babe. Barely even noticeable."

While he paraded himself away towards the pair to be punished, Kalimba muttered under her breath. "Dis does not look good."

"I know." I cosigned.

"Bastard, come here." He ordered, pointing to a spot on the ground with orange runes. The stallion did so, but not without giving his younger sister a nervous glance. As he approached, his hooves started to glow until all four were caught in the circle. From that point on, he couldn't move. "I know what you're afraid of the most, you know my abilities well enough. And you know exactly what this is."

Alabaster whimpered out to the stallion. "Please─"

"Aht!" He sharply screamed, interrupting him to give attention to his younger sister. "So, your brother did something he wasn't supposed to. Now of course I can't punish him without having you involved, it would be far too easy. So, I came up with a plan. Either I make an example of you, or I can simply go about my night giving your brother everything he deserves. And considering that there was a lot of assets and customers lost due to that little raid he signed off on, I can attest to the many business partners who would like for me to make a permanent example of him. And you know me, I might decide to let that linger on for a few more months, possibly years until I let him close his eyes."

The mare swallowed the fear in her throat and stepped forward. "I'll do it."

The psychotic stallion smiled while her brother hollered out to her. "Blue, no!"

Alabaster was silenced with a swift blow to the chin, followed by a cane tilting his chin up. "You see that, Bastard? Your sister is far more compliant than you are. If anything, I'm only keeping you alive because your sister requested it."

"Hey!" I called out, objecting to what was taking place.

"I haven't asked you to speak, captain." He replied without even giving me a single look.

"If you're mad over something I did, then you punish me for it."

He shouted back with enthusiasm, about to give the ensnared Alabaster another whack. "If that's what you want, then I'll come up with something I know you'll love watching."

Just a moment before he could reach back with all his range, a soft blue aura held the cane still. He looked back to see Blue shaking in place, trying to be strong for her brother. "Just me... please."

He cut the mare a glance, shrugging nonchalantly as he summoned a handkerchief to clean the jewel atop his cane. "Fine. Then I have something especially made just for you, my little heiress." Two more clops of his hooves and two more maids walked in with a sizeable object covered in a satin sheet. "What an awfully large portrait I have here. Why I can imagine the image of it being something posted to the halls of a big beautiful mansion. Now... who is this a portrait of?" He asked, almost like he was treating the event like a whole game show. Yanking the sheets off, it revealed the portrait of a brown plainly-looking mare with a soft smile. "That's right, your beloved mother. But that's not the only thing I have of her."

Alabaster shrieked his pleas. "STOP IT! DAMMIT, STOP THIS, IT'S TOO FAR!" But they fell to deaf ears.

Another servant appeared to hold a silver patter with a lid, opening it to reveal a pair of some sort of ceramic masks. Blue stifled her distress as she recognized what was revealed to her. Alabaster began to grit his teeth, bearing the tears and anger on his face. The way he breathed, the staggers between his breaths and the occasional heaves between showed many in the room that he was already pursuing violence upon his release. Meanwhile, the ruthless ringleader levitated the mask to his hoof and placed it over his own face, walking up to Blue Royal with it worn proudly.

"See this, this is the final vestige your mother had to offer to the world before being lowered into her grave. Such plainly features. They even took the painstaking effort of inserting the freckles. But yes, this is the face of your mother as her process was finalized... But that's the one they use for the company busts, as you've already seen. Now I have one that's even more special."

The mask was placed back on the platter to pick up another mask. But upon drawing this one to his face, Alabaster turned himself away in distress while Blue shuddered and started shaking uncontrollably.

"Now this... This is the one. This is your mother, the day she was taken in, the eve of her sunset. Behold your mother's sudden beauty."

I wasn't exactly sure of what was taking place, but I knew if it had the both of them reacting so viscerally, it had to be something beyond the realm of terror. I whispered over to Kalimba. "What am I looking at?"

She quietly answered me. "A death mask. It is de likeness of de face from a deceased being, taking de shape from de corpse of said deceased being. Dey often use it for sculptures... but dis one appears to be far more sinister."

Without warning, a servant walked over to me and offered me a platter, as soon as the lid came off, I was greeted with a gruesome still image of a mare in pain and despair. "Your mask, sir." The servant waited for me to take the item, as the others played along. I reluctantly took it and observed it.

What I was looking at, it disgusted me beyond a reason of morality. Her eyes appeared to droop listlessly, her jaw agape as she attempted to get air, parts of her face were forcibly shaped up from the rigor mortis, and on the same side was the slight indentures of the rope she used to commit the act. All I could see in her face was the pain, the anger, the struggle... Oh God, the struggle on her face. She was obviously torn between wanting life and committing to death. It showed that her suicide wasn't a decision she peacefully came to. The entire time, she fought with it. The last and final moment of her agony was not triumphant.

What the fuck did Count do to make her choose this?

The mask turned over without any trace of my manipulation. Orange magic levitated the mask onto my face, strapping around the back of my head. "Wait, we're wearing these?" I asked mortified.

"Well we can't have a masquerade without a mask! So let's get to it, everypony! All of you put on your masks!" Alabaster was visibly distressed, trying to hold back his rage and sadness. The despot walked to him and dangled his mother's cruel moment before his face. "Except for you, Alabaster. I want you to watch as your sister takes on what you cannot, a fate your sister has spared you of at the cost of her own being. But if you do want comfort, I'll let you gaze upon the countenance of your dearly-departed mother." He placed the mask over his own face and turned to Blue, giggling as he pointed to yet another set of runes on the floor, placed a few feet away from her brother. "Now my dear, assume the position."

Blue tried to control her breathing before moving forward, taking one step at a time into the circle. As we was getting in place, Alabaster chided his sister. "Blue, why do you do it? Stop this! I'm the one who needs to be punished, not you!"

"This is your punishment. You can stand right there, Bastard. I'll be sure to give you a good show." The ruthless stallion answered as he ushered his younger sister to the circle, In guiding her, he made sure that the both of them were facing him head on. Placing a hoof on the mare's back, he guided her to bend down. She clenched her lips shut, waiting for what was to come next. He then smelled the mare's mane through her mask, using his magic to stimulate himself. Alabaster knew what was coming and tried to turn himself away. "OPEN YOUR EYES!" He screamed, using his magic to force the brother to watch as he began to insert himself into his sister. Blue took deep laboring breaths, hoping that what was being done would soon end. But her efforts of wishing for the non-consenting affair to end had been amplified as he forced her head to look around the room. "Look into the face of your mother, and know what wonderous gifts she left you. Including the one you'll soon receive." The stallion began to huff and puff as he forced his hips into her.

He started his pace slow, yet forceful. Everyone in the room watched silently as she was violated by him, not even budging as her composure broke and she started to whimper. He planted his hooves in front of her, caging her in as he sped up his pace. It didn't seem as if he was trying to enjoy it, rather trying to intentionally work himself to his climax. He glanced at the brother, watching him squirm as Alabaster tried to avoid looking at the still image of his mother's final moments. Instead, he found the very small solace of watching his sister to be enough to get him through the experience. Deep down, he felt remorse for allowing his sister to take the punishment voluntarily instead of offering his life. But she looked up to him, trying to smile through the experience before tears followed suit. She was content in knowing her brother's survival was assured, though the circumstances were far too much to overcome.

The stallion then levitated the other mask, before the mare's face, to look at and separate the eye contact between her and her brother. He nibbled at her ear and whispered between thrusts. "I wonder, my sweet little Blue, have you ever thought about what it was like to be dominated by me?"

As she was being forced upon, she saw the kinder face of her mother she had gotten acquainted with, and began to enamor herself with the warm memories of her departed parent. "Mo... Mother..." She whimpered out.

Her rapist, however, took her psychological torture as added stimulation, increasing his pace. "That's right, call out to her, she's all around you, giving you comfort with each warm memory you get from seeing her face, her cold, lifeless face." He squealed while bending down to her, still wearing the face framing her mother's final moments.

Upon watching it, I grew physically sick. Up to that point, I thought I could withstand it, but it became too much for me to mentally process. I looked elsewhere. "I can't."

"You will watch!" He called out violently, stopping himself and pointing at me. "You said it best. 'If you're mad over something I did, then you punish me for it.' Well now I make you watch."

While he took a break, she started pleading out to the peaceful looking mask. "Mother... Mother please!"

Glancing down to see her finding some modicum of comfort, he started giggling eagerly. "Oh, I know this feels familiar to you, doesn't it?"

"STOP IT!" Alabaster screamed at the stallion.

In response, the stallion knocked over the mask that was in front of her, took off the one he wore, and levitated the crueler one before her very eyes. Her eyes instantly changed from seeking hope to realizing there was none to be found. The cries for her mother stopped dead, she was left almost speechless. The damage to her mind was already done, but that only solidified it. The thrusts became more frantic and purposed. "Oh, I feel it! Here it comes! The moment we've all been waiting for!"

The stallion laughed sadistically before putting his effort into attaining his climax. Instead of chuckling, he started grunting. Blue clenched her eyes shut while her brother watched helplessly. And with a final shove, he cried out in ecstasy and basked in the moment. And then after that moment of initial release, he fell limp over her and panted with satisfaction.

One of the patrons wearing a mask walked towards the center of the room. As they did, they began to slowly take off their mask and grab the two masks off of the ground. The sibling pair looked up and stared in shock over who was standing there collecting the masks. "Ah, well that was a bit of fun. Really refreshing to be able to put my stallionhood to work every once in a while. But is isn't any fun unless you see me walking in front of you while somepony's on top of you still. Now would you care to guess who's really on top?"

While the clothes remained the same, the hat still worn as it usually would be, the form of the stallion above Blue began to deteriorate. As she glanced up to see who she was caged in by, she shrieked out an unearthly scream.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Her deceased father, none other.

The ringleader laughed boisterously, dancing in a circle as he gave the room a bow for his performance. "You see, my dear? It doesn't matter if you think your mother's going to comfort you with these silly ideas that she's all around you in spirit. It doesn't change the fact that she's long dead. And just like those long dead, they can't do anything to protect you when something happens to you... But they can hurt you, they can reopen wounds, revisit traumas long past, and they can allow those open lacerations to fester into a much more deadly disease." He then placed the cruel mask beside Blue's blank expression of despair, all for Alabaster to witness.

The stallion lashed out, pulling at his immobilized legs and slashing his horn at the air. "You son of a bitch! you're a fucking monster!"

The stallion continued to have his fun. "See that, Alabaster? In the end, your father got just what he longed for after all this time, a second go at his baby girl. Funny, I could've arranged for that while he was alive. But this turned out to be a lot more fun anyways. And take it from me, it was quite fulfilling."

"Get him off of her! NOW!" The white unicorn stallion demanded.

He smirked back at him and motioned his cane like a fish. "Nah, let her stay there for a good fifteen minutes. Gotta let those little miscreants run around in the afterglow, and I bet she'll get what she's been wanting for a while now. You should be happy... You might be an uncle... or even more of a big brother. Brother-uncle? Uncle-brother? Broncle? Uncler? Eh, give it eleven months and we'll come up with something catchy."

The entire time I sat there, I was quietly chanting the words that came from everyone in this Godforsaken establishment. All I could hear while watching this transpire was the mental notes of everyone regurgitating the same damn thing, 'play your role' or go along with the flow of it all. But seeing her being forced to have a foal against her will, after being raped, by the corpse of her father, all while her mother's dying face was plastered all over the room, it was beyond too much.

I've had enough of it.

I stormed over to the center of the room, threw my mask to the floor, and physically shoved the decaying corpse off of Blue. The room became silent as everyone watched me clear Count's corpse a few feet away from his distraught daughter. Alabaster looked up to me in shock, not even expressing immediate gratitude more than the genuine concern for what I was doing. "Sorry. You had your fun, now it's done."

Of course, he didn't like the idea of me breaking up his little party, and tried to gracefully confront me over it. "You can't seriously be so eager to cut me off. I just wanted to have some fun."

As the body finished wilting to it's putrefied self, I stood firmly between him and the family he's accosted for his entertainment. "As I said, you. Had. Yours."

The stallion nodded, biting his lip, rubbing his face as I stood in his way. He gave me a light bow. "Okay. You're right. I had my fun with her. But not with you yet." The fake smile he had on his face was wiped clean off as he stood tall before me and glared me down. "So I suggest you keep your schedule open, human."

On that note, he walked off, announcing that the bar was open and taking a drink himself before disappearing into the halls outside. It took a little bit before the magic of the runes below both Blue and Alabaster wore off. And once they did, he immediately went into comforting his baby sister.

"Blue, say something, please?"

Crème walked from behind the bar and gave her a quick look before announcing to both me and her brother. "She's having an acute stress reaction, take her and get her out of here. You two are done for tonight."

The stallion quickly loaded his sister onto his back and turned to me. "What about you?"

I summoned the claymore I used during the Arimaspi Mountain assignment and pointed at the decaying body. "What about me? Get out of here, I'm gonna do some shit to your dad the two of you don't need to see. So get moving, get her home, keep her safe. That's what you do."

Alabaster started walking up to me as if he was about to hug me. "Nondis, we owe you─"

"You owe me an explanation of why the fuck you're not gone. GO! NOW!"

He nodded and took his sister into the hall leading to the box seats, likely to take the secret exit out to the streets. Meantime, I turned to the decaying body and started slicing at limbs to make my work easier. "Kali, get me some old sacks to throw this bastard in. If you ain't got that, then grab me some of those silk sheets the staff's been using."

"We do have body bags available for disposal purposes." Crème added.

"Then get me that so I can get his ass out of here for good." I ordered the servant, who bowed and went off to a nearby storage closet.

Kalimba watched as I started hacking away at Count's body, trying my best to work through the smell. As others in the room started to dissipate from the scene, I continued to work on segmenting him off to where he can't possibly be used to reanimate. And because of how decayed the body was, it didn't take much effort in my swings to separate anything. When the body bag landed right beside me, I held my breath and started stuffing the parts inside. The zebracorn covered her muzzle as she spoke. "You are a brave one to be a rainy day to his parade."

I coughed briefly, just getting a whiff of the putrid decay. "Some shit just crosses the line with me. This was definitely it."

"It's not about de lines he crosses, it's about de one you crossed." She said as I also took a moment to cut his head off and dump his torso in the bag. The mare questioned me. "What are you doing?"

"I'm putting an end to this fuckers book, it's been well overwritten." I said, zipping up the body bag and toting it like a sack.

Kalimba then warned me. "You know, dere are laws in dealing with de dead."

"And I'm breaking this one to get just what the family asked for."

Sometime Later...

After my leaving the arena with a dead body in tow, I made several mental obligations to try and make myself available for some sort of counseling session tomorrow. Kalimba kept me solid along the way, sometimes even taking the load off of my back so I could process what the hell had just happened. We got back to the shack and went on with the idea of disposing the remains by Alabaster's previously known request, cremation.

I didn't know anything about cremating a body, not personally. The last time I just gave the order to have them cremated en masse. But the part about how hot the oven has to be to cremate someone, no idea. I'm sure that they have some special oven to meet that demand, but as far as I'm concerned, throwing him in a fire was all that I needed to do.

Kalimba and I talked about that at length, and she came up with a hypothesis. She believes that simply cutting them up wasn't exactly the easiest way to ensure that the body couldn't be used. I was sure that it would work on the account that if I simply spread the limbs to various places, they could not be complied and reused. She went a step further and included the potential of there being a recovery and reconstruction effort. So she advocated for the limbs and appendages to be broken down on a cellular level.

The first option that came to my mind was cremation.

Not only does burning something changes the chemical composition, it also changes the property of that item that was burned. So being that cremation was requested to begin with, I have to consider that as a first-option. Perhaps Alabaster knew of his methods and gave me an advanced word on how to deal with things like that. Perhaps he was giving me the solution the day he showed up in the mansion.

If that's the case, then why didn't he argue with his sister against having him buried next to his wife?

The shack that was once filled with stale air had been filled with the putrid stench of a dead pony being thrown into an oven for makeshift crematorium purposes. As soon as we got the last of him put in, I had to keep myself from vomiting. Kalimba seemed more used to the practice than anything, though she wasn't as easy-going with the smell. "Cutting up and burning the body so he won't use it again? Do you think dis will work for good?"

"If the only thing that remains is ash, you can't put it to any use. Alabaster wanted this to be done since he showed up to the mansion unannounced."

Kalimba quirked a brow at my statement. "Did he really show up to deir home?"

"There are other witnesses, you know." I said, clearing my throat of the little vomit that came through.

She walked over to a nearby cabinet and pulled out an old bottle of rum. Planting the bottle on the counter, she told me to drink. "Down some of dat, it will numb you down a peg. At least den you won't have to acknowledge all de maggots in his leg. I groaned as I popped the cork and drank some of it down. But what I didn't anticipate was how strong the drink was. I was originally guzzling it on the first gulp, but that initial pass was all I needed to tell me I needed to slow my ass down. Instead of gagging at the smell, I was more focused on the fact that my throat was almost on fire. "I said some, not a lot. Silly boy."

"How fucking strong is this shit!?" I said, still trying to recover.

"Prod always liked strong drinks. Dere is still has some moonshine in the pantry. So it is at least a good seventy-five percent what you have taken in."

"SEVENTY-FIVE!? Lady, this shit will put me out for good!" I said, clearing my throat. "No wonder that shit got me gagging so hard."

The mare looked at the stove and turned the oven on to it's highest setting. But just as the oven started to get warm, we started to hear the pilots inside flicker out. The oven had gone completely dead with a slightly cooked decaying body inside. The smell in the room was made significantly worse. "So what now?" She asked.

I glanced around the place and started thinking of what I could do. There were some old tattered curtains, a bunch of broken furniture, some flaky paint on the walls, a bunch of moonshine, and a lot of incentive to relocate our place of meeting. Since I pissed off Slade, it was only right that I had to swap locations. To hell with it, this place is just filled with bad memories and terrible recollections.

I guess arson's on the menu. "I'm sure this place doesn't matter to you or anyone else anymore, right?"

"It is true." She confirmed.

I gave my idea a final go-over and confirmed what I wanted to have done. A burning house is more than hot enough to deal with a dead body. Done deal. "Find some matches and grab that moonshine out the pantry, I'll take some of those curtains and turn it into a fuse. We gotta relocate anyhow, might as well leave nothing behind. Let this place be a pyre for those who tortured us in life. Can we agree on that?"

"Yes. We can do dat."

While I glanced at the bottle of rum, I took it's weight into consideration and poured some on the counters. I didn't pour all of it because I knew I wanted something to drink for later, at least to knock me out a good while so that I didn't have to deal with the nightmares too tough.

Kalimba came back with the matches and moonshine. She emptied the jars all over the counters and floor, making sure that every last bit of this place was going to be the pyre we sought for it to be. We then gathered the chairs and tables, stacking it in the kitchen to help keep things kindled for some time. The tattered curtains and old sheets found throughout the place ran from the kitchen to the middle of the dining room. I doused a little more moonshine over our make-shift fuse and struck a match. I backed away slowly, holding the burning match in my magic until we were as close to the front door as possible. Kalimba walked out while I gave the place a final nod farewell.

The moment that match dropped, the fire started going in the direction of the kitchen. And since everything was covered in moonshine, the vapors combusted rapidly and set off a massive plume in the room. It only took minutes before the shack was glowing orange from within.

We could hear the crackling of the wood and support beams from within, the sound of the growing inferno gaining strength throughout the cold winter night. The two of us shared the bottle of rum as we watched the place burn from across the street. We took our casual swigs as the flames entranced us both. While it made us warm for the time, we couldn't shake the cold stench of death that permeated through our minds. Kalimba held the bottle and hummed with curiosity. "I have a question, what of de others who's bodies come up missing?"

I held my hoof out for a swig as I answered her. "I think I have an idea. Treat everyone like I did those changelings, burn the bodies, burn the ashes, let them be dust."

"Not many families will agree to dat." She pointed out.

I shook my head, taking a swig of the drink. "If they saw the same thing we did on tonight, they'd realize they don't have a choice."

"How do you mandate something like dat to occur?" She asked.

I took another sip of the drink before handing it back off to her. "I can't. But I know someone who can with the swipe of a pen. It's out of our hands now. I just pray my ex and the others can make something happen, if they're plotting to make something happen."

"That fire is pretty bright." She pointed out, seeing the large pillar of smoke rising to the curtain above the district. "Since dis is going to be a pyre for our tormentors, I suppose dat a final word should be said before we leave. May I give it a try?"

"Shoot for the stars." I replied.

The mare raised the bottle in the air, speaking as she did. "Each morning when you made me serve you, when you threw me in a cold shower, when you worked me when I was sick, all I wanted to do was to know de comfort of my past while looking at a future without you. But now I know you will never beat me again, you will never force yourself upon me, you will never work me to death. I will never be a victim of you, and I will let every memory of you plague me no more. Disgusting idjiot baboon." She kissed her teeth and took another swig before addressing her father. "And you, you are alive. I wanted to have de closure of knowing dat you no longer exist, dat you have no place in my present or future. You may want to apologize for what happened, but I know somewhere inside of me, I am going to hate dat little girl wanting to hold you again. She deserves better. Stupid faddah." She then passed the rum over to me as if it was a microphone. "Your turn."

I gladly took that metaphorical mic and held it to the air, saluting the flames that engulfed the shack. "In the days up to your death, I had to ponder over how you would get your revenge on me. Then you came flying out of a window and smacked your head against the pavement, so I thought it was over then. Your son was happy that it was over. Your daughter rejoiced in knowing the pain you brought them was at an end. I even wanted to wear all white to your fucking funeral. But then your friend had to go and dig you up, and shove you in every place you shouldn't be. I can't blame you for being dead, I just blame you for being accessible to the bastard. Hell, I can't even blame that on you, I can only blame the fact that you were a repulsive asshole in life, who also became a repulsive reminder in death. I know it's bullshit for me to request something from you, but I want you to kindly burn in hell. This time is for the last time, Count. Go be with your wife, who you hated so bitterly. Be in the land of the dead, and only in the land of the dead..."

The shack started to fall in on itself as pieces of the structure caved in, causing a massive plume of fire and smoke to erupt from the roof. That moment for me was like a confirmation that a chapter in my life that was supposed to have concluded months prior had officially ended. I took the final swig of the bottle and then chucked it into the fire. The two of us then walked away, done with our Tuesday night here in the land of Corrotto.

I whispered back to the makeshift crematorium. "...And this time, stay there."

Author's Note

Two weeks later and here we are again. Slowly getting back on schedule, I predict that I should be back on lock by sometime in early September, if not early August. Of course, next chapter is drafted and some upper-percentage done.

I hope everyone is having better days than they were a year ago. I know for some of you, the pandemic doesn't seem like it'll ever end. For those who live in the States, it's more like we're trying to pull out of the driveway and leave it in the rear view mirror. Hopefully the vaccines make it's rounds to everyone in the globe, and for those who don't want it, it's your choice. Personally, I've been double-dosed in April and I haven't felt anything strange, I don't feel like Magneto, I don't feel like Superman, I don't feel like I've done anything special other than take a jab in the arm. I can encourage you to get it, but it's still your choice.

I hope to see you all again next chapter. These past few months have had some pretty steady releases, but it's hard staying consistent with so many large chapters to go through. I thought about downsizing, but I wanted things to run a specific flow, at least two days of events taking place, or a day of action. There are some chapters that will jump throughout the week, spanning maybe five days, but no time skips right now.

See you guys next time. Possibly in the next 2-3 weeks.

Chapter CII

***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

We sat in the lower bowl of the arena, where there was music thumping and crowds cheering at the violence taking place at the center of the arena. Even if it appeared that the place was about halfway empty, they made it sound like the whole place was filled to capacity. The lights were bright enough to see your way around, but most of the focus went to the arena. And as the lights showed attention to the bloody spectacle, as did the many patrons who cheered. Those around us couldn't care less about what anyone was saying to one another.

Dad seemed to have a soured frown, gritting his teeth. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"He's in that Faust-forsaken VIP lounge." He murmured out of concern. "It's just that there's a lot that goes on in there. Anyone who comes into contact with a place like that are forever imprinted with that level of perversion. And if not perversion, then trauma."

I looked to him, basically finding anything to not have to look at the two stallions ripping and tearing at each other's flesh. "You talk as if you've been in there."

He however didn't seemed phased by what was taking place. "No, but I do know a certain former politician who did and disappeared the next morning."

"Didn't you say you were partially responsible for that?" I recalled.

"Not in the sense of his disappearance, I told you what I did and how."

More cheers erupted as a painful yelp sounded from the center of the arena. "Yeah, you left him to deal with Prod."

The crowd died down as the disadvantaged victim ran from him with the intention to regroup. "And that's that. What I do after is no consequence of mine. And I'm sure he endured much after I left. It's still the mode of things."

The two gladiators reset their positions, and then charged to one another. While one continued to fight with his wits, the other relied on their physical attributes. "Do you think Prod would've did what he did if he wasn't in the guard?"

"It was only a matter of time. It wasn't the guard that changed him, he was just always wanting to live life on the wild side. That much I know, but he always hated politicians. It's no secret to those in the guard that they always use others to get their hooves dirty and die, while they get off squeaky clean and go back home to their perfect lives in modest luxury. And the more ambitious the project, the more they walk away with, the more bodies of our fellow guards are left behind."

The stallion who fought using his wits grabbed at anything and everything that could be used to give himself an advantage. As such, he gained the momentum and started to gradually wear out his opponent. "But we lived a life of modest luxury. Didn't he ever resent you for that?" I asked dad while he watched the fight.

"Always have." He replied. "Our family was always a legacy of guards, and a lot of our lineage was at least a warrant officer or higher. And seeing how you came out, I wouldn't be surprised if you were a natural-born specialist with the way you go about things. Even then, he couldn't shake the fact that my son became a suitor to a princess, my daughter becoming a pupil to another. We lived the life of privilege going in and our lineage rose to the top of the structure, there was plenty for him to resent."

The stallion who relied on his physical gifts started to falter, collapsing to the ground in exhaustion. "About that thing you did with him, where you got your five minutes, how did the two you ever work together for that?"

"He heard what happened with the Arimaspi Mountain assignment that was given to your brother. And of course, he knew some of the others who had family in that assignment also. For veterans, it's a quiet solidarity we have when young blood is needlessly spilled. And Prod was put in a similar situation to it, so he knew how it felt to be a victim to those circumstances. Safe to say he wasn't having any of it, no matter who it affected."

The quick-thinking gladiator approached his opponent cautiously, trying to prepare for any sudden movements. "Do you think he and Nondis would've worked together just fine?"

"Nah, he doesn't trust anything without a tail or a hoof to walk on. Of course, that's just a byproduct of his upbringing." Suddenly, the downed stallion threw a hoof in the air, kicking up dirt and dust into the eyes of the stallion who appeared to be winning. But in the mere instant, he was tackled and a knife was plunged into his chest. "You may want to close your eyes, this match looks decided."

I turned my head elsewhere as the screams of the once-witty stallion had permeated the air, mixing in with the cheers of the onlookers. "What am I trying not to look at?"

"Another murder." He answered as the gladiator rocked his knife through the other stallion's chest, cutting and carving his way around until his previously-advantaged opponent started to slow down gradually.

The stallion grew desperate, punching and kicking his way back up, but to no avail. "That's a good thing to avoid. Though I'm not exactly a stranger to the concept of death. Me and the girls have seen plenty in our adventures."

Dad didn't seem too phased by the stallion struggling on the ground. "It's one thing seeing the death of those caused by your enemy, it's another to see your enemy falling before you, that's a part of the battle. But it's a surreal thing when you've no part in a conflict, and you have to watch the life fade from their eyes. The field of battle presents you with the mind that it's kill or be killed, but this is no field." But while he showed no physical reaction, his response was telling of how he felt watching the gladiator quietly fade from existence.

"They're just letting them die down there." I pointed out, seeing the sluggish reaction of the bloodied stallion on the ground.

"If I'm a betting pony, I would say that this is the intent." The victor raised their hooves triumphantly while the defeated withered on the ground, breathing slowly until... he simply stopped.

That was yet another thing I wish I hadn't seen. "Shouldn't we go?"

"If you're uncomfortable." Dad answered as we watched some of deciding officials run over to the loser and check his status.

"Something inside of me tells me we should." I answered, not wanting to hear the confirmation of what I had witnessed to.

"Then that's a good voice to listen to. Just like always, keep your eyes on me."

While I got up to leave the stands, dad watched as one official glanced back up to another after checking on the downed victim. He shook his head and stood up, running a hoof horizontally across his neck. A medic ran to the victim and checked for a pulse, he came back up looking at a time on a watch. Some quiet words were spoken and they started dragging the body off of the arena floor.

Dad finally left the stands, muttering to himself. "Another one to his collection."

Midtown District
Sometime Later...

Very slowly, a pair of distraught ponies marched onward to a small town unit. As they arrived, the mare whimpered and shuddered as her brother continued to assure his younger sibling of her safety. He continued to be gentle in the way he spoke and moved, trying not to become too loud as to not disturb the neighbors. When he reached the front door, he glanced around and unlocked it, entering the unit first. He cut on the lights of the room, seeing a clean home with fond memories of her accomplishments decorating the walls.

"Okay... we're home." He whispered tiredly.

She continued to shake and whimper, looking at the various shadows in the room. Many of them began to resemble faces around her. Her brother walked around to intervene before her mind started to devolve into madness.

"Look at me. We're home. We're safe." She quietly nodded, taking deep breaths as her brother stood before her. "Now, let's run you a bath, get you nice and clean. Big bubble bath, just like you used to like it. I'm gonna get us some drinks, we're gonna try... and get through this." As his spoke, his voice grew shaky. Alabaster held himself back from his own grief while he tried to comfort his accosted baby sister.

The mare started to walk up the stairs, slowly while looking at the photos along the way. Alabaster emerged from the kitchen with two bottles of bourbon and pointed up the stairs to hurry his sister along.

*knock knock knock knock knock*

The two looked at each other before Alabaster called out to the door. "Who is it!?"

"This is the Canterlot Constable! Please open the door!"

The cream-white stallion slowly descended the stairs as he obeyed the command issued to him. When he opened the door, there were two guard ponies entering the unit with a third standing at the door. "What, now wait a minute. What's going on!?"

The stallion at the door pointed at a scroll with a red seal on it. "Council Member Alabaster Charm, you're being detained for questioning."

"Questioning at this time of night!?" The stallion asked as the two guards started placing shackles on all of his legs. As that was being done, Blue rushed back down the stairs to stop them from taking her brother.

"What are you doing!? That's my brother!" She pleaded as one of the other guards used his magic to keep her suppressed. "He's a good pony, he wouldn't do anything out of character!"

"What am I being questioned for!? What have I done wrong!?"

"Unlawful activity." The guard replied coarsely as he motioned the other two to take the stallion away.

"Where's the warrant!?" Alabaster questioned.

"You're being detained and questioned for suspicion of illegal activity. Witnesses have pointed you out walking around the streets near the Corrotto district for a week." The guard levitated the scroll from earlier. "So you tell us why you're up and about at this time of night."

"My sister is having a panic attack!" He replied angrily before being forcibly removed from the unit.

"Alabaster!" Blue called out frantically. Running out the door, she found them loading him into a detainment carriage. "That's my brother, he's only looking after me! Please don't do this, he's done nothing wrong!"

The guard quietly nodded his helmet to the mare. "I'm sorry for the disturbance, ma'am. Have a good night."

"WAIT!" She screamed loudly. The carriage quickly pulled off and ended up down the street. Blue tried running after her brother, but found that the carriage was moving far too quick for her to catch up with. The mare started to feel her chest tighten, her breaths running shallow as the air thinned to her mind. She began to cry out down the street. "ALABASTER!" After calling for her brother, she collapsed on the cobblestones that decorated the center of the street. She laid in place, losing all hope as she cried.

The sound of a door opening from another nearby unit sounded to her ears, just slightly over the sound of her manic breathing. A mare galloped over to her side. "My dear, are you okay?"

Blue began to hyperventilate rapidly, the mare who visited her had placed a hoof on the back of her head, trying to ease her back down. "Okay, okay. Everything's going to be okay." She then caught whiff of the smell coming off of her and flinched back. "Where did you come from, dear? Oh you poor thing must've went through it all." She continued to soothe the mare as best as she could. "Do you live around here?"

Blue, still hyperventilating looked to her own residence, the front door left ajar.

"You stay right there?" The mare questioned. "Well that makes us neighbors then. I promise to have you feeling better. I promise to take good care of you. Is it alright if you come with me?" Blue's breathing started to slow down gradually, her eyes finally gazing up to the mare attempting to care for her. She nodded her head. "Okay then, we'll get you inside, run you a lovely little bath, get you all clean, and then we can get the proper authorities to look out for you. Okay?" Blue was assisted off the ground as the mare walked along with her, guiding her to her own home.

Upon entering, Blue noticed a display case filled with many plaques and awards, some including a key to the city, a ceremonial wreath, and several pictures. The mare glanced at the photos, seeing a purple unicorn standing with a proud smile, holding up her certificate of acceptance to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.

Blue turned to the gray mare, feeling a little more secure upon realizing who's home she was ushered into.

"I know it's cold as wendigos out there, I couldn't just leave you out in the middle of the street like that. You'll catch hypothermia like something fierce." The kind mare then shouted upstairs. "Spike, I know you're tired, but please come downstairs! Now!"

A few seconds later and the young dragon rumbled down the stairs to see the blue disheveled unicorn standing at the center of the room. "What's going on─" When he got closer, the dragon quickly picked up on the smell that was coming from her. "Yikes! It smells like something crawled over and died."

Blue's thoughts flashed back to the sight of her father's decaying face on top of her, caging her in as he did in life. Her breathing started growing rapid once more. Velvet took observation of the mare and chided the dragon. "Spike, we are not about to deal with any wisecracks! This mare is distraught and in dire need of help. If you want to do something about the smell, run a warm bath for her. Be of use instead of judging somepony for what they are in the moment."

"One hot bath, coming up." The young drake replied before running off upstairs.

Blue still suffered the trauma from her earlier ordeal, but Velvet calmly spoke to her and assured her safety. "Okay, baby girl. Look at me. I'm here. We're gonna get you right, and then we'll get you help. Just like I promised."

Her breathing started to slow back down gradually, Velvet continued to rub at the back of the mare's head. While she did, the front door opened to a pair of ponies. The two appeared sullen after their night out, mainly processing what they saw at the arena. "I am going to need a few books on sleeping spells before I get back to Ponyville."

The young mare turned around to see me and my dad walk in. He muttered to me. "I have a copy of Chancellor Puddinghead's Guide to a Good Night's Sleep. I'll let you hold on to it for a while."

"Thanks. I'll be needing it." I replied.

Mom scowled at dad. "Are you done scarring our daughter enough for your satisfaction, Crescent?"

"I don't particularly enjoy this stuff, Velvet." He replied. "I'm doing it because our daughter requested help, and I'm not letting her go through this without any kind of guidance."

Mom then turned her attention to me. "Violet, are you alright."

"I'm fine." I replied before turning my attention to the blue mare beside her. "Who's she?"

"She's..." Mom began before coming to a stall. "Well I do know she's a neighbor of ours. But she hasn't given us a name."

As I approached her, I couldn't help but to notice the smell on her. She seemed as if she had gone through hell, and smelled like it. "Ma'am, what is your name."

"...Blue." She whimpered in a low voice. "Blue Royal."

Mom grimaced as she gave the mare another glance. "Poor thing looks like she's been abused, and acts like it. What ever happened to you, dear?"

She wouldn't respond, only her breathing increased. Dad stepped in. "Ma'am, where do you live?"

"...Two units down."

"Her front door is still open. Not only is the cold getting in that place, but anypony could walk in at any given time." Mom also pointed out.

"I'll go over and give it a search before I lock it up." Dad answered before turning to the mare. "Miss Blue, do you mind if I secure your home for you?"

"Please." She whimpered once more.

"Alright." He confirmed before walking out the door. "Violet, get her in the bath and make sure she's comfortable. If need be, she'll be sleeping in your old bed tonight."

The assurance of my father's words gave the young mare much relief, though she was still awfully timid. "...Thank you."

Spike ran from upstairs and announced to everyone. "Bath water's ran. We can get her in there."

"Don't you worry about a thing, Miss Blue Royal. As long as you're here, you're in good hooves." Mom reassured. "Now get up there while I fix you a nice hot cup of tea."

"Bathroom is this way." I informed the mare, starting to guide her upstairs. "Once we get you cleaned, is there anything you need? Anything to drink, maybe a bite to eat?"

Then there was a knock on our door. Both my mom and I stared at the door with skepticism. My mother crept to the door and cracked it open with the chain latched to see who it was. "Can I help you?"

The figure then announced to mom. "Hello, ma'am. I just got back in from a bit of a misunderstanding. I was just taken away and I believe my sister had tried to chase us down. I'm sorry for it being so late and my sudden arrival being an inconvenience to you."

Blue appeared as if she recognized the voice and ran down the stairs. Mom saw the mare coming and closed the door briefly to undo the latch. When she finally opened the door, the mare almost tackled the stallion at the door. I could see her hooves coiling around the stallion tightly, relieved to see him. "Sir, do you know this mare?" I asked.

"Of course. She's my adorable little sister. I'm just getting her in because something happened to her earlier tonight. Some guards just showed up and tried to get me to go with them. That's why I couldn't finish helping her get comfortable tonight." The stallion bowed. "My sincerest apologies."

My father came walking from down the street, seeing the stallion getting embraced by Blue Royal. "Ah, so I take it you're familiar with this mare?"

"Yes sir. She's my sister." He answered once more.

He gave the stallion a look before and walked past the two into our home. "Well I just secured her home, she just gave me permission to check around and see if anything else was involved. I do want to get that cleared up before there's any miscommunication taking place. The home is safe and no one is inside."

"Did you hear that. Blue? No one's in there." The older brother sweetly informed his younger sister. "Okay, now let's get you back home and in that shower."

"Hold it!" Mom hollered as she walked outside, offering some comfort to the mare. "Alright sweetheart, we're neighbors of yours. If you have any issues, you can come to us and we'll help."

The brother nodded. "Thank you so much for looking after my sister. She means the world."

"You two just be careful. Canterlot isn't as safe as it was when we were coming up. I suggest locking up tonight."

"We'll do that. Thank you." He said as he escorted his sister further down the street.

When Blue and her brother returned to her unit, she started walking up the stairs to run herself a bath. The stallion looked around the home another time before going upstairs to help his sister with her bath. It took her a while to get settled down before she could step into the water with confidence. As the seconds progressed, she stayed in the water and let her mind drown in many of her thoughts. A light knock sounded through the bathroom door.

"You okay in there?" There was no immediate answer. "I know tonight was... terrible. But I promise you that you're going to be safe with me. I'm sorry to have put you through that." Still silence from the other side of the door. "I promise we'll get through this."

The mare stayed sunk into the water as she finally answered back. "All of this is just too much. I don't know if I can keep going on like this. I feel like... I feel like he's everywhere."

The older sibling called out from behind the door. "Blue, you know you didn't have to do that for me."

"And what, I'm supposed to lose you? Leave me in a place full of rapists and murders who snatch the bodies of anypony that hurt me in my life? How do I keep myself alive at that point!? I can't deal with it anymore! All of it is just him doing everything he can to torture me! It's just not fair! What did I do to deserve this!?"

Meanwhile... on the other side of the door was a smirking stallion, dressed in his usual suit and top hat. The cane rotated in his orange aura beside him as he held a glow against his throat. He stifled a laugh as he took amusement in what was taking place. Umbra Sanctus took a deep breath to regain control over his humor and continued to feign the voice of her brother.

"Alabaster... I'm scared to live without you."

The stallion grinned from ear to ear. "I know, Blue. I know."

***Point of Perspective: Equus Nondis***

We checked into a cheap hotel this go around. Usually I'd plan on trying to keep things a little more classy considering all the things Kalimba went through. But tonight was pretty rough, and that's putting it mildly. I couldn't begin to fathom what the hell I paid witness to, what I participated in, what all happened. Hell even what happened afterwards continues to leave a deep psychological wound in my brain. I'm sure if I had ever smelled the odor of bad meat in the fridge, I'd vomit on the spot. I had to temporarily desensitize myself for the task of dismemberment, which is not entirely easy.

It never was, even in a live-or-die scenario.

The train station wasn't that far away from here, I know it's an easy walk from here to there. But since trains don't usually come around until a certain time in the morning, I thought it would be easier to have some place to stay nearby it in the instance we had a rough night sleeping and we needed to compile a little more rest.

Kalimba didn't seem very enthused to be here. I could tell by the way she was leaning against the headboard. There was a lot on her mind. When I got in the bed, I realized just how harsh the mattress was. It felt like the springs were digging into my back, and there were several places where the mattress was uneven.

I laid my head on the pillow, starting to find something to distract my mind from the ordeal we paid witness to. "Holy hell, this mattress is like sleeping on a damn box spring. I'm sorry for dragging you here of all places for the night. I was just thinking we could be closer to the station if we needed to sleep in a little bit, but this is ridiculous."

The mare sighed as she still appeared lost in her own thoughts. "I am fine. Right now I can only sympathize for what Blue had to endure."

The fact that he had a mask made of her mother's face fashioned from the moment of her death was what really made me shudder. All I could imagine was the idea of that asshole kidnapping Mel and then doing a whole song and dance as he has pictures of my dead face all over the room. "Fucked up thing is that she really did that to keep her brother alive. She had to go through so many mental triggers to make it appealing for that sadistic asshole."

The zebracorn looked over to me. "I am more concerned about what he has in store for you. You broke de cardinal rule."

"Imagine if that asshole dug up Prod and raped you in front of a bunch of ponies wearing the face of your deceased mother. That's some shit I can't even begin to understand, even my world has some fucked up stories but never anything that personal."

The mare grabbed her blanket, turning herself over on her side of the bed. "It does not put me at ease to think about it. I only know dat I am going to have some trouble going to sleep behind dat."

"Welcome to the club." I replied, turning to the other side.

With myself facing the door, my eyes saw a motionless door, as mundane and run-down as any backwood motel experience would be. But in my mind, I could already see the image of a dismember Count barging into the room to give me a good staredown, possibly hunching over me as he did his own daughter. The thought caused me to glance at the lamp and turn myself over to see the back of Kalimba head. Out of a will to soothe my mind, I quietly wrapped my hooves around her and forced myself to sleep.

She turned back around and looked at the lamp on my side of the bed. "Are you going to sleep with de light on?"

I cracked my eyes open and politely pleaded with her. "Lady, you have not experienced what I did on Saturday night. Just let me have this one."

The mare turned herself around and embraced me for a moment... with a chuckle. "Silly boy. Rest."

The Next Morning...

It was another night of my miserable self closing my eyes, periodically thinking of the things I've seen and have done, most of the sights and smells deeply engrained in my personality now. There's no going back from what I did, no matter how fresh or old the body is. The only thing I could do was pray that I could at least pretend to put those moments aside for when the others come around, for when I'm with my friends and family in the daylight. They don't need to know that I played butcher, or that I was mentally raped by someone's trauma fetish. The only thing that kept me together was the fact that there was a mare holding on to me as much as I needed to hold on to her. Worse off, I'm sure I'll never give her the attention she deserves, my intended is another wounded soul, also crushed by the traumas of her past.

Whomever comes after me for her, they'll have a lot of work to do.

The morning came with several aches and pains, namely from the mattress we slept on. Another source of my dawn-light discomfort came from the hangover. The drinks only dulled my response, but I started sobering down after we got into the hotel. A cup of coffee later and I felt like I was going to at least tolerate the day. I wasn't really in any mood other than wanting to be to myself, but I had a job to do, a life to live, and a whole lot of faces to look at.

We cleaned ourselves up and ran to the station. When we got there, the lady at the counter who sold our tickets had informed us of a two hour delay. Apparently there was a rockslide overnight and a few of the tracks were at risk of being damaged. So there had to be several inspections. Thankfully they were already at it for the past four hours, these next two were just for nailing things down and reinforcing the passageways. Still, it was a far cry faster than what would've been done in my world. Shit like that would normally take weeks.

Hooray for magic.

Meanwhile, Kalimba appeared to be in a bit of a rush back down to Ponyville. She was even quietly pacing back and forth. "What's the matter? I'm not that bad of a person to be around, am I?" I joked.

"I did not know dat de train would be held up today." She said. "I'm supposed to be at my work, and den I go to complete my training dis evening."

"Life is full of curveballs." I mumbled while seeing a group of guards marching in. The one in lead pointed to the train, sending two off in that direction. They then pointed two off in the direction of the ticket booth, and finally they marched three over to the general area, where we were sitting. "I didn't know there was a surprise inspection today, but I guess we shouldn't beat ourselves over a few unexpected surprises."

While the group of guards started to approach us, Kalimba whispered to me. "Perhaps you could talk our way through dis again?"

"Worth a shot." I said as I stepped forward.

"Halt!" A male guard called out from the group. "This station is now under strict inspection of passengers. If you wish to board, you must submit identification as well as a valid proof of purchase."

"Here's our ticket sir." I surrendered the ticket I was going to use for Kalimba's fare.

The guard gave my ticket a look before waiving me off. "Wait!" However, another guard stormed over and took off her helmet. It was Solemn Oath, who looked at my traveling partner and then turned to me. "She looks familiar. Who is this mare traveling with you?"

"She's my fiancée." I answered.

"Fiancée?" The mare scoffed as she motioned the other guards to surround us. "I'm probably mistaken on your identity. but I can recognize that unicorn-wannabe zebra from anywhere." The mare folded her forelegs and sat confidently. "Now that I think about it, the last time I saw you two, didn't your excuse go something along the lines of 'celebrating your anniversary'?"

Honestly, I didn't thing she'd remember that. But then again she's keen towards Kalimba. The entire time of our last encounter was just her trying to grill her for some sort of illegal body modification. With that in mind, I continued to try and get us out of this. "Please ma'am, we're just trying to get back home."

She looked to the guard that inspected our ticket. "Where did that boarding pass say they were going?"

"Ponyville, ma'am." He replied quietly.

The mare turned and tilted her head slowly, speaking with an air of sarcasm. "Strange. I could've sworn you said you were from somewhere else." She then motioned two guards to get behind Kalimba. "Miss zebra, I need for you to lay on your back and keep your hooves in the air."

As she complied with the order, I began to argue in her defense. "Miss, this is an unwarranted search and seizure."

Solemn scoffed at my argument. "An unwarranted seizure would be if I arrested you just for telling me that I looked pretty and made a disgusting advance at me. But your sudden appearance with this transplant is nothing short of suspicious."

For a brief moment, my actual voice came through as I implored the mare to back down. "Please reconsider."

"You know, I think I will." She said with a dismissive tone, ordering two more guards behind me. "Bring them both to the castle for further questioning. And try to keep them separated, we don't want any conspiracies to start brewing up."

"Yes ma'am!" The group of guards called out in unison.

As I was being detained, Kalimba groaned out in frustration, seemingly to maintain the story of us being lovers. "Ah, I told you dis was a terrible idea to come back here! De hotel was terrible, de food was terrible, and now look at us! Stupid idjiot!"

I rolled my eyes as if I was becoming more annoyed with her, as opposed to actually being annoyed with Solemn going on a power trip. "Babe, just let me do the talking."

Next, there was a magic aura encircling my muzzle, no doubt Solemn's doing. She ordered me in a bitter tone as she pointed her hoof in my face. "No. She can talk as much as she wants. YOU be silent."

...I wonder if she has a thing against stallions.

Canterlot Dungeons
Sometime Later...

After getting escorted into the dungeons, I was left in a stone room to be interrogated. The place was dimly lit and there was hardly any place that wasn't either cold or damp. It almost felt like the air that was whisked through the halls were being sent straight from outside and through the vents. I was detained for about an hour before anyone had given me the time of day.

And then Solemn walked into the room, alone. She seemed determined to get some information out of me, there wasn't any doubt in my mind that she wanted me to confess to some sort of crime. It was either that or she wanted me to spill the beans on Kalimba, hoping that I'd sell her out.

But just as she was about to begin, a guard knocked on the door behind her. She opened the door and answered the guard. "Status update, corporal."

The armed guard gave her a salute. "No word from the captain, ma'am... or even sight of him."

The mare scoffed, smirking to herself. "All that pomp and circumstance, no action to be seen when it matters. To think I could've gotten him some useful leads. Oh well, guess I'll be doing my own investigation." She saluted the guard back. "Very well then, you're dismissed."

"Yes, ma'am." The guard walked out and closed the door behind him, leaving only me and Solemn in the room. The mare meandered to me slowly and sat herself down. She then summoned a dandelion sandwich and a warm cup of tea.

"It's pretty chilly in here. I guess you never had this planned in your so-called vacation." She said mockingly, wafting the steam of her tea into my face. "But if you work with me, we can get through this fairly quickly. Perhaps your vacation won't necessarily turn into a staycation." She chuckled to herself. "Do you want some tea, it warms the body up real nice. And chamomile is known to be a relaxant. Maybe you'd like to be put at ease with a cup or two." She took a sip of her tea and sighed with pleasure from her beverage. "So, your zebra friend pleaded for her silence. Awfully suspicious to me." Maybe you could tell me more about this lover of yours."

"Ma'am, please reconsider what you're doing." I calmly pleaded.

The mare ridiculed my request. "Why should I? You two got caught sneaking around the Canterrot entrance when we last met. But Celestia saw it fit to let you two go. And of course, it came after their ringleader threatened to expose her secret suitor to the world."

I looked at her as perplexed as I pretended to be. "What does that last bit have to do with me?"

"Nothing at all. But I do find it curious that the two of you would get caught roaming around the same part of town." She leaned in closer, holding her sandwich in front of my face. "Hungry? Honey dew and dandelion. Meaning you're detained doesn't require me to be mean. I'm only that way when you're a criminal. And I know that criminals infest that general area of the city. So maybe a non-criminal pony would take my sandwich as an offer of peace and cooperation."

While the mare continued to give me a disingenuous smile, I opened my mouth to take the offer, only for her to rescind the sandwich from the reach of my teeth. She tilted her head with that same smile on her face. dangling the sandwich above my head. "We were at a train station. That's far from the same part of town." I pointed out.

"Is it? I can't really seem to identify that. See, that whole part of Canterlot is so infested with high crime rates that it's hard to distinguish the difference."

The only reason the crime rate was like that is because most of the area is poor or in disrepair from several changeling invasions. "What am I really here for?" I asked dismissively.

She took the half of the sandwich she held in my face and took a bite from it. "It's as I said, it's a little too convenient that the two of you 'tourists' would twice visit the same place in the span of three weeks or less."

"Sometime my job takes me back here. That's all." I simply replied.

"So where do you work?" She asked, still chewing on the sandwich.

"I work for a private security firm, it's a back-of-the-mountain thing." I lied.

"Then why do you leave town in the morning, surely you don't work a graveyard shift."

"Actually I do." I lied once more.

"What checkpoint?"

"Fourth." I answered, knowing that particular checkpoint was beyond the jurisdiction of the guards.

"Hum... that's interesting." She already had it in her mind that I was lying to her, rightfully so. She went back to Kalimba. "Who's your zebra friend?"

"Special somepony." I lied again.

"Special somepony, not your fiancée?"

"I don't think those terms are exclusive from one another. So what about it?" I groaned with a bit of annoyance.

She tapped against her own forehead. "Where did she get the horn?"

"She always had it, from the very first day I saw her." That was probably the only truthful statement I gave her.

Solemn tapped the ground, giving me her smug air of superiority. "Now let's be candid with one another. Some of these illegal operations can make some of those changes look a little too convincing. Don't you think it's out of sorts for a zebra to be having a unicorn's horn? She obviously doesn't use it for magic, and even if she could, it wouldn't be very strong."

"But it's her horn regardless. The day I saw her, she told me about it." I replied truthfully.

"What did she tell you?"

I started to become impatient with the way she was questioning me, the way she leaned in with that smile on her face. I glanced around to assess if it was safe for me to blow my cover. "I can't tell you that. That's betraying her trust."

She spoke with a preppy attitude. "Well if you're so worried about betrayal and trust, then why are you showing me all the signs that I shouldn't trust you for anything you say?"

Yeah, I'm done playing pretend with this bitch. "Okay, enough of this." I said, dropping any resemblance of falsetto in my voice. "Lady, if you'd put this much headway into your tactical approach on the field, you'd be every last bit of the terror you try to pass yourself off to be."

She appeared to be taken aback by my sudden change in tone, offended that I would suddenly bulk up at her. "Who do you think you are?"

"I'm not an idiot who blows his own cover unless when necessary, that or I see some stupid shit taking place and possibly wasting my valuable time." I answered, giving her my usual snark and attitude. "Now how about you get me out of this cell before I have you court martialed again."

The mare was confused by my statement, more so by my threat. "Seriously, who are you?"

I rolled my eyes at her. "Brilliant mind, completely oblivious to the broad side of a damn barn. Are you really lacking in critical thinking skills when the context is right there in front of your face? Maybe I should've let your condescending ass get hit by a car when you wandered into my world after all."

That rant was about all the hint she needed to finally identify me. "Wait a minute! You─"

"Yeah, it's me. Now get me out of here." I said, tapping my hoof against the ground.

"How do I know you're not a changeling?" She questioned.

"Would you like to hear the story of how I almost excavated your brains for wandering into my world without my given consent?"

"Okay, so it is you." She couldn't appear any more bewildered over the circumstances. "But seriously, how do I know if you're a changeling or not?"

"I wonder about you sometimes." I said, rubbing a hoof against the side of my head.

"I'm not the one who had a changeling queen walk around here giving orders on two legs. Now secret question. What was it that Celestia assigned for us to do with each other?"

"Become better acquainted with one another. But do you know what doesn't help that?" As soon as I asked that question, she quickly summoned the keys to undo my shackles and let me off. "Thank you."

"You're a pony." She said as I started to massage the presence of those cuffs off of my forelegs.

"Okay, and?"

"You're. A pony." She stressed once more.

I stared at her in silence before exhaling. "And you expect me to go wandering about town in my daytime getup?"

She was still distracted that I was anything but a human. I could understand her shock and awe, but I was still working off the frustration of being wrongfully detained when I'm supposed to be reporting in for my job. All this did was make me late with hardly any excuse to submit to any of my superiors. She still didn't care about that as much as she did about me being on all fours. "You're. A. Pony."

I just stared at the mare before asking in deadpan. "Where's my zebra friend?

"In another holding cell. What does it matter?"

"She's my informant, you dipshit." I angrily replied. "I need her record clean."

"Ohhhhh." The mare gave me a slow nod. "So is she how you know about all of Canterrot?"

"Yes. She's the one who get's me through Corrotto without losing any arms, legs, head, or my dick in the process. Would you care to know anything else?"

"What exactly is she informing you of?" She inquired.

"Classified." I answered bluntly.

She glanced at me like my snark was getting too much for her patience. "You know, the ball is technically in my court. I could just keep her in a cell."

I couldn't help but to purse my lips out of irritation. "Here's a question for the bright-minded. Who do you think has the final say over who stays in a cell?"

"Princess Celestia." She answered, certain that she was right.

"Wrong, Princess Luna is in charge of martial matters. Celestia is in charge of executive matters. And considering that I work for both of those princesses, how do you think your little spiteful stunt will end?"

The mare chuckled nervously as she thought a little while longer. "I guess it won't be what I imagined it to be."

"Duuui, ya think? Now what cell are you holding my informant?"

After a minute of processing, I was let off with a clean slate. Though my main concern wasn't my own record, it was that of Kalimba's. It's one thing if I do something in this form, nobody really knows who I am when I walk around. But Kalimba only has one form to use to her name, and that's the one she was born with. The reason for it is that they do keep tabs on ponies who are considered special interests in terms of what crimes they've committed or have been accused of. If there's any evidence leading to an indictment, just the tiniest implication, they'll be marked and questioned for life.

So I had to vouch to keep her record clean. It's not only for her benefit, but it also keeps any suspicions on those who happen to be close to her. And there's at least one royal name on that list. All they have to do is open a inquiry, see the name, and they'll know something's up.

When we got to the holding cell, we encountered two other guards as well as an unpredictable guest. "Your highness!" Solemn bowed before the midnight princess who stood between the two guards overseeing the zebracorn.

Luna turned around to acknowledge the mare's greeting. "Solemn Oath, you may rise."

The fairly stern guardsmare rose from her bow, looking over to me as she explained herself. "Your excellency, I've seemed to have captured a prisoner. But it appears that there is an unusual circumstance that comes with the occurrence."

I didn't say anything, Luna already knew what was going on. Instead she gave order to the two guards that stood by her. "Leave us." Without hesitation or question, they followed the order and left the room closed to the four of us. The princess of the night walked to me and giggled. "Always a magnet for trouble, captain."

Solemn was left gawking at the fact that the princess immediately identified me. "Princess Luna, I didn't expect you to be paying a visit." I replied with a bow of my own.

"And I didn't expect you to find your way into our dungeons outside of being a visitor." She mocked playfully.

"I have her to thank." I said, tilting my head to Solemn, who looked at me as if I threw her under a bus.

Solemn, not wanting to look incompetent, pointed at the chained up zebracorn in the corner. "Your highness, I have strong suspicions that zebra has altered her body to accommodate a unicorn's horn. It states in the law that any unsanctioned body modifications, especially those that transfigure one's physical orientation is forbidden under penalty of confinement no more than twenty-four months and a fine of fifty-thousand bits."

"I am aware of what the law states, and I assure you that this is nothing to be pursued." Luna continued to smile as she waved off the mare's argument. "Actually, I've done some investigation into this particular matter and came across some interesting results."

"Results such as?" Solemn inquired.

The princess smirked as she glanced over to the door. "Well the answer should walk into this room in a few seconds from now─"

*knock knock knock knock*

"As such, timing is everything." She mumbled, proud of her timing. She called out to the door. "You may enter."

One of the guards outside opened the door for her special guest. It was Somber Spiral who entered the room. He gave the princess a very astute bow. "Your highness, it is always a blessing to be in your midst." And then he turned to the zebracorn in the corner of the room, who refused to look at him. "Oh, my dear little girl."

"Ugh... why are you here?" She seemed very disgusted with his sudden appearance.

The stallion didn't seem too discouraged by her coldness, but he was touched by sadness with her rejection. That didn't stop him from pleading on her behalf. "Your highness, I'm willing to pay whatever fine to have her go free."

Luna waved her hoof at the stallion. "No need. She was only being detained out of a minor suspicion."

He looked at me with confusion, astounded that his daughter would be accused of anything while under my direction. "But she works with... I mean... I thought─"

I chimed in with some means to clarify the situation. "Yes, she works with me. No, I never intended for any others outside of certain parties to know that." My next statement was directed to Solemn Oath specifically. "And no, we're not on a honeymoon. If anything, you should've kept up with Celestia's example and let us walk. Now we're all running late in our usual daily grind because you want to have suspicions."

The mare snapped back at me. "How am I supposed to know that you're you doing all of this when you don't tell me anything!?"

"Because that's how classified assignments go. I can't let everyone know who I am in this form, I only do it to get myself out of a bind or get some shit done. Ain't no better example of that than getting out of a prison cell after being detained for some mare's overeager suspicions and underlying biases."

She argued back. "Arresting her is not an underlying bias. It's a reason to expect some wrongdoing."

"Because she's a zebra?" I questioned.

"With a unicorn's horn!" She added.

"She has a horn because of me." Somber spoke out finally, standing by the mare who rejected even the tiniest bit of his touch. "She's my daughter."

Solemn facehoofed and held her head as she questioned the stallion. "Senator, you can't possibly tell me that this is in some way factual."

"Indeed it is." Luna added as she pulled out a folder filled with medicinal records and birth certificates. She levitated the items over to Solemn to read while Somber briefly elaborated on his domestic situation.

"I escaped my family and married in secret. My first wife and I had her, we were a happy family until she died."

Solemn had gone through the records given to her, skimming through the details until she reached the main proof of their relation. She tilted her head at the senator. "Then what?"

The stallion appeared thoroughly embarrassed over how he had to answer that question, considering the things that lead up to this point. I held a hoof up and spoke in his defense. "Classified."

Meanwhile, Kalimba didn't like the idea of absolving her father of his past sins. She began to harp on that as she launched out to her father, straining her chained cuffs in doing so. "Do not classify dat! You tell her what you did!"

The stallion held a hoof up to stop me from answering anything else. "I suppose it is a sin I must bear willingly. If it's to help me get any closer to my daughter, then the truth must come free." He closed his eyes and bowed his head in shame. "I... I fell into a drug habit, and my daughter was sold off in my moment of delusion."

"By who?" Kalimba hissed at her father.

"...Me." He quietly finalized.

Solemn grew livid at the senator as she heard of what took place. "What?"

I jumped in quickly to prevent any more time being wasted here. "Rabbit hole goes a lot deeper than that. I suggest you stop while you're ahead."

She stepped up to me and pointed her hoof at the stallion. "And you did nothing to arrest him?"

"He'll get his in time. For now, he's of use to us." I responded, causing the guardsmare to become even more angry with what was going on.

"I cannot believe that you would allow such corruption to persist."

Luna also added her support for me. "Well whether you like it or not, it's going to continue. And that's with my explicit say."

The guard then questioned the princess with some hesitation. "Your highness, think of what your sister would say if she were to find this out."

"My sister has sat on much worse, I'm sure." Luna truthfully added.

I tapped the mare on her shoulder and calmly explained to her. "Solemn Oath, you're gonna have to keep quiet about this. I'm sure you understand why, I don't like having to repeat myself."

The mare objected to the idea, stammering over her own words. "But... This... I..."

I went on to carefully warn her of the risks. "Clearly you're not ready for something like this. So don't be surprised if we keep you out of the loop on some things. Just last night I saw some shit that I wasn't supposed to see, and my informant can remember it just as vividly also. But what that is shall remain unsaid until the right time. But just know that what we've witnessed will forever haunt us in our minds for the rest of our lives. All of it, the sights, the smells, the sensations of the contact, these tangible things once considered unimaginable right there in your own hooves. I want you to understand that much, because you're not mentally ready to take on what all we know and have seen. Hell, I wasn't ready and I'm doing the damn assignment."

Solemn dismissed my warning with foolish confidence. "If those cages full of dead creatures we saw on Sunday are an example, I think it's safe to say I can handle some of it."

Kalimba finally spoke out and argued otherwise. "Dat is only scratching de surface." She interjected. "You are a stupid girl, ignorant and privileged. You do not understand what dis is, and he is trying to save you. Do not be foolish."

For some odd reason, just hearing the reprimand coming from her made Solemn very spiteful. She marched over to the captured zebra and vented her thoughts. "I don't think you know what privilege is. Privilege is getting the captain's seat after being in basic training for eight weeks and a few days of being a corporal. While I'm a guard of twenty years, I've been one since I was seventeen, I don't get the position because he's also a suitor to the princess' former student. And I'm not in any way stupid, I've been serving for twenty years! I know what I'm doing, so I'm not going to listen to some street brat telling me how to do my job!"

"If you know what you are doing, den why don't you spend a night in Corrotto, ah? It should be easy for you, maybe you won't have to sell your body to stop yourself from getting killed. Maybe you won't get passed around on de first night. Or maybe you will become used to de street being littered in deady bodies." Kalimba's voice grew icy as she whispered to the mare's face. "Or maybe dey won't rape your corpse littering de street. You cannot consent anyway, you cannot fight back, you do not care nor can you. Dey will do as dey wish, leave deir seed in every part of you... and send your family whatever remains. I have seen dis. And many mares like you, dey love to break. Slow." Kalimba almost got in kissing distance of the mare while she seeded more of her words into the stubborn mare. "Or perhaps, maybe you'll be made to clean up after those who violate de bodies. You will never get used to it... trust me."

Even Luna looked at the mare with a sense of unease as she essentially went about her own way of telling Solemn that she wasn't the one she wanted to have a conflict with. While I was used to her stories, the way she voiced them with her youthful but raspy tone possibly dipped in the richest of exotic oils, there was a different chill running through my spine. Solemn right then knew that it was time to dismiss herself. "You know what, fine. I'm gone. You don't have to rely on me anymore." She directed that statement to me, but it was more of the intimidation that caused her to expedite her departure. "I don't understand why the princess is even forcing us to work together. You got her, so it doesn't even matter what I do."

The door closed behind her, leaving the four of us inside the cell. Luna went about the process of removing Kalimba's cuffs. I shook my head at the mare who left. "I don't get how we're supposed to tolerate each other to be friends. Celestia's really got me pulling in a tall order."

When the cuffs dropped to the ground, Somber asked about his daughter's status. "So um... does this mean my daughter can go free?"

"Yes, she's free to go." Luna replied.

"Oh thank Celestia." He said with a sigh of relief, and then looked at his estranged daughter. "So my dear Kalimba─"

"Crawl up your own bumbum and leave me alone, like you did for ten years now. Idjiot." She stormed out of the cell with no further comment.

The mature stallion reached his hoof out in vain to call for her. "Kalimba..." He glanced over to me, almost as if he wanted me to intervene in some way.

I wisely rejected the task. "Hey, I can't get in that That's you and her."

Later That Evening...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

The day went about as quietly as it normally would. While the enlisted guards had hoped for some excitement to come into their lives with every passing moment they get stuck in a random hallway to look after, I was cautious about the quiet. Usually a lot of things come barreling my way by dinner, but the incident from earlier was the only thing that seemed to be something worth mentioning.

I did talk with my counselor today. Instead of telling him the full-on truth of what I was seeing, I put everything in analogies. It's not that I couldn't tell him, it's more that I couldn't really trust him. My cluing him on to my relationships, then that report getting sent to Crackdown's desk was all I needed for confirmation.

In turn, I began to elaborate over how much I missed having friends to talk to. I mean I know I can call up dad and vent to him, but he wouldn't understand half of the shit I put up with. Calling mom would be like calling in the army to get me exfiltrated. If I talk to my brothers, they'll probably load up and start shooting at everything that moves suspiciously. And of course, I couldn't just call Mel up and ask anything. I needed to keep myself separated from them at all cost since they're going to be here for what's supposed to be another two weeks. Hell, it might even be longer than that.

I missed the company of fellow humans, my friends more specifically. I miss the shit talking every time I do or say something stupid. I miss being able to call someone on the phone and hang out with them in a Dave and Busters. Maybe we can go mini golf or laser tag when we got the time, I have plenty of money to do it. I miss seeing the expressions on their face when I tell them about my adventures and what all I had to deal with. I miss the reassuring words they have whenever I zone out. I miss being on my own time and not having to worry about the pressure. I miss being sane.

And if it ain't the human side of things, it's the pony side too. I remember when I had troubles telling which bathroom was which. I miss the picnics over in the deeper part of Applejack's orchard. I remember seeing the fireworks on the hill, also the shooting stars. I miss when Pinkie would bring up plenty of snacks for us to eat. I miss when Rarity would bring up her cucumber sandwiches. I even miss when Applejack and Rainbow Dash acted like they had to win everything against one another. Even when Discord annoyed the shit out of everyone except for Fluttershy. Twilight would ask me if I felt okay.

Life was simpler a year ago when all I wanted to do was get back home.

I miss being able to see the sun rise and wonder how Celestia was able to do it. I didn't see these stone halls so frequently, the first time I walked around these halls, I was slack-jawed at everything. I remember when I was still getting subtle hints and flashes of affection from Pinkie, not-so-subtle moments with Rarity, or even the outright instance of innocent infatuation blooming between me and Twilight.

Here I am now, in a discreet and complex relationship with her teacher. I don't regret being with her... I just regret the time I'm not able to have with her. It's like every evening when I need the comfort most, I can't have it with the one I want to use that time with. I want to be able to sink my teeth into her when I feel giddy, or cuddle in the warmth of her wings when I need to feel like I need to be in the arms of a guardian angel. Maybe I'm feeling pent up and I want to explore the ways I can make her squeal. And all of that time, I'm having to deposit those moments with a mare that I'm supposed to be working with.

That energy, that passion, those moments are in complete placebo, altered by nonsensical marriage laws and a mare looking to fill the void her father wants to fill now. But she won't accept for obvious reasons, she trusts me more than him. And all I think about is how difficult it will be for the next one to come in after me. It sucks, I don't like playing with the hearts of others.

A lot of those thoughts followed me on my way around, that and the hell that was to come. So it swam through my mind, all the way until the nighttime. I was given the duty of seeing the princess off to her quarters tonight. And my silence drew much of her attention.

It wasn't until the doors closed and we were alone when she finally questioned me. "Rough night last night?"

"And a fairly shitty morning brought to me in part by Solemn. She had me arrested because she made a search party for me and my underground assistant." I added.

"I see. That's awfully problematic." She said as she started to take off her regalia.

"What's problematic is knowing what's to come next."

"Involving Slade, you mean?" She inquired.

"Oh yeah. I pissed him off last night. No doubt he's going to come for my neck this time, especially after what I did."

"What did you do?" She asked worriedly.

"I took a certain deceased senator out of his overall body count. I had to cut him up, move him around, and then cremate the remains. Also, I think I may have burned down a building in the process."

The princess heavily sighed. "You know, all those things you've done are very much illegal."

"I know." I mumbled exhaustively.

She placed down the chestplate she wore and walked beside me, escorting me to the balcony. "Then you had to have an outstanding motive."

"Slade used the corpse to rape Count's daughter, and then swapped forms as he finished. You can already guess how that ended."

The princess gasped with horror and disgust. "Absolutely terrible."

"That's just another Tuesday night apparently." I replied with little enthusiasm.

The high princess groaned, displeased with the update. "He's far too dangerous to be picking fights with. I don't want you finding yourself in a quarrel with him."

"At this point, he's poking the bear." I responded, folding my arms. "Eventually, it might get violent."

The princess stood before me, backing me down as she stressed her opinion. "I know. But I want you to stay as safe as you can. There are far too many developments to get into at once, let that one be something you don't concern yourself with as heavily as the others. I still want you alive for our next meet-up."

I chuckled and looked at my own self through her eyes. It was more than apparent that she wanted me to follow her advice. But in my mind, I was already thinking of the ways he was going to circumvent any attempts of my staying in one piece. So I began to think about the things I myself dreaded. "Hell, at this point, I might as well write out my last will and testament."

The princess looked at the moon above and bemoaned my statement. "Do you really believe that's necessary?"

"I mean... enough has happened. I have to at this point. No telling what comes next or after these days. I just want to be sure. At least my family will be comfortable, and my friends can go back home safely."

"It's cold out here tonight." The mare closed her eyes, walking back towards the inside of her chamber. Along the way, she held my hand in her magic to guide me back inside. She sat herself on her bed, pulling me to her side as she leaned into my chest. She placed an ear to where my heart was, listening in with melancholy. "...Every stallion my heart fell to has been ominously plucked from me in some tragic circumstance."

"Yeah." I drew a heavy breath as my arms wrapped around her warm body.

She leaned my head in with her magic, bringing me down to level with her. "You know sometimes that I bluff when I say that I'm not going to come after you and save you every time, right?"

"I honestly took that to heart when you said it." I replied.

She rubbed a hoof to the side of my face while she spoke. "Ever since Saturday, my mind's been on the thought of losing you. I mean sure I'd be able to cry my tears and move on, but to lose this hope after having been so close to feeling what I haven't in so many centuries... to indulge in what I have not had in over a millennium... I can't say that I'm not obsessed with the thought of protecting you."

I began to ask, thinking of tragedy. "But if the worst happens─"

"It won't." She moaned in argument. "Not this time. Not ever. Nondis, don't think for one second that I'd let the hope you gave me get snuffed out like a candle against the stormy wind. I'd sooner become what I swore not to be to see you persist."

I nuzzled back against her pearly cheeks, giving her profile a gentle peck. "You know, you never properly advertised that to me."

For that slight instance, her mood changed for the better. She gave me a fairly vulnerable smile. "I may be advanced in my experience, but that doesn't mean that I can't change my mind." And as such, that smile faded into worry once more. "And I can't bear the brunt of losing the hope you've given me."

I paused for a moment and looked down at her, the princess looking up to me. "Honest question, what am I to you, just hope for your freedom?"

"Worried that you're fighting for only my benefit, or probably concerned that you feel that this is a lost cause?" She asked in return.

"Just a curious question, no harm or foul intended."

The royal mare took a moment to think into perspective. "You're my hope for a second chance of having what I could not."

"A family?" I guessed.

The princess hummed with a confirmation. "That and more. It's hard for me to elaborate. I just..." Her wings shuffled to free themselves and wrapped themselves around me as she adjusted herself to look at me directly. "I feel like I need more of you than I'm already getting. Perhaps I'm becoming possessive in some way, but I'm not letting anything tragic happen to you before I've had my time to express myself to you. Even my deepest secrets... I want you to see them all." The mare caught herself over what she said and her eyes bulged with shock. She peeped away from me, her ears blushing as red as her cheeks. "I sound eerily obsessed already."

I laughed a little at her reaction. "Yeah, you royals don't exactly move slow in romances."

She patted me on my chest. "Can you blame us when we don't have anyone brave enough to even ask the chance?"

I began to rub her behind her ears, the princess began to melt quietly into my chest again. "Another curious question. If you and I were to get married today, what all would change?"

The princess brimmed with satisfaction over my tiny offering of attention at a particular sector on the back of her head. "Everything. I'd be designated queen, you'd be a king, and we'd hold all power over the realm, including over the parliament."

...Damn. Hypothetically speaking, if I had gotten to her first and we got married, we would've solved this dilemma from the jump. I began to chuckle at the absurdity. "So if any of them came forward and made themselves king, what's stopping them from getting with you? Any senator worth his smarts could see if he'd get in with the princess for long enough, he'd be a king with all the powers due to him. He'd be virtually unstoppable. So why not walk up to you and say 'be my wife' or something like that?"

"Because I'll easily say no." She said with the most easy-going tone. "I'm still a discerning pony, after all. Even you know that I can just waltz into your mind and see your intent." She added as her horn began to glow.

While I contemplated the idea of snuffing her magic, I noted how warm her aura actually was. Probably better off not playing that chance. "Yeah."

She sat up, pointing at my chest as she guided me flat on my back to the bed. "But your intent isn't power, now is it?"

"You know, if you had wanted to, you could've hoarded me for yourself from the moment I showed up and made me your suitor to start off with. I'm sure the process would've been a drop in the bucket for you." I suggested.

The princess squeaked out in hesitation before responding to my idea. "Do you know how long you would've had to wait if you had been my suitor? They have special rules in the case of both my sister and I, and that's because our parents were the first king and queen of the realm. Us getting married is a guaranteed power grab."

"Let me guess, even longer than eight-to-eighteen months?" I chuckled.

"Try five years."

"Yyyyikesssss." I cringed.

Celestia levitated her crown over and glanced at it for a moment, and then placed it on the top of my head playfully. "Last Friday marked the anniversary of your being here. You'd at least have a year down, four more to go. But I'm sure you'd sooner give up your pursuit of me for one of the other mares you've recently bedded with. I mean, what could I give you other than kisses while they give you everything you could possibly want? A payoff for finite power? From my perspective, there's no purpose in waiting for five years for something that's not even yours, while others are trying to kill them in every way possible. That's like dangling food in front of my starving face, not the slightest bit of fair, nor is it healthy for our relationship."

I took a moment to pull out my phone, not even realizing that Celestia had pulled hers out to snap a picture of me in the tiara. She giggled as she started to go through the numerous edits and filters. As she was doing that, I then asked her about her more about the process. "So they plan out the time in accordance to who's more likely to have power."

Celestia answered me as she started putting together the final edit of the post she wanted to make. "Eighteen months is the going rate, twenty-four is the average. But they didn't know that Cadance would be in charge of the recently-reclaimed Crystal Empire. Had they known, Shining would probably have just gotten married last June."

"And now they have an heir apparent." I added with not as much enthusiasm.

Celestia finished with the post and showed it to me. On the picture she took, there was a caption at the bottom of the screen that said 'King to be' with hearts all over the edges. I took a second to go through her pictures while she spoke. "The bottom line is that you shouldn't have to be punished for being young or in love. Passion is what comes in the moment, it's like a photograph. Everything should be as free as the fun I have when I'm with you, it shouldn't have to come with a signed permit from a group of overseers."

Eventually, I came across the picture of her weapon and sighed. "All the more reason to nix this damn law."

I handed back over her phone, she held it up for a second and kissed my cheek while taking yet another picture. She immediately went back into editing. "All of this is connected somehow."

I hunched over her, watching her from above her head while I hugged her. "Obviously. We know they want a new form of government. We know they want control. We know they'll exploit the unborn to do it. And we know that they've been brewing anti-royal sentiment to the masses. We know where it's all coming from. Our job now is to find where to go from here."

A knock sounded at the door, causing both the princess and I to flinch. A fairly young maid called out from the other side. "Your highness, I hear voices. Is there somepony in there with you?"

Celestia looked between me and the door, trying to come up with an answer. "Uh, no! It's just an orb of communication, no need to fret!" The princess slipped her phone under her pillow. "I'll be in bed momentarily!"

"Your highness, it is recommended that you get your nightly rest for the morning! The dawn is scheduled to be early than last."

"Okay! Thank you for your advice! You are dismissed for the night!" She said as she held a wing to my mouth to silence me. The two of us waited as we began to hear the maid's hoofsteps fade further down the hall. Celestia seemed to exhale with much dismay. "Our time is far spent." She whispered, guiding me to one of her bookshelves.

I yanked out my phone and saw the time, 11:53 p.m.. "Should be another night patrol on the way in a few minutes. They always run this hall at midnight."

The princess used her magic on one of the books and slid it in a slot to open a secret passageway. "Get out of here before you get caught."

"I'll try to have a good night's sleep, you do the same." I leaned down to give the mare a light kiss. But she had the intention to make our farewell as deep as she could afford for the given moment. Her tongue reunited with mine, as if they were a pair of forbidden lovers greeting each other after a long absence.

The moment we separated, the first thing she wanted to do was play catchup with me as opposed to letting me go. "Did you go to your counseling session today?"

"Yeah." I briskly answered.

"What did they say?" She said as one of her ears flicked. "Ugh, guards are earlier than usual."

"Just some mumbo-jumbo about finding some way of relaxing my muscles." I answered as she shoved me deeper into my exit.

Walking in with me by a few steps, she kissed me again. "Do me a favor tonight. Try to think of the most relaxing moments in your life. If that doesn't work, then think about the one thing that makes you comfortable."

"You know, when I dream about you─"

Her ears flicked once more, she abruptly broke away from me and allowed the passage to close between us. But she still offered a final word before the final brick closed our sight of one another. "Later."

While the taste of her still lingered on my lips, I heard the guards knock at the door. The princess answered without fail, leaving me to find my own way back. So there I stood in the dark, my mind wanting more of her. Again, it was the time we didn't have together. And it began to weigh heavily on my mind. All I could think about is what could've been had we had the time for each other.

Is a night for us together too much for me to ask for? "...Yeah. Later."

The Next Day...

A lot of thoughts ran through my head as I tried to sleep. Most often times I was just laying on my side, covers bundled over my body while my eyes were halfway open. I knew I wasn't sleeping, but the hours passed in segments as if I were. Everything was weighed as heavy as a pound of flesh, even the smallest thought equating to grains of sand had overwhelmed my mind. So I ended up watching the sun rise, only then could I even begin to shut my eyes to the world for a little while.

Just seconds after, I felt a pair of lips singe my left cheek with a tender warmth. My eyes cracked open to see the shadow of Celestia standing over me. She didn't move for a little while, just watching as I laid in silence. Her horn glowed for a moment and before I knew it, my eyes closed to a deep sleep, and then my alarm woke me up around two hours later. She was nowhere to be found. Even when I got up and went to get breakfast, she was already gone about her day.

Of course, that meant I had to do the same.

Today, I had brought Single File over to testify against the Count DuMoneé estate. When I arrived to his apartment, he had books on varying subjects piled up all over the counters and tables. Apparently he had spent a lot of his time reading up on human history and government. So when I told him that it was time to go back to help me testify, his chest grew while his mind brimmed with ideas.

Turning him back into a stallion, he broke back into the habit of being a unicorn pony. But as a side-trait, his auras started to faintly resemble that of a pair of human hands. The reason behind it was because he felt that our fingers were so much more detailed than hooves and the occasional carrying things by the lips.

The two of us gathered at the outside of the parliamentary chamber, the stallion prepared to make every statement as impactful as they were truthful. "So we're going to testify against Count today, about time we got to this point."

"I'll be calling you in as a surprise witness. If they hear a testimony from someone other than me, they'll probably consider the likelihood that what I'm saying may have some plausible merit. And it's especially more impactful when it comes from a former accomplice."

The stallion stretched his hooves while he yawned. "More like they'll be looking at me as an accessory to his crimes."

"Even if they did, you're technically in my custody anyhow. It's just a different kind of dungeon." I replied.

The stallion laughed. "I'm pretty sure they'd prefer it if I were in the one that's dark and moist, instead of a warm apartment with a soft bed and a fridge full of food."

"That's always the truth." I joked back. "The fact that you're probably sitting here is nothing more than a whole damn blight to their ambitions."

"Well it's even better when the whole trial is rigged in your favor for a change." He replied candidly, holding a folder over his face. "Even the opposition's on our side."

"Yeah, she's a bright mind with a vendetta." I cosigned. "She should be here in a few."

I looked at the clock on my phone to check the time. I felt a powerful nudge against my waist as Single File nudged his head in the direction of a fairly wild-looking mare. "Woah... what happened to her? Talk about a bad hair day."

The mare, who walked with a few folders in tow, dropped her documents as soon as one of the nearby guards sneezed. It was like watching her notes explode like fireworks around her before they landed in the hall like confetti. As she hunched over to pick up the papers, I could see her shaking unsteadily. "Excuse me for a moment." I said, hoping to offer the mare some assistance. I slowly approached her and waved at the disheveled mare. "Hey, you alright."

The mare snapped her head to me, almost like I was a threat. But upon recognizing me, she simply stood still. "Captain... hi." It was Blue who was looking like this.

She didn't look the part of her usual outings. She was usually so much more dynamic, ambitious, confident, ready to take on anything and not letting the slightest thing distract her. Instead, even the sneeze from a nearby guard had her shaking violently. "Damn lady, you look like you've been struggling. You okay?"

"No." She said before she collapsed to the ground, loudly screaming. "No! How can I be─"

"Hey hey hey! It's alright." I quickly picked up the grief-stricken mare and signaled Single File to come over and pick up the papers. "Look, if you need a moment, we'll step back and try this another day."

Single looked on with confusion as the daughter of his former boss continued to have a complete nervous breakdown in front of him. She almost lunged further into my chest as she screamed. "I can't get him off of me! He's everywhere!"

Single tried to offer his assistance aside from picking up her paperwork. "Ma'am, who violated y─"

"I'll explain it to you later. Let me handle this." I quickly silenced him off, already knowing the answer. I went back to comforting Blue. "Look at me, look at me, alright. That's taken care of. I made sure that it was taken care of for good. He's gone. Dust. Poof. So he's not gonna hurt you anymore, you're never going to see him anymore."

Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy, almost as if she's been crying for the longest time. Her mane appeared as if she didn't put as much effort into it, just trying to move forward through her day. Even hygienically speaking, she didn't appear to bathe this morning. Her coat was uneven and spotty. Every muscle on her body trembled. "I don't... He's..."

I looked over to Single and dropped my head. "Okay, we're not doing this today. Just take her notes and make sure they're ready to go for next time." He came close to cleaning up the papers while I diverted my attention back to the distressed mare. "You go home, take good care of yourself, and treat yourself to something nice. Don't worry about today, just take some time off and gather. We can do this some other time, possibly a week or two from now if you need it."

"But I promised you... I'm sorry..." She whimpered.

I summoned a handkerchief to help her clean her face. "You know what will make me mad, if you walk in that room the way you are right now and can't bring yourself to do what you set yourself out to do. I won't be mad if you take a day or few away."

"I'm scared of it all." She mewled with a staggering breath.

I murmured to her quietly. "And I'm not? I pissed Slade off on Tuesday night. If anything, I should've jumped in sooner. But you did what you could to save your brother. I sure wish it didn't plan out that way, but it did. I'm sure he's quietly thinking to himself if he would be comfortable living a shitty existence like that, but somewhere deep down inside he's looking for more ways to protect you."

The mare shuddered as she spoke. "...He made them wear my mother's face."

"Okay. Come here, I got you." I said as I held the mare with the intent to make her feel secure in her surroundings.

"I'm sure my mom doesn't want me to be weak." She stammered before her breakdown caught a vicious second wind. The poor mare was almost on the verge of convulsing. "I... I'm sure she wouldn't want me to suffer. Oh Faust, she suffered so much!"

I held her out so that she could see my face instead of thinking on the image that was given to her on Tuesday night. "Hey, stop for a moment. Breathe. Slow, okay? Now look at me, look into my eyes. There's no shame in hurting and healing. Just as long as you make it back. The fact that you tried to work through it today was a damn good representation of your strength and willingness to push forward. She went through hurt to see you not hurt, but what happened to you is not your fault. And don't you dare blame yourself for anything of what she went through. The ones responsible are the ones you blame, not you."

The mare finally went limp in my arms, her head rubbing into my chest while she cried. "...I can't do this anymore."

"I say that to myself a lot of times. But we can make it. We got us, we can keep going. You're stronger than you know." I tried reassuring her, hoping that she'd find some measure of another outlook, anything other than what I fear would be her intent. "Look at me. You are the thing your brother lives for now, what's left for him to protect. Don't take that away from him and have him thinking he needs to follow up. I'm depending on you, your brother loves you, and everyone we know is rooting for us. So if I need to walk you home, I got it. I'll do whatever."

The mare sobbed quietly, her hoof clutching at my back as she hugged me. "I just want to go home. I just want to go home."

"Okay. Let's go home then." I answered. "Tell me where to go."

Sometime Later...

The walk from the castle was very much different from many others. It's not often where grief had a place in my stay here in Equestria. There were plenty of times where I felt guilt, watched many instances of hurt, perhaps cases of mourning, but never a full-on instance of grief where I was the sole instance of relief. I could understand, Blue's probably had some time to fully process her mother's final moments being shown to her through the cruelest means possible. What do you say to that, it's gonna be okay? That's what you could say, but there's the context to consider. I can't promise sunshine and rainbows, but what I can is that we can work through it with enough time and effort. Even then, there's no changing the world when it's flipped upside down like that. The only thing she can do is learn how to walk with the change of gravity.

As we approached the midtown district, namely the playground that she talked to me about, I could see some young foals playing there with their parents. While I took a second to watch, it seemed to cause her pain having come near it. We moved on, coming up on another street with the jewelry shop on the corner. We took a left and came up on a residential block filled with many Victorian-style townhouse units all built next to one another.

"We're almost there." She said softly, a lot more subdued than her earlier performance. Perhaps she's calmed down since the time I've escorted her from the castle.

I looked around to see more of the small-looking units, growing more surprised by the idea of a billionaire heiress staying in such a common place. "You know, I would've expected a lot more checkpoints between the castle and were you reside. Why do you live here in the midtown district?"

"It was my best choice away from what I was used to. I never went back to stay the overnight except the night I knew you could be there, at least it lessened the impact of my coming back to where all the pain began for me." She said before she stopped in her tracks. As I was about to walk along, she used her magic to tug me back. "Here we are."

I glanced up at the two-story unit, seeing the pretty grey brick and white accents. The numbers beside her door were gilded gold and her knocker matched the black door knob. Honestly, it was a nice place. "Looks kinda cozy."

The mare walked up to her doorstep, pulling out her keys. But as soon as her keys came close to unlocking the door, they just fell to the ground. It seemed that she had a lot of trouble using her magic to concentrate. Her breathing grew unsteady once more. "...You don't have to come inside. I'm fine from here." She tried to reassure me.

I instead picked up the keys and held them for her. "I'm... I'm actually kinda thirsty. You know a spot where we can get some tea?"

"It's a little from here." She whimpered, still shaking.

"You wanna go get some? I hear that a good cup of chamomile tea can help you relax." I began to tie together that whatever may have her messed up might be something that was left inside of the unit. So I tried to offer something else we could do instead of going inside.

"I don't think that's the best thing for me right now." She said as she used a hoof to guide my hand towards the keyhole.

"How about a night at the Sun Cryst?" I suggested, changing which hand I had my keys in. "You could probably use the time away."

"It's fine. I just need to clean up the place." She said with a shudder.

Realizing that this was what she wanted, I merely unlocked the door for her. "Do you need help?"

She opened the door, holding me outside as she entered. "Give me a minute." She went from poking her head through the door, to shutting it and moving some things around. And it wasn't exactly a quick process. There was sounds of furniture moving around, squeaks and stifled shrieks, a few things that sounded like porcelain china being moved to prepare for my arrival.

"Bit of sprucing, I guess." I said to myself.

In due time, she emerged through the door and sheepishly welcomed me inside. "Come in."

When I walked in, I noticed that there was a lot of furniture moved. Some places on her carpet told the story of where her couch used to be, situated at the middle of the room in front of a table. Instead it was situated against a wall. I could see along the stairwell where there were once pictures, at least that what the faded dust imprints and virgin paint told me. The entire place looked empty. Even the display case that was probably allocated to fine china was emptied of everything. It seemed like she was moving. Perhaps she was making preparations.

The mare walked through to her kitchen, trying her best to stabilize herself. "Chamomile tea hasn't really been the best relaxant for me these days." She murmured.

"What happened here?" I said, following her into the kitchen.

"Just some interior decorating that was do─" Before she could finish, one of the cabinets above her stove popped open, allowing a surge of porcelain to rain down from above. While the fragile items shattered against the ground, the mare held her hooves to her muzzle as she watched in horror. She began to shake again as I walked towards the mess. when I looked into the cabinet, a familiar item greeted me.

It was the still image of her mother's face in agony, another death mask. I immediately closed that cabinet and opened another, only to find a wall of faces waiting within. I closed that one, opened up a drawer, faces. Opened up the pantry, faces. I looked inside of her fridge, food and faces. I opened up the stove... yet another face, but a different one to break the pattern.

I began to notice that not all of the faces were the same thing. Instead it was actually two individuals death masks I was seeing. I looked above her stove to see two faces hung like cruel reminders. This was a message. "What... The hell."

The mare whimpered skittishly. "I'm sorry. They were all over the walls. I just tried my best to keep it clean so it wouldn't be all over the place."

It dawned on me that she had probably know about this for some time, even dealing with it up until recently. Poor thing was stuck here with all of this shit on her walls, I wouldn't be right in the mind either. "When did this happen?"

"...When I got home last night after my brother took me out to dinner, that was when I first saw all of this."

"What did he say when he saw this?" I questioned.

"He didn't. He left me shortly after, saying that there was something important that came up." She replied, sitting at a chair at the dining table.

I grabbed the pair of masks at the top of the stove and gave them a look. After a second, I identified the other face that kept popping up. "This is your father's face."

"...It is." She said with a heavy breath.

I grumbled and threw the mask to the ground, shattering it to pieces. I was more upset with the prospect of him torturing her so damn terribly, as if her life was a game of trying to find out how long it would be before she broke. I sat at the table next to her and quietly confessed to her about her father. "Okay. I know it's not my job, nor is it legal for me to have done it, but I did finalize your father's remains."

"How?" She asked timidly.

"I burned his body. I made sure he can't be distinguished from any other thing that burned along with him. Took a whole house in Canterrot to do it." I answered, rubbing a hand down my face out of distress. "It may seem like a fucked up thing to tell you, but your father's body was found in my world two weeks ago. It was a tactic to scare me and my friends. Even the night at the Gala, he showed up there. I still have nightmares about it all, to this day I don't sleep in my own bed without a gun under the pillow or having the lights stay on."

She grabbed a sheet of paper towels from a nearby counter, wiping her face clean of tears. "I just don't understand. Why does he do these things?"

"Because he's a fucking psychopath." I responded, the mental exhaustion began to take a toll on my demeanor. "He's got the city under a microscope. What you do, he knows. And he thinks he can get away with it, like he's a shitty-ass fucking God."

The mare tried to calm herself, taking deep breaths to realign herself towards stability. "So now what? Where do you think we go from here?"

I grimaced as I took her question into my own thought, even I wasn't exactly sure of what I was going to do for myself, much less everyone involved. I started to rub my temples to soothe the incoming headache. "Not much we can do. We keep our hands and hooves off of him. There are bigger powers in play apparently." I replied with a exasperated groan. "As per the princess herself, I am not to pursue any of his personal interests or prosecute any of his crimes. Completely laissez faire."

The mare rebutted to me with her vexations. "So we just keep doing like we've been doing, knowing he'll torture us for as long as we live?"

"Hell, at this point, it'll be long after we die." I answered, unable to do anything but absorb the feeling the bleakness in the room.

"So that's it? Just endure it until something's done?" She asked.

Memories of Saturday flashed through my head, the smells I encountered as I recalled the moment when I discovered what his talents were. I looked at the back of my hand, still able to recall the sensation of the muck being all over it. "I tried killing him myself, it doesn't work. So that's all we can do." I looked up to the ceiling, mainly because I wanted to look at some other place that didn't have a death mask attached to it. But instead, I found another mask sitting above the table, one different from the others. I squinted to try and make out who it was and carefully grabbed it off the ceiling. I gave it a close examination, seeing how relatively young the face looked. I pictured the face on the back of my eyelids, seeing if I could pinpoint who it was. "...Christ almighty."

"What?" She asked.

I placed the mask down on the table and slid it over to her. "Blue... This might be your brother."

Blue closed her eyes, trying to keep herself from erupting. She stood up from the table and walked towards one of the cabinets, of course lined with the faces of her dead parents. She averted her eyes from the images, levitating the masks out of the way so she could reach for what was behind them. Two orange bottles of what looked like prescription drugs had landed on the table between us. The mare shuddered as she stared at the drugs, while I took up a bottle to read the label.

"What's this?" I asked, reading what it was. It was an unopened bottle of thiothixene, prescribed to the dosage of two tablets per day with each tablet carrying ten milligrams. I went back to the warning label as she started to explain what it was I was looking at.

She swallowed the lumps of hesitation in her voice. "This was supposed to be two months' worth of my father's prescriptions. He'd go through them in a month, sometimes less."

The warning label had strong advisements against taking the pills without a doctors' explicit notation. Taking the drug risked the side effects of uncontrolled muscle movement, drowsiness, dizziness, a fast heart beat, low blood pressure, and fainting. Of course it had a bold print warning about overdosing, which could lead to acute cardiovascular issues, primarily leading to death. "Why do you have this?"

The mare seemed completely hopeless as she stared at the bottles on the table. "It's... I just felt..."

"Were you going to take these?" I asked.

She whimpered lightly. "I was, still am. The only difference that might end up changing things is the dosage."

"What do you mean?" I asked, sliding the pills away from the center of the table.

She put a hoof to her mouth, trying to word it innocently. "I mean if I give you half, we can work through it together. But... if you don't want any of it, I understand."

But knowing from my own experiences with depression, I knew what signals she was throwing out there. And I went on to call her out on it. "You're not going to take these to kill yourself, are you?"

She started fidgeting. "I was..."

"And you still are?" I asked, feeling upset.

The mare quietly stared at the mask that I slid before her. "...If something happens to my brother, I can't keep going."

I stood up and grabbed both bottles away from her reach. "Give me these damned things."

She teleported one of the bottles by her side. "I wasn't going to take them all at first, just enough to where I'm able to function. But now─"

"You can't just start taking drugs for something you haven't been diagnosed with yet!" I stressed, trying to take the other bottle away from her. But she used her magic to hold me back and cast the bottle away to someplace only she knew about.

The mare looked at my outstretched hand and nervously sat at the table. There was a lengthy moment of silence between us. "...I know what I inherit. I know the signs and symptoms. And I know that any post-traumatic stress like what you've gone through can trigger it. And I know, I've been looking at these damned things since you found my father in the mansion. But in spite of what I didn't want to believe, I know that these things work. Because when my father didn't have them... we know what he did, what he turned into."

As her magic hold on me subsided, I stood before her, holding the pills in my hand. "Did you hide these from your father?"

"I didn't." She answered with a low voice. "My brother put them in the study where they found my mom. He told my father where to find them... My dad, was too... cowardly to even walk in that room. Everytime he'd open the doors, it was like she was still looking down at him. So he chose to rather go without than to even take the time to run in, or even levitate the pills off of the desk. All he could see... was her..." She then levitated the ghastly image of her mother in front of me. "...I'm sure him seeing this made him remember whatever he did, and the guilt behind it. I'm probably sure her ghost was whispering in his ears nonstop the days following that moment."

I took another gander at the bottle in my possession. I internally identified some of the symptoms of schizophrenia, recalling the moment when Count assaulted me in my wheelchair. I saw the maddening look in his eyes, the nervous twitches that even his daughter seem to exhibit, the whisperings about some mare being everywhere, she said the same thing about him. And in some cases of what I go through, I still fight the lingering shadows that seem to chase me in the dark. The slight possibility of allowing me the rest I desired lied within these pills, but there was also a crippling price tag. I couldn't wage my own mind, not yet. "Look, I'm taking these away, but I'm not going to take them."

"Please." She softly begged as she wrapped my fingers around the bottle. "...Trust me." She looked down to the still image of her brother's face. "Just one tonight, here, to make me feel better. Don't let me be by myself in this."

Even then, with the memories of my grandfather screaming at night, the stories of Shining Armor dealing with his own traumas, and now the mounting challenges of my own affairs, I could not in good faith oblige by her request. "I'm sorry." I replied, turning away from her. "I don't know if I can do this."

The distressed mare seemed more heartbroken by the second, especially with how she was taking the fresh news of her brother possibly being a victim. But she took a pill right then, just swallowing the damn thing dry. She was obviously anxious over the side effects, nervous for how it would change her. But the placebo effect in her mind began to kick in just mere seconds after she ingested the medication. "Okay then. Just take one whenever you feel like all of this is getting too much for you. Maybe the pill isn't that bad in a small dose, you could start off small and work up if you feel like you need to go bigger."

"I don't want to take any of these shits!" I stressed much more emphatically.

The mare quietly raised her hoof to make her rebuttal. "If we have to suffer through him... This is our best shot of living a normal life."

I extended my hand once more. "I would feel better if I got both of these bottles from you. You don't know what that stuff does."

"I know what I got from my father, I inherit all of it. For me, all of this is just a confirmation." She replied, sulking into her seat. "But the offer still stands, you can either try to live your life fighting it, or you can fight it off now. I'm not going to be like my dad and fight it when it's taking over every part of my life."

Judging from how firm on the matter she was, I wasn't going to coerce her to do anything else. She wanted the peace and stability those pills seemingly offered, even if it was a false hope attached to every dose. But I wasn't going to follow her on her path. I wanted to try and pull this through on my own terms.

I looked around the kitchen, still seeing the many faces decorating the cabinets. "...At least let me help you clean up."

Hours passed since I've volunteered myself to clean up the mess left behind by a certain party with no other aspirations than to see others wallow in misfortune and despair. When we finished, she took extra care to lock up everything in her house, every window, every door, every bit of anything that could let an unwanted party in. I got back at around dinner, which I had to formally apologize for my day's absence to the princess. Once I explained everything in a closed door environment, they understood what I was doing and excused me for the day.

Fumbling into my room, I just threw everything off of me. My clothes, my phone, my weapons, anything I had on me was either on the nightstand or on the floor. I just sat on the side of my bed and sulked. I wasn't even in a mood to check the security footage, I only wanted some time to let my brain process the day and all of it's events and revelations.

I at least know the method in which Count died, but now it's being reflected onto his daughter. I knew what was being done, but had no way to stop it. And then I have an associate in my circle who's gone missing also. Life only seemed to become more and more difficult dealing with this mess. And the only thing I could do was let it all mount until it became something that couldn't be controlled.

Not that I had much of a control to begin with.

My eyes meandered to the orange bottle next to my bed. I couldn't believe that I had this shit right next to me. The only thing that ran through my head was the possibility of my taking them and becoming a different person because of it. I chucked the bottle across the room, laying out on my bed. "Why the hell am I even looking at this shit?"

"Oh my, what a unusual circumstance." A voice chimed in over my phone's receiver. I sat back up to grab my phone and see Discord as the lock screen. He then unlocked the phone himself and pulled himself out of the screen, growing to his lifelike size and placing the phone back on the counter. "Though for you, I'd like to assume it's probably another avenue you'll be taking in the nearby future."

I scoffed at the draconequus' idea. "You know, for someone who doesn't talk much to me lately, you have a lot of input on this particular topic."

The bottle of pills grew a set of wings and flew over like a bird, perching itself on my headboard while the serpentine amalgamation spoke to me. "I'm just pointing out the inevitable. Besides, you know what I'm all about by now."

"I barely even know you." I replied.

The creature thought for a bit and came to agree. "Now that you say it, I suppose that's true. Nopony knows much about me except Fluttershy."

"Yeah. She's the one cracking the whip on you." I stated.

The creature teleported over to the area where I had my security feed established, dressed up in full garb like he was running security at a large shopping mall. On the screen showed various feeds, but they all swapped out with the events that happened to me. "But I did manage to reveal what all occurred to the others. Celestia did the same for your friends."

"Wait, they know!?" I asked.

"Oh they don't just know." Discord added while throwing the pictures of my three friends, almost as if they were on a most-wanted poster. "Umbra Sanctus spoke with them shortly after he ran you into shock. Had a full conversation with them, antagonizing your friends even."

"WHAT!!!???" I shouted before a massive migraine started to cause me to buckle in my bed.

"Though I'm certain he wasn't completely aware of who he was talking to. But that doesn't change the fact that two of your friends were very close to starting a fight with him. All while Melanie was trying to dodge a kiss from him."

The headache temporarily subsided, allowing me to focus on the growing panic that started to fill my mind. "I gotta move them."

"Not yet." Discord suggested as he pulled out a stick figure diagram, with the blue stick ponies representing my friends. "Moving them too soon would probably alert some of his contacts in Ponyville. But I will tell you that they are honing in on Kalimba's whereabouts." As his explanation went on, the red stick figures continued to have question marks look at the the three blue ponies, but raising exclamation points at the sight of the gray pony figure.

"Fuck." I said as I continued to let panic dominate my decision-making. "We have to do something."

The illustration on the screen removed itself, going back to the usual security feed of just about almost every room in the castle. "As I already told you, I showed the others what had taken place with you. And they are all adamant in banding together to bring your dilemma with Umbra at an end."

"Dude, you cannot keep saying that name out loud." I warned him as my headaches started to go into overdrive. The same pulsing pain from last Saturday night began to assault my head again. I slowly started to bash my head against the pillow, trying to quell the sensation of a fork being dug into my brain. Discord watched almost nonchalantly before snapping his fingers once and watching me pop my eyes open. I rubbed my hands on either side of my head, amazed with how quick the pain just simply left. "How the fuck did you do that?"

The draconequus summoned a recliner and a change of wardrobe to his body. Suddenly, it looked like he was a counselor trying to evaluate my mental well-being. He smoked from a pipe that produced bubbles instead of smoke. "Mind warping spells and the like are a specialty of mine. It's easy to counter something as simple as a memory disruption spell."

As I was laid on the bed like a patient, I sat up and looked to the creature. "Care to share that equation with the class?"

The creature chuckled. "Oh no, that's much too dangerous to be using it as a magic user trying to get the hang of his new abilities, much less you applying it to your inexperienced self."

"I'm not too shabby with it though."

"Can you teleport yourself?" He then asked.

"Well... I could if I got some lessons on how to do it." I said, looking at my arms.

"It's not as easy as a simple item summon." He warned as he teleported himself to the other side of me. "You'd be summoning yourself to a different location each and every time. And then you'd have to endure the after-cast surge on your arms, wrists, whatever it may be. Too much strain, and you'd sooner see your arms explode."

"Well that's not encouraging." I said, visualizing the instance that I'd probably go for one teleport too many. However, it didn't shake the determination I thought I had. "But I still need to learn it. What if I get into a situation where I'll need to get out as quickly as I can?"

"There is no easy way out of a situation for you, Nondis. You'll either have to figure it out, or fight it out." He replied.

I sat up, coming up with the tantilizing idea of somehow getting Discord to teach me how to use my magic in unorthodox ways. "Is there any way I can accelerate my magic lessons, at least get me accustomed to the shit in some accelerated space? You're the deity of chaos and disorder, you should easily be able to find some corner of time and space that moves years faster than here."

The creature appeared amused by my proposal. "There is a few spaces, but what good would that serve you if you try to learn the easy way?"

"Dude, think about it. You lock me in that space for the time of a year within that space, you send me back to this one, I'll be a lot better off."

"And what exactly will you learn in that space?"

"Magic, teleportation, space-distortion spells, maybe some offensive spells, I can even learn to channel my stuff a lot better to where I can control it easier." I replied. "It'll be like sticking me in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, twenty-four hours out here, one year in there. I could catch up to a lot that I missed out on."

The creature smirked with amusement. "And you think a year is all it takes to learn all of that?"

The smirk he gave me had started to plant some seeds of uncertainty in my mind. "I mean I can do a lot already, considering I just started."

The creature walked onto the wall as if he was walking on the floor. Several versions of him started to pop up all over my room, one of them sitting down having tea on my ceiling, the other was a miniature running across the side of my bed, another swam through my hair like he was in a pool. The creature laughed from each iteration of himself. "You know very little about magic." One of them said before the other varying ones took a sentence for their own. "Say if I were to grant your request, who would be teaching you those things? I know I wouldn't, I don't have the time or patience. Plus I have a busy schedule." The one on the ceiling pulled out a calendar with Fluttershy booked for every day. While his beverage didn't adhere to the laws of physics, that calendar sure did. "And what good is learning magic in a year going to do in the face of others who've gone their entire lives honing their craft? You're not going to have anyone there to give you instruction, you won't be able to do much but learn how to float around in space, and you'll just be aging yourself a year for the sake of being right back where you started a year ago. All that control doesn't come easy, it just gets easier to control over the time it takes to learn how to levitate a book. And a year won't be nearly enough for what you're trying to accomplish." The various Discords all snapped out of existence, leaving only two standing in front of me. One of them dressed in a ski mask as the other laid as a victim to a guillotine. "Sorry, but no." The blade came down, poofing the spare version of himself out of existence to join the others.

My eyes were fixed open at the creature, but my spirit was more defeated than anything else when that guillotine blade came crashing down. "Damn. Just crush my hopes and dreams, why don't you."

He folded his arms and spoke with a ho-hum tone. "Life is fickle. It doesn't always reward the impatient."

"There's got to be a better way." I said, trying to motivate myself.

"All things come with a warning label. It's up to you whether you take the time to read into it or not. But if you don't, then you can't be surprised if something unexpected happens, it was written right there for you to expect what you felt was the unexpected." He stated as he pulled out a microscope, looking into it like a telescope aimed at the moon.

"Still... I can't shake the feeling that this is going to come out wrong if I go this way." I said, looking at the pills on the nightstand.

"All decisions have a consequence. Hasn't that been the result of your journey so far?" He asked.

"Yeah. I just didn't want it to get this bad." I answered, feeling more discouraged.

The creature floated in the air as serpentine as any garden snake. "I could help you solve all your problems, but you don't learn that way. But what I can do is offer you a clue." He said as he placed my phone in my hands. "You have a lot of resources around you to give you what you need. But some avenues you have to travel outside of your usual route in order to make your journey a bit easier."

"A detour? A sidequest, maybe?"

The creature snaked into my ear, whispering. "For starters, why not solve the issue that was given to you by your lover-in-theory? I'm sure CayCay has a good idea on where to start."

"CayCay?" I slowly turned to him in confusion.

He wormed himself to my other ear. "Or perhaps we go by what you call her... Cella."

"What kind of side-quest am I going to be doing to make..." I asked for a second before the answer fell in my lap. "Ohhhhhhh... dammit." The creature smirked as he jumped off a diving board from my shoulder into the screen of my phone.

"Remember to play nice."

The Next Day...

Two distinctive guard ponies, one being a reigning officer while the other a demoted enlisted, stood in an office with one another. The piles of paperwork amassed on the officer's desk had a number of names on the tabs. But none was given more attention than the one that laid open on the center of his workspace.

Solemn Oath stood mostly quiet as she listened to the ramblings of Lieutenant Colonel Iron Hoof. He seemed to go on tangents, ranting and lashing at the human's every mistake and instance of misconduct. Of course, Solemn didn't mind the lashing out that much, especially considering their last meeting. She was frustrated at him, but more perturbed by the zebracorn he used for his ventures. So in today's instance, she didn't care so much for the rant. Really, she found herself relating to the officer in some aspects.

Though she did take into consideration what the captain was doing, everything he told her on Sunday especially rang a resonant tone that showed perspective. She even confirmed that the captain had willingly turned himself into a pony just so he could wander through the corrupted streets on his own, gathering information and putting himself at dire risk.

While she had a disdain for the mare he worked with, she began to develop a neutral view for the captain and his work. Even she couldn't imagine having to trot through the bad part of town for more than an hour other than to arrest a pony of interest. And the cruel stories that was told to her, she was certain that he experienced at least a small level of it.

In fact, last weekend was probably the only time where she began to see genuine terror in the human's eyes. Not just from a newspaper clipping or headline, but actively trying to hide himself behind corners and rush out the back door with no hesitation. It was the side of him that operated out of fear that he would find himself running into something that terrified him, or someone that knew how to instill that terror. Ever since her departure from the dungeons yesterday, she began to think about what all the captain had to do, and how he still held his daily composure.

So today, she found some part within herself to defend the captain, at least passively.

"It's as I told you, Solemn Oath. The captain cannot be trusted to make rational decisions given his current state. You have to think critically before taking orders from him."

Solemn replied to Iron Hoof's statement. "I know he's reckless, and all the more annoying, not to mention condescending whenever I bring up a suggestion─"

"That's because he doesn't respect your input." He interrupted her, trying to dissuade her from her passive defense of the captain. "You know, not every officer in a leading role takes too kindly to the fairer sex giving them suggestions. I can assure you the captain is no different."

Her mind briefly flashed the instance of him holding her up in front of a few marauders looking to kill him at the first opportunity. "He has tried to use me for a bargaining chip when I went out to Canterrot one time."

He took her confession as a testimony to his intent. "See? He doesn't really care, he's just playing nice for the cameras. There's no need to keep up that facade in such a downtrodden place." The officer walked from behind his desk and went towards his cabinet, pulling out another envelope. "You're a well-educated guard who can think for herself, and you've been loyal to the crown far longer than he's been aware of himself. You have a wonderful resume, just tainted by a selfish idiot who can't admit when he's wrong. And he doesn't trust you either, that should tell you that he's up to something."

"What do you think he's up to, sir?" She questioned the officer.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure it isn't good." He said as he issued to her a manila envelope with the words 'TOP SECRET' stamped over it. "And that's why I need you all to keep a careful eye on him. You let me know when he steps beyond the boundaries and we'll converse on the matter discreetly. You'll send in an anonymous report, and I'll deal with it."

Solemn looked into the envelope, seeing some details about him possibly looking into a way to overthrow the current princess to install a new system of government. She didn't outwardly react, but internally she grew critical of the report. "Do you think he's hiding something big?"

"Possibly." He answered, leaning over to her and giving her a nod of approval. "And in return for your cooperation, I'll send in a recommendation for you to get your rank renewed, possibly promoted to the captain's seat."

Her eyes flashed with stars, glistening to the prospect of achieving her life's dream to serve the princess beside her. The illustrious fantasy began to feed her imagination. "The captain's seat?"

Of course, Iron Hoof didn't force the offer, taking the manila envelope away. "Don't give me an answer right now, take a moment to think about it and come to me when you're ready." Shortly after that statement, there was a rumble heard from the other side of the door. The two looked back, Iron Hoof chuckling all the while. "In the meantime, you should go entertain your friends. I'm sure they've had their fair share of eavesdropping on our conversation."

"Yes sir." The mare replied bashfully as she was dismissed.

When she walked out of the office, three other mares bombarded her from behind as she walked down the hallway. Dress Right eagerly jumped over her friend. "Did you hear that, Solemn!?"

"The captain's seat! That's what you've been shooting for your entire life!" Cobalt Blue said, excitedly shaking her friend.

Gleaming Brass nudged Solemn as she spoke. "It'll be like a dream come true! You'll finally get the position you've been fighting for! Now that's an offer, that's how you'll get a better trade. Not like that crappy deal the captain try and offer you. It wasn't vague, it wasn't anything shady, no suggestions. It was clear, concise, direct, and completely transparent in what your rewards would be."

Solemn appeared to stare off in the distance as her mind started to play out the parts where she would greet the princess every morning, stand by her side at every meeting, conduct inspections by her side, and even sending the princess off to her chambers every night. She couldn't help but to smile. "The captain's seat..."

But her daydream had come to an end as a guard further down the hall called the other guards at post to attention. "CAPTAIN APPROACHING! PRESENT ARMS!"

The snap throughout the halls alerted the group of mares and they did the same. "Speak of the demon himself." Cobalt said under her breath. "Here he comes."

Walking down the hall, I found myself to be extremely taxed with thoughts of not only yesterday's events, but also Discord's lecture. I was deeply concerned that in the midst of it all, I was starting to let it show on my face. After all, it's happened once before. So I did my best to wear my own mask, hiding much of my issues from the public. I'd like to think that I've gotten better at it. Then again, I really didn't look in a mirror today.

Passing through, I recognized a certain quartet of high-ranking guards. I approached the party with a calm demeanor. "Morning ladies."

"Captain, sir." Cobalt replied with a snap to attention. The others did the same.

"At ease, ladies." But my attention wasn't entirely dedicated to the group, more so the nucleus of their group. "Solemn Oath, I need you to take a quick walk with me for a moment."

The mare snapped out of her thoughts and stammered when she realized I was calling on her. "A-a quick walk?"

The others looked at her and then to me, seemingly with some hidden agenda between them. The three others dismissed themselves, giving encouragement to Solemn. "Do you, girlfriend." Dress Right departed on those words.

"You got it." Gleaming Brass said with a smile before zipping off down the hall with the others. Cobalt said nothing further and walked away, leaving Solemn alone with me.

"This way, if you will." I instructed, pointing her to the direction of the residential wing.

Crossing through, I gave nods and waves to several maids and guards along the way. The conversation between us didn't start for several halls, until she got frustrated with the silence. "So what do you want now?"

I shrugged in response. "I just wanted to check in on you, see if you were holding up well enough. Sunday was a bit of a revelation to you, I'm sure. So it's only in our best interest if I keep up with you and make sure you're of sound mind."

"Sure. Sunday was different, but I'm fine." She answered dismissively.

"No bad thoughts? Dreams? Memories?"

"Only when I think about how you tried to barter me like some sort of toy." She snapped back.

I nodded my head to concede that point. "Yeah, I can see that being something you'd hold on to. I did that to try and make myself appear more agreeable. But you already know how that ended."

She continued to vent on that point. "I'm still upset that you tried to use me for a free pass. I'm not something to be objectified. I can only imagine how you treat that zebra lady."

Knowing she was referring to Kalimba, I offered her some insight. "Actually, it's the opposite on a lot of what you think goes down. Believe it or not, she's teaching me everything I need to know, especially from a victim's perspective."

"So you'd admit that you're objectifying her?" She asked, pointing out that one instance to maintain her critical viewpoint of me.

"Not entirely. She's volunteering herself for those compromising situations."

"No way." She denied.

"Yeah way." I rebutted. "She says she's been in much worse situations than what's been happening under me. I'm just trying to use her for now and get her out of that life later on. Would you believe me if I told you that she honestly didn't think any higher of herself than the idea that she belonged in Corrotto for the rest of her life?"

She ridiculed my statement. "Her father's a politician, a senator no less. Why would she even try to convince herself that?"

I replied to her a little more quietly. "Years of abuse and neglect. She was passed around as a sex slave for half her life."

Of course, she didn't process anything much outside of the words 'sex slave'. So that's where her attention went to, more specifically what that could entail given my close association with her. "...Did you take advantage of her?"

"What?" I was, of course, taken aback by the fact that she only focused on what I could've done, almost like she was trying to find any fault of mine.

"I said did you have sex with her?"

I knew lying would only come back to haunt me, so I decided to be honest and tell her quietly what went down. "...Thrice. Consensual."

She grew miffed at my reply. "Let me guess, you tried to pass yourself off as some messiah and she easily melted into your arms?"

Again, I told her the truth. "The first time I was dogshit drunk, I didn't even remember what all I did that night. But she remembered everything about how piss-drunk I was, and how I wasn't completely able to control my... *ahem* equine features. But apparently some of my other innate qualities from my normal anatomy persisted. It drew her curiosity and she took advantage of it."

The mare looked at me with distaste. "You're disgusting."

I couldn't win with her. "I'm trying to be honest and as social-friendly as possible, no sleaze intended. The second time, we were both forced into a situation... I personally don't want to remember the other details of that one."

"Oh and why not?" She asked, still trying to be critical.

I peeped around the halls, seeing who was close and who was far. Once we got to a section of the hall, I slowed my walking speed and quietly asked her a question. "...Have you ever been blatantly objectified and harassed by someone of your own sex?"

The mare laughed. "As if!" She continued to laugh, not even realizing that she was walking alone for a while. I simply stood still and tilted my head at the mare who took my tribulations for granted. "You can't be serious." She said while turning to her side, only to realize that I was way behind her. Looking around, she saw that we were actually alone when I brought it up. Her smile was twisted into a guilt-ridden stun. I began to walk closer, all while she asked. "...Wait... really? That wasn't some one-off bit?"

I knelt down, and whispered in her ear. "I see a counselor for a lot of the things I go through. It's not really funny to me."

I got back up and walked off. She galloped until she was directly in front of me, walking backwards along with giving her apology. "I'm. So. SO sorry. I thought you were joking, but... I should not have laughed."

As hurt and angry as I was inside, I had to keep wearing that mask to make my intentions known. But I didn't let her remain ignorant to how offended I actually was. I gave her a stern warning. "You didn't know, so I forgive you on that front. But you didn't consider the possible sensitivities pertaining to my issue and the way I worded it to be as inconspicuous to other possible listeners, so I'll definitely hold that one against you. Perhaps instead of laughing at the prospect of guys being victims of abuse, maybe you'll start to insert some thought over how someone came and revealed their vulnerabilities to you. It's not just mares who go through it, guys feel it too."

The air between us grew uncomfortably tense. It was a little bit before either of us spoke, and when we did, she was the one who initiated the conversation. "...So what about the third time?"

I obliged. "That was just us, we did what we did and we were complacent in the experience, despite the shady stigma of the previous two encounters. But I don't usually like talking about my sex life."

The mare suddenly became genuinely surprised. "Really? I thought guys were all about the kiss-n-tell thing."

I then replied. "I thought I did when I was younger, so much that I'd lie about who I did and what I did with them. But the truth was that I was lying through my teeth. I didn't have my first sexual encounter until my senior year in college. And plus I had a crush who'd often talk about her experiences with her previous boyfriends and midnight flings. She'd tell me so much about what they'd do wrong and how this wasn't as big, or how this guy didn't last long."

The mare rolled her eyes with ridicule. "And you seriously didn't participate in that conversation."

"It was usually over the phone, where we couldn't see each other. So... yeah." I confessed.

Solemn walked along, satisfied with that information, until she gave some thought to what I said. We couldn't see each other, the implications filled her mind. "Wait... did you─"

I was slightly embarrassed while I explained myself. "I was six years younger, and we humans are unbearably antsy at that age on down to twelve. So you can immediately tell where my mind was in those conversations."

"Ew." She said with disgust.

"We're adults now, we can talk about it. But I'm still not going to divulge into my current goings, no matter how many fucking tabloids beg me for a scoop." I answered before groaning with my own brand of disgust. "I guess that's the main reason why I don't like to talk about my sex life, because I know it'll be the breaking topic of the week. I wore shorts one time, revealed my lower legs for a day, and the press went wild. I didn't know that clothes were like a fetish for you lot, so it was pretty fucking weird for a whole month and then some. From there on, it's always some questions about that and my sex life. And I know that if I talk to just anyone, they'll sell out. So... yeah, I keep mine to myself on the usual."

The mare wanted to hide her smirking expression, but did it poorly. "But you just told me you and the zebra had relations three times."

"No need to advertise it." I stressed through my teeth. "And I did it because you asked me in the context of her being a former sex slave, you wanted to know if I was taking advantage of her in any way. I just gave you an answer with context. I didn't go into details."

The mare nodded with acceptance. "You know, that's fair."

Finally, I could get back on track. "Now to the topic on hand, she's used to that kind of stuff, having to negotiate with her body and all that crazy shit. She knows that because of her exotic anatomy, she sells fairly well. And some other traits about her is what makes her a topic of discussion, or at least an exploit for negotiation. But she's not taking everything lying down, she's incredibly resourceful, and tactical."

"How so?" She inquired.

I then told her a story of what I personally witnessed. "She saw two stallions following her, saw that they offered her a bottle of water, took a big sip, dragged one guy in for a French kiss, and had me fight the other one off. Turns out that water they had was laced with cyanide, so she turned her own potential demise into a return-to-sender. She knows how to put on a show for some clients, all while directing the flow of the traffic of the room, she gives subtle signals for me to do something, she quick-witted, no-nonsense, and she's ambitious. Though I worry about her sometimes, she tends to have a bit of disregard for her own life in some ways. Other than that, she's a great partner for what I need done on the scene."

The mare seemed somewhat discouraged as I went on to talk about Kalimba. "I'm none of that."

In the exact opposite method to how Discord treated me, I pointed out the ways where she could benefit. "You have your own strengths, though I'd like to see you apply them in other spaces aside from the interrogation room and in the middle of a fight. Like for example, take some of that mid-combat adaptability and apply it to other areas in your skillset."

Solemn narrowed her eyes as a few thoughts came to mind, probably something pertaining to sex. "If that's your way of telling me that you want me to be a femme fatale, I'm not buying."

"I never asked for that."

She breathed a sigh of relief, at least letting loose the idea of having to submit herself when negotiations came into play. "So what do you want?"

As we came to the door leading into my room, I explained to her my intent. "I want you to be right where you are, operating in the light. I can't keep up with everything, even guarding Princess Celestia is a hassle when I'm recovering from my usual mind fucks every Wednesday and Saturday morning, then having to wrestle with the nightmares every single night."

She looked up to me with the tiniest bit of concern. "Sounds like you took on more than you could handle."

"Yeah, and that's why I'm having to rely on you." I answered, kneeling down to her. "So I know we have our differences, and I know we aren't on the best of terms, but we can still be professionals about this. And as such, I have an assignment for you."

"An assignment?" She asked quizzingly.

I used my magic to summon a manila envelope devoid of any markings and symbols. I handed it off to her. "Congratulations, you're now being briefed on a classified matter."

The mare's face lit up, not from excitement but from shock. She didn't know what to do next as she took the item. "How far into this am I going?"

"I told you, it's surface level." I informed her.

"You say surface level, what does that mean?" She asked.

"You're a day-op. I'm a night-op. You need the day to regulate a lot of things that I won't have the energy to do, plus my primary objective is to oversee the castle security while the princesses resides here. However, it's hard for me to be everywhere at once, you'll be covering some of my shifts. That will give me enough time to rest and recover for some of my midnight engagements over in Corrotto. You'll be a big help to me and you'll be getting some hooves-on training with some of the stuff I work with, under strict oversight of course."

"Strict oversight?" She repeated. "So what does that mean exactly?"

The door to my room opened from within, revealing a prince clad in purple armor. "It means you'll be working with us." Shining emerged from within the room, while Blueblood sat at the console that showed many of the security feeds. Luna also stood inside with a series of warrants written out for various ponies of interest, including the signed warrant for the Corrotto District.

The mare was in shock."Y-y-your majesties?"

Blueblood chuckled as he observed her from across the room. "The more everything changes, the more you stay the same."

The hours eclipsed and the sky eventually turned into a beautiful shade of gold, indicating that the sun started to make it's way into the waning hours of it's daily cycle. Hours passed since the group of royals and the passionate guard departed for their own daily doings. It was early in the evening, I was left in the room alone, only to deal with my thoughts as I started to get ready for tonight's scrum in the bad part of town.

Finally getting into a mirror, I washed my face one good time and told myself that all I had to do was last another two weeks. That was the hope I was banking on, because after that two weeks, I'm unleashing hell and I'm getting myself all the therapy I need.

In speaking of therapy, I saw the pills on the counter again. They reminded me of Blue, how she just gulped the pills down without a drop of water, all in hopes to keep herself from going mad. I'm not gonna lie and say that I hadn't had a stray thought that told me to take the pills, I spent most of the night tossing and turning over in my bed thinking about how much of a better sleep I'd have if I was taking them. But I still felt some type of omen about the damn things, they were the medication of a dead man... pony in this case. I know he's not using it anymore, but there's still the fact that those meds were the only thing that kept him cold and calculating when shit went south.

I wonder, would Blue turn into the calm and calculating bag of problems her dad was?

*VRRRRRRRT VRRRRRRRT*

My phone vibrated, indicating I was getting a call. Instead of a usual call, I was getting a facetime call from Rarity. Odd timing, though I haven't spoke with her in a while. I answered the call. "Hello?"

Rarity appeared to be pouting on the screen, tapping her hoof as she stood in her workplace, surrounded by a few dresses she was working on throughout the day. "Darling, you have not called or texted me for a meetup since we last linked. Aren't we supposed to pretend we're dating?"

"Yeah, I guess a lot of stuff came up this week." I replied with a smile.

"So I've been told." She said with a frown. "Are you alright? Have you been sleeping lately?"

"Yeah, I've been good." I lied.

She caught on from the moment my lips parted. "Don't lie to me. I know that you're being tortured, and it's wearing on your psyche. So I'll ask again, are you okay?"

I know Rarity can be assertive when she wants to know about my well-being, but today she went in a little harder. I gave her a more reasonable reply. "I'll manage. I just have a lot on my mind."

"Like what?" She was very persistent.

So I told her one of the things that was on my mind. "Discord told me that Slade ran into my friends on Saturday night. It's like every move I make, he's calculated them somehow. I don't know what I can do to make this stretch for another two weeks."

Rarity was observant of my facial expressions as I talked and gauged that I was actually being honest with her for a change. "Nondis, the only thing you can do is keep operating like you are now. He will be dealt with in time." She assured.

"Twilight said the same thing on Tuesday. You guys aren't going after him, are you?" I asked.

"Unless anypony is a magical threat to Equestria and the existence of her denizens, then it's best to assume that we'll be fairly dormant on the matter." She explained. "The better question you should be asking is if you think he is a magical threat to Equestria and the citizens therein."

"The thing about it is that he's operated for so long and hasn't really posed himself a threat in that department. But he is a present danger to the order of things." I specified.

Rarity nodded in agreement. "Certainly. Any magic dealing with the dead is indeed a threat to the natural order and should be addressed by those in law enforcement. But you're not going to motion a takedown, are you?"

"I've been told not to by Celestia." I answered, giving a glance to the pills on the nightstand. Blue came to the forefront of my mind. "This guy's a fucking menace."

Rarity still talked with me, but putting on her red work glasses and assigning herself to one of her sewing machines. "For the time being, there has to be a motive for us to make our move. Not saying that there isn't one, trust me when I say we're all fiending for a confrontation or two after what you've been through. But it has to fulfill a certain list of guidelines for us to act on the behalf of harmony itself."

"I don't know. Snatching bodies seem pretty inharmonious to me." I replied, sitting on my bed.

The mare waited before turning on her machine, instead looking for a certain spool of thread. "Is he actively bringing harm to the living populous with those crimes? If not, then we have to continue to find a motive. And even if it is against a select few individuals, we have to keep to our restrictions."

I again looked at the pills in the bottle. "So these elements, I take that they're supposed to be like a nuclear option, a last resort."

"The last of last resorts, darling." She emphatically stressed. "We can't use them against an invading army, we can't use them for any national gain or to settle political disputes. It's like when I showed you my powered-up form, you can briefly show off but not in any way show out. It has to be a threat to harmony itself."

Again, Blue came to my mind as I asked my next question. "So if someone finds out that he's using the bodies for something other than psychologically torturing individuals, you guys get the green light?"

"Precisely." She answered. "It's why Twilight has taken it upon herself to find anything that could be used as a motive."

I averted my eyes away from the medication, standing up to stretch my arms. I used my magic to hold my phone in the meanwhile. "Well if there are guidelines preventing you all from bringing the hammer down, why is Twilight so hard on trying to find something?"

"Nondis, why do you think I keep trying to find the time to speak with you instead of leaving you in the back of my mind? It's because we care about you. For some of us, we care about our friends. For the ones you already know about, we get passionate about you." She answered with a form of zeal, bringing her phone closer to her face. "And also, Twilight feels that she has much to repay you for. So take from that what you will."

For once, I started to think about something other than what I went through, or even what others in my immediate circle endured over the past week. Seeing Twilight in Corrotto was a surprise, even more of a concern, but her appearance was also a welcome comfort. I wasn't going to forsake that. Really, it had me questioning her personal feelings on the issue. "Do you think she'll ever forgive me for not being with her after this?"

Rarity moved her curls from over her face, even taking some of them down and pinning them back before she started up her work. I already knew that meant she was about to bunker down for the next seasonal lineup. "Twilight doesn't usually hold grudges, not saying she doesn't. Though she's hurt over the fact that you finally separated yourself from her amorously, she's fine with your decision. Also helps to know that she secretly rooting for Celestia to find happiness in her experiences. So in turn, I think she's elated at the idea of you both being an item, she wishes for the both of your success. I may hope for otherwise in some instances, but that's just the teenage filly in me, always fighting for what I inevitably lose out on." She gave me a giggle. "Ah, the fair thing is that you warned me about this, and I still fell in knowing what I wasn't going to get. I'm just hard of learning, I suppose. Such is the hopeless romantic."

"You're not hopeless, you're just hard-headed." I answered with a snicker of my own, before looking back at the side of my bed, the bottle of pills being the main attraction. "I'm hoping Twilight finds something before something really fucked up happens to find me."

The fashionista started up her machine to start her work. "Aren't we all?"

Two Hours Ago...
***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

After dropping off Spike by mom, dad and I walked out the door, found a secluded alleyway to change at, put on our disguises, and went on our way. The first place he had eyes for was some sort of bar. I wasn't really all that fond of places like that because many stallions there tended to be rather pushy, sleazy, or they just smelled like they don't do anything but drink their problems away.

Dad and I said nothing as we approached, finding that a stallion was brutally thrown out of the front door. "And stay out!" A deep, gravely voice hollered from within. After recovering from the impact, the mechanically impaired stallion stumbled to his hooves and wobbled further down the street cursing at the bar.

"We're going here of all places?" I asked as I watched the stallion slink away.

"Just a brief meeting with another associate of mine." He replied as we walked into the bar.

Looking around, I saw that there were empty tables all around. It seemed that the daily patrons were more attracted to the source of their so-called nourishment. The stools were sparsely taken up, though the patrons were happily giving their money to the bartender behind the counter. I whispered to dad. "Does all of your associates know the underground world of Canterlot that well?"

"Some." He quietly replied.

He guided me to a nearby table and told me to take a seat in front of him. There were hardly any serving staff, so the bartender had to tend to his customers at the counter before coming over to tend to us. "I have a question. How is it you have so many old associates that know about this kind of stuff?"

He summoned a silver pocket watch and flicked it open twice. "They didn't really care too much about mental illness when I was coming up. If you were depressed, you were told to suck it up and keep moving. A lot of guards were kept to that standard of life. And they've wandered into various dark corners trying to find what they've been missing."

"Then why haven't you fallen in the same cycle?" I asked, surprised that my dad wasn't some crazed psycho or at least as mentally disturbed as Shining Armor.

"Because I had a better life growing up, from lineage, to prestige, and even situational advantages. I signed to the guard because I wanted to, not to feed anyone. I went through the ranks quickly because my father and his brothers were officers in various chains of command. I never fell into the underworld because I had a family to raise."

See the expression on my dad's face, I could tell he had some nostalgic thoughts about his time in the guard. Seemed like he missed much of his experience. I could only imagine how much it ate at him to see so many of his former comrades either turn in or go haywire. "So from your perspective, how did you feel seeing all of your fellow veterans go this way?"

"Honesty I was saddened to see it happen, but I understood why." He answered, flicking his watch another two times.

"Does mom know about any of this?" I asked, hoping that he at least talked to her about his own mental struggles.

"Not as much. Your mother was too good of a soul to even be bothered." He ultimately gave me the exact opposite of the answer I wanted to hear. He glanced up past me and put his pocket watch away, lowering his voice as I heard the hoofsteps approaching. "You have a lot of her in you."

In a few seconds, the stallion at the bar approached our table with a grin. "Hey you. I don't recall letting good-ol-boys sit at one of my tables."

"Sorry, some things came up and I just felt like I needed to take some time away." Dad said while stretching his hoof out to meet with the stallion. The two appeared well-acquainted.

"Time away from your smoking hot wife? What a fucking life." At least this encounter was more of mom being on the receiving end of some unwanted praise and affection.

"If you were married to her, you'd see that there's a lot of maintenance involved. I can't keep up anymore." Dad joked, causing me to internally raise some questions.

The bartender looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "Who's the skimpy brood?" I became a tiny bit hostile towards the stallion from that comment.

"A friend of mine from work." Dad replied casually.

The stallion seemed to know that dad wasn't at any job since retiring from the guard. So he looked at me with inquiry. "Work, huh?" He got a little closer to inspect my appearance. "You know, I'm sure a pretty lady like Velvet deserves better."

Dad laughed at his reaction. "Please, I let her have her fun while I have mine." It was a good thing that my ears were painted over as well, my whole body was flushed red at the thought of both mom and dad seeing other ponies? Like how does that even work!?

The bartender grinned and rubbed his chin. "Hmm, now that's something I like to hear. Maybe you aren't so goody-goody after all."

While my mind was becoming more and more corrupted with disgusting thoughts of my mom and dad's sex life, I felt butterflies churning up a storm in my stomach. But the sudden impact of a few jewels on the table snapped me out of a thousand-yard stare. "Keep the change." Dad pushed forward five fairly large sapphires, radiant cut.

The bartender levitated the jewels and dismissed them to his tip barrel. "Ah, back to the grind, huh?" The stallion pulled out a notepad and pen. "What's your poison?"

Dad reclined back in his chair. "Looking for information. Bunch of bodies at the cemetery went missing last week. I'm wondering if you know any boys down at the morgue and if they can clue you in."

The stallion started jotting something down on his notepad as he gave dad the side-eye. A few seconds later, the bartender shook his head. "Now look here, buddy. I don't know nothing about that. I just know that bodies go in the ground. And that's all they do." He said before walking off to the counter to pour up a pint of beer for my dad.

A few seconds later, he came back with a tray with a overflowing beer on it. Dad waited for him to put down the tray. "But there's got to be something we can figure out."

"I told you, I don't know nothing." He reinforced, pointing his hoof at the table. "That's your tab. Now if you'd excuse me, I got some more of those beautifully ugly faces to look at."

Dad drunk the beer and waited quietly as he stared at the beer-stained tray. "Dead end?" I asked.

"Not entirely." He said after he guzzled down the drink. "How much is on the tab, give a look for me."

I looked at him a bit confused, why did he ask me to look at his tab when he could just simply look down at the tray and see the numbers as clear as day. But when I looked at it, I began to notice a good difference in what was scribbled in the parchment... rather what was scribbled on it. The receipt was stained all over by beer, except for certain parts that still seemed virgin white in spite of the beer covering it. There were two things, the first being a house-like structure that had a religious symbol affixed to the top of it. "A church?"

Dad seemed to know a lot better of what was drawn on there, immediately identifying key details that I completely overlooked, such as the coffin-shaped door. "A mausoleum. The Canterlot Hilltop Mausoleum." He murmured within his cup.

I continued to look at the receipt, only seeing some strange marking. "Any names?"

He tilted the tray to spill more of the beer over the receipt. In doing so, he revealed a shape of a candelabrum. "Just a cutie mark to go by."

The bartender showed up with yet another pint, but directed it towards me instead. "This one's on the house, missy." He said with a frown. "Now drink up so you two can get the hell out of my bar. Don't need anymore troublemakers around."

I stared down into the cup and saw nothing special about it. Dad then urged me to drink the frothy beverage down. I complied. "Thanks." I said to the bartender, who walked away without any further statement.

"Bottoms up." He urged, making me take the whole thing in.

It took a while for me to finish, as I wasn't used to drinking just plain beer. I wasn't exactly warm to the taste of it either, which made it even harder to take in. Had it been a casual cup of apple cider, it would've been easy for me. But instead this stuff tasted like dirty water. After I braved the drink, I slammed the mug onto the table, proud of my victory. Dad quickly got up from the table as soon as the mug went down. "What, what's wrong?" I asked him.

He showed no signs of slowing down. "Let's get moving."

Canterlot's Home of Final Rest Mortuary
One Hour Later...

While the sun appeared to be shining in it's final hour into it's daily arc through the sky, the lights that beamed in were yellow and bright. The mood inside the lobby was far more somber and subdued. While the outside appeared warm and lively, the mortuary was not such a place. There was warm tones of orange and yellow, contrasted by darker shades of maroon, the lights resembled that of white sea shells on the walls, the smell of pumpkin spice permeated the air. There was no such thing as a day without mourning, today was no different.

A young mare appeared disastrously distraught at the sudden news of her husband's passing. She was a pony of little means to pay for her husband's interment. As such with many younger ponies who deal with the daily stresses of life at a young age, most of their finances were either tied with utilities or mortgage payments. Needless to say, she was begging for an easy way to alleviate the process.

"Don't worry ma'am. We pride ourselves in our quality of work, as well as our long-established tradition of expedited processing. Your loved ones will be in the best hooves imaginable. Now do you have a preference to how you wish for your loved one to be cared for?" A fairly young stallion, one could argue almost too young to be dealing with this kind of business, stood at the counter with a friendly smile.

"...Can't we go with a simple cremation? Perhaps an urn?" The mare requested.

"Well there is the processing fee for that. And it may take up to twenty-four hours before they're ready. But our queue for that is awfully long." He replied calmly.

"How long are we talking?" The mare tried her best to remain composed.

The stallion pulled out a log book, skimming through the pages until he could find an available opening. "Around three weeks."

"Oh grace befall me!" She said, almost on the verge of collapse. "Are there any other fees associated with that?"

He then began to list off the various fees and transactions to follow. "Well there is the storage and maintenance fee. We could keep your husband in cold storage for as long as the queue persists and we'll keep a number on him. But to slow the degradation process, it's going to take a tremendous effort to keep him from being a harm to our employees. As such, there is a five-hundred bit fee per day."

"Oh Faust!" That was the main number that made her collapse to her side for a second. That's a total of 10,500 bits for the storage alone. There's no such thing as anyone that young being able to put out that much on top of paying for the process. She tearfully pleaded the stallion. "Please, this was so sudden for us. Is there any way we can negotiate a payment plan?"

"No ma'am. Because of the nature of our work, we're prohibited by law to allow that." He informed her.

The mare leaned against the counter, her head resting against the marble countertop. "My father-in-law is sick, my mother in law is paying for his expenses. My parents can't help because of my uncle's funeral. Our family is ruined!"

The young stallion meekly offered a suggestion. "Well, we do have a more cost-friendly method. But it may be something your family will ultimately disapprove of... Have you ever considered donating his body to research?"

"FAUST NO!" She screamed loudly, causing the stallion to pin his ears shut.

"I understand your disgust." He quickly replied. "And I do see why many would dislike the idea of having their loved ones serve that purpose. But perhaps we can sell you a lovely plot of land on the Rosary Grounds. It's fairly reasonable in terms of price."

"How much?" She questioned.

"You'll be looking at around eight-hundred." The mare appeared to be a little more calm, but that was before the stallion then piled on the other costs. "That of course is for the plot. But to take into consideration labor costs, processing, storage, and maintenance, your total comes to around five thousand."

"NO!" She screamed in vain. "Please, you have to know somepony, anypony who can take care of my husband!"

The young stallion appeared sincere in his apology. "I'm sorry... We do offer mausoleum storage, but that is ฿10,000. Crystallization is ฿120,000. Cryofreezing is around ฿1,100,000. And those are the only other facilities there are around here. The recent months have had us backlogged since that changeling fiasco. You could try the one in Ponyville, but I can't imagine that will be a safe and respectful way to send your husband to his eternal repose, not to mention economically feasible."

The mare slumped down to the floor, leaning the back of her head against the counter. "...Faust help me."

The stallion grimaced as he walked from around the counter, appearing as if this was something he tried his best not to do. "If you would like, I do have an idea on what we can do for you. We do have some of our more... economic options available." On his flank was the very same candelabrum we sought after.

"Then why didn't you start there!?" She complained.

He began to whisper at her. "Sorry, ma'am. It's a thing I have to do for my supervisor. But we can offer a plot at Sunset Rounds. It's a cheap plot, you can at least rent out the space for a three-year warranty. If you pay for the upkeep in the future, we can keep him there no problem. Plot is a hundred, all the other things will be around ฿3500, but he won't be embalmed, nor will he be as readily kept up with. He'll get a good sprucing, but you'll have to speed up your arrangements."

She took the time to carefully weigh her severely-limited options. "How long do you think he'll hold?"

"If he's fresh, I give it four days before it starts to become a problem. Funeral is, of course, closed casket. Also, it'll just be me who works on him, to limit labor costs of course."

"Will we have the viewing still?" She asked tearfully.

The stallion sighed. "I'm afraid not. Time is of the essence. Cold storage is mandatory."

Filled with disappointment over the news, she lowered her head and accepted the hand that was dealt to her. "Oh... I suppose I'll arrange for his burial to be set on Monday."

"That would be ideal." He replied.

The mare pulled out a checkbook and started writing the number total he quoted. As she slid the check over to him, she bemoaned the idea of parting with the remainder of her budget. "This is all I have left for the month."

"Again, I'm sorry for the loss." The young stallion repeated.

"I'm just grateful you've chose to work with me. It's been hard times with the recent invasions."

"It's fine, we're all suffering at this point in time. I just wish I could keep more ponies alive as opposed to making them look good in death. It's pretty swamped here. But that doesn't matter, I'll have him ready for his final day above ground. You have my word."

She bowed her head to the stallion at the counter. "Thank you."

As the mare trembled in her departure, the stallion at the counter snorted with frustration. "Another day I don't know how to say no to a crying face, another long-ass weekend playing dress-up." The stallion then called out. "Next in lobby please!"

Finally, it was our turn.

Both my dad and I approached the counter, the stallion seemed to directly address the first one who showed up to the counter. "Hello sir, how may I help you."

"I'm looking for a pony by the name of Guiding Light. I have a request for him." Dad casually requested with a easy-going tone.

The stallion looked the other way, shifting his eyes suspiciously as he nervously stepped away from the counter. "Oh, Mr. Light is unavailable for the time being. He's actually on vacation."

Dad knew he was lying, and proceeded to play along anyhow. "Well that's unfortunate. Is there any way I can get in touch with him?"

"Again, he is unavailable for the time being." He repeated.

Dad saw that the stallion was about to take an abrupt leave, so he changed his approach from calm and casual to quiet and threatening. "You know... The boss doesn't like to be ignored."

The stallion hunched his shoulders as he halted in place, slowly turning back to my dad. "Who's the boss?" He questioned weakly.

"As if I'm stupid enough to say his name. You know what happens to those who even think of his name?" Once more, dad played his role to a T, thoroughly intimidating the young stallion.

"...Down that hall, turn left, there's a chapel where we hold the viewing service. Please wait in there for a moment."

Feeling he got his point across, dad tilted me to the direction of where we had to go next. It was only a short walk to the place he asked us to wait in. As soon as we arrived there, I asked my father one thing. "How do you know what to say?"

"If even the innocent and normal adult ponies know not to say that name out in public, then you know there's weight to the name. Use it as a tool, but be cautious of the reply." He warned.

Around half a minute later, the young stallion came rushing through the doors into the chapel. "Sorry, just had to shut the counter down for a moment. What do you need?"

"Information." Dad answered.

The stallion recognized the type of tone my dad gave off, it was an authoritative one resembling those that were firmly positioned near the princess at all times. The young stallion started to feel the pressure from him. "I'm sorry, I don't have any information outside of what services we offer here."

"I'm sure all information is available for purchase, if you're willing to pay the right price." He replied, summoning a bag of gems.

The stallion looked nervously towards him, still backing away like he wasn't trying to answer. "Are you serious?"

I walked over to the nearest exit and positioned myself to hold the door. Dad levitated one of the benches in front of the other door in the back, leading to the outside. "Deathly serious."

The young stallion gulped. "Who really sent you?"

"Just a good ol' friend of mine." He lied.

"What are you trying to find out?" The young stallion shook with anxiety as dad walked closer to him.

Looking down at him with his sulfur yellow eyes, my dad firmly stated his position. "There are bodies missing in the graveyard. All we were trying to do is figure out what's causing this to occur."

The young stallion tried to put up a credible alibi. "You know some parts of the mountain are eroded from inside due to wind. Perhaps they've been lost to the depths below. I can't say that there's any other issue." Dad didn't appear convinced and walked up closer, almost towering over the now cowering colt. "And before you do anything else, there is no further information for sale."

"So you're in on it." He answered with a gripping icy voice.

"There's nothing to be in on other than my job." He replied.

Dad's horn started to glow very dimly, a weak aura developed at the his neck while my dad loomed over him. "I may be in retirement, but that doesn't mean I lost all of my physical ability. I still keep myself in shape, still keep loose, still stay ready for any eventuality. You have about ten seconds to tell me what you know before I send some fairly burly guys to hunt you down and make you a new feature above the colosseum."

While I wasn't completely on board with my dad's methods, I did acknowledge that they were effective in causing the stallion to second guess his participation. Of course, he still tried to put up a front. "Threatening me isn't what's going to work here."

"Then is it the fact that you know somepony who's using the bodies for something other than... science?"

The grip on the young stallion's neck started to intensify with the more visibility of my father's magic. "I don't have any clue of what you're talking about."

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." He insisted. "Reanimated corpses, appropriated for the purpose of somepony looking to get a good scare on somepony in particular."

The stallion began to look extremely lost over what my dad was telling him. "I... I don't know anything about that. Is that really a thing?"

Dad stopped for a moment, easing off the stallion and changed his approach. "Count DuMoneé was buried in a stone mausoleum, much less sealed in a wrought iron sarcophagus and placed in a granite tomb next to his wife. There was a public viewing during the service. We all know he was in there when he got buried, but now he's out."

"What does that have to do with me?" He asked, visibly showing how unaware he was.

Dad backed away, giving the stallion some room to breathe. "Well your supervisor picked up the order, which means that you've done some of the work on the arrangements. Now if I had to guess anything, there are guidelines of how to carry on with the exhumation process should something go tragically wrong, or if there is a criminal investigation underway that needs the body for evidence. And it requires the assistance of a supervisor and another worker to correctly exhume a body for law enforcement to use."

"Well yes, that's our entire process." The young stallion replied.

"Meanwhile, it was long-surmised that Count had committed suicide. So what would be the reason the body would be exhumed so quickly into the degradation process?"

"I can't tell you what caused that to happen, sir. I wasn't here."

Dad, while he did back away from the stallion, still had a grip on his neck. His eyes narrowed. "You know something."

"And it isn't much other than my job." He replied.

"I will say his name here and now."

The stallion closed one eye wincing. "Please don't."

Dad looked around the room and then murmured the name. "Umbra."

"Wait!" The stallion threw his hooves into the air, ready to surrender every bit of information he knew. "Look, if any of us are even caught hearing that name, we're dead!"

"Dead, or puppeted afterwards?" Dad asked.

The stallion shuddered as she looked down to the ground. "...Worse."

"Worse?" Dad repeated.

The stallion looked around, his ears flicking to check if there were any others coming around to hear. "There are some things I can't explain in the open. Much I cannot say personally."

Dad's magic relinquished the neck of the young stallion. "Then what can you do?"

The stallion stammered in response. "...I-I could s-sh-show you."

Minutes later, we were given an impromptu tour of the establishment. I say impromptu mainly because we had very little pomp and circumstance about our being here. In fact, we were snuck through many of the areas restricted to clients and customers. And it wasn't like we were given the outside tour where we could see the halls of the mausoleum, the many methods they offered, a trial before buy of one of their coffins, or even a visit to the nearby gift shop.

Yes, there was a gift shop.

Instead we were taken through the restricted area, snuck past some of the other workers who wheeled a corpse right past us, and introduced us to the downstairs basement, more specifically the containment chamber. He told us it was a shortcut through some of the more busy areas of the morgue. But as soon as he opened the door to our shortcut, I realized that I wasn't really cut out for this kind of work. "What is this place?" Dad asked as he held a hoof over his muzzle.

"It reeks." I said, trying to hold my breath. I wanted to pull out my wings and use them to filter the smell, but that wouldn't have worked either way.

"We do deal with the dead here." Guiding Light said as he showed us the way through the massive room filled with chutes and sanitation tanks. The dimly lit room had several containers of brown, gooey slime that reeked of some of the most unholy odors that could ever possibly be conceived. It was beyond sickening, but he marched through it with a seemingly cheerful hum. "This room is the sludge containment. A lot of bodies when they decay produce this post-mortem sludge. When we keep them in storage for an extended period of time, especially without embalming them, they putrefy. When the bodies are placed into the mausoleum storage, they are often left in compartments to allow for the degradation to occur quickly. It's all about one thing, dehydration. Vents keep the air circulating into the storage, the body rots and dries over time. But as this process comes along, the caskets unleash some gasses, and our bodies are broken down to putrid sludge. So the storage is sloped a certain way to allow for that sludge to filter down when it escapes the coffin. The odors go out the vents, sludge goes in storage─which is where we are now, and everything is usually contained without causing a mess for the touring mourner."

"But why so much of it?" Dad asked, probably holding back his lunch.

"There's a lot of death. Not every process is simply throwing the body in a hole and covering it so it can be forgotten. This is for those who wish to keep their family in a public mourning space. Of course with it being indoors, it's more climate controlled, more heavily maintenanced, and a bit more expensive. And of course, the mausoleum offers a lot of storage for those wanting to fulfill that method." Guiding proclaimed before pivoting around to cheerfully announce to us some unwanted information. "Fun fact, did you know that the average pony body can contain up to four gallons of sludge?"

I know that I am a stickler for trivia, but I did not want any part of that information outside of a book. "I'm wishing I didn't." I moaned as the smell continued to assault my senses.

"I'm probably putting in an advanced deposit for my cremation." Dad said in agony.

"Book now, burn later. That's what my supervisor would always say." The young stallion laughed lightly before turning to us, realizing that neither of us saw what was funny. "Not into dark humor? I understand it's an acquired taste."

"How are you breathing?" Dad questioned as we finally came to the other side of the room.

"Oh, I've had to clean at least one of these tanks out a few years ago. We usually work in a sanitation suit, but walkthroughs helped me get used to whatever nasty things I encounter on the daily. Even cleaned up a few murder victims... doesn't matter the age."

"You live a sad life." Dad said as he waited with anticipation for Guiding to open the way out.

"Death is natural. Some things you just get used to."

Once the door was opened, both me and dad barreled out of the room and made our way into the fresh air. Once the door closed behind us, we were too busy gasping for 'fresh' air to even notice what room we ran into. But the number of tables and dollies strewn around the room gave us a good hint. I pushed one out of my way when I walked forward. "What's this for?" I asked.

"Oh, that's the gurney. We usually wheel them in for the family to confirm the identity." My hoof never retracted from anything so fast. "Don't worry, we usually clean them off after each use." Reassured Guiding. Looking around, I noticed that we were in a white-ish blue room filled with numerous carts, some strange pulley devices that look like they hold things in place, and several racks that seemed to stack three units high. Of course, many of those racks had bodies on them. "This is our cold storage center, or for the uninspired tourist, the morgue."

While I was still absorbing the horror in my mind, my dad didn't see past the sight of his breath coming out of his nostrils. "I can see my own breath down here."

"Well the room has to be somewhat cold, can't let the fridges do all the work." He replied cheerfully.

Looking around, I saw that the room seemed virtually endless. Many of the fridge units that they had lined the walls with doors that could be pulled out like filing cabinets. And with each door, there was a name on the front of it that could be switched out at any given time. It was a pretty macabre way of keeping their work organized. "This is an awfully large room to be using for storage."

"We do have the weight of a city on our backs. It's only natural that we'd try to keep with the demand." He replied as he noticed a cart with a body still out in the open. "Oops, 'scuse me. Some idiots don't like keeping the bodies maintained. Don't want 'em stinking up the joint." He then groaned another complaint. "Ugh, I swear some idiots don't take into consideration the dignity they need to have in dealing with the dead. Cover the face, for goodness sake."

We quietly watched him as he went about his process. He went from taking one of those pulley devices to lift the body off of the dolly, onto the appropriately labeled fridge unit. After that, he closed the drawer and the door flopped shut over the hind legs and tail of the body he stored. "Incredible to see that the fridges are flushed into the walls. How does that work out for maintenance?" Dad questioned.

"There's a maintenance access here." Guiding announced as he peeked around the room for what appeared to be a supply closet containing a volume of sanitation materials. Suddenly, the instance of smiles had completely left his face. The only thing that I could see was a deeply disturbed stallion who grabbed a broom with hesitance. "Now to get to it, I'm going to sing to you a song, but be sure to keep the lyrics in your mind.... Don't forget them."

He stood at the center of the closet, looked back at us, and then began to sweep at the floor while singing.

♪Cleaning the closet, cleaning out the closet.
Make it spic and span for all to see.
First grab the broom and sweep up all the dust.
Sweep sweep swe-sweep sweep swe-sweep swe-sweep swe-sweep.
Then grab your mop and make the polish shine.
Now the closet's spic and span for all to see.♫

He then placed the broom back in the closet and closed the door. Dad looked at him with a bewildered expression. "A foal's song, a nursery rhyme?"

"Well it is kind of catchy." I replied a second before the door was opened back up. "If all the raindrops, lemon drops, and gumdrops─" A hoof was introduced to my chest, dad stood in front of me as he silenced me. Looking at his face as he turned to me, I saw an unmistakable vein of terror in his eyes. I began to question it verbally, that was until I looked past him.

"Faust, who art in heaven." He whispered.

I walked past him to see several bodies hanging from the ceiling, a blue-like fluorescent light. Each of them were strung up on what appeared to be harnesses. And many of the bodies appeared decomposed or processed in some way. The way their tails swept the ground, the way their hindlegs dangled from their waists, in some cases the bulging eyes and twisted mouths, the entirety of the nightmare persisted... for what appeared to be yards in either direction. Affixed to either their legs or ears were black tabs with a set of numbers. Some merely had black bags over their faces, but for many that was not the case.

It was like walking into an orchard, filled with these trees bearing unusual fruits.

"I'm sure you noticed earlier, I hum and sing a lot when I encounter something I don't entirely like. In this case, hold your breath, make a wish, count to three." The stallion followed his own advice and carefully waded through the sea of corpses, slowly singing all the while. "♪Come with me, and you'll be, in a world of pure abomination. As you'll see, it's His world of pure abomination.... We'll begin with a spin, traveling to the world of his creation, what you see will defy... your salvation.♫"

Dad looked around, taking in the sight as I did. "It's ice cold in here."

"Of course...." The stallion turned around with a blankness in his eyes. "You can't let the fridges do all the work."

Author's Note

Well this one came out a week later than what my schedule had down, but here we are anyways. I'm just glad I found the time to finish it. Next chapter should be a little lighter in the word count (I think). It's going to be a little more action oriented, so that will curb some of the dialog a bit. I was originally going to delete the scene of Blue getting back to her place, but I decided it would've been better to add context to her mental state going into the canceled trial on the Thursday sequence. Needless to say that we're approaching something big, so stay tuned.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you in the near future, be it 2 or 3 weeks from now.

Chapter CIII

A nightmare.

What was originally supposed to be a moment to question for some information had turned to a revelation of biblical proportions. We were in a room filled with bodies hung by the hundreds. If it wasn't for the cold air to regulate the temperature and keep the flesh relatively well-maintained, this place would stink to the unholy depths of Tartarus. There's no way of dodging the bodies either. The simplest nudge will have you bumping into someone's family member or loved one. The tiniest nudge out of place will land you an intimate meet-and-greet with someone new, though your introductions will be as one-sided as talking to a wall.

Some poor family may not even know that this is how their loved ones are being treated, left in a room like they trees growing in an orchard. "There's so many bodies." I whimpered, trying not to move too much out of fear of an unpleasant run-in with one of the black-tagged cadavers.

The stallion who was previously bright spirited, seemed a dim comparison to his usual self. The dichotomy of personalities was almost as unsettling, adding to the eeriness of where we were. "I remember quoting a backlog. Well here it is, in all of it's gory glory."

Dad seemed to have reservations about it, but waded through the corpses like he was almost used to it. "There shouldn't be a backlog this terrible. There isn't this many ponies dying in a day."

"It's not entirely by circumstance." He said with a grim tone. "It's this backed up for a reason."

"And you know why." Dad said.

"Honestly, I don't." Replied the young stallion as he started looking to the other side of the room. Using his magic, he parted the bodies to show us a door. "I only know that this place exists. But across the room is that one door we employees are told to never go into. If we do, it's our jobs."

"And quite possibly your lives." I surmised.

"This place is a stern reminder. Some of these ponies I've worked on personally, and I know they were sent off to their way. But here they are again. I originally thought it was because the patrons didn't pay their maintenance fees, but it's quite the opposite." The stallion then added. "You would think that those of us who deal with death on the daily would be immune to the idea of using death as a means of psychological warfare. But it's never really the image for me, it's always the intent. That's why I'm always so unnerved coming into this room in particular, because I know who goes missing but never why."

"This place is a nightmare." I said as dad stood by my side.

"What's inside that room?" Dad questioned.

"None of us knows. We only know of this room and where not to go. None of us dared to find out." The stallion closed the gap between the bodies and spoke. "As ghoulish as it may look, it's natural. Death isn't this thing to be stigmatized, it's just a process. We all go through it. How it's dealt with is often left up to those who are closest to us. Maybe we get what we want, maybe we don't, maybe we don't plan that far ahead for something like this, and then it just happens for some out of tragedy or confrontation. I've had to help clean up after worse situations, and some things are a nightmare to deal with. But someone has to do it, deal with all the naturally recurring indignity and filth, and sometimes make it presentable for the family to see." He walked by one corpse and gazed up, his eyes briefly widening for a second before he summoned a bag to place over the face of the body he observed. "Our process is ugly, but if there's any beauty in it, it's that we still give it our best to give the families that final chance to say goodbye. The real tragedy for me is when someone bastardizes that process by taking that peace away and giving them the horror of one's rest being brutally humiliated."

Dad didn't look up to the faces of the dead, but rather looked at the fading cutie marks upon the flanks of the deceased. "You're in something that going to drag you down to hell when it's all over and done." He warned.

"I know... But I just can't bring myself to abandon what I genuinely like to do. It's not a fetish, gracious no, it's just a youthful fascination that turned into an occupation." He replied with a reserved voice. "My name is Guiding Light for a reason, I guide those I touch back to their original beauty."

I couldn't help but to find myself being morbidly curious at times, glancing upwards to the necks of the deceased before my dad yanked my head back down as a sign to not gaze up too far. "Tell me the truth, did you work on Count DuMoneé?"

"I did... and he was on my table when we first got him." He confessed as he started motioning his hooves. "Restructured his skull, glued some parts of his head back together, embalmed the body, filed off some of that decayed flesh, fur implants, dye those implants to match the coat, glued together what's loose and out of place, glued the eyes and mouth shut, I made him look the part of his pride. All in a day's work."

Dad then asked. "Were you there for the exhumation process?"

"We never went back for it. So no." He answered.

"But his body was found in his mansion this past Saturday." I added, causing both of the stallions to stare at me with varying measures of horror in their eyes.

On that note, Guiding Light shook himself out of it and trotted past the bodies like they were a complete afterthought. He walked over to the door we came through and urged us to come along. "We should go. Time's far spent."

Upon walking out of the abysmal room, a voice called out from further down the hall. Both my dad and I were started by it. "LIGHT!"

Guiding wasn't as startled, immediately calling back. "Yes sir!"

"We have a wayward traveler who drunkenly stumbled off the mountain path. He's gonna need another one of your glow-ups."

The young stallion closed the door behind us, rolling his eyes as he called back out. "How long has it been since they found him?"

"Looks like a few days. And he's got your favorite: MAGGOTS!"

While dad and I seemed to be on the verge of vomiting, he merely shuddered as he heard the news. He turned to us wearing a fake smile. "Fun fact. Maggots love the nasal cavity and esophagus. It's always hard cleaning after them when they're always coming out of your throat. Try to get found before that happens." He slowly turned around with a sigh of defeat, trotting off to the direction of where the voice came from. "Coming!"

"I know you like educational stuff, baby girl. But I think we've had enough of this tour for today." He urged as he tapped me on my back.

My horn filled with magic as I knew exactly what he wanted me to do. "You and me both. Let's go."

My magic surged, flashing us from inside of cold storage to the outside front of the venue. The sun was well into it's dying arc of the day, the land and buildings around us glowing orange. Dad cleared his throat as he addressed me. "Violet, under no circumstances are your mother and I to be anything but cremated."

I couldn't disagree with his sentiment. "I second that motion."

Later That Night...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Nondis***

After a relatively quiet day at work and building off the momentum of gaining a potentially useful ally─using that term quite liberally, I gathered my things and made my way to the train station to pick up Kalimba. She seemed pretty giddy today, much more upbeat about our reunion as opposed to being reserved like she usually was. It seemed that something about her time away made her more accommodating to the idea of me being around, which seemed idealistically flawed considering the trouble we'd run into every time we meet up.

Seriously, dead bodies and broken families, she's tap dancing at the idea of being seen as anything other than a sex slave on the weekly. Perhaps the freedom is starting to let her stretch her legs more. Of course, she's also realizing her life's dream to being a student to both zebra and unicorn magic, getting the best of both worlds as I promised to her. And she's got a life free from abuse. We haven't been called to many fights since I've joined the V.I.P. Sector, so she's not fighting like she's expected to. And I think that while she doesn't openly accept that her father is still alive after everything that happened, I'm sure that she's satisfied in the thought that she can verbalize her disdain for him so easily and often at her own time.

Considering her past, she's optimistic about her future. I was the exact opposite.

A lot of what I had to deal with over the past few days was more or less the idea of having to negotiate with my own mental stress and trying to help others shoulder their own mounting weight. A lot's been on my mind since yesterday. Thoughts of the worst happening to Alabaster was starting to sneak around the dark corners of my mind, especially with what he's done for me. Yeah I missed my friends, but I was more disturbed by the idea that the psycho responsible for our griefs had given my friends a run-in. It felt like he was at every turn and corner, and I'm just sitting here hoping that he didn't fully realize just how close he was to having complete control over my doings.

Walking into the halls of the arena, I was quiet with many of those thoughts swimming through my mind. At times I'd mumble over what I could do to make things work. And it showed on my face that I was slowly being consumed by the skepticism. Kalimba saw it for herself and tapped me on my shoulder. "You seem tense."

"Just a lot on my mind." I replied.

The mare circled around me and walked backwards. "Such as?"

"Personal stuff." I answered simply, not truly wanting to discuss it any further out loud.

"Tell me." She said as she stopped me from moving forward with a hoof in my chest. "Abeg, tell me what is going wrong. Is it anything I can fix?"

"It's nothing about you. It's just... him." I said before a sharpness pierced the side of my head, causing me a good deal of pain.

Kalimba started to use her magic to massage the side of my head, slowly working away the pain. "Why do you hold your head? Do you have a headache, or are you unwell?"

As the pain began to subside, I looked to the mare as she diligently worked at the side of my head. "Why are you being so kind to me all of a sudden? I remember at times I was getting halfway cussed out by you."

"Because I know dat you have a terrible time with dat other mare trying to assert her rank and authority. She must not do much for you other den give you a hard time."

I shrugged at the idea of her answer. "It's not that terrible." I said, keeping in mind what all I had went through with Blue yesterday.

The zebracorn rolled her eyes. "But I can see she does not give you much room to work. I understand dere are other things dat help make your day a lot harder."

I found it within myself to chuckle at her sudden display of care, perhaps she was trying to reciprocate to me what I was offering to her through my promises. "The way you're acting, you must think I'm going to take it out on you or something." I joked.

"...I never refused dat option." She said as she moved in closer. Catching me by surprise, she planted me against a wall and pinned me between a column and one of her forelegs. "If we work together, I need you to be in your best mind. So if you need to, you can use me to your imagination's content. Do not be afraid to see me as your stress relief, you did earn dat privilege after all you have done."

As she kept me pinned, I noticed that in the silence between our dialog, her eyes wandered down from mine to a slight elevation below them. Her breathing was quiet, we were very close to one another at that moment. It wouldn't take me a day to discover what she was feeling in that moment. "I have a question and I don't mean to be so blatant with it. Are you... in a mood?"

She inched a slight bit closer, mumbling to me her answer. "I'm only doing what I know most stallions would prefer. A brief moment of relief to ease your mind, sex is good for dat. It is only normal dat I condition myself to allow for dat to happen for who I so choose when de time is nigh."

"Sex is nice, so is masturbation, but you don't see me cranking out soldiers when I'm feeling distressed." I replied.

She leaned into my ear, brushing a hoof onto the center of my chest. "But no one holds you doing dat. You do not get de reinforcement of your ego by your lonesome." She nuzzled her head against mine, kissing the tip of my ear before letting out a soft giggle. "It takes a mare's touch, her words, her expressions, be dey real or not. It does a lot for many a stallion to hear a mare mewl in his ear."

I could feel the sensation of her magic brush against my underbelly, enticing a favorable reaction from a certain part of my equine anatomy. She rubbed me in a way that ticked me so immensely that I couldn't help but to kick up a hind leg to stave it away, not to mention the uncomfortable sensation of feeling myself becoming unveiled to the world. "It helps a lot of stallions, but what's good for the many ain't often what works for everybody."

"Den perhaps I could show you dat deep down, it all remains de same." She said with an ambitious growl, giving me a lick on the side of my face.

That solitary moment had me completely ignorant to what I was initially thinking about initially. The only thought that started to overflow in my mind was how I wanted to just give in and take her on at that moment. I had every right to answer her cries for attention. If anything, she was giving me the green light to mount her at that moment for the sake of relief. She knew how to manipulate the tension within a stallions body far more than I knew how to control it. But thankfully I was given some tips and pointers of how to find ways to stave off that lust.

Another kick of the hind leg gave my features a coarse reminder that it shouldn't be out in the way, still didn't shake the thought of finding a way to destroy her later. Yeah, I had to concede that argument. "I'll give you what you're begging for later. Right now, let's get back to our grind."

It took a minute before I was ready to walk into the lounge. But once we did, I was swiftly brought back to reality with the sound of a distressed mare pleading with the main contributor to her problems. "But there's no way my brother would just simply not show up today! I haven't heard from him at all, he was absent at his job, he wasn't at the home, he got scooped up on late Tuesday night and he hasn't been seen since. His face was on one of those damned masks you have lying around, you did something!"

Predictably, he outwardly denied it to the room. "I did nothing, dear. I've only just gotten here and you're already trying to tell me that I'm guilty of some transgression made against your traitorous brother."

"You would be the only one responsible." She called out. "I may not be all that informed to your dealings, but I do know that you have the ability to make things happen─"

He interrupted her by standing behind her, creeping around each side of her head as he spoke. "So we're going to conclude with something. Your brother was a member of the Inner Circle, correct? And now he's not here to fulfill his duty. So now I'm going to have to find a replacement. But it appears I don't really have to do much of that, little miss daddy's girl." He giggled as he pulled at her tail, snickering as he mocked her. "Daughter of Count DuMoneé. His most treasured secret. His deepest carnal desire."

Petrified in place, she whimpered to the stallion behind her. "Please, stop."

The stallion tsk'd at her, leaning past her face to whisper at her. "Oh no dear. There's no stopping when I say go. You'll do well in knowing that I hold the leverage. So if you disobey me, your brother will pay a dear price." He walked away, leaving Blue paralyzed in fear while calling out to the room. "ALL TO GATHER!"

Everyone in the room did as he instructed, coming from their various corners of conversation to mass at the center of the room. He didn't seem to have anything to say without dragging her along by her horn. "What is he doing with her now?" I asked myself.

My presence didn't go unnoticed by him. "Ah, captain. What an unusual surprise. It seems you've gotten on the ball when it came to your attendance. I'm glad to see you've decided to play along." Considering how pissed off he was when I got in the way of his fun last week, I was unnerved by the calm and cool demeanor he had in casually greeting me. He then went on to dancing with his cane and putting the spotlight on Blue. "Hear ye, hear ye! I am sure most of you remember our little show from last week. As you can tell, that was a lot of fun for me. And of course, our dear Blue Royal here decided to come to her brother's rescue, so sweet she is. And in turn, she got a much-anticipated reunion with her dearly-departed father, who showed his affection by give her every last ounce of what he still had left inside. My, I've never seen a stallion so spoiled rotten."

"Disrespectful asshole." I mumbled under my breath.

He glanced at me, indicating that he heard what I said. However, he carried on without a single beat missed. "But that performance was so riveting, I thought that she would do anything to keep her traitorous bastard brother safe. And she's agreed to do whatever it takes to keep him alive." He spun himself around before throwing his hooves at her to present her like she was some sort of a grand prize winner. "So without further ado, I hereby anoint Blue Sapphire Royal unquestioned admittance to the Circle. Welcome!" The other ponies in the room applauded as he smiled with venomous intent. He leaned over to the mare. "Remember dear, it's better to play along." And then he shoved his cane in front of her to speak into like a microphone. "Now she will say a few words in regards to her new position."

Still in grief over her brother's disappearance, more than the threat that was made against her, she found very little ability to say much of anything. "I... u... I─"

He continued to taunt at the mare. "Speak up, dear. Everyone wants to know what the newest member of the Inner Circle will say. We want a speech!"

The mare started shaking violently, breathing heavily, trying to negotiate with her emotions and failing terribly at it. She was far too unstable to come up with anything, so she apologized tearfully. "...I'm sorry." She said with a thin airy voice.

She tried turning away, but not before he hugged her and playfully tapped her muzzle. "Oh, not one for speeches, I see. Well that's quite alright, I'm sure your brother would've been proud of you."

"What about him, I'm doing what you asked, where is he?" She begged.

The evil stallion snickered. "My dear, do you think he would maintain his position after that stunt he pulled on us last Sunday?"

"Wait' wasn't it the captain who led that raid?" Damper Trot then chimed in, offering to be nothing more than a bystander.

"I mean of course it was, but he was merely doing his job. It would look highly suspicious if he were to get a warrant for this district and suddenly not act on it. He had to lay the hammer down sometime." He promptly directed his attention at me. "Isn't that right, Nondis?"

"Yeah. Just doing my job, hunting for arimaspi." I tried to sound as casual as I could, but the truth was that I was spiteful of him, as much as I was terrified of his demeanor.

"Well, I know that you would love to be the hunter of things wrong with the world. I suppose I should let you get back to your work tonight."

I blinked for a second, unsure of what he meant to imply. "My work?"

"But of course." He said, walking over to me with his cane spinning around in his magic. "Surely you've come across some interesting information this past Sunday, especially where your search lead you to. And to think we were just but a few meters from each other that evening. It's unfortunate that you didn't give me a chance to look you up. I just wanted to show you my affection."

"You knew I was there?" I asked, a tad shaken from his confession.

The cane stopped spinning and pointed directly at the side of my head, namely the area where the pain was sourced from. "That spell I placed on you is judged on proximity, you know. The further away from me you are, the more adverse it's effects. The closer you are, the more muted the response. So if you were to ever run back to your world, I'd make sure that I'd be the only think you'd think about for the rest of your life... not that you'd live for long. That much stress on the brain can lead to immense distractions, I'm sure death would find its way to you in some unforeseen circumstance." He's not wrong there, me driving with a sudden jolt in my head and I'm forced to keep my eyes on the road without passing out. God forbid that I'd swerve into oncoming traffic. The stallion carried on. "But I did leave hints and spoilers on this week's special matchup. They were all on the fliers."

"Let me guess, you got something else new going against something that can use weapons." I asked.

The stallion smiled eagerly. "I don't have 'something else new going against something that can use weapons.' I have someone."

I looked down and realized that for all the relatively peaceful conflicts we've had in this venue, it was only a matter of time before the fighting portion had finally kicked in. "My champion?"

"That, and you!" He corrected happily and excitedly. "I have you going against one of my newer champions. The crowd's been ranting and raving since the big reveal this past Saturday, so much that I had to put out a disclaimer to keep the matchup a public secret. And this one is a tag-team of favorites. That's my headline for tonight... and my punishment for you."

...Honestly, this seemed much more tame in terms of what I was expecting. But that doesn't mean anything if he has me going against something that's either going to haunt me or trigger me in some way. Knowing him, it's going to be just that. "This isn't going to be some shit I like."

And true to his cause, he was just as carefree as ever. "But everyone else most certainly will."

Little time had passed before we were shown the passageway to the arena floor. Along the way we saw a deluge of patrons flooding the betting pools and throwing in exorbitant wagers to hope that it pans out in their favor. And of course, the odds are probably skewed against me. But the business owners are probably looking at the amount of money they can sucker a bunch of ponies into taking on the first few rounds. As long as they can pose the odds in favor of my opponents, ponies will be gullible enough to take the under. And if they buy in, the bookers make off like a bandit when they bet on me. It makes perfect sense, play me as the loser, watch me win, and get paid while everyone else in the general population runs away with empty pockets.

Still didn't change my mind on how I felt being on the floor of gladiatorial combat.

Apparently I was slated for the main event after a number of matches, but I didn't quite understand why it was that I was going to be fighting as a pony, for the title of Beast of the Week. The only way I could see that being a remote possibility is if I was fighting as a human. But I don't think that would sit too well with the paying audience.

Either way, I didn't have to like what I was getting thrown into. "Why do they have us going through all these warm-up matches? Is this a tournament arc in some anime?" I found myself mumbling my complaints under my breath.

More so, Kalimba was listening in to whatever I said. "Silly boy, what in Equestria are you talking about?"

I waved her off. "Don't worry about it. I'm just ranting."

The mare stood in confidence as she offered me an alternative. "If you want, you could have me do most of de work."

"Then you'd get hurt while I watch?" I answered uncomfortably.

"It is what normally happens around here." She shrugged.

And there it was, that instance of careless abandon she had. Every time something dangerous or risky came to mind, she was always the first to offer herself as a trading piece for my safety. But she never considers anyone else's feelings into account when volunteering herself for these things. She simply didn't care, it's almost like she was banking on the idea of death snuffing her out. So I explained to her how I didn't approve of her wanton disregard for her own being. "Look here. If something happens to you, I'm not really going to be sound in mind. I might be frantic, desperately trying to save you from death. It's just that we've done a lot up to this point, and I want to make sure you have a future is all. You're doing great up to now, I don't want that to be a waste."

The mare shrugged once more. "My future is without you, it's going to be shit."

"Probably the first time I ever heard you cuss." I replied, still trying to plead with her over what she was trying to do.

Using her magic, she turned my head to her and walked towards me. "Look at me." She said before she sat herself before me and placed her hooves on either of my cheeks. "You brought light into my existence. If worst comes to worst, we die together."

"So much for optimism." I answered sarcastically.

"If you die, I'm coming for you in death." She emphasized.

"Try not to do that." I said, feeling a bit awkward.

She took the moment to lean in for a kiss on my lips, pulling my head in to offer me little escape while she took that initiative. While I was more caught up in the surprise of the moment, I suppose she was trying to make one to go out by. As soon as she pulled back she placed a hoof on my lips to prevent any kind of protest. "If I go tonight, this moment will be de one I want to remember. Do you understand?"

I shook my head and used my magic to move her hooves off of me. "Well I guess I've gotta make sure you stay upright long enough to be disappointed."

The mare walked off and started looking at a dirty mirror, taking in the sight of herself. She used it to glance back at me while she spoke. "If we live, I will bear de title of a single muddah with pride." She watched through the mirror as I damn near tripped over the air in front of me. I was about to confront her with that statement, but she turned around with a subdued giggle. "Dat was a joke." She said, playfully smiling, possibly trying to make the best of our moment before facing off what might be our finest hour, or our last.

At that point, I just laughed back. "At this point, I don't know what's a joke anymore."

In a show of miraculous timing, a knock came at the door of the preparation room before it was opened immediately after. "Hey there, party ponies!" And of course, it was the usual malcontent looking to poke the bear. "Oh, I forgot one thing before you both get started. Just a tiny little bit of oversight, you won't even notice it."

Kalimba looked to him with her usual stern expression. "Dis seems like you are forgetting something important."

"More like a major inconvenience for the sake of your amusement." I cosigned.

The stallion smiled and danced, as careless as ever. "Ah, I can't get over on the two of you, can I?" He stopped and pranced over to the zebracorn, circling around her as his eyes dressed her down inch by inch. "Kalimba, you've grown into your own pony so quickly and so vividly. It's almost like I have to quash that growing individuality so that it doesn't get out of control."

"You forget that I own her now." As much as I hated using that language, it was the only way to solidify my disapproval of his statement.

"Well that's true, you do own her. But I've never seen a slave owner lose so much control over their acquired property. You should probably teach her where she belongs, if you value her life." He replied with a smirk, grabbing at her tail.

"She's my champion." I reiterated, using my magic to free her tail from his hoof.

"I guess value is in the eye of the beholder." He said, starting to become frustrated with me. "But enough about her, let's get on with you."

"What about me?"

He then circled me, shaking his head with disapproval. "That form. You're not going to be fighting as a pony, you're going to be fighting as your true self. That's what I have on the billing."

Ah, figures he'd had me competing for that title as my normal self. Who would have thought that anything else would come out of this? I hate this guy, I really do. "Wouldn't you get a better show if I fought your goons on even hoofing?"

"That's only fair up till the next round." He replied.

"I thought dat only champions are allowed to fight. Not de owners." Kalimba argued.

"I explained why the provisions have changed." The stallion said while finding a nearby support pole to dance on.

I looked away as he started to flutter his eyes at me. "No you did not." Kalimba replied in my defense.

He responded by turning my head to force me to watch him dance on the pole. "Then let me be clear to you, my lovely zebra whore. Your owner planned out a raid on Sunday, one that threatened the many businesses and vendors of the market. They're not happy with the captain's actions and they want blood. My event tonight is going to give them what they want, a chance to see him possibly endure defeat, to become humiliated and embarrassed before them. Once that's finished, we'll leave him out in the public square of downtown for all beholders and press to see." As he climbed to the top of the pole, he locked his hind legs around the pole and held himself up while he looked at me completely parallel to the ground. "It'll be a message, to never go against the denizens of Corrotto ever again."

"Say I was to lose your little gauntlet. What else then?" I then questioned.

"Why I'm sure you know that certain rules pertaining to your champion still apply. I can choose to keep or kill, either way removes you from her equation." He said as he pulled himself up on the pole and twirled back down. As soon as he dropped, he gave Kalimba a jealous glare. "You don't seem as sickly nowadays."

"I have been taking care of myself." She was far from amused.

The stallion teleported himself seamlessly, just simply popping in next to the zebra as he lifted her tail. "No strange zebra remedies to keep you at your highest form? It seems to me that you've been going to a specialist with that niche collection of knowledge. I do know that you have friends in Ponyville." Kalimba promptly snatched her tail away out of spite. "And when you lose, I'll be sure to embarrass you in front of the whole town. It'll be a most unforgettable sight."

"Your beef's with me." I reiterated.

The stallion teleported next to me, backing me into the counter, hoping to pin me against it. "Why must you be in the way of my fun nowadays? I'm just curious as to why you've garrisoned yourself against me."

I simply stopped dead in my tracks, wearing a scornful glare at the stallion. "Leaving bodies in my world crosses every red line I had with anyone. Even the princesses know better."

He moved in closer, smiling menacingly with a mocking tone of voice. "Oooh, such strong words. 'Even the princesses know better.' I can imagine how they'll react to such a strong statement." He placed his hoof on my chest, much like Kalimba did earlier. "I know you don't like showing off in public. But tonight will be a night you'll have no other choice. I'm sure you understand that your refusal will mean that I have to go looking for... other alternatives."

If I guessed correctly, that probably meant my friends. I tightened up my stance and firmed my resolve. "If I beat your gauntlet, and I will, you let Alabaster free and tell me everything I want to know."

The stallion tapped his hoof impatiently, seeming as if he was displeased with my conditions. "I can give you the first, but never the second. That second is already confirmed for another wager in pending. You'll have to settle for my lovely little faggot instead."

I winced on the inside hearing him speak so brazenly about Alabaster, also with a tinge of guilt considering what happened last Friday night. "Fine. But I want you to also keep Kalimba out of your mouth for the rest of my time here."

"Not going to happen." He brazenly denied. "And you forget that I'm also allowing you to live no matter the outcome, I think that's reward and consolation enough. Your wanting Alabaster free will be an added bonus."

"...Fine then. Alabaster's freedom it is."

COMBATANTS IN PREPARATION ROOM A4, PLEASE REPORT TO THE BLACK GATE. COMBATANTS IN PREPARATION ROOM B9 TO RED GATE. AGAIN, COMBATANTS IN ROOM A4 TO BLACK GATE, COMBATANTS IN TOOM B9 TO RED GATE.

As we heard our room over the intercom, the psychopathic ringleader pointed his cane at me with a spiteful smirk on his face. "Well... I'm waiting for the wardrobe change. Might want to get on that before the audience gets impatient."

Accepting his wager, I summoned my magic and performed the transformation spell.

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

Back onto my own two legs, I towered over the stallion who seemed to smile greedily at me. "Alright, are you happy now?"

He bit his lips as he noticed that I wasn't wearing any clothes upon transforming back. He started to run his hoof across my abdomen, trying to sink himself further down. "I am most satisfied with the result of your compliance. Now my beast, go give me glory. Show me what you can do."

While I was human, I still had my magic to stop him from getting too fresh with his copping a feel. He was more than satisfied with the sample he had and marched away with the memory of my skin against his hoof. I shook my head while turning to Kalimba. "I swear that motherfucker's going to have me kill him." I said out of a flash of anger. "So I have a feeling this isn't going to be fair."

Kalimba was just as visually invested in my anatomy, trying to use her magic on the sly and pull my hand away to reveal what it was I was covering up at my crotch.

"Hey! No peaking at the merchandise!" I urged, causing the mare to lustfully retract her hoof.

She looked up to me, her eyes coming to grips that her eye level was just at the top of my inner thigh. "Well I cannot say dat I am not interested in being commanded by such a large being. I wish to know now, what is dat thing you especially do not want the world to be seeing? Come now silly boy, do not hide. I wish to see what's on de other side."

This time, my hormones could be held in check. So I snapped her back to the present. "What's on the other side is my losing you to him." I reiterated. "And I'm sure you don't want to be his sex slave."

Just the thought of him doing whatever he wanted, combined with the memories of what he did on Tuesday night was what made her see that outcome being nothing short of terrible. That warning was enough to snap her back to the straight and narrow. She went from trying to goad me into showing off, to trying to goad me into shape.

"Shine your eyes, captain. I do not wish to be his servant in any capacity."

The stadium was rocking and rolling with the sounds of cheering and sing-alongs to the music that was piped in from the speakers around the venue. The colors of the venue were restored to their vibrant selves, as much as the arena had returned to it's former deafening volume. And above all else, the main thing that could be heard is the sounds of the two announcers booming throughout the place.

"FILLIES AND GENTLECOLTS!" Scotch hollered out to the crowd with a dignified bow.

"BASTARDS AND BITCHES OF ALL AGES!" Botch snarled loudly to the audience, pointing at the many patrons.

"SCOTCH AND BOTCH HERE AGAIN TO BRING TO YOU THE COMMENTARY OF TONIGHT'S SLATE OF ACTION─"

"YOU WANT BLOOD, WE GOT IT!"

"YOU WANT PASSION AND CARNAGE, WELL THIS IS THE PLACE YOU'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR! AND IF NOT─"

"BROTHEL'S DOWN THE STREET IF YOU WANT TO GO FUCK YOURSELF!"

"TONIGHT WE HAVE AN INTERESTING LINEUP OF MATCHES LEADING UP TO OUR TEASED SURPRISE MAIN EVENT!"

"LAST WEEK, WE TICKLED YOUR BALLS WITH A CERTAIN GUEST APPEARANCE TAKING ON OUR PREVIOUS BEAST OF THE WEEK TO CLAIM THE TITLE!"

"AFTER ALL, WHAT BETTER TO TAKE DOWN AN ARIMASPI THAN THE VERY CREATURE THAT LEGEND HAS NOTATED AS IT'S SWORN NEMESIS!?"

"Y'ALL KNOW WHO WE'RE TALKING ABOUT!"

"AND IF YOU DON'T─"

"─THEN SHUT THE FUCK UP AND WATCH THE SHOW."

"AND WORD FROM THE BOSS, NO SPOILERS ALLOWED!"

"WE GOTTA STAY EMPLOYED, YA KNOW!?"

"BUT TONIGHT, A STORY WILL COME TO THE FLOOR OF OUR ESTEEMED ARENA!"

While the two commentators gave a pause for dramatic effect, Botch started chuckling and teased the audience."SO HOW ABOUT THAT SUNDAY, HUH!?"

The entire arena started to boo loudly as a very small mention of items fell to the arena floor at the mention of that event. Scotch continued to speak to the crowd. "WE KNOW THAT MANY OF YOU ARE UPSET THAT SOME OF YOUR MOST FAVORITE VENDORS HAVE BEEN IMPRISONED FROM THE RAID ON SUNDAY!"

"ALL LED BY CAPTAIN MONKEY-BRAIN LONGSHANKS!"

"BUT THE BOSS DIDN'T LET THAT GO UNPUNISHED! HE TOOK BACK THE BASTARD THAT SOLD YOU OUT!" Scotch announced, playing to the crowd and earning their praise of approval.

"FUCK THAT GUY!" Botch cosigned much to the delight of the audience.

"HEY NOW, BOTCH. HE'D LOVED FOR THAT TO HAPPEN IN A PUBLIC SQUARE."

"IS HE REALLY?"

"SOME SAY IN CERTAIN CIRCLES, HE'S VERY GIFTED WITH HIS TONGUE, KNOWING EXACTLY WHAT TO HIT, WHERE, AND WHEN TO SET YOU OFF." Announced Scotch, causing the imaginations of the various mares in attendance go wild.

Botch sought to play off of that fact to the mares. "OH LADIES─"

Scotch then kindly interrupted him. "I'M SORRY BOTCH, BUT HE'S RESERVED HIMSELF FOR... STALLIONS ONLY."

The audience mostly booed at the news. "SORRY LADIES, YOU KNOW HOW IT IS. BUT INCOMING PLOT TWIST!"

Scotch planted a hoof against his ear, appearing as if he was listening in to a call from one of the event managers."IT SEEMS THAT THE CAPTAIN HAS INFILTRATED THE DISTRICT TONIGHT, BUT HE FOOLISHLY CAME BY HIMSELF! WHAT IDIOCY─"

"─A WHOLE DUMBASS─"

"─A COMPLETE FOOL! BUT TONIGHT, YOU ALL GET TO PAY WITNESS TO A MOST GRAND NIGHT IN THIS ARENA'S HISTORY!"

Botch turned to his fellow commentator. "BUT FIRST, LETS GET SOME SHIT OUT OF THE WAY! WHO'S UP FOR TONIGHT!?"

"WE'RE LOOKING AT A GROUP OF THUGS, A COLLECTION OF SOULLESS BASTARDS LOOKING TO MAKE A QUICK DOLLAR ON THE ARENA FLOOR!"

"SOME BASIC BITCHES A LEVEL OF SELF-RESPECT LOWER THAN A SHITTY-ASS MERC!"

"WE HAVE COMING IN FROM THE RED GATE, THE LOT OF THUGS─"

"─THEY'LL PICK YOUR PURSE AND YOUR WIFE'S PUSSY CLEAN─"

"─THEY'LL KILL EACH OTHER OVER THE PRIZE MONEY─"

"THE... BODY SNATCHERS!"

The gate opened to reveal a group of common thugs all cheering and hollering as soon as they were announced. Some even tapped at their ears to hype up the crowd. Of course, the response from the crowd was mild at best. They didn't seem to care much for the guys that looked to be the big benefactor of a victory.

Scotch once more planted his hoof against his ear, much to the intrigue of the crowd. "AND THEIR VICTIMS... WAIT! I'M JUST GETTING WORD OF A CHANGING DEVELOPMENT, FOLKS!"

Botch did the same, appearing shocked. "NO FUCKING WAY!"

"THAT'S RIGHT FOLKS! WE'RE BRINGING IN SOME HEAT TONIGHT! FRESH OFF THE CAPTURE, WE HAVE THE ONE─"

"─THE FUCKING ONLY─"

"HE'S THE NEW... *AHEM* ...Candidate for Beast of the Week."

Just as anticlimactic as his announcement was, the black gate before us was dropped to the ground and we were revealed to the crowd. And given that they saw my face on the floor, the boos started pouring in. While earlier was a small amount of trash thrown at the mention of my name, this time was a series of refuse and wastes tossed our way, everything from spoiled food, old syringes, plastic cups, and other disposable paraphernalia.

Walking to our portion of the floor, we could hear a series of insults being hurled our way, including many colorful threats to my safety. But I didn't mind it too much. "You know, I thought that the announcements were a lot more fun on the outside looking in. But now that I'm the one on the floor, this is total bullshit."

Kalimba staved off her own bits of trash hurled her way while she spoke. "You will learn to live with deir biases."

"Guess there's bigger shit to worry about other than how we're announced." I said as I looked a the group of ponies before us, counting out as many as twelve of them. As I started to size down their biggest guy, I dodged a rotten tomato that was hurled my way. "Like getting pelted with rotten fruit, for example."

"NOW I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING!" Scotch continued.

"WHY THE FUCK IS HE HERE AND NOT THROWN IN CHAINS!?" Botch questioned on behalf of the viewers.

"BECAUSE THE CAPTAIN HERE IS LOOKING TO FREE HIS HOMOSEXUAL ASSOCIATE!"

"WAIT, DOES HE ACTUALLY... CARE ABOUT THE GUY?"

"WELL HE IS THE ONE WHO WROTE OUT THE WARRANT! THE CAPTAIN WILL NEED HIM FOR FUTURE VISITS!"

"MAYBE THE CAPTAIN'S SEX LIFE IS SECRET BECAUSE HE'S PROBABLY BLOWING THE BASTARD'S BACK OUT!"

"CAN THE CAPTAIN TRULY FIGHT? DOES HIS REPUTATION MATCH UP TO HIS ABILITIES!? IS HE A RAGING HOMOSEXUAL IN SECRET!? WE MAY FIND THE ANSWERS TO THOSE QUESTIONS TONIGHT!"

"THINK ABOUT IT FOLKS! WE BUSTING A SCOOP BEFORE THE PRESS AND TABLOIDS EVEN GET TO IT! AND WE'RE DOING IT IN REAL TIME!"

While the two continued to spread unfounded rumors about my preferences, I started to imagine the many violent ways I could put these guys away. "I'm going to kill someone today." I said through gritted teeth.

"Dat would be preferred for many here." Kalimba added.

The two commentators commenced the match. "SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO─"

"LET'S GET THIS MOTHERFUCKING PARTY STARTEEEEEED!"

While the group of twelve made a beeline for us, Kalimba jumped ahead of me and readied herself for her first assailant. "No time to think! We are fighting now!"

"Lady, how do you think I got this position!?" I replied as I ran up and punched the first one I saw. In seconds, Kalimba was being rushed by three of them while nine dedicated themselves to trying to take me down as quickly as possible. But at least two of them grabbed one another and flung one of them at me, all while another kicked me in my side. As another two rushed me, I stumbled back to gain some balance, only to fall backwards as one stood behind me with a confident smile on his face. When I got back up, another one gave me a solid blow to the jaw, causing me to stumble back again.

"OH, THAT'S GOTTA HURT!" Botch called out for the audience.

I worked my jaw for a split second, seeing if anything was broken, any teeth were knocked loose, standard three second inspection. After that hit, I nodded and cracked my knuckles. "I'll show you what hurts."

Again, they pulled the same combo, but throwing two guys at me this go around. It didn't bother me much but they did throw in a bit of a twist by trying to throw some sand in my eye. I thankfully fell back before that could happen, but once I tried to get back up, another blow came to the back of my head. One of the stallions stood up over me and asked with a cocky demeanor. "You done yet!?"

I quickly rubbed the back of my head, very much pissed off. "Not even!"

While I was trying to keep my magic as a trump card for later, I had to find other ways to make my position more advantageous. Watching the group of goons interact with one another, I saw that they were offering Kalimba very little attention. Unsurprisingly, they only wanted the glory of bringing me down, so I had to get serious, no more holding punches.

I moved towards one that tried to scamper away, getting flanked by another who wanted to be my tripping log. Instead of going after the ones in front, I decided to use that fake opening and take a step back, feeling for when he got close. And just like clockwork, I felt him brush against the back of my legs.

I simply sat down, pinning him down until I heard something snap. The pony beneath me yelped out in pain while he tried to squirm from under me. As one tried to come in for a surprise blow, I weaved and countered with a few solid blows to his neck and jaw. Another ran in from the front, trying to charge his magic to blast at me. All I did was pick up the one I sat on and used him as a shield to protect myself from the incoming blasts.

Two others flanked me, trying to do the same, but by the time that happened, I just had to step aside and let the one they had coming at me from the front pass by. After juking him out, I watched as a bolt intended for me blasted back the one I faked out. The one from earlier who tried to punch me again had gotten back up, only to promptly receive another blow to the face. I tossed aside the first meat shield for a second in him instead, using it to shield myself from more blows of the two that then became my front. Another came running after them, trying to maximize their front. Each of them spit up to try and hit me at three different sides.

As much as I wanted to save my magic for a trump card, I had very little alternative. So I decided to play dirty. I hid my hand as I used my fingers to swipe some sand into the eyes of one assailant that tried to come at my left. He was left blinded for a while as the other two closed in on me. All I had to do from there was use my current meat shield as a projectile towards the one up front and give a forceful kick to the one that came in from the side.

A bolt of magic hit me from behind, leaving me a bit stunned from the impact. I turned around to see the perpetrator smiling as two others held knives and sticks. Instead of going empty handed, I picked up two of their friends and hurled them over at them. Of course they landed short, but the distraction was enough for me to close the distance. Once more, I played dirty, sliding one of their hind legs from underneath across their body. The one that held a stick, namely a splinted 2x4, tried swinging at me from the side, namely at my legs. But as soon as I jumped to avoid the blow, I landed and kicked sand in his direction. He jumped back, but my other foot found his weapon and stomped it out of his possession. I drove an elbow into his eye socket, rendering him completely unconscious.

I looked at the last one standing and said to him. "You must be a prophet, you spoke that ass whoopin on yourselves." The one with the knife tried to sneak up from behind, but I looked back in enough time to react to him lunging in. Instead of dodging completely, I sidestepped him and shoved his face down into the dirt and kicked his head in twice before he was left gurgling. Next I yanked the last remaining one into my possession and slammed his face into the ground and punched him until he was neutralized.

On that note, I got up to see if there was anyone else that Kalimba was dealing with, she seemed as if she downed two of her own assailants before dealing with the final one. "You fucking stuck up bitch!" He screamed while running at her.

"Keep yourself away!" She warned as he leapt at her. She dodged his attack by sliding out of the way and then pivoting herself to kick him in the back of the head.

Stumbling forward from the impact, he felt the back of his head and screamed once more at the zebracorn. "Fucking zebra slut!"

She calmly waited for him to run back in for another round, and gave him exactly what he asked for. Her hind leg kicked out at him, causing him to stumble back as she set up another moment to give him a barrage of kicks. Two to his chest, one to his face, landing down to sweep his hooves from beneath him, using her magic to toss him into the air, and then leaping up to drive his face into the dirt.

I couldn't help but stare in amazement. And I was sure that the audience shared my same sentiment in seeing her put the guy down with such flare. "HO MOMMA! SHE'S GOT STYLE!" Botch even praised her admirably, again to the crowd's delight.

Looking at me, her horn quickly ignited and shot a blast past my shoulder to one of the guys I used earlier as a shield. She stared at me and gave me a quick warning. "You better be more careful."

I nodded at her before seeing a stallion get up off the ground, namely the one I kicked that came at me earlier from the side. He saw it as an opportunity to ambush Kalimba. "Watch your ass, Kali!" I called out to her, causing her to instinctively spin around and send a bolt flying in the direction of her about face.

While she didn't score a direct hit, the aura singed his right side, causing him to lose his balance along his run. He regained himself and yelled at me for ruining his surprise attack. "You son of a bitch!" So he unwittingly turned his attention to me to bring me down, not realizing that he still had to cross by Kalimba. She didn't take his intent to harm me in good standing and hopped to her forelegs before bucking the stallion at full wind-up. The blow sent him across the arena and landing flat into the wall, I watched him almost peel off like a sticker as he flopped to the ground.

Any others that were still wide awake wanted no part in us and ran off, carrying their compatriots towards the gate they entered from. A crude industrial buzzer sounded in the arena, indicating our victory by means of withdrawal. Some members of what appeared to be the on-site medical staff checked the unconscious stallions for any life signs. I gave the zebracorn mare a nod of approval. "You kept up."

She smirked slightly as she replied. "Did you expect me to do anything else?"

The announcers went about their usual gig. "WELL HE'S A FIGHTER, BUT THIS ZEBRA GIRL IS ALL ABOUT STYLE!" Botch stared off.

"THE AUDIENCE LOVES HER! SHE'S A STAR IN THE MAKING, FOLKS!"

"I WONDER WHAT ELSE SHE DOES WITH STYLE!"

Kalimba rolled her eyes with disgust. "As if any of you will ever find out!"

"THE WINNERS OF THIS FIRST ROUND OF TONIGHT'S LINEUP..."

"KALIMBA AND... Candidate for Beast of the Week."

The crowed was awash with the mix of boos and cheers. Understandably many cheered for Kalimba and her performance, but many booed me due to underlying bias. I was a little miffed at the way they announced me though. "Sheesh, they could've called me 'the human' at the very least. I'm kicking their ass, at least give me the respect after a win."

"I told you about deir biases." She replied as we walked into our own respective gate. As we got closer, many hesitated in throwing things at us because Kalimba was so close to me while we made our way to our prep room.

As per usual, standing outside of the room was none other than the ringleader himself. He immediately went to Kalimba. "Ah, you done some improving on your physique. Should've peeped that when you took the captain on in front of the lounge that other night."

She answered the stallion with a growling tone. "You forgot who I had to deal with."

"Oh I didn't forget about Prod. Not as much as you would like to forget him yourself." He replied with a devious smile.

I stepped between them both to hinder him from talking to her. "That's the first round of how many?"

"Three." He said, looking up at me.

"Then two more and we're good, right?" I said, holding up two fingers.

The stallion snickered as he clopped his hooves together. "I wouldn't expect it to be as easy. You should temper your expectations."

On that note, he walked off and we were left to get some rest before our next round. When the door closed, I started feeling against my jaw. Parts of my face were still sore from the blows I took, but thankfully those guys were a lot more unorganized than I initially took them to be. I looked at the young zebra mare as she stared at herself in the dirtied mirror. "So it seems the ponies out there loved your moveset."

"I suppose so." She replied without any care about the circumstances.

"You've improved a whole lot since we first linked up." I pointed out.

"I was always sickly den. But we have a zebra friend helping me to regain my strength." She answered quite plainly.

"It's almost been a month since we've done this. Pretty awesome to see you go so far so quickly." I said, walking to her side.

"I always could do dis, but I was always made too weak to do so." She answered, cleaning up her face from the dirt.

"And then you know magic on top of it. Pretty lethal combo."

She glanced over to me. "Is dat so?"

I continued to heap praise on the young mare. "Yeah, you killed out there! I almost wish I could do half the shit you can. I'm just straight forward, guess that's why I'm not as loved by the audience."

The mare briefly took my praise for granted. "I am merely a tool to be used."

"Not always." I urged. "You're loved, and you're a friend to someone else. Tools can have individuality too, serve a certain purpose, but they can't be embraced by others around them nor can they embrace who they're around. Personality is what makes you desirable, and I'm sure that there's somebody out there who'd love to discover that for themselves."

The mare looked to me quietly before turning back to the mirror. "Dere is some time before our next match. I suggest you rest until den."

I took her advice and sat myself on the nearby couch to relax myself before our next match. The last thing I needed to be was stiff and uptight going into a fight. So I tried to start off with a bit of reactionary humor. "I wonder what your dad would say if he saw how strong you were."

"I do not care about what he says!" The mare groaned with annoyance, enticing me to laugh at her. "I care about what you say." Her follow-up reply made me stop dead, causing me to feel a bit saddened over the fact that I knew what she was going through in her mind, at least to an extent.

"Lady, you're trending for disappointment with me." I warned her.

She immediately replied. "I know my future, I know you are not a part of it. That cannot be anymore disappointing."

About an hour passed between our first and second round. And in that hour, there were some random deliveries made out to Kalimba. Reasonably, flowers and cards. Seemed like she had started to develop more of a following than what I had imagined. Meanwhile, some fairly threatening letters came in for me instead. Seems like they intend to bet heavily against me given the fact that they don't particularly like me. It's fair, I did bust down some of their operations and cripple others in the wake of the raid I led on Sunday. Par for the course.

The lady on the intercom told us to get to our places, normally starting with the home favorite to do the work, and then announcing the house's betting benefactor. I was certain that the bets against me would only get more and more rampant. This only meant that the pain of their loss would only fill the coffers of the betting house. Hell, they do it all the time in my world. We bet against Lebron teams just like Seattle residents bet against the OKC Thunder, or how we UT Austin students bet in favor of the home team instead of the University of Oklahoma. This wasn't any different.

I made a preliminary checklist during our break, namely pulling out some small tools and items that could be of use. I simply stuck with my scouting loadout: Standard issue guard sword, a few road flares if it gets dark, and even a stun gun for the possibility of my going against another magic user. I didn't want to fully exploit my trump card yet, so this was going to be my next-best alternative. Kalimba didn't need anything out of what I offered, she opted for only what was gifted to her since birth.

On that note, we headed out to the arena, waiting at our assigned gate as the announcers went loud on the speakers.

"LADIES AND GENTLECOLTS!" Scotch started the round off with a boisterous belt.

Botch followed suit. "IT'S YOUR TWO FAVORITE COMMENTATORS HERE AND WE'RE LOOKING TO GIVE YOU MORE OF THE ACTION!"

"TONIGHT STARTED OFF WITH AN ABSOLUTE SURPRISE!"

"KALIMBA, A CHAMPION OF ONE OF THE NEWER VIP MEMBERS DECIDED TO PUT ON A LITTLE SHOW FOR THE REST OF US!"

"SHE'S A REAL FIGHTER AND A GIFTED ARTIST IN THE DANCE OF DESTRUCTION!"

"I HEAR SHE'S ALSO A RABBIT IN BED! ONE TIME, SHE TOOK HER OWNER AND LEG-LOCKED HIM INTO MATING WITH HER!"

"CAREFUL NOT TO GET CAUGHT UP WITH THAT ONE IN ESTRUS, BOYS!"

"SHE'LL BREAK YOUR DICK OFF!"

"BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY SHOWN BY TONIGHT, DON'T EVER CROSS HER BY ANY MEANS!"

"OR SHE'LL BREAK YOUR DICK OFF!"

"AND NOT IN A GOOD WAY!"

"AND WE ALL KNOW WE'VE BEEN WANTING TO SEE MORE OF HER IN ACTION! WELL YOUR WISH IS OUR COMMAND!"

"BUT THIS TIME, IT'S GETTING A LITTLE SPICY IN HERE!"

"A BIT OF AN EXOTIC TASTE!"

"A WHOLE DIFFERENT BREED OF ENTERTAINMENT!"

"FROM THE BLACK GATE, WE SEE OUR DARLING YOUNG DIVA SHOWING HER TRUE STRIPES! KALIMBAAAAA!" In a twist of patterns, they opened our gate first instead of announcing us for the latter. As I was about to walk out there with her, a pony who appeared to be the event staff held a hoof out in front of me to hold me back. While I watched her walk out there, she almost didn't notice that I was nowhere near her. She was partially caught off guard by the amount of fanfare her name had suddenly gotten. It was pretty incredible to see that she was so well-received, they even threw a few flowers at her hooves.

"AND WITH HER IS NONE OTHER THAN... Candidate for Beast of the Week." The event staff moved from my path and instructed me to walk forward. There was nothing but boos and jeers for me along the way. Of course, the number of things that they threw at me only remained consistent, if not increased. So I had to make a quick jog to Kalimba's side just so that I didn't have to get pelted by shit any longer than I needed to.

Admittedly, it wasn't a great feeling, it reminded me of the hard times I had in high school dealing with a lot of bullying incidents. I didn't want those memories to resurface for too long so I focused on the present and tried to keep my usual demeanor. "Seems you're developing a fan club." I joked.

Kalimba wasn't ignorant to the difference in bias either. She seemed more frustrated about it than I tried to not be. "Dis is not right. I am your champion, why are dey trying to differentiate our commentaries so wildly?"

"You don't think it's to build you up before they tear you down?" I asked, looking around the arena, namely the crowd.

She shook her head. "It has always been me getting torn down. Tonight is most unusual."

"I'm thinking it's some psych bullshit." I said quietly, peeking at the two announcers at the top of the red gate.

The gate started to open, alerting the zebracorn. "Less on dat. More on what we are facing."

I continued to joke with her. "Look at you being a main character." I said with a light chuckle.

"AND FROM THE RED GATE, WE HAVE A MEMBER OF THE BEAST TAMERS GUILD! A PROUD REPRESENTATION OF THE VERY ENTITY THAT WAS ASSAULTED ON SUNDAY! PLEASE GIVE A WARM WELCOME TO CRACKER BARREL!"

"The restaurant?" I questioned with a raised brow. A lone brown stallion with spurs on his legs walked forward, waving his cream white Stetson at the audience. He turned back around and whistled at the gate, allowing for six wolves fashioned from what appeared to be tree sap, pine wood, and dark magic. "Oh... that's not country-style cooked."

"Timberwolves!? Since when was dis in our agreement!?" Kalimba asked angrily at the the announcers.

"They're throwing me in the beast category. I'm sure they've worked out how it's going to be 'fair' in their eyes." I replied as the announcers continued with their commentary.

"CRACKER BARREL IS AN AVID COMBATANT IN HIS OWN RIGHT, BRINGING IN MANY WILD BEASTS TO THE GUILD AND MAKING MANY PROFITS ON MARKS THAT WOULD BE OTHERWISE UNOBTAINABLE!"

"TIMBERWOLVES ARE SO HARD TO CAPTURE BECAUSE OF THEIR ELUSIVE NATURE! AND THERE WAS EVERY INTENT BEHIND THAT PUN FOLKS, BROTHEL'S DOWN THE STREET!"

"WHAT MAKES THE BEAST SO HARD TO CAPTURE IS THAT THEY TRAVEL IN PACKS, AND WOULD UNIFY TO BRING DOWN THEIR INTENDED PREY!"

"AND CRACKER BARREL BROUGHT A WHOLE PACK OF THOSE SONS OF BITCHES! WHICH MEANS HE'S NOT JUST SHAKING STICKS!"

"WE'RE LOOKING AT QUITE THE SITUATION FOR THESE TWO TO BE FACING AGAINST! WILL OUR NEW DIVA CLAIM VICTORY OUT OF THE JAWS OF THESE TIMBERWOLVES? OR WILL HER BEASTLY COMPANION STEP UP TO THE MANTLE THIS ROUND?"

"HAVING THAT SAID, LET'S! GET! WIIIIILLLLD!"

The round started with the wolves running directly at us. Kalimba ran past me to get the attention of the six wolves and lead them away from me, all while screaming her instructions. "I'll take de wolves, you take him!"

"Gotcha!" I called back out before having to dodge a whip lashing at my toes.

I turned to the tamer as he rocked from side to side, twirling his whip as he tried to slowly walk to me. "Come on in, big guy. I'm not gonna hurt ya. Let's just take it easy."

"I'm not the one you want to be talking to like that." I strongly advised to him.

"He's trying to psych you out!" Kalimba hollered after blasting a wolf with her magic.

"I'm sorry, there's a level of disrespect I don't simply ignore." I said, starting to let my anger flash through.

She called out, once more as the the tamer pony flicked his whip, cracking a small cloud of dust inches before my face. I wiped my eyes to get the bit of dust out, only to discover something strange about my situation. Suddenly I began to feel woozy, light-headed for no real reason. The whip cracked in front of my face, unleashing a small plume of dust, that one making me sneeze as I inadvertently breathed in some of it.

"Easy does it now. Just come around here real quiet like." The stallion said with a docile country tone. "Atta boy."

At that moment, I was caught between sneezing and wanting to close my eyes for some sleep. And it was hard trying to get myself to come back to reality. "Snap out of it!" Kalimba hollered at me, but even she seemed a whole world away at that point. I was just tired, I didn't want to go to sleep, but my body was just urging me to slip under. I fell to my knees and started toppling over. The arena seemed to cheer brightly as I started to close my eyes off to the world.

It dawned on me that the crowd was cheering for me to finally slip under. I initially didn't care too much about it. All I wanted to do was just not be there, and sleeping was my best way out of it. Then again, I'd have to wake up to the idea of not having Kalimba around to help me anymore. It would've meant that she'd be a collaborator to him... a sex slave to him... or his next puppet.

The pain began.

The tinging sharpness against the side of my head, it made me envision the idea of him dragging her everywhere, doing whatever to her in front of everyone. I remembered he threatened to use her in front of the entire town, an indignity I'm sure her father would very much wish not to see. I saw how easily her freedom could slip out of her grasp. It dawned on me just how much she was banking on me to stay upright. My success and continuation meant that she could stay free, and if I went down, she'd sooner die than live the existence she just climbed out of.

I thought about dad's words, his lesson with the wrench at my leg. The pain in my head was a stern reminder of how I needed to be up and moving. And as one could imagine, the sensation of my head getting stabbed with a fork is enough to wake me the fuck up.

For the moment, I pretended to be sleep, slowly reaching down into my waistline for my taser. When that tamer of a stallion approached me, he looked down on me with a proud smirk. "Hoo-wee! You done went down real easy, boy. Guess you ain't all the hubbub that's been goin' round. Bless your heart, your little parts and whatnot."

That was the final straw. The level of hubris this guy had was enough to piss me off by default. But to hear the way he spoke to me as if I was some sort of pet to be put down was worthy of a taser to the neck. I rolled over and gave him just that, his body seized and he fell stiff to the ground as I got up, being the one who stood over him instead. The more I pulled the trigger, the happier I started to become. "Wow, you went down real easy. Guess you ain't worth half the shit you talk. Bless your heart." I stomped at his stomach another four times with all of my might, watching as he puked on the ground. I gave him another shock just to add the insult to injury. "You must've thought I was some sort of special, like I'm gifted. Yeah, I'm very acquainted with southern mannerisms, I know the bullshit behind those church-friendly conversations. Best believe I know 'em. I may be a city boy, but I'm a peach cobbler eatin', sweet tea drinkin', horse pettin', football lovin', southern American who's blood type comes back with the results of a goddamn proud Texan. And you best learn your place before I put you in one... boy."

One blast later and Kalimba was dusting herself off with pride. "Dat is de last one!"

I glanced over to see the results of her work, pieces of wood and sticks all over the arena. The place smelled like the floor of a pinewood forest. "Timberwolves, wolves made of actual sticks. Could've gone with a better choice." I noted, still holding my taser to Cracker Barrel to give him an occasional jolt.

Kalimba then pointed out something unusual. "They have not call de match yet."

I looked around and saw nothing indicating that the match had been brought to a conclusion. Even the last round had a crude sounding horn to tell us that the round was over. Instead, it was just the sounds of the crowd booing me and cheering for Kalimba. I leaned down to the stallion and gave him another jolt of electricity. "Alright you, I told you I ain't stupid." I then picked him up off the ground and held him up. "What's your plan here?"

The stallion chuckled in response. "Y'all think I'm stupid tryin' to play nice when there's money on the line." He said, spitting in my face. "When there's a hunt, you do what you can to get that mark, even if it means to play dead."

I angrily and slowly wiped my face of his loogie payload, the corners of my mouth tilted in various directions as I contemplated the idea of simply shooting him dead. "The dead don't play anything."

He answered me with a sarcastic smile. "I'm not dead."

That was enough for me. It was enough to let me know that I had time today. So I slammed his face into the puddle of his own vomit and stomped his head in repeatedly, actively jumping on his skull to render him almost completely unresponsive. But instead of that, he was just moaning repeatedly as his hooves seized against his chest. I was left a panting, indignant soul with almost every possible trigger pulled on my anger switch. Self-control wasn't exactly a trait of mine when it came to him, nor did I felt it needed to be. He was very much close to crossing over when I was done with him. "Well... tell God you found the right one when you see him."

While I was satisfied with the result of my beatdown, I had very little sympathy for his current state. But while I was paying all of my attention to him, I was not made wary of the more subtle danger that took place during my act of hostility. Instead, I was completely caught off guard by the shouting of my accomplice. "NONDIS!" She cried out.

"What!?" I replied before I saw a massive wolf form from the various sticks and branches left around the arena. I was left flabbergasted by the event, unsure of how to even deal with the situation. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING!?" I called back to her loudly.

"TIMBERWOLF!" She answered back before it's large wooden paw came crashing down. She narrowly avoided the impact, galloping at full speed away from the creature.

I shouted back over to her, running around and trying to formulate a plan. "Where did this son of a bitch come from!?"

"Dey come from places like de Everfree forest!" She replied urgently. "I cannot fight dis thing, I do not know how!"

The two of us united together, running beside each other as I started to think back to my training. Eventually something came to my mind. "Wait... Aw shit! I forgot about that! KALI, SPLIT UP!"

"What did you forget!?" She asked before heading off in a different direction.

I then recalled what I learned from my courses in basic training. "Defense class, lesson twenty-seven, timberwolves combine when their entire pack is knocked out! They become a bigger beast capable of mowing down a small rural town."

The poor zebracorn sounded winded as she chided me on the spot. "Idjiot! Do you not tell me dese things before we fight dem!? So what do we do now!? How do we fight dis shit!?"

"Magic works, fire often works even better!" I answered.

Kalimba turned around for a brief moment, sending a blast directly for one of it's legs, only for that leg to recover shortly after. "Every time I hit it, it heals itself! Are you sure dat magic works!?"

I began to question myself on my own magic, but then I remembered that I had something that could be as close to fire as I needed for it to be. A lightbulb popped over my head. "I have an idea!"

"What is your idea!?" She asked, now getting focused by the large timberwolf.

"Roadside assistance!" I said, running back over to her direction, namely to get the heat off of her.

"What!?"

"Hey! Over here!" I shouted to the large wolf before flagging it down to chase me. But as I passed by Kalimba, I dropped a road flare next to her to pick up. "Take what I dropped and run! The moment that son of a bitch open its mouth, you throw that thing in its throat! For now, I'll be the bait!"

"Are you insane, you stupid baboon!?" She hollered while following my instructions.

"Take that top off, run the rough part of that cap against that black bean on the top of the long stick, just like a match!" I called out while feeling myself getting more and more tired of trying to outrun the monstrosity chasing me down. Even the audience knew I was starting to run out of steam. "Any moment now please! We humans don't exactly run very fast by pony standards!"

She frantically took the top off of the flare and struck the top as I instructed her to do. It took her two to three attempts before the flare finally got rolling. "GOT IT!" She ran over, holding the bright red flame in her magic and tossed it into the mouth of the timberwolf before it could chomp down on me. As soon as it entered, the flames and sparks caught some of the loose branches and leaves, providing some kindling for the fire to manifest. "Now if you do not mind explaining to me what I just threw into its mouth!"

As soon as I heard that monster coughing, I knew it was safe for me to slow down. I ran over to her and caught my breath beside her, buckling down to hold my knees as I slowly explained to her what was going on. "Roadside flare.... We use those... at night... in places... where there's no light... and we have an accident... on the side of the road.... I use those to light... up dark rooms... on some of my missions and raids."

"Like torches?" She asked.

I gradually began to regain some of my breath. "Exactly.... No fire needed to start... or anything, just strike them... like a match, and watch 'em burn." I finally stood up and placed my arms above my shoulders to breathe better. "Needless for me to say that you shouldn't use them around dried foliage."

"Could cause a forest fire." She said as we looked back at the timberwolf, who's neck started to erupt into flames. Coughing and gagging only brought more oxygen to fuel the ongoing inferno in it's neck and expand it further into it's chest. The creature went down, writhing from the pain and lack of oxygen it was getting. The creature suffocated from the fire and then lit up like a effigy at the Burning Man Festival. At the center of the arena was a large fire that the arena staff had to hurry and put out.

"Yup, just like country cooking." I said, covering my nose with my shirt. "One thing about both this Cracker Barrel and the ones I'm used to back home, I can't taste either of what they tried to sell me on."

The alarm blared, indicating that the match was over. Effective immediately, a fire crew was brought out to tame the flames by dumping dirt and water on the burning remains of the creature that dared to chase us down. "WHAT AN EXHIBIT OF QUICK THINKING AND GOOD RESOURCEFULNESS ON THE PART OF KALIMBA!" Scotch announced to the crowd.

"BUT IN PART OF THE BEAST CANDIDATE, NOT MUCH TO BE SEEN OTHER THAN A BUNCH OF STUMBLING AROUND! HEY BUDDY, THE GUARD SAID IT WANTS IT'S SHOW OF INCOMPETENCE BACK!"

That instance made me even more angry, realizing that I wasn't getting any credit for the work I put into saving our hides. I couldn't help but to storm off of the arena floor. "You know, this bias bullshit is starting to really irk me."

"You are not de only one." She added, trying to stay right next to me as we left the floor.

At last the announcement was made. "AND SO OUR WINNERS OF THIS ROUND ARE THE BEAST CANDIDATE AND... DIVA KALIMBA!"

The crowd erupted at the sound of Kalimba's name. I shrugged at the response of the crowd, but at least praised my accomplice. "Huh, they even gave you a catchy name. You should trademark that."

"Dey even had a little more excitement pronouncing your name." She said, trying to cheer me up a little. Even then, I didn't care.

But the one who really did care was clopping his hooves with joy, eagerly cheering us while we walked into the preparation room. "Yes! The pageantry! The showmanship! The quick and cunning planning that's so impromptu! It's everything on the billing! I can't believe I'm saying this Captain Nondis, but you are showing yourself every bit of what you're advertised to be in the public eye! I must say that I'm impressed with your tactics."

"Your guys out there sure aren't selling that." I said, very much upset with the way they commentated it.

The ringleader frolicked over to my side as he whispered. "Well can you blame them, they're playing to the crowd! The crowd wants to see you fail, but I want to see you succeed!"

"And why is that?" I questioned vehemently.

"Because I've haven't even gotten to the thing that will make you truly great in this world! An opponent far worth the billing for many of Canterlot's citizenry to see! Your name will bring about a lot of notoriety and tourism, much more than it already does now."

I snorted off his comments, walking away from him to better vent my frustrations. "So I become your beast of the week, what then?"

"Well I wouldn't quite go that far. You've still one more round to do." He teased.

"And we're done here, right?" I asked firmly.

"For tonight." The stallion appeared disappointed by my eagerness to leave.

"And you won't bother me for the rest of the night?"

That's where he really started to test me, walking up to me and planting his hoof on my abdomen. "I never agreed to that. If anything, I'll be more inclined to discover more of what makes you tick. I'll be even more of a big fan..." His hoof slid down and pressed into my crotch. "...and an even bigger fetishist."

I didn't even care about the force I used when I slapped his hoof away from me. "I'm sure you understand that I don't swing that way."

His eyes widened, appearing in disbelief that I actually struck at him. "Silly Nondis, surely you must have realized. It's not what you don't do for others. It's what you're going to do for me." He said before turning away and walking out of the room. "You'll do well to remember that... Boy."

As soon as the door closed, I located the nearest chair and slammed it into the ground until I broke it to pieces. I unleashed a loud scream as I began to pace the room. "I can't stand his fucking guts!"

Kalimba tried to remain focused on the fight ahead. "Dat round was much harder den de first one. I can believe dat dey will throw out something dat will be nothing short of a trauma."

"Meanwhile you'll get paraded like some new star." I snapped back.

Kalimba continued in trying to focus on the overarching circumstances. "Remember, dey do host champion tournaments every now and den. It could be dat dey are posing me for a position to compete."

"And they're making me out as a pariah. As if I'm not already one here." I replied harshly, still pacing off my frustration.

Realizing that changing the subject wasn't going to help me any, she finally questioned me directly, using her magic to slow me down. "Are you okay?"

"I should be. None of this should even matter to me, it's a bunch of social rejects and societal refuse with moral ethic issues telling me that I'm worthless to them. You'd at least think that the very thing that's only accepted in society because of fetish reasons and warfare superiority is the thing that a bunch of social outcasts would like to rally behind. I'm attacked at my job, I'm attacked in society for stupid shit, I'm attacked here, PELTED WITH ROTTEN FOOD AND DRIED SHIT! WHAT THE FUCK DO I HAVE TO DO TO CATCH A BREAK!?" I screamed loudly, startling Kalimba. While she reared back almost as if she was expecting to get hit by something, I just walked over to the bench I rested on earlier and sat down. "I shoudn't fucking care about any of this shit. But something inside of me is still aching, maybe it's past shit from middle and high school, but I still don't feel like it's negligible... Not with all the shit I'm going through right now. I shouldn't care, I shouldn't fucking care about this. WHY THE FUCK DO I CARE!?" I asked myself out of frustration.

The zebra, more or less surprised that nothing happened to her, eased up and sat down next to me. "De night is almost over for us. Once we finish, we can leave here and go wherever you please."

I threw my head into my hands trying to find some way to ease myself back down from my raging high. "Yeah, I guess that's what I need to do. And I'm sorry for popping off at you, I'm just... I can't believe that I'm gonna say that I'm a tiny bit jealous, but they literally held me back while you were getting your due praise. You probably didn't even notice when I wasn't walking next to you until they announced me. It gave them every chance to pelt shit at me and I was trying my best not to let it throw me off. Then there was that fucking asshole who thought that cracking his whip in my face was going to be the easy way of putting me down, belittling me as less than a man and treating me like a fucking zoo creature. And you-know-who ain't doing me any difference either. Everything about tonight pisses me off way more than I want to admit. Hell, for the second time in my life, I actively wanted to watch the life fade from someone's eyes. I may become murderous tonight, and that fucking scares me."

Kalimba had her reservations about touching me, but she still reached out regardless.

"I know you're probably preparing for the worst if I snap at you, but I'm not gonna hurt you even once." I reassured, still working my way back down. "You're a good mare. Really you are. But I'm just some suburban wannabe who voluntarily jumped into some shit he had no business being in. I'm not the type of asshole who's gonna smack down on you when shit's happening to me." I finally found the moment to bring myself from a boil to a simmer, at least being able to reason with myself over how I was acting. I made the further attempt to put her more at ease with me. "And I know you say your future is going to be shitty when I'm gone, but that's not the case. You're amazing, and tonight just showed how much credit you deserve. It won't be me, but someone nice will eventually come around and do you justice. You're already pretty, long-skinny legs, tall, already a unique breed and that makes you desirable to many curious colts, smart, athletic, and you aspire for more... even if you don't see the initial optimism of your situation. And you have a good start to a new life once all of this is over. I could even get you in the guard, a few words to Celestia and Shining, you're golden... literally. The world is yours, even when I die or leave for something else."

Kalimba paused for a moment, sighing before clasping my arm with her forelegs. I glanced to see her holding it rather tightly. She gazed down to the floor. "You don't... you just don't understand. It is not you leaving or dying I am worried about as much right now."

"Then what is it?" I asked.

"...It's hard to explain."

***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

Today was a juxtaposition of a lot of emotions for me. From one end, it's the mystery of not knowing where today would take me to start. Then it goes into second-hoof embarrassment over the idea of my parents possibly getting raunchy with other ponies instead of with each other, all while trying to bleach out the idea of my parents getting naughty in general. Then there was a turn for the macabre, seeing the process of death and the instance of it's manipulation, as well as the perversion of it all. Now here we were, going from the cold, uncomfortable silence of the morgue to the bombastic fanfare of an arena packed out with fans consisting of the careless and crass denizens of Canterlot, both corrupted and curious alike.

The speakers around the place were far louder than they were on Tuesday. The colors, while muted on our last visit, were much more vibrant and outstanding. The energy was much higher, I could easily guess that our arrival came at what could've been the apex of the night.

Along the way, I noticed that there was a lot of bets being made, namely for something called 'Beast of the Week'. Pretty much everypony was dumping their money into the defending champion of that title instead of the unnamed challenger. I wondered why they'd keep the final matchup so privatized, especially since the betting pool already knew who they wanted their money for... or in the aspect of how they spoke, who they wanted their money against. However, when asked about the match, many ignored us or outright grew violent, prompting dad and I to leave well enough alone.

Either way, our entrance into the main bowl of the arena was stocked full of patrons, each with their own tickets of the wager in possession. "A lot of a crowd today, I see." Dad pointed out the obvious, seeing how full the stands were.

"Maybe it's a sign of things returning to normal?" I asked.

One stallion bumped into him, not even caring about the impact, he seemed only interested in finding a seat. "That or a really big event. You saw how scrappy the lobby was on the way in."

At the center of the arena was an opening to the world above, many hindlegs dangled from above as the ponies cheered on the event. "That's absurd. You'd think that they'd do a lot more safety regulations around here to not potentially get sued."

Dad then gave me a grim reminder. "You have to remember that the guy in charge has connections with the city morgue."

Looking up once more, I saw even some tails dangling from above, which only meant that they were either being held back by something, or they were leaning in for a better view. "Perhaps he's banking on some victims to fall in."

Suddenly, a techno song started blasting though the speakers, causing the crowd to erupt in cheers and dance spontaneously. It was on the magnitude of an enormous concert. "The music is awfully loud tonight." Dad added.

"It feels like a club." I replied, seeing many of the ponies not even care about what was going on at the floor of the arena.

"I wonder how many of these curious souls know what happens here." Dad quizzed as he glanced around the lower bowl.

"It's scary to think about it, how many have died tonight in this arena?" I asked.

Dad was swift with his reply. "Not nearly enough to cause a backlog of bodies. The numbers would have to be around a hundred a day. But a backlog like the one we saw has to be numbers following an epidemic."

Moments of seeing the bodies dangling from the ceiling flashed back before my very eyes, causing me to hold back my disgust. "How many ponies in Canterlot pass away in a day on average?"

Dad took a moment to ponder on the statistics he knew from. "On average, sixty-something. Add another forty from here and you'd have the requirement for a backlog to occur." He surmised.

"But if there were a hundred a day over the course of maybe a month, what then?" I rebutted.

"There would be no keeping the bodies past that point. They'd be cremated past a certain date, it's mandatory to prevent disease." He added sternly.

"But do you think cremation takes place after the backlog gets tremendously bad?" I asked.

"If anything, Nondis showed that there's a proper way to handle a mass casualty event should there be a surplus of bodies. They're taken off site and burned elsewhere to, again, prevent the spread of disease. Those changelings he executed en masse, they were done properly, everything by the book." He explained.

"So if they do have a backlog that large, is it possible that they're intentionally storing the bodies for another purpose?" I concluded.

Dad then gave his definitive answer. "You would have to find substantial evidence of there being tampering in that mortuary to open a case. Even then, it would be either be a civil dispute or a class-action lawsuit. Nothing that would require the elements getting involved. Perhaps if there was something behind that door─"

Dad's explanation was suddenly interrupted by a wayward stallion who wore a brown cloak over his head and body. The voice sounded distinctively familiar to me as he passed. "Excuse me."

The wayward stallion's intent appeared much different from the others. There was too much of a rush from him to indicate that there was any kind of deal going down. It was far too much regard for a minor incident at a place where even common courtesy was an afterthought. His appearance was that of a tourist, possibly a curious soul too kind for a place like this. I trailed behind the stallion, watching as a member of the audience got upset about him walking in front of him. He was pushed out the way, inadvertently causing his hood to peel back and reveal the face of the unicorn stallion that sought to venture into the arena. "Senator Somber Spiral?" I questioned.

The senator quickly recognized my undisguised voice, he glanced around and flipped his hood back onto his head and tried to rush his way back out of the lower bowl. "Excuse me!" He said to many who he crossed, showing that same courtesy in a place that was seemingly devoid of it.

Dad and I ran back in the way we came, hoping to intercept him and find out what was his reason for coming. "Let me deal with this." Dad galloped ahead to cut him off on one side while I stayed on the other to pinch him off of an escape.

And just like clockwork, the wayfaring senator crashed into dad, not recognizing the stallion who began to retain him with his magic. The senator pleaded with panic in his eyes. "Whatever you want, money, jewels, I can get it for you─"

I ran up to him and quickly placed my hoof over his muzzle and whispered to him in my undisguised voice. "Senator. Please tell me what you're doing here."

Of course, he already knew my voice from many debates and sessions in parliament. "Princess?"

"Keep your voice down." Dad urged as he shook the stallion.

Unlike me, he didn't quite recognize dad's voice, assuming him to be some undercover guard. "I just thought... I just..."

"Easy. Let's go someplace else and talk." Dad said as he adjusted the hood on the senator's head.

We walked from there to a hall near a row of moaning mares and stallions. It wasn't exactly a backdrop I was comfortable with, but it was a place with many eyes being brought to them instead of us. While Somber Spiral and I were stunned silent by the raw display, dad shook the senator back into the present. "I'm sorry." Somber said, jolting himself out of his curious trance. He then pleaded with us. "Look, my reputation would take a hit if somepony were to know I was here. Please don't speak of me─"

"Hey. We're all in the same boat, let's try not to sink it while we're onboard." Dad muttered.

After shaking off the display myself, I dove back into the conversation with a disclaimer. "For the record, my name here is Gleaming Star, not any title other than that."

"Right." He verified.

"Now why are you here?" I questioned him.

The senator hurriedly answered me. "I'm here to find my daughter."

Dad and I looked to one another, knowing that he had a young foal. "A little filly in a place like this?" I asked, becoming initially furious.

Dad promptly answered me with a chilling truth. "They often do black market trading for young fillies and colts, but those transactions are the hardest to track. Trust me, it's one of the things that tainted Prod."

The stallion immediately corrected both of us. "No. Not that one. Another."

The both of us appeared confused from his revelation. "You have another daughter?" Dad asked.

"It's a long story..." As he was about to begin, there was a loud cheer from the arena, which prompted our attention. "Please help me find her. I don't know what I would do if something were to happen to her. I've just seen her a few days ago, but she's─"

Not wanting to be around the moans and shrieks of ponies getting their stimulation from the other side of the wall they were lodged in, I urged a change of scenery. "Before we continue, let's take a seat like normal patrons and discuss what she may look like."

Seeing that we were willing to assist him, he showed his gratitude as we walked back into the arena grandstands. "Thank you."

While he walked ahead into the concourse, dad and I quizzed ourselves over the circumstances. "A senator's daughter gone missing?" I muttered.

"In Canterrot no less. She must be beyond saving." Dad replied.

Without warning, the lights in the arena dimmed immediately, causing much of the place to fall into total darkness. "What happened to the lights?" I asked.

A pair of spotlights showed to two unicorn stallions on the floor of the arena, each of them wearing shades and standing at each other's backs with microphones. "Must be the main event." Dad plainly illustrated.

The red one spoke first. "FILLIES AND GENTLECOLTS! BASTARDS AND BITCHES OF ALL AGES!"

The green one followed. "THE HOUR OF THE GRAND EVENT HAS COME TO GRACE YOUR EYEBALLS WITH A GLORIOUS PERFORMANCE OF OUR TWO HEADLINERS!"

"YOU WAITED ALL WEEK FOR THIS, NOW WE'RE GONNA GIVE IT TO YOU!"

"YOU'VE KEPT YOUR EYES PEELED FOR OUR NEWEST STAR AND THE BEAST CANDIDATE!"

Down below I could see a large spotlight show to a black gate down below, slowly revealing a set of hooves. The announcer then called out to the crowd. "GO ON... SAY HER NAME... SO THAT THE WHOLE FUCKING WORLD CAN HEAR!!!!"

The gates opened fully, revealing a zebra with various golden rings on her body. The mare appeared with a large red chrysanthemum affixed to the top of her mohawk, situated above the left side of her horn. She walked out slowly, often looking back to the tunnel while the crowd endlessly praised her name.

"DIVA KALIMBA! DIVA KALIMBA! DIVA KALIMBA!"

Dad was surprised to see her at the center of the arena. I was more shocked to see that we caught her in the middle of a bout. Meanwhile, more shouts of admiration came to favor the mare.

"I love you, Diva Kalimba!" One guy shouted desperately.

"You're so beautiful! Marry me!" Another was about to topple a few others just to get closer to the ground floor.

"No way, she's marrying ME!" The guy next to him envied how close he was getting and yanked him back.

Another guy amorously signaled with his hooves outstretched. "I'll give you my whole world for a day!"

We looked around to see where the senator had wandered off to, instead he was actually at the bottom of the aisle, standing in the middle as he looked out ahead, completely motionless. "He seems frozen." Dad pointed out.

"I wonder why." I added.

We ran down to try and check in on him, dad being the one to ask him about his status. "Hey, are you─"

The stallion pushed dad out of the way, distantly chanting to himself. "My daughter... they're cheering for..." He began to leap over the little bit of railing before dad and I caught him in time. He struggled against us as he tried to scream at us his reasoning. "THAT'S MY DAUGHTER! THAT'S MY DAUGHTER!!!"

"Hey, get in line!" A heckler called out from behind us.

"I'll make her call me daddy next!" A young stallion rowdily replied as he stood on his seat and started thrusting the air, earning a bunch of fellowly laughs from onlookers.

"Hey, control yourself." Dad urged in his ear. "You can't be getting lost in all of the mess when we're working against time."

He turned back around, trying to explain himself in a rushed manner. "My daughter's name is Kalimba. Kalimba Mavembe. She's a zebra unicorn hybrid─"

"Slow down." Dad urged once more. "Take a minute to breathe and let's get through this slowly."

I blinked oddly at the senator, snapping back to what he confessed to in the midst of his rush. "Wait. Our Kalimba?"

Dad caught on to me and followed up. "Used to be Prod's sex slave, Kalimba?"

I looked at her, standing at the center of the arena, getting flowers thrown at her hooves from members of the audience. And then I looked back at the senator, who appeared so lost in the image of the mare before him. I was in so much disbelief that I couldn't help but to verbalize it. "No way."

The announcer continued. "FROM THE BLACK GATE, WE HAVE OUR NEWEST STAR, ADORNED WITH FLOWERS AT HER HOOVES AND PRAISES FROM THE AUDIENCE! SHE HAS STYLE, SHE HAS GRACE, AND SHE'LL KICK YOU IN YOUR FACE! GIVE IT UP FOR HER!"

While the crowd went into an uncontrollable frenzy, dad was more amazed over the reception. "What in blazes─"

But the senator continued to shout out loud his relation to her. "That's her! THAT'S HER! That's her, that's my little girl!"

"Quiet!" Dad used his magic to quickly put an end to the senator's verbal frenzy. "There's a long conversation we should be getting into after this."

Meanwhile the announcer turned his attention to the same gate. "ALSO FROM THE BLACK GATE, WE HAVE A CREATURE WHO'S LACKLUSTER PERFORMANCE TONIGHT CONTINUES TO DRAW YAWNS AND EYE ROLLS!"

The red announcer mockingly replied. "MR. GOODY TWO-LEGS HIMSELF!"

"WHO'S SO OFTEN CARRIED BY THE PERFORMANCE OF OUR VIP CHAMPIONESS!"

"HE LOOKS FUNNY WHEN HE RUNS!"

"AND HE'S WHAT YOU ALL BEEN WAITING ALL NIGHT FOR! YOU'VE WANTED YOUR CHANCE! NOW YOU'VE GOT IT! INTRODUCING... OUR. BEAST. CHALLENGER."

While the announcement was loud, it was nowhere near the fanfare of Kalimba. Though that was the least of my concerns, they mainly rested on the fact that they pointed at the gate and watched eagerly as the audience immediately transformed their cheers into jeers. A familiar figure walked out from the gate, chains conjoining his arms before him as he was restrained throughout his entrance, possibly to make it as slow as they could. He strove to move forward as many items of refuse were thrown at him in the midst of his push. "Nondis!" I called out.

Dad groaned with worry. "This isn't good. This is devolving fast."

Some even went the extra mile to get a good wind-up before tossing their trash into the direction of the human. "The guard can't save you now!" One guy called out venemously.

"Go cry to your purple princess, bitch!" Another onlooker shouted, much to the approval of his peers.

Some carried out with simple insults. "Yeah, go tell her to read you a bedtime story!"

While others aimed as low as they could. "You looked better when you couldn't walk!"

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

After an unceremonious march back to Kalimba's side, I dared anyone to try and throw something in the vicinity of where she stood. I hated having to use her as a means of protection, but if she was open to be my protection, I had to oblige in that privilege for my own sanity.

When I was standing side by side to her, I grumbled over to her. "Shine my eyes, right?"

"I told you what to expect." She answered.

"Last and final round for the night." I tiredly stated. "You got my back, I got yours."

She nodded, but not without giving me a relatively firm plea. "Do not lose me to him."

I folded my arms and waited on the announcers to continue with their bullshit. "Let's just hope the game ain't rigged against us."

The spotlight showed the red gate as Scotch went on with the commentary. "AND FROM THE RED GATE, WE ROLL OUT THE RED CARPET FOR OUR VERY OWN!"

"HE'S A LEGEND HAILING FROM THE LANDS OF GRIFFONSTONE!"

"A PROUD MERCENARY WHO'S NAME RILES UP THE PARTY NO MATTER WHERE YOU SEE HIM!"

"HE'S SINGLE, LADIES!"

"AND A SPECIAL BONUS, A SLAYER OF ARIMASPI BEFORE YOUR VERY EYES!"

"NOT SOME COWARD HOLDING HIS BACK TO A TREE WATCHING HIS LIFE FLASH BEFORE HIS EYES!"

"A PROVEN KILLER!"

"NOT SOME FRAUD MONSTER SLAYER!"

"A REAL MURDERER!"

"NOT SOME POMPOUS PRINCESS-PAMPERED PUFFBALL! SAY THAT FIVE-TIMES FAST!"

"AND YOU ALL LOVE HIM!"

"YOU FELLAS WISH YOU WERE HIM! BE REAL!"

"AND NO ONE─"

"─AND WE MEAN NO ONE─"

"KICKS ASS─"

"─SO MUCH ASS LIKE..."

"♫GAAASSSSTOOOOOOONNNNN!♫"

I wasn't familiar with the name or even why there was so much fanfare built around my opponent. I watched as fog started clouding up the red gate's entrance as it was opened. Colorful lights beamed from within as a shadowy hooded figure stood forward with a proud stance. It reached out, showing not a hoof, but claws. The arena screamed loudly as if we were thrown into a dramatic wrestling match. The lights of the arena turned blue, still hiding the figure within the fog. But along with him came a second figure, appearing to be a pony themselves covered in a thick cloak. The duo ominously marched at us before the claws pointed at me, then the ground, earning a loud cheer from the crowd. They then pointed to themselves before removing the hood over their head.

The lights flashed white at that moment, namely for dramatic effect for the crowd to absorb. But for me, the moment that hood came down and I saw who I was fighting, my hands locked into fists. I could feel my jaw seize shut, my teeth mashing against themselves. The screaming of the crowd dulled to a watery afterthought, drowned out by my memories of fighting on the train back to Appleloosa. I remembered the desperation of trying to do what I had to save Rainbow Dash that day, but also the desperation I had in trying to live. I remembered the knife in my gut, the yellow claws that held the weapon.

Him. It was the very same assassin that came for me. "You." Kalimba looked back to me, seeing how focused I was on the griffon that stood as my opponent.

The griffon seemed to squint for a second, but then recognized me as soon as the smoke cleared. He laughed from the irony. "Wait... seriously."

Scotch ran over to the griffon, holding his mic to get a few words from the celebrated fighter. "GASTON, YOU'RE OUR REIGNING BEAST OF THE WEEK! GO ON AND TELL THE WORLD WHAT YOU'VE GOT TO SAY!"

He took the mic and placated to the crowd, much like a wrestler hyping the crowd. "THE. CHAMP. HAS. ARRIVED." While praises of his cheesy comment brought the crowd to a roar, he tilted his head and gave his attention to me. "And in more ways than one! See, I didn't know that this matchup was going to be tonight! I thought I was just bagging some other lanky creature like another arimaspi or some shit! Turns out... I get to make good on my contract!"

"You're fucking lucky I got chains on my arms, you motherfucker!" I shouted back over to him, unfortunately being drowned out by the crowd cheering for him.

He couldn't understand me, putting his claws to his ears. "SEE! EVEN NOW HE'S BARKING AT ME! WHY DON'T YOU TELL ME HOW YOU FEEL REAL QUICK!" I shouted back, only to get silenced immediately by means of his having a microphone while I did not. "SHUT UP YOU STUPID MONKEY, BEFORE I PUT ANOTHER FUCKING KNIFE IN YOUR GUTS!"

No shit the announcer wanted to play on that for the crowd. "WAIT, AM I HEARING THAT CORRECTLY? YOU STUCK A KNIFE IN HIM?"

"ON A TRAIN RIDE FROM ARIMASPI MOUNTAIN TO THE RURAL PONY TOWN OF APPLELOOSA, I CUT DOWN THREE OR FOUR GUARDS TRYING TO DEFEND HIM AND I GUTTED HIM WHERE HE STOOD!" He regaled to the crowd, earning more praises from them. "GUTTED HIM LIKE A STUCK PIG, SLICED HIS SKIN LIKE A FINE FABRIC, LEFT HIM ON THAT TRAIN FOR DEAD!"

Botch, who was standing at the center of the ring, placed a hoof to his ear and walked over to me. "THE BOSS REQUESTED THAT WE GIVE THE CHALLENGER A MOMENT OF FINAL WORDS TO SAY TO HIS OPPONENT. WHAT YOU GOT TO SAY BEFORE YOU GET DOWN AND DEAD!?"

I tried to yank the mic over to my mouth, but the chains restricted me from doing so accurately. So I had to lean in and scream. "TWO FUCKING FEET OF INTESTINE I LOST TO YOU! AND I LEFT YOU FOR DEAD ON THOSE TRACKS! DON'T YOU FUCKING FORGET IT!"

The griffon smirked as he replied in the mic. "And I'm still here. So who's worse at killing who?"

I then shot back at him. "Hold up a minute, wasn't it you who buddied up w─"

The mic was abruptly taken from me while Scotch asked his question. "CHAMPION, ONE THING TO SAY BEFORE YOU TAKE YOUR OPPONENT DOWN!"

Again, he grabbed the mic and paced around while offering his diatribe. "See, the boss works in mysterious ways. I myself have a lot to thank for my new abilities and my tag-team partner. I appreciate everything he's done for us here, and he pays well too. He paid me five hundred thousand bits to show you where you belong. Six. Feet. Deep." The crowd erupted at his response. "Now let's hurry up, I got a lovely new diva to donate sperm to and a few drinks to knock back." He said, looking at Kalimba specifically.

While two of the event staff finally got around to addressing the chains on my arms, Kalimba instead addressed my history with the griffon we were facing against. "So de two of you fought?"

"He was hired to assassinate me." I clarified.

The mare stood before me, looking to come to my defense. "Den I will not let him through─"

The moment my chains were undone, I pointed at the mare with a strict order. "Don't you put a damn hoof on his ass, that's mine. You deal with that other one."

Scotch and Botch both used their magic to levitate themselves away from the arena floor, up to a booth above the ground where they could safely commentate the action. Scotch shouted to the crowd. "THE FINAL MATCHUP OF THE NIGHT─"

Botch followed suit. "─OUR THRILLING MAIN EVENT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR─"

The two then called out in perfect unison. "BEGINS... NOOOW!"

I hollered out at the top of my voice angrily, charging forward. "Fuck you! It ends now!"

Just as I ran to him, he ran to me. Kalimba veered off to the direction of his own lackey while I made my clash with the griffon who tried to take my life. Gaston flapped open his wings and jumped high into the air, going for his usual tactic of diving into me from the air with blades hidden within his feathers. But there was a difference this time, instead of there being scalpels with a number of toxins coating the blades, there were makeshift feathers grafted into his wings to better integrate with his ability to fly. As such, he had much more control over his flight patters, making him much harder to predict when in the air.

Those upgrades he mentioned made the onset of the fight a bit trickier to navigate, but there was less of a difficulty considering the solitary fact that there was no hulking arimaspi chieftain trying to stomp me into the ground. He didn't have the advantage of trees hiding his movements while he threw grenades at me.

Still, his speed made it hard for me to defend myself. He took full advantage of my not having my claymore on me. "No sword to defend yourself today, huh?" He further pointed out, making more dives against me from the air, forcing me to do what I could to dodge his aerial runs. One of his dives in particular had him come right by me and slice into my upper arm. I looked over to see a large gash where my shirt once had a sleeve. I winced from the pain, but noticed that the pain had completely stopped in that area. He was more than likely using the same compound to keep me from feeling when I had been sliced into. "I'll cut you up better than the last time!" He said, maintaining his aerial superiority.

Glancing around, I tried to quickly find anything I could use to bring him even closer. But the only thing I had on me was my taser. And since the range of it was only eight feet, I had to wait until he swooped back down. So I stood still to bait him into coming in for a strike. The moment he swooped down, I drew my taser and hit him in his leg. He shrieked from the pain, unable to properly move his hind legs. "You're a bit stronger than last time, but you ain't got your big guy to back you up!"

"And you ain't got your weapons!" He yelled back, finding the strength to move his wings and sever the lines connecting from my taser to his body. Regaining full control, he flapped open his wings twice. Suddenly, a pillar quickly rose from next to him. He reached his claws into it and smirked. "Speaking of which, I got a surprise for you!"

As soon as his claws came out with what appeared to be an assault rifle, I felt everything inside of me switch to panic. "SHIT!" I started running the exact opposite way, trying to make myself harder to hit while gaining some distance. The sounds of the gunfire made me flinch down, my heart raced while I tried to find cover.

"Why you running, Funaki!?" He called out with a manic laugh, firing many shots towards my direction until I found what appeared to be a sanitation ditch built for blood overflow.

Sliding down into the ditch, I kept my head down while yelling back. "Your aim's shit and I don't wanna get hit while standing still!"

"It ain't that bad if it's got you running!" Gaston replied back with laughter. More gunfire continued to whistle over my head, cracking into the wall before me. The dust and debris from the impacts had me covering my eyes so I wasn't blinded. But that cover wouldn't last for long as the part of the arena floor I hid in was slowly being raised. I turned my head, desperately trying to understand what was going on.

Botch then shouted out to me, mainly to appease the onlookers. "OH NO, THERE'S NOWHERE TO HIDE!"

When the floor came to a standstill, completely flushed with the rest of the arena floor, I looked back to the griffon who loomed at me with the barrel of his weapon pointed squarely at me. "Dance for me, will you!?"

He fired a shot at my side, ricocheting a bullet off the ground and into the wall behind me. The crackle of the round landing beside me caused me to quickly get back up to my feet. But as I was about to move to the other side, I heard yet another bullet crack to the side of me. He fired yet another round, trying to aim for my feet, but instead grazing my right leg. I winced from the impact, almost buckling under my own weight. I was left straining to keep myself on my feet. It appeared as though there was nowhere for me to go.

But as quickly as I found myself in dire straights, I also knew the way to counter this was to throw off the aim of the weapon. Of course, I was simply thinking like a human when there's one of our weapons involved. I rationalized like a human would. And the only way to get myself out of it was to stop thinking like a human would. Even though I had intentions of using my trump card here, the sudden gunfire had me mentally revert to that state of only being human. So I resorted to what I knew, and that was to use my magic as an extension to lift the sights of his weapon and keep him thrown off.

The griffon cheesed as one of his talons gripped the trigger of the weapon, but before he was able to squeeze, a white aura wrapped around the muzzle and yanked his weapon upwards, causing him to fire a round into one of the lights above. The griffon tried to free the weapon from my telekinetic grasp, but the magic was far too strong for him to move on his own will. And since he had no magic of his own, he couldn't break my manipulation.

Just as it was on the sticker, my magic proved to be the trump card it was.

I didn't need to get close anymore. I just held the weapon in one hand and used my left hand to send debilitating bolts of magic into his chest. The audience began to transition from cheers to shocked silence as I suddenly took the advantage. I shook him off of the weapon before dismissing it into my own arsenal. I followed up by summoning my claymore and running at the disoriented griffon. "Alright! LET'S DANCE, MOTHERFUCKER!"

The announcers, who favored their defending champion, were left asking the questions in lieu of the audience's own reactions. "MAGIC!? FILLIES AND GERMS, IT SEEMS LIKE CAPTAIN GOODY'S BEEN HOLDING OUT ON US!"

"FROM WHERE DID HE LEARN UNICORN MAGIC!?"

"I'LL GIVE A RINGER UP TO THE BOSS AND SEE IF THAT'S PERMITTED!"

Seeing that I was getting in closer with my weapon, the griffon made a last-ditch effort to send his wings at me to stave off my rush. But instead of doing just that, he gave me plenty of real estate for my blade to cut into. In seconds, he went from having two wings, to having two halves of wings. The griffon screamed in horror and pain while I closed the distance between us. He held his arms in front of him, crying out in vain to protect himself.

Just like his wings, his arms joined with the ground as independent entities. "I'm fucking done with you!" The griffon almost wept at the sight of his life being definitively taken by me. He grimaced and strained as my blade was firmly injected into his body, offering him a much more brutal return of the damage he inflicted upon me. Looking down to see the damage, he started to resign to despair. "Stay in hell where you belong!"

"Look, we can make a deal!" The griffon pleaded, moving his severed limbs to seemingly grasp at the blade in his body, only then being reminded of what he no longer had. He looked at me with eyes overflowing with regret. "Hey, can't we just settle this over a drink or something?"

That moment was truly the first time I ignored my personal morals. Instead of being talked out of committing to what I felt was the only way to conclude matters, all there was to stop me was my own self. But history had a way of reminding me of my shortcomings. Chrysalis could've been had her head removed, but I was convinced otherwise. The only result came from that was the fact that it almost got my father killed. Even with Count, a proxy instance, when Alabaster suggested that he was to be cremated, Blue urged that he'd be buried next to the mare he couldn't stand. As a result, she was sexually abused under the rotten vestige of her father. I didn't follow through and make sure that Gaston was dead for certain, I only assumed he was dead. And since Gaston was highly revered to many here in Corrotto, there's no doubt there would be some who'd try to save his life and give him an advantage.

In short, I thoroughly learned my lesson.

Winding back, blade at my shoulder, I unleashed the finishing blow. The sight of the griffon's head tumbling from his neck onto the ground had disturbed me very little, especially with what all I've experienced the past two weeks. And even if it didn't feel like it, vengeance was mine. "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGH!" I shrieked out in a truly madness-fueled rage, especially towards the peacefully silent onlookers in the audience. My voice was firmly heard throughout the venue that time. "WHO'S NEXT!?!?"

***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

The man I fell in love with stood proud and victorious over the very entity who came so close to successfully taking his life, but he no longer stood as the man I once knew. There was a primitive aura around him, from the way he looked around, to the way he hunched over the body of his felled opponent.

"Nondis?" I whispered.

Dad leaned over and quietly explained to me what was going on. "The adrenaline is running through him real bad. It's hard to deal with your prospective killer in a rational manner when your adrenaline overruns the senses. And given his treatment from tonight, I can understand the rage." But as he justified the man's state of being, he began to see something else in him, a darkness that neither of us predicted. "But this, this is different."

The green announcer called out to the audience in a stammer. "L-LA-LADIES AND GENTS... I-I DON'T BELIEVE IT!"

"GASTON IS GASTLY AND GONE!" The red announcer cosigned. As dad pointed out, he saw how the human lurched towards one section, levitating the head and the body from which it was severed behind him. With complete disregard, he dropped his former assailant. "WAIT... WHAT IS HE DOING?"

His finger pointed high up into the stands. "HE'S POINTING UP TO THE VIP BOX, HE'S SHAKING HIS HEAD!"

In a similar fashion to how his opponent pointed down to the ground and then to himself, he did just that, but with a fresh horror backing his threat. Without any further words, he grabbed his sword and sliced into the griffon's head. "HOLY SHIT!" It took him two strikes before the head was completely bisected. "HE'S CLEAVED HIM IN HALF!"

While I was horrified of what I was seeing, I understood in a way what he was trying to achieve. While to many in the viewing audience, including my father, who thought this was just a mindless show of violence, I knew this was two things in one. The first was a message sent to Umbra Sanctus himself, the second was his way of ensuring that the body couldn't be used for anything other than cremation. It's exactly as dad told me, once a body reaches a certain condition, it cannot be salvaged. This was just insurance. "HE'S ALREADY DEAD! WHERE'S THE COMPASSION, THE RESPECT!?"

Predictably, the announcers still commented in opposition to the human's victory. "HE'S STILL CLEAVING AWAY! SOMEPONY STOP HIM!"

And as easily as they showed themselves to be manipulated by the commentary, members of the audience began to reciprocate the disdain for what was being shown before them. "Is this what a human does in battle?" One whispered behind me.

"He's a savage." A mare uttered quietly.

"Nothing at all like in the newspapers." A stallion said beside me.

"He's way too dangerous to be left alive." The crowd began to show their disapproval by jeering the floor, especially as Nondis finished his work, completely coated in blood and tissue.

"He's a harm to everypony!" One angrily shouted out.

"There's no way that mentally unstable mess is protecting the princess!" Another mare called out.

Dad shuddered as he watched. "I'm beginning to think there's some merit to that 'sword and a brick' story."

Meanwhile, Senator Somber Spiral was more invested in his daughter's performance. "KALIMBA! GET AWAY FROM HIM QUICKLY!" He shouted with worry.

While there were some disillusioned with the captain's brutal display, others were still just as invested in the zebracorn mare. "Aw shut up old man, she knows what she's doing!" A heckler hollered back.

Seeing that the main event was practically over with, the audience then turned their attention to the second fight taking place on the floor. But instead of Kalimba being as aggressive as the crowd would advertise, she went on the defensive. Looking on, we saw why. The unorthodox movements from her opponent seemed very unequine, mechanically defunct but operational. "Something about that fighter doesn't seem right." Dad mumbled to himself.

Given that it was his daughter in the ring, Somber urged us to take action. "We have to help her!"

Once more, dad tried to correct the senator over his behavior. "You have to calm do─"

"Wait." I interrupted. As the bout carried on, I started to see the many instances of her form faltering. She appeared to be actively stepping away at every given chance. And whenever her opponent got close, she blasted a magic attack and backed off. "She's not fighting head on... she's fighting them away."

Dad, who was more acquainted with combat found himself agreeing. "You're right. She looks terrified over something."

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

My fists still glowed with magic, especially having used them to make each of my blows that much more impactful. I wanted to ensure that this body wasn't going to be used for any other things. As I finished up, I noticed that the crowd had went from looking at me to taking interest in another bout.

"NONDIS!" Kalimba unleashed a bloodcurdling cry for help.

I popped back up and turned around to see the zebracorn on the defensive. "Shit! You good!?"

"GET HIM AWAY FROM ME!" She cried out in horror as I ran over to her. I even went as far as to take a blow for the zebra. But in doing so, my nose made me aware of a distinctively putrid smell. I swung back at the hooded figure, coming to a chilling conclusion.

Prod's face, as decomposed as it was, was staring right back at me. "What... the hell."

In a disgustingly haunting groan, he moaned as a zombie to say only one word. "p̷̠͊.̶̲̚.̸̨͋.̷̟̕l̵̛̟.̶̢̛.̸̦͗.̵̪͗a̸̢̎.̸̘͠.̸̪͋.̸̛̙ý̷̹.̸͈̂.̵̱̇.̷̬̏"

Looking further, I could see parts of his body were actually wooden, and some of the joints were made with screws and sockets. I jumped back and stood beside Kalimba. "What the hell is that thing?" I asked myself.

"Prod! You are dead!" She cried out before the puppet-like zombie pounced to make an attack on her. She galloped away while I reached out with my hand.

But in an attempt to use simple levitation, what felt like a jolt of electricity branched out in various portions of my forearm, spreading through to my fingers. My whole hand flinched, causing me to lose my grip on the sword. I reached down to grab my hand, realizing that I had casted myself to my limit. I then informed Kalimba of my situation. "My magic's shot! I might've gone overboard with the griffon! It's your go, I can't do much for you, other than keep running him down!"

"You don't understand! He's supposed to be dead! He's still moving!" She cried out, galloping away from the ghastly apparition of her former owner.

I called out to her, running to get back by her side. "Kali, look! You're right, he's dead as shit! But you know who's running the show! Count died in front of me and I still had to deal with seeing his rotten mug in MY WORLD! Hell, can you imagine what Blue went through seeing her decaying father on top of her!? It isn't just you! We're all in this shit together, and no one will understand the trauma we fight other than us!" While the creature leapt to us, I used the very little magic I had remaining to get back my sword, even if it caused my hand to surge with pain again. I solidified my grip on my weapon and swung at the creature, cutting it's cloak and revealing that it's entire body was a wooden marionette covered in enchanted runes. The zebra's eyes widened while I planted my blade into the ground, needing the time to recover. "I've got your back! But you can't keep running away from this! You the one who put him in his grave, show his dead puppet ass what for!"

"How!?" She asked. "How in all creation do I do dat!?"

"You have magic!" I replied, seeing the grip of my sword singe from the heat of my hands. "Just do what you did last time, lure him in, line your shot, and blow his fucking brains out!"

Kalimba clenched her eyes for a second before she could summon the courage to actively fight back against the image of her former abuser. She watched as the puppet wearing his face clumsily reorganized itself and barred at her. "Prod!" She cried out to the deceased face. "Do you remember what you did before I killed you!?"

"p̷̠͊.̶̲̚.̸̨͋.̷̟̕l̵̛̟.̶̢̛.̸̦͗.̵̪͗a̸̢̎.̸̘͠.̸̪͋.̸̛̙ý̷̹.̸͈̂.̵̱̇.̷̬̏" The creature promptly answered.

Kalimba angrily stomped her hoof into the ground, letting her horn fill with all the magic she could muster. "Dat's right! You played over me for de LAST TIME!"

The higher her horn glowed, the more I cheered her on. But it wasn't just me who was giving her all the encouragement she needed to keep going. The entire arena began to chant her name, rooting for her to succeed. As they did, her magic grew more and more potent until it began to change from it's usual red to a faint pink color, almost completely white. "YOU GOT IT, KALI! TELL HIM HOW YOU REALLY FEEL!"

The mare craned her neck before casting her magic ahead. A small ball of energy formed at the tip of her horn as she aimed her horn for the puppet. She gave one final yell before unleashing her payload. "GO AND FUCK YOURSELF!" A high pitched whistling sound was heard before the ball at the tip of her horn erupted into a large and girthy beam. The puppet's body was caught dead center of the blast. While much of the body was disintegrated, the face was partially preserved on the head of the heavily singed puppet. Behind the puppet was a larger imprint of it's shadow that was left on the wall of the arena floor.

The blast narrowed and flickered out of existence as quickly as it was unleashed. Seconds passed in silence while I walked over to the zebracorn. She collapsed from the sudden exertion of all of her magic. I held her up and checked in on her. "You good?" The mare opened her eyes and looked in the direction of the puppet's remains. "He's pretty gone now." I added.

"Is it over?" The mare was beyond exhausted.

I looked over to the remnants of my own battle, verifying the results for myself. "It is."

The horn sounded once more, indicating the end of the round. The two announcers then descended to the floor of the arena. "LADIES AND GERMS! KALIMBA DOES IT AGAIN!"

"BLOWING AWAY THE COMPETITION!"

"AND IT'S NO CONTEST, FOLKS!"

"THE WINNER OF THIS MATCH, AND CHAMPION OF THE WEEK─"

"YOU KNOW HER NAME! DIIIIVAAAAA KALIIIIMMMBAAA!"

While the announcers were busy fellating the crowd and pushing her name out there. I had enough and stormed over to Botch. "Hey!" I called out. "I won my shit outright! Where's my prize!?"

The commentator covered his mic as he addressed me dismissively. "Okay, look guy, we'll get to you in a minute." Then he got right back to his job. "DIVA KALIMBA IS OUR NEWEST CHAMPION FROM ONE OF OUR NEWLY MINTED VIP MEMBERS! IF YOU WANT TO SPEND SOME TIME WITH HER, APPLY FOR YOUR SLOT TODAY! REMEMBER, THERE ARE LIMITED SLOTS ONLY AND THEY DON'T LAST!"

"BUT WHAT'S THAT? WHAT IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD THE ADMISSION FEE?" Scotch advertised. "THE BOSS IS BEING GENEROUS TODAY AND OFFERING A RAFFLE PRIZE! WINNER GETS TO SPEND AN HOUR IN OUR EXCLUSIVE VIP LOUNGE, COMPLETE WITH THE PRIVILEGES AND AMENITIES OFFERED TO THE REGULAR MEMBERS! GET YOUR TICKET FOR UNBELIEVABLY LOW PRICE OF TWO-HUNDRED BITS!"

"AND YOU CAN BUY AS MANY TICKETS AS YOU WANT IF YOU WANT TO INCREASE YOUR CHANCES!"

"REMEMBER, ANY ONE WHO WINS CAN POTENTIALLY SPEND AN HOUR WITH DIVA KALIMBA IN THE FLESH!"

"I'M ALREADY BUYING TEN TICKETS TONIGHT!"

"TICKETS ARE ON SALE, BUT ARE IN LIMITED SUPPLY, SO GET YOURS FAST BEFORE THEY'RE GONE!"

The crowd cheered when they saw Kalimba slowly standing back on her hooves, she showed her disdain for the method of how the announcers used her for their advertising. "I am not staying for some idjiot meet-and-greet!"

As I was about to walk off, I noticed that our gate was still closed, as was the opposing gate. Event staff seemed to stand at the ready for intercept. "Seems like they're actively keeping us here." I pointed out.

Finally, the tone of the announcers changed. "HEY SCOTCH, AREN'T WE MISSING SOMETHING!?"

"OH WE DIDN'T FORGET! THE WINNER OF OUR WEEKLY MAIN EVENT, OUR NEW BEAST OF THE WEEK!"

That announcement came with an endless stream of boos and jeers, not to mention the various insults that were directed at me. The announcers continued to play off of that hatred. "YEAH YEAH, WE KNOW, RULES ARE RULES!"

"AND WE KNOW ALL OF YOU HAVE GROWN TO HATE OUR BEAST OF THE WEEK ALREADY! TRAGEDIES ARE COMMONPLACE!"

Botch placed a hoof to his ear as he proudly made yet another announcement. "WHICH IS WHY THE BOSS UPSTAIRS IS MAKING TUESDAY YOUR EXCLUSIVE SHOT TO TAKE! HIM! DOWN!"

I nearly broke my neck in hearing that asshole bust out with that bit of news, especially since it was something I never agreed to.

"YOU GOT WEAPONS, YOU GOT MAGIC, YOU GOT THE TACTICS TO BRING HIM DOWN!? YOU CAN SIGN YOUR GANG OR GROUP UP TO MAKE YOUR MARK!"

"EACH CONTEST WILL BE A BATTLE TO THE DEATH!"

"GRAND PRIZE IS FIVE MILLION BITS AND UNLIMITED VIP ACCESS FOR A MONTH! SO BRING YOUR FRIENDS IF YOU WANNA HAVE A GOOD TIME!"

"Fuck this!" I screamed, storming off to the gate. The gates didn't open until I had gotten close to them. Kalimba immediately followed.

Upon entering the hall where our preparation room was situated, the ringleader of this cruel circus of a venue heaped praise for me. "Ah, captain! My hero─"

I grabbed at the stallion's collar with my still-searing hands and yanked him off of his hooves to my eye level. "A fight to the death every fucking round!? You must have lost your goddamn mind if you think I'll go for that!"

The stallion was thoroughly amused over my anger and continued to play off of it. "I could always bring your friends along for the ride." His eyes lifted to the ceiling as he smiled. "Or better yet, your brothers. I know Stanton would be a great candidate to fill in for you. And it never takes much to get him or your older brother to come running along."

I took the sword in my hand and presented it's blade to his neck. "You keep my family out of this!"

Without a damn care in the world, he placed his hoof against the blade, dismissing it completely from my possession. "Then do me a solid for this upcoming week. I know you'll rather put yourself in the fire as opposed to letting your fellow humans get a partial taste of what you endure."

"I never agreed to any of this!"

He then popped up right beside me, leaving me to hold yet another corpse. "Haven't I already told you? It's not what you don't do for others. It's what you're going to do for me. And since you don't 'swing that way', I'm going to get my entertainment out of you this way. So now you get me all giddy for later, and you don't even have to lay a finger on me to get me to... show up."

I dropped the body at once, and pointed my finger to him. "When I am done, I never want to see your fucking face again."

"Oh, you'll always see me, whether you want to or not." He replied with a victorious smirk. "All I can say is this: Don't plan on skipping out."

He began to walk off. But as his unsanitary stunt reminded me of Saturday, I couldn't help but to remember what I was missing. "Where's Alabaster!?"

"Yeah that's right, I did agree to that little bonus." The stallion answered with sadistic grin. "Can't I just give you a little clue to start from?"

"No bullshit. Unharmed. Give him to me."

He rolled his eyes at my demands. "See I didn't agree to all of that." He said before clopping his hooves together. "But seeing that you did give me a bit of a show tonight... and a bloody one at that, I'll let you get him back under two of those three conditions you've demanded. He'll be dropped off in the VIP lounge in the next fifteen minutes." Upon the conclusion of our agreement, he directed his attention to the zebracorn. "And Kalimba, my dear you've put on a show tonight! You know you'll be a hot topic for the rest of the week. I expect many good things from you, and probably not as much resistance as your owner over there."

This time, it was Kalimba who snapped back at him. "Why did you use Prod? Why not let him stay undisturbed?"

The stallion teleported behind her and spoke into her ear. "Well I thought you could've used the waking-up. But I think I'm satisfied with what I saw. I'm happy to see that you've made a niche for yourself." But as she was about to turn her head away from him, his magic gained a good grip of her mane and held her in place. "But do keep in mind that if you step out of line, Prod will be paying a visit. I've got my eye on you now. Do me proud."

The stallion disappeared without much of a trace, not even a flash of magic. But for some reason we could hear him laughing around the room. "...The nightmare never ends."

†Gaston the Griffon†
No one cries like Gaston.
No one dies like Gaston.
No one gets their innards rearranged like Gaston.

***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

The crowd, while initially disappointed with the overall result of the bout, left the arena much more content over the possibility of getting their shot at Nondis. It would probably be the topic going into Tuesday night. All that meant was that I had to make sure to come back around to possibly protect him if need be.

Meanwhile, Somber and dad stared at the head of the puppet that was used. Both were pretty somber in seeing what lied before them. "How cruel. To use the face of a pony on a puppet... I don't think I should linger here." The senator grew pale as he walked away. "If only I could save my daughter from this hell."

I stood by dad, checking in on him. "You okay?"

"That's Prod's face down there." I never knew my father to be any kind of angry other than when we got in trouble. But tonight was my first time actually seeing that anger fester on his face in such a manner. I never imagined his eyes could grow to be so fierce, then again I'm sure he probably hid that about himself. He closed his eyes and sent a beam at the wooden head to finish the job. The face of his former comrade boiled and burned to ash. "Even if he was terrible in life, he still deserves better than this in death. Seriously, they're dead! Just leave them be!"

While dad had his moment, I remained where I was in observing the brutalized remains of the griffon. "So that's the assassin who tried to kill Nondis." While I pitied the state he was in, I wasn't sympathetic in any way of his passing. If anything, there was some part within me that welcomed it. It's not like he knew just how hard it was for Nondis to get back into walking again, or the pain he brought to my friends. As much as I hated even thinking like this, his death was well-deserved. "I'm glad Nondis has closure on that issue. I just wish it didn't have to come with so much of this bad stuff chained to it."

The last of the puppet's head had been immolated to ash, dad tapped me on my shoulder as he continued to avert his eyes. "It's time we go."

As we walked the concourse, our final thoughts of the night were made known to one another. "...Even if he isn't a menace to harmony itself, he's cutting it close."

Dad vehemently argued a different extreme. "He's disturbing the natural order. What more do you need?"

"It has to be more than that. Something bigger."

***Point of Perspective: Equus Nondis***

It took a good hour before my arms could finally cool off to where I could use magic again without the risk of pushing myself too far. But the moment I transformed back into a pony, it was my horn that let me know that I should stave off any future transformations for the next two or three hours.

We walked into the VIP lounge, greeted by Blue holding her brother up beside her. "Alabaster!" I greeted the stallion.

He appeared to have very little strength, his legs were all whipped and cut up, his mane completely disheveled, his coat as grimy and dirty as a poorly maintained prisoner, his voice barely had any presence. "Ugh, everything hurts."

"What did they do to you?" Kalimba questioned, concerned for his being.

"Pain, just pain." He staggered forward as Blue continued to assist her brother.

Finally reunited with her brother, Blue reassured his safety. "We're going to get you home."

I then redirected my attention to her instead. "You alright?"

"I could be better." She answered. "What they did to you was unforgivable."

And on cue, the progenitor of this fresh hell appeared from a back room, waltzing in like he had just made a killing off of tonight's failed wagers. "Well if it isn't the happy family."

I carefully walked around the two siblings to angrily address the psychopathic bastard. "I said unharmed!"

"I said two of three conditions. Learn to listen, boy." He replied, completely brushing me off. "Now remember, Tuesday is your day. Do remember to swing by... Or you will be following the example of Alabaster. And I do guarantee that your brothers will be around to make do with some substitutions. Everything is ready for them, all they have to do is show up." He blew me a kiss and winked before fading out of the room. "Ta, darlings."

"Conditions? What was he talking about?" Blue questioned as soon as he completely disappeared.

"He politely declined de cash prize for de alternative of letting your brudda free." Kalimba answered.

Blue's eyes shimmered as she looked to me. "You didn't have to do that!"

"You wanted your brother, you got him. Just take him and go." I replied.

Alabaster was becoming less interested in his own pain, checking in with me. "Are you alright?"

"I'm pretty pissed off and I'm tense as fuck." I confessed. "I've got to be here on Tuesday for a bunch of goons looking to tap my ass out. He's threatened to get my brothers involved, as you've seen. But I'm not going to let that happen."

Blue spoke out to my defense. "Tonight was enough! The way they treated you out there was horrible!"

"I can deal with shit like Tuesday. I just can't deal with shit like tonight is all."

Blue looked at me, speaking with a low voice. "...If you need to."

"I don't need it." I immediately knew what she was referring to, and shot it down. "Not yet, I don't think."

Alabaster, who was already weak, slumped forward to fall. But his sister held him up to prevent it from happening. She wiped her eyes and tried to fight through her emotions. "Thank you for saving my brother. Whatever you want, anything─"

"Just get home. Do that now." I ordered.

Before the two took their leave, Alabaster smiled as best as he could while trying to reach a hoof to me. "You're such a sweetheart."

"Rest up, bud." I said, giving him a light tap on the head. "Now get your asses out of here."

The reunited siblings departed from the lounge, leaving the place to slowly flood out of members. It appeared that many of the other members have either made their exit a while back, or they lost interest and opted to partake in the other activities within the district. For the most part, it was just the servants, the bartender, and the waning numbers of VIP card holders.

At long last, there was a silence I could enjoy for the time being. I walked over to the bar and ordered a drink. Kalimba did the same, but going for something much stronger. We both sat next to each other and thought out all the shit we had to put up with tonight. I chuckled and offered the mare a toast. "So, you got a bit of a fan club now."

"I couldn't care less." She said with her usual crassness. I couldn't help but to laugh at her.

"Well it's just like I said. They'll all come running for you eventually."

"Dey are not de ones I want to see. Idjiot cowards who hide behind deir mudda's tail like dey are scared of a little deady body is not my type."

"You were scared of a dead body." I pointed out.

"No, I was scared of fighting a deady body. Dere is a huge difference!"

"Hey Crème, what happened to the party?" I asked the bartender.

"They made their money and went home. They really liked how you got all of them a serious payday. Entire arena was betting against you, and everyone in here betted on you." He slid me another drink. "This one's a house special of mine, I call it the 'Forget-Me-Not'. It's a special cocktail that can help you drop a bad memory like an apple out of a tree." He also slid Kalimba one as well. "Still some time before they start the raffle. The results will be in about thirty minutes from now."

I drank down the concoction and thought about whatever terrible things happened from earlier tonight. It didn't quite live up to the billing. "Yeah, I'm think I'm beyond saving. Thanks for trying."

The bartender watched quietly as Kalimba leaned onto my shoulder. "Thank you."

"For what?" I asked.

She didn't give me a clear answer, only pulling at my hoof as soon as she got out of her seat. "Why don't you come with me for a bit? A forget-me-not must come with a good memory to make it work better."

"The better question is what good memories are you trying to provide?"

When it came to Kalimba, I learned that she was often the one who initiated all of our previous encounters. And this one would be no different. We meandered off to one of the press boxes. Looking down below, I saw that the arena was made clean, especially after our bouts tonight. There was a small gathering of stallions and even fewer mares, each of them looking for the chance to become a winner in that raffle they advertised earlier. Admittedly, I think those same ponies are the ones that were smart enough to blow their life savings on wagers tonight, especially since most of the venue went home broke and even more angry at the fact that I costed them money.

Now that I think about it, it was probably better that we stayed until the crowds thinned in the district.

I think the crowd of ponies only numbered up to around twenty before the raffle began. Meanwhile, we watched as we identified which ones got the prize. "You know, I'm starting to like the idea of being up here as opposed to being down there."

As soon as the first winner was announced, a mare was leaping up and down hysterically over the opportunity. "I'm sure many would agree, as far as I can see."

Again, the raffle continued while the first winner was sorted off to the side. "I just can't believe that asshole has me fighting off all of creation next week." I said, taking another sip of my drink.

"Silly boy. You should focus on your more immediate challenges instead of crying about what is not here yet." She replied.

"You mean the crowds gathering outside? I think it'll be a bit hard to hide in the chaos given the whole damn city knows who you are."

The mare scoffed as she watched a stallion take the second winning ticket. "I mean, if we have to stay here a little longer, I would prefer dat some good comes from it."

The mare walked off, leaving me to watch the pool of winners grow. "I'm still waiting on that thing you said would help the drink work it's magic."

When I turned around, I could see a servant come in with a massage table. After it was wheeled in, Kalimba dismissed the servant. She pointed her hoof to the table. "Come and lie down." The zebra waited patiently as I took a slow stroll to the table. When I sat down, she motioned me to lay on my stomach. I did as she instructed, waiting for whatever came next. A sweet honey-like smell graced my nose as I could hear the sound of oil dripping to the floor in it's surplus. I closed my eyes with anticipation, and being rewarded with the warmth of oil being drizzled onto my back. A pair of hooves soon followed, starting at the small of my back. She gently pressed down, kneading in the knots of stress throughout my body. "I know it is hard to find de moment to decompress. Keeping all dat tension and stress in your mind will kill you before you learn how to address it."

"Lessons from Zecora, I take it?" I asked, feeling myself sink even deeper into relaxation.

"Yes." She replied. "Even sex workers and slaves need some time to recuperate. If not, den you stay sick, you die."

"I guess that's why you've been so healthy tonight." I said.

"Indeed." She confirmed sweetly. "You're still so tense, you need to relax."

As she worked her way into a knot in my upper back, I began to feel some discomfort. "It's fucking hard with all the shit we go through, you know."

"Close your eyes. Breathe. Calm." While she whispered those words, she continued to rub out the tension that stemmed to my right foreleg. My eyes popped open from the surprising amount of relief I felt. She giggled at my reaction. "Dat's better."

The fatigue through my body gradually melted away, I was left becoming more and more vulnerable to her touch. "You know, that actually feels nice. Maybe I was wrong about the guard thing, there could be some masseuse work in your future."

Her ministrations slowed to a halt. I looked up to see what had gone wrong. She fell into a lengthy stare before snapping back to the present, explaining where her mind took her. "...Prod used to make me do dis after one of his jobs. Of course, he would turn me over and do his usual thing smelling like whatever mess. I hated it when he'd tell me I missed a spot and den he'd hit me with something to knock me down. From dere, it was all de same."

"I'm sorry to hear that." I replied. "I know it's probably a bad topic since the whole... him being reintroduced into the equation."

The zebra scoffed. "Am I supposed to say I was delighted? I was terrified, scared, I wanted to run far away until he couldn't catch me. But you helped me face him head on, just like you did when you set me free."

"I didn't set you free." I rebutted. "I gave you a gun and a choice. That's all I did. It was you who came up with the plan, the one who made yourself presentable, you took him on at the cost of your dignity and the risk of yourself, and then you got what you wanted because you acted to make that happen. You did it all over again out there."

The mare leaned onto my back, hugging me from behind. "But none of dat would be possible without you. I could have been somepony else sex slave dat night too. And just like tonight, you did what you could to keep dat from happening to me. You gave me a place to live, a life to earn, a hope for more, and even an idea of what I want for myself."

"All of that you just described was all because you wanted it to be. You could've refused to come with me or go where I told you, and you'd still be here in the same rut. You made your own life."

The mare smiled as she took up the oil once more. "You know, you are right. I do make my own life." She slapped me on my flanks, issuing some more instructions. "Turn over, I need to get your chest and neck."

As I did what she instructed, she slowly poured the warm oil onto my chest and stomach. It tickled me at first, but then I almost caught myself from sleeping on her when she started rubbing my stomach. "Kalimba, you're making this press box feel like a luxury suite."

The mare continued with her work, but not before rubbing at my chest again. My eyes were closed to the room while she gave my chest considerable attention. I wasn't noisy about it, but I deeply enjoyed what she was doing, so much that I began to feel somewhat aroused by the level of attention I received. It didn't go unnoticed, I could tell from the low-pitched giggle she had. "I get de feeling dat you are more den relaxed in a certain area."

My eyes shot open and looked down to see myself giving her some other form of approval. I instinctively tried to kick myself back out of it. "Sorry. I'll try to get that down."

"Shut up, you silly boy." She said, tapping me on my muzzle. Far from shy about my growing interest, she halted my attempts to restrain myself. She took the oil and drizzled a slow pour down my stiffening length. That too tickled, but not for the reason which occurred on my stomach. Instead, it was the excitement of something new, the caress of her hoof against me, slowly coating me in the sweet scent of honey and lavender. In an absolutely tantalizing display of worship, she nuzzled my every dimension, showering every shape with her lips. "Let me do my work in peace."

The lushness of her lips were amplified by the oil that dressed them with every kiss. There was very little I could say in seeing the amorous zebra diligently apply her craft. It seemed that she was determined to show me all that she knew from her experiences. Her work was quiet, but effective. She didn't need to moan at everything she did, she just kept her eyes on me, seeing if I approved of every move she made.

There was very little to disapprove, especially if it had to come from me. She managed to keep massaging my chest with one hoof, gingerly easing me into relaxation. But the attention she gave me down below was far more than what I had come to expect. It was a surreal climb, one I knew that had to come to an end eventually. But even in spite of that, I sought for more. I started slowing my breaths, trying to control myself better.

That was a crucial mistake.

In trying to time myself to be slower, all she did was match my rhythm. I tried to use my magic to slow her down, she levitated the oil onto my horn to disrupt that effort. She postponed the attention she gave to my sex and instead focused on the mess she left on my head. She sucked around the base of my horn and promptly glided her tongue up the length of it. The magic within my body was slightly triggered and surged throughout every orifice of my body, releasing a wave of endorphins. That instance alone made me much more turgid than I had ever been in my existence, so much that I had actively came to an edge. The mare looked down below, seeing how I was oozing with precum, leaving trails of my first fruits to spin a thread as fine as a spider's web.

She tapped against my aching loins, causing me to shudder from the pleasure. "Dammit─"

Kalimba silenced me with her tongue against my cheek. "Shh, you silly boy."

The darkness of her voice, the rich raspy texture of her words, the texture of her tongue against me. I wanted her, she made me that way. Even if it was only for a night, I wanted her. "Does this usually come with the service?" I asked, trying to take a moment to calm down.

"Not usually at my pace." She answered, using her magic to tease at my loins, causing me to ache with anticipation of my release.

"Oh, I get it now. You like teasing." I said through strained breaths, compressing all desires to relieve myself manually.

"What good is jumping to de usual stuff when dere is so much to do? Idjiots only think of deir destination, never de journey."

"Everyone's an impatient tourist." I joked.

"Yes." She replied, climbing off of me. "I never get to do dis."

"You like it slow?" I asked her, earning a blush to contrast against her beautifully unique coat of periwinkle.

She tilted her head as she answered. "Yes. I like it dis way. Everypony I dealt with just goes for what dey want, it leaves me a lot of frustration. But you... you make me want dis for myself."

"And this is how you relax?"

She pulled at me, urging me to get off of the table. In doing so, she purposefully crossed my path, namely to brush her tail under my chin. Watching her climb part-ways onto the table to brace her self, she made certain that her tail was out of the way. "Sure I cannot be dat tall for you."

"You say that like you're a second story window." I said as I approached closer, licking my lips. "You're more of a split level."

The mare rolled her eyes at my cheesy response. "You stupid boy." Her complaints came to a quick halt when my tongue began to breach her innermost depths. It was the first time I had ever seen her become so docile. She rocked herself back and forth, breathing lightly to not give herself away. But even she broke way as I kissed her lips with those of my own. "Nakupenda."

I broke off, confused by what she uttered. "Say what now?"

She looked away from me, her ears beet red as the magic she used to shove my muzzle back to the place where she preferred it to be. "Silly boy, just mind yours."

Admittedly, my tongue could never match the mark of her abilities. Though in spite of that, she seemed quite content with what I was giving her. In fact, for her often serious demeanor with spots of playful jabs, she loved the moments when my tongue would flee from within, only to be guided back in by her simply lifting my chin closer to her. My hooves held her down, grasping a feel for her slender, yet toned figure. She whispered words to herself, namely in her family's tongue. In time, my tongue grew to know of her, and my hooves became well-acquainted with the many places that enticed her to break silence.

I was also greedy, wanting attention for my own self. I reached down to tend to myself, but often find myself being dissuaded by a spark or two to keep me away from what she felt was her prize. My patience grew short, and I stood from behind her, planting my forelegs around during my mount. I used my magic to align with her, eagerly seeking our reunion with one another. "May I?"

Kalimba groaned quietly, still looking away from me. "You talk too much." That was her way of saying yes. I worked my way inwards, slowly feeling her grasp around me. That moment of contact was so divine, it sent shivers down my spine. I hunched over her and kissed into her neck, earning the gift of hearing more of her native tongue. "Ndio."

My work began, pressing through the passive resistance that in truth greeted me with warmth. Every withdrawal, I felt myself grow cold from the lack of her presence. I slid my hips into her, grinding with every moment I bottomed out. It was my way of thoroughly introducing myself to her. And it didn't go without a lasting impression, much of her body's approval was offered through the process of her opening up to me. Her back sank down, leaving plenty of room for me to tend to the spaces that were exposed. My lips singed the skin over her spine, causing her legs to rattle beneath our combined weight.

Lust overcame the both of us, especially her. She took the opportunity to yank me in, forcing me to give more attention to her neck. Of course, she loved taking charge and giving me non-verbal commands. So when I obliged, she let me know how much she liked it. This time, she waited for me to lean in, staring at me while I worked. If I stared for too long, she'd use her magic to pull me into a kiss. And each we did, there was hardly any manners or words between. I'd occasionally stop just to give her that attention, and she adored it. It was her way of feeling like she couldn't be marked by anyone else so intimately.

Our speed grew, impacts more frequent, and her breathing rose. What used to be quiet gasps were becoming sighs and urgent pants, which were intermittently broken up by the sound of our lips aggressively clashing with one another. My eyes glided from the image of myself being repeatedly reintroduced to her womb, to the vision of the mare rolling her eyes back on occasion before glaring at me with longing. The combination of all of what she was, the essence of her, the musk she gave off, the sweat on her back, and the oils still lubricating our bodies became too much for me to resist any longer. "I'm almost there." I whispered into her ear.

"Baba.." She bit her lip, forcing her magic onto my hips to drive as deep as I could. "Kujaza yangu."

I wanted to withdraw from her before it was too late, but every ounce of fight I had in favor of that was subsequently made in vain. She backed herself into me, in spite of my stopping to try and retreat. Her magic fed into my flanks, pressing into the sensitive sector between my respective parts. There was no holding back anymore. "Shit!" I panted and groaned while she milked me for every ounce of my seed, carefully massaging the various areas to further enhance my orgasm. As she took on what I offered, she dropped her head and inadvertently pushed the table away from us, causing us both the collapse onto the ground.

I tried to pull back and admire my work, but she held me within, grinding her flanks into my hips. She reached back and pulled my head towards hers, giving me another lick on my cheek. "Silly boy."

Still feeling myself on the decline, I had moments where my hips still reactively sank back into her. "Why am I always the silly one?" I asked tiredly.

"Because you are." She replied, rubbing my cheek.

With my climax at an end, I started to feel myself lose my ability to retain. "I should probably pull out." I tapped against her hips.

The mare addressed me with scorn, but still amorously held me in place. "And dat is why you are silly. You do not just break de moment like dat. You embrace it, you take pride in de act you have performed, and you look at de one you join with and you take in de beauty of who dey are."

While I confess that the moment was pretty erotic, I couldn't help but to shake the sense that we should still find the time to leave where we were. "We're on the floor of a press box room, you know."

She couldn't care less. "And de moment could not be any better."

From outside, I could hear the various cheers from the winners of the raffle. That feeling only grew knowing where we were and who owned the place. "Kali..."

The mare turned to me smiling, pleading like a filly. "Please, let us stay a little longer."

"Or we can get a hotel and we can continue from there."

The mare pursed her lips and reluctantly agreed. "Fine. But we are cuddling when we get dere."

The Next Morning...

As I promised, when we got to a hotel of our choosing, we shared a bed and I held on to her for the entire night. And as the morning came, there was an unrecognizable smile on her face. I was even surprised by it. Her mane was let down, partially cascading over her face. Her eyes shone with a brilliance of red amethyst, her lips as inviting as the gentle touch she had in greeting me.

We laid there for a while, joked for a little bit, even shared a bit of kisses afterwards. But the time soon came for us to leave, and order had to be reinstated. She knew that none of this was a pattern for the future, she just made the best of it. The one night she clamored for, the memories she'd hold onto, all the sweet nostalgia that would be stemmed from this morning was the cherry on top of our temporary affair. And she loved every second of it.

Showers ran, hygiene maintained, we rushed out to the train station nearby. And just to show that the morning couldn't be any better to us, the train was delayed by only forty minutes from when we arrived. And yes, guard presence was almost non-existent.

We waited on a bench, hoping to make the time pass by with some casual conversation. "Good to know that security isn't absurdly high for no vindictive reason whatsoever."

"Dat I can agree with." She said, looking to the many other platforms with ponies waiting for their trains. "Today is exceptionally pretty, albeit cold."

"I'm just glad I'm doing this in pony form, I don't think I'll handle too well in the skin I'm usually in."

"Is it really like dat for you?" She asked.

"Yeah. We don't have coats of fur, so we just wear coats and layers of clothes." I replied.

The zebra snickered. "You better watch out, some ponies would take dat as a sign of a good time."

"Yeah, you equines are weird." I mumbled back, earning an even louder giggle from Kalimba. I couldn't help but to look at her as she expressed the moment of undisrupted happiness, possibly the rarest thing that anyone has ever seen from her outside of her childhood. "...Some guy is going to be a very lucky bastard when he finally makes you crack."

"Shut up you idjiot. Just start a herd and make more of us happy." She jested. "Dat way you can have a dozen mares in your bed."

"Sorry, it's the rule of one for me. I heard that herding was pretty expensive anyways." I replied, summoning my travel sack of gems. As soon as it appeared, I was caught off guard by the fact that there was only one small sapphire inside. "Ah shit, I forgot to go to the bank and make my withdrawal yesterday."

The mare levitated the sack over and took out the singular ruby. "You are fine. I am paid enough."

I took back the tiny jewel, knowing that it wasn't anything worth the work she put in last night. "Kalimba, I still need to pay you. I'm just squandering your time at this point."

She then argued back at me, allowing me to keep the jewel. "I told you already, I don't need your money."

I shook my head and got up from my seat. "Look, can you shadow me to the bank for a bit?"

Realizing she couldn't talk me out of it, she sighed in submission. "Where you go, I'll follow."

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

A few minutes later, we got close to the bank and I took a nearby alleyway to transform myself back so that I could be recognized when I walked in. As soon as I showed up to the counter, the teller perked up. "Hey there."

"Good morning, captain. How may I help you?" She asked.

"I'm just here to make a quick withdrawal. Got to take care of some commission work for my clothes." I lied casually.

"Of course sir. Do you have your account card with you?" I reached inside my pants and pulled out my wallet, slipping my card onto the counter. She picked up the card, read the runes, and verified the information through her log book. "And how much will you be taking today?"

"Twelve thousand."

"Okay..." She said, scribbling a number down and walking into the back. I waited a minute or two before I was given what I asked. "Alright, here's your twelve thousand. Your total amount remaining in your balance is 15,791,845 bits."

"Alrighty then─" I said as I was about to put away my funds, but staggered to a halt as my brain performed an impromptu audit. "I'm sorry, what was that balance again?"

"Your balance is 15,791,845 bits."

I placed a hand on my forehead, trying to piece together where the hell I managed to get another fifteen million. "Ma'am, are you sure that's the right account?"

"Yes sir. The number and information on you account card matches our records."

I shook my head in denial. "Can we check that account history, I don't remember requesting or accepting any transactions."

The mare went back to her log book, summoning forth a number on my card to match the amount that was allocated to the account. "There was one made a bit earlier today, probably an hour and a half before you came in. The individual wished to remain anonymous, but they cleared the transfer from their account to yours."

"How much did they transfer?" I asked.

"15,000,000 bits."

My jaw practically took a vacation on the floor. "I'm sorry wha─"

The number on the card had suddenly flashed. Without any prompt from either me or the teller, the number started shooting upwards. "Oh, it looks like another transfer came in... just now apparently." She verified.

While I watch the number continue to tick upwards, so much that even the hundreds of thousands had become a blur, I hunched over like I had been punched in the solar plexus. "How much?"

The number finally locked in place, leaving my final balance at exactly 29,791,845. "14,000,000 bits." She confirmed.

"WHAT!?" I shouted out. I snatched the card and looked around the venue, noticing a few ponies making their own transactions. But I immediately identified a certain blue unicorn mare who briskly walked out of the lobby. "Hey!"

I caught up to her on the front steps. She pondered continuing on, but decided against it. She was probably caught off guard that I was there at the same time she was. "Good morning, captain. It's a lovely day for a walk out." She said quietly.

I walked to her, leaning in to discreetly ask the question. "Blue, what is going on? Who in the hell just dropped damn near thirty mil in my shit?"

"Oh, that." She shrugged off the amount as hardly worth noting. "Well I just dropped off an anonymous charitable donation for your efforts in last night is all."

"You didn't have to drop thirty million." I replied.

"I didn't. The other half came from my brother. He's the one who took notice that you passed up on the grand prize to save his life. So he reimbursed you for it. So that's fifteen million." She explained. "Then there's the moment you took my father's corpse off of me, defying you-know-who in his face and sticking up for me. That's a good ten. And then you told me about how you cremated my father's ashes. My brother says he can't be used again. That's another five from me. So yeah, that's our family saying thanks for everything you do."

"You gotta take some of that back." I suggested. "I mean I don't know how to work the lobbyists like you do."

"It's fine. You can still leave that mess to me. Seriously. I may be cash broke now, but I still have stock portfolios, assets, and properties to liquidate. I could sell twenty houses and make back what I gave you." She stated with a sigh. "I just wish I could give you the peace of mind you deserve." My heart ached for her as I tried to give her my bank card, she held her hoof up to reject it. "Take it. The guard isn't going to pay you enough for the shit you go through with us."

I still held out my card, to which she levitated it back into my wallet, then sinking it back into my pocket. She gleamed at me dimly while I replied. "You two are like the most not-rich-but-rich kids I've ever met."

"What does that mean?" She asked.

"I mean you both don't act like you're a pair of rich kids swimming through your parent's money. There should be a lot more reckless endangerment, more wild sex parties, cocaine sniffing, abuse of employees, mismanagement of funds, stuff like that."

She hummed a lonesome guffaw. "That's fine. Money doesn't buy true happiness anyways."

"No, but the tax collectors will be on my ass come next year." I stated with some worry.

"Just save fifteen percent, pay that, hide some twenty percent in stocks and bonds, and you're good to go for the rest of your life." She advised. "Just don't have a habit of trying to live a life of perpetual luxury, it never lasts long."

I giggled nervously, unsure and uncomfortable with the sudden flush of wealth I obtained. "And I was just thinking of taking the half of my one million you sent me and dropping some gold bullion in some accounts in my world for millionaire status."

The mare was quick at math, piecing together what I had said and equating it to what I had now. "Well now you have more than enough for your entire family. Hell, you done the world for mine as it is."

I wanted to reach out and hug her for what she did, but she started walking off down the street. I had to flag her down again. "We're still on for Monday in court, right?"

"I think I can do it." She answered, adjusting her mane. "But yeah. Keep your books warm."

I watched as Blue disappeared into the crowd of ponies further down the street. Kalimba crept up behind me, she seemed to have watched everything from a distance. "What was dat all about?"

I felt against the sack still on my waist, but then hesitated. I still felt uncomfortable about the wealth I obtained. The first thing that went through my mind was how I was going to go about redistributing it. An idea immediately came to mind. "So... How about I pay you a lifetime cut and we never talk about money ever again?"

Kali appeared lost with my suggestion. "And why would you do dat?"

That was when I finally reached in my sack and counted out how much I would be taking myself, around two thousand in gems. I closed the sack and handed it over to her. "How about this, you go in that bank and make yourself an account. Start off with ten grand. You'll see what I mean the next time you come here."

She looked at me oddly, uncertain of what I was planning on doing. But she took my advice and walked into the bank.

Approaching one of the tellers, she was questioned at her arrival to the counter. "Um, hello there. Can I help you?"

"Yes, I wish to open an account." She promptly placed the sack on the counter. "Will ten thousand bits be enough for now?"

"Yes ma'am." The mare nodded with approval and pulled out some paperwork, cycling through her log book to make an addendum. "Alright, let's get started with your name."

"Kalimba Mavembe."

Author's Note

Hello to all, nice to see you peoples again. I know I tried to make good on my 2-3 week window, but I had a few more distractions IRL that hindered my thought process. But at the very least, I have come back to finish this chapter. The Next one I believe is about a third done, but I can safely say that the storm has yet to truly hit the shoreline yet. But I will say that it's getting that much closer to it. This chapter was slower paced, in terms of time spent and not in the action, I only intend to do that with action-intensive chapters from here on.

Meantime, I want to take the time as usual to thank the readers for sticking around so long. I will hope that my payoff will be as eventful as the recent chapters.

Chapter CIV

***Point of Perspective: Equus Melanie***

The morning was pretty quiet, the dawn was just as bright as ever. Meanwhile, the snow that covered the ground had glowed a bright yellow from the light of the sun. Outside I could hear the young foals using their free time to construct various snow sculptures, effigies, and forts. Others couldn't wait to hurl snowballs at one another. Spike ran by the front door of the castle, hurling a few at Applebloom and Sweetie Belle.

Meanwhile within the lobby of the small hotel, I looked outside and marveled at the blissful youth having their fun out in the snow. Parts of me wanted to take a walk out there, wanting to participate in the fun. But memories of last Saturday played back in my head, showing me just how easy it would've been for me and the others to get spirited away or something. Even then, that Ummie guy's face was the one thing I really felt had found some way to stalk me in some way.

Fortunately for me, the only thing that stalked me anymore than those lingering thoughts was Rickey, who walked up from behind me. "Yo, Cherry!"

His voice broke me out of my thought, startling me a bit. "I swear, it's like every time you see me, you just have to latch on to me or something." I said a bit frustrated.

"I'm just checking in." He said with a shrug,

"Seriously, we live together. Why are you being so clingy?" I questioned, still feeling unease about where we were and what we were doing.

"I'm just seeing if you're okay." He replied.

I stepped away from the window and picked up a magazine to skim through. "I'm fine."

"I mean you've been pretty quiet and distant for the past few days. It's almost like you just go from work straight into your room. You don't even talk that much anymore."

"Considering what happened last week, can you really blame me?" I questioned.

He paused for a second, recalling the footage we were shown. "Yeah, that whole thing just gave me the creeps. I'm not even gonna lie."

"So why are you still acting like it doesn't matter that much?"

"Cherry, our whole assignment was to act like everything's all good. We can't really blend in that much when we're running around town being paranoid, especially around us."

"I'm not paranoid!" I exclaimed, clearing my throat when I realized that I had yelled at him. "Okay, maybe I'm a little guarded. But I just feel like you're too close for comfort right now. I need some space."

"I mean we haven't really hung out since that whole meet-up with the princess. I've even tried to keep in touch while not even approaching you directly." He said as his voice seemingly got sadder. "Is it that you don't want to give me a shot anymore?"

I turned to him and gave my answer. "Look, I'm still trying to figure out if I even want this. A certain victim's been at the front of my mind since that whole meet-n-greet last Saturday."

"I've thought about him too. I know that they're probably shelving off some of the more sensitive details about it. But there hasn't really been any indication that something really turned south yet."

"As if it hasn't already been down in El Paso?" I rolled my eyes at his response. "They're actively trying to hide just how much he's suffering. The only one who's given me much of an idea is Pinkie Pie, and she stopped giving me updates after last Friday."

Rickey nodded his head slowly in agreement. "I know. She's been really quiet, even so much as bringing up the subject and she runs off to do some other chores or talk with some of the customers. It's been pretty quiet on that front, especially from the residential motor mouth herself."

"Maybe they know something we don't?" I asked.

"Definitely." He replied.

"You don't think he's dead, do you?"

"Nah, if he was, they'd probably have us on the first train outta here. And of course, they'd probably tell us upfront if something like that was to happen."

I took his reply into consideration, but contrasted against the times intervention was needed. "Remember when Chrysalis had taken over his brain, they didn't tell us about that until later? Or how about the time when she held Nondis' father hostage? There's a lot they don't tell us."

Rickey then rebutted. "But they did tell us that he's not doing too well with his mental health. I think we don't have to worry about them holding out secrets unless it's something they know we'll try and get involved with personally. And if that's the case, then it's pretty apparent that it's something we can't handle, or it's something we have no business looking into."

Shaking my head, I further fortified my point. "...It's hard to pretend that everything's normal. Even Kali came to work Wednesday morning pretty pale. She lost sleep over something."

"I think we all lost sleep over what we saw in that video." He mumbled.

"We saw death undone. How fucked up is that?" I stressed.

"Yeah, it's pretty fucked." He conceded.

I pointed at him as he solidified my argument. "That's why I can't really focus on how I feel about my own personal situation, because my heart is still fixated on whether or not he make it out of this thing alive. At the very least, I'm fucking terrified that he might actually consider suicide as a way out."

Rickey appeared dismissive over my concern. "C'mon. He's not that weak."

While he may not have had any context to his past, I did. I had to explain it to him. "You don't know him. My father and I spent a night trying to stop him from killing himself. He was really about to eat a bullet after his grandfather died."

Surprised by the revelation, Rickey became fairly mull on the matter. "Yikes."

I walked over to him, finalizing my point. "It's not that I don't care about you. It's that I care more about him right now. That's all, it's not you."

I made my way back to my room, all while passing by Cliff who had caught the last bit of our conversation. Rickey appeared defeated, dropping his head. "Yeah..."

Approaching the dispirited pegasus, Cliff chimed in with his hoof slung around Rickey's shoulders. "Damn, bruh. That's tough."

"Can't win at a game you were never invited to, I guess." Rickey replied with a sigh.

The brown stallion kissed his teeth at his friend's defeated attitude. "C'mon, man. She ain't say she didn't like you. Her mind's just preoccupied with shit."

"Yeah, him again." He replied sarcastically.

"But did she specifically say that she didn't want a relationship with you anymore?"

The orange stallion quickly answered. "Yeah, several times."

"Recently?" Cliff clarified.

"Well she didn't say she wanted to be in a relationship either. She said she'd give us a shot. And shit happened, so I guess my shot is as good as gone."

While the two turned to the growing snowball fight taking place outside, Cliff continued to give his advice. "Just be patient, bruh. We've been here for two weeks. Two more and we're back home."

"Two more, and I'll go insane watching her tear herself apart over a guy who dropped her after sticking his dick in something that isn't the same species."

"Bruh, didn't you and Cherry smash?" Cliff snarked, causing his friend to very briefly become caught off guard.

"That's different. We're still the same, just a different look."

"A different look?" The brown pegasus repeated with skepticism. "I'm gonna tell you from my experience with Sunset. It's... it's not bad."

"She's more human than anything nowadays." He stated.

"Yeah, but what was she before she was a human?"

"Okay." Answered Rickey, becoming more annoyed.

"And what are we now?"

"Okay!"

Cliff chuckled as he tapped his hoof against the orange stallion's chest. "So what do you think is going through my mind that first night when she came by and visited me last week?"

"A bunch of Nondis questions." He answered dismissively.

"And let me tell you, I received a lot of Nondis answers."

"Well I'm glad you had fun." Rickey said with a sarcastic smile.

"Bruh, my point is that our appearances shouldn't matter if our minds and our hearts are in the same place. Remember, we got girls who can't date you just because their dads would probably shoot you dead for something as simple as the color of your skin. And you speak Spanish too, they probably think you from the lawncare company. Hell, they probably think they'll get your happy ass on a roof for the low price of a case of beer."

"I get it." Rickey said, quickly putting a halt to Cliff's rambling example. "It's still not the same."

Cliff patted his friend's shoulder. "I'm gonna ask you one question. In the moment when you had her that afternoon, did you even care about the fact that you did that to something─not someone, something─that wasn't what you were to begin with?"

The orange pegasus grumbled his answer, already knowing that he had to concede that point. "I didn't─"

"And neither did she. After all that time of not talking to you, avoiding you, and she still took you up on your suggestion. If anything, she's trying. Just let her make up her mind at her own pace, don't try to force it. It has to be natural. And if it doesn't work... well you could always start over somewhere else."

Rickey was quiet for a while, letting the idea sink in a little more. But as that particular idea sank in, so did another question rear it's curious head. "Did Sunset tell you that too?"

"More than once." Cliff answered.

Rickey rubbed his chin and quirked an eyebrow at his friend. "Wait, how many times did y'all─"

Cliff interrupted him before he could say anything else. "Bruh, we're slow right now. Don't even ask."

***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

After a tumultuous night of battling some nightmares and lingering thoughts pertaining to my time at the morgue, I took the opportunity to use the later hours of the morning sun to get some much-needed sleep. Although it wasn't part of my preplanned schedule, I had to accept that there would've been some consequences if I didn't pay any mind to my mental health.

Spike, however, carried on with gathering the girls for today's meeting about my findings over the course of the week, which left me to rest and gather my thoughts properly. It took me around an hour after their arrival for me to finally wake myself from my nap and push forward through the day.

As I approached the throne room, I could hear Fluttershy regaling the tale of another one of her animal rescues. "And then, she flew up into the air and looked back at me with a smile before flying off to be with her bird friends! It's was both rewarding and magical."

Rainbow didn't seem to care about it, rolling her eyes at the story's conclusion. "Ugh, another bird rescue story."

"Dashie, now you know how sentimental I am about rescuing animals and watching them being released back into nature." Fluttershy responded with a soft, yet critical tone.

"Yeah, almost as dramatic as Rarity." Applejack joked playfully.

"Really? I don't find myself being anywhere close to being that dramatic." Fluttershy said in defense of herself, then following up with an apology to Rarity. "Um, no offense."

"None taken, darling." Rarity said, giving Applejack a stern brow.

Realizing her joke didn't exactly go over well with the seamstress, Applejack found anything she could for a distraction. She found me walking through the doorway, tiredly rubbing my eyes. "Ah, there ya are." She chimed brightly. "So how did it go up there in the muck?"

"Let's just say I've learned how to self-apply some short-term sleeping spells to keep myself in working order."

The girls looked at one another before Rainbow asked me curiously. "Sleeping spells?"

"That rough, huh?" Spike inquired.

I then answered. "I know we're not strangers to the sight of death, but my time in Canterlot was a literal tour through a morgue."

"And she still won't talk about that part of it." Spike added.

"It's not anything you need to know." I rebutted.

Rarity patted her hooves on the table's surface. "So did you find anything?"

I began to explain what I knew. "I think that Umbra Sanctus may have some connection with the city morgue. Apparently there's a backlog of bodies, but everything is leading us to believe that it's artificially made that way. Burials are apparently the cheapest option where cremation was supposed to be it, but they're hitting everypony with a storage charge."

"Oh, you meant a literal tour through a morgue." Pinkie interjected. "How fun was that?"

"I can now give you several good reasons why cremation should be preferred for your loved ones. And one reason includes maggots."

Everyone in the room gagged at my response. Pinkie herself almost turned green with disgust. "Alright, that's enough for me."

"Any information about Nondis?" Rarity inquired.

"He and Kalimba stuck it out on last night during a bout at the arena. Apparently it was some thing they had where they were crowning him the title of 'Beast of the Week'. But what was more interesting was who he had to beat to claim that title."

"Who was it?" Fluttershy asked.

"A griffon assassin who tried to leave him for dead. His name was Gaston."

"Griffon assassin..." Rainbow took a moment to plug it all together, her wings flared open as soon as she did. "Wait, that griffon from the train!? That guy is bad news!"

"Not anymore. Nondis made sure that he wasn't an issue..." I replied while also thinking about how bloodied he was after that event. "...It wasn't pretty."

"Well now I really wanna know how 'pretty' it was." Rainbow insisted.

"He's disposed of. Permanently." I said before sliding a wing under my neck to emphasize what happened.

While Rainbow flinched at my visual metaphor, Rarity showed less consideration for it. "Well it's good to know that some justice was done."

"Not entirely." I corrected the fashionista. "Nondis is being made to fight again on Tuesday night with a bunch of others looking to possibly do a better job. And if that title is exactly what it means by the name, he'll be fighting some other creature come next week to preserve his own life."

In typical fashion, Rainbow brazenly interrupted with her pro-violence method. "Are you sure that's not a reason we can blast this guy with rainbows like we usually do?"

"Trust me when I say I'm finding a reason to do it. But it can't be long now. I have to head back to that morgue on Tuesday, mainly when we know that Umbra is going to be busy with his usual sessions."

Rarity then questioned. "So you're using Nondis as a distraction to infiltrate a morgue?"

"There's a hidden passageway within one of the storage rooms, leading to a much larger freezer chamber that holds hundreds of bodies. There's a door across the way that we were showed, but never given access to. I believe what we want to discover is hidden behind that door." I further explained.

"A door hidden in a room full of hidden bodies. This seems like this will get far worse than it will get any better." Pinkie surmised with an uncertain posture.

"Don't you think he'll need some help?" Asked Fluttershy.

I answered her question with confidence. "I'm sure Kalimba will be of great use to him since she was a tremendous help last night."

"I just wish we were there to support them." She replied.

"Trust me, Fluttershy. Some things aren't exactly for the faint of heart."

Sometime Later...

A few hours passed and the girls went about their day. But as my time with them came to an end, the slotted time I had for my magic training instruction had began. Both Starlight Glimmer and Kalimba Mavembe were given respective assignments to perform, just simple exercises. Naturally, Starlight thrived in her lessons while the far-less adept Kalimba struggled. But instead of ordering Starlight to play nice to her new classmate, I went forward and gave her more material for independent study.

Kalimba was the one I took aside and had the more personal instruction with. And since she was divided off, it gave me the opportunity to ask her about what all happened last night. But I didn't do that until after our remedial courses had come to an end for the day.

At last came the time for questions and answers. I began to ask about her time last night, she told me about what all happened behind the scenes. When she finished, I was more upset by a bit of news I had not seen coming.

"What do you mean you can't help!?"

The zebracorn expressed her disgust. "It is all to his design. I cannot help him, though my sitting back would feel like a crime."

"But you helped him last night. Why is it that you can't help him on Tuesday?" I pointed out.

"Dey have placed a wedge between me and him. I cannot even get close to him without dere being some controversy. I know dat I wish to be dere for him, but if you were dere last night, you would know dat dey made me a bit of a star. And as such, made me unavailable for Tuesday night due to a meet-up with de fans who won a raffle."

I started to pace back and forth. "So what now? We can't just let him fight this on his own, knowing the dangers that's out there for him to face. That assassin from last night may have gotten the worst of it, but he nearly took Nondis out himself. Who's to say that there won't be others as strong, if not stronger?"

"Dere could be de possibility of some guild members looking to make a name for themselves. Dey are more organized than dose idjiots coming at us with sticks and shanks. Dey don not care about his status, dey care about de fame of being de ones to take him down." She explained. "And dey are going to advertise to de crowd what dey want to see."

"But if you're not there, he'll get killed!" I urgently stressed.

"I can assure you, de Doctor will not allow him to die so easily. He will sooner see him live on to fight what he has lined up for him. I cannot say what dat is, I can only speculate dat it will be hard to overcome. But dere is no certainty of de Doctor keeping him alive past next Friday. He has already seeded de plans to use another human in his place should he fail, his bruddas to be exact."

"That's horrible!" I answered with heightened disagreement. "Nondis can't possibly be replaced by his brothers!"

"Den his collection grows. He will have an unknown total of bodies, plus three human ones at his disposal." Kalimba looked off to the floor, her eyes beginning to fill with dread. "I know dat I want to be dere to stop dis. But if he continues to separate us like dis, what choice do we have? I just do not want to see him become a puppet... like my last owner coming to haunt me."

I knew she was talking about Prod. Even since we got back home, dad made no mention or thought of it, but I knew he was suffering in his mind. While I had many questions about everything else, I couldn't help but to shake the idea of Nondis being affected by all of this. Seeing him last night and how he was treated had to damaged him in some way. "I have a question about Nondis."

Her eyes closed, shutting off the possibility of her worst nightmare coming to roost. "I may have an answer."

"Does he have moments where you think he's... off?"

She slowly turned to me. "What do you mean?"

I tried to explain myself, but ended up tripping myself over the number of thoughts about what happened last night. "I mean the moment when he had beaten Gaston, Nondis could've stopped there after cutting off his head. But he just... went off the rails. I know that he did it to hinder a certain process, but I'm sure that he wouldn't normally resort to... that."

"De reason he did it was not a fit of rage, it was a declaration to de one who tormented him. In another sense, I suppose it was his way of possibly disposing of de body in a way to make it unusable. He did de same to Count." The zebracorn had successfully confirmed my suspicions, but to a surprising degree.

"He did?" I asked about Count.

"Cut him apart, threw him in de old oven, set de shack on fire, watch de place burn down." She laid out quite plainly. "Now if you want to know if he has ever looked any way distant, it was de moment he looked into those flames and quietly begged him to stay dead for good."

"Did he seemed relieved in any way?" I inquired.

"Considering what happened moments before, no."

Moments before? Perhaps something occurred that had him disturbed to that far of a degree? "What happened before that?"

Kalimba shook her head. "...Sometimes, it is better not to ask about de doings of de Inner Circle."

In other words, something that could've damaged him or someone else. "So what are we going to do about Nondis? We can't leave him there to fight alone." I brought up once more.

She took a deep breath, trying to convince herself above all else. "If anything, Nondis will be fine. De Doctor knows dat Nondis will win every round, and den if he loses, his life will be spared. Besides, he has an infatuation with him."

"An infatuation?" I questioned, a bit unnerved.

"Well, we can consider it an unhealthy obsession." She hinted. "He wanted Nondis to entertain him... in other ways."

I was revulsed by the idea of a literal body-snatcher trying to lay his hooves on Nondis, and with nothing but sexual intentions. "Oh my Celestia, he's not... is he?" I tried to eloquently clue her in by waving my hoof around.

"More like a psychopath who cannot function without de smallest bit of controversy or insanity. Otherwise, he sleeps with anything dat moves."

"Oh..." Does that include the bodies he moves? If so, that's more news that I didn't want to hear in the wake of yesterday afternoon's excursion. Though I wondered how she knew about his sexual preferences. I mean in a place like that, it's hard to hide it when it's so readily available, but I still had to ask her if she and him had any prior engagements. "...Have you─"

She didn't even let me finish, answering with an angry scowl on her face. "As a slave, yes."

"Oh." I simply urged myself to speak no further on that topic.

She, however, continued her rant. "He was quite lazy, expecting me to do all de work. He enjoys servitude and obedience, subjugation to his every command and wish. If he wants you to open your mouth for him to unload─"

I found myself flailing my hooves in the air, interrupting her from continuing. "I think that's enough! Next topic, Diva Kalimba." I laughed awkwardly.

"Yes, dat." She said rolling her eyes with derision.

I went on to another topic, not trying to accidentally trigger her to talk more about her experiences with Umbra. "So... your father, or at least somepony claiming to be your father..."

"Ugh, what does he want?" I think that topic was even worse for her than the previous one.

"He was afraid for you. I guess he never really saw how you fight until last night. But I think he's still pretty worried." I briefly announced.

She was even more angry, letting that indignation burn deep in her words. "If he was worried about me, he would not have sold me off for blue joker when I was twelve! I am not in any way attached to him, he made his bed!"

"I completely understand that." I quickly changed the subject to something I knew she was more favorable towards. "So... Nondis is pretty fun to be around once you get to know him. I know you had some moments where you thought about him."

"My thoughts are what they are; Thoughts." She answered, initially hesitant on the topic.

"I'm sure you're just like me then. I'm worried that all of this might take away some of the things that made him who he was."

She didn't hesitate as much, only giving me a sobering answer bathed in reality. "We all change when we go through something. It is how we change our approach to dose we know that becomes a deciding factor if he can or cannot be de pony you wish him to be. Trauma does dese things dat makes it harder to live a normal life, dere is no changing dat."

Her words made me feel even more uneasy, almost like she was warning me that Nondis was going to lose himself eventually. Or perhaps there was a place inside of me hoping that he wouldn't change too much, and realizing that it was already too late. I looked to Kalimba, hoping for some mode of assurance. "You're still protecting him, right?"

"Always." She showed determination in her answer, but also an infatuation.

It was probably why she said her thoughts were only her thoughts, she had them about him. "...You didn't fall for him, did you?"

"We made our boundaries clear. I know my expectations." She seemed resigned to that answer, despite showing her dissatisfaction.

"And that is?" I asked.

The mare chuckled to herself. "I am going to be a mare who cannot trust other stallions. I would be better off on my own."

Her answer threw me off balance, I couldn't help but to pity her. "Kind of a sad outlook."

"Reality often is sad."

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

Before leaving the bank this morning, I made sure to drop Kalimba a good million to live on. Along the way back to the castle, I started to think about my future in both worlds. I'm rich by all standards in this world, but back home I was virtually bottomless. Doing the math, I summed up the mass amount of my wealth to be in the number of some tens of billions, of course taking into account the diminished value of gold should I transfer it all into my account back home. I know the IRS would probably have a field day with me, especially since I would be literally walking around with the same pocket change equivalent to four times the GDP of Zimbabwe. Hell, even dropping to a million bits transferred lands me safely in the billionaire status with some tens of millions to spare.

What was initially playground money had turned into me personally financing a tall skyscraper, with the permits and expenses paid for to furnish the damned thing. It brings my status of being in the guard to question, do I even stay in past this point? I could easily retire.

But then again, what good is there going through all of this hell, knowing that there's probably way more hell coming for me if I run away? I know the risks of my deserting, and it's not from the guard or Celestia that I'll be getting my consequences from. There's no other choice but for me to stay and fight.

Still, it landed the question of my sudden increase of wealth. "What the hell am I supposed to do with all of this shit?"

I stared at the card, finally being told how to see the runes for myself when I want to keep up with the amount in my account. Sitting in my room, I wondered about the many avenues I would take in spending and redistributing my wealth, especially since Blue wasn't going to let me send it back to her.

I suppose I could give the others a million a piece for sticking it out as ponies for a month. They could become instant billionaires like me if they decided to transfer it over. But it wasn't like I needed to see them now, I needed to keep everything about them out of my head until a certain someone could be dealt with. I could give the same to my brothers and parents, that's a whole eight million I just gave away to make seven more billionaires. She told me I had to put away a few million for taxes, I'm likely to estimate twelve percent there. That's roughly another four million. That into consideration, I'm still left with another eighteen million to do whatever with.

I ran my fingers across the card, using the spell to look at the number remaining, only a million short of what I had seen this morning. And yet, I had no idea how to really spend money in this world. I leaned back in my bed and stared at the ceiling, staring at the amount on the card. "Hoo-fucking-ray that I'm rich, but what the hell does that do when I'm probably going to die in like two weeks or something? It's like hitting the lotto and dying the next day."

My phone buzzed, showing I had a text from Shining Armor. He had told me that I would be expecting a visitor to talk about some of the things that happened with Celestia in the past. He also told me that she would be by here as well.

*knock knock knock*

I had to admit, the bastard had some impeccable timing.

I got up to answer the door, surprisingly seeing none other than Solemn Oath. "You."

"I think we're supposed to talk."

I glanced down at my phone seeing Shining's message. "About?"

"It's something that Prince Blueblood told me."

Figures it was either one of the stallion princes. "It's always Blueblood." I mumbled to myself.

When she walked in, she started explaining why she had showed up. "He's trying to tell me some story of some mare who was locked in a tower for months, then tortured and raped for a day. He told me it was a princess who confessed to giving herself to a stallion."

"Oh yeah, that story." I said, quietly keeping some of my anger to myself. "She was pregnant at the time."

The mare gawked at my statement. "Well I can't imagine how it feels to be alive during that time period, surely Celestia had something to say about that happening."

I just looked at her, surprised that Blueblood had told her that much without dropping a single name of who it was. "...I'm sure she had a lot to say."

"But why wouldn't she stop them?"

Because she was the victim. "Laws were made, and she had to abide by them... even if it was bullshit."

The mare hummed and sat herself at my keyboard, mashing her hooves against all the white keys. "I don't remember there being very many princesses in Equestria history who was given punishment." She then briefly asked about the instrument. "So is this some sort of human futuristic version of a piano?"

"It's a synthesizer." I answered before getting back on topic. "In regards to the princesses who were punished, that's because it wasn't written down for common knowledge. If it was notated for anyone, it would be exclusively known to those who would maintain access to those records."

"So you're saying that Prince Blueblood is actively sitting on top of that information?" She asked, tilting her head as she became suspicious of the stallion.

"Not entirely, but he may know who holds the records."

I turned on the amp that was needed to hear the instrument. And predictably, the first thing that blurted through the speakers was the sound of several low notes mashed together in a dissonant mess. She quickly lifted her hooves to return silence to the room. "I was always taught that the crown was to be revered and protected, as the royal family would lead us to our brightest future."

"Who taught you that?" I asked.

"My parents. But their opinions have waned in the recent years. The big changeling invasion started having them question both the princess' abilities to protect the realm, and made them skeptical about my role in the guard. Since then, they've wanted me to settle down and start a family instead of furthering my military career."

Maybe they saw that her accolades had only gotten her so far and wanted her to experience life for a change, instead of experiencing her career and only knowing that for most of her young adult life. "And you chose the latter."

She sighed longingly, tapping the edge of her hoof against one of the white keys. "I just thought if I could get in close to the princess, I could possibly explain what happened. But as time went along in my service, I began to realize something about myself."

I urged her to scoot off of the bench, I went to the piano sound I preferred the most, and started playing Claire De Lune. "What's that?"

She was mesmerized by the first measures I played, she stayed silent for a while until I had started to struggle with some of the middle parts of the song. She snapped out of it and realized what she stopped short of revealing. "Ugh, why am I even telling you that!? I'm just ranting for no reason."

I stopped for a moment, giving my attention to her. "It's healthy to get out what's on your mind."

"Classified, top secret." She snarked back.

I nodded back in response to her, knowing she did that to spite me doing that to her. I looked back down at the keys and asked her. "You're briefed, right?"

"What about that?"

I played an excerpt from To Zanarkand. "Then I can finally open up to someone other than my fucking shrink."

"No thanks, you can keep your pity party to yourself." She said with a partially disinterested attitude.

I told her anyways what was going on, mainly because she needed to know. "I got thrown in the underground arena last night."

"That arena we walked through last Sunday?" She asked, suddenly becoming interested.

"The same one." I confirmed.

Her eyes widened and she stood by me, excitedly wagging her tail like a puppy. "How was it?"

Yeah, she had all the attitude of a girl coming out of the suburbs. I wasn't too thrilled over her possibly romanticizing my ordeals. "You know, the ponies down there really do hate anything pertaining to the structure of the princess and her guards."

"Well it's not like you couldn't turn into a pony and do all of that."

I grimaced as I corrected her. "Actually, I went in and fought as my current self because of an arrangement that fell through. So I got pelted with a lot of shit... literally."

"That's not good." She said with some revulsion.

I then added. "My cover isn't blown for the most part, it's just that the VIP sector already knows who you are when you get in. That's how they know if they want you in there or not, what your standing is in society or government."

"How do you do it? All the pushing through the nightmares and death." She still seemed to be romanticizing my dealings, but I could understand where she was coming from. It reminded me of when I was younger, I used to romanticize the idea of being in the military, coming out of training like a bulging hunk with girls swooning over me.

I mentally traveled back in time, thinking back to the conversations my grandad had with me over his time in Vietnam and how it altered him. From that, I created my answer. "My grandfather once told me that after the war he fought in, he had to find some place in him to move forward instead of staying in the moment. He said it was always a hard adjustment to civilian life after seeing so much death, so many people around you just don't understand and they ask questions like you're supposed to answer them with a happy-go-lucky attitude. The ones who never saw what you did will glorify your struggle, but never understanding the compassion of enduring loss where you damn near lose your humanity. And then to come back knowing the wrongs you've done to others, it's a stigma you'll never wash off." That part especially was true when I had to finalize Count DuMoneé myself. "He said it best, you go to sleep with those ghosts hoping you'd draw your last breath, just so they can drag your ass down to hell with them. And they remind you of them each time you close your eyes."

"Your grandfather was a guard?" She asked, becoming a lot more somber and respectful.

"In my country, they call them Marines. Soldiers. Young, impressionable men made and molded into killing machines, to do the bidding of the country they served. But that war was a proxy conflict, a battle against an opposing political ideology that made the upper-crust of the American society shake in their snake-skin shoes. You know how the story goes, rich keep their kids while the poor have theirs drafted."

Solemn tapped her chin and thought aloud. "Honestly, there hasn't been a draft since the Equestrian Civil Conflict. That almost wiped out every stallion in the land."

"I know. But imagine having a draft in a war featuring some of the human weapons that I use, but more defective on my grandfather's side than the other. Some guys had their brains blown out trying to unjam their weapons. And the trees around them housing horrors and traps far too cruel for modern warfare. Can you imagine having to deal with that, plus the sight of your brothers in arms getting sent to the great beyond in a split second while calling for reinforcements? Couple that on top of killing villagers at the whim of your psychologically traumatized commander."

The mare quickly established just how serious those details were. "That sounds like a recipe for PTSD."

I glanced onto my nightstand, seeing the unopen bottle of pills. "It was. He'd wake up in the middle of the night screaming. Even I heard him doing it when I was a kid."

"Wow." She said in amazement.

"I'll never know the hell of a human war, I don't wanna know. I'm finding out that even dark operations here in the equine world is too much for me to handle. Maybe I'm subconsciously processing the sapient qualities ponies have and seeing them as humans undergoing this process, it's probably why I'm not handling it like a normal human would."

The mare looked to me with inquiry, seeking to prod through my thought process. "So how does a 'normal' human handle equine death?"

"Depends..." I said in a low voice.

"On what?"

I shrugged as I quietly murmured to her. "On how much we like animals, or how long we've owned them."

She immediately shrunk from the discomfort she felt. "...Um..."

"Yeah, equines in our world don't speak. Personality out the ass, but no sprecken ze language. They're usually seen as pets and livestock." I explained. "That's why I'm an asshole about who goes in and under what conditions. It's why Princess Cadance was so harshly reprimanded for doing what you did, but through one of the more compromising portals. Most humans won't understand a talking equine when they see one. I have to give them a disclaimer course if they want to cross over. It took me six to ten hours just to give my parents the rundown of things here before they woke up in a panic about that same thing the next morning."

The mare asked inquisitively. "So if I went out there talking to you in my current form?"

I gave her an expedited rundown of possibilities. "Probably get picked up by animal control, sent to a group of analysts for your being able to talk, and experimented on by the government if you can use magic."

"Yikes." She said, holding her horn with a hoof.

"Yeah, don't cross over until I give permission and we made arrangements for you to blend in. Bottom line." I said with a fake smile.

The mare began to inquire about the relationship between humans and ponies, namely that of my own personal developments. "So... how did Princess Twilight ever come to deal with you and your... differences?"

"Remember, I was trapped here for six months, I had no other choice but to be open to the idea that ponies could talk and use magic." I candidly confessed. "But even then, we were really good friends before we ultimately started to share romance."

"But why romance? Why cross the boundaries between you and what you humans would consider as 'pets'?" I had to admit, that was a fair question.

"The whole talking thing made me feel a lot differently about it. I mean I wasn't exactly comfortable with that initial kiss, but I grew into it. You remember when I said that I sometimes equate equines here to humans back home and their personalities?"

"Yeah." She answered.

"Well all of what I experience here, in terms of social interaction, is no different from home. So I began to feel more at home. That's all."

Solemn watched as I started playing through some more music, namely Prelude in E Minor. As I played, her mind proceeded to formulate a different image of me than what she had grown accustomed to. Instead of seeing me as a rival, she started to see me as something else. "You know, I'm starting to feel pretty bad for saying that you didn't belong. I mean I'm still upset that you got the captain's nod before me, but I can see that you worked pretty hard to overcome your initial insecurities and started seeing us as equals." She tapped at the upper extremities of the keys, pressing down on a few of the higher note. But as I stopped to watch her, she slowly plucked out a distinctive melody. "The idea that you're getting less and less sleep over what we ponies go through is pretty sobering."

It appeared that she too was musically inclined. So I stood up and let her have the bench, giving her the chance to pick at a few notes until she could come up with something. All while she played, I spoke. "Well, I had a good grandfather who tried to open a young fool's eyes. After all of what I've been through, I'm beginning to understand. That's also another journey I'm taking part in."

"I see. I guess you've opened up a bit to me." She said embarrasingly.

While I was still uncomfortable with her being in my room for so long, she stared to also slowly grow on me. For once, she was fairly palpable to be around. "Partially."

"If that's partial, then I wanna know what the whole thing looks like." She said with an awkward and chirpy tone.

"Meh, sometime later. I'm still learning how to trust you." I replied honestly.

"That's fine. I'm doing the same thing with you, I guess." She said, trying to shake some of her awkwardness.

I glanced back at my phone, still seeing the message from Shining at the middle of my screen. "Question. I know you came in asking about the story Blueblood told you. Hypothetically speaking, if it was Princess Celestia who went through all of that, what would you say about it then?"

I watched and gauged her response, seeing if she was going to be as flippant as she was with me, or if she was going to react differently. "There's no possible way that could ever happen. She can raise the sun, I don't think anypony worth the salt in their body would dare think of doing that to her." Needless to say she was a lot more serious.

"Yeah..."

"I mean, she'd have some sort of branding on her chest. That's pretty unlikely."

*knock knock knock knock*

I don't know what it is about today and miraculous timing, but it seemed pretty convenient. "Lots of visitors today. And here I was thinking I'd get a day alone with my thoughts."

I opened the door to see Princess Celestia standing in the way. "Good afternoon, captain. Same to you, Solemn Oath." She said on the way in.

As I made way for her, Solemn bowed her head. "Your highness! It is a honor and a pleasure."

Though I knew of the reason why she was here, I still feigned ignorance to that fact. "If I may, what brings you here?"

"Well, Blueblood informed me that you've been briefed on other matters." She said, mainly directing her attention to Solemn.

"Well I wouldn't say it was a briefing, more of him just telling me some story about a princess who got tortured." She replied, still holding some disbelief towards the story.

"And you came to the captain with this information?" She said, giving me a glance.

She then replied. "Prince Blueblood wanted me to confirm this story with the captain for some odd reason. I'm thinking is probably a code to inform me of something that probably occurred with Princess Cadance."

The both of us looked to one another, then back to her. "Okay, so what makes you think this happened with Princess Cadance?" Celestia questioned.

"Well, it was said that she was caught being infatuated with another stallion, and she was brutally reprimanded and abused, even having a brand placed on her chest. So if not her, then some other princess in the past." She answered, unaware of the princess holding her chest.

"It was a princess of the past, you can halfway lean on that." I said as Celestia remained mum. "Solemn Oath, I'm sure the reason why Blueblood wanted you to come to me about it was for me to question you about your loyalty. Which is why I gave you that hypothetical scenario to respond to. So I'm going to ask again, if it did happen to the very same princess in this room, what would be your honest response?"

She did not hold back her passion. "Well I would say that those responsible should not be allowed to live for the crimes they've committed. It's not fair that the princess would have to suffer for something that's completely her private business. Even if I may disagree with it, it's still her life. I'm willing to be loyal to her no matter who she falls for. The idea alone that a princess had to endure something like that is absurd."

"Why do you think that way?" I asked.

"The princess works hard for Equestria's future. It's not fair that she has to live in subjugation to a law that outwardly discriminates against the royal family and those who associate themselves with them. And by extension, it screws over the rest of the guards who are placed under the suitor's command. That's not fair!" She finally directed her words towards Celestia. "Your highness, I know that you try your best to make the world right. I know that you can sometimes have short comings, with all the respect due in the world."

"No offense taken. Resume." Celestia replied, wanting the guardsmare to continue.

Surprised that the princess was willing to hear her made her stumble over her words more frequently, looking in every other direction but the princess who was actually smiling. "Your highness, w-whatever suitor you may have in secret is your business. But you're a st-strong and proud mare, you shouldn't have to take anything from those old, crusty geezers who do nothing but tell everyone else why they should live the way they want society to be."

Celestia sat, intrigued by her answer. "So are you implying that something needs to be changed?"

The tremors in her voice gave away her nervousness. "Yeah, the whole system needs to change. It was because of some secret suitor that's being dangled over your majesty's head is why you couldn't conduct a sweeping cleanse of the Corrotto District. And if small things like that can jeopardize the quality of life Equestrian citizens are seeking, then it all needs to change."

The guardsmare continued to look everywhere else but Celestia's face. Meanwhile, the princess observed Solemn's growing habit of twitching and fidgeting. "You're shaking, but I like your answer." I replied.

The guardsmare glanced at the princess, but looked away nervously. "H-How can I not shake? It's the princess I'm talking to like this. I'm already cursing at myself for being so outspoken to her, telling her what she needs to do or how she can improve things when it's already not my place to do so."

I turned to Celestia and pointed at the trembling guard. "It's her first time speaking out to you. She does this with me every day we see each other."

"I see that." She answered, causing Solemn to shrink against the pressure of being judged.

I gave the princess shrug. "It's your call, do you think you can trust her to work with us, her knowing the full intent and history of our cause?"

Celestia remained seated where she was, directing her question to the nervous mare. "Solemn Oath, how loyal to me are you?"

"Whatever you order, I'll abide." She said, still shaking and looking down to not see the princess.

Celestia looked to me, her expressions softened as she started to levitate her regalia from off of herself. "Captain, please hold my chest plate."

"Sure thing. It's not as heavy as the sun." I obeyed her command, lifting the item up to my shoulder.

Solemn took a peek towards the princess, seeing that she was stepping out of her slippers. Seeing the princess naked hooves made her blush an unusual amount, even her ears reddened as she performed an about-face. Celestia quietly waited, but the mare cited her reason for averting her gaze. "Your highness, I shouldn't look at you like this. I'm sorry, it's improper to watch you de-rank yourself. I cannot."

Celestia's head lowered, closing her eyes. "Solemn... please look at me."

"Your highness, it's rude for me to behold you outside of your glory. It's disrespectful─"

"There is little to glorify with a body like mine." Celestia interrupted, unfurling her wings to reveal her many scars.

"Your highness..." Solemn turned around to voice her opposition to the princess' statement, but was silence upon seeing the many scars and marks on her, including the cruel T-shaped scar where her chestplate once covered. The princess opened her eyes slowly, awaiting the mare's response. The only thing Solemn Oath could express was her disbelief. "You, it was you???"

Celestia shuddered through her breath herself, expressing her own trepidation. "Each time I do this, I'm still nervous about it. I wanted to hide this for the rest of my life, I wanted to keep this to myself. It wasn't until the captain had me step out of that shadow, to finally reveal to the world what evils befell me in my reign. It not only reminds me of the fact that not all power is absolute, but it reminds me that there are others who will face what I have if nothing is done."

Solemn clutched her chest, seeing the unsightly scar. She turned to me. "You knew?"

I promptly replied. "Yeah. It's why I do the things that cause me to see a shrink."

After a lengthy discussion about Celestia's past, Solemn waded past her own disappointment and sadness to come to the conclusion that all of what I was doing was for the better, even if the immediate circumstances didn't reflect that. And several boxes of tissues down the line, Solemn had grown firm in her stance as a loyalist to Celestia's cause. She dismissed herself sometime after and I wandered into the alleyway located just outside of the back gate of the castle.

Glancing around to ensure that there were no watchers, I started to wave my hand before the brick wall and chant. "I am the mare who arranges the blocks."

Not much was in the cards for my visit to the hidden catacombs. But I was sent a friendly message over on Instagram, needless to say who it was from. When I dropped by, I had noticed that the place was already fairly illuminated, which meant that there was someone already present. The princess waited patiently, sitting in place as her eyes watched my every move. "Hello again, Nondis."

"Huh, this is probably my first time being down here in ages." I said, getting reacclimated to the stale air and the copious number of cobwebs. "And certainly the first time I've seen you down here."

She awaited me to get closer. When I did, she turned herself around and stretched her wings open, indicating to me that she wished to be held. "Well it's a place one of our departed royals suggested as a hiding place. But even she was found out by the parliament."

I obliged her nonverbal request, wrapping my arms around her body. "How so?"

The princess' horn glowed dimly, her aura highlighting an old-looking book. At the bottom-left corner were two figures crossing horns violently, all while another waited on the other side of the page. "Jealous sibling couldn't stand the idea of his younger brother claiming the virginity of the mare he wanted for his own. So he eavesdropped on one of their meetings and spoke rumor of what was done."

"That's a good reason why hearsay isn't evidence in court." I said with a groan.

She continued her story. "Well hearsay aside, the evidence of her actions couldn't be held secret for long. Her belly started getting bigger and the dresses couldn't hide that for too long. She was stripped of her wings and forced to marry the next day as a pauper. In a cruel twist of fate, they then banished him to, and I quote, 'make an example of those who break the laws of our esteemed land'. From there, she elected to follow him some days after, wandering off to the outer wilds of Equestria's borders."

"And then they started over somewhere else, living happily ever after." I said with certainty.

Celestia hummed sadly. "The brother became a politician, but took his own life with poison after she rejected his offer to live a life of means. Turns out that her love for him was of far more wealth to her." The bottom of the page illustrated the event, the pointed pony figurine drinking a flask and then passing out at the bottom of the page before disappearing.

"I mean, what did he expect?"

Celestia pointed to the next page, highlighting the pointed mare who looked for her spouse. In time, she too disappeared. "As for your 'happily ever after', she wandered the ends of Equestria to find her love with her newborn foal, determined to become a family with him. But she was never to be seen again. Meanwhile, he was found in the sands of the Palomino Desert, seemingly to journey back with the intent to find her. Needless to say, there's no 'happily ever after' to that story." The scene at the bottom of the page only revealed a dismal looking skull left to bleach out in the wind. That too disappeared.

"Are all royal suitor stories always so dark and abysmal?" I asked, still holding on to the princess.

"Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadance were due to have a foal, as they gazed upon their glistening empire of crystal. The ponies of that land rejoiced for the soon-to-be heir. And they lived happily ever after." She looked back at me with a questioning shrug. "The end?"

I swiped my head from side to side, knowing damn well that story didn't come to a peaceful conclusion, not yet anyways. "Yeah, I guess that's not as rosy and Disney-friendly as many young kids want it to be, given the context."

"Of course, you understand why things need to change now." She said, smiling back at me. "Perhaps this is why I look to you so often."

She leaned back into my chest, I began to scratch behind her ears. "Do you really think Solemn is trustworthy?"

Pleased by my gesture, she fell all the more limp against me. "Not enough to know about us. But to know the why of what we're doing, yes."

"Well if you're happy with it, then I guess we can manage to make it work." I said, still a bit on the fence about the situation. However, I was cautiously optimistic.

"I suppose." The mare sighed, showing a lot of weight behind her breath.

"What's on your mind?" I asked.

"Nothing really, I'm just meandering through the moments, living for so long makes you think about the time that passes and what all changes comes as a result." She casually answered.

I went from scratching behind her ears to giving her shoulders and neck a rubbing down. "That's a pretty deep thought."

The princess swayed her head back and forth. "Yes, but it's not the one that gives me trouble. I'm so used to looking at the world from the view of a time nomad."

"Then what's the thing that's bothering you?" I questioned her.

She closed her eyes as she slightly lifted her head. "It's just a simple thing, really."

"How simple?"

She tilted her face where she could peek at me with only one eye open, pursing her lips. "Petty."

"How petty?"

She lifted her chin, gaining more of a view of me running my hand through her mane. "You."

"Me? What did I do?" I chuckled.

The princess applied her magic to my hand, guiding it to the midsection of her back. "It's not you per se, just the idea of having to lie about you. I can't stand not being able to defend you openly when you do something right, or when I know of the troubles that you go through. And the only thing I can do is watch as others tear you down."

"You do know I'm not new to this whole suitor thing, right?" I replied in deadpan.

"I know. It's just annoying when I have to look at others planting their hoof all over your face while calling you derogatory words. They don't even try to get to know the real you, it's all 'He doesn't belong' this, or 'He's just a pet for the young princess' that."

Admittedly, I've heard some of those words uttered as I passed through the castle halls, even down some of the streets of Ponyville on occasion. It's not anything new, but it still irked me at times to be delegated to just that. "Again, that's easy to deal with."

"But haven't you ever thought about how it makes you feel to have so many ponies assassinate your character?"

I know that last night was a borderline festival built around that concept. I can only imagine what Tuesday evening was going to be like. "Yeah, I can't help but to think about it. And I'm not gonna lie and say it doesn't bother me."

"So what do you do about it?" She inquired.

"Prove them wrong. And if they're not trying to see that, then don't bother. It's all you can do." As I finished my answer, I saw Celestia completely caught in trance, namely at me. "What?"

The mare shook herself out of her stare. "I still remember the pictures of you when you were younger, your mother showed them to us. I remember seeing the smiles on your young face. Even when you first arrived here, there was a brightness you had about you. But now you seem so... so─"

"Done?" I concluded.

"I was going to say... overburdened."

I exhaled exhaustively at the fact that my fatigue started showing in my face. Perhaps I need to spend more time in a mirror. "Life sucks right now. But hey, maybe there'll be a wonderful princess looking to make me a happy man at the end of a long day in my future..." I looked to the princess and gave a playful smirk. "Maybe?"

She blushed, but didn't look away, boldly accepting my expectations. "I already told you what to expect."

As my hand scratched her back, I went a little further down to the top of her hips. "Yeah, and I've only got a month now to make it happen."

"Has it been a month already?" She asked, amazed over how time had flew by.

"Yeah. It's been a month. It was a long one." I replied, looking back to this week exclusively.

Apparently I went back to wearing my fatigue on my face, because the princess had pulled me into an embrace over her shoulder. She began to run a hoof on my cheek. "I wonder what it is I could do to make you smile like you did in those pictures."

I snickered sarcastically. "Turn back time to the days before my grandma and her horse died. I'd like to have a bit of that, please."

The princess chortled in kind. "I don't think I can do all of that. If I could, I'd probably have dozens of re-do's with my first love."

"I bet you had the brightest smile on your face then." I replied.

The princess still showed her content in my presence, but showed remorse for her past. "No. I still had the stigma of banishing Luna to the moon. If you want me at my truly incorruptible joy, you'll have to go back to when my sister and I were but foals. Now that was a time where I was so carefree, often seen as reckless. My mother would brush my mane in the mornings and tell me stories of grand adventures and great beasts. Now that's my true nostalgia."

"How was it when you were a kid?" I said as I petted her sides.

"The air was fresh and damp. The weather was a little more unpredictable, but it was also kind on most days." She said, her eyes glowing brighter with an innocence so unrevealed to many, including myself up to that point. "I could remember the smells of the market. I could still smell the soil against the sweet scent of fresh fruit. The world was a lot bigger to me, everypony looked like smiling giants. The bakery wasn't as sweet as they are nowadays, but the smell of freshly-baked bread made my little tummy growl. My sister and I would run wild through the market, playing hide and go seek with some of the other vendors. I could remember one day Luna hid so well that I started crying. I was so upset that I was losing. The vendors pitied me so much that helped me find her when I couldn't, but they did the same for her when she couldn't find me. It's a fair trade. They would give us hints and tips on where to look next. And then our mother would call for us to come home. And of course, she'd give us a good talking to about getting messy out in town. I remember one time I fell into a boggy stream, my mother ordered at least five maids to clean me for two hours straight, I was such a mess!" The princess finished her flashback, giggling at the thought of her past before longingly sighing as the present started to settle back in her mind. "I miss those days."

"You ever wish you could stay there in time, hoping that the moment never ends?" I asked.

"Plenty of times. But that's not how life works."

"Ditto." I said, going back to my own moments of nostalgia. "Have you ever felt that about your first relationship?"

"Sometimes..." She said, levitating my hands around her belly, possibly to where her womb was. "The 'what could've been', I think of quite often."

I looked at her, sinking myself closer into her. "If I could ever give you back that moment, would you take it?"

"First, you would never give me back that moment because Sombra and I literally spent a day uninterrupted in each other's embrace. He was my first kiss, my first mate, my first love." She said quite emphatically. "Second, you're not the smooth talker he was. He was poetic with the way he spoke to me in those moments, I mean sure he probably had those sonnets about me written and rehearsed, but you're just making everything up as you go along. It's admirable, but sometimes I like creativity through order. And third, his embrace didn't leave any part of me untouched."

"Well isn't that some steamy details." I muttered in her ear.

The princess cooed as the heat from my voice tickled her ears. "But I can tell you the ways you dwarf my experiences with him."

"This I have to hear." I said, hugging her even tighter.

"Well, you have a much larger body while he was still shorter than me. Your arms cage me in when you snuggle me. The weight of you will have me yearning for air, but the warmth between us makes me want to draw you in closer against me. I'm sure you could even pick me up if you tried." She paused at that thought, biting her lips as a few ideas came to mind. Her hoof felt against my wrist, as she guided me to the top of her throat. "Your hands engulf my neck with it's grasp, threatening to crush me. But your fingers are so gentle and detailed that they tickle me in ways I didn't know existed." I lightly squeezed my fingers in, just to give her neck a light massage. Her eyes bulged from the squeeze and she almost whinnied at my actions. "It truly is exciting."

As my fingers traced the arc of her neck, the webbing between my thumb and index finger cradled into it just perfectly. I gently squeezed once more, causing her to quietly gasp. Seeing her try to suppress her desires drew my interest, and even I started to question just how far she would go if I had pushed a little further. I grew the more curious as to what all I could get away with. So I leaned into her, kissing her pearly neck, nibbling at the outward features with my lips. "You miss the sensation of a man whispering into your neck, don't you?"

The princess hummed with a mocking disposition. "You know, you should try to be a little more aggressive." It appeared that she was actively egging me on to go even further.

I took her teasing into consideration and removed the barrier of my lips from the equation. She was instead introduced into my teeth, mainly the pointed canines that outlined the forward corners of my mouth. She drew a sharp breath and slumped into my body while I bit down. Her eyes rolled back while an eager smile was etched to her lips. "You'll call me 'king'." I growled.

"You sound uncertain." She said, still goading me to go even further.

I took her words as further encouragement. I dared not to give her any room to long for the aggression she sought after. I coiled my arm around her waist, nibbling at her ears. "Hey, I'm trying. Who's to say that I'm not dedicated?"

Her foreleg hung as she gave me complete clearance to venture further. I snuck my hand between her haunches, rubbing the inside of them, intentionally highlighting the area that gave off the most heat. Her frustration began to build, and her impatience was starting to show as her hoof came down to guide me just that closer to her depths. "Getting warmer."

I withdrew my hand before she could guide me any further, which was a shame given the fact that her hips had raised up to allow me passage. But I knew what I sought out to do, I began to see the method of her madness, a way to establish control, a way to possibly tame that lust-driven beast hiding within that royal frame. "You like being subservient, don't you?"

The mare showed her disapproval by using her magic to pull my fingers close to the sequestered treasures she offered. "Maybe. Maybe I'm turned off by your revolting display of false dominance. Who's to say I'm not the dominant one here?"

I ran a finger up the length of her horn, causing her eyes to buck open for an instant. Her hindlegs shook, causing her to buckle back down under her own weight. "You like being taught." I whispered.

Her head fell, she uttered a snarl filled with nothing but disdain. "Sometimes. I like exploring new things."

She was becoming all the more pent up while I had my fingers dance around the surface of her soft underbelly. "You do like exploring, huh?"

"I've always been adventurous." She tried to hide the truth of her moaning that out, continuing to play it off.

"Oh... so you like the process, so much more than the result." I teased back, knowing she wasn't going to expect what I had in store for her next.

"The result is fine." She urged, trying to spark her magic one more time to get my hand underneath her. But I coiled my arm around her waist, using the other to clasp onto her chest. In doing that she was firmly secured as I lifted her from her seat, holding her up as if I was lifting a pet. The sudden sensation of not feeling the ground under her hooves had her feeling a bit anxious as her wings flared out to catch herself. But she looked back down to see it was still me who was holding her above the ground. "Mother of me!" She exclaimed.

I looked over to the table she once held the book on and threatened to slam her onto it. "How would you feel if I tossed you around a bit?"

The excitement on her face was purely childlike. I don't think I've ever seen her so eager to be made small. But she didn't stop her trying to play things off with her comments. "I-I may take some offense to it."

I threw her onto the table, her eyes widening once more as my hands pinned her down on either side. I pointed my knuckle against her chin, lifting her head as I kissed into her neck. "How often do you think of me?"

She tried to hold back her laborious breathing, still putting on airs over the situation. "...Not too often."

I pulled back, questioning her. "Oh, you wanna lie now?"

"You didn't expect me to just melt down that easy, did you?" She said with a smirk of proud arrogance.

I smiled back at her, letting her off the table to roam around as freely as she chose. "No. But I know what can."

"What?" She asked, raising herself from the table. "What?" She questioned once more, getting back to her hooves, all while using her tail to hide her own excitement. While I feigned a retreat, she smiled and strolled past me with a prideful countenance. "As I thought, you question your dominance─"

*SMACK*

The princess seized up as my hand struck the mark of the sun on her posterior. I looked on with a carnal sneer, satisifed in seeing the ripples of flesh quickly subside with every collision onto itself. The sun was finally motionless, but started to redden overtime with the mark of my palm and it's five fingers reaching far over the sun's flaming talons. "Stay." I firmly ordered. digging my fingers into her rear and separating her cheeks from one another.

The princess performed the quickest about-face I had ever seen, her ears and cheeks even redder than the mark I had left her with. "...Excuse me?" She said with every last bit of her being caught off guard.

I leaned down and gave her a brief reunion of our lips, providing her with just a sample of my tongue before briskly walking away. "Good girl." I said after patting her cheeks, watching the anger and embarrassment well up in her eyes. "I'll see you later."

She hollered out to me as I passed through the portal leading back to the world above. "You did not just seriously..."

In the brief seconds she started to voice her complaints, the only bit of me she saw was my hand poking through, my thumb rubbing sensually against my index and middle fingers. She knew exactly what it was I implied by that gesture. When my hand disappeared, she placed her hoof on the area where my hand once impacted her. Her magic appeared at the base of her tail, slowly peeing back to reveal the aftermath of my unexpected approach still tracing back to the hairs of her tail. The princess gritted her teeth and cursed my name.

"You craven... bastard."

The Next Morning...

From the moment I left Celestia by herself, I started to wonder if I had inadvertently gone too far in my trying to tease her. I thought a few times that she would probably come back to me and tell me what all I've done wrong and how she felt about it. It didn't help that I didn't see her at dinner either, I stayed up a little while and checked my Instagram feed. Nothing on that front from her, but I did take the time to catch up with current events. I even saw that she was online, but she didn't message me once like she would. Perhaps she was angry. "Maybe I'll find out in the morning." I thought to myself.

On that note, my eyes closed to the world for another few hours before opening again.

But what they opened to was quite a surprise. "Good morning."

Celestia had stood at the side of my bed, ensuring that she would be the first thing I saw today. Even my phone was put on silent, the alarms and notifications on it completely quiet. The princess smiled as I groggily wiped my eyes. "Wow, that's a hell of a face to wake up to."

The princess leaned down and placed her head on the side of me. "Hmm, you should keep talking."

"Why?" I asked tiredly.

The princess cheesed while her ears flicked at the sound of my voice. "Your voice is so much deeper when you wake up. It makes my ears tickle when I hear it."

Okay, that answered my question from last night. She wasn't too angry with me over what happened yesterday. In fact, she seemed more enthused to be around me today. Perhaps I might have drawn more of her interest by playing into her taunting. But I wasn't exactly in the mood to celebrate it just yet. "Shouldn't you be raising the sun or something?" I said while stretching my arms.

"The sun is up. You're not." She used her magic to pull the curtain back, letting in all the sunlight. In doing so, she also yanked the covers from over me. After that she stopped and raised her brows in curiosity. "And evidently, something of you seems to show my sun the proper respect."

I looked down to see that I was sporting the usual morning salute, barely hidden from her perspective by my boxers. "Oh shit. Hey, let me get by you."

I walked past her, holding my hands over my crotch to keep myself hidden. But she didn't seem to want me to hide it from her, which was a pretty enticing change in her usually prudish demeanor. Maybe yesterday was my unlocking another level of that feral beast she had hidden within. "Where do you think you're going?" She said, yanking my arm with her magic in hopes to cause a wardrobe malfunction.

While the slit of my boxers had but one button, it held strong in retaining the morning mass. I had to tap her horn to get her to stop. "Bathroom. I have to freshen up, for her majesty's nose is quite sensitive."

The mare's eyes trailed slowly downward from mine. "Indeed, the last thing you should be doing is walking around the castle smelling like days' past instead of... today's present."

I turned my back to her, briskly going into the bathroom to relieve myself and take a shower. As I was drying myself, I looked down at my partner in crime, seeing that he had started to wind down a little more after that last intentional cold burst of water. I did a little more maintenance for today's appearance, mainly in part by seeing that I did have a bit of clamminess to my skin. I washed my face and did some exfoliation, making sure that I was looking a little more alive.

Upon walking out of the bathroom, partly dressed in my room attire to anticipate my daily wardrobe, I saw that Celestia was in my bed, clutching my sheets to her face. "What are you doing?"

Her magic tugged at my arm again, pulling me into the bed. My body bounced on the mattress, her hooves tugged me into her further. "Lay down with me." She ordered, offering me very little choice in the matter.

"I forgot you like your snuggle time." I was defeated in the sense that I wasn't going to get out of this without giving her what she wanted. So I obliged her.

She nuzzled against my back, placing her ears against the rear of my chest. "We've been pretty separated since our last clandestine meetup."

"You mean since yesterday?" The bassy timbre of my voice still remained, but started to subside.

"No, I mean it's been a month since we've snuggled last." Her ears flicked once more from my voice. "And I'm very displeased with what happened yesterday."

"What displeased you so much?" I asked her.

She climbed up my back and gave me quite the earful. "You literally threw me against a table, grabbed my soul out of my throat, slapped me on my posterior, and left me to my lonesome to think about the way you've assaulted me. How fair is it that I have to go around the castle with that moment forever mocking me in my thoughts? Do you know what I had to do last night when I saw you online? I was forced to decompress all of that, and to no avail in attaining nearly the level of satisfaction you threatened to give me from that moment your fingers started prying me apart." She pretty much gave me a more direct answer about how she felt about yesterday. I was pleased with her emphatic response, but silently worried at the thought of the monster I awakened. "...You know what, don't ever do that again." She was lying.

"You don't seem too offended that I did that." I called her out.

"I'm so offended that I came to be the first thing you saw when you woke up this morning, just so I could voice my displeasure to you." She rebutted.

"All while snuggling me?" I also pointed out.

"I don't admire being in a situation like that where I'm compromised." She stressed.

"How were you compromised?" I teased.

"Nondis."

"Oh. You mean slightly aroused?" I continued to make fun of the princess.

"Slightly COMPROMISED." She further emphasized, not wanting to admit openly what she wanted to say out loud. "And you know we can't go that far until this legal fight is all over and done with."

"And what would be the problem with me doing things to you to leave you, in your words, even more compromised?" I said, flexing my fingers in air quotes.

"I would respectfully slap you and walk out of this room." She answered rather sweetly, though showing her intent to do as she said she would.

I kindly acknowledged her warning. "Okay. How about this, I make it up to you with a wing rub?"

"Oh no, no preening today, mister. Not this early in the morning. I remember what happened the last time."

"What was wrong with the last time?" I asked.

"The last time was in your world, we are in mine." She explained. "The last time was perfect for us, nopony could hear me say anything. Even now I'm concerned that there might be some odd pony trying to listen in to what you're doing in the mornings."

I shrugged off her immediate worry, but acknowledged her lasting concerns. "The paparazzi hasn't been around since the headlines started spewing some bullshit about me idolizing my home's political system. They still think I'm plotting to overthrow the royal family or something."

"If there's any way you'd be successful at it, it would probably be with the idea that I'd willingly make you a royal. It would be the only way that happens." She said, hugging against my back.

"And that's not something that would be ideal for us."

"In many instances, it wouldn't work. But I know a way it would." She introduced.

"What's that?" I asked.

The princess exhaled with misfortune. "Two royals are within their right to marry one another without the approval process. But... history has a cruel way of reminding me of how that hope escaped from me."

"Huh, and you didn't think to marry Prince Fair Charity when that opportunity arose?" I asked critically.

"He was too much of a playboy at the time. And then there was the period of resentment he had against me for not making some other guidelines clear when he was crowned. That whole phase was a good two years wasted."

"Yeah, I'd imagine it."

She rubbed her cheek to mine. "Now you know what all happened when I made you Captain of the Guard. imagine if I made you a royal on top of it, just for the sole purpose of a political marriage."

Considering the protests from the higher officers, I can only guess how well that would end if two of those parameters would've been met in the matter of a year, especially with a foreigner like me. "Yeah, civil war inbound."

"A lot of what I do has to be carefully calculated... even my time with you has to be down to the second." She said, quickly rising from her spot. "In speaking of which, my time here is close to spent. I should get moving."

"Alright." I said, sitting up from the bed.

"Another thing before I go about my schedule." She added before leaving. "I'm going to Ponyville this evening for a meeting with the municipal leaders there. I'll need you to act as my security, so you'd better find a suitable replacement for your post. Shining's gone back up north with Cadance, Blueblood has visited the city leaders of Manehattan today with all of his wives. So file down who you're going to use."

"I'll probably get Solemn to do it." I suggested. The princess walked up to me and gave me a quick peck on the lips, prompting me to hold her head still so I could embrace them further. "You better get moving before I find ways to keep you here."

"You better let go of me before I find a reason not to leave." She replied with a smirk, torn between stepping back away from me and pressing her hooves into my chest to shove me back into the bed.

"You must really want those foals, don't you?" I whispered playfully, earning a slap on my wrist from her wings.

"I should definitely go." She said, clearing her throat.

"Yeah, get a move on. Your first stop should be the bath. Don't want to be smelling like me walking around." I suggested.

"Agreed."

Walking through the halls as unusually quiet as she could be, Solemn Oath gazed around at the many guards and maids, wondering how many actually knew what she knew. Judging from the way they interacted with one another without any kind of care for the environment they worked within, she presumed not.

Her whole world had been flipped on it's axis, much of what she once perceived to be normal had suddenly seemed too privileged for her, especially with knowing how the princess suffered behind the scenes. Throughout yesterday's conversation, she was enlightened to the many struggles the royal family had to endure throughout the course of their reign. And it soured her view of the country she served, so much that she had began to question what she could do as soon as she regained her rank, or even if she could take pride in her role as a guard anymore.

The guardsmare moved in silence, all before a voice called out to her from behind. "Solemn, hey!" Even the sound of her own friends hailing her had startled her out of her thoughts. She looked back to see the trio of mares approaching her. Gleaming Brass was the one who initially called out to her, and again she addressed her friend. "We haven't heard much from you since the captain towed you away from us."

"I take it you've been really busy with the secret assignment again?" Cobalt questioned.

"Yeah, it's been... it's been a lot I've opened my eyes to." Solemn answered, still trying to gather her wits about her.

Dress Right chimed in with a question. "So now that the captain is probably on the hot seat, you get any dirt to help Major Humvee?"

"It's a classified assignment. Sorry, I can't say much." The sullen mare replied.

The mare's mum reaction to the question was something that brought silence upon the group, the other three looking to each other with uncertainty. Gleaming was the first to speak out. "We understand. If it helps you get back your position, then we'll wait until it's all clear for the debrief."

The mare nodded with appreciation. "Thanks for understanding."

Cobalt then added. "But hey, you know what I found out recently?"

"What?" Solemn asked.

"So get this, apparently the captain was found in Canterrot on Friday night, but he wasn't on a search. Turns out he was there to try and win a huge cash prize in some underground battle arena."

"I heard the audience didn't like him too much, they say he's way too boring." Gleaming supplemented.

"You'd think that being a suitor for a princess would incentivize some pizzazz, but he was just meandering apparently." Cobalt cosigned. "What do you think, Solemn?"

Trying to match the energy of her friends, she put on more of a front to still show some passion. "Yeah, you should've seen how he treated me on that raid last Sunday. He literally used me as a bargaining chip for some negotiations."

The group was left aghast at what Solemn unveiled. "What kind of negotiations?" Dress Right asked.

"Basically the sexual kind."

The three others showed their disgust. "Oh no." Dress Right interjected.

"See, I told you. Doesn't matter the species, all guys are the same." Cobalt snarled.

"Yeah. They are." Solemn replied, her words flowing on the current of how the princess was treated in the past.

"So what are you going to do about it?" Gleaming Brass inquired.

Solemn looked over to one of the windows in the hallway, seeing the princess giving the figure known as Nightmare Moon a blast from the elements to send her to the moon. "I'm gonna put my best hoof forward for the princess. That's all that matters to me. I swear, Princess Celestia needs to make some sweeping changes in the guard if we're ever going to succeed in the future. Mares outnumber stallions, but stallions have way more power and position than they need. And with my help, I feel like we'll get it right eventually."

Cobalt lifted her head to see the guards further down the way saluting as a tall figure came marching through. "Uh oh, captain douchebag on deck."

The four mares assumed their positions and snapped to salute the passing officer. "Good morning, ladies." I greeted the quartet of mares.

The others said nothing, but Solemn was the only one who greeted me back verbally, albeit with very little enthusiasm. "Morning, captain."

"Solemn, I need you to run some security on this evening with Princess Luna. Princess Celestia is going down to Ponyville today for a regions meeting with Mayor Mare. She will be running late tonight because of a few other engagements following that up. I've been asked to provide security for her and I'm probably going to get stuck with her until then."

Through our course on yesterday, the princess made it clear to Solemn that she was to continue displaying her usual vitriol to me as a way to minimize suspicion amongst the other guards. She did just that, in spades. "Well with all due respect, captain, but being stuck with the princess seems like a honor more than an inconvenience."

"Lady, have you had to chase after her on a business trip? She's everywhere at once. You'd be lucky to even get a good ten minutes of standing still." I complained.

"Well I respectfully disagree." She stepped forward, calling me out in front of her friends. "The princess does what she can to make sure that everyone in this country is happy. You should be honored that you get to serve alongside her."

In turn, I was to continue playing the role of being distrustful of the royal family, namely to appease the political onlookers and some of the other guards. "Trust me, being around royals are a pain in the ass."

"I'm sure that has nothing to do with your failed suitor status with Princess Twilight." Solemn replied, coming through with a low blow.

I was honestly caught off guard by the comment, which gave me plenty of fuel to pretend to be angry with her. "You watch your mouth, enlisted." I walked off, appearing to be miffed at her comment.

Solemn groaned as soon as I disappeared around the corner. "UGH! I hate him so much!"

Another officer walked by from further down the hall, appearing to have witnessed the entire encounter. "No kidding. That's the head of the princess' security? The country might as well be leaderless with him being around." Major Humvee approached the disrupted mare, trying to sympathize with her emotions.

"What kills me is that the princess is so hellbent on trying to keep him around." Solemn added, continuing to play her role.

"It's as I said, Sergeant Major Solemn Oath." Humvee walked over to the guardsmare, maintaining his distance as he pointed to the direction where the human disappeared to. "Everything that he does is a detriment to the guard and everything we stand for."

Solemn felt herself faltering in her performance, knowing the truth of the captain for herself. "I couldn't agree more, sir."

The Major then inquired about some intel on the captain. "I have to ask, did you run into any information about his doings?"

The mares surrounding Solemn looked to her, waiting to see what she would say. Solemn simply answered his question with one of the rumors that was issued to her. "Sir, one of my friends informed me that he was spotted in Canterrot this past Friday evening. We believe he was participating in some underground fighting syndicate, potentially for profits."

"Profits?" The stallion asked, appearing offended. "The gaud of that creature. Our training is meant to be used for the protection of Equestria and all that lives within her borders. Not some unceremonious illegal fighting ring for a selfish profit."

"I understand, sir." Solemn nodded.

With a smile of satisfaction, the major offered praise to the guardsmare. "Very good on the intel, Solemn Oath. I'll be sure to file a written report and have it on Crackdown's desk come tomorrow morning. Think of it as a repayment for how he embarrassed you."

"Yes sir." She replied.

The major walked off in the direction from whence he appeared, leaving the group of mares to cheer their friend. "Ooh! You go girl! More of that and the captain's seat will be all yours." Gleaming Brass expressed.

"It'll be what you've dreamed for the longest." Cobalt added.

"Yeah." Solemn felt herself becoming more disheartened by what she was doing in front of her friends, knowing that Celestia had intentionally kept the captain at his post to help her. She couldn't skate the fact that what the major was unwittingly doing was sabotaging the efforts of the princess herself. And at the end of it all, she was supposed to contribute to that. It left a sour taste in her mouth, and even more butterflies in her stomach. "What I've dreamed for..."

The saw her face and recognized that something was wrong. "You okay?" Dress Right questioned.

"I'm just thinking. Don't mind me."

Ponyville Town Hall
Later That Evening...

"With our current trend of growth, we're looking at a substantial population boom with the more recent incentives taking place. Ponyville has had a vast increase of tourism. With our coming buckball arena, and more commercial chains looking to anchor themselves comfortably in the downtown district, we could be looking at an increased desire to move here in town. And with a clean standard of living, we look to have a 29% increase in families electing to move here. That figure was surpassed by a margin of 12%. Granted, it could have a lot to do with our residential element bearers, but with the increase of guard activity in the past few months, confidence in our security couldn't be higher."

I stood in the front of the room by the stage Mayor Mare was speaking on. In the audience were a crowd of around twenty ponies, namely land developers and business owners who had free time to attend. There were a few journalists, but they were only there to jot down any updates on some of the commercial properties they were bringing in.

To be frank, I was pretty bored with the event. It wasn't their fault in any capacity, I just never had any vested interest in civic development. Most of the terms flew right over my head, equity this, commercial that, district planning blah-blah-blah. And many of the slides they had on the projector were just black-and-white diagrams and graphs. It was hard to keep up with.

Meanwhile, Celestia had no problems in keeping with the program. Her assistant had jotted down a lot of details, meanwhile she made mental notes of how the city was growing before her very eyes. Perhaps she vested interest in the town, especially watching it grow from a farming outpost, into a tiny little hamlet, and finally into a thriving community with it's own castle recently added to the skyline. Can't blame her for wanting to watch how it develops, especially since she lived long enough to watch it grow into what it is today.

My eyes had gotten watery, my jaw stretched as I yawned as quietly as I could out of respect. The mayor took notice of my boredom and poked a bit of fun at me. "Perhaps it has something to do with our residential human as well."

The room filled with the spattering of sensible chuckles, the princess herself getting involved in the fun. "So you say?" She then called out to me. "Captain, it seems that your appearance has changed the entire tourism industry."

"I don't know why. I'm just doing my job." I said, wiping my eyes clear, shaking myself awake.

"Oh ever the humble human." The mayor finished her lighthearted jabbing and went back to her presentation. "Returning to our topic of the evening, Ponyville is slowly adopting a bustling city within it's boarders. With that being said, we are looking to have a grant implemented for the purpose of renewing older buildings and repurposing them for commercial use, as well as to potentially expand our boarders eastward."

It was Celestia's turn to speak out. She stood from her seat and addressed the civic figure. "Mayor Mare, we will be delighted to consider your proposal. Equestria's growth is in the birth of new families as well as a dire need for more stallions to be born. As of recent decades, Ponyville has had a ratio between mares and stallions slowly but surely leveling to equal proportions. The future is bright for this place, for all of Equestria frankly. So we will have to give it a closer consideration, especially considering many of our more recent international encounters have taken place here, hosting yaks and even Saddle Arabians. You've inherited a wonderful town and turned it into a thriving community. I must commend you."

The mayor accepted her kind words, but diverted most of the credit to elsewhere. "Your highness, it's only because of your student's advice that I was able to get the town to this point. All praises should really go to her. I'm only saddened that she is not present to see what all is being done, but sometimes it's much more important to be out saving the world."

Again, I yawned for a moment, grabbing the room's attention. As I tried to shake myself awake again, I apologized to everyone in the room. "I'm sorry, y'all. I'll try to do better."

The mayor smiled gently as she gave me a nod. "I understand your work has you running rampant at times, captain. We'll call for a thirty minute recess and reconvene. Can't let her majesty's security collapse from exhaustion."

While I was about to tell her we didn't have to do that, I was really thankful for the opportunity to move my legs and work myself back into waking shape. As per my assignment, I began to shadow the princess before she turned to me with an order. "Captain, please wait here for a moment while I go speak with some of the board members. Keep the mayor company for the time being."

"Of course."

The mayor's assistant accompanied her while the tan-brown mare approached me with a cheerful attitude. "Captain, I couldn't help but to hear that you've gone and made a nest over in Canterlot. I trust the accommodations are to your liking."

"It's alright, still pretty quiet at night though." I replied.

The mayor took interest in my response. "Ah, I take it that you're a bit of a night owl then?"

"I always love a good night life. Back home there's a whole strip of restaurants and clubs that have live music and plenty of drinks too. Socialization is pretty rampant on the weekends." I explained. "Then again, it's a growing city, and it's also a college town, so one would expect there to be some venues catering to that demographic."

She took my testimony into advisement. "I know that Ponyville is a bit of a family-oriented establishment, but perhaps you could give me a few ideas on what you would like to see here in our humble little town." Placing her paperwork in the hooves of her assistant, she directed her elsewhere while she pointed me down the hall. "But first, I do have something to grab from my office. Would you be a kind escort and guide me along the way?"

"Sure thing." I answered, thinking nothing of it.

As we walked, the sounds of the chattering crowd had completely disappeared from our ears. All that could be heard was the sounds of her hoofsteps and her voice echoing through the halls. "Now captain, I have heard rumblings that have concerned me about what's been going on. Suddenly there have been many tabloids coming out with your name on them, and not in a favorable light."

"I can assure you that most of those are rumors."

"As troubling as it may be, I do have to consider that you may be undergoing some changes in your habits since the break-up with Princess Twilight Sparkle."

"It's just the job wearing me down." I replied.

"Now, I've gotten word about your mental health, is everything alright with you up there?"

"It's just some on the job stuff. No big deal." I reiterated.

She began to push further on the subject. "We say it's not a big deal when it comes to our minds not being healthy. But it's an even bigger deal when you find yourself not being able to sleep, eat, or even enjoy certain aspects of your day that you previously enjoyed. I'm sure you know that there are dangers to living a life full of secrecy and stress."

"Ms. Mayor, I don't think there is any cause for concern." I said, trying to change the subject. "But thank you for showing it."

"Understood. We shall leave it at that then." She said before pivoting to yet another topic I wasn't too thrilled about discussing. "How is your romance life?"

"It's... it's trying." I answered, attempting to be as polite as possible.

"You haven't found another marefriend, what is wrong with the mares up there? You'd think that they'd be lining the streets looking for a chance to claim a free suitor."

If only she knew... "I haven't had nearly the fanfare since the tabloids started coming out. I think it's a manufactured effort to lessen my status."

"I'm sure that can cause a tremendous amount of stress for you."

"It does." I confessed.

We came to the doors of her office, she opened them to grant me access to enter within. "Well just know that many ponies here don't see you as anything less than our residential human. If you feel that you need a slice of peace and quiet to return to, Ponyville is waiting to welcome you back home."

"Thank you, Ms. Mayor." I said as I walked into her office.

As the doors closed behind me, I saw the mayor trot over to her desk, opening a drawer to pull out a few folders with some names on the tabs. "Now, I was curious if you were looking for somepony to... converse with."

"Converse with as in how?" I asked.

"Oh well, you know, I mean just... friendship and harmony building."

"Friendship and harmony building?" Oh boy, I just got roped into a date selection.

She spread out the folders, putting out the names I assumed were interested in me. "It's just a suggestion. But I can already pull from a long list of mares who would be a great fit for you. There are plenty of mares here looking to make you happy."

There are plenty of mares AND STALLIONS wanting to make me happy at this rate. I'm just not in the mood. "With all due respect, I don't really do the whole herding thing."

"I never said you did. Each of these mares are all looking to make you a more relaxed soul after a long day of work."

I rolled my eyes, pretending to go along with it. "Who's this mare?" I pointed at the first name at the top of the pile.

"Our residential mailmare, Derpy has been a kind soul who often strikes out when it comes to small tasks. But as clumsy as she can be at times, she's a certain brand of sweet and kind with a bubbly personality you would love to be around."

In other words, she's a loveable ditz. I don't mean that in a bad way, but I would hate to be around her when she tries to cook breakfast. Scrambled eggs all over my face, what is a guy to do? Looking at her photo, I saw that she was cross-eyed. I'm not really discriminating, but I honestly can't bring myself to think of how she would look in a heated exchange of passion.... Pass. "Who's that?" I pulled at the next name I saw at random.

"She's a bit of a wild one, Berry Punch can be a fairly brash one if she gets one too many in her system. But she's just looking for her moment to break out. Maybe you could be that spark to guide her in the right direction."

Given the description, she must be a drunk. Looking at the photo, she is a complete drunk. In conclusion, consent seems to be completely ambiguous with that one, and I'm not trying to catch a case. "This one?"

"Oh, I know you'll like her. Her name is Aloe, she and her triplet sisters works at the Ponyville Spa Clinic. She has a way with her hooves, and she's fluent in Saddalnese. She's quite the exotic, and she loves to exchange cultures with anyone looking to listen."

Well that's different, I will say. But I know that Rarity gets half of her dirt from her frequent visits at the Ponyville Spa. She may be a bit of a chatter bug, if not too much of one. I looked down to see two folders on the desk. I pulled one up to see the name Rainbow Dash... the fuck? I immediately wrote off that name and saw yet another... that one grabbing a lot of my interest for the wrong reason. "Um..."

She looked to see what I was glancing at, her eyebrows shooting up as she saw her name at the bottom of the pile. "Good grief, how did that get in there!?" She snagged that folder off the desk with the speed of an embarrassed mare who's secret had been revealed. "Oh my, I see I must've mixed up the documents while looking to get my... uh... my... what was it again?"

In her attempt to quickly snag her file from the pile, her photo tumbled out of it and landed right back on the desk. Her whole face ran red. "Mayor Mare."

She scraped up her picture and tried to be nonchalant. "Yes, sir."

"Are you interested in me?" I questioned.

The mare tried to write herself off. "...Well I've had a few ideas, but nothing romantic. I just thought that we should─"

I knew she was talking smoke and mirrors, and pointed her out on that. "Ms. Mayor."

The once-firm mare had started to play with her mane, twirling her outmost curl. "Perhaps I've had a night or two thinking about a few things we could do together. An evening out on the town square is a pretty lovely place to discuss some future developments, especially when the sun is setting. Maybe we could talk over a few implementations you'd like to see here in town, a few ideas from your world perhaps?"

As cute as the attempt was, especially now looking at how she managed to even lure me here, I had to place her down gently. "Ma'am, I'm afraid that I cannot reciprocate that request."

She gave a resigned sigh, but still seemed high-spirited in spite of the rejection. "Well, I'm glad I still asked. At least I know I've given it my best shot."

"It's alright. I mean I appreciate the idea that you've given me some consideration. But I don't feel as if I'm able to on the behalf of my being so busy. I'm already swamped with my work schedule as is. I just can't commit to the dating scene like I want to." I explained, half of it really covering for the fact that I was already seeing the princess.

The mare didn't seem to buckle under the hit at all, taking the rejection to the chin. She nudged it off and kept it moving, which was pretty admirable in it's own right. "Well, if you ever find yourself not being as busy, I can still give you a few references for future possibilities."

"Ma'am, your kindness is very much appreciated." 'But I'm not really interested in you like that', those were the words I told myself to subtract out of consideration for her.

Thankfully, I didn't need to specify that. She walked from behind her desk and opened the door to the outside hall. "We should be getting back."

"Yeah, I'm sure the princess is worried about us." I added.

Our walk back into the main hall was pretty uneventful. We didn't talk, but it wasn't too awkward for me. I think it was just me getting used to being hit on. But I was still surprised that she had even dared to shoot her shot at me. At least she tried, and I'm sure she felt better in knowing she tried and got rejected instead of letting the question remain in the air.

When I got back, we went about our separate ways. She still maintained that air of professionalism with the others, carrying the same beat she walked out with.

"I trust that she's made her pitch to you."

I turned around to see the princess standing behind me. "Wait, how do you know that?" I asked.

"It's just something I know about her, I do actually get to know the mayors and city leaders of the country. Her thing is that she's reaching her mid forties and she's still single. She's worried that her career may keep her so busy that romance isn't a viable option. So she at least tries to appeal herself to some young stallions looking for... how should I say... supplementary assistance."

Well that explains a lot. "Oh, so she's a sugar momma."

"Beg your pardon?"

It seemed there was some more human jargon I had to explain to her. "A sugar momma, a lady looking to not be lonely and will pay any price to keep some company around. Sometimes married, sometimes not, usually often divorced nowadays. Now that company she's looking for is in regards to certain acts of affection, often considered as physical."

"Oh my." She said, giving Mayor Mare a glance.

I leaned down to whisper in her ear. "You're a sugar momma."

The princess gasped and quickly argued back. "I am not!"

"What am I to you then?" I asked with a smirk.

"A guard used for security purposes." She quietly answered, glancing around to see that no one was really paying us any attention.

"Okay then, so I'm just a guard now?" I teased, putting emphasis on our implied non-committal status.

"No, you're─" It took her a little while to see that I was playing with her. "Okay, you."

"In the modern dating world, we consider that as a playful taunt, to get you to admit something that you don't want to admit out loud. You were supposed to commit to the idea that I'm just a guard, but my response to that incentivized you to look at your preferred outlook."

The princess groaned. "Ugh! Must there be some emotional manipulation in a relationship to make it worthwhile?"

"Sometimes. Just as long as it's not taken too far." I answered.

"Why can't things just be so simple?"

"Because simple can be boring at times. What I did just now will have you remembering the moment for the immediate and not too distant future. The point is that I want to be an impression, but in a way that's not damaging or misunderstood. Timing is everything, context is half of it. It's when and how you use it whether or not it becomes a problem. Just some tips from the modern world for you since you wanted to know." I teased further.

"Well aren't you glad that little exchange took place outside of public view?" She sarcastically questioned.

"I'm glad we had it, Princess Sugar Momma." I joked.

I stopped leaning down and stood back up as if I was performing my usual duties. In time, we "I am going to press you into a wall if you keep calling me that."

"You and I both know that's what you want to do anyways." I mumbled under my breath, still ensuring the princess could hear me as I said it.

Celestia immediately took our conversation to another level, using her telepathy spell to communicate. "What I want to do is a totally different thing."

"And what's that?" I pretended to play on my phone as I asked her.

"I want to see just how long I can keep you under without breathing."

My phone nearly fumbled out of my hand in response to her blatantly sexual commentary. To my truth, I was starting to feel a notable shift in the orientation of my boxers. I had to adjust my legs to make it not as noticeable in the pants of my dress uniform. "Your highness. You know you're not supposed to be thinking about that in public." I whispered out the side of my mouth.

She pulled out her phone, pretending as though she did nothing wrong. "What I think is in my own mind. I cannot be punished for my thoughts alone."

"That's true, very true." I opened up my Instagram app, going to my messages. When her name popped up, I started plotting my way to get back at her for her comment.

"Also, what I say in my own mind is what the world can't hear. Remember? You can never prove that I said it to you when I simply convey it to you in this manner." She reiterated. "If you don't like it so much, then you should be willing to correct me on it."

"Were you always this devious?" I mumbled into my phone.

The princess seemed to start her own message chain under my name. "Yes, no, maybe, that's a question you'll have to discover the answer to."

Before she could, I had already finished mine and sent it out to her. "Okay, playing like that makes me... want to do things."

"What kind of things?" She asked. And in perfect timing, the app on her phone showed that she had a message pop into her inbox.

The princess gasped, holding a hoof to her lips. She slapped her wing at my back as she telepathically called me out. "Captain, for shame." I glanced back to see the princess fidgeting with her hindlegs. "Will you say nothing to defend your honor, or are you a devout worshipper of debauchery?"

While I was starting to feel the growth in my pants shift to a more prominent position, I waited for the princess' reply on the app, knowing she would probably demand that I'd leave elsewhere. But as the indicator showed that she was putting in a message, a mare called out to me from my immediate right side. "Sir captain!"

I wasn't familiar with the mare's voice, she completely startled me out of my phone. I began to subconsciously tell myself to find some other means to not be aroused. I nervously turned my body while I looked at the mare below. "Hey there... Do I know you?" I asked the purple earth pony mare.

The mare proudly introduced herself. "Oh posh, of course you do. I am Diamond Tiara's mother, Spoiled Rich. You've done a lot of running around and saving lives, it's awfully hard to keep up with you."

Diamond Tiara... Diamond Tiara... Wait, that was the little foal I rescued along with that other batch of poor souls I stopped from getting shipped out. Sadly, her butler didn't make it out alive. The sudden juxtaposition was a complete whiplash to my sex drive. "Well it's nice to meet you, ma'am."

I reached my hand out for the mare to shake, she did so emphatically. "Oh believe me when I say that you have been the topic of my daughter's discussion. She even had the whole room decorated with a bunch of your pictures and headlines. She's really into your current bad-boy phase."

"Is she now?" I asked, unsure of how to accept that.

The purple mare gave off a haughty chuckle. "Let me tell you, she does not go a day without snuggling that pillow with you on it."

Well this just took a turn for the awkward. "Wait, she has a body pillow... of me?" I didn't even know they made those, when did that start and who the hell is selling them!?

"Indeed she does, and you know how young impressionable mares idolize the guys that save their lives. Let's just say she's dreams of you every night and worships you every morning."

...I need to go, now. "Oh... 'Kay."

I wanted to turn away, but her hoof kept my hand in place. For an unassuming figure, she sure had some serious earth pony strength. "Now I know you're probably worried about that age thing, but I can assure you that she's willing to be patient until the time for her to come of age. And if I calculate the years, it should be at least another five before she's legal for marriage."

And there's the red flag. Time to not go and not get arrested. "Alrighty then─Is it warm in here? I think it's pretty stuffy, I should probably cool o─" Without warning, the back of my shirt was tugged at and all I felt was ice cold liquid trickle down my spine and further down my backside. I yanked back at my shirt and turned around. "AAAHH! WHAT THE SHIT!?"

Everyone looked at me as I yelled so loud that my voice echoed through the building. Everyone seemed surprised except for the voice behind me. "Oh, silly me. I seem to have bumped into you with my drink. I apologize captain."

Upon turning around and realizing it was the princess, I had to change my tone to a less confrontational one. "What did you spill on me?"

"I do believe I had some red punch from the bowl." She said, still holding a cup with the aforementioned beverage in her possession.

I began to yank my shirt out from my pants, directing some ice cubes away from me. "Aw shit. If I don't get to this, Rarity's gonna have my legs broke."

"Then I suggest that you go to the restroom and have that treated before you carry on." The princess urged.

"I'm gonna go do that. I'll be brief, your highness." I replied, still holding at the back of my uniform.

I quickly rushed through the halls to find an available bathroom, coming up on a single-user bathroom. Once I got in, I quickly took off my uniform jacket and the shirt that was underneath it. While I took a look at the shirt, I didn't really see anything outstanding that could've left a stain. I leaned in to sniff out what it was that she poured on me, even giving it a light lick before coming to the conclusion that it was just water.

A giggle sounded from beside me. I looked over to see Celestia snickering with a hoof over her mouth, I pointed to my shirt and annoyedly stared at her. "Now I know you didn't just prank me with some water."

The princess stepped into the bathroom, grinning like the troll she was. "I might have, so what?"

I patted down my shirt with a towel and tried to put it back on, not trying to be bare-chested in front of the princess. "Not that I don't appreciate the out from that awkward conversation─"

While I was about to feed my arms into the sleeves, she pulled the shirt off and flung it to the counter next to me. Her magic faded out as she locked the door behind her. "Quiet."

I blanked out for a moment, intrigued by her majesty's actions. The look in her eyes had already most of everything I needed to know. I smirked back at the fairly beautiful royal. "Oh, so you wanted some attention?"

She walked to me and placed a hoof at the center of my abdomen, brushing against the hairs that pointed down towards my pelvis. "Just a little." She said with a tilted head, her eyes on my chest.

"You're such a sugar momma." I joked quietly, earning a playful tap from the princess.

"Excuse you, I stopped aging at twenty-eight." She rebutted.

I then pointed out the truth of her age. "You've outlived some dynasties. You're like the mother of all cougars."

"I am not." She argued.

I leaned in and whispered into her ear. "Sabertooth tiger."

Celestia gasped, shocked that I actually went that far. "You impudent─" But her tirade was severed short by my giving her lips something to physically argue against. While I dove in on her, she pressured herself against me, her hoof running down the clefts of my abdomen. When we broke off, she continued to show some fight over my joke. "No, we are going to discuss that insult."

"No we're not." I said, giving her lips yet another embrace.

"Oh yes we are, once you stop kissing me." In between the brief moments of our separation, Celestia tried to incubate the argument, an attempt that ultimately fell in vain.

This time, I provided more than just my tongue to silence her. I slid my hands past her wings, letting my fingers grasp at the toned shape of her flanks. I squeezed them lightly, massaging them apart to cause the princess to stifle a yelp. "So is that the insult you wanted to address?" I muttered, knowing that my actions had officially killed every part of her resistance.

She glanced back at the door, whispering to me instead. "Captain, we are out in a public venue."

"I thought you were adventurous?" I whispered back, giving her cheek a lick.

"I am." She said with a shudder.

getting a firm grasp on her body, I picked up the princess and sat her down next to the sink. "Then try to stay quiet before someone sees us. We got another forty-five seconds before questions start coming to mind."

Still overwhelmed by not just her ignited sense of arousal, but also the bulge that started to appear at the crotch of my pants. "On the counter? Seriously?" She said, still gazing down at my growing libido.

I wrapped my arm around her hips, causing us to clash against one another. Her hind legs parted to allow me closer to her body. Her magic sparked in her horn while we made contact with one another, albeit under the restriction of my clothes and her tail. "Thirty seconds, your highness."

The first ten seconds of that warning was anything but a dignified display. The princess of the realm was essentially winning the war of our tongues, bombarding mine with a vicious assault. Separations were only the fraction of a second long, the skirmishes being far more the battle of attrition. While her tail was tucked between herself and me, I could still feel the heat of our connection. Her eyes trailed to my pants, her magic beginning to pull at the button of my pants and the buckle of my belt. Both items fell to the floor, leaving just my boxers and her tail as the only barriers between our crossing the line. "Finish what you've started." She whispered, grinding her hips into me.

Reaching down I could feel myself at length, twitching at my own touch. The princess eyes were intended to the measure of how I held myself down against my inner thigh. The base of my thumb massaged some of the ache from my endowment, causing me to pant in retaliation to the lust I tried not to act upon. I couldn't help but to attest to my own promiscuity in a crude yet upfront manner. "Fuck... I wanna make you cum."

She didn't seem to mind the language, almost embracing the raunchiness of it as her hoof prodded against the mound her tail concealed. "What I would do for another five minutes."

"All you got is five seconds, kiss me."

As our heated moment timed down, our lips reunited for the last time. But as we rushed our final encounter, the antics of the princess had completely thrown me for a loop. Her magic had not only tugged at my boxers, but effectively freed me. She had already started to mentally acquaint herself with my shape, offering a few strokes until the final second had elapsed. As I pulled away, I saw myself leaking a fair amount of my preload onto her tail. Her eyes didn't pay much attention to that, instead gazing at my every reaction to what had taken place. Her eyes had locked to mine, her lips bitten on, her mane very much pinker than usual, and her coos much more delectable and mature. The positioning of her hoof coupled by the censorship of her tail provided me with two things. The first being her direct intent, the second being the playful taunt of still denying me the sight of her royal wares.

She knew exactly what she wanted, she knew she couldn't have it, and she knew this was the only way to get back at me for yesterday. It worked in spades. The only thing I wanted to see next was her getting off of that counter and having her head rest between my legs in humble submission to me. That same look in her eyes, beneath me, waiting with baited breath for my next command... A de-facto queen in complete subjugation to my every sexual need. What man has never imagined the thrill of this fantasy, much less having done nothing when the possibility renders the chance of almost certainty?

As I am Mark Antony, Celestia is the Cleopatra I seek to breed.

A voice passing through the hall was what snapped me out of my trance. My eyes fluttered a brief while to regain a sense for the present. I quickly stepped back and stuffed myself back into hiding. "Holy shit. I don't know how long we can last like this." I muttered.

Celestia too was startled by the voice outside and had turned on the water to begin her own clean-up. "It's been ages since I've been this riled up. I have to wash my tail after that."

I checked the front of my pants, only detecting a faint musk that could easily be perfumed over. But I wouldn't check it for long out of a concern to not become more driven to stay behind and acquaint myself with the princess throat a second longer. I threw on my pants, hobbling as I tried to rush out. "Get freshened up real quick, I'll be outside in the main hall."

The princess' ears were a bright beet red as she grabbed a few paper towels lathered in some soap. "So was that some sort of lesson in modern dating?" She asked, turning herself to me while hiding the fact that much of her arousal had bridged the gap between her legs and her nethers.

"No. Just us trying to get in what we can fit in." I replied, putting back on my belt.

"I've never done that before." She replied bashfully.

"We'll try not to make that a daily thing." I warned.

The high princess began to wipe herself clean, wincing at the cold water cooling herself down. "Now I'm really looking forward to our next date. Maybe by then we can finally share more than a few minutes, or seconds in today's case."

"No kidding." I replied as another voice started walking right by the exit. The both of us held our breath until they had completely passed by. When we knew for certain that they were gone, I grabbed my phone to check the time. "I didn't even look at which bathroom this is, I just saw an open door with a sink inside."

"If I recall, I think this is Mayor Mare's private restroom." She pointed out, tossing me my shirt and upper-portion to my uniform to put back on. "Her office is only a door away, just barely separated by the custodian's closet."

"Good. In that case, I'll see you in a minute." I said before poking my head out of the bathroom. Gauging the traffic, I saw that there were no others coming from any direction. It was safe for me to leave unnoticed. I walked out and left the princess to her privacy.

Meanwhile, Celestia wiped herself and waited until the colors of her mane had returned to normal. As they slowly transitioned, the princess stared back at herself in the mirror and sighed with a quiet admittance.

"Twilight Sparkle, I see why you've gotten in trouble with this boy."

The Next Day...
***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

Upon the first light of the dawn, I made a concentrated effort to fly from the my own castle to meet with Princess Celestia in hers. As I finally arrived to my location, I walked into the first place I knew I would see her on a Monday morning. My presumptions were correct, she was sitting at the table in the royal dining hall, reading the headlines from the weekend and gathering information of what days were either going to be overcast, snowing, or partly cloudy as to properly gauge the heat of the sun.

As she typically would, she welcomed me to sit and eat with her. Along with that, we talked about what happened in the town hall yesterday. She informed me that the mayor had some relatively high words of praise to speak on my name. I told her that I was actually taken the day to further train Kalimba on her magic, at least to get her to the intermediate level she should be by her current age.

Of course, our conversation steered through various topics, some on the condition of the three humans we had in hiding over at the motel, the number of parties Pinkie had planned to propose, Rarity's stressing over her next lineup, Fluttershy's aspiring vision to build an animal sanctuary, and Applejack growing role in the business of Sweet Apple Acres. Eventually our conversation veered into the direction of our true topic of interest, my findings throughout the week.

Celestia was quietly mortified over the news of what was occurring over at the city morgue. She wasn't made aware of the massive amount of bodies being caught in the backlog. She quickly concluded that there had to be an emergency cremation mandate established to limit the spread of disease. However, she announced that her intention behind closed doors was to hinder the possibilities of an event where Umbra had a number of bodies at his disposal, allowing him to be in various places at any given time. But even I felt that was a bit of a reach, considering that we've only seen him take over one body at a time. Celestia still offered no quarter, citing that he might be withholding that ability to an unknown degree.

We then moved onto the subject of the big event at the arena later that evening. While she was pleased with the idea that my father had went with me throughout all of this, she wasn't as pleased to hear that Nondis was made to compete on the arena floor. A variety of worries had ran through her mind, including the possibility of him being gravely injured. That only had gotten noticeably worse when I informed her of what was to come tomorrow night.

Just as she was about to react to the topic, the person of interest had stepped into the room with a bright smile on his face, seemingly owning a complexion far better than the week's past. "Good morning, princesses."

Celestia and I quickly adjusted ourselves to greet the human. "Good morning Nondis." She welcomed.

He looked to me with a quirked brow, but still holding a smile on his lips. "I guess I missed the memo on the visit."

I quickly came up with what could've been the most socially boring topic to many in society in the wordiest fashion. "No, no memo had, we're just having some interesting conversation on the transient properties of multi-casting while using the manipulative factor of alicorn magic." I lied.

What I hadn't counted on was the fact that my wordy answer had gained his attention. "Sounds interesting, can I sit back and listen to learn more?"

My heart stopped for a moment, feeling a dull ache from the fact that he was actually interested in the topic I threw out there. But then again, he was always trying to know more about magic. Even since the days where our relationship first got started, he wanted to know more about magic and it's uses. While he couldn't use magic then, he was still interested in what made it tick. It was a pretty heartwarming development from him, given that his first interaction with magic prompted him to hide underneath the sheets of the bed we had him in.

A part of me wanted to dwell on the non-existent topic to him. But I knew that my heart had to be taken out of it. I had a problem in hesitation, and it showed to Celestia. She then answered in my stead. "It's an alicorn subject. Sorry, but it's restricted."

A part of him looked mildly disappointed to be on the outside looking into our conversation. "Oh... okay. I guess I'll pretend that I'm not here."

Celestia pressured him further. "Nondis, don't you have a trial to get ready for?"

"It's in the next hour." He replied.

"But weren't you going to use Single File as a witness?" She also pointed out.

He stopped to think for a bit until he had jumped out of his seat. "Oh yeah, I guess I could get that knocked out of the way."

"You'll probably need to leave now. Traffic is pretty arduous at this time of the morning, if I do recall your brothers mentioning it on my initial visit." For someone who had grown infatuated with him, she seemed pretty eager to get him out of the room.

He pulled out his phone, checking the time. "Shit, you're not lying. I'm gotta go now." He pocketed his phone and waved at us one the way out the door. "Be right back."

"Just be careful!" Celestia hollered back out to him, then casually returning her attention to me. "Now what were you saying?"

At times, I had to remember that Celestia had a unusual talent for staying focused on a particular subject matter. I was more amazed that she had the strength to put her own affections aside. Then again, she's had to do that for well over a millennium, so it shouldn't be that surprising. "I was saying about what they were going to do on tomorrow night."

"That." And then the worry walked right back into the room. Celestia started walking back and forth, trying to put together a plan. "I can't allocate any guards to make the attendance. The sight of him participating in something like this would put his standing at risk, I would be forced to act."

"And I can't search the morgue for any new clues AND keep an eye out for Nondis at the same time." I cited.

Celestia then made a note of my father in the midst of her tangent. "I certainly hate that Crescent had to come out of retirement for something like this. The last time he had to report to that place, he was under an agency name, Night Light to be more specific."

"Why that?" I asked curiously.

"Because your father was brutally efficient in dealing with threats. It's the reason why he was captain for a while."

"Dad never really goes into his military history. He only shows the medals and plaques in the cabinet, never talking about it to either me or Shining." I explained.

"It's probably a lot to do with that particular assignment. I do know that he used to frequent the place with a number of other guards. Of course, that was when Blueblood still had executive say in the guard's dealings."

While the topic digressed to my father, I offered to point out something towards her. "Dad saw something on Friday night, I think it was the face of one of his old comrades on a life-size doll. The doll was fighting Kalimba."

"I see." She answered gravely, knowing the venue and what that bit of news could've implied. "What did she say on her availability on Tuesday?" She walked back to the topic at hoof.

"They're keeping her preoccupied with some raffle winners. She won't be able to help him either." I replied.

The princess began to ponder the options available to her. "Should I send some guards to the morgue?"

"Not yet. I need to find more evidence linking Umbra to the place to write up the grounds for a warrant." I answered, not wanting to stir up too much attention to the relatively sensitive matter.

Celestia released a stressful groan. "We're getting warmer. But the warmer we get, the more dangerous it becomes for Nondis." She sat in her chair, trying to come to whatever conclusion she had in mind. "Is there no other way to keep an eye out for him?"

Looking at her, I could tell she deeply wanted to involve herself. But after what all I've seen, I had my list of concerns about it. Especially since there was no disguise small enough for her to be able to use. I began to think of what options I had available to me. "I could use my student to observe the arena, but I feel like she'll be at risk to relapse into old habits."

The princess raised her head, becoming curious over what I had announced. "A student? You have one of your own?"

"Her name is Starlight Glimmer. She's a powerful unicorn, but learned her craft through misguidance. I'm trying to correct her." I briefly summarized.

The princess nodded in acknowledgement. "I would very much like to meet this Starlight Glimmer."

"I'll set up a date for when you're not too terribly busy with paperwork and meetings." I said, summoning a small calendar to check on which days had her availability.

Celestia prompted an idea that came to her as a result of our conversation. "If I could make a suggestion, why not use your student to observe the dealings of the morgue? That way you can attend Nondis' bout on tomorrow night."

Even that idea had some of my concerns, but it was one I had considered at the moment. "I'm sure she's not a stranger to death, but I don't know if she can handle it on her own."

"Who do you think would accompany her then?"

I tapped my hoof to my chin, seeing what I could work out. My intention was to ensure that nopony would ever be alone throughout the night. "The only way I can think of is if dad goes with her. I can take my friends with me to help out if things get dire. They've been wanting to do their part for a while now, it's only fair that I give them the opportunity to see this for themselves."

The princess then added. "If that's the case, then I want you to utilize Kalimba for this. Since she and Nondis will be separated for the night, it's only fair that she'd guide you and the others through safely to and from the arena."

I shook my head. "She'll want to be with Nondis up to the point he fights. Her being with us would probably garner too much attention."

The princess took another route of approach, coming up with a dire alternative. "Then I suppose I will have very little choice in the matter but to use somepony who knows the grounds."

"And who's that?" I asked.

The princess shrugged as she sipped on her morning tea. "Who else other than the royal provocateur himself."

A royal provocateur? The only one I could even think of that would fit that description is... oh no. Oh no, please not that. "Eugh... Does it have to be him?"

"He's your best bet for security. I trained him myself anyhow."

"Seriously, him?" I asked with disgust.

The princess rolled her eyes at my disdain. "Yes, Twilight Sparkle. He may not look or act like it, but Blueblood is very much trustworthy in Canterrot."

I began to think of the various sins and venues that could avert the eyes of the herding prince. "But who's to say he won't get distracted?"

Celestia firmly answered my concerns with her highest assurance. "He may be the playboy of our lot, but there's a reason why he's been my spearhead for many a century. His focus is unparalleled. Just be cautious of your friends, he may find an interest in them. Particularly for Rarity."

I then gave her a stern warning. "If he asks my friends to do anything creepy, I'm sending him into next week."

The princess smiled. "Change that week to a month, and consider it done. He's a tough guy, he can take it."

Author's Note

Well hello. I know it's been a month and I was supposed to release this one sometime last month, but I had a hell of a busy July, even going into the release of the previous chapter. It goes without saying that I'm happy to be writing again.

Though this month comes with the IRL cost of my not having many bookings to keep my finances stable, I will be using some of my free time to build on the current arc. I'm already halfway done (maybe a good 40% done) with the next chapter.

In speaking of which, this chapter seems to be back on the shorter side of things (as if 23k words is short in any capacity). But then again, I didn't want to write only a ten thousand word chapter and have you guys waiting for the sequences to be doled out on a day-by-day basis. It makes more sense (to me) to cover more ground with all the events taking place, using the days between for some character development.

Other than that. I've tried to maintain a goal of having a chapter per month this year. I had to jump back in shape in May and June, so that's why there was so many chapters thrown out so quickly over those months. Meantime, this was supposed to be June's release with a deadline of mid-July... guess we know how well that went.

So whatever I don't get to by the year's end, I'll probably drop in another Christmas bomb (I'm trying to avoid that).

Thanks for being patient with me and reading along. I hope to see you next chapter.

Chapter CV

The halls of the castle were brightly lit with the sun's light cascading in from the east. Through the beams of light, small speckles of dust and hairs could be seen in the air. That seemed to be the only thing that resembled life within the brightly illuminated, yet fairly quiet rotunda housing the chamber of the parliament. My eyes remained placed between the reactions of some of the seated politicians and the pony being examined at the stand.

Single File continued to answer some of the questions that came from the inquiring member of the parliament, who seemed more intent on questioning him about his dealings as opposed to what Count had done directly. The questions from them were supposed to be impartial, non-biased in any way due to political affiliation. Since the entire room was under oath, any lie could be a damage to their status. And that was especially true since there was a few members of the press attending to make note of what was said.

Of course, the politician who asked questions still tried to feign some mode of impartiality. "And you say that the deceased pony has paid for these 'explicit services'?"

"Yes sir." Single File replied.

The stallion glanced at me for my reaction before carrying on. "And you admit your having witnessed these 'transactions' to occur?"

Much to the chagrin of the questioner, the young stallion summoned a scroll with a yellow ribbon tied around the center, unfurling the item to read it's contents. "Yes sir. He made a withdrawal from his joint account for that purpose to the amount of approximately 7,300 bits for the month of January of last year. He has also made a number of withdrawals for the following months. February a withdrawal of 6,150 bits, March a withdrawal of 6,780 bits, April a withdrawal of 7,110 bits, May a withdrawal of 4,320 bits, June 2,325 bits, July 1,830 bits, August 3,200 bits, September 8,390 bits, and then the October transaction which was a total withdrawal of 261,200 bits."

"Is there a reason why the numbers have dropped so low in the summer months?" His questions aligned with the case, but it still didn't delve deep enough into what all Count had done.

"Well sir, it is because estrus runs so rampant among mares that he would simply accommodate their requests. There's little need to make purchase for something that's so readily available and openly offered." Single closed his eyes and bowed his head. "I absolutely apologize for my crudeness in the answer I've provided."

"Carry on." Celestia ordered.

The senator who held the floor continued his line of questioning. "So can you explain that October transaction? Why the sudden jump to such an amount? If there were a graph presented to us to note the expenditures, that month would simply peak off of it."

"That would be the assassin he hired for the captain's life." At last, he was brought to answer an actual point of criticality.

"And why so much?" The politician asked.

"Because he factored in the distance and what he ultimately had to contend with."

"And what would that be?"

"That would be the arimaspi he had to navigate around." He explained.

He appeared disappointed with the fact that what he was getting was some uninspiring truth. "So this assassin, what was his name and what do you know of him?"

"His name was Gaston, a griffon from Griffonstone."

While the majority of the members had understood the weight of that response, the politician holding the floor tried not to delve into the account of the deceased party, but rather the pony who still lived to tell the tale. "You do realize that these circumstances are quite sensitive in their nature, as the griffon who was hired was a citizen of a foreign state."

"With all due respect, sir, but the griffons are incapable of carrying through a siege, we'd win any potential war with a single battle, especially with a human in our midst." The entire room was pretty shocked to hear that the once-proud isolationist city-state had devolved into such a quagmire. I could tell that even the princesses had some questions about it, especially dealing with the fact that the griffon nation hadn't really been heard from for some centuries due to their strict isolationist stance. However, Single File didn't let that topic linger for long, diverging back to the subject at hand. "But in all truth, Count knew that it could've been looked at by the international community at large and still elected to ignore it. I tried warning him of it, but he went forward anyway."

It appeared that the stallion throwing the questions at him seemed upset that Single File had absolved himself of any responsibilities on that subject. "So you accompanied him throughout these transactions. Have you participated in any of them?"

"No sir. I had a special somepony to go home to at the time."

"At the time?" The stallion rubbed his chin, at last finding the metaphorical lever to derail the topic of inquiry. "So are you implying that the two of you have distanced yourselves or separated in any way?"

Single appeared a bit uncomfortable talking about his private exchanges. "We have severed all ties of communication, yes."

"Why is that?" He pressed further.

"Sir, that question is not pertinent to the investigation." Single replied.

"I need to know if she knows of your dealings and have assisted you in any way─"

I quickly interrupted the proceedings by calling out to the princess. "Objection! Grounds of irrelevance, your highness."

Celestia wasted no time. "Sustained. Questioning of the witness' martial and/or personal relations shall be struck from the record." As that was said, I could hear the flipping of some pages in the notes of the journalists present, followed by the scribbling of some quills to omit the line of questioning from their notes.

Displeased, the politician looked at me and went about his line of questioning. "So with your having witnessed these events, what had programmed the late senator to make that decision to call a hit on the plaintiff?"

"The captain had lived through his assignment when it was perceived that he would not survive." Single's answer was one that widely opened the floodgates of opportunity to be pressed into further.

"So are you insinuating that the intention of this assignment was not to regain the riches of the kingdom, but rather a crude means of removing a political rival from the picture?" He asked, appearing surprised.

Single was having none of it. "You tell me, sir. Most of you voted to sustain the writ of quorum suspension to send the captain there."

The politician quickly got on the defensive. "It was a means to carry out our duty. We had no other choice but to suspend the quorum. He let an enemy of the kingdom loose, and his negligence further hindered the safety of the guards that died during her escape last month."

"Order!" Celestia interjected, banging her gavel. "The gentlecolt will only ask questions to the witness pertaining to the current case."

"Your highness, I am merely discussing the motive." He tried to explain, but even I knew that this was just a waste of time considering the massive openings he had provided for him to impartially pry into.

Seeing that truth, Celestia promptly dismissed him from the floor. "The defense shall now rest. The plaintiff shall now ask questions to the witness."

Finally, it was my turn.

As I walked towards the floor, I held in my hand a number of photos, files, folders, and documents to back my claims. I wasted no further time and went after the hard evidence I had in my hand. "Single File, do you recognize these documents?"

As soon as I put the items on the desk, he immediately confirmed on the items. "They are the list of recommended for the assignment draft."

"You say recommendations, but he also added those who would be considered inexperienced and ignored protections against those who had family die in the previous excursions. Is this true?"

"Yes." While this case was admittedly tilted into my favor from the start, I pressed on like I was prosecuting an actual criminal.

"Did he draft the list himself?"

"Yes."

"On what day did he draft the list?" I asked.

"He drafted it the morning after you were sentenced." He replied.

"The morning after. So you admit that he incentivized a bribe to include those names?" I questioned.

"Yes. The bribe was a sum of 3,500 bits from a business account of his."

Another door of opportunity opened, I vowed to pursue it to the fullest extent. "This other account, how much was remaining at the end of this transaction?"

"Approximately 302,719 bits."

"Was this account ever used after that?"

Single File held nothing back, spilling all the information on his former employer, spreading out the trail of breadcrumbs to the overarching conclusion of Count's corruption. Then again, it's actually him who was directing the entire case. "It was frozen shortly after the leak of that list, when his dealings were placed under royal audit and he himself was under legislative review."

And both Blue and I were assigned as the players to the game. I looked to the young mare, who seemed stable. I contiued to act out my role. "So he had no future access to those accounts after this particular transaction?"

"No sir. He did not touch the account. Most often times these accounts are only used for political fundraising purposes, campaign finance, and fine payments in regards to disciplinary actions. No personal interaction are to occur with these accounts under Title XII of the Parliamentary Purity Protection Act."

The quills of the journalist started to kindle smoke at the rate they started to take notes. And for the sake of the world at large, I proceeded to pursue it as Single had instructed me. "Would you consider that transaction personal in any way?"

"Indeed it was personal. He sent the list so that if you failed, your name would be heavily scrutinized. And with an element bearer's name on the list, there would be only more scrutiny if you had failed and come back without the element bearer being one of the survivors."

"Endangering Equestria?" I concluded?

"Yes."

If those quills weren't scraping the parchment, they were at least being etched into the hardbacks of those journals. The world was finally about to know who exactly was holding the decisive power in these halls. "Those are some pretty serious accounts." I replied, pressuring the primary issue further. "Back to these transactions using the joint account. Do you maintain that those transactions were in standing with any traditional values, without any bribery.

"No sir, these transactions were mostly pay-for-play."

I glanced over to Blue, who seemed mildly uncomfortable but prepared to hear the response. Concluding that she was mentally fortified to handle the results, I dug into the workings of the issue. "Describe this pay-for-play thing for me."

The senator from earlier called out to the princess. "Objection, your excellency. These actions have no merit of the incident at large."

While Celestia was rooting for me in private, she had no intention of letting that personal bias show in this instance. I still had to plead with her as if I wasn't associated with her in any way. "Your highness, these transactions indicate a disturbing trend of abuse and corruption. These items are pertinent to the motive and cause."

Being the fair judge, she allowed me to continue. "Carry on."

Single answered my question shortly after her call. "He would enter into the usual venues, pay a few prostitutes for some playtime. I would usually be left on the outside to listen in..." The young stallion appeared more uncomfortable as time progressed. "He would... he would assert himself forcefully. It's what he truly liked."

While I knew Blue would've been uncomfortable with the topic, I had to press her like I was actively trying to defeat her in a legitimate court case. "And these habits of abuse, can you describe them so that the court may hear?"

"A number of times he would role play as an educator or administrator. Often times, he would have the escort portray a young teenage filly or schoolmare. He would use a paddle or rod, strike at them for the purpose of disciplinary correction. I never personally seen these interactions, only hearing them through the door. Paddles are thin but offers more wind resistance when swung, but the impacts are more prominent. Rods are the exact opposite, their approach whistling but their impacts less notable. He would repeatedly utilize these methods for his escorts."

As we rehearsed, I would stop my line of questioning when the matter started to illustrate in graphic detail the ordeals he had to clean up after. I was vying to change the subject for Blue's sake...

But another senator cleared his throat and spoke out loudly to the princess while raising a hoof. "Your highness, I would like to request the floor to ask a few questions." Enter Damper Trot himself.

Celestia seemed wary of his prior connections to Count and spoke out a stiff warning. "The plaintiff has the floor."

Damper smirked as he stood. "Your highness, my questions will align with that of the plaintiff, not the defendant."

Blue appeared puzzled over what was going on. Even Single File was perplexed over the situation. Celestia didn't exactly trust the circumstances herself, turning to me for verification. "Plaintiff, what say you?"

I gave it some consideration, wanting to know what he would try to say in Count's defense. Perhaps he had some way he wanted to detract from the case. All I knew is if that was the case, he would be dismissed effective immediately. I wouldn't lose in a situation like that. "Your highness, if there is one question that deviates from the platform, I will ask that it be stricken from the record and the gentleman remain seated for the duration of this session."

"Very well then." She confirmed, pointing the senator to the floor to take my place.

While I was pretty confident that anything stupid he would try would only land himself in hot water. I had confidence this trial was still in my favor. "Damper Trot, you have the floor." I called out. stepping aside to let the senator carry on with the questioning.

He walked slowly past the stand and paid the young stallion no mind in his passage. "So, Single File, you say you were there to listen to these actions. Now, have you ever borne witness to the victims after these sessions?"

While this went against my plans, I didn't really stop it because it still presented itself in line with the questions I had asked, as well as the answers he provided. Still, Single wasn't comfortable about it. "...Yes."

Damper pressed further. "Can you describe to the court what condition he would leave these mares, with accuracy if you would?"

"...Bloodied. Barely walking at times. Some needed immediate medical attention."

Blue appeared infuriated, rightfully so, at the revelations being made. Single felt a stare of scorn coming from the mare as Damper continued. "Immediate medical attention. Sounds pretty serious for some mundane schoolgirl fantasy. Perhaps these abuses trend from some various experience or previous employment. But I digress, tell me of the one... two incidents that sticks out to you so far, can you recount those stories?"

The young stallion, who had planned out much of how this trial was going to go, was left without any roadmap on how to deal with the heat that was put on him. He raised his hoof to the princess. "Your highness, I would like to descend from the stand."

Damper made a strong point to keep him there. "The whole truth, Single File. Please oblige the oath you took for the stand."

I watched as the stallion turned his head away from the front, trying his best not to face the mare that stood at a stand across from him. He lowered his head to avoid any eye contact. From that I knew what story he was going to tell. "There were two incidents... The first was a young mare he met up with some years ago, a college graduate. She invited him to tea at a restaurant downtown. He was pretty quiet throughout the meeting, he never complained at the conversation, just... observing of the mare. She and he went elsewhere, I was immediately dismissed from that moment on. I returned to the office and did my usual tasks. He wouldn't return until later that evening. But when he did... he was the happiest he could've ever been, he smiled so brightly, even sharing drinks with me."

I opted to jump in, trying to regain some control over the direction of this trial. "Your highness, I would like to assume the floor."

"I'm not done, sir." Damper called out, rapidly returning his attention to Single. "Now, can you identify the mare he left with by pointing to her in this room?"

Single File hesitated for a while, trying not to acquiesce the oath of truth he was being held under. I tried to jump in to retain the face of our plan. "Objection! This has no merit on the current case."

The senator then pleaded with the princess. "Your highness, I am merely exposing the truth of the motive for the trend of abuses. Please allow me to expose the corruption that took place in these halls."

Celestia shut her eyes for a moment, taking a heavy breath before speaking. "...Carry on."

Though she was being as impartial as what her job outlined, I was still shocked that she didn't have any protest to what was taking place. Damper Trot continued to pressure Single File. "Please identify the mare he walked away with on that fateful day."

The young stallion quietly answered, not even trying to look ahead at Blue. "...A mare of familial relation." Most of the room already connected the dots as the answer left his lips, looking down to the blue mare sitting across from him.

Damper applied more pressure to not just Single File, but also Blue. "Now, what do you assume happened to that mare when you parted from your former boss?"

"I believe they had an encounter." He replied silently.

"You say they had an encounter. What kind?" Damper loudly asked. "Please speak it loudly so that the court may hear."

"...Sexual." The room gasped and glanced down at the mare below, who was quietly fielding every emotion pertaining to grief and panic.

"Did he ever speak of it?" Pressured the senator.

He glanced up, seeing the mare across from him in visual distress. At that moment, he crumbled under the weight of his own guilt. "...I... don't recall─"

"Might I remind you that you're under oath." While I wanted to stop him, I knew that my doing so would look too suspicious to be considered as anything but collusion. I wanted to interject, but I could see the young stallion eyeing me as if he didn't want me to. I suppose he was undergoing the same thoughts I had.

He swallowed his guilt for a moment, letting the truth regurgitate in it's stead. "...He said... she was sublime... That he had never felt anything so... vibrant and young... And he felt like he won. He kept saying that he won."

Even Blue let out a sigh of disgust, but mainly to forward herself for what came next. Damper saw this and continued to apply the pressure. "And why do you think he said that?"

"...I don't know. I truly don't." Single File appeared defeated, but he did exactly what he set himself out to do. The only problem was that he didn't want to upset Blue too much in the process, and that end could no longer be avoided.

But then... he pressed even harder. "So you were not made aware of his past, how his wife committed suicide to legally relinquish the burden of the foals from his responsibility, the heirs to her wealth?"

"No sir." Single appeared as if he had stumbled into new territory, as did I.

And so he pressed... "And perhaps you were not made aware of his past influence as an educator?"

"No sir."

The senator eyed the princess and then the young heiress to her family fortune representing her father. "Perhaps you were not made aware of his public criminal record, the one he had swept under the rug for all these years. It's common knowledge to many of us in the parliament that he had been accused of performing memory spells on young foals during his teaching tenure prior to his name change."

Each one of us had a physical contortion of some sort, especially Blue. But no one had been so visibly unnerved like Single File was in that moment. "No sir. I was not made aware."

Damper smiled as he walked away from the stand, eyeing the young mare representing her own father. "Well that explanation will be for another day. However, his abuses have been more in line with his educator past. It's is the reason for his sexual habits. And I will point out that his action towards that particular mare coincided with his penchant for vastly younger... and much more vulnerable mares." Blue rolled her eyes and collapsed on the spot, unable to process exactly what kind of a stallion her father was, the conflicting truth of her being the heir to that same monster. Meanwhile, Damper was satisfied with the reaction he had gotten out of her and nodded at me. "I yield back my time."

While some nearby politicians checked in on the distraught daughter, I called out to the princess a request. "The plaintiff recommends a recess." I couldn't even process what was revealed to me. I knew nothing of his past other than the facts that he had a bad marriage built on appeasement, then ended in a plot to separate the kids from him. But with that bit of information added to context, my mind could flash back to the mask of Blue's mother. The pain on her face... was caused by a potential pedophile. "Holy fucking shit!" I just crouched down and shouted that into my hands.

I was not ready for today.

Celestia didn't appear as distraught as she announced to the court her decision. "This matter shall adjourn for the day, we shall reconvene on this matter Thursday."

The gavel banged and the room started to murmur out of order. Single trotted away from the stand as he remained utterly puzzled by the revelations. "This is royally fucked." He said with a sigh.

"No kidding. How the hell did you not know about THAT!?" I questioned him.

"I'm sorry!" He said genuinely, trying to account to his own innocence in the matter. "I don't know his past secrets, I only know his transaction history from the time we worked together!"

While I heard speakings of water and air from the corner she collapsed at, I realized her mental heath was basically shot. There was no chance of a recovery from anything. "Blue's a mess over there. She can't go on like this."

"What now?" Single asked, appearing dismayed for the mare.

"Well I hate to say it, but that bastard might have won us the fucking case." While I could admit that, I wasn't anywhere near enthusiastic, especially knowing how both Blue and Alabaster will take the information that was dispensed today. "But I think it came at the cost of Blue's sanity. If she looks into that shit her dad did, I think we might officially be in the role of suicide prevention."

"Why do you say that?" Single asked.

The first thing my mind went back to was the sight of her pulling those bottles of pills out of her cabinet. "...So, let's talk about what happened last Tuesday in the VIP Lounge."

"How bad is it?" He asked.

I simply explained it in a way where he would understand how that could be implied. "Well... daddy and mommy paid her a visit."

I held my hand out, summoning a death mask of Count himself. The young stallion flinched backwards. "Fuck's sake."

"You think that's bad, you should see the mom."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

After a moment of explanation, I had issued a brief meeting for some guests to the human world. Instead of meeting up someplace where we could easily be eavesdropped, I requested that we'd meet up in Mel's apartment. Not only is it a good place to meet for the day, it's an even better place to get distracted outside of the world they've grown accustomed to.

Both Hermes and I were already waiting on the couch. Normally, the TV would be on because he'd be trying to learn more about global politics and pop culture in general. But this time, the TV was muted as we waited for our two new guests to walk through the portal.

Eventually, they did just that. "Oh wow... This place is a bit... tall."

"So this is the human world..."

I called out to the bedroom from where I sat. "Hey guys, we're in here!"

The sound of hooves clopping against the linoleum floor grew closer until the two guests had appeared from within the hallway. Alabaster and Blue both seemed amazed by what they were walking into. "What is this place?"

"A movie projector?" Blue questioned.

"You could say that. But in reality the projector is actually built in." Hermes explained.

The two ponies looked oddly at Hermes as he spoke. "Oh yeah, introductions are in order. Hermes, this is Blue Royal and Alabaster Charm. Alabaster, Blue, this is Hermes. You might know him as the pony formerly known as Single File."

"So... you were my father's assistant?" Alabaster said, looking up at the ginger-haired man.

"So... you're my former boss' son. I hear of you, just never met you." Hermes replied.

"I'm sorry to be crass, but I considered that fact an honor up to this point." Alabaster said before extending a hoof. "As for now, we work together."

"It's better to be working with you guys as opposed to my former options." Hermes leaned down and reciprocated the handshake. "Today showed me that much."

"You look better than you did on Friday." I said, noting how he wasn't getting around with the help of his sister today.

The stallion replied with a light voice. "You look better in general. I see you've started a morning routine on your facial. I love the brightness that's on your face."

"Everybody was saying I was looking pretty dead, so I perked up a little. My grandfather always told me to look the part of what I want to be, not what I'm going through." I replied.

"That's some good advice." He agreed.

My attention then turned to Blue. "You okay?"

"I'll be fine soon enough. I've finished taking those damned pills after my episode. I was wondering when they were actually going to do something, but I see your world is an even better distraction. I can genuinely say I'm quite mystified over the results."

"You just be careful of how many of those you take. I looked at the side effects and those things can put you out if you're not careful." I warned.

"I know what I'm doing." She argued before noticing what was taking place on the TV screen. "I never seen a movie based around a drink."

"It's an advertisement, just like you'd hear on the radio." Hermes explained.

I sat myself down and immediately went to the channel of politics and unmuted the TV. "Members of French law enforcement are continuing in their search to find more information pertaining to the terrorist attack earlier this month at a Paris-centralized magazine publisher Charlie Hebdo, taking the lives of twelve. French president Francois Holland stating that 'France is in shock.' President Obama had this to say─" I immediately put it back on mute. "Holy shit, what the hell did I miss?"

"Mass shooting in Paris around two weeks ago. They say the assailants were devout Islamists, saying that the depiction of the Prophet Mohamed was derogatory and a chief insult to their religion." Hermes added.

"Okay, that's a different monster I don't even care to get into." I replied. "We got our own demon of the day."

"What demon?" He asked.

"The one we don't like to talk about. The one you used to work for." I answered.

"Oh yeah... that."

Blue raised a hoof and added. "I did a lookup before we left."

The both of us looked to one another. "And?" Hermes questioned.

"...It's all true. I now understand in full why our mother did what she did."

I turned off the TV, removing the distraction from the room so we could talk. "What happened?"

"That monster I happen to be biologically kin to was messing with fillies during his tenure." She answered.

"Mom walked in on him doing it but he didn't even notice her. She saw him through a cracked door." Alabaster added, taking a deep breath. "For years I wondered why she went from being so kind and nurturing in that moment, to being so cautious and protective. But as time came to a head, I realized it was when she saw the monster for what he was."

I looked to Alabaster. "So how about you? How are you handling it?"

"I've known it for years. I was with her at that moment, but I never understood until later why her face changed up so much. It wasn't until I saw him years later when every last one of my instincts confirmed who and what he was."

"You've known! And you didn't tell me!?" Blue asked her brother, appearing very much upset.

"I wanted to, but you were so eager to see him that you didn't care about what could've happened. I thought you would've seen it for yourself, but I was wrong.... Even up to now, I can't deal mentally with what I let happen to you... twice."

I then jumped in. "Well whatever happened, the two of you aren't to blame for any of it. Your mom tried saving you from it, she did it the only way she knew how. And if you ever did come back, she would've wanted you to see that truth for yourselves."

"Mom's suicide wasn't because of her finding out what happened. It was because she felt guilty about it." Alabaster rose from his seat. "I mean think about it, she and him were forcibly married. He was at least a good eight years younger than she was. And then she offered to placate to his every desire. Hell, the mansion I live in is a standing testimony of how far my mother went to try and appease him and his various lusts for mares. She actually helped guide him in that direction."

"Especially after mom had me." Blue said, closing her eyes. "I was the unsigned agreement between my mother and a maid to use my father's afterthoughts for a chance of bearing another foal."

"I remember the maids disappearing after that moment he found out." The young stallion recalled. "I remember the day he loudly kicked one out. The hour after that, they all left. The house was so eerily quiet from that point on."

"That's a pretty harrowing memory to recall." I said, understanding how it might have affected his opinion of his father at an early age. "But it's still nobody's fault but his own. He had every bit of control over himself, he elected to do what he did on his own free will. The fact that he changed his name out of disgrace should tell you that he was more than aware of what the hell he did. Fuck that guy, your mom's blameless for him disregarding his own self-control."

Blue opened her eyes, their becoming mistier by the second. "I can't help but to wonder what mom was thinking in her last moments. Her face was so..."

"Can we all agree that Damper Trot did that shit earlier to fuck with her exclusively?" Hermes questioned.

Alabaster sat silent for a while, the room humming from the heating unit kicking in. "I hate that things are the way that they are. But we'll try to make it work for ourselves." The cream-colored stallion spoke.

I turned to his younger sister, seeing that she was quietly crying. I walked into the kitchen and grabbed some paper towels for her to wipe her tears with. I then offered it to her. "Blue, you going to be okay?"

The mare cleared her throat, staving off more tears. "I don't have a choice, I have to be."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Later that Evening...

Throughout our time at the apartment, we spent some time to help cheer up Blue with some human activities, namely showing her what my home town looks like via pictures. Even them gazing out the window was pretty awe-inspiring. Blue gradually became more enthused with how advanced our society was, even clamoring for more information about what all was going on locally. I couldn't promise her much in terms of showing her and her brother around, but I could at least explain it to her.

In spite of what was revealed today, she felt a lot better and became more optimistic.

We stayed there for the remainder of daylight hours, ordering in some Chinese food and enjoying a few movies. Once that was done, Hermes went about his own way, the two siblings did the same themselves, and I was brought back to the fold of my room to check on any security developments. After another two hours of speeding through footage, nothing of suspicion had occurred. So I elected to clear my mind of one more lingering topic.

A journey through the darkened halls of the castle later and I was brought to the large gold-encrusted doors of the high princess. I knocked, unafraid of being seen.

From within, she called back. "Who is it?"

"Your highness, it's me." I answered.

Immediately recognizing my voice, she had no hesitation towards opening the doors. "Enter." Walking into the room, I could tell from the atmosphere of the place that she was anticipating a serious discussion. It wasn't that any part of the room had been changed or altered to make it seem that way, but rather she was not as eager to greet me. She was stationary, quiet, forward.

I closed the doors behind me and then questioned her. "How's the day been?"

Again, she was very short with her answer. "It's been a work of sorts. How are you?"

Since she was at least anticipating what I was wanting to discuss, I simply started on the topic. "I'm still working through what happened earlier today. So do you wanna talk about what was discussed during the trial?"

"Do you mean of Count's past?" She questioned, showing no surprise.

"Last I checked, he was an educator at your school, correct?"

"That he was." She confessed, summoning an almanac pertaining to the institution of her namesake. She levitated the book directly to the table beside her.

Walking to the table to open the book to it's table of contents, I pressed her on the issue. "I just want to know if you made any attempts to sweep this shit under the rug. I'm not trying to beat around it, I just want a forward answer."

She then replied. "Honestly, the reality of that circumstance is much harder to fathom─"

I interrupted her, demanding a simple answer. "Yes... or no."

"No." She quickly replied.

I urged her for an explanation. "Then why has no one heard anything about it? You would think a dangerous predator like that would be rotting behind a jail cell, instead of making the laws that ponies ultimately get arrested and sentenced over."

She looked to me and flipped the pages to the profile of one Count DuMoneé, or Count Penance as he was known at the time. In it sat a picture of the educator with a distinguished profile, a raised brow, and a firm lip. "I'm not going to hide anything from you if you ask me for it."

While I was trying not to boil off at her, I still felt upset about my need for having to discuss this topic. I pointed at the profile picture. "So explain what happened."

The profile began to move, illustrating in great detail his quirkiness and mannerisms. It appeared that he looked to the camera after capturing his profile, he then rolled his eyes and gave the camera a smirk. Some part of me grew disgusted at the picture as she told her side of the story. "It all began when there was a report made by a concerned parent, saying that their foal had completely forgotten the lesson plan for the previous three days. And of course, I had a complete system that highly encouraged organization and the remembrance of the lectures that were given on those days. But when she looked at her agenda, she couldn't remember anything that she had written down herself. She suffered a bad grade because of it, and the parents were very strict about her grades."

"Okay, what does this have to do with Count?" I asked.

"Count was her mentor, taking her to tutoring sessions after school."

"And you allowed this to happen?" I pressed further.

The illustration moved a little more, showing the stallion snickering before breaking out into a playful laugh before resetting to it's initial pose. "I wasn't aware of his intentions. I was only aware that he had a fairly good track record of enhancing students who were considered as remedial casters, ponies who couldn't use magic properly in the way they should by their age. A week or month with him yielded optimal results. His method was never revealed to me at any point, which I should've pressured him on that topic more. I regret that I tried to display a ground of trust with the one professor who had offered such promise."

I looked at my hand, watching it start to glow it's white sparkling aura and levitated a nearby quill into my possession. "You know, most of my magic is a pick-up from his methods. I can tell you from all the books that were literally thrown at me that I didn't have too much fun with it."

"Somepony threw books at you?" She asked, appearing quite unnerved.

"Alabaster, his son. He gave me some magic lessons to get me past the basics and launch me into the beginning stages of the intermediates of spells. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be able to transform myself so readily and consistently." I glanced down to the portrait, it appeared to have looped that one segment of him on repeat. "Still, I thought that these lesson plans were for teenagers looking to have a Mr. Miyagi teach them how to use magic better. I didn't think this was for some actual kids. Sick bastard."

Celestia closed her eyes and sighed in defeat. "This is worse than I imagined. He forced stress on their young minds knowing that too much stress on a young caster could cause disastrous results." She cited. I couldn't disagree with her as I had ran into the warning signs of overexertion myself.

Even then, I still learned how to operate to a point where I could moderate how much magic I could use, and that was with Count's training regiment. I admitted my own successes with it, while still being sympathetic. "It couldn't have been too disastrous if it worked for me. But still, I don't like the idea of having books and shit thrown my way to catch. And I'm sure those kids didn't like it either."

Celestia provided her own perspective once more. "But the problem is that I saw how he interacted with those foals back then. He was kind and passionate about helping them. I didn't think that he was actually being that cruel to them."

"Celestia, he had a daughter at home he disowned repeatedly to her face. He had a son he tried to leverage away from his mom, but couldn't. He had a wife he absolutely hated being around. Those are the guys who put up the best facades in public. When shit goes south at home, they look up north to everybody else." I looked down at the picture and once more took in the reference of his past visage. "I know you probably didn't have the context to his history, and it was hard for you to see that at the time. Hindsight is a bitch. But there couldn't be any more signs of something going bad when he doesn't talk about his own family much."

"That's the thing!" She said as she flipped to a page where he was speaking with some of the other staff members in a room. "He gloated on and on about how his son looked to be a promising magic user with a mind for business. Everywhere he went, he would gloat about his son, how he would grow up to be a brilliant business pony and raise a family with a beautiful wife. He outlined that vision every day we spoke on it."

That picture moved as well, showing how he was discussing his work with some of the other instructors. "Well I guess his vision had all sorts of holes in it. His son turned out to be rebellious, and probably to the worst of his fears a closeted homosexual. The only thing he could probably hold on to was the fact that his daughter was a competent business pony with a strong potential for magic. It's a cruel irony that she became everything he wanted in his son, just in the form of a young, impressionable mare."

As I finished my rant, the last bit of words started to echo in my mind. As they did, I could recall what Damper had said to Blue earlier, calling her a young and vulnerable mare. All the things his wife did for him, the enthusiasm she was said to have when reuniting with him that first day. I started to see the parallels, the patterns of abuse and mistreatment. It dawned on me what his intentions were, why he was so jubilant after reuniting with Single File. A prettier face, a tinier waist, and a lot of assets in his face. Cheerful and bright, a foal of his own pride and ambitions, a foal afforded with all the freedoms he couldn't access at a young age, one he mentally disconnected with from the start.

He saw opportunity. "...No fucking way."

I rose from my seat, beginning to pace back and forth. "What?" Celestia questioned, concerned for why I had suddenly jumped up.

I started mumbling to myself at that point. "That's why he said he won. He saw that his daughter was so open to being around him that he felt he could manipulate her into doing whatever he wanted. Business deals, property acquisition, an unlimited purse of funding, a goddamn sex toy all built in one. The asshole actually dumbed his own flesh and blood down to... to a fleshlight wallet."

"Pardon me?" She asked, very much confused.

"Don't worry about that right now. I'm just floored over Single File's testimony today." I bit down on my own thumb "...I'm so fucking glad I got the chance to crisp your goddamn corpse, you sick motherfucker."

"Nondis?"

My teeth chomped down even harder, clasping even tighter with the seconds of my flash of indignation. "If I had every fucking chance to peel your goddamn skin while you were alive, I'd make sure you'd be awake for every second! I would've TURNED YOU INTO A FUCKING WALLET─"

My thumb was freed from my teeth, bleeding from the impact of my teeth breaking deep into the skin. The princess shouted my name as she stopped me where I paced. "Nondis!"

As the blood flowed freely and the pain started to set in, I realized the foolish mistake of my own injury. "Sorry."

The princess grew upset with me, pointing to the side of her bed. "Sit down." She said angrily. I did as she instructed, clasping at my injured thumb. She summoned a tiny white phial filled with some sort of fluid. She held my hand open and further instructed me. "Deep breaths. In. Out."

"I don't need breathing exercises, I need answers." I replied before she dropped a dollop of the fluid on my wound, which brought about an intense stinging sensation throughout my entire hand. I grimaced, stomping my foot at the pain.

"You will get them, when you relax." She replied firmly, holding my hand to watch over the wound. Gradually the stinging started to subside, and she took a piece of gauze to wrap my thumb.

While there was a faint painful throbbing in my thumb, I felt my thumb slowly recover. "Okay. I'm sorry." I apologized, taking deep breaths as she ordered. I took a minute to settle back down.

From there, she continued her story. "The mother had her daughter examined shortly after that incident, to make sure that there was no wrongdoing. I even paid for the examination myself because I felt if anything came from this, I would be responsible." She flipped to the page of the pictures of all the students. Each of their own pictures moved, each of them emoting differently from the other. The mare she pointed to had shyly glanced around before looking at the camera before adjusting her mane and smiling innocently. "I was so dismayed by the results, almost losing faith in what growth society had undergone since the years of my reign. Not only did they find a number of her memories altered through a deep mental study, but they also found a very small sample of spermatozoa in her cheeks."

Just the thought of that poor innocent girl being taken advantage of like that had reawakened some of the anger I tried to stave off. "Well that's not even a red flag, that a black one. You should've had his ass locked up." I stressed to her.

"I offered the family an apology, even so much as offering what assistance I could in seeing justice done on their behalf. But the parents were so enamored and delusional by my stature, saying that they couldn't afford to bring disgrace to me and my school." This time, it was Celestia who started to show her own anger, bits of her mane had started turning yellow as she spoke. "It wasn't even about that at all. Their whole reputation was based on their wealth and standing. They couldn't dare allow news of their precious daughter being used in such a manner, they'd be the talk of the town. So they pushed a settlement on a non-disclosure agreement, pleading the board to opt for the financial compensation. It was asinine! They didn't give a damn about what she went through, they just wanted the money and keep their social standing intact!"

"Did that really happen?" I questioned, feeling quite skeptical of the conclusion.

"If you don't believe me, then you are free to make the attempt at my life if you feel I've contributed with no further contest! I know it should be a black mark to my name, that I should be ridiculed and raked in the press! Hell, I deserve it!... But it never happens." She said sadly, feeling contempt for herself. "That same scenario happens more than I would like, and that still goes on to this day. I went from being called a blood-thirsty tyrant shortly after the civil conflict, to being seen as no higher than Faust herself. They even rewrote Equestria's history to make me appear more favorable, all while knowing the truth. Every bad thing that occurred to me or has happened to anyone knowing that my name is attached to it, it's just hearsay to the masses. It's done on purpose."

I shook my head, completely at disbelief. "Ponies here are not that stupid."

"They're purposefully misinformed, and willingly silent. I had been knocked down before by Queen Chrysalis the day she tried to marry Shining Armor, in front of a sitting audience. Do you know how many outlets reported on that? Zero. How many outlets have even written criticism of me? Very few, and they were awfully light. Had this happened under any other school, Count would have never seen the light of day. But since it was my school, the board elected to pay the family restitution, then they had him resign quietly to deal with the passing of his departed wife."

"I don't understand why they would even do something like that, knowing what happened." I replied, my thoughts still centered on the foal. "It's their own daughter, for fuck's sake."

"They don't care, it's prestige, Nondis!" She snapped in a loud manner. "If somepony lives in a high society, there are things they do at great length to keep their standing as illustrious as possible! You've seen it yourself, dealing with Count! If there is any incident that comes to light, they do what they can to ensure that it's swept under the rug to keep others from bringing attention to it. Because once they're found out, it can instantly demote them to a much lesser status. And for some, they won't suffer that indignity because of their own ego and pride! They are willing to go so far as to commit to atrocities, even look the other way when abuses like these occur! And it's all for the sake of public standing, they'll do whatever to keep these matters 'behind closed doors' just to make sure that it's all business as usual!" The princess held herself as she looked down to her wings. "But what they do in private is inconceivable, the bargains they've made, the things they won't tell the public, the great lengths they'll go to keep their name clean, how often hope and innocence becomes an afterthought when it should be the forefront of consequence... I will never forget those abuses, nor will I ever forgive them. So I say to you, Nondis, I am tired of this 'prestige', the systematic abuse of influence. That is why I'm so..." Her voice softened as her ears slumped. "Nondis, please... Honor me with a simple favor."

"What's that?" I asked.

Her head raised up, she walked to me and stared up at me with outright resolve. "I want you to be one of my harshest critics, even in the public eye if need be. Just like you'll be there for the better of me, be there to correct and chastise me for the worse as well. I need to be able to face the music from someone, I feel like you'll know how to hold me accountable without the illusion of my status clouding your judgement."

"What makes you think that?" I questioned.

"I do remember a pretty heated feud drawing up between you and Cadance. If you have to, do that for me."

I sighed quietly, pursing my lips with uncertainty. "Just as long as you don't send me into the sun in a fit of rage, I can more than oblige."

She didn't smile, but she sat herself before me with some modicum of content. "Thank you."

"Eh, whatever." I replied dismissively, not really wanting to get into a shouting match with her of all ponies. I looked down to the book at the table, still looking at the young filly highlighted in the picture. "I can't believe this shit happened."

She used her magic to grab at my hand, undoing the gauze that wrapped my thumb. Upon releasing my hand, I noticed that the wound had completely disappeared, not a scar to be seen. She looked at my thumb also, speaking of my fit of anger in the heat of the moment. "So... it's been a while since I've seen your close to your snapping point. Do you need anything from me?"

I shook my head and pointed to her. "I'm gonna need you to do better on stuff like this, Celeste. All bullshit aside, no more excuses. Get it done and make sure it doesn't happen again. Change laws if you have to, tell the truth on yourself if need be. We can't have another fucking Count DuMoneé walking around, and the masses can't sit here and think that you're perfect while ponies in the underground despise you because of that image." I knelt before her and pointed at her chest. "You have to be the ruler who can put her hoof down to all of this. I can't do that for you, and I damn-well won't lift a fucking finger until you decide to do that for yourself. And I'm not planning my future with anyone who's makes excuses for when shit goes wrong. You've got to be firm, stop letting others decide who and what you are when you know you need to make a change yourself. You say you're the child of a queen, act like you're wearing that big ass crown from this moment on. Equestria needs you to be stronger, in your mind, not just your body. Because if you want me to be your immovable object, you have to be my unstoppable force. I'll anchor you wherever you go, but you gotta tell me where the fuck we're going. Got it?"

The princess sagely nodded. "I can respect that, and more than agree."

"Good." I slammed the book shut. "Let this be the only time we have this discussion, your highness."

"You have my word, captain."

The Next Night...
***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

Our train ride to Canterlot was unusually quiet. There was no real way of saying how difficult it must have been for the girls to anticipate the things that we were going to see at the place we often swore ourselves never to go. But even then, this wasn't the first time where we had to venture out into uncharted territory and dangerous lands, it's just the first time that also happened to be at a city where we frequented.

We started to put on our disguises along the ride. I especially had a train conductor commissioned for this assignment. Starlight was given the rundown of where she would be going, the other girls were just waiting anxiously for the time to come while assembling their respective disguises and aliases.

As the hour came, we walked off the train, Starlight and I walked our separate ways, the girls and I waited at our designated spot for intercept. Each of them started to display their nervousness as we watched some unsavory characters file into a dark alleyway.

"I have a really bad feeling about this." Fluttershy said timidly.

"Ah know Ah ain't feelin' right myself." Applejack murmured, looking around.

"C'mon, can't be all that bad." Rainbow briefly brushed off her own concerns before seeing the dark alleyway we were about to walk into. She gulped. "Right?"

"I know that these awful disguises are downright itchy. Why couldn't we have gotten something a little higher in quality, this sweater is reacting to the dye and it's making me break out all over!" Rarity said, scratching herself intensely.

"This is one party I'm not too thrilled to be attending." Pinkie announced.

I took each of their concerns to heart, knowing that they were going into this figuratively blind. But I had to encourage them. "I know how all of you feel. But if we want to be able to help Nondis later, we have to get acclimated to what we're going to be seeing now. I have a good feeling that it'll only get worse from here, so it only makes sense to get our minds ready for what's ahead."

"Well it can't get any worse than it already is with this sweater." Rarity replied, scratching her neck.

"I can assure you, it will get much worse if you're not careful." A voice called from behind us. Each of us dreaded the voice as we all knew who it was that greeted us. Blueblood appeared from a dark corner, donning a red suit with a slicked back mane as opposed to his free-flowing locks. He extended his hoof to the uncomfortable fashionista. "Miss Rarity Andalusia Belle."

"Ugh, it got worse." She growled with absolute disdain for the stallion.

"Blueblood, you're not even disguised!" I pointed out, trying not to yell.

He pulled out a red and black masquerade mask and placed it upon his face. "Are you kidding? I have a pony tail and a mask. What more do you want?"

"Would that even work here? I don't think the ponies here are that dumb to fall for a crummy ballroom mask." I questioned critically.

"It's part of the vibe here, especially when you're a rich fellow. It will work for me, especially for the role I'm assuming for the night." He said as he hung his forelegs around both me and Rarity.

"Please don't let it be distasteful. Please don't let it be distasteful." Rarity chanted to herself.

Blueblood smiled. "Spoiler alert: You're all my concubines."

All six of us sharply protested the idea. "Wwwwhat?"

He went on to tease me by the moniker he usually gave me. "Oh you'll be used to it, little miss Princess Troublemaker. I promise that you'll find it quite beneficial."

"In what way, my being able to finally knock some sense into your cranium?" I replied as my magic started to spark into my horn.

Applejack stretched her legs as she popped her neck. "Huh, guess my hindlegs are itchin' fer a buckin' after all."

Pinkie replied to the farmer with her own thinly-veiled threat. "Did you know that my party cannon is considered a Class I ballistics device according to the Equestrian Weapons Bureau?"

"And I'm not without a weapon of my own use either, miss Pinkamena." Blueblood replied as he summoned an M-16, the barrel being supplemented with a bayonet blade. "I prefer spears, but a bayonet on one of these human contraptions can be as effective. Close-quarter capability, midrange lethality, long-range threat. This will do splendidly against the typical ruffian."

Pinkie didn't show any sign of laughing, rather displaying her disdain for the prince. "And you pulled it out on me when I mentioned my cannon?"

He quickly dismissed the weapon, but walked towards the pink mare with a smirk. "No, I'm merely showing off. Though I could have a cannon of my own for you, specially made of course for... cake batter."

Pinkie took no interest in his sexual humor. "If you're threatening me with a literal weapon, I'm all ears. Otherwise, don't even try."

Blueblood laughed as he tried to inch towards her. "You're saying that my party isn't worth the invitation?"

"I'm saying you're not even worth conception." She replied, slapping the prince with the end of her tail as a sign of disrespect.

"Yeouch!" The prince trolled, walking to the side of Fluttershy to fraternize with her instead. "The pink one is awfully feisty. Though I guess you can see that for yourself, right miss Fluttersh─"

"Touch me and Discord hunts you down." She warned without a hint of hesitation or timidity in her voice.

Blueblood stopped short of embracing the mare, performing a stiff about-face to realign himself with Rarity. "I think I'll keep to some more familiar company then."

"We are not familiar." Rarity stressed.

"It's not often that I get covered in cake during an elite social gathering." He mused.

"You used me as a shield!" Rarity angrily recalled.

The prince joked in turn. "Well I wanted to know how much you weighed also, so that little maneuver did help me in that endeavor."

Rarity's jaw fell agape, stunned by his statement. She promptly adjusted herself and redirected her attention to me. "...So are we ready to go?" She asked softly.

"Ya look pretty anxious to get a move on." Applejack said to the enraged seamstress.

"Now tell me why is that, my dear Andalusia?" Blueblood said with a smirk, whispering past her ear.

"Oh, I'm just trying to find a vendor to sell a decapitated head to." She screeched, knocking her horn against his as a sign of confrontation.

"Ah, now that's my speed." He replied with a smug expression before walking off towards the direction of the alleyway, leading the way into the Corrotto District. "Let's not waste time, ladies. It's quite precious, like your bountiful rumps."

Rarity shrieked with annoyance. "How is he married!?"

"Wanna ask that another six times?" Pinkie cosigned.

"How is he even a prince?" Rainbow questioned.

I shook my head as I started to follow in his direction. "The better thing to ask is how Celestia even trusts him."

Meanwhile at Canterlot's Home of Final Rest Mortuary

As the dimly lit streets leading up to the sanctuary began to lessen in number, Starlight craned her head towards various locations. An uneasiness had started to send shivers down her back as she walked. Stray cats would roam the lonesome avenue, digging through the occasional bastion of daily refuse. Only a sole pony stood down the way, perfectly motionless as if they were petrified. Starlight swallowed her increasing sense of paranoia and marched onward.

When she reached the end of the road, she shyly squeaked to the cloaked figure. "Um... Hello?"

The hooded figure turned to her and pointed her towards the gate. "This way."

"Great... so the gates are locked, how do we go about getting─" Just as the young mare was about to start, the iron-wrought gate swung open at the stallion's gentlest push. "...Inside... I guess we're going inside now."

While she walked forward, the stallion closed the gate behind them and finally took the lead. Guiding the mare along the way, they came up to a young stallion coming from the side of the building with a shovel. "Ugh... Another day, another hole in the ground." Starlight's uneasiness grew as the dirtied figure approached them. "Were any of you followed?"

"Not a soul." The cloaked stallion replied.

"Well I didn't hear anypony trailing me. So that's a no from me." She replied. "Who are you, by the way?"

The stallion cleared his face, shook himself free of the dirt, and opened the front door. "Perhaps some introductions are in order, especially since I believe I am unacquainted with your face. I'm the midnight guide for tonight through the morgue. I trust you both are here for one reason."

"Well we shouldn't waste our time on introductions any longer. Time is very limited." The cloaked pony at last revealed his face, removing his hood as they entered the front lobby.

"I agree. Let's get a move on." The young attendant said rather calmly.

While the trio walked the empty and quiet halls of the mortuary, Crescent offered the nervous Starlight some conversation to break the tension. "So you must be my daughter's new student."

"Starlight Glimmer." She said, introducing herself. "I'm just trying to reshape my life is all."

"Well I'm-just-trying-to-reshape-my-life-is-all, I'm dad."

The lavender mare laughed half-heartedly. "Heh heh... dad jokes... fun."

"What, you don't like purposefully bad humor?" He replied with a jubilant smile.

"My dad's an ever bigger fan than I am. It's not fun." She replied.

"Well I'm not your dad. At least you got that going." Crescent stated with a wink.

"Great, we're already off to a solid start." The young mare replied, feeling more confident with her company.

The young attendant then chimed in. "So miss Starlight Glimmer, are you or were you also a student at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns."

The mare chuckled before appearing crestfallen. "Well... no. I wanted to, but my dad told me that magic was never strong enough for something like that. I honestly think my dad wanted me to attend the same school he and mom did in Sire's Hollow. But I did have a childhood friend who went to school there. His name is Sunburst, he knows practically everything there is about magic when I last saw him then, so he's got to be a pretty huge and promising name around here. Have you heard of him?

"Hmm... Not sure of the name. What did he look like? I deal with a lot of faces, so I do remember that better."

"Uh... Orange pony with white socks, white patch running down the middle of his face and on his nose, blue eyes. I don't know what he sounds like now, but I'd like to think he's pretty tall and powerful."

"Orange, pretty tall, and powerful. I think I left that one in storage A-2351. Pneumonia's a quiet killer if you're not careful." Starlight's eyes started to immediately well up with tears. The stallion looked back to see how distraught the mare had become and corrected himself quickly. "Now hold on, there's wasn't any markings on his body like the ones you described. So maybe he's out there somewhere. I just haven't heard of the guy."

"I think I heard a name to that nature." Crescent added. "Wasn't he the younger brother of that one girl who went AWOL on Princess Celestia?"

"He had a sister. Sunset Shimmer was her name, I think. Their family was big on sun names."

"Oh yeah, I heard a lot about her but not much on him. I don't even think my daughter even seen a character resembling that, or as much as mention him."

"Oh..." Starlight shrank at the thought of her friend not being as widely known as she figured he would be.

Crescent looked around the halls once more. "So Mr. Guiding Light, where are we going? Preferably not the path we took last time."

The young mortician shook his head as he pointed further down the hall. "Oh no, we're going the usual route this time. I've been left to close shop."

"You're the only one here?" Starlight questioned.

"Not everypony wants to be around the deceased all day. I just so happen to mind it less than the others." He replied with a nonchalant shrug.

"Creepy." Starlight muttered out the side of her mouth.

It didn't take long for the trio to return to the cold storage room. Around the place was an assortment of tools used to transport bodies from the operating tables to their assigned cabinets. Starlight looked around the room, nervously twirling her mane as the mortician opened up a nearby storage closet to arrange everything he needed to gain access to the secret room. Upon closing the door and reopening it, the harrowing scene was reintroduced to him and Crescent, but utterly new to that of Starlight. She clasped her hoof over her muzzle so that she couldn't scream. "Well, here we are again." The young mortician said as he walked in first.

"What the hell is this nightmare." Asked a frightened Starlight.

"I suggest you don't look upward." Crescent warned.

"Why not?" She asked, simultaneously doing the very thing he warned her of not doing. As her eyes met with one of the glossy-eyed corpses gazing down with a very twisted expression indicating pain, she whinnied and walked back into Crescent. "Oh, not sleeping tonight."

The stallion pushed her forward, moving the dangling corpses out of the way with his magic. "I warned you."

Starlight's ears was almost pinned to the top of her head as she looked down to the ground as best as she could, trying not to bump into anything. However, upon clearing one of the corpses, their body swayed to tap their hindlegs and tail against Starlight's side. The mare squeaked as she immediately cast a bubble of proximity around herself to avoid contact with any others. "Hey... is there any way we can, you know, not bump into ponies' loved ones along the way?"

"They're not minding you much, just keep moving." Crescent urged, doing the same as she did.

"I don't know how you do this, sir." Starlight sped up her pace, trying to reach ahead to the young mortician guiding the trio.

"If they don't say anything, don't make a conversation of it." Crescent replied, speeding up his own pace to not lose track of the mare.

As the spell grew more taxing to hold up, Starlight broke her spell and instead pushed against the bodies around her with her magic. Yet another corpse brushed against her flank, startling her to looking back and seeing a corpse leering towards her direction. "Really trying the not-looking-up thing. It's pretty hard when they're all staring back at you."

Guiding Light stopped for a moment and summoned a sack, glancing up to make some adjustments prior to moving forward. "They're not staring at you, per se. You just cross their line of vision. And it's not like they can actually see you."

The black cloth bag was brought over the face of the pony, breaking the eye contact between Starlight and the corpse. "I know. I know what a dead body looks like having officiated a few funerals myself. I have had mayoral experience to do that kind of stuff. I'm just not involved with the whole processing thing."

"Well this is what happens when there's an overflow." He replied as he turned back around, clearing one last row of bodies before they came to the metal door at the end of the room. "Here we are."

"Alright, let's just pop that bad boy open so that I don't have to be in here anymore." Starlight urged as she cleared the final row herself.

"Agreed." Chimed Crescent, who still held his spell steady after clearing the final row of bodies.

The young mortician nodded and turned to the door, using his magic to twist at the knob. "...It's unlocked."

"Okay, let's get a move on already." The lavender mare urged, prompting the young stallion to open the door and shield his eyes from the blinding white light coming in from the other side.

When his eyes adjusted, he began to question what he was seeing. "Uh..."

"What?" Crescent asked.

"This... this isn't right." He replied.

Crescent took lead and stepped inside, seeing a bright white hallway with florescent white lights lining either side of the hall for the entire length of it. A little further down were windows reaching from the floor to the ceiling. Beside them were large glass sliding doors with various symbols on them. "Is this the other side of the morgue?"

"No. This isn't anywhere in the building." Guiding answered as he walked forward.

"Um, so we can safely say we stumbled on to something?" Starlight questioned anxiously.

"Yeah... and it's clean. Sterile." Guiding stated.

"It's so bright." Starlight observed.

"And quiet." Crescent added, hearing nothing but the sounds of the three of them walking around to make observations. "It almost looks like a lab."

"So... are we going ahead or are we turning back? I vote for the about face." Starlight suggested as she looked back to the room filled with corpses. "Uh.... m-maybe a teleport is in order?"

"I'm not too thrilled on continuing myself." Guiding cosigned with Starlight, growing more nervous of what he would run into himself.

Meanwhile, Crescent closed the door leading from the room and urged the group onward. "The only way we find anything is if we move ahead. Let's go."

As the other two appeared reluctant to move on, they did so out of the fear of being left behind. Starlight tried to shake off some of her nervousness by speaking with the young mortician. "So... you scared too?"

The stallion, while used to death and the many troubling manners of coming about it, was walking slowly out of caution. "Mildly thrown off. You?"

Starlight, meanwhile, was a lot more honest with her own feelings. "Well... terrified."

Crescent grumbled as he walked. "Ain't nothing more terrifying than the room we just left from."

Meanwhile at the VIP Lounge...

As the time for the visitation of the raffle winners began with it's first visitation to the lounge, many of the other VIP members opted to leave early on due to seclude their dealings away from those they deemed as unworthy. It left a lot of space for the evening, with many maids and servers to treat themselves. However, there wasn't a total absence of members because some still saw this night as an opportunity to have multiplied access to their vices without having to compete for time. One patron in particular embraced the situation with fervor, taking a young maid to please himself as she was embedded in the wall for all to witness.

The new guest had entered and saw this, growing more and more inspired to make his chance with Kalimba as memorable as possible. The only problems were that he was socially awkward, spoke with a nasally voice, a good amount of overweight, and none of that was desirable in a stallion past thirty-five. He was thirty eight.

Kalimba sat at the bar, not at all enthused about what she was tabbed to do. She wanted to be out there on the arena floor to help her owner fight. She was anxious for him, on edge thinking that something would happen to him as she was stuck in this room.

The pudgy stallion called out to the zebracorn. "Diva Kalimba! It's so amazing to meet you in person!"

Just by the sound of his voice, she knew she would very much dislike the hour she had assigned with him. Still, she tried her best to accommodate any complements. "Your praises are appreciated." An uncomfortable silence developed, it was mainly him just staring at her for almost forty-five seconds. Kalimba pursed her lips and gave a single nod, turning herself away. "Okay." She murmured to herself, not realizing that much of her interaction with this guy would be like this for most of the night.

Suddenly, the stallion yanked at her tail to get her to turn around. She almost snapped at him until she saw the camera levitated in his powder blue aura. "Ooh! Can I get a photo!? I've been really wanting to show off to my friends that I actually got to meet you!"

Inwardly speaking, Kalimba had all but vomited at the idea of being so close to the stallion who looked like he barely took the time to bathe today. Again, she tried to accommodate his wishes as per the instructions given to her. "One picture cannot hurt." She said with a grimace.

The stallion squished himself next to her as he held the camera up to face the two of them. An unpleasantly sour smell emanated from him as she tried to tilt her head away from him. After they took the picture, she quickly separated herself from him. She went right back to nursing her beverage. The stallion sat right next to her, gazing at her with a star-struck expression for a total of ten minutes. "Wow, you're so beautiful."

"Thank you." Kalimba grew more and more uncomfortable with every action the stallion took to get closer to her.

Another two minutes later He scooted his stool even closer to her, trying to start up a conversation over a drink. "So whatcha drinking?"

"Water." She bluntly answered.

"I understand. Gotta stay in fighting shape." Again, there was a gap in dialog for a minute or two. "You don't have any challenges tonight, do you?"

"I don't recall dere being one." She said, vehemently wishing that there was.

Another five minutes of silence brewed a lot of discomfort. For Kalimba, she preferred if the guy had gone on about any topic, maybe the growing card collection of his, maybe some mundane topic about the stamps he collected, or even some relatively geeky subject that he could ramble on about, comics, role-playing games, or even how his day went. But instead, it was silence with the soft whistling noise that came with every inhale. The stallion leaned in closer, breathing heavier as the distance grew short between them. "Your accent is so beautiful."

"Yes." While she was used to dealing with uncomfortably clingy clients in the past, this one had ticked off all the boxes of her unwanted list. She turned herself away, her back facing the stallion who vied to get closer.

Another five minutes, no discussion, nothing to drown out any other sustained sound aside from him breathing. Her eyes popped open as she started to feel the heat of his breath brushing up against the back of her neck. "I know it's sudden and we first met just like half an hour ago, but I really think I'd give the world for you if I could have you."

"Dat is nice." The zebracorn clenched her eyes, not wanting to establish any kind of contact with this stallion.

But as his breath grew warmer against her neck, her patience grew all that much thinner. Another minute elapsed with him drawing closer. He began to nuzzle himself into her neck as he whispered to her. "You're so beautiful."

For Kalimba, that was the final straw. She pushed him away and screamed. "Abeg! If you do not give me some space, I will give you a space six feet underground."

Hearing the sharpness in her voice, the threat cut through to him soundly. He jumped back and curled up amongst himself. "Sorry!"

In hearing the sudden outburst, Umbra walked in from one of the box seats. "Kalimba! How's the guest treating you?"

The mare rubbed against the back of her neck to massage the sensation of his breath tickling at her neck. "I would like to discuss our current agreement."

Umbra didn't seem to care much about any of her discomfort. "Oh come on. Our guests paid a pretty bolly to spend some time with you. Maybe you should reciprocate their affections a little." The eccentric stallion suggested.

"I am not for sale." Kalimba muttered to herself.

Umbra smiled as he leaned in to the mare. "But you are here because I allow it."

"Den I could simply leave." She mumbled even quieter.

Umbra quirked a brow in curiosity, walking around to lift the mare's chin. "My, are you becoming rebellious?"

"It's not dat I am rebelling against you. I am saying dat I do not offer myself to whomeva calls at deir leisure." She gently replied.

The stallion summoned his cane as he smiled in the mare's face. "Perhaps you're not understanding, my dear. You are not a VIP member, you are a champion of a VIP member. Your rights to the bar and everything else is only tied to the privilege of the guy who calls you in. This means that since your handler is not present at the moment, I have authoritative say over what's offered to you and what you can or cannot do." The cane slammed to the ground, producing a solid bang throughout the room, causing even the young zebra mare to flinch. "Having that said, you know what you must do." He concluded with a smirk.

She looked elsewhere, trying not to eye him directly while noting her disproval. "Dis is not what we agreed on."

"Well the deal's been changed, my dear Kalimba. But don't think for one second that I won't change it any further. Now be a dear and give this stallion some VIP service. It should be second nature to you." He ordered, pointing his cane to the stallion sitting at the bar.

Begrudgingly, she complied with his orders and seated herself back down next to the stallion. He quickly whimpered at the mare. "Oh, hi there. I'm just giving you some space, just like you asked." He replied nervously.

The bartender broke his silence and spoke with the zebra. "What do you want to drink─" Crème heard the sound of Umbra's cane slamming down to the ground, indicating disapproval of his conduct. The bartender quickly rescinded his offer. "Oh boy. Um, apparently the boss has temporarily revoked your privileges."

The guest sat silently for another minute before speaking out. "Hey, I can get her a drink, right? So can I get a shot of tequila to give to her?"

The flamboyant bartender glanced up at his boss, who showed no disagreement as he walked away. "Sure thing, hun." He replied, grabbing a bottle of the drink to pour a shot glass full.

He placed it out for Kalimba, who quickly snagged the drink and gulped it down. She compressed any emotion as the burning in her throat took place. The stallion grew amazed how quickly she had taken in the potent beverage. "Wow you downed that pretty fast."

The mare requested another shot, given one, and downed that one as quickly as the first before hopping off of her chair. She pointed the guest towards the box seats. "Could we go someplace else?"

The stallion stammered, showing his excitement. "Y-y-you mean... someplace... quiet?"

Meanwhile at the Concourse...

Crowds of ponies passed through the halls as the many patrons had made their wages, that or were in the midst of having them done. A lot had the night situated at five rounds, some really angry ponies had him down for just two before Nondis went down. But there were also some others who gave the captain the benefit of a doubt and booked him in for ten rounds, even fewer at the eleven to twelve round mark.

In the meantime, the seven of us had entered into the hall where they displayed the perks of being one of the VIP members in the nearby lounge. But most of us weren't focusing on any of that. We had pretty much walked by a scene where a young stallion was getting brutally flogged for not being able to pay something on time. And since he was especially poor, the assailant decided to take it out on his body. Other than that, we didn't see much that caused us any grief or discomfort.

Thank Celestia that I didn't have to run into another murder scene.

As we came close to the arena, we had taken mental note of all of what we passed along our way here. "Okay, I think we've gotten through the worst of it now." Blueblood replied, seemingly unmoved by what all we passed by.

Meanwhile, the other girls were pretty unnerved by everything. "Why does this place even exist?" Rainbow questioned.

"Do you want the long answer or the short one?" Blueblood asked in retort.

"Short. I don't want to hear you talking for very long." Rarity butted in.

The blond prince brushed off the seamstress' animosity. "Well my dear fashionista, it's tourism. It's predicated on the hardcore curiosities and fantasies of many ponies both foreign and domestic. But special legislation protects many of the activities from being investigated by the authorities. You have to have a signature and sigil of the pony in charge of the district just to file the warrant."

"And because of that this place gets to be a sleaze pool?" Rainbow questioned further.

"How deep do you want to swim?" Blueblood asked in response.

"I much rather not." Rainbow cringed.

A sharp yelp grabbed almost everyone's attention in the entire hallway. Some had even started walking towards the source of the sound. Only a few steps down from where they were, there was a mare plugged into the wall. She appeared very much lost in lust as she was taken from behind the wall. She smiled and moaned with complete disregard for her own dignity. Everyone in the group looked on, growing more uncomfortable as she continued her sexcapade in the hallway. "Ugh. How depraved." Rarity groaned.

"Oh dear. She is... um..." Fluttershy's ears almost turned crimson at the sight, growing almost dead quiet as she hid her face away for a moment.

"Wow... she must be getting it pretty good." Rainbow commented.

"Or she's faking it for the guy behind her." Pinkie added nonchalantly.

The mare stopped moaning suddenly. The hole next to the mare in the wall shifted, finally giving way to a stallion instead. He giggled for a moment before he yelped out a very feminine moan. He intended to sell his performance for the stallion behind him, prompting the others to jump back in surprise. "What in tarnation!" Applejack shouted, not being used to seeing anything like was was taking place before them.

The maid beside the servant snickered as she watched the effeminate stallion being rammed repeatedly. "Oh, you love getting ravaged in front of everypony, don't you?" She teased.

The stallion appeared more lust-drunk than the mare beside him, going so far as to back himself up to meet his beneficiary halfway. "Hnnyes daddy! Fuck this cuck! Give me that cock! It's mine!"

Most of the group had become incredibly uncomfortable watching was was transpiring before their very eyes. But noe was more uncomfortable than the very stallion who had clenched his eyes to the display. "...Let's get moving." Blueblood said with a quiet fury.

While he marched onward, the group grew confused as to what had caused him to become so angry all of a sudden. Rarity was the only one who made a verbal note of the situation. "Wow, no shitty remarks of any sort?"

"Let's keep moving, girls." I suggested.

We walked on to reach the seating bowl of the arena. The seats weren't as full as they were on my last visit, but they were pretty filled to at least seventy-percent capacity by the looks of it. And it didn't appear that there would be any other events taking place aside from this one. Still, the draw was there.

"Wow, this place is pretty packed out." Rainbow noted.

"You should see it on Fridays." I promptly replied.

Blueblood began to regale on the topic I brought up. "Ah yes, the weekly primetime event. You ever wonder why the local shows don't do as well as they should at the town theater, this place is why."

"But why here?" Applejack questioned, still not understanding what was the draw for a place like this.

Blueblood continued to explain. "Because in theater, an actor's character can die on set but come back for the final bow. Even in Wonderbolt shows, everything is scripted, preplanned, and rehearsed before the performance. For many here, that's too formulaic. But a place like this, this is where the action becomes real, the drama becomes uncut and uncensored, and you can say that very little is restricted by legal guidelines. It's seeing the formalities of life, as well as answering the curious questions of the varied spontaneous endings of that. Or maybe your thing isn't death and destruction, it's more of drugs, sex, changing one's own orientation to make your wildest dreams come true." The blond prince pointed to the hole in the ceiling above. "Whatever Canterlot won't provide for you, whatever society deems as unnatural, this is the place you can answer those questions for yourself."

Pinkie's head swiveled around for a moment, she called out to the group. "Hey... we're missing somepony."

We looked among ourselves and counted out how many of us were present. However, the only problem was that the one we could've easily assumed had come with us was nowhere to be seen. Rarity stifled a shriek as Rainbow Dash called out her name. "Fluttershy."

Worry caused all of us to become on edge over what happened. I couldn't help but to ask myself one question, playing that same one on repeat for some time as both Blueblood and I galloped out of the arena seats.

"Where is she?"

Just like every other viewer in the hallway, Fluttershy found herself captivated by the scene unfolding before her. Instead of moving ahead like all her friends did, she remained entranced by the stallion receiving his request in bulk. Her tail flicked lightly, her posterior subconsciously rocked back and forth to anticipate the movements he was receiving. Though she wouldn't admit it out loud, deep down inside she knew she was jealous of him.

"Ah! Yes! Harder, master!"

The more he moaned, the more she started to bite her lips at his reactions. Though what had really flipped the switch for her was the moment when the mare beside him leaned over to nuzzle him. He felt her against his neck and leaned in to kiss her. Their exchange was far from formal, their tongues licking at one another before they separated. The stallion was in paradise.

"Does it feel good?" The mare asked seductively.

The stallion cried out. "Yes mommy, daddy feels good! I love his cock!"

"You wanna cum for him?" She asked once more. "In front of everypony?"

"Yes! YES! YES!" The stallion began thrashing back, experiencing the orgasm of his life while the mare beside him panted in anticipation for her next turn. Many stallions who were curious had watched with with silent gulps of repressed sexual tension, many trying to hide their growing erections from passerby's. One had essentially dealt with enough and started tending to himself on the spot.

Fluttershy sat herself down at the increasingly chaotic display of sexual fervor. She began to pant, feeling herself throb in ways she couldn't imagine. She held a hoof to her muzzle, suppressing any noise aside from her breathing. Her hindquarters began to rock against the ground. Upon reaching her forward limit, she lifted herself slightly on her way back to simulate what she would do to that poor stallion caught trying to relieve himself in the public eye. At that point, what her intentions were became single-minded and selfish. She wanted to exhibit the kindness she was capable of, helping him relieve that pent-up stress, but at the cost of her own satisfaction. Her eyes closed for a moment to imagine how she would extend her wings, teasing his length at his request, stroking him until her very feathers were coated in his seed. Her mouth opened, her tongue lolled, her hoof continued to hide the verbal whimpers she wanted to unleash.

"Enjoying the show?"

Fluttershy jumped, stopping in dead heat. She quickly turned around to see an older stallion smiling at her with a gaze filled with intent. The mare compressed herself with shame, seeing that she was not only called out, but directly approached by the one in the same. She whimpered at him. "Oh... well..."

The stallion walked forward, trying to break the ice between him and the startled mare. "So you must be new around here. This must not be your typical scene. I can tell by the way you move."

"..." She said nothing, but walked backwards.

The stallion continued to walked her down, backing her into a wall. "And you seem pretty timid. Quiet."

"..." Her silence had gone from shame to that of fear. She increased her pace, only to find herself slamming against a wall. Her tail curled up beside her and she held it to herself.

The stallion planted a hoof beside her to cut her off. She looked at the stallion's foreleg, shivering as he leaned closer to her ear. "Maybe you'd like to give the inside of that VIP lounge a look."

"..." She tried not to look at the stallion who leaned in to her.

The stallion applied his magic to her chin, forcing her head to him. His free hoof glossed down her body, highlighting her concealed curves as he leaned into the nape of her neck. "A cute little thing like you could definitely use some relaxation. You're so uptight, just shaking with anticipation."

"...!" Fluttershy's eyes expanded, looking in every direction for help.

"Is that what you want, my little dandelion? You want some of what he's getting, don't you?"

"Hnnnhnhnhnnn!"

Fluttershy's sheepish cry for help had gone completely unheard. And the assertive stallion wanted to take advantage of her earlier performance by offering her an opportunity to relieve that tension. "I'll give you what you want, if you'll come with me─"

Suddenly, a voice called out from further down the hall, a voice that was vaguely familiar. "There you are!" Swooping in to grab her in his magic, the disguised Blueblood drew up the stallion's forelegs and forcibly escorted her away from him. "Blasted girl, how many times do I have to tell you to stay in your place!? Get a move on!"

The stallion, not wanting to let the opportunity to pass, called out to the disguised Blueblood. "Excuse me. I couldn't help but notice your friend had gotten caught in a daze."

"She's one of my herd, thank you." He replied with gusto, seeing exactly who it was that was trying to abscond with the poor shy mare. His tone grew the more vicious throughout their exchange.

"Perhaps, sir, I could reimburse you for the inconvenience of your temporary separation this evening." The assertive stallion said, summoning a small sack of gems.

"Buzz off!" Blueblood commanded, pulling the mare along with him by her foreleg.

While Fluttershy was greatly uncomfortable with the prince touching her, she found his presence more convenient than that of the other stallion. Meanwhile, the aforementioned VIP member pleaded with him to claim his bounty. "I could very much make it worth your while, and hers."

Blueblood had immediately turned off any mode of negotiation, using his magic to form a dagger with his aura. "I could easily take your head, that's reimbursement enough for me."

Seeing how the stallion had grown confrontational, the security nearby rushed to the scene to defend the VIP member. But the stallion signaled them off as he admitted defeat. "Alright then. Your loss." He opened the sack to reveal a slew of tiny red rubies that were high in value. He tipped the security one of those rubies a piece. "Shame. I would've tried to make it worth your while. But I guess some thugs can't be negotiated with."

As soon as the stallion disappeared into the VIP Lounge, Blueblood quenched his magic and immediately began to chew out the timid mare. "What in blazes are you doing lingering around here?"

"..." Fluttershy knew she didn't have a good answer, her silence was her only response to him.

The prince continued his tirade as both Pinkie and I walked up from a pair of nearby columns. "You could've gotten yourself caught up in this mess, knowing we wouldn't see you until noon tomorrow, possibly made a prostitute by the hour's end! You cannot, and will not separate from the group! Have I made myself clear!?"

I quickly bumped in between Blueblood and Fluttershy, giving the prince an icy look before tending to my friend. "Are you alright?"

Fluttershy found her voice as her dear friend came by to her assurance. "I'm so sorry."

Rainbow Dash flew in from the arena and quickly announced to the three. "Hey! He's up on the floor now!"

Blueblood didn't spare any time for how I glanced at him, only offering a stern warning to Fluttershy before walking back to our seats. "We will discuss this later. Stay focused and DO. NOT. WANDER."

While he stormed off, I went over to hug my friend. Fluttershy was still trembling, realizing the trouble she could've easily got into, and also being a victim of Blueblood's rage. I couldn't help but to show my disdain for the prince first. "I hate that guy, I really do."

Fluttershy meekly replied. "It's not his fault. It's mine. I just got caught up with watching everything that I forgot where I was or what I was doing. I shouldn't have let myself get caught up like that. I'm sorry."

"He should've been more considerate, knowing how you are." I said, still fuming over how harshly he treated Fluttershy. However, I understood why he was so upset. I probably would have gone about it better than he did with her, but I did have to admit credit to how he staved off that stallion from touching her. I still chided her, but I toned down the aggression of the message. "I can understand that a lot of what we're seeing tonight can be a mountain of stuff to process, but I still want you to stay close to us, try not to get distracted."

"Okay." Fluttershy replied, taking a deep breath to recover herself. "I'm ready when you are."

A second later, roars erupted from the arena, indicating that the first match was starting. "Alright. Let's get back to it."

Meanwhile at the Unknown Lab...

Starlight took to the rear, allowing the two stallions to guide her way. Her heart was already beating at an accelerated rate from the anxiety she was experiencing being in a place so bright and quiet. One of them already stated that this place had looked like a lab, and as time progressed, they discovered that it was exactly what they perceived it to be.

Opening one of the sliding doors, there was the unmistakable stench of decay. Starlight clasped her hooves over her muzzle to stave off the smell. Meanwhile the two stallions had strove through it. "This place... it isn't normal." Guiding Light murmured. "There's a... sadness."

"And a pretty bad stench." Starlight pointed out. "Let's just hurry and get out of here."

Crescent's ears flicked, his head sharply turned to the direction of further down the hall. "Wait." He urged the other two, causing them both to even hold their breath. As soon as the faint sounds of hooves clopping against the tile started to grow louder, he pointed to a nearby operating table still hosting a body. "Get down and hide."

In doing so, they watched as an unknown figure walked through the hall, pushing a cart with a sheet covering what appeared to be a body. Upon a closer look, the pony they saw wasn't actually a pony at all. It was a cream-white wooden figure shaped as a pony and given life. Where it's eyes would be were hollowed hulls, it's muzzle absent of a nose and mouth, where one could consider a horn to be was a yellowish-green jewel that gave off a smoky aura. That same aura looked to be applied to it's entire body, the limbs and joints appearing to be conjoined by wisps of energy. Since the moving object had no eyes, it could not see Starlight's tail poking from the side of the table.

As the creature passed through the room to collect an item, it's smoky neon-green aura levitated a beaker from a nearby table and placed it on the cart outside. The three ponies, still hiding behind the concealed corpse on the operating table, began to very quietly whisper to one another. "What is that?" Guiding asked.

"It looks like a doll." Starlight answered as the creature walked back out the room.

"I've seen one of those before." Crescent noted, his mind going back to what happened on Friday night. The only difference was that the creature before him was white without a face, the other one having been brown but wearing Prod's face instead. The creature walked along, leaving the trio behind. "What in Equestria is this place?"

"Some lab with walking puppets?" Starlight answered, equally as confused. "I don't see any strings."

Guiding continued to linger over what it was they were moving. "It looks like they're transporting something, maybe someone."

Crescent's ears flicked yet again. "Heads down."

In doing as they were told, they avoided a narrow encounter with a puppet with a similar goal. Only this time, the cart they moved had a smaller figure on it. "That's a pony's body?" Starlight questioned quietly.

"A foal. It's far too young to be used for anything research wise. All laws prohibit the use of the bodies of minors for posthumous research outside of autopsy." Guiding explained. "And this place doesn't exactly look like they do autopsies here."

Crescent grew curious, hiding his horn behind the operating table. As his magic glowed, he sent the tray of the tools used for an operation onto the ground. The creature didn't even flinch or was aware that something had dropped right in front of it. Crescent mumbled to himself. "Not only can they not see, they can't hear either." He announced, the volume of his voice increasing ever so slightly as to not eclipse the volume of the tools that was knocked over. The creature carried on, with it's tasks and walked away. While it left the trio behind, they walked back into the hallway to see the other puppet disappear around the corner. "What madness is this?"

Guiding looked into another nearby room. "This looks like another operation room, maybe there could be some clues as to what they do here." But as soon as he opened the door, his eyes expanded greatly and he shut the door without a second thought. "Sweet Faust!" He shouted into his hooves as to not cause too much attention.

Starlight questioned as she walked up to the door to investigate. "What?"

"Hold up, you." Crescent warned, politely pushing her away from the door. As the sliding door was cracked open, Crescent poked an eye through to see a most grisly sight. "Yeah, that's not for you to see." He said, slowly closing the door with reverence.

Starlight tried to make an attempt to peek through the door. "Is it that bad─"

The stallion placed his hoof at the mare's chest, giving her a very stern advisory. "I swear if you look in there for anything, I will blind you for the rest of the night."

Starlight then replied with some anger. "With all due respect, I have to be your daughter's eyes and ears. Those were her words exactly."

"And I gave birth to that girl, while serving time in the guard. So heed mine with as much consideration." Crescent replied firmly.

Realizing that she wasn't going to get the opportunity to become her mentor's eyes directly, she made very little fuss over the circumstance, accepting that whatever was in there would already deprive her of more sleep. "Okay, well if you can tell me what you saw, that's fine."

The stallion quietly looked back to the door and gravely answered her request. "They hung a ponies entrails up like party streamers."

The young mortician walked ahead to another room, cracking the door to see what he could make out. "This room, they've cut the neck open, the trachea looks to be extracted."

Starlight was quick to realize that his threat to blind her was probably in her best interest. Meanwhile, the retired guard moved to yet another door. "Ugh." He said shortly before closing the door with a similar reverence. "They've removed the bones of this pony."

"Such disrespect for the dead. To what purpose?" Guiding said with a solemn tone.

Starlight was more in awe of the two stallions. "You two look awfully used to things like this."

The young mortician pointed back to the direction where they first came from. "Um, where do you think I work?"

Crescent then stated. "You think that guards just stand around a hall and look pretty in our shiny golden armor? Sometimes getting posted in a dark hallway for six hours is enough time to let your inner-demons permeate the forefront of your mind. Try having the mental discipline to not move when you feel that nothingness lurking over your shoulder, whispering in your ear. You can't run from the demon when you can't walk."

"That's a pretty deep thought." Starlight responded.

As the trio walked onward through the winding halls, Crescent continued to speak. "I think I'd prefer a dark hallway in comparison to this place."

"Why?" The young mare questioned.

"Because the cruelest things imaginable can't be seen in the dark. Often times the stuff of our nightmares happens in the broad of day. It's not what you don't see that eats at you in the dark, it's what you see in the light that changes your perspective."

Starlight shuddered at his answer. "Okay. That's a pretty grim way of putting it."

Several minute progressed as the the three ponies wandered the halls of the unknown laboratory. They then came across a large room filled with an overwhelming odor. Starlight almost vomited upon smelling it the first time. What made it even worse for the trio was that this was ironically the darkest room in the lab. When they entered, Starlight steeled her resolve and used her horn to illuminate the area around them. Crescent went a step further and produced a light so potent that it illuminated the room. Guiding used his magic as a flashlight to highlight specific items that gained his attention.

So far, the entire room was an attention-grabber. "Looks like a staging area... for what?" Guiding asked.

Starlight soon followed Guiding Light's example to use her magic to illuminate items of interest. Namely, her eyes was gathered to a large looming shadow in the distance. Her magic trailed to see a monstrously-sized body strapped to the wall. "Guys... what is that?"

Guiding pointed his light to Starlight's point of interest, highlighting the features of the body. "That is a headless beast. And I'm not sure what it is exactly." Crescent concluded.

"It's not anything I've worked on." Guiding added.

As Starlight got closer, she realized that the decapitated creature was the source of the unbearable smell. "It reeks."

"It's dead. That's to be expected." The young mortician deadpanned.

"Creatures like these aren't usually skinless." Crescent asked as he got closer, giving much more light to the overall body fo the creature. Looking up, he could see a massive crane with bloodied hooks hovering above it. "What the hell is going on here?"

While the three were observing the body of the headless creature, a doll walked into the room and screeched in what sounded to be a very distorted voice. "T R E S P A S S E R !"

Suddenly, the entire place had gotten immensely loud with the sound of a dissonant tone ringing on endlessly. The alarm prompted the color of the jewel at the front of the doll's head to change from neon green to that of a red-orange. The wooden doll marched towards the three, only to be quickly subdued by a powerful blast to the face. The doll shuffled on the floor for a while until it laid dormant. Soon after, the smoky glow over it's body had completely dissipated. "Wow, nice blast. Genuinely impressive, miss." Crescent complemented the young mare.

"Thanks." Starlight replied with a confident smirk.

But as they went about speaking to one another, another five of the same dolls showed up, their own jewels glowing a similar glow of red-orange. "Guys, I don't think we have time for complements." Guiding announced nervously.

"Yeah, looks like we've got a welcoming committee, I wonder why they didn't bother greeting us earlier." Crescent said, priming his horn for combat. He kept his eyes ahead as he questioned the gifted magic user. "Got another one of those blasts in you?"

Starlight scowled ahead to the growing number of dolls. "Several. Ask your daughter how much trouble I can really be."

Meanwhile in the VIP Lounge...

While the match was taking place down in the arena below, there was another contest taking place in the VIP box seats. As the halls outside of the room brimmed with giggling maids and servants, inside the darkened room was a stallion leaning back in his seat. His eyes gazed from the ceiling down to the mare bobbing her head up and down in his lap. He held his hooves to her head while praising her for her performance.

"Oh, you're so amazing!"

Kalimba paid the heavyset stallion no mind as she strictly went about her means of concluding her time with him, as per the instruction of Umbra himself. While the stallion's size was nothing much to consider, especially considering many clients she was forced to deal with, she treated him like a paying customer nonetheless. Her eyes not once glanced up to the stallion for anything, not for his reaction to her work, not for seeing if he was anywhere close to his climax, she couldn't care less for him. She wanted to be out of his crotch as quickly as she had to be.

But that didn't stop him from enjoying her ministrations. He wasn't as awkwardly silent in receiving her mouth around him. He was ecstatic, beside himself while the pressure built in his loins. "I'm almost done, maybe we can slow it down just a bit." While it was the first time he had actualized a command to her, she disregarded it long before he spoke it into existence. His request to slow her tempo was all she needed to hear to tell her how little she had to do to get him there. Her magic glowed and embraced his entire length. "Hey! Not like that!"

Kalimba didn't take the time to bask in the sight of his increased squirming. She was focused on the finish line. The stallion whimpered, crying out to the ceiling as he felt his hips drive into her muzzle. That second his seed was unleashed within her maw, she withdrew and walked away without a second thought to the stallion's halfway-met climax.

"You're so amazing." He whimpered as he still spurted seed from his loins.

She spat back out to the floor what he initially offered into her mouth with disgust. "I hope you are satisfied now. Let us go back." She walked out of the room, leaving the stallion very little time to recover.

"Hey, wait." He cried out before the door was closed on him. He primed himself free of any lingering semen and walked out into the hallway, calling out to her again. "Miss Diva Kalimba!"

She sat herself at the bar, very much annoyed with how the the night went already. The stallion walked to the bar, himself still softening for all to see. She plainly replied to him. "I do not have to pamper you any longer. Your time is up now."

From the other side of the bar, Umbra swabbed some of the stallion's semen off of her face and left it to run on his hoof. "Ah, Kalimba." He cooed, tracing that same hoof against her lips to wear his seed as a sort of lip balm. "I see you're back in your usual form."

The zebracorn wanted to give Umbra the earful he deserved and then some, but advised herself against it. Instead, opting to wash it down with his drink instead. "I did what was asked of me. His time should be up by now."

The stallion quirked a brow at the zebra who gulped down his beverage. He shrugged it off and went back to his smiling, careless self. "Indeed it is. Ready to meet your next fan?"

The eccentric stallion clopped his hooves and security came rushing by to grab the stallion. As he was being carried off, he shouted to the zebracorn. "KALIMBA! KALIMBA WAIT!"

Umbra tilted his head. "Ooh, sorry kid. Time's expired. Gotta take the bit elsewhere."

As he fought back, trying to reestablish proximity to her, he held his hooves to the doorframe to keep him latched for some time. "Kalimba, I'll promise to come back for you each night! I'll pay whatever price to see you again! I love you!"

"Aw. That's so cute." Umbra cooed childishly. "Alright, back outside with ya." He followed up with a wave of his hoof to dismiss the stallion.

Upon getting carried off via magic, he cried out loudly through the hall. "You're my Diva Kalimba forever!"

Kalimba groaned as she sank her head into the counter, not paying a cent of attention to the female raffle winner who walked into the lounge. She appeared to be from a family of fair influence, her face as bright and bubbly as any girl who was the center of attention in high school. The only difference was that she was around twenty-six with no aspirations to do anything but what she felt like doing in the moment. "Oh my gosh, it's really you-uh!"

Kalimba considered her attitude to be even more of a trigger than the last client. Umbra raised her chin, grinning at the mare. "Remember, positive energy, big smiles."

The mare walked up to the bar and asked Umbra himself a question. "Excuse me, I get all the privileges of a VIP member for the next hour, correct?"

He then replied. "Yes ma'am. Whatever you wish, she'll follow."

"Great! I'm going to get me a little drinky-drink, and we're gonna fucking tear this lounge apart!" The mare sat herself next to the zebra and grinned at her. "Miss Diva Kalimba in the flesh-uh! I can't believe you're here, like in front of me, like literally living and breathing!"

"Well I did a lot to keep doing dat." She replied flatly.

"No kidding, babe. This fucking world is full of assholes who don't know how to chill and vibe. Like who the hell isn't about a party every night!? You're only in your twenties ten times in your life. And when you're dead, you're done anyways. Fuck responsibility, We're all about the good life!" The mare started to dance in her seat before pointing at the zebra. "Can I get you a drink, babe? Your vibes aren't near the shit I was seeing on Friday night."

Kalimba was already done with the night, she figured that it wouldn't get any worse after the first client she had to endure. "After de last idjiot, I would appreciate an inebriating distraction."

"Okay! Now we're talking!" She cheered before questioning the barkeep. "Can I get something spicy?"

"Spicy?" Crème questioned.

"You know, with a mellow but salty kick to it. Rich in flavor. Something rum based, babe."

The bartender returned her energy with interest. "A discerning tongue. I got you, honey bun."

The mare then returned her attention to Kalimba. "So you fought with that human on Friday. How did you feel having to carry his lazy ass so damn much?"

The zebra felt herself become extremely defensive, eager to argue for the sake of her friend. "I do not think I had to do any carrying. If you want, you could see for yourself what he's made of."

The mare dismissed her testimony. "Ah come on-uh, he can't be that good of a fighter. He can barely even run."

"Do not let your mind be deceived." Kalimba replied quietly as her drink was slid before her.

The mare smirked, looking the zebra up and down. "Well if that's the case, then I want to see it for myself."

"My owner has a press booth down de hall. We can view de fight from up dere." She replied, once more eager to show the mare in what ways she was wrong.

"Awesome-uh!" She cheered. "Got the drinks, now we can move on over."

Kalimba sighed as she realized that very little could possibly change the mare's mind. The reality was that she wanted to get acquainted with her in ways that were to be forgotten about the next morning. It was yet another reminder of her life before meeting the captain. She accepted that this was her life once before, but she started to grow some reservations against it.

Still, it didn't help that Umbra was encouraging that part of her to remain tethered. "Remember, bright smiles."

Meanwhile at the Arena...

The crowd was a mix of cheers and boos, some that lost their money after the initial four rounds had already started talking up ideas of jumping into the arena and getting their money's worth of satisfaction. But as the night went on to prove, the human was hard to put down.

Fatigue started to show a bit in his stance, and the bruises began their toll. Several marks on his body had been deeply red for a while. But he still stood tall with every grunt he fought laying out cold for the world to see.

"WOW, FILLIES AND GENTLECOLTS!" Scotch hollered out to the audience.

"HE'S A LEGITIMATE FIGHTING MACHINE!" Botch announced loudly.

"HOW MUCH MORE CAN HE GO AGAINST!? HOW MUCH LONGER CAN HE LAST!?"

"WELL WE'RE GONNA BRING YOU ONE OF OUR SPONSORS BEFORE WE BRING OUT THE NEXT GROUP!"

The duo waited as Scotch pulled out a folded sheet of paper. He read off the paper for a moment. "TONIGHT'S SPONSOR WILL BE NONE OTHER THAN─COMING FROM THE BLACK GATE IS OUR NEXT GROUP OF CHALLENGERS!" Hearing his fake-out of a sponsored announcement, the crowd cheered the bypassing of any advertising for the action to get back up to speed.

However, there was one group that didn't like how the announcers and promoters were running the show. "How awful! They're not even giving him a chance to rest!" Rarity shouted angrily.

Blueblood replied to the seamstress. "I see the ringleader's looking at a battle of attrition tonight. He's probably gauging how long he can last under physical duress."

Applejack then offered her own commentary. "Not everypony can just hop up and buck' another orchard after a rough round of harvesting the first. It ain't doin' any good fer ya. Ya ain't gon be strong enough to kick the next tree, much less a whole 'nother orchard!"

Blueblood leaned back in his seat as he watched the fight take place. "Well if worst comes to it, something will be done."

"You mean we'll do something?" I corrected him.

"No, we won't. We sit back and let the powers that be decide what happens next." Blueblood stressed.

I rebutted his refusal with my own declaration. "If you think for one second that we're going to let anything happen to Nondis, you've got another thing coming."

"And if you think you'll get out of this unscathed after intervening in you-know-who's affairs, then I've got a bridge in Manehattan to sell you. Now sit down and observe." The prince firmly ordered. "He's not as weak as you think he may be, and his life is not in any danger yet. So again, sit back and let the powers that be decide what happens next."

"I don't see how you're married." Rarity complained.

"Hang around me and you'll find out." The prince replied to the stylish mare.

"Much rather hang myself, thank you." Rarity cheerfully announced.

Pinkie, who had been on the edge of her seat the entire night, closed her eyes and prayed for the success of her friend. She whispered to herself. "You got this, Non-Non. Pull it through."

"CUT THAT FUCKING MONKEY'S HEAD OFF!" A shout came from immediately behind them, causing the group to become increasingly anxious.

Pinkie clutched and prayed harder. "Non-non, please pull it through. We're here if anything goes wrong."

Meanwhile at the Unknown Lab...

"THIS TOTALLY WENT WRONG!" Starlight shouted as she blasted another doll into submission.

Crescent had summoned a spear and started using it to conserve his magic for specific purposes. But as the time went along, the fight had brought much fatigue to his body. "Ugh... a mighty fine mess, this is!" He panted.

Three more dolls appeared to stop the trio's advance to their initial entrance. While not being physically or magically gifted, Guiding Light used a number of chemicals to splash on the dolls to wilt some of their functionality. However, since they were lacking the capability to feel pain, nothing deterred them from getting back up after an otherwise crucial blow. In total, they totally neutralized nine puppets, while at least another thirty pursued them from behind, as damaged as they were.

Guiding Light thought quickly and spilled the remaining chemical to the floor, watching as the bulk of the others tripped over the fluid, then clumsily tripping over one another. "Look, I might have gotten us here. If you can do me a favor and get us back out, that would be swell!"

"I'm supposed to be asking you that!" Starlight replied as she sent another blast at a doll, sending it into a wall. After that particular blast, she started to feel the magic slowly wilt from her horn. She was losing energy, and fast. "I like the idea of getting out too, so much I was recommending it since we got here. But as much magic as I can do when I'm full of energy, I'm not a very physical pony when I run out."

Crescent rain towards the three with his spear running parallel to the floor. Knocking over the three puppets in one fell swoop, he tiredly called back to the mare. "Stick around my little girl, you'll be in top shape."

"You don't look all that good either." Starlight pointed out as they began to run.

"I haven't moved around this much in some years. I'm in retirement for a reason." He rebutted.

"You don't look very 'retired' to me." Guiding said, praising the former guard. "You look very active."

*CHOM*

Before they could reach their destination, the lights powered out in the halls. The endlessly dissonant alarm came to an abrupt end. The trio all lit their horns to help themselves guide the hall. "Why'd the light's go out?" Guiding questioned worriedly.

The three looked back to see that the puppets had gathered themselves and stood in a straight line. Their crystals had went from a mix of red and orange to crimson. All of them parted ways into various rooms, leaving the hallway wide open. In their silence, as the darkness lied further within, there was nothing... then suddenly...

*Raaaaaaaaawwwwwwgh*

A gurgling unholy roar could be heard from the far distance.

Crescent had no intention of fighting whatever had roared in the distance, urging the group to move quickly. "Yeah. It's time to go."

"Couldn't say it better." Starlight agreed as the three broke into a gallop for the exit.

They quickly traced their way back through the halls with Crescent taking the lead. Starlight's horn started to flicker as her magic soon grew too weak to sustain. As her magic was quenched, she pointed ahead. "There's the door!"

"Thank Faust." Crescent sighed tiredly. "Let's get out of here."

The young mortician opened the door, to reveal a janitorial closet. "You've got to be SHITTING ME!" Starlight screamed.

*Raaaaaaaaawwwwwwgh*

The roar was growing closer, even Crescent was growing impatient. "Do your magic before that thing comes our way!"

"Okay, don't pressure me so much!" Guiding pleaded as he conducted the same method to prompt an enchantment to change the location of where the door opened to.

He opened the door and quickly came to see the dangling hooves from above. "We're out─"

The three didn't look ahead as they kept their eyes on what was coming from the darkness. After closing the door, they felt a little more secure... that was until they turned their heads to see what was in front of them.

Each corpse that had dangled from the ceiling was made to face them. Not a single one was with a mask to cover their faces, each of their dead eyes gazing down to the trio. The lights in the room had changed from the normal florescent blue to a much darker red. The emergency lights were activated instead of the normal ones, giving the room a complete appearance of hellish dread. Starlight caught herself before she could scream, hyperventilating instead. "Oh...not sleeping this week."

Crescent wasn't in any less of a panic. "Oh fuck this!" A bang could be heard from the door behind them, the three vied in their minds to make the uncanny decision to do only one thing. "Run!"

Without a care in the world, Crescent dove in head first into the row of bodies, not caring for whoever's loved ones he bumped into. Starlight held back tears as she did the same, clenching her eyes closed while doing so. Guiding Light still had ample amounts of magic to work his way through carefully. "This was not in my job description!" But another bang at the door caused him to completely disregard that practice.

As Crescent was the first to break past the exit on the other side, he shouted loudly to indicate where he was should the others gotten themselves lost in the forest of bodies. "KEEP THAT ASS MOVING!"

To his gratification, the other two leapt through the doorway. Starlight was freeing the tears in her eyes as she cried out in horror. "Close it! Closeit, closeit, closeit, closeit, closeit!"

Guiding Light slammed the door shut as he closed the way behind him. He opened it back up to make sure that the room had changed back into the supply closet. Seeing that all there was at the middle was a mop, he threw everything out of place and slammed the door shut. With a sigh of relief, he slid down and closed his eyes, his chest rapidly rising and falling. "Door's closed."

Starlight whimpered terribly, shaking immensely as she tried to cope with the horror of running through all of the bodies of those deceased ponies. Crescent quickly got up to comfort her. "Okay, baby girl. I got you. You did what you had to do to survive, you did what you had to do to not be the one hanging up in there. You did great."

"I don't wanna be here anymore." Starlight whimpered.

Guiding stood up and wiped the sweat from his brow. "You and me both."

Darling daddy's wasting away.
Darling daddy's not speaking today.
Darling daddy's gone on to pray.
To pray our sins away.

A voice started to sing close to them.

Crescent stood with his spear out, looking around to source where the voice was coming from. "Oh I don't like this."

"Who's singing in a morgue?" Starlight asked, completely terrified.

Guiding felt a desperate chill run down his back as he looked behind him. "That's a foal's voice."

Mommy mommy, did you swallow glue?
Mommy mommy, I can't hear you.
Mommy, did you remember to pray
To pray our sins away?

Guiding jumped as soon as he realized the voice was being sung almost over his shoulder. Crescent grabbed the nearest tables, trays, lights, trolleys, whatever his magic could reach to hold at the closet door. "Barricade that door with whatever you got!"

"We need to run!" Guiding shouted.

"Running's fine as long as whatever the fuck that is can't chase us!" Crescent stressed greatly, plugging his spear into the ground to prop the door closed, blade facing the door. As he was finishing that, the little girl's voice continued to sing.

Mommy mommy, it's going to be okay.
Darling daddy's soon on his way.
Well all be together once again.
At last we can finally play...

All day we'll play...

Play.

P̷̮̽l̵̥̅à̵̞y̵̬̔

P̷̭̽l̵̡͝ȃ̷̝ã̴͈ḁ̷̅a̷̼̋ạ̸̾a̸̜̚a̸̞̋à̷̫a̷͕̒y̴̤̍

The filly's voice erupted into an unholy guttural roar as the door was being violently banged against. Crescent screamed to the top of his lungs. "RUN!"

Starlight, who was already fatigued, had mustered the last bit of strength she had to run out of that room. The three looked back to see what it was that was pursuing them. The only thing they could see was the sight of the closet door being ejected from the room with the spear head lodged inside of it. Whatever it was, it was approaching far faster than they anticipated. The three ponies ran through the dimly lit halls of the morgue, past the walls of the mausoleum storage, and into the the chapel feeding into the main hall. "Front door!" Guiding Light pointed at the exit, desperately urging himself to lock the door as soon as they cleared the chapel.

The party cleared the chapel, shutting the reinforced doors behind them. Guiding frantically locked the door and ran along side the two visitors, showing appreciation for their skill and quick-thinking.

"That was a close one." He sighed. "What the hell was that I'll never kno─"

His words were cut short as a tendril of corrupted flesh broke through the door and pierced him through his neck. His eyes widened from the shock of being internally decapitated. Much of his body went limp as his spinal cord was broken apart by the entering wound.

The two looked back to see what had been done. "NO!" Starlight unleashed a bloodcurdling scream as the young mortician's eyes wandered helplessly around the lobby. And in reply to Starlight's voice, the monster screamed back at her.

P̴͈̮̑L̸̞̲̏A̸̜̯͒͗Á̸̘Ā̸̧̛̻A̶̰͠͠A̴̳͋͝A̸̫̭̐Ḁ̶̠͒À̸̢͙Ạ̴͔͂A̷̰̾A̵̬͖͛͝A̴͎̿̀A̷͎̔A̸̭͆A̷̡̽̕A̴̲̫͌̒A̶̙̐A̶̱̦̒͌A̵̦̾À̶̡͇͑A̶̭̎͛Ä̴̬͕́A̸͑͠ͅÅ̶̩͐Y̸̦̩̾

Crescent grabbed the mare quickly, his horn burning with magic. "HANG ON TO ME!" He cried out. As he used his teleportation spell, the fraction of a second he came face to face with an unspeakable terror that could not be discerned into words.

He knew that hell had come for them, with it's tendrils outstretched.

Upon landing outside of the cemetery, the two galloped on for as long as Starlight could keep herself from falling. But as she struggled to breathe, she collapsed to the ground. Crescent was more than tired himself, joining with her. Pure terror was what lingered in his eyes. "Holy fuck!" He tiredly cried out.

Starlight, in a frantic climb, tried to run back to where they came from. "Guiding Light! We have to go back for him!"

"That thing took him!" He cried back, grabbing a hold of her so that she couldn't return to where they came from. "Look at me! We don't get a second chance, not against... that!"

"But if we don't get him, he'll die!" She cried out. "We can still do something!"

As the mare grew more frantic, he started to hold her closely, petting her head to comfort her. "Starlight, look at me. Look at me, alright." Her eyes was overflowing with tears while he too shed tears of his own. "You can't save everyone, baby girl. You save what you can."

Starlight croaked for a while, finally finding the moment to unleash all the pain of losing a pony she had barely gotten to know. The mare shook violently, weeping loudly in the city street. Crescent held the mare as if she was his own daughter, even seeing the colors of her mane as similar to hers. A piece of him broke down and he couldn't help but to clutch on to her, halfway thanking the stars that his daughter wasn't the one who had to endure this night, but also regretting the fact that she was in a position where she had to endure all the terror on her own.

This night would forever imprint on him, and he knew that there would be no sleep tonight.

His horn flickered with the last bit of magic he knew would make things better for her. He cleared his voice, trying to stabilize himself. "Tonight was terrible for us. And there is no way of coping with the evils we had to endure. But I know a way we can get through this, but you're going to have to trust me."

"How?" She whinnied. "How do we forget this!? We watched a pony die today! I can't do this, I can't deal with this!"

He hugged her tightly, bringing his voice down to a calm. "Come here. Come here. It's going to be alright. Just trust me." His horn glowed with a bright magic before he tapped his horn to her forehead. Immediately, the mare fell limp. With some of the last bit of strength in his body, he hoisted the mare onto his back and looked ahead to the long walk back. As the mare drifted off into unconsciousness, he cited to her what all will happen to her from that point on. "By tomorrow, morning you'll forget everything you just saw. It'll all be a dream for you, some parts of that will only remain there. But when you wake up, you'll live a normal life of a magic student. Save all of the madness for somepony who's dealt with it all his life."

Walking on, Crescent heard the mare on his back whimper out a name in her dream. "Nngh... Sunburst."

The retired guard clenched his eyes shut, trying to stay strong for her. "Girls this young should never have to see horrors like that."

"I concur." A second voice chimed in from a nearby alleyway. The stallion immediately recognized the voice and saluted out of habit. As she approached, Celestia looked to the figure resting soundly on his back. "So this is Twilight's new student. A shame that this is how I see her for the first time."

"Your highness." Crescent took a deep breath. "I'm sorry to have met you under such duress."

"And here I thought retirement suited you, Night Light." She replied. "Your daughter has been telling me of your recent adjustments."

"I haven't heard that name in years." The stallion looked back to the young mare he carried and scowled towards himself. "Permission to speak freely, your majesty."

"Go ahead." She answered.

"Why my daughter? Why did you assign something so cruel to my daughter? Was my son not enough of a mental case for you?" He questioned angrily, finding Starlight's appearance far too similar to his own child. "She sent her student for this, what could she be doing that's so important? I know what Nondis is doing, but how is this of any help to anypony!?"

"I will answer your question, but first..." Seeing the trauma in his eyes, the princess calmly lit her horn. "Night Light, show me what you know, what you have seen on this night."

He lowered his head in kind. "I... I have seen the face of hell. And it smiled."

Meanwhile at the VIP Lounge...

'Business as usual.'

Those were the three words that echoed throughout Kalimba's mind for the majority of the night. Instead of living the life of a normal pony, she was brought back into the fold of her prior escapades. Earlier, she complied with the order of satisfying her clients, and this client was no different in how she treated the previous.

Kalimba never had much of an interest in mares, it's just that she had to perform with them at the behest of a stallion or two. She wasn't just going to stop at surface level pleasures like groping, holding, and kissing. She knew her way around mares just as easily. And her client showed great appreciation for her skillset.

The top of the hour started with a few drinks, something to coax the zebra into a more participatory mood. The exchange began fairly innocently, but then the mare took some ecstacy and shared it with her through a kiss. Kalimba tried to avert it, but the mare coaxed her into swallowing it by wrestling her tongue during the exchange. The mid-hour was a lot more of where the foreplay took place. Touching her in places that no stallion would pay attention to otherwise, moving down the checklist she had established for herself and applying it to her client, gauging what worked and what didn't, then finally moving on to the quarter remaining.

The night of ambience and psychedelic passions came to a head for the client. However, Kalimba was trying her best to focus on the match taking place on the arena floor. Normally, taking ecstacy would cause a pony to become highly alert and energetic. This time, it was the exact opposite. "Ugh. My head." She said, blinking as she tried to regain her focus on the captain below.

The client, still riding her high, questioned the zebra. "You alright?"

"It feels like I cannot concentrate on de match below." She confessed, still trying to put forth her best effort to remain vigilant.

Although the mare wasn't exactly without motives, she was concerned for the zebra. "Do you need something to drink, like maybe some water or something?"

"Water is fine." She replied.

The client poked her head out and sent the request for some water. In less than a minute, her request was fulfilled. SHe walked back to the zebra with her beverage in tow. "Here you go, babe."

"Thank you." Kalimba responded weakly, finding it hard to use her magic to levitate the cup to her lips.

With very little strength to find within herself, she leaned against the wall lazily and slid down, spilling her water all over herself. "You okay?" The mare asked once more.

"I am fine." Kalimba was losing track of what was going on in front of her, but she still waved the mare off. She felt in her mind that she would come to grips with herself, but that was failing.

Umbra knocked on the door and then opened it to speak with the pair. "Hello ladies, I'm here with the next winner."

"Aw shit, did I go over my time!?" The female client questioned worriedly.

Umbra saw the condition the zebracorn was in and pursed his lips with growing curiosity. "Unfortunately. But... maybe I can bring you around sometime later. Don't worry about her, I'll take care of her while you're gone."

The mare apologized as security came to escort her away. "Aw, sorry, babe. I have to go."

"Dat's fine." Kalimba weakly replied.

As the mare was escorted away, Umbra began questioning her state of mind. "Oh, you look a little out of sorts, babe. What's wrecking ya?"

"I do not feel like myself." She replied, vainly attempting to keep her head lucid.

"Ugh, it's that dreaded disease again, isn't it?" He questioned mockingly.

"No." Finally, she collapsed and lost herself. Her fight to stay lucid had ended in failure. But Umbra didn't seem to mind the situation at all. In reality, he was pretty enthusiastic about it. Much of the night was everything going his way exclusively. But this one instance had made his night.

The third guest, a young teenager by the age of nineteen, walked in and greeted the ringleader. "Hey, uh. Is this the room?"

"Why yes. Welcome." Umbra announced cheerfully.

He looked around, seeing the mare lying lazily on the floor. She droned on, unable to produce any kind of coherent thought. "Wow, there she is... Is she okay?" The stallion questioned.

Umbra shrugged his shoulders and walked over to the stallion to reassure him. "Well I don't know about you, but I think she's down for whatever. She's pretty promiscuous whenever she's like this."

"Oh... um..."

While the client was uncertain of what was going to happen for the night, Umbra began to feed his mind with lecherous and immoral ideas. "And you look like you could be the lucky winner of the night."

"Lucky?" The stallion parroted.

"I mean, she isn't going to mind you doing what you want to do. She loves this kind of stuff, her master slips her all kinds of concoctions before letting her have a night out on the town. She's very sober, but she likes roleplaying as a drunken girl to be taken advantage of. It's a kink of hers."

"I... I mean..." The stallion was becoming more and more convinced to go along for the ride.

And Umbra was there to cheer him on every step of the way. He lifted her tail for him to see her exposed nethers. "Go on. Give me a good show."

The stallion gulped back his hesitation, his erection growing with every perverted thought that came to his mind, he could have her at his own convenience. "I mean... if she likes it─"

"Wait!" Umbra paused for a moment, a Cheshire grin forming on his lips. "I have a much better idea..."

Corrotto Underground Arena
Thirty Minutes Later...

"OOH! IT LOOKS LIKE HE'S ON HIS LAST LEGS, FOLKS!"

"THE COCKY BASTARD TOOK NINE ROUNDS STRAIGHT AND HE'S STILL PUNCHING CLOCK!"

"I GIVE HIM UNTIL THE START OF THE NEXT MATCH!"

"I GIVE HIM BEFORE THE END OF THIS ONE!"

With the fight slugging along, the captain stumbled to keep himself upright. Much of his arms were completely battered and bruised. Red welts and marks on his torso and neck indicated the blows he took. Needless to say as he grasped at his legs, that they were doing the most damage to him there. He did what he could to protect his knees, and punished anyone who dared to hit him anywhere near those areas. The very tiny reprieves between the rounds where they changed out teams and collected the knocked-out combatants were his only source of rest.

By then, much of the crowd had already acknowledged that they lost their money betting against him early on. Those who wagered him to fall much later on were the only ones who were truly invested in the match. Some cheered him at first, and then rooted for his downfall at their convenience. Others who were curious of his endurance remained and watched with excitement. They didn't care about his health too much, they just wanted to see how long he could go.

One such viewer had his wager placed into the eleventh round. "Two more rounds till I'm rich! Come on, ya stupid monkey, make me rich!"

As he cheered, the group of mares in the row below him had nothing to cheer for. They were very upset with how the night went for their friend on the floor. Rarity closed her eyes to the carnage. "I can't watch this, not anymore."

Applejack's anger boiled over as she hollered out to the announcers sitting on the sidelines. "Landsakes! Give him a break, ya leechin' varmints!

"Hell no! Let him get another round!" The viewer behind them shouted.

Another stallion chimed in. "Yeah! We want our money's worth!"

The young fellow behind the group who eagerly cheered the captain on, patted Pinkie on her shoulder as he encouraged the group. "Keep cheering him on ladies, maybe he'll give me another two rounds and I can cash this bad boy out! Go on, make him work!"

Pinkie stood from her initial spot and relocated herself to the other end of the group so she could not be touched again. I grimaced and tapped my hoof against the ground impatiently. "This cannot keep going."

Much to my dismay, Nondis finished off the last pony of the current group and sat himself to the ground tiredly. The announcers carried on with their usual banter. "AND DOWN GOES THE REMAINING MEMBERS OF GROUP NINE!" Scotch called out.

"THERE'S NO QUIT IN THIS BASTARD!" Botched proclaimed loudly to the remaining viewers.

As the medical staff pulled off the fighters who could no longer continue, the gate opened to reveal yet another squad of ponies armed with blunt weapons, snickering at their downtrodden opponent. "HE'S A SCRAPPY ONE, I'LL GIVE HIM THAT!"

"BUT WE AIN'T STOPPING UNTIL HE'S DOWN AND OUT!"

Nondis looked at the gate with exhaustion, resigned to the idea that he might have to force himself to lose out before they stopped sending more angry parishioners to try their hooves at bringing him more pain. This time, he stood up and manifested his magic into his hands to ready himself for the fight.

"Round ten! Let's go! Make this one and sell that next one for me!" The stallion called out behind the disguised group.

Rainbow looked around the arena nervously. "They seriously can't expect him to keep this up all night."

Watching the crowd cheer the initial clash, I closed my eyes to the barbaric scene taking place on the floor. I knew that he wasn't trying to kill anypony here, but somewhere inside of me knew that this all could be much quicker if he had used more of his own weapons instead of keeping himself honest. Perhaps it was some undisclosed deal, maybe even some instance of possible blackmail, I still couldn't see why he wouldn't give himself a better chance to get out of this unscathed.

Flashes of the fight reminded me all to much of the spar he had with my brother. With my eyes closed, I could see him still giving my brother a hard time. But what really stood out for me about that day was what he said to win my heart on that day. I could remember his words clearly in response to my brother's criticism of how much of a load I had to carry, and how he would contribute.

"I WILL CARRY HER!"

Those words play back in my head with all the reverb I heard in that hall back then, drowning out the sounds of the chaos taking place around me. My heart throbbed with a distant pain, remembering how elated I was to see how far he would go for me. But then I opened my eyes to the reality of him no longer doing that for me. It was the same look of determination, but this time with a lot more than my heart on the line. Instead, it was Celestia who he was fighting for.

The immense sadness that welled within my heart, I couldn't shake that feeling, not for a moment. It was the jealousy that came to a head, the pain of knowing that he tried fighting for me and I gave up on him too early, not because I wanted to but because I thought it would be for the best, so that he wouldn't have to do this again. But instead of him living a peaceful life, it was me watching a one-for-one recreation of that moment playing out, that instance where he held himself and fought through the pain.

And when my eyes shut to the brawl out there, I could still see the fight play out back then.

That's when I knew for certain, there was no way I could watch this anymore. "I can't." Rising out of my seat, I stormed out of the arena and into the concourse, thinking of a plan to bring a stop to this needless conflict.

Both Blueblood and Rarity called out to me as they watched me leave without an explanation or warning. "Hey, where are you going?" The disguised prince questioned.

Rarity rose up and quickly trailed behind me. When I had gotten further down the hall, she galloped to intercept me. "Darling, you alright."

I pushed past her, citing my own internal conflict. "I can't stand it. It's like no matter what happens, someone's out to have him suffer! And for what, who he loves!? Why does he have to do this, why does he have to keep fighting!?"

Rarity closed her eyes and scraped her hoof to the ground in a show of her own frustration. "Believe me, dear. I'm trying not to leap into that ring and make a scene myself."

I stressed to the mare another source of my frustration, whispering to her what I also felt was unfair. "What's worse is that Blueblood is making this take even longer. All he has to do is intervene like he did for Fluttershy and we'll be on our way out of this."

The disguised prince walked in from his seat and trailed the two with as much furor as he had when Fluttershy separated from the group. "What are you two doing here?"

"Unlike you, I can't stand to see my friends suffer." I seethed.

"I know it may seem like there's a lot that can be done here, but remember that this isn't our usual stomping grounds. Even now you have to be cautious with your words and how you speak." He replied, looking around before seeing a notable gathering further down the way. "There's a crowd growing, and we don't need to be out here making a scene for yet another to develop around us."

Rarity spoke up, taking my stance on the matter. "So are you waiting for the crowd to thin out there so we can make a strategic move or something?"

"No. And I'm sorry to say, it won't be unless I know for certain that his life is truly in imminent danger." Blueblood replied. "I know you think I could care less about the human, but the truth is that he's essential to us."

"Do you honestly think that Slade won't give a second thought to killing him out there tonight?" Rarity questioned.

Blueblood scoffed at her thought. "Have you noticed that there's a distinct lack of death occurring tonight? It seems to me that these rounds aren't anywhere near the standing of a deathmatch. Nondis is fighting to keep himself upright, not fighting to keep himself alive. If so, those rounds would be a lot shorter, wouldn't you think?"

Rarity continued her argument. "Do you think that those ponies he's facing out there care about any of that? They're aiming to kill him. The bruises on his body can tell you that."

As Blueblood was about to reply to the fashionista, a stallion yelled from further down the hall. "Holy shit, it's actually her!"

The blond prince rolled his eyes at the growing crowd as it magnetized more viewers to the area near the VIP Lounge. "What are these ruffians gathering around there for anyways?"

As one stallion galloped past the group to the arena, Rarity made one more comment at the prince. "A bunch of thugs looking for a mare to objectify. Seems like your kind of crowd, doesn't it?"

The stallion that galloped past cheered two more of his friends to join him. "She's right over here, boys!"

"Diva Kalimba in the flesh!?" The second stallion questioned with disbelief.

"Wow... the VIP's really got it made!" Commented the third.

Both Rarity and I looked to one another while Blueblood seemed to wince with confusion. "Diva Kalimba?"

I snapped at the prince once I realized that gaining an audience with her could easily cause her to spring right into action. If anything, she'd probably jump down there and give those other guys a good rear-ending. "Well that settles it. If you won't be of any help, then I know somepony who will." I said triumphantly, marching off to the growing crowd.

"What are you doing?" Blueblood questioned as both he and Rarity were trying to keep up with my pace.

"Getting help from a real friend of the one's who's giving his all on that floor." I replied.

Reaching the area where the crowd had gathered, I pushed my way past every onlooker who stood in my way. One guy had took offense to me shoving him aside, threatening to retaliate against me. But Blueblood easily shoved him down to the ground and drawing a dagger from his aura. A parting grew in the throng of viewers, and we were given access to the front of the crowd. I called out loudly to her, hoping to grab her immediate attention.

"Kalimba! Kalimba, we need your he─"

But as quickly as I had gained hope for some good to occur, more bad was shown to me in the second I saw her.

The zebracorn, who had grown brighter with each passing day, had found herself in a dark place. Her eyes were wandering around without reason or purpose. Her body was shoved forward continuously. She blabbled incessently, showing no capability of coherent thought. It seemed like the world was swirling around her and she couldn't keep her head above water. Even worse was the obvious stains on her face, the running mascara and tears down her cheeks, how her head wouldn't raise up to her own name being called out. She wouldn't even blink.

"Heavens!" Rarity gasped, covering her mouth.

Blueblood tilted his head at an angle. "Well, she's getting it pretty good."

I felt myself coming to a complete stop for a second. It took everything within me to not clobber my hoof into the idiot blond prince's face. So I took more of that energy and applied it to where I needed to direct it the most. "We have to help her." I stressed to Rarity.

While Blueblood wasn't showing that he was enjoying the display, I felt like he was in some way. "Do you know this girl?" He asked, turning his head with mild revulsion.

"She's my friend." I replied, trying to get close enough to help her.

A sharply loud stallion hollered out to both Rarity and I. "Hey! No touching the merchandise! VIP only!"

Blueblood rolled his eyes and walked closer, still adhering to the warning, leaned down to assess the mare's current state. He shook his head. "She's drugged. Badly."

I felt all hope was lost, I felt I needed to find someplace where I could take the time to process what was going on. Rarity stayed by the zebracorn's side, keeping a keen eye for any of the stallions who dared to find satisfaction in what was being done. I looked around, trying to find an answer for anything, everything, something that I could do aside from being helpless by circumstance. "No. This is not how it's supposed to be." I said to myself.

As if the night couldn't get any worse for me, I had to hear another stallion run in from the direction of the arena. "Hey, the human's in the eleventh round! He's collapsed at the opening bell! This looks like it could be it!"

"No way!" Some of the crowd dissipated at the news, wanting to see the moment when the human went down fighting. The numbers grew thinner and thinner until there were but a dozen of us standing around the drugged mare. I felt myself torn between trying to help her and trying to keep an eye over Nondis.

Rarity stood firm where she was. "I'll keep an eye out on her. You go and see about Nondis."

Blueblood then chimed in. "Miss Troublemaker, can I trust you to be an independent overlook? Somepony's got to stay behind and make sure your more vulnerable friends are cared for."

"What are you saying?" I asked.

"Get back to the arena and see this thing through. After that ends, we should still be here, your friend will be looked after. She will not be objectified any more than she already is, I'll make certain of it."

I nodded as I quickly turned around and attempted to make my way back, only to bump into somepony as soon as I was about to start running. The stallion politely and cheerfully spoke. "Oh, 'scuse me dear."

I shook myself to focus, all while apologizing to who I bumped into. "Sorry, I─"

My apology was cut short once I realized who it was that I had rammed into. Much of my entire body ran cold like ice as soon as I saw his face looking back at me with a fairly gentle smile.

He blinked brightly and asked in a feminine manner. "Is there something the matter?"

While I wanted to say something, namely a lot of curse words and violent magic incantations directed to his head, Blueblood stepped in and saved me from blowing my lid. "None at all. My concubine is quite curious as to what those markings are on your face. She thinks they're quite pretty."

"Aw, you're so sweet." The stallion said as he turned himself around to dismiss himself. "I would explain it, but I have a few things I need to lord over─" A random masked stallion came barreling down the hall, wearing a black cloak. He whispered a few words into his ear and I could see the drastic formations of his face gradually change from cheerful and carefree, to neutral curiosity, and finally into a tranquil rage. A dark shadow seemed to grow over his face as his head lowered. The tone of his voice changed from that of a light falsetto to a heavy whisper. "Pardon me, I have pertinent business matters to look into."

The moment he stopped speaking, he completely disappeared without a single bit of magic used, fading from the hall without a trace. The hooded stallion ran back from the way he came, disappearing in a similar fashion. Rarity gawked at the method of his disappearance, but she too knew who's face we looked into. "Was that...?" Blueblood questioned.

"I think he might be." Rarity said gravely.

I clenched my teeth tightly, knowing damn well who I ran into. "No. He's exactly who he is."

Fifteen Minutes Later...

After I got back to the arena, my mind still fresh with that sadistic stallion's face, I watched as Nondis finally took more blows to his legs, finally getting through to his knees. The moment he buckled, one pony knocked him at his back with a bat to send him reeling to the floor. One more swing to his head was all it took for the announcers to claim the group of thugs the victors. The interesting thing is that they got more fanfare than Nondis did when he won every round, fighting through every wound, coming back from the brink of overexertion to give his opponents exactly what they deserved.

The announcers went about their way of bashing him as he squirmed and then crawled off the floor. But as that bit of bad came to a halt for the night, we still had the other instance in the hallway. I informed the others what had happened and they rushed from the seats to the hall where she was positioned. When we had gotten back, Blueblood and Rarity seemed to have gotten at odds with the security. While they promised not to draw contact with Kalimba in any manner, they were cited to be too disrupting to the other viewers. So instead of being able to do any good, they were forced to watch.

The zebracorn was still unable to discern the world around her. Rarity stared with sympathy towards the mare. "Poor thing."

Pinkie's ears fell as she pitied the mare for being where she was. "There's nothing we can do at all?"

Suddenly, that familiar stallion who was rooting for his eleven rounds showed up with a large sack full of his nightly winnings. "Aw sweet! Diva Kalimba in the wall herself!? I know what I'm spending my winnings on, a VIP membership!" He ran up to the mare and shouted loudly and enthusiastically. "Wait right there, I'll be right back!"

As Rarity was about to growl with disgust at the stallion, Blueblood murmured under his breath. "So uncivilized." The seamstress blankly looked at the stallion, ridiculing the irony of his words.

Applejack immediately started stretching her hind legs, cracking her neck. "So... who's head I'm bucking in fer this?"

Before any of us could answer her, an extremely loud shout roared from further up the hall. "WHAT THE FUCK!"

The entire group jumped at the sound of the explicative being unleased with such rage. "Oop, somepony sounds angry." Rarity squeaked.

A cream colored stallion with a crimson mane ran in from the top of the hall. He immediately ran up to the mare. "Kali! Kali, answer me!" The stallion lifted her chin, not even minding the mess that was all over her face. He did so with his hooves, trying to see if her eyes could track anything that moved in front of her. She dropped her head as soon as it was released, she groaned very weakly.

Rarity looked to the guard, surprised that security wasn't telling this particular stallion to not get involved. Pinkie tapped at Rainbow's shoulder. "Hey, don't his voice sounds reeeeally familiar." She whispered to the disguised pegasus.

Kalimba huffed moderately, and then her body began to shift back and forth. Her groans became grunts as she was repeatedly pushed forward.

"Nah, fuck that!" The stallion walked right past the two security guards and turned the corner into the VIP Lounge.

"His approach is familiar." Rainbow pointed out to Pinkie.

There was an abrupt scream from inside. "Ah! What the hell, dude!"

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!?" The stallion vehemently yelled.

While all of us could hear the inside from Kalimba's port. Since she was slumped over and loosely secured, a lot of what was said could be heard out in the hall. "I was told she was cool with it, dude! Chill out!"

"I DON'T GIVE A FLYING FUCK WHO TOLD YOU THAT YOU COULD DO WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANTED! IF YOU DON'T TAKE YOUR DICK, AND GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE IN THE NEXT FIVE SECONDS, I WILL CUT THAT SHIT OFF, FUCK YOU WITH IT, AND FEED IT TO YOU THROUGH A COCKTAIL STRAW!"

"The language is very familiar." Fluttershy pointed out.

"Hey man! You ain't gotta be like that! Look, I got twenty minutes left─"

"OH, YOU THINK I'M PLAYING WITH YOU! YOU'RE GONNA FUCK AROUND AND FIND OUT TONIGHT!"

"Okay! Shit, ain't gotta be a hardass about it."

While the exchange came to a pause, Kalimba's body started to shift, a white glow appeared around her body as she was slipped out from the hole inside. "And there she goes. Bless that crude but saintly stallion." Rarity said, praising the angry VIP member.

Blueblood tapped the mare's shoulder and urged everyone to gather in closer. "That stallion is the captain himself." He simply explained.

Pinkie became cross-eyed at the revelation. "I'm sorry what?"

"Seriously? How the hell is that Nondis?" Rainbow questioned.

"I SAID GET FUCKING GONE!"

*PLECK PLECK PLECK*

While everyone in the hall ducked their head down, that or flinched at the sound of the firearm going off in the next room, Rainbow nodded rapidly at the sound. "Okay, that's definitely him."

The first one to run from the VIP room was a college-aged stallion who was the fourth client of the night. He ran out into the halls, his shriveling erection still partially flopping around as he ran away. "Fucking asshole!"

Without even missing a single step, Nondis barged out of the room with the disoriented zebra on his back. He continued to speak with her, all while cursing at everyone who was in the hall. "Kali, I'm gonna get you back home tonight. EVERYBODY OUT OF THE FUCKING WAY!"

Seeing that our night here at the arena was pretty much done, I elected to follow after him to hopefully administer some form of assistance, especially now that we were able to. "Come on, girls." I said, leading the charge out of the venue.
When we reached the front lobby, I could see him readjusting Kalimba so that she wouldn't fall. But as he tried to ensure her security, some other ponies started to gather and reached out for her.

"MOVE THE FUCK OUTTA MY WAY!" He screamed, causing many to back off. A few others took offense to his refusal to keep her around and tried to get in his way. He summoned a sword and dug it underneath one pony's chin. "I don't have patience, you will move out of my way or some coroners will be moving you in the morning! Pick which way you wanna go!"

A yellow bolt of magic flashed past me and knocked away the stallion in front of Nondis. He looked back to see the pony responsible, standing in a braced position. Nondis didn't recognize him and immediately readied himself to return fire. I quickly ran to him to stop him, calling out in my true voice. "Sniper!"

His eyes went from showing a combative glint to a softened realization of who it was that was running to him. So instead of using his magic to send back a bolt of magic, he used it to sweep me up and plant me at the bottom of the outside steps. "You! What are you doing here!?"

"We just came to make sure nothing bad happened to you!" I replied. "We saw you fighting and then we saw Kalimba like this later on. We were trying to help."

"Well I'm sure felt like I had a ton of help tonight." He snapped back, rubbing the side of his neck. The others trotted up to reunite with us. He looked at the disguised group with cynicism. "Who the fuck are all of you?"

"Nonnie, it's us." Pinkie answered.

"Shit." He groaned angrily. "Why are all of you here?"

Rarity stepped out to answer him. "We wanted to help you, darling. But that bumbling idiot over there has us pretending to be his herd. He told us not to get involved." She said, pointing back to the masked prince.

Nondis quickly acknowledged that the stallion she pointed to was the same who sent a blast of magic his way. "And who is he?"

"Your residential glamor prince." He snobbishly replied.

Nondis rolled his eyes with disdain. "I'm not even going to ask why your dad's not here instead of this asshole."

Blueblood walked up to him, offering a friendly hoof-bump. "I admit, you did a hell of a job fighting out there."

"Oh yeah, sure, thanks a million. I'm sure the words of encouragement helps heal my aching body from all the sticks, clubs, and crowbars I took." He replied, still rubbing at the back of his neck. "If it wasn't for my changing to this form, I'd be in a lot more anatomically-specific pain. I'm gonna have to stay this way for tonight."

"Nondis, if you give us Kalimba, we can make sure she gets back to Ponyville tonight." I suggested.

"That's a plan I'm down for. I'm coming with." He announced, not wanting to be separated from the zebracorn for any longer tonight.

The disguised prince called some opposition to the captain's intent. "Um, what about your shift in the morning, then your psychologist appointment?"

"I can make a run through my world and be back here in five minutes. I'm going to see Kalimba through tonight, like I've been doing every night so far... So far except today."

Blueblood understood his position, refusing to bring up any further argument. "Alright, I'll inform Celestia of what happened here. Just don't be surprised when the usual hate-brigade try to find a way to sanction you for your attendance."

"They can kiss my ass, I don't care." He replied with earnest. The prince teleported away, leaving only us to find our way out. Rarity summoned a saddlebag filled with her makeup and cosmetics, beginning her attempt of cleaning up Kalimba. Nondis continued to carry her on his back despite our concerns for his health. Instead, he was more focused on trying to get out of the city. "Okay, how the hell do you call in a train at this hour?"

"Princess privileges." I answered as we walked into the alleyway leading out of the district. "You let me do the talking."

Twilight's Castle
The Next Morning...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Nondis***

Following our departure from the district, we headed straight to the train station. Awaiting us there was Twilight's father, toting Starlight on his back as I did Kalimba. We both exchanged a look acknowledging the long night we endured. Twilight questioned him as to what happened to her, he simply explained that she had tired herself out and he had to sedate her to prevent her from overexerting. A middle-aged mare approached us to tell us that we had already missed the last train of the evening, but when Twilight put her status to work, the lady quickly gathered a crew and got an engine steaming for us to make it back.

All throughout the train ride, I was watching as Rarity continued to clean off Kalimba's face, making her look much better than the hell she had went through. I thought about transforming back along the way, but I was honestly put off of being a human for tonight. A whole evening of being assaulted and battered for the simple fact of my being different had made me want to hide out as a pony for the rest of the night. It was mainly that, and the pain I was trying not to face when I turned back, all of it convinced me to just stick it out for a while longer.

When we arrived, Applejack and I took the task of moving the pair of comatose ponies to Twilight's Castle. We got them both cleaned up, I had nothing to do with that part. But once they were done, I helped move both of them to Twilight's bed, namely my old queen-size mattress since that had plenty of room for the both of them and Twilight. However, Twilight couldn't sleep for anything.

And neither did I.

I stayed up for the entire night, looking and watching for anything in Kali's condition that could either change for the better or worse. I was unusually caring, walking back and forth with the weight of knowing I could've sold the fight off sooner if none of it mattered, which I started to realize once I finished that ninth round. All they wanted to do was run me down and plant their flag in my back, for two and a half hours. If it wasn't for Shining's abusive training months ago, I'd definitely be worse off, and much sooner.

My eyelids became heavier and heavier when the sun came up, there wasn't any place or time for me to be able to get a wink in, my mind wouldn't let me up to that point. But when the sun started peaking over the horizon, I knew that the nightmare of a night was certifiably over.

From there, I dozed in and out, watching segments of minutes taper away. I continued to nod off until I saw the first signs of Kali finally coming through to surface. The first thing she saw was the unusual sight of the crystal décor hanging from the ceiling above. She turned her head to the left, seeing Starlight laying beside her.

"Morning, sleepy head. Took you a while to come back down to earth." I muttered tiredly.

The mare tiredly stretched her hooves. "Now dat is a much better start. Where am I?"

"You're in Ponyville. More specifically in the master bedroom of Twilight's Castle."

She yawned and stretched once more. "Ah, I went under before I could see you finish your fight. What happened to you?"

"I took eleven rounds of a beating." I grumbled tiredly.

Right then, she went back to her usual cadence. "Eleven? Abeg, why so many? You were supposed to do only six and sell. You stupid boy." She placed a hoof on my cheek, trying to seek out any bruises. "You look like a tired mess, did you sleep?"

"No." I confessed.

"Idjiot! You cannot just go fighting and den don't rest. What is wrong with you? You get yourself killed being dat stupid! You need to rest, now!"

I shook my head. While I appreciated that her first concern was me, I had no other choice but to explain to her why I chose not to sleep. "Fuck that, what all happened to you last night? Can you remember?"

Kalimba started her attempt to recollect on any of her activities. "If I can recall, I was doing de visits with de winners of de raffle. I knew later dat I had gotten caught with something. But when de third one came, it started getting worse. I remember bits and pieces after dat. A crowd. A wall... His face..."

I sat myself by her, levitating her hooves into mine as I broke the news to her. "Kali... I'm gonna fill you in on the parts I walked in on. I was walking up from the arena floor when I saw a crowd had gathered around you. You were in the wall where they... did the maids and shit. One guy was... in you. It was one of those raffle winners. After he popped out of you, I just went to grab you and booked. You were pretty drugged up, and I tried to look after you. I ran into Twilight and the others, who also saw you like that. Rarity went and got you looking right, Twilight got a train to Ponyville overnight, the other girls bathed you and Starlight. I told Twilight she needed rest, I stuck around for guard duty, really couldn't sleep knowing what all happened to you when I was away. And here's where we are now."

Kalimba sighed quietly. "Figures..." She said with a frustrated slam of her hoof against the bed. "I knew somewhere down de line dat it would happen again. I should've known from de moment He told me to appease to dat smelly bastard I would be right back where I was! Ah, I have no one else to blame. I feared him more den I should have."

The second she implicated Slade, I felt myself immediately waking back up, fueled more by hatred than anything else. "I'm sorry, Kali. I should've fucking forfeited the shit the moment I got done with the first round."

"You are not responsible. You are, if anything, my savior." She replied, bringing my head into her lap. "Without you, dat night would only be another in my life. But you give me hope dat days like dat are soon to end."

"But aren't you sad? Angry over what happened to you?" I asked.

"Come here and rest." She suggested, petting the back of my head. "Of course I am deeply saddened, but it is a wound I am used to getting. You let me deal with dat. You need rest now."

"That asshole's gonna get what's coming." I grumbled back.

"Stupid boy." Kalimba rolled her eyes at me before glancing over to the mare to the other side of her. "So what is she doing here?"

"Sorry, there was only one bed the both of you could fit together in. It would've kept you in the same room, I could keep my eyes on both of you. It's Twilight's bed, but she's got my old mattress on it, the one I used to sleep on before I first came to this world. As for Starlight, she got shipped in with us after Twilight's dad came to the station. He didn't really say what all happened, but she was raising hell and he had to put her down a bit."

Just as I ended my explanation to Kali, the aforementioned mare stirred from her sleep, finding herself in a similar situation as her eyes opened. "Ugh... where am I?"

While I tried to explain things, Kalimba kept my head in her lap. "Well I guess I'll have to start that whole beginning line again. You're in Ponyville. More specifically in the master bedroom in Twilight's Castle."

Starlight glanced down to see how far her hind legs were from touching the bottom of the bed. "Why is her bed so freakishly big?"

"It's my mattress." I deadpanned.

"Your mattress? You mean the two of you shared it when you and her were an item?" She asked.

"For the record, she stole it." I explained, changing back to the topic at hand. "Long story short, ladies. We had a long fucking night. Not sure what happened on your end, though."

The lavender unicorn tapped her chin, trying to put together what all she could from last night. "I know I met up with Twilight's dad at the morgue. But I don't remember anything after that."

I raised my head in outright curiosity. "The morgue, what the hell possessed you to go to a morgue in the middle of the night?"

Starlight stammered for a second, glancing around the room like she had said something wrong. "Uh, I-I was... It was for research, for reading and obtaining the memories of deceased ponies for the sake of an investigation. It's just a theory I had, he was supposed to help me with that subject. I just walked in with him and some other guy... don't really remember the rest."

"Probably saw a dead body and freaked." I concluded, seeing it as the only reason why she would've tried to overexert herself in that scenario. "Now I don't know what Mr. Sparkle has to do with the morgue, but if you don't remember anything, then maybe it's not a good idea trying to remember it right now. You mind can block off some pretty traumatic experiences that could damage you over time, maybe it's for the best."

"You think so?" Starlight questioned.

"Well I'd like to block out some pretty disturbing memories of my own, but they stick a little longer with me. Deep seeded psychological trauma, probably runs in the family. At least you're safe."

Starlight held herself, looked down at her forelegs. "Still... I can't shake the feeling of dread, maybe some guilt somewhere. All I can remember is the word 'Play' running over and over again in my head."

Um... going into a morgue, going wild, the word 'play' coming up in her brain... Okay then. "Well, that's disturbing."

The door opened suddenly, introducing a familiar farm pony who greeted us with a kind and caring smile. "Mornin' to all of ya's."

"Morning, Applejack." I called back to the mare as she walked into the room.

She initially focused her attention to the recovering zebra. "Kalimba, you okay?"

"Slight hangover. A bit sore in places. A familiar feeling, but I will continue on." She said, trying her best to appear optimistic.

Applejack, however, saw through her and placed a hoof on her shoulder. "We're here for ya, sugarcube. Whenever ya wanna reach out, you can talk to us. Ya ain't gotta hold nothin' out on me, just know that we ain't gonna let that happen to ya again." The zebra nodded before she choked back a sniffle, looking away as she wiped her eyes. I shook my head at the young zebra while she started to cry. Shortly after inducing tears from the recovering zebra, Applejack directed her concerns to me. "How about you, partner? You were getting the works and hardly any breaks. Eleven rounds of a mugging ain't all good, especially the way that last round ended."

I shrugged at the mare, trying my best to not let my own pain show. "Eh, magic heals most wounds apparently. I'll come to manage. But for now, I'm in a lot better shape as a pony than I am a human. Once I go back, it's pain city."

Applejack gave me a brief lookdown. "Yeah... kinda funny seein' ya as a pony."

"You do what you can to keep a low profile." I replied.

Applejack then went from me to the other occupant of Twilight's bed. "Starlight, you're bright-eyed and bushy-tailed"

The lavender unicorn rubbed her eyes of the sleep still crusting in her eyes. "Ugh, I had the weirdest dream, I was running down a hallway with an old friend of mine and he got snatched up by some really scary tentacle monster."

"Well Ah'm sure ya ain't got nothin' ta worry about. Yer home and safe." Applejack announced before looking at each of us. "All of ya are."

Kalimba was so adamant in forcing herself not to be sad that she slapped her hooves against her cheeks and perked herself up to talk to me. "So what now? I know dat He will be looking for us after you grabbed me last night."

"I guess I gotta fight on Friday too. I'm reigning champ, he'll probably throw a bitch fit if I don't show up." I stated, already not looking forward to the weekend.

"Ah don't think that's a good idea." The farm mare chimed in.

"Applejack, if I don't do this, he goes for my brothers. Possibly my whole family. He's already looking for my friends. I can't risk it." I informed her.

"Ain't no way he can do that, especially considerin' all them fancy gizmos and trinkets y'all humans got." Applejack argued. "How does he go about do that?"

For a moment, I thought back to where he changed bodies on me, giving me a face full of Count. "I know I don't want to find out."

Kalimba then added. "And when dere is a will, he will make a way."

***Point of Perspective: Equus Melanie***

The sound of his voice...

It took everything within me to not sob as I heard him speaking for the first time in weeks. I didn't even understand why I was so emotional in hearing him, all I knew that I was relieved to hear him interacting with everyone. It felt like a distant memory being realized in front of me.

God knows how much I wanted to run in and say 'hi', but I knew that he probably didn't want to see me out of fear of my identity being discovered. Perhaps I didn't care about that anymore, I just wanted to talk with him, to know how he's doing, if he needed anything. I just wanted to be there for him, to be his cheerleader for this go around.

I'm sure the boys felt a similar way.

Cliff, Rickey, and I were coming by to wish Kalimba well after Applejack told us what happened to her on last night. But she didn't anticipate Nondis staying around this morning, and neither did we. So we were pretty much left waiting outside of the room, hoping for Applejack to give us the 'all-clear' to give her some much-needed encouragement, pampering, fellowship, and emotional security.

But as we sat here, all we could do was fixate on what he said, the grim reminder of how deep in it he really was. "Yo... I didn't even know he was here." Cliff whispered.

"Holy shit, that sick motherfucker's got Nondis' whole family in the cut now?" Rickey questioned silently. "I didn't even know it was that bad."

I sat silently, unsure of what we could even do at this point. If anything, we were probably just as sought after if Umbra wanted to go after people he knew. "You good?" Cliff asked to gain my attention.

But still, there was at least something we could do in our current state. "...We have to warn them."

"And they come in guns blazing?" Rickey concluded.

"That's the only answer." I replied, going into my saddlebags. I reached inside and pulled out my phone, turning it on for the first time in two weeks and some change. "I just wish my phone was hooves compatible."

The other two crowded around me as we all watched the iPhone logo pop up on the screen. "Don't we all?" Rickey responded with a nostalgic sigh for being able to use our phones.

I peeked inside of the room, seeing pony Nondis passed out on Kalimba's lap. She petted his head as Applejack spoke with her and Starlight. She appeared very sullen looking at the stallion in her lap. "Poor Kali looks like she went through hell."

Cliff then brought up an interesting point,. "My only question is this, why did all of them leave to Canterlot last night? What the hell made everyone except Spike dip?"

"Probably had a party or something." Rickey guessed.

"Applejack was talking earlier on how Nondis took a beating. Has to be something to that degree." Cliff pointed out.

"Nondis stay getting hurt." Rickey replied, appearing fatigued with the subject.

"Nondis needs to not stay here anymore. But who in our world could even help him? The best damn doctors in the country could probably do it, but it'll cost millions of dollars with probably decades of therapy. And don't even get me started to drugs for mental health." I said, already thinking of how they'll try to take advantage of Nondis being an uninsured patient.

"His family ain't got that kind of money." Rickey mulled. "Dammit, there's gotta be something we can do."

"Giving his folks the heads-up is the only way." Cliff said as he pointed one of his wings up to raise a few prominent feathers.

I stopped for a second and realized the shape he had his wing, in some weird way it resembled that of a hand. I looked over to Rickey and nudged his wing out. "Hey... can I borrow a feather real quick?"

"Why?" He asked before I bit down on one of his smaller feathers and plucked it. "OW! Mel, what the fuck."

I held the soft end of his feather in my mouth while I pointed the still-warm quill to the screen. I flicked at one of the apps, seeing if the screen would respond. As soon as the app pulled up, I almost cheered with glee. "Oh my god... Your feather's a stylus."

"Solid. So can you please not do that again? Shit stings." Rickey said as he flexed the wing I briefly violated.

I went back to the home screen and went up to the phone app to give Stanton a call. We walked down the hall and waited while the phone was on speaker. It took around four rings before he picked up on the other end. "Yo Melanie, the whole damn world's been looking for you guys."

"You know we've been in Ponyville the entire time." I answered back.

"Yeah, you right. So how's it been living the life of a four-legged furry for the past two weeks?" He joked.

"Far from glamorous but we've been living pretty good." I stated before jumping right into the warning. "So yeah, heads up. Nondis' in deep shit, and that Ummie guy is looking to make you and Alex his next targets."

"Shit... well that's not good." Of course I could hear the worry in his voice.

"What's the plan?" I asked him. "What do you think Alex could have in mind?"

"That's a good question, I can't do shit from College Station. My transfer work hasn't finished and the NCAA is finalizing my paperwork to move."

"Where to?" I asked.

"Austin."

Both of the boys immediately crowded around the phone. "Wait, you're going to UT?" Cliff questioned somewhat excited.

"When it's all said and done. Love my Aggie brothers, but bitches out here are craaaaazy crazy."

"Wait what?" Cliff appeared confused by Stanton's testimony.

"Yeah, it's a long story that ended with a false rape accusation. How is it I raped you and you were the one who put the video on PornHub? I literally sat there and watched her pull out her phone and give it to me for backshots. Her supposedly-conservative dad finds the video, calls her up to ask what's up. Then she tells them I blackmailed her into it, then they watched the video, and yeah... So my dick is out there for the world to see right now, and my coach ain't too happy about that. So I got suspended from the team, I'm filing a transfer, and I'll be a Longhorn by the end of the spring semester."

"Damn, that tough." Cliff said in a state between bewilderment and amazement.

I quickly got us back on topic. "Hey, get Alex on the line if you can."

"Okay, hold up a minute." He said before his end went silent. As seconds went by, we all kinda looked at each other like we were still processing what the hell he just told us, and then what the hell happened with Nondis. Apparently their family has a lot going on. Eventually, he came back on the line. "Okay is everyone here?"

"Yeah." Alex called out from his end.

"Hey, Alex." I chimed over to him.

"Melanie, your parents have been pretty spooked lately." He replied playfully, knowing where I was.

"I know, still bunkered here in pony world." I answered before jumping into the main topic. "Look, bad news. That Ummie guy is going after you and Stanton next. Seems that we've been hiding too well for his liking and he's going after you guys next."

"Nondis ain't been kissing that guy, has he?" He asked with some concern.

I then explained. "Not that I think of, we know Nondis doesn't really swing that way. But that guy's been torturing the shit out of him. Also a bit of an update, that Ummie guy, he can use dead bodies to get around."

"Whoa, wait what?" Alex stammered.

Stanton reacted the same way. "Hold up, how does that work?"

I briefly summarized what I knew. "He literally takes over the body as his own... Which means he's walking corpses everywhere he goes."

Alex didn't even want any part of that. "Um, the fuck we supposed to do against that? I didn't know we were in the new season of The Walking Dead."

"Well, I know that we have a situation last night where Nondis supposedly got mugged."

"Oh gosh, how does he stay getting hurt?" Alex asked exhaustedly.

"I mean he doesn't look too bad." I pointed out. "If anything, he's just dogshit tired right now."

"Ugh... I'm gonna give him a call and see if we can meet up sometime today and talk about this. I'm only in town to look for a house with my wife, she's already trying to talk me into kids, and she's anticipating a house with some ample workspace should we decide to work from home."

"So everybody's moving to Austin now?" Rickey asked.

"Yeah man, it may not look like it, but the market is pretty much on the turn-up for the foreseeable future there. I just don't wanna be latched around mom and dad, but I still wanna be able to see them. Plus me being here would allow me to at least help with Nondis more consistently without having the scrutiny of missing work days."

"That. That, so much." Stanton interjected. "I just wanna make sure he doesn't get himself killed. So where is he now?"

"He's knocked out in the other room." Cliff answered.

"AW SHIT!"

Snapping our heads to the direction of where his voice came from, we heard a mad scramble of hooves clattering to the hallway. The three of us hid out of sight as we waited for Nondis to pass by.

"Fuck, I am NOT trying to hear any shit for my being late for work!"

Watching him gallop by, we all shook our collective heads. As he disappeared down the hall, I heard Stanton on the line. "So he sounds alright for a guy who got mugged."

"I should still call him." Alex stated.

'I should talk to him' was what I wanted to say... Instead, I vowed to make good on that.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

I left my phone behind for both Cliff and Rickey to talk with Alex and Stanton. I decided to follow behind Nondis as he made his way out through the portal room. Since I couldn't catch him before he walked back through to our world, I followed him instead. Once I stepped through, I made sure that I was quiet so that I couldn't get his attention where he would end up looking at me. So I tipped through the bathroom until I could risk a more consistent step against the carpet of his bedroom. I heard a series of pained groans coming from down the hallway, so I peeked my head out to investigate.

What I saw had made me feel even more upset, and sad. He leaned against the wall, brushing his hands over various bruises all over his shoulders, arms, neck and chest. His shirt was laying on the ground beneath him, he leaned his head back to reveal another bruise on his outside thigh as he strained to put on a pair of pants. All the while, he cursed at the world until he could bring his pants up to his waist. I leaned back out and covered my mouth to prevent myself from expressing any grief over seeing him in the pain he was in. At least now I knew what kind of condition he was actually in.

The man slowly went for his shirt before I called out to him, peeking in and out of view. "Hello?"

A panicked tone came over him as he snapped his head back to the direction of the room. "Who the hell are you!?"

"Nondis, it's me. Melaine." I replied, feeling my heart going out for him and his state. "I was just checking in to see how you were doing. Haven't talked to you in a while."

He called back out to me. "Oh. Yeah, I guess it's been a while."

"Yeah, I'm just hiding in your room because I know that you can't let yourself see me for whatever reason. But, I hardly ever hear much about you nowadays. I'm worried."

"I'm fine." He replied as best as he could through his pain.

"I heard last night was pretty rough for you."

"Oh yeah. Just a little rough-around for a good two hours."

"I can tell. You're bruised to hell and back." I answered. "It looks like you got smacked with a baseball bat."

"That, a few crowbars, some clubs, two-by-four's─" He stopped and started walking towards my direction. "Wait, how did you know?"

"DON'T COME BACK HERE!" I shouted, trying to urge him not to come to the room. "Yeah. I'm not exactly standing on my own two feet."

"Oh." He replied, stepping away from the door and turning around. "Yeah, that. Can't let me see you as you are now."

"Yeah."

"Hey, Mel. I gotta go to work, I'm already running late." He said pretty sadly.

"You know, you should take the day off, let yourself heal up a bit." I suggested.

"Nah." He answered. "It's like you said, rehab is all about working through the pain to get back to where it doesn't hurt anymore."

"No. I told you to work through the pain so that you can get back to your full range of motion, not to where it doesn't register a pain response. You can't keep pushing past pain, eventually your body is going to tell you to fuck off and you won't be able to do shit anymore." I stressed further. "Nondis, we're worried you might end up killing yourself. And I'm sure you know by now that what you're up against won't let you rest after you die."

I could hear him slowly turn back to the door, his grunts of pain made that more apparent. "How do you know that?"

"We've been told of what he does." I confessed. "And I'm sure you've been told that we had a run-in with him too."

He sighed in defeat. "Then you probably know why I can't stop fighting now."

I took a second to think of the best way I could get through to him, as telling him to do just that would only make him want to withdraw from me. So I closed my eyes and rephrased my answer. "...I'm not telling you to stop fighting. I'm telling you to stop fighting by yourself, especially now. We're here. We're all changing up our lives to make sure you're all good. And if we have to fight him together, then let's do that. I know he got some fucked up shit he's doing, but you can't keep fighting that alone. Let us help you. Please."

"Mel... If anything happens to me, just know that you guys will be taken care of. I'm not fighting on my own. I got friends behind me, allies beside me, and God looking out for what's ahead." He closed the door to allow himself to lean against it. "Ugh... it hurts to slide down."

"Please be careful." I chided.

"Can't do that anymore, right?" He said with a chuckle. "I mean, my whole family's at risk now. I can't even shoot the bastard without him coming back from the grave. I had to personally burn Count's ashes last week. I fought a huge-ass timberwolf. I killed the guy who put the knife in my guts. I held my own shit for two hours against 143 motherfuckers in a ring where the crowd threw rotten food and shit at me. Everything fucking hurts. But I'm gonna be alright because I know I am not alone. If it was otherwise, I would've put a bullet in my head the moment Twilight broke up with me in that hospital bed. And that's real."

"Well thank you for not doing that." I said quietly.

"Thank you for being there when I felt I had nothing."

I giggled a little before I started to hold back tears. "You did the same for me, for however long. I just don't want to lose the friend I love is all."

"Now you see why I fight so damn hard, cause I love you so much. Can't have it in my head if something bad happens to you."

I wanted to bawl my eyes out, but I kept breathing to keep myself stable. "So... I have a question."

"I might have an answer." He said, getting up off the ground.

"...So. I know that throughout the years I had a bad habit of getting with guys over you, knowing you were still trying to get it in with me. And I know that even though that you knew that I knew that I was doing that to you, you still found the time for me. Like even after our fight, you still called me back. I know I ignored the calls on purpose, I just... Like... How do I apologize for the years I took from you? How do I say that I'm sorry for getting you into this, for damaging you where you couldn't─"

"Melanie..." He interrupted. "...You taught me how to be me, and not everyone else. You made me stop pretending over what I wasn't and got me to be the best me I could try to be."

I stifled any moments where I felt like bawling in front of him. "Oh there you go, trying to be Mr. Ideal."

"The tissue's are in the bathroom! I know what you sound like when you cry!" He called out to me from down the hall.

"Oh fuck off!" I shouted back to him. "I know what you look like on the inside!"

"Call it even!" He said as he closed the door, leaving off to the portal for Canterlot.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

The Unknown Lab...

A set of sliding doors opened as a stallion walked through in a stellar white lab coat. He walked forward, humming to himself as he approached the latest subject to greet him at his doorstep. He hummed with glee until the face of his newest
project greeted him. He stopped humming, and then started smiling. He placed his hoof on the subject's face, guiding it down to the neck to observe the ghastly wound he could see his wall through. He turned the operating light on to the face of his newest project. "Well... well, well. Guiding Light. Such a poor, misguided kitten."

Another pony appeared from the doorway behind him. They sported a black cloak with a white sigil bearing the inverted emblem of the Faustian faith. He walked in with a clip board, bowing to the enamored scientist. "Sir, our source from within the castle is saying that there are potential deployment orders being put in place for the mortuary." He informed with a haughty drawl.

"Oh, let them come by and get a tour. It's not like we have much to hide." The scientist replied with a smile.

He then gave the clipboard to the lab-coat donning stallion. "Sir, here's our progress on the creature."

The robed figure watched as the lab stallion breezed through the notes. "Most interesting results, promising even. How long did it hold before degradation process took place?"

"Four hours, sir."

The smile from the scientist's face had all but disappeared. "Ah, still needs improvement. What's the progress on the transfer?"

"The transfer will take another three days, sir."

The brilliantly robed stallion rolled his eyes. "Damn, so I can't have it by Friday? Most disappointing." He simply dropped the clipboard to the ground before going back to his topic of interest, the formerly-impaled corpse sitting in front of him.

"It'll be ready for next Friday, sir."

"Ah, well patience is a virtue. Can't say that this hasn't been centuries in the making. Have to rush it a bit now that things have been found out. A relocation's in order, I suppose." Said the scientist.

"To the usual place, sir?"

"Ah, ye old stomping grounds." The scientist smiled once more.

"Very good sir."

The stallion levitated the clipboard and smacked the reporting stallion on the top of his head with it. "Don't 'very good' me, I'm the fucking best!"

"You are indeed the finest, sir." The messenger replied to correct himself. "Also, reports from last night's damage assessment indicate we have lost nine dolls in the breach."

The scientist dismissively replied to his informant. "Ah phooey, who gives a shit about dolls!? I have many more interesting pursuits to consider other than some piles of wood operating on borrowed magic."

A second hooded figure walked into the lab, bowing at the door this time. "Sir. We've acquired the subject you requested for next week." He announced with a burly voice.

"Hooray!" He exclaimed, tossing his clipboard into the air and inadvertently hitting the head of the corpse behind him. "Now I can really get into the meat of what I want done. Soon, I'll have to plan for bigger ambitions, to conquer a realm unknown to equine eyes... after my soon-to-be conquest of Equestria, of course!" He giggled with glee and clopped his hooves together. "A new world of possibilities, a new standard of living, a new horizon of dominance, it all begins with just the tiniest draw of blood."

"We'll have it stored away, sir." The second informant announced.

"Alrighty then! I'll get to him once I've finished with this one. Clear my schedule of the others until I'm done with my newest project. Even this one's pretty uninspiring to me now, I'm just going to rush this one through and I'll get with them─oh, male or female?"

"Sounds to be a young male, sir." The second informant replied.

"Oh, more of the goodness. He'll be perfect practice for what's next." He said as he sat before his current subject. "Run along, something-something interruption, something-something work, you get the gist." The two rose from their positions and left the room, closing the glass sliding door behind them. Upon the end of that exchange, his horn lit with an orange glow. "Well Guiding Light, they were true when they said that curiosity killed the cat. But I assume you were satisfied with what you saw. I mean obviously, you're still here."

He summoned a black cane with a crimson jewel affixed to the top. He twirled it for a second before slamming it into the ground, producing a loud ringing noise as the jewel came to life with a corrupted glow, sparking with black lightening and purple blobs surrounding the green glow. The color of his magic changed as he snickered at the corpse. He held the jewel up to Guiding's face and waited until the head snapped back up. The wound that was gaping in his neck had closed, and the corpse rattled violently at the call of the jewel. Meanwhile the scientist looked on with green eyes, black smoke emanating from his glance. Umbra looked at the dead stallion with an amorous gaze.

"So how about you come right on back to me, mister kitty cat? There's work to be done."

Author's Note

Okay, well this isn't a month or two late or anything. But I hope everyone is having a relatively good life considering the circumstances. With the delta variant popping up all over the place, my gigs have went from numerous in July to virtually nonexistent in August and September. And as a result, I'm struggling financially to the fault of not being able to pay the bills on time. Plus there's taxes I need to have done also...

I wish this country didn't penalize insufficient finances so harshly.

I'm still chugging along, hopefully getting through the year without going insane from the lack of people looking to destroy my livelihood by not following simple instructions. But other than that, I'll hopefully see you guys later this month.

Chapter CVI

Canterlot Castle...
***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

Following my departure from Ponyville, Spike had given me an emergency summons issued by Princess Celestia herself. I made very little provisions to arrive there, instead flying to the castle myself. Once I arrived, both Princess Celestia and my dad waited for me in the throne room. Standing beside her was one of her guards, who stood firmly by her side. The princess nodded at me in her greeting.

"Twilight Sparkle, you are as prompt as you always have been."

"Princess, I came as soon as I got your message." I said before acknowledging my dad. "Hey dad."

"Hey, sugar plum." He replied fairly weakly.

"You don't sound too good, is everything alright?" I asked him.

"I didn't get much sleep, that's all."

The high princess motioned me to walk beside her. "My former student, there is much we need to discuss."

The four of us walked towards the throne slowly, speaking softly. "So what's going on, your highness?"

"Your father has come across a bleak discovery. I've done some diving into his memories... they are not good." She replied gravely.

"That bad?" I asked my dad.

"Violet, I can understand that you have to save Equestria no matter the cost, but please consider what you are getting into." He urged. "I can't say that what I saw was anything less than a horror beyond words."

While I wanted to get into the thick of the discussion, I still had one question that lingered at the forefront of my mind. "If I may ask, what happened to Starlight last night?"

"I'll get into that, but first I want to know if you are really willing to do something like this." He warned. "I'm sure you remember what we saw on Friday.""

"I can't possibly forget it. I had to use a sleeping spell to get by." I replied.

"Well... it's much worse than we anticipated." He said with a sigh.

Celestia turned to her guard. "Solemn Oath, I need you to assume the captain's role today.

"What for, your highness?" She asked.

"Because the captain is in recovery. I'm leaving him the day off to his world. He needs to be able to find the time to recover his strength."

"Wait, what about his therapist appointment?" I questioned.

The princess then replied. "He's undergoing that now. Once he's finished, he will be dismissed for the day and left to regather. I will not risk him to discover what it is that we will do next." She turned to her guard and spoke. "So I will need you to run an investigation based on the lead we have with the missing bodies. However, I will wish for you to remain at a distance."

"Well that's bringing up more questions of how this operation will be conducted." I replied. "Say she's given a squad or platoon to execute the search warrant. Do we use our guide on the inside of the morgue to help?" Dad lowered his head, taking a deep breath. "What, what's wrong?"

"Violet..." He began slowly. "...Guiding Light is dead."

The atmosphere of room suddenly grew tense as I had to grapple the weight of his words. "Wait... how?"

Dad's eyes grew steely as he stared off into the distance, not particularly focusing on anything. But I saw how his body trembled. "There was a creature in the lurk. It emerged from the darkness, with great strength. I could not get a good look at what it was made of... but for the glimpse I did see, it looked as if there were... eyes... teeth... exposed flesh and bones... and a filly's voice." He looked towards me. "During our escape, the three of us had managed to trap the creature in the room full of corpses... or so we thought. We even broke down the door to make sure that we were not led back to that room... but still it came. We ran, we ran as we were trying to fight against our bodies' desire to rest. And when we were given a reprieve, that creature... that spawn of hell, it sent it's tendrils into him... We watched as that poor boy was ripped apart in front of us and carried off into the void of the mass." Dad closed his eyes, trying to take deep breaths to calm himself back down. "Starlight could not process any of that last night. So I had to block off her memories of that, and gave her the rest she deserved. I had no other choice, she wanted to go back after that thing for him. I did it to save her. That's all."

I walked over to my dad, rubbing his back. "This creature, what did it look like?"

He shook his head and clenched his jaw shut. Celestia answered in his place. "It's a creature of corruption, Twilight. And I will not allow the one responsible for this to disrupt the harmony of our citizens with any moment of it's conception. Because last I checked, anything that hideous will be used against many innocent lives."

I looked towards the glass window depicting the moment my friends and I had turned Discord back to stone. "So it's certain that this is a threat?"

"Of the highest priority for the time being." She answered firmly. "You and your friends are cleared to engage."

Solemn saluted the princess as she spoke out. "Your highness, tell me what you want out of this warrant and when you would like for me to execute."

"Execute at approximately 0500 hours, I want your guards in that building at no later hour, minute, or second."

"Your word is law, your highness." The guardsmare confirmed before leaving the room.

"You're going to need somepony who can put in the pass code." I added, looking to dad. "Without Guiding Light, I'm sure it will be difficult to get where you guys were last night."

"Are you volunteering yourself?" My dad questioned. "If so, then I'll have you know that I already informed her majesty of the proper input sequences. You don't need to go there personally."

I stopped to think about the young stallion that I met only once, who actively assisted us when he could've denied us from the moment we walked into the front lobby. "...Guiding died for our sake, Starlight suffered mainly because I had to put everything together so quickly. No more short-sightedness. It's only right that I confirm with my own eyes what I'm getting my friends into." I walked to my dad, giving him a hug. "I'll be alright dad, I promise."

"I never wanted this life for you, Violet." He said, nuzzling me back.

"Dad, you know I'm crazy in my own way. I fought off a lot worse threats, and witnessed a lot worse fates than I would have ever imagined in my lifetime. If I have to stop these things from happening, I will do it. It's what I was born to do." We separated and looked at one another. "Your little sugar plum is a grown princess, I can handle it from here."

"You let me know if you need anything." He said with a kind conviction. "Call for me, I'll come running."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Cold Stone Creamery
Austin, Texas
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

After hours of aching and bemoaning the sensations akin to walking into flying baseballs, I carefully picked out my clothes to avoid any attention from onlookers. Instead of going out in the bold, I went looking like the recluse this world already perceived me to be. And I thought of no better place of trying to find something to enjoy other than partaking in some ice cream after a traumatizing event.

Coffee and peanut butter was always my go-to comfort combination.

I sat at one of the tables, watching as others made their respective orders. Many of the patrons came with their kids, so it appeared to them that some young adult dressed up in a thick coat and sweatpants wearing sunglasses indoors had some nefarious intentions. I, however, didn't give two fucks of what they thought of me, I just wanted some ice cream. I shot Alex a text about half an hour before I arrived to tell him where we could meet. When he arrived, he looked the part of some professional businessman on his way to a presentation to talk about 'synergy' or some other corporate bullshit. But the suit and tie didn't quite match his approach to our table. "Yo." He called out, sitting himself at the table like he had readied himself to reach out across the table.

"Hey bro. What's good?" I replied, still eating on my ice cream.

"Man, I heard you got your ass handed to you last night. What happened?"

I tried to trivialize my situation as best as I could to not worry him. "Underground fighting arena, had to beat up a bunch of thugs before they finally got the better of me. See, I thought it was going to be a few groups looking to prove a point, I'd beat their asses, and then I'd get the fuck out shortly after. But yeah, it wasn't quite like what I had in mind."

Alex reached across to pull my shades off, revealing the pretty pathetic state of my face from both the beating and the lack of sleep. "Damn dude, you gotta get out of this mess."

"I can't." I replied.

"What? Why?" He questioned.

"I just can't. It's more like I'm trying to prevent what I don't want to happen at this point." I answered, still not wanting him to know the extent of danger he and Stanton were now in.

"You mean like how ol' dude is putting the target on our backs now?" My head pulled back, surprised of how he managed to find that out. For a second I wondered if he could read my mind, but then reality hit me with the possibility of Melanie or Twilight probably calling him to tell them what happened. But then he named his actual source. "I spoke to Rickey and Cliff, they already gave me and Stanton the rundown."

At that point, I couldn't even hide my concerns anymore than I could hide the bruises on my arms and legs. "Alex, I can't let anything happen to anyone."

"And we can't let bad shit keep happening to you." He replied, taking out his wallet. "I get it, you taking care of some really grown-up mafia shit, but you forget we ain't about to leave our family on the chopping block. Like when was the last time me and Stanton didn't come to bat for you?"

I smiled at his enthusiasm, but also shook my head knowing what all I've seen and experienced. "I know about that. I'm just worried that this one might not be the fight you want."

Alex leaned in as he whispered to me. "Dude, we heard everything. That Ummie guy can change bodies, he can't be killed because of it, and he's going after us."

"Yeah, I'm happy you know about that." I said sarcastically in return. "But I have a feeling that this might not even be the half of it. Something on last Friday really threw me for a loop, he's got some weird wooden puppets that can wear the faces of our dead enemies, possibly our family members if he's feeling particularly evil. All of this seems like he's got something more up his sleeve, and it's definitely not good."

"So I wanna ask you a question. Do you feel like you're prepared to fight against whatever he throws your way by yourself?"

"I'm not by myself." I answered, knowing that I do have friends who would be able to help in some way. Even Rarity noted that the elements would get involved if it was bad enough.

"Okay. Say that you got your magic and that does some good. But what about the things that magic ain't gonna be quick enough to deal with? Don't you think you need some help with that?" Alex questioned.

I already knew that what he was going for. I answered him with the intent of him understanding that if it was ever that simple, I would be in contact with him. "If I ever do need help with something like that again, I'll let you know."

"Just do what you can to stay healthy, man. I might not know what all happened to you and what you're running into, but you gotta start somewhere. The last place I want it to start is either with you in a hospital bed again, or worse, in a morgue."

"Yeah." I said chuckling to myself before a grim thought came to mind. "I probably won't be in a morgue for long."

"Why you say that?" He inquired.

"Well they already tried to donate my body to science the last time. I'm sure I know the real reason why they wanted that to happen."

"And what's that?" He asked with a quirked brow.

"How about you let me worry about that, and I'll try to keep you from finding out first hand."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Ponyville Inn
***Point of Perspective: Equus Melanie***

I spent about a whole two hours just hunched over my phone, seeing what all I had missed out on in the past two weeks. I wanted to catch up on some of the latest news, a bit of local politics, some issues both local and national, and then diving into some of my favorite anime on KissAnime. The winter season was set to get the ball rolling on some of it's good shows and I was completely prepared to enjoy my experience the best I could in pony form.

But before I could even make my first selection, a knock came at the door. "Who's is it?" I called out.

"Strapping." Rick answered.

"Oh yeah, come in. Door's unlocked."

He walked in to see me unmoved from the bed, my eyes locked to the screen. "Damn, you're just making up for lost time on your phone aren't you?"

"Get real, you know we haven't been around our phones for two weeks now!" I argued, not even lifting my eyes from the screen. As I held his feather in my mouth, I still hovered above the screen, indecisive about what I would watch first.

"You'd think that you'd start to grow to the point where you don't miss all the bullshit going on in the world. Maybe it's better to just keep off of them..." He started to slide his wing under my phone with the intent to take it away from me, I instead responded with a not-so-friendly look. "Or not be on them as much." Rightfully so, he left my phone well-enough alone.

For the brief second, our eyes finally met. "Coming from a guy who didn't want to miss an episode of Aldnoah.Zero."

"Hello!? Did you see how that first season ended!?" He called out with his tail almost wagging. I started to giggle at his bodily reaction to the news. He quickly realized what I was snickering about and sat himself down to curtail himself. "Okay, I might get to catch a few episodes, but still."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Just face it, you like the fact that you can use your wings to dial up whatever the fuck you want at any time."

"I know that Cliff's more than happy because he can call in Sunset for some more late night visits." He joked.

"Ugh, I can imagine the two of them going at it now. I'm going to be hearing that shit across the hall."

Rick snickered as he replied. "Nah, he's said they're taking it slow."

"For Cliff, slow is one week of talking, another week of breaking her back. There's no way they didn't fuck already."

"You got to remember that now they're both ponies here." He pointed out. "I'm sure he's just trying to get used to it all."

"We fucked on day one! It didn't take us five minutes to put the pieces together on what to do and how to do it. Sure we were clumsy, but we still broke it in." I crudely fingered out.

My remarks prompted an awkward chuckle from the stallion. "Yeah we did."

"Exactly, so how is it that we can get each other off on that note, but then they can't when they're both the same species for two weeks?"

The stallion rubbed the side of his neck bashfully. "I mean... yeah."

Even in my fit of crudeness, I was still somewhat embarrassed that we allowed that to happen so quickly. I wasn't even emotionally prepared for that choice, but my body was already trying to cash checks on an account that wasn't even open yet. "...I still can't believe we did that the first day."

"I mean, I guess I can understand what it was that Nondis went through that first time he transformed. Holy hell was I horny as fuck. I just didn't care what I saw, I wanted to ram it..." He quietly confessed before giving me a quick look. "...I know you're tired of me apologizing─"

"Rick." I stopped him before he could start his rant. I then put my phone under the pillow and gave him my undivided attention, looking straight at him and nowhere else. I took a deep breath, knowing what time it was for me. "Let's talk."

He took a breath of his own, almost with complaint. "Let me guess, is it about Nondis?"

"I mean he is my best friend, and I love the guy while he loves me. How can I not think about him?"

He quickly jumped to a conclusion over what I had said. "Wait, so he loves you? While he's in a relationship with the queen bee?"

"Maybe I should explain things before you get ideas." I said, planting my hoof against his muzzle. Admittedly, I found the way his nose scrunched up when that happened to be pretty cute. "Nondis loves me in the way of wanting to protect his friends and making sure that I don't get hurt in any way. He's a dick for leaving me out to pasture, but I understand it because I did the same to him for some years. And I'm not going to omit the fact that I blatantly ignored his calls the weeks before he disappeared into the gulf, cause he did call me a lot."

Rick then added. "Yeah, he tried calling you right after the probate. He wanted to spend time with you and apologize, he told us that much. He kept reaching out, and then after so long he fell into this really weird and deep depression. Like I never seen him down so bad."

I started rubbing my forelegs together, trying to get to my point as best as I could, but also trying to explain the context of my thoughts. "I knew how mentally vulnerable he was, but I wanted him to learn a lesson about what he did. Turns out he learned that lesson, all this time of being here and he started molding into the guy we see today. And I don't mean that in any kind of petty-bullshit way, I mean he really did learn how to love without being attached physically to someone."

"Um, wasn't he fucking both Rarity and Twilight at the same time?" He critically observed.

"That's another topic, but besides the point. Nondis was always the one who tried to live a life of pleasing others─"

"Which he's still doing." He quickly shot down my previous point.

"And he tried his best to ultimately find where he can fit in─"

"Which he still does." He did it again.

"And he tried to protect whoever he can, despite the fact it puts him at a disadvantage... Which he's still doing." This time, I beat him to the punch before he could.

Rickey seemed all the more unconvinced. "Sounds to me like he hasn't changed much."

I shook my head and went further to explain what I meant. "It's the way he changed. He used to be more secretive with the way he did things. And by secretive, I mean he'd tell one girl one thing and tell another the same thing, of course hoping that either one of them will give him the play he wanted to get out of it. Now he's more upfront with the fact that it might not evolve into anything past friendship, maybe even a fling for business reasons, who knows how that man goes through with his deals."

"Seems like he's getting what he's wanted all along." He said with a brief chuckle.

"You think that, but if he was really like that, then he would've gotten what he wanted out of me and left me alone. I mean I even offered it to him, climbed on top of him and everything. I was ready to make things happen for the slight possibility of him changing his mind about staying. And even if he said no, I was still curious about how he worked now that there was some experience."

"Experience with ponies, you mean."

My cheeks ran a bit red and my ears grew ticklish for a second. "His pelvis went to work on something, it counts." I quickly grabbed another pillow from the nearby recliner, clutching it to get rid of some of the nervousness in my system. I'm sure he's not too thrilled to hear that I had tried to sleep with him. "But yeah, I gave him a shot to get what he was chasing out of me for all these years, and he still said no... more than once. So you can imagine how I felt when I saw him locking lips with Big Momma Celly, as a human. His attraction to human features was there, but it wasn't there for me."

He then nonchalantly threw one hell of a bucket of water on me with his statement. "I'm gonna be honest, he was thinking about dicking her down since Thanksgiving. But hey, whatever you believe in."

Now all I could think of was how stacked she was and how relatively plain-looking I am in contrast. I tried to put that thought aside, but some part of it did linger. "Either way, he's improved since I've gotten to know him. Maybe you don't see it since you've been around him for only a year and some change, but I was there since he was in high school. Yeah, he's changed a lot."

"Okay." He was still unconvinced.

Finally, I decided to reach the main point of our conversation, of course still politely beating the mess out of my poor little pillow. "And... I think I'm ready to change in my own way."

"How so?" He asked, appearing like he was already wanting the conversation to come to an end.

Still, I refused to lose him completely. "Well... he and I had a talk earlier today. I didn't let him see me, but we talked. I saw a glimpse of him, and he's got some nasty bruises all over his body from last night. But we did some talking, and I think I'm more at ease about him since he told me what he told me." Of course I'm even more nervous ever since I threw my confession out there a second ago.

"And what was that?"

My mind started screaming at me to drastically bounce the subject to what I wanted to tell him instead of lingering on the man I was putting aside. But I found it more and more difficult with each question he asked. "That he loved me. That he's fighting for protecting everyone. But the most important thing is that he knows that he can't fight it alone. He's getting help, and I think that's a huge step up compared to when he did the Arimaspi Mountain assignment."

"Yeah, you were taking about changing yourself, but all I hear is shit about him." He said while feeling rightfully frustrated.

But instinctively as his tone of voice raised over me, I felt like I had to be louder than him to make my point known. Finally, I just blurted it out. "I know you're jealous, but he's the reason why I'm even giving you a chance, Ricardo!"

"So─" He was preemptively prepared to make any argument for himself. But just as it processed for him he hesitated and then sighed out of disbelief. He slammed his hooves into my bed. "Why couldn't you just start with that?"

"Because I feel like I need to explain these things in detail so that you'd understand where I'm coming from. I know a lot of what I talked on is about him, but I made my decision because of my conversation with him today." I felt myself trying to eat at the nervousness in my stomach while making sure that this was the right decision for me. But somewhere I felt like it was the right decision. "Ricardo, I know it feels like I'm so head-over-heels in love, I am. But sometimes I need that insurance, that verification of whether my concerns were warranted or not. I felt like I was worried about what he was going to do to himself, not so much of what he was going through, which I know is a lot. And when he told me that I was already there for that moment, I realized that I was pushing something that was already moving forward. Today was that confirmation that I could let him walk, that I didn't have to keep putting my own happiness aside for concern of what he was getting himself into. I don't have to keep holding on anymore."

He sat himself on the bed next to me, still giving me a little more space than what he would've wanted at a time like this. "Let me guess, because of that one time you let him go in the past, you felt like he wasn't ready this time?"

"Now you finally get it." I answered excitedly. "My mind kept playing that moment back, over and over, the last night his name popped up on my phone. Every time, I played out all the possible ways it would've ended had I answered that call. Then came the days when I realized Nondis was gone. That day, the moment you called me to tell me who showed up at the frat house, I fucking screamed. I was doing twenty-five past the speed limit because I wanted it to be true. I wanted the second chance to prove that I can hold on for as long as I needed to. This morning had showed me that I was holding on to something that was moving even faster than me. So, I'm letting go and I'm moving my own way now."

I rubbed my hooves against my haunches, clearing my throat as he asked a question. "So where do I fit in this?"

I pattered my hooves with content, happy that there was some weight lifted off of my mind... a lot of weight. "Well, that's it. I'm perfectly fine to find myself worrying over him." I scooted in closer to him and grabbed his hoof. "But I want to make a new focus. I want to give my attention to something I had holding on to me for a change."

He looked at me with a deadpanned expression. "Okay. Melanie, we've had this conversation about going around the world with your explanations."

"I couldn't be anymore direct with you." I said as I hugged him. "So... It's you and me now."

"For real this time?" He asked as he pulled away, looking me in my eyes.

The butterflies in my stomach started to flutter wildly again. I wasn't even really sure why since we had already touched on every conceivable base in terms of our physicality. I suppose it was really my heart trying it's best to commit to the other man who's been there whenever it got ugly for me. What had really sold it was the moment when I escaped Jasper and came to the frat house. He was the first face I saw, he was the first one who asked me if I needed anything, he was the first one who wanted to go to war over me. Nondis was there too, but Rickey was first.

It's time I stop playing runaround with my emotions and accept what I already have next to me. It's not complacency, but rather a realization. I can't go chasing after the past. I said I would look forward, now it's time I do that and mean it. I smiled and leaned into his chest. "For real. Us. I want to try and make this right."

"Abeg! About time you make a right move with your life!"

My eyes popped open and the two of us were immediately startled. We looked towards the door to see that it was actually cracked open. "Uh... Wait? Who's out there?" Rickey questioned while being on his guard.

The door opened wide to reveal two other ponies sitting in the doorway. Both Pinkie and Kalimba stared back at us with proud smirks on their faces. "Don't mind us, we were just listening in." The pink pony said.

Remember those butterflies, well now they had almost turned into a form of nausea. "Kali! Wh-wha-w-wha-why are you here!?"

The zebra mare stopped leaning on the doorway and took a step back. "Because I could not stand to see idjiots in love not get what dey deserve."

"Or a friend not get the happy ending they deserve!" Pinkie said while she turned to the hall to reach out for something. "S'cuse me while I whipped this out!" She snickered and snorted playfully as she pulled out a blue cannon into our doorway, tugging the string and launching an unreasonable amount of whipped cream into my room. While it scored a direct hit on the both of us, the bed and floor suffered collateral damages.

Thankfully we were shielding our faces as soon as the cannon came into view, so we avoided having any in our eyes. Rickey licked his lips and wiped a massive dollop of the stuff off of his forehead. "Whipped cream... I see what you did there."

"I see too much of it!" I answered, looking down to see most of my body covered in it.

"How long were both of you here?" He questioned the pranking duo.

"Something about 'how the first season ended'." Pinkie replied. "And if it's anything like those boring radio dramas my Granny Pie likes listening to, then maybe it's time for season two to hit the airwaves."

"You know, you could've done a little better than spreading whipped cream everywhere in my room." I chided the pair.

"Oh I know, silly. But now it just leaves you two with a lot more to do together." She said cheerfully.

"Perhaps de whipped cream would be a good way to clean up a mess between the two of you." Kalimba also added.

"Whipped cream baths are the best!" Pinkie exclaimed.

"And how's that?" I asked, unamused by the mess.

Pinkie narrowed her eyes at us with a devilish grin. "Because you get to taste the topping before the snack."

It took me a second to get what she was talking about. But then I remembered the instance where I, along with Twilight's parents, had walked in on her and Cheese having quite the romp in Twilight's kitchen, I remembered how awkward I felt when I saw how Mrs. Sparkle grabbed a can of whipped cream and sprayed it on Pinkie's─oh you clever bitch! "PINKIE!"

The pink mare winked at me with her tongue out. "Happy honeymoon!"

Pinkie giggled and galloped off. "And let dere be many more." Kalimba just as happily joined her down the hall.

While I wanted to barrel after the two pranksters, I couldn't help but to excuse the smile on the zebra's face. She had already went through enough last night as it is. I think it's fair if she had a moment to smile and cheer up. "I see Kali's in good spirits." I pointed out before seeing Rickey snickering next to me. "What's so funny?"

He leaned into my ear and whispered. "They literally set me up to eat you out."

"Ricardo!" I said a bit annoyed, also admittedly welcoming that possibility for the moment.

He also made it significantly worse when he pulled me in closer to him. "Silencio, por favor..." He followed up his aggressive maneuver by kissing me in my neck, just below my chin and licking the cream clean off of me down to my chest. He started to whisper into my neck while nibbling at me. "Que bonita y delicioso, mi corazón."

My eyes closed for a second to enjoy the sensations I haven't felt in well over some months. I had started to instinctually moan while his teeth had dug into me. He leaned me back, almost causing me to lose my balance. I started to feel a surging warmth in my body, only to be replaced by a longing ache that I could easily recall from the first day I got here. He opened his wing to lightly trail down my back, tickling me to where I wanted to melt right into him. My eyes opened to see him, but also the open door through my peripheral. Snapping out of my mood for a second, I got around to closing and locking the door.

As he brushed himself up against me from behind, I felt the warmth of his breath against my neck. I felt every part of my being instinctively welcome him as he started to hop on top of me. He guided my chin towards him, our lips meeting briefly while our bodies melded in the moment. I looked back to see that he was as ready as I wanted him to be.

"I know we should be cleaning up the mess right now." He whispered in my ear.

I backed myself into him, prompting him to meet me halfway. "We'll clean up this mess after a quick one."

Canterlot Castle Cafeteria
Later that Evening...

The sun had gone down over the capital city. As the moon was being raised by Princess Luna, Solemn trotted her way through the halls and eventually found her way into the cafeteria. When she arrived, she immediately sought a table to have to herself. Once she identified one that wasn't used, she got in line for her food and came back to it. While the multitude of ponies in the room had continued chatting it up with one another over their respective days, she held a lot of the morning's briefing with the two princesses at the front of her mind.

She was unsure of what she was getting herself into, and she was worried that something would happen that she wouldn't particularly like. The last thing she really wanted was to see some dead bodies in a morgue, much less any in bad condition or even smelling a hint them. She was always squeamish when it came to ponies dying, and her new assignment was going to be a test of her constitutions. Everything about it made her nervous, she wished she could at least talk to the captain about it being that he was the one who made the startling discovery. Maybe he could be of help.

"Hey there, girl!" A familiar voice called out to her.

Her eyes lifted for a second to see that all of her friends had gathered around her and started seating themselves at her table. Dress Right, the one who called her out, sat right next to her. Cobalt Blue sat directly in front of her. Gleaming Brass had parked herself diagonal to the quiet guardsmare. "Any more of having to play nice with the captain?" Gleaming questioned.

"Uh, not today." She answered sheepishly.

"Oh really? I thought if he had some special secret assignment he wanted you on, he would keep tabs on you a lot more often." Cobalt noted. "Does he even speak with you on the daily about your findings?"

She knew the answer to that, but the complexity of the situation had earned the respect of her silence. She opted to play it off. "I just don't want to talk about it."

"Ugh, of course. Always keeping a good mare down, this system needs to stop being so antiquated and shift to cater to the actual backbone of the guard core." Cobalt griped.

"Organization of schedule, transfer of sensitive documents, even the highest position of royalty is held by a mare!" Dress Right then added.

"This has to change." Gleaming Brass complained.

Cobalt tapped her hoof on the table to get Solemn's attention. "Hey, get this. Apparently the captain had did some digging around Canterrot last night and got beat up by a group of thugs. Bruises everywhere. They say he's trying to hide out for a few days until he recovers."

Hearing about the captain's condition had drawn some concern from the unicorn guardsmare. She poked through her food as she continued to wrestle with her thoughts. "Really."

"Oh yeah, he was getting messed all over in that illegal fighting arena they have." Cobalt confirmed. "Of course you wouldn't let nothing like that happen to you. Right?"

Solemn reverted back to her usual self for a moment to answer that question. "Of course not. I would've almost killed anyone who tried."

Random call-outs throughout the cafeteria, followed by the continually-issued words of 'at ease' grabbed the groups attention. Gleaming Brass pointed out that one of the officers had entered into the cafeteria, and certainly appeared to me making his way over. "Uh oh, officer on deck."

The middle-aged stallion stopped at the table to greet the group, more specifically the mare of his interest. "Ah, Solemn Oath. I hear that the princess has made you a fill-in for that incompetent captain we have. How's your day been?"

"It's been fine, sir." She answered, appearing as casual as she would.

"Any news on the front lately?" He questioned her.

"Well..." She stalled for a moment, but looked to the faces of her friends. They all appeared to encourage her, especially the mare who sat across from her. "It might be a rumor, but I think the captain may have had some participation in the illegal fighting arena last night. As for today, I was asked to fill his place."

The officer nodded with approval. "Is that so? Then perhaps he might have found himself injured over the course of the night and elected to resign for the day. It's awfully odd that he might have taken his request straight to the princess herself as opposed to discussing this with his fellow officers."

"Perhaps he feels that she would be more accommodating to his requests?" Solemn guessed, making up a motive he could feed on, while also knowing that it could be true.

"That may be." He replied before summoning up a report file. "I also received this report saying that he paid an unsolicited visit to her chambers on Monday evening. Perhaps this pause was requested then. This could only mean that he's actively participating and using those days after to get time off." The stallion looked down to his inferior and smiled. "Good job, Sergeant Major Solemn Oath, you'd be an officer again in no time.

While she wanted her position back, she couldn't help but to feel uncomfortable with what she was doing. It started to feel like this was some development that would hinder the princess' own agenda. Still, she went about playing the role she was told to fulfill. "I'm just glad to be of help, sir."

"Oh, you're of enormous help, Sergeant Major Solemn Oath. You're actually helping to undermine the incompetence that we have festering our system. All these reports of intruders and assailants, and he can't handle any of it. I've noticed that he's been so afraid the past few weeks that he hardly ever leaves his quarters in the day."

"Perhaps he has something planned." She mumbled.

He summoned a scroll and then laid it out to the table in front of her. "I think it's customary to issue a warrant for his chambers, wouldn't you agree?"

"Sir, that would require the princess' authorization, wouldn't it?" She pointed out.

"Yes, a warrant that I already have signed by Princess Luna herself. We will execute at 0900 tomorrow." He unfurled the document, revealing Princess Luna's name signed on the bottom line.

The guardsmare took a long glance at the document, verifying for herself that this was indeed a document citing probable cause for his arrest. But some of the details had raised some concerns for her. Her first instinct was to delay his search. "But who's to say that he won't be present? He could be, and I can imagine that it would complicate matters."

"You know what, you're right. We need to execute while he's away." He said to her dismay, her ears falling as her attempt to stall failed in spectacular fashion. "Noon tomorrow."

"Noon?" She was already loathing the idea of conducting a second raid throughout the day, much less one on someone who was working so closely with the princess.

"Of course, he will be at his trial, we will be in his quarters searching for whatever plans he may be hosting in secret. From there, we strike."

She immediately pointed at the document at the bottom. "Sir, are you certain that the warrant is made out with Princess Luna's signed name on it?"

He looked at the bottom and pointed back to her the name. "Is this not her signature?"

"It looks like it." She said with some skepticism.

He rolled up the document back into scroll form and walked away from the table. "Then we move as her authority. See you then, Sergeant Major."

The mare appeared crestfallen while her friends were more excited for her. "Uh oh, captain smartass is in it now." Cobalt said while rubbing her hooves together.

Solemn then pointed out her concerns to the other three. "Something about this isn't right."

Each of them exchanged a puzzled look with the mare. "What do you mean, Solemn?" Gleaming asked.

"Princess Luna wouldn't sign a warrant for the next day unless it's an emergency or high priority." Solemn briefly explained.

"Oh come on, that thing had the princess' sigil and her signature." Dress then added.

Solemn knew in her mind what all was missing, especially since she was issued a royal warrant to execute just earlier in the morning. "I know what a royal search warrant looks like. It would have the signature of the leader of the district in question, the princess in authorization of the search, and the sigil."

"Okay, so what do you think is missing?" Dress Right asked.

"I took a good look at that warrant he laid out. I don't think that's Princess Luna's signature. And Princess Celestia would be head of the castle, so that makes her the one who has the district signature, I didn't see her name anywhere."

"So you're telling me that he issued an illegal warrant? That's his entire career wiped out in an instant if that was true." Dress Right replied.

"I find it hard to believe that he would even try to do something like that." Gleaming also stated.

Cobalt then argued in favor of the warrant. "I mean he's exposing the captain for his illegal activities. How is it that the captain could get away with using our training for underground fighting while earning a paycheck from the guard? That's not fair to any of us!"

"It is dishonorable." Dress right cosigned.

"It is pretty disgraceful." Gleaming warned.

"And it's going to be exposed tomorrow." Cobalt emphasized to her friend. "Solemn, look at it this way. You're either going to help expose the truth, or you're going to help the wrong guy. The captain is literally having you cover for him. Either you're covering him, or you're doing what's right."

"If you help the wrong guy, your career is tanked." Dress Right added.

"You can't let that happen." Gleaming said, almost pleading with the mare to do the right thing.

The three guards looked to their friend, all awaiting her verbal confirmation. Instead of giving them what they wanted immediately, Solemn looked at her plate and realized that she had not real desire to eat any of the food infront of her. She left her tray on the table for her friends to go through while she stood up to dismiss herself. "I have to go girls. I've got early morning detail at the dawn hour."

"Solemn, please consider your career and everything you worked so hard to get." Cobalt urged as she reached to her friend.

The guardsmare looked back to her tray and instead of leaving everything, she took an apple and walked away. "I'm going to expose the truth, that's all I want to do. I'll see you girls later." As she left the table, she could hear each of her friends call out to her.

"You go girl." Gleaming Brass encouraged.

"Make us proud." Dress Right cheered.

"Stay strong." Cobalt Blue murmured.

The mare walked out of the cafeteria, finally left to her lonesome. When she turned down the hall, she noticed Princess Celestia walking out of the royal dining hall. She walked behind her and trailed the princess until the royal looked back to see her approaching. She paused and waited for the guardsmare to join her along her route. While most would walk along with the princess with a stone face, Solemn's was more saddened. When the princess entered her quarters, Solemn wished her well on her evening and departed to the barracks.

She then echoed to herself. "My loyalty is to the princess, not the captain, not even the guard. She is my priority."

Canterlot's Home of Final Rest Mortuary
The Next Morning...
***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

Solemn's alarm clocked rang loudly as the mare stirred from her sleep. She lightly illuminated her horn to check the time, seeing that it was 2:45 in the morning. She quickly took her shower, snagged an apple from off of her dining room table, and darted out the door to report to the castle. When she arrived at the barracks, she was given her file containing the details and protocols for her deployment. Once she verified the information, she immediately left for the rendezvous point not far from the mortuary. She looked at the clock at the town square, waiting for the rest of her unit to arrive.

It was 3:40 when she arrived to the location, while I didn't arrive until 4:30.

Most of the other guards in the vicinity were barely able to keep their eyes open, leaning into their spears and nodding off whenever they weren't called out over it. But Solemn was by far the only one who was lucid and alert aside from myself. I took notice of her discipline and devoted attention to the alert guardsmare. "Solemn Oath. Good morning."

"Good morning, Princess Twilight." She replied with a salute.

We had walked together, tapping and alerting the other guards that it was close for their time to move in. Immediately, some either took their heads and dumped them in the cold water of some drain-off barrels near some buildings, or they simply slapped themselves awake. After that went on for a fair twenty minutes, the unit seemed ready to move in. I then questioned the former officer. "Have you read up on the briefing I had set aside for you?"

"Yes, your highness." She replied sharply, albeit somewhat nervous about the situation. "To be candid, I'm not too excited to be raiding a morgue. Those places creep me out like something fierce"

"It's not going to be pretty, I know that." I replied.

Solemn's next question had her trying to not shiver at the thought of being around so many dead ponies. "So what do we do about the bodies we find?"

"If there is evidence of foul play, which I strongly believe there is, then they are to be confiscated and processed immediately."

"Immediately, does that mean we burn them?" She asked.

"Princess Celestia's orders." I answered bluntly.

The mare looked around nervously, she seemed as if she was forcing herself to go along with today's assignment. "I know I was suppose to hang back on today, but if I can make a request, I would like to be alongside you this morning."

It was strange to see her actively go beyond Princess Celestia's orders, especially given her reputation to following the princess' instructions to a T. "For my protection, I presume?"

She shook a little as she answered back. "No, your highness. I just need to see the truth for myself."

I looked to her and saw how increasingly jumpy she had become. I didn't think she would've been able to handle something on this magnitude. I understood why Celestia ordered her to stay behind. So I gave her a warning predicated solely from my own experience. "The truth is ugly. It won't come with peace of mind. What you'll see will disturb you for quite some time. Are you sure this is what you want?"

The mare was shaky, but still certain of her choice. "It is my duty, your highness. For the princesses sake."

I knew she was going to have a hard time processing whatever we encountered, especially the room that contained the hidden access. I could only respect her wishes, but only to an extent. "Okay. Let's do it then."

All of our unit had gathered at the gates of the cemetery, staring down the stone brick path leading to the mortuary. Solemn confirmed the positions of every guard present. "Your highness, we're all in position to move."

I gave my orders to the group. "Absolute silence, move in swiftly, and detain any staff members present for questioning. Once cleared, we will continue to conduct operations of this establishment with extreme care. Remember, these are some ponies' loved ones, possibly some of yours. Treat them with that kind of courtesy and respect." I looked down across the street to the clock, noting the time was approximately 4:58. It was time to move. "Let's go."

Trekking across the cemetery grounds, cautiously avoiding any plot of land with as much as a single plaque, we realized our objective of reaching the front door. I was the one who gave the opening knock. The other guards hid while Solemn and I took the more forward approach. An assistant was quick to greet us at the main entrance. "Good morning, your highness. How may we help you?"

"I'm looking for a pony by the name of Guiding Light, have you seen him?"

The stallion who answered appeared to glance elsewhere as he replied to my question. "I'm not sure who you're addressing, ma'am. That's not a name I've heard of before."

I tilted my head and pointed ahead to the front desk in the lobby. "If you don't mind, I would like for you to step in front of the counter for me and check your logs. Sign in's, whoever was on roll for the past week, who all was interred, all of it."

"Sure thing, your highness." While I knew he was lying, the stallion seemed to be a willing participant.

As soon as we approached the counter, he immediately brought up a number of log books. They were a lot thinner than what I had surmised for a funeral home dealing with a city's worth of backlog. I flipped through the pages to see that any information pertaining to anything before yesterday morning had disappeared. Already, I knew this was going to require some further pressure. I summoned a picture of the deceased stallion who guided me and my dad through. "This stallion, does any of your corpses look anything like this guy here? We're here to conduct an autopsy."

"I'll see what we have in the back." The stallion walked away, trotting off to one of the back rooms.

Solemn looked at me nervously. "An autopsy?"

"If he's dead, then he's got no other choice but to be here. Might as well be thorough." I replied.

"You don't think they could've transferred him to someplace else?" She also brought up.

"If his condition was what was described to me, then he would be on the book to be cremated. And there's a backlog, from what I was told." I explained.

"What happens if he's not here?" She inquired.

"Then we execute the warrant." I concluded.

The stallion walked out from the back room, he appeared just as innocent as any other receptionist. He was putting on a good front. "Excuse me, ma'am. But we might seem to have a young stallion resembling the one you described. He's on the wait for processing."

"May I see him?" I pressured.

"I'm so sorry, not only are we not in our usual business hours, we don't allow visitation of the deceased unless you are an immediate family member. Protocol."

"But I do remember stating that I was here for an autopsy." I stringently pointed out.

As per any usual situation where the family would request to know the cause of death, he provided documentation to support his findings. "Ma'am, we've assed that the stallion in question has perished under a workplace incident."

I looked on the document to see if there would be any discrepancies between the document and his worded answer. "Describe this incident to me."

"It was an incident involving a runaway dolly, he was working late Monday night and was struck by a speeding dolly he failed to secure further down the hall. We discovered him on Tuesday morning, brain hemorrhage from the impact was the deciding factor."

"Was there any foul play?" Solemn questioned.

"We don't have any reason to believe that there's been any foul play."

The guardsmare looked to me. "Your highness?"

"He's buying time." I murmured as I looked at the clock, well past 5:10 now. I continued to press the issue further within the limits of my right to discernment. "I wish to see him, we are investigating his condition, as per the wishes of the family."

If I know anything from what my brother had explained in any given situation, any and all autopsies can be and should be done in the presence of a royally sanctioned coroner, and if not that then an observer. And should an instance like this were to occur, it's within our right to investigate the body to verify the claims. "Ma'am, he is deceased because of his own mistake. This is a place of reverence, I would ask that you respect that." And so far, he's breaking the clause of transparency between royal and municipal oversight.

Which only meant one thing to me, it was time to press his head into the wall. "Solemn."

"Yes, your majesty." Being the obedient guard she was, she and I walked right past the receptionist and signaled the others to come on in.

"Hey, that area's restricted!!" He called out before noticing two guards putting the shackles on him. "Hey, let me go!" The other two guards marched him along with us.

While the guards behind him explained the reason he was being detained, Solemn confirmed on what I was thinking at the time. "Your highness, I'm detecting foul play."

"All mortuaries are ordained to have a monthly catalog of names that are to renew at the beginning of every month. That catalog started only yesterday morning." I pointed out to her. "Since there is foul play at hoof, then it's time we investigate."

We finally walked into the room with a one operation taking place. They appeared to be cleaning up a pony, getting them ready for their interment. The worker glanced up to see the two of us entering the room by ourselves. He called out to us. "Hey! You can't be in here!" While Solemn had finally caught glimpse of a pony body, she froze for a moment before she snapped out of it and went about using her magic to restrain the mortician. While she was doing that, I walked towards the closet that I knew was the access point. "What are you doing? What's going on? Why am I being restrained?" He asked in rapid fire sequence.

While I opened the closet door, I started the input sequence I saw Guiding Light do for us exactly as he did it. "Cleaning the closet, cleaning out the closet, make it spick and span for all to see."

As soon as I said those words, his eyes shot open and he reached out to me in desperation. "Wait!"

I closed the door, anticipating the change of access. "Alright, now let's see if the nightmare is still hiding off in here." But what I was greeted with when I opened the door was nothing more than a storage closet. "What?" I redid the input sequence, closed the door, waited a bit, and then opened it back up to be greeted by the same thing again.

Solemn noticed the distress on my face. "Your highness, is there something wrong?"

I closed the door, thinking to myself if I had done anything out of place, moved anything out of sequence. I was certain I did it correctly. "That's not right, I did as the song instructed."

The restrained mortician further stressed his question. "Your highness, what are you doing in here?"

Seeing that our situation had changed drastically, I opted to continue on as if this place was to be held and investigated for negligence and various code violations. "I'm looking for the body of a young stallion, Guiding Light is his name." I answered.

"I'm sorry, but there is no pony named Guiding Light in this establishment." He argued.

"Then we have no other choice." I said as I took over the reigns of keeping the worker retained. "Solemn, the cabinets, search them."

The mare appeared mortified that I had issued that order to her. But she strove onward to do as I instructed. She went to her first cabinet, looking at the body within. She still held her own constitution, but she was shaking at the sight of a pony at eternal rest. She opened the cabinet further and saw a covering over the pony's head. "Um, what do I do about the towels over the faces?"

"Verify cutie marks." I suggested so that she wouldn't have to go about the business of lifting towels and possibly viewing some uncanny final expressions.

"I don't know what the cutie mark looks like of this Guiding Light." She then pointed out.

I summoned a picture of the stallion, along with it was another picture with just the cutie mark he had on file. I gave her the picture and explained it to her once more. "A candelabrum with lit five candles."

Since the one she opened failed to match even the coat color of the description, she closed that cabinet and went to the one next to it. She slowly pulled it open. "Wait, not that one!" The mortician shouted, but it was too late.

By the time she pulled it out halfway, she noticed that there wasn't a pony there... until further up. It was just the torso upwards that remained of the poor inhabitant. Solemn shrieked and quickly slammed the cabinet shut. She hunched over a nearby counter, shaking and trying not to vomit. Eventually, she couldn't withhold herself and ejected her breakfast. The mare was completely shocked. At least she didn't have to see the same nightmare I did, but it was still unfortunate. I took a deep breath and mentally prepared myself to do most of the searching myself.

As I started my multitasking, I opened that same drawer, verifying the coat color and even the face. The pony appeared to have experienced excruciating pain before their untimely death. I closed the cabinet and went through the next. Coat color didn't match. Same thing for the next. And the next... And the next.

I mumbled to myself. "This is going to be a long morning."

Thirty Minutes Later...

I had completed a search throughout all 547 bodies within this room alone. None of them matched the description. I sent more guards to investigate the bodies in the other chambers like this one, providing details of who to look for along their observation of the corpses. But they too had come up empty. Out of the 1600 plus bodies in this place, none of them matched the description of Guiding Light.

So I had to continue my investigation as if I was searching for a pony of interest as opposed to a corpse. "So I ask again, sir. Where is the stallion I am requesting to see?"

The worker Solemn and I retained had continued to deny any claims of his existence. "I keep telling you, there's absolutely nopony I've worked with or on that bears any resemblance to that stallion." He replied as Solemn kept him in place.

"The one thing about him that I know is that he always had a pretty dark sense of humor." I added.

"I'm sure." He appeared unchanged on his claims.

But what he also didn't realize was when he yelled earlier at Solemn over which cabinets she could and couldn't open, I began to recognize his voice from last Friday during my previous visit. "I do know that you would call out to him whenever you had to deal with some unsavory conditions. Decaying, bulging, maggots in the throat." Solemn's face almost turned green with revulsion as I elaborated on that bit of detail.

"Ma'am, that's just our job." He replied, firmly holding his position.

"I know that cleaning out these compartments are also part of your job. After all, it's unsanitary to place a new client on an unclean bed. Plus I do believe there is some instance of sludge that needs to be addressed." I started to go through the potential categories of tasks that I felt he would have relegated to Guiding instead of undertaking himself. "These fridges are flushed into the walls, how do you maintenance them, is there no access to the inside aside from the front, no drainage lines, no ventilation ducts to ensure that the bulk of the smell is flushed out by fresh air?"

"Your highness, I do admit that you are well-educated. But I don't see how any of that is pertinent to the question of where this stallion is."

"I'm just asking questions. The forefront of knowledge always begin with the essentials; who, what, when, where, why, if, and how." I said as another guard walked into the room to give us a report on their status.

"Your highness. The cremation chambers are ready to go." The guard informed me politely.

"That didn't seem to take long." I said, somewhat pleased that we were able to start our cleanup work so soon. "Search that front desk and any offices for a list of those ready to be processed and organize yourselves to that exact list. Start with the first name on their roll sheet. Work your way down. From there we'll notify the families of the change and present them the remains at their immediate request."

"Yes, your highness." He replied with a bow of respect.

I also gave him one more set of instructions before he left. "And if you do see the name Guiding Light, be sure to report that and the body to me."

"Yes, your highness." He said before trotting out of the room.

The mortician groaned at me over my persistence. "Your highness, I have to ask. Is the body so important to you?"

"It is to eliminate the grounds of foul play." I replied.

"You're not finding any foul play here, your highness." He said with confidence.

I was getting nowhere. All of my usual methods to obtain any information had all fallen flat of achieving any result. I paced back and forth for a few seconds, seeing how I could reach through to him. But then I realized that even Guiding Light operated the same way. I remembered how he talked to me and my dad on Friday, how he continued to feign ignorance before my father cracked him as easily as an egg. I also remembered what he had said to me shortly after that.

So I took from his example, and started off with the name that no pony wanted to hear spoken. "I wonder... I once met a stallion with a fairly distinctive name. But I can't quite put my lips on it."

He didn't seem that interested in my threat at first. "I suppose you're talking about another body to look for?"

I walked closer to him, pacing behind him in my effort to break in some bit of fear. Not my usual method, but if it worked... "Hmm, I think I remember what it was. It was Unling? Umbrella? Ugly, no..." I leaned into his ear with one more guess, this one being the correct one. "Umbra."

I watched as the stallion's ears flicked at the mention of that name. While he wouldn't show me his face, I could tell that he was disturbed by my sudden name-drop. "I don't know anypony by that name."

I leaned in to his other ear. "So you don't know an Umbra?"

The mortician turned his head, trying not to crack under the newfound pressure. "I don't know that name."

I started to whisper my guesses of his surname into his ear, watching as the sweat started forming over his brow. "Sanction... Saint... Sanctimonies... Sanctu─"

He jumped forward, clearing his ear away from my lips. "DON'T SAY IT!" He hollered, pinning his ears closed with his magic.

I licked the frog of my hoof and quenched his magic, replacing his with mine to lift his ear. "What, Sanctum?"

"STOP IT!" He cried out loudly, shaking his head violently. "Anypony who hears that name in Canterlot is ushered into oblivion! You know the legend!"

"I'm sorry, I've been away from Canterlot for some time. So I wouldn't really remember it too well." I knew that he wasn't going to participate unless I had every intention to push him to the point where he would openly volunteer his time, all for the sake of my not speaking his name. It's as my dad said. If ponies know not to say that name out in public, then there's weight to the name. Use it as a tool. But I'm willing to say that a description could go even further. "But I do remember a face... A green stallion, with yellow swirls on his face, copper-colored eyes─"

"I don't know anypony with that description!" He quickly yelped out.

"Seems to me that you do." I said in a menacing tone. "So I can either ask you one of two things. You can either tell me about Guiding Light, free of any scrutiny and protected by our finest forces. Or I would start talking about Him, and let you leave on that note. Because I'm quite sure the fear is fresh, knowing that the one you depended on to take your dirty jobs was found dead yesterday morning."

While I pointed out the details to him, even going so far as to mention who he would have to answer to and his physical description, he found himself more than willing to capitulate to my demands. "If I talk, you'll protect me, right?"

"I mean you'll be in the castle dungeons, so you'll be more than protected." I replied.

He looked around, instinctually checking every corner for anything that could pop up on us. "We were told to pretend that Guiding never existed. Those were the words from the top. I don't know what happened to him, whether if he's alive or processed at this point."

"He's dead, died at the hooves of some horrendous creature on Tuesday night." I verified to the worker. "And of course, that closet doesn't do what it normally does anymore, now does it?"

"What do you mean?" He questioned.

"That was the access to the maintenance of those fridges. But inside that access was a much colder room, a much larger freezer. Bodies, strung up from above, as far as the eye can see."

While Solemn shuddered at the visual I provided, the stallion knew exactly what I was speaking of. He glanced around the room in a frantic manner. "Please, ma'am, just send me to solitary, maximum security, whatever. I don't want to say anymore, I don't want to be here anymore!"

It was fair for him to be afraid. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to work in a place where your benefactor can just pop up out of a cabinet anytime he wanted to, assuming his usual form by taking advantage of one of the many corpses available. "Guards!" I called out to the hallway, causing two to walk inside and salute me. "Take him." I ordered.

They did as I instructed and escorted the worker out of the room. Solemn looked over to the closet I had tried to enter earlier. "Your highness, about those bodies hanging from above, is all of that true?"

"Very much so. I've seen it with my own eyes Friday evening. Guiding Light was the one who showed me what was there." I confirmed.

A shudder ran down her legs as she glanced to the door. "So the stolen bodies the captain mentioned..."

"They were all likely to be in there." I concluded.

"HALT!"

While a cry from just outside of the room sounded, Solemn perked up to ready herself for whatever issue started to brew. "Your highness, I recommend we check that out."

"No disagreement from me."

The two of us galloped out of the room to see the worker we had escorted out standing with his back against a wall. He held a scalpel out to a quartet of armored guards. He fanned and waved the blade frantically, shouting to the group in front of him. We moved two guards out of the way and approached him slowly. "Stop right there!"

"Hey, easy there! We're not going to hurt you." I tried to assure him, but he was too panicked to listen to me.

"YOU! I TOLD YOU WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF YOU SAID HIS NAME! YOU DOOMED US ALL!" He screamed towards me.

Solemn placed a hoof out to indicate to me that she would take the lead on this situation. She very slowly approached the stallion, taking very small steps and almost muttering as she approached. "No pony is going to hurt you." She looked to the other guards and issued a quiet order. "Everypony, please put down your weapons. We're not going to bring harm to him in any way." Slowly, every spear that was raised had been retracted. As he was starting to calm down, Solemn extended a hoof to him, slowly trying to negotiate with the stallion. "Please, let us help you. Don't do this. We only want to see you unharmed. We will take care of you and get you the security you desire. No one will get to you. I can promise you that."

The stallion started to calm down, breathing at a slower pace than he was seconds ago. He started to lower the scalpel and agree to being taken in. But as his magic subsided from the blade, an orange glow soon replaced it. The stallion's eyes widened with horror as the blade swung once at his throat, cutting his jugular and trachea in a violent manner.

"NO!" Solemn cried out as the stallion slummed against the wall, grabbing his own neck in desperation to save his own life.

I turned around to see which magic user was responsible for what was happening. But before I could sight out who could be the culprit, one of the guards darted off in the opposite direction. The guard looked back to see if anyone was chasing them, their horn glowing a similar color as the scalpel did. "You! Stop right there!" I called out.

Solemn saw me run in the direction of the rouge guard, she issued for the others nearby to give the stallion some medical attention. "Do what you can to save him! His testimony is crucial to us!"

Solemn sprinted on to catch up with me as I remained in hot pursuit of the criminal responsible. As we ran, I devised a plan to cut them off. "I'll run around the front to limit any possible routes of escape!"

"Maintaining pursuit!" Solemn called out as she sprinted ahead at full speed.

We split off into two different hallways. Running along the way, Solemn matched their every turn and drift down the halls, eventually leading to a large section of the establishment. She chased the rogue guard into the gift shop and shot a bolt at one of the counters in an attempt to slow their advance. But the rogue moved quickly past her and knocked a shelf over to impede her progress. From there they galloped back into the hallway. Solemn dislodged herself from the pile of souvenirs and regained her pursuit.

As for me, I thought of the only way that I could quickly traverse the morgue as quickly as possible. I looked for the door leading to the sludge storage, took a deep breath, opened the door and ran through. It took everything within me to not try and gain any kind of air, as none of it had any bit of freshness to it. Once I reached the other side, I slammed the door behind me and coughed from the lingering smell. But to my advantage, it turned into the hall where the rogue guard had made his own right turn into. I stood in his way, casting a large shield to block the entire hall and impede his progress.

The guard looked at me with a smirk, staring at me with the copper colored eyes I remembered seeing on Tuesday night. I charged my horn to cast a bolt directly at the stallion, a blow that sent him flying back several feet. The stallion slid into the wall at the end of the hall, allowing for Solemn to catch on. "Halt!" She shouted from further down the hall. As she got closer, she tried to slow down and regain her breath. "There's nowhere to run!"

I undid my spell to block the hall, anxious to get my hooves on that stallion. If the eyes were an indication, then it had to be none other than Umbra Sanctus himself. My horn flared once more with a more powerful charge, all as I walked to him with the intent to put an end to his operations. "You should've known this would be the outcome."

But in the moment, his coat started to change colors. Even behind the armor, I could tell that the color had started to fade into something else. Solemn angrily snatched the disguised stallion up to yell at him. "You! You violated an order of compliance! You will be court marshalled for your insubordination!" She lifted the helmet to reveal not the face of the pony I had stopped, but rather an unresponsive young stallion with glossy eyes and a large gaping hole in his neck. Solemn quickly dropped the body, shrieking as she did so. "Uuuuuhhhhh..." She whinnied in terror.

I walked over to the body and immediately identified the face. "Guiding Light... So you were here under our noses the whole time."

The guardsmare turned to me, bringing up the subject of the massive hole in his neck that almost separated his head from the rest of his body. "Your highness, I don't remember you casting a bolt that powerful."

"I didn't." I pointed out, observing the deceased mortician for myself. "But this verifies some of my suspicions."

"Of what?" She questioned. "That this guy can take over bodies at will? This is beyond terrifying! Now I really don't want to be here!"

"Hence why this is a top-secret matter." I stated to her, urging her to keep her voice down. "But that's old news for us. My suspicion for the moment is that the one responsible probably moved his operation elsewhere."

The panicked Solemn Oath tried to take a moment to calm herself down, but finding it harder to do with the possibility of the dead stallion in front of her reanimating. "S-s-so now what?" She inquired.

I summoned a body bag from the room we were in earlier and started to move the stallion carefully into the bag for cremation. Since his body was used by Umbra, it only made sense to bump him up in the order of who was to be processed. Our day near the fire would have to start with him.

I written everything I saw and experienced on a scroll, detailing everything that happened up to this point. Once I had finished, I sealed the scroll and gave it to Solemn so that the princess could be quickly informed while I oversaw Guiding's cremation.

"Give my report to the princess. Tell her we're back to square one."

Canterlot Castle
Four Hours Later...

The guardsmare walked towards the large wooden doors leading to the podium of the princess. A guard extended his hoof to her and stopped her where she stood. "Ma'am. The princess is presiding in parliament today. Under no circumstances is she to be disturbed."

The guardsmare whipped out a scroll with a purple and magenta seal emblazoned upon it. "Then give this to her majesty. This report is for her eyes only, and is not to be read by anyone other than her majesty. It's top secret, so declassifying it's contents will result in strict disciplinary action."

The guard quickly took the scroll. "Yes ma'am."

The mare watched as the stallion walked into the chamber, closing the door behind him. After he left her to her lonesome, she took a deep breath and slouched against the wall, overwhelmed by what all she had experienced throughout the day. And much to her misfortune, it wasn't even noon yet. The day for many had just gotten started and there was much more that could be done.

But the day had given her some perspective of exactly what the captain had been dealing with in the shadows. She started to sympathize his situation, fighting for the princess' sake, dedicating his work to her, advancing security measures within the castle to a level that would never be realized with any other pony, fighting off dozens of ponies looking to have his head for a trophy, and then fight off any instance of death that could be knocking at his door as soon as tomorrow. It was a lot to think on, so she considered looking into the matter of taking the rest of the day off. No more shift changes, no more walking around, no more secret deployments.

The moment her secondary deployment came to mind, she was already thinking about blowing it off. None of it appeared to be legal in any way. There wasn't a real need to dive into unfounded motives and try to usurp the captain for any reason other than him being in Canterrot twice a week. And even if she was forced to participate, she'd limit herself to the role of a third-party witness should things go wrong.

To add to her misfortune, she walked right past the hall where her friends had been waiting for their instructions. They noticed the mare walking past and greeted her. "Hey, Solemn!" Gleaming Brass called out.

Cobalt ran to her, excited for opportunity to see her friend getting her position back by the day's end. "You're just in time."

"We're gonna bust the captain on his little operation." Dress Right briefly stated as she polished her armor.

Solemn questioned the three of her friends as to why they were all donning full combat armor and spears. "Why are you all here dressed like this? If this is about the captain, then shouldn't this be low-level work?"

Cobalt replied to her friend. "He wanted a squad that knew each other well in combat, so if there's a confrontation, we can resolve it as quickly and seamlessly as possible. After all a squad that knows one another protects one another."

"We're on your side." Gleaming added, wrapping a hoof around the mentally-fatigued mare.

Solemn shook her head, ducking herself out of both Cobalt's and Gleaming's forelegs. "I just got back from a pretty rough outing, girls. Is there any way I can just pass up on this one?"

"Ah, Sergeant Major Solemn Oath. As timely as ever."

The three other mares snapped to their salutes, quickly acknowledging the officer who approached them. Solemn saluted as well, but did not do so without comment. "Sir, with all due respect, I have some concerns."

"What is it?" He kindly asked.

"Well, I'm really questioning if the captain is actually doing anything wrong here." She said, starting to voice her concerns a bit more actively.

Officer Iron Hoof quirked a brow in mild disappointment. "Solemn Oath, I don't understand. You passed me all of the information yourself. I find it hard to believe that none of your findings would raise any alarms to you."

The mare quickly feigned her enthusiasm. "They do! It's just that I feel like we need more time to think this one through." Thought she found it much harder to keep up with her façade today. "If we going to do this, then we need more significant evidence than hearsay. We need photographic proof, eye witnesses, paper trail."

Iron Hoof pursed his lips, looking to her friends who appeared nervous of the developing disagreement. "Solemn Oath, I understand your concern. But think about it, this is your chance to get your life back. Was it not the captain's seat you sought for many years of your life?"

"It is." She replied, closing her eyes. For the moment she looked within herself, she knew that everything about this was wrong. It went against every principle she believed in, and it hurt her to know that she was a part of this. At last, she offered to put her hoof down to the officer. "But not this way."

Cobalt jumped in front of her, grabbing her hoof and pleading with her. "Solemn, what are you doing? You're so close to your life's dream, don't mess this up for yourself."

"I'm not!" She stressed to her friend. "I'm only doing what I feel is right. If the captain is going down to Canterrot, then there's got to be a reason for why he's doing it."

Iron Hoof nodded once as he summoned a folder with the word 'Confidential' written across the cover in red stencil. He gave her the folder. "Solemn Oath, I can understand that you may think that there's no evidence to your findings, but I want you to look at this."

The guardsmare grabbed the file and started looking through the details of the documents inside. Her eyes slowly grew as she realized that these documents weren't just some random made-up documents. She found herself looking through his bank statements, how on one day he was a guard with only thirty-thousand bits in his account, to suddenly rising to north of a million in the next day. She watched the numbers slowly decrease from there until it appeared on Saturday morning when his account balance skyrocketed to almost thirty million bits. "No way." She said absolutely flabbergasted.

Iron Hoof stood himself next to her, pointing out the massive numbers that came in. "That's right. Millions stashed away in the account where he established his direct deposit. This means he's actively fighting. For. Money."

Solemn went through the banking statements like a mare possessed, in disbelief that the captain had accumulated so much wealth the day following his trip to Canterrot. "There's like thirty million in his account! We don't even earn three-hundred thousand in a year as an officer, much less a first year officer." She pointed out.

"Much less a recruit." The officer said in a low voice. "This is why we need to bring him down."

Cobalt stood by her friend, still pleading with her to make what she believed was the right decision. "Now do you understand?"

Solemn closed the file, disheartened that the captain had taken in such a profit after the night he went to fight. Much of herself wanted to know what was real and what wasn't. If the royals were backing him, he had to be doing some good. Or maybe the royal family was paying him under the table, still a questionable offense. Perhaps it could've been a coincidence that the money found it's way into his account at a time like that, but it still seemed too likely to simply dismiss as a coincidental occurrence.

"I want to see the truth for myself." She announced, wanting to find some way to speak with the captain of how his finances came to be so inflated in such a short amount of time. "I'm coming with you."

"Very well then. Our operation time is 1200 hours. We move in position at 11:50. Take the time to get yourself ready." Iron Hoof took the file and walked down the hall.

Her friends had gathered around her, relieved that her opportunity wasn't squandered by her own decision making. "You know, you could've totally busted your chance of that promotion." Gleaming said with a nervous tone.

Solemn, however, was angry. Thoughts of his words talking about loyalty to the princess had all come into question. Was he really in it to protect the princess, or was him retaining his position was a mistake that could've costed her the apex of her career. Was his working with the princess nothing but a financial opportunity for him, or was he in on this body-snatching operation. All possible avenues came to her mind at once, infuriating her all the more.

She gritted her teeth and moved on her anger. "All I want to know is the truth."

Meanwhile in the Parliamentary Chamber...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

"All rise!"

The voice of Blueblood boomed throughout the room, ordering all within the chamber to stand to their hooves. The multitude waited for the resolution of our case against the Count DuMoneé estate, and in turn some of the legislation that was drafted and signed with his name at the footnote. Celestia entered the room with an unusually profound scowl on her face as she entered the room. I could only assume that something had either gotten on her nerves or she had received some bad news. Either way, I would have to ask her about it later.

"You may be seated." She said as she approached her podium. She called out to Blueblood to read the results. "Has the parliament body reached the verdict in regards to the actions taken by the Estate of Count DuMoneé?"

Blueblood, already knowing the result, had announced with a proud smirk on his face. "Your highness, we have reached the tallying totals of each account. One-hundred ninety-seven votes guilty. One-hundred seventy-four votes not guilty." He placed the papers containing the tally and the countersuit measures onto the desk with satisfaction. "Your highness, the vote speaks on majority voting in favor of a guilty verdict. Thus the estate will be charged with the revoking of all funds remaining in any business accounts. Furthermore, all finances and assets pertaining to the notated accounts will be frozen and thoroughly audited. All funds remaining after the audit will be designated to the city treasury."

Celestia also added with firmness in her tone. "Also let the record show that any bills with his name in the draft shall be rescinded and reviewed to maintain standing with findings of this verdict. Any clauses and proposals with any nefarious intent shall be expunged from any and all future legislation."

Blueblood looked to the defending party, none other than Blue Royal standing in place of her father. "Would the defense have anything to say in light of the verdict reached?"

She cleared her throat and replied to the blond prince as humbly as one could. "Your highness. While I am most disappointed with the verdict pertaining to my client's status, I will not seek to appeal the verdict in any court.

"Then the verdict shall be ruled with prejudice." Celestia banged her gavel with a profound intent, it's sound reverberating throughout the room as if thunder had struck. The faces of many on one side of the room express content in the ruling. The faces on the other reflected a spectrum of disappointment ranging from resigned indifference, mild disappointment, upset glares towards Damper Trot, and vehement growling performances that would do Count proud.

I grabbed all of my documents and headed out the door on a cheerful note, knowing that at least one disturbing part about that recent spending measure had gone to the wolves. Piece by piece, Count's legacy was being disassembled before my eyes. And I was quietly living for all of it.

When I stepped out of the room, I walked towards the doors Blue would leave from. As she was walking out, I could see the slightest hint of a smile on her face.

I called out to her. "I'm not too sure of what she meant by 'ruled with prejudice', can you explain that one to me?"

She cleared a lock of her mane from over her eyes as she answered my question. "It means that it won't be brought before a court again, even if there is to be an appeal made in the future."

I gave the mare a shaky thumbs up. "Well it's not quite the justice you sought after, it's the one you deserve. Kudos, I guess."

She rolled her eyes as she tossed her paperwork into the air as if she graduated from high school. "There's no justice in any of this shit."

"What makes you say that?" I said as I started to collect on the mess she made. "I mean, other than the obvious reasons."

"I mean, the obvious reasons all speak for themselves. I'm just tired of even thinking of my father's name right now." She said tiredly. "And to think when I came back here, I was so excited to see him. I was all for reconnecting with my father in hopes that he would at least come around to having a daughter. Guess we all know how that ended. It's noon and I couldn't need a drink anymore than I do now."

"I don't blame you." I chuckled.

The mare adjusted my sleeve on my shirt, briefly pulling it back to see a large purple welt on my forearm. "You're a mess, there's bruises all over you."

"They've been healing up pretty fast though. I think they'll be gone in the next two days." I said, adjusting my sleeve back to where it was originally.

"Aren't you in the lineup for tomorrow?" She asked worriedly.

"Yeah... I'm thinking of not bringing Kalimba this time."

"That sounds like a bad idea." She said with hesitation between her words.

"Not after what happened on Tuesday night." I quickly stated back.

"My brother and I didn't show up, we just decided it was in our best interest to lay low for a while. Give us some time to psychologically recover."

"Smart answer. I wish I'd thought of it sooner." I joked.

The mare tilted her head at me. "I'm curious though. What all happened on Tuesday, aside from the obvious?"

"I got hammered into for eleven rounds, that's the obvious part. The trauma of the night, Kalimba was drugged and sexually abused while we were separated."

While she could consider herself as in competition with the zebracorn, she still felt upset for what happened. "My empathies to her, is she alright?"

"She's taking it rather well for all the trauma that could've caused." I stated. "But she's been doing fine, as I've been told."

The mare exhaled as she closed her eyes. "You know, the more you suffer though trauma after trauma, the more apathetic you become to the world. Eventually, you may lose the ability to even see the good in anything. And if not that, you go mad."

I took her statement into thought, rewinding in my mind to the day Kali and I met. Much of her personality was very dismissive of what all had happened to her, what all she endured, even down to the way she lived her life. None of it was anything short of abysmal, but she looked at it all like it was just another day to wake up to. "She's not to that point yet, though she was when I first met her. It wasn't until she had the chance to put Prod in his place when she decided to live for her own self instead of resigning herself to death and an existence of being perpetually subjugated to sexual slavery."

"That's good then. She's in a place where she can learn to heal emotionally." Blue said as she opened her eyes to give me a glance. "But she's very vulnerable, be sure not to reciprocate any emotions that could be seen as you being amorously attached, unless that's your intent."

"Why you say that?" I asked.

"Because she won't know how to process it. She'll think you're the only thing that matters in her life, she'll be prone to think anything that could take you away from her will be a threat. She'll love you hard as hell, but she'll love you into your grave."

I snickered at her words of warning. "I don't think Kali's that bad."

Blue groaned at me for laughing at her. "I'm telling you as a mare who can only trust two stallions in her life. I'm scared to see my brother leave me because that's been my support for years. You've been my hero for a good number of situations, and I can already feel myself being latched onto you because of them."

"Oh, I see." I said dismissively.

She stepped in front of me grabbing my hand. "Yeah. Can you even think about it, me and you? I'd practically murder any bitch thinking of coming close to you and taking you away from me."

Now that statement was the one that really grabbed my attention, so much that I stopped laughing altogether. "Oh...kay."

"Sorry, but it's true. Plus I get to not feel guilty when you stick your dick inside me."

I quickly glanced around to see if anyone was around to pay attention to her statement. "Pretty weird conversation to carry on with."

"Yeah it is." She said, making sure that she had my absolute attention. "But it doesn't change the attachment. Maybe it's the fact that you still took the time to help me when I needed it most, you stood in for my brother when he couldn't be there, and then you went the extra mile to save him also. Realistically speaking, I could give you everything I own and it won't be enough for the peace of mind you've given me."

I gave her head a quick pat as I knelt down and replied. "All I wanted to do was make sure you guys were good to go. That's why I changed up the venue when we last met."

"Question. Do you think I'll ever get to be in the human world again, to really see it this time?" She used her magic to grab my hand, excitedly popping the question.

I thought about it for a second and didn't really see any reason to do that, especially since it was really a one-time thing. "I don't think it's likely."

The mare's ears folded down in disappointment. "Bummer."

"Yeah, I know. I only did that to cheer you up after the last court session." I confessed.

Her ears flopped back up as he looked at me with gladness. "And I felt better after it. It was different, I liked the fact that you gave us an escape, even if it was for just a few hours of the day."

"It was an escape for me too, don't forget." I fingered out to her.

"Yeah, but it's home for you. I don't get that luxury." She said with a shrug.

After our brief conversation, we took into account what time it was. I pulled out my phone to see that it was past 12:30. It was time for lunch. "Got any plans for today?"

"Plans... no not really. I'm just gonna go home and have a moment of closure." She replied with an owlish smile.

"Okay, okay." I said respectfully. "Good job on the trial."

"Great job on the win." She said in return.

I stretched my arms, thinking of how everything went over the past few weeks. "Something throws me off still. Why did Damper Trot decided to give us the win like that?"

"I don't know. He knew my father pretty well, especially in the Inner Circle. I guess he had some resentment to how my father looked at him while Alabaster was doing... Alabaster things."

I tried not to think of the night he offered me service... much less how good he actually was in that regard. "I can imagine."

"Alright, I guess I'll see you next time." The mare gave me a brief hug before trotting away. "I'm going to go back to my little townhouse, take my meds, talk to mom for a bit, have a few drinks and pass out."

"Careful on the drinks now. Those meds don't really give you a lot of breathing room for that anymore."

"I know."

Soon after my lunch in the cafeteria, I headed back to my room with a lot of positivity taken away from today's accomplishment. I was happy to know that Shining and Cadance's foal didn't have to subject themselves to a number of unreasonable protocols and questionable practices. It offered me hope that things were soon to be on the turn-around. I know I didn't ask her how the lobbying efforts go on her end, but as far as today's vote is concerned, it could be favorable. I could propose the changes as soon as next week, or maybe the week after.

Then again, I could be rushing into it a bit. Who's to say that those guys were just simply embarrassed to hear of Count's past and voted against keeping their names tied to him by means of a few laws and spending bills. The Approval Process could be overturned, but who's to say that everyone who voted in our favor this go around won't shut down that attempt in cold blood? And with Damper still an active wild card, I can't see him forking that win over to me like he did this one.

My win of the day was a boon for my efforts, now all I had to do was keep my eyes on footage and we can call it a day.

That was my original intent. But that all came to a halt when I came up to the hall where my room was. There were two guards standing outside of my room in full armor, the door wide open as voices came from within. I jogged over to see what
was going on. When I came to the doorway, I saw both Solemn and another armored guard, along with one of the other officers rummaging through my papers like they were searching for drugs and weapons. "Hey!" I called out angrily.

The officer turned around and acted as if his nose was the furthest thing from the ground he walked on. "Ah, captain. I knew you would come around."

Seeing my stuff in a disorganized mess was more than enough to spoil my mood for the day. I snarled at the stallion. "What the fuck is going on here!"

The stallion turned away from me as if my appearance was too lowly for his eyes. "I'm just conducting a mass search on all of your assets. You don't think I would let you get away with doing whatever you wanted on the E.U.P's time."

I snapped my attention to the guardsmare instead, realizing that this guy wasn't going to give me the time of day or the opportunity to even plead a case. "Solemn, what is this?"

Solemn walked in front of me, telekinetically placing papers on my chest to read. "Good question. What is this?"

I grabbed at the papers and read what was on them. It didn't take me long to see my name somewhere on the pages. And it took even less time for me to figure what it was that I was looking at. It was my bank statements, obtained without my consent and thrown right back in my face as evidence. Even I could agree that it was worth some looking into, but I only figured something like this would come from Colonel Crackdown himself instead of Lieutenant Colonel Iron Hoof.

"Okay, there's a long story behind this." I offered the mare an explanation.

"And your reason for it?" Iron Hoof inquired, butting in rudely.

"Classified." I responded firmly.

The stallion paced right past me like he had caught me in the midst of a crime. "Classified to who? Yourself? You're using our training for your own financial benefit! That warrants not only an arrest, but also a dishonorable discharge of an officer of your caliber!"

I gave him a slow nod. "Oh, I see what this is now."

I pulled out my phone and started to send Celestia a message so that she would know if I had come up missing for dinner, they had tried to throw me in the dungeon. I also typed out that they were doing it at this moment. Just as I hit send on the second message, the two guards from outside stepped into the room and pointed their spears at me. "Sorry, captain. You'll have to come with us." Said the armored guard who was already in front of me.

As I could feel the pointed tips lightly glaze the back of my shirt, I started to feel myself becoming irrationally angry. "See, what we're not gonna do is act like I'm doing something wrong when I have clear and concise instruction to carry out my assignments. I'm on your side, and meaning that I don't disclose my dealings doesn't mean that I'm doing them unsanctioned."

Iron Hoof quickly brought more accusations against me. "Then explain the changes in security detail, why the night shift is so scarcely filled? Is it so you can run into less resistance at the checkpoints, so that no one sees when you sneak out to make your extra bit of coin?"

"You know what, okay. Say I am doing something illegal without anyone's say so. Would I intentionally sabotage the late-night security shift to allow more assailants into the castle AFTER I WAS ATTACKED IN SAID CASTLE!?" I questioned, enraged to the point where they started to aim the spears into the back of my neck.

"Wait." Solemn stepped up and halted the other three from closing in on me even further. "Let me speak with him, just us two, I'm sure there's an explanation."

"You can do that when he's retained." Iron Hoof replied haughtily.

"You mean if I'm retained." I replied back to him, visibly ready to let all hell loose at him.

The spears came back down, the three guards around me ignored Solemn's plea for negotiation and closed in, each of their weapons finding a spot to dig into. "Don't do this, captain." One mare called from behind.

"We won't hesitate to use force." The other said as she started to embed the blade into my spine.

"Magic, especially." The other in front of me warned while pointing hers into my throat. "We know what you're capable of, captain."

"Girls, please." Solemn's cries became more and more anguished, while she appeared to very much be a part of this situation, it was obvious she was trying to be the in-between. She knew what I was doing and what I stood for, I'm sure that paperwork came to her attention without a single shred of context. But none of that mattered to the Iron Hoof. He seemed more hell-bent in trying to keep me locked up for any infraction he could find.

As the pressure from the spears started to increase, I elected to slowly put my phone back in my pocket and raise my hands to the back of my head. The three mares looked at me with confusion, but the officer only took my careful movements as a means of submission, and treated it as such. "Captain Nondis P. Haines, I hereby place you under arrest. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You are entitled to representation, be it yourself, next of kin, or a lawyer on your behalf."

"AND ON WHO'S AUTHORITY!?"

Celestia, you beautiful mare and your immaculate timing.

The high princess made no effort to hide her irritation. But the officer was making every effort to bring up every charge he could've thrown at me. "Your highness, the captain has been participating in illegal activities. Underground gambling, fight clubs, prostitution, even so much as changing the schedule of the security detail to make his escape that much easier."

She bought none of it. "If I recall, I do remember seeing his request to change the security detail, but it was not to alleviate the numbers of the guards present in the halls and on certain checkpoints. If anything, he made several complaints about there being too few guards posted in the halls at that time. So I'm sure that accusation in particular holds no merit."

The spears eased off of me as the officer tried to justify his claims. "Your highness, he may have showed you one change, but he goes back in and changes it again."

"Is that so? Do you have any evidence to support that?"

"Yes, your highness." He outright lied.

Solemn Oath walked herself from in between me and Iron Hoof to standing beside Celestia, visually making herself known to the officer where her loyalties were. "Then you must have a warrant then, if you're doing all of this. Allow me to see it for myself."

The officer's chin stiffened, indicating he was clenching his jaw at her request. He knew that what he would've provided to her could be audited, opening an investigation on him. But as the princess tapped her hoof impatiently, he was left with no other choice but to provide what he had to her. After all, he couldn't get access to my information without it. He continued his front, upholding his lie with yet another. "My warrant came signed from Princess Luna, you'll have to take it up with her if you wish to see it."

"Well this is just amusing." Celestia smirked as she held back her temper. She turned her head to the doorway from where she entered. "Sister, do you recall any warrant made out for Captain Nondis reaching your desk?"

Luna walked into the room, just as irate as her older sibling. "I'm sorry, I don't remember seeing a warrant for that."

Caught in his lie, he tried to offer pleasantries to the princess of the night. "Your highness, what a pleasant surprise!"

The other three guards seemed to stare in confusion over what was going on. "Sir?" Cobalt called out as she removed her helmet. The other two quickly followed suit. "You showed us the warrant yesterday."

Luna sternly corrected the three mares. "If I cannot produce a warrant I remember signing, then I simply did not give authorization to execute."

Celestia quickly jumped in. "Neither did I receive anything to sign on anypony's behalf."

On that note, the princess of the sun walked towards the cabinet where I closed of my workstation. The stallion, already neck-deep in trouble, tried to politely change the subject. "Princess, where are you going?"

Celestia moved the mouse to wake the computer from it's sleep. The first thing that popped up was the password screen. "Nondis, what's the code you put into this contraption?"

"I got it." I replied, walking over to put in the password. The screen popped up with one application running in the taskbar. She clicked at the red icon to pull up the camera feed of every room in the castle.

Luna soon joined us as she provided her own input. "Blueblood pointed out something to me the other day. Something I find rather unusual."

The stallion who was then horn-deep in shit, had grown confrontational about what was taking place in front of him. "What is this!?"

"A video monitoring system. The whole castle's rigged to keep an eye out for any changes to security and potential trespassers. If I had my room set to away while I was gone, you would've been caught from the moment you walked in." I answered as I pulled out my phone.

"You didn't have it set, did you?" Luna asked.

"Not today. I was going to go to the trial, come back, monitor the grounds, and see if anything interesting came up. So far, it's pretty boring stuff to look at other than a few romps between some maids and guards thinking that no one can see them sneak into the janitor's closet." I explained.

Luna pointed out some footage from one of the hallways leading into the main corridor. And just like that, the footage showed the officer hiding behind a pillar, patiently waiting for me to leave before he approached her. "Lieutenant Colonel Iron Hoof, it appears that you have been meeting with Solemn Oath in the shadows." Celestia observed.

The officer was quick to explain himself. "Yes, your highness. We were discussing some assignments we could do to have her return to her usual status since it appeared unlikely that the captain would be of any aid to that purpose."

"And now here we are." I snarked at the stallion. "Mazel tov."

Celestia wasn't afraid to impose herself, grilling the officer for his conduct shown in the video. "Iron Hoof, you seem to have hid behind a pillar and waited until the captain passed you by this instance. You seem awfully suspicious to be giving out assignments."

"Because I was investigating the captain's dealings. I am within my right to conduct an investigation into whatever matters seem out of place for the guard."

"Meanwhile, you did not notify me of your suspicions. Why is that?" Celestia appeared unamused.

"Because I thought you wouldn't want to be bothered by such trivial matters." He replied.

Again, Celestia was not amused or accepting of his excuses. "It's unusual to think that the one I chose to head my security detail would be involved in illicit or illegal activities and I weren't notified of it personally. Do you honestly think that would be unworthy of my full attention?"

Iron Hoof continued to play to his given excuse. "Your highness, I understood that your plate was full─"

"Excuses." I rebutted vehemently.

"Captain. Allow me." She stood before him and extended a hoof to him. "Now you, show me your findings and present your evidence."

He grabbed the paperwork that Solemn had given to me and presented it to her. "Your highness, here is his savings. I'm sure the numbers should be of alarm to you."

She reviewed the information, raising a brow at the final number remaining. The princess slowly looked to me. "That's an awfully big number."

Iron Hoof took that moment as an instance where he could throw it back in my face like I was legitimately in the wrong. "He's been sighted in Canterrot, participating in illegal fighting rings."

"Is that so?" Celestia asked in deadpan. In the flash of an instant, the papers that were in her possession had suddenly combusted, leaving nothing but ashes. The officer and his accomplices looked on slack-jawed as the princess narrowed her eyes to him. "And you didn't think that I wouldn't be aware of it already with his current physical condition?"

Realizing that he was in over his head, he found himself trying to surface the septic cesspool of a situation he dived into. "Err... Your highness, I don't think─"

And the princess refused to offer as much as a life-saver. "These matters are not any of your business. They are, however, already mine to know of. So when my captain tells you that the details of his doings are classified top-secret, I expect you to respect that and adhere to the warning that was implied by that detail!"

While the princess occupied herself in watching the stallion drown in his mess, Solemn offered her own words of responsibility to the princess. "Your highness, I'm sorry. I should've stopped this sooner, but I saw the papers, the accounts, I just... I wanted to find an answer for what was going on."

I almost expected Celestia to partways go in on the mare, but I also remembered that I did give her the order to keep moving as if she had resentment for me. The princess praised her for her ability to sell herself as a readily available pawn for any possible conspiracy. "Solemn Oath, your role here has been most valuable."

I too offered praise for the mare, despite the fact that my room was now a mess. "Way to keep up with appearances. Turns out you're not that bad of an actor."

Meanwhile her friends were not so enthusiastic to hear that her assignment brought her against them for the time being. "Solemn, are you serious!?" Cobalt shouted incredulously.

The former officer appeared remorseful towards her friends. "Sorry girls, I said I wanted to find the truth. This is my best path forward."

"How does that make any sense!?" Cobalt combated zealously.

Though Solemn was remorseful at the circumstances, she soon found the ability to critically challenge her friend. "I think the better question to ask is this, Cobalt. How is it that you knew exactly what to tell me just moments before Iron Hoof came up to me. How did you know the captain had been in Canterrot on both Friday and Tuesday night?"

Cobalt's eyes expanded, seeing the leering countenance of judgement from both of the princesses. "I..." She watched as I folded my arms, waiting for an answer. She found it difficult to look into the eyes of her friend. "Okay, he told me what to tell you."

Iron Hoof grimaced as the two princesses turned to him, his septic pool now growing into a fairly deep lake. "That means you were in on it." Solemn called out her friend with dismay.

"That may be, but I was told that I would be helping you get your position back!" Cobalt stated, earning more and more derision for the entrenched officer.

Solemn glanced to all her friends, softly explaining to them what could've happened. "If he told you everything, then doesn't that mean that I would've contributed nothing? What does that do for me, other than make me an accessory to an illegal search and seizure of a commanding officer? You wanna talk about restoring my rank, that's how you get me discharged, especially after my last infraction! I would be disgraced, I would be forced to go back home to my parents and sit there as they tell me that my service in the guard was pointless, that I should've settled down and found a stallion to marry, to have kids and settle down! That's throwing about twenty years of my service, of my dedication to the princess, that's all gone! I would've wasted my life away with nothing to show for it! We all have been together for all this time, why would you all ruin that!?"

The eyes of the others fell to the ground in shame. Cobalt tried to plead with Solemn. "You said it yourself, you were tired of getting played by the system. This was the one time the system fell in your favor. I couldn't let you pass on that, not if it meant my job, not if it meant my seeing you suffer that indignity otherwise! We may have been lied to, but we wanted to give you a shot, a chance to climb to the position you deserve."

"But you knew I wouldn't accept anything like this."

Dress Right walked beside Cobalt, lowering her head in defeat. "Solemn, it was for you."

As Gleaming Brass walked to the side of the other two, Solemn felt a tinge of pain in her heart. "So the rest of you in on it, huh?"

"Sorry. We really wanted you to be an officer again." Gleaming confessed with a bow of apology.

"We saw how upset you were the day you lost your rank. You were crying! We did what we could to try and get you back up, so that we didn't have to see you like that again." Dress Right clarified. "We're sorry if this was a lie, we were only doing what we were told."

"Girls... you idiots." Solemn walked over to her friends hugging each of them, showing them forgiveness for their attempt to give her what she wanted. "I know my actions that day were inexcusable. I started a fight with a superior officer because I was too caught up in my own funk. Now I know what he's been up against, what he's been fighting against. And truth be told, I actually admire that he doesn't take flack for it, that he stays quiet and march on." The guardsmare looked to me with embarrassment. "Ugh. Even now I'm trying not to throw up in my mouth for admitting it, you're doing Equestria a service."

Iron Hoof took a quick glance at the princesses before he started to make a move for the door. Instead of him being able to run off, I snagged one of his hind legs with my magic. "Ah, cut that shit off right now." I said with an authoritative tone. "You tried to arrest me with a shitty warrant. You're in a no-fly zone and you still had the balls to float that out there. So let's tally the count real quick. Compromising the livelihoods of not just Solemn, but your other subordinates, that's insubordination and sabotage. You looked up my private information without my consent using fake documents to access that info, that's fraud. You also conspired against a top secret investigation, falsified documents, forged a princess' signature, breaking and entering, and then lying to your overlord for the sake of salvaging your own personal effort to put me away. That's about eight things I can count on my free hand, and I only have five fingers to count with."

"That's a lot of charges for one warrant." Luna added.

"You. Are done." Celestia growled menacingly. "I won't even offer the option of resignation for you, Iron Hoof. You will face your discharge, you will face your court date, and you will most certainly face your consequences. Disgraceful, I'll see to it that you'll never serve another day at my side."

Pure desolation, that was what I saw in his eyes. It didn't appear for much of the time that he was standing here, but her words seemed hurt him terribly. His head dropped appearing lost for the seconds of time before I would address him once more. "Okay, sir. Let's get you into your new digs down below. By the way, you're under arrest for conspiracy."

The stallion's horn glowed with a bright light. He shot a bolt at me to knock me over. Since I had little choice, I had to let him go and counter his incoming blow to defend myself. He tackled into my legs and clutched around me tightly as he screamed. "PRINCESS CELESTIA IS MUCH BETTER OFF WITHOUT YOU MONKEYS CORRUPTING HER PRESENCE!"

"Get off of me!" I said, trying to pull him off. But as he tightened his grasp, I started to batter at his head. He slowly climbed up my chest, using his magic to ward off some of my blows.

When he found himself unable to reach up any higher, he looked at me with a deranged smile. "YOUR HIGHNESS, ALLOW ME TO SHOW YOU MY LOYALTY TO EQUESTRIA!!!" His horn started to spark violently, a high-pitched whirring sounded from atop his head. "I'LL RID YOU OF THIS ABOMINATION! I ALONE CAN SHOW YOU MY ADMIRATION, MY HEART, MY BEING FOR YOU!"

I grasped as his horn to quench his magic, but my skin was burned on contact. "Agh! Fuck!" I screamed as my hand sizzled from the heat.

"How many nights have you slithered to her majesty's boudoir, far too many! I'll rid the cancer from her life, she deserves it! She deserved me! But if I can't be hers, I won't let you the chance!" His smile grew more manic, his eyes filled with an irrational exuberance while his horn glowed so hot that it started to burn the shirt off of my chest. "I'll forever love you, my queen! I offer this moment, my life to you!" He whispered as his magic reached it's breaking point.

And then it stopped.

Not of his own decision, but rather because his head had started to slide off and roll over to the side of me. His eyes blinked wildly for a moment until the princess stepped behind him and drove the pointed end of her halberd into the top of his skull. Feeling the headless body completely give away all resistance was a bit unsettling, but I was more relieved that he didn't blow me into another state of matter. "Absolute disgrace!" She called out to the severed head.

As the blood started to pool around where his head should've been, I took inventory of my own self. While my face was partially covered in his blood, I looked to the princess with total admiration. "How many times does that make it, lady?"

"I don't blame you for something like that. You wouldn't have stopped it anyhow." Celestia said plainly, staring at the headless body with discontent. "It's just another thing I find myself dealing with from time to time. Always the ever-insistent, the so-called loyal, the truly selfish and depraved. Doesn't matter the generation it's always the same."

"What the hell was he about to do anyway?" I questioned.

"An overcast." Luna started to explain. "When a powerful unicorn overexert themselves into putting all of their magic into a
confined defensive maneuver taking up such a small space, they exert a magical reaction that's often fatal to the caster. And all of that stored energy is released all at once within that spontaneous confinement. The results are usually... explosive."

"This guy tried to suicide-bomb me?" I asked, a bit freaked out. "The fuck?"

"It's a last resort spell, often used by high ranking officers and spies." Celestia expounded. "Needless to say that he wanted you out of the way, and sought every means to make that happen."

I looked at the head and asked. "The hell did I ever do to you?"

The sun princess, removing the head from off of her weapon, had turned her gaze to the three trembling unicorn mares. "Now, let's get back to the matters of those of the living." She cruelly announced to the trio. "While it's admirable that you would think of your friend's career over your own, it's just as reckless to partake in an illegal warrant, especially when many red flags are raised."

Luna then supplanted her sister's statement. "If I sign something, I come directly to the participants with it. It's so that they know what will be done as I'm briefing them."

"And let the record show that I would see to the captain's misconduct personally, not just allocate it to somepony else to deal with while I go off to do whatever." Celestia notified the three sternly. "I am most disappointed in all of you. You can report to us tomorrow for your conduct hearing. As of today, Dress Right, Gleaming Brass, and especially you Cobalt Blue, you are dismissed."

While the three slinked off into the hall, already dreading their pending consequences, Solemn started to follow after them. "Solemn Oath, you remain here." I ordered before going back to Celestia. "I know it's all good and whatnot, but can we deal with the severed head and headless body growing a scenic lake on my floor. I feel like that's a thing we need to address."

Celestia levitated the head of the fallen disgraced officer, summoning a nearby vase to place it in for the time being. "Of course."

I grimaced as I questioned her method. "Uh, did you really put his head in a random vase?"

"What? Personally, I find it as a great way to discourage anyone from breaking my vases." She joked.

Both Solemn and I nodded nervously. "Noted."

Thirty Minutes Later...

As word got out of what happened, some guards started questioning what was going on in the midst of the upper ranks. Some saw it as an opportunity to get their resumes in order for the vacated positions to come, others simply speculated of what had occurred to cause Celestia to give Iron Hoof his black slip. Murmurings of an impromptu execution for treason started to circulate faster than the other officers could control.

As far as the clean-up was concerned, Celestia had ordered the coroners to collect his remains. The blood had already started to clot, so the cleaning was not as difficult as one would've expected, but it was still disgusting to see crimson blobs being dumped into collection units and toted away. They also collected the jar Celestia used to house the decapitated officer. The floor was sanitized, my clothes were collected for cleaning, and I was set to re-inhabit my room.

Luna took off to oversee the process of handling Iron Hoof's final rites, as well as his post-mortem processing. Celestia stayed behind to oversee the condition of my room. And when all had left us alone, the princess expressed her fatigue. "Ugh... Today's a rough day, and it's not even over yet."

While I sat on my bed shirtless, I looked at the healing scar on my hand. What had started off so well had ended up turning sour so quickly. It felt like a repeating pattern for my week. "You have no idea."

"I'd like to think I do." She said with frustration. "How's your hand?"

"That ointment you gave me last time is doing wonders. You got more of that stuff?" I asked.

"I used it as a pain reliever for my wings, you know, before you removed the old shrapnel." She answered. "I just ended my prescription for it. But I don't intend for you to rely on it, you'll just get yourself thrown into more danger all willy-nilly. Can't let you do that, now can I?"

"Of course not." I replied, laying in my bed thinking bout my experience just earlier. "I find it pretty interesting that this guy had it out for me that bad." I looked to the daylight princess. "I wonder with the way he acted, did he know about us?"

"I do remember you putting it out there as an attempt to dispel the rumor." She recalled accurately. "But I thought that you had disproved that with your interaction with Rarity."

"I thought I did too. I had the receipts to prove it and everything." I stopped short of my next statement to ponder on what was said to me by the disgraced officer. "He made mention of my night visits. I do remember getting called out by him for being too frequent with you. In hindsight I guess we could've paid more attention to that."

Celestia sighed as she stared at the place where she took the officer's life. "I know your room will be a hard place to sleep in for a while now."

I chuckled at her. "After all the shit I've seen, that was pretty easy-going for me. I just hope I don't see him again."

"His will not be of the missing bodies." Celestia assured adamantly. "The morgue is under new management as of this morning, so I'm sure his family will find that his process will be a lot quicker than expected. I'll be sure to bump him in the order so that they can get the closure they deserve."

I groaned as I still felt the stinging in my hand. "I hate that I'll have to write that letter to his folks."

"He won't be receiving that honor, or any honors for that matter. You leave that matter to me." Celestia said. "With both Luna and I as witnesses, there will be no procession worth nothing more than a private family memorial service."

I shook my head as I imagined how his career would actually have nothing to show for it other than the stories from those who knew him. "Hard to imagine a decorated officer not getting any kind of military honors."

"It'll be easy when we finish the conduct hearings tomorrow." Celestia replied.

I pulled out my phone and went through some security footage around the castle, more notably the laundry room to wait impatiently for my shirt to finish. "Question. Do you think that we'll stop experiencing the changeup in all of my patrol assignments?"

Celestia levitated the phone away from me, indicating that I should take some time to relax and process the day. "That will be answered in time. If so, then we'll know who was the one responsible. If not, then our search continues."

"All of this for some petty obsession he never found the stones to admit until the last minute. You'd think with his stature, he'd full-send his feelings to you, he had the pedigree and most of the requirements already. But I guess he didn't want to deal with the marriage law, can't say I blame him for it. But I can't even imagine myself being so obsessed that I'd keep my feelings tucked away in the back of some random closet like a crazed stalker, intentionally sabotaging the night shift for the petty intent of finding more time to spend with the princess, that or doing it to make some random guy look bad at his job." I lightly laughed at the circumstance, mainly in disbelief. "This is getting way too much."

"You'd be surprised to see how deep the rabbit hole really goes after a thousand years of Faust knows what." She replied.

"At this point, should I even be surprised?"

A solemn frown grew on her lips. "Let's just say it's much better to be prepared."

Canterlot Cathedral of Faust
Later that evening...

The chapel was filled with the sounds of choral singing as an elderly and visually-impaired organist in the wayward rafters attempted to play the music transcribed before him. They sang a song pertaining to the period of judgement foretold by the followers of the Faustian faith.

Damper Trot walked through the sanctuary to the side set of doors leading to a secluded area containing the confessional booth. As he entered into the booth, he tapped his horn against the incense and sparked it to ignition. Clopping his hooves twice, he lowered his head to the symbol of the Faustian faith on the wall. "Forgive me, Mother Faust, for I am a irredeemable sinner."

A veiled slot opened to allow a priest to speak with the pony confessing their sin. "My son, she forgives all who confesses their sins. Pray with me, what has consumed you?"

"I can't shake the idea of the heavenly mother not being a mother... but rather being a father." Damper quietly replied.

"Those words are indeed blasphemous. What has drawn you to that conclusion, my son?"

Damper smirked as he gave his answer. "The miracles I have seen in the halls of your lounge."

The priest began to snicker. "Ah, so did the trial go as planned, Damper?"

"It did, sir."

The priest adjusted himself across the wall. "Very good. Can't let old memories drag down progress, now can we?"

"You know, that would've given us more leverage to take over everything in the next decade or two." Damper stated.

The priest giggled at the politician. "Look at yourself and ask, do you really have two more decades?"

"I mean I might not." He answered.

"Then why put off something for later when you could have it in a matter of months, possibly sooner?"

"I understand." The senator conceded. "Do you think that your plan will be of any success, sir?"

The priest sounded as if he had reclined himself against the wall. "It seems to be already rolling into play. Curious parties have made their move, and a relocation was made to order."

Damper chuckled sensibly. "Back on the stomping grounds, I see."

"Ah, it always began here." Umbra replied. "Well... it began at a different location before it was torn down due to a nasty bout some centuries ago, but I earnestly renovated that old place into the church of my own free will."

"More like the church of Friday night carnage." Damper replied.

"My own free will." Umbra corrected.

The organist in the rafters had started to make a number of mistakes as his glasses fell to the pedal board beneath him. He leaned down to feel his way for them, only to realize that his hindleg had kicked them between two keys, causing one to stick down. The choir tried their best to sing through the dissonance, eventually accompanying that same chaotic sound. The senator leaned back in his cubicle and took out his pocket watch. "I know you like talking of your projects. How about the big one you pride yourself over?"

Umbra brimmed with pride as he went about his update. "It's held together nicely on Tuesday night. I just didn't like the fact that my surprise had gotten spoiled. All that hard work and care for something that they're already anticipating a fight against, that's no fun to watch. It's much easier when you plan for every eventuality while they only plan to face a grunt-sized opponent. Shame really."

"How do you plan to bypass the elements?" Damper questioned.

"Ah I love that sound, so hauntingly dark." The stallion tapped his hoof along with the dissonance in the background. "The bearers may have a bit of a healing factor because of their unique magical properties of being bearers, but they aren't immortal. And once their magic becomes mine to use and alter, well that'll be all I need to drive that final nail in that hypothetical coffin."

"And the human?" Damper questioned.

"Which one?" Umbra asked.

"The captain." The senator clarified.

"Oh yeah, him. Well I hope that I will be using him as a special little token to advance my ambitions."

"Do you think he'll go willingly?"

Umbra hummed, trying to match the pitch of the choir, sliding his voice up and down until he found himself matching to an extent. "Not the slightest, he's rebellious. But as I already told him, it's not what he does for others, it's what he's going to do for me."

"Sad that he didn't die off like he was initially supposed to. That would've accelerated your plans." Said the senator.

"Oh no, it's quite the opposite. Even if his body was donated to science, we wouldn't get to know the wonderful capabilities we now see the human possessing." Umbra observed. "In a way, Count's curse of failure was our real blessing. It's just too bad that it took me taking over his body to find myself as closet to him as I wanted to be. But then again, his son proved to be a more-willing volunteer."

"At least until recently." Damper replied.

"Yes, recently." As Umbra thought more of the effiminate stallion, the organist above regained his spectacles and placed them back on his head to continue playing the hymn correctly.

"So. What of him?" The senator inquired.

Umbra's eyes narrowed as he reflected on the stallion. "I think Blue is a bit too secure with his presence. It might be high time for that to change."

"How much of a change do you want?"

The eccentric stallion gave a haunting impression of a Cheshire cat. "I think I want her to keep along this wild ride. Last Tuesday was a great showing of her vulnerability. I loved that look on her face. You should've seen her the following day when she walked in to see the masks everywhere. Hilarious."

"What of the princesses?" Damper questioned.

"Ah... the royal decorations." He replied bitterly. "We could always put out there that the human was giving them sexual favors, but that's too easy and boring. Besides, I rather quash the hope she has in her six-foot furless fun-bag first. And if I'm hitting the captain where it hurts next, I'd much rather go with the more dramatic angle."

"Is that what you have in store for tomorrow, sir?"

The ringleader assumed his usual smile. "Either way, I'm experimenting on a human corpse by the end of the night." He cackled at the thought of him bringing the captain to his knees for the first time in a while. "Isn't God good?"

The senator bowed his head with a sinister smile of compliance. He tapped his forehead and his chest twice each at the religious effigy on the wall. "And now in power, may she rest, rule, and abide. In her eyes, may her children say, yullah."

"Or rather the human connotation in this instance. Let the church say... amen."

Author's Note

Howdy there peoples, I hope things are going well for you. The next month seems to be a little wild for me considering a few dates on schedule. It does not affect my release schedule all that much, however. I still release two chapters next month to catch up to where I should be in the year. This is only the chapter for August, so that means this month's and next month's allocated chapters will be released next month. So no Christmas bomb this year, I don't think.

I will see you guys next time.

Chapter CVII

The Unknown Lab...

As the morning sun came into view of the pristine church that houses many parishioners and believers on the daily, a priest walked out of the confessional booth and made his way down the halls. He walked peacefully by the other staff and their young assistants. A group of young choir colts had passed by, he smiled and waved at the young ensemble before taking a walk to a nearby private office. Once inside, he looked to his coat rack and snagged a robe to wear. After dressing himself in the room, he took one more peek into the hall to see that no one was anywhere near the room. He closed the door and locked himself inside, going over to his desk to pull a quill from within it's ink well. He drew on a blank parchment a circle with runes of old ponish. Upon his completion, he held it to a nearby storage closet and planted his hoof at the center.

He waited as the runes started to glow a fiery orange color, keeping his hoof in place until the runes had turned blue. He then opened the closet to reveal a white hallway. The stallion took donned his hood and proceeded down the hall. Along the way, he passed a number of offices where the dolls had worked on their various tasks, taking in data and moving bodies around. There was no talking, not a single line of chatter as they worked. The halls were only filled with the noise of several dolls making their way to their chores.

The cloaked priest marched on until he came to a room with a red sign at the top, notating the labmaster's desire to remain undisturbed. He ignored the sign and walked into the room, seeing Umbra as he levitated a number of tissue samples from the corpse at his disposal. "Sir." The priest called out with a drawl and a bow.

Umbra was displeased in being disturbed while he was working. "Oh what is it now? Can't you see I'm in the middle of something?"

"One of our informants at the castle has been compromised." The priest notified.

"What sector?" The annoyed stallion questioned.

"The E.U.P. sir."

Umbra rolled his eyes at the news. "Ugh, I guess that makes my job just a micron more difficult."

"I apologize, sir." The priest said with a humble bow.

"Well, what name and position?" Questioned Umbra.

"Lieutenant Colonel Iron Hoof, sir. Reports claim that he tried to detonate himself while attached to the captain, but Princess Celestia beheaded him before he could finish his spell."

The stallion put aside his samples and grabbed a scalpel with the intent of removing something else from the corpse on his table. "A fool. He knew that if he brought harm to the captain that he would answer to me. I swear, you tell one guy the truth to quietly sway his favor, he goes off on his own to make a war of it. Shame. " Before he started cutting into the innards of the pony before him, he asked the priest another question. "Where's the body?"

"Being sent to the city mortuary, but that's been taken over by the guards."

"I know that, I was there yesterday." He announced while he moved his scalpel with precision to remove an organ from the cadaver's chest. "We still have the underground access, they can't trace out which plots we've already dug under. But I do know that we'll be going through box after box. I'll send the puppets in for that."

The priest glanced back at the hallway, seeing a puppet cart down the hall another cadaver. "Do you think they're capable of something like that, sir? I would assume that would be a little something over their ability."

"They're enchanted for that purpose, all they see is the dead and those who move without a crest." He explained before returning to the topic of the fallen officer. "Are they planning a burial?"

"Cremation, sir. All of the bodies in queue are to be cremated."

The stallion stopped making his incisions and clopped his hoof against the ground, summoning a puppet to the room. "I'll admit that makes this more difficult than I would like it to be." He turned to the puppet and started barking his orders. "You, work." He walked away from the table and sat himself in a nearby chair. "Give me a moment to focus." He said to the priest.

"Shall I dismiss myself for today?"

"Hush now." Umbra demanded. "I need a moment to concentrate."

The eccentric stallion closed his eyes and too three deep breaths before...

Canterlot's Home of Final Rest Mortuary...

...His eyes opened to find himself sitting in a cabinet. He used his magic to slowly guide the cabinet open in a quiet manner. When he finished, he dusted himself off and walked to the door leading to the outside hallway. He planted his ear against the door, waiting for some unsuspecting guard to walk in front of.

One such stallion had came through griping about his shift. "Ugh, I swear this is not how I had my Friday morning lined up. Can't wait to get off."

He walked out with his horn faintly glowing before a bright flash appeared around the guard's body. As soon as the light subsided, the stallion collapsed to the ground, unable to move or speak. Umbra dragged the guard by his tail into the room, laying him out on the tray he found himself spawning in from. "I swear you guards are a dime a dozen nowadays. Is steady livable income really such a hard find?" He said to the paralyzed stallion as he stripped him of his armor and weapons. His victim could only look upwards to see what was happening to him. "Don't answer that. I know the princess is absolutely useless against the parliament. It's pathetic that she's even anything more than a road model for jewelry at this point. Then again, that's been the case for centuries." He gave his victim a slap on his flank and a deep kiss to probe for information. Once he was finished, he ran his hoof along the back of his victim's haunches. "A grunt so young, so vibrant, so submissive, you'll do fine for later. I'll see you then... Oh. And don't mind the smell while you're in there. The dead can be quite sensitive about these kinds of things."

The victim's eyes expanded as the cabinet was shut with him on it. Umbra left the room after leaving the unfortunate stallion paralyzed in the dark fridge for another eighteen hours, only to be graced with the harrowingly quiet company of the surrounding corpses.

Going off his newfound intel, Umbra walked the halls towards the direction of the back patio. There he saw two guards, one giving their update. "Sir, we've completed the cremation of the first ten bodies for today."

The director, also a well-established enlisted, complained about the pace of the work being done. "A full cremation is so time exhausting. It's anywhere between an hour and a half to three hours before we're finished with one body. I guess we'll be at this one for a whole three weeks, and that's just to clear the current inventory."

"Well there's still the other deaths that they bring in." The other guard added.

The director grimaced at his workload. "Damn this place and it's backlog of corpses. It's almost as if we'll have to improvise." He started to think of how to alleviate the labor of the task before him and the other guards he had at his employ. "I suppose we could have a pyre for every thirty bodies at the patio behind the mausoleum. They usually rent that place out for repast anyways. Ten chambers in here, ten pyres out there, cremating in a pyre could take up to six hours to process in a similar fashion to what goes on inside. That brings up the body disposal rate up to a hundred per day. We do this for eighteen hours a day, do it for seven days a week in shifts, we can knock it out in a little over two weeks."

Umbra cleared his throat and marched in as any other low-level guard would. "Good day to you, sir."

"Hey, what you got going on, rookie?" The other guard questioned.

"Just passing through on patrol, sir." Umbra replied with a salute.

The director turned to him and jokingly questioned. "Hey kid, wanna see a dead body?"

"Actually, I am a dead body." Umbra replied in kind. While the other two was surprised that he had taken the joke a bit further, they weren't too amused by the response. Umbra, meanwhile, laughed. "Oh don't mind me, just a little humor to tie me over on this shift, sir."

The stallion blinked before issuing his orders. "Well since you're in such a good mood, do me a solid and start grabbing the bodies out the fridges and move them out to behind the mausoleum."

"How do I do that?" He asked in true rookie fashion.

The director seemed as if he didn't want to explain the entire process, so he simplified it to the seemingly amateur guard. "Look, I know you're new, so I'm only gonna tell you once. You fuck up, I'm coming for your ass, so listen up. You open the fridge, grab one of those lifts, secure the body, put it on a dolly, wheel it out there, repeat that same process about ten times. And I'll be sure not to drive my hoof so far up your ass that you'll be at a booth entertaining little fillies and colts. Make sure you get the names also, greenie."

"I'll do what's required sir." Umbra replied.

"We'll get the pyres ready while we wait, so take your time but don't take too long." The other guard also added.

"Yes sir."

Umbra walked away from the pair and marched back into the storage room. He grabbed a nearby ball-point pen and a sheet of paper. He drew a circle with runes and placed it on the maintenance door, immediately the runes glowed blue. Snagging the paper down, he found himself right back to having direct access to his lab, but only for a short amount of time until he had to close the door again. He clopped his hooves for two more dolls to start searching the cabinets for the body he desired. It did not take them long to identify which cabinet contained the decapitated stallion. They picked up both the head and body and walked back into the lab. Umbra quietly locked the doors and placed a spell to distort the space of the room where if others appeared, they would enter a separate space similar to the one they owned. The stallion then laughed at his flawless success.

"Ah, while the captain's much more thorough, his guards are that much more incompetent. Bless the fools."

Meanwhile at Canterlot Castle...

"I can understand you all wanting to assist your friend in trying to get her back her rank, but everything you three did to establish that had been completely out of line with protocol. Not only have you disregarded the many regulations in place, but you were also compliant in every one of his requests."

The conduct hearing was well underway, many officers had a profound silence for what was taking place. Along side the princess sat two empty chairs, one reserved for Shining Armor, the other for the late Iron Hoof who met his end yesterday afternoon. But unlike Shining, there was no tab or nameplate to signify his place.

The three mares, Solemn's friends, were all standing in the face of their impending punishment while the aforementioned mare had looked at the three with sadness. None of them would dare to attempt to defend themselves. "Your highness, we recognize that there is no excuse for what we did." Gleaming Brass answered on their behalf, Cobalt Blue had remained quiet for the entirety of the hearing.

Celestia was the exact opposite, having a lot to say. "I am vastly disappointed in all of you and the way you conducted yourselves in this matter. Had you considered more carefully Solemn Oath's myriad of warnings, I would be more lenient towards each of you. But given what you have done, I'm going to give you exactly what you deserve. Each of you are just as accountable, if not more based on the rank you all have, so I will have no choice but to make an example of you all. Each of you will be demoted to your previous rank, you may appeal for your rank in twelve months, by which you will be given the option to reapply. Your punishment will last two weeks, mandatory courses on ethics, mandatory conduct training both day and night, and by regulation, you are allotted a minimum of four hours of sleep and two meals per day. Your meals will be provided supplementary nutritional units, your mess hall dining privileges revoked." The princess then brought her attention to the main contributor of the three. "Cobalt Blue, since you were the primary purveyor of this situation, I will also be demoting you from First Sergeant to Sergeant. You may appeal for your rank in twenty-four months, but you may only reapply to the rank of Staff Sergeant. Now have you anything to say in response to your punishment?"

"Your highness, I have no response." Cobalt answered quietly, very much defeated by the punishment bestowed to her.

"Good. Then all of you will report to the barracks to begin your two-week regiment effective immediately." The princess ruled.

As the three started to walk off in a dirge for their careers, I peeped over to Solemn. I wanted to gauge her reaction, considering she had also been here a few weeks back. She was deeply saddened for the three, especially for Cobalt. I myself understood that they only meant well for her, not so much for me. It wasn't a personal issue that I had with them anyhow, it was them doing what they were told the best option. While I agreed with the bulk of the punishments presented, I had many reservations about Cobalt taking such a steep drop in paygrade.

"Before we dismiss, I have something to say." I stated, wanting to make an amendment to Cobalt's punishment. Though I wasn't doing it for her, I was doing it for Solemn, because she helped me at times, even when she didn't know it. If Iron Hoof was the guy responsible for the security lapses, then I could say I did the right thing. If not, then I could use the favorable outlook for other purposes in the long-run. "Your highness, might I suggest a secondary alternative for Cobalt's punishment?"

The princess raised a brow with curiosity towards me. "What do you propose?"

"I understand that she's the cheer captain of the squad and they broke into my room, when all they had to do was ask me for permission to enter for investigative purposes, I would've complied. I do have to say that Cobalt's demotion might be a tad bit rough. Might I make the recommendation that she'd be demoted one grade as opposed to three? Going from a G8 to a G5 is quite a drop in my eyes, in both pay and prestige. Also considering their established regiment for the next two weeks, I think it's fair to say that three ranks may be a tad rough on an older body."

The aforementioned mare squeaked in protest. "Older, sir?"

"You're thirty-six, right?" I asked.

"I'm thirty-four." She replied timidly.

"Older body." I continued. "Undergoing such a strict regiment would be taxing on the mind, much less being ranked so far low at her age. I still consider the years of service she took. Now I'm not saying she shouldn't be punished, all I asked is that her rank be dropped by one grade like the others. The appeal process can take place in the same period of time, all the other stuff remain the same."

The princess looked to the group of mares. "The captain has chosen benevolence. Though I would be entitled to persecute all of you to a more severe degree considering Iron Hoof's intentions on yesterday, especially with his attempt at the captain's life. Who's to say that all of your intentions didn't hold a similar perspective?" She pointed out as a rebuttal to my argument. "But the captain has spoken in your defense. And since he's the violated party in this ordeal, I will allow it this once." While this would normally be the time where she would open her wings to make a decree, she simply turned her head towards me. "Captain, since you are the one who proposed the change, you administer the final ruling."

"Cobalt Blue, you are hereby demoted from the rank of G8 to G7, you may appeal in two years. The rest of you along with her will have the following: Two week mandatory training courses, ethics, conduct, both day and night. Your meals will be provided MRE's, and by regulations you will be afforded a mandatory four hours of sleep. Though I'm sure you understand by now that those four hours are not concurrent with one another. Nineteen hours of training and physical courses, one for meals, four of rest. Eat up, rest up, and enjoy your weekend in the barracks."

The princess appeared pleased with my delivery. She stomped her hoof as a show of finalization. "With all that being said, hearing is adjourned."

While the three started their way towards their two-week hell-on-earth experience, the princess departed, the other officers said nothing in their leave, while Solemn Oath approached me over my judgement. "You didn't have to do that."

"It's a bit better than having to look at retirement with a significantly lower pay grade. I mean what's the difference, a few thousand per year?" I replied.

The mare was not pleased with my response. "Permission to speak freely, sir."

"Spit."

"You're an asshole." She said quite firmly.

"Thank you, may I have another?" I joked.

"Okay." She replied. "You're a prick who can't ever seem to let pains be pains, you rub salt in the wound and then tell them it's going to be okay when it's all said and done, but you don't even take into consideration the hit you gave to their pride. That's where you really drive the point home."

'Yeah." I answered, though not exactly understanding how Cobalt's mind works while Solemn did. But it didn't change my outlook. "What if I told you that was the point? My pride gets hurt all the time when I go to another one of these things when my name's in the file. All this does is make me look disagreeable amongst my fellow officers, not a one of them spoke to me today because of what all happened. Don't you think I'm hurt in some way too?"

After I tossed my own perspective to her, she then offered hers. "That may be, but Cobalt's not going to let herself feel good about what you just did."

"And had I let her get demoted that far, she'd put in her retirement papers." I rebutted.

"Yeah, she would've resigned, but still."

"If she's gonna retire because of this, let her at least go out an non-commanding officer with a decent paygrade." I suggested. "That's sixteen years of service and only a G5? Not really a good thing to have on your retirement package.

Solemn rolled her eyes at me, but smiled as she looked away. "Those three are going to make me pay for it in two weeks."

"Over drinks?" I asked.

"Of course."

I shrugged as I offered to help her on the tab. "Okay, first drinks are on me when you get ready to do that."

The guardsmare turned back around and snarled at me. "Oh no, you don't get to butt into my friendships and try to make good. This is my responsibility."

"Suit yourself." I said, raising my hands.

I was about to walk away before she yanked at my shirt. "Another thing since we're alone. I didn't get to ask you this yesterday, a lot was going on on your end, and there was some things I was tussling with on mine. So where did all the money come from?"

Since we were alone, I opened up about what all happened and how my bank account managed to inflate to an absurd degree over the short period of time. "Well, last Tuesday was an incident involving a rich billionaire heiress who had to wrestle her dad's corpse off of her─also one of the bodies that went missing. Then there was last Friday when I fought all those rounds in the arena to free her older brother from captivity. I found the money in my account on Saturday morning, both of them paid me fifteen million each for all of what I did. It wasn't a cash prize for winning, I traded that in for his freedom. It was their way of saying thanks for a personal favor, though I really don't understand why they gave me way more than what I'm comfortable with. A cool million's all I need."

"And I can't do anything but take your word for it?" She said.

"If you want me to introduce you to her, I will." I answered.

"So Tuesday, you were supposed to be pretty bruised up." She brought up.

"Oh I still am. See?" I said, pulling my sleeve back and lifting my stomach to reveal some greenish-purple marks.

As I spun around and modeled the bruises all over my back and legs, she started to inch forward with curiosity over my appearance. "Sheesh! What happened to you?"

"Eleven rounds, a hundred-forty-plus stallions, some armed with crowbars, bats, and sticks."

"Ow." She mumbled.

"I'm still alive and kicking, so I'll take it." I replied, regathering my appearance for the day.

"What about tonight?" She questioned.

"As far as I was told, I fight whatever they got against me in the main round, and I'm done."

She looked over to the hand that was still wrapped in bandages from yesterday. "How's your hand?"

"Still a little crispy." I joked. "But in all seriousness, the stinging is annoying and it can be a distraction at times."

"How are you gonna fight?" She inquired.

"Well my magic is well-known in Rotty. Guess I'll be doing that." I answered.

"The zebra that usually trails you, what about her?"

"She stays home today." I informed the guardsmare. "Speaking of which, I gotta send her a text."

She gave me a nod and a smirk of approval. "Thanks for covering for Cobalt. You didn't have to do it, but I'm sure it means the world to her that she didn't have to get dropped down to babysit a bunch of recruits in training camp."

"We all make mistakes in trying to do for our friends. I'm not gonna let her hang for that one. I just did what you wanted to do." I replied. "You're a good friend, and you tried to get them out of trouble. There's not many friends who would try to be the mediator between right and wrong."

Solemn looked away from me, appearing to place some doubt on herself. "Your praise is unwarranted. I should get on patrol. Best of luck on tonight." She quickly trotted off, not saying a thing else. Meanwhile I thought about tonight's potential matchup.

'Luck', that's so random. I think I might need something a little more consistent, like a hard drink and a prayer.

Corrotto Colosseum
Later that evening...

The streets of the Corrotto District had come to life as the night's matchup was proposed to be a mirror match of sorts. Many curious patrons would start filing the corridors and alleys to get their chance at a good seat. The only thing they cared for what exactly the ringmaster had in store for the night. And as the crowd grew and gathered at the outside pavilion, the vendors started making as much coin as they could by promoting their products and operations to the event taking place.

Umbra walked the streets as four of his puppets were cloaked and silent, carting behind him a large iron cage covered in a thick tarp. As he approached the back entrance of the arena, he smirked back at the screams of profanity coming from behind him and his dolls. Damper awaited him at the entrance, just as eager to see the results of tonight's match. "You've really made an event of tonight, didn't you?"

"Come on now, you know how this goes." The eccentric stallion replied looking to his caged possession. "Tonight's the big night. I'll finally get to see what results my newest little temp project will get me."

"A temp project?" He asked.

"I know you already know, but you haven't seen this particular specimen. If I am correct in my assumptions, we'll be seeing a lot that we could learn from."

The inside of the cage rattled and banged as the occupant bashed against the iron bars, pleading for his release. "LET ME GO!"

Both Umbra and Damper looked at the cage, one with smug satisfaction, the other with vested interest. Damper watched as Umbra raised the tarp to allow the interested senator to see what was within. "And here we are."

Damper's jaw fell as the captured creature appeared before his eyes. The bipedal figure, standing at five feet, ten inches, looked down to the pair of ponies with unbridled rage. "GET ME OUT OF HERE! WHERE THE FUCK AM I!?"

Damper covered his mouth as he started to fill with childish excitement. "A human? You actually snagged one!?"

Umbra was brimming with pride as he spoke. "This one I caught snooping around the other side of the portal. Possibly of close association to the captain since he was walking around the apartment so freely, meandering through various items in search for something. Weapons maybe, perhaps some instance of their technology, either way he appeared to be there unannounced."

The man battered his hands against the cage, threatening the pair of stallions. "OH YOU MOTHERFUCKERS! I'M GONNA SKIN YOUR SORRY ASSES ALIVE ONCE I GET OUT OF HERE!"

"So much animosity, it's almost like all those humans are the same." Damper said in observation of the human's violent disposition.

"If the captain's words ring true, then we are looking at the species who's been at war with one another for well over thirty-thousand years." Umbra added.

The human who could do nothing but watch the two converse, shouted his retort. "I'M NOT FIGHTING ANY FUCKING WARS!"

"No. But I do get to see how you fare when held under pressure." Umbra said as he walked closer to the cage. "And don't worry. Weapons will be temporarily provided."

While the bars were too narrow to get his arm out past his elbow, he did reach out for the smirking ringmaster. "GOOD! CAUSE I'M GONNA PUMP YOUR ASS FULL OF SO MANY BULLETS, YOU'LL BE A FUCKING LEAD-LINED CASKET WHEN I'M DONE!"

Umbra puckered his lips at the raging human, holding his arm with his magic. He gave the human a kiss on the back of his hand before walking away to let the dolls move the cart inside. The arena staff met with the puppets outside, just as slack-jawed as Damper was while they assisted in the human's transport. "Alright boys, be sensitive with him. He's not used to us Equestrians." Umbra said before turning to Damper. "So, little-known fact, humans know absolutely no magic, but also know absolutely nothing about us."

Damper, who still saw the effects of human weaponry first-hoof was not too impressed with Umbra's insinuation. "Well considering their weaponry, I think it's a hard sell to say that we'd come out with any strategic victory."

"Oh there's a victory somewhere." Umbra cheesed. "And tonight, we may get to see it."

Meanwhile...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Nondis***

My day at the castle had gone about as quietly as most others would, if not even more so with the rumors swirling around what happened between me and Iron Hoof. Once that was all done, I made my way out of the castle and changed myself to make my entrance as unassuming as possible. Admittedly, the anonymity has been a godsend for me thus far. Today was nothing short of blissful considering the circumstances. Most of the watchful eyes that were all over me today were nowhere to be seen.

I wandered around the square, blending in with the crowd for a moment. I walked as if I was no one important, no one to be watched, no one to be paid attention to. Even with the mass influx of a crowd for tonight's event, I was still comfortable enough to meld with the chaos... just like old times.

Unfortunately, my peace of mind wouldn't last for long as a powerful magic aura yanked at my tail, dragging me further down the street into a dark alley. When I came to a stop, I found a pair of legs adorned in golden bracelets standing over me. The stripes and the periwinkle coat color had given away who it was that dragged me over.

Kalimba wasn't too pleased with me being here by myself. "IDJIOT BABBOON!" She shouted at me.

Honestly, if it weren't for the fur on my body, I would've had a serious case of rug burn on my stomach. "Kalimba, what the hell are you doing here?"

She continued to curse me out like I was her younger sibling. "You are a stupid boy if you think you are going in dere all by yourself, ah! I should tell you to go home and drink water! Who do you think you are, ah! Idjiot! Ninahitaji kukupiga kofi! (I should slap you!)"

As she seethed with anger and frustration, I argued back to her. "Look, you shouldn't be here."

"Do I look like I care!?" She questioned sarcastically before snapping back into her angry tone. "You are de only thing I have to look forward to every week dat I could find myself smiling over! What is wrong with you, ah!? Do you not care for what I think, I think of you every time we come here!"

I started to stand on my own power. "I'm not gonna let you get hurt again."

She promptly tipped me over to where I couldn't even get a chance to be on all fours. She repeatedly kept me on the ground while she chided me. "Shut up about my hurt, you stupid modefucka! I am not trying to give you a tour of de place, I am trying to make sure you live!" She planted her muzzle against mine, our noses scrunching up against one another as I saw the fire in her eyes. "Dere are others who care, and I promised dem your life. Do not. Take dat. Away from us."

"I told you to stay home." I said in deadpan.

The mare did not seem to acknowledge anything I said with compliance. She yanked me up by my tail and yelled in my face. "I do not care about what I go through, you know dat. Now you go and march forward while I walk behind you like some dumb filly following her faddah. You lead me into dat hell, I lead you back out, we go in a hotel, we go to sleep together, and we go back home in da morning, dat is our routine. I do not want to stay up thinking about what could happen to you should I not be here to help! I want to go to sleep tonight, dreaming of you and what will never be, and wake up to de sight of you being alive. Dis is what you had set aside for me when we started, dat is what we shall do until it ends!" She then planted me back to the ground, allowing me to walk. "Now you go lead us into danger so dat I may lead you back out. Idjiot."

I shook my head at the mare who physically pushed me forward by pressing her magic into my flanks. "You better not get into trouble."

"You better not get yourself killed tonight." She replied, guiding me towards the arena.

When we arrived at the venue, I was more or less angry with Kali for showing up when I explicitly instructed her not to. Meanwhile, she was more made at me for trying to go at it alone. It still didn't stop her from being close by me the entire time, she was adamant in making sure that every step I took was because of her propelling me forward. I suppose she wanted to make sure that every bit of me was secure, that or it was her way of saying she was in a mood.

Knowing her tendencies, she was probably in the mood for some angry copulation.

When we arrived in the lounge, almost every member was present for the night. All of the frequent players had started making their bets with one another, the occasionally present members had done the same. Blue and Alabaster were looking around, seeing what would come next.

And of course... He had walked in from one of the back rooms. "Ah, well if it isn't my favorite dodger in disguise!" I paid him no mind, very much angry with how he had left Kalimba to be drugged and abused while I had to fight. He called out to me again, trying to get my attention. "Hello my little prized fighter." I walked over to the bar without saying a word to the psycho. He did not take it well, he growled to the bartender I was about to give my order to. "Shut it all down."

Crème looked to me with an apologetic frown as the insane bastard walked up to me and turned my chair around to make me face him.

"I do believe our night starts off with 'hello'." He said getting closer to me.

I started to ignite my horn at him in return. "You let my champion get raped."

The stallion feigned innocence as he raised his hooves to me. "I did no such thing! Kalimba was in pure agreement with what was going on. She took the drugs, she offered herself to every client like the whore she was, and she did not once say no to either of them when they did what they did."

"A noncommittal response does not imply consent." I answered with an icy glare.

The stallion smirked as he sweetly replied in a mocking tone. "Oh come on now, you forget where we are, sweetie."

I snatched the stallion by the collar of his coat, using my bare hooves as I gave him a very deadly warning. "I'm playing by your stupid fucking rules because I made the decision to agree to that. In no place within our agreement is her name thrown in there. So whatever the fuck you got against her, you can fuck off with that before I personally pump you full of so much hot metal that they'll have to melt you down for forks!"

While everyone in the room stared back at us, observing the tension building in the room, they waited quietly for something to occur, any distraction, diffusion, or even waiting for who would be the first to start the altercation. The stallion joked back to the others in attendance. "He's already in fighting form." The others chuckled for a short while but quickly fell back to silence as the ringleader telekinetically freed himself. "You humans and your threats of violence. I swear."

"Don't fuck with me. It's bad enough you didn't tell me I could've sold that sixth round and be done with the night." I snarled at him.

"Are you still mad about that?" In that question along, he regained his usual carefree demeanor. "Nondis, baby, my aggressive little service top, I never told you that because I wanted to see how far you could push yourself. No fun in trying to play the crowd when you could play the house and show those stupid regulars who's boss. After all, weren't you tired of them throwing shit at you?"

Kalimba pulled at my foreleg, urging me to stop confronting the stallion. And despite my wanting to make good on my earlier threat, I decided to follow her request. But I was firm on showing him where I drew the line between us. "You keep her out of whatever fucking vendetta you got. She's not a sex slave, I don't use her like that."

"Aw, did you grow some attachment to her? I knew from the moment you two played around with one another in front of the lounge, there was some chemistry." Teased the sadist stallion. "Ah, it almost gives me ideas about what's going to happen later tonight."

"The only chemistry that should be on your mind is your fucking brain in a jar of formaldehyde." I snarled back at him.

"That's not quite how I had it planned later on, but you're close." He said with some enthusiasm. "Tonight, since you're the defending champ, I'm going to let you enjoy the better pleasures of our lounge, every maid and servant will be dancing around you, doing as you please, satisfying your wildest fantasies, even going so far as to love you beyond the highest nirvana."

"You dropping dead is a good way to get me off." I grumbled.

"Careful what you wish for." He replied to me, licking his lips. "I'll be going to my box seats, the matchups running into the title round will be something to watch. Now of course you won't be watching anything, but you can stay in here if you'd like." He smiled at me with an unusual brightness, almost as if he has something in store he knows I'm not going to like. "Who knows, maybe I'll finally get my time with you tonight."

As he wandered off to his private press box, I watched as Crème reopened the bar. I took a moment to breathe and collect myself, but not before verbalizing my disdain for the stallion. "If I could have a goddamn nuke without it destroying half the countryside."

As I was trembling with every conceivable revenge fantasy against that stallion, I had failed to realize that there was a young mare standing beside me, nervously rubbing her forelegs together. "Sir."

I looked to her and quickly adjusted my tone. "What is it?"

The maid shyly approached my stool, bowing before my hooves. "I-i-if you're feeling t-tense, I cou-I could... umm..." Her ears had reddened and her eyes darted from side to side.

Kalimba had other plans. She levitated me off of my chair and toted me off along with her. "Come with me." She urged, giving me very few choices but to accommodate her request.

As we were leaving the room, the maid had finished her question, but with a disappointed tone. "Massage you?"

Kalimba carted me off to our press box, shutting the door behind her and tossing me in a chair. "I know dat you have every right to be angry, but you must control yourself, ah."

"I don't have to control myself to appease a fucking psychopath." I argued.

"Den do it to put me at ease." She responded. "De worse you do him, de worse he makes it for me when you are gone."

As much as I wanted to argue that, I knew deep down that I couldn't. I wouldn't put it past him to smile in my face and make life a series of inconveniences for me, then just make life an unlivable hell for her. Tuesday was a shining example of that being the case. I looked at the zebracorn, minding the warning she gave. "I'm sorry, Kali."

Kalimba didn't stay on the subject for long, she appeared focused and engaged on what was planned out for us tonight in the arena. "Let us just go about our strategy, den get ready for later."

A roar of awe came from the audience below. But the only thing that prevented us from seeing what was going on was the fact that our windows were supposed to be under repair, as per the note on the plywood. Our press box was completely boarded up. We could only hear of what was going on outside, and a lot of it we had to speculate on what was out there fighting the gauntlet. "What do you suppose we're going out there to fight tonight?"

"Something dat is fast or smart." She replied. "We will need to slow down de opponent and come up with many ways to approach."

I shrugged at the mare. "Okay, I'm all ears, captain."

"But since we are given time to prepare, we must condition ourselves. Sharpen de mind, but relax de body." She said as she summoned a tub of massage oil. "Now. We must get you ready. Lay down and I will do what I must to make you loose."

I became skeptical of her suggestion, seeing it only as an opportunity to get physical with me. "It doesn't even feel right getting a massage right now, not when we're about to go out there and fight in a bit."

"You must learn to accept it before a fight. You will be a lot looser, move quicker, your muscles will be ready for any encounter. You will be strong, and you will be less nervous." She explained as she pointed to the ground before her. "Now come here.

"Hold up, I don't think your plan works like that." I started to explain. "I'm a pony. What I feel aside from my sex drive and some migraines doesn't exactly translate over to human form very well. Likewise the other way around."

She still patted the ground before her, giving me her trademark stony expression. "Den change into what you will be."

Meanwhile on the Arena Floor...

The human combatant tiredly panted as he stood victorious. He looked over to see the group of ponies he was made to fight, each of them bloodied, bruised, and scampering for their lives. They cowered away as the announcers started to hype up the crowd over the victorious challenger.

"WOW, LADIES AND GENTS, IT'S ALMOST A REPEAT FROM LAST WEEK BUT EVEN BETTER!" Scotch commented.

"OUR CHALLENGER HAS BEEN ONE HELL OF A FIGHTER! LOOK AT HIM WRESTLE DOWN EVERY OPPONENT HE HAD TO TUSSLE WITH!" Botch described in an exaggerated manner.

"IT SEEMS THAT SOME OF THEIR ILK PERFORM BETTER THAN OTHERS!"

"OH LADIES, HE MIGHT BE SINGLE!"

"BUT LET'S HEAR IT FOR OUR NEW CHALLENGER FOR BEAST OF THE WEEK! GIVE IT UP FOR HIM!"

Two other stallions, unicorns tamers specifically, ushered the man into the tunnel of the black gate where he was brought in from. While the human looked towards some other tunnels for an escape, the enchanted collar on his neck threatened to send shocks to him should he leave the company of his tamers. They ordered him to a seedy locker room that smelled of stale air, mold, and old decay. "Wait in there, human! You'll get called back out in a bit." One tamer ordered.

"And don't think of running either, or we're gonna make sure you piss yourself before your next match." The other warned.

For the moments he was sent to the locker room, he stared at a crude metal mirror across from him. He could see a dim reflection of himself looking back from the scratched-up surface. The man groaned as he looked at a fresh bruise on his arm from the earlier fight. A knocked came to the door as the man walked to a corner of the room and seat himself on the ground. The knock came to his door another time, he refused to answer. After the third time, the handlers sent a shock to his collar for disobedience. "Fuck this shit!" Feeling the pain, he cried out to his reflection, throwing a nearby chair at the door.

The shock was intensified for a moment, sending the disgruntled man to the ground. While he recovered on his hands and knees, the door was opened and a light blue burlesque unicorn mare with a blonde mane walked in wearing red stockings and garters, she smoked a cigarette from a long holder. "Hey there, sweetie buns." She greeted with a raspy, yet alluring voice

The man still struggled with the lingering shock from the collar at his neck. "Leave me alone."

The mare took a hit of her cigarette and blew the smoke from the side of her mouth as she lifted the man's chin to see her face. "Aw, babe, I just wanted to give you a moment of my time. See, I'm with the Canterlot Coalition for Rare Creatures, we're gonna take you on over to the special prep room, instead of leaving you in this here dingy box."

The man quickly stood up, pushing her hoof away. "Please don't touch me. I don't like you talking animals." He said before another shock sent him shrieking to the floor again, once more reducing him to all fours.

The mare seemed briefly unamused. "Babe, it's just a quick walk the other way. You can either take it with all the accommodations we have to offer, including drinks, or you can keep on keepin-on with that crappy cage you-know-who's got you shipped in and out of."

While he had to bear the brunt of the shocking, he grew curious of what she had to offer. But his first intention was to get himself out of the collar on his neck. "If I go with you, I'm gonna get shocked anyways."

"Honey, they're gonna do that because they like seein' ya down, doesn't matter the species." She informed the man. "The tamers here are a bunch of sadist with a real knack for zoophilia. You might as well come around my way."

He took her words into advisement, looking at his current options pertaining to his freedom or maybe gaining more of that for the night. "You get me out of this collar, and we're good."

"Honey, I ain't gettin' you out of nothin unless we make a contract. That's what I came here for." She said, summoning a quill with a sharpened tip. "All you need to do is lemmie sign you on over, and you're mine for the night on forward. Now gimmie that arm of yours."

"I don't even know who you are." He said as she levitated his arm to her, he found himself unable to pull himself out of her green aura. She jabbed the frog of her hoof and drew blood from herself, signing her name on his arm. The letters started to glow red as her blood quickly evaporated with each new letter made. "What the hell are you doing?" He asked as her name flashed once before disappearing into his skin.

"I'm marking you as my new territory, hun." She said with a smirk. "My name is Stellar Breed, but you can call me Stella. I'm a VIP here at this arena, but I'm also in charge of a nearby facility. You and me could work together, we could make some pretty huge bank." She tilted her head with curiosity. "Also, I didn't quite get a name for you. Do I give you one or─"

"Jasper. My name is that and nothing else." The man said, finally introducing himself to the mare. "Why do I feel like this is all a mistake?"

"Hun, ain't nothin' a mistake if it happens. It's just fate and favor." She cheerfully announced, signaling the tamers to take off their collar. Once the collar came off of his neck, his arm started to have a dull ache setting within it. The mare smiled. "There, no more collar. You're all mine now."

Jasper looked at his arm, seeing the area where she had signed her name, but not seeing anything but his own skin. "So I go from one slave master to another. Great. I wonder what I'll be doing now before I find some way to kill myself."

"Oh it ain't that bad, babe. You make it through the champ tonight, and you're gonna be living the rest of your life on easy street. So easy that you'll be the envy of every stallion in this city and the next." She proclaimed.

The human rubbed his arm. "No more experiments?"

The mare walked up to him with her brows jumping with intent. "The only experiment will be the question of how long you last in bed."

Jasper cringed as he turned himself around to avoid looking at the mare. "Nnnnneoh. No. Not interested."

The mare cackled while she held his arm in place, forcing him to turn around. "C'mon, aren't you tired of being treated like some caged zoo exhibit?"

"So you're telling me I'm either a circus animal to be used like a lab rat, or a circus animal to be used like a dildo?"

The mare forcefully knelt him down as she gave him a kiss on his cheek. "I don't know what a dildo is, but at least that second option sounds a lot better than what you were getting twelve hours ago." The mare slowly slid her hoof from under his chin as she held him in place. "Least of all, the crowd's already treating you better than the other human around here."

After being in a state of disgust with his current position, Jasper stared at the mare with disbelief. "There's another human here?"

"Oh yeah, about six of them. They come and go into their world as they please. Only one of them lives here." The mare explained.

While Jasper found himself trying to resist her, he continued to ask questions as a means to hopefully distract her. "What do you know about the other six?"

"Well I know that all of them are tall, each of them taller than Princess Celestia." She glanced back at the man, seeing the visible confusion on his face. "Oh, you don't know her, she's the so-called ruler of these lands. But back to the topic of humans, there are usually five of them who just leave and show up on the random. One of them has an unusually dark complexion compared to the rest. Another one of them seems to have a much larger chest, I think that one's a female."

"A female human?" Jasper's asked with curiosity. "What's her name?"

"Hell if I know." The mare replied. "You humans almost look the same to me."

"For some coalition of rare creatures, you guys sure don't know shit." Criticized the man. "Can you at least tell me about the one that lives here?"

"The one who lives here will be the one you'll be going against tonight." She plainly summarized.

"Okay, so what about him, what does he do to keep a living around here, is he a lab rat too?"

She sat herself in front of him as she spoke. "The princess made him a captain of her guard. Rumors have it that he and one of the other princesses had a tryst."

"And she a horse like you? Ew, literal horse fucker." Jasper said with revulsion.

"Oh trust me, you'll be just like him before the week's over, even if I have to break you in myself." The mare said with a smirk. "The princess who did sleep with him, she broke up with him also. But after that one performance in the VIP Lounge, I can safely say he's a monster in bed. He's the tallest one of the six though, Princess Celestia uses him as her right hoof. He's the only human so far with magic."

"Magic, so that's what you call all of this? That's serious a thing around here?" He asked, regarding the green aura around his arm.

The mare chuckled as she took a hit of her cigarette. "Oh yeah, I forgot that you humans don't usually have magic."

"The only magic spell I can tell you all about is the magic of my foot going up the ass of that creepy motherfucker who dragged me to this place."

The mare hummed. "So who was it exactly that dragged you here, hun?"

"Some ugly green motherfucker, they won't even say his name." He replied. "He has a bunch of weird white wooden dolls walking around the place."

"Oh... Him." She said, feigning surprise.

Jasper rolled his eyes and kissed his teeth. "See? No one wants to say his name for some fucking reason."

The mare chuckled as she took another puff of her cigarette, blowing the smoke in his face. "Hun, you come with me, we'll have a lot to discuss about the way things work here." She began. "The more you learn, the better off you'll be in the long-run."

Jasper then replied. "Sure. I don't mind finding out more about where the hell I am. Sure ain't Austin anymore."

VIP Lounge
One Hour Later...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

While I was mildly perturbed by the announcers' praise of the current challenger, I flexed my arms and chest to feel the newfound looseness in my body. She made mention that her intent wasn't to give me the same level of service as last time, only doing some light work instead of the deeper and vastly better effort she gave last Friday night. Her reason was to get me to calm down and be ready to face what was to come.

And it worked.

My blood pressure wasn't through the roof anymore, I didn't have a certain someone triggering me into wanting to fight in a blind rage. I didn't want to throw anything at the wall, I wasn't going to summon a gun and go to town, I wasn't in a mind to wish for this entire district to get nuked, none of it. I was focused, loose, and more calculating.

In the midst of my flexing, Kalimba looked towards the boarded windows and expressed her skepticism. "You know, it is awfully strange how dey close off our windows to stop us from seeing what it is we are going against."

"No doubt his doing. Probably don't want us trying to plan ahead and figure out what we're fighting and how we can counter it." I said, standing up on my own two legs.

While I was relaxed in the body, I still couldn't help but to feel at odds with myself. Some part of me was nagging, telling me that I was in for some trouble or worse. Kalimba took notice. "You are nervous?"

"How can I not be? I don't know what hell I'm going to be suffering from when I close my eyes tonight, much less what I'm facing in the next hour."

"Do you think it will be anything big?" She questioned.

"Could be." I replied.

"Well, you are pretty big as it is. It took me a whole half hour to even give you a light massage."

I started to amuse myself with a few thoughts of our opponent. "Could be something you-sized. A griffon is about your height and that's what I squared off against last time."

"But you made quick work of him." She replied.

"Yeah, that's the going rate. So I shouldn't be surprised if he decides to up the ante with something bigger. The crowd would probably love me going against another huge timberwolf, maybe an arimaspi to see if I was bullshitting on my assignment." I said, imagining myself fighting yet another one of those huge hulking beasts.

"You have a good brain. It would have to be something you have never faced before." She pointed out.

"Something that can outsmart me?" I guessed.

"I doubt dat." She scoffed, looking at me with a subtle smile. "If it wasn't for you last week, we would be timberwolf feed."

"You can say that again." I said, pulling out my phone to check the clock. "It's almost time. Got about an hour of sanity left before it gets messy."

She walked to my side, looking up at me with determination in her eyes. "I am ready when you are."

We nodded at one another and walked out of the room to see none other than the village madman leaning up against a wall, both Blue and Alabaster standing right behind him. "Well if it isn't my favorite underground couple." He said as he approached. I looked over to Blue, who appeared genuinely mortified over something she saw. Alabaster had practically stared at me like I was in some sort of danger. The psycho stallion glared back at the two siblings, who lowered their eyes to the ground. "Hmph. You better know your place." The ringleader scolded the two before bringing his attention to me. "And you're already in uniform, not quite how I would've wanted you to exit the lounge."

As I followed Kalimba's suggestion from earlier, I elected to be neutral and acknowledge his presence. "Just get us to the arena so we can get it over with." Of course, my version of neutral was far less accommodating than what would normally be seen.

The stallion laughed haughtily as he leaned on his cane. "Us? Only one of you is going down there. It's the main event of the week."

Seeing that our situation had changed from how we initially planned it, Kalimba started to clutch onto me. I immediately read her body language, her discomfort in being left alone for another night. So I calmly negotiated my terms without raising my voice. "I'm not going anywhere without Kalimba by my side. Either she walks with me to the arena, or I don't fight."

The stallion walked up to me with a smirk of disbelief on his face. "And you're certain of which choice I'm more than likely to accept?"

"I could easily leave whenever I so choose." I replied.

The stallion seemed giddy at my calm rebellious demeanor, almost as if he was ready to make an example of it. "Do you think that's even a remote realm of possibility of you doing that alive here?"

While Kali was trying to urge me to accept what he had laid out for me, I remained firm in keeping her next to me until my fight began. "I have terms and conditions of my own. Either you accept mine, or I reject yours. Your audience walks away disappointed that they don't have a show this week. You're the one who set this up. It's on you whether or not it moves forward."

The stallion pursed his lips, grumbling at the idea that he could lose a profit for the night. It was probably one of the very few times I actually seen him bend for anyone. "Okay, I guess it's a fair game, I'll give you that. You're the star of the show, and I can't have a show without my stars shining. But I'll be sure to give you a bit of a spoiler warning. You're not just dealing with any opponent, you're dealing with an equal in terms of both skill and intelligence. This will be a match to the death. So if you lose, you know what happens next."

He walked away, leaving me alone with Kalimba. Both Blue and Alabaster looked on to me with horror. As I was about to speak to them, they turned themselves around and walked away, following behind the deranged stallion. The way they looked at me had amplified that nagging voice in my head.

And it was telling me to look for the worst to come. I leaned down, pulled out my phone to record my voice, and whispered to the zebracorn my final wishes. "Kali, if the worst comes to it, you take my body and you get the fuck out. Don't pause for anyone, don't look back, make sure I'm cremated." I then gave her my phone to hold on to. "You take this, my passcode is the month and day of my birthday, in that order exactly. Tell the princess to disperse my wealth to my family and friends."

Kalimba understood the gravity of my thoughts, but she was still in some disbelief herself. "Why do you plan for de worst, as if you are going to die?"

"Because I have no fucking idea on what I'm fighting. And judging from the looks I got... I might not make it out alive."

The Arena Floor
Thirty Minutes Later...

A number of ponies lied motionless and bloodied on the ground, some with their bodies slumped against one another. The ground of the arena was covered in substantial amounts of blood. The human walked away with an AR-15 in tow, but with no rounds in the weapon remaining. The weapon was taken from him and then they escorted him off the floor while the audience cheered wildly for him. As he walked his way back through the black gate, the lustfully dressed mare clopped her hooves at his performance. Some of the medical staff ran past the two as she guided him towards the dressing room she had prepared for him.

"Now that's what I call quick work!" She smiled as she walked closely next to him. "In the eyes of the crowd, you're burning up, babe."

Jasper scoffed at the mare, still trying to inch himself away from her. "It's pretty easy when they give you a gun to start off with."

His arm started to glow and his body started drifting back towards her as she spoke. "The captain uses those same weapons too. I think it's the reason why the princess gave him his position, he uses those things the most."

"Anybody can try and pick up a gun and do something with it. But it's all about how you use it. I'm willing to bet that the motherfucker doesn't do anything but point it around and play cops and robbers with it." As he spoke. she opened the door to his changing room, revealing a group of five mares waiting within with lustful eyes and curious intentions. Each of them giggled playfully as the man came into the room. Some walked up to him, levitating a number of items before him like drinks, grapes, cheeses, and even cigars. Two mares in an opposing corner had gotten impatient and began to entertain one another, making out as they groped each other slowly. Jasper's jaw dropped as he saw what was going on. "Oh... wow... I think I'm in the wrong room."

"Hun, you're in the right room. This is my little VIP room next to the arena. I pull a lucky stallion or two to give me a good show. If they can make it past my girls, they get the honor of giving me what I want." She explained. "Now of course, I don't believe in being cheap and pulling a stallion at random. He had to have a really good night out on that floor for me to drag him in here. But there are times when I don't get a stallion, sometimes it's a mare."

"Oh, 'kay. I'm gonna assume that you dragged me in here because you wanted me to be that 'lucky' guy." He questioned, backing into the doorway, only to find the door was already closed.

"Honey bun, you ain't just lucky. I want first dibs, that means you've hit jackpot."

"Great..." Jasper mouthed out the side of his mouth, trying to reach behind to feel for a knob to turn, but the bindings she had placed on him forced him to walk towards the center of the room. "Okay, what the hell is dragging me forward?"

"Aw sugar, don't be like that. It's just that little tattoo I gave you earlier." She said, illuminating her horn to reveal her name etched into his arm. "Ain't as cruel as the shock collars, but at least you're a little more willin' to make a little ol' mare like me feel special."

"Uh, you don't act like you're from some coalition for rare creatures."

"Of course I am, darlin'. I own a brothel down the street known for having some of the most exotic mares and breeds you'll ever sink your teeth into. That's where all these girls hail from. It's much easier than helpin' my family run some damn saloon out in the sticks. I snag a few belles for the low, make em' learn the trade of bein' a broodmare, and sell em' off to the highest bidder." She answered the man with a smirk before thinking back to another situation where she felt herself coming short. "Though I can't help but wonder about that one I sold for a low, she was notorious for bein' sick all the damn time. She'd probably fetch a seven-figure fortune if I could cut a deal with the Doctor. Maybe tonight would work all of that out for me."

"What does any of that have to do with me and this shit you signed in my arm?" Jasper asked.

"It means you're gonna be of help, babe." She replied with a smirk. "You're gonna win your match tonight, giving me back that girl I broke off to some merc asshole, then you're gonna be my champion in the VIP Lounge. I'll split the profits of my sale eighty-twenty, you make a cool thousand a night just for showin' up, two-thousand for fighting, a good five for service at my brothel every day you stick around, you're be a set little monkey 'round here."

"I didn't agree to being a slave!" Jasper called out.

"You ain't a slave, hun. You're just a servant livin' a good life." She replied as she clopped her hooves, gathering two mares to escort him to a chair to rest. As he was sat down, a mare stood behind him and fed him grapes while the other started to rub his legs. "Now you see, it ain't all that bad. Bein' my champion means you get the better of this almost every day you come here with me. Now to be frank, you're gonna have a few fights, but with those weapons you humans use, that'll be quick work each time."

While he wanted to make more complaints about his freedoms and liberties, he found himself enjoying the massage he was getting. He also took into consideration his life and how this could be an escape from the trouble he was in back home. It grew more and more appealing to him with each grape fed to him. "I ain't gonna be no sex slave, am I?" He asked.

"Some nights you will be. But you won't be on the market for long. I might have you working a day out of the month, except for July, you'll be on for a business week then. Other than that, you'll be in service to only yours truly."

Jasper mumbled to himself over the possibilities of his perks, but to him it seemed a far-cry better than being housed in a lab, or rotting in a Texas jail cell. "Okay... I'm forced to fuck horses instead of getting fucked by life. Sure, I guess I can't lose any harder than that."

"I'm glad you see it that way, hun," She said as she got a knock on the door. She sent one of her girls to answer it, finding a messenger informing them of the impending matchup. The mare sat herself next to the man. "You think you'll win the next match, babe? You go against him next."

"I don't know who the fuck they got me running into." The man said lazily, opening his mouth for another grape.

The burlesque mare levitated a piece of cheese to his lips, dragging it down to tease him with it. "So how did you get here, hun? Usually there's some way for you humans to run in and out of Equestria, but nopony knows how you do it."

"Hell, I don't even know. I was just sneaking around my ex's apartment, hoping I could talk her into getting some of my charges dismissed."

"Charges?" The mare inquired with giggling interest. "So you're a bad boy, huh?"

"You're not scared of that?" He asked to the mare.

"Honey, we have dead bodies in the town square almost daily, what's there to be scared of?" She replied.

"So let's get it all straight here. You don't know how the humans who come here get here, I don't know how the fuck I even got here, and there are only six humans who come here, one of them a female. So it looks like my case ain't much of an issue here." The man took some thought into what he had just done on the arena floor, the world he was in. If there's a princess out there hiring a human to do her dirty work, then how is it that he could get away with killing ponies. He began to wonder about the potential consequences. "But say I could kill a man in the next thirty minutes, you're telling me I won't even get charged for anything?"

"Not a damn thing babe. There's special jurisdiction protecting this district of town, not even the princess can send a warrant for your arrest here. You'd be free as a bird." She answered.

Jasper started to laugh to himself. "That's wild. That's so fucking backwards and wild."

"But you'd at least live a life full of doing whatever the hell you wanna do. And it's not like they can pin a face on you, the guard wouldn't even know who they'd be hunting down. You're just some other human who's on a visit. Most ponies would still be trying to see what you're all about and ask you a bunch of questions about your world. Who gives a hoot on what you do here?" She explained. "Let me tell you something else, hun. There's about ten thousand ponies out there, and not one of them are a witness of any crime."

He sat up to look at the mare. "So I'll be putting another man's life to an end in front of a viewing audience, just for sport?"

"And they'll be cheering you on to kill the Captain of the Royal Guard. They won't even be able to find out who did what because they can't investigate the district. You'd be killing the only guy holding the damn paper willing to conduct a search. So you off that guy, you get off for life." She further explained.

"And all I have to do is kill the Captain of the Royal Guard." He asked.

"Captain Nondis. The one and the same."

"Captain Nondis, right, that guy." He asked himself as he laid his head back down on the chair, the mare behind him proceeded to feed him more grapes.

He closed his eyes and went about enjoying the luxury of the moment. But while his eyes closed to the world, a memory popped up in his head. He remembered going through his ex's phone, seeing a bunch of texts directed to a guy with the same name... the guy who punched him into the hospital, the same guy who opened an assault case against him, leading to the avalanche of charges he ran from.

Before the final grape could fall in his mouth, he ended up headbutting the small berry, launching up to acknowledge who he was going against. "WAIT, THAT MOTHERFUCKER MY EX KEPT BITCHING ABOUT!? THAT'S HIS NAME!?"

Almost every mare in the room was startled, including Stellar herself. "Oh, so you know him!?" She asked in a puzzled manner.

"Know him? That motherfucker ruined my entire fucking life! He's the reason why I have to go to court next month! All he had to do was mind his own fucking business and I'd be kicking it with my ex still, I'd be on my way to being a cop, and I'd be on my way to having a good life. Fuck that guy!"

He quickly jumped out of his chair, pacing around the room like an enraged bull. Stellar blinked, but found herself being enticed by the man's fury. "Okay, so it looks like you're good and ready to go."

"Oh I'm ready, alright!" Jasper jumped up with excitement and energy, eager to get his hands on the man's neck. "I'll put a fucking bullet right between his eyes."

The mare licked her lips as she started to see how motivated he was, how passionate he showed himself to be about the match. All she could think of was the possibility of her getting everything she wanted out of him when he came back. "I guess it takes a human to kill a human. Best of luck, hun. I'll see you in the winner's circle." She called out to Jasper paced his way out the room, jogging to the gate to wait for his opponent.

"Ooh, I get to murder that fucker in cold blood. Oh, I'm so ready."

Thirty Minutes Later...

Our walk to the red gate had been a mostly quiet affair. Thoughts of what's to come and what could be my final hour had started to simmer in my brain for the umpteenth time. I wasn't really certain of what they had in store for me, but if the blood-splattered halls had any indication of what was coming my way, I had a good idea that it was very deadly.

When we reached the gate, both Kalimba and I wagered a peek through the crack of the door, hoping to catch a glimpse of my opponent. But it seemed from our end that they had something in the way. "Why is it dat dere's a curtain blocking de other side?"

I shook my head at her question. "Who knows, this place is always so fucking extra with what they do."

The announcers once more addressed the crowd. "FILLIES AND GENTLECOLTS! NOW'S THE TIME YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!" Scotch began.

"YOU WANTED THIS EVER SINCE YOU SAW THE FACE OF OUR CHALLENGER!" Botch supplemented.

"AND NOW YOU GET WHAT YOU'VE ALL BEEN BEGGING─"

"ASKING─"

"CLAMORING─"

"BITCHING FOR!"

"WE PROMISED YOU CARNAGE OF THE HIGHEST DEGREE! AND WE ARE GOING TO GIVE YOU WHAT WE ADVERTISED!"

"AN EVENT SO UNPRECIDENTED─"

"SO UNBELIEVABLY EXCLUSIVE─"

"THAT WE HAD TO PUT THIS BIG ASS CURTAIN HERE TO MAKE IT A SURPRISE TO OUR OWN FIGHTERS!" Well that at least explains my first roadblock of the hour.

"TONIGHT IS NOT A MERE QUESTION OF WHAT WILL BE OUR BEAST OF THE WEEK... BUT WHO!"

"WILL IT BE OUR BUMBLING, IDIOT, SHITFACE OF A CHAMPION, OR WILL IT BE OUR NO-NONSENSE CHALLENGER!?"

Kalimba kissed her teeth out of disagreement. "I see dat dey do not care for what you've done earlier dis week."

"They never did." I mumbled as the doors started to creak and moan open. The bright lights of the arena flooded into the hallway.

"ON BOTCH'S SIDE OF THE ARENA, YOU ALL KNOW HIM AS THE CHEAPLY ESTEEMED CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD, THE PLAYBOY OF THE PRINCESSES, A LOYAL DOG TO THE CROWN, GIVE IT UP FOR YOUR CURRENT CHAMPION!"

Without question, the audience started booing me as the doors came to a halt, letting me onto the floor. Ahead of me was the massive curtain they had made mention of, covering almost half of the entire arena. "I will shield you while you run." Kalimba's horn glowed to summon a thin shield of her magic above me.

While it didn't look as effective as what she intended it to be, it was still a commendable effort. "Thanks a bunch." I showed the mare gratitude before jogging into the fray. "Here's goes nothing."

While her spell held strong, a voice crept up behind her ears, causing her magic to weaken. "How sweet of you to be doing that for him."

The zebracorn knew who it was harassing her yet again. She tried her best to keep her shield up for the captain. "Why are you here?"

"Surely you didn't ask me why I am in a specific place at the venue I've built and personally own."

The mare tried to keep her eyes on the captain's back, silently wishing for his safety. "Shouldn't you be up top? Dat is where de better seats are." She muttered to herself.

The grinning stallion licked the frog of his hoof and applied it to her horn, quenching her spell completely and leaving the captain vulnerable to whatever came his way from the crowd. "My dear Kalimba, ain't no better seat than ringside. That's what sells."

He walked beside her, placing his foreleg around her. The mare grew discomfortable as he leaned into her. "You never come dis close to a fight. Why now?"

"Because I know what I'll be getting at the end of the night, regardless of the conclusion." The stallion answered before he started to lean into her ears once more. "I'm wondering if you've accepted the possibility that this could be his last night, that your parting words could be his final interaction with a friend. You could at least beat the princess in saying that you were there in his final hour."

The zebra turned her head away. "Dis will not be his final fight."

But Umbra turned her head back towards him, leaning into her with the threatening distance of a kiss. "Kalimba, this is so much of a wildcard, that I don't even know how it's going to end. Usually I script these to fair favorably to the champion I want to win. I can't even say I scripted this one unfairly... well, other than one tiny exception."

"You speak as if you have claimed his life already." She said, trying in vain to avoid looking at the stallion.

"Shh..." He placed a hoof to her lips to quiet her. "But should it happen, I know you'll be ready to live your life as you have all these years. You'll be reunited with an old friend, and you'll be given the true role you'll play in society. Surely you've known this to be inevitable. The captain, one way or another, will not remain by your side. And when that time comes, what will there be for you? Nothing. You know that once he goes his own way, you'll be forgotten, you'll be replaced. Those nights of being at his side will no longer be, the dreams you have of him being your savior will be broken. You'll be alone, never to have a life of normalcy or closure. When that happens, you'll fall right back into habits. I can already see your face in the failing attempts to fill the hole in your heart, whilst others are left filling the holes beneath your tail. And in the end, you'll be what you will be; Disposable."

The stallion continued holding her. She attempted to turn her body away, but he held strong to her. Her eyes tried once more to find the back of the captain, only to find Umbra in front of her.

"Tell that little filly inside you the truth. You are lost. You can never go home."

Along my run, the shield above my head had disappeared, leaving me open for some incoming trash. But that didn't last for long as I came right to where I had to be. But along my run, I didn't ignore the many more pools of blood soaked into the dirt, some of it clotting before it could be absorbed. And upon my final step, I felt something under my foot. I lifted my shoe to find a metal casing rolling free, specifically that belonging to a .338 Spectre round. Whatever I was facing had access to human weaponry. It's not the first time that's happened, but that doesn't make it any less deadly.

One wrong move and my body will be missing a soul.

"IN SCOTCH'S SIDE OF THE RING, YOU'VE ALL WITNESSED WHAT HE WAS CAPABLE OF, HOW STRONG HE CAN BE, AND HOW DECISIVELY HE CAN ALTER THE RESULT OF A BOUT IN A MATTER OF A SECOND! HE'S THE CHAMPION OF THE VIEWING AUDIENCE, LET'S GIVE IT UP FOR OUR CHALLENGER FOR BEAST OF THE WEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!"

The audience reception of my opponent was far warmer than any I had received. Even the way they announced them was more bombastic than the entrance they gave me as a challenger coming in. I addressed the hot-blooded announcer over the change. "Pretty funny how that guy got a more enthusiastic entrance than I ever did."

"Aw, quit with the bitching and find a kitchen to work in." He snarled back at me.

"Okay. I got you." I said, already anticipating the chance of me getting my hands on a firearm. "Oh I got you."

The two announcers continued their commentary. "AND NOW THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!"

"OUR CHAMPION AND OUR CHALLENGER WILL FINALLY COME FACE TO FACE!"

"LET'S COUNT IT DOWN!" They prompted to the crowd, who joined in with them.

"FIVE! FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE!"

"DROP THAT CURTAIN!"

The curtain fell to the ground with a gracious glide downward. In the second it took for the massive piece of cloth to fall to the ground, I started to identify what was standing in front of me... and who.

The man stared back at me with concentrated determination, his arms folded with marks and bruises on them. He smiled back at me with a cold intent. He stood on his side of the fallen curtain with a suggestively-dressed mare watching from his gate, she cheered for his victory while I couldn't believe who was here, much less why. "What... The actual... fuck."

"Oh, so you are here for real." Jasper began, wagging his finger at me.

The announcers stood separate as the curtain was removed from the ground between us. "TONIGHT'S MATCH WILL BE A SPECIAL MATCH!"

"THAT'S RIGHT, LADIES AND GENTS, YOU AREN'T DRUNK! YOU AREN'T SEEING DOUBLE OF SHIT! A MIRROR MATCH!"

"HUMAN VS HUMAN!"

"STILTS TO STILTS!"

"HAND TO HAND!"

"THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!"

"A BATTLE─"

"TO THE DEATH!"

I quickly snatched the mic away from the hot-blooded announcer, hoping I could talk him into some understanding. "Jasper, I don't know how you got here, but we're not going to kill each other!" I tried to reassure him.

He followed my example, snagging a mic from the other announcer, causing the audience to cheer at the sound of his voice. "That's fine! You can keep on with that!" The audience had gone into a frenzy, causing the man to gaze around the venue and take in the praise he received. "I don't feel the same way, personally!"

While I could understand him getting caught up in some theatrics, I tried to offer reason to my fellow man. "Jasper, I know a lot about this place confuses you! Let me get you out of here, and we can talk!"

"Not gonna happen, bitch!" The crowd cheered at his snarky response. He almost treated the noise like he was on an episode of WWE Smackdown. He waited for the crowd to lower the volume before continuing. "You heard those guys, there can only be one of us!"

"Jasper, you don't know what's gonna happen to you if you die here! This isn't a joke, this isn't some stupid wrestling match, this is fucking life!" The audience immediately booed me.

He continued to feed off the theatrics, pacing back and forth, wafting his hands to his ear as he enjoyed the boos sent my way. "And I could give two shits about what happens to you!"

The crowd had almost replicated the volume of Mt. Krakatoa, erupting in their seats as they foamed at the mouths, waiting for us to fight. "Jasper, don't make me take your life. Don't make me take the life of another human, here of all places." I pleaded, attempting to get my voice over the sound of the crowd.

"You should've thought about that before you ruined my life!" He replied.

I got annoyed at the crowd for trying to scream my voice under, I responded by screaming into the mic myself. "YOU RUINED YOUR OWN LIFE, JASPER! I DIDN'T RAPE ANYONE, YOU DID! I DIDN'T ABUSE MELANIE, YOU DID! I DIDN'T THROW THE FIRST PUNCH, YOU DID!"

He replied in similar fashion. "AND YOU WILL BE TOTED OFF IN A NICE WOODEN BOX, NOT ME!"

Umbra hummed with satisfaction as the crowd ate up what was shown in front of him. He looked on as a proud business owner watching his stock rapidly inflate in the global marketplace. Other opportunities that could replicate this level of success had started to fill his mind with ideas aplenty. But as he observed the ongoing verbal slinging, Kalimba was more than mortified of what was taking place. "What madness is dis!?"

"My dear Kalimba, what we're about to see is a match on even footing. A showdown of sapiens, a fair bout where luck has no bearing." As the two humans had the mics taken from them by the announcers, he continued to speak to the zebracorn. "Not quite my magnum opus, but we could be looking at nothing short of greatness play out tonight."

As she looked at the two humans standing at the center of the floor, she could also see a mare cheering them on at the gate adjacent from her. For a moment, the mare's eyes met with her own. The flauntingly-dressed mare waved to the zebra. "What is she doing here?" Kalimba questioned with an unusually silent fury.

"Well my dear Kalimba, it appears that she's coming to collect on some lost profits." He replied with a smirk. "Perhaps it could be your newfound ability for combat that has drawn her attention, as well as several others who would like to see you back on the marketplace."

The mare looked back to her captain, angrily chanting under her breath. "Ijdiot. You better not lose here."

"Well, I suppose you find yourself interested in a little wager?" The stallion said.

"I will not barter with de likes of you." She replied somewhat firmly.

"I'm sorry, but did you refuse my offer?" The stallion questioned the mare.

"I don't have anything to offer you." She answered a little more quietly.

"You know what, you do." He responded as he pointed to the mare at the opposite gate. "You have your body to consider. Should you win your wager, you get to keep being the captain's loyal fetching dog. But should you lose... I'm sure you know what happens next."

"I am sure I do not. I have not accepted any wager."

"Well that's tough, babe." He said with a smile. "Because not only the wager is on you, it's on whether or not your captain lives. And do let me be the one to tell you, a win for me is a win for you. We're on the same side, you and I. She wants you, and I want him."

"And if you win, what den?" She asked.

"I walk away with something I want, you walk away with your captain to soon abandon you. I guess you can call that a win?"

"And if you lose?" She also asked.

"Well let's just say it's for me to know and for you to find out."

Both Jasper and I stared at each other with hardly an obstruction between us. While I was mentally preparing myself to take a life of my own kind, Jasper was more than willing to bypass his moral compass, not that he had much to begin with. The announcers unified once more as they left the center of the arena open for the two of us. They would commentate our fight from the sideline.

"OUR COMBATANTS LOOK READY TO GO AT EACH OTHER'S THROATS!"

"BUT WE WON'T BE STARTING OFF WITH THE USUAL BULLSHIT!"

"THAT'S RIGHT! WE'RE GOING TO MAKE THIS ONE INTERSTING!" Scotch said as he levitated a combat knife to the center of the ring.

My jaw tightened at what we were being made to do, Jasper flexed his fingers with impatience. "YOU SEE THAT KNIFE THERE, BOYS!?" Botch commented.

"FIRST ONE TO GRAB IT WILL HAVE THE UPPER HOOF IN THIS FIGHT!"

"AND THE ONE WHO'S LEFT BREATHING WILL BE DECLARED THE WINNER! NO HOLDS BARRED, NO RESTRICTIONS MADE─"

"EXCEPT ONE!" Scotch added as he and his fellow commentator horns glowed to reveal a yellow circle with enchantment runes circling the area where Jasper and I stood. The magic on the ground hissed and crackled, I looked to my hands as they started to tingle.

The duo continued their commentary. "THIS CIRCLE AROUND THE RING IS A RUNE OF DISPEL!"

"MEANING THAT NO MAGIC CAN OR WILL BE USED WITHIN IT!"

"AND DON'T THINK THAT FOR ONE SECOND THAT SECONDARY ENCHANTMENT WON'T ACTIVATE THE MOMENT THEY GO NEAR IT, FOLKS!"

"THAT SECOND RUNE IS A BOUNDARY THAT STUNS THOSE WHO TRIES TO EXIT THE AREA! SO NO, CAPTAIN, THERE WILL BE NO FREE RIDES!"

"You hear that motherfucker!? Even footing!" He hollered out like it was still a wrestling match.

"Jasper..." I called out to him one last time, trying to at least console myself on the idea that I had at least tried to seek other alternatives. "...This is a world of redemption, but your first step is right here in this arena. If you make that first one at me, I can't promise you that you'll live. So please don't make me do this."

He completely ignored me, inching closer for the knife. "Get this shit started, man! I wanna GO!" He called out to Botch.

"YOU HEARD HIM RIGHT, FOLKS! HE'S READY TO GO!"

"AND ON THAT NOTE, WE HAVE OUR COMPETITORS, WE HAVE OUR CONDITIONS!"

"AND SO FILLIES AND GENTLECOLTS... Scotch, do the honors."

"LLLLLLLLLLLLLLETS
GET READY TO
RUMBLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Jasper lunged for the knife laying on the ground between us. On instinct I raised my hand to use my magic, only to remember what they had announced about the seal surrounding us. Jasper grabbed at the knife, but tripped in the scramble. I ran to him and knocked the weapon from his hands. He regained his balance and pushed me towards the ground. I tried to regain my own posture, but he found me before I could get set.

Jasper took his advantage by grappling me down, but also sweeping one of my legs. I felt to my knee, trying to maintain the grapple. He kicked me a few more times, frustrated that he couldn't just punch me like he wanted to. My grapple started to give way with every kick to my body. But I took the moment of weakness and turned it into a counter during one of his kicks by lunging back into him. The two of us were on the ground, wrestling each other to find an opening for submission. The crowd around us screaming and cheering while our bout took place.

However, this situation didn't favor me as much as it did Jasper.

While I was trained on how to throw a punch and how to wrestle off creatures half my size, I wasn't as adept to wrestling off another human. Jasper on the other hand had law enforcement training under his belt. They may not have a set martial arts style to learn from, but they do take elements from them in order to detain them without resorting to lethal force. Which meant as long as his legs were wrapped around me, keeping me latched to him, I was in trouble.

I tried punching through his guard, my fists impacting his forearms instead of my intended target. He waited me out in between blows, knowing that I could pace myself out. But he did one better by unlocking his legs, giving me a swift knee to my kidneys and following up with an elbow to my neck. Hitting those pressure points had made me relent, giving him a window to snag my right arm.

He took his position as an advantage, using his left leg to anchor his movement up my body. Once he locked his leg around my upper body, his foot planting into my left shoulder, he proceeded to pull, causing me great distress. I tried to find whichever way I could to get myself free, but his grasp was too strong for me to counter in every way we turned. He continued to apply pressure, pushing his shoulder against my entrapped arm. He grunted as I screamed from the pain he put me through, that was until my body couldn't take the pressure anymore.

*KRACK*

I cried out as Jasper let me go, walking off to grab the knife. The announcer commented on the grizzly pop that could be heard from just across the way. "LADIES AND GENTS! THAT SOUNDED PRETTY SIGNIFICANT!"

I grasped at my shoulder, finding that my arm was certainly out of place. "HE'S GRABBING HIS SHOULDER, IT APPEARS TO INDEED BE SIGNIFICANT!" Scotch added.

"AND OUR CHALLENGER'S GOT THE KNIFE! THIS COULD SPELL THE END!"

I looked up to see Jasper coming at me with the knife, trying to slice at me. I jumped back, trying to utilize what I could with my limited range of motion. But with all the handicaps in place, I couldn't do much to defend myself anymore. All I could do was hope he could tire himself out.

While that was where our advantages shifted, it wasn't as profound with my current state. I could last much longer in a fight because I've had to go through several weeks of endurance training, and that was coupled with various survival experiences I have. But still, when one guy has the knife and the other a dislocated shoulder, it's almost textbook as to what happens next. He started to stab at me, but he found himself trying to appease the crowd more than he already did. He took the opportunity to lunge the knife into my left forearm, trying to push the blade into my neck. One more pop sounded near my wrist, just at the place where he stabbed into.

He started laughing manically, mouthing the words. "I'm gonna kill you. Oh, I'm gonna kill you."

My brain immediately went into overdrive looking for ways to change my fortunes, before my misfortune became my fate. I didn't feel so much of the pain in my left arm as the adrenaline started pushing through my system. To me, everything worked with the exception of my right arm. I still had a moveable left arm with the knife lodged in it. I could play a risk and push back, possibly divert the direction of the knife and follow up with an unexpected blow from somewhere. I needed my legs to keep my posture.

So I decided to divert the knife.

Since much of the blade was still lodged in my arm, I easily pushed back into him and gave him a headbutt to disorient him a bit. Once I gained the moment of resistance, I had let my arm fall away with the knife still in it. Jasper foolishly let go of the knife and started holding his nose. I grabbed at his shirt, almost ripping it off of his chest to drag him into yet another headbutt. He wasn't used to that aspect of combat, so it didn't resonate with him that he could take a step back and let me lunge into exposing myself. Instead, I had knocked my head into his with every intention to inflict damage to his broken nose, making it harder for him to breathe and process the pain.

With the very limited motion I had in my right arm, I still had my hand to use. I grabbed at the knife in my arm and tugged my left arm away to free myself from the blade. I then gave the knife to my left hand and drove the knife into his chest.

Instead of crying out in pain like I expected him to do, he gasped and coughed. While my hand was flush with his chest, the blade was much further within. His eyes gazed down with realization of what was happening. That's when the horror set in for him, as my hand started to bleed with his blood. I withdrew the knife and quickly went back in, hoping to bring a quick end to this conflict. I drive it into his chest once more.

The resistance his body gave had subsided gradually, he started grasping at the wounds in his chest, the knife slid out as he crawled away for a moment, reaching his hand out to plea to me. "Please... don't kill me..."

That's when the knife fell from my hands. The adrenaline stopped flowing as much, the pain began to reside within my body. But most importantly, I saw and processed in full what I had done.

He started to shudder from the drop of his temperature, attributed by the loss of blood. He held at his chest, laboring to breathe while he laid in a fetal position. But as the seconds went by, his breathing had slowed, and slowed to a standstill. His hand went from grasping at his chest to resting on it. From there, he lied on the ground, looking slack-jawed to the crowd as his life faded away.

I did it. I killed a man. And it was the worst feeling of guilt I had ever suffered.

Medical staff emerged from the tunnel of the black gate. I couldn't bear the brunt of seeing the damage I had done, I had no intention to kill him, I didn't want this. I didn't want to see him dead, I didn't even want to have to explain to the others that I had to kill a man tonight. In the eyes of many here, I had graduated to a murderer.

Chrysalis' words began to ring in my head. I couldn't bear it.

One of the medical staff approached Jasper. "Check him." Another one of the staffers appeared confused as to how they could go about doing that. So the head of the medical staff turned to me and asked. "How do we check him?"

I began to feel sick, deeply sick. "Carotid artery, under the chin, side of the neck."

As he relayed the information to his fellow crew, one of them called back out after fifteen seconds. "I don't feel anything."

I clenched my eyes and felt every last ounce of me become washed in sadness. I stood from where I was and tried not to show my face as I slowly trudged away.

The announcers broke the deafening silence of the crowd, making me feel even worse. "FILLIES AND GENTLECOLTS, THE MATCH HAS BEEN DECIDED!"

"OUR REIGNING BEAST OF THE WEEK IS NOW A CHAMPION FOR THE SECOND WEEK IN A ROW!" Botch ran over to me with the microphone. "YOUR VICTORY HERE IS A SIGNIFICANT ONE! HOW ARE YOU FEELING RIGHT NOW?"

I shook my head without saying anything. I looked up to the crowd, each of them gazing back at me with judging eyes and a silence that spoke legions. In my mind, all I could think of was the fact that I had no strength to carry him back home. He was going to stay here, or even worse, become of use... to haunt me not just spiritually, but physically. I ran away, unable to hide myself crying at what I had done.

"TEARS OF JOY!" Botch continued.

"THAT WAS A HELL OF A BOUT!"

"A BRUTAL AND MERCILESS BATTLE OF TWO EQUALS!"

"CULMINATING IN THE FINALIZATION OF OUR DEARLY DEPARTED CHALLENGER!"

As I came to the red gate, Kalimba ran towards me, looking to offer me praise. "You did it! You won─" But she stopped as she saw the pain and misery on my face. I started weeping as I walked, wanting to get back home as quickly as I could so I could be alone with my thoughts.

The usual party of one applauded my performance. "My, you are a mess. But that was a fight! I haven't seen anything like that in ages, hell, I haven't seen anything like that before! You're going places, my dear captain! Places I can't even begin to fathom. So tell me about it, how does it feel to take on one of your own and win a life-or-death bout?" I gave no answer, I just wanted to go home. "Hello, still talking here." I gave no answer. He tapped his cane into the dirt and appeared in front of me, pointing his cane into my face. "That's far enough. You haven't given me any kind of response─"

Kalimba ran from behind me and knocked the cane out of my way, she stood in his way screaming into his face. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, YOU IDJIOT!?"

"Are you talking to me?" He replied, thoroughly offended by the zebra's actions and tone.

"Can you not see he is not in any mood!? At least see dat he does not want to be bothered anymore! He is in pain! He is suffering! Let him mourn!"

The stallion still took issue with the mare who shouted defiantly to him. "I don't remember allowing you to take a tone with me, miss Mavembe."

The zebra's horn began to spark fiercely. "Yeah, I take a tone! I take a tone with you! You leave him alone! He is done for tonight! He goes home now!"

His horn began to spark in response. "I didn't say he was done."

Kalimba summoned a crude knife of her magic against his throat. "Well I don't give you a choice." She whispered in a violent hiss.

The stallion's eyes narrowed with indignation before he spoke at her. "Stupid girl." He turned around and quenched his magic as he stormed off to the center of the ring. "I guess I'll be tending to my new toy with quite a bitter taste in my mouth. I'm sure it will sweeten after a while."

Kalimba made sure to grab my left arm, seeing how my right shoulder was out of place. "Let's get you home."

Meanwhile At the Black Gate...

The mare who hedged her bets on the human she signed her name to had stood next to a bloodied mare whom she had struck out of frustration. The other she had brought in had lined themselves up next to her, waiting nervously as the mare shouted obscenities.

"Son of a bitch! Scum-sucking piece of shit!"

As Umbra approached the human body at the center of the arena, he nodded to the medical staff and called in his dolls. As they collected their bounty, Umbra began to walk towards one of his VIP members. "Ah, don't think I didn't hear you from over yonder."

"Sir." She replied. "I was talking about that other motherfucker who killed my human!"

"Excuse me, but who's human again?" He questioned the mare.

"Yours, sir." She corrected herself.

He tried to smile through his frustration from his encounter with the zebra she sought after. "Your little zebra friend gave me some choice words, complete and total disrespect."

The burlesque mare looked to her employees and pointed them towards the stallion. "My girls will be more than willing to spend the night to make you feel better. Use them for what you will."

"Oh no, I'm not interested in mares today." He replied. "I was more interested in results."

"Well you got what you wanted." She pointed out.

He glared at the mare and leaned closer to her. "Did I? Did I really get what I wanted?"

The mare quickly bowed her head towards Umbra. "I'm sorry sir. I meant no disrespect to you."

The stallion sucked the air between his teeth, displaying his frustration before looking to one of her maids, namely the one who was struck earlier. "On second thought, I could use a distraction."

"She's free of charge, whatever you want." Stellar replied, earning a look of horror from the mare.

Umbra started to smirk. "Well... It seems I've found my sweetener a little earlier than I anticipated."

+++Point of Perspective: Kalimba Mavembe+++

Shortly after we the arena, many onlookers of the district had witnessed us walking together. He whimpered and cried along our way to the castle. At some point, he tried to address the issue of his shoulder being out of place, but he found it too difficult and painful to perform on his own.

It hurt me to see him in such a way. Even as he walked, everything about him was in pain. And for the brief moment I had expressed my enthusiasm for my future not being sold off, I was brought to the truth of his pain. All throughout his affair, he tried to save his fellow human. But in the end, all he could do was save himself.

A decision I've grown to know all too well.

When we arrived at the castle checkpoint, I hollered out to the security patrolling the gate from further up the street. "Abeg! Please, let him through!"

Two guards clad in armor marched up to see the state of one of their officers. "Captain!" As he arrived, he knelt down and tried to breathe through the pain. Their attention was brought to me immediately. "Alright lady, what the hell did you do?"

"He is hurt! Please help him!" I begged, ripping his shirt to reveal the extent of his injuries.

"Eugh, why does his shoulder look like that?" The first guard questioned.

"Is it broken?" The second asked to the other.

The first tried to put his arm in a sling, only to bring him more of the terrible pain he endured up to this point. He screamed, grabbing the attention of the entire security detail in the area. The guard pointed at me while the second tried to escort him in. "We'll take him in, but you stay out here."

As much as they insisted that I remove myself from the grounds, I couldn't help but to desire being by his side. I wanted to at least know any updates that would come his way. I wasn't going to leave him alone, only I could explain from a witness standpoint of what happened, especially if he is to be put under for an operation. "Please tell de princess I am his assistant! She will know of me!" I pleaded to the guards.

"Sure she does, lady." The guard said just as a guard in light armor approached with the princess by her side.

Princess Celestia's jaw fell, she gawked at the man who labored to even walk forward. She was quick to his aid. "Captain, take it easy."

The other guardsmare, seemingly one I remembered from the train station, covered her mouth. "Oh no, what happened?"

He himself tried to answer, but all he would do is slowly fall to the ground and pass out from the pain. "Captain!" The princess called out as he became unresponsive. She turned to her other guards. "Sitrep! NOW!"

The first guard was quick to point at me. "She showed up with him! We don't know anything!"

I then made my plea to the princess herself, seeing how her guards would understandably want me away from the grounds. "Your highness, please help him! I will explain to you what has happened once we are inside!"

The princess wasn't one to hear excuses from her guards. She desired the truth, and assumed that I could offer that to her. "Let her through." She ordered.

"At once, your highness." The two guards bowed before her and parted themselves from my path.

"This way." The princess summoned a gurney for her to use on him. She laid him out and pointed me beside her, along with her accompaniment. "Solemn, with me."

"At once." She replied quickly.

Nondis squirmed, showing that he had came back to for a brief period of time. But the pain soon found him, making it harder for him to breathe. "Stay with us captain, we'll get you the care you need."

He started to mouth his confession as we ran to the nearest medical center. "I... I killed..."

"Who did you kill?" Questioned the princess.

The captain still expressed his sadness through the laborious pain he suffered. "I killed him... I killed him and he asked me not to..."

The princess then brought her inquiries to me. "What did you see?"

I briskly answered her question. "De one we all know, we cannot say his name. He brought a human for him to fight."

"A human!?" While the princess tried to hide her concern, she looked down to the injured captain.

"A human did this to you?" The one named Solemn asked to the human, taking notice of his misshaped appearance. "What happened to his arm?"

"His opponent put him in a hold. He seemed to have dislocated it." I stated.

"There's blood everywhere!" She pointed out.

"He was stabbed in his arm during de fight. But as far as de rest of de blood, dat is not his own." I added as we came to a medical office.

"So he was forced to kill another human is what you're saying?" The princess asked.

"He tried his best to convince him otherwise. De other human did not listen. It seemed dat dey had a bitter encounter before." I explained.

The captain stirred once more. "Call... call Melanie. I gotta tell her."

As he was toted off by some of the doctors she had on staff, I made another plea to the high princess. "Your highness, I request to stay here for de night, I need to look after him."

The princess looked to her guard and nodded. "Make preparations for her stay. Send an envoy for Twilight's Castle immediately, inform her that this is an emergency pertaining to the captain's health. She will know what to do next."

"As the wind, your highness." She replied before galloping off to do her tasks. The princess then looked to me.

"I'm going to need you to fill out an incident report while you're here. I'll be back shortly."

One Hour Later...

While I was filling out my incident report, Princess Twilight walked into the room with three other humans, one of them being a different one than what I had ever seen. Thought I didn't identify her through looks, I immediately realized who she was by her voice. And as soon as she got word of Nondis' condition, she tied up her hair and went right to work. Princess Twilight followed after her with the intent to assist her in her work. But another two humans came by as well, these two I was completely unfamiliar with. I didn't know who they were, or if they had any positive connection with Nondis. I had to keep my guard up for his sake.

They introduced themselves to Solemn and I as his brothers. The both of them each had voice a number of concerns with what had happened. The others came and gathered around the human, he slowly regaled on the encounter he had on tonight.

Every human in the room had grown sullen, unable to understand what had happened, how, or even why.

"Damn, dude. That shit crazy." Cliff said, rubbing his chin.

Princess Twilight turn to the woman next to her, who continued her work on the injured captain. "So let's get this straight, this Jasper guy is someone you knew?"

"My ex." She stated. "He abused me when I was with him, it got even worse when I started seeing Nondis more often."

"So you two were on unfavorable terms?" Princess Celestia questioned the captain.

"It's not that we weren't on good terms... I took another mans life while he begged me not to. I knew that he was suffering, I didn't want him to. I know I didn't have a choice, but I still can't shake that feeling. I killed a man."

Alex, being the more upfront of anyone, presented his argument in a very forward way. "Nondis, you did what you had to do. He was trying to kill you and you came out of it. I know it was a hard decision, but you made the right one for yourself."

The woman took out a picture and held it up to a light board. The young princess questioned her as she placed the images up for all of us to see. "What does it look like?"

"Dislocated shoulder, that's his right side. Deep perforation of the arm, a complete puncture of entrance and exit, hairline fracture of the ulna near his wrist, that's his left arm. Contusions on the left and medial sides of his skull, concussions are likely." Melanie elaborated, pointing to the injuries she called out.

"Concussions? Did he get punched that hard?" Stanton asked.

"He used his own head to batter at his opponent." I responded. "It was his only way to fight."

"Yikes, it was a real fight to the death then." The younger brother said to himself.

"How did he dislocate his shoulder?" The older brother questioned me.

"I know dat he was getting his arm pulled in some weird position. I cannot explain it because of my lack of knowledge in human anatomy."

The woman sighed at the image of the captain's injuries. "I don't know how Jasper got here, but I don't doubt we'll be seeing him again."

"I don't know anything about this Jasper guy. But he's dead now, so I doubt it." Solemn said very liberally.

Melanie immediately corrected her. "That's the point. Jasper is dead, Ummie has a human body at his disposal."

"What do you think he can do with a human body?" Stanton questioned.

"I don't wanna find out." Alex answered. "I'm just imagining if it had gone wrong tonight, then we'd be in the dark about it until sometime later. And I know that's something we don't want to visualize."

Melanie had readied some slings for her to use as she continued her prep work, offering words of her own perspective. "Nondis, I know you had every intention to let him live. But I do want to say that I'm okay with the decision you've made."

"I'm pretty sure society back home would be okay with the decision he made." Rickey mumbled.

Princess Celestia glanced to the human. "Why do you say that?"

Cliff then went into detail of what took place on their end. "He has a record, raped a girl on another campus. The college probably paid off his parents to transfer him. Meanwhile they keep their reputation clean, all's well for both the college and him, and to a very tiny extent the victim."

"How is that any good for the victim?" Solemn questioned.

"I said 'very tiny' for a reason. The only reason is that he's nowhere near the victim. Other than that, it's a whole ass miscarriage of justice." Cliff responded.

I rolled my eyes at the thought of a human rapist going free in our world. "Dis is all a mess."

Alex sighed and folded his arms, addressing the princess as he did so. "Your highness, I know it sounds counterproductive to what he's trying to put an end to, but Nondis cannot keep doing this."

"I know. Of all the times I have concerned myself with how things have gone already." She said as she looked to the oldest human in the room.

Stanton flexed his hands, angry with his brother's condition. "So what do we do now?"

The princess still tried to hide most of her emotions from those within the room. But for a single instance she took a moment to relay her relief in the captain's return. "Kalimba Mavembe, you escorted my captain through Canterrot at your own peril, knowing not only the state he was in but also the weaknesses that entailed. You placed yourself in a vulnerable position to be able to bring him back here." She wouldn't look at me to acknowledge it, but she showed her gratitude. "Thank you."

I knew that she had some resentment towards me for not being able to protect him as much as she would've liked, but she understood the reason why. However, all I could do was grow upset at her not showing any sign of warmth to him. I understood the reason, but I could not bear to see her not comfort him in the slightest.

I swallowed my own feelings in turn, trying not to disrespect her. "I only brought him back to where he belongs. Dere is no need for a thank-you."

Solemn, who was once hostile towards me, had grown neutral in her tone. "Ms. Mavembe, I'm curious if you have ever considered what your future would be beyond all of this?"

She intended to ask me about joining the guard. I politely declined. "I am working on a farm now."

As I guessed, she insisted the offer. "Then perhaps your skill would be better off in a place where it can truly thrive. I know the guard has a bad reputation at times, but there's so much good that comes from serving, even if it's not always a good for your own self."

"Forgive me, but I do not think I would be much interested." I reiterated, looking to the injured human. "Given who I have been around, I can say dat my option to decline is warranted."

Princess Celestia continued to ask questions in a blunt manner. "How long will it be before he can recover?"

Melanie answered her question in a fair detail. "Bruises are a few days, a concussion usually around the same time frame, he'll be fine on that end. A broken arm is from six to nine weeks, normally speaking. A dislocated shoulder is about fourteen weeks on average. Stab wounds are healed in ten days."

"We might not have that kind of time. We all know what will come next if he does not show for too long." Princess Celestia responded almost coldly.

"Let him fucking wait!" Melanie responded sharply before adjusting her tone. "I'm sorry, but if Umbra can just start dragging people across the portal like there's no tomorrow, then I say he can wait until he victimizes someone else! The sooner he's back over there, the quicker he pulls another fucking stunt like this again." As she spoke, the captain grimaced and held at his head with his less-injured arm. Melanie offered him a leather strap. "Okay Nondis, bite down on this."

"What are you doing?" Solemn Oath questioned.

"Relocating his shoulder, and it's gonna hurt like a bitch." She started to place her hand on both his arm and chest. "Okay Nondis, keep your body as straight as you can. Stanton, you're the strongest of us, so you'll need to help hold him still and guide him through the pain."

As soon as she lifted his forearm, the human squealed in pain. "I could sure use that healing spell again."

"I'd rather make sure everything's in place to heal. Insurance and reassurance is better than response." Princess Twilight answered to his dismay.

"Nondis, look the other way to your brother. He's gonna help you feel better." She said as she took a deep breath and readied his arm.

Once she started, the captain started screaming past his strap, his face contorting and his jaw straining to bite down further on the leather strap. "Okay, just try to stay still. I know it hurts like a motherfucker, but you gotta hurt to heal, alright?" Stanton said to his sibling, who could only nod.

*KRUNK*

"AAAGGGHHH FUCK!" The captain shouted, his legs shaking from the ordeal.

"I know, I know. Just bear with it a little longer. You walked all the way here, you can wait for me to make sure it's set in right." Melanie felt around his shoulder and assessed that her work had been successful. "Okay, you did good."

Nondis, far from relieved, threw his head back and winced through the pain. "I didn't think it would hurt that bad! Holy fuck that was unbearable!"

"Our shoulders move as we walk, you know." She pointed out. "You're lucky your body didn't start running on automatic too quickly, or else your right arm would be pretty fucked for the rest of your life."

"Oh, so he had to be hurting all throughout that walk back." Solemn added. "Ow, that's a rough going."

"Okay, let me take care of this now." Princess Twilight finally stepped up to do what she did best. Her horn glowed as she used her magic on his shoulder, watching the human squirm in his discomfort. "I know, I know, I know. Just be patient, it'll all be over soon."

The captain closed his eyes and plead to whatever higher power would listen. "Oh God, I promise if the pain stops, I'll read Psalms 23 everyday. Please let it stop!"

Stanton then replied. "Oh trust me, she's probably the next best thing."

The Next Morning...

Throughout the night, I stayed by the captain's side as he had done for me previously. Though with the environment we were in, I found it hard to resist dozing off. There wasn't a need to be on my guard as much, there was no threat of danger, it was just him sitting in the bed and myself sitting at his side. It wasn't the comfort I was used to, but it was the bare minimum for me to find my sense of easement.

I think there was a period where I had convinced myself to rest my eyes for three hours, waking up to see him staring at the wall ahead. He struggled with a lot of his thoughts, many of which revolved around every possibility, what he could change to make it different. What if he dropped the weapon? What if he had offered his life instead? What if he had somehow planned their escape and forced themselves out? I'm sure there were many instances of guilt and bereavement alternating the thought patterns in his head to not allow him sleep. I'm sure the feeling of his foe's blood was fresh on his mind as they were on his hands.

To him, the world would never be normal again.

The hours of the dawn came, the world began to awaken to a Saturday morning filled with cold air and pegasi at work to bring in the snow. Melanie had entered the room, holding a tray of food for the human to consume. The woman smiled at her long-time friend. "Morning, sleepy head."

"I didn't sleep." The captain sullenly replied.

"Why not?" She questioned blindly, it became more obvious to me that she was not entirely understanding of what was taking place in his mind.

"I still hear his voice." Nondis answered in a soft voice. "At this point, all I'm waiting for is him walking through that door any second to give back what I gave him. I'm sure I feel like I deserve it in some way."

The woman sighed as she placed his tray next to him. She urged me to scoot over so that she could be at his side also. "Nondis, can we talk about that day you fought him the first time?"

He didn't answer her, only reminiscing on last night. "I could've tried something. Anything. It's like it keeps playing out in my head."

She turned his head to look at her. "Nondis, if you hadn't stepped in on that day, it wouldn't be him who would have a trial in the next month. It would've been me. I would've been booked for murder."

"Mel, you're sounding ridiculous." He argued quietly.

"No, really. Why do you think I was so calm when you spoke to me? It wasn't because I was on some drugs to make me feel better about it. It was because I was already putting in my head every possible motive I had in defending myself. And if it happened to turn lethal, I was prepared to make that decision to save myself." She picked up his hands and held them in hers. "What you did was no different. You did what you could to save yourself."

The captain offered his own emotional rebuttal. "It's so much different taking a human life. Ponies and whatnot were already an adjustment, but this was different. Halfway through the fight, I stopped caring. I was more focused on surviving than I was on trying to find an alternative. But I took his life regardless. And now, he'll never go home, not even his body will be at rest."

The woman offered her own argument. "Look at yourself, Nondis. Do you think he gave a damn about how you would've felt, how you would've begged for your life, about what was on the line for you? Hell no, he didn't. The moment he found out it was you, the first thing on his mind was some measure of get-back. I'm sure someone told him this was a different world, that what he did here didn't have any consequence in the other." She patted her friend on his almost fully-healed shoulder. "Nondis, you did what you needed to do, no matter how hard of a decision it was. Do you know how many people aren't prepared to make that choice when that time comes, much less living through the encounter?"

"...Not many." He answered.

"It's a heavy thing to weigh when it's all said and done. But consider the other side of the scale sometime."

Nondis started to reach out for his plate, noticing how his fingers trembled, he started to mold his hands around a phantom knife. "My hands are still trembling from it. I can't shake it off."

"Don't." She said, laying her hands on his. "Didn't your grandfather have some lesson on stuff like this?"

"When we were hunting, but that's different." He replied.

"What did he say?"

The captain closed his eyes briefly to recount on the words of his grandfather. "When you decide to pull the trigger, your intent is not to kill for sport, nor is it to kill because it's exciting. It's to make the final choice between your life or theirs. There's always going to be a mourning family on the other side, but what's important to you in that moment is your life. Because when you die, there is no coming back."

Melanie slowly took a breath at the quote he unveiled. "Wow, your grandfather was prophetic."

"He spoke from his experience in the Vietnam War. But I think that he was quietly trying to preach to himself the same lesson he taught us."

"Well I think he taught your right. You chose you. And I'm happy you did. We all are." The woman finally stood back up, ushering his breakfast by his side. "I'm gonna go sign some papers and see if we can get you out of here. Sit tight, shouldn't even take me half an hour."

She walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. The captain glanced at his plate, seeing the pancakes sitting before him. He pushed them away as he didn't have the stomach to eat much. I did notice that he had been moving his shoulder a little more freely. "I trust you are better?"

He rotated his arm while holding his shoulder. "Thanks in part to you for getting me here. Didn't enjoy the walk back too much, but I'm happy to be well on the mend."

"I am glad you are back talking." I replied as I offered him his water to drink. "Last night you did not do much of it after de match."

"I was probably in a state of shock. A lot of what was on my mind had ended up being what I was forced to do, and what was going to be the end result." He said before drinking the water through his frustration. "I feel terrible that I had to watch him die. Everyone watched me killed him, they were cheering for him. But when they announced that I had won, it was like the silence was louder than any jeering and booing they had for me at the start. And then there was the pain on my body, so there's that too.... I was just overwhelmed with a lot."

I scooted myself back to my initial spot and leaned in closer to his bedside. "Can I tell you a story about de night we met?"

"Okay." He said, taking another sip.

I took myself back to that night when Prod was pressing himself into me for the last time, the nervousness and fear I felt over what I was about to do, and also the process I had to wrestle with in my going through with it. "I was scared when I realized what I had done. You gave me a weapon, and I made a choice of my own. I was scared for my life holding dat thing. I said to myself 'What if I miss him? What if I hit myself? What if my magic does not hold and I drop it? What do I do if I fail?' But I tried my best to concentrate on what I needed to do. And when I did it, I was scared because of what I knew was to come next. I thought of every possible way dat dey could come for me. And den I have to add dat I had never taken a life on my own."

"You didn't seem to hesitate much when you killed him." He pointed out.

"Let me finish, ah?" I said to the captain. "I had watched ponies die, many of whom I had performed with. One died from a client who was too aggressive with an oral session, she was sixteen. Another went in a similar way. He choked her until he got off, but by de time he was done, her life finished before he did. She was thirteen. Another was beaten to death, and she was one of de prettier ones from de brothel. She was twenty. At fifteen, I myself had come close do dat same fate, Prod was de one who gave me dat experience. So you would think I was excited when he died on top of me, right?"

"That's what I assumed at the time." He replied.

I lightly chuckled to myself, thinking back on my initial reaction. "I was scared more den anything. I went mad, I wanted to make sure he couldn't come back to hurt me, so I tried firing de weapon again. It did not go off, you gave me a rusty spoon, and de rest you already know."

"I walked out for some of it, to be fair."

"Well de part you walked out on was me operating in madness. But you missed de part with me staring at a mess of de pony who used to abuse me. I could not fully process what I had done, nor could I begin to put together what my plan was for de future. I just thought dat when de night ended, when you woke up in de morning, you would leave me to fend for myself. I did not know who you were, my opinion of you to dat night was only some unusual creature trying to fit in. But you came around and promised me what I thought was some filly dream." I stood up and hugged the human, showing my appreciation for him and what he did for me. "I did not know dat I could have dat promise after what I had done. But den you showed me I could. You showed me dat I could face de world and not be afraid. You showed me dat I could be more den your slave, some form of your sexual release, some decoy to be tossed away and used as a rag later. And for dat, I grew to admire all dat you are, even longing for de chance to prove myself a mate to you."

"Kali." He said softly.

I leaned into his chest, personally and selfishly relieved that I could hear his heartbeat for yet another morning. The rhythmic waltz soothed me as I held to him. "You know, de only reason why I accepted dat name was because your friends gave it to me not long after you tried to do de same. Dey made me feel like I had some closeness, friends. I rediscovered what it meant to have a second chance after making a decision like de one you made. I am still finding who I am, but I have found more because of you." I looked up to the man, smiling for the security he brought me as well as the ambitions he renewed within me. "Meaning dat you tower over me, meaning you are a different species does not change what I feel and how I feel for you."

I raised myself, leaning in closer to the man. Even though I knew he was not as willing, I still wanted to comfort him in the ways I knew how to do. I started to climb in the bed, more than willing to offer myself to him. My heart began to race once more, anticipating the rush of happiness that I would feel as he found himself within me once more.

"Am I interrupting something?"

I froze in place at the sound of Princess Celestia's voice behind me. He, however, was quick to move me off of him. "Your highness."

As he manually picked me up and placed me back on the ground, the princess quirked a brow at the human. "Captain, I see you are doing much better."

"I'm improving." He answered with a nervous and awkward laugh before clearing his throat.

"Any form of that is a good thing." She said, walking towards the captain with a not-so-friendly frown. Her face changed once she looked to me, however. "Kalimba, thank you for escorting the captain here. Your service should be commended." She said with a warm smile.

"To give back what was given to me is my only reward." I answered, turning away from her out of embarrassment.

"A most humble reply." She spoke kindly to me before readdressing the captain. "Are you good to go?"

"Waiting until Mel gets back with the paperwork. Then I should be walking out of here." He said as he walked over to the X-rays on the wall. "Sheesh, so that's what my shoulder looked like?"

"Do you need the time off in your world?" The princess questioned flatly.

The human paused to think of his answer. While he would've probably said yes to the offer, he appeared hesitant on the idea. "Nah. I feel like that's gonna open some pretty fresh wounds in my mind. I'd rather stick it out here for the time being."

"Okay." She said as she continued to be blunt with him. "You know, you should check your phone every so often, captain. You never know what messages you'll miss."

"Right." He confirmed.

Melanie walked back into the room, noting the human on his own two legs, she brought in a change of clothes for him to wear. "Out of bed and walking around, good to see." She said, giving him his clothes. "Alrighty then. Your bloodwork came out just fine, no lingering poisons, your shoulders and arms have healed up nicely thanks to the magic. You should be good to go, but I'm gonna recommend you take it easy."

"You're the doc." He acknowledged.

Melanie sighed one last time before departing. "I know I'm not gonna be able to stop you from doing anything, so I'm only going to say this. When you're ready to go back in, give that motherfucker hell for me."

"I'll do my best." He answered.

When Melanie walked out of the room, Nondis started to unfurl his clothes and take off his shirt. I found myself looking on curiously at the bare-chested human. The princess was quick to call me out on my visual dedication to his physique. "Miss Kalimba, perhaps we should give him the space to dress himself."

I knew that it would've been the respectful thing to do, I knew that she had some ulterior motive for wanting me out of the room. So I feigned an excuse to remain in the room. "I do not think it would be wise to leave him alone."

The princess seemed to catch on to what I was brewing, and quickly countered it with her own retort. "You know, I think you're right. We should stay here and ensure that his security is most certainly promised."

"I agree." I answered, not intending to back down in any way.

The captain looked back to us and saw the both of us eyeing him just as he was about to take off his pants. "Um... ladies?"

"Yes?" The both of us replied, not ever blinking at his voice.

"I'm trying to put on my boxers. Can I get a minute?"

I quickly replied in my usual manner. "I am only making sure dat nothing happens to you."

The princess gave me a brief glance as she worded her answer differently, her intent being the same as mine. "Captain, as if I can take my eyes off of you for one second. You keep getting hurt and I keep having to bring you here."

Knowing that the room we were in had no means of an alternative, he climbed back into the bed and pulled the sheets over himself as best as he could to cover his torso and waist. His feet hung from off the foot of the bed. "Nevermind, I'll just put these on under the sheets."

The both of us tilted our heads as the captain pulled in one leg to free himself of his undergarments. Though the princess was often cold with her approach to the captain, she started to let her jealousy show in all of it's sun-kissed glory. "Please don't stare, miss."

"I believe we should both avert our eyes den." I suggested back to her.

"I'm watching for security purposes." She replied, tilting her head again as the worn boxers had shifted down his leg.

"As am I." I said, doing the same as I tried to catch a glimpse of what he looked like in his human form.

The captain, becoming a bit flustered came from under the covers and wrapped himself while he got out of the bed. He then used his magic to lift me into the air, all while physically pushing the princess out of the room. He moved me next to her as he walked back inside. "Ladies, privacy. Please?"

The door closed as we both were left unsatisfied with the situation. The princess turned to me, I then said to her. "You realize dis is your fault."

"Me?" She asked incredulously. "I'm only looking out for his best interests." She said, looking up to the ceiling as her ears grew pinker than usual.

"Well I know what else you were looking out for." I sparked back

The captain's voice erupted from the room. "Don't make me come out there!"

Later That Day...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

After a day of really taking the time to process the past day and all that happened, I had finally grown to a little more at ease with myself. Of course I still had the weight of a human life on my shoulders, God knows I can't wash the blood off of my hands. But I looked back at what happened with the added leverage of what would have happened should I had died instead.

Granted, I wouldn't know anything past the world fading through my eyes, I'd probably be towed off to you-know-who and dissected for years on end. Maybe he'd find an interest in using my corpse for some odd reason, but I don't see him using a human body for what he's doing now. Maybe he uses my remains to torment my friends, or hang me high in the town square for Celestia to see as a message. Either way, it's a bad ending for me.

I'm sure Jasper would've lived his life free of any charges. They wouldn't have pinned anything on him, not if there's a simple knife involved. It would've been a random human wandering Canterlot, possibly to make friends in places where I could not. But I could safely concluded that if he had known about Melanie being here, he'd probably wait for the moment when she was alone somewhere and make his move. A good end for him, but a bad end for her.

My friends and family would've lost someone they cared for, that's just another path of tragedy. My parents would probably raise hell to Celestia and demand that my body be returned home to be buried. Maybe I do get recovered, but they cremate me just to make sure. My riches would be given to them and they'd be back home to live their lives without me in the picture, just like they had readied themselves to do for some time. After all, that's what I ordered from Kalimba.

Oh yeah, her end would've been a lot worse out of anybody. With a comfortable wealth in her name, she would be reduced to only a bartering piece, maybe indoctrinated as a sex slave again with a higher price tag. It would be a repeat of Tuesday night every night. I'm sure her dad would try to barter for her release, but I couldn't see him staying alive past that first night. I'm sure it wouldn't make her very happy to hear her dad dying in an attempt to free her. It would be unbearable.

For Shining and Cadance, it would be a costly win. While their foal don't get put out to be a pervert's wet dream every year until she's of legal age, they live with the guilt of having their small win at the cost of a friend's life. For Twilight and the others, I'm sure it'll hurt for a while, but they'll move on. Celestia would probably lose hope in finding love, but in fighting the against the approval process law. I'm sure Blue and Alabaster would help her at every turn to make it happen, especially since a good portion of the background work was already done. In the end, they'd win regardless. Royally speaking, my goals would have been met. Overall, it only ends in emotional despair for everyone except Jasper.

But time marches on for me, and the bell tolls for him. We made our choices, he didn't heed my warnings, and now he paid the price. I wish it was as easy as me saying that, but it's not. I'll always consider that moment a black mark on my name, a scarlet letter to my legacy. I can only hope that I don't have to take the life of another human, much less watch another die here.

My guilt throughout the day deprived me of many an opportunity to put some food in my system. And my body was just now letting me know that it didn't take too kindly to that exception. I just stayed in my room for a while until I heard a knock on my door.

I got up to answer, seeing Lemon Hearts wearing her chef attire. "You ready to eat, champ?"

I'm sure she didn't know it, but that word did sour my appetite a little. Champ... "Yeah. I have to put something in my stomach. I'm already down two feet of intestine, can't afford to miss meals as often."

"You know, Princess Celestia made you breakfast but you didn't eat any of it." She pointed out.

"A lot was on my mind." I briefly summarized.

"Well there should be a lot more in your stomach to help you think. No food is just as bad as too much food." She warned.

"You're right on that."

Her horn glowed for a moment, guiding me out of the room and into the hallway. She quietly spoke to me, looking around to see if there were any eavesdroppers. "The princess couldn't stop thinking about you during breakfast this morning. She was really depressed."

"Over me? Nah." I replied to the young mare.

"More than you think. She said you never responded to her messages this morning. She was worried that you were at war with yourself. I don't know what all happened, but I know you forgot to check your little device."

I pulled out my phone to see a number of messages, at least one from everyone I knew. My mom and dad dropped me a few, Alex, Rickey, Stanton, Cliff had all offered their words of encouragement. Mel had already spoke with me in person so she didn't send me one. Twilight and Rarity both sent me entire paragraphs telling me how happy they were that I was still around, telling me to don't give up. And then, of course, there was the one Instagram notification.

"So how you taking it today?" The mare questioned while I took the moment to send replies to everyone.

"I'm just still processing it all." I responded. "I mean, it's a lot to consider."

As we showed up to the dining hall, she went on to inform me of my menu. "Well, dinner is going to be a healthy meal for you. A nice clean choice of veggies, no meat today, as per the princess' request."

"I'm fine with that. I don't think I need that right now." I said finally opening the Instagram message that was sent to me earlier in the morning.

Positive words of reinforcement. Seeing the messages on my screen had made me feel unexpectedly warm inside. Just earlier, I was thinking about what could all happen if I died before all of what I sought out to do had come to completion. But everyone's messages, they were the words I needed to see. I knew my life had a weight on everyone around me, but seeing and hearing someone say it to you at a time like this gives it much more worth.

While in the eyes of many, I was a murderer of my own kind. But in the eyes of those closest to me, I am a man who was forced to make a choice between life or death. And they were supportive of my decision, grateful even. Hell, I'm grateful to still be among the living right now. I have an opportunity to make good on my promises, to do right by those who placed their trust in me.

The yellow unicorn called for my attention. "So are you coming or what?"

"Yeah, I'm coming." I said as I sent a thumbs-up to Celestia's message.

The mare held the door open, waiting for me to get inside. But as I came to the doorway, I was caught off-guard by who all I saw. It was almost every royal in the family, even some family members of the royals. Twilight and her family had stopped by, Shining and Cadance had come in from the Crystal Empire, Blueblood had brought all seven of his wives, Luna had found the time to be present this evening, and Celestia sat at the head of the table with her hoof extended to an open seat next to hers. "Captain, so glad you could join us."

Cadance quickly ran up to me and grabbed my arm, dragging me to the open seat. "Well don't just sit there like a ugly wart, come on.

"Princess Cadance, I didn't think you'd be here." I said to the amorous princess.

"We came in as soon as we heard what happened. Also heard a little extra bit of good news on your end." Shining added. "Congrats on the huge court win."

As I was seated, the princess didn't immediately look at me, but she did acquaint her aura all over my hands, the warmth gracing me with a gentleness I did not know magic was ever capable of. Celestia then replied. "Yeah, that really unsettling addition to Law Processu Approbatio was shut down. No more prepubescent inspections. Thank all the heavens above."

"That's a hell of a win in my book. Now our daughter's going to be safe to be born in a world without that added pressure on her life." Shining added, to some chagrin of his wife. He realized what he had said out loud and shrugged off her reaction anyways. "Oh yeah, it's a girl. Don't know why she wanted to hide it for so long."

"Congratulations. Another little Sparkle to bless the lineage." Mrs. Velvet replied before looking at her daughter. "Your turn, dear."

"Mom!" The purple princess groaned.

While everyone chuckled at the purple mare getting teased by her mother, Crescent deviated from the mood to inquire about me. "How you holding up?"

I looked down to the glow on my hands, distracting me from the shape my hand had started to take subconsciously. "It's not easy on me, but it's easier to know that I have a support network who doesn't call me a murderer every five seconds like I was doing to myself in my own mind."

"You gotta do what you can to stay alive. That's priority number one." Shining added as his wife kissed him on the cheek.

I chuckled at the stallion who was held onto by his expecting wife. "Except when the princess' life is in danger. I'm sure that's the fine print of our job."

"In all reality, she'll be the one taking the damage for me." Shining replied as he started to feel himself being surrounded by his loving wife. "Look, I'm gonna tell you something about marrying into royalty that they don't tell you. You're not the security for them, you just have to learn how to fight for yourself when they aren't there. But when they are, be ready to watch the sparks fly because alicorn magic is a beast of a force."

"I suppose." I replied to the young prince.

"But if you're appointed royalty, you'd have at least a few large battles under your belt." Blueblood also added his own two cents on the matter. "I know what it's like to look death in the eye as it claims the one you chose for him to take. It's not easy to beat the rush of adrenaline when that moment hits you. It's pretty paralyzing when you weigh that in. But if you see that certain abuses or misfortunes no longer falls on others, the weight of your actions will start to see balance. I'm not saying it's something you should get used to, but it's something to be ready for. Keep that in mind."

Luna walked up to me from behind my chair, leaning over my shoulder and earning the ire of her older sister. "So, thinking of getting any sleep tonight?"

"If my mind will let me." I replied, seeing the elder sibling intensifying her magic over my hands.

Luna snickered at her sister's reaction. "Then perhaps you are overdue for a sleeping spell or two to keep you rested. Of course, nightmare-free."

"I think I'll take that offer." I said to the princess of the night.

Celestia, growing more and more jealous of her sister being so hooves-on with me, broke her magic and moved her younger sibling out of the way. "A most promising proposal, you do need the rest since you did not partake in that last night. But you should not skip out on essentials such as meals and rest, you need your energy. Now, let's get some food in you so you can rest easy for later." The princess' voice also spoke in my head. "You should probably spend the night in my room. I really don't want to put you in a position where Luna feels entitled to some of her little-sister antics again." My eyes widened at the princess who held her head up high, glinting at me with one eye.

Blueblood clopped his hooves as one of the chefs walked out with a bowl of soup for his appetizer. He nudged his princely counterpart. "Honestly, I could go for those ribs again."

"Who are you telling?" Shining said enthusiastically. "Hey Nondis, I did some looking up of that place you took us to. They say they do take-out. Wanna snag some of those tomorrow when you're feeling better?"

Seeing the smiles around me put me in a perspective of understanding. Realistically, everyone in this room is, has, or will be accountable for the life of at least one pony. And in the midst of it all, they've learned to process it and live with what they did, even if it was painful. While life wasn't going to be the same for me, I could still try my best to make things work. It feels weird, I can say that I'll feel like I don't deserve it at times, but in all honestly I've already altered the lives of every human around me, every pony, every dragon, every creature.

Yeah, the weight of a human life is much heavier here, but how many lives have I already taken along with that one, watched being taken, been made responsible for? Again, it takes time, but I will learn how to move forward like I did with everything and everyone else.

That's the only way to do it. "How about this, if I'm feeling up for it, we'll pay that place a visit tomorrow since Alex is in town this weekend. We could divide the load and see who all wants to come."

Celestia looked to me with some visible confusion. "Captain, I thought you didn't want to spend time in the human world with of what happened."

"I think I changed my mind." I replied somberly. "Besides, there's someone I haven't seen in a while I need to talk with."

Meanwhile at the Unknown Lab...

Umbra sat in his chair as he stared at the body before him. As one of his puppets carted off the body of a young mare with bruises on her face and various incisions all over her body, he gleefully moved his scalpel down the large body that laid dangled on his table, it's limbs dangling off the sides. While he worked, he had some piano music playing on a vinyl record at a reduced speed of what was to be played normally. He hummed as he tried to match the pitches of the instrument, but being too invested in his work to care, sometimes even rushing ahead of the melody after having listened to it for an extended period of time.

One of his cloaked servants entered his work space and bowed. "Sir."

"What is it now?" He addressed tiredly.

"The creature's latest test results have come back." The servant issued to Umbra a clipboard with the relevant data.

"Alright, let's see what we have." He ran through the numbers on the page and gave a single nod. "Ah, most promising. Six hours, you say?"

"We are seeking further methods of improvement. But we're ready to implement the body of the beast, sir."

The stallion hummed in reply. "Okay, have the puppets make preparations and set the advancements in motion, thank you, get out of my face."

Before he would, the servant also issued him an envelope with a simple wax seal. "There is also a letter from Damper Trot, sir."

"Give it." Fatigued of any diversion from his work, he rudely snatched the letter and ripped it open without care. "Hmm, seems that some of his colleagues have been bought over on the idea of exposing the truth of the royal marriage restrictions. How tragic."

"It appears that he is requesting your aid, sir."

"My aid? On such petty matters?" He tossed the letter into the nearby disposal bin, joining the many biohazardous materials within. "It's funny he thinks I give a damn about any of that at this point. All of them come to me expecting me to make miracles work for them and their political ambitions, how stodgy. My goals are far more ambitious, far more illustrious. I couldn't care less of him and his friends' crusade against the royals. All that does is show me how much he'll get in my way if he doesn't get what he wants. And of course I can't have that. It's bad enough I have too much of that going on as it is, and my setting an example only went over as well as the early years of my life."

"So what will you do, sir?" The servant asked.

"The work is already done. He sabotaged his own effort all to appease my request, now his only option is to appeal to me and mine. He's a fool believing in revolution and reformation, that only empowers him and his colleagues. And what does it do for me, nothing." The stallion levitated the scalpel towards the head of the operating table, preparing to make his first incisions. "The thing about power is that if you're given too much of it, you tend to forget where you come from, who you pay homage to. His proposed system, or rather the half-assed explanation the captain provided to him, would only give him power. But once he has that, who's to stop him from enacting it against me? I'd much rather keep what I have and string him along for his loyalty."

"Should I tell him that you would reciprocate his request, sir?"

"Of course. I'll play nice until I get what I want. Then he'll get what I feel he deserves. I don't think I'll need him, but I'll use him for what comes next." As he finished, he glared at the servant with mounting impatience. "Now get out of my sight, I have work to do."

"Yes, my lord." The servant rose and dismissed himself.

Umbra glanced down at the body he was set to make his incisions on. Satisfied with the fair and smooth skin of his subject, he lightly glossed the surface of his forehead with care before taking the scalpel. "Highness is such an overused word to describe higher power, wouldn't you agree?" He stared at the human cadaver as if he waited for an answer. The stallion giggled at the nonresponse. "Oh, don't give me sass, I know what you mean. Personally, I'd rather the term lord or savior or even... Christ. Can you imagine if I were to appear in your world with the graven image your lot portrays this character to be, with the powers I possess? I would be seen as the son of God. Then when I am finished with your world, I will return to this world with weapons far more powerful than the elements themselves. And perhaps after a show of that power, they will see me as the rightful god, not some pitiful excuse of descendants like Celestia and Luna. But first, we need to address the narrative. So, let's probe that mind of yours and discuss this 'Rapture' you lot go on about."

He summoned a book next to the table, the title reading in bold print at the cover 'The Bible KJV'. He opened to the Book of Revelation, starting on the sixth chapter. He tapped onto the first verse.

"And let's see if we can find another way into your world to make that happen."

Author's Note

Intents revealed, motives to be unconcealed, a human still seeking to be healed, and a new chapter soon to be unsealed. I can say that the next chapter will be among my favorites along with chapter 86.

Now let's discuss this chapter. I had to do a bit of research on topics such as bereavement and guilt dealing with death, so yeah, that was a bit of a damper on the mood. I know that it seemed casual for the other humans to say "hey you did what you could, you had no other choice" without really understanding the weight of feeling the responsibility of taking the life of another human being. And in most instances nowadays, it's done at distance with guns and whatnot, but given the extremely personal and intimate circumstances of close-quarter combat, it tends to weigh on you in a different way if you're not used to it.

Nondis is more used to dealing with changelings and ponies in personal combat situations, it's what he was trained to deal with. But with humans, he's still partial to that responsibility since he knows not only what's at stake, but also acknowledging that role of responsibility. I had to give him some time to properly process the guilt in a rationalized manner. And being around those who had also been directly affiliated with death or some form of responsibility regarding the safety of others, it offers a space to grow and cope with the varied experiences.

STORY SPOILER: ...Also I've been trying not to say it, as I wanted to write it in to be as natural as I could possibly get it, this is the FINAL arc of the story, hence why it is so abysmally dark. So yeah, that's why it's been seeming like it's been going for a while. I am challenging myself to respond and react in the mind of every character as they would in life if they were afforded the resources that are available in the story. It's why I've thanked people for hanging around for so long, because I have been drafting this arc for the better part of two years. I had many endings planned, some I hinted towards, others I've completely omitted, but since I finalized the plotline thus far in my head, I can easily say that we are less than a year off of concluding. There will be epilogues and the like, but I can't tell you exactly which month that will come to an end as I am trying to close everything off.

But yeah, seven years is a hell of a run. For those who stayed throughout the years, my hat comes off to you. For those who read up to now, I commend you for staying with me for so long.

With this chapter release, I am now back on track for the year. I could double down next month, have that month's chapter posted by mid-late next month and have half of November's written.

On that note, I guess I'll see you guys next time.

Chapter CVIII

The Villa of Count Bastion
Corrotto, Canterlot
482 Years Ago...

A young noble stood in front of a mirror, the curl in his mane. His father was speaking with his other siblings in the other room while one of them walked up to the young aristocrat in the making. The older lord assisted in the younger's appearance, twisting his mane until the curl had stuck.

While it appeared that they were getting ready for a day out at a formal event, it was quite the opposite. Instead of dancing with the nobles, it was merely them heading towards the town square for a public event. And even the event itself wasn't what one would consider something to be dressing up for, but the aristocratic family vowed to make it a day of celebration, a day of jubilee, one that would be unforgettable.

Today was the day they were to watch the criminal who killed one of their own to be executed.

"Uncle?" The young stallion asked to the mirror.

"Yes?" The older stallion questioned as he stood over him.

"What do you think happens after that mongrel who killed Ivory Spiral gets his comeuppance?"

"Nothing, dear nephew." The stallion replied quietly. "Justice will be done, and our beloved Ivory will be at peace."

"Do you suppose I can get in the front row?" He asked excitedly.

"No. I don't think there's a reason for somepony as young as you to see such a thing. You're much too young." The stallion replied to his dear nephew.

"I'll be in officer training in the next two years! I'm not that young!" Argued the young noble.

"Sanctus, listen to me." The older aristocrat turned the young adolescent colt to him and explained to him in a soft voice. "What's to be done today is not for the feint of heart. We're only making a day of it so that our fallen Ivory may know joy of seeing justice done. While he may not attend in present, he attends in spirit."

"I still want to see the face of the mongrel who killed my cousin! Please, uncle!" The young colt pleaded fervently.

The older stallion then replied. "In case there's an accident, I don't want you being covered in filth. Just stay back for a while until it's all done. Then you can see the face of his killer when it's all said and done."

"But I want to see them first!"

The uncle kindly corrected the young colt. "Sanctus, patience is a most important virtue. If we don't have that, we don't have order, every worthless rat will be getting a seat at the table instead of the ones who earned their keep." The older stallion placed his hoof on the young colt's shoulder and smiled the best he could. "As much as I want justice to be done, we must wait. Do you understand?"

"Yes, uncle." He replied.

The elder patted the younger on the back. "Good. Now powder up. We'll be heading out to the gallows very soon."

The Unknown Lab
Present Day...

Umbra snipped away at the corpse on his table, placing down many a tiny stone to insert into the various nerves he exposed. The stallion gasped as he stifled a quiet comment. "Ah, a distant memory. Working on you has me feeling a bit nostalgic. You may be some work, but you are an enjoyable template."

The stallion placed down his scissors and gently tugged at the tendons running down the length of the forearm, admiring the unusual length they traveled to anchor themselves to the muscle attached to the elbow of the man formerly known as Jasper. The stallion picked up his notebook and started jotting down the details of what he saw, speaking them as he went on.

"Tendons, five prominent attachments to connect with the muscle tissue located in the midsection of the forearm. All fingers are naturally curved at the point of rest." He looked to the human's neck where he had previously worked on in the early hours of the morning. "The neck is not as sturdy as those of equines, but mental capacity is estimated to be equal to that of our own. Exhibits complex emotions such as sadness, happiness, anger, arousal, confusion, curiosity, amusement, and guilt." He stopped writing his notes to make another comment. "As if I need to be cutting one of you open to find that out. I'll just torture the captain for another five minutes to learn more of that. Perhaps I should perform another case study for control value... But I'll need more humans for that, and they don't just pop up out of nowhere like this one did."

He looked at his notes and then back to the multitude of books of data he had written throughout the years.

"All advancements of modern equine medicine at my hooves, but nary a one can ever replicate the first experience I had in touching the dead. What beauty it is to see nature run it's course." The stallion placed down his tools and walked over to his phonograph. "You know, Jasper, you open up so many memories for me, disgust, curiosity, nausea, and nervousness. I've never been so careful with a body since I was given a whole hydra to pull apart. And even that took some ripping and tearing. After so many years of dealing with ponies, you learn what's where and how much tension and stress a certain part can take. You can afford a few more risks when you know what you're doing. You learn shortcuts. But I don't get to do any of that with you. Perhaps it's why I feel like I need some music for this incredibly sensitive affair."

A servant knocked at his door. "My lord."

"What now, fools?" He replied, moderately annoyed at the sudden interruption.

"Sir Damper Trot awaits you at the confessional."

The stallion sighed as he placed back a record he was about to play. "I swear these fools don't know how to leave a gentlecolt to his craft." He clopped his hooves, summoning four puppets to the room. "Take him back to the cold storage, I'll get back with him later. I'm not done planting what all I need to." He then brought his attention back to the servant. "You."

"Yes sir."

"See to it that the puppets don't mess up my little project. After this, I'm going to the old tavern for a drink. Keep an eye out... Oh, and do persecute any stragglers."

"Of course, sir."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Barton Creek Square Mall
The Next Day...

Under most situations, I wouldn't be able to find an excuse to drag almost every royal out of the castle for a day out. But they surprised me and brute-forced an exception. Both Blueblood and Shining were all for paying a visit to the barbeque place, but the trade-off was that Shining had to bring his wife along for the ride.

That became our first obstacle.

Apparently the transformation spell wouldn't take to Cadance. We tried three different casters, Luna, Celestia, and myself. I even tried casting it twice to make sure, but no dice. Shining made the noble decision to stay behind and hold the fort until we got back. Truth was that he knew Cadance would tear his ears off if he went anyways. I promised him a plate for his troubles.

In his place was none other than Princess Luna, who had to find herself an outfit to wear. And since it was her first transformation into a human form, she was a very clumsy girl. So clumsy that she had tried walking two steps forward, ended up falling backwards with her leg cocked up in the air. Yeah, both she and Celestia had assets to flaunt, but Luna was inadvertently flaunting hers a little too liberally.

Celestia was the epitome of a jealous sibling today, she threatened to blind me for the next three hours if I had dared to even peek at her sister in the nude. I didn't mind going through with her request, but Luna took notice of that same instruction and decided to intentionally stumble in my line of sight for thirty minutes straight. And it wasn't like closing my eyes made it any easier, when Luna discovered that she could use her hands as a replacement for her horn, she'd repaint the image of her body in the back of my eyelids, just like a dream. I had to look at the ceiling with my eyes wide open, hoping that I wouldn't see her. One problem with that, Luna was also six feet, six inches tall. Still shorter than her sister who stood at six-foot-ten, but still an inch taller than me. All she had to do was raise an arm and her chest was well in my peripherals.

Inverted nipples, she had me seeing those for almost five minutes.

At some point I gave up and went to a corner like I was in time-out. And she took strong exception to that. Luna went the extra mile to annoy her sister, learning how to wrap her arms around my shoulders to hug against me closely. It was so bad that I had to lock myself in the bathroom, she could still teleport. I tried going across the portal, she trailed me like a little puppy begging for food. I even put on a blindfold, she still had the magic to yank it off.

Celestia had enough of her sister's antics and threatened to blast her into the sky, but I had to calm her down and remind her that we were in a world where magic didn't exist outside of those who already had it. And plus I didn't want the landlord to come down too hard on Mel's lease, she was already gonna be a month behind on rent.

Once Twilight got back with some clothes for Luna, I thanked the stars above and waited in the den while Celestia forced her sister to undergo the same training I had to give her in regards to wearing underwear. And wouldn't you figure, Luna was made to wear her underwear while Celestia willingly omitted hers out of spite.

This was how we started the day... Fuck's sake.

Blueblood, Luna, Celestia, Twilight, and I had gotten loaded up in the car and I started riding them over to the frat house to meet up with Cliff and Rickey.

I had completely forgotten that they were still over in Equestria, Twilight had to remind me of it.

After that bit of wasted gas, we met up with both Alex and Stanton, who were also with mom, dad, and Vanessa. We trailed behind one another and our location finally landed at the mall. Stanton's reaction to Princess Luna was nothing short of his horn-dog self. If it wasn't for the fact that her body had all sorts of paperwork to fill out just to get engaged, I'm sure he would've tried his luck at the first opportunity. Hell, knowing him, he's probably using me and Celestia's relationship status as a template on how to get away with dating royalty under the table.

Not that it mattered to her, she was more hellbent on annoying her sister for making her wear a bra and panties. So any attempts he had in trying to sneak a feel at the humanized princess would end in abject failure.

The moment we walked in, all eyes were on us. Not so much as any of us normal humans, but rather the outlandish ways Luna's blue hair had shimmered, how Celestia's quad-toned hair and her natural lavender eyes had almost captivated every unfortunate man who found himself walking into a support column. With their height, they also gained a lot of attention from both kids and adults alike.

The first thing we did was pick out a move to watch, something that we could all agree on. No scary stuff that would trigger my paranoia, no war flicks that would trigger my trauma, no comedy that our foreign dignitaries wouldn't understand much of, and no movies with a lot of sex. The outlines were simple, but the choices were not. Dad wanted to see American Sniper, mom wanted to see Heaven is Real, both of the options were nixed. Alex and Stanton wanted to see Exodus: Gods and Kings, Twilight pointed out that she wanted to see something that none of them could imagine seeing in a movie. Her choice, Interstellar.

We went with that one... and we thanked her immediately after.

Luna had walked out of the theater with a whole new sense of wonderment, thinking of her night sky and the many things that were out in that dark abyss beyond our planet's reach. The idea of seeing the cosmos beyond our planet's surface had held hostage her attention, and began to birth ambition within the princess of the night. Celestia was just happy that her sister had become distracted with something other than annoying her, but she was very pleased with her former student's selection. Twilight was on the moon with Luna, discussing theories and ideas over what they had just saw. Mom and dad didn't have anything against the film, Alex and Vanessa was pleased with it as well. Stanton was disappointed that he didn't get to sit next to Luna, he had to park next to mom.

Once we got out of the theater, we started window-shopping for a few things. Though in my case, I was literally shopping for more than one. The royals had all but clung onto me while we scoped out a few places to browse. And with each place, I started to gain more and more of an understanding for who liked what.

A new bit of something I found out about Celestia, she likes plushies. She REALLY likes plushies. She walked into a Build-A-Bear Workshop and I started to worry if she was expecting me to buy out their entire stock. The first thing she did was snuggle a bunch in her arms and snag me in the pile. She was at least reasonable with her request, opting for the biggest size they had. And by the end of our time there, it still looked kid-sized in contrast to her dominating height.

Blueblood was more interested in fragrances and scents, so he stormed a Bath Body & Beyond with all intents of conquest. Going through the number of perfumes and colognes, he was pleased with some, not so much with others. He seemed pretty set on what he wanted to get out of there, that was until he discovered what a bath bomb was. Once he did that, he decided in his mind that he was going to take the most luxurious bathing experience once he got back home. He had me by at least twelve of the damn things.

Twilight had ran across a Barnes & Noble, and she was face first through the door. There was no stopping her from consuming as much human literature she could get her hands on. She even managed to locate the novels of the Harry Potter series, the Lord of the Rings series, and even the namesake series Twilight. She decided to grab a set of each, which I thought would be the most expensive endeavor being that those books were classics, and she ordered six copies of each.

And then there was Luna.

With it being Luna's first experience in the human world, she was absolutely engrossed in everything there was to offer in the mall. From the nearby Hot Topic where she blew a solid two-hundred dollars on belts and accessories, to the far off arcade that entertained a good amount of retro gamers. She picked out a few outfits for souvenirs, then played about ten dollars worth of games. But that wasn't the thing that really had her hooked.

The one thing I knew about both Celestia and Luna, they were petty towards one another. And if one had the benefit of doing something that the other could not, the other would return that a good ten fold. If one could have an ice cream cone with a double scoop, the other had to have an ice cream cake. If the latter had ice cream cake, then the former had a personal bakery. So on and so forth is how that goes. So you can already imagine the look on my face when she clutches my wrist and walks me over to the one place I least expected to be.

Princess Luna, in a bid to piss her sister off, dragged me into a motherfucking Victoria's Secret.

Everyone walked in, seeing an assortment of lingerie pieces. Blueblood could care less about the store, but he was more interested in seeing how Celestia would respond to whatever Luna had planned. I knew I was walking on eggshells, but it was still somewhat fun to think about how the two was going at each other's throats... if I hadn't been in a relationship with one of them.

So Luna browsed the entire section, thinking her size was relatively modest. And whenever she had the concern that something didn't fit, she called for me first. I would send in Twilight to make sure, and fetch her something in her size. Twilight also got curious about it and started perusing the store for something to try on for herself. Once Luna found a few selections in her actual size, she walked over to the changing room and dragged me along to wait.

That did not sit well with Celestia.

Since she was more than aware of her own size, Celestia questioned one of the clerks and picked every possible selection that she felt would grab my eye. Some were elegantly lacy, the others were much smoother to the touch. It was a wonder to see just how far the two would compete. Luna walked out first, wearing a plain combo of black cotton, no special designs, no fancy embroider, no flashy stuff, just something that could show off the girls up top and the plump the goods behind.

Celestia walked out in a much more seductive outfit. A lavender one piece assembly with lacy embroidering, transparent sides, a translucent mid-section to display her wares, but tease the features enough to fuel the imagination. She turned herself around, placing her hand against her hip as she tilted her backside to flaunt her abundance of curves.

She was damn-well aware of how to turn me on, she had every intent to do so.

The humanized sun princess giggled, biting her lip as she slid her hand up her thigh, looking back at me to see the reaction on my face as her fingers grazed her hips. And without warning, she slapped her plentiful posterior, allowing me to take in the rippling motions of her flesh hiding underneath the barely-conservative apparel. In her most intimate voice, she spoke to me. "A gift..." She walked closer to me, pulling me in and raising her leg to curl around my hip. "For you."

Luna snatched me and planted my hand on her backside with a smirk. "You already know what you'll get with me in one form. Perhaps you will like what I have to offer in this one." She said, guiding my hand to the front of her underwear.

The older sister then pulled me aside as she stood before her annoying younger sibling. "As if he would even be interested in something so plain."

Luna then teased her older sister. "So much for all that prude attitude you had once before. I guess if you get one finger, you get an entire arm."

Celestia gasped at her sister, snarling at her. "You. Take. That. Back."

The younger sister giggled. "The great hall of Celeste."

The solar princess was fuming at her younger counterpart, offering to heat up the argument. "Well at least I can't say that my hall isn't sitting in abandonment."

"That's funny coming from a mare who hadn't had a visitor in well over a millennium. Do the star spiders treat you to some silk undergarments in exchange for their residence?"

Oh God, I just stumbled into World War 3.

"Do the bats clear that cave of yours free of any wandering pests?"

...Complete with nuclear fallout.

"At least I frequently rehearse."

"Rehearsing for the party of one?"

Okay, it was time for me to put an end to the burn clinic. I stepped in between the two and held them apart from one another. "Princesses, ladies, your highnesses, can we please not throw the entire night sky at one another?"

The two folded their arms and pouted away from one another, Celestia's pose being more natural, Luna's fist were still curled up like she was still using hooves. The clerk came back with Twilight, who had a simple dark red see-through two-piece in her hand. "Is there anything you three need help with?"

I quickly jumped in with a response. "Uh yeah. I'd like to buy both of these ensembles." Twilight then raised her own to correct me. "Okay, all three ensembles."

"Okay, I'm going to need the tags for those if you plan on wearing that out." The clerk stated.

"These two will wear these out." I said as I pulled out my debit card. "I'll pay you whatever they cost. Sorry, I'm working with a tight schedule. We're trying to get moving."

"Right this way, sir." The clerk instructed, guiding the four of us towards the front counter.

The two princess put back on their clothes and joined me and Twilight at the checkout. Luna crept up to my ear and whispered. "Echo. Echo. Echo. Echo."

I squirmed as I tried my damnedest to not laugh, not with Celestia giving me the ugly eye. I instead cleared my throat, beat my chest, and took a deep breath.

Celestia then sang into my head. "♫Dun-nun nun-nun nun-nun nun-nun Batmare.♪"

...I'm going to hell.

After that bit of a scrum, we walked to our designated meeting place. Luna and Celestia continued to exchange barbs and looks towards one another, my stomach was weak from laughing so much, Blueblood was in the same condition along with me, Twilight was more than nervous to even be between the two, moreso when she felt obligated to take one side over the other.

Stanton took notice of Luna's shapeliness and how much more pronounced it was. He was determined to find himself riding with us and offered to trade places with Twilight. The young princess agreed on the terms that he would refrain from making any brash moves towards the princess. Stanton placed it on scout's honor, knowing damn well he wasn't a scout to begin with.

As this point, I was just going to let things play out.

When we got in the car, Blueblood found himself behind Celestia, Luna was on the outside, which left Stanton to the middle. While we were riding down the highway, we started listening to some music in the car. He requested the aux cord, I gave it to him, he pulled up I Want It That Way by the Backstreet Boys. He went along and started singing the verse, mocking a music video next to Luna.

Celestia saw her sister's displeasure through the rear view mirror and smiled. She started tapping her hand on the arm rest we shared. While I knew the song, I initially started mouthing the words myself, and then started singing out some semblance of the words quietly until the chorus. By that point I had belted out the words 'tell me why' and the both of us broke out into song. Celestia giggled at my antics as I took one hand off the steering wheel and waved them like I was in a concert.

When the second verse came on, he held an invisible mic in front of me, asking me to sing the song. I tried my best to mumble through the words, I didn't quite remember all of the words as much as I thought I did. But once we got around to the chorus, he belted out the 'tell me why' offkey, I couldn't help but laugh. Celestia started picking out a few words and bobbed her head along with the music.

The bridge came up and neither of us knew it, so we just snickered at each other like one of us was supposed to take the mic. And neither of us bit. Celestia made fun of me not knowing the song all the way through and suggested that we start the song over so we could all sing it, which me and Stanton were more than happy to do. He ran it back and we were right back into singing the first verse. The chorus was just around the corner and both Stanton and I were ready to belt out those famous three words. Blueblood then went into full-send mode and blurted them out.

Everybody in the car had busted out laughing as we tried singing along. Stanton was so proud of the blond prince that he gave him a fist-bump to show his whole-hearted approval. While Blueblood was an asshole in many instances, he showed himself to be a total bro in the moment. Even Luna had broken past her initial pouting and joined in on the chorus exclusively. So the five of us had bobbed and sang happily down the interstate following Alex and my parents. But as we were driving, I realized something as the song started to end. We were turning off the exit, but not to the barbeque place. Instead we were riding the surface roads to the Texas State Cemetery.

Oh yeah, it's been a while.

It's been some years since I had the fortitude to even come here and visit. My stomach went from hurting from all the laughing to twisting up in knots. We slowly rode up to the plot where we had gramps buried. And from that thin road, we got out of our cars and took in the quiet. Both Stanton and I looked at one another quietly as mom and dad got out of the other car. As they did, it seemed they were very much prepared for this. They took out some flowers, a rag, a spray bottle, and even a small portrait of him to set on the headstone.

We walked from the road on, crossing the many silent souls resting at peace until we came to the one we sought after. While the royals took in the work my mom and older brother had started to do, they watched in silence. Once the grave was cleaned, we went about our visit on this cold, partially-cloudy day. And since his headstone was shaped like a bench, we took the time to sit ourselves as we talked to him.

"Good morning, dad." Mom said, happily placing flowers on his gravesite. "You treating mom alright?"

Dad joined with her. "Hey there, pops. We brought you a little something." He said, placing a black and gold vase filled with water for the flowers. "I know it's not much, but we thought we should make you look all fresh and shiny. You always loved dressing up for the occasion."

Mom glanced up to my brothers and blinked as if she had done something out of order. She quickly stood up and moved away from the headstone. "I know I usually want to have my time with you, dad. But we brought you an extra special surprise today."

Alex smiled warmly as he stood next to his wife. "Hey, Grandpa! Or rather... great grandpa now." Vanessa laid a flower at the headstone as her husband briefly explained to him. "So yeah, Vanessa and I are expecting now. I'm gonna be a dad. I sure wish I could've seen your face the moment I told you, but I'm sure you're smiling along with grandma."

Stanton laid a helmet at his headrest. "Hey grandpa. You know I'm still getting in trouble. I'm trying my best to stay out of it. But you already know me. So, I'll be a Longhorn next fall, and I know how much you love football. Between you and dad bickering at each other over stupid arguments over which players should be traded and picked up for the Cowboys, I miss the sound of your voice as you called dad stupid sometimes... Well, me and dad pretty much picked up from where you were. It's... it's been weird." He closed his eyes and moved himself aside. "But, I'm not the one who you wanna talk to right now, am I?"

The sky didn't quite open up to the sun all the way, the clouds still covered much, but the small instance of sunlight did peek out as the gravestone started to shine a little brighter. Dad guided me to the bench and sat me down. "So, look who we got here for you."

The sky showed just a bit more of the sun, a light drizzle started to rain down from the skies above. I felt myself shudder as I swallowed the growing knot in my throat. For the first time in years since the funeral, it was time for me to say hello. "Hey, gramps."

Mom placed the portrait of him right next to me. The glint of sunlight perfectly illuminated the smile on his face. I tried swallowing back more knots, more and more of them. Realizing that I needed the time to myself, the others walked back to the car, leaving on the royals to watch from a distance.

The warmth from the winter sun started to hang over me, allowing me to feel a seemingly familiar embrace. I cleared my throat and wiped my misted eyes. "Hey gramps.... I-uh... Yeah..." I sniffled. "It's... been a minute. Had a bit of a rough time back there, but it felt like you were there to get me out."

The drizzling rain intensified a tiny bit, but so did the sun.

"I know it's been a long time since we saw each other. And I'm sure you understood why. I never really had the opportunity to really tell you... how much I learned from you." I wiped my eyes again. "I know it looked like I was just some troubled teen who wanted to go about his own way and do a bunch of shit... things that I had no business doing─sorry for the swears. But I'm sure you have a lot of questions on what I'm doing right now. I'm getting into trouble... some good, some bad... but mostly for the good."

I looked at the photo of grandpa, the sun had started to hide themselves behind the clouds again.

"I know back then, I didn't really listen to you too hard, I was being a knucklehead believing in what I wanted to believe in. I didn't take into consideration what all you went through, what all you lost, what you had to push past. I never really asked those questions because I was so caught up in the image of being a guy who had it all, without realizing that you were the man who went through it all." I sniffled to clear my throat. "I never knew what it was to weigh in on the experiences you went through. And I know that ours are a lot different from each other... I just wish you were really here, so I can talk to you about it."

At that point, wiping my eyes was almost a pointless endeavor.

"I see a counselor almost every Wednesday, but he ain't you. I get some good advice from friends, but I don't get to tell you about it. I found a really wonderful girlfriend, and I don't get to hear you cheer me on sometimes. And I know you wanna cuss me out over the stupid... things I do. But I know when you finish, you wanna hug me and tell me it's going to be alright." I had stopped trying to hold back. "But I miss having you, I miss seeing you, I miss when you used to tell me the truths about life, to talk to me about the things I didn't understand, from the man who went through it all. The reason I never came here was because I felt like you abandoned me, never really seeing that you were trying to get me ready for what was to come. And I never thought..." A pair of arms had latched themselves around me.

That was all I really needed.

I didn't look up to see who it was that hugged me, I just hugged them back like I needed it. I was so captured by pain that I didn't even realize how much I needed this release. I just cried into them, never really finishing what I wanted to say. But I believed my point got across to him somehow, even if he wasn't there in body to hear it.

I stayed there for another ten minutes in the cold, hugging against the warmth that held me so tenderly. When I opened my eyes, I saw the pair of arms leave from around my body, slowly releasing me back to the present. My eyes were red and puffy, and I could breathe again. The knots in my stomach had resolved themselves. A kiss was left on my cheek. I turned around to see Celestia smiling so warmly at me, she leaned me down, kissing me on my forehead. "He heard every last word."

What I also noticed was that she had also brought with her the large teddy bear she had made. She had placed the large stuffed animal down at the gravesite, organizing the vase and flowers in between it's legs to appear that it was sitting against the bench. The sun briefly shined and the rain stopped altogether.

"I think he's happy to be able to talk to you again." She added.

The princess wiped my eyes and stood by me as I went back to speaking to gramps. "I know that our experiences are different. But I come back to you as a man who knows first-hand the struggles we face in our lives. Yours is different from mine, I can admit. But what they do to us will remain the same." I cleared my throat for the last time. "I hope you can understand, and still be there for me. I love you, and I miss you. And I hope to be seeing you again sometime soon... well, in this manner, of course."

The doting princess leaned my head into her chest, and whispered back to the grave of my grandfather. "You are a good man. And I hope you know that you've help raise a great one. Thank you."

As we walked away, the clouds broke even more, allowing the entire cemetery to bask in the sunlight.

After our visit to the cemetery, we rode over to the location of the barbecue joint. There began Blueblood's and Shining's tales of the human world, namely their first experience with meat. While Celestia and Twilight wasn't new to it, Luna definitely was. At least I could enjoy the various reactions of the night princess as she sunk her teeth into some southern cuisine.

If there's anything that we Texans were proud of, it's the five values. Football, guns, Christianity, our own nation, and if it ain't those four things, it was food. And boy did they serve us like it was their pride to do so. We opted to order the last plate for takeout after we were done, that way his food wouldn't be sitting around while we ate.

Luna's reaction was ravenous, to say the least. Once the food came around and she she followed our example, the princess seemed to have forgotten that it was actual meat that she was scourging through. She didn't care about any of the sauce that remained on her cheeks, or the loud noises of her scarfing down her food.

The pinnacle of Equestrian royalty.

Luna leered past her plate, still with a rib in her teeth as she saw the entire table staring back at her. Once she realized that we were all watching her, she blushed and corrected herself. Blueblood, who understood how she felt in the moment, offered yet another rib of his to her.

Once we were all settled down, I had stared into my wallet and noticed the wrapped up debit cards in my possession, each of them with a receipt for how much was left on the balance. Of course, those cards had to be activated later, but they were all tied into a number of waterfall accounts I had made during my time off. They were all Wells-Fargo checking accounts, so at the very least they could see the money they had available to them. And if there was ever a concern for limits, all they would have to do is ask and I would transfer some of my savings to replenish the account. I pulled out the cards, each with the various information on the receipts and their pin codes written at the bottom, to make sure it was easy to remember, I just set them to everyone's birthday.

Once I had them laid out, I tapped on a glass to get everyone's attention. "Okay, everyone. Can I get your eyes and ears for a moment?"

Everyone watched quietly as Stanton started to raise his glass. "So what are we toasting?"

"That'll come later. But as of now, I wanted to discuss an important matter." I replied, clearing my throat as I stood up to distribute the cards. "Seeing that something as of recent had really put in a dire strait, I figured it would be best to ensure that I have every possible avenue covered. At least if something happens to me, you guys would be alright."

"Son what are you on about?" Dad questioned as I gave him his card first.

"You'll find out." I replied. "Also, don't open that paper yet until I tell you you can."

I gave mom her card, she just pressed her thumb against it. "Honey, this feels like a credit card of some sort."

"Just wait before I tell you to open it." I said as I gave Alex his. "Congrats on the baby, dude."

"Yeah, you're gonna be an uncle soon enough. So please try not to die before that happens." He replied.

"I can't promise that, but I can say that I'm not looking forward to dying anytime soon." I stated as I gave Stanton his. "The NCAA don't mind if you keep this a secret, right?"

"If it's in your name, they can't do shit." He replied.

"It is in your name, so that's why I'm telling you to keep it a secret." I answered before I got back to my seat. "Now I know you're wondering 'what the hell am I holding onto', after all they feel like a bunch of debit cards. They are. And they're my insurance policy in case something were to happen to me. And if not, then they're something that you can use for whatever. I can at least tell all of you that there is no such thing as financial instability for this family."

"What are you talking about, dude?" Alex questioned.

"Well, you're about to find out. You can open those pieces of paper now." Each of them did as they were instructed, They looked at the receipts to see what was on them. But once they saw the number, each of them had almost shouted in the middle of the restaurant. "Yeah. If I could give you more, I would. But apparently no one told me that checking accounts had a hard cap set to around $250,000."

Stanton chuckled as he slid the card back over to me. "Nah, dude. You trying to get me in it deep with the NCAA."

"Dude, that only applies if there was a branding or advertising deal done without the NCAA's consent. There's nothing in the legal binding that points out how you can't have an allowance issued from a family member." Alex explained to Stanton before turning back at me. "Now as far as I'm concerned about you, where the hell did this money come from?"

"I had some bits appraised by a specialist, ran it up to a bank with a certificate of authenticity, sold them off in exchange for a cash amount. Since bits are basically pure gold and they weigh a gram each, they sell for the market value. I just dumped a total of 700,000 bits in exchange of American dollars."

"You know, they're gonna put a nix on that pretty soon thanks to fake sales, so you should be happy you dumped now rather than later." Vanessa added. "But still, if you're saying what I think you're saying, you might be sitting on some insane millionaire status."

"We'll talk about that later." I said as I pulled out my phone to check the time. "For now, I just want you guys to know that today was something I needed in my life. I know that time is becoming short-winded for us, but I do want to say that I enjoyed today for what it was. I know that in the coming weeks, it'll be really challenging for all of us. I'm sure that I'll come across some fresh hell that will deprive me of my sleep for a few days. But when it's all said and done, I'll hope to see you all again and we can talk about what comes next."

"You mean like your future?" Dad questioned.

"Yeah, and where I'll go from there." I replied. "But if something happens to me, just know that there is a fallback plan already in place."

"I sure hope we won't have to see that." Vanessa said with concern.

Celestia pointed towards herself as she replied to the newly-expecting mother. "I can assure you that we'll do whatever it takes to keep him in one piece. If anything else is to happen, we will notify you immediately."

The waiter came around to our table collecting our plates and started to distribute our receipts. Everyone present paid for their respective parties as I made the final order for Shining. Blueblood chuckled to himself. "So... I wonder if he'll mind his plate being lukewarm."

"The better thing to ask is if his wife is going to eat his food before he can enjoy it." Alex added, earning a nudge from his spouse.

"Cadance has had some questionable cravings as of late." Luna also pointed out. "Perhaps it would be best to err on the side of caution."

I simply looked to the waiter. "Okay, so I'm gonna have two more orders, to go please."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Once we were finished with our trip and I collected the food for both Shining and Cadance, we all went our separate ways. I drove Twilight to my apartment to get back to Ponyville, the other royals rode back with me to Mel's apartment to get back to Canterlot. When we crossed back over, everyone was transformed back to their usual forms and the astral siblings took their newly-acquired wares to their rooms.

I had pretty much walked into my room with a small sense of closure. Everything about my experience so far being more and more of what I needed. I needed the escape, and had it not been for my job I would've taken another few days off. But given who I was dealing with, I couldn't afford to lose his attention on me.

There was one more week before our agreement had settled through.

A lot of what happened was warned of, but never really explained on what all I had to face. A lot of my issues was that I had to make drastic changes in order to try and keep up during those first two weeks. But then he started throwing in the curveballs, some that I easily knocked out of the park, a lot I had the discomfort of getting caught by. But if this was my last week, then it had to be something really fucked up waiting for me at the finish line. He had a straight-line heater aimed for one of two things, the catcher behind me to strike me out, or my face to knock me out of the game. And there was no way of telling which.

My phone buzzed, indicating I had a notification from Instagram. Once I had pulled up my screen, I saw that Celestia had sent me an invitation to navigate the secret passages for a night in her room. I was more than happy to oblige as we didn't really have a lot of time together this week.

When I arrived at the room from behind one of her bookshelves, she waited on her bed with not a piece of gold on her. "Captain, how scandalous of you to appear in my chambers this late into the night."

"It's almost midnight. I expected you to be dead sleep by now." I said as I closed the access behind me.

The mare sat herself up as she looked to the open space next to her. "Sleep, rest, it's pretty much overrated if you've lived the life I had for a thousand years." She patted her bed in invitation. "Some moments are worth staying up for. You'll learn not to close your eyes all the time."

"I guess you've lost enough to know." I replied as I sat next to her.

"I lost friends, family, students, guards, fights, wars, favor among the public, court battles, and sure enough patience." She said as she latched onto my back. "In speaking of patience, why are you still sitting up?"

"Do you want me to lay down?" I asked with a smirk.

"Down with you." She commanded, pulling me to the bed with all of her strength. The princess hovered over me, her mane cascading down her face. Her eyes shone their lavender brilliance as they took me in. "Now let me explain something to you. You're spending the night here, and we are going to have our time together."

"I love the idea. But what do you think your wakeup detail will say if I'm discovered to be in your bed, much less your chambers?"

"You are being mentally evaluated." She replied as she leaned in closer. "By that, I mean that I'm evaluating you to see if you are truly happy with being around me."

"The better question is if you are happy being around me when I sleep. I'm all over the place, and sometimes I might sleep in the nude."

The princess giggled. "Ponies don't usually wear clothes anyways."

"Humans usually do." I replied.

Her horn began to glow, her eyes listing downward as she started to lift my shirt from over my abdomen. "Then maybe it's time for you to get back to nature's intent."

"You just want me shirtless." I deadpanned.

"Shirtless is such a tiny tribute." She replied with a bitten lip. "I demand much more of you."

"Like what?" I quietly inquired.

"Well there's a rule in my bed, no regalia, no accessories..." She tugged at the button against my pants as she lifted the shirt over my head. "...no secrets."

"Seems to me you want to break some laws." I chuckled.

"We've already broken it as much." She replied as her hoof slid up my chest. "It's just that I plan on giving you the reward you deserve when you've made provisions for us to love unabated."

I aided her in taking off my pants, but leaving my boxers on. "Okay. But I'd like to think there's some way we can nudge the goalposts a little more."

The mare smiled as she whispered in my ear. "There are a few, but there is one I want."

"And what is it?" I asked her.

She licked my cheek and whispered. "You could kiss and cuddle me for the rest of the night."

I know that many would feel cheated if they got pulled into a late-night meetup, only to get asked to cuddle and spoon. But I was fine with what she offered. Naturally, I'd want her to be in her human form and put on that lingerie for the rest of the night, but she has a way of making me appreciate the work I have to put in. At least when I finish, there's often a reward for my, as many older adults would call it, good trouble.

I began to nestle my fingers in between her feathers, lightly tickling them and her wings. She squirmed in response, laying against my chest. She sniffed against my chest, seeming to take comfort in my scent. My hands continued the work of preening her wings, her eyes listing from me to the slow hands that brought relief to her tense appendages. While my hands were at work, her hooves had anchored herself in place as she anticipated more of my ministrations. As I finished with the tips of her wings, she made it known that she had every intention to reward me for my labor.

She slipped the boxers right off of my waist, tossing the last barrier between me and her off of the bed. As I laid next to her, she climbed on top of me and nuzzled me. I took moments to grow accustomed to her warmth, the sleekness of her coat, the heavenly aroma of vanilla and honeysuckle. The princess was eager to have my hands wander to the many places of her body where attention was scarcely paid. Some places I did think to wander, but she would giggle and playfully reject me.

It was a week since our lips last met. That count was reset to seconds, with her exclusively to blame. While our moments had much of our usual flirting and playing around, there was a certain greed that came with us being where we were and the manner in which we were situated. I couldn't ignore my carnal desires for very long, and her own she couldn't deny for any less.

Celestia loved it when my hands were brought to her back as she was laying on top of me, the feelings of my fingers running across her and grasping down to tug her apart. She enjoyed it so much that she felt compelled to slow our tempo down. She knew she wanted to rush the gun, we both did. But she valued patience, despite the little she had in her own account. So she strapped my hands to the back of my head, held me down in place while I laid in submission to her. And for her own amusement, she left the thin satin sheets over my lower half, so that she couldn't see the prize she sought after.

One would think that she would leave it off, but it seemed that she was very much into hiding her gifts from her eyes until it was time to partake. Even last time we met, she did not once look to the part of me she held in her auras, just gauging my reaction to what she was doing. Holding and touching, grasping and tasting, those were the unusual limits she placed for the both of us. Though I'm sure it was my pushing it that far is why she had grown to be so needy and ambitious.

It was now her turn.

She began with a playful ascent from my ankles, worming herself between my legs and nesting beneath my crotch. She planted her hooves into my legs, gently pressing in and rubbing downward with care. But before she came back up, she would tease me with light kisses against the inner parts of my thighs. I was forced to watch as she came up slowly, gently teasing at the features around my loins. Her face had been brought to the tent that stood within her satin sheets, and she smiled as she allowed for it to rest beside her cheek.

Her magic knew what to seek, and she sought to grasp at it. However, she was meticulous in her method, clasping the sheets around what I desired to hold for myself. My hands twitched while I watched her rub her face along the standing tower, lightly running her lips around the summit. She gazed towards me, letting her lips touch the satin and pulling them away with a light suckle. Her eyes stayed on me as she opened her mouth, submitting her tongue to my length. The high princess watched as the greed started to consume most of my facial features, observing as my eyes started to close and envision the process of unsheathing me and offering to me what was real.

"And where do you think you're wandering off to?" She said as she gave me an amusing tug beneath the sheets. The sudden envelopment of warmth, the subtle glow of gold, all to disappear as quick as it manifested. I was roused from the fantasy of my mind and reintroduced to her eyes. She didn't seem to like that as much. "You don't get to let yourself go without me." She warned.

"Sorry. I was really working at that." I mumbled in defeat.

The princess teased herself, battering the sides of her face with my enveloped show of arousal. "Losing your interest? Perhaps I should make it a little more interactive for you." She released the bindings around my right hand, allowing it to move freely. As my hand started to caress the side of her head, she spoke with a devious grin. "You know what you want, don't you? Show me what it is you want."

I started to guide her head towards me. As her lips were brought back to me, she looked to the very topic of my interest and paid investment. Her lips continued to worship the veiled instrument of my succession. I started to lift a finger, manifesting a small amount of my magic to slowly uncloak the flesh that proudly stood for her. She was quick to notice me and freed her head from my hand, suckling my finger.

"You didn't think that would work, did you?" She teased. "I see now that you're already wanting me to give you back what you gave to me." She rose up, covering my face with a pillow. "Now's not the time for that yet."

As my face was covered, I could not see what it was she was doing, but I did feel much of it. It felt like she had readjusted herself, she had pressed her weight on top of me again, but this time with intent. The giggling princess retracted her weight and reapplied it, but to a distinctive location. I took the pillow from off from over my face, seeing that she had straddled me with the sheets separating us from one another. She held her hoof to mu chest as she kept her balance. Her comforter had concealed a lot of what was taking place down below, making me impatient and curious of what it was she was hiding.

She wiggled her hips lightly against me. "There. No more distractions. Now we have each other." She whispered as her mane fell past her face, brushing onto my face. She promptly adjusted that and gave me a sultry look. "You know, I was almost jealous yesterday morning. Could you tell?"

"You mean with Kalimba?" I asked.

The princess pressed her hips against me, causing me to flex into her. I started to realize just how aroused she was as she started to moisten the sheets above me. I sighed in reflex and placed my hand around her waist. I whispered profanities as she ground herself on me slowly. "I know the two of you may have done much together, but this is my moment now."

"Oh, so you work harder when you're jealous?" I questioned.

"I never said that." She said in a low voice.

"What you say and do are two different things." I replied. "Did Luna doing all of what she did today made you feel upset?"

"Upset in the way where I felt like sending her to the moon for another month." She answered.

My eyes started drifting down to where our hips had met with the small layer of separation. I started to peel back the sheets before she latched my hand back to her flank. "C'mon, let me see it." I whispered playfully.

"No." She answered childishly.

I gave her a firm smack against her flank, grasping at her on contact. She paused for a moment as I felt her hindlegs shake in response. The princess gasped and clutched to my chest, clenching her eyes as she shuddered. Her eyes popped back open and she regained her breath after a short pause. The moisture between us grew significantly. The princess had commonly kept her voice under suppression, but she couldn't hold back the light whimper she made with every surging pulse of her unexpected climax. As a result, her magic was quenched in full while she recovered.

"Dammit, Nondis. I wasn't supposed to go off this early." She complained.

"Seems to me someone doesn't know how to control herself as much as she would like to believe." I joked at her expense.

"Well maybe if you weren't so rough, I'd control myself a little better." She mumbled between breaths.

A most sinister smirk formed from the corners of my mouth, I was reminded of what was the trigger that caused her to act so ravenously the last time we met. I coiled my hand around the dock of her tail and lightly pulled upwards. "Oh is that so? So you like it when I'm rough?"

"Please don't." She pleaded bashfully. I gave it a quick tug, watching her collapse into my chest in her secondary peak amidst her attempted recovery. Her eyes rolled back as she formulated whatever words she could. "You... you just can't keep doing that. If you do, I'm trying for foals."

I laughed at her, giving her a kiss on her forehead. "I know that's what you want."

The princess snagged some of my hair, pulling me up as she still recovered from her previous orgasm. "You'll have enough of teasing me."

"You're the one who has a sheet between us." I pointed out.

"I have it there so that I don't abandon all reason and just dive in at you." She replied. "You haven't even finished, have you?"

"Nope." I answered before setting myself up and pulling her waist back down on to saddle me. "But you can help me right where you're at."

My hand started to grasp at her throat, the princess squeed with glee. "You know, I don't think I've been so assaulted since..." Her enjoyment had started to taper off for a moment as she gave her situation some thought and comparison. I went from grasping her throat to holding her cheek instead.

"Hey." I murmured into her, holding her face towards mine. "The difference between now and then is that I care for you enough to know how far you're willing to take it."

The princess froze in place, uncertain of how she wanted to answer me. She looked down at herself, especially the mark on her chest. "I... guess I am pretty nervous about this. I never really thought of what I was doing with you until now."

I gave her a light peck on her forehead once more. "If you need a moment, we can just do something else."

She firmed the position of her hips, wrapping her forelegs around me to show her dedication. "No. I want this. I'm just thinking of the past at a bad time."

"You're comfortable with me?" I questioned.

"Why wouldn't I be? I love you." The princess answered softly. Her ears twitched the next second as she realized what it was that ejected from her lips. She tensed up, covering her face with one of her wings. "Oh gracious mother, tell me I did not say that out loud." While the sudden confession caught me off guard, I couldn't help but to find my spirit soaring to the sky. The princess, however, tried to lessen the impact of her words. "I... I mean... I-i-it's not that I don't, I just can't really put myself into the perspective of not having you around is all. And I know that sometimes we royals can rush a little faster than we want to... I just... why did I just say that? I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry if all of this is too much for─"

"You're gonna make a beautiful wife."

Celestia separated her feathers, peeking at me through the opening she made for her eyes. I leaned down to get a better view of her face.

"Uh, hello. Equestria to Celeste?"

Her ears turned red as she brought another wing to hide her face. "D-Don't speak." She whispered.

"I know the other day you wanted to say a lot to me when I came back in the condition I was in. I know you had to hide a lot of you in doing that. But I want you to know that I love how you sometimes try to play it off." I leaned my forehead into her. "What you did for me today was nothing short of what I need for the rest of my life. Is it too soon for me to say that, yeah maybe. But when you came to me in that moment, I really did feel the closure I needed to have as well as the comfort and warmth I wanted."

"I was just─" She began before I interrupted her with my continued confession.

"Everything about you is... yeah. Like what way can I put it, I'd be here all night talking about it. You may not think it, but you radiate so much love that it's an addiction at this point. I dreamed of you even before I started speaking with you, before you even gave me that first kiss. Maybe it's the what all I've had to face thus far, and now I'm just coming to the point where I don't see a need of holding back anymore. I faced death twice in the matter of two weeks, why the hell not? You only live once, well I do anyways. I don't know if I'll ever get this chance again, this moment, not after this week. But if I do, I want to be as flagrantly in love with you as much as I am your harshest critic."

The princess quickly shook her head, lashing back at me. "Please stop talking."

I reached under her wings holding to her chin as they slowly separated. "The scars on your body, I want to hear every story they have, just like you know of mine. The fears and horrors you faced, I want to be able to exchange the ones I suffered, with you. I don't know anyone else who could ever give me that security in my life other than you." My heart was still racing from the confession she gave me, much like it did from the first moment she laid her lips onto me. I trembled as I offered my own declaration. "Celeste Delanise Valkyrie, I─"

The princess interrupted me and pushed her head back into mine. "...I was serious about the foals." She added, looking off to the side as her hips sank into me.

I snickered at the princess, mainly in disbelief of her timing. "That's an interesting response."

"I'm serious." She muttered, breathing heavily as her hooves still coiled around me. "I'll retire this instant and will try for a family tonight, right now. Don't you dare think that's funny."

"Well as much as I would love to see you try to make that work between two different species, I don't think retiring from the crown right now is a good idea." I replied, earning an eye roll from the princess of the sun.

"To hell with it!" She hollered out loudly in a fit of frustration. She then caught herself and covered her mouth in shock that she screamed as loud as she did. "Sorry, I'm a little excited." She said, sinking her hips into me for another time.

While I could feel the moisture between us almost render the satin sheets pointless, I was caught in an odd state between arousal for the immediate moment and absolute pleasure of the heart. I wanted to be able to give attention to both of my bodily needs, but I struggled to do so because of how each had become so overwhelmingly blissful. "I want to love you, and get to know you, at the same time. I know that's a lot to ask."

"We won't be able to marry for a while." She said, brushing her lips against mine.

"I feel we can wait it out." I said, leaning into kiss her.

"I'm possessive." She said, leaning back to not allow me the chance.

"Who isn't in any way?" I whispered.

She turned her head from me, glancing down at where our union was all but certain. "I like nicknames... and sonnets... and flowers... and─"

"And plushies." I finished, tilting her chin up to me again.

"Soft stuff, yes." She whimpered, shuddering at the continued warmth of me against her. "But I also like being small at times."

"Submissive?" I questioned.

"...Maybe." The mare clenched her teeth, slowly sinking herself against me, her hips started to pick up a slow rhythm.

"When the time is right?" I asked.

"Like... right now." She said as she finally reintroduced her lips into mine. For just a few seconds, we lost ourselves verbally and started discovering the comfort of each other's tongues. Her lips ravaged mine as her hips rocked back and forth into mine. My tongue flicked at hers playfully, hers danced around mine, pressing and caressing into it with an immeasurable aggression. Our eyes partways opened to see one another so unquestionably in love and lust. There was only one word that came to my mind in seeing her the way she was right now: Breed. I wanted to sexually prosecute her into total and unquestioned obedience, just for the chance to recreate life.

She was serious about foals, I was more than willing to provide.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

The both of us came to a cold stop, our ears flinching at the knock that sounded at her door. While I was driven to hide myself, the princess held me down and buried my head into her chest. "Who calls?" She called out to the door.

A guard stood at the door on the outside, hailing back to the princess. "Your highness, I heard a scream. Is everything all right in there?"

While I looked up to her frantically, she continued to feign a calmness in her voice despite the fact that I could hear her heart pounding in her chest. "I was just frustrated over some paperwork. Don't mind me."

"Your highness, it's customary that you get your daily rest." The guard responded.

"I will. Thank you." She replied to him also.

The both of us were motionless, listening out for the hoofsteps in the hall to fade further and further away. As the guard started to sound distant, I craned myself from under her and looked for my shirt. "I guess that's my cue."

Before I could levitate my shirt off the ground, the princess slapped my hand down. "No it's not. You stay there and love me like I told you to." She said as she went back to having her forelegs wrapped around my shoulders. "I want to wake up to you before I raise the sun. I want to tell her what all we've done together."

"Just as long as she can keep secrets." I joked.

The princess giggled. "She's great at that."

For moments, we just laughed at what we narrowly avoided, the awkwardness of being interrupted in the midst of our heated romp, and then in silence as we looked at each other, taking joy in being in one another's reach. It didn't take long for her to go right back into warming herself back up, and neither did it take me as much time to get back to where I was. In fact, the idea of almost being caught was in itself a bit of a thrill, not one I would like to experience again but it dared me to continue. The princess kissed me softly as she looked at me with such passion and endearment.

My mind was made up, I wanted to wake up to that face every morning. And I would go to hell and back to do it. "I love you, Cella."

She chuckled and replied. "I love you too... Nondie."

The Next Day...

There was a knock at the princess' door. She looked down to her golden wind-up clock and noticed the time, 5:37. She rose from her bed and stretched her forelegs, her hindlegs, her entire body before plopping a hoof down next to her. In doing so, her eyes jumped open to feel another body next to her. She looked over and saw the human she had spent time with the previous night.

A smile awoken to her lips, her eyes were filled with a comfort unknown to her for a millennium. She leaned down and kissed his cheek before leaving the warmth of her sheets. The princess yawned as she summoned her regalia to her head and chest, walking into her slippers before approaching the door.

The sun princess opened the door to see three other guards along with a familiar face. "Morning, your highness."

"Solemn Oath, I see they've put you on wake-up." She said to the guardsmare.

"Actually, I volunteered, your highness." She announced proudly.

"So I see."

A loud snore erupted from the bed. The two looked over to see the human who tossed and turned over to his other side. Solemn, as well as the other guards outside, were confused. "What is he doing here?"

Celestia tried to hide her expressions, remaining visibly stern. "I had him stay overnight. I needed to evaluate his mental state to make sure he was suitable for his work."

"Don't we have specialists for that?" Solemn suggested. "I mean, I don't think it's reasonable to have someone as important as you to do something so... is it offensive to say 'trivial' in this subject?"

The princess gave a fair response. "He is my responsibility, as there has already been an incident involving a human in recent days. It's only right that I keep an eye out for any more developments. And it's not that I don't have the time, it's that there are very few ponies I have grown to trust regarding this matter." Celestia bent down to quietly address Solemn directly. "I'm sure you remember Thursday afternoon quite clearly."

"Iron Hoof, I didn't know he was so obsessed with you." The guardsmare confirmed with understanding. "But he shouldn't be in here, your highness, much less in your bed."

"My personal kindness is extended to those who aid me the most, Solemn Oath. I'm sure you already knew that."

The mare glanced past the princess at the door, seeing the peaceful human at rest with a smile on his face. "...Understood."

From there, Celestia went on to bark her first orders of the day. "Go on and ready the other patrols for their shift change. I'll continue dealing with him until he wakes. Then I'll dismiss him from my room."

"Yes, your majesty." Solemn answered with a salute.

The doors closed and the princess was left to her lonesome with the human still at rest. She walked past him and towards her balcony. Upon arriving to her post, she saw that the moon had been already brought down by Luna. She ignited her horn and hummed to herself while she raised the sun from it's rest. Once the celestial orb was brought along it's way, the princess walked into the bathroom to take a dip in her bathing pool.

She stayed there for some minutes, thinking fondly of the previous night. Often times she would sink into the water, letting the warmth take her along the familiar memory of his hands grasping at her wings, her forelegs reaching around him to anchor herself against him, the many climaxes she shared with him without a moment of crossing the line she set aside for herself. Even though she wished for more, she was still excited with what she had gotten out of it. She became irrationally exuberant as his words played back in her mind.

'I love you, Cella.'

All she could think of was their next meeting, even if it had to be in secret. Despite the fact that she knew what they were doing was very much illegal, she couldn't care less for it. She had the happiness she hadn't experienced in quite some time, much less the very brief and bittersweet encounter she last had with the good King Sombra over two years prior.

Ever since that moment, she almost accepted that fate had no desire to see her happy in the company of another. In fact, of her personal contacts, they were either killed, sealed away, or was corrupted to darkness. But today felt like a change of fortune for her. She felt truly loved for the first time in many years. There was nothing she felt that could take that moment from her...

...Nothing except fate.

The thought of anything that could go wrong had started to break away at the fond memories she recalled from the previous night, replacing them with many alterations of bad news that could come in the following week. After all, he still had to go back to Canterrot, anything could happen.

After rinsing off, she got back into her bed to greet the human that started to stir awake.

My eyes fluttered open to see the mare of the sun smiling at me with a young countenance. "Good morning, Nondie." She greeted ever so sweetly.

"I almost forgot where I was." I said as I started to fully open my eyes to the world. "What time is it?" I asked tiredly.

"It's almost time for breakfast." She replied, giving me a kiss on my cheek.

"Ugh, that means I need to be up and at it." I said, yawning and stretching as I stumbled out of her bed.

The princess snagged my arm and pulled me back down to the bed. "Slow down, you. I can't let you go without a proper greeting."

She gave me several pecks on the lips before giving me a much more open invitation. I hummed with amusement. "So I take it that you're just making up for the time we spent sleeping."

"I almost overslept because of you." She said as she looked at the golden windup clock on her nightstand.

"I'm sorry to be a distraction." I teased back.

"Oh no, far from it. You're a source of a lot of my energy today." She said happily.

"Well I'm happy to know that." I said, giving her one more peck on her lips before I started searching for my clothes. "I have to get back to my room to shower."

Celestia had beaten me to the punch, grabbing my clothes and setting them up beside her. "Just take a dip in the bathing pool, you'll be clean all the more."

"And have me going around the castle smelling like the princess' personal assembly of perfumes?" I deadpanned.

"Consider it a badge of honor." She responded gleefully.

"No, my badge of honor would be me going as is, smelling like you." I joked.

The princess tried to hide her little devious smirk from me, showing that she was somewhat interested in the idea. She had to snap herself out of the idea for a second, clearing her throat. "Well that version of me is not what I want out there for my maids to talk about. It's bad enough Luna already had you do that once to piss me off."

"What? You, the princess of petty, don't want your man to go out smelling like a marked target?" I questioned sarcastically.

"Absolutely not." She said through a half-chuckle.

"The thought of it excites you." I pointed out.

The royal mare played with her forelegs before pointing me in the direction of her bathroom. "Yes it does, but we have a reputation to uphold. Now get in that room and bathe in that pool for fifteen minutes. You'll smell like the royalty you are in my eyes."

"Aw, that's sweet." I said, taking her advice.

I closed the door behind me and started sitting in the pool, contemplating over what had taken place last night. I couldn't help but grin from ear to ear over what we had done and said to each other. The mere fact that she came out and admitted she was in love with me was still so surreal to me. And after last night, I understand why she would want me to stick around. We had almost gotten to the point where we were about to give a middle finger to the marriage law and just go all-in. But most importantly, I had a feeling in my chest I haven't felt in months.

Maybe we were rushing it, fine. But I was happy with what we had, and I didn't see much of a fault past the first time we shared a bed together. I don't feel the possessiveness as much, I don't feel the underlying current of external oversight aside from a marriage law that's soon to be thrown in a retirement home with the rest of it's staunch supporters. All I had to do was make it through the week.

And all of yesterday was a great way to refuel, reload, and recharge for the week.

I stepped out of the bathroom, still covering myself because the the princess was still holding my clothes. She handed them over for me to wear, and I walked back out with them on again. I checked the time and saw that it was well-going into eight. I walked over to give the princess a parting kiss on the cheek. "Alright. I'm out."

When my lips made impact, she snagged the collar of my shirt to prevent me from leaving. "Before you go. We need to talk about something." There wasn't a smile on her face, apparently something serious came to mind.

"Sure, what's up?"

She took a deep breath and started speaking. "After this week, that makes four weeks your friends have been here. As agreed, we'll return them to your world this Saturday."

"I hope that's the case. I bet they're sick of being on all fours." I replied.

"That also means you'll be done in Corrotto, right?" She inquired, the look on her face becoming a bit more dire.

"Should be. Our agreement was a month, this makes it a month and then some. Friday should be the last day I drop by. And if not, well I guess I'll have to do another week to make sure."

Celestia was not in agreement to the precautionary timeline I provided. "Nondis, after this Friday, I don't want you going back there."

I can already tell she was pretty firm on me being done with the VIP Lounge, probably had her mind made up on Friday night when I came back the way I did. However, all I could think of was if he had some other plans that would put any more humans at risk, my friends for that matter. And there was still the thought of him just simply reneging on what we agreed on for some extra bullshit. "But who's to say that Slade wants me to get everything I want on Tuesday instead? I know I want to be out of there by Friday, no fucking less than that. But if I have to, then I will try to put an end to him for good."

The princess yanked me further down, disagreeing with my ultimatum. "I told you not to involve yourself with him."

"Cella, that bastard took one of my own and made me kill him. This is personal at this point."

She used a hoof to cusp at my cheek, quietly pleading with me. "I know how you feel, but don't let yourself be consumed by vengeance. You must see to it that you can make Friday your last day there and come back home, to me."

I know that I want to be able to promise her that I could just come back and be done with it, but there was no way of knowing if he was going to put me through something I couldn't physically or mentally recover from. "I can't promise that, but I can try my best."

She grew even firmer with her plea. "I don't want you to try. I want you to do it."

"Cella, you know that life is fickle and fate is far more of the same." I argued.

"Yes I do, that's why I want you back here no later than midnight. You bring yourself to me, no late-night stays, no distractions, if my guards don't see you at a checkpoint by the minute before, I will send Luna to snatch you up and out." She outlined, even going so far to get personal over the matter.

"What if he has reservations?" I pointed out.

"Those no longer matter after Friday, you have my word." She insisted. "Now you get what you're supposed to get out of him, leave him be, and come back home. I'm not losing you, I'd sooner become the beast I feared becoming again than to lose you for the first time."

I knew there was no winning against her. If she says that she wants me to be done by a certain day, that she would give me her word that it comes to an end on that day, then I have to take it. Even then, my mind went back to the Instagram post she made, the way she punished Iron Hoof and his conspirators, the way she intervened when I was down for the count in Everfree. I've seen her fight, and I know she'll do it with no hesitation.

If she had something planned, then I know it will be good. "I'll give it my best."

She leaned in, kissing me before letting me go. "Get what you need. Get out. That's your mission for the week, captain."

"Yes, your highness." I acknowledged her request.

I turned to leave and she called out before I could open the door, making sure no one could hear her. "Come back to me. Don't give me another memory to mourn... I love you."

"Tell me something I don't know." I said looking back at her with a smile and a wink. "I love you too. See you at breakfast."

I walked out of the room, seeing a patrol walking by to relieve the shift of the guards. So far as I was aware of the numbers that came marching back, my new security rotation had gone uninterrupted. The results were promising. I walked further down the hall and checked the time. 8:05 on the dot. An irregular shift adjustment by five minutes, and an even sturdier measure of having guards rotate in pairs as opposed to entire squads. The week before, the halls were so scarcely filled in the morning, this was a promising change.

"Patrols have completely shifted, sir." I looked down to see Solemn standing before me with a salute. "Seems your swap-around is a lot more airtight than previous weeks."

"Solemn, didn't expect you to be here." I greeted the mare.

"I'm just getting off of wakeup patrol. A lot of what happened in past few days have gotten the officers frantic." She said as we started walking alongside each other towards the cafeteria.

"What is it this time?" I asked with an eyeroll.

"Division in the ranks, regulars taking sides, all because Iron Hoof was dishonorably discharged post-mortem. Some say you're to blame, others point out the obvious. Also there's seems to be a young group of students protesting outside of the castle, something about marriage laws and 'the freedom to love'."

I scoffed at the development she informed me of. "The rest sounds pretty bad. But why is that last bit so much of an issue?"

"Well, it's more of a political issue that's starting some division in the city streets between the older conservative Equestrian crowd and the younger liberal Equestrian working class. They say that they should be free to love who they want to."

"How did this come up?"

"Well, with some breeding laws still in place from the old civil war, some mares have gotten pretty tired of following the old herding approach to stallions. They just want to be able to love who they want freely. There are even some stallions getting in on the action."

"Ah, civil rights." I concluded.

"I suppose." She said with a shrug.

"You don't mind me asking, where do you stand on the matter?"

"I'm on the side of free lovers. I mean, we should be able to love who we want freely. Hence why Thursday's incident caused such a dispute when it got out from behind castle walls." She replied. "It's a movement that pretty much takes aim at a lot of the marriage and breeding laws that are in effect right now. A lot of conservatives see it as immoral, saying that ponies should have a moral obligation to breed males back into a higher percentile of the population, at least more than the current one-in-three ratio. Having same-sex relationships threatens that in their eyes."

"Don't they know that those ponies won't be breeding either way if they're unhappy? At least if they choose to have a stable relationship, build a home together, they can offer the idea of being artificially inseminated or adopt a kid to make a family, even so much as being a sperm donor for someone to have your child, they have ponies out there willing to make that happen for someone. There's a number of ways to do it, and it should even matter to those old crusty ponies anyways." I stated, offering my own perspective. "You can't force someone to love the opposite sex if their heart is in someone else who happens to share the same set of tools, or if they're a different sapient species, whatever. All relationships follow a set of boundaries. If someone's happiness is predicated on your expectations or norms, then you can't play victim when they still want who they want and bitch about them removing you from their life."

"Ugh! Finally, somepony gets it!" The guardsmare erupted. "My parents wanted me to settle down because they believed I needed to have a family to come home to when my day was done. They even outlined my entire career once I got in, do my fifteen years or so, find a decent guard or doctor, settle down, have some foals, retire in year twenty. Every time we meet up, they ask me if I found a boyfriend or husband. Then don't get me started on all the stupid recruits thinking they can get lucky after a few drinks! It irks me to no end!"

"Trust me, I've been privy to the conversation." I replied. "Most times, the boys want you out of the way to shoot their shot at your friends."

"I know. And I'm the main thing that stops them. It's pretty much why they keep me around, I'm the guard dog of the group who chews out anyone looking to try."

"I hear you're pretty good at it." I said with a chuckle.

"The girls say I'm too good at it too. They say I scare the fish away, but I really do it for quality control. No friend of mine isn't getting with some insecure punk who doesn't have a roadmap for his own life, no matter the age." She said with a proud smile.

"I'm curious. How is it that you don't have guys lining up to try and tame the beast that is you?"

"A disinterest so strong that it serves as the foundations of Canterlot." She stated in a sarcastic manner. "But in all seriousness, I just don't see my future bogged down by my parents expectations of me. Maybe I just don't want to outright disappoint them with the truth that I don't want a stallion in my life."

"Why is that?" I asked.

"Because I feel like my family will hate me for it." She answered somberly.

"You're a lesbian, maybe?" I questioned casually.

The mare's eyes popped open and she gave me a painful nudge into my leg. "Can you not say that out loud?"

"Sorry. I forgot that this stuff is a stigmatic conversation here. Being gay in my world, at least in my country, is less of a big deal than what people want it to be. In fact, there are several focus groups looking to make gay marriage a legalized practice back home. And most people favor it. Some countries have even made it legal before we did."

"Sounds like a pretty awesome world to live in." She said with a soft, but envious smile.

"Of course, there's some violent opponents of that idea, as well as some families who disown their own kids for it out of religious spite, but that's about as far as it goes."

"The Faustian faith preaches firmly against it as well." She added, sighing with defeat. "Guess that makes our worlds more alike than different."

I looked at the mare who appeared slightly disheartened. "I'm only speaking from my perspective. But I think we should love who we want to."

"I agree." She said with a more comfortable smile before it faded into uncertainty. "Um, about our conversation. Please don't tell anypony."

"Classified." I replied with a wink. "Top secret."

The Guild's Tavern of Corrotto
Later That Evening...

Umbra sat as his table watching the many members walking by and raising cheers to him. Each of them raised a mug of cider in his honor to pay homage. As he sat in his seat, a wooden throne fashioned for a king, he watched as the festivities and merriment took place. the alcohol he consumed had started to take a toll on his impairment. The stallion drunkenly waved his hoof at the celebrating guild, who wished him a happy birthday.

"Oy Doctor, Hearts and Hooves day is comin' up! Maybe you'd fancy a hairy spider or two in your knickers!" A mare called out with a thick Highland accent, much to the glee of surrounding guild members.

Umbra drunkenly laughed back. "As long as they don't bite!"

"AYYY!" The stallions in the crowd all called back.

"Hey Doctor! So a Faustian priest called in a mass to pray for the miners! What say you!?" A stallion called out to the merry Umbra.

"Give them a break, they've been working the shaft all day!"

"AYYY!" The crowd cried out in celebration of the joke.

"Herr good Doctor, you seem to be in fine spirits today!" Yet another stallion called out.

"That and gin!" Umbra replied.

The crowd laughed at his witty reply. "Doctor, you're always so good to us!" A griffon called out to the seated stallion of the hour.

"Am I, am I really!?" Umbra playfully questioned, earning the cheers and approval of every guild member in room. The overwhelming praise for him had him feeling quite enthusiastic in his drunken stupor. He stumbled to his hooves and slammed one into the table before him. "I'll tell you what! Whole night, it's all on me!"

The crowd began to cheer until a changeling mare called out to him. "But you already gave us the whole night!" She said, prompting many of the others to think about and shrug at his offer.

Umbra smiled as he hollered out in quick succession. "Well fuck it, the whole week on my tab!"

The eruption of cheers and singing that came from the crowd was far louder and more pleasing to his ears than what he could possibly have on a given Friday night. The pony began to hear the chorale being sung to his name and conducted along.

♪All drinks on the Doc,
all drinks on the Doc,
a whole fuckin' week, we'll drink a whole lot!
We'll drink a whole lot,
we'll drink a whole lot,
the whole goddamn week, we'll drink your whole stock!
We'll drink your whole stock,
we'll drink your whole stock,
down to the last drop, ALL DRINKS ON THE DOC!♫

Umbra finished conducting as he raised a mug to chug down another helping of cider. Much of the drink splashed on his face as he held it up high above his head in an attempt to pour it into his mouth. After he finished, glanced over to his side to see the multitude of mugs that hand sat empty, each attesting to his own count. Also resting with them were a number of bottles gifted straight from the bar.

The stallion grinned before he slumped back into his seat. His vision blurred and blacked repeatedly as he started to think to himself. "Ah, this place... this place has so many memories... good and bad." He looked down to the crowd of creatures all laughing and joking amongst each other, more of the bar maids working overtime to bring the members drinks upon drinks upon drinks at their leisure.

His eyes drifted to the front window of the tavern, he saw the streets outside. The smiled faded from his face as he started to drop his head, unable to fight against his drunkenness any longer. The cheers of the present soon began to fade into the familiar noise of the crowd in his past. He faded out with one more murmur on his lips.

"Memories... good, bad... and infuriating."

Town Square
Corrotto, Canterlot
482 Years Ago...

The scene around the town square of Corrotto was one that was filled with frenzy and even some celebration. The denizens of the lower classes called for the release of the pony responsible for Ivory Spiral's death. But their cries mattered very little in the eyes of the higher influence, who treated the spectacle like the beginnings of a picnic. They waited impatiently for the young colt to receive his just due.

That impatience was further exacerbated for the family of the deceased. "How long must we wait!?" The influential noble called out angrily.

"But uncle, I thought we were to be patient." The young adolescent rebutted to his uncle.

"Patience is a virtue, but when things are dragged out for the sake of being dragged out, it's perfectly fine to verbalize how your patience is wearing thin."

"So what do we do now?" The young Sanctus questioned.

Meanwhile, the grieving mother who's makeup ran down her cheeks had started to lash out. "I can't bear it anymore, Hallow!"

The aristocratic stallion nodded in agreement. "I know, Glister. It will be fine, once the day is done, all will be well again."

She shouted at him, her tears running down her cheeks as she expressed her pain. "Our son is dead because of him! There is no such thing as it being well!"

At long last, the drums started to sound throughout the town square. The deep punching sound of the snares played out a haunting rhythm of quarters and eighths. While the voice of the crier could barely be heard over much of the commotion in the town square, the snares weighed past the cries of release from the multitude. The young colt was brought from his cage and walked to the stage, his face being concealed as he was guided up the stairs. Dirtied and bruised, he tried to feel his way around until he slipped against the dew-soaked wood. He was yanked from the ground, his mask falling off for a moment to reveal his face.

"Is that him?" Sanctus asked.

"That's him." Hallow murmured angrily before turning around to quickly restrain his wife.

"YOU MURDERER! YOU VILE BASTARD OF THE DIRT! BE JUDGED LIKE YOU JUDGED OUR SON! YOUR FAMILY WILL BE CURSED! YOUR PARENTS WILL SLAVE THEIR LIVES AWAY TO REPAY US! MARK MY WORDS, YOU LOW-BORN BRAT!"

The hood was placed back on his head after the rope was tightened around his neck. From there he was left alone to wait until the stool he stood on was to be kicked from under him. The drums broke into a sustained roll, waiting for the moment the stool was to be taken away. The executioner stood pat, looking to Hallow for the final word. The aristocrat nodded, and the stool was kicked way. The snares stopped rolling as the young stallion unexpectedly fell to the ground with an unceremonious flop. "What happened?" Sanctus asked, confused by the occurrence.

"The ropes have been cut!" The angry aristocrat announced as he directed his ire to the executioner. "HEY! EXPLAIN YOURSELF!"

But while he paid more attention to the executioner, he paid little mind to the golden halberd lodged in the wood of the rope's support beam, and even less to the crowned mare waiting right beside it. "The princess." Sanctus said excitedly, gawking in awe at how close she was to his eyes. "She's so beautiful. Why does she not smile?"

The princess loudly called out to the crowd to make her announcement. "Citizens of Equestria! It has come to my attention that this execution will come to a change in order!"

Very much frustrated by the circumstances, Hallow stormed past the crowd to reach the front of the stage. "Like hell it will!"

"Uncle!" Sanctus called out, trying to join him.

"Stay back! I'll deal with this! You stay put!" He angrily reprimanded the adolescent colt, then directing that same energy towards the presiding princess. "Your highness! Your highness!"

"Who calls?" She asked to the silenced crowd.

"I am Count Hallow Bastion, father of the young lord Ivory Spiral! I seek retribution for my slain son! We shan't postpone an hour later for any reason! We demand for justice now!"

"Surely seeing a body struggle to breathe isn't the grand vengeance you seek, is it?" She asked him.

The stallion gawked at the princess as he saw her holding the halberd in her possession, it's blade lodged in the wood where the rope once swayed. The young colt breathing heavily with relief as his life would continue for a little while longer. "Your majesty, he is a murderer! I cannot allow him to live!"

"But surely you'd rather a more fitting spectacle. A bloodless death for a bloodied one doesn't seem very just. If your son's blood was spilled, then why simply give him the common criminal treatment? I would like to think that you'd be more enthusiastic about my willingness to rent my blade for a more fitting method? Perhaps you would prefer that a criminal's head be on display for the others to know their place?"

While the young stallion's heart began to race as he heard the drastic change of how his fate will be brought, Hallow's criticism soon fell to excitement as he made his request. "Why your majesty, why haven't you presented this idea earlier!? I would've easily allowed the executioner to lop off his head! The message that would send would be substantial! If you would, would you allow me the honours of seeing to his end myself?"

"As you wish!" She said, holding her hoof to her halberd. "Come!"

While the stallion marched up to the side of the gallows to join her and the condemned on it's stage, his wife cried out to him emphatically. "That's right, Hallow! You give our son the proper rest he deserves!"

The princess placed the halberd on the stage, and invited him to pick it up. As he made his attempts to wield it, he quickly discovered it's weight was not ideal for his physical capabilities. The princess even aided him by magically holding his hind legs in place to give him more leverage. Eventually, trying to grab the golden halberd had made him too weak to do much outside of pant and concede defeat, much to the disappointment of the crowd. "Well... I suppose that this is a matter that only you can rectify, your highness."

The audience chuckled at his weakness. The princess merely brushed it off. "Indeed, I wouldn't have expected you to get this thing to budge in the beginning. After all, I did configure it's weight to crush armor and bone alike. It's much easier to use in battle as opposed to the traditional sword or spear. Though the blade is beautiful, would you like to see the details up close?"

"Why yes, your highness." He said as the blade was brought closer for him to behold. "I see. It's a very beautiful blade. It is only a shame that it's majesty is soon to be tainted by the blood of a murderer."

"I agree. It is shameful that I would use it in such a manner." She said before hiking the blade underneath his chin. The once-passionate stallion froze, looking back to see her magic still grasped around his hind legs, holding him where he stood. "You're so right, it's nothing short of a disgrace."

He loudly and nervously informed the princess. "Your majesty, the blade is on my throat."

"I know. But you want to know something else? There's always this look a pony has when they've done something terrible to someone and just moments later, they get their comeuppance. It goes without saying your son had that same look of desperation on his face when he died. It's almost funny, you're wearing that same exact face. So is there any reason why you'd wear that face right now?"

The princess leaned in, whispering low to where no one else could hear. The anxious wife called out to her husband on the gallows. "Hallow! Hallow, what's wrong!?"

While she cried out to her husband, urging him to tell her what was wrong, his eyes expanded and he began to nod at the princess whispering in his ear. His mouth barely moved, and very little could be heard from him. The princess' eyes narrowed as she stepped forward, driving the blade of her halberd through his neck until the flesh of his neck could no longer resist the weight. In simple fashion, the aristocrat's life came to a tumbling end as his head rolled from off of his shoulders.

The crowd was stunned quiet. Glister croaked in seeing her husband's head tumble to the front of the stage. The mare held her remaining son, covering his eyes while she wept for her slain husband.

Sanctus shuddered as the princess' laugh filled the square, piercing so loudly that not even the previously rattling snares could overshadow her. The look of absolute bliss appeared on her face as she released the magic holding down the hooves of the headless body. In grizzly fashion, the body slumped before her. She shoved the remains aside and announced loudly to the crowd. "Ponies of Equestria, my humble citizens!" She said with the largest blood-stained smile on her face. "Thine princess has arrived."

Glister trembled as she held her son, covering his eyes as she tried to stifle her wailing. As Sanctus started to reach out for his uncle, she grabbed him and held him close for a moment while the princess addressed the crowd. While doing so, she slowly raised the head from where she stood to up high for the entire square to see.

"My humble citizens, your princess hears your cries! Your calls for justice in a land ruled and owned by greedy lords and selfish aristocrats! Nobles who seek to take advantage of you by leaving you in squalor, forcing themselves upon you when you are at your weakest. Taking from you when you have very little and leaving you with nothing, then requesting that you give them more in exchange for your suffering! I know your plight too well! I've once known a stallion who suffered these things, and rose above them to challenge the ones who oppressed him. And this one who I've claimed is the MURDERER of Prince Fair Charity!"

Her magic disappeared from his mane, dropping his head from high above the stage to the ground below. The aristocrat's eyes wandered listlessly, with Sanctus' horrified expression being the last thing he saw before it all ended. The crowd began to cheer wildly as the family tried to bear with the sudden loss of one of their own. It was supposed to be a time of closure for them, only to be usurped by the horror they were made to witness.

The princess then pointed her hoof to the group of grieving ponies in the crowd, the first one being his grieving wife. "Her." Then his brother, Sanctus' own father. "Him." It then pointed to Sanctus' aunt. "Her." It even pointed onto himself. "Him." Then another one of his uncles. "Him." And finally his younger cousin. "Him."

Without warning, Sanctus felt himself being tugged at by his own father, who ripped the clothes off of him and kicked him into the dirt. He looked up to see that it was none other than his father who looked to him distraught with terror and regret. In that moment, he went out of his way to assault his own son brutally for the sake of visually disowning him. He then started lashing out against other stallions and mares who started to get violent towards the family.

The princess' voice called out once more, stoking the fires of wrath. "Those are the ones who carry his blood, do with them what you will, citizens! Make this your declaration against those who live lavishly off of your backs!"

Sanctus watched as his father exchanged blows with other ponies around him. After a few brief exchanges, he went back to hitting on him to further show divide. The crowd angrily shouted to the stallion, calling for his head for assaulting the adolescent colt lying bloodied and battered on the cobblestone street. Screams and cries of his family had grown significantly loud until they were silenced one-by-one. Sanctus was dragged away from the fracas, away from his father who vehemently called out to the princess his last discernable words. "Madness, you insinuate madness!"

The grunts and cries of his father were eventually drowned out by the sound of the many lower-class citizens cheering and celebrating in the town square. Some grabbed the spears of some nearby guards who also joined in the celebration, and they distributed them to some of the ones overlooking the bodies of the family. Sanctus watched as the first pike that hovered high above the crowd had shown his uncle's departed visage. Next was his aunts, his cousin, and finally his father. Sanctus was walked away from the scene by some of the lower-class citizens, the same ones who eagerly cheered seeing his family's heads swaying in the Canterlot sky above the town square.

As he was brought to a local tavern to be cared for, he couldn't shake the sight of his family looking down at him from high above. He shook violently, scared of everything around him. And it was especially for his fear of joining with his family in their farewell flight in the square.

A young bar maiden wiped the blood from his lips as she cursed the fallen aristocrats. "Bloody bastards! Assaulting foals and trying to execute young colts!"

The bar owner looked outside of his window as the crowd started a parade, marching down the streets with the bloodied pikes in tow. He looked up to see the dismayed and resigned faces of the ponies who once represented the higher class. "Blood-thirsty tyrants, the lot of them!"

"This one was being accosted by one of those headless souls." The maid called out.

"Well they're headed down the street now. I suppose business will be good tonight, best to prepare for the coming tide. Maybe I should run a deal, bring us an ear of those bastards, get a night of drinks on us."

The maid pulled out a bottle of whiskey, dabbing some to a cloth and applying it to the stallion's busted lip. Sanctus winced while she applied pressure. "I can't even call it cruel! Those aristocrats are always looking down on us, doing horrible things to us in the lower class!"

"Now it's our turn to make them pay!" The bar owner said with a cackle, he quickly went about the business of wiping his tables clean for the anticipated celebration to take place. He then called out to the young colt. "Hey, lad. You alright?"

"Poor thing is petrified. Got the shanks beat from under him." She replied, tending to more of his bruises.

The bar owner finished wiping down his tables and started to approach the young colt closely. "You got a name?"

"....Um..." The young colt stammered as he tried to come up with an alias to hide himself.

"What's your name?" The maid questioned tenderly.

"Um...bra..." He said, quietly resigning the state of his existence to a life of secrecy. "Umbra." He whispered at last.

"Poor little bastard. He's shaken to his core." The barkeep announced. "Where's your parents?"

"....Dead." He weakly announced, seeing the last pike march down the street along with the crowd.

"Ah, poor thing's an orphan." The maid concluded. "Of course those damn aristocrats are abusing orphaned younglings. It's like a past-time to them"

"Parents probably died in the mines, is that right?" The bar owner guessed.

"Y-yeah." Sanctus answered nervously, trying his best not to cry. "They died in the mines... a long time ago."

"Ah, well you're in here now. Might as well avoid the mines with a bit of honest labour. You help out with us tonight, we give you a bowl of stew and a bed. How's that sound?"

The young colt saw himself with very few options, ultimately agreeing to the offer. "Yes sir."

The Unknown Lab
Present Day...

"Sir."

A voice called out to the stallion sitting in his chair, contemplating the events of the past. He opened his eyes to see one of his loyal servants looking at him from across his desk.

"Sir, have I interrupted you at a bad time?"

The stallion sat up in his chair, stretching his hooves. "Oh no. Just caught my mind wandering on old things." He stood up and walked to the servant, wobbling a bit from earlier. "Yeah, just looking at my accomplishments throughout the years. I couldn't find myself being any less of an ascended being with all I've achieved. I mean, how many bodies do you think it took me to even get here?" Before the servant could say anything in response, Umbra held a hoof up to stop him. "Don't answer that. All you need to know is that I was around at a time where the bodies were plentiful and very sturdy."

The assistant summoned a clipboard and presented it to him. "Sir. The beast. It's ready."

Umbra happily eyed the servant. "Eight hours of stability?"

"Seven, any further would cause for lack of control over the beast's behavior, casing rapid degradation. Seven is the most we can offer between deployment, use, and a calm retrieval. She is a very young-minded creature after all."

The stallion shrugged, accepting the results. "Seven will do. After all, I'm only going to be using it for one night."

"Sir, it's stable enough to be used for seven hours per day."

Umbra paused, his jaw falling as he urged the servant to repeat that information. "Per day, you say?"

"Per day. We've perfected every possible parameter. It's ready."

The stallion clopped his hooves, more than pleased with the trade-off of that lost hour of his vision. "Hot damn, I only intended this to be used like maybe twice a week. But all seven days consecutively?"

"All it requires is sixteen hours of rest. It's almost a living being at this point."

Genuinely amazed, Umbra continued to question the servant. "Did the dolls implement the data I gave you?"

"To the fullest." The cloaked servant replied.

The stallion sat back down in his seat, proud of the results. "One project down. Another to go."

"Sir, we are also working on a possible equation that could take you to the dimension you've requested. However without the sufficient data, we may be months before creating it."

"I am fine with months. After all, I've been waiting for my chance for years." Umbra scoffed. "Patience is a most important virtue. If we don't have that, we don't have order, every worthless bastard will be getting a seat at the table instead of the ones who earned their keep."

"And what of the human body also?" The servant questioned.

"Have the puppets dissect it and gain more information on it's anatomy. I'll need to be fluent on that information if I am to make my move in that field."

"Yes sir." The servant said before dismissing himself.

Umbra sat in his chair, brimming with excitement before a realization had come to him. "Oh dear, I left one of my poor bodies over at the tavern. I'll definitely need to get that back." He said as he started to close his eyes to concentrate.

The Guild's Tavern...

Opening his eyes, he found himself back in the company of the rowdy crowd. The many had probably not even noticed his absence, but he was already in a good mood on all fronts. He looked up to the rafters where the bat ponies conversed to themselves and quickly thought of the only thing that he felt was missing. "Ah, yes, in speaking of the things I've turned upside down. Captain Nondis, I sure do wish you were here." The stallion sighed. "I told you that I would make it more interesting for you if you felt you were getting comfortable. Granted, I thought you were having to kill one of your friends, but silly me. That will change for the next time. I'll be sure to make it as interesting as I need for it to be... that's right. I can make it much more interesting for this week, can't I?"

Umbra sneered and giggled at the potential image of the human's face when he discovers what he has in store for him. The stallion was tickled with thoughts of how he could come away with not just the success of his plans, but also the potential chaos that would ensue. He kicked back in his throne and reclined himself onto the table.

"Oh my dear captain, it's like my uncle said. It's not what you do for others, it's what you'll do for me."

Author's Note

This was a fun chapter to breeze through. It's a light chapter (both in relative word count of the past two years and content) I at least thought this would've taken longer to finish, but it turned out that I managed to run through it as simply as I did the earliest chapters of the story.

I'm willing to admit that the part with Umbra's past was something I had to work on for a while, as I didn't have a solid direction until much later, like within the past fifteen months. Of course I do plan to reveal bits and pieces of him more as the story rides through, probably in similar fashion to this chapter.

I know it's been a long journey, but we're close. I'm gonna try to make this round off as best as I can possibly get it.

Chapter CIX

AUTHOR'S WARNING:

Some content elaborated in this chapter is to contain incestuous and homosexual content, the area notated will be marked with a custom breaker.

[◄------------------------------------------------------------------------------------►] for start.
[►------------------------------------------------------------------------------------◄] for end.

Copy and paste the breaker contained in the RED brackets and [CTRL+F] to search for the breaker you pasted in the search prompt. This will be to avoid any unwanted content from your read. Thank you for your continued viewership and enjoy you reading experience.

The Corrotto Inn
481 Years Ago...

"We have five ales going to the table near the front window!" A young barmaid by the name of Moonbeam Glow called out to the back of the counter. "Ummie, get the table their orders, if you don't mind!"

"Yes ma'am!" A young adolescent colt answered enthusiastically, albeit a bit out of breath from the work. "Coming right up!"

Umbra quickly ran up to the table with their requested drinks. Happily providing the orders that they requested, he galloped back behind the bar to watch Moonbeam walk right past him with her own order to deliver. As she did so, he couldn't help but let his eyes be guided towards her tail, which swayed as she walked. She wasn't a mare who grabbed the attention of every stallion or teenage colt that walked in. Instead she was more built to deal with a heavier workload, probably from all the years of running from table to table, running errands up and down the street, carrying carts of goods across the plaza, and helping her father keep the inn in shape and free of leaks from the rain. She was a quintessential workhorse, one who didn't take any excuse on why something couldn't be done.

But her flanks was well-toned for the work she did. While she wasn't exactly the prettiest mare in the face, she had many features of the body that spoke highly of her potential to breed productive offspring. And the young Umbra would quickly lose track of his tasks in daydreaming about his chance to sow the first seeds of his adolescence.

*SLAM*

Umbra almost jumped out of his skin as the bar owner, Silver Tab, slammed a tray of drinks next to the young stallion's ears. The young adolescent turned around and saw the older stallion glaring down at him. "You trying to lose me business, boy!?"

"No sir!" The Umbra stallion answered.

"Or are you trying to be fresh again!?"

"No sir! Honest, I-I was just surveying the customers!"

"You mean the invisible customers hiding underneath my daughter's tail, ya fresh bastard!?"

"No sir! I was just gonna study how she interacts with the other customers!"

"Oh you want to learn how to interact, eh?" He said as he chided the young colt. "How about I let you borrow her stupid apron and frills and let you interact with the crowd!? Maybe you'll like how it feels to get a look or two!"

"No sir! I'll get these drinks right out, sir!" Umbra replied as he hurriedly took the tray and ran from behind the counter.

"That would be for the table on the second floor!" The bar owner called out to the scrambling colt. The others at the nearby counter had started laughing at the young lad running for his life. "Ha, young bastard stays under my roof, eats my food, sleeps in one of my beds, earns on my time, and still has the nads to peek at my daughter like he's gonna shank her."

"Ah, the poor bastard's got nothin' to go to. I'd say let the young wanker have at!" Said one of the bar parishioners.

Silver Tab pulled out a black and white frilly apron and grimaced. "I'll let him have at this damn dress. Maybe he'll stay focused if he's out there looking more frilly than she does." The entire group laughed as the young mare came back to her father's side. "The boy was seeking you out again."

"It's to be expected, he is young." The mare replied. "I only out him by a good five years."

"He's five years under date." Silver Tab answered. "I'm gonna make him wear this so he can stay focused."

"Father, that's my old dress! Put that away!" She urged, slightly embarrassed.

"You far outgrown it, might as well put it to some use." He said as Umbra arrived back to the counter. "Ah, bastard. I have a little something for you to put on."

"Put on, sir?" The adolescent colt questioned.

He held the dress out for the young adolescent to wear. "From now on, you don't start your shift until you wear this. And if there's any time I don't see you in it in the day, no dinner, no bed, no pay, nothing. You earn your keep with this rag on or you earn nothing."

The young stallion, while not wanting to appear with it on, did as he requested out of fear of being put out into the streets. He went into the back storage and changed himself into it and walked back out, earning more than a few laughs from the many bar-goers. Moonbeam smiled as she sympathetically hugged the young Umbra. "You know father, he is as cute as a button."

"Good, then maybe he can sell a few more drinks then." Silver Tab responded as he sat another heavy tray of drinks for some of the other tables. "Alright, get these out to that row of tables with all the young idiots looking for an early grave."

"Yes sir." Umbra said as he walked out with his heavier-than-usual workload.

The place had brimmed with the many citizens who raved on and on about the ongoing war taking place out in the fields of Everfree. Many younger colts and stallions had started speaking of their desire for enlistment. Mares who saw the opportunity to see them off had also gathered to the inn to try and select themselves a suitable mate they would sire with. Given that many colts and stallions were trying to enlist, it also brought the attention of several stallions looking to tell tales of the field without having set hoof on them.

But not all of the patrons had the intent to join the war or root for the same side.

The door of the inn swung open, introducing a quartet of young established teens, all of which who were vastly more wealthy and influential. When they entered, the chatter of the venue had almost evaporated. The atmosphere had gone from lively and bustling to quiet and brooding. The four adolescents walked towards a table on the second floor and waved at the other patrons with smug expressions.

"Well, I suppose this was a bit of fun, just walking into the nest of roaches with our boots on." One of the nobles stated to the leader of the pack.

"I told you. Just stick with me and we're in for some good times, just like it should be." The young noble replied. "Though I wonder if the idiot of a bartender knows how much left he has to pay on his debt to my father."

"He could sure use the money to make this place not look so much like a pig sty, there's rotten wood everywhere!" The third said as he pointed to the rafters high above the place. "You couldn't even hold a chandelier up there, always the bad lighting. So drab."

The fourth tapped the leader's shoulder and pointed at some of the young mares sitting at the tables with some of the young soon-to-be recruits. "The pickings aren't that bad though. They could be of higher quality, but I bet they can clean up real nice."

The group leader pointed towards the bar, specifically at Moonbeam. "Look over there, it's another one of those barn animals. Do you honestly believe that can clean up well enough to be passable?"

"Put a sack on her face and she'll be the talk of the town." One of the nobles joked.

Walking to the ledge, the young leader of the group of nobility hollered out in a snobbish manner. "Miss Cow, we want our drinks, please! Do be of use and give us the service we deserve!"

Moonbeam grimaced as she looked up to the group leader, knowing exactly who he was. "Father, can you take care of them?"

"Sir, if you don't mind, I'll go so that she doesn't have to." Umbra replied.

The bar owner clenched his teeth as he took great offense to the young noble insulting his daughter. "Go on then." He then called out loudly as if he made the order. "Four pints to the second floor!"

"Four pints!" Umbra responded loudly.

Once he got his tray, he started to walk up the stairs. But before he could make it halfway, one of the other seated nobles toppled the tray over and spilled the beer all over the server and the stairs. He also poked fun at his victim. "Barkeep, you have got to stop sending these random klutzes to serve your drinks!" The four ponies laughed at the table. Umbra remained persistent and grabbed the mugs and put them back on the tray. The four young colts did not appear thrilled to find their server approaching with emptied mugs. So they pushed him back down the stairs with their magic and called out to the bartender once more. "Surely you don't serve all of your clients empty cups! Refill them at once!"

As Umbra tried to not show his anger over what was being done to him, he ran back down the stairs and got another batch. But before he could start walking, a mug was flipped over the young adolescent's head. "There we go again, being the fool we always see!" The three other mugs were then poured on the floor, outlining the path that Umbra had to walk in order to get upstairs. "By the time we'll get our drinks, we'll be in parliament."

Silver Tap put four more mugs onto the tray and mumbled to the young colt. "I don't care how you do it, you get those young lads their drinks."

Moonbeam interjected. "Father, this is nonsense! Stand up for him, you know they do this every time!"

"Mooooo!" The leader of the group called out to the mare below. "So, tell me how much milk do you make!"

Umbra, instead of holding the drinks up by the tray, levitated each of them by their own individual selves. He steadily walked the path that was covered in beer and marched up the stairs. One of the nobles pointed out at the young colt. "Now you know the law, you peasants are forbidden to lift anything more than a pound in our presence!"

Taking great pride in the moment, he slammed the mugs onto the table and shouted to the counter below. "Order up!"

But as he took pride in that one moment of triumph, one of the other aristocrat teens had started to converse in whispers to one another. The leader's ear was tilted down and whispered into before he looked at the stallion with a chuckle. "Oh bartender! We want a room!"

"Our rooms are being repaired for the time being! I am sorry, but as you know, the taxes I pay are far too─"

The leader then called out. "My father owns this place. He's only letting you keep it because he knows you'd keep paying to hold on to it! You have a choice, let me have a room or the rent goes up!"

Moonbeam pleaded with her father. "Please, father. Don't let him talk you into this. You know what they do."

Already regretting the decision to allow Umbra to deliver their drinks had started to weigh heavily on his mind. But considering the massive debt he had to the landowner, he knew he couldn't afford the rise in his rent. "...Umbra, show him to his room!"

"Yes sir!" He called out.

The group of four sneered and pointed to the young colt who guided them towards a nearby available room. They all stood, one of them taking a salt shaker from the table as he walked away. The crowd started to grow into a murmur before the four had started walking into the room. Umbra, having done his job, started to walk away.

But before he could leave, a ring of magic clasped onto his tail to drag him into the room. The door slammed shut behind him as the leader of the pack quenched his magic, pointing to the young adolescent. "Oh no, where do you think you're going, princess prettyboy?"

Looking around nervously, Umbra tried to think of a way to get himself out. "What do you want from me?" He questioned.

The leader leaned down and held his chin up to get a better look at his face, confirming his suspicions. "Well... how the mighty House of Count Bastion have fallen."

"I don't know what you're on about." Umbra replied, turning his head away.

"Sanctus, we know it's you." Replied the leading young noble, Prim Prestige.

"They got you in some pretty little frou-frou dress. They obviously think of you as lesser than they." The second noble, High Crest, added with a snicker.

"This is just a punishment. Nothing more." Umbra replied as he looked to the dress he was made to wear.

The four looked to each other, giving themselves a nudge and a wink before proceeding. "So, Sanctus Quorum, son of the late chancellor Lux Decorum, you are truly a wanted colt." Stated the third, Scribble.

A moment of fear began to fill the mind of the young teen. "Wanted?"

"Haven't you heard?" Prim Prestige called out. "The princess is really tearing up the countryside looking for you. They say she's looking to end the bloodline of Count Bastion for good."

"She's slaying every guard supporting the fallen aristocracy, including those who vowed to keep your identity secret." The fourth, En Guarde, added. "They say she's already found out who you are, where you stay, even so much as what you do on the daily."

"We thought you had somehow survived the scrum from a year ago, especially since no one saw your head go up. Guess our hunch was right." Prim said proudly.

Afraid and very much in fear of his life, Umbra questioned the group of nobles. "What does she want with me!? My family's dead, I have no influence, no rank, nothing! What am I to her but another stone in the street!?"

"A survivor who got away. She wanted you to die with the rest, and she's not happy that you're still alive." High Crest answered.

"In fact, her guards could be everywhere around here." Scribble supplemented as he started to walk behind the young stallion.

"You know how they treat us nobles around here." En Guarde cosigned as he also walked behind the teen colt, but mainly to reach the door.

"Just think of what they'll do when they discover who you are?" High Crest said as he took to Umbra's left side.

"You'll just be another head on a stick." Scribble pointed out.

"But I'm nothing!" Umbra retorted as the circle of threats started to make him tremble.

Prim Prestige pursed his lips and nodded, agreeing with the young teen. "You know, you're right. You've nothing to your name anymore. Nothing to protect you, nothing to stand on, nothing to prop you forward. You're just like everyone else around here, a puppet."

"But a puppet who could be turned into a dead body by the night's end if they were to find out who you really are." En Guarde suggested as he placed a bar against the door to shut themselves inside.

"Poor little Sanctus, a treasured hunt for both sides to claim as their trophy." Scribble laughed.

Prim held a hoof up to interject before the others. "But... we can make that all go away."

"Keep it quiet." Scribble joined in.

"Keep you safe." As did High Crest.

"Give you back your power." En Guarde assured.

Seeing the chance to not only bring himself back to power in silence, he started to see the benefit of being in the position to possibly rebuild the standing his family once had. "Okay, okay! I'll do whatever it takes! Just keep me safe, will you?"

The four young stallions closed in around the young teen. "You heard him, boys. Whatever it takes. Let's give him a proper welcome into his new position in society."

Umbra looked up to the young stallion before him, but quickly turned around to see En Guarde lifting his tail. "That's a pretty little dress you got on."

"Hey, what are you doing!?" Umbra questioned before High Crest yanked his mane back.

"He cleans up just like a mare too." The stallion added.

"I wonder if he screams like one also." Scribble said as he grabbed at the stallion's side, trying to pull him to the ground.

"Let me go!" Umbra kicked out, trying to wriggle himself free of the stallion who threw him to the bed.

Prim smiled as he watched with a cruel smirk growing on his lips. "Hold him down."

◄------------------------------------------------------------------------------------►

The young teen looked around, seeing the four unicorns all looking back at him with fiendish looks in their eyes. Their horns each glowing as they proceeded to stimulate themselves. "Please, please let me go! Please let me go! I'll do anything─" Umbra was gagged shut by a clothed cod-piece Prim had taken off. Scribble salted the young colt's horn with a snicker. Umbra pleaded the best he could as one of them ripped the dress off of his body, trying to use the lace as a means to keep his forelegs tied up. They also took some of the torn fabric to fashion cuffs for his hind legs, forcing them against each other and linking the two bonds together so he could not fight back.

"Oh no, you're doing everything we want right now." Prim said as he lined himself, tapping his stiffened length to the young teen's puckered ring.

Umbra wormed himself back, trying to escape, but he found that his bonds were too well-done to aid him. He instinctively clenched himself in a bid to deny the stallion entrance, but he could not beat the gamble of the young stallion's magic forcefully prying him open to receive him. Umbra screamed in pain as his insides were plundered into for the first time. Releasing his magic, Prim was in awe of the grip that surrounded him. "You're so tight." The stallion quickly moved to a rushed tempo, looking to get his release as quickly as he felt he deserved it. The disgraced noble squirmed and cried out with all of his might.

Outside of the room, the entire tavern had gone quiet, listening to the anguished screams of the young servant being denigrated and emasculated. Moonbeam pinned her ears to her head, trying not to hear her coworker's screams. She started to hold back tears as her father stared to the clients he served, knowing there was nothing he could do in his position. They too knew that there was little to do outside of resort to violence that would only be to the bar owner's detriment.

Back inside the room, Prim continued to ram his hips into the bloodying orifice of his victim. Umbra cried profusely for his freedom, while the others grew increasingly annoyed. "Oh he's a screamer." Scribble pointed out.

"Let me plug his mouth shut for a moment." Proposed En Guarde, who stroked himself to full mast. He lined himself to the stallion's mouth, shoving himself inside with hardly any care to the young teen. With the sudden entrance, it quickly triggered the young teen to cough and struggle to breathe.

Scribble, who was still trying to keep himself ready prosed the question to Prim, who started to speed up. "How is he?"

"He's clenching real hard, won't be long!" He answered just a second before he crossed over the point of no return. Umbra could only experience the brief moment of reprieve as Prim ejected himself and watched as High Crest climbed up to take his place. The young teen started to concede the idea of him not being able to find rest until they were done.

"Ay, give me a go at it when you're done." Scribble said as he watched in awe of the young victim being able to take in so much of his friends. He also looked down to catch how Umbra had started to pool precum even in his flaccid state. "Ugh, he's roused by it, ain't he?"

"You no better than a mare in estrus!" Stated High Crest, who had drilled into the young colt with powerful thrusts.

In a playful bid, En Guarde removed himself from the colt's throat and slapped his face with what was once firmly lodged within it. "Please stop! PLEEEASE!" The young Umbra begged.

"Here, take this and be quiet." En Guarde said as he felt himself throb and flare within the young colt's throat. He forced himself to the hilt, providing no room for the young guard to breathe, only to force his load to go one way. "That's right, swallow, don't be like a filthy earth pony."

Unable to contain his patience any longer, Scribble motioned to his friend to move. Upon his exit, En Guarde unleased a rope of his seed onto the colt's chin and muzzle. That moment was all it took for Scribble to find his apex. "Give me that face, let me mark you!" He cried out in ecstasy, providing more and more of a load for the young colt to fight to see through.

But down below, High Crest's forceful thrusts had pressed into Umbra in an unexpected way, one that triggered his prostate to release a sizeable amount of semen. En Guarde joked at the "Now he's gone and done it. Guess it was too good for him."

High Crest released to his leisure, not even bothering to look at the mess he left behind. Instead, he went about cleaning himself off and letting himself settle back down. "Want our silence, you'll have to work for us, every week, in that stupid dress."

The young colt sniffled, coughed, and spat back up the seed that was still in the back of his throat. He twitched and laid tiredly, trying to beg for his freedom one last time.

"Pleeeaaase..."

Unfortunately, Prim was not convinced that it was a plea for halt, instead he saw the measure of semen that dripped from his face, the quantity that flowed from his damaged entrances, the submissive posture he took on in the ripped dress. A madness overwhelmed him and he grew ravenous. "Again."

"Again?" Scribble questioned as the others looked onto their leader, who mounted the young colt again.

This time as he entered, there was a lot less protest and resistance. "That's right, fucking slut." Prim cheered as he went so far as to fully mount the stallion on the bed, joining with him and pinning him underneath his body. His pumps were a lot less frantic, more powerful to get back to his peak.

As he humped away, hitting the same spot with even more ferocity, more and more unintended streams of seed flowed from within the subjugated stallion. Umbra simply stared off into the void as he waited for it all to come to an end. It was all he could do.

"Oh wow, you're really bringing him about." High Crest noted as Prim reached his second climax of the day.

Prim rotated the stallion and sat himself upon the tired colt's lips. "Lick it. Lick it clean." He demanded, pinching the nostrils of the young colt shut to force his mouth open. "Show me how much you want to live! How much you want us to protect you!"

In complete submission, he opened his mouth with his tongue out to timidly welcome the dirtied guest within. Prim pressed inside and swabbed himself clean. "It's almost like he was made for this." En Guarde said with amazement.

Prim finished his work and removed himself. As his post-orgasm mind came back into prominence, he looked onto the colt with disgust and hatred. "This is who you are now, Sanctus: A filthy coward. Your father would look down to you in shame. I guess your fate was to be impaled in this manner, to be taken as a mare. You're less than the dirt out there in those seats." The four spruced themselves up and unlocked the door to leave. Prim looked back as he left the door open. "See you next week... 'Umbra' Sanctus."

►------------------------------------------------------------------------------------◄

The quartet of guards walked down the stairs, all eyes on them as the multitude of ponies were made to witness the cruelty that they had bestowed upon the young servant. Each of the four had a comment to speak of in regards to their accommodations.

"Your rooms and beds are filthy. Most unbecoming. Perhaps I should talk my father into lowering his collections so that you could make a more suitable place for any future visits." Prim said as he walked out the front door.

"Service is really sloppy." High Crest added.

"Beer tastes like cheap urine." Scribble supplemented.

En Guarde smirked as he bowed to the aspiring young guards at the various tables. "See you miserable roaches next week... that is if some of you will even get to live that long on the field. I'll look forward to collecting your heads, and then taxing your families... for the war effort, of course. Have a blessed day."

Moonbeam ran from behind the counter and immediately galloped up the stairs to check in on Umbra. The bartender ran behind to aid his daughter. But as they came to the door, the could only see a broken-spirited mess of a young colt laying in the bed with some of the dress tied to his legs. His face, tail, flank, and both abused orifices covered in semen. The bar owner dropped to his haunches as Moonbeam ran inside to grab whatever blanket to clean him off. "Oh lad..."

"You poor thing." Moonbeam trembled as she carefully undid the knots that kept him immobilized. "It's okay, I'm here for you, it's going to be alright."

The hallowed image of the young colt wearing his daughter's dress had filled the bar owner with a deep sorry. Others had started to gather at the door, seeing the young colt being cleaned off. Anger stirred in the many who watched. One voice cried out to the others nearby. "Every time! They do this to us and expect us to accept it! Well not anymore! They'll be no better off than those bastards of House Bastion!"

The barkeep closed his eyes in remorse, knowing he could have did as his daughter requested. Instead, the young colt was made a victim to the cruelties of the noble class. Now all he could do was watch as his daughter walked by him, fully blaming him at a glance before she took him to the bath out back.

"Lad, I am so sorry."

VIP Lounge
Present Day...

Umbra's eyes opened wide, just seconds before they clenched shut. The stallion gritted his teeth for a moment as he felt his release. His hoof held to the head of a maid of his lounge. As he was devoured by the mare, he called upon the memories of his past to aid him in reaching his climax. And as he came back down, he grew quiet at himself. Umbra looked down to see the mare at earnest, licking and smiling in humble submission to him.

"Did you enjoy it, sir?" She questioned giddily, kissing his throbbing form as her face was stained in his seed.

In silence, he was not in total enjoyment of what he was given. He secretly clamored for more, something that he could not get under most casual conditions. He really intended for many more to be at his beck and call, but very few could answer. He felt he could only get so much enjoyment with just her being available for the hour. It was still an early day, much too early for many of the other workers to join in on the fun. But given that it was his memory of that day that pushed him past his peak, he shrugged off her efforts.

"It was acceptable. Not quite what I truly desire, but it'll have to do for now." He said as he waved the mare off. She grew silent, concerned that her work had been pretty ineffective of satiating her employer. Not wanting to see more of his ire, she bowed her head and started trotting away. He glanced to see her making her departure, watching closely as her tail seemed too stationary. A frown started to appear on the ringleader's face as he realized she was hiding something. "Um, Miss Palate Swap..." She immediately recognized the tone in his voice, acknowledging what it was that he had a problem with. The stallion lifted her tail to see what it was that she concealed. Umbra's face then turned sour. "I do believe I made a direct decision to have you get that little operation for advertising purposes. Now pray tell, why is it that you are still walking around with nary a inch extended from in between your hind legs?"

The stallion walked towards her, her back still turned to him as she shivered in fear. "I'm sorry sir. It's just that whenever I leave here, I do work in an elementary school. I don't think my employers would─"

"Your employers?" He questioned with a venomous curiosity. "Is it not I who employ you with a more lucrative business opportunity?"

She began to plead with him. "Sir, I understand. But─"

"And you still insist on living that ridiculous dream of being a schoolteacher, all because you wanted it to be your dream job, to teach young foals how to spell and count? Should I remind you that you're talking about the same job where they ended up placing you on backpay because of the principal electing to punish you for your insistence to not sleep with him? Has or has not your employment with me pay your rent and groceries for the three months you were under a false investigation of workplace ethic?"

She quietly replied. "It did, sir."

"And here you are disobeying me in broad daylight. Tell me where it makes sense."

"I'm sorry sir." She said, nervously looking away as he started to walk in front of her.

An orange cloud of magic grabbed at her chin and even adjusted the direction of her eyeballs, all to look at his face as he spoke. "You have until this evening. Change up your sexual orientation, or I will change your gender from transsexual to dead. I cautiously insist that you do not disobey me again."

She shuddered as she was made to see only his face. "Yes sir." He dropped her and watched as she galloped at full speed to leave the venue for her operation.

One of his cloaked servants appeared from further down the hall, walking in as she galloped past. Still upset that his recent session had gotten spoiled due to her show of disobedience, he turned to the concealed figure with a frown. "How is the operation for tonight going?"

"Sir, the dolls have moved all of what you wanted to the places where you designated them to be." The figure reported.

"I know that, you fool. Give me an update pertaining to our ponies of interests within Ponyville, if you don't mind." Said a still-frustrated Umbra. "I swear, a blowjob doesn't even do nearly the proper justice nowadays. It's just too common."

"Kalimba frequents the Apple Family Farm and the Everfree Forest today, sir. It's believed that she will be coming here tonight."

The stallion pursed his lips in thought. "Hmm... now where do I send the message to? I suppose it would have more of a visual impact if I decorated the orchards a bit. But then I would have to probably deal with all the element bearers for that one. What's the status of that Everfree Forest contact she has?"

"Sir, she seems to be meeting with another zebra. We've been tracking her since she was evacuated from last Tuesday night. It's one of the places she goes to frequently after the farm."

Umbra continued to think to himself. "Ah, so that's why her fighting's really taken off. A bit of arduous physical labor for conditioning, coupled with Prod's regiments, and the zebra anatomical and spiritual knowledge, this could be the primary reason for her ascension. Perhaps I need to hit that first, then test the waters if she runs towards the Apple Family Farm again. If so, I guess we'll terrorize the Apples a bit and send the beast after them should they try to come for me. Sounds about right." Umbra paused as another idea quickly came to mind. "Or better yet... I could...Yes... I could do that. At least it'll make Friday more interesting."

"Sir?" The servant questioned as Umbra started to mumble.

"I'll have the puppets deal with it. They don't need verbal instructions to have I want done." He replied carelessly.

"Yes sir." The cloaked servant replied before walking out of the room, leaving Umbra biting at his hoof in frustration.

Once more, he murmured to himself. "I shall make an example of those two. Their rebellion is getting out of hoof."

"WHAT DO WE WANT!?"

"FREEDOM TO LOVE!"

"WHEN DO WE WANT IT!?"

"NOW!"

"WHAT DO WE WANT!?"

"FREEDOM TO LOVE!"

"WHEN DO WE WANT IT!?"

"NOW!"

As the protests grew outside, there was one particular senator who left the parliament chamber to hunt me down and make a complaint of it. Even as I sat in the hallway, just outside of the chamber, I could barely hear the protest taking place. I said it was pretty negligible, but he insisted that it was very disruptive and that I should look into putting a stop to it. Wanting to be a fair sport about it, I obliged his request to an extent. I only went with the intent to find out personally what this protest was all about and possibly some information on who was leading the movement.

When I stepped outside the castle doors, that's when the volume really cranked itself up to a higher threshold. I couldn't help but to be impressed with the effort they were putting in to get their message across. And if it was what Solemn Oath had clued me in on yesterday, I could only assume that this situation was simply some angry old politician pouting about what he doesn't want to see in his Equestria.

So I walked out of the grounds, leaving the guards on standby in case something was starting to get a little too rowdy. But what I saw was a group of stallions and mares cheering next to their desired significant others. Stallions in dresses standing next to stallions, mares holding hooves with other mares, a sign with a hoof holding to a human hand with a love heart above them, a crown sitting next to a guard's helmet with an 'X' situated between them. Each of the signs were colorful and bright, all of them dressed in frills, bold lettering, and lots of glitter. Some held tambourines and small drums to beat out along with the chant. It was a very lively affair, considering all the cold and snow that they did it in.

At the front of the protest was a mare wearing a red beret hat on her head as she pumped her message through a megaphone.

"WHAT DO WE WANT!?"

"FREEDOM TO LOVE!"

"WHEN DO WE WANT IT!?"

"NOW!"

As I approached, I calmly addressed the crowd. "Okay, guys, they sent me out here to enforce noise ordinance. What's going on?"

The mare wearing the beret turned to me, along with her megaphone at full volume. "WE ARE CALLING FOR THE RIGHT TO LOVE FREELY, TO BE ABLE TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS WITH WHOMEVER WE CHOOSE WITHOUT THE GENERATIONAL STIGMA OF OPPRESSION!"

...Needless to say she was unbearably loud, I had to scratch the itch in my ear from that. "I know you can talk without a megaphone."

Again, she said everything through her megaphone. "OUR VOICES WILL NOT BE SILENCED! WE WILL HAVE AN EQUESTRIA WHERE ANYONE CAN LOVE WHO THEY CHOOSE FREELY AND WITHOUT JUDGEMENT!"

Taking a lesson from my current girlfriend, I used a voice amplification spell on my throat and proceeded to shout right back at her. "I FUCKING AGREE! NOW, CAN WE PLEASE NOT POINT THE MEGAPHONE IN MY FACE FOR FIVE MINUTES SO WE CAN TALK!?" Even to my own ears, that was loud, so I know it was especially loud to the direction my voice was projected to. The mare put down her megaphone and held it against her chest in defiance. I took a deep breath to nullify the spell. "Okay. Now I need to know if you guys have a permit."

"You should be on our side, captain!" The mare called out, gaining the cheers and cosigns of her fellow protestors.

I held up a hand to bring about my argument. "Trust me, I am. But I'm not doing this because I want to. I'm just asking if the pony who's sponsoring this event has filed a permit to be here at this spot, for this reason, and has managed to speak with a noise pollution official. I want to be able to watch you guys go on to your ra-ra sesh, but if I can't see a permit, I can't stop the guards from filing out here and commence to suppression exercises. Like hell I wanna do that, but I do have a job to do."

Next, I felt a tap at the back of my leg. I turned around and looked down to see Blue holding a permit with a seal and signature on it. "You would think that you'd let the money do it's job for a bit." She whispered.

I looked at the permit she provided, verifying that it was indeed genuine. I looked to the crowd and then Blue with a smirk. "Give me a moment."

I walked through the checkpoint and saw the politician already standing around with his forelegs folded like some angry child. He saw the piece of paper in my hand and then looked to me as if I was supposed to make it any different. "Sir, what's the status?" One of the guards asked at the checkpoint.

"Here's the permit, stamped by the city." I said, lifting the permit for all to see.

"Sir, they're protesting outside the castle gates." The grumpy senator called out angrily.

I pointed at him and replied. "Look, I'm gonna be real with you. The area from where they cross the portcullis into the citadel grounds and beyond, that's the jurisdiction we can crack down on without any reservation. Out past that gate is municipal jurisdiction, that's the public's jurisdiction. This permit clearly states they are allowed to protest out there and not in here."

"But they are disturbing us in here from out there." He angrily retorted.

"Sir, we have a whole line of battlements separating the keep from the public grounds. What more do you want?"

Again, he provided his reply in favor of their absence. "We want silence, captain. We cannot have parliament with all this rift-raft taking place in our streets!"

"Public streets?" I deadpanned.

Not taking kindly to my sarcasm, he snapped back at me with his own brand of twisted logic. "We were elected by the public! We represent their best interests! And we say you put a muzzle on it before this goes against your conduct."

You know, that moment was where I felt more than compelled to blatantly pick a side. I wasn't pleased with how he decided to elect himself as the mouth of the people who stood in front of him, who could've voted him in and suppress their voices with his own ideologies. It reminded me of the politicians in my world, moreso in my home state. So I decided to project my anger to him over the matter.

"With all due respect, you're elected to represent, that's true. But you only do what your big-money donors say do. I know the game. Pick a side, any side, and tell me what the winner of your primary has a lot of. What's the common denominator? Money. And you get paid salary on the tax dollars of ponies who are protesting out there. You're mad because they're behind a stone wall shouting in the winter snow, and they're still getting through to the chamber, which is also situated behind another insulated stone wall. You guys aren't mad about anything, you can barely hear them out there when you're inside. What you hear is the tiniest whimper of your constituents telling you what they want for them, knowing damn well you don't wanna give it to them."

"I am not here for speeches, captain. Shut. It. Down." He seethed, hissing back at me like an entitled brat.

I whipped out my phone, messaged Celestia on Instagram to find where she was in the castle, and then formulated a plan to really get under this guy's skin. But first, I had to appear like I was going to turn the tide on the protestors. "Give me fifteen minutes." I said to the spiteful politician. I walked back outside to show the permit to Blue. "Permit's good." I confirmed.

"Thank you." She said as she was about to take the paper, all while her band of protestors were about to start back up the chants. I quickly put a halt to it.

"Aht-tu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tuuuh! Before you get started, I have a proposition. Just hear me out... downsize the group to about fifty, and give me fifteen minutes."

"O...kay." Blue replied with uncertainty.

I ran past the checkpoint again, ignoring the scowl on the politician's face, looking at the messages through my Instagram. Once I saw where it was she was heading off to, I navigated the halls to cut her off before she could get to her next meeting. "Captain." She called out in a dismissive greeting, showing that she was far too much in a rush to give me much of a conversation.

I persisted, knowing that I had to work for it. "Your highness, there's a protest outside issuing a statement in favor of their freedom to love the pony of their choosing."

"I see. I'm sorry captain, but I am incredibly busy." She said, walking right past me.

I jogged back to her side and began to speak with her on the matter. "They're a small vocal group. And I don't think it's fair for them to be shouting in the snow."

"Captain, I am incredibly busy." She continued to feign her disinterest.

"Your highness, they want to advocate how important it is to love whoever they choose, without the stigma of judgement and the legal bruhaha."

She still insisted her business. "I am sorry captain, I have much to do. If you feel so bad seeing them out in the cold, give them a tour of the castle or something. Just tell them not to knock over any of my vases."

"Tour group of fifty?" I questioned.

"A hundred, two hundred, it doesn't matter! Give them the damned tour! I'm far too busy today, captain!" She replied with increasing frustration.

"But I don't have the power to make it my official jurisdiction, your highness." I reminded her.

The princess paused in her tracks, looking to the assistant who walked by her. "Inkwell, fill out a form for tour permit, 168-HT. Doesn't matter the size." The mare quickly filled out the details as Celestia had described them. Without fail, she flawlessly completed the form in mere seconds. "Wax." A stick of wax was warmed to liquid before dropping on the paper. "Seal." The princess summoned a stamp as her assistant neatly flattened the wax surface for her stamp to imprint on. She even signed her name in full at the bottom line. "Ribbon." A gold ribbon was summoned to enclose the document before Celestia tossed it off to me. "There, it's your exclusive jurisdiction for twenty-four hours. Do what you will with it."

She started to walk off with her assistant before I could even show thanks. Instead I had to do it from a distance. "Thank you, your highness!"

"NOT ONE VASE, CAPTAIN!" She stressed as she and her assistant disappeared down the hall.

I ran back outside and joined with the group of guards waiting for further orders. The incensed politician complained as the protests had started back in full-swing. "They are still out there!" He vehemently announced.

I held up the new royal permit. "Yup. You want them gone from out there, don't you?"

"YES! I WANT PEACE AND QUIET!" He shouted at me, trying to goad me into acting faster.

I nodded, knowing exactly how I was going to piss him off exclusively. "I got you covered. They won't be out there for much longer." I replied, walking off to the outside of the castle walls again. I shouted out to the protesting group of ponies for their attention. "Hey!"

And the mare with the megaphone turned to me once more, still yelling. "WE ARE FIGHTING─"

I yanked the megaphone away from her and levitated it into my hand for a much-needed reprieve. "Yeah, I know, magic, I have it. But I told you about this megaphone." I cleared my throat and called out to the gates. "Guards! Report!"

The group of a hundred-plus ponies had started to direct their ire towards me for bring the guards outside to surround them. Blue even appeared shocked that I would get the guards involved. "But our permit is valid! Signed by the city, you can't do this, captain!"

But instead of getting spears held in their faces, the guards remained stone-faced and lined themselves in the direction of the checkpoint. The group was initially confused until I whispered over to Blue. "So who's the drummer to keep us on beat?"

The mare smiled and shook her head. "So you said fifty, right? Average tour size?"

"Nix that, this is an unlimited pass for the next twenty-four hours. You have until then to make your noise and get out." I calmly informed the group of their permit 'upgrade'. "Now please file in line, move in an orderly fashion. We will start our tour with the grand foyer."

As the protestors started to trickle in, the annoyed politician grimaced and snarled until he saw me walking in to escort the group in an orderly fashion. "CAPTAIN, WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?"

I held up the permit and politely informed him of what was taking place. "They're just going on a tour in the castle... complete with armed escort to make sure that the princess' prized vases are unharmed."

"They better not shout a damn thing! I want peace and order in our halls!" He replied.

"I understand, sir." I quietly replied. I quietly waited until the group had completely filed in to the foyer before I stood at the top of the steps to give my directions. I then used the megaphone I grabbed earlier and started the tour. "Greetings tourists, I am Captain Nondis P. Haines, Captain of the Royal Guard for her majesty Princess Celestia, and officer of the Earth-pony Unicorn Pegasus Guard of Equestria. I bid you welcome to the castle, and I do wish you to enjoy your tour on today. Having that said, there are a few ground rules that need to be established. The first rule is that we ask that you do not touch anything that isn't located at our giftshop, please do not touch the furnishings or vases, those are very special to her majesty and she wishes they are to be safe and secure throughout our passage. That is the reason why you see the guards all around you, they are for accident prevention and your safety, so please do not veer away from the group."

The group of ponies murmured as they watched me give out more instructions.

"If you look to your right, you will see the way leading to locations such as the Royal Throne Room, the Royal Vault, the Royal Hall of Heroic Achievements, and the Royal Gift Shop, where you will be retrieving many souvenirs... commemorative vases included." I pointed into the other direction, more specifically where the annoyed politician was standing. "Now if you look to your left, you have this elderly gentleman who may take a bath on the daily, but apparently doesn't open his ass cheeks to let the water in. That's why his ass crack looks greasy like the storage bins where you put the leftover spaghetti sauce from the church luncheon. I don't know why it looks that way, but I'm sure it smells like last week, this week, and outdated Medicaid insurance policies."

The crowd began to laugh at his expense, while he cried out objectively. "I beg your pardon!"

"Also to your left is locations such as the Royal Chapel, the Royal Garden, the Grand Royal Ballroom, and if you go up the Royal Stairs, you will reach a pair of large wooden doors with gold leaf, that would be the Royal Chamber of the Parliament. We will be starting our tour from the left, circle around through the castle and back out on the right where you can pick up some things from the gift shop. Now, onto our first stop..."

I immediately cranked the volume to maximum and shouted to the top of my lungs, pointing the megaphone directly at the senator.

"WHAT DO WE WANT!?"

"FREEDOM TO LOVE!!!"

"WHEN DO WE WANT IT!?"

"NOW!!!"

"Parliament is this-a-way! Orderly fashion, folks!" Blue looked at me with her jaw completely agape. I gave her a smug grin and nodded and pointed her in the direction where she needed to go. The angry politician, who was incensed earlier, had grown nuclear. I smiled as I pointed him to the same direction. "Once angry protestors outside the gates, they're now the angry constituents at your front doorstep, with a legal permit for the next twenty-three hours. Off the streets, just like you wanted." I patted him on the shoulder and walked off to lead the group. "Take the day off, buddy."

"Let me see that permit!" He said indignantly.

I gave him the paperwork and pointed to him. "Royally issued, be sure not to damage it." I teased, knowing that if he torn it out of frustration, it would be considered a felony.

He took a look at the information on the paper and gazed back to me with pure hatred in his eyes. "You mongrel." He flipped the paper over for me to see and pointed at the box with some written-in information. "THIS IS FOR A WEEK YOU ILLITERATE BABOON!"

"Really, get out of here! Princess told me it was a day." I said as I looked over the file for a bit. I looked down to where the hours were displayed. And apparently he was right, it was written in for 168 hours, that's a cool seven days. "Oh wow, it is a week. I guess I'll be seeing you after your vacation." I joked.

"DAMN YOU CAPTAIN!" He shouted as I walked down the hall to rejoin Blue.

As we reunited, I showed her the touring permit. "Change of plans, you've got a week to make your noise."

She was left absolutely flabbergasted, though even more excited for the news. "Crowd size?"

"Sideways eight." I pointed out at the box indicating the maximum crowd size. Instead of a 'N/A' being posted in the box, she just wrote out the symbol for infinity.

I gave her back her permit and I took mine, content with the opportunity the princess had laid in our laps. It seemed that she was more than onboard for a little political disturbance. I opened up my Instagram and typed out a simple 'I love you' message. She replied that she hopes this gets things done faster. She also added that she wanted me to tell him it was for a day, only to find out it was the whole week.

I sometimes forget my girlfriend is an actual troll.

On that note, the crowd began to gather at the doors of the parliament, I walked the other way seeing that this was going to turn into a well-controlled mess. Blue gave me a nod as we parted ways. "I guess I'll be seeing you later tonight then."

I called back out to her one last time. "Try not to break anything, or it's my head in a jar!"

Later That Evening...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Nondis***

Kalimba rode in from Ponyville and met up with me at the station. From there we walked to the arena and entered the VIP Lounge. The moment we showed up, we saw Alabaster speaking with Blue, who appeared energetically engaged with her brother. I could assume that it was from earlier where she had all of her enthusiasm. And on the other side of the room appeared to be Damper Trot speaking with one of his associates in the lounge, he appeared really stressed over something, probably from what happened at parliament today. His sideward glance to me had shown me that much.

Walking into the lounge at that point was the purveyor of our suffering. Blue had stopped smiling immediately, Alabaster had instinctively stepped in front of his sister. Damper Trot hadn't exactly smiled, just more relieved to see who had walked in. Kalimba was more impassioned, almost ready to charge at the stallion at the drop of a feather. She stepped in front of me, with the intent of being protective. I, however, was unusually mild-tempered.

The ringleader laughed as he danced his way over to me. "Ah, there's my two-time champ!"

"I could be at home." I replied flatly.

"Oh, you!" The stallion said with a chuckle, but not without noticing the mare that stood firmly between me and him. "And Kalimba, you're such a dear."

"What do you want from us?" She seemed to be the distributor of my anger for the day, probably still angry from what happened on Friday.

He rolled his eyes, smirking with a taunting expression. "We just met today, dear. Are we already at this point in the evening without anything even coming to a start?"

I pulled the zebracorn back, this time walking in front of her. "Sorry, but I don't think she's all too happy that you're here."

The stallion smiled as he looked to her, still speaking to me. "You should probably give some correction on that."

"Why?" I asked.

He then looked to me with a weakening smirk. "Because disobedience is the way to destruction."

I turned around and patted the zebracorn on her head. "Kalimba, stop being a meanie pants to our pal over here."

I turned back around to see the unimpressed expressions of the ringleader. "I do not like being patronized."

"Patronize who? Who am I making upset?" I replied, encouraged by the idea of this being my final week in the lounge. "If I remember correctly, I don't seem to recall your name."

The stallion's jaw dropped the tiniest bit. He started to smile once more, but I knew that he wasn't too pleased with my mocking words. "Oh... is that right?"

"Not since that time at the Gala. I completely forgot your name from that night on." I falsely informed him.

"Well that's odd. It seems to me that you do know my name since I gave it to you, and I'm sure you were more than willing to share it with the world." He seemed to have a different way of showing his anger, instead of being scowled up in the face, he feigned a smile that hid his temper.

"See, we humans sometimes have moments where we tend to block out bad memories. Painful memories in particular are especially boxed off and sent to the void. Sorry, that's just the way it goes." I lied.

The stallion nodded in silence before speaking out. "So. I do have a bit of a proposition."

"And what's that?" I asked flatly.

"I need you to face off against a beastie of mine." He said with his usual visage.

"This Friday, right?" I simply questioned.

"Yes. This Friday." He answered with a fury-suppressing smile.

"Okay." I said with a shrug. "I probably might not live this time, especially since the last one could've fucked me up if he hadn't been lost in the sauce. Yeah, you chose the guys with the wrong ego to deliver my corpse to you. You went after two different guys I had beaten in the past. First you get the guy who nearly took me out the first time, but you did it knowing I had a magic advantage. And then you put me against a guy who couldn't keep his eye on the ball, too busy reveling in sweet revenge to actually get the job done. That's where you went wrong the past two times, I can only assume you have some shit that will deliver my body to you in a lovely pine box, not that I'm willing to let it happen."

"It matters not. I still have a human in my stock." He rebutted as he started dancing around. "And I'm set to have more. Your friends, your family, your college associates, your fraternity brothers, I can snag whichever one easily."

I knew he was bluffing. There was no way he had any knowledge of where anyone was. If anything, I made sure that he couldn't find out. I started to call out his bluff. "Where is my family located?" I began. "Where is my friends located? Bonus question, where is Single File? You don't have an answer for any of that, do you?" I turned around to walk to the bar, hoping to get a drink before subjecting myself to whatever nightly torture he had in store.

"Your friends are in Ponyville." I continued to walk to the bar, trying to play off as if he didn't know what he was talking about. "I know you don't believe me, but maybe I could tell you about your three human friends... all of whom have been made ponies as well."

Before I could make a single letter come out for my order, I froze dead in place. A gross chill washed over my body as I couldn't help but to listen to how pin-point accurate his information was. I was terrified.

"Two pegasi and an earth pony, and I'm sure they're situated at the inn under the castle's shadow. Rooms 113, 114, 119, close to your old room that Kalimba was given, room 115. Their names... or rather their disguised names. Strapping Lad, orange pegasus, your friend Rickey. Cocoa Shea, what an exotic name for a brown pegasus, your friend Cliff. And my favorite of the three, my girl, my best friend, we met at the gala, she loves me, ironically guessed her name to be Cherry on the first day... Cherry Balm, pink earth pony, formally known to be Melanise Brewer. A farmer, a baker, a cloud shift maintainer, all are the friends of thee."

He walked beside me, creeping closer into my ear as I was paralyzed with fear for my friends. I wanted to pull out my phone and immediately tell them that they needed to relocate within the next five minutes, but he was so uncomfortably close that his breath had warmed my ears.

"You are very... very quiet." He said before kissing my cheek and offering praise. "Now don't blame yourself. You did great! Not many players of the game would actually get this far where I actually toyed with their emotional distress and come out of it fairly sane, with a valid plan no less! If anything, you have only the pony next to you to blame."

I craned my head slowly to look at Kalimba. Even she was in complete disbelief. "Nondis, do not listen to him! I did not tell him a thing!"

He walked away from me, dancing towards her with his cane. "You know, I could've easily snagged you from Zecora's hut. Perhaps interrupted your training with Princess Twilight. Or maybe played with little Applebloom on the farm, in the treehouse on the northwest quadrant. I wonder how she would fair in the marketplace, probably run a good few thousand on the sale, she's not really a rare breed. Scootaloo is deformed, she'll go out for hundreds and they'll just kick her around before they snuff her out. In the words of our fallen friend Prod, 'cheap meat'." Kalimba's breathing drastically increased, she grew into a panic as he continued. "But Sweetie Belle, she would go for tens of thousands. Pure-white Andalusia strains are a rare find. Her beautiful little voice alone would beg the question, how wonderful are her screams?"

There wasn't any time spent on me calling up a rifle and pointing it at his head like it could've done anything to stop him from following through on his threats. He noticed the scowl on my face, seeing the expression of both fear and hatred in my eyes. Kalimba, also familiar with a weapon I provided to her for emergency use, brandished hers and pointed at his head as well. Both of our weapons clicked in unison, each ready to sound off.

The stallion laughed hysterically as he tilted his head. "Oh come now, it's just a joke, you two!" He turned to me with a Cheshire grin, tilting his head with a bow. "But it's nice to see that you're actually on your guard now. You have to work a little harder to keep your friends safe."

"How do you know of dese things? I did not tell you anything!" Kalimba angrily questioned, wrestling with the temptation to pull the trigger.

"My dear, you told me everything last Tuesday." He replied, causing Kalimba to realize what he had referred to. Seeing that she didn't remember talking with him, the only thing that could've came to mind was that he had taken advantage of her as she was strung out. He then verified her fears as he circled around her. "Of course, with those same lips. Last Tuesday, I quenched a little taste I had for you since I saw your performance out on the arena floor. I wanted to see just how healthy you were. You, I found out that you are actually very breedable. You have a texture within you that makes it quite desirable. Your haunches are wide enough to accommodate the passage of many foals quite easily. Your legs are strong and sturdy, you'll make a tall stock. And your lips aren't as dry as I remember them being, they're fuller, much more suited to wrap around a desiring stallion." He waltzed by her and sang into her ear. "I want you to know that I was truly trying for an heir with you while you were out. So if you do notice something in about ten weeks, do drop a line."

I levitated the rifle next to his head, tilting it in the exact opposite direction of him leaning into her. "There's a special place in hell for you. But all I know is that Satan won't have a punishment good enough for what you do."

"Well I sure can't wait to see it." He said as he teleported away to the other side of the room. "Now I know that you've been here for a little over a month now. Also, I know this is your final week. And I do want to say that I am enthusiastic about your being here. But I am afraid your time here is spent for the evening. It's time for you to depart."

"More than you need to say." I said as I cautiously kept my aim focused on him, slowly walking to Kalimba's side. She too started walking back, but after a few steps, her hooves started to glow the color of his magic.

"Ah, hold on." He interrupted. "I said you captain, you must leave. Kalimba on the other hoof must stay."

"She follows where I go. If I leave, she leaves." I said, standing in front of her.

He proceeded to stalk forward slowly, reiterating his demand. "She can leave later. We must talk."

"Then you will talk to me." I said in firm denial.

"And I will talk with your friends." He said nonchalantly.

"Like hell you will." I said, pointing the muzzle of my rifle into his chin. But even that had failed to wipe the jubilant smile from his face.

"You don't think Canterlot is the only place I have bodies at, do you?" He said, cheesing at me. "It's as easy as blinking. One second, I'm here, the next I'm waiting in the lobby for your friends to show up. Or maybe I could be sitting outside of Sugarcube Corner, where Pinkie Pie sleeps alone at night... shame on you, Nondis, leaving such a troubled mare alone. The Carousel Boutique, with it's many ways to infiltrate and several mannequins to exploit... make it a two-for-one special, sisters in pairs do sell for hundreds of thousands at auction. Or quite possibly outside of the hut of your zebra friend Zecora, who I'm sure is eager for some... how do you humans joke about it, or that's right, 'surprise sex'. You have options, so go on, squeeze the trigger, let's find out where I go next." He said with a crazed glare in his eyes and a deranged cackle.

Weighing the idea that his death could bring his reappearance at another location as far away as Ponyville, I couldn't risk it. I put my weapon away and started to bring my phone into play.

He placed his hoof on mine, holding his against the screen. "And your phone won't save you now, sweetheart. I'm sure whatever you have waiting out there won't get the chance to change what's going to happen next."

"You know what, you're right. My phone won't save a damn thing." I said as I put it away. "But we are leaving."

"Not with her, you are." He replied cheerfully.

I turned to the door and started grabbing at her hoof, guiding her to the door. "Kali, let's go."

A loud piercing slam echoed throughout the room, I turned around to see the red jewel atop his cane glowing the same color of his magic. This time he spoke sweetly at me, mainly in a mocking manner. "I said what I said." He pointed the cane at her. "She stays here."

The zebracorn, realizing that there was no alternative for her, pushed me away and whispered nervously. "Go."

"Kali, I'm not leaving you here again." I pleaded with her.

"I will be fine. Go." She repeated, using her magic to push me away from her. As she shoved me to the door, she appeared to be trembling all throughout her body. She tried her best to give me a reassuring smile, but she knew she was terrified.

The doors opened to allow me to leave, she forced me out with her magic once more. "You come back in one piece, you hear me?" I called out as she closed the doors upon my exit.

Meanwhile, within the room, Umbra spun his cane and summoned five ponies of large stature into the room. He stretched his neck and pulled at his joints, stretching as if he was about to perform some physically demanding work.

"Now. You, miss rebel, are in need of some... correction."

Meanwhile in Ponyville...
***Point of Perspective: Equus Melanie***

My body was filled with a lot of aches and sores, a lot of it stemming from some work out on the farm today. Granny Smith informed us that we had to get some work done on the other farm animals and pets. There was a lot of reapplying the chicken wire fence, carting over goods through town, pulling up wooden beams to raise a frame for a new storage barn out in the west orchard, which was already a good hundred acres running to the building site, and then building the barn, and finally heading back out those same hundred acres.

A Texas-sized nightmare if you ask me, but the pay was worth it at least.

So when I got in today, there was little more I wanted to do other than ignore the day's sweat and flopping in my bed for a good eight hours of pass-out. I didn't care if I had smelled like a workhorse, I just wanted to rest my body for the day. I heard my phone vibrate maybe once, and I just ignored it. Probably an Instagram notification or something, doesn't really matter to me what the hell it is.

I closed my eyes and let myself go until the morning.

*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG*

I jumped right out of my sleep, both scared a pissed off for having someone banging the shit out of my door. So they already had me fucked up to start off.

But it was Cliff's voice, and it didn't sound any less frantic than the banging at my door. "Yo! Mel! Get your ass up now! I know you're tired, but we gotta move!"

I ran up to the door and yanked the damn thing open, screaming angrily at the two stallions standing in the hall. "What the fuck is wrong with you!?"

Cliff ran past me to grab my phone, Rickey pulled out his and showed me the screen. "Discord just shot all of us texts. He said that motherfucker is here."

"Wait, what?" I said, still in a state of delirium. I squinted my eyes at the screen, seeing a message come in from Nondis' number. Instead it had a picture of Umbra holding onto the phone, looking up at pony Nondis with an air of conquest on his face. It was a picture taken just twenty minutes ago with a quote in parenthesis.

"You don't think Canterlot is the only place I have bodies at, do you?"

The second I read that to myself, all my awareness came flooding back at me at once. The fear hit like a 727 crashing into an office building. I read yet another quote that showed up beneath it.

"You have options, so go on, squeeze the trigger, let's find out where I go next."

There was only one word that could describe the chill down my spine; artic. "Oh... shit."

Cliff came to me with my phone and saddle bags. "Sorry, we're running short on time. We have to get moving." He said as he walked into the hall.

"How do we know he's even here!?" I asked, still very afraid. "For all we know, this could be a bluff! A total fucking lie that he's using to get us off our guard. What does it even matter?"

A lion's paw quickly came out at me from an adjacent room, I screamed and flailed at whatever had tried to stop my way forward. "I understand you're frantic, but it's me." Discord announced as he materialized through the door. "I don't usually try to interject on matters in this regard, but seeing how things have changed and that I do owe a favor to your friend for a much earlier affair, this first rescue mission will be an exception. If you don't mind, I have yet another to do after you lot and I don't intend to be late for it. Now please move quickly." He said as he guided us back into my room for a moment.

*CHOM*

When we all started to walk in, the lights in the entire building went down. There was no way for us to see our hooves in front of our faces aside from the flashlights on our phones. Cliff quickly pulled out his and did just that. "Oh no, we're not fucking doing this today."

"Thank God we have flashlights on our phones." Rickey said as he pulled out his and pointed it down the hall. At the center of the lobby, there appeared to be the silhouette of a young filly standing at the end of the hall, she stood with much of her disheveled mane covering her eyes. Very softly, her voice echoed through the hall.

♪Darling daddy's wasting away♫...

Rickey immediately walked into the room and slammed the door. "Oh we're not doing this today." He said, locking the door and latching it shut. He went the extra mile of pushing my nightstand against the door for some reinforcement.

"No fucking shit we're not doing it today. Discord, where the hell are we going?" I asked the draconequus in a panic, especially seeing how we were now trapped in this room.

Discord walked over to my bathroom, closed the door and waited for a moment. "My dimension. You'll be in there for a short while until I can get you to Twilight's castle. You'll be safe."

♪Mommy, mommy, did you swallow glue♫...

As the voice started to sound like it was closer down the hall, Cliff started to help reinforce the door with anything he could find, chairs, the other nightstand, the dresser, basically anything that wasn't already going to get in Discord's way. "Where to?"

The door he held on to clicked. "Here!" He said as he opened it back up to show a void of floating rocks and broken staircases. Some of which were inverted in various directions with pigs flying backwards.

"Why are the stairs upside down?" I asked.

"Does that really fucking matter right now?" Rickey questioned to me.

♪Well all be together once again.
At last we can finally play♫...

The filly's voice had isolated itself by the very door they guys had barricaded. Cliff was the first to dive in face-first into the unknown place. "Upside down stairs it is." Rickey announced.

I looked inside, uncertain if we were going to be trapped in here, of if anything else crazy might pop out at us while we were in here. The last thing we needed was something that could snatch us up out of nowhere. "Mel, this shit ain't it, bruh. We gotta go!" Cliff urged from within.

I started to ask myself the question of what we were suddenly thrown into. "What the hell's out there?"

"The better question is do you really want to find out?" Discord questioned urgently as he started flexing his claws.

Tee hee... I know you're in there. Let's play a game together. Daddy doesn't have to know.

The voice whispered against the cracks of the door. "Mel! Bring your ass! Now!" Cliff shouted loudly. Hearing the demand that was made, the filly grew angry and started banging against the door.

You're running already, that's not fair! I wanna P̴̝̿L̷̟̔A̷̙̾Y̷̥̒!̴̖̏

The distortion of her voice made it appear that there was more than one voice at the door. The slight knocks had instantly went from that of a filly, to the sound of a mighty battering ram being sent into the door. The wood of the door cracked, an impact so loud that it startled me to fall back towards the door Discord had opened. "Get in there!" The draconequus didn't help me back up in any way, only shoving me through the door and closing it. The deity of chaos stood back waiting for the door to break down as a means to stall for time. "Now let's see my little filly if you still want to play. What game do you have in mind?"

T̷̮̫͝A̷̮͕͂Ǵ̸̭̬!̴̝͖͂ ̸̱͛͜Ì̶̘͈̃'̴̺̉̚M̶̧̗̓͒ ̵̪̓Į̵̍̂T̵̿̆ͅ!̷̧͊

The door was broken by the use of a single tendril that pierced through everything that was in it's path. And with a sweeping motion, it battered everything that was in it's way into splintery shrapnel. The creature poked a number of eyes through the large opening, introducing many faces to the draconequus that looked on with sadness.

"Oh dear... you're all dead, aren't you?"

The V.I.P. Lounge
Ten Minutes Later...

Kalimba laid bloodied on the ground, all at the center of five larger figures, each of them bruised after a hard fight. But the numbers in combination with each of their physique and skill level proved too much for the zebracorn to be able to face on her own. Blue stood silently as Alabaster quietly tried to bide his time to find a way to rescue her in a way that Umbra would not be able to counter quickly.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned ringleader brushed his hoof off against his suit and approached the zebra slowly, yanking her head up by her mane. "Well, I do have to say you've improved a bit." He said, pulling the mare in for a quick peck on the lips. "Or maybe you were always capable of it, just never quite had the strength to make it happen."

"What do you want us to do with her boss?" One of the guild ponies questioned.

"Break her." Said the stallion, biting his lip at what he will be doing sometime later. "But don't kill her. I want her to feel every emotional weight there is being cleansed from her when I make her to be my exclusive breeding station for the night."

As the five started to crack their necks for a second round of mauling the mare, Alabaster started to put his plan into action. He approached from behind Umbra, slowly manifesting his magic into play. But without warning, his horn had completely fell off, rolling to the ground like a lifeless decoration. The stallion gawked at the sight of his horn and felt for it on his head. Noticing it's absence, he started to panic.

"Hello there!" A tiny voice called out from the ground below, gaining the attention of both Umbra and a hornless Alabaster. They initially looked to one another before looking down at the fallen horn, revealing a very small draconequus walking from inside of it like he came out of a party hat. He motioned for a pause before grabbing at his thumb and blowing into it to inflate back to his normal size.

The security took issue with the creature's unannounced and unauthorized entry. "Hey!" One of the bouncers screamed before both of them, along with the five guild members, were shrunk down and turned into tiny ballerina dolls. The deity of chaos lifted all seven and assembled them at a straight line on the top of the bar, who looked up at Discord with confusion.

"Oh you adorable little dolls. Aren't you the most endearing things, outside of Fluttershy of course."

Not exactly pleased with the interruption, Umbra was still surprised by the appearance of the misshaped creature. "Well. An unexpected surprise."

Discord reached down to pick up the horn he had spawned from, and dusted it off before pointing it like a baton towards the once-carefree stallion. "Hmm... So we meet at last, Umbra Sanctus." He promptly turned around to see Alabaster feeling at his forehead with sadness, Discord planted the horn back on his head as if it had never fallen off. "Or do you go by another name?"

Watching one of his forced subordinates, he witnessed how quickly Alabaster had gone from bemoaning the idea of being an earth pony to once again being a unicorn. "I am who I am. That is my name, please try not to wear it out."

"Indeed you are. But I'm afraid I must bring a pause to your fun for the evening." The draconequus said as he walked by the ringleader, leaning down to check on Kalimba.

"And why is that?" Asked Umbra, who was starting to lose his patience with the interruptions.

"Because friendship, something-something, protect blah-blah-blah, another one of those usual speeches Twilight Sparkle rambles out on occasion." Discord said in a half-intended manner. "I haven't consulted with my writer for a speech yet, maybe I should consult Nondis' writer. I heard his speeches are pretty emboldening and impactful."

Umbra hid his anger behind yet another smile. "As much as I love a surprise here or there, you know I can't allow you to just stop my having a good time without some repercussions in mind."

"Well of course, you've committed a pretty serious violation. I had run-in with a dear friend of yours, just to see what it was that was out there. And I do believe I came across a playdate." He said, checking in on Kalimba's condition.

"A playdate?" The stallion inquired.

"A mother, a father, their child, and a number of other faces. Was that not what you sent out that way?"

Realizing that his plans had been thwarted, he pursed his lips as he tried to assess the degree of damage that was done. "To an extent. What of it?"

"Oh well it was really interested in having some fun. So I set up a playdate with it while I was at the apartment. I do believe I won our little game of tag. It melted into an ooze and went right back into hiding in the darkness."

"You DESTABILIZIED IT!?" Umbra shouted in absolute shock.

Discord then assumed the role of being the carefree figure in the room. "Your friend really needs more emotional support, that and back support also... and a good final resting place."

Umbra took a deep breath, trying to regain his composure by smiling again. "Well consider myself amused. I didn't think I'd run into a snag this early."

"It's only because you ran into me. So consider yourself lucky." Discord answered as he picked up the confused zebracorn. The draconequus summoned a square pocket mirror, sat it in the air and stretched the corners out to where it was large enough for anyone to pass through. He tossed the zebra inside to join the others. "Incoming!"

Across the looking glass, Umbra saw as the three he initially tried to go after had waited within. Rickey and Cliff held out their hooves to catch the beaten and disoriented zebra. As she landed, they took notice of her condition. "Kali, holy fuck!" Rickey exclaimed.

"Yo! What happened!?" Cliff questioned as he looked to Discord.

Umbra looked through the mirror, growing more displeased with the night. "I see you've brought friends, Discord."

"The ones you've wanted to hunt down, I take it?" The creature rebutted.

The stallion tried his best to remain calm. "Well I wasn't going to 'hunt' them per se. Just coral them and keep them around for later. You'd be surprised what it does for motivation."

"I'm certain I already know. After all, I did help Tirek with his whole 'take over all the magic in Equestria' thing."

Hearing the familiar voices, both Alabaster and his sister ran around to see who it was that spoke from the mirror. The billionaire heiress was stunned to see a familiar face looking back at her and the others. "Blue!?" Melanie called out.

"Cherry! You're safe!" Blue Royal called out in excitement. Thank Celestia!

"Bitch, get in here! We're going to somewhere safe!" She called back.

Enthusiastic about the offer, Blue was more than willing to take her leave from the uncomfortable presence of Umbra. As she consider the offer, the aforementioned stallion glared down to the mare with the intent to bring harm upon her should she elect to disobey him. Alabaster stood between the two in a bid to protect his sister. Discord also stepped in to motion that the two would take their departure into the mirror. Respecting the creature's bravery and courtesy, he escorted his younger sister to the portal and stepped inside himself, each of them being aided by the ones already inside. Discord's eyes remained firm on the now incensed ringleader. "Now if you don't mind, I have a lot of work to do to make amends for your mess. It's been nice speaking with you, Umbra Sanctus."

Seeing his power, his expressions soured as he felt his abilities being challenged by the misfit creature. He grinned the best he could, trying to not lose his composure in front of his subordinates. "Indeed. A deity of chaos. Perhaps we should find ourselves of a similar side someday. After all, I'm sure you'd love to no longer find yourself a pawn to some ungrateful princess of sorts."

Discord folded his arms and rejected his offer. "Unlike you, I don't harbor a sense of entitlement to the world. But then again, I guess it's only fair to know that you've hidden your name at a young age out of fear of meeting the same fate as your family. I would be too if I had to watch my family have their heads paraded around the town square by a group of angry serfs, and then sexually abused in exchange for foolishly believing that a group of other aristocrats had your best interests in mind. Surely that doesn't have any bearing on you at all, now does it?"

"Well..." Umbra felt his chin tighten and his teeth grind into one another. In a brief flash of his volatile anger, he slammed his staff into the ground... only for him to discover that it snapped back at him like a serpent.

"Well there's a bit of a biblical reference for you. Though I wouldn't grab a snake by it's tail, it can still reach up to bite." Discord taunted.

"True to your moniker, Being of Chaos." Grimaced the stallion.

"Indeed I am. And you will be true to your work soon enough." He said as he stepped into the mirror himself, waving back at the stallion a playful smile. "Good day, Count Sanctus Quorum of House Bastion."

The stallion shouted as he picked up one of the bar stools and shattered the mirror, leaving behind only a pile of broken glass. The staff he held had turned back into it's usual state. He glanced around, heaving with indignation. He closed his eyes and tried to manifest himself elsewhere, only to find himself waking up in the same place he had closed his eyes. He did so again, with the same result.

"My lord?" Damper whimpered, afraid of being the subject to the stallion's ire. Seeing that his night had gone terribly, he threw the chair down and tossed the remnants at the bar, shattering a few bottles on the back wall. He tried to put on a forced smile, knowing he had a lot of work to do.

"The lounge is closed this evening. Have the night you deserve."

The Portal Room
Canterlot Castle
45 Minutes Later...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

The moment I left Corrotto, I transformed myself back and ran straight to the castle. I messaged Celestia that I needed her consent to conduct a raid to clear out the entire arena, especially if he had threatened to make a move on my friends. When she and I discussed the situation at greater detail, she also informed me that Discord had notified her of what was going on before I had arrived.

As soon as his name was mentioned, a mirror summoned itself and reached within to pull out a smug-faced draconequus. He looked at me and pointed his claw at the mirror he walked out of. "Special delivery for one Nondis P. Haines."

At will, three ponies walked out of the portal, one orange pegasus in particular carrying a bruised Kalimba on their back. She looked to me weakly, but smiled and waved before going back to holding herself. An unfamiliar pink mare sighed in relief and expressed herself. "Thank God I don't have to see another stairwell leading to an empty ceiling."

I immediately recognized Melanie's voice from the mare. I looked at the others' physical descriptions and made a mental comparison to what they were described to me earlier. "Guys!?"

"Yeah! You're alright!" Melanie said from down below.

"I could say the same shit for you three!" I said to the trio of ponies before bringing my attention to the injured mare. "Kali!"

"I am a little pushed around, but I will be fine." She said as she climbed off of Rickey slowly, trying to not strain herself in movement.

"I'm so glad you're okay." I informed the mare before looking to the one that brought them here safely. "Discord, I owe you, imperially."

"Did you honestly think I wouldn't repay you the favor of our time together months back? Surely you saw this coming."

"I didn't." I replied to the creature before addressing my friends. "I really didn't see any of this coming. He knows about you all."

"So I guess that means we need to relocate?" Rickey questioned.

"Relocate is putting it mildly. I'm gonna have to send you guys back home." I answered.

"But he knows where we stay." Cliff argued.

"That may be, but he doesn't know about where our good friend Single File is. I could send you over to Hermes for the week, you should be fine from there."

"I would hate to be a burden on that guy, especially if he's trying to get comfy." Rickey said with uncertainty. "All of this would be a lot to try and cover for."

Simply relieved to see my friends again after leaving Corrotto, I couldn't help but to smile at what I could possibly set up for them. "Trust me, the last thing you guys will have to worry about his comfort. I've already made provisions for each of you."

"What do you mean?" Cliff questioned.

"Well, it's almost been a month, I can't just let you guys go on without some sort of compensation for what you all had to do. I got some funds pushed aside to take care of you once we cross over."

"Nondis!" A voice called out from the end of the room. I looked over to see both Alex and Stanton walking through the door and running up to meet with us.

"Alex, what's going on, why are you here?" I questioned my older brother.

"Dude, we just got some really ominous messages from Discord." Stanton explained. "We heard that the others were in some deep shit and we came through to help."

I again looked to Discord, who offered his own response. "If you ever wondered how I was able to act as quick as I did, I only responded as fast as a text message could get the point across. Human technology does have it's benefits."

I glanced down to my phone and sighed, thanking fate that he was so interested in our technology that he decided to linger around in my device at the time. "That it does." Another voice called out from within the mirror. Another two ponies entered the room, of course they were faces I had already knew.

"Blue, Alabaster, you guys are here too?"

The billionaire heiress walked up to us, stopping right beside Mel. "We got pulled right in. I think I can say that one-week pass into the castle will be my saving grace at this point. Staying here would at least save me the possibility of having to come back home to something even more psychologically damaging."

I couldn't agree more. "How about you? You good?" I asked to Alabaster.

"Oh I'm fine. But you really missed out on some juicy stuff. Oh, the look on his face when Discord called him out." He said excitedly.

"What did he say?" I asked curiously.

"He called him by his name at least four times in front of everyone. But that last name was pretty odd." Blue explained. "Count Sanctus of House Bastion. Who the hell is that?"

"House Bastion, that's a name I'm unfamiliar with." Alabaster added.

Celestia grew quiet for a moment before she started to chant in repetition to herself. "House Bastion... Bastion..."

Melanie then jumped in. "Well never mind that, what the hell was that thing that chased us earlier?"

"What did it look like?" I questioned, hoping that I would at least be able to put an answer together.

Both Mel and Cliff looked to Rickey to tell what he had seen. "I caught a glimpse from a distance. It looked like a little filly, I didn't get a good look of her face, but it turned into something ugly at the end there, at least from the sound of it's voice."

"Wait, so he came after you all as well?" Kalimba asked.

"No. Just whatever the hell that thing was." Mel answered.

"It was his creation, however." Discord clarified. "And that little filly, that dead little filly, she had a traveling audience."

All of us had stared at the draconequus with a chilling unease. "Oh that's fucked." Stanton murmured.

"A creature of nightmares, a monster bearing the face of hell itself." Celestia mumbled, she appeared entranced in thought as she listened in on our conversation. But when she saw us looking to her like she had some clue as to what it was, she shook her head. "Don't mind me, I'm just rambling through thoughts."

I started to walk towards her. "Now hold on, you're hiding something."

Kalimba quickly came to her defense. "Nondis, she obviously has a good reason. If she tells you and we-all-knows-who takes you, who is to say he won't try to hide himself again?"

I could tell that some part of her argument came with the frustration of tonight and the experience of being in the same situation previously. While I was not aware of what she had in the works, I was aware that Twilight had gotten involved somehow. "All I know is that the elements may be involved."

Rickey interjected. "Whatever elements you guys are talking about, they should be involved. One element I'd suggest, my go-to regarding this situation: FIRE."

"Oh, the elements will indeed be involved." Discord added. "There's no other choice. The bearers themselves are in mortal danger."

"Yeah. He made threats against Rarity and Pinkie, even joked around the idea of throwing the Cutie Mark Crusaders into sex trafficking." I briefly summarized, with Kalimba nodding in confirmation.

"Okay, who the fuck is this Ummie guy and who hurt him." Mel questioned with disbelief.

"Oh there's quite a story to it." Discord replied, folding his arms.

A moment of silence came over the room as we waited for an explanation that never came from him. "And you don't wanna tell us about it?" Alex asked a bit miffed over it.

The hybrid creature whirled his hand with dismissal. "Meh, I'm sure Cay-Cay will find a way to put it together."

"Who's Cay-Cay?" I asked in confusion.

He then pointed to the princess who appeared just as confused as I was. "Celestia, of course."

Appearing moderately annoyed, she voiced her disapproval of the name. "I did not consent to this."

I shook my head, realizing he was going to be a troll about it. Although I would greatly appreciate him giving us more information, I just had to be satisfied with what he had already done for us. "Okay, so here's what we know. He has a creature consisting of dead ponies, maybe."

"A creature you boasted about defeating before you came and got us." Alabaster pointed out to the draconequus. "What did you do to take it out?"

"You know, a secret about chaos magic is that it's aware of it's presence but not aware of it's own abilities." The creature replied with a shrug.

"Is that a bullshit way of saying 'a magician never reveals his secrets'? This is life and death here, I'd like to think Nondis would probably have a fighting chance if we knew what it was and how to beat it." Alex stated.

Discord raised his paw up to about the top of his horn. "I can say it's about my size, if not a bit bigger. I was really guessing at what I could use to make it go away, and again, my magic isn't exactly confined to one finite trait as I'm using it, hence why the results are so varied. While I can control it to a vast degree, I cannot change it's composition, it's too unstable. Hence it earns it's moniker, chaos magic. It's a wonderfully natural thing, purely organic, but highly potent and very hard to control."

"So we know that magic works. Okay, that's a plus." Mel said, not exactly comfortable about the situation.

Discord went on and expounded on a few other details. "It's strong. Even in the highly-unstable state it was in, it could render wood virtually useless against it's tendrils. But it operates in a juvenile manner."

"Hauntingly juvenile." Rickey cosigned.

"Typical of his humor." Alabaster responded, appearing unimpressed with that factor.

"I'm telling you, the last thing you want is to hear that thing singing to you from the end of a dark hallway." Rickey continued.

"Or through a wooden door." Cliff supplemented.

"Or hear it scream at you." Melanie concluded.

I looked to the two siblings and questioned them on their knowledge. "Alabaster, Blue, both of you are in the Inner Circle, I'm sure you guys know something about what he has going on."

The cream white stallion shook his head. "Sadly, that trust deteriorated after I gave you that warrant. Have you tried the funeral home?"

Celestia promptly answered him. "We've conducted a search to answer the report of the missing bodies, we found a backlog of corpses my guards are having to clean up there."

"Did you try going deeper?" Alabaster stressed.

The princess closed her eyes and grew quiet. "There was an attempt. That's all I can say."

"So anything else other than that?" I asked.

"The only thing we can give you is that Damper Trot begs to him on a weekly basis. You may want to look into investigating him like I told you." Blue suggested.

But her brother quickly countered her reply. "That's the problem. I send out a private investigator for that, he keeps his records clean on the surface level and skin deep."

"Perhaps this Ummie guy stepped in knowing what you'll find." Stanton thought aloud.

"It could be just that. He could've stepped in when he found out that I was there, only to give Damper the chance to clean house." I mused.

"Your logic is a little too overthought here. His motives are way more simplistic." Alabaster corrected. "Although the results did turn out favorable to him since he started playing around with you. Damper might have gotten away with hiding more of his trail with the recurring distractions."

"But what does that have to do with de humans? You all heard him say that he still has a human in his body count. That's not a good thing." Kalimba brought up.

"That's the better question. Why the hell would he need a human body for?" Cliff questioned.

"Maybe fake Nondis' death to the masses and take him in for whatever reason?" Blue proposed. "He has been obsessed with him since he showed up. He practically abandoned his schedule for the exclusive reason of seeing you for himself. But with that other human body, I can only assume he's got some sort of nefarious reason to keep a corpse of your species on hoof."

Mel grimaced as she thought of her ex. "Possibly to add to that thing we ran from earlier."

I took a moment to pace out my thought process, trying to find myself thinking on a level that could be similar to his thought pattern. While I couldn't exactly come up with a plan that would be a spot-on representation of how he would operate, I could guess at how fucked up he could be if he wanted to make it that much harder for us. My mind started to circulate around the words he said, the smile on his face, the laugh he gave when he threated me to take the shot.

I closed my eyes, imagining myself if I was in his position, especially in a demented place that could only be described as a forum built to be a containment center for debauchery. I couldn't imagine him being able to transport a group of bodies so quietly without getting noticed, much less transporting something that's said to be a mass of multiple bodies. The smell would be overwhelming, the sight would be terrifying, it would easily be reported to the authorities.

My mind went back to the words he spoke, 'You don't think Canterlot is the only place I have bodies at.' Those words echoed as I started to put together in my head what he could have possibly done. Better yet, how was he able to get bodies around Canterlot at will anyhow... unless he was in charge of a place like the morgue?

"...Wait!" It started coming together. Say if he was in charge of something at the morgue, or at some medical center of some sorts, any place that was especially known to deal with the dead, be it on daily or seldom occurrence. He just said he could move himself as easily as blinking, that tells me that he could just walk himself to wherever, whenever, do whatever and be back at a moment's notice. I've seen it for myself how he does that, and it terrified me. "The inn by Twilight's Castle. He said he had a body there."

"He could've been lying to throw you off of what he really sent over to us." Mel added.

"If it's a move he can make in confidence, he's more than likely to do it." Alabaster corrected her, firmly stating the truth that all of us V.I.P. Lounge dwellers knew.

"What are you proposing, Nondis?" Alex inquired.

As I continued pacing, I started putting together the most fear-inducing plan I could think of. "I'm thinking of the worst possible thing here, something so fucked and unrealistic that I know that only he can fucking do, and it's something that with his network he can get away with." I started to plant myself in his thoughts, piecing what I knew with what I could assume in the worst situation conceivable. "Okay, say he goes on a train to take a ride to Ponyville starting at the hour of the least frequented line. Then we say that he then boards that same line a number of times throughout the day. There are different tellers at different windows, so he wouldn't go to the same window, that's to minimize his being identified. He boards a train and take a nap, moves into another body, walks to the train station again, buys his ticket, gets on the line, rinse and repeat a good four or five times. Then when his train arrives each time, he walks out and positions himself to someplace nearby the location he wants to scope out."

"That sounds like he's just playing a game to get different endings." Mel said with ridicule.

I pointed at her and shouted. "EXACTLY! It's like a quick-save system in an RPG! You fuck up, just go back and respawn where you last left off and try something different! Yeah, it's coming together." I continued pacing, piecing together more and more ideas. "Okay, so let's just say that he did all of that, and then like you would in a game, save a file someplace at a different location where you want to explore. You leave the game for a while and then come back and choose whichever quest you want to take on and start from that dungeon you picked out. But let's just say you come back to a certain area after getting a new summon from a side-quest just to see how it runs, you use that summon and breeze right through it to the boss pit."

"Okay, Nondis. Not everyone knows what an RPG is. In Layman's terms please?" Alex pointed out.

I looked back and pointed at my older brother. "Worst case scenario, he made that thing to be able to have the same damn ability he has in terms of being able to be in more than one place."

"That's ridiculous, dude!" He replied with disbelief.

I turned my attention to the corner where I knew I would get my confirmation. "Kali, Blue, Alabaster, you all heard him when he said it. 'It's as easy as blinking. One second I'm here, the next I'm waiting in the lobby for your friends to show up.' That should tell you right there. It's the reason why you can't say his name in public, because you'll never know if he's actually right fucking there behind you." I then turned to the three transformed humans. "And you guys read Discord's messages, those quotes weren't something he took out of context, that's just the fraction of what all he said to me."

Blue stepped up and asked in a unsteady tremble. "So if that's what you're proposing, then doesn't that mean that thing can show up at any time and any place?"

"Possibly through any body that he gets his hooves on..." I turned to my brother to finalize my thought. "Including humans."

The realization dawned on him, especially knowing that he could send a human body over and send it to wherever he wants it to be. It would then become a game of Russian Roulette with half of the chambers filled with rounds. Finally in a panic, Alex walked to me with fear throughout his body. "He's been leaving bodies at Mel's place! Does that mean he has a fucking portal!?"

"The portals he took were all here. All he had to have was someone on the inside running changes to the security rotations. I think I can conclude with recent results that we're green on that front." I explained as I walked him over to the portal leading to the frat house. I turned it on, a computerized voice called out what had been moved. "The portals here are all rigged, I know when they're walked through, especially if I arm it for stay or away. There's motion sensors, infrared, night vision, high definition cameras. All of that is sitting in that same room. There's no fucking chance he'll come through to our world again unnoticed, not with the way security's been working now."

Alex then prosed the question. "Okay, so if we go by your logic and think like you are right now, who's to say that he hasn't already started making a portal to the human world with the information he's gained from these?"

Celestia stepped in to provide an answer. "Unlikely that he'll be able to accomplish it without the proper coordinates, the proper spells, the proper system to even put himself or one of his creations through. That will take months, that's time he does not have. Your world is safe. We intend to keep it that way."

Blue then raised his hoof to give his own input. "Okay. So if I had a choice to be as cruel as I could possibly be, I would take your friends and use them for motivation to make good on your agreement. And if it follows through and you win, then you have a choice to either negotiate for the information you need, or you save your friends."

"Like you did for me." Alabaster cosigned.

I huffed through a moment of frustration, letting the thought play out in my head. "Then our agreement would change at the drop of a dime. He'd know I would be trying to save them, and I would probably forego on that to keep everyone safe... that son of a bitch would've kept me there for another month!" I pointed my finger at the dragonesque creature. "Discord, you saved me a lot of fucking time, dude."

"Don't mention it. I know that time is a very finite thing for you in particular." He replied.

I gave the creature a thumbs up of acknowledgement and turned my attention to the princess momentarily. "Well now that we fucked that up for him, we're right back on schedule. Guess that means I know what I'm facing, and I can gather what the hell I can do to possibly give myself an edge." I looked towards the zebracorn this time, being upfront with my request. "I can also get this out the way now. Kali, on Friday, you stay here in the castle where you'll be protected, don't follow me, don't beg otherwise, don't sneak out because I'll know if you try."

"I do not agree to dat idea." She said firmly in disagreement.

"There is no agreement about it, that's an order." I reiterated before addressing the three transformed beings. "Mel, Cliff, Rickey, you're going home tonight. I send you your stimulus tomorrow morning."

The other two sighed as Cliff was the first to verbalize his thoughts. "Man, it kinda sucks that we don't get to say goodbye to anyone. I know it be like that sometimes, but I still wish we could at least tell miss landlady that she don't have to make us breakfast in the morning. Damn, she's gonna be lonely with a hell of a lot of food and no one to eat it."

"Ugh, I hate to do that to her." Mel continued. "And I told Applejack that I would help her out on the southern field, at least to let Big Mac not do so much and give Apple Bloom more time to be with her friends. But she's gonna be without both me and Kali, so all that's moot. That's a rough sell."

"And to think of all the ones I won't get to help out tomorrow during the breakfast rush." Rickey also added. "Damn, it's gonna suck not having those pastries in the morning anymore. Pinkie really put her hoof in those batches, I'm gonna have to put in orders from across the way."

Hearing their own stories had brought back a familiar warmth in my heart, a most recent source of nostalgia for the days when I first began my journey here in Equestria. "I take it you all took away some lasting impressions on your stay?"

"Yeah. Might not be the whole rush we're used to in our lives, but we're gonna miss it here." Mel answered as she looked to both Blue and Alabaster. "I just wish we had more time to get to know more friends."

Alabaster held onto his younger sister as he replied to her. "You know, you could always come by and visit when it's not as hectic. I'll be sure to drop you the address to the mansion, we can have some tea, talk about what we can do to change things in my not-so-humble district. Plus you and Blue can just spend time together on a few shopping trips, I'm sure she'll love the company of a secondary drinking partner."

"I drink some pretty mean stuff, hope that isn't too much of an issue." Blue added.

Mel snickered as she extended her hoof to shake. "I'll bring my own bottle of Jack. We'll get fucked up together one of these days. Just make sure we get back home somehow."

"Honey, a ride home ain't nothin but a bit in a busy street. We're all good." Blue said before she grew a bit sad about the inevitable departure. "I hope to see you again soon."

Mel also looked to Kalimba. "That same invite goes to you too, miss prankster."

"Just stay out of trouble. And don't second guess yourself." She said to her before looking at Rickey. "And you, don't be stupid."

"I'll take my cue from the village idiot. No promises." Rickey said as he nudged at me.

"Keep that same energy tomorrow morning." I jabbed back before bringing my attention to the three other ponies fresh from Discord's mirror. "Alabaster, Blue, Kali, you'll all be in the castle until this all blows over. There are some rooms I can rent out for a month at least to get you acclimated."

Alabaster feigned a haughty attitude. "Well I suppose the accommodations will have to do, especially if they do cater to the guests of royalty."

Kalimba walked past me as she started walking down the hall, despite not knowing where she was going. "You do not have to spend rent on me. I know what room I am taking."

Celestia levitated the mare and turned her to the correct hall where the residences could be reached. "First, he's spending rent on you. Second, I've already picked out your room."

The zebracorn then replied. "With all due respect, your highness, why make him pay for something extra when you could consolidate de arrangement?"

"Because I know how it feels to be young and rebellious." She said sternly. "You will stay in my hall, there's an empty room next to mine. It'll at least give me a better chance to observe your discipline."

Kalimba quirked a brow and gave the princess a sideward glance. "Your majesty, your mane is sure running a good shade of green today."

"I could say the same for you, Miss Mavembe."

The rest of us had watched as the metaphorical sparks flew from the both of them and initiated a beam struggle. Meanwhile Mel looked on with amusement, Rickey started inching towards the portal, and Cliff cleared his throat before singing to himself. "♫I'm sorry that you, seem to be confused, he belongs to me, the boy is mine.♪"

Stanton snuck up to me and tapped my shoulder. "Um, what about you?"

"I gotta make good on my agreement. He dismissed me tonight, so his quandary isn't with me until Friday. But I guess I'll worry about that nightmare when I get to it."

"Dude, please be safe." Stanton replied.

"I know that you guys are at the very least. Out of all the questions I grilled him on, he could only tell me about who was here. And if I don't know where you are at this moment in time, he won't know either." I explained before reminding myself on one more thing. As the three human transplants started the process of being brought back into their human state, Cliff and Rickey were given back their clothes behind a veil. My attention was brought to them. "Hey Cliff, Rickey, after you guys get changed up, I'll need you to check in with the guys over at the frat house. He threatened our brothers there too."

"He must've lost his goddamn mind." Cliff replied. "It ain't nothin' for us to pull up."

As they finished, it was Mel's turn behind the veil. She was transformed and given her clothes. Rickey walked up to me and shook my hand. "You remember that day at the frat house when Celestia and Twilight dropped by and changed clothes?"

"Yeah, wasn't that long ago." I replied.

The man chuckled as he reached an arm around my shoulders and whispered. "Remember when you said you wanted to knock boss lady down."

"Shut up about that." I quietly chided.

"I'm just saying. You must've done something to get her acting jealous like that. What you done did?"

"It's not about what I did so much as what her sister did on Sunday. She literally made me grab her ass at a Victoria's Secret changing booth."

"Damn, you got it like that?" He asked quietly.

"No. Luna does that shit to annoy Celestia, and it works each time. Like I don't know if you've watched them argue, but it's like watching two women armed with nuclear warheads pointed at each other talking shit about who's gonna press the button first. Like that Victoria Secret was going to get thoroughly uninstalled."

"Damn, I didn't even know she was like that."

"After a thousand years of not having someone to be possessive of, do you think you'd be the same way?" I questioned.

"Yeah, I get it." Rickey nodded his head. "I'll look after Melanie while you're gone."

"Do you, dude." I said quietly. "Between you and me, she's pretty bad at figuring out how to get back into market. Be sure she doesn't find some dickbag to mess around with for the weekend."

"She might've already found one while she was here." He replied with a smirk.

As soon as she finished with her clothes, she ran from behind the curtain and hugged me. As she reached up to pull me down, she muttered in my ear. "Don't you have me coming back here to do some medical work, you jackass."

"As long as I stay ready, I won't need it." I replied.

As all the other humans made their way back home, I felt relieved in seeing them safe and being brought back to where they needed to be. I took a quick breath and started on making the arrangements for the others to stay inside of the castle for the week. I asked the remaining three ponies to walk alongside me.

Meanwhile, Celestia stood quietly, pondering to herself. "...Count Bastion..."

"You still haven't figured it out yet?" Discord questioned.

Not pleased with the antics of the chaotic creature, she grew spiteful of his attitude. "Apparently, you know something that I don't."

"Believe me when I say it, Cay-Cay, you'll be surprised of the chaos you've brought upon yourself."

"Are you saying that this is somehow my fault?" She questioned.

The draconequus grinned before he disappeared. "I'll leave you to find that out on your own. After all, it is what you've done with your precious student a number of times now. It wouldn't be fair if I had to spoon feed you something like this when it's already on the tip of your tongue. Toodles!" And with a snap of his fingers, he disappeared in a bright flash of light.

Celestia grimaced as she walked away to her own quarters. "Ugh, seriously... And what kind of name is Cay-Cay anyway?"

The Great Canterlot Cathedral of Faust
473 Years Ago...

Eight years passed since the start of the civil conflict taking place out on the fields of battle. In the early years the tavern was bustling with aspiring combatants looking for a chance to live out a tale of glory and freedom in the name of the high princess. But instead of being treated to stories of adventure and great feats of strength, stories of sadness and terror came in their place. With many aristocrats and lords threatening the lives of those who lived on their lands, stallions would take up arms in fear of losing their homes and livelihoods. And as a result, many who grew up knowing each other had ended up opposing each other. And when they would meet on the field, there were two who ultimately disregarded that strife.

One such being was the princess herself, she would enter the field with her forces, usually outnumbered by three-to-one, sometimes seven-to-one, leading a front of young soldiers who aspired to save their families from the abusive system the lords had placed many of them in. And when their numbers had dwindled to too few, she would envelop herself in flames and become the beast that many had grew to fear. Her teeth sharpened and her smile ever present, she would cut down the ponies that stood in opposition to her with extreme prejudice.

And by her side was a young stallion, a growing youth who had been forged through the years of conflict to wield the spear and sword as easily as he showed his hatred for the cowards that chose to live in fear of their abusers. To him, they were just as complicit, and he would judge them harshly. Whoever the princess would often leave behind, or rather who retreated from the sight of her, the young teen would impale and slice through with absolute precision unseen by many of those in her ranks, only rivaling the princess herself.

More tales of watching their loved ones and former friends die at the hooves of those they supported, they were left at a crisis. Many had resigned after their first year or so, some even falling to their own swords out of their own sense of obligation. It started to dawn on many that this had become a lost cause. A journey to the fields was often seen as a far worse fate than laboring in the Canterlot Gem Mines, a fate that many had grown to prefer if they chose not to take sides.

The tavern had filled itself with many murmurs of ponies dealing with their existential plight. The young stallions grew fewer and fewer, only the old and disabled would frequent on the daily. And if it wasn't then, then many young nobles would enter to mock the drinkers that tried to escape into their darkness.

And with the nobles increasing their visits, so did their taking the rooms. Their debauchery would know little restraint, taking advantage of the many mares that had grown without fathers and brothers to protect them. And thus it grew into a haven for those of influence, sinking their teeth into victims of circumstance.

Umbra worked the days at the tavern, but he had dreaded the night so much that he protested his shifts to hear the voices of young mares being exploited and made a mockery, as often as his would come to join them in their song. The tavern owner grew despondent to what had become of his business. He fell into a depression, silently offering his drinks to those who also sought an escape to darkness.

Moonbeam left the tavern the third year into the conflict, citing how she wanted to aid those coming from the battle. And often times, Umbra would shadow her to her late night work of tending to the sick and wounded. And with little to clean and mend the wounded with, the many wounds festered diseases that the victims had to ward off. But with little to aid in the endeavor, death had soon followed.

The pair grew from moonlighting as medics to working as undertakers.

One day, a minister had taken notice of the pair doing their work. And the local monastery sought to aid them. They would go out to the places where many of the wounded would be housed in sanctuary. And with their aid, more lives were saved and fewer had succumbed to disease. While Moonbeam was given the task to care for the living, Umbra was left to bring the dead to their final resting place.

He would go on to know just about anything dealing with the pony anatomy, what the cause of death was, how it could be averted through life. His deepening discoveries had started to draw ire from Moonbeam, who thought that the dead should be simply laid to rest. However, his findings were so valued at the church that they made him an acolyte of medicine.

And as time grew naturally, the pair began to shift separate ways from one another. Moonbeam saw how the church valued Umbra's discoveries as opposed to the sanctity of the dead. And she left the monastery to travel elsewhere. Umbra continued his work and research, looking into ways that spells could be used to aid in the healing process. He studied various herbs and toxins that could be implemented to the process of recovery. He started to write tomes of his findings, each of them growing more and more notable with the passing year.

Another three years passed and the war was on the decline. The tavern where many sought to escape their inner demons had fallen into poverty, the property reclaimed by the lord who taxed on it. The bar owner himself passed away shortly after, finding himself to lay at Umbra's workstation. He appeared very wet, likely from sleeping outside for some time. The pronounced cause of death: Pneumonia.

Another two years had gone by and the war was coming to it's end. There had been so many stallions that showed up to Umbra's station that he had easily committed some to a forum. The church agreed to the practice, but only with the assurance that the bodies be allowed to a final resting place where they can be paid their respects.

With more information coming out, much of it valuable to the church, Umbra continued his ascension through the church and continued his life of discovery. Most of his days at that time was relatively simplistic... until it wasn't. With the war on it's way out, the oft fabled princess had paid a visit to the halls of the monastery, seeking a staff to conduct a coronation in silence.

With her favor vastly dwindled, she had many who vowed to oppose her. She wanted to limit any possibility of there being any kind of assassination taking place, and if there should be such an attempt, she needed the best possible medical assistance on standby. The church was more than willing to adhere to her request, especially considering her lineage. They treated her as if she was no less the mouth of Faust herself, especially being none other than the blood-proven granddaughter of the lineage.

The church made a quiet gathering to take place without an announcement to the nobility or the masses. And in such time, they elected their best trained crusaders to the task of bearing down to the aisle where the young stallion walked to complete his ascension to power.

Umbra, who was unquestionably the best medic in all of the land, was forced to attend at the alter.

Watching the duo approach had unbalanced him in his actions and appearance. The grown stallion had watched as the one his age slowly make his way towards the alter. And standing at the center was none other than the high princess herself, covered in perfumes and scents to wash off the scent of metal and blood from skirmishes of two days past. The alabaster ruler watched in quiet as her blond protégé took to the center and bowed before her.

Umbra, who was unnerved by the company of the two, grew absent in mind, thinking more of his deceased family.

One of the priests in charge gave the young stallion a firm hit of correction. "Mind your posture, boy."

"Yes sir." He snapped back to the present, haunted by the sight of the young stallion who was to be crowned. In relative silence, the ceremony had began to take place. The monks and priests began their processionals, wafting incense through the sanctuary to bless the room. They sang in unison their chants, brought the holy water to cleanse their hooves, brought upon them the sacred candles and bells.

The first and only bell was rung in holy celebration of the moment. The archdeacon dipped his hooves in oil and annointed the young stallion before him. "In nomine matris filii et spiritus sancti."

"Magna mater benedicat nos." The young stallion replied with reverence.

The archdeacon looked over to receive the pillow to which the prince's crown was to be presented, only to find Umbra still holding the item in his hooves, he looked to no particular point, appearing lost to the world. "The crown boy." The archdeacon whispered over.

Snapping back out of his trance, he quickly surrendered the item. He was then chastised by another priest at the alter. "What is wrong with you, boy?"

As the others dressed him in his new royal garments, Umbra looked at the young stallion with a quiet disdain. He knew who he was looking at being gifted a crown. He couldn't mistake the appearance, no matter how well-groomed he may be. He remembered how he looked at the gallows, disheveled and dirtied walking up to the rope to which he was to be hung from. He knew the crime he had committed against his cousin. He knew that he was guilty of his murder. And yet in a cruel twist of irony, he was made to witness his cousin's murder to be claimed a prince, all by the same princess who also condemned his family to death that same day.

It was because of him that his life had changed. Umbra tried to hide his revulsion the best he could, keeping many comments to himself, all but one which slipped through his lips. "How are you a prince?"

The crown had hovered in the air as it was about to be placed on the young prince's head. The archdeacon glared at the young acolyte who made the comment. "What?"

Realizing what he had let slipped through, he offered to correct himself. "I now declare you a prince." He said to disguise his words.

One of the other priests walked up to Umbra and took him by his ear to be corrected. "Not how it goes, boy. Now stop being an embarrassment and let this be done properly and in order."

Before he was to be taken out to be chastised, he was still made to watch the ceremony to it's completion. The archdeacon placed the crown upon the stallion's head and the young prince rose. "I now proclaim you as prince of the realm, lord of the mantle of justice! Long may you reign, Prince Blueblood. And may your days be blessed."

"I am humbled." The young prince said.

Princess Celestia stepped forward, announcing loudly to a sanctuary filled with empty pews. She still announced as though applause would soon fill the room. "Fillies and gentlecolts, your new heir to the throne, Prince Blueblood!"

The replying silence was more than enough of an answer for the royal duo.

Umbra was taken to the back of the sanctuary and struck to the ground for his transgressions. The young stallion staggered to rise as one of the other priests snarled at him. "Boy, what is wrong with you!"

He tried to plea his case. "It was an honest mistake─"

But before he continued, he was violently struck back down to the ground. "You dare to ask that question in the presence of Her? Do you not know who she is? Do you seek to embarrass us?"

"Sir!" A voice called from further down the hall.

The young stallion was dragged to his hooves as the other priests around him summoned their rods to discipline him. "Perhaps your accomplishments have made you arrogant! We will rectify that as of this instant!"

"SIR!" The voice called out even louder and even closer.

The group of priests looked up to see the young prince quickly galloping to them. The group of priests and friars all dropped their tools and bowed before the prince. "Your highness, I did not see you approach. How may I serve you, my lord?"

Seeing his first instance to offer benevolence, Blueblood stood himself between them and the young acolyte. "Do not chastise this young apostle, I understand that his political leanings may have no favor with me personally, but I will respect his opinion, and will be more than willing to answer any question that he may have."

"Sir, he is merely an acolyte. He is not deserving of anything, not after what he has said to you."

Blueblood walked the young stallion further down the hall, away from the angry group of missionaries. Gaining some distance, he grew comfortable to question Umbra. "What is your name?"

Already embarrassed that the stallion he despised for killing his cousin had come to his aid, he grew rebellious and opted to withhold his name from the newly-crowned royal. "He is right, your highness. My name is worth nothing to you."

While he had offered his benevolence as a means to extend an olive branch of understanding, the young prince was not as patient as he had appeared to be. So he sought to conclude the matter as quickly as he needed to. "As my first royal decree, I demand to know your name."

Umbra, being the quick thinker he was, threw together a name for himself. "Humble... Humble Shadow, your highness."

Nodding with confirmation, Blueblood patted his shoulder, poking fun at his earlier outburst. "Well, Humble Shadow, it is an honor to have been crowned by you. I heard musings of a promising doctor who would have a future in the royal court if he was to make himself known. They say he's around my age. If you can refer him to me, I will reward you in kind."

"I can only attest to his accomplishments, sir." Umbra replied, knowing that he wanted him. "If I ever see him, I will be sure to have him report."

"Very good." The young prince replied before setting off to take his leave. "I don't wish to be a ruler predicated on spilling blood, the war is long drawn and I fear it is lost. But a peaceful solution is what both I and my mentor will seek going forward. It's time we rebuild Equestria, restore her to her former glory. And we have much to do. But it all starts with peace for one another."

"That it does." Umbra muttered. "I have but one question, before you set off, your highness."

"You may speak." Blueblood replied.

"If the empty pews in there were to be filled with the ones who gave their lives to your cause, how many of them do you think would applaud you?"

"None, because we failed them." The young prince answered somberly. "Our crusade will take on another front, but it will not end. I suppose next time it will be in the pews of the court as opposed to the fields of battle. Surely our battle will be won... one day."

The young prince walked away, leaving behind a spiteful Umbra who still housed great hostility to the royals. He spat back in disgust at the stallion's promise.

"Surely... Justice will win, you say... What a joke."

Canterlot Castle
Present Day...

"Justice doesn't exist anyways."

It was memory that continued to replay in his mind, the sight of the empty pews as the crown was placed upon his head. Blueblood sat quietly in his room as he stared at the mirror, thinking of the many times he failed his legal bouts, remembering how there was no way to win in a fair fight. Years would go by, politicians would live and die as he continued on, he initially lived his days hoping that there would be one where justice would prevail like it should.

Instead, the centuries passed to replicate the same result.

The days of battle didn't keep him up as much as they used to, the guilt of having slain many of young stallions had grown dull to the touch. And with a recent victory in the courts, he weighed if his new plan had come to bear any kind of fruit outside of the small berry of hope stemming from the vine, once anchored in the soil of uncertainty. But there was no justice in life, not without favorable action.

If a foal's life was taken, is it just to take the life of the one responsible? Yes would appear to be the right answer, but would that bring back what was lost? One can take the innocence away from a mare, but they cannot give that back. One can always punish the evildoer, but that will never change the evil that was done. There's always the known conditions of victory, but never a true account of those that were defeated. And even for a victor, there's always a price.

The stallion stared back at the mirror with much of that memory reflecting back at himself.

"Ugh, staring off into yourself again?" Blueblood looked up to see his first wife walking up to him with curlers in her mane. She appeared concerned for her brooding husband. "Vanity will be the end of you."

The blond prince lightly chuckled in reply. "And you're telling me that when Vanity is your first name?"

"Unlike you, it sustains me." She said as she sat next to him.

He then joked back. "Sometimes, I wonder who it is I marry."

"You've wondered about that at least seven times then." She said as she gave him a brief hug.

"I'm feeling a bit melancholy today." He said as he looked into the mirror once more, staring at his own image.

"And what, you want me to rub your hooves about it?" She questioned.

He glanced to her with a smirk. "If you don't mind."

She stood up and playfully smacked his nose with her tail. "Ask Gleaming Star, you keep her as busy as a workhorse anyhow. I don't understand why you decided to take on a secretary for a wife."

"I love her just as much as I love you." Blueblood iterated.

"You love her, you haven't even broken grounds with her yet." She teased.

The prince rolled his eyes. "You know the reason why, hell you advocated it almost ten years ago when the first of you lot and I got married. A decade and I'm still celibate."

"Twelve, Bloody. We got married twelve years ago." She corrected.

The stallion dismissed her correction. "I've been alive for four hundred plus years, do you honestly think I care about specifics?"

"That just tells me you should be old enough to count properly." She zinged back.

"Fair play, dear." He said with a smirk before going back into the mirror.

"So what's got you down?" She questioned as she stood next to him, polishing off her own image before she would make her way to the bed. "Another moment in the time of centuries long dead?"

"Do you ever feel like you've come close to winning, only to fear that somehow it will be taken away from you at any moment?" The stallion asked relatively plainly.

"I thought you sent that human to do your dirty work in Canterrot." She replied as she adjusted her curls, making some of them even tighter.

"Yes, but I've been feeling pretty guilty since he brought us out to dinner with his family on Sunday. I think that day was the first time I genuinely saw him break down. Perhaps it was a personal matter that wasn't addressed previously, lack of closure, but I place my wager on him being overwhelmed. I'm beginning to wonder if it's becoming too much."

The mare scoffed at her husband's thoughts. "Too much for him? Dear, he's beaten a hundred arimaspi, not even you've accomplished that, not your predecessor, nopony has. You've gone with a really good choice if you ask me."

"I just don't want to fail again. We're so close now, I can almost hear the gavel pounding the wood. Ten... twelve years into our marriage and I'm just about tired of being celibate. I want offspring, I want little colts and fillies who can plan their own futures, annoy the mess out of you lot, and call on me whenever you say no so I can entertain their brains with the idea of me saying yes."

Vanity Fair glared at her husband with disapproval. "Now that's starting a war you can't win."

"It'll be fun to try." He sighed with a laugh before looking back into the mirror. "Still, I refuse to look at another face and promise them the future, only to fail yet another time."

The mare gave him a peck on the cheek before setting off to the large bed that he and his other wives shared. "You'll break through one day, dear."

Blueblood closed his eyes to the reflection staring back at him before joining her. "I pray that I do."

Meanwhile at the Unknown Lab...

Umbra opened his eyes from yet another memory that continued to persist throughout his years of living. He felt himself becoming equally as frustrated with it as he was in the moment of overseeing the progress of his recently defeated creation. Images of Discord foiling his plans only served as fuel for his wrath, causing the stallion to romanticize the idea of cleansing his enemies in a single fell swoop.

A female servant carefully approached the seething Umbra, calling out to him very quietly. "Sir."

"What?" He replied, every consonant being brought forth to emphasize his anger.

The servant meekly replied as she looked into her clipboard for notes. "The creature, it's ready again."

The stallion turned his head to the servant. "That quick?" He questioned skeptically.

The servant reassured her angry overseer. "Sir, we only sent out a fraction of the beast, it was to ensure that there was no lasting damage to the overall, and it would propose easier maneuverability."

Surprised of the announced results, he found that his mood had slowly improved. "It can split?" He asked curiously.

The servant issued Umbra the clipboard, showing the various charts of results. "We went off the data you've provided. We utilized it to your own potential, sir."

"How much of it was sent out?" He asked as he started to look at the various charts and graphs.

"Twenty percent."

The stallion's eyes widened, becoming impressed with what was disclosed to him. "Just a fifth of my dear creature went out and got destabilized by Discord? Well that's a bit of good news for the evening. I guess my surprise isn't ruined after all."

"It's ready to go out whenever you so choose." The servant reassured.

"What's the status of the portal?"

"We're going on to seven percent completion." She briefly summarized.

"Patience is a most important virtue." Umbra told himself after hearing the discouraging news.

"The creature will be back at full strength tomorrow. You can use it to your liking then." She stated as the less-frustrated stallion rose to his hooves.

"Status of the group in Ponyville?"

"The humans have vacated, sir." She announced.

Acknowledging his defeat on that front, he took a deep breath and started setting his sights for the bout that was to come on Friday. "Figures. Well I suppose our next target will be the only human we have available."

"Sir, I don't think he will come quietly." She said with uncertainty.

"Oh he'll be brought quietly." Umbra reassured with a growing smirk. "In fact, I'm betting on exactly that."

Author's Note

Well hello to you guys again. It's been a while since I've last dropped something. Though I can safely say it won't be very long before we meet again. I do hope that you all are having a good go at life.

So the monster has paid yet another unexpected visit, and Discord has stopped being hands-off on the matter for the time being. Though with his mostly hands-off approach, it will be seemingly unlikely that he would ever do much after that. ...Unless...

But since the humans are back home and it seems that the beast is capable of being beaten, there should be nothing to worry about. However, there is much that Umbra knows now since he's partaken in Kalimba's lips and body. So that only leaves the question of what he does next with that information she's given to him. The event has already been written and waiting to be released. Guess correctly on what happens and I'll DM you the day before the next chapter's release.

Thanks for sticking it through so far. See you soon.

Chapter CX

Ashton Hall
College Station, Texas
3 A.M.

Stanton tossed and turned as he fought against the nightmare he suffered through. He murmured and shifted as his mind relayed to him a most terrible sight before something came about to calm him. He mumbled a few undiscernible questions before he calmly fluttered his eyes open to the dark room around him. He turned to his alarm clock expecting the time to be much later, and turned back over to go to sleep.

But something within his mind wouldn't let him.

He had become restless, partially in a state of exhaustion and boredom without ever knowing the physical and mental peace to be able to close his eyes and let bygones be bygones for another three hours. He walked out of his room and walked over to his miniature fridge and pulled out a Four Loko, chugged some of the contents and hoped that the drink would numb himself to the point where he would just nod off again. But instead of fighting to stay awake after, he was still battling to go to sleep as he was before.

He just laid in his bed for time and time on end, hoping that his mind would at least let up on him, allowing sleep to take over. The disturbance in his mind continued to fester, he would not know the peace he wanted as much. "Fuck... why am I awake." He looked over to his alarm clock, seeing an hour had gone by without sleep. "...Yeah, I'm gonna have to do something about this." He murmured, checking in on his roommate, who was snoring far more soundly. "Okay, alternative number two, coming right up." He said as he went to his phone's browser and pulled up PornHub to help him work some of the energy off.

As he was about to pull up a video, his brother's name popped up on the screen. It was a call from Alex.

"Motherfucker!" He grumbled, sending the call to voicemail after a few rings. He waited for the screen to pop back up before Alex came back up on the screen again. "I fucking swear if something happened to Nondis, I'm gonna put his ass in the ground my damn self." He replied as he took the call. "Yo, it's four in the morning."

"You're up, right?" Alex asked on the other line.

"Who the fuck cares if I'm up. It's four in the morning, take your motherfucking ass to sleep."

"Dude, I wish I could sleep right now. My ass got stirred up about an hour ago. I had this really weird dream."

"Bro, you're married. Go talk to your wife about it or something." Stanton replied.

"Like I'm going to wake up my wife for something like this."

Stanton scratched his chin as he laid back down in his bed. "Okay. So did something happen to Nondis?"

"Well not that I'm aware of."

"Then okay. Take your workaholic ass to bed. I know you got to get up at five to beat the traffic, how about you either get some sleep or you start beating the whole damn Dallas metro on your way to the parking lot."

"You had the dream too, didn't you?" He asked, causing Stanton to stop and think.

"...Okay, what dream did you have?"

"Weird flesh monster, look like it came straight out of a Japanese anime. Shit was fucked, until Twilight came to me for some odd reason."

Stanton nodded his head slowly. "Yeah... Something about the power within─"

"Molded by the bonds of friendship, something along those lines?"

Stanton, confirming everything his brother had said with his own self, sat up in his bed. "Yeah, ain't no way you had that same fucking dream at the same fucking time on the same fucking night."

"Mel was the first to call me about it."

"Wait, what? They had it too?" Stanton asked.

"All three of them. They're over at Hermes' place and they all woke up to talk about it this morning." Alex confirmed. "I even asked if this was some sort of side effect from being in Discord's world or if it was some of the magic in Equestria having some side effects on them. But even I had to drop that argument because I wasn't with them and I had the same dream."

"Yo, this is wild." Stanton said, mystified by what was being explained to him. "You think Nondis had it too?"

"I tried calling him about it, his phone goes straight to voicemail. He must have it turned off."

"So what do you think is going down?" The young athlete questioned.

"I'm thinking Friday might be a hell of a day for him. And it might be up to us to do something about it before something bad happens."

"This timing is all weird." He replied. "Like why not any other time than this?"

"Probably with what Discord explained to us tonight, something had to come up. I guess Twilight might be trying to warn us about it."

Stanton looked to his alarm clock, seeing that another forty-five minutes had gone by. "Maybe we need to talk about this tomorrow afternoon. Something about this is all off, and I'm getting some funny vibes about it right now. I think it's best to let us just process it and then come to a conclusion on what we need to do for later."

"I guess..." Alex trailed off for a moment before answering again. "Yeah, I'm feeling a bit tired. Let me take you up on that advice and get a good shower in before I head out to beat the rush."

"Sure thing dude. Goodnight."

"Good morning."

As his brother hung up on the other line, he started going back into his phone, realizing that the porn site was still up on his screen. He shrugged and pulled up a random video before he started to view it at a low volume. But before he could even work himself into a rhythm, his eyelids had grown heavier by the second.

Instead of working off some of his frustration as intended, he postponed it for sometime before his morning shower.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Canterlot Castle
Later That Morning...

As my eyes opened for the day, I looked around my room as I felt the warmth that the princess had provided me in my room. I got right out of bed, still a bit weirded out over the fact that I wasn't in some random hotel room or something of the sort on today. I went through some security footage on the night at my workstation, verifying that my shifts had gone exactly as I had planned. I was hopeful of seeing how my friends would react to what I had promised them on today, and I was sure that they were happy to be back in modern society.

I unplugged my phone from the charger after it had died last night and went through some messages. I had another Instagram message from Celestia, citing how she had to apologize over keeping Kalimba in the royal hall instead of locating her to one of the guest rooms further down the hall from me.

I already knew what it was she was doing, they were still having a bit of a feud.

I got back into my morning workout regiment and made my way to the showers. And then landed into the Royal Dining Hall for breakfast. I took my breakfast and thought that I could wander on over to the barracks. But along the way, I had noticed that Kalimba, Blue, and Alabaster had gotten together in the cafeteria to talk over their newfound amenities in the castle. I decided to make a quick visit and say good morning.

The zebracorn glanced up to notice me walking up. She flagged me down and spoke warmly. "Well look who decided to show up for de morning."

"You look well-rested. Probably the first time I've seen you that way without having some form of immediate distress following that up." Alabaster joked.

Blue ran up and hugged me, much to Kalimba's jealousy. "Wow. You look absolutely radiant. What's your treatment?"

"A morning of jogging and exercise followed by a good shower." I replied. "Finally got back into my workouts again. Had to start off a bit slow because I was a little out of condition."

Kalimba grabbed one of my arms in her magic and began to feel the firmness of my muscles. "It feels like you have been trying to please somepony with dis. Who's attention you are trying to capture, or make their mind run wild with bliss?"

Alabaster pulled one of my arms and made note of it's tone. "Ah, firm. You have been working out."

Starting to feel left out, Blue complained to her brother. "Oh please stop, you know where you are."

"I'm just assessing the damage for myself." He replied before whispering back to his sister. "Besides, it's not everyday I get to cop a feel."

I regained ownership of my arms and spoke to the three. "Okay, no funny business. The princess had placed me in charge of all three of you. So while I do expect you to show up at the protests and what-not, I do expect you all to be on your best behavior." I especially looked to Kalimba. "That also means to play nice with the host."

Kalimba rolled her eyes. "I do not think you have been made aware of de update. But de princess had elected to make me her personal responsibility. I am to be looked after by her and her sister at all times."

"Wow, I didn't think the princess even had a shade of envy." Blue murmured.

"Guess we find out deep that runs now." Alabaster said with a chuckle.

Without warning, a scream came from across the room. "KALIMBA!"

The zebracorn dropped her head with extreme annoyance upon hearing her father's voice. "Ugh... Why am I here?"

The mare sulked as her father came running up to the table. "Kalimba! I'm so happy to see you again!"

I looked in the direction of the hallway, seeing the princess standing by with her assistant. While she appeared to be busy, she did take occasional glances to survey the scene. Her efforts went largely unnoticed by many, but the four of us at the table knew exactly what was going on. "...It runs that deep." Alabaster murmured into his cup of coffee.

Meanwhile, Kalimba's father was expressing his excitement for seeing his daughter, all while being held back by a chair she picked up to place as a barrier between them both. "I could not believe my ears when I was told that you were actually going to be here for a week. I was so astounded to hear that, I actually came here just to see if it was true!"

"Yes, my stay here is very much true. And no, I do not feel like talking to you." Kalimba rhymed.

"Kalimba, I know there's a lot going on. Especially with you being famous and all. I mean look out Applewood, new star's in town! Diva Kalimba, never thought I would hear that one." Somber Spiral continued to speak to his daughter, not realizing that he had started to infuriate her. "And I know you get the whole mare in Manehattan treatment while you do your thing, I get that you've become a bit of a star and I'm happy for you. Now I know it's a bit abrupt, but I do think it's important for you to at least engage with some of the family, a chance to meet your grandmother... well, maybe not that so soon, but probably meet with your younger sister at the very least."

That was all she needed to hear. She promptly stood up from the table and walked out. She immediately went for her room, not even saying a word as she departed.

The stallion appeared confused and glanced over to the three of us like we had an answer. "Was it something I said?"

"It was everything you said." Alabaster said into his cup of coffee.

Blue rose from the table and went after her, but not before offering some choice words for the older stallion. "You're her biological dad, right?"

"Yes." He answered.

"Do her a favor and stay out of her life." She harshly replied before trotting out the room to go after the angry zebra.

The stallion appeared crestfallen, seating himself at the table as he felt horrendously impacted by Blue's words. "I suppose we all have our sins to bear."

"I had a father once." Alabaster began as he rose from his seat, gulping down his coffee.

Somber looked at young stallion, waiting for a conclusion to his testimony. "What happened to him?"

"He committed suicide." Alabaster answered bluntly.

"Oh dear. I'm sorry for your loss." The stallion replied, appearing remorseful.

"You call it a loss, I call it karma long-overdue." He said as he put his cup on the table gently while also offering some harsh words. "If I were you, I'd give your daughter some space... like three-towns-away worth of space. You don't get to do what you did and then come back like nothing happened. You're just sitting here like you expect her to just open right back up to you, knowing the trust you defiled! You don't get a second chance, not after that! It doesn't matter what you went through or how bad you had it, you had a choice to be stronger and you chose the easy way out. You have no idea what she goes through every week, the pain and abandonment she suffered throughout her life, the countless times her legs were pried open at her owners request, the instances where her jaw was forcibly dislodged to allow the fruit of countless thugs to fertilize her tongue, the beatings she suffered just for the gradual instance of standing up for herself, the constant threat of being sent right back into sexual slavery. You just assume she's famous, that's the front some asshole put up to make her a commodity to artificially raise her buying price on the market. You don't see that from her, you don't see those wounds, those scars, the trauma she suffered because you wanting a FIVE MINUTE FIX!" Alabaster slammed his chair into the table and stormed off. "You can go to the same hell my father burns in."

The entire cafeteria was absolutely silent, each of the maids and guards present watching as the young stallion walked out of the room. Some even gasped as they whispered to one another over what had happened. The senator sat quietly as more and more murmurings started to sprout throughout the room. I looked to the doorway, where Celestia had been stunned to silence at the sudden development. She looked at me with a sudden remorse. I glanced down to the dispirited senator.

"Yeah. You have a lot of work to do." I quietly informed him. "Now if you excuse me, I have someone I need to talk to."

I walked out of the cafeteria and made my way into the hall with a pointed effort to confront the princess. She went on to greet me as if she normally would. "Good morning captain. I trust you are staying out of trouble─"

"You. Me. Talk. Now." I commanded angrily and walked off to my room.

Upon entering my room, I sat and waited on my bed. I was incensed at the princess for the stunt she pulled. And I wanted to properly illustrate that to her. So as soon as she arrived, I waited calmly until she entered the room without her assistant, and closed the door behind her.

Before I could even get a word in, she immediately sensed what my ire was sourced from and jumped straight to her apology. "I have a feeling of what has made you upset with me, and I can understand if you are unwilling to listen to me for it. I'm sorry, I didn't know that her relationship with her father was so strained. I was only told that he wished to make amends, I was not made completely aware of her feelings on the matter."

I might have unleased my frustration at her a bit harshly considering that she walked in with an apology on her mind, but I still had to look at the fact that she walked in here knowing exactly what she did wrong. All it did was insinuate to me that she could've been more tone-sensitive to the situation. That in mind, I still gave her the lecture I needed to give her. "Hell, Luna could've told you! All you had to do was ask me or her! That shit you pulled, way out of line!"

"I understand now." She said with remorse.

"I don't need you to understand now, I need you to understand before you act. Kali's in a bad place because of that shit, and I don't know how it is I'm going to be able to get her to even buy into being obedient to you when all you've done is just given her every incentive to disregard any authority you have."

Celestia, while acknowledging my argument, had a fairly valid point of her own. "I understand you want to protect her, and it's with good reason. But as long as she is within the castle grounds, she has no other choice but to obey my rules, lest she opt to be sent back out to the city streets."

It was a fair point, but at the moment I was completely in Kalimba's corner. So I still firmly argued my point past her seemingly tone-deaf rebuttal. "Cella, I'm gonna make one thing clear to you, when have these politicians ever played by your rules? When have they not been in your castle? What the fuck do you think happened to you?"

"What does what happened to me play in any of what happened today?" She argued.

"Celeste, I want you to close your eyes and imagine yourself in this situation." I watched as the princess seemed to have very little incentive to follow up on my request. I again emphasized my command. "Close them, don't look at me, don't roll your eyes, just do as I say do."

At that point, she was becoming frustrated over how I didn't allow her any ground to make up. So there was a bit of sighing and body language that showed it. "Okay. Now what?"

After a brief moment to collect my thought process of how I was going to articulate my explanation, I spoke to her a hypothetical scenario rooted in the truth of another's experience. "Imagine if you had gone all the way through with having your kid the first time. It's a girl. You have a daughter in secret, but you don't get to finish seeing her grow up because you die while she's just getting started with puberty. Now imagine this, can you see if one of those so-called loyalists decided it would be better to illegally sell your daughter to some power-abusive aristocrats, who put their hooves on every inch of your daughter's body? I'm sure you'd hate to imagine the sight of your daughter crying because she's being treated like a sexual object, a fleshlight, a masturbatory aid, she's rotated throughout the entire rotunda of the parliament. Those that know, they know. Those that don't they don't care. And your daughter, she's beaten, raped, and drugged for the hell of it, for ten years."

Celestia opened her eyes and grew disdain for the imagery that appeared as I explained it. "I would not like to imagine this scenario for any longer."

"Yeah, I know, right? It's almost as if as a deceased mother, your spirit can't help but to feel absolute hatred for the loyalist who vowed to keep your heiress a secret, who then made off with some bank to dine in the finest halls of the city for just one night. I'm sure that pain never goes away for her, to know that in spite of her direct royal lineage, she's less than the common hooker in Canterrot."

Celestia shook her head, trying to disperse the cruel thoughts that started to manifest some awfully graphic images in her mind. "That's a terrible story to weave."

I finally hammered my point home. "Well that's reality for Kalimba. Can you imagine if your dad sold you out for drug money, because he couldn't process the fact that his rich family─his social circle─disowned him for falling in love with someone else who they thought was a bad influence─or just outright beneath them in standing, only to end up watching his wife die and he feels left with nothing. Instead of being strong, he chose to make himself comfortable in nostalgia rather than face the truth of his daughter needing him to stay rooted in the present for her sake. I find it interesting because I'm pointing out some of the parallels that you suffered, and elected to ignore for someone else."

Celestia's ears folded with shame. Her eyes lowered to the ground, unable to look back into mine. Her forelegs crossed and brushed one another as a child would shyly ponder their faults as their parental figure chided them for them. Her tone softened greatly as she closed her eyes and envisioned her own life and what was done to her. "...I made a grievous mistake." She said as she held the chestplate, namely where here branded scar would be.

As her tone softened, mine did the same while delivering the same message. "I know you like pranks, but sometimes it's better to look into who you're pranking before you do shit on a petty tip, especially on a matter that many have rumored it to be unstable. That would be like if someone pranked you by plucking out all your feathers. That's not fair to you, so it shouldn't be fair to her."

Celestia clenched her eyes and gritted her teeth as she became more and more angry, but not just at herself. "I was only told that he wanted to make amends."

"Who told you that?" I asked.

"Somber Spiral, he was the one who spoke with me this morning." She answered.

I gave her a slow nod and an eye roll, finally understanding what it was that was left out for her. "Did he tell you what all he did to get himself here?"

"No. He just said that he made a mistake when he was younger, only telling me that he abandoned her."

I finally went on my rant about him and explained in detail what I felt about him. "He didn't just abandon her, he abandoned himself, he abandoned his wife, he abandoned his principles, and then when it was all over, he tucked tail and ran back to mamma to try and live his life fresh. Now he has a daughter who he spoils because he can't bear the fact that he abandoned the first one he had. He got married all over again because he couldn't bear the truth that he made himself to be alone. He ran back home because he felt his principles had been dropped in the same grave as his first wife, who was a zebra that his family had discriminated against. And now that he's seen her alive, he wants to make amends to a daughter he doesn't even truly know, and then blindly asks that same mare to meet the sister he spoiled in her place."

"I was not told any of this." Celestia shook her head with disappointment "I am deeply disturbed."

"I'll say it in the accent of a guard you may have seen once or twice. A day in the life in the good old Rotty, am I right?" I said, giving my best impression of Prod.

The princess took a deep breath and concluded with herself her next choice of action. "I must speak with her. I must apologize for my wrongdoing." While the thought of the zebra softened her voice, it grew harsher as her thoughts shifted. "And I do believe that I should find the time to speak with Somber Spiral about this. There needs to be a discussion, and there will be a punishment in order."

"Some punishments write themselves Celestia. I think the worst thing he can suffer is knowing that he left his first family for dead, only to realize that in doing so they've left him as well. I mean a prison sentence would be icing on the cake, but he's at least willing to help us in some way." While I did not have much excitement in that statement, I still had to acknowledge what we agreed on. "Luna and I agreed to lighten his punishment in exchange for his cooperation. That's as far as I go in dealing with him, no matter how many times he's asked me to arrange a meeting with Kalimba."

"I should've been better. I am so sorry, Nondis." She apologized once more.

I pulled out my phone, trying to get this situation resolved as quickly as possible. "Don't apologize to me. You take that same energy and deposit it where it should belong." I quickly pulled up Kalimba's number in my list of recent contacts and swiped to call her.

As her name popped up on the screen, it took a few rings before she had finally answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Kali, it's me. You okay?"

The mare on the other end sighed lightly before answering. "I could say yes."

"Kali, I'm headed over to your room. I'm also bringing someone who wants to apologize in full to you for what they've done."

The zebracorn was initially resistant to the idea. "I am fine. I do not need reinforcement or patronization of any kind."

"I understand how you feel right now. But I really think you should hear her out. And by hearing her out, you'll hear me out. Is that okay? If not, then I understand."

The zebra sounded as if she was wrestling with the thought for a moment until she had come to her own conclusion. "...Room 503, Royal Suite."

"Okay. We'll be there. What time are you free?" I questioned.

"Surely a princess doesn't have time in her schedule to speak with a street pony such as I." She joked lightly.

"You'll be surprised what she makes time for. I'll see you in five." I said before hanging up the phone. I looked to the princess who appeared determined to make amends for her mistakes.

"I won't let you down." She said, looking up to me.

I once more stressed my thought on the issue. "I know you and her got this thing going on, but for my sake, both of you need to squash that shit. You know I'm all in with you when it's all said and done, she knows I'm not going to be with her and have acknowledged that much. Now let's try to be mature about this and exercise some diplomacy."

The princess nodded. "Understood."

The Royal Hall of Residence...

A short walk later and both Celestia and I were at Kalimba's door knocking. She was relatively quick to abandon the newfound luxurious amenities and answer the door to see me. Her head peeked through the crack as she hummed at me. "You are here."

"And I brought a guest." I said as I pointed my thumb to the princess beside me.

Kalimba's voice had quickly dropped to her usual lack of excitement. "Your highness."

"As if I deserved to be bowed to." Celestia replied as she lowered her head. "Kalimba Mavembe, I am truly ashamed for what I have done to you."

With discomfort, the zebracorn quietly away from the princess' display of humility. "I am no figure to be bowed to."

The high princess continued. "I seek to converse on matters, specifically as to what had led me to this grievous error."

"No error is made with intent." Replied the zebra, at least willing to hear the princess out. "So you wish to explain, please begin."

Celestia immediately jumped to the point. "I was informed by your father that he wanted to rekindle bonds with you. I thought that it would be fair to acknowledge his request since you were in the castle."

Kalimba had a moment of frowning silence before speaking. "Did he ever tell you what he did?"

"No he did not. I was informed by another source only just recently. And I will have him dealt with later for that. But with you, I must make my own amends."

The zebra scoffed for a moment. "You were upset dat I had gained de attention of your suitor." She jokingly pointed out in a deadpan manner.

Celestia still acted as though the zebra was being serious with her remarks. "I cannot say that I wasn't acting in ill-faith at times. For that I must also apologize."

Kalimba looked elsewhere, namely to me as she spoke to her. "As if I was any better. I was tired of seeing how cold you were to him, it made me angry, as if I was seeing who it was dat he would choose. For most of our time working together, he had made it known dat he would proclaim you to be his one and only mate. All I saw dat night was a mare who appeared to be indifferent. I suppose much of my mind was still on de offensive for him after seeing de pain he was in, but dat was what I chose to see. So I felt like dat I could treat him better, I was also jealous because of dat."

"I suppose he is a bit of a problem to us wounded souls." This time it was Celestia who offered a joke that missed it's intended target.

Kalimba appeared perplexed towards the princess' words. "Wounded soul? Your highness, with all due respect, I do not take you as a wounded soul."

While I was about to make a statement on her behalf, Celestia held her wing out to stop me. She wanted to have this conversation, and it seemed that she was going to find a way to have her understand the common ground they both shared. My phone vibrated to show a reminder of my appointment. "I'm gonna let you two talk. I'm off to my therapy session for the week."

"Please do your best, captain." Celestia answered. As I walked away, the princess extended an invitation to the bruised mare. "May I come in, or would you rather me invite you to my chambers instead?"

"Your highness, in my line of experience, dat phrase is often an invitation to partake in sex." Kalimba joked in deadpan.

Yet again, the joke missed it's mark. "I can assure you that I have no such wants."

"So you say." Replied the zebra before opening the door to allow the princess to enter.

Celestia walked into the room, taking a visual note of state of the room. Most of everything was still unused with the exception of the bed and the complimentary soaps. And even then, the bed was neatly made. "I trust the room is to your expectation of comfort?"

"I slept on a box spring in a cold room, only to have a ice cold shower in de morning to keep myself clean. De water often ran out before I could finish, somedays before I could even start. A modest accommodation is like a luxury to me. Dis is moreso a gross representation of dat fact."

Celestia was visibly displeased in hearing how rough her upbringing was. "I was informed that you were a hardened soul, forged by the troubles of your life and those within it."

"I live because I try to do so." She humbly replied.

"Don't we all?" Celestia asked.

"With all due respect, your highness. A princess like you cannot understand de life of simple ponies."

"I can't feel your pain, I haven't lived your existence. I can only attest for mine. That much is true." The high princess responded as she sat herself before the mare she spoke with. "But I will admit, there are some experiences that I have hidden from the masses."

"Scandals or illegal dealings of sorts? Simple foals play." Kalimba jested, rolling her eyes.

Seeing that she was still unbelieving that she had gone through much of anything, the princess finally opened up to dwell on the story of her own past. "Kalimba, I would like to ask you if you have ever fallen in love."

"What I may want is not what will be. So dere's dat." She deadpanned.

"Have you?" Celestia asked once more.

The zebra looked to the princess and calmly confessed her affections. "...I am in love with somepony I will never have, so yes."

"So much in love that you proudly stood up for your beliefs, even when the optics of it were unfavorable?"

With the misguided perspective of thinking that she was talking about her current relationship with the captain, the zebra replied with a shrug. "With all due respect, dat sounds like a you problem."

"It is... or was." Celestia began, holding her hoof to her chest plate. "But instead of it being a me problem, it became an even bigger beast."

"Unfortunate." Kalimba answered.

"It seems like I'm trying to relate to you on a subject that you would think I wouldn't understand, does it not?" The princess questioned, trying to fully grasp the zebra's perception of the moment.

"Well you are a princess, so dat omits you from a lot of strife."

Celestia smiled weakly as she spoke. "I do honestly find amusement that you would believe a life of royalty would be so simple."

"I do not think dat dere is much to discuss on your end." Kalimba rebutted. "You are royalty. You are loved by de masses, everypony speaks so highly of you. Dere would be too little to discuss."

The princess picked up the zebra's foreleg, taking note of the many scars that hid amongst and in between the stripes of her coat. "What if I told you that I too had to learn how to hide my scars?"

"Bruises of some kind?" She said in disbelief. "Your highness, your coat is pristine, your mane is elegant, your wings are flawless. Abeg, what scars do you have?"

Releasing the mare's hoof, she walked to the bed and started removing her slippers and crown. "Perhaps it would make more sense if I remove all of my regalia to show you."

As the mare slowly stripped herself of every grand item she wore, leaving only a tall, lanky alicorn standing there with the elegance of an ascended fashion model. "A princess without her jewelry, I am almost convinced dat you entered into here just to show off."

The princess turned herself around, still holding her chest as she spoke. "In a way that's true." She dropped her hoof to show the hideous scar on her chest. Kalimba's eyes widened as she saw the mare shyly look elsewhere. Almost immediately, she saw the number of deep gashes and slices on her body become revealed to her. "A brush of the coat here, a little magic there to hide it in the rain, a bit of regalia to distract the masses with something shiny, throw in a smile and wave to some figures and you get away with hiding a lot of abuse."

Mortified by what she saw, namely the scar on her chest, Kalimba was almost frozen in place. "Dat... is new."

Seeing that much of her focus was on the scar on her chest, the princess gave a very thin smile at her. "This old thing, it's been a part of me for a thousand years now. It's a good reminder of how easily I can hide what all I suffered."

"What happened to you for dat to happen?"

"I fell in love." The princess explained. "I fell in love with a king, a king in a parallel universe to this one. But as our visits grew frequent, I was given little choice but to put him aside for the safety of Equestria. But instead of leaving him without warning, I elected to visit him one last time. We spent an entire day together, he and I."

"Nuzzling and talking romances, I assume." Kalimba said with a light chuckle.

The princess chuckled in kind. "Kalimba, we are adults, and no strangers to what love does in the heat of the moment. There's lots to add to the imagination of the rapture he's brought me."

Kalimba grew almost embarrassed to hear of what took place, especially from the mouth of such an esteemed figure of the kingdom. "Wait, you and him─"

"One. Whole. Day." The princess closed her eyes and rubbed her forelegs to the idea of what all had taken place between her and her lover, her hoof wandering to her neck. In the midst of her thoughts, she started wandering into the territory of the man who grasped at her in an even bigger way. Before she could become too ensnared by both memories of the distant past and recent weeks, she opened her eyes and continued her story, blushing lightly all the while. "I'm sorry, I don't usually have moments like that. It's just that it's been a while. All digressions aside, I wanted to make sure I had something to remember him by, or at least to love on in secret."

"How did dat translate to what is on your chest?" Kalimba questioned.

"In due time." The princess responded. "My old mentor, advisor to the royal court, had caught me upon my return and scolded me for leaving to that place one more time. He broke the portal, severing any possibility of our reunion for good. But while he vowed to keep it secret, others in my close association did not. I was tried on the crime of fornicating with a enemy leader, but they were misguided as to which leader I had actually copulated with."

"And who was dat?" The zebra asked.

"King Sombra, or rather the alternate universe's King Sombra. Where as the one who existed here was evil, the other there was good. And as I consider myself a fair ruler in some aspects, my counterpart in that universe was nothing of the sort."

While she wasn't aware fully of who that figure was, Kalimba remained open-minded. "So dey found you guilty, I assume."

"That they did. I didn't deny it, I only stood up for my right to love who I wanted to love. But many envious lords and aristocrats took matters into their own hooves, legislating a law to which I was to be punished by. They temporarily stripped me of my powers and ruled over Equestria in my place. But instead of just punishing me and sending me back on my way, which was typical of the time, they waited for months to issue my punishment."

As the princess' face started to show sadness, Kalimba continued to inquire about the princess' story. "Why would dey do dat?"

"Because they feared I held the offspring of a king they perceived to be evil. I'm sure it goes without much explanation as to what they did next."

"They branded you?" She guessed.

Celestia shook her head. "No... It wasn't as easy as that. In fact, they made sure to let me know their real intent. If I recall correctly, they said this: Today, you shall have us feel like kings."

The zebra grew mortified of the quote she uttered. "Dat does not imply what I think it does."

"It was not an implication, Ms. Mavembe. It was a promise." Celestia confirmed, running her hooves against her own wings. "They whipped my body with cruel tools to tear at my flesh. They dislocated my forelegs, to render me unable to fight back or run. They raked the feathers from my wings using a rusted claw that left many shards in them. Many of them had fulfilled their fantasy of partaking in my body whenever I fell unconscious. And then they branded me with this mark."

"For what reason!?" The zebra grew appalled.

"I already told you, they were envious of what I freely gave to another that they took what they sought after by force. But there was another reason why their particular punishment was so cruel. You see, when a mare endures so much physical trauma, it also poses a risk to the unborn fetus. In short..."

"Dey did all of dat to force you to miscarry." Kalimba concluded with sadness and pity for the distinguished royal.

"I cannot emphasize with you over what you experienced, likewise you cannot do the same for what all I've told you. But I can offer that to you in showing you the care and friendship that you need on your way to recovery, maybe on your way to a better life." Celestia finished as her mind started to focus on her source of comfort. "In a way, I think that's what has us so enamored with a certain human."

Seeing the princess reveal her story, as well as unveiling the scars on her body, the zebra came to terms that her approach to her had been one of misunderstanding. She began to understand the reason for her romance and why she grew attached to the human, especially since she felt the same way. The mare weakly chuckled. "Perhaps dere is much we can learn from each other after all." Kalimba looked to the pile of regalia sitting on her bed for the moment until the princess had started putting it back on. "Your highness─"

The princess only managed to put back on her chestplate, looking back to the zebra. "I do recall the doors being closed. Perhaps you would feel more comfortable to call me Celestia."

The zebra grew surprised of the invitation of informality, becoming uncomfortable with the idea. "I do not think I can do dat."

The alabaster princess giggled. "Just try. I promise you won't get sent to a dungeon for calling me by my name."

Despite feeling personally uncomfortable, she grew past it enough to make the attempt to call her simply by her name. "Celestia... I am sorry dat I have been so harsh on you."

Celestia put back on her slippers and went back to donning her tiara. "It's all the same on my end. I can be a bit possessive at times because of some antics my sister pulls on the regular. But with you, I suppose I felt that you were trying to compete with me on matters of affection. Even if that were true, I should've been the bigger mind and not allow myself to become as petty as I did... then again, I was always the petty one between my sister and I. Perhaps in the future, we can be adults and communicate on some issues that may be a concern."

The zebra chuckled. "And here I thought you were some cold princess who was indifferent to de world."

"I was at one point. But that's another story for another day." She confessed with a scoff and a brief laugh. "As to my perceived indifference towards the captain, it's merely a front I put on for the others. But since you accompany Nondis to the lounge, I'm sure you do know of our dealings with one another already."

Kalimba smirked as she spoke in a low voice. "I was told you and he had a moment."

"Who said that?" Asked Celestia, who started to appear concerned.

"De usual idjiot who we cannot name."

"Oh, right." She replied with an eye roll of disdain. "But no, I'm fairly invested in that man. To see him in the way he was on Friday had me ready to send Equestria's entire arsenal into one of my own cities, much less my own doorstep. But at this point, I'm just waiting for the week to be done so I can finally have him around the castle more."

The zebra was initially confused by the princess' statement. "Does he not work here?"

"Yes. But I don't want him going out there and getting hurt anymore. It's already hard enough for him to try and salvage his mental health every week, much less remaining physically intact. But I do consider possibly changing my schedule to be around him a little more, albeit in secrecy for the time being." The princess concluded, appearing a bit sad at the outcome. "Even if nothing changes and all is at a loss to our cause, I can be satisfied with where we are... or I can at least learn to be."

Seeing the princess at odds with her emotions, the zebra questioned her about her current infatuation. "So, what do you find interesting about him?"

"Where do I begin?" She said before her mind started trailing off to the various memories she shared. From the time he complimented her wings to the moment he preened them clean of the long imbued shrapnel. From the moment she went from wanting to know about modern dating practices to being the one she chose to court. From kisses on her feathers and hooves to the sensation of his tongue and fingers invading her most sacred places. From the initial contact of her lips greeting his to the adventures her tongue journeyed into his. Even the conversation they shared in the car, to the moment they shared at their impromptu dinner-date, finally to the moment where she confessed her love as she straddled over him, their bodies just merely separated by the thin veil of her silk sheets. The princess chuckled fondly. "Oh, sorry. I might have zoned out again."

With her own moments committed to memory, Kalimba couldn't help but smile. "It happens."

Seeing the warmth on her otherwise cold face, Celestia grew curious of the zebra's own encounters. "...How about you? What do you see in him?"

Instead of coming up with a long list of things she admired, she took the moment to think about how she could abbreviate her response to simple short-worded answers. "Strength... Determination... Bravery... Security... Modesty... Kindness... Love..." Her cheeks began to point upwards as she closed her eyes, holding her forelegs in thought. "Well, I wanted to go by your example. Since he and I are not able to be together, I entertained de thought of simply having souvenir of my own. I never imagined myself having anything other than an early grave, but he makes me want him... at least a reminder of him I could love on my own."

Surprised by her response, the princess turned away and quietly responded. "I see..."

The Royal Hall of Parliamentary Office

Somber Spiral, returning from one of his meetings, had gazed down at his locket, inside of it carried the two images of him carrying his daughters. His younger daughter had stayed in the forefront in a pose ordering him to march forward as she stood on his back. But behind his youngest was that of him having his ears nibbled playfully by his eldest at a similar age in her life. He stopped for a moment and quietly removed the image of his younger daughter to gaze at his eldest. In doing so, he looked down and saw the brightness on his face, the innocence and joy on hers. A frown appeared on his face as the words from earlier in the morning started to fade into his mind.

"Three-towns-away worth of space... Maybe she truly wants me dead after all. Could I even blame her?"

As he started to put the image of his youngest daughter back into the front of his locket, I approached him from behind. "Yo. A moment."

He turned around quickly, hiding the locket from view. "Oh... it's you." He said as he started to lower his guard. "Captain, I understand that you're upset over this morning. And looking back at what I might have said, I have come to the conclusion that I was both tone-deaf and unrealistic in my plea to Kalimba. I mean, meeting her grandmother? I love my mother but she treated my first wife like she was a subspecies. I can't imagine how cruelly she'd treat Kalimba at first sight."

"I'm not even on that." I replied. "Princess Celestia may be getting the 101 on what all you did to your daughter, but since you're helping us out, she's willing to agree to the terms Luna and I worked out about your punishment. And since you're in deep shit now, I'm calling in that favor from you to at least help lessen the extent of that self-inflicted injury of yours."

The senator sighed in resignation. "What's the favor you need?"

"I'm sure the halls outside of the parliament chamber has been quite noisy as of recent. You can already imagine why." I pointed out.

"The free-lovers movement. I've been made aware of their platform, but I don't agree with how they've been going at it for the past two days now. I mean where did they even get the permit to be in the halls making all of this commotion?"

"Don't worry about that. But I can tell you that if you draft up some lovely piece of legislation that can appease their wishes, I'm sure your buddies will find them out of your collective manes much faster than you can say 'litigation'. So if you can, draft us up some terms to put through to the floor so we can get this passed and have our halls a lot quieter."

"Reasonably speaking, captain, you could just send guards to quell this matter." He disputed.

"First, the groups are already under escort by the guards to make sure they don't break anything, as per what was issued in the permit. And second, you're asking me to betray the trust of some within my command for putting down some ponies looking to protest their civil rights to love who they want freely? That reflects on the princess very poorly, and I'd be less likely to lead much of anyone if I look like a hypocrite on this matter. I'm sure you know that there's politics in the guard as much as there is in parliament."

"Well I sure don't have much to say in this particular matter other than that I do agree with the movement." He replied. "However, I wish to change the terms of our agreement."

"You're getting less time in prison, what more do you want?"

"More time in confinement." He answered.

"What?" I asked confusedly.

"I am willing to take the maximum sentence that could be issued to me. In exchange of that favor, I wish to know more about my daughter. If my being sent to the hold alleviates that, then I can accept it if she's willing to see me at least once a month."

I chuckled out of disbelief and ridiculed his terms. "You're asking for more time to appease a mare who wants nothing to do with you."

"I understand. But what needs to be done shall be done."

"Negative. Not gonna happen." I said before I further pointed out the failed logic of his choice. "You haven't really picked up on anything that was put down, have you? You have a daughter, who's going to wonder why her daddy hasn't been around, only to later discover that he went to prison for sex trafficking his own daughter, a sister whom she's not acquainted with or even know of. And just like Kalimba, your family will dust themselves off of you and let you rot. For what, for the very slim margin of Kalimba to actually pay you a five minute visit once a month, knowing that she won't even give you the luxury of that for even once a year? You'd be abandoning your daughter, trying to hold on to a past that can't be changed. Your baby girl, Kalimba all over again."

"I still have to try and do right by her." He adamantly rebutted.

"You don't get it, do you? You can't forsake one daughter to appease to the first one you fucked up almost a decade ago. You're gonna wake up and have no daughters to love in the next decade if you keep thinking like that."

"All I want is a chance to make things right."

"For who? I can't see you doing that for Kalimba, she's doesn't trust stallions because of what happened to her, she barely trusts me. You want me to try and tell her to smile and hug you, hell no. I can't make that happen for you. I'm not gonna force it, I'm not gonna pull a Celestia and blindly point you into a room with her when I know what's going on."

Remaining adamant in wanting to see his daughter get the justice he felt she deserved, he folded his forelegs and remained unmoved on his argument. "Then I guess I will be going to prison for as long as my life will last. And I suppose your side will walk away with nothing."

I shook my head in disbelief. "So you're trying to bribe me into getting your daughter to see you, knowing that your daughter wants nothing to do with you."

"Even if it may be my last time seeing her, I want to speak with her." I just about started to walk away before he jumped back on his hooves and tried to stop me from doing so. "One more time, just to apologize for this morning. If I can start with that, I will be satisfied. I'll draft your bill, call it for a vote, do whatever it takes to make it happen as soon as you need it to. Just get me a moment with my daughter."

"She doesn't want to see you." I said angrily, feeling as though I was at an impasse. But hearing the possibility of him putting a bill to the floor for a vote appeared more enticing by the moment. Eventually, I came to an idea where I could at least offer that solution without making it harder for Kalimba to bear with. And if it didn't work, he would have no choice but to accept that the situation would be unlikely to change. At least the prospect of her hanging up would be the best way for the point to get across. "Okay... I have an idea. Now, she may not want to see you, but she might be able to hear what you have to say regardless of that fact. But, if she ends the conversation, you have to accept that."

"So what's your idea." He asked, almost elated in the idea of speaking with his daughter.

"Take me to your office real quick." I ordered.

"Sure thing. It's a few doors down." He replied.

After a short fifteen second walk down the hall, he came to his office and invited me inside. He closed the door behind himself and waited patiently as I pulled out my phone and pulled up his daughter contact. "Give me a sec." I said as I waited for her to pick up. It didn't take long to hear her voice on the other line.

"Hello?"

"Kali, you good?" I asked the zebra on the other end, all while holding my hand up to stop the stallion from talking too early on.

"I am. De princess and I had much to discuss about one another. It seems dat we have safely concluded all rivalries."

"Well I'm glad to hear that." I said with a sigh of relief. "Okay, I know you're gonna hate my guts for this."

"What is it, you silly boy?" She asked in a teasing manner.

"Your dad wants to apologize for this morning."

Her tone then shifted to that of annoyance. "Abeg, why do you try and keep on about him!?"

"Because he wants to apologize for earlier. He said he was tone-deaf and he was overtly excited. Also, I want you to try and convince him that he shouldn't throw his life away for the thought of trying to appease you."

"By doing what!?" She asked in disgust.

"By asking for a longer prison sentence."

"Longer prison sentence!? Say less!" The voice of the high princess called out in the background.

The senator tensed up as he heard her voice. I felt tense for him as well. "Celestia's still in the room with you?"

"She is, and she has taught me how to put my phone on speaker mode." Kalimba added.

"Oh boy." I mumbled.

"Is he there with you right now?" Celestia questioned.

"Princess, we talked about this." I urged.

"I know. But I just want him to hear how immeasurable my disappointment is with him."

"Yeah, I know, all that, hold on a sec." I placed it on speaker and placed it on his desk. "Ladies, you there?"

"Present." Celestia called out.

"Go on and get it over with." Kalimba also called out.

I pointed to the senator, who was just as impressed with the technology as he was excited to be able to speak with his daughter. Though he took more of his focus to the latter task. "Kalimba. I'm sorry."

"I told you dat your words mean nothing to me. So what is dis nonsense I am hearing about you?"

Somber Spiral sat himself at his desk, questioning his daughter. "Kalimba, do you feel that I should be punished greatly for what I've done?"

"It would please me, but it will not change anything. I have still suffered from what you did! You have no place in my life for it, you idjiot!" She vehemently stated to her father before speaking with me. "Nondis, what is he going on about?"

"I told him he's being stupid for throwing away his family to endure a possible life-term prison sentence."

Even Kalimba was in disbelief of what he had proposed. "Mpumbavu kamili. Did you tell him how stupid dat is, to try and make amends for de past when he can clearly provide no change to de present?"

"We had that conversation already." I pointed out.

"And he still trying? Stupid baboon." She harshly replied.

"Yeah. I was hoping you'd tell him off for making the same mistake twice. But I guess I'm not going to get that bit of fireworks today. I mean I know you don't want to speak to him as it is."

While I had assumed that Kalimba was going to just laugh it off and keep our call short, she thoroughly surprised me with her response. "Oh-ho-ho you do not know who you called, you silly boy. Sit and enjoy de show."

I grew wide-eyed at the mare on the other end and propped myself against the wall to await the results of the hypothetical nitroglycerine fecal matter hit the fan. The only thing I was missing was a hazmat suit in anticipation of the inevitable fallout. "Okay, let her rip." I called out to the mare as I pointed the phone's speakers directly to the sitting senator.

Hearing her inhale at that one moment was like me ducking for cover to avoid the shrapnel. She let loose onto her father.

"YOU MODEFUCKER! IDJIOT! POOR EXCUSE OF A BABOON'S ASS! YOU WANT TO TALK LIKE YOU ARE DE VICTIM, AH!? YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE IN A BROTHEL AND WATCH OTHER PONIES BEFORE YOU GET RAPED AND KILLED! YOU HAVE NOT LIVED ONE DAY SEEING DEADY BODIES LYING IN DE STREET! YOU HAVE NOT BEEN TAKEN IN AND MADE TO SUCK OFF A HORRIBLE PIECE OF SHIT, WHO HAD JUST FINISHED CONSUMATING WITH SAID BODY! YOU DO NOT GET TO TELL ME ABOUT BEING A VICTIM! YOU DON'T GET TO SAY SHIT! DEN YOU COME TO ME LIKE YOU WANT ME TO BE HAPPY? HAPPY DAT YOU AREN'T DEAD IN SOME STREET, LIKE I HAD HOPED YOU WERE? DE ONLY REASON WHY I DID NOT KILL YOU MYSELF IS BECAUSE YOU HAVE A FAMILY TO GO HOME TO! I HAVE NOT HAD DAT FOR TEN YEARS! TEN YEARS, MY ONLY FADDAH WAS DE PENIS I HAD TO FELLATE DAT HOUR!!"

Hearing his daughter's crude testimony, Somber remained quiet as he was forced to process the pain she started to exhibit. After her graphic commentary, she started to sob angrily, loudly, and without restraint. It appeared that she had worked herself up to this point, probably holding it in from the moment she first saw him alive. Her broken voice continued on the other line as her father was forced to listen to her pain.

"I AM A COMMON WHORE! I DON'T HAVE A MUDDA TO LOVE OR A FADDAH TO LOOK UP TO! I DIDN'T HAVE A HOME TO REST IN! I DID NOT HAVE A PROPER BED TO CLOSE MY EYES IN! I DON'T EVEN HAVE A CUTIE MARK TO NOTE WHO OR WHAT I AM BECAUSE I NEVER HAD DE CHANCE TO REALIZE IT! I NEVER HAD A HOME-COOKED MEAL IN TEN YEARS BEFORE MEETING NONDIS! I WAS SICK, WAITING TO DIE FOR TEN YEARS BECAUSE MY FADDAH DECIDED HE DIDN'T WANT TO HOLD ME ANYMORE! I LOST MY MUDDA AND MY FADDAH GAVE ME AWAY!"

It was truly at that point where she could be heard screaming on the other end, angrily shouting out her grief like a grieving soul. I couldn't bear to listen to it because she sounded like my mother did when she found out my grandfather had passed away. That pain, I'm sure she harbored it for the decade he didn't hold her.

"YOU GAVE ME AWAY, YOU COULD HAVE LOVED ME LIKE I WAS DE ONLY THING OF MY MUDDA YOU HAD LEFT, AND YOU GAVE ME AWAY! NOW YOU COME TO ME AND TELL ME ABOUT YOUR LIFE AND HOW YOU WANT ME BACK IN IT AFTER TEN YEARS OF CHOOSING TO NOT BE IN MINE!? I DON'T KNOW LOVE, I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO BE LOVED ANYMORE BECAUSE YOU LEFT ME! YOU LEFT ME, BABA!! YOU GAVE ME AWAY!!"

"Oh fuck, I was not prepared for today." I couldn't bear it anymore, I started welling up tears, plugging my ears shut to avoid hearing her be in that pain. Her dad, however, had no choice. He listened, he cried in his chair trying to lift the phone up to his chest to hug the only representation of his daughter for the moment.

"SAY SOMETHING!" She cried out as he father sobbed. "SAY SOMETHING, BABA!! TELL ME WHAT IS DERE FOR ME NOW!! I HAVE MONEY, I DON'T NEED DAT! I HAVE A NEW HOME, SO DON'T ASK! I HAVE FRIENDS TO CARE FOR ME WHERE YOU LEFT ME! I MAY NOT HAVE HIM FOR LONG, BUT I HAVE A MAN WHO HOLDS ME LIKE YOU DID WHEN I GO TO SLEEP! I AM LEARNING MAGIC JUST LIKE MAMA SAID!" At last, he erupted in a painful wail, pouring the remorse, hurt, guilt, shame, and love into the phone at his chest. "WHY DID YOU GIVE ME AWAY, BABA!? WHY DID YOU DO IT!?"

Somehow the suppressed screams and wails seemed even worse to look at while my ears were plugged. I wiped my eyes and took a few deep breaths to try and collect myself before I had to take my phone back. While he tried to hold onto it like it was his daughter, I had to take that comfort from him. Kalimba was left in tears on the other end, Celestia spoke out in her place. "I think we had enough of this conversation for today."

"Yeah. Can you hug Kali for me?" I said, clearing my throat.

"I've already started, Nondis. Just... just hang up."

I ended the call, watching as the senator began to grieve on his desk. He took out a small locket and yanked out the photo of his youngest daughter and looked to the one with his youngest atop his head. He nearly crushed it as he held it tightly to his chest. He looked to me with reddened eyes, ravaged by sadness. I gave him a firm confirmation of my initial argument. "That's your grown-ass daughter telling you how she felt when you abandoned her." I lined the picture of him and his youngest daughter next to one the other and concluded my statement. "So can you imagine what your grade-school daughter is going to say when you do the same to her?"

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry." He wheezed as he took both images to his chest, hugging both of his daughters with every intent to be the father he should've been many years ago.

I walked out of the room, but not before addressing him one final time. "Stop being sorry. Start with being better."

The Royal Hall of Heroes
Two Hours Later...

As more protests took place throughout the castle, the senators who walked the halls began to grow more infuriated with their daily commute. Instead of the sound of guards standing still and maids being at work, it was an ever present protest at various offices where some delegates vowed to dismiss all attempts to field a bill with the requested terms.

One such senator was none other than Damper Trot himself. He knew what the fielding of a bill of a similar stature would bring about. He knew that it would propose the idea of being in an Equestria where royalty could wed and consumate with anypony they desired at will. And knowing the limitations of power that an ascended royal would bring to the parliament had driven fear in the eyes of many traditionalists holding office. The last thing they wanted was a Queen Celestia barking orders and holding power over a parliament where she was once suppressed.

To him, Equestria as it was would come to an end.

Along his commute from parliament to his next meeting was a senator that aligned favorably with him within his party. The pair sought to avoid any possibly groups of protestors when possible, even hiding behind some pillars to remain hidden. As a small group walked by with their signs in the opposite direction, they waited until the group had turned the corner. "Where is that confounded captain!?" The angry senator questioned.

"He's gone to the barracks again." Damper informed his associate.

"Ugh, that lazy, no-good human! We need to have a summons to get him to quell this insurrection this instant!"

But as one of the lingering protestors left a nearby bathroom, she soon found herself in exclusive company of the two passing senators. She ran up with her picket sign in tow. "Hey! Senator Sendoff, You represent my district! Can you please explain why our marriage and breeding laws continue to discriminate against same-sex couples?"

Damper and Sendoff walked onwards, ignoring the mare as she pleaded with them. "Posture. Patience." Damper quietly noted.

"Let's walk over this way, maybe they'll run into something while they're not paying attention." Sendoff muttered as he ignored his name being called out by the mare beside them.

"'Scuse me, sir!" Her efforts continued to be consistent, matching the duo step by step as they made their way onward.

Damper led him and his associate into a hallway with a number of items on display. He looked towards the largest vase he could use as a means of getting rid of their pursuer. "We found our ticket out. Just walk this way with me."

As they passed the large vase, Damper used his magic to grab hold of the vase and waited for the mare to get close to it. "Sir!" She called out as a vase came flying from next to her and landing just behind the two senators.

With everything already in place, Damper turned around feigning anger with an even louder voice to go along with it. "Excuse you, what did you just do!?"

"I didn't do that!" She called out incredulously.

"You just shattered one of the princess' prized vases." He hollered out, quickly getting the attention of some nearby guards on detail. "Guards!" He called out once more to grab their attention.

Two armor clad ponies ran to the pair of senators and the protestor. "Sir?" One of them addressed respectfully.

"This crowd is beginning to grow unruly! Look at the mess we have now!" Sendoff replied as he pointed to the shattered remnants of the vase Damper threw their way.

The guard took note of the empty pedestal where the vase one stood before questioning the protestor. "Ma'am are you responsible for this?"

Damper then sold his story. "Of course she is, she's been looking to get my colleague's attention. We were on our way to a session and she elected to break a vase to get our attention."

"I did no such thing!" She called out, strongly advocating for her own innocence.

As another two guards ran over to help assess the issue, the initial two looked to assign them with notating the situation. "Report this incident to the captain." The leading guard called out before arresting the mare in question. "Ma'am you're coming with us."

"I've done nothing! Please let me go!" She pleaded with the guards for her release, but found that her cries had fallen on deaf ears.

The mare was escorted away, the two senators made their report, and set off after they were done. Once the guards left to report the incident, Damper nudged Sendoff with a smirk. "And thus the tables are set to turn in our favor."

"A crafty mind, you are." Sendoff replied.

"I learn from the best."

Fifteen Minutes Later

As the day chugged along relatively slowly after the previous events, I had continued to oversee the effort to monitor the protestors in the hall, at least to ensure that nothing had gone wrong. So far, most of the encounters have been civil outside of a few shouting matches that had to be defused before others were emboldened to take matters into their own hooves. And even those were primarily rooted in the neglect of several politicians looking to go about their day ignoring the questions that were asked.

And though they aren't obligated to play twenty questions with the masses, they could at least notify the passing protestors that they won't be fielding questions for the time being. Instead they're just trying to hide and pretend that these ponies aren't even here. Most of these ponies voted some of these guys in, and they aren't going after the representation of other cities, they're only going after Canterlot candidates who have to represent them. Again, it's not an obligation to answer them, but it is a courtesy to inform them that they won't field questions. And still, it's a courtesy that they refuse to practice. I wouldn't be surprised to find them going against opponents in their respective primaries who will tout this moment over their heads.

As I was still performing oversight, two guards walked up to me and saluted while offering me a incident report. "Sir."

"Okay, what's this?" I asked.

"An incident has occurred with one of the protestors, sir." One of the guards informed me.

I kissed my teeth as I grew a bit frustrated. "What happened?"

"One of them broke a vase in the east hall."

I immediately pulled out my phone, cussing to myself all the while. "Goddammit, Celestia's gonna have my head for this. So is there any eye-witness accounts of the protestor doing this or is this an after-the-fact issue?"

"The protestor claims she's innocent, saying she went nowhere near the vase." The guard answered.

On my phone, I went to search for the camera feed of the hall that had the mess still possibly being cleaned up. "What was she doing at the time of the incident."

"Pursuing two senators, they say that she couldn't get their attention so she elected to do something to grab their attention, they say that's where the vase came into play. They happen to also be the eye-witnesses."

Something within me told me that the situation wasn't all too well put together. None of the protestors have exhibited any outstanding violent tendencies. Verbally combative, definitely. But as far as physical is concerned, many have preached to one another about the importance of not causing a violent scene by throwing anything at the senators. They were very firm about that, citing that the smallest incident could invalidate their movement. Also, how is it that two senators are the only ones to be eye-witnesses to a crime they also happen to be the victim of? You're either one or the other. They can either be first party participants or third party observers, no in-between.

Perhaps I should take the incident as an eye witness myself. Time to look into the cameras. "You said east hall, what floor?"

"Second." He answered.

"Second floor, east hall, that's the Hall of Heroes. What room were they closest to?"

"They were closer to the offices."

"Okay." With that information, I went back in the feed up to about the time where the incident took place. Once I could verify the scene and the changes of the background, I could also close in on incident itself as it took place. "So tell me what they told you."

"They ignored her on their way to session. The protestor grew violent and threw a vase at their hooves. That's what they filed in their incident report."

While they had filed one thing, I was seeing a vastly different situation play out. It was a female earth pony trailing who appeared to be Damper Trot and another senator. The two appeared to walk closely to the vase as they passed. But in time, I saw a magic ring wrap around the vase and launch towards the hooves of the two politicians.

I knew something was off somewhere.

"You may want to redo that incident report." I stated as I showed them the scene taking place from one of the HD cameras I had set up in that hall. I even played it from the moment where the two senators walked by. "That protestor is an earth pony, they don't have telekinetic levitation." As the situation appeared to be a view from behind the scene, I had a camera set up to also capture the front of it as well, albeit from a little further away. And it showed that Damper had used his magic to throw the vase at their own hind legs, following up by the footage of them framing the mare. "The senator here, however, does."

"So he knocked over the vase?" The guard questioned.

"Probably to get her arrested for destruction of royal property." I added. "I'm sure they'll try to use that incident as a justification to enforce some method of detainment of the protestors. This was clearly a move of spite. So it's technically two, essentially three crimes. Destruction of royal property, falsifying a report, and bearing false witness to the scene of a crime."

I will quietly admit it, I was looking at the situation as a stroke of favor since I could technically detain him to investigate the crimes he committed here. And Blue always said that I should find some way to bring him in. This may be the most petty way of doing it, but I could also probe him for information that I could use on Friday. This works out well.

"We can't arrest him in session." The guard called out.

"Nail his ass when he gets out." I suggested.

The other guard who witnessed what the camera feed issued had brought about his own question. "Sir, how did you do that? How were you able to see what happened in that hall?"

I then answered. "While your world relies on testimony of the parties involved, mine relies on visual evidence." I pulled up a feed of the very hall we stood in and showed it to him. "Surveillance is never wrong until it's made to be wrong, and that takes way too much time and energy to do on the fly."

On that note, I closed my app and reissued the report to the two guards before me. The first who did most of the talking saluted me before taking off to the barracks. "We'll send for him as soon as he leaves, sir."

The other took my report and saluted. "I'll send a report to our findings to the princess, sir."

"Carry on then." I saluted them back, already making my way to the hall where the offices of the many senators were.

It was only a mere five minutes later when I poached outside of the office of Damper Trot, leaning against a pillar as I waited patiently for the other three guards to commence to retaining the senator. I kept myself occupied on my phone while I waited.

It didn't take long to reveal that he wasn't coming from a session, but from within his own office. As soon as he stepped outside, he saw the three guards all awaiting him. "Gentlecolts, can I help you?"

One of the trio then announced. "Damper Trot, you are hereby under arrest for destruction of royal property, issuing a falsified report, and falsely accusing a witness."

The senator appeared surprised that his own hubris had caught up with him. The stallion tried to walk the other way as if he was innocent of all wrong-doing. "I'm sorry, perhaps there must have been some mistake."

But before he could set hoof in the opposite direction, I stepped out to further dissuade his escape. "No mistake made or mentioned."

I started reaching for my phone, pulling up the security feed that I had on loop. Damper continued to try and vouch for his innocence. "Captain, surely we can discuss this─"

"This you?" I said, not discussing anything further outside of showing him the video of his own transgressions.

His jaw fell as the scene clearly illustrated how he walked near the vase, threw it towards them to frame the protestor, and had them falsely arrested. He stammered to come up with an excuse. "T-that must be a-a-a changeling of sorts. W-we still have a significant issue with changelings here in the city."

The guards wasted no time in applying the shackles to his hind legs as I continued to point out the blatant evidence of his crime. "That's your colleague, that's you, that's you launching the vase across the room, that's also you pointing the hoof at that protestor, that's them getting toted off, that's you and your colleague smirking after. Now, you're under arrest." As I finished, so did they in clamping all of his hooves together so that he couldn't run.

The senator raised his voice in dispute. "I've done nothing wrong! You can't detain me! I want my lawyer present!"

I shrugged back at him. "That's fine, but it'll take some time for your lawyer to clear you of wrongdoing of a royal crime, misdemeanor or not. But for now you'll be held in holding until you're processed."

"You can't do this! I'm a senator! I have a session to attend!" He argued.

"Session was adjourned about an hour ago. Your protections don't apply here." One of the guards pointed out.

"I want my lawyer!" He screamed again.

"Yeah, it'll still be a week before you get anything done." I pointed out before flagging the guards down the hall. "Take him away."

Two took to each of his side and began to guide him to the dungeons. As he was being toted off, the senator issued one final threat to me. "You know who you'll answer to, captain."

The last remaining guard I had to file a report of arrest had watched as the three ponies slowly disappeared down the hall. "Sir, is it really wise to keep a senator in holding?" He asked.

I then explained. "You either put him in holding to separate him from a potentially angry crowd for his protection, or you bat at the wasps nest and try to coral over two hundred angry protestors in our halls. Pick your poison."

The guard shuddered at the thought of the latter option. "I vote the issue of least resistance."

"Holding cell it is."

Meanwhile at the Fringe District...

A well-dressed young adult mare walked alongside her brimming young foal, listening as her daughter described in great detail about how her day went in school. The young filly, a mint green little girl with bright fuchsia eyes and a blond straightened mane, remained high in energy as she trotted in circles around her mother.

The two came to the gates of their fairly lofty residence, a gothic home surrounded by a white stone brick wall and black iron-wrought fencing pikes decorating the top. The mare reached within her saddlebags to grab her keys to the iron gate. As she turned the lock, her daughter pranced in place excitedly. "I can't wait to tell daddy what I want from the jeweler!"

The mare sweetly responded. "Of course, sweetheart. But don't you think you have enough jewelry for the month?"

"But mom, all of my friends have the jade bracelet! All I got is this lousy sapphire one!" She replied a bit annoyingly while she held up her foreleg to show the aforementioned item.

"Then you can use that to stand out and show them how special you are." The young mother replied.

Opening the door to their home, both the mother and daughter walked into the lavish house. "But I want all the colors in the set! I'm only halfway there!"

"Didn't you make your father take that ruby red one back?" The mare questioned.

"Nope! I kept it!" The filly exclaimed.

The mare giggled at her daughter's excitement. "So that makes the green and yellow the only two you don't have?"

"That's right!"

The mare leaned down to kiss her daughter's forehead. "Well why don't we discuss it with your father when he gets home. He's the one who's gonna get it for you."

"Okay." The filly answered with a roll of her eyes.

Getting out of her winter coat and placing it on the rack next to the door, the mare hollered out into the halls of the house. "Mom, we're home!"

The young filly darted her way through the halls and ran into the dining room where she expected her grandmother to be, usually sitting in front of the radio listening to her usual afternoon soaps on the broadcast. The elderly mare sat quietly in her chair, facing the radio as her granddaughter walked into the room. "Grandma! Mom said I can talk to daddy about getting another bracelet!"

The older mare was silent and unmoved by her granddaughters voice. The young filly ran to her side and noticed that her eyes were motionless and open, her jaw agape, with blood on her neck. The mother walked in and took note of her mother-in-law and approached as to hug her, until she realized that her body was cold. Upon looking further, she started to see the blood dripping down the chair and pooling into the rug below her.

"Get back!" The mother ordered her child, yanking the little filly away from her deceased grandmother. The mare was caught in shock as she covered her mouth. "Oh sweet Celestia!"

"Aw, you lot still use her as an expression? That's pretty amusing." Said a voice at the back of the room, specifically from the door they just walked in from. The stallion walked into the room with a carefree smirk and a cane twirling in his possession.

The filly, unsure as to what to do about the situation, hid behind her mother's legs as she took prominence of the situation. "Who are you!?"

The stallion trotted closer and closer, leaning past the mother as though he made his response directly to the filly instead of the one who asked the question. "Me? I'm a close family friend. I'm very veeeeery close to your big sister."

"I don't have a sister." The little filly replied timidly.

"Aw, of course you do." He replied as he started to get closer to the pair.

A thin beam of magic was sent in the direction of the grinning stallion, he stopped walking forward as the mare bravely stood between him and the young filly. "Get out of our house! Please just leave us alone!" She commanded after firing the warning shot past the stallion.

"Why whatever for? I'm just telling her about her dear big sis." Umbra replied with a smirk.

"I only have one daughter, and that's MY daughter!" The mare replied, ready to send yet another beam of magic at the stallion.

Umbra walked closer towards the nearby fireplace with a pair of fencing rapiers set above the mantle. "Yes, but your husband has two, one by you, another in his first marriage some twenty years ago."

"He told me his first wife died of disease." She replied, still on her guard.

Levitating one of the blunted blades from atop of the fireplace, he twirled the sword around with a lack of respect for the space around him, hitting a nearby curtain and ripping it. "Oops. Sorry, swordplay isn't exactly a strength of mine, I just always wanted to get one of these, ponies look so elegant when they know how to use one. I think I knew a guy from way before your time who'd use a bunch of these." He said before tapping the deceased elder in the head with the blade. "Well, she was more-or-less immunocompromised. So there's that. But enough of the old stuff, I came here to discuss to you at great length an offer you cannot refuse."

The mare carefully navigated her daughter towards the door and away from the deranged stallion. "What do you want?"

"Well, I wish to have words with your husband, pertaining to his eldest daughter specifically. I guess the three of you are going to help me get that tonight."

"How do we help you with something we don't even know!?" The mare replied as she used her hind leg to nudge the little filly back into the hallway.

But the stallion teleported himself and pointed the tip of the bloodied foil to the filly's face. "Don't even think about calling for the authorities." Suddenly hearing his voice behind her, the mother ran back into the hall, only to be stopped by the same fencing foil being thrown into the door way. "There's no point, it's too late." He added as he summoned a large bloodied knife, walking closer to the young filly. "I'm actually surprised that old bat didn't tell you lot anything. But then again, it's easy to understand when she's just as racist as the late Count DuMoneé. 'That zebra girl' this, 'them striped ones' that. I get it, you don't like zebras, it's like beating a dead horse, the point's been made and resolved, and she's still going. Couldn't really stand to hear it so much, so I just out and told her what her son had been hiding from her recently."

"Zebra?" The mother questioned as she tried to sneak her way under the first blade, only to see a second summoned and lodged in the doorframe.

"His first wife, of course." Umbra explained without missing a single breath or blink. "Ugh, that old bat was so disrespectful to my friend. Could you believe what she told me? 'She left my poor baby alone. I told him she was no good, both her and her flea-infested daughter.' So I told her that she'll be the one covered in more than just fleas. Maggots will do fine."

"I have a sister?" The little filly questioned, both scared and confused.

The stallion teleported behind her and petted her atop her mane, causing the little filly to urinate on herself out of fear. "Yes, little one. Maybe you would like to meet her one day."

"Like hell she will!" The mother called out as she snatched one of the fencing foils from the doorway and pointed it at the stallion. She appeared fairly trained with the weapon as she provided a few thrusts to back the stallion away and advance to where her daughter was well behind her. "Honey, go out there and call for help! Mommy is gonna make sure he doesn't go after you, okay?"

"I said not to run. Please don't make this harder on yourselves." Umbra urged impatiently.

"Gala, run!" The mare called back to her young filly.

"Mommy I'm scared." The filly whimpered.

"Gala Galleria, run! Get help!" The mare urged as she sent another thrust towards the intruding stallion.

"If you run, I will find you." Umbra warned.

Seeing her mother's order over the warning of a complete stranger, the filly fled down the hall to try and get help for her family. "Constable! Constable!" She cried loudly at the top of her voice.

"Ah, the spoils of youth, to have so much energy." Umbra said with endearment before slightly charging his horn and sending a very narrow beam of concentrated magic into the mother's forehead. The mare fell lifeless as blood started to pool around both the entrance wound of her forehead and the exit out the back of her skull. He smiled as he closed his eyes and whispered before a deep breath. "Ready or not, here I come!"

The filly ran onward as she heard a second body fall lifeless to the ground. She opened the door to the house, crying out to the streets outside. "Constable!!"

Instead of an officer answering her call, it was Umbra instead, who came walking around the corner with a smile on his face. He swing the iron gate closed behind him, holding the keys to the lock she could not levitate to reach just yet. "Not quite."

The little filly shrieked as she shut herself inside of her own home. She used all that she could of the little magic she had and locked the door. After that she ran up the stairs and took shelter into her own bedroom. She locked the latch to her door and hid under her bed. She breathed heavily, startled by the knock at her bedroom door.

"♫Ding dong, I know you can hear me. Just open up the door, I only want to play a little.♪"

She covered her mouth as if she was trying her best to not get caught by the stallion. So she continued hiding under her bed. Trembling, she jumped as he banged on the door yet another time.

"♫Ding dong, you can't keep me waiting. It's already too late for you to try and run away.♪"

She turned around to see a head peering at her from outside, Umbra smiled back at her as he pointed to her.

"♫I see you through the window. Oh how our eyes are locked together. I can sense your horror.♪"

The young filly started to stifle her own breath, seeing the pony looking right at her through her bedroom window before he suddenly disappeared from view. She turned around to check the door, only to see the stallion's face smiling right next to hers as he levitated the entire bed from over her.

"Though I'd love to see it closer."

Canterlot Dungeons...

It's been some time since I've found myself coming down here. Ever since the situation with Kalimba and myself being thrown in, I just had it in mind to never really look back to this place. But today I had a good reason for being down here, and it wasn't to make deals with Padrig or Caramel.

Since Damper was in a cell today, I at least had to take the opportunity to probe his mind for anything pertaining to a certain stallion I can't name. And if he could just give me tiny bits of information, I can take that a long way. And I'm sure he had some insider information about my fight Friday night. Again, the more information on that, the better of a chance I'll have in surviving.

I walked into the interrogation chamber for questioning, the senator being very unhappy with being detained in a holding cell for the better part of an hour. "I take it you're not too thrilled with being here."

The politician cracked a slight smile and looked at me. "I'm not too thrilled of much outside of what's needed to take place. Come on now, you know what you promised."

I sat my phone on the table and continued my questions. "And what's that?"

"What else? A system of government where the ponies elect their rulers. No more lines of succession tilted to blood relation and generational favors to the crown. Why not have a fair and free government ruled by the ponies who help truly make Equestria what it is, it's citizens?"

"That's a pretty virtuous vision you got there for a guy blaming a protestor for what you did, all to have them silenced and removed." I responded as I sat down. "So what's so wrong with the current structure?"

"Aside from royals putting those who they favor into key positions to sway the dealings of the structure?" He said, pointing to me in particular.

"Okay, you have a point, I even admit that my being fast-tracked to my position has had some regrettable backlash. But since you think that your ideal system is so much better, I want to know how you'll make that a non-issue should you implement your vision."

The stallion placed his hoof on the table, made a slashing motion as he spoke. "First, I'll do away with royal appointments. It'll be just like you said, a system where the ponies decides who will hold reigns of Equestria's present and future. Appointments will be voted on by the parliament, a parliament that represents the voters that put them in power."

Anyone in my world could easily point out how that can backfire and become an even worse issue, especially with the way he worded it. I then argued against his vision. "If you ask me, Equestria has been headed into a fairly bright place. Look at the numerous political movements that are taking place. Do you see guards trying to quell things like that, trying to bring a calm to a group of citizens looking to legitimize their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? You can have a royal system of checks and balances, but there cannot be one branch that supersedes the other. It has to be a balanced order."

The senator scoffed and ridiculed me. "If this racket in the halls is what you call order, then I fear for Equestria's future. There will be an angry mob for every little thing if that's the case."

"There'll be an angry mob if you continue to act like their issues aren't anything to take seriously. I'm sure you understand that." I replied.

The stallion leaned back in his chair, pointing at me and motioning for me to take the table. "Can you tell me when was the last time an angry mob have ever brought any good to themselves."

I sat myself up as I could quickly give him many examples. "I'll name a few from my world's history. The signing of the Magna Carta was birthed by a group of angry barons who went to war against their own tyrannical ruler and won, causing a siege of the town and forcing the king to affix his seal to a document saying that he too would obey the laws of the land as if he were none other than a common citizen. The Revolutionary War, or The War of the Rebellion if you go by the other side of things, ended the occupation of the British Empire to colonial settlers, giving them the right to govern their own land and tax accordingly. The French Revolution was simply the entire people of France arming themselves against their king and his aristocratic buddies, who would often throw lavish parties and outweigh the desires of the very citizenry they starved through heavy taxation. The Russian Revolution was similar in some aspects to the French, but the circumstances were drastically different, the citizenry all replied the same. That's to name a few off the top of my head."

The stallion chuckled in a mocking manner. "Seems like violence is the only way you humans have gone about things."

"A riot is the language of the unheard, a monster bred by the neglect and ignorance of those in power." I pointed out. "If you want examples of 'peaceful' protests, I'll be happy to give you some. Of course, meaning that the protestors were peaceful does not imply the powers that used to be had any peaceful response to them. Ghandi's Revolution, a nonviolent protest to lead against the colonial rule of the British Empire─they gained that name for a reason. He successfully led the revolution, starving himself until they capitulated to the demands of the people of India. Martin Luther King Jr. was another revolutionary of this association, a pastor from the city of Atlanta who lead marches throughout the racially-segregated south of the United States for equality. Often times his efforts had been heavily contested by race supremacists that valued the lessening of their fellow man for the simple issue of skin pigmentation. His efforts had considerable successes, but not nearly the effect he pursued before his assassination. Women's Suffrage, the pro-feminism movement that sought to bring the fairer sex social, economic, domestic, and political equality in a country who still resisted the rights of those of the prior movement. My home country had a lot of fucked-up history, but that's what all I can list from the top of my head."

The senator straightened his posture as he glanced up to the ceiling. "So you're considering that protest out there 'peaceful' when they are shouting at our doors and banging around for our attention like entitled foals?"

"Those that make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." I quoted from President John F. Kennedy. "That's not just a reflection of humanity, but Equestria as well."

"We had a violent revolution in our country's history. Can you guess how that worked out for the male population?" Damper Trot questioned in response.

"So you'd justify making a peaceful revolution violent by retaliating against them, thus escalating the altercation?" I rebutted in query.

"If that's the case, then what about all of those revolutionaries you arrested during your raid on the Corrotto District? Does that not make you a hypocrite?" He asked, trying to corner me with a situation of false equivalence.

I was quick to correct him on it. "We tried the peaceful approach, we even tried issuing warnings, and violence was made into our only option. I go by a system: Shout the command, Show the weapon, Shove off all assailants, Shoot to warn, and Shoot to kill. The five S's: Shout, show, shove, shoot, shoot to kill. All they had to do was comply, we had a warrant to search, they prevented us from executing it. They interfered with small arms and so were treated as such, hostiles."

He then replied. "Well I'm sure every member of law enforcement had that same talking point in regards to those peaceful protests in your world. When they said leave, did the protestors not waive that right to remain in protest?"

"And you think that justifying the silence of a protest is going to make matters anymore peaceful for you? That's your problem, you would literally commit a crime to pose as if those against you had any right to be vacated. What good is there in trying to frame a protestor for what you did other than trying to give them a bad name in the eyes of your peers? I understand you politicians don't like the noise, but disallowing anyone from their allotted platform does not make you look good. It's a quick way to get ousted in your party's primary, especially if they are the ponies you supposedly represent."

He laughed and nonchalantly gave his response. "I don't know if you realize it, but I don't represent all ponies of Equestria, just the ones in my district. And they voted for me because I am the only voice they have in this world of rapidly degenerating causes."

"And yet you show your face in Corrotto." I tacked on, pointing out his hypocrisy.

"And? Who cares? I say what the voters want to hear, I do what my donors ask of me. I hold to my principles and I make it my job to wake up at first light, signing a bunch of papers, drafting legislation from sun-up to sun-down. Am I not entitled to some form of enjoyment for the evening? Is that not my right?"

I grew upset with his response and briefly lashed out at him. "You know what, you're right. It's your right to get sucked off by a pair of twins in your press box while ponies are getting slaughtered in the background. That's your exclusive right."

"Much like it is for you to foster in secret an amorous relationship with a royal whom you were prohibited by law from seeing." He added, very much having a valid rebuttal to my statement. "The difference between you and I is this: What I do at my own leisure has no legal ramifications. What you do in yours has every precedent lined up against you."

"Who's to say that what you do outside of Corrotto is completely legal?" I questioned in a low voice.

"And what evidence could you summon to bring me down in that regard?" He said with a smug grin.

"I'm sure after this week, I'll have more than enough for you and your friends to take that walk of shame." I warned.

"Do you think you have any power to stop what's coming down on you?" He asked, pointing at me with a smile that gave away every bit of his intent.

As he chuckled, I nodded my head and replied. "I might not. But I have a good clue of what I'm facing. And I don't mind seeing the mountain of corpses he has in store for me." In that moment, he stopped laughing and wore a significantly weaker smile. "And your face just gave it away."

"Gave what away?" He asked, trying to assume innocence.

"You know what he has going on, don't you?" I asked.

The senator threw his hooves in the air, feigning ignorance. "I wouldn't know. As if I would even tell you if I did. I don't even know what all he does or have planned. I just meet up with him in the lounge. You think the Inner Circle knows what all he does? He hasn't called a session in weeks, so all of your sources are all flying blind. Do you think Alabaster or Blue will be able to tell you what he has planned? I sure as hell can't tell you because we haven't met since you got involved. And if you think you are going to find something, let me be the first to tell you that you won't."

While I suspected that he wouldn't be a willing participant on the first day, I still had six others before I could get him to spill on what he knew. All I had to do was find ways to keep him detained for longer than the initial week. And if I found out anything on Friday, I could easily do just that. "You're gonna be in here for at least a week. You might as well open up before the walls start closing in." I suggested.

"On who exactly?" He said with confidence.

I grabbed my phone and shrugged. "You know what, I'm gonna let you find that one out." I said as I hit the stop icon on my recording app.

The senator chuckled once more before issuing his own warning. "I would be careful, if I were you."

"Why?" I asked as I gave him a glance.

"Because he has a way to hit you, especially in someplace important."

Later that Evening...

After the day he had, Somber Spiral tiredly meandered through the halls of the castle, especially after having drafted a number of bills for his party to put on the floor in response to the increasing protests in the halls. As he walked, he recounted the moments he had after that phone call with his daughter.

Shortly after staring at his pendant, he walked outside to get some fresh air and to refocus himself. In the process of that, he was bombarded with protestors all looking for him to make a statement. However, in contrast to the other senators, he proudly stated how he agreed with the motive behind the movement, speaking with some of them over what ideas they wanted to see implemented. He inquired about a current-standing law saying that royals were restricted from those same accesses. They debated in deep discussion over whether those restrictions should be lifted, particularly in favor of lifting them. He then explained the reasoning for the Approval Process Law still in standing, but they were firm in every pony being free to love whom their heart desire.

With those interactions taken place, the senator canvassed many of the other protestors along with his assistants to see what he could draft up for them. And as the suggestions came in, they pointed to a direction of unrestricted access that would protect younger citizens from predatory individuals, strict practices against discrimination, and sweeping changes to the current breeding standards. It would also implement some programs for victimized ponies who were heavily abused by family members that were more traditionalist-leaning or religious. Shelters would be established for those who have run away from home to escape their abusers and assist in their seeking justice against said abusers. There was even a proposed doctrine to remove all forms of unsanctioned sexual trade from all cities, towns, and municipalities. Those that were to be licensed would have mandatory surprise inspections of the workplace to ensure the safety of all ponies involved. Those that sought to privatize their industry must be verified of the legal age.

After the canvasing, and with so many ideas put into form, the senator headed back into his office and got to work along with his assistants. Each section was drafted carefully and written with the absolute attention to detail. The nearly three-hundred page bill was at last drafted into it's final phase by the end of the evening. All of the proposed measures, as well as others that his associative party sought to implement a number of times were neatly ordered and stored away for finalization of the draft. A job well done in his eyes, he left the castle and headed home to his family.

As he arrived, the gate was shut and secure. He unlocked his gate and walked through the front door with a sigh of relief. "I'm home!" He called out.

No one answered.

The stallion simply assumed that everyone had probably gotten to sleep already. Though he was hungry, he opted to check on his family instead. He walked to the bedroom of his mother, knocking on the door to hear no signs of snoring. "Mother, how was your day?" After a period of silence, he grew worried and opened the door, only to find no one there. "Hmm... another night at the bingo hall? I hope she's not putting her weekly stipends into the pot again."

He walked further down the hall, looking to possibly check in on his wife in the master bedroom. He cracked the door open, only to see a neatly made bed and an undisturbed room.

"Dreamer? Honey you in?" He called out around the house as he walked back down the stairs. He started to search the various rooms. The living room with the grand piano sitting in the back corner. The warming room, filled with it's many books and liquors, the kitchen where not a single plate waited for him upon his arrival.

He then checked the dining room, seeing his youngest daughter sitting in front of the fireplace. He walked in, seeing how close his daughter was to the fire. "Gala?" He called out to her. She shifted her head, looking back to the source of his voice. She started to whimper and whinny. "Gala, get away from there! That fire is going to singe your pretty coat if you're too close."

But as he walked to her in the room that was only lit by the fireplace, he started to see the face of his daughter, but not as he remembered it. Her face was cut and sliced, her eyes was terribly gouged, his expression reflected terror for what has been done to his daughter.

"OH FAUST ABOVE! Oh my baby girl, what─" But before he could finish, he turned around to see the cruel images of his mother pinned to the right side of the doorway like a trophy to be claimed. On the left side was his wife, who was pinned with the two rapiers that were originally situated above the fireplace. He let out a trembling cry of grief and terror. He quickly ran to his mother, crying as he saw the deep gash in her neck. He reached out to his wife, who had a small hole burrowed into her forehead. "Who did this to you!?" He called out in grief.

"Hello." Umbra answered softly from the side of his wife. He walked out to reveal himself from within the shadows of his wife's body.

"You!?" The grief-stricken senator called out. Umbra giggled as he took out the small dagger he used to cut at his daughter, still stained with her dried blood. "CRETIN!" He called out as he was about to throw a chair at the intruder. But before he could Umbra teleported next to Gala and started stroking her mane.

"Some soft words from a guy coming home to find his mother and wife waiting on the walls. I have to say I expected a much more extreme choice of words."

"WHO ARE YOU!? WHY ARE YOU HERE!? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY DAUGHTER!?" He cried out angrily.

As if he was showing a tender side of himself, Umbra gently caressed the young foal. "We just played a game together, that's all. She lost and had to pay the consequences. And we kept playing until you got home. Obviously she lost quite a bit, she's not very good at hiding, the poor thing."

Overwhelmed with emotion, he started to beg for the stallion to leave his home. "What do you want? Money! I'll give you whatever you want, just please leave us alone!"

Showing disgust, Umbra stepped away from the young foal and walked towards the stallion. "Ugh, it's always you nouveau-riche types. When it all goes to bad, resort to money to buy out the issue."

The grieving stallion ran right past Umbra, hoisting his daughter up to his back. "Honey, we are going right now."

"No you're not." The cruel intruder replied as he levitated the young filly off of her father's back. "Look, I can get one of you leaving, but I don't just let two of you go all willy-nilly. That's just no fun."

"Honey, I know it's hard, but I need for you to find your way outside. I got this in here, get outside however way you─"

"NOOOO!" The little filly cried out in a stomping protest. "I don't wanna! Daddy please!"

Seeing the horror his youngest daughter exhibited made him cold to the core. The intruding Umbra walked towards the deceased young mother. "Oh yeah, her mother said the same thing before I made quick work of her. Too bad, she was pretty." Raising a hoof to her cheek, he admired the body that hung before him. "Though with some fixing up, you'll look the fair part of your youth, my dear."

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Somber angrily pleaded, instinctively placing his daughter behind him.

Umbra smirked while he continued to taunt the bereaving senator. "Do you really love her? Or was she just the replacement for what you've lost? Was she the one your dearly departed mother sort you with to make good on your social appearances?"

"SHE'S MY WIFE!" He replied firmly.

"Your second wife, of course. Whatever happened to that first one you had?" He asked before pointing to him with his trademark carefree demeanor. "Oh that's right, we did process her a while back. I guess that was a little over years ago. Funny thing about time is that if you live long enough, you start to sort things like decades in rounded numbers."

He looked back to address his youngest daughter. "Honey, I know you don't want to leave us here, but you have to."

"I don't wanna! I want mommy, I want daddy!" She replied, sniffling through the pain of her tears running across her wounds.

"Mommy's..." The stallion looked to the body of his wife and grimaced painfully before turning back to his daughter. "Mommy's home, sweetheart. D-daddy's here too. But we're gonna get you a new home, something bigger and far prettier! Don't you want that, something big and pretty?" He asked, deeply saddened that he had to speak to his daughter comforting words in juxtaposition to the hell they had found themselves in.

"You don't have to lie." Umbra said with a groan. "I mean what good is there in lying to your second daughter about her new home, just like you did your first?"

"You leave her out of this." Somber replied, backing his daughter closer to the door.

"Aww, don't be sour to me. I've gotten to know both your little girls very well." He said with a chuckle. "Kalimba especially... I've gotten to know quite intimately. Her body is very welcoming. Her legs are so long, her lips so soft to the wrap, if only you could experience the warmth your daughter could give you, it would be just like your first wife back in her prime."

"Gala... Get out and run." The stallion lifted a chair and threw it to the intruding stallion, who caught it just inches before it could hit his face. The senator turned back to see that the young filly was still clasping onto his hind leg, tightly gripping him with the desire to hold on to what she had left. "Gala Galleria, I said run!"

A cruel cackle sounded from beside the two victims, Umbra closed the door and taunted the pair even more. "She knows she can't run from me. She's already smarter than her zebracorn older sibling. Trust me, I've made myself known to your little Gala, she's especially aware of me."

"Who are you!?" Somber asked as he threw yet another chair in hopes to blindside the intruder.

"I am who I was made to be. Nothing more." He said as he took the blow without so much as flinching, instead gently lifting the chips and splinters of wood from off of him. "Nothing less."

"Is that so!?" Somber hollered as he stood proudly, his horn illuminating with magic.

Umbra took note of the stallion's posture and grew unimpressed with what he saw. "You know, I don't recall you having any strong resource of magic knowledge. That's probably why your stance is so... weak. You try to pass on as strong, but you're completely unbraced. What good is that for you when you cast?"

"I might not be strong, but I will defend my home!" He said as he sent a blast of magic at Umbra, who tilted his head to avoid the blast. The senator bemoaned the idea of disturbing his wife's body to grab a sword to defend himself, but as he pulled it, the tip of the weapon found itself lodged in the stallion's flank, pinning him to the ground beside his youngest daughter.

"Little late for that, don't you think?" Umbra replied as his magic dissipated from the hilt of the sword. "Somber Spiral, ever the pushover, never the force behind so much as a feather."

As he shrieked in pain, the stallion tried to dislodge the weapon from his flank. After a few attempts to free himself, he managed to succeed with a great amount of pain dealt to him. He forced the blade of the weapon to break with his magic and then toppled over as the sword still stuck within him. His daughter hunched over him, hugging him tightly. "Daddy, please don't leave me. I can't hear mommy's voice anymore, please don't let it be you too."

"Oh, I don't know if it's sweet or boring at this point." Said Umbra.

The stallion, realizing that he was vastly outmatched and in dire straights quietly looked to his daughter as she plead in desperation to him. Seeing no escape, he feared the worst and simply hugged his daughter back. "I'm gonna be right here sweetie. I'm not going anywhere without you." He said, his voice labored with immense pain and grief.

"Okay, boring it is." Umbra replied as he yanked the other matching sword from his wife's body, causing her to crumple to the ground with a resounding thud. "So I'm about to take your wife and do things to her, make her every last bit of the doll she is. But I want you to answer one simple question before I go." He raised the tip of the blade to the pair and asked his question. "You... or her?"

Somber felt his jaw tremble as he held his daughter, feeling that it was the end for them both. "Look all you have to do is─"

"YOU... or her?" Umbra shrieked impatiently. "Simple one-word answer, either one or the other. Choose."

The stallion closed his eyes as he couldn't bear to hear the sound of his own daughter dying before him. So with a sorrowful mewl, he kissed his daughter and held her close. "Me."

Umbra smiled warmly, satisfied with the senator's choice. "Now that's a good answer."

The Next Day...

I woke up in the morning and walked out of my room to the silent halls of the castle, a vastly different atmosphere that seemed to be prevalent for the day. What was supposed to be the sounds of chants and singing taking place during protest was absolute silence. The guards had lined the halls as they normally did in times of reverence. I looked around and saw not a single soul speaking to one another, everypony's discipline at the highest level.

Something wasn't right.

I walked over to one of the guards and returned their salute as I casually questioned them of what was taking place. "Private, I need to know what's going on this morning."

"Sir, the halls have been cleared to observe the death of one of the senators last night." The private answered.

"Oh shit, a senator died last night?" I asked, actually surprised of hearing it. Though it could be assumed that some would have health issues or passed from old age.

"Murdered in his own home. They found him this morning with his daughter. She's in pretty bad shape too."

That bit of news completely turned my head. "Damn!" I quickly started thinking, finding ways to put together what could be a motive for how this happened.

As I thought to myself, I heard two passing maids make a few mentions of it as well. "I wonder who they pissed off in the guild over in Canterrot."

"It could be a hit. I mean he was speaking with those protestors just yesterday."

"It's too bad, they were really engaged with those protestors. A good voice gone too soon, I suppose."

Looking to gain a little more information, I jumped into the conversation. "Morning, ladies."

"Oh, Captain?" One of the maids replied with some excitement. "I didn't think we were even of note for you."

The other mare giggled. "So how are you doing this morning?"

I walked alongside the pair, being nice to them and prodding for more info. "I'm fine. I just couldn't help but to overhear your conversation. Something about a senator getting murdered."

"Oh yes." The first maid confirmed. "Found him and his daughter back in his home. Not much that can be spoken about the scene, but I did hear that it was pretty bad."

"Aw... Well my heart goes out to the family." I replied.

"I mean what's left of them. The little girl said something about her mother getting taken away." The second maid added.

"Wait, did she witness who did it?" I asked.

"She doesn't know who it was, Plus whoever did it gouged her eyes out." The first maid explained.

"Augh!" I shuddered with a deep disgust. "Okay, that's rough."

The second maid then said. "I heard they're looking for a next-of-kin to identify the bodies they found. They supposedly found one member of the family here in the castle this morning."

I paused for a moment and thought about that statement. The only senator I knew that had family in the castle was Somber Spiral. I wasn't sure, but I had to know for certain. "Do you know the status of this family member they found?" I inquired.

"They say that she was in the cafeteria before she was escorted to the medical wing." The first maid replied.

The second then said. "Strangely enough, she's a horned zebra."

That was what solidified my fears. The first thing that came to my mind was the one they sought out. "Kali!" I briskly made my way towards the medical wing. As soon as I showed up, I asked the receptionist at the front desk. "You already know who I am. Where are they having the ID for the senator's body?"

"Fourth hall further down." The young receptionist replied as she pointed towards the direction of the royal morgue.

As soon as I got that information, I had quickly walked over to the lobby of the fourth hall. As I arrived, I called out to the lobby. "Kali!" But instead of seeing the zebracorn, it was both Alabaster and Blue who was present. I instead asked them if the had run into her recently. "Guys, have you seen Kali?"

"She just went to the bathroom. We were with her this morning for breakfast. Then two guards just walked up to the table and said that they needed her to follow them. We were waiting with her." Alabaster briefly explained.

Almost on time, the aforementioned mare stepped back from her trip to the restroom. She seemed visibly distraught and confused over what was going on. "I do not understand why I am here! Why do you have me here!?" She kept repeating to the medical staff.

Also in the room was Solemn Oath, who appeared to have escorted her over. The guardsmare tried her best to explain the situation. "Please ma'am, just try to be calm! There is something important we need to tell you."

Kalimba looked over to me and voiced her concerns. "I do not know what is going on, why am I here? You must know something."

"I'm really trying to find that out myself. That's why I'm here. But I need a moment with Solemn before I can tell you what's going on." I said, not wanting to tell her something that I couldn't completely confirm for myself. I motioned for the guardsmare to follow me further down the hall where I could whisper to her. "Solemn, what's the sitrep?"

The guardsmare appeared mortified as she started explaining what she had encountered this morning. "It's horrible! The senator, his mom, his wife, his young daughter! Her eyes!" She said, still trying to gather her thoughts properly.

"Okay, okay. Deep breaths." As she tried to calm herself, I looked to the zebra further down the hall. Celestia also walked into the area, escorted by a minister in robes. My stomach immediately sank as I asked her the question. "Is it him?"

"We're going by DNA evidence. Unfortunately, she's the closest thing that can give visual confirmation before we can make a public address. The only reason why it's gotten out is because of how this came out to that community this morning. The scene's been whispered around the guard since the dawn shift. I was one of the ones who was called in to lead the effort. That poor little filly's been wandering the street blind, trying to get help." Solemn's voice started to break as she explained what she saw. It was probably her first time being on a murder scene.

As she fanned her self, trying to calm herself down, I looked down the hall to see a nurse clad in white walk past us. "Is there any way I can go in there and ID the guy? I just spoke with him yesterday morning." I said, still piecing it together in my own head from the disbelief. Everything was happening so fast for me.

Solemn held her own chest as she breathed. "You can accompany her to see if she can identify him. But not by yourself. It's protocol."

"Kalimba Mavembe?" The nurse who walked past us earlier called out to the lobby.

Celestia and the pastor both stood behind her as she confirmed her name. "Yes?"

"The medical examiner will see you now."

Every part of my stomach was turning itself into knots. I was already unprepared for the news as it is, there's no telling how she's going to take it. Either way, I had to be there for her in case she had an episode. It was too late for me to preemptively discover it for myself so I could tell her, so I at least owed it to her to be a source of comfort. As Kalimba walked closer, I left Solemn to process. "Hey, I'm coming with."

"Sir, this is a private issue." The nurse informed me.

"He comes with me." Kalimba insisted, grabbing my hand in her magic as we walked. "I don't feel good, Nondis, why is dis happening?"

"I'm here for you, we all are." I assured the stressed mare.

When we turned the corner, there was a medical examiner and a doctor tending to a young little filly in the hall with bloodied bandages all over her face, both of her eyes gauzed with bloodstains over them. Celestia turned her head at the harrowing sight, unwilling to come closer without a moment to mentally set herself. The pastor stood with her as Kalimba and I approached the group. "Ms. Mavembe." The medical examiner confirmed.

"Sir." The mare called out nervously before seeing the state of the young filly standing next to him. "Sweet Celestia! What happened to you, child!?"

The little filly whimpered repeatedly as she shook in the hooves of the doctor that cared for her. "...I wanna go home... I wanna go home... I want mommy... I want daddy..."

While even I had my experience with comforting young foals to the afterlife, I wasn't mentally equipped to handle seeing an abused foal with such wounds. I quietly said a prayer. "Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name."

The little filly was greatly startled by my voice and started squirming, making it harder for her doctor to hold her back. "Who's there!? GO AWAY!" She shouted.

Celestia finally approached as she started to speak to the young victim. "It's gonna be okay, missy. I am Princess Celestia, I'm here with a few others, and we're gonna help you, okay?" She said as she leaned down to gently caress the young mare, who only trembled more at her touch. Celestia quickly withdrew her hoof, realizing that her attempt to comfort her would only be harmful for the time being. "You poor thing... I know you can't see her, but this is your big sister, okay?" The princess calmly announced to the filly.

"Big sister?" The filly squeaked.

Seeing the face of her younger sibling for the first time and in such close proximity, the zebra started to lash out painfully at the medical staff. "I am not here for dis! I am not here to identify anypony!"

"Ma'am, please." The doctor pleaded, trying to get her to calm down.

As of the moment, it seemed that she had finally come to the realization of what was going on, at least if she hadn't figured it out earlier. But she was very upset with the way she had to find out. I comforted the silently grieving mare. "I'm with you. Just hang on to me if you need to."

"Who's that? I'm scared!" The little filly called out in terror.

I knelt down and spoke in a soft reassuring tone. It was very difficult for me to look at her directly. "Hey little one. I know you don't know my voice, but I'm Captain Nondis. I came here with your big sister to help you. When it's all done, we're gonna go get you some ice cream, some chocolate, whatever you want. Okay? We're gonna do whatever we can to make you feel comfortable, to make you feel safe. We're gonna make to that the bad guy doesn't get to you anymore, okay?"

"I'm scared." The little girl replied. "I don't know where to go. He keeps following me."

"Who keeps following you?" I asked.

"Sir." The doctor intervened, probably because I was asking the young filly questions that she was probably not in a good mood to answer.

I elected not to push it further, offering the filly reassurance. "Don't worry, I'm gonna come right back to you and get you all of what I said. And we're gonna make sure you're okay." As soon as I rose and turned away, I couldn't help but to feel somewhat nauseous and upset over how she was treated. I had to give myself a moment to recollect my thoughts. "Oh Lord in heaven."

Kalimba watched as her younger sister was escorted to another room in the medical wing. "What is going on?"

The medical examiner finally approached us and read off of a clip board his information. "Ma'am. Are you Kalimba Mavembe?"

I held the mare close as she answered his question. "Yes, I am." Her voice trembled.

Seeming relatively unbothered by what we were doing now, he nodded and flipped through his charts. "Okay. I understand today is a very hard day for you, ma'am. But I need to confirm some things before we continue." He pulled out a pen and went right to work with the first question. "First, who are you in regards to Somber Spiral."

...Goddammit. As much as I didn't want to hear that name now of all times. "His daughter, from his first wife." She confirmed, trying to keep herself stead.

"Mbira Nyamaropa?" He questioned from his chart.

"Yes." Kali answered, already bracing herself for the news.

"Okay then, this way please." He said as he moved his clipboard out of the way to open the door to the cold storage. There was a chill that almost pierced the bones when you walk in, mainly from the refrigerated air to alleviate the stress of the storage units. There was a table with a set of hind legs and a tail poking out from the bottom. The body was covered under a white sheet, the outline seemed to be that of an adult male. The medical examiner spoke to Kalimba directly. "Ma'am, I'm sure that you are aware of why you are here today. A lot has happened. But before there can be an official announcement made to the public, we must have consent of an immediate next of kin who is of legal age. It's mandatory to obtain consent of family to nationalize the news of your father's passing."

She started off with some rapid nodding. The first tear fell from her face, she closed her eyes in an attempt to hold them back, and that was it for her. Her chest rose and fell erratically, her eyes opened back to see the concealed figure lying on the table. She locked herself closely against me as she was made to process her father's death. "...Let me see him." She stammered, demanding to at least view her father's face.

The examiner saw the bereavement on her face and questioned her one last time. "Ma'am, I should warn you that your father is not in any way altered from the scene of the crime. Are you certain that you would like to continue?"

"Just let me see him!" She mournfully wailed, hyperventilating as the examiner took to the table and started moving the sheets from over him.

I held the zebra, trying to do my best to convince her that she didn't need to go so far as to identify her father's body. "Kali, you don't need to─"

"Let me see him!" She stamped her hooves as she shoved me aside to see her father's twisted face. I looked back to see her pause just inches before him. From there she fell to the ground with a terrible scream. "BABA!! BABAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

The examiner took his clipboard and checked off the final box to verify the identification of the body. He took no pride in doing so. I walked over to the deceased senator and grew dismayed in seeing him lie in state, especially with such a painful expression lasting on his face. I could only imagine his final moments with his daughter. "Sir?" The examiner started to question what I was doing so close to the body.

I had no want in asking this question, just an obligation to the one who has helped me throughout our time here. I felt that she needed to know what had happened to her father. "What does the report say?"

"Time of death estimated to be 11:53 last night, blood loss suffered from a stab wound to the heart. Also suffered from some other cuts in his body. There is evidence that a high concentration of magic was etched into his body as well, I'm not sure if it's a message to the family, but it's a pretty pronounced way to make a statement."

While I wasn't really in a mood to delve further, I wanted to find answers for Kalimba. So I pressed further. "Okay, let me see what you're talking about."

As the rest of the sheet was removed off of his body, I started to see letters etched into his body. From the top of his underbelly to the bottom. My jaw dropped as I saw the message that was displayed.

Kalimba was still in the throws of mourning her father's death. "BABA!! WHO DID DIS TO YOU!!? WHY!?" She pleaded to the corpse.

"Kali..." I answered, sadly but urgently trying to get her attention. "Get up."

While still trying to express her sadness, she rose up to see what it was that I was looking at. And it didn't take her long to put it together. On her father's dead body was four letters, crudely etched into his skin by means of a concentrated beam of magic burning his very skin. I could only imagine that they started this as he was still alive. That word was made very prominent in it's cruel message.

OBEY

We found our culprit. "...Him.... HIM!" Kalimba's grief quickly transitioned to vengeful rage.

I stood by her, comforting her as she angrily shed the tears for her father. "Yeah... Him."

Author's Note

And here we are, the twelfth chapter of the year. This hits my mark of both doing more chapters in the year and also nailing the chapter-per-month deal. A lot went into this chapter that will set up the events for the next few chapters.

As far as Kalimba is concerned, I always had her never truly hating her father as much as everyone else expected her to. Instead my original intent was to make her appear that she was more angry with her father and wanting an answer for why she was one of the first things he bartered off for his happiness. But everyone else only sees the one side, and that's the anger and resentment she has for what her father did and how it hurt her.

I do want to point out that it's been well over seven years, going on eight since I started with this story. And it's been a fun (as well as sometimes frustrating) write. Of course we're in the endgame of things and it will get much darker from here. I just hope that I foreshadowed the future occurrences well enough to be plausible to the readers. But I have enjoyed interacting with you all.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, Happy Boxing Day, Happy all of that, and have a good weekend...

Oh yeah... BOMBS AWAY!

Chapter CXI

Ever since the day Kalimba first found out about her father still being alive, I could tell that there was some part of her who wanted to reconnect. And I knew that she had some attachments to him as we spent our nights together. Those nights, she wanted me to offer her the comfort her father couldn't provide to her for a decade. That last scarlet thread tied to her childhood that seemed almost unbreakable, the link of her past being the only thing to comfort her in times of distress. Even at the graveyard, standing before her mother's headstone, she expressed sadness and a longing for closure between her and her father.

But as she sought to bring closure to herself, she found herself becoming enraged at what all had taken place in her life. The things that came as a result of her being pawned off by her father for his own weakness, it drove her to hate him as equally as she loved him. And it showed in how she treated him every time his name came up. She would show disdain for his name being brought up, angry that he's even trying to reach out to her, and then keep a watchful eye on him as she leaves. I suppose her reasoning for not wanting to interject herself into his family structure was because he had found some strength to move on. She wanted to show that she could do the same, but she really didn't know how to. Finding out that he was still alive and shadowing him through market was nothing more than a shining example of that. And seeing that he had reverence for her thinking the worst had come to his daughter, she stepped in to remind him that she was still here. I guess that was her dissonant way of announcing that she wanted to hear him out.

Tragically, that had ended without resolution, that final scarlet thread so brutally sundered.

She knew she had a younger sister, she didn't want to be introduced like this, not to a little girl who couldn't even see what her older sister looked like. She had a grandmother, but I'm sure that not even Somber Spiral wanted her to be introduced to her from the way he spoke yesterday. I'm sure an initial sighting by his wife would've been a disaster of misunderstanding, and I wouldn't know how she would even treat that situation after she had gained context. I'm sure their meeting would be a lot better, the two sisters who varied so differently in age, had they been introduced under better conditions.

But instead... "THIS IS YOUR FAULT!" …It couldn't be anymore tragic.

Kalimba wept as she held her younger sister, the little filly combatively calling out the zebra as she expressed her deepest resentment. There wasn't much that we could say to rectify it, this was done because a certain psychopath had a control issue, and Kalimba had grown resilient to the lifestyle he sought to keep her in. He was targeted to send a message, one that rang loud and clear to the both of us.

"IF YOU HAD NEVER EXISTED, DADDY WOULD STILL BE HERE! MOMMY WOULD STILL BE HERE! GRANDMA WOULD STILL BE HERE! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT! WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST DISAPPEAR!?"

The words that were so uncompromising had been issued to the mare who could only blame herself for everything that had gone wrong in the current avenues of her life. And hearing the terms spoken from the young filly had been nothing but a desolate reminder of her initial outlook: Be used and die.

But that didn't stop Kalimba. If life had taught her anything, it was that she had to push forward when times had gotten unreasonably desolate. She survived far worse than the crippling insults of a foal expressing her grief. If anything, she was a foal who had to survive that grief, thrown into an uncaring world, experienced their innocence being stripped from them, being forced to live by any means necessary, and finding a way out when opportunity revealed itself. In a way, she felt the mentorship she could offer was the only way she could be in Gala's life. The young foal was made into her responsibility, and she had the means to do so.

Without question, Kalimba took the filly and brought her back to her room, where she and Celestia had spoken with her and offered to make her feel better. While I could only try, my heart couldn't take looking at how that sick bastard had robbed her of her eyes.

...One day left.

As new of Somber's death took to the city streets in official capacity, there was no good way to go about my day with as much as it had dragged on. The halls were a quiet reminder of the hope that was doused with his death. Gathering some information from the guards and a few of his assistants, I was informed of how well he had canvased the protestors to make a bill with every last one of their demands within it. I'm sure that the protestors from yesterday would be upset in discovering that the one who actioned their voices to potentially see the floor to a vote was gone.

And in usual standard, there will be a number of senators who will look at the draft and make changes to bastardize what was originally an organic piece of potential legislation. I'm sure some will look at it and seek to change what will be given out, what's to be regulated, how it would be regulated. It'll go from a rich piece of legislature chock-full of the wishes of aspiring lovers, to a watered down façade of crowd-pleasing bold-print headlines with sinister fine-print loopholes as wide as black holes. It'll be relegated to a bunch of lip service, watered down further in debate, then issued a final draft that has less than half of the provisions on it. And since the majority is mainly hard-stuck traditionalists, it will either be negotiated to it's weakest form or it won't ever see a final vote.

And if it does, it will be made where Law Processu Approbatio will persist through it's guidelines, leading us nowhere.

It was upsetting on both fronts. It made me angry that he was killed by the bastard who wanted to make a point to Kalimba and I. It victimized innocent lives in the process, from taking away the possible aspirations of an innocent foal to removing all instances of Kalimba to get the closure she deserved to have. And it dashed my efforts to put a bill on the floor, giving us the freedoms we want, the freedoms Twilight, Luna, and Celestia deserve. But not just them, it would put a dead halt to all the guards that would have their lives endangered for being assigned under an inexperienced suitor, placed on a task that weighed far too heavily in lethality.

I guess with that also in mind, it hurts for three different fronts.

On that somber note, I had wandered into the royal library, hoping to find something that could help me find my way out if it all went bad on tomorrow evening. I mainly started to look for books that were specific to the practice of teleportation. But even with my guard credentials, I wasn't allowed access to level seven magic tomes, something about them not allowing just any random pony being able to access higher levels of magic spells. And given the initial rumors of my seeking magic tomes, they might be a little on-guard about me asking for such things. And they won't even let me take it out in Celestia's place, a personal assistant of hers must be the one to request it. So it was back to square one.

While I did ask Alabaster and Blue if they could check out the book in my place, their access was limited as well. It appeared that their magic privileges are capped at level five as citizens, and what all they do know is essentially a violation of those guidelines. But as far as them teaching me to teleport, only Blue could do it. And even then, she strongly advised against me learning it at my current level. Again, back to square one.

I knew that there were some ponies in Twilight's network that could easily grab the information I needed. Lemon Hearts is a good local source, especially since she was also a student at Celestia's school. By pedigree alone they are given access to level eight spells. But that didn't pan out well, as her occupation had her access restricted to level three outside of emergency situations. She even told me that having an ordinary role imposes stiffer restrictions as any student's magic at the age of preteens tends to be much stronger than the basic adult average. Moondancer would be the best option outside of Twilight herself, but she was even harder to get a hold of, at least from what I was told.

Of course, I was thinking too hard on a matter with a simple solution.

I just pulled up Instagram and messaged the princess if she could get me some material that would help me in learning how to teleport. She replied that it would put too much mental strain on me and that it would result in not being able to use magic for a while, coupled with severe migraines if I tried to do it, with the potential side effect of some possible burns to first-time users. Clothes only amplify that risk, I found that out when Mrs. Twilight Velvet tried to port me away with her.

Twilight and Starlight makes it seem so easy. Rarity doesn't do it that often, but she's well-practiced anyhow. Luna's probably too tired after her night shift. Discord refuses to teach me. And Celestia's against it as well. Blueblood is about as laissez-faire on me and magic study. Shining is off with Cadance.

So again... back to square one.

For a time, I just resigned myself to learning more offense-based spells to help me achieve what I needed to pull off the fight. Though as I was deep in the throws of some self-levitation to warm up, I had gotten a call from Alex. I levitated the phone to me and put it on speaker as I tried to concentrate. "Hello?"

"Yo, mister magic man." My brother jokingly called out.

I couldn't help but to chuckle over the irony and timing of his comment. "Hey. What's going on?"

"Nothing on our end, dude. We're all good. How about you?"

I shook my head. "Well, the day could be better."

"Why, what's wrong? Something got you feeling down?"

I started to lose my balance, immediately stumbling back to my feet as I began to explain what was going on. "One of my subordinates ran into a scene today. A senator was murdered at his home last night."

"Yeesh, that's rough." Alex seemed somewhat surprised but very much detached from the news.

"Yeah, but it gets even worse. The whole family except the daughter was killed, the little filly had her eyes gouged out."

"Ugh, that's... that's pretty hardcore." He replied with some audible form of disgust.

"Yeah. And the kicker, the little girl is Kalimba's little sister."

"Oh God! What the hell!" Finally understanding the proximity of the situation, his tone perked up significantly.

"Yeah, I was there to be emotional support as she went to confirm the body and meet with her younger sister. It was bad. The senator's body, they had the word 'obey' written into his underbelly. So yeah, that was a hell of a way for Kali to find out how her father died."

The man on the other line grew sympathetic towards the aforementioned zebra. "Damn. That's fucked up, man. How's she doing?"

"She's not good. She was upset at him for what he did, that's understandable. But at the same time, she just wanted to get that closure between him and her. And it also sucks that her only family left is blaming her for being the cause of all of this." I explained.

"I don't think that's particularly fair for the little girl to do that. Did anyone explain to her what's going on?"

"Alex, she's six. She's only blaming her because that's who was mentioned." I added.

"Six!? That kid is six and getting done over this bad!?" Alex questioned, harboring some sympathetic anger in his tone. "And who was Kalimba mentioned by? Did the murderer say her name or something?"

"You already know who the murderer is." I said with a exasperated groan.

Alex did the same. "So what are you going to do?"

"Do like I did before the Arimaspi Mountain assignment, prepare." I answered as I tried to regather some of my concentration to go back into self-levitation practice.

"You think you can take that thing on?" Alex asked, his mind going back to what Discord had described to us on Tuesday night.

I couldn't gather enough concentration to get started again, mainly with that same nightmarish description floating throughout my head. I opened my eyes to at least distract my mind from the potential hell I was set to face. I started to think more of what I still had going for me. "Well... I got magic and weapons. I might even go all in with it tomorrow. Explosives, high-caliber ammunition, lots of midrange options, I probably might knock off the scope of that sniper rifle you like so much and go at it. Maybe read a few magic books to keep myself on my toes if it ever gets dicey, if I can even get a hold of some."

Alex sighed on the other end. "You just be careful, man. I don't want nothing bad happening to you and you end up like Jasper."

That image started to permeate the back of my eyelids as well. It made me uncomfortable to even so much as blink and look back down on my hands. I'm sure they were clean, but I still remembered then being covered in his blood. It was gut-wrenching. "I know a lot of shit's been going on, but this ends tomorrow for me. And if Discord was on his shit about what he said, I think the girls will run it from there."

"If it gets bad, you find a way to get out of there, no matter what you got, no matter what you ain't got. You get your shit and move." My brother warned.

"No need to say it twice." I replied.

"I love you, bro."

"Love you too." I hung up the phone, not really in a mood to meditate and self-levitate anymore. Instead, I went to the barracks for weapon inventory. I had a lot of options rummaging through my head, but I needed to know what it was I could use within my being able to be mobile.

I still didn't know how fast that thing was or even how it fights. And that deeply concerns me.

Some time later, I had went into the weapon inventory and started assessing my options for weapons. A lot of my choices were predicated on doing as much impact, essentially finding whatever weapons had the stopping power to send any living creature a quick and outright ticket to the afterlife. And since I was potentially dealing with some already in that state, I could only further narrow my options down to those that could do enough damage to render a body unusable and or unrecognizable. There was no time to negotiate with the smell, get all uppity about whatever foul liquids and slimes that splashed on me as a result, just find anything that can saw a body in half in a few shots.

Too bad I didn't have any kind of artillery that I could use for that.

But in lieu of that disadvantage, I did have some grenades to use. Frag grenades are always a dangerous option on an enclosed field with very little cover to use, so I had to improvise. I turned some sticks of C4 into molded balls the size of my hand, each with a good yield of explosive power capable to turn a few bodies into pink mist. I had grenade launchers loaded to the underside of my rifles. I looked into using some shotguns with pellets and a large magazine size so if that thing ever got close, I would have several chances to give myself some space. Last but not least, I did away with the long-range scope of my sniper rifle and replaced it with a holographic sight. Since most of the ammo for this beast could be considered as 'anti-matter', more than a few bodies would be assured as such.

I continued to weigh my options and rummage through the shelves for more alterations that could possibly give me even more of a damage output. But as I did so, a scroll of parchment floated by my head. I looked and saw the golden aura that surrounded it. I grabbed at it and looked to the princess who entered into the room, quietly closing the door behind her. "What's this?" I inquired about the scroll.

"A simplified formula. One-time use." She said quietly as she approached me.

"What for?" I asked.

"You put this beneath you and step on it. You will teleport to safety." She stated.

While I was surprised that she actually had the time to make something like this, I was even more grateful that she did. "How far does it go?"

I opened the scroll to see if there was anything of significance to pick up from it. Instead, it was just a bunch of old Ponish and some complex looking runes around a circle. While I was pretty underwhelmed by the size of the parchment it was on, I'm sure that it was bound to be a pretty flashy exit. "It will bring you to the checkpoint of the castle. Step on it and you're there."

I smirked at the high princess. "Guess you weren't playing with me getting back to you after the night is done."

She stood before me with a serious expression, looking up at me as she spoke. "You said you'll be without Kalimba on tomorrow night. It's only fair to make accommodations for every possible avenue."

I rolled up the scroll and started going through my weapons again. "I don't know what he's got next. He might pull off some crazy shit today to try and change up the terms on tomorrow."

Before I could pick up anything else, she grabbed at my hands and held them still. "Then you let me worry about that."

As her grip loosened, I gave the princess a peck on the forehead to show my appreciation. "Thank you for all that you've done for me, your highness."

She retaliated by yanking me into her, our faces just inches away from one another. "Come back home when you're done. I mean that, captain."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, already thinking of the worst. I at least had the opportunity to finalize my affairs in Equestria to the highest being in the land. It was only right to tell her what I wanted done if all would be short of a favorable end. "If I don't ever come back, Blue and Alabaster will help you get your freedom. Reallocate half of my wealth to my family, the other half to Kalimba and her sister. And let everyone know that I love them. And if I'm ever walking around a zombie or some shit, just burn me on the spot."

She placed a hoof to my lips, silencing me. "You have a whole day to make your affairs right, Nondis. I suggest you spend it making the others around you happy instead of sulking on negative possibilities." I guess that was her way of saying that she didn't want to hear me have this conversation.

"I thought I already did that first part." I replied, wanting this day to be focused on preparation instead of it being a day where all I have is time to think of the encroaching hours before I get thrown in hell again.

"It's never too late to try again." She whispered as she levitated all of my weapons back on the shelf. "I've given you the rest of today and tomorrow off on paid leave, Saturday and Sunday will be your usual weekend. So get out of this room and start going out there to meet with your friends again."

As much as I wanted to continue prepping, I did see her point. If this was my second-to-last day breathing, I should make my personal affairs in Equestria more complete. It's sad to think about, especially when you've thought about it a number of times over and over. But I have been procrastinating on some of my promises. Maybe I should carry through with them instead. At least I knew where I could possibly start. "What about you?"

The princess sadly looked away. "I have work to do. Someone's got to pick up after you finish."

I called out to her, placing a hand on her shoulder to try and cheer her up some. "Cella─"

"I believed you promised a certain little filly some ice cream to make her feel better." She said, lifting my hand from off of her, she refused to look at me. "Small moments, they grow into warm tender memories. Offer as many as you can, so that if you don't come back, you'll have a fond legacy to leave behind."

I walked over to hold her from behind, jokingly whispering in her ear. "We said we'd do foals."

In a slight fit of frustration, she broke my arms away from her and walked forward. "I am not mothering the foals of a man who won't be there for them. That's too cruel." She still refused to look at me, probably wrestling with her own emotions while trying to prepare herself for the possibility of yet another lover being lost to the cruel grips of fate. "We will talk more on it when you get back tomorrow night." She said, lifting her chin.

I understood why she was scared. She explained it a number of times. Each one of her fond farewells ended up being a loss for her. If I gave her a tender farewell moment, it could trigger some flag and lead me down the golden road of destiny. I held up her scroll as I tried to reassure her of my intentions. "If it gets too crazy, I will find a way to leave mid-fight."

"You won't be seen as a coward for doing so, not by me." The princess opened her eyes, only looking forward as she spoke. "Sometimes discernment is the better part of valor. When you are outmatched, outnumbered, and outmaneuvered, you must learn to protect yourself by persevering. Only a fool blindly charges in without a plan, a coward can look at the trouble and run, but they can just as easily accept what fate may bring them when they find that their efforts are pointless." At last, she gave me a stern glance and warned me before leaving the room. "Don't ever resign yourself, fight against it, run from it. find a way. Choosing to live will be the bravest decision you'll ever make."

As she disappeared, walking out into the hallway, I looked at the scroll and took a mental note of my exit strategy. Once I was comfortable with what I was doing, there was no other way to go but onward. The rest of my day was wide open, tomorrow was more of it. I had a long weekend ahead, maybe even a short one.

I had promises to keep. I suppose I should start with the easiest one. "I guess I have some ice cream to go buy."

Sometime later, I had dipped over to my world to buy a few things of ice cream, different flavors, different combinations, all kinds of stuff I know a kid would enjoy. The junkier, the better. I also bought a mini-fridge to help keep everything cool while we weren't eating on it. When I finished that outing, I made my way over to Kalimba's room, where she and her sister had stewed for the day. The little girl had still wore the bandages over her eyes, her hooves clumsily bumping into everything that was around her. When she reached out to watch her step, Kalimba was right beside her to help. But while the initial stages of that were volatile, she still accepted the assistance on the part of her newfound blindness.

When I walked in, I had made my presence known and presented some spoons for the three of us to use. When all was said and done, I had watched as Kali started her growth on being an older sibling. It wasn't easy for her either, she had a lot of crying spells where she had to stop for a moment and breathe. The little filly was then introduced to rocky road ice cream and waited impatiently for someone to spoonfeed her. I gave her that first spoon, and it was like she had started a brief journey of escape. It wasn't until she had asked me to describe to her what the ice cream had looked like when I had to leave the room for a moment.

I paced the entire hall, just filled with hatred.

I wanted to make Him suffer. I wanted to find some part of my constitution that had reservations against acts like disembowelment and cast that shit to the side. I wanted to be able to pull a fucking line of his intestines and wrap it around his neck, make a noose of it, and watch him asphyxiate slowly as the pain of being torn from the inside out had overwhelmed him. I wanted to burn his body, every single body he has, just to watch him squirm when he finds out there's nowhere else to go. Fucking sadistic asshole thinking he can just destroy lives and walk away like there's nothing wrong with the crimes he's committed.

All I wanted for him to do was suffer slowly, not even die. Death's too fucking good right now, it's too easy to just put a bullet in someone's brain and watch them seize from the moment of impact and slowly relax as all the muscles in their body are brought to understand that there will be no further signals for movement. There's too much peace in that, there's so much fucking silence in that moment, so much tranquility that Umbra doesn't fucking deserve!

...My brain hurts.

The familiar sensation of a fork excavating the left hemisphere of my brain had started to take place. I knelt down and massaged my head to try and rub it away. I did what I had to in distracting myself, like thinking of the little girl in the room I had to go back in and check on.

A soft pitter patter on the floor was what made me open my eyes. I saw that a tiny puddle of blood had rested before my feet. I wiped my face, only to find out I had a nosebleed for the first time in a while. I quickly summoned some tissue to blow my nose, wipe the floor and regathered my thoughts to walk back into the room.

When I entered, I had found myself hearing of one of Kalimba's stories about her father.

"And den he and mama showed me to my first Sun Solstice Celebration. Baba had told me dat he always wanted me to raise right up with the sun. Mama wanted to take pictures of de moment. So dey waited until de princess came out, and when she raised de sun, baba put me on his shoulders and raised me into de sky."

"Daddy did that with me too." The young filly replied. "He said I was his sunshine."

"And he never once dropped me either."

"He dropped me the first two times." The filly replied. "The first time, he was hurt. The second time a pony bumped into him, causing him to lose his balance. Grandma made him take me out for ice cream after each time because he dropped me."

Kalimba looked to me and noticed the bloodied napkins and took immediate concern for me. "What has happened to you?"

"Just a little nosebleed, nothing I haven't had before." I replied, finally joining back in on the circle.

The zebracorn took my refuse and threw it into the bin across the room. "I have never known you to have a nose bleed."

"Oh it was pretty bad when I was still getting adjusted five-to-six months in. I just never told anyone." I stated as I turned my attention to the young filly. "So, how's the ice cream?"

"It's got a bunch of stuff in it. Chocolate chips, peanut butter cups. I really like it, I wish I could see what it was I was eating." She answered.

I leaned over to look at the tub she ate from. "Well your flavor is called 'peanut butter cup'. So yeah, that's what you got."

"I like this one. Where did you get it from?" She asked.

"Well I got it from my world. It would've taken me longer to get some from downtown, and plus a lot can happen to the ice cream while I'm out walking. So I left over to my world and grabbed a few from a local store, came back, and here we are."

"This came from your world." The filly questioned.

"Yup. It's human-made ice cream."

"That's so amazing! What other human stuff do you guys have!?"

A lump grew in my throat as I tried to carry over this increasingly uncomfortable conversation. "Well, we have things that help us talk to one another. We have really tall buildings that can touch the sky, we have cities way bigger than Manehattan. In fact, we have these things you can ride in and we can go from Canterlot to Ponyville in around forty-five minutes."

"Is it a special train?" She questioned curiously.

"Well not quite. It's like a carriage, but you don't need a pony to draw it in or anything. You just turn it on and it goes wherever you want it to go. You can even play music in it."

"You humans listen to music too?"

"Yup. Would you like to hear some?"

"Yeah!" While it was strangely easy to get her mind off of her losing her father at such an early age, the discomfort of watching her try and feel her way around was still eating at me. But if it could make her happy, best believe I was in the business of making that happen, even if it was for a day. "So, what kind of music do you like, Gala?"

"I want the music that makes me feel like a princess!"

"Is that what your majesty requests?" I asked.

"It is what her majesty demands!" She replied, almost as bright-spirited as ever.

"Your wish is my command!" I replied, going to YouTube to search up some classical music. I went with very first selection that pulled up.

As it came up, the little filly's demeanor became more and more carefree. Immediately she started barking out orders. "Captain, oh captain! I feel that I should have a pretty tiara on my head."

"At once, your highness." I called out, looking around the room for something I could use to at least mimic the demand she had set out for us. I quickly grabbed a nearby sheet of parchment and crumpled it into a makeshift hair bonnet and placed it upon her head. "A crown most fitting for a queen."

She poked out her lips, standing firm. I don't feel like a queen just yet! Where is my royal cloak!?"

I yanked the sheets from off of the bed and tied them around her neck. "Of course, mustn't have you look the part of peasantry, your highness!"

"Where am I now?" She asked.

"You're still on the floor, quite a filthy sight if I do say so myself! A princess should not be groveling on the floor!" I playfully acted out as a snobbish character.

"Then raise me above it all!"

At this point, I was more acting out as a distraction to myself. It felt nice to pretend this was how it really was for a moment, to be in a fantasy land of kings and queens and evil dragons to be slain. It started to become that her escape was that of my own. So I knelt down and hoisted her up onto my shoulders. Holding her tight, I walked the room in a circle, parading the young filly. "All hail the fair lady of the land of Nottingham. Come, let us see the great young squire Robin Hood and his merry band of men!"

"Take me on a grand adventure!" She called out.

"A grand adventure to the land of Nottingham! From there we shall hear from the locals of how beautiful you truly are!" I ran to the door, entering the hall with the young filly on my shoulders. As I walked, I called out to the hall in a playful tone to the many maids and guards around. "Make way for the queen of Nottingham, fairest in all the land!"

Kalimba walked behind us, making sure that there wasn't any issues of me losing my balance or her losing her grip. On the way to the cafeteria, I heard the young filly giggling over my shoulders. The many guards and maids who watched me parade with the girl had mostly watched quietly as I marched down the down the hall proudly with her laugh leading the parade. Walking along, I did run into some I could convince to play along. They too filled in after me and joined the display. Since most of them were maids, they were more than accommodating to the little filly, making comments about everything about the 'young queen'.

"Oh, how beautiful she is!"

"Just look at her mane!"

"She so regal and brave!"

"Make way for her majesty!"

Along the way, even some guards that previously served under me broke their post to join the parade. As they did so, they also made calls to clear the hall of our impromptu parade. As I continued to play the music on my phone, I held the filly tightly against me and increased my pace to a more jubilant skip. "Do you hear that, your highness? That's the sounds of your beloved citizens who truly wish nothing but the best for you."

"There's a lot of ponies here!"

"Of course, all of the citizens of Nottingham deeply care for you, and will protect you at all times!" I triumphantly called out before we came up to some stairs. "Now hold on tight, we're going down the mountain to the grand hall of Nottingham!"

Walking down the stairs, Kalimba took great care as to make sure that her younger sister would not be in any danger. I carefully walked down the stairs and started parading her around the current floor. The jubilant display had promptly grabbed the attention of a few lawmakers in their offices, prompting some to come outside and watch. As we passed by, some would point to the foal and whisper to one of their associates. Others merely stood quiet as their aides applauded while the parade took place.

"We're in the city now!" I called out. "Can you hear the applause of your beloved citizens as we go by them?"

The filly was grinning and giggling all the while. "Yes! I can hear them, they sound so nice!"

But of course, not all was well with the parade taking place. A group of politicians emerged from the chamber, along with Princess Celestia to see what was going on. One politician stormed up to us and started barking his own set of orders. "Captain Nondis! Have you no decency or respect!?"

The young filly was surprised by the angry voice down below her. "Mr. Captain, what happened?"

I quickly threw together a scenario and pointed at the senator as though he was a villain we had run into. "Oh no! It's the evil toll keeper! He's gonna make us pay to get into the city!"

"How dare he make us pay!" She pouted. "I'm the queen! And the queen doesn't pay to get into the city!"

"That's right!" I replied before calling out in a playful tone. "So make way, evildoer!"

The senator, in a foul mood, called out angrily towards me. "You are so immature and stupid! What part of 'Day of Reverence' do you not understand? You went from allowing a bunch of angry rioters to take over our halls to hosting a parade on a day that's supposed to be one filled with solemn respect for the deceased! You bring shame to Equestria with your brazen disregard for the memory of those who serve in our parliament!" He then turned his attention to the crowd behind us. "And all of you, shame on you for going along with it! You're not some bunch of kids walking around and getting a grand tour of Equestria! You're adults, act like it!"

Kalimba held no quarter for the stallion, stepping forward to speak in our defense. "De better question is dat what do you do to observe de memory of de ones who have passed away? What do you do in deir name?"

The stallion scoffed dismissively. "Oh this is so rich. I'm being lectured by a pony who can't even speak properly. The gaud of this one. Maybe you should learn your place, and that should obviously be back in a remedial school somewhere."

Kalimba took great offense to the issue of the senator making fun of her tongue, walking towards the stallion in a confrontational manner. "I trust you should be more den adult to know dat what you say has consequences."

Seeing a few guards in the crowd, he called them forth and issued a firm command to them. "Guards! Come get this foreign assailant immediately!"

Celestia then stepped in. "Guards, stand down."

The politician shot a look of bewilderment to the princess. "Your highness, will you not step in to stop this madness!?"

"The mare before you is none other than the eldest daughter to Somber Spiral." She pointed out. The senator appeared somewhat disgusted and confused by what was told to him. The mare smiled mockingly before resuming her scowl. Celestia then pointed out to him. "The little one on the captain's shoulders is none other than his youngest daughter."

The senator grew mum as he was told who the filly was, and tried to speak as though he was mistaken. "Wait, so that little filly is the girl they found at the scene?" He returned his attention to me and went back on his tirade. "Well in either case, captain, you know better than to cause a scene here in the hall. I'm sure you must know that we are observing Senator Somber Spiral's death in the right way."

"Den you really don't know a damn thing about my fadda." Kalimba rebutted. "Dis is how baba would want it, to parade his pride and joy around de halls like some sort of party. He would want what makes her happy, not what some old, incontinent case of flatulence depicts him to be."

Celestia looked up to the young filly and smiled at her. "For some of you, I'm sure you have nothing but respect for the life of Senator Somber Spiral. But for others, namely the ones who truly know him, this is a celebration of life, a reenactment of who he was. You don't have a right to dictate to others how they should live their lives or how they should go about mourning those they've lost. What's the right way isn't just to lay some flowers at a wreath, it's to do the deeds that he would wish to have done, to make those around him truly feel a moment of joy in their sorrow and grief as they reflect." She then eyed the senator one last time. "So Mr. Tollkeeper, you don't get to rain on anyone's parade. If the queen of... Nottingham, was it?"

"Nottingham." I confirmed.

"Right, Nottingham. So if the queen of Nottingham wants to go into her city and make her decree, then by Faust allow her to do so." Celestia walked alongside me and spoke up to the filly on my shoulders. "And if she wishes to discuss terms with the princess of Equestria for Nottingham's behalf, then nothing must stand in her way."

Seeing that his arguments had been shut down soundly, he backed away and allowed us to pass on through. The princess watched as the young girl started to glow as I propped her on forward and pointed ahead. "Well you heard the dignitary, we have an alliance to make! Come my queen! We march on through the streets of Nottingham to the great hall of your throne! ONWARD!"

The filly started giggling as though the weighted conversation had never had taken place. Meanwhile Kalimba walked by with the one of the fiercest scowls I had ever seen her give to anyone not in Canterrot. The princess marched along with us as the parade of many maids and guards grew and grew.

Eventually, our parade came to it's climax within the very throne room of the castle. The princess held a mock ceremony to announce Equestria's allegiance to the allies of Nottingham. In doing so, she even signed a fake treaty and held a very real dinner with the young queen in the dining hall. She was given the experience of royalty while Kalimba and I watched carefully over her throughout the day.

I'm sure if it wasn't for the tragedy looming over all of this, it would be the best day in her life.

The Next Day...

After a runabout day of helping a little one feel a lot better about herself, I went to my room feeling good about myself instead of moping on what I could've done differently yesterday to make things much better than they were. But maybe fate had it penned differently if he had stayed here. Perhaps if he had never went home, he'd only have one daughter to his name, he'd lose everything around him and Kalimba would probably be a little more willing to reconnect to him in-person. If he never went home, he'd probably hear of the murder of his family upon waking up in the morning.

But life is full of tragedies and hindsight.

Kalimba also found my room, giving me a knock as she came by to visit me. When I opened the door, she levitated a couple of pints of ice cream along with the mini-fridge I had left in the room. When she walked in, I knew that I had to devote some time to her especially.

We spent a good hour talking about the times she had when she was a foal and how much fun she had when her father had been around. She had a few moments of anger where she ended up lashing out at her father's name, but she soon gave way to grieving.

I can never fault her for being as confused as she was. Much of her life was pretty much her being thrusted into adulthood at a younger age than she could even get her cutie mark. There was the unrealized potential, the painful remainder of what she once had, the tender memories she shared were all but fragments of nostalgia. There was no rite of passage or some adolescent guidance taking place, there's no memories between that resemble her living her life the way she should had. And of course, when she has the chance to ask why, the answer is ripped away from her before she can even get a response.

I'm really going for a second helping of ice cream with an overgrown filly.

She and I went to bed together, not really having much done outside of me holding her the way she always guided me to do. But instead of taking warmth in the contact, she whimpered and cried for the father she could not gain closure with. And she was just as wounded as her younger sister in spirit, but without the vastly shorter attention span of a young child. No, everything stuck a lot harder with her.

In closing my eyes, I had a wandering dream where I felt like I was in command of an overarching force that could decimate entire armies, only to be quelled by the doings of a single nightmarish beast of unholy creation. And as the time progressed, the dream became a spiraling nightmare where every wall I tried to hide behind was a cornucopia of bodies all reaching out to me with their hooves, some face within reminding me of that day I went into the Everfree Forest to rescue some ponies from the changeling commander. Every possible nightmare came bashing at me all at once.

So instead of commanding great armies, I was being chased by an army of bodies all looking to have me join with their gruesome form. And it became so after a number of times trying to hide behind a myriad of objects, that thing would still find me until it's face came into view. And so I started running, just in any given direction, a straight line even. My phone was vibrating in my pocket, I had a phone call telling me that I had to get out of there as fast as I could. But before I could ask why, a tornado started forming right beside me in the distance.

I then found myself driving somehow. None of it really made sense of how it all flowed together, it was a mess of a disaster dream with the chorus of a monstrous scream heard in the distance behind me. Body parts started falling down from the sky like rain, and the tornadoes kept popping up. Vortices warped down from the black and orange sky above, I kept driving to avoid every single one until I took cover in a large house out in the country. I locked myself inside, only to find out that reports of an EF5 tornado had spawned in the back yard, already ripping apart the beams and walls that held the house together.

Everything came crashing down on me, everything was covered and promptly swept away in a black windy abyss. The chaos was brought to a momentary peace as I surveyed the damage I somehow lived through. I looked down to see that my body was a mess, wooden splinters and broken glass all in my chest, my right arm was completely gone. There was barely a wall left in the house to build from, I was standing on the concrete foundations, and saw only the destruction taking place in the distance.

The wind kicked up again, I looked behind me, seeing yet another massive twister sweeping closer as more body parts rained from the sky. In the blackness that started to swallow me I was left deafened by the shearing winds and blinded by the dust. And a haunting image of a pony's face turned to me and grinned with a demonic smile. The image froze for a split second and ran red.

My eyes shot open to void the nightmare. I woke out of it and started to send the signals to my right arm to push myself up. But I realized that I couldn't feel that portion of my body respond the way I needed it to. I was scared for a moment until I had realized it was Kalimba sleeping beside me, hunching up against her pillow with a saddened expression on her face. My arm was serving as a pillow for her side.

I gently levitated the mare from off of my arm and placed a pillow in place of where it was. And in a second, the blood started to recirculate through my arm, allowing the nerve endings to reactivate and register the absence of blood flow. For a moment, all my arm could feel was pins and needles prodding through it, for the first five seconds, I couldn't even move my hand. And once the pins and needles started running through my hand, I gained access to my thumb, index, and middle finger. My ring and pinkie fingers took a bit longer to reactivate.

Once my hand was back in working order, I got out of the bed and went to the bathroom and relieved myself. And when I walked out, I looked at the clock next to my bed. It was approximately 4:48 in the morning.

Even if it was early, it was still Friday.

...Judgement day.

Hours. Minutes. Seconds.

I'm sure for many who had a death sentence, it's the wait before the moment that's the most terrifying at times. Some may even feel resigned to just get it over with, others may plead for a way out. But in the mind of someone who's sent out to fight on the sands of Normandy during the war, there's a lot of anxiety. What happens next? Have I been good in life? What if I can't get back home? Does God smile at what I've done or will I face eternal retribution? What's gonna happen to me when those gates open up? There's gonna be a lot of people dying, am I one of them?

And then there's the mindset of those who have already seen the hells of conflict. You made it through one day, you could possibly make it through another, maybe even the day after that, just take it a day at a time. If you don't smoke, try it and see how it feels. If you're too young to drink, bend the rules and drown the pain away. Crack a joke or two, get a laugh going, have a good time and make the best of it. But I'm sure that many in that position have one or two phrases that sticks with them in dealing with the unknown.

Praise be to the most high, I woke up this morning. Praises be unto him if I do it again tomorrow.

Or...

If I woke up today, I'm doing good. Now what can I do to make sure that wake up tomorrow?

Not many people know it, but there's an unusual warmth in despair. There's the tiny light at the far distance that allows many to see a glimpse of future success. But it comes at a cost of self, something you know that can't be redeemed or even compensated. Being at the edge, looking into the event horizon, there are one of two ways to see it. You can see it as a point of finality or maybe a way to break through. Many who hasn't put themselves this close can only see the perspective of your impending demise. But only you can know what your fate entails past that point.

What really matters now is if you got your affairs in order. If not, then it doesn't matter anyhow. It's all about how you leave others around you, but one can also exercise the right to be selfish and leave it up to them to figure it out for you. You can't complain anyways, you're dead to the world, you're dead to the universe, you're dead to yourself.

And yet still, there's life.

I've come close to death enough times already to know what to expect when it's all done. As to why I'm really harping on the concept, I'm just fortifying my mind for the night. There's going to be a lot of un-life dancing about and I just want to feel comfortable enough in acknowledging it's natural presence before I'm brought before the unnatural being created from said presence. I'm fighting to live, no doubt about it. But one wrong move or calculation and it's to the morgue for me, possibly not even that far. I'll just get scooped up and thrown in the back of the wagon for Slade to have his fun with.

God, if you are who you are and you exist, burn this motherfucker the moment he touches me.

My entire day, I spent it having some discussion with others in terms of what I had planned on doing in either scenario. And I did manage to finish up my prep work from yesterday. I checked in with the little blind queen sitting peacefully with Princess Luna. Apparently she had spent the night working with the young filly and have devised some ways to have the young mare have some glimpses of sight. It was a spell utilizing some of Luna's ability to create dreamscapes. But instead of weaving worlds of chocolate mountains and candy-coated raindrops, she recreated reality, giving her a glimpse of what was around her. It was through this how she found out what Kalimba and I looked like.

But just as easily as it helped her to be able to see around her, it also made it easy for her to use her imagination to remold the face of her assailant. While Luna had no clue as to who she saw in that space, she offered us a similar glimpse of what took place during that time.

Of course it was him, and he acted alone.

...The night couldn't come soon enough.

Later that evening...

It's time.

All was set to go, my weapons were already loaded, my ammunition stores all in a place I could summon from, and with my mind hardened to face the impending peril, I was meditating on the idea of what I would do once I saw Him for the first time. I know I can't kill him, he showed me that much. But there was going to be a lot of hostility swimming through my mind. I had to find some way to work past it.

And if all went to hell, I might as well die well-dressed.

I shaved myself to a clean cut, giving myself a neatness unseen since Count's funeral. I wore the uniform that was issued to me, custom made by Rarity of course. And I wasn't really worried about transforming this time, I was going to go into the deep of it, and everyone was going to see me do it. At least they will know where I went before it was all said and done. It was my last time anyways, Kalimba wasn't with me this time, Alabaster and Blue stayed behind at the castle. There's no point in hiding who I was since they all know I am there to fight. And they were going to get Captain Nondis for the final time, whether I lived or died. At least the citizens will know where I was last seen.

My walk through the streets of Canterlot was a quiet affair. Ponies saw me walk by and shared comments of where I was headed. Many just looked and kept moving about their own way. A few did greet me and I replied with smiles and short interactions. And the further out south I went, the more the citizens stared and watched me. Those that wanted to speak grew fewer and fewer, almost as if they wanted nothing to do with me.

With the castle in the far distance, I finally reached the main alley leading into the Corrotto District. And the ponies who were around started to make themselves sparse to my appearance, at least until they saw me walk in by my lonesome. My journey through the alley had been pronounced by a few ponies looking at me with distaste, others waiting quietly for me to pass by before continuing their business. They all treated me like I was going to arrest them for whatever I saw, when all I wanted to do was get this last fight over with.

A quiet crowd grew behind me, each pony having judgmental glares pointed my way. I reached the arena and the ponies within the lines started to part like the Red Sea. But my journey into the halls wouldn't go unimpeded. Some of the security wondered why I was headed towards the VIP Lounge so liberally, and started to blockade the hall leading to that area.

That was until... "Captain Nondis! Baby! Honey! My loveable pet! You finally arrive like the swan you are!" Of course, he walked right out of the room and stood behind the barricade of security. "So you ready for your big dance tonight?"

"I'm ready to go home." I replied quietly, trying not to let my anger show in both my face and voice.

"Aw, don't be so cruel to me. I've been wanting to see you since our last little gathering on Tuesday." As he spoke, he noticed that I had not only walked the streets as who I was, but sans my champion. "Hmm, where's my dear little Kalimba? She's usually with you."

"She's grieving the loss of her father." I replied, again trying not to find some way to lay out the security detail and choke the smile right off of his face. "She won't be coming tonight."

The corners of the stallion's mouth tilted with some frustration and disappointment. "Ugh, why of all days does she decide not to even come by? Did she not get the memo?"

"She got the memo just fine. I decided that she would be too emotionally irrational to attend. So your blame should be directed to me." I firmly replied.

The stallion rolled his eyes. "Why do you ruin my fun?"

"Why'd you do it?" I replied in turn.

"Why did I do what?" The stallion questioned.

"The little girl who's eyes you took. Why did you do it?" I questioned calmly, keeping my cool.

He snickered and carelessly brushed his actions off as if they were a casual occurrence. "Well it's pretty simple, can't have eye witnesses. Can't trust a little filly who's blind and absolutely traumatized for information until some time has passed. After all, things like that tend to be blocked off by the time they get older until a certain point."

"And by then, you'll be long gone? Is that how you think it works?" I asked.

"She's young, she'll recover." He answered dismissively. "The worst that will happen is recurring nightmares, especially those she won't be able to open her eyes from. But in time, she'll adjust mentally and develop a sense of humor to cope with the circumstances. Her hearing and sense of touch will increase, she'll learn to smile and appreciate life. If anything, I did a service to her developmental habits."

I could tell he was trying to get a rise out of me, he knew that dismissive talking points would trigger me to snapping off at him. But even I had to meditate on how I would keep my composure if that were to happen. Still, it was difficult to not instinctively pull out a Glock and air out his lungs. "If you don't mind me asking, how is any of that a service?"

"Those who undergo tragedy will only grow stronger from it." He replied as he parted his security detail and walked over to guide me into the lounge. "I know how it goes, it starts with the act happening before their very eyes, then a personal tragedy happens to them that alters their perception of life. Once that happens, their minds are due to change according to the environment they become accustomed to. She was a spoiled little brat who only thought about herself, strongly influenced by a grandmother who's racism was so pronounced that it effectively synthesized that little filly into her existence. Who's to say that her continued familial dynamic wouldn't breed an entitled narcist only capable of putting others down for not being as visually appealing as her?"

"You know damn well that wasn't why you did what you did." I pointed out.

"Then you don't really know me all that well, now do you?" He retorted as we walked into the lounge, closing the door behind us. "I can understand that my actions towards that little girl were a tiny bit excessive, but it's only relative to what occurs next."

"You really treat everyone like this is some sort of research study, don't you?" I asked, starting to lose my ability to maintain my calm composure.

"I'm the Doctor. It's what I do." He answered with a smug smile. "Now to be realistic, I did contribute to almost every modern medical practice there is to know in Equestria. Equine behavior was even a life-time study of mine. I've become well versed in a myriad of fields. Economics, literature, world studies, cultures both domestic and international, the fine arts, the beautiful works of science, especially medical science, anatomy, physiology, biology, psychology, and even my starting field thanatology."

"We get it, you have so many x-ology's that you forget what's it's like to have emotional attachment." I grumbled back. "Maybe you even forgot how to respect such things."

The stallion walked closer to me and tilted his head. "Funny. It's interesting that you find so much distaste in all of these traits of mine. Especially with who I am as a pony."

"You make it quite easy to hate you." I bluntly replied.

"And yet you're infatuated with the very being I've modeled myself after. How's that relationship going?" He asked with a sneer.

I turned away from his disgusting face. "Last I checked, I don't recall her being anything like you."

"She puts on a good front, doesn't she?" He questioned. "To think that you would hate all of my qualities, when in truth they exist all the same in the one you find interest in. By the logic you insinuate, you should be just as infatuated with me as you are with her."

"What the fuck are you, a jealous high school girl?" I grimaced.

"I could be anything you like." He replied. "I can be the strong tower to which you lean on for support, I could be the mare you breed to create new life, I could be the young taboo whom you manipulate and groom into your perfect image, I can be black, I can be blue, I could be a violet sky! I could be the sun to rise and light your world, or the moon to calm your oceans. I could be all of that for you, Nondis."

"I don't swing that way." I warned him once more.

The stallion trotted up to me, holding his hoof in between my legs as to cradle my loins as he spoke once more. "You know, you give me what I want right now, I'll tell you everything you want to know. It's been a month since you've tantalized me with your presence, teased me with your coarse rejections, displayed your sexual prowess and tender touch. I almost hate Kalimba for how easy she has access to you, but then again I love her the same."

"And disappoint your audience outside? They came here to see me fight, I'm here to do just that for the last and final time."

"Final?" He mewled as he nuzzled his muzzle between my legs.

I shoved him away as I confirmed my answer. "FINAL. I'm done being here. I played your little game, I lived for a month, I went through all the hell you gave me and everyone else. I. Want. Out."

With a feminine manner, he rolled his eyes and expressed his displeasure of my choice. "Are you serious? You really think it's that easy for you to just up and leave me like this, in MY world?"

"If I have to leave Equestria to make my point, then so be it."

The stallion scoffed. "You're bluffing! You'd leave even your so-called princess behind to struggle cleaning up after you? You'd leave Kalimba to be as vulnerable as she is? You'd really leave me to run wild instead of doing your job and taking me to task? You'd abandon Equestria, that's so laughable that I fail to find any valuable humor in it."

"The aristocrats." I replied with a sarcastic smile.

The stallion looked as if I had said something to disgust him. "I see... so instead of giving me a good time and walking out of here with everything you want, you decide it would be better to face death and lose out on everything you hold dear. Or walk out of here like nothing matters, losing out on everything you hold dear in this land. Of the three choices you've made, you tossed what was the easiest one that could've gotten you your prize."

"If I know a psychopath, just once isn't enough, just playing the line isn't good enough for you. I'm not interested."

The sadistic ringleader squinted his eyes at me. "You realize that you could very much die tonight, right?"

"I don't have any intentions of dying." I replied.

The stallion pursed his lips and nodded. "...Okay. I do agree that my audience deserves a show. But let's have a little wager while we're at it. If you win... SOMEHOW... I will tell you the other half of everything you want to know."

"And if I lose?" I asked.

"Well... that's for me to know and you to find out." He replied with a shrug.

I shook my head at his offer. "No deal then. I go out there, I fight, and I live. That'll be the end of it."

The stallion seemed displeased with my terms. "What about your information? Surely you'd want something for the month you've spent here."

"Yeah. But you can send that in the mail." I replied before I tried to walk away.

However, my legs froze in place, my feet locked to the ground by an orange glow. The disgruntled stallion walked in front of me and yanked me down in his magic. I could tell with the mounted frustration he wanted to say something fierce, but the corners of his mouth turned upwards as he smiled. "You. You really don't understand much of anything, do you? This isn't your world where you can up and leave whenever you like it. It's my world, I know how it's run, and it's not ran in favor of either of us. It's ran in favor of them."

While I struggled to break free, I questioned the stallion. "Them? Who's them?"

"Why the powers that be, of course." He answer. "Do you ever wonder why Equestria is the way it is now, why love is such a conditional topic, why marriages are so conditional, why certain practices are so frowned upon? There's a historical context to everything you know, and to this day it reeks of stigma. The source of that stigma, none other than that princess you love to kiss up to so much."

"How do I know anything that comes out of your mouth is true?" I asked.

"Because I was there to see it." He replied as he floated me to his eye-level. "I was there for it all. I saw the war that killed off many stallions, I even helped bury them. They were literally rotting in the streets of Canterlot, it was so bad that this very district, where young nobles after battle had hoisted the bodies of dead revolutionaries─who once were assigned under their banners─high into the ramparts. And the streets of the city would reek of death, hence the name Canterrot came to be. Of course, not many of those revolutionaries lived to see the end of the conflict. Most of the battles turned into an affair of two juggernauts taking on an entire battalion. Those two would win every fight, but their armies would lose every battle. And as time progresses, so would many young stallions lose their lives fighting a battle of attrition against those same two units, a princess and her loyal lapdog."

"And let me guess, this is why you are the way you are?" I questioned. "That's a pretty shitty way to see the world."

"Or maybe you haven't seen enough of it to know." He replied before continuing. "Imagine a post-war world where mares and young fillies are robbed of their siblings because many of them had went out to fight the war, lost their fathers and uncles in the name of defending Equestria from it's bloodied tyrant. Legions could have come home, but insensibly slain for those favoring a cause. Celestia murdered thousands, tens of thousands, HUNDREDS of thousands with her stooge. Do you want to know what was left?"

"Oh let me guess, angry mares right? I've been told this story before." I said, still trying to free myself.

"But not like this!" He emphatically called out. "See, you know one side of it, the side of the tyrant. You never knew the true losing side of it all. So let me summarize it for you. Shortly after the war, there was an astounding difference in mares and stallions. Each ten mares had access to only one stallion per group. And since those stallions were often old or far too young, they weren't seen as suitable candidates to repopulate Equestria. So you know what they did, the nobles and aristocrats passed legislation to enforce mandatory breeding. And if the only ones they deemed suitable in their eyes happened to be them and their sons, guess what happens next?"

He stared at me, twirling this cane pointing at me to prompt the question. "What?"

"So glad you're eager to learn, Nondis. They passed more laws, protecting them from financial responsibility of whatever foal they sired if they chose not to claim them as their own. Mares were expected to raise entire families without a father-head in the home. Many of whom were too poor to feed their families as it is. You were expected to be pregnant if you were a mare. And if you weren't, you were made to be by the lord of your land. And then they spiked taxes for those who were the families of the revolutionaries, the ones who's bodies were put on display. The young mares of that family were greatly punished by being made as concubines for the young lords, all the work of such but with none of the perks of being a member of the harem. However those they saw as beautiful enough to have their foals, they would keep in a separate harem, one they used for their own enjoyment as the others were ravaged, impregnated, and shortly forgotten."

The stallion pinned me against the ground, laying me flat on my stomach as he went on.

"Can you imagine it? A world where the ruling class has access to your sisters, your mother, your daughters at will. It was a limitless brothel for those in that power. And the ponies who were treated as such in these groups, they were replaced upon pregnancy with another who wasn't. So some mares got desperate and researched forbidden spells to grant them temporary male genitalia to avoid being bred. A few even figured out how to impregnate others with that method. That was found out very quickly, and they passed laws to ban it." The stallion then chuckled. "Not that it would've mattered anyhow. You can't impregnate a mare with false genitalia with the hopes of it being a male, the chromosomes would still result in a female pairing. And it wouldn't do any good to have mares impregnating each other to get out of being selected for breeding."

The stallion knelt down and tapped me on my nose with his hoof.

"And then came the secret relations of mares with one another. Mares who were seen in intimate relations with another mare were forcibly separated and bred. Mares who were caught trying to use those transformation spells were seen as a danger to Equestria's future for having knowledge of the spell, thus they were quickly executed. And stallions who were seen as lovers to their own were branded as traitors, and were tortured until they were made to breed their first five mares. Shortly after the confirmed pregnancy, they were executed for their actions. This is why there's such a stigma on same-sex relationships today, why there are so many who say that they shouldn't exist. The dark age of Equestria, it's what many historians who have record of those times have called it. Others will simply call it The Redacted Century. All of these things that plague Equestrian society today, all overseen by Princess Celestia herself. Want to know what she did during those times, as all of these crimes were being done, as these laws were being thrown out there for the protection of the noble class?"

"...Nothing." I concluded, grimacing in defeat.

The stallion cheerfully spun himself around as he praised me. "You are truly a smart man, Nondis! I never thought you would see it out of your blinding affections for what's really not there, but here we are. The terms of her surrender─yes, surrender─was that her hooves were to remain off of all efforts to repopulate Equestria for a hundred years. Now were those efforts made by the ruling class cruel, yes. But did they work, absolutely. Was there an economic shortfall for many citizens, definitely. But as you can tell by today's results, they have been essential to the recovery from the war. Of course there's still a disparity, three mares to one stallion, but Equestria is still on the rise. And those laws still persist today because of their effectiveness. The results spoke for themselves, it is why the princess hadn't put out anything to change it, because she knew it worked."

He relinquished his magic, allowing me to stand back up on my own two feet.

"So, my dear Nondis, now do you understand why many here have grown distasteful of the princess? It isn't because she's doing a bad job running the country, it's because of her running it for so long. And in all the years she's held power, she's allowed the same oppressive systems to maintain hold, despite advocating the change to happen only on the end that affects her. That is why your cause is truly flawed."

I looked around the room, seeing the many maids and stallions who worked their clients, each of them actively participating in the usual debauchery, some while listening in to our conversation. While I had understood the difficulties of living a double-life, I still couldn't excuse what actually took place here. "I found the irony of what you've preached on today as opposed to what you've practiced earlier this week."

"And what's that?" The stallion asked.

"The stallion you killed had drafted a bill to negate all of this." I pointed out. "You just murdered the one who was the only one willing to put their neck out in favor of getting that freedom out there. Did he happen to be Kalimba's father, yes. Did he contribute to the fucked-up system that's in place, no doubt by the account of his own flesh and blood. But did he try to change it, yes. He was willing to go to prison for his daughter, but you apparently saw this as a two-way street. The guy gets what he deserve for what he did to Kalimba, and you send a painful message to Kalimba in the process. None of what you do is justified. You wear a vigilante's mask while holding a murder weapon. Tell me how that makes any fucking sense."

"The system is predicated on all of what your princess has allowed."

"On what she allowed?" I questioned back to challenge his viewpoint. "What part of Canterrot has she allowed to take place freely? This place is protected by jurisdictions all drafted by politicians who come here for their sick fix! Do you think that any of this would exist if she had the power to change it? I want to know, please tell me if she would let this place exist. The only reason this place exists is to fulfill those social taboos and to satiate the bloodlust-driven fantasies of some other psychopaths. I can name a handful of good that can come from this place, but I can't ignore the mountain of bad towering over the palm of my hand. This place may be an opportunity and an escape for some, but it's not what they need."

"And so you believe that the change can come from you, a mere solitary soul?"

"I can tell you that I can get shit done a different way other than resorting to this." I said as I pointed to the entirety of the room. "How does this help society in any way? You just throw a bunch of shiny shit at people to get them their temporary happiness, never really teaching them how to obtain their joy in life. This entire district appeals to more than some oppressed ponies looking to love who they want. It's a safe haven for murderers, rapists, child molesters, and druggies! This isn't the world that many on the outside wants. This place may be your grand social experiment, but it isn't what the society at large is." I said as I lastly pointed to the stallion before me. "You can live for hundreds of years, but life isn't a game for you to manipulate whenever you get bored. You are not God, you don't have the authority to dictate that. It's not your jurisdiction to alter the natural fabric of existence, you don't have that power. So stop playing like you do."

The stallion walked over to me as he spoke in a low voice. "You want me to stop playing like I can be the judge, jury, and executioner? Well tell me where I am not entitled to dream for my aspirations when there's one who does just that by simply being able to RAISE THE SUN."

"You have to have power in order to abuse it. The truth is that you don't have nearly as much as you think you do." I said as I leaned down to whisper my final comment. "Trust me, I know."

I walked away, going to my press box to order my amenities for the night. Meanwhile, the annoyed ringleader stood in place as my words started to reveal the cracks in his demeanor. He continued to smile through his anger, but his eye twitched as he nodded his head repeatedly. He confirmed the thoughts in his head as though he had every other point to prove.

"It's not what you do for others..."

Meanwhile At the Everfree Ruins...
***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

The sun was long gone as my horn illuminated the paths of the Everfree Forest. Though I am aware of the dangers of being in the forest at night, I was nowhere near threatened. With my repeated visits, I've learned how to navigate the forest and protect myself from it's various forms of wildlife. And if not that, then Fluttershy made sure that we made as many beastly allies hiding under the canopy. Most manticores actually greet us and walk about their way nowadays. Cragodiles are usually dormant in the nocturne hours. Timberwolves are the only point of concern, but even they have been relatively sparse as of recent weeks.

Along my walk, I had contemplated the things that had been told to me by Discord on yesterday evening. And if his information was accurate, then my discovery at the morgue alongside dad was nothing short of a prelude to what's to come for the future. I can only imagine what Nondis will do once that horror is revealed to him, probably the usual human destruction thing he does and come back out with a win. But Umbra had to be stopped regardless, and he doesn't have that power right now.

It's up to us now.

The girls all followed behind me, Spike riding my back as he faced backwards to talk to Rarity. She voiced her displeasure of the situation, her horn also illuminating the space around us. "Ugh, as much as I don't mind the trek through the forest nowadays, I still don't like the possibility of me stepping in various piles of potential refuse."

"Not my idea of comfort, Ah tell ya what." Applejack agreed. "But if Ah can get me a hoof-full of that stuff and shove it in that no-good Umbra's muzzle, it'd be worth the trip."

"Darling, it's much more efficient to send him packing into the ether." Rarity replied. "I don't need him threatening my life and Sweetie Belle's as we sleep."

"He said that Scootaloo was no more than a disposable filly. That's a quick way to get your face kicked in." Rainbow vehemently added.

"The worst thing is that we don't know for certain how he gets around." Fluttershy chimed in. "He could be following us even now."

Applejack and Rainbow Dash turned their heads to see the darkness of the forest behind them. Pinkie scoffed as she pounced along. "Pfft. You really think a guy like that would be following what could be arguably the most powerful ponies in Equestria as we walk together in a group? And that's me humble-bragging about what we really are."

"Pinkie does have a point." Spike pointed out. "I mean think about it. Outside of Queen Chrysalis's invasion of Canterlot during Shining and Cadance's wedding, we've been the resolution to a lot of issues that Equestria ran into for the past three-going-on-four years. Nightmare Moon, King Sombra, Discord, Lord Tirek, even Starlight Glimmer."

"I'm sure Twilight solo'd Starlight. And you where the main catalyst to saving the Crystal Empire." Rarity argued.

"That may be true, but even I was a bit of a villain at times." Spike quietly admitted.

"Spike, I was a villain... Twice." Rarity blushed with embarrassment at her own confession. "Granted, both instances were some mode of corruption taking place. But they fed on the worst side of me, they manifested from that greed I had deep down, the aspiration for greatness as my strong suit in business became a driving force behind the strength of my corruption. And each time, you helped me out of it. I am truly grateful for what you've contributed."

"Grateful enough for you to see me as something more?" Spike replied with a grin.

While I rolled my eyes at his question, Rarity merely giggled. "Spike. I love you with the love of an adoring godmother. Meaning that I am grateful to you doesn't change how I feel for you. You're always my little Spikey-wikey, just not in the romantic way. Love you much too much, darling. But there are certain boundaries that cannot be crossed. And it's even more of a wrong for me to wait you out."

Spike groaned in defeat. "So... not happening?"

"No, dearie. You're just much too young for me. And when you get old enough, I'll be all old and hurty to do anything with, possibly too busy for that matter. Next lifetime, I'm afraid." Rarity replied with a smile, all while giving the young dragon a kiss on the cheek. "I do wish you'd understand that."

The dragon sighed. "I don't know if I'll ever find anyone like you."

"She's out there. You just have to be patient. For now, enjoy being the age you're at. Don't try to grow up too soon or you'll miss out on what makes the life around you, Spike." She replied.

"Worst case of being forced to grow up is Kalimba in this case." Applejack added with a quiet murmur. "I hope she's doing okay with all of what's going on."

"Kalimba's in the castle with Princess Celestia. She's perfectly fine." I answered. "I'm more worried about us and Nondis. He's in the thick of it, and we're just as collateral as anypony. Worse off, I have family in the throws of it like most of us do. We have to do this and stop him, hopefully tonight."

"The sooner, the better." Pinkie said to herself.

As we walked down to the chasms beneath the old castle ruins, we made our way towards the cave of the Great Tree of Harmony. It stood with a great white aura causing the cave to glow with brilliance. It's orb-shaped flowers bulged as they hung from the vines. All appeared well with the tree as it continued to cleanse the Everfree Forest of any residual plunder seeds Discord may have laid over a millennium ago.

The others walked onward as I instinctively looked behind me, even with Fluttershy's comment still giving me a sense of unease. Once I confirmed that there was no one following us, I breathed a sigh of relief and started to issue my orders. "Okay girls. While I believe our power can be enough to put down Umbra, having the elements will make it where it will be more than enough. So let's take the elements and try to have them back sometime tomorrow morning."

But no pony moved, they stared at the tree with jaws agape.

"Girls?" I called out.

Applejack was the first to turn around. "Uh Princess... we have a problem." I galloped closer and saw what it was that had everyone gawking.

The elements were all gone.

"They're gone!" Fluttershy pointed out.

"B-but how?" I questioned in shock. "Only we know where the elements are! How is it that they just disappear?"

Rainbow flew up to where hers would normally be and looked to Fluttershy. "We're not the only ones who know where the elements are. And we sure aren't the only ones who would try to move them somewhere else."

Fluttershy's heart sank as she called out the name their draconequus suspect. "Discord!"

Almost instantly, the creature popped up in front of them wearing a baseball jersey and holding a flag with some unusual runes on them. He then spoke quickly. "I came as soon as you called, Fluttershy. Oh, let me tell you, you have to with me to this place I'm at now. I was actually at a baseball game in Hiroshima, quite an amazing comeback story from it's tragic happenings."

We weren't so interested in what he was doing, but rather what he could've done. "Discord, the elements are missing." I informed him.

The draconequus appeared confused and turned around to see the empty vessels that were housing the elements. "Huh, that's unusual to say the least."

"Discord. We know you like to do stuff like this whenever you play your stupid games." Rainbow argued. "So just tell us where the elements are and we won't punish you for it."

The creature wore an unamused expression as he pointed to the tree. "Okay, now I know it looks bad. But I want you to understand something before I tell you the unfortunate truth about this." He said before walking over to the tree, extending a claw to it to reach for one of the places where the elements would have been. Instead of being able to touch the tree, a white magical tendril lashed out and slapped his claw away. Discord fanned his hand as he grimaced. "Oh, that smarts. But yes, as you have seen, I can't even so much as breathe near the tree without it affecting me in a negative way. I suppose it doesn't take to chaos magic too kindly. So yes, I'm sorry to tell you, but it looks bad. And it is very bad because I have no idea what is going on with this thing."

"Then who?" I questioned with growing panic. "Who could have taken the elements!?"

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Meanwhile at College Station, Texas...

Stanton walked into this dorm room and started to go through his phone's contact list. He saw a number of texts from his coach wishing him well at his new school he's set out to transfer to. Other messages came from members of the team wishing him well on his next year of athletic success. As the transfer seemed all but completed, the only thing he had to do was turn in his dorm key in the morning after he loaded up his car and took off back home to Austin.

The investigation into him had turned out with no supporting evidence in favor of his accuser, in fact with most evidence pointing to the contrary that his encounter was truly consensual. Though with his reputation at the school damaged from the accusation, he finalized his transfer earlier in the day. Starting Monday, he would attend the school his brothers attended before him. The day went by for him fairly quickly and he had grown exhausted from it.

He sat down on his bed one last time to reminisce on the times he had in the school.

But as he sat down, he jumped up from discomfort as something jabbed his right thigh. "Ow, what the fuck!" He reached down to the area, finding something unusually hard at his side. He reached down to see an orange gem situated at an angle where it dug into his pants. He picked up the small gem, holding it with his thumb and two of his fingers. "What the hell is this thing?" He asked, looking at the orange and green apple-shaped jewel. "Is it a pendant or something? Looks like an orange." He placed it on the workdesk and thought nothing of it. "Well it ain't mine anyways, so..."

As he laid back in his bed, looking to the ceiling, he went through more of his messages and opened some of his DM's on his socials. Going through them, he proceeded to look at every instagram model that sent him a message and promptly block the many that seemed to have too much of an affluent lifestyle.

"She's digging... She's digging... She's digging... She's shamelessly digging... She's cute, but she's digging... This bitch here just got ran through by fucking CJ Mosley, negative." He grumbled out of frustration and went to his settings. "You know what, all y'all digging bitches can politely kiss my ass. If you don't know me, you don't message me. If I don't follow you, you don't message me."

The man continued to go through his socials, but found himself distracted by the sound of something hitting the ground near him. He looked down over the side of his bed, seeing the jewel that he found sitting below him. He looked over to the desk he placed it on across the room. He once again looked at the gem.

"...Okay?" He picked up the gem and placed it back on the desk. He walked back to his bed and looked at the gem for a moment before going back to his phone. "Okay, so what does coach Charlie Strong got to say about this transfer?" The sound of the gem impacting near his bed had caused him to put his phone aside and look to the unusual item. "Now I know damn well I put you on the desk across the room."

He got up and placed the gem inside of a dresser drawer at the work desk and walked back to his bed. He pulled his phone back up to his face, making sure that the gem didn't somehow crawl back out and greet him again. He repeatedly shifted his attention between the desk and his phone before he concluded that it would stay in the drawer. The man went back to his messages before a clatter sounded once more, by his foot this time.

He looked down to see the gem sitting just beside his foot. "Oh nah, this thing be cursed!" He said as he chucked it out of his 5th story window. "Yeet!" He sounded out as he full-armed the item and watched as it fell to the ground below. The jewel landed on the concrete below. The man walked away with the satisfaction of knowing the item he cast away would trouble him no longer... at least until he found himself stepping on it on the way back to his bed. He stared at the jewel with his mouth agape. "Okay, so what do you want?"

He picked up the jewel and started conversing with it.

"...So you're not gonna summon some weird monster to eat me, are you?" The jewel remained silent. "...So you don't have some blood-curse on you or anything, do you?" Again, no response. "...Okay. Well I don't know why you are here. But I want you to know that I'm not interested in what you're selling. So, please, leave me alone."

He placed it on the desk again and walked over to his bed and sat down.

And again, it poked him, but from his buttocks instead. He lashed out and threw his arm at the jewel that he accidentally sat on. "MOTHERFUCKER!" He hollered out to the jewel as he slammed his fist down into the air.

But in doing so, the bed itself broke in half, collapsing to the center as his fist came down. He jumped up and saw the sudden impact at the center of the bed, leaving a large impact in the mattress and snapping the entire frame. With the shock of seeing what happened, he covered his mouth and saw the jewel standing unharmed at the center of the crater in his bed.

"Nah. Oh nah." He put his hands on his head and flicked his hand away to try and dismiss his thoughts. "This shit gotta stop."

Without warning, the workstation behind him slid some feet away from where it originally sat, squeaking as it slid. He turned around to see what had happened. He looked over to his phone to see it floating a few inches above the mattress he destroyed. Both of his hands found his mouth, covering it as he tried to suppress his horror. He looked around and saw a few other light items floating in his room.

"...Ohhhoh I need to call Nondis! Oh, I need to call Nondis. I need to call that motherfucker right now."

He reached out to the phone that levitated just slightly above his bed. Upon picking it up, he noticed that Alex's name popped up on the caller ID. He answered the call, trying to sound as normal as he could. "Hey, bro. What's up?"

"Stat, so um... I wanna talk to you about something weird."

"Like a random jewel popping up in your room and suddenly you got freakish superpowers weird?" The young athlete answered back in almost a rapid-fire manner.

"Well... Not quite like a superpower." Alex replied. "But the jewel thing popped up just the same. I got up this morning, I put on my suit, found a really pointy thing in my pocket, left it on my nightstand thinking it belonged to my wife. I go to work and I find it sitting on my suit like a broach. I went out to lunch break, and every woman was hitting on me like I was in high school again. So I think to myself that there was some weird shit going on. I didn't really connect it with the jewel then, but then some gay couple walked in and asked me if I was interested in having a threesome."

"The fuck?" Stanton questioned his brother's bizarre experience.

"Yeah. But it doesn't end there. I walked back to my office, my boss calls me in, and tries to talk me into an under-the-table kind of deal."

"Well that sounds tame." Stanton mused.

"Bro. Vanessa's dad is my boss, my father-in-law. He was literally asking me if I would suck him off in the board room."

"AYO! WHAT?"

"I left. I went home. And I find my wife is cooking me dinner. She's about two months into pregnancy, but she's pushing for kid number two, and she was pushing hard. We had sex for like two hours, none-stop. We never had it like that till today. And I've locked myself in the bathroom to get the fuck away from her. I'm stark ass naked right now, and guess what's sitting beside me?"

"The jewel?" Stanton replied.

"The motherfucking jewel, Stat!" Alex confirmed. "What is this shit, I have no idea."

"You're telling me, bro. I chucked this damn thing out of a fifth-story window. I watched that son of a bitch hit concrete. I walked to my bed, I STEP ON THE DAMN THING. I put it in my drawer, I somehow find myself sitting on it. I get mad and punch the air, now my bed's broken and everything lightweight in my room is floating."

"Yo. Yours sound pretty wild as it is." Alex replied before he stammered in the midst of his conversation. "Hey, this is Melanie. I'm gonna merge the call."

"Good idea." Stanton replied as he sat himself at the end of the bed that wasn't completely in shambles.

He watched as a pen came floating by him and tapped it as it moved onward like it was stuck in zero gravity. A few seconds later, Alex came back on the line. "So is everyone here?"

"Yeah." Stanton replied.

"So yeah. Uh, Rick just broke his fingers trying to stop a fall." Melanie said on her line.

"I tried picking her up." Rickey corrected on the other end before continuing. "What she wants to tell you is that while she was trying to snap my fingers back in place, my hand started glowing. If you saw what my hand looked like in injury, it looked like my middle finger was doing backbends and my ring finger was reaching past my pinkie. So I'm in pain for most of this shit, but as soon as my hand starts glowing, The bones started cracking and popping, the pain throbbed away, and my fingers were back in place as if nothing had even happened. Not a damn thing."

"So you too then?" Alex questioned. "Okay, so did you find any weird gems laying around?"

"I found this pretty pink butterfly-shaped one. I have it as like a cute little clip for my hair. I kinda like it." Melanie confirmed.

"Rickey, did you or Cliff find anything unusual other than that?" Stanton inquired.

"I might have a newfound desire to try new sexual positions, and I was oddly calm about my fingers getting broken. But I don't think that I was affected other than what Melanie did. As far as a gem is concerned, I found one on my belt buckle. It's okay, I guess."

"Any word from Cliff?" Alex asked the couple.

"I'll give him a call and see." Melanie replied. It took her a few seconds before she got him on the phone. "Okay, we're all here?" She asked.

"Yeah. What's up?" Cliff questioned.

"So real quick question, did you find some weird gems lying around your place when you woke up this morning, or maybe even later throughout the day?"

"Actually, I found a pretty decent looking chain, but it ain't all that special. I mean, I like blue, but this shit look like a damn balloon. Like why a balloon in particular?"

"Mine's a pink butterfly." Melanie added.

"Mine's looks like a red thunderbolt." Rickey summarized.

"Mine looks like a purple diamond." Alex replied.

"I got a fucking orange." Stanton concluded. "And that orange has me levitating shit like I'm Nondis."

"Mine has me getting chased by my wife. She's been trying to break my dick off for the past two hours. I'm all for rowdy sex with my wife, but it's getting to snu-snu levels of concerning. It's almost like she forgot she's pregnant." Alex briefly explained.

Rickey chimed in with his response. "Melanie has her shit where she can magically heal broken fingers. I guess we're all special today."

"So should we call Nondis about this? Like he's gotta know something." Stanton proposed.

Alex sighed as he agreed. "Only one way to find out."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Meanwhile at the VIP Lounge...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

It wasn't any surprise that they were rolling out the red carpet for my undisguised appearance to the lounge. It was almost like the asshole in charge wanted me to nix the getup and be myself for a change. The servants and maids here were thrilled to finally answer to my every whim while I was in my true form. And it went without saying that Crème was eager to serve.

At that point, I don't think I cared much.

I just closed my eyes and let what would be to simply be. All I had to imagine was something like Twilight giving me her best attempt. Though it would feel like she took great measure to improve her skillset. And it would be comparable to Rarity in some ways. Kalimba would be far too slow and menacing, but only to tease me and maintain my arousal instead of pushing for a climax. If anything, it would be better to compare this situation to one I never thought I would ever bring up.

It finally hit me, he was trying to target Alabaster.

The only moment of my life where I was truly ashamed of the pleasure that moment brought me. I don't think I had such an experience where I enjoyed the lips of a pony so much... other than the teasing ministrations of another party of royal distinction. But hers came from the buildup of knowing what we want and cannot do in the moment. It's the thrill of knowing that our careers could be in jeopardy, that if we were to be discovered, it would truly bring an end to me. Her touch, her taste, her smell is so damn ruinous that it could collapse entire countries, and I'm sure her lips would be succulent.

All she had to do was remove the sheets between us, and it would be just us. She knows how I feel, her magic has gripped my bare form at least twice now. I can imagine the look of her face as I unleash a torrent of semen onto her lips as she kissed it. I can imagine the collar I'd have her wear as I surged onto her face, the residual drops that would climb from off of her, the sound of her pants, the lust-drunk gaze in her eyes as her hips rocked into her own hoof. I could imagine the touch of her mane flowing through my fingers as she smiled with my first load serving as her makeup for the occasion.

Goddammit, she sends me.

But instead of opening my eyes to her face, it was Crème who was keeping himself down on me. He wasn't satisfied with leaving a mess, so he kept himself on me, swirling his tongue to clean every last drop I spilled with Celestia in mind. His eyes watched for my reactions, which ended up being very partial due to the disappointment I inherently displayed.

The moment was ruined, and he withdrew as if he felt like it was something he did. "So... not really your thing, I take it?"

I shook my head to confirm with him my feelings. "I mean... It's not you."

He wiped his mouth and stood up. "Well I'm not discouraged by it. I know that some of our clients aren't into the same-sex thing like some of us are. And for someone who isn't too interested, I guess something did the job for you."

"Yeah... sorry." I said as I didn't have the heart to tell him what it was that really came to my mind.

The stallion sighed in disappointment. "Oh I know the deal. You imagine a pretty face to get you through the moment. Then when it's all said and done, you wake up to reality and see that it's not quite your fantasy. But you know, you don't have to force yourself to enjoy it. If you don't like it, then stop me and I'll get you somepony who might be a little more of your usual preference. It's okay to play it safe here."

I sat up a little more, finding myself still pushing out a residual bit of seed. "Thanks for being honest with me."

"I'm serious." He said as he leaned over and cleaned me off one final time, by his usual method of course. "I know the boss likes to force a bunch of ponies to be a certain way to him and obey his every whim, I don't mind you doing what actually makes you feel comfortable. Never force yourself to engage in something and you don't have the mind to enjoy it. It causes a lot of damage."

After hearing his kind words, I looked to the stallion as he cleaned his lips. "Hey... not my kind of thing to do here after this, but what is it that keeps you here?"

"Well, it pays well." He replied with a humble tone. "I can see my two younger brothers off to college in Manehattan this way. My parents weren't really ponies of means, but they tried their best."

"Tried?" I questioned.

"My parents died in the changeling invasion. They were in a building that collapsed, took workers about four days to get to them, but it was already too late. I've been our family's only source of income since then. And of course, ponies in Corrotto don't get a fair shake because of where we live. We're situated just out of the town square, namely Polimento Avenue. A humble little shack, but we make the best of it. I'm just happy to make enough to fund their escape from here."

"Damn." I replied quietly. "I never knew you were struggling that bad."

"It's the smile, isn't it?" He asked. "I do it to my brothers all the time. I can never not do it for them, in spite of what I've seen. I just try not to let my work show when I'm at home."

"Have you ever thought of being anything other than this?" I asked.

"I told you already. Corrotto ponies don't get a fair shake. We're seen as leeches to Canterlot, we get a bad rep for being thieves, crooks, and druggies. I mean, it is what we know, and for some it's an escape."

"Yeah, but don't you have a plan to get yourself out?" I inquired.

The stallion looked to the side with resignation. "...Well, the funny thing is that with me working here, there really isn't one. I mean I could try and talk to the boss for a retirement... But we all know how that works out for the rest of us." His face grew serious as he looked to me. "Meaning that he likes you doesn't mean he'll treat you any different from the rest of us. To him, you're like an employee. You put butts in seats and he makes his coin. What you said out there really pissed him off. And trust me, the last time I saw the boss pissed off is when Discord paid the lounge a visit on Tuesday. So he's gonna try to make an example out of you wanting to leave."

"FILLIES AND GENTLECOLTS!"

"YOU KNOW WHO WE ARE, AND WE ARE HERE WITH THE ONE WHO PAYS THE BILLS!"

"THAT'S RIGHT, FOLKS! WE HAVE A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE HEAD PONY HIMSELF!"

"SO LET'S PUT THOSE HOOVES TO THE GROUND AND GIVE A STAMPEDE OF A RECEPTION TO OUR ESTEEMED MANAGER IN CHARGE!"

As the crowd cheered, both Crème and I walked over to the window to watch the announcement take place on the arena floor. The ringleader approached the microphone and started to speak with a boisterous and flamboyant tone. "MY DEAR BABIES! HOW ARE ALL OF YOU ON TONIGHT!?" The crowd roared with appreciation for the one who spoke into the mic. "Well I know that many of you are here in anticipation of tonight's event! And I can tell you that you'll be in for a very unique experience on this night!... However, I do have a bit of an unfortunate caveat to discuss with you."

Crème frowned as he spoke to me. "Yeah, and here comes the case in my mentioned point."

"As some of you are aware, the Captain has made it in tonight for the match. However, he has expressed strongly that he wishes for this to be his last and final time contending for the title of Beast of the Week." Boos began to rain down to the floor as the flamboyant psychopath bowed in apology to the crowd. "I know, I know, it's unfortunate to have our champion to resign instead of seeing a new one crowned without pomp and circumstance. But it is what he wished. He says he's tired of fighting in fear of his life, he wants to go out and be a family guy... with Princess Celestia no less, but you didn't hear that from me."

My head sank as he just simply outed my damn relationship to the crowd, meanwhile they gasped and hollered out to the stallion on the floor over the revealed bit of news. Crème shook his head. "Again, case in point."

"I mean can we blame him? He gets the privilege of laying the princess down, spreading her haunches, and punch his tongue deep into her nethers. So sorry ladies, your prince is in another castle." The stallion paused for the various reactionary responses. "But... we don't want to see him walk out of here with a happy ending of getting right back to living his life as a secret suitor to the highest princess in all the land. Not without a fight. So on tonight, I've issued to him a challenge against my own beast of creation."

He turned his head to my press box and smiled.

"I lovingly call it, The Congregant."

So his beast of a monster has a name appropriate to the hell he intends to reveal to me. I was already having a bad feeling about tonight, but that name already told me that I was not winning any match tonight. I would have to have that scroll ready for my escape at a moment's notice.

He turned back to the crowd and addressed them instead. "Imagine, if you all will, a beast so haunting that the mere sight of it will give you nightmares for a night or two. Surely Princess Luna would be kept busy in keeping you all sane. A creature with such strength that it reaches through the door and your chest without a slight hint of hesitation. Imagine a voice so chilling that it permeates the inner recesses of your mind when you walk in the dark. And it will be so much of a challenge that it would take a legendary effort to slay by conventional means. Or I should put it in a way the humans could say it: No weapon formed against it shall prosper."

He brought his attention back to me.

"So to my dearest captain. Ye though you walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, will you not fear this evil? The princess is not with you. No rod or staff will comfort you. The table is set, it is prepared before you, and Celestia will be made present in seeing the feast I have made for you. Your head will be anointed with terror, your blood runneth over. Surely there will be no goodness or mercy to follow you in the coming hour. And you will dwell in my house... this house... forever. So make good with the spot I've made for you here on this floor. You will know it for many an age to come. Now let the church say, Amen."

A most chilling aura jolted down my spine as he turned back to the crowd to interact with them again.

"Amen on three everyone! One. Two. Three!"

"AMEN!"

"And so it shall be. Have a great night everyone!" He concluded as he walked away.

The crowd erupted into a frenzy. Many were eager for what was in store. Crème and I stood in the booth, nervous of what was to come for the both of us. Though his case was for the distant future, mine was much more immediate. While anything that could be said around here can be considered as hearsay in the eyes of many, I know that it will start to spread to much more influential circles who would be seen as reputable.

Even then, I was more worried about the hell I was going to see. "Hey Crème, what do you think are my odds of coming out of this?"

"That's a question you have to ask yourself, hun." He replied as he walked out of the room. "I look at my own chances... and they aren't good as it is. Your best bet is to run, but he's only going to find you and make more of an example out of those closest to you before doing you in." He shook his head. "Without divine intervention, I don't think there's a way you go home tonight, hun. I just hope that last memory you had when I was working on you was good enough for the ride." The effeminate stallion's head dropped. "And if not, I'm sorry for being another source of discomfort."

"You're fine." I replied, at least trying to raise his spirits instead. "I think our conversation after is what really made me more comfortable. Like us talking now, it works for me."

The stallion's ears folded back as he looked at me with a kind smile. "I know it's not exactly cordial with what just happened between us but... I wish for Faust to grant you blessings on tonight. And if all goes awry, I pray she accepts you with open hooves."

"Thanks for the inspriation."

The stallion nodded. "If you ever need anything from the staff, we're wide open to come around, hun."

"I'll get around soon enough. I just need some time." I replied.

"Take it all, hun." He said as he walked out.

As soon as the door closed I closed my eyes and imagined myself sitting in the room with Celestia. By now, we would've cuddled and started talking to one another about what our future plans would be. But even those thoughts were corrupted by the sound of the roaring crowd outside. I saw as the arena workers started getting everything ready for the big matchup in a bit. I was starting to become sick to my stomach.

Divine intervention? Maybe some other time. This time seemed pretty certain that it was life or death.

My phone began to vibrate. I pulled out my phone to find that it was Mel calling me. I quickly answered the call. "Hello?"

"Nondis, you there?"

"Yeah. Straights seem pretty dire at the moment. What's going on?" I vented for a moment.

"Well, we wanna talk to you about something. I'm gonna put you in conference with the others."

"Sure." I replied, feeling pretty caught off-guard with the urgency in her voice. She soon returned to the call, but with the others on as well. "Okay, are we all here?"

"Nondis! Dude! Shit's getting weird like real fucking fast!" Stanton called out frantically.

"Wait, what's going─"

Without warning, my phone was yanked away from me. I looked back to see him standing behind me with a smirk on his face. He looked down to my phone and listened as Stanton called out for me. "Nondis, yo! You're breaking up!"

Using his magic to seal my lips shut, he cleared his throat and did a perfect imitation of my voice. "Sorry man. I was just a little busy with something. I got some free time before my match. What's going on?"

Thinking on my toes I screamed through my nose and ran towards the phone. The others heard me and quickly questioned what was going on. "Nondis!? What's wrong!?"

I continued to scream through my nose, even grabbing the phone away from him to hang up the call and lock the phone. The grinning stallion snagged the phone back from me, only to find a screen that shook as he put his face to the phone. "Well, it seems that you were going to get some information of some sort. Too bad, I could've relayed that information to you." He flicked his horn and my phone disappeared altogether. "And besides, I can't have you lugging that thing around, not while Discord is lurking through it like a virus."

My lips loosened and I was able to speak once more. "You son of a bitch! Don't you ever take my fucking voice from me or I will cut your fucking tongue out of your mouth!"

The stallion giggled and replied in my voice. "You mean this tongue?" He questioned before sticking his tongue out in a teasing manner. His voice quickly went back to normal. "You know, you're always such a spoil sport. You could let me have my fun, do whatever to you, make my day a little. But you insist on being hard to please. I mean, I can never satisfy you."

"When I am through with tonight, I don't want anything to do with you."

The stallion chuckled once more. "Well... we can all dream the impossible."

I summoned a gun and pointed it to his head, and promptly pulled the trigger. I watched as the body slumped down to the ground, this one being a relatively young mare with another hole in her forehead next to the one I made. I growled angrily and walked out of the room. I walked right past everyone in the VIP Lounge, walking out of the room, through the concourse and into the dressing room with an angry scowl on my face. I stared at myself in the mirror to see myself angrily looking back.

I tried to summon my phone, but I couldn't think of where it would be. So I was completely left without a means to communicate with anyone. Angry with the situation, I drove my fist into the mirror. But instead of punching the mirror, my fist came into contact with something sharp and pointy. I pulled my fist back and nursed my newfound injury. I looked up to see what the hell I had punched.

It was a small purple jewel, pointed and sharp as it jutted from within the mirror's surface. I was initially curious as to what it was, but I had an injured hand I needed to treat before the next fight. But upon looking back down to my hand, it was already starting to heal. I actually watched as the wound sealed itself up and the skin rejoined seamlessly.

I knew I had a healing factor now, but it was nowhere near that fast.

I flexed my knuckles, feeling nothing from the sharp intrusion of earlier. I looked back at the jewel and reengaged my curiosity. I pulled at the item and it fell right on out into my hand. It was a purple star-shaped jewel. I held it up to the light, looking through it to inspect the gem's quality. But as I looked at it longer, I began to realize it resembled something I knew I saw before. But as I took the gem away from the light, it actually produced it's own glow. I cusped the item into my hand and looked at it in the dark.

Indeed, it had a glow about it. There was a brilliance that was unparalleled by any other gem I traded or used for currency. It seemed far more valuable than any other. But as I looked into the gem, I started to see faint traces of images.

A rainbow shine glistened from end to end of the brilliant gem, flashing against my eyes. The image I started to see within it was the image of a gray unicorn standing firm and strong, his horn glowing with a bright white light as he casted the magic on to a tree. The tree then fed it's light into two entities, a sun and a moon. But the moon's image was corrupted by a fell darkness that was dwarfed by the sun. I saw the vision of Celestia hosting a number of other similar jewels around her as she tearfully banished her sister to the moon. But as time progressed, the jewel's glow waxed cold and dull, even shattering beneath the hooves of Nightmare Moon.

But instead of remaining broken like most other gems would, it was reassembled around a figure who stood proudly in place of Princess Celestia. Her eyes glowed with a powerful aura as her horn began to glow magenta. And soon an image came to manifest, an elegant tiara to which it sat atop of, worn by a young princess... Princess Twilight Sparkle, she stood with five other distinctive silhouettes, each bearing a jewel of equal power.

The Elements of Harmony.

I pulled my face from out of my hands, realizing that this was the same gem that was adorned in Twilight's crown in the pictures in the castle. I quickly put the gem down, realizing it's worth. "Oh. You don't belong here. You should be where Twilight is."

The gem continued to give off a faint glow. I looked around for a moment, seeing if anyone was watching me as I pocketed the gem with the hopes of being able to get it back to Twilight somehow.

"And what have you got there?"

My head snapped around to see that he reappeared behind me with a smirk on his face. I backed away, but he quickly used his magic to hold me in place. I struggled to move again thanks to this increasingly annoying spell he keeps using. He reached into my pocket with his hoof to try and dig out whatever I had snuck inside. But a powerful flash singed his hoof as it attempted to enter my pocket. He pulled his hoof back, showing pain all over his face from being stung.

He glared at me, nursing his injury. "I see you have tricks and charms of your own." He looked to my pocket and grimaced, his hoof still shaking unsteadily while he recovered from the pain. "You know what, you'll tell me what that is before you're done tonight. Mark my words." He stepped on his injured hoof, hobbling for a moment before fading from within the room. Meanwhile I was left alone, regaining my mobility, and patting the six-pointed jewel sitting in my pocket.

"...Divine intervention it is."

Meanwhile at Twilight's Castle...
***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

We were in trouble.

The elements were nowhere to be found. Not only did we have no clue as to where they could've gone, but who could've taken them. And with Discord being unable to get too close to the tree to take the elements, that left me with limited options. As a result of our findings, I had Spike pen a letter to Celestia informing her of their disappearance. I even penned a letter to Shining to inform him of the issue, requesting that he'd rally some members of the guard to be on standby.

The entire future of Equestria was in great peril, and there was no way to save it without them.

Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo also joined us. Starlight was summoned to the throne room. Zecora was sent for and she promptly made her appearance. And we all questioned if anyone had saw what was took place prior to the elements' disappearance.

"For the last time, Rarity! We didn't take them for anything!" Sweetie Belle adamantly defended.

"We don't even know how to use them! And we know how important that stuff is to you guys!" Scootaloo argued to add to their defense.

"And it ain't like we can sell 'em fer anythin'! Everypony knows what they look like an' everythin'! If we were runnin' around with 'em on, wouldn't somepony make a note to ya before we wander off with untold powers of destruction!?" Apple Bloom added, earning the other two fillies glare of disdain. "What? As if we ain't tried to look for 'em to help us get our cutie marks way back when we were blank flanks, let's be real y'all."

"Oh yeah... Cutie Mark Crusaders: Element Bearers." Scootaloo recalled in deadpan. "Yay."

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. "I always said it was a bad idea. And it didn't work anyways."

"But it was your idea, Sweetie Belle." Apple Bloom pointed out. "You drew up the plan and even had to sneak off with Rarity's element just to see if it could help you use magic."

The young white filly looked to her older sister nervously. "Girls, ixnay on the aketay."

"So you have tried to make use of the elements before?" Starlight questioned the young trio.

"Again, nothing happened." Scootaloo explained. "Sweetie Belle didn't have crazy magic powers. I still can't fly. And Apple Bloom didn't get crazy strong like Applejack."

Zecora finally came to their defense. "And if it were true that they took them and ran, they pass by my hut and I would stop them as soon as I can. But with all paths lead to a cold trail, their innocence is simply a story I can tell."

"So do you know anything, or have you seen anything?" I questioned the zebra shaman.

"I know that the paths further in the woods have gone undisturbed. So it would be unlikely a pony took the elements and fled off like birds."

"It wouldn't be possible for pegasi to fly over the forest, the weather's too unpredictable and spotty. One bad lightening strike and it's over." Rainbow Dash added.

"The animals would've told me if something had went inside of the chasm to take anything. There are several birds and nest that overlook the area." Fluttershy also supplemented.

"It seems to me that the elements could've have been sealed off or something." Starlight suggested.

Discord popped up and gave us an update of what he tried to find here in Equestria. "So far nothing on any front that says element acquisition. I've checked all of Equestria, even stopping by and having a chat with Queen Chrysalis along the way. Apparently she was lurking someplace far away from home, looking for something."

"YOU TOLD HER ABOUT THE ELEMENTS!?" I hollered at the draconequus.

"It's not as if she doesn't know. Obviously she knew as she stopped you from reaching them during her first invasion. But she has no idea that the elements have disappeared. However, it might imply that she may try to hatch a plan to do something else grand like her last invasion."

I started to rub my head as I began to get a massive headache from all of what was taking place. "Ugh, I can't believe this is happening all at once. Everything about this is just giving me a massive migraine all for no discernable reason pertaining to logic! And I can't think with all the stupid ringing!"

Spike tapped my side and slid my phone on the table. "Actually, that's just your phone ringing."

I sighed heavily as I assumed it was my brother on the line. I looked at the screen to see it was actually Alex who was calling me instead. "Great. I know they want an update on Nondis, but I can't even certify that right now!" With frustration, I answered the call. "Alex, how are you?"

"Hey there. I'm just gonna pipe you over to conference real quick. Give me a sec." He stated before quickly coming back on the line. "So you still there, princess?"

"Yes I am." I replied. "What conference am I in right now?"

"Yo princess! You gotta help me! Shit's floating all over my room!" Stanton called out on the other end.

I gave an exasperated sigh of frustration. "Why now!? Why is everything going wrong at this current point in time!? First the Elements go missing, Chrysalis is roaming about at large, and now things are floating in your room. Lovely!"

"Girl, I know it's been a weird day for you. But it's been just as weird for all of us." Melanie responded. "I think you guys casting that magic on us has some side effects that are popping up pretty bad right now."

"Yeah, and then there's these random-ass jewels that we can't get rid of for some odd reason." Stanton also pointed out.

"Jewels?" I questioned to think for a moment before an idea came to my mind. I quickly put the call on speaker and placed it at the center of the table. "Okay, so what are some of these characteristics you've started to develop, Stanton?"

"Well, everything in my room was floating, still is. I think it's gotten worse because my work desk is floating a few inches off the ground. And I broke my bed without even touching it. Like I know that this thing is made of some hard-ass wood, I shouldn't be able to look at something and it simply break after I've been lying on top of it for a whole semester. That's just the real."

Starlight made a poignant observation. "I don't think Nondis' levitation was ever that strong."

I turned my attention back to the phone. "Tell me about the jewel you found."

"That's the thing. All of us found one." Alex explained. "And we can't get rid of them. Stanton tried chucking his across campus, but it popped right back up. I left mine on the nightstand thinking it belonged to my wife, I find myself wearing it. I think these things are either cursed or overtly enchanted."

"Enchanted jewels?" Rarity questioned.

"Metaphysical developments?" I also quetioned.

Rainbow hopped on the table and spoke into the phone. "Quick question for curiosity sake. Any one of you seen a red lightening bolt ruby sitting around?"

Rickey's voice popped up on the other line. "Yeah, I got a belt buckle like that."

Rainbow's jaw dropped as quickly as all of ours did. The coincidence was far too uncanny, changes in human abilities so drastic that it breaks every conventional mold of logic, jewels that they consider as 'overtly enchanted', there was no question. Those had to be the elements. Fluttershy quickly moved Rainbow out of the way and asked about hers. "Pink butterfly?"

"Yeah, I have one as a cute little hair clip... oh I see where this is going now." Melanie confirmed.

"I got an orange that I sat on and it keeps coming back to me!" Stanton called out.

"That's actually an apple, sugarcube!" Applejack responded. "Probably explains the sudden super strength."

"I got a pretty blue balloon on a chain, but why a balloon?" Cliff questioned.

"They're all made into the shape of our cutie marks!" Pinkie clarified.

"And I got a pretty purple diamond that causes potential marriage failures. Any takers?" Alex called out.

"Well that explains a lot." Rarity said with a pout.

Spike counted on his claws how many confirmations we have. "So that's five, but who has Twilight's element?"

Both parties came to a deafening silence as we quickly realized the answer to Spike's question. Discord perked up and started to move. "I'll go check in with Nondis. Perhaps he can confirm that he has the last one."

"Dude, Umbra! He's got Nondis!" Stanton pointed out. "I remember hearing Nondis' voice on the phone, then it cut out, and then I heard him talk again, but then I hear Nondis screaming in the background. That was the last we heard from him before he ended the call."

"Probably to stop us from saying anything." Melanie added. "...Oh God. He's in the arena... with that thing."

I quickly turned my head to my number one dragon assistant. "Spike, take a letter."

"Princess Celestia?" He asked.

"With haste."

Meanwhile at the Corrotto Underground Arena...

Still feeling a little bit gimpy from the earlier encounter with the human, Umbra walked on to an undisclosed area of the arena. He could tell he was getting closer to his location as the rancid smell of decay had gotten significantly stronger. When he arrived, he opened the door to see a small crew of dolls along with one of his cloaked assistants going down a checklist of details. Also sitting in a fairly dormant state was a little filly, who's face was turned towards the wall.

Umbra approached the group and questioned the cloaked figure. "So is everything ready?"

"Optimal and obedient." The assistant notified him. "Subject is docile and awaiting interaction."

"That smart?" Umbra questioned.

"Perhaps you would be interested in seeing the results for yourself, master." The assistant replied haughtily.

The stallion walked over to the young filly, seeing the myriad of scars and staples on it's body from the many operations he's performed. He tested the creature by asking it a simple question. "So my dear little subject. How do you feel right now?"

"I'm bored!" The juvenile filly said as she turned around, her eyes as cold and glossy as they would be in death, her skin as pale as snow, and her coat as dull as an eggshell. "I wanna go out and play."

"You kept the mind and vocal chords." Umbra observed. "I thought I had them swapped for something a little more mature in the age bracket."

"Sir, we had to stay young. All other control groups of an older age showed resistance and disobedience, even signs of anarchy. The brain of a foal at a young age showed more capability of being subservient."

Umbra laughed and shook his head. "Well, that was pretty much what I estimated would happen. It only makes sense that a kid would be more willing to listen to their elders as opposed to a more mentally-independent adolescent. And it was a risk to use an adult brain as a means to operate the collective."

The filly tapped on Umbra's leg, causing the unicorn to look down to the filly's pale face. "Did I do good, daddy?"

The stallion smirked. "Of course, my little meatwad. You've done wonderfully today." He knelt down to speak with the filly. "Now, I have a special request for you on tonight. The guy you're gonna see out there is the one with two legs walking, he's going to be in a shiny new uniform. And I do believe he's going to be your playdate for tonight."

"I get a playdate!?" She asked with youthful wonder.

"That's right, little one. He's gonna be a special member of our family soon enough." He answered with a kind smile before tapping the little filly on her chest. "But not in the way that we usually want him to be, okay? Your objective is to play with him, but don't hurt him. Do you understand? It's okay to make the red stuff come out, but not too much. You can hold him, but don't hug him. You can play hide and go seek, but don't tag him. If you do good, daddy will give you some playtime with the doll another day. I'll even give you some freetime out in the mountain. Okay?"

"I wanna go hide in the mountain again!" The filly replied with glee.

"I know. But do this right first, and you'll get everything you want and then some." He stood back up and lightly petted the little filly on the top of her head. "Okay. Now remember, play nice."

"Okay daddy!" The filly replied before trotting off happily across the room, it's shadow casting an immense large shape of various hooves and heads. Umbra was pleased with what he saw in the filly and escorted her to the gate.

"Okay. Now let's go out there... and play."

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

The gates to the arena floor opened and I was greeted with the sounds of boos and jeers. As I walked out, I took the liberty of making a quick jog to the middle of the floor. I didn't really want to endure the parade of negativity from the crowd just by simply walking to the middle of the floor. And it gave me more energy just by not having to deal with getting pelted with trash for the first forty seconds.

"FILLIES AND GENTLECOLTS!" Scotch began announcing to the crowd.

"THE HOUR HAS ARRIVED!" Botch commented along side his cohost.

"AND SO HAS OUR REIGNING CHAMP TWO WEEKS STRONG─"

"TWO WEEKS LUCKY!"

"WE GAVE EVERY ONLOOKER A SHOT TO TELL HIM HOW CORROTTO FEELS ABOUT HIM, AND OUR ANSWER CAME AFTER ELEVEN GRUELING ROUNDS!"

"WE THREW OUR BEST GUY AFTER HIM, HE PLAYED DIRTY! WE THREW ONE OF HIS OWN, HE GOT PERSONAL!"

"ALREADY RUMORED TO SLAY OVER A HUNDRED ARIMASPI, THIS HUMAN HAS MATCHED EVERY LAST THING THIS ARENA HAD THROWN HIS WAY─"

"OF COURSE, WE KNOW WHY HE EVEN GOT TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND THE FIRST TIME ANYHOW!"

"BUT WITH THE BOSS' OWN HAT THROWN IN THE RING─"

"THERE ISN'T A FUCKING CHANCE HE MAKES IT OUT OF HERE ALIVE TONIGHT!"

"YOU WANT BLOOD!?"

"WELL TONIGHT YOU'LL GET IT!"

"BUT FIRST... AS OUR ESTEEMED MANAGER HAS ALREADY ANNOUNCED TO US, OUR CHAMP IS LOOKING TO BECOME A... STANDING FIGURE OF SOCIETY AGAIN!" The crowd began to boo again.

The two announcers walked closer to me, mocking me as they approached with their microphones. "EARLY RETIREMENT!? HOW FUCKING LAME!" Botch said as he handed me a mic to speak into.

"QUICKLY, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR LAST AND FINAL MATCHUP HERE IN THE CORROTTO COLISSEUM?" Scotch asked as they conducted a quick interview. "BUT PLEASE, HOLD IT TO THIRTY SECONDS!"

I took the mic and addressed the crowd with a bow. "Ladies and gentlemen, fillies and gentlecolts of the crowd. I can understand that I've been your favorite villain to root against. And of course given my occupation, it's pretty much a given. I know that I've done a lot to some of your friends by incarcerating them, but you should be thrilled. I won't ever have to show my face here ever again. And I will take my leave from here on tonight, one way or another. So for those who did place their bets on me, I hope you continue to make good on your newfound riches. Those that didn't, I wish nothing but the best for you. But those of you that threw shit at me me can─"

"TIME'S UP!" Botch shouted as he snatched the microphone from me. "SORRY CHAMP, BUT YOUR TIME IS UP! NO TIME FOR BORING SPEECHES! YOU GOTTA LEARN HOW TO PLAY THE CROWD BETTER! HERE, LET ME SHOW YOU HOW TO DO IT!" He then brought his attention to the crowd. "HOW MANY OF YOU MOTHERFUCKERS WANNA SEE OUR NEW CHALLENGER!?"

Although I felt like giving him a piece of my mind for disrespecting me like he did, I instead just started getting my stuff ready for the match. I summoned up a bulletproof vest and put it on before summoning the sniper rifle. Scotch took notice of my sudden change of inventory. "IT APPEARS THAT THE CAPTAIN HAS PULLED OUT HIS HEAVIER ARTILLERY!"

"BUT HOW USEFUL WILL IT BE?" I immediately recognized the third voice over the intercom. The doors tot he challenger's gate opened to reveal the crazed ringleader walking out with a microphone of his own. The crowd erupted with praise for their apparent savior as he approached the center of the floor. "THAT'S A DIFFERENT WEAPON, CAPTAIN! PERHAPS YOUR LITTLE TRINKET WON'T BE ENOUGH TO GET YOU OUT OF THE HELL YOU'RE SET TO FACE! YOU MIGHT AS WELL ADMIT THAT YOU'RE DONE HERE, YOU WON'T BE GOING BACK TO APPEASE THAT PALE-COATED BITCH OF A PRINCESS WHO'S ASS YOU ATE!"

I quickly took aim for him first to stop him from getting any closer. But without my knowing a shadow crept up and knocked my aim completely off, causing me to almost lose my grip on the weapon. I looked to the shadow, which appeared as a tendril, coming from the darkness of the gate behind him. It quickly retreated to the darkness of the gate and the annoying stallion smirked at me.

"AS YOU CAN TELL, MY BABY GIRL ISN'T TOO FOND OF MEAN PONIES WANTING TO HURT POOR OLD DAD! MAYBE YOU'LL DO WELL TO REMEMBER THAT, BECAUSE I DID TELL HER TO PLAY NICE! SO PLEASE BE NICE TO ME, OR SHE WILL BE MEAN TO YOU! AND YOU DON'T WANT HER TO BE MEAN, EVERYTHING WILL START TO HURT IF YOU BE MEAN!"

I reached my arm out and levitated one of the announcers over to me, namely Botch. I grabbed his microphone and hollered back at him. "JUST SEND THAT FUCKING THING OUT HERE ALREADY SO I CAN GO THE FUCK HOME, YOU SHITTLY LITTLE ARISTOCRAT!"

The stallion's smile was wiped completely from his face. The lights flushed completely out throughout the entire arena one by one. He spoke into the microphone with a much different voice than usual, showing just how displeased he was with my insult. "Dearie... playtime."

A disturbingly young voice began to sing, her voice reverberating around the entire arena.

♫Darling daddy's wasting away.
Darling daddy's not speaking today.
Darling daddy's gone on to pray.
To pray all our sins away.♪

A single spotlight started to softly glow on the tunnel's entrance. A young foal stumbled out of the gate slowly.

♪Mommy mommy, did you swallow glue?
Mommy mommy, I can't hear you.
Mommy, did you remember to pray
To pray our sins away?♫

I whispered to myself a quick prayer, holding my weapon to point at the figure who walked slowly towards me.

♫Mommy mommy, it's going to be okay.
Darling daddy's soon on his way.
Well all be together once again.
At last we can finally play...♫

♫All day we'll play...♫

The filly stood motionless as the lights came on. A large black mass was circled around her, stretching out to as far as twenty feet in every direction. It appeared that she stood in the middle of a pitch-black shadow, her face was hidden by much of her bangs, her coat appeared dull and her body slender and bony. The crowd stared in silence as they all collectively wondered what this was all about.

Meanwhile, I was very much clued in on what this this really was.

The ghastly figure walked towards me, not saying or singing as she approached. And with every step she took, the shadow followed in extension. I took a step back to keep my distance, but she sank into the ground and formed herself at the forward-most point of her shadow. In turn, the shadow whisked itself around her as if it was a fluid-like entity, returning to the circular shape it once had. The shadow was only a mere few feet away from me, I sped up my backpedaling until she rematerialized at where her shadow extended out the furthest towards me. And then the shadow had engulfed every last inch of ground where I stood. I tried to get out of the darkness before I was overwhelmed with the smell of decaying flesh. looking down to see a pair of rotten hooves latching on to my feet. I took aim at the entity above ground, only to find that it was no longer standing in front of me.

"Hey there, mister."

I turned around, holding my weapon close to prevent it from getting knocked away. The little filly was standing just a few inches away from me, looking up at me with her glossy eyes. It didn't take much to point out the obvious. "You're dead, aren't you?"

The filly smiled, extending her hooves up to me. "I wanna play! Can we play together? Pleeease?"

I aimed the gun for her head, shaking mine. "The dead don't speak, nor do they play."

She disappeared in an instant, showing up right next to me. I turned to catch her, she giggled beside me. I faced in the direction where she giggled, she instead spoke behind me. "Oh, I know! Let's play hide-n-seek!" I turned to one side and caught a glimpse of her walking by, I immediately turned and fired at the first shadow I saw raise from the ground. Instead of her, it was a young stallion who's entire top half I blew away. The corpse plopped to the ground before a multitude of hooves reached from within the black abyss to reclaim the corpse into the dark collective. "I'll give you to the count of zero to find me! Catch me if you can! A hundred!... Ninety-nine!... Ninety-eight!..."

Seeing so many hooves reach up and swamp the body was enough to put my heart into overdrive. I had to stop for a moment and collect myself before firing off all my ammo in a fear-induced panic. "Oh shit. Oh God I hope you make it any easier to find you." All around me, all I could hear was the sound of her giggling. in varying directions.

"H̴̱̓e̷̹͊l̵͙͐l̷̹̉o̵̧͛.̴̮̂"

The pure filth I smelled as she whispered into my ear was beyond enough to make me lose my composure. I gagged and turned to where she whispered from. Again, she was gone.

"Eighty-three!... Eighty-two!... Eighty-one!..."

Five bodies materialized before me, I quickly took aim and show down two of them before they disappeared once more. While initially having her face, the two I shot down had turned back to their original forms before being reabsorbed into the collective. Trying to think on my feet, I summoned a C4 grenade, and lobbed it at the extreme of the shadow's reach. It landed on the ground for a moment before exploding, sending a massive collection of rotten body parts flying into the air around the arena.

My eyes expanded, my chest started to pound as I realized the horrifying truth that I was actually standing on top of the beast itself. My entire spine registered a flight response and I swapped my weapon for something I could use for immediate results. I cocked my shotgun and fired it into the ground, hitting something that seemed to screech out upon my hitting it. I ran ahead, only to get tripped by a pair of hooves holding up an arch shape to tactically catch my foot. My shotgun accidentally discharged into a nearby wall. I reached out and levitated the weapon over to behind me and shot at the ground immediately behind me. The pair of hooves that clutched on to me immediately let me go and I gained some distance to where I was close to being outside of the circular shadow. I continued firing into the ground until I was clear of shadow and standing on solid dirt again.

But that's where the horror began.

A tendril of the shadow extended to the furthest reaches of the arena floor itself, traveling up a wall before coming out as a hideous mass of flesh and hooves to reach back across and shove me back into the bounds of the shadow. It all happened so much faster than I could react to what was going on. The mass that pushed me began to morph into the filly's head, just her head alone as she spoke in a distorted voice. "̴Y̵o̵u̷'̵r̴e̷ ̷n̸o̵t̷ ̵v̵e̴r̵y̵ ̷g̷o̸o̷d̷ ̵a̸t̴ ̷b̶e̶i̶n̵g̸ ̵'̶i̷t̴'̵,̵ ̶a̵r̷e̸ ̵y̸o̸u̸?̶"̶

No further hesitation, I grabbed my weapon and shot at her face, blowing a massive hole into the lump of flesh. Her voice spoke out to tease me yet again.

"̶♪̸M̷i̴s̶s̶ ̶m̸e̶!̵ ̴M̵i̵s̶s̶ ̸m̷e̷!̴ ̷N̷o̵w̷ ̷y̴o̴u̵ ̷g̵o̷t̴t̵a̷ ̸k̷i̵s̶s̸ ̸m̸e̶!̷♪̸"̷

All rational processes in my brain had come to a complete stop. All of it was now fear, my mind was programmed under the mentality of 'everything goes'. Whatever I had, shoot all of it, shoot everything, shoot until it stops moving. That was the only plan I had up to this point. So I summoned every shotgun I had loaded commenced to issuing a firing squad to the floor. Hellish screeching and ghoulish screaming, each of varying voices and ages filled my ears. I clenched my eyes shut and tried to ignore them, coming to grips that I was hearing nothing but dead bodies making various sounds, which only made it ten-times worse.

Before long, all I heard were varying clicks, signifying that my weapons all needed a reload. And seeing the various dismembered body parts strewn around the floor gave me confidence that I had worn down the mass enough where I could escape with less resistance. For good measure, I threw another C4 grenade behind me and let the damage rain in as I reloaded every gun I used.

Strangely enough, my magic was never as strong as it was in that moment. The total weight of weaponry and ammunition I carried with my reloading process was shy of five-hundred pounds. And as I stood a free man from the shade she threw around herself, I started looking into a way to cover my escape. I tossed out a number of smoke bombs to cover my advance, and a few others I used to draw attention away from myself. I event threw a few into the stands to mock up my direction of ascent. I did however scale the wall and cleared the floor before rolling a measure or more into the stands to widen my escape.

***Point of Perspective: Equus Nondis***

The guns disappeared from above the arena as soon as I made it into the concourse. I continued bombing for my escape, giving myself every possible route to leave the arena. I even transformed to give myself some added speed, because four hooves ran much faster than two legs. I ran, gasping for air as I broke out into a full retreat. No one could identify who I was in this form except for Umbra himself. All I had to do was play it cool for most of my way out of the district. But it was hard to do with the distorted scream coming from the arena.

T̶̰͗͝H̷͖̜͒A̵̖͝Ą̵̅̄Ạ̸͒A̴͍̋́A̴̭̿T̴͎̜́'̴̦̋S̶̝̆̀ ̷̱͍͂Ñ̷̜́O̴̝̒O̶̅͜O̶̟͛ͅO̷͌ͅO̸̰̽T̶͍͒͜ ̷͚̍̀F̶͚̗̓Ä̶̞̳́Ă̴̳̆͜A̴̟̚A̶̡̲̋̅A̴̱̻͑̚Ì̶̢Í̶̯Ỉ̶͓I̷̧̛̤̔Í̶͍I̷͓̼͠R̴̙͎͂́!̶̧̛̘

I took a deep breath and broke into a gallop for the nearest alley leading out into the city streets. I didn't dare look behind me out of fear of seeing a rampaging mass of flesh in hot pursuit. The only thing I could do was make my way to the castle where I knew I would be safe. I couldn't stop for anything, much less putting a scroll to the floor and hoping that whatever the unholy hell that thing is doesn't see me and stop me.

Once I cleared the district, I took the most direct path to the castle that I could. I wasn't going to pretend that I had a solid plan other than run for my life. I didn't care about anything else than to clear my way of that thing. And I wasn't interested in seeing if I was being pursued. I was in the home-stretch, and I was going to get there one way or another. I turned to another main road, seeing the castle checkpoint in plain sight. I was almost home.

And then I tripped. I looked back to see what it was that had stopped me.

...Another pair of hooves, decaying and foul, protruding from the ground as if to note it's triumph. I looked up in the sky to see a number of dead bodies flung through the air. Each of them glared at me as they passed overhead. I shrank with horror and ignited my horn with magic, summoning a weapon for me to use in my escape. I used my magic to clear the hooves that tried to grasp on to me and started running again. I ran into the check point, bypassing the guards who cried for me to halt my advance. Instead I transformed on the spot.

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

"EVERYBODY, IN THE FUCKING CASTLE! MOVE! NOW!"

I pushed open the doors to the castle foyer, lunging for freedom. The initial wave of optimism I felt in seeing the lights of the halls had filled me with the hope that I had found my way back home. I saw that everyone had greeted me, I was perfectly fine to make my way back into Celestia's hooves. But even that vision was tarnished with a single face...

Senator Somber Spiral, a pony we confirmed dead just yesterday, stood between me and my advance into the castle. He opened his mouth and a massive tendril leaped from his tongue to hit me in my chest, shoving me back out into the darkness of outside. I was then hauled into the air by yet another tendril that dangled me haphazardly. The filly's face formed before me and spoke in a greatly distorted voice.

"̷̜̠̗̰̰̆̔́̕P̷̢̈́͗͘L̶̗͕̲̜͒̓̆À̷̙̬̌Ÿ̵̫̰͕͊̄̇͝T̶̡̻̥̼̍I̷̜͉̝̜̩̔͑̍͂M̷̖̫̻̬̽̈́E̶̡͔͂̊!̶̥̠͇̟̀̋ ̸̢̥̪̥͒̌͗̔I̸̤̠͉͓̊Ș̷̡̘͖̓͜͠Ṇ̷͔̙̆̀́͠'̶̭̻̩̔̇̈́͆͒T̸͈͕͈̽̎̌̕!̸̩̭̮͕̖̉̈́̅͝ ̴̣͛͗̈́̓̌Ò̸̫͒̈́͝V̴̧͚͖̦͈̚͝Ē̴̻̟̻̺͜Ṛ̸̖̺͘!̶̬̿͆͛ͅ"̴̛͇̫̽͊

In a whipping motion, I was pulled from the air and brought back down to almost ground level before being dragged through various alleys and passageways. I cried out as I was nearly pulled into various carts and lamps lining the streets. The monster's voice spoke to me yet again.

Y̴͉̕O̶͚͑U̵̗̇ ̵̼͝T̷̻͋H̷̞̅Ò̸͉U̵͖̔G̷̜̐H̵͙̄Ṫ̴̬ ̶̛̥T̶̰̄H̷̻͂A̷̜͐T̸͈́ ̵̮̆O̶̮̅Ň̸͎L̸͖̓Y̶̭͘ ̴̡̿Y̵͍͛Ŏ̴̥Ụ̷̄ ̶̜̃H̴͉̀Á̸̳D̴͎͝ ̷͎̋A̷̫͑ ̵̬́T̵͎͠Ú̶͖R̵͚͌N̷̡͠ ̵̳͌Ḯ̴̤Ň̴̬ ̵͔̾T̵̹͝H̸̙̅E̸̖̿ ̶͔̒F̵͉̊Û̴͉Ṉ̸̓!̸̥͋ ̸́ͅŴ̴͍E̴̦̔L̷̛̼L̷̡̏ ̷̰̿Ì̴̼ ̶̞̇C̴͓̕O̷͉̾U̸͔̎N̴̯̔T̷̘̂E̸̪̚D̴̤͌ ̸̣̒T̸̳̈O̴͖̔ ̶̡̃A̵̬̔ ̴̝͑Ḫ̷̾Ů̵̬N̶͕̆D̴̬̕R̷̤͂Ẹ̸̾D̷͚͛ ̷̠̚Ä̶̼́G̴̘̊Ä̴̻́Ḯ̷̩N̷̮̽!̵̝̓ ̴̳͐A̸͘ͅN̴̥̍D̶͈̀ ̵̧͑N̷̺͛Ỏ̵̪W̴̼̔!̴͉́ ̴͈͒I̸̤͒'̵̫̽M̶̝͝!̵̛̯ ̶͖͝I̵͇͂T̴̬̈́!̴͔̚ ̷̛͈S̸͍̕O̵̪̕ ̶̠̿R̸͘͜Ẹ̶̑A̷̝̎D̷͕͑Y̵̺̍ ̷̙͊Ȍ̶̩R̵͉̄ ̸̪̌N̵͇̍Ǫ̶̔T̷͉͑!̷̖́.̶̳͝.̸͓̆.̴̺̈

In a quick, uncontrollable ride, I was pulled right through the alleyways of Corrotto and yanked up each stair into the arena. The observing crowd made way for the tendril to pull me in through the hole at the center of the lobby opening straight to the arena floor. I looked down to see a hulking mass of bodies swirling up into an eldritch horror the size of the entire arena floor. It was then that the climax of my nightmare was truly realized.

There stood The Congregant, the face of Satan himself.

"̸̟̰͉̈́̀̽̀̅̿́͜Ȟ̸̭͕̩̺̣̤̥̅̚̕Ę̷̰̩͇̰͓́̅̋̏́Ŕ̶̭͇͚̾E̸̳̗̺̘̯̋͊̈͝!̷̛̑̊̾͂̈́̀͜.̸̨͔̺̓̃̇͐̌̕.̷̮̙͋͗͐͂̋̏̓.̴̢̨̛͉̼̭̬̳̄ ̷̛̗̜͎͂͒̂͝Î̴͓̲̲͇̙̲̳̊̏͑̑!̶̖̜͚̯̪̝͠.̵͔͉̗͇̹̆̏̀͘ͅ.̵̨̖͎̼́͑ͅ.̵̨̼̍͋̿̈́̅͘ ̴̪͖͓̰̲̥͚͛̿A̴̺̫̔̀́ͅÅ̸̜A̶͉̬͑̈́͑̏Ḁ̶̤͕͉̫͎̈́̏͐̕ͅĄ̷̫͔̱̊̂̔̈́̈́̐M̸̧̡̉̒͌͆͘̕Ḿ̶͈̳̻̗̍̏̀̎͌͝M̶̨͉͇̖̲͛M̴̹̱̬͛̏͑͊̅Ḿ̸̨̳̫̱̜M̶̧̡̙̼̼͒̿͒͝͝ͅ!̵̦̏̏͋̈́!̸͎̆͗!̷̥̺̗͓̹̩̫͝"̸̠͋͊

Before I could even breathe to scream, I was yanked to the ground and hauled by the collective as the hellish thing spoke to me.

"̴̨̀Ï̶̬ ̶̪̀C̴̥̈́Ä̴̖Ȗ̷̲G̴̬̐H̷̘́T̸́͜ ̸̦̓Y̸̡͂Ǫ̵̓U̵̙̔!̴͍͑ ̵͓̓Ä̸̝R̴̳̄E̵̮͂ ̵̙͒Y̸̮͋O̷͇͘Ụ̸̔ ̵̯̋R̵̥̈́E̶̦͋Ă̸͉D̸̙̐Ÿ̶̖ ̴̡̀F̷̦̃O̶͈͝Ř̶̖ ̵̼͂Ŷ̸̩O̵̲͒Ù̵̱Ṟ̸͊ ̶̘̾P̵͕͒Ṳ̷̽N̵̨̕Ȋ̷͔S̷̠̏H̷͔̅M̴̭͑É̷̻N̷̠̈́T̷̲̽ ̶͉̈́N̵̤̽O̵̯͊W̷̲̃!̴̩̈́?̷̰̃"̵͝ͅ

One of the tendrils raised high into the air and came barreling down into my chest. The world faded to black for moments at a time. I couldn't breathe. Everything was spinning. Instead of fighting to escape, I was now fighting for my life. Instead of putting several bullets into this thing, I had to find the strength to be able to breathe again. It started off slow, short collections of the foul air, to having a full chest of the putrid odor. Did I care what the air smell like, not in the slightest.

I regained my awareness, at least enough to summon one weapon at a time. I pulled out my sniper rifle and unloaded at the collective, blasting bodies apart that were so easily replaced by others. Eventually, I ran out of ammo. I went through every shotgun I had in queue, blasting at whatever tendril came my way. Ammo ran short, and soon out. I had no more bombs, I had no more ways to escape, maybe just one. I summoned the scroll and stamped the parchment to my foot right where the circle was. Blue flames erupted from the parchment, I swore that freedom was mine at last. But an orange aura snatched the parchment away and it was slammed to a passing body of the collective. That body disappeared, while I had remained.

I looked around to see Umbra standing in my press box, smiling as his horn quenched itself of the same orange aura that took my freedom away. He gave me a single nod as if to say 'well-played' before laughing to mouth the words 'but your time is up'. I reached within my pocket, going for the only instance of hope I had left in my heart. But as I pulled out the jewel I figured would be my salvation, it ended up being as cold and lifeless as the bodies that made up this nightmare.

Divine intervention?... I guess life said I had enough chances.

I was slammed to the ground one final time, and the world went black.

I opened my eyes, not to see the lights of the arena. I did not see the faces of the collective that delivered the knockout blow. I didn't hear the sounds of a roaring crowd, nor did I ever hear the announcement of my defeat. Instead, I was in a dark, quiet room. My eyes opened slowly, seeing a darkened ceiling. I motioned to move my arms, but I did not feel them. I could not feel my legs. My eyes were open. I could not speak, I couldn't move my jaw to do so.

Maybe... this is death.

Or rather, I'd simply wished for it. "Ah... so you're awake at last." Much like a sleep paralysis demon, Umbra entered into the room with a most calm and terrifying smile on his face. He wore a white lab coat, slowly waltzing his way over to me. "Well... don't you look so handsome." He ran a hoof down my face as he inched closer. "So tender and vulnerable, sleeping so peacefully on one of my tables."

Every part of me wanted to scream, to fight, to escape. But my chest wouldn't rise high enough, my mouth couldn't open wide enough, my limbs couldn't even hope to move that much. Everything was so numb. Maybe he drugged me before I woke up.

The stallion nuzzled into my neck and giggled, smelling the odor of my sweat and the various stenches of decayed flesh. It didn't bother him, more enticed him than anything. "Oh, you beautiful creature of such soft skin. I've longed for this moment, so much. But I know that your body cannot reciprocate what I wish for just yet. The medicine is strong on you, it has to be, you suffered nine broken ribs, two broken arms, a broken leg, a broken hip, and a cracked skull. It would hurt to exist the way you are now. Gotta let that healing factor of yours kick in all the way and do it's job."

He smiled as he levitated something from off the table next to me. He held it up to his face, holding it in a plastic bag with a sample number written down on the top right corner of it. In that back was the the jewel I found.

"Though it shouldn't take too terribly long now... Apparently, you're an element bearer. That's an interesting development. I knew I recognized this tiny little gem from somewhere. So you've been chosen by the entity of Harmony itself to bring balance. I suppose I did good in capturing you when I did and keeping you alive. I'm essentially seen as public enemy number one by these things if you're the one it chose to cling on to. And if you were to die, it's common sense that the elements would return to it's former set of wielders. That wouldn't be a very good thing to have happen for me."

He put the element aside as he brought his attention back to me.

"Though this gives me the experience I never thought I would have. To be the cock-sleeve of an element bearer, kinky. I'm almost itching at the array of meds to induce that thing of yours to stay up a good two-to-three hours. Maybe a few enhancements to engorge your size a bit." He said before having himself a giggle. "I have all kinds of tricks, from endurance, to load volume increases, even so much as endorphin and dopamine amplifications. It took me four days to grow accustomed to the human physiology and develop ways how I can make these things happen. And you will be my first living subject to test it on." He leaned over me and gave me a lengthy peck on my lips as he straddled me for just a moment. "I'll make you never want to leave me. I'll break your mind and make you the obedient pet you deserve to be. You'll forget about Celestia, make no mind of Twilight, discard all thoughts of Rarity, dispose of the memory of Kalimba, toss all recollection of Blue Royal... and usher you to a world that Alabaster whishes he can do on talent alone."

He removed himself from off of me, licking his lips in doing so.

"And when I'm finished with having my fun, I'll probe that brain of yours to find a new way to your world. All of the great things I see in our future together. You should be proud. You'll bring me more humans that I can then experiment with! Of course, I'll keep you as a control, you know, my little special base of information. You and I will be brilliant together. That is what you will do for me."

He walked to the exit with the most giddy smile on his face as he danced around and pointed to himself.

"It's as I always told you. It's not what you do for others.... Me. Was, is, and forever will be for me.... Tootles."

Author's Note

Fair warning: There will be some gay stuff in the next chapter. And it won't really be too pretty.
See you in a bit...

Chapter CXII

Time has passed, I don't know how long.

My wounds healed quickly, almost all that was broken in my body was made whole again. I never healed that fast, nor did I ever imagine myself being able to. But instead of being able to heal properly to the fullest extent, I was dragged off to another room by one of these damn creepy-looking dolls. They had me bound to a table as they transported me to another room in what appeared to be some unusual medical wing of a hospital. The only difference was that the smell of death was ever present here, be it a faint trace or a rancid void. The results varied from each room I passed along the way.

Once I was moved into the new room, I was sat on a device that had me on all fours like a pony. But instead of it being for ponies, the straps around my ankles indicated that this was built specifically with human anatomy in mind. And though the indentures where my knees were seated were comfortable, I was far from that.

The driving point of that discomfort: My lack of clothes.

The seats where my knees were rested had separated more and more until I was firmly planted against the padded rest where my torso was supported. My arms were strapped to a pair of padded pylons, with grooves built for the restraints of my wrists and elbows.

Much of my body was still waking from the numb that those medicines induced. But the horror of being in this unfamiliar place, this ward filled with so much death, all of it remained. I couldn't even ask the questions of how I even got here when I don't even know where I am or what day it is. Where do I even begin?

A cold hoof was placed on my backside, causing me to seize up. "Shh, relax." Umbra walked from the side of the room, lightly guiding his hoof up my spine as he spoke. "Just imagine the new world of pleasure you're bound to embark."

As if that made me any more comfortable. I'm tied up, stark naked with my legs propped apart and he's expecting me to relax when I don't even know what's coming or where I am. All I could do was try to move myself out of position. But alas, the numb was still present.

Meanwhile, Umbra had gotten himself a clip board and a pen to jot down some notes of my condition. Going through a checklist of things, he nodded quietly as to count off the preparations for what he would do next. He also summoned a tape recorder, bringing it close to his lips whenever he spoke out his observations. "Doctor's log #17495792. Genus-species categorization: Homo Sapien, Subject number in file #0000001. Subject in control phase, appears to be unsteady and nervous. Life-signs are stable. Control variable number issued #0000000. Establishing contact. Initiating phase zero of study. Stimulation process initiating... standby."

The tape recorder clicked off and his magic started to grasp at me down below. His grasp was gentle, but there was an eagerness about his pace. I tried not to look at him as he conducted his perverted experiment, I instead focused on a point of interest, trying not to behold the face of this sadistic researcher.

The tape clicked on again. "Subject is uncooperative in control phase. Restarting stimulation process... standby."

He used his magic to tilt my head towards him. Making sure that my eyes couldn't avoid his face. I closed my eyes, thinking of how I wanted to go back home. His attempt to force me into arousal had completely failed, and he lost patience with the attempt.

"Subject is unresponsive to ministrations. Additional course of stimulation required. End control phase." With the conclusion of that report, I knew that he wouldn't give up so easily. Thankfully, the numbness in my arms and legs had subsided enough for me to be able to move them. Though it didn't matter much, I was still just as compromised as ever. Umbra walked over to me and started caressing my cheek with his hoof. "Aw, what's wrong? Are you nervous about the lab?" He brought his hoof to my chin, forcing my eyelids open with his magic to look at him. "Trust me, I can assure you that you'll be quite used to it in the coming time. Try not to focus too much on trivial things like minutes, hours, or days. You leave that bit of record-keeping for me to sort out. Right now, it's all about us."

He walked off to a nearby table, grabbing a small phial of liquid and injecting a needle for extraction. He didn't fill the entire needle, just only a small portion of it. He walked back over to me, injecting it into a tube that fed into my arm.

"Beginning phase one. Intravenous application of drug Σ #001426 successful. Awaiting results." When he finished speaking into his tape recorder, he introduced the small phial of liquid over to me. "You know that really special drug that helps some stallions keep up a little longer in bed? Well this was one of it's earlier recipes I drafted way back when. In fact, what's out there on the market now is the formula Σ #001428, a heavily diluted version of the one I'm giving you now. In fact, Σ1428 is the codename for the drug Sildenafil, the only difference is that the powdered version was further diluted and compressed into pill form. But if you use enough, it might cause adverse cardiovascular reactions like heart attack and stroke. But Σ1426 has a bit of an addictive element in it, hence why it was so heavily diluted. Too much and it makes you into a sex-crazed fiend. That's why I had to give you a small dose. Small dose, smaller chance of addiction, smaller risk of adverse side effects."

To my misfortune, that formula was just as effective as the pain-killer he gave me to help me heal. It did just as he advertised. The numbness throughout my body was quickly flushed out and replaced with a sudden rush of arousal. All sensitivity to even the air around me was so damn intense that the slightest breeze was tickling my skin. I can only imagine having this kind of stuff in your system while wearing clothes would be a hell in and of itself.

My body rebelled strongly against my intentions, even so far as to raise a mutiny against the brain. The only thing that was in control was my growing erection. Umbra watched with excitement as I came into form. "In speaking of dose size, I must say that I am not disappointed with what you're offering me here." With a smile on his face, he started making note of his observations. "Subject is experiencing swelling of the phallus, this is considered normal reactionary behavior. Now beginning sensitivity assessments. Phase one, control study initiated." He put the tape down and whispered in my ear, being careful to not touch me in any way. "Just sit tight for me, honey. I need to see if you're going to burst at the slightest breeze. Now what it will do is that it will automatically stimulate you until you hit your plateau. It's how I gauge the maximum size of your phallus."

Just hearing the scientific terminology was already a turn-off as it is. But that didn't matter to my body. What mattered was the sensations going through it. My body showed positive responses to the tingling running it's course all over my skin. It felt as though several feathers had lightly brushed all over every inch and orifice of me. And being that some of those areas were indeed intimate, some parts of me could only respond in a positive way.

Umbra took notice of my trying to resist, but found greater amusement in how my body showed a contrarian response. "Oh, yours is interesting. Yours doesn't flare out like an equine would. But it does flare up in a different way. Glans will harden and will deepen in color. The corona of glans actually expands outwards by a small amount, but the rigidity is so distinct." Just the fact that he spoke had gotten me closer, it made me feel a deep shame as my body showed favor to his experiment, so much so that he too began to feel aroused in seeing it take place. "Oh sweet mercy, you specimen... I might have to keep myself calm. It's no fun to pop the cork when there's no occasion for it." A quick glance in his direction was what told me how eager he was to make his next set of notes. "Pre-ejaculate appears to be a very viscous fluid that almost resembles a spider's web when trickling from the glans. Now collecting sample for further analysis." He levitated a microscope and a sample slide to the side of us, reaching down beneath me to collect his desired sample. He cheered me on as he did so. "I can't wait to see what you'll do in the non-contact trials. I'm so excited."

Yeah I know, you don't have to tell me.

Upon a brief observation, he clopped his hooves together to show his exuberance. "Take a look at this." He said, rushing the eye of the microscope to me to view. I only obliged him and looked because I wouldn't have to see his face, or him coming to full-mast. "Do you see all of that, swimming with life? That's all within you, the essence of what gives you your potency. These are the little specialist forces that are known for getting the job done, even when you're not fully finished with the work." The tiniest bit of contact with the microscope hadn't done me any favors either. While it did give me a distraction, my contact with it still had a similar reaction like earlier. I reached my peak, plateaued, and came back down. The stallion looked underneath and giggled. "Another sample, for me? Surely you wouldn't be so modest." He replied in a flamboyant manner. "Initiating taste phase." He reported. I felt myself twitching as he held his mouth open to collect another sample in the most inappropriate manner. "Not fully bitter, rather neutral on the palate. Signs indicate that subject's diet is indeed prioritized for breeding purposes. Test concludes that subject is ready for the next phase. Now initiating phase two, direct-contact sensitivity."

The stallion didn't waste any time, he just moved upward and allowed himself to intercept me with his lips. I clenched my eyes shut, refusing to even acknowledge him underneath me. The only thing I could think of to do at the moment was to think of something unappealing, like the monster I had just fought. Fighting in general, humanities worst crimes, the horrors of nuclear radiation applied to the human body.

Umbra made a surprise move, causing me to shoot my eyes wide open and see that his hoof had reached all the way around to my buttocks, pulling them apart as to prod his hoof closer. I seized to resist his touch, but he was more so intrigued by my lower-extremity's reactions. He quickly made note of it. "Oh! Subject can clench muscles at will and cause the phallus to act in a manner similar to that of equine males. pre-ejaculate response has greatly increased." The panting he did underneath me was so embarrassing and unbearable. "Altering course of direct-contact research to indirect-contact methods."

He climbed from under me and walked over to his table of tools. But instead of pulling out something scientific or medically appropriate, he pulled out a single solitary stone that glowed a dull orange. He also brought out a tube of what appeared to be a lubricant. My eyes widened at the horror of what direction this experiment was taking. Meanwhile, he smirked as he walked around to my backside.

I was quick to regain my voice then. "Oh no, no you don't!"

He applied a magic spell to cut my voice short of any further protest. Once it was established that I couldn't speak, he placed a hoof on my buttocks and gently whispered into my ear. "There there. I know what you're thinking. This isn't your thing. But I can assure you that your reactionary response to such items will be a heavy indicator of some of your previously undiscovered breaking points. You may even find that you'll like it. And given the circumstances, I am more than willing to see just how far you will respond to this alternate course of stimulation." He applied the lubricant and eased the stone in with his magic. He also rubbed my stomach to try and comfort me. "So please relax. Deep breaths. I don't want to cause you harm."

I continued to clench myself, denying all entrance. But his magic had other plans. Instead of my being able to firmly resist, he massaged my testicles to ease the resistance in my body, playing off of the arousal brought by that drug he injected into me earlier. I activated my magic in hopes that it would that I would fight him off. But my magic was quenched as soon as I started the process. The cuffs had been laced with sodium. I grunted as I tried to resist him, shifting my weight to avoid it, all of it, only to fail in the end. The shame and disgust was real this time. I couldn't even think of myself as a man with how this was going. I couldn't defend myself, I can't escape, I can't resist. The only thing I could do was be forced to accept what he was doing to me.

Oh God, if you are real, why do you let me live to see this?

"Insertion complete, now initiating stimulation phase."

The rock began to glow warmly, issuing tremors throughout my body. I felt my nails digging into my palms with how badly I wanted this to stop. I tried to take deep breaths and work past it, but it was far too strong for me. The stone was pressed further into me, until it hit a certain spot. I tried shifting my weight again, I tried passing it back out, but with where it was, every small movement I made had made the sensation worse. It felt like I had started to pee myself, except that I wasn't doing any of that. Instead, I was just peaking and pooling an immense amount of precum.

He made record of the developing situation, all as I braced for the inevitable failure of my resistance. "Stimulation, sixty percent. Prostate is applying a heavy dose of pre-ejaculate. Subject is reaching... climax?"

As soon as he said it, it was all over for me. I could hear the tiny drops beneath me before the powerful surge in my loins hit my body like the monster I fought. It was an unwanted discovery, I groaned and tried to suppress any signs of my emotions for a while, I couldn't let this sadist see me being as upset as I truly felt. But my voice trembled like it, my eyes clenched to visualize home as I was coming back down.

Umbra took notice of my orgasm and brought another two dishes to collect samples, one for observation and the other for tasting. As if to congratulate a kid on his first time using the toilet on his own, he patted me on my side and whispered into my ear. "Oh good boy. That's a good boy. Oh that's a big boy, making all of that for me." I tried my best to suck it up, not showing any kind of emotion to what had just happened. He removed the stone from within me and I heard it fall to the ground with a crack. Next, I heard him shushing me in my ear.

But his weight adjusted.

I looked back to see that he had completely boxed himself over me. I tried to shift myself in whatever direction, fighting like hell to move away as I felt him against me, taking aim for where his magic guided him. I started to scream in protest, but he successfully aligned himself. He continued to shush me as his forelegs wrapped around my abdomen. The bonds that held me shook frantically as I tried to jolt myself free. With a shiver of satisfaction, he climbed onto me and whispered in my ear.

"Shh... it's okay. It's just a little pop. Just a little..."

At Canterlot Castle...
***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

Discord was kind enough to port us directly over to my apartment where we could cross back over to Canterlot. It was all five of us, me, Rick, Cliff, Stanton, and Alex. Once we got through, we could hear the halls outside full of noise. The castle seemed a lot busier than usual. We walked right out the portal room to see a contingent of armed guards running down the halls, making sure that the castle was secured. Perhaps we had gotten ourselves into the middle of a battle. Either way, we needed to see the princess about what was going on.

Along our way we came into contact with one of the guards Nondis worked with recently. She was issuing her orders to many of the lower-ranked patrols looking for instructions. "Make sure that the castle grounds are secure! Comb every bush, check every tree, inspect every brick, nook and cranny! And get those bodies burning immediately!"

"Yes sir!" The group of guards called out before running past us. As they departed, the mare collapsed against a nearby wall and started breathing heavy.

Alex walked over and checked in on her. "Hey, we just came in. What's going on?"

"EVERYTHING!" She shouted in a panic. "The elements are missing, there's dead bodies raining all over Canterlot, and they were MOVING! One of the bodies, a senator who's murder crime scene I had to oversee had walked right out of the morgue and sent the captain to get snatched up by some hellish creature. I mean, not that the senator was any less of a hellish creature himself!"

"Wait time-out!" Rickey called out. "What creature came and snatched up Nondis?"

"I-I-I don't know!" She stuttered. "Whatever the hell that thing was crashed the gate at the main checkpoint. And then there are citizens having a frenzy out there over what they saw!" She put her hoof on her head, trying to control herself. "Equestria's in shambles, the princesses are trying to organize, and our captain's gone to that creature that just showed up. And now I don't know how to deal with any of it!"

"Hey!" Alex called out to the mare. "Breathe, slowly."

"How can I breathe slowly when I can't even begin to put any of this together!?" She questioned frantically.

Alex knelt down and placed his hands on her shoulders. "If anything, we're here to help. Also..." He took off his jacket to reveal the purple diamond he wore on his shirt. "...I think we just got our marching orders."

The mare stammered for a moment, looking in disbelief as we all revealed our jewels to her. Cliff flipped his chain over to reveal his, Rickey flipped his belt to reveal his, Stanton lifted his sleeve to show his wrapped around his wrist like a bracelet, and I moved one of my bangs to show mine hiding in my hair. "HOW IN EQUESTRIA DO YOU HAVE THOSE!?"

"We don't know." I explained. "All I can tell you is that they showed up on us just today. And your captain, our friend, that's your sixth right there."

"And if you saying that he got got by that thing we saw on Tuesday, we might really need to have a talk with the princess." Cliff added.

The mare took Alex's advice and took a moment to breathe and recollect. "Okay. You're element bearers for all I can assume. I got plenty of questions, but I'm in no position to ask them. And since you're responding to a matter of national security, you get red carpet access. Follow me."

We walked through the halls, seeing an assortment of ponies collecting a number of things. There was one hall where the guardsmare flinched before taking off her helmet and grabbing a nearby cloth from one of the maids, wrapping it around her muzzle.

"It's gonna get bad. Cover up or hold your breath if you can."

We walked through the hall, not truly understanding what she meant with that warning. But it didn't take long to realize what it was she was warning us about. There was an absolutely putrid smell in the hall, a smell that had me getting flashbacks about the incident where we found Count in my apartment. "SHIT, Goddamn, what is that!?" Stanton questioned.

"That is the smell of a decomposing body." I replied as I covered my nose with my shirt.

"I know you lyin', stop it." Cliff called out to me.

"She's not wrong." The guardsmare replied as we turned the corner, Along our way, we saw a deposit of at least seven body bags stashed up against the wall.

"Oh shit that is!" Cliff called out as he two guards move a badly decomposed corpse across the hall.

The odor itself triggered Alex's gag reflex. He quickly covered his nose and mouth. "Oh fuck, that is bad!"

"Is the princess doing anything about this?" Rick questioned.

"Processing takes up to three hours, sometimes longer. And the castle doesn't have the equipment to deal with cremations on a scale of a morgue. We're just getting whatever we can find out of the street. Our orders are to ID them, tag them, bag them, and burn them efficiently with respect. Pyres take up to six and eight hours to burn a body, but not thoroughly. Something about the temperature not being high enough."

"So what's with the morgue?" I asked.

"The morgue is already on backfill." She replied. "There's nothing we can do but this."

As we passed by a collection of bodies, we saw a familiar face angrily debating with some of the medical staff that were identifying the corpses. "WHY DID YOU NOT BURN HIM! I DEMAND TO KNOW!"

"Well with all due respect, ma'am, we were already using some of our facilities to help with the backlog over at the morgue. We couldn't do anything other than have him in cold storage!"

"ABEG! Please! Burn him, give him rest!" She mourned loudly, grabbing the attention of several other workers.

Rickey walked over, holding his shirt over his nose as he spoke to the zebra. "Kalimba, holy hell, is everything okay?"

"No! It is not!" She hollered before putting a hoof to her muzzle and kneeling over to weep. I didn't understand what was going on with her, but she seemed to be in great pain. I really wanted to be there for her, at least to offer some words of sympathy and encouragement.

Before I had the idea of approaching her on my own... "Hey, give her a moment." Alex walked over to Rick and grabbed him to pull him along. As we walked away, we heard the zebra belt out a painful shriek. Alex looked back and winced at the sound of her voice. "Okay. Keeping it short. That's probably her dad."

"Her dad?" Rickey asked. "That's the same guy who sold her off. Why would she be like that all over her dad of all other people?"

"He was found murdered, with the word 'obey' cut into his stomach." The guardsmare summarized.

"Oh dear lord." I muttered in a gasp.

"Wow, ponyland got real hardcore since we last showed up, didn't it?" Stanton questioned.

"Dude, we racked up changelings against a wall and executed them by firing squad." Alex replied. "Do we really have any room to speak here?"

"But that's some 'First 48' type shit." Cliff pointed out.

"Hello, my apartment?" I added as we walked along. "None of this is new. We know what we were running from, we know what Ummie can do. We know why some of us are in hiding. If anything, the longer they keep those bodies in here, the longer we're at risk, the human world is at risk right now."

"So you're saying that the elements might have chose us because of that?" Rick asked.

"You heard Nondis' warning. Ummie will take our fucking bodies and turn them into puppets to move around with. That's how bad it is. And considering that he's still holding on to Jasper, who's to say that he can't use those bodies to move around bodies... or worse, that thing?"

The guardsmare stopped as we approached the throne room. "Well whatever that thing is, it brought the crown seat of Equestria to it's knees."

As the door opened, we could see a gathering of armored guards, atypical of the standard gold armor that the many others had. Each of them donned silver armor. The group of guards all huddled around the throne as the princess issued her orders to them. "I don't care if you find him in the mountain, the valley, the river, the sky, Canterrot for all I care! Find the captain immediately, that order is final!!!"

"Yes, your majesty." The group called out before dispersing. The princess closed her eyes as she rose from her seat, pacing back and forth.

"It was a moment! A moment, Celestia! Can you do nothing right!?"

As we all got closer the princess stopped pacing and cleared her throat. Almost as if he was our de-facto leader of the pack, Alex spoke out to the distressed princess. "Your highness, we came as soon as we could."

"Alex, your brother─" Celestia began before she was interrupted.

"We were told that the elements have a healing factor for it's bearers, I think Rainbow Dash explained to us that if we get hurt, we still can bounce back relatively quickly. So in short, I can assume that Nondis is not dead."

"Him being dead is not the issue. Him being missing is the peril that puts Equestria at risk."

"Your highness, with all due respect, our world is just as imperiled as yours." I added. "The longer these bodies stay rotting in the halls, the more chances Ummie gets to walk around and do God-knows-what. He's playing literal chess with his corpses and right now, all his pieces are circling around us. If anything gets to you, that's the game and he moves on to our world."

Stanton then spoke. "I know it seems suspicious that we have the elements─"

"Melanie is right." She jumped in, looking to me. "Your intuition is on the mark. If all else fails here, he gains access to your world." Her horn began to glow brightly as she cast a beam to the ground, showing a diagram of an unknown shadow creature sending tendrils out to various ponies. "Say that we go by Nondis' theory. If the creature moves in accordance to whatever body Umbra has at his disposal, much like he would, then it is be possible for the creature to spawn into your world. In turn, Umbra too would have access to that world as well. And if he can use human bodies for that same purpose, then all he has to do is move them around much like he would a pony here."

"And shooting a dead body isn't going to result in anything but him being able to use it all over again." Rick added.

"The same could be applied for that creature." The guardsmare added. "Senator Somber Spiral didn't just hop out of the morgue, he was moved in a specific position until the time was right for him to reveal that hoof. The captain showed up to barricade the castle from that thing, but it showed up here, which means that it is literally taking over bodies. This is a class-X threat, this threatens the natural order and puts all of Equestria at great peril."

"Not just you guys, remember?" Cliff jumped in. "If anything like that pops off, the whole fucking arsenal of the United States Armed Forces might be aiming at Mel's apartment. And if it gets bad in our world... there's solutions, but they aren't good in any way."

"It's going to be chaotic." Rickey explained. "Not everybody likes listening to directions, and there are others who don't listen to reason or logic. Some will cite religious reasons for why bad things happen. And we live in Texas of all places, can you imagine how that will pan out?"

"Oh God." Alex said with a horrific realization. "Walking bodies, raising the dead, omnipresence, and magic? Guy would pass as the Antichrist real fucking quick. And there will be religious nutjobs all looking at that with all the fucking stupidity in the world. Radicalizing televangelists telling people to follow the rebirth of Christ as he works 'wonders and miracles' to the human world before casting the world into chaos for the possibility of having more bodies to use."

"Society would fall apart as we know it." I thought aloud. "And it won't just be Texas either. Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, the whole Bible Belt. Hell, just name any state with a heavily evangelical voter-base and you got a whole crusading cache of weapon enthusiasts ready to go on a crusade for a pony leading them on."

"And don't think for one second it won't play into our global politics." Stanton said. "It's as Mel said, get a bunch of evangelical voters, and we'll be brought so far back that we won't even be able to say Civil Rights. And in terms of a global response, the crusading armies of these hyper-religious zealots will be fanning their bibles at every Middle-Eastern country for supremacy, more than they already do now. And to make the 'rapture' happen, they'll probably vote the guy in office and have him hold the big red button. And if he has that and learns what it can do... humanity is truly doomed."

Celestia quietly tried to piece together the issues of our social and global political talking points. The guardsmare spoke up in her place. "I take it that big red button means a bad thing."

"Think of a bomb that can wipe clean an entire city the size of Manehattan." Alex explained to the mare, who's eyes grew with shock. "...Now, imagine having access to six-thousand of those same weapons, each of varying grades of destruction." He then pointed his commentary to the princess. "Your highness, I'm sure Nondis told you of Hiroshima. Let's take that, multiply that by three-thousand, that's one event with all that power... Now add just another one thousand of those. That isn't just millions of lives..."

"Of course not... It's billions." She replied with a chill. Already weighing the seriousness of the situation, she stayed on our world's potential collapse for not another second. "Those elements know who to choose. You all are the hope of your world, maybe even ours as well."

"Okay, so lets get this train moving." Rick called out eagerly. "Sooner we get these things to do what they do, the sooner we go home. We got five of the things, so we should be able to win."

"It's not like that." The princess warned. "The elements operate with a fail-safe in mind. If one is missing or separated from the cause of the other five, then all will be rendered useless. It requires the unity of each element and the inherent traits of those respective elements. Hence why it requires the bonds of six strong friends. Your bonds are truly strong, but they are greater when Nondis is with you."

Stanton grumbled a complaint. "Why is that even a thing? We need to use these things to save Nondis, so we can save the world. What's the point of us even having the things if we can't even use them? How do we go without?"

"That's where we come in." All of us turned around to see the group of six ponies walking through the door. Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle all approached us, standing in line with each respective element bearer. The only one who stood by herself was Twilight, who continued to speak. "You five will be on standby until we can get Nondis back. The six of us still have our powers granted to us by the Tree of Harmony. We were hoping to have the elements as a backup, but seeing that they're needed elsewhere, we'll be satisfied with what we have."

"You guys are pretty lucky that the elements chose you when they did." Rainbow said boisterously as she flew over to Rickey. "Alright, so let's see the goods."

Rarity walked up to Alex, watching as he showed the purple broach. "Now that is a good fashion statement, darling."

Applejack walked up to Alex as he rolled up his sleeve to show his element. "So, Ah hear ya got that fancy ol' unicorn magic now."

Stanton replied to the farm pony. "And I still can't control it."

"Well you're in the right place. There are plenty of ponies who will be able to help you get started." Fluttershy said as she walked up to me, complimenting me on how I wore my element. "I never thought to wear it in my mane, but I think that way is probably the cutest way to wear it. It really goes so well on you."

While I thanked the usually-timid mare, Cliff walked out with his on his neck. "I still don't get why mine is a balloon."

Pinkie walked up to him and turned to her flank. "Uh, duh."

"Okay, now I see it."

Twilight's head dropped as she closed her eyes, imagining the final human standing before her. "You been wanting to learn about magic this entire time. Look where it's brought you now. I couldn't be more proud of you." She opened her eyes to see only the empty space standing before her. She began wiping her eyes of the few tears that formed. She immediately perked up and stood tall, placing the pain behind her. "Okay girls, the elements are secure."

"All except one, darling." Rarity said as she looked over to her side.

"Party doesn't start till Nonny walks in." Pinkie cosigned, doing the same.

"Then lets go get him." Rainbow answered.

"But where do we even start?" Fluttershy questioned.

"Ah reckon we start where he was seen last." Applejack suggested. "And I guess that means we pay a visit to the bad side of town."

"But Canterrot is where that thing might be!" The guardsmare replied. "What if something bad happens to you while you're there?"

"Well I believe that will be a job for you to protect them, Solemn Oath." Said Celestia, addressing the guardsmare who voiced her concerns.

"M-M-Me? I don't even know my way around Canterrot, much less giving a tour of the place!" Solemn replied.

"We got your back." Stanton replied as he flexed his muscles. "All we need to do is head by the armory and stock up before we head out. We load up, we're good."

"Maybe we can scope out what it is we're fighting."

"Discord, you'll be coming along." Fluttershy called out to the space around us.

As if he was hiding in her mane, the creature poked his head out and spoke. "As if I would let you go in a place like that and let anything happen to you."

"I know a little bit of my way around Canterrot." Twilight explained. "Perhaps I can take them down the main alley and we can get to the arena from there."

The guardsmare sighed in resignation, realizing that she was going to have to go in with us. "Well at least you have one pony who's good with close quarters combat."

"Why do all of that when we know a shortcut?"

We turned around to see Alabaster walking in with both his sister and Kalimba, who appeared very angry with what was going on. Blue comforted the zebra before walking up. "You don't need to take the alleyway and bring attention to yourself. We could just take the emergency route leading to the VIP Lounge. It works both ways, to-and-from. We can move in the group we currently have, all we have to do is be diligent and stay together."

Kalimba walked forward with a stern warning. "Your highness, we must get rid of dese bodies, and we must do so as best as we can."

"We can't! We don't have enough resources to get rid of them in a respectful manner!" Solemn Oath argued.

"Do nothing and we won't get to die in a respectful manner!" She vehemently replied. "I am speaking on behalf of de many who's families have to be notified of dis situation. Either dey go... or we join dem."

"We still don't have a crematorium capable of disposing all twenty-five bodies we recovered thus far." She argued once more.

"Abeg! How is it dat we do not have a room big enough to put a small sun in?"

Solemn looked at the zebra as if she had gone mad. "How do we put a sun in a room?"

"Idjiot! Why don't you ask de only pony who can move one!?"

All of our collective expressions popped light bulbs as we looked to Celestia, who wasn't slow to catch on. And she didn't take long to put together a plan. "Shining Armor, report!" She called out.

The aforementioned prince teleported into the room alongside Prince Blueblood, who spoke with the princess. "I take it we're going to finally do something about the body situation."

"I know it's a tall order to have you both do this, but it must be done." The princess began as she started her address with the young prince. "Shining, I need you and a squad to remove all banners and tapestries from within the royal chapel. I want that place absolutely clean of all royal valuables and assets!" She turned to Blueblood. "Blueblood, I need you to jot down the information of every body that we have found so far. When you confirm the identity, move those bodies into the chapel as quick as you can. Bag them so that they can hold up during the transportation process. If you cannot find any bags, get them there in one piece by any means necessary."

The two princes bowed before her. "Your highness."

"The only authorized parties that are allowed in the are are the ones moving the assets, and the ones transporting the bodies. Any pony who is caught perusing the area outside of those designated parties are to be arrested immediately! I don't have time for mistakes or lapses, I want this to be done all at once! We have one shot at this per day, or I won't be able to raise the sun! So do as I say, not as I do, and DON'T FUCK UP!"

"Wow, tactical F-bomb ready for launch." Stanton joked at the princess swearing.

Celestia shook as the two princes teleported away. She shuddered as she spoke. "This is the first time I have to deal with something like this in all my thousand plus years of life, much less the scale that it's on. I'm sorry that you had to see that side of me."

"Honey, you're crushing it." I replied with a smile. "I wouldn't be nearly as calm as you are. An F-bomb is a pretty appropriate verbal approach for the situation we're in."

The princess took a deep breath, appearing sad as she questioned Kalimba. "...How much time do we have until Umbra moves?"

The zebra appeared deeply upset as she answered the princess. "...We have a day. Two at most."

"That long? Why would he take that long to make his next move?" Alex questioned.

Kalimba slowly looked to us and sadly replied. "...Because when he has something he likes, he tends to take his sweet time with it. And considering how he felt about Nondis, and what he did to me..." Kalimba stopped before she could finish, probably not wanting to say what was on her mind.

But Alabaster concluded where Kalimba would not speak. "...Your brother will never be the same... as a man."

Meanwhile in the Unknown Lab...

With sweat on his brow and a smile on his face, Umbra laid atop of the human and repeatedly stroked his hair as he nuzzled him. He kissed him on his back, taking great care as to be gentle to the unmoving person. The stallion took great pride in his work, very much satisfied with his session.

He whispered into the man's ear. "You know, this entire time I've been dozing off alongside you."

The human did not respond.

"Still not talking?" The stallion questioned, getting no response. He slid up to kiss the man's cheek. "I know what you're feeling right now. I do, I've been there before. It's not as terrible as you make it out to be, it's more like a bad day at school. I know you had one of those, didn't you?" The human did not respond. "Ah, of course you did. You had that one day when Melanie first rejected you. It's a shame, she didn't know who you would become, how great you truly were. But life is full of missed opportunities. If you take one path, you're bound to miss another."

The human did not respond.

Reaching down, he lifted the human's chin before rubbing his cheek against the other. "I know you're hungry. Our little romp session had to really take it out of you, the way you were thrashing about. But I'm gonna really give you what you deserve, a nice healthy helping of fruits and veggies. And I'm gonna give you some water also, don't want you getting dehydrated while we have our time together. Okay?"

Again. No response.

"Okay then. When we get finished up and reenergized, it'll be your turn to give me what I want. So sit tight, I won't be long." The stallion stood up to stretch himself, looking back at his work as he did so. "Wow, I left a terrible mess. Maybe I should bring back a tub and a sponge. Gotta make sure you're all nice and tidy, don't want you feeling like filth."

The stallion left the room, closing the door behind him.

The Canterlot Castle Barracks...

The moment Alabaster made his point clear to Alex, that's when he stormed out the room to blow off some steam. I mean I felt the same way, I didn't want to believe that Nondis was getting what he was getting, but I had to think about who I was talking about. Hell, I caught a stray with how he wanted to make a point to Nondis to begin with. All I knew was that I had every reason to justify castration after hearing what Alabaster said. That means that Alex had every intention to turn him into a hunting trophy.

When we finished our debriefing, we immediately set out to the barracks to load up on weapons. As soon as we arrived, everyone cleared out of our way. They could probably see the scowls on our faces as we passed. Even Solemn stepped aside as she waited for us to get ready.

But that process came to a screeching halt as soon as we opened the door.

The stench of death and decay, the room was rife with it. Some of the weapons had a putrid sludge had all of us gagging, the first order of business was to send in one of us to grab clean weapons, another to go in and grab ammo, and then another to grab any instance of smokes for cover.

Even that process was hindered to a degree. There was no signs of smoke grenades anywhere. All the shotgun ammunition was gone. And most of the shotguns had been sludged on. Even the rifle Alex wanted, that was covered in the stuff too. When we asked what the hell this stuff was, Twilight explained to us in gruesome detail that when something dies, the juices in our bodies putrefy and create this unbelievably odorous sludge.

Safe to say that Alex's favorite weapon was out of the question now.

We still loaded up with enough ammo to take on a small army. Solemn took up a crossbow. Rainbow Dash took a spear, Rarity took up a sword, and Kalimba took on a revolver and a pair of pliers... not sure why she took those. But once we were loaded up, we headed out to the city streets through a secondary checkpoint, since the main gate was heavily damaged in the earlier attack.

Alabaster and Blue took point of our group. While I had concerns of such a large group traveling together and how we would go noticed by a majority of citizens, Blue made sure that we weren't seen by anyone in the slightest bit. Twilight also contributed her magic to assist in the effort. Along the way we could see some damage to certain vendor stalls that were shut down throughout the city streets. Some other guards were carefully flying up corpses from concerned families and business owners. They made their way to the castle to be gathered with the others.

It seemed that Celestia had a lot of work to do.

It took us about an hour to navigate the damaged streets and get around to where this secret passage was supposed to be. Instead, Twilight noted that the area was actually adjacent to a high school, which in my opinion was an unusual place to have an access point to an illegal fight club arena.

Alabaster waved his hoof in front of a section of bricks, his horn glowing to reveal a set of runes that gave access to the passageway. The wall then resembled a fluid-like surface that both he and his sister sank through to inspect the area. When they confirmed that it was empty, they gave us the okay to move on ahead.

Our walk through the passage was a cold yet mesmerizing journey. The walls were covered in crystals and gems, reflecting the lights illuminated from the horns of every unicorn in our party. Our distorted reflections would occasionally catch us off guard, but we would recognize that it was nothing more than just that and keep ourselves moving. A few moments later, we came to a large hulking crystal that appeared to have the same runes set on it. Again, Alabaster walked through first and did his usual thing. But instead of the surface of the crystal being a fluid-like portal, it just glowed and turned into a doorway leading into a red and gold hallway.

When we walked in, Alabaster groaned as he looked around. "Welcome to where the nightmares begin."

"A place where you can realize your most perverted fantasies and some of your worst nightmares, including the most hideous crimes you'll ever bear witness to." Blue cosigned.

"A haven for rich criminals who hold some of de highest pedestals in society." Kalimba announced quietly.

"So this was the captain's stomping grounds every Tuesday and Friday?" Solemn questioned. "This place almost looks like a high-class casino."

"Well it's just as Kali said. This is where the high-rollers usually come to get their fix." Rickey responded as he grasped a hold of his weapon. "I wonder what all these walls have seen."

"Nothing good." Kalimba answered as she took us to a room. She summoned a key and unlocked the room, giving us access to what appeared to be a box-seat for the arena. "If you look down below, you might get to see a clean-up crew or two replacing de dirt. On other times like dis, it would be carnage."

"What kind of carnage are we talking?" I inquired. "Like cage-match fights, knockout punches, fights with bats and pipes?"

"Looks like a gladiator arena." Stanton observed as he walked over to the window. "If the arena floor was more rectangular, this place would look a lot like an outdated football bowl."

Cliff looked down to see the crew working to lay out some sand to cover some spots of blood. "Ugh... And Nondis is still alive somewhere."

"The better question is where?" Fluttershy asked as she looked around the arena before her ears flared up and she immediately covered her eyes. "Oh my!"

"What?" Twilight questioned as she ran over. We all tried to point out what it was that had surprised the timid mare. Instead she had pointed to a pair down below who had gotten themselves caught up in a sexual fervor. The stallion appeared ravenous as the mare appeared lost to the world.

Kalimba looked down and grew upset with what we were witnessing. "Typical. A failure of a stallion who cannot get what he wants by normal means, so he takes advantage of a mare's vices and gets her strung before having his way."

"That's not gonna keep happening as long as I'm here." Alex said as he chambered a round into his weapon.

Kalimba used her magic to lower the muzzle of his weapon before he could get clear aim of the sexual deviant. "I know what goes through your mind. But dat is not our purpose for being here. And in most often cases, dis is what dey agree to. Dey know what happens when it happens, and dey accept it. After so much for so long, you get lucid of what happens. She's probably overdosed right now. If we do anything, it will only be a matter of time before it hits her."

"The fuck is she on?" Rickey asked the zebra.

"Ecstasy." She said with disdain. "It makes you feel like you are in a high place, caught up in a heightened sense of enthusiasm and excitement, you feel like de life of de party, like you could go on and on. Everything feels good... until it doesn't."

"There are some pretty deep drugs passed around the frat parties on occasion, but I ain't never seen someone that geeked up in a long time." Cliff noted to Rickey.

"Yeah... last guy we saw that was like that was..." Rickey stopped for a moment to think about it before coming to a sad answer. "...was Nondis. It was his birthday, he was upset about Melanie still. Got into shrooms, ecstasy, and smoked like two whole blunts that night before taking his car out for a ride." He shook his head in disbelief. "Damn. It's a miracle that he's even alive today."

The rest of the room appeared stunned over the discussion taking place. It seemed that even Twilight wasn't all too aware of what happened the night before he came here. It seemed to have thrown everyone off, except Kalimba who appeared to simply acknowledge it. She looked down below and used her magic to separate the two, the stallion wondering why he was being pulled off of the mare he was humping into. She lifted him to the window and gathered the stallion a look of deep disapproval. "We all have hard times, we all have our lows. But sometimes it is how you treat others when you get dere dat determines how you are as a being." Twilight looked down and teleported the mare up into the room, looking after her as she rambled senselessly. Kalimba then lowered the stallion down back to where he was. "Because when you come back down, somepony has to help you recover in some way. It is up to you whether you want to change. It also determines the company you keep moving forward."

While I wanted to look away from what was taking place, I couldn't help but to draw some of the parallels of what was being discussed. A lot of it actually hit home for me, especially when I thought of my mom. Kali just lost her dad, and she's still able to be strong in spite of what all happened. It gave me a profound respect for the mare, one that humanized her in my eyes. No doubt, she was a stronger woman than me.

While Fluttershy checked in on the mare and offered her some water to stay hydrated, Alabaster had disappeared down the hall. Blue followed after her brother to see what it was he was up to. I grew curious of the two separating off and followed behind them. When I reached to where they were, I cracked the door open to see a set of mares pleasing another mare who held them by leashes. There was a bartender minding his own business, cleaning the counter where he worked. Blue and Alabaster confronted her. "You know something about tonight! What happened!?" Blue questioned the mare.

The mare in question cackled at the pair. "Oh hun, you don't just miss the big hubaloo and then ask for spoilers! You had to be here!"

"The Doctor. Where is he?" Alabaster firmly questioned.

"Basty, babe, the Doc ain't here anymore." She replied. "He took his prize winnings and made off into one of them there tunnels."

"What was his winnings?" The stallion asked.

"Do I even need to say it?" She asked before she cruelly yanked the leash of one of the mares who serviced her. "Hey bitch, I didn't tell you to lick there yet! Start over!"

A quick "Yes, mistress." sounded from the one she chastised.

Alabaster looked at the mare as if he wanted to probe her for more answers. "So that leads me to ask the question again. What was the haul?"

"Something you ain't never gonna get." She snarled back. "I don't know why ya asking me these dumb questions like I'm the damn oracle around here. You and your sister should know, you both are members of the Inner Circle."

"An inner circle that hasn't convened in a month basically. You know that we've been outsiders of that association anyways."

"T'ain't my fault you messed that up by signing that warrant for the captain." She answered back. "Doesn't matter what the Doc does, you're supposed to take your loss and keep chuggin'. Even if he done went and ripped your poor ol' dad out the casket, you gotta learn to keep a chin up."

"As expected, I didn't think you really cared for anyone other than yourself." Blue harshly criticized the mare. "All you do is treat ponies like your playthings. I guess evil minds do think alike."

"And I guess goody-good ponies are just as stupid. You don't get anywhere when you put others before yourself. You get ahead of the game when you crush every last pony that gets in your way. I would've thought a mare of business like you would understand that, but I guess you can't hear past the huge amount of money your ugly-ass momma done left you. All that fortune goin' to waste in the hooves of a weak little mare who can't even stand up to her own daddy. Just face it, your daddy had every right to treat you like a broodmare, you ain't got the stuffin' for business. You're really a housewife with a trustee board running you out of your own company." The mare raised her hoof, causing the two others serving her to stop. She stood up and got into Blue's face, holding her chin like a child swallowing something they shouldn't. "The only reason you're here is because your brother wanted you to be here. If it wasn't for that, I would've had you in my brothel, no matter the money you make. I would've sold you off to your old pop and make a quick killing. The way he treated my girls, I wonder how he would've did you instead."

While I was getting more angry having listened to this bitch and how she spoke to Blue, Alabaster stood up for his verbally-assaulted sister. "Listen to me, you old skunk, you don't get to take out your insecurities on her."

The mare snapped back. "And you don't get to tell me what to do, or should I go about telling the world about your double life of being a closeted homosexual?"

The stallion giggled. "And yet I'm more of a main attraction than any of you or your girls will ever be. What you can't stand is that one of your former girls came up and superseded you when she got healthy, and you can't get her back. You never liked bad trades─"

The mare threw a glass at the stallion's face, summoning a whip with several stripes of metal leaves attached to the end. "I ain't gonna take no shit from some daddy-reject faggot!"

Before Blue could step up and defend her brother, I walked into the room, weapon loaded and ready to unload into the mare. "Nah, bitch! You fucked up now!" The mare appeared surprised over seeing me, looking at me with a startled expression. My aim was placed firmly for her head. "I know you had fun talking your shit, but it's about to get real right now. And you need to fucking talk a little less about your ego, and more about what happened on tonight before your girls will be talking about how your face got remodeled in less time than you hit Alabaster with that wine glass."

Blue approached her brother as he removed the shards of glass from his face. He had some slight bleeding from the impacted shards. He shrugged off the hit. "I appreciate you coming to our defense again. But this was a VIP matter."

"Yeah, keyword being 'was'." I stated. "And now it's a human matter."

The mare squinted as we talked, changing her tone from angry to one of some amusement. She jumped in on a topic relating to me personally. "Wait... That voice... You're a female, aren't you?"

"She's not for sale." Blue firmly rebutted.

"Bullshit she ain't!" The mare hollered back. "One night with a human mare, I can tell you that clients would pay a pretty cool mil for that price! I could even make more with this one than the last human I owned."

"The last human you owned?" I asked, angry with how easily she relegated me to slave status.

"Oh honey, he was a feisty one. Couldn't tell him nothin'! The only thing he did was talk about how he could get away from his criminal history, and then moreso about how much he wanted to kill the captain. It's too bad that he couldn't stop playin' with his food long enough to get the job done."

"Jasper." I whispered, causing the mare to smile at me. I scowled back at her and questioned her. "How did you find yourself 'owning' him?"

"Signed a contract, didn't read the fine print all too well. But the doc and I had an agreement. If I won with my new purchase, I'd get the benefit of having a secondary collection of a new champ. I'd then have the options of doing whatever with said champ. I was just gonna get my money's worth."

It took a lot for me not to squeeze the trigger with the muzzle of my rifle pointed at her head. While Jasper did horrible things, to others and to me, it wasn't her right to have ownership of any human, much less treat them like bargaining chips. It was my first time meeting her, and I had already grown to hate her existence.

The mare noticed my increasing drive to put her down for good. "Aw... you know you can't do that, right?" She asked with a smirk. "I mean, I know what happened to your friend, I know what it was he fought, how big it was, and just how he tried to haul ass only to get dragged back down here."

"You can't be the only witness around." Blue replied.

"Well my girls ain't talking unless I tell them to speak." She said as she looked down to her servants. "They know better than to have loose lips around me. They know what the consequences are."

Alabaster looked to the two girls, who appeared scared halfway to death of the situation they were dragged into. "You two are awfully young, you might want to leave─"

"They ain't goin' nowhere!" The mare shouted. "These here are MY girls! And they don't take orders from sissy non-breeder faggots like you!" She looked to me and proudly stood in a confident mind that no harm would come to her. "So here's the deal, missy. You wanna know what your friend's up to now, I might be able to give you a little something you could use. But that all goes out flyin' if you kill me. And I ain't sayin' nothing unless there's some favors fixin' to be done. So how about you scratch my itch... and I may scratch yours."

A cough sounded from the bar. The stallion continued to work as he looked to me with an unchanged expression. "So is anyone going to order a drink or do I get the privilege to go home early?" He asked in a feminine manner.

"You're still servin' me." The mare called out.

"So the usual Bloody Mary. Okay." He said as he started to whip up a beverage for the mare. He turned to Alabaster. "Long Island ice tea for you, extra coconut milk?"

"I'm sorry for the glass." Alabaster replied.

"Honey, it's no problem. That comes out of my pay, I'm not any worried about it." He replied before turning to Blue. "I got a bottle of the good stuff, just like you like it."

"I'm not drinking tonight. Sorry." She answered, looking angrily at the antagonistic mare.

The stallion looked to me and asked. "So, new guest, what can I do you for?"

"Amenities are for the VIP only, paying customers." The bitch snarled at me. "She don't get free drinks."

I reapplied my aim towards her, ready to shoot her with the slightest movement. But before I did, a warmth started coming from the side of my ear where my element was. The closer my finger got to the trigger, the hotter it got. I moved my finger away from it, the element grew colder as a means to encourage me against taking her life. I instinctively reached for my ear, seeing if anything had burned or singed as a result.

The mare snickered at me, perceiving my lowering of my weapon as a sign of submission. "Well, I guess you're open for some negotiation then. It's good to see you humans are about business."

"The name of that thing Nondis faced is what the boss called the Congregant."

The mare turned around with a growing look of frustration. She looked at the bartender as he smiled away, doing his work. "Now hold on... Doc said we weren't supposed to talk about what happened tonight. You know what happens when you go against Doc."

The stallion rolled his eyes, taking a deep breath. "You know, the captain and I had a talk earlier tonight. The funny thing is that he and I talked about life. I know that after I'm done here, that's it for me. No eye-witness accounts for what the boss has done, what he's planned, what he knows, what he's made. And the captain, he seemed pretty sold that this would be his last hurrah. And... it was. He was a bright light in this room every night he and the Doc had words." The stallion nodded to himself in thought. "Actually, with all the cruel things that I've seen in my being here, he was the only one brave enough to step in and do something about it. He was the only one to actually put it all on the line, where everypony else would just watch or try to appease him in some other way. He was firm in drawing the lines where they needed to go. I just wish I had the strength to do it like he had."

"Crème, shut that mouth of yours before you get us all killed!" The mare shouted as she turned her whip towards the bartender.

"I'm sorry, miss Stellar Breed. But we all know who we deal with. For any time we live, it's borrowed time before the Doc has his way with us. In the end, we're going to be as much apart of that thing we saw tonight. And I don't think I want to live in a world where that's a likely assurance." The bartender looked to me and spoke once more. "I can't promise you a way in, but I can tell you that there is a member of the Inner Circle who has knowledge to access the Doc's lab. Usually he had it in a local morgue here in town, but they recently relocated to a place where his ease of access could go undisrupted."

The one named Stellar snarled as she took her whip in her magic, cocking it back to impact the bartender behind the counter. "You stupid son of a bitch!"

The bartender cleaned his glasses without a care in the world for the incoming pain that was set to come his way. However, that pain would never come as he didn't even bother looking her way. His magic activated and caught the whip just a foot before hitting him. He summoned a dagger seemingly made entirely of his magic and sliced the bladed barbs from the end of her weapon. The stallion's eyes lifted up with an icy glare in them. "In speaking of cruel things you've had a hoof in, tell me why you deserve to live anymore than I do."

"I don't have to be here for this." Stellar Breed replied before looking to her servants. "Girls, let's get movin'." She started making her way to the main entrance, but as she got up, one of the girls did not follow her. She stayed in place, sniffling in terror as she showed her defiance. Stellar took her disobedience with great offence. "You little brat, I told you it's time to be movin'!"

"No!" The servant's voice appeared to be far too young for her current appearance. "I don't wanna go anymore! You gave my best friend away to that monster!"

The mare initially appeared incensed, but changed her approach for the young mare as she walked closer. "Aw darlin', I didn't give her away. She just did what the Doc told her to do." Her horn glowed a sinister teal, dragging the young servant to her hooves. "Now how about you be a dear and get movin' with us before I give you something to move to."

*PLECK*

Hearing the gunshot behind me I immediately ducked down. I dropped everything and felt over my body, trying to see if I had gotten hit with anything. Nothing had struck me. I looked up to see Kalimba holding the weapon of her choice, the barrel of the gun still slightly smoking.

"Didn't you hear me, you ungrateful little brood!? I said let's get movin'!" Stellar continued angrily, the mare had noticed her magic had gone completely out, opting to use her hooves to grab the servant. "I'm tellin' you to move... so start movin'..." The mare looked past her servant and smiled as she walked towards Kalimba. "Well, ain't you a sight for some eyes. You can get on to movin' too."

Kalimba walked past her, pushing her aside as she tended to the young servant. "Are you okay?"

The young servant nodded at her before she appeared horrified. She looked to the trail of blood leading from where she was, trailing over to the abusive mare. "Girl, y'all makin' me tired... my chest hurts..." The mare laid down, only to realize that there was a pool of blood laying beneath her. "Aw hell... this ain't better be mine." She looked up to the zebra. "Hey, sick girl... what you done did to me?"

"Close your eyes and find out." The zebra replied coldly.

The mare weakly chuckled, answering the zebra's response. "Aw c'mon now. I was just bein' a mother to them girls. I just wanted to treat 'em right. I mean, look at how you are now." The zebra mare appeared unconvinced by the mare's words. "So tall an' pretty. Long legs..." The mare's breathing slowed as she stared off into the distance. "You'd fetch a hell of a price..."

The mare remained motionless, breathless, lifeless.

Kalimba turned to the other servant mare who watched her master die. "You, how old are you?"

"Sixteen." She replied with trembling.

She looked to the one she check on. "You are young. How old are you?"

"Fourteen." She said with worry abundant on her face.

I shook my head with disbelief. "You two are way too young to be here!"

"That's what she does." Alabaster gravely added. "She takes in the prettier young girls and have them turned into sex slaves, groomed and trained in pleasing other ponies and participating in their sick fantasies. It's often a dangerous business that can result in severe instances of abuse, trauma, and even death."

Blue then asked the pair of servants. "How old were you two when you got 'adopted' by her?"

"Twelve." The older one answered.

"Eleven." The younger one confessed.

I looked back at the dead mare and grew angry with her peaceful looking face. "And you got to be all nice and happy while you were abusing young girls, selling them off."

"Kalimba, how old were you when she took you in?" Blue asked the zebra.

"...Ten." She answered as she loomed over the dead body of yet another one of her prior owners. "We need to burn her body before He comes and makes her useful to him."

"That's not all you'll need before you go." The bartender said as he closed his eyes and summoned a clipboard. Both Blue and Alabaster gawked at the stallion who issued them the clipboard. "Seeing how you were the second to openly defy the boss, I guess you're the next one up. Here's some of the research that went into creating that creature. I was there for some of the phases of it's creation, as well as some test phases of it's total completion. This has all the information you need."

Blue took the clipboard and smiled at the bartender, showing appreciation for his work. "And yet again, you come right on through, Crème. I can never stop owing you."

"Still got the bottle of the good stuff if you need it." He whispered to her.

"You got two?" Blue asked as she looked to me. "I got a drinking buddy now."

The stallion reached under his bar and grabbed two bottles of what appeared to be wine. "Do I ever disappoint?" He said before looking at the bloodied body on the ground. "...I'll close up shop for tonight and get her to the morgue."

"Get her to the castle. She'll be cremated along with the other bodies we found throughout the city." Blue replied. "We'll even send one of the guards to vouch for you as an escort."

I shook my head at the newly-minted corpse. "So how old was this lady?"

"Forty-nine." Crème answered as he went beneath the bar and tossed out a body bag. "Another seven months and we would've been celebrating her big fifty. A relief that I don't have to plan for that now." I looked to the stallion as he served me a whole bottle of wine outside of the two he gave to Blue. "It's not much. But my condolences for your friend."

I took the bottle, popped the cork and got a quick swig to see how it tasted. It seemed like a very sweet juice with the tiniest hint of alcohol. But I knew that too much would sneak up on me in a heartbeat. "Nondis isn't dead yet. She is though, and that's a good thing. So I'll drink to that instead."

Alabaster looked at the information on the clipboard. "This thing is a goldmine of research."

"I'm just like you, just don't tell nopony I gave it to you." Crème stated as he worked to bag the mare quickly. "Also, another thing before you guys take off. There's a certain Inner Circle member who knows where the boss is based at now. He continues to work closely with him as of now, but he hasn't been around tonight either. There's only three VIP members who didn't show tonight, and that would be you, your sister, and Damper."

Alabaster groaned at Crème's statement. "Damper Trot... He's going to be an annoying one to deal with. I hate him almost as much as I hate dad."

"You think you can get him to talk doing your usual thing?" Blue asked her brother.

Again, he grumbled. "...The better question is do I even want to deal with him again."

†~~Stellar Breed~~†
♫She had it coming, she had it coming
She only had herself to blame
If you'd have been there, if you'd have seen it
I betcha you would have done the same!♫

The Unknown Lab...

"Ung... hah... ah... ah yes..."

Umbra panted and breathed heavily as the sweat accumulated on his brow from the work he had put into the current experiment. With a number of assorted drugs used, namely some libido enhancers, he went to work straddling and riding the human he had strapped to his operating table. A maddening smile appeared on the stallion's face as he looked down to see himself rising and falling, his own display of arousal slapping the human on his abdomen with every fall he took. The stallion appeared enthusiastic about his new source of amusement.

Meanwhile, the human below tried to remain strong as he looked elsewhere. However with the immense potency of the dosage that was placed in him earlier, his body continued to betray his mind's registry of how he felt about this particular encounter. The closer he felt towards an oncoming climax, the more he tried to clench his eyes away from the stallion who sought to please him. But to his misfortune, his resistance wasn't strong enough to counter the drugs. He went on to suffer his fourth climax of the evening.

However, that didn't stop Umbra from continuing through the sensation of having a human pumping semen into him. In fact, the circumstance drove him to press in harder. Eventually, the stallion too suffered his signs of impending climax. With a manic pace, he dropped his hips into the human, hitting his trigger until it sent him overboard.

Umbra unleashed several spurts, reaching up the human's chest and even hitting his chin. With every spurt, he sank himself to milk out as much as possible. The stallion trembled with a possessed giggle, shuddering at what was his best orgasm in centuries. He moved his now-disheveled mane from over his eyes, looking down at the mess he left on the human's body, not unlike the one he cleaned from off his back earlier.

With a sweetness, he leaned down to collect his bounty with an eager tongue. With the effort to pool in as much in his mouth, he worked up to the man's chin. And with greedy fervor, he turned the man's head to him and sank into him with a deepening kiss to exchange what he had collected. With a proud smile, the stallion collapsed onto his chest and rested for a moment. "Hah... ah... ah... fuck me... That was the best time I had in ages." The stallion said, winded from his work. "I don't think I've ever gotten so raptured out of my mind like that. It's always that first-time experience of riding something new."

The human felt his chest compress, his diaphragm adjust, his gag reflex triggering his salivary glands to lubricate his mouth for what was to come.

The stallion slowly traced his hoof on the abdomen of the man, tracing the scars of his operations. "I really think there's something magical about having you with me. Maybe it's just the dopamine releases after the deed, but I'm pretty optimistic about our future together."

Feeling himself about to vomit, he turned his head off to release himself to the floor. With labored breathing, he tried to find the strength to endure the pain of his diaphragm compressing with each ejection.

Umbra ignored the human's suffering. "Aw, must be something you ate, sweetie. I'll go get you a towel."

The stallion climbed off of the human and went to a nearby station where he had set his materials, bringing back a towel to clean the human's face. When he turned around, he saw that the human had tried to wiggle himself free of his restraints. The stallion laughed as he returned to the human's side.

"Aww, poor baby. All tied up with nowhere to go." The stallion leaned down to softly kiss the man on his cheek. "You're not going anywhere. You're here with me now."

Feeling a great despair, the human closed his eyes, wishing for a way home.

Later at Canterlot Castle...

With all of the body cleanup around the city completed, one more body was submitted to the princess for disposal. The princess waited patiently in the chapel, her horn latent with powerful magics and an immense heat that would soon consume the room. Blueblood ran in with the final body bag and placed it at the alter. Despite the room smelling like an unholy assembly, the pair appeared mostly undisturbed by the scene and smell around them.

After the prince laid the final body down, he had a prolonged inhale and looked towards the princess. "It's been a while."

"Since we've had this smell around us?" The high princess questioned reverently.

"It's a bit different this time." Blueblood answered with a slight chuckle. "Usually there's a lot more of a metallic smell about this carnage. All we're missing is the smell of blood and rust. That'll be a real trip down memory lane for us."

The princess questioned the prince. "I know it's been four centuries since I've asked you this question... but─"

"You were right to fight that war." The prince replied. "The one responsible for the death of Prince Fair Charity met his end in an appropriate manner. You did right to fight for yourself."

The esteemed mare looked upon her workload with a slight annoyance in comparison to the matters at the forefront of her mind. "I just can't help but let my mind go back to that day when I crowned you─"

"The replying silence." Blueblood finished in her place.

"Especially that. I just can't help but to think that I went wrong in that moment." She walked towards the center of the room, her horn sparking with magic. "I know that there was a lot that could've gone better had I been a much stronger tactician. Between Luna, Fair Charity, and many of the nobles I had to wage war against, those were the better tactical minds. The only real advantage we had was brute strength."

"That strength made us a pair to be feared." The prince stated as he looked around the room another time. "I think it might be time to revisit that strength."

"I don't think I can go back to being that entity again." The princess lamented.

"Look around us." Blueblood pointed out for the last time. "I think the reason speaks enough for itself, your highness."

The high princess sighed with a feeling of defeat. "So is this the Prince of Justice talking, or is it the Rose-Hoof Dragoon I used to see way back when?"

"Can't it be a bit of both?" The prince questioned. "I'm going to clear from the room so you can get to your inceneration thing. Just holler if you need anything."

Blueblood walked out of the room, carefully closing the door behind him as Celestia flapped her wings and ascended into the air. Her horn started to shine with an unbearable heat. When she closed her eyes, she imagined the number of times she used the spell for much more simplistic reasons. The first thing that appeared as an image to her was the sight of the human she loved, sleeping in his bed as the room grew colder and colder, the warmth she provided for him became a fond memory in the face of the task before her.

"Nondis... please hang on."

With those words said, she unleashed a powerful heat wave within the room and produced a brightness that could be seen throughout the city, serving as a bright beacon shining in bright contrast to the many buildings of the city.

Down in the royal library, Twilight and Alabaster reviewed the notes that they were given by Crème. Alex waited quietly with the pair, sifting through many of the books that seemed to have magic as a focus. While he wasn't knowledgeable of how magic worked in many ways, he understood that one of the books there had to have some sort of guide for beginners. And if that was the case, Stanton would be able to get the help he needed.

I walked in with Blue and Kalimba, having watched a fruitless attempt of seeing the pair trying to teach Stanton how to control his newfound power. And since they were frustrated with how often their own methods had come to a failing point, we figured to come to the one place where we would be able to find something to get the job done.

Alex spoke to us as soon as we walked in. "Ladies, how's it going?"

"Total failure." Blue replied.

"I do not know how to translate how unicorn magic would operate in a human. I can only give him de basic step of breathing." Kalimba added. "How are things with you all?"

Alex held up a book as he explained his end of things. "Twilight and Alabaster hasn't said much since they started looking everything up. My only guess is that they're taking a deep intellectual analysis into the matter. As far as how I'm doing, I'm virtually useless to what they're doing anyhow, so I started looking up books to tell me how I can use magic, for first-time users of course."

In the midst of her studying the notes that were given to her, Twilight offered a reply. "The thing about using magic in human form is that it first has to be activated when you first use it."

"Well right now, half of everything that isn't nailed down is floating around him right now like he's the sun." I replied to the young princess. "I'm not sure how much more activated he can get."

The purple princess then replied. "When I mean activated, I mean controlled by his own actions. When he realizes how the magic flows through you, how it cycles, that's when you truly tap into it's power."

"Well didn't you help activate Nondis that first time?" Alex questioned.

"That would not be me. Credit of that particular instance goes to Celestia." She answered.

"And Celestia's too busy to do much right now." I mentioned. "Though I wonder how long it'll take for her to do the bodies."

"Proper cremation takes about three hours for a single body." Alabaster replied quietly. "And judging from these notes, she may be pushing that to about five if she wants to be thorough."

"What time is it now?" Blue asked me as I pulled out my phone. "1:12 in the morning. We're literally pulling a graveyard shift."

"There ain't no rest for the wicked, I close my eyes for good." I half-sung to myself.

Twilight placed down her notes as she grumbled. "I'm tired as it is, I don't think I can do another hour after today."

"Do you want me to stay up and compile while you're asleep?" Alabaster asked the exhausted young royal. "We can divide and conqueror, I'll bookmark where I last left off for you to see where I am."

"Two minds having this knowledge is better than one." The princess responded. "We both need to get some rest, we'll be in a much-better state of mind if we get some rest and tackle the rest of this tomorrow."

"We still need to do something about Nondis." Alex pointed out.

"De better question is what can we do with what we know right now? We don't have answers of where we need to go."

"I'm not gonna be able to sleep knowing what my brother is going through. This shit sucks." Alex complained again. "I should've been here to help."

"Help do what?" I questioned the disgruntled sibling. "If you were here, Ummie would have two of the elements and two living humans to experiment with. We all saw the state of those weapons Nondis used, and you're squeamish when it comes to intolerable odors. Trust me when I tell you how not-ready we are right now, and compare those results to someone like Nondis, who went in thinking that he was ready with the information we had, plus having magic that we don't know how to use."

"Melanie, think about that dream we had the night following you guys getting back in." Alex argued. "If all of us had been here to help, we would've done something. This thing would be dead, this night would be over, and all of us would be sleeping in our beds without these weird-ass jewels on us. Ummie would either be dead or captured, we would be going home in the morning, and Earth would be safe. We would've literally saved the world twice over."

"And think of the other side of how it could've gone, Alex!" I responded in kind. "All of us would probably be captured and tortured, used to torment Nondis all the more, and even killed... six times over! We would probably be right along with the other collection of bodies! And I don't know if you forgot this little caveat, but we don't know how to use these elements! We still don't know how to deal with these things, much less how to use them in a fight."

Twilight yawned as she agreed with me. "She's right, Alex. I tried using them by myself once, when I first found them in the Ruins of Everfree Castle. I figured that my magic would be enough to make it work. And when I was in the elements presence, I felt my magic surge for the brief time that it did. My solo encounter with Nightmare Moon was the very first time I could teleport. I did my research on what they were capable of, where to find them, how to get there, even thinking that I knew how to use them. But what good did all of that do me? Nothing. I was knocked away, Nightmare Moon laughed in my face, and shattered them where she stood... all because I didn't know how to use them, their intended purpose. In the hooves of two, they have proven to work. In the grasp of one they have only worked once, and that was to banish Nightmare Moon to the moon in the sky above. After that, they went a thousand years, collecting layers of calcium, limestone, and dust... because the only one who could use them couldn't use them anymore."

"So we can't do anything right now?" Alex questioned, growing more and more discontented with the narrowing options. "My brother is out there, getting sexually assaulted and worse, he's not gonna be the same fucking guy when we get him back, can't we do something to stop this!?"

"If you have a plan and where to go, I want to hear it." Twilight replied with similar energy to what Alex displayed. "Don't you think I feel partially responsible for this? I wanted to grab the elements and try to use them against Umbra. I wanted to be thorough when I could've been swift and dragged the girls through your world and get here before that situation could've happened. Teleport our way into Corrotto, get to the arena, fight that thing while risking our lives, getting him home back to see the rest of you! You six could've been saving us! We could've done more!... I could've done more." Twilight's head lowered as her ears fell to display her regret. "I... I shouldn't have hesitated. I should've just stuck to my guts and moved when we had time. This failure is not on you, it's on me."

Alex sat himself down, stewing with anger while he tried to think of any way to save Nondis. But without any kind of real idea of what to do, he found himself cycling through what-if's and maybe's, all of which leading to the same conclusion. The man could do nothing but run his palms into his teeth and scream at the top of his lungs. He opened his eyes, as red as they were from him trying not to cry. "What do I do? God, what do I do?"

Alabaster approached the tearfully frustrated sibling and placed a hoof to his shoulder. "The only thing we can do is wait until sunup. As much as I regret myself even thinking it, the cruelty and tone-deaf aspect of it... We are on borrowed time, time that is spent with Umbra averting his attention. We have to respect that. Whether you believe it or not, Umbra sleeps just like the rest of us. It's only fair that we do the same." Guiding the human's hand to stand back up, the white unicorn stallion ushered the man towards the door. "We rest. We awake with a sound mind, and we operate with a newfound energy to tackle the fight ahead."

"De key to winning a big fight is often to rest when you can." Kalimba reassured the man. "De more sound you are in mind, the better you fight. Now let us go rest."

Taking the tomes of information along with her, Twilight walked with the intent to station herself in Nondis' room, where security was at it's highest. Alex spent the night with the princess, thinking of how he could do something to help his younger brother feel better about himself once rescued. Stanton would go on to join him. I was issued a temporary stay inside of Princess Luna's room, along with me was Rickey and Cliff. The other girls were issued guest rooms while the others went off to their own rooms.

Some hours later, I was woken out of my sleep. Not far from me, I could hear a little girl screaming out of an apparent nightmare, to which Princess Luna comforted her. Kalimba also softly sang the girl to sleep. I was a but surprised to hear her being so gentle, especially not hearing her crying in the dead of night over her father. But then again, it was only another thirty minutes before she walked to the hallway to scream her grief into a pillow.

...God, please give her strength. And please do the same for him.

Dawn...

Standing on the balcony, overseeing the grand courtyard, Celestia raised her head with her horn trickling of it's last bit of magic for the time being. As soon as the sun was raised to it's assigned path, the princess panted and sluggishly walked away. The gold on her hooves had been dulled from the ashes she walked through. Though one certain pile had grasped her attention for a brief moment. She bowed her head with respect to the unidentifiable pile of remains before walkign away.

She opened the doors, covered in soot and ash dressing her forelegs. Her eyes barely open, she saw the two princes standing before her. With a fatigued murmur, she spoke to the pair. "The sun is raised. Please give these souls one last flight to the winds of the mountain. I need rest."

Shining was quick to follow her orders, requesting for a pegasus squad to create a breeze to clean the room. But Blueblood did not move as quickly as his younger equal. He waited to see how the princess walked by him. He carefully watched as he saw her quartet of banner mares approach her for her next set of tasks for the day.

The fatigued princess couldn't even make it down the hall before she fell to the ground, her crown sliding before her. Blueblood picked her up, placing her on his back. Another three guards aided him, two for her wings and another to help him carry her by her underbelly. For the first time in decades, he issued orders to the guards around him. "Ready the princess' chambers. She is gravely tired, she requires bedrest. Let's move with respect to her majesty's dignity."

"Sir!" The group of guards called out as they marched in formation to bring the princess to her room.

Meanwhile, Shining Armor ordered the cleaning crew to gather materials to cleanse the floors and walls upon the flying squad's completion of their assignment. Spitfire saluted the young prince and ordered her squad to a formation to whisk the ashes around the room to gather in a vortex before guiding the crew to the sky, where the remains of the bodies were given one final flight around Canterlot before being sent to the winds of the mountain.

As that came to an end, Shining pointed his hoof to the floor and ordered the room cleansed. Rows of maids were issued brooms to gather the next bit of remains to be blown out in a secondary flight. As those tasks were completed, the crew of cleaners pulled out mops and moved in rows, swiping their mops diligently to clean every last tile. Detailers came behind them and carefully scrubbed the cracks of the tiles, cleaning the last bit of remains from the room. The water they used to clean the tools of the remaining ashes were ordered to be sent to the river, all to cascade down the mountainside.

Shining ordered a crew to reissue all tapestries and assets to the room upon the cleaning of the walls. As that came to an end, he had a trio of clerics to bless the room once more for ceremonial purpose, mainly as a religious measure to ward the evil and restless spirits wishing to remain away.

Shining then prayed with the clerics before they and he left the room as flawless as it did the days before.

The Royal DIning Hall
Two Hours Later...

I did not sleep well.

After hearing all of what I did, I started to wonder what was really going on with Kalimba. I knew that her father had died and that weighs on her, but hearing how she went from comforting a young filly one minute and go into painful mourning the next had me sitting up uncomfortably throughout the remainder night. And then as I was about to drift off at the dawn hour, there was some rigmarole involving the princess next door, orders being barked about how to carefully move her into her bed. Celestia's name came up once in that conversation, and I couldn't really find the peace to sleep through all of the chaos going on.

So when it was time for everyone to get up and get some breakfast, I was pretty much already wide awake. The others didn't sleep all too well either. Lots of roaming thoughts, in and out of drift, maybe even the sense of knowing that something cruel was taking place to our friend, maybe even all the noise in the hall, all of it just made for a rough night. But that didn't stop us from going to breakfast, our hunger wasn't all too swayed unlike our sleep.

We all gathered in the dining hall. From the looks of it, I only saw two princesses not present. Cadance was probably away on business up north, and Celestia was probably not feeling well. The OG element bearers had all joined us in the meal, Alabaster and Blue were given special permissions to join with us as well.

And then Kalimba walked in, but not by herself.

Along with her, she had a young filly wearing a sleeping mask, feeling her way around to not bump into anything. Kalimba was very cautious as to not let her run into anything and hurt herself. I thought it was pretty odd for a filly to be here, but she was here under special permissions by order of Princess Luna.

In speaking of her, she appeared very groggy. I guess she had stayed up all night trying to tend to the young filly to make sure she didn't have any episodes like the one in the middle of the night. And plus I'm sure having to hear the situation of her sister didn't really do her any favors. But she wasn't the only royal without sleep, Shining and Blueblood were pretty much on the edge of exhaustion themselves, barely even speaking when they saw us. Twilight was no different, probably from going through those notes again.

Alex was also pretty fatigued, appearing very angry this morning. But when he saw the little filly walk into the room, he kissed his teeth, stood up, mumbled something under his breath, and walked out of the room. I thought it was unusual to see him storm off like that. It's not something that he does this early in the day.

Shaking off any signs of tiredness, Twilight was the first to speak to the young filly. "Aw, and who's this coming in to join us for breakfast?"

"Why it's a little angel!" Fluttershy answered enthusiastically.

Hearing the multitude of voices addressing her at once, the young foal staggered in her steps. "Ah! Who's there!?" She asked, almost terrified in a way.

"Why don't you take off that silly blindfold and find out." Rainbow Dash answered the young filly.

"Rainbow Dash, please be seated and remain silent." Luna firmly ordered.

Seeing the seriousness on her face, the rainbow-maned pegasus questioned the princess' attitude. "Hey, I was just telling her to take off the blindfold. I thought she was going to be surprised by us visiting."

Kalimba held the young foal closely as she quietly replied to the pegasus. "She is blind."

Rainbow looked down to the filly before glancing back up to Kalimba. "You mean 'blind' from the blindfold, or do you mean─"

"Blinded by an unmentioned party we will not discuss while she is present." Shining staunchly stated before looking to his sister.

The little filly the whispered. "The mean bad guy took my eyes. It hurts. He took mommy and daddy away. Now my sister takes care of me." Kalimba hugged the filly closely, congratulating her on her bravery for telling her story. The filly sniffled, prompting the zebra to hold her tighter as she also wiped tears from her eyes.

My jaw fell from the silent realization. "You're Kali's little sister, aren't you?"

The filly didn't answer, but the zebra did. "She is baba's youngest. I am de eldest."

Everyone else in the room just took a moment to weigh our own levels of disgust. Cliff started praying. "Oh God, we honor you for the strength you give to this young life. Heavenly father we ask you on today that you give peace and love to this family going through bereavement, in the mighty name of Jesus."

"Stop praying." Alex said as he walked back into the room. He sat in his chair and looked around, growing more and more upset with the world around him. "Like seriously, what god allows this to happen to the children he supposedly loves? Like how is this all a part of his almighty plan when the young have to suffer?" The man flopped his hands onto the table, almost in submission to despair. "I don't get it. I don't see how Nondis deals with this shit every fucking day. It's wrong, it's so wrong."

"It's not easy." Shining replied with a quiet yet strong tone. "But your brother knew the cost of him being a suitor. I tried my best to weed him out. I wanted him to just pack up and go back home so that he doesn't have to hurt Twily, so that he wouldn't find out the terrible cost of being one, so that he can live his life as normally as he could. I mean yeah, as an older brother, my main concern was Twilight Sparkle, who's my Little Sister Best Friend Forever, my blood. If they went out and did what they were going to do, hell would've came to both her and him. I lashed out at him because I initially wanted him to stay away from her. And yeah, my initial pursuits were trivial. But I grew out of that and saw another reason for why I had to try and make a change. Then it went to me trying my best to protect him, giving him every social advantage, hoping that the perks would keep him from harm. Instead, it was made worse."

"That isn't your fault." Alex argued. "Nondis had a fucking choice to drop everything and go. I'm angry at him because he doesn't know how to get out of a situation before it gets bad. It's been like that for our entire lives. I'm even more pissed that he has to see shit like this every day he's here. And I'm just a word away from going nuclear because of the motherfucker who's responsible for all of this. I'll never see my little brother again, not the way he used to be. And that shit makes me so pissed off." The man closed his eyes and planted his head into his palms. "And then I can't do anything about it, that's what really makes me mad. I was suppose to protect him, and I can't do that, not here."

Stanton shook his head and spoke with his eldest sibling. "Dude, we lucked out and won the lottery of being able to do something about it. If you don't believe me, then why the hell is Nondis alive today? Yeah he's getting his shit fucked up right now, but we can still make a change. The only question is how do we do it?"

Rarity walked up to the man who bore her element, summoning her seat to sit next to him. "Darling, I know that this moment feels like the worst possible thing. And I'm not too enthused about this myself. In fact, I'm angry, I don't know any other alternative than to send our adversary packing into the Ether. And it's okay to feel that way, but I'm not going to hang my head and think that it's all over when it isn't. So never give up hope."

"How do you find hope in what we're going to face?" Alex questioned.

Rarity then replied. "You rely on the ones around you to get there." She looked to Alex and rubbed his shoulder. "Just like how you want to be there for your brother. Those bonds are what makes you stronger, dear. And you already have a supporting cast, so trust me when I say that you are well on your way."

Twilight added to her friend's statement. "What Rarity says is true. I've been knocked down and faced despair before. Like I told you last night, I saw how the elements shattered when I tried to use them by myself. It's not just your own want for power, it's not just trying to stop an evil from altering your world, and it isn't revenge. It's the loyalty you have for one another. It's the hope and optimism you find in the darkest of places. It's the wonderful passion and heart you give that benefits others more than just yourself. It's the rationality and humility that anchors you to the truth of where you are and what you can do. It's the idea of always being good-hearted and showing good will to those around you, for things that are both like you and unlike you. And it's not just power, but all those things encompassed around the very thing that holds it all together, the ability to unify and lead. You're not just shooting magic bolts and teleporting everywhere, It's how you respond to a situation, think quickly and rationally, and how you perform under the pressure. I haven't nearly mastered that last one yet, even with the authority that I have now, but I am learning how. It's just like life, it's a process, one that requires some hardships and dire straights to learn."

Alex sighed as he looked to the princess who spoke with him. "So what you're saying is that without Nondis, we can't get anything done?"

Twilight gave the man her rebuttal. "I never said that. But I want you to know that there isn't any way to save him without anyone to lead you the right way. I know you feel like you have that quality, but it may not be the role you play for this moment. I'm not downplaying you, your intellect, or your abilities. I'm merely telling you that you can't just go in without a plan, without an approach, with no ability to remain level-headed in the heat of the moment. You've done it before in smaller situations, but how do you react when there is something as big as what you're going to face?... And you already know that the weapons you use aren't going to save you."

While even I gave Alex his props for being team leader when Nondis was out of commission in prior times, watching Twilight undress him like this was pretty rough. She was younger than him, smaller than him, and a completely different species, yet she was already putting him to the wall and telling him where he fell short in leadership.

However, I could see her point. In the moments leading up to now, Alex has been out of sorts since Alabaster told him what could be happening to Nondis even as we speak. The moment had him looking in every direction except ahead. He had weaknesses that he had not been hardened against, moments where his logic lost to spectacle, and a desire to push forward without any way of knowing specifics. We can't have a full-blown Leeroy-Jenkins moment, not when our actual lives are on the line.

I came to agree with Twilight. Alex is a good man, but not the leader we need for this moment. And Stanton was able to see that as well. "Bro. I hate it as much as you do. But the coach calls the play, quarterback runs the show. It's our job to run the route, get open, and make the play. But this past day ain't been much of anything but running down field for no good reason. Incomplete plays don't move the chains. I love you... but we need a QB."

Acknowledging Stanton's advice, Alex accepted defeat and laid his head in his palms. "...Okay. Maybe I am rushing things." He said with a discouraged chuckle. "I guess that's why I'm not good at sports then."

Stanton shrugged. "Yeah man. Just take it easy. If the ball comes your way, make the play."

The older brother nodded to his younger's advice. "Yeah. I guess that's the game plan of the day." He looked to Twilight and questioned her. "Well, I know you're saddled with one group to lead. Maybe you won't mind taking on another?"

"I can't." She replied. "My bonds aren't as strong with you as they are with my friends. I can't just mix and match bearers."

"Well who else we know that can lead us?" Rickey inquired.

"Prince Shining, maybe?" I suggested.

"I would if I could, but with Princess Celestia out of commission on today, I have to stay behind and keep security maintained. Blueblood is keeping the politicians in line. And Princess Luna is already swamped with all of Celestia's tasks along with her own." The young prince stated.

I looked over to Alabaster and his sister as they held a conversation between the two of them. I knew that they had already seen the worst of it all, they already had to endure much worse than any one of us, and they were much better at putting a plan together. "Excuse me." I addressed the pair. "I know it's probably sudden, and it's a lot more unexpected than what you had planned. But maybe either one of you two could be the one to tell us where our next route goes.... for the time being."

"Our next route is the most obvious one." Alabaster enunciated. "If we want to find out where Nondis is, we should start with finding Senator Damper Trot. Though I can imagine him to use his legislative privileges to escape questioning. There's no doubt he wouldn't want to speak with us about this in any public setting. We'll have to get him alone.... ugh."

"What, what's wrong?" I questioned.

"Things I won't say in front of a young audience." He replied, pointing to Kalimba's little sister.

"In short, he'll want favors." Blue added. "Certain kinds of favors he won't get from anywhere else. And if he sees you in particular, he'll want you involved."

"Eww." I cringed.

"Yeah." Alabaster nodded. "But he's our only lead to where to go. Crème already did us a favor by giving us the info on this monster we might run into and who to talk to next. We might as well give it a shot."

Blue shook her head. "I told him to at least start questioning Damper on Tuesday. I guess we'll have to do it ourselves, which is what I was trying to avoid."

"Damper Trot hasn't been in session since Wednesday." Blueblood briefly explained. "His staff, nor has his associates have seen him."

"So this guy, you guys haven't seen him on last night, he wasn't at the arena last night, and he hasn't been seen since Wednesday. So the question we need to ask right now is this: Do you think he's with Ummie right now?" I pondered for a moment.

"That only makes our situation that much more difficult." Blue responded. "Our only lead is to the monster's doorstep, the same doorstep we're trying to find?"

"It'll be like that sometimes." Applejack commented. "Ah can only tell ya to conduct a city-wide search of the area, maybe to pick up some clues."

"A city-wide search is grounds for a lockdown." Kalimba noted. "He will seek to be all de more exclusive. We must do it quietly, almost appearing as inconspicuous as a foal scout selling cookies."

"That'll be too massive an effort to coordinate on such short notice." Princess Luna argued. "Something like that can't get done in one day, it'll take districts at a time, spanning the course of a week."

"Ugh, such a wasted effort."

All of us looked for where the voice had come from. Instead, Shining's phone rang to pull up Discord's name and face. A hand popped out from the back of the phone and swiped to answer the call. Then the creature slowly climbed out of the phone and walked along the table.

"I think you all are giving Nondis too little credit on what all he's provided thus far."

Twilight glared at the creature. "And yet again, you know something that we don't. So what is it that you've been holding out on this time?"

"Twilight Sparkle, I know you've been up all night looking and perusing through that information you gathered from that place. So if there's anypony hiding something, it would be you." He replied back to her.

"I'm only not saying anything until I can verify the findings and come to an educated conclusion. I don't want to make a mistake if there's something in those notes that I happen to overlook." She rebutted, becoming a bit annoyed with the creature. "So if you don't mind, why not tell us what you know now so that we can go about our day."

"Well I was about to be nice and share some interesting security footage. But I suppose that it doesn't matter what I do, I'll always be the subject of envy."

"Discord." I called to the creature softly. "Please. That monster is doing something terrible to my friend. You've been huge for us, and I can't even begin to tell you how much we appreciate you for what you've done for us. You literally saved our lives. I don't know what happened between you guys here. But to us outsiders, you've been a godsend. So please help us, if not for the last time."

His eyes grew, glistening by the warm words he heard. He smiled as he coiled around me. "Why that was quite possibly the nicest thing anypony has ever told me. You really do reflect Fluttershy in your own way."

I smiled back at him, noting the big guy's excitement over being seen so favorably. The creature pulled out my phone and tapped the screen once to show some security footage of two ponies walking down a hall being followed by a third, holding a sign. As they came to a nearby vase, the vase was thrown at the two figures who turned around to point at the mare behind them. The perspective changed to reveal that it was one of the stallions who used their magic to throw the vase at their own hooves. The camera switched to show some guards approaching to arrest the mare holding what appeared to be a protest sign. The camera view flipped once more to reveal Nondis speaking with the same stallion later on, having him arrested instead.

I looked up to see that it wasn't just my phone it was viewed on, but everyone who had a phone could see it. Twilight and Shining watched on theirs. Rickey, Cliff, Stanton, Alex, and I weren't too certain of what was going on. Meanwhile Kalimba looked to hers, sharing it with Blue and Alabaster. A gasp sounded from Blue. The footage then flipped to a dark hall where Nondis walked and instructed some guards to remove themselves from a nearby holding cell to speak with the same stallion, who appeared for a split second before he walked into the room. Blue expressed her surprise. "So what you're showing to us is that Damper Trot is actually in prison?"

"Not quite, just in holding." The creature answered. "But he is in the dungeons down below, and I do believe that visitation hours start at nine."

I couldn't help but to hop out of my seat and hug the creature that coiled itself around me. "Oh thank you so much! Thank you! Oooh I could kiss you with how much this means to us!"

Rickey quietly showed some protest to my statement. "Um... I like the guy, but..."

Fluttershy, however, was not as quiet. "...One. Two. Three. Four." The creature quickly uncoiled himself from around me and slithered through the air to Fluttershy's side. He looked down at the timid pony nervously. She looked back up to him. "Five, I counted up to five."

"I'm sorry Fluttershy, dear." He whimpered as he shrank himself down to plant his head by the mare's shoulder. "I didn't mean to stay coiled around her for that long."

She tapped the side of his face. "We'll talk about that later." She answered sternly.

My jaw fell as I watched the creature completely bow out to the usually timid mare. Instead of being meek and quiet like she usually is with everyone else, she was very firm and commanding, not even having to raise her voice to grab his attention. Even with the way she counted. I turned to my boyfriend and instinctively glanced at him. He knew what I wanted to say and spoke under his breath. "She's the dom."

"And quite the pleasure dom, actually." Discord answered quietly, causing Fluttershy's cheeks to run red with embarrassment.

I started giggling as he made that statement. Rick cleared his throat and knocked his knuckles against the table. "Well then! I think we should get to talking with old dude then."

"Food first. Then we interrogate." Luna instructed as she clopped her hooves for the servers to enter into the room to take our orders. With our next course of action already lined up for us, we all agreed with the princess and ate our breakfast.

We're coming, Nondis. Just give us time.

The Unknown Lab...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

Hell.

That word isn't strong enough to encompass my experience.

As much as I wish it did, it will never begin to describe the emotions I felt having to endure everything in the hours coming from when I got healed, up to now. It's been an entire night of smelling dead ponies being carted along the way, me getting carted from room to room for various experiments, and my not being able to escape them.

How do I even begin to describe what happened last night? I was strapped to a post and literally made a bitch. Then he made everything worse with all of what he did after. What made it all ten times worse was that my body enjoyed the experience while I was trapped in a shell of myself trying to escape. For HOURS he would find different ways to augment my reproductive traits, and have me discover new ways of being violated. I even threw up at the thought of it, and those injections had my body to improperly process that experience as pleasure.

I can see why that formula was restricted from the market.

He did the usual doctor things in between, gathering blood samples, running some diagnostics, taking various samples of flesh and blood, oils and fluids, hair and nails, urinary and fecal, all of the above. The measures were so invasive that I was certain there was no part of me that could remotely be considered as private anymore. After hours and hours of it all, the guilt and shame of it became second-hand.

I didn't get sleep, not the kind that helps you cope with the pain. I couldn't even sleep at all thanks to Umbra's constant probing. And even when he took a break for a good four hours of rest, he had his dolls do his dirty work for him. And they were just as proficient as he was, even prepping as meticulously as he would've done. And when I had a moment of rest, it would only be for a total of maybe an hour at a time. I was intentionally kept awake for around a similar time before getting some rest, only to wake up sooner than what I would've wanted or expected. I'm sure they made the schedule erratic on purpose.

Mel and I had a conversation sometime in sophomore year of college, as she got into the throws of her medical education. We talked about the different stages of sleep, namely the two called NREM and REM. NREM is the state of sleep where you lay down, you're fatigued, your mind is taking the time to rest a little, to enjoy a bit of limited functionality before preparing for the more-strenuous phase it takes on during a sleep cycle. REM sleep is where the brain activity skyrockets, quite possibly more active than it would be when you would be awake. And there's one significant reason why: Dreams.

Dreams are the one place in the mind where we can experience fantastical worlds and wild experiences, even sometimes foretelling events to come. They can be a world of opportunity, maybe even a glimpse into your own experience through life. It's a way of your mind either expressing the full extent of the imaginative process, or even a way of reaching out to you to tell you how it's feeling. She wildly theorized back then over the possibility of being able to telepathically speak to others while in REM sleep.

Speaking to Twilight sometime after we got together, she all but confirmed the theory. With the aid of strong magic and certain formulas, you are able to dreamwalk in your own dream, to master your lucid experiences and fully realize your fantasies. And with Luna's gift reissued to Twilight for a while, she explained how it could be used to walk the realm of dreams of others relatively easily. She can connect to others and communicate with them about their experiences. Luna does that in spades, and can even tell you what is wrong with you, what you can do to make it better.

And given that was Luna's ability, I'm sure Umbra took note of it. You can't fall into REM sleep when you only get so little a chance to do so. She won't be able to reach out to me in the dream realm if there is no dream to be had. Maybe it would've been her way of seeing where I was, how I was doing, maybe even to tell me the passage of time that took place, and my telling her what happened to me. And without that, there's no helping me recover from the trauma I suffered.

I wasn't sure of the time, but I know that all those drugs had worn off. The after-effects of yesterday had started to really make their presence known. My head was a swimming mess of confusion and fatigue. My body had aches all over. My penis was incredibly sore from the extended periods of activity and the number of injections it took. My colon hurt in ways I didn't think imaginable, from exit on up. It hurts to even shift my buttocks, all I get is that stinging reminder of what I tried to resist against, only for that sadistic doctor to give me my first experience of being a passive male. I don't know if I can even live without trying to lock that memory away in the darkest recesses of my mind. I just wanted to go home at this point, suppress and try to forget that any of this even happened.

"Good morning, my little subject."

...Where is God when you need him?

Umbra walked into the room with a smile on his face, a cane in his possession, and a trio of dolls behind him carting in a table of items. My eyes widened to see the wires and nodes that were being moved from the cart to each of the dolls' possession. My hands were still strapped with those salted cuffs, not allowing me to use any magic. And without a single skip in his step, he danced over to my side and sat on the table beside me. "Now I know you're a bit nervous about what's going on. Don't try to worry too much about any of this. We're just slapping a few things on you to test the response of some of your nervous functions."

"Every time you're near me, I suffer." I groaned as I struggled against the cold gels and painful presses of the nodes against my skin.

"Aw, don't be so callous to me." He mewled, stroking my head with his hoof. "Or maybe you meant it in a romantic way."

"If it wasn't for the creature you made, I would wish for death." I replied to him.

"If you were dead, I'd have very little use for you." He said as he twirled his cane. "I need you alive. I never had any intent to let you die. In fact, when you came close to biting it against the other human I pitted against you, I swore that I was already proposing in my brain ways I could keep your brain active. I mean a severed head can live up to around thirty seconds, you'll have a good seven of pure consciousness left from the moment you're separated from your body. I've learned to prolong that state for a good two years before you'll start to drift to your next phase."

"Please just shut up." I begged before wincing at the sensation of his magic pulling against my buttocks, spreading them apart and inciting the stinging pain.

"Aw, you're still a bit sore from my little anal experiment? I have some meds for that, you know."

"Go fuck yourself." I hissed through my teeth.

The stallion chuckled. "Again? I mean I already did all of the work yesterday being the untraditional cock-sleeve and all. So sure, I wouldn't mind it..." The stallion glided his hooves down my abdomen, just above my pubic region. "As long as you're willing to provide me a saddle to ride on."

I looked away from him, not even giving him the satisfaction of seeing my eyes. "I hate your fucking existence."

"Your body says otherwise." He quipped back, giggling as he climbed on top of me again. "I know today's session is supposed to be a bit different, but I'm willing to revisit some of the prior findings for consistency."

"Get off of me, you fucking rapist." I growled with every fiber of my being hating him being around me, much less on top of me.

The stallion tilted his mouth, pursing his lips to show dissatisfaction. "...Okay. I guess we'll get started with today's experiments then. Jumping right in it."

"Why don't you find a dark hole to jump into instead?" I grumbled under my breath.

"Doctor's log #17495811. Genus-species categorization: Homo Sapien, Subject number in file #0000001. Subject in control phase, appears to be less combative physically but very combative vocally. Seems to exhibit retaliatory behavior caused by experiments done prior. Drug effects have completely worn off. Subject is now undergoing an electrostimulation study. Phase zero, control phase initiated for sixty seconds. Standby."

"Electrostimulation?" I questioned the psycho. "What are you going to do, pump me full of drugs again and make me feel like I'm on top of the world while you send a few volts into my body?"

He didn't seem to have the same smile on his face as just moments before. Instead, this one was much more muted. "Oh no, today isn't focused on physical arousal. I am merely assessing your neurotic response. I already have results from a deceased human, now I need the same from a living one... Id est: You."

"And you think this'll break me?" I questioned confident in my pain tolerance. "Listen, I ain't as damaged of a product where the smallest shit you do can snap my spirts on a whim. Yesterday I was a bit shook up, despondent even, but I had time to stew on that a little more. When I get out, I'll be using every last bit of what I have left in the arsenal to turn you and your zombies into a bunch of mismatched body parts!"

The stallion shook his head at me. "Tsk tsk tsk. I can see you were never disciplined as a child to obey and show appreciation for what you are given."

"What can I say, I had a troubled childhood with some unusual impressions." I replied.

"Impressions?" Umbra asked slowly, turning himself to me. "Nondis, troubling impressions would be if I had gouged out your eyes and murdered your parents. Troubling impressions would be if I sold you off to slavery shortly after your mother died. Troubling impressions would be if I showed up in a public square to punish your family for the actions of one, to kill him on the spot, point to you and your entire family to have them executed by means of an angry mob, to have your father beat you in public to save your live and imperil his, to get dragged out of the fray while watching as your families heads are raised on pikes, to serve those who you once called your friends, only to discover that they would sooner make you a mare than to treat you with the respect you deserve, and then to use that impression to drive every sexual fantasy you have moving forward. Now those are unusual impressions to cause a troubled youth, not some old man battling with his inner demons once or twice a week."

My arms tightened as I lunged out at the stallion, ready to do anything to defend my grandfather's memory. "You motherfucker, you don't even get to put your lips on my grandfather's life."

"No, but I put more than that on his grandson." He said as he levitated the tape recorder over to himself, pressing the button. "So tell me, how do you feel?"

"I feel like hell has an overdrawn account, and your name's on it."

"You don't have the slightest clue, do you?" He lifted the recorder to his lips. "Control phase complete. Now initializing phase one. Standby..."

He tapped his cane to the ground, and every muscle in my body tensed so much that I felt nothing but pain all throughout. I screamed in reaction to the immense sensation of electricity running through my body. He looked to a device on the wall as it measured out how much I was taking in volts. As what I could see, it was tilted on the lime-green portion of the meter, sometimes jumping into the yellow. The meter had a sticky-note on the front of it with an arrow pointing down to a particular area in the red zone, above it was a crudely drawn skull and crossbones.

After a while, the voltage came to a stop, the indicator sweeping all the way down to emerald green at the very bottom of the meter. I regained my breath from the stress as Umbra spoke. "I have ways of breaking you. This is just one of many. I could make this easy for you and keep it minimized to a few trials. All you have tot do is call me... 'babe'... or master. I would really love to be called master."

"You don't own me!"

"You may think that. But here's a reality check for you." He said before slamming his cane down yet again.

The voltage came back up again, and I went right back into suffering. I jolted and writhed in a vain attempt to force my freedom. The stallion looked at a pocket watch to seemingly count the time he kept the voltage running. He didn't mouth anything as he counted, just watching until he was satisfied with the passage of time. He tapped his cane against the ground, causing the volts to stop.

As I took the time to recover from the second round of electricity being sent through my body, he continued to speak. "So what do you think happened when you lost? In fact, what do you think happened when you thought you could get away? You thought that you would be able to get back home Scott-free? That's not how it works in the arena, in my arena. Those who run, those who retreat, those who get knocked out, those who die, those are the losers. And I'm sure you understand full and well what the rules were, what I say goes. So when I say I want to have a wager, I mean that the wager is already active. And if I win, I am entitled to the ends of that wager. So guess what, your running scared just sealed my win with a... John Hancock, if you will. All my little creature did was secure my winnings at whatever cost." He twirled his cane with each word he spoke. "And. You. Are. My. Trophy."

His cane slammed down again, sending yet another wave of electricity to run rampant on my nervous system. I contorted to try and and separate myself from the pain. Again, it resulted in failure due to the restraints on my body.

The voltage stopped yet again, Umbra was leaning over me. "That means your consent is invalid, worthless. What I choose to do with you is of my choice, not one you can alter. I haven't made an example of you as much as I should have, but I wanted to make sure you got it all out of the way so I could keep a tally. And now, it's time to pay up. Your disobedience, your arrogance, your hubris, blatant disregard of the rules, that's all repaid here and now. I always said that it wasn't what you would do for others, it's what you're going to do for me. And I mean that. And my intent for you is much grander, but I would be a fool to not put you in your place before we start working towards that vision. You must learn respect, you must learn discipline, and you must learn obedience." The disgusting deviant then kissed against my neck, sucking against me before whispering into my ear. "And if I must break you, if I must pry apart those succulent cheeks for all the days of your life, if I must open every cavity of your body to make that happen, then so be it. I will breed you like the mare I can have you become. I will destroy you and the image you see yourself as. I will sink my teeth into your meat, and will tell you how delicious you are. I will break every last perception, to make you see me as what I truly deserve to be... to worship me."

He retracted himself, looking down to see the current state of his arousal. I looked elsewhere, waiting to see where he would go next, as in either case I would be in a great deal of pain. The stallion brought the recorder to his lips.

"Phase one, complete. Subject is still resilient. Phase two initiating, standby." He said as his hoof wandered between his haunches. "I'm so sorry. I've seemed to have gotten stirred a great deal being so closet to you. I might make this one a bit short, at least have a break in between to... relieve some of the tension between us. Just stay strong for a bit longer."

He tapped his cane to the floor twice. A massive surge of power flowed through my body, overwhelming the muscles and nerves in my body. I shouted out in full-fledged agony over the excruciating pain, I could barely even look at the module for long enough to see how high the power had been turned up to. But I did notice that the power jumped into the orange-red portion of the meter before settling into the yellow on occasion.

The power was shut off again, this time much quicker than the last two times he shocked me. I glanced over to see the meter, but it didn't fall out of the orange yet. My eyes expanded as I looked to Umbra, who touched himself as he watched. "Oh you thought it was over? You see, a sustained shock will cause permanent nerve damage. And I'm gonna need those to work properly if I want to have you respond to my medicines the way I intend. No nerves, no more feel good, feel bad, feel anything for that matter, which means no more sex. Can't have you being numb to everything. So I'm doing this to make sure your nerves aren't completely fried out, just agitated enough to feel a little something... in speaking of which─"

The volts came ramping back, putting me in the same agony as the first shock of the current phase. My voice had started to crack and strain with as much as I was screaming. The straps on my wrists had started to wear into my skin with as much as I struggled to break free of them.

"The scientific process is truly an arousing experience, one could even say... electrifying. Wouldn't you agree?"

Canterlot Dungeons...
***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

After breakfast and a little more insight from Twilight about our new role. We were given the all-clear to walk into the dungeons and ask this damper trot guy some questions. Once it was all said and done and permissions were given, we gained access to a relatively dark hall illuminated only by torchlight. While the flames were actually blue, we weren't stupid enough to even find out why or if those flames were actually hot. Luna might have said that the flames were a special enchantment that would only illuminate as ponies walked by and how they wouldn't burn to the touch, but we weren't interested in testing that theory.

After getting distracted by the torches, we were shown the door to the holding cell of the senator, courtesy of Solemn Oath. Alabaster rolled his neck, cracking a few bones in his spine before giving an exasperated sigh of resignation. "Ugh... okay, let's get this over with."

Alex questioned the stallion. "Hey, quick question Mr. Alabaster... Charm, was it?"

"That is my father-given name, please don't wear it out." He replied seeming mildly annoyed in the moment.

"So what's this guy's deal? Like why do you hate him so much?"

"If you were a member of the Inner Circle, you would understand." The stallion said before giving the human a quick glance up and down. "Though I guess it wouldn't be fair for me to even paint you off like that, you don't know anything. It's not like you're Nondis." He said with an apologetic tone. "In short, he's a hypocritical kiss-ass with a fetish for putting down others for his own gain. And when he hears something he likes, he tends to get greedy and ask for a sweetener to seal the deal."

"Sounds like politics to me." I said with a shrug.

"He was in cahoots with my dad all the time. So you can imagine how some conversations and deals went over in the Inner Circle. If the old bastard wanted anything, he'd try to reason with Umbra. If Damper wanted anything , he'd ream the monster's colon just to get him an audience. Now that I know how close those two work, it all makes sense."

"Doesn't sound like anything different than what normal politicians do." Cliff added. "Maybe Ummie's a corporate donor of some sort."

"He's like me and my sister, sitting on assets with a value north of a billion bits. But unlike me and my sister, it's been rumored that Umbra has all these bits from decades on decades of wealth. Multiple generations of lavish gifts and acquired assets, all of the Corrotto District is his to own. And with all that dark money rotating around, best believe everyone there pay their tithes. Vendors, dealers, brothel owners, guild members, all the above, they give to him and he protects their business from search and seizure."

"All of Rome must pay Caesar his due." Stanton mumbled.

"But you and your sister are both billionaires. why is it that you have less pull than him politically?" Alex questioned.

"Because we haven't owned a whole district for a length of time that they can date before even our parents was born. Even our grandparents told us stories of the infamous mad doctor who's name was to never be spoken." Blue explained. "And with his pull in politics starting before we were even thought of, it's no wonder why we've been relatively powerless."

"And also, we have a billion bits in assets, but some hundred millions in the actual physical bits themselves. Umbra may have a billion bits in assets, but he also has billions in other avenues, just circulating and making back every bit and bolly he spends, even multiplying by a tiny fraction of what he put in. He lives long enough to collect his interests, he continues to cultivate his brand, imagine a CEO who has it all living for over a hundred years while managing their business, you don't lose anything. Compare that to us, the fact that our mother died and entitled us the entire trust fund and business, we can still mess things up and lose everything because we could simply not have an understanding of how to keep it rolling. So while we sit on billions, he sits on hundreds of billions, a bottomless trench of riches. They go to him because his pockets don't end with a million in private donations."

"And with limitless pockets comes limitless favor." Blue concluded. "Play to his favor, and he plays to yours. Our father was never really fond of Umbra, much for the same reason why he harassed Nondis so frequently. You don't play by his rules, he doesn't give you any significant favors."

"So your dad was jealous of the guy because he followed the rules?" Stanton questioned the pair. "If you hated your dad so much, that should be a win."

"It would've been, until I had to join the Inner Circle to protect Blue. And of course, protecting blue came at a cost of myself, an act I was to perform on every member of the group... including dear old dad."

"And what was that?" I questioned him.

The stallion looked to all of us and then to the guardsmare who escorted us. His face turned even more sour. "...I don't feel comfortable talking about it. Let's just get this over with."

The mare appeared confused as he waited for her to open the door. "I guess it had to be pretty bad."

As we entered into the holding cell, the senator sat in a corner, calmly stacking pebbles on top of one another. He looked up to see us entering. "Ah, quite the cavalcade of visitors today. I take it that the captain found out the hard way about where he stood in the grand scheme of things. Interesting."

"Way to indict yourself from the jump." Alex commented. "Least we know you're complicit."

"My being complicit in what exactly?" The stallion questioned in a snarky manner. "If you know anything, please be sure to run the evidence with my lawyer."

"To have it struck from the record? No thanks." Blue replied as she walked into the room. "We know what you did, we're eye witnesses."

"Witnesses? What crime did I commit that you've paid witness to?" The senator inquired. "If I've done anything, it's my bearing witness to the illegal activities of you and your problem-child of a brother. Illegal bartering, illegal spellcasting, accessory to mareslaughter, sexual deviancy, and even necrophilia? Tsk-tsk, my dear Blue Royal."

Blue appeared fed-up with the stallion already. Meanwhile Cliff had been caught off guard by the last accusation. "Ayo, can we walk about that last one he just said?"

"I don't want to." She replied with disgust.

Kalimba then answered. "Umbra took de body of her faddah and used it to assume himself as he raped her. Den when he was finished, he left the rotten body on top of her." Kalimba then cleared her throat. "Also an unknown fact, a dead pony's semen still can and will impregnate you."

"Oh wow." Stanton replied with visible revulsion. "That officially goes down as some shit I was not ready to hear."

"To make matters worse, the entire crowd was made to wear the face of my deceased mother... that face was also the last expression my mother had as she committed suicide." Blue finished before bringing her attention back to the senator. "But I've grown at peace with knowing her face in that moment, because you gave me the reason why."

"Ah yes, your father being a pedophile before her death, all that jazz."

We all looked to one another with uncertainty, unable to process all of what this guy was throwing out there in the lightning round from hell. Alabaster walked up and sat himself before the senator. "And this is why I don't have a desire to even come here and interrogate the bastard."

The senator smiled as he saw the stallion's face. "Well, if it isn't daddy's little disappointment. Maybe if you were born a girl, he would've found more interest in you."

Rickey's jaw fell as he muttered to himself. "Is there like an off-switch to the shade he's throwing out here."

"There's never an off-switch." Blue answered.

"Ohhhhh Basty..." The senator teased. "Did you ever give the disclaimer to these humans of what you really are? Or do you have some sort of secret you want to hide?"

"We already know, he's gay." Alex stated, causing the stallion to look back with worry. "My only issue is why do you think that's something you can hold over his head like it's a bad thing?"

"What he does in his private life doesn't reflect in public spaces." Solemn Oath replied. "So what's the problem? He should be entitled to love who he wants in his own life."

"Not only in private, but he should be free to admit it in public spaces. That's like me having an issue with one of my friends in college, just because she likes women doesn't mean that she should be omitted from hanging out with us. We all understand our boundaries, and society shouldn't get to suppress her rights and liberties because she only dates her own sex. That's just bullshit." I added.

Alabaster started to smile as we all made our comments. But a chuckle from the stallion quickly wiped the smile from his face. "What does that matter? That may be the case in your world, but this isn't your world. This is Equestria, our laws are different here. What he does, he knows it's illegal."

The once-silent stallion finally stood for himself and replied to the senator. "Then I guess you're just as complicit in that crime then, because I know that you've looked at me more than once and said that you would sooner leave your wife for what I give you every meeting."

Rickey threw his hands in the air, absolutely done with hearing the bombshells being dropped on today. "And there it is, that's the main reason why you don't like him."

"Pretty much." Alabaster confessed. "He puts me down for being gay, but would sooner have me to degrade myself over him for a favor."

The senator chuckled once more as he pointed to Alabaster. "And being that you're here means that you have a favor to ask." His hoof wandered down, he started to smirk as he tilted his head. "So... How far are you willing to go this time, and for what, information about your wishing-to-be-dead friend?"

Most of us turned our heads away, already putting together what he was putting down. Alabaster showed his anger with the senator. "You really don't have the leverage right now."

"I believe I do." He replied.

"We know you're still in communication with Umbra." Blue added, both her and Kalimba appearing the least phased out of all of us. "We know what he's created, and we know that you know the new location of his hideout. So that means you know the location of where Umbra is, as well as Nondis."

The senator snickered. "Seems like I have more leverage than you think, Alabaster. Maybe it's better to show homage by your traditional means. You know how I like it, don't you boy?" I immediately plugged my ears, only to hear a yell immediately after. "And what do you think you're doing!? You don't think I would pass up an opportunity to make this deal a little more entertaining, would you? Unplug those ears and have a turn around, if you'd please."

"She's not involved in our deal." Alabaster strongly worded in my defense.

"She?" The stallion paused as he looked to me, his eyes stopping at my chest. "Oh, oh-hohoho! Now that makes me really excited to say a thing or two. I see two good methods to get me to possibly divulge in some information."

Alabaster dropped his head as he realized that his argument had opened the door for an even worse transaction to come to mind. I immediately covered my chest with my arms, shaking my head rapidly. "Uh, no. Nononononono no. I have a boyfriend─"

"You have a fellow human who is going to suffer all the more if you don't oblige." He interrupted my refusal with his insistence. "So, how about you help your fellow long-legger by helping good ol' Alabaster give me a good time. Maybe I'll get the honor of finishing on the soft mammaries and face of a human mare."

"¡Pinche pendejo!" Rick shouted as he lunged at the senator, being held back by both Cliff and Stanton.

Feeling more emboldened by seeing my boyfriend's volatile reaction, the senator continued to rack up terms. "Ooh, you're a spicy fellow. I guess I should let you stand there and watch as she gives me the experience of a lifetime."

"Please calm down, you're only giving him ideas." Alabaster suggested calmly.

"CALM DOWN!? HE WANTS TO FUCK MY GIRLFRIEND IN FRONT OF ME LIKE THAT'S COOL!? I'LL HAVE HIS FUCKING HEAD SENT TO HIS FAMILY!"

Kali walked up to him and tried to urge him to simmer down. "I know dat you are upset, you have every right. But you must remain calm, he is de only one who can tell us where your friend is, who can help you save your world."

The senator continued to prod at Rick's anger. "Oh how soft they must be. I can't wait to feel them, to look at them, to taste them."

"No deal." I sternly replied to the perverted senator.

He then turned himself away from Alabaster in response. "Then I'll have no recourse with you, Basty. You heard the lady, no deal."

Kalimba stepped in and pleaded to stand in my place. "If you must, I will offer myself─"

"HUMAN skin... or bust." Damper stated adamantly. "I missed out on my time from last night, I want recompense for what your human friend did in getting me here. It is only fair that I feel a human female's warmth to alleviate my humiliation. It is only just."

Blue attempted to negotiate with the senator. "My brother, Kalimba, you get those two and me, you'll have a foursome. Three ponies all treating you like you─"

"I want nothing to do with you, Blue Royal. You are your father's prize, I won't clean up after his mess. And quite frankly, your brother gives me better service." He brazenly insulted the mare. "And you, Kalimba Mavembe, I don't really like tainting my loins with such an unexclusive prize. At least a quarter of the Canterrot populace have known your body. Hell, even the captain knows of you, we've watched him turn you into a crazed nympho. You think you're exclusive when you're just a pass-me-down. Even your father saw little wealth in having you around, it's no wonder why he's moved on to have a beautiful, full-blooded Equestrian family as opposed to some zebra mule."

…I can clearly see why no one likes him.

"My tastes are exclusive." He continued. "And I wouldn't have any other exclusivity than the lips and throat of my fellow senator's son... and the soft, sinking flesh of a human female gracing me with such bountiful gifts."

"ENOUGH!" Solemn Oath shouted as she summoned a spear and held it to his throat. "Senator, you are the most vile and degrading pony I have ever met! And I will have no more of this! You will tell us what you know, or you will suffer!"

"Suffer like your career did when you picked a fight with the captain? You could've at least won if you were going to make a move as stupid as that." He mocked the guardsmare where she stood. "It was nice to see you in the selection lineup during the captain's visit to Arimaspi Mountain, but you've been on the down since then. Whatever happened to you?"

"You don't know where I am in my career, and you don't have the space to speak! You're a prisoner!"

The senator continued to harp at her emotions. "And you don't have the accolades to hold yourself up to me. You're just some stupid lady with a career gone nowhere. And what did it get you other than two decades of your personal pursuit of happiness getting tossed off the mountainside? Do you have anything to show for your service other than some medals that will wear dull in a few months time? What's the thrill in living such a boring and unfulfilled life that's lead you to disappointment's doorstep every single day? You wake up in the morning, get situated for the day, you come to work on time, you live a clean and virtuous life, you do everything the right way, and you still find yourself in the same place as you were five years ago. Meanwhile some human drops out of the sky and gets everything you want in mere months of being here. He even gets the princess' affection, and not just any princess either. He and Princess Celestia are actively seeing each other, coddling one another, she's even going so far as to relieve that thousand year itch with that creature. You think the rumors of her having a suitor is mired in secrecy when it's been staring you in the face the entire time? Your princess isn't the illustrious figure you think she is, she's just impatiently waiting to lift her tail aside and repeatedly press her haunches into the captain, if she hasn't already done so by now."

While Solemn still held her spear to his throat, his words had cut into her in some way, fiercely even. Her ears fell and her eyes softened for a moment before she reasserted that blade into his throat. But instead of being steely, they were filled with pleading and desperation, sadness and anger, almost as if her world had been razed all around her. Her jaw tightened as she shook, the tip of the spear almost vibrated with the shudders she gave.

"Aw, I've broken the illusion you had for her. That's just so pathetic and sad, that you'd devote your entire career to a royal who could care less for you." Damper said with a victorious smile. "So what then? Are you going to stop me from speaking now? Time is of the essence, and the clock is ticking. You're either going to give me what I want, or you'll leave this cell with just as much as what you came in here with; Nothing. And I'm sure the captain is having himself a grand time. You, Solemn Oath, should be happy that he's gone, out of the way, and you're next in line... I'm so sorry, you would've been next in line."

I couldn't stand being here anymore. We came here to ask this guy some questions about one thing, and he's here verbally and emotionally violating everyone in the room. There's no one subject either, it's all extremely personal. It's as if the guy did his research and then followed up. And the only way he might talk is if I go along with Alabaster and give him what he wants. Nothing is guaranteed with this guy, there's no way we're getting through to him without being able to torture him in some way. He's just that deep.

I looked over to Rick, who was just pacing around the room with how pissed off he was. Alex wasn't able to say much because of what little he knew and how to even go about asking the questions. Stanton and Cliff were keeping Rick held off until he cooled, and that wasn't going to be any time soon.

How in the hell would Nondis even act in this situation? Cool, collected, I'm sure after dealing with Ummie, he'd be just as calm as the moment before the storm. He'd have magic to summon up whatever he wanted right then, he'd be able to share whatever secrets he has on him to even the playing field. He'd be hardened to hearing about everyone's personal strife, less likely to react after having seen it all. He'd be perfect in a moment like this.

Instead, it was Alabaster Charm who was leading us. And he lead in the only way he knew how.

"Melanie, you ready?"

"I-a-uh, what?" I stammered in confusion.

He looked to me and nudged his head towards the senator. "C'mon. I know you're not too experienced with stallions, might as well teach you on the go."

While I wasn't as certain of what to do or how to act, Blue picked up on her brother's cues and positioned herself behind the senator, massaging his shoulders. She waved me over. "Yeah. I mean we don't have much of a choice now. We just have to roll with it." As she hid behind his line of sight, she gave me a glance down towards the stallion and winked. "So get on down here and learn a thing or two. You can use it on your boyfriend late to give him the time of his life."

Rick was very firm about how he felt about the developing situation. "Melanie, don't do this. Please don't just..." He turned around to punch a wall in frustration.

I wanted to run over to him, at least to check his hand. But I felt a gentle tug on my arm, leading me to the pair of siblings as they went about the business of appeasing the perverted senator. Alabaster welcomed me next to him as he whispered in my ear. "We play our cards right, you won't even have to touch him. Just play like you don't have a clue, act awkward."

The stallion looked up to Blue behind him. "I thought I told you that I didn't want any part of you."

"I'm just here to make you feel comfortable. I can give a pretty good massage..." She said as she looked to the zebra standing across the way. "But you know, Kalimba's is way better at that than I am. She even says that some massages actually help increase sensitivity and builds sexual tension."

Without skipping a beat, Kalimba walked right on over and assumed Blue's place. "She is right, you know. I know de only thing you see out of me is fast-fast, give and go. But I gave de captain my best work, my true work, my slow work." She said as she started rubbing the chest of the stallion. "A fivesome with a human female, quite de exclusive experience."

Blue's horn glowed with a spell that started to connect a dim stream to the unicorn's head. She gave his horn a quick lick before she spoke. "This is just a sensory increase. Whatever you're going to feel is going to be amplified by almost ten times as much. You're gonna love it."

The senator grunted as he felt the pair of hooves moving up and down his chest, along with another pair rubbing his belly. Alabaster kissed down on his abdomen, slowly inching down to where the stallion started to show his arousal. "Okay, lay it on down, big guy. Let's get you nice and comfy." He said as he pushed damper down to lay on his back.

Watching the other three just quietly assume their roles, I was quietly observant of how they moved and acted. It almost seemed like they were really into what they were doing. The level of dedication they had was surprising, they were actually entertaining this guy, like he was a paying customer who was offering fifty grand for this. I glanced back to see Alex looking away uncomfortably. Solemn Oath still appeared to be reasoning with herself. Stanton had his attention solely on Rick, who had his attention solely on me. Cliff simply watched with moderate curiosity of seeing how this was going to go. Alabaster moved me even closer to him and made way for his 'client' to fully reveal himself.

Admittedly, being a pony for a month had desensitized me to pony genitals to an extent. Ponies normally don't wear clothes and they do a lot of moving around. Whatever happens with them usually just happens in the flow of life, so you're bound to see a lot of something even when you're not expecting to. Sex isn't on the forefront of my mind when I see some balls bouncing around, or a tail shuffling about. And I did have some experience with the equine male, just only from being an equine myself, that and the partner also being my boyfriend who was transformed along with me. We had moments where we explored the feel, the anatomy, the bodily reaction, the scents, all those things to create the unique experience. So seeing Damper Trot at his full length didn't bother me.

In fact... it was admittedly the opposite.

I didn't like this asshole at all, and his personality was completely trashy. But seeing that thing throb like a toy from Bad Dragon had some thoughts running through my head. I didn't like it, it was just there. And Alabaster was leaning me in closer to give me an instructional, I guess to make it appear that I was going to be more of a participant. "Now you see how he's standing up like this?" He questioned, using a ring of his magic to hold him at his base. "He likes certain things and spots to be paid attention to. Now I'm gonna show you what you're gonna do when he's like this. First, you're going to prime him a bit, get him worked up a little. I have my magic, you have your fingers."

The yellow ring of magic rose and fell slowly against the stallion's length. I looked to Alabaster's horn, actually surprised that he was really doing it himself. I guess somewhere inside I had wondered if he would legitimately take it even further for the sake of a show. It was hard to tell. But Damper reached down, seemingly to prime himself a little faster than Alabaster's pace.

The young stallion knocked his hoof away, almost chiding him like he was about to take cookies from the jar without asking. Alabaster smirked over to me as he made a comment about that. "Now the first rule about pleasing and teasing, set your starting pace and go with it. And if he wants to try and speed things up, you discourage him from speeding you along. Let him know that you're the one dictating the flow here. Let him experience the journey, not the destination."

I don't think I've ever had the opportunity to watch male-on-male before, but with the way Alabaster spoke, I could tell that he was going to show me something I didn't know. Probably even show me something I couldn't even do. I'm starting to get worried, he might actually go all-in here.

With Damper throbbing with anticipation, the young stallion looked to me and continued his lecture. "Okay, now with that out of the way, you're gonna tilt him in and kiss him here." No hesitation, he did exactly as he said to do, making sure that his lips were moist enough to slowly come off of his skin. "Again, but slower with each peck towards the top. Let him want the moment you come down." With care and eyes locked to his client, he pressed his lips against the turgid length of the stallion. With each separation came a soft audible smack, slowing as he reached the top. "Okay, now after you get up there, come back down and follow the curvature of his lower shaft with your tongue, long broad strokes." As he demonstrated his directions, I couldn't help but to become astounded at how he made it sound like he was describing an artform.

It was really mesmerizing to watch. I didn't think he would be so thorough, so delicate. He hated the guy and yet he was giving him his best work. I looked back up to Damper, who was getting lost in the moment, letting his hooves wander and hover towards the stallion who pleased him. "Yes, that's it. Right there."

...Okay Melanie, breathe.

The soft groans of the senator were an increasing occurrence, an ambience accompanied by the soft whispers Blue fed into his ears, the sound of his fur being rubbed into by Kalimba and her slow hooves. Blue stopped feeding him words, kissing against his horn to make him grunt with an unknown desire. My eyes widened and my breaths grew shallow in watching the trio commit to their work. I can't really say that I wasn't shocked, more so that I was feeling the sexual energy being radiated throughout the room...

...And I was starting to warm up with it.

I tried to focus on the objective overall, but with me being so close to Alabaster as he worked I grew distracted. I just wanted to see how far he would really take it. Actually, I was quietly rooting for him to do it. "Okay, now you look at him, open your mouth wide and show him your throat. Pat him against your tongue." He explained as he performed his instructions, lightly laughing as he angled himself for what came next. "Take him by surprise, he'll likes the immediate shock value." He meant what he said, I watched as he took his entire size and throated him like he had no reflex or obligations to breathe.

"Ohhh, shit!" The senator whispered in an airy voice. He glanced down to the stallion and praised him for his work. "Yes, you know how to treat me, don't you?"

"Mmm-hmm." Alabaster confirmed as he rose back up to speak, his ascent coming with the sound of air being reintroduced to his throat. "Now don't worry about that, it'll come in time with some training. That's just a thing I do to get them excited. But now, you work him at your pace. Don't worry about being neat."

My eyes were fixated on his movements. Everything about his work had made me feel pretty intimidated. The sight of the bulge in his neck with each time he swallowed him down, to the gargling sounds he made on the way back out, the slurping, the laughing, the humming, it's almost as if he was enjoying it. His eyes didn't leave once to see what he was doing, they remained locked on the client. He treated that thing like it was his to ride. And then he stopped, pulling off as he felt the client getting close.

The senator expressed his desire as he throbbed freely, his tip flaring out greatly. "Oh please... don't stop now."

Alabaster looked to me and spoke. "You might not know this, but you can feel when he's about to cum." I know it, but I couldn't help but to feel disappointed that he didn't finish the job. I don't know why I wanted him to finish other than getting me out of doing some of the work, but I was looking forward to seeing that moment. The stallion continued with his advice. "If you keep him there for a while, he will actually build on that. Build on it enough and he'll give you a good load. Your objective here is to keep him there for as long as you can."

"Y-yeah." I answered as the stallion periodically used his magic to keep him edged.

Kalimba sat on his chest, massaging him on his torso and kissing him on his neck. Blue rubbed her hoof against his horn as she whispered to him. "Look at you, I bet you can't wait for Melanie to crush you between her breasts, can you?"

His hooves immediately went to shaking, he lifted his hips, trying to thrust into the air. A thick stream of precum oozed from his veiny cock. "Yes. Give it to me. Please."

A pair of auras grew from the ring Alabaster had set on him. He also leaned me in closer to give the appearance that I was doing what he wanted. His magic even moved in an attempt to simulate the experince. With Kalimba sitting on his chest, she made sure that he couldn't see what was going on down below. And with Blue narrating his experience, he was convinced that he was getting the exclusive attention he desired.

While I didn't want him to risk a misfire and bust on me, I reassumed my role from learning observer to slutty instigator. As Alabaster was about to give the senator another tonguebath surprise, I held his head down as his magic worked on either side of his shaft. "Yeah. You getting that cock ready for me, babe?"

Absolutely stunned, he snapped out of character for just a split second before going right back into it. "Mmm-hmm." He said as he battered his own face with it. "I bet you wanna ride it, don't you?"

"Yeah... I want him to cum right now." I moaned.

That was the only trigger he needed. Without warning, a thick rope of his seed jettisoned out, hitting both me and Alabaster. Seeing the unexpected orgasm taking place, the young stallion quickly sank his lips down to the hilt to collect every last ounce of his load. The senator screamed and grunted with every thrust he made. The older stallion continued to ride out his final tremors deep in Alabaster's throat.

While I was disgusted by the stray shot, I was also very much aroused in seeing him finish the way that he did. I was actually almost intoxicated by the event and the smell, probably some of the side effects of the transformation. Maybe the others were having to deal with what I did, what I felt in the moment, the energy.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

Kalimba was completely dry, unphased, just going through the motions. Blue looked past the zebra and nodded her head at her brother. He rose and fell on the stallion one last time, gave one last gulp, and winked at me. And then...

"AAAAAHHHH!! LET ME GO! LET ME GO!" The senator screamed out like he had discovered a gruesome murder. I looked up to see how Kalimba had pinned his chest down, her magic keeping his hooves pinned beside him. Blue's spell had continued to work, but she wasn't smiling about it. I looked back down to Alabaster, who had some blood coming from his mouth, his teeth firmly embedded around the senator's genitals.

It took me that long to finally realize what was going on. This entire situation was a setup, one where they minimized my involvement, and definitely made him comfortable enough to let his guard down. It was a stroke of genius, also a stroke of other things, but mainly genius.

I cleaned off my face, not too happy with the surprise he gave but also not too thrilled about getting so invested that I was the only one to come out of it with a bad case of blue-balls, metaphorically speaking of course. Rick was not too thrilled with the results, but he was happy to see the senator getting some less-than-preferential treatment. Cliff had started walking over, holding a fist over his mouth as he observed the situation up close. Alex and Stanton cringed as they held themselves out of instinct. Solemn merely averted her eyes, not wanting to see anything else.

Cliff made fun of the ensnared senator. "GOD DAYUM! He went from giving you the Gwak-Gwak 3000 XK Deluxe to puttin' your ass in the Vasectomy Vice Grip 4's! Gahawd dayum!"

Rick was eager to pull up and mock him right along with Cliff. "Yeah, you thought you was living sweet, huh!? Thinking you was gonna make me watch my girlfriend service you like you're entitled to her body. Well guess who's smiling now? Pendejo."

"Hey dawg, I heard you wanted that exclusive work. So we gave you the once in a lifetime experience of getting your dick sucked completely off. It's all of the low-low price of free."

"Nah, just the price of a little circumcision, just a little off the top." Rickey joked.

"So do you want that high fade, temp fade, low cut, or you looking for that MICHAEL JORDAN?"

"You two are having way too much fun with this." I stated.

"Shit. After talkin' all that good shit a second ago, best believe this nigga finna get roasted like some Hebrew Nationals. He really can't be mad!"

The senator wasn't too fond of being made a mockery. "Ugh! Will you bumbling buffoons help me─AAAAHHHH AAAHHHGHH GETHIMOFF GETHIMOFF GETHIMOFF! GETHIMOFF"

Alabaster was very firm on his grip, and not eager to let go either. Blue leaned over with her spell still active. "It's not so fun when you're the one who's suffering in front of a viewing audience, is it?"

"I don't know. He seems to be enjoying it." Kalimba joked. "Probably de spell you're using."

"Definitely that." She replied before turning back to the senator. "And I bet you're wondering why is this so excruciating, at least a little more than usual. See here's the thing. This thing I have on you amplifies all of your nerve endings throughout your body, making whatever you're going through feel ten times that. And unlike certain drugs that can amplify one certain chemical of the brain, this hits all of them. So whatever my brother is giving you right now, you're feeling ten of those."

The senator stammered and struggled as he felt the tightening rows of teeth threaten to sever him from his stallionhood. "Okay! Okay, I give! I'll tell you everything you want! Just let me go! Please!"

"It didn't have to be this way, but sure. Why not?" Alex said in deadpan. "So Umbra's hideout. Where is it?"

The senator appeared frantic, trying to find some way to get himself out of his predicament. "Okay... He in the Faustian Temple, the old one."

"The entire arena is built under the old temple in Canterrot." Blue chided back at him, nodding to her brother to tighten his grip.

As the teeth closed further in, drawing more blood, the stallion hollered out his confession. "WAIT WAIT! I mean the newer temple! Off the corner of Canter and Stockyard!"

Blue looked up to Kalimba. "I'm not a churchgoer, where is that?"

Solemn still had her head turned away, but she at least answered Blue's question. "You take Main Avenue and turn on Canter Boulevard. Keep going until you see a older white gothic church made of limestone bricks. It's the biggest thing on that street, you can't miss it."

Stanton pulled out his phone. "I'm gonna jot this stuff down."

"So when we get inside, how do we find him? How do we find Nondis?" I questioned.

"You'll probably find them together! He'll be in the Umbral Lab, a place deep within the mountain! I don't know what room!"

"You are a topical gold mine, aren't you?" Kalimba questioned the senator. "Who do we talk to to get in?"

"You'll have to ask one of his cloaked ones, I don't know." He replied.

"Have you ever set hoof in that lab?" Alex interrogated.

"I did once, but we got there from the arena! He used some sort of portal crest on a door, we were instantly there in seconds!"

"What does he have planned for the human world?" I asked him. He looked all over the room, not wanting to give an answer. "Spill it!" I screamed.

Just the slightest sensation of Alabaster's jaw tightening down was enough to keep him singing. "Ah! Okay! He wanted to build a portal to the human world! Come back with human technology and weapons, establish a religious prophecy in your world while completing the transfer of power from the royal family to the parliament! It was going to be the revolution Equestria needed!"

"That's a mouthful, can you say that one again?" Stanton questioned.

"High treason." Solemn Oath simplified.

"Solemn, think of the positions of power you'll have! The current structure being rebalanced in favor of democratically-elected ponies who will listen to the voters first!"

"That's not how it works." Alex responded. "You say it'll give the small guy, the common worker, a voice in the great big picture. But all it really does is give a reason for deep-pocketed investors and lobbyists to kill off those same voices you say you'll represent. Wanna know how I know that? We all come from a country where our elections are bought, our districts are redrawn to separate and silence communities, and then we're forced to deal with one party dominating most of our legislature because of antiquated rules and loopholes the size of the damn state we live in."

Solemn stopped averting her eyes to the situation, even walking towards the senator and giving him a piece of her mind. "I think it's funny how you said that this will be better for Equestria when all it does is benefit a bunch of old stallions in the players club. Guys like you are why we can't move forward, always holding on to the past instead of doing what's best for the future generations; Listening to them and getting their input on how to make a change, putting those plans into action and bringing them to a vote. You'll make it where ponies can't even protect themselves because you're too busy trying to appeal to a demographic who will want to set things back by fifty years or more! I may not know this Umbra guy, but I know that guys like you run to him for financial support. And what's not to believe when your entire platform is built on keeping up the illusion of conservative progress?"

"When you build a place where only your wealth class can thrive, and kill off those who resent you or offer a difference in opinion, who does dat benefit?" Kalimba then added. "You bring about a system dat is untested and you write de laws as you go. Dat is very dangerous. You want all of Canterrot to exist all over Equestria, to legislate your safe havens, your illegal trade markets, and den you get to have your fun with whomever... at whatever age. You bring Umbra's world to dis place, and expect ponies to accept it because dey supposedly have a voice."

"There's nothing wrong with being a conservative. You can advocate to keep your traditions alive and well" Stanton began. "But it's wrong when you abuse that platform to nullify the voices of others. You can't be the only voice to have a say and then make decisions that will affect those who vote against you like their opinions and concerns don't matter. That can be said for either side. But I can tell you that we all live in a state where a bunch of those same guys look at Cliff and think the worst of him, not even because of what he did, just because of what he looks like. And the way you spoke to Kalimba about her family, that's a pretty big red flag. Equestria's future shouldn't be decided by a bunch of old guys looking to relive the glory days of forty years past."

The senator grimaced as he offered his rebuttal. "And you think that our current direction is any better!? You don't even live in our world, you know nothing of it! So stay out of it!"

Blue ran her hoof against his chin, quietly speaking to him. "So... you admit to working with Umbra to uphend the current structure of government?"

"It's a revolution. One that's been much needed and long overdue." He replied through his gritted teeth.

Blue shrugged hers shoulders. "I couldn't care less of your politics, honestly. You could let all of Canterlot fall off the side of this mountain, and the only thing I'd have deep resentment for is the fact that I didn't liquidate my assets before my insurance holders renege on the coverage. This spat of you parliament-goers and royal ponies are the least of my worries. You want to know what I actually give a damn about?"

"Revenge against your father?" Damper answered.

"That, but mainly how my friends are treated. And the way you treated my family. You were smiling the entire time my brother was getting tortured. You snickered and made fun of me getting raped by my father. You shitted on Kalimba's existence, and that's a pretty big one. Now you know where my friend is being tortured and you still have the fucking balls to tell us that we should serve you to know where he is."

"I told you what you wanted! We had our deal, now let me go!" He demanded.

Blue shook her head at the senator. "You don't get it, do you? Then again, all that you ever cared about was you. But that's okay, you can care about you all the rest of your life. And I'm sure you'll love being down here for the remainder of it. But I wanna tell you something before we go. While you were here wasting our time, my friend is out there having a life-changing experience, one that he will never recover from fully. So why is it that we all have to suffer these traumatic turns in life, while you get to watch and laugh?"

The senator whimpered as Kalimba climbed off of his chest, giving Alabaster a full view of Damper Trot's face.

Blue looked to Cliff and asked him. "So what were those options you said earlier? Something about a temp fade, low cut, and something else."

"Michael Jordan." He replied.

"What is that exactly?" She inquired.

"He's a famous basketball player, notorious for winning championships and being bald. Anyone who gets their head shaved will sometimes call it a Michael Jordan." I answered.

"Oh, okay." She said as she looked to her brother with a nod. "Michael Jordan."

Alabaster smiled right back at his sister. He released his jaw for a moment, only to chomp down with all of his might. The senator unleased a hellish scream as the stallion below him yanked his head from side to side. His efforts were short-lived but effective, ripping off the stallion's penis as it sounded like velcro being yanked apart. All of us, with the exception of the three ponies who tended to him, winced and howled at the sound and sight of him being emasculated in the worst way.

Damper Trot writhed and yelped out in pain, holding himself where his once-proud-standing mast had been turned into a bloody nub. Blood started to line wherever the senator wormed and writhed. Alabaster spat the stallion's junk back in his face as he commented to him. "You can take that back now, but don't expect me to see you again. I don't do girls with strap-ons."

Alabaster walked out with the biggest blood-stained smirk on his face, his hips and tail swaying as he walked. Blue filed right after him, severing the spell she used on the castrated senator. Kalimba looked back and saw Solemn walk out after her. She then asked the guardsmare a question. "So, what do you think is de punishment for dat?"

"I don't know. I didn't really see what happened." She replied as she guided everyone out the door. "Probably just a prisoner throwing a temper tantrum."

Kali chuckled in response. "You would swear he lost something."

"Meh, I'm sure it wasn't that important." Solemn Oath stated.

Author's Note

Well that's one way to get some get-back. It could probably be the most unique way I've ever had a character suffer.

Having that said, I've broken my goal for the year. I intended to write at least a chapter per month. But instead, I volunteered to give you guys a gift. Instead of tossing out the December chapter and holding off until the first of January for the that chapter, I opted to just drop both January and February's chapters along with December of this year. I will be writing the March chapter, but after a little bit of a break. You may see March's chapter next month, maybe even see April's by the mid-point of February.

I think I did pretty good this year with the schedule, minus the hiccup of the first four months of fighting a lot of depression following the death of my grandfather and not being able to have the constant finances to help out around the home. But I can safely say that I've rebounded and then some.

I love you all and I wish you all a Happy Festivus. Hopefully I will see you all in January, provided that I get it done by January. And if not, I'll take a break and shoot for sometime early February.

See you soon, if the powers that be will allow it.

Chapter CXIV

With Nondis completely passed out, Stanton and Celestia both shared the load in carrying the unconscious man to his room. Stanton walked with him on his back, Celestia making sure to help take some of the weight off and keep him balanced. I and Alex followed the pair towards Nondis' room. And once we got there, we started thinking about if there would be any instances of Umbra trying to get him back. We suggested to the princess to maybe have some security present for any possible danger of him being abducted.

She went even further.

As soon as Princess Luna entered the room, I knew that Nondis was going to be in good company, and not just physically speaking, but also mentally speaking. She stood by Nondis' bed and surveyed his memories through Celestia, who only grew more and more upset with each one she uncovered. She would speak much of it other than her generalization from earlier.

Stanton looked down at his older brother and expressed his amazement. "Didn't think it would be that awkward to carry a guy the size of an NBA player. But that's what happens when the guy suddenly dwarfs you by eight inches."

"With those guys in the NFL, I didn't think there would be much of a difference." I stated.

"Trust me, there's a difference. Us football players may be built for bursts of speed and strength, but basketball players are framed for verticality and endurance. He might not have the vert, but the conditioning is there for him." Stanton explained before placing a hand on his brother's bare chest, observing the scars on his body. "But with the increase of height, you'd think he'd look and feel skinnier. But it's the opposite this time. He's way heavier than before."

"You'd think that he'd have stretch marks from the rapid expansion of his limbs, but then again that healing factor can play a lot of roles." I pointed out.

Alex couldn't really bear to look at his younger sibling with all the surgical scars on his body, almost appearing as though he had been unquestionably dissected. "I hope that healing factor works for the mental also. I have a feeling he's gonna be dealing with some demons that even grandpa couldn't live with."

"You heard what Celestia said, suicidal thoughts." I recalled. "I mean he's also been throwing that out there, but now we know in what ways he's been messed with."

Alex walked away, feeling pity for his sibling. "Our Nondis is gone. This is the one we have to live with from now on.... Mom and dad are not going to be happy about this one."

Meanwhile, Luna sat quietly next to the sleeping human, her horn glowing a deep sapphire blue. Celestia continued to show remorse for the workload she placed on her younger sister. "I am so sorry to have you do this Luna."

"It is our only option, sister. His mental state is beyond fractured. There's no coming back from any of what he's experienced." Luna replied. "And you say he was awake for one of his surgeries?"

"For a short while."

Luna groaned with displeasure, understanding the mental distress one would have in watching themselves getting cut open like that. "...I have a lot of work to do. You've done your part, now go and rest sister. You will need the energy for the upcoming conflict."

"Be careful, sister." Celestia said to her younger sibling before walking out of the room.

"Hey..." As the others left the room, one guard entered and stood watch over the soon-to-be spatially-unaware princess. Meanwhile Stanton and I remained to ask a final question. "Do you think he'll be somewhat okay when he wakes up?" I asked.

"That all depends on him." She answered quietly. "I can try to talk to him, get him to understand that none of what he's manifesting in his mind will ever come to pass. But a lot of the damage from his experience will haunt him for the rest of his life. And sadly, I will not be able to visit his dreams every night, as I do have an entire kingdom to witness."

Stanton shrugged, seeing very little we could do at this juncture. Instead, he kissed his brother on the forehead and gave him a careful pat on the shoulder. "Just do what you can, I guess. We can only thank you for trying and being open to it."

Luna was set to begin her work, speaking one final time. "You all get some rest. You will need it for the coming days."

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

All of my worst fears had become manifest. I was being chased by the image of Jasper heading the creature that chased me down the hallway. I tried to use my magic, but my hands had been cut off by a hatchet thrown my way by the gruesome creature itself. There were no turns, there were no hiding spots, no unlocked rooms to barricade myself in. It was just me running down an endless hallway that only seemed to have a semblance of a door at the end. But when I reached out for it, I started to realize just how small the door was, only big enough for my foot to fit through.

I kicked against the small door, trying to hopefully worm my way in somehow. But I was dragged back out before I could sneak myself through. I was tossed around much like a ragdoll before slammed to the ground like a wet mop. I struggled to stand up, at least trying my best to regain my bearings to fight off the creature who snatched me back up again. But instead of being Jasper who was heading the creature, it was my own dad. "W̴̟̗͐h̷͙̬͌́y̷̤̫͌ ̶̈́̚͜d̵̠͕́̉i̷̘̎ḋ̴̘̤ ̴̨͙̀͛y̷̩͂o̵̰͇͐ǘ̵͔͜ ̵̒͜͝d̶͓̰̂o̴̩̱̕ ̴̡̩͂ţ̷̍̃h̸͍̞̀̀ḭ̷̈s̴͇͓̈ ̵̺̈͠t̵̯̄o̴̢̲̓̽ ̶̤̑̐m̵͓̭̊̕e̵̢̮̔̀?̷̣̬̇" He questioned. "̷̲͚͋͝Ï̸̦̓ ̷̨͕̾͂t̴̳͐͂ḧ̴̩̙̔ơ̵͖̖ư̸͚̤̅g̸̯̑͋h̸̨̍t̸̹̏ ̵͉͗ý̷͖o̶̘͖͆u̵͇̰͠ ̷̯̈́w̵̯͚̆ȩ̸̳̅r̶̠̘̕e̸̢̘̊ ̵̖̎m̸͚̃̏ÿ̸̳́̂ ̸̜̳̌ș̷̈́o̶̢͑͒ͅn̴͇͋̎.̸͌͜"

Then the face of my mother took over his and spoke her reply. "I̶͇̿ ̸̰͇͒̽t̴͇̩̑o̶̖̺͝l̶̼̐̀d̷̘̏̚ ̴̹̓y̸̫̚ó̸̢̹͑ů̶͔̠̎!̷͙͂ ̸̇ͅI̸̟͙͗̒ ̶̻͐t̵̖̂͝ò̴̘͓̏ĺ̵̳͕̓d̸̜̲̅̕ ̷͖̾y̸̨̓o̶͎̿ủ̸̙͇ ̸͙͗t̵̥̐h̶̲̮͋i̷͙͌s̷̼̭̈́̒ ̸̲̿w̸͍̲̾ò̵̻̻̇u̴̦̜͗l̴͓͊d̴͚̖͐ ̴̠̹͝h̸͈̓a̷̛̖̞p̵̟͚̓p̵̮͈̓͘e̸̠͒̈́n̸̞̍͝!̶̙͑͝ ̷̜̉N̷̦͊o̶̰̯͗̿w̴̬̓͝ ̵̥͔̽͠l̷̲͖̊̀ö̴̠́̿ŏ̸̤̮k̵̯̓ ̴̝͂ͅã̴̟̟͘t̶̛̺̦͋ ̷̫̏ẅ̶͉́ḣ̶̻a̸̜͘̚t̸͎̽ ̵̘̄ͅy̷̭̎o̷̡͔͂u̷͇̇'̶̡́̿v̴̩̉̓ȇ̸̳̃ ̵͖͍̄͑d̷̞̙̎̓o̵̡̞̽͠n̴͔̑̍͜e̴̱͗̉ ̶̖̱͐t̸̺̳̅o̴̱͊ ̸̛̝̕ù̷̡s̸͈̣͘!̶̘͓͝"

I wanted to issue my apology, but tentacles of various skin colors wrapped it's cold flesh around my lips to prevent me from speaking. I was slammed to the ground before being trampled on by the creature, who spoke in Mel's voice. "Y̶̳̮͒ö̵̳̣́u̶͇͍͂̃ ̵̙͕̕ķ̷͔͋̄i̴̭̩͆l̵̝̍̍l̸͊̆͜e̴̩͍̓͛d̸̳̚ ̸͎̇̾ù̵̱̈́s̶̱̪̊͑!̷̹͛̈́?̸̘͗ ̵̩̬͐Ẁ̴͚̦e̵̍͜ ̸̯̈ŝ̵̙͔́a̸͖̓̾v̸̗̣͐͝ȇ̴̻̩d̵͉̪̐̅ ̷̫͖̀̈y̷̞̅̃ō̷̫̖ụ̴͝ŕ̸̤͛ ̵̠́ḷ̴̀i̴̲͐f̸͓̒̽é̵̜̍ ̸̺̟̈́̕ä̴̲̩̊n̷̝͈͌̈́d̸͓͌̈ ̴̗̍͝y̷̬͐͋o̶̬̖͋u̶̗̩̍̒ ̸̳́̉s̶͔̲͊̃ä̶̳͎́y̸̧͙̌͋ ̴̠̫̀̑ț̸̱̅̍h̷̜̊a̶̭̚n̷̮̈ǩ̴̺s̴̰̲̊ ̸̝͋̍b̴̤̓y̷̢͉̆ ̶̢̨̅K̷̳̈́I̵͔͂L̴̲̚L̷̤͘Ì̷̗̒N̴͈̮̏́G̸̢̗̅͑ ̸̨̝͌u̸̲̒s̸̨̜͝!̴̪̐?̶̞͘͝ ̶͙̄W̷͓͊͌ḧ̶͕́a̶̝̼̓t̸̬̆ ̷͖̿ǐ̵͔s̶̺̑̔ ̸̮͓̏͝w̴̯̘̾̃r̵̠̞͝o̷̪̺̍n̶̤̔ģ̵̦̕͝ ̴̺̤̚w̷̨̒͘i̵̛̝̓t̸̪͛h̴͓͆̉ ̴̦͎͂y̵̱͔̍o̶̬͂̋û̴͖̄!̸̫̿?̸̟͑̆"

I was thrown to the ground yet again, but this time I didn't feel the impact of hitting the ground. I was falling out of the sky, still being flung towards the ground that seemed to never get any closer. I struggled to break myself free, only to find myself landing next to a billboard sign warning me of severe weather. My phone had gone off and issued the message of a tornado warning. I looked up and saw a multitude of funnels roaring in the distance, some small, some large, some sweeping up barns and cars, others taking down entire skyscrapers and launching them to the countryside.

I looked behind me, seeing nothing chasing me but a growing dust cloud to indicate a funnel touching down. I ran as far as I could, as fast as I could, trying to beat the speed of the growing cyclone. My feet remained anchored as I saw everything I passed by get uplifted by the winds of the twister. My clothes were even swept off of my body, leaving me naked. Blaring sirens that sounded like a trio of angels howling out a dark harmony to accurately illustrate the apocalyptic scene taking place all around me.

I ran into an apartment building, seeing some other people taking shelter for their lives. One held their dying baby daughter, begging for anyone to help. I shut my ears as the mother's wails and the baby's screams started to magnify greatly. I ran out of the room to get a break, only to hear more families mourn their lost loved ones in the disaster. But then one of the nurses screamed at me. "Hey, what are you doing here!?"

"Please, there's a tornado outside! You have to get out! Get everyone out of here!" I ordered, trying to save their lives.

"You're the one who caused this! Look how many people you killed!" She screamed out pointing to a hallway full of dead patients.

I pleaded my innocence. "I just got here! How did I kill these people when I wasn't even here!?"

"You killed them! This is your fault!"

Another voice called out to me further down the hall. "You murderer!"

"God is coming for you, murderer!"

I clenched my ears shut, but the shouts of accusations only got louder in them. I just continued running, running until I came into a room full of corpses hanging from the ceiling. Each of the departed humans looked at me as I passed by them. I apologized as I bumped into a few of them, at least until a hand grabbed me to hold me in place. The bodies surrounded me and started whispering the words 'God is coming for you'. Without any hands, I could not fend them off properly, they all just pulled and tugged at me, their cold hands tearing the skin off of my body as though it was clothes.

I screamed one final time, begging for help. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! God, forgive me! I'm so sorry!"

A pair of hands appeared on my cheeks, pulling my head up to see the image of a cloaked mare looking back at me. "Nondis! It took me forever to get to you."

I continued to apologize. "I'm sorry! I'll do whatever you want!"

"Nondis, look at me!" She called out as she allowed her horn to glow a deep blue. She glared at the chaos taking place around me and shouted in a mighty voice.

"BEEEE STIIIIILLLLL!"

Her voice echoed throughout the dreamscape, silencing the chanting whispers and cleaning the entire room of the corpses that surrounded us. Though there was banging on all the doors leading into the room. Noticing the place had calmed down considerably, I thanked the hooded figure. "Thank you so much. But we gotta get out of here, those tornadoes are going to rip this place to pieces."

The mare took off the hood to reveal herself. "Nondis, it is I."

The banging on the doors came to a halt as I noticed who it was that saved me. "Luna? Wait what are you doing here?"

"What do you think?" She answered, reaching her hoof out to touch the ground, transforming the tiled floor into an endless mirror pool. "This is the dream realm. None of this is real."

I fell to my knees, expressing some relief as I watched my hands slowly come back to me. "Oh, thank God. It's just that a lot of what I dealt with for some time has felt like a fever dream gone wild, everything going wrong all at once."

Luna approached me slowly as she spoke. "All dreams after trauma feels much like what you've suffered. Sometimes, your mind wanders on it so much that you don't actually sleep."

"Well I'm in the dream world, so that's the former situation and not the latter." I replied.

"Only because Celestia had to put you to sleep. You started behaving erratically, and thus needed to be sedated."

I glanced down to my phone, realizing that it was nowhere near me. I couldn't even check the time. "Oh... I just started thinking about some stuff, and then the memories came flooding back, and not in a usual way. It felt like I was being force-fed those images."

"Possibly some psychological trauma and Umbra reactivating his spells on you." She explained. "Discord took the time to break those spells on you again, at least giving you the chance to be able to think freely without dealing with the more painful consequences."

"Okay. Well I guess that's a good thing. Doesn't really change much in the grand scheme of things." I stated.

"You'd be surprised of what it does change." She argued softly. "You'll be unlikely to have a sudden episode like the one you had. And in the coming years, you will learn how to better deal with your trauma, sometimes even making light of them. I won't say that it is to be made light of, but you may allow that to happen if you so choose it to help you cope with what has happened to you."

"So in the end I can either choose to live in regret and fear of it, or learn to laugh back in it's face." I thought aloud.

"For some few, they will sometimes fetishize the issue to help them process the memory that plagues them. But I doubt that will be the outcome you choose."

"No, it's not fun being jumped on." I said before my mind started replaying the memory of what happened to me. Before I knew it, I heard myself screaming in the distance. I turned around to see myself being strapped to the post, my wrists red and bloodied from struggling with the restraints, my ankles swelling from the attempt to escape, the dripping fluid that ran down my legs. I promptly looked away. "No... I am not fetishizing that."

Luna looked to me with sadness. "I am so sorry."

"Don't be. You didn't do it." I replied as the image soon dissipated. "I guess this will be one of those things I take with me to the grave."

"If that is what you choose to do. But if I can, I'd like to apply some input, not that you have to listen to what I'm suggesting." She said before changing the dreamscape once more to a much brighter scene, a bed of flowers in a serene garden. "Sometimes it is better to share that pain with the ones who you know you can trust, who can walk along with you in your recovery process. It's a rarely discussed topic, but I believe there is some catharsis in being able to reach out and talk. Perhaps that would be a better way, but it is your choice to make, on your own time. So don't feel pressured to discuss anything, don't open up unless you truly feel that you can, and do not force yourself to push through it as though it didn't happen. There's no better way to damage one's self than to move the damaged limb as frequently as though there is nothing wrong."

As the scene continued to change for the better and brighter, I nodded back at the princess. "...Thank you... Luna."

The Next Day...

My eyes opened up to see the light filtered into my room from the window across the way. It was morning, and the room I was in had been warmed to a comfortable level. I sat up to see Solemn Oath standing guard next to my bed. "Good morning, captain." She said in a soft and friendly tone.

I instinctively reached for my nightstand, thinking to grab my phone off of the charger, but I had remembered in it's absence that Umbra had taken it somewhere I couldn't summon for it. "What time is it?" I asked the guardsmare.

"It is sometime after eight on this Monday morning." She replied. "We are currently undergoing our second shift change of the day."

"Second shift?" I questioned. "I thought that was supposed to be sometime at ten."

"The princess issued more changes in the shift, maximizing security within the castle. Instead of having six hour posts, we now have four, utilizing each half of the current security squads you've drafted. So instead of having 4 shifts per day, we look at six, but with each squad being split down the middle and staggered for maximum effect. Basically there are twelve 'shifts' now."

"Isn't that a little stressful on the sleep cycle?" I questioned.

"It's only temporary." She answered as she walked over to my workstation. "And this here also helps with the shift management. We can see who goes in and comes out wherever and whenever. This is some pretty good stuff."

"It's human tech, that's just par for the course." I responded as sat up and realized that I had on no clothes. I opened my nightstand and pulled out a pair of boxers briefs. I held the sheet up while I put on my underwear before moving on to finding more clothes. "Sorry I look a bit primitive here, I'm just getting ready. I'm gonna hit the shower."

"The princess highly recommended that you'd bathe today." Solemn Oath replied. "She wanted to make sure that you were thoroughly cleaned after your recovery on yesterday evening."

"Okay." I answered with a sagely nod. "I see what she means─"

"And by bathe, she wants you to visit her and enter the royal bathing pool." She interjected.

I stared back at her, in some mode of discomfort. "I... guess..."

The guardsmare watched as I gathered my clothes for the day, as well as grabbing a few bits of temporary attire for my walk through the halls. She remained silent up to the point where I was about to put on my pants. "Sooooo.... Next Tuesday is actually Hearts and Hooves Day."

"Hearts and Hooves, I think that's the Valentine's Day for Equestrians, isn't it? What about it?" I asked.

"Well... nothing extremely major. I just wanted to know, or maybe it's probably too soon for me to even ask."

I shook my head at her. "I might have plans already. Though that depends on if I'm even in any mood at this point."

"Oh." The mare appeared mum for a while. But as I reached out to the door, I noticed that her magic had barred me from leaving the room. I looked back as she appeared to try and motivate herself to say something. "...I understand a lot has happened. But..." I quirked my brow at her, wondering what it was she was going to say. She still appeared nervous in trying to verbalize it for a little while. But when she did, she appeared very stout in her delivery. "Please give the princess your undivided attention on that day."

My eyes widened for a moment as I had realized that she had potentially found us out. I initially tried to deny her suspicions. "What is it with ponies thinking me and Princess Celestia are a thing? It's just a bunch of rumors."

"It wasn't just Iron Hoof and Senator Damper Trot who made mention of it, but even Umbra hinted at it. Princess Celestia herself confessed to it." She replied, sitting on her haunches as her magic continued to seal the door shut. She chuckled to herself before continuing. "I guess I should've seen the signs sooner. You get excused for everything you do wrong. You get special privilege to paid time off when you've exhausted far more than you're on schedule for, especially for being a rookie. You knew of her personal issues long before anyone else and elected to keep it a secret. You pretend to be crass and informal like the two of you are at odds, and she pretends to be indifferent and cold to whatever you say. Your special assignment has a lot of merit, but also a lot of ulterior motives. She's called in sick more times in the past two months than she ever has in the time she's been recorded as princess to the realm. When you report to her chambers, she doesn't snore after a long day of work like she usually would, she stays up for even longer. You're the only one who has unmeasured access to the secret passages of the castle, making your sneak-about even easier. And Monday morning of last week, she wouldn't stop smiling or prancing around until you were mentioned, where she'd act cold and mostly unresponsive, all while giving you a free pass to do whatever, which is like the strangest thing to do for somepony you supposedly see as annoying and irresponsible."

"Are you sure that's what you heard?" I questioned the mare.

She walked up to me and answered in a quiet voice. "She says she'll love you no matter how broken you are."

The features of my face softened. Something pinged inside of my chest when I heard those words. I knew it wasn't anything Solemn wouldn't just say out of the blue. They were pointed, intended for me to hear and receive. I couldn't help but to feel a bit of moistness develop in my eyes. I wiped them dry on the spot. "Yeah, whatever. You're just talking."

She smiled as she then said. "As long as you love each other, it shouldn't matter what the world thinks. Love is love, you know?"

I found myself smiling at her kind words of acceptance. "...Yeah. I guess that's true." I said as I finally came clean about it. "I guess the cat's out of the bag. I'm definitely in trouble now if she exposed that to you."

"She never really said it out loud, if you know what I mean." She pointed out.

"Yup, she has a habit of doing that." I replied as I looked to the guardsmare. "...I know it's probably a little weird to hear, but─"

"My loyalty is to the princess." She interrupted. "If anything, all I do is to protect her and her well-being. So if she sees happiness in being with you, then I'll protect that happiness with every breath in my body. If Iron Hoof had shown me anything at all, it's the value of having unrequited loyalty and admiration. Not just his false brand of it, the superficial appearances with shady intentions, but rather the true essence of it." She then mugged at me playfully. "So don't get too cocky, or your secret may go out to more than just me."

Her magic dissipated from the door knobs, allowing me through. After hearing her confirm that she would be willing to keep our relationship a secret, I showed appreciation for her. "Thank you. I know we got off to a rough start, but I really do hope that you get the recognition you deserve."

"Whatever." She said, fanning me out the door in a hurry. "Now get moving. She's waiting for you in the dining hall when you finish. I'll probably see you there."

"I'll be quick then."

As I stepped out into the hall, she walked out of the room and flagged me down for one more piece of advice. "Also, there's another thing I should warn you of before you go walking down the halls today."

I looked at the mare curiously. "And what's that?"

The press.

While the past few days have been harrowing for the public at large, especially with news of the situation expanding further than just the battlements of Canterlot itself, many sought to try and find any kind of scoop to break a story of how this all came to be. However, there were some press members who were still in the castle at the time Shining initiated his spell. So with them being stuck, most of them grew pretty antsy and groggy over not being able to go home. That made their patience and demeanor much worse than it should be. Granted, it was easy for their stories to get out of the walls of the keep, it was virtually impossible to get back in once they were removed. As a result, many elected to stay behind and try to pull together a story.

Which leads me to say how much I didn't miss being at the center of their attention.

On my way to my bath, they started few in number, maybe one or two skipping the formalities for questions. When I finished and headed to breakfast, that's when their numbers swelled to about fourteen of them trying to get a scoop of something I wasn't in any mood to elaborate on right then. I just wanted to see if I would still process food normally, much less hoping for some of Celestia's pancakes. Them all just diving head-first into questions had irked me with every step they matched my pace. When I managed to get myself inside the dining room, they weren't too thrilled to see me walk off into a restricted area without answering a single question. They were like bees waiting for a submerged target to surface for air.

Everyone was already seated, not a single plate was on the table as Shining Armor greeted me. "Hey, you look a little more relaxed."

"Are you feeling okay?" Cadance asked gently.

"Ease up, you two." Crescent replied to the married couple. "We're not those sharks out there looking for answers. Let's give him his space."

Luna sat at the table, but appeared to have fatigued deeply set in her eyes. "Well I can guarantee that he slept considerably better than at any point this weekend."

"I'm sorry to tax you so bad." I replied to the night princess.

"I would like for you to not apologize for what was out of your control." She said sternly.

Mel pulled out a chair and walked me towards it. "You know, we weren't going to eat anything without you. So we're pretty glad you came around. Some of us are pretty hungry."

I looked to Alex, thinking back of our time in the lab. "How'd you sleep?"

"Dude, I saw someone's severed head sitting on a shelf. You expect me to close my eyes on that shit running through my brain?" He replied as he yawned.

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep either." Rickey cosigned.

"None of us did." Melanie said as she slid my plate over to me. "I'd be lying if I told you that I was comfortable seeing Jasper the way I did then, and more so seeing those pictures of you during that operation."

"I don't think we should dwell on that topic for too long." Blueblood suggested. "There's still the psychological trauma that would ensue."

Some part of me had started to grow more uncomfortable, especially with the aforementioned pictures being floated around. As it started to show on my face, Solemn Oath herself only grew curious. "Wait, what pictures are you guys talking about?"

Everyone in the room stared at her as she only wanted to know the context of what was going on. Shining and Cadance both wished to know of what we were discussing. "Actually, I'm quietly wanting to see what it is that's got you all so on edge about these supposed pictures." Cadance replied.

"I'm sure whatever they are, they aren't pretty." Twilight murmured.

Rainbow then asked to Melanie. "What was it a picture of exactly?"

I then answered. "Probably of that operation he tried on both me and Jasper."

"But wait, I thought you said that Jasper was dead." Twilight replied.

"He is. Very." Rickey answered grimly. "Humans don't live without our heads, that goes for a lot of living things. We saw Jasper... and I don't really want to think on that for too long."

I turned to Solemn and moved my shirt to reveal the scar on my neck. "This scar here looks pretty surgical. That's all the way around my neck... and through it. If I recall correctly, he said something about cutting between the cartilage of C4 and C5. In his words exactly 'lift, move, attach'." I looked to my empty plate, already imagining myself sitting on it. "...I'm not supposed to be alive by any means."

Solemn's eyes bulged as she observed the scar on my neck, her jaw slightly ajar. "Oh... That's... not a good thing to remember."

"Yeah, that's the run of things." Alex interrupted. "Now can we please change the subject?"

I myself had no qualms with my brother's request. I didn't want to think of myself being a detachable item for much longer than I needed to. Mel jumped in to start with another topic. "So has anyone ever checked in on that one senator in the dungeon? I know the last time we heard of him was him screaming down the hall."

"Let me guess, he wants to be free or something of the sort, right?" I asked.

"Oh he's been freed of something." Stanton replied with an eyeroll.

"It ain't the freedom he was looking for, but it's freedom regardless." Cliff added.

"So I take it that I might have missed something with Damper. What happened and what is he free of?" I asked.

"Well, he is free to choose his own gender." Alabaster answered, sitting back in his chair. "And he's free to choose if he'll either cooperate with any future investigations or not. I mean Crème is already on the bandwagon and he's spilling out absolutely everyone he's seen visit the lounge, or even worked on Project Congregant. Politicians who don't fess up are going to be facing some hard time, possibly worse."

"Honestly, if you hadn't brought him into holding like you did, we would've never had the chance to verify where the new location of his hideout was, meaning we would've never gotten to you as quick as we did." Blue stated. "It's a good thing you nailed him on what he did or else we'd still be looking for you."

"Well that's good." I said calmly. "So where does that leave us for now?"

"You tell us." Melanie replied. "I mean you're our leader as of the moment the elements became a factor. You're the guy who started the whole us six having a glow-up."

"Oh yeah speaking of which, I have some concerns about some of the things that happened as a result of said glow-up." Rickey began as he hunched under the table for a moment before propping his foot on the table. His toes and the bottom of his feet were red, and not in a usual human way. "Yeah, I don't think that's supposed to be normal."

"Yeah, my eyes haven't changed either." Cliff stated as he shrugged. "But at least you can wear some socks or something to hide it."

"I have pink strands of hair now, but they're pink from the root. The deal is that they've been multiplying throughout the night, and I've tried dying it out, to make it a little more of a highlight here and there, but the dye just washes right off. I might be going to pink altogether."

"I dunno, you've been a pinkie-head for a month." Pinkie said with a snorting giggle. "You might as well embrace the pink."

"I think it's a pretty color, you'll be beautiful no matter what happens." Fluttershy cosigned.

"Well that may be great, but my fingers have turned orange." Stanton replied. "Might be great for the transfer, but I don't think I'll love having a perpetual case of Cheeto fingers."

"Yeah, and I work in a professional environment. Tattoos aren't really a good thing for my workplace, and my wife is gonna kill me." Alex noted as he pulled back his sleeve to reveal a purple and white tattoo depicting diamonds reaching from his wrist to his elbow.

"Dayum, I want what you got." Cliff said enthusiastically.

But as he showed his enthusiasm, I looked further at something that flashed blue in his mouth. "Hey Cliff... can you open your mouth for a sec?"

"What for?" He questioned.

"Just do it for a sec."

"Uh, okay?" He said before opening his mouth up wide for me and the other to see that his entire tongue had turned blue.

Pinkie giggled at the man. "Hee hee! You look like you've been sucking blueberry rock candy!"

"Dude, your whole tongue is blue." Mel pointed out. "And I don't mean the kind of blue where you've been sucking on a sucker for some minutes. Like your shit looks pretty exotic."

"Ayo, what am I supposed to do about that!?" He questioned.

"I guess we have to play it all off somehow." Stanton said. "I mean my hands aren't always going to be in gloves for the rest of my life."

"Dude, you got magic. You ain't got nothin' to worry about." Cliff called out.

I looked to my younger brother and asked him. "Wait, you really have magic? I thought that thing you did in the lab was like a one-time thing when the elements got activated."

"Bro, I smashed a whole-ass hardwood bedframe without even touching it. I straight up couldn't control my shit. And just maybe Saturday night I got to where I could pretend to move something like I'm using my hands, and then moving it over to you." He said as he demonstrated with his teacup. He levitated the cup on top of my plate. "See?"

I couldn't help but to share my enthusiasm for his newfound ability. "Dude, that's awesome!"

"I know, right!?" He hollered out, causing everything small in the room to spontaneously levitate before he quickly corrected himself. "Oh right, sorry. Emotional control."

As all the smaller items landed back on the table, I stood amazed at my younger brother. "Dude, you are waaaay farther ahead than I ever was. It took me getting shit thrown at me to be able to lift more than one book at a time, and that was over the course of a week."

"Yeah, it took me a bit of shit getting thrown my way too," He said, glancing over to Alabaster. "But at least I know if I ever do retaliate, I need to guard my balls before they get bitten off."

"Stanton, he's not going to bite your dick off, chill."

Cliff shook his head as he argued against my take. "Nah, he'll suck your dick like it's scripture and collect like it's tithes and offerings. Then he'll rip your shit off like a rich televangelist. Trust me, I've seen the nigga do it."

I looked to Alabaster. "Really?"

"Well I did say that Damper was free to choose his own gender." He replied, covering his muzzle.

I gawked at the stallion and looked back to Stanton, who nodded in slow acknowledgement. "We are all witnesses."

While I was still gawking at the stallion, the doors opened to reveal Kalimba walking through the door on her own strength. She looked up to me and immediately galloping to my direction, even tackling me out of my chair and hugging me, burying her face in my chest. I strained from the pain of landing on my elbow. "Geez, you could've at least slowed down a little."

She didn't respond to me at all, just hugging me and listening against my chest for a heartbeat. She breathed as if she was distressed to see me walking around, nuzzling me as she just stayed there to listen. Crescent spoke up as he and his wife entered shortly after she did. "She was a bit of a mess to look after when we saw what became of you. Umbra showed us pictures."

"So I've heard." I said before getting a prompt tug at the collar of my shirt. As I was lifted, I felt a pair of wings and hooves wrap around me.

I looked back to see Celestia nuzzling up to my cheek tenderly as she welcomed me to breakfast. "You don't even realize how much grief we had to fight through, do you? We had to operate as if we had seen the evidence of your death. I am more than thankful that you are indeed not."

As I stood back up, I noticed that she had carried in some pancakes, many of which with various fruits and whipped cream decorations depicting smiling faces. The mare placed my plate down before anyone else's. "When I saw what became of you, I did not know what to do." Kalimba said as she clenched to my legs. "From now on I stand with pride, never to once leave your side."

"Poor girl became suicidal when Umbra showed us what he did." Blueblood explained. "Offered to buy us time against that monster, only to get swatted to a nearby wall."

"Well I'm glad that you're okay." I said to the zebra as I sat down before my plate. "I guess you're more like your father than you think."

The zebracorn eagerly grabbed a chair and sat herself next to me. "You would have made me dat way if you had not lived. I would have lost my mind, trying to escape to a time where you would exist to me. Abeg, do not ever leave me dat way, ever."

"You are your father's child." I muttered as I hugged her back. "Guess we all dodged bullets except me."

"Oh no, Nondis. You forgot what party you crashed in on yesterday." Stanton replied. "That son of a bitch was about to Hannibal Lecter me. He would've had me eating my own brain if he had the time. And each one of our asses was on the chopping block too."

"Did you get chopped up like I did?" I questioned. Stanton remained quiet, knowing he couldn't say anything to equate. "So consider that bullet dodged."

The athlete dug into his plate of pancakes in conceding his argument. "Point taken."

After breakfast, Solemn Oath had dismissed herself to the barracks, already devising several methods to which the guard could defend the castle if anything else were to happen. And considering what she had just seen yesterday evening after the rescue, she decided to take a more proactive approach to getting things done. And since the humans were trying to put some effort into learning how to use the elements, it left a lot to be desired in the lower chain of command.

When she arrived, there were already a bunch of other guards looking to polish up and clean off their weapons for their new patrols. A lot of the ones who were still assigned to the castle were still relatively new, some fresh recruits, some with one to two years under their helms, and very few with over ten years of servitude. Most of the higher ranks were all outside of the bubble out of request of being stationed elsewhere. And without their orders, many of which were left to wait until the barrier around the castle had either subsided or fell. Most of the recent situations and efforts over the weekend had dissuaded many from wanting to come in for work, as they did not wish to have to deal with dead bodies and pissed off citizens. And with the captain presumably missing in their eyes, they felt it was better to not try to come in until a change of status was announced to the masses.

If the captain got swallowed up by something in Canterrot, leaving long-deceased corpses in it's wake, why even try then?

However, not all long-tenured ponies had gotten out of the castle grounds before the bubble went up. Some officers still remained on post, other high ranking enlisted guards were present, but they were few and far between. Solemn Oath was one, and she would soon run into the other three that she knew.

"Solemn!" Dress Right called out cheerfully, dressed up in her armor. She ran over to the guard and welcomed her with a hug as her other two friends joined her in the greeting.

"Holy hell, I thought you would've been one of the lucky ones who dipped out before all this mess started to boil over." Cobalt Blue said.

Solemn hugged the others as she questioned them. "Girls, it's good to see you. What's been going on here?"

Gleaming Brass then explained what happened on their end. "Well Celestia's called out an all-hooves-to-the-armory order. So our punishment's been deferred until the call is rescinded."

"I'm just glad you girls are safe. This whole week's been a madness. I haven't really slept because of it all." Solemn said to her friends in a quiet tone.

"I heard." Cobalt stated. "One of the senators get murdered in cold blood, some rotten bodies show up in town, a large creature smashes the main checkpoint, and the captain's nowhere to be seen during it all."

"Honestly, it's been a pretty eventful weekend for him to just suddenly disappear." Dress Right said, speaking critically of the aforementioned officer.

"Probably went to take another few days off while Prince Shining Armor does his job for him." Gleaming Brass said with a sarcastic chuckle.

Solemn wasn't as comfortable to hear the trio speak ill of the captain. While they weren't made aware of what happened to him, she knew to some degree of the trouble he's had over the weekend. "Have any of you actually seen the captain lately?"

"Nope, have you?" Dress Right answered with a snarky disposition.

"Don't tell me you're actually going to go to side with that cocky loser after what he did to you and all of us." Cobalt replied with irritation written all over her face. "He got us all demoted, and we have to deal with all of this mess, plus the punishment we have to go through once this is all over. I couldn't care less what he goes through."

Solemn tried to stress to her friends the seriousness of the situation, all while they continued to make light of it. "Girls... he had a pretty rough going."

"Rough enough to skip town during the most eventful weekend we've had in months?" Gleaming Brass questioned.

"You try being tortured for forty-eight hours and tell me about it." Solemn argued, growing worried that her friends had very little compassion for the captain.

Cobalt stepped up to Solemn, arguing in favor of the experiences she and the others shared. "Tortured, we've been tortured for a little over a week now. You wanna tell me about being tortured? Try being sleep-deprived and going through rigorous PT like you're a damn rookie! We're over thirty, we can't just get up and go like that anymore! How much sleep do you think we get!? Do you know what kind of gruel we've been forced to eat!? How long do you think it'll take us to even get back our ranks!? For all I know, the captain's had the good life all while we've been reliving basic training. You of all ponies should know that having to wait two years and some change is far too long to even try to get back our ranks, especially when we should be going up! How does what he went through excuse any of that!?"

Before Solemn could rebut her friend's argument, a guard called out from down the hall. "Captain approaching! Present Arms!"

While everyone had snapped to attention, Solemn whispered out the side of her mouth to Cobalt. "You're gonna see why in a sec."

Many of the guards who saluted watched as I walked past, some looking back at me as I strolled down the hall. I didn't really get much of a chance to look myself in a mirror, I just cleaned up the best I could out of habit and walked out the door to try and get some auxiliary work done. When I approached Solemn, she was conversing with her friends, whom I'm sure weren't too thrilled to see me regardless.

I instead addressed the mare who I confided in. "Solemn, been meaning to ask you something before I get back to getting harassed by the press."

The mare stared up at me, not saying anything for a while before speaking. "Shoot away."

"It's about the bodies you guys found. How many did you all run across?"

"Forty-five." She answered quickly. "Why?"

I then asked her yet another question before giving her my reason for asking such a grim question. "Okay. So there were forty five bodies recovered. Were there ever a record of the ones collected, identification, stuff like that?"

She didn't hesitate, she summoned a manila envelope with all the records detailing the efforts of their work on Friday night. "Here's all the information we gathered from then on."

As I collected the records, I then answered the 'why' portion of her inquiry. "Thanks. I'm trying to prepare for a press release and I don't want to answer any questions until I know for certain what all happened while I was away."

Solemn was firm in condemning my intentions. "Sir, you don't have to strain over something like that."

"They're going to be asking questions all damn day, I might as well answer something. At least explain what's going on."

"What can you answer, how do you answer for where you've been?" She asked, seemingly to be in defense of me more than trying to be critical of my decision. "If I were you, I'd follow the princess' advice and get some rest."

I knelt down and quietly responded to her. "Solemn, I know it sounds strange, but being in a quiet room by myself is the most fear-inducing thing I can think of right now. So please let me just work this one out until I can get comfortable."

"We just don't want you to have another episode." She warned. "Yesterday didn't exactly exude confidence in the ranks. Most of us were scared shitless when we saw what you had devolved into."

I placed a hand on her shoulder, her eyes etching out the various surgical scars on my fingers. "I'm fine. Staying busy is how I'm trying to process shit, I don't need a single moment of silence to let my thoughts stir. Otherwise, that thing that happened yesterday might happen all over again. I appreciate your concern, but let me work this one through."

As I was standing up, Cobalt stepped out of line and spoke out. "Permission to speak freely, sir."

While I could understand how upset she is in seeing me, I still felt that she deserved some answers. At least she'd probably ask the main question that many long-tenured guards would ask. "Alright. Shoot."

"Equestria is in a chaos, where have you been?" She questioned firmly.

The thoughts began to stir in my mind, I didn't want to stew on them for too much. So I answered her in one simple word. "Busy."

She didn't accept my answer. "How is it that you are busy when Equestria desperately needs your attention? The ponies out there are in a panic because of what happened, we're on red alert, and you're just walking around looking for notes for a press release. What excuse do you have for being busy during a time of crisis?"

"Cobalt, can you chill!?" Solemn quickly sprinted to my defense. "The captain's had a rough weekend as it is! Just let him work for a change! He's already trying to take responsibility for something he's not in control of, and then he's about to go out there and save the world, maybe you need a bit of a briefing yourself so that you don't get lost with what's going on here! There's some guy out there doing bad things, terrible things. He killed a senator and most of his family, cut his daughter's eyes out, I had to work that scene and I haven't slept in days! Do you see me complaining about my experience!? Then there's what happened on Friday night where not only did I help in the cleanup, but also having to take a trip to Canterrot in the same hour. We had to interrogate another senator, who we found out is conspiring against the crown, and then we get the captain back, only to realize how truly messed up his weekend has been."

"Are you serious right now?" Cobalt angrily replied.

Solemn almost grew confrontational as she poked her hoof into her friend's chest. "ARE YOU SERIOUS!? The princess needs our cooperation, he needs our help with the smaller stuff because he's got way bigger fish to fry. Wanna know how big that fish is?" She asked as she raised my left hand to reveal my palm. Embedded in the skin of my palm was the Element of Magic. "There! That's how big!"

"Solemn." I called out as she continued to hold my hand up with her magic.

She pointed to the jewel to further make her point. "That there is one of the Elements of Harmony. And it's not there because he stole it."

"I think that's enough." I urged.

While the other two gasped in disbelief, Cobalt shook her head in complete denial. "No way."

I reached out and quenched the unicorn's horn with my free hand, freeing my wrist in turn. "That was not something I wanted to put out there, Solemn."

"Equestria needs to know what you are to it!" She said, focusing her newly mounted frustration at me. "Just be real with us! You're not just some random human who just popped up on the scene. You're a guard, now an element bearer! You and your friends have went from being a protected species to protecting Equestria's future! How can I be quiet when I know what you are and what you're going to fight!? You don't even realize that by the end of all of this, you and your friends will be on a WINDOW! Your chapter in Equestria's future is all but immortalized at this point. And it's time you stop seeing yourself as nothing less than THE leader we need to hear from. The press out there want to beat you up and call you incompetent, I'm sure you don't want to tell them the hell you went through, I'm sure they don't care! Your cause is greater than answering a bunch of questions to appease some grouchy leeches known as so-called 'reporters' trying to break a story."

"That's a lot of speaking freely, don't you think?" I informed her, trying to find a nice way to tell her to shut up.

"With all due respect, sir." She replied in defiance, but not out of disrespect. "But I think you should go out there and lead by example, not pander to a bunch of columnists and press." She then refocused her frustration towards her friends. "And he's going to need all the help he can get. And not one of us are going to get in our petty feelings and step in the way. So if there is a problem with him leading us, just say it so we'll know who not to use. Not only Equestria is on the line, but the human world is too! That's why they are element bearers, because their world depends on them to defend it. And if they defend us by extension, we fight beside them because that's our job! So if you can't get over yourself for Equestria's sake, then don't even wear that armor anymore!"

After hearing Solemn take such a firm stance, the other guards in the hall looked to each other and silently made their decisions. Many responded by remaining stationary, keeping their armor on, and awaiting any further orders to be issued. Only the trio of higher-ranked mares stood as the only ones to not make a visual commitment.

Gleaming Brass looked at me and spoke out. "Permission to speak freely, sir."

I rolled my eyes and nodded. "Sure, go ahead."

"You look really ghoulish." She pointed out as she summoned a pocket mirror. "I don't think you really took the time to look in a mirror this morning, so I'll give you mine to─"

"Please don't." I knelt down and closed the mirror, shaking my head. "The last mirror I looked into broke, and it was quite expensive. So please don't."

Gleaming Brass acknowledged my request and put the mirror away as she spoke to her friend. "Solemn, we stand with you."

"You're our friend, of course we'll be right here with you." Dress Right added. "We serve together, and serve one another. That's what we always said, every single day."

Cobalt looked up at me before looking to Solemn. "I hope any of all of what you're saying is true, because we're all scared for our lives here. We trust you."

Solemn's expression did not change. "I know you girls are here for me. But I'm asking you all to be there for him this time."

Cobalt walked up to me and pointed at me. "I know times are dire, but we don't think it's fair to do all of this and then have to go back to being punished afterwards. So we want a reduction of our punishment."

I shrugged at her request, openly acknowledging the mess that she and the others probably had to go through as a result of this mess. It was only fair that I'd cut her punishment in half, possibly add more incentive. "Considering what's coming, I'll give you a week's paid leave and fill out the paperwork for six months of therapy. Soon as you're done, drop the request, I'll have it signed the next day."

Cobalt appeared confused by the seemingly generous offer. "I don't know what that therapy's all about, but I'll take the vacay." She cheered but stopped short to negotiate one additional condition. "Vacation starts after you sign the waiver."

"Done." I replied.

The mare puffed out her chest proudly as she stood with her friends. "You're a pretty cool guy to negotiate with, if only you had shown us that sooner we wouldn't be so cold to you. And all we thought you were gonna do was play that stupid game with all the boys in the tavern."

A moment of horror flashed before my eyes as I heard the word play. I shook my head, ridding myself of the image of the filly and her monster that nearly took my life. "Sometimes appearances are deceiving." I quietly warned.

Cobalt stood firm, proudly saluting me. "So, Captain Save-The-World, what are we going to be fighting against. sir?"

Outside The Castle Walls...

With the patrols continuing to survey the active and damaged checkpoints, a moderate-sized group of unicorns had gathered outside of the battlements. Numbering to around twenty or so guild members, they stood nearby in a dark alleyway where they could not be seen converging.

From there, Umbra laid out his intents and scheduled their plain for what he had envisioned next. A stallion leading the coalition had struck a hoof against the magenta barrier that protected the walls of the keep. "So you want us to try to tele on in that bubble and try to find any weaknesses?"

"I would like for you to not disappoint me." Umbra replied with a smile to his subordinates.

The leading stallion smirked with confidence and walked towards the direction of the damaged checkpoint, hoping to find an area where he wouldn't be seen as quickly upon his entry. He gazed around until he saw a statue sitting close by the royal garden entrance. His horn shone brightly as he responded with pride. "Teleportation's an easy go."

He disappeared into the checkpoint, showing up exactly where he intended. Umbra began to count to himself quietly as he started to see the same black magic crackling around the unicorn's body. Without him wishing it, he was suddenly dumped back where he had teleported from.

He looked back at the barrier with confusion. "Hey, what gives!?"

"Ah, so it's made to where it doesn't matter if it's me or someone else. Guess this should be an easy way to stress test this unusual little caveat." The sneering doctor replied as he summoned his cane to hit against the barrier, only being as effective as the once-confident guild member's hoof.

"What's unusual is how many of us you got trying to zap ourselves into the castle." One of the other guild members presented.

Twirling his cane, Umbra responded. "Sometimes you need to brute force a method to further prove it's effectiveness. Perhaps you lot wouldn't mind making this happen for a few more drinks, possibly another week on me?"

Not wanting to turn down the generous offer, the group of unicorns all ignited their horns with the intention of doing what was proposed to them. "Hell boss, all you had to say was fine eating for the night and three days tacked on, But another week of unlimited rounds, I'll be in a fucking coma!" Said the leader of the group, who further cheered the others to join him. "Well you heard the Doc! Another week of drinks if we make this shit work!"

"For the Doc!" One guild member called out.

"FOR THE DOC!" The group called out before all disappearing at once.

But just as easily as they pressed themselves in, they all found themselves being piled up in a confusing bunch upon rejection. Umbra watched with amusement as the group continued to try their hoof at being the lucky one who would be able to break through. And as they were struggling to make that remote possibility a definite for at least one of them, a small little filly's head poked out from the wall of one of the buildings, prodding from a dark shadow. "Daddy, what are they all doing?"

"They're doing exactly what I want them to do, dear." He replied calmly, petting the young filly atop her head.

"So what do we do now?" She questioned in a curious manner.

Umbra looked to the filly then looked to the same place where his first volunteer tried to go. An idea came to his mind as he pondered on the possible exploits he could find and use. "Can daddy borrow one of your dolls, sweetheart?" Without even having to answer, she dumped a body from her collective out of the wall and left the corpse before him. It was the archdeacon who he eliminated yesterday. "Ah, thank you much."

The filly turned her head up to the top of the barrier, measuring out it's height. "That big bubble is so shiny. It looks like the one from years ago that turned the sky pink."

"Well you aren't wrong. It is the same spell, the same caster, the same everything but smaller."

As Umbra levitated the corpse from the ground, the filly made note of the deceased pony. "I'm sad that Mr. Sacred Ark is a doll now."

"Don't be sad. He's just helping daddy out in a different way now." Umbra replied as he eyed the exact corner where his volunteer had tried to enter.

The young filly started to show some excitement. "Is he going inside to help us get big brother back?" She questioned.

"Indeed he is." He said, teleporting the body inside. But a few seconds later, the body was unceremoniously dumped right back at the stallion's hooves. "Or maybe not."

"Do you want me to try, daddy?" The filly questioned, starting to phase herself from out of the wall completely.

Umbra held a hoof up to deny her. "No not yet, let's wait until the sun goes down. We'll start when most of them have gone to bed. For now, get back home and get your rest. When you wake up, I want you at your best for playtime."

"Okay!" She replied, morphing back into her shadow and retreating into the darkness.

Umbra looked down at the corpse and watched as it soon disappeared beneath his hooves. He then glanced back to the barrier with a moment of thought towards the young prince who cast him away. "Let's see if he can keep this up."

"Sir!" A voice called out from further down the alley, catching the stallion by surprise.

He looked back to the guild member that approached him, namely a batpony mare who wanted to make a report. "What do you want?"

"It's the city mortuary, we've secured the morgue and have captured the guards on patrol there. What are our orders?"

The stallion hummed with approval at the mare's report. "Keep the armor, have some of the guild infiltrate the castle defenses. I'll need that to accomplish one of the things on my sweeping checklist of items to have done for this week."

"And what of the guards sir?" She asked.

Umbra turned to her and walked up to her, placing a hoof on her chin, asking with an icy glare. "What do you think will become of them?" He quirked a brow and tilted his head at the mare, who shuddered in response.

"Y-Yes sir." She replied before she galloped away.

Looking back at the group who tried to teleport their way into the keep, he saw more and more of them getting launched back out onto the cobblestone road. For that moment, his amusement had dissipated and he began to appear bored with what was taking place.

He sighed. "I'm almost beginning to lose my patience."

Meanwhile in the Castle...

As Twilight sat with her family, Shining started to scream out in pain, holding his head as his horn continued to spark uncontrollably with the alicorn magic he used in his spell. Both of his parents stood up to try and see what was wrong as the young prince winced and snarled as the magic began to issue it's toll on him.

The young princess questioned her brother worriedly. "Shining, what's wrong?"

He continued to soldier through his pain, answering her question. "The spell, it's going crazy. I thought I would have to do this until Umbra gets bored or something, but it feels like there's more than one of him trying to get in."

"Shining, you might have to stop casting that spell." His wife warned.

"Sorry, Cadie. I have to protect the castle." He responded.

The pink princess argued his decision. "Shining Armor, if you use that spell enough, the magic will consume you. Stop this."

"And let Umbra in? Which would you rather have happen, me needing a dose of rainbows to the face or you and our unborn daughter being in danger?" He questioned.

"I would rather face off against him than to see you become consumed!" Cadance replied as another pony entered the room, mainly to see what was the cause of the disturbance. "Blueblood!"

"Oh what is it now?" The seasoned royal questioned.

Shining was about to answer, but another surge of the magic he used had become so bad that he had to deal with a surging migraine. So Twilight answered in his place. "Shining's spell is backfiring. It's activating so rapidly, it's draining his magic. Soon it will consume his mind."

"Is there a possibility that Umbra's using multiple bodies to try and get in?" Blueblood inquired.

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it needs to stop." Cadance answered with a look to her struggling husband.

"I'll look into it." The blond prince said as he quickly left the room.

The young prince screamed out once more as the magic surged through his body, sending surges of electricity throughout his body. Cadance hugged her husband, urging him to be strong. "The alicorn magic is manifesting far too frequently now. Shining can't handle it."

Twilight jumped into action, looking to try and take some of the load off of her brother. Her horn had glowed with the same dark aura, her eyes briefly transforming with it. She looked to her sister in law. "I'll try to help him. Unlike Shining, I can handle the magic a lot longer. You go with Blueblood and see about that disturbance that's causing the spell to trigger so rapidly."

"Hopefully it ends soon. I don't want my husband to become another King Sombra." Cadance complained.

"He won't. The worst that will happen is that he'll be driven mad by it." Informed the younger princess.

"Mad with power. It's forbidden for a reason, Twilight." Cadance continued to argue, this time warning her.

"I know. But it's our only option right now." She replied.

The mare hugged her husband and gave him a peck on the lips, her ears folding down with worry. "Shining Armor, you stay upright and sane, that's a wife's order."

Still struggling with some residual pain, the young prince smiled for his spouse. "A wife's order means that comes from the top. Can't refuse that."

"You look after him." Cadance said as she galloped out of the room to join Blueblood.

"Be careful out there!" Twilight hollered out before the doors creaked closed behind her.

After a visit to the barracks, I held a brief press conference. And by brief, I mean within the first thirty seconds, one of Celestia's assistants walked up to me and whispered that I were to not make any direct statements to the press for the time being, and that all interviews would be conducted through her and no one else.

I felt it was an odd move, Especially with what all has happened. I couldn't understand why she wanted that restriction, probably because she wanted to appear to have sole accountability? Even then, it's not really her fault that this happened, everyone is accountable for their own actions. And if Umbra wanted to ruin the lives and emotional security of hundreds of thousands of Equestrians, then it's his decision to do so knowing full-well what the consequences are.

Still, I had more answers to give to the public if they needed them, and this was the perfect time to actually provide that. But with the gag order being in place, I'm sure that many details would only come out after the fact. It was a decision I didn't agree with, one that greatly confused me. And if I had my phone, I would've typed up an Instagram message to her trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

Regardless, that press meeting ended before it could begin. And what happened as a result of me getting that order was pandemonium. I inadvertently drummed the hornets nest, and now they were chasing me down the halls like I was obligated to explain everything. And there was no rest in their pursuit, they were relentless and loud.

That would only last so long, some of the guards on post had ran security for the residential quarters, restricting access to both the guest residency hall and that of the royal family. I took that one turn and they were all left at the corner, under threat of arrest if they were to break the boundary. And on that note, I finally got back into my room, where all of the others had sat there to entertain themselves for the time being.

Melanie had stood in the bathroom, wearing her pants and a bra as she tried to bleach her hair. Cliff was gurgling mouthwash while holding a toothbrush. Rickey was sitting on the bed, holding his foot to try and see if the red could be cleaned off of it. Alex just gawked at his new tattoo. And Stanton manned the security feed to see the crowd of reporters gathering at the end of the hall, almost a good thirty to forty hoping to break a story.

I walked by him and looked at the live footage. "Yeah. It's getting pretty bad."

"What's getting pretty bad?" Rickey questioned, still observing his foot.

"These ponies out here trying to ask questions." Stanton answered for me. "How the hell does a bunch of reporters start acting like a gang? Give them a gun, they'd be holding us hostage and shit like they're interrogating us for the bank vault codes."

"Well they don't have guns, so yay for us." Melanie said from within the bathroom. She pulled the towel off of her head, hoping to see some semblance of blonde. Instead, it was as if the rest of her hair had reacted to the color that started to mutate in her head, and the peroxide she used only worsened it. So instead of having numerous streaks of brown and pink, she just had a full head of taffy pink hair. She slammed her fists into the counter and conceded defeat. "Ugh, I just want my brunette look back."

"Mel, you look beautiful." Rickey sounded out trying to reassure her.

"I like it, but what am I going to do when I go out there trying to be a cop with pink hair?" She questioned as she walked out of the bathroom with only her bra on, every guy in the room except for him averted their eyes.

"You could always wear a wig." I suggested.

The woman kissed her teeth and rolled her eyes. "And make my head hot as hell while I'm chasing people all over Austin? Do you not remember how hot summer gets?"

"But it's winter now." Rickey pointed out.

"Yeah, and I am looking at not just my future here, but ours as well." She replied.

Rickey then slammed his foot to the ground, flexing his toes. "Melanie, I got red toes. Can you please tell me why I'm not an any mood to be upset with what's going on?"

The woman groaned with frustration and sat herself to the ground, not wanting to argue anymore. "All of this is just a lot, isn't it?"

"You can say that again." Rickey said as he tossed her a shirt to wear. "Hell, just yesterday we thought Nondis was dead."

"You aren't lying there. The pictures were enough to haunt me for the rest of my life." She replied as she finally dressed herself. "I mean, thank God that wasn't the case, but... I just don't know what we're going to do now, well aside from saving the world probably."

Cliff walked off to the bathroom and spat his mouthwash into the sink, observing his mouth. "Cliff, you okay?" Rickey questioned.

"Nigga, I am trying to get this blue out of my mouth." He replied with his own growing discomfort. "Like how am I supposed to go out there singing with a blue throat like I'm the damn diva from The Fifth Element?"

"Well I think we're shit out of luck, sir. I tried to bleach my hair, peroxide has officially dyed the rest of my goddamn hair pink, it's like my natural brunette thing was the dye all along."

"At least Alex got a cool looking tattoo." Cliff called out.

"I work an office job, Vanessa doesn't like tattoos. She is going to hound me over this." He said as he rolled up his sleeve, revealing a growing pattern of purple diamonds with silver highlights extending the length of his forearm.

"Oh yeah, like a little bit of clothes can't hide your shit. I have to walk around with gloves on." Stanton replied, holding out his hands. "Everywhere I go, I'm gonna look like I've had nothing but Cheetos for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Hell any more orange and I'll be a great stand-in for a young version of Donald Trump."

"I didn't know that using the elements would've had these side effects on us." Cliff said with a sigh. "So how about you Captain Hero, what's your claim to misfortune?"

I raised up my left hand, revealing my palm and the element imbedded into it. "Attachment issues."

"Ow, that looks like that hurts." Melanie said with a cringing expression.

I tried to demonstrate by curling up my hand, only to stop with all of my fingers pointing upwards, unable to bend any further into a fist. "I don't feel a thing until I ball my hand into a fist, then it's painful and cumbersome. I can't really grip a sword with this hand anymore, much less a rifle for recoil control." I looked in the corner, noticing a silver-tipped spear with some embroidering in the shaft. "I probably might have to get used to that spear Luna gave me way back when."

Melanie picked up her phone, not daring to go through her messages after yesterday. "So in speaking of control, where's Twilight? Wasn't she supposed to be giving us our crash course on being element bearers or something to that degree?"

"She might be busy with God-knows-what. We should probably head out to her and see what's up." Alex suggested.

"And head out there to that onslaught of press? I don't think that's a good idea." Stanton rebutted.

"I mean, you're not wrong about the 'onslaught' part." I mumbled. "I think we might have to figure this out ourselves."

"Nondis, do you really think that's a good idea?" Alex questioned.

I looked into the palm of my hand, seeing the gleaming white jewel sitting in my hand. "I don't know, something's telling me that we shouldn't really look outward to what we're supposed to do."

"So what, we just supposed to look inward and find 'the magic within' and use 'the power of friendship'?" Mel asked sarcastically.

A light pulse of energy emanated from the jewel, reverberating through my body as if to confirm her question. "Yeah, I know, sounds corny. But that is how these magic maguffins operate, at least from what I was showed in a vision on Friday night."

Everyone in the room stopped and looked at each other, appearing to not have anything to say but acknowledging the word that was spoken. Alex pointed at me and asked. "Wait, you had a vision too?"

"Okay, so you wanna elaborate on that one?" Rickey requested.

"Ummm..." I said, closing my eyes to think back on the moment before I had to fight the Congregant. "So I think I remember what all I saw, just moments before I was about to go out onto the arena floor. I think I saw six ponies erupting into six powerful pillars of magic, then there was a bright flash. Next thing I saw was six similarly-shaped jewels being divided among two ponies standing by one another, they faced a lot of adversaries, solving a lot of problems, and going on a lot of adventures... until one day one of the ponies turned against the other. Then the other of those ponies took the remaining three elements from the first and used all of them to banish them... to the moon."

Stanton laughed lightly in disbelief. "Yikes. Ain't no air up there, so that pony must be very dead at this point."

I quickly corrected him and continued. "Actually, those two ponies I can safely assume are Celestia and Luna. And with Celestia being the one who was ruling Equestria for all these years, Luna was banished to the moon for equally as long. But she wasn't really herself, per se. She was consumed by a swelling darkness, an entity birthed from her own envy, Nightmare Moon. She broke out of her bindings after those thousand years went by, and she attempted to cover all of Equestria into an eternal cloak of night. But there was a group of six ponies who defeated her, saving Princess Luna and purging the evil within her. Of course, we know who those six are."

"Okay, nice history lesson. But what does that have to do with what we're about to do?" Mel asked.

"I guess it's really more of what we do to protect our world, who's fate is joined to Equestria in turn. I think that's one of the reasons why the elements as a whole selected us." I answered.

Rickey then brought up a good point. "But there were already bearers, and they still have their little friendship connection thing going on. Why do we have to be the ones to save the world from whatever this clusterfuck of a situation is?"

"Well, we know that if bad happens here and gets to our world, the people in our world are going to try to find out how that bad got to them. And I'm sure Umbra will be pointing his cane back to Equestria with all of humanity at his beck and call, especially if he's going to portray himself to be the Antichrist." Everyone looked to one another and nodded as if to confirm a theory they've had. "Look, we all live in Texas, we've all seen the movie Left Behind at some point, we as Christians are expecting all of that to happen. And if we go by the whole Mark-Of-The-Beast theory, let's look back to what he was about to do to all of you." I then added.

"Aw hell, thanks for that very graphic image of us being that thing that little filly is." Melanie said with a chill running up her spine.

"Exactly the reason why I panicked yesterday." I confessed quietly. "Last thing I want to do is look at my own family and friends as literal extensions of limbs. Combine that with all the body horror I suffered and being in that thing's literal shadow..."

As soon as my eyes started to widen, Alex yanked me back to the present with a clap of his hands, which had startled me, but brought me back from being too far gone. "Okay, change subject. So we somehow activated these powers yesterday. What did we do to have that happen?"

"Wasn't it triggered by Umbra trying to blast Fluttershy?" Mel guessed.

Cliff nodded his head. "Yeah, but shouldn't it have been you who started the chain reaction instead of Nondis? You're the one with her element."

"I think the reason why it started with Nondis is because he tried to reach out with his magic to help. And since he tried casting a spell to help her, it could've trigged the elements to go online." Alex surmised.

I looked back down at the jewel in my hand. "The elements don't just turn on and off like an app. If they did, we wouldn't have any issue using them individually. Trust me when I say it, having it and depending on it to save your ass in a pinch is about as useful as telling a depressed person to just be happy. You'd find more results in telling them to jump off a bridge."

Stanton looked at me oddly. "That sounds like that came from experience. So which one was it, the depression or the trying the element on it's own?"

"Yes." I bluntly answered in deadpan. "But the main difference was that I didn't try to use it to save my own self the second time like I did the first. I was also fighting with a collapsed lung and several broken ribs to compliment that desperation."

"Yikes, how did that happen?" Melanie asked.

"Friday night after I tried to get back to the castle, that thing dragged me back to the arena through the city streets and slammed me into the ground chest first."

"Ooh, you should've been dead." She replied in awe.

"Yeah, but Umbra's desire wasn't to see me die." I explained before returning to the subject. "But yeah, I reached out to save Fluttershy and that's when the fireworks began."

Cliff raised his hand as though he was in a class. "Question, what stopped Twilight from doing the same thing?"

"The magic inhibitors." I answered. "Those things are a bit different when they're already affecting her and her ability to cast the mass teleportation spell."

"But she's an element bearer, so what stopped her?" He asked once more.

"I think it was the elements themselves not being in their possession. If we hadn't had the elements there, I don't think Fluttershy would be in the castle today."

"That and we'd probably have a raging draconequus on top of all of that." Melanie added.

Stanton folded his arms, pointing out the obvious truth. "All things considered, those elements sure came in the clutch."

"Not only that, but it was like we already knew what to do and how." Alex stated in a vocal thought. "Maybe there's some sort of mind control thing when we use them."

"No." I said, trying to rationalize what really occurred. "I think it was some sort of projection. Maybe it was what the girls would've done, maybe the memories of the bearers themselves are imprinted in the actual elements. If I go back to my vision when I first ran into this thing, I could see the vague shadows of the previous wielders. But if I know who's shadows they belong to, I can tell you who used what."

"So maybe when you reached out, you somehow did what Twilight would've done?" Alex inquired.

"No. I just did it because she was my friend." I responded.

Melanie shook her head. "Nondis, you can barely use magic now, how the hell else do you think you were able to make the magic rocks go supernova?"

"No, I'm not joking." I said firmly. "I just had a blank moment and put out my hand to defend her, at least move her away from him. I didn't know I was going to be using the powers of fate itself."

"So you don't know what you did outside of save a friend?" She asked slowly.

I sighed in defeat, unable to completely verbalize what it was that allowed for the elements to activate the way that they did. "That's all I remember trying to do. I didn't call to the element, no incantations, no none of that. It was just a blank moment that should've ended in me dropping my hand and looking at an unresponsive pony on the ground."

"So in short, we don't know how to use these damned things, we got only a day to learn how, and we're already throwing shit to the wall to see if anything sticks. Well we sure are some heroes, aren't we?" Alex said with a discouraged expression.

Again, my hand pulsed. I looked back to the jewel and recalled Twilight's words when I was still undergoing my magic studies, namely after our spar. "Guys, I know it sounds stupid, but can you trust what I'm about to say?"

Stanton pointed back at me. "Okay, what?"

"I know it will sound corny, but let's look inside of ourselves. What about ourselves align with these elements, what do we see in one another that we know definitively matches the bearers we borrowed these from? In what way do we actually bring purpose to one another in our lives? And in what way do you think you have the characteristics that reflect into those elements?"

Melanie folded her arms and tapped herself in thought. "All we know is that there are six things that the girls are known for. Loyalty, laughter, generosity, honesty, kindness, and magic. Like how does any of that really apply to all of us outside of Cliff, who we know can make us laugh at a bad time?"

"Damn, I'm that easy to pin out?" Cliff asked sarcastically.

"Not a bad thing in this case." Alex answered. "But how does that get us all these weird changes to our bodies?"

"I don't know. Maybe we should ask the girls if any of their bodies changed with the powers they've gotten." Stanton responded.

I started to think to myself in ways that the girls' bodies could change and alter in some ways when the elements are used. I do remember them being able to transform, Rarity showed me that it could be done individually, but probably not for long. I had received an initial power boost when fighting that thing on Friday, but it wore off as I was running away. But in short, I remember Rarity's appearance altering in a drastic fashion. "Wait, they do actually." I whispered to myself, earning the attention of the entire room. Once I saw that everyone was looking at me, I decided to save that conversation piece for a later time. "Don't worry about that right now, those are individuals who've mastered their shit. Let's stay focused on us."

I'm sure the topic would come up as soon as our current exercise came to an end, but we did as I suggested. Stanton was the first to vocalize his thoughts. "Okay, so Cliff is our laughing agent. But in what way am I honest, outside of telling girls that I'm only into meetups instead of relationships?"

"Yeah, I wouldn't quite pin you down for that one." Mel replied.

"So what would I be then? I have to be honesty if I'm Applejack's element." He responded.

Alex then brought up a fair point. "Maybe it isn't quite what the girls are exactly to the letter. Like I'm not exactly charitable or fashionable, not even nearly as much as Rarity is."

Mel groaned out a confession on herself. "I haven't really been kind to others, I'm not gonna lie. I definitely showed my ass that first week in Ponyville, like I was not pleasant to be around for a little while."

"And I might be able to use magic, but that's not my forte." I pointed out about myself.

"Damn, and here we thought you were the one with all the answers." Alex joked at my expense.

"Like how have I been loyal?" Rickey asked himself.

Mel turned to him and smiled. "Actually, you've been pretty persistent in trying to get us back together."

"I mean that's to one person, how long have I really been like that?" He asked again.

She counted off on her fingers the way she knew him to be of that trait. "Your family, your frat, your undying fandom of the Dallas Cowboys, your dedication to me, even your efforts to help me find Nondis when he went missing a little over a year ago, and especially when you saw what Jasper did to me. You were about to pick a fight with both him for abusing me, and Nondis for not being there quick enough." She stood up and grabbed his hands, giving him a hug for appreciation "You may not give yourself any credit, but you've been a pretty decent anchor to the cause. That's why I gave you a second chance."

"You've been there for my family by being there for Nondis. Can't drop that one either." Alex added.

Cliff shrugged and replied. "You have a pretty good track record when it comes to sticking out for any of our frat brothers. I'm just saying."

"I'm not loyal, I'm just dedicated is all." He replied, as he chuckled to himself. "And you do bring some kind of humor into the situation, no matter what we're in. I swear something stupid or bad happens and you just bust out in song."

Mel started to snicker and her cheeks grew pinker as she tried not to laugh too hard. "Well, except that one time where we were in the abandoned castle."

"Look, we ain't talking about that one!" He demanded in an elevated tone.

"Aw, he's still shy about his first glory hole experience." She said as she clasped her hands together.

"You know damn well that should've been you." He replied to the woman who joked at his expense.

She continued to poke fun at him. "Well thank you for being there to take the brunt of that situation. And I also wanna give a special shoutout to Stanton who really carried the load on that one."

"I'm sorry, what?" Alex said in a double-take to Stanton.

"Ay, timeout, I'm lost! What happened here?" I asked, completely bewildered.

"Nothing we are going to discuss." Stanton said as he looked to Cliff, who instinctively looked at his hair.

"I had to scrub my dreads for two fucking hours. Two fucking hours to make sure that shit was out." He stressed emphatically.

I wasn't really going to laugh at him, but the others were more than inviting to do so. "Okay, so we know two of us. What about the rest of us four?"

Alex pointed to me and answered in a plain tone. "You're the leader, so there."

As he finished his blunt assessment by slapping his hands on his pants, I wasn't exactly firm on that being my trait. "I don't think it's that easy."

Stanton then reinforced Alex's sentiment, going a lot further than he did in his explanation. "No dude, you led a whole damn country in song and dance over the radio. Like I don't know if you really even remember that or not, but you had the world listening to you, ready to dive into battle with the way you spoke. And even then, you have that ability to draw others to listen to you and rally to you. The guard can't shake the influence you've become to them. You've led us on a number of things, you've taken the lead when it got rough, you barked out orders and instructions, you saw the shit that could scare lesser men shitless and still threw hands. You don't ever let anyone get into a situation you yourself don't get out of. Like you legit don't even know how powerful that is. You got men out there who can't coach a little league team, you got entire armies ready to run through brick walls chanting 'I believe that we will win'. Like who does that?"

Alex tagged in and added another point. "Nondis, leadership is the one thing you've continued to have in spite of anything going bad. That thing chose you because you proved yourself to be the one who leads outright. If you managed to get the princesses of a nation to follow your cue, then you've got the juice."

For the moment I initially didn't see exactly what he was looking at. But then I looked back at everything that happened in the year I spent here. I looked at the events that lead up to this moment, from when I was trying to get used to pony society, to the first time I got beaten up in an alley for standing up for a friend, then the military training I suffered through in spite of the degradation of my character that took place, the way I stood up to Shining Armor, how I fought in Canterlot and Ponyville, leading rescue efforts, rallying troops, riling politicians, and yes even challenging them on the legislative floor, I've done all of those things in one way or another. In hindsight, everything they say does have a lot of merit behind it. "Huh, never thought of it that way."

Alex pointed back at me and said. "Well now you do. So at least act like you know you got it, because you do."

Melanie nodded as she transitioned back into thought. "So, that's three of us. How about the others?"

I looked back at the woman and started pulling some parallels between her and the mare who held her same element. "Actually, I might see some similarities between you and Fluttershy."

Mel broke out in a laugh as she dismissed my viewpoint. "How?" She asked. "The only thing you might can say now is that I have pink hair. So what do you think is the thing that makes me even remotely comparable to that girl?"

"How you care for others." I simply replied, causing her to initially become skeptical. "Like seriously, you talk about me not knowing what I am and you're in the same boat. You braved out the idea of cutting open your best friend to save his life. And in all reality, you could've just been petty and said I'm not going to help this guy anymore after I got injured from fighting Jasper in the arena. You could've just said 'he will be okay' and left it alone, but you took time out of your day to be my doctor, not just once or twice, but every time I've been injured."

Rickey tabbed in with his own perspective of her. "That and she stood up for Blue at the gala when she didn't have to. She volunteered her time on Sweet Apple Acres on some mornings, offered to help Ms. Landlady over at the inn for breakfast and dinner, and she helped Alabaster and Blue with some stuff in the VIP Lounge, that was another situation where she didn't have to butt in, but she did. She couldn't bear to see those two get berated like they were and jumped right in to put a stop to it."

"But I didn't even stop that, Kalimba did when she put a bullet in her ass." She quickly replied.

"You still stepped in." Stanton added. "And when mom and dad started to give up hope in finding Nondis, you cared enough to keep looking, no matter what anyone else said. That's not just loyalty, that's compassion."

I also drew up more parallels between her and her elemental counterpart. "Fluttershy shows a lot of compassion for animals. You show a lot of compassion for people, for ponies who you grow to know, and you stand up for them because you care. It's pretty much in the foundation of who you are. Think about it, did you not show me compassion after me and my dad had our fight?"

Once we made our point loud and clear, she finally stopped combating the idea of who she was, looking more within herself through hindsight as I did. "Well... that's a lot of looking back to do."

"Okay, so that's four. What about me and Alex?" Stanton questioned.

"You are the element of dumbass." Alex joked in a brotherly manner.

"Shut up!"

I looked to Stanton and started nailing down some of his more personal traits. "Actually, Stanton's got a drive in him that I don't think any one of us carries in our own selves. Like think about it for a second, what do you think is his passion in life?" I asked to the group.

"Football?" Rickey guessed.

"Dreams of making it to the NFL?" Mel quizzed.

"Hall of Fame career." Alex estimated.

All of them were true enough, but that wasn't the answer I was going to point out. "Hell, getting into the league is already a lofty goal by itself, his foot's in the door with his performance over the holidays. But you know what else I see in him aside from that internal drive that keeps pushing him towards his dream?"

"What?" Alex inquired.

"I see the similarity of Rainbow Dash trying to be a Wonderbolt. I see her constantly cursing herself out when she doesn't nail a drill, when she comes out of a loop too soon or too late, or even a rough landing that isn't pitch perfect on skid. How many times have we watched Stanton after school run drills until he passed out from exhaustion? How many routes do you think he ran to make every catch in every situation? How many times has he asked us to foolishly try and stop him from making a catch? How do you think he keeps on fighting for every yard of every down, it isn't because of how awesome he is."

"Yeah, but that's not my element." He pointed out. "I'm not holding onto Rainbow's element, I'm holding on to Applejack's."

I turned to him and replied. "I know. But do you know what the difference is between you and Rainbow Dash? The difference between you two is that Rainbow will answer a statement of praise with self-flattery. You always answer a statement of praise with what you've could've done better. You uplift everyone else around you and call it a team effort as opposed to making it about yourself. I mean sure you can boast about a solid catch, a nasty juke, or even a big gain, but at the end of the day you call out your team's strengths and stay humble with the weaknesses you have. You're real and upfront with everyone you meet, even the girls you talk to, knock down, and leave in a timely fashion. But you don't let those things stop you. Even when you help me, you could be three hours out of town but you never let anything stop you from showing up. You have drive, a grounded mentality rooted in self-evaluation. But not once have you ever let that stop you, you keep pushing with the determination to succeed. And that energy you give off bleeds to everyone around you. You don't believe it, but I learn a lot from you and Alex. And determination is the one thing I learned from you growing up."

In hearing my description, Stanton looked away and kissed his teeth. "Jeez, lay it on thick why don't you?"

I then turned my attention to my older brother, basing my observation on his personality as well. "Alex, you jump into every fight we have. You've been that way since we were kids. You made sure if anyone messes with the Haines brothers, you were waiting right there at the bus stop with every intent to send them home with some bruises and a story to tell. But when we got home, you'd chew us out for getting into trouble. You never minded the repercussions of getting into what gramps would call good trouble, you always stuck up for us. You stuck up for me even when dad and mom started campaigning for me to come back home, you defended my name when I couldn't even speak for myself, you set the record straight with anyone who would ever endanger your family and friends. You're going to be a hell of a father, and Vanessa is lucky to have someone as affectionate as you."

"I'm just thanking God you're in one piece, man." He said quietly.

Mel pointed to every human in the room and spoke out. "Dedication, optimism, compassion, determination, affection... and leadership." She ended off with me. " So now all of humanity rest on those six attributes we found within ourselves."

Stanton looked to me with uncertainty. "Do you think that's what we're really all about, especially for these things to work?"

I looked to the jewel embedded in my hand as it gave off a faint pulse. "I got a good feeling that we'll be just that. I couldn't think of another six things to better personify the good in humanity."

"We're glad you're still with us, man." Said Alex who patted me on the shoulder.

"I'm thankful you guys even came back for me." I answered as we all started to gather together.

He then chided me over my statement. "You just went through all of that talking to point out what I'm all about, and you think I won't still be that for you? You must've lost some brain cells while you were stuck in that lab."

"No, but I nearly lost my mind, and almost a lot more than that." I said as then extended that show of appreciation to everyone in the room. "Thank you, all of you."

Rickey placed his hand out balled up to a fist. Cliff placed his right next to Rickey's. Alex and Stanton did the same. Melanie punched hers in as well as she looked to me. "We got us."

I nodded and placed my hand with the element on top of each of them, the element pulsed warmly as I answered with one word. "Together. We do this together."

We all took a moment to look at one another and silently verify our qualities, and in that moment I began to feel a warm comfort I hadn't felt in a week's time. I was beginning to feel confident, finding hope in the company of the friends I've made along the way, the family that shared in my journey, and all the the ones who made me into what I am today. I was empowered.

"...Hey, so do you think we'll be getting paid for this?"

We all looked to the one responsible for the comment, quietly counting down before the inevitable slap upside his head by Alex. "Stanton, can you not ruin a good moment?"

"Well it is kinda cheesy." He said with a shrug.

Melanie chuckled in response. "Yeah it is.... Hopefully all that cheese works somehow."

Outside The Castle Walls
Later That Evening...

Umbra, who had just finished a recent excursion to the morgue had finally finished with a few other errands he had set aside for himself. Once he returned to the checkpoint, he noticed the group of guild members all lounging in the alley. They appeared tired and mentally despondent.

The mad stallion questioned the group and it's leader. "You lot are tired already?"

"Sorry, boss. It's like they've been kicking us out all through the course of the day. We've found ourselves gradually being able to stay a little longer, but what good is a measly five seconds?" The leader replied.

A subjugate also spoke out to give another update. "Plus Princess Cadance and Prince Blueblood are helping out in kicking us back out. We can't keep up with an alicorn's magic."

The hatted stallion tilted his head and clicked his tongue in frustration. "Disappointment abound. I guess that's the order of the day."

Seeing their boss' expression, the leader of the group bowed his head to the cobblestones they walked on. "We're sorry, boss."

Umbra wafted his hoof in dismissal. "No, I can't be completely mad at you lot. In fact, it's more of a testament to how strong their defenses are, how well-prepared they are to defend their keep from intruders."

"If only we could drop that barrier and it's source somehow." The guild leader said as he looked to the shimmering magenta bubble encapsulating the castle.

Umbra grew a slight hint of a smirk, an idea already brewing in his brain as he started to think more of his recent acquisitions. "You know, we could stress test that idea now. The sun has gone down and the night is rife for a surprise visit from our newly crowned Beast of the Week."

The entire group of unicorns raised their heads, their ears pinning back and their faces running cold with fear. "Wait boss, you mean you're bringing that thing here?" One of the guild members questioned.

Umbra raised his hooves as if he were advertising a grand event to take place. "Of course! And I'm expecting it to be a bit stronger than the last time you've seen it. With some fresh new bodies and a few more hours of rest, we can expect my dear creature to be at it all night."

The guild leader looked to his subordinates and voiced a proposal in their stead. "Uh, shouldn't we just scamper off until that thing is done doing it's business?"

Umbra snickered. "Why don't be ridiculous. I'll need you all to be ready for when the barrier goes down."

Not wanting to offend him, the guild leader humbly brought about his concerns. "I don't know if we can do that right now, sir. Our magic's pretty exhausted."

Umbra's countenance was unchanged. "The guild isn't completely comprised of unicorns, you know. There are griffons, changelings, earth ponies, bat ponies, pegasi, mules and donkeys alike. Do you think they are any less capable of doing what you unicorns can?" He summoned his cane and placed the red jewel underneath the stallion's chin. "Well do you?"

"No sir." He replied quietly.

The seemingly smiling doctor removed the cane from under his chin and started twirling it as he spoke. "Then stick around. The show won't really start until sometime after midnight. You'll have plenty of time to rest and recoup your magic. But when that shield comes crashing down, I expect you all to be giving it all you've got left." He stopped twirling the cane, looking back to the leader with a modest frown on his face. "Though I'm sure you bunch won't disappoint me again with later tonight, will you? Because if you do, I'll be sure that my dear pet has more unicorns to play with."

Striking fear in the group, the entire lot had bowed their heads into the cobblestone path. The leader followed suit and bowed once more to his boss. "We won't fail you, sir."

Gently, Umbra ran a hoof against the stallion's chin and started speaking in a soft and sweet tone, as though he was speaking to a friend. "Now, I honestly hate threatening good ponies, especially good guys and gals like yourselves. We share drinks together, we laugh together, we fornicate besides one another, and we have a good time. But sometimes there's a place to be the figure you love and follow, and then there's a place to be the figure you fear and obey. I don't like having to be the second figure, so see to it that I stay the first." A smile slowly appeared on his face as he pull the stallion's muzzle down to place his face against his, making full eye-contact. "Because if I am the second, your corpses will be just another brick in the wall of my Congregant. Clear?"

"C-Crystal, sir." The guild leader whispered breathlessly.

"Very good." He dropped the stallion's head and walked away to return to where he had come from, but throwing a final warning to the group. "Rest up, we have a long night ahead of us. I expect nothing less than the standard from you all."

As Umbra disappeared into the darkness, the guild leader slowly rose to his hooves. While his face remained firm, his tail had hugged against his trembling hind legs. One of his subordinates pointed out the foul disposition of the wayward unicorn. "The boss is really serious about this one."

The guild leader turned to the group and quietly issued an order. "Let's rest up and get our magic back, savvy?"

As he found himself another place to sit and rest, the others looked as he appeared mortified. "Like we have a choice."

Canterlot Castle
Four Hours Later...

Nighttime had fallen over the city. Word from the outside have noted a sudden silence in the streets, as though everyone had gotten scared to be out past the sun's going down. Many local businesses closed shop as they saw the barrier go up around the castle. The world outside was drastically quieter than anything I've ever had to behold. It didn't make much sense to have anything open when there's a visible sign of a security threat taking place. The only thing you can do is grab your kids from school, cut your workday short, have your shopping and financial affairs in order, shelter in place.

Slowly did the news from the outside trickle in. Reports from several surveillance groups have noted that there was very little activity going on in the areas surrounding Canterrot. And word from the church only reflected the same level of dormancy. Nothing came from the mortuary where some other guards were assigned, and that could only be one of two things; A sign that the guys over there are really busy with disposing of the backlog there, or there was bad news afoot. Either or, I can expect Umbra to make a move on that with our communications limited to the passage of a few notes and whatnot through the barrier.

While the press was still being aggressive in their pursuit of information, their numbers had dwindled along with the light of the sun. So us newly-anointed element bearers made our way to the ballroom where we were informed of Twilight's location.

Upon us entering, we saw both Shining Armor and Twilight together, holding their magic strong as they tried to keep the barrier up and anyone trying to teleport their way in out of it. But Twilight looked a lot less stressed than her brother, who appeared to be holding his head a lot more often. Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle along with the other girls were present as well, watching quietly as the young prince suffered his stress in silence. I called out to him as we all walked in. "Shining, you look like you went through hell."

The stallion continued to rub the side of his head. "Well that's the price I pay for using alicorn magic, and not being an alicorn while using it."

Rarity offered another report to go along with the slew of others I've received. "These ruffians around here have been trying to break through the barrier. Seems like some hired goons all trying to teleport into the courtyard. But Princess Cadance and Prince Blueblood have been pretty good about helping Shining Armor out."

Shining offered his own status. "It's help lessen the pressure on me. But alicorn magic is hard to use, and even harder to resist it's corruption. Twily's been keeping me surfaced, but any more of that and I might have to stop using the spell altogether. However, that would only put Cadance at a greater risk."

As far as what I'm hearing as of now, I needed to put together a force to help reinforce the area of greater resistance. In other words, I needed to be up and back moving. "I'll call for more forces to be in the courtyard."

"You need to rest, Nondis." Twilight said quite firmly.

"Like hell I can. By definition, we're under siege right now. And I've been off post for two days now, it's time for me to get back to work."

She stepped towards me, trying to get me to do everything but get involved in the conflict. "But what about you six trying to find your connections? That's the main thing you should be doing if you want to do any kind of work."

"Dedication, optimism, compassion, determination, affection, and leadership. There's your six right there." Mel called out confidently.

"Are you sure that's what you feel in your heart for one another?" Rarity questioned.

"We couldn't be any more certain." Alex answered.

"Twilight, we've had six months to certify that. If anything, all this does is make it even more official." I responded to the young princess.

Rarity sighed, realizing that I was more than willing to take my position in the courtyard. "If that's what you feel is right for you, darling."

Fluttershy turned her head towards Mel, who had nothing to hide her now full head of pink. "I guess your hair is completely pink now, how do you feel?"

Not wanting to offend anyone, she gave a conservative response of her opinion. "I guess I'll rock it for now, but we humans don't have naturally occurring pink hair, especially law enforcement officers, they don't do the whole dye look either."

"Welcome to the pink-mane club!" Pinkie cheered on the new pinkette, yanking in Fluttershy and suddenly pulling out a ton of pictures out of her mane. "I mean you were already on a list of pink-maned ponies and associates, but now we get to make you an official member. You'll be joining the ranks of me, Fluttershy, Scootaloo, Mrs. Cake, Mrs. Posey, Mr. Gentle Breeze, Nurse Redheart, Sparkleworks, regular ponies like us. But there's even prominent ponies like Mayor Mare in Ponyville─though she dyes her hair gray, high-fashion model Fleur De Lis, even Princess Cadance and Princess Celestia!"

Mel quirked a brow at the mare. "I thought that Princess Celestia had a little pink in her mane. Not really enough to qualify."

"There's pink." I replied. "In fact, her white coat is actually the lightest shade of pink, and her mane changes according to her mental state. So yeah, there's some pink... and then there's moments when she's full-pink."

"Full pink, since when does that happen!?" Twilight questioned as though she wanted to know since when her mentor would be able to don a full head of pink hair.

I shrugged and remained tight-lipped on what exactly brings it out of her. "Classified: Top Secret. Can't reveal royal emotional state, gag order 452B." While the others weren't in any way aware of what I said, Crescent, Shining, and Twilight gawked at me as if I had more than broke the space-time continuum.

Shining gave a single nod of understanding. "Copy that."

Pinkie disregarded her friends reaction and went back to speaking to Mel for a bit. "Well either way, welcome to the club. You might be a human, but you're gonna rock that like you own it! Now you can be the prettiest and pinkest and most awesomemest cop out there! Trust me girl, your do is fabulous." She zipped over to Cliff and giggled at him. "Cliff, you look so silly with your mouth covered in blue!"

He initially tightened his lips before responding. "I just hope Sunset don't mind it."

Rainbow Dash hovered by him with her response. "She's a pony, you're a human, I'd think that having a blue mouth is going to be the least of her concerns about you." She gave him a wink and a nudge. "All that matters is if you can still get the job done when she's in the mood for it."

"Rainbow Dash!" Rarity called out, chiding her friend for such an implied statement in a public setting.

"What? We're all adults here, we can be open about it." The pegasus replied.

Applejack also approached Cliff and offered her peace. "Ah think what Rainbow meant was that the two of ya'll already different in many ways, despite having the appearance of something else in a different place. She's a pony by birth, yer a human by birth. She ain't gonna mind a little change here or there if she's really along for the ride. Just as long as you are you deep down, she's gonna be happy to be with ya. An' besides, it'll probably go away after all of this."

Rarity focused her attention to me. "Darling, you've just had a rough out. I'm sure ponies won't mind you taking it easy for a day or two. Are you sure you're going to be okay giving out orders with all that press stalking about the castle?"

Shining quickly answered her question. "Interfering with security affairs is an arrestable offense. I doubt they'd be that stupid."

"We still have ponies trying to bust into the castle grounds. That's an arrestable offense too." Rarity pointed out.

On that note, I verified my status. "And that's what I'm going to focus on right now. We have a skirmish brewing and our forces are scattered throughout the grounds. And given that many aren't experienced in any way other than patrolling the halls, this will be their first blood. We need to coalesce our forces into larger groups. focus our attention on the path of greater resistance. The more we allocate to that, the less Cadance and Blueblood will have to work to keep them out."

Almost on cue, the doors opened to reveal Princess Cadance and Solemn Oath who walked into the room. Cadance galloped to her husband's side. "Shining Armor!"

He didn't show any reservation in greeting her, running to her to meet her halfway. He held his wife close as he kissed her. "Cadie, are you okay?"

"I should be the one checking in on you! Sending a few ponies back out of the boundary is easy compared to trying to maintain the barrier AND dealing with alicorn magic."

"Nondis says he's gonna try to put more of our specialist up front to help you and Blueblood out." He informed her.

Cadance broke off of her husband, walking up to me with careful concern. "Are you okay with working right now?"

"What is it with you two and wanting me to take a break during a siege?" I asked a little annoyed. "I'm fine, we got work to do, I've got a position to maintain, and we've got some ponies to keep out."

Cadance wasn't fond of seeing me going to work so soon, but she briefed me on what I was going to be dealing with. "These ponies are magically gifted, or at least highly well-trained. They've been persistent for most of the day, but they haven't tried to come in for the better part of the past four hours. I gave Blueblood some time to recover for watch duty, he's now relieving me to do the same."

"Then this is a good time to shore up our defenses. Let's try to make 'em hurt." I replied before calling out to Alex. "Yo, what time is it?"

"9:47." He answered.

As I heard the time, I looked at the makeshift bandages on my wrists and undid them. As they fell, I could see large scars striping my entire wrist. They no longer ached. I flexed the one hand I could use and observed as Twilight spoke to me. "You be careful out there."

I nodded at her as Cadance also offered some advice to me. "Princess Luna has been resting throughout the day as well, Princess Celestia has been pretty much running all of the press and political stuff today, so she's tired. Celestia might not be in any condition to fight right now, but Luna should be available to help if you find that you need it."

"I hate to condemn a bunch of kids to some nightmares for a night, but we might need all hooves on deck. If you can get her to join me up front after she does a quick dream run, I can make sure that whatever comes for us will get sent right on back."

"We want to help, Nondis." Said Melanie.

Accepting their request, I started formulating in my mind how I planned for all of this to go. "Okay. Alex, Rickey, you two will be my lookout. Stanton, you're up front with me since I could really use your magic here, plus I can teach you a thing or two about it. Cliff, Mel, you two take care of any wounded you find and try to make sure that they get the medical attention they need. With supplies cut from the outside, we might find ourselves operating in triage. The good thing about the castle is that medicinal magic staff here are strong enough to prevent a lot of fatalities. Triage should be our final option, but we are to save those who can get back in the fight sooner. We'll need our numbers to stay strong. Cliff, I'm putting you over the security of the medical ward."

"Aw shit, here we go again." He murmured.

"So we're taking another trip to the armory?" Melanie questioned.

"Fuck that, we ain't got time." I said as I held my hand out in an attempt to summon a large amount of weapons, but when I envisioned the massive amount of ordinance, I felt my wrist crackle with pain. I looked down to see the magic acting like a disrupted current. "Yeah hold on." I closed my eyes again, trying to bring out the weapons I wanted for everyone to use, but in trying to do that, a most disturbing memory came back to my mind. All I could think of was my firing many weapons into the shadows, only to hear the screams and howls of the dead. With that resurgent memory, I snapped out and dropped my spell completely. I couldn't concentrate enough to bring anything here. "...Okay, scratch that earlier statement. You five get to the armory and I'll get to the front gate. We'll meet back up in our positions and try to keep to the plan."

Twilight, who understood what it was like to try and cast a summon under duress and trauma, spoke to me softly. "Try not to push yourself too hard."

While I was more to myself in disappointment, Rarity stepped up and tapped me on my side. I looked over to see her, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash lined up. "Care to borrow a lady and her time, darling?"

"You might need some reinforcement, sugarcube." Applejack said as she stood proudly.

"And eyes in the sky." Rainbow added as she flexed her wings.

For the time being, I knew that Rarity and Rainbow were already skilled fighters, and Applejack was incredibly strong. I wasn't going to refuse their help. So I agreed to their proposal. "You three can come with me right now if you want."

"Pinkie and I will be over in the medical ward with Cliff and Melanie. We should be able to help there." Announced Fluttershy.

"I'll stay behind and help Shining with the barrier." Twilight confirmed.

With all of our directions carved out, we moved ahead. "Alright people and pones, it's showtime! Let's move!"

Outside the Castle Walls
Three Hours Later...

The guild's forces had completely swelled up in numbers as the hours ticked by. Many found different ways to reach their location, and with very few ponies on the streets, many just walked to the designated meeting point while looking as auspicious as possible. But for some others who didn't quite fit the usual makeup of the greater Canterlot populace, they had to arrive in cloaks.

Soon, there was a small army gathered with a number of weapons with wagons full of bombs and ill-concocted potions to lob over the walls. Some found some food to snack on to pass the time, others sharpened their weapons, those who could summon weapons were freshly recovered from trying to teleport into the castle grounds. All of the assembled forces had numbered to well over eight-hundred, consisting of every single faction of the guild. Beast-tamers, assassins, guardians to the alleyways, security to the arena, vendors, prostitutes, drug dealers, mercenaries, baristas, 'sanitation' workers, and especially some champions of VIP members were all in attendance. They all showed themselves to be eager to get their hooves, claws, and other appendages into the young and inexperienced forces of the castle.

Umbra walked past many of the gathered forces and tapped his hoof against the barrier to see if the caster's magic had weakened by any measure. To his surprise, it felt more solid than ever. "Hmm, the field of this barrier seems to have been reinforced. I suppose we'll be putting some work into getting this to shatter."

Recharged on his magic, the guild leader questioned his boss. "How much work do you think it'll take, sir?"

Umbra tapped his cane against the barrier, humming a tune as he estimated the force needed to break the barrier. "About a thousand bodies worth."

"We don't have that many guild members present, sir." The leader replied. "If we could somehow rescue some of the members that were arrested by the captain, we could have almost eight-fifty, but it still won't be enough."

"Who said I was talking about the guild?" Umbra replied with a smirk.

As the leader was about to answer the question, a darkening shadow consumed the ground where he stood. A putrid odor started to overtake his position. "Augh! Who died around here!? It reeks!"

Umbra looked down to see the hungry shadow consuming much more of the ground than he had anticipated. He quirked a brow and looked behind him to see the young filly approaching from inside of a wall. "Ah, so you've paid a visit to the morgue we've recaptured." He asked her, judging her off of the significantly larger base she now had.

"I found all kinds of dollies over there, daddy!" The filly replied as she phased from within the wall completely. "The mean ponies were trying to burn them all."

Umbra smiled down towards his frightening creation and patted her atop her mane. "Well it's a good thing that we stopped them from doing that, isn't it?"

She glanced over to the barrier, looking to the top of it. "Daddy, if I break the bubble, do I get ice cream?"

"Why of course! No good deed deserves to go unrewarded." He replied to the filly, who grew so eager that tendrils started to sprout up from varying spots of her shadow. "But that's only if you break the barrier. So do you think you can do it?"

"Ȉ̶̙t̴̙͠'̴̖̈l̸̳͐l̵͓̀ ̴̞͘b̸̪̽e̸͈͠ ̶̯̐e̵̩̓a̶̛͜s̴͉͑y̸̰̎,̶̦̔ ̷̗̋ḑ̷̈a̸͝ͅd̴̠͊d̶̜̈y̷̡͊!̸̞̀ ̵̭̊Y̵͇̅o̶̰͂u̵͔̽'̷̖̿l̶̙͝l̴̓͜ ̵̛͍s̷̭̔e̶̞͑ë̷̡!̶̾ͅ" She excitedly replied as her voice distorted.

Umbra took great pride in seeing her become so antsy and full of life. "Your enthusiasm is quite inspiring today. I hope to see you do well, my dear."

The guild leader dodged a smaller tendril that tried to snag at his hind leg. He had his muzzle covered as he didn't see the two ponies walking up from behind him. "It's as if the entire city is rife with the dead."

Umbra chuckled as he tapped his shoulder. "Surely you wouldn't mind to greet my dearest creation." He said, pointing his head in the direction of the young filly.

As he came face-to-face with the very mind controlling the harbinger itself, he couldn't fathom the thought of something so small having so much control over something so nightmarish. The filly looked to him and smiled. "H-h-Hi there." He said nervously.

A long tendril featuring many faces and hooves surfaced from her side, extending out to greet him in a hoof shake. "H̸e̸l̵l̵o̸ ̵m̷i̶s̷t̶e̷r̸,̴ ̴w̸h̷a̸t̴'̴s̴ ̴y̵o̵u̵r̵ ̷n̸a̷m̸e̷?̴"

The tendril pointed to him with a hoof massed to the end of it. He started to back away instinctively. "Uh... I-I'm... I'm─"

He felt another hoof stop him from walking back further, looking back he could see Umbra holding him as he spoke to the filly. "Unimportant, my dear. It's time to be up and about." He briefly turned his head to the guild leader and said to him a statement that chilled his very soul. "Besides, dolls don't talk. Isn't that right?"

Feeling as though his fate was all but sealed, the stallion felt a nauseating shiver. "N-No sir, I suppose they don't."

Umbra let him go and pointed his cane to the barrier one last time. "Alright my dear. Sing for those in the castle."

Meanwhile in the Castle Courtyard...

I still didn't quite get in front of a mirror, but I dressed myself to play the part of my captain role. I pulled my hair back and tied it to where it was out of my face for the fight. I slapped on a bullet-proof vest, layered up for the cold, took up my spear, oversaw some of the defensive positions the guards were taking inside the castle, and shoved myself right out the front door.

A number of young guards had appeared to be somewhat excitable on the account of being under my command, probably from the testimony of a few guards surviving their deployment to Arimaspi Mountain. But almost all of them didn't have any clue as to what they were going against. I'm sure they were thinking that this was some rag-tag group of militia trying to make a statement, that they could just armor up and bust their heads in. But even I knew that there was going to be some casualties tonight, fatalities will be certain, and I might not be able to prevent that with the speed of how this situation has evolved. If those ponies out there were going to try and break the barrier, I'm sure they'd have some sort of spell they could cast in unison to do it. And with Umbra's likely involvement, I can assume that these ponies will be more than capable of committing a successful siege.

I didn't have any encouraging words to speak for the moment, no speech in mind to prepare them, nor did I have any honest expectation as to what was to come. I only knew that I had my friends behind me, and that alone made me feel more secure in myself.

One of those friends dusted off my shoulders as she had me kneeling down, giving my face a little extra life as she complimented me. "Looking pretty official in your garments, darling."

"Thank you for having it cleaned before this." I said, referring to the black and purple jacket I wore.

The fashionista put away her makeup and spoke. "Darling, I was not going to let that thing continue to smell like the dearly departed."

"Well hopefully I don't get thrown into a locker full of dead bodies again." I said as I got back to my feet.

"How did you get put in there in the first place?" Rainbow asked.

"That thing he made, she trapped me in there."

"Well that thing ain't gonna show itself out in the open air." Solemn said confidently. "That would be one way for it to get taken down."

"Don't be so sure on that." I murmured.

Stanton came running in from the barracks, holding a small side-arm to protect myself. "How's this one? Not too much kick, not terrible on the wrist, good ol' reliable."

"The old Glock. That'll do." I replied as I carefully observed the safety and holstered the weapon.

Solemn also brought up a fair question. "Quick question, what do we do with the ones we kill?"

"We keep them away from him." I replied. "Same goes for our dead. I'm sure their guys and our guys are on the same side when they see what might become of them if they keel over."

Stanton pointed up to the top of the courtyard entrance. "Alex and Rickey are set up on the third floor right now."

I looked up and felt that they were still too close to the action, possibly to get noticed and attacked. "Tell them to go higher."

"I'll text them to see how far up they can go before they lose track of us." Stanton replied as he pulled out his phone.

In a scamper both Cobalt Blue and Dress Right ran up to me with a salute. "Captain, we're all set."

"All unicorn specialists are in place, sir!"

"Very good. I will need each and every one of you for the job ahead. We're going to repel any and all intruders here at this checkpoint." I said as I noticed Blueblood walking up from behind them. The blond prince didn't seem nearly as sarcastic or cynical as he usually would be. "Blueblood, seems like you've had a tiresome day."

"I could be much worse off." He said, looking to me. "I could talk about the makeup on your face, but you needed the powdering up."

Cobalt walked beside me as she questioned once more. "Sir captain, if you don't mind me asking, what is it that we're going to be facing off against tonight?"

Blueblood answered the question before I could. "A bunch of thugs looking to make a madman happy probably. The last thing we need to do is let those guys get in somehow. And if Prince Shining Armor's spell goes down from anything, we'll probably be in for a serious fight."

"But Shining's spell is reinforced by Twilight's magic. How could anything break that?"

"When there's a will, there's a way. Better to be prepared in any eventuality." Solemn replied.

As we continued our setup, we could hear the sound of one of the guards losing their lunch all over the ground. Then came another, and yet a few more who gagged and vomited. Soon, the source of their revulsion reached our noses. Cobalt smacked her hoof against her muzzle, trying not to smell the putrid odor. "Ugh! What in Equestria is that smell!?"

"Yikes, it smells like a morgue!" Dress Right replied.

"Something must've died in the area over the weekend, maybe a body we didn't collect?" Solemn questioned.

"Something died alright." Gleaming Brass muttered as she gagged.

Applejack too was just as disgusted. "Ah don't hold up too well on stuff like that. Ain't really my preference."

"It does reminds me of Friday evening we had collected the bodies for the princess to cremate." Blueblood replied quietly, seemingly undisrupted by the odor. "You don't suppose..."

"Ay, yo!" Stanton replied loudly. "That's exactly what that smells like! Hey Nondis, do you smell this shit!?"

"I can taste it." I answered, stepping further into the smell, the familiar stench momentarily reminded me of the last time I came into contact with this distinct level of filth. Worse off, I was reminded of the clammy and slimy remnants that gripped at me to snag me back into captivity. I froze in place, a deepening chill ran up my spine. "I can still feel it."

"Nondis?" Stanton called out.

Solemn tried to get my attention, but to little avail. "Captain, what's wrong?"

"Why is the captain shivering?" Cobalt questioned to her friend.

Rarity tapped me on my side, finally getting me to look away from the checkpoint. "Nondis dear, what's wrong?"

I looked down to her and answered quietly. "I'm not going swimming again. I'm not going back... not in that place, not again."

A weak cry sounded from outside of the walls, only to grow significantly in number and presence. What had sounded like a solitary soul howling out to the sky had suddenly turned into a mournful chorus of voices that instilled fear into the very hearts of every guard on the castle grounds. "What was that sound?" Solemn asked.

"The howls of the conjoined." I answered softly.

"I'm sorry, what now?" Stanton inquired.

"Here's something I didn't know until Friday night, something you didn't know until today." I started to briefly explain. "Your vocal cords are still active after death. The body in moving will still draw and expel air, and in expelling that air, the vocal cords will still vibrate, producing moans and groans." I looked to Solemn Oath and asked her quietly. "So if you had a backlog of bodies in the mausoleum, hundreds even, what do you think each of them are still able to do?"

Solemn shivered, Cobalt's draw slowly fell as the smell closed in around us.

"Exactly." I replied. "They're still going to moan, whisper,... and scream."

♫Darling daddy's wasting away.
Darling daddy's not speaking today.
Darling daddy's gone on to pray.
To pray all our sins away.♪

Everyone turned to me slowly as the words echoed throughout the entire city. Stanton looked at me with the growing fear in his eyes. "Nondis?..."

"The song of the Congregant Child... That thing is here."

Meanwhile in the Castle Ballroom...

♪Mommy mommy, did you swallow glue?
Mommy mommy, I can't hear you.
Mommy, did you remember to pray
To pray our sins away?♫

Shining and Twilight both looked to one another as murmurs around the castle grew with the singing of the song, reaching the ears of everyone in the castle halls. Eveyrone in the room had grown confused as to what was going on.

"What's that?" Cadance questioned.

"Why it sounds like a little foal singing." Velvet answered before seeing her husband standing in a cold sweat. "Crescent?"

"Dad?" Shining whispered to his father before the stallion looked to his children and gave a chilling answer.

"It's here."

Meanwhile in the Canterlot Castle Medical Ward...

♫Mommy mommy, it's going to be okay.
Darling daddy's soon on his way.
Yet one last sibling I must now say
Who shall be called on today.♫

Pinkie quirked a brow and asked in an exaggerated manner. "What is that?"

"Sounds creepy." Fluttershy whispered.

Cliff took only seconds to realize what it was that echoed throughout the medical wing. "FUCK NO!"

"Oh my God." Melanie mewled in fear. "She's here, that thing is here."

Meanwhile in the Castle Courtyard...

♫Dear big brother, we're on our way.
Darling daddy's has something to say.
All together we shall be made.
At last we can finally play.
All day we'll play.
All night we'll play.
Together forever... we'll always play.♫

As the song ended, a singular tendril comprised of several hundred departed rose in a helix-shape, twisting and rising high in an effort to eclipse the moon itself. The absent-yet-present faces of ponies who met their ends appeared to have looked down on us, each of them wearing the same zombie-like expression. They moaned with the rising of their conjoined form, the growing figure casting a great shadow onto the courtyard.

Every guard present were at a complete loss for words. Many had already started to consider not taking their post any longer. And I couldn't blame them for wanting to haul ass back into the castle. Applejack's face grew pale. Rainbow shrank in seeing the horror growing before her very eyes. Rarity only showed pity for those who could not save themselves in the mass. Gleaming Brass screamed in terror, holding on to Dress Right who did the same. Cobalt began to hyperventilate and shake, now realizing what it was we were set to face. Solemn had tried to remain strong, but even the panic was evident in her voice. "Captain, orders?"

As the tendril came to a standing halt, the massive tower of flesh swayed ever so slightly in the mountain wind. The moon was nowhere to be seen in it's presence. Stanton gripped his rifle tightly, praying to himself. "Oh lord in heaven, forgive us for our sins."

The slight sway had came to a halt, only this time the very outer extension of the tendril swirled upwards and appeared to be collapsing under it's own weight. However, that was not the case. In truth, it began to howl and scream. I knew then what was happening, and I finally snapped out of my fear to give Solemn one word. "Incoming."

She looked to me as my eyes widened with the deep breath I took. "What?"

"INNNNNNNCOMIIIIIIIIIING!"

Meanwhile in the Castle Ballroom...

The howls and screams sounded loudly from outside, their voice being able to reach past the windows of the extravagant ballroom.

Cadance could only ask but one question. "What's all that screaming?"

*FOOOMMMM*

The sound akin to thunder sounded around them, followed by the labored screams of the two ponies who held the barrier in place. Shining and Twilight both collapsed from the intense impact and pain that they mentally shared from the impact that sounded throughout the city. Shining's horn began to crackle and pop, indicating that his magic couldn't sustain another hit by his lonesome.

"Shining! Violet!" Velvet called out to her two offspring.

Twilight got back up and shouted in disbelief and pain. "What was that!?"

"Whatever it is, it's strong!" He answered as he winced.

Cadance looked outside of the ballroom, seeing the tip of a massive tendril curl from the impact it made before gathering itself to rise into the sky once more. "That thing, it's hitting the barrier, isn't it?" She questioned.

Crescent sighed in resignation. "The barrier won't last."

Meanwhile Outside the Castle Walls...

The young filly giggled as she proudly observed her work, seeing the glistening white cracks in the barrier form underneath her might. Around her stood a great number of pillars consisting of bodies she collected to do her bidding. In the midst of her work, she cheerfully hummed the melody she sang to the world.

Unable to remove himself from the great shadow stretching out to as far as fifty feet from the filly at the center, the guild leader watched speechless as the Congregant readied for another attack on the barrier. Some of his subordinates whispered amongst themselves. "That's truly terrifying."

"And you're saying that if we fail, we get eaten by that thing?" Another asked.

"Doc's orders." Yet another answered.

The guild leader, seeing himself already in the mass of corpses, wished not to find himself being apart of that collective. He tried to strengthen his resolve by offering some words to rally the guild. "We're going in there and mowing down every guard we see."

"Not every guard." Umbra replied with a smile, very much enjoying the filly's work. "Just the ones who stand on four legs. Those other ponies are fair game, so feel free to go all-out on them." He warned before his ears popped up to another idea that sprang up in his mind. "Also, if you happen to run into some royal bastards and bitches, please feel free to report their heads to me for a paid membership to the VIP Lounge. Common married-in's, one month. Lowly princes, six months. Annoying intermediate princess naggers, one year. And if you do happen to get the top prize, any sun or moon variant, you win."

The entire army grew wide-eyed at Umbra's request. Not from the prospect of being potential VIP members, but rather the directness of his intention. Many of them never anticipated taking the life of a royal in this attack, but it wasn't lost on deaf ears. In fact, many were growing anxious of being able to commit that act of execution themselves.

But the guild leader still had a remaining concern. "And if we run into any humans?"

Umbra shrugged and shook his head. "I'd suggest not running into any of those if you want to live. Dying means that you'll have to pay me for my services in your burial. And since none of you will have the bits to pay the toll this instant, nor have you taken up any life-insurance policies, you'll be paying me in your flesh. So please don't die, I would hate to demean your memory by making you work in the afterlife."

The army called out in fearful acknowledgement. "Sir!"

Meanwhile in the Courtyard...

The massive tendril coiled up as it erected itself into the air once more. As it rose, we could see the pinkish white fractures in the barrier above, appearing as a batted web around the point of impact. As the second hit was being charged, we could see the fracture lines slowly heal themselves and try to reunite the sections that threatened to break apart.

Stanton and I hid just under the castle parapets along with the others, looking up to watch as another hit was threatening to come down upon us. "I don't know if that shield will hold for much longer!" Gleaming Brass announced.

"That means that thing will be coming after us!" Cobalt shouted.

While I was stricken with fear, there was no way I could let this thing be the force front-lining the incoming wave of insurgents. In my brain, I tried to weave a plan as to void that thing's presence, be it some sort of distraction, or even another losing skirmish. In all cases, I could not let this thing be present for any losses. "You leave that thing to me!" I called out, still just as terrified as the others.

"You sure?" Stanton questioned.

"Who else is going to distract it for long enough for us to try and hold the perimeter?" I rebutted.

"Captain, that thing is way too big to fight." Solemn replied as the sounds of terrible screaming came about.

More ponies scrambled throughout the yard, seeking cover incase the barrier came down on it's incoming swing. "It's coming down again!" A guard shouted as they dove underneath the battlements.

In another fell swoop, the impact sounded as if it was a synthesized thunder clap, the cracks themselves sounding as though they had formed under the surface of a frozen river. More streaks of white revealed themselves among the faults of the barrier, the point of impact growing with each massive impact.

"That shield is gonna give way at any moment!" Dress Right screamed.

"Twilight." Rarity murmured quietly, watching with growing anxiety over what was taking place.

"We still gotta hold strong here, girls!" Said Applejack, trying to provide some morale to the group.

Rainbow in seeing the tendril slowly slithering off the barrier for another hit hovered up into the air. "I'm flying up to survey their forces! I'll be back down before that thing comes in for another hit."

As she zipped off to do as she intended, Rarity called out to her friend. "Be careful, darling!"

While many of us weren't too invested in trying to see how many were waiting to storm the keep, Rainbow braved the pressure of the next charging impact. Her eyes darted around, quickly taking note of how many had gathered. She then looked back up to see the tendril climbing back to it's apex, and wisely decided to come back down before the next impact. "I'm counting up to over eight hundred!" She announced.

"Well that's doesn't sound like much, but the castle probably has four hundred guards available right now. We're outnumbered two-to-one!" Solemn added, causing some of the nearby guards to quickly lose morale. Some even made their way to the door in an attempt to flee to the inside.

"We still have reinforcements outside of the castle!" Blueblood added.

"How do we get in contact with them!?" Cobalt questioned.

"If they don't know what's going on by now, they probably won't even think about coming this way with that thing bearing down on us!" Solemn responded as yet another wave of screaming sounded above us.

Another guard yelled out as he continued to take cover. "It's coming in for another hit!"

Meanwhile in the Castle Ballroom...

Both siblings who held the barrier up, collapsed to the ground as the third impact stressed their minds greatly, so greatly that they could not speak for several seconds as their parents called out to them, urging them to come to. The shock of the impact subsided after some time and Cadance assisted the pair to their hooves.

Velvet called out to her children. "Shining, Violet, let the damn thing go already!"

Shining replied in a weakened voice. "If we give up on the barrier, who knows what they'll do to us."

"You two are Equestria's greatest defenders right now. Keeping that thing up is only going to cost you the rest of your magic, as well as possibly your lives! Don't be foolish!" Crescent called out.

"Dad, we can hold things here. Just try to get out." Twilight said as she supported her brother in his effort to maintain the spell.

"I am not leaving my babies behind!" Velvet screamed at them, pleading for them to abandon the barrier. "Shining, Violet, let it go!"

"Mom, we got this!" The young prince weakly replied once more. But before he could completely stand tall, another impact sent the both of them back to the ground, the fourth hit completely knocking out their magic. Twilight groaned in pain as her brother was slow to get up. But as he rose, blood began to drip from his nose, his eyes opened and one of them became bloodshot. "That thing hits HARD!" He screamed laboriously.

Crescent picked up his son and became firm with his words. "How long will it be before you don't have it anymore!? How many more will it be before you don't have anything left!?"

"We have to protect the castle!" Shining replied.

Twilight tiredly cosigned with her brother. "And if we don't, that thing will come for Nondis and his friends again! We'll lose the element bearers!"

Cadance, not able to watch her husband suffer any longer, used her own magic to sustain the barrier for a short while as she tried to convince her husband to cast his efforts aside. "Shining. Let go."

His horn sparked unsteadily as he tried to reapply the spell. "I won't abandon─"

"Shining Armor." She placed a hoof on his horn, quenching his magic. "You have a daughter. Live for that."

Twilight also tried to ignite the spell, only to have her horn quenched by the pink princess in turn. "But what about─"

Cadance began to reason with them both. "When their time as element bearers come to an end, who will defend Equestria and it's problems? Do you expect them to keep it moving while you sacrifice it all on tonight? They have another world to protect. That is why they have the elements, to protect what's theirs. When it's all said and done, we can't expect them to come save us with every villain we face, they have their own lives, families, friends, their own world. I know it sounds selfish, but Equestria needs you both, don't give that away."

Twilight took a more educated thought into what her sister-in-law spoke on. She found herself seeing the greater picture of her friends being unable to stop any future dangers because of her decision to maintain the barrier. She lowered her head and let not another sparkle of magic flow to her horn. Her brother however fought against that thought. She called out to him also. "Shining..."

Velvet spoke to her son, begging him to stop. "I know that shield on your flank means a lot to who you are and what you can do, but your magic is already wearing thin. Either let the paling drop and live for a bigger fight, or keep it there for a short while, suffer the consequences, and have it fall shortly after anyhow. The only difference at this point will be maybe one or two more strikes. Choose which way makes more sense to you."

Shining looked to his wife, who shouldered the entire load of the barrier on her own. But it came at a cost, for a fifth impact sent the pregnant princess to her knees. She breathed heavily as the impact weighed her entire body down. The young prince hugged against his wife to keep her from falling. "Cadie!"

The mare looked to her husband. "I'm doing this for you, and if you won't let go, then neither will I."

"Cadie, you're pregnant!" He chided her.

"And right now my future is in your hooves. Either stop this or I will cast in your place." She answered adamantly, matching the dedication her husband wished he could provide in his weakened state.

The young prince shook his head. "You're crazy!"

The mare smiled back to her husband. "You've known that when you married me."

Yet another impact landed, Cadance screamed out in pain as the magic in her horn sparked out with a loud pop. Shining cared for his injured wife and carried her carefully on his back as to not be a discomfort to her and their unborn foal. He looked to his dad. "We can't just let that thing get Nondis while he's out there."

"Then allocate your magic for that, a cause that can still be won rather than a lost one." Crescent answered.

Shining closed his eyes and grew angry with himself. He sparked his horn for one more go, only to find himself being too weak to replenish the barrier. It was then where he finally acknowledged defeat. "I'm sorry, Nondis." He whispered before looking to his wife. "I'm so sorry, Cadie."

The pink princess rose to her hooves, recovering quicker from the impact after not having to deal with as many strikes. "You made the right decision. Now rest up, you'll need your magic back in full stride to fight."

Twilight looked outside, seeing the shadow swallow the entire castle yet again. She looked back to her father and spoke softly. "I hope you two are right about this."

"We are your parents. We haven't steered you wrong yet." Velvet replied.

Crescent then thought of the current captain. "If he's any bit of the fighter we know he is, he'll hold that thing off somehow."

Meanwhile in the Courtyard...

The tendril raised high into the sky. It remained there for a little more time than it normally would. Judging from the white glowing cracks in the barrier, it appeared that there was no signs that the barrier would ever recover. Instead, there was a looming silence as we acknowledged the next hit being the final one. "The shield is faltering!" One guard called out.

"Twilight, no!" Rarity said, covering her muzzle.

"We might be in fer a long night, girls!" Applejack began to breathe heavily, mentally preparing herself for the possible hell to come their way.

"No matter what, we face it together!" Rainbow said as she huddled her friends in against her and covered their heads with her wings.

Cobalt screamed at the top of her lungs at me. "Captain! Orders!"

"I gave you your orders. Stick to that over anything else. I know it sounds ridiculous, but try to remain calm."

As the massive tendril swayed in the wind, Stanton looked over to me with his rifle in tow. "Nondis?"

I calmly ask my brother. "Stanton, how strong is your magic?"

"Break an oak bed frame without even trying." He replied.

I nodded my head. "Good. I'm gonna need you to do the same with anything that comes our way."

Solemn gazed up at the tower of decaying flesh, trying her best to remain collected. "So what happens when that thing breaks through? What then?"

"...Playtime." I answered.

The screaming started slowly, the tip of the tendril didn't flop down with it's impact, but rather jettisoned towards us instead. It appeared to strike with extreme precision. "It's coming down!" A guard screamed from across the yard.

I shouted back to the entire yard one command. "BRAAAACCEEEEE!"

The tendril didn't just shatter the barrier, it knifed it's way through and stopped shy of running itself through the face of the castle. In doing that, we were given a closer view of the many faces that looked our way, as if to condemn us for merely exhibiting our ability to independently draw breath. Magenta mega-fragments fell from the sky akin to shattered glass, evaporating into smaller fractals that soon evaporated into the air. The tendril pulled back and fell behind the castle walls, complete with all the screaming that ensued with every movement. The giant tower of dead rescinded much of it's presence until there was naught a single condemned soul screaming. The shadow extended from over the walls, swallowing much of the courtyard entrance. There was a silence, and then we had saw the faces of our enemies standing in awe at the force that brought down the barrier. They soon turned their attention to us.

Stanton chambered a round in his weapon and took aim. "And here we go."

On the outside of the castle walls, the forces of the guild gawked and stood silent in the might of the young filly who brought the barrier down. Umbra gleamed with pride and rubbed the foal's head and showered her with praise. "Now that's a way to make an entrance. You've done great, my precious little Congregant." The filly giggled at the stallion's praise.

The guild leader still stood in shock over what he had witnessed. "The shields gone! That thing actually did it!"

Umbra screamed to him and pointed his hoof to the open courtyard. "Well what are you standing around for? Get your asses moving!"

"Yes sir!" He replied.

They appeared frozen, both our forces and theirs. I'm sure both sides had marveled and feared the presence that brought the barrier to it's brilliant end. But unlike our forces, theirs started moving first, walking slowly into the courtyard as though they had nothing to fear in their advance.

Many situations I had to wing it through, especially since my tactics heavily replied on the sole advantage of human weaponry. We had that advantage to a degree, but not nearly as much with the current situation. And with others in the line of fire, our shots had to be that much more precise. But that wasn't the problem, it was the morale of the guards.

I couldn't just say that I'll take that thing on in front of everyone knowing that I won't win in an upfront contest. They know that I won't win when I haven't won before, and with as massive as that thing is now, there's no human weapon that we have to be able to put a dent in that thing. Plus it's made mainly of the dead loved ones of others, a few of those glaring faces possibly being familiar to some of the young, homegrown guards here. And if they could identify them, then they knew it would be themselves who would join their friends, family, and comrades in death, or worse in this case.

Even fresh out of basic training, I was sent here to patrol. And that's not just some coincidence, that's the preliminary assignment. This was the destination for young aspiring protectors to have their day in the halls of the castle, to learn the greater protocols of protecting the princess. Here was where they furthered their training, learning the discipline and decorum worthy of her majesty's forces. And after eight months, you either get bored and request a post elsewhere on the map, or you become motivated enough to stick it out in Canterlot a little longer.

But since that is the case, hardly anyone here knows how to adapt to real-time conflict, much less death and psychological warfare. I saw many faces crawling up those entrance doors, all of them covered in armor. Some ponies had began to trample over their own in efforts to hole themselves inside. Instead of screaming from above, it was screaming on the ground, mainly from those pleading for the others to get off of them, as they were constantly stampeded over in the crush.

Blueblood was having none of it. He conjured all of his magic to levitate every guard trying to break into the castle to face the forces that began to mock their display of cowardice. And the blond prince had no reservations to how he felt about them. "You spineless cowards! You'd sooner kill your own than to fight the horde in front of you!? Have you no valor, no oath to uphold!? Where is your strength!? Who do you protect with your tails tucked into your rectums!? You'd sooner protect those than your fellow guards you trample over!?" The prince then looked to me. Though he was officially designated with no military power, I still acknowledged the authority and experience he had as he spoke. He urged me to take action. "Captain, line our forces before they get ran over!"

I wasted no time. "PHALANX! FRONT RANKS!"

A chaotic sounding chorus called out in broken unity. "SIR!" Instead of being a pristine force that seemed to be at the top of their discipline, they had devolved into a bunch of civilian-minded recruits, I couldn't really blame them, most of them were new. The magic casters took to the front, providing barriers for their front line. And with that, crossbow-wielding pegasi loaded their weapons and remained behind the cover their unicorn comrades provided. Earth pony guards positioned themselves to remain directly behind the unicorns, their spears pointed well past the shields that were provided.

As more began to file inside of the courtyard from the cramped opening, seemingly with no protection up front, I issued the order to open fire into their forces. "VOLLEEEEEEY!" The pegasi leapt into the air for a moment in a bid to maximize their aim and range. "LOOSE!" The sound of twine snapping under the duress of their wooden loads was accompanied by the whistling of arrows that darted across the courtyard. As those who fired took their cover, another group loaded their weapons for another volley to send.

But as the first volley made their hits, injuring more than a few who initially broke in, the others behind them had begun to cast their own barriers to protect their forces. It wasn't as grand as Shining's, but it was just as effective with the given group effort. "They've got shields of their own sir!" Cobalt called out.

Blueblood looked to me and urged me to move forward. "I know that rules of engagement require that you stand from a safe position─"

"I already know." I replied, chambering a round in my weapon. "Stanton, I'm going in. Give Alex a call and tell him to get my back."

"Okay, don't do nothing stupid." He replied as I walked away.

As I began to approach the front line, the crowd of guild members stopped and gawked at my appearance. Some even pointed, others murmured to one another. "The captain's alive!?" One called out loudly.

"I thought he was dead!" Another shouted.

I hollered out across the grounds my response to their theories. "Oh yeah, I was dead! Now I came back from hell to hand out some free tours!" I said as I lined my shot for the first one that stepped in the furthest. With a pull of the trigger, the stallion that was once protected by a shield had watched as the magic before him shattered completely and his life cut to black as he fell to the ground in a tumbling thud. "You first."

Another few shot rang out, but from far above me. It sounded as though it was a rifle in single-fire mode. The bullets whizzed by me, aiming for some of the others that stepped into the grounds. Another five fell to the ground, three clutching themselves as they soon realized where they were hit. "What in Equestria was that!?" A batpony mare questioned as a unicorn stood in front of her to defend her with his magic.

Unfortunately, his efforts were made completely fruitless on his own account. While the mare flew into the air to avoid being targeted as the others were, the stallion who protected her had heard a thunderous blast from the tower, the report knocking some dust off of the parapets it sounded from. In the fraction of a second, the mare went from seeing him standing in place to seeing his head and neck being virtually vaporized, followed by another pony who's chest had exploded from the impact of the high caliber round. "His head's gone!" One exclaimed.

"Yeah. It took a whole two days for me to find mine!" I said as I fired another set of rounds into the crowd. The group of guild members backed away as they saw their magic being incapable of defending against such fast projectiles, especially with them being so hard to see. While the arrows had a lethal speed, bullets were much more potent against their defenses. And in seeing that, they began to back away slowly. "So who wants next!?" I called out.

Seemingly someone who appeared to represent them stood out and called to me in a raspy, deep voice. "We're only doing what we've been told to do! The boss wanted us to take the royal family! We don't have any business with you, so can we just let bygones be bygones, and we all go about our respective assignments?"

I then replied. "Sorry, but if you're not like that thing that crashed the barrier, you don't get the option of just walking away."

While many had begun to fear any further approach, there were some who appeared irrational and charged in regardless of the circumstances. "He can't kill us all!" One hollered out before a bullet from Stanton's rifle sent them crashing to the ground, writhing briefly before their life slowly faded away.

Stanton called out in response. "No he can't, but move one step and you'll find out just how quick a few of you will meet Jesus on the pavement like your friend did!"

I glanced back to show appreciation for my younger brother's well-placed shot and raised my firearm to the intimidated army in front of me. "There's eight hundred of you! In the past forty-five seconds, you've probably gathered around twenty casualties from just four people! So you can either go on back behind that there checkpoint, or you get a Texas helping of death for as little as the price of a pack of gum! Choose which way you wanna go, because I can assure you that you will not make it back home... And you all saw exactly why!"

The pack of ponies began to look and back away slowly. I walked towards them, trying to enforce my position. While I had surmised that the guards would back me up in my advance, I did not hear so much as a bit of armor clatter behind me in close distance. But what I did hear was the blood-curdling scream of my younger brother. "NONDIS!"

I snapped around, seeing myself standing alone. Our forces had also appeared to back away. When I looked around, I began to see why. Down at my feet was an enormous looming shadow that engulfed almost twenty feet from the very point where I stood. I stepped back to a set of hooves hugging me at my leg.

"Big brother?"

...My breathing ceased.

I looked back to see the young filly grasping at my leg, happily wagging her tail with excitement. She called up to me as she appeared as normal as she could be. She looked to me with glossy eyes that barely had any shimmer in them, her pale face wearing a smile. "Big brother, it's me! Daddy has been looking everywhere for you!"

Slowly, very slowly, my breathing resumed and I vowed to not make any sudden movements as to alarm her of what I was going to do. I slowly turned myself to the side, not daring to reach down and risk being captured again. Though at this point, she could very much take me under if she wished to. And I was certain that any attempt to run would be met with that response.

Solemn called out to me. "Captain, do you know that little filly!?"

I raised my hand slowly, then curling all but one finger, lifting my elbow and turning my wrist until my index finger pointed down to the filly. I didn't turn my head to where Alex was positioned, especially to not give him away. From there, I mouthed the words in an exaggerated manner where he could read my lips through the scope. "Send. It."

While I was sure he received my message, I could assume that he was trying to line himself a shot that wouldn't endanger me in any way, though that would be virtually impossible right now. The filly, however, was not privy to what I had said or meant to do. I just looked down to her and waited. "Am I it, big brother? Is that why you're pointing at me?"

I put on a fake smile, at least a very strained attempt of one. "Yeah. Tag." The sudden sound of the sniper rifle going off had startled me, but in that fraction of a second, I watched as her entire top torso had performed a disappearing act. I felt her hooves drop completely from around me, and I darted as fast as I could out of the shadow. When I cleared it, I simply emptied the clip into the mound of remains that was her body. I even instinctively pulled the trigger twice after, thinking I had more. After that, the adrenaline started to wear off a bit and I had to collect my breath. "You're it."

While I knelt down, I heard Solemn run up to me, screaming. "CAPTAIN, THAT WAS A FILLY!"

Cobalt quickly joined in. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?"

Gleaming Brass covered her muzzle and looked away. Dress Right averted her eyes also, dropping to her knees. "OH FAUST BEYOND!"

While I could understand their perspective of seeing me open fire on a young foal, they were not aware of the truth of the situation. So instead of trying to argue against them, I merely muttered back to the quartet. "Wait for it."

Cobalt continued to lay into me for my decision. "WAIT FOR WHAT, CAPTAIN!? YOU DIDN'T GIVE THAT POOR FILLY A FUCKING CHANCE─"

"Ooowwwwuh!" The filly's voice suddenly spoke out once more. Cobalt froze in place as she heard it just like I did. She slowly turned her head to see the decimated corpse of an unknown filly lying in place of where Alex had took his shot. The shadow grew to over twice it's size, reaching out to fifty feet instead. Blueblood didn't expect for the shadow to be as big as it was, so he and the others also found themselves inside of it. They began to smell the brunt of the decay that once hinted through the air just earlier. I expected her to pop back up where she was slain, but instead of surfacing through the ground, she appeared from one of the pillars by the front door. She walked out as though she had simply gotten smacked with a newspaper. "That hurt! Why did you do that big brother!?"

"Your shadow's bigger." I observed quietly.

The filly grumbled at me initially, but her mood shifted as the topic changed. "That's only because daddy gave me more dollies to play with! Do you wanna see them!?"

Blueblood's eyes expanded as mine did, Stanton wanted to shoot her, but grew worried that he would piss her off if he did. So he just kept a finger on the trigger with the barrel aimed for her skull. Solemn and her friends stood behind me as I questioned the filly. "Where did you get those 'dolls' from?"

Slowly, she pushed up five ponies from within her shadow, turning and twisting them as if they were on display. Cobalt shrieked as one in particular had grabbed her attention. And judging from the scar on his neck that looked similar to mine, I saw exactly what had made her so distressed.

There before her very eyes, Iron Hoof was being modeled in front of her. On his face was the same expression of rage he had in the moment his head was cut off by Celestia. The haunting image of his reappearance had disturbed the mare so intensely that she had urinated where she stood.

"Daddy let me visit the old place with all the dollies in the cold rooms! This place had like over a thousand of them! But the mean ponies there wanted to burn them all! So I turned them into dollies too!" She pulled another ten from the shadows, featuring an even more haunting presentation.

It was almost as if she had treated them as ballerinas with the way they were posed with the various holes in their bodies, some not even having holes but with various portions of their bodies torn off completely. Many of the guards she held up had still wore their armor, but instead of being a glistening gold as they usually would be, they were tainted by sludge and decay. Their color still remained, indicating their relative freshness in contrast to the other corpses she had in her possession. All of them wore the faces of tortured souls who endured much in their demise. Fear, resignation, anger, hatred, bargaining, pain, and sadness, each of the guards' final representation of their emotions had been etched firmly into their faces, being modeled as ballerinas to the tune of a poorly-maintained music box.

"See? They're pretty boring, but they're some of my newer ones! Maybe we can have some new ones for you to play with!"

In seeing their fellow guards being displayed in such a manner, every guard in the courtyard screamed in fear simultaneously. Solemn looked to me, her voice breaking and trembling as much as her body did. She whispered to me in a tremolo. "Captain?"

While I was disturbed to a degree, it was par for the course. I simply replied to her and the others. "Yup. That about sums up my entire weekend."

Gleaming Brass began to cry against her friends chest mournfully, Cobalt remained motionless as she stood in a puddle of her own urine. Solemn clutched onto me as the filly asked me in a sweet and innocent voice. "Are you coming back big brother?"

Stanton raised his weapon, his fingers becoming increasingly sweaty as the smell of decay around him threatened his gag reflex. I held my hand up to try and dissuade him from taking the shot. I looked around and saw the obvious truth, there was no way in fresh hell I would be able to get these guards to defend the castle as long as she remained here. After all, if I couldn't beat this thing on my own, I could at least drive it away and possibly lose it somewhere else, someplace large and expansive. A place where she would easily get lost, where I could get lost myself if I wasn't careful, maybe even fall to my death in the dark.

That's right, there is such a place, a place filled with many more restless souls who met an unfortunate end, a permanent grave for many who labored there trying to repay an outstanding debt. A place where a pair of princess had to climb and claw their way out of. And that place was well within the crystalline walls of a mountain. If I could provide anything for these new recruits, it would be a fighting chance. With five other humans, one of them having magic also, they would stand the same chance as though I was here.

I moved Solemn aside and answered the slowly filly. "Let's play a game."

"It better not be boring, big brother." The filly replied.

"It won't be." I assured her. "But first you gotta count to a hundred slowly, okay? But only when I say that I'm ready."

Stanton looked at me as though I had lost my mind. "Dude, the fuck are you talking about!? Are the scars on your body not enough for you!?"

I quickly walked over and whispered to my younger brother. "Stanton, I know it's crazy, but that thing cannot stay here. If it does, we lose by default. Someone has to take that shit away from here. And if I'm the thing this girl wants, then I'm gonna make it hard for her. So do me a solid, and think about that motorcycle I have and where it is exactly in the armory. Can you picture it being here right now?"

Stanton looked to me and pondered over my idea. He quickly saw the base of the plan lay out before his imagination. His playmaking skills had started to shine as he understood the route I had hinted on. "That thing would probably help you out a lot, wouldn't it?"

I slung my arm over his shoulders and whispered to him in a low voice. "That's why you're here. I'm combining my magic with yours to bring it here. Once I get on that thing and rev up, I'm gonna try to drag that thing away from the castle as fast as I can haul ass into the mountain. And when that happens, you get these ponies to the foyer and hold your position there. Because psychologically speaking, we've lost the courtyard. They can't fight here, not after what we saw just now. I'm sure Shining or Blueblood may have some idea on what to do next, they can handle it from here. Just do as they say and stay safe while I buy you guys time."

"How long do you think you can buy us?" He asked.

"I'll give you maybe four hours, five at most. If I'm not back by dawn, don't look for me."

Stanton pointed at me and gave me a firm warning. "Don't get captured again, dude. We can't come back for you this time like we did before. First time we got lucky."

"I already know it." I replied.

Stanton took out his phone and checked the time. He went through his security settings and loosened the restrictions of his access before handing me the phone. "Take it."

"I'm not taking that, you need that to stay in touch with Alex." I replied.

"You need it more than I do." He insisted.

While I was about to give the phone back to him, a secondary thought came up and changed my opinion. So instead of giving him back his phone, I pocketed it and thought of the chief benefit of having it. "Okay, I get what you're drawing up now." I said as I looked to the filly, who stared at me skeptically. "I'm about to have one hell of a game of hide-go-seek."

Stanton hugged me, patting me in the back of my head. "You just be careful, bro."

The filly was starting to become impatient, I could tell from the growing number of tendrils that started to slightly peek from within the shadow she casted. Time was running short, I had to get that motorcycle here and fast. "Okay, quick lesson. Close your eyes, think of the bike."

He did as I instructed, his hand began to radiate with an orange aura. "I think I see it."

I placed my left hand over his, my magic also glowing brightly in conjunction to his own. Before my eyes, the motorcycle materialized and sat idle. I walked away and opened the side compartment and grabbed my keys. "Okay, it's here."

Stanton had not been aware of the fact that he had helped me summon the bike, as his eyes were still closed. "What?" Upon opening them, he finally saw what had happened. "Oh wow, that worked?"

I nodded to him. "A quick little magic lesson before I leave. Use that to your advantage and get as many weapons as you'll need, ammo, all that, whatever you can carry, just remember where you put it when you put it away."

"Okay." He acknowledged.

I looked to the terrified mares and grabbed their attention quickly, as the tendrils were slowly growing in presence and size. "Ladies, can you clear that checkpoint for me? I need an open lane when she starts counting."

Blueblood stepped in place of them and nodded in affirmation. "You leave that to me. Let these girls get inside, they weren't ready for this kind of song-and-dance. Our forces will need time to mentally readjust."

"I wish I could put you in charge, you know what you're doing." I said before turning to Solemn. "Hey, what he says goes. Do it. That's an order."

The blond prince then issued a loud command to the forces barricading the doors. "Open the doors! All forces fall back to the foyer!"

The guardsmare temporarily shook off her fear and went to issuing orders to her subordinates. "Orderly fashion, get all injured to the medical ward, including that of our enemies!"

Guild members who stood at the gate watched in silence as some of the guards hurriedly avoided all the tendrils protruding from the ground and grabbed their wounded members to take inside of the castle. In a bid to collect their dead, the guild members tried to quietly levitate them from the ground. But several tendrils shot out of the shadow and snagged the non-living ponies and dragged them under. Responding out of fear, they dared not to approach further as the filly looked to them with stingy disapproval. She even began to seek out the ones who were already injured and grab them before they could make it inside. Those that she did capture, she brutally bashed them into the ground head first to kill and then assimilate them into her collective.

Once she preemptively collected the newly-dead and injured, her tendrils turned to the guards who tried to flee into the castle. I screamed out to her in an attempt to distract her from carrying on with her carnage. "Okay! Let's play! Quick round of hide-go-seek!" The tentacles that threatened to puncture and maim some of the retreating guards had completely frozen in place. I hollered out again. "One-two-three-not-it!" The tentacles fell into the shadow as she turned herself at me.

She stamped her hoof in protest. "No fair! I wanted you to be it! I got you last time!"

I then replied. "But I can't be it, you're too big! I could just step on you and call you it, how fair is that!?" As I continued to buy our forces time, I watched as Blueblood teleported himself in front of the guild to clear a path.

"I'm sure you lot want that thing gone as much as we do." He muttered to the guild leader. "And she's going to run this way, I suggest you lot clear the road."

The guild leader rapidly nodded. "CLEAR THE ROAD! MAKE WAY!"

Blueblood disappeared from in front of them, I placed my keys into the ignition as I explained the rules to the filly. "So here's the deal, if you tag me, I'm it! But if I make it back to those doors, I'm safe! But here's two golden rules. Number one: No hiding or searching in any of the buildings in town! I'm not gonna hide there, you're not gonna look there! Number two: No hurting anyone else, we all wanna have fun, but let's do it safely! Now I'm gonna start running, you're gonna start counting!" I still saw her looking at me with some skepticism, but it was slowly being replaced by growing excitement. I then offered to sweeten the deal. "In fact, I'll make this a bit fair! Lets knock down your countdown, fifty seconds! And if you win, I'll get you an ice-cream cake from my world!"

Her face started to show an irrational exuberance, even her voice distorted with the newfound excitement. "I̴̼̔ć̷͎e̶̫̔ ̴̰͘c̴̱̈r̵̡̓ẹ̵͑a̷̼͋m̸͝ͅ ̴̹̏c̷̰̽ȃ̴̮k̶͓͐e̵͕̋!̴̩͆?̵̱̈́ ̸̻̈́F̵̡͗r̴̗͌o̷̰͆m̵͉̉ ̴͈͒y̴̘̎o̶̞̍u̸͍̓r̴̤̔ ̸̹̅w̸͙͊õ̸͜r̶̪͐l̶̮͐d̷͎͘!̷͍̌?̵͇͆ ̷̜̓İ̶̢ ̶̲́ẅ̷̺́ä̷̲́n̴̛̥n̸͙̈́a̵̙͆ ̸͔̋p̴͉̚l̴̟̾a̴̭͗ý̵̰,̷̻̿ ̷̡̓Ī̴̭ ̶̘͗w̸̢͝ȁ̷̹n̵̨̋n̶̝̆a̶̖͠ ̶̖̊p̷̱͛ļ̷̄ȃ̷̬y̴̨̒!̴̤̔"

Finally grabbing her full attention and participation, the creature sent her tendrils back under and she quickly ran over to one of the open doors. "Now no peeking! Are you ready!?"

"Y̷̼͒ĕ̴̬a̵͖͝h̵̺̀!̷̻̅" She called out.

I cranked the engine and revved the throttle. I prayed to myself for a brief moment and took a deep breath. With a clear path ahead, I gave myself the green light. "Okay... GO!"

The wheels of my vehicle screeched against the cobblestone before I took off with a boost of speed. "O̸̟͒n̶̼̈́e̵̘̚.̸͇̓.̶̡̋.̸̦̌ ̵̥̄t̷̘̽w̸̠̿ơ̵̟.̴̇͜.̶̥͗.̸̪͊ ̵̤͛t̶͓́h̶̢̿r̷̰͗é̴͔e̶͈͊.̶̯̉.̵̥̐.̷̳̓ ̸͑ͅf̸̱̊o̴̢͋ų̴̇r̵̯̐.̴̹̅.̷̗̐.̸̱̀"

By the time she could count to five, I was already out of the courtyard and down the main avenue. I shot myself all the way across town, only looking ahead to dodge whatever was in the road. It wasn't until I had gotten to the bridge outside of the city gates when I had finally looked back, seeing nothing but stars in the sky and the slowly shrinking Canterlot skyline. And since I told her to count slowly, I had a little more than fifty seconds to clear the city. But when she finished her countdown, she made sure that the whole region could hear it.

"Ŗ̴̮̐ḛ̶͈̌a̴͍̣̹͒̇͂d̶̺͖̪͛y̵̙̪͆̂ ̴͙̓͗̀ǒ̸̬͈̺r̵̹̐ ̴̭̜͙͑n̵̠̈́̓̐ò̸̮͈͔̽̉t̸̥͕̏͠,̵̬̒ ̴̡̲͗̈́h̵̫̘̝͛̉ĕ̶̬͖̲̀ȑ̷͇̾͂e̵̬̓̈́͛ ̴͙͇̈̒͜I̴̟̜͂̉̈́ ̵͉͓̙̓c̴̤̟̐̄ō̶̜m̶̗̘̳̔e̵͇̳̒̀!̴̺͎̤̅͐"

***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

Shortly after a break of trying to hastily recoup our magic energy, we made our way to the location where the most commotion was being caused. Upon arriving, we could see that not everything had gone according to plan. In fact, it appeared that our forces had gotten quite the shellacking. You would think with the way that they appeared, they had watched the captain go down in front of their very eyes.

That also brought my attention to who all had filled the lobby.

It seemed as though our forces were relatively healthy, but they all appeared stunned. Many just sat in place murmuring to themselves and bemoaning the idea of fighting. But as I walked through, I started to hear the murmurs around me.

"We're all doomed."

"I just came from morgue duty this past Thursday."

"It was like they were dancing."

"How do we win against that?"

"That was the disgraced officer."

"One of our higher-ups pissed themselves."

"The captain's a fool."

"We're so outnumbered."

"I don't wanna be a victim of that thing!"

"It was like they got sucked into the ground."

"Where is that thing going!?"

"Away from here, hopefully!"

"Faust save us."

"I knew I should've prayed at church on yesterday! Faust is coming for us, that thing was judgement!"

"I should've just transferred."

As we came to the front doors of the foyer, I could see Solemn Oath vomiting by the door, being assisted by Stanton. Nondis was nowhere to be seen. Trailed by my family, I immediately asked of his whereabouts. "Stanton, where's Nondis?"

"He's gone to buy us some time." He replied as he also used his magic to help Blueblood barricade the door shut. "That thing that broke the barrier just ran off from here."

"Wait, why is it going away from here?" Dad asked. "We heard it say 'Ready or not, here I come.' The whole city heard it. How is it that it just left instead of breaking down the doors and making a big mess of the foyer?"

He promptly responded. "Nondis is leading it away, he says he's going to take it inside of the mountain to try and keep it distracted."

"HE WHAT!?" I shouted.

"Didn't we just get him out of this mess?" My brother asked, walking up from behind me.

"He's giving us more time to shore up our defenses and file off all of these other guys." He answered. "If you ask me, we were off to a pretty good start until that thing came along and played show-and-tell."

"Show and tell?" Cadance questioned.

Stanton grimly answered with a deep breath. "Show off the new acquisitions and tell us about what they were doing at the time. I.E.: Those guards you guys had stationed over at some morgue, she modeled them off for us."

My heart immediately sank in terror and sadness for those who fell victim to the ponies that were killed. Shining winced and closed his eyes. "Fuck's sake."

"Those are our guys and gals, we have to give them the respect they deserve." Dad said quietly.

"But how!?" Solemn questioned loudly. "How in Equestria's sake do we get our wounded and dead back from that thing? We saw how it treated those thugs out there, and it's supposed to be on their side! She killed the ones who were wounded by the humans and dragged them under the shadow like some sort of swamp monster! How do we get ANYTHING back from that!?"

One of her friends cosigned alongside her. "That thing had Lieutenant Colonel Iron Hoof!"

Another one of her friends then erupted in a panic. "We're all gonna die!"

Some guards began to scream, others started crying, a few just sat against the walls and stared into the nothing in front of them. Some who were covered in blood had appeared caught in a daze. The few that were still actively working had either moved some of the injured insurgents to the medical ward or helping shore up the door.

Seeing that their morale was completely shot, dad brought his attention to Blueblood. "Okay, so what's the real update here other than the guards being scared shitless?"

"We're trying to hold the doors, but they've got other ways of getting in." He replied, looking up to the stairs where both Alex and Rickey walked in from.

They both walked in shaking their heads. "On tonight's episode of 'How Fucked-Up is Fucked-Up'. Yeah, that's fucked up." Rickey stated.

"I hate that Nondis had to be the one to drag that piece of shit out of here." Alex added. "But he took off on the bike, so he should be at least faster than that thing." He then asked his younger brother. "Hey, what did Nondis say he was gonna do out there!?"

"Drag that thing through the mountain!" He answered.

"The mountain!? The mountain is dangerous if you don't know how to navigate it!" Cadance replied.

"Well that's what he said he was gonna do." Stanton replied with a helpless shrug. "At least Little-Miss-Poltergeist is gone from the playing field."

I looked towards Rainbow Dash, who still maintained some level of composure. "Rainbow Dash, what are their numbers looking like?"

"Eight hundred plus. Sixteen are dead now." She answered. "Four of their wounded have been recovered. Two have fallen unresponsive en route to the medical ward."

"The rest was taken in by that hideous thing, darling." Rarity supplemented.

Applejack shook her head. "Ah ain't sleepin' fer a week, sugarcube. That out there, that ain't right."

"I'm just glad you all are safe." I answered as I reached in and hugged my friends.

Dad looked around and tapped his hoof, looking at the mentally decimated forces around the lobby. "Well, it's apparently a good thing that the barrier is broken now."

"Dad, how is the barrier being broken a good thing? We're in this mess because the barrier's gone." I asked.

He simply answered my question. "We can call for reinforcements."

"Oh." I said dismissively at first, but then realized that the strategic advantage had shifted with the breaking of the barrier. It ended up being a double-edged sword as opposed to a one-sided victory condition. I planted my own hoof firmly into my face as I pleaded with my father. "Why didn't you say that earlier!?

"Our situation's changed, Violet." He answered. "At first, we were preparing for more ponies to try and invade en masse using teleportation. We were looking to halt any and all advance through those means, but then that thing came along and changed the playing field. It broke the barrier, but it also allowed us a means to communicate with the outside. Though in spite of that opportunity, it was a tremendous risk with that thing out there to intercept anyone flying out of the castle grounds. As of now, we're not looking at fighting that thing anymore either. So now we have a tactical advantage, but we need to use that advantage now before they box us in."

Alex rubbed the side of his head, working away a potential headache. "Well at the very least, nothing else can scare these guys shitless like that thing did when it showed up with some familiar faces."

"Other than having Celestia wake out of her sleep to fight, nothing else indeed." Replied the blond prince.

Cadance rolled her eyes and chided the annoying prince. I was deeply annoyed with his statement. "Blueblood, don't you think that's a bit rude?"

He scoffed and said. "Believe me when I say it, you don't want her up and at it when there's a siege. She will not be the mentor you've grown accustomed to seeing."

Alex looked to the prince and asked him casually. "Well captain number 2 in the archives, what do you suggest?"

The blond prince quickly replied. "We need an armed envoy to send to Cloudsdale, have all of our aerial forces converge on our position." He said as he used his magic to simulate a hologram-like illusion of the castle grounds. "From there, we hold our internal positions until the forces outside can reach us. They may be a few hundred strong with relatively elite units, but if my experience in the civil war tells me anything, elite units can still become exhausted by sheer numbers at the end of the day. Remember they are on OUR grounds, WE have the advantage here."

"Seems like you're calling the shots here." Shining noted.

"Well this isn't anything new for me." He said before bringing his attention to my dad. "Night Light, I hate to pull you out of retirement, but I'll need you to serve as our escort for the evacuation measures. Make sure they get to the passageways as safely as they can. All maids, reporters, politicians, and visitors are to clear the premises through the dungeon path."

"On it." Dad answered with a salute, pulling mom away and guiding her to where she had to go.

He looked to my brother and issued an order to him as well. "Shining Armor, your abilities will be useful in keeping our more prominent positions better defended. And since Celestia is our primary issue, we will need for you to protect that room like your life depends on it. Remember, never wake the sleeping giant."

"Copy." He said before teleporting off.

He brought his attention back to me and barked out some more orders. "Princess Twilight, your abilities are useful in the offensive order of things, but they will not be used for combat on the front. I will need for you to hold the position in the portal room." He also turned to the humans and gave orders to them. "As for you humans, you have a much more important task."

Stanton sought to argue against his proposal. "Wait, I thought we were─"

"Too important to use for the front line." He interrupted. "Your weapons cannot get in the hooves of those ruffians out there. Your priority is to clear that armory before they're able to get to it. If they get any bit of that ordinance, we'll all be in the morgue for Umbra to experiment with. Secure those weapons and have them moved to the portal room. Your post will be to defend that place at all costs."

"I'll go get Cliff and Melanie." Rarity said before running down the hall.

"What if Umbra comes for us then?" Alex questioned.

Blueblood pointed to me with confidence. "That's why princess troublemaker will be right there with you. Her friends are all element bearers also, they have some residual power to use as well. Any of that being used to stave off Umbra is key to our success here. And if his aspirations are to take over your world, best believe that he'll use all of this as a distraction while that will be his primary target."

Without warning, we heard the sound of my father's voice shouting from down the hall. "Hey! Evacuation route is the other way!"

To our surprise, both Alabaster and Blue galloped towards us and panted when they came to a rest. "So, what's this about an evacuation?" Alabaster questioned.

"What are we evacuating for?" Blue asked alongside her brother.

I answered the duo. "Well for starters, that thing attacked the castle and demoralized our guards. So our safest alternative is to evacuate should the situation get any worse. Also, it may be possible that Umbra is using this as a distraction to possibly get into the portal room. There may be a confrontation."

Both of the siblings looked to each other, Blue being the first to speak. "So we're off to fight the doctor?"

"The horrible doctor from hell." He confirmed.

Dad interjected. "Alabaster, Blue, I was going to have you lot evacuated!"

"No, we're staying here to help." Blue insisted strongly. "We won't tuck tail and run when we've been the witnesses to his crimes. He hasn't just caused harm to our family, but he's hurt our friends. We owe it to Nondis to assist in any way we can. There will be no alternative, we're in.

Alex was quick to vouch for their involvement. "Actually, we could really use them on tonight. Blue can use that same spell she used to get us into both the arena and the lab unannounced. If our M.O. is to grab our shit and bounce before they get it, it would be better if we had that to help. Besides, all those weapons and shit aren't going to be light work."

Blue continued her argument. "If there's any way to help move the weapons quickly, it's by magic. Having three of us instead of one will mitigate that task to be done almost thrice as fast. Plus with my magic, we can get those weapons quickly, discreetly, and without incident."

"More magic, less trips. I like that idea." Alex said with a thumbs up.

Stanton turned my way. "Hey Twilight, when you get a hold of Fluttershy, have her tell Discord to visit my phone for the day."

"Why?" I inquired.

"Because Nondis has my phone."

I smiled as I started to feel more comfortable about how things were being strung together. Between my dad, Blueblood's experience, and everyone else's pre-planning, it was hard to become discouraged. "Great thinking. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to do him a favor for what he did for Fluttershy."

"That was kinda the idea." Stanton replied.

Galloping in from much further down the hall was a detail of night guards, all of whom accompanied the Princess of the night. "Princess Luna!" I greeted her.

"I suppose the pleasantries could be saved for later. Right now, we have a mess to clean up." She responded before taking in the sight of all the dispirited guards. "Why do they appear defeated?"

"That thing Umbra created paid us a visit." I informed her. "It showed them a few of their guards in arms, and then absconded with many of the wounded out on the scene. Nondis led it away to buy us some time, but he's going into the mountain. He's not here to give any orders, it's been pretty much Solemn Oath and Blueblood working together, her issuing the commands while he's offering his input."

"That kind of system doesn't seem sustainable." She muttered.

"Well I don't have military powers, that's why there's been a deference." Blueblood explained.

"That changes now." She stated before calling out loudly to the guards throughout the castle in her Royal Canterlot Voice. "Attention all guards, hear my emergency decree!" The entirety of the lobby paid close attention to the lunar princess, who pointed a hoof to the blond prince. "Captain Nondis has made himself available to draw away the greater threat to us! As such, there will be a temporary grant of power to a leading officer to assume the role! Prince Blueblood will be issuing you your orders from this point onward until the captain has returned to his post! Please see to it that his requests are to be acknowledged as your superior officer! Also, all civilians are to report to the west wing for immediate evacuation! This is not a drill! Please locate a guard who will escort you to the mandated location, where you will evacuate in a safe and orderly manner! That is all!"

While we ponies knew what to expect with Princess Luna, the humans did not. They covered their ears for the majority of Luna's speech. Once she finished, they uncovered their ears and looked to the princess with amazement. "Wow, to hell with a megaphone."

Luna gave her attention to the humans now. "Please point me in the direction where our current captain has gone."

"Down Main Street, moving at about sixty to seventy. He's was well out of the city by the time that thing finished counting." Alex notified her. "It was still looking through the city streets by the time he crossed the bridge over the ravine."

Luna gave the man a nod in acknowledgement. "Very well, that is where I shall go."

"I'm coming with you." To our surprise, Cadance volunteered herself to make the trip to help Nondis.

"You are with foal, I cannot allow that, Cadenza." Luna sternly replied.

She remained just as firm on her choice. "I'm a princess first, and a mother second. Nopony knows those caves better than I do. And no one has crystal sealing magic like I do. If you want your best chance to mitigate the severity of our situation, we'll need to work together. That thing cannot stand, it must go down, and our powers combined will do just that."

The night princess still had her reservations against having the expecting mother in harm's way. "Does your husband know you're wandering off?"

"He will know later. For now, we have an element bearer who needs our help. We cannot just let him do this on his own again."

Luna tilted her head and glared to the pink princess. "I don't want to hear a thing from your husband, so be sure not to miscarry."

Cadance confidently replied. "Believe me, I won't."

The Mt. Canter Crystal Caverns...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

Upon the moonlit crags and open winter sky, I walked my bike behind a boulder nearby. In the far-reaching shadows of the mountain I was given a sort of grace, a moment to take in the majesty of the mouth of nature's beast. If it were living, I'd be staring back into the maw of a greedy beast, it's towering fangs made of diamond and sapphire, the grounds latent with granite and quartz. It was a gross deposit of minerals, all designated to back the wealth of the royal crown. While many would seek a vault containing of such illustrious riches, here is where many were dared to simply come and get them. This was the fortune of the nation, the forever open vault that displayed the limitless wealth held by the crown princess.

But all of that wealth comes with a terrible price.

While many were sentenced to labor here in these mighty halls of unrefined splendor, there were the significant fraction that would never leave this place, as they would find fate awaiting them through at least one of these caves. Weakened foundations, loosened anchors, partially excavated quarries for hundreds of years only to erode in the many winds that has cut and swept through the whistling mountain halls, cracked faces and broken stones, it's only a matter of time before the weight of the ceiling above comes bearing down. One wrong turn, one errant step, one vibration too resonant, one mighty roar and it's the end for all of those who enter.

*R̷̟̄̃͑r̵̝̬̹̣͝r̶̼̫͖͑̿r̸̢͛͝͝r̴̭̥̩̪͑͛̓͊ṟ̶̞̏̚a̷͚̭̤̹̍̀͒͠a̵̩̔ǎ̸̗͋̿ä̸͓͓̦̀͒͋a̴̛͙̭̰͙à̶̢͇͔a̷̬͚͊ͅͅą̵͇͊̅̀a̵̗̟̓́̈́̚ͅa̸̭̎ả̴̱̰̌͝ͅw̸̡̜͂͗̕̕w̶̞̄̕w̸̹͗̉̋̕ẅ̵̪̤́̕w̶̖̖̯̾͌̈g̵̥̗͈̰͒͐̑͘g̷̣͙̞̫̚g̴̺͐̊̂̽g̴͔̔h̷̗̳̗̙͛ḩ̷̣͎̩̑h̶͍̤͌͑h̵̦̫̱̍h̴͖͖̣͝ͅh̴̜͑̔͒͂*

"She's frustrated." I murmured.

It's been only fifteen minutes since I've started my tour through the mountain. And with all the trains dead, I was afforded the privilege of using the rail tunnels for my journey. One such rail, a now-defunct line, gave way to a beautiful open sinkhole, one that I walked the bottom of. I could see the peak of the mountain from here, looking up to the crystal clear sky and the twinkling stars above.

There was an air of finality with this place, I felt it. It was the perfect place for me to make my stand, to give myself the fighting chance to hide from the Congregant's many eyes, it's looming shadows, and the cursed filly's growing impatience. It was the perfect place for a life-defining game of hide-go-seek. If I were to lose here, then my fate is certainly sealed. But at the very least, that thing would have to fight it's way back to the outside, something I'm sure that even that filly would not be able to do very easily in the hazardous spaces provided.

I pulled out my brother's phone, checking the time. It was 2:18. "Three hours, forty-five minutes." I said to myself, noting the time I had to keep her distracted until dawn.

*R̷̟̄̃͑r̵̝̬̹̣͝r̶̼̫͖͑̿r̸̢͛͝͝r̴̭̥̩̪͑͛̓͊ṟ̶̞̏̚a̷͚̭̤̹̍̀͒͠a̵̩̔ǎ̸̗͋̿ä̸͓͓̦̀͒͋a̴̛͙̭̰͙à̶̢͇͔a̷̬͚͊ͅͅą̵͇͊̅̀a̵̗̟̓́̈́̚ͅa̸̭̎ả̴̱̰̌͝ͅw̸̡̜͂͗̕̕w̶̞̄̕w̸̹͗̉̋̕ẅ̵̪̤́̕w̶̖̖̯̾͌̈g̵̥̗͈̰͒͐̑͘g̷̣͙̞̫̚g̴̺͐̊̂̽g̴͔̔h̷̗̳̗̙͛ḩ̷̣͎̩̑h̶͍̤͌͑h̵̦̫̱̍h̴͖͖̣͝ͅh̴̜͑̔͒͂*

Her roar sounded once more in the distance, she was that much closer. There was no more time to lose. An odd tune filled my head as I gripped the silver spear in my right hand, saw the faintly-glowing element in my left, and looked to the swallowing darkness of the caves ahead.

"Ready or not... Here I am."

Author's Note

Howdy, it's been a while. It's pretty much without saying that there will be a lot of work to do for the next chapter. And with it being as such, I must keep myself mentally relaxed and go through these passages a lot more frequently. This next chapter will be THE most challenging one to write, the reason: Well I can't spoil that for you either.

Next month comes not only the welcoming of spring, but also the final battle.

I sure hope some of you have at least gotten immersed in the music I've provided, I fell that they add a bit of atmosphere with the scenes that come after them. Though there was also a piece of music that I pretty much had throughout the course of this arc, maybe once or twice you've heard it throughout the course of the story.

It is Erik Satie's "Gnossiene 1".

I believe the first time I've implemented this piece was for the moment when Kalimba and Nondis were doing away with the rotten body of Count DuMoneé, burning away not just his corpse but also the shed where Kalimba was staying in with Prod. I wanted to implement it much sooner, like when Umbra was first introduced. But given the scene that was to develop, I decided to save it for a later time. That scene where they're burning Count's corpse was the moment that I chose.

The second time was when Umbra had sat in his lab, finishing off his extracurricular activities with a young mare and began to observe Jasper's body. It was slowed a bit, mainly because he wanted some music that sounded nostalgic and a bit more to his tempo of how he liked to work. He works slow, as patient as he wanted to be because all he had at that point was time. With all of his dolls doing the dirty work for him, he allocated many of his tasks to them while attending to some personal interests of his. That was made all the more apparent in his time with Nondis.

This will be the third time you've heard of this one. But instead of being the regular or slowed down version, it's a more atmospheric version to better suit the mood of what's going on. While Nondis was being operated on, it could be assumed that the music was playing as Umbra worked on his body. After all, he does like a tune or two as he's cutting open a patient and/or corpse. But in this instance, both the Congregant and Nondis are patients of his work, while there are many corpses to follow. With the music playing, you'll notice that some parts are clearer while others fade in and out. For me, it's a perfect representation of the dichotomy of the two parties, the one hiding, and the one seeking. The one hiding has the general idea of what he wants to avoid and accomplish, the one seeking is merely becoming all the more frustrated as they don't know where their prey is, hoping to eventually swallow them whole. One is hoping to make it back home, the other is guessing where their prey is hiding. And with the crystal caves being the setting of this game, the situation becomes all the more haunting.

I will hope to see you all next chapter. Until then, stay safe.

P.S.: The next chapter is going to have a monster of a word count.

Chapter CXV

Short steps, deep breaths, everything will be alright.

My mind continued to speak in place of me. I wasn't going to verbalize anything out loud because I needed the silence. I needed to only hear three things. The first, the sound of my own breathing. The second, the sound of my own footsteps. The third, the ambience of the cave around me.

Watch for cracks.

All around me are familiar faces, mirrors reflecting the image of a well-dressed young man holding a spear to his right side, and holding a dim light in his left hand to not only see the path before him, but to better hide his presence in the darkness should anything else sound out of place. Of course, that young man was me, listening carefully to my surroundings in hopes to pick out any foreign sounds that might have indicated the impending threat.

Go left.

While the darkness only had me envisioning the terrors and tortures I endured, I tried my best to not focus on them but to the good things I can say about the place I'm in now. These caves are truly beautiful, and the image of myself passing by had done a lot to remind me of how far I've come since being introduced to this world.

How far? Well let's compare the beginning up to this point.

This is far from the Equestria I've come to know and love. I say love instead of tolerate because not much was really interesting in my life before coming here. Back home I went to school, I had a relationship─a one-sided one at that─that wasn't too great for me growth-wise. My parents were just like any other set of parents, home was okay at times. However, my social life was lacking. I was socially awkward, only because I didn't know how to communicate to others as myself, trying to be something that I wasn't. I couldn't hold a conversation for more than five minutes because I tried too hard to be 'relatable'. I was never good at picking up girls, I just skipped straight to the sex part and never really cared for anything outside of that. And I was far from popular. I didn't play many sports nor did I have the confidence to think I was inclined in anything in particular. I was just the average chubby dude who showed up to a class, made decent grades, go back home and stew over how my lack of self-confidence was somehow everyone else's fault.

But since my coming here, it's been anything but uninteresting. I've wandered into a world of magical talking equines who could manipulate space, time, and matter to an extent. Here, I restarted my entire social experience from square one. Instead of going back to the comfortable life of a social recluse, I decided to brave the outside world and speak outside of internet forums and online gaming. I stayed even longer to invest myself in a blooming relationship... that only ended after about seven months, but I grew a LOT from it. I had some flings here and there, got turned out a bit and picked up some tricks for the bed. And I grew my circle of friends from a small group of loose acquaintances and family members, to a thriving network of entrepreneurs, land owners, business starters, politicians, military officers, heads of state, even going as far down as reformed criminals and sex slaves. I leaned on them as much as I stood on my own, and it got me to where I am now.

I wanted to live in a world that wasn't so inclined to collapse in on itself, can't honestly say that I followed through on that. I wanted to have a peaceful existence without hearing about x-terrorist group killing y-citizens, or this-country invades that-country... turns out the politics of the home front are an even more of a hell than anywhere else. I didn't just hear about the politicians doing something corrupt, I witnessed it first-hand. Is there any integrity of the media here? Not much. The pursuit of happiness was a lot more difficult, especially being that I was seen as something completely different from societal norms, but I grew to know how to deal with it. I've been done the worst for it, but that doesn't apply to everyone here. And plus I'm in a place where my voice matters greatly. If I want to change all of these things that I don't like, I can because I have the network to do it.

It's not like when I'm back home in Austin. I mean yeah I'm rich now, I have hundreds of millions sitting in solid assets. I'm set to purchase a house in the most expensive neighborhood in the Greater Austin Metropolitan Area. But with all that wealth, what else is it but a coping mechanism that will coat the ugliness of the world in a superficial coat of paint? You could buy off a politician or two, but with other corporate entities with significantly deeper pockets, I'm bound to get outbid by some group of guys looking to drill for oil in a national park somewhere. What good does it serve when your impact is as minimum as a leaf landing among the leaves of a forest? Sure, you may be greener than others, but that only last for so long.

The housing market still doesn't seem too shabby though. I have a job, I have friends to talk to and a mare who likes me for who I am... Okay, I may have more than one mare who likes me for who I am. I have a beautiful soul who wants to invest their time in me. And I have a healthy network of friends who would easily be able to help me through my struggles, even when I sometimes feel that I don't deserve it. The inalienable truth is that my future is here in this world, that my life will probably end here. If I have kids, they'll be here. If I get married... when I get married, it'll be here, at least I think it will.

"B̴i̷g̴ ̶b̴r̶o̴t̸h̵e̵r̶.̷.̶.̶" Her voice echoed throughout the caves softly. She was some distance away, but she was getting closer.

My life is here. But having that said, I really... truly... don't want to be here right now.

IT'S COMPLICATED

The Castle Courtyard...

Umbra smiled confidently as he walked through the ranks of guild members, anticipating a reunion with the guild leader in charge. Meanwhile, he had conducted a group of earth ponies and mules to batter down the doors leading into the castle. In and out, they rammed their crudely-made battering ram into the large red wooden doors. Each impact sounded as thunder, but not nearly as loud as the shattering of the barrier that once protected the castle itself.

"C'mon! Put your backs into it!"

"HO!" The dozen of ponies called out as they pushed the battering ram into the door once more. "HEAVE!" They called out with their recovery away. "HO!" They shouted with another drive to the door.

Umbra located the guild leader and sat beside him, pulling out a jewel-encrusted phone. "So, it seems that they are fortifying their positions around the castle." He said as he swiped the screen with his magic, going to various feeds. "I'm sure you don't want to go in the direction of the south wing once you lot break in."

"I don't see why not." The guild leader replied.

Umbra picked out a feed that showed the image of Blueblood issuing orders to protect that position as a number of civilians filed that way. But also sitting in the center of the hall was an armored guardsmare holding her position with a machine gun mounted behind a series of wooden desks to better protect the mare's position. "Well if you lot want to have some courteous volunteers for my little experiment to thrive, I'm sure she would appreciate it if you went that way."

"That thing killed six of our guys!" The guild leader argued. "I thought that thing was supposed to be on our side!"

Umbra chuckled as he dismissively replied to the leader. "I know you have a lot to say about that little happenstance. But I would be remiss to inform you that she doesn't take too kindly to having ponies not dying quick enough. Think of it as a saving grace, a sort of euthanasia if you will. They weren't going to be saved by conventional means anyhow, and if they were, you saw where they were going."

"That's why we tried to save them on our own! But that thing prevented us from doing that!"

Umbra rolled his eyes. "Look, it's either you live in bondage or die free. Those four that they managed to nab, they'll be ratting you lot out if they ever get healthy. And even if they were to resist, they would only be executed anyhow. She didn't just do you a service, she actively followed your code."

The leader once again confronted the stallion. "I understand what our code is, sir! I'm just saying─"

"Then why are you still talking?" He asked with a smile, accompanied by a deathly glare.

The guild leader stopped for a moment, seeing nothing but his own body slowly rotate in his eyes. He looked down and away from his cold and calculating boss. "I'm sorry sir, I didn't mean no─"

"You're still talking?" He cutoff, still wearing his trademark smile.

The guild leader looked to the ground, not daring to spend another second giving the doctor any eye contact. But instead of averting his eyes, he was forced to stare back at the stallion.

"So I take it you finally got the gist?" He said before continuing with his statement. "Now, if it's without consequence, I would like for you to do what you can up front here. But also I would like for you to send an intercept squadron out to the back of the castle." He changed the security camera feed to that of another room filled with golden chariots and pegasi. "I'm not mistaken in believing that they are mobilizing a task force to send for reinforcements. If I am correct, they will probably rely on their aerial division in Cloudsdale. Once that happens, they will have the sky, and we will have assured defeat. And I should also warn you of the barracks, that's the place with a secret cache of human weapons, courtesy of the captain of course. The hangar is to be taken in two minutes. The barracks must be secured in the next forty-five seconds."

The stallion nodded.

Umbra reiterated his directions. "Well now's not the time to be nodding like a foal in trouble, do you hear me or not?"

"Yes sir." The guild leader replied nervously.

The doctor walked away from the guild leader with another pony in his eye. "You need work before you can work with me again." As he walked over to a batpony mare, he looked at the ponies who moved along the evacuation route, seeing Kalimba and her younger sister taking their leave. He promptly addressed the mare. "You, I need you to do me a favor."

"Sir." She saluted.

"I need that evacuation route pinched off before they can make it to the fifth level of the prison. There's an access nearby here. You are to go to the alleyway we just left from, take thirteen steps in, whisper to the wall 'I am the mare who arranges the blocks' and enter into the royal's secret gathering place. Once there, you will turn right into a hallway and enter a portal at the end of the hall to your left, it will lead you into the exit at the third level of the dungeon. Intercept that convoy before they reach the fifth level... and do bring me the head of every guard you find there, be they enlisted, officer, or retired of the two."

"Yes sir!" She replied before calling out to a small segment of guild members. "Hey! I need twenty of our best magic users with me!"

Umbra watched as the mare quickly organized her sortie, nodding with approval. "Now that one, she has a bright future." He then turned his attention to the guild leader, who was still trying to gather forces to allocate to his assignments. "He doesn't do well under this kind of pressure. Good for general organization of the status quo, but not in mid conflict. I suppose it's only fair being that he's really more of a work desk personality."

Umbra pulled up the security feed of the evacuation route and watched as Kalimba and her younger sister disappeared from the view.

"Oh Kalimba, you'll learn just as your little sister have."

The South Hall...

With all the forces they could afford for the evacuation efforts, they continued to file many ponies inside. Blueblood watched carefully as he continued to instruct Solemn Oath and her friends in holding down the position. Cobalt was still shaken up over what happened, but she was back to being active when it came to seeing civilian faces moving and questioning why they had to leave. Gleaming Brass was more than relieved to be involved in fetching for civilians throughout the castle, the running around kept her mind preoccupied off of the grisly images of seeing some of her coworkers being victims. Dress Right held the position with Solemn, thinking more of how she was saving lives from the Congregant instead of those who fell victim to it.

"Now, this thing is going to fire at a high rate. You will need to be very careful in aiming it at only the insurgents." The blond prince instructed. "This mechanism here is your safety, it ensures that you don't just accidentally fire into the evacuees."

"The closest I've ever touched any human weaponry is a strange-looking crossbow the captain let me use. Is it similar to that?" Solemn questioned.

"In terms of pulling the trigger, yes. Operation and aiming, no." He replied. "This thing is going to fire for as long as you have ammunition feeding into it, and for as long as you hold down that trigger. And when it does fire, there will be the recoil of each bullet. I have you mounted on this desk to reduce that as much as possible, but that can still change the direction of where you're aiming if you're not used to it."

"Then why have me operate it?" She asked.

"Because you and your squad are the only defense we have between them and our citizens. And if they outnumber us two to one, then this will allow us to change those odds dramatically." Blueblood replied. "This weapon is our only shot at holding the line against the coming horde. Best to do what we can to play to that advantage."

Solemn Oath looked nervously to the machine gun. "I never used this kind of weapon before."

"Well tonight you do." He replied as he was about to teleport off. "I am going back to the foyer, our forces there will need some leadership."

As he disappeared in a bright flash, Dress Right spoke to her friend. "Well, there's no blaming the captain for not being here when it matters."

"That was always the case." Solemn said as she walked over to the unusual weapon. "Not only was he working, he was behind enemy lines doing all of what he does. Now, it's just all the more obvious."

"How does that thing work?" Dress Right questioned.

Solemn looked around the weapon, trying to identify the safety mechanism. "From what I gathered, you look where the 'scope' is, then you pull the trigger like you would on a crossbow. The difference is that it's going to be really loud and it loads itself pretty much on it's own for a while." Once she found it, she started to memorize to herself on how it worked. "Okay, so it has two modes apparently. It says 'S' and 'F'. I guess one means safe and the other means fire."

"So what happens when it runs out?" Dress Right inquired.

"Well you saw him teaching me how to reload it. I'm just more curious as to what happens when that moment comes."

"I don't think we'll have enough time to reload that." She said.

As they were still having their discussion, both Cobalt and Gleaming ran up with another two senators, who appeared panicked over the sudden evacuation order. "Okay, that's the last of the civilians in the castle!" Gleaming replied.

"Good job! Now we need to hold this position." Solemn informed the pair before giving her attention to Cobalt. "How are you holding up?"

"I see why the captain offered an immediate vacation package." She murmured. "I always wondered why the hell we needed some mandatory counseling for six months after this, but now we know."

Gleaming's attention was more on the weapon that was issued to her. "Hey, what's that thing?"

"Human weaponry." Dress Right answered. "Apparently Prince Blueblood gave her clearance to use this thing. It's supposed to be strong enough to hold down our position."

"Okay, who's holding the position?" Gleaming questioned.

"Just all of us." Solemn answered. "We're all we got."

"Jeez, we're down that bad, huh?" Cobalt questioned.

"We're some of the only ones with the experience to do this. The others were pretty much still in training, they're escorting the evacuees with former Captain Night Light."

"Wow, guess we really are on our own." Gleaming said in a dispirited tone.

Solemn took a deep breath, looking at the weapon she was tasked with. "I hope this thing works."

The Canterlot Royal Hangar...

An enormous room filled with a number of golden chariots and a large passenger-class blimp was filled with the sounds of various commands being issued throughout. Some guards were loading a number of ballista situated at the top and bottom of the hangar. Larger ballista were left mainly unused due to the threat that they were facing. But the smaller ones built for defense against equine sized threats were being loaded left and right, moved to optimal positions with the intent to defend their position.

As the young pegasi crew tasked to give their enclosed orders to pass to the reserves in Cloudsdale, they walked down the hall and entered the hangar where the princess' parade chariots were stored. With all the staff saluting them to wish them a safe trip, two princess also emerged from behind them.

"Princesses on deck! Attention!"

Even the flight envoy had started to freeze in place and salute the two princess who entered after them. Princess Luna spoke to the assembly at large. "As you were!"

Leading the envoy, Humbreeze saluted the princesses. "Your highness, do you need an escort?"

"Where we are going will not require one." Luna replied. "What is your status?"

"Ready for long-flight to Cloudsdale. Package is secure." He said, tapping the side of this saddlebags. "We are ready to deploy, awaiting clearance."

"You're still awaiting clearance?" Cadance questioned. "You shouldn't even be standing here, you should be moving like yesterday!"

"Well they haven't flagged us for takeoff yet." The young stallion replied.

"What is going on?" The pink princess questioned before storming over to the flag unit.

As they saw the princess approaching, the leader of the unit saluted her. "Your highness, I am sorry, but we cannot allow for flights at this time."

"Why is that?" She asked sternly.

"Insurgent forces have been sighted outside of the castle, opening the hangar doors will pose as a breaching risk."

"Override it." Cadance briefly replied.

"But your highness─" He started to say before Cadance interrupted him.

"We have far too much at stake! We need this envoy to get to Cloudsdale as expeditiously as possible for our reinforcements! Our captain is in dire need of our assistance against that thing out there! So clear us all for flight so that we can get our reinforcements and our element bearer inbound!"

Luna walked beside the younger princess and nodded. "As high princess, I hereby issue the order of protocol override. I also hereby assume full responsibility of any and all breaches should the occur."

"Your highness, I must ask if you are certain that this is what you wish to do."

Luna confirmed her orders. "By royal decree, open those doors."

"At once." The flag unit leader appeared nervous as he acknowledged her order. He sent two squads to tend to the cranks that held the large doors of the hangar open. He turned to the princess and gave her another warning. "We may be fighting our way out here."

"Secure a route, and then get us moving." Luna commanded.

The flag unit leader confirmed her order and issued another of his own. "ALL HOOVES, BATTLESTATIONS! REPORT TO HANGAR DOORS! MAKE WAY!"

As the forces of the castle began to mass in the hangar, some taking up positions up high to eliminate any threats on both the ground and the sky, they amassed a force of a hundred guards all ready to defend their position. Cadance then hollered out. "No matter what comes through that gate, you will stand your ground!"

Humbreeze readied himself for a speedy takeoff, anchoring his forelegs into the ground. "Envoy ready for takeoff, awaiting clearance!"

Luna and Cadance also readied themselves in a similar manner, standing on either side of the escort formation. In doing so, the flag unit leader shouted to the ponies within the hangar. "HER MAJESTY RIDES!"

"LONG LIVE EQUESTRIA!"

As the room boomed with the sound of all the guards shouting out in unison, the flag unit leader shouted to the crews over the doors. "OPEN THE GATES!"

Squads of ten on each side cranked the massive metal doors to open slowly. As they opened, what started to reveal itself was the sight of a number of flying creatures all with weapons in tow. A smaller force than what was waiting outside the main gate had massed there, however they still outnumbered the forces in the hangar by two-to-one.

In the face of the opposition, all the other guards showed some trepidation. However, the young stallion at the head of the envoy showed more resilience, remaining stoic in spite of the adversity they faced. The sounds of crossbows and ballista being cocked sounded from the upper levels of the hangar.

The flag unit leader waited until the doors were fully open to give his order to the opposing forces. "YOU ARE IN A RESTRICTED AREA! VACATE THE PREMISES IMMEDIATELY! THIS IS YOUR LAST AND FINAL WARNING! LETHAL FORCE WILL BE AUTHORIZED!"

The company of guild members all started to laugh in response to the warning.

"Guess they're volunteering." Cadance stated quietly.

"Any that die here will be considered a gain for them and that beast. We must not tarry here for too long." Luna noted back to her royal peer.

As some started to charge their magic on the outside, the flag unit leader gave his order. "VOLLEY! FIRE!"

The sound of plunking and snapping of crossbows and ballista echoed throughout the hangar, their loads whistling through the air. While some had made contact with their intended targets, most of the opposing forces dodged out of the way, leaving a wide gap in their formation.

Humbreeze saw the opening and jumped at the opportunity. "NOW!"

The five ponies jettisoned themselves out of the hangar as fast as their wings could take them. The five had almost cleared the opposing forces, but some in the backline rose to the task of intercepting them. "We'll buy you some time! Keep going!" Cadance called out to the three pegasi, as she and Luna lagged behind for the sole purpose of beaming down anyone who dared to come close. However, beams soon fired back at the two, prompting them to dance and dodge the incoming bolts. While Cadance was more or less weighed down by her unborn foal, Luna was much more agile and aggressive.

Luna's mane and coat began to darken, her pupils narrowed and her teeth became jagged and sharp. Before their very eyes, the princess reassumed the image of Nightmare Moon. And in doing so, she flaunted her magical presence by changing the weather of the sky immediately around her, summoning thunderbolts to strike around her. Some guild members braved the strikes, a few becoming fatally electrocuted in the process. But the ones that broke through the storm were stopped by a jagged shelf of multicolored crystals staving them away. For the ones that were unfortunate enough to get within reaching distance of the midnight terror, they were impaled and left there to slowly perish.

Nightmare Moon looked up to the pregnant princess, who's horn glowed the same color as the ground she stood on. The elder royal leapt back into the air and they started their trek to the mountain. In doing so, they looked to the direction of the envoy led by Humbreeze, watching them disappear into the distance. A few others, namely bat ponies, began their fevered pursuit of the three ponies. Others who drew more interest in the two princesses pursued them instead.

Weaving past the towers of the town, Nightmare Moon and Cadance swept by and dodged as many buildings and clotheslines as they could. They purposefully lead them into places where their pursuers could be snagged or entrapped in the varying buildings. In a bid for separation, Cadance ignited her magic once more and shelved off their rear as they flew between two towers, sealing the gap between the buildings with crystals.

Nightmare Moon caught glimpse of two that flew in from another direction in hopes to intercept their flight path. But instead of allowing them to get close, she casted thunder to send them smoking out of the sky. As the two left the walls of the city, they began to fly upwards into the sky, reaching for the peak of the mountain. And given their alicorn bodies allowed them to endure higher altitudes without suffering the consequences of the atmospheric changes, they evaded their pursuers and flew into a large sinkhole near the peak of Mount Canter.

As they fluttered down into the bottom, they took notice of the immense mess that had been left before them. The place reeked of the dead, and there were a number of large crystals that were broken from the ceiling above. As it showed, the creature they vowed to pursue had made their way through there already.

Upon landing, Luna reverted back to her normal self as Cadance spoke on the situation. "They've been here, or at least one of them came through this way. And I don't think we need to imagine which one it was."

"Then we don't have a moment to lose. Let us hurry."

Meanwhile in the Mt. Canter Gem Mines...

Though I have been here before, my mind can never truly digest how wonderous this place is. Just the outline of where my foot touches is pretty much the equivalent of a millionaire's yearly pay, and that's if I go a foot down from where I step. While the lights were dim, I could still appreciate the beauty that was here, the endless supply of wealth that only rivaled the GDP of the entire United States, China, and Russia combined... for like five years if you convert it over.

But my admiration of this place was short-lived, allocated to a mere three seconds.

The sounds of distant giggling drew me back into the present. All I could think of then was how I was going to find a way to escape the mines I somehow navigated into. I couldn't just stop and note where I was or where I went like in Arimaspi Mountain. I couldn't just pull out a shotgun and one-tap a fifteen-to-twenty-foot tall monstrosity. There's no such thing as killing the dead when they're already dead.

"B̷r̷o̶t̷h̴e̶r̴.̵.̶.̶"

This will be my third time running into her again. The first two times were close calls. The first instance of my nearly getting caught was as I nearly slipped into a twenty-foot deep chasm. I had to grip those crystals for dear life, in spite of the one that was still lodged in my hand. But during our breakfast, Alex managed to pass on some useful information with a story recounting about their entrance into the lab.

Apparently as they were in Blue's spatial disruption spell, she could still sense them but not as succinctly. If she can't see anything, then she won't perceive any living being to be there, mistaking them for indentures of the ground. Breathing and flexing any muscles will alert her if I'm within her shadow, now that I know from experience. But remaining statuesque could get you out of trouble. And with no light to go by, she will not perceive you as being there.

As such, she turned away and moved on.

The second time we came close was not as dire of a stretch. In fact, it was easy. I just hid behind a crystal and let her run right past me as though I was as decorative as the walls. I held my breath for as long as I could, and if she left far enough, I would open my mouth and nasal passages to breathe as quietly as possible. The putrid taste of decay in the air wasn't an acquired delicacy in the slightest, but it wasn't a choice of convenience either. And as an added bonus, keeping me submerged in her shadow had taught me how to hold my breath for a decent amount of time. Then again, I could chalk that up to the experiments Umbra performed on me to try and turn me into the human version of her.

But this time was different. I was in a large room with absolutely no standing cover large enough to hide me. The only thing I could do was quietly pick up a crystal and quietly fling it back in the direction of her voice. What it would do is allow me a chance to feel against the walls, touching and grasping for every possible opening I would be able to find an opportunity to escape or hide. And with my first throw, she seized in the distance, looking behind her for what had dropped on her.

It was a truly terrifying experience. Not for the usual reason either, but more of a gruesome purpose. If she got frustrated about the dark, she would summon at least a dozen heads to move out and search that location. She always chose unicorns heads because of the horns, she could send her will into them, and they would cast her magic as if it were their own. So while there's this sickly green aura glowing in the distance, she would still be facing the opposite way to try and look for anything that moved. The silhouette of her standing in front of the fading light source was the stuff of nightmares.

So instead of making a dash for an escape, I had to tip toe away while launching another crystal towards her.

That time grabbed her personal attention, sending tendrils to grab at the crystal thrown into her shadow. She picked up the crystal and chucked it away from her using one of those tendrils. While she continued to show her frustration, I quietly changed my position up until I could smell the faintest odor. I froze in place and waited, watching only the pitch-black darkness.

"T̶h̵i̷r̴d̴ ̵t̴i̵m̶e̸'̸s̸ ̴t̴h̴e̸ ̸c̵h̶a̶r̷m̴,̷ ̶b̸i̸g̷ ̴b̶r̶o̶t̶h̸e̸r̷.̵"

Something tapped against my leg, and I knew then that our game was over. Almost in a horrific confirmation, the various heads she had rise from within her shadow served almost as candlelight, her own horn glowing along with the others as she stood in front of me, tapping my leg her own.

"Tag, you're it! That means I win!" She said so innocently, in spite of all the eldritch horror she produced.

I pursed my lips and quietly replied. "Yup. That means you won this round. Silly me, right?"

I could feel some of the tendrils rise up my leg as she threatened to take me under. "Big brother, are you going to give me my prize now?"

I answered her nervously, trying not to alert her into making any sudden movements. "Well, that might be a little hard."

"Why?" She asked.

"Because I don't know my way out of here." I truthfully responded. "Some places I slid down, others I fell into, and there's a lot of caves here. So I wouldn't know what's from my left or my right. Plus it's so dark here."

The filly smiled brightly as she replied. "I know where we are!"

I looked to her flabbergasted. "Wait, you do?"

"Mmhmm!" She confirmed as she used all of her heads to brightly light the room around us. "These are the crystal caves daddy would walk me around! He always took me here whenever he felt I needed some time away from home. He would tell me all kinds of stories when I was here!"

The tendril that crept up my leg and started to worm up my spine and wrap up to my neck. "Really? What stories did he tell you?"

The filly looked around the room, pointing her hoof to one of the crystal walls. "He'd tell me of a pretty place filled with bright lights and tall buildings! He showed me pictures of your world!"

"Did he?" I questioned, growing more and more uncomfortable with the tendril coiling around my neck.

"Yeah! There's these really tall towers made of glass and they touch the sky! Plus when at night, they shimmer like the stars, and the top of them glow with pretty colors every night!" She turned away from the wall and looked to me. "Big brother, can you take me there. to your world?"

I knew that giving her an answer she didn't like would immediately cause her to have a tantrum, and I couldn't afford it with the rotten tentacle wrapped around my neck. So I thought of a way to organically change the subject. "Wow... you really like that place, huh?"

"There's no place in Equestria like it! Oh, you have to take me there! Pretty pleeeease!?" She said, clasping her hooves together in a begging motion. Almost in instant unison, several pairs of hooves rose from the shadows to repeat the same motion.

I couldn't look at her anymore. It was already one thing that she was tethered to something so hideous, so cruel in it's creation. But seeing the youthful exuberance reminded me that she was still technically a living child. I mean yeah there's the massive heap of rotten flesh composed of many deceased ponies and their inherent sins crawling up my back, but she was still a misguided child.

I hated it. "You're... you're a fucking child."

The filly gasped and quickly chided me over my language. "Big brother! No bad words!"

"Sorry. I was just thinking aloud." I mumbled.

She used a few bodies of her collective to meet me at eye level, tilting her head to get a better look at my face. "Big brother, what's wrong?"

I shook my head at the filly. "Have you ever looked in a mirror sometimes, and hated what you see?" I asked her quietly. "Like I do sometimes. Earlier today, I broke a mirror when I looked into it."

The filly laughed hysterically. "That's so silly, big brother! You're not that ugly!"

Again, I had to remind myself that this was a child, she probably thought it as silly as a cartoon character having some messed up teeth looking into a mirror and watching as it suddenly shattered. "No, not to you. But have you ever gotten used to seeing yourself looking... brighter?"

She looked back at the crystal wall, seeing the image of herself standing at the top of a pillar composed of several other hooves, wings, and faces. She didn't seem too phased by her image. "...Daddy says I'm beautiful."

"And I'm sure he's being nice, to make you feel better about what you are." I pointed out. "I mean, you show this to anyone else, and they're gonna get scared out of their minds."

She looked back at me and gently smiled. "I used to be scared of this too. It took me months to get over all the nightmares because daddy would always put me in the cold room with all the bodies."

I began to feel a tinge of anger, but tried my best to not emote that anger to her. "He did that to you?" I questioned.

She nodded slowly. "It was when we got started, after he gave me my new legs." She dismounted her collective, sending the pillar that supported her back into the shadow. As she stepped onto the ground, she shifted her coat to reveal the scars underneath. "A long time ago, like two years ago, daddy adopted five of us from the orphanage. And he'd keep us separated at all times. For the longest time, he was super nice to me, like really nice! He did everything for me! He gave me my favorite food, my favorite books, even let me play with my building blocks without the others to bully me around. Then one day, he said that he could give me legs. I was so happy, he told me I was going to be able to walk!"

"Yeah, I guess the idea of suddenly being able to walk is kinda fun." I said, looking down to my legs. "I had to relearn how to walk myself, and that was hard work."

"I was so excited. He took me to this one room with bright lights, put a silly elephant mask on me, and I went to sleep. When I woke up, I could feel my legs! I could kick, buck, prance, trot, I could be normal! And I hugged daddy and told him thank you!... and then he told me that I could see all the ponies who made it possible."

I groaned as I realized where her story was headed. "Your other adopted siblings hoofed the bill... no pun intended."

The filly appeared quiet as she spoke this time. "They didn't blink at me, they didn't speak, they didn't even move or breathe. Daddy just left me in a room with them. It was really cold. But then I looked up... and saw all the others looking back down at me."

I remember my first time being thrown into that room, how cold it was. And then having to look up and see the countless corpses just hanging from the ceiling like they were all ready to be shipped off to the local slaughterhouse. Just the memory of it makes me sick to think about, much less the smell of it.

And she was made to endure it at such a young age. Jesus Christ. "...Were you scared then?"

The filly sheepishly looked to me as she told me the truth of her experience. "I wet myself. It smelled really bad. I went over to tell daddy about it, and he told me that they weren't anything to be scared of, that they couldn't hurt me or anything. They were just dolls."

"So that's why you call them that?" I asked.

"Yup." She answered in a simplified and undisturbed manner. "Daddy said they were dolls, so I kept calling them dolls too. But they felt like they were real."

I looked down to the ground and saw the many heads still illuminating her magic. "So... why did you decide to become... this?"

"Daddy told me to." She answered. "And he said if I ever didn't do what he said, he would take my legs away."

Figures. "So, you did all of this so you didn't have to go under the knife and lose what made you happy?"

She shook her head as a frown developed on her face. "I did something daddy didn't want me to do. I got in big trouble over it. He took me to the cold room, and then told me if I ever did it again, my legs would be up there with the other dollies. When he said it, he pulled my legs really really hard. It hurt so much, big brother."

"Okay." I responded, very slowly reaching for the tendril wrapped around the back of my neck. "So... let's try to do something different. Let's do what makes you happy, but not what daddy tells you. Okay?"

The filly shook her head. "But daddy made me happy! He might be scary when he's mad, but he really makes me happy too! I want to make daddy happy! And I want you to be happy with us, big brother." Already, I started to feel the bottom of my feet sinking down into the shadow below me. "So please, let's be a family together, and go to the place with the pretty lights and the tall glass towers!"

"I'm sorry, I don't think I can make that happen." I pleaded with her.

"Big brother!" She said in a pouting tone. "You said you would give me ice cream cake from your world! You could take me there and give it to me there! We could have some together as we look at the pretty towers! Please, big brother!"

The hooves that rose from the ground all clasped tighter in their pleading motion. I quickly unrwapped the tendril at my neck, but another coiled around my leg to drag me down even quicker. "Just listen to me! You can't go there like this! You'll scare everyone!"

"I don't care! I wanna go there!"

As I tried to hold myself against a nearby crystal, two more tendrils coiled around my arms to try and peel them off of the crystal I clung onto. I reached my hand out to the filly and shouted firmly. "I said NO!" A blast of magic shot from my hand, impacting only a figure that the little filly used to defend herself.

"You heard what he said." A voice called out, followed by a second blast of magic made of lightning. The filly screamed out in pain as the second impact had scorched one of her forelegs. I looked at an incoming light source, seeing a familiar draconequus walking in from one of the tunnels. He then spoke sternly to the filly. "Now get lost!" Another blast of his chaos magic impacted the filly's monstrous form and she cried out one last time before hopping into her shadow and slithering off.

As the shadow receded, I was brought back to the surface and quickly ran over to thank the draconequus. "Holy shit, dude! You are like the MVP right now!"

The creature replied. "As if your plight doesn't deserve my personal attention after what you did for Fluttershy. I'm merely paying back a debt."

A distorted scream sounded from the distance of the very cave the creature took. I looked back down to the ground, no longer seeing the many heads and hooves rising from the ground. I took a deep breath and look to Discord. "I know what I have to do at this point. I'm just afraid that I might not have the strength to do it."

"Life is always full of hard choices." The serpentine creature stated. "And sometimes those choices can mean life or death for others. But I think the better question to ask yourself is do you think she knows what she's doing?"

"I feel that she has the general idea of it all." I responded as I dusted myself off. "She told me her story."

"So I've heard." Discord muttered before snarling at the thought of what he heard. "I think the worst kind of influence is the ones that leave them thinking that there is no other choice but to keep doing the terrible things that they do. It's only a shame that she was preyed on by somepony so vile."

"We all want a hero to believe in." I answered. "Especially at that age."

"Yes, but in this case, there isn't much of a choice because of what she is."

"I know."

The draconequus glanced over to me, wondering why I was rubbing at my neck. "So what's your plan?"

"Okay... let's if I can do a thing since they tried to make me into a thing." I said as I cleared my throat.

I walked towards the cave and stood in place, anchoring myself down before taking a deep inhale. My lungs filled with air and my chest rose a great amount before I finally called out into the darkness.

"O̴N̵E̶!̸"

Everything in my throat rattled and tickled throughout my neck, straining my vocal cords and causing me to cough a significant amount. I immediately fell over and cleared my throat several more times to get the raspiness out of it. After a few seconds, I turned to Discord with both disbelief and hesitency.

"Okay... *cough* I am not doing that again."

"Noted." He replied.

As I recovered from my attempt to use the distorted voice, I questioned the creature. "Hey, you got a loud speaker?"

"I might, why do you ask?" He inquired.

"I'm just gonna let her know that I'm 'it'. After all, we're still playing hide-go-seek."

As he whipped out a megaphone for me to use, he went on to state the obvious. "You know, you won't be able to beat that thing."

"No, not by myself." I agreed. "But if you'll help me out this one time, we might be able to keep her on the run. With our efforts combined, this might be our best shot at keeping her away from Canterlot."

Discord shrugged nonchalantly. "I usually don't meddle in the conflicts of the living unless I happen to be the conflict in question. However, given that we are dealing with something that is not of the natural order, you have my full assistance."

I reached out to shake the creature's claw. "I truly appreciate you, sir."

"Likewise." He answered as he met me halfway. "I think it's time for you to make your announcement now."

"Save your breath."

Both he and I turned to the side, caught off guard as we both readied our magic for self-defense. But to our surprise, it was both Luna and Cadance that walked up to us. Cadance marched up to me and glanced me up and down. "Already you're a mess."

"Sorry, I was just dragging an eldritch abomination away from the castle walls." I replied to the pink princess, who lit up the room with her magic. "Meantime, don't you have to be somewhere near your husband?"

"Equestrian priority lies in you, Mr. Element-Bearer." She answered with a leaning smirk.

"We are here to help you in your pursuit." Luna called out.

"Good. The more, the merrier." I answered before I raised the megaphone to my lips.

Luna quickly used her magic to drag the item down from my lips. "Save your voice for the real fight." Cadance said before calling out to the darkness. "This one will be done before you even know it."

"CONGREGANT! YOUR TIME OF PURSUIT IS OVER! IT IS NOW WE WHO WILL PURSUE YOU! SO HIDE IN YOUR SHADOWS, CONJURE UP YOUR COLLECTIVE, AND PREPARE YOURSELF! YOUR TIME IS NIGH!"

As she effortlessly made the caves rattle with her voice, she turned her head to me and replied. "Now that's how you make a statement."

While I was still impressed with her ability to do what she did, I also knew that's what she's been doing for the better part of a thousand years. However, the rattling of the caves still didn't make me feel anymore comfortable in the moment. Instead of lingering on that, we continued our trek. "So, we go after her?"

"We go a different way." Cadance announced as she took lead. "Follow me."

Cloudsdale...

As the fatigue began to set in, Humbreeze and his escort tiredly flew into the city. Zipping past the cloudy pillars and over the vast pantheons that soared thousands of feet in the air, the trio rigorously made their way through the city to an office that sat at the center of town. Guards on station had slinked off from boredom, not minding too much the pegasi flying through their checkpoint. But one of the escorts did manage to stop and try to get them back to proper form before rejoining the other two.

Working as a team, they carried out the emergency protocols to sound the alarm throughout the city. And with the attack especially being targeted to the princess herself, they ensured that all in the city heard the alert. Humbreeze took to the loudspeaker and gave out the order.

"GUARDS OF CLOUDSDALE, GUARDS OF CLOUDSDALE, THE CASTLE OF CANTERLOT IS UNDER ATTACK AND IS IN DIRE NEED OF REINFORCEMENTS! ALL WINGS TO FORM RANKS! I REPEAT: ALL WINGS TO FORM RANKS! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! REPEAT: THIS IS NOT A DRILL! CODE FOXTROT-UNICORN-CHARLIE-KILO!"

The sound of an air raid siren went off throughout the city, waking all the citizens who slept peacefully in their beds. Those who identified the sound quickly hopped out of their beds and took to the sky. From there they massed in platoons and awaited further orders.

Spitfire and Soarin hopped out of their own beds and immediately dressed themselves in uniform. Soarin then flew to various platoons and commanded them in an orderly fashion to report to the Wonderbolts Training Grounds for uniform and weapons check.

Spitfire took the opposite route and headed towards the town center to check on the ponies issuing the alarm. "Alright you three, situation brief!"

Humbreeze left from the loudspeaker and saluted the mare. "Captain, orders from the crown." He said as he pulled out a wax-sealed scroll from his saddlebags.

Spitfire quickly opened the scroll and observed the simple message on the paper. She snapped her attention back to the young guard and his escorts. "Alright boys! Get some water, recover, and be ready to sortie at 0430 hours!"

"Sir!"

She placed a wing on Humbreeze's back to prevent him from flying off as the others did. She quietly questioned the young guard. "Alright, so what's the deal with Captain Nondis, why can't he get his shit in order this time?"

"It's harder for me to explain than it is to show you." He replied. "There's an insurgency taking place, they're all from Canterrot. He was forced to withdraw from the city."

"So let me get this straight, he went missing on Friday, somehow showed back up when?"

"Sunday." He answered for her.

"Sunday. And here it is on an early Tuesday morning, and he's withdrawn from the city while the castle's under siege?"

"He did it to lure a terrible creature away from the castle grounds. He's in the mountain as we speak with Princess Luna and Princess Cadance, they are also assisting him in the creature's defeat."

"That some serious firepower to be bringing down any kind of creature." She noted. "What are the traits of this creature you speak of?"

"Enormous. Fear-inducing. Terrible-smelling. A class-x threat capable of using dead bodies to add to it's collective, which explains the number of corpses we recovered throughout the city."

Spitfire looked to the young guard with disbelief. "I'm sorry, you said 'collective'. Please elaborate."

Humbreeze appeared pale as he delivered the news. "That thing, it can use dead ponies to grow bigger."

Staring back to the stallion in unbelief and horror, she questioned him once more. "Is that thing what we're going up against!? I'm not losing any of my high fliers for some fucked-up science experiment! Shouldn't this be a element bearer situation!?"

The stallion hesitated. "Um... another situation update. The captain is also an element bearer now."

Spitfire nearly choked on the very air she breathed. "WHAT!?"

"Yeah, I don't really get how that happened either. But the humans are all element bearers now."

The mare shook her head and hopped into the air. "Okay, there's a lot going that I need answers to. And I'm sure the princess should be willing to provide that to the rest of us officers in the E.U.P. Chain of Command. Who's currently overseeing the forces at the castle!?"

The stallion sheepishly answered her question. "Uh... Prince Blueblood?"

Her jaw fell immediately, stunned as she flapped her wings in the air. "...E.T.A.: Fifty minutes."

"But Canterlot's a whole hour and a half─"

"FIFTY MINUTES!" She said as she snagged the stallion and darted off, leaving behind a sonic boom.

The Royal Residential Hall...

With the absolute silence around the halls, especially with many of the guards on post downstairs, Shining walked into the residential wing of the castle, identifying the tall sun-crested doors. He knocked softly to ensure that the princess was sleep in any way.

"Enter."

Shining slightly hesitated from hearing the high princess' voice answer him. He did as she ordered and walked inside to see her sitting at the center of her room, staring at a fireplace. The young prince addressed his superior. "I figured you would've been sleep by now."

"Do you really take me for a fool, Shining Armor?" She asked in a serious tone. "We are under attack by some group of insurgents, a foul creature breaks the barrier you set up, and now they are pinching us in from all directions. Even worse, my balcony is a breaching point. Do you honestly expect me to stay asleep when Equestria's future is at risk?"

"I just didn't think you'd be up and at it this late." He replied as he looked over to her grandfather clock against the wall. "It's going on 3:36."

"I have fought many blood-stained campaigns in the midnight hours before, Shining. This is no different from the others, the only discrepancy is the size. It is small."

"It might be small, but it's filled with ponies and other creatures who know how to fight." Shining rebutted.

The princess tilted her head back to the prince, looking at him with nonchalance. "A small force looking to take a heavily fortified position deep in the heart of enemy territory. Had it been a more covert operation, this would be a rousing success for them." As the young prince started to walk forward, Celestia quietly warned him. "Watch where you step. I don't want blood all over my rugs."

Shining looked down to see a puddle of blood he was standing in. His eyes grew as he started to illuminate the room. Before his eyes, he saw two griffons who tried their luck against the princess lying in state, their bodies nearly cloven in two. "So... this is why Blueblood warned me to make sure no one wakes you up."

The princess glanced to her velvet and gold rugs, moving them out of the way of the growing pool of blood. "You know that my having body guards is merely a formality."

"I remember." The young prince replied. "The second changeling invasion of Canterlot showed me that."

"Well it's a good thing that I was already awake." She said as she slowly walked towards the balcony. "Had I been asleep, my furnishings would be in a dire state. Meaning that I have the funds to replace what I lose does not eliminate the sentimental value that these items may hold."

"Nondis drove that thing away." Shining informed her.

The princess grew quiet before she walked to her bed. Placing a hoof against it, she quietly reminisced on the moments they shared, then a deep-seeded fury took root. "Where is he now?"

"He supposedly went into the mountain, possibly to lose it in the mines."

Celestia leered to the wall by her balcony access, igniting her horn and levitating a heavy golden halberd next to her. "Is he alone?"

"Twily sent me a text, apparently both Cadie and Luna went after him. Discord should also be near him."

"Is that so?" The princess questioned as she calmly replaced the halberd back to where she had it. "It's unfortunate that he would be forced to fight that thing a second time, knowing that he couldn't win the first time."

"At least he has help." Shining replied. The mare sighed longingly, prompting the young prince to question her thoughts. "You okay?"

"I am annoyed." She answered. "I am annoyed because this was supposed to be simple. He gets done, he comes home, he lays in my bed, I play with his hair and I tell him how I feel about him being here." Celestia then chuckled to herself. "I'm starting to know how Cadance felt about you and your outings."

"That's the life of a guard." He said.

"I am aware." She groaned as she calmly looked to the figures flying out in the distance. "I wish I could leave this room and make a difference where I need to, but my energy is required elsewhere."

"Another round of cremations, I take it?"

"The last time caught me off guard. I was already doing too much throughout the day. It only serves to show how much energy I don't have when the night falls. And putting out more in that only allows me to work myself to near death."

"I suppose having to deal with press releases all day have been tiresome too." Shining added.

"Who said I had to deal with press releases all day?" She argued. "I used a changeling prisoner to alleviate the work for me, you know, the one that you and Blueblood hid from me?"

The prince winced at the thought of being reprimanded for keeping a secret like that from the princess. "I take it he told you about it?"

"Luna did." She corrected. "You forget that she's in charge of all the dungeon records."

"Ah, should've seen that one coming." Shining groaned in his deadpan realization.

"I'm not too upset with it. In fact, this was quite useful in keeping me from having to expend too much energy."

Shining sat himself before the balcony. "Well in that case, you should let me take care of this and you get your rest."

"I spent the entire day sleeping." She notified him, sitting beside him. "I don't need sleep anymore. I need patience."

"To be able to use your power when the sun is out?" Shining clarified.

"Precisely." She confirmed. "My power is at it's greatest during the day. Luna's is at it's most potent in the night. It is why we run shifts, to compensate for each other's weaknesses."

Shining's eyes wandered back to the two fresh griffon corpses lined up besides one another. "So, what are you going to do with them?"

"I'm guarding them until morning. So when I raise the sun, I'll have more than enough heat to feed off of. That will mean that I will be very busy after I move the sun into place."

"Can't let Umbra have more bodies to use." The prince cosigned.

"So we'll incinerate the ones we collect, that is until the elements are used."

Shining looked back out to the darkened city beyond the distance. "I guess our hope now lies with six humans, one of them out there in the darkness."

"I pray the others are doing well."

Canterlot Castle Barracks...
***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

We were teleported inside of a noisy hallway. Already to start off, Blue had our spell rolling and we were trying our best to keep things moving in spite of the chaos taking place. Along our journey, there were a few ponies with bat wings walking around, laughing as they held various helmets and spears taken from the armory. With the swiftness of thieves, they absconded the arms and left with a lot of the guard's ordinance for defense. We managed to show up as they were already done raiding the place, leaving behind a skeleton crew to hold down the place. They seemed to have three on lookout, four for patrol, and one for oversight.

Walking through the halls, we saw that there were a series of offices completely destroyed by the invading brutes. And going through the armory was nothing short of the same thing we've seen everywhere else. But one door in particular they had struggled with had gotten a lot of attention from those that remained.

"HEAVE! HO!" A quintet of creatures ranging from changelings to griffons chanted as they rammed a heavy bronze bust of an old captain into the door.

After a few more attempts, the group took a break and sat down, detailing their exhaustion. "Ugh! That damn door is tough!"

"I wonder why this one is so hard to get into compared to the others."

"I knew we should've had some of those unicorns come with us. These runes aren't gonna break themselves."

"Seriously! Why do they have this one locked up like a vault!?"

A strong earth pony stallion laughed heartily as he held the now damaged bust. "Well if these enchantments are anything to go by, this must be the captain's stash."

"You think that's what it is?" One of the bat-featured ponies questioned.

"The way that thing's locked up, it's got to be!" The third replied. "You can't let weapons like the ones we saw at the front gate get in our hooves. We'll probably turn half of the guard into the boss' new projects."

"Well it's better them than us." The burly stallion pointed out. "That thing already took a few of us with it."

The first to voice a complaint then came up with an idea. "Hey, quick question. Those weapons in there kill real quick-like, right?"

"Have you seen how bad that thing got done over before it came back to form?" The second replied. "It's entire upper torso was done for."

"I think it was another body that got picked off. Then that thing came up in another one, much like the how boss would come back every time someone tried to ax him." The third explained. "But then again, they're probably the least fortunate if they dare to try."

"Yeah, but lets get back to the real conversation." The first said, getting to his point. "So we take these things in here, we go to the princesses, and we give them a bit of that in there, and boom, we collect our heads, we walk up to the boss and be like 'Hey, we got your heads like you ordered them'. And we get instant VIP status in the arena."

"Sounds like a plan to me." The burly stallion said. "I've been meaning to bury a tool in those pretty little worksheds they got in the walls, if you know what I mean."

"VIP, drinks on the Doc, bitches and broods everywhere. That's be the life I live right there. Give me that for a year and I'll die a satisfied bastard." The second said as he thought aloud. "You think we can break in that purple princess before she gets all cold and clammy?"

Twilight gasped slowly, processing the direction the conversation had taken. Her friends had gathered around her instinctively as the burly stallion replied. "Ah yeah, I heard she wasn't too popular with the boys before becoming a princess. She might be as pure as a cherry."

Twilight and her friends winced as they grew more protective of her. Applejack in particular appeared the most confrontational about it, wanting to kick their skulls in as they were speaking. But Twilight held her friend back as they continued to speak. "Now that you mention it, that pink one probably got a little bit of mileage, but I doubt her limp-dick hubby's been doin much with her. Rumor has it he's a bit of a glass cannon."

"Princess pussy is princess pussy." The second one stated. "We get these weapons, we'll be the ones to say that we've done the deed with the royals before taking our souvenirs. We'll be legends in the guild!"

"I can already imagine how we'll take turns with Princess Celestia." The first hummed with glee. "That flank so round and big, I just wanna sink my meat in it."

"NOW YOU GOT ME ENCOURAGED!" The burly stallion called out loudly, as he stood in front of the door, he started to show his arousal at the thought of being able to violate the princess to his leisure. The others lined up in a similar state. "ALRIGHT BOYS! LET'S GO GET SOME ALICORN ACTION!" Empowered by their bloodlust and sexual deviancy, they picked up the bust and went back to work. "I TELL YOU TO GIVE IT TO HER, YOU TELL HER HOW YOU'RE GONNA GIVE IT, BOYS!"

"RIGHT!" They all chanted as the bashed the bust into the door.

"HOW YA GONNA GIVE IT!?" The burly stallion called out as they pulled the bust back out.

"DEEP!" They all called out as they rammed the bust into the door yet again.

"TELL ME HOW SHE LIKES IT!"

"DEEP!"

"WHERE'S SHE GONNA GET IT!?"

"DEEP!"

"WATCHA GONNA GIVE HER!?"

"MEAT!"

As they started getting into a rhythm, I wasn't too thrilled in watching them chant about how they were going to rape Twilight and the others when they got a hold of the weapons. I turned to Blue and questioned her. "Okay, so when are we dropping this spell?"

"No need. Blue, you know what to do." Alabaster said as he walked forward.

"Already on it." Blue replied as she shifted the field of her spell slightly to allow the five stallions inside.

He summoned what seemed to be a dagger composed of his own magic and inched closer to each of the five stallions who drove the bust into the door. One of their ears twitched, causing the one in the back to turn around, seeing Alabaster diving right at him. He tried to step out of the way to dodge, but it was too late. In effortless fashion, he jabbed the first stallion in the neck, sweeping into the jugular of the second, jabbing the third in his skull from behind, and injecting the blade into the fourth's spine. As the weight shifted behind him, indicating that he was the only one holding the bust, the burly stallion looked back before having his head yanked back. Alabaster repeatedly drove the dagger into the burly stallion's throat, holding and shanking as he guided the stallion to the ground. All five were brought down in the matter of seconds.

As the others bled out, he cursed them for their commentary. "Ugh, if there's anything I hate about Canterrot, it's the fucking rape culture. They got exactly what they deserve."

Blue walked over the dying stallions, muttering a mock of their chant. "Tell me how you got it."

"Deep." Both Cliff and Rickey called out.

"Tell me how you liked it." Twilight said as she walked over them.

"Deep." Stanton and Alex both chanted.

"Tell me where you got it." I said as I walked past them.

"Deep." Blue and Rainbow chanted.

"Tell me what you won't have soon." Alabaster said as he still toted his dagger.

"Now let's not go that far again." Cliff requested.

Upon approaching the door, we took notice of the bust that laid on the ground. I read out to myself the name at the bottom of the bust. "Prince Fair Charity. What's the history on this guy?"

"I don't know, but they fucked his whole shit up bashing him into that door." Cliff noted.

"I'm surprised it didn't break." Twilight said as she observed the dents in the door. "There's no enchantments on this thing whatsoever."

"Nah, I think N told us that he had installed a new door to this room here because he didn't trust the security." Cliff said before knocking on the door, producing a solid thud. "So yeah, ol' dude was gonna get his shit bent regardless."

Alex walked over to the coded knob, entering Nondis' birth year into the panel. As soon as the door unlocked, we walked into the room and started getting to work on collecting what we could. Alabaster, Blue, Twilight, and Rarity assisted us in moving the items into the bins from where they were once stored. With careful work, we managed to quickly clear the numerous shelves of weapons. Upon securing them into the bins, we looked to one another and nodded. "Okay, so we got our shit. What now?"

"Did we grab what we'll need?" I asked. "We might want a little more ammo just in case things really turn south."

"It's one thing to pack like we're fighting the world, it's another to pack like we're only running security. I think the reason Nondis has us packing light is because he doesn't want us to get bogged down." Alex explained. "Our ammo capacity should only cater towards our own personal defense, not holding down a position for some hours in the middle of a fire-fight."

"Well we'll be in the same room of weapons, so will it really matter?" Rickey questioned.

Stanton looked at the six bins of weapons and ordinances and began to think aloud. "You know, I'm starting to think keeping these here with us is a bad idea."

"Why you say that?" Cliff inquired.

"Think about the one asshole who we all know can probably use a gun despite our not giving out any instructions." He argued.

"I do see his point." Alex cosigned with his brother. "Remember Queen Chrysalis? She almost smoked our dad while posing as Nondis, and she had limited access to his memories. Now let's look at our current situation. All Umbra has to do is show up and he'll already know how to use what."

"That's not good." Pinkie said under her breath.

"Not good is right." Stanton replied. "So we'll need to move these somewhere else where there's the possibility of a failsafe."

"My apartment." I suggested.

"Wait, hold on." Rickey said as he questioned me. "Are you sure you wanna do something like that?"

"Is it any worse than having a rotting corpse sitting in your living room area?" I asked in return.

Rickey briefly debated with himself before conceding to my logic. "Yeah, you have a point."

"So, we got the goods. Tell us where we're porting off to." Blue suggested.

"Back to our initial rendezvous point." Twilight responded. "We have what we came for, we teleport out to where we were before coming here. The castle doors haven't breached yet, so we can just carry this stuff to the portal room and send it across the way."

"And if anything happens to where we end up with any sudden surprises, we cut off the portals and keep our stash safe from bad company." Rickey concluded.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Applejack said optimistically. "Let's get a move-on before we put anymore strain on Blue."

"Compared to the lab, this is nothing." She replied as she passed the torch of the spell to her brother, all while readying the mass-teleport spell that she and Twilight conjured up.

In the matter of a few seconds, we all disappeared from the armory and moved to our next area.

Canterlot Castle Main Foyer...

With the seemingly endless barrage at the front doors. The ponies in the foyer experienced their first breach. The doors broke at last, allowing a flood of guild members to gallop inside. Happy that they finally broke through with their recently acquired arms from the barracks, they had their armored units at the forefront of the charge. The sound of guild members hollering, weapons clashing, screams of pain, and howling of orders filled the lobby.

The many newer recruits were trying their best to hold their formations. But much of the guild's tactics were far too unorthodox for the young ponies to defend against. As such, many started to break off and rotate further back. Blueblood continued to call out to the group. "Stand firm! We will hold them here!"

One guild member came close to chucking a spear at the blond prince, but instead of landing a direct hit, the mule watched as the prince ducked clear of his throw. After, Blueblood used his magic to grab the spear and leapt high into the air into the front line. Before landing, he surrounded himself with a bubble of his defensive magic, allowing him the space to maneuver. In a effortless thrust, he impaled two guild members in their necks, pulled out and defended himself from an incoming sword.

With the firmness of a tortoise, the prince parried many more blows that came his way. He kept firm, his motions as minimal as they needed to be. And in turn, he exploited the openings he saw with religious prosecution. The slightest telegraphed swing was severely punished with a spear's head in some varying joint to disable his opponents. Those that were too eager to land a killing blow to the prince were met with an unequal force yielding the exact result they sought to accomplish.

Blueblood more than showed his proficiency with the spear he used, he repeated the accuracy on every opponent that he faced. Those that especially wore the stolen armor were countered by his ruthless efficiency. He knew very well where the weak points were, and exploited the ignorance of those who wore it.

There was no sign of relent in any of his strikes, he didn't care if they were stallion or mare. The only thing that mattered to him was that they had invaded the foyer with the intent to cause harm to his guards and self. And those that found themselves trying to take advantage of his occupied attention soon discovered that he had other ways of amending for that weakness. The barrier he summoned had initially protected him, but overtime it grew in size and changed in it's function. To compensate for the barrier's brief effectiveness, he altered the spell to make the barrier one of extrasensory perception. And those who walked into it, they soon found themselves in immediate danger of meeting with the prince's spearhead.

However, his physical defense was not as sharp as it was in the past. One briefly fortunate griffon broke the head from off of the spear he used, rendering it bladeless. But as quick as his fortunes came in that moment, they sooner ran out as Blueblood impaled him with the splintered wooden staff remaining. And while he was temporarily disarmed, Blueblood had no problems resorting to hoof-to-hoof combat.

His proficiency was unseen by many in the guard, much less to the newer ranks that filled the lobby. He put a lot more effort into his strikes this time, punching into his opponents and kicking off two that threatened to close distance. One unicorn ran into him with a dagger formed of his own magic, but the prince countered it as though it was a simple magic beam, grabbed the stallion and slammed him into the ground. As the stallion tried to get up, Blueblood wasted no time in stamping his horn to break it off. But the assault didn't end until the prince came down with a second blow, this one aimed to the skull of the stallion. The impact was so great that it fractured the side of the unicorn's skull inward, causing him to convulse before falling dormant.

The guild members watched in silence, the guards of the lobby stood in awe, and Blueblood waited patiently for his next opponent. "I haven't cut loose like this in nearly five hundred years!" He said as he kicked the dying stallion away from him, his hooves still red from the blood. "So which one of you are going to help me finish my warm-up exercises? Volunteers will not just be asked, they will be chosen."

Through the side of his eye, he noticed a fully-armored guard standing behind the entirety of his formation. With his observation skills, he immediately pointed the stallion out.

"You, I don't remember seeing your face for the past two hours. Give me your name and rank."

Instead of the pony in question answering him, another voice chimed in from the middle of the pack of guild members. He called out the prince in a low, gravely voice. "Hey!" Blueblood slowly looked to the direction of the voice, trying to keep a close eye on the guard he questioned. "HEY! I'M TALKING TO YOU!" The voice called out even louder, this time throwing a spear the prince's way. As Blueblood dodged the weapon, it instead hit a young mare in the chest. Blueblood glanced back to see the young mare fall over, straining quietly as the spear was lodged into her chest. Seeing the panicked expression on her face deeply angered the prince. He snarled back to the stallion who stood proudly in front of him. "I'll have you know that I don't take too kindly to anyone dogging out my guild members."

Instead of giving the stallion his undivided attention, he ran over to the injured guard instead. When he got to her, he helped another guard tend to her. However, her pupils began to dilate and her breathing slowed to a complete stop. Blueblood bowed his head in both regret for having dodged the blow, but also out of respect for the fallen guard. He closed her eyes and turned to the stallion leading the pack. "I take it you have a name." He said quietly.

"And I take it you have a head I want to collect." The stallion replied.

It was at that moment when Blueblood actively turned himself around and glared to the stallion responsible. "The young mare you killed just now, her name was Cinder Glow, age of nineteen years, she finished basic about a month ago, she held the rank of private." Blueblood then carefully removed the spear from her chest and held it up. "And this was her price."

"And? You killed one of my guys... actually you killed about nine of them. I have about eight more to go to reach your tally. Maybe I should play catch-up."

Blueblood clicked his tongue against his molars. "What's your name, boy?"

"You callin' me a boy!?" The stallion questioned vehemently.

"Well boy, I don't seem to have a name for you. So I'll call you whatever I feel that you are."

"My name is Hot Spot." He said angrily, pointing up to his head. "And I've had it up to here with the disrespect."

The prince lightly nodded as he spoke in a snobbish manner at the guild leader. "Well hot spot, I'll have your spear returned to you, that is if you're willing to come here and take it."

Hot Spot cracked his neck and stood as though he was ready to stretch his limbs for a fight. "Well, looks like the pretty-boy prince wants to have a tussle with the biggest and baddest gui─"

Within the flash of an instant, the stallion glanced down to see the spear jammed past his teeth being lightly lodged into the back of his throat. The weapon was slowly swabbed against his tongue. The prince quietly asked him in a deep voice. "Do you taste that?" He said as he slowly rotated the spear in the stallion's mouth. "That's the taste of a life you've taken, it's her taste. This is the life of Private Cinder Glow that now graces your unworthy tongue. It is also the taste of accountability for the things you've stolen, for the years that will never be. This is the cost of honorable service, a taste you are deeply unworthy of. Remember that name."

The stallion tried to back away, only to find himself impaled before he could send the signals to his legs to move. In that instant, his body collapsed from under him as his spinal column was ran completely through. Blueblood stepped in closer, taking the spear with his own hooves and shoving the weapon through his neck and jammed it through his torso and stomach. He leaned in and whispered into his ear.

"Let that name be the last thing you remember before you go out." With a disrespectful shove, he removed the impaled stallion from in front of him, watching as the coiled figure slowly bleed out and blink at the world around him.

The guild members were stunned silent as their biggest guy had been humiliated almost as quickly as he introduced himself. And though their forces had outnumbered the prince's present defenses two-to-one, they were in shock that a royal prince known for being haughty and clean would so cruelly decimate their leader with the same effortless efficiency he spent on their lessers and equals.

A horn sounded in the air from outside, then another, and then a number of them sounded as though they were getting closer. Members of the guild looked back to the outside, seeing a cloud of pegasi sweeping in from the west, twisting and turning in their formation to the castle's approach. Blueblood sat himself calmly as he spoke out. "Oh yes, that would be the sound of our reinforcements from Cloudsdale. As you now know, we've bought ourselves some time to be able to apprehend every last one of you. Cause while your forces outnumbered us before, I can visually count out that your current situation puts you against the odds of six-to-one. And to count the rest of the enlisted throughout the city, that will drop you to a now ten-to-one disadvantage... Surrender is an option, a wise one."

In a panic, the guild members who were closer to the south hall had began to wildly scream and charge at the prince's right flank. With all of their forces concentrated on trying to break through the lines for escape, Blueblood noticed that their killing efficiency surged and they began to cleave through the guards that stood between them and their possible escape. Out of fear of losing too many lives, the prince called back his right flank and allowed them to run wildly through the hall.

As Spitfire landed into the lobby, she immediately started barking out orders. "Alpha Company, secure the perimeter! Bravo Company, drop back and secure that checkpoint! Charlie Company, secure the evacuation routes! Delta Company, get the wounded ponies to medical. Echo Company, Foxtrot Company, you are to divide into platoons and pursue all insurgents throughout the castle! Platoon one, you're with me!"

Blueblood sighed with a small amount of relief, greeting the Wonderbolt captain. "Ah, it's a good thing you came along sooner rather than later."

"We obviously came too late." Spitfire announced as she looked at the damage to the front doors, as well as the number of bodies strewn around the lobby. She took notice of a number of dead guards leading down to the south hall. "Way too late."

Blueblood turned to the group of young guards he ordered. "We need all guards to search the halls of the castle, every room and office with the exception of the following: The portal room, the royal residence hall, and the south hall leading to the dungeons."

Spitfire instantly jumped in. "No! Every single room, no exceptions!"

Blueblood quietly confronted the mare. "With all due respect, captain, I am in standing authority here. You do not know how I have those positions fortified. If you press the south hall, your forces will be slaughtered."

"And if we don't, we risk endangering any evacuees! They'll be pinched in from both sides, that's a slaughter waiting to happen!"

Blueblood looked around and felt himself having a suspicious chill. He became increasingly frustrated with the pegasus before he made a hasty decision. "Look, I'll relinquish the authority I have here to you. I need to get up those stairs and reach the portal room before hell breaks loose."

"Not until I get some questions answered, sir prince." Spitfire replied.

"We don't have time for bickering, captain!" Blueblood shouted. "Heed my warnings, take our forces, and move!"

Blueblood quickly galloped away, trying to get to the portal room quickly before anything happened. All while Spitfire called out to him repeatedly. The blond prince ignored her calls, keeping his eyes ahead on where he needed to be.

Meanwhile, hiding behind one of the pillars the prince galloped by, an armored figure waited quietly for the prince to turn the corner. A smile crept to his face as he removed himself from his hiding position and walked casually down the hall as though he was on a patrol, humming his favorite tune.

"♪Da da da da daaa, dada...♪ Oh what fun we'll soon have."

Level 3 Hall
Canterlot Castle Dungeons...

The struggle between both the forces protecting the evacuees and the intercept had come to a brief stalemate. Unicorns on both sides took opportunities to blast magic at one another, hiding behind cover as they engaged. A slew of violent colors filled the halls, each blast running the risk of stunning or disabling whoever was hit.

But in the midst of the chaos, some civilians were inevitably caught in the cross fire. Crescent quickly jumped into action, shielding himself before finding whoever called out for help. Once he hopped in to recover them, the guards present would drastically apply pressure to the forces that kept them bunkered in place. While he was a prominent example of that bravery, there were a few others in the civilian crowd who also braved the danger of being shot to recover their fellow civilians.

One such civilian was blasted in the midst of a heated exchange and had to be moved out of the way. Crescent swooped in and grabbed them before running off to join the others. As his back was turned, Velvet carefully shielded her husband from any danger until they reunited further down the hall.

Crescent groaned as he also joined the exchange. "We're going to be overrun if we stay here!" He called out to the younger guards after firing off another blast. "Let's reposition back to the second level!"

"Sir!" The nine other unicorns called out as they tried to strategically withdraw from their positions.

The stallion continued to give out his orders. "Covering fire! Keep them back while we move!"

One of the young unicorns tried to issue a blast to the opposing forces, only to find that they had little magic left to cast. He quickly ran for cover and promptly notified the former captain. "We can't keep going on like this! Our magic is depleting faster than we can replenish it!"

Injured, but still moving, Kalimba took his place and fired blasts back at the guild members. "Go now! I shall keep dem busy!"

While the mare took her cover, she also brandished the revolver she kept with her in case of an emergency. She checked for ammo, seeing that she only had six shots to use. Crescent ran over to her and grabbed her to take her with him. "Save it for later when it matters! We need to go now!"

The two ran together, Velvet shielding her husband as she watched the young mare try to defend herself. But in trying to make a turn, she awkwardly landed on her forelegs, aggravating her wounds from the lab. She staggered in place, moaning in pain before a blast knocked her over to her side. Wincing in pain, she became angry with herself. "DAMMIT, I HATE DIS PAIN!" Acting out of rage, she charged her horn full of magic and painfully adjusted herself to face the guild members that came after them. Her horn produced a magic so potent that the entire hallway started to glow red. She propped herself up with a foreleg and took aim.

"Kalimba, stop it!" Crescent warned.

"GO!" She screamed as her magic started to whir and whine. She finally screamed, unleashing a catastrophic beam that engulfed the entire hallway in front of her with heat and magic. Those that took cover were singed by the heat she gave off in her blow, the unfortunate ones who were caught in the blast itself had the brutal displeasure of having their skin initially cooked off before being turned to ash.

The zebracorn rolled her eyes as she fell back to the ground, succumbing her energy to exhaustion. She panted tiredly as a voice called in from across the hall to her. "Holy shit! That was pretty damn good! You can't be a guard pulling a stupid maneuver like that!" Coming from behind a pillar was a batpony mare, smirking as she walked closer. "I mean yeah, it gets the job done in the matter of seconds, but you won't have any kind of magic for at least an hour!" The mare walked closer and stood over the injured zebracorn. "Oh, go figure! You're Prod's little project, I didn't even think you were here! You must've gotten locked up and let out somehow."

"I am here of my own accord." Kalimba replied as she tried to stand up, only to fall back down from the pain she still recovered from.

The mare shook her head. "Damn. Diva Kalimba in the flesh. I liked you in your prime." The mare said before flexing her wings, revealing a shimmering blade at the bottom of her webbing. "I guess your owner will be needing a new champ after this. So why don't you tell me what you wanna tell him."

"How about you tell me instead." Crescent quickly stepped up to defend the injured zebra, his eyes carefully observing the batpony mare. "Sorry to leave you high and dry on our Tuesday night date way back when."

The nocturnal mare appeared initially confused, looking at the stallion before her. "Soooo who are you again?"

"You remember me." He said before shifting his accent to sound like Prod. "Can't say my company's been much of thrilling these days."

The mare turned her head and expressed some false dismay. "Awwww, it's you! You're that one sweetheart who came looking for Prod. Damn, now I gotta kill you! Can't we just talk this over a good face-sitting and I get rid of all of these other schmucks so we can get some steamy alone time?"

"Sorry, but my marriage has been pretty stable these days." He replied. "But I suppose we can take our conversation to one of these cells here."

"Sorry, babe. I ain't no jailbird. I'm a free flyer." She announced before running into the stallion with her blades out to attack him. Crescent summoned a sword and quickly defend himself, parrying off a blow from the mare. While the mare's unusual attack patterns had initially caught him off guard, he started to find ways to adapt.

One of the guild members ran in from behind them, galloping in to give the news of what was taking place on the surface above. "Hey! Time's up! The reinforcements are here, and Hot Spot's been shish-kabobbed! We gotta split!"

"What!?" Asked the bewildered batpony.

"They're all fliers! They really mean business! We're outnumbered six-to-one, and they got more coming in!" He informed them, causing the others to back off and run away.

Seeing her squad fall away, she flashed some pepper dust before her and hopped away. The former captain coughed and gagged as the dust hindered his breathing as well as his ability to see. She bowed before the two remaining ponies. "I hate to be the kind of bitch to hit and run, but you know how it is. Free birds don't like getting caged in. We'll get up some other time, maybe."

As the mare retreated down the hall, Crescent cleared his throat as best as he could while recovering. He still had the strength to help Kalimba up. All while coughing, he chided the mare. "This is the SEK-cond time... aghk... you ran in! Do you have a death-wish?"

The mare painfully moaned before replying. "At least dey are gone now. Our way should be clear."

"Our best bet is to wait this out until one of ours come from over that way." Crescent sniffled. "That way we don't run into a trap."

Velvet ran in from where she hid, approaching her husband to help him. "I'm so glad you're okay, hun."

The stallion chuckled despite the pepper dust still in his throat. "I'm more surprised that you haven't decided to choke me out when she offered me what she offered."

"Now you know I'm not a jealous mare. And you already know why."

The stallion rolled his eyes. "Anything they can do, you can do better."

The gray mare pulled her husband in for a kiss before aiding Kalimba in her walk. "And don't you ever forget it."

Meanwhile in the South Hall
Canterlot Castle...

The hall was mostly quiet without any disturbance for the better part of the hours that the four mares spent at their post. The mares were initially anxious about their situation, but as the hours went, they grew from being timid, to being partially attentive, to being outright bored.

That soon changed with the sound of rumbling taking place further down the hall. All four of their ears perked up in hearing the stampeded taking place. "What's that noise?" Dress Right questioned.

Cobalt, who was still a bit on edge from earlier, had stood up quickly. "That sounds like trouble."

They waited for a moment, hearing the noise grow louder. Voices started to sound in the distance, putting all four of the mares on high alert. As soon as the first few dozen turned the corner while wearing some crudely fashioned protection, they all hopped up and got to their positions. "That's trouble alright!" Gleaming Brass shouted.

Cobalt quickly ran over to Solemn Oath, looking to help her load the new weapon they had. But the mare who was in charge of operating it had looked down at the weapon in a panic, she began to look around the weapon trying to identify what was wrong. "Solemn, how do you use this thing!?"

"Dammit!" She called out as she tried to pull the trigger with all her magical might. "It won't fire!" She called out scarily.

"Why not!?" Cobalt shouted.

"I don't know! I'm pulling the trigger, but it's not pulling back!" Solemn screamed hurriedly, going over the weapon yet again to see what had gone wrong.

The four mares started to hyperventilate as Cobalt Blue began to chant to herself. "Aw! I don't wanna die, I don't wanna get eaten by that thing and made a display case! I DON'T WANNA DIE!" She screamed, banging her hooves into the wooden table.

"SOLEMN!" Gleaming Brass shouted as she started to use her magic to send a few blast with hopes to deter the incoming horde of guild members. "WEAREGONNADIESOLEMNHURRYUP!"

Solemn quickly glanced down to the weapon's trigger, noticing a switch that was swapped to the S position. She gritted her teeth as she squeaked to herself. "Oh, right. Safety." She flipped the switch and fired a few test rounds into the oncoming crowd. As soon as the barrel flashed and the first of the crowd fell, she called out to her friends. "Okay, works now! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!" She screamed as she sprayed into the small army, her voice being drowned out by the reports of the many bullets she sent forth.

As the bullets whizzed forward, they had great effect on whatever they hit. Pillars that stood proud had been dented into, chipped away at, and damaged beyond belief. Various vases shattered as easily as they were touched by the incoming fire. And the ponies that were unfortunate enough to be greeted with bullets had dropped to the ground as instantly as they had been hit. Solemn stopped firing momentarily to get her bearings for a bit, unable to firmly control the recoil. However, due to the mount she fired from, it prevented her from aiming at her friends.

Rows of guild members had collapsed to the ground as wheat had fallen from being swept by a scythe. Howls of pain and agony filled the halls, some calling for help, blood-curdling screams begging for a medic, and even some that wore the stolen armor soon found out that it's effectiveness was as potent as paper. The front of their formation had turned into a fray of red mist, bits of flesh, fragmented ceramic, quartz, and bone. And in spite of the madness, the bullets kept flying in.

One of the surviving guild members called out to the others who were fortunate enough to not get hit. "IT'S A HUMAN WEAPON!"

"CLEAR OUT OF THE WAY!" Another screamed.

"WE CAN'T STAY HERE!" Yet another called out to their allies. Some watching as more of them caught some ricochet blows and falling over.

Spitfire led a unit to try and capture the fleeing army had started to turn the corner. "Halt!" She called out before a bullet whistled by her ear. "Holy shit!" She quickly realized that being in the air was the worst place to be at the time. She called to the others who had threatened to walk past. "GET BACK! STAY DOWN!"

Though the army outnumbered the squad holding their position, they could not continue their advance while being pinned down. They could not retreat back the way they came with the army on their tails. They simply conceded for the sake of their brethren. A brave few stepped out into the line of fire, raising their hooves up to signal their surrender. "WE YIELD!!! WE YIELD!!! FAUST SAKE FOR ALL THINGS HOLY WE YIELD!!!"

"SOLEMN, THEY'RE SURRENDERING!" Cobalt called out to her friend, who had finally let go of the trigger.

The mare breathed heavily as she observed the carnage she had performed. Her eyes grew wide with horror of the weapon's ability to reap the lives of the ponies it fired upon. She slinked from her position, but inadvertently pulled the trigger once more, emptying out the last four rounds in the belt. "SHIT!" She screamed out as the loud reports were sent into the ceiling. She collapsed where she stood and held a hoof to her chest, peeking back to the ponies that cried out before her. "Mother in heaven."

One of the guild members tearfully cried out. "We're alive! Thank Faust we're alive!"

In juxtaposition to that solitary cry of celebration, there was a mix of mourning groans. Each of them calling for help. As that was taking place, Cobalt looked at her friend and hugged her closely, quietly thanking her for what she did. "Thank you. Thank you so much. You saved us."

Dress Right checked in on the pair, mainly Solemn who's hooves were shaking from having to hold the weapon in place. "So how do you feel?"

"Oh... I don't feel good." She confessed, "I broke so many vases... Celestia's gonna kill me."

Spitfire and her company approached, collecting the hundreds who held their hooves in the air to show their willingness to surrender. The captain herself flew over to Solemn's squad and angrily confronted the four mares. "What in the wide world of Equestria was that!? Don't you know you could've killed us!?"

"Sorry! We thought Prince Blueblood ordered for no guards to enter this hall!" Gleaming Brass answered.

Realizing the fact that the prince had sternly warned her of what halls she was prohibited from entering, she brought a hoof to her own face, silently acknowledging the fact that she had put her own guards in mortal danger. "Yeah he said that..." She turned to the groaning mass of ponies, seeing some dressed in the armor stolen from the barracks. Looking down at the various ponies lying dead with the armor on, she only grew more upset with herself. "Now I see why."

Gleaming Brass lied on her back, relieved that she was on the other side of the weapon Solemn Oath used. Cobalt Blue continued to hug her friend. Solemn stood up and looked to the machine gun and muttered to herself.

"A war with human weaponry... not even once."

The Portal Room...

It never dawned on me just how tiring a siege really is before today. It was absolutely exhausting to think about the impending threat of danger trying to break in your door and do the worst to you. There's always that moment of anticipation before the chaos starts. And then when you get to a point where you have to hole yourself up someplace else within the place being attacked, you're spent waiting for hours and hours for something that's definitely going to come your way. And then there's the boredom of waiting, only to be countered by the anxiety of knowing that the threat is coming for everything you know and love.

Had anyone knew about how being in one was so damn tense, they'd never volunteer. Even watching the movies of great heroes trying to hold the castle walls, the bad guys break down the door, and all hell breaks loose because you have to move to somewhere else for protection, they never really portray the mental toll it takes to endure. There's always the drama, the epic fighting, the great clash, the final encounter that turns the tides. and then there's the briefly-covered aftermath.

Living through this shit, it sucks ass. And this is just the first day.

We're all tired, some of us started to doze off. I'm still fighting to stay awake because I know what's at stake. But damn is it hard to defend the world when you can't even get an hour's worth of that peace of mind. And of course, you'd hate for anything interesting to happen because that only means that the thing you're gonna fight against is just behind that event. It never fails.

The doors to the portal room swung wide open, Blueblood rushing inside and quickly closing the door behind him. While my eyes were initially low and inattentive, but it only took a glance at the blood on his legs to realize that this shit was still going on, and it was very real. "Oh fuck! What happened to you?" I asked tiredly.

"I was holding the line. Not much else other than coming to check in on you lot." He replied as he took a gander at our current demeanor. "And judging from your torpidity, you lot must be very close to discovering the realm of dreams during this time of madness. I envy having the blissful ignorance you lot have."

Twilight shook herself awake. "Blueblood, what does it look like out there?"

"Our reinforcements have arrived." The prince announced. "We've turned the tide and the battle should be won."

"Oh, thank God!" Alex called out in the midst of a yawn. "Any word on Nondis?"

"Luna and Cadance hasn't returned yet. So we can still assume that their bout with that thing is ongoing." He explained.

My head dropped as I was reminded that our fight was not completely over, just the siege part of it. "Great. So where's our asshole of the day?"

"I was going by my gut. I though he should be in here by now." The prince said calmly.

Rickey stretched his arms as he answered the prince. "Well, we're all sleepy-eyed waiting for him. So he hasn't come by here yet."

"Well that's a relief." Blueblood said as the door started to open behind him. A guard walked in behind him, giving him a firm salute.

"Sir! We've confirmed that the insurgents have been apprehended!" The mare reported.

"Very good." Blueblood said as he looked back to the guard who gave the update. "Have our forces─" Blueblood stopped his sentence dead as he saw the mare before him. I didn't quite understand what had him so silent all of a sudden. But it alerted all of us in the room. The blond prince squinted his eyes to better see the mare's face past her helmet. "...I watched you die."

The mare then replied. "Sir prince, I don't understand what you're talking about." Blueblood quickly summoned a spear and tossed it at the mare, who stood emotionless as she was impaled.

The initial shock of the moment rang high for us, telling us to be alert and quick. The blond prince stared angrily as the mare looked to her wound and giggled. "Wow. You really do know how to treat a lady, don't you? You just run me through and don't even take me out to dinner first."

Alabaster assumed a defensive stance, his horn glowing as he shouted to the room. "We know it's you, Umbra! Stop it!"

The mare took off her helmet and smiled gently at the stallion. "Do I look like someone you know?"

"Your humor is just as tasteless!" Blue said as she stood behind her brother.

"I watched that mare die tonight at the hooves of some unworthy brute!"

The mare smiled as she looked to the ceiling, tapping her hoof against her chin innocently. "My, that sounds familiar." She said as she suddenly changed not just her height, but also size and gender. Within seconds, the mare morphed into a bulky stallion with a proud grin. "Maybe you might be mistaken."

Twilight shot a blast to the unicorn, causing him to revert to his original form and counter the blast with just a turn of his head.

He looked back to the young princess and ridiculed her shot. "Seriously, an alicorn princess and bearer of the Element of Magic, you couldn't give me a better shot? I'm almost offended." He said before touting his nose into the air, taking a few sniffs before a deep breath with his eyes closed. As they opened, he smiled widely. "Ah, can you smell it? Can you taste it? Ah yes, the taste of not yet cold, certifiably fresh, life still swimming in the blood. So firm, so fertile, so tender, so sensitive, so young, so damn new! I love these moments, you get to experience life all over again."

Twilight sent another blast his way, with him easily countering it. "You are abhorrent, putrid, low, irredeemable, selfish, and evil! You will pay for your crimes here and now, Umbra Sanctus!"

"Hey now, take it easy on the name. It's pretty big, you know." He said in a pompous manner, summoning a cane and spinning it around as much as he danced in a circle. "Who knows, maybe one day you'll find yourself being like me. It'll be those moments when you'll realize how tough it is to be as big as me and you'll want to keep your name out of everyone's mouth, just so that you don't have to keep hearing it at every turn."

"I will never be like you!" Twilight snarled back.

"Never say never." He teased as he tossed his cane into the air to catch. "After all, you're already following my example to the letter. You do everything you can to increase your sphere of influence. You develop studious habits after being in a place of enlightenment. You experience a number of dramatically life-changing events that alters the course of your fate. You are made vastly different than you once were because of said events. And you adore Princess Celestia."

"We are NOT the same because of that." She stressed angrily.

"Well I find it interesting how you'll don't align the stars when they're obviously shining so bright." He replied, teasing the young princess. "Allow me to elaborate. Have you not once been in a situation where you've been young, and you saw how beautiful the princess was when she walked up to the stage. And of course, she's high up, so that's the main thing you see. And then she does something that leaves you absolutely speechless! You see the crowd and how they adore her so much in that moment, you think to yourself about how you could aspire to be like her, to have the same kind of praise just like her, to be that same influence to others. Just. Like. Her."

Twilight disrespectfully scoffed at his comparison. "Well not everyone thinks about controlling dead bodies when they see her raise the sun!" The stallion stopped spinning his cane, slamming it into the ground to produce a loud ringing sound that alerted everyone in the room. The doors closed behind him and he started to look towards the portals. Twilight teleported herself in front of them and charged her magic. "Another step, and I will erase you from existence!"

The stallion smirked at the young royal. "So much like her, resort to violence when you're met with a difference of opinion. It's the irony of it all." He began to walk away from her, levitating his cane to the center of the room. "So allow me to ask you something, do you honestly believe my life-changing experience came from the fact that she just simply raised the sun? Oh no, she raised a lot more than that. And much like how she became an uplifting influence for your family, she was the same to mine."

"We are nothing alike!" Twilight raged towards the stallion. "So stop trying to find ways to relate to me! I don't want anything to do with you!"

"You know, little miss princess, in some ways you are right. But in others you couldn't be anymore incorrect." He said as he sat his cane down to the ground watching as the entire room began to glow as red as the jewel that adorned it. "So allow me to show you something you probably haven't seen yet. Allow me to show you the truth."

As the room ran red, silhouettes of ponies gathered around a large stage. The way they moved appeared almost as if they were shadow puppets, bouncing up and down as they moved forward. But as there were a collection of shadows, we began to notice that there were some ponies who didn't appear as shadows at all, they appeared as beings of white light. A group of them assembled closely near the stage. As the seconds passed, the stage began to set itself as an executioner's gallows. There was a single noose raised into the air and a trapdoor underneath. From the side of the stage where there were stairs, a gray shadow covered in blood was marched up the stairs. The figure appeared smaller than the shadows that escorted it to the gallows.

The faint sounds of voices hollering and screaming filled the room in an odd manner, almost as if they were drowned out in some sort of space. Umbra walked in the midst of the figures who were made white. "It was a cold and gloomy day. The clouds were overcast and the ground was still wet with rain. I could still feel the dampness in the frog of my hooves. As you can tell, something is scheduled to take place here, an execution. The crime: The slaughter of a pony who had done no wrong in my eyes. The criminal responsible being guided up to the stairs was obviously set to meet his end on this clouded day in the Town Square of Corrotto, the village within the township of Canterlot owned by this group of nobles here."

"I figured there was a catch to the biased glow." Rarity replied.

As the figures continued to illustrate the story, the noose fell to the ground and landed on the stage, being cut by a golden halberd. While I had assumed it was the executioner's blade, it was instead the silhouette of a golden pony walking up the stage. "But as the time drew nigh, the execution was interrupted by a figure of great power. We all know by the stature, don't we?"

"What are you showing us?" Twilight questioned vehemently, beginning to lose her patience.

"The truth, young Twilight Sparkle." He said as he pointed his hoof to one of the glowing figures standing on the stage, trying to move the halberd while the gray figure sat helplessly waiting. "But as you can tell, the figure gave a different proposal to the lord of the village. 'Move this axe, and I shall let you claim your vengeance for your slain son's sake.' And so the stallion attempted to move the axe, but to no avail. The figure showed her strength in moving the weapon, but she also showed him the blade itself. But as it soon was revealed, the gallows were not set for the one who was condemned that day. Instead..." In a sudden twist to the puppet show we were being showed, the cartoonish veil was lifted and we saw the once-glowing figure stand headless on the stage, the head being raised for the audience to see. Blood splattered on the towering mare as she stood before the audience. Her hoof pointed outwards to the family of white figures, who appeared to be in shock. In seconds chaos ensued around the family, engulfing them in the shadows that brought in axes and pikes from elsewhere. But there was one pony who slipped out from the chaos, appearing injured and whisked away by a group of the shadows. As the pony was separated, the heads of that family were raised to the air. "I was made to witness the greatest act of injustice in Equestrian history."

Twilight denied what it was that she saw. "No. That's not true at all! There not one historical record, one historical account of this event taking place! You're just doing this to somehow justify your actions, a make-up story of lies repeated told to yourself to make you feel better about what you've done!"

The stallion walked from the same direction of where the final white figure was taken to. "I beg to differ, young princess. Whether you believe it or not, this is the truth. This is the reality of what Equestria is under her influence."

With enthusiastic speed, Twilight and her friends came to the defense of the princess. "The princess wouldn't do nothin' like this!" Applejack exclaimed.

"What a poverty of an account." Rarity said, dismissing the stallion's illusion.

"She couldn't be so cruel!" Fluttershy argued. "It's not like her!"

"Weak story! Try again!" Rainbow called out.

"If this is some sort of joke, it's not funny." Pinkie stated.

"You all love to see it that way, don't you?" Umbra questioned back at the six mare, readdressing Twilight in particular. "Though you say there's no historical account of this happening, all you'd have to do is look around yourself and ask. The answers are so painfully close to you that all you'd have to is simply ask the question. Did. You. Do it. Four word... and you'll be surprised by what you'll discover."

Twilight turned her head away from the brutal display. "We know you're full of lies, Umbra. There's no changing that truth!"

♪You could say I'm mad, it's true.
You could say I'm bad, that too.
You could call my existence sad, but either way, I tilt the scales.♫

"Disrupting the natural order isn't tilting the scales, it's breaking them!" Twilight rebutted.

♫Your truth's filled with holes, mine's complete.
But tell me why you try to compete?
Through the years the same dance repeats, but I have learned to change the rails.♫

"You can try to change whatever whatever you want, it all ends the same way!" Rainbow argued.

♫I don't avenge. It's not revenge. It's just justice.♫

"Your brand of justice is nothing shy of evil!" Rarity replied.

♫Some call it spite, I think it's right. It's just justice.♫

"Justice isn't taking the bodies of the dead to play God!" I added.

♫How many faces have soured to time,
Who knows their crime?
I'll tell you why it's just justice.♫

"I'm not listening to a single word you have to say, Umbra!" Twilight said, looking away from the stallion.

♫You take a life that had no part at the time
I know what's right,
that was not right, that's not justice.♫

The jewel began to reveal the cruel colors of the scene taking place, removing the shadows and lights of many of the ponies in attendance, as well as those who were killed. "Celestia wouldn't dare to do something this cruel to anypony!" Fluttershy called out in disgust.

♫I saw them fly, their heads held high, that's not justice!♫

"You're just casting out illusions at this point! You're just full of excuses!" Alex shouted.

♫I was spared to cry, WHILE I WATCHED THEM DIE, that's not justice!♫

"All of this is a fake, none of this ever happened in reality! There's no record!" Twilight argued once again.

♫So through the years I've sat, and planned
Till I made life and death my brand.
I wrote the book on life's sustain.
And then I learned of death's true name.♫

"Let me guess, it's the princess you're trying to vilify for your own sanity?" Rarity questioned, mocking the stallion until the golden silhouette revealed itself to be Celestia smiling with blood splattered all over her face.

♫Behold her face, her blood-stained grace, and her 'justice'!♫

Admittedly the shock of the image had caused us to think about how she could enjoy anything that barbaric. "Celestia would never stoop herself to something like this." Twilight adamantly stated.

♫You think it's a trick, but that's who I mimic! That same justice!♫

"No, none of this is real. Celestia isn't like this in any way!" She denied yet again.

♫Before your eyes I've laid out all her deeds!
And yet you plead
For truth that's staring you in the face.♫

Looking at her face, I could see a madness that consumed her entirely. I began to ponder the idea of her somehow being led to do something like this, yet it was still unbelievable. "Celestia, you couldn't be this cruel, could you?"

♫But if you need another source to believe
Turn around and see
Her bloodstained dog, it's his namesake.♫

The gray figure stood on the gallows was revealed, a preteen stallion with a shocked expression on his face. A ghostly noose was fixed to his neck. But a second noose stretched from the entirety of the room, hanging on the neck of another pony standing in the room. It coiled around the neck of the pony with the blood on his hooves, who's head was turned downward and away. Twilight felt the air escape her body as she whispered in fright. "Prince Blueblood?"

♫Look in his eyes, they tell no lies! IT'S EVIDENCE!♫

The noose disappeared from his neck, he turned himself away from the sight, closing his eyes in thought as Twilight galloped to his side, pleading with the prince. "Blueblood, please tell me none of what he says is real."

♫You call it spite, but we know what's right. It's just justice.♪

The room was silent as we watched the prince grow hesitant to say anything to Twilight. "He's not lying... is he?" Alex questioned.

The prince turned around and opened his eyes to the scene portrayed in front of all of us. "It's all true." He confessed quietly. "The gallows, the weather, the sounds of the crowd, it's all true. The moment Celestia took the head of Count Hallow Bastion, the immediate scream of his wife, the sound of Celestia's laugh piercing the silence, how she pointed out the family tied to the death of Prince Fair Charity, how the crowd raised their heads on pikes while she sang of change... revolution... justice... all of it is true." He recounted before giving the stallion a firm glare. "I killed your cousin in cold blood, just like he wronged me the hour before. Make no mistake about that."

Twilight, distraught in finding out what her mentor had done, what she had allowed to happen, sat herself down and stared off into the space of her mind. The stallion teased her over her newfound melancholy. "Disillusioned? Your idol being the figure you never penned her to be in your mind? The beauty you've grown so accustomed to now wearing it's ugly and very real face." The mare stared back to the stallion as he shrugged. "First time?"

I immediately called him out, knowing that he might have aid what he said to throw us all off. "The Celestia I know, the one we know, is different."

The stallion rolled his eyes. "Oh please spare me. If I offered to reform myself in the next sixty seconds, you'd still have a sword anchored in my neck."

"Yeah, you'd be getting exactly what you'd deserve!" Alex shouted to him. "There's no reforming someone like you! Not with what all you've done! You don't get to flaunt someone else's sins as your excuse and then go on to violate people who have jack shit to do with it!"

Umbra chuckled back at the man. "Oh, so because it's her she gets a pass, but I get rainbow magic lasers blown up in my face? What an interesting set of standards you have!"

"We know her character! And she wouldn't do anything like this for no reason at all!" Fluttershy replied, still coming to the princess' defense.

"I've never seen someone who'd run into a brick wall and argue to someone that bricks are just a state of mind." Umbra said, becoming more and more frustrated. "I guess that's what I get in trying to talk to a bunch of well-groomed lapdogs. You don't want to understand anything, do you?"

"Oh we understand alright." Twilight replied, finally breaking her silence. "We know what the aristocrats did to her, how they treated us royals. If they were killed because of the mob, then it was something they did to them that made them do what they did! There's always context, I know there is."

The stallion nodded as he danced closer to the young purple alicorn. "Then I have a question. Why is it that she could've taken any suitor to have for herself, and yet she chose to take the one you fell in love with? Why the one you cherish and adore still? Why the one you call on in your midnight flights? Why take what is yours and make it her own?"

Realizing that Umbra was gaming on the thought of creating some separation between her and Celestia, Twilight began to harden herself against his statements. However, they still cut into her deeply. "That's their decision."

"Oh, always the deflect when the hard questions get asked, eh?" He teased her.

"What they do is not my business." Twilight reiterated.

"Well frankly his tongue shouldn't be in hers, but she let it happen all the same. She got hers, and boy did she enjoy it, so much so that her legs quaked as she laid in his bed." He continued to mock her.

"Shut up." She demanded, holding her hooves over her ears.

"I mean I can understand why you're so upset. She punished you for getting intimate with him while you had a title, and that was when you and he were legally engaged. But now it's illegal for him to even speak to her of romances, much less engaging in some sultry foreplay. How is it that she has the highest title in all the land while grinding her hips on his penis and get nothing in return?" He questioned, pulling her ears back open for her to listen to him. "Remember, anyone I kiss, I know what all they know and experience. And I've had a whole weekend to know what all you've done with him. You're all tease and talk, but in reality you don't have a clue as to how to make him beg for it as much as you beg him. And I know how he compares the two of you, how vastly inferior you feel in comparison to your breed-happy mentor, how inexperienced you are in contrast to your friends, how sexually gifted your protégé is, how the slow ministrations of Kalimba makes him beg for his finish, how the tips and tricks from Blue aids him in his endurance and taste, how cataclysmically inferior your throat feels to even Alabaster's work." He leaned in closer as her magic began to hiss around her horn. "Oh don't be sad. If it makes you feel any better, he started dreaming of her while you were visiting his family, so your relationship was already being poached on from that point. Honestly, I could argue that she started her work on him even earlier than that, possibly the time when he took on that first recovery mission to the Everfree Ruins.... But that would've actually been while you two were together, the scandal!"

"Shut. Up." She warned as her horn gave off fiery sparks in addition to her magic building with the intensity of a railgun.

He whispered into her face, holding up her chin. "♪I now inquire what's your desire, what's your justice?♪"

A scalding barrier erupted from the young princess, causing Umbra to back away. He leapt back as the princess he antagonized sent shot after shot in his direction. The princess screamed at the top of lungs to the stallion who provided just a little more effort to dodge her attacks. "ENOUGH FROM YOU!"

The mad doctor smiled, absolutely overjoyed in seeing her reaction, the tears running down her face as she growled in hatred towards him. "Ah, so you are the jealous type? I guess Nondis' thoughts weren't too far off." Unable to control her emotions initially, Twilight teleported behind him to faint him into turning around. He did not fall for her efforts as he turned to the right and and teleported behind her instead. She teleported away to give herself distance, but found herself bumping into him, kissing her on the cheek. "Still waiting for that phone call back? Not while they're still messaging about how many foals they want together."

"SUFFER AND DIE!" Twilight screamed once more, launching a powerful beam the width of her body.

The stallion stood in place, allowing for the mare's blast to hit him. But as her blast came into contact with him, he swapped places with the stallion in the guild, allowing his body to become vaporized instead. In a quick teleport, he assumed the body and voice of the young guardsmare whom he took. "Those are not words becoming of the Princess of Friendship, your highness." The voice jumped back to his, still speaking through her body. "Or are you more like your mentor than you know? If anything, that was a very Celestia thing to say."

The purple alicorn appeared lost in her rage, making a lot of moves that drained a lot of power from her. Rainbow then called out to her friend, trying to coax her to come back to rationality. "Twilight, he's just trying to get you to come out of yourself!"

Fluttershy also spoke out to the hurting mare. "He may know what's on Nondis' mind, but you know what's in his heart! Think of your times together, you don't think he enjoyed and cherished every moment as hard as he worked for you! Can you imagine what all he risked in being with you? Don't give in to what he says! You're better than that!"

"Deep down, you know the truth." Umbra countered. "You feel used, taken advantage of, and tossed away! You know she robbed you of that happiness, you experience it at the end of the day! When you close your eyes and you smell the mattress you sleep on, you're reminded of what she stole from you! What justice is there in her winning in the end!?"

Realizing that her emotions had her resorting to energy-expensive tactics, she teleported herself next to the blond prince and directed her frustration to him. "You!" She said as she tried to emotionally recover. "You call me Princess Troublemaker with every breath you take! And you're the one who hides behind your own name when that title belongs to you above all else! I didn't cause this, so why is it that you don't step up and fight him instead of me!?"

"Because he knows that he can't kill me." Umbra replied after teleporting by the pair. "Think about it, if I die here, where do I go next? Who's body do I assume? Do I find some time to head over to the medical ward and find a few more candidates who are fresh from the mortal coil? I hear that the south hall is quite the morgue these days."

In a flash of his magic, Blueblood brought forth two spears for him to use. He lunged for the stallion, who willingly took a spear in the chest and reanimated in another body from seemingly nowhere. The mad doctor then took up his cane and began to parry the blows the prince issued to him. The deranged stallion laughed for a moment before allowing his magic to manifest around the entirety of the cane's length, transforming it into the spine of a double-edged broadsword made of his own aura. The next blow that Blueblood tried to issue had been severed by the metaphysical blade he used.

Not too enthusiastic about losing a spear, the prince tossed his severed weapon and summoned yet another to use. "You say you wrote the book of life, well now I'm curious as to how long you actually stay alive without your hubris getting in the way."

Umbra posed with a hoof to his ear. "Well that's a good question. Care to ask that in a language that we both can understand?"

The prince gladly accepted his challenge. the tip of his spear began to glow a similar aura to his golden magic. Umbra went to slice at the spear's body, only to clash against it this time. Blueblood countered by going for a straight thrust into an opening, which Umbra ducked and used the broadside of his sword to skid away from. With the opportunity of an even better opening, he charged his horn to fire a magic blast at the prince. In an unexpected maneuver, Blueblood lowered his head and batted his horn away using his own, sending the blast into the ceiling.

The deranged doctor still giggled in the midst of the fight, talking casually as he and the prince locked horns. "Princess Troublemaker, I like the name you've given her. She has been some trouble to you lot. Though in all honestly I'm surprised she's still a princess to begin with. Shouldn't she have her wings sawed off by now?" Blueblood pushed back and thrusted his spear, only to find his weapon lunging into thin air. Instead, Umbra popped back up beside the mentally-recovering alicorn, looking down at her. "Tell you what, I'll give you an express service on that."

"No you won't!" Rarity intervened, bringing out a sword for her to use. She quickly divided his attention towards not trying to get hit by her blows.

As she thrusted repeatedly at him, he continued to strafe her attacks. "A lady as beautiful as you, such form and grace. Too bad there still the talk of all that cum on your face." He insulted, trying to get into her head as well.

The sudden sound of wings flapping around him made his ears flicker, he instinctually leapt away from the fashionista, also dodging a diving kick from Rainbow Dash. "Back off!"

"Such the high flyer, I wonder if you'll still have your dreams when I break your wings." He said as he motioned for his sword to take aim for the pegasus' wings. But he found his world coming to a sudden tumble as he was kicked aside. He looked back to see Fluttershy landing in the opposite direction. She appeared distressed and nervous that she actually landed a blow. The mad doctor's expression soured. "Correction, I'll break yours first." He said as he directed his undivided attention towards the timid mare.

And yet again his world was sent tumbling, but much faster until he landed into a wall across the room. He rose up from the place of his impact to see Applejack pivoting off from her forelegs, her hindlegs landing onto the ground before she made a gait for the stallion. "You ain't breakin' nothin!" She hollered.

Umbra got out of the way quick enough to avoid his chest getting smashed in by the mare's hindlegs. She sent a number of punches, trying to land yet another blow to any part of his body. But after so many dodges, Umbra grew bored of her and raised her up into the air by one of her hindlegs. "So unrefined, simplistic, and sloppy. What a boring approach." He said as he held her body in place using a separate aura to wrap around her waist. "Fun fact: Did you know if I twist your leg this way, what will happen is─"

*KRACK*

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Yelled as loud as the sound of her leg breaking in his magic. Applejack writhed and reached up to stop the magic from twisting any further.

"APPLEJACK!" Pinkie called out as she galloped ahead to try and help her.

"Years of apple bucking, such a waste. And here I thought you had the bright and promising future of being a farmer!" He mocked before yanking her by her broken leg and slinging her into Pinkie Pie. "Here, cousin! Catch!"

Pinkie stopped running to catch her extended family member, being as careful as she could be in trying not to let her fall to the ground on her injured leg.

Stanton ran in head-on, trying to hit the stallion a number of haymakers. The stallion appeared just as bored with him, that was until one punch of Stanton's had magic covering it. And while the stallion had every intention to avoid it, he soon realized that the magic punch wasn't to make an impact, but to sweep him from his hooves and drag him into the air. He held the stallion up like a punching bag, and went to work.

In an absolute fury, Stanton proceeded to direct his fists against the doctor's face and skull, bashing and mashing without restraint. His eyes remained locked on the doctor's head as he started to infuse his magic into his attacks. The force of his punches grew exponentially, until portions of his face had caved in. Once he was satisfied in seeing that, he used his magic to slam his head into the ground another five times for good measure before flinging him into the wall where he previously had his illustration.

"Oh, now we're talking dirty! I like it!" Umbra replied as his face and head quickly healed back into place, causing the man to tiredly look on in disbelief that his most brutal assault netted almost no effect. However, the stallion offered a retort by summoning a submachine gun. "But since I'm dealing with you, I'd much rather do this in your style."

"Shit!" Stanton called out as he quickly ran the other way, trying not to run in a straight line.

We all had to hide behind the massive pillars as the sounds of bullets went flying. We hid ourselves compact around the pillars that offered us a sizeable amount of protection. But instead of hitting us in general, his shots veered upwards in a rapid fashion. "Sorry about that! I still have to get used to all the recoil!" He said as he went on to fire more bullets, but found himself running out as quickly as he held the trigger to pray that he had hit something. As they stopped coming, he looked at the emptied weapon and tossed it aside before sending more blasts of magic into the pillars where we hid. He started to laugh wildly as he took a number of guess of who was hiding where. "Really hiding behind those pillars now, aren't you!? It reminds me of that one time Shining and Nondis had that sparing match!" He said, directing his comment towards the young princess.

Blue suddenly popped up beside him, surprising him with a blast to his forelegs. "Try fighting your battles like a real stallion instead!"

In the midst of her trying to apply some pressure to him, Umbra took amusement in the mare's ability to fight. "How cute, you think you can hold serve." He said before taking one step forward to make a feignt to throw her off. She fell for it, allowing him to use his magic to sweep her legs and kicked her jaw, knocking her totally off-balance. "Still lacking in the physical department." He commented.

Leaping in from above was Alabaster, who came down with his daggers, looking to deal a ghastly blow to the stallion. They landed directly into his spine, causing the stallion to lose the ability to move the rear portion of his body. "Try me!" He demanded.

Realizing that his wound wouldn't heal as quickly as he would've liked, he dropped the body he used and swapped to another. Getting his range of motion back he kicked the stallion away from him. "I never really understood why you hated your father so greatly. You act so much like him." He replied, shaking his hindleg.

"Fuck off!"

Umbra's cane and Alabaster's weapons began to clash repeatedly. The young stallion trying his best to remain on the offensive while his opponent nonchalantly parried all of his attacks. "Alabaster, why do you betray me?"

The young stallion panted back. "Why shouldn't I? You tortured me and my sister for all the time we came here! You don't deserve my loyalty!"

"No. I demand your service." He sternly answered as he whacked away the daggers Alabaster used, watching as they disappeared into the nothingness. He stood proudly before the stallion he disarmed. "Care to give me a mind-blowing experience one final time?" He mocked.

But as he was going to use his magic another time, a purple wing raked against his face, causing the stallion to scream. Numerous cuts appeared on the stallion's face as Twilight looked back at him. "So what was that about my wings!?"

Encouraged by the princess who finally recovered, all of her friends with the exception of Applejack ran in to try and attack him all at once. "Everypony! Together!" Rainbow called out, also prompting both Stanton and Alabaster to join in the omnidirectional charge.

Umbra pursed his lips and closed his eyes. "Okay, I'm getting a little annoyed. Let's put these new bodies to good use."

As everyone began to close in on the stallion, his eyes popped open to reveal black scleras and his usual gold irises. He let out a yell that shook the room. A dark shadow grew from around him, reaching out to about five feet in either direction, from the outer edges of the shadow jettisoned seven ponies to defend himself. Each corpse had been met with a corresponding attack. Those who lunged in were left astounded over the sudden appearance of corpses, and having to watch them being horrifically twisted into tendrils made many stop their attacks altogether. The crackling and popping of bones and joints, the rapid compression of air through their throats as they were constricted made all who watched nauseous.

"O̸h̶,̶ ̶n̴o̴w̸ ̶t̴h̴e̷y̴'̶l̴l̴ ̵d̶o̵ ̶n̷i̶c̴e̷l̷y̷.̸"

The tendrils whipped back at the attackers, smacking each of them back some feet before they sunk back into the ground. Twilight looked as the shadow slowly receded. "Wait! I thought that thing was gone!"

"Yeah, we watched Nondis drag that thing away!" Rainbow shouted.

"Oh, so that's what you thought? That's cute, actually." Umbra replied as the shadow completely receded into his own shape. "So let me be frank with all of you, my dear Congregant is just the second of my work. Nondis was set to be my third. Now science shows that one cannot commit to a practice without first applying some method of theory, a theory that took a total of 502 years of living to confirm over and over again, 485 years of researching bodies, and countless tomes of forbidden magic to master. Care to ask which one's the first?"

Blueblood grimaced as he too understood the advantages of living almost just as long. "You."

The stallion smirked back to the prince. "Of course. But there's a difference between my congregant and I. She can't control her form as fluidly because of her ever-changing emotional state, you know how fickle kids are these days. But me... I̵ ̸c̷a̵n̶ ̷c̶o̴n̶t̵r̵o̴l̶ ̸m̶i̶n̸e̵ ̷a̸ ̵l̵o̴t̷ ̷b̵e̵t̵t̶e̵r̵.̷"

As quick as Umbra's voice changed and distorted, I felt my hands trembling on the gun in my hands. "Okay, we're in trouble."

"M̸y̶ ̶e̴m̷o̷t̸i̶o̴n̴s̶ ̷a̴r̶e̵ ̴s̷t̴a̶b̴l̷e̸,̸ ̶m̷y̶ ̷i̵n̵t̸e̵n̵t̸ ̵i̵s̴ ̶c̷l̶e̵a̷r̶,̵ ̵I̶ ̷c̴a̷n̴ ̵s̶h̵i̶f̵t̷ ̵m̷y̷ ̸s̶h̶a̵d̷o̴w̵ ̸i̴n̸ ̶r̶e̶a̶l̷ ̸t̷i̸m̵e̴ ̴t̶o̵ ̷w̵h̶a̴t̵ ̷i̸t̵ ̶w̶o̸u̶l̸d̶ ̸n̴o̴r̷m̵a̷l̶l̴y̷ ̵b̷e̸ ̷w̷i̴t̵h̶ ̵a̵n̷y̵ ̶g̵i̷v̵e̸n̵ ̸l̴i̸g̷h̴t̸ ̴s̴o̷u̸r̶c̴e̸.̷ ̶I̴ ̴c̸a̷n̴ ̴e̶v̴e̸n̷ ̶b̷e̵ ̵w̸h̵e̶r̶e̵ ̸I̶ ̷w̴a̴n̵t̸ ̴t̵o̶ ̴b̶e̶,̶ ̸w̴h̵e̵n̴ ̸I̸ ̸w̶a̸n̴t̶ ̵t̵o̴ ̴b̸e̶ ̴t̵h̵e̶r̷e̶.̵ ̸I̵ ̵a̸m̷ ̸o̸m̴n̵i̵p̶r̸e̶s̸e̷n̶t̶,̴ ̷I̶ ̴k̸n̸o̶w̵ ̸a̸l̷l̸ ̶t̸h̴i̴n̸g̴s̷.̷ ̵I̴ ̴a̸m̸ ̵t̴h̴e̵ ̴S̵e̴r̶a̵p̸h̷ ̷w̵h̶o̷ ̴s̴i̵n̸g̶s̷ ̵t̶h̵e̷ ̸m̴e̴l̵o̴d̵i̴e̷s̵ ̷o̵f̸ ̶l̸i̵f̴e̴ ̶a̶n̶d̸ ̸d̶e̷a̵t̷h̷.̴ ̵I̶ ̷a̶m̵ ̴a̸ ̸h̸i̶g̶h̸e̴r̶ ̵b̷e̷i̴n̵g̶!̴" His voice came back down and he spoke normally once more. He looked to me and whispered with a sadistic smile. "But you humans will soon learn to call me Christ."

"Like hell we will!" Alex shouted, shooting a few rounds into the stallion's body. He merely took on the bullets and shrugged off the impacts that would've normally killed any other pony instantly.

The bullets that entered his body were simply spat back out of the wounds they entered into. He then spoke his words to us humans. "Have you not witnessed the miracles I am capable of? Everything I do is quite literally textbook to your holy doctrine. I can heal the sick, give sight to the blind, let the mute speak, let the deaf hear, let the untouchable feel, raise the dead." He said before turning his attention to the ponies. He started growing a set of mismatched wings, one belonging to that of a pegasus, the other belonging to that of a batpony. "For you flightless birds tethered to the earth, I give you wings. For you groveling worms of the dirt, I give you horns. For the abused, I teach them power. For the privileged, I take it away. For the pauper, I give them crowns. For the royals up high, I give them the poverty they deserve." He turned his head back over to us as we stood between him and the portals back to our home. "And for humans, I give you the prophecy you desire, the long-overdue judgement your species has deserved for over thousands of years! So make way, for they must see God."

I wasn't going to shy away from the truth, I was terrified of what was taking place. I wanted to run, save myself as quick as I could. After witnessing what I just did, there was no way we could win with the way things are right now. We wouldn't be able to stop him if we tried, we'd be slaughtered, probably set to join that thing he's made of himself. But on the other hand, if we let him go without resisting, there would be nothing to stop him from destroying everything we know and love back home.

So in spite of our being very scared for what we were facing, the five of us humans stood together and made a declaration to the abominable doctor. "You're not gonna even set one hoof into our world!" Alex called out.

The deranged stallion tilted his head. "And which one of you will stop me?"

I felt my hand getting gripped, I looked down to see it was Rickey holding on to me for support. "All of us, every single one." He replied.

Umbra rolled his eyes as he started to walk closer, looking to the panels on the side of the mirrors that stood. "If I recall correctly, the portals are off right now. Well I can still turn them back on. It's not like I don't know how to reactivate them."

Stanton was the quickest of us to respond to his threat. Using his magic, he lifted the mirrors into the air and slammed them down to the ground, sending shards of glass and wooden fragments around the room. Umbra gawked as the young man folded his arms before him in defiance. "Motherfucker, I want you to try."

Twilight and the others were surprised to see that Stanton willingly and effectively destroyed our way back home. Umbra initially wore a scowl but tried to hide his expressions by smiling. "A shame. You would spite your way home to postpone the inevitable?"

"It took us six and a half months to make a portal to their world." Twilight called out. "Well now if you want a way through, you can learn from scratch."

"How disappointing." He said before looking back to the door he walked in from. "I had thought that this would be a lot more fun, tease and taunt a little, have a little scrum, joke and prod at all of your personalities while making you see that your efforts are pointless. But then you had to all gang up on me like some bullies in an abbey, and of course I had to draw the line with that. But now you've given me one choice, and that's to take my leave for the only portal available, and I haven't made any setups in Ponyville today. Well, I guess I'll be hoofing it then... but not before punishing the peons who dare get in my way."

His shadow grew once more, tentacles and more bodies sprouting up to take their shapes. Umbra rose slowly into the air, being supported by a throne of bones and contorted bodies. He lifted his head to the ceiling as more and more tendrils were created around his throne, both to defend him and do his bidding.

"S̶̟̔ó̵̲ ̴͉̈́I̸̧̍'̴̡̈l̸̹̈l̴̜͝ ̷̻̐s̸̭̈́t̶͈̂a̶̱͑r̶̡͗ẗ̵͙ ̶̂ͅb̷̧̈́ỳ̵̠ ̸͓̏j̶̘͒ű̸͖d̷̜̾g̴͌͜ị̸̛n̵̢̚g̵̹͘ ̸̦͘ÿ̶̘́ö̶̺́u̸̼̅ ̵̗̎a̵̼̒l̴̗͝l̶̹͠ ̵͗͜f̴͆͜o̴̡͂r̸̈́͜ ̸̙̄ỷ̴̜ó̸̗u̴͇̽r̷̦̋ ̷͓̂ì̸̺ǹ̵̬s̴͇͠o̷̢͘ḷ̵̓ê̵͙n̵̙͛c̵̦̀ȇ̶̖.̴̼̈́"

Canterlot Gem Mines...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

Our game of hide-go-seek had taken a complete turnaround. Ever since Discord showed his face, the filly has been operating as stealthily as possible. But with Luna's extreme clairvoyance, we were able to sniff out what were the shadows of the crystals and stalagmites, and what were her shadows instead.

And to add to our mounting number of advantages, Cadance had an ability to manipulate crystals and generate them from wherever her magic landed. So if a piece of her shadow was ever spotted, Cadance would jut out some large crystals rapidly to not just disturb the ground her shadows were on, but drastically raise a portion of that collective to surface. And from there, she would freeze the bodies that touched her crystals, making the Congregant follow through with a critical choice. Either she would keep the bodies and risk more of them to be frozen off at once, or let them go to be frozen while the rest of her collective runs free along with her.

It was a formidable combination, one in hindsight I was fortunate enough to not discover sooner.

It went without saying that the filly didn't like this very much. She relented in attacking us, hoping that Cadance was nowhere around when she was caught. But with the pink princess already having extensive knowledge of the caves, there was no position she didn't exploit. A trio of large colorful crystals jutted out of the ground, severing almost thirty bodies away from the filly's collective. "S̷t̷o̶p̸ ̵s̷t̶e̴a̵l̴i̵n̵g̵ ̸m̶y̴ ̵d̸o̴l̶l̸i̵e̸s̸!̵" She called out in a panic, scrambling into her shadow to avoid being cut off completely.

Cadance continued to seal the bodies in a large crystal coffer. "They aren't yours to begin with."

The filly called out to me as Luna continued to point her out. "B̷i̸g̵ ̷b̷r̴o̵t̸h̶e̵r̶,̸ ̷I̶ ̵d̴o̵n̵'̵t̶ ̵w̸a̷n̵n̷a̸ ̷p̵l̶a̴y̴ ̸t̴h̶i̵s̵ ̵g̸a̷m̸e̴ ̵a̴n̷y̴m̸o̴r̵e̷!̸ ̷I̷t̷'̸s̴ ̸t̷o̸o̶ ̶s̵c̸a̵r̴y̴!̷"

Discord replied to her. "Scary!? My dear, have you looked in a mirror lately!?" With supervision from Cadance, he collapsed portions of the caves to cut off her retreat. Since her issue was surfaces, she couldn't seep through the cracks of the collapsed gems and crystals Discord had thrown in the way.

"D̴a̸d̶d̶y̴ ̴s̴a̶y̷s̸ ̶I̶'̶m̷ ̸p̴r̴e̵t̶t̷y̸!̸" She called out to the draconnequus.

"Yeah! Pretty hideous!" Cadance answered as she started to erect a number of crystals to quickly dice off some parts of her collective.

The filly tried to shoot tendrils towards the princess, but was met with a crystal wall raised before her of Discord's influence. Before she could retract the tendril, I ran forward to thrust my spear into the twisted pillar of flesh, trying to hold it down against the ground long enough for Cadance to do her work. The filly began to lose a significant number of bodies in our cornering of her. She screamed out loudly and used several of her tendrils to bash against the barricade Discord made for her. She summoned a great number of tendrils, including one of great girth to potentially drill herself out of the manufactured dead-end.

Cadance continued to cut away at the collective, Luna beamed her magic to the shadows, forcefully dragging out what she could to help Cadance not do as much work. Her efforts were by no means a light contribution, while Cadance would sever off dozens, Luna began to raise up bodies by the hundred to stop her. But even with the great progress we made, the Congregant still broke her way through the barricade and wormed herself into the ground. Cadance and Discord combined their powers to raise a solid wall, severing almost a quarter of her shadow away from her in one critical attempt to retain her.

Instead of getting snagged by the rapidly freezing portions of her collective, she continued to cut bait and flee down the dark caverns. "D̶a̵d̵d̸y̸!̸ ̶H̶e̸l̸p̵ ̶m̸e̶!̸" Her distorted voice echoed through the halls as she fled crying.

Cadance continued to seal off all the bodies she took off. Luna looked to me and said. "It's as you said, she's still a child."

"Yes, but one who has made a number of decisions that cannot be ignored." Discord replied.

After she finished her tiresome work of sealing the corpses in crystal, Cadance rubbed her horn lightly. "I hate having to do this, but we cannot let her get out of here in one piece."

"I think that's all of our sentiments right now." I agreed as we proceeded to go back into our pursuit.

As we ran along a winding and craggy route, we came into contact with a large gaping hole that had an old rope-guided lift system at the mouth of it. The system appeared to go higher into the mountain, but it moreso went lower into a deep dark abyss.

"She went to the extraction bay down below." Cadance pointed out.

"Extraction bay?" I questioned.

"That's where they send the gems to the surface. It's one giant sinkhole leading to the tunnels connecting to one of the abandoned rail lines up above. It's where they would send you in to work, and namely where the gems come out."

As I looked into the void down below, my mind recounted the stories Celestia told me of citizens who were sent here after being unable to pay their unrelenting taxes. All I could imagine was the sounds of some families crying for their loved ones as they were lowered into the caves below. "So we're pretty much going down to where a number of ponies have died in the past?"

"Some of the tunnels down there are unstable. There's a number hazardous gasses and mineral deposits that can destroy your lungs if you're not careful." Cadance explained further.

"Meaning we don't have long to be down there." I safely concluded.

Discord held out a respiratory mask, seemingly grabbed from my world. "I figured you would need this eventually to deal with the smell of the bodies, but I see you've grown accustomed to that."

"Thanks." I said while accepting the creature's offering. "I'm not exactly alicorn-built here."

Luna was quick to correct me. "Our bodies can expel all of what we take in, but that doesn't mean we don't suffer the consequences sometime after. All it means is that we suffer for less time."

"D̸a̴d̶d̸y̷!̶ ̷H̵e̵l̴p!̸"

As her voice echoed from the darkness below, I turned to Cadance and inquired about her chances of evasion. "Is there any way she can escape?"

"Chances are small, there may be some areas that have been caved in but not to the severity of others. She might be able to slip through. All I know is that this is the one place Twilight and I didn't stay in for very long. She was just a unicorn at that time."

I nodded in acknowledgement. "Ah, short-term health risk to you, long-term for her."

"Exactly." She confirmed as she looked up to the rope. She flew upwards into the hole above. While the three of us didn't wait for long, she slowly descended on a rickety platform, the soft squeaking and rocking of the lift was the only thing that filled the cave with sound. As she came to a stop, I noticed how it seemed to be put together. There were large knots anchoring the lift on all four corners. Those ropes were fixed to a square cast iron frame, which was then held by a series of six ropes. But the main thing that I noticed was that there was no protective railing whatsoever. She clopped her hoof against the wooden planks of the make-shift elevator. "This lift should be able to get us down there safely."

"I don't know what's your definition of safe, but that ain't it." I murmured as I nervously stepped on the wooden surface. The lift swayed slightly, causing me to slowly creep towards the center of the lift. I looked around nervously as I continued to voice my concerns. "Just how old is this thing? Do we even know if this damn thing still holds together? What if the rope snaps and we just go careening to the floor of the extraction bay?"

"Three of us can fly, we can levitate you too if it gets a little too rocky." Cadance answered.

"Just hope that it doesn't come to that. Our magic is running rather low, and I have been out of the moonlight for some time." Luna said as she walked onto the platform.

Cadance pulled a lever at the middle of the lift. A clicking noise sounded and we slowly descended down the hole into the abyss. Along our ride down, we were silent as we passed a number of abandoned shafts. As we sank lower into the mountain, I turned to Luna and asked her curiously. "I know that you and Celestia derive your energy from the celestial bodies you control, even being able to speak to them in some cases. Is it really that much of a symbiotic relationship?"

"More than you know." She answered as we came into a large empty room, seemingly built for torchlight accommodations. The room was ominously huge for it's operation purpose. I shined my magic to risk a little more light, seeing just how vast the place really was. There were a number of suspended trusses holding broken rail lines that once connected to various tunnels, a number of suspended catwalks that were crumbled and broken away, and several scaffolds running the height of the walls. On the ground were a number of rusted chains and cuffs, presumably used to forcefully retain the workers.

I could imagine the sounds of ponies working to their abysmal fates.

The lift came to a stop, landing against the ground and kicking up some dust. I looked back up to where we had come from and nodded in approval. "I'm surprised this thing held together the way it did."

"Seems someone's been using it with the way it's been maintained." Luna added.

As Cadance took a few steps forward, her teeth chattered and her lips tightened. Her feathers brushed against her back to soothe her. "It's cold down here."

"Well we are in a cave with no source of warmth for miles." I pointed out.

"No... it's a different kind of cold." Discord pointed out.

Cadance took a deep breath, even sniffing the air of the mines. "The air is purer than I last remembered."

"Do we follow the good air, or do we take our chances in some of these other tunnels." I questioned.

The pink princess turned to Luna. "What do you think, can you find any trace of where she might have went?"

The night princess followed her own nose, trying to trace out the slightest stench of death. She continued to walk forward, quietly confirming our route, that was until we came to a cave that looked more devastated by something of a larger size. And while the smell was more muted due to the cold, it still smelled horrendous.

"I think we found our candidate now." Discord commented.

"She might have surfaced her collective here." Cadance observed. "These walls look like they've been disturbed."

A crackling sound came from above us. I quickly looked up to see a loose piece of crystal about to come down on Cadance. "WOAH, LOOK OUT!" I said as I used my magic to push her out of the way. She was quickly knocked over, but spared the impact of the large loose crystal crushing her entirely. She looked back at me with quiet gratitude as I looked back up to where the crystal fell from. "Now I see how ponies die down here." I said to myself.

Discord gently helped the mare back to her hooves. "Thanks, guys. I'd probably would've lost my daughter with that one."

"Would've?" I stressed.

She winked at me and smiled. "I know, right? Even with a foal on the way, I'm still for the thrill of a close call." She looked directly to me and lowered her head. "Thank you so much."

I rolled my eyes back at her. "Don't worry, I won't tell Shining what happened."

"Now I owe you twice!" She said before looking to the direction of the carnage that was created. "This cave wasn't nearly as big or wide as it was in the past. This just some recent work on the Congregant's part."

"You think it could've been widened?" I asked. "But why?"

"The only way we find out is if we follow." Luna answered as she took lead.

Walking through the cave, there were a number of things that we ran across. For starters, the place had gradually become illuminated with a number of specialized crystals growing more frequent along the walls. Some were knocked to the floor, still glowing and lighting the winding path ahead. The air only got colder from where we started. What felt like a slight breeze had started to feel like we were in something artificially ventilated. The smell of death was still present, but growing more muted as we approached the brighter areas.

At last we came to a large room, but this one with much neater cuts and steel reinforcements along the walls. It appeared very modern in contrast to the rest of the caves we came through. Cadance even seemed confused as to where we were, which only indicated that we had come across some new territory for her. "What is this place?"

Instinctively, I looked around the place and saw how big and wide it was. There were also a number of steel-grated catwalks running the length of the walls. I immediately started thinking about some games I've played in the past with this same setup, and it only indicated one thing to me: A boss fight was set to trigger. "It looks like a staging area. She might be hiding out around here."

"I see no trace of her shadows." Luna stated. "She must be elsewhere."

Cadance also took note of a humming sound in the distance. "I hear fans running. They sound huge."

"Staging Zone 3." Discord called out, pointing to a large set of letters. As he pointed to the letters above, he also noted the large steel doors that were forcibly peeled open. "Those doors were broken into."

"Then let's see what's inside." I said as we pushed further into the strange compound.

Upon stepping into the gigantic room, the four of us noticed how unbelievably frigid it was. We walked into a large chamber where there were fans running on every wall. There were a number of items like glasses of water and apples set on a counter to indicate the temperature. I picked up the apple and slammed it to the ground, watching as it just hit the ground and roll away without so much as a dent.

Cadance had shuddered as she complained about the sudden drop in temperature. "It is cold in here, below freezing even."

"You're the princess of the Crystal Empire, I would've taken it that you can endure a little ice." I lightly jabbed, shivering myself.

Her teeth chattered as she rubbed against herself. "Frozen ice is fine, the empire is sat in the midst of a tundra after all. But the thing about tundra air is that it's often dry. This is a lot more humid, perfect for flash freezing, which can be extremely dangerous to the body."

"D̸a̴d̴d̶y̵.̵.̷.̸̴"

As she called out in a faint voice, Discord commented on how she sounded. "She's weak now."

"Not so much. Just tired." I replied as we started to pick up our pace, trying not to be in the room for much longer. We brisked through the room quickly, hearing her as she spoke out yet again.

"̴D̵a̸d̶d̴y̶,̵ ̶I̷'̷l̵l̵ ̶b̸e̸ ̷g̶o̸o̸d̴.̵ ̸J̵u̴s̶t̷ ̷l̴e̴t̷ ̸m̷e̷ ̷g̷o̴ ̵t̶o̵ ̶s̶l̴e̸e̵p̸.̶ ̷P̷l̵e̴a̴s̸e̴?̷"

"Staging Zone 2." Discord pointed out to the large lettering on the wall we ran towards. At the top of the chamber was a rail system that fed into a nearby room. "Though it's far from literal, we're getting warmer on where we are."

The doors this time were a lot more sturdy, vault-like if anything. There was no sign of damage, but they were left ajar. When we ran up to them, we were relieved to see that we didn't have to do too much work to get past them. "One more set of doors." I chattered.

"These doors are huge." Cadance pointed out.

"And they're open." Luna added. "Let's get inside so that we don't have to deal with this cold."

As we ran into the room, we made sure to get out of the way of any incoming draft from that frozen chamber. I rubbed my arms as the others shook off the frozen ice particles that started to form on our skin. "The air is still cold, just definitely not as cold as before."

"Still feels like a tropical paradise in contrast to the room we left." Discord muttered as he looked around.

I started looking around the room, noticing the same rail system that was in the room prior, but this one was a lot darker in contrast to the brightness of the freezer we left from. But upon looking upward, it was then revealed to me why the rails were built as such. "Oh... Now I know why it's cold down here."

"What, what do you see?" Luna questioned.

I pointed up to the ceiling. "Look up."

The princess' eyes glanced up to see a vast number of hooks suspended from the ceiling, and her eyes trailed until she had caught glimpse of a body hanging in the rafters. "Oh... that's..... distressing" She said quietly.

I nodded as I walked forward, barely recognizing the room with the obvious lack of bodies hanging from the ceiling. "Oh yeah, it's gonna be cold in here, can't let the fridge do all the work."

As we walked further, the bodies were still sparse, but they were slightly growing in number. However, it appeared that the ones who were left were mostly very elderly, that or very very young. Cadance shuddered as she took in the sight. "It's like a morgue in here."

"What do you think this is?" I asked her.

Discord look to the wall where we had walked in from, reading the bold print out loud. "Staging Zone 1." He went back to looking at the few bodies hanging from the rails above. "This is not a pretty sight."

Meanwhile, I had found myself stepping on uneven ground. I looked down to see a darkened stain on the ground, sitting underneath a pair of leather straps. I picked them up, observing the items as the trauma of my weekend started to creep back up my spine. "Ladies and gentlemen, we're back."

"What are those?" Cadance questioned.

"These are magic inhibitors." I answered, holding up the items for her to see.

Luna tried to levitate them over to her, but they sucked in her magic as though they were still active. "They're pretty big for a horn her size." She said in relation to the filly.

"They weren't for a horn." I answered, pulling back my sleeve to reveal the scars around my wrist. I held up one for comparison. "They were for me, and they were grafted into my skin."

While the princesses had gasped over the sight of both the scar and the items, only one thing came to Cadance's mind. "So wait... doesn't this mean that this is..."

I nodded in confirmation. "Yup. Hell sweet hell."

"D̶a̷d̵d̷y̴.̸.̷.̴ ̵p̷l̵e̸a̸s̸e̶ ̵c̷o̴m̵e̴ ̷h̵o̴m̵e̷.̴"

While her voice was weaker than other times, there was no mistake that she was still in the room. I placed the magic inhibitors in my pocket, thinking of a way to use them for another purpose. I emitted a light from my hand, revealing the condition of the filly's collective. There was no shadow to hide anything, everything that was attached to her was in full view, revealing the great length to how many bodies she had absorbed. There were still a few hundred attached to her, but they weren't in the best condition to be used. It appeared that much of the healing factor that she normally had subsided completely, leaving only broken limbs and twisted corpses around her. She herself had stood at the top of the pile, trying her best to get the reinforced steel doors open to the rest of the lab.

I took a step on one of the bodies she used, announcing to her loudly. "Tag!" She turned around quickly, tears in her eyes as she looked to the four of us with genuine fear. "You're it." I said as I pointed to her.

She screamed as loud as she could, banging her hooves into the door, begging and pleading for them to open. "N̵O̷!̸ ̵I̷T̸'̶S̶ ̸N̸O̶T̶ ̷F̶A̴I̶R̴!̷ ̶I̵ ̸M̵A̷D̶E̴ ̵I̸T̷ ̷H̸O̴M̷E̸ ̴S̷A̶F̵E̸!̴ ̷D̷A̶D̶D̴Y̵!̴"

Finally cornered, I backed away from the collective and grabbed my spear, pointing at the hellish creature before us. "Everything you got! Let's go!"

The filly raised more bodies to defend herself, though they were much more sluggish than usual. And Cadance was that much quicker to trim off and isolate the ones she had at her extremities. "Just as I said, none of this belongs to you!"

"THIS NIGHTMARE ENDS HERE!" Luna shouted as she transformed into her Nightmare Moon form, using her powers to cast lighting bolts into the creature. Each of the bodies had screamed along with the young filly, who felt the pain of it's impact surge throughout her body.

As a result, something unexpected began to take place.

A few of the bodies that were at her extremities had seized up and fallen off of the collective. My eyes widened at the revelation and turned to Discord, who pointed out what was happening. "She's beginning to destabilize! Keep it going!"

I immediately looked up to the hooks in the ceiling, taking note of the the pipes that ran from above the door above her to the freezer we walked in from. An idea sprouted wings in my brain and took flight. "Luna!" I called out to the transformed princess. "Electric signals can disrupt the neurotransmitters in the body, causing the muscles to contract."

She initially appeared confused as to what I explained, but she was still quick to realize what I had in mind. "What do you advise?"

"I need you and Cadance to buy us some time!" I said as I started to find whatever hooks and chains I could drag down with my magic and drive them into many parts of her unstable collective.

Cadance quickly got to work sealing off the released bodies. "If that's what you need, we'll do what we can!" She answered.

I turned to the draconequus and gave him my instructions. "Discord, I need for you to find the control console for this room! Decrease the temperature and increase humidity, make it just like Staging Zone 2! We're gonna see if this fridge can do some real work."

The filly still yelled out to the doors, banging her hooves against them as I started my work on dragging more and more chains down to attach to the nightmarish creature. "Y̷O̵U̶'̸R̷E̸ ̵S̵U̵P̴P̴O̸S̷E̶D̵ ̵T̸O̸ ̶B̴E̵ ̶H̴E̷R̷E̸,̷ ̸D̵A̷D̴D̵Y̶!̷ ̸P̶L̷E̶A̷S̷E̶ ̴D̶O̴N̵'̷T̷ ̵L̷E̶T̸ ̵T̷H̸E̸ ̶M̷E̷A̸N̶ ̴P̴O̷N̵I̶E̴S̷ ̸D̴O̵ ̶T̷H̴I̸S̵ ̴T̷O̸ ̸M̵E̸!̷ D̵A̷D̴D̵Y̶!̷"

As the seconds went by, the room drastically got colder and the air grew moist. Cadance quickly called out what was going on. "It's getting cold, and fast!"

While she and Luna continued to do their work, I grimaced as I took one last hook in my hands. I looked to the top fo the collective, where the filly stood, firmed my resolve, and took the number of steps up the number of bodies she claimed. I climbed up, trying not to look into the faces of those long deceased victims, finally getting to the point where I could reach her and wrap the chain around the filly's body before hooking it into the very first body she stood on. "B̴I̸G̸ ̸B̵R̵O̷T̶H̷E̶R̶,̴ ̶W̸H̷A̶T̷ ̵A̴R̷E̸ ̶Y̴O̶U̷ ̸D̵O̶I̶N̷G̴!̴?̸" She questioned as I ran off of her collective.

As I was clearing the creature, I looked up to see what it was that was sitting above us. As soon as I saw the stencil wording on the side of the pipe, I called out to the pink princess. "Cadance, burst those pipes up there!" I said, pointing to the pipes leading into the freezer.

"What are they!?" She asked.

"Something good and refreshing." I said as she took aim. Once I cleared the creature's damaged form, Cadance made a crystal shoot from the ceiling, severing a heated water main leading into the freezer room.

"Water?" She said curiously. "But won't that freeze?"

"Not quick enough." I replied as I pointed to the transformed princess. "Luna! Zap it!"

She summoned a thundercloud high into the rafters, producing a number of lightening bolts to strike at the filly and her collective. She unleashed a very loud scream that rattled the very foundations of the room we stood in.

"Ä̴̢͕̞́̒́́̀A̵̧͙͍̺̔͒̎̍̂A̴͚̦̽̑̒̔̕̕A̶̡͍͂̽̐͐A̵̭̒ͅͅA̷̢̬̪̓Ą̷͓̲̭̀̔̽͛A̷̪̣̼̞̭͋̅̏̚͜͠͝H̸̢͉̱̿̆̆́H̴̻̙̯͓̔H̴̛̜͓͍̟̚Ḫ̷̡̡͗͌̄̒̐͜H̴͖̬͂͜͝͝H̶͉͔̭̆̃́͝H̴̢̯̗̎̍̿H̶̱̯̊̇̊̀!̶̨̰͙͋͂͜͝!̸̨͓̠̌ͅ!̶̩͕͑̅̎͐̕"

After a few seconds of undergoing some thousands of volts through her collective, the entirety of the monster's form unraveled, sending every single thing that was attached to her tumbling to the floor. She too rolled free of the bodies she once had possession over. Cadance took note of what was taking place. "The bodies.. they just... fell off."

I quickly levitated the filly away from the collective. As our action came to a standstill, so did the fans within both rooms, shorting out from the vast amounts of electricity that ran through the railings. The air came to a standstill, and there was a peaceful quiet.

"Cadance, can you seal off the rest?" I urged as I placed the filly down and wrapped one of the magic inhibitors around her tiny horn.

"On it." She called out as I continued my work. While she began to crystalize over the bodies she collected, I finished up apprehending the young filly.

Just as Cadance concluded her work, the little filly came back to consciousness. She looked around, seeing that she couldn't feel anything but her own self. She tried to stamp her hooves into the ground, hoping that something would sprout up, but the only thing she could see was her own shadow. We all stood before her, watching as she tried in vain to do what she could to defend herself. At last she tried to use her magic, but to no avail with the inhibitor I placed on her.

By then, she had started to realize that her game was very much over. "Please don't be mean anymore! I promise to be good! I promise!" She begged loudly.

The princess and the draconequus were less than willing to hear her out. Cadance was the first to voice her displeasure. "There's no amount of pleading you can do for this to become forgivable in any way!" The Princess of Love stated, her words filled with emotion.

"You know what all you've done, the pain you've caused! Stop pretending you're innocent in all of this!" Luna stated firmly, her tone promoting accountability.

"You cannot break the natural order and be allowed to roam free!" Discord said strongly, his words ringing loudly with judgement.

Just as the three stepped forward, the young filly stretched out her hooves, tears running freely down her cheeks. "Here's my legs!" She sniffled in pleading. "Take them! They don't belong to me anyways! Just please don't make me go to sleep forever! I'll be good, I'll be really really good! I do whatever you want! I'll give you ice cream, candy, just please don't hurt me! I don't wanna die!"

As she pleaded, the others grew quiet in watching the young filly beg for her life. While they wished to bring a conclusion to matters, they too couldn't shake the obvious of this situation. At the end of everything she had done, she was still a child begging for the adults around her not to kill her. For Discord, it was his personal mantra to not be the one to decide the fate of the living. For Luna, it was the inherent desire to protect the young and underdeveloped minds from harm. And for Cadance, it was the sound of her future, the very same that grew within her womb. All three knew what they had to do, but their own beliefs and inner-thoughts that had them hesitant to act.

I won't lie and say that I had no reservation of my own. For me, it was the fear of living the same spiritual torture my grandfather had to endure. Throughout his life, he was offered the choice of dying or pulling the trigger to blow a fourteen year old's life away. While I wondered what had went through his mind as he pulled the trigger, I too had to wrestle with those thoughts.

And just like his decision, it wouldn't have to take long.

While his was induced with the physical gun being aimed at his head, mine was the morally and spiritually crafted weapon. I wasn't forced by threats of my life ending, but rather how many more lives would have to suffer if she were to continue living. There was no promise that she'd be any better than she'd be now, or if she had the mind to turn into Umbra after all was said and done. There were too many open ends, too many ways this could go wrong.

Grandpa's thoughts were along the line of two things; if he spared that boy's life, would he had come back to avenge his family, hurting others in his unit? And if he refused, would his life be so brashly taken by his own commander? He knew the answer to those questions, so he acted to make the difficult choice.

And here, I had to do the same. "Hey guys, let me take care of this."

Every step forward was a terror waking up in my spirit, the realization that I had took a similar path that he took, and now it was me putting the loaded weapon to a child's head. Discord certainly knew this and stopped me from taking another step forward. "Are you sure?"

I took a deep breath, moved his claw, and kept moving forward.

I knelt down in front of the young filly, whispering to her calmly as I could, as gently as I could. I didn't want to instill fear in her and simply fast-track her exit from the world of the living. I'd much rather have the conversation with her to put the both of us at ease. That's all I could do. "Hey." I placed a hand on her shoulder, feeling her cold body trembling against my grasp.

"Big brother... I'm scared! I don't wanna be one of the dollies! I don't wanna make daddy upset! Please help me!"

I started to speak to her by giving her the unforgiving reality that we were currently in, not to sugarcoat anything, just give her the honest and ugly truth. "Look up." I said softly, lifting her chin gently to see the few bodies dangling from the ceiling. "Do you see anyone who wants to be here right now?"

She quickly shook her head, wrestling away from me while I tried to hold her closer to me. "Please don't put me up there, big brother! I don't wanna be up there!"

"I know, I know." I whispered as I began to stroke the back of her head. "But just look up there and tell me what you see."

"They're all dead! I know!" She screamed.

"Yeah, they are. And they don't know that they're here. But they wouldn't want to be here, just like how you don't want to be here right now, just like how we don't want to be here."

The filly hugged me back, screaming and nuzzling into my chest as she pleaded her life. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

As much as I wanted to forgive her in the moments she cried, I had to remember what it was that I was preventing, what I was bringing a halt to. "Saying it doesn't change what you've done. Their families are hurt by what you did, hurt. You took them away from their homes, and you threw them around, danced with them, turned them into your playthings, and now you've made it to where they can't go home anymore. Do you think that's nice of you to do that to them? That's really mean."

"But I did what daddy said!" She replied.

"We know what he said, but it's not about that anymore. It's about what you've done. I know it's not fair that you have to suffer because of what he did to you and your friends, but you know what's wrong and what's right. Deep down you knew, you told me you knew from the moment he showed you the ponies who gave you your legs. Don't you think that they too had a life they wanted to live?"

"I'm sorry." She pleaded once more.

"I know. But when we do bad things, we get punished. It never feels good, but that's just the way things are. You can't just do bad to others and then do good to yourself, that's not playing fair." I pointed my thumb to an elderly looking stallion hanging from up above and quietly weaved together a perspective. "Look at this guy. He's old, he had a long life, a good family, and he took his final breath believing that his family would be okay in knowing that he wasn't going to hurt anymore. You took that away from not just him, but the family he has left in this world." I then pointed to one of the guild members that Cadance had sealed away. "Now look at this one. He might've done bad in his life, but ending up the way that he did, that's the cost of living a bad life most of the time. But at the end of it all, he still deserves to be left alone, I'm sure he would've liked that more than anything else in this world." My eyes lifted to see a young little filly hanging just above us. "Now look at her, she's around your age. As frail as she looks, it seems like something really ate away at her. She lived a life plagued with bad health and discomfort, just like you do. But she didn't make a deal with daddy to keep herself alive, she made the choice to fight her problems to the bitter end. She lost, but she's happy with what she's done."

The filly's jaw trembled as I hugged her even tighter. "I-I'm scared."

"I know. That's why I'm here. I'm your big brother, right? That means that I have to tell you what's right and what's wrong." I said, petting her as gently as I could. "We're all scared of what happens in life to make it to the end. But it doesn't matter how, or where, or when... we all end up the same way. I'll be there one day. Some of us sooner than others. I just want you to understand what's going to happen. And I want you to know that I'm sorry that it has to be this way."

The young filly looked to the sparse bodies hanging in the wings. "Big brother, will I be like them?"

A part of me wanted to throw up, but I knew what needed to be done. "...Yes, yes you will."

She wiggled in my arms, still pleading with me to not do what I had to. "But I said I'm sorry! I said I'll do good!"

"I know..." I said, holding her head against my chest, rocking her off to sleep. "Just hold on to me, don't let go, I'll be right here with you until the end, okay?"

As I was at war with myself, I started to shed tears of my own sadness. I felt a growing lump in my throat that hindered me from speaking clearly. I especially broke with her final words. "I don't wanna die." My voice trembled as I quietly pulled the firearm from my waistband. I began to pray for forgiveness, putting the weapon against the side of her head.

I said as I squinted. "...I know."

*PLECK*

Canterlot Royal Castle...
***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

We were getting our asses kicked.

Everything we tried was completely useless. Magic attacks were only shot into tentacles with each attempt for the brain himself. And when he felt amused to descend from his throne, he would continue the cruel trickery of having us fight us in one moment, only to realize that we punched a dead body soon after. Any weapons we had were useless without magic to back it up. Applejack was still out of commission with her broken leg, and that made her a frequent target for Umbra to take advantage of. But he didn't just attack with the intention to hurt her, he knew one of us would intervene to save her. And that's where his damage really racked up.

Applejack grew dispirited, having to watch Pinkie Pie constantly take hits for her. Twilight continued her own attacks, but even her trickery was no match for his. Blue blasted at him, trying to be a distraction so that Twilight could take advantage of those moments. But with him controlling up to some sixty bodies, it meant that he could be virtually anywhere at any time, whether it's to escape or to counterattack. In the instance of Blue and Twilight's maneuvers, it was a counterattack on them both. Both the magic users were sent across the room as Umbra took great pride in his strength.

"A̷r̸e̶ ̴y̸o̵u̴ ̶a̴l̴l̵ ̵s̷t̵i̶l̴l̴ ̸t̵r̴y̷i̴n̸g̸ ̸t̸o̶ ̴s̵t̸o̵p̷ ̴m̴e̷?̴" He asked as he loomed over all of us in the room.

In all honesty, the only truly effective figures we've had in our fight was Twilight, Rarity, Blueblood, Alabaster, and Stanton. They were the only ones who could even come close to doing some damage. But even those five couldn't land a hit once he transformed. That still didn't discourage them as much as Umbra figured it would. "We'll do whatever it takes!" Alabaster replied strongly as he raised a shield to defend us against an incoming tendril, though it shattered after one hit. Blueblood summoned a similar barrier as Rarity moved us out of the way.

Umbra laughed as he looked to take advantage of yet another weakened target. "I̶t̸'̸s̴ ̴u̷s̶e̴l̵e̶s̸s̴.̵ ̵G̵i̷v̶e̴ ̷i̸t̶ ̶u̶p̵,̶ ̶I̸'̴l̷l̶ ̶w̸i̴n̸ ̷i̵n̵ ̶t̴h̸e̷ ̶e̵n̷d̸.̵"

Twilight still recovered from the attack she suffered, as it knocked the wind from her lungs. Another tendril rose from the ground and she regained her focus for long enough to teleport out of harm's way. It took a second for her to get back up to her hooves, only to notice in enough time that another tendril rose to crush the mare who coordinated her efforts with her. "Blue!" Twilight called out, getting herself ready to teleport in to retrieve the mare. But instead, Alabaster himself teleported in and grabbed his sister teleported out.

Though it didn't come without consequence.

Once Alabaster had cleared his sister from harm's way, he had a terrible headache from the rapid succession to which he teleported himself. So he didn't even notice how quick Umbra had showed up beside him, looking down to him with his magic charging in his horn. Blue noticed shortly after her rescue who was standing beside them with a gentle smile on his face.

"You really are your father's child."

Alabaster heard those words and turned his head to his right. And that's all he saw, Umbra smiling as he sent a thin beam of magic into the stallion.

"Alabaster, look out!" Blue launched a bigger beam at the crazed doctor, watching him turn to yet another corpse he absorbed. The attacks stopped for a moment, granting reprieve for our party. Blue stood up and held her brother up as she rose. "Alright, let's get moving!" She said to her brother, who didn't respond... or rise with her. "Alabaster?" She called out to him, but his weight dragged her down immensely. The young stallion remained slumped. "Alabaster, get up!" She urged, trying to bring him to his senses.

Umbra placed a hoof on her shoulder, whispering into her left ear. "My dear... it's too late."

Her expressions sank on her face, fearing the words that were uttered to her. She began to shake her brother awake. "Get up. Get up. Please get up! I can't fight him alone, I NEED YOU!"

As we all watched helplessly, Umbra circled his hoof once in gesture to the distraught mare. "Have you ever tried, oh I don't know, turning him around?"

Blue quickly did as she was told and beheld her brother's face. "No."

The shock continued to wear on her, limiting her responses, her reactions. Lying on the ground was her brother, a single incineration wound below his horn with the look of horrible realization on his face. Blood poured from his forehead, his pupils had expanded, his eyes lost to the nothing he had become.

"Yes. Very much so." Umbra quietly confirmed, raising a tendril beneath the stallion.

Blue panicked, snatching her brother's body clean from the murderer's grasp. She shielded herself and him, holding him tightly against her as she called out mournfully. "NO! YOU CAN'T TAKE HIM FROM ME! PLEASE! PLEASE! DON'T TAKE HIM, NO!"

Despair filled the room. Each of us looked on with both sadness and shock. We couldn't believe it ourselves, before our very eyes he was killed. The horrible pain of watching Blue mourn and plead for her brother's dignity, not even his life anymore, it was heartbreaking to see.

But Umbra did not care for any of it. "My dear Blue, it's only natural. As time progresses, so too will the inevitable separation you both will endure. You understand that he's gone. There's no more breath for him to breathe. Just let him go, I'll take good care of him."

I couldn't watch it anymore, my arms trembled with rage and I ran in to offer that son of a bitch a piece of my mind and then some. "You motherfucker!" I screamed as I proceeded to empty my magazine into his head.

But he turned to me as though nothing had mattered to him, he sent a tendril from his collective to trip me and drag me up into the air. From that moment, he pulled me in closer to his evil grin while he spoke. "You're not a pony, but I guess I'll try to assimilate you where I can─"

Without warning, his entire body, every bit of his collective seized up, as if a jolt of energy had shot through his body. It caused him to loosen his grip on my ankles, dropping me from out of the air. My arms broke the fall, sparing my head any injuries as Rickey ran over to check on me. "Melaine!" I'm sure that my arms weren't in the best shape since I fell a fair distance, up to six feet from the air. But the adrenaline made it to where I didn't feel much.

Meanwhile, Umbra began to murmur to himself. "No..." His collective sank into the ground, a shadow cast itself from underneath him, reaching out to the door as he started to scream out in disbelief for some reason. "No! N̷O̴!̷ Ñ̶͓͊Ọ̶̧͛!̶̛̖̥ N̶̳̯̰̐̈́͝O̵̲̟͋͒͛̏!̷͙̏̿͒"

He sank into the shadow of his creature and the black figure wormed it's way out of the room through the crack under the door. "Watch out!" Alex called out, trying to make sure that none of us were in it's way as he suddenly left.

Rarity tried to thrust her weapon into the last bit of the shadow's retreating form, but she ended up breaking her blade against the marble floors. "Where the fuck did he run off to?" She asked angrily.

"I don't know..." Twilight answered before we all brought our attention to our fellow party member, as well as her fallen sibling. "Blue?"

Alex ran up, only to see the mare still shielding herself while holding her brother's body. She shook violently, hyperventilating, looking around and heaving for help. "Aw fucking hell." He muttered as he crouched down, processing what had happened.

The mare let out a burdened shriek, resting her brother's head onto her chest. Her spell faltered and she cried out terribly to the world. "No way." Rainbow Dash said, fluttering out of the air and landing on her hooves. Fluttershy shook quietly, realizing that her life could have ended the same way, she ended up crying for both recounting her experience, and seeing the current loss happen before her. Pinkie tended to Applejack, quietly holding her as the farm mare trembled with remorse. Blueblood looked away, unable to bear the thought of losing another pony under his watch.

I walked over to her and quickly grabbed the mare, hugging her as she wept. "Blue, c'mere."

†Alabaster Charm: Requiescant in Pace†

Abandoned Entrance
The Mt. Canter Crystal Caverns
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

The ride back up to the surface was quiet. I'm sure the reason why no one spoke was because they all watched for what I would say, what I would do, how I would act. They were carefully trying to figure out what it was I would do next. And I couldn't really blame them for being concerned, especially after what I had to do.

I cried for most of my walk back, not openly weeping like I felt I would've, but just trying to stay strong for what was next. I couldn't falter anymore, despite the fact that we did win a significant victory without having to use the elements. But after that sadness wore off, that fact still remained at the forefront of my mind. The element was still lodged in my palm, it still pulsed. And that only meant that our work wasn't done.

Once we reached the top of the lift, we saw a curved line of rails ran along some crudely fashioned wood beams. There were no signs of any recent usage of the rails themselves, sitting on the ground as brown and rusty as unused tools in the elements. And after a short winding distance, we were greeted with the sight of the night sky. The rails led themselves out to a splitter that appeared to be intentionally broken at the hilt. The junction itself fed directly into a rail line that was more frequently used by the trains.

As we came out into the open air, I started to put my hand out and imagine the motorcycle I had left behind nearby and summoned it. I was more surprised that after so much, I was still able to use my magic to the extent that I could. I had only assumed that I was out of it because of my being out of practice for some days. And with all of this, I had managed to get back up to speed.

Luna didn't take the time to bask in her moon's glow to get back her energy, instead opting to lower it. I pulled out Stanton's phone to check the time, reading out 5:08. "I don't think it's time to lower the moon just yet." I said to her.

"I know. But I am tired, too tired to do much other than lower the moon. If my sister raises the sun now, she'll have more than enough power to carry out her end of business."

"What about you?" I questioned her.

As her magic quenched, the moon was gone from the sky, only the twilight glow before the rising of the sun remained in the sky. "I have done my part. My magic is drained. Now I need rest."

The lunar princess sat with her head low, her eyes showing their fatigue. I looked over to the only creature I knew who could get her back home in the matter of seconds. "Discord, can you get her back to the castle?"

He accepted my request without a word said. All he did was pull a string from the ground and an elevator showed up next to him. He loaded himself and the princess into the elevator and looked back at me as I started to sit myself on my bike. He called out one last time to me. "You done well, Nondis." I looked to him as his words grabbed my attention. "...And you've chosen well. Not everypony can make that decision, but you did what what was right. Thank you."

"I should be thanking you instead." I replied.

The elevator doors closed and they sank into the ground, disappearing from the mountainside. I turned to the only remaining princess here and offered my praise. "Cadance, you really saved our ass with your navigation and quick thinking."

"You were the one who were thinking on the run." She replied enthusiastically. "Color me impressed, Nondis. That head of yours might actually have a brain in there." She joked, trying to lighten the mood.

I gave her a slight smile. "I sure hope so."

She looked to the direction of the rails going up the mountain. "How are you getting back to the castle?"

"Same way I got here. I might have enough gas for the ride back before I'm really pushing the fumes. Either way, I think I need the ride back to clear my head."

"Just make sure you get there safe." She said. "I'll see you there."

I shook my head and pointed back at her. "You don't have to tell me twice. You be safe yourself, don't wanna put yourself in anymore danger."

The princess scoffed as she stepped closer to the ledge, seemingly about to dive off. "Danger? You forget that I live on the stuff."

After her response, she took a swan dive off the side of the mountain and banked back up to enjoy her flight through the morning air. As she flew off into the distance, I revved my engine and kicked myself into gear, thinking aloud of how I felt about the amorous princess. "That's one crazy-ass princess."

While I carefully navigated the way up the mountain, riding next to the rails as best as I could before finding the pedestrian path again, my mind stewed on the night I had. I was emotionally drained, physically tired, mentally exhausted, and there was still more to do. I began to wonder if the castle defenses held up while I was gone, did they breach, were there any reinforcements to help, did Celestia dust herself off and join the fight, or did they fail and this was all for naught? It was a lot that consumed my mind, but as the castle came into view, I started to put most of those fears aside and thought of what I had to do next. I had to put it all under me, much like the dark cloud I had run under.... wait.

I slammed on the breaks, looking back to the sky above, noticing how clear it was. I looked back to see the black figure slither away. There was no way... "What the fuck was that?"

I kicked it into high gear, and rode for the castle.

Staging Zone 1
The Umbra Lab...

A shadow crept into the entrance of the second staging zone, Umbra leaped from within it, noting how it wasn't as cold as before. He glanced back to the entrance, seeing how it was pried open as opposed to being left ajar. He immediately knew that something had gone catastrophically wrong. He also took note of the door leading into the first staging area was slightly open as well. He ran into the first staging zone, shouting out to potentially the young filly.

"Where are you!? SPEAK!"

He looked up, seeing the small number of bodies that hung up high. He carried on until he saw a number of crystalized coffers. They were great in number, strewn around the room so neatly as though they were intended to be a finalized resting place, a graveyard so neatly plotted and carefully sat.

But upon closer observation, Umbra discovered that they were arranged as though they were making way for an aisle in a church, sat in bunches like pews. And at the alter was a set of brightly lit crystals standing on either side of the coffer... a small one.

"Oh... Angel..."

He galloped to the makeshift alter, looking down to see the young filly's face peacefully resting in sadness. Umbra fell numb next to the coffer, placing his head against her side. He clenched his eyes and began to find any reason for failure, who to blame for this loss. But in the end, he could attribute nothing to anyone but himself.

He was quiet, experiencing a melancholy he hadn't tasted in some centuries. He stood at the head of her coffer and placed his head against hers. "No... you didn't fail me, little one. I failed you." He whispered as he had a tendril raise up beside him, smashing open the crystal coffer and taking the young filly's body to hold close to him. "You and I will see the great towers together. I promised you that, didn't I? And that's exactly what we'll do..."

Umbra's head rose slowly, looking at the congregation of damaged bodies before him. More tendrils began to rise up, smashing the crystals coffers and absorbing all the bodies that were encased. He would then reach up high to recklessly rip down the remaining bodies up in the air. Whatever he found, he used for himself. He continued to hold the corpse of the young filly beside him, as he made a stern declaration.

"You and I, we will be together. And your big brother will join us soon enough... One way, or the other."

Canterlot Castle Foyer

The sun rose into the air to start it's daily journey, albeit a bit earlier than it's scheduled time. I had finally returned to the castle grounds, seeing a multitude of pegasi flying through the air on patrol. But the younger ponies who were stationed here were quick to notice the sound of my vehicle. Whispers and gasps sounded as I hopped off my bike and walked into the foyer.

There, my reception was no different, whispers, gasps, and awes sounded throughout as the ponies gathered. Many of whom looked as though I was a ghost. Some would even call out to me, seeing if I was really in the room. "Captain!"

Spitfire had stopped issuing her commands to her subordinates to see what was the disturbance. Once she saw my face, she stared with her jaw agape. Humbreeze leapt from off the stairs and flew over to me, excited to see me in the flesh. "Captain! You're alive!?"

"Yeah." I nodded awkwardly. "Humbreeze, you good?"

"Just a little winded, I've had to fly to Cloudsdale and back, other than that I'm good." He replied as he landed to the ground. "Is it... is it gone?" He finally asked.

While I had expected everyone here to celebrate what I was about to tell them, I personally didn't find a reason to celebrate it. But I understood they endured when she showed up in the courtyard, how suddenly their morale was sucked out of their spirits, how they felt when they saw their comrades being displayed like dolls. While I won't celebrate it, I can't let them not have the peace of mind in knowing that nightmare is over. I'll let them have this moment, at my expense, just this once. "...She's gone."

It's reasonable that they wouldn't believe me, the same creature managed to drag me from the castle back to Corrotto in a smaller variant. Humbreeze chuckled lightly as he inched closer, whispering. "Sir, can you say that one more time."

"She's gone... The Congregant is dead." I confirmed.

Humbreeze called out to the lobby, cupping his hooves around his muzzle as he screamed. "ATTENTION EVERYPONY! THE CREATURE THAT PLAUGED US IS DEAD! WE'RE SAFE NOW!"

While the many pegasi guards from Cloudsdale didn't understand why the young guards of the castle cheered and expressed great relief. "Our comrades can finally be at peace!" One stallion called out cheerfully, causing a few others to cry with relief.

Humbreeze grabbed my hands, hovering in the air as he continued to show his exuberance. "Captain, you might have become the BIGGEST FUCKING HERO IN EQUESTRIAN HISTORY!"

The celebratory mood soon spread to the pegasi from Cloudsdale, who didn't know why they were celebrating but were more than happy to join in. With the way they appeared to be, I was expecting someone to drop by with a few bottles of champaigne, pop the corks. and start the morning off with a round of drinks. Meanwhile, I still couldn't shake the numbness of having to pull the trigger on a life so young. I could only take Discord's word, and continue to reassure myself that I did the right thing.

"Nondis!" I looked up to the top of the stairwell for who called my name.

Melanie ran down the stairs, in a rush to reach me past the number of celebrating guards. I was more than relieved to see that she was doing well, which also meant to me that the others were fine. "Mel! You guys okay!?" As soon as she got to me, I noticed the puffiness around her eyes, the redness in them indicating a deep sadness. My heart began to sink. "Why are you crying?"

She didn't say anything, she dragged me up the stairs, pulled me along for the walk until we had finally reached the portal room. Once I stepped inside, I could see everyone gathered around a sobbing voice. My immediate head count went towards the humans in the room, aside from the two of us who walked in, there were four standing by. I counted the number heads I recognized, Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack was propped against the wall seemingly injured, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Blueblood. However, the voice I heard sobbing was that of a mare's. I walked closer... and became overwhelmed with what I saw.

Blue held her brother closely, his blood staning her body as she cried softly. She was broken, and he was dead. "Umbra killed him, Nondis." Melanie said as she walked around me, sitting beside the bereaving mare to hug her.

I walked away, driving my fist into the first thing I could afford to punch. Instead of being reasonable, I settled on a quartz pillar and unloaded the first blow, doing as much damage as to crack the hard exterior. "FUCK!" I screamed out angrily, not even minding the pain in my hand. I just crouched down, blaming myself for something I could not change. "Oh my God. Not this again, please God anything but this."

Alex quickly walked up to me, rightfully correcting me. "Dude, it's not your fault. You lured away the thing that looked like the bigger threat. You did what was right. But─"

"I still can't save him." I angrily whispered, clenching my fist.

"No. That's not it." Alex replied.

"What then?" I snapped back in frustration.

"Nondis..." He crouched down in front of me, placing his hand on my shoulder. "There are three 'brains' as we know of. The first being the girl, the second being you. Do you want to know who the last one is?"

I got up and looked back to Blue, who had walked up to me. She still sniffled and heaved as Alex clued me in on what was going on. "What are you saying?"

Blue replied in a broken voice. "He tried to take my brother's body... for his own collective."

I slammed my fist into the floor, sharply cursing out of rejection. "Bull-fucking-shit, you're telling me he's one of those things!?" A sigh came from beside me, the blond prince walked up with a hardened look in his eyes. "Blueblood!?"

"That is exactly what he is. And we're not much for time right now."

"N̴̞̬̻̋́̕O̴͚͖̬̿Ņ̴̱̳̚Ḑ̷̫̿̈́Ȉ̸̙̓̂S̶͎͋̾̚!̵̗̳̟̊"

The loud shriek of my name echoed loudly, startling me and sending an immense sharp pain digging into my head. I buckled over, trying to not pass out from the sudden jolt of discomfort. The next thing I felt was a hoof at my back, snapping me back to the present. "Are you alright?" I looked back to see who it was, Blue still made sure that I was okay, even in spite of her losing someone so precious to her.

Unfortunately, I knew what that scream meant to me. And it had to be known to everyone in the room. "He's coming back... and oh is he pissed."

"What for?" Blueblood questioned.

"I killed his daughter." I answered quietly, talking about the young filly. "No they weren't blood, but she was adopted by him. So... he might be coming back with every body he has in the lab."

Rainbow Dash grumbled. "We couldn't fight Umbra to begin with, much less what happened to Alabaster. What do we do?"

Twilight then replied. "The reason we couldn't fight like we normally would was because of me. I let him get to me, and I lost focus. From there on, it was a matter of keeping us busy to where I couldn't regain that focus to be the leader my friends needed me to be." She looked to Blue and bowed her head in apology. "I am so sorry."

"It's what he does." Blue answered to the princess. "That's his calling card before every negotiation. He's done that to me and my brother for some time, to my father for even longer."

"The better question is how do we avoid something like that again?" Rarity said calmly.

Twilight looked to the deceased stallion and made a declaration to herself. "I won't let it happen again."

"Yeah, but that still doesn't solve our problem. You said he's coming back for us, what do we do? Like we can't even touch the guy anymore." Stanton spoke out.

I looked at the palm of my hand, seeing the jewel embedded in it. "We become element bearers, protect home serve as long as the portals are here."

Stanton kissed his teeth and hissed. "Yeah, about that..." He pointed a thumb to where the portals were. All I could see were the consoles and shards of broken glass strewn around the floor. "I might have done some desperate shit."

While under any other circumstances, I would've been upset at the fact that our way back home was now just a pile of shards and splinters, I was happy to know that Umbra wouldn't have anything to come back for other than some personal revenge. It was a significant inconvenience, but it was a decision that was made for the better of our home world. "Good call."

"Um." Pinkie began. "Bad call, because there's another portal in Ponyville. And he went that-a-way."

I looked to Pinkie astounded as though she didn't hear what I had just said. "So you didn't hear the screaming at all, did you? He's coming back here to settle a score with me."

Everyone in the room looked around to one another and then back at me. "What screaming are you talking about?" Mel questioned.

An awkward silence lasted for a few seconds as I came to the realization that the scream I heard was something only I could hear. I didn't have time to explain it. "Okay there's just too much going on at once." Even then, I reiterated my prior point. "Anyhow, he's on his way here, probably to kill me."

"Correction: All of us." Rickey replied. "He wants all of us element bearers dead."

"Well he's coming for us, that's good." I replied.

"And he realizes he can't win and make a hasty retreat for Ponyville, destroying the bridges out of Canterlot en route. What then?" Blueblood questioned.

"There is no 'what then'. We hold him here and now." I stated, getting back up to my feet.

"So how do we do this?" Blue questioned. "You killed one, you gotta find a way to deal with the other."

I was more surprised to see that Blue had retained focus, especially dealing with the death of her brother. If anything, she was determined. "What about you?" I asked, still trying to make sure she was fine with pushing ahead. I didn't mind her having the time to mourn her loss.

She shook her head at me, wiping her tears away as best as she could. "I can still fight. Protecting this castle is the only way I can protect my brother." I wanted to argue back, saying that she should take the moment to deal with her loss. But she beat me to the draw. "And don't you tell me that I shouldn't get involved." She glanced to Alabaster and grew angry. "We mourn later, but now we fight for Equestria's sake."

Hearing her words, I think all of us grew encouraged by the strength she instilled in all of us. In spite of losing everything she had left of her family, she sucked up the loss as best as she could and focused on the overall picture. It was unusual, but then again she always had the perspective of knowing that this could happen to her. She had time to prepare for it, putting up with deep, troubling pains and psychological torture. She bore the scars of her past and learned how to heal from them, using her past to manage the present wounds to look to the future.

She was amazingly strong, but then again she's always been that way.

Blueblood approached the young mare and bowed before her, accepting her for her courage and resilience. He bowed his head low to her, showing her just how much he respected her. "Blue Royal, we owe you everything."

She took a deep breath and spoke. "Then go and get justice for Alabaster, as well as the others who died because of him."

After about thirty minutes have passed, we got to moving and putting our plan into motion of how we were going to go about this final encounter. While the forces of the guild have been mostly left injured, dead, or taken prisoner, we reissued our focus to the crux of our entire struggle.

Confronting Umbra Sanctus.

It didn't take long to reorganize our forces since we weren't fortifying any set position. There were some positions that would present heavy resistance, but their presence was mainly to obstruct and distract. We know how Umbra's going to fight, we know he plays dirty, but I'm more than happy to get down in the muck with him if need be. I had a number of preparations set aside, a lot of them banking on the method I felt Umbra would continue to take. And if I could take a guess, I could speculate that he wouldn't be too pleased to hear about what we had planned for him.

For starters, I sent Twilight to Ponyville to handle some business, at least get things prepared for any potential countermeasure Umbra may use. Secondly, I had our forces spaced into various positions as to attack in waves. Thirdly, I would try to utilize the city's layout where he would be given a slow and grueling path to the castle. And fourthly, I had measures taken should he feel that he'd want to fling any uncanny surprises our way.

Blueblood was eager to offer his services, despite my insistence that he'd get some rest. I gave in, but relegated him to the castle courtyard. Shining Armor also made his appearance along with Princess Celestia. She had plans herself as to the final disposal of the bodies he'd come with, which I know would be every last one he has in stock. Cadance was on standby if anything catastrophic were to happen. Discord was ready as well, but mainly to defend any threats coming to the girls' way.

The other officers had gotten their positions, and those given the position to lead those positions joined them. Spitfire and Solemn Oath were placed in charge of the forefront of the city's defense. Shining was to take care of the city's interior, and Blueblood was in charge of the castle grounds.

Everything was in place, we were all set up, and all we had to do was wait.

"So let me get this straight, we're all gonna fight the thing that the captain lured away!? I thought he killed that thing." Humbreeze questioned nervously.

"There was another, the mastermind of this whole thing himself." Solemn corrected the young guard.

Rainbow Dash swooped in as the trio were discussing their plans. "So what do we do now?" Humbreeze questioned.

"We wait for his instructions... and hope that they don't get us killed." Solemn answered.

Spitfire looked to where we stood on the battlements, growing more anxious by the second. "I hope you know what the hell you're doing, rookie."

"I might have a promising theory." Rainbow added.

"What?" Spitfire questioned.

As Rainbow went over her thoughts with the others down below, I looked ahead to the main gate into the city. I shielded my eyes from the sun as Shining trotted forward with a proud snap in his step. "Shining, you look pretty bouncy today."

"Well I had a moment to rest." He announced as he looked up to the high princess walking beside him.

"I was informed of what happened to Alabaster Charm by Blueblood." She spoke softly before glancing down to Blue Royal, who joined with Blueblood and his efforts to defend the castle. "He's done a lot for us, so it's only fair that we would treat him with full honors."

"So... finally gonna clean house, huh?" I said sarcastically to Celestia.

"As if I have a choice in the matter." She replied. "The preparations have been made for that. But I have a suggestion for your plan. I would recommend that you allow me to lead the frontline."

"Are you sure you want to do that?" I asked.

"I'm certain." She answered. "After all, it's my mess we're cleaning up here. I should be the first thing to grab his attention."

She hovered into the air, readying herself to take off for the outer gates. "Don't die out there." I said to her before she left.

"As if it were that easy." She said before darting off to her new position.

The sound of a teleportation spell resonated behind me, indicating that Twilight had returned from her trip to Ponyville. "It's done."

I reached in my pocket, pulling out Stanton's phone. At the top-right corner, I saw the signal indicator showing a small x where the reception bars would be. "Well... we've done our part as best as we could."

The wind blew past us, I could already smell the hint of old death in the air. Looking ahead, there was no foreboding signs or shadows to show that he was drawing closer. It was too bad that such a beautiful morning had to be brought on so early, and for the purpose of fighting, much less of what we're fighting against. It's even more depressing to be aware of your proximity to those who would not get a chance to see this lovely sunrise. It's so bittersweet. "Nondis..."

Twilight's voice broke me out of my thoughts, I turned to her. "Yeah?"

I could tell there was a lot on her mind. The way she stood indicated that she had a lot of questions for me, a lot of truths she wanted to know. I'm sure had it been any other time or any other circumstance, she would say it openly. But she bit her tongue, remaining silent for as long as I looked at her. She looked to the ground, showing the sadness on her face as she spoke softly. "I'm proud of what you've become."

There was a lot of hurt in her words, a lot of pain she swallowed. I could tell that she said it out of some personal afflictions she's been harboring as of recent. But in the end, all she wanted to do was wish me well. I tried to smile back at her, knowing that it wasn't real. "I have your element, I'll try not to disappoint."

I turned back around, looking ahead to the direction of the main gate. Suddenly, there was a horn brushing up my lower back, and a head nuzzling into my left leg. "I don't mean the element."

I realized that something was said to her, something that hurt her deeply. I wanted to inquire about it, but the a call from one of the guards in the lookout tower shouted out to all of us. "Here it comes!"

I snapped my attention back to the horizon, seeing the darkness growing in the distance. It was go-time. I felt my grip tighten out of instinct, the spear I held trembled as I murmured. "Alright, let's see if this works the way I think it will."

As I looked ahead, waiting for how the shadow-encased figure would respond, I readied myself for whatever would come our way. My friends stood beside me, waiting for my call. But I wouldn't get a chance to say anything, as a small black shadow resembling a tendril serpentined up the wall and pooled around my foot. Without warning, the pool grew to encompass my entire body. Twilight stepped away, shrieking out in surprise. "Nondis!"

I looked to where she looked, seeing the black pool around where I stood. "That's not what I had in mind."

I was suddenly yanked in, brought to the undersurface where the mass of the collective would hide. I could hear the voices of my friends quickly drown out, their cries for me snuffed out as I was pulled away from them. I looked down to see a small tentacle wrapped around my legs, dragging me faster than I could free myself. It appeared as though I was under the cobblestones of the main street, everything passing by so quickly, much more effortlessly than when I was dragged through the streets on Friday night. Various voices came in and out like loud whispers, all the way until it looked like I had passed the main gate and the bridge into the city. Looking ahead of myself, I could see a large collective bulking closer and closer until I was brought back to the surface.

I wasn't yanked up into the air, but rather unceremoniously dragged to a standstill on the side of the mountain. From there, Umbra appeared from within the shadow, speaking as he assumed his usual form. "S̷̞͂͘o̷̦̒ ̷̯͝h̵̠̘͒͆ȩ̵̩̚ŕ̷͙͜e̸̡̘̍̈ ̵̳͠y̷͇̏ǒ̴̩u̷͎͐ ̶̬̍ā̴͍ŗ̸͋e̴͓͘, ̴r̷u̷m̵m̶a̸g̵i̸n̴g̵ ̶t̵h̶r̵o̴u̵g̵h̴ my things, thwarting my plans, and disobeying my every wish and order with every breath you take. And finally, you take something away from me, something I consider as very precious to me."

As I coughed from being suddenly dragged under, I cursed at the insane stallion. "None of this matters to you, you're a fucking psychopath."

He wasn't as reserved about his feelings this time. Instead, he displayed his anger by summoning a tendril to throw me off the side of the mountain. The world tumbled uncontrollably, the cold mountain air blasting past my body as I fell. But to my grace, Celestia swooped in and levitated me in her magic as she flew to my side. "Nondis!" She called out as she stopped me from freefalling to my death, instead taking me and putting me in one of the mountain tunnels near the rail line. As we landed, she made sure that I was standing. "I got you!" She said before being horrifically knocked away into the wall.

"A̶n̶d̷ ̶y̸e̷t̸ ̶y̴o̶u̸ ̷s̶t̸i̵l̷l̶ ̶w̸a̴n̶t̴ ̸t̴o̵ ̶b̴e̵ ̴h̷e̴l̷d̵ ̴b̵y̵ ̷t̴h̸a̷t̷ ̴p̵a̸r̷a̸s̴i̸t̸e̸?̵"

Umbra reappeared before me, showing more of his anger as he marched closer. Celestia stood back up and grumbled her response. "I'm a parasite to only those who have motives of holding absolute power."

Her statement was met with a tentacle to her side, bashing her into a wall yet again. "Y̶͚̎ő̴̼u̷͎͝ ̵̧̂d̷̻̐o̷͔͐n̷̈́ͅ'̵̪̂t̸̢̽ ̸̱̆d̴̼͝ē̴̬s̸̤̊ê̶̦r̴̬̍v̵̱͆e̶̡̽ ̸̝͒ḁ̸̑n̷̤̿y̴̧͗t̴̬́h̵̝͗i̶͎̎n̶̟̅g̷͎͗!̸̲͊" Umbra barked towards her.

Her impact left an almost perfect indent of her shape into the rock, she spoke to me with a straining voice. "Nondis, get back. Go."

"Y̷̝̋o̴̫̍u̴̯̚'̴̭̈́r̴̲͠e̶͔͒ ̸͙̑n̶͎̔o̴͎͝t̸̉͜ ̸͎̐g̶̮̏o̵͍͗i̶̭̅n̸̺͘g̴̬̋ ̴͍̓a̶͎̿n̸̙̆y̶̼͂w̴̼̾h̵̺̚ĕ̷̺ř̷͔e̸͎͝!̵̦͛" He shouted as he yanked me closer to him. "A̵s̶ ̶l̸o̴n̷g̶ ̷a̶s̴ I keep you separate from your friends, those elements won't work worth a damn! I know that you're banking on the idea of being with them, being close to them so you can achieve your purpose. Not this time, not ever."

As he tried to pull me under once more, I summoned my spear and thrusted at him, disrupting his effort. "Whatever you have planned, it won't work anymore."

"Oh? Why is that?" He asked as he tried to sink me under yet again.

"Because I sent Twilight to destroy the portal already." I answered, causing his efforts to come to a complete halt. He stared at me with a tilted head, questioning if I was bluffing again. "And knowing her, she can get to Ponyville and back in the matter of seconds."

A tendril wrapped around my neck, holding up my chin as he drew closer into me. "You think I don't have that power!?" He snarled, his horn beginning to glow brightly. "I̶ ̶l̵i̵v̷e̷d̷ ̸f̷o̸r̷ ̵f̵i̷v̴e̷ ̷c̴e̸n̵t̵u̸r̶i̷e̸s̴!̵Ỉ̴̗ ̴̋͜h̵̨̚a̴̹͆v̷͉̒ȇ̶̦ ̵̘̿t̴̼͝h̷̥̃â̸̖t̵̺͗ ̵̞̐p̷̟̈́o̶̞͘w̴̻͒e̵͇̒r̸͔̐!̴̺̑"

In a bright flash, in the brief instance of Celestia calling out to me, we disappeared from the mountainside...

...And reappeared within the portal room of Twilight's Castle. He continued to hold a tentacle against my neck, still screaming at me as he looked up. "D̵o̷ ̷y̴o̵u̴ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̷k̴ ̶y̸o̷u̵r̵ ̶b̶l̶u̸f̸f̷..."

His face twisted with anger as he saw the purple wood splintered around the room, bits and pieces of it seared and blackened from the impact of magic. The mirror itself was shattered as well, the panel still survived the blast, but the access lever was removed.

"Now you see that I wasn't bluffing!" I said back to him. "And guess what, the three engineers who made the portals are Princess Luna, Princess Twilight, and Princess Celestia, all of whom you've pissed the fuck off! So guess what, daddy? We're stuck here, whether you like it or not!" In a bid of anger, he summoned my phone and tried to see if it had any signal. But while he took the moment to check, I also snatched it back and dismissed it to somewhere else he wouldn't think of me hiding it. "Oh no, the phones don't work anymore either, jackass! Connections, severed! Weapons, gone! Scorched fucking earth, you get nothing! I know you don't like hearing these two words, but you're gonna hear them to-fucking-day! YOU LOST!"

He squinted in rage as he started to rationalize his alternatives. And since he knew who were the portal makers, his mind trailed to that thought and how he would coax it out of them. "All it takes is but a kiss..."

"We know where your lab is." I answered back.

"And I'll know everything of how to get to your world!" He replied.

"You don't get it, do you!?" I said as I used my magic to surround the spear with it's aura, increasing it's power and slicing through the tendril. "There's nowhere you can hide!"

He quickly rose to the air before I could run to him, levitating himself. He looked down to me and started to grin. "I never intended to hide."

I looked around to see that we were still in the portal room of Twilight's castle. But as I started to take his words into consideration, followed by the words he said to me earlier, it started to make sense why he felt so smug about the situation. "Wait..."

He chuckled briefly. "You're slower than I once thought." He said before disappearing, leaving me in the room by myself.

"DAMMIT!"

Mt. Canter...

Celestia began to search her way through the mountain, looking to see if she could find where the two combatants had gone. She walked with a sense of urgency, hoping that she would be able to find them before anything unfortunate were to happen.

However, Umbra found her before she could find him. "Hello, p̸r̵i̴n̵c̴e̶s̸s̴." He greeted her, venemously spitting at her title.

Celestia started to let her magic warm her horn as she braced herself for combat. "Where is Nondis?"

"Well to our misfortune, I left him where he should stay for now." He said, quietly and calmly walking up to the high princess. "It's a shame really, how he'll never get to see what I'm going to do next to such a beautiful princess."

Celestia gritted her teeth with disgust. "Well pleasantries are far from a menu item, what do you want?"

"You have something I desire." As he inched closer, he slowed his approach and licked his lips.

"And I take it you'll do what you can to get it." She replied, backing away.

"Not just what I can, but what's necessary." He answered as he tapped his lips.

Celestia sent a beam his way, which he countered easily. "I have nothing to give you but pain!" She said, brushing her hoof against the ground as to warn him of his approach.

Not impressed with her reply, Umbra sent a tentacle to knock her over. "Seems more like that's what you've offered for yourself."

The princess stood up, only to have her hooves swept from under her. Again, she tried to stand, but was met with another blow that sent her sliding into another wall. She did so yet again, showing resilience against the blows that threatened to topple her time and time again. But the deranged unicorn began to lose his amusement in watching the high princess getting knocked down by simple blows. "I don't mind holding you here!" She replied.

"But your body will mind after some broken bones." He said, losing his patience with her continued attempts to hold back her true strength.

His hits grew a lot more potent, his strikes much more precise. He abandoned the idea of going at her legs, instead going for her vitals. He had the cruel appendages lunged at her neck, aiming to puncture her jugular. But she dodged well enough to avoid the killing blow. However he had sent another to crush her spine. She wasn't as fortunate in attempting to dodge the hit, receiving a painful swipe that broke her ribs and her left wing. She struggled to stay standing as the pain in her back made it hard for her to even breathe.

"And you're still holding back, thinking you'll resist me, how childish." He said before sending another tendril to uppercut the princess in her jaw. "D̵i̴d̵ ̵y̶o̵u̸ ̸r̴e̶a̴l̸l̴y̸ ̶t̴h̴i̵n̶k̸ ̸y̶o̷u̶ ̸h̶a̸d̴ ̸a̴ ̵c̴h̶a̶n̸c̵e̷?̵"

Celestia staggered to her hooves, spitting out a small amount of blood. "Here's what I think. I think your uncle had more punch when his head hit the ground."

Umbra replied with a swift tendril to the princess' abdomen, impaling her as he snapped at her."Î̴̘'̵̩̆m̶̪͝ ̶͎͛g̵͚̅o̴̤͘i̴̤͝n̵̞͗g̸͕̽ ̸̗͆t̷̨̍o̸̜͝ ̸̰̾e̴̛̟n̸̻̓j̶̨͝o̵̰͠y̵̲͐ ̵͍͒d̴͓͝ḯ̴̻s̷̲̓e̶͔̕m̶͖̿b̴͙͛o̸̪̍w̶̡̑e̷͕͝ļ̴̈́ì̴̧n̵̜͐ǧ̵̗ ̷̙̉y̷͈͛ọ̵̓u̴͔̓ ̸̤̿b̴̧̍e̸͎͛f̸̢̿o̴͖͑r̵̲̚è̷̼ ̸̝̊ẏ̸̹o̶̦̓ü̵͎r̵͍̋ ̷̺͠s̵͈͊u̵̱͠b̴̟̀j̴͓͠e̴̲̎ć̵̻t̷̠̋s̶̫̈!̸̝͘"

In spite of her pain, she laughed in his face and mocked him. "Please do make it a priority to dry my bedsheets on them. They mildew fairly quickly."

The stallion removed his tendril and levitated her over to him, proping her head up to potentially meet with her lips. "I̶'̸l̴l̶ ̵g̸e̷t̴ ̵f̸r̵o̶m̵ ̵y̸o̵u̵ ̴w̴h̶a̷t̵ ̵I̷ ̷n̷e̴e̵d̸."

Celestia opened her eyes to see his lips getting closer to her. At that moment, the princess removed all restraint as she filled her horn with a fiery magic. "What you need is some sun."

With a blast to his eyes, she blinded the stallion and gave him a hoof to his face before telelporting away. Still in a blinded daze, the deranged stallion stumbled and cried out vehemently, his voice piercing through the very rock of the mountain itself.

"W̷̙̘̘̩̃H̸̻͈̳͔́͜Ę̶͈̘͔̺͋̇͝R̸͈̰͖̤̋̇̓̌͆E̴͚̬͎̊̀͘͜ ̶̧̡̜͑̓͌͆͗Ạ̸͚͎̰̈́R̵̙̲̀͂ͅË̴̢̡̮͍͙́͆͝ ̸̤̤͙̀̈́͆̐Y̸̟̙̪̭̗͑O̷̻̗̯̳͘U̴̲̍,̴̲̈́ ̴̨̻͆̑̒͗͘C̶̲̊̀̀̅E̵̡͚̒L̶͉̆͛̚Ë̶̥̜́S̷̞̼͔̣͐̕T̷̻̰͚͒̊̀͌I̷̥͝A̴͇͒!̸̻͉̝̑͝?̴̘̈́͑̀̾̚"

Ponyville...

I ran as fast as my legs could take me, bolting for the train station. I didn't have time to process my fear of trains anymore, not with the hell I endured. And I wasn't in any position to complain.

I ran up to the dormant train station, rushed to the counter, and made my request. "Hey. I need an express train ticket to the castle."

The clerk was an adolescent with a sratchy voice and freckles. "Uh, but the castle's that way." He pointed behind me.

"Not that castle, the other castle, Canterlot Castle!"

The stallin replied. "Sorry, sir. All routes to and from the city are shut down for the day in part by a security threat, Class-X. No trains can run during those alerts."

I raised my left hand, showing the gem embeded in my hand. "I'm an element bearer. Just get me there, and that threat goes away."

The young stallion held firm on protocol, but pointed down the road to a hot air balloon making a landing in town. "Sorry sir, the trains are all down. Maybe you could try a hot air balloon, but the winds are scheduled to run east today."

I was not complaining about the circumstances, just curious as to how miraculous the convenience was. I could only assume that Twilight had gone the extra mile and provided some precautionary measures. Still, the winds had to change somehow. "Who can I talk to to get the winds to change?"

"You could try to reach out to Mayor Mare, but she's pretty busy with city hall right now."

I swear all of Ponyville is in Twilight's back pocket.

I huffed it over to the town hall, busting down the doors to run right into a meeting. "Mayor, change the direction of wind flow from east to north!" I urged.

The mayor appeared almost as if she expected me here. "Captain Nondis, what an unexpected surprise."

"I'm sorry, ma'am. There's no time. There's a Class-X threat up there in Canterlot that had me ported over to here and left back to do some damage." I raised my hand to show the element in my palm. "And I've been ordered to take that thing down."

She stammered at the element in my hand, as well as the scars on my wrists. "I-uh-yes! Winds to north! Got it!"

"Thanks!" I said as I immediately went back to running roughshod through the town.

The mayor hollered back to me. "You'll still need a licensed pilot for the balloon!"

"I know one already!"

Canterlot Castle...

Still anxious for the human that was suddenly swamped into the shadows, the five remaining humans continued to remain calm and follow through with the plan that was laid out. They remained in their position in the castle's keep, watching as Celestia stalked into the front gate, bloodied and ghastly injured.

"Oh God. Oh no, not you too." Melanie gasped as she looked through the scope of Alex's rifle, using it as a spyglass. "Oh she's hurt real bad. She might not make it."

Rickey looked into the scope and saw the princess being laid onto a cart, being rushed towards their direction. "Yikes, she's a goner."

Blueblood also looked into the scope and huffed as though he was unimpressed. "Give her about fifteen minutes, she'll be right back at it again."

"How do you see that and say she'll be back up in fifteen minutes." Melanie questioned the prince.

"Alicorns have healing factors in play. You think that their bodies will heal as quickly as an element bearer, well it can actually be even faster provided they have some semblance of a will to live. It's when they don't feel like going on where it slows. And even then, they heal much faster than the average pony. And I think you all forgot one key factor to add to it."

"What?" Rickey inquired.

"She was an element bearer before, hosting three of them to be exact. She might be a thousand years disconnected from them, but some of that magic still remains." He said looking through the scope once more. "Even now, her body is healing the wounds with extreme prejudice, all because she wants to be up and moving."

"I find that hard to believe." Melanie said as she waved off the prince's explanation.

"Nah, I believe it." Cliff replied. "We've seen it happen before. She had her wing broke and snapped it back in place out of sheer will during a fight against a changeling brute. Trust, ol' girl ain't nothin' to fuck with." He nodded rapidly in exaggerated confirmation.

Blueblood began to shortly recount his experiences. "You think that's bad, try seeing how wounded she'll get in a skirmish, only to come back and slice your platoon to ribbons. I've witnessed it, it's not a fun sight."

Screams from out further in the city attracted the group's attention, seeing a series of large boulders being flung into the castle by large tendrils sprouting from the shadows. "Uh, those don't look fun." Melanie's jaw dropped as she felt helpless in watching some of the large rocks arc high into the air.

Rickey screamed out loudly to the forces all around the castle walls. "INCOMING!"

Shining quickly teleported up to where they stood and wasted no time to erect a temporary barrier to stop all of the large boulders from crashing into the city streets, saving many buildings and lives in the process. Shining stood proud over his work, even having shown little effort in doing so. The humans gawked at the young prince as Stanton called him out. "Dude, you are fucking strong!"

"Thank you, I'll be here all week." Shining joked.

More projectiles came barreling towards the city, being flung through the air at great speeds. Another guard called out to the forces within the castle grounds. "More incoming!"

Blueblood took a look through the scope, quickly identifying the projectiles. "Those are not rocks!" He then called out to the unicorn guards out towards the front, raising his voice loud enough to where it could be heard throughout most of the city. "ALL FORCES ON THE GROUND AND WALLS, PREPARE FOR INTERCEPT!"

"You say that as if these aren't somepony's loved ones, you know!" Shining attested strongly.

Blue quickly replied. "As of now, that doesn't matter! If they land in the city now, we lose!"

While Shining continued to have reservations on the matter, many of the unicorn guards shared them to a lesser degree after having seen what happened to their fellow guards. They were motivated more by fear than the concern for their fallen brethren. Blueblood shouted loudly his commands to the unicorn guards throughout the city. "CASTERS, FIRE!"

Numerous beams of magic of many colors blasted from within the walls of the city, volleying to the bodies that were on trajectory to land within the city. On impact, the bodies were stopped and fell freely from where they were shot. Large tendrils rose high into the air in response to the volley in an attempt to guard against the magic beams sent in direction of the bodies that were launched.

Another wave of bodies were flung into the air, quickly barreling towards the keep. Those that had already crossed the castle walls were beamed into differently, utilizing small teams of three to levitate, move, and cast them away from the city. The collective effort of the guards within the city ensured that a great number of bodies did not penetrate their stout defenses. However, as stout as their defenses were, they could not maintain their effort for an extended period of time.

As a result, one body was launched directly for the castle's position. It was held up by Rarity and Blue, who held the body high enough where it could be moved out by Twilight. But they were having to conduct their efforts against the light of the sun, making it difficult to coordinate with one another. "It would be easier if we didn't have the glare of the sunrise!" Blue complained.

Rarity grumbled out in frustration as she tried to maintain her focus. "Rainbow Dash, where are you girl!?"

Meanwhile on Mt. Canter...

"Move them in! Keep the cloud cover broken where you see the princess!"

High above the clouds hovered a number of flight units, many of which being lead by members of the Wonderbolts. Spitfire bravely led the efforts of her units, also conducting the weather to cover their approach. Some carried lightening clouds to help stall the foul collective down below, others carrying snow clouds to dump ice and cold weather onto whatever bodies had fallen off.

In addition to those other three factors, Spitfire's direct intent was swoop in and cause problems for the attacking monster down below.

Rainbow's eyes darted ahead and called out to the wonderbolt captain. "DANGER AHEAD!"

A large tentacle rose from the ground swatting near their formations, breaking a few off to avoid any injuries. "Watch out!" Some called out to the others, but for a few it was too late. At least seven pegasi were batted out of formation, only to get sent uncontrollably through the air.

"Fair Weather's going down! So is Feather Flow!"

"Commence recovery!"

Two had their wings completely broken and nosedived to the ground. Other pegasi swooped in to try to prevent their flying comrades from meeting death on the mountainside below. More tendrils rose into the air, but behind the formation, causing for many to not see what had started to loom behind them. One was fortunate enough to call it out.

"Bogey on six! Evade! Evade!"

As the entire formation looked behind them, they saw the tendril being flung their way. They quickly made way and avoided the large mound of flesh sending out a number of deceased ponies towards the city.

Spitfire was initially stunned to see the cruel projectices being launched into the city, but quickly snapped herself back to the present effort. Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof had begun to locate Umbra down below. "I have eyes on target!" She called out to the Wonderbolt captain. "Twelve, down low!"

Spitfire acknowledged the pegasi's callout and led her formations downward into a Jerico dive. "Whiskey Squad, with me!"

As they were beaming down to their target, more bodies were flung from a lower altitude with the anticipation of establishing a foothold on the outer walls. "Bodies incoming!" Rainbow called out.

"Evasive maneuvers!" Soarin shouted, allowing most to find the opportuntiy to not get struck. Those who were had been taken out of the air completely, some falling in panic of being hit by a dead body.

Various pegasi guards holding spears waited on Spitfire's command, the one she quickly gave as they closed the distance between them and Umbra himself. "Fire at will!"

A few of the spears impacted the collective's shadow, causing some screams to erupt from the darkness. Umbra looked around to see a bunch of pegasi swooping in and out from around him. He chuckled as he looked up to the flying formations that grabbed his attention. "D̷o̶ ̸y̴o̷u̴ ̷t̸h̴i̷n̶k̴ ̴a̶n̵ ̷a̸r̴m̶y̴ ̸o̶f̴ ̵b̶r̵a̴i̶n̴l̶e̸s̴s̸ ̸b̴i̴r̷d̷s̷ ̵a̸r̷e̷ ̵g̸o̴i̵n̵g̴ ̶t̴o̸ ̴s̶t̴o̶p̷ ̴m̶e̶?̴"

As the deranged unicorn vowed to swat every pegasi from the air, Solemn Oath and her friends held the front line of some dozens of unicorn guards. Each of their horns began to glow, awaiting the order from the guardsmare. "Casters, fire!"

Beams of magic began to intercept the tendrils that vied to swat and smother out the flying ponies around Umbra, who grew less amused in seeing the level of resistence he was encounter by his lonesome. "D̴o̷ ̴y̵o̸u̸ ̵h̸o̵n̶e̶s̵t̵l̸y̵ ̸t̸h̶i̶n̸k̶ ̷a̶ ̶b̴u̸n̷c̶h̵ ̴o̴f̶ ̸h̶o̶r̵n̴e̵d̴ ̵f̴o̵o̶l̸s̴ ̷a̸r̸e̶ ̴g̷o̴i̶n̸g̵ ̵t̶o̷ ̸s̷u̶b̴d̵u̷e̶ ̴m̵e̴?"

Meanwhile, a number of earth pony guards had lined themselves up to the side of the mountain, each of them holding a number of weapons and rocks to use to their tactical advantage. They came cross one set of tendrils that were ready to fling another set of bodies into the city. Colonel Crackdown motioned his hoof forward and gave the order. "Now!"

Thwacks and twangs of crossbows loosing their volleys sounded throughout the higher side of the mountain, and in simultaneous unison, squads of stronger guards labored with large boulders to send over the side of the mountain to collide with the tendrils that aimed to toss bodies into the city. "PUSH!" Large rocks and boulders were rolled off, many missing their targets, but hitting others that threatened to grow. But one tendril that had built all of it's momentum to fling bodies behind the walls had been struck, and the bodies whose trajectory was set for within the walls, hand only hit the walls and watched the two dozen corpses launched carelessly down the mountainside.

The sudden change had greatly angered Umbra now. "Á̸͓n̷̾͜d̷͖̔ ̸̖̑n̷̪̈ö̵̥́w̴̳̔ ̴̮̓a̶̹͠ ̴̣̐b̸͇̆u̸͈͊ǹ̵̳c̴̗̕h̶̨͝ ̴̛̗o̴̙͘f̴͈͊ ̸̛̟d̵̥̉i̴̒͜r̵̾͜t̵̡͛ ̷̧͛w̷̛̼ǒ̵͓r̶̦̕m̴̬̍ŝ̵͉ ̵̻̄t̴͉̉h̶̹̚i̶̼͗ṋ̶͂k̸͍̇i̵̩̒ń̸̨g̶̥͒ ̷͓̒t̶̙̆h̵̲͝ḛ̶̃y̶̙̒ ̵͖̉c̸͚̎á̴͔n̷̩̈ ̴̧͋g̶̯̈ṛ̸̿õ̴̹u̶̗̓n̵̙̎d̸̬͗ ̶̲̽m̴̥͝e̴̢̓!̸͎̂?̶̣̇ W̴̯̑H̸̡̾A̴͔͘Ṯ̴̅ ̷͕͌Ḍ̴̏O̶̡͋ ̸̗̓Y̷̲̔Ȯ̶͕Ų̶̛ ̴͚͝T̵͝ͅÄ̶̡́K̷̻̈́E̸̠͌ ̴͉̇M̶̻̏Ē̸̬ ̷̳͋F̶͍͊O̶̙͛R̶̳̈́!̵̥̐?̵̮̾"

The stallion suffered yet another dive kick from the cyan pegasus mare, knocking out a tooth this time. "You are exactly what you are, Umbra!" Rainbow shouted as she flew back into the air.

Umbra's tongue felt around his mouth, realizing that one of his front teeth had been completely done away with. He was now absolutely furious, unwilling to allow the transgressions made against him stand for any longer. Several tendrils now stood around him, he screamed out to the forces that surrounded him.

"G̴̬͒͋E̶̎͂͜T̴̹̙̈ ̵̯̿ͅO̴̞͝U̷̮̽ͅT̴̬̝̐ ̴͎̞̇Ô̷̡F̷̡̥͋ ̶̡̛̈́M̵͓̆Y̴͔̫̅͝ ̵̫́W̶̘͇͒A̵͉̒Y̸͉̿!̷̲͙̓"

Meanwhile...

The city of Canterlot had appeared in the distance. It appeared to be one hell of a light show going on from the distance that we came from. Although we were short on time, the changed winds carried great favor towards us, boosting us past the fields below and closer towards the mountain. The only problem now was that the winds were subject to change according to the city's jurisdiction. And if I recall, the winds in Canterlot were blowing eastward. If we were at the mercy of the wind, we'd be blown off course.

Our only saving grace thus far was the effort of Ponyville's weather team giving us all they had in the push northward. And Spike could only guide the balloon so much with all the air resistance. "How much longer do you think it'll take?" I asked the young drake.

"I don't know, it depends on the wind patterns of Mount Canter. And the pegasi in Canterlot are the ones who control that." Spike answered as he raised the heat in the balloon to give us a little more elevation.

"I know that there was a west wind taking the air eastward when I got back to the city earlier this morning, it was almost hell to ride against." I informed him as I summoned my phone back, looking at the empty signal bar in the top-right corner. "I just wish we could quickly communicate in some way that didn't rely on our phones."

Spike stopped tending to the heat, probably giving off just enough to where we would be safe in flying over the battlements and some of the buildings. He reached into a bag that he had packed along the way, pulling out a piece of parchment and a quill. "Out of habit, I always bring some scrolls and pens to write with." He said as he also pulled out an ink well, dipping the quill inside. "Twilight's always making a list or note of some sort, so I'm always ready."

I tilted my head for a moment. "Okay, but how does it get to them?" He didn't say anything but sighed a green flame. I nodded in realization. "Okay, I completely forgot you could do that."

"All you gotta do is say the word, and I'll send it to the princess that way."

A thought of humor tickled me for a brief moment, and then I glanced over to the city ahead, seeing the tentacled collective storming past the main entrance. It was then where I realized the winds were going to change over soon.

I looked to the young dragon and nodded. "Spike, take a note."

Canterlot...

Now recovered from her injuries, Celestia stepped back to the forefront of the battle. The mare continued to show restraint in using her magic, but made no such reservations in using her physical strength. She assisted the pegasi and earth pony units in trying to be a distraction and using a variety of heavy items to squash any tendrils that threatened to grow. And with her flying prowess, she could cut down any tendril that came about with her halberd. Solemn Oath and her friends did what they could in disposing of the bodies before they could hit the ground.

However, Umbra still forced his way through the numerous defenders of the city, swatting away platoons at a time in his march for the castle. "Princess, he's still advancing!" Solemn called out.

Celestia acknolwedged the urgency and flew to intercept him, only to be swatted out of the way herself midflight. He also threw a wagon he found on the street at her, burying her under it's contents. "Now I understand... You all anticipated that I would get in the way of the element bearers. After all, it's been done twice now." He muttered to the princess he swiftly delt with, before setting his eyes back to the damaged checkpoint ahead. "B̴u̴t̵ ̶b̴e̵i̷n̵g̸ ̸p̸r̶e̶p̷a̷r̴e̵d̵ ̵t̷o̵ ̶s̶t̸o̶p̵ ̴m̴e̴ ̵a̸n̴d̴ ̶b̷e̴i̵n̴g̶ ̵a̷b̵l̷e̶ ̸t̸o̶ ̷s̴t̵o̸p̷ ̶m̷e̵ ̷a̸r̷e̵ ̶t̵w̴o̷ ̶d̶i̵f̴f̸e̴r̷e̵n̷t̷ ̶t̷h̵i̶n̷g̶s̷!̵"

As he marched away, Solemn and the others quickly did what they could to get the royal from underneath the wreckage. "Princess!" Cobalt said as she helped Solemn.

The four mares got on either side of the wagon. "Okay, on three. One. Two. Three." Gleaming Brass called out as they labored over the cart. Their labors lasted for only a split second as the princess did most of the work to move the cart off of her body. After freeing herself, she crumpled down strained, holding her chest.

"Your highness, I know you're holding back for our sake, but you must use your magic!" Solemn spoke out.

In spite of the pain, Celestia still had the fortitude to observe her surroundings. A bit of her magic activated on it's own, summoning a scroll that dropped on her. She looked up to see a balloon floating in the distance, listlessly moving off course from the city. She opened the scroll and read the message. Her horn immediately began to glow.

"Princess." Cobalt whispered before giving the princess a salute. "We're ready to engage when you are!"

"No." She said as she squinted her eyes towards the balloon in the distance., wincing in pain as she stood. "Our parts... in this fight... have concluded." She stressed through the agony of her broken ribs, her reinjured wings, and her sprained leg.

Her horn shined even brighter as she anchored herself in place.

"The rest... is on them."

As Umbra approached the checkpoint, Blue Royal, Blueblood, and Shining Armor each stood in the way of the diabolical doctor. Blue firmed her resolve as she faced her brother's killer once more. She scraped her hoof against the ground in a threatening motion. "Guess it's our turn now." She said energetically.

"We have our support." Blueblood said to blue before looking to the young prince. "You're the shield, I'm the spear."

Shining cracked his neck, bravely running forward to the front of the three-pony formation. "Let's knock 'em down!"

Both Blue and Blueblood started channeling their spells, gathering an immense amount of magic with the intent to keep Umbra from reaching the other element bearers. On the opposing side, the evil stallion looked to the mare at the back of the formation. "A̵w̶,̷ ̵p̵o̵o̸r̵ ̶t̸h̵i̸n̸g̴ ̷w̴a̶n̵t̶s̵ ̷t̵o̵ ̵r̸e̷u̴n̷i̶t̴e̵ ̸w̵i̵t̵h̷ ̸h̸e̵r̴ ̸d̵e̵a̴r̸l̸y̸ ̷d̸e̵p̴a̶r̴t̴e̶d̸ ̷b̸r̴o̷t̶h̶e̴r̶!̸ ̵S̸o̸ ̸s̴o̵o̸n̷?" He mocked her.

Blueblood finished chaneling his spell with an incantation. "Heaven's light shine down! Send forth a rain of your immaculate power! Become the spears I use to pierce my foes!"

Pillars of light stemed from the clouds above producing luminous javelins and pikes that floated slowly from the sky. Umbra recognized that he had to interrupt their spell to avoid the damage the attack could cause, and summoned a large tendril to rise into the air. Shining wasn't as slow to the draw with his incantation, quickly calling a spell to protect the trio. "Heaven's light cascade around us! Become the shield that nurtures us and protect us from wrath!"

Blue had finished her incantation, causing a set of ominous periwinkle clouds to appear in the sky. "Gate through eternal void, show your passage! Let your blade thrust and sever all bonds!" What appeared to be a funnel diving in from the sky, suddenly gave off light to reveal a larger than life sword to appear from the temporary tornado. It was the culmination of her father's magic being used for the first time.

Umbra identified that the blade combined with the spears of light would drastically reduce the bodies he'd have in his collective for some time. His tendril came down to bash at the trio. "U̶̘̎S̷̳̆E̴̜͐L̷̪̊E̵̍ͅS̴̝̓S̷͕̃!̵̛̘"

"DIVINE PALING!" Shining called out loudly, casting an inpenetrable magenta shield around the party. As the tendril came down, so too did Shining collapse to the ground in receiving the full brunt of the blow. He called out to the other two unicorns around him. "Pin him down!"

"HOLY LANCE!" Blueblood called out loudly.

"My family will get justice!" Blue Royal shouted to the evil stallion. "BANE FINALITY!"

A series of lights shone from the pillars that surrounded the doctor, jettisoning the spears and javelins of varying shapes into the stallion's body. Umbra grunted with each hit he took. Every impact rang with an angelic brilliance, signifying their effect on their target as a total of eight spears ran through him. The spears then glowed even brighter, burning bright and hot to the touch until they all exploded in a brilliant flash. Once that spell subsided, Blue's spell soon ran into the stallion, creating a powerful blast that tore asunder the many tentacles that rose from his collective.

Umbra chuckled after the combined attacks, startling all three of the unicorns. He rose from the smoldering dust of their magical onslaught and stood as though very little had damaged him. He merely tossed away a heavily damaged corpse that resembled nothing more than a dangling collection of bones and rotting meat. "Wow, you fools really put in a lot of effort on those attacks! I'm impressed!" He said as he playfully yawned. "B̶͍͌Ŭ̶͕T̴͕̔ ̶͈̀I̸̋͜'̶̲̓M̵̞̀ ̶̪̓N̴͈͌O̸̠̾T̵̘̅ ̶̨̋Ḑ̶̍Ò̴̙N̴̠͋Ė̷̳!̷͍̀"

He took a deep dive into his collective, staying in the shadow for a few seconds before he slowly rose atop a great figure fashioned from the bodies of several ponies. Instead of tendrils, hooves, teeth, and bones were fashioned to claws, flesh to skin and muscle. He raised his hooves with majestic ascension, his mismatched wings sprouting from his back. Affixed to his very hooves was the new look his collective took on. Fashioning itself to the likeness of a headless arimaspi, he unleashed a terrible roar that didn't just rattle the foundations of some buldings nearby, but shattering the windows of several buildings, including some to the front of the castle.

The three looked on with horror, even the battle-hardened princes being shook to their cores as to what the collective had morphed into. "What is this hell!?" Shining questioned as he readied yet another spell for defense. The creature yelled in a legion of voices but one word to the unicorns.

"S̶̱̅͋H̵͙͗A̴̭͌̈́͜T̸̜̃T̴̜͚͌̏Ë̵̢͓͑R̸̦̦͠!̷̢̛͓͠!̷͇̒̾!̵̲͇̅̕"

With a crackling snap, the spells of the unicorns were quenched immediately. The roar was so loud that it threatened to rupture the eardrums of the three unicorns who stood against it. The trio collapsed to the ground, holding their ears as they tried to stave away the pain.

"H̴̲̉͘Ẹ̷̢͊E̶̻̒̍̕L̵̖̣̋ ̴̨̪̙̎͒L̶͉̲̈́̚I̵̛̤̓͌K̷̤͠͠Ẽ̵̻̺̽́ ̷͖̦̈́T̵̟̈́Ḥ̴̳̋̽E̵̠͌͊ ̶̥͖̓͋͗R̶̬̓Ó̷̗͔̈͜Ÿ̸̙́Ã̷͖̘̖̐L̷̫̜̾ ̵̫̂͌̽D̴̰̹̏͆̈Ơ̸̪̞͈G̷̗̺͚̑̏̽S̵̨̟̦̿ ̷̣͑Y̶̨͊̚͝O̸̰̘̦̕Ǘ̷̗̪ͅ ̸̛͚̐̄A̴̜͖̠̎R̴̲̽Ẻ̸̪̈͠!̵̳̗͔̒"

A fist was raised to the trio with the bid to crush them where they were. But another shield appeared before the horrific creature long before his fist could come down. Umbra looked around to see a princess flying to the far side of the courtyard, she then sent a destructive beam towards the creature to prompt it to shield itself from the blast. She powered up once more. "Maybe it's you who need to stop while you're ahead!"

Another spear was launched into the stallion, who expressed great pain in feeling the steel tip pierce his hindleg. Rainbow once more swooped in from behind him. Umbra frustratingly swiped for the pegasus, who had dodged his attempt before reuniting with her friends. Behind the five able-bodied mares was their sixth injured friend, as well as the five humans bearing their elements in hand. "Alright everypony! We stop this here and now!" Rainbow cheered as she and her Ponyville friends sycronized their magic.

The six mares floated into the air, transforming to their elemental forms. Each of their tails and manes extended to great lengths, their hooves became adorned with magic and the shapes of their respective marks. Their eyes glowed white as they levitated high into the air. Twilight spoke loudly, her voice booming across the grounds.

"UMBRA SANCTUS, YOU HAVE BROKEN THE FRAGILE FABRIC OF THE NATURAL ORDER! THE CRIMES YOU HAVE COMMITTED ARE FAR TOO GREAT TO BE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE! AND THUS YOU SHALL BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE!"

Umbra cocked his fist back and threw a punch at the six mares, knocking them over. He belted out in victory over the party of six.

"Į̵̛͓̗̩!̴̦͓̋͋̎ ̴͓̐̽͘Ȃ̶̫̽̀̚M̷͕̃!̵̲͎̭̃ ̸͍͇̠̼̓̈͝J̸̛̼͈͐̆͌Ű̶̧̝̭̖͝S̸̡̤͈̉T̸̫̫̑͐̄I̷̦͙͖͝C̵͙̞̄̆E̷̬̔̓͒̈́͜͜!̴̨̆̓̎͝"

"WRONG!"

The stallion froze, wondering where the voice came from. But a second spear made of silver and coated in a magic aura was lodged into his side. He unleashed a terrible howl as he looked over to see who it was that impaled him.

Holding the spear in my right hand, I stared down the unicorn who had made himself into the horror he was now. I shouted down to him. "You ain't shit!"

Umbra screamed out loudly. "H̸̤͌̊̏̔O̶̻͔͚̓͐͊́ͅW̴͎͇͌̂̔ͅ!̴̥͝?"

I tilted my head and answered his question. "Dude, you literally dropped me off in the very town that's known for being the most disaster-ready, like drop-shit-and-go ready, do-not-ask-questions-and-do-it ready! Ponyville is the main place built for quick response to natural disasters, national security threats, and the immediate deployment of Equestia's nuclear option! THE FUCK YOU THINK WAS GONNA HAPPEN!?"

Not wanting to accept his miscalculation, he looked at me with the anticipation of landing a killing blow. His magic charged and concentrated into a small ball at the top of his head.

"N̷͖̳̼̾͒͆̕ͅÓ̵̫̔̽͂!̸̥̜̯́̑̒͆ I̷̟͌͆͊̐̀ ̴͓͓͕̄̏Ẉ̸̛̎́I̴̯̋̈́L̵̹̭͕̝̲͠Ḽ̵̎̔̑ ̶̲͝͝N̸̺͌͋͐̚Ǫ̶͎͓̜̍̈́̑́T̸͈͉̻͑͐̀̉͜ ̴̡̳̑̓̃̎͝L̷̜̹̲̪̤̒O̷̒͒́͜͝͠S̸͚̙̻̓̿͝Ę̵̫̤̘͛͑̑̉ ̶̺̬͉͖̗͌̌͑͊H̶̠̥̺̝̮̑̋̎͌E̵̜͓͕͌Ŗ̷̦̤̥͛͋̄͐͘E̷̩̪̦̬̜̎̏͝!̶͚̙͇͇̱̌̒̉͝"

But before he could unleash his spell at me, I countered by grabbing his horn. Smoke came from my left hand as he tried to cast through it, but he realized that his magic was being drained away faster than he could charge it. He lashed around, trying to get me off of him, but I held on by the very spear that was lodged in his body and the horn that crackled and seared. He even went so far as to try and crush me against his mangled form. But I was quick to let a hand go to summon my claymore, channeling my magic through it's blade and launching it back into the palm that tried to crush me. He howled out in pain as he tried to use his magic again, growing more and more frustrated with his inability to cast. He looked down to my hand and noticed not a single burn mark on my fingers.

What he failed to realize was the fact that the magic inhibitor he placed on my wrist was sitting firmly on his horn. And since he seared it, trying to burn my hand away, he inadvertently grafted it into his own horn. He reached up to see what it was, and confirmed the foreign object. I took back out my phone, took a quick picture, and showed it to him, the image of his face with the now-grafted magic inhibitor on his horn.

It was in all honesty the first time I've seen terror in his eyes.

My left hand began to glow with an almighty power. My body began to feel a weightlessness as I let go of the spear that I held onto. The colors of the world around me grew bright and vivid. "It's just like I told you already, Umbra! 𝕐𝕆𝕌 𝕃𝕆𝕊𝕋!!"

As my element called upon the others, my friends were lifted to join me. Bright streams of light whipped around us, winds of divine protection sheltered us, and our eyes glowed with a radiance unlike what we were used to. Even my voice had suddenly become firm, loud, and casted beyond even the reach of the mountain's shadow. In contrast, the beams of light that were shed from us began to weaken the maddened doctor. "I̵̫̾ ̶͓̓W̷͉͆I̵͍͝L̶̳͊Ĺ̵̘ ̶͓̐N̶̺̍Ŏ̸ͅT̴͍̕ ̶̳̉B̵̙͂E̷̼͘ ̴̺͋S̷͕̅Ȍ̷͓ ̸̯̀E̶̟͠Ḁ̷͐S̷̼͛I̶͎̊Ḽ̴̐Y̴͔̿ ̶̗́D̶̲̈́E̶̼͂F̵̬͌E̴̠̔A̷̳̾Ṫ̴͕Ẻ̸̢D̶̼̈́!̶͕̑"

The fist of his collective was ran into our union, only to be broken apart as quickly as it made impact. I called out to the stallion with a commanding resonance.

"'𝕌𝕄𝔹ℝ𝔸' 𝕊𝔸ℕℂ𝕋𝕌𝕊 ℚ𝕌𝕆ℝ𝕌𝕄! 𝕐𝕆𝕌 ℍ𝔸𝕍𝔼 𝔹ℝ𝕆𝕂𝔼ℕ 𝕋ℍ𝔼 ℕ𝔸𝕋𝕌ℝ𝔸𝕃 𝕆ℝ𝔻𝔼ℝ! 𝔸ℕ𝔻 𝕋ℍ𝔼ℕ 𝔻𝔸ℝ𝔼 𝕋𝕆 𝔼ℕ𝔻𝔸ℕ𝔾𝔼ℝ 𝕆𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ 𝕎𝕆ℝ𝕃𝔻𝕊 𝕎𝕀𝕋ℍ 𝕐𝕆𝕌ℝ 𝔸𝕄𝔹𝕀𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ𝕊 𝕆𝔽 ℙ𝕃𝔸𝕐𝕀ℕ𝔾 𝔾𝕆𝔻!"

"T̶̙͑H̷͕̕Ĭ̷̳S̷͈̄ ̸̠͘I̵̬̅S̴̻̿ ̶͈̂M̵̮̂Y̴͕͂ ̸̻̈́W̸͙͂O̴̤͊R̷̻͌L̴̤̅D̸̪̂!̸̡̉" He hollered as our light continued to weaken his form, all while ours grew even stronger. "I̴ ̴O̴W̴N̴ ̸I̷T̴ ̵A̶L̴L̴! IT OWES ME EVERYTHING!"

"𝕐𝕆𝕌ℝ ℂ𝔸𝕄ℙ𝔸𝕀𝔾ℕ 𝕆𝔽 𝕋𝔼ℝℝ𝕆ℝ 𝔸ℕ𝔻 𝕄𝔸𝕃𝕀ℂ𝔼 𝔼ℕ𝔻𝕊 ℍ𝔼ℝ𝔼, 𝕄𝔸𝕐 𝕐𝕆𝕌ℝ 𝕊𝕋𝕆ℝ𝕐 𝔹𝔼 𝕌ℕ𝕎ℝ𝕀𝕋𝕋𝔼ℕ 𝔸ℕ𝔻 𝕐𝕆𝕌ℝ 𝔽𝔸𝕋𝔼 𝔹𝔼 𝕊𝔼𝔸𝕃𝔼𝔻!"

Our hands joined, the six of us embracing each other with insurmountable joy and comraderie. The magic within us began to surge upward like a powerful updraft. "No." Umbra had saw the colors peeking through each one of us, a beam shooting out from where we stood. "No... NO... NOOOOOOOOO!!!"

A bright prismatic blast launched from each of us, arching high into the air before coming back down to where Umbra tried to shield himself with his forelegs.

"̸͔̥͉̪̓̊̉̎̃͜Y̴̹̖̗͕̩͐́E̷̙̽̄̈́̔́Ȃ̷̝̝Ą̸̜͙̖̝̉͆̀̔̇A̶̮̱̙͛Ă̷̳̝̞̜̼A̵̳͇̞̞̎́̀͠ͅR̵̻͗Ŗ̶̧̣͍͆̋̆͂͜͝R̴̜̩̬͖̋̈́̅R̴̟̹̝̲̒̓̔͆̕R̶̢̛̙̿̇͐͠G̵͎̉̅̏Ģ̷̳̄͌̋H̵̭̼̞̬͊̄̀H̸̨̆̐Ḥ̷͂Ḥ̷̖͎̾͊ͅH̴̨̙̹̖́!̴̢͗̀̏̾̊ͅ"̸͈̖̇

The light scorched his skin, searing some of his flesh. The power that was rushed through him purified many of the limbs of his collective. Hundreds of bodies were broken apart from one another, falling to the ground as though they rediscovered freedom. Our first blast had the stallion chattering out in pain. Rainbow called out to us from down below. "He's still up! Hit him again!" We did as she instructed, the powers once more surged throughout our bodies as it did before, reapplying the process for a much longer time. Instead of a few hundred bodies falling to the wayside, it was now over a thousand that crumpled off. The size of the collective was completely reduced, almost to that of a few dozen bodies weakly clinging to what appeared to be the decapitated form of an arimaspi. Umbra looked up to us, his coat singed and his forelegs weakened from trying to guard himself from the two prior blasts.

"Ỳ̷̹̘͂͆̃O̴͔̪̔̊̽Ű̵̳̯͔͚̎̑̊̆ ̴̰͖́͌̾̈́W̵̰̑͘͠Ṟ̵͙͚̝̉Ĕ̷̘͇̝͙̩͐͑̄Ć̸̤H̶̢̜̻̭͕̒͗́E̷̲͐̈̽D̸͚̯̳͊̅͋ ̷͕̗̲̑Ḣ̶̼͖͐̀̅U̸̱̮̐̚M̸̧͇͔̤̆̉̆A̶̦̠̱̰͈͆̂̿̑͂N̴̜͎̰̬̬̈́̓S̸̳͈̿̔͝!̷̖̋̚̚͝"

He reached down to grab any bit of rubble from the damaged checkpoint, looking to toss the heavy stones our way. But before he was able to lift his claws from the rubble, another magic greatsword descended from the clouds above, blowing off his left arm. He yelped in overwhelming pain, looking to the source of the spell that was used. Blue stood weakly, toppling over after using the spell another time. "It's only natural." She said to him in a mocking manner.

He looked over to see another eight spears of light impale his right arm, exploding and sending the other limb down to the ground. Umbra once more screamed out in pain while Blueblood was held up by Shining Armor. He muttered the stallion's own words to him. "It's not revenge, it's just justice."

With nothing left to defend himself, Umbra gawked in fear at the humans who slowly descended to land the final blow. Once more, I called out to the stallion in a powerful voice.

"𝕊𝕌𝔹𝕄𝕀𝕋!"

The final blast did as the other two before, reaching into the air before coming back down to land a direct hit on the evil doctor. Stripping him of much of his powers.

N̷͎̻͒͊͘Ỏ̷̲̗̭͎͝Ö̶̥̟́̿͘O̴͔̒̌Ò̷͍̜̣̚O̷͎͂͜͜Ȏ̷̢Ỏ̴̹̏O̶̹̕O̸̹͋O̶O̶OOO!

At the end of his terror came a pathetic collection of bodies, fillies and elderly beings, including the young filly I was forced to put down. She was the closest to the defeated stallion, who stumbled up in his severly weakened state. He looked down to the young filly and began a frail attempt to conjoin with her.

As we landed on the ground, our powers subsided and our features returned to normal. Alex no longer had the tattoos on his arm, Stanton's hands were no longer orange, Cliff's mouth was no longer blue, Mel had only a small streak of pink in her hair but it did not overwhelm her, and the element that was lodged in my palm had fallen out to the ground, returning to it's magenta color. We looked to one another, realizing that our purpose had finally come to fruition.

We did it. We saved the world.... We saved both worlds.

Celestia walked through the damaged checkpoint with her entourage of guards, discovering the carnage that was left behind. The high princess took stock of the condition of the castle grounds and started assessing numbers for cleanup. But the first thing that truly grabbed her attention was the sight of the stallion looking at his adopted daughter, trying to meld with her once more. "I cannot... I never..."

The guards around her stood before her to protect her, but she raised a hoof to dismiss them. Instead, she walked forward and loomed over the stallion. "Just stay down."

He looked back up to her, the corners of his mouth twitched as he lashed out at her. "NEVER!" He shouted. "NOT SO LONG AS YOU DRAW BREATH!"

Celestia looked to the stallion, not with pity, but with indifference. She rolled her eyes and levitated her own weapon before him. She then dropped it before him, walking before him and sat patiently. The stallion glared up to her, grimacing as she spoke softly. "I'll give you one strike, one chance to make your point. If you find your justice to be true, then it will be all you need to bring me down. Whether I die or not, I will give up everything. So prove to me that your justice is real."

The stallion glanced down to the weapon that took the head of his uncle. And without the aid of his magic, he sought to lift the pole from off the ground. But even that was far too much for his neck to support, too heavy for his teeth to grip, too powerful for his hooves to swing. He gave it his everything, stressing, grunting, screaming, bleeding at his gums to lift the weapon his uncle could not lift.... the same weapon that he too could not lift.

Panting and grunting in his newfound sense of defeat, he stared back with his mouth agape, blood and slobber running down his damaged teeth and worn lips. Celestia leaned over and easily bit the pole, lifting it up of her own accord before using her magic to wield it once more. Umbra closed his eyes, expecting the same treatment his uncle had received. "...Well what are you waiting for? End it."

Celestia took note of the magic inhibitor on his horn, but exercised extreme caution. "And send you over to another body, to let you run free on someone else's account? I'm not the fool you are."

I walked over to the pair of ponies, looking to the princess. "What's the deepest level we got for magic threats for simple detainment?"

"It's not here." She answered. "It's in an undisclosed location of Equestria, a place where not even the most hardened of criminal masterminds will be able to escape so easily. Tartarus."

"Do you have a way of getting him in and out?" I questioned her.

"Easily." She confirmed before looking to the stallion. "You don't get your day at the gallows without having at least one in court."

Solemn and her friends quickly approached, summoning chains to lock him into. As they did so, I signaled to the four mares my next command, but not before kneeling down before him and making him process my words. "Take. His ass. Away."

Celestia, in an effortless motion, summoned a portal and walked the quartet of mares into it, along with the new prisoner.

As the portal closed behind her, I collapsed to my backside and stared into the sky. "...I need a drink, a blunt, and some shrooms."

"You realize that's how you got here, right?" Rickey asked with a laugh.

"Yeah. I wanna run this shit back." I said sarcastically. "Holy fuck, that was a nightmare."

I closed my eyes and took into perspective this whole entire twenty-four hour experience, much less the weekend preceding it. All I felt was a lingering emptiness of self. I've won, but at what cost? What did I do to achieve what I promised to do other than suffer? How many others have suffered because of this?

Questions for later, I guess.

The sounds of cheers began to gradually erupt all around the castle grounds. I wasn't really in any mood to join them, I was just tired. But did everyone else throw themselves into an uproar over the well-earned victory. The cheers were quick to ripple out beyond the castle's keep, crashing and rebounding throughout the alleys and streets of the town. The horrific skirmish of defending Canterlot from a great beast of the undead, the Seige of Canterlot Castle had ended.

Humbreeze was the first to swoop down and congratulate me personally "Captain!" He shouted as he appeared like a young foal meeting his hero for the first time. "You saved us, you saved our lives!"

Soarin approached me, giving the hair on my head a real rubbing in. "We couldn't be anymore grateful to you! You're killing it as a first year guy!"

The portal opened back up to reveal all five of the mares who entered in, sans the stallion that they brought with them. The four mares walked up to congratulate me. "Wow... I don't know what to say but... That was amazing! Terrifying as hell, but amazing!" Cobalt replied.

Twilight nudged me from my side, praising me for my work. "Well done, you hero you."

Spitfire floated close behind me, planting both her hooves onto my shoulders. "Not bad, rookie. You've always been a surprise to us. We'll talk it up after we finish with this whole cleanup biz."

The group of Wonderbolts flew away to commence to their operations. I didn't have the energy to stand up, but I did so anyway. "Hey, Nondis!" My eyes popped open as soon as I heard the young dragon's voice from up above. "It stinks up here, can I come down?"

Twilight appeared surprised, apparently she didn't think that her number one assistant would also be my number one in the clutch. "Spike!?"

She looked to me, a bit miffed that I had gotten him involved. "He was my ride over here. I didn't have a choice."

Melanie, on the other hand was more than proud to see that the two of us had worked together so well, even for the brief circumstance. "Spike you little bastard, get down here!"

"Absolutely not!" Rarity chided the woman. "Have you looked around and seen what this place looks like?"

It didn't take an eternity for Mel to see that we still look like a morgue down here. She then rescinded the invitation. "Uhh, second thought, just kinda stay up there until we get things cleaned up. I'll hug you later!"

Blue galloped at me, tackling me off of my feet as she wrapped her hooves around me. "Thank you. Thank you oh so much." She said as tears began to run down her face again. "You said you would help us, and you went even further beyond that."

While she wore a brief smile, the corners of her mouth soon contorted. And I was still left with the bitter reality of assessing the costs of our fight. She was so strong up to this point, fighting an entity that took a lot of her peace and sanity away from her. I suffered a great deal on my own, but I didn't suffer the loss of someone so close to me. She did, and I couldn't say anything but two words to her. "I'm sorry."

I hugged her tightly as she went all out. She was happy that the one who tortured her wouldn't get to do it anymore, but sad that he had taken one final thing from her, the very last thing he she had left who could give her peace of mind. The ringing of her voice in the morning air, it had me ignoring all of the stench around me.

For a mare who thought she had no tears left to cry, she had a whole lot more to spare.

Eight Hours Later...

It's been eight hours since the battle ended, since the elements dropped from our hands and left us humans well enough alone. I hadn't dialed out of the fight yet, it's been a continuous day of convincing myself that the fighting was over. But instead of being able to convince myself, I just stayed in a cycle of preparedness for the next one. I didn't sleep either, I just rested... if you could call it that. Sun was still out, ponies are still moving about, and cleanup work was getting done. There's been a number of times where I've been told to take it easy, only to fall into the same pattern of trying to get shit done.

I wonder if this is how Kalimba felt once I freed her from her daily ritual.

Again, the hours went by and a lot was still being processed. I couldn't help but to stare off into the nothingness, wondering if I had made the right decisions, if anything I did could've changed any kind of outcome. And with no way home, there was no way to distract myself, no YouTube videos to watch, no music to stream, nobody to call or text, not even messages on Instagram, it was just me dealing with the now, the cold realization that all my work and troubles might have been for naught.

"You know, thousand-yard stares don't count as mental rest." The words snapped me out of my thoughts, I looked to the mare who had suddenly appeared into the hallway where I stood. "Captain."

Her sudden appearance didn't even startle me anymore. I guess I've just gotten programed where surprises doesn't really hit as hard as they usually would at any other point. "Your highness."

Celestia stood quietly next to me, looking at a place where a stained glass window had been left boarded up after being broken. There were no words between us for some minutes, we just stood until one of us had finally broken the ice. "That was a good job you did out there, captain."

"Was it really? I still can't feel my legs at times, my arms don't move as much now, it's quiet but I can still hear the ringing in my ears from all the screaming. I'm just numb inside. All of this feels like I've just stopped the bleeding, but the death still occurred." I looked down to the palm of my left hand, still feeling the ghost of the element digging into my wrist and fingers. "And then I get the overwhelming sense that it's gonna happen all over again."

Celestia hummed quietly. "It's like that after a long skirmish. There's never a return to normalcy, only just the adaptation to it." Her words didn't offer solace, but it gave me a guide as to how I could find it eventually. It was the perspective that one is often forced to discover after having gone through the experience.

I looked further down the hall, seeing many more windows, some whole, some cracked, some being boarded up like the one we stood in front of. I began to walk further down, slowly looking at the windows that were missing. I could hear the sounds of hooves clopping beside me, the soft breathing of the princess who stayed silent by my side. "Do you still feel sad for those that died all those years ago, fighting for our cause?"

The princess sighed softly, resigned to telling her truth. "Do I feel sad that they died? If I am to be honest, their deaths were always going to happen one way or another. Fate just drew it's cards with all their names on them. Would I fight to get them back if I had a second chance, certainly. But who else would die in their place?" I looked to her, seeing the vulnerability in her eyes as she glanced downward. "I can't be sad for why they died, I can only be sad that they did not see the future that is soon to come. They would've been so happy to be in that moment. To be able to hear their voices as one of their hopes, their champions were fighting the good fight and winning. They would be so elated to see what you've become, where we are. Without them, it's almost like having a coronation in an empty church, where only the the silence of the pews cheer your name."

As the maids and workers within the castle started to return to their normal duties, they had me instinctively go back to a working mindset, reminding me that there was still much to be done, and just that much more to take into account. "So... I never got a chance to ask this. But how's our prisoner liking his new accommodations, you know, before the big day?"

"He hasn't said much, he's tuckered out." She replied before looking up to me. "And you need to stop worrying about it. You've done your part."

As we strolled along, Shining Armor turned the corner and stopped to avoid running into us. I still acted as though I was in work mode. "Shining, how's the cleanup?"

"Don't you think you need to be taking it easy?" He questioned.

"Hi Mr. Pot. I'm Kettle. You're black." I replied dryly.

The young prince had a sensible chuckle before going into his update. "Well we're shifting operations to the underground arena. The corpses have all been identified and their families were notified of their loved one's status. As for the underground arena in Canterrot, the bodies are being stored there for their final day in the sun, if you know what I mean."

My mind shifted towards my sympathies for Blue. "...And him?"

Shining didn't like the answer he had to give, but he gave it anyway. "Protocol is protocol."

"I've informed Blue Royal that her brother would be placed elsewhere for his cremation. He deserves that honor. It will be a private affair." Celestia added.

My head fell, still trying to grasp the sudden absence. "Alabaster... I can't believe he's really gone."

"In a way he knew his time was coming." A voice called out from behind me.

I turned around to see the young mare walking our way, accompanied by Solemn Oath. "Blue, I thought you were in the med ward."

"To do what, other than identify the only family I had for years?" She said as she tried to appear strong.

I walked towards her, kneeling down to ask her. "Do you need more time?"

"We don't have time." She answered quite firmly.

Afterwards, my attention went to the guardsmare. "Solemn Oath, status update."

"Princess Cadance and Princess Luna have started their collection of all the other bits of evidence they found in the lab. My friends and I just came back from there, we were helping those two with the collection effort." She looked at me with a quiet admiration. "We even saw and heard the files on what they did to you and your fellow human. And we also found out what he looked like... or at least we know what his face looks like, it was still a messed-up way to find out. I don't know how you're even sane right now."

I instinctively felt for the scar on my neck. "That part is still to be determined." I felt Celestia's magic ward my hand away from the scar. "What of the body of the girl?"

"They did just as you've ordered, captain. She is crystalized within the morgue as we speak." She responded. "I still don't get why you're doing this, she should be burned with the others. What purpose does it serve?"

I closed my eyes, still seeing the young filly crying out to me. I had to shake myself out of the memory before I had let myself become too engrossed. I answered the guardsmare with only a word.

"Finality."

V.I.P. Lounge
The Underground Arena...

"Alabaster Charm was more than a good friend, he was a caretaker, a loving brother who protected his own and others, and a passionate seeker of change."

A coffin so small that it only needed four to bear him, Alabaster lied in wake, the expression of his face softened just before the rigor mortis could set. With him were the pictures of his mother, the flowers from his sister, and our flowers gifted to him. He looked at peace in spite of all that happened.

We all gathered to offer our final goodbyes. The Sparkle family, including Princess Cadance, each laid a rose for him in his coffin. Each of the girls from Ponyville did the same. Kalimba and her younger sister offered their roses as well. And after having to be the pallbearers, Alex, Stanton, Rickey, and Cliff offered their roses. Melanie offered hers and stood by Blue to give her encouragement. Blueblood rested his spear next to the coffin, a royal guard custom signifying that he would be well-protected in the afterlife. I did the same, as did Solemn Oath and Shining Armor.

Blue continued to eulogize her brother.

"Long has he envisioned the day where his district would be a radically changed environment, a place where there would no longer be the congregation of poverty and disuse, a world of high crimes and low hopes. This room, this lounge, it all still exists because of my brother's willingness to protect me, to keep the interests of many high-paying criminals invested in their frivolous and emotionally-damaging passions. But his ambition since being appointed to this district was to change it forever." The young mare glanced towards the high princess in attendance. "Your majesty, with your permission on today, my brother's vision will come to pass, though he will not get to see it."

Celestia acknowledged her with a quiet nod.

"My brother knew he didn't want to live in subjugation like our dad did in his final years. He was the one who told him where his medicine was, he knew that it was in the room he feared going into the most. And he made our dad have that choice on his own. He knew that he was responsible for his death, he let him suffer for it for what he did to me." She said, speaking only the truth of her brother's account, both the good and the bad. "And though he tried to defend me in what happened sometime after, he was punished horribly for it. Now he'll never get to visit me early on Saturday mornings, even after I had a drunken tirade the night prior. I'll never get to hear him annoy me with his songs. I'll never get to argue with him over who does what best anymore. I'll never hear his voice again, or feel his hooves around me to protect me. I regret that I was ever in the position that I was in earlier this morning, he would've lived longer to see the victory we've accomplished. And I'll never see him smile, or laugh, or get angry, or be sad again. It hurts too much."

At last, the young mare offered her rose to her brother, leaning down to kiss him on his forehead as she sweetly caressed his cheek.

"Alabaster... big brother... I'm going to miss you... so much."

She walked away quickly sitting herself far away from the coffin her brother lied in, trying her best not to attach herself to it in hopes that she could somehow convince him to return to the living. Instead, she trembled and sobbed as the lid was closed for the final time, the shadow cascading over her brother's face until it was shut from the world. Melanie stayed by her side, hugging the mare as she tried to keep herself together.

Celestia finally assumed her role, walking up to the casket and lighting her horn with a deep concentration of magic, consuming the coffin in a fiery orb of plasma. In the seconds that passed, Luna appeared with an urn beautifully crafted to hold the remains of the young stallion. Celestia lifted her hooves, crafting in her mind how small she wanted the orb to be, condensing it until she felt nothing but ash in her telekinetic grasp. The orb cooled considerably, now being just a sphere of her magic that floated into the urn. Very slowly, the magic dissipated from her horn, flickering out until the tip was extinguished.

Luna walked to the grieving mare, with Celestia by her side. "Your brother was a good pony." She did not levitate the urn, only holding it in her hooves as she passed it to Blue to take. "Spread him around all of where you deem his spirit will wish to be."

"I will." She said as she rose to accept her brother's ashes. She looked to the other high princess and tearfully gave her thanks. "Your majesty... Thank you for giving my brother the respect he deserved."

"Please reach out if you ever need anything." Celestia replied before announcing to the rest of us. "Now as for all of you, I suggest you leave now. It's going to get very hot pretty soon."

As everyone started leaving the the lounge through the back exit, I watched silently as Blue walked off with her brother's urn, the others disappearing shortly after, and trailed the high princess as she walked onto the arena floor, where there were thousands of bodies strewn around the grounds.

She looked around to make sure that there were no other who happened upon this place, only to be burned along with the other corpses here. Instead, she saw me and hollered out. "Nondis, why are you still here!?"

"I just wanted to say thank you for what you did back there!" I said as I stayed my distance.

"What I did was my thank you to him! Now go away. You'll get burned if you stay here any longer." She replied as she ignited her horn.

Before she could get started, I made sure to call out to her one last time. "Oh, and Cella!"

"Yes!?"

"To pass on the wishes of a dead friend..." I pointed my finger all around the concourse and shouted my request. "This whole thing, all of it, from the lounge, to the lobby above, to the bowl, to even the catacombs below... Burn it!"

Celestia smirked back at me. "With prejudice, your majesty!"

Canterlot Royal Throne Room
Five Hours Later...

After Celestia had returned from the smoldering ruins of the underground arena, she quickly cut the curtain over the Corrotto District, despite fervent protests from many who resided there. But with hardly any guild members to protect and debate in favor of them, they could only watch as the curtains were cut and burned, revealing the sunset-stained sky as the high princess performed her usual duties of hiding the sun away. A rainstorm was brought in by the Canterlot Weather Authority to have it rain in the district for six days unending.

Upon returning to the castle, she called for a press conference to explain what was to happen in the future. And to help her explain the many accounts of what happened, she gathered five witnesses and victims of the crimes that occurred to tell their perspectives, and potentially answer questions as to what they would do in the near future. The six who were selected to give answers: Shining Armor, Twilight Sparkle, Melanie Brewer, Kalimba Mavembe, Princess Celestia, and myself.

The Canterlot media was abuzz. As such, there were a number of radio outlets coming in with wires trailing all throughout the castle grounds to send out their signals to all stations across the nation. And the reporters there, they were ravenous with questions, snapping like piranhas and roaring like angry bears and tigers. They were eager for information, each of them wanting a taste of the big scoop over what the hell happened this week.

Meanwhile, we were hid off to a side room before making our appearance in the throne room. We could already hear the multitude of questions being murmured and rehearsed in a sea of reporters. I peeked my eye out, seeing some looking directly at the door, waiting for it to be opened. "A lot of press looking for answers out there." I groaned, not wanting to get hounded with questions at the moment.

"Do you blame them?" Twilight replied.

Mel rolled her eyes. "I just hope they won't be as aggressive, y'know."

"You're begging candy out of a dentist. You'd be lucky if they were as passive as they were during the lockdown." Celestia said with a slight chuckle.

Kalimba scooted me out of the way, peeking through the crack to see how the reporters festered in the hall. "Dey look very aggressive." She confirmed. "Which of us will go first?"

Shining cleared his throat as he stepped forward. "I think I'll need to make my address first."

"You okay with that?" I inquired the young prince. "You're pretty much blowing the dam here, you sure you can handle that pressure?"

"I think the guard should be addressed nationally. There are some ponies in Cloudsdale that won't be getting their loved ones back after today. It's only right that they grill me on the fire first, since I'm already the poster boy for lost family members anyhow. I'm used to the reputation."

I patted him on his shoulder. "You're a brave man, Shining Armor."

"I know." He murmured.

He opened the door, already hearing the rush of questions coming in, the flashing lights flooding as he walked out.

Author's Note

Well, here we are, the arc has concluded and now we're into the epilogues, totaling the six perspectives that have been observed through the story. As for what each epilogue will consist of, I've pretty much determined that each one will be a different look at how things would be done, how matters would conclude, how that particular character's "happily ever after" will be seen in the near/distant future.

Holy hell, this son of a bitch was a monster to write.

I wanted to divide it up into two different chapters, but I felt that it wouldn't be fair to divide it into two different releases and have one wait a month. So I guess you could consider this chapter alone as a bomb in it's own right. If anything, it's been shortened from the total word count of 62,459 words (if I still had it divided into two chapters). There were some conflicts I shortened, but the main ones I told in full length.

Now, will the other chapters be as long as recent additions? NO.

I'm expecting some to be 9k to 14k words long. Others may reach up to 15k or a little higher. There may be one the length of a full chapter, but it won't be as long as 30k (I hope). I'm pretty tired of having to compress a lot of events into one chapter, even though this one was an outstanding contradiction.

Having that said, these next chapters will be released upon finish but only after about a week.. There will be no scheduled release time table, and you may get two at once sometimes. You'll get them when they come out, and that will be the end of this story. The pen of this individual story will be laid to rest at last.

Now for the conflict, I had looked at the fight from the standpoint of a final boss fight. The first phase being Umbra Sanctus himself, trotting around, making fun of you and your beliefs, actively trying to get in your head and scramble you around until he can deceive you into believing in his perspective. Then there's the second phase, which is what I'd like to call "Umbra the Congregant", the one that's prevalent throughout the chapter. Then there's the final form that I like to call "Sanctus the Terrible" who's phase is fairly short-lived due to the planning of the protagonists.

But the antagonist didn't ignore the fact that he could be brought down by the elements, gambling on his only solution of how to deal with them. Of course, a good strategy can only go as far as your opponent is willing to adapt to it. How fast they adapt is only dependent on how well they can plan for a moment either in advance or in the moment. But as we've seen, Twilight likes to plan for every eventuality while Nondis likes to test the waters before committing bodies to the task.

For the brave souls that have looked at this Dark Souls of a chapter and made it to the end, I want to say thank you for being able to stick with me so far along, and most importantly making it here to begin with. I am sorry that this chapter was so long, and I'm sure that most of you were looking at the word count halfway about to faint. But being that this is the finale of the arc, I didn't want to leave any significant cliffhangers and have you waiting a month for it's conclusion.

Again, thank you. SO MUCH. And I will see you lot in a week. @Fire Flight Far Feather, good luck on basic training and return home safe.

Chapter CXVI (Shining Armor)

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter CXVII (Twilight Sparkle)

Epilouge: TWILIGHT SPARKLE

I walked where my brother had conducted his portion of the interview, the lights from the cameras flashing almost without end. As I sat myself down, I turned to Solemn to indicate that I was ready to finally speak out.

"HEAR YE, HEAR YE! PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE SHALL NOW SPEAK!"

The murmurs of questions came to a halt as I got started. "Good evening, Equestrian citizens." The flashes of the cameras became a little more conservative, I went on ahead with my briefing. "I'm sure as you've been told by his majesty Prince Shining Armor, we have suffered an attack on the very seat of power of this wonderful nation. There has been a number of insurgents seeking to claim the lives of the royal family. Those insurgents have been arrested as of today. The one particularly responsible for the robbery of the Canterlot Cemetery has been apprehended, and now sits in Tartarus until his assigned day in court. And while I wish that I had more to tell you in regards to that has occurred on today, I can only tell you what I myself know."

While I didn't have time to prepare a thorough speech, I had brought a scroll of some points I wished to address, as well as a number of things that Princess Celestia told me not to speak on for the moment. But in spite of all of that, I couldn't really start on them until I acknowledged the main security question that they had about one thing in particular.

"However, I wish to bring attention to a certain situation from this weekend. From the start of this past Friday evening, our elements went missing from where they were stored. Originally, we thought that someone had probably stolen them, that or some irresponsible ponies happened upon them. We initiated a search, hoping to locate them quickly for the purpose of protecting Equestria. But the elements themselves did not disappear because of some thieves or lucky discovery. Instead, they had chosen a new set of bearers, bearers who would be tasked to not only protect our world, but theirs as well. The element bearers who defeated the pony responsible are as followed. Clifford Harris from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Rickey Santaña from San Antonio, Texas, Melanie Brewer, Stanton Haines, Alexander Haines, and our very own Captain Nondis Haines, all from Austin Texas. They threw their lives on the line, as opposed to being protected by us, they were the ones who protected us from the horrors that were to come. I would be remiss if I had started taking these questions without mentioning the six of them, to acknowledge what a great work they've done for us. Although they are different from us in every way, I want them to know that as long as they stay here, they have a home in Equestria they can come back to at any time. With that said, I open the floor."

Questions began to flood in, the multitude of reports nearly climbing over each other to be selected. I started from the one in the far back. "Your highness, does this mean that humans are capable of using our magic?"

I went on to give affirmation to her inquiry. "Yes. And to be transparent, both the Captain and his younger brother have shown great aptitude in learning unicorn magic. Both of them have religiously applied themselves to get better in the short period of time to help us win this fight. I can also attest to you that they will not seek to use magic for any nefarious reasons."

I picked out yet another from the back. "Princess, how long has there been an investigation in regards to the bodies being missing from the city cemetery?"

I looked on my list of do's and don'ts, seeing if that was a topic I could answer on. After confirming that it wasn't in the don'ts, I gave my answer. "There has been an ongoing investigation taking place for the better part of almost a month now. One of those bodies, namely the late senator Count DuMoneé has showed up in the human world at one point."

I answered yet another question from the back. "With this incident taking place sometime after Princess Cadance's unexpected and unsanctioned leave through the portal, does this means that the portals are now compromised?"

That question was neither on my do's and don'ts, so I took the liberty of answering it anyhow. "Far from it. The portals have been destroyed by I myself and the humans. As for now they are without a way home until they are repaired."

I took another question, a little closer to the front. "Where will the humans stay?"

"The humans are free to go wherever they wish to be, just so long as they are under our protection."

Another inquiry was asked from the far left of the room. "Your highness, what of the assailant? Where does he keep his operations, do you know?"

I didn't have to look at my list to know that was a don't. I gave a limited response. "Right now we cannot say the whereabouts of this lab or what all it contains until all the facts are collected. For now we can tell you that the lab has been located and will remain accessible to those of the appropriate clearances. Until all information has thoroughly researched and confirmed, none of that can be accessible for public access at this time."

I took one from the far right. "Your highness, do we have any word on the motives of these heinous crimes?"

Another glaring don't, another limited response. "I cannot confirm nor deny the personal motives of the assailant other than that he wished to seize control of both this world and the human world, but the means to do so for each were vastly different. For their world, we believe it was to cause a collapse in political and theological beliefs, to then grow a dedicated following that would do his bidding here in this world shortly after. And with the effectiveness of human weaponry, we have yet to foster any sustainable defense against the varying methods of assault they would seek to implement. But as far as the effectiveness of these weapons, I leave that to the individuals who are better suitable to attest to their destructive capabilities."

Finally, I took an answer from the front row. "Your highness, what is the status of the human element bearers? Will they be nationally acknowledged for their achievements?"

"Without question they will be acknowledged, not just nationally but internationally as well. The world has listened and observed quietly as to the humans that have graced us in their visits. We one day hope that this contact will establish more fruitful relations between our two words in the future." I looked at my time and realized that I was about to go over, so I gave the press a nod of appreciation and took my leave. "Thank you for your time."

As I walked away, there were an avalanche of pictures and questions. I paid them little mind as I walked back off the stage.

The Next Day...

My day starting off was already building from an uneasy reminder. My first order of business was the continued retrieval of artifacts and documents in the Umbreal Lab. Cadance joined me in my venture, offering to help me undo a few seals and crack open whatever we didn't touch on in yesterday's cleanup.

After a long descent down the old lift, we followed the crystal caverns towards the freshest column of air in the mountain. I walked along the route that was lit. "This place has always given me the creeps." I said, mentioning the mines in general.

Cadance pointed me ahead to a large wall with some large stencil writing. "Well now it's about to get a lot more creepy. Just wait until you walk in and see what's in store."

The first room we walked into was an unusually large cavern, a containment chamber that had a bunch of fans running throughout. The ceiling was tall and there were a number of rails ran across the top. "This place is awfully strange."

"Wait till you see what behind door number two." Cadance added as she pointed to another stenciled sign above an open door.

Once I walked through that large vault-looking door, I was introduced to some familiar territory, sans the not-so-canny décor hanging up above. "Oh... this place."

Cadance appeared surprise that I recognized the place so easily. "You've been here before?"

I walked over to an area where I saw some darkened splotches on the ground. I nodded my head as I recalled what took place here. "This is where we found Nondis. And this is what stemmed our investigation into the city morgue."

Cadance walked up to a set of reinforced metal doors, opening the way to a pure white hallway. "So the rest of this place you pretty much know already?"

"Unfortunately." I replied. "But I haven't went through all of the rooms here. It's not a pretty sight, nor a good thing to smell, I can tell you that."

"It took hours to clear this place out of all the victims." She briefly explained. "This entire facility had an assortment of operations running all at once. And because a lot of the staff were killed off, all of the bodies were left out to pasture. So we had the air running to purify a lot of the smell." Her face lowered as she added another grim detail. "...We found a human body also. It's head was cut off and separated. There appeared to be a lot of work done on the torso, and then there was some incisions into the spinal column, almost like it was ready for something else to be done to it."

"Nondis." I groaned in discomfort.

As we walked along, we came across an unexpected face on our visit. Standing with Cobalt Blue was a human woman rambling on about her time here in the lab. I called out to the woman. "Melanie!"

She waved back to us both. "Hi there, interested in looking at some Nazi-levels of inhumane discoveries with me?"

"I'm not sure what any of that is, but I guess it's not good." Cadance replied.

"Far from it." The woman confirmed before asking the guardsmare of what she knew. "So what all have you guys found yesterday?"

"The absolute insanity of everything around here. Recorded accounts of disembowelments, application of how the fluids found in entrails can be used as a binding substance, how certain aspects of the skin can be used to form strong adhesives─"

Melanie showed visual disgust. "Oh, horse glue, that's fun. At least he's not branding the shit to kids."

Cobalt looked off to the side with her own visage of discomfort. "...Actually."

"Oh for fucks sake." She facepalmed and shook her head.

"Well it could be worse." Cobalt said as though she saw some sort of net positive in any of this.

"Do you realize who we're talking about here?" I questioned the guardsmare. "I mean you probably didn't get to see the welcoming committee in one of the larger rooms, but you saw what happened here. And if you didn't see it, you can still sure smell it."

A chill ran up Melanie's spine. "Yeah. Can you imagine if his human head transplant experiment had gone on without a hitch?"

The mare looked to the three of us, her jaw agape. "Ugh, on second thought, that's way worse."

As we approached the duo, we saw a door that had a number of weak enchantments scrolling across it. I questioned them both as to what it contained. "What's this place?"

Cobalt quickly responded. "This looks like his main office. It's situated like one, so might as well assume it to be. The doors of this one are different from the others. You can tell it's magically sealed, but recently our specialists were able to degrade the various seals to where they could be broken. Took them these past two days to do it."

Melanie knocked on the metal door, the weak seals barely able to deflect her knuckles. "That's a lot of hard work for one door. But I don't have no fancy magic." She glanced to me and moved out of the way. "Care to do the honors of cracking this box open, so we can see what horrors lie inside?"

I walked over to the door, seeing some of the seals already trying to brace for any kind of impact. But due to the weakened nature of them, I was able to break them off easily and open the door.

When we walked inside, we could see a large whiteboard spanning the entirety of one wall, from the ceiling to the floor. On another wall was a large shelf of books, some fiction, some non-fiction, some horror, some romance, some science fiction, some fantasy, and an outstanding amount of them being either magic study or medical. Some of the books I had never seen before, a lot of the others were some that I've read throughout my studies in school. Another area had a workbench that appeared to be made for mounting. Next to it was a rack of spare parts of the dummies he enchanted to do his bidding. There was also some sort of concealed standing device that looked almost like a guillotine. On the desk itself, there was a disheveled mess of papers and maps, including a network of tunnels that seemed to map out various coffin locations in the cemetery.

Cobalt walked up to the desk, seeing the maps and papers. "Jackpot." She sifted through the documents and started speaking out. "These are log records of some ponies admitted to be processed in the morgue downtown. These are cave systems they use to find the bodies of recently buried... and also body returns for those quote-unquote 'disused accounts'. A few surgeries, some adoption papers─oddly enough─from the local orphanage, pediatric records of terminally ill patients, rape kit results, psychiatric findings... All of this is beyond terrible, he's going away for good."

As they were going through his desk, I was taking a gander at his book shelf. A lot of his personal collection had appeared very familiar to me. I started to read out the titles of the books to myself in the order he had them. And as I went through about six of them, I noticed a familiar pattern. I skipped down to the next shelf, also identifying a similar pattern. I went to the next shelf lower, another familiar pattern. At that point, I just read the entire block title for title. And it dawned on me what had me feeling like this was so familiar.

All of these books, the way they're organized, it's a perfect match to all my favorites back home, organized the exact same manner how I would have them listed, a perfectly recreated system organized in not just decibal and alphabetical order, but also in color context. I pulled a book off the shelf, flipping through the pages until I found the final back binding being written into it, a summary of the book's plot, progression, twists, and even criticisms of the story itself. At the bottom was a circled rating.

He and I had the exact same taste in literature. Probably a coincidence, but it started me nonetheless. "This place terrifies me." I muttered.

"Why?" Cadance asked as she snuck up behind me, startling me.

"Because all of these books." I began. "Tomes of research, all of the pursuit of discovery..."

Cadance looked down to me. "You feel at home?"

"I shouldn't." I replied as I sifted through more of the books listed in his favorites. "The Body of Discovery, Age of Anatomy, The Physiological Paradox, The Care Beyond, The Medical Science Guide for Dummies, all of this is tomes that fill our libraries with precious medical knowledge. It explains all of what we know about the equine body."

Melanie approached from beside me and picked out a medical book. She looked down to the spine for the author. She then opened it to the very first few pages and started reading. Skimming through the contents, she came across a body of sources, one part of it in particular grabbed her attention. She handed the book to me. "Look at the author's credits."

I grabbed the book and opened it to where she had it tabbed, pointing out with her finger the text on the page. Cadance read it aloud. "All research has been cited from studies of the great physician Dr. Umbra Sanctus of the Corrotto Abbey, 529 C.D.V.." Cadance and I stared in shock, she immediately pulled down another book and flipped to it's cited credentials. She picked out another, and another, doing the same for all the other medical books until there were about twenty of them laid out on the floor, each of the words highlighted in her magic. "These book say the same thing. And it's all printed. Some of these books came out as recently as five years ago."

"You're telling me that he wrote everything we now know about medical science?" Cobalt questioned in disbelief.

I verbalized a response. "A pony who lived more than five hundred years out of spite, I guess we shouldn't be surprised about his insistence to keep his name out of everyone's mouth. If he kept publishing works under his name, it would start to look a little suspicious after the first century. Like how would he be able to update his studies so consistently after five centuries without getting caught?" An idea immediately came to mind. "Have a number of other archbishops and deacons publish his work under their names, cite his studies for research."

Cadance pulled out yet another book, popping it open to another page of credits, his name popped up again. "I always wondered how they'd have so many frequent updates for these books, how all the new information contrasts against the earlier works of the research they mentioned. No addendums, no changes in the theory attributed to the authors, no debunks against him in the medical community, no dissenting opinion, it's been like that for the centuries I've lived."

Melanie also brought up another to consider. "'I wrote the book on life's sustain', that's what he sang to us."

Cobalt had chills running down her spine. "Does that mean he found out how to break the forbidden code of immortality?"

"Um, I'm sure both Celestia and Luna are immortal, Blueblood's been alive for as long as Umbra has been, and Cadance has been alive for well over a hundred years." I replied to the guardsmare. "I don't think that should surprise you."

Cobalt, however, did bring up an interesting point. "You'd be surprise as to what it can do in the hooves of a normal pony. Its one thing when we accept the burden of it, knowing ahead of time what the ramifications and responsibilities are. It's another thing when one abuses that power for their own selfish gains. Case in point, look around us."

"I can't even imagine being in a position of power where my life doesn't end eventually." Melanie outwardly stated before looking to both Cadance and I. "No offense to the both of you."

"None taken." Cadance answered.

The woman looked to the bookshelf and folded her arms in thought. "The better question is what to do with that book when we find it."

"Burn it." Everyone in the room seemed to think that I had cursed out Celestia's name when I spoke my peace. "I know I may be a strong advocate for preserving tomes of knowledge and life-changing information, even when it's forbidden, but this is a topic I don't think we can allow for it to be passed on to future generations. The knowledge of it's existence will already make it a target for many power-hungry, ill-minded, greedy ponies looking to hold on to their influence for as long as they can keep it. And if any part of it created that thing we fought against, then it should certainly never see the light of day."

"Honestly, I was thinking you'd probably lock it up someplace in Tartarus." Cobalt suggested.

"With Lord Tirek, the magic-eating centaur who has already broken out once, already defeated us element bearers once, already defeated Discord once, and drained all the magic of Equestria in the matter of two days, you wanna leave that book there with him?" I argued.

The mare sheepishly admitted her fault. "Ooh, touché."

Once more, I made my point. "We search for that book, find what's inside of it, and burn it."

"What if it's not really a book?" Melanie questioned as she pulled a book from the shelf. "Like what if he anticipated us to already be on the search for something like that and found some way to scatter it's information across the way, like an encryption of some sort? It's just like how it would be in our world if you want to send some stuff to someone else, like a torrent. Somebody has a piece of the file you're looking to consolidate, the more peers there are in that group who happen to have the same group of works, the easier it is to obtain and the quicker. The less people who have it, the harder and longer it takes to get." She then looked to the entire bookshelf of his favorites. "Like these books here. It could take years to decode, but out of many comes the one."

I shook my head. "There's no way it's hiding in plain sight like that. There's no way."

"We don't know. That could be the case." She replied.

I glanced up and down the list of favorites, popping one open to skim through the pages to see if there was anything out of place. Instead, it was just a list of criticisms at the foot of the pages, or wishes for plot points. It wasn't anything I did in any of my books, so why would he do something like that? Perhaps it was the order that he had the books in that led to a significant clue. "I could not be anymore scared to read those books now."

While my attention remained attached to the books on the shelf, Cadance and Melanie both looked to the covered wooden frame off to the corner. "So what's this then?" Cadance questioned.

"Looks like a guillotine, probably should've used it on himself honestly." Quipped the woman.

Cadance tossed aside the tarp covering what was hidden underneath. To our disappointment, it wasn't a guillotine, but rather the spitting image of herself looking back at her. "Well look what's staring me in the face."

I paused to see what it was that we were looking at. "A mirror?"

"Hooked into a console." Cadance pointed out as she finished removing the tarp, unveiling a panel, a crude but perfect replication of a trans-dimensional portal. She went to the console, seeing what all was being set and done. The crystal above the panel was red, indicating an error. "It's almost functional, all it needs is few additional hookups and some dimensional coordinates."

Melanie, who was not privy to the conversation, tilted her head in confusion. "Translation?"

Cadance tinkered with the console some more, doing some more investigative work into where it was set for. "It took us about two weeks to build the portal. It took months to correctly calculate the coordinates of your world on a digit-by-digit basis. It could've taken years, decades even, had we not had his DNA signature. And it takes up to twenty-four hours to build the precise coordinate to locate the very room you'd use for it, which requires your genetic code to lock in accurately."

Melanie wasn't savvy on the topic, but she could catch on where she could. And where she did, she brought up a crucial point. "Wait... he had Nondis for a whole weekend."

Cadance stopped tinkering with the console for a moment, observing a blinking code of yellow in the crystal. She applied her magic to the crystal above as it pulled up a holographic image. "Cadance, what's wrong?" I questioned her.

She stepped aside and pointed me towards the console. "You may wanna look at this."

As soon as I walked up, I started identifying the coded inputs. Everything that came up was more than just a familiar coincidence, it was an exact reference to where the end terminal was slated to be. "Oh my goodness."

Melanie walked up beside us and showed initial confusion. "I don't know what I'm looking at."

I pointed to the information in the image and pointed out the two names that came up. "Melanie... He's locked both you and Nondis in."

The woman appeared at a loss for words, unable to grasp how this was even a possibility. "Wait, how did he lock me in!? He had Nondis for a whole weekend! How is it that my name comes up here!?"

"DNA evidence. Didn't he leave Count's body in your living room?" Cadance questioned.

"Yeah but..." Once the answer she gave slipped out of her mouth, she began to unravel a more uncomfortable truth. "Oh my God, I am all over that apartment. Wait, what does he use for his DNA coding, hair, skin cells, toe nails, blood?"

"All of it." I answered. "Just a hair alone can tell us where the greatest concentration of your DNA resides in any given dimension, in other words, where you live, even moreso where you clean yourself."

Her eyes widened as the realization hit her. "The bathroom... That's why Nondis and Rickey's portal were located in their bathrooms, the closets, the bedrooms..."

"Cadance, what do you think is the estimated time for completion of this one?" I asked her.

Cadance went up to the whiteboard, noticing the lengthy equation sat upon it, spanning about seven rows of the entire board. "It depends. It's more of the matter in finding the discrepancy in the formula, that's where the estimated time frame comes in. Just one wrong digit and you'll be set back for months."

Melanie crouched down, still thinking about how this thing was sitting comfortably in his office. "Holy fuck, all he had to do was bring Nondis back and plug in a few extra bolts and screws, and our world would be well on it's way to the apocalypse!"

"Well you aren't wrong. All it takes is to discover any discrepancy in the dimensional coordinate." Cadance said as she took a closer look at the third row. She noticed a single number out of place. "Here." She erased the number and placed a zero where there was a 2. "As I said, just. One. Digit." She walked over to the console, looked up the equation that was placed inside of it, changed the number, and the crystal suddenly flashed green, indicating that the equation had been corrected. She turned back to Melanie and informed her of the portal's warm-up time. "Your way home will be done in about thirty minutes."

All of us looked on quietly as Cobalt made a final comment. "Holy Faust, he almost won."

Two Weeks Later...

As we walked the streets of Canterlot in a block formation, we all marched in step, quiet as the crowds around us pelted a number of rotten fruits and vegetables at the cage that slowly rocked down the avenue. Our route started from the castle, moving slowly as we displayed our condemned prisoner to the crowds to have a good look at, even to scream whatever they so wished to at him. Death wishes and small wooden coffins were held up by the many citizens who had family members that were taken and used in his unholy work. Calls for justice to be done were chanted along the way, each turn giving the crowd a greater chance to take whatever rocks they could and fling them our way.

Since I walked beside him to ensure his secure passage, I had to shield myself often.

As we walked, the roads began to become more and more unkempt, filled with missing cobblestones, broken bricks, and freshly swept dirt. While many of the city didn't recognize this road we took, the cloudy daylight made it all the more apparent where we were. The disrepair of various buildings and now-abandoned establishments, they became the tell-tale signs of the ran-down Corrotto District.

The pelting of various items continued, but some were a lot less focused on the prisoner and more on us as a whole. There were some who harbored resentment towards the captured necro-terrorist, others who were staunch believers of his cause had disagreed with our decision to put him to death. In either case, we were getting hit by both arguing sides.

Umbra leaned against his cage, whispering out to me. "So... come here often?"

I had not a single word to say to him.

He continued to tease at me. "Aw, come on, no words to speak along my parade route, princess? Sure you have a speech or something, there's got to be a word or two you have in mind."

Again, I did not reply.

Growing a little more frustrated by my lack of response, he took matters into his own hooves to get me to say something to him. "Okay, I guess I'll share some then." He battered against his cage, screaming out to the crowd. "SO GIVE THIS A LISTEN YOU MINDLESS MUTTLINGS! PRINCESS CELESTIA IS SHAGGING THE CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD! WON'T YOU DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!?" The guards around ignored him just as much as I did. "NO ONE!? SHE'S ACTIVELY BREAKING A LAW YOU GUYS HOLD IN HIGH REGARD! SURELY THEY MUST BE PUNISHED FOR IT!" Once more, not a word. "NOTHING, NOTHING AT ALL!?"

Our silence was the only answer he received as we started to approach the gallows that were placed high in the town square, standing before the fountain to which his pyre was sat upon. We brought him amongst the carefully cleaned path our guards lined for him to walk, to approach the stairs of the assembled gallows. Awaiting up top was none other than both Princess Celestia and Prince Blueblood.

The cage was opened for him as he muttered. "Well isn't this an irony, to be 'ended' here of all places."

"Get out." I commanded.

He looked to me with a smirk. "What if I don't want to?"

A guard approached from behind the stallion and pushed him against the head with the butt of his spear, knocking him to the ground outside of the cage. "Out, you!"

Two guards briskly raised him and pushed him along as I gave yet another firm command. "Keep walking."

Umbra tilted his head towards me, still mocking me as we walked. "Aw, trying to hold some hardened exterior for me. Why that's absolutely precious. You're going to be so cute up there smiling and waving to the hateful masses."

As he was escorted up the stairs, I followed behind him. Celestia and Blueblood stood by to make his way towards the pyre, I muttered to the both of them my honest suggestion. "Don't ask him for any last words."

"Aw, don't be so trite. Someone has to carry the conversation. I'm just merely speaking for the both of us." Umbra called out as he was being set to his pyre.

I assisted in the effort to get him tied up and ready for his burning. "You don't ever speak for me."

As I worked to get him ready for his final farewell, he continued to talk down at me, even as he was tied to the wooden mast. "Not even the resentment you have against your mentor for what she took from you?"

"You keep bringing that up like it changes anything." I mumbled as I finished securing him.

"Aren't you the slightest angry with her for taking what was yours?" He asked as the other guards proceeded to dump tar and oils onto the pyre, even starting from the mast on down. "Aren't you upset for her taking away your big 'happily ever after'? Where's the passion?"

I paused for a moment, waiting for the others to finish their work. As soon as they scattered off, I stood behind the condemned stallion and answered him quietly. "I couldn't be any more upset." I confessed, glancing back at Celestia. "I hate that I'll be forced to watch them being happy together. I hate that he kisses her lips and not mine. I hate that he'll be holding her and not me. I hate how he brought it up, I hate how she was so timid about it, I hate how they both tried to make sure it was okay with me, like I'm the one who puts two and two together. It all started with us, he promised me everything. I hate that I look at what they'll have and become so jealous for it. Even now, I can't help but to have butterflies flying around my stomach thinking about how they'll live their lives, while I'm forced to start over."

He chuckled at my confession. "See, now you understand."

"No." I cut him off. "I understand what it means to not be selfish. I may hate it deep down that they'll be smiling with one another, but I know I'll never be able to relate to him on a level like she can. I'll never be able to walk him through his pains and aches like she will. I won't have the emotional maturity she has until much later, and I'm far more possessive than she is. Our being together like this won't last, not with how I am, not with my own insecurity clouding my better judgement. I feel I do deserve him, but what have I done to keep that other than surface-level affection? I hit him twice, I might've hit him again, or worse because of how jealous I can be at times." I took a deep breath, continuing to filter out my emotions to the condemned stallion, hoping to let those feelings be burned away along with him. "So no, I don't understand you. I know where I differ from you. And where we differ is that I'm able to see the context around me, what I've done to mess that up. I don't ignore the things that happen around me and think that it's all roses and peaches because of how I'm raised. Both you and I have had a privileged upbringing, but only one of us knows how to look back and acknowledge what causes the present circumstances." And on that final statement, I walked away from him. As I stood by my mentor, quietly stewing on the confession I spoke, I muttered once more. "We will never relate."

"We do... More than you believe, Twilight Sparkle." Umbra turned his head as best as he could to me and proudly declared. "More than you believe."

Celestia stepped up and unfurled a scroll with a black seal of her cutie mark set at the bottom of the page. Blueblood then announced the commencement in a Royal Canterlot voice. "HEAR YE, HEAR YE! THE HIGH AND HONORABLE MAJESTY PRINCESS CELESTIA SHALL READ THE ACCOUNT OF THE CONDEMNED!" The prince lowered his head to his mentor. "End him."

She read from the scroll loudly to the gathered crowd, her voice echoing throughout the square. "CITIZENS OF EQUESTRIA! THE ONE WHO HAS BEEN BROUGHT BEFORE YOU TODAY IS GUILTY OF ALL ACCOUNTS OF THE NUMEROUS CRIMES HE HAS COMMITTED AGAINST THE CITIZENRY, THE ROYAL FAMILY, THE PARLIAMENT, THE PROTECTED, THE NATION, THE WORLD, AND MOST IMPORTANLY AGAINST THE NATURAL ORDER ITSELF!" She directed her attention to the condemned doctor. "UMBRA SANCTUS, COUNT SANCTUS QUORUM OF HOUSE BASTION, YOUR SENTENCE IS DEATH! THERE SHALL BE NO QUARREL, NOR SHALL THERE BE ANY FORGIVENESS FOR THE SINS YOU'VE BROUGHT UPON THIS WORLD AND OTHERS! YOUR BODY SHALL BE CLEANSED FROM THIS WORLD, AND CLEANSED BY THE PURIFYING FLAMES TO WHICH YOU WILL BE BURNED!"

Umbra called out to the incensed princess as her horn began to fill with a hot magic. "A final offer of words to the world!?"

Celestia offered no such opportunity without blasting a heated beam of magic into the first bit of kindling down below, setting the pyre ablaze in a brilliant roar. "BE YE DAMNED! AND MAY FAUST JUDGE YOU!"

Umbra laughed manically, rocking himself from side to side as though he couldn't care less of what was coming. "A little warm for my tastes! And to be honest, do you think these ropes will hold me if they burn!?"

The fires began to spread out, the pyre now billowing out a black smoke as the tar and oil sped up the process. The flames roared loudly as the stallion continued to rock himself, stress testing the ropes that were on his body. Then at last, the flames caught the oils that were doused on his body. His hide began to catch fire and burn, the green of his coat blackening and searing off to reveal the flesh beneath. He began to laugh even harder, presumably to mask the pain.

"AMAZING! YOU'LL ALL WATCH ME DIE! BUT YOU WON'T GO AFTER THE VERY ONE WHO HAS DONE THE SAME TO GENERATIONS OF EQUESTRIANS!? HOW ALL YOUR ANCESTORS WEEP! YOU SHAME YOURSELVES AND THEIR NAMES! HOW COULD YOU SPARE HER WHEN YOU CONDEMN ME!?"

Umbra lowered his head, allowing the flames to consume his entire body at last. But while the ropes continued to show some strength, the magic inhibitor around his horn had burned off instead. With a crackling noise his magic was reactivated and his horn glowed almost the same color as the flames that consumed his body. He shouted to the world once more.

"CELESTIA!!! I SHALL RETURN!!! AND JUSTICE WILL BE DONE UPON US BOTH!!!"

With a final flash, his body shrunk and his face changed completely. And in his place was none other than a young filly who appeared well-preserved. Her body slipped from the grasp of the ropes and landed into the pyre, slowly being consumed by the flames that were meant for another.

Gasps came from the guards who observed. "His body's changed!" Gleaming Brass called out.

"He's escaped!" Cobalt Blue pointed out loudly.

Wanting to start a thorough search, Humbreeze barked out an order to some of the other guards. "Quickly, find any trace of him this instant!"

Solemn Oath, who was over the security of the event, quickly ran to the princess, bowing her head. "Your majesty, what are your orders?"

Celestia stood quiet for moments, only bringing about another bucket of oil to spread on the pyre. She then spread a thick tar to be doused on the filly's body. From there, she did nothing else but issue a command of two words. "Stand down."

The entire guard appeared to have been paralyzed by the order she gave, astounded that she would even allow for it to happen so casually. Solemn was the main one who voiced her objection. "I beg your pardon, your highness, but allow me to say this without consequence. WHAT, ARE YOU CRAZY!?"

Celestia replied in a cold and indifferent manner. "There's no need to pursue this matter any further. It's done."

Other guards who were watching began to cite out similar reactions to one another. "The princess has lost it!"

"How could she let him go!?" Another guard questioned.

In a panic, Solemn Oath broke away from Celestia to ask me for some other orders to follow. "Princess Twilight, what are your orders? We need to stop him before it's too late!"

I looked ahead to the pyre, knowing for certain what he did... and what exactly he invited himself into. I stood as Celestia did, comfortable with the result. "He's burned to death."

"That's a filly's body up there!" Solemn argued.

I lifted my head to the cloudy sky, imagining as though his other family members had watched from where they had been lifted centuries ago. Blueblood did the same as he spoke out. "Then his end has been met."

Celestia performed an about-face, walking away from the scaffold, her mane and tail swaying in the wind as she departed. Her eyes only looked ahead to where she walked. The pyre would violently erupt into a fiery inferno, immolating anything that was within it. Bits of the wood it consumed settled in the embers that were soon ejected into the atmosphere.

The high princess sat herself upon her golden carriage and was at peace. "It is done."

Another Two Weeks Later...

From the conclusion of the Great Purge of Corrotto, work began in it's rehabilitation and upkeep. While there were plenty of dwellers and former regulars looking to fight to keep their way of life preserved, guards easily dealt with the resistance and allowed for construction firms to level every building in the area. While some families were displaced, they were offered temporary living spaces in some hotels throughout the town until the reconstruction was completed. But since a lot of the space was already utilized for commercial purposes, there became a push for more modern part of the town to be built.

Enter: Captain Nondis and his merry band of humans.

They had a smorgasbord of ideas and influences. While Nondis had experienced the night life of it's filthier days, he strongly recommended that the place be kept for late night recreation, despite strong disagreements from Celestia herself. But as he laid out the plan of how he wanted it to be done, she allowed for him to help in the planning stages. However, he requested that his focus be put elsewhere.

As such. Alex was left in charge of the reconstruction efforts. And with him being a more organized thinker, he brought Blue into the fold to help with development and construction of the area. The agreement was also the first open agreement with humans in regards to municipal development. And it was also the first to implement human technology, architecture methods, and even bringing about a closed-circuit network that could be used to change and alter the visual appearance of the area.

Their first mode of operation was to hollow out the remnants of the underground arena, and build a buckball stadium in it's place. The exterior would have the façade of the usual Canterlot architecture, but the inside of it was going to have the most modern look to it. It would be able to seat an enormous seventy-eight thousand ponies, making it the largest stadium to have ever been built in Equestria, and the only one with at least four tiers of seating and a wrap around press box. It was also the first establishment with side lighting that would change according to the events taking place. The best part about it? All of Corrotto's development would be paid for out of Umbra's dime.

I suppose that would be the only thing we would ever come to an agreement with.

With the large commercial and recreational investment put into play, it was set to give the city a nightlife that would put more money into the city, keeping the taxpayers from having to pay an absurd amount of bits to maintain, creating an attraction that could keep tourist invested throughout their stay, and to also keep the entertainment options affordable and economic for all walks of life. If you could afford seating for the underground arena, then admittance to the stadium would never be a problem, and the food would stay affordable.

Once that was unveiled, there was no stopping the hype around the city. The council vote was unanimous, with Alabaster's vote being posthumously awarded in favor of the development. Businesses flocked in with deals to plant their flags in as quickly as the grant for the stadium was given the green-light. And with Blue's firm being in charge of the construction, it would make it her second stadium in the city. Alex was also given a huge stake in the efforts, citing contribution of the technology, the assembly of networks, and most importantly the expansion of said network, closing a massive deal that would bring an absurd amount of money back to the human world with him.

Needless to say that he's a multi-billionaire in the making.

Nondis, however, didn't really buy into it. He was content with the hundreds of millions of bits he has in his name. He didn't really need to work another day in the guard, at least for a paycheck. But he looked to remain there up until he felt it was time to withdraw from his position. Some urged him to withdraw now, while many cheered his decision to continue, and there was no doubt throughout the ranks, as the entire E.U.P Guard backed his decision.

As for the sector that Nondis focused his attention on, he kept his head in the grind of parliament. Of course that meant that he made a few more enemies, considering the arrests that took place over the past month. And with a lot of the cases concluded, a lot of senators and representatives lost their seats.

Protests carried on outside of the castle, wishing for their rights to be lovers of whomever they wished to love. The free-lovers movement began to snowball downhill, creating an avalanche of protestors and lobbyist gaining steam to their cause to put the Free-Lovers bill to the floor for a vote. And with Nondis' image being the main catalyst pushing the bill forward, they had no choice but to break out the final draft written by the late senator Somber Spiral.

And many opinions of his strong political push were made obvious by a simple interaction.

One senator walked by me and nodded sagely at me. "Your highness." And then completely ignored the hand that was extended to greet him. "Hmph."

Nondis was still seen as a point of contention for a lot of the senators of the aisle he battled with throughout his military career. "You would think somepony would show you some respect after all of what you've done." I said to the human.

"Does it matter?" He replied with a careless shrug.

"Aren't you tired of getting treated like dirt?"

"Is how they're treating me now any worse than how I was treated before?" He inquired.

I groaned in disapproval. "I get it, but still."

He folded his arms and looked to the doors we were set to enter into. "I can already tell the mess we're about to witness."

"How so?" I asked.

He held up a large stack of papers, an exact copy of the bill being put into play. "This lovely collection of guidelines and legislative changes just landed on the parliament floor."

"The free lovers bill?" I said as I looked at the cover. "Nondis, this is just a bill for same-sex couples."

He began to sift though the pages awkwardly. "You would think that, but it seems Somber Spiral managed to throw in a final favor before dying."

"What do you mean?" I questioned.

"This bill, applies to everyone who wants someone to love." He said as he used his magic to separate one page out of the some hundreds of pages that he carried. He then gave it to me to read. "It also snuck in an immunity clause to a certain law we don't like."

I kept reading along, skimming through the details until I had come across one passage that grabbed my attention. As he stood proudly waiting for me to read through it a few more times, my eyes began to water with excitement. I nearly lost balance from seeing what was written into the bill.

A wholesale repeal of Law Processu Approbatio.

"Wait, you're joking... right?"

He smirked and leaned against the wall, pointing his thumb at the door. "We should be hearing a whole argument popping up in the next few seconds."

The excitement of what I just saw had me running short of breath, I was left panting, uncertain if this was real. "I think you're bluffing."

"The last guy who thought I was bluffing ended up getting what he got. So are you sure I'm bluffing my hand here?" He said, quirking a brow.

As I was about to speak, a loud yell from an elderly stallion sounded into the hallway. "THIS IS PREPOSTROUS!"

Nondis smiled as he opened the door for me to walk into. "Care to watch the fireworks, your highness?"

I walked into the room, my legs shaking from being overwhelmed with what was happening right now. "There's no way."

As soon as we walked in, the same voice chimed out his objection. "YOUR HIGHNESS, THIS IS AN ISSUE THAT CANNOT BE BROUGHT TO THE FLOOR WITHOUT THE SUFFICIENT REPRESENTATION OF ALL OF THE REALM'S DELEGATES!"

Rings of agreement came from only one side of the room. notably the one that opposed the bill's contents. "THIS VOTE SHOULD BE SUSPENDED!"

"Order!" Celestia called out to the assembly.

Another representative shouted his dissent. "I'M BEGINNING TO THINK THAT THOSE ARRESTS WERE NOTHING MORE THAN A PLAY AT CHANGING THE POWERS OF THE ELECTED PARLIAMENT!"

Nondis quickly chimed in. "Well you can't be upset that most of your fellow delegates who aligned with your viewpoints happen to also be present in many of our arrest documents! You know why they were there, you know why we took their seats, we made it plain as day!"

One of the other officials tilted their head out of the seated formation to speak with me. "Princess Twilight, surely you are a lawful-minded being. Speak some sense and have this vote postponed until the special elections have been concluded! We cannot vote on any legislation until the mandated quorum has been met!"

Though Nondis started to gain ground on a lot of the political issues that were being presented throughout the kingdom, he was still learning a lot about the jargon. "So, what's a quorum?" He whispered to me through the side of his mouth.

"The minimum amount of delegates present to validate the legislative process." I whispered back to him. "Honestly, they make a good point."

"I call bullshit." He said back quietly.

"Why?" I asked.

He nodded and patted me on the back. "Sit there for a sec." He cleared his throat and enunciated his argument to the room. "So let me get this straight real quick. You can issue a summons for me at any given time, regardless of how many ponies are here in this room. And then without any kind of opposing delegation to hold a quorum, you proceeded to put to a vote whether or not I should be punished for taking custody of a changeling leader. The vote was unanimous, but there was also a protest from the other side looking to invalidate the motion, and they attempted to do that by means of the unmet quorum."

The lightbulb finally went off over my head. Although Nondis had no good knowledge of decorum or jargon, he still had a knack for pointing out flaws and inconsistencies, a trait his older brother taught him very well throughout his life. "The captain has a strong point here." I finally tagged into the discussion. "That means you guys did one of two things. Either you voted with all of whom you had to bypass the quorum, or you illegally held a vote disregarding the quorum, which would also make your decision to punish him subject to legislative review, which also means that your seats will be abdicated until the review is complete and you are found to be in good standing, as per the Anti-Corruption Act of 873 C.D.V.. I'm sure you understand what that means."

Yet another senator argued against me. "Princess, surely you understand the difference in there being an intentional holdout of vote and a missing portion of the legislative body due to some arrests. We are down disproportionately by thirty-five percent, which was more than the high princess' prior estimates."

Nondis tagged himself back in. "So you're missing around 117 out of the 340 usual members who sit here. And last I checked, there were a total of 39 arrests on one side of the room, with the other side netting up to 78 arrests." He walked to the middle of the room, observing the number of seats that were empty. "Look, it's not my fault that your friends had a necro-terrorist funding their campaigns, enjoying the fine wines and bloody battles of the underground arena. That's not on anyone but them, same applies for the guys you might have disagreed with on the other side of the aisle. The investigations were apolitical, unbiased, and predicated on the evidence that was collected from the scene of the crime."

"There are 119 missing delegates. We shall not forget our fellow senators Somber Spiral and Count DuMoneé. We cannot have a quorum without at least another seventy to join us. And all of those seats will be filled in the coming months after the special elections. This bill should wait until then."

Nondis tapped his foot, calling out the senator's request. "You mean wait until it's possibly convenient for you?"

"You are putting words in a place where they don't belong, captain." The senator angrily accused.

"And you're trying to cash a check of good faith, knowing that you're beyond the overdraft of that faith. Let's be real, you'd be pushing the motor if the arrests were on the other side of things. All the legislation you'd want, done and sent up to the princess to sign. And if she vetoes it, you ratify it by using that advantage again." He leaned against a nearby desk, again breaking decorum, to make his point. "So let's hear it, are we going to suspend the quorum, or will the rest of you have to answer for illegally holding a vote despite the drastically steeper deficit you operated on when you sent me, as well as an active element bearer, to Arimaspi Mountain?" He tilted his head as his way of claiming victory over the debate. "What's 119 empty chairs to the missing 150 plus when you pulled that stunt?"

Realizing he wasn't going to convince the captain or even me to his side, he began to appeal towards the higher power in the room. "Your highness, we should postpone."

Celestia was beyond reasoning with. "The quorum bypass shall be put to a vote. All in favor, raise your hooves and say 'aye'."

An overwhelming cheer came from one side of the room. "AYE!"

"Those opposed."

An equally-compelling voice of dissent sounded from the other side of the room. "NAY!"

Celestia went by the numbers. "The motion is passed, quorum is suspended for the remainder of the current measure."

An eruption of shouting was heard from one side of the room, producing an inaudible rush of angry rejections. "THIS IS AUTHORITARIAN!"

"HOW DARE YOU DEFILE THE POLITICAL PROCESS!"

Celestia banged her gavel, requesting that there was silence in the room. "Order!"

Instead, they united their voices and chanted out in dissent. "SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!"

"ORDER!" She called out loudly as their cries continued.

"THERE IS NO ORDER WITHOUT PROCESS!" One senator screamed in a brief breaking of ranks.

Nondis rolled his eyes and ignored the ongoing cries. "Your majesty, I suggest we move along."

"SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!"

One of the representatives from the side not shouting took to the floor to begin the debate, starting with his opening arguments. "Your highness..." But the unending shouting grew louder from those who felt that their voices were being ignored. "Will you lot be quiet for just a moment, please!?"

"SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!"

His calls for civility were wholly ignored. Nondis tapped him and called up to the loud dissenters. "If you all ain't did your homework, don't be surprised of the F coming your way! The floor was open for a debate, you made it impossible to enage, the vote shall now be carried." He quietly looked to Celestia and mumbled. "Come on, there's no better shot than now."

I myself had a quiet thought. "If you're going to be corrupt, at least let it be for a good reason. Now's the time to do it."

"SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!"

Celestia ignored the cries of the persistent opposition. She gave the nod to Blueblood, who continued with the proceedings. "THE MATTER SHALL NOW BE HELD TO A VOTE BY TALLY! PLEASE INSERT YOUR VOTE INTO THE REGISTERY BOX DOWN ON THE FLOOR!"

I watched as one side of the room stood up to file into the aisle, having marked their vote already. The other side stood up for a different reason, continuing their chants. Meanwhile I could only watch as what we wished for started to find a way to manifest itself. "She's really doing it." I said, holding my chest as my heartrate climbed. "She's really pushing this." Blueblood walked beside me and stood by, eager to see the results for himself. I softly spoke to him. "I suppose it's only fair. They pushed her hoof way back when. We both know what they did to her sometime after. It's only fair that we push back. I'm just glad she's finally made that step forward after so many years."

"This isn't quite the legal victory we hoped for, but this is the closest we've come to being free in centuries." Blueblood said as Nondis stood by us. "This is now possible, only because you spoke out and reminded us of what took place. This is your win, as much as it is hers." He said to the mam of the hour.

"We didn't win yet. They're still voting." He pointed out.

"SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!"

As one side had completed their votes, there was only the other half that refused to remove themselves from the stand. They continued to show dissent, unwavering in their views. "They're not coming down to vote."

"Their loss." Nondis shrugged off.

"Nondis, they could be days holding this up." Blueblood explained.

"But we're ignoring quorum, remember?" He asked, still not exactly understanding the concept.

"That only applies to being able to put the matter to a vote. The matters is on the floor for the vote, all votes from the representatives and senators must be counted."

Understandably, Nondis began to grow frustrated. "You're telling me that a bunch of crusty bastards can hold up a vote just by simply not voting? That's bullshit. Is there a way we can circumvent this somehow?"

Blueblood quickly provided an answer. "Well, you could implement a time limit. And with quorum broken for the matter, we could just hold it to a simple majority. That way, whoever doesn't vote will simply be listed as an 'abstain' as opposed to a vote being held up by that abstinence. There's a lot of rule bending in place in the event of some deadlocking issues."

"Why didn't you tell me that sooner?" He said before calling up to Celestia. "Your highness, I wish to impose a time limit on the motion being voted on. Those who refuse to vote shall be noted as an 'abstain' in the record."

Celestia smiled, showing favor to the idea. "MOTION TO IMPLEMENT A TIMED VOTE IS NOW ON THE FLOOR! RAISE YOUR HOOF AND SAY 'AYE' IN FAVOR!"

"AYE!" One half of the room raised their hooves.

The princess' smile soured as she looked to the other side, already knowing what to expect. "Those opposed?"

"SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!"

Again, she went by the numbers. "Motion is carried! Voting shall cease in five minutes!" Her announcement went as favorably as one would expect.

"SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!"

The senators and representatives on the favoring side all watched as the spectacle continued to grow on the side of the opposition. One senator who had enough of the display called them out on it. "YOU'RE ALL A BUNCH OF FOALS! GROW UP, WILL YOU!?"

Some were adamant in showing their disdain for what was being presented. About half of them started to leave into the aisles, coming down with their votes. Nondis announced to the remaining dissenters. "Some are getting up to cast their votes! I suggest you all get on the same page!"

As there were those who outwardly opposed the measure, there were others who continued to stand pat. I understood that those who wished not to vote wanted to show their dissent in a way that would seem ambiguous to many of the voters in their districts. Those who did vote stood on their principles and traditions, often believing that Equestria should remain amorously conservative.

Blueblood made a comment of it. "A house built on a solid foundation will stay firm for years on end. A house built on unsteady ground will develop cracks, eventually settling into disrepair."

"You made the motion to divide them, didn't you" I answered back,

"All it takes is for a select few to vote their 'no' to count it as a 'bipartisan' process." Nondis stated with a smug grin. "The process is different from the vote, right?" He asked, looking down to me.

"Very." I confirmed.

"SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!"

"They're still protesting." Nondis observed. "Though I noticed that the ones who came up and dropped their ballot have already sat back down. They're losing steam."

"And time is ticking away." I added. "One minute left."

The blond-maned prince hollered to the chamber. "ONE MINUTE UNTIL THE BALLOT CLOSES!"

I looked up to Celestia, she was already starting to tear up. She tried to keep as composed as she could, but even I knew that she was overwhelmed with happiness. Nondis saw it too and bumped the prince in a bit of an early celebration. "Blueblood, you're a fucking strategic master, you know that?"

The feeling was mutual between the two, I don't think I've ever seen them get along so vibrantly. "You're the one who did the work. We couldn't have done this without you."

The seconds went by slowly, we were really anxious for the result to be read. Celestia was no different, she took a number of breaths, fanning the tears out of her eyes as she shouted to the chamber. "TIME! THE BALLOT... IS NOW CLOSED!"

*Klunk*

Blueblood closed the box at last, taking in the count. As he quickly sorted through the votes, Nondis made a comment on the matter of how he slammed the ballot shut. "Now that is the sweet sound of justice."

"A little longer than I billed it for." He said as he finalized the count. "Looks like there will be some kids in my immediate future."

"It's here all the same, bro." The human leaned over to count the votes to himself. "That's 109 votes against us, that's the real tally... Close call."

Blueblood turned to the princess, eager to see the expression on her face as he read out the results. "Your majesty, the final tally is read as followed: The votes in favor of the motion counts to 114. The votes against the motion counts to 53. The abstained counts to 56."

Shaking, the princess was shaking.

For the first time in my life, and I'm sure in many other lifetimes, have we watched as the princess collapsed under the stand to weep in joy. Her sobs were a mix of laughs and smiles. gasps of air where she couldn't completely believe that the one day she never thought would come had suddenly arrived, and in close fashion.

The bill's final page, a page of signature, was extracted from the pile and sent to the desk for her final stamp of approval. Nondis was smiling for her, speaking softly to her. "Your highness, the motion passes. The bill is yours to decide."

Her tears were the first thing to hit the dotted line, stained with her mascara and eyeliner. She couldn't even focus to do anything with her magic, she was so overwhelmed. In time, she leaned over the bill and saw the final page, only one stain gracing the line. Her jaw trembled as she grabbed for the wax, stamping the bill by the line. She planted her hoof against the wax, holding it in place until it set, then holding it a little longer to take in the long-sought victory.

"We are free." In a mighty swipe of her pen, she signed away the pain, and birthed a new law. "Finally... we are free."

Celestia was the first one to step out the door, reading her results to the massive crowd that gathered outside the castle grounds. Atop of the battlements, she declared with a joyful noise.

"114 to 109, I hereby declare the Free Lovers Bill to be law!"

A sea of erupting ponies cheered in unison as the noon hour of this day was heralded as the dawn of a new day for many, the dusk of centuries of oppression, and the midnight for a marriage law that was suddenly swept into obscurity. Some same-sex couples had celebrated the moment by publicly displaying their affection for the first time, others ended with proposals of marriage, some with quiet memorials of those who did not live to see this day.

The guards of the castle were immediately notified. A lot of them cheered as though they had the chance to actually strike a date with some of the royal family members. Blueblood went onward to let his wives know in a way he wanted to express to them for the better part of a decade. And both Cadance and Shining shared the moment with each other, having already found their happiness in one another, but in securing the freedom for their unborn daughter to choose her own path.

Down the hall, I could hear Solemn Oath screaming out in joy to her friends. She leapt for the high heavens, declaring her happiness in front of her bewildered friends. Cobalt was the most confused of the three. "Solemn, what are you so excited fo─"

Her question was sheared off by a pair of unexpected lips meeting hers. Solemn had openly smooched her friend, and broke off as she realized that she had become a bit overzealous. "Sorry! I just had to kiss someone! I'm so happy!"

While she was the happiest of the bunch, the other three were uncertain. "Uuuuuhhhhhhh..." Cobalt said as she turned her head away, quietly wiping her lips.

"Congrats???" Gleaming Brass said awkwardly.

"I... guess?" Dress Right squeaked.

"Yeah..." The guardsmare mewled out as she realized that none of her friends had known that she was actually a lesbian the entire time. Immediately, her happiness had given way to deep remorse. "Probably should've went with a maid, huh?"

Lemon Hearts walked right past me, winking at me as she walked up to the quartet of now-quiet mares. She grabbed the now sheepish guardsmare and hugged her in place of the friends who isolated themselves away. "Honey, you need better friends, let me start you off." She grabbed her head and immediately dove in, fully locking lips with the guardsmare who was initially surprised by the approach, but soon welcomed the moment with her. As the two separated, Lemon Hearts complimented Solemn on her kissing. "Wow, you have a really nice feel."

The mare blushed, even her ears running red as she confessed to the mare that came from nowhere. "...You have a really great taste. I like the lip gloss."

"Lemon cherry, flavor of the day. Wanna taste again?"

"Please?"

As those two celebrated the moment with one another, finding comfort in their newfound freedom, I watched as the other three quietly observed with mixed emotions. Cobalt Blue shrugged off the initial discomfort and became happy for her friend. Gleaming Brass just accepted it, not really feeling one way or the other. Dress Right appeared to be worried as for what it meant for their friendship.

As I turned away from that scene, I began to take a quiet walk down the hallway.

As more and more guards and maids showed their affections openly towards one another, I started to feel a bittersweet sadness. All I was reminded of was what I didn't have, at least not anymore. I didn't have this moment to share with anyone, I didn't have a pair of arms to wrap around me, or hands to lift me into the air, making my hind legs dangle as I was suspended up high, no warm and welcoming lips to sink mine into. I was alone.

It's what we agreed on... And I had buyers remorse.

"Well, guess that makes you officially 'single and ready to mingle'."

I looked back behind me, seeing the human posed up against a pillar, watching me as I sulked. "I guess it does." I said, trying to smile for him.

He didn't seem all too excited either, I guess it was because he saw me. "So... what's your next move?"

"I don't know. I didn't think we'd ever get here." I replied, turning away from him.

"You look sad." He said as he walked closer.

"It's just bittersweet." Finally, I felt the hand I wanted on my shoulder. I brought it up to my cheek, to caress one last time in the last bit of a consolation price I could accept. "I really thought I'd be sharing this moment with you in some other way. But..."

"Yeah, can't quite say that I didn't look at that myself." He knelt down, hugging me from behind. "A lot of things got in between us. If things had been different than they were, I feel we would've tried again."

As much as I wanted this moment to last for the rest of my life, as much as I hoped that it would never end, I was realistic with myself and acknowledged that it couldn't last. "Well, thank you Nondis, but your princess is in another castle." I teleported away from him, separating myself by at least six feet. He and I looked at each other. "This one. Pretty swanky place, huh?"

He stood back up, a bit disappointed that I broke away. "The future is amazingly bright for you, Twilight. You're bound to find something that just, you know, sticks."

"It's hard to imagine that when my best chance just up and go about dating my teacher." I said, somewhat bitter but also joking. "In the end, everything that I feared had come true. The hole in your chest, probably a little lower than that. The idea of you leaving a plainly mare like me for someone beautiful, like how many of my friends did you sleep with now?"

His eyes bucked open for a moment, he nervously looked away. "That's a loaded question."

While some part of me wanted to confront him over it, I initially thought that it was better to just let it be, to accept that all of what he did was after the fact that I openly severed ties with him. And it wasn't like he did any of it without their consent. I couldn't complain. So I laughed it away, maybe convincing myself that I should find humor in the irony. "I know you don't say it, but you compare me to the others." That's not what I wanted to come out.

"I never said that." He said, somewhat perplexed.

While I didn't want this moment of celebration to be ruined, I still had a lot in my heart I wanted to say. And with virtually no grand-scale battles to save the world getting in the way, I could finally voice my grievances. "But you think of it." I said as I started going down the list. "I know that you and Pinkie had at least kissed once, she opened the doors for you to have a relationship with both her and Cheese, but you rejected that. I know that you and Rarity had been in and out, that I can accept. But was there really a good reason why you had to indulge in others in my social circle?"

"Twilight, I can explain everything." He replied quietly. "If you want me to say it, then ask."

I took a deep breath and started with my pupil. "Starlight Glimmer."

He sighed and gave me a brief explanation. "I needed her to do me a favor, she wanted me to do one in return, we were short on time. I could've probably negotiated it better, but she had me convinced. I was still dealing with the sensual triggers of being a stallion, and I just let her push every button. I still should've withheld, but I didn't quite master self-control when I needed to."

I looked around as I asked him about the second name on my list. "Luna."

He shook his head and replied. "Second verse, similar to the first. But Luna was a lot more aggressive with her negotiations. She actually got in the way of a plan we hatched to get a hold of the transformation spell. And she made sure that I could not get the spell unless I had followed her requests. I did everything I could not to go that far."

At last, I finally landed to the crux of my angst. "Celestia, why her over me?"

"Twilight, please." He begged. "I made up in my mind that I won't compare the both of you to each other."

"But you do it anyways." I quietly replied, collecting myself before I had started to become completely emotional. "You're just kind enough to lie about it. You never say anything with the intent of being mean unless it's warranted. And you're always so nice to me, even now when there's no real reason to be. At some point in the past, you'd be angry that I would even come at you like this. But here you are, growing up faster than I could hope to reach."

"...Umbra said something to you, didn't he?" He asked in a low voice.

I nodded silently before looking back to him. "I feel like I lost any joy I had for this moment when he got in my head that day. I can't even get that back anymore. All I can do is remember the list of names he gave me, to make me feel like I was so... disappointing." I felt my eyes beginning to water. "Like what I had wasn't enough. And it hurts, it hurts to think about because I can't equate that pain to anything you've went through, but I want to be able to tell you how much it hurts me in the way that it does. And then I go back to thinking that it's only me being small-minded, so then I try to confront it by telling you without finding some way for this to blow up in an argument! But I don't know how! So I swallow it, trying to make the best decision for the both of us in acknowledging that it's over despite my wanting to run to you and convincing you that what I have is worth it. I still love you, it still hurts to say it, but I do! And I want to make it right!... But it's too late now, and I have to learn to live with the decisions we both made... no matter how much it hurts."

My words made him deeply concerned. "Twilight."

I didn't just shake myself out of my melancholy, I slapped myself on both sides of my face with my hooves, the physical pain serving as a mental reset. Nondis watched as I stood there, trying my best to remain bright spirited, both for him and for the huge victory we achieved. Having said all that I wanted to say, I cut myself short. "But I couldn't be anymore proud of you for being so strong, for trying to be so nice to me, for overcoming every obstacle in your way, for setting the standard of what I feel I need in my life. That's what I really wanted to say to you on that morning, to tell you that you're the blueprint for everything I want."

I began to feel better about my finally having the moment to express myself in full. While I wanted to bawl my eyes out, this wasn't the time for it, not here in this hallway, and not in front of him. So I distracted myself with the sting on my cheeks, and smiled at him the best I could.

"I'm okay with your decision, it's yours to make, and you have the freedom to make it. Today gave you that option, and you fought so hard for it. So don't worry about me. You have a much bigger crown to polish off, the one that really fits your big head the better."

I turned around and started walking away, but not before he called out to me again. "Hey." Without warning, I felt him behind me, placing his hand on top of my head. "How many times do I have to beat it into you? Your worth is more than what you think it is. You're going to be a great partner for someone. I know you don't see it in yourself because of this, but you really are beautiful. Don't think for once that your outward appearance dictates who others will choose to love. For some idiots out there, it's just another pretty face they'll get to say what all they've done to sully it. It's another brick in the wall for them, and I hope that I don't appear that way to you, I don't want to give you the image of my relationship with you being just that because I still love you. I just can't just go back on my word to others. I suck at this, I know, but I'm trying my best to do right by everyone. So don't ever think of yourself as less than when you've basically set the bar for me." My eyes closed, I'm trying to hold back tears at this point. "Outward appearances can only get you so far, but it's what's inside of you that matters. It's what mattered to me in the end, all the little things that seem so insignificant, they matter. They build up something to be greater. That's what real love gravitates towards the most. And whoever you're gonna be with will see those things for themselves."

I clenched my eyes shut, feeling the weight of his hand on my head, wishing that it would stay there. "I sure hope so."

15 Years Later...

That weight never stayed there like I had hoped it would. Instead of that warm feeling of romantic nostalgia, on my head now sits a crown. My eyes shift away from bittersweet memories, moments I wish I could take back and say something different. But as they were then and as they are now, I can't change them.

I have bigger things to occupy my attention.

Celestia and Luna retired twelve years ago, they left me to run the country. I now have full control of the sun and moon. My nights aren't as memorable as Luna's, nor are my days as illustrious as Celestia's. But the appreciation I'm shown for it remains the same for many. I was given a compass to control them by, at least until I could connect with both of the celestial objects better. The sun and I have many conversations, while the moon tells me many juicy secrets... some I wish I didn't know about. But these days and nights seem to run together so often nowadays.

A lot has happened. I started a school in Ponyville, met the next generation of element bearers, defeated old faces, confronted new ones. The castle's been destroyed, and repaired. The throne room has been renovated twice now. Spike grew wings. I'm no longer an element bearer. My friends have gone their separate ways. Rainbow scoots by with her wife Applejack, didn't see that one coming. Big Mac got married and had kids. Rarity is the CEO of Boutique For You LLC, a billion dollar enterprise that shot off the ground, taking her to boundaries I've yet to see for myself. Fluttershy doesn't live in Ponyville as much, she says it's too noisy nowadays, so she moved in with her husband Discord in the chaos realm... yeah, that's a ironic take if I could ever point one out. Pinkie's taking care of her bakery, teaching the young Cakes what they need to know before setting out to branch into chains in other cities. Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo are all instructors at the school. Shining and Cadance have also retired, they visit mom and dad every other month. Flurry Heart, their daughter, has been my fellow high princess, taking care of a lot of problems in the north, it's amazing how fast she grew.

It's even more amazing that her dating life has been ten times spicier than mine has ever been.

"Hey, Twilight."

In speaking of spicy dating life, my number one assistant comes walking through the door as though he had taken a large weight off in the middle of the throne room. "Spike! how's the delegation going?"

He sighs with his deep voice, rubbing his wings. "Ugh, you would not believe how bad the dragons and griffons were going to get into it over a gold dispute. It's only been ten years since Griffonstone started to rebuild and they're already trying to wage war over a horde of treasure."

I go on to tease the young drake, of course he's almost my height now. Fun fact: I'm now taller than Celestia has ever been. "Well it's a good thing that your relations with Dragon Lord Ember are so taught."

He shakes a claw. "Eh, she's not really interested."

"How do you know that for certain?" I ask him.

He shakes his head in denial. "She beats the living shit out of me every time we see each other. And not in a dragon-assessing-their-mate kind of way. Like she always beats the shit out of me. Sometimes I have to actually go all out just to pin her down to stop her."

He still doesn't get it. I want to tell him outright, but I promised Ember that I would let him discover it for himself. "Maybe she has a way of trying to show it to you. She never stops writing to me about how you're doing as Friendship Ambassador."

"Eh, I just wish she'd be more upfront about it, you know. It's like the moment I mention anything about how Rarity's doing, or how Smolder and I shared a lesson plan for her students, she swipes he claws at me and we start fighting. All these years of trying to get her to emotionally connect, and she gets even more violent. I didn't even know that was possible." He says as he sits on his chair next to me. "I miss the simplicity, that's what I miss about the days back then, where my hopeless attempts to swoon over Rarity ended in her being as brutally honest about why we were never going to see eye-to-eye in amorous terms. I mean I also wasn't really caught up in some weird emotional trapezoid between Ember, Smolder, and Gabby."

I am aware of the many instances of relationships he has. And how contested his love life has been throughout the past two years... guess he took a lot from Nondis without even knowing it. "I thought Gabby had enough of you after the last time you and her had your... moments."

He leans back in his chair, looking to the ceiling. "...She wrote back, still running the shipment distribution center up north."

"Well that's nice. Last I remember, she's helping Rarity with a few of her ventures out in Yakyakistan."

"Oh yeah. She and Prince Rutherford have been really close since the last time I visited." He says with a slight giggle. "I didn't know Rarity moaned so damn loud during sex." He mutters under his breath.

My ears perk up and my wings sprout out as I chide the young drake. "SPIKE!"

He sits up quickly to respond. "What? She does! She's been like that for years! Mare's got her habits."

I roll my eyes with disgust at the dragon. "You males, I swear."

"You males?" He sat up even more, looking at the disapproving glare on my face. "Uh-oh. You wanna talk about it?"

I can't even shake it off, a lot of my emotions are predicated on what I experience out of frustration. I've gotten better at it in every aspect of my life throughout the years, except for one particular field. "Bad luck again." I admit, not really wanting to. "Just another guy looking to try and claim some prestige with his friends. I'm over it."

As I fold my forelegs in a pout, I can't seem to shake the feeling that Spike is going to say something that's completely off the wall to start with. "Well lets be real, you're a far cry sexier than you were ten years back, and that's just me objectively speaking."

It never fails. "Spike, I'm gonna need you to be the gentlecreature I need you to be, and not call me sexy."

And of course, he takes it even further. "Twilight, I'm your friend. I'm gonna keep it a buck with you."

"I know." At least he never gives me bad advice, that's the one thing he's been consistent with throughout the years. I've grown to trust him in our conversations, even the mature ones that I feel a bit uncomfortable having. So often times, I vent to him about my feelings. "I'm just tired of being pursued like I'm going to be someone's meal ticket, or someone's new notch in their belt, or even a late-night story at the local bar." I growl in frustration. "And here I was thinking that being able to date without those ridiculous restrictions was where it got easier. I'm 34 and I've yet to have a relationship as long as the first one I had."

He looks to me with a quirked eyebrow. "Maybe you're looking in the wrong place."

"How so?" I ask him.

"All you've dated are guards." He points out... accurately.

"Well... yeah... that."

He stands up from his seat, and places a claw on my shoulder. "I know you're trying to find that next big hit, but can you at least broaden your horizons a little? You can't keep complaining about the quality of the gems you get when you keep digging in the same damn place."

"Ain't that the truth." I mumble.

"Maybe you need to pull a Pinkie, go on a trip of self-discovery. Look at how that worked out for her, she and Cheese tied the knot and settled down. Hear my words, Twilight. Pinkamena Diane Pie, the most sugar-rushed force of chaos this side of Discord's snap settled down and got busy. Now it's her son who's took that mantle from her. She's just getting worn down now. That's all because she finally stopped trying to associate herself with the past, comparing herself to her friend's accomplishments, and then going through with what makes her feel the happiest." He walks in front of me, placing both of his claws on either of my shoulders. "You have to stop filing the ranks and asking Gallus to scope you out someone else. Go to a different city, or even a different venue. Maybe you'd find something that's better for you, as opposed to trying to replace something that's no longer there."

...Okay, first off, ow. "Can you stop attacking me already?"

Spike shakes me a little, knowing that the informal approach sets me at ease. "I'm your friend, I gotta hit you where it hurts sometimes."

"Yeah, but you didn't have to assassinate me, Spike." I reply, giggling as I'm being shook like crazy. "Sheesh, I'm just trying to sort things out still. It's hard to do when you don't have much of a roadmap to follow."

Spike looked around the throne room, seeing a number of stained glass windows in the hall. To his right was a window depicting a human standing at an alter with a shorter-maned Celestia. "Ah, it's about time they put that thing up. All that political grandstanding to try and keep Equestria's image predicated on ponies exclusively. Thank goodness the voter makeup changed drastically throughout the years."

I look up at the window, remembering that day as not a bittersweet reminder, but a fond memory filled with laughter and an instance of Twilighting that didn't stem from me for a change. "I think it's more of the image being presented. Not everypony was ready to see that get illustrated so profoundly. But it's the 'happily ever after' she deserved. And I felt that it only made sense to put this up there for her, to tell the future generations what became of her."

Spike hummed as he looked at the window. "I wonder how they're doing?"

I smiled as I closed my eyes to recount the day of their marriage. "They're doing fine."

Author's Note

At last is the long awaited end of Twilight's part in the story. I really wanted to tie up a lot of loose ends with this one and I hope that I managed to bring it all together in a good way. But in most other circumstances, I know that there will be a lot of those who sees this as a sad end, but it's probably the more realistic of the options I had come up with.

Love is hard, and relationships are even harder to piece together. And often times they don't work out. But it's the growth that comes from them that make the experience better for many.

Next up, Melanie.

Chapter CXVIII (Melanie Brewer)

EPILOGUE: MELANIE BREWER

I was nervous as I took the first few steps to the pedestal that held the throne. As soon as I stepped up and saw the room filled to the brim with reporters, I couldn't help but to get jittery, nervous for me making the slightest mistake. Even so much as my slipping up and I'm probably on the front page of someone's newspaper. I looked to the room where the others were, Nondis gave me an encouraging nod, motioning his hand to go on and start.

"Good evening." I said, clearing my throat. "I'm sure a lot of you would've preferred that Nondis or Alex be here to say all of what we have on our account as humans for this situation. But unfortunately, Alex has been busy with some recent work. And I know I'm probably not as experienced in terms conducting interviews, but I'll do my best to answer some questions on what all has happened, at least from our perspectives. My account will not be perfect, but I am straight and to the point. There will be some questions I cannot answer, but there will be some solutions I could possibly provide. On that note, the floor is open."

Questions were coming in full force, I had to hurry along and choose one to get things moving before I end up getting froze to death by nerves. "In terms of you humans, when did you all realize that you had become element bearers?"

That was the first question I heard, so I responded to that. "That's a really good question. When did we all realize that we were element bearers? We found that out in a number of ways, but the hints at the beginning were similar for all of us. We all had a dream, this powerful entity approached us about helping our friends when we could, and then our paths began to diverge. We don't know where the elements came from, we just know who used them before us. The final confirmation was when we tried to not exactly dispose of them, but separate ourselves from them. They would not separate from us, often reappearing in places we did not intend to carry them. Also, humans are not as quick to heal our wounds, broken fingers and other things that usually took a month or two took only the matter of an hour. That's really when we found out that something was up." Another rush of questions came up and I chose the first hoof that was raised. "Yes?"

"With the portals to your world now destroyed, what do you intend to do next?"

I began to feel good about them asking some easy questions, that way I can just give my account instead. "Well a lot has happened here and I know that a lot of our time in the coming month will be occupied with investigations and the like. But I myself personally have taken a liking to Ponyville for how quiet it is. I do have a place rented out if I ever need to take the time away. Though to do a bit of advertising, there's this little inn at the foot of the castle there, I recommend spending your time there, the landlady there is so nice. The food is good, she actually cooks it herself. And she's dedicated a lot of the renovations to her deceased son, who was killed in one of the changeling invasions of Ponyville. She's running the place by herself, and she's a little low on business, I want to be able to help her out for being so nice to us. So yeah, I recommend checking that out."

A few hums came around before the questions started getting asked again. "You have worked on the captain's medical conditioning throughout the past few months, almost being a personal doctor to him. Can you tell us what all has happened with him since his sudden disappearance?"

And then came the hard one. "Well..." Flashes of the images that I saw in the lab flooded back to me, seeing Jasper's head on a shelf, Nondis' head on a table next to Jasper's headless body, the images of the entire operation taking place. Everything seemed to bombard me at once with the unceasing distress. I opened my eyes to see the ponies all standing in front of me, waiting for an answer. "...I'm afraid that I'm not cleared to say much on that. But what I can say is that the time away has dealt him a harsh circumstance. I can't say all of what happened without delving into an ongoing criminal investigation. There are a number of accounts and evidence that points to the... I guess he's a terrorist, I'd call him that, you can call him whatever you're legally obligated to. But to me, that's who he is and no argument to depict the contrary will ever exist. A lot has happened, and we humans have been a victim to it all, moreso the captain."

I attempted to purge my mind of the painful memories, but yet another brought up a terrible image. "What can you tell us about your experience of being an element bearer?"

Suddenly, there was the image of my best friend's head resting on a table, sitting next to his element in a plastic bag.

I had to jolt myself to the present, seeing not a lab of experiements or a stack of corpses being twisted into tentacles, but living ponies wanting to know answers. Instead of focusing on the terror we experienced, I decided to answer on the experience of the moment. "...Well there were a few circumstances that annoyed us. The healing factor was not one of them, but we still understand that pain is still pain, we're not gonna just go out there and break our legs and arms for whatever reason because we can. But the main thing I guess was the side effects. We didn't know that our bodies would transform as a result of the magic, I guess that opens a whole other scientific field of questions, but I'm really not interested in going into depth at this time. For the power aspect, I thought it was pretty scary at first because everything around me is glowing real bright, and I'm just not used to me being in a spotlight, much less being the actual spotlight. Magic surges through you like a conduit, and you can only release that energy where it's supposed to go. I mean yeah in some ways it's fun be up in the air and floaty─like 'Ooh, I'm flying'─that kind of stuff, but it's pretty scary when what you're facing up against is ultimately the line between life and death for all that you know and love. I don't wish the experience on anyone else because I know the weight of that burden, and it's not easy to pick up. I truly hope that these elements won't be used again, but they will be. I don't think they'll be our burden in the foreseeable future. But if we are chosen once again, I don't think we'll mind answering that call."

As I finished my explanation, I felt myself becoming more and more uneasy as I stood there. I couldn't really focus on the questions that were being asked, instead I had to push out a lot of intrusive thoughts and haunting images. I couldn't stay here anymore.

"In the meantime, I thank you for the informative questions and giving me my first public interview. I'm sorry, but I must go."

More questions were hollered at me as the cameras started to flash on and on as I walked off the pedestal and back into the room where the others waited. Nondis was the first face I saw greeting me. "Wow, look at you. You nailed that thing."

"Thanks..." I said with a half-smile, looking off and away from his face. "They were really hounding questions about you."

"They'll do that." He said as he brought me into a hug. "You okay? You froze the moment they started talking about me. I just want to make sure you're okay."

I could tell he took a bath before this press conference, he smelled nice, a far cry from the horrible death that he had to jump and dodge over throughout the past day. He was warm, really warm, but the scars on his neck terrified me. Instead of looking up to them, I closed my eyes and focused on the beating heart in his chest, reminding me that he was still here.

"I'm okay." I lied.

The Next Day...

I didn't get a chance to close my eyes for sleep, there was no such thing after the past three days. That first night was a terrible reminder of what all I saw in that lab. It scared the living daylights out of me with what all we discovered. Then there's the whole siege that had us moving all night, we had to stay up and guard the portals, and finally fight Umbra. And then there's the cruel reminder of Alabaster dying before our very eyes, the bodies being twisted into tentacles, the large hulking mass of corpses used to create an even larger creature that dared to crush us. There was no such thing as having any kind of peace.

There was only questions, and I needed to find answers.

So I got up this morning with the intention of being able to finally put together a decent campaign for trying to find the answers to my ongoing trauma. And there was only one place I knew where I could start. I set out for the lab, hoping to discover something new that could give me an insight of what all happened, why it all had to happen, and gain more knowledge of where it happened.

A guardsmare named Cobalt Blue was kind enough to escort me along the way, looking for more information and checking up on the status of a certain door that they couldn't open. And when we arrived in, we made our way through a number of smelly rooms and into the halls of the lab. We walked in front of the door she couldn't open in yesterday's clearing. In the quiet, I could finally process just how relatively clean this place was to the mountain crag, and abandoned industrial infrastructure surrounding it. But in here, it resembled a modern hospital wing. Every last bit of it had me transported back to medical school. It was scary to think about, but I began to feel comfortable with it.

One thing I was taught in medical school was how to deal with the prospect of human mortality. There was this place we walked into, a morgue-looking office with about five drawers lined up next to one another. And when you open one, out comes the feet, then the legs, then then courtesy cloth covering the genitals, the arms and torso, and finally the head. A lot of us were unnerved at seeing a dead body, someone's existence, or lack thereof, willingly donated for us to observe in greater detail.

There were a number of things, namely seven we were instructed to do before our first dissection. The first; Know what we're getting into, study pictures, observe the various states a human body can take post mortem, and watch videos on the matter to get acclimated to what you will be doing in the future. The second; Wear clothes you don't particularly care for, in my current instance it would be the same clothes I wore for the past two days, don't wanna get any kind of juices or liquids on the stuff you like to wear out. The third; Know that you're not the only one who's going to be unnerved, there are others experiencing this along with you, that one is often the easiest to forget. The fourth; Dealing with the various smells, we could also rub some vapor rub on our upper lips to phase out some of the odor, but I didn't have that here. That one brings up the fifth point; You'll learn to get over it... quickly. The sixth; Know your strengths and defer to those who work better at a certain area. And last but not least the most important point; Keep yourself and everything else clean.

I did a lot to try and process my traumas through those means, especially the images of Nondis' operations. I know what he looks like on the inside, I've cut him open before, I've done surgery on him, I've pulled at a few tendons, lifted here, tucked something there, and closed everything back up just fine. Everything was right and proper in my mind. And the pictures should no longer phase me with the more I look at them, after all they were images taken for medical purposes... an autopsy.

But that only made things worse for me, because that's my best friend.

It's one thing to work outside of proximities, to help a bunch of clients who you detach yourself from in the beginning. It's no problem, until you learn more about them. You grow scared that you'll lose them because that existence is what you're trying to save, what you don't want to happen is for them to show up in someone's classroom next week. And yet, here's my best friend in someone's classroom, dissected and observed, pulled apart and pieced back together in grievous anatomical fashion. And in spite of all of that, knowing the ends of human mortality, he still lives.

I didn't stew on that bit of grim thought for long, as both Twilight and Cadance paid me and Cobalt Blue a visit. And to add to the number of mental distractions, Twilight broke the seals and we walked into Umbra's office. There was a bunch of stuff everywhere, some logs, some other things, and then one thing that really grabbed our attention, there was a portal fully made, not fully programed. It looked as though he was close to finding a way into our world anyhow. And all it took was the words from Cadance to nail home the horror of our discovery.

"Your way home will be done in about thirty minutes."

All of us looked on quietly as the guardsmare made her comment. "Holy Faust, he almost won."

I myself was relieved that we managed to bring him down when we did, but I couldn't shake the discomfort of knowing how close we were to certain doom. Twilight saw that I had a lot on my mind and pulled me aside. "Come on, Cadance's got this covered. We can look elsewhere until we get you back home."

As we were walking out, I weighed the options of leaving to stay back home or to finish matters here first. I still had a lot of questions, namely about what all happened and how it was affecting Nondis. I didn't want to leave him alone until I knew that he was going to be okay. So I told her what my intention was going to be when the portal opened. "I'm not going back there to stay."

"Why not?" Twilight asked. "I figured you'd be running for the exit after all of this."

"Well I can't leave my friends. We have a lot of shit to do, a lot of ground to cover. We can't just leave Nondis to do it all like he's been doing. Like what if he's struggling and we don't know anything about it?"

"I understand." Twilight appeared crestfallen, showing the same level of concern. She looked back to the room we just left from. "But you can at least go back to pop in and give Nondis' family a heads-up. Without any auxiliary connections, you guys don't have a phone signal to use to be able to reach back home. Maybe seeing them safe would put him in a better mood."

"They find out what all happened to Nondis, they are going to freak the fuck out." I told the young princess.

"I'm sure you can tell them in a way that's easier to digest." She suggested.

Again, I glanced down to my phone and pulled up the pictures of the operation. "Not even. These pictures in my phone only exist as evidence right now. I'm still trying to process it. They won't be getting those, no fucking way, but they'll have to accept that their son isn't going to be the son they watched walk away the last time."

"What other choice is there?" Twilight replied. "We promised them that we tell the the truth."

I dropped my head, still thinking. "The only thing we can do is to bring them here, to see him still walking around. And if he's feeling up to it, he'll tell them something. I think that's the best thing for both parties. I'll let Nondis have that conversation with them, or let him not have that conversation. It'll be his decision to make."

Twilight looked around, thinking of our idea and the current environment. "Actually, are you sure you wanna bring them here now? I wouldn't really like to have this be the place of a family reunion."

"Can we relocate the portal we just found?" I suggested.

Twilight hummed with uncertainty. "It'll be difficult, and it would probably take a day or two to move all the components safely from here to the castle above. This place is at least two thousand feet below the entrance, and that's not even the elevation of the city's entrance."

Since we were already on some risky grounds to get something so sensitive up top, I only saw one way to do it. "So, easier to move the human, not so much to move the portal."

"You could always wait a few days to do it." She added.

"I think Nondis would rather see them sooner than later." I answered, thinking only of how much they'd want to see him at this point. "If I'm wrong, I'll answer for that."

Twilight showed confidence in my choice. "I know you'll make the best decision for him."

I looked back to the office and took a deep breath. "With this place finally getting broken into, I think we've collected all of what we could from here, at least anything resembling something that lived at one point or another."

"We got everything from out of here, except for the smell." She replied.

"I think that's fine, it's not as terrible as it used to be. As long as they don't see what we had to see, we're fine." I said in return.

Twilight shuddered for a moment. "Staging Zone 1, that place still gives me the creeps."

"How come? It's just a tall room with chains, at least from what me and Cobalt have seen."

Twilight shifted her eyes towards me. "What all do you think were attached to those chains?"

Before I could think of an answer, Cadance came from out of the room. Cobalt continued to collect documents inside of her saddlebags while Twilight walked into the office. The purple princess went up to the panel of the portal seeing the progress of the connection. She looked back at me and nodded.

"It's ready. You can step on through if you want."

I stepped into the portal, finally being back home after a long and eventful half-week. Everything was just as I remembered it. As soon as my signal jumped back to full bars, I had gotten notifications of a few texts and some voicemails. So I reached out to whoever had contacted me last and I finally got started with bringing the family together. I touched basis with Vanessa, hoping she'd be able to come through and visit her husband. Both mama and papa Haines immediately said they'd be right over.

All throughout the course of the weekend, I was letting them now quietly that Nondis was in trouble, that we'd promise to get him back as soon as we could. After fulfilling that promise, I told them to stay away from us for the time being. I didn't want to put them at risk just by being near the portals. I then informed them that I'd give them a call if the coast was clear to visit. And since I gave them the all-clear, they've been hot on the trail. It took Vanessa a while longer to show up, but she did eventually drop by.

At last, I brought them through the portal to be able to see their family and loved ones. And already crossing over, they had questions about the unusual environment. "So what is this place?" Mr. Haines questioned.

"It sure isn't the castle." Vanessa stated.

Cadance promptly answered their questions. "We're in a lab, about some two thousand feet beneath the castle."

The three other humans were amazed at how deep we were in comparison to where we were going. "Well one thing's for certain, this place will survive a nuclear explosion." Mr. Haines joked.

As we walked into the hallway, Mrs. Haines took notice of the unpleasant smell. "Can I ask why this place smells so much like a chemical plant?"

"Lots of chemicals used." I answered briefly.

"For what exactly?" Mr. Haines asked.

As we walked, there was one familiar door that was left open, namely the room we found Jasper in. I tried to ignore the chills down my spine as I spoke. "Well, there's a number of reasons why I didn't wait days to bring you here. The main reason is that I wanted to show you what was going on, namely what all we ran into."

"In other words, something Nondis won't tell us." Mr. Haines replied.

"More like what all he's seen." I informed him.

Vanessa commented on the lab's appearance. "This place is so clean and white. Almost looks completely out of time for what usually goes on here."

"That's the given order of how it goes." I muttered as we were set to enter the first staging zone.

Twilight hesitated in opening the door, seeming as though she had to prepare herself to go back through this way. The doors were opened and she kept her eyes to the ground as she walked. Meanwhile, Mrs. Haines took notice of the particularly bad odor. "Ugh! Honey, this place smell terrible!"

"Smells like something died in here." Vanessa added.

"Yeah it's not pretty. Twilight has the creeps every time she walks in here, so she says." I commented as I followed the purple unicorn. But as I looked up to where the exit doors where, I wondered why she was leading us away from them. "Hey, where are you leading us?"

She stopped walking forward, circling a spot on the ground with her hoof, namely some dark spots on the ground. "This spot here, where you see the stains on the ground. That's where we found him." She answered, looking up to me.

"Found who!?" Vanessa questioned as she identified the dark spots as dried blood.

It clicked in my mind as to what she was talking about. "Oh. So this is the room you found Nondis in?"

"Correct. We found him here, he was shivering cold in this spot, we tore the restraints off of him at this very spot."

Both the middle-aged parents looked down at the dried blood stains and grew mum. All while Vanessa had a quiet retort. "Oh... What happened to you?"

Cadance, who brought up the rear, explained to us where we were. "In all actuality, this place is a fridge. It's not running now, there's nothing in it."

Even I looked back at the pink princess with a bewildered expression. "Wait, why would this place be a fridge?"

Twilight didn't lift her head once as she pointed to the ceiling. "I want you to look up for me, tell me what you see."

"Okay, all I see is chains and hooks." Vanessa answered.

Mr. Haines and his wife gawked at the hanging tools above. "You say this place used to be a fridge, well now I'm convinced this place is a slaughterhouse."

Vanessa's face ran cold as she looked back to the pink alicorn. "Uh... didn't you say this place was a lab?

While the cruel implications started to warm up in their mind, the brutal reality had hit me in the face almost as if I was watching the moment Umbra tried to take Alabaster's body with him. My eyes were lifted up, imagining the shadows of ponies dangling from several of the hooks. I immediately grew nauseous as I spoke to Twilight. "Tell me you're joking. Like tell me this is a ha-ha moment."

Twilight finally lifted her head, looking up as she whispered. "Hundreds... if not thousands."

All of us knew what that meant, and the horror soon set in for the three visitors. "Get us the fuck out of here." Vanessa urgently requested.

And the two princess were more than willing to accommodate.

Our ride up the lift was quiet aside from the rickety wood that creaked and moaned with our long ascent. Eventually we came to the top of the lift and walked outside to greet the fresh mountain air. Twilight and Cadance were also kind enough to use a mass teleportation spell to get us back to the castle.

We didn't have to wander around for long before I found out what room the others were sitting in. It appeared that they had all showed back up in the portal room for some reflection on Alabaster's passing. Nondis appeared harsh on himself for not being here, despite many arguments we all have had telling him he did the right thing. But again, there were a lot of things he had to mentally adjust to with everything being done.

I walked into the room, keeping the other three humans in the hallway as I greeted everyone in the room. "Hey, Melanie, we've been wondering where the hell you walked off to." Cliff said as I appeared.

"You good?" Rick questioned me as I posed myself in the doorway.

"I came back from the lab, left to find some answers to some recent questions swirling in my head at night." I replied. "We found some other things, including a very scary discovery you guys should be interested in."

"How scary are we talking?" Stanton asked. "It can't be as scary as all the shit we fought against yesterday morning."

"Scary enough." I answered as I stepped out of the doorway, holding the door open. "You all can come in now."

As the three guests stepped through the door, everyone's eyes bulged and their collective jaws dropped. Nondis immediately stood up to acknowledge his parents. "Mom!? Dad!?"

Vanessa quickly ran for her husband. "Babe!"

"Vanessa!" He ran right back to her, meeting her halfway. She wasn't ready for the hug he sucked her into, deeply holding her and rocking with her in his arms. "Oh my God, you are my world. I don't ever wanna live a day without you."

"You're awfully romantic today. What got into you?" She asked as she pulled away for a moment.

"Long story." He answered, not even looking in his wife's eyes.

The first thing that Mr. Haines saw as he got closer was the towering height his son had now reached. "Nondis, good heavens, son! You grew again!?"

Mrs. Haines joined in on greeting their son, hugging him as she spoke. "Well it's almost time you'd start looking at being a ball player, don't you think? You'd fit right into the NBA."

"Nah, I don't have the body for that." He said, halfway smiling.

Stanton hugged his dad, but then questioned him. "How did you three get here?"

He then answered. "Well Melanie and Twilight had brought us through some lab deep in the mountain, at least that's what they said. I wasn't sure where we were."

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence as Nondis looked to me. "Mel... Where did you say you brought them from?"

"You know that scary thing I was talking about?" I continued. "Well, we broke into you-know-who's office today. He had a portal... It was thirty minutes away from spawning him back into my apartment."

Everybody who took part in Umbra's defeat dropped their heads in disbelief. "Jesus fucking Christ." Nondis whispered as he facepalmed, rubbing his eyes.

But as he did that, the sleeve of his shirt pulled back and revealed the gruesome scar on his wrist. Mrs. Haines grabbed on to her son's arm and investigated the recent injury. "Son, what happened to your wrist?" She picked up his other arm, revealing the same scar on that and on the back of his hands. "And your hands? Where did all the scars come from?"

The man sighed, wishing that he wasn't asked those questions. "Mel, you didn't bring them here to just say 'hello' did you?"

I folded my arms, telling him the truth. "I told them that we had to come and rescue you. They got concerned and I had to tell them to hold off on visiting. These past few days, they've been wondering if we were even alive. Today, I wanted them to see you, because they want to check in."

"I'm not a spectacle, Mel. I'm just trying to live my life here." He answered quietly.

"Well, they're here, and they see you now." I replied. "They still need to know."

Nondis looked down at his mom, appearing as a giant to her. He took a few steps away from her, digging his fingers into the brim of his shirt. "Mom, dad, Vanessa... I'm gonna take this off, and you're gonna see some shit."

Mrs. Haines grew mortified as she watched her son start to strip himself before her. But as soon as his shirt started to give her the slightest peek at the litany of incisions made on him, she ran over and grappled his arms against his sides. "Don't!" She sounded as though she was a mother in grief, not wanting to even look at the terrible things her son had endured. "Oh God, just let me hold you." She held him close, shaking her head as she still fought him to keep his shirt on. "You're still in one piece, you're still my baby boy."

The man felt a sadness grow in watching his mother's eyes start to moisten. But his father soon noticed yet another troubling mark. "Nondis, what happened to your neck?"

He sighed again, and looked directly at me, almost resigned to fate. The countenance of his face reminded me of the harrowing images still sitting on my phone. I couldn't bear it, I looked away from him. "I'm sorry, I have to go."

"Mel, you wanted them to see me." He argued softly. "If I'm gonna tell them the whole truth, I'm gonna need the parts I can't tell."

The nausea was coming back in full force. I had gagged and held my hands up at the thought of showing them the pictures of their son being decapitated. "No, Nondis." I pleaded adamantly. "I wasn't ready to see that, I didn't want to see that, and I'm damn-well not going to show them that. They don't deserve that."

While the two parents appeared confused by what I was hiding, he knelt down and slowly but briefly explained to them one of the things that happened to him. "Dad... My head was cut off." He said, finally answering his father.

"What?" He ran over to look at his son, still very much seeing the scar, the head being attached, and feeling the warmth in his face. "No, no. You're still here, how does that make any sense? Son, you're still alive."

Nondis moved his collar out of the way and brought his father's hands to the scar. "Just run your fingers along." He instructed.

Initially in disbelief, he traced one hand to the front of his neck, letting his thumb feel the hollowness of the scar tissue. He felt the slight indents at both the top and the bottom of the lateral wound, indicating a stitch pattern. His other hand did the same from the other direction, meeting in the middle. Once he did that, confirming the same hollowness of the scar, he ran his hands all the way around, feeling the very same texture all the way throughout, stopping at his spine. "Son, what did they do to you?"

Nondis swallowed as the tortures they did him had come to mind. He simply gave them a cruel, single-worded answer. "Everything."

Mrs. Haines fell to her knees holding her son as she grieved over the trauma her son was forced to endure. "Oh God."

He then explained to them, almost as though he was making a disclaimer for all the ponies in this world. "This was the actions of one monster, who will soon face justice."

Mrs. Haines made no attempts to let her son go, not even as her husband held onto him also. "Baby, we're here. It's going to be okay."

Vanessa, still shocked at the revelation, looked to her husband to answer for his account. "Is this true?"

Stanton quickly replied, pointing back at me. "Yeah, it's true. She's even got pictures of it."

Both Mr. and Mrs. Haines looked at me as though I had done them a great injustice, but Alex was quick to come to my defense. "She's keeping them for a criminal case, photographic evidence."

As they were talking, I started to zone out as they spoke. Looking at Nondis, I could only imagine him staring back at the nothing as Jasper did when we found him. "He was in a lab, they were doing experiments to him. I won't even say what for..." I could barely hear Stanton speak. "Shit still gives me nightmares."

I tried to breathe, but my chest felt so tight. I kept looking for something to distract me from those moments, but all I could see was the image of him on that table, sitting next to his element. I could hear Umbra's voice declaring proudly that he had met his end, him laughing at how he was going to try and make us subjects for similar experiments.

"Mel?"

I knelt over, plugging my ears, cringing, slamming my eyes shut while the still image of the operating table still glowed in a spotlight of a darkened room. The little filly's voice whispered through my head, calling the decapitated human 'big brother' over and over again. The severed head turned to me very slow, it's eyes looking back up to me as it whispered my name repeatedly. I wanted to scream in that moment.

"MEL!" The sudden shout that reached my ears broke me out of my trance. The next thing I noticed was that I was crouching on the ground, with everyone looking at me as though I had lost it. Instead, Nondis came walking up, kneeling down to me, and bringing me in for a hug. "I'm here. I'm still here. I'm talking to you. Don't go down that way yet. You hear me?"

My entire body broke out in a sweat, my eyes shifted over to see the scar on the back of his neck covered by the locks of black hair. I placed my ear into his shoulder, hearing his heart still beating. I finally came back to reality, knowing that my friend was still here. "I'm sorry." I said, mostly embarrassed that I had completely fallen apart in front of everyone. I damn near chocked him with how tight I gripped against him, crying out more and more apologies. "I'm sorry we couldn't get to you sooner! If only we had just acted instead of talking about it, this wouldn't have happened. It's not fair."

"Don't blame yourself." He replied.

"No, you don't understand." I argued, finally having the courage to look back at his face again. "Nondis, you're still dead in my eyes."

"You said it yourself. I'm me." He said as he pulled me back up to my feet. Looking down at me, he gave me a tap against my upper sternum. "Don't ever blame yourself for this, not while I'm still breathing. I made the choice to get myself into this shit, you don't need to take no fault for any of this."

As I had a moment to recover from my episode, especially for it being my first episode, I wiped my eyes, dusted myself off, took an inhale, and cleared my mind for a moment. "I'm sorry. I'm just dealing with a lot in my mind. It's all mental."

"No. You're good." He replied calmly. "We all need an out on occasion."

Hours after our time in Canterlot Castle, we were transported back to the cave entrance and made our way down the lift. Nondis was kind enough to provide us with the escort for our return; Himself and Alex. We thought that being back in the place where he suffered so much hell would not be a great idea, but he seemed pretty used to being down here already.

It's amazing that he's taking my med student life-lessons better than I am.

Once we arrived back at the portal, he took a moment to gander and see just how bad it would've been had he finished us off and came back to his office to do more of his work. Granted he'd probably be distracted by the idea of turning all of us into guinea pigs, but that would've still been another week or two of him torturing us before finding the need to acquire more humans to play with. Either way, it would've ended terribly.

Mr. and Mrs. Haines hugged their son goodbye, Vanessa settled for a handshake, still a bit disturbed by all of what she was told. But she spared more than a hug for her husband, kissing him on the lips before she settled out back home. "I'll be home tomorrow if I can spare the time." Alex informed her.

"Just do what you can, babe." She answered her husband before looking to her brother in law. "Just take care of yourself, okay?"

"No promises." He replied.

Both of us watched as the portal was shut down again, leaving the three of us to remain here. While Alex took a gander around the office, Nondis and I started walking out into the hall. I began to think about my traumatic episode from earlier. The man next to me placed a hand on my shoulder. "You all good?"

I shook my head in admission. "I never had an episode like that before, Nondis."

"It happens." He said as he walked me along the hall. "Something small may trigger it, or even some lingering thoughts will. It takes time to adjust to."

I chuckled lightly. "You're talking like you've already beaten it."

"Far from. I'm still fighting it whenever I step in certain rooms of this place." He said as he opened one of the doors. While I was still inclined to pinch my nose, he simply took it in. "The smell never leaves me."

I looked at him curiously, wanting to know how it was that he was able to process his traumas so much better than I could. "How do you deal with it?"

"Well for starters, I don't look at things that will trigger it." He said as he summoned my phone from out of my pocket. "That should be your biggest concern, because I know you, you'll look at something from the perspective of a med student and try to dull it down. In truth, you suppress your humanity by trying to remove the human element. And then it rings in your head louder than ever, the fear that it's someone you may know. The fear of losing the responsibility of that life, seeing the blood on your hands, it becomes real. For you, it's the detail of medical knowledge that's been ushered to you, utilizing the two lives you've grown to know personally. For me, it's the smell."

"You've been dealing with PTSD for a while now, haven't you?"

"Months." He said as guessed at my passcode. "My first operation was to stop a train from running off into a ravine. I already told you what I saw then. From there, the fears kept building, the toll grew greater, the sight and smells of it amplified in my memory. At this point, the smell doesn't even phase me anymore, it's the memories that come along with it." He successfully guessed my password and froze for a moment. His eyes open for a moment and then close. He swipes for the home screen and immediately hands the phone over to me with a smirk. "Crazy, huh? To think that we'd both be suffering the way we do."

I grabbed my phone and immediately pull back up the screen, only to see that I was at the home view. I took a sigh of relief that he hadn't come across the messages. "I couldn't even imagine if any of this happened with a bunch of humans."

"Yeah, I had to live with that thought while I was down here. Leaving here, I had dreams of you all being the very thing I didn't want; Some appendage I could use to commit unforgivable atrocities."

I looked at the man and grew morbidly curious. "Does any of that still apply to you?"

"More than you know. There's a lot I can do that I couldn't before this past weekend." He answered, flexing his hands. "I won't bother you with any of it."

"Just as long as you're still you, I guess I can't complain." I answered meekly.

Nondis looked back down the hall, seeming as if a light bulb had popped over his head. "Oh shit! Hey, I gotta go! I quietly told Shining that I was gonna help him with the detainment effort tomorrow. I might bring Kali along to help her get used to operating in the open. She could use some time out in the sun instead of sulking about how she couldn't help when it all mattered. I gotta help her break her out of that depression."

"You just be careful." I said as he started to run off. "And for the love of God, don't let Celestia find out. She'll fire you for real."

"Press will be keeping her busy, she's not gonna be paying any attention." He said running back, but then stopping himself dead in his tracks. "Oh yeah, one more thing."

"Yeah?"

He laughed nervously as he hollered out. "You might wanna watch what you leave in your inbox. I saw how you and Rickey have been sending some sultry stuff back and forth." And with those final words, he disappeared around the corner and down the hall.

I called out to the man in frustration. "You asshole! Why would you even go back that far!?"

Two Days Later...

I started taking his advice on how to deal with trauma. It took a whole other night of not being able to sleep cleanly for me to finally find some point in my day where I could just take the moment to get in a nap. Granted, those naps were short because of some recurring nightmares popping up. But as the time progressed over yesterday, I started to keep myself busy by interacting with some of the maids and guards here in the castle. A lot of them continued to share their thanks for saving the nation, and a few other stallions grew brave and tried to ask me out on a date.

I can't really say that the attempts weren't cute, it's just that I was already spoken for.

After that, I took it easy and read a few books, passed out, and woke up feeling refreshed. The thoughts would still plague me in my dreams, but I at least had some help in the staying-asleep department. Twilight was kind enough to drop a sleeping spell my way just so I could keep myself functioning like normal.

Today, I wanted to try and interact with more of the guards again. I wasn't really going to do much of anything until the beef of the case was already in the works. Really, I spent the majority of the morning shadowing Solemn Oath, who had a lot to say about Nondis. So it was comforting to be able to find someone I could exchange perspectives with on a common subject, despite it being about a guy.

In speaking of which... "Yo."

I turned around to see Nondis standing right behind me. He appeared to have a weakness to the sun that beamed in through one of the boarded-up windows. He seemed to squint at everything around him. "You look tired. Are you okay?" I asked him.

"Nah, I'm just getting reacclimated to work is all." He answered dismissively with an added yawn. "So, tonight is going to be a little get together at the pub downtown. After the week we had, the guards and I all agreed to have a night out to celebrate, you know, drown out the edge."

"Well that sounds like fun." I said hesitently. "Are you─"

"They actually─" That one instance of him interrupting me seemed to be the most energetic part about his exchange with me. He quickly corrected himself. "Oh, my bad."

"No no, go ahead, what were you going to say?" I replied, giving him the floor to speak.

"I was gonna say something, but I think I forgot what the hell I was gonna sa─Ah, okay. So I was gonna tell you that they also wanted to celebrate with the new element bearers in town. So far, I got a yes from everyone else but you."

I wanted to ask him if he was okay, but then again, I was a bit concerned about Stanton being in an environment full of alcohol while he himself being underage. "Wait, what about Stanton?"

"Age restriction is eighteen here. He's good to go." He answered aloofly, just waving his hands all over the place. "He's down. He is down to do it."

"Well, okay." I answered, still wanting to make sure he was making a good decision. "Are you sure this is something you want to do? Like maybe there's something you should be doing right about now that could be important to your own health. I mean, you don't have to subject yourself to trying to be normal."

"Melanie, we lived through the gauntlet of hell. I think we deserve a moment to unwind."

After throwing out the hint, only to have him bat it out of left field, I accepted the invitation, but only with the intention to keep an eye out for him. "Okay, let's be upfront about what we're doing. What drugs are you planning to take?"

"Got the goods from our world. Guy from the frat made a drop at the apartment late last night." He held up a zip-lock bag of weed. "We're gonna be firing this shit up all night. We're blasting off, straight to some good vibrations."

I looked over to Solemn Oath, covering my mouth as I whispered over to him. "Does your special someone know you're doing all this?"

"I told her, she didn't say anything." He said as he yawned once more.

"She didn't say yes or anything, nothing that remotely indicated that she was fine with you doing it?" I questioned him once more.

"No, I think she was just pretty busy with her paperwork." He said as he put the half-full sandwich bag in his pocket. "Honestly, I'm looking forward to it. I need the time to just find some joy in my life, some celebration after all that crazy ass shit. I tell you one thing, I'm gonna get faded until I get some sleep tonight."

I finally told him the pretenses of my agreement. "Okay. If I come with you, I'm doing it to make sure you don't have an episode where you just drug yourself into nonsense again. The last time you did it, you literally woke up in another world."

"No shrooms." He said, raising his right hand. "Guard's honor."

While I wasn't above the idea of blowing down a few joints myself, I still felt that it would be better to bring a drinking buddy along for the ride. "Can I bring a friend?"

"Who you bringing?" He inquired.

It took me half a second to answer his question. "I wanna bring Blue."

He chuckled with excitement. "Hell, the party starts when she walks in! Let's do it!"

Later on that evening, Nondis was nice enough to give me a lead on Blue's address. As soon as I showed up, poor thing was already dealing with bloodshot eyes and a bad case of the sniffles. She invited me inside to wait on her to get ready, and then she told me to get anything out of the fridge if I needed anything. At first, I wasn't really interested in raiding her fridge, but then I felt a little peckish for something sweet. So I took her up on the offer and walked into the kitchen.

The moment I walked in, I realized just how bad of a mood she was in. A bottle of pills sat on the side of a dark wine bottle, a glass half empty, and a photo of her brother sitting across from where she sat. There were bunches of tissues all over, on the table, draped to the side, fallen on the floor, just a pure mess. Looking over in her sink, there was a single plate, a fork, and a glass of water. Everything she did was by herself. She cooks, she cleans, she spends time only with herself.

Maybe having that party tonight was a good call.

Once she was ready, she came walking down the stairs and called for me. I showed back up and we settled out for a night in the town. Our walk was pretty quiet, she only observed moments and places that seemed the most familiar to her, but didn't stay on them for very long. I wanted to at least open up by addressing the elephant in the room, namely sitting at the kitchen table. But I felt it was too inappropriate to delve into her mourning methods. So I kept my mouth shut for most of the walk.

It was her who actually broke the silence between us. "So... you said Nondis is throwing this party?"

"Him and the guards. I guess they're just doing it to cope." I replied.

"Well... I guess it's okay for now." She said with a saddened tone.

"I'm just happy that he's trying to find some measure of normality after all of this." I said, not really wanting to discuss how he seemed to not be sleeping.

Unfortunately, that was her next concern. "How does he look?"

"He's seen better days, but he's trying." I answered.

She looked up to me. "Have you been sleeping?"

"Whenever I can. It's still a struggle sometimes." I admitted. "What about you?"

She seemed a world distant from the Blue I knew at the gala, instead of smiling and dragging me everywhere, she was loosely walking beside me, frowning in the face the entire time. "I cry before I sleep. I hold the pictures of my brother and mom and talk to them until I finally doze off."

"You live by yourself?" I already knew the answer to that question, I don't even know why I asked. I guess I was just trying to keep the conversation going.

"Yeah. It's pretty quiet back home, as you can tell. After all the time in Canterrot, I prefer my nights to be as noisy as possible before I go to sleep. I just can't deal with large open spaces, it reminds me too much of where I used to live." She said, stalling for a moment before her eyes opened for a moment, acknowledging my close presence. "...I'm signing over my rights to the mansion, you know."

"To who?" I inquired.

"Kalimba."

I raised a brow at her choice. "Oh... kay? I don't have a problem with your choice, but it's pretty much out of nowhere. Why her?"

"I asked Nondis if he'd accept it, he said 'no' right out the gate. And I can't live there anymore, my brother, my dad, my mom, they're no longer here. My life starting off was nothing but my dad denying that I was even his to begin with, because I wasn't born by the traditional means of him sticking his dick in my mom. That's more than I could say for myself, he raped me in the warming room. Plus my mom hung herself in the rafters of my dad's old study when I was a kid. And my brother's spirit is nowhere to be found in that place. It's like he abandoned it just as life quickly abandoned him. I'm more interested in burning it to the fucking ground for insurance money, but that's illegal."

I looked around, seeing if there was anyone listening in on our conversation. "Yeah, I suppose."

She didn't exactly stop there, she went on to talk away another cruel truth. "Uncomfortable topic, yeah I know. But that's why I drink, to drown out the feeling of my dad's seed running down the back of my legs."

I knew she was drunk already, but just seeing her this way is downright depressing. "Are you okay?"

"My brother's dead. This is my only method to grieve." She said before getting back to her original subject. "But yeah, I'm signing the mansion away to her. This way, Kalimba gets the life she deserved, plus the space to help her sister get reacclimated to her usual lifestyle. Gala may be blind, but she's not deserving to be so brutally thrown into uncertainty, not like how Kalimba and I was."

Again, I tried to keep the conversation rolling. "So I have a question. What do you do with your brother's assets aside from the mansion?"

"I split it down the middle. Half of it I give to local charities, the other half I already signed over to Nondis. I'm sure he'll share half of that with Kalimba since she's going to be living in the mansion pretty soon."

I thought for a moment of the bits he already had in the bank, not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars he has back home. I began to do the math in my head, coming up with some awfully high numbers. "Doesn't that make Nondis hella rich?"

"Wealthy is more like it." She corrected, starting to show signs of life. "Rich ponies spend their money out of habit. But wealthy ponies will send money into rotation. He has a pretty wealthy mind, I trust him to make the stock market burn for a day." She ended off with an amused smirk.

"Nondis doesn't know what the hell stock is, much less what he's doing with his stock options. I want you to know that before your company tanks to the ground." I warned her.

She lightly giggled. "Who says it's my company's stocks he has? Those stocks are all in the companies who's CEO's and CFO's have pissed me off over the past three years. Alabaster was just holding on to them for an artificial rise in the value. But once they sell, the value tanks. Some companies he owns more than thirty percent of their market shares. I might be an heiress of a billionaire, but Alabaster was holding that mansion because he could more than afford it." She giggled once more as she spun herself around. "Just think of all the market chaos when Nondis sells every last stock. I might even tell him to fire-sale the whole portfolio Monday morning. Then he can buy my company's stocks to inflate the value. We'll be set for another fifteen years."

I don't know what was in those pills, but they've obviously started to kick in with a vengeance. At least she was starting to feel better, at least for the moment. "Sell your opponents' stock and drop the market while your profits rise? You are scary."

"It was Alabaster's plan. The executive board always said that Alabaster had my mother's financial aggression." She said before dropping back down to her melancholy self. "...I'm gonna miss him so damn much. He's not even going to wake me up tomorrow morning. Oh fuck, I need a drink."

Well that didn't last long.

Outside of the tavern, Nondis was flagging everyone inside. Hard to ignore the only living thing close to seven feet tall for miles around town. He continued to flag in more guards until he finally saw the both of us walking up. "Ladies! You made it!" He already smelled of weed.

"Alright, so what's the party looking like in here?" I asked as we walked through the door.

"We just got started. Drinks on me tonight." He cheerfully replied, guiding us inside.

While he was closing the door, I pointed out to him the cost of that endeavor, especially with what seemed like over four-hundred faces all over the bar. "Nondis, that sounds pretty expensive."

"Yeah, but I'm not doing this every night." He was so chill talking about it, but then again the weed can numb the emotional response, that or amplify it depending on the mood. "Table's upstairs."

While we traversed the the bar, there was a group of young guards muttering about Canterrot's apparent demise. "Hey, have you been in the Corrotto District lately?"

"Yeah, that place smells!"

"They're still cleaning house over there?"

"Yeah, Princess Celestia has been pretty academic in purging the place. Can't lie, it's set to raise the property values of that area significantly."

While we didn't actively partake in the passing conversation, Blue did add to it with her own comment. "If there's ever a place that needs to be gentrified, it's that one."

As we reached our table, the others appeared quiet in watching. Solemn Oath and her friends joined us as well, mainly here for the drinks. I guess they also needed to purge their minds for a bit since they've been particularly involved in the cleanup of the lab. The others I think were here for the same purpose as me. There was a bit of a cheer at the table when we arrived. Nondis especially was the one excited. "Well, the gang's all here! Might as well chase down a few shots!"

But before we could do any of that, calls from the floor below were all chanting for what they wanted. "Captain! A speech, if you will, on your huge victory!"

"Yeah! You ain't said nothin' about anything! What's up!"

"Hell yeah, let's get it!"

"Speech!"

"Damn. Can't fire one up with the guards like this." He said as he offered the joint he smoked over to me. I took him on his offer and smoked a bit as he walked away. "Gotta give the ponies what they want." He said, exhaling a puff of smoke.

How everyone saw him at the table was one of two ways. To Solemn and her friends, he seemed loose-spirited and happy in spite of all that he endured. He appeared strong, able to persevere. But to Cliff, Rickey, and I, he appeared as though he was doing his best to smile. "He's trying too hard again." Cliff pointed out.

"You don't think I see that?" I replied, taking another hit before passing it on to Stanton. As he grabbed it, I felt the smoke tickling my throat, causing me to cough. "Holy fuck, that shit is strong. Where'd he get this?"

"Hookup at the frat. Probably had Rod on the plug." Cliff answered as he finished rolling a new joint to bring into the rotation. "He know where all the good shit is. If you wanna get fucked up by the end of the night, that's the one you go to."

"Thanks for the tip." Stanton said. "As a transfer, I need that plug, my guy." He took a hit, coughed a few times and screamed. "Tha-KUH-at's the good s-KEH-hit alright!"

Before we knew it, Blue took the bud and looked at it. "So what does this do other than make you cough?"

"Make yo ass fly." Cliff answered as he took a lighter to his and took a huge puff. "If you cough, you lift off."

"Well I guess I'll be the first unicorn to give it a try." She said as she took a sip, blowing out the smoke harmlessly. "I don't feel anything."

"Well you ain't cough, so you ain't lifting off." Rickey pointed out. "Don't just suck some up and kick it back out. Breathe like you trying to take a swim."

This time, she took Rick's advice and did as he instructed. This time, she coughed almost immediately. Gagging as though she had taken on water. After a small coughing fit, she replied. "I'm not sure what this is supposed to do other than kill you!"

Cliff started laughing loudly, already knowing what's to come. "Give it a minute, you gon' feel it when it hit."

"I'd offer y'all some, but I don't know if y'all got drug tests." Rickey said to the other guardsmares at the table.

"I'm down to try anything the first time." Cobalt openly stated as she took a hit, coughing immediately after. While her friends crowded around her, she waved them off. "I'm okay."

"This bout to be some funny-ass shit." Cliff said with a wide grin.

As we were about to see how the girls were going to react to the weed, Nondis finally got around to standing on a table and announcing himself loudly. "Ladies and fillies, and gentlemen and colts, bastards of all sexes, I wanna give a huge thank-you for coming out tonight to help me celebrate our big win. A lot has happened, I lost my head... in a bad way, and a lot of shit we had to deal with was unnecessary to say the least. The fact that we had to find a way to fight all of what we did is more than enough to convince a lot of ponies out there, that this shit ain't worth the pay."

The crowd erupted in laughter. I looked over to the others. "He's already drunk, isn't he?"

"And solo'd a whole roll, he has no filter right now." Rickey pointed out.

"You didn't think to stop him?" I questioned.

"This is usually what he is when he's having a good time." Cliff added. "This part is normal for us."

"I don't think this is normal." Solemn replied.

"This is what I've been seeing when we break out the good wine." Blue rebutted.

"Well either way, we're definitely here to keep an eye on him." I suggested.

"Agreed." Said Alex as Nondis continued.

"But you know, the work and dedication that you all put into your job, not to mention the sacrifices you all made when you swore in, everyone else takes it for granted. I don't, not fucking once. I fought through mountains, forded over streams, chased rainbows into large pits of gold, and gained every nightmare imaginable. But in spite of that, many of you showed only support, giving me the strength and courage to press on. Without any of you where you were on this weekend, Equestria would be in a much worse place. This is by far the best damn army I've ever been in. And though I may be young, too young to lead, you still allowed me to take charge and try to do what I can for you. And in return, you ran over those same mountains I fought through, you glided across every stream I forded, you came along with me for the ride. And you all share the same nightmares I have. Everywhere I went, I look behind me and see you all right there. You guys are the best I've ever served with, that I'll have the pleasure in serving beside, and if God wills it, I'll be the one the you all leave behind to fall in the rust with."

Blue started looking at her hooves. and glanced over to me. "Hey, am I supposed to feel tingly?"

Cliff giggled as he dapped up Rickey. "Here we go. Here we go!"

Nondis continued his speech down below. "After these next few weeks, the souls of our brothers and sisters in arms will rest peacefully, without ever being threatened with what we saw on Monday night. Those who know, we know. Those who don't, keep that peace. But just as Shining said the other day, we're all here for each other. Look to either side of you, this is family. We all got your six if you feel the demons crawling up your back. From here on ahead, we sharpen each other as iron sharpens iron. So drink up tonight, get your buzz have a good time. But if you pass out on us, don't expect to stay. We'll get you some water, some coffee, sober you up, get you back home safe. If you need a room cause you can't make it back home, let me know, I'm on it. If you are feeling down deep when you leave here, you will not be left alone tonight. You'll be watched, cared for, and we will see you when you rise. We not losing nobody tonight, we're celebrating life. We're drinking on behalf of the ones who ain't make it, not to join them, I'm real about that. So let's start tonight off right."

While the others were closely watching as Blue took her ascent to her high, I paid closer attention to the man standing on the table downstairs. He seemed to still have some awareness of self, at least enough to plainly disclose what was going to happen of any one of the guards here decided to get black-out drunk. He still showed concern for everyone here, which was pretty admirable.

He raised a mug, along with everyone else in the tavern. "For the loved ones who's peace we've brought, for the ones we lost, for our brothers and sisters in arms, for those who paved the way for us, for the ones who made us laugh, smile, and feel comfortable, we honor them first. There's too many names to name, But their memories aren't forgotten." He patted his chest and looked to the sky. "Rest in peace, long live they."

"Long live." All the guards chanted back as they took that first drink together for their sake.

Once that moment passed, Nondis went right back into party mode. "ALRIGHT! LET'S FUCKING GET OUR SHIT MOVING! FIRST ROUND, WHO MAKES IT OUT ALIVE!?"

The entire crowd shouted and screamed in celebration. Bar servers and maids circled around with giant trays of beer, rotating their way around the tavern. Some have even made their way back up to us, dishing out pints for us to drink. I still kept my eyes on Nondis, watching him down a whole drink by himself. "He's not as drunk as I thought he would be."

"Yeah. Usually he's a little less sober-minded." Rickey observed.

Blue giggled, her face showing a constant state of relaxation. "To be fair, the stuff they serve out to the masses is really weak anyhow. It tastes hoppy and frothy, but it hits you and leaves as quick as you down it. But this stuff we're smoking, waaaaay better."

Both Rickey and Cliff bust out laughing, watching as Cobalt soon joined the mile-high club. I snickered as well. "I forgot that you're our drinking buddy for the night."

"Can you bring the magic cigarette back? I think I wanna stay here for a while." She requested, getting an even bigger laugh out of the two frat boys.

I shook my head and passed her a blunt. "Okay, just take it slow, it's not like a cigarette."

As she took her next hit, Nondis shouted out down below. "Easy round, easy round! ROUND TWO, LET'S GET IT!"

More cheers erupted from the ground floor, everyone happily getting a second round of drinks. I looked to Alex and asked him. "So Nondis drank before this all got started, right?"

"Yeah." He said, watching carefully over his brother's antics.

"He just drank two pints like it was nothing." I pointed out.

"Yyyyeeeeaaah, I think we might need to check on our boy." Cliff suggested.

"Oh, he's good." Blue said smoothly. "It's all good. Just let him be."

I looked to the mare and clearly understood that her mind was firmly buckled in on a first-class flight to the other side of the world. "Are you sure?"

She nodded slowly. "Oh no. See, we had this one brand of wine that's like illegal to sell, the really good shit, a while back. It was so good that he had a whole threesome with me and Kalimba, doesn't even remember the shit going down or the fact that he shot a wad of cum across the room while we were both blowing him."

Solemn spat out her drink, choking on that instead. Meanwhile Alex perked up immediately as he did the same. "A-hukuh-what?"

Stanton dropped his head. "Damn! Y'all ponies are some freaks!"

"Quick question, how big was he?" Cobalt asked.

"Cobalt, what the hell!" Solemn scolded her sky-walking friend.

Blue just laughed naughtily. "He was a pony at the time, and I had another shot at him, he can go for hours." She bit her lip and sighed. "I know why he's a suitor, because his dick don't disappoint. Even a princess needs her daily dick appointments, you know."

Alex quickly tried to change the subject from the idea of hearing of how well his younger brother pleases ponies. "So yeah, about that drinking thing. How does that wine affect him in any way?" It was a brilliant save.

Blue got back on subject after being prodded back on track. "Yeah, you drink some of that, you're never drinking alcohol the same way. It'll take him another eight before he starts to feel buzzed on that level."

"THIRD ROUND, LINE 'EM UP!" He called out just as quickly.

Stanton grimaced a bit as he murmured. "This man wants to die."

"How many did he have before we came here?" I asked.

Alex held up his hand. "Five."

"Ohhhhhh." Blue droned. "Oh well he's going to be really feeling that first buzz."

Cobalt wasn't exactly done with poking and prodding Blue for information on Nondis. "So... is he a spot or solid, like what does he look like down there?"

"COBALT!" Solemn angrily chided.

"He's a solid." Blue answered. "But get this, you know how a stallion flares up when he's about to go off? Well, he doesn't go off like off the rip, he stays that way for like minutes at a time. He's just out to crush it. You're literally counting O's before he has his first blowup. Plus he does give out good hornjobs too."

"HORN-HWHAT!?" Alex exploded.

Rickey fell out of his chair, holding his stomach as he laughed his ass off. "Ah...euhh... I can't breathe." He wheezed.

Gleaming Brass looked between her friends and the human dying of laughter on the floor. She looked up to Cliff with a determined expression. "You, what you gave to Cobalt, I want next."

"NO!" Solemn called out firmly.

"ROUND FOUR! POUR 'EM UP!" Nondis called out another time, pointing out some of the ones who declined their next round. "And the safe ones are already pulling out! It's only going to get more fun from here, folks!"

Cobalt leaned over the railing, biting her lip as she locked her eyes to the human down below. "Hey, can you set me up with the captain tonight?" Cobalt requested.

"Hell no! He's off limits!" Solemn called out.

"Aw come on, Solemn. It's not like his girlfriend's gonna come barging through the door."

Just as she said those words, the doors of the tavern swung wide open. All the yelling and rowdy chants of chugging came to a halt as a foreboding presence entered the room. Solemn glanced down to see none other than Princess Celestia scowling at the display taking place before her. "Oh shit." Solemn mewled as she sank her head beneath the railing. The maids stopped serving, the others stared as the princess walked towards the human standing on the table.

"Uh... Princess on deck?" Cobalt said, partially alert.

As the others fell into a silence, Nondis openly greeted the princess with drink in hand. "Oh hey, princess! You wanna join us for a morale booster?"

I can't even begin to describe the ferocity of how quick she dragged him from off of the table and planted her hoof in the middle of his back. "YOU! OUT! NOW!"

"Hey now, come on! I was just hanging out!"

"NOW, CAPTAIN!" She shouted as she telekinetically grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, slinging him back out the door. As the doors closed behind her, there were a number of loud comments that grabbed the entire bar's attention. Everyone started peeling for the windows and doors.

I snapped out of my high as well as Blue started to drift out of hers. We all looked to one another and thought of a way to see what was going on between the two of them. "Okay, let's beat this crowd real quick." Alex said as we all stood up and made a beamline for the back exit.

As soon as we came back around to an opening, we could hear the two arguing down the street as she dragged him along. "Hey, stop! What's the fucking deal!?"

"You!" She snarled, snatching him down by the scruff of his shirt. "This isn't who you are!"

"Lady look, I'm just trying to enjoy a few drinks with the guards. That's all I'm doing, it's just this thing called fun. What's wrong with fun?"

"You have not slept in four days, you've already disobeyed me by going out there with Shining yesterday! Do you honestly expect me to let you keep this up!? When was the last time you looked in a mirror, Nondis!? I can barely look at you because you don't even look alive right now!"

As the others soon came up behind, the watched in silence as the two continued to argue. "If this is about the mirror in your room, I promise that I'll pay for it. I'm sorry for breaking it, I'll have it replaced!"

"To hell with the mirror! Stop acting like you can keep going without giving yourself the rest you need!" She shouted back to the inebriated man. "I told you to take a break, you work anyhow! I tell you to give yourself a rest, you keep pushing without even looking at yourself! You don't want to sleep, you barely eat, you haven't even spoke to your therapist in two weeks, no rescheduling, no follow-ups, nothing! Stop trying to run from nightmares, I know it's hard to look at them, it's hard on the mind, but you need to rest! Your brain will slow, and you'll die sooner than I can help you!"

Celestia trembled with every concern that she listed, probably from having seen it times before. But Nondis continued to argue against her. "I'm just trying to have a good time right now! You don't need to worry about me! I'm happy knowing that I can be awake when I want to be!"

"Are you happy right now!?" She pressured.

"Hell yeah!"

"NO, YOU'RE NOT!" She shouted back before she finally let her anger go and gave way to simply pleading with him. She placed her head on his abdomen, quietly begging him. "Nondie, please come home. Rest for me. I can't let you keep going like this. It hurts to see you like this, please don't push this. Just hurt so you can heal, don't be like this. Please."

The man looked down to the mare leaning against him and kissed her forehead. "I'm gonna rest after this, okay? I'll rest, I promise. Just... just let me find a way to... regulate. I don't know any other way, just let me have this moment, I'll go to bed, I'll even sleep where you tell me, just let me get back in there and cleanse. Please?"

Celestia clasped her hooves around the human, firmly holding him in place, knowing that he would not be able to contest her immortal strength. "No. Leave now. I told you on last Friday that you were going to come back home and be done. Stop trying to be Superman and act like you're exempt from mortality!"

"MORTALITY!?" He snapped back at her. "Don't you get it!? I can't fucking rest, not with a portal already being finished in the fucking lab to begin with! We should be still waiting to get home for another month, not have one already! Do you wanna know how fucked up I am now!? Let me show you what I can do now! Let me remind you of what the fuck I've been made into!"

He closed his eyes, his whole body turning as black as a shadow before he slipped from her grasp. She stumbled forward as his presence completely sank into a dark shadow, only to rise some feet away. She stood silenced, her mouth held as she watched the man tremble in fear and terror.

"It's just as he said... it's as easy as blinking. So imagine if I just close my eyes for eight hours and find myself sinking into the void. To be in that darkness all over again with the nightmares I suffer, to relive the horrors of being pulled under the surface and feel like I'm drowning, again, and again, and again, and again, AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN!!!." His head shook violently, his hands trembled as he illustrated his thoughts loudly to her. "Imagine waking up to the sight of your rapist digging in your your chest, removing and replacing ribs he's taken out at a whim! It's so hard to breathe when I think about that shit! Imagine reliving being shocked for three hours! I had to process the thought of him swapping my head around the place like it's some Lego experiment! He had a portal, he could've went and snatched my parents, they could be laying right next to me, dead! What if that was my mom or dad's body I was stilted on instead!? I STILL HAVE TO PROCESS MY HEAD BEING ON ANOTHER FUCKING BODY, MUCH LESS BEING DECAPITATED! I'VE SEEN THE FUCKING PICTURES, CELESTIA! I'VE SEEN THEM! THEY'RE ON MELANIE'S PHONE, I SAW THEM!"

As Celestia watched him fall to his knees, completely ignoring the impact of the cobblestones under him, I felt myself become nauseous once more. I could only cover my mouth as I watched my best friend undergo such a breakdown in the street. And it was all because he had access to my phone. My heart sank as I watched him shiver, holding himself.

"I can't sleep... I still see it." He said distressfully. "I still see him digging in my chest... I still feel him on top of me... I still... inside... down my legs..."

I looked immediately to Blue, recognizing those same words. She had already started crying for him.

Meanwhile, Celestia slowly walked back to him. "Come here." She said, opening her wings quickly walking to him. "Don't you break down, not without holding me first." He let out a painful shriek, finally letting go of the pain he had kept inside for so long. Celestia wrapped her wings around him, coiling her forelegs around his shoulders, nuzzling him as he cried out to the night sky. "It'll be okay, I promise." She said, gently rocking him from side to side, sweetly whispering in his ear as he cried out once more.

"WHY!? WHAT THE FUCK DID I EVER DO!?" Finally, he grew quiet, unraveling in her grasp. "...Why me?"

The soft inaudible weeps and the gasps of air filled the otherwise quiet streets.

I felt deeply responsible for everything that happened here. All while he was trying to guide me on how to deal with my new traumas, he was still bartering with the ones he recently acquired as best as he could, as quietly as he could. And I was thinking that Blue and I had some rough times to drink away, but neither of us suffered the level of violation that this man has endured for the sake of something so gray and idealistic as love.

Solemn looked away, not wanting to see the pain the captain had carried. The others did the same, and the four friends walked back into the bar. We inevitably followed suit, walking back inside and seeing the hushed crowd of guards somberly drinking one final round before submitting their tabs. They no longer felt like Nondis had any ground to pay for their drinks and requested their own payout. Solemn and her friends all did the same and left shortly after. Before we knew it, the bar was empty again, filled only with the occasional regulars who'd sit at the counter and talk about their work week. But even they were quiet after hearing the voices in the street.

All six of us walked out of the bar, sober after having been quiet. The streets were just as empty as the night of the siege. Blue pulled at my shirt, letting me know what she wished to do. "I think I wanna go home now."

I acknowledged her request. "I'll take you home." And then parted ways from the others. "I'll catch up to you boys later, make sure she gets home and stays safe. I'll see you in the morning."

"Need any of us to come with?" Alex proposed.

"We'll be fine. You four just go on without us."

Rickey reached out to insist that he'd come along, but Alex halted him. "I think you two will be okay. Just be safe out here." He then addressed Rick. "Let's let the ladies have their time." There was no further contest. We all split up and went our separate ways. As we walked, I watched as Blue wiped her eyes every step of the way.

Meanwhile, I learned a valuable lesson from that night; That my individual struggles were my own, and that they would never amount to the pain of some others. If I ever had a hard time in my life, I would always think back to this moment and see that I had endured much, but experienced so little.

I will never be so selfish, not ever again.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

6 Years Later...

It's as easy as blinking.

Those words stuck with me all throughout the years I've lived my life, indicating not just how quick you can change something, but also just as quick as everything around you can change. Life doesn't believe in waiting for it's turn, it just happens whenever it so chooses to not be boring. And for me, that is definitely the case as the years went by.

For starters, Rick and I had our first child sometime in late 2015. We found out that if you have ample amounts of sex while in pony form, that initial pregnancy process continues throughout transformations, as they are still a mere collection of cells. Yeah, that first month went by and I didn't even know anything. The second month came around to a close and I started getting really sick, often. Took a visit to the doctor later in the week, and surprise, there it was. Dad flipped out because he was scared that I wasn't going to be able to finish school, but with the money Nondis left us, we had ways of planning around what we could do to mitigate that. Another seven months later, and our son was born.

I wanted to change what the name 'Jasper' meant to me, so we named our son Jasper Emilio Santaña.

Rickey's family was excited to hear that he had a son now, they were ready to throw the whole neighborhood at us, bringing us all sorts of food and gifts to us to help celebrate the occasion and help make the transition to motherhood a bit easier. Dad did what he could in supporting me, but he also had mom to look after. She cleaned up completely, and very slowly took the time to reach out to me so we could reconnect. It took a lot to both be a mother, and then forgive one who wasn't there much because of her crippling addictions. But we made it work.

He and I ran into a few rough patches in our relationship, namely from the stress of him trying to be dad and live his life, all while I tried to play catch-up and finish my education a year into Jasper's growth. But that was the easy part, next came the hard one.

I had finally finished my training in the police academy, and was admitted to serving in the Austin Police Department. That began a whole trial and tribulations of issues that began to unravel into political mayhem. I myself had no problems with individuals of varying communities, but some officers had perceived biases and would often patrol in manners that would heavily inflict one or two communities as opposed to others. Racism was almost the norm, in spite of this city being one of the most liberal ones in the state. And if anyone ever speaks out on it, they find themselves either getting blackballed... or worse. A lot of times, I was left to feel remorse for not being a nurse like I had originally set out to do. That changed drastically, especially with the election of our previous president.

Some people liked him, some people hated him, but a lot of his policies and practices left our officials holding office to pander to his method for votes. That began to bring out a lot of issues with Rick's family, since some of them came on work visas that eventually expired. And though they tried to reapply a number of times, they weren't approved fast enough to prevent a deportation or two. My parents on the other hand loved him, they agreed with a lot of what he had to say, in spite of them not really benefitting from any of his policies. They started getting really heavy into fringe politics, and then a divide started to occur between both my parents and my own immediate family.

And then, there was last year, 2020.

Our idiot in chief decided to keep it under wraps that the spreading of a global pandemic would soon hit our shores, and had no pandemic response team in place to keep anything in check. So by mid February, we were already getting news that COVID-19 had hit our largest cities, namely Seattle and New York. Then it broke out in Atlanta and Houston, then it hit us. While a lot of places here in the state were less than willing to shut down, the writing was on the wall for what was to come next. When March came along, there was the one incident that really drove a dagger into our way of life. March, 11th of that year, an NBA player tested positive for COVID in Oklahoma City.

Everything went into shutdown. No sports, no festivals, no schools were open, hardly any churches had in-person services, and those that did defied mandates put in place. We were told it was for a month, that in April we would be able to get back into the swing of things. Then it was May where we were promised to come out of our shelter-in-place mandates. Then it went from that to the summer heat would kill the virus... and so on, and so forth.

Then in July, our lives were dramatically flipped upside down.

Mom and dad both caught COVID. Then I caught it, Rick caught it, Jasper caught it. All of my college friends who worked in the field were either preventing themselves from catching it, to recovering from it, even to succumbing to it. And with both of my parents going with the usual red Texan flow, they didn't pay any mind to the mask mandate, and our so-called governor refused to listen to reason. Our lieutenant governor even made a comment a few months back, saying that we should be willing to die for the economy.

And that's exactly what both my parents did. July 15th, my father died. July 17th, my mother followed.

The bills from the medical carriers were astronomical, and they were left to me to pay. Then there was the fact that neither of them had life insurance, so I had to come out of pocket for their postmortem care. And once that was done, I was still looking at the possible bill that would show up at my door for Rick, who suffered long-COVID. For four grueling months, he was forced to live in a hospital, where his job decided to conveniently cut him off and leave him to me to take care of. So with his insurance out of the picture, that left me to pay the rest.

While I had a mild case of it, and our son having an asymptomatic version of it, that left Rick as our only missing piece in our life. And I had to take a night shift to take care of Jasper, get him to and from school, order in some food to keep him fed, look over his homework, and have him get to bed before I head out to work. The hours grew taxing, our savings from Nondis were completely vaporized thanks to family medical expenses exclusively, and I was over our elected officials kissing Trump's orange ass with every waking moment.

We voted him out in November. But unfortunately that's not the end of our mounting issues at home.

Finally, Rick came back home after several near-death scares that the doctors simply described as 'miracles from the healing hands of God', because many times where he went critical, he was not expected to make it through the night. But both he and I knew what that was, the healing factors from our brief stint as element bearers came back into play. However, our healing factors could not heal the large medical debt we acquired.

Situations went from dire, to extremely untenable. We had to put a mortgage on our house to help pay the medical expenses. One of our cars has a lien on it. And now our power's out due to a brutal cold snap making a mockery of our state's energy infrastructure. We've been out of power for two, going on three days now.

And just fifteen minutes ago, it started raining in our living room... of our two story-house.

"Babe!"

"Yeah." He answers back, sounding defeated. I can't blame him for sounding so fed up.

Meanwhile, I have a brilliant idea of how we were going to deal with this situation. We leave. "Have you seen Jasper's amulet!?"

"Should be in the top drawer of the night stand!"

I walk into my son's shivering cold room, reaching in his sock drawer for a green and white amulet. As soon as I pull it out, I'm looking at the the ice-covered city in the far distance. While we're out in the suburbs freezing to death, all those rich CEO's and business owners have their heat and lights running a full 24/7.

For a brief moment, our lights flicker back on in a brownout, only to shut back down into total darkness again. Initial cheers and the following cries of despair all throughout the neighborhood reflect the desperation and hopelessness we all suffer. There's hardly anything left for us to keep warm outside of our own cars and gas-operated fireplaces.

And we're slated to pay money for this? "Fucking bullshit of a shitty-ass power grid." I say as I take the nearest toy I could find and slam it into the ground, as if our son hadn't destroyed it enough already.

My husband walks into the room, grabbing me to get me to stop. "Babe, calm down!"

"The fuck I'm gonna calm down for!? We live in a fucked up country, our governor's apeshit, our power infrastructure's complete ass, and we haven't had power in over two days, it's freezing, our pipes are busted, and we're in the middle of a global pandemic that our governor seems to give a rat's ass about! I already lost both mom and dad to COVID, I almost lost you to it, I can't stand my profession as it is because it's people out there thinking I'm gonna shoot a random black guy in the head with no justification, this shit fucking sucks! I'm not gonna lose our son because Greg Abbot wants to have a giant wad of money fisted deep into his paraplegic ass!" After a profanity laced rant that ends in me throwing one of his Hot Wheels cars into a wall, I take a few deep breaths and recollect my composure. "Where's our son?

"He's in the living room next to the fireplace. He's keeping warm."

Just as I finish with that bit of therapeutic release, I make my way into the den and bend down to put his amulet on his arm. "Okay honey, let's put this on you."

As I pick him up off the ground, I start making my way to the master bedroom. "Mommy, are we going to pony land?" He asks in the most adorable voice.

"Yes sweetie, we're going to pony land today. We can't stay here and have you all cold." I say back, trying to sound as calm and sweet as I try to be around him.

As soon as we step inside, he then asks. "Can I bring my Switch?"

Rick and I look at one another, he nods and walks back to the den to grab the gaming system. "Yes honey, you can bring your Switch. Now come on, let's get on through here."

As I politely tap our son through to Equestria, I hear my husband coming back to give me the gaming console. "A whole week. They expect us to do without power for a whole damn week."

"First sign of an invoice we get saying that our bill is going to spike after this, we are moving to Equestria, no questions asked." I emphasize to him as he starts walking towards the portal. "Moving, Rick!"

"I hear you. I just hope you have everything packed." He answers back.

"To hell with just having everything packed! We are going in a place where we don't need to wear a mask because of this crazy shit going around. I'm not going to have my son sit in a class full of kindergarteners not wearing masks, threatening his life, all because their fucking parents want to make a goddamn religious political statement." I grumble as I walk towards the portal. "They wanna stop 'liberals from hiding the faces of God's children', well they can fucking watch as their kids get their faces hidden in a motherfucking box."

"Babe, our son is over in another world and we're not there to watch him." He replies.

I sigh in resignation, finally stepping through the portal.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

The moment we step through, we notice the significant difference in temperature. The room we walked into was vastly warmer, making our three to four layers of clothes more of an overkill. Also, with our sudden appearance triggering the sensors, we are soon greeted by a familiar purple face.

"Melanie! Richard! It's been a while!"

"Hey, princess!" I call out excitedly, running up to the mare who was just a little taller than Celestia now. Twilight met me in the middle, wrapping a wing around me to greet me. As we broke apart, I rolled my eyes and started telling her what all was going on. "Ugh, girl, it's a mess over there."

"Global pandemic still?" She questions with a raised brow.

"And a power outage during a brutal cold snap. We're seeing artic temperatures in a place that's usually no colder than twenty-five. It was negative thirteen this morning with wind chill."

"A power outage?" The princess inquired in disbelief. "What is your government doing over there!?"

"I don't know, you tell me how we're supposed to live in that." I answered sarcastically.

"This slimy motherfucker." The both of us look back to see Rick looking at his phone. He looks up to see me glaring back at him for cursing in front of our son. He promptly apologizes. "Sorry."

I disregard his offense and ask him what drove him to swear so broadly in front of Jasper. "What happened now?"

He shows me a picture of one of our elected senators boarding a plane. "That's Ted Cruz flying to Cancun this morning."

I'm not surprised. "Look, I don't blame him at this point, we're doing the same thing. The only difference is that Texas is sitting in the ice age with no power and he's looking to bring attention to himself with all the political power he has. What else is new? You tell me rock bottom, I'll point to a Texan republican holding a shovel and tell him to dig to China."

Twilight, who grew invested in our world's political climate, could not find much time to update outside of our rare visits. So she asks us every time we come around. "In speaking of China, did they ever get rid of that other guy who was causing a mess in office?"

I laugh sarcastically. "Did we!? He had a whole tirade on the way out, honey! He had a bunch of people riled up and ready to overthrow the government because he couldn't accept he lost an election. Honestly, I'm done. Where's the citizenship papers? We're moving here next month."

Twilight giggles and smiles back at me. "I'll be sure to have your application ready by tomorrow."

"Thank. You." I say with a sigh of relief.

She directs her attention to my husband. "How are you, Richard?"

"Everything's okay aside from the chaos that is our current political landscape. And here I thought 2020 was terrible, I caught the bug and everything. As of now, I don't want to even think about the v-word."

"Daddy, do you mean the venbulator?" Jasper asks in an innocent voice.

Rick rolls his eyes and leans down to pick up our son to put on his shoulders. "Yes, mijo."

Twilight leans over to me and covers her mouth with a wing. "What's a venbulator?"

"He means 'ventilator'." I answer quietly.

"Oh." She nods with understanding. "But yeah, Stanton's been keeping us posted. Also, Shining Armor's been really anxious about the sports season this year."

Oh yeah, I forgot that Shining started keeping up with American football some years back. "Oh yeah. How is he doing in Indy? I don't usually watch football like I should these days, but is he doing okay?"

"Well they're in the offseason, but he said he was already making plans to come by for the wedding." She replies.

"Do you know where they'll have it at?" Rick inquires.

"It'll be here." Twilight confirms happily. "I'm actually going to be conducting it myself. Favor for a friend."

"You okay with that?" I ask the mare.

"Me? Of course! I'm not mad or anything about it, Celestia's been needing something good in her life. Nondis is the same way." She states pretty plainly. She seems to have gotten over the situation fairly well.

"Any word on Mama Haines?" I ask her.

"She's still having problems with taste, but she's recovering. It's nothing like Richard's case."

Rick then speaks out. "As far as Alex goes, Mr. CEO has been really hard to get a hold of."

"Believe it or not, he will make it for the wedding in June." Twilight confirms.

"Well that's good." He says with a nod of approval. "How about Cliff? He's been hard to keep in touch with since he moved over to Sunset's world."

"He's been living his best life as far as I remember. I don't think he's had any complaints yet. Then again, Sunset does what she does to keep him happy, and he does the same for her. I'm expecting them to get married next." She replies with a smirk .

"I didn't think he'd be on the board for marrying an Equestrian when they first started off, but that was how many years ago?" He questions as Jasper plays through his hair.

I tilt my head at my husband. "Honey, we're going to be Equestrians. Does it even matter at this point?"

Twilight walked up to the assaulted father and looks on fondly to the young child. "Well in terms of school options for little Jasper, we can see about enrolling him in somewhere where his talent can truly have a chance to shine."

"Thanks a bunch." I respond kindly, already having a choice in mind. "How's Starlight running the school down south in Ponyville?"

The princess goes on to hold her namesake institution in high regard. "She and her husband have been a one-two knockout punch on it all. Add Trixie into the mix and you got the trifecta of a really good administrative core. It's amazing what all they've done together. And not just for adolescents, but the Cutie Mark Counselors there are wonderful in guiding young ones in the right direction. You would love it."

I can't help but sigh in relief over hearing her speak so highly of her institution, knowing it would be a much safer option to anything in America at this point. "Actually, Rick and I were thinking of moving there, to Ponyville."

"Sure thing! I can get him situated there with Starlight, he'll be in a great environment that will be inclusive and educational."

"Great!" Rick responds. "I'd much rather trust the weather here as opposed to in Texas. At least we know what causes power outages here."

"I'm sorry you had to go through all of that." Twilight says with a solemn bow.

I hug the high princess with adoration and gratitude. "It's fine. We're just about done with America anyhow. Meaning that we have money doesn't mean that we should have to spend it all on trying to survive. The past two years have taught us that if we save our money carefully, we still might lose it all in as little as a year. And if you're not rich enough, you'll be eaten alive financially."

"It's a dream still worthy of having for some, it's just not our dream anymore." Rick cosigns, holding our son above his head. "Not with this little one still looking to have a future. I trust Equestrian schools moreso than the craziness we see in the headlines nowadays. It's almost a lottery's chance, but that's not a chance I'm okay with taking."

"I understand." Twilight agrees, levitating the young child down from off his father's shoulders and onto her back to ride on.

I rub my hands together, cheesing at the princess who gave our son a pony ride. "So... Where's our landowner extraordinaire? We need to share a drink over where we're going to be moving into."

"Believe it or not, she's still at the flat near the family home. I'll have Spike drop her a line and tell her you two are here to do business. She'll be excited to share a glass of wine with you."

As we walk out of the room into the halls of the castle, I have yet one more question for the princess. "Okay. How's Kali been? I hear she learning to work abroad nowadays"

Twilight smiles brightly at the thought of explaining the zebracorn's status. "Well you wouldn't believe it, but..."

Author's Note

And with this, Melanie's part in the story has come to a close.

I know that there were some who wanted to focus more on the relationship aspect of how she and Nondis were going to be with one another, but I felt that I had enough chapters to highlight how that has been for them, especially with one of the more recent chapters that took place. But instead, I decided to focus on more on the the emotional and mental trauma of the aftermath.

In all honestly, we as writers can conclude a final conflict without really underscoring the trauma and struggle of having to process what's all been done and seen. So this chapter was to highlight the things that the characters can sometimes endure when they finish a huge fight like this, even as some may suffer losses to either personal health, mental security, or even a physical loss such as the death of a loved one. This is probably the darkest of the epilogues because it depicts the oft unspoken truth of what we deal with when the conflict is resolved.

Also, Melanie is in our world, so she's subject to all of the events we endure as well. And I know that part is probably the most unfavorable thing about this chapter, but it's not really meant to be a complete feel-good read either. I wanted to display the reality of a choice to stay and the very real consequences of that playing out in I guess you could call it "real time." We do have some loved ones who may align themselves politically and socially, we do have discourse, and it often does lead to a lot of division, that's on display here as well.

And to some overseas readers that may not understand the financial burden of medical expenses here in the States, DM me or ask around.

And with that done, we have a surprise entry next: Kalimba.

Chapter CXIX (Kalimba Mavembe)

EPILOGUE: KALIMBA MAVEMBE

I hate crowds.

Throughout my life I had to contend with crowds always trying to assess my value, as if my one life doesn't have any value at all. Even when I was in elementary, I was terrified of crowds, always judging me, always watching, always pointing things out about me. I hated it. I had terrible stage fright, and I wanted to run every time I was given a spotlight. I wanted to come into my own, I wanted to not disappoint mama and baba. I wanted to learn to overcome that fear. But everything changed. Mama died, leaving me in baba's care. And baba wanted to find mama again, so he traded me away to have that delusional search. That's all it took for another kind of crowd to come gathering around me.

More niche crowds watched from all around me, each of them keeping themselves ready to have their way with me next. My preteen self could cry out to the heavens for anyone to help me, for anyone to stop the pain, the humiliation of having my younger self displayed and coined around like currency. But the spotlight was on me regardless, and they took it as a performance, one they wished to replicate. And so they would try to outdo the other, who can go the fastest, who can go the hardest, who can make me scream the loudest, and then finally who can make me ascend the highest. That night, being in front of twenty stallions in a brothel, I was relentlessly raped for the profits of a mare who watched and got off all the same as the rest.

The crowds went from judging me on my usefulness, to assessing my worth. I would be placed on auction years later. Since I stayed sick, I appeared to be very weak. I was not taught how to cook, so that made me even more worthless. I was not taught to clean, worthless. I could not stay healthy, worthless. I spoke with a heavy accent, but I could not pronounce my Th's very well, worthless. I was poorly educated, worthless. I was weak, worthless. I was a hybrid who could not use magic, worthless. I existed. Worthless. All of my worst fears came to a head in the presence of a crowd. On display stages, I was forced to lift my tail and allow many to see what was just a part of me. It was just as worthless as the rest of me, but it was the only thing that seemed to appraise my value.

The spotlight was always there. But in recent times, it shined for a different reason. I was shoved into a position of idolization, to be loved by the roaring crowds while the one who ensured my freedom was made to be a heel. They would chant my name, send me flowers, call out how they suddenly loved me. But that was all a lie, a gathering of masks who did nothing more than commit the same atrocities that were done against me before.

And now it comes back around. Before me is a crowded room of hundreds of reporters, each of them wondering what I had to offer. In their eyes, I am worthless, I am unknown, I am a terrible choice to make for this kind of attention. That is their perception of me as I walk to where I was to speak.

In their eyes, I have nothing of note to speak on. So I look to keep it short. "I do not have much to say. Proceed with your questions."

Hardly anyone wanted to raise a hoof, but one mare in the middle of the crowd did sheepishly raise her hoof. "Ma'am, what exactly is your role in all of this?"

I had much I could say, but I started off slow. "I am de daughter of de recently murdered senator Somber Spiral. I have been in contact with de attacker until recently when he threatened my life for participation in his games."

The same mare asked again. "So just to ask for clarity sake, what are you?"

And again, I answered her question. "I am a unicorn-zebra hybrid. My mudda was a zebra named Mbira. My Faddah is the senator I mentioned, I am his first born."

And yet again, she seemed to be the only one who asked me anything. "I'm sorry ma'am, I only asked as to find a way to accurately describe you for future articles. As to current matters. what was your affiliation with the assailant?"

I had no emotional affiliation, none but one. "Sex slave."

The entire room broke out into gasps and bright camera flashes filled the room before I could shield my eyes. Another voice called from the left side. "Excuse me, but don't you think that description is a bit derogatory?"

Again, I was judged for revealing myself to the world. I'm not surprised. "You cannot demean me any further. What I said was truth, I was a sex slave in de place you often call Canterrot."

That started a whole avalanche of questions springing up, hooves jolting to the air as they tried to get me to answer any of their trivial inquiries. Some grew excited for having an opportunity to speak with somepony who had endured the situations I had. "I didn't think we were getting this kind of scoop, this is big." I heard one say before he climbed on top of a reporter in front of him. "Excuse me, miss. Is there any account you can disclose in terms of what has happened that has led up to these circumstances?"

At last, a question that places me in a better priority, but I had to remain limited in response. "Dere is a lot I cannot say, but I will recount de various threats he had made. I have visited de cemetery where de many bodies have been found missing, I was dere to help de late senator with his report. We den issued dat information to de captain, who opened an investigation on de matter. However, many details of dat I cannot discuss."

"So on your association with the assailant, you confirmed that you were a sex slave. Has you and the assailant ever engaged with one another?"

A difficult question for many, but with all I had given away of myself, it seemed to barely make much of a difference. I had no social standing prior to this, so I had no image to protect. All I could do is tell the truth. "To my misfortune... yes."

The first mare who asked me a question, I went back to her. "Were these encounters ever consensual?"

"No." I answered. "Often times our encounters would be a drug-filled affair. I would be drugged, he would do what he would, and I would be left to whoever else was interested."

I soon found favor with the mare who started off the conference with me, and I became more focused to her. "Ma'am, can you explain to us the operations that took place in Canterrot?"

"Dat I am allowed to discuss, but only to a degree. Most often times dere would be a fighting ring every Tuesday and Friday dat would draw a crowd, Friday was mainly de day dat brought out de most viewers, as dere would be a weekly contest known to be 'Beast of De Week' which garnered a lot of attention. Dere were walls where members of de VIP club would hold some of de sex slaves, advertised to de passing masses for obvious reasons. Dey would continue deir work in de walls as many passed by. Only deir faces were shown, but you would know what was taking place."

She asked yet again. "This VIP club, do you have a confirmation of who the members are?" At this point, I made it more of a back and forth.

"Dat is information I am not allowed to speak of."

An older stallion from the front row, lowered his hoof and enunciated his voice. "I know that these questions are a lot for you, ma'am. But in regards to your father, has there been any confirmations as to any suspects and/or motives?"

"The suspect is not a suspect, he did it." I answered as I summoned a picture to have Solemn display with a magnification spell behind me. She took the photo and grew squeamish before acknowledging my request. "I am going to display up above what it was dat I saw on my faddah's body. A lot of you are not strong, so be advised." The image of my father's belly was shown, along with the face of the lifeless corpse. A lot of groans and gasps of disgust rotated around the room. But as cruel as it was to see, it was the truth that I had to illustrate. "Dis was a message to me, after my unwillingness to remain in sexual captivity. He killed my faddah in cold blood to give me dis message, to obey him."

The stallion asked again. "So what exactly did he mean by 'obey'?"

I looked to Nonids, who peeked from behind the cracked door. "He does not like disobedience, he prefers dat everyone plays along with what all he does. He would frequently engage in torture, sexual assault, rape, murder, and even psychological torture by cruel and malicious means. He has threatened de element bearers themselves, even threatened de captain for his efforts in detaining de ponies found in de Canterrot raid some weeks ago."

The mare's hoof came back around, and I pointed her out yet again. "Ma'am, this is your second time mentioning the captain and his activities. Do you know of him or have you ever touched basis with him?"

Nondis gave me a nod, letting me know I was free to talk about our relation. "I was his escort, his guide through de streets of Canterrot. Where he would go, I would follow and protect him. Where some issues occurred, I would be brought to negotiate on his behalf."

"Does that include the sex slave work?" The elder stallion questioned.

I am beginning to wonder if all reporters like him are so soulless and invasive, a trait I have grown used to over the years from many stallions who has used me. "I was consenting to de agreement in many cases. Where he wished for me not to operate in such manners, I insisted to remain in de role I was given at a young age."

The mare raised her hoof. "Excuse me, you said at a young age. How old were you when you were forced to engage in this line of work?"

"I was twelve." I answered, not even skipping a beat. The entire room was left speechless and perplexed. Meanwhile I began to rant against the horrible stallion responsible for the recent incidents. "I am twenty now. And as of dis moment, I am looking to change my life for de better. I have a younger sister who has been a victim of de criminal's games. De human who came before me justifiably portrayed him as a terrorist, he is a terrorist. He took de eyes of my little sister, de life of her mudda and faddah, and he has done nothing but torture us. Dis is de way he works. If you cross him, he will go after what is closest to you. If you even so much as say his name, you risk your family's life."

Again, the older stallion in the front asked me a crude question, almost as though he was trying to force me to speak on an account I had no right to withdraw from. "In regards to the captain, can you tell us what happened to him over the course of the weekend?"

I had an answer for him especially. "I do not wish to discuss those matters. Good day."

As I walked away, I could only hear the sounds of the ponies asking more questions. But others had exchanged dialog with one another. "Wow, talk about a bombshell! That might be front page!"

Others were frustrated with how I gave more priority to the one who dared to ask me the first question. "Hey lady, you mind saving some questions for the rest of us!?"

When I walked into the room with the others, Melanie was the first to hug me for my courage. "You poor thing, you put a lot of yourself out there, didn't you?"

"I did what I was supposed to do." I answered blankly.

Celestia approached me and smiled. "You did well."

As the press were waiting for another to do an interview, Nondis began to approach the door. "Well, I guess it's my turn now."

Celestia stopped him where he stood, holding the door closed. "Actually... I need you to sit here for a moment."

About an hour and a half after the conference, I was finally back in the comfort of my room. As I stepped in, I noticed that the room was in disarray. Blankets were tossed and kicked everywhere, some items were knocked over, a few papers were scatted about, and young Gala was resting her head against the side of the mattress. She appeared extremely depressed about something.

"What happened in here?" I asked my younger sister.

The filly groaned out in frustration. "I can't do anything right! It's like I reach for the light, not as if I need it now, but I can feel the warmth it gives off, so I reach for that, I fall off the bed, and now the room's a mess because I don't know where I'm going or where I'm stepping!" She released an angry scream, slamming her hoof into the mattress. "I hate being blind!"

I approached Gala from behind, speaking softly. "I know. But it is something you will learn to live around."

"If it's something I can live around, why don't you do it?" She questioned.

I gave the young filly a hug. "Because I need my eyes to protect you."

"You weren't there to protect daddy." She answered, causing me a great deal of guilt.

"I know." I replied, thinking if I had somehow found the strength to get over my own anger to spend more time with baba, if he would still be here today. Perhaps I wouldn't be able to protect her from what happened to her, but at the very least he would still be able to be here for her. I would still be able to talk to him.

It's terrible that the one thing I remember telling him before he died was how much of a whore I was forced to become.

The filly's ears perked up. "Somepony's coming." She notified me.

"I don't hear dem." I said just moments before a soft knock came at our door.

She laid her head back against the mattress again. "Told you."

Since she couldn't really identify her space very well, I got up to answer the door for her. I opened it up to see a puffy-eyed mare looking back at me with a clipboard. "Blue, what is wrong? What are you doing here?" I questioned her.

"I know a lot has happened. But I need you to do me a favor." She said before giving me the clipboard, with only a single page with a dotted line at the bottom. "Just sign here."

I look at what's on the paper, trying to identify the language that's being used, but I cannot understand what some of the larger words mean. I go back to answering the mare. "What is dis for?"

"A better life." She states tearfully. "A lot of ponies out there heard your interview. I know that some out there will be looking to do you in for saying all of what you've said. All throughout the course of the afternoon, I was tracking down notaries and seeing what all I could get signed away. But some assets I don't need anymore, so that's that."

The young filly turned her head to ask me who I was speaking to. "Who's there?"

I stepped aside, letting Blue come into the room. When she walked in, she saw the mess that had been made and immediately started cleaning up after her using her magic. All while doing that, she spoke to the young filly. "Hi, little one. I'm the girl who just lost her big brother. He was taken away from me by that one evil pony we know."

Gala brows raised in fear, panic started to set in for her. "Is he here?"

Blue maintained her distance and reassured Gala her safety. "No he's not here. He's someplace really far away now. He can't hurt anyone else, or take them away like he did to the ponies we know and love."

As she was speaking to my younger sister, I pecked out the words I did know and found myself identifying a format that was amidst the confusing language. "All I see is an address. What is dis?" I ask her.

She removes a photo from behind the sheet, bringing it to the forefront of my attention.

It was beyond words what I was looking at. A nice looking residence with a beautiful open foyer, the stairs being lit by a skylight as the lights above warmly light the room. Stained glass paintings grace the paths upstairs. I look back to her in absolute shock, I feel nervous having looked at the picture. She explains what I am looking at. "It's the estate of my family. I won't be using it, nor will I need to."

I quickly levitate the clipboard to her. "Abeg, please take dis back."

"No. I can't." She said sadly, using a hoof to prop the clipboard away from her. "Kali, you and I know what we dealt with in life. And you know that some places just only open wounds that you can't close fully. That place is too raw for me, and I never had any real attachment to it in the first place. Growing up in that place, you wanna know what all took place there when I was a kid? My dad continued to disown me, he fought my mom and beat her violently, my brother would get in the way sometimes just to stop him. He'd take other little fillies and do terrible things to them in his study, the last night as a foal in that place was the sound of my father bashing against the bedroom door while my mom held both me and my brother, urging us to go to sleep. I'd only visit when my brother was there, but that was the only reason why I'd ever show up."

I continued to insist that she did not give something so luxurious and big to someone like me, especially after so much of what I had throughout my life. It was too far of a leap for me to be comfortable with. "I cannot accept dis. Give it to Nondis or something."

"He was the first one I went to." She explained. "He said no. I just forced my brother's stock options and other assets on him. He didn't want the house. He told me to give it to you, a way of saying thanks for being there for him through thick and thin, to 'get the life you deserved from the get-go'. His words." I almost heaved at the thought of that human giving me yet another act of benevolence. "And he also said this; 'To give the little Gala a castle worthy of her majesty's kingdom', he wanted that passed over to you also."

I became choked up on my words, trying to find a way to show my gratitude. "Why does he hurt me so much?"

I signed my name, as crudely as it was but as best as I could. With my name at the bottom, Blue gave me the picture and a few other papers to show what was set to be done. "I've set aside a budget for renovations. You can have it done up any way you'd like. The mansion shouldn't resemble anything of what I've seen in my young life. These renovations will scrub clean any presence of my father, my mother, my brother from in there. You can decorate it however you like. You can turn it into whatever you want. It's pretty big for just two ponies, but you can hire a staff to assist with your sister, that way you can have some time to do whatever you need to do throughout the day. I've set aside a budget for ten waiting staff, they'll be paid throughout the first three years on my own bits. One of their names is Handy Dandy, he'll give you the tour before the big teardown. But once the renovations are complete, I highly suggest keeping him around. He's a great help for whatever you need."

I sighed, trying not to break out and cry. But Gala, still being blind, was unable to understand why it was she heard me holding back sobs. "What's going on?"

I walk to her and hug her. "We have a new home. It's bigger than de last one you had."

The filly raised her head to me. "Is it really?"

Blue sweetly joined with us, hugging my young sister. "I'll tell you how big it is. A filly your size won't even be able to reach up to touch the floor."

She started to clench tightly against me, sniffling as she started to cry. "Is it just like daddy promised?" Both Blue and I looked to one another, initially confused to what she wanted to say. But what she had to say completely rendered us both unable to remain strong. "He said that we're gonna get a new home, something bigger and far prettier."

Hearing my father's words from her mouth, I began to lose myself. I clenched onto the young filly as tightly as I could, still able to hear those words in his voice. They were at some point the words he said to me when I was younger, when mama was still alive, when we were still living in our humble town-house in the fringe district. He promised us better days, even as times were getting rough. With his promise fulfilled to her, I wept loudly.

I swore to myself, to the spirit of my father. Baba... I will do good in your place.

The Next Day...

It was an early morning, we were set to finally take the moment to head out to the back end of the mountain, a place I would hear of, but never imagined going to. When we arrived at the first checkpoint, there was an elderly stallion dressed in a ruffled blouse and a blazer. He looked to me as I carried young Gala on my back.

"Are you Madame Kalimba?" He asked in a deep yet gentle voice.

I nodded my head. "Yes."

He tilted his to see the young filly barely keeping herself awake on my back. "And this must be your little sister, Gala."

"Yes." I nodded once more.

He smiled warmly as he greeted us with a bow. "Hmmyes, a most beautiful pair of heiresses. You've been through much."

"Are you de servant?" I questioned him.

"Why yes, of course. I'm your new servant and head of staff." He replied on his way back up. "For as long as you are willing to have me."

I felt very awkward having a servant address me so formally and gently, it was a complete contrast to how I would normally be seen by anyone in that line of work. But I remained respectful and courteous. "Blue said dat you are very good. I trust dat we are very well cared for in your service."

"The service is all mine to perform, Madame." He replied as he quickly gained clearance from the guards of the first checkpoint. "This way, Madame."

Along our journey, we walked a series of tunnels and paths that lead past another three checkpoints and finally onto a road carefully bricked and manicured. In the distance were a number of beautiful mansions that all seemed massive enough to call castles. Gala eventually awoke, coming to grips that she was being transported along the way. As she grabbed a better hold of me, I questioned the butler. "How are you doing?"

"I am well, Madame. And you?"

"Perhaps I should be a little more forward with my question." I said as we made our way along. "How are you holding up?"

"Oh, I see." He responded, finally coming to grips with what exactly I was asking of him. "I am still processing the fate of the late master. His demise wounds my heart in varying ways I did not think I would ever conceive. I cared for him when he first came back home, I cared for his mother for a time also. That was before the purge of the waiting staff. Now it feels that the entire legacy of the DuMoneé family has entered into a twilight. It changes much in my eyes."

"Can you tell me who Alabaster was?" I asked. "I feel dat I did not get to know him for long. In some way, I think it is unfair dat I would assume de keys to a place he continued to call home without knowing of his character."

"A most respectful request." He replied before he began. "Very well then. The young lord was a visionary, a protector, staunch idealist with a savvy for finance. You'd give him an allowance for a decent lunch, by noon's end he'd give you back the entire restaurant."

"It seems dat he missed out on his calling." I commented.

"No, his calling was to serve the citizens, not his own pocketbook. He deeply believed in that, both he and the young lady are staunch believers in living a humble life. It was their upbringing for the most part, exposed to culture, shown proximity to lesser than, and given the opportunity to interact with those of like-interests. Those two were truly their mother's breed, he inherited his mother's wit and savvy, she inherited her strength and fortitude."

I looked back to the young filly on my back, carefully watching my words as I described myself. "I know dat it must feel weird to give a tour to someone who is considered a 'lesser than morally whole' being."

The butler chuckled lightly. "Have you ever had words with the master Count DuMoneé?"

I hummed back to him. "I suppose dat is an equally questionable voice to answer to."

"My dear, your voice is far more deserving of my services." He answered gracefully.

"I am flattered." I responded. We continued to exchange on some topics. "Blue informed me de place would be getting renovated."

"That it shall. I should be giving you the tour before and after it's finished." He said as we came to a stop before a large wrought iron gate. Sitting in the distance of it lied a huge, elegant mansion with well-manicured trees and bushes. "Here we are, beyond these gates and up the hill will be the manor of your residence."

I still looked on with total disbelief. "Abeg. Tell me dis is a dream."

"Well I can assure you that this is the furthest from it." He said as he opened the gate, allowing us through.

As we took to the winding path that lead up the hill, I started to feel dwarfed by the large three-story residence, uniquely made and well-maintained. I could only gasp as we were brought to the large wooden doors. Gala began to bounce up and down on my back. "What? What does it look like?"

"It is much larger than baba's home." I answered for her. "It is so big."

The butler turned to me, giving me a sweet smile. "Would you like to do the honors?"

"I don't even have a key." I pointed out.

He smiled and gave me a wink, showing me the key before having it disappear. He held a hoof up to his lips, asking me to not say anything to give away what he was doing. "Little Gala, can you reach behind your ear and pull something out for me?"

"Behind my ear?" She asked as she shifted her head. "It's something touching against my ear." She said before reaching into her mane and pulling out the key that the butler summoned. "It feels like a key."

"Good show, little one. You're quite the accomplished magician." He said so proudly and warmly. "Now, would you like to open the door to your new castle?"

I smiled as I levitated her off of my back to reach the door. "I'll hold you up."

She gripped the key with both hooves. But the butler smiled yet again, using his magic to halt the key from moving after she placed it in the lock. "It won't turn!" Gala complained.

Playfully, he exclaims to the filly. "Oh no! Then surely this must not be the true queen of this kingdom if she cannot turn a simple key."

I looked back at him, growing more and more warm to the elder stallion, who appeared to have a pure heart in my eyes. Gala grumbled as she made another attempt. "Let me try again!"

Slowly, he let his magic dissipate and she was finally able to turn the key after a brief struggle. He bowed to the young filly and replied. "Perhaps I misspoke, your majesty. Such strength you have." He opened the doors, finally introducing us to the grand foyer of the large home. "Welcome, young queen and Madame, to your new humble abode."

I placed the filly on my back once more as she called out. "Kalimba, what does it look like?"

I smiled back to her, letting my magic glow as I remembered a spell that Princess Luna and Twilight created to help me better illustrate what it is that she is missing out on. I looked to my sister and told her what I was doing. "Princess Luna taught me a very important spell. She taught it to me to show you what dis place will look like for you, through my eyes."

"Really!? I wanna see, I wanna see!" She replied very excitedly.

"Then hold on to me." I instructed as I weaved the spell on both her and myself. I had her hold on to me so that she wouldn't get disoriented when she sees everything through my eyes. I closed my eyes and opened them allowing the young filly to finally see where it was we would soon call home.

"Woooow!" She said with wonderment.

"Bigger den your old home?" I asked her.

"Waaaay bigger!" She exclaimed so happily.

The butler complimented me on my actions. "You are a good sister, to allow for her to be able to experience this place through your eyes."

Unfortunately, the spell would only last as long as I didn't blink. And unfortunately blinking was as subconscious as breathing for me. So that brief vision was taken away from her. "I cannot use it for long, sadly. Also, my magic endurance is not to par with many unicorns my age."

"Well that's not exactly a magic lesson I can teach." The elder stallion replied. "Though there are some books on the method, I could at least salvage those for you."

"I would greatly appreciate dat." I nodded to the butler.

My younger sister made yet another pleasant observation. "It smells so good."

"Indeed. We did a lot of work to make sure that it pleased you when you came by, my little queen." The elderly stallion answered.

I placed a hoof to my chest, still overwhelmed that this was set to be our new home. "I don't think I could ever change what this place is."

"Oh but you must." He strongly insisted. "This is not any home for you, it is still resembling a playground of the past. A playground where certain activities took place." He added as he gave me a tilted nod to hint at me what took place.

"I am not ignorant to such activities." I acknowledged somberly.

"A playground? What games did they play here?" Gala inquired so innocently, I began to look back to the butler in silence.

He didn't mind answering her question for me. "Oh. A candid question, young queen. But it is a question you will know the answer to when you become of age."

While there was much about this stallion that seemed to be very professional, I could tell that he deeply cared for those who were placed in his care. Even from the way he interacted with Gala showed me how he treat us for the future going forth. I might have had Blue's word to go by, but so far of I was shown everything she had said contained no lies. Understanding, knowing, wise, and helpful, he proved himself to be very trustworthy from a first glance.

While only time could tell if that would hold, I could only accept him for now. "Thank you."

As he looked back to the wooden stairwell, he clopped his hooves to summon a small crew of interior designers, each holding a catalog of styles to choose from for each room. "So... shall we get started?"

"Yes." I answered.

11 Months Later...

It took a month for them to finish the renovations. The place looked completely different from the moment we walked in. Gala was happy to be in a new place where the rooms offered her a much better warmth than that of the castle, no longer stunted by the stigma of our father's death. She began to grow accustomed to life without her eyes, hearing, smelling, and feeling more than what her eyes would ever provide at a glance. She and I throughout the time together began to bond, we shared a lot of her memories of baba, as did I. We did a lot to fill in the void of his absence. And with Handy being our head of staff, we had an older and wiser voice to give us direction of how to live our lives correctly. It was almost as though we had established a family of our own. But that too changed, as I was facing the uncertainty of a new phase in my life.

Three months after we moved in, I discovered that I was pregnant.

For months, I grew to fear what it was that started to manifest in my body. All I could think of was the sound of a cruel laugh cackling in the distant vein of my memories. I tried to remain optimistic about my new path, but it was difficult to stay that way when there was the possibility of that still being a point of contention. And I wouldn't know until it was time for me to give birth. Another eight long months of enduring sickness, strange cravings, and having the extra weight dragging me down, my water broke.

Since the hospitals were so far away from here, we had to commission a medical professional to make a house call. But while Handy opted for some random physician from Canterlot, I begged him to seek Zecora from the Everfree Forest. It took her half a day to get here, but she made it in with enough time to help me in my effort. From there, Zecora gave out instructions to the waiting staff, I was situated in the master bedroom, and was given a number of instructions to use for whenever I felt contractions. Gala would often come by and see what the issue was with me, but the other medical staff prohibited her from entering. Handy was by my side with each moment as Zecora offered me a number of healthy brews to drink that would ease the pain of my labor.

For seventeen hours, I sat... and waited... and labored...

Until finally the moment came. "Keep pushing, you're almost there." She urged. "Then come to an end, this pain you bear."

I had a high pain tolerance, much I could endure. But in time, I began to see that there was little tolerance I had for the pain of feeling my body getting ripped apart. The brews helped dull much of it, but I still felt it where it mattered. I panted and breathed, carefully pushing whenever I was told. While Handy served to be my voice of encouragement, Zecora was my coach. "I see the head, it's completely out. Just a bit more and your little one will be crying about."

I nodded at the mare, laying my head back to the pillow. Now was the time where I had to confront my fears, where I had to make a decision with myself. At some point I began to think of what I would do if the worst of my fear had come to pass. Would I be able to look down at what I have carried with the unconditional love a mother is mandated to provide, or will I be forced to reject what came from within me? Would I truly be able to give birth to the seed of an unforgiving monster? Could I possibly love what is the result of my unwanted encounter?

I closed my eyes, and replayed the moments where baba held me on his head, when mama fed me food, when my younger sister laughs at me for a silly story I tell her. Then a final thought appears, the sight of a human walking ahead of me, the conversations we shared, the moments I had him follow me, the instant when I cursed my father out for abandoning me... Did I really come this far to do the same as he did to me? Not just out of desperation, but willingly? No... How could I ever give away what has yet to draw breath? There was still a chance, and I could make it right.

Mama... give me the strength to be as you were to me.

With one last push, I strained and groaned until I felt a weight depart from within me. I began to feel relief that most of that pain was gone.

Handy whispered to me. "Good job. You've performed marvelously."

I couldn't even speak, but I nodded at him. I closed my eyes again, breathing for a moment until... "Waaaah. Waaaaahhhh."

I don't know why I was so happy, why was it when I had no knowledge of what it looked like or even who fathered it, I had no answers for the child whom I gave birth to. But when I heard my child's first cries to the world, I couldn't help but to feel a tender warmth grow inside of me, budding in a place I thought had been barren. I look down to see the crying infant, still calling out for warmth. Zecora carefully cleaned the child as Handy petted me on my head. "Congratulations, Madam. It's a boy."

Zecora appeared surprised that I sat up enough to reach back out to her. "Let me hold him. Please."

"Of course." She said, after cleaning the young one and getting him wrapped to stay warm. The moment his weight landed in my hooves, I looked carefully at him, seeing the cream colored coat, the tiny little horn on his head, the barely-distinguishable stripes on his newborn body. The tiny tuft of hair on his head, the bony little tail, the crimson eyes that reflected a color similar to my own. Zecora smiled as she whispered. "Not a green on him."

I had to still process the young life in my midst, I had much to do in the coming future as it is, but this was the one thing I grew to want to protect, that I wanted to love on until my time had come to love no longer. He cried himself to sleep, resting peacefully in my hooves. I placed my forehead to my son, so happy that he was able to be mine. I tried my best to be quiet, to not wake him as I basked in my new role of being a mother in this world.

"I understand that these things will take time. But I wish to have an idea for the young lord's name." Handy quietly spoke,

I glanced back to the mare who helped me bring my son to the world. "How do I name him?"

Zecora, more than happy that the birth was successful, continued to give the both of us care as she answered my question. "Look into his eyes. Tell me what you see. What do you think his future would be?"

"Dere are so many options." I said, hopelessly seeing many things that he could possibly be.

"That's the beauty of it. It will be his to discover." Handy replied.

He was already in a position to have a much better life than I or his young aunt. I was so happy to bring him into that kind of privilege. Not only that, but I would be given the chance to be the mother that I wanted to have throughout my life. Through this stage, I was given a second life, one that had a much more impactful purpose. I didn't just live for the sake of a sibling I needed to look after, who would sooner become her own pony. But now I had a son, a child whom I would be made to care for, to protect from all harm and pain.

His life would not be like mine, and that is all that matters.

A name, native to my mother's tongue, I gave him a name of my mother's voice. "Nafasi Nyingine."

Handy appeared unsure of how to pronounce the name. "Madam?"

"Nafasi Nyingine." Zecora said to the elderly stallion. "In our home tongue. it means Second Chance." She looked down to one of the rings on her neck, reaching back to snap one off to put on my neck. "A strong name, given by a strong mother. Though he is young enough to serve as Gala's younger brother. I say that his world will be one so bright and bold, but do you see what his future will hold?"

"I don't wish to know." I answered, kissing my son's brow. "I want him to find it for himself."

"A wise answer, Madam." The elder stallion cosigned with a warm smile. "Three generations I've watched now grow in these walls. This will be the first of a loving and peaceful home." He took a small tissue and dabbed under his eyes. "You are going to do wonderfully, my dear Madam."

While I was still hurting, I closed my eyes to take the moment to sleep with my son. "A second chance... Dat is all I ever needed."

5 Years Later...

As the time went along, I've grown even closer to all of the staff within the home. Many of them helped me in bringing up young Nafasi. Zecora had initially stayed with us for a week, then left back home to take care of some things back in Ponyville. However, she would frequent us at least twice a month to check in. Some issues of my illness came back due to my weakened immunity response. But those too subsided, and I was left to take care of my son.

While from the moment I gave birth to him, I was wary of the many things and ways a little one could go missing. So I started to become very protective of where he went, who took care of him whenever I was away, and what he was fed. I even made a schedule for him to follow, a structure to maintain as I was going between catching up on my studies and getting integrated into greater pastures to lift his standings. And since what I was doing would effect how he would be seen, I did whatever I could to lift myself in the eyes of others so that he wouldn't be seen as anything near what I was seen to be over ten years ago. I improved my speaking to others so that he wouldn't be perceived to be ignorant. I wanted him to have that guiltless life of an Equestrian.

As for Gala, she became very well adapted to being blind. But as magic research improved over the years, she no longer had to stay that way. The spell that Luna and Twilight created was further enhanced by a name I'd never thought I hear in modern times: Star Swirl the Bearded. He himself came to our home, under Twilight's advisement, and presented her with a special set of glasses that would allow her to see the world through them. The only drawback was that the peripherals were poor. Gala was more than willing to be able to seize that opportunity for herself. She was very excited that first day she found herself being able to see again. Of course she had to keep them on in order to see, but she could navigate the house just fine without them, even without Handy's assistance.

Technology began to drastically improve over the years, with more and more human implementations being used in our infrastructure. Methods of being able to transmit signals improved with the implementations of special towers built on top of some of the larger buildings in the city. It's said that sometime in two months, we would be set to begin a nationwide rollout of cellular service by a company called Gallop. It would bring service to our world, utilized by specially built radio towers carrying a specified frequency that radios would not be able to pick up. Also, the telegram service upgraded their services to land-based phones, making it easier for us to contact one another quickly.

It seemed that Princess Twilight has been eager to press us towards the future.

As that was taking hold, she also tutored me religiously, signing me up for a position to go overseas and negotiate with those in my mother's homeland, it would be the first time I ever had the chance to visit. When I went there, I saw many things that they started to implement, the culture that enriched my experience, the customs that I was given more than plenty of opportunities to partake. I became so enlightened that I had started bringing home food ideas and celebrations to share with my son and sister.

As for the one who made all of this possible for me... We grew silent for some years, until today.

The door bell rang, Handy trotted to the receiver by the door. He had leaned in slowly to answer. "Hmmyes, whom am I speaking to?"

"It's me, Nondis! I'm just here to pay a visit."

The elder stallion was slow to move in his advanced age, but he still got around just fine. He pressed the buzzer to unlock the gate, allowing the human to enter through the front. As he knocked on the door, Handy opened the door and greeted him warmly. "Ah, young sir. It has been some time since we last met."

"Yeah, it's been a while, love the silver in your mane."

"Ah, it's just a show of my passing years, yours will soon come." He replied before looking into his head. "Actually, I see you have about one or two of your own looking to introduce themselves."

"Yeah, my old lady says the same." He replied as he walked into the foyer. "You look like you get around just fine, young fella. How's the master treating you?"

"She's been most benevolent." He exchanged with a hearty laugh. "I shall go find her to greet you."

In all actuality, I hid myself behind the wall of one of the halls, trying not to be seen. But a voice called out from the downstairs study. "Captain!" Gala scrambled from out of the study looking to greet the human she adored so greatly. "Captain, you're here!"

"Hey there Gala!" He greeted as he knelt down, hugging her and dwarfing her height all the same. She nuzzled into his arms as she wagged her tail. I started to hide less, knowing what she was intending to do. "Still growing, huh?" He, however, didn't quite catch on to her motions as quickly.

She dragged him along to the study, eagerly dismissing the older stallion. "Thanks a bunch, Mr. Handy. I can take it from here. You go on ahead and get some rest."

While not wanting to refuse a moment to enjoy the time being off of his hooves, he openly accepted her offer. "As you will it, Madame Queen."

As he disappeared into one of the other halls, I quietly snuck down the stairs to keep an eye on the young preteen and what appeared to be her unsuspecting prey. "Captain, you don't ever visit me enough!"

"Well I guess it's been a hard sell to the guards at every checkpoint, especially with me not being the Captain anymore. I haven't been in the E.U.P. since Twilight took over. Even with my pedigree, I can't seem to get past the second checkpoint."

She snickered as she opened the door for him to enter. "I keep telling you what to do. All you have to say is that Gala Gallaria sent for you."

"Yeah, but I can't keep using that. Some ponies out there might think I'm here for something I shouldn't be here for. And that's not a good look." He answered.

"Pfft, whatever!" She said as she poured him a cup of tea, shifting her eyes as she vied to close the doors behind them. I snuck in closer, peeking through the crack I made for myself in her attempt to stealthily shut the door. "I mean, who would ever take advantage of a poor, defenseless, blind little filly who's so young and lively?"

"A lot of sickos, that's who." He said as he glanced around a bookshelf, pulling down one title with the title Fahrenheit 451 on the spine. "Wow, she really has this labeled as horror?"

"Well you're not a sicko." She said as she snuggled her way between his legs, looking up at him with her glossy fuchsia eyes half-lidded at him. "But you could help me with a few get-arounds. I don't mind."

By that point, he had clearly grasped the situation she was inviting him to, and kindly lifted one leg to clear himself from over her. "Not interested." He said awkwardly.

She lit her magic to hold his leg in place, nuzzling against him as she spoke, taking deep breaths through her nose to take in his scent. "Not even if you had to keep a secret? I know how to keep secrets too, you know."

His eyes widened with an enormous amount of discomfort, she didn't seem to want to take no for an answer. So I opened the doors and stormed in, yanking her up by her tail and lifting her out of the room. "Abeg, you idjiot! Take it up with your school friends, mchumba!"

As she landed on her hooves and hindquarters, she grumbled and complained as I foiled her plan to get herself some ill-gotten human wares. "Hey, I know what that means now." She said angrily before sulking back down the hall. "Ugh! Stupid sister always making this so hard for me."

Nondis shook his head and smiled at me as he stepped out of the room. "And yet again, you come through in the clutch. It's just like old times."

"You are here." I plainly pointed out.

He chuckled. "Yeah, but it took me getting through to your sister to get to you. Every time I ask the guards at the checkpoint for you, I get turned away at the second gate. It's always that second gate, I swear. Of course I could just shadow walk past all of that and pay a visit, but that would be even worse from an ethical standpoint. I can't really explain leaving from someplace when I had no prior credentials to be there. So I try to do right by the rules and keep it honest, but I guess the security has to keep a tight knit on things, even if it's me."

"Well it's unfortunate that has to happen." I said so flatly

The laughing stopped, he glanced at me as though I had distanced him. In all honesty, that's what I was doing. "Sheesh, you haven't been this cold to me in years."

"You inspire a lot of temperature raising." I said as I walked down the hall, smelling his scent as I passed by him. "And you smell like trouble."

"I don't try to." He said before sniffing himself. "Is it the cologne?"

I questioned the man, indirectly telling him why. "Do you know what time of the year it is?"

"Oh yeah, as if I didn't have enough mares tilting their tails to the side to tell me what they want. hence the cologne." He replied as we came into the warming room, seeing a large glass window opening into our beautiful courtyard. "Your little sister's no different."

"She is going to take advantage of a dumb teenage colt and get them in trouble with how promiscuous she is. She is a problem at times." I answered as I heard laughs from the outside.

"Yeah, she makes it hard to believe that she's an aunt at her young age." He replied as he saw a maid playing with a young colt, my son running after a mare who laughed playfully as she tried to keep herself distanced from him. "How's the kid? Shortly after having him, you never said much about it to me. I found out through Zecora that you even had him in the first place, and that was at least a month after."

The moment had me breaking my composure, I lifted my head, watching fondly as he looked at Nafasi playing with his caretaker. For the moment, I broke down, walking up beside him and speaking warmly as we both watched my son play in the courtyard. "I take my eyes off of him for one minute, and he starts growing before I look back at him again. Five years, and we are already talking about what school he's set to attend. Even now, time feels less and less like an idea, and more like precious grains of sand, each filled with warm little moments I can't keep count of. But just as they roll away, I realize how quick they can be lost. So I try to hold them in a jar, only for the cracks to come and I lose what I keep anyways. That's what it feels like to raise a child." The slight touch of his fingers against the tips of my ears make me smile. "Many say he's ready to take on his first magic lessons, but I'm afraid that he'll grow so fast that I'd lose him. I sometimes wonder how he got so smart."

"Well that's just a reflection of the brilliant mind of his mother." Nondis replied.

I realize that I am not supposed to feel so warm in this moment, so I mentally reconfigure and regain my original stance towards him. "Why are you here?"

He lifts his hands, the white magic manifesting in his hand as he summons a letter. "Well, I wanted to give you something. I figured it would be better if I did it personally."

I look up to him and respond in deadpan. "We have a post office for that."

"Sometimes a bit of chaos can disrupt the mail flow. I just want to do something different, something certain." He responded as I broke the white and gold wax seal.

I stared blankly at what was handed to me. "What is this?"

"It's an invitation." He replied a bit excitedly.

"A wedding invitation." I concluded quietly.

He stood bashfully as he finally revealed the news of his engagement. "Yeah, Cella and I are finally gonna tie the knot. I know it's early with what's all going on in my home world, I wanted to try and respect everyone's travel schedules... and restrictions. I know with your being a dignitary in training, there's a lot of abroad work that gets in the way. So we set it up for next year on the day of the Summer Solstice. It's a Monday, but it's still fits in with what we're trying to do. Not to mention it's already a holiday to begin with. It'll also be the first time in years Celestia sets the sun."

Somewhere throughout the course of his explanation, my mind drowned his voice and I was left looking at a piece of paper. I thought to myself quietly over what I was feeling, I couldn't quite call it anger. I couldn't quite call it pride for him doing what he set out to do. We both know it was going to lead up to this at some point. But in all truth, I was trying to avoid seeing it. I wanted to bypass it, but it arrived all the same. "It's good that you have what you have."

"Yeah, she makes me feel good enough to be me. I'd never thought I'd be able to say that, but here we are."

I folded the letter back up in the midst of my reply. "I'm happy for you."

"I know it's early as all get-out, but I think ponies will be trying to buy a seat somehow. But if you'd RSVP now, we could─"

*SCHRRRREP*

His words were silenced by the sound of the invitation being shredded before his very eyes. I folded the contents and rippled them yet again. And again I folded them, to rip the pieces in half. I did so another two times, until there was bits and pieces of the elegant invitation left. I opened his hands and gently placed the remains of his invitation in them, letting his fingers feel the weight and power of my response.

"Live your life." I said with a heartbroken smile.

"Wait, what happened?" He asked, thinking that he had done something wrong.

"Nondis, you and I made our agreement. We know what this is." I replied, folding his hands into the bits of paper.

He opened his hands, capturing all the shredded pieces in his magic to piece back together as best as he could. "Kali, I just wanted you to be apart of the moment. Did I do something wrong?"

"Nothing wrong. I just cannot accept your invitation." I repeated.

As I started to walk away, he sank into the floor and showed back up in front of me, still somewhat distraught over my abrupt rejection. "Celestia really wanted you to come. Everyone else will be looking for you." He pleaded.

"They know how to get to me." I answered.

He got on one of his knees, looking to me for an explanation. "Kalimba please, tell me why?"

I smiled as I explained to him part of the reason why I had to push him away, and why I could not bring myself to watch him marry her. "Because I cannot in good faith attend your wedding. I will not accept it. You know, after we finished that mess years ago, I wanted us to be friends still. But I can't do that anymore. I'm not stepping in the way of what you have now. So make your happiness, cultivate your family, be a husband to her. Treat her well."

He still appeared confused. "I'm sorry, I just─"

"Let's just say I'm not over you in the slightest." At last, I yanked him down by his collar, quickly giving him a peck on his forehead, violating him enough to where he understood what I felt, but respecting him enough to where I did not cross the lines I truly wished to erase. Even at the moment, I wanted to show him what I had was special too, but I respected the boundaries he had for his future, the boundaries Celestia and I established all those years ago. I looked away from him, telling him what I felt. "I did not want to see you here, I kept you away because I know what I want to hear when you walk in, what I want to feel. You gave me everything and expected me to live like royalty. How do I learn to not wait for you to come back to me, to come home? I beg you, I cannot!"

As he finally understood why I had to keep him away, I smiled with regret and bittersweet acceptance. He appeared remorseful for having come here. "I'm sorry. I didn't know it was like that for you."

"You do now." I answered quickly, turning away from his tall presence. "If I could have what I want, I would make you an infidel. I would give you what I have, and I would take from you the future you have planned. I can't do that to you, not after what all you gave me. So please... accept my rejection."

I heard the man sigh in resignation, he sounded upset that I rejected the invitation. But he accepted my reason for not attending. "Thank you for telling me the truth."

"You're welcome, now go away." I ordered with a slight giggle. "You silly boy."

As he soon left the home, I waited until I heard the front door open and shut. Finally, I fell to the ground, holding my chest as I wanted to scream. All I could think of was the moment he stared out the window, looking at Nafasi while played, the smile on his face, the moment we stood together.

Just once did I pray for that moment, where we could watch our son play together.

I never told him that it was his son. I never wanted to. I confirmed that it was his after Zecora had spoke with him, taking a hair from his head. She had the hair and one of my son's hairs taken at the time, and though the genetics we shared are different, it showed in his blood that there was a different creature's genetic code grown into it. We confirmed from various sources that the coding matched that of the humans. And I only had relations with one human.

If I had told him that Nafasi was his own blood, I could already imagine the lengths he'd go to be a part of his life. He'd leave the mare he promised his life and future to, to leave that happiness he wanted behind for the sake of some conflict that he didn't need for the time being. I would not only be breaching the trust he and I have, but especially that of me and Celestia. I remember the years back, when shortly after a petty spat we had ended with her coming to my room to apologize, we made a pact. She allowed for me to have a foal by him, but I was insistent that I would keep him out of our life once I had that foal. Just as he and I agreed, we'd have our one night to make me feel like I was his, and that was it. I tried my best to leave it at that. To attend a wedding and to hold my peace with a son of his blood, I cannot in good faith say that I will remain silent.

If Celestia contacts me to ask why, I will tell her the truth.

"Mama, mama! Was that de tall captain!?" Nafasi said in our homeland tongue.

"No, Nafasi. that was just... an old friend." I reply to him in the exact manner.

"Mama, are you going to Griffonstone tomorrow?"

"Yes. I'm going to learn how to talk with the griffons."

"Can I come?"

"No. Not this time. Maybe in the future."

"Do you promise?"

"I promise."

One day, I will tell him of his father, how brave and good he is. But only after he is of age. I wish not to cause problems.

10 More Years Later...

"Another suspension!?"

Gala screams angrily at her adolescent nephew. Both she and the teenage colt sit in their seats, waiting for the bus to unload from the airport. As I'm sitting in my seat, I can already hear the two bickering from inside. They almost sound like siblings who do more of cursing each other out as opposed to having the typical aunt-nephew dynamic. Everyone who passes by simply watches the two make a scene as I roll my eyes, gathered my stuff, and wait to get off of the bus.

"He called me a fatherless reject, he called my mudda a whore! And I'm supposed to just sit there and take dat!?" Nafasi argues loudly. "I told him dat I would slap de taste from his mouth so bad dat his descendants would be tasteless, dat his daughter's food would be flavorless! I wanted his ancestors to weep in pain for de shame he has brought dem!"

"Nafasi, that does not give you an excuse to hit him with a chair!" The teenage colt folds his forelegs, mugging in the opposing direction to where Gala chides him from. She walks around and scream at him again. "A chair! Now we're gonna have to go to a disciplinary hearing telling us how we're going to have to transfer you to another school, or risk you being expelled! Your mom is not going to enjoy this coming back from her trip!"

"But Handy told me dat I should never accept anypony talking ill of my family!" He states adamantly.

She rolls her eyes, pointing back at the young teen. "You've been saying that like his words are something you follow religiously. Did he say them recently, no. Why, because he's six feet in the ground and he hasn't been speaking for four years!"

"Dey talk about you too." He adds.

The mare facepalms, being careful as to not damage her glasses. "Did they say anything about me being blind?"

"Yes!" He exclaims fervently.

She stops for a moment, thinking to herself. "...Still, a chair though? You could've just did a book or something."

"Uh-oh, here she comes." He says as I finally step off the bus. I'm already scowling from the mess both he and Gala has been making in the district square. At least she's smart enough to keep her face buried, while my young son is dumb enough to try to walk up to me with a smile, acting like I didn't just hear what he and her had been arguing about. "Mama! You have returned safe!"

His smile quickly disappears as I get in closer. Since I was fresh off my trip from visiting some family in the distant homeland of my mother, I am still in the mode to speak in accent. So my speech flashes back to my original patterns... heavily. "What did you do dis time, boy?" I question him in a low and seething tone.

He still smiles at me, trying to play everything off. "Mama, can't I be happy dat you are here?"

I make the slightest tilt of my head to my younger sister, who's supposed to be in charge of him. "Gala."

After so many years, and even a few fights between us, Gala acknowledges when I am in no mood to be led around for a game. She's quick to the draw, spitting out the truth. "He threw a chair at another student."

"A chair!?... ABEG!" His ears flop down as I start to get even closer to him, vividly illustrating my anger with him. "You throw a chair at someone, now you throw away your life! You could be throwing your head into a book, but you chose to wake up to throw ignorance! Abeg! Where did I go wrong with you!?

"He called you a whore." He replies as if it was going to make me feel any better about the situation. I am still livid.

"You need to learn how to have some discipline! I cannot keep sending you off to random schools! I'm going to have to send you through a military program, so you can get your head straight!" He looks down, but I am even quicker to yank his chin back up to look at me. "Don't you turn your head, shine your eyes! Did you know dat I had to fight all my life to get to where I am now!? I had to survive on de street at─"

"─At twelve years old. I know, mama." He finishes, knowing that I told him the story many times before whenever he had gotten in trouble.

"You obviously do not, Nafasi!" I said angrily, putting a hoof close to his face. "I will talk to Gallus tomorrow, from dere we will get you where you need to be! You will get your life in order, or I will snatch your life right out of your chroat!" I snarl out of the side of my mouth through my clenching teeth. "Iiiidjiioooot! Walk!" I commanded firmly, pushing him forward.

Gala quietly accompanies us both as I continued to seethe in frustration. As we are walking towards the first checkpoint, my son whispers to me. "He called Aunt Gala a blind, broke-back whore who should die."

The both of us freeze for a second. Gala nodding her head in acknowledgement, understanding the reasoning for her nephew sudden outburst of violence, knowing that her condition was a trigger for the both of us to quickly get into a fight with all but murderous intentions. I look to my son, and then see my own younger self in his eyes. I look away, both ashamed and proud of how he responded to the situation.

I mumble quietly to him. "...We will discuss later."

Author's Note

The shortest chapter with what could be the most controversial decision ever made by a mother wanting to stay out of the way of someone who advertised his allegiance from the the founding. The one thing I wanted to establish was that there was no feud as the source of Kalimba's omission of Nondis from her son's life. She merely wanted to acknowledge the agreement she made with Celestia herself.

Though the agreement could've been better conveyed between the two parties, there were events that heavily hinted at what was to occur in this chapter. And though she seems shrewd in her mannerisms, her intentions were more to guard herself and the emotions she tried to reject throughout the years. However, the more she rejected the conversation, the more the feelings began to fester inside of her. And sometimes it takes but one trigger to reopen that box you felt was locked away.

She had everything she could ever ask for, the home, financial security, the family, and with how she was throughout the story, she's always uncomfortable with begging for more for herself, all while wanting the world for others. And this bittersweet conclusion does have open ends that could be addressed later.

Now, onto the next interview. Princess Celestia, step right up.

Chapter CXX (Princess Celestia)

EPILOGUE: CELESTE DELANISE VALKYRIE

As soon as the slightest hint of my horn poked through the door, I could hear an obnoxious about of questions being screamed at my direction. Frankly, I was used to it in most other circumstances. But with all of the events from today, not to mention a great effort of magic being spent on my part to cleanse Umbra's hideous doings, I was admittedly far from my usual level of patient. But being a ruler of a nation, I've learned to put myself aside for the better of many.

With all of that predisposed, some of these questions being shouted out at me were blunt and crass, dry of any empathy.

"Your highness, what happened that made the captain unable to squash the threat on Friday night?"

"Why did the captain employ a sex slave in his work?"

"Were you aware of his presence in Canterrot that evening when the mass exhumation took place?"

"Your highness, what of the dastardly terrorist who is responsible for this week's events, what was his dealings with the captain?"

"Princess, with the horrendous revelations of this past week and the failures of the captain, will there be a change in order of the guard?"

"Do you feel Captain Nondis should be terminated?"

When I stepped to the throne, I sat myself and looked to Solemn for a call for silence. "HEAR YE! HEAR YE! THE HIGH PRINCESS OF EQUESTRIA SHALL NOW SPEAK!"

It took a few calls, but the rowdy throng of reporters had come to a whisper. The flashing photography stalled for a moment as I was finally given the opportunity to speak without interruption.

"Citizens of Equestria, a lot has happened." I said, looking to all of the ponies in the room. "I am sure that many of you have either heard or came into contact with some of the circumstances that has occurred on this week. But I shall now confirm on some matters that have gripped the attention of you all. And to start, I shall address the elephant in the room. Firstly, the matter of the missing bodies in the Canterlot Cemetery that have been recently recovered."

Immediately, questions began to sprout out. Solemn had to call out for yet another request of silence. "PLEASE SAVE ALL QUESTIONS FOR THE INTERVIEWING PORTION! HER HIGHNESS THANKS YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION!"

I glanced to Solemn with a nod of appreciation. "The bodies that have all been recovered have been mandated to cremation, as to avoid the dastardly insurrectionist Umbra Sanctus from utilizing them further. I can assure you with all of my being that this matter will be addressed with upmost care and with the sensitivity deserving of those who's families are burdened with the knowledge that their loved ones have been disrupted throughout the course of their eternal repose. Furthermore, the deceased have been identified by means of sanctioned records from every medical facility, mortuary, and coroner in the city. All bodies recovered were confirmed to be Canterlot residents, and they were given a proper sendoff. However, I have also mandated that due to the condition of the bodies that were recovered were to not be identified by family members, as the faces and images will be too haunting for many to mentally accept. For that, you have my sincerest apologies."

A speckling of questions began to spark up, but Solemn once more placed her hoof down. "SILENCE!"

I carried on. "Onto our second matter. Pertaining to the issue of the Captain of the Royal Guard and his acquisition of the elements of harmony, we have confirmed that the the elements have been moved to a safe and undisclosed location. The humans are not aware of the location nor do they have access to it. However, the elements themselves removed themselves from their place of holding and reassigned themselves to a corresponding human that closely matched their requirements. This issue has been confirmed with the humans who live especially far away from the portals themselves. As for the reason they were selected, the necro-terrorist Umbra Sanctus has also threatened dominion of their world. And by threatening their world with powers and abilities that humans are not yet ready in full to combat, they will be overtaken and their attention turned to the world of Equestria. Fortunately, the portals were broken by one of the humans before the necro-terrorist in question could infiltrate. The humans will be stuck here for some time until the portals have been repaired and re-coordinated. Our estimated time of repair will be north of a month."

A few more questions started to seed from the back row in murmurs. "HER MAJESTY IS STILL SPEAKING! REMAIN SILENT OR YOU WILL BE REMOVED!"

I went on to establish yet another point. "And finally, we shall continue to invest our attention on the network of creatures who worked either in close association or loose acquaintanceship with the necro-terrorist Umbra Sanctus. Equestria will not tolerate any and all participants, this includes members of city council, municipal board leaders, politicians and pundits who accept bribes from any organizations affiliated with this figure, and all operatives who have had connections with these figures. There will be a deep and thorough cleaning of our government for those deemed compliant or permissive to these actions. Purge work has already begun at the conclusion of our defense operations here on the castle grounds."

The press were completely quiet then.... I wonder why.

"Before I take any questions, there is something I must also speak to those who have resorted to hiding from the offset of these matters, and I speak to you directly. This is highly unacceptable. Equestria will not only remember this, but it will learn a precedent on matters such as these from here forth. Your names will be exposed to the public, your legacies will be shamed, your assets will be frozen, as all politicians are undergoing an emergency asset stasis for royal audit. But those audits are not exclusive to legislators, as all city workers, places of worship, medical facilities, and post-mortem care centers shall be audited and inspected in immaculate detail. Those found to be engaged in such activities will have their licenses to operate permanently revoked. To all whom it may concern, all of these investigations will carry a felonious indictment with mountains of evidence and eye-witness accounts. As such, it will be mandatory that their faces and names are to be released to the public for record. I am sure some families will be broken by the end of this process, especially those who are unaware of their family members engaging in these activities. It is a risk, but that is a necessary sacrifice to ensure that this instance never happens again. All who are responsible will be apprehended and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. There will be no plea deals offered. There will be no short-term sentences. And there will be executions that I will address and/or attend personally."

This was probably the first time I've actually had to place my hoof down in such a manner in over a few centuries.

I nodded to Solemn, who gave the green light to the reporters. "HER MAJESTY WILL NOW TAKE QUESTIONS!"

Hooves quietly rose into the air, an overwhelming contrast to the noisy affair from earlier. I selected a hoof at random to give my my first question. "Your highness, there will be some ponies who hear this and think that this is an overreach of power. What will you say to them?

"I understand that they may think it is a drastic overreach, but matters such as these require a firm hoof to come down. I apologize for my methods appearing tyrannical, but it is for the good of Equestria's future that this changes now. The freezing of assets are in place to limit any and all flight risks looking to possibly leave the country. This is also why I have designated this conference to be broadcast on all wavelengths, so that others in both distant and neighboring cities are given advance to halt all transactions of those who show their accounts or assets mainly accumulated in the city of Canterlot, their primary proof of address being in Canterlot, and finally their business being located in Canterlot. Anything associated with Canterlot and the ponies therein, we will pursue and audit with extreme prejudice."

I picked out yet another hoof, a mare spoke out. "You say that the names of those responsible will possibly be exposed, are there any such names you can give us now, or will you be announcing them as the time comes?"

"I never said they would possibly be exposed, that's too broad of a stroke of my intention. I said that they will be, no chance of omission whatsoever. Ponies such as Senator Damper Trot, who was closely involved with the necro-terrorist Umbra Sanctus, are currently in holding. There is sufficient evidence depicting his involvement with Umbra's underground arena, who's purpose was just as mixed as any other, but also held the task to produce bodies for him to use. In hosting many affairs that were 'battles to the death' he would increase his body count using those gladiators to his purpose. There is also evidence of several animal bodies being used and stored. There are even some bodies of those that are considered as 'escorts' for many wayfaring officials. Damper Trot is one, High Tower, Proud Patriot, All Talk, and Just Cause are more senators and city council members who are directly involved."

Murmurs and photographs sounded out throughout the room as the others who had little to say simply raised their hooves to take a question. "Your highness, if this problem is truly as extensive as you claim it to be, then how much of the parliament do you think will be left remaining at the end of this purge?"

"I realistically see that there will be seventy-five percent remaining. However, given that there are over three hundred members in the body of parliament, there will be more than eighty who will have their names called by the end of the week."

More murmurs came around as I answered another question. "Your highness, there are some who claim this to be a partisan effort to quell the voices on one side of the aisle, especially with the names you've called. Is there a trend taking place or is there some sort of politics taking shape as well?"

"I do not believe that there is partisan politics involved in this matter. There are others on the opposing side of the aisle who are just as culpable. I will repeat that this is not a partisan effort of vote trimming, this is an effort to purify our systems of those who condone these behaviors. There will be no names withheld, despite what side of the aisle they sit on. However, our preliminary conclusions have trended heavier towards one side because the ideals Umbra himself upheld are similarly stringent to those of common political lean. We should yield more results as more names are brought in."

Another hoof raised, another question asked. "What is the status of the necro-terrorist?"

"He is detained in crystal at an undisclosed location." I answered before taking another question.

"Can you tell us more of his operations?"

"I will diverge more information as it becomes more readily available." I replied as I picked out another hoof raised.

"What of the captain's status? Will he remain in his position?"

At last, we landed into the toxic swamp of questions regarding Nondis' employment. I figured I would step into this trap eventually. "The captain is recovering from this assignment as many are recovering from this week's events." I gracefully deflected the issue, focusing more on the first question she asked by indirectly giving her the answer she wasn't expecting.

However, there was an older stallion who appeared more set on trying to find an angle to attack from. "Some consider the captain's absence on Friday night as a primary contribution to today's events. Is there any good reason why the captain was neglectful─"

Remember when I said that my patience was already running low, this was where I found my boiling point. "The captain was abducted by the creature of Umbra's creation. He suffered many broken bones, a punctured lung, internal bleeding, and a grievous wound that nearly resulted in total decapitation. The fact that he still elected to fight after such injuries gains my utmost respect. Therefore I will not accept any terms of him being held responsible for the actions of others. So you can pose that question in your mind, but not in my throne room, not in my presence, not in any part of my kingdom. So please correct your statement before I have you escorted out of this press conference."

With a uncomfortable smile and nod, he withdrew himself from questioning for the remainder of the evening. "I'm sorry, your highness."

I immediately took the next hoof I saw, hoping that my response to him served as a warning to the others. "Princess, what of the other humans? How do you think they will fare here in Equestria for a month?"

"They will be just as well-cared-for as our residential human. I can assure that their stay will be much less eventful than this past weekend."

I picked a hoof from the back. "Your highness, late city council member Alabaster Charm's name has been reported on this registry. Do you intend to go after his sister?"

While I am aware of their initial involvement, I had no intention for punishing her for assisting us. Her life and loss of family has been punishing enough. "Both he and his sister were instrumental in bringing Umbra down. They not only coordinated the effort to expose his plans, but also fought alongside us to bring him to justice. While Alabaster's involvement was initially close, he used his position to expose the inner dealings of Umbra and his cronies. So it may be that his name is on the list, his name is only on there because that's what the records show. His name is not one to be shamed, but honored. That grace is also bestowed upon his sister."

I selected a hoof in the middle of the crowd. "Your highness, with the end of this conflict, do we officially recognize the humans as element bearers?"

"Yes. They are indeed bearers, but only this once for the time being. As I said earlier, their world was being threatened as much as ours was. And it only made sense that they were here to neutralize that threat. There are no magical beings in their world, so no one there would understand what was happening. It was necessary for them to end this conflict before it had crossed over."

I picked out a young mare in the crowd. "I know this is probably an irrelevant question in the sea of relevant questions. But in regards to the late senator Somber Spiral, has it been confirmed officially that it was the necro-terrorist who committed the crime?"

"Your question is not only relevant, but also applicable to this case. Umbra himself committed the murders as a message to Somber Spiral's eldest daughter, who worked alongside us as well. The youngest victim is currently being cared for by that same sibling, the one you saw prior to me walking up here."

I picked out a young stallion towards the right. "Your highness, what was the motive of the necro-terrorist, do you know?"

I looked down and gave myself a sigh, expecting some awkward silence or even some criticism to come up as a result. "...Five hundred years ago, I prosecuted his family for the death of Prince Fair Charity. At the time, there was a massive political upheaval between the nobility and aristocratic powers. As such, the citizens were angry for the death of the prince that they said represented their interests. I directly ordered the family of the condemned to be executed.... Umbra was one of that family."

As I predicted, everyone was quiet and no one said a word. A lot of the ponies were essentially stunned that I had even been involved.

I looked back to the room where Nondis watched through the crack of the door, he gave me a quiet nod of approval and I continued onward. "This is why I do not have the captain answer questions without my express consent. This situation was not his responsibility in any way, but wholly mine. So if you have any concerns or gripes, it is only right for you to criticize me in a method that you deem just. This is all my fault, I have brought this upon you, I myself have committed the greatest fault to Equestria.... The only thing the captain is responsible for is cleaning up my mess." I briefly removed my crown and bowed my head in apology. "There is no succinct way to say how sorry I am. There are no words I can offer to those families who had to watch as their post-mortem loved ones were abused in such a hideous manner. My only offering is that I will allow for my name to be slandered and destroyed, but it will not change what has happened. I have failed you all, and that is my responsibility alone to bear."

"Your highness..." A voice called out from an unexpected source. I turned to my side, seeing Solemn openly make a comment in the face of the many reporters. "I'm asking this on behalf of the guard. Wouldn't it be fair to say that regardless of his motives, his actions are still more deplorable than the cause of his vengeance? He didn't just break a few laws, he played with life and death, consider how many more bodies he could've toyed with from then up till now. It's unfortunate that you were a cause to his actions, but it's an even greater crime to ignore the weight of his actions and placing them solely on yourself. You didn't tell him to play with the bodies of deceased Equestrians, he did that on his own." The reporters quietly looked to one another and began to jot down what Solemn had said in response to me. "You said yourself that you will not accept any terms of the captain being held responsible for the actions of others. It would not be fair to hold you to that same standard, being that the questions asked are focused on what happened in the current year, much less the week, as opposed to some lost drama of half a millennium back."

"I am only adding context to the purpose of his motives. His creation was indeed due to the role I played. I say that my actions should have as much weight as his." I insisted.

Solemn once more challenged me. "Your highness, how many of us live past one-hundred?"

While it seemed like a mundane question to pop out during a press conference, I could see the context of the argument that she was trying to make. "I under where you're coming from."

Solemn finally brought her input to a conclusion. "Princess, ponies will write of his motives, but you're not responsible for his decisions. Most of us would probably get mad and rage about it, grow old with it, die with it, and our bones turn to dust. But we wouldn't just transcend time and keep ourselves alive for longer than we should for the sake of some so-called justice."

A young mare in the front row stood out and spoke. "In the grand view, your highness, your role is present, but minimal to his actions. He's still a terrorist who played with the bodies of the dead. Are we really to hold you to that same charge when there's no evidence to back it?"

I sighed and rolled my eyes at both Solemn and the reporter. "I can't get a single critical hit-piece to come out of you lot, can I?" So far, there were very few responses, but a lot of hooves raised. "So I take it that there are other questions, you next." I selected at random.

A bright-spirited stallion brought forth his question. "Your highness, after this has cleaned up, will there be a celebration of the humans who helped save Equestria?"

Finally, a question I wouldn't mind answering with a clear mind. "I would request a day to mark it, but we are focused on current investigations. Also they are just as invested in making this investigation as solid as possible."

As I was ready to take on more questions, a young guard walked up to Solemn and whispered something in her ear. When she confirmed the message for herself, she passed the information on to me discreetly. "Your highness, there is a small uprising in the Corrotto District, seems to be some stragglers from the recent insurrection trying to rebuild their forces using some of the locals."

That was not exactly terrible news compared to what all we faced, but I had peace to maintain in the city. My efforts to answer questions would have to come later.

"I am so sorry, but there are matters that require my attention. I must depart. Thank you for your time."

It was only a short moment before our forces had completely enclosed on the Corrotto District yet again. I quietly entered one of the alleyways leading to the town square, where a number of citizens appeared to dedicate some of their young sons and nephews to fight alongside the remaining guild members who escaped capture. But as one could predict, not all of the young colts were volunteering of their own choice.

Some were forced. "Let us go!" An adolescent cried out as he watched a guild member frantically arming his younger brother with a spear stolen from the armory.

"You live here too, don't you!? So shut up and do your part!" Shouted a cruel stallion, arming the young adolescent.

"Our curtain has fallen, but that doesn't mean that we fall as easily!" A griffon called out, almost as to rally the small crowd of onlookers.

Pacing back and forth between the young 'recruits' and the onlookers was a pegasus mare with bat wings. She called out passionately to the onlooking residents. "The Doc's in trouble! And while we sit here and do nothing, I can point out just how much he's done for all of us! Everything around you, our way of life, our freedoms, our liberties, our rights, all of that he protected is at risk of being taken away along with him!"

The crowd cheered her words, all while the young volunteers were crying their eyes out. The same stallion from earlier ran around to the source of the loudest source of sadness. "Chin up, warriors don't get scared and cry!"

"KEEP THOSE CHINS UP!" The griffon cosigned loudly.

Once more, the stallion picked on a younger boy, a colt who couldn't stop rubbing his eyes of the tears he cried. He was terrified. "You, stop your bitching! Do you wanna lose your home!?" The young one shook his head tearfully. "Then stop crying and pay the fuck attention!"

The mare cycled her attention to the crowd. "Before you stands the future of our home, the greater generation who will defend you alongside us! Their sacrifices won't be for nothing, they will be for the conservation of our way of life!" Then she brought it back to the young colts. "I know you may be scared right now, but it's just the sky! What's a little rain going to do to stop us? We've faced off against worse! We fought off worse! And we can hold the line here! All you have to do is be brave and follow what we say! And we'll make it out of this!"

A changeling ran from one of the ran-down shacks. "They're gonna try to execute the Doc!" They cried out.

The mare loudly called out to the others, trying to keep them motivated. "We know what they can and cannot do! The Doc won't go down that easy, and neither will we!"

As I began to quietly detest the figures trying to rally together a bunch of very young colts in an effort to possibly get hurt and die for their cause, one of my guards approached me to give me an update. "Your highness, we're in position."

"Give the signal to advance." I ordered quietly.

As the guard signaled to the others to begin closing into the square, I myself stepped out of the shadows and into the pouring rain. "That stupid princess will rue the day she ever came across us! We will spill the blood of countless ponies if it means that we protect ourselves and our way of life!"

"As would I!" I declared loudly.

The ponies around the gathered group began to scatter and flee as soon as they saw me approaching. But their efforts were short-lived once they discovered that there were guards flooding in from every direction, pointing their spears ahead to keep everyone enclosed. Pegasi units from above took the newfound liberty to use their airborne advantage to further suppress from every angle and altitude.

"Take positions!" The batpony mare barked out. "Hold the line!

But before her forces could move, they were met with spears angled towards their necks. I gave them one final warning to surrender before this would become unsightly. "Stand. Down."

"Stop!" A colt's cry came to my ears. I slowly turned my head to see the colt standing in place, trembling with the oversized weapon in his hooves, a spear far too large and heavy for him to use correctly. He had to appear no older than ten. "Stop it, I mean it!" He was still crying, poor thing was terrified and just reacted in the manner he was taught to.

"Who has poisoned you, little one?" I asked the young boy.

"For home!" He ran forward, trying to guide the spear towards me. But with his poor training, as though he wasn't really trained at all, he let the spear guide him where he would strike. I let him draw closer until I could safely parry the spear with my wing and grab a hold of the young colt. I held to him, watching as he squirmed to break free. "Hey, let me go!"

I looked to him, ashamed for having watched him try to fight himself away from me, but also with sadness for the young one feeling like this should be his response. "So much conviction, in a mind so young."

"Help me, the evil princess got me!" He called out to the others, who stood silent and watched in fear.

"I suppose I have been evil to some." I replied back to the young colt, gently petting his head. "But you are much too young for me to antagonize. You're still a baby in my sight."

"Let me go!" He cried out once more.

I tried to smile at the young colt, at least trying to appear nice to him. "I'll let you go, but only if you let me give you a lesson first. I'm going to let you try again, but I'm going to show you how to use a weapon like that. Okay?" Surprised that I was actually willing to show him how to use his spear, he nodded and I placed him back to the ground slowly. I took a few steps away, turning my back to him and even showing how much I did not wish to be perceived to be a threat to him. I slid the spear beside him and started giving him instructions. "Now don't run for me just yet, but I want you to pick up that spear and hold it for a moment."

"See, she's so evil that she's willing to mock a child!" The batpony mare screamed out to the crowd, running my patience even thinner.

"SILENCE!" I shouted to her. "You would have this child die for your ideals!? He barely knows life, much less taking one!" Honestly, I might have underrepresented the truth when I said that my patience was worn thin. I had completely lost all will to negotiate with a mare like her. So I tossed the spear from the young colt to the mare. "You, come at me, this instant!" I said, summoning my halberd.

The mare smirked as she kicked the weapon away. "Gladly!" She screamed as she hopped into the air, looking to use aerial attacks of her own. She descended with blades set in the webbing of her wings. I remained calm as I let my horn glow, and I politely bent her wings out of place, breaking them. She fell to the ground, tumbling and howling out in pain. "AAHHHHH! My wings!"

"You shame yourself." I dismissively spoke to the mare before reallocating my attention to where I wanted it most, the young colts who were unwillingly volunteered. "All of you who are fourteen and below, please step forward." My halberd dropped into the ground, carving out a firm line in the ground, cleaving rock and gravel alike. After having watched the weapon perform it's dangerous work, many wished not to approach. "NOW!" I hollered, resorting to fear to coerce them. All of whom were of that age group quickly made their way over. "Don't stop until you've reached this line I've drawn!"

The mare called out once more. "See? It's just as the Doc said! She's a cruel murderer!"

"I don't have time for ancient truths." I answered to her before looking to the young collection of crying and scared colts. "All of you who stepped up, I want you to walk in a single file to that alleyway and look only ahead. Do not look back, do not come back for anything or anyone." I sternly warned. "I will not have you suffer on the same account of these fools."

I nodded to two guards to come over and escort the young troupe from out of the square. "This way!" Another guard ordered, pointing out to an open alley. "Keep moving!" They called out once more as a few slowed to try and glance back at us. I signaled for another two guards to block their way back in.

I waited for a minute or two, looking up to a pegasus in the sky. "Have they cleared?"

"Yes, your majesty." A young stallion confirmed.

I grabbed my halberd and marched quickly to the batpony mare who antagonized me for the last time. "So benevolent of you, to march them off to meet their demise."

I quickly swiped my halberd at the mare's neck, letting her head roll in the street. I lifted my weapon to clear the headless body. I walked towards the mare's head, who blinked incessantly from the shock. I spoke to her as she was still conscious. "I marched them away so that they won't have to see you meet yours." From there, I walked away, leaving her to come to her end in the coming seconds. I pointed to the line I had drawn and quickly issued for the stallion who antagonized the young colts. "Bring me the next one... him."

Immediately, he went into pleading and begging for his life. I watched with disgust as he was lead to me. "Please, I don't want to die! I don't want to die like that! Please!" He begged as he was sat before me. "Wait... Wai─"

His head rolled as quickly as the mare before him. I offered my final words to him from a distance. "You've made your bed." As I called for another one, I noticed that there was another waiting quietly, also crying silently as he watched the executions taking place. But he seemed out of place with the others, he appeared far younger than the rest. I placed my halberd against his neck, urging him to answer me quickly. "You, you're young. How old are you?"

"Sixteen, your highness." He expressed fearfully. While I had no wish to take his life, I would at least be willing to show him the consequence of his actions. In his instance, he's probably seen enough.

But there was something else about him that appeared similar to one of the other colts I watched get evacuated. "Do you have a brother?"

"Two, ma'am." He confirmed.

"What's their names?"

He was nervous at first, but he answered me in spite of the fear that consumed him. "...Crème de la Crème, Crème Fraîche."

I recognized the first name he threw out, and informed him of it. "I see, your brother was an Acolyte to Umbra. He assisted us in bringing his downfall. In return, I promised your brother a better life for you and your sibling." I looked back to the two heads, now devoid of life and back to him. "Do you still want to die here?"

"No ma'am." He whimpered softly.

"Very good." I said to him before removing the halberd from his neck. "You're a very respectful young stallion, I would not feel any good in my heart to know that I would have you end here. Many centuries ago, that would have not been the case. Back then, you would be joining them." I pointed my halberd to the heads. "You are young, I don't want that reality for you." I then addressed the other adolescents in the ranks. "Those of you who are twenty on down, I wanted you to stay because I needed you to see the reality of your choices up close and personal. I'm sure some of you will be willing to stand pat and live as bravely as they did, but you will also die as quickly and foolishly as they did. So if you wish to stand for what you believe in, I recommend that you'd wait your turn. As for those who wish not to be as they are, please leave this place, please seek a better life. I wish not to have more blood on my hooves from lives so young. Don't be them."

Immediately, as I lowered my halberd, I pointed to the direction of the alley where the others were escorted, the remaining gathering of young 'volunteers' filed themselves in line to be guided away. One of the guards issued the orders to the others. "Take them to where they took the others."

"Sir!" They complied.

As the young stallions and colts departed, I looked to the changeling pointed his way to the line. "Next."

2 Years Later...

After those arduous and taxing events took place, I finally had my peace of mind to be able to quietly conduct a transfer of power. But all of those attempts didn't come without some notable interruptions. First there was Chrysalis having her attempt to stealthily usurp the throne of Equestria by removing all successors to the throne. That failed basically off of the principle that she had completely forgot to take into consideration Twilight's student. And even if that failed, she failed to also abduct Blueblood, who would've been made King if our disappearances had been lengthy enough. Then there was the return of Stygian the Dark, which was also foiled by the return of my once-teacher Starswirl the Bearded. And then there was the short-lived takeover by the Storm King, again short-lived. Then there was the ploy to remove all magic from Equestria, coordinated by none other than a filly named Cozy Glow. Then came a surprise visit from King Sombra... the bad one. While he destroyed the physical elements, they grew to merely become symbols, as their powers manifested in other ways. And finally, there was the recent takeover attempt that resulted in half of the castle being destroyed and the return of the Wendigos. That was all thankfully staved off by every element bearing group Equestria had at it's disposal.

Every group... save one.

A month later, the castle was rebuilt, the city was back to the usual swing of things, the throne room was remodeled a second time, and new windows were put up to signify the change of power. And at last, all proceeds were completed for a full and thorough transfer of all powers from both Luna and I, to my former student, Twilight Sparkle.

The moment of her actual coronation didn't go as she had planned it, but the result was all the same. Luna and I melded our crowns together to give her the splitting image of the power she deserved. And as the event went along, moments of collective growth became bittersweet, a coming of age if you will. With her new position, she would have to leave Ponyville and rule from the high seat of Canterlot. But those moments weren't all too bittersweet, in fact they gave her a gift to remember them by.

A book containing the memories they shared, playing out in motion as though they were videos to be watched.

As the memories replayed on each page, she embraced her Ponyville friends. "I love it. Thank you so much. But I don't want to only look back. Obviously the coronation wasn't perfect, but that doesn't matter. It's our relationships that really count, and we have to maintain them."

Rarity brought up a reasonable point. "But now that we'll be living in different places, I'm not exactly sure how."

Twilight was eager to come up with a solution. "I am. I suggest we meet once a moon. In fact, my first royal decree as ruler of Equestria is to establish this Council of Friendship."

As I had entered into the picture to say my goodbyes, I complemented her on her decision. "And what a wonderful decree it is."

Luna cosigned on my praise. "We always knew that whatever adversity you faced, you and your friends would find your way through it together."

As Twilight began to approach us, I continued to speak, letting her know what we were setting out to do. "We know Equestria is in the perfect hooves with you and your friends looking out for it. And while we'll always be here if you need us, it's time for us to be on our way."

"You're leaving?" She asked.

"We hope you'll come and visit us in Silver Shoals." Luna invited happily.

"But now it's time for you to rule on your own. You're all more than capable." I concluded, absolutely brimming with pride.

"Thank you, for everything." She replied before jumping into me with a love-filled embrace, much akin to being the daughter I never had.

We all surrounded the high princess, embracing her just as warmly. After some tear shedding on my own part, I looked back to the young Twilight Sparkle, waved my goodbye, and both my sister and I flew off into the suspended twilight. But before we could completely leave the city, we saw a human posted up on a motorcycle, ready and waiting for us to give him the all clear.

Both Luna and I flew down to him, with her asking him. "Are you ready?"

He said with a smirk. "Ain't got no other choice but to be."

Luna appeared happy of his decision, but she questioned him of it once more. "You do realize that you could be captain for a little longer than two years."

The man shrugged. "Sometimes when there's a change in power, you just need to move out the way and let it happen."

As he was about to start his engine, a cry came from within the main checkpoint. "Princess!" We all looked over to see a mare galloping out in a set of purple and gold armor.

As she quickly approached us, I shook my head at her. "Solemn Oath, you don't need to call me that anymore. I keep telling you that."

"But you're still you! I can't just erase twenty years of calling you one thing." She insisted.

Nondis walked over to me, holding me close to him. "Don't even trip. She still calls me captain."

"But you are the captain." She replied.

"No, you are." He pointed out. "I thought we had this whole thing sorted out last week."

Solemn looked uncertain of her new position coming at the cost of the human's brief stint in the guard. "Do you really have to retire? It's only been two years and some change, almost three. You can go for much longer and you could be way higher!"

Nondis leaned down to kiss me on my forehead, making me giggle and smile. "Sorry, a promise is a promise. I told Cella I'd be done when she retires from her position, and here I am. I just happened to transfer everything over to you after all of this crazy ass-mess came about with Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy."

"You're talking as if you were involved!" She replied, pointing out his limited interaction with the villains.

"I was involved in the evacuation efforts, remember? I'm sure you know why." He argued as he glanced down to me.

"Yeah I know, she wouldn't let you go against another Class-X threat without your friends." Solemn answered correctly.

The human nodded his head. "Yeah. It's kinda hard to whip out the phone and tell Mel and Rickey to drop their kid off at daycare and help me come save the world. Stanton's a pro-athlete on a rookie contract, he ain't budging. Alex ain't leaving Vanessa and Bree all by themselves, not that Vanessa would even let him at this point. Plus he has another one on the way, nah. And Cliff is living his best life over in Ponyville City with Sunset. I ain't even bout to touch that."

The newly bestowed captain of the royal guard sighed as she looked up to the both of us. "So, what's next for you, captain?"

He knew she had said it to intentionally annoy him, but he didn't let it bother him too much. "She's moving to Silver Shoals, I just pray I have enough gas to make it there."

"You have enough. Stop playing around like you can't make a trek two-hundred miles west." I said back to him.

Solemn then made fun of the human. "Off to live with two former princesses, oh the carnage."

"Pray for me, will you?" He whispered in a low voice.

I tapped him in his side as Luna looked to the suspended twilight of the sky. "I think it's about our time."

But before Nondis could walk back to his motorcycle, another voice called out from the top of the battlements. "HEEEY!" With a sudden pop of magic, the yellow unicorn mare appeared before us, standing beside her armored special somepony. "What's the big deal, you don't say anything!?"

"Lemon Hearts, what's good?" Nondis asked the mare.

She scoffed and glared him down. "You can't just leave without saying goodbye to me, you know!"

The man laughed for a moment. "Yeah, I sure am gonna miss those cups of coffee you made me."

We all giggled at the joke he made. "Really, that's all you have to remember me by?"

"Nah, I'm just yanking your tail." He answered. "We'll be back to visit on occasion."

She hugged the tall man as best as she could. "You let me know. I want to make you two a nice dinner."

And then yet another face popped in for a final comment. "I don't suppose you ladies mind an old face popping in one last time."

Both Luna and I perked up as we saw our old mentor walking up. "Oh, Starswirl!" I said, giving the wise stallion a final embrace before heading out.

He looked to my boyfriend and appeared as a stern father. "As for you, Nondis, I believe you know what I'm going to tell you."

"Take good care of her. I know, sir." He replied respectfully.

"And also─"

"Luna's an avid prankster who really likes to piss her sister off. I found that out years ago." He completed.

Already knowing the warnings he came to offer, the wise wizard gave him a sagely nod. "Ah, very good then."

Luna and I offered our continued appreciation. Nondis especially took the time to shake his hoof. "Thank you for all you've taught us, sir."

"To retire in your prime, I'd call it a tragedy if it weren't a promise made." Starswirl said with a sigh, almost as though he wanted to see what the human could do at his best potential.

"That's life." Nondis concluded as he looked to me. "Well I made my rounds, you've made yours. Let's mosey."

And yet again, another voice calls out to interrupt our departure. "And where do you think you're going!?"

Almost in an ambush, Twilight and her friends showed up to offer the human one last goodbye. "Uh oh, you don't piss Rarity off and get away with it."

"Spike, language!" Twilight corrected the winged drake for his light vulgarity. The dragon appeared slightly annoyed while Twilight smiled back at the human. "Well I guess this really is your big send-off too. I'm gonna decree that you come back and visit as often as like maybe... hmmm, once a month."

He snickered as he replied back to her. "Sorry princess, but my queen's in another castle."

She giggled back. "Still a jerk."

"Still an egghead." He mocked back.

Meanwhile, Pinkie found herself at the top of the battlements and leapt onto the human all while screaming. "HUG PILE!"

As she called it out, the other five mares jumped on top of him and tackled him to the ground. All of them laughed as he expressed his minor discomfort. "I think you're about two letters off on that first word, Pinkie!"

As the others peeled off, Pinkie was the last one to remain attached. He tried to shake her off of his leg, only to fail in doing so. He had to drop himself into his shadow and resurface to get her off of him. The mare giggled and snorted all the while after watching him struggle for a bit. "Take good care of yourself, Nondis." Fluttershy said warmly.

Rarity walked up to him with a smile at first, but then came to a critical glare. "When I open my new location in Silver Shoals, I expect to see you at the grand opening, darling! Don't miss it, or I'll find out where you live!"

"Solid copy." Cheesed the man.

Rainbow played with his hair, knowing he didn't like it when she'd intentionally mess with his style. "Stay awesome! Don't be a stranger!"

"Ah ain't hip to them fancy new gadgets and whatnot, so Ah expect a letter in the mail!" Applejack suggested.

Nondis mimicked her accent with his own. "Ah'll reckon you catch on pretty quick."

Finally, Twilight stood in front of him, smiling back at him as she said softly. "So, till next time then."

"Yeah, next time." He finished, levitating his keys into the ignition. He walked over to his bike and started up the engine, revving up before he angled himself to leave. "Later, your majesty! Long live the princess!"

His vehicle kicked up a bit of dust and he carefully navigated his way down the streets and making his way out of the city. Luna and I soon took to the air to join with him. I looked back to the checkpoint entrance one more time, seeing the gathering of ponies waving goodbye. I began to tear up as Luna nuzzled me to comfort my brief outpouring of emotions.

Nondis waited before kicking it into high gear, looking back up at me. "Anymore places we need to address before we go full-send into the night?"

I looked up towards him and shouted. "Actually, I do have one! Mind if we take a detour!?"

"All good!" He hollered back.

He stalled his engine and we all came to a halt. The three of us gathered together and I teleported us all to where I wanted us to visit before leaving from off the mountain. We came to an open area, going to a mossy area by the waterfall. We took a winding path that lead to our final destination.

"Here we are." I called out.

While Nondis knew exactly where we were, Luna did not. "So, what's this place, Tia?"

"It's Prince Fair Charity and his fiancée's final resting place." He answered as I used my magic to clean the memory sphere sitting by the grave site. Both the image of the pegasus prince and his beautiful fiancée appeared before the two others. "She took me here the night we got the Approval Process Law repealed. I paid my respects here on that night."

For a moment, I felt my emotions overtake me, but Nondis stood by my side, helping me get through it just as I did once before. He hugged me all the while I tried to keep my crying to a minimum.

"So... I know it's been a long time overdue for this. But I guess this is goodbye, old friend."

Another 4 Years Later

We lived a simple life in Silver Shoals. Nondis, Luna, and I all lived together in a home that was relatively comfortable, often silent, and all the more beautiful with the waterfront we had. Since Nondis was especially favorable to the realtor, he managed to get the home at a reduced price, and the best thing was that he paid it off in full. So we had a home in a small bay town where the sunsets over the water were nice. Luna much loved the quiet nature of the town, I grew accepting of it. Nondis had the harder time adapting to it due to his frequent bouts of PTSD, the quiet reminded him of the lab.

So we sat out to make our own daily adventure of things, trying to make a life where there was seemingly little to do other than go out past the wharf and fish out in the water. We spent time playing on the beach, often running around and trying to discover things that most of the locals didn't have the energy to discover, like underwater caves, sunken ships, and looking for buried treasure. The activities kept him busy, until he decided that it would be better to go where there was an ample amount of noise.

He became a crosswalk guard for the kids after school.

They'd call him Mr. Stilts, often noting how high he stood over everyone else. And with him being so tall, the school staff saw it as a perfect match. You can't think of bad things when you're constantly interacting with kids, and he was the tallest being for miles out of town. He could see everything, he could regulate traffic, he could interact with other parents coming to walk their foals home, it was the perfect social stimulus to keep most of his darker thoughts in check. And after a long day at the school, making sure that the kids were safe, he came home to me and Luna. Dinner would be made by either one of us, but we tried our best to avoid having Luna volunteer herself to the kitchen.

In speaking of home goings, Nondis and I had a very tense relationship where the both of us had to ultimately respect Luna's presence in the home. Luna was already used to being in isolation, so being a recluse wasn't a problem for her. But it was an annoyance for both me and him. The reason why is because we would never know when she's home or not. She's so quiet that we'd barely even notice if she was there. And if she was, we couldn't really interact with one another the way we longed to. The first time we did while she was there, she had a habit of annoying me by means of either interference or intervention. In her eyes, if she couldn't have any give-and-go, neither could I.

It annoyed me to no end... but it made things between us more interesting.

Nondis didn't mind making alterations to accommodate for some much-needed alone time between us. His solution was to buy a yacht. So whenever Luna was heavily into her books, he would come home, I would be waiting for him on the boat, he'd steam it up, and we'd be out in the water, watching the wild weather patterns in the distance. Everything between calm waters, to distant storms, to multiple waterspout sightings, we watched them together. We enjoyed the quiet of each other's company out in the water... And we began to discover many secrets of our desires together, some even I myself never thought possible.

And of course, out in the waters of the beautiful setting sun, he brought me a ring.

The funny thing is that the proposal he had couldn't have gone anymore wrong. As we watched the weather together, he started to put together his planned package. Poetry, music, food, candlelight, all of it. But we didn't anticipate the weather formation to shift in our direction so quickly. The winds picked up and I began to feel a draft under my wings. I felt wonderful about it and decided to take a flight out over the water. But it wasn't just me that took a flight, the ring took one too. Before I had even noticed it, there was a waterspout forming just ten feet away from where we anchored, and with the tiniest shift, it made a direct hit on the yacht. But since it was still in a developing stage, it hadn't done much damage, but the ring was gone.

Nondis was devastated that the ring he bought for me was so suddenly swept by the sea-swallowing spout. But all that goes up eventually came back down. After some time of us docking on land, he apologized for everything going wrong. But in the midst of that apology, the box the ring came in clunked me on the head, but in a miraculous landing, the ring was situated on my horn as if he had planned for it to be there.

It was a sign from the universe for me. He just labeled it as bad weather.

Throughout the course of our engagement, our seafaring outings continued at least once a week. And in one of those outings, I found myself looking in the mirror, playing with my mane to see what all I could have done. I was already entering a new chapter in my life by retiring, and marriage was a drastic step in an unknown direction. So I thought about ways to spice up my appearance. I looked in a catalog, seeing what styles would possibly fit on me, growing curious as to what I could get away with.

Eventually I came up with my answer on a Thursday evening, three days before our Sea-faring Sunday, I asked him if he would still love me if I had shorter hair. He said he'd probably stop pulling my hair as much. I took it as a yes and went into the salon on Friday morning, came home with the anticipation of seeing his reaction when he got in from work. He sat on the couch and started tuning in to the radio, reading a book as I walked right by him.

He hummed lightly on my initial passthrough, but he was apparently reacting to a plot point in the book. I grabbed for his attention the second time, asking if I had anything strange on my face. He simply said no and that I changed my hair. I was left almost devastated, feeling like he had not paid much attention to it, or that it wasn't a style he liked. I just turned around and lost hope.

Then I felt a hand in the back of my head shove me into the couch.

It turned out that his appearance of nonchalance was all a ruse. He had been waiting for that moment from the time he walked in. I never knew him to be so aggressive than he was at that moment. The hand he had free molested me in ways I never new existed. Not that I minded it though, it turned out that my not having as much of a mane to pull prompted him to reach in further, grabbing at my head with such ferocity. I began to feel him, so much. I tried to prop my head out to tell him about Luna, but he didn't seem to care much about that boundary for the moment. It was the rush of knowing that we were set for trouble, trying to be quiet was our best bet of not having an interruption.

But he had other plans. And they were to see just how loud I could get before it grabbed her attention. The way he pushed and pulled me, threw me around that room made me coil my tail around his legs. The effort he put into getting me to scream had me panting into the cushions for mercy. The manner in which he pressed into my hindquarters made me hunger for release. And he didn't mind biting me, in fact, I grew to love the pointed canines he had.

Luna eventually shifted and we had to pretend all was normal. She walked into the room, seeing that she had interrupted us and grew proud of her accomplishment. She walked back to the room with a smug expression, Nondis made his way to the yacht with a smile on his face, and I was left sitting on an inexplicable stain on our couch.

I hated that man for the things he'd do to me.

The interesting thing about our relationship is that we started off with a pact where we would not engage in one another in that manner unless he had come into a more comfortable zone with his sexuality. It took almost a year for him to finally reach that place, but when he did, he proposed that we'd abstain from intercourse. I didn't agree with it initially, but he found ways to convince me that the wait was worth it. So he'd have me in every other position, taking me closer to the heights I had reached that one night before he had set out to his mission. He left me satisfied enough to accept his terms, but also left me wanting much more. It scared me just how good he could make me feel without taking me there.

Our relationship was a mix of all things, good, bad, and ugly. From fun out at sea, to fights at home, from sad moments of the past haunting both of us, to the happy memories that we made along the way, I fell madly in love with him, and I also learned how to love him through everything I felt, through everything he said, through everything we experienced, no matter how good or bad. We were partners in crime, and we sought to take over the little world we built for one another.

At last, the day had come.

Rarity and her staff were working hard on my head and dress, making sure that I'm pristine for the big day. The light is growing yellow, and the sun is on her way towards her resting place. The hour is nigh.

Rarity wipes the sweat from her brow. "There you go, darling! I know you do well without, but I must say you look absolutely divine!"

She holds a mirror to my face, and I am pleased with the way she did my makeup. "I look lovely, thank you Rarity."

"Oh no, the pleasure is all mine. Just try not to cry too much, the mascara will run." She warns me.

"I'll do my best." I promise her.

Twilight, Luna, and Cadance walks into the room, curious to see how I am doing. "Have you finished with her?" Luna asks excitedly.

"Have I? As if I needed to do all that much!" The fashion icon declares as she moves away from me, pointing her hooves at my face as I stood in my white flowing gown. "♪TADA!♪ As regal as the princess she is!"

"I'm not a princess anymore." I return to the mare.

She laughs me off and replies. "Yeah, yeah, keep telling yourself that."

"I mean, I'm still getting salutes. I don't have a bit of military power under my name right now." I point out to Rarity.

"That still doesn't change what you used to be, darling." She answers as another voice pops up in the room.

A small alicorn filly pops her head in through the door. "Auntie Twilight?"

I smile at the small presence as the high princess calls back to her niece. "Flurry! What's wrong?"

The alicorn opens the door to reveal the state of her wings. "I landed in poison joke, now my wings are really really small!"

I try not to laugh as I'm so used to seeing her with comically large wings. Instead they seem more filly-sized than anything, but they match her size so well. However, that couldn't stand by Flurry's standards. "Oh... goodness." Twilight says with a sigh. "I'm sure you can get Ms. Zecora to whip you up a little something."

Cadance questions her daughter. "Flurry, did you fly into the poison joke bushes again!?"

"I was playing hide-go-seek!" She replies innocently.

"Ugh! Girl, I swear you are your father's child." Cadance responds as she walks her daughter down the hall. "Talk to Zecora, get cleaned up, and get in place. You can't be the flower girl if you keep running through poison joke. If you behave, I'll get you a treat."

"Mommy, how come I can't see daddy right now?" She asks.

"Cause daddy's in the dressing room getting prepared, sweetheart." Her mother explains.

"But daddy doesn't usually wear clothes." Flurry brings up, providing a valid point.

The two continues for a while as they disappear down the hall. "But today's a special occasion. Why do you think you have on that dress right now?"

"She's talking up a storm now." I state obviously.

"Bigger than the one she caused when she was born?" Luna jokes, all of us in the room giggling in response.

"Tell me about it." Rarity cosigns.

Cadance comes running back into the room, closing the door behind her. "Sorry, ladies. Flurry just loves to fly around and bump into things she has no business being in."

"Oh does that little thing love to fly." I say with a smile, quietly wanting to adopt the filly for a week.

"Reminds me of a certain somepony." Luna points out, looking directly at me and pulling one of my wings out to observe the painted feathers. The ends were highlighted with a gradient of pink and orange to replicate the colors of the sunset sky.

"I can't believe she did my wings like this." I say, looking at them and being reminded of their former glory.

"Sister, it's your big day. Don't you feel like you deserve it for a change?" My sister asks.

Cadance jumps in with a jubilant smile. "Look at you. You're radiating way more than you ever did as a princess. Your aura is so pink and bright, you're filled with so much love right now."

I look back at the mirror, growing a bit nervous within myself. "Can I tell you about how many butterflies I have in my stomach right now?"

"You're going to be fine." Twilight reassures me as Cadance began to sing.

♪This day is going to to be perfect.
The kind of day in which you dream since you were small.
Your wedding bells they chime so bright. Around you is a brilliant light.
And tonight's your night to be the belle of the ball.♫

♫This day is going to be perfect.
The kind of day in which you dream since you were small.
The─♪

"What if I trip?"

The two mares stop their singing as they both look at me perplexed over my sudden rush of nerves. "Huh?"

"What if I mess up, what would I look like to him if I had tripped and fell?" I ask, nervously pacing back and forth, wanting this moment to be perfect for him. "What if I step on the dress, I fall and crash into Fluttershy's bird choir? What would he think of me if I messed up that bad just moments before!?"

"Is she serious right now?" Twilight asks the others.

Luna giggles as she answers the mare's question. "Oh, this is quintessential Celeste."

"Wait, really!" Cadance is brought to shock as she realizes that I'm acting as my normal self when I am nervous, revealing the part that I would so often try to hide.

"What if I go out there and do something foolish? What if I wear this makeup and start crying and ruin this whole dress? How would I even come close to apologizing to Rarity?"

"Celestia." Twilight tries to get my attention, but fails.

"I don't have any titles for him. Was my getting married after my retirement a good idea? I could've given him much more than just me tripping down the aisle."

"Auntie." Cadance tries to stop my ranting, but I only go further into my fears.

"What if I mess up the honeymoon, he'll annul the marriage! What if he really wants kids and I can't provide that because of our genetic differences!? I'll be such a disappointment! What about me in estrus, I never spent estrus with a stallion before, I'll probably kill him with all my restrictions removed! Oh gracious, I already only have eighty years with him if everything went perfectly, I'd probably have another six months of a marriage before becoming a widow! I'm going to widow myself!"

"Tia!" Luna shouts in my ears.

"Yes?" I snap back to the present time.

After so many years of watching me deal with Nondis, she employs the same tactic I'd use for him. "Deep breaths, count to ten."

"One, two, three, four, five, six..."

"Tia." Luna chides, trying to get me to not focus on my last fearful thought.

"Seven... eight, nine... ten." I begin to calm down considerably, looking as Twilight starts to speak.

"If I remember it right, you told me not to worry about my big coronation as much." She reminds me.

"And you told me that with everything that went disastrously wrong at my wedding, there could be nothing else that could go wrong." Cadance states calmly.

Luna holds my hooves as she speaks. "Tia, your future is waiting for you out there. Don't you think he's as nervous as you are right now? Don't you think he's asking himself several questions of how he would be able to provide certain things for you?"

I look away from my sister, thinking more about the man I was set to walk down the aisle to. Even if the moments leading to this were imperfect by every metric, I grow to want only one thing. "I just want this all to be perfect for him."

Twilight snickers as she sits beside me. "This is going to sound pretty wild coming from me of all ponies, I know. There's no such thing as perfection."

"There's no such thing as preplanning for what goes wrong in a marriage." Cadance reinforces confidently before coming up with every case to the contrary. "Well, then again there are prenuptial agreements, but those marriages aren't about anything real, they're just as political and superficial as two celebrities dating, and often times it'll be over in five years or less. And there's no prenup to this one."

My sister nuzzles me. "Tia, the both of you have lost something precious in your lives. Not anything material or external, I mean very personal sanctuaries that have been desecrated by the envy, greed, and wrath of others. You've ruled this nation for over a thousand years carrying those scars, his is fresh in comparison to you. Only you can give him the guidance and reinforcement to help him navigate through the rest of his life, because only you know how to reach him in ways many of us can't or can no longer do."

"We've been telling you for years that you need to look for your own happiness. You've had a path to your lonesome for too long, you've carried that weight by yourself for too long. You know that he anchors you when you feel like the winds of the world are going to sweep you away. You are rooted by him to your future. And he's proven that he's good for it, come hell or high water." Cadance adds.

Twilight hugs me from behind as she speaks. "I will be honest, doing this hurts me in a small way, it's a bittersweet thing. But not nearly as deeply as I thought it would. The only reason why I see myself feeling this way is because I saw myself being where you are, freaking out almost as much as you do. Had I known 'Twilighting' was actually a habit I picked up from you, I would've had it changed by royal decree to 'Celesting' from day one! But the bottom line is that my happiness isn't just with him, it's with the friends I've made along the way, and seldom times the stallions who grow bold enough to ask me if I'm available at such-and-such time on any arbitrary day of the week. I mean sure, I have to be afraid of who I let get close to me because my body isn't something I want advertised out to the media. But I don't have to be afraid to date because of stupid legal consequences, and the one that I do feel deserve my more intimate attention will get exactly that."

"Twilight, don't you think you're getting off topic here?" Rarity quickly asks her.

The high princess blushes in her ears and cheeks as she corrects herself. "What I'm trying to say to you is this: My personal happiness does not supersede your personal happiness. Remember, I have over a thousand years to get where you are now. I might not have even that long, but you paved the way for me to enjoy this freedom I have. And you also get to enjoy it, because you helped fight for it. So stop looking at what's gonna go wrong because it will go wrong somehow. Focus on the destination for today, then enjoy the journey tomorrow."

"Princess Twilight Sparkle, you're trying to take my title from under me aren't you?" Cadance asks her sister-in-law.

"What? No!" She denies adamantly.

The pink princess smirks at the purple mare. "Are you sure, because I don't think I could've said that any better than you did."

"And you're already taller than her too." Luna adds, mocking the young princess.

As everyone giggles at her, she grows bashful over her recent growth spurt. "Stop! I'm still trying to get used to the growing part. My mane's already sparkling more than usual, and I don't know how you can walk with this much hair in your tail, I step and trip way too much nowadays!"

"You'll get used to it." I reply as I look to my shortened manestyle.

Rarity smiles as she holds a mirror to my face. "So, give yourself a look and tell me how are you feeling?"

I smile back at the image of myself. "I feel ready."

The ceremony starts, and I am left in the hall for the moment in which the correct music plays. And as if it wasn't enough for a simple wedding, there was a whole small orchestra commissioned to perform the music pieces as all of the preliminaries take place. The conductor starts with their piece, Fluttershy's birds sing along in what sounds like a majestic introduction to our special day.

Twilight enters into the chapel, walking the aisle first as she will be the one conducting the wedding. She walks slowly, almost as to set the pace to which I am to march. Next, were the parents of the groom. Both Mr. and Mrs. Haines give the signal to Luna and Cadance to bring up the curtains to hide me. They walk down the aisle to their reserved seats. Being that I myself had no family outside of the ones who hid me, Blueblood and his many wives serve as my spiritual family members, they attend their seats. I am spared the moment of watching as Nondis and his friends all enter into the chapel. Luna and Cadance are doing a great job of hiding me from the groom, even though I truly wish to see the look on his face as he sees me.

Each of them walk in alone, slowly building the assembly at the alter. As the groom disappears from the hall, the curtains are brought down, I am left looking at those who slowly file in. Beautiful white doves are set up beside me, waiting to be released. Each of the guys look at me and give me a respectful nod before entering, almost as though they still acknowledge my prior titles. The last one who serves as a groomsman is none other than Shining Armor, who nods all the same as he serves as the best man.

Rarity walks after him, serving as one of my very own bridesmaids. Applejack follows, as does Rainbow Dash, then Pinkie Pie, and finally Cadance bringing up the position of being my maid of honor. I am already getting increasingly nervous as my time quickly approaches, the music continues to swell into beautiful arpeggios and grandiose glissandos that sweep my imagination as I hear the piece they play. My heart grows fond of the moment I am set to walk down this aisle. I can already feel the tears sneaking up on me.

I open my eyes, watching as Flurry Heart flies into the sanctuary with her flowers, gracefully adorning the aisle as wonderfully as I imagine her mother would. And then bringing up the ceremonial rings was none other than little Jasper, Melanie and Rickey's own son. I'm sure their hearts are filled with pride for how well their son is doing.

The cages of doves are rolled into place as six young mares, all being the daughters of Blueblood, rang loudly the bells to announce my entrance. "Make way for the bride!" They called victoriously, eager to play their part so that they may watch as the things my sister and our friends have helped us put together.

The music changes to a more subtle drone. I walk to take my place beside Luna, who watches ahead as the doors were open. The doves fly out, with small tabs attached to their talons to carry light silk sashes. I'm almost nauseous watching the curtains finally reveal me.

A piano interlude starts, the strings softly accompany it. Sunset stands in human form, playing her guitar as Cliff stands beside her, playing a grand piano, singing me down the aisle.

♪There's nowhere else to go.
There's nowhere else to be.
Than here in love with you.
You know what's the best for me.♫

"Tia, it's time." I forget that I am supposed to be walking, I'm so lost in the moment that I am petrified. But I take those first few steps, and that's where it hits me. I am really here.

♫Reflections of myself.
No shadows in the dark.
But you hold the light to me now.
You say what's for my heart.♫

The man I am to wed, he swallows down a lot that dares to well up within him as I get closer. I can tell he's holding back as hard as I am. And then Cliff... shows out.

That's why I'll always be in love with you
Still, through it all.
That's when we're going up, oh going up,
When we rise and fall.
You know I'll always be in love with you.
Still, oh still.
Oh yes,
Ooh, oh, still.♪

Nondis looks to the sky, biting his lips, trying to hold it in as I stand before the alter. I'm clutching onto my sister's hoof, trying not to bawl my eyes out at the words that was sung. I look at him, he looks to me, and we come to grips that this is really us.

"Greetings and blessings, my dear subjects." Twilight begins, then turning to the crowd with a wink. "Still getting used to saying that." The moment breaks us both out of our entrancement, back to the giggling present. Her brief joke gives us the chance to recover. "We have come together in the spirit of harmony to witness the joining together of this man and this mare in the bond of marriage. It is at once one of both humanity's and equinity's greatest blessings. However, marriage is not to be entered into lightly, but soberly and deliberately." Twilight then speaks to us. "Nondis Patricia Haines and Celeste Delanise Valkyrie thank you for joining them and sharing in this very special day."

Off to the groom's side, I see the usual candidate already breaking down more than I am in the moment. "Shining, don't." Cadance whispers to her husband.

"I'm sorry, it's already starting." He tries to collect himself, but we all know he'll be worse than the ones who's actually getting married.

Twilight ignores her brother's emotional conflict and carries on with the ceremony. "Who is giving this mare to be married to this man?"

"I am." Luna answers so proudly.

"A marriage is not only the joining together of two individuals, it is also a joining together of two families. The care, support, and nurture which have been extended to Nondis and Celeste by their families is as important now as it has ever been. In fact, it needs to be extended now to include another party. Both families need to be committed to support both partners in this marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Haines, you are not losing a son but rather you are gaining a daughter. Do you promise to love and encourage Celeste as you would your own?"

"We will." Mr. Haines says as he watches his son have his big day.

"We love you, dear." Mrs. Haines adds. "Though it's pretty weird to call you dear when I'm so much younger than you." She quips.

The room softly giggled in unison, Twilight continues. "Luneste Selene Valkyrie, you are not losing a sister but rather you are gaining a brother. Do you promise to love and encourage Nondis as you would your own?"

"I shall." She answers soflty.

"Both parties may be seated." Luna lets me go, to take the steps onto the alter by myself, but to not be by myself. At last, he and I stand on even ground. "If there is anyone here who believes in good faith that these two should not be wed, let them speak now or forever hold your peace."

"Mm-mmm. I wish they would." Melanie speaks out sassily, causing everyone in the room to laugh.

Twilight tries not to laugh as she continues the ceremony. "If the bride and groom have any vows, you may now exchange them now."

I want to get mine out of the way quickly, but before I could summon for mine, Nondis reaches into his pocket and fumbles around as he pulls a folded piece of paper with a bunch of mistakes and crosses written out on it. He hurries himself to speak. "It took me two weeks to come up with what I wanted to say to you. It took me a month to practice saying it without having to use this silly piece of paper. And I thought about writing you one of those sonnets you like." He's awfully nervous, and it's adorable to watch him struggle. He's more worried about messing things up than I am. After a while, he looks at the paper and places it back down. "But as I went on and on thinking about how I wanted this to be perfect, I started to think back on my life while being here, how nothing went as planned, how my first romance didn't quite go the distance, or having the career that I have right now, or even being heralded as a hero as I did those years ago, or you know... the waterspout incident. So I decided that I wasn't going to go by this anymore."

In an act that some would call blasphemy, he tears his vows to shreds and leaves them at his feet. He looks to me and speaks from his heart.

"Life isn't a program, it isn't some funeral with an order of service and an obituary. It's full of twisting turns and changes, many I'll never know where they'll take us. But in the end, I don't want to make a single turn without you. I don't want to live a day without you being here with me. You're the sun that rises in the east and sets in the west, the four seasons of my year, the days I wake up to and thank God for breathing in the air you make habitable for me to thrive in. If I am ever in any way a plant, I am a stubborn weed who will grow through the cracks of any structure, just to have my time with you, just to bask in the light you give me, to commune with you. And with your light and nourishment, I hope to germinate more weeds who will look up to you as their provider, their caregiver, the warmth that births them into the world. And I hope that my imperfect leaves, my sometimes awkward shape and presence, won't drive you to set in my life. And if you were to ever set beyond the horizon, I will wait for you through the darkest hour, for the next dawn... so that when you rise, I can tell you again how beautiful you are to the world you give life to."

As Nondis concludes his vows, Alex goes on to lightly poke fun at his younger brother. "Gosh, you suck."

We all laugh at his impeccable timing. But as the silence ensues, I begin to read off from the scroll I prepared. "In the days I have experienced my time away from the crown, I was given the blessing of seeing you grow into the man that you are today. I know I had much to say in this moment, many poems. haikus, and sonnets I have written, checked for grammar, and finalized, only to be discarded shortly after. These past few days have felt like the thousand years I have lived, but not in the sense of it's longevity, rather the sense of anxiety I felt in being away from you. I could easily compose something with the most intimate literature to describe my fondness of you. But to follow your chaotic example..."

I followed his lead, ripping my vows and dumping them at my hooves.

I tried my best to speak from my heart. "I now realize in our being together that many of the instances that we share are so readily unrehearsed. How could I even begin to ascertain the craxis of life when I have not begun to live the one I own for myself? For the longest time, I felt myself cursed to be a mare devoid of such intimate language and understanding, as those who will dare to come closer would incinerate before my very eyes. So for much of my life I have repelled those who would attract themselves to me. But very few have willingly stepped into the zero horizon, taking on the heat I radiated, and stood. No, you went further. You walked to me as you were engulfed by flames. I called to you, telling you that you would become ash should you remain. But you ignored me and stepped even further. I cried and screamed for you to get back, and yet you still approached. I tried to cast you away, but then you touched me. You touched me when others simply wished to and wanted not to. You reintroduced what it meant for me to know and rediscover what it meant to be vulnerable."

I sigh, looking to Rarity as to tell her that I won't be able to hold back my tears. I grow nervous that I am to ruin the hard work of her and her assistants. But she smiles and me, wiping the tears from her own eyes. "Oh, don't worry about the makeup now. Have a good one, darling."

I look back to my betrothed and explain myself. "I swore not to cry because of the makeup, Rarity spent two hours on getting my blends right. But I'm sure you don't mind, you never did mind when I would cry. You would tell me to let myself go, and you would hold me together. I hate that I don't have something so... nearly as beautiful as how you spoke to me. I'm not good with impromptu, I never know how to go without a plan, or a structure. But you are a perfect chaos, breaking every barrier you endure to see me. I am so incomplete without my purpose, and you remind me why I am still here. You make me feel like I have so much more to live for, even when I tell myself that my time is done. I cast away any and all of my longevity to experience the fleeting moment of your embrace, the simplest compliments." I'm still fighting myself over how much I was crying, I start to ramble on and on, expressing my feelings. "I know you say that you humans will mostly live to seventy-five, but that's too short! How do I live for 1134 years, and have only another fifty to tell you how much you complete me? How do I give you all of my love in just the half of a century I dwarf? To call it an improper fraction is an understatement, it's an insult!..."

I need to calm down, so I take a moment to breathe. Twilight appears as my break is an awkward end of my vows, but I signal to her that I have more on my heart.

"But I don't care for that anymore. How could it be an insult when one day with you is an overindulgence of blessings? If anything, it's a perfect representation of how fragile those tender moments are, those tiny fractions of true happiness you hold in your hoof. When heated too much, they melt like chocolate, so sweet and small, the morsels that they are." I finally grow weak, and stagger. I try to find the strength to finish. "I'll have the rest of my life to come up with ways to say it and show it, but this time I will learn how to be as spontaneous and heartfelt as you. I may not have a crown to wear anymore, but you are the king I serve, the husband I adore, the friend I cherish, and the stranger that smote my heart. So please keep growing, my little weed. For if my light doesn't reach you, then I am pointless."

I squint, heaving as I stood before him. He's still trying to hold on, but he's fairing a lot better than I am. Meanwhile I look to Rarity, who's even worse than I am. She jokingly complains through her tears. "I expected an uglier cry than that one, darling. That was barely a sniffle." More laughs filled the room, but they did not work as well for me as I knew what was next. My eyes still meet with the man I am set to spend the rest of my life with.

Twilight continued on. "I'll be sure that Spike has that all written down between the two of you for future enjoyment." She adds. She looks to the man standing in front of me. "Nondis, do take you Celeste to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, excluding all others, as long as you both shall live?"

A warm expression glows upon his face as he gives his answer. "I─"

A hand firmly coming down on his arm interrupts him. "Uh, excuse us for a moment. We the high council of the groom must convene for a meeting of confirmation." I am left stunned, perplexed that such an interruption took place at such a pivotal moment. "This way, sir." Rickey says, acting as though he's security.

"Um... what... okay?" Nondis complies, he huddles in with all his groomsmen and they start whispering over to one another.

"So what's the play, coach?" Asks Stanton.

"You sure about this?" Alex briefly questions.

"I dunno, seems pretty risky." Shining advises.

"Also hella dangerous." Cliff says.

"One more look." Nondis says as they look back up to me, causing the audience to laugh and giggle at their antics. He drops his head back into the huddle. "Right, so here the plan."

"Okay." They all nod.

"I'll type a text to a girl I used to see, tell her that I chose this cutie pie with whom I wanna be."

Alex asks. "And you apologize if that message gets her down?"

"And you'll CC every girl that you'd see-see round town?" Stanton inquires.

The group begin to rock back and forth as they chant. "Yeah, hate to see them frown, but I rather see her smiling. Wetness all around me? True, but I'm no island. Peninsula, maybe." Nondis says.

"Makes no sense." Rickey replies.

"Yeah, I know crazy. Give up all this pussy cat that's in your lap?" Cliff questions.

"No looking back. Space ships don't come equipped with rear-view mirrors. They dip as quick as they can. The atmosphere is now ripped." Nondis answers.

"You're so like a Pip." Alex complains.

"I'm glad it's night. So the light from the sun would not burn me on my bum when I shoot the moon high, jump the broom like a premie out the womb."

Stanton jumps in. "Now hold up, partner. Too soon, don't do it. Reconsider, read some literature on the subject. You sure?"

"Fuck it." Dismisses the groom.

Rickey pats Nondis on the back. "You know we got your back like chiropractic."

Cliff nods. "And if that bitch do you dirty, you wear her ass out just like detergent. Now hurry, hurry, go on to the alter. I know you ain't a pimp, but pimp remember what we taught you."

The party of men rocked as they chanted in unison. "Keep your heart, my boy. Keep your heart. Yeah! Keep your heart, my boy! Keep your heart!"

Breaking off, Alex gives him more verbal encouragement. "Man that girl smart, Nondis! That girl smart!"

Shining pushes him back to me with his magic with one final bit of advice. "Play your part."

"Play my part." Nondis confirms as he looks back to me. "I will." He says with a smile. He leans in and whispers to me. "Now that one we did rehearse."

I smile at him, rolling my eyes as I mutter to the girls behind me. "Boys will be boys."

All of them nod in sassy approval. Twilight brings her attention to me. "Celeste, do take you Nondis to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, excluding all others, as long as you both shall live?"

I can't reach his face as I'm standing, but I can still caress him with my magic. With one warm stroke of his cheek, I point him to my face and answer the question. "I already have."

A few tears dropped from his cheeks, he looks away a bit embarrassed. "Dammit, she got me." Both of our wedding parties giggle at the exchange.

"Well this has been the giggliest wedding I have ever conducted. But I can only assume that your marriage will be just as wonderful." Twilight comments as she nods to little Jasper to come forward. Melanie steps up and guides her son where to walk next with the rings in tow. "You have chosen to seal you vows by the giving and receiving of rings. Though different in their applications in the case of you two, the ring forms a perfect circle, without beginning or end, and is thereby a symbol of eternity and signifies the duration of the commitment you are making. The gold of which the rings are made signify the purity and value of the relationship into which you'll enter. Let us now exchange these rings."

I lift his hand and place his ring on his finger with my magic. "With this ring, I do thee wed."

Nondis takes his ring and kisses it before placing it carefully on my horn. "With this ring, I do thee wed."

My jaw trembles as I hear the words expressed by Twilight herself. "And now, by the authority vested in me as High Princess of Equestria, and in accordance with the laws of Equestria, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now─" I wasted not time, I leapt into the air, letting my wings unfurl as they lift me to reach up to my husband... Just being able to say those words at last make feel so grand. I coil my wings around him and dive my lips into his. He doesn't express shock or surprise, but rather the openness to return the affection. We break off, smiling and snickering for the moment before going back into each other. Twilight finally breaks out of her silence and points to the both of us. "...Do that."

The audience applauds, Shining erupts into tears again, Rarity does the exact same thing. I finally break down myself, but he lifts my chin to see his own tear-struck face and cleans mine. I melt into him, gently plugging my lips into his.

In the applauding audience, I could see many other faces looking on with excitement. Solemn Oath cheered me on with her wife Lemon Hearts, who was wiping her eyes of tears. The collection of young element bearers watching on quietly as they clap continuously. Starswirl and his party express happiness in seeing me finalize the marriage. Friends and allies from afar watch as I am made a wife. Blue Royal stands in the back, holding a photo of her brother as she expresses her congratulations. Both my new in-law parents stand in ovation. "That's my boy! My boy's a man now!" Mr. Haines exclaims cheerfully.

Velvet whispers to her husband. "My. Look at her go. They look so beautiful together."

"Could be different circumstances, but I'll take it." Crescent whispers back to his wife.

She gives him a nudge. "Five bits say they don't make it to the carriage without some fondling around."

He shows a devious grin. "Remember how our time went after we got into the carriage from the chapel?"

Her ears ran red as she fanned herself. "We almost made Shining Armor right then and there."

Twilight grimaced at her parent's exchange, but shook it off and carried on. "Ladies and gentlemen, fillies and gentlecolts, and all creatures! It is my pleasure to introduce to you, for the very first time, Mr. and Mrs. Valkyrie-Haines!"

As I climb off from my newly-minted husband, I watch as his groomsmen swamp his shoulders with approval. "My boy, LOOK AT YOU!" Cliff screams.

Rickey whispers over to the groom. "Hey, remember all that good shit you were talking about back at the frat house? How you was gonna knock her down?"

"Hey, that's a pretty big tree you gotta knock down, my boy!" Stanton says as he repeatedly slaps his back.

As the men continue to exchange in fellowship, Luna walks over to me and leers towards the collection of boys. "Well you have to start somewhere, Tia."

Acknowledging my sister's words, I step in and pull my husband away from them. "Sorry boys, I know you've had a week to tailgate and rehearse all of what you did. But I'm taking him off of your hands and hooves for a bit."

Alex playfully pulls at Nondis' arm. "Damn, she already trying to rip our boy away from us. Ah, the feels man, I hate it."

Stanton wipes his eyes, trying to hide the fact that he had started to tear up. "Nah, dude. We gotta run it back. Let's go back to being kids again, lets go back to co-op on XBox, let's go back to the Lunchables and Capri Sun! Let's go back to the ranch in the summer! Oh God, time, please stop!"

As the brother's antics come to an end, they politely push him over to me. Alex dusts his shoulders off for him. "He's all yours. Just don't break him."

"Oh no, I don't plan to do that at all." I say happily before looking to my husband with a sinister smirk. "He'll be breaking me instead."

Twilight's jaw drops as I make my declaration. Cadance gasps loudly, almost to ask me how could I say something so vulgar for once. Luna almost appears proud of me for finally coming out of my shell. Alex playfully faints. Rickey holds a hand over his mouth in surprise. Cliff coughs and screams. "AAYYYOOOOO!"

I grab the collar of my husband's shirt and drag him down the aisle proudly. "High score!"

We took to the courtyard to host the reception. Creatures from all walks of life joined us in celebrating our exchange of vows. I took the time to also thank Cliff for providing me with such a soulful serenade to have me walk down the aisle, but then he informed me that Nondis had actually picked out the song to be a surprise for me. I told him that even if it was a surprise for me, it probably hurt him harder than it did for me.

As he's explaining that story, Rarity repeatedly taps on the dark-skinned man. "Darling, we need to talk about what you did."

"What did I do?" He asks bashfully.

"That madness you unleased upon us like that. No one in Equestria sings all of that so effortlessly. Details, darling! Technique, share!"

He shrugs as he gives his reply. "All I did was sing a run."

Rarity further digs into his talent, gushing over the unheard method to which he connected his notes. "You call those runs!? Those were flights, darling! FLIGHTS!"

Both Nondis and I laugh as Rarity continues to shake the man silly. Thorax and Pharynx tap me and bow to me as they speak. "Again, we really want to offer our congratulations to you."

"Thank you, Thorax." I reply to him.

Meanwhile the younger changeling ruler looks to my husband with a grin. "Heh, it's too bad you ain't much of a fighter nowadays. I would love to get a spar in every now and again."

He throws his hands up in surrender. "Nah, I'm not fighting unless I absolutely need to. And besides, the wife forbade it."

I also answer on his behalf. "He's already been through a lot. He needs to conserve his energy."

A heavy and sassy voice pops in from behind me. "So, hitting the high score, I see?"

I turn around to quickly greet the hippogriff queen. "Novo, it's so great to see you! I'm so happy you came."

She says, bringing a claw to the side of my face. "You might not have a crown to show for it, but you're still the queen I remember."

"Oh stop it!" I whisper with a slight blush.

"Girl, I love the mane, it's so bold for you. When I usually imagine you, I see the flowing curtain of colors in the wind. Now, it feels like you've finally let all your inhibitions go and you decided to let the rain fall where it may. Now that's a good look."

I pat my head slightly "I was wanting to at least look like I was entering a new phase in life. I was scared that my husband didn't like it but he did."

She points out my use of the word 'husband'. "And there you go, dropping the H-bomb, how does it feel?"

I start to think of every face that willingly served me in wars of times past, the church with the empty pews, and the resounding silence of another coronation I presided over. A regretful melancholy starts to fill my mind. "If I could only speak to every pony who fought to try to make this possible. There are far too many names."

"Girl, I can imagine. I'm so happy for you." She says as she brings me in for a hug.

Nondis watches me silently before Solemn walks up to him and calls him out. "Great looking up, Captain."

He turns back around, moderately annoyed. "I keep telling you to stop calling me that."

She returns his attitude in kind. "First you had to fight me to respect your rank, now you don't want me to respect the fact that you had it? Make up your mind already."

Another guard in a ceremonial dress uniform approached with a number of ribbons and medals to his chest. "As long as there's a statue of you in the garden, you'll always be 'captain' to us."

Nondis is surprised to see the pegasus looking up at him. "Humbreeze, you still alive?"

"Up and kicking it." He replies cheerfully before calling over to another young guard dressed in a ceremonial uniform. "Hey rookie, get over here!"

A blue griffon takes to the air and lands beside his superior. "Sir."

Humbreeze pats the griffon on his back. "This one is looking up to be the next captain himself. He's already got saving the world under his belt a few times. And he works well with the princess too. I think he might be next after Solemn gets done."

He smiles and kneel down to the griffon. "Great job, Gallus. That's some pretty high praise you're getting there."

"Actually, you inspire me, sir." He replies in a humble manner.

As I'm watching the young guards interact with the former captain, Twilight comes up to me, brimming with life. "So, Mrs. Valkyrie-Haines, would you care to do the honors?" She asks as she points to the sun.

I look up to the sun seeing the celestial object still hanging around in the sky. I grow surprised that it hadn't been lowered yet. Twilight nudges her head towards the sun to imply what I should do. "Me?"

"Nondis thought it was a great idea to have you set the sun one last time. I agreed with him. So, still got another one in you?"

While I look to my former student with pursed lips, I glare back at my newlywed husband. "Give me a moment." I tell her before dragging him down to my height and confronting him on his plan. "Honey, Twilight is telling me that you requested that I lower the sun one last time."

"Oh, is that why it's not night yet?" He answers with a coy expression.

I shake my head and look around to see everyone staring at me for the big moment. Not wanting to deny a request from the high princess in charge, I took to the task while warning my husband. "You're going to take responsibility for this, you know." I close my eyes, letting my magic connect with the sun for the first time in years. My eyes raise as I hear the voice of an old friend.

~M Y C H I L D~

The nostalgic feeling of hearing my mother's voice echo back to me in my mind warms my heart. But I stop to realize what I had said to Nondis earlier. I don't even bother lowering the sun a single inch as I glare over to my husband, who looks at me with concern. "What's wrong?"

"Hand. Out." I command.

He immediately recognizes what I want him to do. "Oh nah, I'm good."

But Twilight emphatically takes my side on the issue. "THAT'S A WONDERFUL IDEA! Instead of just cutting the cake, you lower the sun with her! THAT'S PERFECT!"

The crowd around us really appreciates the idea and start cheering for him to join me in my work, Novo especially starting a chant. I cheese back to him and mock the fact that his plan had backfired. "Well you wouldn't want to disappoint, now would you?"

He doesn't even attempt to argue against me, only sighing with the realization that he had to do it. "I get top, you get bottom."

"Now you know that's not how it works." I pointed out.

He holds out his hand and accepts his defeat gracefully. "Fine."

The magic of his hand turns silver, he starts to exert a great effort in gently allowing the sun to fall into his grasp. I join him in his attempt, letting the weight of the sun come down slowly beyond the horizon. But as the seconds wear away, I begin to realize just how heavy the sun felt after not having to perform the task for some years. I struggle a bit, but Nondis' own magic keeps me from having to work hard. He crouches down to slowly let the sun fall, I lower my head to guide it, and the sky grew dark.

After having done the work, Nondis stands back up in a pant. "That is exhaustive."

I bashfully admit my lack of fine magic control. "I'm a bit out of practice myself. That's embarassing."

Twilight is pleased with our collective effort and announces to the crowd. "Just as the two join their efforts to achieve the great, they look to face every obstacle in their lives together. Let's give them a round of applause!" Everyone cheers. Nondis waved lightly as I bowed my head in thanks. "And on that note, we hereby start the reception with the first dance of the bride and groom!"

Nondis looks back at the purple princess. "You've really picked up with this impromptu thing, haven't you?"

"She's her mother's child." I commented as I stood to face him.

The sound of an orchestra starting up the first few chords graced the entire courtyard. Luna looks to the sky and sends a number of shooting stars across the way. It's still an effortless feat to her, but Twilight, in a great effort, weaves a spell in the sky, sending bright streaks of green and pink across the nightscape. Everything in this moment feels right.

He extends his hand out to me, waiting for me to take it. I accept his offer and let him sweep me off of my hooves. The entire time, he holds me, my hindlegs dangling in the air. He slowly sways, guiding my helpless self in whatever direction he wishes. I close my eyes and take in the moment, at last having my moment in the midnight sun.

"Nondie." I whisper.

"Yes?" He answers.

I lean my head into his chest, feeling the beating heart tickle my eardrums. I am enraptured. "I love you."

He kisses my forehead tenderly, swaying me so gently.

"I love you too... Tia."

Author's Note

And so the not-princess gets the fairy tale ending she's waited for.

The first portion was a bit grim, but it was more to actively display the dark depths she can ultimately return to, but not without showing the level of restraint that a ruler can have. Of course, she couldn't let those guild members get away with trying to conscript young kids into their cause, sending them into the cycle of violence that would only breed mistrust and hatred. She already knows where that can lead, being that it was done before during her rule.

But she couldn't also let those young adults and teenagers, who were already exposed to the cruel realities of the Corrotto District, follow through without offering them a glimpse of the reality they'd have to endure for the crimes the guild members had committed.

Also, as many of you have discovered in reading, she made the decision to not play around anymore. She's no longer letting the formalities dictate her actions as opposed to taking every legal avenue she can to take accountability for her past and the present events.

As for the wedding, I paced it out as though I wanted the readers to actually experience the ceremony themselves from her perspective. It would be easier to cut to the bride walking down the aisle to the quick vows and finally the big kiss. But I felt it was better to let the characters have fun and enjoy the moment.

Fun fact: I actually played that song Cliff sang for a wedding once before. Needless to say that the bride was in tatters as her dad walked her down the aisle.

And with that, there's but one final account to provide...

See you when it's done.

Chapter CXXI (Nondis Haines) ~Terminus~

EPILOGUE: NONDIS PATRICIA HAINES

After watching Celestia making her way elsewhere in an urgent trot, I walked out of the room to a bunch of reporters all asking a ton of questions. It was almost as if they were trying to swamp each other for information. I usually deal with the press and sometimes it's a bit of a scrum, but never like today.

Then again, there's a damn good reason why.

I walked to the stairs, seeing where Celestia had sat and the others had stood. I thought to myself for a moment and considered an alternative. I had no problems throwing my voice across a room, but I was tired of shouting and yelling, of basically loud shit in general. Even with me standing up there, I'm bout to get yelled at for questions. So I stepped down and stood in the ranks of all the reporters on the front row.

It was a given that there were plenty of microphones and whatnot plugged into my face like I was a power outlet. Everyone in the world wanted to hear what I had to say. The photography was incessantly bright and repetitive, I eventually learned to focus them out. I raised a hand to make a statement, and the room gradually became quiet.

Finally, some silence. Too bad I had to be the one to break it.

"I know a lot of you are wondering why I'm not up there to speak to you. But I feel that I don't want to get asked a whole bunch of questions pertaining to what happened to me over the weekend. So to avoid that, I will allow you to make your observations as I answer other questions. So get a good look at me, write down what you see, and don't ask me anything about it. That's all I want to say before we begin."

An older stallion with a shaggy appearance and glasses raised his hoof as I was undoing my jacket so that the others could better see my neck and arms. Many grew quiet while he presented his inquiry. "Sir, it's understood that the princess is highly protective of you, but I'm going to ask this question regardless of the situation. Why were you not able to defeat the monster on Friday night when you allegedly found out that you were an element bearer?"

I suppose he didn't know how the elements work, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt. "To be frank, the elements don't work individually. They give you a temporary boost in an attribute, but it's not substantial in any way. You may feel a bit stronger, but the reality is that you won't have that increase for very long. And in addition to that, my friends did not come to this world prior to that conflict. So I did not have the ability to activate anything on my own. I know that there are some who understandably think that an element bearer has some individual ability that can greatly influence their powers and whatnot, but it doesn't fill out that way." I looked down to a young mare and selected her. "Yes?"

"Sir, I..." She paused for a moment, staring directly at the scar on my neck. I could see her face twist into disgust and shock as she threw out the question. "Uh... forgive me for asking when you requested that we shouldn't ask, but what happened to your neck, sir?"

I appreciated the fact that she showed genuine concern. So I politely answered her question. "That information is pending for an ongoing criminal investigation. I'm sorry, but I cannot discuss the matter further."

Another stallion questioned. "What are the scars on your arms for?"

"That information is pending for an ongoing criminal investigation. I'm sorry, but I cannot discuss the matter further."

The shaggy old reporter seemed to stir the pot further and asked me another question. "Sir, why is the matter of your health pending for an ongoing criminal investigation?"

I look back at him and give him a blunt answer. "Classified."

He immediately jumps right back in. "Sir, a good number of guards are dead because they defended the castle. The reason they defended the castle was to protect you, as many other sources have stated. Those sources were reporters on the grounds at the time of the initial, but temporary breaches. Why were young guards mandated to protect the grounds for your safety, a captain of the royal guard no less?"

The entire room was deathly quiet as I stared back at him for a moment. He seemed to not even give a damn for the fact that his question appeared triggering and damning, as though he wanted to obtain a reaction. "You like digging for trouble, don't you?" I reply to him before turning away. "Bottom line is that I was not only an element bearer, but I am also a protected species. And with my condition at the time, I was unable to fight for myself. Next question."

He continued. "Why were you unable to fight for yourself?"

"Classified." My eyes cut back to him, I began to lose patience.

He immediately jumped even further into my nerves, performing a perfect swan dive right on in. "You exploited a prostitute to meet the ends of your investigation, why did you choose her instead of a more stable resource?"

I pursed my lips and looked back at him slowly. "You're on a roll, aren't you, bud?" I turn right back around to see the same stupid look on his face. "First off, she's not a prostitute. None of the shit she had to endure in her life was ever paid for. Sorry for the language, but I think you need to stop with the bullshit sensationalism before I give you something to compare that ass-backwards logic to." He tilts his head like he doesn't even care that he began to piss me off. I kissed my teeth and nodded to myself before holding my had out to him, slowly balling it up. "Okay, I see now that you don't even give a damn, so I'll put it this way: This fist, it's been reworked. And I don't mind showing everyone in here the difference between a paid fighter and a victim of physical battery, not to mention you'd be able to easily identify the difference between the two. One goes home with a black eye and millions, the other goes home with the face of a racoon with nothing to show for it. So if you don't mind, I would highly request you stop playing stupid games before you win stupid prizes. If you want to keep digging the way you are, I promise you will fuck around and find out. And trust, I am not the one today."

I turned around looking for another hoof to answer to, he then responded. "I'm sure you are aware it's our job to ask questions freely?"

The reporters immediately start backing away from me, giving me more than enough space to get physical. Some of the others stepped away from him, already planning to look elsewhere should the first punch be thrown. Even they saw that this guy was just doing it to get a reaction. Meanwhile, I had it up to my scalp with his shit. "You got what you want out of me, didn't you?" I turn around one last time just to make sure I could hammer my point home. "Let me reason with you. Do you know what death smells like, it doesn't smell like anything by itself. Decay is another matter. I know what decay looks, smells, taste, and even feels like. You don't have to be out here doing what we do, to hell with what I do. Guards died defending the castle, there was even a whole insurgent group looking to collect the heads of the royal family, we've had young recruits dying to a bunch of seasoned thugs and assassins with magic on par with our special forces. But your first intuition is to say that they died defending one man. A little girl was circulated in the thick of the underground for years, forced to do unspeakable acts to stallions decades older than her, she even came before you and told you her life story unashamedly. But you have the nerve to call it prostitution. And then when I tell you that I don't want to talk about my personal health, you come with a request for an autopsy. That I do not appreciate in any capacity."

He just blinks at me. Not even reacting to me. So I kneel down to him and further illustrate my point.

"So here's what we're going to do. I'm gonna continue my press conference, but you are going to walk out those doors with your little notes and shit, take a right turn, head down those stairs, walk right off of the castle grounds, get back to your desk, pen your little story, and generate a bunch of clicks, or whatever the fuck you guys do to generate revenue. But I promise you that you can choose to leave here without so much of a single fucking papercut, all while I have to sleep in my bed with all these scars on me, reminding me of the hell I suffered this week."

He tilted his head yet again, and gives me this golden ticket of a response. "Well with all due respect, sir, I am going to choose to stay. So you can get used to me."

...Every inch of my being felt violence. My mind is consumed by it, playing out fantasies of me defenestrating this asshole through one of these stained glass windows. I imagine the carnage of him falling from the height of where we are, impacting the ground below, hoping he lands face-first. It's like everything around him blurs and all I feel is the overwhelming sense of giving him over to Umbra himself, just so he can find a way to torture and kill him.

But I hold on by the little red thread of restraint I have left. I sighed and gave him my last, and final warning. "You have forty-five seconds. If you are still here, I will find someone's ass to stuff up your ass. And I know that sounds anatomically impossible, but I know how to make that happen. I've been built to make that happen. And you'll discover just how that works." Only my eyes shift over, locking onto a middle-aged mare. "You."

She stammers as she asks her question. "S-sir, if we can get an account on the necro-terrorist's activities without delving into the criminal case in pending, what are the details would you be able to disclose?"

It was a fair question, but I still saw the asshole in my peripheral vision. I hold a finger up to her, politely speaking to her. "Can you hold on a sec, ma'am? I'll be right with you." I turn back to him and whisper. "Why are you still here?"

He tilts his head with his usual nonchalance. "Because I'm a reporter and I can ask whatever I need to. Now I've been in the biz for a long time and seen some things myself. So there's nothing you can say or do that will make me leave this room. As I said, sir, get used to m─"

*SNAP*

"Ĝ̷̼̹͈̒͠È̴̫̥̉ͅT̶̢̧̻̭̓͑̏͠ ̸͈̩͈̓́͗͂ͅÔ̶̟̭̯̦̚͝Ṵ̶̔̿T̵͚̼̟̚͜͠!̴̬́"

The halls of the castle rumbled at the sound of my voice. A dark shadow appeared all throughout the room in a flash. In as little of a second, I find myself towering over him with my hands open, my fingers twitching with the intent to summon any weapon I could manifest. My vision runs red and I see him appearing small. He quickly broke out of his stoic nonchalance and fear sets in his face. He turns around and makes a mad dash for the door.

But in his place was a dark shadow that slowly receded into where I stood.

I stop for a moment, looking at myself with horror. I hold the side of my head, wondering what the hell happened to me there, why did everything sound so loud all of a sudden. I took a breath, only to discover that my voice was incredibly raw from screaming. I was left in a coughing fit, one that took some time to recover from. The reminder of what I am now sets into my mind, and I am mortified that it was revealed to everyone in the room, at least for that split second. I painfully cut my interview short.

"I'm so sorry you all had to witness that. But allow me to continue before I conclude."

One Week Later...

For Hearts and Hooves Day, Celestia threw together an alumni gathering in celebration of her former students who have gone on to become productive members of Equestrian society. There was a majority of unicorns, but some brought along their earth pony and pegasi friends. Personally, I felt that having a gathering on such an unusual day of the week was pretty weird, nobody really celebrates anything on a Tuesday unless it's a holiday in the winter. But it turns out that Celestia was trying to disguise the reason for having me tag along with her to a restaurant she rented out completely to have this moment.

I get it, it would look a little off that I would be joining the princess in a place she rented out for just the two of us exclusively. It would definitely turn a bunch of heads of the press, bringing a lot of attention to where it didn't need to be for the moment. So she rescheduled an event to this particular day on short notice. Those who couldn't come wouldn't, and those who could make the time showed up. There were very few ponies here. It was as if we rented the restaurant for a little over a dozen patrons. It appeared just as exclusive as she desired it to be, but also just as inconspicuous. She assigned me to security, and dragged me along for the walk.

When we arrived, she picked out our table, pretty much isolated from anyone else. Servers and cooks had provided a serving line for all of those in attendance, making it much easier for us to collect our food, just like any other event. But as the time went along, Celestia began to converse with the other ponies in the room. It seemed that she was trying to keep up appearances more than I was.

So I matched her effort.

I walked over to what seemed to be the only packed-out table in the whole establishment and started conversing with the six mares at the table. Thankfully at least two of the faces I immediately recognized, which made my attempt to socialize feel a lot less awkward.

"Captain! Hey there!" A blue unicorn mare called out with a shimmering smile.

"Hello, ladies." I hailed back to the enthusiastic unicorn.

One of the mares in particular jumped up with her jaw fallen to the ground. She shook her earth-pony friend as she exclaimed loudly. "Oh! My gosh!" She said, stumbling through her thoughts frantically as she appeared fan-frenzied. "You're actually here! You! You, the residential human! Octavia told me so much about you and how you play!"

I was taken by surprise by the energy she exhibited. "Oh, did she?"

"You are so talented! Wow!" She immediately goes for my hands, shaking them wildly. "Wow, your hands are totally different from hooves! Girls, you should hear him play! I mean I myself never got to hear him play anything, but there are others who can back me up!"

"Easy there, Lyra." Moondancer called out to the mint green mare. "Don't you think it's fair to give the guy his space?"

Lyra corrects herself. "Oh, I'm sorry." She replied to me meekly. "I just never thought I would get to see you in person. But it's such an honor!"

Lemon Hearts stepped in to give me some introductions. "Captain, I know you've meet with me and Moondancer. But these are the other girls that went to school with us when Twilight was still studying with us. The one with the blue and white mane, her name's Minuette Fresh. She's a local dental physician who loves to enhance the smiles of others, be it physically or even emotionally."

The mare nodded in introduction. "Pleased to meet you."

Lemon Hearts continued. "The one who almost ripped your hand off, her name is Lyra Heartstrings. She's a musician now living in Ponyville with her friend Bon Bon, who's also here with us."

Bon Bon extended a hoof politely, a stark contrast to her green counterpart. "An honor to meet such a distinguished hero."

"I'm no hero, ma'am." I replied quietly.

Lemon Hearts finished with her introductions. "And this one here, her name is Twinkleshine. She's a great mathematician who loves to crunch numbers."

"Oh, I'm just an accountant. Don't let her hype you up." The off-white mare replied.

Minuette immediately jumped in with her first statement before I could even get comfortable. "We know the past week's been pretty rough for you. But holy cheese and crackers, I just can't believe you're an element bearer!"

"Yeah, how did that feel for you?" Lyra asked in conjunction.

Lemon Hearts glanced to me nervously. "Uh, can we not ask about the element thing right now?"

"Oh why not, Lemons? He can tell us about the experience!" Minuette replied.

"Does Twilight ever feel comfortable with talking about how her home got destroyed by Lord Tirek?" Moondancer questioned critically, causing the group to quietly look amidst themselves.

Bon Bon quickly jumped in, putting a hoof to Lyra's muzzle. "We understand, that may still be a bit fresh on the mind. We accept the fact that you don't want to talk about it too much."

As we were still having our discussion, I looked back to see what the princess was up to. But she was just sitting at our table, sheepishly smiling back at me and waving before looking back down, appearing somewhat nervous. She seemed very quiet for some odd reason. And considering the fact that she's an extremely social pony, it's made all the more apparent that she's uncomfortable.

Was she jealous of me talking to the ponies here?

I quickly thought of an excuse to dismiss myself. "Hey, can you all excuse me for a moment? I need to go freshen up a bit. My breath's a bit tart."

"Sure thing." Moondancer replied as I rose from the table. While I was walking away, I could hear the mare scold all of her friends. "Girls, I told you to not ask him about anything this past week!"

"Sorry. I didn't know him being an element bearer was on that menu." Minuette answered back.

I walked into the bathroom, just to pretend that I was sprucing up so I could head back to the table with Celestia. Without warning, I heard a voice call out from in front of me. "Hey."

I look up, seeing a pony standing right behind me through the mirror. "SHIT!" I jumped and looked back to see no one standing behind me. So I turned back to the mirror to see Lemon Hearts blushing a bit. "Oh, it's you. Please don't startle me like that."

"Sorry, but I just wanted to talk. Can I apologize for the girls back there?"

I collected my breath and dismissed all foul. "It's all good. It's just a small question of curiosity. Though I appreciate not having to answer it all the more."

The mare nodded before looking in the direction of the bathroom's exit. "So I get that Celestia is looking a little, you know, concerned."

"Well, I mean she is really trying hard to hide the fact that we're in discussion."

"Don't you two have a device you can communicate with, at least while you're away doing something?" The mare questioned.

I instinctively patted my pocket, feeling my phone's shape. "Can't use it now. The portals that sent the signal through are done for. There is an active portal left, but its assembly is still in the process of being examined before the transfer. Even then, it'll take some time to reconnect any signals that were lost."

"Well I can assure you one thing, Princess Celestia looks absolutely miserable sitting by herself." She pointed out quite obviously.

"No joke." I agreed.

"I think she's nervous."

"What for?" I asked.

"A number of things. Like for starters, this is the first time she's done something like this, and I think it's the first time she's done it throughout the history of her rule. That's a mold-breaker, if I ever saw one."

"So you think she's upset that she has to share the moment?" I questioned her.

"On today no less, somewhat. She's trying hard to keep hiding the fact that you two are negotiating. But in reality, she just wants to be able to proudly commit herself."

I tapped my chin, already having a plan laid out. "I guess we can give it another three weeks before that changes."

"Yeah, but you gotta go back to her and interact. While you think it's just that bugging her, there's something else on her mind that's got her on edge."

"You don't think the others will mind us just being at the table to our lonesome, do you?" I asked. "Like if we start just going back and forth, do you think there'll be a big fanfare of it?"

"Oh no, that's not a concern." She answered before appearing timid about something. "So, you wanna hear the other half of why she's nervous?"

"Why does this sound like it's something I not going to like?" I asked the mare.

"Well... the thing is that... we all know you two are talking."

My heartrate just skyrocketed for a second as I nearly ripped the mirror off of the wall. "What!?"

Her eyes veered off to the side as she realized that I wasn't too pleased with the news. "Yeah. Twilight made sure it got around to trustworthy minds, my friends and I. Both she and I talked about it and we thought this was the best route to go. Plus we're all rooting for her anyways. It's not often you get to see Princess Celestia actually happy on a personal level."

"You realizes this could jeopardize our entire relationship, right?" I spoke to her firmly.

"That or help keep it preserved." She replied. "The circle of those who know is small. So we can at least look at it from that point of view. I might have confirmed it with the girls before coming here, but they don't talk about CSGU secrets outside of our circle. And Minuette may be talkative, but she's a firm believer in trust and preserving the smiles of others. Lyra is going to be kept in shape by Bon Bon, who's already secret agent working under Celestia herself. And the rest of us are pretty much your cheer squad." She held up her right hoof, putting the left on her chest. "CSGU honor, we hold to that."

While I could trust her to keep our relationship a secret, I wasn't wholly sold on everyone else. I could only go by Celestia's judgement. And the only way I'd know how she felt about it is if I talk to her about it. I gave the mare a stern warning. "I don't want anything to happen."

"The only thing that should be happening right now is you going over to that table and speaking with her." She suggested.

"I don't wanna hear so much as a peep." I pointed back at her.

"You'll get none from us." She replied confidently.

I left the bathroom and walked towards the table. I sat down and watched as the once-drifting princess' attention was squarely placed on me. She ignored the desert on her plate and the wine she held in her magic, smiling at me. "Back already. Is something the matter, captain?"

"No, it's nothing." I replied quietly as she glanced back to the table of her former students. "It's pretty odd that you bought out an entire restaurant to host an alumni summit."

"Is it?" She questioned coyly, trying to disguise her nervousness.

"On Hearts and Hooves Day?" I quirked a brow at her.

Her cheeks were rosy as she glanced away. "I didn't even notice."

I sighed back at her and uncovered the desert sitting in front of me. "You didn't have to take it this far, you know?"

"It'll be fine." The princess said as she took her first bite into the cheesecake that sat on her plate. "A lot of my former students, the alumni here, do wish to interact with you. So try not to be shy to move around to different tables, if you feel someone is getting a little too invasive in our appearance."

I glanced over to the other table, seeing both Moondancer and Lemon Hearts giving me a nod of affirmation. It appears that they want me to keep going. "I think I'll pass."

She leans in, bringing her magic in between my fingers. "Nondis, just try."

As both the two previous mares look back at the table, Minuette and Bon Bon wave their hooves for me to keep going. I did as I was told. "You know, I get the feel that you're giving off some shaky vibes."

"Vibes?" She questioned curiously.

"You know, inside feelings that tells you to do something?"

She taps a hoof to her chin in thought. "Instinct?"

"Yeah, we'll call it that." I conceded, trying to push the conversation forward. "I feel like there's something on your mind."

"You mean how I feel like you're trying to swing the opposite way of last week and recluse yourself?" She said quietly.

"No, that's not what I'm getting from you, that's superficial." I explained. "I feel like you want to say something a little more personal."

Her eyes wandered back for a moment before she lowered her head. "It's a topic for later."

"No, shoot." I urged.

"I don't think this is the place for it." She argued.

I went on to insist. "Cella, we don't get time together as it is, it's either now or never."

The princess took not just a sip of her wine, but a full gulp of the entire glass. I bucked my eyes at her as she appeared to use the drink for motivation. "Well you remember our conversation we had over the weekend."

"You mean on Friday night after the... you know." I said, referring to my time at the tavern.

She started playing with her fork, lightly scraping the utensil against her plate, not even touching the remnants of the cheesecake that sat next to it. "Not that one. I mean the Saturday morning."

...Ugh... that one. Definitely not my proudest moment. "Oh... that."

I might have had a moment of desperation shortly after my waking up. I wanted to make her have a different image of me than the one she had the night before. So I tried to get her to feel a bit enthusiastic about our short-lived interaction. But as I was going about it, I felt myself not really into the effort I put out. And it showed, both on her face and in the place where it mattered most for me.

In all reality, sex in that moment pretty much disgusted me. I didn't want anything to do with it, I couldn't really be as aggressive with her like I normally would. I couldn't run my fingers against her just how she liked it, I hesitated often, I questioned my motions, and even grew nauseous as the attempt went along. Celestia stopped me shortly after and we had a heart-to-heart.

And so she brought up the idea of a physical reset. Not that I was resetting myself physically, but just starting from square one of our physical relationship. Since I wasn't too great with physical contact other than hugging and handshaking, she requested that I keep myself at a distance. And even offered that if I needed the time to be romantically detached, she would give me the space to do so for as long as I requested it. I denied that idea, but accepted the idea of not engaging with her physically.

I'm sure it must be killing her inside. "I'm just worried that you might not feel the way that I did. Maybe I'm closing you off too much." And she just reinforced it.

I went on to assure her that her decision wasn't the wrong one. "No, you were right to say what you said. I'm not mentally ready to be physical right now. I couldn't even get anything going."

She went on to further express her thoughts. "You were trying too hard to make me happy, not caring for how you felt about it."

"Sorry about that." I apologized.

Celestia levitated my fork into my desert as a way to encourage me to eat. "It's a lot to process, I know."

I didn't immediately dive into the slice of sweet heaven on my plate, just only hovering my fork above before slowly sinking it back in, and pulling it back out subconsciously as I spoke. "It just feels surreal, you know. There's the aching reminder, the feeling of that initial moment and knowing it was gonna go south. And then what made it worse was the serum that was injected into my body, making it appear that I enjoyed it when it only damaged me further. It's almost like it plays on repeat in my mind."

She stops my fork to get my attention. "Nondis, if you need to recuse yourself from duties, please let me know now."

"I'm good." I quickly answered.

"Nondie─"

"I'm good." I repeated sternly. "Right now, our focus should be on getting that asshole dealt with."

She seemed disappointed that I would not allow for myself to take some time off. But she knew that I wasn't going to back down. So she continued on anyways. "The evidence is already stacked against him, even now. I trust the trial won't even be a whole day."

"Yeah, but there will still be room for the benefit of the doubt." I brought up.

"What room will there even be?" She quizzed in disbelief.

"The room he'll have if he's allowed to speak. Even if he can't get himself out of a jam, doesn't mean that he won't try to put us into one. Meaning that we're cleaning house doesn't mean that he won't be trying to return the favor. And you know exactly what kind of deflectionist bullshit this will lead to."

"Of course." She answered with a eyeroll.

"You said you're presiding over the case, correct?"

"I am." She confirmed.

"Have you gave any of the evidence a look?"

Celestia lightly scraped against her desert as she spoke. "I cannot for as long as I am presiding over the case. What Solemn and Cadance found can only be brought to me in court, it's to protect against preestablished biases."

"Well that's a bit pointless by now, ain't it?" I asked sarcastically.

"You can say that, but it still doesn't change what has occurred. I'm still in the position I hold, so there's no changing that."

I finally dug my fork into my desert with some intent to taste it. "Well if you can't look at the evidence, I want to know something. When you look into my mind, do you know what all happens to me, like every word I say and everything that happens, moment by moment?"

"No. Just flashes." She said before letting the fork land on her plate. "And even those are more than enough." She shoved her plate away, indicating her disgust.

As she was doing that, I was quietly complimenting the taste of the cheesecake slice I was offered. "Well the reason I asked is because I'm going to need your genuine reaction for what I'm about to propose."

"What are you up to?" She asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

As I took another bite, I casually explained my plan. "I'm going to try to expose him for what he is from the very first argument of the case. I'm sure the prosecution will know of the tapes he's produced, many of which detailing his logs of the experiments he ran. I am on one of those tapes. And since who we're dealing with is the sadist of sadists, I believe him viewing your first-time reaction will trigger a response of amusement. Any lawyer brave enough to take his case will have to face that music knowing they'd lose from the offset. And everyone in the jury, the fully cleansed parliament, will already know their verdict by the end of the first argument."

"Nondis, this sounds like you're about to hurt yourself more than you are helping anyone." She expressed with concern.

"Sometimes it hurts to help. That's a trade I am willing to accept. That tape will be played all the way through." I stopped biting into my food, looking at the princess directly. "And if I'm correct, he never cut it off when he went about doing what he did to me."

"Nondis, please don't do this." She pleaded, shaking her head.

"I have to. I don't like it, but it happened. I want that to be the first thing that drags him under before his defense team has a chance to peep one word of a counterargument. I want the nature of that monster to be laid out in full, so the world will know that we're justified in what we're doing."

The princess grimaced but showed no other objections aside from how I felt about having gone through it once already. "This is going to be very hard for you. Are you sure you can do this?"

"Even if I don't want to, I'll be sure that the tape plays all the way." I replied.

The high princess appeared disappointed, sighing with dejection. "I'm sorry that I couldn't protect you."

"I'm sorry that I couldn't protect myself better. But what more could I do?"

She looked at the tiara that sat next to her on the table. "If I could give you the crown, I will."

"I don't want a crown. I just want my peace of mind back."

She still had the humor within her to quietly levitate the item to the top of my head. It felt a bit weighty, but not insurmountably heavy like her chest plate. She even straightened it out as though I was some sort of royalty. "That comes with time. It may not be there all the way, but there are moments, and they do grow to outweigh the dark ones." She then picked up my fork and began to feed me my desert with a gentle smile. "I promise we will find your peace."

"Thanks." I replied before taking the bite she fed me.

Another Week Later...

With the trial done and everything already sorted out with the execution. I gathered a few of my friends into the royal morgue, now outfitted with a crematorium for the express purpose of offering yet another method to be disposed of after one's death. While there weren't many who were looking into getting cremated, Celestia still had one installed at my request. And this one was specially built with a crystalline door that would allow us to either watch from the outside what was taking place, or keep it opaque, treating it like a traditional furnace where you'd fire it up and come back in around an hour or two. Either way, I had a viewing option, and I was more than happy to use it.

Quietly, I watched as the morticians moved the young filly, once the young brain of the foul Congregant, from her crystal entrapment to the cremation furnace. As she was placed inside with care, my friends and brothers began to enter into the room. As the morticians gave me instruction as to how to monitor and operate the device, I continued to go over the manual they gave me for reassurance.

Almost as if there was a theatrical event to take place, we all seated ourselves in front of it, waiting patiently for the feature presentation. Though there were a few who had their reservations on the matter.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Blue questioned as she looked at the device with confusion, wondering if I had any idea of how to operate it.

"It's the only one we have." I replied.

"I'm just not comfortable with the fact that we're just waiting for him to spawn there." Mel replied.

"Well that's why we're here, to make sure that there's no mistakes." Alex replied, cocking a round into a shotgun.

"How do you know that this will work?" Blue inquires.

"If he doesn't do it, then he'll die where he's at." I answered confidently. "I'm honestly hoping that's not the case."

Stanton walked into the room, bringing in a number of snacks and drinks. He even brought in a pack of UNO cards and a few board games for us to play with. "This is one hell of a barbeque we're having, so I thought we should have a few goodies to help pass the time."

"Any goodies is better than none." I replied before looking to the reserved zebracorn, who was watching the furnace closely. "Kali, you good?"

"I am fine." She replied solemnly.

"Blue?" I asked the other unicorn in our party.

She summoned a bottle of her best wine, of course the illegal kind. "As long as I get to watch it all end."

"You and me both. I wanna watch every fucking minute of it." I said to her, cracking my knuckles.

Alex looked at Stanton as he was offered a hot bag of microwave popcorn. "I'm really getting around to the thought of it. It's awfully morbid to offer popcorn at a time like this."

Cliff giggled as he gladly took the offer. "Bruh, there used to be picnics over this shit. Where do you think the word 'picnic' came from in our world?"

"Picnic?" Alex questioned back.

"Pick a nigga." Cliff joked.

It took a while for the context to kick in before we all got it. Mel's jaw dropped as she looked away in discomfort, mixed between wanting to laugh and feeling uncomfortable about it. "WOW! Oh God, that's dark!"

Kalimba and Blue appeared the most confused about what was said. "Do you mind explaining dat one to me?" The zebracorn questioned.

"Later." I answered her as Stanton shoved an open bag of popcorn in front of me.

"Want some?"

I took up his offer and dug my hand inside. "Sure, I'm feeling a bit peckish."

*BANG BANG*

The sound of the banging came from inside of the chamber, startling everyone in the room. I nearly knocked the bag from his hand before he resorted to levitating the bag. "Sounds like you're not the only one who's peckish."

"Well shit, he's actually here." Mel pointed out.

"That means his other body is smoked, right?" Blue asked.

"Well, let's go on and welcome him to the picnic barbeque." I replied, almost happy to be able to flip the switch to view the stallion inside of the chamber.

There were a number of burns all over his body, he appeared distressed as he shouted out to light source he shielded his eyes from. "Where am I!? What is this!?"

I knocked on the door and smiled back at him, putting on my best Texan accent. "Howdy, partner!"

He shifted up to see my face staring right back at him. Melanie soon joined beside me in welcoming him to the function. But he was a lot less calm and collected than he usually was. "Oh no."

"Oh yeah. Don't mind us, we're just having ourselves a good time living." Mel added as she smiled back. "I mean, it's about to get a lot hotter where you're going, so you might as well appreciate the nice cool AC you're about to get in a few minutes."

"It's hot in here! What AC!?" He complained loudly.

"Well, you know, the newly installed royal air conditioning, for deceased persons." Alex called out.

He started to try to shift himself around in the small space, pleading to me to release him. "Nondis! Get me out of here! GET ME OUT THIS INSTANT! I SWEAR TO YOU I'LL MAKE IT WORTH YOUR WHILE! WHATEVER YOU WANT! MONEY, REPARATIONS, ALL THAT, IT'S ALL YOURS!"

As he was pleading, I looked to both Blue and Kalimba. I brought them over as I felt they were the ones who were really waiting for this moment to come. I held out my hand to telekinetically grasp at the horn at the top of his head. I felt for the cracks and bent against them strongly, snapping his horn off completely. He gave out a loud and distressed scream as I spoke to him. "Somber Spiral sends his well wishes. Alabaster Charm sends his regards. And you killed me once, so I get a say too." I reached up for the switch and adjusted it to a low temperature. And since the device was built to get up to and sustain 1800° Fahrenheit, 'low' was a grievous understatement. "The scientific process is truly an arousing experience, one could even say... incendiary. Wouldn't you agree?"

Silence... and then...

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

The moment I threw his quote back at him, he started screaming and trying to dig his way out with his bare hooves. As he continued his manic efforts, Alex shook his head. "He's a doctor, right? Doesn't he know what happens if you keep inhaling air over a certain temperature?"

"His fight or flight's kicked in, and both are losing." Stanton added.

"You burn so bright." Melanie hummed quietly.

"We watch in delight, some real justice." Blue cosigned with Mel.

Rickey watched as the stallion still struggled in his captivity. "Don't you think this is a bit too slow? I can still hear him screaming."

"No." I bluntly replied. "I wanted a Texas-style barbeque, and his ass is gonna slow roast until he falls right off the bone."

"Kinda sadistic, isn't it?" Cliff asked curiously.

"Yup." I confirmed.

"Are we all sadists right now for wanting to watch this as much as we do?" Alex questioned.

"Yup." I answered plainly before looking over to Stanton. "Is there any popcorn left?"

"Yup." He answered, levitating a bag over to me.

"We have wine too." Blue reminded us as I pulled out a fistful of popcorn.

I grew impressed with the mare and started handing out plastic cups for us all to drink out of. "Good shit! I almost forgot. Pass that around, let's have a toast."

As the drink was being distributed, I took notice of how Umbra still struggled. But this time, he was slowing down considerably. I could hear grunts and moans of pain, he rolled repeatedly to avoid sitting on one part of his body, letting it get cooked against the metal sheet he laid on, but even that grew to be too much for him. His lungs were already being cooked from the hot air he took in with all the screaming. His flesh began to boil and the hairs on his body had completely been singed away, leaving only the incurring first and second degree burns. His hooves stopped digging at the walls and started rubbing against them. He turned, but slowly writhing in pain as he was slowly being cooked alive. Then finally, his hoof had dropped.

*clunk*

As I took my cup of wine, I looked to the stallion who seldom moved at this point. "To the bastard of the hour. A toast to you, Umbra Sanctus." We all drank from our cups as I guzzled mine to give my attention to him exclusively. I then called to him the many well-wishes I had for him exclusively. "May the contorted faces of your victims float in front of you for the rest of eternity. May they tear your body apart as you've done theirs and mine. May you never have the privilege to rot, and your bones remain to tell your story. May God and Faust both cast you down without a glance, never to rise again."

*clunk*

As his hoof landed against the metal sheet he was baking on, his chest slowly rose and fell. "He's still laboring." RIckey pointed out.

"Good, den maybe he heard what Nondis said." Kalimba said as she watched him grow more and more accepting of his fate.

I kept a close eye on him, watching and waiting for the moment his chest stopped moving. "And... he's..." After one final descent, his chest laid motionless, never to rise again. His horn was broken, his body unresponsive, his cries silenced, his efforts to cling on extinct. I nodded in confirmation. "Gone."

Melanie poured herself another cup, very much unaware of how strong that wine really is. "He's not braindead yet, but the fun thing about medical science is that you learn all sorts of fun facts. Such as this one: The unconscious brain can still feel pain."

"So he's feeling every last bit of that, isn't he?" Blue asked her.

"Not for long. His lungs are cooked from the inside out though, his brain is still trying to process things on the little oxygen it has left. Right now he's probably cycling through memories, that is if the juices in his brain hasn't come to a rolling boil."

"But he's dead, right?" Kali questioned the woman.

She got in closer, giving the stallion a look. She hummed and looked back to me as she took another sip of her wine. "Give him another two minutes on the grill, chef. I think I speak for all the ladies in the room in saying that we like our meat well done."

I poured myself up another cup, at least celebrating the fact that this was finally over. "You're the pit master."

As the time progressed, I cranked up the heat and stood by. We all started to play a few games of UNO and Monopoly, playing music that was loaded up on our phones, and even smiling as we paid zero mind to the remains that slowly turned to ash over the next hour. Even as the first cycle came to an end, we just turned it back on and ran it again. And yet again, it concluded it's cycle as we were still playing Monopoly. We elected to keep the oven on for as long as we wanted to keep playing our game. Eventually, there were three of us left in the running.

And of course, of those three, Blue was the one to take it all home.

⛧ 'Umbra' Sanctus Quorum ⛧
We don't need no water, let the motherfucker burn.
Burn motherfucker, burn.

2 Years Later...

It took a long time to recover from those events. A lot of the trauma I still deal with throughout the course of the night. I still fight with hideous nightmares recounting my experiences. And on occasions I have never not been in a situation where I grew paranoid of a dark corner or hallway. Those were the phases I had to push through in my life, the things I'll be contending with until my last days.

Throughout the years, I've gotten better at fighting, a lot better at magic, and even Starswirl the Bearded began to instruct me on things that a unicorn could do with their magic. Honestly, if I had fought against that thing with all of what I know now, I'd probably win a close contest single-handedly. But unfortunately for me, I was kept out of most of the serious circumstances that Equestria was made to put up with over these two years and some change.

But in the meantime, I did put forth the effort to fulfill some promises I made.

The first one was that I went back to Ponyville and got in touch with the inn owner. I gave her a sizeable donation to keep her family business afloat. She showed great appreciation for it, but also sprang the news of her wanting to leave town. She said that staying in Ponyville without her son made her feel depressed, and that the change in scenery was what she needed to properly move on with her life. So I wished her the best and she took her business skills to Fillydelphia.

The second was offering Single File the chance to come back home. Since there was no more guild members to hunt him down, I figured he was good to go in terms of coming back. But he didn't want to come back to Equestria, citing that he had already began a life here in Austin. He opted to stay in the human world, looking for other places he could stay. As time went along, he learned how to drive and do as what all other Americans do. He shortly made his move from Austin, Texas to Atlanta, Georgia, where he's currently dating a young collections agent with a degree in paralegal. Birds of a feather, I guess.

It was hard to find the time to be able to get Rarity to New York City. There were a number of things I had to account for in the travel. I wanted to originally take a flight, but I realized that doing so would be completely difficult under usual means. So I picked up a spell from Blue, the spatial distortion spell to be specific. From there, getting past the security was easy. And since I had to just buy three tickets in first class, we landed in JFK Airport later in the day. We were able to take in the sights and speed of the big city. Rarity picked up more than a few ideas from our travel, and I had to be chaperoned by my loving girlfriend. Because Celestia wasn't about to just let me roll out to some city in the human world and not have an eye on me and Rarity. Either way, the three of us had fun.

Our relationship, once considered a closed secret to a select few, began to become more openly discussed. And while the two of us would never admit it to the public, others had unraveled the clues and tied the loose ends together. So it wasn't like it was some huge secret by the time Celestia had already put together her final roadmap for retirement. If anything, she was eager to get it out in the open so that she could proudly claim her love for me. I myself was never really into the telling my personal business to the public anyhow, so I was still trying to be quiet about it, even though our encounters had become the more visible.

The higher ups didn't like it either. They felt that my being a member of the guard assigned to such a position would generate a conflict of interest, especially with her name in the mix. Often times I was told to consider a break-up to keep things official and professional. Celestia wasn't even going to hide the fact that she did have a conflict of interest, she wanted me to be as bubble wrapped and carefully shipped as one of her precious vases. So the other officers went about having their spats with her decisions, and I was always the topic of discussion. So when it came to the idea of Celestia coming to her retirement, I started to look at my options as well.

And after some time of thought and careful consideration, I came up to my own decision.

"YOU'RE RETIRING!?"

Solemn's voice nearly wrecked the traffic flow of the entire hallway, both she and Humbreeze seemed in shock that I had even come to the conclusion. "Yeah, that's pretty much my go-to now."

But the guardsmare officer didn't completely accept my answer. "But what about your evaluations!? You could easily get a promotion if you'd ask for one!"

Humbreeze was also on her side, trying to convince me to stay. "Cap, come on. You're not even twenty-five! How can you retire so early on when you haven't even made it five years!?"

"Please think about this a little more. I don't think this is a great idea." Solemn argued.

The pegasus guard cosigned with the officer. "No kidding. The signs are all there too. There's bound to be a massive power vacuum on the horizon. Word is that Princess Luna and Princess Celestia are turning over their authoritative privileges. Probably to Princess Cadance too, she gets the high princess title, she's going to immediately be crowned as queen."

"Queen Cadance and King Shining Armor, I never thought I'd see the day." Solemn imagined for a brief moment.

"It's not them."

The both of the ponies looked at me quietly. "Okay." Solemn walked closer to me, asking me to lean down so she could whisper to me. "So what's your girlfriend saying, who's taking over?"

"You can already guess who it is."

The two took a short moment to ponder on the possibilities. And they quickly came to the right conclusion. "Princess Twilight!?"

"Why her? She's only going to be high princess at the end of it all." Humbreeze questioned.

"She's been pretty much slotted for the position since day one. Plus element bearer status, plus save the world, plus in standing power. Her resume is just about right." I briefly summarized.

Humbreeze still couldn't believe my announcement. "So let me guess, the reason you want to retire before the official power swap is so that you don't get any kind of rub-back for working with the new high princess like you have been for the past year and some months?"

"No, it's not just that. I also made a promise." I added.

"A promise for what?" Solemn inquired.

"That when she's done with her job, I'll come with her and we'd live in together."

Both the ponies started to blush as they realized the naughty implications of that decision. "You, living in, with her???"

"It won't be as cut and dry like you think it will." I informed the two. "It'll be more like putting up with two annoying siblings arguing with each other."

Humbreeze chuckled at my analogy. "I guess you have experience with that, don't you?"

"Boy do I."

"Can't you just stick around for another two years and some change, call it an even five?" Solemn pleaded. "I really think you could do more for the guard if you just stick around a little longer."

"Five isn't an even number." I pointed out to the officer.

"You know what I mean!"

I tilted my head at the mare and asked. "Are you afraid that you're gonna have to come behind me?"

She looked down quietly, rubbing the side of her neck. "Well... it's just that I can't."

"Solemn, you wanted this position for your entire career. Why is it now you don't want to even touch the position?"

"Because... back then I wanted it for a stupid reason." She confessed before glancing back to Humbreeze. "Don't ask, if you know, you know." He threw his hooves up and took a step back to concede to her.

I tried to offer a good explanation as to why the guard had to change, and why there was no better time than now. "Don't you think that it's better for you to try it now that there's going to be a change in power? There's no expectations, no bar set, no drama attached, none of that. Like think about this: Prince Blueblood was the second captain of the guard, Prince Fair Charity was the first one, one-two-skip-a-few, Crescent, Shining Armor─"

"YOU!" They both pointed to me.

"Yeah me, but that's for Celestia. I'd say that there's been at least sixty or seventy of those for her. You get to set the standard for guarding Princess Twilight Sparkle. And I don't think that's something you could ever write off, it's a high honor regardless."

"So?" She rebutted. "I still have to come behind you. An almost forty-year-old me going against a early-twenties you. No thanks."

I then offered a retort to her logic. "Have you seen what all I've done lately? I've been held out of so many critical situations all because of some favoritism. I don't think it's fair for me to hold the position when I've only done one serious thing, and that was two years ago. If all of you had to sum up my legacy to that, then it's only fair that I don't keep myself in a position that's almost become sort of a decorative position, at least for me. Let's make this position exactly what it should be instead of spear-toting trophy."

"Captain, you still did a lot for us." Humbreeze replied.

But I further argued my point. "Where was I in the moments that mattered? Where was I in the invasion of the Storm King, the matter of Cozy Glow, the reintroduction of the original pillars of power, the Scourge of King Sombra, the take-over bid by Chrysalis, where was I for any of that? Stuffed away in my world because I hear the words of 'Honey, I think you should take the time off for a while.' Like how do I feel being shuffled off like that?"

"I suppose it can make you feel pretty unimportant." Solemn agreed.

"Yeah it does. So I don't want to present that kind of image to the guards, that if you do one grand thing that you can just take it easy. That's not what the position is about. The only reason I kept the position for as long as I did and not give it up sooner was because Celestia wanted me by her side. I just so happen to love her enough to do it."

In a final bid to convince me of my worth, Humbreeze went down the list of lifestyle changes I made for the guard over the past few years. "Captain, you've improved the efficiency of our special forces. You've increased training regiment productivity, actively promoted mental health awareness, boosted overall morale, and even had us ready to take on smaller threats that we would've been scrambling against years ago. Another huge thing you did, you nullified that stupid marriage law that would've had more of us thrown in the fire because of some shitty politicians." He especially paused for that last one, taking his long departed sister into thought. "I truly believe Songbell didn't die for nothing. That glint of hope she gave to Prince Shining Armor, he gave to you, and you ran with it, you even made it come back full-circle when you saved me! When you almost died on that train, that hope almost died with you. Just imagine a world where you don't exist past that day."

Solemn quickly answered the hyperbolic statement for me. "That thing would still be out there. That horrible terrorist from years ago would still be out there. We'd be stuck in the same rut for years unending. I'd probably would've been captain then, but what would I have been able to do? I wouldn't have made any of this possible, not nearly as much."

"I honestly think Princess Celestia wouldn't even consider retirement if it wasn't for you." The stallion continued to pile on. "She's putting a whole nation behind her, all that power and access, for you. Like I don't know what you've got in the luggage, but she's eager to take the journey."

"You changed the world, introduced us to another perspective, your kind has brought us many new things to try out, new technologies, construction ideas, checks and balances of power, like that's a whole lot for a century of change, much less taking that leap in only two years." Solemn compiled emphatically.

"You've done a lot of political groundwork." He concluded.

"You've done even more to make everyone happy." She resolved.

I smirked and interrupted their arguments with one that they easily provided for me. "So what you're saying is that I do deserve to retire?"

Their praises came to a halt as they realized that their words only fed into my logic. Solemn was at a loss for words. "Well..."

As was Humbreeze. "I mean..."

I knelt down and dragged the both of them in, looking to take my time with both of them and tell them what they do right. I started with the officer to my left. "Solemn Oath, I recognize that you are the long-tenured professional that you are. You've proven yourself to be adaptable and show great leaps of understanding critical thinking. You went from doing just because it's what your higher-ups ordered you to do, to following your intuition and guiding others with a scale of compassion and order all the same. You knock it out of the park, girl. Get yours." I turned to the pegasus on my right. "Humbreeze Highwind, you went from wearing your sisters helmet to outgrowing it. We both came out of the crucible at around the same time, but look at you now. You're a proud leader that others want to follow. I hear the new recruits all cheering you on, they love the leader you've become. You're a strong flier who's learned his own way, not trying to fit in the same wear his sister wore before him. You've grown not just out of your sister's helmet, but out of her shadow." I brought the two in for a hug, probably surprising the both of them. "I'm more than proud of the both of you. That's why I feel like I can just leave this to you and not worry about the country falling apart when I do."

Humbreeze made a bit of a sniffle as he spoke. "Stop trying to make us cry, captain."

I broke away from the two. "You two will do great. Besides, it's not like I'm going off and dying. And I'll be here for another month. That's plenty of time to prepare for me not being here."

"The guard won't have another you, captain." Humbreeze saluted.

I saluted him back. Solemn walked up to me, giving me a grin and a light warning. "The princess is very special. You take good care of her."

I snickered at the mare. "Like I won't."

Two Months Later...

After a month of eventful elemental shenanigans involving three notorious villains looking to take over the world, a few wendigos trying to make Equestria freeze over on a summer day, and a decimated castle later, our plans for retirement had hit an unexpected snag. Celestia and Luna had to help Twilight and the others bully down an evil trio looking to unleash unparalleled havoc to the world.

Meanwhile, I was placed in charge of evacuation and restoration efforts. I'm sure there could've been a lot of ponies looking at me to somehow alter the fact that the castle was totaled, but I can't stop magic that powerful, nor will I even try. So I chalked up that L and kept it moving. It took a month to completely restore the city to it's peaceful self. And with the other races coming by to help us rebuild, it took the castle just as long to get repaired. Two birds with one stone, we were pretty much all set. As soon as the coronation date was established, I was given my discharge papers and surrendered all of my security clearances. Solemn took the wheel, and I took my motorcycle to view the countryside.

But I wasn't alone in my trip. Luna and Celestia both flew most of the way, the other times we spent just touring towns we ran into en route to our final destination. But once our journey came to an end, we were given a quiet welcome before taking a hotel room to stay in until I could finalize the sale of a seaside home. Two days later, I was finally cleared to select a house for purchase. And within a few selections, I came to view what I believed would be a great home for the future.

That future only took an hour to materialize.

The realtor gave me the keys to the home, showed me the wharf, and gave me a place to go shopping for a boat if I ever needed to take a moment to sail out into the waters. And on that note, the house was officially ours.

Luna, Celestia, and I walked into the foyer of our new home, relieved that we weren't stuck in the close quarters of a motel room. "So here we are." I said, pointing around, watching as both the former princesses walked past me and took in the sight of our new home. "I'm sure it's not as grand as you're used to, but it feels comfy enough to have that inconspicuous look to it."

Luna sighed happily as she commented. "Finally, someplace nice and quiet. It's nice to be able to not hear some other ponies getting their mating affairs in order."

Celestia glanced over to me for a moment, and then looked back at the halls home. "It is pretty relaxing."

"So, who gets the master bedroom?" Luna questioned sarcastically. "Surely you would not separate a dear sister from another of her own blood, would you?" Then in typical little-sibling fashion, she mocked her older sister. "Or maybe you would, even going so far as to accept me into your bed."

I looked back to see Celestia already getting annoyed. I stepped between the both of them and urged for peace. "This is such a nice home. How I would hate for anything to happen to it before the insurance policy gets a year into the lease."

Celestia didn't mind the idea of giving her instigating sibling a retort. She yanked me by the collar of my shirt and made her demand. "Nondie, where's the master bedroom? I think we should have a bit of a housewarming party."

In many other circumstances, I didn't mind entertaining the thought. But Luna ran over to give me a peck on the cheek. "Aw, you're so cute. I find it funny how you're just going to take my boyfriend away from me, Tia."

I could already start to see the violence manifest in Celestia's eyes. I quickly reached for her horn and snapped my fingers to imagine myself in the master bedroom. That image became manifest and we were in the room within the second I snapped my fingers.

It's a good thing I learned how to teleport.

Celestia smirked at me as she looked at the large bed in the room. "Ah, so you've had your mattress shipped here already?"

"The mattress, the frame, the headboard. All we're missing now is our luggage." I replied before snapping my fingers once more to summon two bags full of our clothes and personal belongings. "Well that didn't last long."

The former princess walked closer to me, slowly pulling me down as she propped herself upward. "Now... where's our other luggage?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." I said to her, playfully acting innocent.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." She growls. "Your little kit to make sure that I'm... how should I say it... housebroken."

I licked my lips, already knowing exactly what she wanted. "Oh, so you wanna get this up and going like right now?"

"Well it ain't like we're in some motel anymore." She answered, giving me a sultry sweep of her tongue against my chin.

I began to hold her by her neck, already plotting in my head the ways I would be able to break her open. "Well I'd be more than happy to make our own noise after what happened last night."

"You couldn't stop thinking about it either, could you?" She asked. "The shamelessness of it all."

"You wish that was you." I whispered into her neck.

She unfurled her wings, using her magic to press my head into her nape. "Such vulgar behaviors like that? I wouldn't know what to do with myself."

"Imagine if the world discovered what your voice would sound like enraptured by pleasure." I teased her.

"I'd be so embarrassed. I'd probably die." She replied as she sat herself to the ground.

I moaned greedily into her ear. "I bet you'd love my fingers inside of your right now, don't you?"

A drunken smile crept to her face as she cooed. "Yes, sir."

"How many you want?" I asked as my hand began to wander down her chest, her magic eagerly guiding me to where she wished for them to be.

"Yes." She whispered. "I can take it."

"But you know I can't give that to you." I said, retracting my hand from just above the warmth of her nethers.

"No." She pleaded, holding my arm in place. "Please? I've been good."

"Bad Tia!" A voice called out from the hallway. The both of us quickly withdrew from one another as Luna walked into the room. She immediately started spraying her sister with a spray bottle full of water. "Down, down!"

Extremely irritated, Celestia lashed at her sister. "Luna!"

The midnight mare looked to me and gave me only one squirt to the face. "Now you know better than that." As she walked back into the hall, she took her luggage and another suitcase. She gave us both a smile of satisfaction, knowing that she spoiled the moment for us both. "Now since you two were going to have your little housewarming without me, I'm going to have my housewarming party with some extra supplies."

Celestia quickly glanced at the other bag she carried. "Wait, what is that?"

The midnight mare smirked as she opened the suitcase, filled with a number of leather whips, cuffs, and paddles. "Were you intending to use these tonight? Well as unfortunate as it may be, these items have been lonely in their captivity, much like how I've been left alone downstairs while you two went on without me. So I'll be taking these, thank you very much."

"Luna, those are mine!" She screamed.

"No, you have your toy. I do not." She replied coyly. "So these are mine now."

"And who's going to use those on you!?" Celestia questioned, absolutely incensed.

"Unlike you, Tia, I can do bad all by myself." She said with a tongue poked at her sister. "Later."

Luna disappeared with all the items in her possession. I tried to snap for them back, but I couldn't identify where they and the midnight mare had gone. So Celestia and I had to sit in the room without our tools for the evening. And unfortunately, that already placed her in a bad mood.

I could only hope that Luna's antics weren't going to be a recurring theme throughout our stay.

One Month Later...

Luna was beyond an annoyance, she was a troll.

All for the past month, Celestia and I have been trying to quietly restock on our goods. It was already hard enough to buy the stuff since this was a mostly older town with a lot of ponies following closely on family values. And then with my new job, it was difficult for me to just walk around and be seen visiting the only sex shop in town. And older ponies around here love to do two things; Judge and gossip.

Luna made it to where either I had to earn the disapproving scowl of parents for looking up such kinky things, or risk her Celestia taking a hit to her still prominent reputation. Meaning that there were no paparazzi out here doesn't mean that word don't get around fairly quick. So it's been leaving me and her to try to come up with ways to meet with one another at the house and try to get some time in.

Only the problem with that was Luna was a social introvert who loved silence.

If I came home from work, she was shacked up in her room reading a book. If I wanted to take a moment to find even some personal relief, Luna would either try to watch or offer to join with me. And since Celestia was also home by the time I was, that only made the situations worse.

But Luna, on the other hand, she was adept at finding ways to enjoy herself without getting caught. Some days she would visit the library for a new book to check out. And when she came home with that book, she wouldn't leave the house for anything. Even if you'd ask her, she'd be stuck here. There was no such thing as five minutes without our third wheel sucking the passion dry from our lives. And all while that was happening, she was quietly getting hers all by her lonesome.

One Saturday morning during breakfast, Luna was sitting quietly, really engrossed in her romance novel. Celestia offered the mare her plate and Luna wouldn't move for some time as she was reading. So she gave me a nod to say that we could possibly work our way upstairs quietly and have a little breakfast in bed. That was easier said than done, as the chair I sat in creaked whenever I moved. And with the slightest movement I made to make that chair creak, Luna would subtly shift her book down to glance at what I was doing.

The former night princess giggled as she made fun of me. "Getting a little antsy, aren't we?"

"Luna, I'm just going to the bathroom." I lied. "How is it that my going to perform a bodily function is what gets your attention?"

"It's not about what you're doing that has my attention. It's your body language that ultimately gives it away." She replied as she temporarily went back to reading. "And also, don't think I haven't been paying attention to you, Tia."

Celestia rolled her eyes at her sister. "What is your problem?"

"What else would it be, sister? I can't really bother to live in a place so noisy and busy. And you two would probably turn this into some sort of sex dungeon if I don't keep you both in check." She noted before glancing to me. "Now as for you, weren't you the one who championed the idea of abstaining from sex until you two got married?"

"First, I said 'intercourse'. And second, that's none of your damn business." I replied to her.

The mare lowered her book and marked it with a folded page. "It's my business when we have to share a roof. It's my business to know what you do with my sister. It's my business when Celestia made it her business to see what we were doing on that one day I gave you the transformation spell."

"Seriously, that was years ago. Are you still mad about that?" I questioned her.

"I've been locked on a floating rock above the planet for a thousand years. Do you honestly think I don't know how to hold a grudge for two or three?" She said with a smile. "Can you imagine the urges I had to suppress while in banishment? The thousand estrus cycles I had to endure? I promise you that you can endure it for a little longer."

Celestia confronted her sister, slamming her hooves on the table as she did so. "So I stop you from making a critical mistake that others made before your return, and we're supposed to suffer because of that? I'm almost thinking about banishing you to the bay."

Luna, being the troll that she was, smiled back at her sister. "Tia, do you know what your biggest problem is? It's that you have someone you can play around with, causing your emotions to override the simple things you'd often accommodate for. Like for example, the courtesy of not inhabiting the same space your family lives in, and utilizing that same space for sexual gratification."

While she was frustrating to deal with, I could understand her point. She had to live in a house with her sister, it would probably be awkward to hear how her older sibling was getting done over. So instead of arguing with the mare over the spaces we inhabited as well as the things we wished to do in those spaces, I proposed an alternative. "So what you're saying is that if we find some way to outsource our little adventures, we wouldn't have to deal with you?"

"Seems like you're the only one listening, Nondis." She said as she glared down her older sibling.

Celestia instead argued with her sister. "You do realize you're free to leave to pursue your own home, right?"

"Aww, and I thought that my sister actually loved me." She teased.

"Luna, I love you, but you've got to get your own space. This is more than annoying." Celestia commented.

I did agree with my girlfriend that this wasn't supposed to be a trial and a half, but I also recognized that we all previously agreed that Luna would stay in with us up until we had gotten married. So I quickly came up with an alternative solution, one that could possibly give both parties the space we need to not kill each other so early on. I had another eleven months on homeowners insurance before the policy kicked into full swing. Any more of this and we might be buying another house to replace this one.

"Okay, so I understand what you both are trying to get done. So how about this, why don't we take a leave and find someplace to rent out whenever we feel like we wanna have some fun?"

"And why should we leave the comfort of our own address!?" Celestia debated. "You bought the house, now we have to leave it to have a little fun? I'm not visiting some motel where some eavesdroppers will be trying to detail what we do and how we do it!"

"Okay, well I guess we can commission the construction of a guest house." I suggested.

"Great idea, only one problem." Luna rebutted. "The homeowner's association in this town has a building code. We wouldn't be able to get one done because of the noise ordinance. Plus this is a NIMBY district of the town. You'd have to literally bring it up before the city council for a vote."

I lifted my head and groaned in despair. "Okay, I thought I retired from both military and political work. I'm not fighting another law to be able to get kinky with my girlfriend."

"Plus with Tia's big mouth, you'd be violating the noise ordinance anyways." Luna joked, causing her sister's ears to run red with embarrassment.

Again, she had a valid point. Celestia screams during any kind of sexual long haul, so I had to take that into consideration as well. "Hmm... maybe we could get a boat?"

Luna looked back at me and replied. "Actually, all you would need for that is a permit to park in the wharf. It's just outside in our backyard anyhow."

"A boat would be fine, but I don't want this to be out in the open." Celestia stressed.

"Tia, once you're out in that water, no one's hearing you." Luna added.

"A yacht!" I called out loudly. "We could get a yacht. Something sizeable to where we can do our business inside of, It'll have a bed and a kitchen in it, we could use it to travel, we can drive it, we can park it out back, and when we want to have any kind of 'discussion' away from the any prying eyes and avoid the noise ordinance, we can just go a mile out in the water and debate things that way."

"That sounds like a really expensive endeavor." Celestia replied.

"Babe, we have the money. I could easily throw it on the insurance. Luna stays out of our hair, we don't mess around in here while she's reading, and we can keep it cool."

Celestia looked at me with concern. "Nondie, are you sure?"

"I'll go out browsing today. The morning is still young and I can still get a few errands in before our run on the beach this afternoon. No problem."

The midnight princess smiled as she opened her book and went back to reading. "Then it's agreed."

"You are still stubborn." Celestia complained as she stormed out of the room. "Nondis should never have to do something like this when it's his house he bought!"

"Cella, I promise we'll enjoy the investment." I said to her before she left. She was still visibly upset. I looked back to Luna and warned her. "You know, I don't think you should keep doing shit to trigger your sister."

"Well it's only fair that I give her the grief a little sister should give to her elder." She replied with a smirk. "And also, it's fun having to watch you try to control your sexual urges."

"There is nothing fun about watching me try to find some time to get it in with my girlfriend." I replied.

She waved me over, snickering all the while. "Okay then, how would you react if you found out that I was masturbating right now?"

Honestly, anything sexual can bring me to a boil, but understanding that this was also my girlfriend's sister was all I needed to keep myself from meeting an early end to my life. But I won't lie and say that the month here didn't have me arguing with myself over how I was going to somehow negotiate with her quietly. Still, I managed to exhibit self control. "Luna, I'm gonna need you to not play these games right now."

"You still haven't answered my question." She grinned.

"I wouldn't say anything, okay?" I snapped back at her. "Just don't get my house blown up is all I ask for."

She smiled as she closed her book. "Well in that case, I'll do as you ask and leave you alone."

"Thank you." I said as she hopped off her seat. But as her tail scooted off the seat, I took notice of the equine shaped sex toy propped on the chair, as well as a puddle of creamy fluids both on the chair and on the toy. My eyes expanded and my mouth dropped open as she looked back at me with a wink.

"I think you want to get to buying that yacht now." She whispered before teleporting out of the room.

...Yeah.

That morning was probably the first time I walked through a town of retirees with a raging erection, a sack full of gems, and an almighty need to buy a boat. I tracked down the nearest dealer for one of the best damn yachts they had in stock. And I didn't even walk out of the dealer, I rode my new luxury yacht with a young skipper nice enough to give me the starting tips and hints on how to sail. He safely docked the sizeable vessel in my back yard, I paid him a large tip, and he quietly went about his way.

Once I was done with that, I put on a transformation spell, ran to the tiny sex shop in town, bought some new toys, and gladly ran down the street while looking like a thief in market. I grabbed some scented candles from the herbal store, a few fruits and chocolates from the grocery, and started looking at the possibility of postponing our run on the beach for some time out in the water.

To hell with the insurance, I got a girlfriend to molest... consensually of course.

Just as I intended, Celestia and I sat out for the sea and had no intention to look back towards the house until our time out was done. While I was still trying to learn how to skipper the yacht, Celestia already had experience with the operation of a number of differing vehicles for ceremonial purposes. While most often she would perform the acts for grand openings, celebrations, or even for social gatherings, she was very astute and well-read on the mechanics. I chalk it up to her being the princess of a nation needing to make appearances, she simply chalked it up to years of experience. Either way, she was very skilled in taking the ship out to sea and back.

As we had finished our voyage, she and I went over the various features of our new yacht. There was an entertainment area, one with plenty of room to host more than about a dozen visitors. There was also a kitchen, a dining area, a viewing area for both the port and starboard sides, a hot tub, two bathrooms, and a master bedroom. While I admit that I didn't see the entire catalog for what this thing contained, I was pleased with the accommodations and space available. We had more than a little bit of privacy, we essentially had a second home... which was leagues more expensive than the one on land.

Still worth it.

The sun began to go into it's decline past the horizon. I sat on a chair on deck, watching the calm waters chop against the bow of the ship. I looked back to the former princess, who looked as if she was thoroughly enjoying her retirement. "You okay over there?"

She didn't even budge as she sat in the bubbling hot tub, her eyes closed as she expressed herself. "I couldn't be anymore concerned, yet relaxed at the same time. This is a really huge purchase."

"All paid in full." I said as I walked over to her.

"Are you sure this is what you want to do?" She asked.

"Better this than Luna getting in the way again." I replied, thinking of the midnight mare's antics from this morning. I was already starting to build some arousal on the scene replaying in my mind.

She opened her eyes to see the sun setting in the distance, it's dying brightness reflecting brilliantly over the sea. "The weather is so nice out here. The salty air, the endless horizon, the sun falling further into the sea. I've sailed before, but never quite like this. Never have I had a moment so exclusive in my life such as this."

"Living a thousand years and this is the first moment of exclusive privacy in that long. Pretty crazy, huh?"

"More than." She said as she sat up to offer me an invitation. "You should jump inside, the water's nice."

"It's still smaller than your old bathtub." I pointed out as I walked by her.

Celestia giggled as I sat myself on the lip of the hot tub. "I'm trying to think if I really needed all that size."

"It did double as an indoor swimming pool." I joked.

"That it did."

I summoned a bowl of fruit from within the fridge onboard the ship. I peeled off the leaves from the top and offered the fruit to her one-by-one. "Strawberry?"

She relucted in taking my humble offering, cutting an eye at me. "You know how I feel about being catered to." She didn't even seem to care that I had clothes on, she yanked me into the water and waded her way towards me. "Now... you may feed me."

I summoned a bowl of warm fudge and levitated it in front of her, to join with the strawberry I initially offered her. "Chocolate?"

She dipped her strawberry in the sweet desert and devoured the bit of fruit whole. "You know, that's a bad sell if you want to have some intimate moments shortly after."

I dismissed her warning. "I've been told that before, but I think you deserve all the feel-good you can get."

She took another strawberry and offered me one that was dipped in fudge. "Too much and there won't be any room for the main course."

"So you're saying I'm on the menu?" I ask as I was about to take a bite.

"More than." She said as she pressed her lips against the fruit.

Before I knew it, she had left me with the taste of chocolate and fresh strawberry, but also partaking in the taste with her own tongue in my mouth. I swallowed my half and she did the same to hers, greedily seeking more of me than the snack we shared. Her hooves wrapped over my shoulders, her eyes lidded part-ways as she indulged on my present lips.

My eyes popped open as I started to feel my arousal come to a notable peak. I teleported myself away, knowing that if I tried to escape, she would hold me down. "Now before we get too heated, I got something to show you."

"What's that?" She asked curiously as I summoned a small chest of items.

"Yarrrgh, it be some buried treasure, young lass." I answered in a poor attempt of a pirate accent. I popped open the chest to reveal an assortment of toys, vibrators, cuffs, whips, paddles, and adjustable restraint bars. "♪Tada.♪"

Her eyes grew to the size of dinner plates as she observed the many items I began to levitate before her. "Oh wow, when did you get all of this?"

My mind flashed back to the moment when Luna stood up from the table earlier. I simply withheld the context and skipped to the result. "I might have been encouraged to grab a few things on the way to you."

She grinned as she watched me pull out an assortment of gags and whips. "And you hid them here on the boat?"

"Oh yeah. Don't want your sister appropriating them like last time." I answered with a wink.

I placed the gags back into the box and pulled out an adjustable aluminum bar with leather straps fixed to each end. I extended the bar to it's maximum length and looked towards Celestia with many more ideas running through my head. She caught the expression on my face, her ears slowly reddening with anticipation. "So, what are you going to do with that?"

"I think you'll find out soon enough." I compressed the bar back to it's minimum setting. Afterwards, I issued her the bowl of fruits and chocolate to snack on. "How about you take on these while I take my shower. And after you take yours, meet me in the bedroom."

She looked towards the tinted glass walls housing our bed and commented. "I'm more surprised this thing has one."

As she walked away towards the kitchen, I made my way into the bathroom and started undressing for my shower. I stared at myself in the mirror, seeing the multitude of scars all over my torso, limbs, and neck. I couldn't help but to think back at the journey that I had to take in order to get to this point.

Immediately after my recovery from the lab years ago, I began to feel uncomfortable looking at myself. It was so bad that I couldn't stand the sight of my own body. It was like everything that was a part of me was torn up and violated in every aspect. I couldn't think about sex without thinking of how I was forced upon. I couldn't look at my own face without seeing myself on someone else's body, which I often convinced myself it was. I couldn't see myself as strong or secure in my own image without feeling the shame of knowing what all had happened to me. It was terrible.

That's why in that first year I never really returned home. Everyone would come and visit me, but I couldn't come back with all of this on me, not that soon. I couldn't bear the thought being asked millions of questions about it, nor did I have any answers that didn't bring up uncomfortable memories. It took me almost a year for me to find any desire to engage physically with Celestia, and that part of our relationship made me feel terrible about it. It was like I had felt that she deserved much better, and that she should probably find someone else if being with me was so much trouble. But she remained firm in saying that she would stay with me, no matter how distant I felt from the world and even myself. She made sure that I had all the space I needed to heal mentally, that I had all the counseling I needed to keep myself from going through suicidal ideations. She pulled me away from every major event, knowing that my potential failures would be contrasted to the success of that one cruel encounter. She shielded me in every way, making sure that I would never have to reopen wounds that I wanted closed.

As the time progressed after, I grew so emotionally attached and dependent on her. I grew so dependent that I almost followed her every move. Wherever she went, I followed like the loyal captain I needed to be, it was almost creepy. But I was working hard to not be able to keep myself that way. I had to find ways to keep myself separated from her, not show so much amorous devotion when we were nearby, not to be so clingy to everything she does. I started to search for my own confidence, my own ability to walk wherever without the stigma of my scars crawling up my spine and whispering in my ear to find comfort in an even larger presence. Even when I moved here, I still had some problems with that.

After a while, Celestia proposed that we'd both engage in some exercises to make us feel more comfortable with our own traumas and scars. For me, it was pretty much everything pertaining to being in my own skin. For her, it was being in a position of helplessness, to be detained physically and to know that not all measures of physical suppression has to be nonconsensual. It took months for us to finally reach our breakthroughs, but in those breakthroughs we discovered the desires we held within ourselves, the roles we began to assume in our brief and sparse sessions.

In the end, I grew comfortable enough to stand before her with nothing barring myself from her sight. And she grew more than comfortable in being submissive and trusting. She allowed me to toe the line with her wings, to pull and rake at them without cruelty. She gave me permissions to detain her, so that she could be immobilized and know the security that all she had to do was request it, and it would end. She permitted me to blind and bind her in however way I saw fit, letting the fear-inducing sensations of her past fade into new expectations, all while maintaining a safer mental and physical environment.

In time, she began to shy into her more intimate desires, growing more open minded of the options she had at her disposal. She went from going with whatever I wanted to try for the day, to quietly requesting that I'd impose more restrictions. From there, we had let our physical absence from one another fester into tension built for our next session. I imposed a rule saying that intercourse was forbidden until marriage, but all other interactions was fair game. Although we had the Approval Process Law extinguished, we still wanted to role play so we could have that moment for later, to allow our imaginations of that moment to run wild. And though she was vehemently against it, I had ways of convincing her that the reward was worth the wait.

After my shower, I walked into the bedroom with nothing but a robe on. I had brought up the box of items and picked out the ones I wanted to use for the evening. I took the extendable restraint brace, a paddle, a whip, and a vibrating wand, sitting them on the bed for Celestia to see when she finished with her shower.

As soon as she walked in, she had appeared before me a giddy smile set on her lips. "You're looking pretty in this light."

"Oh my..." She whispered as she looked at the bed, as well as getting a better view of the contents of the box. "You really went all out."

"You deserve the best." I replied.

She took a gander at the wand and watched as I turned it on. She briefly placed a hoof to her chest, giving a breathy moan. "Oh, I am about to lose my breath, aren't I?" I turned back off the wand, watching as she gazed at the paddles and whips on the bed. "I'm still thinking about our mini sessions in the dungeons. I had to be so quiet then."

"That was then, this is now." I replied. "We're about a nautical mile or so out. You can be as loud as you want to be. So don't be ashamed to show me that you're having fun, or even if you need me to give you a break."

I placed a few scented candles on the nightstands next to the bed. I pinched my fingers against the wick, letting my magic cycle between my thumb and index finger. When the wick ignited, I withdrew my hand and did it to the others. But in the midst of my performing the simple action, her mind had already began to drive her towards kinkier pastures. "Ooh... that looks warm."

I lifted the aluminum restraint bar and placed it next to her legs, measuring how far apart I wanted her to spread. "Excited?"

"Very." She answered as I applied the spreader bar to her hind legs. I promptly set the bar to one of it's higher settings, leaving her with very little options to keep herself hidden from me. I levitated a crop from the box and ran it up the length of her left hind leg. She started to tremble, thinking of her compromising position. "Terribly... excited."

I could already begin to smell the musk she started to give off. I placed the crop to her wings, slowly gliding it against her. "Now don't start melting down just yet. I've barely got you sucking my thumb."

"I almost can't wait to get started." She announced with a tremble in her voice.

I pointed the crop at her. "You know the drill. Safe word?"

She pursed her lips in thought as she came up with her key word to stop the session. "...Luna."

I began to laugh. "Yikes, any other suggestions?"

"I think she's a mood killer as it is. That's perfect enough for me." She answered confidently.

As I started to walk a circle around her, I initiated a check-up of her condition and comfort. "Are you hydrated?"

"Yes sir." She answered happily.

"Comfortable?"

"Yes sir."

"Wings bothering you?"

"No sir."

I tilted my head with a smirk, levitating the crop to the base of her tail. "Tail down?"

The mare blushed, but appeared begrudging with her reply. "Yes sir."

I brought the crop back to me, placing it under her chin. "Are you going to keep it down?"

"Yes sir." She began to pant.

"You'll tell me what you like and what you don't?"

"Yes sir." She replied, quickly losing track of her breathing.

I had ever seen her so excited before, maybe she had been impatiently waiting for something like this for the three months we haven't really touched up like this. It was making me anxious to have her as well. "So who am I?"

"My king." She replied breathlessly.

I moved the crop and placed my hand on her cheek. "When I say stop, you stop. When I say go, you ask where. Understood?"

"Yes sir." Her mouth left agape, she allowed for my thumb to sink inside.

"Are you ready?" I asked as I ran my hand down to her neck, softly grasping at her throat.

"Yes..." Her mane started to fade to pink exclusively. She was more than ready, she was begging. "Sir..." She tried her best to keep her tail stationary, but I could see the arch in her back already forming at my slightest touch. She was pent up, ready to explode at a moment's notice.

While it would be cruel to leave her unfulfilled, I still desired to have her wait for her release. I gave the mare a brief introduction of our tongues before I pulled away. She leaned into me, trying to maintain contact as I held her back. The dizziness in her eyes already indicated she was lustfully engaged. Now the redness of her ears told me that she was getting even hotter. She wanted to just drive into me again, but she acknowledged her role and remained in good standing. "Good girl." I praised her, pinching a little hard at her neck. "Assume the position."

No hesitation, she moved and planted her head to the floor, she arched her back and gazed up at me, begging as though she was in heat. "I am ready, your highness."

As she looked up to me, I couldn't help but to feel myself against the front of my robe, my mind already festering with many immoral fantasies. "Such a pretty face. I truly wish to defile it beyond reason."

Celestia, however didn't like how I began to guide my fingers along the length of my shaft through the robe. "Your highness." She urged.

"What is it?"

"Please refrain from self-ministry, my lord. I should be of use to you... or do you feel I am not enough?"

She never liked it when I touched myself in front of her. To her, it only reinforced the idea that she didn't do enough to please me. Instead, she insisted that I'd relegate that duty to her and her alone. I'll admit it made many of our brief sessions a bit frustrating, but I was just as pent up as she was at this point. So she understands that a mere hand wouldn't really do it justice.

"Are you enough? We shall see." I replied to her, walking to her elevated posterior. I trailed my crop to outline her voluptuous curves, watching as the mare trembled at the threat of being struck. I leaned into her ear a warning. "However, I do not appreciate you speaking out of term."

"Sorry, sir." She whimpered.

*whap*

A shriek erupted past her lips. She tried her best to keep her head down as the welt I gave her left a stinging impression on her flanks. The spreader bar rattled as she made the effort to remain still. I could tell she was waiting months for that impact, to feel that sensation against her body once more. And I couldn't wait to see the expression on her face once I had given her that.

While I wanted to simply plant my hands all over her body, I had to convince myself to maintain restraint. The grip I had on the crop tightened further as I mentally struggled with my urges to breed her. "Even the slightest sign of disobedience is a breeding ground of disorder. And it must be corrected."

*whap*

I gave to her yet another welt, this one on the other cheek for fairness. She stood firm through the slow stinging assault, trying to gain a rhythm of her breaths. She never could properly breathe once pleasure racked up to a certain point, especially when pent up for so long. So I had to wait until she finished inhaling before issuing her another blow.

*whap*

Another to her left cheek, situated high above her thigh, barely getting in close to where her growing heat needed to be quenched. Her head remained low, her jaw literally resting on the floor as she gasped and panted. Worst off, whenever she was like this, she had an uncontrollable urge to salivate. At first, she was shy about it, but now she does so unashamedly, advertising the sexual inebriation she suffered from.

*whap*

A repeat of the previous strike to the right, only this time my reach crept past her tail. It was intentional, to lightly tease the mound that I know was winking underneath. Her hind legs began to develop a small collection of droplets, probably from the immense arousal she experienced. Her legs shook as she waited for the next blow to come in.

*whap*

This time she stumbled, she tried to avoid the next hit, but was stopped as my hand went under her belly to hold her from falling over. "Don't you move." I sternly warned her. "Bring it back up. C'mon."

"Yes sir!" She mewled, slowly repositioning herself. As she rose back to her form, I slowly traced the place hidden behind her tail. She erratically squeaked and gasped, hyperventilating as her posterior swayed for invitation. I could tell the words wanted to leave her lips, the words she forever felt were beneath a mare of such social standing. She instead allowed that to translate into her body language, to make her wants known.

"Don't give out yet. We just started." I commanded.

"Yes sir!" She called with the very last ounce of her breath.

I walk behind her, dragging the crop up through the inside of her legs. As the tool rose, I could see the fluids pooling on the leather fixings. I began to feel for the place her body had met with them, scraping up and through the slight indentations that outlined where she sourced her arousal. I could feel from the slight initial resistance where she winked. I slightly pulled back from her, leaving her to only taste the slightest sensation of a foreign entity threatening to enter her. She tried her best to not lift her tail, knowing that I would punish her for it. Her greedy rump swayed more, trying to quietly invite me in. But I refused her welcome and withdrew the tool from under her tail.

*whap*

A vertical strike to her left cheek was issued, introducing the forbidden bounty of her bodily nectar to acquaint with the rippling flesh of her succulent, sun-marked mounds. She was unable to withstand the effective mode of attack, collapsing to the ground and crying out in a violent shriek her apex. Her eyes clenched shut as her hips instinctively rocked inward on pulse. Her body jolted with every thrust. She laid on the ground, her body slightly unable to hide herself from my eyes. A thick white fluid oozed from within her, bridging itself between her sex and her tail.

My bathrobe was becoming increasingly uncomfortable the longer I wore it. I wanted to free myself more than ever. But before I could entertain that idea, I checked in on my beautiful subject, her eyes cascaded by the pinkness of her mane. "Breathe. Look at me." I urged as I cleared her mane from her eyes. "You know you were supposed to hold that one, right?"

"I'm sorry sir." She moaned with a slight smile, knowing she wasn't going to try to hold in her excitement past her usual breaking point.

"That's gonna have to cost you. You know that right?" I snarled, holding her by her throat.

"Yes sir." Even in her post-orgasmic recovery, she was already eager for the next one. It seemed in her pent-up state, she grew very insatiable.

I pulled her back up to her position, where she eagerly swayed her hips while waiting for the next hit. I felt the dampness of her body growing, she began to sweat. I leaned into her with a comment on her inability to keep herself from climaxing "One thousand years, and you still don't know how to control your O's."

"I'm sorry, sir." She whimpered.

As I held her, I realized that I too had lost my patience. We were finally alone again, and without any real time limit. I wanted to sink my hips into hers, willing to make a mess of her, hear her cry out my name like she was in danger. I wanted everything of her, to hell with my promise.

But I couldn't do that, she would hold it against me. And I'm not sure if I was quite ready yet to feel her without any of her personal restrictions in place. It's already around the time for estrus as it is, I'm sure that it would hit her like a rocket, that she would crush me without a moment's notice. And just from the sight of her now, I'd be asking for my hips to be mashed to graces. Glory glory, what a hell of a way to die.

We haven't had an undisturbed moment yet, this would be the first. I still had to learn her, to tame her before I unleashed a hell I couldn't escape until a month from now. So we settled with this, to identify the means to gradually taper off that beast inside of her.

I picked up the vibrating wand and looked at the princess' eyes as she watched it activate in my magic. "You know, it has been a month." I levitated the item to her posterior, where it sat between her haunches, lightly teasing her. "Actually, it's been more like three. So I guess today's session should be a little different." She looked at me as though I had tortured her in some way, doomed to suffer the perpetual teasing, even in the midst of a climax. "I'll let you sit on that low setting for a while."

"Yes sir." The gasp from her lips told me that she was unprepared for what was next. Being teased continuously wasn't something she was used to in any capacity, so she was very much surprised by what was taking place, and all the more anxious for what was to come next.

"Open your wings." I ordered.

Uncertain as to what I was going to do to her, she still obeyed my command without question. "Yes sir."

Her wings unfurled, leaving them to relax on the ground. I lifted one of them and began to run my fingers along her extensions, tickling her lightly. "You've been neglecting your wings again, haven't you?"

"No sir." She replied with a shiver sent throughout her body.

I began to preen her wing, slowly and carefully, tickling the portions of her body that had little to no attention paid to them. "I'm gonna know if you didn't."

I'm not afraid to admit that I personally enjoyed watching the former ruler of this land squirm at my touch. She forever made the distinction that she wanted to have more personal relationships in her life, and now this was the fruit of that wish. To peel away at the indecisions, the timid exterior hidden behind walls and pillars of societal opinion, the moat of powers and greed, a field of whispers and thoughts, all to rescue a princess trapped in her own machination founded on the traumas of her past and restrictions of her previous present. The liberties of just one simple thing, of my touch against her wings, overwhelmed her immensely.

She always hated when I focused on her wings for too long, she never wanted to bear the cost of them being toyed with, knowing how sensitive they were to her. But this day was the day she found out just how much attention she sorely lacked, and wanted in the same breath of air. Something so innocently taboo, the attention my fingers gave to the crevices and pits of her wings, combined with the low-set vibrations amidst her sex was all she could contemplate. I knew it would break her easily. But sure, what's the problem with another orgasm? Hell, why not a few more?

Why not set a high score after so long of not having?

"Sir, I'm close!" She announces loudly. I didn't show remorse in my ministrations, I did the exact opposite. Why mercy now when I know that she's waited for so long? Would it make her jaded for any other times we clash like this, it could. But I could always just build it back up again, reestablish the tension.

I flicked the switch of the wand to a moderate setting, all while stretching myself between the attention given to her wings and the one thing I chose to ignore no longer; Her horn. Her eyes widened as I leaned from one part of her equine body to the other, realizing that my metaphorical wingspan could accommodate for both extremities of her enchanting anatomy. I watched as she panted in panic from the moment my lips and tongue discovered the crevices of her spiraling indents. Her eyes rolled back as a spurt of magic warmed through her horn, her wings stiffened, her hind legs tensed so strongly that she broke the bar that was to restrain her.

Poor thing, she blacked out for the moment. I never knew an orgasm to be so potent that it had knocked her senseless and rendered her immobilized. She fell limp to the floor, quickly breathing very shallow breaths. I leaned down and tapped her on her cheek, trying to wake her. She eventually came to and I scolded her for her lack of respiratory control. "What did I tell you about breathing?"

"I'm sorry, sir." She replied very weakly.

As much as I wanted to continue, as dire as my own need was, I could not continue without making sure she was okay. Even in roleplay, I had to coach her into remaining healthy. At the very least, she was showing that she was very well hydrated with how much she perspired. "Deep breaths." I urged, placing my hand over the scar on her chest.

"Yes, sir." She nodded, taking a minute or two to get her bearings. She looked back at the spreader bar and apologized. "I'm sorry for breaking it, sir."

I stayed true to my role and addressed her. "You know, that toy of mine was fairly expensive. I should have you repay me for that."

"Whatever you wish, sir." She replied, sitting back onto her haunches. Her head rose in looking up at me. She was a tired and sweaty mess, and the sight of her sitting before me made me mad.

I wanted her. "Get it up."

"Yes, sir." True to her restrictions, her posterior rose once more, her tail still held down as she swayed in a more subtle motion.

I circled my hand in telling her to turn around. "To me." She made no response as she faced away from me, gently plopping her moistened posterior to my crotch. Only the robe and her tail separated the two of us from union. I watched as her pristine form slowly grinded against me. She promptly grew the distance between us, only to instinctively ram herself back towards me. I drove my hips to her in return, using my hand to swat at her. Her flesh rippled against my impact, disrupting those caused from our hips meeting. "You want me to fill you, don't you?"

Her eyes closed to imagine the moment, she picked up her speed. "Yes, sir."

"With what?" I questioned.

"Sir..." She asked shyly, still not comfortable with such crude language.

"With. What?" I slowly asked, teasing her over the minor discomfort.

"Thick. Cock." She stopped ramming into me, motioning her hips up and down to grind against me. "Demean me... please."

Damn woman... she knew that I was up to the hairs on my scalp in holding back. Seeing her tease me like this was the only thing she had to do in order to push me into revealing myself. I had to remove myself from behind her before I sought the liberty to take things even further. "You're a naughty little girl talking to me like that."

"Yes sir." She said with a giggle.

I sat on the bed, undoing the robe and allowing it to fall haplessly to the bed. "A naughty little girl like you needs to keep that mouth full so you don't say anymore dirty things."

Her eyes didn't notice anything of me, but thoroughly feasted on the mast standing at attention for her. "Oh... sir." She was quick to approach, sitting herself between my legs.

"That's right, it's your first time seeing it up close like this, isn't it?" I began to hold her chin with one hand, guiding the now-revealed tool against her lips.

"Yes, sir." Her warm breath ticked against my turgid stature. I inhaled deeply to take in the sight of her lavender eyes becoming eclipsed by my resting on her face.

At last, it was my turn. "Down." She slid her muzzle beneath my loins, looking as longingly as I did to her. "Kiss." I whispered slowly, already at my wit's end. She did as I requested, slowly planting her soft lips against the bottom of my shaft. Even her withdrawal seemed hesitant, the skin of her lips sticking for fractions before separating. A throb surged through the mass that rested from her lips. "Again." Once more, she took upon the invitation to worship. Her lips were continuous in greeting my base, her muzzle rested in the skin of my loins, her eyes occasionally glanced to me to check how I received her actions, I replied by grabbing the side of her head, filtering her mane through my fingers. "You're so drunk, aren't you?" I questioned the lustful mare of her promiscuity.

"Yes, sir." She whispered as she nestled under me, taking in the scents of my soap and sweat.

"Lick it." I begged. "Slow."

I watched as she unleashed her tongue from her maw, glazing the underside of my length as her royally maintained eyes darted between her slow work and my reactions. She turned her head, lubing the side of me in whole until she had reached the top. Her tongue retreated for a short while, only to acquaint itself onto my tip, crowning me with a presence most precious to me.

I let out a soft moan, whispering my thoughts. "Okay, suck."

I didn't think she had heard me, but the sensation of her lips wrapping around me had nearly set me off. I gritted my teeth as I sat up to watch her work. My hand began to caress her head in a show of approval for her diligence. Her mouth welcomed me with a warm reception, her face was already appearing concentrated. I could tell she was being hard on herself, but her performance was nothing short of stellar. The years of her being a magnificent kisser translated well to her adaptiveness.

I had to make a demand of her. "Slower." I didn't want to be broken so soon, I wanted to enjoy her warmth as much as she enjoyed our first time together.

My palm rested atop her head as she sank in and withdrew. But as the initial moment of my request passed, she picked up her speed, and also increased the depth of her work. I trembled, whispering and begging for the moment to come. But she remained diligent in not immediately offering me that request. It almost felt like she had held this as a long-time secret, this incredible gift of her mouth was so precious. Her tongue swirled around my head, even poking into it with the intention of pressing against a hidden button that could prime me into my oncoming release.

She stopped for a moment, taking in a deep breath. And then she sank down, devouring me whole as her tongue rested against the bottom of my loins. Her gags sounded guttural, the concentration on her face as she tried to focus on my reaction, the temporary withdrawal afterwards to perform the feat yet again... repeatedly... in tempo to my breathing... until my fingers began to tense against her scalp.

"Oh fuck." I pressed my hips upwards into her throat, trying to keep myself from not exploding. "Keep me there, don't move." I begged, trying to stave off what was already in manifest. Instead, she moved my hand and forced herself further down. Her magic wrapped around me and milked me for my seed. "FUCK!" I thought I could retract myself, but her strength was too great to overcome. She wanted me to mark her throat as mine, and got what she desired. A powerful jolt had me crying out loudly to her. I gripped the sheets of the bed, watching as she ruthlessly sank and retracted herself repeatedly throughout my surges. I nearly cried from my release, seeing stars wash my world in a brilliant light before looking down to see my seed coating her tongue in various spurts. She wanted to immediately close her mouth to swallow, but I called to her. "No, stay right there." I pulled myself from her mouth, releasing what little I had left to her face. The former princess giggled naughtily all while I fell limp to the bed.

In the back of my eyes was the image I've longed to see for years, the princess' face covered in my seed. I thought to finally recover from my perilous drop, but she had other plans. A surge of overstimulation wracked through my body as quickly as I offered the same cruelty to her. I looked back up to see her semen-stained face back at it, her eyes seeking to snatch the remnants of my soul as her tongue sought to snatch the rest of my seed.

I called to her for a moment to pause, feeling beyond stimulated and very much unprepared for it. "Wait wait wait, labrat."

She stopped her work, gazing at me with concern after hearing me use my safe word. "What's wrong?"

I looked at her and shook my head in disbelief. "This is your first time going this far with me, you're not supposed to be this good."

The initial compliment had made her smile glow the more incandescent. She took my praise as an opportunity to bashfully give her confession. "Well I've done my research for many a night before bed. Why do you think I always ordered a banana before going to sleep?"

"Wait, that was all you did?" I asked her, still not believing it.

"Well..." She said eagerly as she pumped me clean to clear me off. "Plus, a certain zebra has managed to give me a few hints on what makes you go off. Plus it took me the better part of a month to overcome my gag reflex."

Without missing a beat, she swallowed down on me and rose back up, clearing her mouth with another satisfied gulp. "Oh wow." I said, feeling my soft downturn taking a curve back upwards.

She continued to prime me as she spoke. "I know you're still taking lead, but can I get you ready to go again?"

"Might be a minute." I replied.

"I don't think you understand. A minute might not be quick enough for me." She replied a second before she went into trying to stimulate me back into form. Her lips sank onto me yet again.

"You must really want me to dominate you some more." I said, pointing out her eagerness.

"Oh please." She begged with a great effort, priming me back to full form.

"Well I'll get to that in a sec, but first..." I pulled her up from me, forcing her lips to seek another item to embrace. I passionately shoved my tongue into hers, increasingly turned on by her acquired work and effort. She was surprised by the gesture, pulling back off of me to call me out.

"Nondis!" She said loudly. "Don't you realize what I just did!?"

"Okay. It's me. It's not like I'm doing this after you've done someone else." I plainly explained.

And just like that, her tail poked right up as she blushed all over. "Oh..."

I waved my hand in front of her face, seeing if I could snap her attention back to me. "You okay?"

Her eyes wander to the box with childlike amusement. "Can we do the blindfold and hot wax next? I lifted my tail, I need to be punished. Hard. Like really hard."

...Yeah, it's probably a good thing that I didn't quite break the seal on her estrus restriction yet.

4 Years Later...

After some time of really getting to know each other, our peeves, our discomforts, and our limitations, we at last decided to settle on the idea of getting hitched. It was more of a matter of when moreso than where. Two years out of our finally retiring, we originally had our big day penned out to be a beautiful spring morning, when the sun rose from over the horizon. But upon a longer thought, it was probably better that we didn't set up our wedding to be so early in the day. Then came the ongoing issue in our world, the pandemic that made it hard for everyone to travel. I didn't want to risk a spread here in Equestria, so we postponed sending invitations for a year.

Then we started hearing the news of the vaccinations, the mask mandates being lifted, and some of the travel bans being retracted as well. We talked to the others, seeing if they could at least have one dose of the vaccination and quarantine for a good two weeks before coming by. Once that was agreed on by Alex's family, Stanton, mom, and dad, they did as they were asked and came around shortly after. They each booked their stay for a month, wanting to take in some of the sights of the country. Melanie and Rickey were especially mandated to do that since they moved to Ponyville, mainly with them already catching the bug and recovering from it after a while. Cliff didn't have to do anything, he moved to Ponyville City with Sunset Shimmer a year after graduating, so no COVID restrictions for him.

We had a pretty wild time when we got the squad back together. I even brought them aboard the yacht. Their faces were absolutely frozen when they saw me sail up to the dock. And then came the week going into the wedding itself. For tradition sake, they kept both me and Celestia separate until it was time for our vows to be exchanged. I think I had to spend a long time trying to write what was on my mind. But then when it came to the wedding, I just tossed them aside and spoke from my heart. She did the same and we were both a mess coming out of that chapel.

The reception grew to be pretty big, there were two of them apparently. There was one with all of our immediate friends, family, and associates. Along with them were some dignitaries from other species, countries, and walks of life. We had our fun... but so did the city. The 'second' one was more of a parade for us. It wasn't really planned to be a parade, but it turned into one because of the news spreading around the town like a wildfire. A lot of the creatures cheered our exit along the way, many guards proactively lining the streets to treat us like royalty for one last time before we took our airship back home. But when we arrived back home, we were greeted with yet another surprise.

Luna had packed her belongings and left them in the foyer. She finally broke the news to us that she would be moving into a home a few addresses down, leaving the entire house to us. I watched as she tearfully bode Celestia farewell, despite the fact that we were going to be neighbors. Shortly after, we shared our first night together, still soaking in the fact that she was now my lawfully-wedded wife.

That word still takes some getting used to saying.

While I was happy to share the moment with her, she had a more organized itinerary. From the moment Luna closed the door behind her with all her bags in tow, she immediately fell into her roleplaying mode. And of course, there was no more restrictions in what we could do with one another. That only meant one thing to her...

It meant that there was no more holding back.

She let me know from the moment we opened the door to the master bedroom that she wanted these bedsheets to smell like we abandoned all measure of civility. And she was quick to drag me out of my tux. She carefully navigated her way out of the dress, finally wearing nothing but a specially designed lingerie. Her eyes seemed concentrated on me as I navigated myself towards her. She sat herself on the bed and assumed her position without my commanding it. She pulled me in with her magic, guiding me to press against her. Her head turned towards me, revealing a beautiful smile, needing eyes hidden in the shortened locks of her mane.

Her magic held me in place as she swayed herself against me, allowing me to feel the warmth behind the black satin of her panties. She didn't just lift her tail for me, she wrapped the tamed length of it around my waist as her magic would. Slowly, she teased me and waited for me to take the initiative. But even I knew that her patience was subject to wear thin if I did nothing.

I complimented my wife on her appearance in the dim candlelight of our room. "You are absolute perfection right now."

She fell away before falling back into me a few times, giggling as though she were naught but a naughty teenager. "Then maybe you should show me what you would do with this 'perfection'." She sat herself up, and leaned against my chest, saying the five words that told me her intent. "We have time now, babe."

I leaned into her lips, to taste once more the flavor that was chosen by my wife. I felt her guide me where she wanted me to be the most, not hesitating with any foreplay. Her tongue lashed at me in a feral manner, her wings spreading as my hands glided across her chest and underbelly. I pulled away from her lips, nipping at the nape of her neck. She spoke a whisper of affirmation.

I continued to nibble at her body's features, playfully teasing both her horn and wings. She activated her magic in the course of the chaos I gave her, pulling my last defense from her away from me. And in the course of feeling me thump against her, she rushed to pull her exquisite clothing aside. Her eyes locked to me as she guided me for the first time to meet with her.

"Oh, fuck." I sighed in feeling the heat her body gave off at our first contact. I slid my hips into her, just barely avoiding an entry. I repeatedly allowed myself to warm between her flanks, allowing me to see the pink access she offered.

My hands slid up the back of her neck, my fingers grasping a hold of the hairs in between them. Celestia giggled lightly. "Not so much to grab now, is there?"

"I didn't marry you for your mane." I said as I glided within the crevice of her warm and inviting posterior. "I always said that I liked the change-up."

"You apparently liked it so much that you almost took me on the couch." She recalled. "You must really like it now, that or you like playing with your food."

I leaned in to kiss on her neck again, nibbling at her ears also, causing her to lift her rear to me, encouraging me to make my entrance. I went back to teasing her wings, making her breathe a bit erratically. "I can enjoy more than one thing at a time. I don't have a one-track mind."

"Then tell me what's playing in your head." She said as I pressed my hand into the small of her back. "I thought you'd resort to that eventually."

She lowered herself, allowing me to become free of her. I looked down to see myself in full immersion of her body. I looked as she gave me a wink, urging me to fill her. I guided myself to partake. "Oh my God, just let me─" The tip of my sex kissed against the moistened folds that greeted me so gently. I received their welcome and took to enter into her folds. My eyes widened from the warmth that slowly surrounded me with every inch I slowly gave.

"Yessss." She moaned passionately, feeling me hilt out within her. "Oh... You like it?" She asked, backing herself into me.

I lifted my head, almost celebrating the moment as I briefly withdrew to insert myself once more. "I love it."

"Really taking your time with me, aren't you?" That was her way of saying I could go faster. "I'm not fragile, you know that."

Personally I didn't care how fragile or sturdy she was. For me, this moment was six years in the making. The sight of me entering into her was what she aptly called after the wedding a 'high score'. But for me, this moment with her was nothing shy of a world achievement. And I wanted to bask in the warmth that embraced me.

I seemingly basked for too long. "Honey." She looked back to me as I secretly enjoyed my victorious pause. "Why'd you stop? Is something wrong?"

"Just taking in the view." I answered as my fingers ran across the succulent curvature of her flanks. "There's not many males who have gotten to take this in, are there?"

"I may know one or two, at least willingly." She joked lightly.

I continued to let my fingers feel out the indentures of her shape before my eyes were lead to the arch in her back. I slowly pressed and retracted my motions, letting her adapt to me. "Such a beautiful form, how it just runs so smoothly along my fingers, the dip that sinks in just so slightly. So perfect, so straight." I retracted my hand and slapped her flanks, watching the sun ripple from my blow. "It's a shame I'll have to break it."

"Nondis─" She couldn't gather words quick enough before I drove my hand into the back of her head, sending her into the pillows. I used all of my size to overwhelm her stature, climbing to the bed to fully take her. She watched as my right leg took anchor in the mattress by her. She felt the rough impressions I issued to her body, her prior concerns quickly shattering away as another question came to her lips. "How many you want?" She mewled into the pillows, inquiring me of how many kids I wanted from her.

"All of them." I answered as my hips rammed into hers repeatedly, trying to match the rhythm of her breaths.

"Yes sir." She said as she issued her magic in a bid to milk me whilst inside of her.

Instead, I caught her off guard by pulling from the base of her tail, dragging her upwards into me as I pressed, and pulling her off when I retracted. Her eyes began to roll into the back of her head as I ordered her from above her contorted body. "Don't run from it."

"Yes sir." She replied, her front hooves digging into the bed.

"You take it." I said with a slight tug of her mane.

"Yes sir!" Her head raised, her tongue fell from her mouth as she began to lose track of her breathing again. Before I could find my own rhythm, she began to convulse, pressing her wing against my chest in a bid to give her pause. "Wait, stop. Stop." I did as she instructed, but she still continued to impale herself onto me. Her head rocked as she thrashed herself throughout the course of her orgasm. She sounded as though she had laughed, but then seized into a small crying fit.

I was initially caught guard, concerned if something had happened. "Cella?" I started to withdraw myself immediately. "Tia!" But as I called her name, she used her magic to keep me in place, guiding me back inside of her, ushering me into slow motions. She didn't respond to much of what I did, only acting out of some inherent instinct to press onward. She quickly increased her pace again, squeaking with every moment I hilted into her. She thrashed and thrashed wildly until she made no noise, her wings drawing me over her trembling body until she had finally collapsed to the bed, finally drawing breath after several seconds of depriving herself of much-needed oxygen.

I held her head up, her chin covered in drool. She slowly looked back to me and asked. "What happened?"

I was almost speechless. I know I've heard of something of the sort, but I never thought I lived to see one caused by my own doing. She apparently had what many would call it a super-orgasm, or a quick succession of two or more orgasms. Sometimes they do happen, but I have never seen one to be so violent. But in Celestia's case, she seemed to have been overwhelmed by the moment, coupled by sexual overstimulation.

Honestly, I was between scared and proud. Proud that I could break her, and scared because I actually broke her. I checked in on her. "You blacked out and went wild for a sec, you okay babe?"

She still felt aftershocks from her incredible climax. "I'm sorry, I just couldn't breathe. I got lost in it is all." She confessed as she softly guided me back within her.

I pulled her up to me, whispering in her ears to be more careful. "Babe, you have to breathe. You can't just have an orgasm and not breathe. I know you feel great right now, but you can't just black out on me."

"I'm sorry." She answered. "I just haven't had this in over a thousand years."

"That's fine. I understand." I replied as I removed myself from her.

"Wait, no!" She pleaded, trying to use her magic to usher me back in. "Please, come back." I flipped her over, making sure she could see my face as I climbed onto the bed. She looked up to see me hunching on top of her, reissuing my sex to within hers. As I sank back into her, she took notice of how small she was in contrast to me. "Oh honey, I don't think I've ever felt this tiny before."

I leaned into her, whispering to her. "Now I get to keep my eyes on you. I don't want you sitting here and taking in anything if you ain't breathing. Now, deep breaths, okay?"

She shook her head in denial. "Nondie, it gets really hard when you're just giving me a good time like thi─" I cut her off with a strong thrust, causing her to take a sharp intake of air. "Oh fuck!"

"See?" I teased her. "Deep breaths, it'll let you focus on relaxing your abdominals. You'll get to have better circulation of oxygen, your pelvic floor relaxes better, your orgasms will feel better."

"Oh really?" She asked, appearing genuinely surprised. "I always thought it was just... you know... in and out until it goes... boom."

I couldn't help but laugh at my wife's thoughts. "Sweetie, oxygen is required for your brain to go 'ah'. Your brain can't go 'ah' if you're too busy breathing through your teeth. You don't get any value in it if you're acting like you're Plus it ain't no fun if I'm just getting into a rhythm climbing the ladder and you're already diving off the top board. You can't go any higher if you're already up there, relax. You said it yourself, we have time now."

She was already starting to gradually speed up her breaths, her mouth taking in all the air it could handle. "Okay. Deep breaths."

"Nose." I ordered. "Through the nose. Slow it down."

"Okay." She said as she took my advice.

Already, I began to notice a difference in how I was being received. Instead of her clenching up on me so readily, she allowed herself to take me. I slowly entered and exited from within her, quietly working a slow rhythm to match her pace of breathing. My hips were slow in giving her what I had, and her body gladly took it. She looked up at me as I praised her for her progress. "Yeah, that's right. Slow and relaxed. Start there."

While she didn't show it, her body began to show signs of improvement. She started to let her chest rise and fall more consistently. Her wings wrapped around me as she gazed down to where we joined. As she watched, the wetness she produced increased greatly, leaving on me a creamy essence that was thick with her own musk. The former princess cooed as she watched me slowly refine more from within her. "Oh my goodness... Is that us?"

"Mhmm." I nodded to her, giving her an intimate exchange of our lips. "That's right."

"I know I've only been mounted on, but I never really had the chance to actually see what goes on." She confessed. "It's pretty interesting."

"If you want to, you can focus on me." I offered.

She looked back to my eyes, seeing the reflection of herself in them. She appeared entranced for moments at a time while I produced my slow work. She didn't smile, instead pulling my head into her to fully partake in her lips. Her soft gasps fell between the frequent moments our lips met, offering a suggestion. "Honey, can I turn over?"

"Why?" I asked her.

"It's nothing bad, I promise." She said as she gracefully pushed me away for her to adjust. She laid on the bed, her tail shifted aside as her limbs were stretched outward. She craned her neck to look at me. "Could you possibly take me in this manner? I feel that you having me like this would be better for me." I obliged in her request, applying myself within her, pressing my weight into her with every shove. And it showed on her face moreso than the last position we shared of how much she enjoyed it.

I suppose it only felt natural to her to look up to me from behind. She looked so needy as I readjusted my position, anchoring myself into the bed with one knee, using the other foot for leverage. I planted my hand beside her, she placed my hand upon her shoulder and nodded for me to continue.

"Yes baby, c'mon." She mouthed between breaths.

I started to see that this was the position she truly desired, the one that mixed both the slow and deep strokes I preferred giving her, and my offering her the dominance she hungrily craved. Her eyes closed for moments to take in the moment. Our sheets started to stain beneath us, the bed creaking as we moved in our rhythmic motion. She still maintained her deep breaths, but this time her moans became frequent but quiet. Out of habit, I slid my hand to her neck, lightly pinching into her. She dropped her head away from my grasp, then raising it to look back at me with an inviting sigh.

I moved in to kiss her against her ear, suckling her nape as I maintained my rhythm. Her hoof reached to the side of my face, pulling me into her lips. Our unity on that front was as disgraceful and feral as mere animals, our mouths opened to welcome one another, our tongues waging skirmishes until the moments our lips came back down. She licked the top of my lip to bring me back in for yet another battle. As we broke away, she bit her lips as I paused to gauge myself.

Our eyes still locked to one another as she moaned a request. "Daddy, please don't stop."

"What you call me?" I asked, giving her another deep thrust.

"Daddy." She whispered.

Even I failed to withhold myself at her answer. I firmed my resolve once more to tighten my grip and increase my speed. She rocked back and forth between our motions. I moved with the intent of only one word that repeated in my mind; Breed. I longed for years to breed this mare and I was going to stain her as mine. I worked hard for this, I'll be damned if I don't do it now.

"Fuck." That was the word she whispered in between her deepening breaths. "Daddy. Yes."

Our sheets stained even more as she broke down into her next orgasm, my thighs became stained in her juices as she squirted onto me. Upon each thrust I gave, our bed became wetter and wetter. The pressure within my loins began to build, I had to bring her up to me one more time before I felt it coming.

I hauled her up by her chest, holding the climaxing mare as she squeaked. "I can take it. Come on."

"I'm gonna cum." I moaned to her, trying my best to hold back as much as possible.

"Yes, sir." She moaned as she still suffered her climax, stalling out as I continued. "Daddy."

I let out a pained grunt, feeding to her a few more thrusts before I had suddenly become overwhelmed by the surge. My fingers clenched into whatever surface I held, my arms tightened around her abdomen as I carried her to take my seed. I unleashed a guttural scream as my loins seized almost painfully with how worked up I had become in our session. My voice trembled as I sent forth several more spurts into her womb. She placed a hoof to my head, pulling me in for yet another kiss, as feral as the last.

In the course of my release, I leaned down on top of her and still slowly worked myself against the mix of our juices. She purred happily as I rode her out of my descent. "You came a lot, didn't you?"

"I came inside my wife, that's what the fuck I did."

She smiled as she gauged my energy. "You spent?"

I rose from on top of her. "You know how it is. Give it a few minutes." I said, giving her a slap on her rump.

She looked down to the sheets, seeing the mess we've made. "I think I might have relaxed a little too much."

"You kidding me, that's how it's supposed to be."

"It's so nasty though." She giggled.

"And you mad about it?" I asked.

"I know I'll be throwing these sheets in the wash tonight." She answered.

"Well ain't no harm in a little more work." I replied with a smile. "Since we got a midnight load to do, why not take these sheets for another spin cycle?"

"This room is going to be such a musky mess, it might take days to clean the air." She added.

"I call it that 'marriage certified' smell." I joked, earning a playful hit from the former princess.

Celestia scowled back at me and said. "Are you seriously going to be this revolting throughout our marriage?"

"Tia, you married me because I am this revolting." I answered with a smirk.

"And I wouldn't have it any other way." She yanked me into another kiss, pulling me back into the bed. "Now let's go again and see if we can put a crack in this bedframe. I promised a broken bed, and by Faust we'll have one when we're done."

"That's my girl!" I praised.

5 Years Later...

Our marriage had been a quiet but wild affair. Our honeymoon phase was especially filled with passionate runs and romps that rivaled the recounts of the Russian rogue Rasputin. And they didn't just take place in one setting. Sometimes we would go out to sea, making sure that the neighbors couldn't hear us. Even a little later, we even had the opportunity to have our actual honeymoon over in my world, more specifically the Maldives.

However, shortly after our return home, we began to run into a few problems pertaining to Celestia's health. While we confirmed that it wasn't COVID, it was actually something completely different. In all actuality, it had to do with her ability to raise and lower the sun. Since that kind of magic apparently takes a toll on the user, it hadn't really seen much effect until Celestia began to do it less and less. And as a result, it affected her body in a negative way.

Namely, that was was in the manner of being able to give birth.

She wasn't sterile because of it, but the complications her body had undergone due to the magical interference in her physical structure often disallowed her from suffering the full brunt of estrus, but also making it harder for her to conceive. I took up the task to do what I could to research ways we could circumvent the issue, especially since this is a rare case to which one's own magical properties interfered with their bodily functions. I even wrote to Starswirl on the matter, seeing if I could help in any way. But with magic research on the topic being so limited, there was very little that could be done other than hope for the best. So I came back to Celestia empty-handed, but very much willing to study for how to help deal with pregnancy as an expecting father, including any and all emergency situations. Of course, the sex continued, but we had an ulterior motive for it now.

It took a lot of effort to get her pregnant, it didn't matter the form. Our first successful attempt of germination was with me turning into a pony and impregnating her that way, since we figured it to be the safest option. We had the whole first-timer showcase. Morning sickness, unusual cravings, strange impulses and mood swings, a whole four months completely normal... and then it just ended. One day we were walking down the aisle in a supermarket and then ponies behind us started complaining about stepping in blood. Celestia's eyes grew dim as she soon realized what had actually occurred.

Miscarriage.

The second one was with her turning into a human, where our attempts to germinate were massively successful. She even stayed in human form for four months to help promote growth. Same symptoms applied, morning sickness, all that other stuff for three months... but yet again, miscarriage.

She began to worry that her body would disallow her to have kids at this point. So I reached out to Twilight to see if we can work something up that would help boost our chances. Maybe since this was a magic issue, it could be rectified with magic, at least that was the standing theory. We both remained our respective species and tried to conceive that way. The germination wouldn't occur until our thirtieth attempt. Everything seemed normal at first... but then Celestia became incredibly ill and the baby didn't make it past the third month.

Celestia began to fall into a depression, for three years, we tried and tried to put something together where we could have our family. But it seemed that fate had issued her a bitter conclusion. I felt myself becoming smaller and smaller, unable to do much other than try what I could. I remained the husband that she wanted me to be, even as she started to push the idea of me using someone else to be a surrogate mother. I couldn't agree with the idea and we tried again out of my request. Six months later... stillbirth.

Long nights grew into fights, fights grew into sustained arguments, and those arguments grew to a lot of crying sessions we had together. I felt like I was probably affected by the mass amounts of experiments that had been done on me over a decade ago, and she felt like her magic had wilted her fertility since her first initial pregnancy. She once more proposed the idea of having a surrogate mare being the mother of our child, but I exploded on her for having brought it up again. She remained insistent that I'd go with her first suggestion, but I walked out of the room, not wanting to even hear her choice. I couldn't bear to have my own from her, then it wasn't going to work. A few days later, we finally decided to go through with a plan for adoption.

...And then we find out that she's pregnant again after a spat of morning sickness.

I don't think I've ever seen so much despair on her face as she had the moment they told her she was with foal once more. I watched as she almost tore the doctor's office apart. She even openly requested an abortion, just to avoid the pain of having to suffer yet another failed pregnancy. I convinced her to wait this one out, to see if any of the symptoms change... But they didn't, and it began to worry me by the time the fifteenth week came and gone... then the twentieth week... the thirtieth week... the fortieth week... then came the forty-eighth week... And then her water broke.

All throughout the course of this pregnancy, we were on edge. We didn't plan for baby shower the first, there was no real plan other than to keep doing what the doctors told us to do throughout the checkups. We were just waiting for the moment we knew complications were set to arrive. And we were still waiting for everything to go wrong. But when the cramps kept coming, the doctors wheeled her into the maternity ward. The nurses suggested that I'd stand by if I felt I needed to wait until it was all done, I insisted that I stayed by my wife's side.

Luna waited outside of the room as long as I stood inside with her. She seemed to be the one still in connection with the outside world as I was staying busy with tending to Celestia. I even gave her my phone to keep the information moving. And while she was busy playing secretary, she kept an ear turned to the door should anything go wrong.

It wasn't until the dilations started to occur when I began to draw the highest hopes. Celestia was the same way throughout it all, she was just waiting for this to go wrong somewhere. She wanted to just hear the bad news and keep it moving. But it never came. And she eventually came to the decision that she was tired of being in pain, that she would try to have the baby as quickly and naturally as possible.

That turned out to be a major miscalculation on her part.

"AAAAAAAUUUUUGGGGH!"

The instruments came up, and I was growing more and more hopeful by the minute. I became the cheerleader for the angry skeptic Celestia still was to some degree, only this time she was an angry skeptic in child-bearing pain. "Keep going honey, you're almost there."

Celestia screamed out in pain. "You know, this is not easy!"

"I know, that's why I'm here." I said as I held her hoof, watching as she pushed.

She still performed her deep breaths, trying her best to endure the pain without the aid of an epidural. "This hurts like hell, you asshole!"

"I know, I know!" I replied, summoning a towel for her forehead.

"You know, I could simply have you feel what I'm feeling!" She said as her horn started to spark up.

I wrapped my hand around the base of her horn, giving her a smooch on her forehead. "I love you, but I'll pass."

After dealing with a particularly painful cramp, she began to hasten her breath as she dealt out yet another complaint. "Oh mother of me, I never knew this to hurt so much!"

"Honey, focus on breathing!" I chided towards her.

We heard a loud knock on the door, distracting the midwife as well as us. "Can you both pipe down!" My sister-in-law shouted through the door.

"SHUT UP, LUNA!" Both me and my wife called back out to the trolling mare.

As the mare walked away from the door with a giggle, I continued to speak to my wife, still trying to encourage her. "Babe, the fact that we even made it this far after so long, all this did was─"

She yanked me by my collar and seethed at me. "Don't you fucking jinx this, Nondis!"

"Okay, okay." I said, retracting my previous statement. I wiped her brow and kissed her on her cheek, jokingly pointing out a fun little reminder. "You know, you said you wanted another seven."

"SINCE WHEN HAVE I EVER SAID THAT!?" She seemed almost appalled at the idea of having yet another foal for the moment.

"When we first started getting into each other." I pointed out.

"THAT IS A LIE!" She hollered out painfully.

"Well to be fair, this is attempt number five." I recounted.

"SIX, ATTEMPT NUMBER SIX!" She stressed.

"Which attempt did I miss?" I asked her curiously.

As she struggled to breathe, she angrily hissed her reply. "Nondis, which one do you think I'm talking about?"

"I thought we were only counting the ones we tried for together." I replied.

"Right now I have this symptom called 'WHO GIVES A SHIT!'" She raged as she screamed through her labor. She gave yet another scream after to push through another ache.

I wiped her forehead as the midwife informed her of her progress. "Head's out! You got a little more to go!"

"See that honey, you're almost done!" I cheered proudly, still excited that I was so close to being a father in the moment.

"You could help other than talk!" She barked angrily.

I nodded and shifted my position to stand alongside the midwife. She looked to me with concern as to why I was positioning myself between my wife's legs. "Sir, please!"

I poked out from over the drapery covering her and gave her yet another boost of encouragement. "Okay, last one, you and me. We got this."

As I leaned down, I didn't mind the scenery as much as many others would, I've already seen far worse. But the main thing was that I had undergone several exercises and drills to make sure that I was ready to help Celestia give birth under any circumstances. But I also made a stubborn promise to myself that if any baby was going to be born into this world, I would have my hands on them first. I promised that to Celestia from the beginning, and she was watching if I would stay to it.

The midwife was held back by Celestia's magic, she frantically called out to the both of us. "Sir, ma'am, you can't just do something like this, please move out of the way and let me work!"

I didn't pay the midwife any mind as long as Celestia was giving me the chance to make good on my promise. I chanted to myself as I placed my hands on the infant's head, being sure not to pull her as opposed to guiding her out. "Careful, Nondis." Celestia leaned up over the drapery and I peeked over. "Okay, deep breaths, you push. I'll guide."

She agreed with a strong nod before she went back to screaming and straining. While I watched the young baby's face become revealed to me, I tried to remain emotionally collected. Slowly, the role of fatherhood was placed in my very hands in what would otherwise be a very messy situation. But for me, I couldn't be anymore hopeful and proud. "Sir!" The midwife cried out, struggling to free herself from Celestia's binds.

The foal's shoulders began to appear as well. I was watching carefully for any umbilical cords around the little one's neck, making sure that the young one could breathe. I began to grow nervous as I looked for the bulb syringe to clear her little nostrils. I sought them out and quickly cleared her nasal passageways as best as I could, all while guiding her away. My words were soon directed to both the baby guided by my hands and the mother of my child. "Breathe." I pleaded to the pair.

The doctor screamed at me one last time. "SIR!"

I tried to control the trembling of my hands as I waited for the final moment where gravity would do it's diligence. I pleaded with the little one to join with us in the world of the living. "Come on, you're almost..."

My laboring wife unleashed a final push with all of her might. "GET HER OUT!" She hollered loudly, causing the windows to rumble, also sending the midwife into a bit of a panic.

I announce to Celestia. "She's coming along... and... there!" Just as I called it out, the little one fell from her mother's warmth and into my arms.

Oh God, she was so tiny.

As Celestia stopped having to push, only to deal with the pains of the aftermath, her bindings on the midwife weakened and the mare carefully levitated my arms to her as she brought a towel to aid her in cleaning the little one off. "Sir, move!" She said, taking the baby out of my hands to perform the tasks to make sure that she was okay.

I walked over to my wife absolutely trembling as I kissed her. "You did so good, honey."

She was understandably not in the same mood I was, especially having to do all of the work. "Oh, if you patronize me one more time."

I buried my head in her chest, praying to God that I would hear the noise I needed to hear. "Oh father in heaven... please... please..." Celestia, while in pain, held onto my back to join with me in my pleas. I waited quietly, whispering my prayers into the chest of my labored wife. And then...

*uwaaaahhh*

The mare who held me shook greatly as I called out in celebration. "Ah, there she is!"

I collapsed to my knees, finally able to hear the cries of my daughter. Celestia, still in pain, found the humor to tease me over my emotional display. "Why are you crying, like you did anything?" I stood back up to hug my wife, she swiftly used her magic to hold me back as the midwife wrapped the little one and brought her over. "Oh no, you lost baby privileges from the moment all of this got started. Now move for the real baby."

The midwife gently laid the little crying filly next to Celestia. I tried to not cry as much, but I couldn't help but to be so elated in the moment. "She's so pretty." I said in a broken tone.

"Oh she's so loud." Celestia joked as she watched as the young filly eventually started to grow quiet. "She's so... small."

"Congratulations, mom and pa!" The midwife announced proudly before tugging at the back of my shirt, pulling me to the side. "Sir, a word outside."

Celestia watched uncomfortably as I was escorted out of the room. "Alright, I'm about to go get in trouble now."

Celestia couldn't even get a word in as the mare closed the door and started chewing me out over what happened. "I want to confront you about your actions earlier."

I then tried to explain myself. "I understand, I just acted on my wife's words. And it was a promise I made to my wife, you know─"

She quickly cut me off. "I get it, you're a first time father experiencing the wonders of childbirth. I understand the excitement, but you cannot put yourself in the way of an operating nurse like that. First off, there are a number of germs you carry that could compromise the baby's health. Secondly, I wasn't secure on if you were knowledgeable of birthing protocols, such as not to pull the baby or any of that stuff. Thirdly, you cannot use magic for the sake of moving things along quicker, you could injure the baby or worse."

"I'm sorry, I was a little overzealous."

She continued. "I get it, your wife is screaming in pain, she had no epidural, and she wants a natural birth which would make this all three things: Loud, messy, and painful. But she cannot guarantee the safety of that baby if you just go running in and trying to be a hero. She held me back from doing my job. I just want you to know that what you both did was HIGHLY irresponsible. Say that baby dies in the next hour because of the stunt you two pulled."

As she explained the seriousness of the situation, I lowered my head in apology. "I'm sorry."

She took a deep breath and explained the things I managed to do right. "Now in the meantime, I am pleased that you did what you did correctly, which was to guide the baby, making sure to keep her nostrils clear, no umbilical cord around her neck. You did your homework and knocked it out for a first time go. That's great, it showed that you were prepared for any emergency situation and that's greatly appreciated."

While I could simply accept her praise, I simply told her the truth. "Actually, she and I have been trying to go for a kid for the past five years. I kept studying because I was hoping against hope. We were really scared that it wouldn't happen for us. That first miscarriage really fucked me up, and I wanted to be ready to call out whenever something goes wrong and identify it quickly.... It's a long story."

"Okay." She said with a nod. "So yeah, good job. But don't ever do that again." She warned sternly.

"Yes ma'am." I complied.

"Okay, now go in there and do your dad thing." She said as she opened the door for me to go back into the room.

As I walked in, I noticed Celestia staring at the little one sitting on her chest quietly. "You okay?" I asked with a whisper as I sat by the two.

"I'm in pain, but it's a good pain." She answered weakly, looking down to our daughter.

"She's a tiny little thing." I noted, feeling myself drawn to my new daughter.

"Ugh, I can tell I'm going to be fighting her for your attention." Celestia said with a faint smile, occasionally wincing through some pains.

"She's daddy's little girl alright." I agreed as I laid on my wife's chest, staring at the sleeping young filly. I poke my finger in, but growing afraid to touch her due to the warning the midwife gave me. I instead thought to tease my wife a little more. "So... changing your mind about having more?"

"Go somewhere, you." She groaned. "We still have to worry about this one, I'm still aching from her alone. Can't we just do this one at a time?"

"I wanted to do that, but you insisted five." I jokingly pointed out.

"I am so sick of you." She said with an eye roll.

"I love you." I said soft and sweetly.

"I want a divorce." She replied in the same manner.

Her comeback had me snickering as I marveled at the sleeping newborn. "She has your eyes."

"I pray she doesn't have your mouth." Celestia joked.

"You know you in trouble, right? I got me a little pranking buddy now." I said softly.

"You'll be looking up and find out you'll have diaper duty for the rest of your life." She warned.

I tapped my fingers lightly against her stomach. "That would require one child a year out of you. Be careful what you wish for. You're the one who has to give birth."

"You're the one who'll help conceive." She debated.

I leaned up to kiss my wife's cheek. "That's a battle you know you won't win. And I'm sure it's one you'll enjoy."

"If I didn't enjoy it, then we wouldn't have this little one here." She replied with a growing smirk.

The filly yawned quietly, the both of us watched as we watched our little seedling of hope finally manifest into the moment we sought to have for years on end. "Oh man, I remember the time when I was a kid. Now here I am with one. It's so crazy."

Celestia's eyes began to well with tears as she thought aloud. "I'm beginning to dread the idea of watching the years go by."

"Why?" I asked her.

I summoned a box of tissues and wiped her eyes for her. "Because a year doesn't even feel like a year to me, it feels like a week, just with an abundance of naps in the schedule."

"I can see it now, her first day of school." I started to reminesce.

"I wonder how many friends she'll make." Celestia said worriedly, but also eagerly.

"Oh man, I'm already thinking of all the boys I'm gonna have to chase off." I chuckled.

"She's going to be so beautiful in her first prom dress." Our minds began to go in fast-forward thinking of our daughter's life.

"I'm gonna be pretty emotional watching her walk across the stage."

"Walking across the stage? You're gonna have to be the one to walk her down the aisle."

"Oh my God, grandkids." I started to laugh out loud before covering my mouth shut in an effort to not be too loud.

"None of that will take any time to come up." She said as she pulled me closer to her. "Oh Nondie, we have our first child, after so many heartbreaks, so many miscarriages. I felt like it was really over for us to have this. I'm so blessed to have you being the anchor of my hope, even when I'm just floating out in a sea of despair." Celestia began to cry once more, praying quietly as she held me tightly. "Please let her live as long for us to see her grow that much."

I looked down to my own scars, remembering the hell I suffered, as well as the stories I was told by many in the past. I nuzzled against the recovering mare. "There's a lot of harm and foul out there. We gotta do our best to protect her."

Celestia looked to our daughter as she stirred, and began to sing softly.

Have I ever told you good morning, little one?
Have you ever opened your eyes, my little sun?
There's a world out there, waiting to greet you with a smile, it'll be a while.
But when you're ready, come on out and say hello.

While we were so enchanted by the sight of her, I realized a crucial thing we hadn't done yet. "Oh God... We haven't even made up a name yet. What do I tell mom and dad when I finally break the news?"

Back during the first pregnancy, she and I had collaborated on an idea of naming our child. Since I was a human and she was a pony, we thought to get creative in deciding how the name would come to be. So she had the assignment of coming up with the human name, while I was given the assignment to come up with a pony name.

Since I was the one who asked the question, she was the first to give an answer. "How about... Estelle?"

Estelle, a French name meaning star. It seems like I wasn't the only one who did their homework. "Estelle, that's a beautiful human name."

She glanced to me, waiting to hear my response. "So, what about you, what do you think you can come up with?"

I quickly thought of the name she gave her already and revolved my answer around hers. "...Stellar Sunshine. Stellar Estelle Sunshine."

"That's so adorable." She praised as I sang my own little tune to the sleeping filly.

You are my sunshine.
My only sunshine.
You make me happy, when skies are gray.
You'll never know dear,
How much I love you.
So please don't take my Sunshine away.

"Oh gosh..." Celestia began to cry, carefully clutching onto both the filly on her chest, and me standing next to her. "Oh please don't take her away."

The fear and uncertainty started to take root in the both of us, I held my wife tightly as I tried to offer courage. "We'll get through this, together."

"I love you." She sniffled.

"I love you too." I said as I hugged my wife, beyond proud of the family she provided for me.

As we embraced, the door opened and Luna stepped inside. She could already see the little one resting on Celestia's chest, "Is that who I think it is?"

"Sister." Celestia answered so sweetly. "Say hello to your niece."

Luna choked up as she watched the young filly resting, her small, fragile alicorn frame. Luna slowly approached, whispering to her sister. "Oh, I wonder what she dreaming of right now."

"Well it is her first dream." I pointed out to her.

Luna lowered her head as her horn glowed slightly, a quiet blue glow sat upon her as she began to gaze into our daughter's dreamscape. She immediately started tearing as she opened her eyes. "What is it?" Celestia questioned.

"It's so pure." Luna announced, wiping her eyes. "Her dream is filled with love and wonder, so much color, so many suns rising in the east, a far green prairie, and it's just the three of you. You have truly been blessed."

I rested alongside my family, thinking aloud before dozing off myself. "Oh, I'm gonna be such a daddy's girl."

10 Years Later...

All throughout the course of those first twenty-four months, Tia and I acted almost as secret service for our daughter. Everything in our world revolved exclusively around her. Her meal times were done exactly on the dot, we made sure that she was fed, her diapers were changed, she was clean, she got her rest exactly when she needed to, she got the best toys, we made the entire home access safe just so that nothing bad could happen. Vaccines, we got them. Checkup's, we made them, slightest hint of illness, I took off work just to care for her. Like we were paranoid to the tenth degree, doing what we could to make sure she couldn't come down with anything unusual. I think I might have gained a few gray hairs stressing over that one. But then again, I was thirty-three when she was born.

When she was three years old, she made a profound request.

She wanted a little brother. And both Tia and I were more than willing to oblige. It was also just in time for the estrus season, so my wife was more than agreeable with the idea. In fact, I didn't have the option to refuse. She dragged me out to the yacht and said we needed to make it work somehow. Though her episodes were tamer than most, she was still ravenous, and much more than usual.

Eleven months later, we gave birth to a healthy young girl, we named her Ivory Elizabeth Charm, or Bella for her shortened name. We weren't as guarded as we were with Stella, in fact we were a little more liberal with her since she showed all the signs of being a perfectly healthy girl. However, we still had a promise to keep with Stella in giving her a brother. So again we tried, and again we had another foal. This one was a boy, and we named him Alabaster Gabriel Shine, or 'Bastion' for short.

Over the years, our quiet little home grew very noisy. We had kids running around the home, drawing on the walls, setting things on fire at a whim, and even utilizing their magical prowess to get into all sorts of crazy shenanigans. We even found out one day that Estelle could very much lower and raise the sun at will. We found that out after she had been trying to use it for a nightlight because she was so scared of the dark. We had to have a long talk with her after Princess Twilight ran an nation-wide investigation of who kept bringing the sun from out west. It took her a week to finally let that ambition go, but she soon found out that she could move the other stars in the sky. And thanks to that, she started making random constellations that many royal officials had charted as new developments.

...Yeah, she was a handful by herself.

Bella had her own little quirks too. She could phase through walls and teleport without any kind of issue. She was extremely adept in magic, and often romanticized the idea of being just like Princess Twilight. She even had me play a game where I had to be captain of her royal guard, doing what I could to stop the evil fire-breathing dragon from destroying her kingdom...

...You guessed it, Bastion was the fire-breathing dragon. And he was appropriately situated to play the role too. He was a hot head, and I mean a literal hot head. Whenever he threw a tantrum, his mane would resemble flames like his mother would when she was angry. He had her exact iris color. But the only thing was that he was just as obnoxiously overbearing on his older siblings like I was when I was a kid. It was like looking at the perfect fusion of both my wife and I. He was magically gifted in some areas, but his thing was his damn brain. He was way too smart for his age, always looking to pull little pranks on me with his mother. I though I had a pranking buddy with Stella, not even close to how those two coordinated. He was his mother's child.

But then, I came to find myself in an unusual yet complicated matter.

It was a Saturday morning, the kids had finished eating their cereal and watching some cartoons, and then they went about their daily session of annoying the daylights out of one another. Tia was feeling a little down today and I elected to take the load off of her completely.

That was a mistake.

"Daddy!" Bella screamed from upstairs.

"Yeah?" I called up.

"Alabaster won't give me my doll back!" She replied.

I ran over to the bottom of the stairwell, shouting up to my son's bedroom. "Alabaster, are you playing wrestling with your sister's dolls again?"

"OFF THE TOP ROPE! BOOM! SUPLEX CITY!" He shouted, jumping off his bed and landing against the ground with a loud thud. Boys will be boys.

"Stop it!" Bella called out before I heard a second thud landing a little heavier than the first.

"Dad! Ivory's sitting on me again!" Bastion called out.

"Oh these kids will be the death of me." I muttered to myself as I climbed the stairs, my joints popping a little from the fact that I was firmly in my forties now. I opened the door to the room both Bella and Bastion shared, then I firmly called them by their pony names as I corrected their behavior. "Ivory Charm, get off your brother! Alabaster Shine, give your sister back her dolls!"

Then of course, I hear the voice of my eldest calling out to me from downstairs. "Daddy!"

"What is it, Estelle?" I called out to her, still trying to separate the two belligerent siblings.

"There's somepony at the door for you!"

I drew a sigh of exhaustion, my mind was already straining to the last cell over the mess taking place right now. "Who is it?"

"I don't know! He says he wants to talk to you!"

I shook my head and left the room, only to hear the two already starting to get back into the swing of things with one another. I had to put that to the side and answer the door. As I walked down the stairs, I questioned my daughter. "You didn't ask for his name?"

"Sorry." She apologized.

"It's okay, just remember to always ask." I tell her as I heard another crashing noise from upstairs, followed by the usual candidate for victim of the day.

"Get off of me!"

I rubbed my eyes and pointed up the stairs. "Go tell your sister to get off your brother while I take care of this." She quickly left to do as I requested while I had come to the door, looking down at a zebra unicorn stallion sitting at my door with some guard physical training apparel on. I looked at the saddlebags he wore, thinking he was just here to pass out brochures. "Good afternoon to you, young buck."

"Good afternoon." He replied with a thick accent, I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but it sounded vaguely familiar.

"Pretty heavy accent for a unicorn. Where are you from, son?"

He appeared serious, seeming as though he had some sort of warrant for my arrest. "I am from Canterlot. I come to look for de one called Nondis."

I still questioned him on his method of speaking. "Yeah, that's a pretty particular accent you got there. I don't recognize anyone speaking like that in Canterlot. So is there like an issue, perhaps a summons of some sort?"

"Do you know who I am?" He questioned out of the blue.

"No. I'm afraid I don't." I answered bluntly.

He hummed quietly, still keeping his stern demeanor as he asked me another question. "Do you know of de one called Gala Gallaria?"

I thumped my finger against the stubble of my chin, wondering if I had known anyone of that name. "Gala... Gala..." A faint but uncomfortable memory played in my mind as I answered him. "I remember a Gala. She's a blind girl I know of. Why?"

"Dat is my aunt." He replied straightaway.

"Your aunt? Then who's your mom?" I asked.

"Kalimba Mavembe." He answered with his heavy accent, the cadence of his vowels and consonants immediately ringing several bells.

"Oh! You're Kali's boy!?" I laughed loudly, leaning down to greet the stallion with hardly of the animosity I once held in his initial appearance. "Holy Tartarus, kid! You sprouted up like something fierce! Dang! How the world did you get here?"

"Well I am setting out to a base near here." He briefly explained.

"Oh, the new military school and training grounds on the northern edge of town. Yeah, that's the place they just opened like maybe two years back. Yup, I was told they were gonna start posting guards there. Most ponies here are pretty critical of the company it'll bring, especially since a lot of them are retirees. All I know is that a bunch of retail and stuff started sprouting up here because of it. There's already some older ponies raising cane in the city board meetings because of all the development, bunch of NIMBY stuck-up idiots who don't like change."

He apparently had no interest in the social political chatter, only nodding along as I concluded my statements. He then made his. "Well I am assigned here for some time."

"That's good." I nodded before inquiring of his mother. "How's your mom? She didn't get sick or anything, did she? We haven't talked since some years back. It's been a while."

"She's doing fine." He confirmed.

"That's good, that's good. Your aunt?" I questioned next.

"Hopeless romantic." He replied with an eyeroll that told me more than enough of what I needed to know.

"Well, that's how it is sometimes." I replied with a light chuckle.

He immediately cut to the chase. "I was told dat you know of my faddah."

"Your dad?" I asked, thinking for a moment of who could be his father. Instead, I had a number of ideas in mind... especially one stallion who matter-of-factly bragged that he took advantage of Kalimba way back from those decades ago. "...Oh... son..." I was at a loss for words, not able to succintly point out the possibility that his father could be who I had put to bed in my memories for a long time. "I don't know what to tell you, I don't know who your father is."

"You should know him fairly well." He said as he started to dig into his saddlebags, presumably to pull out a photo.

"Okay, I'm gonna reason with you and tell you something you might not like to hear." I tried to inform him before he gave me an envelope, it's seal long broken and browned from disuse. I looked at the stallion and questioned him. "What is this?"

"It is a paternity test." He answered.

I stared at the envelope he gave me, then back at him. "What are you implying?"

"Well... I wanted to know more about my faddah." He replied as he sat quietly, waiting for me to read the results.

I quirked a brow and removed the contents from the envelope, seeing what the hell was on these papers. From the moment I pulled them out, I was assessing the validity of the documents, noting the date in which the documents had been filed. It seemed to have been twenty years ago when these were done. I skimmed through the findings to see the stallion's name, Kalimba's name, and the name of an absent DNA donor. I flipped the page to see the file on the donor, seeing my face in the top-left corner. It was an old picture of me when I was still Captain of the Royal Guard, young, lively, and not a gray hair in my image.

I handed the document back to him in disbelief. "Okay, so I think this is a mistake."

Next thing I heard was the sound of my wife's voice coming in from behind me, interrupting herself as she saw the young stallion in the doorway. "Honey, you never did bring me my coffee─oh. Hello, young sir."

"Hello to you, ma'am." He replied with a subtle nod.

Tia looked up to me, wondering why I had gone quiet. "Nondie, you're pale. What's wrong?"

"Nothing! It's just... some weird mail just came to me." I said initially to try not to let this become an argument.

She was quick to levitate the documents from me as she questioned me on them. "What's this?"

"Honey, uh, I don't think that's─"

She raised a hoof to stop me from speaking. She flipped the page to see my face and promptly looked to the stallion. "Oh... So you're Kalimba's son."

"Yes, I am." He answered with another stoic nod.

She folded the contents and placed them back in the envelope. As she did so, she looked up to me. All I could do was try to apologize for both of them. "Okay, I don't know how this happened but─"

Tia cut me off, politely moving me off to the side as she walked out the door. She gave the papers back to the young stallion and called him by name. "Nafasi, please come this way. We'll show you around the wharf."

He followed her instructions as she pointed him in the direction of our side gate, leading out to the dock where we had our yacht. "Honey, I don't know what's going on." I answered nervously.

She glanced to me with folded ears, already appearing as though she was guilty of something heinous. "Nondie... we need to talk. Just come with me to the yacht."

I looked off to the stallion who waited on us, then spoke to my wife. "You knew about this?"

She raised a hoof, begging for reason. "Please, not in front of the children. Just come with me and I'll explain everything."

4 Years Later...

It was almost like our interactions were the same as back then, the carbon-cut responses and reactions to any statement I might have had. Just how I remembered Kalimba being, he was the exact way. Cold responses, sometimes leaning into indifference, distrust in others, even the way he spoke. It was like I had every bit of her walking right next to me... only he was my son, twenty-one years of age.

To think I had a grown-ass man of a son that my wife knew about.

We had more than a heated argument over that. I almost exiled myself to the yacht for several days over that conversation, feeling like I had been betrayed. It took my innate desire to connect with him to finally get me to come back ashore and rejoin the family. And once I landed, I decided that it was time to get to know the son I never knew I had.

It started off both extremely awkwardly and very frustrating, he had his own interests for being a twenty year old, he had a lot of young mares trying to nab a bit of exotic flavor, and he was like me in the regard of obliging. He was a knucklehead who liked sneaking off of base for a bit of hotel hijinks. Then he would get chewed out over his actions and get sent to bust duty, where he had to clean bathrooms using only a small toothbrush.

Academically speaking, he was a struggling mess who only focused on girls and the desires of living a life filled with dangerous byways. I couldn't believe it honestly, it was almost like the very thing his mom escaped from was the thing he sought to fulfill himself. And he didn't care much for what the officers told him either, he just wanted to get dumped so he could go about living his risky lifestyle. And he wasn't much for listening to me either.

Eventually, I had to bring an end to it. So I put back on my captain's garb one last time.

I challenged him to a sparing match, and adamantly informed him that this was a non-refusal, meaning he had no other choice but to show up. And I warned him too, if he didn't show up, I was gonna take the Congregant powers for a quick spin around the old block, and rock his block with some shit he ain't seen before. And even though I was over forty, the augmentations in my body still held firm. I knew how hard to hit and how hard I can actually hit. Plus busting down doors was no issue either. But all I wanted for him to do was to simply fuck around with not listening to me, just so he could find out how bad it was going to get. And as a sweetener, I have him two weeks to respond by midnight of the fourteenth day, to meet me at the local buckball field.

He was just like me, rebellions and hard-headed. And he always liked turning a blind eye to instruction. In his words, I wasn't there for him then, so why try to be there now. He didn't care that I had gave him a warning, constantly leaving notes in the door of his barracks. As far as he was concerned, I didn't have any clearances, so I wasn't a threat to be taken seriously. All he had to do was stay on base while I had to get stuck in a checkpoint somewhere.

He went about his usual cycle for a whole two weeks. And as he was showing his ass to the sergeants, I quietly walked on base and showed my old credentials, and got an audience with the base commander, getting my permissions to set things right with Nafasi as quickly as possible. They didn't mind me making an appearance, in fact, they gave me a job. After some fifteen years of retirement, I was back in an officer's uniform to promise a 180° turnaround in four years. And in doing so, I was also given his entire juvenile record to show for it, giving me a guideline of how to deal with him in a way that would certainly alter his perception of things. So with all of that done quietly behind the scenes, I let Nafasi do his usual thing until midnight going into Saturday morning.

The irony of that timing.

Not only did he ignore the curfew, he was completely off the base. He was sitting in a bar downtown, looking to get himself a nice college-aged girl who looked to become a local librarian. I couldn't help but laugh because it felt like I was like looking back into the past. But I waited until he got outside.

Before she could send the signal that he was going to get lucky, I snagged his ass into the shadow and dragged him to that buckball field like I had been dragged through the streets of Canterlot. As soon as he was surfaced, I was the first and only face he saw. I threw him on the ground and told him to get back up. He looked at me like I was crazy and started to walk off, I don't think I ever grabbed anyone by the head as quick as I did his. And I swept his legs one good time, just before telling him to get back up.

He tried to teleport away, but he wasn't very good at magic like his mother had become over time. So I quickly relocated him, dragged him back under surface, and dropped him back off in front of me. This time I warned him that I would not keep holding back if he didn't retaliate. But then he did the worst thing he could do; Not take me seriously in a fight.

He playfully launched a few bolts at me, that I swiped aside. He then tried to teleport behind me to launch another, but forgetting to take into account his casting ability as well as his mental fortitude to be able to cast those two spells in conjunction. I then showed him how to do it properly... eight times... in a row... without flinching. By that point, he was really pissed off and decided he was going to try to same-day ship me to the local funeral home, unleashing an angry blast of magic before realizing he exhausted all of what he had after that initial blast.

Now it was my turn. I snagged him into the shadow, dragged him back in front of me, gave a few jabs to the face, swept his legs from under him, and slapped him in his chest. I levitated him up into the sky and blasted a number of bolts at him and then dragged him tail-first to the nearby cemetery, where I had a lovely pinewood box waiting for him in an empty plot. And every time he tried to speak, I blasted him in the chest with a magic bolt. I dumped him in the coffin and closed the lower half, locked it to where he couldn't get out, and left the top half open to let him watch as he was being lowered into the ground. From there, I moved the dirt to his lower half, letting him hear the sound of him being slowly buried alive.

He was more than quick to show some emotion in the moment, begging and pleading for me to stop. I merely informed him that what he was going through was easy, that all he had to do was accept it like he wanted me to accept the fact that he didn't want to correct himself. And as he sat in the coffin, I began to regale him with a story of how I found his grandfather the morning after he died. I told him just how hard his mother cried over not being able to make things right with him before that happened, also telling him in conjunction the story of how his aunt was made blind. And I kindly told him if he wanted to know anymore information of that day, ask his mom and his aunt about it, just to see if I was wrong.

After promising to try to get himself together, I raised the coffin and dumped him back out. And I gave him a firm warning, telling him that the one moment he would slip up would be the one where I would make this mock funeral a lot more realistic. He nodded his head rapidly and ran straight back to base, where he was promptly grilled by several sergeants for breaking curfew, made to run some more, and sent to bed for two hours before having to wake back up for the morning bugle. And at first light, I introduced myself on base, telling the new recruits that if any of them stepped out of line, I would make an example of them in the worst way possible. I then glared at Nafasi, who would sweat at the mere thought of going through that ordeal again.

Once that was finished, he began to apply himself slowly and gradually. While I didn't want him fearing the thought that I would reappear from his own shadow, I still used that intimidation to get him to focus. And while he was quiet to me at first, we began to slowly talk. After that first year, he and I began to share experiences, diving into his past while I dove into mine back in the human world. We'd sometimes go out to eat, maybe have a few drinks at the bar, and still try to make sure he didn't break curfew.

We also bonded over some marksmanship practice. He seemed like he wanted to really learn how to use the newer weapons they had. I asked what they were, it turned out that they were making bolt action rifles for equines now. I wasn't fond of the thought, but that's just how technology is for any species looking to advance themselves. The weapons themselves were still a century behind what I was used to way back when, but their effectiveness was all the same. I spent some time teaching him how to shoot, how to adjust for windspeed and direction, how to perfect his aim, how to manage bullet drop over longer distances.

By the end of that second year, he was already surging to the top of the marksmanship rankings. The higher-ups quickly put him in more target-oriented training courses, seeing how he performed under duress, how strong he was in his mental adaptability. All of that, he passed with flying colors. They wanted to make him a specialist right on the spot, but they concluded that his core scores were too low to consider that as an option. He was still struggling to maintain average scores to be considered anything as high as a specialist.

That's where Tia came in.

She invited him on the yacht, she took him out to the sea, made sure there was nothing but peace and quiet so that she could teach him all he could absorb. It wasn't just in his core scores where he had to improve, but also his magic adaptability, endurance, and usage. She broke him in with her methods, getting him to show drastic improvement over the year she worked closely with him.

That final year was where it all finally came together. He locked in, applied himself, used his newfound discipline to break his own limits, and he showed out in every aspect. His core scores were right where the base commander wanted them to be. His magic surged and he could multicast as easily as any applied magic student could. He took his final evaluations in front of the entire base staff, and flew through everything. That next graduation ceremony, he was given the rank of specialist.

It was a pretty big event for the family. Stella, Bella, and Bastion all grew close to him over the years as well, he and Bastion especially got around to interacting very frequently. Nafasi learned what it was like to be an older sibling, also learning the patience of having those younger siblings get on his nerves a little more. Tia simply called it 'adaptive responsibility assessment'. And I'm sure he didn't have any aspirations to have kids anytime soon.

Of course, he was still trying to talk to that little librarian girl he visited often.

The day of the ceremony, his mom came to town to see him graduate. And while Tia was up in the rafters cheering with the kids, I was backstage watching as a proud father would. As he donned his uniform, I pulled out my old one and wore it with pride, despite it fitting a bit snug. When his name was called, I could hear the entire gym erupt, especially from one particular part of the gym where the kids were.

It took a little while for the ceremony to come to a close, and we waited to let Kalimba have first dibs on her son's fresh digs alongside a surprisingly sprouted Gala. She rushed the gun and tackle hugged her nephew, still looking to be an older sister in age. "Aw, Nafasi! Look at you!" She said as she dusted off his uniform.

Kalimba appeared more gray than periwinkle nowadays, but she still exhibited the warmth I saw her show to him way back when. She slowly hugged her son. "I am so proud of you. You've done very well."

"Thank you, mama." He answered with a soft smile.

Granted, she was still momma. So she was gonna probe him for answers. "You do me so proud. How did you ever come to a place like this and learn so much? I never considered you to be the markspony you are now. Now you are at the top of your class, and graduated with honors. When did you discover your drive?"

"I had a helping hoof." He replied proudly.

"A tutor?" She inquired.

"Two of them. One taught me in magic and educational studies, the other taught me in weapons and long-range ability."

Kalimba smiled as she started walking towards the exit with her son. "I never thought you would have such strong tutors. You must have me meet them."

"Seriously, you crushed everyone else in your class! That is great!" Gala added enthusiastically.

"Well to be fair, my tutors are hard to reach out to at times. They so often stay on their yacht." Nafasi stated as they left the building.

"They have a yacht?" Gala questioned as she adjusted her glasses. "How rich are these ponies again?"

"Comfortably well off." Tia answered as she surprised the two, standing at the front of the three other alicorns. "To be fair, we are pretty fiscally conservative."

While the shortened mane threw them off for a moment, Gala more than recognized the voice. "Oh my goodness... Princess!"

Ivory's eyes sparkled as her head darted everywhere. "Princess!? Where!?"

"Princess Twilight is here!?" Estelle asked excitedly.

"I wanna see the princess!" Ivory cheered once more.

As the two mares appeared lost in the sight of the four alicorns standing together, I snuck up behind Kalimba and tapped her shoulder. She looked back and jumped nearly out of her skin. "Hi there."

Many years ago, she wouldn't ever greet me with such excitement, just outwardly hugging me as she saw me would be out of the question. But that was then, this is now. We're older, more mature, and accepting of our emotions. She yanked me down quicker than I could react, and immediately snagged her hooves around my neck as she embraced me. "Hello!" She started to giggle. "My, what a surprise! As soon as he said something about marksmanship, I should have known! How have you been!?"

"Getting old." I replied as I tried scooping her up before hearing a pop in my back. "Ooh! Exhibit A right there."

While the kids looked on confused, Tia was accepting of it, showing that she didn't mind the display of platonic affection taking place before her. Nafasi stood between both me and Tia while proudly explaining to them what our roles were to him for the past four years. "Mama, Baba came around and taught me everything I know on marksmanship. And Mrs. Valkyrie-Haines taught me everything I need about magic."

"Wow, I can't believe this." Gala called out as she looked to the smaller ponies gathering around Nafasi to congratulate him. "Aww. And who might you little ones be?"

"I'm Stellar Sunshine." The eldest introduced herself first.

"I'm Ivory Charm." The younger filly announced happily.

Gala leaned down to the runt of the litter. "And what's your name little one?"

"Alabaster Shine." He answered in a shy manner, probably crushing hard on the young mare.

The mare petted his head, causing his ears to redden. "Oh my, such a name for such a distinguished young gentlecolt! I'm sure your mom will have to start batting away those other fillies for your attention, won't she?"

"I'm sure she already started." Another voice called out. We looked up to see an old friend approaching us with her dragon assistant. She stood proudly with her mane swaying enchantingly as her mentor's once did.

Ivory gasped as she saw the high princess standing before her. "Wow!"

"It's really the princess!" Alabaster called out loudly.

"It's an honor to meet you, your majesty! I love your mane!" Stella complimented with a bow.

Twilight giggled with a hoof to her muzzle as Spike answered for her. "Well you really should've seen who she got it from."

"Your highness, I am so revered to be in your presence." Stella continued to say before I had to tap her on her back.

"Okay, you can cut it out now." I told her before addressing the ruling mare. "I didn't expect you to drop by. So I take it you came around for ceremonial purposes?"

"Of course, it's only customary that a princess watch her guards grow." She commented before giving me a playful glance. "And it seems I got a bonus out of it. Look who's back in the guard."

"Nah." I said, motioning my hand against my neck. "I'm back to retirement in a month, so you can kiss those dreams goodbye."

Spike looks at the young stallion and adds his own praise. "For years I've been given the chore of keeping close tabs on Nafasi's development over the decade. He used to be quite the troublemaker, now he's top of the class. I don't know how, but he's really had a serious turnaround."

I looked over to my side, seeing Ivory pull at Tia's wing. "Mom, can I get my mane just like the princess?"

Gala smiled as she watched the young filly pull at her mother. "They are some curious little ones, aren't they?"

"Indeed they are." I answered as I kissed my wife's forehead. "These three are the result of a lot of hard work and prayer, they're our world. And while I didn't get a chance to watch Nafasi grow, he's more than welcome to join it."

Meanwhile, Ivory was still begging the princess about the secrets of her mane. "So is there like a fan that you carry that makes it do that?"

Twilight giggled as she pointed to Tia. "Well I would tell you, but I wouldn't quite describe it better than how your mom could."

"My mom's mane doesn't flow like yours though!" She argued.

Twilight walked beside Tia, taking off her headband. "Oh, but it used to."

Tia didn't want to bring too much attention to herself, so she reached for the headband back before her hair could really get back to moving like it used to. "Wait, really?" Stella asked as she watched Tia stop her mane from flowing, knowing that if it did, it would eventually grow back out.

Twilight continued to go about teasing her old mentor. "Of course, she used to be the princess after all."

The three foals glanced back to their mother, quiet for a moment as Tia rolled her eyes in reaction to being ousted by the current ruler. "Oh well, here we go."

Twilight appeared confused that their reactions were so fresh, she looked at me like I was supposed to go against my wife's wishes and tell them what all we used to be. "Wait, you two didn't tell them?" She walked over to Ivory and questioned the young filly. "Do you know who your mother is?"

"My mom's my mom." She answered completely unaware.

For years, we agreed to keep our past lives in a capsule, only to be revealed when we felt that they had come to the age where they were mentally mature enough to understand who they were, who they came from, and to do both of those things without feeling any sense of superiority to the others around them. While we lived a life of privilege, we didn't want them to act as though they were entitled to more than what everyone else had. We loved them and gave them the world, but we never wanted to give them too much of it. And Tia's biggest fear was the possibility telling them the truth too soon, causing more harm than good in their social development.

Even when Nafasi came around, he knew who and what we were, but respected our wishes to keep that secret concealed. But Twilight took that play away from us, unwittingly of course. Tia facehoofed and peeked an eye over to me, wanting me to finally break the news for her and the others. "Well, cat's out of the bag now, so we might as well." I said as I knelt down to Ivory, pointing up to her mother. "Bella, your mom and your aunt, they were princesses for some time... give or take a thousand years."

The shock and wonderment on her face grew to astounding proportions. The filly's eyes twinkled like she had seen fireworks over the harbor. "Was she!?"

Twilight confirmed our account. "Oh yeah, she taught me everything I know now. Back when I was growing up, I used to look up to her." She then looked to me. "And don't even get me started on your dad."

The young filly's wings flared open as though she was about to jettison into flight. "Does that mean we're royalty too!?"

"Now slow down, Bella." I said, keeping her tethered to the ground before she could take off into the air and start shouting. "Your mother isn't a princess anymore."

"Aww! But why not!?" She asked, becoming greatly disappointed.

Tia walked beside our middling foal and petted her head gently. "Because I wanted my time to have a family, to be able to have all of you. And I couldn't do that when I don't have any time to be a mom." She started to issue some of the reality of her past to the young filly. "Like for example, can you imagine a life where you have nothing but homework?"

Ivory acted out in disgust. "Eugh! That's bad!"

"It is, I know!" She replied. "And when you're a princess, you have to do all of your homework to make everypony happy, and sometimes you weren't allowed to take breaks. If you wanted to travel somewhere, you'd have to do an essay on the very place you're going to. Imagine having to write a book report on every town, city, and country you visit. You don't get to have fun very often. You don't get to fly when you want to, you don't get to have a special somepony without the world making fun of you, you can't even sleep until all your homework is done. And then you have classes almost every day from sunup to sundown. If I was still that, neither I nor your aunt would ever see much of you." She then hugged Ivory, nuzzling her all the while. "And that would make me very sad."

"Trust me." Twilight added. "I might not mind homework, but it's not fun for everyone."

"And not all of it is fun either." I cosigned. "Can you imagine dealing with a bunch of loud, whiny classmates who wanna see you do bad all the time, and scream when they don't get their way? And you can't just sit on them like you do your little brother, that's not allowed."

Ivory quickly became disillusioned with the thought of being a princess once we briefly explained the reality of the position to her in the way she could understand. But that didn't change her mind about having that kind of mane style. "Well at least the hair is nice, I still wanna look like it."

For a moment, Stella watched quietly as she took in the news of her mom being a princess. And then another idea came to her mind. "Mom, our school is having a field trip this upcoming weekend. Our teachers say it's supposed to be in Canterlot, where we're supposed to view some of the monuments and memorials. Could you come with us to be our chaperone? Please?"

Tia didn't mind returning back to the city, but she was always mindful of how I began to feel about that place after so many years. She appeared concerned that I was going to volunteer myself to possibly reopen some old wounds. I took her cue and gladly volunteered to stay. "You want me to watch the others while you two are away? It'll be a good mother-daughter trip."

"No daddy! We wanna go too!" Ivory insisted, wanting to tag along with her mother.

Then Bastion chimed in. "Can big brother come with us, please?"

Without warning, I heard Gala shriek in my ear. "That's a great idea! We could make it like an extended family day." She glanced up to see me rubbing my ear from having my eardrums rattled. She bashfully toned her volume down. "Well, not that we're actually blood related or anything."

"Dat means you have to come too." Nafasi said to me, firmly trying to push me into going.

Tia looked concerned, but I wasn't going to refuse. And even if I had an episode or two, she'll be right there to remind me that I'm no longer in that same place all those years ago. I folded my arms and gave my affirmation. "Hmm... If only we could take a boat."

Then came the other obstacle that was sure to give me a headache and then some. Celestia proposed an idea. "Well we could go by airship."

Twilight quickly shot that idea down with an update. "Unfortunately, the airship is down at the moment, undergoing maintenance due to a damaged rudder from a freak thunderstorm. It'll take about another two weeks to a month before the repairs are complete and the parts are outfitted with more weather-resistant shielding. Spike and I actually took the train over this way... but..." She looked to me and silently inquired about my willingness. "Well, I don't want to tell you to brave this one out─"

"Ugh..." I groaned, holding my head.

"What's wrong?" Nafasi asked.

"Your father doesn't like trains very much." Kalimba explained.

Ivory wrapped herself around my leg, pleading with me to come. "Daddy, daddy, please!? Come with us!"

I grimaced and sighed, not wanting to disappoint my girls. "...The things I do for love."

15 Years Later...

Tia was not playing around when she said the years would go by much quicker the older you got. I went from watching Nafasi going off to be a specialist for the E.U.P., to getting Stella ready for prom night and graduation. And not too long after that, we watched both Bella and Bastion fly from the nest, only a year apart from each other. The home we once had that was so boisterous and filled with life had become much quieter.

Nafasi Nyingine got up to the rank of Chief Warrant Officer 3, he became the guy that even some of the lower officers feared the most. And with his stern crimson glare that could break concrete foundations, he pulled the look off very well. That relationship with the local librarian dissolved once she moved to a larger city. He was initially heartbroken by the break up, but he found himself dating another mare shortly after. They've been steady for the past five years. They have a kid now, but they're set to have the wedding next year.

Stellar Sunshine, daddy's little girl, I walked her down the aisle shortly after she graduated from college. And it only took a year for her to produce to us our first grandson of the pack, taking that achievement away from Nafasi by a total of two years. She's also an astronomer, taking up her business in the local observatory. Since she was already good at adjusting the stars and whatnot in the sky, she brought forth a lot of new stars that were yet to be discovered, even creating newer ones herself... a pretty hefty feat.

Ivory Charm became a fashion model, she went superviral online for some of her selfies and often took up advertising gigs in larger cities. She got picked up in Manehattan and barely had a chance to look back. Her life was so fast, way too fast for me and her mother to keep up with nowadays. And despite being awfully small for an alicorn, she took on the role of leading the siblings to whatever hijinks they wanted to get into.

And then there was the runt of the litter... who didn't really stay a runt for very long once puberty hit. He didn't just reach his mother's height, he passed her by a few inches. He was the enforcer of the group, much more of one that even Nafasi didn't want to take on in a true contest of guts. Ironically, he does gaming streams and vlogs much like his younger sister does. And he often has a crowd of girls wanting to stake a claim on him. It got so bad that Stella and Bella had to actively beat girls away from being too obsessive. However, he'd post some thirst trap on ClipClop and the cycle would soon repeat itself.

The four of them came back together on today, spending time on the beach for a siblings retreat. As per usual, Bella led the pack on what they would do next, and the others followed suit, including an unamused Nafasi who claimed he was getting too old for their hijinks. Even then, he'd join in just for the hell of it.

However, this wasn't just a retreat for them.

Over the years, Celestia grew sickly... often. Sometimes her health would pick right back up from where it should be in the matter of hours, but in some cases it would last days... weeks... and even months. And each time she recovered, she'd grow all the more weak. Some mornings, she wouldn't be able to get out of bed without me helping her along, Others, she'd hop right out like she still had a kingdom to run. But even those days grew far and few between. The magic began to leave her body too, she grew quieter, more soft-spoken from the fiery mare I married. Luna visited frequently, checking in on her sister before she pulled all of us to the side to explain what was taking place.

Luna briefly explained that what Celestia was going through were similar symptoms of what their parents had endured thousands of years ago. And with her not using her powers as often, combined with having foals, her health declined, her magic sustainability decreased, and her mental awareness slipped every so often. In recent mornings, she'd wake up crying, thinking that Luna was still banished to the moon. Other mornings, she'd be holding a flower pot whispering out to Fair Charity. Some mornings, she'd complain about her wings being plucked clean when they were still as feathery as yesterday. It was like the kids and I was watching her surf through the millennium of her life, unable to decipher which Celestia of which era we were gonna get.

Then today, she woke up just fine, but stated how very tired she was.

I was old enough to know what that meant, sixty-two years of life showed me all of what was to come next. So I got her up out of the bed, placed her on the back porch, brought her whatever she wanted. I let her sleep for as long as she needed to, protected her from the sun, kept her hydrated, and stayed by her side for the moments she felt like moving about. I began to cook a little something in the kitchen for her, making sure she stayed fed throughout the day. I wanted everything for her to be perfect. She deserved that much.

I walked outside and brought her a plate we could share. She opened her eyes, looking at me with a beautiful smile, her face and body failing to show any signs of aging while her mane and tail faded to a stormy gray. Her mane wasn't short anymore, reaching to about it's original length. "Hey there." She greeted softly.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." I answered. "How you feeling right about now?"

"I feel... relatively good." She answered slowly. She was probably still feeling tired.

I sat beside her and presented the plate to her. "Well I hope you're hungry, I got dinner warm for you."

I dipped my fork into the plate of food I prepared for her, the very same meal we made when we had our dinner date back in the castle. I held the fork for her to eat from. "You always do what's best for me." She complimented so gently.

"You've done it for me for all these years." I replied to her as I wiped her face. "So why not return the favor?"

As I fed her, there was a lengthy silence, only the sounds of the waves crashing against the docks as we ate our food in the relative quiet. After we finished, I went about wiping her face as she softly called to me. "Honey."

"Yes?"

She started to appear sad, looking to the setting sun across the water. "Do you think we'll ever see each other again when it's all said and done?" She looked to me, appearing small. "I mean, on the other side?"

"That's not a question you'd typically ask." I replied to her, swallowing any desire to change the subject out of my own comfort.

"I know. It's just that now that I feel weaker, I find myself being scared." She lifted a hoof, indicating for me to hold her.

"Because you don't know what'll happen?"

"Yes." She confirmed so meekly.

I closed my eyes, trying not to break down in front of her. "Well you won't have to worry when it's done."

"My spirit will be afraid." She whispered.

"Tia, you're not gonna be alone." I answered.

"What if I lived the wrong way for all these years, just now learning to live right?"

I kissed her on her cheeks, feeling her growing all the more colder even in the summer air. "We all make mistakes, Tia. I'm sure everyone has put it behind them."

"...I suppose it's only right that this happens."

"It's natural." I reassured her, still holding back any desire to cry. Even my throat began to ache as I resisted.

She placed the hoof I held against my face, weakly stroking my chin. "I still remember the first day you took care of me."

"Was it when we started seeing each other?" I asked.

"Oh... I think it was before." She said, taking a moment to recount what really happened. "Ah, it was. I think I sneezed on you that day."

"That stuff feels so ancient ago." I said with a slight chuckle.

Her eyes met once more with the sun, staring off into the distance. "I have lived over eleven-hundred years, and not once has anyone ever took care of me so well."

As she struggled with her own mortality, I began to find a moment of weakness, almost begging to have even more time to spend. "I wonder what it would feel like to live that long."

"It's tiring, Nondie. It's very tiring." She answered with contrarily more energy than she had throughout the day. She gave me a serious look, offering the warning of a long-lived being suffering the blues of immortality. "Have you ever imagined living so long that you'd watch your children grow up, grow off, grow old, grow weak, and die? Many close friends have I watched simply wilt. We've seen the birth of our grandchildren, Nondie. Can you imagine what it would be like to watch them go on before us?"

"I'm already experiencing enough of that with you." I said, my voice breaking for a moment.

"Then you understand." She answered, going back to the softness she had once before.

It was so hard hearing how resigned she sounded in her words. All throughout her life, she had to accept others going before her, living through generation after generation of watching birth and death alike. Meanwhile, I in my sixty-two years of life feel cheated. After nearly meeting my end so many times early on, here she was going ahead without me. It broke my heart to know that I could feel so selfish, all while feeling justified in wanting more time.

I couldn't let her go... I don't want to let her go. I can't live in this world alone. But I had no other choice but to accept it. "Do you feel up to one more ride out in the water?"

"Oh..." She quietly groaned with a growing smile on her face. "I would love that. Another adventure out into the sea."

I didn't have the strength to carry her on my own body anymore. Time had took much of my strength away, my flexibility, the same vigor that had me sweep her off into my arms. What I did have was my magic, and I could recline her so gently to the top of the deck.

I kept the course slow and steady, chasing after the setting sun in the unreachable distance. It almost felt like I was chasing after the last bit of strength Tia had in her, bargaining for it to come back and reside in the wilting mind of my beloved wife. We shared everything together in these years, I always figured that I would be the one to die before her, that she would get used to the pain of knowing death yet again before living another thousand years to experience more.

But then her words rang in my head once more, the conviction she held in condemning such an extended existence. Again, I was selfish, but I didn't care. Oh God, please don't take her away from me. Not today, not now, and if you are taking her, please let us share a few more words before the sun sets on her life.

She sat comfortably in her chair, looking past the bow of the ship to the orange son setting into the darkness. I rushed out to the deck as fast as my aged bones would let me. I could hear her weakly humming, letting me know she hadn't gone yet. I leaned down to kiss her brow and smiled as best as I could. "You know, you should write a book on your life."

"You should take your own advice." Her voice was even weaker than before.

I tried to laugh at her response, all while my heart had broke on the inside. "I might. I'll probably give it to the kids to read."

"It'll tell many stories of what happened to you." She verbalized softly.

"I'll be sure to find whoever I can to help fill in the blanks, I can't remember it all too well." I said, turning away from my wife for a moment, just a moment to finally hide the tears that fell from my cheeks.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea." She hummed.

I clenched my fists onto the railing looking at the waters below, seeing the partial refractions of light from the dying sun. I then questioned myself. "Where would I start?"

"You should start wherever you feel is best." She answered sweetly.

"I agree."

I looked to the sun once more, seeing the colors change slightly from orange to a deeper shade of red. I closed my eyes, thinking back to the times we shared together all throughout the years. I wiped my eyes, deciding that I had finally recovered enough to finally speak without the slightest hint of my voice being broken.

"It's so beautiful out here, then again it's always been this way."

I didn't hear her speak back. I waited for a moment, to see if she was just slow to respond like she would be these days.

"Ah... I know, low energy moment." I said as I turned around...

...And there she sat.

I walked to her, quietly looking to her as she gazed to the beauty of the red sun. I placed my hands upon her cheeks, no longer feeling the warmth she once had. Her chest remained stationary. She was so peaceful, so quiet... and she was gone. I knelt down, placing my head against her, finally able to express the pain of my heart as my wife, my darling Tia, had left me behind.

"Still and always... my Cella."

♱ Celeste 'Celestia' Delanise Valkyrie ♱
Long live the Queen

4 Years Later...

Following my wife's advice, I took to writing my story as quickly as I could with as many details I could fill in on my own. I knew where to start, I knew where to end. I had gotten to the point where my magic had activated on second-handed nature, jotting down the thoughts that ran across my head.

But I was so tired of writing. I wanted to say so much, I wanted to put in so much of what all happened. I didn't want to leave anything out. So I asked for some help, getting everyone I knew who could help contribute. And it took me up to three years straight to finally get to this point where I am now.

And so here I am, staring at the very last chapter in this book, wondering what I am going to put in here next.

It's getting harder to stay up. I don't know why, but something inside of me is telling me to keep writing. I might not have had any sleep the past few days, but I'm okay with burning the midnight oil for a few more minutes, maybe an hour or two.

I hear a set of hooves walking up to the room. The door opens and my sister in law takes notice of me. "Nondis, are you still on this chair?"

"Ah, just a little... I'm just trying to stay awake." I answer, yawning as Luna takes the quill from my possession and places her hooves on my hands to quench my magic.

"You haven't slept in a few days. Come on, let's get you to bed." She's still as young as she's been all these years.

I shake my head, trying to get back to the work desk. "I don't wanna go to bed, Luna."

"You have to. You need your sleep, you can't just sit in front of that desk all day and drop off when you feel like it." She says as she guides me away from the desk, and finally towards my bedside. "The grandkids are coming tomorrow, so you're gonna need to be rested."

I narrow my eyes and think for a moment, trying to recall who was visiting. "Are they?"

"Of course they are." She confirms.

"Who's kids are coming again?" I question her.

"Estelle's." She answers.

I groan and lay myself into the bed, suddenly feeling the need to sleep. "Ah, they don't want to spend time with an old kook like me."

"They love you regardless. I don't know why you act like they don't."

"I'm too old, not enough energy for kids these days." I answer her sarcastically

"You'll have plenty of energy when you wake up. Now get some sleep." She orders. As I start to close my eyes, I feel a familiar warmth sitting on my back. I turn back to the empty side of the bed, feeling the indenture of where my wife slept for the rest of her days. I touch the depressed form of the mattress as Luna reminds me of the truth. "She's gone, Nondis."

Even now, I felt her presence here in the room. It's almost as if she's waiting for me to join her in the bed, as though she warmed the room as she did so many years before. "It just feels like she's in here right now."

"I'm sure it does." Luna answers as she walks out of the room. She looks back to me before closing the door behind her. "Good night, Nondis."

As the door close, I settle under my covers and close my eyes. But the warmth increases throughout my body. I feel a beautiful airlessness suspending me in the moment. I see a beautiful red sun before me, a wilting tree behind me, and on my back is a beautiful smiling mare who kisses me on my cheek. The lavender eyes I haven't seen in years, the sweetness in her voice, they welcome me back home.

"Good morning, sweetheart."

🕈 Nondis Patricia Haines 🕈
Terminus

7 Days Later...
***Point of Perspective: Null***

In the fading moments of life, Nondis' pen continued to etch the last thoughts of his mind until they finally came to rest, as did he. The grandchildren who looked to see their grandfather one last time had come too late. Stellar Sunshine called the others, weeping as she informed them of what had occurred. They soon gathered and found the final notes of their father's memoirs situated on the work desk, a pen resting at the foot of the book with the ink firmly dried on the otherwise blank pages.

They planned out all of what needed to be done. A statue was commissioned to gaze upon the visage of his deceased wife, who he would lay beside. Her eyes gazing up to him as he stood in his immortalized image of his tenure as Captain of the Royal Guard.

Days later, it was confirmed by medical examiners that the manner to which the gentleman had perished was by means of sudden cardiac arrest. The last of his memoirs were taken in by none other than Princess Twilight Sparkle, who took to the effort of chronicling the events of his works into a comprehensive piece that could be read by the ones he left behind.

Shortly after the funeral and repast, the four siblings gathered and listened as their father's final will and testament was read to them, issuing fair distribution to all. "And to my beloved children, all of whom I love very much, I bequeath to all of you even share of all my most valued possessions." The princess reads to the four siblings, who couldn't care less of what they received.

"Aunt Lulu said he just went to sleep." Alabaster mentions, shaking his head as he still felt the pain of such loss. "I didn't think our time was so short on him."

"Daddy." Stellar continues to weep for her father, who she could no longer embrace. "Oh daddy, why did you go so soon?

"Both mom and dad are gone." Sniffles Ivory, who hugs a portrait of their father. "I hate it. I hate it so much."

Princess Twilight keeps her silence as she opens a small wooden chest. Her eyes water for moments as she looks to the final testimony of a departed friend. She began to manifest the contents of the chest, issuing them to all within the room. Nafasi, who remained quiet throughout, would often hide his tears from everyone around him. But as a book lays before him, the tears inadvertently fall from his face. "What is this?" He questions, holding back the ache in his voice.

Princess Twilight hugs the specialist of her guard, all while informing them of what they received. "It's a memoir of his time here in Equestria. It took him all these years to finish it, but he stuck it out as best as he could. I even went through it and added a few perspectives from everyone around your father. I have a finalized version with everything in it, but these books I'm giving you now omitted a lot of the... sensitive recounts of prior experiences."

"Yeah, I'm still processing dad's passing. I don't think I need to read on the story of how we all got here." Alabaster replies, causing everyone in the room to find a bit of humor in the absence.

The princess sighs as her cheeks flush red. "I figured as much."

Stellar Sunshine opens the book and reads the title in font of the introductory page. "'It's Complicated?' Isn't there a better title to this story?"

The princess smiles as she opens her copy, reading to herself the moments that resonated deeply with her. She chuckles from the nostalgia hidden within the pages. "Your father was never an award-winning author. But he tried his best, despite missing out on a few things."

"So what's in it?" Ivory asks.

The princess smiles as she goes through and skim the first few chapters. "It's just the story of how he first came to Equestria, how he first met all of us, how he grew his relationships with everyone around him, and all the trials he had to face." Her smile disappears as she flips to a part in the book that appeared closer towards the end.

The zebracorn specialist take notice of the princess' solemn expression. He takes a deep breath and makes his request. "If it's without any controversy, may I have a copy of the unredacted version?"

The princess looks to the specialist, her eyes widening at his request. Upon deeper thought, she realizes that a lot of what happened between her and his father will be laid plain before him, as raw and uncensored as he depicted their intimate interactions. She blushes, looking away from the stallion. "Oh... Are you sure, Nafasi?"

"Please." He answers quietly. "I didn't get to spend much time getting to know him, but I remember one time when we sparred. He said something about what he was doing to me that day was easy compared to what he endured. So I wish to know what happened to him in his entirety."

The others look on as the eldest sibling stands firm on his request. Princess Twilight closes her eyes, closing the book, and swapping the one in her possession with the one in his. "I'll let you have my copy." But before Nafasi opens it, she uses her magic to keep the cover shut, offering words of discrection. "But be warned, the content is not for the faint of heart."

"I can accept that." The zebracorn answers.

She quenches her magic, allowing the stallion to take on the book. From the moment he open it, he notices how different it feel to the others. It's noticeably heavier, containing pages of exploits and adventures, friendships, conflicts, emotions, and above all else, the uncut truth of his father's past. "So how does it start?" Stellar Sunshine asks, watching as Nafasi opens to the start of the first chapter, reading out loud to the others the account of the human who penned it.

All while reading, he hears his father's voice reading along with him.

"This is far from the world I've come to know and tolerate. I say tolerate instead of love because not much was really interesting in my life. I mean, sure, I went to school, I had a relationship (operative word: had) that was pretty okay, my parents were just like any other set of parents, home was okay at times. However, my social life was rather lacking. In truth, I am socially awkward. VERY socially awkward. I couldn't hold a conversation for more than five minutes, I was never good at picking up girls and I was far from the most popular guy in college. I didn't play many sports nor was I inclined in anything in particular. I was just the average dude who showed up and made decent grades.

Yeah, my life is pretty boring. Or should I say that it was boring."

~𝓕𝓘𝓝𝓘𝓢~

Author's Note

Well... this is it.

I never thought I would actually see this day come, but here we are. I can't exactly say what I'm feeling in the moment as I'm writing this. But I can say that my emotions have gone elsewhere in recent days, which is why this chapter had been delayed. Allow me to explain why.

Throughout the past two weeks, storms have been hitting us here in the south like there's no tomorrow. And while I and my family were not personally affect, there are others who were.

From 2018, I had a friend who I called Uni, a shortened name for her old gamertag on PSN (Unicorn_Queen09). She and I had been friends for that long. And often times we would play Overwatch, Minecraft, Apex, Uno, Monopoly, stuff like that. However, we always played on Overwatch because of the fact that our coming to know each other was rooted explicitly in that game. She often had a soft-spoken voice, with a knack for cussing me out whenever we were talking our shit to each other. More friends came along, some we didn't keep along the way, other stuck around, but it's been mainly me and her doing whatever.

That all changed two weeks ago when a EF3 struck her home in New Orleans. As she and her family was still inside, the tornado lifted her home from it's piers and swept it into the street. She was trapped underneath the home for some time until emergency workers could get to her. I couldn't answer her initial call because I was at a rehearsal at the time. But her fiancé and I kept in touch, as did she and I. The family originally had this gofundme, mainly made to help her get around a little better since she was in a wheelchair.

Sadly, last Thursday, she passed away.

Her funeral is set for today, and while I send flowers her way, I never could find the time or the money to pay a visit. While some of the money is now being used for funeral arrangements, her family is without a home and her.

So instead of making this author's note about the long journey to this final chapter, I decided to push focus elsewhere. So I dedicate this chapter to her.

Maria "Uni" Burke
September 27th 1999 ─ March 31st 2022

Chapter LXXVII

Canterlot Castle Gardens
Equestria Alternate
Two years ago...

"Decision time, Sombra! You can't take me out without taking her out!"

The sky glowed with an eerie green light as black trans-dimensional cracks formed in the higher heavens. A dark presence drained away at Princess Celestia as she closed her eyes, concentrating on herself as the element bearers cast their spell to save the two chaotic dimensions from clashing with one another. Gravity and light alike seemed to have fallen to the stones below as another alicorn of a similar visage to the princess floated just a foot away from her, trapped in a similar globe.

In her mind, she had already made up her mind as she weaved a simple memory spell, using the jewel centered in her chest plate. The high princess closed her eyes as she finalized her thoughts, her emotions, everything she wanted to put into this jewel for the stallion standing on the ground, for her younger sister who was unable to fight beside her, for her beloved student who she treated as a daughter.

She shouted to the ground as crystals of white light formed around her, quickly snuffing out her air. "Twilight Sparkle, don't you six dare stop!"

"Celestia, no! I can't do this!"

"You have to imprison us both! It should bring balance back to our worlds! Take Luna with you, tell her what happened to me! From now on, Equestria is in both of your hooves!"

"I can't leave you here!" Twilight screamed as sorrow started to fill her mind. "I won't live with this!"

"YOU MUST!" She replied in her Royal Canterlot voice, causing the grounds to shake. Celestia felt her hind legs become entrapped in crystal as she spoke. "A wise pony once told me making decisions you don't want is part of what we have to do. I've made this one without you, a long time ago I've made it."

The younger princess started to weep as she looked up to her mentor, her wings quickly being swallowed up in crystal. "No... NO! I'm not ready, not for this! There has to be a way!"

Celestia could no longer move much of her body, but due to everyone's hesitation in casting the spell, the effects slowed to that of just her forelegs and her head. "Twilight, I'm so proud of you! I know you will be what I once was and better! You are, and will be an incredible leader of Equestria, and you will lead her to a brighter future!"

Twilight tried to deactivate the spell as the others also fell from their quasi god-state. But to her horror, the crystals continued to form around the elder princess. "The spell! We have to stop the spell!"

Celestia closed her eyes as she accepted what was coming for her. But her eyes shot open as a voice screamed from far beneath her. "No! No, there has to be another way!"

"I'm so sorry, Sombra! But we need to restore balance─"

"NOT LIKE THIS! NOT FOR YOU! IN YOU LIES EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER LOVED, I WON'T LIVE TO SEE YOU GO! I'D RATHER BE THE VILLAIN THAN SEE A BALANCED WORLD WITHOUT YOU!"

Finally, the high princess felt herself convey her personal feelings before others as she screamed from her stiffening body. "SOMBRA, YOU IDIOT! WILL YOU JUST STAY THERE AND LET ME DO THIS!? I LIVED A THOUSAND YEARS WITHOUT YOU, TORTURED FOR THE THOUGHT OF EVER BEING WITH YOU! WHEN I GOT YOUR LETTER, I CRIED AT THE THOUGHT OF HEARING FROM YOU, KNOWING I'D NEVER ACTUALLY SEE YOU AGAIN! BUT FATE WON US OUT, I GOT WHAT I WANTED AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! SEEING YOU AGAIN, I'M COMPLETE!"

Sombra and Twilight exchanged a nod while the princess was in the midst of her reply. He took a deep breath and levitated himself to the crystal prison she was going to be confined to. He whispered to the princess with a bit of a deviant smile. "So you think I haven't been doing the same without you? You've always been so selfish."

"Maybe it's because you make me into everything I'm not." She responded, tears welling in her eyes.

"I don't make you into anything, Celestia. You've been that way for a long time."

"Have I? Can't say I've indulged in anything." She argued.

"Coffee?"

"Caffeine-free for over four hundred years."

"Yet you drink tea, which happens to have more caffeine than coffee."

"Are we really doing this right now!?" Celestia questioned.

"Or have you had enough cake?"

"There is never enough cake!"

"And do you think you can be separated from cake from now on."

Celestia closed her eyes, tearfully smiling at the king. "If it means that I do my duty, then I'm sure you'd understand."

Sombra nodded slowly. "Oh, I think we have an agreement there."

Suddenly, the king sent a powerful wave of his magic over the six element bearers, stripping them of the enchanted jewels and knocking them unconscious in the process. The princess' eyes expanded as the king's eyes began to glow a pure white light. "Sombra, what have you done!?"

As the six elements surrounded the king, he replied to her. "The Sombra of your world is a villain, correct? So if I attack the element bearers with the intention of taking their elements for myself, then it's easy to say that I can get punished for using them, right?"

Celestia looked back to see her prison breaking from her hind legs on forward, the crystal around her body crackling and shattering as he floated before her. "Sombra, this is madness!"

"No, this is balance." He rebutted. "I'm using the elements to draw the darkness from your counterparts. If they're good, then they can't harm you. If they stay, then they'll only continue to try and bring further harm to the both of you. It is only fair."

Almost as if smoke was drawn to him, Sombra used the elements to drain away the evil from the two alternate alicorns, both the evil Celestia and Luna were stripped of their darkness and replaced with a different visage. Meanwhile Sombra struggled immensely as the cloud of darkness waited beside him, writhing for a new host to take. Celestia questioned him. "Where will you store all of that evil?"

Sombra smiled as he turned back to Celestia. "Remember when I said I'd rather be the villain than to see a balanced world without you?"

As the others below came back to consciousness after being stripped of their elements, they looked up as Celestia started to plea to the king. "Sombra, no. No please! Don't do this to me! Use me as a vessel as well! We can be the villain toge─"

Her worlds were silence as he used his lips to seal that of the high princess. Twilight and the others stared with mouths agape over the sight of their ruler being embraced in such a manner. In one moment her eyes were wide open, but in the next, they fell as her hoof reached around him. Her lips moved in perfect harmony with his, their embrace becoming as passionate as the dancing darkness beside him. When they parted, she was left speechless while he smiled at her for the final time. "What kind of villain would I be if I let you get what you want?"

The shadow turned to the king and he reached his hoof to the figure, the massive black cloud seeped into his body, contorting much of his features into sickly forms, his horn reddened and crooked, her eyes clenching shut as she held him through his transformation. All she could do was scream for him as he writhed in pain.

"Sombra! NO!"

Celestia jolted forward, reaching out towards the darkness of her room as a single word left her lips. "Sombra!" She yelled before covering her mouth to realize the name she called so loudly. Promptly, sadness wore itself all over her face as she leaned back onto her bed. Her head rested on the pillow as she turned to the window, seeing just the pale moonlight seeping though her curtains. "It was just a dream." She rolled her eyes as she tried to settle back into her sleep, only to realize how uncomfortable her regalia had started to become for the time being.

She stepped out of her bed and took off her crown, her slippers, and finally her chest plate to reveal her nude form. Her mane and tail swayed yet far less than usual. Her eyes grew empty and hollow as she stared at herself in the mirror. The longer she stared at the imperfections of her body, the more she grew to dislike herself.

These imperfections were not an indication of age, but rather unrelenting reminders of her mortality, or lack thereof.

She wanted to shatter the mirror to pieces, cast her magic upon it to transform it's reflective surface to nothing but dust. But everything she wanted to achieve would do nothing but alert the guards down the hall as well as it's residents. So instead of ridding herself of her own image, she just stared back at her own likeness, feeling her lips and thinking back to the the chaos of two years past. A sickening pain caused her heart to drop into the pit of her stomach as she murmured to herself.

"How could he love me for so long? Would he have still loved me if I told him my past?"

The princess then broke her eyes away from the mirror, looking at a particular spot on her chest that was often covered by the purple diamond in her chest plate. An unsightly mark left by some cruel device as she mentally flashed back to the moment she was held in place. In her mind were visions of bleak gray, shadows of black, and streaks of crimson. Distorted cries of a mare on the verge of death, pleading for it to take her. The image of a pony hunched over, nursing the broken nubs where her wings once sat. Another pony crying to the heavens as her head was held on a table, her her horn propped on a wooden block as a stallion approached her with a heavy hammer, swinging down with all his might until the horn crackled with a weak magic surge, repeatedly until it rolled to the ground, laying there as the arcane potential within quickly snuffed silent. Cruel 'marriages' of failed princesses stripped of their titles and appendages. A mare casting herself from the highest battlements of Canterlot to the craggy mountainside as she grieved the death of her beloved fiance. The countless bodies strewn across a battlefield left dismembered and disregarded as a feast for the scavengers.

They ate as kings as the lonely soldier they face laughed with broken tears on their face, finally coming to realize the terrifying power she possessed, her mane immolated the air. Her hooves burning the grass to ash and boiling the blood in whatever puddle she stepped, her teeth as sharp as whetted knives. The still-moving bodies as their entrails dragged behind them to leave their disengaged halves behind, they cried in vain for salvation before allowing the awaiting nothing to take them. In that instant, there was no heaven nor hell, but rather the rapture of flesh and blood, the thousand spirits staring back at the lone halberd-wielding princess as she lost all sight of her own sanity, before eventually falling back into reality. Only then to her, there was silence from all her adversaries, every last dissenter.

Her anger, her revenge, completed. Yet the victory was no more hollow than the lifeless bodies in her wake.

The past of everything she went through, everything she witnessed, every sin she committed, she felt all of them staring right back at her. The only thing missing was the bruises and the blood from the wars she fought in. A thousand years of bearing not only the guilt of banishing her own sister but the bloodshed of others, the torture of her former successors, they stared at her like an evil, scarred face wearing a crooked smile, just waiting for her to look back up to it. The legion of evil interned within her beckoned her to look, but she refused.

The words of her darker self from two years ago replayed in her mind. "Oh! The kitten has claws!"

She closed her eyes, turning away as she whispered. "Sombra, if only you knew what I had done, you would think of me as beautiful as I was then?" She placed back on her crown, donning her royal chest plate, turned to the mirror to see only the princess of the present. She quietly asked herself again. "Would you have taken me from my rightful prison then? If only you cursed me with that evil, I would've wore it proudly for you. Both you and Luna, you deserve better than me."

A quiet knock on the door startled the alicorn, causing her wings to flare open with caution. She promptly calmed herself and approached the door to see Luna peeking through the crack. "Sister."

"Luna, it is late. What are you doing here?"

The younger sibling placed a hoof in the crack of her older's door. "You had the nightmare again."

"It's nothing." She replied adamantly. "My mind just took a journey to the day I saw Sombra again."

"And you've let it haunt you for two years too long." Luna argued as she forced herself inside of the room. "He did what he did to save you. He loved you enough to do that, in spite of what you had to say. I don't think there's a love stronger than that."

The older sibling sat back on her bed, putting the covers on herself. "I'm still not satisfied with that and you know it. Things should've have gone the way I intended them to go. At least he wouldn't be suffering now."

"He chose that, Tia. I chose to be spiteful of you way back when. We live with our choices and we better ourselves from them. Eventually, time will teach us to move forward whether we're ready to do so or not. You must make the choice to move forward with us."

Celestia sat up from her bed angry with her sister's advice, despite internally conceding her defeat on the matter. "Luna, if you ever knew─"

"Goodnight, sister. Sleep." Luna said while using her horn to conjure up a powerful sleeping spell.

The princess leaned over and touched Celestia's forehead with a dim light, and her eyes closed instantly. The older alicorn fell limp, at last reunited with her peaceful slumber. Luna stepped away from her sleeping sister, taking pride in her work. When the first snore escaped from the elder princess' mouth, Luna opened the door and exited the room quietly.

"I told you, I won't let you go sleepless again. You've had enough of those nights."

Meanwhile in the Human World...

My eyes stayed open for the entirety of the night. The only thing I could think of was the fact that I was gonna have to tell mom and dad about what I was doing. So I stayed up a little later pondering on how I was gonna come out with it. And it wasn't like I had the luxury to fight myself on the matter per usual. My brother's future was on the line and I didn't want that to be compromised because of my hesitation. I want him to succeed in his career, not have to settle for something he doesn't love to do because of one incident crushing his lifelong dream.

But those minutes turned into an hour, and eventually into several of those. And where I was thinking of how to tell them about it, also came the where, what I was going to say, who I was going to bring with me to help me ease the topic along. I just wanted the security of having a support network present if things were to go wrong of if something's said that would cause a potential breakdown in our family's dynamic, even if the conversation itself will lead to just that.

When have I ever seen the opportunity to tell my parents the truth about anything? Well to be fair, I could've done that as soon as I arrived back in town. Now for certain they would have called me crazy and thought I was deranged, but showing them would've probably scared them off totally without them even getting to know anyone. This was probably my best shot right here.

And it still didn't leave me with any solutions on exactly how I was going to break it to them.

It was well past 3:30 in the morning, and I couldn't sleep in the silence knowing that the questions would've only been running through my mind. So I cut on the TV and had it put on a video channel before dropping the volume to five percent. After that, I just scanned my channels for something that would inevitably put me to sleep, just some background noise for me to drown out to.

But then I ended up on the HBO programming block. And of course, the first thing I hear is "♫I'm just a love machine. And I won't work for nobody but you♪". Thankfully the volume was barely audible from just me sitting on the couch, so it wouldn't get to anywhere outside of the room. On the screen were a few women talking about sex toys on power drills and dildos on spinning wheels. Granted I've seen some interesting things on the internet and this was one of them, but they went a little more in depth of the reasoning for choosing the machine over masturbating in the manner of any sane or normal person. I guess it took that much for them to get off the ground then I wasn't going to be any interest. That's just sex beyond imagination and verging towards how far one can push themselves to the limit.

Of course, with the show being on HBO, they weren't all about showing the goods as they were more about showing the act. You know what's happening down there, you know how bad she's getting her walls redone, I'm more surprised she didn't come with a bucket of flat paint as hard as that thing's scrubbing. And then came one scene where a woman had reached the peak of her orgasm so much that she reached her hand out to the operator to stop the machine from drilling her more senseless than she already was. The dildo came to a halt and she fell over into someone's arm and she just started laughing over how bad her balance was. Then they panned to a dildo on a power drill, still spinning at a low speed until it faded to black. Have to admit, not my cup of tea but the sight of the woman losing her shit made me a bit interested in the rest of the show, so interested that I ended up turning my body towards the TV and pressing my hand against my crotch for reassurance.

Hell, Twilight's in the other room, I might be able to get away with a quick nut to some softcore before moping to sleep.

"You humans are into some... interesting things."

My head shot up as I yanked my hand out of my pants so quickly that I could've had cloth burn. "T-Twilight, w-wh-what are you doin' up so late?"

She walked over to grab the remote from my hands. "I just went to the bathroom and all of a sudden I notice a light in the hallway. So I came to check in on you. Guess you're doing your own thing right now."

Well I was about to. "Nah, not really. I was trying to find something to go to sleep to."

She glanced at the TV again and saw a clip of a mechanic pressing a woman against the wall as he took her from behind. The young princess sighed in disbelief. "Yeesh, I know written erotica gives you some false expectations, but this is a whole other level of bad. It leaves nothing to think about."

"Well this is just the soft stuff." I argued as I sat up on the couch. "They don't show you anything really. You could get a video of some girl in your class passed around by some douchey asshat trying to get back at an ex, and it'll show you more than that just for free. This you'd have to pay for."

"You're paying for this?" She questioned.

"Not the porn, just the movies. It's a movie channel, and if I wanted to watch a good movie, then this would be the channel it pops up on. It just so happens that they have some adult-oriented stuff in the red-light hours." I said, reminiscing to when I was thirteen and I just stayed up past three just to watch the advertising block for Girls-Gone-Wild. Yeah it was censored to hell, but I wasn't gonna complain at damn-near 4 am. Madi-Gras, random night clubs, tropical island, it didn't matter.

The moment those steel drums came on, you knew exactly what time it was.

"But still, I can't believe you'd settle for something like this." She answered.

"I don't judge you and your books." I argued quietly as she put the TV on mute.

"My books may be graphic in description, but it doesn't kill the imagination. I can at least imagine I'm doing these things to other ponies. With this you already have a face, a voice, everything."

I squinted at the princess, folding my arms as I retorted. "Oh come on now, you're pretending there aren't any porn magazines in Equestria, a place where clothing is considered for some an exotic fetish."

Twilight yapped back at me. "There isn't one. The most you'd get is clothing because it's illegal to produce that kind of stuff so brazenly, and that's because of some centuries-old mating act. Stallion centerfolds are like looking at somepony on their back wearing a black codpiece, or a backshot with their tail in the way, sometimes a bowl of fruit, sometimes a pair of oranges."

I couldn't help but snicker a little at her statement. "You're saying that like you were looking really hard for the good stuff."

"Oh trust me, I tried." She confessed. "When I was younger, still Celestia's pupil, I would go into the library to find some anatomy books for diagrams because that was the only way I got to see something like that. Even then, I couldn't piece what I saw in there to a centerfold of 'Colts-N-Holsters' every month."

Damn, even name-dropped the magazine. "So what did you see in there?"

"I told you, stallions in provocative poses, holding things, huge tools and wearing stuff to cover up their... you know." She added with a growing blush.

"And the mares edition, what did they have?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"Lingerie, hiked up dresses to show underwear, blushing faces, hooves between the legs to cover up certain spots, towels tightly flossed between someone's haunches, tails pulled between the legs, pretty bright bows tied at the dock of somepony's tail." She explained as I stared blankly at her, appearing a bit astounded that she'd actually know what all was in those magazines. She followed up by clearing her throat and trying to act in a dignified manner. "There were a bunch of these magazines inside of Shining's mattress Cadance would pull out and look at. I just thought it was cute to dress up like that one time for Shining, but he didn't like it too much and neither did mom."

"How did your mom get into this?" I inquired.

She veered off to the side as she mumbled quietly. "I kinda thought I was trying to be cute for my big brother so he'd take me to the bookstore the next day, and I thought mom already knew about the magazine in his room when I told her about it."

I started busting out laughing at her, pointing to her as I tried to imagine how he was going to explain to Mrs. Velvet that her daughter was dressing up naughty for her older brother for such an innocent reason. Bless that little filly's soul. "So what happened with him?"

"He got grounded for a month, dad sent him to a sports camp all summer long following up that incident, and he had a military-like inspection of his room every day for any more magazines. Meanwhile Cadance took the time off of foalsitting me to have a special sibling meeting with Shining every time she came over."

Well my imagination isn't so dead to know what those two could've been up to. Probably annoyed Shining to no end that he was getting to look and see what's been hiding from him the entire time, while she's too busy trying to play up the 'not-till-we're-married' shtick. Guess it worked out for the both of them cause now they got one on the way. "Taking him for a ride that early on, huh? That's just cruel."

"Well she was in love with him for a long time, so it really didn't matter." Twilight answered. "He wanted something to look at, she wanted something to hold onto, in the end they got what they wanted and then some."

It can also be said that Shining wanted something to stab before taking the final plunge into matrimony, that's understandable considering the unfair marriage laws in place. Experience has me well-acquainted to the circumstances as it is. "Well, it did work out."

Twilight then turned off the TV and left us in the dark as she spoke. "Well either way, you shouldn't get used to seeing that too much. It'll hurt you in the long-run."

"But weren't you the one looking for porn also?" I asked.

"I used to, but now I read to... inspire myself." She said with a finger tapping the tip of my nose.

"And somehow you can make a mess in my room while I can't do the same for my own couch." I rebutted.

Twilight sighed before she stood up. "...Don't you have someone to talk to for that kind of stuff? I'm sure she can help you with whatever you're feeling."

"She's also not the one masturbating in my new bed." I quipped back at her.

"I can't help you have a smell that's nice to think about." She said, pulling me to my feet. "Tell you what, you sleep in the bed and I'll take the couch tonight."

"Twilight, are you sure?" I asked, having a few concerns. Though admittedly, I wouldn't mind the renewal of my privacy for a night. Just give me fifteen minutes on my computer and I'll be satisfied with my evening.

Pausing for a moment to think, she stopped in her tracks. "Actually... I could let you sleep in my bed back in Equestria."

"You mean MY OLD MATTRESS?" I emphasized sarcastically.

"You have a TV in your room and a computer. I've been in Sunset's world more than enough to know what other things are available on the internet." Damn, there goes that idea.

"But aren't you worried if I do something stupid in your bed and make a mess of it?"

"Not really, unless you..." She stopped for a moment, thinking even harder before wearing a bit of a scowl. "On second thought, you can stay here. No late-night shows, no cell phone, no moving from this couch."

Well gee, mom, is there anything else I can't do? "So I can't even bust one when you've already got the jump on me in my own bed. That's unfair."

Twilight giggled as she gave me a fiendishly coy grin. "I never said you weren't allowed to relieve yourself."

Well I'm sure glad I can beat my meat in the comfort of my own apartment. Thank you for your consent, for I surely needed it in verbal form. "And I'm supposed to use what now?"

"Your imagination." She replied, again with that devilish smile. I swear she could grow another two horns from her forehead and she'd just as demonic. "Just think of something that makes you excited. Elaborate on how you wish to methodically satisfy your partner, and aspire to reach heights unattainable."

"No hints or clues on how I'm gonna do that?" I questioned.

She stepped up to me, tracing a finger down the Longhorns shirt she borrowed from my old wardrobe. She basically dragged her finger down the core of her body, completely bypassing her hips and everything below it with the outstanding exception of her exposed lower thighs. "Hmm... my thighs seem to be pretty soft." Next, she used her other hand to rub the front of her neck, going no lower than her collarbone. "My neck is a bit cold, maybe you'd like to warm that up." Her hands then suddenly reached out for mine, rubbing and cusping them into a ball. "I think my hands are pretty nice, maybe you'd like to feel them on your chest."

"Or you can kiss me again?" I offered as she kept suggesting early foreplay subjects.

"No thanks, I don't need to get going at this hour." She said, walking off before she turned back. "Oh, I never really found sleeping with underwear to be comfortable. I guess I'm just used to being in the nude."

At last, she disappeared back into my bedroom, leaving me to sit in the darkness and think about my sexual frustration as opposed to how I'm gonna break the news to my parents. So at least there's something I can go to sleep to: getting blue-balled for the umpteenth time. But instead of subscribing to that ideology, I chose to break ranks and grab my phone, only to see Discord dancing at the front of the screen with every app connected to the internet being stashed away. So I reached for my TV remote in an effort to relocate my place in the program I was watching, only to find out the show had started to roll credits with a Disney flick next in the lineup. And to add to my misfortune, most adult programming ends at 5 eastern, which made my 4 block a little more kid-friendly.

I'm sure Twilight didn't know any of this, but she sure played this out too damn well. Fuck it, I'm going to bed.

My mind was a swirling mess when I woke up to the sight of the sun crashing through my den. I couldn't help but to cover my face with one of the sofa pillows, just to avoid the obnoxious beams of light. Thankfully this isn't Equestria where a certain individual can manipulate the sun at will to annoy me out of my sleep. In reality, I should've been up two hours ago instead of sleeping for an additional four. I've got to break myself back into the early rising thing.

I have a feeling I'm gonna be thrown right into work again as soon as I return.

I heard a light snicker as I clenched my eyes shut, trying to enjoy what could be my final day of what I'd like to call 'Hollywood sleep hours'. Next I heard the sound of someone shushing somebody else. So I just waited for them to do whatever they were going to do to me, and then pop up like I was going to surprise them. But instead, they just stood silently, until...

"GUARDS, ATTEN-HUT!"

Hearing Celestia's command loud and clear, I hopped out of my bed and stood at attention as my brain immediately snapped back to basic training mode. But instead of getting orders, I watched as the high princess reddened and covered her face. Meanwhile I could hear Melanie and Twilight laughing in the back. I snapped my eyes to them and then back down to myself, only to realize I was with a prominent case of morning wood. I felt my entire body seize up as I grabbed my pillow and hid myself for dear life.

Celestia covered her mouth with the palm of her hand as she tried her hardest to look away. "When I call you to attention, I didn't mean for that to happen."

Mel walked up to me, poking at the pillow. "You were hiding that, how the hell did you keep that juggernaut down?" Well no sense in hiding it now, we already saw it, you might as well make a show out of it."

"Excuse you, my penis is very shy in the morning." I replied, turning my concealed frontal feature away from Melanie's prying hands.

Twilight coughed as she rolled her eyes. "By shy, you mean demonstrative of your vitality."

"You would know, tell them more! In fact, write a summary of your findings and submit them to your homeroom teacher before the end of the day." I chirped back, causing Twilight to gasp at my crude way of calling her out.

"I don't need that information, Twilight. So thank you but no." Celestia replied, also reminding me that she was Celestia's personal pupil and previously enrolled in her school. She tried to turn to me, but kept her eyes closed as she addressed me directly. "Now can you please go make yourself decent before you embarrass me further, captain?"

I quickly sulked off into my room so I could find some jeans to wear while the three women stood in the den. Mel turned to Twilight with a finger tapping against her lip. "So... that's him, right?"

"All of it." Twilight replied.

"You ain't gotta submit no paper, but I want details." Mel inquired.

"He's not comfortable sharing that." The young princess stated shyly.

"He knows we share everything with each other. Hell, what you know about him is probably shit off the back of my hand."

Twilight glanced at Mel, folding her arms with a sliver amount of devious pride. "Masturbation?"

"Oh he's religious with it." Mel answered.

"Is he? I don't recall letting him get the chance." Twilight added with a smirk.

The young college student brimmed with excitement as she stood jaw-dropped. "Oh my gosh, you fiend, you tamed the beast. I love you."

Twilight meekly accepted the praise. "It's really more of me wanting him to use his imagination instead of relying on instant gratification."

"That's the main thing. You're supposed to let him imagine what it feels like to touch you, to have him close enough to know the closeness of your bodies, and be reminded of how much more intimate you can be. Deny him the external stimuli and allow for him to mount all the necessary pressure to see the only outlet of his growing frustrations. Don't allow anything cheap, let nothing come easy, and ensure that it is only you he wants and no other. Only then, especially then, you let him get to know you, slowly. He may become impatient, but it is to make him that way so that the destination is worth waiting for. Let him anticipate the destination whilst taking him along your arduous journey of trust."

Both Mel and Twilight turned their heads slowly to the elder princess as she stood innocently with her hands behind her back.

"I'm not new to the subject, I just don't like going into the graphic details."

I slapped on some jeans, walked into the dining room, and sat quietly on the couch while I tried to make up my mind on some things. The girls on the other hand were in my room, having a long conversation about various things and experiences they might have had. I know Celestia had to have gone last because she had so many stories to choose from. Twilight told Mel more about how she and I came to grow interested in each other. Mel then shared how she and I met so many years ago. And I suppose Celestia finally dropped the ball on what I was getting my mind prepped for, because the only thing I heard out of the other two was...

"HE'S GONNA DO WHAT!?"

Those words were followed by a scattering of feet and three women suddenly appearing out of the hallway. Twilight walked up to me with disbelief. "Hold on. Tell me that was a joke."

Mel then spoke. "Dude, are you seriously thinking about spilling to your mom and dad about this? TODAY!?"

I leaned over on the couch, trying to watch some of the Maury show as they revealed the results of a lie detector test. "Hey, give me a sec, I wanna see if this girl's gonna lose it over her newly-wed husband cheating on her."

Mel quickly grabbed the remote from me and turned off the TV. "The lie detector test determined that was a lie." She said mockingly. "Now, are you or are you not going to tell your folks about this?"

I tried to grab the remote, but Twilight levitated it behind her back and stood far away from me. Celestia stood in front of me as she explained further. "He's doing it because we made a deal last night. If I was going to offer the services of my personal doctors to aid in Stanton's recovery, then I wanted him to come clean to his parents. No more lies, no more deflections, no more excuses."

"But have you seen how his mom can get when she's angry? She's a nice soul, but God help him if he comes out to tell her he's in someone's military." Melanie said as she ran her hand through her hair.

Twilight looked at me with some concern as she asked. "Are you sure that you wanna do this?"

"Do I really have much of a choice? I'm not gonna be able to tell them that Stanton's walking off that ACL injury next week because of some unexplained miracle." I replied. And as soon as I finished my sentence, my phone started buzzing in my pocket. I looked at the screen to see it was Stanton calling me with an update. "Speaking of which, I'm gonna put Stan on speaker." And with a quick swipe of my thumb, our conversation in the room came to a pause while I focused on the other one two hours away. "Yo!"

"Hey man, rough news on the transfer." Stanton said as he sounded down in spirit.

"What is it?" I asked.

"They can make the transfer, but it would have to be by helicopter. And you can kinda... you already know the deal."

I groaned out of frustration, knowing damn well what the main obstacle was. "Yeah, dad said he can't do it because it costs too much?"

"Oh yeah. They won't even give him the numbers of how much money it'll add to the damn bill. So it's safe to say that will be a good thousand dollars added to surgical costs, morphine, other meds, aftercare, rehab, overnight stay."

"Did you tell him you have some good doctors over here in Austin?" I asked.

"He's not listening to me. The thing is that he knows my scholarship is likely cut for next year, and if that's the case, then he'll be footing the bill for my tuition among other things on top of the doctor's note."

"Is he still there?"

"Yeah, he's just trying to haggle with the doctors right now."

"Haggle? He's haggling with doctors?" I questioned, very much puzzled. "Nevermind, just give him the phone and I'll talk to him."

"Are you sure you can't just join him in haggling the doctors? I'm sure that would work better than you talking to him right now." He replied with a nervous laugh.

"Give him the phone, please." I stressed.

A sigh came from the other end as Stanton conceded. "Okay, you are asking to start something I can't finish."

It took a little bit of time as the girls watched me wait on the phone, tapping my foot on the ground impatiently. But dad finally showed up on the other end. "Hello?"

"Dad, do the transfer."

He didn't take what I said with much thrill as he argued back at me. "Nondis, since when did we have the funds to be able to send your brother to another hospital in another part of the state by helicopter?"

"Always. Look, I'll even foot the bill, just get him swapped."

Writing me off, he remained unmoved in his stance. "Son, why are you two so hellbent in getting him transferred? What's so special about him getting put somewhere else? He's already in a hospital."

"Dad, he just wants a second opinion." I debated.

"Well ain't no second in it. Your brother's career is done. I know he has aspirations of being out on the field on a pretty Sunday afternoon with the crowd cheering for him to run for ten yards every possession. Believe me, I had no bigger hope than to see him succeed in his dream. But reality's kicked in and it's saying that playtime is over for him." He answered, painting a bleak picture with his words. "It's time to grow up."

"Who decided that for him?" I asked, becoming upset enough to throw something, knowing this was always something that happened with us when we were growing up.

"Me and your mom did, last night." He replied, still remaining unchanged. "She said it, he wasn't getting on a field after that. The coach already came over to tell me the situation about his scholarship. They can keep him in for this year, but next year he'll be walking on if he can show that he's capable of playing close to where he was on that field last night. That means next year, we'll be paying for his school on top of the hospital bills."

Even though his argument was sound by every means within the human realm of possibilities, both Stanton and I knew that there was so much more we could do. "So that's it, kill his career before it even started?"

"Nondis, you're a pretty bright kid, but you're too damn naïve." I could already tell how frustrated he was becoming. For years, whenever he was upset with me, he'd start talking through the side of his mouth. I could hear it right then and there. "If you ever understood the responsibilities of being an adult with a job, you'd understand that we'd have to make sacrifices for what's best and realistic for the future."

"Dad, I know you like winning every argument you get into with me, but you're wrong here. If you ever understood the sacrifices it takes to make your dream become a reality, then maybe you'd see that there's always a better option. Stanton and I know, hell Alex knows it, we can get him back on his feet."

"So what do you expect to happen, hmm?" And now he was going to play from a sarcastic angle. "You expect Jesus himself to come from the heavens and lay hands on him? Then by some miraculous chance, that ACL injury goes away and he's back to playing sports? Life just doesn't work that way, son."

I responded with that same level of sarcasm. "Don't your church ever talk about operating on faith, to lean on the Lord when things get rough and thank him in spite of the bad? Aren't you supposed to be praying for him to be healed?"

"Don't you throw that one at me, boy!" I knew from the sound of his words being filtered through his teeth, he was seething.

Taking his stubbornness and his conservative nature into perspective, I decided to press against that. "You know what, you may not want him transferred, but the bill isn't in your name. Put me on speaker."

"Nondis, I'm gonna let you calm down and think like a rational human being for once in your lifetime." He said, completely ignoring my request.

"Once in my lifetime... Okay, even though I'm technically on my third now, but okay." I mumbled through the receiver.

Dad had to take a breath before handing off the phone to someone else. "Stanton, talks some damn sense to your brother."

It hardly took any time before my younger brother spoke up on the other end. "Told you, man."

I didn't care for what that old man wanted or him trying to get someone else to talk me out of it. Both Stanton and I knew what we could do to make this happen. "Get the doctor and put me on speaker as soon as he comes in the room. I'm gonna make a quick phone call to Alex so we can get this shit done by committee."

"Fine by me. Let's do it." He answered before I placed him on hold to call Alex.

And just as quickly as I swapped lines, I drew Alex's name. It didn't take him very long to answer either, almost like he was expecting me to give him a call. "Hey."

"Alex, I'm gonna have you on a conference call. Just bear with the bullshit." I said, quickly joining the lines as we could hear dad's voice droning on in the background.

"Wha-what happened now?" Alex questioned.

"Hello? Are we all here?" I checked, trying to make sure no one was missing.

"Still in agony." Stanton called out.

"What the hell is going on now?" Dad asked angrily.

Finally, my older brother pieced everything together. "Dad, Nondis... Not this shit again."

"Long story short, Alex. Stanton wants a transfer to Austin for some of my doctors, yes or no." I quickly summarized.

"NO!" Dad called out lividly.

"Pre or post surgery?" Alex questioned.

"Pre-op." I confirmed. "Get him transferred to the hospital here so we can get him hooked up with my guys."

I felt as if Alex did a double take as he stuttered. "W-wait a minute, those guys?"

"Yeah, the ones that stopped me from croaking over."

"Wait, how the hell did you organize that?" He asked.

"Celestia's pulling me a favor." I replied.

"Who's pulling you a favor!?" Dad maddeningly inquired.

I felt myself hesitate for a second before I braved myself forward. "My boss, dad. Her doctors are going to fix Stanton, and they got the best damn medicine money can buy."

"Not. Going. To happen." Dad declared vehemently. "Your mom and I already made the decision."

"We recognize that you and mom have made a decision, but given it's a stupid-ass decision, we've elected to ignore it. It's a family thing, dad, not just a parental one. Alex and I are working too. So what's the vote? We have two for yes, two for no. Alex, you're tie-breaker."

Coming to my defense, Alex quickly spoke in a calm tone. "Dad, I met his doctors and saw how they got him back up to speed. I saw Nondis when he first came in, and it was ugly. I mean... you gotta give these guys a chance."

"I ain't meet no one!" Dad hollered. "And they ain't touching my son if I ain't met 'em."

"Well dad, you're gonna get your chance. And when you and mom get here with Stanton..." Again, I had to take a bit of a pause because I felt my heart beating against my ribs, even my ears could hear it pulsing from deep within my chest. I felt a hand on my shoulder as Celestia stood right beside me. She gave me a sweet smile before issuing a solitary nod. Even if I felt a bit scared, I psyched myself up as I came clean. "...I'll tell you everything. From the moment I woke up to the moment I came back."

There was a draw of silence as I could see Twilight and Mel display varying levels of shock. I can only imagine what the guys' faces were like. "Wait, what?" Stanton questioned in a state of bewilderment.

"Seriously?" Said Alex, also displaying his disbelief.

"Yeah, no bullshit." I confirmed, feeling like I could stand bravely in front of my dad, despite my being two hours away from a punch to the chest. "You get the whole truth about everything, even where I've been for nine months, every fight, every skirmish, every hospital report in my name, every bone I broke, how I got to where I was and everything."

Stanton briskly tried to talk me out of it. "Nondis, man you don't have to─"

"Sorry Stanton, this was the condition of the favor I pulled. I gotta go through with my promises, no more lies."

"Nondis, I can just get the surgery."

"Fuck that, you're getting your ass on a football field, and you're gonna play for somebody, even if it's the Cleveland Browns. You know that this has been your thing, you know how quick you're gonna be able to recover, all you gotta do is just let me take this one." I declared, before bringing my attention to my older brother. "Alex, the final decision's on you."

I could hear him sighing under his breath. "Are you sure you're willing to do this?"

"As many times as the both of you came to bat for me, I can't say no to shit. On you."

I'm sure Alex had to shrug at my answer before he finally cast his vote. "Well... Go for broke, dad. We do this as a family, and we wanna see him have a fair chance. Plus I think it's fair that Nondis tells you what's been going on before he damn-near dies again."

"Alex, you boys aren't thinking clearly!" Dad called out, completely fuming at all three of us.

"Dad, your name isn't on the bill. So just deal with the fact that your sons are willing to make a decision without you, just like you tried to make one without us." I said firmly, taking in a nervous yet thrilling victory in the argument.

"Doc, send me home!" Stanton called out, I could tell he was in such high spirits now.

While dad started to rev up, I quickly concluded my call. "Dad, you can cuss me out later. Love you. See you when you get here."

*click*

At that moment, I felt myself collapse onto my couch while breathing heavily like I had gotten out of a fierce battle. Somewhere inside me, I couldn't believe I was doing this again, knowing this one could be the one to have dad damn-near kill me. But on the other hand, I had Celestia's hand on my shoulder to tell me that everything was going to be okay in the end. Meanwhile, Twilight covered her mouth in stunned silence. "So you're really gonna do it?" Mel asked nervously.

Hell, it wasn't like I could rewind time and take back everything I said. Might as well own up to it. "...Yeah."

It seemed from the moment I hung up the phone, the day got progressively slower. Life in general almost crept to slow motion as I waited on the news of Stanton's transfer. But over the course of the day, nothing really came up. And I was left wondering what was going on, hoping that dad didn't have one of his episodes and said 'to hell with your opinion, we're doing what I say do'. Granted, I kinda did the same thing to him, but he didn't need to preemptively cancel Stanton's ambitions. I know he's hard to agree with, and that's why I had to do it the way we did, so he'd see that the three of us are in for each other.

It's a given that mom tried to call me fourteen times over this sudden override of both her and dad. But I didn't need to talk with her in her current state. If I did, I would get nowhere, she'd talk right through me like her words were straight off a drama script and I was just supposed to be some angry old man yelling at his TV. How was I supposed to come close to getting her to listen to me if she was heated about some other thing? Like hell I was going to tell her I was in the guard while she's being irrational about something else.

Mel took a leave of absence, mainly to go out and grab something to eat. Celestia patiently sat in waiting as she watched the TV on the couch with me. Twilight didn't stick around for very long, instead going back to her world for some unknown reason. And it wasn't like we could get away with watching daytime television for very long before the elder princess grew tiresome of the local programming. So I swapped the channel to HBO and we started watching a few movies.

"Oh shit, Hunchback of Notre Dame is on. I loved this when I was younger." I said as I kicked my legs onto the table and watched the movie. It already went past the prelude and already we were at the scene as they stood over the city of Paris, Frollo spoke to Quasimodo and immediately began to sing.

"♪The world is cruel. The world is wicked. It's I alone who you can trust in this whole city. I am your only friend.♫" Celestia quietly observed the scene as Frollo continued to guide the unexperienced Quasimodo towards the inside of the church, away from the bright sun and into the darkness of the bell's inner machinations. He continued to sing to the young misshapened man. "♪You are deformed, and you are ugly, and these are crimes for which the world show little pity. You do not comprehend♪."

"♫You are my one defender♪." The young Quasi sang mournfully. Celestia watched with some animosity brewing inside of her as she watched the judge continue to berate the young man.

"♫Do as I say, obey, and stay. In. Here.♪" The song concluded as Frollo placed a wooden carving of his protégé on top of a replica of the church they were standing within.

"You are good to me, master. I'm sorry." The young man spoke meekly.

"You are forgiven. But remember, Quasimodo, this is your sanctuary." Frollo replied with a half-hidden smile before turning away.

"You said you loved this when you were younger?" Celestia asked.

"I was a kid when this came out. So there was some stuff that pretty much went over my head, but I loved the colors and the fun moments, the comedy, at one point I had a crush on the girl."

"In the movie." She inquired.

"Yeah. You'll see her soon enough if you keep watching." I said as the music rose into a dramatic crescendo. The main character started his musical number and soon the scene panned out to early morning medieval Paris. He went on to describe the many things he got to see out of them and how he aspired to be one of them someday.

"♪Won't resent, won't despair, old and bent, I won't care! I'll have speeeent onnnnnne daaaaay ouuuut theeeeeerreeeeeeee!♫"

While Celestia was not pleased with Frollo's dialog, she was rather surprised in the complete transformation as Quasimodo took the reigns of the scene. "It appears that the tone has undergone a drastic change. Though I do have to question the artistic style, they do not look as human as you would."

"They do that on purpose." I explained. "Animation is often used to provide the story with color and a level of exaggeration you wouldn't see portrayed on humans. I know you ponies are pretty animated yourselves with your expressions. Ours tend to be a little more subtle."

"It doesn't appear that way to me." The princess replied. "To me, anypony's reaction is simply their reaction. Some may be a bit more dramatic than others, but your reactions I would have to say are quite exotic."

"I guess that's just because we see each other differently." I concluded as the movie ran on.

And for a while, Celestia's disinterest in the TV seemed to have grown into her shushing me whenever a scene was on. Even up to the climax of the story, she was hunched over with her hands on her thighs, awaiting the next event.

"The time has come, gypsy. You stand upon the bring of the abyss. Yet even now it is not too late. I can save you from the flames of this world AND the next. Choose me... or the FIRE." Esmeralda replied by spitting in the face of her executioner, the judge looked back to her as she scowled at him with disgust. He then turned to the crowd and angrily decreed. "The gypsy Esmeralda has refused to recant! This evil witch has put the soul of every citizen of Paris in jeopardy."

While the scene panned up to the chained up Quasimodo, Celestia was still clapping her hands enthusiastically for the judge getting a face-full of the woman's refusal. And even that quick moment of celebration quickly turned to anxiety and anticipation as the scene panned back from the depressed Quasimodo to the scaffold.

"And thus it is my sacred duty to send this unholy demon BACK WHERE SHE BELONGS!" Frollo cried out as he set the pyre to flames, and the detained Esmeralda to watch herself meet with her fate.

Celestia pattered her fingers against her thighs while she urged the young hunchback to do something to prevent her from dying. And as she wished it, the scene played out as the deformed bell-ringer broke from his chains and swooped in from the top of the church to save the woman of his affection. From there he climbed back to the top of the church and held her unconscious body above him, crying out to the crowd far below. "SANCTUARY, SANCTUARY, SANCTUARY!!!" The crowd beneath cheered as the music climaxed to a victorious fanfare of voices, strings, and brass.

Celestia clapped her hands with amusement as she jeered the angered judge. "Ha! How's that for justice!?"

I couldn't do much but murmur under my hands. "Oh, give it a few minutes."

In due time, Celestia watched as the finale began to unravel the events of the story, to it's grander conclusion while Quasi took Esmeralda and waited with her fist over her mouth, squeaking at every close call the hero undertook. Frollo fought his way back up to one of the gargoyles outstanding from the side of the church, holding his sword high above his head while Esmeralda made an attempt to save the tired Quasimodo. Her neck was exposed as the judge called out with a voice of triumph. "AND HE SHALL SMITE THE WICKED AND PLUNGE THEM INTO THE FIERY PIT!" Celestia yelped with horror just seconds before the scaffolding cracked beneath him and transformed into the image of a fearsome demon, leaving the corrupt judge to hang on for his life, and inevitably clasping on to the effigy until he fell to the molten lead-lathered stones below. And while Quasi fell from Esmeralda's grasp, he was saved by Captain Phoebus.

Celestia finally came down from her suspense high as she leaned back against the couch and sighed in relief. "This is a children's movie!?"

"Oh yeah. Disney got a bit brave tackling this one, but it's a hell of a movie regardless. Though the book it's based off of might have a much darker ending." I explained. "But for now, I'll let you enjoy this one."

She shook her head and adjusted the clip in her hair. "You must be out of your mind to say this is a children's movie. It's filled with so much, so dark, just really going out there."

"If we came in on the first scene of the movie, then you would've understood a little more about what happened towards the end there. But yeah, that's pretty much the movie." I said with a smile, turning down the volume as the credits started to roll. "So what did you think of it?"

"Granted, there were many things that were left for me to know about the setting. But you said this was based off a book, so what happened in the end of that?"

"To put it bluntly, Phoebus lives, everyone else dies." I answered. "Phoebus actually got stabbed in the back by Frollo, who was an archbishop instead of a judge. So he told Phoebus that it was Esmeralda who stabbed him, he believed it and left things well-enough alone. Esmeralda met up with her mother, but was ripped from her when she was arrested. Frollo then had her hung, Quasimodo murdered Frollo in response by throwing him off the top of the church. And Quasi laid at Esmeralda's grave until he died as well. A few years later, grave diggers found his skeleton hunched over hers and tried to separate the two, only for them to become dust."

The princess remained wide-eyed at my summation of the events of the original story. "Oh, I see why the changes were made. Can't have the little ones going home crying."

"Yeah. Every Disney movie takes a fairy tale with a dark twist or bad ending and change things up a bit so that the good guy always wins in the end. At the very least, they made it entertaining and put some effort in animating it, putting together the sound, the music, the voice actors, the writing, promotional material."

Celestia didn't really pay any attention to anything I said, still thinking of the story we just finished watching. "...So, why is it do you think the woman Esmeralda didn't change her mind and go with the one who truly loved her? I get that he might not be a looker, but his heart is far more precious."

I stared at the screen as the credits continued to roll. "Well, I guess it's because she had already made up her mind who she wanted to love like that, you know. I mean, yeah, Quasi's done everything right, but if she chose him in the end, would it really be fair to Phoebus, who already invested time, his own efforts, and his own emotions into a relationship with her?"

"But how does it make you feel?" She asked.

I shrugged my shoulders, thinking back of how I initially reacted when I was younger. "Hmm... I guess at first I was pretty upset with the fact that she didn't get with him, because I was too young to know that you aren't entitled to get something back when you do and mean well for others. There's doing it because it's something to be expected, and then there's doing it from the goodness of your heart. Treating others the way you'd wanted to be treated isn't some rewardable thing, it's common courtesy."

Celestia tapped her fingers on her thighs again as she asked me yet another question. "Okay. Now let's imagine if you were Esmeralda. Who would you choose and why?"

A question I wasn't quite familiar with, nor have I ever asked myself. "Well, that would be hard to think on. There really isn't a right answer or a wrong one. I mean, I wouldn't really have an answer because I don't know any two individuals like Phoebus and Quasimodo."

"Have you ever tried looking around you?" Celestia whispered to herself, so low that I couldn't quite hear.

"Say what now?" I asked.

"Nevermind. Continue." She said, crossing her arms.

"I guess if I had to put myself in her shoes, I suppose I would've made the same choice. I mean, there's a lot of things in a relationship, but considering the fact that someone came to me and told me how they felt sooner rather than later, I would've made that out to be my first option. It's really more of an early bird thing."

"What if everything about that individual was a lie, like the judge Frollo?" She questioned with a hint of disgust in her tone.

"Oh no, I'd like to think I'd be able to discern those kinds of individuals. It's all in their actions, and people like him tend to be the largest hypocrites within a position of power."

"Do you think anyone you know around you is like him, like Frollo I mean?" She asked.

I shook my head as only one real example came to mind. "I guess Queen Chrysalis. A facade to make themselves look better than they are, the willingness to step on someone's back to get a leg up on someone else's interests, the drive to complete their ambitions regardless of who it hurts in their wake. But the difference about her and Frollo is that she has to act the way she does to feed her hive, despite the cruel and disgusting ways she chooses to go about it. Frollo believes himself to be righteous while ironically being blind to the fact that he isn't as 'holier-than-thou' as he makes of himself."

The princess silently sat as she thought more on the movie, putting things into her own perspective. "I'd like to think I've had my own Esmeralda experience."

"So you have?" I replied.

The princess smiled as she started to explain. "You remember the other King Sombra I told you about, how we were close?"

"Yeah."

"Well... I know we actually did the deed, but I did watch him come to my rescue one time."

"Was this a thousand years ago?" I asked.

"No... Just two." She answered, causing me to put the TV on mute so I could listen to her story. "It's a long story of how these circumstances came to be, but I started to see how the parallels of our dimensions became something a tad bit dangerous to tinker with. For mother's sake, how could I not notice with there being black cracks forming in the sky?"

"That sounds like a fun time." I said sarcastically.

"Anything but." Replied the elder princess. "To cut to the chase, there was a corrupted version of myself trying to take over both of our dimensions. And when she struck her own sister with a powerful blast of magic, it hurt MY Luna severely. I was angry, ready to unleash a wrath I swore myself from releasing ever again. And in the end, Sombra stopped us before we could seriously get hurt. Twilight tried to use the elements to seal her off, but... it came at a price."

"You would've been sealed away." I said, not even able to imagine Twilight using the elements to seal off her own mentor.

"Indeed. But Twilight in recognizing this tried to cancel the spell, only to result in a gradual slowdown of it's effects. Sombra, however, had other plans. He took the elements from Twilight and the others, stripped the corruption from the other Celestia and Luna, and pushing all of that darkness into himself."

"Did you try to stop him?"

"Like I wouldn't." She said, not realizing she had started producing tears. "All I could do was hold him so close to me, watching as he writhed and suffered. The one thing I knew was truly my heart's desire was gone before my very eyes."

I stood up to walk to the kitchen, grabbing a paper towel. "Did he die?"

"No. But it would've been much better for him to have done so. He was taken by the darkness and I was cruelly rejected. Everything I wanted to see in him, in us, it ended with him striking at me and running away. How I wish I could know how he's doing, but no one in that dimension has ever heard from or of him from that point on."

Ah, so not the movie but the storybook ending. I walked up to her to give her the paper towels. She looked at me like I was giving her something for no reason, but then I started to politely wipe her cheeks. "Yeah, not a happy ending you'd wanna remember. Sorry for invading your personal space here."

When she realized what I was doing, she seemed in shock, placing her hands on her cheeks to feel the moistened trails down her face. "Oh gracious, when did I start─"

"Yeah, I get it. Everything you were accused of doing, everything that was considered as nothing more than a lie had suddenly become the truth because of his own sacrifice. I wouldn't consider it fair to me either. I'd be pissed that fate threw me a shitty hand like that."

The princess chuckled through her tears as she grabbed the paper towel from me to finish the job. "I guess I can be a bit quiet to my own dealings and emotions. I've kept them bottled in for so long outside of telling my sister the lighter details. I guess I needed this little bit of cry to make me feel better."

"it's okay to do that." I recommended politely. "I got a whole roll of paper towels if you ever need a good sobbing. Other than that, let me in on a few things. I don't mind being your friend on top of being your guard."

"I won't let it all out. I won't stop crying if I did that. Maybe some other time when I can feel a little more free to do that, and in my original form preferably so I can go flying afterwards. For now, I have other things to tend to."

*bzz bzzzzz*

I reached in my pocket to pull out my phone, indicating that I had a text message to read.

"What's wrong now?" Celestia asked as I quickly sent a reply.

"Dad's mad, mom's furious, and Stanton's getting transferred first thing in the morning. Apparently dad wants to hash some things out with you."

She took a deep breath and finished cleaning off her face. "Well I suppose that's why we're here. Might as well take care of business. So when do we sit down and talk about it?"

For the second time today, I could already hear my heart beating in my ears. My stomach churned and wrangled in different directions as I started to feel nervous. The more I thought about it, the worse I felt. And it was a given that they wouldn't believe me if I just told them what's going on. It would only make sense if I showed them, and even then there's no guarantee that they'll take it well.

Either way, no turning back now. "...I'll see what time they'll be coming over tomorrow."

Hours passed by on what could be, for most, an uneventful day. But instead of taking Rarity for a tour of my hometown as I originally intended to do, I ended up staying around the apartment waiting on the news of Stanton's transfer, mulling on the possibility of bringing my parents up to speed on what's been going on across the mirror, and hoping some time on my Xbox would help me blow the hours by.

Celestia, however, did end up shopping with Mel for a girls-day-out thing. I called up Twilight and the three seemed to have themselves one hell of a time. Then again, I guess being out there in the bloodbath that is 'Black Friday' would get the adrenaline pumping a ton. Twilight seemed to have lost her mind when it came to the local bookstore, Celestia splurged on her human wardrobe, and Mel wound up being a bit frugal by visiting the Gamestop for a quick purchase of a WiiU and a copy of Super Smash Bros. Of course, that's frugal for Mel, she loves games. If it wasn't console, then it would probably would've been a gaming PC.

Those refund checks she saved up wouldn't have been for nothing else.

But as the night drew on and the hours started to creep well-past prime time, Twilight finally came back though the door. Meanwhile, I completely transferred my game system and started playing around in the living room since the TV was bigger. I was too busy getting my ass kicked in Advanced Warfare, trying to get used to the combat system, in order to notice what the princess was attempting to do. But I soon found out as she dove onto my shoulders and pulled me down to the couch with a lively giggle.

"Hey there!"

"So you're just gonna pounce on me like this? Really, that's how you wanna do it?" I asked playfully.

"Why shouldn't I!? You seemed pretty crappy earlier today. I think you should at least lighten up a little."

I promptly quit out of my match and turned to the young indigo-haired princess. "So that's how you wanna do it? This is your plan?"

"It's pretty much working." She answered with a smile.

"Funny, I don't recall you being a human long enough to learn the dangers of playing around with me." I said, motioning my hands to curl like a pair of claws.

"Like what!?" She asked with some defiance. I quickly answered her by placing my hand under her armpit and tickling her skin, causing her to wince and giggle uncontrollably. She screamed at me as I relentlessly attacked her in her vulnerable state. She quickly got off of the couch and ran to the other side of the table. "T-that's not even fair!"

"Don't start no shit, won't be none." I said, as I stood up, trying to run her from behind the table. Every time I went to my left, she went to hers. When I flinched to my right, she stumbled over just enough to lose her balance. I ran over to her and caught her before she could recover and run away.

But as soon as I felt my hands grab at her, they froze in separate magenta auras. Twilight then walked away with a victorious smile on her face. "Looks like I win this time."

"That's cheating." I said as she stuck her tongue out at me.

"It's not cheating if it's self-defense." She said as she tilted her head mockingly. "But I'm glad to see you in high spirits again."

"Thanks for making me quit my match for no damn reason." I answered. "I thought you were trying to play around with me, but here you are trying to be slick and magic your way out of everything again."

"Don't be selfish, Nondis. I'm only using what I'm born with."

"Which is a clear advantage over me."

"So you're saying that I can't be me?"

"Yeah, stop being overpowered as fuck!" I murmured. "Both you and Rarity, I swear."

Twilight then walked over to the couch and got comfortable. "So, what's going on with you?"

"Just chilling, playing some games, hoping the day goes by quicker." I said while still stuck in her magic. "So how about you, taken any other humans hostage like you're doing me right now?"

Twilight smiled as she clapped her hands giddily. "Oh, where do I start! So there's apparently this place by the name of 'Barnes and Noble' that I thought was some stable place, but it turned out to be this REALLY huge inventory of books! So I just started going through the ones they labeled as 'classics' and I just breezed through some of them. I had to order a bunch of them."

"What stories did you pick out?" I asked as she carelessly summoned several bags of books. "I had a few recommendations from a lady at the front counter." As she started to go on, her magic pulled out each book individually as if she was back in Equestria. "I got a few books that are kind of like an anthology, some singles, hits, dramas, comedies, tragedies, some that deal in melancholy, and of course poetry."

"Any erotica?" I asked with a smirk.

The princess bit her lip, looking off to the side. "I got a few... for research."

"So I take it you'll be rummaging through the chapters tonight then?"

"Oh yeah!" She announced loudly before bring her volume back down. "Well, let's just say I wasn't going to make a mess of your room again. I know how to refrain from any of that."

"So which ones did you get?"

"I got one called 'Bad Behavior,' another called 'Fifty Shades of Gray,' and another one called 'Sabbath Theater' which the lady told me was REALLY good and juicy. Even Celestia picked up one after hearing how interesting it was from the testimony of one of the other customers. She said something of a 'deep plot' and an interesting premise that many would be considering to be a taboo subject."

"Okay, that sounds like fun." I said. "Wanna read that one first?"

"No!" She replied emphatically. "Something like this has to be read in certain conditions. Candles by the window, perfume in the air, absolute silence in the halls, low guard patrol in the castle, no friendship quests in pending, no social issues, a long day at the desk, and most importantly a soft bed with some privacy."

"No bottles of wine, huh?" I questioned, my mind traveling back to that one night she tried to kiss me for the first time.

"Oh, that's only if I'm looking to play around a little, that or if the plot's in a bit of a lull between the good parts. I'd like to call those parts 'juicies' for... obvious reasons. The nights I'm completely taint-free are the nights where I'm looking for a good one."

"Really, I thought you'd let your imagination go a little wild if you were feeling your liquor."

"I don't drink enough to 'feel' anything. I drink to enjoy my special little half-hour before my scheduled bedtime. That's all."

"Maybe you should read to me sometime." I recommended.

The princess chuckled as she placed her books back in their bags. "Sorry, my reading time isn't for little boys who only want instant gratification."

"So your masturbating doesn't count?" I inquired.

"I don't usually finish." She confessed quietly. "I just get myself to a point where I look forward to the scene of a climax, which is usually every week or two."

"Yeah, I can't edge myself for a week and expect to be a happy camper. Sorry, not for me." I replied shaking my head.

"I don't recall you ever saying that to me when we were together." She said as she folded her arms.

"Only because I thought you would actually finish the job."

"Okay, well finish your little job while I go take a peek at these books then." She replied with a pout-like tone.

She walked off and waited until she left the room to uncuff me from her magic. I instinctively felt my wrists and hands to make sure they were okay from being frozen in place for so long. After that, I sat back down on the couch and started up another lobby to wait in. But as soon as the game started, Twilight walked back in the room.

She stood at the corner of the hallway, peeking over to me. "Are you sure you're willing to do this?"

"Do what?" I asked, completely immersed in the game.

"This, with your parents." She answered worriedly. "I know you said that─"

"I know what I said. I'm just trying to distract myself from knowing that I'm gonna tell them. If I start thinking about it, I'm gonna get wrinkles." I replied before I was quickly killed by some random person running around with a shotgun. "YOU FUCKING CHEAP BITCH!"

Twilight jumped back for a moment before she continued to speak. "Well, I know you're trying to keep yourself busy. I just wanted you to know that... I'm proud of you."

"Thanks, Twilight." I said as I respawned into some other room on the map, with the same person coming around the corner with that same shotgun, blasting me to hell again. "Nope, fuck it, not gonna take it." I mumbled as I commenced to rage-quitting the game. I took a deep breath and then turned my attention back to her. "Yeah, I'm just gonna be here venting my frustrations and hollering at my TV for a few more hours, so I'm sorry if your reading time is a bit chaotic."

"I think I wouldn't mind it too much. I've read in moments of life-and-death before." She said, walking over to me. "But when you're tired, come on back to the room with me."

I started to stare at her, almost as if I was excited for the invitation somewhere inside me. "You want me to share a bed with you?"

"Well we've been doing it for a while, why not now?"

"Well, I mean you're a human right now and─" Before I could continue, Twilight cut me off by putting her magic on my lips.

"I'm probably going to be sleeping as my true self. I think it would be more comfortable for me."

The next morning...

I almost forgot how it felt to sleep in a bed with the smell of lavender bombarding my nose. Obviously I know the feeling of spending a morning waking up to a pony in my arms, but this one was the one that got me started with this whole debacle. If it wasn't for her disobediently giving me a taste of carnal bliss, I might have never discovered how far I could go in loving one of her species.

But in the end, I loved that she opened my eyes to that possibility. Because of it, I'm not truly alone.

My eyes woke up to the familiar scene of Twilight in my arms, the young princess snoozing the hours away while I was about to find myself sneaking out of the bed to get ready for the day. So I gently navigated my way around her and politely pushed her aside so that I could start getting ready for the day ahead. It was going to be a long one and I wanted to have myself a long shower to psych me up for the task.

I hopped in my bathroom, stripped off my clothes, turned my shower knobs, and waited till the water started to steam a little. After that, I stepped in and scrubbed myself clean. Even as the dirt of yesterday washed off my body, I felt myself becoming more and more tainted with the thought of my parents being angry with me.

But the strange thing was that I wasn't nearly as scared as I was yesterday.

I stayed in the shower, letting the water roll off of my body until I could hear a knock on the door. I perked up and called out to the outside. "Yes?"

Through my curtains, I could hear Twilight crack the door open slowly as her voice whimpered through. "Is everything alright in there? You've been in here for half an hour."

I quickly cut off the water and replied. "Wait, how long has it been?"

"Half an hour. You just got out of bed and stayed in here for a while. I thought you might have forgotten the water was running while you went through to Equestria."

"Nah, I'm just getting myself ready. I know I faced death so many times, but this still feels like one hell of a thing. Probably huger than any monster I fought." I answered while trying to feel my way for a towel, not realizing I'd have to step out of the shower to get one. "Hey Twilight, I'm a bit indecent, so can you hand me that towel over there on the rack." I asked.

Her magic quickly dropped in a towel over my head, draping over my eyes and everything else front-ways. "Here you go."

"Thanks."

I heard the door creak a little more, followed by the sounds of her hooves clopping against the linoleum floor. "So, today's the big day."

"Yeah, and you're in my bathroom." I called out.

"We're always in your bathroom, the portal's in here." She rebutted.

"I mean while I'm using it." I replied with a deadpan tone.

Twilight giggled as she tapped her hoof against the curtain. "I'm not sure if that matters now, I've already seen everything about you."

"Have you?" I asked.

"Pretty much." She answered. I quickly wrapped the towel she gave me around my waist and pulled the curtain back. Twilight stared at me for a few seconds before her eyes trailed to my abdomen. Something within her made her wince and turn away. "Okay... Maybe I haven't gotten used to everything about you."

"But you seen everything about me." I answered with a hint of sarcasm.

"There are still some things about you that make me feel uncomfortable." She whined sadly. "Those scars... They're all there because of me."

"Last I checked, sex is a two-lane street." I lightly chided the princess. "If it's just all headed one way and not the other, then something's wrong."

I smiled as she finally looked up to me. "Yeah, we did that."

"It's amazing how passionate you can get in the heat of the moment."

"Sadly, I don't think I'll ever get to know how it feels to have you give it all to me."

I playfully teased the young mare and placed my hand over my lap. "Well, it's up to you on whether or not that's something you're willing to find out."

"I mean it would be illegal." She pointed out bluntly.

"We broke the law already. Per that stupid law, we were supposed to get hitched." I recalled.

"You, my husband, still sharing beds with other mares?" She said with a jovial tone with some undercurrent of anger. "I don't think I'm for that."

"Yeah. I get it." I answered, realizing she still felt a bit hurt over me and Rarity. I instinctively covered the dying marks on my neck. "Maybe we're playing a little too closely."

Twilight stomped her hoof once as she spoke. "No! I mean, I like it when you play with me. It's just... I'm still a little tender about us."

"I know." I replied just as my phone started buzzing, indicating I had a text message. I quickly checked my phone and saw Stanton had completed his transfer and that he was in town. "Ugh... I guess that's my cue."

I walked past the purple princess as she trailed closely behind me. "So what happened?" She questioned.

"Stanton's in town, dad's back in with him, and I'm gonna have to break everything to him and mom." I replied, starting to feel a bit of the butterflies roaming in my stomach.

"But you won't be alone." Twilight answered. "If you need me, I'll be right there with you."

"You know you could just go home and enjoy your day. I think I can handle things from here." I said, going into my closet to look for some clothes to wear.

Twilight watched me as I rummaged through my old wardrobe for something that still fit me, which wasn't much of anything but a few sweatshirts, some jackets, and the pair of jeans I wore yesterday. The princess eyes suddenly grew before she galloped back into the bathroom, across the portal, and coming back with an unseen outfit for me to wear. She held a black and purple shirt, complete with a thick white stripe running diagonally. On the left corner over the pectoral area was a silver crest of the Equestrian banner. With it, she carried a pair of black slacks. "I know it's a little out there, but that's all I had left in my closet for you. Rarity had it made for when you came out of basic training. I just never got around to telling you about it."

I cringed with a sharp inhale through my teeth. "To put it mildly, 'out there' is a good choice of words. But I guess it wouldn't mean much to them anyhow."

"At least you'll look nice." She said with a blush.

I wandered over to the portal, looking at the body-length mirror and holding the outfit on myself. "Actually, I could do with a few more things before I head out."

"Your hair?" She guessed.

"Oh yeah, I gotta do something with this growing mane of mine."

St. David's Medical Center...

Pulling myself into the parking lot of the hospital, I could already feel my feet losing track of the brake and gas pedals. If it wasn't for Celestia sitting next to me, I would've given myself a proper reintroduction to a little thing called a traffic accident. But then again, this was a rental car and I wouldn't like to pay the dealership back on penalties right now.

It's not like I have to show my parents that I have some fiscal accountability while we're here.

"Nondis, pay attention!" Mel called out from the back seat as I was about to run into the back of someone's Dodge Ram backing out of a parking space. Pumping the brakes immediately, I waited until the person guided themselves from the spot and left to their day. And in reward for my patience, I was gifted a spot closer to the front door without suffering the penalty of parking in handicap.

We jumped out of the car, walking briskly to the foyer and check-in desk. There a dark-skinned nurse greeted us at the desk, primarily staring at Celestia as she welcomed us. "Hello, how may I help you?" She said before swapping off to the aforementioned princess. "Ma'am, I love your contacts, they are so pretty."

"Con...tacts?" Celestia questioned with some confusion.

"Corrective lenses they use to put in your eyes in place of glasses." I whispered to her before responding to the person at the desk. "No, those are her actual eyes, not contacts."

The person at the front desk stood up as she tried to get a closer look. "Are you kidding? Those are her God-given eyes? Are you sure they aren't blue but refracting at some weird angle?"

"Ma'am, I'm here to visit a patient." I worded sternly to refocus her attention to her job. "That patient is my younger brother who just transferred in from College Station early this morning."

The lady rolled her eyes as she settled back to her computer monitor. Instead of her voice being filled with juvenile curiosity, it was of resentment of my harsh tone. "Name?"

"Stanton Haines. I'm Nondis Haines, his older brother."

She looked up at me and hummed a bit dismissively. "Oh, you were that boy that went missing like ten months ago. You look different from the pictures they had of you."

"I lost weight." I bluntly pointed out.

"Well that's good, healthy life choices are always good." She droaned before she handed me a clipboard with a numbered roll on the front of it. "Imma need you to sign in here."

"You know which room he's in?" I asked as I signed myself in.

"From what's on here, he's in room 258. Take the elevator to your left, go up, and you'll see the second floor check-in desk where they'll sign you in and point you in the direction of your room."

"Thank you." I replied, quickly walking off to the elevator. As soon as I pressed the button, I felt my stomach sink to my feet as the elevator shifted. When the three of us watched as the doors opened, I could already see dad pacing back and forth in frustration. Meanwhile, mom was talking with the person at the front desk. It wasn't just them sitting around, it was also Vanessa and Alex waiting for whatever reason. Also standing by dad was the head coach of the Texas A&M football team. Coach Sumlin spoke quietly.

"Now I know this is a difficult time for you all, but if he ain't willing to help himself, then I can't help him. The most I can do is make sure his scholarship follows through to the end of the year. But after that, he can't be on my football team with that knee. Now again, we got other five star recruits looking to be the next Johnny Manziel, and they're looking for scholarships. And my athletic director will have me lined up for giving a scholarship to a boy who ain't even gonna step on that field again. I can't give you anything more than that if you don't talk to him."

"We'll talk some sense into him, Mr. Sumlin. I give you my word we will." Dad replied.

"You have my number, you call me when something falls in place. Other than that, I wish you all nothing but the best." He said as he started to walk towards the elevator. As we walked out, he walked in before giving a good look at me. "How y'all doin' today?"

"Fine coach, you?" I answered.

"Day's goin'." He replied, pressing a button on the panel. He looked at me again and asked. "You play ball?"

"No sir, I'm just here to check on my little brother."

Before the doors closed, he muttered something to himself. "I knew there was something familiar about you."

The elevator closed as the three of us stepped into the room, dad's eyes homed in on me as I spoke. "What's going on?"

Dad snatched me up by the collar and angrily whispered in my face. "What did you say to him, boy?"

"Dad, lay off!" Alex said, trying to get in between us.

"What the hell did you say to him?" He asked again. "I swear if you said something to him, I'm gonna break YOUR leg."

While very much confused, I tried to separate myself from him. "Look, old man. You're crazy cause I ain't say nothing to him. Now what are you so damn mad about?"

Alex pried us away from each other as Mel stepped in to help keep me away from him. He sighed out of frustration and answered my question. "Stanton's trying to check himself out. The doctors told him he needed surgery and he said 'I'm good, just get me out.' So now dad's blowing a fuse because Stanton wants to get out of here without them doing as much as to put a cast on his leg so he can move with a minimum amount of pain."

I shook my head and spoke at a volume level appropriate for a hospital. "That's nuts. I get wanting to check out before surgery for a second opinion or something, but to not have a cast or some sort of brace?"

Alex smiled nervously as he walked over to me, whispering in my ear. "That part may actually fall on you because of his blind faith on Celestia's doctors."

"Aw hell." I groaned. "Where's his room?"

"Hall to the left, evens are all on the right side of the hall, should be like a few doors down."

Without much hesitation, I walked myself to Stanton's room with Mel following close behind. When we got closer to the door, we could already hear the seemingly tame back and forth between him and his doctor. I knocked to acknowledge my presence and was given access by Stanton. He lied in bed with a bag of morphine hanging over his head while he spoke. "Look, I just wanted the second opinion."

"And we scanned your knee to find a grade three ACL tear, the same result found when you were admitted to the hospital Thursday night. Now I don't know what I can do to get this through to you, but I'm gonna have to recommend that you get the surgery and follow up with our rehab courses. If money is an issue for you, then we can offer you some methods of going for financial assistance."

"That won't be necessary, doctor. I'm fine."

"Son, you are in a world of pain. If I take that bag off of you right now, you will be feeling a whole new dimension of it."

"Just wheel me out of here by this afternoon. I can manage on my own."

"If I can so kindly convince you to reconsider for your future health. If you do not get this surgery, you will never walk again."

Stanton looked at his leg and shrugged. "I guess I'm shit out of luck then."

The doctor threw his hands in the air as a sign of resignation. "Well then, I suppose I can only wish you the best."

"Thanks, doc." He said as the doctor angrily walked out of the room. The two of us walked in and questioned him.

"Dude, are you serious? You're not getting the surgery?" Mel asked.

"Yeah, I'm getting the surgery. It's just that Celestia's doctors will be doing it instead."

"Stanton, those guys didn't have a clue of what they were doing when I wasn't there." She replied.

"Then you'll have to be chief surgeon again. Yay!" He answered sarcastically.

"There's no 'yay' in this, Stanton. You're hurt and you're asking a bunch of pony doctors to fix something they have very little to no knowledge of."

"They're ponies, Melanie. Legs would be the MAIN thing they'd work on." Stanton responded. "I mean not human legs, but how hard is it to put together someone's knee?"

"Fucking complicated when you consider the fact that any setback could result in yet another surgery to correct that! And you can't rely on magic to set everything back in place all the time. You still live here, Nondis doesn't."

"And it's wrong to ask for the same thing he got?" Stanton rebutted. "If anything, I can rely on his medical group because I saw how bad he was."

"You and me both, but this is something different."

"And he damn-near died. You helped save his life, so can't I expect you to help with something a lot less stressful?"

I had to interrupt my brother's tone-deaf reply and pinch his knee, causing him to yelp out painfully. "You're going out here without a cast or a brace. You're going to be feeling THAT all day. And also, your body in pain ain't nothing to take lightly. That shit is there to let you know that something ain't right. You know what I thought was right until I felt something hurt real bad? I was busy breaking Equestrian royal marriage laws when my fractured collarbone told me the position I was trying to pull off wasn't the hottest thing to do right then. So having that said, I think your way of thinking is a bit stupid, and you should readjust your outlook."

"You know, you are like my biggest inspiration right now." Stanton replied. "You took so much, you had to fight to the death against a bunch of creatures way bigger and stronger than you. You come back with every fucking tendon in your body sliced up and you get back to walking within a week. I don't know about you, but I'd be awfully stoked to get my ass on a football field in a week's time."

"You also have to consider a whole other world of shit we're about to get into when I tell mom and dad about how we're gonna do this." I answered, causing my younger brother to slow his hype.

Mel quickly piggy backed off of my comment. "Yeah, and not to mention how much trouble he's gonna be in, you're gonna be in, all of us are gonna be in. So if I were you, I wouldn't be looking so hyped up when we've got a lot of ground to cover and a whole shitload of excuses to undo."

Stanton finally took a moment to fully think about what his day was going to be like instead of looking forward to the fact that his knee will come to be the least of his worries. Dropping his head, he looked at his injured knee and took a deep breath. "I guess I should be looking at you as more than an inspiration. If you weren't going to put yourself out there like that, then I would've probably been stuck rehabbing for months. But now it looks like we're gonna be going through a different kind of rehab. I never really thought about all of this except when you made a mention of it yesterday,"

"Well today's the day." I said as my phone started to vibrate in my pocket. "And you're gonna be in for a long ride out of here." I pressed the sleep button on the top of my phone to dismiss the call. "So instead of trying to be brave, I suggest you get a brace and a wheelchair, cause moving you ain't gonna be easy."

As my phone started to ring again, Mel started to speak with him. "Yeah, and don't think you're going to overexert in moving yourself when you can. Leg injuries aren't shit to fuck around with."

I quickly picked up the phone as Discord once again removed the option to ignore my calls. "Hello?"

"Nondis." Twilight answered on the other end. "You know that spell Sunset used to heal your collarbone injury?"

"Yeah. What about it?" I asked.

"Sunset and I were altering the formula a little and gave it some implementation to lessen the intent. Instead of healing bones out of place and what-not, we worked on it to repair torn ligaments." Twilight noted.

"I started working on the different variations of it when I heard what happened to you after that mission over at Arimaspi Mountain. Twilight gave me some additional medical knowledge she obtained from Melanie, and we took in that data, complied it with the formulas we had written down, altered the formula in general, and it seems to work like a miracle in our tests." Sunset explained from the background.

"Sunset and I just finished this spell around an hour ago." Twilight concluded. "So whenever you can, just drop him off at your apartment so we can get him healed up."

Dear Lord, if there was a miracle to be performed, you sure had to drop it in front of my face with bright neon lights, didn't you? "Twilight... why do you do the things you do for me, knowing I don't deserve it?"

The young princess chuckled. "Just get him over here. We'll be waiting for you. I've already called over Cliff and Rickey so they can help you with Stanton if you need the assistance."

I feel like she just one-upped Celestia without even trying. Her fucking student... "Stanton's gonna be in a lot of pain when we get him out of this car."

"Well he won't be in it for long."

Upon leaving the hospital, we were given three items. The first item was a bottle of strong painkillers, to aid in the discomfort. But because he had to flush the morphine out of his system for a few hours, it gave him a small window of discomfort. The medicine they provided was said to be slow-acting but last substantially longer than most of the over-the-counter drugs you'd get at the local pharmacy. The other two things was a copper-infused knee brace and a wheelchair for him to use whenever he needs to get around.

Of course, all those things would be added to the bill later.

Dad and mom gave me more than an earful when we got into the parking lot. If I wasn't so determined to see Stanton get out of his funk, I'd give them a few words of my own. But it wasn't the time for that, not yet anyhow. I still needed to get my little brother to my apartment so that he can get fixed up. And convincing them to go along with me was far more than a chore. If anything, that just made them angrier. Don't even get me started on the moment when Stanton politely wheeled himself to my car and called shotgun just for the sake of denying my parents any intervention.

So instead of leaving the hospital in peace, we caused so much of a ruckus that the campus security had to check in on us and tell us that we had to get the hell out. And then started the arduous task of keeping Stanton from hurting himself more than he's already had. But there was no easy way of getting him in my front seat. I had to pull him out of the wheelchair, Mel had to take it from beneath him and I had to guide my brother as he endured excruciating pain into the front seat. After that, I had to mentally prepare myself for the long car ride home hearing my brother cry out in pain. There's hearing others cry out in pain because of various circumstances, I've experienced that and was on the receiving end, but when it's your own family...

Let's just say it's much harder to keep a straight face.

After he was secured, and my parents continued to bark at me while getting in their car, I suggested to them to follow me if they weren't sure that I was going to look after him properly. Knowing my parents, they wouldn't trust me with his well-being, especially since I became his inspiration to bypass the surgery. And if I made some argument about getting Celestia's doctors involved, then I knew dad and mom were going to take it up with her just as much as they would with me.

In speaking of which, she didn't even seem to budge when they started yelling at her over the subject. Seems she's gotten so used to tuning out the noise or something. If that ain't having the patience of a thousand saints, I don't know what is. But she calmly replied to any of their concerns and quickly alluded to me, that there will be a conversation I'm supposed to have with them in the near future.

So my taking Stanton and Celestia's words invited them to trail us down the highway to my apartment. And that they did.

They trailed me so tightly that any red light they could've caught, they ended up getting away with running them. And when we finally arrived, we had to deal with the wrath of two angry middle-aged parents who were sitting on the impression that they'll possibly end up having to work extra hours just to pay for that hospital bill. It took them a little bit longer, but Alex and Vanessa finally pulled up from the rear. When we got out, Rickey and Cliff were already upstairs on the balcony watching the drama unfold.

Mel looked at the stairs and groaned with displeasure as she took the wheelchair out of the trunk. Already in her mind, she was sizing up the width of the stairs and what we couldn't do to get him up them. Celestia quietly whispered that she could help me get him up the stairs with some of what she called 'additional arcane support'. Not like I had much of an argument against it, but she allowed for me to 'hold' Stanton while I climbed the stairs. In reality, she was going to levitate him on and off my hands to make for a smoother ascent.

I explained it quietly to Mel, and she agreed to take his wheelchair and wait upstairs as I grabbed Stanton out the front seat. And almost like I was playing some role of a much-older brother holding his younger sibling like he twisted his ankle, I walked up the stairs and hoped that nothing else got in the way like traffic coming down as we were going up. But thankfully, we didn't encounter anything other than my parents yelling and screaming about how I should be more careful.

We sat him in his wheelchair and he was still grimacing as much as he was when he first got in the car. But at least the hard part was over for him and now he just had to deal with the pain only for probably the next thirty minutes. However, he wasn't too caught up in the pain now that he knew that it wouldn't last for too long. Granted, there would be some more discomfort to come, but rehabbing would've been a much more painful process over a longer period of time.

We walked up to my door, Mel calmly pushing Stanton along as he griped and grimaced over his knee still. I just closed my eyes, praying to myself that this was going to work and that he wouldn't be in pain anymore. As soon as I opened the door, I was greeted with an unfamiliar woman with an all-too familiar voice. "Oh, Nondis. I wasn't expecting you guys here so quick."

Stanton, also keen to her voice leaned over in his wheelchair. "Holy shit, Sunset Shimmer?"

"You guessed it." She answered with a shrug of her shoulders. "Probably the first time you saw me like this, huh?"

Cliff crept in behind us as he leaned against the doorway. "Yeah, I had to stare for a bit too. I gotta admit I didn't expect her to come out looking like that."

The yellow-red haired teen pulled a curl out of her eye as she blushed slightly. "I'm not really a looker, Rarity and Fluttershy, those are the ones you'd wanna see. I'm pretty average on my end."

"You, average? Where the hell would you be considered as 'average', in what dimension?" Stanton asked.

"Why do all you Equestrians so damn intimidating to my confidence?" Melanie whispered. "It's like I can't fucking win. no matter who it is."

Sunset shook her head as she spoke. "Again, I'm not trying to present myself like that, I'm not out to embarrass or outshine anyone. I'm just here to make sure that everything goes well with the spell. Meanwhile 'Romeo' over there in the doorway wouldn't stop smiling at me."

Cliff refused to look away as he replied. "When you see something nice, you gotta smile to show appreciation for it. I'm just glad to see you."

"Probably wouldn't stare at me if I was anything different." She said, folding her arms. "Maybe if you were somewhat interested in that side of me, I wouldn't feel so violated."

Cliff shook his head. "I gotta call it like it is, I'm not used to that."

"But it's the personality that counts." Twilight announced as she came in from the hallway. "If you're willing to look past the differences in anatomy, then maybe there can be hope of something better."

Mel turned back to Cliff with a confused smirk, pointing back and forth between him and Sunset. "Are you two like... talking or something?"

"Soon as I show up like this, he wants my number." Sunset teased. "But I bet the moment I swap back, he'll suddenly forget that he even asked."

With a chuckle, Cliff finally stepped in the apartment while trying to change the subject on the sly. "But we ain't here to talk about that, we need to talk about Stanton and his leg."

"Hold on, now I'm kinda interested." Stanton replied, still wincing from the pain. "What's going on between you two?"

"Nothing as far as I know of." Sunset quickly stated. "He made the first move knowing who and what I am. So that's up to him?"

"Hey bruh, hows that leg?" Cliff walked up to Stanton and gently patted his knee.

"OOOH, CAN YOU NOT!" Stanton painfully yelped as he swiped at Cliff.

Just outside of the door, I could hear mom screaming from the stairs. "Nondis, what in the world is going on in there!?"

Coming back to reality, we brought our attention back to the main issue at the moment. Twilight cleared the pillows off of the couch and looked to Melanie. "Okay, back to work. Can you lay him here?"

"Not without it hurting him real bad." I added. "Celestia had to covertly levitate him up here."

"She used her magic out in the open?" Twilight questioned with moderate shock.

"Only enough to where it looked like I was carrying him up the stairs. Other than that, we need you to kinda do the same but only be a little more blatant with it."

"Well if you say so." She said before her magic started to take shape around her hands.

In quick succession, Stanton was lifted from his chair and laid on the couch. Following that, Mel carefully moved his leg to straighten out and removed his knee brace. After he was stabilized, he whimpered in pain while Sunset and Twilight proceeded to follow through with their work. Meanwhile, mom and dad walked into the apartment, Celestia following close behind them as they fussed at me some more.

"Nondis, you better have a damn good explanation on why you're doing this!" Dad vented. "Cause if you don't, I'm gonna knock fire out of your ass."

Not that I would have a problem proving him wrong, I didn't have time for that right then nor did I have the space. Sunset turned to me and asked. "Do you have any MRI scans with you, or some paperwork detailing the injury?"

Mel dug in her pocket and pulled out her phone and quickly sent her a picture text. "I took a picture of the damage before we left the hospital. You can take ultrasounds with you, but for some odd reason it's harder to keep any pictures of the results pertaining to injuries. But we have smartphones to blindly post our shit on the internet."

"One of the very few times where this comes out to be useful." Sunset added as she examined the photo she received. "...Yikes, that doesn't look healthy."

"Grade 3 ACL tear, he's not walking as long as his knee's unstable." Mel confirmed. "But if you got anything that can help with the healing process, then I'm all ears."

Dad quickly intervened as he went to grab Sunset's wrist. "Hold on, who the hell are you? I don't see no doctor's license on you!"

I in turn grabbed his arm and shoved it away. "She knows what she's doing, dad. Chill out."

He stood inches away from me as he and I stared each other down. "Boy, I feel like you're really testing me lately. You wanna keep doing this?"

The longer we stared at each other, the quieter the room got, the tenser the air became as we just stood there for a while. I wasn't too thrilled with him being so confrontational nor was I patient enough to deal with him acting out. But mom stepped in the way of the two of us, understandably taking dad's side in the argument. "Nondis, what me and your father are trying to say is that we don't know what any of this is all about. It feels like we're just watching for some miracle to happen."

Finally feeling some mood outside of being stand-offish with dad, I reeled back my aggression and gave her my honest response. "If you believe in miracles, then you might think of this one as unrealistic."

Stanton yelped as Sunset used her thumbs to source out the injury. His painful cries immediately grabbed mom's attention, causing her to call out to him. "Stanton baby, what's wrong?"

"Just... pain!" He cried out, digging his fingers into the couch cushions.

Alex ran up to him and held his hand. "Just hang on, man. We'll get you fixed up real quick." He said before looking back to Twilight. "How long do you think this will take?"

"We're still identifying the structure. The picture made it easier for us, but we have to feel for it as well. Otherwise we won't be able to make the spell work properly."

Spell, that word all by itself made mom a bit erratic. Or instead of erratic, I should say hard to negotiate with. "What the hell are y'all doing!?" She called out, cursing for the first time in a very long time. "What the hell is this 'spell'!?"

I quickly looked to Cliff and Rickey. "Guys, can you hold these two off? Twilight and Sunset needs to concentrate."

Before they could do anything, dad lunged at Twilight angrily. "YOU GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY SON!"

But before he could so much as touch her, he was frozen in place by a golden glow. The golden transparent flames engulfed my dad's wrists and pulled against his shoulders. His torso strained as he struggled to move, but his struggled proved to be in vain as Celestia stood behind him and calmly spoke. "I know you are irrationally upset right now, but to break their concentration is not in the best interest for your son."

Cliff and Rickey were rendered to shocked silence as dad scowled at the elder princess, hissing all the while. "Who and WHAT are you?"

I swallowed whatever was in my mouth and finally spoke. "She's... she's not as we are."

Mom, who was also caught in Celestia's entrapment, could only move her shoulders. "Nondis, what is all of this?"

Twilight placed her hand underneath his knee, pulling it down to where it was completely straight, much to Stanton's misfortune and discomfort. "Okay, we're all set."

Sunset placed her hand over the top of his knee, closed her eyes, and whispered as she started to chant her incantation. "Oh healing light, spring of virtue, heal that which is not of us. Grace them with your power and provide sanctuary. Let your loving embrace show them salvation from all wounds. Mend the impurities that break us and create in us renewed wholeness. Give us... restoration."

Sunset's hands glowed in an aqua aura, but then radiated brightly to a pure white as her fingers traced around the area of his wound. Her thumb then pressed down against the severed ligament, causing Stanton to holler out in pain. But his dismay wouldn't last for long as her thumb wiped down from one torn segment to the other. She then lifted her hand to leave a white ball of energy hovering on his knee joint. And instead of panting from the pain, Stanton was panting from the afterthought of it. But he noticed the quick recession from agony, instead being replaced with a feeling of normalcy. The light on his knee dimmed until there was nothing left of it, and he was completely pain-free.

His eyes blinked for a few seconds as he stared at his leg, wondering if it would hurt if he moved it. Knowing how it feels to be on the receiving end of that spell, I empathized with his fear of moving something only to feel that pain surge through my body again. But as Sunset tapped on his leg, she ran her hand underneath it and squeezed lightly to massage the joint from behind. And even as he was kinda anticipating the pain, he moved his leg to wince at nothing. Realizing the lack of pain, he felt his jaw drop and offered to stand on his own two legs.

Coming off the couch on his own, bending the knee several times like he was slowly kicking the air, he got up and stared at his leg. He started off with a step forward, then a step backwards, followed by a few steps to the side. He walked over to the wheelchair and stared at it for a few seconds before gently kicking it away. He looked to be and asked me. "Dude, tell me you got a broom or something."

I started to walk towards the kitchen, but Twilight levitated one from the hallway closet. Stanton pointed towards the ground in the center of the den. After she placed it down, he positioned himself to one side of the broom handle. He then took a deep breath and took his first step over to the other side, bringing both feet over and back again. But instead of it being a casual step to the side, his feet were moving in a blur as he quickly picked them up and brought them down in a show of speed. After a burst of five seconds, he was left panting, bent over himself while he started laughing.

"Hey mom, dad, wait till Coach Sumlin sees me report to practice on Monday."

Celestia's hold over my parents dissipated as the stunned couple dropped to their knees and watched as their youngest son stood in recovery of one of the worst sports injuries an athlete could suffer. And it was to bypass all the surgeries, the checkups, the painful rehab, the long process of him getting back in shape after being off the field for so long, not even the days of conditioning, but suffering a career-altering injury and coming right back from it as if he just scraped his knee on the sidewalk.

Dad looked at me and questioned once more. "What is all of this?"

I smiled awkwardly as I mumbled towards him. "Do you believe in magic?"

Author's Note

It's been a while. I'm sorry it's taken so long, IRL has been the worst in the recent weeks. Have you ever had a washing machine repaired and three months later your drunk uncle proceeds to overload it and sit on top of it in a drunken stupor as the basket proceeds to derail itself? Can you imagine the depression I now feel knowing I have to pay more money to get it replaced because he won't do anything but spend money to pay for his truck and fund his alcoholic tendencies? Life is great...

...Either way, fun little chapter. I'm so tired of life that I'm gonna take some time to get this situated before I start on another chapter. I don't need the distractions to detract from me trying to write. I'm sorry if it seemed like a while, but it's been rough. I will see you all next chapter, hopefully you guys will stick around for the next one as I do appreciate the criticisms and commentary you all provide.

Chapter LXXXIX

The remainder of my day had been pretty listless in comparison to the first half of it. I went from possibly having to conduct a city-wide search for Celestia to standing in an empty hallway after I finished reporting in the results of my search. But I was appreciative of the fact that it was just as mundane as it usually is.

My evening had the usual dinner and time off to go over a few subjects with the princess in secret. She was more than enthused to keep throwing me to the ground with every attempt I made to defend myself. But after it was all over, she didn't neglect any pain or soreness I had from the training. She frequently asked questions about how I was feeling mentally, physically, or if I felt any tingling in my arms.

After all of that, I had the honors of escorting the princess to her personal chambers for a second consecutive night, something that already seemed to gain some attention from my superiors. They started asking me questions of if I was taking my job seriously or if I was trying to get familiar with her in some way. In either case, I was warned to not devote so much time to her and assign another pony per day for her nightly escort. In short, I had more paperwork to fill out instead of just simply being able to hear her talk about her day and every politician that made her want to bash her skull into the hardwood podium she sits at. I know she won't like hearing about that one at breakfast tomorrow.

Other than that, the past week had been pretty slow with the exception of a few events. And with the passing of this day, my temporary restriction to the castle grounds would be lifted at the stroke of dawn.

The Next Day...

What other way could I point out how boring this day was through the first half of it. Morning jog, breakfast with the royals, Celestia sipping on her tea while telepathically fussing at me over my recent orders from command. I don't think I ever heard so many near-swears in my life. The only words she said that could be considered as bad words were 'damn' and 'hell,' but those were tame in contrast to what I'm used to.

After I clocked out for the day, I decided to take another friendly jog downtown. But since I was a human on the run, I had a lot of attention from local press trying to get a quick scoop of castle life since I was in town more frequently. But unfortunately for them, I wasn't interested in spilling any information that would've been great for the front page. The only thing I could say that wouldn't violate any regulations of disclosing any information outside of the castle was what I had for dinner. Any other question they had, I had to immediately brush off by talking about some distacting details of some sort.

Thankfully as a human, I had many topics. I started talking about the human equivalent to some of the cities here in Equestria, how many people lived in them, stuff that I could easily go on and on for hours on end talking about until some of them were bored and made their way onward. Those that stayed had some interesting things to post for their readers.

While the press started to clear out and I eventually got so distracted that I stopped jogging, I sat down at a teahouse to order a nice cup of coffee. Even if I couldn't order food, I retained the privilege to order a beverage. While I sat in peace, I had many try to request a picture with me. That affair lasted for a good twenty minutes until I was greeted by a rather affluent individual.

"Yoo-hoo!" Blue Royal chimed from down the street, running up to me with a bright and cheerful smile on her face.

"Well good evening, Miss Royal." I replied as she walked up to my table. "What brings you to this neck of the woods?"

She looked around and saw the crowd shadowing me and hummed for a second before answering. "Well, I had something interesting to talk to you about. It's in regards to the next Hooves for Humans meetup. I know you're pretty busy, but I wanted to be able to disclose a date where we can have you drop by and spread some more knowledge of you humans."

"Well if you want that, you can just wait for the articles to come out within the week. I just got hounded by the press earlier, a bunch of them asking me for scoops about the royal family. I instead told them about a few cities that would remind me of my home world and the cities they'd be based off of."

The mare's ears folded back as she pouted. "Aww, that must've been a really nice subject."

"Yup." I answered before I noticed that the mare's horn had started to glow. "And I take it you want to say something else."

Around me, I could hear the sound of the world being swallowed up like we were being submerged into water. All around me, I could see ponies wondering about where I went and how quick I disappeared. It seemed as if I had been thrown into another spacial disruption field. Her eyes cut back to me, this time showing some urgency. "I know the hour is a bit inconvenient for you, but I do have some valuable information to share with you in regards to the politician you're trying to target."

"You make it sound like I have a hit out on the guy." I said with a chuckle.

"In a way, you do." She replied. "You have a hit out on his career, and you should be willing to assassinate his character at the first opportunity."

"Well I get that. But I don't have intention of taking his life."

"Whatever." She slapped me in the chest with another manila envelope. "But this one you shouldn't ignore. I have sources in Canterrot that tell me of a few dealings he has going on. I know you aren't really able to go there yourself because of your physical appearance, but I know you're just dying to see what the place is all about."

I rolled my eyes, thinking about Sunday. "Yeah, I'm not exactly dying to see a certain guy who doesn't like to shower as much as he likes to fuck corpses."

The mare scoffed at my comment. "Oh, that's just daytime stuff. Night is where it really starts to get interesting. But it's nice to know that you've visited. How did you hide your appearance?"

"By just being a pony." I answered. "That way I can slip in as a persona, make a few deals, cut a few strings, and then I can work something out on how to get this information myself."

The mare smiled. "Sounds like you're ready to do what I want you to do then."

"And that is?"

"I need you to take the next train to a town just south of here. He's meeting with his contacts there for dinner. He should be just an hour away from the town on the green line. They're scheduled to meet at the Hayburger Inn an hour after his arrival."

Hayburger Inn, that's actually the very first place I met with Shining Armor. "So I'm going to Ponyville then. The next train, if I remember correctly, leaves out in about forty-five minutes."

"And the station is a good five minutes from here, so you'll have time to change up and make your way onboard." She said, sliding a pair of tickets to me. "The top one is your way to, the bottom one is scheduled to be the last train headed up this way for the day, so don't be late or you'll be stuck in Ponyville till morning."

"No need." I replied, sliding the tickets back to her. "I'm sure you didn't know this about me, but I haven't been too thrilled about being on a train since the second Canterlot Changeling invasion. Besides, a trip to the castle would be a good twenty-five minutes in a jog."

"Twenty five minutes to leave here and get there, another thirty to run back to the train station, for a two hour trip. You'd miss the contact AND you'd have to get another ticket for the train after that one because the next train on green would be in at 7:40." She said with a frown.

I then explained myself. "No. It's twenty-five minutes to the castle, five minutes through my world, and I'll be in Ponyville within thirty minutes, a whole half hour before he even shows up."

Blue's eyes bucked wide open as she was surprised by my idea. "Thirty minutes!?" She repeated with disbelief. "The shortest way to Ponyville is through air balloon and that's an hour and some change."

"Well we have it set up where I can be in between the two places fairly quickly."

The mare looked at me with a snarky grin. "So you can go visit your princess at any time of the night."

"Sure, whatever you want to believe in." I said with an eye roll. "But I'll just hop over there and keep my profile low. Can't go walking around Ponyville for damn sure without no run-ins with some ponies wanting to take pictures, so I'll make my adjustments before I set on out."

The blue mare nodded. "That's a good way to get things rolling, arriving before he even gets there would be helpful in gathering more information about these contacts. You'd do well to keep yourself incognito while trailing, don't need that one familiar face they keep seeing to suddenly become a victim. Also, if you're going to be a pony, hide your cutie mark so that they don't immediately identify you."

"Alright, any other tips before I run back?" I asked.

"You don't need a reputation of dining and dashing, so how much was the cup of coffee you ordered?"

I started to dig in my pockets. "Well I think it had to be around three or four bits?"

The next thing I heard was a small pile of bits crashing on the table, including one that rolled away from the pile before being collected by her magic. "You might wanna start running, you disappearing and then reappearing would be a bit of a problem for me."

"How many bits is that?" I asked.

"Ten, five for the coffee, five for the tip. Now get moving!"

Twilight's Castle
Sometime Later
***Point Of Perspective: Equus Nondis***

I wasted very little time. As soon as I was told to get moving, I started jogging back to the castle. Unfortunately, I didn't have the luxury of joining the others for dinner, so I had to work on that cup of coffee alone. Not that I had a problem delaying a meal.

I ran through the castle and jumped through my world to get back over to Ponyville. After transforming myself, I noted a few items like combat knives I could take with me that would go well-hidden in pony form. In a pony's body, I could easily brandish it like a dagger because of the size of the blade. I found a nice cloak lying on one of the chairs in the throne room, not sure why it was just lying about. It was a bit small for me, but it still hid most of my identifiable features.

After prepping myself, I snuck around the castle and made my way to the exit. But what I didn't expect was the doors not wanting to open. I even used my magic to try and get the doors open, all to no avail. I then decided to find a possible alternative to getting out of the castle.

Little did I even notice the feeling of a pointy object digging into the back of my neck.

I sat on my haunches and slowly raised my hooves, meanwhile Starlight had come walking around me. "Well, well, well, look what we have here. A thief caught roaming the private property of a princess." She flipped my hood to get a better view of my face. "Hmm, and a cutie one start off. Hate to see your face in the books for criminal trespassing."

"Well hello to you too, Starlight Glimmer." I replied calmly.

The spear started to dig into the back of my neck a little more. "Who are you to know my name?"

I leaned forward to avoid being cut by the spear tip as I answered her question. "Long story short, I showed Twilight that I could turn her into a human, this is more of the exact opposite result on myself."

The mare then pulled the spear away from my neck, a bit amazed of what she was seeing. "Seriously, you lucked up and got a unicorn body, huh? Guess you did do something right."

"I think it was in part of me casting the spell on myself. I believe the transformations vary from one to the other." I replied.

"No. It's all in the equation."

"I was given a simplified one." I answered.

"And not once have you transformed into a pegasus or earth pony?" She inquired before putting a hoof to my chest. "Yeah, consistent results is all in the works of a consistent equation. So what kind of theory did you take to pull this one off?"

"More like a private lesson with Princess Luna."

The lavender unicorn clopped her hooves together with a giggle. "Oh, yeah you do get around, don't you?"

"Not entirely of my own desire. You get what you negotiate in life, not what you deserve."

Starlight started to unhook the cloak on my body. "Well unfortunately some things aren't up for negotiation, such as my getting out of this castle for a quick... meetup. Twilight put a spell on the doors and windows to stop me from getting out. I was going to keep myself disguised with this cloak while I snuck out, but found myself trying to draft an escape plan instead."

"Any particular reason you're locked in here like a prisoner, other than being a danger to the very timeline we currently reside in?" I replied with a sarcastic tone.

"More like she's keeping me locked in so that I can concentrate on my studies for a quiz this Friday." She answered, removing the cloak from off of me. "But I don't do well without the stress relief, if you catch what I'm throwing your way."

"I take it that she, learning from the situation at her old school, wants you to be more disciplined in your studies and not get too distracted by other things that could break your concentration." I answered, reminding myself of Moondancer's complaint.

"Well, that the thing." Starlight started to argue. "Masturbation is a great way to─"

"Reduce stress, release tension of varying sources, improving quality of rest, increase focus, raise morale, sometimes alleviate pains and aches, and can improve sex drive when practiced with modesty." I finished, causing her to gawk at me for already knowing what she was going to say. "Yeah, you're talking to a college student and a guard. Plus a few of my friends have done it too because of some demanding study schedule throughout the semester."

"Well I wish you would tell Twilight that!" She said while groaning with frustration. "She doesn't even leave the library open anymore for me to study inside of. Ever since that one day I caught you guys getting busy, she locked up the library to stop me from venturing to the erotica section. I explained to her my habits were strictly for stress relief and mood enhancement, but she said that the best reward is often earned through hard work and intense study habits."

"So she wants you to take a breather on relieving yourself?" I asked.

The mare grabbed me, shoving her muzzle against mine. I looked around nervously as she blatantly invaded my personal space. "Seriously, how the hell do I do well when I can't even hide a few magazines or books in my room! She went through my room without asking and decided to poke through my stuff! Then she came up to me later, telling me all about my stash and how I wouldn't be seeing it again. How unfair is that when she can just push your buttons and get you all pumped up for her to enjoy?"

This is a fun subject to talk about. Care to hoist the colors, captain?

I decided to change the subject before my equine body decided to have a moment to show off it's wares. "So I have to Twilight about opening the door, right? I'll go talk to her so I can get out."

"Oh please take me with you!" Starlight pleaded openly, grabbing at my hind leg as I started to walk away. "She took my goods, she took the books I was reading for stimulation, she even limits how much time I spend with Spike! Another second like this and I might resort to mounting a table!"

COLORS AHOY!

"Well a good rounded corner should do you just right. Now please let me go talking about this." I urged as I shook my hind leg, trying to break free from her grasp.

"Not unless you get me to my meetup at 9:30." She whispered. "From there, you can get back and do what you want to do while I get what I want to get."

I managed to free myself, but only for a moment as her magic soon found it's grasp around my leg instead. "Let me go, lady!" I ordered as her eyes wandered upwards, glancing at something that enticed her interest.

"...Huh, so you're a spotty fellow."

I quickly tapped her horn with my hoof and pivoted around to stop her from getting a good look at my uncontrollable growth. But instead of letting me back away, she walked towards me with a particular gleam in her eye. "Lady, you have problems that I am not going to fix─"

Before I could say anything else, I managed to get a copious amount of tail hair in my mouth and against my muzzle. Started to back away again, but found my backside bunched against the wall. In front of me, Starlight stood to her side, dangling her tail in front of me with the smuggest grin on her face. As I was trying to fight my way away, I felt that familiar throbbing sensation tapping against my belly, causing me to shudder again. It was almost as if I was completely petrified while she smacked her tail against my lips, mocking me with every second she had me backed into the wall.

"Mmm, you smell that?" The mare cooed seductively, advertising her musk against my face. "That's called being a mare in need. And right now, your body is screaming to you that you got the supply to fill the demand. You want this as bad as I do right now, and I don't mind claiming Twilight's leftovers as you can tell. Besides, I don't know her enough to where that's even a concern."

"Lady, you are twelve kinds of crazy if you think you're gonna try to get at me." I replied, trying my best to ignore my equine-influenced sex drive.

"And you must be naïve to believe that your completely unadapted human mind can handle the everyday nuances of an equine body." She said, slapping her tail against my muzzle once more. "You and Twilight showed me that the other day. She turns into a human and you completely have your way with her, turning her mind into mush as she even forgets the fact that she's royalty. Vice versa with you, and I'm sure you can't even control your erections properly. That means you're just as vulnerable as a little colt who's caught wind of a filly's first estrus cycle. That means... if you don't come to a decision in the next forty-five seconds, you are going to pounce on top of me and start pounding away at whatever feels good... even if you happen to embarrass yourself and find yourself clopping out against my leg. No doubt you won't do any kind of adjusting, so you'll just be poking and prodding until you find that release. You'd be such a little baby wanting to breed mommy, but you won't know how."

I groaned as I felt every last fiber in my equine body wanting to prove just how wrong she was on how inexperienced I was at this particular practice. If I wanted to, I could tease her horn and rub her haunches all night. And there was no question that this pony body of mine wanted nothing more than to destroy her. But I had more pressing issues to keep in mind. "Lady, you are evil."

She started walking around me, speaking slowly as if to stall for time. "Evil isn't what I am, at least not anymore. Scandalous is the more politically-correct term. But instead of calling me to be evil, maybe you should be making a decision. Because either I get what I want..." She then pounced on my back, leaning into my ear from behind me. "...Or I get what I want from you."

Her horn started to glow, introducing a distinctive warmth against the bottom of my length. Just the sensation alone made my shaft throb enough to hit against my stomach. The wonderful, albeit brief sensation had me cooing on my own accord before I rapidly shook my head, snapping myself back to reality. "FINE. I'll talk to Twilight and get you out of here."

The mare continued to tease me. "I don't know, I kinda like the idea of having what I have now. Maybe I can be the mare who shows you how to get the job done, pony-style."

"How about you get off of me. My body may want this as much as you do, but I as an individual do not." I said, trying to shake her off again.

She nibbled against my ear. "Mmm, mommy's gonna make you all grown up. Just lay back and let me take care of it."

Without much thinking, I pulled out my phone and started dialing Twilight's number. After a few seconds on the dial, she picked up. "Hello?"

"Hey Twilight, quick question. Do you mind if I borrow Starlight for a few hours for an espionage assignment?" I quickly questioned as I started to feel the sensation of magic tickle my entire length. "I know you have the doors locked and all, but I promise to get her back when I'm done, maybe around 10 tonight."

The mare on the other end seemed annoyed that I wasn't simply calling her to say hi. "So you call me, not to even talk to me or ask me for advice on anything, but to use my student and sneak out to do whatever?"

If every second that passed on this call wasn't some way of my trying not to embarrass myself in front of Starlight, I would've been more than willing to address her complaints. But my current circumstance disallowed me the pleasure of traditional formalities. "Yes, and I will have her back at 10. It's a pretty important thing I need to do and we have to leave now."

As Twilight was on the line speaking, I could glance down to see Starlight beneath me, nuzzling my flaring shaft, giving me a slight kiss against it's length. I tried to keep my moans to a minimum as Twilight spoke. "If you can shave that time down to no later than 9, we're good for it."

Starlight stopped for a second and whispered. "Seriously, what am I, a filly? I'm a grown mare."

"Deal! How soon can you open up this door, we're already waiting in the lobby." I said, watching as Starlight evolved from kissing my shaft to gliding her tongue across it, nuzzling her muzzle against it while tenderly pressing her lips against the base. She spared no exception to any part of me, giving thorough attention to every inch of skin her face touched.

"I will as soon as I ask a few questions." I was already cursing her out mentally as I couldn't help but to sit on my haunches, watching the lavender unicorn stare back at me with each journey back and forth. "First question, can you get her back earlier than 9?"

Starlight didn't seem intimidated by the sound of her mentor's voice, instead she seemed fueled by it. The longer Twilight spoke, it seemed the more her intent was to outperform. "If it goes well, I can." I said while rolling my eyes from the pleasure of being so delicately nurtured.

"Now if I let you out, where exactly will you be going?" She asked.

My hoof wandered to the back of her head, trying to instinctively guide her to where I felt I needed the most attention, at the bottom of my oozing tip. Her head tilted back just enough to show me the back of her throat as she held her mouth open, her tongue locked firmly at the bottom of my tip. Her eyes appeared absolutely drunk on the idea of just how far she would go to prove to me how sexually gifted she was. "A restaurant downtown, it's to check in on some contact of a senator. Please let us go, time is of the essence." I begged, as I could feel the heated breath of the mare beneath me go from warming just the tip to showering down against my entire length.

"Starlight can help you, but she has a knack to be a bit troublesome in many regards." No shit. "But if she ever steps out of line, you come and get me or call me, I'll be right there."

In one fell swoop, I watched as her lips went from the tip of my length to the very base against my body. "Okay! Talktoyoulaterbye!" I said quickly, hanging up just as Starlight was about to press herself against me to take on more than I ever dreamed. Her glanced down to her task before she looked back to me with a commanding stare, her foreleg wrapped around my back, shoving herself closer towards me. I could hear the sounds of her struggling for air as she slowly slid her tongue from her mouth, curling up to hold my balls. The soft cracking of her gutteral grunts were sporadic while she stayed in place, her eyes began to water from the struggle of her staying put.

Without warning, she pulled back and freed herself for air, completely separating herself from me. But even with her rapid withdrawal, there was much between me and her. My shaft throbbed as she breathed, trails of her saliva strung the distance between her lips and my tip. Her eyes were locked on me as a mixture of spit and precum dribbled off of her chin.

The mare spoke to me with a proud smirk on her face. "So then maybe you and I can be of use to each other, since we're negotiating."

I started to grimace at the intent hidden behind her wicked smile. "I got an apartment that's a thirty second sprint from here. We've got ten minutes."

"All I need is two to get what I want."

I hate and love this crazy ass bitch.

There really wasn't any stopping it. I ran right past the front desk without explaining anything at all, I just ran to the room with Starlight trailing behind me. I unlocked the door, shoved my way in and watched as Starlight slammed the door closed behind me. She didn't even bother to stop and glance around the room, ignoring the many human-world souvenirs lining throughout the room. Her eyes were locked on me while I plopped onto the bed.

Yeah, the entire time I ran here, I was fully exposed to whoever was watching. I couldn't help it, and Starlight was forcing the issue by keeping me up with her magic the entire time, just slow enough to keep me from going off too soon, but quick enough to keep me interested. So when I finally got to the room, she continued from where she left off. My eyes were hard focused on her while she slid her tongue up and down my shaft again. The magic she had curled around my length had stopped at the base as she drooled over it, intentionally coating me with every last bit of her spit before she turned around to move her tail aside.

"I see you're as dark as your sense of modesty."

As the tip met with her entrance, she lined me with her magic and snickered. "Just shut up and let momma show you how it's done."

She pulled her tail out of the way, with every intention to let me watch as every last inch of me was devoured by her. The mare hummed before chuckling, looking back at me while I reached for her. Her horn flashed once more, pushing my hooves away.

"Nuh-uh-uh." She said as she placed the weight of her body completely against me. "You'll go too quick if I let you keep tempo. Momma wants a quickie, but she doesn't want a one-pump chump."

"All yours." I conceded, feeling her inviting embrace against my entire sex.

She started to bounce up and down, slowly savoring the feeling of having a living stallion at her mercy. Her head dipped down as her back curled, her every moment threatening to send me to the point of no return. Just the sight of her taking all of me was enough to set me off, and it only proved her point. Had I been the one to push the pace, I would've been selfish and let loose at the very second she plopped her thick curves into me. But she knew her way around teasing me to oblivion, making me realize the desire of letting go while keeping me held back just enough to want more.

She then rested against me, peeking back with a confident smirk and a giggle. The next thing I felt was every last ounce of me being tugged forward as her hips rocked forward, letting me truly experience every last bit of her. Even angles that I wouldn't have known otherwise, she showed them to me. Her hindlegs then straightened, her body rising as she prepared herself for her next method of assault. Her legs separated a little more, her magic held her tail aside to give me the pleasure of seeing how deep she could take me.

"Mmmmhmm... Yeah, that's it. Momma loves that." Her effort to appease my equine appetite was beyond description. Even if this was my first experience with a mare as a pony, she wanted to make sure that every other one afterwards would pale in comparison. She wanted to make me feel like there would never be a chance to get this again, and it wouldn't surprise me if she was right.

Inevitably, my loins began to throb and my tip began to engorge. The desire to push myself forward towards that mark was so great that I started to fight to move my hips into hers when they met. Starlight wasn't blind to the situation I was in, more so encouraging it with the way she started to rotate her hips with each motion.

"You like it when I do that?"

"Yes." I said, closing my eyes to await the moment I would ascend.

"You like it when momma shows you how it's done?"

"Yes.Yes." The tension started to mount.

"Mmm, you wanna cum for momma."

"Yes, please."

"Say it."

"Momma make me cum." I begged, almost sounding like a teenager at the mercy of his illicit instructor.

I could already feel her clenching around me, very much experiencing her own orgasm while she kept her composure. "Big boys don't make small loads, you gonna cum real big for me?"

"Yes! Yes! Please!"

Starlight straightened herself upwards, pounding against me even faster. "You're gonna cum for momma when she says so, okay?"

"Okay!" I stressed, already pressing my hooves into the bed while my hips moved in sync with hers.

"Good. I want you to cum in three... two... one..."

An audible pop could be heard throughout the room as the moist warmth of her body was withdrawn from me. She quickly turned around to take in the spectacle of my longing for that final push to send me over, the expected shove off the proverbial cliff. But no matter how hard I thrust my hips, the absence of her was far too cruel to allow me to quickly approach that measure. But she watched as my throbbing had come to full stop, my entire length stiffening before a stream of seed trickled down from within me.

I found myself whimpering like a puppy, feeling almost unloved as the first rope of my seed wrangled itself free from my body. Instead of my feeling the warmth of her hips crushing into mine, the lovely invitation she offered to my stallionhood, the only warmth I could take solace in at that moment was the feeling of my own cum warming my lap in her absence.

However, she was not done.

"You poor baby, you look so sad without your momma to comfort you." She stared at me from the base of my dripping mast, cooing at me. "But it's okay, you did a good job. A nice thick load for momma, you must love her so very much."

Honestly, I wanted to cuss her out for leaving me high and dry, but that wasn't what she had planned.

"But momma doesn't like a dirty little colt, now does she? Let's clean you up."

As soon as her tongue touched the bottom of my shaft again, I could finally feel the shattered remnants of the finishing blow I desired kicking in. Another two thick ropes landed on her face, covering her eyelids and even her horn. Whatever else that slowly ran from within me had pooled against her tongue, falling into her mouth. She closed her mouth, swallowed the little she collected, and carried on with her clean-up without even stopping to take a breath. Instead of reacting with disgust over the thick white globs over her eyes, she wore it almost like a badge of honor.

Her tongue wrapped around my shaft before she sank herself onto me again, repeating the very same action that had me sold on our encounter in the first place. If there was ever concern for a gag reflex, she learned how to thoroughly ignore it. Slurping and popping, gurgling and gagging, the noises her mouth made were utterly disgusting, but blissful to the ear. She would not dare let me guide her, keeping my hooves bound to the bed with her magic while she spent every second cleaning me up.

As she finished, she started to pat herself on the face with my waning length. "So that was a good five minutes and a real nice orgasm to boot. Good job not breaking the immersion."

"Lady, I wanted to cuss your ass out for dropping me off like that." I griped. "But the follow-up... Forgive me for asking but how long have you been doing this?"

She levitated a tissue from a nearby shelf, cleaning the remnants of our activity from her eyes. "Well I was once over a small village over in the sticks. And I was really quick to get pissed off at a lot of things during estrus. So I just decided to use what was around and started to research the ways I could please a stallion while pleasing myself. A few years later and it feels like I'm still missing something."

"LIKE FUCKING WHAT!?" I questioned.

The mare finished cleaning her face before she started gathering a few towels for herself. "Well... there was a friend I knew way back when. And for the longest time I had that village, I just waited for him to drop by. I felt like maybe he would've been curious about something and it would've inevitably brought him my way. I was gambling on fate, hoping to cash out eventually. So I thought that for the moment we'd ever meet up again, I was going to convince him to stay with me."

"So you thought that practicing sex was a good way to make your argument?" I asked.

"I won the argument between me and you." She replied with a smirk. "Not only I got out of the castle, I also got laid in the process. I won in every statistical and hypothetical category."

"Not exactly a badge I'd wear, but sure. A trophy is a trophy." I conceded with a shrug. "But how was that going to help you?"

"I just felt like when the time was right and he'd find his way back to me, I was going to show him that other mares won't work as hard to please him as me." She said before she started to chuckle at herself. "Yeah, all those years wasted because I couldn't find him. But my being pretty good at sex is a fair trade-off. The only thing that's missing in all of this is him."

I looked at the mare and shook my head. "You know, you don't have to─"

She was very quick to correct me before I could even get it all out. "I am not sleeping around because I feel 'abandoned,' I have sex because I make it my choice to do so with whoever I feel will leave the least amount of strings behind. I'm a grown mare who can make those decisions for herself, and I am not looking for a placebo either. I like sex like any other pony, it's a recreational activity, not something anchored by the concept of something so hard-locked like marriage─"

"I get it, I get it!" I said, stressing the fact that she made her argument loud and clear. "I... Just want to make sure that there's no strings behind this either. I mean, honestly it's a bit fucked that I just smashed my ex's student─"

"How so?" She questioned. "You two aren't together officially, at least from what she told me. And she broke it off from you, so it shouldn't matter what she thinks."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, but the novelty of the situation remains."

She shrugged off my statement. "Look, nopony knows that Nondis, the human Captain of the Royal Guard, got busy with the pupil of the Princess of Friendship. In that form, you are just another one of us roaming around the street."

"Well I'm happy to know that you think so liberally─"

"Stop selling yourself on the idea that you're doing something wrong when that sense of morality has no ground to stand on. You're grown, you've made plenty of hard choices up till now. Who you have sex with should be just as free of a choice, and that applies to anyone, even some pent-up royal who's bound by some obscure, nonsensical ancient law."

The more she talks, the more I see her views aligning with my younger brother's. But she wasn't wrong in any way. In fact, I agreed with her. Even if I know of the possible emotional ramifications, what matters is if there was any long-term expectations after. And being that I'm going to have to physically negotiate on some things, I have to be more open-minded with myself and how I go about this. Granted, there are still lines to not cross but I should not restrict myself when there is no real reason to.

I sighed with relief, no longer feeling the pent-up frustration that came with my being a stallion. I pulled out my phone and looked at the time, realizing that I was five minutes over. "Shit, the bastard's probably just left the train station by now."

Meanwhile, Starlight just stared at me as I checked my phone. "Hey... so you've done some more magic practice while you were over in Canterlot, right?"

"A bit." I admitted. "The past two days I wasn't able to work with Alabaster, I was working with Celestia instead. She's a bit of a hard-ass on me in combat."

"Is combat all that you two were working on?" She asked.

"No, there were other magic application practices, such as using callings for summoning items. She says it takes a lot of practice, but I still can't get the hang of it. It's easier for me to just levitate something over to me instead of trying to make it appear."

She then pointed at my phone. "You poofed up that thing to talk to Twilight. And you just did it again."

I looked at my phone and started to realize the fact that I was not wearing any kind of pants or had any pockets. As my phone levitated in place, I stared back at the dim reflection of myself on the darkened screen. "Huh... it's just that simple?"

"Yeah, just tell yourself what you want to hold. Then think of the last place you had it and let it come to you. It's pretty simple stuff."

I started to chuckle as I leaned back on my bed. "Really, so this entire time I could've been doing this instead of working up massive migraines?"

"You're focusing too hard, putting a lot of energy on the channeling process that you end up overcompensating. You burn yourself out easier doing that. Let it be natural."

I took a moment to close my eyes and imagine the pair of pants I had sitting in the room with the portal. I closed my eyes to simply imagine them being here, only for me to hear the familiar clatter of a belt. I opened my eyes to see the pants sitting in front of me. "Then again, using magic as a unicorn is hella easier than doing it as a human."

"Same method applies, just adjust to the difference in anatomy." She advised with a smile.

"...Now if only I can apply that logic to my sex drive."

After a quick shower to clean off any lingering musk, we made our way to the location of the meetup. The two of us pretended to be as inconspicuous as possible, especially her and her midnight-blue cloak. I simply settled for a pair of sunshades, an orange starry cloak she picked out from a nearby convenience shop, and a hat I nabbed at the train station we watched him leave from.

As far as the evening went, we appeared to have gone undiscovered by the politician. And when we finished trailing him to the hayburger joint, the two of us sat a considerable distance away before she quietly ignited her horn to give the both of us an enchantment to hear even the tiniest detail of a conversation. I brought up the potential problem of being able to hear too much at once, but she informed me that the key to the spell was to focus in on the conversation you want to single out. She also noted that the spell had a greater effect if you happen to identify the voice of an individual. I then asked her where she learned the spell, she simply said that she learned it on the fly.

This lady is crazy, but she's unquestionably talented.

My ears were ringing with the multitude of conversations taking place in the restaurant, from the cooks in the kitchen who were talking shit about their manager, the servers who discussed some local gossip, the manager who apparently loathed the fact that she didn't finish flight school, to the kids that were so occupied with their meal toys and their parents pleading with them to finish their food. I could even hear the uncomfortable sounds of mouths munching on food, especially from a very specific messy eater from whatever side of the diner. It was just loud as shit, and it didn't make me feel any less like I was here to eat more than I wanted to get up and leave.

I shuddered as Starlight tapped her hoof against mine. "Try not to focus in on that too much. Now, you hungry? I can order us a little something while we're here."

"If it'll distract from the uncomfortable ASMR experience, then I'm all ears." I said, trying my best to not focus in on that particular customer.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the politician walk in through the doors, looking for a specific table. While I tried to focus in on him, I could hear the disgusting munching of the one customer I was distracted by overcome my hearing. I clenched my eyes closed, trying to desperately focus in on the politician instead.

But then... there came a voice that caused me to shudder with unease. "Ey, there's the bloke."

That same accent, that same tone, the crassness in his voice, it was all too familiar to Sunday. I glanced over to see where that voice came from, seeing that he was sitting in the chair right behind me. My body froze in place as I realized that I was sitting right next to the guy who I lied to, the equine trafficker.

Starlight looked at me and asked me casually. "Is something wrong?"

I motioned her with my eyes, lightly swiping my hoof around to point at the table behind me. She nodded quietly and started to listen in.

The politician grimaced as he nudged his head towards another area where there was a lonely stallion sitting in a corner slowly munching away at some fries. The other stallion tapped against the table, the vibrations of the wood and metal sounding rather loudly in my ears. The politician sighed as he conceded the argument, walking over to sit on the other side, facing the stallion. The sound of the weight shifting could easily be heard without an audio amplification spell. "You could've offered a better spot."

Another stallion chimed in with a stereotypical high-pitched mobster voice. "Well you know we like being convenient. What better way to chow on a burger and then getting a meet-up out of the way, you can't tell me anything."

"How about a place that isn't so populated for starters?" The politician chided.

"Ay, it's a weekday in bumfuck Ponyville, you either get jack shit after nine or you get a fairly decent doori." The slave-trader replied. "Only time this place would be interesting is if there's a festival in town thrown together by that bouncy pink moot or if a battle 'ad finished recently."

The politician groaned with frustration. "Damn you, we do not need to catch hint of your more... *ahem* ...explicit proclivities."

The slave-trader's voice smoothed out as he started to speak to him in a low voice. "Of course not, ya here for a job. And you've got the down payment."

The politician grimaced. "Not here, it's too open."

"You know where to hang the goods, get to it and maybe I'll get myself to calm down a bit, eh?" The slave-trader replied.

The stallion shuffled his hind legs under the table, levitating a small sack of items under the table. The politician then winced with discomfort as he leaned his sack of goods under the table. He didn't look as he tried to guide the goods beside him.

"No sir." The slave-trader spat angrily, leaning against the back of the table, his head bumping into mine. "You know exactly where to hang it... Slowly."

The politician grew squeamish as he clenched his eyes, using his magic to open the draw-string of the bag and hung it on the place where the slave-trader wanted it most. The burly stallion chuckled whimsically as his sidekick whispered to the politician. "Be sure to give him a kiss while you're down there."

The politician finished with his instructions and quickly cut off his horn before retracting his hind legs against his body. "There, you got what you wanted."

"Seems like you want something else, sweet cheeks." The slave-trader muttered.

"I don't have all night for this, Prod Clod." The stallion stressed. "I have a much more important appointment scheduled for later this evening. So I'm going to be quick."

The slave trader, apparently named Prod Clod, shifted his weight while not even caring for the fact that his head was brushing up against mine. "Huh, it feels like you ain't got enough bollies to pay my dinner tonight."

"Then maybe you should look at which ones I gave you." The politician said, still shifting around in his seat.

Prod looked over at his sidekick and whispered. "So Short Stack, what do you think?"

The stilt-like unicorn levitated the sack from under the table and opened it to reveal at least five heart shaped rubies and a few fragments of the same gem. "Fire rubies, eh? You must want us to take someone out to drinks."

The politician cleared his throat. "Yes, actually. There's this one fellow who was associated with a good friend of ours, a late friend."

"Ah." Prod groaned as he shifted his head away from mine. "Poor bastard, sad that his meds didn't come through. Bet the bloke was screaming at the walls again."

"Didn't he blow his money on a drinking wager or some crafty prostitute?" Short questioned.

"It wasn't actually." The politician replied. "I heard he was reluctant to pay the fee on the account that it was too costly for his lifestyle. He would've had to avoid the Corrotto District for some time, but it got worse. It was actually his son who pulled the trigger on the joint family account."

"So it was the son who paid off Gaston? I see why he rushed out of Griffinstone so quick, probably wanted a bite of that tight twink's arse before setting out."

"So is this little faggot gonna take over the family business?" Short questioned.

"I only seen him at the funeral, trying to play nice with the captain. I don't think he was crying over the fact that his father died as much as he did when word got out that the human did Gaston in." The politician explained. "Though he did try to make apologies to the human on his late father's behalf."

"The human's not even that strong." Prod announced. "I heard that a few spells and a good group of goonies had him shaking those long shanks for legs."

"That automatically makes him a non-factor in our job, we'll waste him quicker than he can call for reinforcements, and we could sell his parts faster than an albino changeling." Short added, subconsciously making me want to turn around and shove a gun against his head to prove a point. "But you want us to take ol' Count's lesser on a night out in town?"

The politician then explained in a much quieter voice. "The thing is this, he has the credentials on the family account. Now Gaston may be something that wasn't made in his name, but everything else before that is a certainty. Now if I'm a reasonable pony, then I can conclude that with his current circumstances he should be willing to find some 'life changes' or a good 'change in heart'. So the question then becomes 'when does he start talking about those transactions'."

"And you wanna keep a tight-lip." Prod concluded.

"And be sure to take him to the zoo after you finish. Show him around if you will, let him be amazed."

Short tapped against his superior. "Ey boss, you wanna take him to see the big one they caught in the mountain?"

"Sounds promising to me. If forty armed guards can't take a few nine, then one pony would be a bug in it's way. We'll keep him nice and cozy, he'll have a big bright smile on his face by the time we're done with him." Prod then turned his attention to the politician. "You gave us a pretty lucrative deal, boss."

"I'm glad you see such a simple task as something too small to take on." The senator stood from his seat and bid the duo farewell. "Now if you excuse me, I have a date with some twins I've been longing to see again."

I started to close my eyes and take a deep breath before I heard the sidekick shift his focus to something else. "Ey Proddy, this one behind us."

"Seems awfully well-dressed for a visit to a burger joint." The stallion replied as I heard him stand over the chair and loom over my head. "Aw, and with a beaut to boot."

Starlight's horn started to lightly shimmer as she questioned the burly stallion. "Is there something I can help you with?"

The stallion then replied in what could've been his best formal voice. "So me and a friend run a modeling agency over in Canterlot. Would you be interested in shooting an exhibition for us?"

Starlight shook her head, her horn still gleaming. "No thank you. But I do have a friend who would be willing to do a few shots. I'll talk to them. Besides, my boyfriend wouldn't like me to take pictures with some group neither of us don't know personally." She replied with the sweetest tone, reaching out and holding my hooves as she whispered to him. "He's a real jealous guy."

The stallion then extended his hooves over my head as he held hers in retaliation. "Aw, you got a name, love?"

"Starbright Shine." Starlight lied almost effortlessly . "Got a business card? I could send you a few samples through the mail."

The stallion looked to his partner, who levitated a pretty flashy business card. The stallion then took it from his lackey and slipped it across the table with a smirk on his face. "We'll be sure to show her a good time, she's in good hooves, this friend of yours. Sorry for jumping in on your meal." The stallion patted his hooves against my shoulders, almost bashing them in with as much force as he put on them. "Sorry, chum. Just all in your space..." The stallion then leaned into my ears and whispered. "Get home safely."

The two stallions finished their food and started to walk out of the diner, leaving an emerald on the table. While the two walked out, Starlight and I both took a sigh of relief. The mare shuddered at the stallion. "Ugh, something about him screams bad news."

She wasn't wrong. "So how do you think we get home from here?" I asked quietly. "They probably know we were listening in, especially since neither of us were really talking."

Starlight groaned out of dismay. "Aww, I forgot to strike up a conversation like we WEREN'T listening in! I'm so sorry, I'm so used to doing the whole espionage thing by myself. Never really had a partner-in-crime on hoof."

I started to take a glance out to the front door, seeing the two avert their gaze from us and walking off into the night. There was no doubt that they'd have us walk home in the dark and find some way to chase us into some dark alley before doing the worst to either of us. And if I'm remembering my Sunday morning experience, I know exactly what he'll do to me. "We can't just teleport ourselves out, right? I don't know that spell."

"You wouldn't be able to do it anyhow. That's a calling spell that's awfully hard to pull off without straining yourself mentally. You'd easily overcompensate." Starlight explained. "And I can't really do it with other ponies that well yet. By myself is fine, but I haven't mastered using others for it."

I found myself thinking about the moment I was going over my thoughts while packing my clothes, it was moments before the portal back home was opened to me for the first time. I was in Rarity's boutique before being transported across town to Twilight's castle. Right then, I was reminded of who was easily capable of performing that feat. I then looked over to the bathroom and nodded. "I'm gonna go to the little boys room."

I quickly got out of my seat and trotted over to the bathroom to summon my phone. I quickly sent Twilight a text to tell her that the both of us were in trouble and that we needed to be transported out as quick as possible. As soon as I finished, I dismissed my phone and waited for the inevitable scene change.

A door swung open from one of the stalls and I was greeted with a familiar face... one I didn't want to see. "Well lookit."

My head swung around to see the burly stallion quickly approaching me with a knife. I flared up my magic and shot a bolt his way, blasting him against the wall. I made a gallop for the door before I had found my hindleg pulled into the air. My body was tripped and my head landed chin-first against the floor as the subordinate revealed himself from inside of the stall nearest to the exit. I then shot a bolt towards the unicorn, who immediately countered my attack with his own. And since he was holding me at the same time, he made sure his attack didn't miss. Instead of being able to counter it correctly, I was swung into it like a baseball bat, then dropped to the ground as every last one of my limbs were stunned.

It was honestly an impressive maneuver, but it was a dirty one in the context of magic dueling.

Prod got up from my attack, brushing himself off. "Huh, gotta admit that one tickled a fair bit. Got me feelin' a mite excited for ya." The stallion went for his knife and muttered in a low voice. "I might let ya live if ya value your life a little less."

I struggled to move any of my limbs before the lanky unicorn stood on my back. "Don't even try to scream. You'll only get your head cut off."

Prod lightly placed his hoof against my cheek before slapping me, knocking me loose before grabbing my head. "I knew I saw your fuckin' twink arse 'round somewhere. You still owe me a weapon."

The unicorn standing on my back chuckled. "He up and messed on you, eh boss?"

"Nah." The stallion stated. "He and I were gonna trade, my zebra wench for one of the human snappers. Guess I'll be changing the offer a bit."

"A snapper huh, you mean one of those sword-breaking weapons? He's got access to those?" Short asked.

"Probably already does." The stallion replied. "Just never had any intention to sell... until now." Prod then moved his sidekick out of the way and flipped me over to glide his knife against my exposed belly. "So let's find out if he was legit, or if he was snappin' a grogan."

The stallion started to dig the tip of the knife into my belly, not enough to plunge through the skin completely but enough to cause me a great deal of pain while drawing some blood.

But before he could do more damage to me, my body had started glowing.

Within a blink of my eyes, I was laying on my back in the lobby of the castle. I looked around to see the sight of Twilight standing before her student, asking her where I was. As soon as Starlight pointed to me, I could see Twilight's eyes draw wide open. She ran over to me to check if I was okay, but first noticing the blood on my stomach.

"Boy am I glad you pulled through in enough time. Shit was gonna get real ugly real quick."

"What happened!?" Starlight asked, helping me up to my hooves.

"I went to the bathroom to send that text. Both of them had the drop on me." I said as Twilight summoned up some alcohol to clean my cut. "Goes to show how much I know about espionage. Bastards probably already had the place mapped out for any variety of tactics. They know who I am, not exactly who I am outside of this form, but that burly bastard was the one I ran into on accident just this past Sunday."

"On accident?" Twilight questioned.

"YOU WENT TO CANTERROT BY YOURSELF!?" Starlight shouted, almost appearing angry.

"Again, accident." I stressed. "I thought I could navigate my way around the city by memory, plus I didn't know how to summon items so using my phone wasn't an option. I got cocky and found myself looking for a way out, that necrophiliac son of a bitch caught me with my pants down."

Starlight then questioned me. "The one we just saw, he knows what you look like in that form?"

"Instantly." I replied.

"You can't go back, not ever." Twilight warned strictly.

"That or you're gonna have to kill him." Starlight advised, much to the chagrin of her instructor. "I know, cruel, but if you try to go back, you will get ousted and possibly done in or worse."

I shook my head at the mare. "I already know what worse is. That fucker there will lop my head off and fuck my body long after it gets cold."

"Can you alter your appearance?" Starlight questioned.

"Not that I know of." I replied. "And it's not like I wasn't already punished for just my wondering in by accident into the Corrotto District. Celestia kept me under royal restriction after she found out, Luna had told her what I told her about my experience under the daylight hours."

Twilight held her head, worrying herself as she thought more about me. "Then you cannot, under any circumstances, find your way back there. You have to stay until the situation clears out."

"I can't do that." I argued. "And besides, I have someone else to report my findings to."

Catacombs of Canterlot Castle
Thirty Minutes Later...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

It took some time to explain what was going on to Shining, Blueblood, Luna, and Celestia. Twilight managed to accompany me for the trip just to get more of a grasp on the situation. Starlight stayed behind under strict orders from Twilight, pretty much to keep watch over the castle in case those goonies were to suddenly reappear.

Meanwhile, I had finished up my report, while Blueblood was already calculating the next move. "So this Prod fellow, he's aware of your appearance but not of your identity?"

"Correct."

Luna tapped her hoof impatiently. "Damn. I suppose we should alter the appearance of your equine form. Perhaps a change in coat color?"

"Coat color won't do much if he knows your voice." Shining interjected. "You're going to have to disguise that as well."

Celestia then asked me. "So what exactly happened with this encounter in the bathroom?"

"The unicorn guy had the drop on me. I managed to blast Prod off of me pretty easily, but the other guy plays dirty with his magic. Is it usually possible to simultaneously cast beams and levitate at the same time?"

"Very." Twilight quickly replied. "I've levitated myself and used a teleportation spell at the same time once before. Starlight levitated herself in midair as we fought against one another. Cadance can use up to three spells at once. It's not impossible, but it does show the skill of this unicorn you're talking about."

"Which completely outclasses you." Shining supplemented while starting to levitate a sword. "Up until now, your main advantage had been the weaponry you used and your ability to plan for the immediate future. But you've been slipping on that since you've got out of the hospital. Now's not the time to forget that portion of your abilities."

"He's right, you know." Blueblood cosigned. "You have to be willing to reactivate that part of your repertoire. Your running in as of late hasn't exactly come with the best results. At one point, you even proceeded to boil dental floss in brine just to neutralize Shining's magic. Same method applies. Even if your body is neutralized, your mind and vision is not." Blueblood levitated the sword from Shining's grasp and started brandishing it himself. "I know your focus has shifted towards the political, but don't forget that the first part of valor is discretion, knowing when and how to strike."

"I forgot you used to be a guard yourself." Shining muttered to the blond prince.

"You didn't find that out until a few days ago." Blueblood replied.

Twilight immediately interrupted the two. "Banter aside, Nondis cannot keep doing this assignment now. If he needs to better his magic, then he needs to be training more than anything else."

"Training takes time." Luna retorted plainly. "Training in that level of magic could take years before he's able to be skilled enough to make for a passable caster. His strides are nothing short of remarkable, but they won't be enough for this. Just getting him used to the basics is enough for now."

"And nopony is going to alter the laws of time to be able to make those years pack into a few days." Shining added.

Twilight groaned as she started to pace back and forth. "Well how about Discord? He has a dimension that clearly has no time or rhythm to it, at least from what Fluttershy tells me."

Celestia proceeded to shut down the idea. "Out of the question. His world is the realm of the ether itself, which is bound to chaos magic. Not a single pony has trained themselves to withstand it, and neither is there a single pony capable of wielding chaos magic. Nondis may be from a different dimension, but that does not make him able to withstand the vast differences of the physics of that world. Staying here in Equestria has already altered his physical state and mental capabilities."

"And if there is no time or rhythm to it as you say, then who's to assume that he will return in a few days or a few years?" Luna stated while walking up to me. "His physical capabilities have been altered in staying here as long as he did. What if his body wasn't able to handle that much ether? Until Fluttershy can give us a summation of the effects that place has on an equine body, then we cannot risk this more than we already have."

"For now, we have to move forward with what we've got. He can learn more along the way." Shining stated before moving back to the main issue at hand. "Now, if I remember the main thing I was hearing in all of this, they've got a hit out on Single File, Count DuMoneé's former apprentice."

"And he has valuable information when it pertains to those accounts. It would be viable to make provisions to keep him protected until the necessary information has been extracted and the operation reaches it's conclusion." Luna said while going through a large pile of papers to pull out a map of the entire kingdom. She pointed to an isolated farm to the south next to a craggy landmass. "In terms of isolation, this would be the ideal place. He can assume a new identity and he'll be far enough from civilization to be considered as a missing pony."

"The only problem is access and distance." Blueblood replied, starting to explain his logic. "It's one thing to hold him in isolation at a rock farm, it's another to make frequent trips to that rock farm in the next month without it being suspicious to any onlookers. Even if we were to use a private train, the schedule is slated for about once every two weeks to that specific location, mainly to drop off supplies and food for that particular family. Remember, that town only has a population of five. So we'd have to change the train schedule to accommodate our visits."

"And I hate riding the train, so that's out. Not only that, but there's many sheep crossings that usually hold that line up. Crystal Quarry wouldn't be a place he'd like to stay in for a good amount of time, and I don't think he'd be able to handle a diet of rocks either." I said, placing a curled knuckle against my lips. "And if he's there, he'd have to work the entire time on that rock farm. Not a fun way to pass the time."

"I think he'll live with that." Twilight said emphatically. "Life on a rock farm versus death where he is."

Celestia shook hear head. "It sounds like a good idea, but that would compromise the issue of secrecy. It would be giving away too much to have Nondis or even some random guard ask questions in some remote location. It would be easier if we had the technology Nondis has, but we have no means of being able to convey it's usage past Canterlot and Ponyville, perhaps even Cloudsdale."

Twilight started to look at me before an unusual suggestion came to her lips. "How about the back end of Canterlot? Nondis has some connections with someone over there, I'm sure he'd like to stay there amongst the lavish and posh of high society. It's secluded and secured enough to keep ponies like that Prod guy out!"

"Big negative." I replied, earning a frown from the young princess. "I just got called out for fewer visits I can count on one hand. If I got booted out on the virtue of a few complaints from the neighbors, then he's gonna get thrown out without question. And plus they'd sure as hell have some frequenters of the nightlife the Corrotto District provides. One word from an angry neighbor and that would be the end of it."

"Furthermore, security is a private industry for them, completely separated from the municipality of Canterlot proper. Just getting through the checkpoints, as Nondis can testify, is hell on it's own. It would be hard to even get past the first two for information, much less crossing all four to interrogate a pony in their backyard." Shining added.

"Cloudsdale is isolated, but pegasus ponies can be bought in to do the job of compromising that security." Luna stated.

"Manehattan is too far away and the security detail would be too costly for something like this." Celestia said with a hum.

"Las Pegasus is too far and it's a breeding ground for mobsters to make a quick bit. Appleloosa is a good choice in theory, but it's in the way of the main rail lines, so that practice falls flat. The Crystal Empire is great for communicating, but their guards are inadequately trained to handle a threat such as a trained assassin." Blueblood said, narrowing down the options.

"Hollow Shades is a remote area that could do well to hide a pony, but an even better one to hide a body, the trip is too perilous. None of the major cities would be ideal because of train access. Ponyville has too little security and it's much closer." Shining compiled on our list even more options.

As the list of places that had significant flaws grew, an idea started to formulate in my mind. It was a radical one that would ultimately be a substantial risk if done poorly, but it was one that had everything going right for it if there was ever the case of him needing to be someplace safe as well as someplace easy for us to get to. And even though some parts of my mind were screaming that I shouldn't do this, there was the bright lone spot that offered a much bigger opportunity.

And I was a stickler for dumb shit that could work. "How about we put him in my world?"

"WHAT!?" The entire room erupted with every royal face fixated on me.

While many scenarios started to play out in my mind, I started to feel more confident in myself. "Yeah, balls to the wall, we scoop him up and throw in on over in my world. He'd at least be easy to look after and get access to."

Of course, Twilight was left flabbergasted and more antagonistic towards the idea. "You do realize what you're suggesting is highly irresponsible. Why not just simply keep him here at the castle?"

"Because that senator who called the hit, he's got family in the ranks." I pointed back at her.

"Well it only depends on the rank─" Twilight tried to argue before her brother stopped her dead in place.

"Not if it completely supersedes my military authority. After all, it could very well be the same pony who managed to sign off on Rainbow's assignment to the Arimaspi Mountain deployment."

Blueblood further solidified the argument. "All it takes is one order from the top, and a little bit of paperwork in the matter of a few hours. Knowing the worst, he could've already drafted something of a response to this. He could easily have him arrested and detained in a shallow dungeon with the general populace. Pay a few goons to incite a riot, pay another to do the job while all the commotion takes place, and we'd be left with a cadaver and no access to the accounts."

"No information wouldn't necessarily mean that we'd be in a worse spot, it would just mean that we'd be in a less ideal situation. But the more information we can gather for the short-run, the better." Luna advised.

Celestia walked beside me as she addressed me. "Nondis, if you are going to do this, then I suggest that you speak with your friends on the matter. If they can keep him occupied, I'm sure that he will find much to learn while opening up to the lot of you. This would be a great opportunity to slowly open the door between our worlds."

"But fail and we have another situation that the parliament would be calling us in for." Twilight urged with a persistent glare towards me. "If they come for you, we can't protect you like we normally would. They'll shut us out and deal with you privately."

I glanced back at the sun princess with a wink. "Didn't I already lose my job once this month?"

The princess giggled in retaliation. "Maybe for just a minute, but you will have to be careful."

"Safe to say that your effort will have to transpire quickly. It would be preferred that you'd find him, take him to Ponyville, and use the portal there. Using the portal here would eventually gather the attention of his disappearance in-house. He cannot be seen in this castle." Said Luna, reinforcing the idea of keeping some semblance of separation between our distinctive parties.

"They might be a little curious about Single File's disappearance from Canterlot's daily life. It would be better to put up some sort of front like he hadn't disappeared." I said, thinking out loud.

Blueblood snickered under his breath. "Well it's not like we have a changeling in our possession."

"We do?" Celestia questioned. "I thought Nondis eliminated all of the prisoners we detained."

Shining rolled his eyes as he held up a hoof. "All... except one. To my reluctance, Blueblood and I agreed to keep one for our purpose, but this was before the situation had changed for the worse."

Celestia pursed her lips and glanced to her princes. "Hmm... resourceful of the two of you."

"Solid." I confirmed with a thumbs up. "Now I believe if changelings can transform into items as well as creatures, we might be on to something big."

"Finally putting that brain of yours to use?" Blueblood joked. "Good to have this version of you back."

I laughed right back at the blond-maned prince. "He's just visiting for the day."

Canterlot Central Park
The Next Day...

It didn't take a lot of effort to see where Single File would be located. Since his work was still around the castle, it was easy to slip a note over to him by means of a few eager maids looking to be in my good graces. The note I wrote out specifically told him to meet with me at the park downtown.

Instead of simply going over his place of residence, I was advised to meet with him at a neutral location. The reason for being was because of any potential residents that would end up on the short-list of ponies who'd be a primary target to lure him back out. And simply talking on castle grounds was more of a risk because of the massive amount of guards present. It only took one to eavesdrop and tell their superior what they saw. And if anything happened that a certain commander didn't like, he'd place me under restriction to get at Single File. In short, I couldn't truly talk about this other than in the least-likely place to have a covert conversation about life or death.

The park was a winner in my mind because of the scenery and the emotional impact the place still has on him.

I waited for around forty minutes before he finally showed up on the bench behind me. While I pretended to play on my phone, I observed the surrounding area just to check on any potential onlookers. Just in case, I was more then content to hide my mouth behind a scarf since it was snowing outside. The young stallion sat quietly for a moment before he spoke. "I trust you asked me to come here for a health check?"

"Yes and no." I answered. "But I am curious of how you're managing."

The stallion didn't turn around, appearing quite used to talking like this in the open. "It's great, if you call being demoted to a desk keeper and having your ex-girlfriend drop you for a professional athlete nothing short of an advantage."

"Better days ahead then, huh?" I questioned.

"What do you know?" The young stallion asked, sounding very much upset. "I lost everything since Count died! My standing, my internship, a good amount of my income, my girlfriend, my future, all gone! I worked hard for years to get to this point, my hoof was in the door. I know he wasn't exactly the shining model of being an exceptional citizen, much less a role model, but he at least opened doors for me. Now what is there in my life, the only thing I can say is always there when I look for it is a good drink."

"And sometimes that drink is never enough, sometimes you'd want to go for something a little harder." I said quietly. The stallion started to turn around before he remembered that we weren't supposed to be seen talking directly to one another. "I know I'm supposed to be this shining figure in the eyes of many, but how many have actually known what happened to me before I was summoned to Equestria? How many others truly know about the self-doubt and the anger that went through my mind as I made the decisions that led to my being here? You have any idea what it feels like to be strung out on drugs while driving a Lexus, only to find yourself drowning underwater the next minute?"

The stallion had many questions about me, but one pretty much stuck out to him. "What's a Lexus?"

I shook my head and shrugged at the fact that the only thing that seemed to grab his attention was the car. "...How about a better question. Do you want to find out?"

Single File brushed off my suggestion. "Nah, I think I'll just stay with my favorite bar. At least the ponies there at happy hour are nice to me."

I think I'm starting to see his vice. "Hey, can I be frank with you?"

"What?" The stallion replied.

"Not everyone in that bar is gonna be your friend." I started to explain. "It may seem like there could be some guys who'd buy your drinks while you won't get to spend a dime, but the truth is that they aren't doing it because they like you. Sometimes they do it to take advantage of you, just to see how far you go to fit in. Your friends are the ones who tell you to stop, they'll be the first to knock you in the face to sort you out. Those other guys, they just wanna get you toasted real good so that you don't even care what's happening around you."

"Maybe I like my occasional hangovers." Retorted the young stallion. "Maybe I like the feel of a good time. What's wrong with that?"

I sighed as I started to sink a little more in my seat. "My guy, I know you don't really know me or might not even respect me as much, but I am gonna be real with you." I leaned back, pretending to stretch my arms out forward. I then whispered over to him. "There's a hit out on you."

As I finished stretching, I could feel the stallion's body locking up at the news he just received, and I wasn't even touching him. Just the aura he gave off was more than enough to show how mortified he was to know that his days would be numbered so soon. He then took a moment to laugh off the absurdity of the news. "Yeah, and I'm sure it was Count who called it then? A hit from beyond the grave..."

"You'll be dead by dawn. They intend to get you drunk, drug you, and drop you off... all before sunup in the Corrotto District."

The stallion sank himself onto the bench, lying down as he took in the news of his pending assassination. "You said the Corrotto District... Canterrot, right?"

"To say it in the accent of your executor, Resting in pieces in the Rotty." I said, mimicking an Australian accent.

The stallion then curled up into a ball, completely terrified over everything that was happening. It took him some time to process all of it, a few minutes in silence to soak it in while his fears started to culminate in his mind. "...Not like this... please not in that place..."

I didn't look back as I politely levitated a one-way ticket to Ponyville station, keeping my hand hidden in my coat as I did so. He looked at the ticket floating above him as I spoke. "This is your ticket out of here, quite possibly for a chance at a new life. The final destination isn't written on this ticket, but this is the first step of discovering a new lease on life."

The stallion gazed at the ticket, grabbing it out from in front of him. "When do we leave?"

"Thirty minutes. You won't be going back to work for a while." I stated.

"When do you think they'll come for me?" He asked.

"The moment we get off of this bench. I'm sure they've got friends who will be following up. But if you want to live, you'll drop everything here and get moving." I responded while looking around the park for any onlookers. "The station is ten minutes away."

The stallion then looked back at me, watching as I stood up to walk away. "But why do this for─"

"Move your ass." I ordered, leading him to the station.

He immediately jumped up and galloped beside me, trying to make sure that he was as close to me as possible, more terrified of even the foals who ran past us. The stallion kept looking around to see if anyone was following us. As soon as we got to the corner, he started tugging on my coat. "Do you think we're being followed right now?"

"If the hit's on you, best believe it."

Ponyville Train Station
Three Hours Later...

My warning proved as fact.

As we showed up to the Canterlot Train Station, I saw two stallions who was both sitting at a nearby coffee table. I turned around and pulled out my phone, turned on the facecam to observe what the would do next. And just as suspicious as they looked, they pulled down the corners of their papers and glared directly at the both of us. They would not stop looking until the final whistle for boarding sounded from the train. Single File asked what I was doing as I held my phone in front of my face, not looking ahead for him.

I instructed him not to turn around but keep moving forward. As soon as we got on the train, I could see the two stallions sit at a booth maybe five seats down from us. I then whistled for the conductor to come over, warned him of any stowaways while offering our two tickets. I also proceeded to point out which seat the two stallions were sitting at. The conductor then held the train from leaving, commencing a ticket count to compare with the amount of seats used.

He quickly came to the conclusion that there were at least three more seats that were filled than tickets obtained. He had to quickly re-verify every passenger before he came to the two stallions. After realizing that their situation had been compromised, they started to grow confrontational with the conductor. I quickly stepped in and offered to correct them if they felt the need to be disorderly. They accepted the invitation before getting tasered into submission. I finally ordered for them to be detained for further investigation.

That whole sequence took an entire hour off of our train schedule.

The ride to Ponyville was mostly quiet for the others, but very noisy to me on the account of my having music playing to distract myself from being on the train. And when we pulled up to the station, I took a gander at the platform to see if there were any others who had stuck around, especially considering that third seat being filled without a ticket. But after we came to a complete stop, a final accomplice was held by the mane while he grimaced at the two of us getting away from him.

I sent a text to Twilight prior to leaving Canterlot, saying that I needed to have Starlight intercept us in the lobby. And just as I intended, Starlight had accompanied us along the way to my apartment just short of the castle. The three of us were then greeted with Twilight in my room before we were all teleported to the portal room.

Single File then stared at the mirror hooked into a series of wires and devices. "What is this place?"

"The doorway to your safety." I responded, pointing towards the portal. "That right there is a portal that leads directly into my world. You'll be there for at least a month."

"A MONTH... IN YOUR WORLD!?" The stallion exclaimed, the hairs of his mane standing on edge.

"Honestly, I think that you're the lucky one of all of us here." Starlight muttered.

Spike, who walked through the door, was surprised by Single File's sudden appearance. "Single File, what are you doing here?"

The stallion tried to play off his jittery nerves while he replied to the drake. "Well, I guess things weren't as easy for me after Count's death. Turns out I'm not very much appreciated by somepony specific."

"Let me guess, they're threatening to beat you up to keep you quiet?" Spike inquired.

"More like they're going to do to him what they were trying to do to me." I answered.

"You mean forge your signature so that when you die, your body gets retained by the Equestrian Bureau of Heath Sciences for an anatomical viewing process being overseen by Twilight?" The dragon replied, causing Starlight to gawk at him and glance over to me.

Single File, who actually forged my signature, lowered his head as he sheepishly replied. "Well... not quite that intense of a degree."

I shrugged as I started to think to myself aloud. "Huh, the universe sure as hell has an interesting way of making things come full-circle."

"Why do you say that?" Asked Twilight.

"The whole reason I'm fighting for you guys is because I was hopped up on drugs to start off with. I couldn't remember that first day too clearly for months until Chrysalis showed it to me. Then on top of it, if she hadn't left me for dead, I'd be killing ponies left and right."

"More like you'd be encased in stone." Twilight then corrected me.

"Or that." I conceded. "And the way that we was gonna get put out for good was that they were gonna get him drunk, drug the poor guy till he can't feel his face, and then feed him to some hungry creature before the sun rises."

"That isn't what happened to you though." Twilight argued.

"Drunk, drugged, damn-near drowned." I said, counting off three fingers. "At least where we're taking him will be safe enough to let him drink. I could take him to the frathouse and let him crack one back with the boys as soon as he gets used to the place." I started to think a little more and nodded slowly. "Oh yeah, you're gonna be a fratboy for real."

"A fratboy, in a HUMAN fraternity!? I don't know if you noticed it, but I don't recall walking on two legs or not having a horn at any part in my life."

"Today's where all of that changes, bub." I replied. "Now of course if I leave you as an equine, there's more trouble to be had on my end, but I'd rather you learn to do as the Romans do when in Rome."

He started to chuckle nervously. "Hey, I guess that's simple enough. Monkey see, monkey do."

"Just like me and you." I replied, holding a hand out to him.

"So what is that supposed to mean exactly?" The stallion asked.

My hand started to glow with a white aura, my arm following suit as his body was quickly enveloped in my magic. "It means hold still."

The stallion's jaw dropped as he shouted back at me. "WAIT, YOU HAVE MAGIC!?!"

The stallion rose a few inches into the air as his body started to ache and transform. Before he could bring about any complaint about the experience, a plume of smoke appeared around him, engulfing him inside of it. Twilight shook her head at me while Starlight giggled. Spike looked on silently as the stallion started to groan from the sensation of being transformed. I then started to call out loudly to the pile of smoke.

"Warning: Side effects of your transformation may vary, some have reported headaches, stinging joints, itchy limbs, chills, disorientation, depression, and possible sexual arousal. These effects should be temporary and offer you very few issues within the next five minutes. Do not try to walk without a designated human to assist you in your care. And please notify us of any unusual features that you may or may not have. Consult a doctor if you have an erection that lasts for over four hours, or proceed to bust a nut as soon as possible to satiate the arousal. If you are feeling lusty, material will be provided at your leisure. Thank you for choosing human, we hope you fly with us again."

"Is that supposed to be a disclaimer?" Twilight questioned with a deadpan expression.

"As long as he ain't dying, we're fine." I replied as the transformed stallion rose up on his knees. He held the side of his head with his right fist.

"Ugh... my head feels like I just got my horn knocked off with a sledgehammer." He felt around to see if his horn was present, which it very much wasn't. As soon as his eyes opened up, his head jumped back to see that it was a fist he was wiping against his brow. He then started to bend it, appearing very disgusted with his appearance. He then looked down to see his body in all of it's mostly hairless glory. The only place that seemed to have some legitimate hair aside from on top of his head was his pubic region, which he proceeded to lightly knead. "What the hell is this nasty-looking thing?" He said before knocking his fist into it.

Instantly, we could see the look of pure agony and regret on his face as he cringed at the intense pain of punching himself in the balls. The transformed human howled out loudly as he quickly learned how to nurture those two items dangling between his legs. I couldn't help but look away in sympathy, holding my own package in response. Starlight didn't appear phased by it, but Twilight cringed and covered her muzzle.

The stallion groaned with displeasure as he whimpered at me. "Why is THAT down THERE!? Why is it THERE!?"

As much as I really didn't want to hold my hand out for a guy who just got through grabbing at his junk, I had very little choice in helping him stand up. "Trust me, it's worth the trouble."

"How do you live like this!?" He asked.

"Well, just try not to be a dick to anyone and you might not get kicked or punched there again." I answered, still offering my hand. "Now come on, we gotta get you clothed and walking."

The stallion started to recover from the pain as he grabbed my hand. I tried not to let that once instance be too much of a distraction as I helped him up. Single File, upon getting up on his own feet, started to wobble and hold onto my shoulder for aid. He turned his head to me and whined. "What is wrong with you humans? How do you walk like this?"

"Balance is all in the feet. Try not to walk so much like you would as an equine. The legs you stand on now can be equated to your hindlimbs. You won't have to balance yourself at the center of your body anymore, just let your feet and legs do all the work. The rest should come pretty natural."

"And how do I go about that?" The transformed stallion asked.

I leaned him off of me, encouraging him to find his own balance instead of relying on me. "Alright, you equines learn how to walk fairly quickly compared to us humans, so now I expect this to be no different for you. Now, plant your feet flat on the ground, don't bend forward of backward, keep your back straight. Keep your knees braced, don't lock them."

He went about my instructions, still wobbling around for a while until he got used to having a human's sense of equilibrium. Single was finally able to keep himself standing still for a minute, but was mortified to move out of fear of falling over.

"I know, it's a lot taller than you're used to. But if you fall down, you can just get back up and try again." I said standing beside him. "Now, move your left hindleg forward, bend your knee and land your foot at the point where it looks like a ball at the back of it." He did as I instructed, albeit a tad wobbly. "Now put the rest of that weight onto your left foot. What's gonna happen naturally is that your right foot, the ball you used to make that first step with your left, will come up until you feel a small area still touching the ground. That's your toes giving your foot the anchorage to stand still, but also providing the propulsion to move forward. Try picking that one up and moving it in front of the other like you did with your left foot."

He proceeded to do as instructed, quickly realizing that the method of him walking was solely on his legs and not his arms. Though he didn't move his arms as naturally, trying to use them reach out like he was still using hooves. "I...I think I got it."

Twilight took a moment to use her magic, moving his arms from out in front of him to his sides, swinging them for him. "You might not want to walk like that. Instead, let your arms swing in tandem to your steps, keep your shoulders loose. You'll keep your balance easier and you'll be able to do a lot more while walking. It would also look pretty weird to the other humans if you just walk around with your forelegs outstretched."

I looked to the princess and saw that she had that part of the instruction down to a few specific details. It was more than enough to be able to instruct him and give me the time to make other preparations. "Hey Twilight, can you keep him on this while I go ready up my apartment. I'm also gonna check if Mel and Stanton are on over."

"Leaving me to do your dirty work, huh?" Twilight said with a sarcastic smirk.

"Nah, you got the human thing down, so you can teach him how to translate it from a pony's perspective a whole lot better." I answered before walking off to continue with the preparations.

"Fine, leave me with the naked human male who also happens to be a pony."

"I'll bring back some clothes when I'm done."

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

Twenty Minutes Later...

After a quick conversation about his situation as well as his stay, Mel insisted that he'd stay in the apartment for the time being, at least a week before we would throw him into the fire known as twenty-first century living. She also added that he needed to learn how to use all of our technology if he was going to stay for a while, at least be able to operate a microwave in case he were to get hungry. We also discussed getting him a prepaid phone, similar to how we did with Twilight.

We also had a long conversation about the elephant in the room, his drinking habits. I suggested that he'd get only one can of beer per day to curb some of the drinking down. Of course, they'd have to be the tall ones, to at least give him something substantial without going overboard. She would also keep the beers over at her house as a way to monitor his drinking habits.

Clothes, as far as I was concerned, was the easy part. He could wear some of my old stuff until we go and get him some nice looking outfits to span an entire week. Of course I would have to teach him how to dress for the time being, but that was not a problem. After all, I'm sure he was capable of picking something out that looked good since he was used to being around the politically-inclined for most of his working life.

At last, everything was settled and we welcomed Single File into the human world... by means of my own bathroom.

He looked around to see a shower to his left and a mirror to his right. He started to glare back at himself, bemoaning the disappearance of his horn and fur. Instead of his usual coat of light gray fur and his sunset red mane, he was staring at a fair-skinned man with a copper-colored head of hair. His body was skinny and his features appeared to be more youthful. His eyes were green while he had shaven stubble for his beard and mustache. Ultimately, he looked the part of a guy that would do well in either a brown suit or a gray plaid shirt. He also noticed that he stood at around five-foot-eight, well beneath me.

"Admittedly..." I started as I tilted my head a bit. "You put on some glasses and you could totally murder the whole nerd-chic thing. Oh you've got to be careful out there, you might land you a girlfriend around here."

"I look hideous." He whimpered.

"Because you're not used to the human aesthetic, haven't been around us for too long and you've been around Count too damn much. Give it a day or two before you get comfy with the skin you're in." I turned him to me and placed my hands on his shoulders. "Other than that, you're fucking handsome."

"If you call it that, then thank you." Single File replied.

"Now... for a name. Single File doesn't quite work over here, so you're gonna have to go with something a little more normal to our standards."

The transformed pony rolled his eyes. "Ugh, why do I have to go through so much rigmarole to be here?"

I placed a hand on my chin, browsing through some suggestions out loud. "You do a lot of understudy and sometimes some work involving messaging. If I wanna go by Greek mythology, then it narrows down to Athena or Hermes. But given that Athena is a girl's name, I guess Hermes will do."

"What in Equestria is a 'Hermes'?" He asked, completely confused over what I was talking about. "Isn't that like some sort of crab?"

"There's this ancient religion that's out of practice by the olden Greek peoples. Hermes was known to be the god of messages, almost instantly being able to move between the realms of the gods, the human realm, and the land of the dead. You, in your case, will have moved between this world and the world you know as Equestria. So honestly, I don't think I can give you a better human name."

"You're naming me after a god?" He asked, a tad bit overwhelmed.

"Just roll with this one. I guess we can throw together a last name for you and say that you're a distant cousin on my uncle's side. Hermes Haines... no. Hermes Williamsburg... no. Hermes Brown... too ethnic to be believed. Hermes... Hermes... Hermes... Ball. Hermes Black, Hermes... Balfour... that one. You're name is Hermes Balfour, Herm for short."

"Can I just stick to Hermes for now?" He asked, rubbing his head. "All these names are making my head hurt."

"Just as long as you remember that Balfour is your last name, you can get by. Other than that, I hereby dub thee the name of Hermes the Ginger."

He then glanced at me with a look of speculation. "Actually, Ginger is a lot easier to remember for the color of my mane. That and the fact that Ginger is also an Equestrian first name. I'd like my last name to be Ginger instead."

"Whatever is easier for you." I replied, shrugging away the fact that he just threw out the really awesome name combo I gave him. But since it was his name for the time of his extended stay, I couldn't disallow him to have a say in the matter. So I agreed to the name. "Simple enough. Hermes Ginger, welcome to the human world. More specifically, the city of Austin. My hometown."

I finally walked to the bathroom door and opened up to reveal the room where he would be sleeping in for the time being. He looked around, his jaw falling to the floor as the accommodations looked so completely beyond the years of his usual living arrangements. The TV on the wall, the computer by the corner, the LED keyboard that flashed a rainbow of colors, the large bed sitting against the wall beside the window, the sleek black design of the bedframe, he couldn't help himself but to touch everything. Hitting the keyboard brought up my login screen.

I walked beside him and hit the icon, watching quietly as the word 'Welcome' flashed on the screen before transitioning to my internet browser. On the screen was the YouTube home page. He looked at me, expecting me to explain what he was seeing. "Yeah, this is a computer. We use these in tandem with out phones to find information and communicate with others around the world. You could send a message to a land that's like well over tens of thousands of miles away at the tap of a button."

The stallion gawked at me at the small fact thrown at him. "You're joking!"

"Nope." I replied. Just ask me about anything.

"Government leadership!" He shouted. "Who's the leader of this establishment?"

"The city, the state, or the country?" I asked.

"Country, city, the world, whatever!" He demanded, growing more antsy by the second.

I opened a new tab to Google, then typed in his desired search. Upon the first few letters, it started suggesting things to look up. The stallion's eyes grew to be that of a foal's, watching as the wealth of information was simply being shown to him by means of a few button presses. Without any hesitation, the search engine pulled up a picture of the 44th President of the United States.

"Wow... the leader of another world, his face is right here before me."

I then went back to Google to type in his name, what followed was a series of speeches and debates. The transformed stallion's eyes stayed enormous as a video started playing, repeating the speech he made the day of his inauguration. The massive cheers started to distort the speakers as the picture faded from the scene of the president and millions of people cheering on the national mall.

"There's so many humans... How many were actually there?"

"Just above a million or so." I replied.

"That's well beyond the entire metro population of Manehattan." He said, grabbing at his cheeks.

I paused the video to pull up another Google search, typing in the word 'Manehattan'. Instead of getting the picture he expected, he got a booming metropolis filled with glass and concrete. At the top of the search was the edited result. 'Showing results for manhattan. Search instead for manehattan'

As he glared at the picture, I pulled out my phone and looked up the population of Manhattan. I tapped his shoulder and told him to read the number. 1.6 million. I then typed in New York City on the computer to give him a total view of the city. He was almost driven to tears as the image showed on the screen.

I also managed to look up the total population of the city. 8.5 million was the number he mouthed out before falling limp into the chair next to us. "This is... this is crazy... It's so much bigger than Manehattan. You weren't kidding about that seven billion, were you?"

I then started to temper his expectations. "Now just to warn you, that's not what you're gonna see when you walk out the front door. That's New York City, a whole seventeen hundred miles north from here. We're in Austin, which is much smaller."

I started to search up another picture, before he shouted out to me. "WAIT!" It honestly startled me. "Don't show me that here, show me when we leave this place."

"It'll be a while before you do." I admitted. "It's gonna be a week before you at least get accustomed to the surroundings and lifestyle─"

"It'll be shorter than that! I promise!" He pleaded while jumping out of his seat. "I'll do whatever it takes to learn how to be a human. You've got me on to something huge now. I can't imagine going back to the old days of fumbling through some dusty file cabinets without thinking about what all I'm gonna see in the next few days. Teach me everything I need to know about being a human, I promise I'll keep at it and you'll see me ready to go in three days. No more than that. I want to know more about this world, everything it has, the government structure, the leadership, the food, the beer, everything! I want to do as the Romans do, however you said it! This is all so amazing!"

I chuckled at the young politician. "You're a lot like me in that regard. Guess letting you die would've been a real shame. But I guess one bad ex-girlfriend isn't the only thing to obsess about, is it? It's almost like there's a purpose to living on past the hurt."

Hermes, looked at the computer screen, still seeing the image of the entirety of the New York City skyline, and placed his hand over his heart, taking in the newfound desire he sought to satiate. "Is this what it really means to be human?"

I patted him on the shoulder. "No. This is what it means to be alive. Period."

The Next Day...

Shortly after reintroducing him to the others, who weren't too personally thrilled to work with him after what he tried to pull on me a while back, he started working hard on learning all he could to act as human as possible while being reassigned to my world. If anything, all the complaints he had to start off with had completely disappeared when he saw just how amazing the human world could be. One could even call his method of approach overzealous, as he would burn through his minutes, learning how to use a phone and calling Mel for whatever other tips on how to adapt. Even sent me a number of texts in the midst of learning how to text.

Unfortunately he was so determined to do so that I had to put my phone on silent when I went to bed.

So when I woke up this morning, I could see a ton of texts, around 287 messages, with around 285 coming from him and two from Mel saying that she wanted to uninstall the messenger app from his phone. But as I looked more into the conversation he started on my feed, I saw that the lettering had gotten better, spelling was much better over time, and even had precise grammar. Towards the end of the message feed, it almost read out like an official state document, professionally worded and spell-checked. He then sent one more message saying that he had 'mastered the art of the human method of distribution pertaining to the messaging application'. He also added that he had started to research the history of the country as well as it's government structure, citing the massive differences it held. He then confessed that he thought it was crazy how the country could easily elect it's own leaders after a period of four years.

Even as I was going about my day, I could see the message count rise long after I had cleared it. He started telling me more about the government and the social norms of the world around him. He started to research trends and the technology closely associated with them, even citing that humans have a tendency to allocate their attention to and remember the content of a skit or bit of information spanning the short time of six seconds. He then explained further that the multitude of content he started to come across on YouTube was starting to shift towards human conflicts and international disasters.

By breakfast, he started going into details about the wars my country fought in and how they fought them with the weaponry that was available to them. I couldn't even get through a meal without him mentioning the ramifications of mutually assured destruction. He even went into detail about the absurd power output of nuclear fission and how useful it would be in Equestrian society. And then he took a left turn at Chernobyl, citing how the ignorance and hubris of a government allowed the death and displacement of it's own people.

By lunch, he was rambling on about the current political climate that occurred in the middle east, the social issues dealing with perceived racism in the justice system, the civil rights movement, the unstable climate in Ferguson, Missouri, the Flint Water Crisis, the stocks being sold, the new advancement in services, the influence of social media, the... yeah everything we practically know as human beings, he absorbed. I messaged him on when he would ever get sleep, his response was to cram as long as he could while being fueled by Mel's trips to Starbucks for straight black coffee, Columbian roast. Mel then called me, screaming at me over how the guy managed to learn almost everything about modern society as well as a few historical facts in the matter of twenty-four hours.

This was during dinner.

After the meal, I had to cross back over to see exactly how far he had progressed. It was insane to know that he was even making the bold attempt to play video games. Granted, he didn't know how to aim or shoot, but he did know how to turn it on and go to the particular game he wanted to play. For a while, we just sat quietly to see how long it would take for him to learn how to play the game. It took him around an hour into the campaign to get the feel of what he was doing. Another hour had passed and he had learned the mechanics to the degree required to advance throughout the game at the easiest level. We then watched him jump into a multiplayer match and get absolutely slaughtered. However, it only took him ten matches before he got used to dealing with certain tactics.

Right then, it was shown to both Mel and I just why they wanted to kill this guy. It dawned on me even more as to why he was picked out by Count DuMoneé, to learn under him. The guy is a super-absorbent sponge that can digest information and process it in a way that seems damn near mechanical. The details of his memory were so specific that we wouldn't even be aware of the small things he took notice of. He broke it all down like it was to the anatomical science of it. This meant that the deals Count had pulled off, every last deal he made with whoever and whenever, however, wherever, whatever, he had it committed to memory. His name then made complete sense. He was so thorough that he could break everything down, expand on the details, store the information, it was like a computer.

Anything he knew could be kept sorted, isolated, into a single. Damn. File.

He started to state his excitement while showing his frustration at the game, often swapping between talking to us and shouting at what was going on in the game. "This world is so incredible. I never knew there was such a place filled with so many conveniences─CAN YOU PLEASE NOT BE STATIONARY!? LEARN YOUR TERRAIN!─sorry about that."

I shook my head and pursed my lips, more impressed by his ability to swap between calm conversation and frantic complaints. "I understand. Campers are no fun to play against."

Hermes, or rather Single File, continued to pursue the player sitting in the corner with a riot shield and a spike drone. "I'm actually glad to have had this opportunity, even if the body is a little awkward to deal with at times─" He then got killed by that very same guy. "CAN YOU FUCKING MOVE, YOU DIPSHIT, LEARN TO MOVE, IT'S CALLED AN EXO-SUIT FOR A REASON, YOU MOVE AROUND WITH IT!!!"

As soon as he spawned back in, the word 'defeat' came across the screen. He groaned as loudly as he yelled at the camping player. Meanwhile the aforementioned camper had started talking over the mic. "Hey, my guy on the other team, thanks for the killstreak, I really do appreciate how fucking stupid you are─"

And that's when it got started. "HOW ABOUT YOU FUCKING MOVE MORE THAN TEN STEPS OUT OF A FUCKING CORNER!"

"Yeah, you're trash!"

"I'M NOT THE ONE HIDING IN THE CORNER LIKE A BITCH, AM I!?"

"Four and seventeen, you're garbage. Get good before talking, kid."

As soon as the scoreboard cleared out and went back to the lobby, Mel tapped his shoulder to take the headset off of him and take over the controller. As soon as she got on, I knew she was going to do whatever she could to destroy the guy. She started setting up her classes and proceeded to quietly wait until the match got started before she commenced to getting first blood on him.

As the slaughterfest carried on in the background, I started to ask the transformed stallion. "So, how long have you been going without sleep?"

"Just the entire time I've been here. I've learn how to manage a few overnight marathons in the office working under Count, so that on top of my desire to learn more about this world is actually doing wonders for me." He replied.

"Shower?"

"I managed to get one at sunup." He replied. "I did ample amounts of research on human hygienic practices... Also is it true that the females of your species have a monthly period where they produce blood from the vaginal cavity?"

The fact that he so plainly asked that was both uncomfortable and hilarious at the same time. "Yeah, that's not quite estrus there."

"Strange, because I've read many reports of some females experiencing heightened arousal during the time period in which they bleed profusely from the vaginal cavity."

"Yes, they have periods." I replied quietly.

"I'm on mine now." Mel added as she continued to win at the game. "Best bet for when you deal with something like this, buy chocolate, lots of it. Don't stop until I feel less likely to shove your dick in a blender out of spite."

I proceeded to quietly change the subject. "Alrighty then, now I guess I should be able to discuss with you the primary reason as to why we had to relocate you."

"Because of my connection to Count DuMoneé, right?" He correctly guessed, sitting himself on my bed. "I can only assume it's because of that. Any conversation I had with him would easily turn to state evidence if I was to testify against anyone he might have worked with in the past."

"You're a pretty perceptive guy. Why did you work under Count for all this time instead of some other politician?"

Hermes replied. "Because he was the one who saw my true potential. He saw everything I was capable of doing. So instead of using me to line up a bunch of folders in an old dusty office, he gave me a real chance to go higher in the ladder. He promised me a better life, I believed him."

"So what all did you two do together? Socially, I mean."

He quickly ran down a list of activities the two shared. "Dinner with some well-financed VIP's. A few days out on some resorts discussing a few under the table deals. Some trips out and about to Griffonstone... that one was to find the one who had the best shot of assassinating you. I'm sure you'd like to hear about that one more than anything."

"A later time." I replied as I sat in my computer chair. "I want to discuss the possibility of you working with us."

"Processu Approbatio, correct?" He pointed out. "You want to find the best route of eliminating any dissent of removing that law."

"If you know any way of it, then it would be good to share." I said while logging on to my computer. "I want to make as many allies as I can in this cause, more than I'm willing to make any enemies."

Hermes chuckled. "Well you did a good job with me. But I don't think it'll be this easy for the rest of them. After all, there's a rhyme and reason for all of this."

"Well can you give me a clue on what the beat falls on, don't wanna look stupid while trying to dance to the music."

The young assistant looked up to the ceiling, starting to roam through the memories of his time with the deceased senator. "Then the first question that should be brought up is what exactly you are looking for. What is the very thing you believe will be the catalyst to open up the door to the desired end?"

"Possibly some account information. Count's gotta have some history with some pretty unsavory purchases."

He then nodded. "Yeah. That's very true. We did manage to cut a few checks for various reasons that were considered as personal. Count was an avid purveyor of perversion, he mainly took interest in what he saw as 'lesser species'."

"Basically anyone without a horn, right?" I asked.

"Especially the magically untalented unicorns." He answered with a shudder. "You'd usually see them roaming around the street during the day in any town. But in Rottsburg, they were a delicacy to be preyed upon. I watched him take a mare and tie her to a bed, Make her call him 'professor', and do everything to her that would break any normal mare's will to live. But the thing about the mares who do wander there, they're intentionally looking for that kind of encounter. It's disgusting having to watch him play out a school-teacher fantasy, only to come back when it's all over and she's laying on the bed bloodied and filled with his afterthoughts."

Mel, who finished her game with a blowout win, glanced at her score of twenty-three kills and six deaths. But the conversation that took place behind her had gotten too vivid for her to ignore. She simply called the troll a loser, citing his four-and-eighteen kill-death ratio, and logged off the game to pay more attention to what was going on in the discussion.

The former assistant then continued. "Working under him during his phases wasn't exactly the worst. It was seeing him right after he took his medicine." He looked to me. "Do you remember when you bit a piece of his ear off?"

"Possibly my best moment there." I responded with a slight chuckle.

"Well he wasn't exactly in a good mood when he got back to the office. He was more about to throw everything around the room before I told him to take his medicine to calm down. But when those pills went down, it was like watching him become a cold and ruthless killer. Pain didn't even seem to matter with him after that. He stopped looking at every dark corner thinking that something was out to get him, and he started to pretend that all was right with the world as long as everything went according to plan."

"What do you know about his condition?" Mel questioned. "I remember you saying he had a certain medication he was missing out on. What was it for again?"

"Schizophrenia and an anxiety disorder stemming from that."

Both Mel and I looked at each other, thinking back to the day where he suddenly attacked us. I could easily remember the sense of derangement he had, the look of disorder and confusion on his face synthesized with a long-cultivated rage for something far deeper than my simply being in existence. It was more than a grudge, it was the hatred for something that we didn't quite understand.

Mel then questioned him. "Now I know that in some cases it may be hereditary, but it can be caused by something traumatic or maybe even a certain living condition. Do you know exactly what could've caused him to become that way? Any history with the family or maybe some post-traumatic stress?"

"He never was open about his family. If anything, he was so secretive about it that I wasn't even allowed to be present for meetings when his family was present. I was usually dismissed on an errand or just sent away altogether. It was always a touchy subject to talk about." He answered as he started thinking about his former employer. "Now that I mention it, I don't think I've ever seen him leave the office for home once. I always thought it was because of the dedication to his position, but over time I began to notice that he'd stay off of that subject as often as possible."

"Possibly to talk about some transactions." Mel speculated. "Maybe he wanted to work with them on how the money flowed."

"Quick question..." I began. "If he was out of his meds, why didn't he just simply go and buy some more?"

"The reason why is because the payment for the assassin had zeroed his account... not completely zero but leaving him with like maybe one or two bits wouldn't have let him buy that medicine." The former assistant replied. "As far as the transaction was supposed to go, it was going to be half of it to book the job and the other half when the job was done. But what happened instead was someone getting into the account and paying the assassin before I could even make a withdrawal. They paid him in full."

"But surely a job as comfy as being a lawmaker brings about a pretty decent pay cycle. So why couldn't he make a medicinal payment as soon as he got his check?"

"Because he waited until his check fell before setting out to hire the assassin. He wanted to make sure that the pay was appealing enough to the client. But since the contract was paid out in full, the account had practically dried up to a meager ten-thousand bits. And even that was cleaned out for a rare bottle of wine, which─again─was withdrawn from the account."

Mel's jaw dropped to the ground. "Ten thousand for a fucking bottle of wine!? You're telling me that I could go drink a car."

"So in short, the son made the withdrawal on those two transactions and left him with nothing to refill his meds." I said, trying to piece everything together. "After that, I guess that leaves him looking for his next paycheck. If we're going by the usual bi-weekly model, then he should've been getting paid sometime before."

"Two problems with that theory." He said, holding up two fingers. "First, you forgot that your brother had managed to testify on your behalf in a summons. He quickly turned the tables on Count, issuing a number of documents to prove that his hooves were in the selection process for the deployment pool. And since he was suggesting that an element bearer dive headlong into danger without the others being present, it would've put the entire country at risk of a potential Class IX magic event. So they suspended him without pay throughout the course of his investigation."

Mel bobbed her head with apparent approval. "Actually that's pretty badass, I wish our government would try that sometime instead of letting career politicians dictate our future."

"Okay, and what's the second problem." I asked. "Wasn't it the son that pulled the trigger on the joint account? I know I heard those assassins talking about it yesterday at the diner"

"...That's where it's all wrong."

Both Mel and I froze, stared at each other as everything we tried to piece together had completely become undone. Even while she had the controller still in her hands, she listened. But the more she had to think about this, she inevitably decided to put the controller down. This now had her undivided attention. "What do you mean it's all wrong?"

"It's a joint family account." He emphasized.

"But the only ones with access to the account are, Count, you going on count's behalf, and the son." I argued.

"That's true, but my name isn't the third name on that account. I only have certain privileges when it comes to that account, I'm not authorized to move the money around like I would my own. I was only authorized to make a withdrawal in his name, and that was with several extra security mandates put in place to make sure no impostors would try to clean house. A limit was placed on my ability to withdraw, a limit he made a special provision to increase prior to our visit in Griffonstone. If I went in to make the pull, I could do no more than a hundred thousand. The account was cleaned of two-hundred thirty... total."

I started to laugh out loud, rubbing my hand across my abdomen where the scars from my surgery were. "Holy hell, almost a quarter of a million to put me out. I don't even get paid a good fifty thousand."

"That's not the only unusual thing. It's that the family had more than enough to be able to supply the medical needs. They just chose not to."

Mel nudged at me. "Something like this is actually classified as a manslaughter charge, as well as criminal negligence. We're talking about some serious felony time."

"The laws regarding that are no different in Equestria." I replied before going back to our interrogation. "So if the son didn't pull the money, you didn't pull the money, and Count didn't pull it, then who did?"

"The third holder." He replied. "I don't know if I've ever met any other family members..." He said before he stopped himself. For a moment, he just stared off into the distance, completely frozen in place before his eyes widened tremendously, his jaw fell agape, and his hands started to tremble. While they shook uncontrollably, he placed them over his chin and then pointed to me. "...He had a contact with a girl."

"For what, prostitution?" I asked while sitting up in my chair.

"Possibly. All I know is that they met up, he gave her his usual glance over, got up from the table, and told me to head back to the office. When he came back, he had that glow on him, the glow of leaving behind his sexual frustration and enacting one of his fantasies. But here's the spotty catch of it all, the way she talked to him was far too... inviting."

"Inviting as in how?" Mel questioned.

"Inviting as if they hadn't seen each other for some time, as if she was looking forward to the meeting. She had a really beautiful bright smile, I felt like I was close to falling for her if it wasn't for Count's mood putting a damper on it all. We really ran into her over a cup of tea at one of the downtown bistros. He didn't exactly reciprocate the energy she put out there, he just gave her this really ugly stare like she did something wrong. Something tells me that this wasn't the only time they've met."

Mel almost seemed like she was the one questioning him for her investigation, it appeared that her experience in the criminal justice field allowed her to have the confidence and command to take over the interrogation. "But he came back with an afterglow. So can you describe to me, in your own opinion, the display of his afterglow while comparing it to many of his other contacts that had similar results?" It was a solid question I didn't even think to ask.

"It was easily his best one." He replied quietly. "Out of all the times I've seen him walk out of a room or walk into one sometime after, I don't think I ever watched him offer me a shot of whiskey or bourbon. That was the only time I ever shared a drink with him in his good mood. His work flow even changed, it was optimized slightly more than usual. I could only assume that she had given him the best experience. But I do know that they never ran into each other after that."

I watched closely, observing Mel's body language. She could immediately tell that something was wrong in all of this. It was obvious to the both of us, but she had a whole different perspective to look at. There was no way of denying how her fists shook at her side, how her nails dug into her palms. She was pissed. "You say that she ran into him with this really cheerful smile, like she was seeing someone for the first time in a long time, like she was trying her damnedest to reconcile. But after that, you never see her again?"

"I don't think he ever saw her again either." He answered. "And it did have an effect. Each mare he dealt with after that had gotten the worst from him. Some was even in intensive care, others were left completely broken like they had no other purpose to serve in life. And his mood after those encounters were too shallow, almost like an empty feeling after a few minutes going through an old magazine you've been enjoying for months. No novelty in it, no point in even trying to replicate the same feelings because you know you've experienced better... That's how he felt."

Mel quickly shot her hand out and grabbed the transformed stallion by the collar of his shirt, readying her other hand to give him a painful dose of her emotions varying on his next response. "And you did nothing to report this!? You did nothing to stop him from hurting over women!? You─"

I then intervened, using my magic since I wouldn't have gotten to her in time to stop her from landing the blow she was about to dish out. "There's a code in the Corrotto District. You know how they say everything in Vegas stays in Vegas, that old mob saying? Same applies here. I know it's cruel and I don't fucking like it any more than you do, but it's because of his willingness to say something at this time that allows us to move forward."

"Are you seriously justifying the abuse of women for the sake of justifying a means to an end!?"

"No." I quickly argued. "But as members of law enforcement, we do have to keep ourselves in check when we hear these testimonies, Mel. I know what it feels like to have to go there and see something, then have to keep my cool to keep my head attached." My voice started to get gravely as I started to emphasize to her the results. "And you have to remember, we were there to see his brains get jettisoned out of his nose. He is dead, Melanie Brewer. And there is no greater justice than death."

"If there is no greater justice, then why is HE alive?" She questioned emphatically.

"Because his witnessing it can bring down an entire establishment." I replied. "If they have a hit out on him, that makes him a priority to the courts. Keep him alive, and we keep our hope of ending all of it alive. We do that much, nothing more."

She looked away from me, knowing that she would not be able to free herself from my magic. Instead, she remained calm while displaying her disgust. "As a daughter who knows how it feels to see someone they haven't seen in a long time, hoping that things would pan out differently only to expect the same... I can only feel rage. If that lady he ran into was his family, which it most likely is given the details that we know and the results of before and after, I can say that motherfucker did something to her! Not once she came back to talk with him, that was his family he raped!"

"And quite possibly the third account holder." Single File announced. "I don't know any other details from what she looked like that day."

I took over the questioning from there. "What was she wearing and what did she look like?"

"She was wearing shades, so I couldn't see her eyes. She did wear a cream-colored sunhat, a lacy dress. She looked pretty sophisticated, even offered to pay for the food. I do remember her mane and tail being two different shades of blue. I think teal and cyan. Her coat was midnight blue."

I stared at the former assistant and screamed into the ceiling, smacking my hands over my mouth. "Oh my fucking God. Green eyes, pearl necklace!?"

I started to pull out my phone as he confirmed my worlds. "I don't know her eye color, but she did have a really expensive looking pearl necklace on." I flicked my screen until I had ran back into my Twitter post with my picture of being in the uniform after the funeral, the same picture when she photo-bombed me. I showed it to him and he nodded his head. "Yeah! Her! She's still so beautiful. Thank heavens she's smiling."

Mel looked at the mare and pointed at her. "He met up with her?"

"Yes." He confirmed.

"She was at the funeral..." I muttered, cycling the moment when I saw her seemingly staring into the ground as she whispered to the nameplate.

"Mom... he's gone. You're free now."

"...Blue Royal... is his daughter."

Author's Note

Well I guess you didn't expect to see me again after just two weeks. I can understand. Usually most times a chapter like this would take me around a month or two to knock out. But in all honesty, I had this one done by a week after the release of the previous chapter. I just wanted to make sure things had lined up properly for this to take place. Safe to say that I had to go back and reread a few chapters to make sure.

So yeah, quarantine is a bit boring after a few weeks, as many of you know. But at least it gives me more than enough time to focus on writing. Since I have no gigs or engagements lined up, I guess I can worry about a lot of things at home... Such as the termites eating away at our ceiling support beams and causing it to collapse in on us.

...I hope to keep you guys around. This is probably one of the very few things that's keeping me sane outside of a FF7R release. Thanks for sticking around.

Chapter CXIII

The Umbral Lab...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

*snip... snip*

The last thing I remembered before blacking out from that electrocution was the sight of Umbra eagerly pleasing himself by the table. I remember seeing the meter staying consistently in the red as the voltage ran through my body in short controlled spurts. Everything was agony then, constant pain, unrelenting torture. At least that part was done, I didn't feel anything shocking me anymore. In fact, I couldn't feel anything at all.

My eyes fluttered open for a while, seeing a bright light blinding me from above. But the light was certainly closer to me than the last time. I moved my arm to check if I was still in the straps, and nothing moved. I was probably secured still, it's pretty hard to be able to tell when your whole body feels like a brick. I guess my nerves must be recovering from the shock session earlier.

*snip... snip... snip... snip*

Now that I think about it, I can barely open my eyes as it is. I looked over to my arm, or at least I tried to. Instead of being able to freely move my head, I was situated in a vice-like rest, and my face felt incredibly numb. So I had to work my eyes a little harder to see what was going on. My arm was actually free from any restraints, but there were some bracelets on my wrists to keep me from using spells probably. I tried to move my arm, and nothing responded. I looked to my other arm, and it failed to respond just like the other. I looked down below to look at my toes, discovering that there was some sort of mask on my face, but that wasn't the only thing I noticed...

*snip... snip... snip... snip... snip...

If I had the ability to widen my eyes, they would've been enlarged. But instead I was listlessly watching as the unicorn quietly guided his tools into my body, carefully working around until he had reached his goal. He reached within and quietly pulled out a piece of bone. He looked at me and grew surprised.

"Oh, are you lucid right now?" He questioned as he put his hoof in front of my face, waving it around for my eyes to track. "Oh you are! Oh dear, not exactly what I would've wanted to happen. Shame on me for not increasing the supply of anesthesia, should've been more diligent. I'm so sorry, hun."

My eyes looked down to see the bone he carefully placed aside.

"I'm sorry, I was just in the middle of giving you a few extra enhancements. I've actually done a few on you already. You know, bone marrow transplants, bone marrow implants, some insertions here and there, genital alterations, stuff like that." He said as he pulled out another bone, I could assume that he was pulling out all of my ribs. "Also, a little fun fact. Did you know that you had about two extra inches of penile tissue hiding inside of you? I didn't until some hours ago, about maybe eleven or twelve hours ago. Had to completely revamp my research to dedicate that time towards relocating that tissue to your external. I should be able to have a little more fun with you tomorrow, those two inches matter in some cases. I even went into some research recording your healing factor. And by human standards, you are absolutely rapid right now. Some issues that require humans to heal about twelve weeks, you'll heal in the matter of hours. So yeah, that's a thing."

I looked past the bloodied cavity where he had cut my chest open, trying to see what all he did to me as I was out.

"Oh you're probably wondering what I'm doing to you now. I'm still doing the bone marrow implants. I'm doing them to promote bone growth, to reinforce your body's acceptance of the serums I'm going to pump in you to make your a bit sturdier, to increase the carbon in those bones to make them rock-solid. Can't have you being a glass cannon when you head back into the human world, I need you to be able to withstand a lot of that human weaponry of yours, especially if I'm going to use you in the way I intend to. See, I observed the condition of your body shortly after your match with my dear little darling, and you were shattered all over the place. I don't want that to happen for the next time you two conduct trials. She was really disappointed that you didn't really give her a chance to show what she could do. She was just getting started and you go out like a light. It took me half an hour to convince her that she shouldn't go looking for more fun when all I wanted her to do is have fun in the arena. You know how kids are when they get a taste of something."

My lips twitched as I wanted to speak.

"Uh oh, the anesthesia is wearing. Sorry, love, but I have to put you back under. Don't want you feeling all of this, now do we?" He said as he turned a knob on one of his tanks. But he soon realized that nothing had come out of it, no hissing, no indication that there was any change in the air flow. He lifted the tank and laughed to himself. "Oh, well that's why you came back up. The tank's empty. Give me a moment, I only have relatively small sizes, easier for the dolls to cart around."

Just on cue, a pair of dolls walked into the room, offering a new tank to Umbra. He popped the hose off of the empty tank and put it on the new one, replenishing my supply before turning the knob.

"And there we are, back to the world down under you go. Forgive me for that little bit of horror, I had no intention to have you looking at yourself like that. But it's good to see that you're so calm about it. Thank you for cooperating with me, I'll see you in some hours."

My mask filled with anesthesia, reintroducing the chemicals to my body and sending me off to a truly deep sleep.

Canterlot Castle...

In the active halls of the castle, Luna continued to coordinate many of the other tasks she was issued. She had finished lowering the sun in place of her sister and began to move the moon. The high princess didn't address much in her night sky, feeling very fatigued after spending the day picking up after her comatose sibling.

Some guards and maids in the halls began to speculate that the princess had fallen gravely ill considering that she had failed to respond in any of the nurses' visits. The worst was beginning to be assumed, as many prepared for the announcement that Princess Luna would inevitably take over in her place.

Their rumors began to spread throughout the castle. As many of the servants and guards were unicorns to begin with, many had expressed their cases of extreme magic depletion, as experienced by none other than Lord Tirek draining their magic from them in times past. A lot of them felt drastically weakened for maybe an hour or two at most, but in the usual case no more than maybe a few minutes. But with the princess, it was much more serious as her condition had not improved since her passing out at the dawn of her sun.

Most of Equestria remained in pause with all of what happened. The elements were rumored to be missing, the bearers were present but not doing much to help other than direct efforts to assist in calming the community. The streets of Canterlot itself were in disarray, many citizens wondering who to turn to, some wondering what was the guard doing with some of their deceased loved ones they had recently brought to the morgue. Since it was the guard who commandeered the morgue for the time being, much of public opinion was to blame the ones at the morgue for the situation that happened, losing track of corpses and angering the families of the deceased loved ones who were discovered the previous night.

Anger and confusion ran rampant. Calls for the guard's leadership had began to swell, many of the officers who were just briefed on the situation by the princess were actively trying to allocate efforts to bring peace to the streets. Their priorities ran in the order of bringing calm to the streets, disposing of the bodies, and quarantining the borders of the Corrotto District.

Luna worked with dark bags under her eyes, signifying her increased fatigue throughout the day. She barked orders to many, and lashing out at those who issued a bad report. It was clear that a lot of her frustrations had pooled to where she couldn't control them much and she would have to take some time away. But with having to tend to a young blind victim, rumors of her sibling's unwell being, and a villain who brought disorder and panic to the public, she had a rough time juggling the load on her plate.

Solemn Oath was quiet ever since the interrogation of Senator Damper Trot. There was much she had brought into question about her career, her status, her loyalties, and even the princess she admired so much throughout her life. It almost seemed that the world around her had come cratering around her, unveiling some truths she couldn't quite process clearly.

Even so, she still stood by the door leading into the princess' chambers. An officer approached the mare and came with a group of nurses to see over her condition. Many of them were ready to resuscitate her if she had experienced weakening life signs. Solemn allowed them inside, accompanying them as the nurses looked over the princess' vitals. The nurses worked nervously, awaiting the results for the princess' pulse. The nurse's eyes narrowed for a moment to listen carefully, but widened as she heard an increase in pulse. She she sighed in relief and nodded to the group of medics, allowing them to do the same.

They began their work, pulling at the princess limbs to clean her. But they retracted, showing signs of life. The group continued to pull with the intention of care, but the slowly waking princess could not gauge her strength upon waking up. She flinched a light kick, sending one of the nurses sliding across the room. Celestia's eyes had opened slowly, her breathing slowly coming to form as she observed her surroundings. "Nngh... This feels like my bed."

"Your highness, you are in your bed." The leading nurse replied.

She then replied a bit perturbed. "Why in Equestria am I here?"

"You passed out after raising the sun." The nurse answered. "Prince Blueblood saw to it that you were brought here. He even carried you himself, along with a few others who helped in his effort."

"Oh, I guess he would do something like that." The princess stretched her hooves, her limbs shaking off the inactivity. "Give him my thanks."

The princess instinctively felt for her regalia, noticing that she was wearing nothing at all. "Your highness, he also removed all of your regalia, citing that you would need to breathe better."

"Of course he would say something like that." She replied as she levitated her royal assets to don on her body once more, the chest plate in particular was the one she gave the most care to put on without her scars being noticed.

As she finished, she rose out of her bed and started walking towards the front door. "Your highness." The officer said, standing in her way. "The situation is under total control, you must rest."

"My captain is in need of assistance." She tiredly, yet boldly replied. "Equestria is in turmoil, my sister is probably struggling, and I am sitting here in my bed? Tell me where this exudes any kind of good sense?"

"But Princess, all operations are being thoroughly coordinated and carefully planned. You needn't stress yourself further."

Celestia rubbed her eyes free from the sleeping crust. "What time did I raise the sun this morning?"

Solemn looked towards the officer before answering in his place. "Approximately 6:09."

The princess looked to the balcony and then back to Solemn to questioned her. "I see no sun. What time is it now?"

"It's been a little over four hours since the setting of the sun. Sundown was at approximately 5:16."

"I WAS ASLEEP FOR SIXTEEN HOURS!? IN THIS CHAOS!?" She screamed vehemently.

"Your highness, you needed the rest. And Prince Blueblood instructed that you were not to be disturbed for anything." The officer politely argued.

"Out of my way!" She barked, pushing her way through the nurses that were prepared to clean her.

The officer nearly trampled through the other nurses himself as he stood to defy her access to the outside halls. "Your highness, you are fatigued and unwell. Please consider─

She wasted no time, summoning her golden halberd and pointed at the officer. "Either you open those doors for me like a servant or I'm cutting both you and the damned doors down. Choose."

Solemn, disturbed by seeing the princess being so brutal and aggressive, had held her tongue as the officer opened the door for her. She walked out with hardly any time to prepare herself for her outgoing. She was still somewhat covered in soot and ash from her work earlier. "SOLEMN OATH, REPORT!"

With a newfound fear of the princess she idolized, she ran out the halls to acknowledge the princess' summon. "Your highness."

The princess urged Solemn to trot beside her. "I cannot trust bumbling fools who give every excuse as to why they cannot disturb me for the city burning to the ground. So give it to me straight, what is the status report?"

While she wanted to say something along the lines of her needing the time to recover if she wanted to, she knew that it would probably make the princess angry. So she gave the princess what she requested. "Your highness, there are no current signs of bodies being left in the city streets. But with ponies loved-ones being reported among the ones we cleaned up, many are questioning the guard's intentions and integrity since we've been running the morgue for almost two weeks now."

The princess sighed with frustration. "Great. Another issue to clean up after. What's the status of Canterrot?"

"Quarantined heavily. All access points, including one of the secret entrances we've looked into, has been under heavy surveillance. No sign of the captain there, or the beast he was fighting."

"Parliament is unimportant right now, I need to know what's the situation with the element bearers. I have not been aware of their returning status from last night."

"Your highness, so far they have been diligent in trying to find more information about the captain and the one responsible for this chaos."

The princess groaned. "Umbra Sanctus. Might as well say the name, he's going to be the one who we go after now. That's been the priority, regardless of the captain's status."

"Actually, we've been recently informed as to what he may have going on next." Solemn added.

"Who's the source?"

"Senator Damper Trot." Solemn replied. "He gave the information to us, even telling us motives and the possible location of... Umbra's hideout." She said, glancing around the halls to see if anyone was coming after her.

"You have nothing to fear, you are with me." Celestia reassured coarsely. "Now I am assuming that his hideout has something to do with that underground arena."

"Nowhere near, your highness." Solemn informed her. "The Temple over on Canter and Stockyard... which is a disbelief. My parents attend that church for mass every Saturday morning. I used to go there when I was younger. It's only in recent times when I started putting those days into my job."

"Yes, when you figured that I would give you the promotion to the Captain's seat." Celestia stated.

"Yes, your highness." Solemn responded, a bit downtrodden. "But today we've been going into some research about that creature the captain faced off against. Turns out that a bartender in that V.I.P. Lounge he goes to every Tuesday and Friday helped in notating some of it's abilities, components, and even it's size. It was all written data."

"What is his status?" The princess questioned.

"We have him in protective custody, your highness. Though he is complicit in the operation, he did give the information to help us, as well as our lead to Senator Damper Trot." Solemn answered quickly.

"How complicit is Damper Trot in this operation?" The princess inquired.

"Your majesty, I have strong affirmation that he was conspiring against the royal family. His participation in this matter had the intended results of overthrowing the royal family's place in our way of government, redistributing that power to the parliament."

Celestia rolled her eyes. "Ugh, typical of the usual filth in that district."

"Your majesty, it's a serious crime, even high treason."

"And it will be considered as such. Thank you for your ever-present dedication." The princess praised the mare for her diligence. "But now to the captain, have we identified what may be taking place?"

"If Kalimba and Alabaster's warning was true, then it could be that the captain is undergoing some level of sexual abuse as well as physical abuse. Umbra also intends to use the captain as a vessel to enter into the human world."

"And he's the one who holds the last element needed to bring all of this to an end." The princess stressed. "We may have to hurry along should we wish to avoid that at all costs."

"But your highness, we have no way of certifiably knowing if that is the location of Umbra's hideout. The only thing that we know is that the place leads to some underground lab somewhere hidden within the mountain."

"You are a trove of intel." Celestia praised the guardsmare. "So what do you recommend?"

"I guess we could allocate some forces to thoroughly search the caves within the mountain, I would prefer six-pony squads to move, cut, clear, and search the abandoned mines for anything like that."

"And what of the creature Nondis faced?" The princess asked. "Have you discovered more on it?"

"Princess Twilight Sparkle and Counselpony Alabaster Charm is looking into the notes even as we speak. They assumed they can come into a definite conclusion come tomorrow morning, the very earliest by midnight tonight."

"Time is ever a cruel reminder of what all the captain has to suffer through. If we want to stop him from moving forward with this, we must be able to stop him from turning Nondis into his vessel." As the princess concluded her statement, Solemn looked to the princess and grew mum, wanting to ask the question that lingered on her mind throughout the day. The princess took notice of the guardsmare looking at her on occasion. "Is there something you wish to ask me?"

The mare looked away. "Nothing. It's nothing."

The princess illuminated her horn for a second, investigating the thoughts that plagued her guard, she soon found out what had gripped her. She then responded in the way that she knew how to not be heard. "...You are under the assumption that the captain and I are speaking."

The mare looked up to the princess, partially horrified that she found out. With a nervous expression, she nodded in reply.

The princess walked quietly, responding to her the same way. "I suppose Damper Trot has made it known to you out of a play of arrogance."

The mare trembled as she whispered under her breath. "You love who you love, I guess. I can't argue for anything else."

A moment after surveying the mare's thoughts, Celestia looked away and answered, but out loud. "...I'll love him no matter how broken he is."

Solemn stopped walking, seeing the princess walk right past her, trotting down the hall to reach the throne room. As she moved, Solemn couldn't help but to feel a pain thrusting into her. Many more thoughts ran through her head as she watched the princess disappear behind the large red wooden doors. Tears had threaten to appear, but she clenched her eyes shut and took a trembling breath, accepting the circumstances as they were.

The mare murmured to herself. "Almost twenty years... Figures. I never knew it would hurt this bad."

***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

Mr. Sparkle had made an appearance at the castle along with his wife. Mrs. Velvet seemed very antsy in hearing what was all going on in town. And since her husband had some idea of what was going on, she jumped into the equation to try to talk Twilight out of the assignment. However, the young princess wasn't willing to be disturbed for anything.

We waited in the throne room, hoping for some information that could at least help us in our being able to counter some of the things Ummie's doing. Alex had run through the gauntlet of books to help his younger brother get a better handle of his newfound powers. So far, it came up empty. Stanton didn't show any signs of being a magic user until something had either startled him or disrupt him emotionally. He had no control over what he was doing.

Since it was pretty restless night for all of us, Kalimba had kept her little sister with her. And since we were made aware of what exactly happened to her and who was directly responsible, we decided to never ever mention anything about Ummie in her presence.

Shining continued to work as acting captain until we got Nondis back, especially since there was no pony underneath him who would be mentally prepared to address the myriad of issues undertaking the kingdom. Blueblood levitated some mediation balls to keep himself composed while we waited.

And then came an unexpected face walking through the door. "You'll have to forgive me. I didn't expect to let the city burn for as long as I was out."

"Ay, princess sleepy-head! How's it been?" Alex called out.

"Not exactly pleasant. I've been left to the bed for a whole sixteen hours. Nopony even bothered waking me up." She looked to Blueblood. "And I'm not too thrilled about that."

"We've been through this before, Celestia. Magic exhaustion without rest will get you killed in the heat of battle." He warned.

"I remember telling you that after the Battle of Canterlot River." Celestia said to the blond prince.

"Well consider it a lesson paid forward and keep it moving." Blueblood responded, earning the princess' eyeroll of annoyance.

Mrs. Velvet spoke out to her before she could reply to the prince. "Your highness, please reconsider having little Violet undergo this assignment. It's much too dangerous for her to take on. Is there any way that she can avoid having to do this? Where are the guards, the captain no less?"

Mr. Sparkle added to his wife's inquiry. "In speaking of which, all the humans are here except the one we often see the most. Where is he now of all times?"

"That's the thing, dad. He's gone." Shining explained. "He went into Canterrot yesterday evening, tried to get back home, but some creature snatched him up as they destroyed the main checkpoint. He hasn't been seen since."

"Creature, what creature?" His father questioned.

"Little miss 'Darling Daddy' was the one we think whisked him off." Rick answered.

"Darling daddy?" Velvet asked in bewilderment. "Is that really it's name?"

Crescent's eyes grew cold and his cheeks fell, seeming to recognize the words that were repeated. "Darling daddy's wasting away... Surely that hell-beast hasn't seen the streets of Canterlot."

"It did." I confirmed. "Snagged Nondis and drug him through each avenue to get back to Canterrot. From there, I guess he got beaten and spirited away by a mentionable party."

We could hear a panic brewing from the other side of the room. The young filly started to tremble. "It was him, wasn't it?"

Seeing that she was already going to become emotionally distressed, Kalimba comforted her as she placed her on her back and walked out of the room to get her off to bed. Crescent noticed her condition. "...That monster needs to pay for what he's done."

"Yeah. That sick motherfucker is doing God-knows-what to my brother. And I'm not pleased." Alex lashed out for a moment. "He already has another fucking human in his stock, a dead one! What the fuck is he doing to my brother!?"

"Alex, calm down." Stanton said, holding his brother in place with a single hand. "The more you think on that, the more you get worked up. I'm pissed off about it too, but you don't see me throwing shit around."

"Well no shit, Sherlock. if you start throwing shit around, I'm sure the castle would need more than some minor repairs with the way you are." Alex said back to his younger sibling. "Wouldn't be surprised if you could deadlift the sun right now, you sure have the magic for it."

Celestia looked to Stanton. "You have magic?"

"I was meaning to say that to you before we all had to go do the emergency stuff, but yeah. I have magic and I can't control it." He replied, holding up one of the introductory magic books Twilight had passed on to him.

Celestia sighed as she looked at the book he held. "And Twilight taught you nothing?"

"Twilight's been in the throws of doing some research on─"

"On the creature Nondis faced, I've been told." She jumped back in. She looked to the very book he held and quickly thought of a plan. "Stanton, drop that book."

"But Twilight said not to drop any of the books because they were─"

The princess interrupted him once more. "Those are my books, I can rewrite them at any given time, and they are already mass published for other magic institutions around Equestria. Now drop it." Stanton did as he was told and dropped the book, causing it to fall to the ground unceremoniously. "Good. Now pick it back up." Stanton bent down to pick it up, but was stopped by the princess' magic. "Not that way. Breathe, then pick it up."

Alex questioned the princess. "Okay, so what does this do? How is he able to pick it up, with his toes?"

"Alex, I understand the urgency, that's why I am doing this the way that I am now." She informed him before going back to his younger brother. "Now you, I want you to close your eyes and breathe deep breaths. Don't just use your lungs to breathe, I want to see your stomach rise along with your chest. I want to see it fall with your chest." Stanton did as he was instructed and took his breaths. "Are you calm?"

"Getting there." Stanton replied. "Yeah, I'm pretty relaxed right now."

Celestia spoke softly, almost as if she was a mother speaking to her son. "Good. Now, the flow you want to circulate is not just in your head. It's in your heart, in your stomach, in your mind, and in your extension."

Stanton opened one eye in confusion. "Wait, you mean my dick?" The princess pursed her lips at the man, he looked down with remorse. "Sorry. Bad habit."

Alex covered his face in second-hand embarrassment as the princess continued to instruct him. "Hand, fingers, the extension you can FULLY CONTROL throughout your daily life. A unicorn's extension is already closer to the brain, so the process is a lot more streamlined. With you, your cycle is a lot more extensive because of where your hands are in contrast to where your brain is, but it operates similarly to your nervous system. Think of it as an extra set of hands you can use."

Stanton went back into closing his eyes and breathing slowly. "Okay. Extra set of hands."

"Now without opening your eyes, answer my questions. Do you know how the book feels? Do you remember it's weight? Do you remember how grainy the pages were within it?"

"Yeah. It felt old, coarse, and it felt like it was going to come apart at any moment." He replied.

She looked to everyone in the room. "I want silence from everypony and every creature. He needs to concentrate." The princess disclaimed before going back to Stanton. "Now without bending down or opening your eyes, imagine that this book rests on a table in front of you. And since you know it's falling apart, try to carefully lift the book with the anticipation that you're going to put it on a shelf."

"Okay." He said as he reached out for it. "I kinda feel it."

"Then pick it up." She replied.

Just as she described it, he pretended to reach down to a table and pick up the book to place on a shelf. But what he didn't see at that moment was all our collected faces gawking at the sight of that book effortlessly coming off of the ground. Even I had to stuff my palm into my mouth just to not scream with excitement.

The princess then instructed the man. "Now, with that same calm and collection, open your eyes and see the bookshelf in front of you."

He opened his eyes, not to see a bookshelf in front of him. But he did see the book floating in front of his face. It was like seeing a kid open up his Christmas gift for the first time. "OOOHHHHH SHIT!" He started getting excited, but his emotions caused him to lift almost everything small in the room up all at once.

Celestia quickly looked around and saw everything rising all at once, she called out to him loudly. "BREATHING!"

"Oh, right, sorry!" He said as he snapped back to being calm about his newfound accomplishment. But he still showed excitement over his being able to levitate the book. "Wow! This is hella awesome! Oh my God."

"Good. Now practice putting the book down and lifting it back up. Same motions, but replicate that result with your eyes open."

Alex smirked at the princess. "You know, you should be a teacher one day."

Velvet chuckled lightly. "As if she didn't teach little Violet what all she knows now."

Almost in a matter of perfect timing, Twilight and Alabaster came through the door. "In speaking of which, guess who just walked in." I pointed out.

As they got closer, we started to see the sunken looks on their faces as they held in their possession the pages of notes and documents that were given to them over time. I know that the both of them are tired, but there was a bit of despair on their faces that spoke legions of what we were set to face. "Twily, what's the cinch?"

The young princess looked up to her brother and then all of us. "That thing moves underground."

All of us had a collective head drop in disbelief. And Alabaster only added to it. "Not only that, but at maximum configuration, it can reach up to about fifty-five feet tall with a base consisting of a twenty-foot radius. Where the brain, or it's functioning figurehead, stands is where the radius is measured to the outside of it's shadow, the shadow is basically the outline of where the rest of the collective lies."

"Well that's ten ways from fucked." Rick replied.

"It doesn't end there." Twilight continued. "The creature can stretch a tendril to about five hundred feet, but the range can further be extended if a body of the collective is used as a medium to carry over the signal."

"So the bodies that were found throughout the city─" Shining began.

"All a portion of the collective, and thusly used as a means to continue the signal." Alabaster finished, causing the prince's eyes to widen. "And of course having over three dozen bodies recovered throughout the night, you can safely assume that the distance was more than four miles covered, all thanks because of a trump card that thing has up it's sleeve. It can toss any members of it's collective forward and away to drastically extend the reach. And then there's a second trump card it plays; remote summoning. Once it sees that there's a distance it can't cover, it'll use another body in it's collective to close the distance and remotely use that body as a 'brain' with a reduced radius of reach and a drastically reduced shadow, the shadow having a radius of seven feet and a tendril length of thirty-five."

"The report from some of the guards who worked at the checkpoint the moment the captain showed up said that the body of the recently murdered senator suddenly showed up in the front lobby, almost in preparation of being able to intercept him." Blueblood stated. "In other words, the senator we recovered from the murder scene Thursday morning was actually a surprise hand that remained in play. Since the castle has no way of cremating a body, and the morgue is undergoing a massive backlog of retained corpses, it does nothing but certify Umbra's ability to move himself within the castle."

"All the more proving Nondis' shot at Umbra's abilities, and that of this monster, all but certifiably confirmed." Alex replied with overwhelming disbelief. "There's no way he could win."

"But Discord said that the creature was much smaller." I pointed out. "We saw that thing, it was just a small little filly in a dark hallway that grew into something nightmarish."

Cliff started snapping his fingers, putting together a conclusion of his own. "Ayo, hold up a minute. So that thing showed up in a dark hallway. We saw no lights from the outside on down from where that filly stood. Was it likely that the reason the hallway was so damn dark was that it was actually the creature's shadow?"

Rickey shuddered in response. "Okay, that just makes the whole situation even worse."

"But Discord said he defeated it. Even Ummie screamed about that thing being 'destabilized' once it happened." I stated. "That means there's some sort of way to destabilize it, at least driving it away."

"Given the information we received from Crème, the only way that could've happened is due to an overload on three different fields; sensory, magic, and emotional. And to be frank, the dead can't feel much of anything." Alabaster said.

Twilight then offered a small ray of hope. "But there is one thing we discovered about this so-called 'brain' this creature has. While the collective itself is indeed comprised of dead bodies massed around a centralized skeleton of a large beast, we have confirmed that the one who operates as the 'brain' is very much alive. However, with as many bodies as there are in the collective, it makes it to where a conventional death is theoretically improbable. I can assume that if we attack the head of the brain, we can put an end to that thing."

"One problem." Alex rebutted. "Nondis had every opportunity to shoot that thing in the head. And given the condition of the weapons he used, he shot everything he had towards that thing with more than enough splatter to make a Nickelodeon executive sweat. So we're looking at─in ratio─a microscopic target in the grand scheme of what that thing really is. And I severely doubt that a single bullet to the head is how we kill that thing."

"To make matters worse, the brain can 'swim' through the entirety of the collective, relocating itself in a split second. That gives it more than enough of a defense against a swarming attack on all fronts. So we'll have to be immediate when the brain relocates." Alabaster compilated to Alex's rebuttal.

Celestia then offered her own question. "So with that said, why a foal for the brain? Could they not use a more suitable figure like an adult? Why something so small and innocent?"

"Apparently they ran trials on these matters." Twilight stepped in. "What their research shows is that a living brain of an adult has well-developed sense of independence. Once a brain reaches adolescence, disobedience is pretty much the norm, asking questions is the call of the hour, and independence is all but assured. Only a brain of a passive host must be used to remain compliant to the holder's will. In other words, why use a potentially vengeful adult or a disobedient teen when you could use a young and mentally underdeveloped foal for you to control?"

Velvet expressed her sadness at hearing what her daughter explained. "Of all things, the children? What has happened to him where he takes his cruelty out on children!?"

"Does that even matter?" Stanton asked. "Look, we all know he's bad news. We all know what he did to little Gala, we know what he did to Kali, we know how he did Alabaster and Blue, and we've seen just how easily he puts us in the crossfire for his own entertainment. We might as well not even be surprised by this. Nondis warned us fair and square of what he was, and the idea that we're losing our minds over it is a bit overdrawn."

"Okay, so what do you guess we do, mister magic hands?" Alex questioned his younger brother. "You got magic, so you obviously have some plan cooking up in some way if you're speaking like this."

"We know where he's at, we know what he's gonna do to Nondis, but we don't know when he's gonna be able to do it. But what I do know is that it's gonna take some time for him to be able to do it all. We have to start planning our approach now, our priority isn't the monster that's being described to us. If we run into it, maybe we have some good magicians who can get us to disappear at a moments notice." Stanton answered before looking to Celestia. "If that thing can't see where we go, that's one thing. But since we're saying that it can run itself underground, then perhaps we use magic to get ourselves out of there. I see how Twilight just zips herself from one place to the other, I even see how fast Discord can go from place to place, surely we could have more than one of those capable ponies come with us."

Celestia then replied to the man. "But your brother had a teleportation scroll. It was used, but all it did was send a dead body to our doorstep."

"Probably something or someone that took it away from him." Rick guessed. "He probably saw using it as a last resort, not needing to use it if he had gotten out far enough to escape. Nondis couldn't have known what all that thing was capable of if he went solely off of Discord's information. He went by the approach as if he couldn't risk putting it on the ground, because that thing could've used it and teleported itself to the castle instead. And even if he got back here using it, there was already a surprise waiting for him at the end."

"Nondis just got outplayed on this one." Stanton summarized. "So we'll need to run something a little different. Maybe something that's not just direct, but also a little tricky. Maybe we can run a wide-out play, get our guys open so we can get our ball downfield."

"In common terms, if you would?" Blueblood requested.

"I'm sure you've watched a football game, maybe you guys call it hoofball or something." Stanton began. "A wide-out play is when you have two receivers going deep, running in various routes to get free from defenders. The quarterback then has the option to either throw the pass downfield to two of his receivers, or even faking the wide-out by handing it off to a rushing receiver. The goal is to not fall behind the line of scrimmage, advance the ball, move the chains. And you repeat that until you score on that possession."

Blueblood was about to protest, but Shining held a hoof up to his shoulder to interrupt him. "I'll explain it to you later." He then spoke to Stanton. "Okay, so you want one party who can go out wide left, another to go wide right, and a third to possibly get some penetration up front. In which case, you'll need to fake the handoff and pass it downfield to get those chains to move, correct?" All of us looked at Shining and blinked, the entirety of us humans in the room was more amazed that he could talk football. The stallion shrugged and then replied. "Your phones really do have some nice entertainment options. I've been following the Indianapolis Colts."

"I like you, dude. We're gonna hang out more often." Stanton nodded as he pointed a finger at the stallion. "But yeah, what he said. We'll need three parties, probably all of them being small, no more than four each."

Alabaster folded his forelegs and thought aloud. "Okay, so maybe we use one to run a distraction. At least to keep interesting for Umbra. The problem is that we can't send any humans to this party, it's got to be ponies only so that nothing else bad happens to any of the element bearers."

Twilight jumped in. "My party will always be six deep. And we already know what we're going to do."

"Sweetheart, please don't say what I think you're going to say." Crescent pleaded with his daughter.

"I'm sorry dad, but if there's anypony with the magic to be able to distract that thing for long enough, it'll be us." Twilight replied.

Shining spoke out. "Guess that makes me responsible for the party to retrieve Nondis."

"Shining Armor, you will be with me." Celestia said firmly. "Since it is our responsibility, we will be the frontline to distract Umbra."

"Too inexperienced." Blueblood replied just as firmly, arguing against her decision. "If you're going to use anypony by your side, it's going to be the one who knows how you fight. You'll need a real party who can hold their own in every aspect while covering your blind spots." He looked to the younger prince. "I'm sorry Shining, but if something happens to you, Cadance would never let us live it down. You're a father now, so you'll have to live with that."

Crescent drew a heavy sigh. "Well if it's experience you want, I will be happy to supply it."

"At your age, Night Light?" The blond prince replied. "I thought you resigned to become father of the hold, not some old colt looking for a bit of action."

"And that's coming from the oldest prince in Equestria? Aren't you like five-hundred some-odd years old?" The stallion replied.

"Peccavi." Blueblood replied as he summoned a spear. "It's been a while since I've been out on the prowl. Perhaps us older, more established ponies will give the youngsters a reprieve from the hard work for a change." He ran his hoof against the blade and smiled as he swiped sparks off of the weapon. "Besides, we're already letting six heroines do the dirty work on the side, it only makes sense that we be gentlecolts and assist a fair lady in her sensitive age."

"I'm not a day over twenty-eight, so watch it." Celestia replied as she summoned a golden halberd, letting the pole clatter against the back of her chest plate. "I still know how to use this thing."

"It won't be anymore interesting without me." Kalimba replied as she walked back into the room. "I know dat I am young, but having me around would do a lot for getting his attention. What he did to baba and my sistah was a message to me and me alone. I wish for him to know dat I received his warning."

"Are you sure?" Twilight asked the zebracorn. "I know your emotions are pretty raw right now. What if something happens to you? Who would take care of your little sister?"

"I am coming back. You can wager on dat." She replied adamantly.

"Then I guess that leaves one more party to go down field and make the play." Stanton noted. "I guess we're running five deep."

"Seven." Alabaster replied. "It's me and my sister who should be held responsible. We got Nondis in this mess by working with him. It's only fair that we help get him out without being noticed. And with a bit of luck on our side, we walk out being eight strong."

"That might work out." I replied to the stallion. "If Blue can do that one spell she did on our way into the VIP Lounge, we can get there without being noticed, get in, snag him back, and get out without any kind of alarm."

Alex nodded in agreement. "Okay, I'll admit it, I'm starting to like our chances here."

"Bruh, we got this." Cliff cheered on.

"Our only play is to get our guy, get our elements together, and get out so we can regroup for the big fight." Rick noted. "Okay, so I guess we have a lot of gun cleaning to do before we head out."

"I'll be sure to send out a scouting party to the church to survey the activity there. If we notice any openings in security, we'll go with it." Shining said as he looked to his dad. "Just try to be careful, dad."

"My number one priority was always to come back home, son." He looked to his daughter. "Sugar bear, take good care of yourself."

"Give him hell, dad." Twilight replied.

Celestia looked to Alabaster and quickly asked him of another request. "You worked with Nondis and got him up to an intermediate speed fairly quickly. Can I assume it was from your father's method?"

"Sadly, yeah." He replied with some apparent disgust. "All his books are sitting in the old study."

"Well despite your father turning out the way that he was, I can say that the façade he put on in my institution was at least a pleasant one to work with. I know your father's method is unconventional and somewhat combative, but I'll need you to do the same with Stanton until the time your party heads out."

The stallion showed some disdain over having to go through his father's lessons again, but showed himself to be willing to commit. "Your highness, I'll do what I can."

"Also your father's words." Celestia informed him.

"Euuugh! Just cremate me already."

The Umbral Lab
The Next Day...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

I don't know what day or hour it is. He had me under anesthesia for so long that I can't make track of things anymore. My head was swirling, lots of randomized thoughts had swarmed as my brain tried to piece together answers. The room was quiet. It was as if I had just blinked from the moment I woke up on that table when he was pulling my ribs out...

MY RIBS!?

My hand flung to my chest, feeling the stiches running down my entire chest and abdomen. There was no blood, it seemed like it healed up already. But in all reality I understood that he did a lot to me when I went under. I could remember what it was he said he was doing, some sort of bone marrow implants.

I didn't initially feel the difference until I had realized that my wrists were free from restraint. I let my arms hang loose after reaching for my stiches, only to suddenly discover just how heavy my limbs seemed to be. Even lifting them, I felt like I was lifting another five pounds throughout my arm. Did I gain weight with what all he did?"

I stood up, trying to gather my balance, but I felt a bit off. I looked down, seeing just what happened. There were scars all over my body, stiches from various incisions. My legs looked like a set of lace-down boots, my knees look like I had just gotten them fixed after a bad ACL tear, my thighs seemed like they were sliced into like meat and stuffed. There was an assortment of stiches all over my waist, among some areas where it felt like I had just got a hip surgery done. I reached down to confirm that everything was a bit longer on the front end of things, stiches there too, along with a skin graph. My chest felt bigger, almost as though I had a little more room to breathe.

Then came the moment I felt that I dreaded the more. I felt against my back, feeling a elongated stitch job running the entire length of my spinal column. Even past my neck, I felt the stiches running up to the back of my head. Then they stopped. I ran my fingers through my hair, nothing on my skull that showed a point of entry. Fingers against my jaw, nothing there either. But as I ran my fingers down my neck, I noticed something that deeply scared me. There was a long set of stiches lining at the base of my neck, I trailed it to find the end, all throughout the front... around the side... intersecting the stiches up my spine... back around again... all throughout the front... around the side. I placed both hands on my neck in horrifying disbelief, using both hands to trace from the back of my spine to hopefully not meet in the middle of my throat.

They did just that, meeting in the middle of my throat.

Fear and panic ensued, consuming every ounce of space in my brain. My breathing grew erratic, my arms trembled, my cheeks grew cold, was this even my body I was walking around in? I couldn't see how my face looked, there was no mirror to see myself in. There's no measure of me I could try to identify myself. The scar on my stomach from Mel's operation, that's been cut back open and sewed closed. The incisions for my previously dislocated shoulder, written over by stiches, my wrists have been stitched, my ankles have been stitched, it's pretty damn obvious that I've been decapitated and stitched back together like a rag doll.

I'm not me anymore.

Umbra opened the door and entered the room with a brightened smile. "Ah, so Sleeping Beauty awakes. Welcome back to the world of the living."

Just hearing those words made my skin crawl more than it already did.

"So, I'm sure you're just as curious as to what's going on right now. And while I would normally not tell you such things as to not ruin the surprise, I think I'm going to tell you that you will be getting some company."

"What did you do to me?" I asked, still very startled over the scar I felt on my neck. "Where am I, what day is it, what did you do to me─"

"Patience is a most important virtue." Umbra whispered as he sealed my lips shut with his magic. "Now, I guess I could answer some of those questions, but I won't do all of them. Where are you, with me of course, here in my humble little lab of discovery. What day it is doesn't matter, we don't count days when work is being done, we count the ways our work can be done, the operations we can perform, the incisions, implants, changes, alterations, even anatomical enhancements. At best we can count the hours, but I already gave you too much of that during your little wake-up spell on the operating table. So does that cover it?"

I continued to feel at the scar on my neck. "What did you do to me!?"

Umbra quirked a brow before coming to the realization of what it was that stressed me out so much. "Ah, okay. You're probably wondering about that scar on your neck and if it has some semblance of importance to your condition. Actually, I did do a thing while you were out, I'm sure you wouldn't have wanted to be awake for it anyhow, so count your blessings that I was merciful enough to keep you asleep while doing it."

"WHAT DID YOU DO!?" I screamed before he sealed my lips again.

"Okay, okay, I'll tell you. But before I tell you what I did, I want to tell you why I did it." He began with an amused trot towards me. "So I've been perusing through your world's internet all from the time I had grabbed hold of your friend. He had a device similar to yours, a cell phone. So I went through it all, trying to find some information about the so-called groundbreaking surgeries that you humans have mastered, the ones you've proposed, and then ones that have been regarded as insults to the scientific community. Though I don't consider them as insults personally, I consider it as merely answering the questions we often leave unresolved in ignorance. But not everyone understands that process, there's always a group calling out the equinity of these matters, or 'humanity' in your world's jargon."

He stood before me, lifting my chin to speak to me directly.

"So color me surprised that I discover a modern surgeon who's theories and practice is shunned by the greater medical community at large. You may not know his name, but I will tell it to you. Dr. Sergio Canavero, an Italian medical expert who wishes to conduct an operation which would truly be ground-breaking for your species. That operation, a human-head transplant. Now if successful, it would give a healthy head ridden by an underdeveloped or otherwise vegetative body a chance to relive their life in a relatively healthy body instead. So I grew curious, let the dolls work on you while I pulled up that bit of research, and grew curious if his theory held water."

He turned my head, observing the scared tissue on my neck.

"So being that I did have your friend Jasper sitting in storage, I repaired all the tissue you damaged, closed and sealed all the blood vessels, tested the nerve endings of the spine to confirm that signals can still be sent to the body, I already don't use embalming fluids, rather artificial blood simulants in my process of keeping up a cadaver─which is why my bodies tend to look so great for funerals, almost as if they're alive. So I did all of that, verified that the body can still activate without the dead head present, moved that subject into the room with you, cast a little spell on you so that you don't keel over once separated for too long, identify the exact chop I used to to sever exactly the cartilage between C4 and C5 of your spine, lift, move, attach, and quickly align the nerve endings. And thus waited for the results."

I wanted to throw up. I found myself hunching over as I felt deeply sickened, gagging and threatening to eject anything that was in my stomach.

"Sadly, while the results did yield a bodily response, the response from the body was not favorable. You were rejected by the body." He concluded as he continued speaking. "But then I came to realize that this was just another confirmation of my mana imbuement theory. My theory states that if a magical being, like us ponies, ever share the commonality of that trait as mana, that word being the scientific word for magic, our anatomical code will accept whatever is given and will grow to assimilate into it's new host, hence why my beautiful little creature is so active the way that it is. So how does it fair against you human's anatomical assimilation rate? Well, imagine a pristine ninety-eight percent of a pony versus the coin-flip of a human's fifty percent. You have one side being the virtual constant, the other being a variable. So if I were to ever try to even have the same success with you as my new brain for a creature built in your own likeness, it will take me a minimum of 432 humans to even come up with the bare minimum of 216 bodies to apply. And the subject known as Jasper, sapien-0, will unfortunately be considered as a rejected candidate."

I looked to him with fear ever present in my eyes. My entire being was shifted into my chest, much less my stomach.

He continued on. "So yeah, I will need to bide my time for more humans to experiment on. Then there's the process of acquiring and accumulating human bodies in a fresh state, both in relatively good condition and without undergoing the embalming process. We have a lot of work to do, you and I, but we are soon to bask in brilliance. All that is required is a bit of patience." He unsealed my lips, smiling as he kissed me. "So what do you think, my dearest human mate?"

All I could think of was the number of bodies he had to sift through just to even find the ones he needed to use to terrorize the rest of the human race. All I could imagine was the sight and sounds of military grade weaponry firing into an amalgamation of human corpses, each of them screaming out as though they were alive to feel the pain. What happened to me was already unbearable to think of as it is. So if that was the fate he had lined up for me, there's only one way I would prefer it. "...Kill me."

The stallion tilted his head. "I'm sorry, what now?"

"Kill me. Just finish it. You already took my head off of my body, you even made my body to where I can't even recognize it anymore. Just kill me, please. I don't want to live like that, I just want to be me..."

The stallion slowly cackled, then giggled like a giddy schoolchild, and finally erupted into a maniacal laugh, his voice cracking through several phases of it. He looked to me with eyes glinting with madness. "Ah, you wish to die? After everything I gave you, after all my hours of work in getting you the body you deserve, you wish to die!?" He laughed again. "I find it ironic that I would save your life multiple times and you'd wish for death! You'd wish to invalidate my work by dying. That's so damn amusing!"

With the cuffs on my wrists that I could not remove, I had to resort to finding a means to end my own life. I looked around the room, seeing that it was too well padded to even allow me to bash my head against the wall. I reached for my own throat, hoping to crush my trachea, but I found myself not being able to.

Umbra snickered erratically as he laid me against the wall, holding his hooves into my chest. "Oh wow, you're even trying to do it. But I should have you know of a little addition I injected into your your spine. I'm sure you wouldn't otherwise know of it until I had to show you." He stopped laughing at me and lightly pressed his hooves into my neck. "But if this is what you wish for, to invalidate me as you see fit, I will grant you this one wish... in spite of it being what I detest." The pressure on my trachea grew, cutting off all of my air supply. He leaned in, whispering to me as he choked me. "So go on, let go." He said as I struggled against him, he replied by increasing the pressure, putting his entire weight into my neck. "Suffer no more, surrender to the sweet embrace of eternal slumber. Close your eyes. Free your soul. Give up fighting. Dive into the abyss, engage in the great conversation, know no pain or suffering. That sounds good, doesn't it?"

Snap

I don't know what drove me to react the way that I did, but it was as if all of me in that moment had pushed all of my adrenaline to the ceiling. I battered his hoof away and punched him, sending him flying across the room. The stallion bounced off the padded walls and stepped back up, laughing as he coughed up blood. He smiled back at me and pointed.

"See? I told you that little extra was enough to get it going! You wouldn't have known about that little bit until it happens! But you'd have to be close to death! What was it, it was none other than your fight-or-flight response overriding your suicidal instinct. That's it! That's the injection! I made it to where you virtually cannot and will not kill yourself! Assisted suicide, immune! Even downright assassination is something you can't keel over and accept! You will strive to fight and live until your brain is nothing! And with your healing factor as an element bearer, you'll be virtually indestructible! PERFECT!"

That was it. That was the moment that truly broke me.

I looked at the hands who's weight I couldn't identify, I glanced down at the scar climbing up my chest, I bent down and saw the legs that supported me, and I admitted total defeat. Going home was never an option, not anymore. I won't have a happy marriage to Celestia, I won't have the five kids we agreed on, I won't know what it's like to win against this monster, to see Law Processu Approbatio repealed, or even see my family and friends again. There is no more freedom of a man to be had, only the beginnings of a monster soon to come... a monster that will hoard the lives of others for my own survival.

I can never go home again... I will never go home again.

Canterlot Castle
***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

Usually when I think of Sunday morning, I think of my grandparents waking me up, asking me to get clean, get dressed, and act accordingly before attending the usual eleven o-clock service. I'd usually be sitting on a back row with all the other youth to separate ourselves from the religious fanatics during praise and worship. Once we hear the pastor start his sermon, we leave and head off to a back room and talk shit, that or invade the breakfast nook for bagels and coffee. It took Nondis a while to get out of being one of the fanatics to being just like us on the back row.

Today had me missing that back-row buddy of mine.

Breakfast came, we ate our food, discussed more findings about that creature, and started planning our various methods of approach, capture, and escape. Since Twilight was a stickler for being well-prepared, she stayed up the night to put together a series of plans to go by for each phase.

The first phase was infiltration. Plan A was to walk in as parishioners on a guest visit, enter a confessional booth, and interrogate the priests there for any information. Plan B was to have some 'plain-clothed' guards enter inside and gather with some of the deacons to speak of how to save themselves from eternal damnation. Plan C was to take advantage of the chaos going on outside and urging street dwellers to shelter into the church for protection, probably to distract most of the staff and get them to flock towards the sanctuary. And then there was Plan D, walk in like tourists trying to check the place out as another party snuck in. Blue then added another plan, Plan E, which was to use her platform and protest marriage rights in the chapel itself. And since her supporters were on standby with the recent things that have been happening, it only made sense to use what she already had. Plan E for phase 1 it was.

The second phase was access. Plan A was to hopefully use the information given by one of the deacons to enter into the lab from there. Plan B was to follow a deacon into creating the pathway for us and giving us a chance to leap in after him, hold the point of access open, let the rest of the others inside, knock him out, and continue on. Plan C was the one we didn't want to do unless there was no other choice, and that was to search every room in the church until we had found the access. Alabaster managed to pull a few cards with his informant Crème, getting one scroll to access the lab from within the church, we held that as our Plan D. Bonus points, we'd follow through with Plan A and see if a deacon intentionally gives us the wrong access, that way we'd know if we should lock down the church as well for investigation.

The third phase was search and rescue. This phase was a little more straight forward with only two options. Plan A was to have Princess Celestia's party, or Royal Party create a diversionary front. The princess and her party will hopefully confront Ummie, who will be interested in seeing who is running into his lab and making a mess of things. Twilight's party, or Hero Party will actively search the area for the main compound where the monster is rumored to be hiding. They'll buy us some time for our search. Our party, or Liberty Party, will search the rooms one-by-one, seeing if we can find Nondis, extract him, and get him to the rendezvous point. Once we confirm, we should be able to send a message to the other parties letting them know that our VIP is confirmed for evacuation. Kalimba has a working phone, Twilight has a working phone, and we have at least five.

And then there's the final phase, withdrawal. There's only one approach we know that can work here, and that is teleportation. We all teleport our respective parties out of that place, directly back into the castle where we should be safe. Shining Armor was left behind for this purpose, to ensure that our home base is accounted for with absolutely no chance of entry. The castle grounds would be sealed off from the moment we leave the castle, nothing gets in or out, be it in the sky above, or even the ground below. That should buy us some time to be able to work an escape plan, getting Nondis reacclimated to freedom and more so prepared in leading us to take down Ummie in the final standoff.

After some intense regiments from Alabaster, Stanton has started getting the hang of his newfound magic abilities, but so far he could only levitate some stuff and not much else. Alex went through the painstaking effort to clean our weapons alongside Rick, needless to say that those two came out smelling like death and needed multiple showers before setting off. Princess Luna, after getting a few hours of rest, took to the mantle of barking out orders while Shining oversaw security on the castle grounds. The girls came back in and were notified of their mission and we were set to make our move out to the church. And as we left the grounds, a bright magenta beam shot to the sky and sent down a large bubble surrounding the entirety of the royal castle grounds.

All of us humans gawked for a moment as Twilight made a mention to her brother. "It's smaller, maybe this one will be a lot less stressful on him."

Her father looked on with pride. "That boy never ceases to amaze me. Sometimes I look at the both of you and ask myself if you two are really what came from me and your mother. I knew the sex between us was special, but I didn't know it would be so mold-breaking."

Twilight stuck out her tongue in disgust. "Eugh, don't say that out loud."

Crescent chuckled at his daughter. "Oh come on now, you're at the age where you know exactly how you got here."

"Doesn't mean I wanna think about it."

While the rest of us saw some amusement in the interaction, Twilight tried her best to remain focus on the task at hand. However, it was her father who was trying to lighten the mood before we had to go in and inevitably face what we were going to face. "I didn't think a romp in the bathroom sink would somehow make a princess out of it."

"DAD!"

The Umbral Lab...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

Some time had went by as I came to the realization that I was stuck here, forever to possibly be a lab rat until he had accumulated enough bodies to where he would be able to turn me into another one of that thing. I started to wonder if maybe my being chosen as an element bearer was somehow a mistake, maybe even a fluke. Let's be real here, since I got that thing, has it ever did anything for me since I've been here other than to heal me faster than I would like at this point? Hell, I swear that thing was helping him along more than it helped me.

The door opened to my room, I saw another one of those damned dolls he calls in to do his dirty work while he looks up another way to cut me open. The only thing that was on my mind at this point was whether or not I was about to get hooked up to some apparatus to shock me, tied down to some mast where he can sexually abuse me, or even dump me on an operating table where he'll cut me open with the latest and not-so-greatest medical theory from the human world fresh on his mind.

"Hellooooo?"

That was a foal's voice. I shot up to see who had called out. My face was already drained of hope, so it was only adding to my reasons for wanting death when I saw that filly's colorless, lifeless face. I sulked to myself, not wanting to answer.

Not that it mattered anyhow, she still walked in. "Hello there, big brother."

I looked down to her, seeing the shadow that stretched only a paltry three-feet around where she stood. All I could see in that moment was my future, one I didn't want, one I didn't prepare for, and one I was forced to have. She even rubbed salt in the wound by calling me 'big brother' also. I already vomited enough to feel myself being detached from my gag reflex.

She walked up to me, putrid with the stench of death surrounding her. "You look sad, big brother."

I looked to her, seeing the actual emotion of concern on her face. I then looked away, convincing myself that it wasn't really real. "What does it matter?"

"Daddy wanted me to see what you were doing. It's my wake-up time, he says. He told me I should go play with big-brother instead of playing with my doll today."

I looked over to the faceless doll standing in the doorway. "You play with that thing?"

"No silly, those are just the servants!" She called out happily. "They don't do anything but what daddy tells them to. And they don't say anything either, other than bedtime, playtime, intruder, and walk time."

"Intruder?" I asked.

"Mmmhmm!" She confirmed while nodding. "The bad ponies who do bad things to the servants! There were three bad ponies that one time, but they let me have walk time early then. It was fun getting to run through the halls! Usually they don't want me running through the halls, I make a pretty big mess."

"A pretty big mess." I repeated in a murmur.

"Yeah! I usually go all SWOOM and WOOSH and BANG!" She said before visualizing her exaggerations in running around the room. "And then all the servants' stuff goes all DINGILING and CRASH and BOOM!" She said as she sank into the floor, popping up just in front of me to jump out with one last sound. "BOOM! And then everything's broken."

Hearing the complete innocence in her voice just seemed like a cruel juxtaposition to what she actually was. I looked at her another time, but really taking the time to get a good look at her body to see any markings or incisions. Of course there were several, her legs had old scars, her neck looked like it had been sliced through too, her back seemed to have had the same thing done to it as mine. "I have a question, does your daddy love you?"

"Mhmm!" She confirmed. "Daddy loves me, he calls me special! He says I'm his prized possession."

I then asked the filly. "Don't you think somepony who loves you wouldn't do cruel things to you like that?"

The filly appeared confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean look at what he did to you. Doesn't it scare you?" I asked.

She looked down at herself and held out a foreleg. "Oh yeah, that! Daddy did that for me so I could walk!" She said so excitedly that her voice cracked.

"You couldn't walk?" I asked.

"Nope!" She happily answered. "I was so sad then! Back then, all the other kids wanted to do was keep me away from them, saying that my body was a case of the cooties! But daddy said it was something called muskal... mustal... muskulur dis... muskur dispony."

"Muscular dystrophy." I corrected her slowly.

"Whatever that is." She dismissed. "But my legs couldn't move. I was born with it, so my legs looked so much smaller than the other ponies. I couldn't even walk on crutches! Everywhere I went, they called me Sluggy the Slug! I hated it!"

I found some ability to chuckle at that name, but it didn't last long. "Sluggy? Sounds to me that you didn't have very good friends at school."

"I wasn't in a school. I was in an orphanage."

"An orphan?" I questioned.

"Yup. And everypony told me that I would never get adopted because I looked like a slug." She replied as she held up her foreleg. "But daddy fixed me after he adopted me! He made it to where I could walk! I could finally play with the others instead of getting made fun of for crawling on my belly all the time!"

I couldn't find myself to sympathize with her complete, as I was very aware of what she was and what she could do. "But don't you think your 'daddy' did something bad to you when he 'fixed' you?" I pointed to the various scars on her body. "I know you're excited that you get to move around now, but don't you think that what you're doing is wrong?"

"Nope!" She cheerfully replied. "I just do what daddy tells me! And he tells me that I do good when I finish! He gives me ice cream, he lets me read books, he even tells me stories of a evil princess and how he does his best to beat her!"

I shook my head at the filly, realizing that there would be very little I could say to condition her to think otherwise. "But what about those others you pick up and throw around? Don't you think it's mean to do that?"

"But daddy tells me that they're all special dollies! All of them have their own look and he lets me play with them! I have fun when he lets me play with them!"

"They aren't toys." I stressed to the filly. "They are ponies just like you, not action figures you can fling across your room when you want them to do crazy flips! They are moms, dads, kids to some other ponies out there! And they're trying to sleep. It isn't nice when ponies wake you up in the middle of the night, is it?"

The filly shook her head. "Nuh-uh! They're my dollies! Daddy told me so! They make me happy! And daddy says that they aren't anything but toys! So he lets me play with them!"

Figures he would see these bodies as nothing but playthings for him and his creature. "Your 'daddy' can say that they're toys, but they aren't. They are ponies who are... in a special kind of sleep─"

"A sleep that they can never wake up from." The filly concluded, raising up a body and showing me a young mare from within her shadow, suspending her into the air as if she was to be modeled. "Daddy told me that once we all go to sleep like this, we turn into dollies. And he tells me that they all want to be played with, to make them feel like they're having fun! I'm only doing what he told me to!"

"Your 'dad' is a bad guy. He makes others hurt and feel bad. He does a lot of things that others don't want. He takes them away from their families, do horrible things to them, and then keeps them for himself after they die when the family wants them to sleep peacefully! How do you just excuse that!?" I stressed as I felt the scars on my body. "Look at me! Do you think I wanted this!? I DON'T, I WANNA GO HOME! I WANNA SEE MY FAMILY AGAIN! I WANNA HAVE FUN WITH THEM!"

"But daddy said you're a part of our family now." The filly argued with a pouting demeanor.

"I'm not! I'm me... I think... I don't know... But I don't belong here. I'm not even a pony! What part of that makes you see that I somehow belong here with you!?"

"Because daddy says so!" She replied firmly, walking up to me. "And you're my big brother now! This is my family! Everyone loves me here! And daddy says you'll love me so much that you'll be just like me!" I wanted to gag at her words, but I found very little left within myself to heave out. The little filly hugged against my legs, causing a few corpses to hug me in turn. "We are a family here! And we don't be mean to one another! You'll love it here, big brother! Daddy will make you better! You'll see!"

I sickly glanced down at the corpses that hugged against me and shuddered from their cold touch. "Do they feel better? Have you ever asked them how they feel?"

"Silly big brother! They don't feel anything! Daddy said so!" She answered.

As much as I wanted to try and tell her what she really was, I think she neither cared nor questioned it. She was truly happy in her delusion, ecstatic over her newfound lease in a cruel draw of life. And Umbra fed her whatever he wanted to make her feel vindicated in her current state. Does she not smell the corpses around her? Do the return of silence not disturb her? Even kids can differentiate good and evil, what's natural and not, what's alive and dead. They can be the strongest of us when we adults break down. So how, how does she not put it together like the bodies she strung along with her?

There really is no hope.

The little filly smiled as she gripped me even tighter. "We're gonna have so much fun! We'll have races, and running tests, and play hide-go-seek, and eat ice cream, and talk about our dollies when you get some! It'll be so much fun! You're gonna love it so much!"

I looked down to see the corpses grasping around my legs, pain started to set in as I struggled for my freedom. "Let me go!" I urged.

"Sorry! Daddy told me to hug you and hug you until you feel like you're about to pop! Something about making sure that you don't fall apart when I hug you."

I started bashing my fists against the pony corpses that clutched onto me, their dead grip was just as forgiving as their odor. My legs started to squeeze in and it felt like I was at my breaking point. I screamed at the filly. "STOP IT!"

The filly smiled. "Hug me back, and I'll stop!"

I held my breath, reached down, and gave the filly what she called for. "There! I gave you a hug, now let me go!"

The filly giggled happily. Another corpse crawled up my back, bearing down on me as I tried to free myself from my new predicament. The filly held on to me as she started to sink me down. "Come play with me, big brother! Now you gotta come down and play with me!"

My fight or flight responses were kicking in, I was struggling to free myself, but all in vain as I screamed before she sank me into the ground with her other corpses. Everything above appeared as a dim light hiding under a black sea of water I felt myself drowning in. And all around me were the faces of every corpse she assimilated for the moment. Each of them hugged me and welcomed me as I heard a swallowed voice call from up above.

"Don't tell daddy, but I'm taking you to my room to play with me!"

The Temple of Faust
***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

With the information that was passed on to us by our plain-clothed informants, we deduced that the crowds had gathered outside of the church pleading the deacons for a prayer service after having some of their family members being reported to the castle on Friday evening to the midnight hour of Saturday. But for some odd reason, they seemed to refuse having a service on yesterday morning. Odd call there.

Blue signaled to her group of supporters to start their protest, even going so far as to have them lead an effort to storm the church. The onlookers may have disagreed with the sentiment, but they were adamant on being able to enter the church. Once they saw the protestors pushing their way in, they saw the opportunity to push in as well. They were firm on wanting to have their prayers heard, and they were all-in for having a place to exercise that religious right.

With an unusual mix of both Plans C and E being active, we snuck around to the back entrance and watched as Celestia weaved a spell to allow us to phase through the back wall of the abbey. From there, Blue weaved a spell to hide us from the general populace of the institution. A number of bishops and deacons started running towards the ensuing chaos, looking to hopefully quell the situation before potentially turning violent. But at the same time, we saw an archdeacon issue orders before walking the opposite way, trotting towards what appeared to be an office. Two other friars nodded as they removed themselves from either side of the door and he entered within.

"Be sure to help the others out in the sanctuary. We don't need anarchy in the halls of the church. Faust wills it." He stated as the two acknowledged his orders and departed. As they closed the door, Twilight used a spatial disruption spell, making it appear to the archdeacon inside that the door was closed, but in all reality we had just opened it back up and all filed inside to wait and see what he would do.

He reached within a closet, pulling out a black robe and sat it on his work desk. Meantime, he started quickly taking off his religious garments in lieu of the robe he sought to change into. As he finished, he walked back to his wardrobe and placed a scroll on the door, he drew a circle and a number of runes within it. Upon it's completion, it started glowing blue before splitting right where the two doors met. He opened the wardrobe to unveil an immaculate white hallway with a number of glass sliding doors on each side. He threw on his hood and walked inside. Alabaster walked up to hold the door open and we all snuck within.

We looked back at the doors that allowed us passage and thought heavily over what was going on. We knew that once those doors closed, we'd have almost no way back by any conventional means. But since our mode of escape was teleportation anyways, we thought light of that and carried on with our shadowing the stallion.

We continued to follow our target of interest, mainly to scope out the layout of where he was going and how he was going to get there. If we were going to get ourselves into two different fights, then we needed to at least map out what routes we could take to secure an escape or arrange a rendezvous point where we can zap ourselves out together. Alex had already started on that process, mapping out areas where we were and giving out markings of certain room numbers to use as a point of reference, especially since the four halls we traveled through looked very similar to one another.

There were these strange white puppets walking around, each of them with a green glowing gem at the center of their forehead. Some walked with carts and tables, others with supplies, I think we even saw one moving a body down the hall. Then there were two more that walked completely past us, not even knowing we were there all thanks to Blue's spell. But as much as we were taking it easy to start off, we noticed that the minister had frozen in place. Two of the dolls walked towards him, but then there was a third figure, one we didn't anticipate seeing up until later.

A little filly pranced towards the statuesque minister and greeted him. "Hello, mister Sacred Ark!"

"W-w-why he-hello." He stammered. "I-I didn't think you'd be out and moving at this time of day. Usually the master has you walking in the throws of the night hour."

"Daddy's letting me walk around today!" She excitedly replied. As her excitement grew, the shape of the shadow around her grew slightly. Each of us walked towards the walls to avoid having to step on the shadow if she ever passed by us. She continued to speak as we tried to avoid her path. "He says I should go and play with big brother. But I haven't seen big brother around today."

"Big brother?" The cloaked minister questioned.

"Mmhmm! He's supposed to be around here somewhere. I'm just checking the rooms." She said calmly before exploding into excitement. "Ooh! Maybe he's playing hide-and-seek!"

The stallion chuckled nervously as he stepped out of her way. "Okay, well try not to be too rowdy now. The master doesn't like having to clean up the entire lab every time you run a little too wildly."

"Oh no! I won't do that again! I'd lose my ice cream time for the day trying to clean up. And that's way too boring to do." She grumbled.

"Well then you know what to do." He replied as he carefully walked around her shadow. "Have a good day, little one!"

The little filly sent a shadow tendril out to reach up and hook the stallion's foreleg to stop him from moving forward, the tendril looking as if it was made of an amalgamation of flesh. "Wait, you haven't forgotten my name, did you?"

The stallion nervously called out to the filly. "Why of course not. Your name is... uh... Darling Angel, at least that's what the master has told me."

The filly giggled as she released the tendril from around his leg. We watched with horror as the tendril sank back into the ground and retracted into the shadow down below. "Yay! You remembered this time!"

"Of course! I wouldn't forget." He said before increasing the pace of his trot away from her. "Now if you excuse me, I have an important matter I need to discuss with the master about matters topside."

"See you later, Mr. Ark!" She called out, waiving her hoof to the minister. With her conversation concluded she walked along her way, but stopped once more as she shifted her head around the hall. All of us stood quietly, some calmer than others as she took a skeptical glance at the floor. "Hmm... Something's off."

We all looked down to see what it was that had her attention. It didn't take long for Stanton to cover his mouth as he realized his large foot had his toes standing on the outer edges of the shadow she sent out. He was motivated to move his foot, but Blueblood held a hoof out to stress to him that he should remain still. Pinkie Pie held her breath, waiting for the filly to make her next move. Both Celestia and Crescent ignited their horns in anticipation of an early fight.

The filly's eyes widened as she realized something crucial. "Oh no! I'm supposed to be off to my room by now! He can't wait that long for me to play with him!"

She darted off down the hall past us, clearing all of us out of her shadow. As soon as she turned the corner, we all breathed a collected sigh of relief. Stanton raised his foot, cussing in a pant as he clasped at his chest. "Motherfucker! That shit was not lit, that shit was not it! Holy hell!"

"You did good in not moving your foot." Blueblood commended the more-than-relieved man. "Had you did, she would've lunged at you and we'd be fighting that thing here and now."

Alex then pointed out another detail of the filly. "Hey, that thing was supposed to have like a shadow of some twenty-feet, right? That thing looked incredibly small for twenty feet."

"That was probably just a simplified version." Alabaster suggested. "I'm sure the 'big brother' she's on about is the creature in it's entirety."

"So you're saying that there's more than one?" Crescent questioned worriedly. "That can't be, that same voice that filly spoke with, that was the one we heard during our previous look around in this place."

"You've been here before?" I questioned him.

"It was that Tuesday when Umbra was distracted by Nondis' bout in the underground arena. Guiding Light could only show us the way in, the first way in. But the way out was a ghastly affair, plowing through a bunch of corpses and reaching a door, only to hear that filly sing about how her darling daddy is wasting away was not a good time to be had... Guiding Light was unfortunately impaled by one of those tendrils that poked out from the ground. This is probably the first time I've seen that thing's face so closely, the second I've seen it's resemblance."

"She's just a foal." Pinkie added with a saddened tone. "All she wants to do is have fun and eat ice cream. None of this is right."

"If you think that way, then go take a gander into one of these rooms, tell me what you find." Crescent warned coldly.

Alex looked back to the older stallion. "We're gonna have to do that anyhow to find Nondis."

"We're losing our track." Celestia warned sternly. "That archdeacon just wandered off and we let him go. He was our only shot at finding Umbra and cleanly confronting him at this point. We should trail him down."

Rarity looked to the high princess and spoke. "Then I guess we'll trail behind that filly who just ran past, since we're going to be fighting that thing, we might as well confront it now."

"If you hit it now, you might be able to kill it." Alex suggested. "It doesn't look tough as it is, just gruesome and small. Now's our only chance of taking that thing down."

"You might want to hold off on that." Blueblood warned. "We'll be doing this out of sequence if we go after her now. For now, we follow Celestia's lead until we run into Umbra."

Rainbow then argued against the prince. "But that thing is probably at it's weakest right now. If we fight it, we might just win!"

"Win while that thing can still use satellite bodies, in it's home turf, no less?" Blueblood rebutted.

"Bad idea." Crescent cosigned. "All it takes is for one of these doors to open, and it has another body added to it's collective, consider that before you fight that thing here in a heavily enclosed space with nothing but dead bodies in every room."

"If that little filly is the 'brain' of that thing, we kill her, that whole thing goes." Alex argued once more.

"Alex, I want to explain to you something." Blueblood said calmly, looking down the hall towards the direction of where that creature had wandered off to. "Do you know the difference between chance and opportunity in battle?"

"Yeah, and we're missing our best chance to put that thing down." He responded.

Blueblood pointed back to the man. "Exactly, you're missing out on a chance. Going after that thing when we know nothing of where Umbra is located, much less of your brother, we would be operating on a chance to do something monumental, but not taking advantage of the opportunity to save Nondis, which is what we're here to do. The one reason why you never win a battle when taking chances is that when you do so without the proper opportunity, there is a chance that you succeed... but there is also a greater chance that you fail. And if you should fail, there's casualties on your hoof that you can never wash off. Chances are fine for gambles, you can bet on something and have the chance to win or lose. But here's the difference between chance and opportunity; Chance comes with every moment, changing at every second, but opportunity comes once in a lifetime."

Twilight shook her head as she looked back towards the path the filly took. "Sadly, he's right. We might have a chance to win, but if we fight that thing now, it could alert Umbra to what's going on. And then we'll end up losing track of Nondis because of it."

"You also lose track of de Element of Magic by losing him." Kalimba supplemented. "Our focus to start should be to distract Umbra, den confront dat monster, den find Nondis and leave."

"And we are talking instead of finding Umbra. We have lost precious time." Celestia marched onward, Blue frantically trotted to keep the princess in the field of her spell.

All of us quickly jogged up to rejoin her, maintaining our cover within Blue's spell. Alabaster looked around as he tried to scout out what was where. Alex continued to jot down notes of where we were headed. As we came to a fairly empty hallway, we saw a set of double doors on the left side of the hall.

Crescent spoke up about where we were. "This place, this must be the staging room."

"Staging room, staging for what?" Twilight questioned her father.

"Probably that creature we walked by." Alabaster suggested.

"Exactly." Crescent confirmed. "This place is where we ran into our ambush that night. But what we did know was that there was an awfully large headless body in there of some creature."

"Big brother." Blueblood murmured. "That's where that thing probably is."

Cliff shook his head as he expressed his disbelief. "Hold on, wait a minute. You're telling me that we actively circled back around this place and somehow ran to the direction of where that thing had marched itself into?"

"To be fair, dis place has a lot of places that look de same." Kalimba said as she looked around.

"We still haven't ran into Umbra yet. So we should keep going." Rickey stated.

"No sign of the archdeacon either." I pointed out in frustration. "Did we really lose that guy that bad?"

"We wouldn't have been able to do much anyhow. We had to wait until that thing had run off." Stanton answered. "Think about it, if we had never ran into her, that dude would've never ran off as fast as he did. It was a loss either way."

Celestia cursed herself under her breath. "Ugh, dammit. We're going to have to change our approach."

"How so?" I asked.

The princess looked to Blue and pointed her further down the hall. "Blue, I want you to take the others down that way and start your search from there. There's at least another ten hallways down there from what I can see. If you go there, you should be able to find something."

"Right." The young mare confirmed before she noticed that the high princess had already summoned her halberd and walked out of the formation. "Wait, your highness─"

"My party with me. We bring Umbra to us."

As she and the others stepped out of the field of Blue's spell, two dolls walked down the hallway and took notice of the differing sets of hooves running towards them. Both of the puppets' jewels turned orange as they cried out in a scratchy voice "INTRUDER."

Celestia wasted no time in cutting them down, making sure that she hit the targets directly where they had glowed the most. And after they were cast to the ground, the junctions of their bodies glowed no longer as their limbs fell apart in a collection of wooden blocks. She called out in an angry voice. "UMBRA! SHOW YOURSELF THIS INSTANT!"

Alabaster grabbed at his sister. "She'll more than likely get his attention. We should keep going."

Blue looked back to Kalimba, who brought up the rear of the high princess' four-member party. "But what about─"

"She'll be fine! Let's go!" He reassured.

Meanwhile...

The young filly sat in her room, playing with her multitude of corpses as she shifted her eyes over to the shadow down below. Once she figured that she had gone unfollowed, she clopped her hoof against the ground to pull out a chain of ponies holding onto the human she captured, holding him upside down as her tendrils coiled around his left leg. Upon surfacing, he coughed and gagged as though he had come from under water.

The filly smiled at him as he struggled. "Sorry I kept you down there for so long, big brother. I know it takes some getting used to."

"Had you kept me under, I don't think I would've minded the results." He replied, quietly hoping that he would've drowned instead.

"But daddy would be mad at me! And I don't want to make daddy mad! He's scary when he's mad." She answered.

"Believe me, I know." He replied, still coughing.

One of the bodies had fallen off of her mass, flopping down to the ground. "Oops." She called out before reaching back to grab the corpse that segregated itself from her. But instead of it rejoining her, it stayed it's own entity. However, the reason soon revealed itself. The flesh of the corpse livened, the coat changing colors, and it's eyes blinked open, revealing the mad scientist who assumed the body that was once of the collective.

"There you are." Umbra called out to the human before looking to the filly. "I take it you must've gotten him out of his room."

The filly expressed her dismay. "Aww! No fair! I can never win!"

The stallion chuckled. "Of course not, my dear little Angel. You're a part of me. And a good father always knows where his little ones are."

"Daddy, daddy, when are we going to play again?" She asked as she held the human.

"When I finish my work, dear." He replied, walking towards the human in her tendrils. "I know you're so excited to play with your new brother. He'll be more than happy to cooperate in due time."

"Go to hell, Umbra." The human hissed.

He put his hoof on the man's cheek and felt him being damp. He looked towards the direction of where the tendril had risen from. "My dear, how long have you had him under?"

"Um... I guess... uh... 364 Maressissippi's." She answered.

"A little over six minutes. Good." He replied as he patted the human's face. "You're coming along nicely, it seems you humans' adaptive nature is more of a boon than I had originally hoped for."

"Can you drop me back down and count to thirty minutes, next time?" The human requested to the filly.

Umbra smiled as he kissed the man's cheek. "Of course not. You'd drown before that's finished." He then looked to the filly with a serious expression. "In fact, you weren't supposed to be down there at all today, much less for six minutes."

The filly's shadow shrank as she took a step back. "I'm sorry, daddy. I won't do it again."

His horn flashed for a moment, his eyes gazed up to his horn to notice the rapid flashing. He nodded as he spoke calmly. "Actually, you will be doing it again. Sink him down."

The human proceeded to plead with the filly. "Just leave me down here, don't bring me back up, please─" But his cries were suddenly silenced as he was dragged into her shadow.

Umbra cleared his throat and summoned his cane. "Good, now that he's under and deaf, take him to the big room you're usually doing your tests in. And when you finish, you come to me and wait for me to tell you to come out and not a moment sooner, we don't want to appear rude." Umbra wore a smile on his face as he started to walk out of the room. "We have guests today who will play with you."

"Guests?" She questioned.

"Indeed." He confirmed. "Ponies who want to be dollies, I suppose. And I know how much you love playing with your dolls. So why not have a few more today?"

The filly's shadow proceeded to grow as she showed an irrational excitement. "I̸ ̴g̴e̷t̵ ̸m̴o̸r̸e̸ ̴d̷o̵l̶l̷s̴ ̷t̴o̸d̷a̸y̸?̴"

"That's right!" Umbra answered to further feed her excitement. "Now hurry along and do your chores. When you finish, I'll let you play with your new dolls."

"T̸h̵a̵n̵k̶ ̶y̶o̷u̸ ̷s̴o̴ ̴m̶u̷c̸h̴,̷ ̶d̴a̶d̷d̴y̷!̶ ̷I̵'̵m̸ ̵g̷o̸n̶n̵a̵ ̶h̴u̷r̸r̷y̷ ̴a̷n̸d̸ ̴g̵e̶t̷ ̸i̵t̵ ̶d̷o̶n̶e̷!̸"

This venture through the halls had us going in circles, at least I thought so. All these damned halls look the same. And it didn't help that our venture had us short on patience and breath above all else. There was no telling where they had this man. And all it did was make us nervous of what we would find.

Finally Twilight suggested that we'd part ways for the time being, at least until we had found something substantial, that or simply finding Nondis. And we were about to come up with good idea in terms of our rendezvous point. But there was something that put our thinking to a screeching thought. Sounds of a set of hooves frantically galloping closer prompted us to stand on either side of the hall. The last thing we wanted was for that little girl to come darting past us. And if it had to happen, we were going to be out of her way.

It wasn't that easy anymore.

It was her, but not only did her shadow grow even larger, her tendrils appeared to surface of their own volition. And with as far as her shadow reached, trying to avoid her was nothing short of impossible. The only thing we could do was stand still as she passed. If she didn't notice anything, we could continue uninterrupted. And if not, Twilight's party would break off here and give us our best chance to escape to find Nondis.

She ran right through the hall, her shadow had found all of us. And when it did, all we could smell was the overwhelming stench of decay. And since we had to remain stationery, all we could do is bear with it until she passed, no reactions, no gagging, none of it.

"D̶̘̿á̶̼d̵̠̋d̶̳̒y̷̧͑ ̷̥͝g̸̢̎i̴̝̓v̷̬̌ì̴̮ń̶͕g̷̥̓ ̸̢͝m̷̘̆è̴̥ ̷͎͌s̵͍̽o̶̟̽m̶̡̊é̶̫ ̶̬̔ǹ̴̻e̴͎͌w̵̭͘ ̵͇͠d̶͉̂o̸̱͌l̵̜̀l̵͙͛i̵͍̓e̴͔̋ş̶̕!̸͕̂ ̶̝͒Į̶̓ ̴͓͋ç̴͐ã̸̺n̴̩̐'̸͍̒t̶̝͋ ̶͍̐ẃ̵ͅǎ̵͉i̴̯͑t̴̲̒ ̴̥͊t̷̪̃ŏ̵̞ ̷͉̂m̴̰̎e̶͈͂e̴͎͐ṭ̵̋ ̸̬̅t̴̘̃ḥ̵͆e̸̬͝m̷̪̚!̴̟̽" She seemed to not even know we were there, which was a relief. Seems that she was in a rush to play with her new dolls, though I personally wondered what those so-called dolls really look like. That's a question I'm sure I didn't want to know the answer.

One of her tendrils did manage to swipe at Alex's leg. And looking at the muscles in his neck, I could tell he wanted to express how much that hurt. But it didn't go completely unnoticed by the filly, who stopped and looked back to see what it was that clashed with her collective. She came to a screeching halt, looking back to us. Blue held her breath fearing that her spell had finally wore off. The filly didn't investigate into it any further and went about her way.

When she turned the corner, her shadow left us and we could finally move again. Alex immediately nursed his injury. "Ah, that shit hurt."

"You okay?" I questioned.

Alex nodded quickly. "Yeah, just feels like an abusive ass whooping from a dad with bad aim."

Cliff then responded. "So are we talking like switches, belts, paddles, or extension cords?"

Alex looked back at the man with bewilderment. "Yo, what kind of upbringing did you have?"

"Guys, we need to focus." Rainbow interjected. "I know that may be a deep conversation, but we can have that later. Right now that thing is on the move and getting stronger."

"So, about that split-off plan." Stanton began. "You think it's better that we just do that now and start flushing these halls, looking for results?"

"I concur." Rarity issued her agreement. "I don't think we should waste another moment. Who knows what they've been doing to poor Nondis."

"Are you all going to be okay?" I asked, mainly towards Apple jack.

The farm pony bravely replied. "Honestly, that there thing is the stuff of night terrors. But we ain't got time to be afraid."

"We got a world to save." Fluttershy added as she stood by her friend. "And you all have a world to save on top of a friend. Your cause is just as important as ours."

"Well the difference is that we won't get a stained glass window for what we're doing." I replied to the usually shy mare. "Our world won't even know what were up to, and it's probably better off that way."

"No great deed goes unrewarded or unrecognized." Twilight encouraged. "What you'll do will have an equally important part to Equestria's history. But if you don't believe me, then ask Nondis when you see him."

"If we even see him." Stanton murmured.

"We'll get him back." Cliff responded. "You guys just take care of yourself."

"Same to you." Twilight replied, giving Cliff a tiny smirk. "I would hate to see how Sunset would react if you just up and went missing on her."

"Well tell her I'll hopefully see her soon." He replied as Twilight turned around to sortie off with her friends.

"Tell her yourself." She replied while walking out of Blue's field of distortion.

As her and her five fellow element bearers ran off to trail that filly creature, Blue grew nervous as she looked around to see just us seven remaining. "Well, I'm not particularly good at teleporting multiple ponies at a whim, but I'll try my best if things get too hairy."

At that point we started pulling out our weapons, getting ready for whatever came our way. "Just as long as we don't see that thing, we should be all good." Alex noted.

Alabaster took front to lead the way. "Okay then... It's gonna be ugly, but let's start seeing what's in all of these rooms."

Yet another mannequin fell to the magic bolts of the princess who dared to boisterously carve her way into the halls of the underground lab. With every one that dared to charge at her, they were either effortlessly carved down or burned to smolders with a single shot. When there was more than one to come at her, she would dedicate herself to saving as much energy as she could for the impending confrontation. So as she would disable one, she would cast a few others behind her.

Behind her was a calm and collected, yet ever the lethal prince who donned his spear with precision and grace. As one came to her left side, he would launch his weapon directly at the doll's head, disabling the glowing jewel at the top of it's forehead. And to minimize his efforts, he would simply teleport the spear back into his possession. As another came from one of the rooms, he swept it's legs from under it, and in a fluid motion drive his spear into it's face to finish it.

Beside him to maintain the princess' right side was a former captain in his own right. Crescent, formerly known as Captain Night Light, would use his sword to cut down and disable every doll that dared to approach. Even some ones that were tossed behind from the princess' front would be finished off promptly by the steely stallion. While not fancy in any way, his method was a lot more straight forward and brutal. One mannequin was even unfortunate enough to be thrown from the princess his way, where he walked past it and kicked it's head in, sending splinters and wooden fragments down the hall.

As mannequins came rushing from the rear of their formation, Kalimba took to the mantle of disabling each and every one that came their way. She was not as strong as the others, nor as experienced, but where she showed potential was her physical prowess, dodging many attempts to capture and countering with swift blows to various joints to temporarily disable them before shooting them in the head where their jewels were. Since she dedicated almost all of her magic to fight the stallion who took the life of her father, her preferred weapon of choice was a .44 Remington Magnum, a loud weapon of choice, but one that would surely grab the attention of Umbra, thinking that there would be a human present.

Leaving a hall of splintered and sundered dolls in their way, they trudged forward, waiting for their desired opponent. But they did not have to wait for very long. As soon as they heard the hoof steps, the princess raised a hoof to halt the formation of her party. She waited with an incredibly frigid stare down the end of the hall.

Walking up as though he was yawning from boredom, Umbra turned the corner and saw the mess that was left in his halls. He groaned to himself and muttered. "Well, this will be at least four days to reorganize." He walked up to the party, unafraid, undeterred, and very much uninterested in the princess' appearance. "Well well well, look who it is causing a scene in my most hallowed laboratory. I swear I don't have respect for those who disrupt the scientific process."

The princess then replied to him. "Well if you have any blame to place on anyone, it should be in the archdeacon who brought us here."

His eyes opened wide for a moment, appearing a little frustrated at what she said. "Is that so?" He used his magic to quickly summon the stallion who made his earlier report. Upon being summoned, the stallion looked towards his master who appeared calm and quiet. He bowed before him before feeling his head forcibly turned to see the princess standing down the hall. Umbra then spoke to his cloaked subordinate. "So, about that little report you made earlier."

The stallion immediately panicked. "My lord, the princess is here! We must─"

"Shhhh." Umbra silenced the stallion. "Now... tell me how is it that you appear at this very time, with news of an uprising taking place in the halls of the church, and the princess finds herself walking my halls with two of her stronger lackeys."

The archdeacon wiggled free from Umbra's grasp. "Please, I didn't know. I made sure I was unfollowed, there was no one behind me at all. I closed the door, I covered the windows, I changed my garments, I did everything I was supposed to!"

"So you say now, Archdeacon Sacred Ark." Celestia spoke out. "But I do believe that we've discussed how we would be able to find what it is we want to find here. You even told us of how that thing of his moves, works, the truth of it's shadow, and even it's weakness."

"I SAID NO SUCH THING!" The stallion replied frantically. "My lord, you must not listen to her, she speaks lies!"

Umbra patted the stallion's head. "I am aware."

The princess continued to feign her story. "If you do not believe me, Umbra. Then explain how his sudden appearance also allowed for ours to manifest. He even guided us through one of the hallways where we saw your wandering beast talk to him. You even named her Darling Angel, what a beautiful name for such a foul creation."

Umbra looked to the stallion and glared coldly. "That's right... you did question me if I had allowed my little bundle of joy to wander the halls."

"I did not guide her! Please you have to listen to me!"

"But you did." The princess replied. "You disrobed, you placed a circle on your wardrobe closet, and opened the doors to this lab. You were even so kind enough to keep the door open for us."

Umbra didn't even look at the stallion, summoning magic into his horn to manifest into a tiny ball of concentrated energy. The stallion in his grasp pleaded for his life, but that soon fell silent. A small bolt of magic zipped through the stallion's forehead and his body fell motionless, all muscles in his body coming to an immediate rest. He dropped the newly deceased archdeacon to the ground and watched as blood began to pool around his head. He then looked up to the princess and smiled. "I know you and he didn't work together to bring yourself here. But I can't shake the fact that his arrival did bring you here also. As such, punishment was in order."

Crescent raised issue with the stallion killing the archdeacon in cold blood. "You are a cruel murderer. But then again, I suppose that only gives you yet another body to play with."

"Equine bodies are so overvalued these days." He said as he sat on the corpse of the stallion he murdered. "They're just there. I mean there's a different color, a different breed, maybe even a different species, but it's all the same to me really. There are so many ways to kill an equine, it's just boring and easy. You either wait around and let fate run it's course, or you just take the reigns and make their end as quick as you want it to be. It's the reason why I don't particularly like human weaponry, it can take the fun out of the process. What's a better way than to kill off someone when they know it's coming and they can beg for life as they experience it? It's the disbelief."

"The same disbelief it took to take a little filly's eyes?" Celestia questioned angrily.

The psychotic stallion shrugged with indifference to the princess' sentiment. "And pray-tell, how many foals did you contribute to their end? Teenage colts you've slain who's aim was to fight for glory and peace throughout Equestria?" He dipped his hoof into the stallions blood and began to write out a word on his otherwise immaculately white tiles. "How many sons, fathers, uncles, nephews, husbands, friends and strangers, how many have fallen to your halberd? How many have you spared once your armies were decimated beyond salvation? How many battles did you lose, to ultimately frenzy your way into massacre? What lives did you spare? Tell me, Celestia, who stood by your side when it was all over? And please do tell me what happened after."

Celestia said nothing as Blueblood stepped up to defend her. "You don't know anything about what she's suffered or what we had to endure─"

"Wasn't it you who was sentenced to the gallows?" Umbra pointed out, silencing the prince. "And for what, murder no less? Or here, I'll put it in the way it was rewritten by your adoring princess, a 'training accident'. It didn't matter what happened before you did it, you took a life out of spite. I'm sure whatever happened to you was never as grave as to warrant a death sentence." He then giggled. "Or maybe you enjoyed it, and didn't want to express how much you did."

Blueblood was set to lunge forward, but was held back by both Celestia and Crescent.

"Ah, and now we go on to you." Umbra replied, looking to the retired guard. "Such an immaculate image you've built up around yourself. Husband, father, breeding stock of two new-blood royals anointed and appointed to the throne. But I'm sure your family knows nothing of the things you hide in your shadow. How many mares did you sleep with for information, how many times did your wife play the role of a mistress to further your knowledge? Are you even certain that those two kids of yours are actually yours? Well I know you do, the secret paternity tests you've had done attest to that, and her finding that out almost led to a very messy divorce. Though of all the things you've done, I mainly consider the lives you've taken to destabilize some opposing nations. All who lobbied war against Equestria, you silenced them yourself with your own hooves. I mean you brought peace and stability to the realm, but how many fathers did you cull in your wake before becoming one yourself? How many families did you break, sever, destroy while keeping yours in the sunshine? How many times have your son begged for you to come home, all while you similarly ignored the other sons who begged for their fathers? And what of the one friend who actively assisted you in everything you've done in the shadows?"

"Don't you ever speak on him." Crescent replied coarsely.

"And why not? He only became what you should've been. Both you and he looked at the abyss together, but he was the one that took the next step. You cowered, ran back home, and decided to play the role of a family guy. To this day, it eats at you how you should've been right there with your friend, doing all that he did, how you abandoned him to the shadows to become what he was. I can assure you that his end was the most ironic, to be assassinated by his own sex slave of six years, truly pathetic." He then whispered to the former guard. "I bet seeing his face on my doll really made you see yourself, didn't it?"

While Umbra finished writing his message on the ground, pointing a bloodied arrow to the party before him, he caught glimpse of Kalimba in the back and smiled brimmingly.

"Ah! Now that's a way to get my attention! You should've been up front!" He said as he summoned the quiet zebracorn to his side. "Kali, my dear, how's it been!?"

The mare wasted no time, blasting him in the face with a bolt of magic, causing him to stumble and let her go. "My family will know peace." She spoke in a grave yet unusually straight voice. "And you will know death for your own self!"

Umbra got up to see Celestia's halberd coming down on him, he teleported to the other side of the formation, maintaining a safe distance. Both Blueblood and Crescent ignited their horns to ready their magic for combat. Umbra proceeded to summon his cane, holding it like he would a sword. "En guarde!" He playfully replied. "Ah, to see this day finally manifest. Strangely, I find myself shaking far less than I would in any means of the past. It's almost as if the spirit of my family is giving me strength and courage."

"Your family?" Blueblood questioned, still maintaining his guard.

"Why yes, Blueblood. Or should I call you the name lost to time, peasant to the realm of Sir Duke Mane Hatting, Gentle Step." Umbra answered, causing the prince to suddenly break his concentration, quenching his magic. "I know of you very well, it's hard to forget the one who started this mess. Had you not laid waste to my cousin, you would've known an insignificant death. Equestria would know nothing of you, and little of myself. It would've been perfect."

"I killed countless stallions and colts, but that was a distant time ago. Centuries I haven't heard that name." Blueblood answered. "Who are you?"

"Who am I?" He responded. "I'm the cousin of the colt you've killed. Not just any colt, but your very first one, your first blood."

Both he and Celestia looked to one another as they realized what he spoke of. "House Bastion." She muttered. She returned her attention to Umbra. "House Bastion was eradicated on the count of conspiracy against the crown."

"You say eradicated, I'd say that I'm still standing right here before you. So allow me to formally pontificate to the princess who's life will be taken today." He said, giving the princess a bow. "I am Umbra Sanctus, or Umbra for short. You may call me by my formal title Count Sanctus Quorum of House Bastion, sole proprietor of the estate. So please know that name, and engrain it into your memory as you will soon know the warm embrace of death."

There was a longstanding silence between the two parties. At least it lasted as long as no one said anything. But instead of being interrupted with words, it was interrupted with something unexpected. A giggle. A small chuckle from the princess herself as she looked around her and glanced back at the stallion. "Death?" She whispered before laughing outright, causing the once-confident stallion to scowl at her. "Oh, surely you jest! I couldn't even kill MYSELF in the number of times I've tried to! You think that any creation you make will kill me!? It's so amusing that you would think so! I've been stabbed, crushed, beaten, broken, my own foal miscarried before I could give birth to it, burned, every feather ripped and plucked from my wings, raped by many, heartbroken by few, poisoned to the point where I have an immunity to even cyanide, I've been everything but decapitated at this point. You might as well try something a little more... final than that thing you mucked up around here."

The stallion, while frustrated in hearing the princess speak of her experience, feigned a laugh in his own right. "So that makes you and I one in the same then. Surely I would've never expected us to be as equals, but here we are. Doomed to an eternal conflict of power and influence, set to make our mark across the annuls of history and engaged in a bout to the death for all of eternity."

"Two options." Celestia spoke. "Either you simply surrender or I simply scorch every single body you have in your possession. If I do that, then where do you run to?"

Seeing the princess remaining undeterred, he looked back down the hall and nodded. "Well, I would like to see you try to dispose of all of my bodies. But I'm sure you'll find out how much of an argument they'll put up against that idea." He looked back to Celestia and grinned. "Though I'm sure the reason why you're here isn't because of me, it might be because of a certain somepony who you've stolen for your own accord."

"And who might I have stolen?" The princess questioned.

"Why none other than the suitor of your youngest protégé." Umbra looked to Crescent to gauge his reaction. "You swooped in and became his romance after his suitorship with the young princess fell through. As ruthless as I always pinned you to be."

Crescent showed no change in his demeanor as he defend her. "What she does in her life, what my daughter does in hers, and especially what Nondis does in his has no bearing in this."

"No bearing? None? Not a single hint of emotional weight?" Umbra questioned as he summoned a phone to his side. He tapped at the screen and selected a picture he wanted to show to the princess. "Then your highness, tell me what you make of this unfortunate fate your suitor has met."

The princess stopped smiling as the phone was levitated towards her, on the screen she tried to make out what was being done. It didn't take her long to see the blood streaming from the table, or the presence of two humans in the room laying next to one another with Umbra standing between them. In the background was an assortment of tools and measuring devices, but sitting beside them was the head of a human male unknown to the princess' eyes. But that wasn't the thing that had grasped the princess attention so strongly, it was rather the other human lying to the left of Umbra, the headless body with a number of stitches and scars all over.

The princess held her disbelief initially, until Umbra scrolled to the very next photo.

As if the air had suddenly been rushed to her lungs, the princess' mouth was covered and her eyes grew to see the ghastly face before her. The image of her captain had shown upon the screen, his face sitting as peacefully still as the body he was separated from. The element was seated next to him in a plastic bag, a confirmation of what and who he was.

Celestia trembled, trying to control her emotions. The others dragged the phone down to see what it was that had her so bereaved. But all she could think of was the various moments they shared. She could remember his touch, how fresh it was, the moments he first arrived, the time she spoke with him about his potential return to his world, the instant she beat him at arm wrestling to show the strength difference between them, her watching as he was given the rank of guard, his talking to her in the hospital, how he complimented her wings, the moment she saw his image in the newspaper depicting his potential demise, the following report of his triumph, his gravely injured body being carried in by his younger brother, the conversations they shared as humans, the dinner date, her first kiss with him, how he held her when she cried, their first date, how he cleaned her wings, the first exchange of passion, the moment she held him in mourning his grandfather, the night she confessed her love to him, from the moment he tried to hold the sun, to the day he left the barracks. The final smile he gave her before leaving, that was brutally erased as his head sat motionless on the table.

The others observed what she did and felt grief in having seen it. Blueblood felt an enormous guilt overwhelm him, turning his head away as he blamed himself. Crescent felt the air in his body leave him as he felt almost as though he lost a prospective son. Kalimba, still dealing with the grief of losing her father, had to wrestle with the hurt of seeing him in such a state, all she could do was shrink in the moment.

Umbra retracted the phone and watched as they were fed on the despair of losing their friend, all while withholding the truth. Witnessing the varying emotions they had gave him life, joy in seeing the pain they shared in losing their friend. He especially enjoyed Kalimba's reaction, who had just collapsed to the ground, holding herself as though she had very little left to fight for. He stayed a moment longer to watch them dwell in the moment.

Blueblood took a sharp breath before steeling his resolve. He stood firm in the face of the loss and took to the mantle of being Celestia's emotional pillar. "Celeste, get up."

She wanted to grieve, she held her chest wanting to scream at her failure to protect the one she loved. But hearing the prince call her out removed her from that emotional vice and replaced it with a maddening rage building within her. "We will mourn later. For now..."

Kalimba found very little strength to be able to continue, overwhelmed with the grief of losing the stallion she adored. She screamed out in tremendous pain, causing Umbra to snicker. "And so once again, you are relegated to nothing. Daughter to a senator? Assistant to a captain? This ridiculous assertion of freedom? No longer, any of it. All of what you are is nothing more than a wish as dead as your parents. Perhaps you will do better to realize where you stand in all of this, girl."

Crescent stood in front of her, propping her up with his magic. "Chin up. I know it's hard right now. But what stands before you is the chance to make a difference in all of that." He replied, trying to encourage the emotionally distraught mare. "I've seen the abyss and I've walked away in spite of all I've done. I've lived a normal life outside of it. You can do just that, only if you are willing to take the first step. Nondis gave you that start, don't look back and think that's where you belong."

Umbra rolled his eyes as he shrugged at Crescent's words. "I mean you can try, but I don't think I'll let you have a choice in the matter."

Celestia disappeared from where she stood, suddenly reappearing beside the amused stallion. Her halberd threatened to come down on his neck, offering to give him the same treatment her beloved had undergone. However, her blow was intercepted by a tentacled entity that reached out to defend him. While the tendril was all but severed, the enchanted halberd came to a halt.

Umbra twirled his cane as he called out. "Oh Darling!" He slammed his cane to the ground, producing a high pitched ringing that immediately shut out all the lights in the entire lab. "Playtime."

Crescent, immediately recognizing what was taking place, illuminated his horn to give them as much light as they needed. He sounded to the others in the party. "Not good! That thing is headed towards us!"

"How do you know?" Blueblood inquired.

"♫Darling daddy's wasting away♫"

Blueblood gritted his teeth as he used his horn to light the area around himself, Celestia and Kalimba did the same. "...That's how." Crescent confirmed as he brandished his sword.

Umbra illuminated his own horn to offer one final message to the party. "Well as much as I would love to be a present parental figure to watch you lot play around, I have some work to do. And fortunately, that work involves the two human bodies I have in my possession. I'll be sure to clean up after you guys when you're done." He looked back to further down the hall, hearing the hoofsteps draw even closer. "Rather, I will be sure to clean up what's left of you guys when you're done. Toodles."

Umbra walked towards the growing shadow that consumed even the light that refracted off of the walls from their horns. The shadow completely engulfed the floors, the walls, and the ceiling of the hall. Celestia grimaced as she readied herself for the impending fight. Blueblood snarled as he readied his spear. Kalimba trembled, but stood ready to take on the creature.

Crescent stood firm as he spoke to the creature that marched towards them. "Alright, lets get a real good look at you."

When the lights suddenly went out, Alabaster raised a light on his horn to see. But instead of relying on that, we pulled out our phones and turned on our flashlights while using them. The stallion looked back to see our phones raised high into the air, surprised of their utility. He quenched his magic and we carried on with our journey of peeking through the rooms.

To say it was ugly was an understatement.

There were some rooms that made you question whether or not your constitution would hold up as much as you think it will. It's one thing seeing a dead pony laid out on a table or something with a cloak on it, but there's another when you have to see a dead pony with their faces uncovered. Some expressions were quite peaceful, others were a bit concerning, and some just outright the thing of nightmares. You'd never want to imagine someone going through so much pain in the midst of their final moments, it's heartbreaking.

And then there are the rooms with bonafide nightmare fuel within. Those rooms were pretty much left as is, many cases being that they were in the midst of operation before being interrupted, probably to go chase after Celestia broke off and made a raucous. I was already undergoing medical training, so sights like these don't do much to me anymore other than an occasional gross-out. But for the others, they're a lot less weathered on things like this. Alex in particular wasn't as strong as the others in terms of dealing with stuff like this, he already didn't like the sight of dead bodies as it is.

Looking in the rooms with nothing but cell-phone lights was nothing short of added horror to the mess we had to endure. It was like we were playing a horror game in first-person. Only this time, you could smell the decay, the formaldehyde, the various chemicals used to preserve a cadaver. And the concoction of odors was ghastly to the senses, it would prompt many lesser-prepared or unfortified individuals to lose their previous meal.

Blue didn't aid us in our attempts, we needed her to be able to maintain the spell, should anything happen. But she was getting tired, she was running that spell for well over an hour and some change. Her brother cited that she was undergoing some magic fatigue. And if we wanted to use it to get Nondis back out of this place, she needed to stop using that spell for a time until she could recover some of her magic. I asked Alabaster if he knew the spell, he said he couldn't cast it for more than maybe thirty seconds. However, he did cite that his sister attended a lower level magic school when she was sent off to live with her aunt, which would explain the disparity between the two. Their only difference was that Alabaster had knowledge of higher level spells, but only his sister could execute them properly.

We all worked quietly until Alex couldn't really hold his breakfast in for much longer. He just completely dumped himself in the hallway after peering into a room. Stanton looked after his older sibling while Rick went in to see what it was that had him so disturbed.

His jaw dropped immediately, as did his phone. I whispered back to him. "What? What is it?"

He shuddered and stammered as he pointed into the room. "Mel... I found Jasper."

I wasn't prepared in any way to see him as a cadaver. Granted, I planned to make him into one for abusing me repeatedly, and I didn't initially care about having a whole criminal record behind it all. But understanding what they did in here was the driving force that better illustrated my intimidation. Still, I felt some part of me wanting to verify it for myself. I walked over, but he stood in my way, shaking his head. "Okay, he's dead. We've known this for a week. What's the big deal?"

"...He's fucked up." Rick very bluntly explained. "Bad. Old dude did some shit to him."

I peered inside, holding my phone up to assess the scene. The first thing I was greeted with was Jasper's face looking at the void from across room. And that was it, it was just his face, or rather his head. Following some med school training, I did what I had to in terms of dealing with the very real cadaver sitting somewhere in this room. Even if it was a ghastly scene that greatly unnerved me, I had to rehearse in my head that this was a natural process, and that the only thing I didn't need to see was him suddenly open his eyes to look at me, blink, or even express himself in any way. That part is done, he's gone, and there must be a medical reason for this being the case other than some cruel postmortem butchery.

I took a deep breath, remaining calm as I entered into the room. I took a look around, observing my surroundings, and gathering what information I could find out. There were some notes left behind, seemingly some information about a weird theory of head transplants. At the top of the paper was an immediate name-drop, Sergio Canavero. I called out to Rick as he was putting his phone back together. "Rick, can you do me a favor?"

"What's that?" He asked.

"Can you find a Sergio Canavero and tell me what he does specifically?"

"Sure." He answered before a brief expression of annoyance. "Goddammit, my screen's cracked."

"It still works, right?" I asked him.

"Yeah, it still works fine." He replied as he typed in the name. "How do you spell it?"

"Sergio. S-E-R-G-I-O. Then Canavero. C-A-N-A-V-E-R-O."

"Okay, okay..." He mumbled as he pulled up the first result that showed up on Google. "Um... Mel."

"What?"

"This guy you told me to look up... he claims himself a specialist in human head transplants." He replied.

I looked back to see Jasper's beheaded body and immediately thought the worst. "Oh my God. He has Nondis."

Alex immediately expressed his disdain in hearing the conversation taking place. "I'm not opening up another fucking door. My brother's not gonna look like that. On my Lord and Savior above he's not going to look like that."

"Hell, for all we know, he might be in that room right now." Alabaster whispered to himself before looking to the other room next to it. "Or... he could be in the room adjacent."

Blue's concentration on her spell completely broke, not just from the fatigue but also from the revelation we've walked in on. She looked back to her brother, about to cry as she shook. "I'm sorry. I can't do this anymore. I don't want to be here."

Cliff looked further down the hall and called out to us. "Guys."

"What?" Alex asked, visibly distressed.

"We've got company coming." He warned as he immediately walked over to a room to hide in.

We all heard the calm hoofsteps approaching from further down. With few options, we all hid in the same room. Not wanting to be stuck in the very room as his current vested interest, I ran out of that one and sought to barricade myself in another room just across the hall, where we waited quietly for the pony to pass.

We all tried to gauge our breath, in spite of the smell of the room. Each one of us were operating under the fear of being caught. The last thing we needed to do was to find ourselves looking at the face of that thing, or worse the madman himself. They sounded like they were humming pretty happily throughout their journey. We tried to see if there were any lights showing, at least something to show that whoever it was was either casually passing through or walking towards one of these rooms. Instead, the clopping came to a cold stop.

A curious hum sounded from outside. Next came a loud ringing sound that echoed throughout the halls. The lights immediately came back on. I felt a trembling against me, gripping at my leg. I looked down to see Blue covering her own muzzle as she clenched onto me for comfort. Alabaster ignited his horn to make the first strike. He appeared very angry as he charged his magic for whatever came our way. The room grew tense as we heard the sound of the door across the hall slide open. Not wanting to take any chances, Alabaster cast the spell his sister used, trying to make it appear that we were nowhere to be present.

Stanton quietly disarmed the safety of his weapon and took aim at the door. Without warning, the door was rapidly opened and Umbra's head poked through. He looked to the left, observing if there had been any changes. Then he looked to the right, just where we were all standing. I felt my heartbeat racing into my throat as he glanced our wall up and down. He looked ahead to the covered pony that lied on an operating table. He muttered to himself. "Hm, something made a mess around here."

He walked off, his hooves disappearing off into the distance. All of us had yet another moment where we had to breathe a collective sigh of relief. Alabaster disabled his spell, quietly laboring to himself as his horn had some residual sparks. Blue tearfully congratulated her brother for stepping up in place of her. I couldn't help but to feel proud for the stallion also, knowing his sister was already taxed with the very spell he could only use for seconds.

"If only your father was here to see how much you've improved."

All of us froze, looking back to the source of the voice. Instead of there being a dead body laying in sheets, there he was hopping right off the table as if he had finished a check-up. The stallion smiled as he tilted his head to us.

"And wouldn't you know, you've brought me more subjects to use. How wonderful of the both of you."

Stanton fired his weapon, sending a bullet into the stallion's skull. He flopped down to the ground as if he had died. "Okay, we're officially fucked."

"Not yet, you aren't." Umbra replied as he poked his head through the door. I took aim for him in the door and took the shot, sending him down to the ground. But instead of him using another body, he just simply got back to using the one Stanton shot at a second ago. "And I can say that I'm interested in seeing how you'd feel, miss Melanie Brewer."

"Go fuck yourself!" Alex screamed as he took aim with his own weapon, but found his barrel lifted towards the ceiling.

Umbra closed the distance between them and smiled as he mocked the older sibling. "Believe it or not, your brother taught me this trick." He said before sending a hoof to his abdomen, causing the man to tumble down and grasp at himself. He quickly evaded both Cliff and Rick using teleportation, sending a hoof to either side of their heads. "Also a trick I learned, you humans discombobulate when I strike you in the temples. Very weak area, prone to a lot of damage." He then turned his attention to Stanton. "And you boys don't like it if I hit down low." He replied as he took aim for his crotch. But before he could land the blow, he was stopped by an invisible aura of magic. Umbra looked up to see the human straining to keep himself from experiencing the blow. The stallion was enthusiastically surprised. "And you have magic too? So much untapped potential! I see I have another prime subject to use!" Stanton went in for a kick, but found himself getting swept by a powerful tug of magic against his supporting leg. He fell to the ground, getting a cane pointed to his face. "You're a feisty one, just like your brother. But so unrefined in fighting, which is strange considering your athletic build."

Blue levitated one of our guns and held it up to Umbra's head. It shook unsteadily against him. "Where is Nondis! Tell me or I'll kill you!"

The stallion smiled as he rose, holding the weapon still as he walked closer to her. "Kill me? Killing me would be a great idea, if it were possible. That doesn't happen, especially not down here. I'm sure you've seen the rooms, I have corpses for days."

Umbra's head was blown completely open as Alabaster helped Alex take aim with his weapon. The stallion looked up to the recovering human. "Nice shot."

"We're running against time here." Alex said as he stood himself up. "We need to find Nondis, and fast."

My phone vibrated, indicating I had a message. I looked at my screen to see Jasper's name pull up. My heart completely stopped for a moment as I looked to the door across the hall. I went into my inbox to see that it was some pictures that was sent to me. Umbra spoke out from within the hall as he walked closer. "You might want to see that, it'll help you understand why your coming here was only to my benefit! After all, what good does it serve to search for a dead man!?"

I closed the app, not wanting to dare look at what he was trying to advertise. "Nondis isn't dead! We know he's here!"

"Yes! He is! Unfortunately, that's the truth!" Umbra confirmed. "And he still is a valuable test subject. But under most circumstances I can only let you see him through other means. Though I'm sure you wouldn't understand much if I just showed you a bunch of samples in a test tube, or cells in a microscope. At least the pictures I've sent you are the only confirmation of his fate you'll ever have from this point forward."

"We know what you've been looking up, you sick fuck!" Alex called out. "Who the hell goes around trying to do head transplants!?"

Umbra walked back into the room. "Well to be fair, your dearly departed brother proved to be valuable research into the matter."

Alex grew indignant, firing a bullet into the stallion's chest. "I'm sorry, but I know you didn't just say what I thought you just said."

And again, the corpse he shot earlier had risen up to speak. "Well, if you would let me explain to you what happened, maybe you'd get some closure."

"Oh we're all about closure alright." Cliff responded. "We about to close your eyes in a second, and give you a closed-casket cremation, an all-in-one-day special complete with same-minute shipping at checkout. How bout you close in on that shit? It's a once-in-a-lifetime deal." He then fired his weapon into the corpse Umbra was currently using. And yet again, the stallion rose using the other body in his presence.

"You humans are all the same, shoot first, question later. Is that the reason why your civilization has lagged so far behind it's potential apex by some five hundred years?" The stallion asked as he pulled out a phone he had in his possession. "Honestly, with what all you've lot created, it's hard to imagine such primitive responses coming from you all. It's almost spitting in the face of evolution itself. I'm just trying to show you the truth."

"Well we know you talk a lot of shit." Alex replied as he took aim, but stopped as the phone Umbra used reappeared before the man's face. The weapon that was firmly aimed for the stallion had not gone off, instead just stationary before shaking and eventually falling out of his hands.

The weapon slid on the ground by Alabaster, who looked up to see the horrified and tormented expression of the man beside him. Umbra shook his head as he shrugged. "And unlike your brother, I happen to very much back my words with actual facts. Don't believe me, then you can ask Alabaster right there."

Alex fell to his knees, holding the phone, he drew short and frantic breaths, trying to process what he saw on the screen. Stanton walked over and saw what it was his brother had collapsed to. He soon joined with his elder sibling, expressing his disbelief and horror, and then his grief to follow. I snarled back at the stallion. "What the fuck did you do!?"

He replied in a quiet tone. "I did them a noble service, I let them see their brother again." He continued through the ongoing shrieks and cries of the two brothers. "If you had only been paying attention to what I've been trying to tell you. Maybe you would understand why they are the way that they are now. And the evidence of that is what I've sent to you."

I continued to hold all disbelief in my heart as I pulled out my phone. I went back into my messaging app and selected the conversation. And the first thing I was greeted with were two gory images that seemed to involve Jasper in the background. The first was Jasper's head sitting idly by on a shelf, two headless bodies laying on an operating table, one with various staples on the body, the other with healed stitches and scars. The second image was what truly shook me.

It was Nondis, just his head on a table, sitting right next to a bag containing his element.

Umbra took back the phone he showed to the duo and continued to send images. "I showed these to Celestia as well. But since you're a medical-minded individual such as myself, I thought you would like some illustration of how my experimental operation went, Melanie." The next image was a picture of Nondis' head placed next to Jasper's body. Then came one of him being placed onto his body. At that point, I just put the phone down, beginning to hyperventilate. "The experiment was a failure. The body rejected the new host. Signals were sent to the body, but the body did not respond positively. And since I was working on limited time to get Nondis back on a working body, I tried to make sure that the new body was at least 'alive' enough where it could be used. All of my methods were successful, the prep was done to the T, but the body rejected him, and with seventeen seconds already elapsed from the moment I had him on the donor body, added to the four I used to move him, another three to seat him properly... well, it was too late to get him back to his own body. As a result, all brain function ceased, and he was gone."

Alex rose up and darted to the stallion, immediately laying his fists into the stallion's face. "YOU FUCKING PLAYED GOD WHILE YOU BUCHERED MY BROTHER, YOU SICK MOTHERFUCKER!" He screamed with hatred and vengeful bloodlust dripping from every word. He grunted and hollered as each fist made contact with him. But he hadn't even realized what was happening before his eyes because of how bad his rage blinded him.

Umbra once again swapped bodies and spoke. "I understand if you're upset. I'm upset at myself for failing. I too loved your brother, so much."

All of us were angry, we couldn't fathom the idea of us coming here only to find out that Nondis had died the way he did. It was pure denial at first, then the pictures came and showed us otherwise. There's no way to refute what was seen, the evidence was brutal, the truth all in plain sight.

The psycho stallion cheesed as he started to reminisce fondly. "He was so wonderful, winning at almost everything that was thrown his way. I couldn't believe he was so strong, so smart, so resourceful..." His eyes slowly drifted to me as he continued. "So firm, so enduring to the end. His body was so much of an Adonis that I had to keep it safe. After all my hard work, I would never be able to devote that much time in one setting to another. So I offered to keep him alive in that sense, at least his body can still be used. I did the same for Jasper, but he's a failed candidate, incompatible with the desired results of my research. Though I suppose there is some hope to be had in this, that the body I gave Nondis before the operation would serve as a vessel to a worthy candidate."

Alabaster fired the weapon in his possession, but was unprepared for the recoil, firing two rounds into both Umbra and the ceiling. He tried to remain composed as he spoke to the stallion. "You're not finding anymore candidates for this madness!"

The body that he shot hadn't even went down, he just simply looked back to the stallion who took fire at him. "Oh to the contrary, Alabaster. I have five prime candidate already lined up in this room, plus two witnesses to my account to certify my thesis. The only question there is to answer at this point is merely who I start with first."

Anger was supplanted by fear, Alex looked up to see the stallion collecting a number of surgical tools and serums, syringes and interveinal tubes, even closing the door and locking it with a distorted smile.

"At last, I have the humble beginnings to my newest masterpiece."

***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

A massive roar sounded from further down the halls, along with them were the sounds of impact. We all continued with our journey to try and find the creature we were set to confront. And since that was our objective, we went to the solitary set of doors my father had warned us about. This was probably the place where they had the monster lying in wait. The large steel doors were locked tight, barring all entrance.

We stood in anxious wait, prepping our minds for the fight ahead. "Alright girls, this is it."

"If there was ever an adventure we had to go on, I never expected something like this to be here in Canterlot of all places. Kinda wild if you think about it." Rainbow stated.

"That poor thing only wants to have fun, but I don't think she knows what's wrong with any of this. I'm starting to believe she really thinks all of this is normal." Pinkie said as she shook her head. "I never thought I would ever say this, but this party's over."

"I can only imagine how simplistic her life must've been before all of this." Rarity replied. "But now we have to do what we must to bring her down."

"Ain't that the truth." Applejack added. "None of this ain't right. An' Ah reckon we shouldn't be seein' any of this happenin' again. An' we're gonna make sure of that."

"I can only think of the families of those poor restless souls who found themselves trapped here. It's too cruel." Fluttershy said before closing her eyes and looking bravely at the doors. "They deserve so much better. And we should be able to give that to them."

"Well then." I replied as I felt an astronomical magic surging through my body, spreading out to that of my friends. We were enveloped in a flash of light that uplifted us before coming back down to the ground. Upon landing, we all had much longer manes and tails, our hooves sparkled, our bodies felt significantly lighter. I walked to the door, charging my horn to break it down. "Let's get this done and bring our friend back home."

In a powerful blast from my augmented magic, the doors broke down and fell within the room. From the moment the dust cleared, I was introduced to a familiar sight, though one that my friends had yet to experience for themselves. From the high ceiling hung several hundreds of bodies, possibly thousands. Each of them with their faces unveiled expressing the various states to which they've met their fates.

I issued a warning to the others. "Don't look up."

"It isn't anything we haven't seen already, darling." Rarity replied. "All it does is serve as an uncanny reminder of what we'll soon see for ourselves in the end."

"Even the animals I take care of find their last moments with me. But not like this." Mumbled Fluttershy.

"It's cold." Rainbow pointed out as she hovered slowly, rubbing her forelegs for warmth.

"It has to be, you can't let the fridges do all the work." I quoted, thinking of Guiding Light's words.

"What if this place is one giant fridge?" Pinkie questioned.

"Then we know what to expect." Applejack answered.

We heard movement from a distant part of the room. All of us turned to the direction of a series of body bags that was stashed away in a corner. Each of us tensed as we walked slowly, readying ourselves to confront the thing that was hiding within. We slowly closed the distance between us and the numerous body bags. Once we got close enough, we started to spread our formation out, ready to attack from every direction if that thing wanted to sprout out and surprise us. We heard a trembling breath from within the pile, both Rarity and I ignited our horns to lay into whatever was inside. In simultaneous casting, I used my telekinesis to grab at the topmost layer of body bags to try and surprise whatever was inside of here. I motioned my hoof to count to three.

One... two... three.

The body bags I moved off had revealed a figure underneath them, but far from what I was expecting. Instead of seeing a pony hiding in wait until the moment where they were revealed, it was a large human with a large scar running down the length of his spine. Various scars covered their body, running parallel of it's features. As soon as it was revealed to us, our powers surged back down to normal as we expressed our shock. We softly called out to the figure that huddled itself in the corner. "Are you okay?"

"...J-j-j-ust leav-v-v-e me alo-o-o-ne, Umbra." He shuddered.

My jaw fell to the ground, I didn't care of the bodies I ran through, past, or even over as I reached out to him. "Nondis! Oh my goodness! You're here!"

"Leave me alone, Umbra!" He called out angrily. "I'm tired of you playing these games with me."

Rarity then spoke out. "Oh darling... what did they do to you?"

The human looked back slowly to see us standing where we were, watching as he slowly revealed his face. He continued to show his disbelief. "Th-h-h-h-here's no way y-y-y-you're all here. It muss-s-s-s-st be the drug-s-s-s-s-s." He replied in disbelief.

"Non-non, we're here." Pinkie replied. "What are you doing underneath all of these corpses?"

"T-t-t-trying t-t-t-to ssss-t-t-tay warm." He replied. "Best p-p-lace in the room where the v-v-v-vents don't blow on y-y-y-y-y-ou as much."

I touched his arm, feeling how uncharacteristically cold and clammy he was. "You're so cold." I looked to Rarity and issued a request. "Can you summon something warm for him to wear?"

He held out his arms, revealing an unholy amount of scars on his hands, his wrists, his fingers, his arms, all throughout his body. On his wrists were a set of leather cuffs that appeared to be tightly bound to him. "G-g-g-get these t-t-t-things off of me." He stammered, his jaw trembling from the cold air in the room.

I tried to use my magic to wrestle the cuffs free from him, but found that my magic quenched immediately on contact. "Magic inhibitors. I've never seen them made out of this material."

Applejack walked over and snagged the cuffs with her teeth, trying to rip them off, but not without causing Nondis to scream out in discomfort. "AAHHHGGH!"

"Sorry, Nondis! These darn things feel like they don't come off of ya!" Applejack complained.

"They're grafted into my skin." He explained slowly, taking deep breaths. "It's gonna hurt like hell, but you're gonna tear these damned things off, no matter how much I scream."

"Ah don't wanna hurt ya, Nondis." Applejack argued.

He lifted his neck and ran a finger on a distinctive scar that ran the entire circumference of his neck. He revealed his chest, allowing us to see the great lengths where he had been cut open. His teeth chattered as he spoke. "Do you see what he did to me?... I'm not supposed to be alive right now.... So I don't give a shit what I'm gonna feel like.... You get these fucking things off me." Tears ran from his eyes, almost freezing on his face in the cold air. He held his wrists out, accepting of the pain he'd soon endure. "You're a strong pony, you can do it."

Realizing the seriousness of his tone and dedication, Applejack sulked over what she was asked to do. She clenched her eyes shut as she chomped down on the strap and tugged at it. "Alrighty partner, It ain't gon' feel nice."

Applejack looked to both me and Rarity to hold his arms in place, our magic locking his arms where they stood. Applejack counted down to herself before biting down and ripping at the cuffs in his wrists. With each yank we could see the skin separate from his wrists, blood started dripping down as Applejack strove to free him from the hellish bindings. As one wrist was freed from the bindings, Rarity summoned some clean socks to cover over his fresh wounds. His chest rose and fell rapidly as he tried to endure the pain. "Shit! Gaaah...FUCK!" He laboriously chanted before cheering himself on. "One more, one more, c'mon!"

Applejack didn't like having to do this, and neither was she in any mood to continue. "Nondis, please."

"Applejack, it's gonna feel worse when you do it later! It's cold as hell and I can barely feel my fingers! So let's get this done now!" He pleaded. "C'mon! You're not hurting me, you're helping me! One more! One more and we can go home!"

Applejack turned her head away, refusing to continue. "Ah'm sorry, Ah just can't live with myself doin' that to ya! Ah know ya want me to help, but Ah can't do this! It ain't in me to hurt my friends like this!" Applejack turned around completely, holding her hoof to her stomach as she gagged. "Ah'm sorry. Ah ain't strong enough fer it."

But as Applejack tried to collect herself mentally, Fluttershy stepped forward and whispered to the man. "Is there any way we can do this differently?"

He looked down to his bleeding wrist, then to the other. "As long as these things are on me, I can't ever shake off what he did to me while I was in them."

Fluttershy closed her eyes. "...I'm not strong, nor am I as stout as Applejack. But as long as you know that this will hurt, I will try my best."

His breath shuddered, not from the cold air exclusively, but also from the pain he was about to endure once more. "...Yeah, and don't apologize, you're helping me."

"I don't intend to." She answered as she leaned down, grabbing the strap with her teeth. "Okay, on the count of three. One. two─" She immediately went to tugging, pulling and yanking her head back as she violently peeled off a portion of the strap free from his wrist. Nondis screamed, the muscles in his arms tensed as much as they did during Applejack's attempt. And unlike Applejack, her work took twice as long. I looked over to the farm mare, who held her hooves over her ears, mouthing her apology repeatedly. Fluttershy worked hard to remove the strap from his wrist, giving one last yank before freeing him of the magic inhibitors that kept him from being able to fend for himself. Both Rarity and I released his arms after Fluttershy wrapped his other wrist in another clean sock. His hands shook violently as he looked to his crudely bandaged wounds. The yellow pegasus sighed as she spoke to the human. "You did good."

"Thank you..." He weakly replied. "Thank you all... so much."

Rainbow winced as she watched the human stand up, seeing the multitude of scars on every part of his body. "I'd like to say 'that's what friends are for' but that had to hurt way too much for you to even see us as that."

"Sometimes we gotta endure pain too." He said with a shiver. He looked over to Rarity and chattered his teeth. "Hey, you have a coat?"

"Not one that fits well." She replied. "You've grown a lot since you've been brought here."

"Anything on me is better than nothing." He responded, still holding himself to stay warm.

My mind started to hum loudly, indicating that the phone I had located offsite was vibrating. I summoned for my phone and pulled up the messages. The first thing that popped up in my messages was a tilted image of what appeared to be Umbra with a number of human bodies in his magic. Below had a message stating that Celestia's party was fighting the monster, all while the others had gotten caught by Umbra himself.

I made the news known to the girls. "We don't have much time! Umbra's got to the others!"

"Wait, what others?" Rainbow questioned.

"The other party, our rescue party!"

"Oh no! Melanie!" Fluttershy shrieked.

Nondis looked to Rarity and urged his request. "Fuck it, give me that uniform you've been working on."

"But your measurements." Rarity cried out in protest.

"Fuck that, give me the damned thing so I can be decent!"

***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

Umbra stretched his hooves as he put together his collection of lab tools as he walked over to Stanton, deciding in his mind that he would be the first victim of his work. My eyes turned to the pair of unicorn siblings, each with some leather bindings attached to their legs and magic blockers to their horns. He had their mouths bound with medical gauze so that they couldn't speak.

The rest of us struggled as we tried to break out of his magic, but our efforts proved entirely fruitless, his magic was far too strong for us to break. Alex in particular was silenced as he was forced to watch his youngest brother to become a victim of Umbra's work. The stallion himself had giddied over where he wanted to start first.

"So, you're an athletic type. I can only begin to wonder how your body stacks up well to what your brother possessed."

Stanton's lips were sealed by another means. Before utilizing his tools, he swapped bodies and wrapped his hoof against the man's mouth. He then swapped back and got right into his tools. So Stanton couldn't say much outside of a bunch of grunting and moaning.

"I'm so glad you agree." Umbra smiled at the human before looking back to me. "I'm sure you'll inform me of my progress. After all, I'm going to need you to be my second hoof." He said as he levitated me by his side to oversee the operation. "Now, stay there and and gauge me on how well I cut."

"You know, anesthesia would be pretty fucking essential right now." I snarled at the psycho.

"Sorry hun, fresh out of my supply. I would use it if I had much more than I already do, but your friend took the last bit I had before my next shipment came in. And in speaking of that, my dolls are incapacitated at the moment, so no using them for that. I'm going to have to be very attentive to my first incision." He paused for a moment and closed his eyes before exclaiming. "Oh wait! I do have a doll or two still able to move around. I guess I could have them pick up tab on the bodies of the others fighting my beloved Congregant." His ears perked up after a quick thought, bringing his attention to Stanton. "Ah! I know what I'm going to do first! I'm going to go for some brain work today! I never got a chance to utilize your brother for that, so you'll be my first subject on that matter!"

"You can't operate on someone's brain while they're conscious! They can still move, which makes every cut twice as dangerous!"

He again looked to Stanton. "You hear that, my dear subject? That means you're going to have to stay still while I work."

"You're going to hurt him!" I urged.

"Oh, he'll probably enjoy it more than he won't." He replied as he brought over a phial of some strange serum. "This little solution will replace everything in his dopamine responses with endorphins. And the good news: It's extremely potent, so potent that he might just have a happy little accident or two while I work on him. He might love me more than your friend did in those moments."

He grabbed a syringe and started measuring out his dosage all while I complained. "You can't just put a bunch of shit in his system without knowing what it may do to him."

"It worked on your brother. And I have plenty more where this came from. I couldn't consider this any more of a win." He stated as he tapped the needle, using his magic to apply a tourniquet for his arm. "Now try not to struggle. You're going to feel like you're in heaven soon enough."

*knock knock knock*

A knocking sounded on the glass window leading into the operating room. Umbra paused for a moment and went about his injection until it sounded another time. The stallion called out in frustration. "Can you wait!? I'm busy with a patient right now!"

"DAAAAARLING DAAAAAADDY, COME OUT AND PLAY!"

Next thing I saw was the window shattering and a wooden doll suddenly launched into the room. Umbra stopped the mannequin from barreling into himself, staring back at the open window. "Oh, what is it now!?"

A hand grasped at the frame where the glass had rested in, fingers bleeding as it grasped to anchor the body that walked in. But the voice was certainly his. "Hi there... dad."

My eyes expanded, watching the man walk into the room. Almost reaching as high as seven feet standing, he donned a black guard uniform with purple and silver accents. He ripped the curtains down and revealed his face, staring down the stallion he easily dwarfed. Umbra expressed his bewilderment. "I. But. You. How!? How did you get out!? That door locks from the outside!"

All of us watched in complete disbelief as Nondis walked into the room, but he didn't come alone. Standing by his side was Twilight, Pinkie, Rarity, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Applejack. He then simply replied. "Friends." His hands shook as they raised up, bloodied bandages on his wrists as he pointed to the stallion. "But of all the things that's gone bad for you today, the worst one was the fact that you let me live. You could've just let me die when I asked, when I begged for it, left me to drown, choke me out, hell keep my head unattached. But you just couldn't let go."

"I told you why!" He called out before being levitated into Nondis grip.

Nondis watched quietly as the stallion wriggled as his chin was squeezed by his unforgiving fingers. "You have only yourself to blame." He replied before cocking a fist back and driving it directly into his skull, completely collapsing the stallion's face and knocking his head completely off. The corpse fell from his hand and he called out quietly. "Next body up, please."

Umbra used the body that held Stanton down, holding the syringe against his neck. "You make another move and I'll inject your brother full of serum" Twilight showed no hesitation in blasting a bolt for the syringe he held to Stanton's neck. The contents splashed and fell to the floor as he looked down to see what had happened. "You stupid girl." He growled. "Do you have any idea of how much that one dose costs?"

"I fail to see where that's any of my concern." She replied as Nondis ran past her and yanked Umbra by his neck, repeating the same act of violence to disable the body. He ran over to his younger brother on the operating table and checked on him.

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

"Stat, you good?" Stanton didn't reply, just remaining breathless as I stood before him. He appeared pale as he looked me up and down. "Yo, you look like I'm on some paranormal-type shit."

The only thing Stanton did was reach out to me and hugged me tightly, sniffling as he replied. "Oh God, oh damn I don't know if you're actually alive, you smell dead. But I'm so glad you smell like it and not look like it."

"Yeah, I might have had a scare or two. Today was pretty much me wishing that it did happen" I replied. "The girls saved me, dressed me up, got me right. But as soon as we heard you got snagged by Umbra, I had to run in. I'm so sorry."

"You dumb motherfucker." Alex called out as he hugged me from behind. "Don't you ever get yourself into some fucked up shit like this ever again, do you hear me?" He held my head as if he was scared that it would come off.

"It's attached." I replied. "I take it he told you what he did."

"Told us?" Mel replied as she damn near collapsed to her knees. "Nondis, we saw pictures, he had pictures, you were..." She shook her head, trying to convince herself that she wasn't suffering from some fever dream. "...You can't be here, you're not supposed to be here, you're not supposed to be talking or saving us!"

As Rarity freed both Blue and Alabaster from their bindings, Blue expressed her happiness in seeing me alive. "I was about to lose all hope of existing because of you. Please don't say you were wanting to die here."

I ran my hand against my neck and quietly spoke to her. "You find out that someone just placed your head on another body and you still live to talk about it. It's pretty damn easy to have an existential crisis after that one."

"Nondis, you're pretty tall. Is that even your body now?" Cliff questioned.

"I don't even know right now." I replied.

Melanie got up and started tugging at my jacket. "Up with it. C'mon, let me see it."

"Mel, if you're looking for the surgery scar you gave me after your operation, it's a mess. I've seen my own ribs and beating heart more than that scar over the past... what day is it?"

"It's Sunday." She called out. "You've been here for two days, now take off that damn jacket."

"Mel, I just got warm." I answered.

She completely ignored me and opened my jacket to reveal the mess of surgical scars on my chest and abdomen. She lifted my left arm and covered her mouth. The tears full-on exploded from her as she clenched her arms around me. "Oh my God, it's you! It's you, all of you!"

"How do you know that for certain?" I questioned.

"You have a birthmark under your left armpit." Twilight explained. "You may not pay much attention to it because you have a lot going on, but it's kinda hard to not notice with you sweating on top of me."

"And had it not been there, we would've told you that from the start." Rarity added. "Sorry darling, but all those positions you've put me in, how could I not take in all of what you are?"

"Must be pretty nice to be in that position." Pinkie mumbled.

Twilight blushed as she cleared her throat. "Well conversations aside, we need to get out of here before Umbra regroups."

"More like before that thing wipes out Celestia's party." Mel pointed out. "Our whole order got fucked up, Twilight found you instead of fighting that thing, we found Umbra instead of finding you. They have to be fighting that thing."

I thought to myself aloud as I noticed how many bodies she took with her, which was very many. The whole ceiling was still packed like a slaughterhouse, which could only mean she wasn't at full strength, even now. "We might have a chance." I spoke out. "That thing can pack a punch, but it's nowhere near full strength."

"How do you know?" Twilight questioned.

"When you came and got me, have you ever looked up at the ceiling and noticed what's missing and what's not?" I inquired.

"There were a lot of spare bodies in that room." She replied.

"And maybe a few missing here or there, right?" I pointed out. "I fought that thing at full strength, and Umbra had to save my life. These surgeries weren't completely cosmetic or just enhanced for his own amusement. He built me to try and become that thing... a human version of it, no less."

"I'm sorry, what?" Mel stared at me as if I was crazy with what I revealed.

Twilight's phone buzzed, indicating that there was another message coming through. It was a message giving an update about Celestia's party. And they were losing ground fast. Twilight perked up and spoke to me. "You'll have to explain that later, Celestia won't make it for long. Let's get moving."

We all nodded in agreement as I took lead.

Celestia was pushed back, continuing to hold her shield over the party that fought alongside her. As she started to show signs of strain, Blueblood bravely stood before her to take any further incoming blows. A tendril rose directly in front of him and threatened to crush him entirely, but Crescent held his sword to parry the slimy appendage. In a move to try and make space, Kalimba sent a magic bolt to the filly who stood at the center of the bulking shadow. But instead of her taking the blow, she raised another two bodies from her collective and blocked all the blows that came her way.

The group found themselves almost back to where they first saw her in the halls after having to constantly fall back and regroup for the next wave of attacks. And since her shadow was pretty much taking up much of the space they had, there was little choice but to try and relocate to places where they could teleport to within the lab. While the fight had not been much between the two sides, it's been more of one trying to pull the other away from where the two other rescue groups had ran off to. The only thing they sought to do was to buy time.

But again, the party of mostly royals and guards had started to wain in strength and endurance, leaving them fatigued for their current stand. While Celestia adamantly tried to conserve her magic for their final escape, she didn't want to keep holding back for much longer.

The creature called back to the group, giving them a grim complaint. "Y̸̢̓o̶̢͒û̵̹'̵̥̄ṛ̵̓e̴̱̿ ̷̖͝j̷͎͗u̷̓ͅs̵̲͂t̶̥̿ ̸̪̉ḷ̷̿i̴͉̔k̵̘̎e̶̬͘ ̴͈͝ť̵̞ḧ̴̜ẻ̴̹ ̶͍̈́o̷̤͘ṯ̶̎h̶̠́e̴̩̾ṛ̷́s̶͙̆!̸͖͠ ̷͕̿A̴̞͂l̸͍͠l̶͎͂ ̶̮̈́ẗ̴̪ḩ̸͘é̴͔y̶̦͑ ̸̨̈́d̷̤͑o̷͇̊ ̸̢̈i̷̛̮ś̸͕ ̴̨̀r̵͍͒u̶̦͑n̸̞͆ ̸͕̊á̴̮w̵̯̒å̸̩ý̷̻ ̶̫͋f̶̫́r̶̜̆ò̷̰m̶̬̽ ̸̻͋m̴̭̿ĕ̷͓!̶̘͛ ̸̦̔W̵͈̐h̷̨̅y̸̢͌ ̷͙͑c̷̚͜ä̸̟ņ̷̕'̶͕̈́t̶̙͝ ̶̭͘ý̶͉o̷͕͆u̵̥̿ ̶̱̏j̷̟̀ǘ̴̢s̷͓͂t̴̮̎ ̶̰͝s̶͎͐ẗ̵̪ạ̶̓ỷ̵̲ ̴͚̚h̴̺̉e̸̲̋ṛ̴̚e̴̻̕ ̷̗̎a̷̭̍n̸̖̽d̶̟̉ ̸̺͐p̵̏ͅl̵͎̿a̷͒ͅy̶̟̔!̸̘̂?̷͚͝"

Blueblood muttered to Celestia. "Well, this is just as dire as the battle of Canterlot Fields."

"I feel this one may be more dire than that." She replied. "Everything I throw at this thing, it just shrugs off."

"Do we try and withdraw again?" Crescent questioned.

"Anyplace but here would be nice." Kalimba said as she beamed down yet another tentacle.

She also used her firearm to try and catch the creature off-guard. But as she was shot, she sank down into the shadow itself and shifted herself forward, relocating the shadow to where it had engulfed their position. Celestia quickly transported the group out of it's reach and put up yet another shield to prevent themselves from any stray blows. She groaned out as one blow had caused her horn to spark on impact. "Kalimba, message the others quickly." She urged. "Tell them that we need to go, now!"

Blueblood grimaced as he spoke. "It makes no sense in staying for the dead, we might as well get out of here before we become just like them."

"With Nondis dead, we don't have a purpose in being here. Let's get the others and go." Crescent stressed as he sliced at a few more tentacles that tried to slither their way.

Kalimba grimaced, not wanting to say what was already confirmed in her eyes. She had already lost much and accepted that there would be very little for her to return to outside of her younger sister, who barely knew much of her anyhow. She clenched her eyes, shot another bolt and ran straight for the filly at the center of the mass. She hollered back to the trio she ran out from. "I will buy you time! Go!"

Celestia vehemently charged in after her, speaking to the zebracorn. "Kalimba, a needless sacrifice is nothing more than a foolish casualty! Don't be so stupid!"

"I am not stupid!" The zebra used much of her magic to try and use two spells at once, casting a bolt at the creature and pushing the princess back to the other two stallions who watched down the hall. "I am merely realizing my worth! Now go!" She called out before being brutally hammered aside by a tendril. The mare slammed into a wall, falling limp before getting up slowly and looking around disoriented. As the world around her appeared to be nothing but swirling images and stars, she propped herself against the wall and called out weakly. "Baba... Mama... I'm so tired."

"Kalimba!" Celestia called out, being withheld by both Blueblood and Crescent.

Crescent quickly levitated the zebra back to their formation, trying to care for the injured mare as she started to cough up blood. "Hey, stay with me. We're not back home yet."

The zebra cried as she howled in gurgling pain. "Baba! Mama!"

The creature once again advanced onto their position. Celestia stood with her wings outstretched before the formation, her horn glowing a rich golden flame before parts of her mane would begin to transform from it's usual prismatic sky coloring to flames. Her eyes fixated on the creature that advanced it's shadow around the entire group. "You dare to challenge me, you unnatural abomination!? I will show you fear!"

The filly then called out in a distorted voice. "H̵̱̄u̵͙͝g̵͉̈́!̸̯͗"

Three tentacles pierced through the shadow and latched themselves around the enraged princess, who unleashed a powerful flaming shield that incinerated the tendrils that gripped her. "DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH ME!!!" She shouted in her Royal Canterlot Voice.

"T̴͓͊a̶̙̍g̷̢̊!̴͈͘" Another tendril jettisoned form the shadow below in an attempt to pierce the princess' chest, but her shield held strong. She sent several others to perform the task she called out, but the princess' shield remained as fiery, cremating everything that threatened it to ash before they would even reach an inch within the princess' body.

Blueblood and Crescent carefully carried the injured mare away from the skirmish, actively trying to keep themselves away from the fight. Blueblood then called out to the princess. "Celestia! Let's go! We stay here any longer, she won't make it!"

"LEAVE THEN!" The princess ordered, her voice breaking every window in the hall. More of Celestia's mane began to become consumed in fire, one of her eyes becoming crimson and yellow as started to wield her halberd with the intent to destroy the creature that opposed her. "YOU UNNATURAL THING! YOU SHALL SEE JUDGEMENT!"

The filly, realizing that she wasn't going to immediately win, sank into the shadow and withdrew quickly. She called out as she descended into the pool of darkness. "Y̶o̴u̷ ̸b̴i̸g̷ ̵b̵u̵l̵l̸y̸!̷ ̴Y̵o̶u̶'̶r̷e̶ ̷g̸o̷n̸n̸a̸ ̴b̸e̷ ̵i̵n̴ ̵b̵i̶g̸ ̵t̷r̸o̶u̵b̷l̷e̷!̶"

Celestia, seeing the creature retreat temporarily, reverted back to her usual form and stumbled as she powered down. "That took a lot out of me. We need to go." Looking back where the creature retreated to, she ran back towards the party she led. Once she turned the corner, she could see Kalimba convulsing unsteadily as she had blood oozing from her mouth. She looked to Crescent. "What's her status?"

"Punctured lung, so definitely some broken ribs there. She's concussed also."

"Can you treat her or will it have to wait?" She inquired.

"That thing will be coming back for us." Blueblood warned as he lifted the mare to his back. "And it will definitely be even stronger."

"Stronger than what we've just faced?" Crescent questioned in disbelief. "That thing was already breaking doors and puncturing ponies like parchment."

"We might have fought that thing off for now, but if you say it's coming back for another round, I doubt that I will have enough magic to teleport us out from here after fighting that thing off again."

"Can you do that for us now?" Blueblood questioned.

"Not until we've found the others." She answered, starting to apply some measure of healing magic to the injured mare on his back. "I don't want her dying here, not today. She deserves better than that."

"Stupid girl, why the hell would she just run in like that!?" The blond prince cursed.

"Because she's lost hope." Crescent answered quietly. "With Nondis dead, I doubt she won't have a moment living where she'd wish to take her own life. I've seen this too many times."

As they were talking, the heard a noise coming from the other side of the hall. They remained quiet, but on their guard as the sounds got closer. But they started to let their guard down as the conversation taking place further down became clearer.

"Are you sure you mapped this place?"

"I wouldn't be stupid enough not to! Here, look at it for yourself!"

"Your drawing sucks."

"Oh, I'm sorry for not being Michelangelo who can illustrate all over the top of the fucking Sistine Chapel."

As our party turned the corner, we were met with a grisly sight of Kalimba hunched over Blueblood's back. I ran over quickly to check in on the group. "Kali!" I called out, quickly joining her side. "Kali, you good?"

The mare weakly groaned her reply. "Abeg... tell me I have finally crossed over."

"You're not dead yet." The prince answered her before looking up to me with amazement. "And neither are you... You glorious bastard, how are you breathing?"

"Honestly, I was hoping to not be doing that before you guys came along." I replied.

"But he showed us... you were... dead." Crescent added.

I lifted my collar to reveal the scar on my neck. "I'm sure he would've had you think that. No better path for the devil to win than to convince the world that he doesn't exist."

"You're not a devil." Celestia replied as she looked up to me. "But you sure do look like you've endured his work."

"It's been a long weekend." I replied. "I want to go home."

"Then there's no better time than the present." She replied as she saw Twilight and her group bringing up the rear. "Twilight, let's get out of here."

"I second the motion." She said as both she and her former mentor illuminated their horns to cast the mass teleportation spell. "Hang on tight, everypony. We've never teleported this many bodies all at once, so it'll be a bit."

A piercing ring sounded throughout the halls. Without warning the tiles of the floor began to glow orange all around us. I turned back around to see a not-so-enthusiastic Umbra trotting up towards us with his cane. He called out in a loud manic voice. "Well. I didn't think I'd be so upset where I'd take the time to actively hop on over to actually give this my personal attention." He replied as he suddenly disappeared and reappeared beside me. "And you would leave with every last bit of what I gave you, no less. Typical of such an irresponsible male."

Before I could cock a fist back and punch him, I found all of my body sinking to the ground. In my mind was a piercing pain that completely disabled me. Celestia called him out in a rage. "Stop this!"

"You tell me when you will die, then I will stop!" He shouted back, slamming his cane into the ground. Both the magic of Twilight's and Celestia's teleportation spell subsided. The floor started to glow even brighter as the lights completely went black. Umbra lifted my chin as he continued. "I wanted only what was the best for you. I truly wanted nothing more than to give you the body you deserved. You wanted to know everything, so I traded your offer by making you into what you deserved to be. Aren't you tired of being so vulnerable?"

"A penile enhancement surgery does not help me in any way." I replied.

"But isn't it what you human males prefer?" He asked with a chuckle. "That matter aside, I improved your body substantially. You should be singing my praises, not everyone gets such an exclusive opportunity. You shouldn't just be grateful, you should obligate your body to my cause, especially with me being the one who gave it to you."

"Where in the fuck did I tell you to do any of that?"

"You were dying, Nondis! I saved you! Where's my thanks? You can love that power-abusing despot calling herself a princess, but you can't reciprocate the tiniest bit of affection I seek, the slightest bit of unquestioned obedience, or even the minimum show of gratitude. You'd sooner choose the one who barely saved you, can't lift a hoof to fix whatever is wrong with you, relying on spells and hopes that you'll get by. But I spend DAYS running tests, observing your vitals, altering your bone structure to make you even more durable. I made you taller to stand out in a crowd of your peers. I made it to where you can live past improbable odds and keep yourself alive. I've operated on you so much now that I know you from the inside out. I know what you hate, what you like, what you are, and what you can be. So I wonder why it is that you still defy me."

"You threatened my friends. You played God and violated me in ways beyond forgiving. But somehow you think you're entitled to me." I responded. "You fucked up from the moment you scooped me out of that arena, knowing damn well I was supposed to die. But you know what, thank you, thank you for letting me see the day you get what you deserve!"

Umbra picked up my head and whispered. "You know my plans. You know what I'm capable of. And you owe me a life's debt, and you will pay me for it. But if you won't pay me for it, then I will have your entire species pay the toll! Instead of a merciful deity, I will be as merciless as that mare you love so illegally. I'll become the despot she is, I'll become the very thing you show loyalty to. Maybe that's what you want, what you gravitate towards. How does that sound?"

I looked down to the floor as it glowed a fiery orange. In the background I could hear the sound of a set of small hooves barreling our way. Celestia and Twilight tried to restart their spell, but found that their magic would not even manifest. "My magic's being canceled out." Twilight announced.

"And I've no magic to defend us." Celestia added with a worried glance further down the hall, watching as the tiles were slowly swallowed by an encroaching shadow. "That thing is coming back."

Umbra tapped his hoof on the ground. "Ah, you've noticed that my floors aren't so plain-looking now. Each tile has a magic inhibition seal placed on it by yours truly, so if I choose to activate it, only my magic will persist while yours quench." He looked down to my wrists and saw the bloodied socks I wore on each of them. "An anti-escape maneuver I've applied to prohibit breakouts of magical creatures." His eyes wandered over to Fluttershy as he summoned a powerful sphere of magic before it started to compress itself to a much smaller bead. "And I'm sure Discord would love to come by and help you, I wonder what he would say to my power now. So let's test that theory and see what he can do here in this place. Will he save you, or even can he? A quick life-or-death wager, let's find out."

Celestia, realizing what was about to take place, called out to the unknowing mare. "Fluttershy, run!"

The mare did as she was told and got up to run. Umbra teleported in front of her, his spell still active. "Oh, how I hate it when they run." He fired his spell and sent the tiny beam barreling into Fluttershy as she stood in fear of her life. The mare gave a shriek before falling silent.

As the beam made contact, the high princess screamed out as the mare collapsed to the ground. Twilight was in horror at watching her friend fall quietly to the ground. Rainbow Dash felt a tremendous weight sink in her body as she watched her long-time friend lay on the ground. The others called out her name, trying to reach out to her. Melanie watched in disbelief as they crowded around her.

But Umbra stood with a scowl on his face, first seeing the white aura over the pegasus and then looking back at the glint of white light coming from our party.

My hand glowed brightly, outstretched to the yellow mare as she laid on the ground. My other hand tightly grasped at the element that suddenly appeared within it. While the others were unable to use their magic, I was suddenly able to. And in turn, I casted a bolt of magic towards the stallion. He dodged out of the way, watching as the beam traveled down the hall and suddenly hit the filly that barreled towards us. A massive howl sounded throughout the entire lab as the ground shook with the multitude of voices all crying out in a brief impact of pain.

The element in my hand began to glow a soft magenta before turning a pure snow white. An aura grew around my entire body, quenching that of the tiles beneath me. Without warning, Mel's hair glowed warmly as a pink streak appeared in her usually brown strands, all connecting from the element that was clamped to her hair. Cliff's eyes changed to blue as he looked over to the woman who's own pink aura developed a growing void of quenching magic to negate the tiles beneath where she stood. As he stepped forward, the tiles were darkened as a blue flame grew around his feet, soon enveloping his entire body. Rickey looked down at himself, seeing his feet run red as his own flame silenced the spell beneath him. He stomped his foot to widen the area of how much of the tiles were silenced. Stanton's hands glowed a similar orange to that of the tiles themselves, but he punched down at the floor to completely destroy the ones he stood on, his aura growing stronger from the impact. Alex watched as his arms developed a purple streak of diamonds as though it was a tattoo. He waved his hands over the floor, watching as the tiles were shut down beneath his hand.

I looked to all of my friends and their varying modes of transformation, be it minor or significant, and was amazed of the power that flowed through all of us. We all looked to one another and felt a unifying power, a weightless presence guiding us without words on what we were to do next. I quickly levitated Fluttershy over to us. Umbra ran in to try and stop us, but Stanton stood where he was and pounded his fist down, causing the ceiling to collapse on top of the stallion. Twilight's party ran back to us, getting in the place where the tiles couldn't glow. Celestia stood close by me, starting back up her spell.

Ÿ̶́͆ͅÒ̷̡̤Ū̶̝̣̉̔̌͠ ̶̨̺̈́͊̽̚͝ͅH̶̛̭́̂̃̇U̵͇̭̣̞͖͘Ṟ̴͐̿͠Ṱ̵͌̄ ̶̰̳͖͈͑̐͑̽͝ͅM̴̱͚̅͑͝Y̸̛̼̝͍̍͌ ̵̛̝̭̝̑̚D̴̹͚̉̒̕Ä̶̩̙͙͉́́̽̑D̶͕͆̈D̵̻̂̽̽͋Y̴͔͔͖̅͘!̸̬̰͈̱͙͒̆͠͠ ̴̢̢̯̗̺́̈̂͝N̶̜̙̍̋Ò̷̫̯̮̮͊͂̌͠W̵̞̳͉̜͚͘ ̶̜̜͕̟̾̽͛̈́ͅȈ̷̻̥͙͙'̷̖̰̖͇̦̀M̵͓̔͒͒͂̍ ̵͎̟͎̱̅G̶̖͙̳̎̉̓̚͝Ò̴̡̡̼̮͉̒Ḯ̵̜̹̬̦̥̓̃̽̀Ǹ̸̪̰̿́̄̈Ǵ̷̛̠̮̤͖̩ ̵̜̻͌T̸̡̡̻͗̇̈̒͠Ö̶̟́̈́̏̐̄ ̵̞͍͈̦̀͘Ḫ̶̭͆͜Ů̵̹̘͈͎͖Ȓ̵̬̱͈̫̹T̶͚̭͔̩͝ ̵̬̩̂̓͝Y̷̨̧̗̪̜͑́̽̽̑O̸̫̜̜̰̊͊̆̚U̴͍̣̣̬̞͒͝!̸̡̤̹̲̿̽̈́̑͗

The harrowing cry was enough to awaken Fluttershy, who yelped as she curled into herself. Rainbow Dash stood in front of her to protect her. Twilight joined with her mentor in casting the spell, hoping to hurry and get back the progress they lost. I saw Alabaster join with Blueblood and Crescent in an effort to beam down the monster that started back in trying to reach us. Blue called out to us as we encircled our entire group. "We'll try to buy you some time!" She rushed by to join with the other three ponies in suppressing the creature that rushed towards them.

But as the rubble started to shift, Umbra's hoof came from underneath, pushing off whatever had him pinned down. Rarity, thinking on her hooves, sent powerful blasts of magic into the ceiling in an attempt to keep the stallion buried. "STAY DOWN THERE AND DIE, YOU FOUL BASTARD!" Applejack kicked down a wall to use some of the rubble as ammunition. She found a series of heavy chunks of concrete and bucked them into the pile to help Rarity.

A tendril jettisoned from further down the hall, rising from within the ground before threatening to try and strike at Celestia, but Pinkie ran underneath it and bucked it out of the way, causing it to completely miss it's intended target. Rainbow came down and dropkicked the tendril at such a speed where she completely severed the tendril from it's source. As it wriggled wildly from the sudden disconnect, Fluttershy called upon Discord to help her clear the tendrils from within the field they stood in.

Umbra, growing more and more angry with what was taking place, erupted out of the rubble and shouted to the party. "There ain't a mountain high enough, a valley low enough, or an ocean wide enough to keep me from getting to you! I will have what's mine!"

The stallion's ears twitched before he ducked down below to avoid a stray beam of magic. He looked back to the source, seeing Kalimba being weakly coherent but firmly aiming her magic at the stallion. She murmured under her breath. "You will get yours."

Umbra threatened to cast another one of his bolts, but found himself having to teleport out of danger as a large chunk of rubble was launched to him. Rarity teleported from above him and grappled the stallion, quenching his horn at every opportunity. In a show of rage, he screamed as he grabbed her from off of his back and slammed her to the ground. But before he could use his own magic, a spear lunged cleanly at him, causing him to focus more on dodging the blows. Blueblood continued to apply the pressure on him. "For a boastful aristocratic brat, you sure do handle the pressure of battle fairly well!"

"You realize how many lives I've lived, how many bodies I've hosted who were skilled at combat!? My cousin wasn't the only one who endured training! I could easily beat a lowly peasant like you!" He called out as he summoned his cane to parry some of the blows.

"But I'll tell you one thing your method of existence had made you weak to!" Blueblood rebutted as he summoned a sword to further put the stallion on his heels. He tossed the weapon in the direction of the stallion, who barely dodged it. But as he was about to counter another blow the prince made at him, the sword he dodged found itself lodged into his neck from behind. Umbra looked back to see Rarity wielding the weapon for herself. Blueblood then replied. "You've grown weak in the art of self-preservation! You've lived so many lives that you tossed that sense away because you knew there would always be another chance. But now that it's time to get serious, you've forgotten how important it is to protect the one life you have!" Rarity then cut through his neck, halfway slicing through his neck. Blueblood used his spear to pin him down and watched as Rarity came back to finish her work, decapitating the stallion. "Now you'll have to find another."

"D̷͔̱͉͍̔͛Ȁ̶̬̫̰D̷͇̟̺̣̏̽̕͜D̵̦͕̙̝͝Y̵̛̮̖̳̜͙̾̉͝ ̶̭̝̥̘͍͊͘͝͝N̵̝̑̇̊̃͜͝O̶͎̬̅̀̚͜ͅ!̵͖̪͛̏̄̾͠"

The entire lab rattled, the foundations themselves moved and started to crack some of the walls and floors. The creature that shouted out sent out several tendrils to try and overwhelm the party of unicorns defending our formation. But they found themselves suddenly teleported into the circle that both Celestia and Twilight manifested. A number of runes and shapes revealed themselves in place of the inhibitor seals. The field of the spell grew to entrap all who were within, using the six of us humans as it's outmost boundary. The shadow enveloped everywhere we stood except for the field in where we guarded. The creature threw everything it had to stop us in that moment.

But it was too late.

Meanwhile at Canterlot Castle...

We were suddenly teleported back into the front lobby of the castle, where Solemn Oath, Princess Cadance. and Shining Armor awaited us. There were a number of onlookers, mainly some guards conducting their shifts. All of who were just in awe that us humans were actually glowing with all the power that was imbued in the elements we borrowed. In the seconds we realized where we were, our connections to one another severed, and our power had completely subsided. But upon that withdrawal of so much energy, our bodies collapsed with the sudden reintroduction of gravity hitting us like a ton of bricks.

We all looked to one another, seeing that our changes still remained with us as opposed to subsiding with our temporarily gifted powers. Alex looked to me and smiled, as if to simply say without words 'welcome home'. I nodded back before feeling the terrible weight of relief come over my shoulders, the sweet smell of royal scents and oils as opposed to rotten corpses and the taste of saline ever present on my tongue from the interveinal injections. I no longer saw a sterile environment with faceless dolls crowding around my body, but familiar faces that gave me the space to react.

Solemn was the first to speak. "Captain! Wow, where have you been?" She questioned before getting close enough to smell me. "Ugh... And why do you smell like you've been out rotting for three days."

Shining approached also, replying back to the guardsmare. "I'm sure he'd much rather smell like that as opposed to being that way."

"So how do you feel?" Cadance inquired. "You're an element bearer, officially. You now have the power to save Equestria and your world. I bet some part of it excites you."

I shook my head, just relieved that I was speaking to her. "Honestly... I just can't believe I'm here right now. I'm back home..." I said before it finally hit me. The small amount of hope I had started to cast away had blossomed into a bright doorway, leading back to where I could lay my head and rest. My body grew weak as I tried to suppress my initial emotions, at least for long enough where I could finally have the moment to express myself. "...I'm back, and I'm ready to go whenever."

Without me realizing it, a crowd had gathered in the castle. All of the onlookers had watched quietly as I stood to my feet. Some gasped and looked at me. I saw the number of confused and mortified faces that littered the room. I had looked down, seeing the number of scars on my hands, the bloodied socks on my wrists, the drastic change in my height, all very much appeared like I had come off as someone else donning an Equestrian Guard uniform.

Twilight grabbed at my hand, smiling up at me. "We're so glad you're safe now."

But just as I was about to have another breath of fresh air, another teleportation spell had gone off nearby. We looked to see Umbra walking towards us, reaching out to me in particular. "I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU YET! GET BACK HERE!"

However, as he lunged for me, his body was seemingly swallowed in a sinister looking glow of magic. It was an unusual aura of black and green lightening with purple blobs. He was frozen in place as Shining Armor called out to him. "YOU! OUT!" For that moment, the young prince's eyes glowed the same colors as that foreboding aura. The stallion was cast back out in an unceremonious poof.

Twilight looked to her brother. "You're using King Sombra's spells?"

"Well I did read up after he beat me in our first encounter. I did some research and saw some spells, learned a little alicorn magic and thought it would be nice to use it for this purpose. Anypony I don't know who suddenly ports themselves in are immediately cast back out to where they came from."

"You just be careful, Shining." Cadance warned. "Alicorn magic has a strong potential to corrupt those who use it."

"It's only for this once." He replied.

Melanie then asked. "Okay, so we're all home. But do you think that barrier you put up will hold up against what they have going for us?"

"Meh, I've done bigger." He replied with a proud smirk. "Besides, the tighter the field, the stronger it becomes, the less frequent you have to cast into it to keep it up."

"And the less frequent you get headaches, dear." Cadance added.

"Well, that too." He replied before his mom came running past him, lunging herself at her husband.

"Crescent!" Velvet called out as she hugged her spouse of several years. She gave him a kiss on the lips and hugged him once more. "Honey, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." He said before glancing over to Kalimba, who was assisted by Prince Blueblood still. "Our casualties could've been substantial, but I can thankfully chalk that to a minimum."

Alabaster then issued a general warning for the group at large. "We might have saved Nondis and got him back, but there's no doubt Umbra will be looking to bring the action to our doorstep this time. And there's no doubt of the company he's going to use in his plight. The guild, pretty much all of Canterrot will be stewing for payback. We will need to get ready."

Celestia looked out to the stallion and replied. "In due time. For now, we rest and gather our resources to fight."

"But why not now?" Rickey questioned. "We got all the elements, we just went beast mode, and we kicked Umbra's ass for a change! If anything, we should be hitting him right back in his stupid muggy ass!"

"Careful, you don't know if he'll enjoy it." Blue muttered.

"As much as I feel that Equestria is in imminent danger, we must hold off for now." Twilight suggested. "If we go out there, we'll be playing right into his hoof. Our best bet is to let him come to us. Whatever forces may have infiltrated the castle now have been either suppressed or cut off entirely because of Shining's spell. We have the elements, we have Nondis, we hold all the cards. If anything, we take the time to rest and recover our strength."

"As much as I hate to admit it..." Alex began. "We're still down a member from injury. Kali's gotta heal up before we go heading in. And if she can't join us, then she's got to be strong enough to defend her sister. And then there's Nondis' injuries. I'm sure he's still healing from all the bullshit he had to go through. Plus look at his wrists, that's not a one day job. I don't think we should move until he's able to take them bandages off."

"I also think he should stay the night in our world." Mel suggested warmly, not realizing just how much of a panic that idea had gotten me into. "He should be safest in─"

"NO!" I called out, only thinking of what had just happened a moment ago. If Umbra knew where I was and could teleport here based on that alone, I could trust myself being in a place where there was no protection against him running amok. But as I shouted my rejection, the others grew concerned over why I was so opposed to it. I took a deep breath and apologized for my outburst. "I'm sorry, I can't go back."

"Dude, it's like the safest option." Rickey argued.

I shook my head. "No. You don't get it. I'd be doing exactly what he wants. I go back home, he finds me, ports right to where I am, and then his cruel work begins all over again." As I explained it, I started to feel a sense of dread as I started to relive the vast number of experiments he put me through. "No. I don't wanna be another one of those things, I don't wanna be like that fucking filly prancing around the halls like there's no problems with me using the corpses of other humans. Everything he did was for that... To make me into that..."

The memory of corpses all slithering and holding me as I was submerged into the shadow had me realize just how cold, clammy, and filthy being in that kind of environment was with equines. All my mind did was transform every last one of those corpses into humans, various men, women, and children all grasping, crying out in pain with every hit I take, yet even more humans being cut to pieces, disassembled like they were in a factory line of dolls. It would be like watching him cut my parents into spare parts and having them attached in various perverted and nightmarish ways.

That cruel image unearthed a primordial scream within the confines of my mind. All I could do was whisper. "God almighty..." The memories of me having my chest open, the explanation of how he tried to place me on Jasper's body, the thought of seeing how he could've done my brothers and friends, it reached deep within and pulled out a finalized image of me walking with pillars of my own family members creaking and groaning from the ground. I covered my head, trying to block out the screams I heard. I tried to close my eyes to stop the sight of death. I tried to speak on the things that happened to me, but all I could do was scream.

***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

Shining winced as he watched Nondis in distress. I could only imagine all that he's going through, and even then it's probably a lot tamer than what he's seeing in his mind. I watched as he trembled, clutching onto himself like he had not wanted anyone to touch him. Twilight tried to reach to him and reassure him, but he flailed his arms at her touch.

Celestia lit her horn and zapped the man with a temporary sleeping spell. His eyes rolled back and closed, he flopped to the ground as though he had went into a peaceful sleep. She walked over to him, surveying his mind to see what he had underwent. As she rose back up, she grew disgusted as she whispered to us. "More than fifty broken bones, severe sleep deprivation, forced drug injections, surgical trauma, sexual abuse, sexual assault, acute psychological torture, acute physical torture, hypothermia, asphyxiation, schizophrenia, all followed by suicidal thoughts." When she finished listing off the issues Nondis had underwent, she raised her head and looked to all of us. "In two days, Umbra will be dealt with. And I will see to it his end is slow and grueling."

"How slow are we talking?" Alex questioned.

"Slow enough, Alexander." She replied. "I give you my word, sworn to my crown."

The elder brother slowly nodded. "I want front row seats."

"Done."

Author's Note

Well my break's over and we're right back in it. Yeah, this chapter had gotten pretty dark, but it's always the darkest before the first light of dawn. I suppose now is a good time to give word of advance of how the next bunch of chapters are going to be.

In terms of the bulk of the story, we're really not talking much. But the final six chapters will be done differently. They will be in different perspectives exclusively, namely to give the viewpoints of the different characters who have had a perspective at some point in the story. No further spoilers on that front but I can say that they won't be a monthly release. They'll just get pushed out whenever I finish with them.

I'm still wrapping my head around the idea that it's almost at an end. Granted, I'm about 60% done with the next chapter, but it's been a pretty wild ride to consider the humble beginnings of "how do I get home" to the grander pursuit of doing the impossible. Even then, it's been a pretty wild ride.

I can't even begin to count how many endings I've visualized, how many scenarios I've drawn up and tried to think through that would make sense, the number of easy-way-outs I could've gone with, the simplified concept of have Twilight and her friends do the friendship thing and make the world safe again, or even simplify the villain in the last chapter to make him seem less powerful. But instead, I had to have this grand chess match with myself in seeing how each piece would move and how the opponent would naturally respond according to their personality. It's been hard trying to defeat an opponent who has hundreds of years to build his deck, and it can only be shy of impossible for the protagonist to overcome.

As it becomes a challenge to beat the opponent without flipping the board, so too is finding the right way to end an arc spanning for the better part of some almost forty chapters, much less a story spanning some 100 plus chapters.

But as all things in life, the destination does not come without the scars and bruises of the journey. The war is not won without cost, nor can one's life be perfect after enduring such hardships. Trauma will remain, pain will come, suffering is assured, but neither of those things are truly unending. As there are lows, there will be highs. And as life goes on, you learn to live with the trauma that was brought to you. Not all people can do this, and for some that pain is too much to bear.

It's understandable to want to withdraw and isolate, only to see that the world can indeed live on without you, so you further feel yourself to be less important. And then it can be twice as hard when you know that others are counting on you to pull through when you don't know what comes from where. But it's not fine to feel like you should take the life others share with you, to leave them questioning what they did wrong. Bad relationships, bitter endings, financial troubles, even just the disability of feeling like your troubles don't matter and neither do you, those are all troughs we have in life. And we look back uphill to say that we can't possibly make that climb, but we often do without even realizing it.

2016 was when I was diagnosed, I felt like my life was at an end. It was close, but it didn't finalize that way. 2020 was the year when all of my life came to a crashing halt and I didn't know where I would find the funds to feed the house, or how to fix the hole in the ceiling, or how to keep the lights on, but I did it anyway. 2021 had a lot of me coping with the death of my grandfather, trying to pull the home together, seeing my mother's health in a slow aging decline, but that's something I'm learning to see the peaks in.

We'll see some of that reflected in the writing come next chapter.

I will see you guys next month if you'll still come around.

Chapter I

This is far from the world I've come to know and tolerate. I say tolerate instead of love because not much was really interesting in my life. I mean, sure, I went to school, I had a relationship (operative word: had) that was pretty okay, my parents were just like any other set of parents, home was okay at times. However, my social life was rather lacking. In truth, I am socially awkward. VERY socially awkward. I couldn't hold a conversation for more than five minutes, I was never good at picking up girls and I was far from the most popular guy in college. I didn't play many sports nor was I inclined in anything in particular. I was just the average dude who showed up and made decent grades.

Yeah, my life is pretty boring. Or should I say that it was boring.

As of now, I'm in the middle of a freaking town full of talking technicolor equines. How the hell I got here, I have not the slightest clue. I wasn't even sure if I was dreaming or not the first time I got here, but when I saw a pink pony with a pink, fluffy mane tell me hello, I figured that I may have stayed in my apartment a little too long, I ate something from the cafeteria that didn't sit well with my stomach or that maybe the students down the hall had some pretty strong weed and I was having a contact-high as a result.

Though I was really going for that contact high after two hours.

So... I'm in a world where prismatic horses with tattoos planted on their asses like billboard advertisements can talk full sentences in perfect English. I'm lying on a large-ass bed (by their standards), looking up at the ceiling as two ponies in armor stand on the opposite side of the room, watching my every move, my every breath, my every blink. Fearful expressions sat on their faces as they looked at me like I was some sort of parasitic alien who was more than willing to have them for a midnight snack.

I must be easy on the eyes or something.

As I lie here in this bed, I hear voices outside of the room. From what I'm hearing, it sounds like a group of these mammals outside...

Let me correct myself. They are sentient beings with the full grasp of technological know-how, despite being several decades behind what I'm used to. But then again, I guess having no internet could be a good thing.

I'm lying to myself. Internet is life incarnate.

The doors open and I'm introduced to several more of these ponies. Some with wings, some with horns, some with both and the rest without anything. If I am to assume by the guards that stood at the door beside the entering throng of equines, I'd say that their system is similar to that of a medieval monarchy. The ones without anything were the serfs, the ones with the wings were knights and guards like the two standing at the door, the ones with the horns (unicorns are apparently a thing here) are lords and nobles and the ones with the full-installation package are the rulers over the land.

For a monarchy, they sure are lacking in the masculine sense. Perhaps this was some sort of world where the female sex was the ones with all the power and the male counterparts are usually errand boys, hired muscle or workers of some sort. Great, an Amazonian-style matriarchy. Welp... I guess I'm sentenced to the dungeon without even getting a word in. I hope that they have some nice zoos somewhere around here, because I might be the next big thing.

"Sister," I heard from one of the larger equines. "I do not think that it is safe for us to be so close to it."

It? I am not an it! I am a thing, thank you very much.

"It's alright. It doesn't look like that it would be able to harm us." Another voice rang from the group.

So, if they start doing some sort of weird experiments on me, they will find out just how good (by good, I mean extremely uncoordinated) of a fighter I am.

It would seem that the pony who initially stated that I was not going to harm them had approached me from the group. Of course it would be the tallest of the group. I would assume that this full-grown horse with wings and a horn stamped to it's forehead is their leader.

"Greetings, creature. I understand that you may be far from your original dwelling place." She quietly spoke to me.

Being honest, far is a generous way of saying WHERE THE FUCK AM I?

"You are quite a rare find. I do not believe that our records have any knowledge on a creature of your ilk." A second voice chimed from behind the larger figure. Though the pony was smaller in stature than that of the first, she was still larger than the others of the group. She must be a royal, considering that she's got the total package like the larger one before me.

"Do you know where you are?" A third asked me. This time, it was a pink pony with a small tiara set upon her head. Just like the others, she carried both a pair of wings and a horn.

"I do not think that this creature can understand us, sister." The blue pony said as she looked to the white pony.

I was more surprised that they were actually sisters.

"I am sure that we may be able to find a way to communicate with it." The largest pony retorted.

Earth to dumbass: you can talk, remember?

"I wonder what kind of creature this is?" Questioned a fourth voice. As I watch the group of ponies part, I see a purple pony starting to approach the bed. She was easily the smallest of the royals, but she seemed to be a little more open to my being here. "Maybe I can spend some time with it to research what exactly it is."

Okay, maybe she was a little too open to my being here. I hate experiments.

"Or maybe we can send that thing to a zoo." A fifth voice rang from the crowd.

My patience had grown thin with the outlandish suggestion that I'd be on display for some child's edu-tainment. So I did what I really didn't like to do too much; talk.

"Please don't." I simply mumbled to myself. As I finished my two-word sentence, gasps sounded across the room as the four rulers stood over me in amazement.

"So you can talk?" The blue one responded.

"Yeah. But one question," A dumb one of course. "How are you guys talking?"

Silence filled the room as I lied silently on the bed, still waiting for an answer. Unfortunately, that never came.

"I... am completely blown!" The pink one one exclaimed. "This is a revolutionary find! I've never encountered something like it!"

"Now that I'm up close, the body structure does ring a bell." The purple one quietly notes as the others look to her.

"Do you mean that this creature is something that you've seen before." The white pony asked the purple one.

"This human, yes." The purple one responded as she raised her foreleg to touch me, to which I retreated from. As my hand stretched out to stave her off, she nodded. "Definitely a human."

Obviously, I'm confused. I think it's because of the fact that a pony can tell me what I am. "So... you know what I am?" I asked shyly.

"Yes. And for the most part, I don't really think you should even be here."

Hell, I know I shouldn't be here. So get me the hell out of here. "Okay. I... don't belong here. I actually belong-"

"In Canterlot High?" The purple pony said, finishing my sentence.

I merely blinked at her suggestion. First off, what was a Canterlot High? "Um... The University of Texas?"

Apparently, my suggestion may have thrown a monkey wrench in her equation. On second thought, with the way she just blinked at me with complete bewilderment, I'd say that it was more of a sledgehammer.

"UT? Longhorns?" My added questions were getting me nowhere at this point. The four royals just stared at me blankly. "Nevermind." That's better. When in doubt, kill off the conversation like it had never happened.

"It would appear that he's from somewhere else?" The blue pony asked the purple one.

"I could've sworn..." The purple pony said in disappointment before she trailed off. I guess I'm not the only one for awkward conversation.

"So... You are a human from the realm of this 'University of Texas'?" The pink one asked.

I found it difficult to suppress my laughs as I heard the pink royal call my place of enrollment a realm. In truth, it was only a small city. Besides, what else can you call it when there's like over a hundred thousand students enrolled? So yeah... "I guess you could say that."

"Do you remember how you got here?" The white one asked me in a delicate tone.

I can't even remember what I was doing before I had even got here in the first place, let alone how I got to this specific location in this specific world, dimension or whatever you wanna call it. The only thing I remember was the face of a pink pony surprising me, and being that I don't like surprises, I ran away screaming until I had hit something really hard and wooden. Since then, my memory's been a blur. "No. Not really."

"Then can you tell us anything about yourself?" The white pony asked.

I felt comfortable enough to describe the basics. I'd figure that they weren't going to make me some sort of exhibit. "I'm a student at the University of Texas, I'm currently classified as a sophomore, I'm twenty one years old, I like anime and video games, my major is undecided, I-"

My general description was cut short by a purple pony holding a hoof to my lips. Haven't these things heard of personal space? And plus she walks with those. That's just nasty. "I think what we all would like to know first off is your name."

While I quietly keep my objections regarding her sanitation habits to myself, I decide to reveal my name. "My name is Nondis."

"Okay, Nondis. Now that we have a name for you, we can introduce ourselves in turn." The purple pony happily stated.

The white, larger pony with a multicolored mane that swayed as if it was caught in a breeze bowed her head before me. "I am Princess Celestia. It is an honor to meet you." In my mind, she was the alpha-female.

The blue pony with a similar mane to that of her sisters, only hers was dotted with the stars of the night sky. She bowed her head next. "My name is Princess Luna. Charmed." In my mind, she was the cautious and discerning one.

The next one to introduce herself was the pink pony with three different colors in her mane. Bowing her head, she revealed her name. "My name is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza." Princess what-now? "But I would be pleased if you would call me Princess Cadance." Much better. To me she looked like some sort of marketing device that they used to sell off some sort of toy to little girls... or a misprinted mold of the one called Celestia.

The purple one, a younger pony with a more plainly look bowed before me. "And I am Princess Twilight Sparkle." Please let there not be any talk of vampires, werewolves or mentally-unstable, teenage girls with aspergers syndrome. Either that or else I'm jumping off a bridge right now. "I hope that we can be of assistance!" Nah, too much expression in one sentence to be another Kristen Stewart.

"So now that we all know each other, mind telling me where I am?" I inquired.

The pony called Luna walked before me and held up a map. Without her hooves... or her mouth... or anything at all.. Okay, I'm calling witchcraft on that one. "You are in the realm of Equestria." She raised a hoof to the center of the map. "More notably, here. The town you currently reside in is called Ponyville."

Ponyville, really? Okay, this whole thing sounds like a marketing ploy for little girls. I guess that it doesn't really matter what I think. The name is on a map, it's a thing. "Okay, so where in Ponyville am I?"

"You're in my castle." Said the not-a-reference-to-a-certain-franchise-that-I-absolutely-hate-for-such-a-one-dimentional-protagonist-and-bedazzled-vampires-sitting-in-the-sun. "Pinkie Pie brought you here after you hit your head on a branch."

So that's why I can't remember shit. Explains a lot actually. I must be unconscious, lying in a hospital bed and this world is a figment of my over-productive imagination. So all I needed to do was acknowledge that this is a dream and that I could wake up from it. Simple enough. "Okay, then if this is real, then I guess I shouldn't feel anything at all when I do this."

In an instant, I slapped myself in the face as hard as I could, hoping that I'd wake up from this Wizard-of-Oz world. And to my misfortune, I only managed to slap the shit out of myself. My cheek burned with a certain knowledge that this was indeed the furthest thing from a dream.

I'm beyond screwed.

"Wow, I've never seen somepony wanting to knock themselves out so much!" A bright and high-pitched voice chimed out from the group of ponies across the room. I almost forgot that they were even there.

There was one with a pink, curly mane and sported an even brighter shade of pink as her coat. Then there was another with a yellow coat with a long, light pink mane, a white pony with huge indigo curls cascading down her face, a fourth with a bluish-cyan coat and... rainbow hair... Okay, either this is a bad acid trip or this is actually real. The last one was pretty normal looking with the exception of wearing a hat.

As the five mares, as well as some purple lizard-thing stood side by side, Twilight Princess introduced me to each of them.

"Nondis, these are my friends: Pinkie Pie," I'm assuming it's the pink one. "Rainbow Dash," Again, assuming that it's 'gay pride' over there. "Fluttershy, Rarity and Applejack." Okay, those three I'm lost on. "They will be around to check in on you every so often, so feel free to let them know if you need anything."

"That thing is staying here!?" The rainbow pony asked in disbelief. At least it identifies me as a thing... Aaaaaand now I feel offended.

"Why, haven't you been listening to anything, Rainbow Dash?" The white pony with the curls chided her friend. "That 'thing' is called a human."

"It looks... kind of odd. Are you sure that we can't take him to the cottage?" The yellow pony asked quietly. I'm assuming that she's the shy one.

Now I get it, she's the one called Fluttershy... Because she's shy and stuff... I don't know.

"Um... forgetting someone?" The lizard creature asked quietly, sounding quite annoyed of being ignored. I'm going to assume that he's the one that's been taken for granted. What's the word for it.... butt-monkey?

"Sorry Spike. I was about to introduce you as my 'number one assistant', but was kindly interrupted by a certain somepony." Twilight Sparkle answered as she glared back to the one called Rainbow Dash. It would seem like that the rainbow one was apparently the smartass of the group. I think I might just grow to hate or love her. Too soon to tell.

"Well, under normal circumstances," The burnt-orange pony responded with a thick, southern accent as if she was from Tennessee. "But considerin' the size of this *ahem* human n' the fact that Fluttershy's cottage is already home full of other critters, Ah guess it doesn't make no lick of sense to send 'em there... If it's a him."

"I'm a male, yes." I pointed out. "If I was a female, then my chest would be a little or a lot bigger, my hips would be a little or a lot wider and my arms would be a lot thinner." Of course those things vary from individual to individual.

"I can attest to his statements. He is, indeed, a male human." The purple princess cosigned.

"Very well then." The larger, white princess sounded out. "I will be entrusting you with his care until we can manage to find him a way home."

"Then I suppose that we will be needing that mirror to the alternate universe." The blue princess called Luna stated as she and the other two princess walked off, leaving the purple princess and her friends to tend to me.

Wait a second, what did she mean by 'alternate universe?' Is this Star Trek or something?

"You can count on me, princess." Twilight bowed to the three who left the room, taking the two guards standing beside the door with them.

At least I can get a little more comfortable.

"Hey Twilight, check this out! He still has his fingers!" The purple lizard said, stating the obvious. My only reaction was a simple eye roll as I commented to myself on how he could come to such a conclusion. Guy's a genius.

"I've noticed." She answered as she turned back to me, lifting my left hand in the same manner that Princess Luna levitated the map just earlier. "But shouldn't he have hooves like us?"

No. I should be as I am. No need for me to cut my hands off so I can walk around on big meaty stubs. I am just fine.

As she held my hand in the air, I noticed a magenta glow that surrounded the area that was being manipulated by her. Not only was it bright and sparkly, but it was also warm, like a flame. I reached over to touch the glow around my arm, but as my fingers got close, I felt the area around it warming up quickly. Initially, I perceived it to have the similar effects that fire would normally have against human skin, so I removed my freed hand as quickly as possible. As I allowed my left arm to flail around lifelessly, I looked to the purple winged unicorn and saw that her horn was the exact same color.

Wow, unicorn horns are actually magical.

"Um... what are you doing?" I asked timidly, scared that the magenta flame on my arm would spread like a wild fire.

"I'm only making a few observations. Nothing more." She answered as she continued to lift my arm and twist it gently, turning it over to get a view of the palm of my hand.

I sat in silence as the princess continued to observe my arm. In the moments I sat, I managed to discover that her horn could actually manipulate a variety of things at once. One such item was, of course, my arm. The others were a clipboard, a quill and a book that she read as she turned my hand back over. It amazed me that she could multitask the magenta auras around so many items at once. I can barely do just one with both of my hands.

The next second became a bit of a horrifying experience. Thought it just started as a bit of a startle, the magenta flames that once engulfed my forearm then traveled to my hand. I instinctively let out a shriek as I offered to use my right hand to pat out the flame. But my mind reeled back to when I first touched the flame with my free hand. Realizing that doing that would be a bad idea, I pulled my hand from the magenta grasp. That's when the horror sat in.

I pulled my hand, and found that the flame actually held me in place. That aura actually exhibited a force strong enough to resist my retreat and keep my hand in place. Screaming, I slapped at the aura around my hand, causing the princess to jump back and cut off the flames. My left hand now freed, I clasped onto it, holding it as if it was something precious. It was something precious.

"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!" The princess repeated over and over as I held my hand, making sure that there were no burns. As she reached out for me, I pulled back in fear.

"Please, stay away!" I called out to her, completely convinced that she was dangerous to me. Shortly after, I hid under the sheets of my bed, not wanting to look at her.

I'll take back my inward comments about the Twilight series as long as she leaves me alone.

I stared back to the shadow of the princess who struck fear into my mind. Almost instantly, I started to feel myself shrink as another shadow stood beside her.

"Twilight, what's wrong?" One of the shadows asked.

"I don't know. I just held his hand and he started freaking out."

"Um, I know that it's probably out of place to assume this, but maybe he's not used to unicorn magic."

Magic? That's what that was?

"Argh..." The silhouette of the princess seemed to raise a hoof to her head in shame. "I shoud've thought about that. The human world doesn't have much magic in it."

I stayed under the covers as long as I could to avoid looking at these ponies. I was more than scared of them if they were capable of these kinds of things. Meanwhile, I saw one of the shadows grow smaller as it closed in on me.

"Mr. Human, are you okay."

I didn't respond, no matter how frail the voice was.

"Twilight said she's sorry. She didn't mean you any harm. What had happened was that she was shifting her magic to your hand. I can assure you that she isn't going to hurt you, and neither are we. Isn't that right girls?"

I heard a group of voices from the front of the bed chime out as they agreed with her. The other ponies started to surround the bed.

"Ah promise, we ain't gon' do no harm to ya." One of the shadows said.

"Yeah! So come on out!" The other shadow said in a raspy feminine voice.

"Oooh, I can't wait to throw a Welcome-to-Ponyville party for you!" The third shadow happily suggested while bouncing up and down.

"And I can't wait to see what you're wearing under those sheets." The fourth shadow added. Suddenly, I wasn't feeling so comfortable now that one of the ponies were being outright perverted. All I was wearing was a T-shirt and some worn-out jeans.

"We're not going to hurt you in any way or form. We just want to help. So please come on out." The princess pleaded with me as I hid under the blankets.

I remained hidden for a short while as the ponies around me continued to cheer me out from underneath the blanket. I felt like some sort of child in an unknown world, hiding from some monsters. Hell, I was a child in some unknown world, hiding from a bunch of pastel-colored sentient equines who could alter time and space with just their minds. I don't know what I was in for. But as their cheers continued to ease themselves into my ears, I grew soft towards them. Eventually, I poked my head from underneath to see six smiling faces.

Each of them smiled gently, with the exception of the pink one, who looked like she had plans for me. As I slowly eased myself from under the covers. The ponies continued to cheer me on. I didn't know exactly what was going to happen as soon as I came from underneath these covers all the way, but I was convinced that it wasn't going to be anything bad. Finally, I settled out of the comfort of the sheets and became exposed to the six mares in the room.

"Thank you for coming out." The yellow one spoke quietly. "I was really worried that you might've been scared of us."

"To be honest," I spat out nervously. "I still am." Despite these creatures being a little less than half my size while standing on all fours.

As I sat up in the bed, I heard the white unicorn tsk at me. "Darling, you could do so much better than that." Really? I'm being judged right out of the starting gates? "But pay you no mind. As soon as I get the proper measurements, and the anatomy, I will be supplying you with premier outfits more suited to a well-mannered gentlecolt such as yourself."

Okay, that was something completely from left field. I didn't see that one coming. At least it was more of a 'let me help you' rather than a 'let me judge you' type of sentence... Wait a second, what did she just call me? "Um... Gentle... colt?"

"That's right! Are you saying that you aren't a gentlecolt?"

I didn't know how to answer that without being offensive. I just knew that a colt was hardly something that I was. But I guess I can take for now. "No! Not at all. I am one! I was just thrown off by the... colt part."

"Well ya are a guy, right?" The country pony asked.

"Yes. But-"

"Then yer a colt to us. Plain and simple."

Just roll with it, Nondis. You can be politically correct later. "Uh... sure."

"I suppose we need to reintroduce ourselves." The pink pony sounded out as she bounced lively by my side.

This is far from the world I've come to know and tolerate. I say tolerate instead of love because not much was really interesting in my life. But since my coming here, it's been anything but uninteresting. I've wandered into a world of magical talking equines who could manipulate space. Maybe I'm just digging into it too much, maybe not. I can only wonder. But as for now, my main concern is but one thing...

Where is the bathroom?

Author's Note

With the (anti)brony-wandered-into-equestria scenario being done all the time, I'd figure that I'd do a story where the human is unaware of the world of MLP. No bronydom, no 'I watched the show'. Just completely oblivious expectations, like that first year of college. I also wanted to give the guy the personality of an actual social-reject. Like he comes up with snarky comments to himself but when he speaks, that snark is practically nonexistent.

If you've ever been one at one point in your life, then you'd know what it's like to come up with "How-awesome-I-could've-been-at-this-one-point-in-my-life" situations in place of "Damn-I-did-some-cringe-worthy-shit".

There is a warning about the next chapter: There is a bit of toilet humor.

Chapter XV

The sun shines brightly over the not-so-small town of Ponyville. The birds are chirping as they fly from tree to tree, greeting one another while the ponies around the town performs the same task. Smiles light up the faces of those walking around the town. The only smile that seems to be absent from the portrait of an otherwise-happy town was that of my own. And for all good reason too.

"Ow."

That is the only word I have been chanting on my way back from the little regiment that Shining Armor put me through this morning. Every time I swing my arms. "Ow." Every step I take towards one of the guest rooms of the palace. "Ow." With every breath I take to get there. "Ow." I was worked like a dog, and for a reason that I didn't even know existed.

However, it was an issue that I was going to vocalize to the one individual that I knew couldn't overlook my problem. As I approached one of the guest rooms, I could see about five guards standing around, watching and waiting for something, or should I say somepony, to take her leave towards Canterlot in an hour or so. Storming to the door, I held onto a sack that held some rather weighty documents to get me through.

"Excuse me. I need to speak with Princess Celestia." I said as I approached the door.

"I'm sorry sir. She is not allowing any visitors to see her at this time." One of the guards, namely one with a gray coat and yellow eyes, stated as he stood in front of the door.

"Look, I know you like to follow orders and shit, but I am really not in the mood to be ignored. Please, I humbly beseech you... to let me through that door."

"And I humbly ask you to leave her to her business. She is not taking any visitors today."

I didn't have time for this. I pulled out the papers and shoved it in the guards face out of frustration. "I think this would warrant my need to see her."

"Sir, no matter what document you-IS THAT AN APPLICATION OF APPROVAL!?" He shouted, pulling in the paper, causing all of the other guards on watch to look at me with curiosity.

"No, I used it to wipe my ass. I call this magnificent invention toilet paper-OF COURSE IT IS!" I was in pain, so I didn't think to hold back on anything that was stopping me from seeing the princess. Seeing her before she left was my number one priority.

"Well, I'm afraid that even with such a document, I am at no liberty to allow anypony-"

The door opened behind him. Sounds of the other guards grunting in surprise reached my ears. I looked over to see what was the commotion was all about and their response was to turn to whatever wall the stood in front of. Meanwhile, I heard a familiar voice call out from the room. "What's going on out here?"

"Gah!" The grey guard saw Princess Celestia and blushed. He immediately looked to the ground. "Your highness! Forgive me for the obstructions. I tried to inform this fellow that-"

Celestia took notice of my standing here and waived to me. "Oh! Good morning, Nondis. Are you enjoying the weather this morning?"

I can tell that she was growing fond of the Ponyville morning she awoke to. But right now, I had much more pressing issues on my mind than the weather. "I've enjoyed a little more than what I was comfortable with. Could we speak for a moment?"

"Why certainly. I was surprised that I was not alerted on your visit earlier."

The guard that stood against me was still planting his eyes on whatever speck of dirt that was laying on the floor rather than looking to the princess of the sun. "Well, I- well you see... I didn't want to disrupt you at such an intimate time."

I really didn't see how this was an intimate time for her. But now that he mentioned it, she does look a bit... naked without her crown and regalia. I don't even think that I've seen her without her golden slippers on. It's a rather strange sight to see her in the nude. I guess I've grown so used to her being dressed up. Apparently, the guards were sharing the same thoughts I had but to a higher degree.

"Please come inside, Nondis." She said, walking back into the room and holding the door open for me.

I spoke as I painfully walked into her room. "So, I assume that you know why I'm dropping in on you."

"I can safely assume it has something to do with your approval process?" She guessed.

"About that, would you care to explain to me why I have to be an enlisted?"

"What?" She asked. Though I knew that she was playing dumb at this point.

Bringing up the papers again, I laid it out on the table and showed the part that Shining Armor was so kind to highlight for me. "You know, this passage here."

"Oh, that. I would've thought that Twilight would've informed you of it."

You know, I'm beginning to think that these princesses are telling me things halfway just to see my reaction for when the other half of the truth comes to light. Well I guess this princess must be having a ball then. "First, it was the marriage part that I was completely unaware of. I can deal with that, but this military gig... I'm not exactly in the best condition to be sent out to fight."

"Have you seen yourself move?" She questioned me, walking over towards a table on the other side of the room.

I don't need to see myself move to tell that I was in pain. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Pouring up a cup of tea for herself and me, she answered my question with a rather... unexpected answer. "I believe that your reflexes, despite needing a bit of improvement, are vastly superior to that of us equines. Just give it a shot."

And how does that work out? I'm half as strong, half as fast on foot and I can't fight worth a damn. "I still don't see the real reason of why I'm being thrown into the military. Could you elaborate on that?"

"Well..." She levitated one of the small cup towards me and took the other to her lips. "If you must know, then I shall say it upfront."

"...And that is?"

The small tea cup clattered on the miniature saucer it now rested on. Celestia levitated her own drink towards the nightstand. "I do not mean to offend, but since the incidents with both Caramel and Shining Armor, I'm questioning your abilities to defend yourself."

"There it is." I quietly mumbled out in shame.

"Now I can understand how Shining Armor, being trained in the art of combat, is able to overthrow you. That and his magical abilities. But Caramel was nothing more than a run-of-the-mill... um..."

"Asshole?"

"Aggressor, yes. I also came understand that you have not had much combat experience outside of your scuffle with him, is that correct?"

"More or less." Embarrassed, I buried myself in the tea she gave me. But before I could go find Narnia in that small cup, she took both the cup and it's saucer away from me.

"Then this would be a benefit to your health and well-being. Not only that you will be able to defend yourself, but also Twilight Sparkle if the occasion calls for it."

Does that mean I can hold my own with any other stallion, namely the ones who want to see me dead? If that's the case... "So... if I train, then I might be able to challenge even Shining Armor?"

A smirk crept to the sun princess' face as she pulled a chair up to the table she sat at. "Come. Sit."

I walked over to accommodate her. But as I sat down, I had noticed that she reached her hoof out to me, anchoring herself to the table. "Okay, what's with the hoof?"

"I am sure that you are familiar with the recreational function known as hoof-wrestling, are you not?"

Really, an arm-wrestling match? This was either going to end badly for her or end very badly for her. I know I can beat a princess who doesn't seem to do much but smile and wave. "I'm familiar with it's human variant."

"Despite our anatomical differences, we are still the same in this aspect."

Then again, I guess she does have a bit of strength since she has to get around using those, especially given her size. But still, she could be flying around for half the time rather than walking. "Don't you walk on those?"

"I will allow minimal resistance, please feel free to engage me when you are ready."

Sure, why not. I need a mood-booster for the morning. At the very least, I can say to myself that I can win in an arm-wrestling match. Reaching out with my right hand, I met with her hoof at the center of the table. "I guess I could amuse you-"

"With both, please."

My grip loosened at her suggestion. "Both what?"

"Both arms."

Was she really this fucking cocky? Wow! I don't know this princess in the slightest. I guess I will just play her little game. "...Okay. But don't say that this wasn't unfair."

She gave off a playful yawn as my left hand soon joined the right in it's effort to overthrow the princess. I looked to the sun princess, who gave me a shit-eating grin. I wanted to wipe that look off of her face so badly right now. Throwing all I could into my arms, I pushed against her with all of my might, expecting her to go down quickly... Only there was a slight problem...

"What the fuck?"

"I said that you may begin. Haven't you started already?"

That was just it! She didn't move a single atom while I was churning out as much energy as a nuclear reactor to overthrow her! Grunting and straining the muscles in my face, I pressed and pressed until my arms had started to hurt again. Backing off in pain, I rolled my neck and stretched my arms to loosen up.

"Just give me a moment."

"Take your time." She said with that same snarky grin.

By now, I was well over three-thousand percent over it. I wanted to take her down no matter the costs. I stood up from the table and gave myself some leverage as I locked back onto her hoof. She continued to smile while I felt the muscles in my face twist and contort into foul shapes. Gritting my teeth, I pushed against her with everything I had. Every last bit of my being went into this last effort. I wanted to make that smile go away. I refuse to lose to her.

But by the time I blinked, I went from standing on the table in front of her, to staring up at her from the floor.

I think I heard a duck quacking in my brain as I just realized that I had lost.

"I have a slight hunch that you were resisting."

"I said that I would offer minimal resistance. I never said that I was not going to resist at all." Translation: no shit, Sherlock.

"Point taken. But what was the purpose of this little... exhibition?" I think I'm laying in a crater right now.

"I simply desired to have a little fun with you. Regardless of if you were a trained stallion, how strong you were or how many hooves you used, I'd never lose a match. Not even once has my own sister buried me under the table."

Ha ha, very funny. Ha ha, it is to laugh. I hope she doesn't mind, but I think I'm just gonna sit here and wallow in the manner of my defeat. This crater feels kinda nice, how it curves and contours to every part of my body.

...Yeah, I'm gonna just... this.

"So what happened exactly that caused you to become so angry?" Celestia inquired above me.

Well, I'm more humbled than angry right now, so it's a little hard to be angry over something that happened just earlier when I lose to a snarky princess who does absolutely nothing but smile and wave. But thankfully, my beatdown didn't result in me having amnesia. "Well, Shining Armor thought it would be a good idea to wake me up at around four in the morning to run me around Sweet Apple Acres."

Giggling a bit, Celestia reached her hoof down to help me back up. "I see."

Taking her offer, I pulled against her and left the imprint I made into the tiled floor. "Isn't he a prince? Doesn't he have some other princely things to do beside ride my ass every three seconds over what a push-up looks like?"

"Meaning that he carries that title does not give him the authority of one. He is still a member of the royal guard. He just so happens to overlook an entire department of the EUP."

If he overlooks an entire department of the military, then does that mean... oh please let there be a god to deny that from happening. "So... is he going to be like my drill instructor or something?"

"No. I have you arranged with somepony else in mind."

Thank you, God! "So who would be in charge of me?"

You've... got to be shitting me. There is no way I'm gonna be the fodder to her. I can't believe this is happening. This is happening. Why is this even a thing?

"Come on, Nondis. You not supposed to touch the ground when you go down." Rainbow Dash chided me on my performance, being more of a hindrance than a help.

"That would be easy knowing that you weren't sitting on top of me." I grunted out through gritted teeth as I shook under her weight.

"Hey, meaning that I'm your friend outside of these little regiments, doesn't excuse you from the treatment I'm gonna be giving you when you start basic training."

At the very least, I knew the drill instructor. And since I was friends with her, she would see to it that I do everything in my power to succeed. She would be a bit of a hard-ass at the same time, but I knew she would also be giving me bits of encouragement. Though that still didn't excuse her from sitting on my back as I tried to do my push-ups.

"So is this a 'just-me' thing?"

"Nah! I'll be sitting on everypony else while I'm there. Just be happy that I'm not standing on on top of you."

That sounds even more painful. In fact, if you add in the total weight distribution her ass is giving me in comparison to all four of her hooves, it's like having a little over half her weight versus all of it on top of me. "I kinda see your point there."

"Now enough of the talk. I wanna see you sweat!"

After another strenuous push-up, I brought myself to bring up a topic of interest. "Permission to speak freely, ma'am?"

"Address me as sir."

"Permission to speak freely, sir!"

"Start talking."

First, let's start off on something that I really wanted to ask since my finding out that Rainbow Dash was slated to be my instructor. "So... when were you a member of the EUP?"

"A year or so before you even came here. I had completed my Wonderbolt Reserve training and my basics after."

"Why didn't you start basics before you went to camp?" I asked as I performed another push-up.

"I didn't know everything there was to be qualified for basic training. So I had to study the history of the EUP, as well as the history of the Wonderbolts, which I will have the honor of teaching you myself."

"Oh no you won't!" I heard a third voice call out from out of nowhere. In a flash of magenta, Twilight appeared before me and Rainbow Dash.

"Let me guess, you're going to show him some of your flashcards so he can learn the entire history of the EUP?" Rainbow mocked.

Walking over to me, giving me a bit of a nuzzle, she stood to challenge Rainbow. "Well, no offense but I believe that I would be a better fit to instruct him on the history of our military system."

"You're not even an enlisted, civy!"

"Civy?" I asked, being that it was the first time I heard something like that. Apparently, Twilight was just as stumped as I was.

"Short for civilian."

"Oh. But still, I don't know how you could instruct him when you had so much trouble learning these things yourself." Twilight challenged.

"That's all the more reason for me to teach him!" Rainbow rebutted as the others walked up to us.

"Here we go again." Fluttershy mumbled to herself.

Popping out of her mane, a miniature version of Discord cheered the two on. "Ohoo! I love a good argument between friends. So what would it be this time, ladies? Boxing ring or my personal favorite, gladiatorial colosseum?"

With a snap of his fingers, he became dressed in full-gladiatorial attire, complete with a net and a trident.

Fluttershy stepped in to stop Discord before he started to get carried away. "How about, we try to show him the different ways he could learn first, and then he can make a decision of whether or not he wants to try a specific method?"

Rarity squeed as she ran up to me with her suggestion. "Why I'm more than sure I could fix up a few humanized replicas of the old uniforms so that he could feel more acquainted with the history. Or maybe a tour through a historical museum-

"Book." I interrupted.

"Huh?" Rarity stalled as she looked at me quizzically.

"Just give me a book. Quiz me on it later." I clarified, not wanting to waste any time on touring some exhibit.

"That's the spirit!" Twilight cheered as she summoned a stack of flashcards by her side.

"That's so lame!" Rainbow jeered.

"Or maybe we could-"

"No rapping, Pinkie!" Twilight interrupted before Pinkie could get her thoughts out in the open.

Pinkie groaned in defeat. "I was going to say that we could probably do a fun musical number on how the EUP was made. You know, a more classical approach."

"Musical?" Well I'll be damned, a method of learning that tailors to me. Well holy high-horse, Batman! Sign me up!

"Oh no..." Twilight shook her head as Pinkie

Rarity shouted to the pink pony as she started to pull something out of her mane. "Pinkie, don't you even dare pull out that atrocious hat!"

Pulling out a phonograph, which I'm still questioning how the hell something so big could fit in that pink puffy mane, Pinkie placed it right next to me and shoved Rainbow Dash off of my back. "I think I know your kind of language, Non-Non."

"I'm not gonna like this, am I?" Twilight mumbled.

"I can't wait for her to start!" I exclaimed, hoping to hear how Pinkie will lay it out for me. I've always been a sucker for music.

"Well, then let's get it started!" (ctrl+click, read along with the music)

A long time ago,
in the world of Equestria,
two regal sisters ruled over the land...

And in that time there was nothing but peace.

(That's nice.)

The ponies wandered freely in the streets.

(Like they do now?)

But then one day the younger got jealous.

(Oh, she means Luna.)

And then she got all angsty-like.
(Like butthurt, dark and brooding, right?)

So then one day, she walked into the room.

(Okay.)

And asked her sister if it was too soon.

(I think I know where this is going.)

To lower the sun at around three, and raise her gift for all to see. And shortly she was banished to the moon.

(Now wait a sec!)

Now don't you think you left out quite a bit?

(A lot!)

Now correct me if I'm wrong but I have studied in the time I've been here that... well...

After broody-butt had left the room.

(Princess Luna.)

She turned into the fabled Nightmare Moon.

(Not exactly fabled...)

She cursed her older sister out, then they both got into a bout, then Luna was promptly sent to her room.

(THE! MOON!)

"Whatever!"

"Do you think that being inaccurate would help you on your test?"

"No, but making fun of history is how I learn it best."

"You didn't have to rhyme what I said."

"Whatever. Practical studying is dead." (HEY!) "But anyways, let's get back into the main subject at hand."

"Now as you know, that event in history is called the Celestial-Lunar rift. Where the two sisters, and their factions, started to go adrift. Now if you read in history, chapter twelve, section b, you'll find that later at that time, Celestia-"

"BOOOOR-ING! Pinkie, take me back, please."

(Jerk!)

So at the time the Lunar Faction grew.

(Oh shit!)

So big, Celestia didn't know what to do!

(A Civil War? Really!?)

But then an idea came to her one day.

(Oh, I guess not.)

She unified her guards and flexed
her muscles. And the now-perplexed

Lunar Faction had ran for the hills.

(Bunch of pussies!)

They then offered Celestia all their skills.

(They're still pussies.)

So then they pledged allegiance, swore the princess their obedience, and today they're now known as the EUP.

(Oh, I get it.)

So if I'm getting all of this down-packed,

(Which you aren't.)

I'll learn the details later, but for right now let's recap the outline... So...

Celly showed her fangs for all to see.

(Okay...)

Then the rebels got so scared they started to flee.

(I think he's got it.)

So then that band of wusses, followed by those hiding in the bushes, put aside their pride and joined the EUP.

(You've got it!)

The girls and Discord applauded my being able to quickly learn the basic details of how the EUP was formed. Twilight was the only exception as she facehoofed herself.

"Wow... is that how it really happened?" I asked.

"Well... the details of its formation isn't exactly a thing to boast about. Which is why some of the more common ranks are practically inept at anything dangerous." Discord stated, which caused both Twilight and Rainbow Dash to glare at him. It seemed with Rainbow being a current member and Twilight having an older brother in charge of one of it's divisions, they both became quite riled at his response. Before things got bad, Discord took notice of the two disapproving glances. "No offense?"

"So the Lunar Faction was trying to avoid a civil war, all while inexplicably causing one." I said as I slowly made my way back up on my push-ups.

"It never really got off the ground because most of them were very poorly trained. Not to mention that a solid majority of them had never picked up a spear to save their life." Rainbow added to my statement.

Oh... So they were a bunch of pansies. So does that make Shining Armor- "Anyways, can we please discuss this whole 'Civil War' thing that happened shortly after Moonbutt's banishment?"

"...Princess Luna?" Twilight corrected me begrudgingly.

"Moonbutt, yes. It's just a nickna-"

"Please don't call her that." She scolded.

"If you say so, Sparklebutt." I called back jokingly, laughing a bit as Twilight looked at me with a scowl on her face.

"Rainbow, sit!" Twilight called out, making her friend jump back on my back, sending me back down to the ground in discomfort.

"D'OOOH!" I cried out as I cringed. "Rainbow, what the hell?"

"Sorry, following orders."

Letting the pain subside, I allowed myself to rest a bit. "I get it. Now back to the question."

Twilight took in a deep breath and recomposed herself. "Again saying, there wasn't really a civil war, per se. But there was a conflict between two armed parties that started to escalate towards that route. The Lunar Faction argued that Princess Celestia was plotting some sort of regime, what with the banishment of Princess Luna. This was a secret organization that... well... fancied the princess in a... peculiar way."

"Are you serious?" I started to laugh again. It was completely absurd to think that fanboy armies had actually existed back in the day. "Luna had a fanboy army? I wonder how high the approval applications would've stacked up."

Twilight gave me that familiar scowl. "Rainbow-"

"Shutting up. Go on ahead." I quickly snapped myself out of my laughing fit and let Twilight continue the story.

"So Princess Celestia gathered some of her best-trained guards. By the time the Lunar Faction had stood outside the palace gates, they were already prepared for a full-scale conflict. In short, the faction saw that Celestia meant business and shortly reconsidered their place in society."

That still left me with one question. "I'm still stuck on how they managed to convert into the EUP."

"To say the least, it was said that the persuasion methods were... well... anticlimactic." Discord answered.

"How anticlimactic?"

"Hoof wrestling." He finished, causing me to choke on my own spit.

"You've got to be shitting me." No really, I can't even think of anything else to say in response to that. That's just embarrassing.

"Now what did Ah tell ya about that kind of language?" Applejack called at me, correcting me on my usage of profanity. I had almost forgotten that she didn't like foul words.

"Sorry." After apologizing to the farm mare, I turned my attention back to the purple mare in front of me. "But seriously, what?"

"She challenged the faction leaders to competitions all around the country. And within a month, the faction was quelled and became the new extension to the now-expanded military. The week after her victory, she dubbed the massive guard faction the Earth-pony, Unicorn and Pegasus Guard."

In all, I'm actually surprised. "Wow. I would've thought that it would've taken a dark turn."

"How dark?"

"Well, if I'm reminded of anything, it would be the French Revolution back on my world. It lasted from 1789 to 1799 Anno Domini."

Twilight quirked an eyebrow. "That still doesn't explain the reason for it being so dark."

I had to think of a way to put it without revealing how violent it was. Fluttershy was not exactly one of strong constitution and Rarity doesn't like anything too overly violent. The others were fine, but I wasn't going to compromise their comforts. "In a nutshell, the citizens got pissed off because they were starving and the rich were living it up. Insults from the wealthy spurred violence. The people mobilized, they ran to a local prison, stormed the place, stormed the palace, and captured the king."

"What happened then?"

"Well..." Louis Auguste de France, formerly known as King Louis XVI was then tried and found guilty of high treason and crimes against the state. Six days later, he was executed by means of decapitation via the guillotine. But that's a little too violent to go into detail. "The king was humbled, and he learned that if he had humbled himself sooner, he would've still been ahead in life."

"Oh, well that doesn't sound too bad." Twilight stated, unaware of what I was implying by my play on words. Honestly, I'm surprised she didn't catch that.

"That's it? Surely there was a bit of chaos to pursue the sudden power-shift." Discord asked.

Immediately, I rolled over to get Rainbow Dash off of me, got back to my feet and walked over to Discord, whispering to him in a low voice. "The period from the days onward to the year after was called the 'Reign of Terror', if that's what you wanna know."

"Don't see how it's so terrible if people were getting reformed." He was still going off of my previous statement. Being that he was a practitioner of chaos and disorder, I could disclose the more grisly details to him.

"Fourteen thousand died."

Instantly, his eyes grew and his jaw dropped. "Oh... How did that happen?"

"Remember how I said that the king had never gotten ahead in life? In case you didn't know, that was a play on words..."

After a few seconds of letting him dissect the meaning of my statement, it finally dawned on him what had actually happened to the ill-fated king. "Oh goodness..."

"Yeah, that happened. Fourteen thousand times over."

Discord inadvertently placed a claw on his lengthy neck, cringing all the while. "Couldn't they have come up with a less... pugnacious solution over a nice cup of tea?"

"That's what the nobles tried when their armies fled." I whispered back.

"And how did that work out?"

"They got a nice tour of the city from the top of a pike."

Discord almost seemed to lose some of his color as the imagery started to manifest itself in his mind. "I suppose that is a little... dark."

"What are you two talking about?" Fluttershy asked, snapping us both back into the present.

"Nothing you need to worry about." I answered quickly as the draconequus walked back to his beloved caretaker.

I've never really thought about how bad Celestia's situation could've been at that time. Which is why I'm questioning the legitimacy of Equestria's history books.

"Discord, are you feeling okay?" The yellow timid pegasus asks quietly.

I think I told him a bit too much. He suddenly has this thousand-yard stare as he answers Fluttershy. "Just fine, my dear."

Almost on cue, a rumbling noise sound pierces the silence. I couldn't help but to quickly walk towards the nearest eatery. My time with Shining Armor this morning had left me unfed, but I don't think anypony else knew that. "I'm dog-tired... and hungry. Time for lunch!"

Pinkie started to prance over to Sugarcube Corner, but Rainbow Dash held her tail down to prevent her from wandering off, more than likely to get anything for me to snack on. "You can go to lunch after you finish your daily dose of push-up. Now get back on the ground, and start pushing." The rainbow-maned pegasus said as she held Pinkie in place.

"Just for five minutes?" I asked, hoping to change her mind.

"Nope."

"Can I do my push-ups after I eat something. All I need is an apple." I asked, hoping that Applejack would get a clue. Sadly, she was not taking any sides to this argument, much less mine.

"No."

"Can't I just-"

"DOWN, PRIVATE!" Rainbow shouts at the top of her lungs.

"Yes, sir!"

Dropping back to the ground, I strove to finish my push-ups so that I could reward myself with a large meal. The first few were easy enough to do, but then Rainbow took it a step further and sat back on me, making my already-difficult task even more challenging.

"These next ten weeks are gonna be so, so sweet."

These next ten weeks are going to be hell

After my set of push-ups, the girls treated me to a large dinner. After the meal, Twilight and I had came back to the palace for an intense cram session. In three hours, I was taught, quizzed and tested on every aspect of the formation of the EUP and it's auxiliaries. And if there was one thing that Twilight was not letting me get by on in our study session, it was the details to each event that went down.

As for the arm-wrestling, Celestia has gone undefeated for well over a thousand years. I guess that's why she was wearing that smug grin when I stood up to take her down. That also explains how she could man-handle me in that match. Not only was it a display of her power, it was also one that didn't resort to violence, despite the craters she made from every opponent. It was also a much quicker ordeal than talking it up with politics. Though it does make me question her methods of foreign policy.

After that history session, Twilight had started to move all of the books back to their respective positions on shelves. Though what would take a human several minutes to do, she finished it in mere seconds. It made me think more about how smart she really was and just how powerful her magic was to lift so many items at once.

I'll admit, I was starting to become a little jealous. I wanted to do cool stuff like that too, but I knew that with me being a human, it was very unlikely to happen. However, it didn't exactly stop me from imagining myself lifting my hand at an object and pretending I'm Magneto from the X-Men comics. Even Twilight had started to take notice.

When we had gotten back to my room, she summoned her friendship journal, placing it on the desk for her to write in. When she glanced at me, I was mocking her ability to levitate.

"What is up with your fascination of magic lately?"

"Well, I'm living here now. Doesn't that mean that I would soon be a magic user? I mean I get that I won't be using unicorn-tier magic but I think if I stay a little longer, I might just get some."

"Sweetie, not to be a downer, but you've been here for well over seven months. Don't you think that if you had any chance of obtaining magic, you would've by now?"

"Well, I might need to stay a little longer. My body does need to adapt."

Twilight chortled at my response. "Why do you want magic so bad?"

"Because it's awesome." I responded, landing myself in the bed.

Twilight opened her journal and commenced to writing her entry. As the pen scribbled on the paper, she turned back to me. "It can be a bit of a curse as well."

"How so?"

With one final scrape of the quill, Twilight finished her entry and walked over to me. "Equestria is, as you already know, a land that's filled with magic. And us ponies can't control our world without it. Our magic is gifted from birth and given away at death."

"I don't mean to wander into such dark places, but where does your magic go when you die?"

She sat beside me, smiling as she levitated my hand to her hoof. "Only fate knows the answer."

I don't know why this conversation scared me so much. I guess it was because of the implications of Twilight dying. I really wasn't prepared for something like that. Hell, I wasn't even prepared to see Pinkie being abused but she was. And just like that, it was as certain as my need for another breath. "So could you... be reincarnated by magic?"

"It's possible, but the individual will retain their personality. The only thing that you would be able to replicate is the magic the pony used before."

It does begs the question of her being a reincarnation of some powerful figure in history. I guess it would make sense if I had to explain her magical prowess. "So... would that make you the reincarnation of Starswirl the Bearded?"

She laughed at my question, leaning against me. "What do you know about Starswirl the Bearded?"

"Nothing, I just know he's the main contributor to all of the current knowledge of magic. But then again, you kept talking about him when I first got here."

She sighed deeply as her hoof brushed against my hand. "That was when we were talking about making a portal for you."

"So... does alchemy work in this world?" Dammit, did I really ask that?

"Of course. It's just basic scientific principles combined with magic. It's how we unicorns can manage to change an object's composition, that is if you were trained enough."

So it does? Okay, then let me go a little further. "So... there is a such thing as the Laws of Equivalent Exchange?"

"Laws of what now?"

Perhaps I needed to explain myself further. "Human or ponykind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost."

"Wow... That's amazing! Where did you come up with something so thought-provoking!?"

FullMetal Alchemist. "Well actually, I-"

"You have to write a paper on that! And I will be the first one to read it, proofread it and challenge it!"

I see I wasn't getting through on that subject. Okay, time to get to the brunt of things. "Can you draw circles on the ground and slam your hooves into it?"

Twilight raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Well... Yeah, but nothing would happen."

Fuck! So close... "Well I guess that kills plan-b." I mumbled out loud.

"What's plan-b?"

I started to think of a way to change the subject. Turning around and grabbing her waist, I smiled deviously as my fingers lightly pattered and brushed against her. "It's where I tickle you!"

"Stop! Gahaaahahaha! Quit it!"

I continued to make her laugh as she squirmed in place. "Make me."

Her magic surrounded my body and threw me against the sheets of the bed. She pursued me with hooves outstretched. As we both landed, she craned herself down to me, letting her lips come into contact with mine. Our kiss was slow yet simplistic, a peck on the lips that seemed to drag on for some time. After a few seconds, we broke contact to smile at each other. Instead of backing off, she pressed onward, climbing on top of me as she let one of her hooves wander down my chest. She stuck her tongue out at me, making fun of my being pinned down, to which my response was me flicking my tongue at hers. Eventually, we started to combat one another, our tongues as our weapons. Her lips soon joined the fray, clashing with mine. Quick breaths and the sounds of our lips separating from time to time filled the room.

*knock knock knock knock*

We both halted our little war with each other, taking a frustrated exhale. Twilight climbed down from the bed and walked over to the center of the room.

"Come in." She called out.

The door opened, revealing a white pegasus guard with blue eyes. If it wasn't for the wings and the golden armor, then I would've had him confused with Twilight's older brother. "Princess, I was instructed to escort you to your chambers."

"No need. I already have one right here." She pointed to me as I walked beside her.

"But your brother has made it of utmost importance that you were to be escorted by a guard."

We both looked at each other dumbfoundedly before we started to giggle. "I'm an enlisted. Does that count?" I responded.

"But your brother-"

"Thank you for your concern. But I'm not ready to leave just yet." Twilight said as she started to tug on me, walking towards the bed again.

"Let me try." A second voice called out from behind the guard. Princess Cadance revealed herself to both me and Twilight.

"Cadance?"

"What's up, princess?"

The pink princess gave the guard a nod, dismissing him into the hall. "Unfortunately, your wake-up time is rather early. I would prefer that you bid your adieus now so that you can get some sleep, Nondis."

At that moment, reality had set back in. I was going to leave Ponyville first thing in the morning to travel to the camp. That also meant that this was my last night with Twilight before I headed out. I just wish we had more time to be with each other. At least I could've spent more recreational time with Twilight. "So I head out tomorrow, huh?"

"The carriage will be here long before the dawn. By then, you will be dropped off at the train station and sent off to join with the other recruits."

"Wow, that's a bit sudden, isn't it?" Twilight inquired.

"Shining, being a bit of a brute, decided to get him on the first train smoking. And that train is tomorrow morning. I tried to argue with next week, maybe even a few days on down, but he was so adamant on having him shipped out so soon."

Twilight scoffed at Cadance's confession. "What is up with him?"

"He's your brother. I'll have to deal with it." I said once more, trying to comfort her.

"Just let me know when he steps out of line. I'll deal with him as soon as possible." Cadance added, wanting to make sure that I was being treated fairly.

I nodded in appreciation. "Thanks."

Twilight magically dragged me back down to meet with her. Cadance blushed as she watched Twilight give me a quick peck on the lips. "Now, remember to write me a letter every week. Be sure that it comes by on every Tuesday because I might not have the time to read it on any other day."

"I'll try my best."

"Okay. Remember to stay quiet, remain calm, follow orders, look directly ahead and stay out of trouble."

"Got it."

"Okay. Now come back in one piece. I can't tear you apart if you're already in pieces."

Cadance started to voice her discomfort. "Twilight, I think he needs his rest now."

"Make me proud. That's your first order."

"Yes, your highness."

As Twilight kissed me one final time, Cadance started to pull her away. "Twilight, let's go!"

In quick succession, our kiss broke and the purple mare was dragged along by her older sister. "Bye." She whispered as she walked out the door along side Cadance. As the door closed, I was left standing in the center of the room, thinking about the hell I was going to endure when I had got off of the train in the morning.

And I started to think on who I was going to go through that hell for.

I was once again awoken by the sounds of a trumpet blaring in my ear and a guard shouting at me. Only this go round, I was more or less prepared for it. After that, I quickly took my shower, threw on my clothes and ran for the station. As the sun still hid below the horizon, I climbed aboard the train that would take me to my new home for the upcoming months.

As the train left the station, I could see the other young stallions and colts who were just as scared as I was. We were all told to remain silent for the duration of the ride. Many of those who started to drift asleep, myself included, found themselves being woken up by a guard screaming in our faces. And usually, when I would ride the train, I'd look out the window to appreciate the beauty. But even that was taken away. The windows were painted black to prevent us from looking out to see where we were going. Everything was made to put us on the edge of our seats. It goes without saying that the long, thirteen-hour train ride wasn't exactly a pleasure cruise.

Finally, we reached our destination. Most of us were ready to get off of that train. Others, were wanting to stay on in hopes of not having to face whatever drill instructor was going to scream and spit in their face. I already knew this wasn't going to be easy, but they could've at least made the train ride here a little more accommodating.

"ALRIGHT YOU PISSANTS! BEFORE YOU GET OFF THIS TRAIN, LET'S LAY DOWN SOME GROUND RULES! LINE YOUR ASSES UP! SHUT YOUR MOUTHS BEFORE WE SHOVE OUR HOOVES IN THEM! STAND AT ATTENTION AND DON'T YOU DARE EYEBALL ANY ONE OF YOUR INSTRUCTORS! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!?"

"SIR, YES SIR!"

"NOW WHEN YOU ARE CALLED, YOU HEAD TO YOUR ASSIGNED INSTRUCTORS! IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH ANY OF WHAT IS GOING ON, THEN WALK YOUR ASS BACK WHERE YOU CAME FROM! DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?"

"SIR, YES SIR!"

I didn't know if I would want to walk from wherever we were now back to Ponyville. That seemed like a week's worth of travel in contrast to a thirteen-hour train ride. As soon as the train came to a screeching halt, I could see the instructor that previously yelled at me stand up at the front of the train cart.

"OFF THE TRAIN! OFF THE TRAIN! HUSTLE YOUR ASS! I WANNA SEE YOU RUN LIKE YOU'RE RUNNING DOWN FOR MOMMA'S HOT BUTTER BISCUTS!

I grabbed my belongings and ran in line after the few stallions in front of me. As we all started to line up, I could see well over the entire regiment. I know that in military, there is usually a sense of uniformity. I'm literally sticking out like a sore thumb. Even the few griffins I saw on the way in looked at me with confusion.

"YOU'RE AN UGLY SON OF A BITCH, YOU KNOW THAT!?"

One of the instructors walked up to me and screamed that to my face. I didn't want to seem like I was going to answer without being called on, so I just simply remained silent. "..."

"PRIVATE, I ASKED YOU A QUESTION, NOW ANSWER IT BEFORE I MAKE YOU DROP HERE AND NOW."

Nervously, I responded to him. "Sir, yes s-"

"DO YOU FUCKING HAVE A MOUSE IN THAT SHITTY LOG YOU CALL A NECK!? I CAN'T HEAR A DAMN THING!

"SIR, YES SIR!" I screamed to the top of my lungs.

"YOU LOOK LIKE A SACK OF SHIT! YOU LOOK LIKE A TALL, HAIRLESS, EVISCERATED GORILLA! I BET YOUR MOTHER WAS CONTEMPLATING SUICIDE AFTER SHE GAVE BIRTH TO YOU! ANSWER ME, PRIVATE! DOES IT HURT TO LIVE!?"

"SIR, NO SIR!"

"YOU LOOK LIKE YOU NEED A SPEAR CAREFULLY LODGED INTO YOUR BRAIN! I'D PUT YOU OUT OF YOUR MISERY IF IT WASN'T FOR THE FACT THAT YOU'RE ENLISTING! HELL, I MIGHT JUST DO THAT LATER TODAY!"

*snicker*

"DID I HEAR SOMEPONY LAUGH!? DID I HEAR ANYONE LAUGH IN MY FORMATION!?"

Whoever was the one that laughed at my expense, I had to thank them. The instructor's breath was unbelievably unbearable and he kept spitting in my face. If I wasn't following orders, I would wipe my face clean of the spit I was currently wearing.

"CHARLIE COMPANY, LINE UP AT THE DOOR!" Another guard shouted from the gates. As we stood in line, a guard walked up to me and pulled me out of line.

"Hold it a sec, greeny. Your name isn't on the roll for Charlie Company. You're in Delta."

I felt myself become uneasy over the suggestion that I was in another company. But then again, I was told that I was being assigned to Rainbow's company. So it's safe to say that I was going to easily be taken care of. I can already hear her screaming at my company.

"ARE YOU SERIOUSLY LOOKING AT ME!? I WILL FUCKING SHOVE MY HOOF SO FAR IN YOUR FACE THAT YOU WILL BE SEEING YOUR OWN REAR END! NOW STOP EYEBALLING ME, PRIVATE!"

Gotta admit, Rainbow Dash sounded really convincing for her role. Wait a minute? RAINBOW DASH?

"CHARLIE COMPANY! MOVE OUT!" Her voice called out once more. I snuck a look over to what was going on through the gates and saw Rainbow Dash marching off in front of a platoon of new recruits.

"DELTA COMPANY, LINE UP AT THE DOOR!" I heard one of the instructors yell out.

I was already not liking where this was going. This was already shaping up to be hell on earth. I got in line and waited for the line to move. Slowly but surely, we were brought into the camp. We stood at attention, waiting for our company commander to address us.

"WELL LOOKIT HERE! YOU FUCKERS GET THE HONOR OF KISSING MY WHITE, ROYAL ASS FOR THE NEXT TEN WEEKS!"

Oh. Please. God no.

"MY NAME IS SHINING ARMOR! I WILL BE YOUR INSTRUCTOR FOR THE TIME BEING! IF YOU INSIST ON BLOWING ME FOR THE NEXT TWO-AND-A-HALF MONTHS, THEN I SUGGEST YOU MASTER YOUR B-TO-BLOW SKILLS! OTHERWISE, I WILL BE WHIPPING YOU PUSSY-HOOF FUCKERS INTO SHAPE! THERE IS NO CRYING OUT FOR MOMMA IN MY COMPANY! IF YOU WANT YOUR MOMMA, THEN GUESS WHAT, I'M YOUR MOMMA! AND WHATEVER I SAY, GOES! SO THAT MEANS IF I TELL YOU TO GO JUMP OFF A TWELVE-STORY BUILDING, THEN YOUR RESPONSE SHOULD BE 'HOW HIGH DO I HAVE TO BOUNCE!' DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!?"

"SIR, YE-"

"OH HOLD ON FOR A FUCKING MINUTE! IS THAT... IS THAT YOU, NONDIS?"

Just stay at attention. Just stay at attention. For the love of all that is holy just stay at attention. "..."

"ANSWER MY QUESTION, COCK-MUNCHER!"

I quietly stammered my response. "Y-y-yes sir..."

"WELL HELL, MY BIRTHDAY CAME TWICE THIS YEAR!" He shouted loudly in my ear to the entire company. He used his magic to yank me down towards him, whispering in my ear. "I am going to make sure that you fail. And if you die before you even fail... I will shit in your casket and you will wear it as a medal-of-honor."

He shoved me back into place before calling out to the company. "DELTA COMPANY! LET'S MOVE!"

As quickly as we were introduced, we ran right into business. Unfortunately for me, that running would require me to keep up with the group. And equines are twice as fast as humans in running. If there was a god, then he must enjoy my suffering.

In the words of Dante's Divine Comedy... Through me you pass into the city of woe. Through me you pass into eternal pain. Through me among the people lost for aye..

In short, all hope abandon ye who enter here.

Chapter XXXVIII

Back on Earth,
Two hours earlier...

The perpetuating sound of a fist banging against the bathroom door continued to batter against the ear drums of a woman who frantically took her phone out of her pocket and tapped the screen, searching desperately for the name of someone who would help her. As she read the first name she saw on her 'recent calls' list, she pressed against the screen as she looked back to the door that protected her. She remained as quiet as possible as a stream of insults continued to spew from behind the wooden barrier.

"Get your ass out of the goddamn bathroom!"

"I'm using it!" She falsely cried out, knowing that she was trying to find a means to get some help.

Melanie planted the phone against her ear as she quietly chanted to herself. "Please pick up. Please pick up. Come on, please pick up."

After a few seconds of silence, a click was heard on the other end.

"Hey, this is Nondis. Can't come to the phone right now. Leave a message."

She sighed heavily while she heard the sound of her boyfriend... rather ex-boyfriend, banging against the door. She cupped her hand around the receiver as she whispered in a distressed manner.

"Nondis, it's Mel. Hey, give me a call as soon as you get this message."

As she finished her sentence, the sound of his fist became exponentially louder as she looked back to the door with a frightened expression. She continued her message, shaking a bit as she backed into her shower. "Gotta go, PLEASE call me soon."

As she was hanging up, her ex battered both fists against the door to get her attention. "Melanie, open up this goddamn door! I said I was sorry!"

As she looked into the contacts of her phone, she had noticed that the battery icon in the corner was blinking, indicating that her phone was on her last leg. She wouldn't be able to make anymore calls from this point forward. Her only option was to cut off her phone and save some of the battery for future text messages. As the screen bade farewell and the phone deactivated, the sound of the banging ceased for a brief moment. All that could be heard was the sounds of his heavy breathing against the crack of the door.

"Mel... Please open this door. I didn't mean to do what I did. I was wrong. Just come back out here so we can talk about this."

She wasn't willing to hear anything he was saying. The only thing of his that resonated with her was the pain she felt from his fist making contact with the side of her face. She didn't want anything else to do with him from that point forward. The only thing she wanted was a way out of her own bathroom, her small sanctuary, her realm of safety, her makeshift prison.

With eyes closed and fist balled, she hugged against herself as she hid inside of the shower, hoping that it would somehow offer some protection from any future blows her ex would throw her way. She kept herself locked inside of that small space as he continued to plead with her.

"I said I was sorry. Now open this door, Melanie. You know I don't like it when you ignore me. Open the door."

She refused to speak as he started to knock again.

"Mel, you know I don't like it when you don't listen to me. Please open this door before I get angry."

She refused to comply.

"Mel, just open the fucking-" He cut his statement short as he leaned from off of the door and gave it a swift kick.

Melanie jumped from the sound of the impact, causing her to yelp and shake violently. The fear began to take from her silence as she began to whimper and pant while desperately hugging her phone, chanting to the man she wanted to hear from.

"Nondis... please be home."

Currently at Canterlot...

My heart was caught between a sputter and a complete stop. My mind stayed trying to comprehend the words that had miraculously left her mouth. I could've sworn that what she said was nothing more than a figment of my imagination.

"Say what?"

"No, I'm serious."

"Get out. You're lying."

"No I'm not. I meant what I said."

Yeah... she said it alright. But I know damn-well that this couldn't be Twilight speaking. This had to be a changeling or something, Twilight wouldn't agree to something like this lying down. She's perturbed whenever it comes to me simply conversing with other mares while she's present. My spending time with other mares would drive her to complete insanity. She is the epitome of jealousy when it comes to me. She growled down Spitfire just to say that I was hers, she was on the verge of explosion when she saw me and Melanie hugging, she lost all of her shit when Pinkie had told her that she had an interest in me. She even held a grudge against me after I came clean.

There had to be a catch.

"So, you mean to tell me that you actually DON'T mind if I did anything with Rarity?"

"Of course not. I mean, what happened between you two was in the past, and it was prior to our relationship being solidified. So of course I wouldn't mind."

Figures. I knew that I wasn't dreaming that one up. But I still had my suspicions, based solely on the fact that she exploded when I told her the truth about Pinkie. She could be lying, trying to project an image of her being civil about the situation. Only one way to tell... "Okay. So you don't care if anything happened between us while we're on break?"

"Well of course I do!" She answered hysterically. "Rarity is my friend, and she wouldn't want to get into a relationship with you, not now! She's already seen what you would do for me, that I think would kinda put her off of you! She's just that kind of mare."

Yup, that's the jealous Twilight I know. "But who's to say that what I did for you wouldn't encourage her to be on the receiving end of that same treatment? Wouldn't you feel the same way if I was with her and you still liked me the way you do now?"

Twilight sat up and turned to me. "Nondis, she wouldn't be anything like me. She's beautiful, she's really generous, she catches the eyes of every stallion in every town, she's a wonderful designer who's aspirations require her to travel across the world. But what does that leave you with? I'd know that I would be left with an uncertain sense of security when it comes to the solidarity and trust of our relationship, especially if they were out of town."

...Okay, now I'm concerned... and confused. I knew that Twilight was jealous, but I didn't think that she was somewhat envious of Rarity too. Could it be that Spike's words kinda jolted her to this? "What are you-"

"Look, I don't mean to downplay her, cause she is a wonderful pony. I've already heard from Sweetie Belle that she's a very talented cook. She can draw, she can create dresses, she can sing, she knows the inner-workings of practically everything there is when it comes to dating, she's experienced in the art of pleasing stallions where I'm not, she can..." She paused for a moment, looking back at her still recovering wings. I had gotten the hint of what she wanted to say next, but she kept it quietly to herself. "...She could be a wonderful housewife. But her occupation would take her away from you far too much. And she doesn't tend to stay on a particular stallion for very long. I just don't want you to get hurt."

Uh-huh... "So you're saying that you wouldn't want me to 'get hurt' by her?"

"Okay, let's talk about Spike for a moment." Let not. "Spike and her were really hitting it off when she first started getting to know him, but she didn't really see him as anything more than a younger cousin, or something like that. Meanwhile, Spike has been relentlessly trying to get her to see that he was the only thing she needed. So when she brought up the subject of Blueblood to him, he really trailed off for a while."

"Depression?" I assumed, knowing from experience.

"She gave him small hints that she wasn't really looking to have him that way, but he just kept fighting for her. And overtime, she had more crushes and he-"

I already knew where she was going with this. "Stop right there." I said, beginning to massage my forehead. Well fuck... This is like high school all over again.

Let's pause and reflect for a minute.

My high school romantic experience was played out the exact same way. I met Melanie, we became close friends, we chilled, I crushed on her, she crushed on someone else, I exploded while voicing my disapproval, she ignored me, I waited, she got burned and broke up with the guy, I was the emotional rebound for her, she feels better about life, and then the cycle repeats from 'fond of someone else', a.k.a. Step Five. Eventually I just completely broke and screamed at her, cussing her out, hurting her feelings and pushing away the only friend I knew. And from that point on, I did nothing but harm what little reputation I had by surrendering myself to drugs and suicidal thoughts.

Hell, I wouldn't even be surprised to find that I had made a conscious decision when I had drove my car into the gulf, with me in it.

Here I am dealing with the one thing, the one psyche that continues to irk me; myself. Not really myself, but Spike was running this same path I ran on before I had completely decided to abandon reality and live in La-La Land. The primary difference between the two of us is that he's a lot more outgoing with his advances and a lot less argumentative with Rarity, which means that his breakdown could be a lot more violent. And with him holding it in for every crush she had, he will get to the point... or have already gotten to the point where he has nearly lost his grip on reality.

He's dangerous to not only himself, but everyone else in this state.

"Nondis?" Twilight gave me a brief nudge to get my attention, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Huh, what?"

"Weren't you listening to anything I was saying just now?"

I didn't even know that she was talking. "Wait, what?"

She let out a disgruntled groan while she scooted closer to me. "I was going into further details on how Rarity wouldn't be a very good choice for you, given both of your professions. You're a guard, which would pretty much take you away from her. And she's a designer that would take her talents throughout the world. You would be confined here mainly because of your role while she goes out and explore the world."

"Are you trying to justify yourself as my only choice here?" I questioned. "In case you haven't noticed, you're no different when it comes to the 'job taking you around the world' thing."

Twilight folded her ears back as she looked away with sadness in her eyes. She eased off of me slightly as she spoke. "Nondis... I don't want you with anyone else. Even on this break, I just don't want you to lose focus on what we have."

"There you go trying to rush us back together again." I scooted back from her and towards the edge of the bed.

"I'm not trying to push anything." She argued. "I'm just merely stating the statistics and the probabilities of how each relationship would play out. I've even calculated your-"

"Twilight, this is why we're on a break. You focus too much on analytics and fail to take into account the unknown variables of reality. Quit. Trying. To force it. If I make my decision to move on, then I will and would do my best to remain friends with you. And I hope that you would do the same."

"I don't wanna be 'just friends' with you..." She confessed, clenching her forelegs around my lower chest. "I'm sorry. I just can't anymore. I want us to-"

"Hurry things along. I've already heard your conversation from earlier about your 'two-week deadline'. And I can tell you, with the way you're acting now, we're looking at a month, no less than twenty-one days."

"Now that's just not fair! Don't treat me like that! Why are you so insistent on punishing me!? I've done nothing wrong to you! And if this is for me yelling at you before you left to your world, I already said that I was sorry."

"...You punished me, and I didn't deserve it." I stated as I raised up from the bed to speak with her.

"How did I punish you?" She asked with a look of complete disbelief.

"Oh, did you think that I forgot about you kicking me out of the castle and your constant ignoring me for over six weeks? The only thing I've ever gotten out of you in that time period was severe headaches, nosebleeds, a cold shoulder, and a hoofprint on my cheek. So this seems fair to me, especially considering that you had gotten off with a warning and decided to shove me away from you."

Twilight released her hooves from around me as she offered me her rebuttal. "Nondis, you know why I did that! I told you why!"

"Yeah, but did you know how I felt about it, especially after what was said and done? Here, let me show you."

I raised out of the bed and walked towards the doors. As I reached out for the handle, she used her magic to pull me back to the bed. While she was tugging against my arm, I began to pull against the door for leverage. Twilight frowned as she struggled to pull me back over. I continued to hold onto the door when suddenly...

*knock knock knock*

As that sound came through the wood, Twilight released my arm and allowed me to answer the door. When I had pulled the door open, I could see a very tired and angry Celestia standing in the doorway. Her mane flowed a lot less than usual but she was still wearing her regalia. Instead of remaining silent, I acknowledged her presence. "Uh... your highness?"

"What is going on?" The alabaster princess asked. "I hear voices coming from down the hall while I'm trying to enjoy a peaceful night's sleep."

"Princess," Twilight answered as she straightened up in the bed. "I-"

"And what are you doing in here? I instructed you that the two of you were not to share a room."

"Well I was having some issues with-"

"It is three-forty in the morning and I have to raise the sun in two hours. Twilight, I am well aware of your situation and have remedied you of your disturbances. Spike has been moved to my chambers, so return to your room and leave Nondis alone."

"But-"

"Now." Celestia frowned intensely as she looked to her former student.

Twilight climbed out of the bed and walked past me. Just as she did, she gave me a sad glance before walking off. I couldn't seem to understand why she looked at me so sadly. Was it because she had gotten caught or was it because she was leaving me alone? Either way, I was left to the silence that once filled the air. And after walking back to my bed, I had found that my body was a little more willing to send me off to the realm of dreams. Unfortunately for me, I had wake up at about six-thirty. I pulled out my phone to check the time.

...Three forty-two? Fuck I need some goddamn rest.

The next morning...

It went without saying that I had a bit of an attitude this morning. Waking up at about seven did give me like an extra thirty minutes, but what good would that do behind only four hours of sleep? Not much in terms of preventing me from being grouchy and uncooperative. But as I was making my way to breakfast, I did overhear Twilight getting a serious chewing-out from Cadance. Spike was then assigned to assist one of the senators with some important documents.

It makes me wonder just how well-acquainted are these politicians are with Spike. But that didn't matter.

Later, I walked down the busy halls, noticing that one of the areas had a very pungent odor floating about. If I wasn't mistaken, it smelled like something akin to a burning bin of junk mail and something else I couldn't exactly distinguish. Upon a brief investigation of the matter, though it wasn't really an investigation per se, I found that a politician was in his office burning some documents.

Perhaps he was trying to rid himself of some evidence of wrong-doing?

Unfortunately, my train would leave within an hour and I was left with very little time to look into it further. I had to also grab my stuff and set out for Ponyville. And despite my discomfort of riding the train, I figured to myself that the ride down the mountain would be a lot easier considering that I didn't have to fight on the way down. And the ravine was my biggest trigger... for lack of a better word.

Getting that out of the way first eliminated all the build-up of nervousness and tension that would be present should I be coming into the city rather instead. So after a few more conversations with a few of the guards in charge of finding the assassin, I took my leave and made it back down to Ponyville.

But that doesn't mean that I wasn't eagerly wearing my battery down on my phone listening to music on the way down. I needed some other sound in my ears aside from the perpetual clanking of the train bouncing on the track. I wasn't even intending to look outside until I had known for myself that this train had come to a complete stop.

A few hours later and I was back on the level ground of Ponyville. While I was carting my box to the apartment, I couldn't have felt any more satisfied of my being away from Canterlot. Honestly, that place placed more stress on me than anything, and I don't even have to be there in order for that to happen. But for right now, I had a long list of things to do throughout the day and my apartment was calling my name...

...And not the one in Ponyville either.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

As usual upon my arrival, my phone went off and notified me of all of the messages I had missed out on. But this time, my phone was blowing up like crazy. And I wasn't going to just breeze through all of them either. I had a total of eighteen texts and two voice-mails. Without much consideration, I decided that voice messages would take precedent over texts. With a quick dial, I was brought to my messages.

"You have TWO new messages. First new message..."

"Hello? Yeah you know who it is, big bro! What the hell, you just disappear for nine months and now you wanna show up and not even give me a call? You already know that Alex is pretty pissed at you too, so you might wanna hit him up sometime soon, but after you talk to me first. Oh, and feel free to get on this: SECOND STRING WIDE-RECEIVER! I'm a red-shirt freshman at Texas A&M! Give me two years, three tops, and I'll be in the NFL Draft! Johnny Manziel ain't gonna have shit on me! Love you bro, peace!"

Stanton, you idiot. Well, he seems to be doing fine.

End of message, to delete... *beep* Message deleted. Next message...

"Nondis, it's Mel. Hey, give me a call as soon as you get this message. *BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG* Gotta go, PLEASE call me soon." "Melanie, open up this goddamn-"

End of message. To delete... *beep* Message will be saved for FOURTEEN days. End of new messages. Check- *click*

...I didn't like that last message. Not only did it sound as if Melanie was stressed, but with the banging and screaming going on in the background, I could tell that she wasn't exactly in a safe position. Almost instantly, I had thought about the absurd amount of texts I had received and the probability that it could all be from her. I pulled up my screen and saw a long list of messages from mostly her, and maybe one or two from Cliff and Rickey. I started from the bottom of the list and worked my way on up for sequence.

Sender: Melanie
Hey wyd?

Sender: Melanie
Hey fkr get on stick lets play sum CoD :D

Sender: Melanie
R u busy?

Of course a sound majority of the earlier messages were nothing short of requests to hang out. But when I had gotten to the ninth one, I had noticed that there was something disturbing about how she started asking me to hang out.

Sender: Melanie
Can I come over? BF annoying af DX

Sender: Rickey
You seen Mel? She didn't show for class.

Sender: Melanie
R u doin anything rite now?

Sender: Melanie
I can't stand it here, plz let me come over. I need to talk 2 u. T_T

Sender: Cliff
bruh ol gurl mel been off l8ly u kno wats up?

Sender: Melanie
He and I got n2 it 2day. Done up wit him. You busy? ;P

Sender: Melanie
Tried 2 break, didnt work. We got n2 it again :c

Sender: Melanie
Plz open the door. Been knockin 4 a while. I need 2 talk wit u.

Sender: Melanie
plz b home. I need u.

Sender: Rickey
Dude, answer your damn phone for once! Mel needs our help!

The most recent message was dated just this morning at about three thirty.

The night I was having trouble sleeping would be the night something had gone down in this world. Unfortunately, I was in a completely different city from where the portal was, and the trains don't run between ten at night and six the next morning. If anything, I would have to give Melanie a call before something bad would happen. I needed to get on that asap.

*ring... ring... ring... ring-click*

"Hello? What do you want?"

That was not Melanie. I slowly spoke to the man on the other side of the line. "Excuse me, I'm looking for a Melanie Brewer, is she-"

"Hey look fuckboy, don't call this phone again, don't talk to Melanie again! You need to stop talking to her and getting her into all this trouble before I come and find your ass. And trust me, it won't take no nine months for me to do it!" *click*

Nope... not Melanie at all. Guess I should hit up Rickey to see what was going on. Obviously I wasn't going to have time to sit down and relax this go around.

*ring... ring... ring... ring-click*

"Hello?"

"Hey Rick, my phone was out. I'm just now getting your message. What happened with Melanie?"

"Dude, she was knocking on your door for an hour! Where the fuck were you!? After she chilled out for about an hour, she went back home to get her car and her boyfriend snatched her into the apartment and beat her ass! Where the fuck were you then?"

"WHAT!?" And my day just got significantly longer. My mood was already off when I had got here, but this just completely turned me inside out. Melanie getting abused? I draw the line there. "Where is she now?"

"She's with us. We're at the frat house. So what about you, you finished with your 'out of town' trip with your girlfriend?"

I bolted out of the room and started walking towards the front door. "I'm on my way over! Right now! Is she okay?"

"You know, that's a dumb-ass question for you to be asking. Of course she's not okay, she just got her head bashed in by some guy who's probably fucking some other girl right now."

Sounds like Caramel. "I'm going over to her apartment to meet this guy."

"He ain't there. He's out getting him some. Cliff saw him talking to some girl on campus, they were headed towards the dorms. You need to come over here and help us with Mel. She's the one who could really use the support from you."

"She could need me to cram my fist into this asshole's skull."

"Nondis, we know you can't fight this dude. He's a criminal justice major with some degree of training. You might wanna save it for later."

"Fine then, shoot his ass!" I said loudly and angrily.

"I want to, bad. But Mel asked me not to. She wants to 'work things out' with ol dude."

For a moment, I could do nothing but stutter and stammer in response before I could finally ask. "W-WHY?"

"Because he threatened to report the frat for illegal arms possession. Not me, the frat, as in ALL of our asses will be kicked off the campus."

Great, so he's trying to get us all expelled. What kind of bitch does this guy have to be for him to ruin the lives of everyone around him for the sake of his personal indulgence? I already dealt with this shit with Caramel, I have to deal with this all over with the politicians, and here in my world, I have to do it with Melanie's boyfriend? I've had enough. "Shit. Well I'm on my way over then. Tell Melanie that I'm coming."

"Yeah. We'll be here." *click*

After hanging up, I burst into a jog as I quickly made my way to the frat house. Thankfully, the place wasn't anywhere over two miles from where I was, but it was still an inconvenience to run and worry about someone's health on top of all of that. I just came here to buy a rifle and some suppressors for a weapons demonstration, but now I get this. What a way to start a fucked-up day.

After about twenty minutes of running and dodging traffic, I found myself back on fraternity row, pacing myself as I ran up to the Delta Phi house. But as I approached, I could see both Melanie's car as well as an open moving truck. I also saw a guy who appeared to be a light-skinned Rastafarian walking from out of the back of the truck. I started to do the math and assumed that she would be moving in rather than staying at her apartment. I could see that happening, as many of the frat members respect her and consider her as like a little sister... or so I've been told.

When I had arrived on the front porch, I glanced back into the truck to see a bunch of Tupperware bins stacked from butt to lid throughout the back of the storage space. I walked up to see what was being unpacked, but as soon as I had gotten closer to one of the bins that had a hole in it, I could clearly see that no one was moving in. Instead, it seemed like Rickey was moving his stuff out.

I wonder why he was trying to move all of his guns for?

With a tiresome shrug, I went back to the front door and knocked. And as usual, Cliff came up to the door with his baseball bat. Thankfully, when he saw that it was me, he didn't have any intentions of using it. "Oh. What up, fam."

"Is Melanie in?" I questioned while out of breath.

"Damn, did you literally just run your ass over here?" He asked as he moved out the way to let me inside.

"I ain't got a car. What else am I supposed to do, wait on a bus?"

Cliff shook his head as he closed the door behind me. "Bruh, we've been trying to call you since last night. She was calling us to see if you were in town and if we knew where you would be at. You gotta keep your phone on!"

Again, I'm not in a position to actually answer my phone, especially if I was in another world. "I was out of town. I couldn't get a signal for shit."

"Didn't you say your girl was from UT-Arlington? Last I checked, they have a pretty decent amount of reception out there, as well as students. If anything, yo ass is gonna have to find someplace where there ain't no reception, and that's way out in the middle of woods somewhere." He stated while looking at me with suspicion.

How did he know that much? Did Melanie fill the guys in on who I was dating while I was gone? Well that isn't too much of a bad thing, it only solidifies the fact that I'm often leaving town with her. And no one knows who she is or what she looks like. I can still sell the lie. "Well, we do a lot of outdoor stuff so-"

"And now that I'm on that, how is it that there's is literally no one who sees you when you leave the apartment? You don't send out any word or text that you're leaving, you don't tell nobody that you goin' out of town or nothin'. Hell, a courtesy 'I'm goin' out to get me some fuck, don't text back' wouldn't be a bad thing. Instead, it's like yo ass just stay locked up in that damn apartment with yo phone on airplane mode. Either that, or you just runnin' some shit somewhere, which would help explain why you came over to buy some shit."

Run shit? The only thing I'm running is the security of a nation not even on this earth. And I'm not going to be able to explain that to him without coming off as completely in-fucking-sane. Hell, the first time I came out directly and told them, they thought I was tripping balls. Obviously, I have been managing my time between the two worlds poorly. And in this case, I'm on the defensive due to my desire not to disclose Equestria's existence.

The only way I would be able to do that is if I desperately needed to do so.

But I still had to come up with another excuse to cover the lie I just told. "We usually do go out camping. She's an outdoors person, so-"

"Nondis, is that you!?" I heard a somewhat disgruntled Rickey call out from upstairs. A few footsteps impacted the floor, indicating that he was in a rush to see me. As he peered from the top of the stairs, he came running down to stare me down.

"Rickey, is she doing okay?"

He shook his head as he angrily pressed his lips against his teeth. With a quick breath, he calmly spoke to me. "You know, I would wonder how it would feel if I had gotten my head and shoulders bashed in and my phone taken away, just after I knocked endlessly on a certain someone's door for an hour. I mean, it can't be that hard if you were capable of saving her, or if you were able to talk to her and let her know that she was in trouble. She wouldn't dare come to us until she got hurt! But when it comes to you... Oh she'll come knocking as if you have the cure to fucking cancer."

Yeah, he's pissed. "Sorry, I was out of town. I got here as quick-"

"YOU NEEDED TO BE THERE FOR HER! WHY THE FUCK CAN'T YOU GET THAT THROUGH YOUR THICK-ASS SKULL!?" He shouted, banging his fist against the wall.

"Okay, I get it. It's my fault for not responding to something I was out of town for. And I didn't have a signal until I had just got back into town. So sorry if I-"

Rickey grabbed the collar of my shirt as he snarled at me. He obviously took exception to my sarcasm. "You better not say some stupid shit or else I will make sure it takes another nine months to find you-"

The next thing I felt was a hand shoving against my chest as Cliff stepped in between the two of us. "Yo, y'all need to chill for like a hot minute. This ain't about you, it's about the girl we got upstairs in the bed crying over her boyfriend doin' her bad." He turned to Rickey. "And yeah, I know you mad because he threatened all of us and did yo ex dirty. But that don't mean you take that shit out on Nondis." He then turned to me. "And like I said to you, you gotta keep your phone on. Everybody in this bitch tryin' to hit you up and make sure you decent, and we can't even get in touch. It's startin' feel like we went out searchin' for nine months for someone that didn't wanna be found in the first place."

"That's not true and you know it." That is the furthest from the truth. If anything, I was trying to find my way back for a good six months, and got enlisted for another two-and-a-half. None of this is my fault, and I wish I could just explain it to these guys that I was trapped in an alternate world for that long, but again, I would be called bat-shit crazy. There is no truth for me to tell without me being sent to a mental institution.

Ugh... Where do I even begin?

"That's why I'm so mad!" Rickey said, cosigning with Cliff's previous point. "Mel's been hard at work, trying to find you. We've all helped in trying to find you. You come back and it's like fuck it, I'm gonna ghost. Do you know how fucked up that is, especially to Mel? It's like you don't show appreciation for what she's had to go through just to find you. And it hurts me because I was with her while her mind was on you the entire time! Do you know how fucking hard that is, to maintain a relationship when she's thinking about someone else? I wish you would just come strolling in as if nothing serious had happened."

Again, not my fault. "Look, I'm here to help with whatever. I'm mainly here to check up on Melanie. I just want to see her, I didn't come here for no fights, I didn't come here to be accused of some shit I have no control over. My phone stays on at all times and I just don't get shit. And I'm sorry that it happens to be that way, but I'm... I just wanna see Melanie."

Rickey scoffed at me as he started to walk back up the stairs. "Well, she doesn't wanna be seen by you. She said that she didn't want you to see her because of her scars."

I started to get a little upset as I attempted to climb upstairs. "So none of you didn't think to call the police?"

Rickey turned back around to stop me. "Yeah, we did. But then Mel stated that her dude Jasper would have reservations against that. He actually called me and threatened to call the police on my shit if I was to ever report him on this. And you know what the deal is from there."

"Didn't you think that a threat of our enrollment status would be a lot less important than the safety of another human being?"

"I don't think you remember, but we're all going down here. You're going to jail for buying, Mel's going to jail for buying, I'm going to jail for selling illegally, Cliff's going down for being an 'asset', and then our whole chapter goes down with us. He got us in a place where I can't do shit but try to move as much of my stuff out of here should he decide to report us for it, which I'm sure he will at this point."

"What makes you so sure?" I questioned.

"Who the hell's upstairs?" He asked, pointing to the top of the staircase.

"Oh yeah." Yeah, he might be a little peeved that we took her in. I could see that happening. So I guess I would have to do a lot of reconstruction with my to-do list, starting with giving this Jasper-guy a piece of my mind, and then helping Rick get rid of all of these guns... I've got an idea.

We all can't go under if only one of us has all the weapons, especially if they're hidden someplace where the cops can't find them or have access to. I have knowledge of such a place, and I could benefit from it in more ways than one. Hell, if I was going to be booked for possession of illegal firearms, then I might as well make it a charge worth booking.

"Hey, this goes in the truck too, right?" Asked the Rastafarian I saw from earlier carrying a turquoise tub.

"Yeah." Cliff confirmed as he walked off to help with the packing.

Finding a place to store all these arms would be hell to get away with. I guess I was going to have to make Rick an offer. "Hey, you're on a clearance sale, right?"

It took us up to forty-five minutes to clean out the house and make sure there wasn't a single bullet, shell, accessory, arrow, or weapon hiding throughout the house. The only thing lethal that remained was the baseball bat sitting in the corner next to the front door. After I had explained to Rickey what my plan was, he was in complete disbelief.

I offered him thirty grand for the entire stash. And though I would be broke in this world, it wouldn't last for very long. As soon as my next payday rolls around, I'll be just as rich as I was before... if not richer.

But his main concern wasn't the money, it was the amount of space that was in my apartment and how I would be able to hide everything from anyone who would come searching with a warrant. Again, I remained reluctant to tell him all of the details, but I did assure that even he wouldn't be able to find anything, even if he had brought in a K-9 unit.

Again, he was skeptical of my offer. But when I had mentioned that I was off campus, specifying that I would be the only one taking the fall due to that sole fact alone, he leaned slightly in favor for it.

Truth be told, I was going to dump everything I purchased across the mirror. More weapons to use and demonstrate with come tomorrow, I guess. But either way, I was going to have to keep them hidden from mostly everypony else as well. Thankfully, that won't be too hard considering my job and rank.

But with all of the packing aside, I was left with some free time to check in on Melanie. It took Rickey that full forty-five minutes to cool off and let me speak with her.

As I entered one of the bedrooms upstairs, I had noticed a body laying quietly underneath the sheets. The figure sniffled and gasped for air as they cocooned themselves in the sheets, facing away from the door. Gathering from the feminine sounds that were produced, I concluded that it was Melanie hiding in those blankets.

"Hey, Mel. It's me." I whispered quietly, feeling compelled to just outwardly hug her. But at the same time, I felt like she didn't want to see me after everything that had happened. So rather than walking inside, I kept my distance. "I heard about what happened. I didn't get in until sometime this morning. I'm sorry."

She didn't respond, making me feel all the more nervous to even speak with her.

"I know you're mad at me. And I can't help but to feel like you want me to leave you alone. So, if you want me to just leave, that's fine. If you don't, then that's cool too. But..."

I can't even finish that sentence. The main thing that's preventing me from doing so is the substantial amount of guilt that came with the words I was initially going to speak. I wanted to say that if she needed anyone to talk to, that I would be there for her. But I know just how well that turned out today. Eventually, I couldn't even look at her lying in that bed. I just walked out and paced up and down the hall. I wasn't shy, I was pissed and ashamed. I was pissed that all of this happened without my knowledge, and ashamed that I wasn't here to respond to it as soon as I would have liked to.

But at the same time, I knew that it couldn't have been helped. I was as far away from the portal as possible. So there was no possible way I could've even came through for her. The trains don't run after a certain period of time, the chariots were under lock-down to prevent midnight joyrides, and working through that mountain would take me days on my own.

And yet, that knowledge didn't help me feel any better. It made me feel worse because I failed to live up to that promise the first time. Hell, Rickey's pissed because I didn't respond nor was I able to keep in touch. And I agree, that is a dangerous problem to have. And inside of that room was the primary example of why it was.

I was more conflicted than ever at that point.

"Nondis..." I heard a mumble from inside of the room. I walked back to see her sitting up on the bed, half of her face covered in the sheets she used to wrap her body with. I slowly walked over as she scooted over and patted against the bed. As I sit down, I could see some of the blue-ish marks across her neck and left cheek. She had a bit of swelling on her right eye as well. As she tried to look to me, she kept her eyes squinted.

"Sorry if it looks like I don't wanna look at you. The light kinda hurts my eyes."

"Oh... I get it." I started to turn away, unable to bear with the sight of the abuse she took. She reached out from under the covers and grabbed my hand as she leaned against me.

"Can I lean on you for a sec?" She asked weakly.

"Sure. Do your thing."

As she leaned against me I could feel a cold emptiness fill my chest, almost causing me to produce tears as I tried my best not to look at her. I feared that in doing so would cause me to cry in front of her. I kept demanding myself not to show any kind of emotion, but the feeling of her going limp against me doesn't help me much.

"I'm gonna be okay." She tried to assure me, only provoking a bit of rage.

"How the hell does this constitute you 'being okay'? If anything, you should be angry... Scream or something." I said while turning back to her, unwittingly getting a full view of her battered smile. She opened her mouth to let out a small squeak. She produced a light chuckle as she looked at me.

"Sorry, that's all I can do for now. Maybe later."

"How are you even smiling? This dude just beat the..." I stopped myself, realizing that I was about to display a poor choice in words. "...He hurt you. And now you're trying to reconcile with him to save us? Why, no how? Explain that to me."

Melanie grabbed my hand as she spoke. "I'm smiling because I know that you'd be here. I'm smiling because I know it's over. I'm smiling because I know that no matter what happens to me, you guys are going to be okay."

"That's stupid, you know that?"

"Can you make me a promise?"

I couldn't believe what she was saying. It was nonsensical and completely bizarre. I can't believe she was literally beaten and she comes out smiling as if she's... completely lost it. "...Don't make me promise something I can't do."

"Look, I just don't want you to get involved. You're my friend and I love you, so I can't let you get beat up over something that has nothing to do with you."

It has everything to do with me. That's why I'm here, Melanie. First you message me to tell me that you need me and now you just so miraculously want me to stay out of it? I can understand if you're frustrated with my response, but please don't ask me to butt out if I'm the root of the situation. Unless you have some miracle cure-all hidden within your purse, I'm gonna need you to tell me what's going on. "Hello? I'm the cause of this problem. If anything, I should try to be something similar to a solution, or maybe I should at least help you get there."

"Nondis, I don't need you-"

"MELANIE!!!"

Both our heads turned to the window. As I leaned out to peer outside I could see a man dressed in black baggy jeans, a v-neck shirt, some white Jordans and a Cincinnati Reds cap on his head. He kept shouting at the house as he stood on our lawn. As I looked back over, I could see Melanie getting out of the bed and slowly making her way to the door. "Who's this guy?" I asked before she walked into the hall.

"That's Jasper. He's my ex. Probably here to make me drive him someplace."

"Wait, he rides in your car and he does this shit to you?"

"Nondis, just stay in here and chill. I got him-"

"No you don't!" I argued as I quickly paced out of the room and down the stairs. Melanie continued to try and convince me to leave him alone, but I wasn't hearing any of it. I looked to the side of the door to see if the bat was there. But since it wasn't, I could already assume that Cliff had already grabbed it. When I walked outside, I saw Reggie standing by the truck. Both Rickey and Cliff standing before the front porch while this Jasper guy was screaming at the both of them.

"Just tell me where Mel is, and you might see graduation. How about that?"

"How about you get yo sorry-ass on somewhere before you get yo ass bopped, how's that sound?" Cliff retorted angrily as he pointed the bat directly at him.

"Oooh, a scary black man with a bat. I just don't know what to do." Jasper said with sarcasm. "Look, I know the cops don't like you. I don't like you-"

"Why, cause my dick bigger than yours? You a pussy-ass bitch who can't even fight a man, let alone swing on one. But you got the nerve to swing on a chick, huh? Okay then, Imma swing with this bat and we gon' see how you feel about it."

Jasper backed away a bit as Cliff brought the bat to his body for a wind-up. "Look, I've been trained by officers to deal with thugs like you and Rick. I can easily disarm you and then beat you with the same bat. You don't know me, so why don't you get Mel so I can leave."

"Fuck that shit, you gotta get through us before you even so much as look at her!" Rickey said as he stepped forward.

"She's right there, you know?" Jasper pointed to the front door at Melanie, who stood right beside me. Rickey turned back around to confront her.

"Mel, get back in the house-"

"Melanie, babe, let's go." The guy said as if he was trying to command her to heed to his every order. At that point, I completely snapped. As I walked up, I kindly pushed both Rick and Cliff aside. Melanie called for me to get back, but again, I wasn't listening.

"Dude, can we talk? Just a quick come-to-Jesus meeting. That's all I'm asking for."

"Whoever you are, fuck you. I don't have to talk to you." He said as he tried to walk past me to Melanie.

I kept up with him, cutting him off as he tried to reach for her. "My name's Nondis. And you don't have to treat her like that."

"Bitch, fuck off! I'm her boyfriend, I can do what I want!"

As he reached for her a second time, I made a simple observation. "I can tell, your eyebrows is a dead giveaway."

He stopped short of her arm and turned back to me, leaving me with mere inches of breathing room. "What the fuck you just say to me?" He whispered in my face, allowing me to catch the smell of sex and Tic-Tacs.

I responded calmly and quietly. "Well, to me it seems you're confused. You got one with slashes in it and the other is a fucked-up chevron. It looks like you don't know whether you want endorsements from Addidas or Nike."

I got a snort from Cliff as he turned away, holding his fist against his mouth. Obviously, Jasper took exception to my joke. "I bet your mom has fucked up eyebrows!"

Ooh, the 'your mom' joke. Two can play that game. "I bet I fucked your mom six ways from five minutes ago."

"What you talking about? That doesn't make any sense!"

"You know, after choking on my dick, your sister and your cousin said the same shit."

"Nondis!" Melanie called out, trying to get me to back off.

He grabbed my shirt as if he wanted to throw me into the wall, I just calmly allowed him to make himself look bad. "You wanna go!? We'll fucking go in! I can beat your sorry ass right here."

I raised my palms and politely separated him from my shirt, not wanting to hear any complaints from the pony who made it. "What's your mantra? Float like a rock, sting like a feather? I don't care if you're trained or not, but if you think that putting your hands on Melanie won't grant you a ticket to the first-class cabin of the ass-whopping express, then I suggest you get a fucking clue. Get your retard-a-dum-dum ass out and leave Melanie alone. And in the end of all of it, you don't get hurt... much. Sounds like a fair idea to me."

He nodded as he pursed his lips, acting as if he was agreeing to my proposal. "I got an even better one-"

The next thing I had noticed as a fist coming into contact with the side of my jaw. "NONDIS!" Melanie screamed as she watched me take the hit. As I was holding myself, I noticed that he had backed up like he was going to come in swinging.

"Uh-huh. You know, you talk a lot of shit! Get hit on, motherfucker!"

I shuffled my jaw as I faked as if I was going to turn away, but I darted right after him, blind to whatever hits was coming in at me. As I took another to the shoulder, I cocked my right fist back to give him a blow to the chest. I also threw in a left to the side of his neck. He tried to go for another blow for my face, but he hit only the air as I backed away. Jumping back, I allowed myself some decent cock-back room and ample space for a haymaker. Without warning, he ran at me and threw his arms around my shoulder trying to hug me down. As he did, he tried to kick at me. Instead of remaining locked in, I used my foot to shove him off.

As we were fighting, Rickey kept holding Melanie as she screamed for us to stop. Cliff kept trying to tell Jasper to 'fight like a man' and to stop hugging me every time I wanted to throw a decent punch. But I had something for that the next time. As I skipped around him, remaining nimble, he rushed for me, rearing his right fist back. But instead of him getting his hit in, I took a step forward and gave him a swing from right. Upon impact, the sound was reminiscent of a folded belt snapping closed. He tried to come back towards me, but he stumbled towards his left, allowing a clear opening for another hit. With one final wind and release, he dropped to the lawn as limpidly as a crash-test dummy. As I finished, I could hear Cliff cheering. Both Reggie and Rickey came running over to scream in his face.

"You got knocked the fuck out!" They both said in unison.

This fight was beyond done. I walked over to him to speak to the 'sleeping' Jasper. "You know... you talk a lot of shit."

Cliff walked over and saw him staring blankly at the sky. His chest didn't indicate that he was breathing, nor did he blink at all. Cliff grew concerned. "Damn, is he dead?"

Melanie walked over and just stared at him. "No, I think he's just out of it."

Immediately after she said something, we could hear an unsettling snorting noise coming from him as he lied motionless.

Reggie gave him a light slap to the face. "Nondis, did you just seriously put this guy to sleep?"

Melanie immediately got up in a panic. "Oh no. We gotta get him to a hospital. That's sound is bad news."

"Wait, what's bad news?" Cliff asked.

As I listened in closely, I had become familiar to the sound he was producing. It was a similar sound that the changelings made just moments before expiring. Not a good thing to hear. "That's not's snoring, that's a death rattle." I clarified.

"Death rattle?" Cliff asked.

Melanie explained it further. "When fluids get into the bronchial tube or the trachea, they tend to be unable to swallow that extra fluid. So in short, they choke and die."

The five of us looked at each other with panic on our faces. We did not need a dying person on our front lawn.

About an hour after our scramble, we sent Reggie and Melanie to the hospital so that they could take Jasper in for treatment. Thankfully, he came to by the time he got there. As she finished getting him signed in, Reggie had her call the police and let them know what all had happened with her. Ultimately, as soon as he was given outpatient care, the police were there to take him in. Melanie also had to go with them to submit a report as well as let them take pictures of her bruises.

Meanwhile, Rickey, Cliff and I took the U-Haul to my apartment and unloaded all of the bins full of weapons. As soon as we had finished unloading, Rickey came to realize that my apartment was just too small to hide all of his weapons out of plain sight. I tried to explain to him how I would go about hiding the weapons, but sadly I couldn't make up a story that would sound logical.

"Dude, that's not gonna work." Rickey stated as all three of us stared at the stacked bins of guns filling up my living room.

"Just trust me, it'll work. You won't even know where to look."

"Unless you're going to be breaking the walls and using them as some sort of facade, I don't see this happening. Plus we're on the second floor, so hiding them in the floor won't work either."

Cliff groaned as he stood up from where he sat. "Man, while y'all keep talking about this shit, I'm bout to go use the bathroom."

"Go to my room, all the way to the end of the hall, make a left and you should run right into it."

As he walked in, he started talking about the lack of a bed. "Do you sleep on the floor or somethin?"

"Nah, getting a new bed. Mine got squeaky so I just dumped it."

As the door closed in the back, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. As I pulled it out, I had noticed a text from Reggie saying that Mel was getting a case and was more than likely going to call for witnesses. Great... this again. And knowing our justice system, this shit was going to take a full three to five months to even process.

At least I would be finished with most of my work on the other end. But there's still the matter of how the hell I'm going to explain where all of these weapons will be carted off to.

"AHHHHHH!"

...That didn't sound good.

"What? What's wrong?" Rickey shouted to the bathroom.

"Nondis' mirror tried to eat my ass!"

...Yeah, busted.

Rickey and I came running in and saw that he was laying on the floor, staring back at the mirror. I immediately went on damage control. "What did you do?"

"I saw something black on the mirror, so when I tried to wipe it off, that shit just wrapped around my hand and tried to eat me on some alien-type shit!" I sure wish he wasn't the curious type.

"What? Psssh, nah!" Rickey said as he tried to touch the mirror. I immediately stepped in the way, holding him back with one arm.

"Hey look, can we get back to weapons real quick. I'm pretty sure he's just making shit up."

Unfortunately, neither Cliff nor Rickey seemed to take that idea into mind as the pointed at me. "Um... We can do that, but uh... let's talk about your arm."

As I looked back, I could see the mirror's surface wrapping around my arm as it was partially buried into the surface. I grimaced as I had realize that this couldn't go on unexplained. And any reason would sound logical to them at this point. I was going to have to tell them the truth about it at some point, since my communication skills were severely lacking. But now I had to tell them based off of the sole fact that they had already seen for themselves what the mirror was.

It would also help me explain to Rickey how I would hide all of these weapons.

"Oh... that. The mirror is-"

"Some alien shit?" Cliff finished.

Well, no point in trying to hide it now. "Yeah, I was gonna say magical, but if that's what you wanna go by." Both of them started to back away as I let my arm phase through the mirror. They both stared at me crazy as they saw me pull it back out as if nothing had happened. "But as you can tell, it's perfectly harmless. And in short, this was were I was gonna hide everything."

The two guys just stared at me, then stared at each other. Afterwards, Cliff got off of the floor and started to put his arm through. Nothing happened as he pulled it out. But he went a step further and stuck his head through to look inside. When he pulled back out, his expression was locked in a state of amazement. "Bruh, there's like a huge-ass room."

"Let me see." Rick said as he pushed me and Cliff out of the way. But as he approached, he tripped over Cliff's foot and fell inside completely. Cliff went in to get him, but they stayed for a few seconds. After a while I decided to walk in after them.

*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*

When I walked through, I had caught the two staring directly at the purple alicorn standing before them. She stood in awkward silence as she stared back, her mouth agape. Rickey turned to me and pointed to her. "Dude... that."

Cliff stared pinching himself as he tried to assure himself that this was all just a dream. He even slapped himself, thinking that would wake him up. Of course, his efforts were to no avail. He looked back at me with a dumbfounded look. "What the hell?"

"You remember when I was talking about a magical land of talking ponies and snarky dragons that all came in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes?"

They both nodded simultaneously.

"Well, you're in it."

Author's Note

CRAWLING IN MY SKIN

Yeah, as you can tell I finally added the [Dark] tag. I only did it now because this chapter was going to be dealing with the issue of abuse in greater detail, even to the point where the results were graphically described. But keep your eyes open for next chapter, as it will be significantly lighter. I was supposed to add it upon a few chapters back when dealing with the changelings in Ponyville, but I had gotten sidetracked.

So yeah, hindsight is a bitch. *looks back to chapter 6*

This tag will be implemented for future chapters (yet I will try to keep them as sparse as possible). The other tags (namely [Comedy]) are still there for the sake of the chapters to come.

I am aware that I will lose readers due to that tag, but I am more than prepared to face that consequence for the sake of storytelling.

Chapter XLIV

Meanwhile in Equestria...

Twilight sat inside of her room as she pondered on the words Nondis said to her. Her eyes remained fixated on a photo of them standing in front of the portal. As she looked to the picture, she couldn't avoid sighing in response. She often thought of the happiness expressed in that photo, but the only thing that ran through her mind was the obvious truth.

They both were completely different species, with completely different customs.

"Is something the matter, princess?"

Her eyes shot open as she looked to the picture, from where the sound emanated from. Scanning the photo, she saw that Nondis was standing a bit differently, almost as if he was losing his balance. But Twilight was keen to identify the reason for the change.

"Discord, get out of my room please."

The faux human continued to speak as he pulled himself from beside her and to the small dragon to the right of Rarity. "Well I couldn't help but to notice that you were in a bit of a mood. Fluttershy came knocking at the door twice to ask if you had wanted to come around and help her with the animals."

Twilight walked over to the bed and plopped herself onto it. "Why couldn't you do it?"

Discord proceeded to laugh as he poked at the frozen dragon. "I know, you would think that my being a creature composed of several other species would have that advantage. It wouldn't be hard to figure out that I was actually one of them, or at least a piece or two. But the animals haven't really gotten around to trusting me as of yet. I still get hissed or snapped at every now and then."

"Well that isn't really a problem I caused. You have to show them that you're trustworthy."

"Yes, but that would take a lot of time. I have other pursuits to indulge on over spending time with those 'adorable' furry creatures. So I recommended you, since you were the Princess of Friendship."

Twilight turned to the photo with a disapproving glare. "Is my title some sort of a joke to you?"

"Oh, no! I'm just trying to see what exactly has gotten you so locked up in here. And it's quite obvious that I'm getting warmer to the source, rather I'm burning up." He said before the image of Spike turned to him and blew green flames at him. He disappeared from the photo and reappeared as his true self just beside Twilight's bed.

"Is it that obvious?" Twilight asked in a somber tone.

"Well, nopony's heard from you since Nondis was last seen coming here. And seeing how you're staring at that picture over on your dresser, I can tell that he's the probable cause of your depression."

"...How do you and Fluttershy get along so well?"

The draconian eldritch quirked an eyebrow as he responded. "Well... why do you ask?"

"I mean I know that Nondis, Cliff, and Rickey said that things were different in their world. And I'm aware that it's not really a 'normal' thing for Nondis to be with me. But what has him so invested in keeping me out of his world? Is it because of my being a pony? I understand that he gave me a suggestion to transform myself into a human before I'd come visit again, but I've always been a pony since I've visited from time to time. And prior to this time he was just fine with it, he never told me to leave or 'hide here for ten minutes.' And now that he's with this 'Melanie' girl, I don't know if I'll ever be called something other than 'Bella' in his world."

Discord rubbed his goatee with his talons and tapped his goat's leg as he thought aloud. "What are the laws of his world exactly? Is it something different from ours? I would assume that despite the technological differences, his society would be similar to ours."

"I know, at least Cliff and Rickey were more open to speaking to us than Nondis was at first."

"Well, is there a distinctive reason why you want to visit his world so much?"

"Well, I am accountable for his safety and well-being. I should be able to explain to his family what all has happened and why it took us so long to get him back. I also want to tell them that he's doing a great service to our nation and that they should be proud of him. I mean, they should at least be open to the fact that he's a member of our military and have acquired high honors in his tenure. They should be proud."

Discord summoned a notepad and a pen and started jotting down notes, the ink disappearing on paper. "Well, I got that much. But here's a question: have you ever asked him what the rules of society are like in his world? Perhaps he tried to explain it before he left?"

"He was in a rush to leave with Melanie to his parents' house. She was a few steps away from discovering me before he intervened."

"Perhaps it's a matter of first-contact with their species. A magical being would be seen as unusual if he's from a world that has no magic."

"You may have a point, my magic works fine over there. It's one thing to go to Sunset's world and try to use magic there, but it's another thing in Nondis' world. There's a strong mana presence that allows us to transform into humans at Canterlot High, but it seals off much of our magic. With his world, there's no such presence that transforms us on the way in or to seal most of our magic away, which at first surprised me."

Discord's eyes bucked wide open as Twilight's statements started to marinate in his mind. With a smile, he casually walked to the door and took a quick exit. "Oh, good heavens. Would you look at the time, I should be getting back to Fluttershy! She and I do have a private session between the two of us. I suppose this time would be her dressed in the swimsuit."

Twilight's ears perked up as her head shot up to face the draconequus. "Wait, what?" She asked with a reddening face.

"Ooh, I simply can't wait to see what sort of perverted fantasies she would want to live out this time! She is quite the fetish enthusiast, even opting for me to sit on this wooden triangle while several─"

"OKAY, YOU CAN GET OUT NOW!" She screamed, throwing a pillow at Discord. He easily dodged it by freezing it in the air, stepping to the side and allowing it to continue along it's trajectory.

"Suit yourself. I was willing to give you two a few ideas, but I can see your interests lie elsewhere." He said before he snapped his fingers and teleported out of the room, leaving behind a flustered Twilight.

The purple unicorn shook as she allowed the thoughts of her shy best friend being so ambitious in her relationship. "Wooden triangle, him sitting on it? Fluttershy, what in Tartarus' name possessed you to fantasize about him?"

Meanwhile outside in the hall, Discord smiled fiendishly as he started to let the ideas roll through his head. "Well, I know of a better place where I can be free to express myself, I'm sure that Nondis wouldn't mind, would he?"

Summoning a copy of the photo he was possessing earlier, he looked at the human, who stared back at him with an angry glance. With a shrug of his shoulders, he tossed the picture down the hall. The picture itself shattering into several shards while the glass and frame remained intact.

"Bah, I'm sure he'd be willing to join in the fun!"

Back in Austin...

The ride out to my parent's house wasn't really a long one in the sense of time, but it was one that caused me to reflect quite a bit on the way there. As a result, I end up tricking myself that the ride was a lot longer than it should've been. Thoughts of my dad and mom being eager to hug me was heartwarming, but it was the fact that I would have to explain what happened to me. Not only that, but I missed out on so much in my absence. I honestly didn't think I was going to be able to process all of it.

There's a small bit of an indifference when it comes to processing pop-culture and international news. But when things hit a little closer to home, that's when they start to really make an impact. And knowing my dad, he wouldn't want me to skip out on any details of how I managed to return. Then my mom will question me on whether or not I've been looking for any girls since I've gotten back. Then again, it does make a shitload of sense, considering that I am a year and a half away from completing the courses required to get my graduate's degree. By now, I should've been hugged up with another girl.

...Little do they know that I'm with a girl of a different breed.

And knowing that mom will be harping on that subject, I can safely say that I will have to come up with the same song-and-dance I told Melanie. Bella-this, we met here, she's often too busy to visit, etc. I was already going down the list of excuses I was going to have to give just to make things work.

Before I had managed to re-piece my lie on my going missing, Mel said to me in a soft voice. "Well, we're here."

I looked up to find that we were parked on the street, just in front of my parents house... the home I was raised in. I also noticed that there were two other cars aside from the one mom and dad drove, and the other one that the fraternity raised the money to buy. I saw a black 2013 Mercedes Benz as well as a white 2006 Chevy Malibu. I guess they were supposed to be having some sort of company aside from me.

After we got out of the car, Melanie pulled out her remote and pressed the lock button twice, causing the car alarm to arm itself. She smiled as she eagerly pushed me towards the front steps, meanwhile I wasn't too thrilled to be shoved along. I still had to revamp my story on how I gone missing in the first place. It's one thing to hear it from Rickey and Cliff, but they'll want to hear it from my mouth instead.

And my thought process couldn't be anymore disturbed by Melanie knocking on the front door. I didn't like how I was going to have a long explanation of howcome I haven't came around the home anytime sooner than this. If I could tell them everything I did without it sounding like I was too invested in video games and had a complete mental breakdown, I would. Otherwise, it's best to keep my mouth shut for fear of being thrown in a medical center with the purpose of undergoing a mental evaluation.

The door creaked open to reveal a muscular male in his late teens, tattoos up and down his arms, wearing a tight v-neck shirt with a pair of designer jeans and Air Force Ones. His dark brown hair was done into a buzz cut, just long enough to fail a military inspection.

"Hey, Mel!" He said as he saw her, giving her a hug.

"Stanton! Oh my goodness! I didn't know you were going to be here! How are you?"

"I'm good. How about you? You look a little battered from your classes. You alright?" He asked with concern, while I facepalmed at his boldness to go after her looks off the bat.

"Well, some things happened and this guy kinda helped me out." She said, pointing back at me.

"So who is this, your new boyfriend? What ever happened to Jasper?"

She kissed her teeth and hissed a long inhale. "Well, he got into some trouble with the law. So I kinda dropped him. But no, this guy behind me is not my new boyfriend."

"Well who is he?"

I'd expected as much, considering that even Melanie had a hard time identifying who I was. I did go through a lot of changes in my absence from this world, both mental and physical. "Hi, Stanton."

My voice was all that was required for him to literally drop his jaw and pick it off of the ground. He rushed over towards me and gave me a handshake-pull into a hug. "Shit! Nondis!? Oh my God! It's you, wow!"

"Hey there Stan, what's goin' on?" I asked, hugging my larger-than-me little brother.

"Nothing much from what I already told you."

"Yeah, I got your message two days ago. Phone was off."

"I left you that message like a week ago. I was starting to think you lost interest."

"Nah, just busy."

As he pulled away from me, he looked me up and down, scanning my appearance. "And... dude, you. Lost. POUNDS! Like, what the fuck? You were at least a little overweight last time I saw you!"

"I was chubby." I corrected in deadpan.

"Sure, whatever. But seriously, what caused you to do... this?" He asked as his hand motioned at my body.

"I guess you could say I was spurned to change my appearance for the better. I can make that choice in life, it's a free country."

"This coming from the master couch potato who didn't ever speak to anyone? Seriously, I need you to do me a favor and tell me what you did with my big bro."

"I'm the same guy... for the most part. I mean I still play games, that hasn't changed."

Another voice came from within as we talked. "Stanton, close the door! You're letting flies in here!"

"HEY ALEX, COME ON OUT TO THE FRONT DOOR AND SEE WHO'S HERE!" Stanton shouted back into the house. He then turned his attention back to us. "Yeah, Alexander came on down from his place too."

So both of my brothers and my parents are here. Great, at least I can get all my questions at once. "Really, so I'm assuming he's the one with the Mercedes?"

"Yeah, he landed this huge job at an accounting firm. Dude is freaking lucky his resumes are top-notch, but he does have his wife to thank for that."

"How so?" I inquired.

"Well, not only she wrote his resume, but her dad's also the owner of the place. So all she had to do was put in a good word with daddy-dearest and he was in the door. Rumor has it that he wanted to make sure that her husband had a respectable job. If anything, he's probably an easy-in for a managing position in the later years. So as far as the car is concerned, it was a wedding gift from her folks to them."

"Oh that's pretty nice." I said it before and I'll say it again: Alex has all the fucking luck. He's charismatic enough to waltz his way into big jobs straight out of college. "So, you jealous?"

"Nope, I'm going a different route. I'm going pro and I'm gonna earn my money on the field. I know one thing, both mom and dad are going to be set for an early retirement because of us."

He's not lying. My older brother's already a big-league accountant. My younger brother had ESPN looking at him when he was still in high school, he's bound to make the draft in a few years. And to add a wildcard, I'm in a prominent military position. My family is loaded at this point and set to make an appearance in the top ten percent of wealth, all before the age of sixty. This house would be paid off in less than two years because of us.

"Alright who's at the door?" Said another man, this one a bit taller than both Stanton and I. He wore a turquoise polo shirt with a pair of dark-blue jeans and brown docksides. His black hair was done in a short pompadour. He saw Melanie and immediately thought it was her who was the guest. "Oh, hey Melanie. How are you?"

"Fine, and yourself?"

"I could be a little better if it wasn't for mom trying to give my wife some advice on maritals in the back."

Well that reminds me of a certain individual who told her daughter to swallow. "Eugh... that's awkward."

After those words left my mouth, Alex froze in place and stared at me in disbelief. He wanted to say something but he was reduced to frantically moving his hands up-and-down, side-to-side, and wheeling in as if he was trying to catch a fish.

"Yeah, nice to see you too, Alex."

Nondis' Apartment...

Discord quietly slipped past the mirror's barrier and finally set dragon's foot into the realm of humans. As he stretched out into the bathroom, he cooed with glee as he found ample room to maneuver. When he finished passing his tail through, he didn't hesitate to start rummaging through the bathroom to find something on the apartment's renter.

"Gaaaahhhhh... I do have to admit that these humans have quite the spacious interior. Though I can't help but to think that this is still a bit small for him. Perhaps this is to be a temporary dwelling place?"

Discord marched forward, past the door and into the bedroom. The room was very tidy with the exception of one specific area dedicated to a device that caught the draconequus' attention. On the desk was a set of dual rectangles with a bar of letters set upon it. He read the first row of letters aloud.

"Q-W-E-R-T-Y-U-I-O-P. Kwer-tee-ooh-aiee-op. What in Equestria's name is this? It looks like some strange typewriter, but with a lot more buttons than usual. A-S-D-F-G-H-J-K-L. Perhaps there's some hidden code to this. Z-X-C-V-B-N-M... Oh dear, I'm going to have to crack this, aren't I? Maybe it's out of sequence. I'm surprised that Twilight hasn't rearranged these letters yet. And what is this little thing?"

He noticed that there was a small, black, curved box with a wire coming out of it. The more he looked at it, the more it began to resemble a mouse. Discord grew curious and tapped at the black device, causing the two rectangles to give off light and show an active screen full of colorful tiles and a background of Nondis and his human female friend.

"Oh? So they do have females? So... how does this thing work?"

Discord pushed the mouse and found that there was an arrow on the screen that moved in accordance to the black box he shifted around. As it hit the bottom row, it began to highlight several buttons at the bottom. One button resembled a large lower-case e, another one with a circular swirl comprised of red, green and yellow spiraling from a blue dot in the center, a blue box with a cloud on it, a white box with a camera in front of it, and a black block with a piston on it. As it hovered just above it, a small query box popped up beside the mouse and read out the word 'Steam.'

"Steam? What does he need steam for?"

As he hovered over the next tile, he saw another box saying the words 'Internet Explorer.'

"Internet Explorer? Hmm, this seems to be something that could help me. Anything with 'explorer' in the name could be of some use after all."

He kept the mouse over the button, hoping that something would happen, but nothing occurred aside from the query box disappearing from the screen. Impatiently, Discord began to tap his talon against the mouse. As he tapped away, he noticed that there was a strange clicking sound it made. He grew disinterested in the larger device and sought to investigate on the other things lying about in the room. But he failed to notice that the web browser popped up onscreen. It took a while for the program to become responsive, but Discord was busy finding amusement in the similar device that had a screen much like the larger one, only this one came up to a blue screen with a box that read 'Password.'

"I suppose this one is a little more... personal. I guess I'll find some way to rummage through that one later."

When he turned his attention to the two screens, he saw that there was a page up displaying broad colorful letters.

"What in Equestria's name is Google?"

He stared as he looked at the empty search bar with the black vertical line that continued to blink every few fractions of a second. He pecked at the board, the first letter producing a long list of results.

notto disu shitto agen
new games on steam
Netflix
Navy Federal Credit Union
Norse Mythology
Nagasaki
New York City
Nerve pain

"I'm not quite sure why the first two are purple, but neither of them are in relation to Nondis." He said as he pecked at an 'O' to follow the n, yielding him more results.

notto disu shitto agen
No to drugs
No snitching
No god please no
No Game No Life

Discord followed up with another 'N' as well as a 'DIS' to finish his topic.

LOCAL BOY THOUGHT TO BE MISSING RETURNS:
Families and friends all sighed in relief as a local college student, Nondis Haines... kxan.com
(you've visited this site two times)

"Well, what do we have here?" The draconequus quietly questioned as he drug the mouse to the purple link and clicked on it. It then took him to the local news website, and just below the header was a video with the image of a fraternity house in the back. In the foreground was a girl, an older lady, an older man, as well as the face of a familiar human. The video proceeded to play on it's own, but what he also wasn't expecting was the first person that talked on the video.

"I just... *sniff* I'm just so glad he's back." Melanie said while holding back tears, standing hand-in-hand with the older woman.

"A journey of pain, long-suffering, tears, and lost hope, now transformed into a fairy-tale ending."

"We prayed that our son would come back to us safely... Praise God!" The older woman shouted with tears.

"Nondis Haines, who's car crashed into the Gulf of Mexico and has gone missing for nine months, suddenly appeared just last night at the Delta Phi fraternity house at the University of Texas-Austin."

"It's amazing that he came back from that. We all thought for a while that he was really gone." Rickey said in front of the camera while wearing his fraternity shirt.

"Officers, who have been searching for all nine months, say that his reappearance is what could be described as nothing short of a divine miracle. Harold Haines, his father, has often lobbied for law enforcement officials to 'find his son at all costs, even if it meant that they would find him in the most unfortunate circumstances.' He even went as far as to arrange preparations for the worst."

"I just wanted to see my son again. I didn't care what condition he was in, I could care less what he looked like. I just wanted to see my boy again, and that happened today. So I'm very thankful."

"Nondis Haines declined to comment on his disappearance, but did express his relief in being home. As of today, he is inside of the Delta Phi fraternity house, currently standing behind me. They are currently tailgating for the Red River Rivalry and his family has expressed their desire not to be disturbed by any further questions so that they can enjoy the company of their son. I am Janet Whitley from KXAN, Channel 36 News. Back to you Dave."

The video ended, leaving Discord with more questions than answers. "Well, now I know where the other two have been rumored to come from. And being that those two know of us and Nondis, they could be my quickest way to finding him myself. But that would only do me some good if I knew where this 'Delta Phi' house was."

He dragged his mouse to the address bar, mistaking it for a search bar and typing in 'DELTA FIE' in hopes of finding the location of the frat house. As a result, he got a page that corrected him on the misspelling of the last word. With a small amount of frustration from being corrected, he clicked on the link that lead him to a variety of pages. But he turned his attention to the word 'maps' at the top of the results page. As soon as the result of the map search came up, he smiled as the address and location was pointed out to him.

"Now I see... this thing is like a giant maze of information. Well it's much faster than the books in Equestria. I'd probably have to walk into a few in order to get what I wanted out of them. Instead, this thing just sends you to what you're looking for in the blink of an eye... This could be quite useful to us, but first I have a few other 'friends' to speak to."

As Discord abandoned the computer, he transformed himself into a bird and flew away towards the fraternity house.

"After all, if Fluttershy had gotten a chance to meet them, then why shouldn't I?"

Mom and Alex's wife, Vanessa, finished cooking dinner in the kitchen and brought all the food to the dining room table. As soon as all the food was laid onto the table, my father called for prayer. Not wanting to start a fight on the first night back home since my extended absence, I decided to just run with it and bow my head. But that didn't mean that I would go along with the 'amen' part, as there were plenty of others who would say it already. But I did manage to partake in the wonderful meal, often grabbing for as much meat as possible.

"Nondis sweetie, don't you think you could save some of that for the rest of us?" My mom suggested.

"Yes ma'am." I guess I'll have to hold off on my binge for the second round. As we continued to eat, Alex and Stanton continued to question me on the matter of my disappearance.

"So, you managed to find your way back from being stranded in the gulf to being here, back in the world of civilization? I guess all that swimming and running did trim you down a bit, but I can't see exactly how you managed to completely chisel up." My older brother said while eating his meal.

Now that I think about it, that is a bit of a gaping hole in my story. I suppose I should've thought this through a lot more and formulated a logical answer... I'm sure I'll come up with one in due time. "Yeah. In my time, I was kinda subject to amnesia." Yet even more bullshit to add to my growing lie, but it would provide a necessary buildup to how I have become who I am now. "I couldn't find out who I was or what I even was doing in the first place. But I do remember some of the details."

"Like?" Stanton asked.

"When I found civilization again, I managed to hitch a ride from a trucker to someplace close to Arlington because his delivery was set for a local store there. So after that, I was found by a kindhearted individual who wanted to help me get back on my feet. Her name was Bella, short for Isabella Armstrong." I am really reaching for this story.

"So that's how you two managed to meet?" Melanie questioned. "Because I thought you met with her after your probate."

SHIT! I thought that I wouldn't have to verify that, but now that I screwed that up there's only one thing for me to do: time for damage control. "Yeah, we did, but it wasn't really anything significant. We just bumped into each other and had a little awkward exchange after. But we ACTUALLY met-met close to Arlington. So she was kinda my caretaker for several months until I had sort of fallen for her. At first she didn't want anything to do with me in that sense, but she started to open up a bit later. Eventually, we grew from acquaintances, to friends, to clandestine partners."

My mom gushed at the thought of me falling in love in such a manner. "Aww, isn't that just romantic, Harold?"

My dad rolled his eyes. "Sounds like one of those cheesy romance movie from the nineties where the dude has the spiky blond hair."

"Yeah, it does sound a bit corny." Stanton cosigned.

"But love does what it does best, and in the most mysterious ways. Sometimes it can be romantic but awkward." Alex argued in my defense.

Vanessa lightly nudged my brother as she smiled at him. "It kinda reminds me of how you used to be such a dork when you and I were in our first stages."

Alex began to blush at the thought of being called a dork in front of both his younger brothers. We wouldn't often let him get away with being called that, but he did learn to roll with the punches overtime. "Yeah... But I don't regret it."

"I know you don't. I just miss you being a big clutz all the time."

"I operate on dork-mode part-time." Alex explained to both Stanton and I.

My little brother shook his head and turned his attention back to me as the newlyweds continued to love on one another. "Anyways while those two are mushing it up, did you two do it?"

I couldn't do much but drop my fork. I knew that this was the shit he would normally do, but after so long of not experiencing it, my guard was far from held. "Stanton Joseph Haines!" My mother screamed.

"What? We're all gonna ask it eventually." He replied.

"I hope so, I don't want my son turning out to be a fruit." My father added harshly.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, dad." I also forgot how annoying and bigoted he can be at times. "But I'd much rather keep those specifics of our relationship to myself. A gentlemen does not kiss and tell, after all." Nope, already made that mistake earlier today, not doing it again.

"Well, I'm not tied down nor do I have any plans to do so. So I'm telling it as it is: football has opened so many 'doors' for me." And my younger brother can be a bit crude at times.

My mother gave my younger brother a light smack in the back of the head. "Stanton, sometimes it is best to be sensitive about a girl's most-treasured secrets."

"Oh no, we gossip about that stuff all the time in class and at home. That's just how open we are nowadays." Melanie corrected.

My mother sighed as her shoulders sank, indicating that she had all but given up hope. "And I can't help but to keep asking how this generation continues to lose that bit of moral decency. Some things are best kept in a triangle of friends and siblings, not a circle of acquaintances and classmates."

"What she said." I mumbled to myself, knowing damn-well that I couldn't disclose anything in regards to my sex life.

My mom then turned back to me as she spoke. "So... Do you plan on bringing this 'Bella' here so that we could meet her?"

NO. "Well... maybe some other time?"

"Well I don't see why not, we haven't heard about this chick until now." Stanton stated while digging into his plate.

"And I haven't even met her yet. So what the hell's up with that?" Melanie asked as she gave me a light push.

"Isn't Bella the name of that one chick from that Twilight series you kids love so damn much?" My father asked sarcastically.

"There are girls named Bella. She was called Bella long before the books or the movies came out." I responded despondently, knowing that the name Twilight Sparkle would have more implications to that accursed series. Just add the word 'Vampire' and my brothers would have a field day.

"Oh I get it, it's just that the name is synonymous with that shitty-ass teen flick." My father stated before taking a swig of his drink.

Melanie dug around in her plate as she spoke. "I read the books and thought that the whole thing was stupid. Seriously, how does a vampire sparkle in the sun? Why do you leave the one protecting you for the other guy who's at war with the guy trying to protect you in the first place? I mean are you that thirsty?"

"Glass of water." Stanton sung with a high-pitched falsetto while holding his glass into the air.

"Just... *snrk* Shut up." Despite my growing impatience on the topic, I couldn't help but smirk at my younger brother's antics.

Alex, growing tired of the joke, decided to question me on the real subject. "Now back to this Bella, what's her folks like?"

"Well, they're kinda their own breed. They're a cast of characters, each with their own little quirks. For example, her older brother is righteously protective of her. So every once and a while, we'd get into fights." Thankfully, I'm not exactly lying there so that story doesn't ever have to change on a later date.

Stanton grew surprised to hear that I had gotten into fights again. "You mean the verbal kind or the─"

"Fist-to-fist. He even broke my arm once."

Melanie agreed as she held up my right arm. "Yeah, he's got this scar on his arm─"

"Left arm." I corrected her as she continued to hold onto the wrong arm.

"Was it your left arm? I thought it was your right."

"Left, it was my left arm he broke. Just at the mid-point of the ulna right here." I pointed to the fading scar on my left arm.

"Oh, okay. My mistake."

"So, did you get him back?" My dad asked.

"That would be a no." My older brother answered nonchalantly.

"Seriously, Alex?"

"I'm just going by what I know is likely to happen. Often times, you come up short in a physical conflict. What's your record, like zero and thirteen?" He joked.

More like seventy-three and sixteen if I include the changelings and Shining Armor. "That's the past though. I'm pretty decent now." I said, writing off his question.

"So you're speaking as if this guy kinda spurned you to learn how to fight. Can you?" Stanton asked.

Thankfully, Melanie came to my defense. "He actually knocked out Jasper in a fair fight. He landed one hit on his head and he started stumbling. After the next one, we had to take him to a hospital because he started to rattle."

"Rattle?" Alex asked with a tilted head.

"He started snoring weirdly, making that strange noise that old people make when they're about to croak." When Melanie finished explaining, my mother held her hand over her mouth and gasped.

My father smiled a bit as he nodded slowly. "Damn straight, my boy's a fighting man."

Vanessa still didn't like the fact that the guy began to snore, or rather the implications of such an occurrence. "Euugh... that's disturbing."

"So, you broke up with Jasper after this, right?" Stanton inquired.

"Actually, we broke up the night before. Nondis was just there to hammer it home, literally. Even Cliff and Rickey watched."

"Oh, so you finally got a W on your belt of L's. Progress." Alex joked.

"Hey, I can kick your ass now. In a fight, I go in with one primary advantage, and that is that I am ready to face any outcome, regardless of how dangerous it may be."

"Kinda careless, don't you think? What happens if they pull out a gun?"

"Why pull a gun during a one-on-one? That's cowardly and it shows how weak you are. That's the stupid shit that gets innocent people shot up in a club somewhere in Southside Chicago." My dad would say something like that. Unfortunately, he's not wrong.

"True. But that person holding the gun is more likely to live than the person without." Vanessa added.

"That's why you learn how to fight. You learn how to properly neutralize the threat and transform it into an advantage. Disarm the user and point the weapon back at them, they'll stop right there." I concluded. It's the primary reason why most men in the armed forces learn the basics of hand-to-hand combat so that they can disarm their opponents. I was trained under different circumstances, but the logic is still universal.

"You really think you got that thought out, don't you?" My dad asked with skepticism.

"It happened once or twice." I lied, substituting the changelings for gun-wielding perpetrators. "Each time I followed through on that philosophy, I came out on top."

"That's right, you said you work in security, didn't you?" Melanie asked, finally giving some context to how I could survive such encounters.

"Yeah I did. And it was because of those fights with Sh..." Don't say Shining Armor. "Francis, I learned how to defend myself."

"So, you work?" My dad seemed impressed with the fact that I had a job.

"Part-time. Just enough to buy the food in the fridge. From then on, I'd usually go venturing out and doing a bunch of other things with Bella and her friends." I'm not lying there either.

*Bzzzzzzzzzzzm*

I felt down in my pockets to pull out my phone, only to find out that Cliff was calling me. I hit the ignore option before I placed it back in my pants. But it didn't take long for it to start ringing again. I saw that it was Cliff again, and once more hit the ignore option. But following the next call, I had gotten a picture text of... DISCORD!? WHAT THE FUCK IS HE DOING HERE!?

Melanie tried to peek over and look at what was on my phone screen, I quickly exited the message and stood. "Excuse me for a minute."

After I had left the room, the majority of everyone else ignored my sudden departure except Melanie, who only stared at the doorway leading to the foyer. The front door opened and closed as she continued to question my unusual behavior.

"What's he hiding?"

"Bruh, real talk, what the fuck is this thing? I'm like scared shitless right now."

I walked outside and closed the door, making sure that no one could hear me. "Okay, so I'm here with my family, enjoying a nice somewhat peaceful dinner and then this shit pops up. I had to walk outside to talk."

"So what the fuck do we─" Before Cliff could finish, I heard Rickey screaming in the background. "He's not here anymore! Where'd he go!?"

I instantaneously felt my stomach climb into my throat at those words. "What? What do you mean he's not there anymore?"

"Oh, I'm on the other line." Discord answered. "Give me a second, do you know how hard it is to work these things?"

I gritted my teeth as I spoke. "Discord, where are you now?"

"You know this thing?" Cliff questioned with confusion.

Before I could give my answer, Discord beat me to the punch. "Yes, we often have quite a fun time together! Oh Nondis, tell them about that one time we went to the restaurants and changed the menus out with the others all across the town!"

"Sure, at a later time. But for now, WHY ARE YOU HERE!?" I reiterated, starting to feel a bit stressed.

"Oh, well I just wanted to find out about what's going on between you and Twilight. It's very unusual to see her so despondent, staring at a picture of you... and might I add, Spike has this really nasty scowl on his face as he's peering over to you."

"Oh yeah, and the photo at Rarity's boutique has my face burned off, BUT THAT'S ASIDE THE POINT!"

"What, I just gave you my reason. That and I also wanted to see what's all the hubbub with the two other humans seen in Ponyville. Obviously, they weren't very welcoming."

"Gee, you think? I didn't get a chance to introduce you to them so they wouldn't know if you were friend or foe or chaotic neutral." And you chose one hell of a time to just pop up in front of both of them. After yesterday's runabout, it would make perfect sense that they'd be on their guard.

"Well I didn't expect my appearance to be such a bother either. But it seems that these two have tried everything in their power to get everyone that saw me that I was some sort of an animatronic plushie, whatever that is."

From what information I gathered on my last trip here, that wouldn't be a good thing to be associated by. But that was the least of my worries, as now he probably displayed himself before everyone in the frat... this could be a huge problem. "Oh shit... I'm gonna have to do some serious damage control before I head back to Equestria."

"We got you. Right now, we blazin' this bitch until we see pink shit crawling out the walls." Cliff stated. Obviously you wouldn't think shit like that would show up at your front door unless you were high. So his drug logic was within reason. But I need to make sure that a certain someone doesn't decide to take advantage of the confusion.

"Discord, that is not something for you to enact upon."

The draconequus groaned with disapproval. "Ugh! You've seem to have lost your humor nowadays."

Better that than having his appearance throwing the world into a frenzy. Global attention would not do us any good. In speaking of which... "Well, that still leaves me with the question. Where are you now?"

"I'm right here with you, where else would I be?"

"Well you could be..." Wait a minute... oh no. "Discord, I swear if you're in my phone─"

"See, that's the thing. I don't know how to get myself around because this thing is a little hard to navigate."

Somehow, I wouldn't be surprised that he would do something like that. And even doing so much as capturing an image of him would give him the ability to roam around your device. I guess the picture Cliff sent of him was the catalyst that gave him access to my phone. I've just learned to roll with it these days, doesn't mean that he'll be staying in there for long. "So... you're here with me in person?"

"Apparently so. Though I wish I could crack this thing so that I could have a little more time to─"

"Just don't go digging around and sending unnecessary messages to all of my contacts. The last thing they need to do is find out that I'm hanging around a bunch of rainbow horses, not to mention dating one of them." I was not even going to let him breed that idea without expressing my disdain for it.

"Well I personally don't see what's the big deal about it all."

Cliff offered an explanation before I could start one myself. "On the real, it's a big hell-naw to stick yo dick in anything that isn't walking on two legs and can't speak or express cognitive thought. In this country, you'd get thrown in jail for that shit and possibly labeled as a sex offender. And if you're called a sex offender, then that shit will follow you throughout the rest of your life. In some parts of the world, they'll throw yo ass someplace where they do awful shit to you. In others, they just outright kill you."

"Oh dear me. I didn't know that there was such a risk for you and Twilight to be together. I suppose I see the cause of frustration on your end." Discord said with a low voice.

"Well, now you know my half of it. You probably got the gist of the other half. The only thing I ask is that none of this Equestrian stuff feeds over into this world. I'm trying to keep them as separate as possible, not only for my personal reasons but for political interests as well." I explained further.

"Political interests?" Mused Discord.

"Hey Cliff, what do you think would happen if Rick Perry found his way in Equestria?"

Cliff started to laugh for a few seconds before he broke into detail his thoughts on such a scenario. "Hoooo no no no. The first thing that dumb nigga would say is that the ponies would be 'an abomination of God and should be eradicated from the face of America.' That's a one-sided war that would lead to some really fucked-up shit. Then he'd probably use the newly obtained land and resources as a means to secede from the union as well as restart a brand-new kind of slavery. Next up, every rich kid gon wanna have a talking rainbow pony locked in their stable for whatever the fuck reason. And let's not even talk about the experiments and dissections, they gon wanna know how the fuck they got to talking."

"Today's politicians in a nutshell. Not a good thing to deal with."

Discord began to show signs of confusion. "But I thought that the politicians would be willing to listen to the calls of others─"

"Dizzy, I'ma call you that. Lemme tell you something: This is the United States of America, our politicians don't give two shits about us until it's election time. And when they get voted in, they give no shits until reelection. They greedy asses only listen to money, and if the green ain't talking then best believe yo ass is gon be walking in the opposite direction."

"Doesn't that defeat the purpose of the electing those into a position of power?" Discord questioned.

"Do you honestly think they play by the rules?" I asked in response. I wanted to say something else to follow, but my thoughts were thrown off as I saw the door open out the corner of my eye. Initially, I jumped but took a deep breath of relief when I saw it was just Melanie.

"Hey Nondis, you okay?"

"Yeah, I-I just needed some air. I'll be back in a sec, you go on without me." I answered as calmly as possible.

She frowned a bit as she closed the door. "Okay... Just let me know if you have a problem."

"Sure."

I had noticed that she had stared at me for a bit longer before completely closing the door. My only hope is that she wasn't listening in on the conversation. "So Mel got you over there, huh?" Cliff asked.

"Dad was bugging me to come around. I didn't have a ride so I asked her to come with. Haven't really had much of an issue until now."

"Hmmm... I suppose that our conversation would have to carry on at a later date." Discord quietly suggested. "It would be a bit awkward if he were to be kept away from his family any longer."

"Yeah, but in the meantime, no fucking with my phone. Got it? I don't need you doxxing my shit for shits and giggles." And knowing him, he would do it unless I asked him not to. Hell, he'd probably do it just because I said it.

"Oh whatever, I'll be playing with this funnily shaped bird that seems to have problems flying."

On second thought, I'll let him entertain himself with Flappy Bird. He'll be too obsessed in trying to beat the high score. "Don't blow up my phone or delete anything should you lose."

"No promises."

Well that doesn't make me feel any better. Now I really have to get this guy out of my phone before he does something stupid. "...Cliff, I'll talk to you later."

"Hey, just hit us up when Rarity wants to make our suits and shit. I just wanna see if she can do it."

"11 in the morning on the day after tomorrow is your scheduled slot. Rickey is half-an-hour later. Do your best to avoid the press and make sure that the windows are either blocked, blinded or you're getting measured outside of the view. The mares are particularly thirsty for humans."

Cliff scoffed back at me in disbelief. "Bruh... alright then! Later."

*beep*

Okay, now that this issue has been settled, I can only hope that he goes back and informs Twilight everything he had just heard. Otherwise, I was going to have to jump through hoops in order to explain to her why human society has a thing against dating ponies. I just didn't feel like dealing with her antics right now.

"Arrrgh! CAN YOU AT LEAST LEARN HOW TO FLAP YOUR WINGS!? IT'S NOT THAT HARD!"

Or his... "Mute you for now."

"Wait, what are y─" After I lowered the volume on my phone to silent mode, I proceeded to carry on back to the dining room. As I was on my way, Melanie quietly whispered to me.

"Who were you talking to?"

"Cliff. We were discussing things in relation to the incident with Jasper before he could go into snitch-mode." I lied.

"Oh! The things." Melanie said with a nod and a wink.

"Yeah, the things. My parents can't ever know about the things." I quietly warned her.

"Gotcha."

As we walked into the dining room, all eyes were on us. Stanton wore a sly grin as he drank from his cup. Alex didn't really pay me no mind as he just simply observed my reappearance. Both mom and dad were just looking at us as we sat back down. Picking up my fork, I opted to continue from where I had left of on the meal.

"Okay, sorry about that. Now what were we talking about?"

After dinner had come to a close, mom and I gathered the dishes and placed them inside of the sink. Unfortunately for me, she also took the opportunity to coerce me into washing them alongside her. So with begrudging participation, I assisted my mother in the cleaning of the pots, pans, tableware, cookware, and glasses. Meanwhile, dad would often walk into the kitchen to grab a beer from the fridge and walk out as if he didn't see us cleaning all of this shit.

Nope, he just left me and mom to clean up while Alex and Stanton gave their goodbyes before heading back out to wherever they had to go. I know that Stanton didn't have anywhere to go except upstairs to reconnect with some old flames for the sake of an in-town booty call. Alex and his wife were staying at a hotel while they were in town. Meanwhile, Melanie was keeping herself preoccupied while talking to dad. And... well you already know my situation.

"So, how has the past couple of weeks been to you?"

"The past couple of weeks?" I parroted.

"Yeah, you've probably been the talk of the frat since you've gotten back. I know that half the city is yaking it up with the news of your being back. I've been getting so many phone calls about you."

"Must be well-wishers." I stated as I stuck my hands into the hot, soapy waters. "Geez, this water is hot as hell!"

"You know I don't like dirty dishes. And you above all others should know better. I remember that one time you had like three plates in your room and you had them stacked at your workstation, just sitting there like you were hoping to create a brand-new species of life."

That was when I was fourteen. "That was how long ago?"

"You did it when you were in your senior year too. I even had to have a long talk about you and your hygiene practices. Unfortunately, your father wasn't any better when it came to talking to you."

"Oh yeah, we got into a fight over that."

"You got into an argument, Harold punched you in the chest, you started crying and that's when you stormed off to Melanie's house."

Yeah... I wasn't exactly the best child of the three. "Yeah, we got into a fight."

"That was one heck of a one-sided fight." My mother started to laugh. "He punched you just when you weren't expecting it and you ended up stumbling down the hall backwards until you hit the wall."

And my dad was very strict and hard on all three of us. It just so happened that I was the one who was hounded on the most. "I was walking forward and he just hit me outta nowhere with the force of a sledgehammer."

"You didn't think that Harold and I didn't argue that night?"

"Sure you did. You were upset that I left the house without warning. And you also made me walk back home since I walked all the way there."

"It worked out, didn't it? At least you came home safely."

Yeah, I was definitely hard-headed back when I was in high school. "Sure. I guess I did need the exercise."

"Sweetie, if your father had his way, he'd make you run that distance twice a day."

Ironically enough, I could actually do it now, all within a small window of time. "Well look at me now, guess he doesn't need to force me to do anything."

"I could care less what Harold has in mind, I only care that you're back here. You're safe, sane, and you're not single."

"Mom... Seriously?" I deadpanned.

"I mean it. Now when are you going to get us to meet with Bella and her family?"

Welll... uh... "I... have no idea."

"Well if you're getting into fights with her brother, then we probably need to see if it's a thing we could work out as two groups. It makes no sense to have a relationship that doesn't seem to be in good standing with her family."

Now that I think about it, are we even on good terms right now? I mean does Mrs. Velvet know about Twilight and my meddling around... she probably does, knowing her. But did she flip her shit once she found out that her daughter had to get her wings clipped? I know Shining has no earthly clue as to what all has transpired, but how long will that last? For now, I could only assume one thing... "We're in good standing, we're just working out some differences."

"Yeah, I heard about that." My dad blurted out as he walked into the kitchen and grabbed another beer from the fridge. "Mel's been telling me that you two had gotten into a little trouble with her folks. It seems that you went dipping in the pool when the sign said 'closed'. So now you and her brother seem to be at odds."

Dammit, Melanie. Don't tell him everything. "It only lasted for a short while. We're back on good terms for now."

"Also, this Bella girl must be really religious for her to get into trouble with her folks because of you. What's her religion?"

Oh no. I don't like it when he goes into that bible-thumper mode. "Uh..."

"Harold, we've talked about this!" Mom chided. "We've already established that whatever choice Nondis makes in his faith, we were not going to intervene or become combative."

"I'm just asking, Martha. From what it sounds like, she seems to be either a Mormon or a Muslim."

No, we're not doing this again. The last time we did this, you swore to God that you disowned me because I decided to cast away religious beliefs. Since the end of my freshman year at college, mom had been calling me non-stop to get me to visit again and it took me up until junior year to come by again. Rules were made, and now you want to push your weight around to break them. No, not this time. "Dad, please let's not throw this religion nonsense into it."

*bzzzzzzz*

This phone call couldn't have come at a better time. I wiped my hands on my shirt and pulled up my phone and happily pressed the answer key, not even paying any attention to who was calling me. "Hello?"

"Hey Nondis, what's up?"

TWILIGHT? WHAT THE─ "Oh hey, nothing much." I said as I quickly glanced to my parents and covered the receiver with my other hand. "How did you get this number?" I quietly whispered.

"Well, I'm kinda in the phone. Thankfully I finally learned how to fiddle with the system in place so now I can call you at will."

Discord, you have fucked with me for the upteenth and last time. "Why in the hell are you─HEY!" I said before my dad had manage to snatch the phone out of my hand and tapped on the speakerphone option.

"Sorry, Nondis is kinda busy. I'll be happy to take a message for him." My dad said, much to me and mom's protests.

"Harold, give it back!" My mom urged as she held a soaking wet spatula.

"I pay the bill, so I own it." He said before turning his attention back to the 'person' on the other line.

"Oh... well tell him that Bella just called to check in on him."

My dad finally decided to place his aggressiveness on hold while he proceeded to change his tone of voice. "Oh, so you're that girl my son's been talking to? I'm so sorry, we were just having a conversation about you."

"Oh, well... I feel honored. If I may ask, who am I currently speaking with?"

"I'm his father, Harold Haines. You're on speaker with me, my son, and my wife. Say hello Martha."

"Forgive me for my husband, he has a bad habit of rushing to conclusions, as well as acting without consulting thought." My mom apologized.

"I'm perfectly used to it, my older brother is kinda like that too. I just learn to live with it and correct it later."

"Yeah, I heard that my son and your brother have been really getting to know one another. How's everything on that end?"

"Great! They haven't fought in a little under two weeks now. In fact, they actually made up with one another recently. They're well on their way to being good friends."

"Well that's a relief, because from last I heard, my son had actually gotten into a fight and broke his arm."

"In speaking of which, I appreciate your brother being protective of you, but if he pulls another knife on my son for the sake of 'self-defense training', I'm gonna shove that knife into his left arm instead."

Wow... Melanie, you just had to let everything go. "Hey, I did get stronger from it. And plus it's not like I died, let alone lost the use of my arm."

My mom rolled her eyes as she flicked water at my dad. "I don't know what my husband is talking about, but I do want you and your family to come down and meet with us. If you don't mind it, how does this weekend sound?"

"Unfortunately, both my mom and dad started working overseas just this past June. But I'm sure that I might be able to fit something in... say next weekend."

Okay, I can probably weave a little something in that time. I could even fix up a religious background for Twilight if she can meet me halfway and find a spell that would allow her to become a human. But next weekend is VERY doable. I'm gonna have to get her to flip the switch from pony to the human mindset in that time as well. Again, I can do that. Discord, you may have actually saved my ass on this. I owe you this one. "Sure, you think you could make the trip?"

"Of course. I'll just meet with you at your apartment and you can point me out to the house from there."

"Great! I'll keep you posted on any changes."

"Okay then, love you."

As much as I would cringe at the initial thought of telling Discord that I loved him, I find security in my sexuality to know that this is merely a show and none of it is real. Plus it's in Twlight's voice, which he was mimicking rather well. "Love you too. Take care."

"Alright then, bye-bye."

As the call ended, my mom walked up to me and gave me a quick hug as she spoke. "Oh, my baby finally found love. I can't believe you!"

"Well at least we know this Bella girl is real, in theory."

Wow dad, dick words. I know you're joking and all, but that still kinda hurt. "And you can ask her whatever you want next weekend. If you want to find anything out about her, you can find out for yourself. Don't get to know her from my account."

"I'd be more than happy to! I just wanna see who my son is getting involved with. I just hope she isn't the type who has like a million piercings with an inverted crucifix on her shirt."

I get it, the horse is a corpse. That doesn't give you a right to wack at it in hopes that it would respond. "Dad, seriously..."

"Harold, what did you originally come in here for?" My mom questioned.

He scratched his head and glanced towards the fridge. "Oh yeah, I've been meaning to get another beer. I guess I got a little invested in the conversation you and your mom was having."

"Then get what you came for and stop harassing your son."

My dad obeyed her order, but not with silence. "I get it. But I just don't know if this kind of relationship is healthy for him. He's getting hurt a lot from what I've been told."

"Well I'm not in the hospital, so apparently it's not that bad." I rebutted as I proceeded to wash the dishes again.

Before my dad walked out, he turned to me and spoke. "It's not like I'm antagonizing you, I know that the choices you make are your own. And I know that I won't always agree with them, but I do have some say in what's going on if it becomes a hazard to your health. I get that you're a fighting man now, but your mother and I don't wanna end up burying you before we get ours. I want what's best for you and that's to live a clean and healthy life, long past our years. I guess what I'm going on about is... stay out of too much trouble."

"Don't have to tell me twice." I've already been in enough and plan to get in some more. I don't think that will change anytime soon.

As my dad left the kitchen, my mom and I carried on with the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen. It didn't take us very long to finish, about twenty minutes had passed before I had tossed the gloves to the side and grabbed my keys so that I could walk out the door. My dad had finished talking Melanie to death, causing her to subtly ask if I was ready to leave. Of course I was, I was trying to get the hell out of here circa the phone call from Cliff. But Discord being in my phone couldn't have gone any worse than it did, in fact it worked out for my good.

I'm not even gonna trip over this. This worked out, but Melanie on the other hand...

The sounds of the outside world hummed and hissed by as I sat in the passenger's seat of the car. My body remaining motionless as I looked at the passing scenery. My arms remained folded as I continued to focus in on how upset I was. I don't know how it came to be, but I just found myself welling up with anger. And I knew that it had something to do with my dad talking with Melanie.

He has a bad habit of asking a lot of questions and harping on subjects for far too long. And Mel, she just has a habit of being very responsive. It's not like she has an inability to keep secrets, it's just that she often tells someone something without gaining consent. And knowing dad, he would start to delve into things when he doesn't need to. I get that he's playing the father role here, but this is something I can't disclose to him.

I should be appreciative of the fact that it wasn't Rickey or Cliff he was questioning, otherwise I'd be a done ass.

"You okay?"

I continued to look out the window, not exactly angry with Melanie but frustrated. "...You had a full conversation with this man, about me behind my back. You know how he can be at times. And I just dodged a fat one when that phone call from Bella came in."

Not a whole lot was said between us for several seconds. Instead, we continued to sit in silence as the car came to a stop before a red light. There were no words spoken until the light had turned green, almost as if we had waited for the traffic to clear before continuing. "Hey... I'm sorry." She mumbled while giving my arm a light tug.

"..." I understood that she didn't have ill-intentions, but my story is going to need some significant reinforcement if I want to make it seem as if I'm not lying about something. The hardest thing about verifying a lie is that you have to tell other lies to keep it afloat. And I'm terrified of the day where I can't keep adding to the story without the plot chewing against itself, creating a massive hole. I'm going to write myself into a corner, and it isn't going to be easy to get myself out of it.

Melanie sighed as she slowed down for another red light. Impatiently, she drummed her fingers on the steering wheel while she spoke. "I didn't think that you weren't going to tell them about the two of you. I mean, it's been─"

"Melanie, what I do on my end has nothing to do with them." I answered a bit harshly.

"You know, they really do want to see you happy."

"And their pulling at me is doing nothing but the opposite. You know my folks, they'd do anything to have me live in their stupid little system." My frustration was beginning to boil over. I should do a better job of keeping it in check.

"And I'm thinking that there's a miscommunication between you and them. They honestly do care, haven't you seen that?"

I clenched my teeth in response to her question. I was well aware of what they thought of me, but I wasn't willing to tell them the truth of the situation. I can't find any way to explain it without looking or sounding like I lost it. "Of course I do... I just know how judgmental they really are sometimes. My mom could say one thing and mean another, like how she's comfortable with how I'm living not too far from the campus, but in all reality I'm still in town. I only had to make that choice because I didn't feel like going to a school full of principles I didn't believe in. Heck, their next choice for me was Bringham Young. They know I'm not a Mormon, so why would you send me to some school like that?"

As the light turned green, Melanie pulled off and made a right turn. "Yeah, I don't think I could do with the no-sex thing either. But at least they had your best interests in mind."

"Sure they did." They had their best interests for me in mind.

"I think you're being too harsh. If you could've been there on the day you went missing, they kept praying that you came back."

I really have to stop looking at them so objectively, but I can't do anything else but keep them at a distance. I love them, honestly I do. But then who's to say that the conditions wouldn't change as soon as I tell them that I'm betrothed to an equine princess who practices magic in a mystical land? Would they see me the same way, hell no. Would they disown me? Would they be so lenient with my decision to denounce Christianity if I had brought to them THAT news? Would my brothers respect me. Would my family even love me anymore?

Coming back to a world that no longer recognizes me, that same world where you were born, raised, experienced life, and was shown compassion... That was one of my biggest fears. And it's the one thing that drives me against telling Melanie about my second life.

Could I even trust her at this point? "...I know. And sometimes I want to tell them everything that's going on, but I know that my current circumstances prevent me from doing so. Hell, I just spent a year's tuition on weapons to keep my fraternity brothers clean. If my dad found out that I had bought all those weapons, he'd probably be the first one to drag me into the station." Not to mention the ulterior motives of said purchase.

A silence grew between us for a few seconds as we made our way down the streets of Austin. "Why are you so secretive?" Said Melanie, breaking the silence.

"Because I need to protect the identities of the parties involved. I can only say that much." I will only say that much for now.

"Well, could you at least fill me in on some of this stuff?"

*bzzzzzzzzz*

Should I trust her? "I will, eventually. Just give me some time to do it."

"I'm starting to feel like you're hiding a lot from me."

Unfortunately, she wasn't wrong. I quietly spoke into the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey, is this Nondis?" A recognizable female voice responded.

"Yes it is, who's asking?"

"Oh, great. This is Sunset Shimmer, you know the pony that nearly wiped your memories when we first met?"

"Yeah I know it. What's up?" Okay, I'm actually surprised that I even got a phone call from her. How did she even get this number?

"Well, Twilight had said something about her and Discord having a conversation just earlier today. She also said that she had mentioned something about your world before he just up and left. So after a couple of hours, Fluttershy noted that she couldn't find him. We searched all throughout Ponyville, but there was no trace of him. They even tried to summon him, but nothing came out of that either. So we're kinda not hoping he's here somewhere."

"Where all did you look?"

"Well, he's not in the bathroom."

That was not Sunset's voice as much as it was Rainbow Dash's. "Wha???"

"Definately not in the snack drawer! But these things called Zebracakes sure are tasty!"

"Ah searched the closets, ain't found nothin'."

Oh no... please don't. "How many of you are actually there?" I whispered into my phone.

"Everypony, we're trying to find Discord as quickly as we can before he starts wrecking havoc in this world."

"Oh please, this place is a mess as is. He'll probably feel at-home." I joked.

*beep beep beep*

"Hold on, I got a call on the other line." As soon as I switched over, I discovered that there wasn't really a number. When it displayed the words 'unknown caller', I made the assumption that it would be none other than Discord. "Yes?"

"Remember, I'm not here."

"Gotcha. Don't even worry about it. Just keep it on the hush and you'll be fine." I briefly explained as I hopped back over to the first line. "Hello, where were we?"

"Discord going missing! Where are you now, we could desperately need your help!" Twilight said with panic increasing in her voice.

I looked to my side to see Melanie visually focused on the road, but heavily attentive to the conversation taking place. I decided that it would be best for me to act as if it was a casual phone call. "Uh... I'm on my way home. I'm getting dropped off by a close friend of mine."

Twilight gasped sharply. "Close friend? You don't mean─"

"Yes, I mean that. But if I see him, I'll let him know you called and I'll try to get him to hit you up."

"Hit me up?" Twilight asked with confusion.

"Yeah... Okay, catch ya later."

"Wait─"

*beep*

Before she could finish her sentence, I hung the phone up to simulate the end of the call. I expressed my relief as soon as I put the phone back in my pocket. But my brief celebration didn't go unnoticed.

"So what was that all about?"

"Nothing really important, one of my coworkers asking if they had seen someone else. Also I'm supposed to be filling in for someone tomorrow morning as well as pulling my shift in the evening." I had already started giving out my excuse on why I would be unavailable for tomorrow. I didn't need her to start trying to get in touch with me in the evening, otherwise my date would have to be cut short to respond to Melanie possibly banging on my door. I made a wager with Rarity, and I will stay true to the agreement, despite the consequences that are to ensue.

"Are you getting paid overtime for this?" She asked, seeming very annoyed with the circumstance.

"Yeah! Like I would do something and not get paid for it. When my check comes in, I wanna bask in how fat it's gonna be."

"Oh, well you do what you do then." She said as we pulled into the apartment complex where we stayed.

As soon as the car came to a stop, I unbuckled my seat belt and hopped out of the car in a hurry. I didn't have any time to stick around for a conversation, as there were several uninvited guests in my apartment. "Thanks for the riiiiiiuh..." But my heart began to pound at a expedient pace as soon as I heard the car's engine come to a complete stop. Looking back to the car, I saw Melanie hop out of the driver's seat and close the door behind her. She hit the lock button on her car twice to arm the alarm. "Are you coming in?"

"I'd never thought you ask." She replied sarcastically, knowing that she had already decided on coming in either way.

I could not even begin to express the panic I felt as she started to walk up the stairs. SHIT, I CAN'T KEEP UP WITH THIS! "Wait! My place is a total mess, I really don't feel comfortable with guests walking in and it looking like a sty." I tried to convince her that I was not willing to take guests, but knowing her...

"It wasn't a mess when I came in earlier." She probably remembered when she tried to check in on me before we had left earlier.

"You were p-probably overlooking a lot of things. M-my apartment is like the equivalent of the ninth circle of hell right now." I said as I tried to beat her up the stairs. She only increased in her speed, as if we were racing.

"What are you hiding from me?" She asked with a giggle.

Shit... think of something. THINK OF SOMETHING!!! "I-I-I'm actually... also hiding a gift for you. Y-you know, of the birthday variety?"

"That's one hell of a belated birthday present. My birthday was three months ago." She answered dismissively.

"Well, I don't want you to see it until I know the time is right. How about this weekend!?" And out of desperation, I may have set myself up for more misfortune.

"You're not doing anything illegal, are you?" She jested. "You're not running a drug ring or anything, right?"

"No, like what? Do you honestly think I'm just in here reenacting Breaking Bad?"

"No... I just want to come in and talk with you." She answered flirtatiously.

"Mel─"

"And it won't take long. Just give me your ears for about ten minutes and I'll be back in my car. If you're doing something that you don't want me to know about, then just say so."

Then that would only give her more of an impression that I'm probably doing something that I have no business doing. And she likes to dig around. "That's not the point."

"Then please open this door so we can talk."

I couldn't believe this was happening. I couldn't let myself just casually open the door and say 'Honey, I'm home' and expect things to be peachy. There are going to be severe reprimands, and starting with this, I'm not going to be able to convince Melanie that I'm not some sort of sicko or deranged idiot. I haven't went over how I'm going to break the news to her yet!

But should you just keep it as a lie?

As my core belief asked me that question, I continued to fumble with the keys, my hands shaking quite a bit as I placed the key into the hole. When I tried to turn it, I had noticed that the mechanisms failed to respond while the lock remained unmoved. I pulled out the key and noticed that I tried to put my Equestrian apartment keys in.

"Sorry, wrong key... heheh..." Already, I was fucking up.

"You only have like four keys. And only one of them have the word 'Kwikset' on it." She stated while picking out the key with the aforementioned brand name.

"Oh, right. I'm stupid."

I nervously stuffed the key into the lock, hearing the tumblers click and clatter as I began to turn to the left. Deep down, I felt myself not wanting to open the door, but I felt an unexpected force that pulled the door inward, my arm along with it. My eyes clenched shut as I prepared myself to face the music.

I can't believe I'm going to have to explain to this girl about Equestria.

"Nondis..."

"Yes, Melanie?"

"Uhhh.... what the hell is this?"

The butterflies in my stomach... I think I'm gonna vomit.

Author's Note

What have you been up to, busy. Little. Bee? As usual, a lot of music stuff. I had to play for a really, REALLY huge thing that took a week of 8-hour rehearsals to lock in the music with this band. It was AMAZING fun. But now that the summer months are winding down and schools back in, I can get back to focusing on writing again. So yes, more frequent updates (HOORAY)!

I apologize if the chapter disappointed, as my mind was everywhere at once (not only on music but the subsequent chapters). Not only that but trying to maintain continuity can be a BITCH with these epic-length fics. Personally I have so many ideas with one-shots, but I never am able to find myself to write it all down. They remain as ideas, and they would eventually come back into play as long stories (whatever my brain is feeding me at the time).

Now as for the question "what the hell is this chapter?" The answer is a closer look at Nondis. Instead of seeing his usual confident self, you get to see him at his most vulnerable. Often times, an invert can be quite nervous to family opinion, especially if they haven't been considered as the 'golden child' or have been often ridiculed for the decisions they've made in life. And those bits and pieces of insecurity are now being brought to light. He's come into his own, but there's no reasonable explanation of how that came to be in his family's eyes.

Melanie doesn't really get what's all going on, she's completely oblivious to Nondis' intentions due to him keeping her in the dark so often. This is an example of it backfiring on him.

As an additional note, the color changes are suppose to indicate the changing voices over the phone. I kept "Bella's" voice in color: Twilight Sparkle to give off the illusion that Discord was speaking in her voice. So everytime the voice changes on the phone, the text will appear in a different color, whether it's a subtle shade of gray or the colors of the Mane 6 (personally, I feel that colors are underutilized on this site). This idea may suck, but I want to know your opinion of it.

But now, we wait for the next chapter. What happens next? Stay tuned to find out.

P.S.: Our setup for the performance was legendary.

Chapter LIV

Deep in the darkened verdant paths of the Everfree Forest, a forlorn stallion trudged down the muddy road as severed flower petals littered the trail behind him. His chin remained buried in his neck as he moped along the way. His eyes were pink and swollen from the massive amounts of spores he took on. It also didn't help his image due to the drying streaks of tears down his face. His eyes were completely empty as he moved on, walking wherever would take him out of town and away from the mare that he thought to no longer love him.

"I can't believe this. How could I be so stupid?"

As those words came from his mouth, he stopped to stare at the ground below him. For a minute, it took him a while to move. But once he found his strength, he viciously slammed the bouquet of stubs and leaves into the ground. He then quickly ran for a nearby tree and bashed his own head against it while speaking to himself.

"I knew from the start that I was playing for second, but I didn't listen to myself. I just kept listening to what I wanted to hear."

After a few bashes, he started to feel himself become disoriented and wracked with pain. Those very same sensations was what drove him to forego another attempt at himself, causing him to slide to the ground instead. His face remained buried into the bark of the tree.

"Pinkie never loved me as much as she loved him. I was over the horizons while he was here on the home-front, fighting off whatever issues she had and everypony who threatened to hurt her. He took blows for her while I was busy blowing up balloons, I can't compete with that."

Each time he thinks about that situation, the only thing that comes to mind is how Pinkie always wrote in her letters that her previous coltfriend was never really a good pony. But he knew that her hoofwriting took a turn for the unstable as soon as he was even mentioned. The words would become shaken and hard to read. He would often have to squint to get an idea on what she was saying. But he knew that despite the words she jotted down on paper, he was more troublesome to the pink mare than what she was making him out to be.

He even went as far as visiting her in his absence, seeking to rekindle a flame that long-since died. But then the human came to her rescue, took the beating, and came out with the moral victory and Pinkie's heart as a consolation prize for his troubles. Since then, she's been latched to him for months. He even watched from the kitchen as the pink pony screamed and shouted at the human for deciding to leave Equestria for good.

"And she pushes me away whenever his name comes up in a conversation. She says she's happy with me and that she's happy for him to have something of his own, but I know the truth. She's still hung up on him as much as she was three months back."

Secretly, he wanted him to leave. He wanted the security of knowing that Nondis left everything to him and would be out of the picture completely. But instead of that, he ended up showing back up to make the commitment to Twilight. Pinkie never said much to oppose him, but she did give off indications that she was very unhappy with his choice. And since then, their relationship has been taking a turn for the worse. The only thing he felt he could do was to outshine him by any means necessary. Unfortunately for him, his advances were seen as problematic and invasive.

The words kept reverberating throughout his mind: I won't do it for somepony I can't love, or give him what he wants. Those were the words she uttered before she discovered he was there to witness her saying it. Those words only brought him more pain, one that was greater than the pain he inflicted upon himself. He clenched his eyes shut, unable to cry anymore as his chest contracted and his breaths grew short and staggered.

"I didn't even stand a chance."

The stallion succumbed to his depression as he lied on the ground, accepting everything that happened. He pounded his hoof into the ground once before screaming the air out of his lungs. All at once, he felt anger, jealousy, sadness, and remorse. His future, the one he wanted for her and himself, was becoming a simple pipe dream to him. And screaming was all he could do to shed the pain.

"CHEESE!"

His ears perked up when he heard his name called. He rose his head to look back from behind him, seeing a blur of pink barreling towards him. His eyes started to shine a little more as he felt a strong impact from the pink pony that tackled him. Her hooves clamped around his body as she nuzzled his chest with tears in her eyes.

"Oh thank Celestia, you're safe!"

The stallion pushed her away for a moment to speak. "Pinkie... what are you doing here?"

Her hoof weakly bashed into his chest as she spoke. "I was looking for you, silly! I wasn't gonna let you come out here on your own! It's way too dangerous!"

The stallion, still a bit upset, politely shoved her away as he stood. "Well I can handle myself!"

She pulled the hoof that tried to move her, moving herself in front of him. "No, look at me!"

"I don't wanna hear anything you have to say right now." He said as he turned away.

"Sweetie, no." She pleaded.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" He hollered.

She remained undeterred, jumping on top of him and clenching her forelegs around his chest while whispering into his ear. "I'm sorry for what I said. I only said what I said because I thought that I could... I was such an idiot!"

"Pinkie, you're not an idiot!" He argued with a frustrated tone.

"What do you know!? I made you sad, and that's something that should never happen. I didn't mean to hurt you, I just wanted what was best for us."

Cheese grew quiet as he recalled the words she used. "To not get married?"

"It doesn't matter! If we're together right now, we can work towards getting married in the future. Just not right now." She nuzzled the stallion lightly while petting his mane.

Cheese softened his stony exterior as he sat on his haunches, turning back to her. "Pinkie, I gave up everything for you."

She removed herself, walking in front of him to lift his chin. "And I love you for it. But I don't wanna just move into this. I want to spend time with you before we lock it up."

"So... you don't feel like I'm... pushing you?" He questioned.

"Well, yeah! But slowing down is what's gonna get us over this hump, right?"

Cheese finally broke down as he hugged her tightly, whispering to her. "I just don't wanna put any pressure on you."

The pink pony smiled as she returned the gesture. Her eyes remained fixated on the stallion as they temporarily flashed for a second. The large sky blue irides transformed into a filmy blue color, the pupils completely disappearing for a moment as she asked. "Cheese... do you really love me?"

"Pinkie, with all of my life, I'll have you to whatever end."

The pink pony sighed. "Yeah..."

"Sorry, too much?" Cheese asked, pulling off for a bit to look at her.

The pink pony blinked, her eyes returning to their illusion. "Let's just start off with simple, okay?

"...Pinkie, I really like you, And I know that I'm probably on a whole other level with what I feel, but if you want me to tone it down, then I'll do it." He said as the pink pony turned around to face the path that lead downward.

"Cheese..."

"Yes, Pinkie?" He asked.

"I need to show you something."

"What is i─" He couldn't finish as his muzzle was suddenly buried in nothing but pink hair. He didn't say much as the easily identifiable musk it carried made him pause for a moment. His eyes closed half way as the aroma of her scent caused him to roll his eyes back with delight. He moaned as the smell caused him to become eager and motivated to find out what she was going to give to him. He knew what she was going to do, and he found it increasingly difficult to control himself. He stumbled forward to get a better hint of the intoxicating aroma, but she pulled her tail back in, placing it firmly back where it belongs as she winked her eye at him.

"Silly, it's a secret. But you'll have to follow me to find out."

The sun painted the entire town of Ponyville a beautiful shade of gold as the large celestial orb started to make it's final hurrah for the day. The streets had started to clear out as the volume throughout the town slowly began to diminish. What was once lively and boisterous conversation taking place had subsided to calmer tones and quieter laughs. All had seemed quite tranquil in the town...

That is until one pink pony galloped a storm into the streets, leaping over, sliding under, drifting around, juking past, and bashing through whatever stood in her way. The tattered cloth that once stood on her face was hanging by a loosely tied thread. Her breaths short as she ran through the streets and directly barging into the castle that stood just on the Northern edge of town.

"TWILIGHT!!!" She screamed one time before collapsing onto the ground from exhaustion.

For a few minutes, the pink pony remained breathless on the ground until she heard the sounds of hooves clattering against the marble floors. Soon enough, she was met with some company.

"Pinkie Pie, oh my goodness!" Twilight cried out as she teleported to her friend's side. "Pinkie, are you okay?"

The pink party pony coughed weakly as she looked up to the purple princess. "Twilight... help. Please..."

The purple princess began to inspect her friend, realizing that her flushed expression was very unusual. After a closer look, she confirmed that the pink pony was definitely unwell. Pinkie panted as she slowly wriggled on the ground.

"What happened to you?" Twilight asked. Pinkie looked away as Twilight's eyes trailed to the pink mare's tail. It only took a simple levitation spell for the young princess to see what was really taking place. "No... impossible. We're not even in leading into the summer cycle! We're going into the winter months in a bit, how is it that you're suffering from estrus-like symptoms?"

Pinkie lied on the ground, covering her face with shame as she spoke. "Non-non... Nonnie needs... Nondie... Save Cheese..."

Twilight quirked an eyebrow as she repeated after her ill friend. "Save Cheese?"

I remained quiet as I sat at Rarity's table. As I remained in wait of the meal she was finishing up, I was impatiently playing with the fork next to my plate. My stomach twisted and rumbled as I smelled the food from her oven being brought into the outside world. At this rate, I don't think I could stop myself from drooling.

"Nondis? You're not speaking."

Honestly, I thought my stomach was doing a hell of a good job providing conversation all on it's own. But I should keep in mind that she does like conversation to take place at the table. "Sorry, was just thinking about something."

"About what?"

"Your awesome food."

The fashionista giggled as she levitated my plate away from me. "Well I don't think you should be having food on your mind the entire time. What else were you thinking about?"

"Are you just trying to pick at my brain?"

"Well I'm all for multitasking. Picking your brain is no more difficult than cooking."

Wow, so she practically said I'm easy to figure out. "I didn't think I was so transparent."

"I still haven't gotten an answer, dear. What else is on your mind?"

I started to pick up the fork and twirl it between my fingers as I just listed off the first thing that came to mind. "Um... Well it has been a pretty unexpected day. I didn't think Pinkie and Cheese were into it that bad."

"That does pose a bit of a concern." Rarity said as she started setting out our portions. "It doesn't look like it, but things between them will work out for the better. If anything, this will probably reach some sort of conclusion by much later tonight. And if not then, it will have to be sometime tomorrow. Pinkie's not easy to set ill things aside, she's persistent in making things right. Very admirable of her, if I might say so myself."

"Well if you say so, then I won't place too much worry on it." I said as I watch the plate full of steaming food come floating at the table. "Oh damn, this looks great."

Rarity walked over to me and cooed. "Well, you can proceed to come to my doorstep whenever you so need a feeding or two. It was my concern that you haven't been eating dinner since you've moved to that lodge."

"I'm fine. Really."

"Nondis, I don't think you're getting paid as much as you should." She stated while nuzzling up to me.

"Remember, I just started this job. I haven't even been on it a month."

"You're Captain of the Royal Guard, you should be getting paid a respectable amount of bits to do what you do. You know your rent is high and that you're not being well-fed when you're there. Why don't you make a case for your raise?"

"Rarity, I just started. There are commanders in place that have dedicated decades of their lives to this nation. For me to walk out of training camp, obtaining a much higher rank than most, and then requesting a raise to match my rank would cause a major rift in not only the trust between me and the lower officers, but also a major discontent with many others who've served for many years. I'd lose my guys' confidence over that. All the more reason why I never say how much I'm getting paid."

Rarity glared at me angrily. "There's more to it. What is it?"

"Well, gold fetches for a good price in my world. You guys pay it like it's a natural occurrence, while we're buying and selling the stuff in our world like it's the newest craze. Don't get me wrong, gold's been around for several years in my world, but it's a rare mineral that can't be found on a whim. Now factor in the world's population and you can understand why gold isn't something to be passed around like it used to."

Rarity smiled coyly as she whispered to me. "In other words, you may not have much here in this world, but in your world..."

"Two paydays and I'm looking at the equivalent of a pro-athlete's starting salary for the year."

She slowly nodded as she finally understood why I was so content with my pay. If I lived like I was in squalor here, I can properly budget my finances to where I was comfortably well-off in my world. Exchange those finances for goods such as furniture or maybe even a bike I could use to get around the place a lot quicker. It would sure beat the hell out of paying for a train just to go to Canterlot.

And avoiding the train altogether is my overall goal.

Rarity placed down the plate of food as she walked back over to her side of the table. "Well if you're not going to have a complaint about it, then perhaps I shouldn't either. After all, you know how rich you are in your world. As long as you have some sort of system that you can live comfortably on."

"No arguments there." I said as I shoveled as much food onto my fork as I could possibly fit on there. The alabaster unicorn giggled as she watched me construct a small mountain of food on my fork.

"My, you act like you haven't eaten all day."

I blew on my food, making sure that I didn't burn myself on the first bite. "To be honest, I actually haven't even had breakfast this morning."

Rarity's jaw dropped as she stared at me. "No... seriously?"

"Well I'm getting fed now, no complaints."

*POOF*

Rarity grew surprised as she saw that we had another visitor. "Twilight?"

Before my mouth could touch as much as a crumb, I felt my fork leave the possession of my fingers in the form of a magenta-colored aura. Looking back to see the source of the magic, Twilight placed a hoof on my shoulder. "Sorry for interrupting your meal, but we've got an emergency!"

Rarity took pity on me as she saw the despair set on my face. My eyes were closed as I thought aloud. "You know what, God hasn't damned me enough."

Rarity stood from her seat as she tried to plead with the unicorn. "Well would it be possible for him to eat something before he went? He hasn't eaten all day."

The purple princess looked at me with an apologetic expression. "I'll make it up to you, I swear. I'll even hoof your name in for some vacation time. A whole week of uninterrupted─"

"I don't get vacation hours just walking out of camp, Twilight." I growled grumpily, standing from my seat and walking out of the kitchen. "So let's just get this shit over with."

Rarity watched as Twilight ran beside me and ignited her magic once more, causing us to disappear in a bright flash. After we disappeared, she groaned as she looked at all of the food that still remained on my plate. With a grumble, she turned back to the stove and pulled out a roll of aluminum foil.

"Good grief, I suppose I'll have to set all this in the fridge then."

Twilight watched quietly as I continued to pick out what weapons I was going to bring. All throughout my decision-making she proceeded to remind me that any sort of explosive device was against her recommendations. She stated it would be far too dangerous to throw something in the forest and end up stirring the wrath of some manticore. And I don't even think the others would be properly trained in dealing with a mythological creature that size.

In speaking of the others, the portal sounded as three bodies came walking through. "Alright, what's going on this time?" Melanie questioned.

Meanwhile, I was left dumbfounded at the sight of her appearance. "Mel? Why are you here?"

"I'm here because you might need some extra looking out." She stated outright before prying open one of the blue bins and grabbing for the first assault rifle she could find.

"That and she was riding with me at the time you called." Rickey confessed. "So you can imagine her face when she's telling me that I need to get to your place, and fast."

"For real, I was kinda surprised myself when I saw her step out of the car." Cliff added as he found himself a shotgun. "I was confused as all hell when she came out saying that she was gonna come with us."

"You two were unhappy until you both had realized that I had police training when I switched my major back in February."

"What was your major and what did you switch it to?" Twilight asked curiously.

"I was a med student, then switched over to criminal justice in forensics. The police training was a bonus to make sure that I could be on the field of a crime scene and defend myself should something pop off." Melanie answered as she moved her attention to the ammunition.

Cliff went into another bin for a handgun, seeing which one he wanted to use. "So, remind me again on how Pinkie girl got herself into trouble."

"It's not so much of her being in trouble as it is something that kinda... happened." I said. "She and Cheese had a falling out and I guess she came back from looking for him and gotten herself sick. From what Twilight had told me, she ran into some spores that makes you a little crazy. But the thing about it is that it's only affecting equines. This means that we could possibly need some masks before we head out."

"Also, Pinkie mentioned that there was little visibility past a certain point on the path. You might need to use some protection for your eyes as well as some flashlights to get you through the bulk of the spores." Twilight stated.

"So we'll be wearing goggles and probably need to use flashlights on our equipment." Rickey said as he walked over to one of the purple bins to pull out four sets of goggles and some flashlights. "But that stuff aside, how's Pinkie doing?"

"She's being looked after by Cadance." Twilight answered. "Shining Armor is also going to make sure that nopony gets to her in her current state."

"So I take it that they've been made aware of everything that's going on?" I questioned.

"I had to. Cadance is a better candidate to help Pinkie with her symptoms. Shining is just patrolling the hall to prevent anyone from getting in or out of the room."

"Out of the room?" Rickey asked cautiously.

"I told you that she's kinda... unusual right now." I stated, just going by Twilight's testimony.

While I continued to look for more attachments for my rifle, I heard something that grabbed at my attention. I turned to the portal to see yet another two bodies phasing through. Cliff and Rickey both seized up as they watched the two other humans step through.

"NONDIS!" A booming voice called out to me, as Alex and Stanton came marching out.

Cliff immediately took action to put Alex out of commission, but was quickly stopped by Stanton. I ran between the two parties and separated both Cliff and Alex. "Okay! Everyone chill out for a second!" I hollered before turning to my brothers, who completely caught me by surprise. "Now, what the hell are you two doing here?"

Alex gingerly pushed me aside as he navigated his way towards a blue bin. "We've gotten a call that you were going to do some stupid shit again. So we kindly footed the gas and brought our asses on over here to make sure that you don't get hurt playing with sharp objects."

I shook my head as I tried to speak to Stanton. "Call? Who called you?"

"Don't worry about that. Just know that me and Alex will pop up whenever you need some help." He said as he looked to the other three humans in the room. "Apparently you already got some here."

"Again, I'm not sure as to why you told them about all of this first, but I think that was in rather bad taste." Alex continued. "I can understand Melanie, but Cliff and Rickey are both suspect to me. I don't necessarily trust them."

"Whoa, what for? They didn't do anything to me." I said as I came to their defense.

"You were in their company when you drove off of that bridge. That means that they, along with your fraternity, were the ones responsible." Alex argued, pointing to Cliff and Rickey.

"No, Prett took the responsibility and was expelled from the university by the Board of Admissions." Melanie explained. "He was the one to call the party and funded the whole thing. He brought the drugs, he pushed Nondis into going, and he let Nondis take the keys from him."

I really didn't care to hear about that incident right now. I pulled everyone back into focus. "Guys! Can we please look at what the situation is right now?" I projected loudly. "We got a guy in the forest, there was a changeling seen nearby, and there's apparently some weird shit in the air that really fucks with ponies standing between us and getting that guy out from what could turn into an abduction. We really need to focus on the immediate issue. Please, can we haul it in and ask all the other questions later?"

Cliff looked back to Stanton and shrugged. "I'm good with it if you down."

"We're not down for anything." Alex interjected. "We're here to protect our brother. We're not losing him a second time."

"Alex, c'mon." Melanie pleaded. "Cliff and Rickey aren't like Jasper."

"At least that guy was actually helping you." Alex retorted.

"He covered for me once and that's about it. Other than that, Jasper's a fucking scumbag who can't seem to act his age when someone wants to do their own thing, be with someone else, or just chooses to be quiet." Melanie explained. "To hell with him. Rickey's a womanizer and he's a better grab than that fucker."

"Should I feel proud or offended?" Rickey questioned to Stanton.

"Why not both?" Stanton answered.

"Guys?" I spoke once more. "Can we focus?"

"We are." The other five stated as they continued to go through the blue bins for weapons. Stanton spoke in everyone's defense. "There's nothing wrong with a little casual conversation while picking out your equipment."

"Speaking of equipment, can I have the sniper rifle?" Alex questioned.

"He's talking about for keeps." Stanton snitched.

I quickly walked up to my older brother and nabbed the rifle from him. "We're not gonna need this. And no, this cost me four thousand dollars."

"I'll buy it from you."

I gave my older brother a side-eye expression as he ogled at the long-barreled hardware in my left hand. His eyes glanced from top to bottom as he quietly smiled and extended his hand. I simply smiled back as I answered him.

"There's no possible way you can convince me to fork this over to you."

We left the castle and finally made our way towards the Everfree Forest. As expected, I took front and center as Cliff and Rickey took a few steps behind me. Then Alex, Stanton, and Melanie was in the back of the formation to fill in our back line. As far as Alex and Stanton were concerned, they were going to go hunting for alien-like creatures who's sole purpose was to feed from their victims and transfer them to their motherland.

And as one would expect from a pair of siblings who haven't so much as touched a gun in long-ass time, they were a bit eager to get in on some action. Let's be honest, these two aren't Columbine levels of trigger-happy, but if it comes to protecting me, then they'd sure as hell turn on that switch... Just replace students with changelings, and there you go.

Though I need to keep a close eye on Alex. He can be a bit overprotective at times, and I can understand his reason for being like that. I was often bullied and shoved around, most of the time he'd try to get me to defend myself. And whenever that plan fell through (which was every single time), he'd jump in and finish what I couldn't even start.

Stanton just lost all faith in me whenever it came to that department, so he just said that he was gonna get his weight up and fight for himself. I guess you could say that he learned to not put himself into my situations and avert that with a dominating physical presence. Again, he's everything I'm not, or rather everything that I wanted to be in my fantastical teenage mind. But even then, he started to pick up the slack where my older brother left off once he left to college. And you can only imagine how my high-school experience was like when you hear that this freshman football player takes up for his senioritis-inflicted older brother.

Either way, these two were who I was born between. And even though at times they seem to make me feel like I was the younger one getting pushed around, they still loved me and protected me. Even when dad instructed them not to take up for me anymore, they disobeyed him and did it anyways.

This time, it's my turn to show them that I'm beyond protecting. Maybe that's the reason why I didn't oppose to them coming around to help, because I wanted them to see what I was capable of. I wanted them to see how far I came. Sure I still get hurt, but I'm not taking any of this lying down like I used to.

...My pride has gotten me a pretty big head today.

"Head's up, fog ahead." Cliff called out from behind me, pulling me back into the present.

As I looked forward, I could see a wall of orange-colored mist linger like a cloud on the road. I shook my head with disbelief as I stopped for a moment to reach for a bandanna around my neck. "These are the spores they were talking about? Damn, you'd think we were walking through an actual brick wall, that shit's so thick."

The others proceeded to place their bandannas on as Melanie spoke. "So, is any of this stuff dangerous to us?"

"Only one way to find out." Stanton suggested. "Any one of you wanna run through there without your mask and scream back to us about how you feel?"

The six of us didn't even think about taking our masks off as we just stared at the orange wall of dust. "Stanton, you suggested it. So why not go for it yourself." Alex joked, slapping Stanton on the back.

I decided to leave the conversation at hand and proceeded onward through the orange dust wall. Upon walking in, I could barely keep my eyes open and walked back out. "Shit. We're not walking through that without our goggles on."

"No shit, Sherlock." Rickey stated as he and the others took from my example and placed on their goggles. Deciding that I didn't want to go through that minor ordeal again, I decided to learn from my mistake and put on the goggles before marching in that dust cloud again.

While we were inside of the thick of the fog, we realized that our distance of visual was drastically declining. At one point, it was where we couldn't even see four feet in front of us. And as a result of our misfortune, we had to immediately resort to holding hands throughout the venture through the cloud. Melanie lightly whimpered at the strange sounds that reverberated through the forest, as they were definitely not the normal woodland creatures that we humans have grown accustomed to. Both Stanton and Alex were tense as we traveled along the path.

"Hey, bro." Stanton questioned. "What the hell was that noise?"

While my ears were accustomed to the sounds of Everfree, directly identifying a creature in these woods aren't considered to be as underwhelming of a task that Fluttershy makes it out to be. After all, my special talent wasn't in animals... But that was definitely something in the 'large-and-in-charge' department. "Could be a few things, a cragodile, bearbug, or a manticore. Doesn't sound like an Arimaspi or a hydra though, so we shouldn't worry too much."

"Wait, what was all that shit you listed?" Alex asked with a tremor in his voice.

"This nigga said a manticore, and followed it up with a 'we shouldn't worry too much' statement." Cliff added as he started to turn his head to both sides of the road.

"Don't go looking for something that's not interested in you." I advised the group. "Manticores and cragodiles are territorial creatures. They won't bother us if we don't bother them. But if one comes across your path, it's best to excuse yourself."

"And we got guns. So what would be the end result of that?" Melanie inquired.

"That's not what we're here for. Manticores and the like are not to be killed. Our only green light is any changeling we might see."

"And what do these 'changelings' look like?" Stanton questioned.

Rickey scoffed as he spoke. "They're stupid, small, horse-shaped, hole-legged, no-hair having, vampiric, bug-eyed, crook-horned, smelly, shape-shifting sons of bitches who takes family members, drain them of their very souls, and send them to far-away lands for, lack of a better phrase, permanent decommissioning."

"Hole-legged? Bug-eyed? Horse-shaped? Anything else to look for?" Alex asked.

"They're also black... ish." Cliff openly announced. "But let's just say they ain't the motherfuckas you'd wanna invite to the pad. They trash all your shit, steal from your ass, knock your ass out, and they shoot at your ass."

"Not to mention it's like the slave-trade with these guys." I added.

"Slave trade, isn't that a bit of a touchy subject?" Melanie questioned.

Cliff laughed for a bit before turning back to her with a serious expression. "Nah... they doin' that shit like they did back in our world over three-hundred years ago, minus the ocean."

"And the crates they ship out, you don't wanna see what's in there." Rickey stated quietly. "And a little bit of advice: If it smells, don't even get curious."

For a while, it remained silent as we walked along. Our vision started to get a little better as we moved along. But as soon as we cleared the fog, Stanton was the one to linger on the subject. "Is it really that bad?"

I removed my mask and turned to him with a very somber expression. "...The young, the kids, they were stacked on top, the elderly were crunched on the bottom. The filth travels downward, the diseased air lingers upward. And if you see this glossy haze in their eyes..." I said way too much. Just at that moment, Cheese's image popped up in my head in place of the one pony who reached out to me before drawing their final breath. I was almost reliving that moment in my head. I shook off that thought and marched forward. "...Nevermind, let's go."

The other five looked at me as I moved onward. Cliff and Rickey took collective breaths before walking off. Melanie took an additional second to gather her thoughts before she trailed us. Meanwhile, Alex and Stanton were quietly staring towards one another.

"Hey..." Stanton began, but was cut off by his older brother.

"Yeah, I saw it too." Alex confirmed with a solemn nod.

"...You don't think─"

Alex shook his head as he and the younger sibling proceeded to walk forward. "He's not that far gone, not yet."

"Well we'd know if he start getting nightmares, it's clear cut that he's got it bad."

"Don't even speak that into existence."

The castle doors opened to reveal the still-damaged interior from the previous ordeal that took place. To our left was the broken pillar I was rammed into by that changeling brute. And to the right was the still ashen shadow of the beast, a dark circular imprint of ash was left on the scene from when Celestia sent the brute a one-way ticket into oblivion. Even as I thought about it, Cliff and Rickey both regaled the tales of our mission to rescue a young victim who went missing just that day.

Alex and Stanton grew even more quiet as they heard more about how we ran into the butler and how we managed to identify him. Melanie didn't do much but clench her jaw shut at the thought of being in Diamond Tiara's position. And when they started to tell about how Celestia came around and decimated the brute with a broken wing, they started to realize that my superiors weren't at all too sheltered. At least they were made aware of the fact that she could hold her own in a fight, but that fact didn't surprise Melanie too much.

Then again, Melanie witnessed Celestia herself moving the sun.

We walked to the end of the stony corridor and up the stairs. As we sat at the top, I started to formulate a plan of approach. "Okay, we're obviously not gonna be able to cover as much ground being in one group. So... it would be in our best interests to split up so that way we can search the ruins from top to bottom. We'd need to do whatever it takes to find Cheese and bring him back to town. Whoever or whatever you find, call someone in the other party so we can understand what route to take next. If you find some magical devices, don't touch. Copy?"

Stanton stretched his arms as he spoke. "Yeah, so... who is going with who?"

I looked around and took into consideration everyone's abilities and weaknesses. The last thing we needed to do was have a completely imbalanced group while the other thrives. So that meant that I wouldn't be able to travel with Cliff and Rickey like last time. It also meant that I couldn't bring my brothers all at once, as we tend to get a little rowdy with one another should something come up that all three of us can't agree with, that would slow us down. And I can't let one group go without anyone who's well-practiced in self-defense. Granted, we all can fight, but the three top melee fighters would be me, Melanie, and Cliff.

I love my brothers, but they're only used to fighting with humans. Cliff could manage, but he's usually carrying a weapon to bat people off with. Melanie on the other hand was trained to deal with armed opponents as well as targets of a wide range of sizes. I guess that criminal justice switch really worked out in her favor. Plus she's can serve as a medic in the other group.

I guess we found our leader for the other party. "We need a close-quarter specialist in each squad, there's no point in boasting about your range if you just so happen to get within two feet of a changeling. They have a venomous bite that paralysis you for a good period of time. So you're going to need at least one good brawler assigned to each squad. Melanie and I will consist of our close-quarter specialists. Since Melanie has had some training in martial arts, we'll have her in Group A. I'm used to fighting these bastards, so I'll be in Group B."

"Wait, you're splitting us up?" She questioned, seeming somewhat betrayed.

"Mel, you've had training as a cop and a nurse. You'd be qualified for something like this. And I'm sure that Cliff would be able to use anything blunt to bludgeon the shit out of anything that comes close, so you've got some help when it comes to muscle. Plus Cliff knows his way around the lower levels from the last time we were here, so he'll be your guide."

"So I guess it'll be us three in Group B?" Stanton stated as he pulled me and Alex close together.

"Not quite." I said as I unhinged myself from Stanton's grasp. "I'll need either you or Alex to go with Melanie and Cliff. The two of you have had experience in firearms for several years, so I'd like to have a marksman in each group."

"My aim's not that bad." Rickey muttered to himself.

"No, but I still trust Alex over distances." I stated.

"Nondis, I have a sniper rifle, I can pick off anything that sits high from down low. If we're gonna go up, then you're gonna need someone to pick off whatever these things are from distance. Plus I'm fairly acquainted with small arms, so I'm very capable of nailing shots." And now he continues to remind me of how he managed to talk me into that sniper rifle.

"Yeah, and I wanna hang out with Mel for a bit." Stanton stated as he walked over to her and Cliff. "Besides, Alex is kinda a dick whenever it comes to hunting."

Alex looked at Stanton with a deadpan expression before turning to me. I simply responded with a timid shrug. "Gah... Well he's not wrong."

He threw his hands in the air out of frustration as he started walking towards the doorway to the right. "Whatever! Stanton, Melanie, and Cliff is in Group A. Nondis, Rickey, and I are in Group B. Now let's get going!"

Rickey stopped him dead in his tracks as Cliff started to chuckle a bit. Alex looked confusedly at the two before he turned to me again as I pointed to the doorway on the left. "Yeah... that way."

Realizing that he couldn't embarrass himself any further, he patted me on the shoulder and spoke quietly.

"...You lead."

***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

I can’t believe he just left me to dry like this. I was actually looking forward to seeing him in action rather than being shoved off somewhere. And I get that I’m the one who’s new to the whole being in Equestria thing. But this is getting absolutely ridiculous, I should’ve been with him. I have the most experience and the best conditioning out of everyone who isn’t Nondis or Stanton. I guess I’ll shoot him a text whenever we stop, asking him why he didn’t pick me to be in his group.

Oh God, I’m acting so attached again.

Let me be clear, I’m still in love with the guy. I’m still trying to process the fact that he just out and told me that I wasn’t anything he would pursue from now on. I’m still on the fence about him dating a pony, but never have I indicated that someone should die for being in love with him. I’m not going to pull a Spike.

And I know like hell it won’t be anything but a struggle for him if I was to be in the picture right now. He’s already caught between two girls and I really don’t wanna get in the way of TWO magical unicorns who could possibly turn me into a warty toad. There’s no way I’d live to see past that.

…Maybe I should take my mind off of him so much and focus on wherever the hell Cliff is leading us. The last thing I wanna do is step on something that could send us into a spiky pit of death.

Stanton yawned as he tried to crack his neck. “Whew! Well this is getting a little boring. Hey Cliff, where the hell are we?”

“We should be coming up towards the first underground hall. Keep your eyes peeled for anything that moves against the walls. If you see any shadows lurking around, best you shoot before they call their friends over.”

I suppose it was my turn to ask something. “What’s even down here? This looks like a dungeon.”

“It does lead into one the deeper we go.” Cliff confirmed as he continued to scan the walls for any of the moving shadows he mentioned. “Right now, we’re just in one of the passageways that lead into the armory level down below.”

“How do you know where we’re going?” Stanton questioned, and for good reason. “I mean I know you’ve been here once, but you can’t seriously remember an entire floor plan on your first go.”

Cliff chuckled softly as he turned to Stanton. “Bruh, I don’t have a fucking clue as to where we are forreal forreal.”

“What!” Both Stanton and I shouted, causing us to catch ourselves and sealing our lips shut before we let out any further outbursts.

“Chill out. Ol’ dude Shining Armor gave Nondis a map.”

I couldn’t do nothing but smile sarcastically at his response. “And that would be so helpful to us, especially since he up and left to another part of the castle. I suppose we’re not gonna get lost anytime soon.”

Cliff pulled out his phone and flicked at the screen. “Actually, he said something about taking pictures of it and sending the plans to all of us, page for page. You didn’t get a picture message from him?”

I quickly pulled out my phone and noticed that I was free of any new messages. “Nope. But if you’re supposed to be the navigator, then why is it that he’s sending a copy of the floor plan to everyone else?”

“I dunno. I guess he was trying to keep in mind that sending only one person the map wouldn’t be a good idea if that person’s phone was to die out.”

“Otherwise, if someone was to get lost, we could have an idea on where we are and how to get out.” Stanton added, causing me to see further into their reasoning.

But still, a map is something we have yet to even come across. I don’t think it would be to our benefit if we continued to travel like this without any sort of definitive direction. I decided to send Nondis a nice gentle text on how we were going to get around without his assistance.

It didn’t even take him thirty seconds to respond as he forwarded everyone images of the map, which were a little difficult to read. I mean I could still make out what was a door, a wall, and all that other stuff, but Equish is not one of my strong suits. Nondis says it's easy to make out once you convert the symbols to letters in the English language, but we weren't given a guide.

At least he labled the pictures as each floor number. And going by the fact that we were just a floor down below the entrance, I'd say that we were on the first basement floor.

"Okay, I'm looking at the plans and I'm seeing nothing that looks like the hall we're in." Stanton said as he pulled up his map.

Cliff put away his phone and walked over to Stanton. "Are you on the right floor?"

"Basement 1, that's what it's labeled, right?"

I walked over and took a peek at whatever he was looking at. Obviously it was labeled as such, but none of it looked like anything we had just walked through, or so much resembles the hall we're in. "Please tell me that Nondis didn't label the pages wrong."

Cliff swiped the picture to the right and ended up on the floor plan that closely resembled the area we just came from. As he tapped on the screen, he mumbled to himself and traced out the route we took. Afterwards, he looked at the hall we were in and back to the map. "Ohhhh... So we're still on the first floor then. Okay."

...I bet Nondis knows where the hell he's going.

***Point of Perspective: Nondis***

I have no damn clue where we're going. It's not as much trouble finding out where we are at the current moment, but it's the fact that there's so many rooms to look in, even while we're going up. Right now we're in the hall just behind the throne room. And according to the map, we're standing just in front of a large rectangular area that seems to span two levels. I know it's nonsense to look here and think that this would be a place where Cheese would be, but I'm not cutting any corners right now.

Alex and Rickey each pushed against a tall wooden door that lead into the huge rectangular area. As they pushed with a bit of shoulder strength, the room's purpose began to reveal itself. Just ahead was a small circular stand that sat in the middle of an almost empty floor. The only thing that seemed to accompany it was a dusty, tattered red rug lying just a few feet in front of it. Small veins of dust and dirt fell from above as I slowly entered into the room. Looking around, I could see some broken staves and torn banners hanging from above.

A large stand that stood several feet into the air stood behind the small circular stage, almost made as if whoever presided was towering above whoever stood in the circle. In front of it was a series of rows, seating areas filled with moldy pillows and damaged railings. Another floor filled with similar arrangements were just in the balcony seating above. It was obvious now what this place was. Though I was amazed of how relatively intact most of this stuff really is.

"Jee-zus!" Alex said as he coughed some of the dust out of his lungs. "This place looks like it's been abandoned for at least a hundred years."

"You're not wrong, but you're not right either." I stated. "This place is putting some of mankind's work to shame. I know that Canterlot was established as the capital a thousand years back, but I didn't think they'd relocate so soon. I guess Celestia thought that Luna lingered here a little too much for her liking."

"Seriously, you need to check your math. A thousand years would mean this place wouldn't even be standing like it is. This is too well preserved." Rickey argued as he started to walk up the steps leading into the seats above. "I'd say maybe two-hundred, tops."

"It hasn't been exactly a thousand years per se." I retorted. "If I remember, they left this place in the year 6 P.C.D.."

Alex and Rickey both looked at me as if I was speaking some sort of foreign language.

"P.C.D. stands for the term Pax Celeste Dominum, it's the time period where Princess Luna was banished to the moon by her older sister, Princess Celestia, who then took over the duties of raising and lowering the moon. She was banished for threatening to throw the land into an eternal darkness, her motive being that few ponies adored her night and saw it as a time of terror and desolation."

"So the two siblings had a bit of a squabble." Alex concluded. "See, this is why you never give a whiny child a gun."

I proceeded to scratch my head awkwardly as I spoke. "Actually, Princess Luna was an adult at the time of all of this. So... yeah."

"Well that's nice to know, but how does that tell us how old this place is." Rickey asked.

"The time script P.C.D. was used from the zero year of the incident, completely writing it as the measuring stick of time as we perceive it. B.P.C.D. Is the equivalent to the term Before Christ, or Before Common Era. P.C.D. was used from the year of the incident till present, our Anno Domini, or Common Era. It is currently the year 1004 P.C.D.."

Alex gawked as he looked around the room. "You're shitting me, this place is over a thousand years old? Has been abandoned for almost a millennium? And we're walking around the bitch like there's nothing wrong with this?"

"Hence why we can't bring explosives." I finished.

Rickey tapped against one of the pillows, only to watch it devolved into a bunch of spiders running around the place. His response: release an effeminate scream while pulling behind me and hiding in place as the nest of spiders crawled to various locations inside of the room. "¡AY DIOS MIO! ¿Qué coño?"

Alex looked at me silly as he smiled. "He's not in here, let's go."

I couldn't help but chuckle a bit at their reactions. "Guys, come on, it's just a few spiders."

"Yeah, and how many more of these pillows aren't what they appear to be?" Alex asked as he pulled me out of the room.

"These are star spiders, they don't bite, they're not venomous─"

"This Cheese guy, he wouldn't be in a room full of spiders. Let go." Alex wouldn't even hear me out at that point. He was dead set on leaving somewhere else. So he and Rickey, who was busy chanting The Lord's Prayer in Spanish, were quick in tossing me out of the room and closing the doors shut. As we finished, Alex and Rick turned to each other with a nod.

"Never again?"

"Agreed, not without a flamethrower."

As the doors remained shut, a thought came to me in my head. All this time, it had completely slipped my mind, but now that I remember the story Celestia told me, the room we just walked out of was the very room Law Processu Approbati was birthed. "On second thought... yeah, never again." I suddenly complied with their request.

One thing's for certain: I don't know what kind of vengeful spirits are sitting in that room. I don't wanna find out.

***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

Finally, we found our way down to the stairs that lead to the basement levels. Unfortunately, it required us to find a certain lever that allowed for a secret passageway to be opened. And despite Cliff's previous visit, he doesn't seem to remember much of the knobs and switches Shining hit on the way down to the deepest levels of the castle. But it didn't stop me from taking a picture or two of the switch and the surrounding area.

I might share with the class what we're learning, but I think it's best to wait until our little venture is done.

We walked through a darkened hallway, one with old torches that seemingly haven't been lit in what appeared to be over centuries. It surprises me that this place still functions like the way it does. But then again, there have been known cases of booby traps being active for thousands of years.

Ask anybody who first explored the Pyramids of Egypt and they might agree, if they're even alive, that is.

In speaking of alive... "Hey Cliff, where did you say that you and Shining went to find that little girl?"

"I think we went down a few levels before we found out what room she was placed in. But we found a bunch of others, a lot of 'em died from what Shining told me and Rickey."

Stanton grew uneasy as he thought about something, and in usual Haines-family fashion, he made it known. "I just remember what Nondis said on the way here. Do you think that any of them were... you know... angry when they died?"

"Hell, I would be." I confessed. "I'd be pissed off if I was dragged from my family and friends, made into a food source, stuffed inside of a pod, and died in obscurity."

"Yeah, Shining said that he and Nondis were doing whatever they could to make sure that the ones who were fading off were eased... not sure what he meant by that. But at the very least, they didn't come back covered in blood or some other crazy shit." Cliff argued.

Now THAT statement had me thinking for a bit. "You mentioned something about him waking up screaming at one point."

Stanton quickly turned his attention towards me as the words fell from my mouth. "What?"

Cliff scratched the side of his neck as he spoke. "Nondis had a nightmare or some shit. But do you think─"

Stanton was quick to finish his sentence. "What he saw that day with the piled up ponies..."

"On top of watching the others die..."

The three of us had quietly come to the same conclusion. For a minute, we could only reflect on what was going on with Nondis. I knew that I was definitely terrified for him.

Yeah, and then the bastard walked all down the halls with his dick hanging out!

...Neither one of us said that. "Shit!" I hissed as the other two started to run to whatever intact pillar we could find and hide behind it. Each of us remained quiet as we heard the conversation grow closer and closer towards us. Cliff pulled out his rifle and held it up to his shoulder.

"So, how did he look?"

"Like a total loser who was desperate to get his rocks off. Like seriously, I could sniff his feelings out from down the hall. It reeked of second place."

"You think Prima's gonna let him do it?"

"Knowing her, she would. When do you know a changeling who would pass up on some free sex?"

"I sure as Tatarus wouldn't."

As they came into view, we caught a glimpse of who they were. They were two ponies... I think. But they had holes in their legs like Swiss cheese, sharp teeth, and no hair whatsoever on their heads. Cliff slowly and quietly waited for them to pass before he started to take aim. Stanton, who was just on the opposite side of him, signaled for him not to shoot. While they were in the midst of their sign language argument, I carefully listened in on their conversation again.

"Well I'm sure that Prima's gonna rock his world."

"And then we nab him?"

"Yeah, take him to the Queen for evaluation, and then back to the hive for feeding."

"Finally, a food source that doesn't die when we get it! I don't know what Guto had in mind when he gypped the hive."

"He's not even gonna try to make up for it, either. Not once has he reported back on why our food sources were dying before we could get a hold of them."

"You didn't hear, the stragglers from Celestia's onslaught of last week were feeding on them and increasing their strength. I guess after they were done, they gave us whatever was left."

"Augh, feeding self before colony. That's treason."

"Well, it's illegal when the Queen doesn't process them first. Just think, she even had the Captain of the Royal Guard at one point."

Both Stanton and Cliff stopped arguing as soon as those words dropped. The both of them proceeded to do what I had already started doing.

"Yeah... I swear it's been downhill since she and her three generals went to that failed summoning."

"It's been downhill since the wedding. The summoning was just where we finally landed on solid ground."

"At least there's only one direction to go from here, and that's up."

I think I figured out how we're gonna work this one out. These guys are a trove of information, so we can't just ax them off yet. If we follow them, perhaps we could get a chance to find this Cheese guy. Here's to hoping that it all works out.

As soon as they turned the corner, the three of us reunited in the center of the hall. Huddled together, we devised our method of approach. "So these guys must've been talking about Cheese. So I say we follow them until we run into something good. If we track them back our victim, we might be able to interrogate them a little and get our guy."

Stanton gave Cliff a light shove. "I told you shooting them now would be a bad idea. Now we can cut our losses and follow these guys to ol' dude."

Cliff rolled his eyes as he pulled out his phone. "It's not like I wanted to get caught or something. I wanted to just put the bastards down before anything popped off."

"You'll still get your chance." I said as I looked on Cliff's screen. "We just gotta let the others know what we've run into. Hopefully these guys will lead us to our guy and make our work easier. And then we can sleep the bastards."

"Sounds good to me." Stanton replied. "But we might wanna think of a plan B if things go south."

"Shoot they ass. That's the best plan."

"No, we need to come up with a way to capture them." I answered.

Cliff pulled me lightly on the arm as he stressed his argument. "These motherfuckas can fly, climb walls, shoot magic at your ass, and if they get in a tight spot, they screech this high-pitch sound that lets others know they're in trouble. And once that happens, we're bound to fight about twenty or thirty more. We don't get a second chance, that shit is dead."

Well that's a bit of information that I would've like to have before we got started on this mission. "Are you serious?"

"There was one that produced a roar so loud, we had to fight off two hundred of the fuckers. And they are like the fucking revenant once they get called in. And I'm gonna be real, we don't know if they got another one of them brutes like last time."

Shit. I guess we definitely better make ourselves as quiet as possible before some shit pops off. And from what I head, these brute-classes are nothing to fuck with, especially when you have your godlike ruler breaking a wing and blasting that bitch into a miniature supernova. It's best that we operate under stealth for as long as possible.

I gotta call Nondis and let him know what's up.

***Point of Perspective: Nondis***

"Yeah... Okay, just follow them and keep quiet. Keep your phones on silent and don't let yourselves be seen. If you have to shoot them, don't hesitate to do so. As long as you keep them quiet, we shouldn't have any problems."

"Okay. We'll follow them and see if we find anything else. Mel, out."

I hung up my phone as I took a deep breath. "Well, I guess our job might be a little easier."

"What, they found the guy?" Alex inquired.

"No, they just ran into some changelings who were talking up a storm. And from what I was told, the Queen of the lot is in the region."

Rickey quickly grabbed his rifle as the news took him by surprise. "Oh shit, does that mean we get to bag ourselves a jackpot target?"

Oh, if only. I want to nab that bitch so quick and give her a piece of my mind. And then I'm gonna drag her ass to the parliament and let these shitty politicians know that I'm for real. The quicker we finish with this, the sooner we can turn our attention to her. And I know both Cadance and Shining would take appreciation of it. But we have to focus on our immediate task. "No. Not now. We get our guy and we leave."

"So what about the changeling creatures you talked about?" Alex asked as he started to hold onto a door leading to the outside area.

"Shoot to kill." I simply answered. "We don't have time for prisoners this go around."

"And this is coming from the guy who bagged two changelings in the midst of an operation." Rickey jeered.

"Those targets happened to be the ones responsible. And plus I didn't carry any flashbang grenades on me. Now let's stop talking about past shit and get to work."

I know it sounds like we went virtually nowhere, but I can assure you that there was nowhere else to go above us aside from more halls filled with dust, insurmountable rubble blockades, spiders, and deteriorated staircases that were on the verge of falling in. But we managed to find a library, a kitchen, a hidden passageway that lead into a secret room within the library, something that looked like an old bedroom, and a small room that contained a bottomless pit... again, located within the library.

Whoever the fuck built this shit, they were hellbent on books and knowledge to be hiding all of this shit in a library. But then again, if you want to hide something in place where no one would bother to look...

So after that little excursion, we eventually found our way back onto the ground floor. Cheese was nowhere to be found on the upper levels, so we decided that our next step was to search some of the surrounding structures. And through this door was the courtyard that lead to those very structures. I had only one concern when we stepped out here, and that was the fact that we were going to be in the open air.

Better make this trip quick.

We opened the door and rushed out into the courtyard, which was covered in moss, leaves, cracked rubble, fallen gargoyles, and... strange stone-shaped devices. The further we moved along, the more we got to see. We came across a variety of objects that seemed to be left here, such as an old statue of Celestia with her wings sprawled open, standing on her hind legs as she was surrounded by six gems. As much as I would've liked to prod around, we didn't have the time. So we carried on, abandoning the mossy likeness of the princess.

After a short sprint, we found ourselves standing at a small wall that surrounded a huge open space. It stood just below a tall tower that seemed to pierce high into the air. A sole door was placed at it's base, a single window at the topmost level was it's only source of fresh air and sunlight. And somewhere along the upper region, just below the window seal, were a vast amount of rusted hooks that protruded the exterior. So... we're at that place now, huh?

"Hmm... this looks like the equivalent of a town square." Alex quietly noted. "And I guess they used to hang banners from on that tower, it's probably the reason why it looks so barren."

"Nnnngh... I don't like this place." Rickey stated as he looked around nervously. "This seems way too public for my tastes."

Alex lightly giggled at Rickey's response. "C'mon. This is probably the place where they held gatherings and festivals."

Yeah... gatherings. And the lonesome miniature boulder at the middle is a dead giveaway. "I don't like this place either. It's too... haunting."

"This coming from the person who doesn't believe in an afterlife or spirits." Alex said as he focused his attention to the window at the top.

"I know it's haunting. Look at that stone in the middle of the area. Notice that there's not one like it anywhere else? Or maybe that the entire area is flat while that stone is the only thing that sticks out more than this tower does."

"Nondis, you make it seem like this place is haunted." My older brother joked.

I decided to go along with his joke and tell him some of the stories I've heard from the other guards in basic training. "Yeah, you know what I heard about this place? I heard that this was some sort of square where they'd stockade, or openly shame those who committed crimes. And those who committed the worst crimes, stuff like murder, arson, rape, and treason, they were sent to the Rock of End."

It didn't take Alex no time to piece it all together. "So, you're saying that chunk of rubble over there is the supposed 'Rock of End' you mentioned?"

I continued my story. "Legend has it that there was once a vengeful knight who was loyal to Celestia, he murdered a noble who opposed her in cold blood. And it was a group of nobles, all whom the deceased was known to affiliate with, that bore witness to the killing and drew him in to trial. He was found guilty through the testimonies of the others, and was sentenced to an immediate death for treason against country. He kept screaming as they brought him to the rock, and when they cut off his head, he produced a terrible sound as that last, shrieking breath escaped from what was left of his wind-pipe. Some say that scream can be heard if you sat on the rock for more than sixty seconds, others say it's the wind you'd hear his screams from. A few even say he became the legendary Headless Horse, who would recreate that hellish sound just before bringing his victims to that rock for their end."

"Well we're not sleeping here tonight, so I could care less of what the fuck happened here." Rickey declared, though he started to look around the area more frequently, even checking behind himself as he spoke.

"It's not the windpipe that makes the sound, it's the larynx." Alex argued. "Furthermore, that makes no sense on how a sound like that would come from anywhere so low down on the neck."

"Well who's to say that the kill wasn't clean? You know that we've had our own accounts of unclean executions where they'd hack, and whack, and smack on the condemned like Butcher Pete."

"So you think that the kill wasn't clean and he screamed─"

Just before our argument could devolve into analytical details, Rickey quickly cut us both off. "Look, that shit is a myth! We are dealing with some real shit right now, so can we focus on the shit that's going down in this day and age? I already don't like this place and I hated it when we first got here! Can we please go!?"

*BZZZZ BZZZZ BZZZZZZZZZZ*

Alex nearly jumped out of his skin as he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. I started to suppress a laugh as my older brother glared angrily at me, almost like he was going to hit me as he mouthed the words "That's not funny." to me. Turning away from me, he picked up the phone and answered quietly. "Hello?"

"Oh shit, wrong number." Melanie whispered out while on the line. "Oh well, hey Alex. Where's Nondis?"

"He's... gonna die." He deadpanned.

"What?" Melanie responded seemingly in a panic.

Alex quickly corrected her. "He's not dead, though he might find out what it's like to fall from a hundred feet."

"Look, I understand that you two are going to annoy the shit out of each other, but right now we're in a bit of a situation where we can't get ourselves out. Now give Nondis the phone, please."

My older brother shoved the phone into my chest as he growled at me. "It's for you, faggot."

I shook my head with a smile and answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Yeah, we're stuck."

Stuck, how? "Wait, did the changelings capture you?"

"Kinda... but not intentionally. It's actually a funny story..."

***Point of Perspective: Melanie Brewer***

"So let me get this straight. You followed the guys... and as you were following them, they stepped on a brick that activated some sort of─"

"Trapdoor, yes!"

"And now you guys fell into a room that has a bunch of numbers notched into the wall?"

"Look, it's really hard to move. We're working with maybe two or three inches of room to work with. I really don't wanna be down here any longer because my boobs are starting to feel like they're being compressed in an industrial strength garbage compactor."

"Can you look on your map and tell me where you are?"

"Nondis, we can't even access our phones well enough to pull up a screen of the map, let alone look at it from a distance where we can make out what's going on. We did fucking wonders just to get this shit in speakerphone mode, my screen is cracked."

"That bad? Uhhh... If you can work out another one of those miracles, that would help me help you. See if you can find out where you are first, and then we'll come by to get you out. How's that sound?"

"Great. We'll be waiting."

*click*

...This is so embarrassing. Just five minutes ago, we were hot on the trail that could've led us directly to Cheese, just thisclose to finding our guy and getting some additional info. And just when you think we've got it down-packed, the bastards step on a brick and we fall for what feels like a story. Now my ass hurts from the fall, my chest is compressed by Stanton's ill-placed foot, Stanton's right arm is buried beneath the rest of his body, and Cliff is the only one with enough head and shoulder room to actually do some stuff. But the only catch is that his phone is in his pants, and he can't reach past my legs and Stanton's shoulder.

Poor guy, he looks so contorted on the ground. I wonder if he'll wake up anytime soon.

"...Buurrrrgh..." Oh, there he goes. "Aaaugh... fu-uck... where the hell are we?"

"Morning, sleepyhead. You feeling okay?" I asked to the recuperating football player.

"Ehhhhhh... I feel like we went against Bama and lost... again."

"Not that great?" I asked.

"Not that great." He repeated as he finally sat himself up. "Okay, we were following some guys and fell down a hole... where are we now?"

Cliff, who found some relief after Stanton made the push against my legs on his chest. "Hey Mel, can you move your legs?"

"Give me a minute." I whispered, trying to keep in mind that we were still trying to be covert, even in the event that we were seen. "Let's try to be quiet, we don't want those changeling things to know we're in here."

"If they haven't found us already." Cliff quipped sarcastically.

I shimmied as best as I could to shift my legs off of his body, Stanton did whatever he could to get his foot off of my chest and his back off of Cliff's lower body. After about ten seconds, we finally untangled ourselves and drew a collective sigh as we finally became free of each other. Stanton rolled his neck, causing a grisly popping sound. He looked to me and apologized. "Sorry about my foot being in your chest."

"Nah, you're okay. It's getting kicked that's a real pain. With you, it felt like I was wearing a sports bra for an A-cup when I'm actually a 36-C."

"That's not a bad size. At least you'd have minimal back issues."

For once, I'm actually happy with my size rather than berating myself for not getting any bigger like I did when I was a freshman in high school. If I was a D or above, I'd be pissed. "...Nice calves. They look really well-toned."

"Thanks, Mel. High five?"

Both Stanton and I act like total dorks at times. Ever since Nondis went missing, he and I grew close as friends. I'd never have feelings for him because of more obvious reasons, and he never had feelings for me because of... well, you get the idea. The two of us high-fived each other as Cliff pulled out his phone.

"Damn, sure does feel great to have my legs not falling asleep. But that weird shit you feel when the blood comes rushing back is annoying as hell." He pulled up one of the pictures Nondis sent and started to see where we were. "So, we fell like how many floors?"

"One." I quickly replied. "If we would've fell two, there'd be no way none of us would be coming out of this without broken bones. We got lucky."

"Okay." Cliff swiped at his screen to the floor plans labeled Armory. "So we're probably on the floor with all the armored suits and pony legs sticking out from the wall."

Yeah, he's been here. "How would you know this is the floor we're on?"

"One: We fell one story from the basement floor, which would lead us to the second floor below ground level. Two: I remember walking down a hall with a bunch of plated armor mannequins and a bunch of rusted weapons hanging on the walls. And three: This is the level we came to last time to find the room full of the pods they stuck the ponies inside of."

Oh wow... so we're already on that floor? I knew that I would be a bit uncomfortable in knowing that several innocent lives were ended just a few rooms down from us. I just didn't think we'd come up on it so soon. "Ugh... just the thought of that last statement gives me the creeps. The last thing we need to run into is the spirits of the restless dead, who could be creeping behind our backs."

Suddenly, Cliff seemed to have frozen in place as soon as I mentioned the spirits of the dead. He lightly lunged forward as something pushed against him. He then turned his attention to Stanton and asked. "Ghosts aren't real, right?"

"Define ghosts."

"A person's presence post-mortem, usually in some intangible image or manipulation of sort."

"Well, there's a problem with that. If we were back in our world, I'd tell you that you don't have to worry too much about it. But we're in a magical world where ponies can fly, levitate shit, and move things much... heavier... than... themselves...?"

Suddenly, our thoughts of apparitions being a thing were now a plausible ideology... AND I DON'T LIKE THAT! "Okay, who's got some garlic and a crucifix?"

"Draw one on the wa─" Stanton said as he looked in his pockets to find something to draw with. But he turned his attention to something that caught his eye as he was looking around for a place to draw on. "...Hey, Cliff. What are those numbers beside you for?"

"They better not be sixes." Cliff quickly looked down to his right side and saw the scratchings on the wall. "Okay, I'm seeing tally marks but... what for?"

Cliff felt himself being pushed forward now, only this time the presence expanded on his back. He turned around and saw something poking at his back. "Okay what the fuck is─AW HELL NA─"

I covered his mouth as quickly as I could before his voice grew too loud. I looked behind him to see what it was that pushed him forward. "Okay, what's got you so..." And when I saw what was poking into his back... from a circular hole in the wall behind him, I immediately felt shock overtake all rationality. "Oh God, is that─" And then it pulled back from within the curtain of Cliff's dreads and revealed an oddly-shaped tip that seemed to bulge out in contrast to the shaft it was attached to. I gasped as I saw the hole at the tip leak a tiny bit of fluid that bridged onto some of his dreads. "Nooooo... Oh my God!"

"What the fuck is it!?" Cliff quickly asked through my fingers.

"It's fucking him." I squeaked out, causing Cliff to squirm. Unfortunately for him, the oddly-shaped penis decided to shove itself right into his back again as he squirmed, causing the giver to increase his pace.

Stanton covered his mouth, trying to hold back his laughter as he watched. "Oh shit, this can't be real."

"Oh... you are such a fucking tease!"

"GET HIM OFF!" Cliff growled through his teeth.

I quickly shook my head in a panic. "No, I am NOT touching that!"

"How many dicks you touched already? GET THIS THING OFF ME!"

"How many times have you touched yourself? YOU GET IT OFF!"

"Haaah... Yeah, that's right. Get me off you slut!"

Meanwhile, Stanton was turning a darker shade of red as we continue to argue. "This is the funniest shit I've seen in a while. I am so sorry."

"Oh... oh my Queen! I can't hold it!"

Suddenly, we saw the thing prodding into his back twitch from underneath. Cliff's eyes widened as he immediately knew from experience what that throb in his back was. "HELL NAW! NOT TODAY, YOU AREN'T!"

With a quick lean to his left, Cliff managed to get the thing free from his dreads and off of his back altogether. But the situation became significantly worse once the one pitching decided to give it a final shove inside of Cliff's armpit and popping out of the front. Stanton dropped his hand and began to laugh uncontrollably as he saw the tip breach his armpit, but was quickly silenced by a long, thick rope of cum that landed on his face. He instantly became disgusted as he managed to catch a little of it mid-laughter. Another stream of cum shot out and landed on his nose and reached all the way down to the top of his chest. The tip throbbed and swelled as a few more spurts came shooting out, until it gradually landed back in Cliff's lap.

"GAHH!... Hah!... Ah... aaaahh... ohhhh... oh yessss..."

He let the anonymous pitcher free from his armpit as he stared in shock at the mess all over his shirt and pants. As the satisfied sperm donor retreated back into his hole, Cliff quietly cringed as the white goo trailed down his arm and onto his hand. With a quick flick, he got rid of the excess that drizzled down his body.

Stanton was too busy dealing with his own hell as he slowly tried to clear his eyes of the unexpected facial. The poor guy was on the verge of crying as he spat out a small amount he ended up tasting, followed by a quick trigger of his gag reflex and a cough. I could tell he really wanted to use his shirt to wipe off some of the mess, but he already knew that would probably make the situation worse. So he resorted to cleaning himself with his hands and holding back his vomit.

I was the only one who was left unscathed.

A traumatized Stanton quietly whispered to Cliff. "Ugh... ack... ukuh... Plan B, please."

Cliff reached back behind him with his left hand and found that he had a massive load sprayed onto his back. His face contorted as he realized that his dreads were in a similar state. "Yes... Yes... Please."

"Well I think they know we're in here, so why not." I suggested, giving up on our first plan since being quiet was not going to be an acceptable option for these two anymore.

The two turned to me and stared for a short while and then towards each other. "Let's do something real quick." Stanton suggested.

"Yeah, let's move this hoe right on around." Cliff said as he and Stanton stumbled all over each other onto their feet. Stanton quickly pushed me towards where Cliff once sat, causing me to clumsily shift to my right. After we were finished, I was replaced into the position where Cliff once sat, Stanton was where I once was, and Cliff was where Stanton was. I looked at the two as they gave each other a celebratory smirk. Meanwhile, I was more than disgusted to find that my hand had landed in a puddle of cum.

"Eww... it's so thick." I complained.

"Hey! Hey you on the other side!" A voice called out from inside of the hole behind me.

I almost threw a bitch fit as soon as I saw both Stanton and Cliff dab one another. But I realized that I was the only one who didn't get the humiliation they had to sit through. But I wasn't going to let myself get embarrassed like they did. I was gonna take another approach to this. Instead of letting this turn into an ordeal, I'm gonna turn it into an advantage. "Yeah!?" I called out in response.

"That thing you did to my friend, apparently you did something that REALLY got his rocks off."

I cringed as he said that. "Well, it's a new technique I was practicing." I posed in my most sexual tone, despite the fact that I'm practically doing all I can to not puke while I speak. "I call it 'the fourth hole'." I stated at Cliff's expense. Sorry buddy, but you placed me in this position.

"Yeah, whatever you did, can you do it for me next?" He asked, shoving his cock into the formerly used hole. My stomach churned at the sight of the semi-flaccid slab of meat placed just behind me. I took a deep breath, a swallow of spit, and turned myself around to face what was in front of me.

Gotta admit, these fuckers are packing a decent size. "Um... Actually, I'm up for way more than this." I can't believe I'm suggesting this. "But if you don't mind, I really don't like being trapped in here. It's fine to play with myself every now and then, but I get to the point where I just want some skin-on-skin."

"OOOOOOH HOO HOO HOO HOO!!!" I take it from that sound, he was very excited. Even his cock started to expand and throb with life. "You must've got hit hard by those spores!"

I rolled my eyes at his terrible mood-breaker, not that I was all too much into it. "MMmmm-Yeah... I don't like being in here, it's too stuffy." I complained, sounding as if I was a whining child. "Get me out!"

"Hurry and find that switch!" So there is a way out of here? "Okay, now tell me what's you're gonna do once you get out?"

"Well..." I'm going to be on so many levels of sick. "I might just take my ha-HOOF." Right, they don't know what hands are. "And rub the tip, and let it glide slowly on down... and then when I get to the bottom, I'm gonna start teasing you with my tongue." BARF! "And when you start twitching from that, I'm gonna watch as it bounces around."

"Oh, that's no fair." He said, seemingly entranced by the thoughts. He pulled himself out from the hole and continued to speak. "That's so mean... Tell me more." He asked in a desperate tone.

"To be honest, I wanna find out myself." Cliff muttered beneath his breath.

"Hello." Stanton agreed.

I rolled my eyes at both of them as I continued. "Then... I'm gonna lightly blow on the tip, and watch you leak on down. And then I'm gonna use my hoof to clean you off. But you're not allowed to help me, I want you to sit back and take whatever I give you. No touching me, no touching yourself. Those are my rules, you do what I tell you to, when I tell you to do it, and how I want you to do it, otherwise we start all over."

"FOUND IT, FOUND THE SWITCH!" The other one called out anxiously.

I quickly pulled out my gun as the changeling I teased shouted out to the other. "PULL IT!" His attention was soon brought back to me. "Hey, if you can, like lean against the wall so that you don't get your mane or tail caught in the rotation."

"Okay!" Hell, I'm not gonna refuse some advice. I huddled up and waited for whatever was supposed to happen. Then without warning, the floor shifted a bit, causing the three of us to look down at the ground, transforming into a semi-circular area around the place I sat. Meanwhile the wall turned and pulled me into a dimly-lit hallway, facing two confused changelings.

The first one started. "What?"

The second tilted it's head. "The"

I smiled as I pointed my gun into the face of the first one, who was still holding himself. "Hi!"

***Point of Perspective: Nondis***

"So that's how you three managed to get out?"

"Yup. That's how it happened... and nothing else."

"So, you fooled two changelings into getting you out of the trap, for sexual favors?"

"Uh-huh"

"They pulled a lever that turned a revolvable wall, and you ended up in the Armory?"

"From what Cliff said, this was the place you found the little girl."

"Yeah, well you guys can start working your way up, we'll meet you up front."

"Wait, you found the guy?"

"Yeah, we heard him moaning while we were in the courtyard. You guys work back to the front entrance and we'll meet you there."

"Solid copy. Mel, out."

*Click*

Well that makes my job a whole lot easier. About two minutes into waiting for that phone call, we heard a series of loud moans followed by an earth-shattering scream. And thankfully it didn't take us long to identify that the sound was coming from within the tall tower just across the courtyard.

A few awkward stares later, we decided that we would hit up our closest objective first and then come back to help the others. Rickey wasn't too fond of the idea, but Alex managed to convince us both that a response to the immediate task was a better choice than to double-back and possibly find that Cheese had been moved already. He also argued that they were too well-armed to allow something like the changelings to deal them in.

A point that I strongly agreed with.

So we trekked onward and started to climb up the stairs when we finally got our phone call. And to much of Rickey's relief, they found a means of getting themselves out. Honestly, if they would've waited any longer, I would've called them and tried to see if I could work something out to where we could make our rounds. But since that's no longer an option, we can finally focus on getting what we came for.

We finally climbed to the top of the staircase and saw a single door leading into the next room. I decided to take point and lead them in this time, letting Alex bring up the rear. I opened the door and looked around to see what our surroundings were.

This place looks awfully familiar...

I couldn't help but to think that I've been in here once before. As I looked around, I could only see a few dusty items and a bunch of stocks. Apparently, they must've used this place to hold all the tools for the 'festivities' and such.

*Rattle*

I quickly turned around to see that Alex had bumped into a chain dangling from the ceiling.

We've been here... in a dream.

Looking up to the ceiling above, I could see nothing but a bunch of spider webs, moldy wood, and large chains with hooks woven all around the room. My eyes shifted to the ground below, noticing that I was standing on some odd-looking sigil. Immediately, my mind pulled the pieces together. "Okay, now this place, I know it's bad news." I whispered.

Rickey walked over to the window, seal, which was set oddly low against the floor, almost like a step. "Yeah... makes me wonder what those hooks outside were actually there for."

"NNnnngaaah~♥"

...Well they weren't there for that, I'll say that much.

We turned our attention to a small door on the other side of the room. The three of us quietly ran up and gathered our thoughts. Slowly, I cracked it open to reveal another room, one vastly different that the one we just left. And I mean DIFFERENT. Instead of chains hanging from the ceiling, there were strips of lacy silk and satin. It was well-furnished also, and not in the torture-chamber kinda way. And there was a large sigil on the floor, taking up all of the floor space instead of only taking up the half like that other one I stepped on. Furthermore, there was another one on the ceiling to match, and a smaller one imbued upon that one just above the bed.

...The bed where Cheese mounted Pinkie.

The stallion grunted heavily as he thrusted with all of his might, not once even paying any attention to the three humans that just walked in on him. His hoof was buried in Pinkie's shoulders as he lunged back and forth, his pace being slow but his reach touching her in places that made her choke on the air she tried to breathe in. He sweated all over as he moaned one final time before he stopped and shook, his hind legs rattling as he struggled to stay mounted. A look of disappointment showed on his face as the pink mare used a hoof to grab at his chin, whispering to him. "Don't stop, keep it going."

The others turned away with a blush as they caught a glimpse of the two going at each other.

To my displeasure, I had to break him out of his workout routine. "Cheese."

My voice was enough to send the two into a frenzy to cover themselves. The stallion popped out, his seed spilling down her haunches and onto the floor. He quickly sat down and hid himself as he faced the bed, avoiding all eye-contact with me. The pink mare shuddered as she covered herself with the tattered sheets from on top of the old bed. "H-h-hey..." She stammered. "W-w-what are y-you doing here?"

I shook my head, realizing just what this would probably come down to. "Cheese... Cheese, we need to leave."

He didn't respond to me the first time, but after I called for him a second time and placed my hand on him, he quickly batted me off and screamed at me. "NO, YOU NEED TO LEAVE US ALONE!"

Alex and Rickey quietly watched as I continued to argue to the confused stallion. "Look, you're not yourself right now. You're kinda mixed up right now because of the spores─"

"I'm fine!" He shouted. "I'm perfectly healthy, and I'm in the middle of making love to my special somepony! Who are YOU to come between us at such an intimate moment!?"

"Cheese─" He wouldn't give me a chance to answer.

"Oh, I get it. You're just returning the favor since I did it to you, back when Pinkie was still shoving her tongue down your throat, is that it!?"

I've never seen him so defensive... That little tidbit of information managed to draw some attention from the two others standing behind me. But I know that story can come after we finish with what we have to do now. "Cheese. This... this isn't real." I said as I pointed between the two of them.

"No... I'll tell you what's not real. You try having a relationship with somepony you love, only for her to keep brushing you aside every time some other colt's name comes out of her mouth! You try having an intimate evening without her requesting a roleplay, for me to recreate an event that I wasn't even here to witness! You try listening to her talk about someone else behind your back and throw you out of the room whenever she has a conversation about them! You keep playing for second place, see how it feels when you have someone that doesn't even see you first!"

Okay... I've missed out on a lot. "Oh...righty then. Um, I'm not trying to take anything from you."

"You don't even have to try!" He screamed once more. "Look at me, I'm constantly doing everything I can to make up for lost time. And here you are just stepping in and taking a beating to make yourself look more attractive."

For a second, I began to see what it was that made him so unreasonable. This time as he spoke, I could've sworn I saw a slight glimmer in his eye that caused it to turn green... greener than usual. I looked over to the pink pony sitting on the bed, staring at him as he spoke. I decided to take my attention away from the objective and address the problem. "Excuse me, but could you walk out of the room while he and I have a heart-to-heart.

Cheese grew all the more unreasonable. "No. Everyone needs to know just what kind of individual you are! You go around, collecting your little tub of hearts. And whenever you feel like you can, you decide that your physical needs outweigh the emotional attachments of others! You're nothing but a farce!"

Alex looked about ready to step up to the plate, but was held back by Rickey. Meanwhile, the pony slightly smiled as she stared at the stallion. At that point, she was really starting to irk my nerves. I pulled up my rifle and aimed directly for her. "Cheese, that's not Pinkie."

The stallion began to look at me darkly, scraping his hoof against the ground. "So now you decide that you want to attack her? So you can't have her, then nobody can, is that right?"

"Dude, Pinkie is back at the castle. She's the one who called us to get your crazy ass!" Rickey announced as he continued to hold Alex back.

"You stay out of this!" Cheese hollered. "It's between me and him."

"Cheese, I'm sorry! I'm sorry you gotta see this!" I kept saying as my finger crept towards the trigger. "But if I have to show you the truth, then I will. C'mon, you know I want what's best for you."

"I'm not going to let you hurt her!"

Cheese quickly placed himself in the way as I started to squeeze the trigger. As soon as I saw him move, I threw my aim to the side without firing. "Don't do this, get out of the way."

"Cheese, help me." The pink impostor whimpered lightly.

I knew how to get him to understand, one way or another. "Pink, what's my name!?" I asked. "Cheese, don't you dare answer."

The impostor laughed as she gave her answer. "Duh, your name is... is... um... i-i-it's on the tip of my tongue..."

"You're stressing her out! Leave her alone!" The stallion demanded strongly.

Strike one. "Who came to save me when I got beat up by Caramel so many months ago?"

The pony continued to struggle. "Um... I think... Now I remember, It was our friends."

And Cheese continued to defend her. "I said leave her alone!"

Wrong answer, strike two. "Okay, now when Cheese came into town and you ran upstairs, we all had a conversation with one another. And in that moment, you told us exactly who you truly loved the most. Who was it that you truly loved the most? And you better get this one right."

"It's Pinkie, for Faust's sake! Leave, NOW!!!"

"Listen to her answer, Cheese!" Alex interjected. "You might not like it, but it is what it is!"

"I said stay out of it!"

The pink pony dropped her head as she finally gave her answer. "...I said I loved you."

Everyone in the room remained quiet, including the aggressive stallion. He stood and watched as the pink mare lifted her head and looked at me with a gentle smile.

"I remember it, as clear as day. We walked into the room, we talked, and you asked who did I have feelings for. So I told you the truth... I said that I loved you, that I just couldn't bear to stand it. But I knew that you wouldn't take that for an answer, especially when there was a stallion who loved me for so long waiting right beside you. You decided to let him go first, I know that I sometimes think about you when I'm with him, but that's just it. I love you both, but my future is with Cheese."

The stallion didn't speak so much as a world as he slowly walked away from the pink impostor. The mare's smile disappeared as soon as Cheese left her side. Alex sighed as he spoke. "I told you, I said that the answer was going to be something you didn't like. And I take it that Pinkie never told you that she wanted Nondis."

"No." I corrected. "She told him outright."

"Seriously?" Rickey asked as Alex's jaw fell.

The demoralized stallion turned to the two other humans and spoke the words we heard that day.

* * * * * * * * * *

"I love you, Cheese, for being the one who gave me a new sense of inspiration in what I do. I couldn't stop thinking about you when you were away, and now that you're here again, I feel like I found something worth while. Throughout all these months, the thought of you helped me wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night. And for your coming here, I don't want you to come back to something that doesn't exist."

The earth-toned stallion looked at the pink party pony as she nuzzled him tenderly, but stopped herself as soon as she turned to me.

"I love you, Nondis, for being the one who stood up for me, even in the face of my worst fear. You took so much pain when you defended me, and yet you didn't care, you only wanted to see me happy. And you stood with me through one of my worst times, you have a special place in my heart, and I can't bear to see myself without you."

She walked up to me and nuzzled against me as well, crying as she confessed.

"I'm so sorry... I know it's impossible to be able to love the two of you at once, especially when I don't know if either of you will leave me again. I don't think I can do it. So deep down in my heart, I want to be preemptive and break off of the both of you, so that way I don't hurt anypony. But I can't... I can't think of my life without either of you."

* * * * * * * * * *

I spoke the words that were said to the both of us. "I love you both so much, I couldn't bear to choose between either of you."

"It would hurt me to know that I've left one of you alone. So I'm sorry if I seem selfish, but I want both of you to be mine." Cheese concluded.

Alex and Rickey stared at Pinkie's impersonator with bewilderment, as if she was the one to say it. The stallion walked out of the room in silence as he began to shed tears, realizing that the entire time he was sharing himself with someone not named Pinkamena Diane Pie. Alex broke his gaze and tended to the sniffling stallion while I brought my attention to the still-disguised changeling.

"So... you've put on quite a show, really had us going. But now it's time to go, curtain's finally closing. That was quite a show, very entertaining... but it's over now."

"Quoting Rihanna?" Rickey said as he was about to exit the room, leaving me to finish the job.

"Couldn't think of anything better." I said as I brought my rifle sights back to the image of Pinkie Pie. "Now... how about a round of applause?"

The changeling smiled as she closed her eyes and accepted the fact that she was caught. With a soft tone, she whispered to me. "You were always special to me... Non-Non."

*POW*

Author's Note

Well this took me a while to get to. I'm beginning to think that I need to shorten my chapters back down to 8-9 thousands. Of course, this one was more of an open end because the next chapter immediately picks up from where this one left off. Hopefully I can get that one out within the next two weeks.

But life has started to grip up, I managed to get the transmission fixed (yay) but now I gotta practice for a production known as The Wiz (aww). So again, bear with me, I will be a little busy with music for a while. But that doesn't mean that I will be skimping out on chapters. In fact, this one was significantly easier than the recent ones I had to write. So the next one should be out soon(™).

As for what happens next, well there will be a bit of a cool down in the next chapter, so there won't be too much action. But stick around, there's bound to be some stuff you miss.